Thomas Barlow Allinson's letter of 1836 was among the small collection mentioned in The Revd William Atkinson of Kirkleatham & Cambridge (1755-1830). These letters survived apparently by chance, but very probably because of the intervention of Mr John Gaskin, MBE, of Whitby. He was a solicitors' clerk for many years with Buchannans of Whitby and may have come across the letters in their offices and thought them worth preserving – possibly for their unusual postal markings, as he had a keen interest in philately. The collection is now in the Northallerton Archives.
This is the story of one of those letters, as far as we can make it out. I say "we" because I'm indebted to my collaborator for contacting me in the first place and for all the research she has done. I hope this chance survival from 1836 might help the people who are trying to disentangle their Allinson forebears. The Allinsons you will meet in this blogpost lived in Whitby and near Penrith, in the parish of Dacre in Cumberland.
I'm quoting below from a transcript and I have made some alterations for readability's sake.
It's a story which begins with Dickensian echoes and goes to darker places …
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| Billiter Square: O.S. 1840s-1860s. National Library of Scotland |
It's 4 April 1836. The writer of the letter is a 24 year old solicitor's clerk called Thomas Barlow Allinson. He's an unhappy and worried young man, marked by a series of disappointments and trapped in a job he doesn't like. When he came to London from Staffordshire in 1830, he had thought that his uncle Josiah Allinson would help him to a clerkship in a trading or banking house. Six years later, he's still with Messrs Druce in Billiter Square off Fenchurch Street in the City of London, in a job that was supposed to be temporary. It's the Easter vacation for the law courts, and he's writing a personal letter from his employers' offices in the City.
Thomas is only a few months younger than Charles Dickens, who is now beginning his startling career as a writer – the first instalment of The Pickwick Papers appeared in print only weeks before Thomas started his letter. But Thomas's story has echoes of Dickens' much later and darker novels and the dark and dirty London of Bleak House is the one that Thomas knew.
Thomas is writing to a relation he has never met, a Miss Nanny Ellerby Allinson of Whitby. He is offering her information she wants and he has carried out a favour she has asked for – and between these two sections of his long letter, he has sandwiched a tactful and carefully-written account of the financial difficulties and disappointments beneath which he, his mother and his 7 siblings are labouring. Miss Allinson is now under something of an obligation towards him, and she might be able to help them.
I should suppose
Thomas wrote
you are totally devoid of any information with regard to my family and the various difficulties my poor Mother with a family of 8 children has endured since the decease of my much lamented Father, who died about 10 years ago, and whose illness had been of such long continuance, about 5 years of which he was Superanuated from the Board of Excise, I am sure I scarcely need inform you that in such illness it required the whole of his Superanuation to support him
Thomas was baptised in Macclesfield on 19 August 1812 and he must have been about 9 years old when his father John Allinson's final illness began and he was pensioned off with a lump sum by his employers, H.M. Excise. So Thomas could remember the days of the family's prosperity when his father was Supervisor of Excise at Llangefni on Anglesey [1], where the family lived for 11 years and where his elder brother had died aged 10. But when John Allinson died at the age of about 55, his widow Mary found herself largely unprovided for.
She had to take the 8 children back to her home town where her own family, the Barlows, ("who have assisted her and family much") were at hand to help. This was Leek in Staffordshire, a market town and silk-manufacturing centre. Pigot's Directory of 1828 and the 1841 census show several Barlows – they included stone masons, a builder, and a John Barlow who kept the Queen's Head in Custard Street.
The eight surviving children – Mary, Thomas, Elizabeth, Joseph, Josiah, John Barlow, Ann and Jane Ellen – were then aged between 4 and 20 and the older ones must have been very conscious of the family's sudden drop in social standing and financial security, and their new dependence on others.
In 1836 things weren't much better. Thomas had clearly been taught a good, clear hand or he would never have found work writing deeds, documents and letters for solicitors but, he explained to Miss Allinson, the situation of his brothers and sisters is not good:
I am sorry the limits of my Letter will not allow me to state how they are all placed out in the world, but I grieve to say very indifferently, and not one of my poor Brothers to a Trade. I need not inform you, that my feelings with regard to my family are much wounded and harassed –
Their father's family was, Thomas let it be understood, of very little help. John Allinson was the eldest son of John Allinson, yeoman of the parish of Dacre in Cumberland [2], where Allinsons had lived for many generations. His farm was Meg Bank, described in an advertisement of 1856, when the effect of the Lake Poets – with the help of the railways – had made everybody aware of the beauties of Cumberland and Westmorland, as
Situate on the high road to Stainton, within 2 miles of Penrith, and 3 of the far famed Lake Ullswater, with a commanding view of its unrivalled mountain scenery.
How much land they had, I don't know. Some of it was freehold and some was copyhold, which passed according to the manorial custom and not by Will. I don't know how much income they made from the lime kiln and the limestone on their land. Nor do I know if the Allinsons counted as Cumberland Statesmen, but they were certainly proud of their coat of arms and their motto 'Fare que Sentias'.
Old John Allinson and his wife Elizabeth Thompson had eight children, all baptised at St Andrew's, Dacre between 1771 and 1790: John, Thomas, Isaac, Jane, Elizabeth, George, Joseph and Josiah. Two of the children died before they reached the age of 21 – George was ten when he died in April 1794, a little less than three weeks after the death of his mother at the age of 40, and Joseph died aged 20 in 1807 [3].
