Dark nights in Great Ayton: 1889

This sad little story is a reminder of village life before street lighting.  We are so conscious of light pollution nowadays, we can forget the hazards of the past.

That admirable woman Mrs Annabel Dott wrote on the subject after her experiences among the rural poor of Dorset during the First World War.  She had been shocked and dismayed by their conditions and wrote about it in 1919 with great feeling.  Being a practical person, she saw where matters could be improved and one issue was lighting: 

Lighting is another important rural matter.  The dark roads make traffic difficult if not impossible after sunset, and during long evenings when there is no moon it is not an easy matter for old people, women, or delicate folk to get about.  One of the attractions of the town is the brightly lit streets ...

Joseph Longstaff was a Great Ayton man born and bred.  His father John had been a weaver and the parish clerk, and Joseph became parish clerk in his turn.  He began his working life as a tailor but for many years ran the village Post Office, with a grocery shop alongside.

In 1889 he was 69 years old and working as a tailor again and as assistant overseer for the parish.  He lived with his wife Mary and 11 year old son Edward on the High Street.

Northern Echo, 25 October 1889

Missing from Great Ayton

Considerable anxiety is being felt at Great Ayton on account of the mysterious disappearance of the Clerk of the Parish (Mr Joseph Longstaff).  

It appears on Friday evening he left home in his slippers and never returned, and nothing has been heard of him since.  The night was excessively dark, the weather tempestuous, and an unusual amount of water was rushing down the River Leven, which flows through the village.  It is very much to be feared that he has missed the bridge and fallen into the water, in which case the body would probably be carried for miles, so strong was the current at the time.  

Mr Longstaff was an old inhabitant of Ayton, and much respected.  He was for many years postmaster.  The village is in total darkness during the evenings of the winter months.

This wasn't the only tragedy that autumn, and the question of lighting was clearly on people's minds.  This happened less than a week later:

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 31 October 1889

Another Fatality at Great Ayton

Some time during last night Henry Peacock, late stationer and newsagent, was drowned in the River Leven at Great Ayton.  His body was found early this morning under the stone bridge.  His death furnishes another sad argument for the necessity of lighting up the village. 

For a while the problem was solved and the village was lit by gas but, in the summer of 1896, the Friends' School changed to electric lighting, the gas works were discontinued and the village was dark again.  

At the beginning of the new century, several town councils were experimenting with a new invention called the Kitson Lamp, which was invented by Arthur Kitson, an Englishman who had moved to the USA.

His lamp used petroleum and a carbon mantle similar to those used in gas lamps.  The petroleum was held in a metal reservoir some distance away and drawn up to the lamp under air pressure through a very fine copper tube.  When it reached the part of the tube that was inside the lamp, the heat of the mantle vaporised it and was lit by an ingenious device that did away with the need to climb up to the lamp on a ladder.  As only a very minute quantity of oil was subjected to heat at any one time, even if the tube was broken there was no chance of an explosion.  

It was described enthusiastically in the press as a brilliant and beautiful light, the nearest approach to pure daylight and more pleasant to the eye than electric light.  Not only that, but it cost under a penny an hour and no underground plant or digging up of the streets was needed.  The gentlemen of Great Ayton decided to install one:

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 6 March 1901

The Lighting of Great Ayton

Mr Henry Richardson and Mr Thompson, trustees to the manorial rights of Great Ayton, have, with other local gentlemen, aided Mr John Dixon to place on the High Green at Great Ayton a Kitson patent 1,000 candle-power lamp.  The lamp lights the whole of the green, and has been so successful that it is hoped that before long the whole village will be illuminated.  

Since the gas works at Great Ayton were discontinued on the Governors of the Friends' School having electric light instituted the village has had no illumination at all.  It is hoped by the tradesmen and inhabitants generally that a number of the lamps will be procured not only to light the road as far as the stone bridge, but also for California.

