The Faceby Saints left today

It's 14 February and so it's Valentine's Day – and on this day in 1855 a party of 28 people left the little North Yorkshire hamlet of Faceby.  

They didn't expect to see their old homes again.  They didn't expect to see their loved ones again.  They were "gathering to Zion".  They were Mormons – the members of the Faceby Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

They would travel by steam train, sailing ship, river steamboat, prairie waggon and on foot and they were going all the way from Yorkshire to Utah.

For the remarkable story of the Faceby Saints, how they came to be Mormons, their gruelling journey and what happened to them in Utah, begin here with my blogpost of 2 November 2012.  It's called Mormons in Faceby: 1852-55.

Thomas Milner of Skutterskelfe: notes, sources & select bibliography

In order to make the preceding piece about Thomas Milner readable, I have moved a good bit of the detail into these notes.  Here you will find references, extra information and hyperlinks.

Thomas Sowthwaites alias Milner

In quoting the will I have generally modernised the spelling .  A few letters at the ends of the lines of writing are illegible because of the binding, and these I have indicated by square brackets. 
In the comment regarding his father-in-law's estate, 'unloving brethren' for 'loving brethren' is conjecture, but there are clearly a couple of illegible letters there.

The grant of wardship and marriage of Thomas Milner to Thomas Laton [sic]:
Grants in November 1534
33. Thos. Laton. Annuity of 3l. issuing from a third part of certain lands specified in Faceby, Yarum, Carlton, Semar', Broughton, and the reversion of the manor of Skutterskelf in Cleveland, Yorks., which lately belonged to Thos. Lyndley, deceased; during the minority of Thos. Milner, kinsman and heir of the said Thomas; with the wardship and marriage of the said heir. Del. Westm., 24 Nov. 26 Hen. VIII.—S.B. Pat. p. 1, m. 4.
cf: Henry VIII: November 1534, 26-30, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 7: 1534 (1883), pp. 550-560 online here

The marriage of Mary Milner and Charles Layton
Details of an Indenture dated 11 July 11 James (1613) citing the Indenture of Covenants bearing date 26 Feb 37 Eliz (1594) between Charles Layton of the one part and John Constable of Dromonby, Nich. Gower of Staynesby, Esqres., Will. Baite and Tho. Baite of West Laithes, John Constable of Lasinby, Tho. Warcopp of East Tanf[eild], Leon. Baite of West Laithes, gentlemen, and John Milner of Whitwell, gent. can be found in Quarter Sessions Records (ed Rev J C Atkinson) vol 4 (North Riding Records), p141

People of Hutton Rudby in the C18/19: Wailes to Wiles

... from my working notes ... accuracy not guaranteed ... for explanatory note, see post of 14 Feb 2013


Wailes

1840 Whites:  East Rounton:  the Grange is the seat and property of John Wailes Esq

1851 Census:  Linden Grove:  Forbes MacBean 60 Lt Col Artillery full pay b Annapolis Nova Scotia British subj, wife Eliza 65 b St Petersburg British subj, daughters Elizabeth 25, Margaret Murray 20 & Marianne Georgina 18, all b Woolwich; wife’s sister Miss Marianne Scougall 45 indep also b St Petersburg;  servants:  groom Joseph Dawson 21 b Baysdale, housemaid Elizabeth Trenham 35 b Stokesley, cook Mary Wailes 23 b HR and boy groom William Ramshaw 13 b HR


Wake

FQ 434:  14 & 15 Apr 1829:  James Wake occupied land belonging to Elizabeth Sleigh

Thomas Wake was witness at the wedding of Richard Peacock of Rudby and Jane Scott of Stockton on 13 Sep 1832

1841 Census:  John Wake 17 joiner’s apprentice in the household of James Meek, Enterpen

‘The Cleveland Repertory’ 1 Aug 1843:
“Police Intelligence.  July 22nd, - Present Robt Hildyard and Wm Mauleverer, Esqrs.  Upon hearing the complaint of Jno Wake, an apprentice to Jas Meek, of Hutton Rudby, against the said James Meek, for having on the 12th ult, illtreated him, the said Jno Wake – ordered that he be forthwith discharged from his apprenticeship, and that the said James Meek, pay the costs.”