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| St Andrew's, Dacre CC BY-SA 2.0 Humphrey Bolton |
It was to Josiah, his youngest uncle, that Thomas had applied for help in his career. He had been working as a solicitor's clerk in the country but he would never be able to support his mother and siblings on that salary. Josiah was a clerk in the Banking House of Messrs Hankey and Co of Fenchurch Street and he lived at No. 3 South Square, Gray's Inn [4] (Only a few years earlier, the 15 year old Charles Dickens had worked for solicitors in South Square, and it's where Tommy Traddles and his wife live in David Copperfield.) Believing that Josiah must have useful connections, Thomas wrote to him – it took several letters before he received a reply:
I arrived in London in Sept 1830 in pursuance of a Letter received from my late Uncle Josiah, I having previously written to him several times before I received any answer, stating he had procured a Merchantile Situation for me which being my intention to embark in, if possible: however, ultimately it was decided by my Uncle and his friends that the Situation would not answer my purpose –
So it seems that, when he got to know his nephew, Uncle Josiah wasn't sure about the post's suitability for Thomas – or possibly Thomas's suitability for the post. Instead he found Thomas a place with Messrs Hankey's solicitors. These were Messrs Druce – Charles Druce senior and junior and John Druce – and they agreed to take Thomas on for a few months. The months lengthened into years and Thomas grew increasingly unhappy
From the period I entered their House in Septr 1830, I have remained in the same Situation, and in the meantime every exertion, and influence, had been exercised by my late Uncle and friends, and also as much as possible I have endeavoured to succeed in obtaining one in a Banking or Merchantile Establishment, but I regret much to say, hitherto without success –
And now in 1836 his uncle Josiah is dead and Thomas is desperate for a new situation because he has no prospect of advancement in his present post, because the pay is poor and because
the continual confinement is very injurious, and imparing much my Constitution – I am sorry to say, I have suffered several attacks of illness within two years last past, and I attribute the cause of it to my unhealthy avocation – I am tall like my late Uncle, and I was 24 years of age in December last – I think that a Sedentary avocation disagrees with tall persons more so than others, I have noticed that to be the case here –
And there had been more disappointments.
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| Gravestone of John & Elizabeth Allinson & family at Dacre Courtesy of Malcolm Street |
So his disappointment was great when he found that not only was his Uncle Thomas Allinson inheriting – after the payment of legacies – the remainder of the estate, but he would also have a life interest in Meg Bank. Thomas would only inherit the farm on his Uncle Thomas's death.
Quite possibly it was Uncle Thomas who had been farming the land as his father grew ever more advanced in years and the decision was quite natural from that point of view, but Uncle Thomas was doing quite well under the Will. His spinster sisters were required to give up to their brother the promissory note they were holding "against all other claims", but they did inherit the furniture, linen and plate.
Three years after his grandfather's death, in the autumn of 1835, Thomas and his elder sister Mary had made the journey up to Penrith – they must have travelled by the mail coach – stopping on the way with kind relatives in Buxton Hot Wells for a week. They didn't go for pleasure
on the contrary I had the benefit of my family deeply at heart, and from Letters received from my Uncle Thomas, I was in great hopes that some beneficial arrangement would have been effected with the aid of my little Copyhold Land; but alas I regret much to say, that my journey was totally futile, in consequence of my Uncle Thomas having thought proper to change the intentions which he had declared in his Letters to me –
So there was to be no helpful arrangement to maximise his family's income. Still, Thomas is anxious to assure Miss Allinson that they were "very kindly treated by my Uncle Thomas and my Aunts". Reporting on the health of the family, he says he thought his aunt Miss Elizabeth Allinson was "the most delicate of the whole family" and his 20 year old cousin Julia was "a very accomplished and amiable Young Lady, and with whose society I was much pleased". Even though he knew "the Romantic and Picturesque Sceneries" of North Wales from his boyhood
on my entrance into Cumberland, and on viewing the varied Scenes the County bounds in, my opinion is they far surpass all the former Beauties of nature that I have before viewed
In fact, he had been inspired to write "a farewell of the Beauty of the County in verse", which he would send to Miss Allinson if she liked.
But the journey was a disappointment and, because he was away such a long while, there won't be any holiday for him this year – much as he would have liked to take Miss Allinson up on her kind offer of a stay by the sea in Whitby. And there was another disappointment
But to crown all my blighted hopes, this fact I cannot avoid mentioning to you
When I arrived here my late Grandfather was so kind to write to me to say that he would advance a sum of money, if an opportunity occurred when I could turn it to my advantage.
Uncle Josiah's friend George Bainbridge was in Cumberland soon afterwards and
Grandfather entrusted him with a Sum of £100 (in Sovereigns) to be given to my late Uncle Josiah to be applied to my advantage but when he had received it he informed me that he had received only £20 from my late Grandfather, and which last sum I received –
Mr Bainbridge told me of this fact, two or three days after my Uncle's decease until that time, I was in total ignorance of the fact –
I must state that this, and other Circumstances have dampened and depressed my Spirits, and I confess I still feel the disappointment which such occurrences naturally cause in my mind –
Thomas's involved syntax and reluctance to make any direct accusation makes this rather obscure, but it looks as though Uncle Josiah has taken the missing £80. So it seems that when Thomas wrote of his uncle
To describe the virtues he possessed I am afraid my pen would fall far short of describing these as his merits deserved
he was being particularly careful and lawyerly with his words.
