Showing posts with label Hutton Rudby Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hutton Rudby Church. Show all posts

Saturday 25 March 2023

Lord Falkland fights a duel: 1809

This is the story behind this tablet in the chancel of Hutton Rudby church:

Tablet to Charles John Cary, 9th Viscount Falkland, his wife & daughter
Hutton Rudby Church

Captain Charles Cary RN, 9th Viscount Falkland, died of his wounds in the early hours of Thursday 2 March 1809.  It was about 36 hours since he had been shot in the lower part of his abdomen and the surgeon hadn't been able to find the bullet and extract it.  The autopsy would reveal the full extent of the damage – the pistol ball had wounded Lord Falkland's large intestine and lodged in his spine.  

He died as the result of a duel and he died in his opponent's house.  He was forty years old and he left a young widow with four small children.

The year 1809 had begun unpromisingly for him with a fire.

In January 1809, he and his wife and their little children were in London for the season and had taken the first floor at the fashionable Warne's Hotel in Conduit Street.  The hotel was made up of two houses – numbers 19 and 20 Conduit Street stand there now – and it stretched back towards the church of St George's, Hanover Square.  

St George's Hanover Square, by T Malton 1787

On 30 January 1809, Warne's Hotel went up in flames.  Some newspaper reports said that the fire started in Lord Falkland's dressing room because a poker had fallen from the grate.  Some said it was Lady Falkland's dressing room.  One report said that Lord Falkland rushed to the room hoping to save some cash in his writing desk, but was beaten back by the flames and that he had lost £300.  Another report said it was £200.  There were rumours that Lady Falkland lost all her jewels in the blaze.

When the alarm was raised, she was able to escape from her drawing room with the three children and the baby and take refuge in a friend's house in Oxford Street.  Meanwhile, men were dashing into the hotel to save as much of the furniture and contents as they could and servants were running up and down the stairs with as much water as they could carry.  Soon the horrified congregation in nearby St George's could see flames through the church windows.  There was a mass exodus for the door while someone, with great presence of mind, scooped up the church silver and took it to a place of safety.  The charity school children had been at the service as usual – they rushed out into the street, boys without their hats and girls without their cloaks and bonnets.  The road filled with people running in all directions.

Traffic came to a standstill as carriages four abreast blocked Bond Street.  The fire engines couldn't get through and the Earl of Chesterfield, who was Colonel of the Old St George's Volunteers, sent a party of troopers to clear the way.  Earl Percy sent his private fire engine from Northumberland House and the Duke of Portland – who was then Prime Minister and would before long die in office – helpfully sent a supply of ale to the firemen.  But first they needed water.  

When the engines reached the scene, water couldn't be had – one report said it was an hour before the firemen could get a supply.  The flames burst through the windows of the hotel with astonishing speed and the roof was soon destroyed.  

Sightseers gathered and had to be kept back by Horse Guards and Foot Guards while the wind, blowing a strong gale, blew red-hot cinders away, over and into Swallow Street and Vigo Lane in a shower of fire.  People climbed up to their rooftops to beat out the sparks.

A fire in London, 1808

In the days that followed the fire, while the hotel was rapidly being rebuilt, Lord Falkland and his family settled into Dorant's Hotel in Albemarle Street.  And now things began to look up for Lord Falkland.  While he was out and about enjoying Society life, his career prospects started to improve.  

Saturday 5 February 2022

Who were they? A guide to the memorials & stained glass of Hutton Rudby church

I'm revisiting The People behind the Plaques: memorials in All Saints', Hutton Rudby to add my most recent research.  This is a slightly shorter version, it's got more illustrations  I hope it's written in a more accessible, less formal style  and I hope it will be useful for families and visitors to the church!

This is a guide for anyone who has ever wondered about the people commemorated in the tablets, memorials and stained glass of All Saints', Hutton Rudby.

All Saints', Hutton Rudby

You've come into the church by the south door.  

If you turn to the right, you will see an alcove in the wall.  Under a trefoiled arch lies a stone slab on which is carved the figure of a mediaeval priest holding a chalice. 

Monument to a priest, Rudby-in-Cleveland 
from Church Monuments Gazetteer


This is the earliest memorial in the church, dating from between the 12th and early 14th centuries, and – tantalisingly – we don't know who the priest is.  Suggestions include Thomas de Werlington, rector of the parish in the first decades of the 14th century.  Or it could represent Walter de Kirkham, Bishop of Durham.  Or King Edward I's friend Peter of Chester – he was rector when the lord of nearby Whorlton Castle was accused of four murders and arson.  Or possibly the deeply unpleasant Hugh de Cressingham, King Edward I’s Treasurer of Scotland, who was killed in 1297 at the Battle of Cambuskenneth.  He was so loathed by the Scots that they stripped the skin from his body – accounts say his body was fat and his skin fair – and it is said that William Wallace asked for a piece large enough to be made into a sword belt.

Another ancient survival can be seen to the left of the south door – a window with a border of fragments of mediaeval glass, in which can be seen a shield with the motto of a Garter Knight: "Honi soit qui mal y pense".  The arms on the shield are those of Sir John Conyers of Hornby.  Sir John acquired the manor of Hutton by marrying Margery, daughter and co-heiress of the last Lord Darcy and Meinell whose family had been given the manor by William the Conqueror.  

It was the Meynells and Darcys who built the first church on this site in the mid 12th century.  That was in the time of King Henry II, whose lands stretched across England, much of Wales, the east of Ireland and the west of France.  In about 1300, this early church was replaced by the present building.  The tower was added 100 years later.

Until the 1530s when Henry VIII split the church in England from the Church of Rome, the scene inside the church was very different to the one we see today.  There was a rood loft – a candle-lit wooden screen – separating the chancel, where the priests ministered at the main altar, from the nave where the people gathered.  On the walls all round the nave were paintings of angels, the Last Judgement and scenes from the Bible, and images and statues of the Virgin Mary and the saints.  All round the nave were side chapels – there was an altar to St Christopher, patron saint of travellers, and another to the great Anglo-Saxon saint of the North East, St Cuthbert.    

Sir John Conyers of Hornby was one of the great survivors of the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487).

Edward IV (1442-83)

After the Yorkist victory in 1461 at the Battle of Towton, the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil, Edward Duke of York made himself King Edward IV in the place of King Henry VI.  But Edward's marriage to the beautiful Elizabeth Woodville led to a rift between Edward and his powerful cousin the Earl of Warwick, who was known as Warwick the Kingmaker.  So Warwick plotted to put Henry VI, then in the Tower of London, back on the throne.  