North Yorkshire dialect – & the White Horse of Kilburn

As I said in On the Sea Cliffs of Cleveland, my last blogpost, one of William Stott Banks' great interests was Yorkshire dialect.  

He began his walks in Cleveland rather disappointed:

16 July 1864  Wakefield Free Press

Walks in Yorkshire X:  Cleveland - Upper Eskdale - over moors to Lewisham Station

A first journey anywhere is always open to doubt; but it is necessary to begin somewhere, and so we decide upon starting off with Roseberry Topping in Cleveland, that sweet green cone, from childhood believed to belong to Margery Moorpoot and associated in one's head to a broad north Yorkshire dialect supposed to be spoken by men and women with laughing mouths opening from ear to ear across great red cheeks; but, sad to say, our little-boy's dream will not come true, for these things will seem to have quite gone out if they ever were in; nobody will as a matter of course call Ayton "Canny Yatton," though many still think Roseberry "b'biggest hill i' all Yorkshur, aboon a mahle an a hawf heegh an as cawd as ice at t' top on't i' t'yattist day i' summer," which it is not; nor will any peculiarity of face be seen, nor the farmers be found in any sense to come under the denomination bumpkins.

Margery Moorpoot was a character from farce who, when asked where she came from, declared 

Ah was bred and boorn at Canny Yatton aside Roseberry Topping

and when asked where that was, replied

Ah thowght onny feeal hed knawn Roseberry. – It's biggest hill in all Yorkshire. It's aboon a mahle and a hawf heegh an' as cawd as ice t' top on't i' t' yattest day i' summer; that it is. 

And that is why William Stott Banks writes of a "little-boy's dream" and "great red cheeks".  He must have been remembering going to a theatre to see a farce played, complete with heavy stage makeup and comic country 'bumpkins'.  

Margery Moorpoot was the creation of a Stockton man, the playwright and poet Joseph Reed (1727-83).  

There is a wikipedia entry for Reed, drawing on the Dictionary of National Biography entry, and there is an account of Reed, with his own comic description of his early life, on page 85 of The Local Records of Stockton and the Neighbourhood by Thomas Richmond (1868), which can be read online here. 

Joseph Reed succeeded to his father's business as a ropemaker, but was always devoted to literature and in 1757 he moved his business and family to London.  In 1761 he made a great hit with 'The Register Office: a Farce' in which Margery Moorpoot, a Yorkshire servant looking for work at a register office in London, featured and which was popular for years.  In one revival, the part of a female author called Mrs Doggerell was played by the celebrated comic actor Mrs Jordan – mistress of William IV and mother of Amelia Fitzclarence, wife of 10th Viscount Falkland, whose memorial can be found in Hutton Rudby church, (see The People behind the Plaques)

The text of dialogue between Gulwell of the register office and Margery Moorpoot can be found transcribed here on Genuki.  It's from Specimens of the Yorkshire Dialect (1808) *.  

Roseberry Topping – from this angle it still looks like a cone

William Stott Banks deplored the loss in Yorkshire of the old ways of speech and dialectal words.  He might not have come across anybody referring to Canny Yatton, but he did find that Snick Gate was pronounced Snek Yat, Stokesley was Stowsleh and Raindale was Raindil, and on the next walk he was reassured:

20 August 1864 Wakefield Free Press 

Walks in Yorkshire X: Bilsdale - Ryedale - Hambleton Hills 

To answer a doubt which lately arose and moreover not to overstate things, we have been under obligation of inquiring whether the striking peculiarities of dialect, not heard on our last walk, but put down in books as characterising Cleveland 30 or 40 years ago, have ceased to the extent supposed; and it may be said, so far, that while what was noticed before is generally true, there are here as all over persons whose manners and speech have not yet undergone the changes that schooling, quick travelling and more extended intercourse with other places and people are everywhere bringing about.

And in that walk he included pronunciations such as Wainstones (pronounced wean or wearn) and he reported the speech of people he met.  