On top of that, Thomas must have hoped for something under Uncle Josiah's Will – but
With regard to his affairs, I have no doubt you will be surprized as much as I was myself when I have informed you of their state
Josiah had left it all to George Bainbridge, a timber merchant of Rotherhithe. The two men had been close friends from the beginning of their time in London and Mr Bainbridge had lent Uncle Josiah money. So the Will is by way of settlement of the loan, and perhaps in gratitude for the advance.
But one of Thomas's main objectives – ostensibly, at least – in writing to Miss Nanny Allinson is to tell her all about his Uncle Josiah's death. She was Josiah's cousin and she knew him
I have often heard my late Uncle speak of you, and whenever he did so, it was always with Sentiments of gratitude, esteem, and affection
When Thomas arrived in London in September 1830, his uncle – then a man of about 40 – was very far from well
but by care and attention on his part, his friends and myself had no doubt but that he would have been recruited in health; but love of Company predominated
A couple of years later he had to undergo an operation for a fistula – a dangerous operation, but successful. He was able to go back to work but grew steadily weaker until he was "seized with a rapid Consumption". So he had to stay in his chambers in Gray's Inn, attended by "2 of the most eminent and skilful Physicians in London and a married female to attend on him night and day".
Thomas himself did all he could but
nature gradually sunk, when on the morning of the 11th March 1835 at 9 'o clock he left this world with resignation, and full of confidence in the Divine Mercy.
A field in Dacre which Old John had left to Josiah – a freehold field called Gravel Bank – now passed to George Bainbridge. His gold and silver watches, rings and clothes were given to the married female. Mourning rings were ordered for close family and friends, just as Josiah had directed ("They are very handsome and I think costly"). On the evening before his death Josiah said Thomas should have the Family seals
on which is engraved the Family Arms with this motto "Fare que Sentias". The English translation of which is "speak what you think" – I mention this circumstance because you may probably have seen such seals in his possession –
but Thomas is sorry to say that he can't send a lock of Josiah's hair to Miss Allinson, as she requested – it had been given to a Mrs Brown, "an intimate friend of my late Uncle's". He was buried, in accordance with his request, in the churchyard at Rotherhithe where his friend George Bainbridge and his wife lived.
Josiah had written to his sister Elizabeth two or three times, but "he flattered her much as to his exact state". Thomas wrote to her when the doctors said that Josiah was dangerously ill, but had added at Josiah's insistence that neither she nor any of his relatives should come to London. But, Thomas writes
of course, they could use their discretion from the tenor of my Letter, whether they would come or not, but not one arrived –
Nanny Allinson can be sure that she stands much higher in Thomas's opinion than any of his relatives in Cumberland. Your letter, he wrote
was a source of much consolation to me, for I assure you that I have never received such a Letter from any of my Aunts, Uncles or Cousins since I have been in this large Metropolis
She had sent him a present
I never before saw a Yorkshire loaf, with which I assure you I am much pleased, and coming from the Country, and also so kind a relative that I prize it very much –
and she invited him to visit her in Whitby.
if I can make it convenient I shall be most happy to embrace the opportunity, for I am aware my health would receive great benefit from the Sea Air, and a week or fortnight relaxation from Business; for I am sorry to say, I have not, and which appears very strange, enjoyed such good health since my visit to Cumberland as I did before.
Indeed I have suffered such a severe attack, caused by indigestion as this Physician whom I consulted informed me, that I was under the necessity of obtaining the first Medical aid in London, but now I am happy to say I have nearly regained my usual health, which by unremitting care and attention on my part, and with the aid of the Supreme Being, who in his great wisdom and power assists the weak in Body and mind, I do not doubt but I shall be in the enjoyment of my former health and strength with which I have through life been blessed, until almost 2 years ago, and which is solely attributed to my very Sedentary avocation in which I am sorry to say it is misfortune to be placed
At the end of his letter, Thomas turns to the task he has done for Nanny and the family. It seems he had written to her for instructions and had asked for an early reply
I trust that I did not cause you any inconvenience from my early request for an answer to my letter; I believe I explained to you the cause: it was in consequence of an opportunity occurring to transmit a Letter to Barbados
So who was Nanny Ellerby Allinson?
Nanny Ellerby Allinson was a 47 year old spinster living comfortably in Whitby, the town where she was born on 6 September 1788. Her parents were George Allinson and his wife Ann Ellerby. Perhaps her father was the George Allinson "late innkeeper" whose death in Whitby on 15 December was announced in the Hull Packet of 22 December 1807. Records show that he kept the King's Head in Whitby [5] but it seems that he had become a farmer by the time of his death as that is how he is described in the burial register. The register gives his age as 54, so he would have been born in about 1753. Perhaps his death came unexpectedly – he left no Will, so his widow Ann took out administration of his estate, which came in at under £200. She survived him until her death at the age of 73 in 1821.
Thomas has been asked by Nanny – and unnamed others of the family – to make enquiries about monies due under the Will of her late uncle the Revd Thomas Allinson, who lived in Barbados.