In the spring of 1469, North Country rebels under a mysterious captain called "Robin Mend-All" or "Robin of Redesdale" rose against Edward IV.  Redesdale, in the Debatable Land of the Scottish Borders, was the hideout of Henry VI's supporters, but it was clear that the rebels' centre of operations was Richmondshire in Yorkshire – and it is said that Robin was in fact Sir John Conyers of Hornby, steward for the Earl of Warwick at his castle at Middleham.  Warwick was behind the rising and he and his allies went on to defeat Edward's men at the Battle of Edgcote Field in Northamptonshire.   

Frail and bemused, Henry VI was made king again.

Warwick the Kingmaker

Then Edward IV made a savage comeback, Warwick died in the Battle of Barnet, and Henry VI was quietly murdered in the Tower.  

But Sir John Conyers was able to make his peace with Edward IV. Twelve years later, Edward's sudden death was followed by his brother Richard taking the throne in 1483, becoming King Richard III.  Sir John was so much in the new king's favour, that Richard made him a Knight of the Garter.  Two years later, Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field and Henry Tudor took the throne as Henry VII.  Yet again Sir John managed to be greatly in favour at court.  He became a knight of the body to the new king and died, laden with honours, in 1490. 

At the base of the ancient font, you can see the arms of the Conyers family carved on a stone shield.  The wooden font cover is a much more recent gift to the church.  It was donated by the brothers and sisters of William Chapman, who farmed at Old Hall, Sexhow and was a churchwarden and Superintendent of the Sunday School for many years.  He died aged 66 in 1916.

Interior of Hutton Rudby church & the window to Sir John Henry Ropner

The nearby window on the west wall shows St Nicholas, patron saint of sailors and children, and St Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology and the environment.  It's the only window in the church to commemorate a man – all the others are dedicated to women – and it was the last window to be created.  When it was cut into the wall in 1937, the church looked much as it does today.  The last major alterations, outside and inside, were carried out in 1923.

The window was given to the church in memory of Sir John Henry Ropner (1860-1936) of Skutterskelfe Hall by his surviving daughter, Mrs Mary Enid Stroyan.  She and her sister Margaret had married brothers, the sons of Scottish industrialist and businessman John Stroyan.

Sir John Henry Ropner's father Robert (1838-1924) was one of the many Germans who took part in the great expansion of industry on the River Tees.  He was a shipbuilder, shipowner and Conservative MP for Stockton.  In 1882 he bought Preston Hall and Park in Eaglescliffe for a family home conveniently near to his businesses and the railway station, and he bought the country estates of Skutterskelfe and Rudby a dozen years later.  Sir Robert was knighted in 1902 and made a baronet in 1904.  He was very active in public life and he and his family were generous benefactors of Stockton and Hutton Rudby and generous donors to this church.  

When Sir Robert died in 1924, he left Preston Hall to his youngest son Leonard and Skutterskelfe Hall (nowadays called Rudby Hall) to his eldest son John, who inherited the title of baronet.  Preston Hall is now the Preston Park Museum and much more information about the family can be found there.

Facing the window to Sir John is the window above the altar of the Lady Chapel.  It was given in memory of a young mother – Sir John's elder daughter Margaret.  It shows the Blessed Virgin Mary with Jesus in her arms, the martyr St Catherine of Alexandria, and St John the Baptist.  Margaret Ropner was married to a young barrister, Captain John Stroyan.  In 1927 Margaret and John were staying with his father at Lanrick Castle in Perthshire, when their car left the road and went over an embankment into Loch Lubnaig.  Captain Stroyan escaped with minor injuries but Margaret was killed.  She was 32 years old and left two young children.  

In the south wall nearby is a window to the memory of Margaret's mother, Lady Ropner.  Born Margaret MacGregor, she married John Henry Ropner in 1888 and died in 1932 aged 69.  The window shows Faith, Hope, and Charity.  Charity is in the centre, with a child in her arms and children at her feet.  Faith has a lamp, the light of faith, and Hope is blindfolded, with only one string to her harp.

The best way of examining these windows and seeing all the tiny details  especially in the east window  is to go to Dave Webster's flickr page and zoom in to the pictures 

East window, Hutton Rudby church

At the east end of the church behind the main altar can be seen the fourth window given to the church by the Ropner family.  It is the largest and finest of all – the east window by J C Bewsey.  His design expresses the worship of Christ by the whole company of saints, apostles, prophets and teachers of the church and it is filled with figures, from tiny angels at the very top of the window to the saints gathered on either side of the Cross.  You can see St George with his banner on the left and St Joan of Arc with her banner on the right.  St Oswald, King of Northumbria, is on the far right with his sword.  Beside him kneels St Cuthbert, carrying St Oswald's head.  This is because the king's head is buried with St Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral.  

The window commemorates Sir Robert Ropner's wife Mary Anne Craik of Newton Stewart, who died at Preston Hall in 1921.  She and Sir Robert had been married for 65 years and had nine children. 

Elsewhere on the walls, you will find memorial tablets to Sir Robert and Mary Anne, to their youngest daughter Elsa, who had lived quietly at home with her parents and died aged 22, and to their son Sir John Henry and his wife Margaret.  The Ropner family vault can be found in the churchyard.  The family sold their estates at Skutterskelfe and Rudby after the Second World War.

On 14 May 1933, the vicar dedicated both the new east window in memory of Lady Ropner and the newly-built lych gate given by Allan Bowes Wilson.  It is hard now to imagine the church without them.  

Allan Bowes Wilson and his brother Thomas were the sons of George Wilson (1810-76), who founded the Hutton Sailcloth Mill, which stood on the Hutton side of the river.  On the photograph below, you can see the Hutton Sailcloth Mill on the other side of the bridge.

The newly-installed lych gate at Hutton Rudby church

From the mid 19th century until after the Second World War, the Wilsons were influential in the village as employers and property owners and were active in village celebrations and organisations.  Thomas Bowes Wilson, his wife and their three children lived at Enterpen Hall; Allan Bowes Wilson, who never married, lived at Hutton House with his unmarried sister.  Allan was very generous to All Saints', giving not only the lych gate but also a large donation towards the 1923 restoration and the panelling round the east end of the church.  He died in 1932 aged 93.

In the south wall of the Lady Chapel is a window showing Christ's Ascension.  It was given in memory of Maria Hutton, wife of Thomas Bowes Wilson.  She died in 1904 aged 55.  In the photograph below, which shows the south side of the church before the altar was restored to the Lady Chapel, you can see the window to Maria has been installed but the other windows are plain glass. 

Interior of Hutton Rudby church, early C20

Nearby are brass tablets to her husband Thomas, who died in 1929 aged 84, and their two sons.  

