Bishop William Stubbs (1825-1901): a devout Yorkshireman

This is something I meant to write before, but it got lost in other work.  I'm afraid the alignment of text in this is a little haphazard - Google Blogger was not co-operating!  

William Stubbs by Hubert von Herkomer

William Stubbs, scholar, clergyman, Regius Professor of History at Oxford and finally Bishop of Oxford, was much loved.   A contributor to the Bucks Herald on 18 January 1802 in a column looking back over the year in the diocese of Oxford wrote 

The one death which marks and makes a loss to diocese, Church, country, and literature is that of good Bishop Stubbs, kind Bishop Stubbs, grand Bishop Stubbs, of the winning face, fatherly heart, humorous fancy, fine nature, wide and magnanimous tolerance, keen sympathies.  

William Stubbs was born in Knaresborough in 1825 and his roots in Yorkshire were of importance to him to the end of his days.  "So long as I last, I continue a devout Yorkshireman," he wrote not long before his death.

He grew up in a place rich in historical associations with important national events.  All around him were places where his forebears had lived for generations – in the written records the Stubbs family can be found, farmers and yeomen, in the Forest of Knaresborough from the mid 14th century.  In Bishop William Stubbs & Knaresborough, an article by Robert M Koch in the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal (Vol 82, 2010), you can find an evocative account of how the layers of history with which he was surrounded laid the foundation for William's career as a pioneering mediaeval historian.

He was drawn to the study of history very early on in his life and he recommended local and personal history to others as a way of connecting with the social and political history of the country.

His biographer W H Hutton (the biography can be read here) wrote that in 1886 William gave a talk in Crewe in which he took himself as an example.  Hutton doesn't give his source for his quotation and there are errors which William would not have made – perhaps it was an early draft or a newspaper report.

I wonder if the talk was at the Crewe Mechanics' Institute.  He presented prizes there on at least one occasion when he was Bishop of Chester and you will see that at the end of this quotation he encourages them with his own example of success, saying "please to remember that I am just as much a working man as any of you":

You do not mind my taking myself for an illustration.  

Where was I born? Under the shadow of the great castle where the murderers of Thomas Becket took refuge in 1170, and where Richard II was imprisoned in 1399.  My grandfather's house stood on the site where Earl Thomas of Lancaster was taken prisoner in 1322.  My first visits were paid as a child to the scene where Stephen defeated the Scots and where Cromwell defeated Prince Rupert; my great-grandfather had a farm in the township where King Harold of England defeated Harald Hardrada;  and one of my remoter forefathers had a gift of land from John of Gaunt in the very same neighbourhood where I was born.   

As you can see, William is referring to some famous battles fought in the North and West Ridings.  His forefather John Stubbs had a grant of newly cleared land at Birstwith in the Forest of Knaresborough from the prince and soldier John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, on 27 February 1387.  I think it wasn't his great-grandfather who farmed at Stamford Bridge, but his 3xgreat-grandfather, John Wright.  Further on, it was his great-grandfather who was out in the Gordon riots.

Now he turns – he was a precociously clever little boy – to events that happened when he was four and five: the arson at York Minster in 1829; the death of the King on 26 June 1830; the July Revolution  of 1830 in France when Louis Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, overthrew Charles X; and the election of the statesman Henry Brougham in 1830.  Brougham was a major force in the passing of the 1832 Reform Act and the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.  

What do I remember first?  Well, perhaps the first thing I do remember was the burning of York Minster – then the death of George IV, then the second French Revolution, then the election of Lord Brougham for Yorkshire, then the Reform Bill and the Emancipation of the West India Slaves. What sort of connection had I with soldiers and churchwardens, and such like?  Oh, my grandfather was out in Lord George Gordon's Riots; and all of my ancestors, so far as I can trace, served the office of churchwarden in their time.    

You may smile at this – perhaps I was lucky in the circumstances of birth and associations – but mind you, on every one of the points that I have mentioned hangs a lot of history to which my mind was drawn by the circumstances that I have jotted down, and from which the studies began which, not to speak of smaller successes, have landed me in the dignified position to-night of having to advocate the study of history before an audience of the most intelligent people in England!  

