A spinster lady in 19th century Boroughbridge

A glimpse of the life of Alice Stubbs:

Alice Stubbs lived all her life in Boroughbridge.  She was born at 6 o'clock in the morning on 2 August 1844 at Bridge Foot, where her father, a grocer and wine merchant, was the third generation to run the family business.

Alice was the youngest of the six children.  When she was thirteen years old, she went to school at Miss Adcock's in Ilkley with her elder sister Lizzy and her cousin Mary Redmayne of Stainforth.  The following year, in August 1859, she and Mary went to school in Blackheath near London, while Lizzy, aged seventeen, had left education and was making lengthy stays with family and friends.

When Alice's father Thomas died in 1867 Alice was the only child left at home.  Her eldest sister Jane and her growing family had moved to Knaresborough, while Lizzy lived in Doncaster with her husband and new baby.  John was establishing himself as a solicitor in Middlesbrough, and the family must barely have recovered from the loss of Tom, who had died suddenly in London the previous year when aged only thirty-two.  Alice and her mother moved out of the Bridge Foot, leaving it to her eldest brother Joe and his wife, and set up home in St James's Square.  She was twenty-three years old and it was to be her home for the rest of her days

We do not know whether Alice chose spinsterhood.  There is no hint in the family papers that she suffered any disappointment in love – unlike her cousin Fanny Stubbs, the Bishop of Oxford's sister.  Fanny had told John of "her smash with George Robinson" as they walked together to the Castleberg in Settle in August 1856; when she died at the age of forty-one she was still unmarried.  Alice, like Fanny, was the mainstay and companion of her widowed mother Mary.

We can glimpse her daily life through family letters. 

She had local duties and obligations to fulfil.  This included visiting the poor ("districting" as her mother called it), teaching in the Sunday School and helping at the National School.  There were calls to be paid and shopping – or, as her mother still said, "marketing" – to be done.  Alice played tennis, went for walks, and of course attended church.  There were frequent visitors to stay and people called on them and were entertained at meals.  Alice and her mother very much enjoyed "romping" with the little children who were brought to the house. 

Alice herself went to stay with friends and family, for amusement and to be useful.  She went to Redcar, visited Cambridge for the May Bumps “and had great gaiety” when a young relative Charlie Stubbs was rowing in the races, to Hychin Hall near Bury St Edmonds with her cousin Mary Redmayne, to Scarborough with Aunt Henlock.  Aunt Henlock was clearly very fond of Alice –

"We had such a pleasant day at Ouseburn yesterday  Aunt sent for us in the morng   paid the bar [tollbar] and sent us home in the eveng, then I felt overpowered with her presents to me it was so exceedingly kind in fact she did not know how to make sufficient of us"

wrote Alice to John in Feb 1869.

Aunt Henlock's generosity, though it made Alice a little embarrassed, was very welcome.  Finances were a constraint, as although their lives were comfortable their incomes were fixed.  Alice was unable to get to Redcar to see her new nephew soon after the birth because of

"lowness in the purses, the sealskin has never been quite recovered   Alice felt she had not sufficient dress to come with and nothing quarter day"

wrote Mary in March 1872.

"Transferring money does not suit those who have only a limited income   payment deferred for a few months is very inconvenient"

she wrote in April 1872. 

Keeping the balance between the necessity for careful housekeeping and the level of hospitality that she had been accustomed to offer guests – and perhaps felt was expected of her – must have required care.

Alice took her share of the work in the house – and it is clear that they enjoyed their garden:

"Alice is taking in her geraniums"

wrote Mary, and

"... tell dear Ellis our Hyacinths and Narcissus’s are all nicely in flower and though not remarkably fine are very pretty, are yours flowering?"

Mary had run a large household, entertaining customers and family for days in succession during the Fair, and was clearly an excellent manager.  The housekeeping skills possessed by Mary and Alice were valued by the rest of the family:

"I have got a ham if you like to have it weighing 21 pounds for twenty one shillings, would you like another one or not if so we will look out and they could both come together"

Mary wrote in September 1875. 

"I have only been able yet to get you the small ham but if Ellis still wishes for a large I have no doubt we can get one and then shall be sent off by luggage train when we hear from you."

Alice made marmalade for the family, and thereby earned a little more income:

"she has put it into bottles to travel best and altogether has cost 6/-"

wrote her mother to John.

For all housekeepers in Boroughbridge, the seasonal house-cleaning was a major undertaking.  Social life came to a temporary halt while the house was turned out, scrubbed, dusted and whitewashed.  Gas had come to the town in about 1860, but even if the house in St James's Square had replaced oil lamps and candles with gas lighting, the light afforded was dim by comparison with the electricity of the 20th century.  When spring brought brighter sunshine into the darker corners and shadier passages, the grime of a winter of coal fires and smoky wicks would have been all too visible.

"We very much wished to be cleaning"

wrote Mary in March 1872 when it became clear visitors would prevent them, and they were forced to put it off until the beginning of May.  It must have been a trying time, and that year they were unfortunate in the weather.  They were assisted as usual by Bessy (who had been the children's nurse) while her husband Henry Carass the butcher was their whitewasher.  By dint of their combined efforts they were nearly finished by 18 May, but the unseasonable coldness – "it is like Christmas" – made it rather unpleasant.  And it was all to be done again in late autumn, ready for winter.

 "We have had a busy day cleaning the dining room putting down the old carpet etc"

wrote Mary at the end of October, and again on 7 November,

"I do not think we have anything more to tell you everybody is cleaning for Martinmas." 

The stone passages were not easy to keep clean and warm: 

"I am rather anxious to have a new oilcloth for one passage … I cannot have it to cover entirely as no one here could properly fit it so it must only be a certain width … the flags are very rough ones that they may be better not covered altogether, and we always roll it up when we go from home"

wrote Mary in April 1873. 

Another comment by Mary in May 1873 shows how consuming an occupation cleaning was for the whole community:

"Everybody is cleaning so we are very quiet.  Alice will be doing all her drawers &c I cannot persuade her to take them quietly I tell her she will be worn out before her time"

Unsurprisingly, Mary grew increasingly reluctant to take on the burden without Alice.  In 1874, when she and John were attempting to fix a date for Alice to visit him at Coatham, Mary wrote

"We must have house cleaning and I do not feel equal to undertaking it alone."