1851 Census:  Carpenters Arms:  Elizabeth Wake widow 56 victualler’s wife b Whorlton, and children John Wake 38 house carpenter journeyman, b Stokesley, Jane Wake 21 dressmaker b Carlton, and Mary Wake 17 house servant b Carlton, and grandson Robert Kitching 5 b Pickering

This may be the family of Charles Wake, who left for America in 1855 with the Mormons:
Charles Wake was one of the Faceby tailors.  He was 24 years old at the time of the 1851 Census when he and his young family were living next door to James Stanger junior.  He gave his place of birth as Stokesley, and his wife Elizabeth, aged 25, was born in Potto.  They had a ten month old son James, who had been born in Faceby, and Charles’ fifteen year old brother Thomas was living with them as a tailor’s apprentice – he had been born in Hutton Rudby.  The register for 7 Aug 1836 records that Thomas’s parents were James Wake, gamekeeper, of Rudby and his wife Ann. 
According to ancestral files on the IGI, Charles Wake was born in Stokesley in 1826, the son of James Wake and Elizabeth Wrightson, and married Elizabeth Thompson, the daughter of Robert and Jane Thompson of Potto, in Whorlton in 1849.  Robert Thompson was a cartwright in Potto at the 1851 Census.  Charles’ and Elizabeth’s oldest child is said to have been baptised in Stokesley in 1850, and the younger two children in Faceby.  The third child does not appear on the passenger list, but details of her life are given in the IGI.

The Jackson family of Lazenby and Lackenby

In the 18th and 19th centuries, a family called Jackson farmed at Lackenby and Lazenby, two small hamlets in the parish of Wilton, at the northernmost edge of the North Riding of Yorkshire.  This low-lying land, stretching northwards to the mouth of the river Tees – and later mostly covered by ICI Wilton – was once known as the Lowside.

We are so used to the view of the petrochemical complex that inspired the opening scenes of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner that it is hard to imagine how empty and beautiful the place once was.

Here it is – before the Tees became an industrial river – described by the Revd John Graves in his History of Cleveland in 1808:

The village of Wilton is small, and consists of a few houses, seated on the northern declivity of a hill, the summit of which being nearly level, has been brought into cultivation; while the sides, rising abruptly, are ornamented with young and thriving plantations.   

The grounds on the north from the village have an easy and gradual descent, and the prospect is extensive and pleasingly diversified: near at hand upon the right are seen the hospital and mansion, with the richly cultivated grounds of Kirkleatham, beyond which, tracing the circling line of shore to the left, the town of Hartlepool in a prominent position, with the bold figure of its church, affords a striking object; while the serpentine course of the river Tees, which on its approach towards the sea, expands itself into a fine extensive bay, is seen winding through a tract of rich and fertile grounds beneath, adding greatly to the beauty and interest of the general view. 

It was a small agricultural parish and, in 1801, consisted of 67 houses occupied by 74 families – a total of 328 people.

The lands within the parish consist nearly of an equal portion of arable, meadow, and pasture; and the soil in general a fertile clay; which, notwithstanding its northern aspect, and exposure to severe blasts from the sea, produces crops of wheat and other grain in great perfection, and the harvests in general are as early as in any of the more favoured parts of Cleveland.   

The low grounds near the river Tees are principally in grass; as was formerly an extensive tract, which lay in common open fields, stretching from the village in a direction north and south; but, by the late inclosure, has been brought into a more advantageous state of cultivation.

The Jacksons of Wilton were for the most part yeomen, that hardworking, prudent class that lay between the gentlemen and the petty farmers.

In the mid 20th century, a descendant of the Jacksons of Wilton compiled a family tree covering the 17th to 19th centuries, based on a collection of legal documents, information and artefacts that had remained in the family, and supplemented with research. 

It was subsequently examined and extended by the late Miss Grace Dixon, local historian of Guisborough, with assistance from the Kirkleatham Museum, and then Grace Dixon and I worked on some specific areas of the story. 

The early parts of the family tree remain imperfect, but nevertheless useful (perhaps particularly to those trying to disentangle the many Jacksons of Cleveland), and the later developments are very interesting.  Where I can, I indicate sources; it is obviously open to correction, but will at least point to areas of investigation.

