In 1840 John Buchannan was thirty years old, a widower with a little girl aged three. His parents and his sister had died more than twenty years earlier.
In that year, he applied to the Court of the Lord Lyon in Edinburgh for a Grant of Arms.
Was he looking for a more secure social status? Did his immediate family seem a little too ordinary for a young man who was rubbing shoulders with people from more privileged backgrounds? His mother’s sister Jane Ayre (Arr/Aar) was married to the sailor James Pyman; they lived with John’s much younger cousins in the industrial hamlet of Sandsend. His father’s sister Esther Buchannan had married master mariner William Hawksfield and had a large family; they lived in Church Street, Whitby.
Perhaps his imagination had been caught by the romance of his grandfather’s Scottish origins. John was a man of a romantic turn of mind, a poet since his teens. A connection with the world of Sir Walter Scott may have been irresistible.
Or possibly he was spurred to make contact with his father’s family because of the rumours of illegitimacy that seem to have dogged his life, fuelled by his physical resemblance to the family of the Earl of Mulgrave. His mother’s fidelity to her marriage vows is guaranteed by her membership of the Silver Street chapel, which dismissed the banker John Holt jnr “for bad conduct,” but gossip persisted; it seems very likely that rumours derive from her own birth.
John’s search for his Buchanan roots produced details of Buchanans living on the Isle of Skye in the 18th and 19th centuries, which may be of interest …
Showing posts with label Whitby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whitby. Show all posts
Monday 8 July 2013
Friday 5 July 2013
Cousins from Sandsend: John Buchannan & George Pyman
In March 1808, a young married woman called Sarah Buchannan of East Row, Sandsend, was admitted as a member of the Silver Street Congregational Chapel in Whitby.
The Silver Street Chapel was built in 1770 for the Revd James Brownfield. It was a thriving Calvinistic Congregational chapel with a prosperous middle-class congregation. The chapel records (held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office) include well-known Whitby surnames such as Holt, English, Langborne and Scoresby and show that members came from far afield – from Northallerton, Newcastle, Huddersfield, London and Rotherham – and that there was a sister church in Guisborough. The minister between 1804 and 1819 was the Revd John Arundel (1778-1848.)
In the church book for the period can be found Sarah Buchannan’s account of her conversion experience, on the basis of which she sought admission as a member. The “Experiences” recorded in the book dwell particularly on sin, righteousness and the fear of hell. They also show that some members had come to the chapel from the Methodists, and that most had listened to a variety of preachers before coming to Silver Street to hear the minister, Mr Arundel speak.
Sarah’s younger sister Jane was also admitted a member, explaining in her ‘Experience’ that
Sarah and Jane were the daughters of Alexander Ayre (also spelt Aar and Arr). He is said to have been a tenant of the Earl of Mulgrave, and to have come to the Whitby area from Renfrew. He had himself been a member of the chapel from 1804 until his death in June 1806.
The sisters were to be the mothers of two remarkable Whitby men. Against Sarah’s Experience is written in a later hand "mother of the late John Buchannan", and against Jane’s name "afterwards Mrs Pyman and the mother of the late George Pyman of Raithwaite". John Buchannan (1810-91) was a prominent Whitby solicitor, his cousin George Pyman (1822-1900) was a shipping magnate and Mayor of West Hartlepool.
Quite a journey from their beginnings in the industrial hamlet of Sandsend, amongst the burning heaps of alum shale.
Sarah, who was born in 1784, was the wife of John Buchannan. Some sources say that they married on 5 February 1805. John was a master mariner, born in Lythe.
Two children were born to Sarah and John Buchannan: John, who was born at East Row, Sandsend, on 11 July 1810 and his sister Jane Elizabeth, who was baptised on 10 September 1812 at the Silver Street Independent Chapel in Whitby. Young John hardly knew his parents – before his sixth birthday, his father was gone and his mother and his sister had both died.
One family story tells that John Buchannan was lost at sea, drowned on the Haisbro Sands. Another version holds that his ship was called the Pearl. Years afterwards, however, his son John stated that that his father "left England and died abroad", a turn of phrase that suggests that perhaps he deserted his family.