 The house was turned upside down in the process.  When in May 1874 her daughter Jane Capes wrote in the middle of cleaning

"to say she and Henry would come for the night, today was the Audit [probably of the Workhouse Union, which Henry would have to attend] we had not a carpet down up stairs but we took them they slept in the nursery bed (rather small you will say) but they seemed content."

In spring 1875 Mary was 72 years old – that year she found

"the extra work of dusting &c has made my sight rather more dim for we have had a very busy week and thankful it is over."

John and his wife Ellis made Alice the fine present of a sewing machine.  Isaac Singer improved on earlier machines and patented his own design in 1851, achieving such success that by 1860 Singers were the market leaders.  When Ellis prepared her own trousseau in March 1871 she had the use of a sewing machine, remarking to John in a letter from her mother's house in Helensburgh

"10 bodies.  No easy task"

as she sewed her underwear.  She must have realised how very useful Alice would find one.

The machine was set up on the table that Mary used for writing letters.  On 22 February 1872, she wrote to John

"Alice is machining beside me and makes me very shaky but she says to tell them every time I use it I feel more inwardly grateful to them both for it and her best love to Ellis and thanks for her letter."

and the following month

"Alice is machining by me petticoat bottoms &c   she does prize her valuable gift it has done a great deal this week bed curtains &c &c"

It enabled Alice to earn a little money by carrying out commissions for the family.  She did some sewing for Ellis and the children: 

"tell Ellis the frock was sent off to her on Monday"

wrote Mary in February 1874. 

The sisters-in-law both evidently enjoyed discussing clothes and Ellis must have been a useful source of information for Alice.   Boroughbridge had become a much quieter town since the railways came, while Coatham and Redcar were popular seaside resorts, giving Ellis the opportunity to see the lady visitors in their best holiday attire.  The sewing machine must have been particularly valuable in the 1870s, when dresses were decorated with a uantity of elaborate trimmings:

"Am I to have Pekay [piqué] dress or what else can you recommend for I have 6 yards of embroidery to trim it with?"

wrote Alice to Ellis in April 1872.

"Alice begs I will tell Ellis she wore her blue dress"

Mary wrote in July 1873.

Ellis went to visit John’s family for the first time on 28 December 1870. She had met John in late November when they were fellow guests of Thomas Vaughan, the ironmaster.  Tom was a friend of John's, and his wife Kate Macfarlane was Ellis's cousin.  Ten days after their first meeting, John and Ellis were engaged to be married.  Ellis's first visit to Boroughbridge was naturally a matter of great importance, and as he was unable to accompany her, he depended on the post for news.

Her letters give us a glimpse of life in St James's Square.  She wrote to him of sitting in her room beside such a cosy fire, watching old Bessie in the kitchen preparing a turkey, coming in

"from such a nice dinner – and as Alice insisted in me taking some port you must excuse bad writing!?!"

coming home from church and

"taking a nice warm cup of coffee to lunch."

 A few months later, when he was staying at Boroughbridge, she wrote,

"I imagine when you receive this you will be just dressing in the nice comfortable room I slept in perhaps just out of your bath as I was when I received yours." 

Alice died on 23 July 1921.  A loving soul, she was much loved herself.  In a letter to his mother on 15 February 1885 John wrote,

"Don’t please trouble about Alice.  So long as I am able, she shall never want a home, but she will have enough to make her independent of any of us"

 In 1909 Alice wrote to Ellis,

"words will never express what you have been to me throughout the whole of your married life and it was one of dear Granny’s great causes of thankfulness that John had chosen such a wife.  Also that I had gained such a true and loving sister."

Queen Victoria is proclaimed in Boroughbridge, 1837

This seems to be the draft of an account of the proclamation of the young Queen Victoria, written for the Intelligencer:

“Boro’Bridge
On Friday the 30th Ult at 2 o’clock P.M. the Queen was proclaimed in the Town with every demonstration of loyalty.  Wm Hirst Esq [‘Esq’ is deleted in pencil, and ‘Mr’ written above ‘Wm’] (in the stead of the Borough Bailiff who was indisposed) accompanied by the Sheriff’s Officer, read the Proclamation in the Square in the presence of a large concourse of people.  The children of the National & Infant Schools formed a large circle & were regaled with negus and Biscuits, and the populace had several Barrels of ale distributed amongst them.  The Proclamation was received with hearty British English cheers, after which the procession being formed & headed by two Bands of music moved to other parts of Town where the Proclamation was read with similar expressions of loyalty - after which a large party of Gent. adjourned to the Crown Inn, where the health of the young Queen with many [other?] patriotic toasts was drunk with due honors and the remainder of the afternoon spent in the greatest good humour.  The Procession was accompanied by a great number of ladies who contributed in no small degree to enliven the scene.”

The solicitor William Hirst was married to John Richard Stubbs' aunt Elizabeth Stubbs (1798-1858).

He was of a local family – one uncle was Thomas Dew, borough bailiff and a partner in the Boroughbridge Bank with Thomas Stubbs and others; another uncle was Henry Hirst, a Northallerton solicitor. 

Hirst’s career bridges the old and the new.  He was the agent for the Duke of Newcastle, who owned the rotten boroughs of Boroughbridge and Aldborough in the last days before Parliamentary Reform.  And he was Boroughbridge's first Postmaster.  He must have had a finger in every pie in Boroughbridge during his years in practice!

A Boroughbridge Boyhood: Epilogue

What happened to John's family in later years?

Aunt Ann Pick died in 1860 at the age of fifty and her husband William in 1872.  Aunt Bell, the active spinster aunt, died in 1880 at the home of her niece Jane Capes.

Uncle William Henlock died in 1866.  In his Will he left the sum of £200, the interest of which was to

William Henlock of Great Ouseburn

be distributed to the poor of the parish by the Vicar and Churchwardens.  His wife Ellen died in 1885.  They are both commemorated in a memorial on the wall of the church of St Mary the Virgin at Great Ouseburn, where there is also a plaque recording Mr Henlock's legacy.

