The Bathurst Charity School in Hutton Rudby

The connection between Hutton Rudby and the Bathursts began in the first half of the 17th century with the founder of the family fortunes, Dr John Bathurst.  

Dr John Bathurst (d 1659)

By the time he died in 1659, the eminent physician Dr John Bathurst [left] was a very wealthy man, whose estates were said to have been worth £2,000 a year.  The date of his birth is unclear [1].  According to the Dictionary of National Biography, he was born in Sussex and came of a Kentish family.  A reviewer of a history of Richmond and Swaledale in the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal [2] in 1979 described him as "one of the most famous of the Old Boys of Richmond Grammar School".

On 27 January 1636 (recorded as 1635 at the time, when the calendar was still in the Old Style) he married Elizabeth Willance at Marske in Swaledale.  Elizabeth and her sisters were the heiresses of their father Brian Willance of Clints Hall and shared his estates between them.  As a result, by his marriage Dr John Bathurst became the owner of Clints, a few miles from Richmond.  

Little is known of Elizabeth's father but her great-uncle, the draper Robert Willance, is one of Richmond's celebrities.  He was nearly killed when his young horse spooked and sprang down the cliff at Whitcliffe Scar, killing itself and breaking its rider's leg.  Famously, Willance saved his own life by cutting open the dead horse's belly and putting his broken leg into the carcass to keep himself warm and alive until help finally came.  His leg had to be amputated, and is said to have been buried in Richmond churchyard where its owner joined it years later.  Willance marked the spot on Whitcliffe Scar – Willance's Leap, as it is known – with a stone in thanksgiving for his preservation from death.  

In 1644, in the early days of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Dr John Bathurst was in practice at York where he successfully treated young Christopher Wandesford from Kirklington near Bedale who had been left in a pitiable state from the trauma of his father's death and funeral in Dublin.  Christopher was from a Royalist family;  Dr Bathurst's most celebrated patient was Oliver Cromwell himself.  

In 1656 Dr John Bathurst represented Richmond in the parliament reluctantly called by Cromwell (the Second Protectorate Parliament) and in 1659 when Oliver's son Richard Cromwell called the Third Protectorate Parliament, Dr Bathurst again represented Richmond.

He made his Will on 23 April 1659, the day after that parliament was dissolved and he died three days later.  

His family would benefit for the next hundred years from the fortune he had accumulated and the investments he had made.  Above all, they drew their wealth from the Arkengarthdale lead mines, where the well-known CB Inn is named after his descendant Charles Bathurst.  He had taken a lease on the mines in about 1650 and by 1656 he had bought the whole of the dale and the mining rights from the Crown.  

At his death he owned property in Swaledale, Richmond, London and Cleveland, including the manors and estates of Skutterskelfe and the nearby hamlets of Thoraldby and Braworth.  In his Will he established a charity in Richmond to maintain two poor scholars at Cambridge and to put out every year a poor boy as an apprentice, and among his charitable legacies he left a rent charge of twenty shillings on his manors to be paid by the churchwardens of Hutton Rudby to the poor on 20 December every year [3].

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.

'Lines written on a visit to Leven-Grove in Cleveland, the seat of Lady Amherst' 1817

Leven Grove was the early 19th century name for Skutterskelfe Hall.  It's the subject of this poetic tribute, by an author writing under the pseudonym of LEO:-

When rosy Spring, with fingers bath'd in dew,
Unfolds the primrose pale and violet blue,
And many a blooming flowret that supplies
Joy to the smell and pleasure to the eyes,–
Soothes with her smiles the fury of the north,
And breathes and bids the tender buds burst forth –
When soaring high on never-wearied wings,
To charm his mate the lark enraptured sings;
Balmy the air; above, the sky serene;
The meads, below, soft, fragrant, fresh, and green;
O be it mine at peaceful evening time,
When the sun decks his western throne sublime,
O be it mine with tempted feet to rove
Along thy flowry paths, fair Leven Grove! 

There deep concealed amid thy shady bowers,
The Thrush and Blackbird charm the careless hours,
And every bird its melody essays
To pour to bounteous Heaven its humble praise.
Hail, lovely scenes, that ever can impart
A sense of genuine pleasure to my heart!
O sweet thy greensward bents and sunny glades,
Thy crystal streams and murmuring cascades!
Here, while I gaze, each earthly trouble flies,
My soul expands, my thoughts ascend the skies:
Soft, as I stray thy fragrant haunts among,
Comes the lone murmur of the ring-dove's song;
She, faithful bird, her lover's stay deplores,
His absence long from her whom he adores; 

Or, 'reft of him that never will return,
Pours to the echoing woods her agonizing mourn.–
Lo, as I gain sweet Foley-Hill, are seen
Fair Cleveland's plains with future harvests green;
And lengthening far, and towering to the skies,
Her mountains dark in solemn grandeur rise:
There, bleak and bare, which every blast assails;
Here, cloth'd with woods that scorn the blustering gales.
Now, while the western breezes curl the stream,
And clouds obscure the sun's unfavouring beam,
Across the brook, with keen and ready eye,
The patient angler throws his feather'd fly;
With restless arm attempts each prosperous guile,
And frequent deaths reward his pleasing toil.

