Stokesley 1832-1841: the New Mill on Levenside

This follows the post Stokesley 1823-1834: the flax-spinning mill behind the High Street

1960s aerial view looking towards the New Mill buildings (now Millbry Hill country store).  

Thomas went into partnership in his new venture of building a flax-spinning mill on Levenside with James Blacket. 

James and John Blacket

Some accounts (such as the Wikipedia page for Edmund Thomas Blacket) state that this was James Blacket senior, who was a Wesleyan draper in London, clearly in a good way of trade and widely respected.  He was born in about 1786 in West Smithfield and married Margaret Harriet, daughter of the Rev Edward Ralph; I suspect this was the Rev Ralph who was the minister of the Independent congregation at Maidstone. 

Other accounts (for example, the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 3, 1969) suggest that Thomas's partner was James Blacket senior's son James.  I rather think this is the most likely, for two reasons.  Firstly, that it seems unlikely that James senior would risk his standing and his large family's financial future in a speculative endeavour in the far-off North Riding, where he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on proceedings and with a man he can have known only slightly.  Secondly, that I haven't been able to see any sign that James senior was affected when the Stokesley enterprise failed, as will be seen later.  James senior continued in his prosperous business as a draper.  Notices in the newspapers show that he was for several years in the 1840s one of the auditors of the Hope Life Assurance Company, and notices in the London Gazette show that he took his son Frank William Blacket into partnership in the drapery business in Islington and West Smithfield, before finally retiring at the end of 1856 before his death on 28 November 1858.

On the other hand, I expect James senior helped to fund his son's venture in the hope of setting him up in a good way of business.  One wonders, given his growing family and the number of his enterprises, how much of the money that Thomas Mease put into this new undertaking was borrowed. 

James Blacket junior was born, as recorded in the Nonconformist Registers, at 85 St Margaret's Hill, Southwark on 21 December 1808.  So he was sixteen years younger than Thomas.  At the beginning of 1832, Thomas was 40 and James was 23; James would have been very much the junior partner.

Thomas was now a significant figure in Stokesley, with the Paper War and the polemic against tithes and the Corn Laws to his credit, and the spinning factory and the grocery and drapery business.  The Poll Book of 1834 shows that he owned freehold houses and land, occupied by himself and tenants, while his father John owned and occupied his own freehold house.  Their houses were Number 42 High Street and the house next door, and were described in the auction notices in 1838 (for example, the Leeds Mercury, 26 May 1838) as

Two substantial Freehold dwelling-houses situate in the North Row of the Market Town of Stokesley aforesaid, with a Four-stalled Stable, Granaries, Coach-House, and other Out-offices, and a good Garden well stocked with Fruit Trees, behind the same, late in the several Occupations of Messrs John Mease, the Elder, and Thomas Mease.  The above Premises are well adapted for a wholesale or retail Business.

It seems likely that the "substantial" house next door to Number 42 was the one immediately to the east, described in Buildings of Stokesley as "a double fronted house of some distinction" obscured from view for us by the fact it is now divided into two shops:  "Behind the two shop fronts lies the clue, an attractive doorway which led to an elegant hall and staircase.  The upper floors with their large canted bays on three levels made a handsome town house for a man of means."

I don't know – and I don't know if it is known – how the Blacket family came to meet Thomas Mease.  It may somehow have been through their shared Wesleyan Methodism or because both Thomas and James senior was in the drapery business.  However it came about, both James junior and his brother John were established in Stokesley by the spring of 1832.

That May, John Blacket "of Stokesley" married Elizabeth Stephens in the parish of St Matthew's, Brixton.  John was then 24 years old (he was a year older than his brother James) and a solicitor.  He went into partnership with William Garbutt and William Fawcett of Yarm in the Stokesley office of the practice.  Again, it is probable that his father must have helped him buy into the practice and set himself up.  John and Elizabeth's first son, John Stephens Blacket, was born in Stokesley on 16 April 1833 and Mrs Mary Mease, Thomas's wife, was present at the birth alongside Dr Allardice.  A second son, Edward Ralph, was born in spring 1835 and a third, William Russell, in spring 1837 – Mary Mease was present then, too.

John and James Blacket soon became part of the town, and in particular the life of the Wesleyan chapel.  John Blacket's sons were baptised by the Wesleyan minister, Robert Newton.  The Durham Chronicle of 25 November 1836 report of the "Half-Yearly Meeting of the North Riding Association of the Independent Ministers and Congregations" held at Stokesley in October shows that James Blacket was in the Chair.  

Notices in the York Herald (19 December 1835) and the Northampton Mercury (25 February 1837) tell the story of James' sadly brief married life in these years.  He married Hannah Nunneley of Market Harborough at the end of December 1835; in February 1837, little more than a year later, she died at the age of 24.

Thomas Mease & the Broughton Bridge Bleach Mill

Thomas Mease and Mary Mellanby, meanwhile, now had six children and he was still looking outward to new possibilities for improving his business.  In 1818 he had been eager for a canal to link the River Tees to the Durham coalfields; the Durham Chronicle of 6 May 1836 shows that he was in the list of County Subscribers to the South Durham Railway which was to link the Clarence Railway to the collieries in Weardale.  He had been giving his occupation as "manufacturer" since at least 1827 when his son Joseph Mellanby Mease was baptised.  

He was also in the bleaching business, possibly from his early days in linen manufacture.  Operating your own bleach works saved the cost of sending your unbleached, brown linen elsewhere.  Thomas was a partner in Messrs Benjamin & John Claxton & Company, operating a bleach mill with a steam engine of 16 Horse Power at Broughton Bridge.  (Broughton Bridge is outside Stokesley, on the left of the road going towards Great Broughton, about 200 metres past the turn-off onto Ellerbeck Way, the entrance to the Industrial Estate.  The Bleach Mill was sited on Broughton Bridge Beck, which becomes the Ellerbeck; this flows through the Industrial Estate on its way to the Leven.)  The road from Stokesley to Great Broughton runs from the top left of the O.S. map 1888-1913 shown below, and obviously Old Beach Mill means Old Bleach Mill!

O.S. map 1888-1913, reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland from their website

Bleaching linen in the traditional way had been a lengthy process but experimentation with chemical methods had speeded things up enormously.  This saved money and time – and sorted out the perennial problem of people stealing the linen while it was laid out on the bleach grounds.  I believe it also dealt with the increasing problem that the rise of industrialisation and the growing number of factory chimneys meant that it was becoming hard to find somewhere where linen could be laid out to bleach for long periods without being spotted by soot.  There is a description of the bleaching process – which was far from environmentally friendly – in the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica and in The Archaeology of Improvement in Britain, 1750–1850, by Sarah Tarlow

I haven't been able to find a description of the use of the steam engine in bleaching in the 1830s, but I think it may have been used, for example, to power the beetling engine.  Traditionally, linen had been given a smooth and shiny finish by being pounded over the stones of a riverbed with wooden blocks, but a machine had been invented in 1736 to do this much more effectively and quickly (see this explanation).  We know that the Broughton Bridge mill had beetling equipment as it features in the auction sales notices in 1839.

Thomas's partners in this business were Benjamin and John Claxton.  In Baines' Directory 1823, Benjamin Claxton had, like Thomas, been listed among the grocers & tea dealers and linen & woollen drapers.  He left that trade and with John Claxton – possibly a much younger cousin or brother – became a Linen Bleacher at Broughton Bridge and at Easby.  (This can be seen from his description in a notice in the London Gazette of 6 February 1838).  He must be the Benjamin Claxton born c1785 in Yarm who appears later in the Kildale census of 1841 and the Easby census of 1851 as a bleacher. 

The partnership between Thomas and the Claxtons may have begun at the very start of his manufacturing enterprises and must certainly have been in place in 1830 when he and his sister Rachel were witnesses at the marriage of John Claxton and Mary Ann Geldart, both of the parish of Stokesley, on 16 March 1830. 

(John Claxton and his wife Mary Ann can be found later in the 1851 census in London.  John was born in about 1806 in Yarm, and Mary Ann in Sunderland.  The Bishop's Transcript of the Sunderland registers shows that she was born on 2 February 1804, the daughter of William Geldart, butcher, and Hannah Fleck; Pallot's Marriage Index 1780-1837 shows that William and Hannah were married in Marske by the Sea and that Hannah was from Upleatham.)

So Thomas was a very busy man, perhaps a little too busy and rather over-stretched – and his timing was unfortunate because, as the 1830s went on, the linen industry came under increasing strain, particularly from the competition with mechanised cotton production.

Thomas Mease goes bankrupt

By the summer of 1837 the Mease and Blacket partnership was not going at all well.  On 1 August the London Gazette carried a notice that the partnership was dissolved and that James Blacket would carry it on alone. 

The wikipedia page for Edmund Thomas Blacket states that the Blackets ended the partnership "as they were unhappy about certain financial matters, and by March 1838, the issue was in Chancery", citing John Walker Ord's History & Antiquities of Cleveland (1846).  However, this is not stated by Ord, who confines himself to a tactful mention of "manufactories" which were established by

men of sufficient enterprise and ability, and prosecuted with ardour and determination; but whether from the cost of coals, the remoteness of markets, the expense of carriage, or the unpropitious state of trade at the time, it was found necessary to close the speculation, and the buildings and machinery were accordingly put to the hammer [ie sold at auction]

We can make a good guess at why James Blacket parted ways with Thomas Mease when we find that four months later on 1 December 1837 Mease was made bankrupt. 

This must have had a shocking effect on the town.  Apart from the debts around the town that Thomas could not pay, the factory behind the High Street was still fully equipped (as can be seen from the auction notice a few months later) and was probably still in operation; the employees would be out of work.  If the grocery & drapery shop was still a going concern, those working there would be unemployed.  The trustees of the Methodist Chapel found themselves embarrassed for funds because Thomas had donated an organ but hadn't paid the cabinet maker who installed it (cf The Methodist Chapels of Stokesley 1765-1994, T Berry).  