While her husband was at sea, Sarah kept a shop in the house that she owned in East Row, Sandsend. She had a sad life, and her Experience indicates that she was always of a sensitive and perhaps melancholic turn of mind. A stanza of her son’s poem My Mother's Grave speaks of her grief following the loss of husband and baby daughter:
Sarah’s plan was that her young unmarried sister Jane should move into her house and shop and carry on with the business in order to provide a home and an education for John. The house and the furniture were not to be sold until John reached the age of 21, unless Jane and the executors were agreed that it was necessary "for the improvement of my effects and the maintenance of my Son."
Sarah died in June 1816 and her Will was proved by Mr Nettleship and Mr Colthurst on 19 September 1816. Her effects were sworn at "under £100" (under the system of banding that was in operation at the time); it did not include the value of the house. The Death Duty Register shows that the value of the personalty bequeathed to John was £36.
In My Mother’s Grave, John, then aged 17, remembered his mother’s death:
James had been a crew member on a man o' war and came from a family of seamen. In the 1841 Census he was described as a mariner but in 1851 he is recorded as working in the local alum works. This must have been temporary work, as by the time of his death in 1861 he had returned to the sea.
Jane and James Pyman had four children: Sarah Ann Pyman, George Pyman, Thomas Arr Pyman and Alexander Pyman. They, like their cousin John, grew up in the congregation of the Silver Street chapel.
While Jane Pyman’s boys went to sea young, John Buchannan stayed at school until he was 14 or 15, when he was sent to work as a clerk in a solicitor’s office. He was a poet and deeply involved in the literary life of Whitby, where he became a prominent solicitor.
George Pyman, on the other hand, excelled at business, and became a hugely successful Victorian entrepreneur.
He first went to sea at the age of ten, when he took the place of an ailing uncle in the crew of a fishing smack. At twelve, he went to work in a shop in Lythe, but soon was back at sea, and his Master’s Certificate of 1850 describes him as “Apprentice, Mate and Master 15 years in the coasting and foreign trade”.
He left the sea in 1850 or 1851 and went to the new port of West Hartlepool.
Viscount (Walter) Runciman, in his book Collier Brigs and their Sailors (1926) wrote:
George Pyman married fellow chapel member Elizabeth English of Raithwaite (1821-93) in 1843; they had nine children.
Both George and John had an acute sense of public duty and a strong religious belief. One of the most interesting divergences between their careers can be found in their religious allegiance.
John Buchannan seems to have been a seeker all his life, perhaps marked by the bereavements he suffered.
He lost his parents and sister while he was still a child, his first wife died in childbirth, his second wife died aged 32. By the age of 40, he was a widower with five children under the age of 12. His son Hugh died eight years later, aged eleven. John did not remarry.
As a young man John had been a very active member of the Silver Street Congregational chapel in which he had grown up. He sometimes conducted services there and was warmly received as a religious speaker. On the death of his first wife, Sarah Margaret Holt, in 1837 a “neat marble tablet” was erected to her memory in the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Church Street, either by John or by Sarah’s parents. He was made a Deacon of the Silver Street Chapel in January 1838, but in 1859 he formally withdrew from membership. It seems likely that for a while he attended Anglican services, and there seems to have been considerable surprise in Whitby when it was realised that he had converted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed in 1891, aged 81.
His cousin George Pyman, meanwhile, remained a prominent member of Silver Street Chapel, continuing to worship there whenever he was at Raithwaite. He was a founder member of the church in West Hartlepool and was an influential Nonconformist all his life.
George Pyman was an open-minded man. When Ralph Ward-Jackson stood as a Conservative candidate for Parliament in the first elections held for the Hartlepools, George actively supported him out of gratitude for Ward-Jackson’s achievements in establishing West Hartlepool, although he himself was a Liberal – and while he was Mayor of West Hartlepool (1888-9) he visited every Sunday school in town, without reference to denomination.
He died at his home, Raithwaite Hall, on 23 November 1900, aged 78. Sadly, he had not lived to see the completion of his recent gift to Sandsend – the Pyman Institute, which was built on the site of the cottage where he was born.