George Hutton Bowes-Wilson was a Middlesbrough solicitor who was also a Captain in the Territorials when the First World War broke out in 1914.  He died aged 38 from a sniper's bullet in 1915.  His two year old son had died only months earlier.  His younger brother John had joined the regular army and served in the Boer War.  He was a Lieutenant Colonel of 37, a married man with two little daughters, when he was killed in action in 1917. 

On the other side of the church, on the north wall, you will find a memorial to the other young men of the village who died in the war.  They came from all walks of life – stonemason, farm worker, teacher, railway porter, bank clerk … Brief biographies can be found in Fallen Leaves, a Millennium Project by the parish, on the Hutton Rudby History Society Facebook page.  

Among the young men was 21 year old George Young Blair, the only son of Mrs Mary Young Blair of Linden Grove.  

The west window, whose clear glass lights the church, commemorates Mrs Blair, a generous donor to the church and village, who donated the land on which to build the Village Hall in 1927.  She died in 1935.  She was the daughter of the Stockton industrialist George Young Blair (1826-94), who built Drumrauch Hall on Belbrough Lane as his country house.  In 1895 his family gave the church an organ in his memory – he was a man with a passion for music – which will have made a great change from the harmonium music of the previous 35 years.  (Before the harmonium was installed in 1860, a small orchestra of bassoon, oboe and strings used to play from a gallery built against the west wall in the 18th century).  The Blairs were generous donors to the village and church.  During the church restoration in 1923, the villagers were taken by bus to Drumrauch Hall where services were held in the music room.  

Nearby on the north wall is a plain white marble tablet to the memory of John Mease and his wife Hannah Geldart.  

It was John Mease who built the mill which was later developed by George Wilson and his sons into the Hutton Sailcloth Mill.  John Mease and his brother Thomas were entrepreneurs in the chancy world of the newly industrialising textile business of the early 19th century.  Together they set up a steam-powered flax-spinning mill behind Stokesley High Street, and Thomas built the New Mill (now Millbry Hill country store) beside the packhorse bridge on the River Leven.  

Hutton Rudby church and the Hutton Sailcloth Mill

In the mid-1830s, John set up his own water-powered flax-spinning mill in the field beside the Hutton Rudby bridge.  When the business didn't prosper, he moved his family to London where he was a hop factor, buying hops for the huge London brewery market, and he leased the mill buildings to George Wilson.  He kept Leven House, his home in the village, as a country escape.  It stands not far from the church, at the bottom of Hutton Bank.  His wife Hannah died in London in 1851, when their two children were aged 12 and 14.  John died at Leven House in 1876 at the age of 77.

Pulpit, Hutton Rudby church

The pulpit is a particular treasure of the church.  It was the gift of Thomas Milner of Skutterskelfe, a man who lived through the turbulent Tudor period.  He was born in 1525, the year in which King Henry VIII began to fall for the charms of Anne Boleyn.  He was 11 when Henry VIII began the dissolution of the monasteries and the religious houses of England were disbanded, and he was 14 when the monks had to leave nearby Mount Grace Priory.  At the age of 21 he inherited a one-third share in the manor of Skutterskelfe from his mother Elizabeth Lindley, and it was in Skutterskelfe that he spent his life.  He died on 7 November 1594, six years after donating the large sum of £25 to the defence of the country against the Spanish Armada.  

By the time he made his Will on 28 June 1589, the candles, images and chapels were long gone from All Saints', destroyed or removed following Henry VIII's split from the Church in Rome.  But Thomas Milner was a stout Protestant and had no regrets for the past.  He now planned to make his mark on the bare walls of the church.  His tomb was to be built into the stonework of the wall at the end of the stall where he usually sat.  It was to match the trefoiled arch in the south wall with the slab depicting the priest holding a chalice.  There was to be an inscription in copper or brass above it 

"with my grandfather’s name, my father, and mother, wife and daughter with my own name declaring the day of my death and year, and more as shall be thought good by my executors (whom I do in God’s behalf require to perform this my request)"  

The tomb is hidden now behind the organ installed in 1974, but you can see the inscription on the wall.  The family tree begins with his grandfather Thomas Lindley and ends with his grandson Sir Thomas Layton of Sexhow.  It must have taken the family some time to install it – Thomas Layton wasn't knighted until 1614.  This is the text:

"Thomas Lynley esquier married Margery the second daughter of Sr Thomas Newport knight and had issu Elizabeth marryed to Joseph Sorthwait ale [alias] Mylner esquier who had issu Thomas Mylner who marryed Frances the daughter of Willyam Baytes esquier who had issu Mary who was marryed to Charles Layton esquier and had issu Sr Thomas Laiton knight Here lyeth the body of Thomas Mylner deceased the 8oe November 1594"

Thomas Milner's surscription, Hutton Rudby church

Having dealt with his tomb, Thomas Milner left a legacy of 20 shillings (£1) to the church for the building of "a comely new pulpit for the preaching of God's word".  A pity, he said, that for the past 40 years there hadn't been better doctrine preached in the church.

In the 18th century, when the church interior was plain and white, and a flat ceiling had been installed and the arched windows replaced by sash windows such as you would have in a house, the pulpit was whitewashed as well.  It must have looked very unimpressive.  It was only during the restoration work done in 1860 that they found once more the beautiful marquetry and the name Thomas Milner underneath five coats of paint.  

Thomas, unlike his grandfather Thomas Lindley, wasn't entitled to a coat of arms of his own, so the shield bears the three griffin heads of the Lindleys and the three talbot dogs of the Gowers.  The Lindleys had acquired their lands in Cleveland through the marriage of a Lindley in the 15th century with one of the daughters of John Gower of Sexhow and Skutterskelfe, whose family had held these lands for 200 years.

The lectern, in the shape of an eagle, was carved by Alexander Park, a gentleman farmer who lived at Leven House with his elderly spinster sisters at the end of the 19th century.  Mr Park was for years the honorary secretary of the Hurworth Hunt, and was said not to have made a single enemy during all his time in office.  On his last day out with the hounds he and his old black horse had a combined age of 99.  He and his sisters were very generous and active in village and church life: the choir stalls and altar rails were given to the church by the family.

View to the chancel, Hutton Rudby church

The chancel lies beyond the pulpit and the organ.  While the plaster was stripped from the walls of the nave in the restoration of 1923, the walls of the chancel are still plastered and on them you can see the memorials to the people who owned the manors of Rudby and Skutterskelfe before the Ropner family.

Isabella Ingram inherited the manor of Rudby, which her forebear Sir Arthur Ingram had acquired in about 1634, and her husband then bought the adjoining estate of Skutterskelfe.  She was born in the early 18th century and died in 1799, so she saw the reigns of George I, George II and George III, the American War of Independence and the French Revolution.  She was married to General the Hon. George Cary, the younger son of the 6th Viscount Falkland, and they had two daughters.  George and Isabella replaced the old manorial hall at Skutterskelfe with a new mansion house, which they called Leven Grove.  