At the end of the walk he reaches Gormire and the White Horse of Kilburn.  As the wikipedia article on the White Horse explains, while some say that the horse was made by the schoolmaster, his pupils and some volunteers, a tablet near the carpark gives the credit to one Thomas Taylor.  

The tablet was put in place after a restoration following a public appeal in 1925.  The Horse had been renovated after a public appeal a generation earlier:  

29 June 1896 Bradford Daily Telegraph 

The notable Yorkshire landmark, the White Horse of Kilburn ... was originally completed on the 4th of November, 1857, by the projector, Mr Thomas Taylor, a native of Kilburn and for many years a resident in London ... The projector dying something like a quarter of a century ago, the figure was neglected and got from bad to worse, and at the commencement of the year was so overgrown with weeds that it was found necessary to ask for outside aid for its renovation, or otherwise to allow it to become obliterated altogether.

In 1925 it was the Yorkshire Evening Post that raised the funds and on 15 August 1931 the newspaper proudly reported – along with an account of the money spent on the 'grooming' of the horse that year – that it was in "fine fettle" and that 

The history of the White Horse is set forth in the following inscription on the tablet which is let into the ground near the back of the statue:- 

The Kilburn 'White Horse'

This figure was cut in 1857,

on the initiative of 

Thomas Taylor,

a native of Kilburn.  In 1925

a restoration fund was subscribed

by readers of 

The Yorkshire Evening Post,

and the residue of £100 was

invested to provide for the 

Triennial 'Grooming' of the figure.

The wikipedia article quotes Morris Marples in his book White Horses and Other Hill Figures (1949 and still available secondhand from a 1980s reprint) as giving the credit to Taylor, a native of Kilburn, who was a buyer for a London provision merchant.  "He seems to have attended celebrations at Uffington White Horse in 1857, and he was inspired to give his home village a similar example."

A report in the Northern Echo of 2 July 2004 reveals that both schools of thought are right – the horse was the idea of Thomas Taylor and it was carried out by his friend, the village schoolmaster John Hodgson with the schoolchildren.  The newspaper's source was one of the Hodgson family – and he held a copy of the original drawing, with all the measurements, that Thomas Taylor sent to John Hodgson.  It had been passed down in the family over the generations and the only other copy is in the Yorkshire Museum in York.  There is a photograph of the drawing on this website.

When William Stott Banks and his walking companions came to the White Horse it was less than 10 years since it had been cut.  He begins by describing the scene.  The white mare he refers to can only mean White Mare Crag.

Just below Whitstone cliff is the lake Gormire covering about sixteen acres, and here, as in Berkshire, we have a white horse newly chalk't every year, and a white mare too.

There they encountered a Kilburn woman who lived between Whitstone Cliff and Roulston Scar, and what she told them is interesting, not only for the dialect, but also for the details she gave them of the creator of the White Horse.  

T'wite mare is under Wissuncliff an' t'wite 'orse is just a back at'bank facin t'toon o' Kilb'n.  T'wite 'orse wodn't shew itself aboon as it wod below.  It's clean'd a' brack'ns ivery year and chalk't oot.  Tommy Taylor at's gone tuv Australia 'ed it pick't oot for a memorandum not so very monny years sin; may be ten years mebbe.  Taylor wur born at Kilb'n an 'e got a taumst'n put up for all t'family livin an' deead an' put their names on, a particular sort of a man.  Ther's none on 'em left noo.  Ther's 'unerds an' thoosans comes to Gormire.  I's gawin that rawd in a minit.

I think that Thomas Taylor must be the cheesefactor (that is, he would be buying cheese from the makers to be sold in the London markets) who is to be found in the 1851 census living with his wife Ann and their six children at Kilburn Cottage, Central Hill, Lambeth.  He was born in Kilburn in about 1808 and we can see his attachment to his birthplace in the choice of a name for his house.  As to whether they all went to Australia at some point, I don't know!  In the 1861 census Thomas and Ann and two of the children were in Central Hill, Lambeth, but I know no more than that.  As to the tombstone that Thomas Taylor had made, I have no idea!