Uncle William Hirst died in 1879 at the age of eighty-one.

He had outlived his daughter Dorothy, who died the year before.  John recorded her funeral on 28 November 1878:   

went to poor Dora Hirst’s funeral at 3 o clock.  She was buried at BB Church.  Tremendous funeral.  All the Shops closed.  Grannie [his mother] and Alice went and so did all from Uncles except Uncle who is still very poorly.  It is indeed a sad day at BB. 

She was fifty-one years old and is commemorated by a stained glass window in the church to which she had been devoted through her life.  Her unmarried sister Mary Barker Hirst lived alone in Boroughbridge after the death of Dora and her father.

Their sister Sophy Hirst married William Thompson, a London auctioneer with family in Bridlington.  They lived in Russell Square in some style – they were holidaying in Nice in 1880.  After Sophy's death in 1900 and William's retirement, he and his unmarried daughter Edith Wharton Thompson moved north to Harrogate.

John's cousin Mary Redmayne, wife of his friend James Sedgwick, the Boroughbridge doctor, was a  sociable, kind and active neighbour often mentioned in letters by John's mother.  She died “of apoplexy” on the night of Whit Sunday 1892 “very suddenly at Victoria Station London”.  She was fifty years old.  James and his unmarried son and daughter left Ladywell House and the practice to Dr Daggett and moved to Wimbledon, perhaps to be near his son Hubert Redmayne Sedgwick and his family; Hubert was a surgeon at St Thomas's.

13. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: "Mulled ale at Starbeck"

John gives few details of Christmas celebrations.  Family letters from the 1870s show that they had a turkey for dinner, hung mistletoe, gave presents and ate plum cake, but in his 1850s diaries John records only one Christmas present:

Thursday December 23rd 1858
To office.   At night rode Joes mare to Uncle Picks.   Aunt gave me two white pocket handkerchiefs & a £1  for a Christmas Box  Got home about ten

It was not often that all the family could be together, so this must have been a precious time for John’s mother.  We have a glimpse of one such occasion in the following terse entries from 1856, which record John’s cold journey to Starbeck station to meet his brother Tom, the drive back in the dark, taking communion together at Boroughbridge church, the walk with the dogs in thick snow and the evening by the fire …

Wednesday December 24th 1856
Went to Office   Retd to Breakfast  Had a letter from Tom saying I was to meet him at Starbeck at 8.25 tonight.   At Noon had a walk up Topcliffe Road   At Night Drove to Starbeck to meet Tom  Left here at six   Got home about half past ten   Had some mulled Ale at Starbeck   It was very dark

Thursday December 25th 1856
Christmas Day
Went to Office   Did the Mail   Went to BB Church in the morning   Stayed Sacrament  Father Tom & I went to Aldbro in the Afternoon  After we came back had a walk with the Dogs a mile up Topcliffe Road & back  It snowed hard.   Dick Hirst & Aunt Bell had tea with us.   Sat & talked all the evening

St James's Square, Boroughbridge (early C20 postcard)

12. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: “Helped to arrange about the Wedding Breakfast”

Weddings in John’s circle were not celebrated on the large scale of today.  When John’s brother Joe was married to Sarah Sedgwick in York, John did not go:

Tuesday May 12th 1857
Father & Mother  Capes & Jane set off in Mrs Morrells Cab to Joes Wedding at ½ past seven.   Went to office.   At Noon was about home.   At Night I went to Uncles   Miss Milnthorp  Mrs M Smith & Miss Fretwell were there

Wednesday May 20th 1857
Had breakfast at Uncles.   At Noon went to Langthorpe.   At Night Rode Uncle Hirsts pony to Marton with Grafton on business & from there to Ouseburn   Had supper at Uncle Picks   got home at ¼ to ten   Got a pickle Fork Aunt Ann got in York for me to give to Joe & Sarah

Joe and Sarah were away only a couple of days, before they returned to live in Langthorpe:

Friday May 22nd 1857
Had breakfast at Uncle’s   At Noon went to Langthorp.   At Night Capes & I went up the River   I shot 2 rats  Joe & Sarah came home   Uncle came home from London

Sarah was a cousin of the Sedgwicks of Aldborough.  Her father Leonard Sedgwick, brother of Dr Roger, was a wholesale tea dealer in York.

11. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: Aunts, sisters, cousins: “a jolly walk we had”

John’s aunt Elizabeth Hirst – his father’s sister, still commemorated in stained glass in Boroughbridge church – had been a loving companion to her husband Henry:

Monday November 3rd 1856
Went to Office  Had breakfast at Uncles as he was going to London & Aunt wanted to go to the Station to see him off …

She kept a cow:

Tuesday November 25th 1856
Went to Office.   Retd to Breakfast   At Noon Had a walk with Capes towards Kirby Hill by the fields.   At Night Joe & I walked to see Aunt Hirsts cow which they were expecting to calve.   Went home  read Law

and, like John, she too sorted the letters for the post:

Friday February 15th 1856
Was at the Office   Had breakfast at Uncles   went to Howells with a letter Aunt had missed putting into their bag …

10. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: "Very ill not likely to get better"

Death was never far away. 

