The Revd William Atkinson of Kirkleatham & Cambridge (1755-1830)

This account of a quiet life is thanks to information from Stella Sterry, and to letters that were found years ago in a house clearance in Leeds.  They seem to have survived by chance, possibly because of Mr John Gaskin, MBE, of Whitby.  He was a significant figure in organisations in the town in the first half of the 20th century.  He was very interested in local history and philately and for several decades was a solicitors' clerk with Messrs Buchannan and Son, and then with the successor firm Buchannan and White.  However he came across the letters and whatever his reason – local history or the unusual postal markings – he kept the letters and they are now to be found at Northallerton Archives.  I'm quoting below from a transcript and I have made some alterations for readability's sake.

William Atkinson was born on 16 May 1755 at Kirkleatham, where his father Thomas Atkinson (1722-92) was Master of Sir William Turner's Hospital.  Perhaps he was named for his father's brother William, who died only two months later in the fever epidemic that swept through Scaling Dam.

William's elder brother Thomas went out to look for adventure, and worked as a surgeon in Canada and Central America.  His brother Daniel died in New York and his brother John on the coast of Africa.  But William Atkinson was a studious young man.  He became an academic and clergyman.

Bookplate of Revd William Atkinson

At the age of 21, on 10 October 1776, he was admitted to Catharine Hall, Cambridge as a sizar.  At a time when attending Oxford and Cambridge was only for the very well-to-do, this was how someone from a humbler background could go to one of the universities.  Originally a sizar paid his way by doing fairly menial tasks; as the centuries went on colleges might offer small grants.  But it was essentially for the poor and deserving, and it was a lowly social position.

William matriculated in the Michaelmas term 1778.  He was made a deacon in 1778 and priested in 1781.  He took his B.A in 1781, his M.A in 1784, and his B.D in 1792.  

These were eventful times in the outside world.  In 1783, King George III was forced to accept the loss of Britain’s American colonies.  In January 1788, the first convict fleet arrived in Botany Bay carrying 1,480 men, women and children.  The Greenland whale fishery was in full operation, with 21 vessels leaving Whitby that season.  Across the Channel, France was in the grip of runaway inflation and ever increasing economic turmoil and on 14 July 1789 the storming of the Bastille would mark the beginning of events that would shake Europe.  Meanwhile, back at home in North Yorkshire, Whitby was a major centre of shipbuilding, ranking third after London and Newcastle in the early 1790s.  Along the coast and the escarpment of the Cleveland Hills, men were mining alum, a valuable commodity and vital to the textile and leather industries.  

St Catharine's, Cambridge (called Catharine Hall until 1860)

Meanwhile, William was elected Fellow of Catharine Hall in 1781 and in 1807 he was a curate at Sawston, 7 miles south of Cambridge.  But from 1790 William became involved in a feud among the Fellows.  It lasted 20 years and involved petitions to the College Visitor, exchanges of acrimonious letters and finally a pamphlet war.  William and his friends were pitted against Dr Procter, the Master of Catharine Hall, and his supporters.  William's friend Dr Browne, Master of Christ's College, was also involved.  In 1808 William left Catharine Hall.  

Then on 2 July 1808 William was elected Fellow of Christ's; it was the first election in the time of his friend Dr Browne's Mastership.  It is all very convoluted.  William Jones, in his A History of St Catharine's College, Cambridge (CUP 1936) comments that  

One finds it difficult not to suspect that much of this feud was due to sheer idleness.  The Fellows at St Catharine's at this period were not busy with research.  They had no undergraduates, or practically none, to teach.  Unmarried, they had no home interests.  Satan, indeed, found work for idle hands to do

At the time of the feud, William wasn't living in College.  By 1788, he was living in the village of Whaddon, a dozen miles south-west of Cambridge.  By 1806 he had moved to Stapleford, about 5 miles south of Cambridge.  There he lived at the Grove at the fork in the road near Sawston Bridge.