So Thomas went to examine the papers held by a Mr Hughes, who had been appointed Receiver, and he came to the conclusion that it would be perfectly valid to make enquiries in Barbados. It seems the people in England have very little idea of the Revd Thomas Allinson's estate and they are anxious about incurring any more expense or finding themselves caught up in litigation. Perhaps they are finding it difficult to get any information from Messrs Everleys, their attornies on the island:
I have written a Letter in accordance with the wish of all parties to their Constituted Attornies Messrs Everley's of Barbados. The purport of the Letter is for information generally with regard to the residuary Estate of your late Uncle The Revd Thomas Allinson in Barbados, and also an account of the Property at the time of his decease; until such information is received, all the parties will forever remain in total ignorance of their Equitable rights –
I have endeavoured to write such a Letter as you seemed to wish –
There is no danger of any expenses being caused by the course that I have advised to be taken, or any litigation to ensue –
Thomas has "mentioned to Mr Hughes the request contained in your letter" and he assures Miss Alliinson that
what little exertion and trouble in the matter I have taken is performed with pleasure, and I only hope that such efforts on my part will have the desired effect of the remaining property (if any) being remitted over to England
(He is careful to dampen her expectations by qualifying the phrase "remaining property" with the words "if any"). He ends his letter
Any command that you wish to execute in London I should be most happy to fulfil for you–
I will conclude now trusting that you will deem my Letter written with the same feeling (as it was my intention to do) as yours to myself, namely, as a relative; and hoping that you will pardon the length of it, and also that the Family topics introduced will not be unacceptable or tedious in reading –
I have embraced the present opportunity to write a full Letter, being Easter, and consequently Business is not so pressing or urgent –
And Remain, My Dear CousinYours very AffectionatelyTho. B. Allinson
10 Billiter Square4th April 1836P.S. John Thompson the Tailor is dead – who was a friend of my Uncle's.
At any time when it suits your convenience I shall be most happy to hear from you. The M.P.'s are out of Town, otherwise I would have obtained a Frank.
It was a long letter and, with Members of Parliament out of London because of the Easter recess, Thomas wasn't able to get a frank for it. So – as these were the days before the Penny Post – Miss Nanny Allinson will have had to pay for the letter on receipt. But, after all, Thomas had been carrying out her errands.
Nanny Ellerby Allinson's uncle, the Revd Thomas Allinson, was born in Cumberland in about 1756.
Perhaps he went to the well-known grammar school at Great Blencow, where Lord Ellenborough LCJ was educated, or to Penrith, or further afield to Bampton Grammar School, which was particularly known for supplying candidates for ordination. At school he will have received a thorough grounding in Latin and Greek, possibly even Hebrew, and perhaps some background in divinity. [6]
He didn't go to university – at this time the Northern clergy were far less likely than clergy in the south to have been graduates – and was made deacon at the Mayfair Chapel, Westminster on 28 June 1780. Then, interestingly, there is a 10 year gap before he was priested at the Fulham Palace Chapel on 28 November 1790 [7]. The Bishop of London – whose residence was Fulham Palace – would only ordain men for the colonies if they had an official promise of a post, so it looks as though Thomas's wait for ordination finally ended when he had an offer of employment in Barbados [8]. He travelled out there in 1791.
In 1793 he was made rector of St Joseph's on the eastern side of the island, where he stayed for 3 years and where, according to the Gittens database [9], he had three slaves baptised – which was not uncommon.
On 5 January 1797 he married Frances Elizabeth Gittens at St Philip's at the easternmost tip of the island. Her family had been settlers on the island since about 1645 and she had money from her father, so this was a good match for Thomas. From that time until his death on 19 August 1815, Thomas was rector of St Philip's. He was also Master of the Free School in Bridge Town, where he taught the pupils the subjects he had learned back in Cumberland – Latin, Greek, grammar and so forth [10].
Thomas had made his Will on 29 March 1807, several years before his death. It seems that he and his wife were then planning a journey because his wife is to be his executrix unless she doesn't survive the voyage. In that case, his brother-in-law the Hon. Joshua Gittens and his nephew the Revd Isaac Allinson were to be executors in her place. So Isaac must have been on Barbados with his uncle.
Thomas left his wife a life interest in his estate, which was to be divided after her death and transmitted to his brothers and sisters in England in four equal shares. So his nephew Isaac was the son of one of those brothers, and another of the brothers was Nanny Ellerby Allinson's father George. Thomas gave legacies of 100 guineas apiece to his wife's four nieces and 200 guineas to his nephew Isaac on top of his share in the residue.
The Revd Thomas Allinson was buried in the chancel of St Philip's where his widow had a memorial erected in his memory [11]. He was "a native of the County of Cumberland and for more than thirty years a Resident in this Island", an "exemplary Minister" who died in the 59th year of his age.
At this time, people on the island knew that Parliament in Westminster was looking to improve conditions for slaves in the West Indies. Rumours of imminent emancipation began to circulate among the slaves, together with rumours that this was being blocked by the planters. Conditions were ripe for a revolt but the white population were oblivious, believing that that their slaves were well treated and had more freedom than those on the other islands. [12]
In January 1816, Thomas's widow Frances put a notice in several successive editions of the local newspaper
Barbados Mercury & Bridge-town Gazette, 13 January 1816
To the Constables of St Philip's Parish
Five Pounds Reward will be paid to either of them, or to any other person, who will apprehend and lodge in the Cage, in Bridge-Town, a Negro Man Slave named George, the property of the late Rev Thomas Allinson. He is a very likely young man, about 30 years of age, with a very black skin, and wears whiskers. A further reward will be paid to any person who will legally prove that he has been harboured by any white or free coloured person. Masters of vessels are cautioned against taking him from the Island – the Law will be rigidly enforced against such offender.