Dialects constantly change and language adapts over time and place.  There has been noticeable 'levelling' of dialects across Europe and in North Yorkshire I expect we have all noticed the slow disappearance in some areas of the old ways of speaking.  So William Stott Banks' transliteration of the people he heard as he walked in North Yorkshire in 1864 is to be treasured, and it is always a joy to listen to the old lilting speech to be heard in the voice of the late Maurice Atkinson in the videos on the Hutton Rudby and District Facebook page.

And, with words dating from long before Banks' time, the Yorkshire Historical Dictionary of historic terms from early documents (1100 to c1750) is great!

*There is an ebook of Specimens of Yorkshire Dialect or you can read it online from this link, which Blogger won't let me edit so it is very long:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sTJAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=%22specimens+of+the+yorkshire+dialect%22+1808&source=bl&ots=mNcq-4HSbt&sig=ACfU3U0rtJc_BJ1v7dre2dXXZ5PhaJb7Cg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmv_nXsILtAhVyt3EKHdOPDh44ChDoATAFegQIBhAC#v=onepage&q=%22specimens%20of%20the%20yorkshire%20dialect%22%201808&f=false 

Joseph Hill Appleton (1811-80) and the Meynell family

A reader has been in touch and would like to be in contact with anyone who has any information on the family of Joseph Hill Appleton (born in Richmond, Yorks in 1811, died in Attercliffe, Sheffield in 1880).  He was the son of John Appleton (1775-1852) and Margaretta Clare Ann Hill (born in Great Ayton in 1783).  Margaretta was reputed to be the daughter of a Mary Meynell.

Joseph Hill Appleton said that he was the great-grandson of Christopher Meynell of Hunterbanks Farm, Crathorne.

My correspondent would like to know how Margaretta Clare Ann Hill was connected to the Meynell family and would dearly love to make contact with the purchasers of the 18th and 19th century Ephemera relating to the Appleton Family of Sheffield which came up for sale at Tennants of Leyburn in September 2008.

His particular interest is in an album made by Joseph Hill Appleton entitled "Appletonia", showing a connection to the Appleton family of Appleton Wiske, North Yorkshire, and he would be happy to pay for high resolution scans of the contents.

Anyone who can assist, do please contact me and I will put you in touch.

Thomas Wayne of Angrove Hall

York Herald, 15 August 1801

GAME

WHEREAS the GAME within the Manors of HIGH WORSALL, HUTTON near RUDBY, AND KIRBY, belonging to THOMAS WAYNE, Esq., hath of late been almost entirely destroyed; it is requested that no Gentleman will Hunt, Shoot, or Course upon the said Manors, or any of the Grounds of the said THOMAS WAYNE, without his leave in writing.  All unqualified persons found trespassing will be immediately prosecuted.

ANGROVE HALL, Aug. 13, 1801

More details on Thomas Wayne of Angrove Hall (which stood between Great Ayton and Stokesley) can be found in Stately Homes of Hutton Rudby.

His servant Mark Barker was a major beneficiary under Wayne's Will, inheriting the mill by the River Leven in Hutton, the lordship of the manor of Hutton and several other properties (see A History Walk round Hutton Rudby.  I posted a piece about Mark Barker's Will earlier in the blog, here.

For maps of the area in which Angrove Hall once stood – and for the story of its haunting – see the Great Ayton history website for information from Peter Meadows' unpublished article, Angrove Hall, a lost Cleveland house.

Probate of Ralph Day, weaver of Great Ayton: 1704

 Probate of Ralph Day 1704

Thomas Graham of Ayton Hall & his family

More notes on Thomas Graham. 

