12. From Alice Wandesford's marriage to the return of the King: 1651-1660

At Hipswell, 23 year old Christopher Wandesford was now head of the family.  He followed the custom of the time – there was a contract of marriage to fulfil and he took his brother's place.  So, on 30 September 1651 at Lowther, Christopher married the 18 year old Eleanor Lowther.  The result for Alice, John and their mother was years of trouble over money, to their lasting detriment.  Christopher, Alice said, was of too good a nature and too inexperienced to realise how he was being manipulated by his new father-in-law Sir John Lowther into denying them their money under their father's Will.  

Alice's brother John was now seventeen.  A pious, learned and quick-witted boy, sweet and affectionate in nature, he had been at Christ's College, Cambridge for two years.  Now, partly from grief at George's death and partly from the grief he felt because Christopher was refusing to pay him his annuity, he fell into a deep melancholy that, said Alice, took away the use of his understanding.  He had to leave Cambridge without taking his degree.  

Over the following years, with infinite care and pains, Mrs Wandesford nursed him back to health but he was very liable to relapses, so she was very anxious when he was persuaded to go and live in London.  Luckily she was able to secure for him the help and care of Dr Bathurst, whose renown had grown since the days when he had treated Christopher – indeed, he had become Oliver Cromwell's physician.  

Meanwhile, Mrs Wandesford grew increasingly anxious to see her daughter married and she really had nobody to advise her – how she must have wished for her brother Sir Edward Osborne.  On the whole, she still wanted the match with William Thornton, even though she was disobliging several wealthy neighbours who had also approached her – Colonel Anstruther and Colonel Darcy, son of Lord Darcy, among them.  And she had her doubts about the real value of Mr Thornton's estate. 

Alice was now 25.  She really wanted to stay single and felt that the money left her by her father should be quite enough for her to be comfortable and useful.  But she also didn't want to disobey her mother and she had been willing to marry Mr Thornton so as to help the family discharge the sequestration.  

Now she had to decide whether to go ahead with the marriage or not.  It was a hard choice and it wasn't just a question of money.  On the one hand and very much in his favour, William Thornton was a quiet, decent man, esteemed in his own neighbourhood.  He was not debauched and irreligious, like so many men that she knew.  (She doesn't say whether these included Colonel Anstruther and Colonel Darcy).  On the other hand, his religious background was not at all like her own.  His half-sisters were all Catholics – strict papists, Alice said – while the other part of his family were strong Presbyterians and Parliamentarians.  

Alice spoke to him frankly.  She said that she was of the true protestant Church of England and they would be miserable together if he wasn't of the same faith.  He was seriously troubled at this, but then he declared that he shared her opinion.  He wanted bishops – suitably reformed – back and he too wanted a King.  And she could bring the children up in her faith entirely as she wished.  And so she decided that the money was of less importance and she would accept his offer.

At last the marriage contract was negotiated and on 15 December 1651 at Hipswell Hall, Mrs Wandesford gave her daughter in marriage to 27 year old William Thornton of East Newton, which lies a little east of Oswaldkirk and about 5 miles SSW of Helmsley.  

Mr Syddall, the vicar of Catterick, took the marriage service.  Alice's brother John was there, and so was her uncle Mauger Norton of St Nicholas, and their kinsman John Dodsworth of Thornton Watlass Hall near Masham, whose son Timothy had been a confidential servant to her father in Dublin.  William Thornton's uncle Francis Darley had come to be a witness from his estates at Buttercrambe, eight miles north-east of York.  Six of her mother's servants saw Alice married, and she listed them: Dafeny Lightfoote, in whose arms her sister Catherine had died; Ralfe Ianson, who was with her when she escaped drowning in the Swale; George Lightfoote; Robert Webster; Martha Richison; and Robert Loftus the elder.

That very day Alice fell suddenly ill with violent vomiting and sickness.  She thought it might have been because she took cold the night before, when she stayed up late to make her preparations for the wedding, but her mother thought it was because she had also washed her feet – quite the wrong time of year for such a procedure.  She made a full recovery and seven weeks later she conceived.

For the first weeks, before the babe quickened in her womb and she could feel it moving, she was very poorly but afterwards she was strong and healthy.  So when she was seven months pregnant, she was content to go with her husband to visit his family and friends.  

At the end of their visit, they set off from Mr Thornton's estate at East Newton to Osgodby Hall at Thirkleby, the home of his brother-in-law Sir William Ayscough.  William Thornton had been advised to take the road across the moors from Sproxton towards Hambleton.  He hadn't been warned that they would come to the top of Sutton Bank and that Alice would have to clamber down it herself – it was about a mile, Alice said, steep down.  Perhaps the path for horses was too steep and dangerous for them to be able to carry riders and especially a heavily-pregnant pillion passenger.  

Narrow steps were cut into the steep bank, but Alice was so big with child that she could hardly find a footing.  She had only her maid to help her – everyone else had gone on ahead – and her maid was having difficulty herself.  Each step strained Alice a great deal.  At last she was safe at the bottom, tired, hot and weary, feeling unwell, and troubled with pain.  She was troubled with pains all the way home and within a fortnight was in a desperate fever and was ill for some time.  The babe within her finally grew so weak that all movement stopped.  On 27 August 1652 her baby daughter was born, and died within the hour before they could get a clergyman to baptise her.  She was buried that night at Easby church beside the River Swale.

And this was the beginning of many griefs and joys for Alice.  She loved her children deeply, breastfed them joyously and looked after them lovingly – but she lost six children at birth or in infancy and only three grew to adulthood.  Her accounts of their illnesses and deaths are heart-rending.

Death & Change: 1651-1660

The first eight years of Alice's marriage were spent at Hipswell Hall with Mrs Wandesford, while extensive building work was being done to the old family manor house of the Thorntons at East Newton.  

So Alice and William were at Hipswell when in 1653 Parliament appointed Oliver Cromwell to be Lord Protector of the Commonwealth for life – he was king in all but name and he was addressed as Your Highness.  

Oliver Cromwell

They were at Hipswell in 1655 when, after failed uprisings by English and Scottish Royalists, Cromwell put England under martial law to bring about a godly, righteous country.  His Rule of the Major-Generals meant a repressive regime of high taxation and moral improvement – no horse racing, stage plays, fairs, cock-fighting, bear-baiting, no drunkenness, sexual licence, blasphemy or swearing.  It last fifteen unpopular months.  

The 1650s passed and everyday life went on.  During those years, Alice bore five children – four daughters and a son.  Only two of her daughters, Alice – who was always known as Naly (which must be pronounced Nallie, like Allie today) – and Katherine survived.  And through these difficult years, she found great comfort in the presence of her beloved mother, who was truly generous to them.  

Mrs Wandesford was a notable housewife.  She kept within her means but she still managed to achieve, Alice said, a noble, handsome manner of living.  She paid all Alice and William's expenses – christenings, burials, nurses, men servants and maids – and she bore the cost of entertaining and welcoming their friends as well as her own.  

She also took care of their medical bills.  These included a trip to Copgrove, a few miles south-west of Boroughbridge, to see if immersions in St Mungo's Well would cure Alice's baby Betty of the rickets.  Sadly, the holy well had no effect and at the beginning of September 1656 little Betty died.  She was, Alice wrote, aged one year, six months and twenty-one days.  She was buried the same day at Catterick by Mr Syddall.  He was buried there himself sixteen months later, having died of a malignant consumption before his fiftieth birthday. 