                                                                               LEO.
Nov. 12, 1817.

Published in The Northern Star or Yorkshire Magazine: A Monthly and Permanent Register of the Statistics, Literature, Biography, Arts, Commerce, and Manufactures of Yorkshire, and the Adjoining Counties (Volume 2)

There's something rather unexpected in the way that the writer begins sentimentally with primroses, violets, greenswards and glades - and ends in a snap with agonising mourning, bleakness and "frequent deaths" ...

An account of Skutterskelfe Hall can be found earlier on the blog, here

Note: Foley-Hill is present-day Folly Hill.

Sir Thomas Layton finds himself before the Star Chamber, 1633

Sir Thomas Layton (1597?-1650) was the son of Charles Layton of Sexhow (d1617) and his wife Mary Milner of Skutterskelfe (c1568-1633).

Sir Thomas's grandfather, the lawyer Thomas Layton (1520-84), had left his family in a fine position through his years of private practice, public service and astute property dealings.  The marriage of Thomas's parents in 1594 had completed the work, reuniting the manors of Sexhow and Skutterskelfe under one ownership for the first time since the death of their ancestor John Gower in 1377. 

Sir Thomas came into his inheritance as a very young man on his father's death in 1617.  Just how young he was, is rather hard to say.  He is recorded in the 1612 Visitation [cf Graves' History of Cleveland] as being 15 years old and that would certainly accord with the transcription made of the baptismal register by J W Ord and by the Christian Inheritance Project; they disagree on the month (February or July) but they agree on the year.  The Victoria County History entry for East Layton in the parish of Stanwick St John states that he was 23 on his father's death [citing Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclxvii, 93]; his parents married on 27 February 1594, so this is possible.

His father arranged for him to be married at a very young age – probably 16 (or at the most 19), for it was in 1613 that Charles settled the manor of Kirkby Sigston upon his son.  Thomas's wife was Mary Fairfax, daughter of Sir Thomas Fairfax of Walton and Gilling Castle near Malton.  The Fairfax family had been suspected of Catholic sympathies over the years, but most of them had remained loyal to the Crown in the Northern Rebellion of 1569.  Sir Thomas Fairfax himself was a committed Protestant and so much trusted by government that he continued to hold office in spite of his wife's open Catholicism.  Catherine, daughter of Sir Henry Constable of Burton Constable, was a known recusant and her mother was accused of harbouring priests associated with the exiled Earl of Westmorland.  Catherine (who died in 1626) had sent two of her seven sons to Catholic seminaries on the Continent;  her daughter Mary's religious affiliations are unknown.

A knighthood was bought for Thomas from King James VI and I – knighthoods were in cheap and plentiful supply during the reigns of James and his son Charles I, who together created 3,281 knighthoods between 1603 and 1641.  It was a far cry from the knighthood bestowed on his great-grandfather Sir James Metcalfe of Nappa in Wensleydale.  Sir James had served on the Border under the future Richard III and held many high offices for the Crown – and probably fought at Flodden – before Henry VIII knighted him at Windsor at the age of 68.  Young Thomas was knighted in 1614, the year after his marriage [Victoria County History: Stanwick St John, citing Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclxvii, 93].

The young couple must have begun a family immediately, because Sir Thomas was a grandfather before he was forty.  He had married his daughter Mary to Henry Foulis, son of Sir David Foulis, 1st Baronet of Ingleby, and their son David was baptised on 14 March 1633.

This connection with the Foulis family was to bring him to trial before the Star Chamber in 1633.

Thomas Milner of Skutterskelfe: notes, sources & select bibliography

In order to make the preceding piece about Thomas Milner readable, I have moved a good bit of the detail into these notes.  Here you will find references, extra information and hyperlinks.

Thomas Sowthwaites alias Milner

In quoting the will I have generally modernised the spelling .  A few letters at the ends of the lines of writing are illegible because of the binding, and these I have indicated by square brackets. 
In the comment regarding his father-in-law's estate, 'unloving brethren' for 'loving brethren' is conjecture, but there are clearly a couple of illegible letters there.