1888-1913 O.S. Stapleford
CC-BY-NC-SA National Library of Scotland

Apart from being Mildmay Preacher between 1816 and 1818, Christ's has no record of him holding a College office, or a benefice, or being resident in College, though he never missed a meeting until his last five years.  

Christ's College, Cambridge: Fellows' Garden, showing rear of Fellows' Building

How did he spend his time (apart from taking part in the College feud)?  He must have lectured, perhaps he had pupils and he seems, on occasion at least, to have taken duty for another clergyman.  He certainly farmed.  He had his library, which was a typical middle-class collection judging by the inscribed volumes that have passed down through the years – and Jane Austen would have been pleased to see that he didn't disdain novels.  He had Samuel Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison.  We can imagine him working away at the system of shorthand that he invented.  It was a quiet life.

By chance, the letters that I mentioned before show us that, whatever his behaviour had been at Catharine Hall, he was valued at home.  

On 15 August 1795 – when Britain was at war with France – William wrote from Whaddon to his 14 year old niece Elizabeth Galilee ("Bessy").  She was the daughter of his sister Jane and had been staying at Whaddon with her uncle and grandmother.  Now she was home in the maritime village of Wapping on the great bend of the Thames beyond the Tower of London.  

Bessy must have been an intelligent girl and William must have been a man who believed in girls' education and didn't have hidebound views on what they should be taught.  The final words of his letter are "I hope you get a minute now and then for a bit of Latin."  Her teacher must have been William himself, and he clearly didn't agree with the widespread belief that Latin was a subject fit only for boys.

It's an affectionate, humorous letter with quips about her youngest sister Henrietta ("Henny"), who was now at Whaddon.  Henny was aged about 8 and had clearly settled in: 

her tongue did not begin to stir till the day following [her arrival].  Since then it has been in almost perpetual motion from seven o' Clock in the morning until about ten at night.  Her face is now quite well and she looks infinitely better than at her first coming.  She entered at our great School last Monday, and what ever good it may do to Henny it certainly will bring some honour and glory to Mrs Giffen and her Pupils … Betsy Beaumont, Betsy King and Henny have formed a kind of Play Club and go round to one another's alternately. 

The girls' father was a sea captain and their mother had recently set up business a China and Slop-Seller from their home at Number 168 Wapping High Street.  Slops means sailors' clothing – as this was a time when the Navy and Merchant Marine were vastly expanded because of the war with France, Mrs Galilee might well hope for good trade.  Elizabeth was evidently helping out

I am glad to hear so good an account of your House, Shop etc and more so that the Business is likely to answer.  I hope you attend to the article of Account keeping as exactness in that particular is one the greatest securities and satisfactions in any way of life but is particularly useful and necessary in Trade.

It seems William was taking services at nearby Foxton:

I hope to be able to spend a week or two with you before the end of the Summer, but having the care of Foxton I am uncertain when I shall be at liberty but hope to be so the beginning of next month.

He had his concerns about his health

Since the weather grew warm so that I could go into the Bath, my eyes have been quite stout and comfortable and I have great hopes that I may not have any more relapses.  The few dry, hot days we had lately tempted the Farmers to begin cutting their Corn, but the return of our old wet season will I fear make bad work with them.

and here we glimpse the social life of the neighbourhood – the Scrubys lived at Malton Farm

I yesterday drank tea at Mrs Meads and in the evening I squired Miss to Malton to see Miss Scruby, but as usual she was gone from home and we had the pleasure of wading through the deep wet grass for nothing. 

He gave Elizabeth an account of his cows

Our Creatures have lately given us a deal of trouble.  Cherry ran over the Cow-boy and stood [?] upon his face, which made a very bad wound and he is now under the hands of Mr Barron.  Since that I have got Stephen Gliffens [Glissens?] Wife's Sister to take them, and they do very well in deed with her.  Old Jack has got a bad Spasm and is mostly quite lame.  I have sold Monmouth and Pembroke to Mr Barton and very glad I was to get rid of them

Elizabeth must have been following the unfolding saga of a Mrs A. who had applied to her uncle for help.  It seems people turned to William for help and advice.