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

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

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

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

Carlisle Journal, Friday 8th November 1850

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

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

Carlisle Journal, Friday 17th February 1854 

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

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

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

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

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

Thomas Graham of Ayton Hall

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

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

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

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

First page of copy Will of Monkhouse Graham

Last page of copy Will of Monkhouse Graham

Smallpox by hospital-acquired infection in Hutton Rudby in 1893

Two rather dark tales from the newspapers:

Northern Echo
Monday 2 October 1893

Stokesley Guardians 

A case of scarlet fever was reported at Great Ayton, a case of typhoid fever at Stokesley, and a case of smallpox at Hutton Rudby.  

It was decided that the authorities of the Bradford Fever Hospital be written to informing them that a case of smallpox had occurred at Hutton Rudby through their allowing a nurse in their institution to leave without having her clothing disinfected.

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough
Thursday 25 May 1893

Selling a Mare for Ten shillings 

This morning at Stockton a hawker named Christopher Smith, of Hutton Rudby, was charged with working a mare while in an unfit state. 

Inspector Cape said he saw a bay mare belonging to defendant yoked in a cart in Bishop-street on the 17th inst., and he noticed that the animal was very lame.  The mare was subsequently condemned by Mr Awde, veterinary surgeon, as unfit to work.
Defendant pleaded for clemency on the ground that he had complied with Mr Cape's instructions regarding the animal, and had sold it at considerable sacrifice.  He gave £7 for the mare, and sold it for 10s. 

Defendant was fined £3, including costs.

People of Hutton Rudby in the C18/19: Mease to Mundale

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



Mease

Update 29 Feb 2020:  John Mease bought the disused buildings of the Hutton paper mill and installed machinery for a water-powered flax-mill in 1834.  For a full account, see Hutton Rudby 1834-1849: the Flax-Spinning Mill by the bridge

For an account of Thomas Mease and the flax-spinning mills of Stokesley, see the series of articles posted on 29 Feb 2020 beginning The linen mills of Stokesley & Hutton Rudby: 1823-1908

John Mease’s grandfather Solomon Mease (1731-1801) b Great Ayton, married Jane Humphrey and had 4 children.  He was the son of a weaver and trained as a weaver himself.  He inherited money and his wife brought him a good portion, but in the words of his son John, his “love for cards and drink was such that he was sold up in a few years”.  He joined the army and served as a sergeant in the American Wars.  Solomon’s son John Mease (1767-1849) was a grocer in Stokesley.  He married Isabella Turnbull, and they had 5 children:  Thomas, Isabella, John, Rachel and Mary.  His very interesting diary contains many references to the religious problems of the day and to Methodism.

Joseph Mellanby Mease (1827-1928) was the son of Thomas Mease, John's elder brother.  Well-educated and well-read, he had lost an arm in an accident in one of his father’s flour mills – according to a newspaper article written in his old age, it was the Hutton mill.  Joseph Mease was chief clerk at the chemical works in Jarrow owned by a member of the family.  He came to the village in 1858 as manager of a corn mill “on the site on which the police-constable’s house now stands”.  Three years later he lost his arm through his sleeve being caught in the machinery.

Joseph Mease’s wife ran a school, assisted by her daughter Jenny.  Mrs Mease’s school is mentioned in the Hutton School log book in 1879.

1841 Census:  John Mease 40 merchant and Mary Mease 30 and Edward 4 (not born in county) in the household of Thomas Pilter

11 May 1868:  Codling mortgage:  North Side ppty bounded by John Mease to W and Miss Righton and George Davison to E, and occupied by James Stephenson

1872 Post Office Directory:  Rudby:  Joseph Mellanby Mease, registrar of births & deaths

“Given by Mr Mease” 2s 6d “Sacrament Money” in Lent 1873

John Mease died 1876 and his wife Hannah Maria Geldart in 1851:  tablet in church

Joseph Mellanby Mease was the registrar who recorded the death of Mr Barlow in 1878.  
In ‘Northern Primitive Methodism’, there is a reference to a Mr  Mellanby in Greenhow.