The grant of wardship and marriage of Thomas Milner to Thomas Laton [sic]:
Grants in November 1534
33. Thos. Laton. Annuity of 3l. issuing from a third part of certain lands specified in Faceby, Yarum, Carlton, Semar', Broughton, and the reversion of the manor of Skutterskelf in Cleveland, Yorks., which lately belonged to Thos. Lyndley, deceased; during the minority of Thos. Milner, kinsman and heir of the said Thomas; with the wardship and marriage of the said heir. Del. Westm., 24 Nov. 26 Hen. VIII.—S.B. Pat. p. 1, m. 4.
cf: Henry VIII: November 1534, 26-30, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7: 1534 (1883), pp. 550-560 online here

The marriage of Mary Milner and Charles Layton
Details of an Indenture dated 11 July 11 James (1613) citing the Indenture of Covenants bearing date 26 Feb 37 Eliz (1594) between Charles Layton of the one part and John Constable of Dromonby, Nich. Gower of Staynesby, Esqres., Will. Baite and Tho. Baite of West Laithes, John Constable of Lasinby, Tho. Warcopp of East Tanf[eild], Leon. Baite of West Laithes, gentlemen, and John Milner of Whitwell, gent. can be found in Quarter Sessions Records (ed Rev J C Atkinson) vol 4 (North Riding Records), p141

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.

Lady Falkland's connection to the scandalous Josie Mansfield

The increasing availability of newspaper archives online has enabled me to find out considerably more about Mary Reade of New York, the wife of Byron Plantagenet Cary 12th Viscount Falkland – and to find out about her brother, whose story would have made an excellent plot-line in Downton Abbey ...

Such a riveting tale couldn't be resisted, though its link with Cleveland history is tenuous.  My excuse is that the following newspaper account also tells us about Mary, whose philanthropy and kindness were much appreciated in Hutton Rudby.

Mary was related to Anna Livingstone Reade Street Morton (1846-1918), whose photograph you can find here.  She was the much admired wife of Levi P. Morton, Vice President of the United States.  So when Mary's brother married the woman who had been at the centre of a notorious New York murder, the newspapers were naturally very excited:


From The Day of New London, Connecticut: 16 October1891

Josie Mansfield Weds
Jim Fisk's Evil Genius Marries Once More
The Groom a New York Lawyer
His Name is Robert L. Reade, His Family Is a Well Known One, and He Is Alleged to Be a Relative of Mrs Levi P Morton

Paris, Oct 16. - Mrs Lawlor, formerly Miss Josie Mansfield, well known in New York twenty years ago, was married last Friday at St George's church, Hanover square, London, to Mr Robert L. Reade, of New York.  Mr Lawlor [sic – should read Mr Reade], brother of Lady Falkland, his mother and three members of the bride's family were present.  The couple are spending the honeymoon at Brighton.

Josie and Jim Fisk

New York, Oct 16.- The news that Josie Mansfield is married will set tongues wagging from one shore of America to the other.  The woman who was more discussed twenty years ago than any other person in the western hemisphere – the woman who inspired Edward S Stokes to kill Jim Fisk Jr – has again become staid and demure.

Josie Mansfield's History

It is not fair even to guess at Mrs Robert L. Reade's age.  She is as charming today as she was when she ensnared the gallant Colonel Jim Fisk, Jr., more than a score of years ago.  At that time her smart carriages, her gorgeous diamonds and her fetching gowns, all the gifts of Erie's king, were the talk of the city.  Her fame went abroad, too.  Her name was as well known in every backwoods hamlet as John L Sullivan's is today.  Bonnets and gowns and a certain mode of dressing the hair were named for her.

The Shooting of Fisk

Then Josie Mansfield and Jim Fisk quarreled and parted.  The King of Erie was jealous because his handsome friend and ex-partner, Ned Stokes, was too attentive to Josie and spent too many days and nights in the house Jim Fisk's money had furnished for her.

Then came bickerings, a threat of publishing all of Fisk's letters and telegrams to Josie, an injunction by which Fisk prevented Stokes from publishing them or any of them, and finally the shooting of Fisk by Stokes on the main stairway of the Grand Central hotel on Broadway.

Josie sued Colonel Fisk's widow for £200,000 she claimed the dead man owed her, but she did not win the suit.  Josie went to Boston, but she found that city too hot to live in.  Crowds followed her and hooted her in the streets.  Soon she fled to Paris.

She Was Once Reported Dead

It was reported three years ago that Josie was dead and had been secretly buried, but a reporter found her in the little bonbonniere she inhabited near the Boulevard Pereire.  She looked astonishing fresh and blooming, and her auburn hair was wound in a graceful knot upon the top of her head.

Josie Mansfield was married in 1864 to Frank Lawlor, an actor of some note.  She was then living in San Francisco with her parents, whose name was Warren.  Lawlor and Josie led a happy life until 1868, when he found that he could no longer live with her.

Josie had a hard time after that until she met Jim Fisk in the house of Mrs Annie Woods in 1870 and was introduced to him at her own request.  Lawlor died years ago.

Who Robert L. Reade Is

Robert L. Reade has a law office at 31 Nassau street.  He has always enjoyed too much money and too merry associates to become remarkably celebrated at the bar.  He is a short, thickset man with a rich red Burgundian complexion.  He looks like a man who has seen forty-five years or more.

The bridegroom's father was Robert Reade.  He was very wealthy, having been one of the first and most extensive property owners in Minneapolis.