I have had another very disagreeable letter from Mrs A.  She says they are quite destitute, which I doubt not is too true, but it is not possible for me to under take to support them.  Her Husband informs me that to complete his fortune, he has now got a severe fit of the Gout.

He ends his letter with a postscript

Yr Grandmother joins in love to you all with, Dear Bessy, your affectionate Uncle
W A  Atkinson 

P.S. Henny desired me to tell you that she got a Sampler.
I hope you get a minute now and then for a bit of Latin. 

The next letter was written 13 years later and it was also sent to Elizabeth Galilee but this time it was from her widowed mother.  William had left Catharine Hall and was now living at Stapleford and Jane Galilee had gone there to look after him.  It's no surprise – after all the difficulties and problems with the college feud – that he had not been well and had needed care.  But he was on the mend.  On 18 March 1808, Mrs Galilee wrote to her daughter

your Uncle now gets up as early as I do, he is very much amended since I wrote last, he eats very well and all his complaints diminish gradually, except his deafness, and that continues very much the same, he has walked in his Close almost every day but now that must be all over for a time as it is snowing very fast

So Mrs Galilee felt that her work was done, which was fortunate as she expected to be needed at home before long

I dare say your Uncle will be sorry to part with me, but as I am of very little use, it would be the same a month hence, so that you need not be uneasy at my coming home, only let me know a few days beforehand, that it may not surpize him

It seems William, now an old bachelor of 53, needed a little management by the women.  Jane had persuaded him that she could take a cottage which he had thought of renting out.  It would be a support to her 26 year old daughter Harriet, who acted as William's housekeeper 

I hope it should be a great relief to her, she is very much confined, and the rest of the people she does see, can neither afford her much advantage or amusement

And besides, Harriet "has had several Fits this last week, I am much concerned for her"

Jane Galilee lived out her days in the cottage in Stapleford, dying on 19 December 1817 aged 66.  She was buried at Whaddon with her parents and brother Isaac.

The next letter was written two years after Mrs Jane Galilee's death, and four years after the end of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.  It is again addressed to Elizabeth, who has by this time been married to William Williamson, a master mariner, for 11 years. 

The Williamsons lived at Trafalgar Square in Stepney with their 9 year old son William and little Emma, who wasn't yet two.  It now looked possible that William Williamson would take up a new line of work in Falmouth and Elizabeth had turned to her 64 year old uncle William for advice.

She sent him a parcel of tea – a welcome luxury – and she asked what he thought of the project and his opinion on her plan to place little William in a boarding school before the move to Falmouth.

William replied on 18 March 1819.  It shows much thought and a great deal of care for the little boy: 

Along with the Tea I received your kind Letter, and have thought much and seriously upon the Contents of it.

I do not wonder at Mr Williamson's wishing to quit a Line of Life which is attended with much Fatigue and Danger to himself and with great and incessant Anxiety to you both, and if he have a fair Prospect of succeeding in the Business at Falmouth I think it is Adviseable to make the Trial

He is, I suppose, by this Time returned from that Place, and from the Enquiries he would make upon the Spot, he will be able, with the Knowledge he has of the Nature of the Business, to determine with a great Degree of Certainty whether it would be chiefly to afford him a comfortable Livelihood. It is to be sure, a very unpleasant Circumstance to be removed to such a distance from your Friends, but this is one of the unavoidable toils of Life, and for the Sake of avoiding still greater Evils, it must be submitted to with Patience and Resignation. 

On the other point on which you request my Opinion and Advice – I could make up my Mind without any Hesitation. 