George Cary died in 1792 and Isabella put up a tablet in his memory – "an honest and charitable man and a generous friend."  On Isabella's death seven years later, her daughter Elizabeth added a marble tablet with a tribute to her mother: "meekly wise and innocently chearful."

Elizabeth, Lady Amherst
by Reynolds, 1767

The estates of Rudby and Skutterskelfe came to Elizabeth after her mother's death.  She was by then about sixty years old.  In 1767 when she was 27, she was married to a 50 year old widower, Jeffery Amherst.  He was made a peer in 1776, becoming 1st Baron Amherst.  While commander of the army during the Seven Years' War (1756-63), he wanted to exterminate the Native American tribes that opposed the British and supported the policy of infecting them with smallpox.  In his later years, he was commander-in-chief of the army and was criticised for allowing it to go into decline and for refusing to give up his position until nearly senile.  He had no children, so on his death in 1797 at the age of 80 it was his great-nephew who inherited his title.  

Elizabeth, Lady Amherst died in London in 1830 aged 90, and was buried at Sevenoaks where she and her husband had lived.  Her father had bought Skutterskelfe when she was 16 years old and she must have known the area well.  She was particularly fond of a hawthorn tree at Tame Bridge on the road to Stokesley and had it protected by a railing, while the size of her legacy to her gardener shows how keen she was on her gardens and hothouses.  She left her estates to a young relative, Lucius Bentinck Cary.

Besides the tablet to her mother, Elizabeth had also erected a memorial to Lucius Bentinck Cary's parents and his sister Emma.  His father was Charles John Cary, 9th Viscount Falkland.  He was a Naval captain and a friend of the poet Lord Byron.  He died in 1809 aged 40, two days after he was fatally wounded in a duel, the result of a quarrel with another man while both were the worst for drink.  He left a young widow Christiana and four children – his heir, Lucius, was only 6 years old.  Unfortunately, Christiana became obsessed with Lord Byron and harassed him with letters until he had to put the matter into the hands of his solicitors.  

Christiana died when her son Lucius was 19 years old.  He served for a time as Captain in the 7th Foot Regiment but when he was 27 he inherited Rudby and Skutterskelfe from Elizabeth Lady Amherst.  This was a piece of great good fortune as his title had brought him little by way of money.  A month or two later, immediately after Christmas 1830, he married Amelia Fitzclarence in the Brighton Pavilion in the presence of her father the King.

Amelia Fitzclarence (1807-58)

Amelia was the youngest of the ten children of the actress Dorothy Jordan and William Duke of Clarence, son of King George III and brother of King George IV.  Amelia was too young to know the happy family life that Dora and William had once enjoyed.  Her mother was so short of money that she had to go back onto the stage when Amelia was a baby, and she died when Amelia was 11.  The Fitzclarence children were in a difficult position, socially.  Their mother, a fine actress, was illegitimate herself and had several illegitimate children before she became the Duke of Clarence's mistress and gave birth to Amelia, her brothers and sisters.

After King George IV's only child Princess Charlotte died in childbirth in 1817, a crisis in the monarchy loomed.  If one of his brothers couldn't produce an heir, the crown would pass to a distant relative.  The unmarried brothers had to find wives.  Amelia's father William made a marriage that was suitable for a Royal duke and married a German princess, Adelaide.  In her, his daughters found a truly kind stepmother but there was to be no heir to the throne – Adelaide's two daughters died within weeks of birth.  In 1830 George IV died, and William and Adelaide became king and queen.

Soon after Amelia's marriage to Lucius Cary, Lucius came north to mortgage his new estates and arrange for Leven Grove, Lady Amherst's house at Skutterskelfe, to be demolished and a new mansion house built to the design of the architect Anthony Salvin.  He and Amelia were not to live in their beautiful new house for long.  When her father died in 1837 and his niece Victoria became queen, Lucius Cary took up the posts of Governor of Nova Scotia and then of Bombay.  

Skutterskelfe Hall, designed by Salvin

In 1857 Amelia published Chow-chow: Being selections from a Journal Kept in India, Egypt and Syria.  It's a lively and attractive account of her travels in the East and it can be read online today.  On 2 July 1858, she died in London at the age of 55 after a short illness.  She had particularly wished to be buried in the churchyard in Hutton Rudby.  Her body was brought north by special train and on 10 July she was buried in a vault on the south side of the churchyard.  A great number of people attended the funeral.  The Rev Robert Joseph Barlow spoke her eulogy: 
"no one was too lowly for her to address, no one was too much despised by the world for her to stoop to and think of.  Her fervent charity, embracing the wants of all, was limited only by the extent of her ability."  
He was much moved himself and many of his listeners were in tears.

In November the following year, Viscount Falkland remarried.  His new wife Elizabeth was the daughter of General Joseph Gubbins and the widow of the Duke of St Albans.  They lived in the south of France, possibly because it was cheaper, and he died there in 1884 at the age of eighty.  His only son died childless, so his brother Plantagenet Pierrepont Cary came into the title.  He was already an old man.  He had entered the navy at the age of fourteen and served in the Burmese war, rising finally to Admiral in 1870.  Naval prize money may have come his way and he married a very wealthy woman, so he left a substantial estate.  He died childless in 1886 and on his death his nephew Byron Plantagenet Cary became the 12th Viscount Falkland – and, by his uncle's Will, came into much-needed funds.

Byron Plantagenet Cary (1845-1922) had entered the army at eighteen and served twenty years, chiefly with the 35th Foot, before retiring in 1883 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  He married a petite and energetic American heiress in 1879, and for a few years in the 1890s he and his young family lived at Skutterskelfe Hall.  During that time they were generous and active in village affairs.  There is no memorial to the 12th Viscount in the church although he was a churchwarden here for a while, because the financial difficulties caused by the business failure of his father-in-law Robert Reade of New York obliged him to sell his northern estates in about 1895.  

Skutterskelfe and Rudby were bought by Sir Robert Ropner, whose descendants were benefactors of the church and village until after the Second World War.



Thursday 9 January 2020

Canon Atkinson of Danby's articles for the Hutton Rudby Parish Magazine

In July 2000, having discovered that the famous Canon Atkinson of Danby had written a series of articles in the years 1890 to 1893 for the Parish Magazine of All Saints' at Hutton Rudby, I scanned them to make a booklet.  