He went to Paris in 1876 and was accidentally drowned.  Robert L. Reade remained in this city and practised law.  Mrs Reade and her daughters made their home in England.  The elder daughter, Miss Katharine, married General Francis Strachan, governor of the Burmudas.  Captain Byron Cary, aide-de-camp to General Strachan, fell in love with Mrs Strachan's pretty sister and married her.  By the death of his uncle Captain Cary succeeded to the title of Viscount Falkland five years ago.

Related To Mrs Levi P Morton

Mrs Reade spent last summer at Carlsbad with her cousin, Mrs Levi P Morton and her daughters.  Lawyer Robert L Reade went over to visit his mother in July.  There he met Josie Mansfield, who, in spite of her years, was as much of a belle as ever.  She called herself Mrs Frank Lawlor, and the number of her devoted admirers was legion.  Lawyer Reade was fascinated.  He urged the fair Josie to marry him, but she was coy.  She told him to take ample time and consider well what he was about to do.

Thereupon Mr Reade returned to this city and considered.  He gave a little dinner to a very few companions early in September.  After they had all dined well Reade said:

"I'm going to marry Josie Mansfield.  I'm drinking myself to death.  Well, Josie Mansfield is the only person who can save me.  I'll marry her if she'll let me, for I think she has been more sinned against than sinning."

Thereupon Mr Reade's chums told him that he was all right and drank his fiancee's health.

Three members of the bride's family were present at the ceremony, but the cable says nothing as to the presence of the bridegroom's mother, who has long occupied a very lofty social position in England.  Lady Falkland doubtless could not find time to assist at the wedding.

Four years later, the marriage was at an end:

Galveston Daily News, Saturday 9 November 1895

Josie Mansfield Divorced

New York, Nov 8. - The Herald says: The following notice has been printed in the official law journal of Paris: 

"From the judgment rendered adversely by the fourth chamber of the civil tribunal of the Seine on August 1, 1895, between Mme Helene Josephine Mansfield, widow of M Frank Lawler and wife by a second marriage of Mr Robert Livingstone Reade, the woman's legal residence being with her husband, but she residing, as a matter of fact, at 53 Rue Empere, Paris, and M Robert Livingstone Reade living in Paris at the Hotel Brighton, it appears that the divorce was granted between the Reades at the request and for the benefit of Mme Reade"

This wasn't the end of the story.  Two years afterwards, the newspapers – it was picked up by even the Teesdale Mercury – took up this story.  Here it is in one of the fuller reports:

Duluth Evening Herald, Friday 16 July 1897

Insane and Poor
Sad Condition of Robert Livingstone Reade Who Has Lost a Fortune
Drink and Chloral
His Wife is the Once Famous Josie Mansfield, Fisk's Fancy

New York, July 16. - Robert Livingstone Reade, a Yale alumnus, a lawyer, once reputed a millionaire, has been pronounced insane by a sheriff's jury.  His fortune has dwindled until his income is inconsiderable.  He owns a lot of valueless stocks and Western property mortgaged for nearly as much as it can bring in the market.  Mr Reade's mental infirmity is due to excessive drink and chloral.  He is actually confined in the Bloomington asylum, and a committee will be appointed by the court to take charge of his person and estate.

The petition to have him declared insane was made by Mrs. Reade.  Mrs Reade was Josie Mansfield, a woman whose career was a subject of world-wide gossip twenty-five years ago.  It was on her account that Edward S Stokes killed James Fisk.  Stokes met Fisk on the stairs of the Grand Central hotel.

Reade met her in the summer of 1891 and they were married in October of that year in London.  They soon disagreed and separated, Reade coming to New York and the woman staying in Paris.  She obtained a divorce in November 1895.  Reade contemplated suicide and would probably kill himself the doctor says, if not restrained.

In 1901, Edward S Stokes, the man who shot Jim Fisk Jr., died and the story was resurrected again.  According to a report in the Watertown Herald the following spring, Robert L Reade was "cured at Bloomingdale [and] married a good woman and is now a respected citizen".

I hope that report was true.  Reade died in January 1910.

Visit major-smolinski.com for this fascinating piece on Edward S Stokes.  It includes a still from the 1937 film based on the Fisk killing – I should think it's about time another film was made, or a tv drama - and a vivid piece of journalism from The Sun of New York, in which Josie Mansfield is described as "a fat Cleopatra."

H W Brands' The Murder of Jim Fisk for the Love of Josie Mansfield tells the story for a modern audience.

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

Rudby Parish Magazine: March 1892

More from the old parish magazines:

CHURCH OFFERTORIES

Jan. 24th ................. £1 1s. 7½d.
Jan. 31st .................. £1 7s. 11½d.
Feb. 7th .................... 9s. 7d.
Feb. 14th .................. £1 5s. 9d.
Feb. 21st .................. 11s. 2½d.
.