Monday January 26th 1857
… Rode Joes Mare to Humberton to enquire of Lydia Smith who was very ill not likely to get better …

Saturday March 12th 1859
…   Mrs Clark of Ellinthorp Hall was confined   child dead  Mother was there

Tuesday March 22nd 1859
To office.   At Night went to a spread to Mrs Powells   Two Miss Smiths of Burton   Charlesworth  Miss R Stott   Steele  Capes & I were there     we played cards    got home about ½ past eleven
Annie Sedgwick died today

In September 1858, John’s parents and Uncle and Aunt Hirst had gone away with friends and family to Redcar for a holiday.  Mary Hirst and her sister Jane were with them, but the others had remained behind:

Tuesday September 28th 1858
To office.   At Noon went down to the Cricket field.   At Night went to Joes & from there to the train to meet the Hirsts & Miss Thompson coming from Duncombe Park.   Leonard Sedgwick was telegraphed for to Aunt Hirst who was ill at Redcar

Wednesday September 29th 1858
To office.   At Noon at the Cricket Field.   About 3 o’clock Rd Hirst came with a note which Mr Roger Buttery had brought from Redcar to say Dora  Sophy & Rd [Hirst] were to go by the 6 train to Redcar as Mrs Hirst was very ill   They went by the train but received a message at Pilmoor [station] to say they were to return as poor Aunt was dead.   Leond came home from Redcar & Mary Hirst also came with him.   She died about 3 o’clock of paralysis apoplexy

Thursday September 30th 1858
To office.   Had breakfast at Uncles  At noon Father & Mother came from Redcar also Uncle Hirst & Mrs Chas Stubbs and the corpse came by Ripon  At night Had tea at Joes

Mrs Charles Stubbs was the Hirsts’ eldest child Jane, now thirty four years old.  She had married one of the London cousins, Charles Stewart Stubbs, when she was twenty.  Four years later she was widowed when Charles died in a riding accident.  Her third child, Alice, was born three months later. 

Saturday October 2nd 1858
To office.   At Noon at Uncles directing funeral cards …

Monday October 4th 1858
To office.   At 12 o’clock we committed the remains of poor Aunt to the grave.   She was borne shoulder height by 6 men & a pall was borne by 8 ladies.   There was a large funeral.   Holdsworth & Owen performed the ceremony   At Night read law

9. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: Boroughbridge

Threading through the diary entries are glimpses of Boroughbridge and the countryside around: John records taking visitors to see the Devil’s Arrows or the Aldborough Pavement; riding his cousin Richard Hirst’s mare to the top of Gibbet Hill; going to the river “to bathe through the pasture and jolly it was”; walking down the river past Ramsdens; walking through Langthorpe down Dog Kennel Lane; going to the Water Cress Spring near Low Dunsforth; walking to the Ouseburn Bar. 

People appear, mentioned fleetingly.  In April 1856 John had his hair cut at Bulmer’s and his watch mended at Glew’s.  He got a dog from Capes, that Capes had bought from Mr Peacock, the relieving officer.  He went fishing and ferreting with Slater, the Roecliffe gamekeeper, or at the Mill with Baldrey (possibly the young schoolmaster lodging at Whixley in 1851).  He and his friend Smallwood walked up the river to drink porter at Bickerdikes.  On summer evenings he would play or watch the cricket – on 3 July 1856 he watched the match between Langton Wold and Boroughbridge.

There were annual events: the fairs, November the Fifth – in 1856 John walked round the town to see the fireworks on November 5th (Dr Sedgwick had his display two days earlier).  There were visiting attractions – travelling circuses  (Cookes or Pablo Fanque’s) were always a great favourite but sometimes the entertainment was rather more unusual:

Monday January 14th 1856
Went to Office   Sat with Aunt Hirst as all the rest were at Eagles Clairvoyant Entertainment   Read Blackstone

Miss Eagle of Eagles Clairvoyant Entertainment was staying at the White Horse Inn – a couple of days later Bessie Carrass went to ask her for news of John’s uncles Richard and Giles Henlock, who had emigrated to New Zealand in about 1835.  Miss Eagle (inaccurately) predicted Richard’s return in 1857.  Both are mentioned in Uncle William Henlock’s Will made in 1865 and it seems Richard died in Australia in 1876.

Monday November 7th 1859
to office.   At night read Equity at the office.   Went at noon to call at Mrs Parkers   Went at night to Miss Grace Egertons entertainmt at the White Horse

Mrs Morrell of the White Horse also kept vehicles for hire – in May 1857 the cab was hired to take John’s parents, sister Jane and Mr Capes to Joe’s wedding in York; in March 1858 John and his friend Mark Smallwood went in Morrells’ phaeton to Ripon to visit friends; in February 1859 John and a friend went in Morrells’ dogcart to a party in Humburton; and in November 1859 a large party of ten people took Morrells’ omnibus to Thornton Bridge to a party at Thomas Lund’s house.

8. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: "About in the Fair"

Wednesday June 18th 1856
Went to Office   At Noon Was about in the fair   At Night Steele  E.C.Clarke  Leonard  Joe  Capes  Schofield & I went down to the Swale Nab in the boat  it came on wet & we got wet through   we pulled up through the far arch   there was a little fresh down but we grated on the bottom.

The Barnaby Fair in June was the highlight of the year.  John’s parents were busy entertaining – they usually had people staying for the fair and friends, relations and valued customers would be invited to dine.  The young men were free to enjoy themselves – when they were not at work:

Monday June 23rd 1856
Drove home from Dishforth   Went to Office   At Noon I rode over to Dishforth for some Deeds   I had dinner there.   came home & went to the Office   At Night was walking about in the fair    saw two or three battles & a tumble off or two   helped the Constables & had some fine fun

Tuesday June 24th 1856
Went to office   At Noon was about home   Mr Robt Workman & Mrs W.  [of Arksey] dined with us & Uncle Wm & Aunt [Henlock].   At Night was about in the fair   Went to sup at the D[octo]rs came away about 11   Capes  Joe & I walked round the fair   had some fun & came home.

Wednesday June 25th 1856
Went to office.   At Noon was about home   At Night The Clarks of Ellinthorp  Steele & E.C.Clark  The Sedgwicks & the Hirsts were at our house to tea    we had a walk in the garden   we had singing &c   Sophy H.   Mary Sedgwick & I went into the fair to buy pins &c of Mrs Dickinson.   They left about 11

Monday June 22nd 1857
Went to Office.   At Noon was about in the fair   Nineteen of us sat down to dinner   After dinner Mr John Mitchell & I had a walk in the fair.   At Night Richd Paver, Young Houseman  Joe  Capes & I had a stroll in the fair

Richard Paver was the twenty-year-old son of the vicar of Brayton, near Selby, and related to the Picks and Howes of Ouseburn, where he learned farming.  When in 1872 he inherited Ornhams Hall from Mr Crow, he changed his name to Paver Crow.