It has the lengthy (but fully explanatory) title of "Articles contributed to the Parish Magazine of All Saints' Church, Rudby-in-Cleveland by Canon J.C. Atkinson of Danby 1890-1893"

He covers many topics – "Ancient Britons", geology, his excavation of the burial mound at Folly Hill in the park at Skutterskelfe Hall – but perhaps is at his most engaging when he describes in great and loving detail birds, their nests and their eggs.

Malcolm McPhie has scanned the booklet and so anybody interested in these largely unknown articles by the famous Canon Atkinson can find them here on the Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society's Facebook page.

Saturday 17 February 2018

The Revd Francis Blackburne (1748-1816) of Rudby-in-Cleveland

In late March 1774, a new vicar came to Hutton Rudby.  He was the Revd Francis Blackburne, an unmarried man of twenty-six and the son of the Revd Francis Blackburne, Archdeacon of Cleveland and Rector of Richmond – which can only have helped young Francis in obtaining the living from the Hon. General Cary.

Young Francis Blackburn must have looked a most inviting prospect to the young ladies of the neighbourhood on his arrival in the parish. 

He was born in 1748, educated at Richmond School and Peterhouse, Cambridge and was a Fellow of Catherine Hall (later St Catherine's College), Cambridge.

Archdeacon Francis Blackburne (1705-87)

Archdeacon Blackburne
Francis's father, Archdeacon Francis Blackburne (1705-87), was a noted scholar who had written, hidden away in Richmond, controversial and influential works on religious freedom for Protestants – though not for Roman Catholics.  He had continued to be a clergyman of the Church of England, but it's clear that his contemporaries kept expecting him to leave – he was invited to become pastor of the congregation of the Old Jewry meeting house.  (For a learned account of the Archdeacon's position in this great movement of the age, see, eg., here).

The Blackburne family had long roots in Richmondshire.

Archdeacon Blackburne's grandfather, also called Francis Blackburne, was the younger son of a gentleman with a large family and a poor grasp of finances who had, accordingly, lost the family their estates, which had included Marrick Priory in Swaledale.  So the Archdeacon's grandfather had gone into the stocking trade in Richmond and there had made a great deal of money.  He married Mrs Jane Inman of Bewerley, near Ripon, and became a wealthy and respectable figure, an Alderman of Richmond.  

Their son Francis, the Archdeacon's father, died at the age of 29 (from "a gross habit of body brought on by the excesses of the bottle" in his grandson's words), leaving his widow with three young children.

The Archdeacon's mother was Alice Comber, and through her he gained a very respectable lineage – and through his stepfather, a very good education at schools in Kendal, Pennington, Hawkshead and Sedbergh.

Alice Comber was the daughter of Thomas Comber (Dean of Durham) (1645-99) and his wife Alice Thornton.  Her maternal grandparents were William Thornton of East Newton & Alice, daughter of Sir Christopher Wandesford of Kirklington.  Mrs Alice Thornton (1626-1707) is remembered nowadays for her autobiography – her account of the Civil Wars in North Yorkshire is really fascinating and can be read online here.  (Printed versions are also available).  I tell her story here, in Alice Wandesford in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

The Archdeacon was deeply affected, at the age of about 17, by the death of his brother Thomas from smallpox, and this had interrupted his education at Cambridge.  On his return to his college, he expected to be made a Fellow, but the majority of the Fellows were "high royalists on the principle of hereditary right" [The Works, etc of Francis Blackburne, Vol I, from which this account of his life is taken] while he had been reading Locke and talking to "liberal minded friends".  He spoke too freely in public about ecclesiastical and civil liberty and the Fellows took against him and rejected him as a candidate.  He left for East Newton to live with his uncle Comber and he stayed there for some years.

During this time, he was so depressed that he could not work at his books and could find relief only in strong exercise, particularly fox-hunting – though being very careful, when "engaged in parties of dissipation" in York not to fall into the habits of drink that had brought about his father's early death.

At this crucial point in the future Archdeacon's life he came across some old Puritan books in the lumber-room of his uncle Comber's house.  The books had belonged to his great-grandfather William Thornton of East Newton, and it was the deep impression that the old Puritan divines made upon his mind that set the course of his life and determined his life's studies.

He had, meanwhile, been waiting in hopes of the living of Richmond, where the incumbent was married to his aunt.  At last, his uncle died and family friends exerted their influence with the patron of the living, the Lord Chancellor, and Blackburne, at the rather late age of 34, became Rector of Richmond.

He married Mrs Hannah Elsworth (born Hotham).  She was the mother of three children from her marriage with Mr Elsworth; Hannah, the only surviving daughter, married the Revd Theophilus Lindsey, vicar of Catterick and a close friend and associate of the Archdeacon.  (Lindsey left the
Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808)
Church of England in 1773 and set up the first avowedly Unitarian chapel in the country).

Francis and Hannah had five children together:  Francis; Thomas, a physician; Jane, who married John Disney (1746-1816), an Anglican clergyman and friend of Theophilus Lindsey, who joined Lindsey as a Unitarian in 1782; Sarah, who married the Revd John Hall; and William, a London physician.  

The Archdeacon was much grieved by the death of Thomas, "a favourite son", who died at the age of 33 in 1782, when the Archdeacon was 77.  It was a bad blow for the old man, and in addition his eyesight was failing.  A conscientious young schoolboy was employed to help, who went on to be well-known locally as the Revd Mr Tate, Master of Richmond School and, from 1830, vicar of Stanhope.

Perhaps the Archdeacon's son Francis was not his favourite, but he was entirely devoted to the memory of his father and his father's great works. 

Francis Blackburne in Hutton Rudby

Francis Blackburne spent only six years in Hutton Rudby, but he found his first wife while in the parish.  

In 1776 he married Ann Rowntree, daughter of Christopher Rowntree of Middleton-on-Leven, in the chapel at Middleton.  I wonder if the Christopher Rowntree, the well-known foxhunter (see this blogpost), was her brother?

In 1780 Francis left Hutton Rudby – Jeremiah Grice would be his successor – for Brignall, four miles south-east of Barnard Castle, on the Yorkshire side of the River Tees, near Greta Bridge.  He was to be vicar there for the rest of his life, the next 35 years.

Brignall

Brignall has two notable claims to fame, and both of them came about in Francis Blackburne's time.  

Sir Walter Scott mentions Brignall in his poem Rokeby (1813) – Scott was a friend of the antiquary John Bacon Sawrey Morritt,of Rokeby Park and had visited the area:-

O, Brignall banks are wild and fair,  
And Greta woods are green,  
And you may gather garlands there,  
Would grace a summer queen: 

And Brignall is still remembered for the strange story of the Curse Tablets.  The earliest account that I have come across is in Whitaker's History of Richmondshire (1823).