Appendix II: Burials 3 October to 13 December 1832

1832  Burials Register, All Saints', Rudby-in-Cleveland

Entries made by Revd R J Barlow

The register shows: Name – Abode – When buried – Age
           
John Cook – Hutton – Octr 3rd – 48 yrs
Stephen Catchasides – Hutton – Octr 6th – 39 yrs
Wm Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 6th – 13 yrs
Thos Preston – Hutton – Octr 6th – 50 yrs
Thos Souter – Hutton – Octr 6 – 5 yrs
Jane Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 7th – 16 yrs
Jas Catchasides – Hutton – Octr 7th – 81 73 yrs
Grace Catchasides – Hutton – Octr 7 – 82 yrs
T.  C.  Pulman Surgeon – Hutton – Octr 7th – 36 yrs
John Passman – Hutton – Octr 7th – 5 yrs
Jane How – Hutton – Octr 7th – 1 yr
*Maryanne Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 7th 8th – 41 yrs
*Betty Skelton – Hutton – Octr 9th 8th – 39 yrs
Isaac Matth Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 9th – 4 yrs
Thos Hall – Hutton – Octr 12th – 73 yrs
Benjamin Hall – Hutton – Octr 12 – 25 yrs
Dinah Rayne – Hutton – Octr 13th – 81 yrs
Elizabeth Bainbridge – Hutton – Octr 13 – 6 yrs
Jane Cole – Hutton – Octr 15 – 75 yrs
*Harriott Passman – Hutton – Octr 15th – 4 yrs
*Jane Walton – Hutton – Octr 16th – 59 yrs
Jonathan Eland – Hutton – Octr 19th – 82 yrs
Thos Shaw – Hutton – Octr 23 – 65 yrs
Robt Sheppard – Barrak Parish of Egglescliffe [ie. Barwick] – Octr 27th – 4 yrs
Jane Shaw – Hutton – Octr 28 – 62 yrs
Elizabeth Dixon – Hutton – Nov 10th – 41 yrs
Jane Hall – Hutton – Novr 12 – 30 yrs
Jacob Honeyman – Hutton – Nov 14th – 75 yrs
Jane Cook – Hutton – Novr 15th – 40 yrs
David Souter – Hutton – Novr 19 – 13 yrs
Elizabeth Souter – Hutton – Novr 29th – 87 yrs
John Orrigh – Faceby – Decr 3rd – 75 yrs
Emma Souter – Hutton – Decr 11th – 38 yrs
Rachel Cook – Hutton – Decr 16th – 91 yrs


*  Mary Anne Bainbridge's age is left blank in Mr Barlow's additional "Sepultorum nomina" list
*  Betty Skelton's age is left blank in the "Sepultorum nomina" list
*  Harriott Passman's age, unclear in the main register, is clearly 6 in the "Sepultorum nomina" list
*  Jane Walton's age is given as 57 in the "Sepultorum nomina" list

Walking from Swainby to Faceby - the video

An effortless way to visit the Faceby area:

This video, from Walking With The Taxi Driver, follows a walk in early spring from Swainby to Faceby and back, returning past Whorlton Castle - more photographs of which can be found on wikipedia.

The video walk takes a few minutes to download - it isn't on the Taxi Driver's youtube channel.

Later arrivals join the Faceby Mormons in Utah

Family and friends had been left behind when the Faceby villagers left for America in 1855.  Some of them were able to make the journey themselves much later.

James and Isabella Stanger travel to Utah 1869

The home of James Stanger and his wife Isabella had been the centre of Mormon missionary activity in Faceby, but in 1855 when their three youngest children left for Utah, they stayed behind with their sons James and John.

James Stanger junior(1815-98), a farm labourer, had married Ann Elliott of Hutton Rudby in 1839.  Their eighth child, Henry, was baptised in Faceby in May 1855 - his uncles and aunt had, by then, arrived at Mormon Grove in Kansas Territory.  James and Ann did not become Mormons.  By 1861, James was farming 45 acres at Faceby on his own account, and within a few years he moved his family to Kirby Sigston, where he farmed 75 acres at Sigston Lodge.  From there he went to be at the bedside of the Revd Robert Barlow of Hutton Rudby during his last illness, and registered the death recording his relationship to Mr Barlow as 'cousin'.  He and his wife Ann are buried at Faceby.