New upheavals in the country followed Oliver Cromwell's death on 3 September 1658.  Now his son Richard was Lord Protector.  1659 was a year of chaos.  Tumbledown Dick, as people called Richard, couldn't keep the Puritan factions together.  Who would seize control of power?  The country was gripped by uncertainty and fear.

By August 1659, Alice's mother and husband were getting very alarmed by her health.  On the doctor's advice, William took Alice to Scarborough Spa to drink the waters.  The cure worked – which was very fortunate as, after a month, a message came from Hipswell.  Mrs Wandesford was very poorly with her old ailment, the stone, and she wanted Alice home.  So they set off back, stopping at Crathorne on the way to see William's half-sister Margaret, who had married Ralph Crathorne of Crathorne – that side of William's family were all Catholics, as were the Crathornes.  There, to Alice's joy, a servant from Hipswell met them with the news that Mrs Wandesford was much recovered.  The good news was followed by the realisation that she was pregnant again, and her husband and mother began to hope that this time it might be a son.

But on 17 November 1659 Mrs Wandesford fell ill.  They tried all the remedies that they could.  They managed to relieve a pain in her side with poultices of fried oats, butter and chopped camomile, but her condition grew more distressing and she grew steadily weaker.  

On Thursday 8 December, she sent for Alice, William and the children so that she could bless them and say goodbye.  Alice was about five months pregnant.  She was distraught at seeing her mother in such terrible suffering and she couldn't bear to lose her.  They had been companions through so many trials and griefs and she had been able to rely on her mother's strength and support all her life.  Mrs Wandesford said to her, 

Dear child, why will you not be willing to part with me to God?  Has he not lent me to be a comfort to you long enough?  

And she urged Alice to let her go.  

You never have been disobedient to me in all your life – I pray thee obey me in this.  

She blessed them and Alice took "the saddest last leave of my dear and honoured mother as ever a child did."  

Two days later, Mrs Wandesford saw her sister-in-law Anne Norton and her husband Mauger.  There had always been a strict league of affection and friendship, Alice remembered, between the two women.  Now they said their last goodbye.  She commended her children to the care of Mauger Norton and she died later that day, Saturday 10 December 1659.  Dafeny Lightfoote had been beside her through her illness and was among those who were with her at the end.

On the Tuesday, her body was carried out of the house by Conyers, Lord Darcy and Conyers together with his son Colonel Darcy and son-in-law Sir Christopher Wyvill and other kinsmen of the Wandesford family.  Then her tenants took her from Hipswell Green to Catterick, where nine of the neighbouring clergy, men chosen in advance by Mrs Wandesford herself, carried her into the parish church.  After the service and sermon, they laid her in her grave in the south aisle, which was the Hipswell aisle, and a charitable dole was distributed among a very great number of the poor inside the church and at the door.

St Anne's, Catterick.  [By Alison Stamp CC BY-SA 2.0]

Alice and her daughter Naly later had a blue marble slab laid in Catterick church to mark Mrs Wandesford's resting place; it was destroyed in a 19th century restoration.  

Charles II returns & Alice leaves Richmondshire: 1660

By the time of Mrs Wandesford's funeral, the political chaos meant that there was hardly anybody to mind if nine Anglican clergymen officiated at a funeral in Catterick.  General George Monck, the commander of Scotland, had already crossed the border into Northumberland and made his HQ at Coldstream.  And all people wanted was for the uncertainty to stop. 

General George Monck (1608-70)

On New Year's Day 1660, Monck marched his army south.  Within three months, he was in secret negotiation with Charles II in his exile and on 25 May 1660 Charles landed at Dover.  On 29 May – his thirtieth birthday – he entered London to great rejoicing.  To everyone's relief and to the joy of Royalists, the chaotic uncertainty of the last months had ended.  

Charles II in coronation robes

After Mrs Wandesford's death, Alice and William stayed on at Hipswell Hall for a while, kept there by bitter winter weather and Alice's weak and grieving state.  

In March, they took her to her Aunt Norton's at St Nicholas, and in April her baby was born there, after a hard labour.  He was a pretty babe and suckling well but then grew ill and restless and red round spots like smallpox appeared on his face.  He died at a fortnight old and was buried in the same grave at Easby as his eldest sister, Alice's first child. 

On 10 June 1660, when Alice was strong again, she and William and their two little girls left St Nicholas to move to a house that William owned in Oswaldkirk.  And so she left Richmondshire, her own dear country and dear friends and relations, parting from them with a sad heart.

Next:  13. Mrs Alice Thornton of East Newton: 1660-1707

11. The wars come to an end: 1651

By this time, Alice's brother George, now aged 28, was reaching success in his endeavours to recover his sequestered estates and find a wife.  

Their uncle William Wandesford had been working for some time on the first problem, which was made difficult by the shortage of funds, and he had hit upon the solution.  A distant connection of the family, Richard Darley, was an influential man on the York Committee for Compounding with Delinquents and had promised his help in return for Alice's marriage to his nephew.  Alice was now twenty-five and she had turned down better offers because, as her aunt had said to Captain Innes, she didn't want to marry.  But her uncle said the alternative was ruin for the family and her mother was anxious for them all.  A strange sort of persuasion, she thought, between a sword in one hand and a compliment in the other, but she knew the duty of a gentry daughter and William Thornton was a sober, religious man.  She agreed.  

Meanwhile, George had finally managed to negotiate a marriage contract with Eleanor, the eldest daughter of Sir John Lowther of Lowther Castle near Penrith.

On Easter Eve, 29 March 1651, a rift between George and his 23 year old brother Christopher was healed by Alice.  George had become angry because a mischief-making servant had told him lies about Christopher.  Christopher had been incensed at George believing them.  The ill-feeling between them had grown to such a pitch of anger and animosity that neither of them would be able to take Holy Communion on Easter Sunday.  Alice had taken things in hand.  She calmed them down, entreating them to ask pardon of God and each other for all that had gone wrong between them.  At last they were able to forgive each other freely and, in zeal and devotion, they were all able to receive the Holy Sacrament the next day.  The memory was to be a great comfort to her.

Two days later, his quarrel with Christopher made up, his estates freed from sequestration and his marriage arranged, George was on his way to Richmond to discuss business with his uncle.  Having spent the previous night at Harry Darcy's at nearby Colburn, he called in at Hipswell.  Leaving his mother and sister after loving farewells and having knelt for his mother's blessing, he set off once more, telling his Irish footman James Brodrick to meet him in Richmond at two o'clock.  And so he rode on towards the River Swale.

The Swale is a fast flowing river and in those days was especially liable to flash flooding.  The floods fall, Alice said, down from the dales with a mighty mountainous force.  She had been nearly caught out once or twice – once, when going between Hipswell and her aunt Norton's, the water had been only a little above the horse's fetlocks when she began to cross, but the flood came down with such speed that the water had risen to the middle of the girths before she reached safety.  She was saved because she was only half the horse's length from the further bank by then – if she had been a couple more yards from safety, she would have met with disaster.

So when George rode by the family's little chapel on the top of the river bank and he saw that there was a wedding that day, he asked the people whether the Swale might be ridden.  Yes, they said – there had been a flood but it had fallen and some of them had crossed the water that morning.  So he wished them joy in their marriage and rode very slowly down the bank towards the wathplace, as fords were called in the dialect.  

