The War Department requisitions The Manor House at Carlton-in-Cleveland, 1940

The War Department requisitioned many large houses across the country in the Second World War. 

The paperwork for the requisition of the Manor House at Carlton-in-Cleveland has survived.  This is the Agreement with the War Department and the Notice of Requisition.  You can see that Robert Raby is employed as gardener, maintaining the ornamental grounds:

Old picture postcards

More from Ellis Stubbs' postcard album:

Guisborough Priory and Lily Pond

Old Ormesby

Roseberry Topping

Trafalgar Terrace,Coatham

Loch Katrine

High Row, Reeth

Sandsend

(Sorry about the sloppy photography - I was watching the Tour de France in the Dales at the time!)

John Macfarlan Charlton, 21st Northumberland Fusiliers

John Macfarlan Charlton 1891-1916

Jack Charlton was the son of the artist John Charlton (1849-1917) and his wife Catherine Jane Macfarlane (known to family and friends as Kate).

John Charlton senior was born at Bamburgh, and was a celebrated painter of historical and battle scenes.

Kate died in 1893 at the age of 31 leaving two little boys.  She had grown up at Gunnergate Hall and Ugthorpe Lodge – she was the daughter of Catherine Jane Macfarlane (1839-1903) and Thomas Vaughan (1834-1900), the less successful son of ironmaster John Vaughan.

John Macfarlan Charlton was killed on his 25th birthday.  His brother Hugh Vaughan Charlton had been killed the week before.  Their names are recorded on their mother's grave in Marton-in-Cleveland and at Lanercost, where their afflicted father died the following year.

The 'Recent Wills' notice published in the Yorkshire Post on 10 November 1916 noted that John was "an enthusiastic naturalist [and] had written and illustrated several short works on ornithology".

This card is from the postcard album of Elizabeth Grace Ellis Macfarlane (always known as Ellis), the wife of John Richard Stubbs.  Kate Vaughan, the young officer's grandmother, was Ellis's cousin.

Joseph Beresford Shields 1879-1918

I don't know how these papers came to survive in a Deed Box from Meek, Stubbs & Barnley, solicitors, Middlesbrough.

A small envelope contains a letter from Joe Shields to his mother, his birth certificate and a letter from his mother to Mrs (or Miss) Wilson, his friend.  Joe's letter is dated 17 August 1916 and is sent from B Company, 9th Bedfordshire Regiment, stationed at Sittingbourne, and it's about the food he is looking forward to enjoying on a short leave:

His mother was Emily Julia Shields, née Mullen, and Joe was born in Stockton:

In July 1918 Mrs Shields wrote to a Mrs (or Miss, the title is altered in pencil) Wilson at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.  The letter was forwarded to the Victoria Naval Hospital, Southend:

Joe has been reported missing, although his mother is still hoping for good news.  Her letter shows no address but one has been written in pencil on the reverse:

Sadly, there was to be no good news.  Joseph was killed in action on 24 May 1918; his grave is at Pozieres Memorial Cemetery.

It seems likely that the Mrs or Miss Wilson to whom Mrs Shields wrote this touching letter is the Miss Elizabeth Ann Wilson named as an executor of his Will.  She kept the boarding house in which he lived in Leigh-on-Sea.

His last address as a civilian (and the address given in the National Probate Calendar) was 19 Southend Southsea Avenue, Leigh-on-Sea.  He was living there at the time of the 1911 Census, which shows that the boardinghouse keeper was Mrs Elizabeth Ann Wilson, aged 46 and born in Boosbeck, Cleveland, and that Joseph was then 31 years old, unmarried and a draughtsman at the Marine Engine Works.

So it seems probable that Mrs Shields is addressing this Elizabeth Ann Wilson when she writes

I always felt my Dear Son had a good friend in you which I can assure you has taken a load off my mind.  I shall always count you as one of my dearest friends always write to me dear it will be such a consolation to me 

If there are any members of Joe's family out there who would like this letter, do please contact me ...

Jacques-Emile Blanche

I've just added this update to the post on The 'Skirt Dance' of the two Savile Clarke girls:

Update 4 July 2014: for information on Jacques-Emile Blanche, see Artist in Focus (July 2014) on the Public Catalogue Foundation website

Letters Patent of James VI & I

This is a Licence to Alienate.  These Letters Patent of King James VI & I gave Ralph Stowpe permission in 1616 to sell to Robert Layton a cottage, toft & croft, 2 oxgangs & 19 ½ acres of land in the area of Marske, Upleatham and Redcar.

The Great Seal is a little battered. This is the reverse of the deed and the seal:

At some point this deed came into the hands of Middlesbrough solicitor Thomas Duncan Henlock Stubbs.  He took it to the noted scholar and antiquarian Thomas McAll Fallow at Coatham House.

Mr Fallow was born in 1847 and educated at Brighton College and St John's, Cambridge.  He originally intended to take Holy Orders but instead divided his time between parish work and scholarship.  He acted as layhelper to his cousin the Rev R B Kirby at Chapel Allerton, Leeds between 1872 and 1885, and then moved to Coatham where again he was active in the parish but primarily devoted his time to archaeology.  He was editor of The Reliquary and The Antiquary, and died in 1910.  Here is his letter to Stubbs:

And this is his transcription of the Letters Patent:

Probate of Ralph Day, weaver of Great Ayton: 1704

 Probate of Ralph Day 1704