Two leaden plates were discovered on Gatherley Moor, south of Melsonby, in the late 18th century.  They had been carefully concealed under a heap of stones – some sources say it was a tumulus – and they were inscribed with astrological symbols, rows of figures, and these words:
I doe make this, that the father James Phillip, John Phillip, Arthur Phillip and all the issue of them shall come presently to utter beggary and nothing joy or prosper with them in Richmondshire. J. Phillip 
According to an account in The Teesdale Mercury of 8 September 1886, the rows of figures "if summed up diagonally, horizontally, or perpendicularly, made up the mystic number 369."  (I haven't checked).

In 1789, an account of the tablets was sent to the College of Arms and an answer was returned, providing details of the Phillips family of Brignall.  

Henry Phillips of Brignall had two sons.  The elder was called Charles, who in turn had two sons: John and Cuthbert.  The younger was called James and he was the father of five sons:  John, Arthur*, Henry, Christopher and Thomas.  In 1575, it was James Phillips who was living at Brignall.  

According to Bulmer's Directory of 1890, James was steward to Henry, Lord Scrope of Bolton and was notorious for his litigious, quarrelsome and vindictive nature.  Whitaker in 1823 conjectured that James had cheated his brother's family of their inheritance and that John Phillips had resorted to witchcraft in the hope of getting his revenge.

As to whether the curse had succeeded – all that is known is that 200 years later the family (in the male line, I presume) had long ago disappeared.

*Whitaker has "Richard", but the Victoria County History has it as "Arthur" and specifies that John E. Brooke who provided the information

Francis Blackburne at Brignall

Brignall was a tiny hamlet even in the time of Whitaker's History of Richmondshire (1823)
Village indeed there is scarcely any at Brignall, where there are only a very few families, but not one of these is within half a mile of the church.  
About halfway on the slope of the hill between both stands the vicarage-house, one of the most pleasing retirements I have ever seen, with the woody brows and white rocks of the Greta in front, and a sweep of rich sloping land in the immediate foreground.
The church of St Mary stood by the banks of the River Greta – little remains of it today.  It was replaced by a new church in 1834, the great man of the parish, John Bacon Sawrey Morritt, bearing much of the cost.

It sounds an idyllic setting for Francis Blackburne and his young family, and surely a fraction of the workload compared to Hutton Rudby.  Within thirteen years of their marriage (I have not found the date) Francis's wife Ann Rowntree died.  On 12 May 1789 he married Miss Elizabeth Peacock, daughter of the Revd John Peacock of York.  

And in this quiet rural spot, Francis could spend his life in preparing his father's manuscripts for publication, carrying out his various charitable works and engaging with the political issues of the day.

Francis was a great friend of Christopher Wyvill (1740-1822), the clergyman and reformer, who
Christopher Wyvill (1740-1822)
owned the Constable Burton estates near Leyburn and lived at Burton Hall near Bedale.

Francis, in the words of his obituary in The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature
was the intimate friend of Mr Wyvill, and co-operated with him in all those measures, whose object was the amelioration of the representation in parliament, and extension of religious liberty to all classes of his Majesty's subjects, being firmly convinced that wherever the truth lay it was to be maintained in the spirit of brotherly love, and not by pains or penalties, or restrictions of any kind.
The Archdeacon had left his manuscripts to Francis jointly with Christopher Wyvill and Francis's brother-in-law, the Unitarian John Disney, which was perhaps not a resounding vote of confidence in his son.  But it was Francis who devoted years of his life to editing the works and getting them published.  They can be read online – The Works, Theological and Miscellaneous of Francis Blackburne.  Volume I (1804) can be found here.

"Increasing infirmities", in the words of Francis's obituarist, "compelled him to retire to Richmond" where he owned family property.  I expect it meant that he was within easy reach of his physician, but anyway who could blame him for seeking the delights of Georgian Richmond?  Why, they are still recreating them now!  (Keep an eye on this website for a date for the Georgefest in 2018)

He must have left a curate in charge of his flock, but he "in every year paid frequent visits to his parishioners, by whom he was universally beloved".  

His obituarist does not say when his failing health prompted the move to Richmond, but he died there on Sunday 21 January 1816, aged about 68; his father had lived to the age of 82.  He was buried at his express request in the churchyard at Brignall on 24 January.  He left a widow, two sons and a daughter, who had married in 1808 the reformer and writer William Frend (1757-1841), who had originally been a clergyman of the Church of England but by the time of their marriage had become a Unitarian.

Francis's obituarist describes him as distinguished by his "Good Temper" and states that his devotion to his father's opinions meant that he "asserted [them] on all proper occasions, with that calmness and dignity which was peculiar to his character".

(I wonder when the proper occasions were?  Can the writer be hinting, ever so delicately, that on the subject of his father the dear vicar of Brignall was a little bit of a bore?)






Tuesday 10 January 2017

Revd R J Barlow & funerals in the 1840s and 1850s ...

Oh dear, Mr Barlow ...

Mr Barlow's carelessness in keeping records is evident from the parish registers and his eccentricities are known, as can be seen in my book, Remarkable, but still True.

But a search of the newspaper archives – more and more of them are available online – reveals that matters were rather worse and that some people were not happy at all:-

York Herald, 28 September 1850
Negligence of a Clergyman
To the Editor of the York Herald 
Sir,– On account of the negligence of Mr Barlow, rector of Hutton Rudby, where the corpse of my wife was interred, the funeral was detained two hours and a half, when a messenger was despatched, and he made his appearance, and the body was interred.  This is neither the first nor second time that he has kept funerals waiting until the evening.
Cannot the parishioners of Hutton Rudby have this amended?
I am, Sir, yours respectfully,
John Reed, 
Pickton*, Sept. 24

York Herald, 5 October 1850
To the Editor of the York Herald 
Sir,– Had Mr Reed confined himself to truth, I should have passed over the paragraph in your valuable journal as the result of the boiling indignation of a man too self-important and passionate to listen to reason.  That the funeral was kept waiting is true, and originated solely in a defect of memory, which is the more excusable as the person did not belong to my parish; but that I am in the habit of keeping funerals waiting, or that I ever did in the course of eighteen years keep one waiting, is perfectly false. 
Mr Reed at the conclusion of his letter puts a very silly question - "Cannot the people of Hutton Rudby have this amended?" 
The very interrogatory must prove to any sensible man that the parish do not suffer as Mr Reed would have the public to believe, or they would be unjust to the community to have such an habitual evil remedied.
But I would beg to inform Mr Reed that my parishioners are too sensible not to listen to reason, and have too much forbearance and good temper to fly into a passion without just cause.
I have the honor to remain,
Your obedient Servant,
R J Burton [sic]
Vicar of Hutton Rudby
Rudby Vicarage, October 2nd