Two men on the other bank saw him going as carefully and slowly as foot could fall – and then they saw the flood come suddenly and mightily down.  They ran to the river.  But they could only see his horse swimming to the bank and shaking itself.  They caught it by the bridle and they looked for the rider – no sign of him.  They ran to Easby and to Richmond, crying the news and calling for help.  The news came to Hipswell, a grievous and crushing blow, while great numbers flocked down to the river and began to search for George's body.

It was John Plummer, one of the men who had been called as a witness against him for his sequestration, who found him on the Wednesday, four miles downstream of Richmond in a pool near Catterick Bridge.  They thought, from the fact that he was unmarked except for one bruise on his nose, that he had struck his face on some great stone – there were stones like that in abundance, Alice said, at that wathplace.  He had been an excellent swimmer, but that hadn't saved him.  They took his body up and laid it that night at Thomson's at Catterick Brigg, fearing that taking him to his mother's would only deepen her grief and perhaps endanger her life.  The next day, the Richmondshire gentry accompanied the coach that took him to Kirklington to be buried inside the church near the tomb of his great-grandfather Sir Christopher.

St Michael's, Kirklington

Charles II and the Scots invade England: 1651

So the shocked and grief-stricken Mrs Wandesford and her children will hardly have been paying attention when, in August, Charles II and his Scottish supporters invaded England and Cromwell's troops again marched through Yorkshire.  

The town of Carlisle wouldn't let them enter and very few Englishmen were joining their army.  Cromwell marched at speed from Perthshire to the River Tyne and from there – 20 miles a day in extreme heat, with the country people carrying the troops' arms and equipment – he reached Ferrybridge on 19 August.  

The young king had decided to make for the Severn valley, where many had supported his father, but the people there did not welcome a Scottish invasion.  On 6 September 1651, his army was routed by Cromwell and his fellow generals at the Battle of Worcester.  The Scottish general David Leslie was captured and put in the Tower.  Many of the fleeing Scots were killed by locals as they tried to reach the border.  Around 10,000 prisoners were taken, most of them Scots, and they were sent to work draining the fens or shipped off to America.  Charles was on the run for six weeks before he could escape to France – his experiences had taught him more about the people than his father had ever known.  

Now Parliament's rule was secure and Scotland was under English military rule.  Cromwell had already begun with massacres at Drogheda and Wexford to complete the final crushing of the Irish rebellion.  After eleven dreadful years and an enormous death toll, Ireland would soon be subdued and very many more Protestant settlements created on land confiscated from Catholics.  

Note

That was the end of the Third Civil War 1649-51

The World Turn'd Upside Down

When Christmas had been banned, a ballad called "The World Turn'd Upside Down" had appeared in print.  Its refrain was

Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down

For many across the country, the Wandesfords included, the words must have seemed all too true.

Society had been turned upside down during the years of fighting.  Gentlemen and nobles had found themselves fighting alongside artisans and working men.  Ordinary men were driven by hunger into becoming soldiers and some found a chance at last of revenge for old grievances against the sort of men who had always had the upper hand.  Revolt and new ideas were in the air.

There were new religious sects like the Quakers – George Fox, their founder, had made followers across the North and East Ridings – and there were Baptists among Parliamentarian leaders.  There were political revolutionaries like the Levellers.  There were religious radicals – sects like the Fifth Monarchists who believed Jesus was coming any moment to begin a thousand-year reign – and wandering self-proclaimed messiahs.  Witch panics had broken out.  Over 300 people were executed – most by strangling at the stake before burning – in Scotland in the space of eighteen months.  The hysteria had spilled over into Berwick.  Twenty had died in Newcastle.  Matthew Hopkins, who called himself the Witchfinder General, was active in East Anglia, where about a hundred people were executed.

Note

For estimates of the death toll from battle and disease, see for example this Wikipedia entry

Next: 12. From Alice Wandesford's marriage to the return of the King: 1651-1660 

8. Mrs Wandesford moves to Hipswell: 1644-1645

In Kirklington, George feared he was a wanted man and he lay low for a while.  His sympathies were with the King, but he reckoned the King's cause was lost, and what would be achieved by involving himself in utter ruin?  So he didn't attempt to go west to join Royalist forces.  He thought it would be prudent for his family if they just stayed quiet.

But the following month, the Wandesfords unintentionally attracted unwanted attention. 

Firstly, on 19 August 1644, Mr Dagget, the kindly Rector of Kirklington, died.  The Wandesfords had always been entitled in law to appoint the next Rector and their choice was Mr Michael Syddall.  They knew about him because he was married to Ellen Hunton, the widow of the late Mr Wandesford's steward, and he was a man of their own views in religion.  They had very much appreciated the sermon he had preached at Mr Dagget's funeral.  

But the decision was now Parliament's, and Mrs Wandesford's attempt to get the help of Sir Thomas Fairfax, a friend in happier days, did not succeed.  A Mr Clarkson was sent to Kirklington instead.  The congregation took badly to him, especially when he preached against the Lord's Prayer – he was a severe Puritan who believed that it was a pattern for heartfelt prayer, that simply reciting it was Popery and so those who did so would be damned.  The people booed and hissed him out of the church and another minister to the liking of Parliament, one Mr Philip Nesbit, was sent instead.  

Now he was twenty-one, George was obliged by Act of Parliament to sign the Solemn League and Covenant made between the English Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters.  George didn't back down from his principles and he refused, because signing it went against his religious beliefs and against his loyalty to the King.  There wasn't a penalty in law for refusing, though Alice says that the Scottish armies stationed in Richmondshire were forcing men to sign under pain of imprisonment or ruin, but the names of men who refused were notified to Parliament.  So although George had tried not to attract attention, it might have been this refusal that got him denounced as a Malignant – a traitor to the Parliament.  

Then George was accused of having taken part in the Battle of Marston Moor.  Two men who had recognised him on the moor were called to York to give evidence against him, but though they wouldn't say that they had seen him engaged in the fighting, and though he was still under age at the time, he was declared a Delinquent and his estates were confiscated from him by the Sequestration Committee.  Alice always thought it was done through some sinister machinations by Mr Nesbit as a way to get himself appointed minister to the choice living of Kirklington, where he announced the sequestration of George's estates in a triumphing manner in the pulpit.

So the family went to live at Hipswell, which belonged to Mrs Wandesford under the terms of her marriage settlement.  This had the consolation that they were now near to Mr Michael Syddall, who had been their choice of minister for Kirklington and who was now vicar of Catterick.  And so they were still able to pray the Lord's Prayer and take Holy Communion, which disappeared in many places because it was contrary to Puritan beliefs, and Mr Syddall was to take baptisms and burials for the family in the years to come.

Hipswell Hall.  [By David Rogers CC BY-SA 2.0]

Scots soldiers at Hipswell & other perils

Unfortunately, Hipswell was much nearer to Richmond, and the town was now garrisoned by the Allies – the castle had been partly in ruins for a hundred years – and Scottish soldiers were everywhere.  And they were billeted on the locals.  Both armies always saved money by doing this because it meant the troops were kept at the civilians' expense.  This was a nuisance and a burden to everybody, but especially distressing if the householder had supported the other side.