Frances E Allinson
(The cage was used to detain both the enslaved and the free)
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| Flag taken from the rebels after Bussa's rebellion, showing they sought liberty while showing loyalty to Britain and to the Crown |
The Slave Registers for the following year record the three people owned by Frances Allinson:
Green – Male – Black – Domestic – 46 – Barbadian
Charlotte – Female – Black – Domestic – 14 – Barbadian
Grace – Female – Coloured – Domestic – 18 – Barbadian
Two years later, Frances Allinson died and was buried on 2 September 1819 at St Michael's. In her Will [13] she instructed her executors to see that her dear husband's Will was executed in the way he intended – sending the proceeds to the family in England:
I request that the servants now in my employ be sold to the best advantage for the benefit of the family at home.
So some of the money awaited by nice Miss Allinson and the others will have come directly from the sale of people. However, by the time Nanny asks Thomas Barlow Allinson to write to Barbados on their behalf, the reforming Whig ministry of the 1830s had at last achieved emancipation of the slaves by the expedient of buying out the slave owners.
Leaving this dark history and turning back to Thomas Barlow Allinson in his employers' offices in Billiter Square ...
We don't know why, 16 years after Mrs Frances Allinson's death, the family in England still know so little about the Revd Thomas's estate. Nor why a Receiver was appointed. It isn't a term that I have come across in the context of contested Wills, but I can easily imagine that the estate has ended up in Chancery – another echo of Dickens' Bleak House.
The Revd Thomas Allinson must have assumed that his nephew Isaac would play a major part in ensuring that the monies were sent to England. Perhaps Isaac was no longer on the island; perhaps he was no longer alive.
And who was the Revd Isaac Allinson?
John and Elizabeth Allinson of Meg Bank had four sons who survived to adulthood: John, Thomas, Isaac and Josiah. They must have received a good education at the Grammar School – John rose to Supervisor of Excise, Josiah was a clerk in a London banking house, and Isaac went to Worcester College, Oxford.
The Alumni Oxonienses lists Isaac Allinson, the son of John Allinson of Dacre, Cumberland, arm. (that is, armigerous – entitled to a coat of arms). Isaac was baptised at Dacre on 14 May 1775. He matriculated at Worcester College on 23 May 1803 aged 28, but there is no note of him taking a degree. Instead, possibly for financial reasons, he was ordained deacon on 25 September 1803 in Chester Cathedral and became a curate at Haslingden, north of Manchester, on the same day at a stipend of £50 a year. [14] I think that by 1807, when the Revd Thomas made his Will, Isaac was on Barbados, possibly as his curate.
When Old John Allinson of Meg Bank made his Will in 1828, he mentioned his sons Thomas and Josiah, his daughters Jane and Elizabeth, and his late son John Allinson. He didn't mention Isaac and I haven't been able to find any further record of him. Perhaps by 1828 he had died. Perhaps it is the deaths of both Isaac and Josiah that has caused Nanny Allinson to turn to young Thomas for assistance.
So it seems that the connection between Nanny Ellerby Allinson and Thomas is that her father George and his grandfather John were brothers. The other two siblings – the Revd Thomas Allinson left his estate to his brothers and sisters in England in four equal shares – are not mentioned.
We don't know what happened with the Revd Thomas Allinson's estate but by 1848 Nanny Allinson has some of his silver plate. When she makes her Will in 1848, she leaves – together with £100 –
the following articles of Silver Plate (all which formerly belonged to my late Uncle Thomas Allinson) namely one Castor Stand and Castors, one Egg Cup Stand with the Egg Cups and Spoons, Six table Spoons, Three Dessert Spoons, Six forks, one Soup Ladle, One Punch Ladle, one Rummer, One Server and one Cake Knife unto my relative Elizabeth Ellwood
An Elizabeth Ellwood had witnessed the Will of Old John Allinson of Meg Bank in 1828. Thomas had met a Mrs Ellwood in 1835 and mentions her in his account of his visit to Cumberland with his sister
I must not forget the gratitude which we owe also to Mrs Ellwood particularly, and Mrs Hall for their charity and kindness
So Elizabeth Ellwood must have been close kin to Nanny Allinson and the family at Meg Bank, and the Ellwoods seem to be their friends or neighbours in 1835, but how they are connected, I do not know.
And what happened to them all?
Thomas comes into his inheritance, May 1843
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| Gravestone of Thomas Allinson of Meg Bank & his wife Mary. Dacre, Cumbria. Courtesy of Malcolm Street |
Westmorland Gazette, 6 May 1843
Deaths
At Meg Bank, Stainton, near Penrith, on Sunday last, Mr T Allison, yeoman, aged 64 years, much and deservedly respected by a large circle of relatives and friends
So Thomas came into his inheritance under his grandfather's Will. He hadn't been left the full extent of his grandfather's land; I don't know how much he did receive.
Some of the freehold fields had been left to Old John Allinson's surviving children – Josiah was given the field called Gravel Bank, Jane received a field on Flusco called Moor Fields, Elizabeth was left a field called Skregill also known as Creidlay.
And out of Meg Bank, Thomas had to pay his cousin Julia and each of his brothers and sisters the sum of £50. They had all been compensated for the fact that he came into Meg Bank by legacies under their grandfather's Codicil of £150 each. Or perhaps his grandfather was under the impression that he could leave Thomas out because he had already had a gift of money – the £100 in sovereigns that turned, mysteriously, into £20 when it came into Thomas's hands.