Others went down with Thomas.  By the spring, the York Herald was reporting on 28 April that

The Commissioners under the bankruptcy of William Stephenson of Stokesley, linen manufacturer and grocer, sat today at Ludley's Hotel, Stockton for the proof of debts, and choosing assignees.  It appeared that Mr Stephenson's bankruptcy was occasioned by his accepting accommodation bills for Thomas Mease, late a flax-spinner at Stokesley, to the amount of upwards of £5,000. 

((It is notoriously tricky to establish current equivalents, but the Bank of England historic inflation calculator puts £5,000 at nearly £560,000 in 2019.  There is a useful explanation of bills of exchange here)

Mr Stephenson's fate must have caused a great deal of ill-feeling in the town.

When the affairs of Thomas Mease and William Stephenson went crashing about their ears, they could go bankrupt – they qualified because they bought and sold goods for a living.  It was an expensive process, so they would need friends to rally around, but they avoided imprisonment for debt (see this article in the London Gazette online) 

When Messrs Benjamin & John Claxton & Company went under in Thomas Mease's crash and the Claxtons were unable to pay their debts, they became "insolvent debtors".  They seem to have been in London when the crisis came, as the notice in the London Gazette of 6 February 1838 shows that at first they were both lodging at Number 7 Falcon-street, Falcon-square in the city of London.  I think this may have been a sponging-house where debtors could be temporarily confined.  John Claxton's next address was given as No 347 Rotherhithe-wall in the county of Surrey.  Then, after a notice that the creditors would be meeting at the offices of Garbutt, Blacket & Fawcett in Stokesley on 20 April 1838, John disappears from sight.  He and Mary Ann went on to live in London, where he was in 1851 a coal merchant, but by 1861 they had moved out of the city to New Brentford, where he describes himself in the census as a Commercial Clerk.

Benjamin's position was worse.  The addresses given for Benjamin in the notices in the London Gazette show that, after being with John at Falcon Street, his next address was Number 6 Soley-terrace, Pentonville.  Then the London Gazette of 26 June 1838 shows that he was "lately discharged from the Fleet Prison."  So he suffered the fate of Charles Dickens' father and his great creations Mr Micawber and Mr Dorrit, and found himself in the horrid conditions of debtors' prison – and of the notorious Fleet Prison at that.  He was finally able to return to Cleveland and to work as a bleacher again; the parish registers of Ingleby Greenhow show that he was buried there on 20 October 1864 at the age of 79.

This notice from the Leeds Mercury of 26 May 1838 shows that not only was Thomas Mease's property up for sale, but also his father's – perhaps to pay for the bankruptcy and raise money for Thomas's family:

STOKESLEY, - By Messrs Appleton and Farrow, on Tuesday, the Nineteenth Day of June, 1838, at the House of Mr William Naylor, the Sign of the Golden Lion, in Stokesley, in the County of York, at Three o'Clock in the Afternoon, either in the following or in such other Lots as may be agreed upon at the Time of Sale, and subject to the Conditions to be then produced: 

Two substantial Freehold dwelling-houses situate in the North Row of the Market Town of Stokesley aforesaid, with a Four-stalled Stable, Granaries, Coach-House, and other Out-offices, and a good Garden well stocked with Fruit Trees, behind the same, late in the several Occupations of Messrs John Mease, the Elder, and Thomas Mease.  The above Premises are well adapted for a wholesale or retail Business. 

Also all that extensive Flax and Tow Spinning Mill, conveniently situated behind the said Dwelling-Houses, late in the Occupation of the said Thomas Mease, comprising a capital STEAM-ENGINE, 28 Horse Power, with Two Boilers complete; Nine Spinning Frames, containing 406 Spindles; Two Double and Two Single Carding Engines; several Drawing and Roving Frames, Shafts, Wheels, Drums, and other Requisites.  Also a Counting-House and several Warehouses contiguous to the same.  The Mill is sufficiently large for containing Four Times the Quantity of Machinery. 

Lot 2.  All that capital FREEHOLD BLEACH MILL, with the Water Power and a STEAM-ENGINE, 16 Horse Power, and all other Requisites for carrying on the Bleaching Business on an extensive Scale, and Two Closes of excellent Grass Land, situate at Broughton Bridge, near Stokesley aforesaid, containing together, by Estimation, 13 acres and 2 roods, or thereabouts, be the same more or less, late in the Occupation of Messieurs Benjamin and John Claxton and Company. 

Immediate Possession may be had of all the Premises (except the House lately occupied by Thomas Mease), and if the same be not sold they will be let.

Tenants were found for the houses on North Row (the High Street) but, perhaps unsurprisingly given the economic conditions, buyers could not be found.  In September there was another attempt to sell the machinery.  On 14 September 1838, the Durham County Advertiser carried a notice that Flax Spinning Machinery was to be sold by auction on 3 October 1838 "in the Thread Warehouse, adjoining the New Mill, at Stokesley" and that "Part of the above Machinery has never been in use, and the rest of it is nearly as good as new.  All the Frames are constructed for Hot Water Spinning, on the newest principle."

But it seems that there were still no buyers.  On 5 October 1838 the Newcastle Courant advertised the Spinning Mill "with the Steam Engine, Twenty eight Horse Power and Machinery, ... If the Premises be not sold or let for a Spinning Mill, they will be let as a Flour Mill, for which Purpose they were heretofore used" and the Bleach Mill and Grounds were all "to be sold or let with immediate possession."

Still there were no takers.  There was another try in May 1839.  The Durham County Advertiser of 10 May 1839 carried the notice of an auction to be held at the Golden Lion (nowadays called Chapters) that would include, as well as the freeholds of the houses (Mr Strother the surgeon occupying one and Mr Taylor the druggist the other), the remaining property in separate lots:

Lot 3 All that Extensive Building, lately used by Thomas Mease, a Bankrupt, as a Flax and Tow Spinning Mill, with the Out-Offices attached thereto, situate behind the said Dwelling-Houses
Lot 4 All that Four-stalled Stable, with the Saddle Room, Granaries, & Coach-house, adjoining the last Lot
Lot 5 A freehold dwelling house and building, lately used as a Bleach Mill, immediately adjoining a good Stream of Water, with the Mill Dam and Race and 2a 2r 21p of Land, siuate at Broughton Bridge, near Stokesley aforesaid, late in the occupation of Messrs Benjamin and John Claxton and Company
Lot 6 A close of grass land, adjoining Lot 5 and containing 5 acres
Lot 7 A close of grass land, adjoining Lot 6, and containing 8a 2r 11p.

A possible sweetener was offered:

Two thirds of the Purchase Money of each of the above Lots may remain on Mortgage, if required.

Meanwhile, in the Spinning Mill another auction was to be held "without Reserve" offering the steam engine from the flax-spinning mill behind the High Street (28 horse power).  At the Bleach Mill, all the equipment was to be sold:

A Steam Engine, 16 Horse Power, a Water-wheel, two Wash-Mills and Shafts, Metal Pump, three Lead Pumps, Boiler, Bars and Starching Kettle, two Souring and one Booking Tub, Crane, Shafting and Wheels, two Beetling Engines, one Dutch Calendar, Press, five Tables, Leaden Retort, two Cisterns & Pan, rolled Iron Pan, two broken Metal Pans, and all other the Bleaching Utensils.

In the meantime Thomas and his family had been continuing to live in Stokesley, occupying (as can be seen from an advertisement in the Durham Chronicle of 9 November 1839) a 

Freehold Mansion-House, substantially built of Brick and beautifully faced with Free Stone, suitable for the residence of a genteel family, eligibly situated at the west end of Stokesley aforesaid and late in the occupation of Mr Thomas Mease, Flax Spinner.  

Next door to it was the 

Freehold Shell of a Mansion-House, adjoining to and built in the same style ... This Shell may, at a trifling expense, be completed and rendered fit for the reception of a large family.

Adjoining the Shell were three lots of Garden Ground suitable for building plots.  I don't know where these houses stood.

It seems likely that it was soon after this that Thomas went with his family to live in France, either because it was cheaper or because he couldn't immediately find the funds to pay his way in Stokesley.  He may in fact have made the move more than once.  His son Joseph Mellanby Mease (1827-1928) at the end of his life spoke to a journalist (Leeds Mercury, 14 September 1927) about travelling by stagecoach to his school in Doncaster, and said that it was while he was at school that his parents went to live in Paris.  He went to join them there when he was about fourteen, travelling by paddle steamer from the Thames to cross the Channel to Boulogne, and thence by "an old fashioned diligence" to Paris, "which took him 24 hours".  The journalist reported that his father was then English representative for "Blood's Bank" but I can find no bank of that name.

The Blacket brothers leave Stokesley

All this time the Blacket brothers had remained in Stokesley.  Now John Blacket decided to make a career change.  The London Gazette of 6 August 1839 carried the notice of the dissolution of partnership between him, William Garbutt and William Fawcett.  He appeared in White's Directory of 1840 not as an attorney but as Receiver General of Crown Rents for the Northern District.  In effect, he was now a member of the civil service; the profits from the monarch's Crown Estate were surrendered to Parliament in return for a fixed civil list payment in 1760.  That year, John moved his family to 20 South Street, Durham (according to the autobiographical note in Durham University Archives for 94 letters written from India where his eldest son John Stephens Blacket was with the East Indian Railway as a surveyor during the period of the Indian Mutiny here)

At the time of the 1841 census, John and his wife were with his parents at Grecian Lodge, Brixton Hill, Lambeth but within months they had left for Ireland.  He was described as the "new agent of the Bessborough estate" in newspaper reports in the last week of November 1841 when he was sworn in as a magistrate of the County Kilkenny.  He and his family lived at Balline House (also spelt Ballyne, Bolline, and now Belline), Piltown.  This was the house always occupied by the Earl of Bessborough's agent and a photograph of it can be seen here.  He died there on 4 February 1881. 