For the next year and a half, Mrs Wandesford was burdened sometimes by Scots soldiers and sometimes by Parliamentarians.  She was very short of funds and she had to borrow to cover the cost of keeping her own family, making her monthly payment to the Allies and paying for the upkeep of a troop of Scots horse.  

She wasn't only bothered by worries over money – she also had to keep her pretty 19 year old daughter safe.  So she never allowed the captains and commanders to live in the house with the family.  At last there came one Captain Innes, who commanded a troop stationed at Richmond.

One day, he walked unexpectedly into the house.  Alice was in her mother's chamber when he walked boldly into the room to see Mrs Wandesford, and she had no chance to hide before he saw her.  When he did, he became very determined to stay in the house, promising he would keep to his own quarters out of their way ...  Finally they managed to get rid of him.  All the while Alice was in a tremble of fear because he looked so wild and bloody looking a man and he reminded her of the rebel lords in Ireland.

Captain Innes went back to Richmond and he told Alice's aunt Mrs Norton that he would give all he was worth if she would procure Alice to be his wife, offering £4,000 and saying that his colonel Lord Adair would come with him to speak for him.  Mrs Norton replied that Alice was not to be obtained by him and that she was sure that Alice had given him no encouragement, because she was resolved not to marry.  Then she sent a private message to Alice to warn her that the men were coming and that she should get out of his way.  

Mrs Wandesford was horrified.  She was afraid that they would burn the house down and she sent Alice out of the house to find somewhere to hide.  Very frightened, Alice ran into Richmond and hid herself with a good old woman who was one of the Wandesfords' tenants.  When night came and she could be sure that the men's visit was over, she went home.  All the while, Mrs Wandesford had been trying to placate them by bringing out the best of her provisions, assuring them that she had no idea where Alice was, and sending servants out to look for her.  Captain Innes was enraged.  

At about this time her mother wasn't very well, and so Alice had been sitting up a good deal with her and writing letters for her.  Becoming anxious for Alice's own health, Mrs Wandesford used to send her out in the company of her maids to get some fresh air.  So Alice would take a walk out to Lows – probably low-lying pasture land – and come back refreshed.  One day she was stopped by one of the Scots soldiers.  He didn't want to alarm her too much but he had an urgent warning for her:  

Dear mistress, I pray do not think much if I desire you, for God's sake, not to go out with the maids to Lows.

Alice knew the man – she had treated his hand when it had been badly cut.  He had come to return the favour.  He warned her that Captain Innes, cursing and swearing, planned that very night to come with a great number of men and catch her and take her away by force.  Deeply grateful for this rescue from rape and ruin, she gave the man many thanks and rewarded him for his trouble.  And after that she stayed at home like a prisoner, waiting for Captain Innes to leave Richmondshire.

In June 1645, when the time came for the Scots troops to go, some marching south to Doncaster and others leaving for Scotland to fight against the Scottish Royalists, Captain Innes sent – in a boasting manner, Alice said – to Mrs Wandesford for his pay.  She sent him all that she owed him, but he wouldn't take it.  He demanded double.  She wouldn't pay.  So one Sunday morning he arrived with his company at Hipswell, threatening to break down the doors of the Hall, and sending his men to drive off Mrs Wandesford's cattle.  As he swore and raged, Alice went up onto the leads – the roof – to see what was happening to the cattle.  Looking up, he mistook her for her mother and he cursed her bitterly, wishing that the Devil would blow her blind and into the air.  She had been a thorn in his heel, but he would be a thorn in her side.  And so his men drove off the cattle – a delicate breed of Mrs Wandesford's own – to Richmond.

Mrs Wandesford took the pay that she owed him and set off for Richmond herself.  She went to St Nicholas, the house of her sister-in-law Mrs Norton, where she could find the Scottish commander, General David Leslie.  When she told him the story, he took the money and said he would make Captain Innes accept it.  When Captain Innes left for Scotland he swore that, if the Scots returned, they would burn both the women and all they had.

Sir David Leslie (1600-82)

And besides these dangers, there were natural perils.  

The bubonic plague was close at hand.  In November 1644, it broke out in Richmond and it lasted a year.  About 700 people died.  Unnecessary gatherings and visits to other people's houses were banned, and in muddy and damp weather the people were told to keep their doors and windows shut.  People left the town if they could.  Hipswell escaped the infection, and every day Mrs Wandesford gave out food and money to beggars whose livelihoods had been lost in the outbreak. 

At this time, after the Battle of Marston Moor and the defeat of the Royalists in the North, Alice's sister Catherine and her family were living at Middleham Castle under the protection of Edward, Lord Loftus.  

Sir Thomas was there too, as Alice remembered.  He had commanded a Mashamshire regiment for the King and must have been taken by the Parliamentarians at Marston Moor because it is said that he was imprisoned for a long while.  Lord Loftus, on the other hand, was a Parliamentarian.  Sir Thomas will have known Lord Loftus and his family not only as neighbours but also from his own brief time in Dublin – Loftus's father was Adam Loftus, who had been Lord Chancellor of Ireland until his career was destroyed and he was ruined by Strafford.  Then he had returned to his small property at Coverham and Edward, who had been imprisoned by Strafford for a short while, married the heiress to nearby Middleham and its castle.  Perhaps Sir Thomas and Lord Loftus had always been personal friends – or perhaps it was simply that Loftus was extending a courtesy to a fellow member of the local gentry – and of course Catherine would be a welcome guest as the daughter of a man who didn't make enemies, unlike his friend Strafford – at any rate, there they were, safe inside a castle that Lord Loftus was garrisoning for Parliament at his own expense.  And there she had another baby.

Middleham Castle

Alice was asked to be godmother and so she set out from Hipswell for the baptism.  She was in good health, very hearty and strong, and when she came to the River Ure at Middleham she didn't hesitate to take her horse across rather than disappoint Catherine.  So she followed her mother's servant onto the causeway, which was marked by stoupes – standing posts.  But the river was deeper than they expected.  

She kept up her horse as well as she could but when they were gone so far that she could not turn back, the river proved past riding and she realised that the mare couldn't find the bottom.  With a fervent prayer, when she saw that the mare was swimming, Alice gave her the reins and all the help that she could, and she gripped the mare's mane.  The mare bore up her head and swam – about an eighth of a mile, Alice remembered – and they were saved.  When she reached the castle, she will have been soaked to the skin.

Note

Alice refers to the "river near Midlam, called Swale" – which is a tributary of the Ure.  But it must have been the Ure that she needed to cross because that's the river at Middleham.

Next: 9. Royalist disaster & private grief: 1645-7 

5. War in Yorkshire: 1642-1643

In Chester, the Wandesfords found a welcome and were treated with kindness and friendship by the gentry families.  Within the strong walls of a city well-stocked with muskets, garrisoned by Royalist troops and with armed watchmen night and day guarding the gates, Mrs Wandesford must have felt she had reached a safe haven for her family and especially for her convalescent daughter and troubled son Christopher.  Refugees like themselves from Ireland were coming into the city, and lawlessness in Cheshire was driving people there, but Sir Thomas Danby was able to relieve her of the care of her grandsons and her twenty-year-old son George was safely in France with his tutor.  

She had many anxieties to deal with.  Besides the health of Alice and Christopher, there were matters from her husband's estates in an increasingly chaotic Ireland to settle, and she was short of money because rents from Yorkshire weren't arriving.  She didn't like to accept the offers of help from friends in Chester, but she had the invaluable support of her brother Sir Edward Osborne.  