BURIALS

Jan. 22nd Margaret Cowan, of Hutton, aged 70 years
Jan. 27th Mark Hall, of Brawith Farm, Skutterskelfe, aged 18 years

EAST ROUNTON

There is a Service in the Church at East Rounton on Sundays at 2.30 pm

CHURCH OF ST CUTHBERT'S, MIDDLETON-ON-LEVEN

A Service is held on alternate Sundays at 2.30 pm

CONFIRMATION

The Confirmation at Yarm by the Bishop of Beverley will take place on Monday, March 7th, at 11 am.

THE COTTAGE HOSPITAL

Lord and Lady Falkland sincerely hope that the Cottage Hospital of four beds now established in the Parish under the charge of Sister Florence may be the means of alleviating the sufferings of many in the village.
They acknowledge with many thanks the kind professional attendance of Dr Snowdon, and the interest taken in the Hospital by many friends, and their generous donations and gifts.
The first patient has returned to her home completely cured.

Charles Bathurst of Skutterskelfe kills his butler: 1730

Local stories tell of the ghost known as the White Lady of Skutterskelfe. 

I was told that she’s more likely to be a trick of the light, from the mist that gathers where the road crosses the beck – though I have heard that somebody claims to have seen her recently.

This story suggests we might expect the ghost of Skutterskelfe to be a butler instead.

The manor of Skutterskelfe was sold by the Layton family to the Bathursts of Clints and Arkengarthdale in the middle of the 17th century. 

The founder of the family fortune was Dr John Bathurst, who was Oliver Cromwell’s physician and MP for Richmond in Yorkshire from 1656-8.

In 1727 his great-grandson Charles Bathurst, who was then aged about 24, decided to run for Parliament hoping to regain the seat his great-grandfather had held. 

He stood jointly with Sir Marmaduke Wyvill, who had been unsuccessful in an earlier attempt with Charles’ father in 1713.  With their friend the Mayor as returning officer (and with the assistance of a large number of unqualified people whom he allowed to vote for them) Bathurst and Wyvill were duly elected – but on their opponents’ petition the result was overturned. [1]

Charles did not attempt to stand for Parliament again – because, according to local tradition, he had become insane. 

He was certainly a man of hasty temper, as can be seen from the story that he threw a waiter down the stairs of the King’s Head at Richmond.  The poor man’s leg was broken and when the innkeeper plucked up the courage to remonstrate with Mr Bathurst – who owned the inn – he was told simply to “put it in the bill.”

In 1730 he killed his butler.

The story is to be found in the Archaeologia Aeliana, or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, Vol 5 (1861) from Marske, by the Rev James Raine.  It was published by the Society of Antiquities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the oldest provincial antiquarian society in the country, founded in 1813, and celebrating their bicentenary this year.  Their early publications are digitised and available online.

Here is the account of the murder, from a footnote to Mr Raine’s work:

The following narrative of a more fatal encounter is from his own statement and that of his servants, preserved among the Chaytor Archives. 

On Dec 1, 1730, Charles Bathurst, Esq., on returning from Stokesley to Skutterskelf, between 9 and 10 at night, found that his butler, David Bransby, who had served his father and himself many years, had that day been quarrelling with the stable boys and other servants.  

Speaking to Bransby, Mr B asked what was the reason, and calling the others, desired they would agree, gave Bransby and them each a broad piece of gold, and told Bransby that he loved him as well as any of the rest, and made each drink a horn of ale.  

Mr Bathurst drank two or three horns with his cousin, Mr John Motley, whom he had for many years supported, and was about to drink another, when Motley refused to drink, alleging the ale to be of a different kind from what they had drunk before.  

Bathurst insisted it was the same as he had drunk of himself, and, on some words, Motley said he was acting like a coward.  Bathurst then took him to a room where swords hung, and bade Motley take one and see which was the greatest coward, and drew another himself.  Motley would not, and on Bathurst saying,

"You are the greatest coward, and not I"

went out and Bransby with him, when Bathurst remarked, 

"It is a fine night, let them be locked out." 

He does not appear to have wished them to be kept out long, for on retiring to his bedchamber he took his sword to lay by his bedside to prevent any sudden attempt upon him by Motley, but requested his servant Crowder to take it down as soon as he was in bed and hang it up.  

In undressing he wanted some ribbon for sleeve strings to bind his shirtbands, and sent Crowder for it.  He heard a very great disturbance, and Crowder on his return told him that he had the ribbon from Bransby who was now come, and that he bade him tell his master so.  Bathurst replied 

"Perhaps my cousin Motley is likewise come in and will drink his horn of beer,  Very likely.  I shall take my sword down myself, and hang it up."  

He went down with his clothes loose, and in his slippers, having pulled off his shoes and stockings.  Crowder followed him down and saw Bransby lying dead on the floor. 

It seems that on arriving in the passage twixt the hall and the kitchen, Bathurst had heard Bransby swearing in the kitchen that neither his master nor anybody else should come into it, and if they did he would stab them and be their death with the poker.  