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| Meg Bank & Stainton O.S. 1901 National Library of Scotland |
How and when he managed to pay £350 worth of legacies, we don't know, but a few months after his uncle's death Thomas advertised Meg Bank to let in the Carlisle Patriot and the Carlisle Journal
Carlisle Patriot, 7 October 1843
Farm to let
To be Let, for a Short Term of Years, and Entered upon at Candlemas next
The estate called Meg Bank, in the Township of Stainton, in the Parish of Dacre, within Two and a-half Miles of the Market Town of Penrith, consisting of about 25 Acres of Arable and Meadow Land, with a Lime Kiln, and Limestone upon the same, together with a good Dwelling House, suitable for a private residence, with requisite Out-Buildings.
Proposals in writing, will be received, by Thos Thompson, Keld Head, who will show the Premises. The Tenant will be declared, as soon as an adequate offer is made
There seem to have been no takers, at least for the house, so he must have come to another arrangement because his cousin Julia and her mother are still living at Meg Bank at the 1851 Census.
His Aunt Elizabeth may have looked delicate when he saw her in 1835, but she lived on until 1848. Her sister Jane died the following year. They had never married but spent their lives together in the village of Stainton. Nanny Ellerby Allinson had left them each £10 in her Will but they only survived her by a matter of months.
Death of Nanny Ellerby Allinson, 4 May 1848
Nanny made her Will on 16 February 1848 and died on 4 May. She left Thomas her gold seal and a legacy of £30, with 19 guineas each to his brothers and sisters. This suggests to me that she and Thomas had got to know each other by then. I think he probably left London after he came into his little inheritance, perhaps because of poor health or perhaps because the loss of his eldest sister Mary in 1841 had hit him hard.
Nanny's Will gives us a picture of her life – the silver plate from her uncle Thomas, her gold seal, the gold watch she always wore and the gold watch that belonged to her grandfather Thomas Ellerby, her brooch set with pearls, the silver tankards she left to her two executors and her pew in the parish church of St Mary's.
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| Church Stairs, Whitby by Stephen Craven |
She remembered in her Will various people she described as relatives: Mary James, Ann Graham, William Ellerington, Elizabeth Ellwood, and Ann, the widow of Thomas Ellerby and their three children. But her main beneficiary was her relative Elizabeth Morton and her young children, all under the age of 6: Anne Ellerby Morton, George Allinson Morton, Thomas Marshall Morton and John Morton. Elizabeth was the daughter of Thomas Ellerington, sea captain, and had married John Morton, grocer in Kirkbymoorside in 1841. By 1851, with their extra income from Nanny, they were keeping a lodging house in the fashionable resort of Harrogate at 78 West Park.
Thomas's last years: Sandsend and the Asylum
The year after Nanny died, Thomas lost his mother. The 1851 Census finds him lodging – where perhaps he had been living for a while – in Sandsend with Mrs Jane Addison. She describes herself as "formerly a straw bonnet maker", but now her family income came from her two lodgers – Thomas and an 8 year old girl – while her two boys, aged 12 and 14, were already working as labourers in the nearby alum mines.
Thomas describes himself on the census form as "Landed Proprietor". It's a grand title for someone living in Sandsend, which wasn't the pretty, pleasant place we know today because of the alum works. Alum mining was England's first chemical industry and the quarrying – the constantly burning clamps of shale – the slow industrial processes – the shipping out of the finished product – all this meant that close to Sandsend there was a busy, dirty industrial complex. Little remains of it now; the car park is on the site of the alum house.
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| Sandsend & East Row O.S 1911 National Library of Scotland |
All three sisters had children. Thomas's brother Josiah spent his working life as a mechanic, which probably means in a mill or manufactury. Joseph worked as a farm labourer for many years. They both married, and Joseph had a family. The youngest brother, John Barlow Allinson, was a grocer; he didn't marry.
Thomas's cousin Julia – the "very accomplished and amiable Young Lady" he had met in 1835 – was married in 1854 to William Holme, a much respected and beloved doctor in Bowness-on-Windermere (and, according to the Penrith Observer in 1953, the uncle of the last King of Mardale). They lived at Cleator Lodge, where Julia's mother died a few months after her daughter's wedding. Julia's daughters lived out their days there together, unmarried.
Meanwhile, Meg Bank was let to tenants and – since the last advertisement 13 years earlier – had been turned by a tenant into a desirable residence
Cumberland and Westmorland Advertiser, and Penrith Literary Chronicle, 8 July 1856
Country Residence
To be let, with immediate possession, the Seat of T W Edwards, Esq., all that Dwelling House &c called Meg Bank; with Shrubbery, Flower and Kitchen Gardens; together with an enclosure of Land, Situate on the high road to Stainton, within 2 miles of Penrith, and 3 of the far famed Lake Ullswater, with a commanding view of its unrivalled mountain scenery. Rent medium.
For particulars apply at the Office of John Salkeld, Commercial Accountant, 2 Brunswick Square, Penrith
By this time, Thomas had been in poor health for some years. When he made his Will in 1855, he made Mrs Jane Addison one of his executors. She was his landlady and "his good and kind nurse for years" and he left her the sum of £150.
Jane Addison was born in about 1806, so she was a few years older than Thomas. She was widowed young when her husband William, a master mariner, died and she kept herself and her three small children by making straw hats. By 1851 she had taken in Thomas as a lodger. His life in Mrs Addison's cottage can be glimpsed in his description of her – his "good and kind nurse" – and in the newspaper reports of the exhibitions of the Whitby Floral and Horticultural Society and the East Row and Sandsend Horticultural Society.