By the early 1880s John’s mother was writing sadly,

The town looks miserably quiet and all the families are going away for Barnaby, what a change from the old times.

7. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: “Got out at the back door & went to the Newsroom”

Tuesday January 29th 1856
Went to Office   at Noon had a walk with Jane & Lizzy & Joe a mile up Topcliffe road & round by Milby   At Night went & read Blackstone at H Carrass’, before tea   After tea went again to Carrass’ with Joe had a rubber at wist   Uncle Hirst came for Sophy.   Joe & I got out at the back door & went to the Newsroom

The Subscription Newsroom at the White Horse Inn was a favourite place for John to read the papers – the lurid details of the Palmer poisoning trial, perhaps, or a little of the Tory periodical, the Quarterly Review – to meet friends or even, as in May 1856, to clean his gun. 

Saturday January 3rd 1857
Went to Office   Returned to Breakfast.   At Noon went to Capes’.   At Night I went to Newsroom Met Leond  Tom & Jim Sedgwick there   Leond & I had a regular split because our Tom called at their house once when he was here & would not go again because he was not asked in  he did not see the Doctor.   Called at Henry Carass’  Read Shakespeare

John’s older brother Tom had been home for a few days over Christmas, and clearly John was very angry with the Sedgwick brothers for the breach of hospitality – Tom had not been asked in to the house when he called on the Sedgwicks during his brief stay.  Perhaps the doctor’s household was in some disarray – Dr Roger Sedgwick died in early April.  At any event the “regular split” did not impair their relationship – they remained friends for life.

6. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: "Enjoyed ourselves extremely"

Tuesday January 15th 1856
Went to the Office   Mrs Workman  Mr Robert W  Mr Henlock & Mrs dined with us at 2 o’clock   I left the Office at  2  returned at 4   Went to the Doctors [Sedgwicks’] in the Evening   Danced   had supper & enjoyed ourselves extremely   A Family party  Leonard’s birthday

Breakfast was after a little bit of studying or opening the post at the office.  Dinner was the main meal of the day – whenever it took place – but here in rural Yorkshire it was generally in the middle of the day or the early afternoon.  Tea was in the early evening, supper later on.  Dinner, tea and supper – all were opportunities for parties and gatherings in this gregarious, sociable world.

Mr Robert Crawshaw Workman farmed at Arksey, near Doncaster.  The Workmans were connections of the Henlocks, John's mother's family – Margaret Henlock married William Workman.  Mr and Mrs Henlock were John’s uncle and aunt from Great Ouseburn. 

Tuesday January 22nd 1856
Went to office.   Retd to Breakfast   felt rather tired.   At Noon walked with Jane up the Topcliffe Road   Had tea with Aunt Hirst   went to a small party to supper at Aunt Bells.   had my fortune told by her.   Got home about ½ past eleven.   Uncle Hirst & Dora came home from London & Ann Stubbs came with them

No wonder John felt tired – he had been up till 4 o’clock in the morning waiting for the cow to calve.  Jane was his elder sister, who would soon marry young Mr Capes of her uncle Hirst’s office.  Dora was his cousin Dorothy Hirst, who died unmarried aged fifty-one.  She led a quiet life of useful works to the community and her family and is commemorated by a stained glass window in Boroughbridge church.  Ann Stubbs was one of the London relations.

5. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: Holidays

If the working day in the 1850s was a great deal less frenetic than today, holidays were fewer.  John’s parents would generally go to a seaside resort, often Redcar, for a week or two.  They went in a large party of family and friends to stay in lodging houses – in 1856 they went twice, in July and in October.  John went on Saturday 18th October to meet them there:

Saturday October 18th 1856
Went to Office.   At Noon about home   At Night I went to Redcar   left at ¼ past six   got there ½ past nine   Mr Clark of Ellinthorp went at Noon   Father & Mother  Aunt & Uncle Redmayne  Sarah Sedgwick & Miss Cunnyngham were there   Mr Clark & I slept and had breakfast on Sunday & Monday   he pd my exps at the Inn

Heaton Clark of Ellenthorpe Hall married Miss Jane Hewit Cunynghame in November 1857 – the groom was sixty seven years old and the bride aged thirty seven.  Sarah Sedgwick married John’s brother Joe in 1857.

Sunday October 19th 1856
Clark & I went on the Sands before breakfast   Uncle R & I went to Redcar Church   the rest went to Coatham  Had a walk in the afternoon   Sarah  Aunt & I went to Coatham at night

Monday October 20th 1856
Got up had breakfast at the Inn   Saw Clark off by the 7.50 train to Yarm Fair  Saw Uncle R & Aunt & Miss Cunnyngham off by 11 train   Had a bathe in the Sea   Father & I walked to Coatham  had some porter at the Lobster   Walked about all day   Set off for home at 5.20.   Had a very jolly visit

4. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: "Went to office"

From 1855 John was a clerk in his uncle Hirst’s office, entering into articles later – he wrote to the legal stationers’ Butterworths in May 1857 with a postal order for fourteen shillings and sixpence for a copy of Wharton’s Manual for Articled Clerks.  He was paid £10 a year in two instalments and kept a careful account of his money: in January 1855, his expenses included a Coat for 1 shilling and Trowsers for ninepence; in May 1855 he spent threepence on a haircut and sixpence on Braces; and in June 1855 he spent five shillings on Powder & Shot.

His working day began with sorting the post, as his uncle Hirst was the Boroughbridge postmaster.  He had a break at noon, when he often records taking a walk, reading a book or calling on friends or family.  It seems to have been an hour’s break as he often writes of ‘leisure hour’ and he seems to have gone home to dinner:

Friday November 7th 1856
Had dinner at Uncles   Just went home to say I should not be at home to dine & then went back to the Office.   Had a very hard day   After tea went home & read law.   Came back to sup & looked thro’ some of the Library books.   Joe had tea with us.