He must have come out into the dark passage, and there Bathurst did not see his antagonist but only his red-hot poker, with which in both hands he assaulted his master and burned his coat breast.  The latter, apprehending a second thrust, and to prevent further mischief, made a push with his sword and happened to give Bransby a wound in his right side, who instantly died, but even in his staggering endeavoured to strike with the poker. 

The surgeons said that Bransby must at the time of his death have had his arm extended and his body bent forward, and on the next day, Dec 2, the coroner's inquest found that the wound was given in self-defence, and that Bransby was almost tipsy at the time.  

Counsel however advised Bathurst that as he was not bailable, he had better keep out of the way till near the assizes, as no flight had been found at the inquest, and that he had better make conveyances of his estate, as a verdict either of manslaughter or se defendendo would be accompanied with forfeiture at law, and require pardon. 

W.D.H.L.

According to the Newcastle Courant of 12 December 1930, reporting the incident after the inquest before the local jury and before the Assizes met, when Charles Bathurst went downstairs he

was met by his Butler David, who had then a Poker in his Hand, which he had taken red Fire-hot out of the Kitchen Fire; and being then concerned in Drink, swore he would be the Death of any one that offer'd to come into the Kitchen; and taking the Part of Mr Motley, push'd at Mr Bathurst with the Poker, which burnt the Breast of his Coat, and having his Hand lifted up, in order to repeat the Push, Mr Bathurst having no other way of avoiding the Mischief intended him, pushed at him with his Sword, which killed him on the Spot: the Truth of all which evidently appearing upon the Coroners Inquest, the Jury brought in their Verdict, that the Fact was done by Mr Bathurst se defendendo: for which unhappy Accident, to a Servant whom Mr Bathurst had a very great Value for, agreeable to his known good peaceable Nature, he is at present under a most unexpressible Concern

The verdict at the inquest that, faced with a butler "concerned in drink" and wielding a four foot long red-hot poker, Charles Bathurst had acted in self defence, left him in a difficult position.  Counsel's advice was that no bail was available and that he had better hide himself away until the trial.  Meanwhile his lawyers were very concerned at the possibility that Mr Bathurst's personal estate – his household goods, stock and the lead that was already mined – might be forfeited if the verdict went against him.  Counsel's opinion was that if the trial upheld the verdict of self defence, the personalty would be confiscated and then automatically restored.  But if the trial brought in the verdict of manslaughter, there would confiscation and there might not be restitution [2] .  

On 23 February 1731 they made an attempt to settle the matter before there was any risk of confiscation by petitioning the King for pardon, but the Attorney General advised on 4 March that the King should not grant a pardon before the trial [3]. 

The papers at Northallerton Archives have no record of the result of the trial and I can find nothing in the digitised newspapers but, fortunately for Charles Bathurst, he did not lose his estates.  By 1737 it seems he had recovered his equilibrium – possibly the episodes can be put down to excessive alcohol in an age of very heavy drinking or perhaps the traditional tale of his insanity has little basis – because on 16 February 1737 he married Anne Hendry at Crathorne parish church.   She was the daughter of John Hendry, yeoman of Norton and Elton, Co Durham.  

After his death in 1743 and that of his wife in 1747 they passed to his three sisters, as he had no children of his own.  The estate was much encumbered with debts and liabilities and Skutterskelfe was eventually sold in 1754 to the Hon George Carey, whose wife Isabella Ingram had inherited the estate at Rudby from her father.

Notes:
 
[1] see The History of Parliament Online

[2]  Description of documents held at Northallerton County Record Office, reference ZQH 7/22

[3]  The National Archives, reference SP 36/22/120 here

People of Hutton Rudby in the C18/19: Williams to Wyndham

... from my working notes ... accuracy not guaranteed ... for explanatory note, see post of 14 Feb 2013


Williams

23 Nov 1808:  Jane Williams was an occupant of property on East Side, bought by Joseph, Thomas & William Whorlton [East Side deeds]

George Williams witnessed the Will of Thomas Passman on 20 Oct 1828


Willins

FQ 560:  2 & 3 Nov 1829:  ppty bought by Jane Willans widow in Enterpen:  garth of 1r 3p where a cottage formerly stood, formerly occ by John Miller, then by George Wilson, Mary Young & Hannah Young, then by Matthew Richardson jnr, then by John Burden, bounded by Thomas Wayne to N, E & W, and by street called Enterpen to S; with the houses “lately erected upon the garth” & now occupied by Simeon Burden, John Smelt, Paul Oates, John Goldsbrough, William Jowsey, Abraham Holdgate and William Burnsides