Jane Addison was an assiduous entrant into the societies' competitions. She regularly won prizes in the Cottagers' sections and at Sandsend she even won a prize for her raspberries in the Amateurs' division. Round potatoes, cabbages, spring sown onions, turnips, carrots, table apples, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants – her garden must have been a picture. And she won in Best Bouquet of Flowers and Two Window Plants in Pots.
Perhaps Thomas needed nursing because he had again been troubled by attacks "caused by indigestion", but his sufferings went beyond that.
He might be the Thomas Allinson who had been taken into the Hull Borough Asylum on 31 October 1856 and then released, recovered, on 25 March 1858. He was certainly admitted to the Lunatic Asylum at Clifton near York on 13 June 1858. He was discharged three months later on 30 September, but then he was taken into the asylum again on 1 November.
The asylum's official name was the North & East Ridings Pauper Lunatic Asylum [15] and it stood in 142 acres of ground in the open countryside beyond Clifton on the outskirts of York. Thomas will have found himself in a large complex with its own chapel, laundry, kitchens, bakehouse and workshops. It had opened only ten years earlier and had already been extended twice. It was built for 144 patients but the pressure for places was so great that they had added two new wings in 1851 and two new wards in 1856. On 1 January 1858 there were 446 patients.
The daily routine was steady and unvarying, and it included recreation outside in the "airing courts" and, for those who could do it, work or learning a trade, because work was therapeutic.
In spite of the rapidly growing numbers, the medical superintendent Samuel Hill and his wife Sarah, who was matron for the women, held to their principles and sought to provide as homely an atmosphere as they could, with good food, recreation and occupation. The asylum took in poor patients who had been in the workhouse or kept in confined conditions at home and the aim was for the asylum to provide a much more suitable and kindlier place to live.
Samuel Hill believed in the humane "moral treatment" that had been pioneered in the York Retreat – treating the patients as people and encouraging rational behaviour by simple rewards and punishments. Mr Hill and the staff used sedation and mild forms of restraint where necessary and they believed strongly in keeping the patients occupied. So the women worked in the laundry or at sewing and the men worked in the garden or on the farm, or at various trades. Mr Hill noted in his 1859 report
the healthy, invigorating, and interesting occupations always enjoyed by the whole of the inmates who are not afflicted with diseases forbidding their sharing in such pleasures and diversions. Their profitable industry, it was obvious, must be alike advantageous to themselves and the institution, and throughout the last year it had been marked in its results
And the Commissioners in Lunacy noted that in 1861
the system of employing patients in profitable labour, organised and carried out in this asylum upon a large scale, and under favourable conditions, continues to be attended with the best results, nor does anything connected with it seem to us worthier of remark than the number of idiotic and imbecile patients whose mental condition and bodily health are improved, and their listlessness and monotony of existence relieved, while they are thus rendered useful to the institution.
The York Poor Law Union guardians' committee visited their pauper lunatics at the beginning of 1858. There were 18 of them – an epileptic, five with "dimentia" and 12 with various forms of mania. They reported of the dementia patients,
which form almost the only class of lunatics capable of being managed in a workhouse, some are reported to be destructive to clothing, and at times spiteful to others; whilst the remainder are maintained in such good bodily health and their mental condition so much improved by the constant and anxious care evidently displayed in their management, that the committee would not at present recommend their removal to the workhouse
and noted
with entire satisfaction the care and attention to the wants and comforts of the patients in the institution, displayed even in its most minute details, and the general appearance of happiness and contentment which pervaded the establishment, the attention paid to the bodily comforts of the patients as regards their personal cleanliness, clothing, and the warmth and ventilation of the apartments, are all that could be desired.
There were entertainments for the patients and the occasional outing. The 1857 report, carried in the Yorkshire Gazette of 10 April 1858, noted that
The customary social evening meetings and out-door games take place in the usual way, and continue to interest all the patients, not only for the amusement they afford, but also for the variety of refreshments supplied to them on those joyous occasions
Mr Hill didn't expect, or want, to keep patients indefinitely, though of course a large number of them were in such a state of health that they had come to spend their last years in a pleasanter environment than the workhouse.
In his 1859 report, he urged parishes to send patients as soon as possible after they were taken ill, for "without prompt measures the probabilities of cure are greatly diminished" but he also gave the encouraging example of two patients, aged 20 and 48 years old. They arrived at the asylum after having no nourishment for nearly a week, were nearly pulseless after enduring a journey of many hours, were much exhausted and appeared only to have a few hours to live. By this time they had been seriously ill for several weeks,
violent and raving, both conceived themselves to be Jesus Christ, and to have vast possessions and almost infinite powers … Nourishment was administered in small quantities and tonic medicines were also prescribed
their physical strength improved, they regained their reason, both recovered and went home to their families.
So Thomas was fortunate in coming to the asylum in the early days of county asylums before the ever-increasing demand meant they were far too overcrowded to attempt the sort of régime that Mr Hill and his colleagues advocated.
Thomas was still there at the time of the 1861 Census, listed as 52 years old (though I think at that point he was 49), solicitor's clerk of Whitby. He died there a year later on 16 March 1862 of "Diarrhoea: Certified" – whether this was an infection, food poisoning, or the last symptoms of something that had been plaguing him all his adult life, we don't know.