The three boys who were born in Stokesley were John Stephens Blackett (1833-1922) who became a Civil Engineer and Land Agent; Edward Ralph Blackett (1835-93), who was a doctor who was a surgeon in India before practising in Suffolk, where he is remembered today for having been (wrongly) suspected of writing an anonymous satirical novel about his neighbourhood and as an amateur artist; and William Russell Blackett (1837-93), an Anglican clergyman who "held for some years an important educational position in India under the Church Missionary Society, and has served as a member of the Indian Government Commission on Education" [The Graphic, 12 September 1891] and was principal of the Home and Colonial Training College.  All of them spent time in India.

James Blacket must have been hoping to ride out the economic difficulties but he was struggling to make a go of the New Mill.  In Lambeth in early 1839 he married again.  His new wife was Sarah Ralph, presumably a relation through his mother, and he brought her back north to Stokesley.  In White's Directory 1840 he is listed as a Flax spinner and Patent Thread Manufacturer.  Unfortunately within a very short while his business failed and he was made bankrupt on 15 December 1840.

James also had a warehouse in Leeds – we do not know whether this was part of his attempt to make a success of the business, or whether he had been operating this warehouse when he went into partnership with Thomas Mease – and on 20 March 1841 the Leeds Mercury carried a notice that the yarns, tow, threads, linens etc that was his stock in trade in Leeds were to be sold by auction.  At the same time, "the machinery and effects of Mr James Blacket, a Bankrupt" were to be sold at the New Mill in Stokesley – the machinery was described as valuable and "nearly new and upon the most improved Principles".  Even the Mill Clock was listed in the advertisement.  It is interesting to note that the New Mill buildings were not put up for auction and I don't know who owned them either before or after Blacket's bankruptcy.  Later on in the day, after James Blacket's machinery was sold, "the Proprietor" of the New Mill was offering spinning frames and other machinery for sale; it seems that whoever had bought the mill buildings was not going to attempt to carry on the flax spinning business.  It was afterwards a steam-powered flour mill for many years.

So steam-powered flax-spinning in Stokesley came to an end and the effect on the town must have been very great – according to the Parliamentary Gazetteer of England & Wales 1845-6, the flax-mill had employed 139 hands in 1838. 

By the spring of 1842, James and Sarah had moved to Newbury, Berkshire, where their eldest son Walter James Blacket was born.  Five years later Sarah died, leaving James once more a widower, and this time with three little boys.  He was now a bookseller & printer and by 1851 he employed four hands.  In that year he married for a third time, to Mary Pashley.  The wedding, according to the Nottinghamshire Guardian of 26 June 1851, took place at the Independent Chapel, Worksop and Mary was the daughter of the late Mr Pashley of Worksop, wine and spirit merchant.

James's son Walter followed him into the business and by 1871 was evidently very successful, employing six men and five boys.  James died on 19 May 1877.

In the last few years of his time in Stokesley, James had been joined at the mill by his younger brother Edmund Thomas Blacket (1817-83).  Unsurprisingly – it was only a small market town – Edmund met Thomas Mease's daughter Sarah and the young couple fell in love, much to the annoyance of both families.  The Blackets may well have blamed Thomas for profligacy or carelessness with money or deceiving them as to the prospects of the venture, while the expense of James's bankruptcy and the loss of the family's investments in his business – which perhaps lay behind John Blacket becoming a land agent – must have made relations between the two families increasingly bitter.  Finally Edmund and Sarah married in Wakefield on 27 April 1842.  Their parents boycotted the ceremony.  Some weeks later they left for Australia where Edmund became a well-known architect. 

It is said that before leaving home, Sarah engraved her name with a diamond ring on the window of a Mease family house in Stokesley, and apparently also in a family house in Hutton Rudby and that the window was last seen during the Second World War by a member of the Australian family, who was staying with Jennie Mease in Hutton Rudby while on leave.  Unfortunately we don't know where these windows might have been found.

A final note on the Blackets – the family in England took to spelling their name with a final double 't' and this is sometimes to be found applied to the earlier Blacket generations.

Thomas Mease & his family after 1847

In the summer of 1847 Thomas and the family were living in Hutton Rudby.  This can be seen from a report in the Leeds Intelligencer of 21 July which shows that Thomas was one of the jury at the trial of Patrick Reid for the Mirfield Murders at the Crown Court, York Castle.  Once more Thomas was taking part in high drama.  Reid was accused of the murder of Mr and Mrs Wraith and their servant Caroline Ellis and the case created a huge sensation.  People flocked to York in the hope of seeing the trial and the newspaper reported that "hundreds of persons were excluded for want of room."  It is probably better remembered today because of the drawing made by Branwell Brontë of "Patrick Reid turned off, without his cap."  It is shown on this website, with an account of the case and the explanation that Branwell's drawing was in fact a self portrait.

On 5 May 1849, old John Mease died in Stokesley at the age of 82.  He had been a widower for many years, as his wife Isabella had died on 1 January 1825.  Thomas was evidently back in Stokesley that summer, and possibly even back in one of the houses that he and his father had once owned.  An auction notice in the Yorkshire Gazette of 8 September 1849 includes a dwelling house "now occupied by Mr Thomas Mease" on the North Row.  Next door, to its west, was a house with a "Capacious Building attached, now used as a Warehouse, Gighouse and Stable" and the two houses shared a yard.  The house occupied by Thomas and his family was very comfortable, having "Dining and Drawing Rooms, Library, Two Kitchens, Cellar, and other requisite Offices, with Four Bed Rooms, and an Attic."

Two years later, by the time of the census of 1851, Thomas was 59 years old and now described himself as an "agent for the sale of Linen Yarn".  He, Mary and their daughter Isabella now lived in the West End of Stokesley some five households away from John Hepburn Handyside, the doctor.  The announcement in the Yorkshire Gazette of 27 January 1855 of the death of his daughter Jane at the age of 21 shows that they had moved again, as he was named as "Thomas Mease, Esq, of Hutton Rudby". 

The 1861 census records him, now a "Mineral Agent", at Bank Bottom, Hutton Rudby.  This must be Leven House, or its precursor.  His wife Mary was with him and two of their children:  Thomas Turnbull Mease and Isabella Mease.  Both were unmarried and Thomas was described as "son of agent variously employed."

Thomas Mease died in Hutton Rudby on 16 July 1862 at the age of 70.  Mary stayed in the village, and died there two years later on 25 February 1864.

Perhaps the loss of his parents was a tipping point for their eldest son, Thomas Turnbull Mease.  His younger brother Joseph Mellanby Mease became a very well-known and respected local figure, but Thomas junior lost his way, as can be seen in a report that appeared in the York Herald of 17 December 1864.  Thomas, "corn miller, Hutton Rudby" was in gaol for debt, at the suit of Messrs Garbutt, corn factors, Hartlepool, for a debt and costs amounting to £32 10s 5d.  Altogether he owed about £80 and had £14 assets in book debts.  He attributed his losses to small profits, falling off in trade, and heavy expenses in working the mill. 

He never recovered from this.  The 1871 Census finds him lodging at 7 Nelson Street, West Hartlepool, and working as a labourer in a sawmill.  The census of 1881 finds him lodging at 12 Grace Street.  Now aged 60, he worked as a Day Watchman.  He died aged 75 in early 1896.

Isabella married Francis Morritt, a Whitby-born hay merchant of Halton near Leeds, at Hutton Rudby on 5 November 1868.  She was 45, though they tactfully entered her age in the parish register as 30, and he was half a dozen years older than she.  He was a widower and his youngest child was five.  She died less than three years later on 14 October 1871.

Joseph Mellanby Mease lost his arm in 1860 and lived until 1928, a much celebrated centenarian.  The story of how he lost his arm and his reminiscences in later life can be found here and here.

Joseph Mellanby Mease

Many thanks to Judy Kitching and Malcolm McPhie for the aerial view of Stokesley.  There are more to be seen on the Facebook page of the Hutton Rudby & District Local History Society.

Next post: Hutton Rudby 1834-1849: the Flax-Spinning Mill by the bridge

Stokesley 1823-1834: the flax-spinning mill behind the High Street

This follows the post The linen mills of Stokesley & Hutton Rudby: 1823-1908

1823 was the year in which the spinning factory of Messrs T & J Mease was erected just off Stokesley High Street.

The Mease family had been a presence on the High Street since the early 1790s.  The head of the family was John Mease, a respectable Wesleyan Methodist shopkeeper; at the beginning of 1823 he was 56 years old.  He and his wife Isabella Turnbull had two sons and three daughters: Thomas, Isabella, John, Rachel and Mary.  

John Mease was in business as a grocer and draper, but he was also a butter and cheese factor and sold Cleveland's dairy products to the London market.  Twenty years earlier, in 1802, Bell's Weekly Messenger on 14 November had carried a report from the police office at Union Hall in Southwark which gives us a glimpse of John.  

He was in London on business and that morning was "returning from Westminster through Lambeth-road" when he was approached by a respectable-looking man who, asking him if he was from Yorkshire, fell into conversation with him.  The stranger invited Mease to meet someone he knew who was in the same line of business as himself at Woolwich, and doing very well as he had a contract to supply the Navy.  They went to a pub where they met the man, one William Hill, who asked Mease the name of the salesman he used in London and promised him an order.  This, however, was merely window-dressing – the men were confidence tricksters and were hoping to cheat Mease out of the money they guessed he was carrying.  When Mease proved too suspicious for them, Hill snatched the money and ran, but was caught by Mease and some passers-by and brought before the magistrates. 