GG 130:  31 Oct 1835:  Thomas Spence of Hutton weaver & Dorothy his wife (1) Henry Collins of Stokesley gent (2):  2 houses now used as one, the weaver’s shop adjoinging & the garden or orchard of 1r behind, occ by Thomas Spence; the butcher’s shop adjoining the weaver’s shop occ by William Sherwood:  bounded by Lord Falkland to E, street to W, Mrs Kingston to N, Edmund Taylor to S; also Gowdie/Gowlay Hill Garth 1a with cowhouse occ by Thomas Richardson:  bounded by John Charlton to E, by Francis Stainthorpe to W, by street to N, by Jane Willans & Edward Meynell to S; also house with garden & garth behind 2r, occ by William Merrington:  bounded by street to E, William Wood to W, John Seamer to N, John Rymers & Francis Stainthorpe to S; also 3 closes formerly 2 closes called the Cottager 7a, previously occ by William Braithwaite as tenant to William Spence decd:  bounded by Robert Halliday Dobson to E, George Hunter & William Ableson to W, by Rounton road to N, by Richard Johnson to S; “& all other the messuages lands tenements and hereditaments formerly belonging to Thomas Smith late of Hutton yeoman decd and comprised in his Will”

1841 Census:  Mary Willins 45 independent with John Sayer 20 schoolmaster, Enterpen

1851 Census:  Enterpen:  Miss Mary Willins 56 independent b Hutton Rudby, with lodger Miss Mary Garbutt 50 independent b Nunthorpe

“Principal inhabitants” signing the record of exchange of bounties on 28 Sep 1857:  Robert Braithwaite, John Rickatson, George Wilson, Henry Willins, John Robinson, Thomas Sidgwick, John Sidgwick, George Davison [Terriers]

1861 Census:  Maurice Drummond 28 (S) Primitive Methodist minister b Prudhoe, lodging with Miss Willins

Henry Willins was churchwarden 1865-8

1872 Post Office Directory:  Hutton Rudby:  Henry Willins, grocer, linen draper & post master

Oddfellows Board:  Bro:  Henry Willins, Hutton, 24 Nov 1887, a65

People of Hutton Rudby in the C18/19: Taylor to Tweddle

... from my working notes ... accuracy not guaranteed ... for explanatory note, see post of 14 Feb 2013


Taylor

Palliser Taylor, flaxdresser, and wife Sarah sold East Side ppty in 1760 [East Side deeds]

Edmund Taylor married first Ann Smith in 1800, and second Martha Eland in 1810
Martha Taylor married Thomas Milestone in 1802

Edmund Taylor of Hutton  -  Class leader for Hutton Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1836.  A joiner, he bought, rebuilt and sold houses to the north of the Wheatsheaf.  An Indenture of 1830 describes him as “of Hutton House, carpenter”.  On 24 Dec 1833 a Notice to Sell served by the parties to the purchase from Taylor of the East Side properties, requiring Taylor to repay the mortgage principal and interest, was served on him by Thomas Hutchinson at Leven Grove (ie Skutterskelfe Hall).  Perhaps he was working there?
His date of death is unknown.  His family gravestone is MI no. 219.  His wife Martha Eland died 1857 a76.  Their daughter Esther Ann died 1837 a26; she was then of Thorpe Arch, Wetherby.

Sarah Taylor is in Edmund Taylor’s class in the Wesleyan class lists 1836

13 Aug 1803:  George Taylor joiner was party to a deed of Edmund Taylor [East Side deeds]

Yorkshire Poll Book 1807:  Hutton Rudby:  Edmund Taylor joiner

People of Hutton Rudby in the C18/19: Southeran to Swallwell

... from my working notes ... accuracy not guaranteed ... for explanatory note, see post of 14 Feb 2013



Southeran

11 May 1868:  Codling mortgage:  Mustard garth bounded by John Oates & George Davison to E, Robert Southeran to S and John Sidgwick to N


Spence

Yorkshire Poll Book 1807:  Hutton Rudby:  William Spencer [sic] weaver

ET 604:  12 & 13 Sep 1823:  4a close in Hutton Moor, previously occ by Bart Wright now by Simon Sidgwick the weaver, bounded by lands late belonging to Margaret Smith & now to William Spence to E

FQ 249:  13 & 14 Mar 1829:  exors of Wayne to Barker:  the Carpenters Arms with the cartwrights shop and stable on the west end thereof, the garden and the privy on the south & backside of the premises, bounded by road to East Rounton to E, by Mrs Elizabeth Hildreth to W & S, by road to East Rounton, John Robinson and Mr Farnaby to N – occ by Edward Meynell;  the garth occ by Edward Meynell, bounded by Elizabeth Hildreth to E, by John Burdon to W, by Thomas Passman, Elizabeth Hildreth, Mr Kendall & William Spence to N, by road to East Rounton to S; the site where buildings lately occupied by John & Hannah Kay & taken down by Mark Barker stood; the garth now used as garden ground to the E & backside of the sd site;  the new houses built by Mark Barker on the site and part of the garth: some of the houses and the garden ground “at present unoccupied”, the others occupied by Robert Hall, William Souter, George Sanderson, John Kay, Mary Lamb, Jackson Richardson, John Wild and Thomas Shaw:  bounded by house & lands bel to Rev Richard Shepherd to E & S, by Arthur Douglas and townstreet to N & W