If Mr W finally determines to remove to Falmouth it appears to me to admit of no Doubt whatever that you should take William along with you. It is undoubtedly, a very great Consideration to be able to place him at a School where he is kindly treated and properly instructed, and such that seem to be where he is at present; but there must be plenty of Schools in so large a place as Falmouth, and it will be hard indeed if there be not some one among them whence that great Point may be so far secured as to make it necessary to leave a Boy of his Age amongst Strangers and at the Distance of I suppose 150 Miles. 

Harriet quite concurs with me in Opinion upon this Point, and, I own, I am surprised that the idea of leaving him behind you should ever have occurred to you 

There was still some uncertainty as to whether Mr Williamson would go ahead with the plan so, wrote William 

it would be useless to enter further into the Subject at present, but we shall be very anxious to hear whether Mr W visit to Falmouth has induced him to persevere or not. Harriet joins in love to yourself and Mr W and the children, with, my dear Elizabeth, your very affectionately

W Atkinson

It seems the Williamsons didn't move after all.  Their third child Harriet was born in Stepney in 1820 and by 1828 they were living in South Town near Yarmouth, where William died on 9 August 1832 aged 52.  Elizabeth and the children, now aged between 12 and 23, went back to Whitby, where she had numerous family – Galilee, Chilton and Weatherill cousins at Hinderwell, Staithes and Whitby and her sister Jane, newly widowed.  Jane had lived in Whitby since her marriage to the master mariner and shipbuilder George Langborne.  He had died in June, leaving her with one son and seven daughters aged between 3 and 20.  

Young William Williamson prospered as a chemist in Whitby.  He and his sisters never married – in fact, only one of their Langborne cousins married.  The Williamsons lived together on Baxtergate until they moved to 8 Park Terrace in the 1850s.  There their mother died on 6 March 1867 aged 86, and was buried at Sleights.  

William died in 1899 at the age of 89, leaving a considerable estate.  The Whitby Gazette of 24 March 1899 reported that 

He was reputed to be one of the best amateur pedestrians of his time, and he is said to have walked to divine service to churches as far as twenty miles distant on a Sunday morning, and to have returned home on foot.  

and he was still active into very old age.  He was one of the oldest inhabitants of Whitby.

The deceased gentleman was of a kind and benevolent disposition and had very courteous manners, and by his death a very old standard in this locality ceases to be.

Emma was killed in a dreadful railway accident at Sleights station on 1 August 1901 at the age of 84.  Harriet died in 1903 aged 83.  They were a long-lived family – Emma and Harriet outlived Queen Victoria.

The third letter dates from 1830.  William was now 75 and nearing the end of his life.  This letter was written by his nephew Thomas, son of his late brother Daniel.  It seems that Thomas had got into difficulties – I think he had been arrested for debt.  He wrote from Liverpool on 20 February 1830 shortly before sailing, as he explains, for New York on the packet ship Manchester, registered at 560 tons and under the command of Captain Sketchley.

Three days earlier William had sent him a half £10 note.  It appears he had freed his nephew from debtors' prison and given him enough to make a start on a new life.  The young man is quite overcome with relief and delight.

Most Revd Father

Thomas began,

… I have not words to express my Joy and thankfulness any better, than by saying that your beneficent Goodness as far – far exceeded my expectations.  I want now nothing

William had given him "liberty and Independence".  He promised to use economy and to give his uncle true satisfaction by his Christian conduct through Life. 

… may the blessing of the awfull Power of Powers [reward?] you, is the devout and fervent Prayer 

of your Young and

Cheerfull Nephew 

Thos Atkinson 

P.S.  I shall always think of Goldsmiths clergyman in the Deserted Village / allow me to say, you are the very Gentleman, and the [names?] of Marske Hall and Kirkleatham shall be ever near and dear to me 

Bless you – I am sure to prosper – 

It is not known what became of him.  

William died at Stapleford on 28 May 1830 at the age of 75, and was buried at Whaddon.  I wonder if they were able to send Thomas the gold watch which William had left him in his Will, together with his share of William's estate.  