You like, I dare say, to be told so.  As I am flattering myself as you see, I may give you a little of the overflow of my self-complacency; and please to remember that I am just as much a working man as any of you, every step of the life which is now drawing to an end having had, under God's blessing, to be worked out by my own exertions, so that to some extent I may put myself forward as a precedent for you.

He had indeed worked his way through life by his own exertions.

Thomas Redmayne of Taitlands

Thomas Redmayne of Taitlands has appeared on this blog before (you'll find him first mentioned in July 2014 and on several later occasions – here and here, for example), because he was married to the aunt of John Richard Stubbs.

(John's early life can be found at A Boroughbridge Boyhood in the 1850s: Introducing John Stubbs.  He became a solicitor in the new industrial town of Middlesbrough and his diaries from 1853 to 1907, though succinct, are of interest to students of Middlesbrough history because of the people he knew.  There are photographs of the diary pages, with some transcriptions,  from here onward.)

I had hoped, when I wrote about the Settle and Stainforth part of John Stubbs' life, that I would find out more about it from a local historian, so I was very pleased to be contacted by Catherine Vaughan-Williams.  And I was even more pleased to find that she was researching the life of Thomas Redmayne.  

Her article on Thomas Redmayne is appearing in this year's North Craven Heritage Trust Journal and should be available online before long.  In it you will find the story of his family, how he made his money, the personal tragedies that befell him and the fine country house he built, Taitlands, which Catherine describes here:

a luxurious country residence 'with spacious drawing, dining and breakfast rooms and nine bedrooms with dressing rooms', lavishly furnished with 'rosewood and spanish mahogany furniture, Brussels and tapestry carpets' and the usual accoutrements of early Victorian fashion. Attics, kitchens, scullery, butler’s pantry, cellars, and outbuildings, stables and coach house with pigeon loft, not to mention fourteen bee boles, completed the establishment. 

Update on the Redmaynes of Stainforth

I've just made some alterations to the post on The Redmayne family of Stainforth, from information received from a reader.  Thank you, Norman!

Transcription of John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1859

Written in the same diary as 1858

Saturday January 1
To office.  At night walked with Steele to H.E. Clark’s to tea (the last time as a bachelor) as he is to be married on Wednesday.  Jacob Smith & Thos Lund were there    played cards.  Steele was called away   I got home a little before 12

Sunday January 2
Twice to BB Church   Joe spent the day with us   Sarah was in York.  He & I walked to Kirby Hill Church in the afternoon.  LW Sedgwicks child was christened in the evening

Monday January 3
To office.  A Noon Had a walk with Capes   At Night went with Miss Stott, Steele & EC Clark in Stotts phaeton to Clarks of Minskip to tea   Miss Calder   The Misses Appleton & Miss McCleod were there   Had a good dance   John Clark drove the Sedgwicks & Alice & Lizzy & me home   got home about 12

Tuesday January 4
To office   At Noon rode Joes mare to Sugar Hills near Givendale to see some coursing  Had some pretty fair sport   At Night was about home

Wednesday January 5
To office  At Night went to Capes’s   stayed supper

Thursday January 6
To office   Spent the evening at Joes

Friday January 7
To office   At Night went to supper at Mrs Parkers at Langthorp   played Bagatelle

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1855

Transcription of John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1853

Small leatherbound notebook “Macdonald’s Commercial Pocket Book for 1853”

In the flyleaf is written in pencil, “The heart corrupted by evil arts could not easily forego the gratification of its vicious propensities”.  On the opposite page, in pencil “Ah quoties caneret petere....” Several lines, not easy to read, and with alterations.

He notes on the memorandum page before the diary begins, that he has purchased from Wildman:  Sallust, 6 copybooks, 1 quire paper, etc and the prices.  The Sallust cost 1/6d.

Folded in a pocket at the front of the diary is a piece of paper showing the marks of the boys in his school.  The school was the Free Grammar School, Giggleswick [cf Pigot’s Directory].