We can see that John Mease was no country bumpkin, ignorant of the ways of the world.  And Stokesley at the time of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) was a lively, outward-looking town.  The poet William Mason described its "busy and active life"

in a day when your public houses included, in addition to the present thirteen inns, the George and Dragon, the Half Moon, The Masons Arms, the Chequers, the Raffled Anchor, the Ship Inn, &c; 

when the war of American Independence had only subsided, followed by the French Revolution, and the wars of the Bonapartes were at their prime; 

when your captains in the East India Company’s service, your sailors in the mercantile marine, your harpooners who had gone down to the sea in ships and struck the Leviathan in the iced waters, came back to lay up for the winter, as well as the Jack Tar on leave from the Royal Navy, who had gone either by impressment or accepted bounty; 

when your markets were great gatherings of the rurals; your butchers’ shambles were filled with meat; when coals stood for sale in front of the square at the Swan, and the turf-graver brought his wares in donkey carts from Osmotherley; 

when the farmer and his dame rode on the pillion seat to the steppings at the inn; when handloom weaving was good, and intelligence amongst that class of operatives was great; 

when all these met at the hostelries to hear tales of adventure from the sailors, and the sparkles of wit from the literati of the town 

(see Chapter 5 of Remarkable, but Still True) 

This was the world in which John's son Thomas, who was baptised in Stokesley in February 1792, grew up.  Thomas was remembered by his family (according to tradition in Hutton Rudby) as a gifted artist, inventive with his hands, a carver of objects in jet, a speculator and inventor who often had to take his family abroad to avoid his creditors.  His life history shows that he must have been a man of charm and charisma, who loved the public stage, was eager to take on arguments and controversies, and who made ambitious plans and entered into them boldly.

In or by 1800 (according to the Stokesley Flax Mill timeline on the Stokesley Heritage website, quoting Title Deeds research by Tom Berry), John Mease and an unnamed cabinet maker leased the house we know now as Number 42 High Street, Stokesley, "with shop and yard, garden and orchard behind".

Number 42 is the tallest building on the left

It stands on the north side of the High Street – known in the 19th century as North Row – not far from the Wesleyan Methodist Church (until 1883 this was the site of the Black Swan Inn) and was until recently occupied by Barclays Bank.  It is described in the Stokesley Society's Buildings of Stokesley as 

the jewel in the crown of the High Street.  Built of small bricks with handsome sandstone quoins and kneelers and a moulded cornice at the eaves ... retaining its bow windows, flat well proportioned sash windows and, best of all, its doorway under a wonderful shell canopy, the whole being completed with dormer windows in its Welsh slate roof.

In 1816 Thomas, aged 24, married Mary Mellanby in Whitby, where St Mary's parish registers describe him as a grocer.  A couple of years later, the Durham County Advertiser of 11 July 1818 records what must have been one of his earliest entries into public life when he and his father were among the many signatories to an address to the Mayor of Stockton requesting a meeting of the town and neighbourhood to consider forming a Canal to take cargoes such as coal and lime from Evenwood Bridge in County Durham to the Tees, for the benefit of trade.  (In the event, the Stockton & Darlington Railway was built).  Then in 1822 Thomas burst into print in the Stokesley "Paper War".

In the spring of that year Thomas's wife Mary and another lady had called twice upon the bookseller and radical Robert Armstrong for donations to the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society.  He took the view that they had been sent out to beg by their husbands and he was not in sympathy with their cause, telling them

I did not believe Humanity and Charity to be at all the object in view of their employers, and that in my humble opinion they had much better stay at home and cultivate the Heathen among their own sect.

On Monday 2 June 1822, Thomas Mease gave a forceful speech to a Wesleyan Methodist Missionary meeting in which he attacked Armstrong and his beliefs.  He was so pleased with the reception of the speech that he arranged for it to be printed.  Armstrong responded, hostilities began and the Paper War was soon in full swing.  It lasted until the summer of 1824.  The full story, including the unedifying quarrels over the deathbed of old John Appleton in the workhouse, is told here. 

Tom Berry's research shows that by 1822 Number 42 High Street belonged to John Mease and Thomas Mease with two tenants, and that within a few years it was occupied by John and both his sons, Thomas and John junior.  They converted the garden, which lay behind the house, and the warehouse wine vaults into a "corn mill and spinning factory".

John senior had not been content with his shop but had branched out into selling butter and cheese to London.  Thomas had gone into the same line of business as his father and is listed in Baines' Directory of 1823 as a grocer & tea dealer and linen & woollen draper, but he expanded into the production of cloth.  

Stokesley, like Hutton Rudby, was a centre of linen weaving and one of Thomas's earliest ventures was into linen manufacture – which is to say, employing handloom weavers to produce cloth which he sent to a bleachyard and then sold on.  We catch a glimpse of this business, which was evidently running concurrently with the spinning factory, in a notice in the London Gazette of 22 May 1829.  This records the end of a linen manufacturing partnership between Thomas and John Mease and John Barr of Stokesley.  This had also been a side venture for John Barr, who was listed, like Thomas, as a grocer & draper in the 1823 Baines' Directory.  Evidently while he and Thomas had managed the Stokesley end of the business, John Mease was in charge of marketing their cloth in Manchester because he is named in the notice in the Gazette as "John Mease of Manchester".  

The "spinning factory" was a more ambitious venture.  Baines' Directory 1823 shows that Thomas and his brother had set up the business of "T & J Mease," flax & tow spinners.  (The subordinate position of the "J" in the firm name must mean that this was his brother John, who was seven years younger than Thomas and now about 24 years old, not his father John.)  

They were embarking on the mechanised spinning of flax and tow into yarn.  It had proved much easier to mechanise the production of cotton than linen, but linen manufacturing began to make up lost ground when in 1787 the first machine to spin flax was developed in Darlington by John Kendrew.  Flax and tow are produced when the flax plant is broken down, resulting in long line fibres that make a fine, strong yarn and short tow fibres that make heavier, coarser yarn.  (A succinct description of the processes can be found here).  

Flax spinning mill

Baines' Directory recorded that

A considerable manufacture of linen is carried on here, and that trade is likely to be extended, by a mill, which Messrs Thomas and John Meale [a typo for Mease] are now erecting, to be worked by the power of steam.  

The Mease brothers' plan was to power their frames of spindles with a steam engine and the machines in which they invested will have been later models than Kendrew's, developed in Barnsley and Leeds. 

Many of Thomas and John's employees are likely to have been very young.  R P Hastings' Hutton Rudby: An Industrial Village (1979) notes that in 1841 the Hutton Rudby mill was worked by two flaxdressers and ten spinners who were mostly girls and boys in their 'teens.  An advertisement placed by an Otley mill at this time shows the workforce they were seeking:

Leeds Mercury, 26 April 1823
Wanted, at a Flax Spinning Mill, Three or Four large Families of Children.  If the Fathers of such Families are either Hecklers, Weavers, or Husbandmen, the Whole can have constant Employment at good Wages.
Further Particulars can be had on Application to Mr Meek, of Knaresbro'; or Mr Howgate, at West-End Mill, near Otley

This excerpt from Historic England's website gives an idea of what happened when a child was not quick to learn the knack of the work

Samuel Downe, who was born in Shrewsbury in 1804, worked in Ditherington Flax Mill from the age of 10. He described working conditions in the factory during a Parliamentary Enquiry in 1832:
 "we used to generally begin at five o’clock in the morning till eight at night".  When asked had he received punishment he replied "yes, I was strapped most severely till I could not bear to sit upon a chair without pillows, and I was forced to lie upon my face at night. I was put upon a man’s back and then strapped by the overlooker".  When asked why he was punished he replied… "I had never been in a mill where there was machinery, and it was winter time, and we worked by gas-light, and I could not catch the revolutions of the machinery to take the tow out of the hackles; it requires some practice and I was timid at it."
Improvements followed, and in 1834 the 92 children working at Ditherington Flax Mill only worked part-time and had some schooling between 9-11 am and 3-5 pm.

So the noise of spinning frames and a steam engine and the smoke of a mill chimney were added to the general clamour of Stokesley.  Though the economy took a bad hit after the Napoleonic Wars ended, Stokesley was still a lively place with a broad sense of humour – as can be seen from this account, told as a ridiculous story and evidently picked up by newspapers across the country.  This is from the Sussex Advertiser 

Sussex Advertiser, 23 May 1825

Marriage Extraordinary

The 24th ult. a marriage was celebrated at Stokesley, in Yorkshire, of a pair who had passed the delightful, anxious period of courtship in the factory of Messrs T and J Mease.  

A fellow workman of the bridegroom's having accepted the important office of giving away the blooming bride, and all the necessary preparations having been attended to, the morning was ushered in by the ringing of the church and factory bells.  The town-crier officially announced the wedding to take place at half-past nine o'clock, and gave a general invitation to the inhabitants to attend.  

The important moment came, and Richard Chambers, sweet sixteen, led forth his blooming bride of fifty-five, "all blushing as Aurora from the East," to the hymeneal altar of the good old town of Stokesley.  All other business was now at a stand.  The town band preceded the nuptial procession to the sacred fane, playing, "Come haste to the Wedding," and other appropriate airs.  After the indissoluble knot had been tied, the "happy, happy, happy pair" were borne in triumph, in chairs, round the town, preceded by the musicians, and followed by a concourse of spectators and guests.  

The ludicrousness of the scene was greatly heightened, by the bridegroom, who is of a very diminutive stature, being publicly shaved by the celebrated tonsor of the place, with a gigantic razor, 30 inches long!  Rustic festivities followed, and mirth and humour drew the curtains of evening over the hilarities of the day.

Raucous days in Georgian times.  I wonder who wrote it (perhaps Thomas Mease?) and whether all the details are correct or whether the newspaper embellished the account.  It's interesting to note mention of the factory bell, the town-crier and the town band.  It's certainly true that the parish registers record the marriage of a Richard Chambers to Elizabeth Rodery on 25 April 1825. 