Sir Edward Osborne (1596-1647)

He, poor man, had never recovered from the death of his eldest boy Edward in 1638.  Sir Edward had taken the place of Strafford as President of the Council of the North and was living at York Manor in York, the official residence, at the time.  A violent storm brought down a chimneystack which crashed through the roof, killing 17 year old Edward and sparing 6 year old Thomas only because, when the disaster happened, he was looking under a table for his pet cat.  Now Sir Edward was busy as a Commissioner of Array for the King, charged with mustering troops.

York Manor (now King's Manor).  [Tim Green CC by 2.0]

Outside Chester the situation was bad.  

The Wandesfords knew that Scottish troops were no longer in easy reach of their Yorkshire estates – they had left England in August – but now dreadful news kept coming in from Ireland of cruelties and massacres.  Even more appalling versions of the same news, of much larger numbers of Protestants dead, of rapes and tortures and murdered babies, came from the London printers and propagandists.  Anglicans like the Wandesfords were shocked to hear of the desecration of the cathedrals of Winchester and Chichester by Parliamentary troops who smashed the stained glass and the memorials.  Alice shared the opinions of everyone she knew – the King's Scottish and English opponents were men who had wantonly tired of a lawful and peaceable government, the Irish nakedly thirsted after the blood and lives of the English, the religious grievances of the Calvinists and Catholics were nothing but pretence, and the Earl of Strafford was a martyr.  

Yorkshire and the Battle of Piercebridge: 1642

Beyond the walls of Chester – and even within the walls – conflicting loyalties were dividing families, towns and villages.  

London grew too dangerous for the King and he set up his Court in York on 19 March 1642.  The city found itself the capital of the kingdom for six months, housing foreign ambassadors, nobles, the important men of state and a committee sent by Parliament to keep an eye on the King.  

Rival Puritan and Royalist groups fought each other in the streets.  Terrifying stories of massacres in Ireland began to reach Yorkshire and wild fears of Catholic Irish invasion took root.  Having two Catholic priests executed – the head of Father Lockwood, aged nearly 90, was put on Bootham Bar, and the head of young Edmund Catterick of Carlton near Richmond, on Micklegate Bar – couldn't convince doubters that Protestantism was safe in the King's hands.  And it was no use the King decreeing that no Catholics could join his army – at the muster, anyone could see that nearly half the Royalist colonels were Catholic.  Recruitment for Parliament surged among the lower classes in the West Riding.  As time passed and the hope of finding an agreement between the two sides faded, the city authorities began to strengthen York's defences.  

On 22 August 1642, the King marched southward and raised his standard at Nottingham Castle.  He was now at war with Parliament.  

On 23 September, the Wandesfords will have seen the King being enthusiastically welcomed into Chester with great civic ceremony.  He was there because it was an important strategic stronghold, the main port for Ireland and the gateway to Royalist North Wales and he spent a few nights in the city, reviewing the troops of his supporters, before moving on to Wrexham.  A month later, his forces and the Parliamentarians met in battle for the first time.  It was at Edgehill, a dozen miles south-east of Stratford-upon-Avon, and both sides claimed victory.

And what about Yorkshire, where Alice's sister Catherine must now have been in great anxiety for her husband, who had gone to join the King's army?

Hull was held for Parliament by Sir John Hotham and Scarborough by the Whitby landowner Sir Hugh Cholmley, and the independently-minded weavers and small farmers of the West Riding were mostly Puritans, but the North Riding was for the King and the few Parliamentarians there had a poor time of it.  They included men like the Earl of Mulgrave, the three sons of Sir David Foulis of Ingleby – their father had spent seven years in prison because of Strafford – and their cousins Thomas and James Chaloner of Guisborough.  The Robinsons of Rokeby near Greta Bridge were ardent Parliamentarians.  John Dodsworth of Thornton Watlass, a kinsman of the Wandesfords, was raising a company of dragoons for Parliament.

Parliamentarian captains met at Bedale in October 1642.  They tried to organise the Trained Bands and they held a public meeting in Richmond to raise funds.  But the fund-raising wasn't very successful and the Trained Bands weren't at all keen.  Very many people wanted to keep out of this argument and in some places communities made neutrality pacts with each other.  Before long, force and threats were being used to get recruits.  Hugh Cholmley of Tunstall near Catterick first tricked his neighbours into mustering for his son's troop of Royalist horse and then forced them to stay in the troop, threatening he would have them hanged and their houses burned if they didn't.

Both King and Parliament needed control of the crossing places on the River Tees.  The Royalists were bringing in supplies of arms from the Continent into the River Tyne.  They were needed for York, which was threatened from the west and from the Parliamentarian ports of Hull and Scarborough to the east.

William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle, was the Royalist commander-in-chief in the North East.  His army of about 2,000 horse and dragoons, together with 4,000 foot soldiers and ten pieces of cannonry reached the narrow mediaeval bridge at Piercebridge on 1 December 1642.  On the other bank of the Tees was Captain John Hotham with about 120 horse, 400 foot and two small cannons.  

William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle

An advance guard of Royalist dragoons and foot under 36 year old Colonel Sir Thomas Howard forced its way onto the bridge and fierce fighting followed.  Finally unable to hold the bridge, Hotham withdrew his men towards Knaresborough with, he said, only three wounded.  The attackers will have suffered more in their onslaught on the bridge and their leader Sir Thomas Howard was killed.  He was buried the next day at High Coniscliffe while the Marquess of Newcastle and his forces marched on to York.   

Battles at Guisborough and Yarm: 1643

The loss of Piercebridge and the arrival in York of the supplies was an enormous blow to the Parliamentarian gentry of the North Riding.  Their goods and estates were confiscated and they couldn't help their friends in the West Riding because the men of the Trained Bands, who had turned up so reluctantly, simply melted away.  Sir Henry Foulis of Ingleby reported that a Cleveland foot regiment that had mustered 500 men at Yarm had rapidly dwindled to 80 at the approach of the enemy.  

Meanwhile, someone the Wandesfords had known in Dublin had returned home to his estates at Hemlington, just south of the Tees.  This was 32 year old Guilford Slingsby, who had been Strafford's loyal secretary to the end and who had since been secretary to the young Prince of Wales in Holland.  

Slingsby had no military experience himself, so he had brought back with him a few mercenaries to train the troops he intended to raise for the King.  They were needed to protect the arms convoys crossing the Tees and to threaten the Parliamentarians in Scarborough.

Sir Hugh Cholmley in Scarborough learned that his distant kinsman Slingsby had orders from the Marquess of Newcastle to occupy Whitby – which was his own territory, where he had his great house beside the ruins of the ancient Abbey.  Picking up two troops of dragoons in Malton, he took his men on the hard, wintry march across the moors towards Guisborough.  He had with him 80 horse, 170 dragoons and 130 foot – some 380 men in all.

On 16 January 1643, Cholmley's men came down from the moors.  Slingsby's forces – some 100 horse and 400 foot, mostly raw recruits – were so confident that they came about a mile out of Guisborough to meet the Parliamentary troops and they placed their musketeers under the hedges in positions of advantage.  They were able to hold their ground for a couple of hours but they were gradually forced back and defeated.  Slingsby, badly wounded by artillery fire, was taken prisoner.  The surgeons tried to save him, amputating both his legs above the knee, but he died three days later.  He was buried in York Minster.  