By the time the Mormon missionaries arrived in Faceby, John Stanger (1819-98) and his wife Anna Winter were living about ten miles away, at Landmoth-with-Catto near Leake.  They were farming 100 acres at 'Marrigold Hill' (later Marigold Hall, and now Marigold Farm) - this had been Anna's father's farm.

In 1852, their daughter Isabella was born, and in 1854, Anna gave birth to Mary Ann. But within weeks, Anna was dead and John was left with two small children.  It seems very likely that his parents moved to Landmoth to help John after their younger children left for Utah.  Within weeks of the departure of the Faceby Saints, John's baby daughter also died.

The Faceby Mormons settle in Utah

Most of the Faceby villagers settled in Weber County, which lies between the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake.  It had been the home of the Ute and the Shoshone, and was well-watered, said to have rich soil, winters not too severe for the area, and plenty of game.  The main settlement was Ogden, where many of the Faceby pioneers are buried. 

They lived through eventful times. 

Faceby Saints in Captain Ballantyne's Company: July to September 1855

The 4th Company was under Captain Richard Ballantyne.  He was 37 years old and Scottish by birth.  He had lived in America for many years and was now returning home from mission in India.

The 4th Company was a train of 46 waggons and 414 people, three horses and a mule.  To each waggon there were ten or eleven people, a yoke of oxen, and a yoke of young steers or cows.  Nearly all the people were funded by the Perpetual Emigration Fund.  They were therefore travelling comparatively light compared with the self-funding 2nd Company, as they were obliged to obey the P.E.F's baggage restrictions.  These were necessary to reduce the burden on the Fund of the expense of transporting goods across the plains.

In this company travelled:

• George Stanger, aged 22 (already secretly married to Mary Etherington)

• Thomas Stanger, aged 25, his wife Jane Wilson, and their toddler

• Jane Wilson’s brother Thomas

• Charles Hogg, aged 24, and his now very pregnant wife Ann Stanger, aged 27, and their son James, aged 2

The Company’s cattle were wild – the “wildest cattle that I had ever seen”, wrote George Mayer, Captain of a Ten.  He had to break them in by having them drag logs round the camp before they set off – and, he remembered,

“the teamsters were as wild and ignorant of oxen and how to yoke cattle as the oxen were, and I found I had my hands full.”

The Etherington family cross the Plains: June to September 1855

John and Elizabeth Etherington, aged 61 and 56, were travelling with four of their children: their two youngest, Thomas (19) and Mary (20); Elizabeth (28) and her husband John Pugh, with their toddler and six month old baby; and Ann (25) with her small son and new baby. 

Ann's husband Thomas Heslop had remained behind in Liverpool and Mary was keeping secret her marriage to George Stanger.

They travelled in the 2nd Company led by Captain Jacob Secrist, a 36 year old who was returning from mission in Germany.  The Captain of the First Ten was Osmyn Merritt Deuel, with whom they had travelled on the Siddons.

There were 368 people in 54 waggons.  More than half of the travellers were Danish. These were self-funding people who had been able to buy up their own supplies for the journey and their new life.  Consequently their problem was not that they were short of provisions, but rather that they were overloaded.

They set out on Thursday 14 June, but they soon encountered difficulties.  There was cholera and measles in the camp and on the 11th day, at Elm Creek on the way to the Big Blue River, they met with disaster.

The Faceby Mormons make ready for the Plains: May & June 1855

Atchison in Kansas Territory was a new town, still under construction.  The people of Atchison were glad to welcome the Mormon emigrants because they provided a workforce while they waited to set off for the west, and because they bought supplies in the town for their journey.

Camping at Mormon Grove

Charles Hogg remembered:

"We moved out on to camp ground May 14; about ten had to occupy one tent. The one we got was not finished. The first night came up a very heavy storm of wind, thunder, lightning, and rain. It blew many of the tents to the ground. The screams of women and children were painful to hear. We passed through three such nights in succession. We had never witnessed such awful storms as were so common in this country. We moved camp (after staying here a few days) to Mormon Grove, about eight miles west of Atchinson."