Things began to change at the end of the 1820s.  John Barr had retired from the linen manufacturing partnership in May 1829 leaving Thomas and John to continue the business together.  Then on 3 March 1831, a notice in the London Gazette shows that the brothers' flax-spinning partnership had come to an end and that Thomas took over the business.  

By 1834, according to Tom Berry's research into Deeds, 42 High Street was occupied by John Mease, grocer, and sons Thomas, flax spinner and John, linen manufacturer, along with "land and items behind Numbers 36 and 38".  Buildings of Stokesley records that a passage between Numbers 38 and 42 leads to outbuildings that have survived since the Meases' time "with their arches and loading doors with elegant stone surrounds".

The Stokesley Directory database records that Pigot's Directory 1834 lists John Mease jnr as a Linen & Damask Manufacturer on Beck Side, while Thomas was listed as a Flax Dresser, Spinner and Patent Thread Manufacturer on Front Street.

However, there is always a slight lag between the compilation of a Directory and its publication and by the time Pigot's came out, Thomas's plans for a greatly expanded business were well underway.

He bought land on the other side of the River Leven, not far from the packhorse bridge, and was building another flax-spinning mill there.  The building survives as the premises of Millbry Hill (formerly called Armstrong Richardson).  

I have not been able to find confirmation that he built a gas works next to the Mill, as is stated in the letter written to Michael Heavisides (author of Rambles in Cleveland, 1909) by Thomas's son Joseph.  However, that's not to say that he didn't – it would have been an obvious way to increase profits by ensuring long working hours and he would, as stated by Joseph Mellanby Mease, have been able to sell gas to the town under the Lighting and Watching Act 1833.

While Thomas was occupied with business, and with chapel attendance – he was a Wesleyan class leader – he was also engaged in politics.  When the Hon. William Duncombe visited Stokesley during his successful campaign to be elected Tory MP for the North Riding in the winter of 1832/3, the Tories claimed that Thomas had stirred up something approaching a riot when Duncombe tried to address the voters.  Thomas instantly denied the charge and subsequently produced a pamphlet entitled "Two Letters on Tithes and Corn Laws, addressed to the Hon W Duncombe, M.P."  In this Thomas addressed two urgent political questions of the day: reform of the system of tithes and the abolition of the Corn Laws and it was reviewed in the York Herald of 13 July 1833 in the most favourable terms, largely because the reviewer wholeheartedly agreed with Thomas's point of view: 

an excellent little work that has just issued from the press, and which we have perused with no common pleasure ... The author is evidently a man of considerable talent; he has condensed into a pamphlet of 80 pages, a collection of important facts and irrefutable arguments, which might easily have been expanded into a bulky volume.  His language is remarkably terse and perspicuous and the work throughout displays considerable elegance of composition.

The reviewer quotes a passage from the pamphlet to illustrate his point.  In this we can hear Thomas's voice – though we might not agree that this, the first sentence quoted, is so "remarkably terse":

If, then, the Church have no rightful property in tithes, and their compulsory enforcement, under existing regulations be an anti-christian exaction, injurious to both payers and receivers, by exciting bitterness and contentions – and oftentimes expensive law suits too – the only question for determination is, – whether at this crisis of agricultural and national distress, the Clergy of the establishment ought not to be placed upon the apostolical footing of voluntary maintenance; like the accredited Pastors of the general body of Dissenters, who, in learning, and talent and respectability, and usefulness – although certainly not in wealth, and titles, and worldly enjoyment – are by no means their inferiors; that tithes, for the public good, may be duly appropriated to the exigencies of the State.

Next post: Stokesley 1832-1841: the New Mill on Levenside

The linen mills of Stokesley & Hutton Rudby: 1823-1908

The next posts will tell the story of five mills: the two flax-spinning mills of Stokesley, and the flax-spinning mill and two sailcloth mills in Hutton Rudby.

It's also the story of three families – Mease, Blacket and Wilson – and an unusual self-made man, William Surtees.

I have been able to find a great deal of new information, some of which overturns previous assumptions and all of which, I hope, adds greatly to our picture of the people and events concerned.  This is above all thanks to being able to search the online London Gazette and increasing numbers of digitised newspapers.

I have tried to incorporate sources and references as much as possible into the text, hoping to tell the story in a readable fashion. 

One source I have not used is Michael Heavisides' Rambles in Cleveland (1909).  His information derives from a letter he received from Joseph Mellanby Mease.  Joseph was only ten when his father Thomas was made bankrupt and his information seems to me to derive from family anecdotes alone.  Some of it is demonstrably inaccurate and the rest I cannot corroborate, so I have decided to ignore the whole. 

The series begins with Stokesley 1823-1834: the flax-spinning mill behind the High Street

Jacksons of Broughton Grange

Here I have done my best to convert Jim Watson's family trees into content that can make sense and be searchable on the internet.

The family tree begins with Robert Jackson of Wilton Manor, father of William

1st generation   
William Jackson & Dorothy.   William Jackson was a son of Robert Jackson of Wilton.

2nd generation 
William Jackson & Ann
Robert Jackson & Hannah Blacky

3rd generation 
Dorothy Jackson's children
Henry Harper & Mary Sylvester

The 17th & 18th century Jacksons of Broughton Grange

With many thanks to Jim Watson for this information.  We hope that publishing it here will be helpful to people trying to disentangle their Jackson ancestors as well of course to those interested in Great Broughton.

The Jackson family of Broughton Grange, 

descendants of Robert Jackson of Wilton

by Jim Watson  

Today, Broughton Grange is a large arable farm set at the south end of the village of Great Broughton, near Stokesley in North Yorkshire.

Broughton Grange was a farm under Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, from 1316 until the Abbey’s dissolution in 1538.  The subsequent lease changed hands several times before being granted to Hester and John Hewerdyne by Queen Elizabeth.  The Hewerdyne family was resident at Broughton Grange at least until 1629. 

Some time between 1629 and 1636, the Jackson presence at Broughton Grange commenced with William Jackson son of Robert Jackson of Wilton.  In 1637, William Jackson was sued for non payment of tithes for some fields for the year 1636.

In 1650, William Jackson of Broughton Grange conveyed to his brother Robert of Lazenby a messuage and 2 oxgangs of land at Lazenby, and in the same Indenture the conveyance by William’s father Robert to William of Topliffe Farm Great Broughton was recorded.

William died in 1658, leaving his widow Dorothy with five under-age children.  The eldest Jane married William Harrison of Kirkleatham.

It has been recorded in several submissions to the Court of Chancery, that following her husband’s death, Dorothy set about acquiring property to ensure that her three sons would have satisfactory incomes.  It was also recorded that Dorothy spent large sums of money on the Mansion House at Broughton Grange, in excess of £300.  This makes it clear that the Jacksons of Broughton Grange were a wealthy family.

Son William achieved his majority in 1665, and it may be no coincidence that there is a lintel in the Mansion House bearing the initials WJ and the number 1665.  William junior married and had two daughters Anne and Dorothy.  William’s brother Richard died in October 1673, followed by William in November 1673.  Subsequently William’s widow Ann married a widower Edward Edwards, probably about 1681.  The record of the marriage has not been found, and it doesn’t appear to have occurred in the local church St Augustine’s in Kirkby.

Widow Dorothy’s second daughter Margery remained single until her death in 1678.  Dorothy died in 1685, leaving her youngest son Robert as her only surviving male descendant.  About 1690, the Edwards family moved to London, where William and Ann’s two daughters Anne and Dorothy found themselves a husband each, respectively Charles Tracy a lawyer and John Harper a watch maker.

It is possible that there was no Jackson presence at Broughton Grange from about 1690 until Robert Jackson first became a tenant of part of Broughton Grange in 1705.   Later Robert became tenant of the all of Broughton Grange and by 1707 he was also agent for Ann Tracy and Dorothy Lee and their husbands.

Robert remained as tenant at Broughton Grange until 1727, possibly a few years later.  By this time Robert was already in his seventies, but he had recently married, and he disposed of a significant amount of property to a local mason Robert Patton in 1729.  It was about this time that Robert Jackson became embroiled in a nasty sequence of suits with the London section of the family that eventually ended up in the Court of Chancery.  Robert’s property sale may have been to ensure Robert had sufficient funds for his legal expenses.  The Court found in balance in Robert’s favour, but not until after his death.  In the meantime, Robert and his wife Hannah retired from Broughton Grange to the Dog House, a property Robert had purchased about twenty years earlier.

By the time that Robert retired, Anne Tracy née Jackson, by then a widow had probably returned to Great Broughton and for most of her time in the village she lived at Broughton Grange, though she owned other property in the village.

Shortly before her death, Anne moved into one of her other properties in the village along with her widowed daughter Elizabeth Amaiday.  Broughton Grange was sold by Henry Harper, Anne’s eldest nephew, to John Preston an attorney of Stokesley in 1742.  Anne died in 1742 and her daughter Elizabeth died in 1743.

Jackson family presence in Great Broughton continued after Robert Jackson’s death.  Robert and his wife Hannah had three children, Robert, Dorothy and William.  Robert had the unenviable task of executing his father’s over generous Will, effectively a hopeless task, even after the Court of Chancery settlement produced in excess of £600.  Fortunately, Robert’s mother, brother and sister cooperated in solving the financial headache, and eventually the matter was dealt with, but at the cost of the complete disposal of father Robert’s estate, including splitting the Dog House into four separate dwellings and much reduced legacies to Hannah and Dorothy.

What became of Robert Jackson’s three children?  Robert, became a mariner and appears to have left the village about 1760.  William became a bricklayer and lived in Stokesley.  Dorothy married John Raw with whom she had at least ten children, three of whom died in infancy.  John and Dorothy Raw lived in Great Broughton till 1771, thereafter they appear to have left the village.

Sources

Borthwick Institute:  

Cause Papers:  CP.H.2171 (1637),  Dispute re Tithes, Sutton v Jackson

Wills and Probate;  PROB Register 85, Folio 150 on MIC 1005, Robert Jackson’s Will      

National Archives:  

Cause Papers:  

C 6/289/59  1664,  Watson v Howardyne et al, gives details of previous lease holders.