York Herald, 12 October 1850
Negligence of a Clergyman
To the Editor of the York Herald 
Sir,– It probably would have been as wise had the Rev R J Barlow passed over my letter, which was inserted in your valuable columns of the 28th ult. The Rev Gentleman asserts, "that he has not, during the course of eighteen years been in the habit of keeping funerals waiting." The following proofs, will, I have no doubt, satisfy the public whose statement is the most correct.
"On the 10th of January, 1843, my son was interred at Hutton Rudby church. We were detained two hours at the church gates, by the non-attendance of the Rev R J Barlow, until it was dark. The coffin was then placed within the church to remain until the following morning, and the company were leaving when the Rev Gentleman arrived. Witness my hand, the 8th day of October, 1850.
Thomas Seamer,
Hutton Rudby"
"On the 30th of May, 1847, my mother's funeral took place at Hutton Rudby church, at which place we arrived at ten o'clock, A.M., and had to wait until twelve for the Rev R J Barlow to read the funeral service.
Witness my hand, this 7th day of October, 1850.
David Smith,
East Rounton"
I could mention more instances of similar inattention, my own grievance excepted, but trust the preceding proofs of Mr Barlow's negligence of the burial of the dead at the time appointed, will satisfy his insatiable thirst for truth, and be the means of a speedy amendment.
I am, Sir, yours respectfully,
John Reed, Pickton, Oct 9th, 1850
(Thomas Seymour or Seamer was a handloom linen weaver who lived in North End.)

York Herald, 19 October 1850
To the Editor of the York Herald 
Sir,– In reply to Mr Reed, who charged me with habitual neglect of funerals, I stated that so far from its being my habit to do so, I had not kept one waiting during eighteen years.
Mr Reed has attempted to falsify my statement by the production of two instances, bearing respectively the signatures of Smith and Seymour.  I beg, therefore, to analyse the statements of those people.  And first as to Smith.  On Sunday morning, May 30th, 1847, at his own desire, I agreed to bury his mother before church, but instead of the funeral being at the church at or before ten o'clock, it actually did not arrive till I had entered the reading desk, at half-past ten o'clock, to commence the morning service; therefore it was my duty to defer the funeral till after church, and not keep my congregation waiting.  Thus it appears that William Smith first commits a fault himself, and then very good-naturedly wishes to charge me with his own neglect in not being punctual. 
Now as the second case of Thos Seymour bearing date January 10th, 1843.  When I first came to this parish, now nearly nineteen years ago, no honest man in Hutton Rudby will attempt to deny that the people of Hutton Rudby were not only in the habit, but in the perpetual habit of keeping every funeral waiting from one to two hours or more, even when the death occurred in the village.  As this was a most unnecessary as well as disagreeable waste of my time, I found it absolutely requisite to set the matter right.  At first I calmly remonstrated, then gave them the choice of any hour from morning till night; in fact I tried all means, gentle and simple, and for years, but in vain.  At last I was most reluctantly compelled to adopt the following plan, namely, whenever they wilfully and without good cause kept me waiting, I kept them waiting exactly the same length of time; and this plan very speedily rectified the inexcusable evil. 
Now it happens that I very well remember, in those bygone days, that this very Thomas Seymour always growled most whenever I insisted upon punctuality; and therefore it is very probable that in the case of January 10th, 1843, I was constrained to keep this man waiting, as I had others in order that I might teach him punctuality, which he was so unwilling to learn. 
Thus again, in this second instance of Mr Reed's testified neglect of duty, the chastisement designed for me recoils upon the evidence.  It would be well, therefore, if Mr Reed would select better evidence in future, for verily he has this time leaned his whole weight upon a broken staff and truly it has wounded himself, and only proved his overweening desire to make a mountain out of nothing. 
I now thank you, Sir, for your good feeling in inserting my former letter in your valuable columns.  In my opinion it is a pity that your paper should be taken up by a base wrangle about nothing; for my part I have neither time nor inclination for such idle cavilling and disputation and therefore in future I shall leave Mr Reed and his coadjutors to themselves.
I have the honor to remain, Sir,
Yours much obliged,
R J Barlow
Rudby Vicarage, Occtober 12th, 1850

*now spelt Picton

Friday 21 March 2014

The interior of All Saints', Hutton Rudby

A few photographs of All Saints' from the collection of the Hutton Rudby History Society:

All Saints', Hutton Rudby c1890

This postcard is said to date from c1890.  You can see here that the pulpit (gift of Thomas Milner of Skutterskelfe) is on the left of the chancel in front of his burial place and the surscription above it.


All Saints', Hutton Rudby in early C20

This view was taken at much the same time – late 1890s or early 1900s – and apparently from the top of a ladder.  The side altar had not then been restored (the Lady Chapel took its present configuration in the 1923 restoration) and the "Sexhow pews" faced sideways towards the pulpit.  The absence of stained glass is very noticeable.



This photograph (posted previously in the piece about Thomas Milner) is of much later date and shows the pulpit moved to its present position and Thomas Milner's burial place not yet obscured by the organ.  The stained glass in the East window was given by Sir Robert Ropner in memory of his wife at the 1923 restoration.

And here is the East window in glorious colour:


The artist was John Charles Bewsey, who described it as "expressing the worship of Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, by the whole company of Saints, Evangelists, Apostles, Martyrs, Prophets, Doctors of the Church, Virgins and Confessors."

The upper range of figures shows from the left: St Jerome (in red) and St Ambrose; Mary, Mother of God; Christ in majesty; John the Baptist; St Augustine of Hippo and Gregory the Great.

The lower range of figures shows from the left: King Edward the Confessor, St Francis of Assisi and St Wilfrid; St Ethelreda of Ely, St George and St Monica; Christ crucified, with His Mother, St John and Mary Magdalene at His feet; St Joan of Arc, St Gilbert of Sempringham and St Catherine (with her wheel); St Sythe, St Oswald King of Northumbria and St Cuthbert (shown kneeling with Oswald's head.)

(Details taken from a fuller account in Canon D F Lickess' 'History and Guide' to the church)

There is a beautiful collection of photographs of the stained glass in the church on flickr – in fact it's easier to see details in that collection than if you stood in front of them!



Friday 14 March 2014

Thomas Milner of Skutterskelfe: the life & times of a Tudor gentleman

Thomas Milner of Skutterskelfe, a gentleman of about sixty-four years of age, made his will on 28 June 1589, the year after the Spanish Armada.  He had inherited his mother's share of the estate of his grandfather, Thomas Lindley, including one-third of the manor of Skutterskelfe where he lived with his wife Frances Bate and their daughter Mary, aged twenty-one. 