EB 38:  1816:  Henry Mellanby of Stockton gent was witness

Will of Mark Barker of Great Ayton, 1838

Another Will held at the Borthwick Institute.  Again, from my working notes and accuracy not guaranteed.

Notes and details of Mark Barker's heirs and successors, Mark Barker Passman and Henry Passman, and their mother Sarah, follow the details of the Will.

Mark Barker had been a servant of Thomas Wayne of Angrove Hall.

This country house once stood between Stokesley and Great Ayton, but was demolished in 1832.  According to John Fairfax-Blakeborough, this was because it was haunted.  Only its gate piers survive, removed from their original position to a new site outside the Stokesley Manor House.

We are keenly awaiting Peter Meadows' revised booklet on the subject, but in the meantime notes from his earlier account can be found here, with descriptions and maps. 

On his death in 1806, Thomas Wayne left considerable property to Mark Barker, who found himself a property owner in Hutton Rudby and Lord of the Manor of Hutton.  Barker's Row is named after him, and he provided the site for the village school built by Mr Barlow.

He left his estate to a boy called Mark Barker Passman, who is widely believed to have been his son by Sarah Passman.  Mark Barker Passman died at the age of 32 and in turn left the property to his half-brother Henry Passman.  Henry farmed at Manor House Farm (on the road between Hutton Rudby and Crathorne) until he retired to live on North Side, a little way up from the Bay Horse. 

1851 Ecclesiastical Census for Gt Ayton, Nunthorpe, Stokesley and Hutton Rudby

On Sunday 30 March 1851, two censuses were taken.  One was the census of the entire population, and the other was the Ecclesiastical Census.  This was the only census of religious attendance in England and Wales ever taken by the state; it has never been repeated.

The results were analysed by the civil servant, Horace Mann (1823-1917) and his report was published in January 1854.

It is not possible to calculate from the returns the number of people who attended worship that day.  Instead, the census returns show how many attendances there were at each service (morning, afternoon and evening).

Many people will have attended more than one service and it was quite common for people to attend the service of one denomination in the morning and another in the afternoon or evening. 

The census was entirely voluntary, and not every church, chapel and meeting house sent in a return.  Some vicars felt that the state had no business making such an enquiry, and refused to complete the forms.

The total population was nearly 18 million. 7,261,032 attendances were recorded. 

Chapter 18. The early 1850s

In 1851, some months after her marriage, Marian Digby Beste and her new family left the country.  They sailed for the United States in a large party consisting of eleven children (Beste's eldest son remained behind), several canary birds, a lapdog and a dormouse.  They hoped to find a better future for the boys in the new world. 

Back in Yorkshire, some of Mr Barlow's activities at this time can be traced in his notebooks, and particularly in the one that survived amongst the logbooks for the Hutton Rudby school.  In it he recorded
the beginning of what was to be a long-running boundary dispute with his neighbour, the tailor William Jackson, who lived in the cottage where Drumrauch Hall now stands:

The time when the hedge at the foot of Jackson paddock Jacque Barn was cut by my order and in my presence
after harvest    1850    by Ramshaw
after harvest    1851    by Thos Brown

Some jottings show his open-handedness in giving and lending money to his parishioners, as for example:

Teddy has paid towards his boots    0 – 6 – 7   Decr 27th 1851

Other entries include notes of the number of days worked for him by the Meynells, Hebron, "Joe" and Pat Cannon and details of the substantial sum of £309-19s he had made in 1854 on sales of crops grown on his glebe land.

The 1851 census found Robert Barlow and all his family together in the vicarage: his wife, his three sisters and his nephew Hector.

They had a very suitable complement of servants – cook, housemaid and groom – indicating a well-to-do middle-class household.  The cook and maid were two Hutton Rudby girls aged 20 and 17, Catherine and Elizabeth Bainbridge, and the groom was an Irish lad, John McLaughlin, aged 18.