C 11/1/44  1713,   Cornforth v Geer,  contains reference to the conveyance of the Dog House and Harrisons Farm from John and Margaret Cornforth to Robert Jackson

C 11/1495/36  1731,  Harper v Jackson

C 11/2695/42  1732,  Jackson v Tracey

C 11/2695/47  1733,  Jackson v Harper

C 11/1370/14  1733,  Harper v Jackson  Statements taken at Durham

C 11/1370/17  1734,   Harper v Jackson, Deponents statements

The above five references relate to the financial dispute between Robert Jackson and the executors of William Lee, Dorothy Jackson the younger’s third and last husband.  They include some vital event data for the London Jackson family, ie Tracy,Harper, Sadler and Lee.

North Yorkshire County Record Office:

Kirkleatham Papers:  

ZK 4223  Conveyance of property within the Jackson family in 1650.

Old Parish Registers:  

Kirkby cum Broughton, vital event data relating to Broughton Grange and Great Broughton.

Wills and Deeds:   

DB 114 53, refers to sale of property by Robert Jackson to Robert Patton, original Indenture to be retained by Isaac Chapman, 

A 503 616,  14/8/1738,  Henry Harper agrees terms for Anne Tracy occupying part of Broughton Grange.  Anne had been living in Great Broughton several years before this Indenture was executed.

P 379 619  2&3/1742,  I 392 460  3/2/1742  and  B 120 33  3/2/1742,  all relate to the sale of Broughton Grange by Henry Harper to John Preston.

Next:  Jacksons of Broughton Grange

The Treadmills of Northallerton

The new "retail and leisure destination" to be built on the site of the former prison in Northallerton is to be called "the Treadmills"

Along with many others, I have always thought this name showed distinctly poor taste and by chance I've just come across this, from R P Hastings' Chartism in the North Riding of Yorkshire and South Durham, 1838-1848, (Borthwick Publications, 2004)

Chartism was a nation-wide, radical, grass-roots, movement of the working classes calling for reform and, above all, for the vote.

Noting the local Chartists' tendency to exploit "every propaganda opportunity", Dr Hastings writes:

Northallerton House of Correction had an unenviable reputation.  Samuel Holberry, the young Sheffield Chartist leader, had become a martyr overnight when he died in 1842 at York Castle after imprisonment in Northallerton.  His associate, John Clayton, had died in Northallerton.  North Riding Chartists then took up the case of William Brook, a Bradford Chartist who had been 'reduced from a stout athletic man to a mere skeleton' in the 'Northallerton Hell'.  

Clayton, Brook and others, the Chartists claimed, had been subjected illegally to work on the treadmill.  Northallerton and Brompton Chartists raised a fund to enable Brook to buy his own provisions and petitioned the Home Secretary for his release.  Isaac Wilson, a Brompton weaver and Chartist leader, became treasurer and made weekly prison visits.  Donations came from as far afield as Dundee, Trowbridge, Spitalfields, Brighton and Abergavenny as well as Darlington.  

This is an excerpt from the "Proposed National Petition, to be signed throughout the country, and entrusted to the care of the "Political Prisoners' Release and Charter Petition Convention" from the Chartists' newspaper The Northern Star of 20 March 1841.  This section deals with the "Northallerton Hell" and the treadmill.  (The "silent system" had been introduced to Europe from the USA; under it, strict silence was enforced at all times.)

That in the Gaol of Northallerton, six Chartist prisoners, whose sentence was merely imprisonment, were put to hard labour, on the treadmill, contrary to law. 

That William Brook, one of the said prisoners, who had been convicted of sedition and conspiracy, at the same time as Peddie [convicted in 1840 at York], and whose sentence was three years, fell off the mill; and, though he informed the Visiting Surgeon, that he was frequently troubled with a cramp, yet he was forced, contrary to his sentence, to work upon the wheel, for nearly one calendar month, until removed by an order from the Most Honourable the Secretary of State for the Home Department. 

That your petitioners have been informed that John Clayton, a Chartist, who lately died in Northallerton House of Correction, had been sentenced to solitary confinement, upon a charge of violating the silent system. 

That your petitioners have every reason to believe, from what they have heard of the conduct of the authorities of the prison, that he came to his death in consequence of the cruel manner in which he was treated. 

That Wm Martin, who had been confined in the said House of Correction, Northallerton, was removed to Lancaster Castle, in consequence of the severity of the silent system, and of the tyranny of Wm Shepherd, the superintendent. 

That your petitioners have likewise been informed that the physical condition of the prisoners in the House of Correction, Northallerton, is deteriorated not only by the hard labour of the mill and the horrid silent system, but by the filthy manner in which they are obliged to sleep; that they have been for a fortnight at a time without a clean shirt, and their beds infested with vermin; that the only place where they are permitted to wash, is at a stone trough in the yard, and the superintendent is in the habit of coming to the yard gate and shouting to the petty officers to report the men for being too long washing themselves; that some of the prisoners have been punished for using too much soap, which is a proof that the object of the Governor is to enrich himself instead of attending to the comforts of the unfortunate convicts.

An overview of the history of imprisonment and an illustration of prisoners working on the treadmill, from Henry Mayhew's The Criminal Prisons of London (1862) can be found here.

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.

The prettiest warehouse in England – in Hutton Rudby

Who knew that Hutton Rudby boasted the prettiest warehouse in England?  What a claim to fame.

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 10 July 1895

Mr Henry Fell Pease, Mrs Pease, and other members of the family visited many of the villages nestling at the foot of the Carlton Hills yesterday, and at all places met with a hearty reception.  At Hutton Rudby there was a well-attended meeting, many of those present being sailcloth makers from the Cleveland sailcloth works, which with its ivy-clad walls can boast of the prettiest warehouse in England.  Mr Pease spoke well both at Swainby and at Hutton Rudby.  Mr Pease stayed at Hutton Rudby, and to-day he moves on to Carlton and Stokesley.  Whilst engaged in the western Mr Henry Fell Pease's supporters were active in the eastern extremity of the division.  Both at Coatham, New Marske, and Eston meetings were held approving of his candidature, strong committees being formed at each place.

Henry Fell Pease, a member of the prominent Darlington Quaker family, was Liberal MP for Cleveland from 1885 until his death in 1896 at the age of 58.  

Here he is canvassing for the 1895 general election, the voting for which was held between 13 July and 7 August 1895.  Pease was successful but his party was not.  The election was won by Lord Salisbury's Conservatives in alliance with the Liberal Unionists, who had broken from the Liberal Party over the issue of Irish Home Rule.

It's possible that the ivy-clad warehouse was the long building which the Tithe Map shows behind the houses of Barkers Row, standing parallel to them.  Unless anybody else has a better idea?

Hutton Rudby Mechanics' Institute, founded 6 November 1850

So little is known of the Hutton Rudby Mechanics' Institute, that I quote this piece in full.  It gives such a flavour of the event and the times and the hunger for learning and self-improvement among working men.  An impressive 400 people packed the large room of the Flax Spinning Mill by the River Leven to celebrate the Institute's first anniversary:-

York Herald, 15 November 1851

SOIREE OF THE HUTTON RUDBY MECHANICS INSTITUTE 

On Thursday, November 6th, the first anniversary of the Hutton Rudby Institute was celebrated in the large room of the Spinning Mill, the use of which was kindly allowed for the occasion.  The room was tastefully decorated with evergreens, and though the day was very unfavourable nearly 400 persons sat down to tea, which was provided gratuitously by the ladies of the village, who presided at the tables.  Mrs Burnett, the well-known vocalist, assisted by Mr S J Taylor, who presided at the pianoforte, sung several popular songs, during the evening, and added greatly to the enjoyment of the assembly.  As soon as tea was over, and the room had been cleared of tables, &c., the Rev J S Barlow [actually the Rev R J Barlow] was called to the chair. 

The CHAIRMAN opened the proceedings by assuring the meeting that he felt duly sensible of the honour they had conferred upon him.  As he had not been accustomed to take part in public meetings, he consented to take the chair very reluctantly, fearing he should damage the cause they were met to advocate.  He said few things could be more cheering to a person in his position, than to see efforts made to elevate the tastes and habits of his parishioners, especially the tastes and habits of the labouring classes, and he sincerely trusted they would avail themselves of every means of improvement which was offered by the Institute. 

The SECRETARY read the report, from which it appeared the Institute had been established one year; that it numbers upwards of sixty members; that a reading-room well supplied with newspapers and periodicals; and a library well supplied with books had been opened; that the committee had expended about forty pounds during the year, and that they had a creditable balance in hand. 

Mr JOSEPH TAYLOR, of Middlesbro', addressed the meeting, at considerable length, on the advantages of mechanics' institutes.  He said the object of those institutions was to give young men facilities for mental culture, and to assist them to acquire such a knowledge of business as should enable them to compete with men who had been favoured with a superior education in their boyhood, or had enjoyed the advantages of living in larger towns.  He made a powerful appeal to the young men present, who had not joined the institute, to come forward and do so.  He said it was impossible to say to what a man would attain who resolutely "willed" to be "onward." 