After Thomas's death
Thomas had made his Will on 3 December 1855 and had it witnessed by a bank clerk called John Harris and by Francis Kildale Robinson (1809-82). Mr Robinson was a druggist for many years at the top of Bridge Street, who had published his book A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases, Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood that year (you can find it online). Whitby: Its abbey and the principal parts of the neighbourhood followed in 1860 and he grew to have a national reputation, so that newspapers across the country carried the news of his death in 1882.
Thomas named as his executors Mrs Jane Addison and his brother-in-law James Rowland, the saddler in Winster. To Mrs Addison he left £150 and all his clothes, watches, desks, books and everything else belonging to him at his death, except the old family watch which had belonged to his father. This he left to his brother Joseph, who was the next to him in age. The rest of his money was to be divided equally between his brothers and sisters.
That left the house called Meg Bank and 42 acres of land.
He left Meg Bank and its outbuildings to Joseph and he divided the land between them all. Joseph was left a 1 acre field called Bottom's Croft, a 4 acre field called Hall Bank, and a 1 acre field called High Heads. To his brother John he left Winney Hill (4 acres) and Haregill (2 acres). To Josiah he left Forescarth (3 acres) and Back of Close (3 acres). To his sisters, he left life interests, with their children to inherit the fields after their deaths. Ann Waterall received Top of Close (3 acres), Slapestones (1 acre) and Coggersteads (4 acres). Elizabeth received Screadly (6 acres) and Jane Ellen, whose husband would have the work of being an executor, received a 10 acre field called Moorfields.
The Land now offered for sale comprises about 5¾ acres. The Haregill field abounds with limestone which it will require many years to exhaust, and a LIME KILN, already exists for its manufacture. It is seldom that so choice an investment is to be met with, for the property contains within itself the principal elements for carrying on an extensive business
Joseph kept Meg Bank until 1870, when he put it up for auction
Penrith Observer, 30 August 1870
Freehold estate for sale at Stainton
Mr John Varty will sell by auction, on Thursday, the 15th day of September 1870 at the Crown Inn, Stainton, all that desirable estate known by the name of Megg Bank, situated near Stainton, in the Parish of Dacre, in the County of Cumberland, consisting of a good Dwelling House, Farm Buildings, Garden, and Orchard, with 6½ acres (be the same more or less) of excellent Meadow Land adjoining.
Mr Henry Clarke, the tenant, will shew the premises, and further Particulars may be known by applying to Mr Joseph Allinson, Bagnell, Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, the Owner; or to Mr John Thompson, Keldhead, Stainton.
NB – Megg Bank is situated in the respectable neighbourhood of Stainton, two miles from the Market Town of Penrith, three miles from the Lake Ullswater, and half-a-mile from the River Eamont, which abounds with Trout, and offers a desirable pastime for the Angler. The Post passes the house twice a day.
The Sale to commence at Six o'clock in the Evening
We catch a glimpse of the little farm at Meg Bank under Joseph's tenant Henry Clark in an advertisement in the Penrith Observer on 3 January 1871. He was giving up farming and putting his stock up for sale. Besides his carts, ploughs, dairy utensils and his other farming equipment, he had: five head of shorthorned cattle (3 spring calving cows, 1 splendid 2 year old bullock, and 1 yearling heifer); 1 excellent Black Cob, 7 years old, quiet to ride and drive; 1 Fat Sow; 1 Stack and 1 Mowstead of Meadow Hay of prime quality; about 10 tons of first-class Swede Turnips; a number of Barn Door Poultry and a large quantity of Manure.
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| A Grey Shorthorn Cow by William Henry Davis, 1831 |
Notes
[1] In the baptismal registers for the births of the three youngest children, their father is described as John Allinson, Supervisor
[2] Thomas Barlow Allinson's father John is mentioned in the Will & Codicil of John Allinson, yeoman, of Stainton, Penrith, in Carlisle Archives
[3] The deaths of George and Joseph Allinson, children of John Allinson and Elizabeth Thompson, are recorded on the inscription on the gravestone to the family in Dacre churchyard
[4] For beautiful photographs of South Square, where Josiah Allinson lived, before and after WWII damage, and a history of the Square see A London Inheritance/
[5] George Allinson kept the King's Head in Whitby, cf North Riding of Yorkshire Quarter Sessions 1798 in Northallerton Archives
[6] For Northern grammar schools and ordination candidates see the Review of The Education of the Anglican Clergy, 1780-1839 (2017) by Sara Slinn
[7] for the career of the Revd Thomas Allinson, see the Church of England Clergy Database and the extremely helpful data on the Gittens database at https://gittens.info/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I1771&tree=1
[8] For Clergy in the colonies: see The Rev William Harte and Attitudes to Slavery in Early 19th century Barbados by J T Gilmore, Sidney Sussex College. Journal of Ecclesiastical History Vol 30 No 4 October 1979 here
[9] For the baptism of slaves, see the Gittens database https://gittens.info/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I1771&tree=1
[10] for Revd Thomas Allinson as Master of Free School, see [7] above
https://gittens.info/genealogy/showsource.php?sourceID=S1699&tree=1
[13] For information on Frances Elizabeth Allinson see the Gittens database https://gittens.info/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I1312&tree=1
[14] Revd Isaac Allinson's ordination: Church of England Clergy Database
[15] For The North & East Ridings Pauper Lunatic Asylum, see this information on the Borthwick Institute website and on the County Asylums website
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