He does not seem to have been suffering from ill health when he made his will – simply describing himself as "whole of mind and remembrance thanks be given to God" – and was possibly prompted to do so because of his extreme irritation at the behaviour of his wife's family over the estate of his father-in-law, who had recently died.  Thomas's will, after careful directions for his burial in All Saints' at Hutton Rudby and legacies to the church (with forthright comments about the current incumbent and his predecessors), proceeds with a bequest to his wife:
"my best breeding mare, my best nag to ride upon, with five of my best kine."
This is immediately followed by a confirmation that she is to have
"all such things as in right she ought in conscience to have and be answered of"
continuing, in a fling against his mother-in-law (for how could he leave his wife his father-in-law's goods?)
"either of mine, or of the goods of her father to whom she was executor, and got nothing thereby of things certainly known to be embezzled at the death of her father by her mother as may appear by a note [in] writing set down whereof she should have had a part, and got nothing through the greedy dealings of her [un]loving brethren, and the witness of some of no great honesty nor yet true feelings therein"
After this, he continues with the disposal of the residue of his estate to his wife and daughter, a legacy to the poor of the parish, and bequests and legacies to family, servants and godchildren.  His will, and the surscription set above his burial place in accordance with its provisions, provide us with valuable details of his family and a picture of gentry life in Cleveland in the sixteenth century.

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Excerpts from the Rudby Parish Magazines of the 1890s

April 1893
9 April – baptism of Rebecca, daughter of Thomas and Martha Barthram of Hutton
1 April – burial of Martha Barthram of Hutton, aged 40 years

The Archbishop of York will hold a Confirmation in All Saints' Church some time in June.  Intending candidates are requested kindly to send in their names soon to the Vicar.

September 1893
The magazine contained an account of the Sunday School Treat.  On 1 August, 47 children went by train from Potto to Redcar.  There had also been an outing to Skutterskelfe where Lord and Lady Falkland provided amusements and refreshments.  On the 17th, the Choir Trip – 25 people – went to Redcar.  They bathed, walked, visited the church at Coatham.

November 1893
"A most successful Concert was given in the School-house on the 22nd September, by the friends and through the kindness of the Miss Parks.  The music and singing was much appreciated, and the room was crowded.  The proceeds, amounting to £8 8s. 6d., were divided between the Sunday school and Reading Room."
December 1893
Oct 24 – the vicar was married to Florence Mary Wright of Enterpen
Sat 11 Nov –
"Tom Honeyman was killed accidentally when engaged in some iron works in Stockton.  The greatest sympathy is felt for his mother, who is a widow, and he was a good son to her."  
He was buried on the 14th: Thomas Harwood Honeyman aged 20.

Lady Falkland announces "owing to her absence from Skutterskelfe she is for a time discontinuing the Parish Magazine"

In 1894, the parish part of the magazine was reduced in size to the cover of the Church Monthly and the price had risen to 1½d.
It was distributed by Mrs Brigham, Mrs Robson and M.E. Johnson.

February 1894
"The Annual Sunday School & Choir Treat took place in the Schoolroom on January 5th.  The delicious cakes and sandwiches for the tea, provided by the kindness of our ladies, were thoroughly enjoyed by the schoolchildren, who were vastly amused by the contents of the crackers - another kind gift."
1 Jan 1894 - baptism of Denton James, son of John Thomas and Emma Jane Fortune of Hutton

March 1894
Day School.  The children were examined by A E Richardson, Esq., in November.  Shortly afterwards the Chief Inspector of the district (R P A Swettenham, Esq.) visited and inspected the school.  His report speaks very highly of the whole school, for he says, "The children are in good order, and have been very well taught."  The Grant which has been received is £1 0s 6d per head, the highest possible grant payable by the Department.

May 1894
Announces the Hutton Rudby Temperance Society's Annual Horticultural and Industrial Exhibition and Poultry, Pigeon, Rabbit, and Cat Show on 21 July.
A Band Contest was also arranged for the Show.
"The Committee regretted (with many others in the village) seeing so many prizes taken away from the place by outsiders last year, especially in the Juvenile departments.  This year the Penmanship classes will be confined to the village, and the committee hope the children will take special interest in this, and make a good entry."
Prizes were donated by various firms – eg, the first prize for Best Tray of Six Vegetables for cottagers of Hutton was a pair of meat carvers, value 15s., donated by Sunlight Soap Co.

July 1894
29 May – burial of Dorothy Passman of Hutton, aged 72

The Travelling Dairy Co from Leeds Agricultural College gave a display on dairy management, and butter and cream cheese making on 22 May

August 1894
Report on success of the Show, with 800 exhibits.
"The Committee … would have been gratified if more of the school-children had competed in the classes especially arranged for them."
October 1894
August Sunday School trip to Redcar (it rained)
Choir trip to Scarborough

November 1894
"We deeply regret to record the death of Mr Blair.  The immense gathering of all classes at his funeral bore striking testimony to his worth, and their sorrow at his departure from us …"
December 1894
Was there an epidemic?  There are four burials of infants:
20 Oct – Florence Butler, aged 7 days
1 Nov – George Bell, 4 years and 5 weeks
2 Nov – Thomas Alderson, 7 months
15 Nov – Percy Hare, 9 weeks
"We are sure our readers will have much pleasure in hearing that Rudby Church is to be enriched by the possession of a fine organ, the generous gift of Mrs Blair and her stepdaughters, as a memorial of the late Mr Blair and his son Mr Borrie Blair"
"We regret to announce that the Parish Magazine will now be discontinued"

1896 – the magazine returns, with the parish content on the cover

January 1896
Mrs Brigham is still running the Coal Club!

February 1896
"On Jan 3rd a gathering of 130 villagers had tea, and spent a most happy evening at Drumrauch"
(The Misses and Mrs Blair have taken over the philanthropic role of Lady Falkland).

May 1898
Reporting on the Easter services:
"for the first time were used the handsome new altar-rail of oak, and beautiful kneeling-mat of needlework, made and given by some Communicant Parishioners"
June 1898
baptism:
1 May – Norman, son of Thomas and Mary Hannah Williams, Drumrauck Cottages

September 1898
wedding at Rudby – Aug 17, Edgar Robinson Johnson, Stockton, to Alice Elizabeth Gears, Hutton Rudby
burial – 11 Aug – Catherine Stringer aged 73 year of Hutton Rudby

June 1899
6 May – Arthur Edward Greaves and Ethel Annie Smith of Hutton

September 1899
Marriages:
25 July – St James' Day – Mr Smollett Clerk Thomson of Edinburgh and Miss Margaret Amy Blair of Drumrauch
1 Aug – at East Rounton – Mr Harold Raynton-Dixon of Gunnergate Hall, and Miss Dorothea Margaret Johnson of Rounton Grange