When Sir Hugh Cholmley, who had moderate religious views and was becoming ever more unhappy with his choice of allegiance, reported the battle to Parliament, he wrote

I am forced to draw my sword not only against my countrymen but many near friends and allies some of which I know both to be well affected in religion and lovers of their liberties.

He withdrew his men to Scarborough, and he ordered 400 foot, 150 horse and two cannons to Yarm to hold the narrow bridge over the Tees.  

A few weeks later, a very large convoy of 120 wagons and 140 packhorses, guarded by perhaps 2,000 men, was on its way south to the Marquess of Newcastle.  The Parliamentary forces at the bridge had no chance.  On 1 February 1643 the Royalists fell on them and in a very brief time most of them were taken.  The Battle of Yarm was soon over.  The prisoners were taken to Durham Castle, where they were badly treated.  The Royalist convoy left engineers at Yarm to stop future Parliamentarian attempts on the bridge – they broke down its northern arch and put a wooden drawbridge in its place.  

Within weeks, Sir Hugh Cholmley had changed sides.  The King now held Scarborough.  On 30 June, the Marquess of Newcastle won a victory at the Battle of Adwalton Moor, five miles from Bradford.  The North was now almost completely Royalist.

6. Chester: smallpox, siege and travelling home: 1643 

2. Mr Wandesford enters politics: 1620-1630

From schooldays at Well near Kirklington – or perhaps only from university days at Cambridge, nobody is sure – Mr Wandesford was the friend of Sir Thomas Wentworth of Wentworth-Woodhouse in the West Riding.  Mr Wandesford had a talent for friendship; Sir Thomas Wentworth had a talent for making enemies.  But Sir Thomas was much loved by his small circle of close friends and perhaps they loved him the more because his enemies hated him so much.  However it was, the friendship between Mr Wandesford and Sir Thomas Wentworth was real and deep.  

Sir Thomas Wentworth

So when in November 1620 King James found himself obliged to call the third Parliament of his reign – needing it to vote funds for military operations he planned in Europe – and Sir Thomas was engaged in a contested election to be one of Yorkshire's two MPs, he was able to persuade his friend and supporter Mr Wandesford to join him.  Mr Wandesford became one of the two MPs for the little borough of Aldborough in the West Riding and moved with his family to London.  

It was a sadly reduced family – little Joyce had died in 1620 at the age of two.  They remained in the South for a while after the King had brought the Parliament to a close in a fury, swearing never to call a Parliament again.  They set up housekeeping together with Mrs Wandesford's brother Sir Edward Osborne and his wife at Stratford Langton in Essex and it was there that a second son, George, was born to them in 1623.  

Then the King, needing funds, found himself obliged to call Parliament once more and Mr Wandesford once more joined Sir Thomas Wentworth in the House of Commons.  But only briefly – Parliament sat for a couple of months before the King prorogued it, not just once but repeatedly.  And then, on 27 March 1625, King James died and the Wandesfords returned to the peace of Kirklington.  

But Sir Thomas Wentworth was fully committed to a life in politics and Mr Wandesford followed him.  From early 1621 to the spring of 1629, he was in the House of Commons.  All in all, he was there for the last two Parliaments of King James and the first three Parliaments of King Charles, and each time the division between King and Parliament grew deeper and more bitter.  

So from the beginning Alice knew her father as a man who was sometimes immersed in the care of his estates and sometimes embroiled in fierce politics.  Family life was divided between Kirklington and London.  When she was born in Kirklington in February 1626, he was in London in the thick of the business of King Charles' acrimonious second Parliament.  So he will have met his new daughter for the first time when he went home in the summer.  She was by then a few months old, a strong and thriving child.  He could take up family life and the management of his estates once more – for a couple of years.   

Alice's early childhood

Mr and Mrs Wandesford were tenderly attentive to their children's upbringing.  Family life was filled with the practice of their Anglican religion.  There were household prayers three times a day and, every morning before breakfast, the children would gather round their mother who would hear them pray, repeat Psalms and chapters of the Bible and kneel for her blessing.  

A Royalist family in 1640: Arthur, Lord Capel, wife & children

Many years later when Alice looked back, she was filled with love and admiration for her parents, "through whose care and precepts," she wrote, "I had the principles of grace and religion instilled into me with my milk."  And so she recorded, in vivid detail, the accidents and illnesses of her childhood and praised God for her deliverance from them.  Children's lives were precarious – her eldest brother Christopher died from an accident when Alice was a year old and he was ten.  He had broken a rib in a fall, apparently from a child's coach, and it injured his lung.  When Mrs Wandesford bore her sixth child the following year, she and her husband named him Christopher after the boy they had lost, as was often done.

Among the earliest memories that Alice recorded were a horrid accident, a frightening illness and an escape from fire.  

She had been well looked after by her wet nurse and Mr and Mrs Wandesford engaged the same woman to nurse the new baby Christopher – she had milk because she had had a child herself in the meantime.  Alice had passed into the care of her dry nurse Sarah Tomlinson once she was weaned, and it was when she was following Sarah, who had Christopher in her arms, that her first bad accident happened.  Alice, a toddler of three, was clutching Sarah's coat and trying to keep up, when she stumbled and fell on the cornerstone of the hearth in the passage chamber which led to her mother's bedchamber.  She was like to have bled to death from the grievous cut on her forehead and the skin of the brain was seen, she said – but her mother's careful nursing and a kind Providence left her only with a great scar as a reminder of God's goodness in preserving her.

Then a year or so later, while her parents went to London, Alice was left to stay at St Nicholas, the house just outside Richmond which was the home of her beloved aunt Anne, who was her father's sister and the wife of Maulger Norton.  And there she fell so ill, so low and weak, that Mrs Norton and Sarah Tomlinson almost despaired of her life.  The little girl had eaten some beef that was not well boiled – or perhaps not well digested – and this brought on vomiting, which had driven her into a fever and then into the measles.

St Nicholas in 1824

When Alice was about five, the family went to London and took a house in St Martin's Lane.  One evening, while Mr and Mrs Wandesford were attending Court – the Court of King Charles and Queen Henrietta Maria was renowned for its splendour, ceremonial and elegance – a fire broke out in the house next door and began to spread to their own.  While the servants fought the blaze, Sarah Tomlinson carried the terrified children to Lady Livingston's and safety.

During this time, the future of Alice's sister Catherine was decided.  In 1630 she was married to Mr Wandesford's eighteen year old ward, Thomas Danby of Thorp Perrow.  Catherine was fifteen.  Marriages were arranged to be advantageous for the family and in this case her father could be sure of the state of the young man's affairs because he himself had put the Danby estates upon a sound footing.  As Catherine and her husband were too young to set up house together, they lived for some years at Kirklington – but of course Catherine was not too young to be pregnant and she was soon expecting her first child.  

And in these same years, Alice's father's career and the future of the country both reached a turning point.