Friday January 16th 1857
Went to office.   At Noon just went home & got dinner  returned immediately as we were very busy today.   At Night Aunt Bell had tea at our house  I went with her to sup at Jane’s  Joe & Tom Sedgwick walked to Ouseburn today.   They got home 12 at night

3. A Boroughbridge boyhood in the 1850s: The Yorkshire Volunteers

Some of the young men belonged to the Territorial Army of the day, the Yorkshire Volunteers.  John’s father had been a Volunteer himself in his youth.  This letter survives, written by Thomas, then aged twenty nine, from Bradford.  The dry summer had closed mills across Yorkshire and the Volunteers had been sent to Bradford where the introduction of steam power to John Garnett Horsfall’s worsted mill had triggered unrest.  Thomas and Mary had been married eighteen months and Mary was heavily pregnant with her first child, Jane:

Bradford 3 May 1826
My Dear Mary,
I cannot at present say when I shall be able to be at home.  Lord Grantham arrived here last night, and has given orders for the whole Regiment to assemble here, I fancy to relieve those who have been on duty since Saturday.  It will please you to hear that we shall not go to York or elsewhere on permanent duty this year as our attendance here will make up for that, which makes me think that Lord Grantham will keep us the number of days we should have been at York, respecting the particulars of our marches &c I will give you by word of mouth.
Bradford is very still, and not a disorderly person to be seen in the streets, we have not had occasion to be on horseback since we arrived and if we stay some time longer it will be the case, there has not been the least disturbance but on Thursday night last, and that only the windows of Mr Horsfalls mill broken, the Inhabitants think nothing of it.
You cannot now find fault with me for not writing.  I wish I had something worth writing to you about, however I know this that a letter softens the pain of absence.
You will have seen Mr Stead before you receive this he will tell you the news and the battles we have fought.  I long to see you, if Stead returns I should like to hear from you, by him, I am now going to receive orders for our Troop, and by the time they are finished the post will have left which obliges me to conclude with best love to my dearest Mary, and all relations at Bbridge,
believe me to remain as before your loving Husbd T Stubbs

2. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: "Good sport"

Monday January 21st 1856
…  Sat up till 4 o’clock in the morning expectg cow calving   She calved about an hour after I got to bed …  Calved red & white Heifer Calf.

The Stubbs family had once been more prosperous – in the days before the railways, when the Great North Road was filled with traffic, Boroughbridge had been a thriving, bustling town and there had been plenty of business for the wine merchant and grocer at the Bridge Foot.  The house had even featured on the five guinea note of the Boroughbridge Bank established by John’s father, together with Thomas Dew, Hugh Stott (the doctor who owned The Crown Inn) and Humphrey Fletcher of Minskip.  By 1856 trade had dwindled and the family’s fortunes with it – but they still owned a little land at Langthorpe, necessary for the house cow and the pony needed for deliveries.

Wednesday February 20th 1856
Went with Mr Roger [Buttery] to Brafferton to Murfits to see a pig which was expected to weigh 60 stones   Had breakfast   Dick [Hirst] came with me to the Station came home by 9 o’clock train

Tuesday afternoon, at the office – a letter came for John from his cousin Sophy Hirst, staying with the Buttery family at Helperby, inviting John to a party that night.  He enjoyed it “very fairly”, stayed the night and was up in time to visit the giant pig before taking the train back to Boroughbridge.  The Butterys – Mr and Mrs Roger, Mr Thomas and Mr William, were relatives of the Stubbs.  To the Butterys again in March, where his cousin Dick Hirst was learning farming:

Sunday March 16th 1856
Went twice to Brafferton Church   saw the Smiths   called at Thos Buttery   went with Dick Hirst to chop turnips for the Sheep.   At night we sat in the house

Years later, established as a solicitor in Middlesbrough and living first in Coatham and then in Ormesby, John always managed to keep a few farm animals himself – even though, as his mother reminded him, amateur farming does not pay.

1. A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: Introducing John Stubbs

Saturday January 1st 1853
Stayed at home in the morning & helped to clip the pony & had a ride in the evening on the pony

John Richard Stubbs was fourteen years old when he made his first entry in his new diary.  He lived beside the River Ure in Boroughbridge, opposite the Crown, once a famous posting house.  His home was called the Bridge Foot, where his family had lived, kept their warehouse and run their business since his grandfather’s day – wine merchants, grocers and tea dealers since 1790. 

Monday January 3rd 1853
Rode the pony to Knaresboro to the Sessions dined at the Royal Oak & rode back at night & went to Uncle Hirst’s to supper

John’s eldest brother Joseph, now aged nearly twenty-four, would take over the firm.  He had learned his trade from his father and in London and was back at home working in the business.  Eighteen-year-old Thomas was away, apprenticed to a Master Vintner.  John was destined for the law.

A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: the diaries of John Stubbs

The next series of posts will be an account of John Richard Stubbs' boyhood in Boroughbridge. 

John Richard Stubbs was born on 2 October 1838 at five minutes past three o'clock in the morning at the Bridge Foot, Boroughbridge.  His parents were Thomas Stubbs (1796-1867) and Mary Henlock (1803-91).  John was one of six children.  His brothers and sisters were Jane (1826-1902), Joseph (“Joe”) (1829-1906), Thomas (“Tom”) (1834-66), Mary Elizabeth (“Lizzy”) (1842-1914) and Alice (1844-1921).

John married Ellis Macfarlane on 13 April 1871 at Claremont House, Helensburgh.  They had three children:  Thomas Duncan Henlock (1872-1931), Mary Kathleen (1874-1948) and William Henlock who died in 1886 at the age of seven.

John qualified as a solicitor in May 1860 and started in practice in the newly incorporated borough of Middlesbrough in February 1861; he was one of the earliest solicitors in the town.  His entry in the 1903 Contemporary Biographies of the North & East Ridings of Yorkshire reads:

John Richard Stubbs, J.P., Park End, Ormesby, near Middlesbrough; son of Thomas and Mary Stubbs (née Henlock); born at Boroughbridge, October 2nd 1838; educated at Giggleswick.  Solicitor; Notary Public; Commissioner for Oaths; Clerk to the Justices for the Division of Langbaurgh North; Official Receiver in Bankruptcy for the Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, and Northallerton Districts; Justice of the Peace for the borough of Middlesbrough.  Married, April 13th 1871 at Helensburgh, N.B. [North Britain], Elizabeth Grace Ellis, daughter of Duncan Macfarlane.