There was an old Mormon campground near the levée, and they had bought 150 acres on the high prairie some five miles off.  It was well watered and had a grove of hickory trees, and had been named Mormon Grove.  There were high hopes for Mormon Grove – but unfortunately it had to be abandoned after 1855 because of the cholera.

The emigrants, arriving there with ox-drawn waggons from the levee, were surprised by the appearance of this vast tent city, set out in orderly rows.  There they were to spend May and June 1855 planting crops and making preparations for the journey across the Plains.

The Faceby Mormons leave Philadelphia for Kansas Territory

More than half the Mormon emigrants on board the Siddons were stopping in the eastern states, to earn money to make the rest of the journey later – the Wake family from Faceby among them – but the rest of the Faceby Saints were going through to the Valley that season.

President Fullmer took the advice of the Elders in Philadelphia and arranged for the travellers to go by train on the Pennsylvania Central route to Pittsburgh, intending to take a packet ship from there.  They were able to negotiate a price for the travellers, of $4.50 per adult, with 80lb baggage free.

So on Monday 23 April, the emigrants got up at 5 am to get their baggage ready for the Customs inspectors and at last reached the railway station at 11 o'clock.

They would be travelling throughout Monday and Tuesday, arriving at Pittsburgh at 4.15 in the morning.

Henry Stocks wrote:

“I may say that we are nearly all the time traveling through woods, thousands & thousands of acres of timber… I viewed the engine … Not so neat as the English engines, they seem great & clumsy.  Carriages is about 18 yards long, same width as English … Inside there is a passage from one end of the train to the other & seats with backs two feet high.  A stove & potty (or necessary) & a water barrel …”

The Faceby Mormons cross the Atlantic: February to April 1855

1855: Faceby to Liverpool

In the bitter cold of early February 1855, the Faceby Saints made ready to leave.  Charles Hogg

"delivered up books with Branch record to Elder Smith, traveling elder in that part.  Left this part of the world Feb 14, 1855, with a conscience void of offence toward God and all men, free from debt to anyone.  I visited father, mother, and what family there were at home here at Deighton … I could not stay with my beloved father and mother but a few minutes, bid them goodbye, off to catch the train." 

Ann Stanger Hogg's descendants record that,

"it was extremely difficult for them to leave their home and bid their loved ones goodbye, never to see them again, and depart for a strange new land.  It was only their firm belief in the Gospel that gave them such strength."

At the Mission Office in Liverpool the Faceby Saints registered to travel on the Siddons, a sailing ship bound for Philadelphia.

Mormons in Faceby: 1852-55

With Mitt Romney in the final days of his campaign to be President of the USA, this seems the ideal time for the story of the villagers of Faceby who became Mormons and left Yorkshire for America in 1855.

I came across the Faceby Saints when researching my book on the 1832 cholera epidemic in Hutton Rudby and the vicar, Robert Barlow.  When I realised that the Revd Barlow was related to Mormons in Utah, I couldn’t resist finding out more.

View from near Mr Barlow's vicarage towards the hills & Faceby

Luckily the internet provided me with Charles Hogg's account of his own life and the biography of Ann Stanger Hogg written by her granddaughter Katheryn Hart Conger, which enabled me to begin to piece the story together.  I've just looked up those links again for this post, and was delighted to find they now include photographs of Charles and Ann.

More information came from descendants.  After I gave a talk on the subject to the Swainby History Society, I was put in touch with Mrs Dorothy Jewitt, a descendant of William Wilson, and posting an article about the Faceby Saints on my (now defunct) website www.jakesbarn.co.uk brought me contacts from descendants in the USA and the UK.  Each time I've given a talk on the subject it has prompted me to do a bit more research, so I have revised and expanded the original article for this blog.

Faceby, North Yorkshire

In February 1855 a large party of people left the small Yorkshire village of Faceby.  It was the beginning of a long journey to America.  They were Mormons – the members of the Faceby Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and most of them belonged to two extended families, the Etheringtons and the Stangers.