St Mary's, Whaddon, Cambs. by Alan Kent

He had made his Will in July 1828.  We can see from its provisions that he had lived at Stapleford in some comfort, had owned property there and made an income from farming.   

He left a legacy to his longtime servant Thomas Freeman (for his "honesty sobriety and faithful discharge of his duty") and he divided his estate between the children of his brother Daniel and his sister Jane: Jane Galilee's six daughters and Daniel's children Thomas, William and Mary, who had married a Mr Thompson. 

His executors were his niece Harriet Galilee, who had been his housekeeper, and his niece Elizabeth's husband William Williamson of South Town near Yarmouth, Norfolk.

He left a series of bequests – they are rather revealing of his character and his life.

It seems a pity that we will never know why Miss Isabella Cox was chosen to receive his copy of Letters on the Improvement of the Mind, addressed to a Young Lady, nor why Miss Hassett was left the recently published Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes by the animal rights campaigner Lewis Gompertz.

He hopes to induce Christ's College to take his treatise on shorthand by leaving them his 5 volume edition of Chambers' Dictionary 

To the Master and Fellows of Christ College I give my splendid edition of Chambers' Dictionary for the use of the College Library as a mark of my respect and esteem for the Members of that liberal and flourishing Society by which I have had the Honour and Happiness to be adopted   

I will also beg of the Master and Fellows of Christ College to permit a small Original Manuscript Essay of mine on Short Hand to be placed in the College Library by the side of the two Treatises which it already contains on that subject 

This request is not made from any vain opinion on the Merits of the Essay itself but for the sake of a most ingenious System of Short hand (infinitely superior to any that has yet been published) which was the main object of that essay to describe and explain and of which (as no other account of it whatever exists) the very Memorial without this Security for the preservation of it will probably soon be lost

He left a series of thoughtful bequests:

• To my Nephew Thomas Atkinson I give my Gold Watch with the Gold Chain Seals and Key attached to it
• And to my Nephew William Atkinson I give my Metal Watch and Chain and also a large Seal of Arms engraved on a Scotch pebble rimmed with Gold
• To the Revd John Cox I give Mr White Sermons preached before the University of Oxford
• To Master Thomas Kent I give my Glasgow edition of Virgil
• To Miss Isabella Cox I give Mrs Chapone's Letters
• To Miss Hassett I give Gompertz Moral Enquiries
• To my old and highly valued friend Dr Browne Vicar of Gorleston I desire a Mourning Ring may be given and also that he will accept of my Miniature Picture of our late excellent friend Mr Hunter of Christ College
• I will also that Mourning Rings be given to the Reverend Thomas Cawtley to the Reverend Townley Clarkson also to my Niece Harriet Galilee and to Mr William Williamson

I think the Revd Thomas Cawtley is probably Thomas Cautley of Jesus College, Perpetual Curate of St Clement's, Cambridge.  And the Revd Townley Clarkson was probably the Townley Clarkson who was Fellow and Bursar of Jesus College at the beginning of the century; he died in 1833.

His "old and highly valued friend Dr Browne Vicar of Gorleston" was the very same Dr Thomas Browne of Christ's College who had been involved with William in the College feud.  

Browne has been described as a man of a somewhat complex character.  It's said that as a young man he was particularly agreeable and prepossessing and he appeared to be good at business matters when he was Master of Christ's, but things went somewhat downhill when he was discovered to be living an "immoral" life with a servant girl.  The Fellows, alarmed, found out that he owed the College £1,200 or more and he had to be removed from the Mastership.  He certainly seemed to end up involved in controversies.  He left in 1814 for the Rectory of Gorleston, a village about two miles from Great Yarmouth.  According to Pigot's Directory of Norfolk 1839, the church of St Andrew was a "spacious pile with a thatched roof".  He was given the living through his marriage to Lucy Astley.  Dr Browne was 10 years younger than William Atkinson and died in 1832 aged 67.