John must have initially retired from practice in 1908 when he gave his law library to Middlesbrough Town Council, but it seems that the pressure of war and the absence of so many of the younger men brought him out of retirement in January 1915.  However, he was now an old man and had suffered the loss in 1914 of his fifteen-year-old grandson, a midshipman on HMS Aboukir.  His health failing, he died on 6 December 1916 at Coatham, aged 78 years.

Alfred Pease of Pinchinthorpe Hall wrote to John's son:

… When a father dies no matter what his age it makes a gap in the family that is never filled again and in your case I am certain the loss will be deeply felt, for few men by their qualities compare with your father.  In the days when I constantly met him I learnt his worth and held him in honour and I may say too in affection – a most just, kind, gentleman …

His widow Ellis died on 30 April 1922 at Scriven Lodge, Knaresborough and was buried at Coatham on 3 May.

For much of his life, John kept a diary noting the main events of his day.  The entries for the 1850s are generally written in small pocket diaries, 4½ by 3 inches in size, with a week to a page.  They are not reflective or introspective, but offer a picture of the daily life and surroundings of John, his relatives, neighbours and friends.  As this may be of interest to local and family historians, I have tried to reflect this in my account of John's early life.

Unfortunately, as nobody remembered to write the names under the photographs in the family album, my choice of illustrations was limited!

John Richard Stubbs (1838-1916), Boroughbridge-born Middlesbrough solicitor

John Richard Stubbs (1838-1916) came to Middlesbrough in February 1861 as a newly qualified solicitor some eight years after the new town was incorporated as a borough in 1853.  An active and gregarious man and an excellent shot, he soon took his place in the social, professional and sporting life of the area.

John was born in Boroughbridge, the son of Thomas Stubbs and Mary Henlock.  His family tree is set out in The Genealogical History of the Family of the late Bishop Stubbs (1915, Volume 55 of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society).  John and Bishop William were cousins on both their fathers' and mothers' sides – their fathers were brothers and their mothers were second cousins. John's immediate family is to be found on page 71 with one error.  His sister Alice did not die in 1891 but survived until 1921.

His diaries cover the years 1853, 1855-7, 1858/9, 1860, 1862-74 and 1876-1907.  The entries are not descriptive or reflective, but consist of short notes of his activities.  They give us a glimpse of the daily life of his home town of Boroughbridge and the nearby villages, his school days in Settle and his adult life in Coatham and Middlesbrough, but the principal value to Teesside historians must lie in the record they provide of the circles of professional connection,  friendship and kinship which lay behind the municipal and business life of Middlesbrough.

I plan to begin on John Stubbs' papers next and to post pieces from research I did some years ago – one result of this can already be seen in the article on Branwell Brontë's Honest & Kindly Friend.  I have decided that the best way to make the contents of the diaries available to fellow local historians is to photograph the pages and add a note of the names mentioned to each blogpost so that they will be found by a search engine.

We shall see (eventually) how this new project goes!

Ledgers of the Stubbs business in Boroughbridge, 1790-1830

The Stubbs family business has already appeared in this blog in the account of the Five Guinea Note from the Boroughbridge Bank.

Ledgers of the Stubbs business for the years between 1790 and 1830 are held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office [NYCRO ZGB].  What follows are the notes I made for NYCRO in 2008, when the ledgers returned from conservation:-

These ledgers relate to the business established by Thomas Stubbs (1761-1838) at the house and premises known as the Bridge Foot, Boroughbridge. 

Thomas Stubbs was the grandfather of Bishop William Stubbs of Oxford, the eminent historian.   Stubbs “recommended the following up of local and personal history as leading to a connexion with the greater streams and lines of social and political history that is full of direct interest, which a man can have all to himself” [1].  He used his own family history as an example:

“... My grandfather’s house stood on the ground on which Earl Thomas of Lancaster was taken prisoner by Edward II, on the very site of the battle of Boroughbridge; he, too, was churchwarden of the chapel in which the earl was captured....” [2]

The Bridge Foot was a house the Bishop knew well.

Thomas Stubbs  was born in Ripley, the son of Thomas Stubbs (born in Hampsthwaite, 1735-1805) and Elizabeth Walls of Milby (1743-99) [3].  His father had chosen to leave Nidderdale, where the family had lived and farmed for many generations, to become a grocer in Ripley. 

In his turn, Thomas junior left Ripley for the thriving town of Boroughbridge, where he set himself up as a grocer, tea dealer and wine and spirit merchant living and working at the Bridge Foot. 

Boosbeck Steam Saw Mills Co Ltd, 1874

This is rather hard to read! (The triple dots mark the point where I have given up for the moment.)  But I can't think that much can have survived from this company, which was wound up a couple of years later, so I think it is worth posting here.  Here is my (partial) transcription:

Boosbeck Steam Saw Mills Company Ltd

7 Sept 1874 

to JR Stubbs Esq Middlesbro 

Dear Sir
At a meeting of the Directors of the above company the following minute was entered
"That Mr Stubbs & Mr Macfarlane draw up a report to present to shareholders, and that the report be embodied under the following heading" viz.
"That proper machinery in first instance having been obtained, consequently the house to be taken down and suitable machinery erected in its place, thereby entailing extra cost - The dullness arising from recent strike, and the great difficulty in obtaining lathes, saws &c owing to the disturbed state of the trade [...] and the want of system in keeping the accounts and separating them under their proper headings"
"The Books have now been remodelled and all the proper machinery processed and the Directors hope to be able to write off this loss by next year"
I may add that the meeting of shareholders was fixed for Saturday September 19th at Boosbeck at 3 pm.  You will however receive due notice of this shortly.  The above resolution was proposed by Mr Walker & seconded by Mr Anderson
I am yours faithfully [...]

John Richard Stubbs was Official Receiver in Bankruptcy.

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

Thomas Graham of Ayton Hall & his family

More notes on Thomas Graham. 

For this information I am very grateful to Trevor Littleton of the Cumbria FHS:-

The parents of Monkhouse & Thomas Graham were Thomas Graham and Ann Bell.  She was the sister of William Bell of Tarraby Farm.