3. Dublin & War: 1629-1639  

Local newspapers report the news of the Armistice in 1918

The North-Eastern Daily Gazette 12 November 1918

A DAY OF REJOICING 

The rejoicings which began in Middlesbrough yesterday morning over the news of the armistice continued without interruption till nearly midnight and the town has seldom passed through fourteen hours of such joy.  In the afternoon the streets were a seething mass of humanity, and Linthorpe-road has seldom been so congested.  All the works were stopped by mid-day, and as the day wore on the neighbouring communities poured their thousands into the town to swell the huge crowds who had already congregated in the main thoroughfares.  Owing to restrictions of all kinds which could not be entirely removed with a wave of the hand, the illuminated display was not on such a scale of grandeur as might have been possible on an occasion of rejoicing in the halcyon days of peace; but the people did their best with the lights at their disposal, and the brighter streets were a pleasant reminder of a time which seemed almost to go down into the distant past.  The sky was lit up at intervals by the pyrotechnic display, and the jubilant note which prevailed throughout seemed to be well controlled.  In the days to come when Middlesbrough spreads its wings it will probably be better able to accommodate such huge crowds on a day of national rejoicing, but it may never again have an occasion when the circumstances so thoroughly justified such an explosion of pent-up exuberant patriotic feelings. 

STOCKTON'S REJOICING
In the long history of Stockton there have been many enthusiastic gatherings in the High-street opposite the Town Hall, but never one so large and so lively - and yet well behaved - as assembled yesterday afternoon when the Mayor and a number of other public men delivered short speeches of congratulation upon the great event of the day.  The band of the Bowesfield Ironworks played, and the people, with all their hearts, and with all the powers their lungs could give, sang the National Anthem, and then sent up cheer after cheer for the King.  "It is a memorable occasion, an occasion which has never before occurred in the history of the country," said the Mayor (Alderman J Harrison) "and we rejoice in it.  After four years of terrible war we have broken the terrible German menace, and we are confident that we have broken it in such a way that Germany will never again be able to make war.  This is not yet a declaration of peace, but we thank God that the armistice has been signed, and that we can see the end of the war."  

PAST AND FUTURE
There followed loud cheers, and with cheers were also greeted the other speeches in the High-street, Stockton.  Alderman Bainbridge said we had fought a good fight, and won, and he hoped that everyone would feel the responsibility of doing his or her share in the work of reconstruction which lay before the country.  "Whilst," said Alderman Nattress, "we rejoice in victory, and whilst we think of those men who have won the final victory, let us not fail to remember those who have fallen on our behalf."  "It is a victory for the forces of democracy and freedom over autocracy and militarism," said Councillor Bollands.  Councillor W Reed said in the great fight we had proved that might is not right, but that right is right, and that the God of Righteousness had been on our side.  Councillor I Robson and the Vicar of Stockton also addressed the gathering, and the company broke up with the singing of the National Anthem.  Similar proceedings took place from the balcony of the Town Hall, Thornaby. 

A solemn Te Deum will be sung at All Saints' Parish Church, Middlesbrough, tonight at 3pm, in thanksgiving for the end of the war. 

THANKSGIVING SERVICE
During the afternoon yesterday, the No 1 South Bank Boys' Brigade paraded South Bank, calling the people to a United Thanksgiving service at the Wesleyan Church.  There a good and representative company, which was presided over by the Rev M P Evans, President of the Free Church Council, and addressed by the Revs H W Pates, J Rutherford, C Allwright, and Councillor Vaux.  National hymns were sung, and the thanksgiving of the assembly voiced by Councillor T Bosher, Mr T Peacock, and others.  It is intended to continue the rejoicing on Sunday evening next in the Baptist Tabernacle.

The Yorkshire Post carried reports of rejoicing across the region, including

The Yorkshire Post, 12 November 1918

Cheering soldiers were in great evidence at Richmond, and at the Market Cross there was a great crowd, where, on the motion of the Mayor, it was decided to send a message of congratulation to Marshal Foch, Sir Douglas Haig, and the Prime Minister.  At Catterick Camp a general holiday was proclaimed 

At Whitby the band of the Hunts, Cyclist Battalion paraded the town, and the gaily decorated streets were thronged with happy people.  

There were scenes of intense enthusiasm at Darlington, but happily unmarked by any touch of rowdyism.  

The Revd Francis Blackburne (1748-1816) of Rudby-in-Cleveland

In late March 1774, a new vicar came to Hutton Rudby.  He was the Revd Francis Blackburne, an unmarried man of twenty-six and the son of the Revd Francis Blackburne, Archdeacon of Cleveland and Rector of Richmond – which can only have helped young Francis in obtaining the living from the Hon. General Cary.

Young Francis Blackburn must have looked a most inviting prospect to the young ladies of the neighbourhood on his arrival in the parish. 

He was born in 1748, educated at Richmond School and Peterhouse, Cambridge and was a Fellow of Catherine Hall (later St Catherine's College), Cambridge.

Archdeacon Francis Blackburne (1705-87)

Archdeacon Blackburne

Francis's father, Archdeacon Francis Blackburne (1705-87), was a noted scholar who had written, hidden away in Richmond, controversial and influential works on religious freedom for Protestants – though not for Roman Catholics.  He had continued to be a clergyman of the Church of England, but it's clear that his contemporaries kept expecting him to leave – he was invited to become pastor of the congregation of the Old Jewry meeting house.  (For a learned account of the Archdeacon's position in this great movement of the age, see, eg., here).

The Blackburne family had long roots in Richmondshire.

Archdeacon Blackburne's grandfather, also called Francis Blackburne, was the younger son of a gentleman with a large family and a poor grasp of finances who had, accordingly, lost the family their estates, which had included Marrick Priory in Swaledale.  So the Archdeacon's grandfather had gone into the stocking trade in Richmond and there had made a great deal of money.  He married Mrs Jane Inman of Bewerley, near Ripon, and became a wealthy and respectable figure, an Alderman of Richmond.  

Their son Francis, the Archdeacon's father, died at the age of 29 (from "a gross habit of body brought on by the excesses of the bottle" in his grandson's words), leaving his widow with three young children.

The Archdeacon's mother was Alice Comber, and through her he gained a very respectable lineage – and through his stepfather, a very good education at schools in Kendal, Pennington, Hawkshead and Sedbergh.

Alice Comber was the daughter of Thomas Comber (Dean of Durham) (1645-99) and his wife Alice Thornton.  Her maternal grandparents were William Thornton of East Newton & Alice, daughter of Sir Christopher Wandesford of Kirklington.  Mrs Alice Thornton (1626-1707) is remembered nowadays for her autobiography – her account of the Civil Wars in North Yorkshire is really fascinating and can be read online here.  (Printed versions are also available).  I tell her story here, in Alice Wandesford in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

The Archdeacon was deeply affected, at the age of about 17, by the death of his brother Thomas from smallpox, and this had interrupted his education at Cambridge.  On his return to his college, he expected to be made a Fellow, but the majority of the Fellows were "high royalists on the principle of hereditary right" [The Works, etc of Francis Blackburne, Vol I, from which this account of his life is taken] while he had been reading Locke and talking to "liberal minded friends".  He spoke too freely in public about ecclesiastical and civil liberty and the Fellows took against him and rejected him as a candidate.  He left for East Newton to live with his uncle Comber and he stayed there for some years.

During this time, he was so depressed that he could not work at his books and could find relief only in strong exercise, particularly fox-hunting – though being very careful, when "engaged in parties of dissipation" in York not to fall into the habits of drink that had brought about his father's early death.

At this crucial point in the future Archdeacon's life he came across some old Puritan books in the lumber-room of his uncle Comber's house.  The books had belonged to his great-grandfather William Thornton of East Newton, and it was the deep impression that the old Puritan divines made upon his mind that set the course of his life and determined his life's studies.