HENRY PEASE, Esq., of Darlington, on presenting himself, was warmly applauded.  He said they were not to expect a great speech from him, he did not take himself the credit of being an eloquent speaker.  He had long been connected with mechanics' institutes; he had some knowledge of what they had done for the people, and if he could say anything that evening calculated to promote the interests of the Hutton Rudby institute, it would afford him much pleasure.  He said there was nothing Englishmen respected more than manliness of character; and to possess true manliness of character, a man must be educated; ignorance was slavery.  He would advise every young man to apply himself studiously to one branch of education until he had mastered it.  He would urge upon every young man the necessity of depending upon himself; to trust in no man, and in no body of men; to trust in nothing but his own efforts, and God's blessing upon those efforts.  Determine to do credit to yourselves, and credit to the institute of which you form a part.  He was very anxious they should attend well to the classes.  He would advise them to adopt a good system of reading.  It was astonishing how little some people appeared to know, though they read a great deal; they read without any system, and they could not command either true ideas, or proper expressions, when they wanted them.  He urged upon all the importance of doing their best to improve their position.  He said there were [illegible] encouraging examples of men who had attained the highest positions, with everything apparently unfavorable at their start.  He had seen much of Mechanics' Institutes, and he knew their tendency was for good; let those institutes be well conducted, and have the support of which they were worthy, and he was certain they would see, in every town, a different and a better state of things. 

Mr JOHN TAYLOR, made some useful remarks on the claims of Mechanics' Institutes.  He said he had several times visited Hutton Rudby to advocate Temperance, and it gave him much pleasure to be with them on that occasion.  He was certain the formation of the Mechanics' Institute would constitute an important era in the history of Hutton Rudby, and he trusted it would meet with that support, from the inhabitants generally, as should make it a real blessing to the village and neighbourhood. 

The meeting was also addressed by Mr John Jordison, of Middlesbro', G O Wray, Esq., R R Burgess, Esq., and Mr Joseph Hutton, of Stokesley. 

A vote of thanks was given to the chairman, and, about half-past ten o'clock, the largest and most enthusiastic meeting, ever held in Hutton Rudby, was brought to a close.

We know that by the end of the century the Institute was housed at the top of North End, and perhaps in 1851 it was already installed there.  The photograph below is thought to have been taken in the 1880s.

North End, Hutton Rudby

The building was later used as a Reading Room and Library, then a Snooker Hall, and in the 1960s it became a shop.  Originally it was a long, low building but it was altered in about 1900 when a mock-Tudor black-and-white frontage was added.

Postcard of North End, Hutton Rudby

This second photograph shows the new frontage.

For more on the vicar, Robert Barlow, see my book, Remarkable but still True, the story of the Revd R J Barlow and Hutton Rudby in the time of the cholera.  It's on this blog and Chapter 1 can be found here

Henry Pease (1807-81) was a member of the Darlington Quaker family.  He was a director of the Darlington & Stockton Railway, creator of the seaside resort of Saltburn, a peace activist who went to see the Tsar of Russia in an attempt to stop the Crimean War.  A short account of his life can be found here and there is more on his part in the opening of the railway line that ran across Stainmore here.  (I know I travelled on the line across to Penrith with my father, but was too young to have any memory of it now.  What a shame it's gone).

You will perhaps have noticed that though the village ladies supplied the refreshments, the young village women were not to have any share in the opportunities provided by the Institute ...


Thanks to Malcolm McPhie and the Facebook page of the Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society for the photos.  Many more photographs of North End can be found there.

The Rising of the North 1569

Exactly 450 years ago, the Rising of the North or Northern Rebellion of 1569 was reaching its crisis, as readers of Chris Lloyd's recent piece in the Northern Echo will know.  Don't miss it!  It tells the story of the siege of Barnard Castle and gives the numbers of County Durham men who were hanged after the Rising when Elizabeth I took her savage vengeance.

In Cleveland, Thomas Layton of Sexhow was a Queen's man and he played a part in the suppression of the Rising.  For the full story, check out my account of his cousin Thomas Milner of Skutterskelfe: the life & times of a Tudor gentleman. 

And when you travel along the road between Hutton Rudby and Stokesley, remember the man from the tiny hamlet of Braworth who was hanged there for his role in the Rebellion.

More on Joseph Honeyman (d 1848)

Dave Honneyman has just contacted me to say that the Joseph Honeyman of my last post (the seaman who died of cholera on board the brig Zephyr in the West Dock at Hartlepool at the end of October 1848) was, as I thought, the son of Thomas Honeyman and Ann Whorlton and it was Joseph who appeared in the Hutton Rudby census of 1841 as a cartwright's apprentice.

Dave tells me that Joseph's cousin Thomas joined the Navy in 1844 and he wonders if that was the reason that Joseph went to sea.

Thank you, Dave!  So nice to hear from you.  Anybody researching the Honeyman family should check out the information that Dave sent me in 2013, which can be found here:  Honeymans and Whorltons.

Joseph Honeyman of Hutton Rudby, dies of cholera in 1848

York Herald, 4 November 1848

CASE OF CHOLERA, AND CAUTION TO DRUNKARDS

On Tuesday last, an inquest was held before Mr John Settle, at the Angel Inn, in Stranton, on view of the body of Joseph Honeyman, a native of Hutton Rudby, in Yorkshire, and who was a seaman on board the brig Zephyr, then lying in the West Dock, at Hartlepool, on board of which the deceased was viewed by the jurors.  

From the evidence, it appeared that the deceased had been drinking for several days, in London, previous to the vessel leaving the Thames, and that he had got quit of about nine sovereigns in eight days, during which time he had been drunk every day.  

When off Flambro' Head on Saturday last, the deceased was suddenly attacked about five o'clock in the afternoon with illness.  He was sick and vomited very much, he was purged and subjected to cramps, and was also cold at the extremities.  He lingered about thirty hours from his first being seized, and died on board the Zephyr, at the harbour of the West Dock.  

Dr Green, of Hartlepool, attended the deceased on the arrival of the ship, and, at the inquest, he stated that deceased's was a case of malignant Asiatic cholera, the exciting cause being drink.  Deceased was 24 years of age.  Verdict, "Natural death, from Asiatic cholera."

On the Hartlepool History Then and Now website you can see a Public Notice dated 8 August 1848 warning the inhabitants of the cholera:

From information received almost daily in this country, from many parts of the Continent, it is manifest that, that dreadful scourge of human life, the CHOLERA, is spreading its devastating influence over many parts; and, from all accounts, the inhabitants of this country have the strongest reasons for dreading its quick approach to these Isles; and of all the towns in the kingdom, none can have greater cause of fear than Hartlepool ...

The same website has a picture of the West Harbour and Dock dated 1848.

A few weeks before the death of Joseph Honeyman, the Darlington and Stockton Times of 14 October 1848 had carried the report that "considerable apprehension and alarm" had been excited in Hartlepool the previous Saturday when a rumour spread that a young passenger on the Highland Chief out of South Shields had died of the cholera.  

It was Dr Green, with a police officer, who went aboard to establish the facts, and he decided  that it had not been a cholera case.  The belongings of the poor young man, Isaac Forsyth Arthur, were removed ("his trunk, portmanteau, &c") and the Highland Chief continued on her voyage to Naples.  The jury decided that he had died from exhaustion, caused by sea-sickness.  He was about 20 years old, and had been a student in the Free College at Edinburgh.

This was the second visitation of the Asiatic cholera to the United Kingdom.  Hutton Rudby itself had suffered in the first terrible epidemic in 1832.  For a full account see 'The Year of the cholera', chapter 11 of Remarkable, but still True, my book about the Rev R J Barlow of Hutton Rudby.

Already in 1832, a link had been made between alcohol and the disease.  To quote from that chapter:

The abuse of alcohol was frequently linked with vulnerability to cholera, by the newspapers and the doctors.  It struck a chord with the public, as this was the dawn of the temperance movement, and alcohol now carried increasing associations of poverty and lack of self-control.  Moreover, the usual medical advice was to abstain from strong liquor during the epidemic and take wine in moderation.  In fact the gastritis and malnutrition caused by excessive use of alcohol did favour the disease.

And the unfortunate young man at the heart of this story –

There is one Joseph Honeyman in Hutton Rudby in the 1841 Census who was of the right age.  Joseph, aged 17 or 15 (it is hard to tell whether 7 or 5 was the correction) was the son of Thomas Honeyman, weaver, and his wife Ann, and he was in 1841 a cartwright's apprentice.  He must have left the village for a more exciting life ...

Mrs Annabel Dott & the Goathland Homes for Officers: correction

I've just amended a couple of posts in the fascinating story of the redoubtable Mrs Annabel Dott – the series of blogposts that make up the account of her life and work begin here – on hearing from a member of the Dott family. 

I had used a photograph of a pleasant-looking lady which was believed by some members of the family to show Annabel Dott, but it doesn't – it's definitely a photo of a Mrs Crebin.

My contact says of Annabel, "My feeling is that she would look a bit more fierce than Mrs. Crebin does" and I must say that I agree!

I'm still hopeful that one day a photograph of Annabel Dott will turn up ...

Taitlands near Settle, home of Thomas & Jane Redmayne

If you've ever read about John Richard Stubbs and his family on this blog – A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s introduces them – you might remember his visits to Taitlands, the country house near Settle where his mother's sister Jane Henlock lived with her husband Thomas Redmayne (c1797-1862) and their children.  

Jane was Thomas's third wife – the first two died young, probably in childbirth – and she brought up his daughter Jane and her own two children, Mary and Henry.

And now you can see photographs of Taitlands, which was for many years a youth hostel and has,over the last decade been lovingly restored to glory.  I'm sure the estate agents who are offering it for sale won't mind if I reproduce one of the photos here – perhaps it will prompt a reader to buy this beautiful house!

Taitlands, near Settle

John Stubbs describes visiting Taitlands several times in his diaries.  The house was barely twenty years old when he first knew it, as Thomas Redmayne had only begun building it in 1831, and so it must all have looked very new and grand to John.  When he was a teenage boy at Giggleswick School he used to visit the family.  In 1853 for example:

Saturday 29 January 1853  Went to Taitlands Aunt was poorly rode the horses came home with Uncle

One Friday, he went out there with a schoolfriend without telling Mrs Stubbs, with whom he was lodging, where he was going.  Mrs Mary Ann Stubbs was another of his aunts, the widow of his father's brother William Morley Stubbs.  She helped her sister Miss Isabella Henlock keep a school at The Terrace, Settle.  They also took in boys who attended Giggleswick School as lodgers:

Friday 30 September 1853

In the evening walked with T Bramley to Taitlands on the sly   Mrs Stubbs & Co knew not

After John left school, he visited the Redmayne family there on several occasions.