Margaret Graham, sister of Monkhouse & Thomas, married James Maguire, a cattle dealer from Co Antrim.  In 1841 their daughter Mary Ann married James Forster, who farmed at Tarraby.

When Mary Ann Forster's mother Margaret Maguire died aged 70 in 1850 ("deeply regretted, and most deservedly respected. She was an affectionate parent and a sincere friend to the poor" according to the notice in the Carlisle Journal) she was living at The Beeches, Tarraby.  When Mary Ann Forster writes to her uncle Thomas Graham of repairs to the house, it appears that she is referring to work being done to The Beeches.  The builders were apparently still at work when the house was put up for let:

Carlisle Journal, Friday 8th November 1850

To be LET, and Entered upon immediately , an excellent DWELLING HOUSE &c, situate at TARRABY, the residence of the late Mrs. MAGUIRE; consisting of Parlour, Kitchens, Pantry, and other conveniences with Four good Lodging Rooms, Orchard, and Kitchen Garden – For particulars, apply to Mr. JAS. FOSTER, Tarraby; or Mr. CHAS. ARMSTRONG, Builder, Carlisle.
Rent Moderate.
Tarraby, Nov. 7th 1850.

Mary Ann died only a few years after she wrote to her uncle:

Carlisle Journal, Friday 17th February 1854 

At Tarraby, on the 7th inst., Mary Ann wife of Mr James Foster, aged 43, and the last of the family of the late Mr. James Maguire.

I don't know whether Thomas Graham is remembered in any monument or tomb at Great Ayton, but he is certainly commemorated in his native Cumbria.  There is a monumental inscription to Thomas Graham of Ayton Hall inside Stanwix church.

2 March 2021:  I've just realised that I should have added this information quite some time ago

For more on the Graham family of Knockupworth, see Knockupworth: The story of a family by John Bainbridge (details here)

And for a flavour of this this fascinating story, see this piece in the News and Star

Thomas Graham of Ayton Hall

Ayton Hall stands near the River Leven in the large picturesque village of Great Ayton.  At the end of the 18th century it was the home of the Wilson family; Captain James Cook and his wife stayed there as the guests of Commodore William Wilson in 1771.

Some decades later, the occupants were Thomas Graham and his family.  He was living in Great Ayton by 1811 and was at the Hall for the censuses of 1840, 1850 and 1860.

Thomas was born in Cumberland in about 1777.  He was the son of Thomas and Ann Graham of Knockupworth House near Carlisle (which I assume is the building now called Knockupworth Hall)

In 1805, Thomas's elder brother Monkhouse Graham died, some weeks after making his Will.  He was probably in his late thirties and left neither wife nor child.  His beneficiaries were his mother Ann and his siblings Thomas, Letitia, Mary and Margaret.  They shared the money he had made as a merchant in Liverpool and the property he had bought in Tarraby in the parish of Stanwix, just north of Carlisle.

First page of copy Will of Monkhouse Graham

Last page of copy Will of Monkhouse Graham

The Nunthorpe W.I. Drama Group in action

Here they are performing Paolo & Francesca in 1939:

I wonder if they were performing the 1902 play by Stephen Phillips.

Nunthorpe Women's Institute Drama Group 1952

A jolly crowd!

Nunthorpe WI Drama Group 1952

Nunthorpe Mothers' Union 1957

I hadn't realised we had this photograph - it goes rather nicely with previous posts about Nunthorpe Women's Institute, I think.

Nunthorpe Mothers' Union 1957

Francis Stainthorp, weaver of Hutton Rudby

Do have a look at this post on Paul Stainthorp's blog about his ancestor Francis Stainthorp (1765-1822) - I have to say I was particularly taken with the photo of Francis's great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren at his tombstone!

Women's Institute Drama Festival held at the Middlesbrough Little Theatre, 5 May 1956

Bolton-on-Swale
In Merry Wives of Windsor

F Crankshaw
J Gibson
R Heylings
R Hills
E Shield
K Barber
H Gibson
J Nelson
K Chapman
N Mason
J Hills
W K Gibson

Melsonby
In Mary Frobisher by F Sladen-Smith

K Dunn
N Hawitt
M Gregory
I Elliott
G Milner
G Simpson
M Dodsworth
J Morton

Guisborough
In Closed Windows by Nora Ratcliff

E Taylor
E Payne
M Pilkington
C Oliver
A Armin
K Jackson

Well & Snape
In Two of Us by Elma Verity and Jack Last

F Bell
G Sampson
F Nelson
M Craddock
J Dawson
D H Owen

Hutton Rudby
In Mad Hatters in Mayfair by Barbara Van Campen

I Shore
C Honeyman
A Atkinson
J Hardcastle
H Carpenter
R Swales
P Deacon
M C Reauley

Nunthorpe
In Staff Room by Albert Claydon

B Colwell
R Masters
J C Marr
M Stubbs
M Ballingall
P Bilton
K Marr
E Winney

North Cowton
In Women within Walls by A J Bradbury

G Stevenson
C Bainbridge
J Murray
M Marley
D Allison
A M Boddye

Hutton Bonville
In One Crowded Hour by Conrad Carter

K Donald
M Duffield
R Donald
M Andrews
M Bosomworth
D Bell
M Foster
D Porritt

Nunthorpe W.I. Drama Society, 30 May 1952

Appearing in Time out of Joint by Gerard McLarnon, The Bakehouse by J O Francis, and Tony by Kenneth Galloway:

Aline Baker
Muriel Ballingall
Kathleen Belas
Alf Blake
Beryl Colwell
Freda Cooke
Mahoney Crosthwaite
Gillian Doel
Jeff Flower
Helen Hastings
Monica Jackson
Donald Lowery
Olga Matthams
Betty Pearce
Tommy Pearce
Lesley Pearson
Molly Stubbs
Angela Winney
Elaine Winney
Sandra Winney

More W.I. drama from Nunthorpe and Great Smeaton

I think this must date from the 1930s as some of the names are the same as those listed in the WI concert of 1936.