He had, meanwhile, been waiting in hopes of the living of Richmond, where the incumbent was married to his aunt.  At last, his uncle died and family friends exerted their influence with the patron of the living, the Lord Chancellor, and Blackburne, at the rather late age of 34, became Rector of Richmond.

He married Mrs Hannah Elsworth (born Hotham).  She was the mother of three children from her marriage with Mr Elsworth; Hannah, the only surviving daughter, married the Revd Theophilus Lindsey, vicar of Catterick and a close friend and associate of the Archdeacon.  (Lindsey left the

Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808)

Church of England in 1773 and set up the first avowedly Unitarian chapel in the country).

Francis and Hannah had five children together:  Francis; Thomas, a physician; Jane, who married John Disney (1746-1816), an Anglican clergyman and friend of Theophilus Lindsey, who joined Lindsey as a Unitarian in 1782; Sarah, who married the Revd John Hall; and William, a London physician.  

The Archdeacon was much grieved by the death of Thomas, "a favourite son", who died at the age of 33 in 1782, when the Archdeacon was 77.  It was a bad blow for the old man, and in addition his eyesight was failing.  A conscientious young schoolboy was employed to help, who went on to be well-known locally as the Revd Mr Tate, Master of Richmond School and, from 1830, vicar of Stanhope.

Perhaps the Archdeacon's son Francis was not his favourite, but he was entirely devoted to the memory of his father and his father's great works. 

Francis Blackburne in Hutton Rudby

Francis Blackburne spent only six years in Hutton Rudby, but he found his first wife while in the parish.  

In 1776 he married Ann Rowntree, daughter of Christopher Rowntree of Middleton-on-Leven, in the chapel at Middleton.  I wonder if the Christopher Rowntree, the well-known foxhunter (see this blogpost), was her brother?

In 1780 Francis left Hutton Rudby – Jeremiah Grice would be his successor – for Brignall, four miles south-east of Barnard Castle, on the Yorkshire side of the River Tees, near Greta Bridge.  He was to be vicar there for the rest of his life, the next 35 years.

Brignall

Brignall has two notable claims to fame, and both of them came about in Francis Blackburne's time.  

Sir Walter Scott mentions Brignall in his poem Rokeby (1813) – Scott was a friend of the antiquary John Bacon Sawrey Morritt,of Rokeby Park and had visited the area:-

O, Brignall banks are wild and fair,  

And Greta woods are green,  

And you may gather garlands there,  

Would grace a summer queen: 

And Brignall is still remembered for the strange story of the Curse Tablets.  The earliest account that I have come across is in Whitaker's History of Richmondshire (1823).

Two leaden plates were discovered on Gatherley Moor, south of Melsonby, in the late 18th century.  They had been carefully concealed under a heap of stones – some sources say it was a tumulus – and they were inscribed with astrological symbols, rows of figures, and these words:

I doe make this, that the father James Phillip, John Phillip, Arthur Phillip and all the issue of them shall come presently to utter beggary and nothing joy or prosper with them in Richmondshire. J. Phillip 

According to an account in The Teesdale Mercury of 8 September 1886, the rows of figures "if summed up diagonally, horizontally, or perpendicularly, made up the mystic number 369."  (I haven't checked).

In 1789, an account of the tablets was sent to the College of Arms and an answer was returned, providing details of the Phillips family of Brignall.  

Henry Phillips of Brignall had two sons.  The elder was called Charles, who in turn had two sons: John and Cuthbert.  The younger was called James and he was the father of five sons:  John, Arthur*, Henry, Christopher and Thomas.  In 1575, it was James Phillips who was living at Brignall.  

According to Bulmer's Directory of 1890, James was steward to Henry, Lord Scrope of Bolton and was notorious for his litigious, quarrelsome and vindictive nature.  Whitaker in 1823 conjectured that James had cheated his brother's family of their inheritance and that John Phillips had resorted to witchcraft in the hope of getting his revenge.

As to whether the curse had succeeded – all that is known is that 200 years later the family (in the male line, I presume) had long ago disappeared.

*Whitaker has "Richard", but the Victoria County History has it as "Arthur" and specifies that John E. Brooke who provided the information

Francis Blackburne at Brignall

Brignall was a tiny hamlet even in the time of Whitaker's History of Richmondshire (1823)

Village indeed there is scarcely any at Brignall, where there are only a very few families, but not one of these is within half a mile of the church.  

About halfway on the slope of the hill between both stands the vicarage-house, one of the most pleasing retirements I have ever seen, with the woody brows and white rocks of the Greta in front, and a sweep of rich sloping land in the immediate foreground.

The church of St Mary stood by the banks of the River Greta – little remains of it today.  It was replaced by a new church in 1834, the great man of the parish, John Bacon Sawrey Morritt, bearing much of the cost.

It sounds an idyllic setting for Francis Blackburne and his young family, and surely a fraction of the workload compared to Hutton Rudby.  Within thirteen years of their marriage (I have not found the date) Francis's wife Ann Rowntree died.  On 12 May 1789 he married Miss Elizabeth Peacock, daughter of the Revd John Peacock of York.  

And in this quiet rural spot, Francis could spend his life in preparing his father's manuscripts for publication, carrying out his various charitable works and engaging with the political issues of the day.

Francis was a great friend of Christopher Wyvill (1740-1822), the clergyman and reformer, who

Christopher Wyvill (1740-1822)

owned the Constable Burton estates near Leyburn and lived at Burton Hall near Bedale.

Francis, in the words of his obituary in The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature

was the intimate friend of Mr Wyvill, and co-operated with him in all those measures, whose object was the amelioration of the representation in parliament, and extension of religious liberty to all classes of his Majesty's subjects, being firmly convinced that wherever the truth lay it was to be maintained in the spirit of brotherly love, and not by pains or penalties, or restrictions of any kind.

The Archdeacon had left his manuscripts to Francis jointly with Christopher Wyvill and Francis's brother-in-law, the Unitarian John Disney, which was perhaps not a resounding vote of confidence in his son.  But it was Francis who devoted years of his life to editing the works and getting them published.  They can be read online – The Works, Theological and Miscellaneous of Francis Blackburne.  Volume I (1804) can be found here.

"Increasing infirmities", in the words of Francis's obituarist, "compelled him to retire to Richmond" where he owned family property.  I expect it meant that he was within easy reach of his physician, but anyway who could blame him for seeking the delights of Georgian Richmond?  Why, they are still recreating them now!  (Keep an eye on this website for a date for the Georgefest in 2018)

He must have left a curate in charge of his flock, but he "in every year paid frequent visits to his parishioners, by whom he was universally beloved".  

His obituarist does not say when his failing health prompted the move to Richmond, but he died there on Sunday 21 January 1816, aged about 68; his father had lived to the age of 82.  He was buried at his express request in the churchyard at Brignall on 24 January.  He left a widow, two sons and a daughter, who had married in 1808 the reformer and writer William Frend (1757-1841), who had originally been a clergyman of the Church of England but by the time of their marriage had become a Unitarian.

Francis's obituarist describes him as distinguished by his "Good Temper" and states that his devotion to his father's opinions meant that he "asserted [them] on all proper occasions, with that calmness and dignity which was peculiar to his character".

(I wonder when the proper occasions were?  Can the writer be hinting, ever so delicately, that on the subject of his father the dear vicar of Brignall was a little bit of a bore?)