8 Sep 2020:  The eBook of A History of Giggleswick School, by Edward Allen Bell is now available and includes a biography of Dr Butterton

“Head Class” seems to consist of Lupton, Bramley, Heaton, Leeming, Greenwood and Doria.  “Second Class” was Walker, Robbins? 1, Rob - 2-, Stubbs, Harrison, Nidsdale, Tomlinson, Holt and Clapham. 
The subjects for Head Class were:  Weekly marks (out of 500); Geography (120); Hist of Jus (180); R Hist (140); G Hist (120); L Ex (?180); G Ex (180); Cicero (180); Horace & Vir (180); [illeg]; G Test (200); Horace Lat?; Antigone??; Homer (160). 
Second Class had:  D.M. (200); Geog (120); Ver. (140); R Hist (120); G Ex (120); ? L Ex (120); ?N. S Hist (160); [illeg]; Sallust (160); G Test (160); G ?Del (200); and ?G ex (160).

From which it may be seen that most of the subjects were classical.

John Richard Stubbs' diary for 1853

John did not keep his diary every day, so these are photographs of the entries that he did make:

The Redmayne family of Stainforth

Update: A much more detailed account of the life of Thomas Redmayne is to be found in the article by Catherine Vaughan-Williams published in 2020 in the Journal of the North Craven Heritage Trust.  The article is called 'Thomas Redmayne of Taitlands'.  

In it you will find full details of the Redmayne family of Taitlands and their connection with the Henlock family of Great Ouseburn and the Stubbs family of Boroughbridge.

Thomas Redmayne of Taitlands was born in Stainforth in about 1797 and died on 23 February 1862 at the age of 65.

Thomas was the first cousin once removed of the prosperous London silk mercer, Giles Redmayne (1792-1857), who bought the Brathay Hall estate, beside Windermere; Thomas Redmayne's executors were his wife's nephew Joseph Stubbs and John Marriner Redmayne, son of Giles.  The relationship may look a little distant but Thomas and Giles were close.

Thomas was one of the children of Richard Redmayne and Ann Batty.  Richard is commemorated in Giggleswick church by a brass inlaid in the floor: Richard Redmayne of Stainforth died 13 Jun 1799 age 31.

By the time the cousins Thomas and Giles Redmayne were in their thirties, they were both creating country estates/houses for themselves – Thomas at Stainforth and Giles at Brathay.

A Boroughbridge Boyhood: Epilogue

What happened to John's family in later years?

Aunt Ann Pick died in 1860 at the age of fifty and her husband William in 1872.  Aunt Bell, the active spinster aunt, died in 1880 at the home of her niece Jane Capes.

Uncle William Henlock died in 1866.  In his Will he left the sum of £200, the interest of which was to

William Henlock of Great Ouseburn

be distributed to the poor of the parish by the Vicar and Churchwardens.  His wife Ellen died in 1885.  They are both commemorated in a memorial on the wall of the church of St Mary the Virgin at Great Ouseburn, where there is also a plaque recording Mr Henlock's legacy.

Uncle William Hirst died in 1879 at the age of eighty-one.

He had outlived his daughter Dorothy, who died the year before.  John recorded her funeral on 28 November 1878:   

went to poor Dora Hirst’s funeral at 3 o clock.  She was buried at BB Church.  Tremendous funeral.  All the Shops closed.  Grannie [his mother] and Alice went and so did all from Uncles except Uncle who is still very poorly.  It is indeed a sad day at BB. 

She was fifty-one years old and is commemorated by a stained glass window in the church to which she had been devoted through her life.  Her unmarried sister Mary Barker Hirst lived alone in Boroughbridge after the death of Dora and her father.

Their sister Sophy Hirst married William Thompson, a London auctioneer with family in Bridlington.  They lived in Russell Square in some style – they were holidaying in Nice in 1880.  After Sophy's death in 1900 and William's retirement, he and his unmarried daughter Edith Wharton Thompson moved north to Harrogate.

John's cousin Mary Redmayne, wife of his friend James Sedgwick, the Boroughbridge doctor, was a  sociable, kind and active neighbour often mentioned in letters by John's mother.  She died “of apoplexy” on the night of Whit Sunday 1892 “very suddenly at Victoria Station London”.  She was fifty years old.  James and his unmarried son and daughter left Ladywell House and the practice to Dr Daggett and moved to Wimbledon, perhaps to be near his son Hubert Redmayne Sedgwick and his family; Hubert was a surgeon at St Thomas's.