Hector Vaughan was then 18 years old and must soon afterwards have begun his career in the army, entering the 1st Battalion 20th Foot (East Devonshire) Regiment [1].  At this time an army officer was generally expected to have a private income in addition to his pay.  Hector may have inherited money from his father's family, or possibly his mother passed on to him some of the income from his father's Will and her own marriage settlement.

For this census Mr Barlow gave his age as 47 and reduced his wife's age from nearly 70 to 45.  His two eldest sisters are described as aged 30 and 28 years old, while their younger sister Nanny has a mere fourteen years taken off her age, which is given as 36. 

Chapter 17. 1844 to 1851: Changing Times

The parsonage house once completed, Mr Barlow and his household could leave Linden Grove and establish themselves in their new home.

He seems to have been more than usually disorganised at this time.  His brother's death, the building work and the removals must have absorbed much of his attention; probably papers lost in the move contributed to his failure to make entries in the parish registers.  His household may also have been distracted by anxieties for the condition of Ireland, now in the dreadful grip of the Famine.

Possibly he was too preoccupied with these matters to pay sufficient attention to the village school.  However the 1845 report of an inspector visiting the village school may reflect something more seriously amiss in the original construction ten years earlier – he found the condition of the building and especially its roof to be "not good" [1]. 

In August 1846 Lord Falkland returned from Nova Scotia at the end of his term of office.  He and his wife were to spend less than two years in England, and much of this time will have been spent in London where he had been given the post of Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of Yeomen of the Guard.  In the spring of 1848, he and his household left for India ,where his term as Governor of Bombay began on 1 May. 

Chapter 11. 1832: The year of the Cholera

The year 1832 was one of great political and social upheaval.

The battle for the Reform Bill – witnessed close at hand by Lord Falkland, who was given a peerage of the United Kingdom by his father-in-law that May, and keenly followed by James Barlow Hoy in Hampshire – led to riots in many areas.

The citizens of York burnt the Archbishop in effigy outside his palace when, through a misunderstanding, he voted to defeat the Bill [1].  In the pocket borough of Northallerton there were lively scenes in support of reform, with a great open-air party at Brompton.

When the Bill was finally passed, the change in suffrage necessitated another general election, and in December 1832 James Barlow Hoy stood again as candidate for Southampton, this time successfully.

It was also the year that established Mr Barlow in the affections of his parishioners and made his reputation for posterity.  This was the year of the cholera.

Chapter 9. Mr Barlow & his Neighbourhood

Robert may have already visited his brother James in Hampshire, but it is possible that he had never set foot in England before his arrival in early 1831.

He was instituted vicar of Hutton Rudby on 3 January [1], and arrived in the parish a short while later [2], a young and energetic man dressed in the usual clothes of a gentleman – it was not then customary for clergymen to wear clerical dress. 

There was no parsonage house at Hutton Rudby.

Mr Grice had lived in Hutton and purchased property of his own in the parish, and Mr Shepherd seems to have rented Hutton House from Lady Amherst.  An earlier vicar, George Stainthorpe, had lived in Rudby "in a house which I farm of the Honourable Colonel", George Cary. 

Accompanied by his wife and possibly one of his spinster sisters to keep her company, Mr Barlow settled into a comfortable house a little way outside Enterpen.  This had previously been known as Suggitt's Grove, and had been the home of Benjamin David Suggitt, the gentlemanly yeoman farmer who had built the Primitive Methodists their chapel.  The planting of an avenue of lime trees had given rise to a new and more genteel name, Linden Grove, and it now belonged to Suggitt's nephew, Dr George Merryweather of Whitby.  Merryweather, who was the inventor of the  Tempest Prognosticator, a device using leeches in jars to forecast bad weather, let the property, with some additional farmland, to Mr Barlow.