Thomas Mease & John Wesley's umbrella

A chance find reveals that Thomas Mease of Stokesley (1792-1862) was once the owner of John Wesley's green silk umbrella:

Northampton Mercury, 31 December 1870

Kettering

CORN EXCHANGE, - On Tuesday evening a tea meeting, with a Christmas tree, took place in connection with the Wesleyan Society.  There was also in the room John Wesley's umbrella, with a leather case.  The umbrella was made of strong green silk.  Mr Wesley gave it to James Rodgers, and his son presented it to Mr Thos Mease, of Stokesley, who gave it to the Rev James Everett, of Sunderland by whom it was lent to Mr H Heighton as an attraction on this occasion.  A goodly number was present both at tea and at the sale of the various articles on the Christmas tree during the evening.  The proceeds were upwards of £20, which is to be devoted to the liquidation of the circuit debt.

For Thomas Mease's colourful life, start reading here

Laying the foundation stones for the Wesleyan Chapel, Hutton Rudby in 1878

I particularly like the thought of them enjoying their "sumptuous tea" at the end of the proceedings:

Northern Echo: Monday 5 August 1878

Laying Foundation Stones at Hutton Rudby 

Last Friday was a red-letter day in the village of Hutton Rudby.  For some time the Wesleyan Chapel in that place has been rather faulty in repair, and as the site is not a very good one efforts were put forth to obtain the necessary funds to build a new chapel, and have been so far successful that the work has already been commenced, and the foundation stones were laid on Friday last, in the presence of a very large congregation.  

The new chapel is to be Gothic style, erected from designs by Mr Harbottle, of Great Ayton.  The whole of the work has been entrusted to Messrs W. and T. Hodgson, builders, of Osmotherley and Brompton, and promises to prove an ornament to the village.  The dimensions are 46ft by 35ft, with schoolroom behind, and is calculated to afford accommodation for about 230 persons.  

The proceedings commenced by singing a hymn, after which Mr Miles, of Stokesley, read a portion of scripture as a lesson; and the Rev R W Butterworth, of Stokesley, offered a prayer, at the conclusion of which he called upon Mrs Richardson (Mayoress of Stockton) to lay the first stone; Miss Wilson (on behalf of Mrs Wilson), of Hutton-Rudby, to lay the second; Mrs John Kidd, of Edinburgh, to lay the second; and Miss Mease (on behalf of Miss Mewburn, of Banbury) to lay the fourth.  In a cavity under each stone was deposited a bottle containing current newspapers, list of trustees, and coin of the realm.  

In place of the usual presentation of silver trowels, a handsome copy of the Bible and Wesley's Hymns was presented to Mrs Richardson by Mr Peacock, to Miss Wilson by Mr Braithwaite, to Mrs Kidd by Mr William Weighill, and to Miss Mease by Mr Miles.  

After the conclusion of the ceremony, the Rev C H Gough, of Darlington, delivered an excellent address, in the course of which he remarked that it was just about 120 years that day since John Wesley held his first meeting at Hutton Rudby, which seemed to have been a favourite place with him, as no less than eleven distinct visits to Hutton Rudby were recorded in his journal.  

At the close of the address the National Anthem was sung, after which a sumptuous tea was served in the old chapel, to which full justice was done by a large number of people.  

In the evening the Rev C H Gough delivered an interesting lecture on "A Tour in France and Belgium." Mr T E Pyman presided, there being a good attendance.

Note: Thomas English Pyman of Linden Grove, Hutton Rudby, like his father George, was a prominent Congregationalist.

Chapter 21. "My intense exertions"

In Mr Barlow's notebooks we can catch a glimpse of his interests and activities in the latter part of his life. 

In the Middleton Book in his early years in the village he had written out a "Catalogue of Books", which appears to be a record of his library.

It naturally included the classical authors and a range of religious works, such as Hebrew grammars, a Hebrew Psalter, sermons, commentaries, and Waldo on Liturgy [1], but also poetry and French authors such as Pascal, Racine and Mme de Sévigné, together with dictionaries.  There were also works by the Evangelical philanthropist Hannah More, who had sought to counter the arguments of Tom Paine (the author so admired by the radicals of Stokesley) with her Cheap Repository Tracts urging the poor to work hard, respect the gentry and trust in God – views echoed in Barlow's sermon of 1833.

However Mr Barlow, though classically educated, was not interested in the usual pursuits of the scholarly Victorian cleric.

He had little interest in theological debate, and the great questions of his day that had tormented so many – from the Tracts for the Times to Essays and Reviews – seem to have made little impression upon him.

Practical matters and technology fascinated him above all, and, as can be seen in the draft of a letter [2] entitled "Suggestions upon the construction and armour of ships of war", his preoccupations were not those normally expected of Victorian clergy.  The letter must date from the mid-1860s, as the Armstrong gun itself was only introduced in 1859:

My Lord Duke.  Having carefully studied the experiments lately made at Shoeburyness upon the Hercules target which resisted a 300lbs shot propelled by a 60lb charge target coated with 9in armour backed by wood and iron the bolt having merely penetrated the 9in plate … and finding that such target resisted a 300lb Armstrong gun with a charge of 60lbs of powder …
… bearing all this fully in mind I am of opinion that the plan I now submit to your Grace will in several respects be found superior to the Hercules target.  On the other side I give the sketch of a ships side from which it will be seen that my plan is to reduce the vital part of a ship to a minimum and to surround that portion with an impregnable belt …

Chapter 18. The early 1850s

In 1851, some months after her marriage, Marian Digby Beste and her new family left the country.  They sailed for the United States in a large party consisting of eleven children (Beste's eldest son remained behind), several canary birds, a lapdog and a dormouse.  They hoped to find a better future for the boys in the new world. 