In August 1856 he stayed there for three weeks and described in his diary driving his aunt and cousins in the Phaeton – going shooting – taking a shot at a rabbit in a field "where I ought not" – visiting old schoolfriends – and enjoying "a little dance" when visitors came to Taitlands.

In 1857 he travelled there with his aunt Miss Isabella Henlock (not to be confused with her second cousin Miss Isabella Henlock of Settle).  Aunt Bell was there to visit her sister Jane Redmayne, and John was there to combine business with pleasure.  He went shooting with his cousin Henry Redmayne ("shot 2 hares"), went to Skipton Sessions from Settle station, and enjoyed the social life of Settle.  "Lots of folks" came to tea at Taitlands after calling on on his friend Thomas Stackhouse of Stainforth, who had recently married.

On Wednesday 13 January 1858 he travelled there for the wedding of his friend Dr Leonard William Sedgwick to Thomas Redmayne's daughter Jane.  John was one of the groomsmen and he stayed with Thomas Stackhouse.  I describe the customs of the weddings in rural Yorkshire in A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: “Helped to arrange about the Wedding Breakfast”.  This was quite the grandest affair that John attended in those years:

Wednesday January 13

Went with Leonard & Mary Sedgwick to Taitlands to Leonards Wedding he paid my fare Tom Sedgwick joined us at Leeds   Fanny Stubbs met us at Settle Station   Had a Fly to Taitlands   Had tea there   Tom Sedgwick Wm Nixon & I went to sleep at Stackhouses Leonard went to Richardsons

Thursday January 14

Went to Taitlands to 1st breakfast & helped Uncle to arrange. Went back to Stackhouse’s got dressed   Took Leond to Church & they got wed.  Tom Sedgwick I Wm Stubbs Wm Nixon & Hy Redmayne were Groomsmen   Miss Nixon Mary Redmayne Mary Sedgwick Fanny Stubbs & Margaret Ingelby were bridesmaids. Went to Taitlands Sat down 30 to breakfast at ½ past 12  Bride & Groom started about 2. We some of us walked to Stainforth Foss & on to the rock in front of Taitlands went & had a 1st tea at Stackhouses Went to Taitlands we were above 50 of us Had a splendid dance Got to Stackhouses about ½ past 3 Went to bed about 5 Everything passed off firstrately

In September 1859 he left the office in Boroughbridge at about 2 o'clock taking three ferrets with him and arrived at Settle station at about 8 o'clock.  He visited friends and family in the area and he and his cousin Henry went about with guns and with the ferrets.  He spent his 21st birthday at Taitlands, going morning and afternoon to Stainforth Church – went with his aunt around Giggleswick and Settle as she made calls on friends and acquaintances – and went with the Redmaynes to Clapham to visit their relations the Marriner family at the vicarage and to have fun at Clapham Fair.  He and Henry went to a circus at Settle, went rabbiting about Horton, and shooting in Austwick Wood.  His stay lasted nearly three weeks.

And then in 1862 Thomas and Jane Redmayne died within days of each other.  Their son-in-law Leonard certified that Thomas died of "Chronic softening of the Brain 12 months" and of bronchitis, from which he had suffered for four weeks; Jane died of cancer.  

Their son Henry was only twenty years old, and the executors looked for tenants for Taitlands:

Yorkshire Gazette, 5 April 1862

To be Let, and may be Entered upon forthwith, Taitlands, a desirable Residence ... in the midst of very Romantic Scenery, with the Gardens and Grounds, and Seventeen and a Half Acres of Rich Grass Land.  The House comprises Entrance Hall, Dining, Drawing, and Breakfast Rooms, Eight Bed Rooms, besides Man Servant's Room, and Attics, Butler's Pantry, good Kitchens, Scullery, and excellent Cellars.  The Rooms are spacious and lofty.  The House is in good Repair, and in every respect a suitable Gentleman's Residence.  Good Coach House, Stables, Harness Room, and other convenient Outbuildings adjoining ...

The following year Henry's sister Mary married Dr James Sedgwick of Boroughbridge .  He was Leonard's younger brother and they were married in London, presumably from Leonard and Jane's house:

Morning Post 19 February 1863

Sedgwick - Redmayne.  On the 14th inst., at St Thomas's, Portman-square, by the Rev W Richardson, incumbent of Stainforth, Yorkshire, James Sedgwick, Esq., of Boroughbridge, to Mary, younger daughter of the late Thomas Redmayne, Esq., of Taitlands, Settle, Yorkshire

Five years later, Henry died at Taitlands:

Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer, 19 March 1868

Redmayne - March 13, at Taitlands, near Settle, aged 26, Henry Redmayne, Esq

Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer, 21 March 1868

Stainforth - Military Funeral - At Stainforth, on Wednesday, the members of the North Craven Rifles attended the funeral of Ensign Redmayne, who died on the 13th inst., aged 26 years.  The mournful procession, headed by the rifle corps, the band playing the "Dead March," proceeded from the deceased gentleman's residence, at Taitlands, to St Peter's Church, Stainforth, where his body was interred in the family vault.  The funeral service was read by the Rev Mr Hearnley, after which the accustomed number of three volleys were fired over the grave by the members of the corps

The Taitlands estate was offered for sale by Messrs Hirst & Capes of Knaresborough on 4 April 1868.  Hepper & Sons of Leeds sold the contents of the house.  A couple of their auction advertisements in the Yorkshire Post that June give us a flavour of the life that the family had known:

The Cabinet Furniture of Drawing, Dining, and Breakfast Rooms, in rosewood and Spanish mahogany; Chimney and Pier Glasses, Window Furniture, superior Brussels and Tapestry Carpets, Hearth Rugs, a number of Engravings, a few Books, a small collection of old China, Entrance Hall and fittings, a valuable Eight Days' Clock, which chimes every quarter and strikes the hours: cases of Stuffed Birds, Fire and Side Arms, the mahogany and other appointments of nine Bed and Dressing Rooms, Cut Glass, and transparent and stone China, in services; excellent Kitchen, Scullery, Laundry, and Dairy requisites

The Library of Books, loose Engravings, contents of bedrooms Nos. 5, 6, and 7, valuable guns, superior double brougham, two sets superior harness, Green's lawn mower, and various other effects.

John's friend Thomas Stackhouse bought the house.  He died on 1 April 1872, aged 38, leaving his widow and children to live in the house for many more years.

Stokesley races, 1727

This is the earliest newspaper notice for horse racing at Stokesley that I have been able to find.  You can see that it was a good financial investment for the subscribers to the Plate, as they were the only people entitled to supply the race patrons with food and drink.  

The racecourse at Stokesley was just south of Seamer Moor and more or less north of Brawith (which lies between Tame Bridge and Skutterskelfe); I think the name of Oneholmes Farm in the 19th century was Race Course Farm.  

The Toll Booth in Stokesley stood on the site of the present Town Hall, which replaced it in 1853.  

Newcastle Courant, 13 May 1727

On Trinity-Monday, the 29th Day of May, will be run for in a Field near Stokesley, in Cleaveland, a Subscription Plate, given by Stokesley Inhabitants, 3l. Value, by Galloways, 14 Handshigh or under, three Heats, each Heat 4 Miles, carrying 9 Stone, including Bridle and Saddle, each Horse, &c. to make the usual Allowance as in Galloway Plates, and paying 5s. Entrance, and to be enter'd the same Day betwixt 8 and 11-o'Clock in the forenoon at the Toll Booth in Stokesley; four or more to run or no Plate. 

On Tuesday, the 30th Day of May, will be run for, in the same Field another Subscription Plate, given also by the Inhabitants of Stokesley, 10l. Value, by any Horse, Mare, or Gelding, carrying 10 Stone, including Bridle and Saddle, three Heats, each Heat 4 Miles, each Horse, &c. paying 15s Entrance, and to be enter'd in Stokesley-Toll-Booth, betwixt the Hours of 8 and 11 in the Forenoon of the 29th of May, four or more to run or no Plate, and none to run that has won above 20 l. Prize at one Time, and both the said Races to be govern'd by Articles that will be produced at the Day of Entrance. 

This is to give Notice, that none but Subscribers will be allowed to set up any Tent, Hutt, or retail any Liquor in the Field, where the said Races are to be run.

For a full description of the Galloway pony, I refer the reader to Wikipedia.  It was a breed that is now extinct, but its influence can be seen across the Pennines in the Fell Pony and it was said to have "good looks, a wide, deep chest and a tendency to pace rather than trot."  In the 18th century Galloways were bred in Swaledale to haul lead ore. 

Younger readers might need to know that  3l. = £3, 10l. = £10, and 5s. and 15s. means five shillings and fifteen shillings respectively. (12 pence made 1 shilling; 20 shillings made £1).

This website gives the results of later race meetings held in 1752 and 1782.  I can't find the results of the 1727 races, I'm afraid.

An early Stokesley Show

As the annual Stokesley Show approaches, here is a little item to show that Shows have been taking place at Stokesley for a very long time.

I've preserved the 18th century spelling (as in 'publick' and 'shew') but I leave the reader to imagine the long 's' in words such as horses and first ...

Newcastle Courant, 4 July 1747 

These are to inform the Publick, 

THAT at STOKESLEY in Cleveland in the County of York, there will always for the future be publick SHEWS of Horses, Sheep, Cows, Heifers, and other Cattle; and also a SALE of Linen Cloth and Leather, on the following Days yearly (to wit) on Saturday next after the first Day of August, on Saturday next after the Twenty-ninth Day of September, and on Saturday next before the first Day of Lent; and that the first of the said Shews will be on the Eighth Day of August next.