FS 577:  9 Jun 1831:  Robert Norman paper maker to Robert Holliday Dobson of Potto gent:  6a close in Hutton known as the Cottages bounded by Widow Johnson to S, road to the Rountons to N, William Spencer to W, Mr Rickaby to E, occ by Robert Norman

GG 130:  31 Oct 1835:  Thomas Spence of Hutton weaver & Dorothy his wife (1) Henry Collins of Stokesley gent (2):  2 houses now used as one, the weaver’s shop adjoining & the garden or orchard of 1r behind, occ by Thomas Spence; the butcher’s shop adjoining the weaver’s shop occ by William Sherwood:  bounded by Lord Falkland to E, street to W, Mrs Kingston to N, Edmund Taylor to S; also Gowdie/Gowlay Hill Garth 1a with cowhouse occ by Thomas Richardson:  bounded by John Charlton to E, by Francis Stainthorpe to W, by street to N, by Jane Willans & Edward Meynell to S; also house with garden & garth behind 2r, occ by William Merrington:  bounded by street to E, William Wood to W, John Seamer to N, John Rymers & Francis Stainthorpe to S; also 3 closes formerly 2 closes called the Cottager 7a, previously occ by William Braithwaite as tenant to William Spence decd:  bounded by Robert Halliday Dobson to E, George Hunter & William Ableson to W, by Rounton road to N, by Richard Johnson to S; “& all other the messuages lands tenements and hereditaments formerly belonging to Thomas Smith late of Hutton yeoman decd and comprised in his Will”

GZ 204:  2 May 1842:  Thomas Spence late of Hutton weaver but now of Middlesbrough baker & shopkeeper (1) John Snowdon of Stokesley shoemaker (2) Thomas Sidgwick of Hutton linen manufacturer (3) George Wilson of Hutton linen manufacturer (4) reciting indres of 1839:  John Snowdon had lent Thomas Spence £90 with £4-17-5d interest also owing, on Spence’s property on East Side:  Spence sold Sidgwick the house (formerly 2 houses) & garden for £180, the mortgage to be paid off:  the garden & orchard to be sold to Sidgwick was staked out and contained 33 p; previously occ by Thomas Spence and now by William Meynell; the rest to be sold to John Oates; mortgagee George Wilson

GZ 206:  May 1842:  Thomas Spence to John Oates for £50:  the 2 shops, one formerly a weaver’s shop and now a carpenter’s and the other a butcher’s shop, with the ground behind now staked out and measuring 9 p:  now occ by William Meynell, William Sherwood and John Oates:  bounded by Thomas Sidgwick’s purchase from Spence to E & N, by street to W, Edmund Taylor to S; mortgagee George Wilson

Mrs Spence is in a list of names in the Middleton Book
Anne Spence is in a list of names in the Middleton Book
Mark Spence was given a prayer book worth 10d in the Rudby School accounts – Middleton Book
Catherine Spence is in a List of Girls – Middleton Book
M Spence was in A List of Boys – Middleton Book

Thomas Spence of East Side was a weaver, and he and his wife Dorothy appear in the 1836 Wesleyan class lists
They had children:  Moses baptised 23 Feb 1831; and Titus baptised 15 Feb 1830; also Dorothy who lived 1837 to 1838.   Moses died in 1831.
In 1835 he owned a house (previously two houses, now used as one) with a weaver’s shop and a garden behind, amounting to 1 rood.
He also owned an acre with a cowhouse at Goldie Hill, and a house and 2 roods of land occupied by Wm Merrington, just below Tisbut Row, and three closes called the Cottager or Cottage Fields out in the Hutton Fields/Moor area, on the Rounton road
The cottage fields had been occupied by Wm Braithwaite, as tenant to Wm Spence decd, and the deed included all lands “formerly belonging to Thomas Smith late of Hutton yeoman decd and comprised in his Will”.  [William Spence of Hutton was buried aged 63 on 19 Jun 1835.  Wm and Ann Spence(r) had Margaret in 1796, Thomas in 1797, William in 1799, and Elizabeth in 1801; possibly more.
1840 Whites:  Hutton Rudby:  Thomas Spence, grocer & draper – ie. the depression in weaving has forced him to change occupation.
In 1842 Thomas had left Hutton to become a Baker and Shopkeeper in Middlesbrough.  He owed £90 to John Snowdon, and he sold up his Hutton property:  the house and part of the garden (33p) was sold to Thomas Sidgwick for £180 - this was bounded by Mrs Kingston on north.  The weaver’s shop, now used as a carpenter’s shop, with the butcher’s shop and 9p of land was sold to John Oates for £50.  The mortgages were paid off, and it appears that George Wilson was the purchasers’ mortgagee.
The result can be seen on the 1891 map – the northern (Sidgwick) property has the majority of the garth.
William Spence, weaver of Hutton, and his wife Lucy had their son George baptised on 16 Jan 1831