Back in Yorkshire, some of Mr Barlow's activities at this time can be traced in his notebooks, and particularly in the one that survived amongst the logbooks for the Hutton Rudby school.  In it he recorded
the beginning of what was to be a long-running boundary dispute with his neighbour, the tailor William Jackson, who lived in the cottage where Drumrauch Hall now stands:

The time when the hedge at the foot of Jackson paddock Jacque Barn was cut by my order and in my presence
after harvest    1850    by Ramshaw
after harvest    1851    by Thos Brown

Some jottings show his open-handedness in giving and lending money to his parishioners, as for example:

Teddy has paid towards his boots    0 – 6 – 7   Decr 27th 1851

Other entries include notes of the number of days worked for him by the Meynells, Hebron, "Joe" and Pat Cannon and details of the substantial sum of £309-19s he had made in 1854 on sales of crops grown on his glebe land.

The 1851 census found Robert Barlow and all his family together in the vicarage: his wife, his three sisters and his nephew Hector.

They had a very suitable complement of servants – cook, housemaid and groom – indicating a well-to-do middle-class household.  The cook and maid were two Hutton Rudby girls aged 20 and 17, Catherine and Elizabeth Bainbridge, and the groom was an Irish lad, John McLaughlin, aged 18.

Hector Vaughan was then 18 years old and must soon afterwards have begun his career in the army, entering the 1st Battalion 20th Foot (East Devonshire) Regiment [1].  At this time an army officer was generally expected to have a private income in addition to his pay.  Hector may have inherited money from his father's family, or possibly his mother passed on to him some of the income from his father's Will and her own marriage settlement.

For this census Mr Barlow gave his age as 47 and reduced his wife's age from nearly 70 to 45.  His two eldest sisters are described as aged 30 and 28 years old, while their younger sister Nanny has a mere fourteen years taken off her age, which is given as 36. 

Chapter 14. Deaths, Changes & Recession: 1837 to 1842

On 20 June 1837 King William IV died.  It was a personal grief to his daughter Amelia, Lady Falkland, who had lost her sister Sophia in childbirth earlier in the year, but it was also a blow to her husband's career.

Lord Falkland had been made a Privy Councillor on 1 March, but a new reign brought a new Court and there was no hope of future favour.  His new mansion house at Skutterskelfe was nearly complete, but in the event he and his wife and son had only a short time in which to enjoy it before he left the country.  A career in public service was the answer to his financial problems, and on 30 September 1840 Lord Falkland took office as Governor of Nova Scotia, leaving a steward at Skutterskelfe Hall. 

It is not clear whether by 1840 George Brigham was still acting as Lord Falkland's agent.

His old friend John Lee of Pinchinthorpe Hall had died a few years earlier in 1836, and it is said that he shot himself.  Lee was unmarried but for some years before his death had been paying a considerable amount for the upkeep of an illegitimate child, and his estate was left heavily encumbered with debt [1].  Perhaps the personal and social difficulties arising from the Harker and Powell Chancery case also contributed to his unhappiness. 

In December 1841, George Brigham himself died at the age of fifty-one.  His brother-in-law James Dobbin registered the death, giving the cause as "general debility"; the registrar was Brigham's old enemy Thomas Harker.

George died without making a Will, as he had nothing to leave [2].  His eldest son George, who was only thirteen years old at the time, later became a clerk with Messrs Backhouse & Co, the Darlington bankers.  When asked in 1854 if he would act in the still-continuing Chancery case, in his capacity as his father's heir-at-law, he not surprisingly declined. 

The general depression in trade deepened after 1836, and while Whitby dwindled in importance as whaling declined, Middlesbrough grew ever larger.

Chapter 10. 1831: Mr Barlow's first year in Hutton Rudby

The area around his new home would have had much to interest Robert Barlow's lively mind.  He had a great interest in the physical world and delighted in technical and practical matters – as can be seen in his decision to design the village school himself, his appreciation of Humboldt's Cosmos, and in the surviving draft of his letter to the Lords of the Admiralty suggesting improvements in warship design.

He cannot but have been fascinated by the Mandale Cut, built in 1810 to take two miles from the distance between Stockton and the sea, and the Portrack Cut, opened only days after his arrival in the village.

He may have been less than impressed by the railway bridge over the Tees, which Isambard Kingdom Brunel described as a "wretched thing".

By the time of his arrival, ninety-five lots in the planned new town of Middlesbrough had been sold – the Revd Isaac Benson had bought two, and two men from Hutton Rudby, the builder Thomas Davison and the yeoman William Scales, had also been among the purchasers.

Mr Barlow's parishioners were people with a keen interest in matters beyond their village, and the arrival of Lord Falkland will have given them a gratifying feeling of being part of the new reign of his father-in-law King William IV.

Chapter 1. Hutton Rudby: a North Riding Township

Revd R J Barlow c1804-78

Very early in January 1831, a young Irish clergyman named Robert Joseph Barlow arrived in the Yorkshire village of Hutton Rudby where he was to be vicar for the next 47 years, until his death in 1878.

He would be remembered above all for his devoted service to his parishioners in October 1832 – the time of the cholera.

Hutton Rudby was the largest township of the parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland.  His new home lay in the North Riding of Yorkshire, some six miles south of its northern boundary, the River Tees.

Had Mr Barlow cared to look up the North Riding in the recently published Clarke's New Yorkshire Gazetteer (1828), he might have found the description rather uninviting. 

The coast is described as "hilly, bleak and cold" and

the interior part of the moorlands is bleak, dreary, and destitute of wood, where the traveller sees nothing but a few small sheep.  

The writer conceded that "the climate admits of some variety", but generally, he declared, "it may be called severe", with the moorlands "enveloped in fogs and chilled with rain".