Notes:
For more on George Pyman, his business and his family, see The Pyman Story by Peter Hogg & Harold Appleyard (pub. 2000)
Henry Lord Mulgrave's portrait is from the engraving by H. Meyer from the original by J. Jackson
There is a link between the Pyman family and Hutton Rudby – George's son Thomas English Pyman lived for some years at Linden Grove.
The Silver Street Chapel was built in 1770 for the Revd James Brownfield. It was a thriving Calvinistic Congregational chapel with a prosperous middle-class congregation. The chapel records (held at the North Yorkshire County Record Office) include well-known Whitby surnames such as Holt, English, Langborne and Scoresby and show that members came from far afield – from Northallerton, Newcastle, Huddersfield, London and Rotherham – and that there was a sister church in Guisborough. The minister between 1804 and 1819 was the Revd John Arundel (1778-1848.)
In the church book for the period can be found Sarah Buchannan’s account of her conversion experience, on the basis of which she sought admission as a member. The “Experiences” recorded in the book dwell particularly on sin, righteousness and the fear of hell. They also show that some members had come to the chapel from the Methodists, and that most had listened to a variety of preachers before coming to Silver Street to hear the minister, Mr Arundel speak.
The Experience of Mrs Sarah Buchannan, admitted March 1808
Sirs,
For 24 years I lived in a state of sin and wickedness although often reproved yet I did not see the misery of it until going with some friends to hear Mr Arundell preach he observed that he saw such a beauty in religion that he would not change if he was shown there was no hereafter this somewhat alarmed me as I always thought it the gloomiest thing in life. I pondered this in my mind for some time and one Sunday evening after leaving my companions and sitting alone I began to think in what an unprofitable manner we had spent the day in regard to [our] Poor Soul[s] no sooner had the thought ceased in my mind than it pleased God to open my eyes to see myself in such a dreadful state my sins all rushing in upon me so that I began to despair of ever finding mercy for I was terrified day and night that I had committed the unpardonable sin and when I prayed I thought I only provoked God in short I was so tormented in my mind that I thought hell itself could not be worse and was often tempted to take away my own life but it pleased God he spared me a little longer and continuing in prayer to God to keep me from this evil it often came to my mind my grace is sufficient for others 2 Cor.12.9 And being in great distress of mind one day sat down to read and open'd in the 7th chapter of Matthew and reading the 7th he saith ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you for every one that asketh receiveth. This was a comfortable passage to me as I was brought so low, so that I thought that if the Lord would spare me to recover that I would never sin again but I had no sooner recovered than I fell away again as bad as ever and it is a mercy that I was ever called again but the Lord opened my eyes again to see that I could do nothing of myself so that I may say that it is grace alone that made me seek so for God and not of myself so that I have ever enabled to rest my salvation in the merits of Christ and no further trust in any works of my own and it has been my supreme wish for to become a member of your church and to be united with the people of God I have ventured to ask admission.
Sarah Buchannan
for 19 years I run the race of the wicked but was insensible of although daily warned of it by a tender parent until being led by curiosity to hear Mr Arandale [Arundel] ordained
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| Henry Lord Mulgrave |
The sisters were to be the mothers of two remarkable Whitby men. Against Sarah’s Experience is written in a later hand "mother of the late John Buchannan", and against Jane’s name "afterwards Mrs Pyman and the mother of the late George Pyman of Raithwaite". John Buchannan (1810-91) was a prominent Whitby solicitor, his cousin George Pyman (1822-1900) was a shipping magnate and Mayor of West Hartlepool.
Quite a journey from their beginnings in the industrial hamlet of Sandsend, amongst the burning heaps of alum shale.
Sarah, who was born in 1784, was the wife of John Buchannan. Some sources say that they married on 5 February 1805. John was a master mariner, born in Lythe.
Two children were born to Sarah and John Buchannan: John, who was born at East Row, Sandsend, on 11 July 1810 and his sister Jane Elizabeth, who was baptised on 10 September 1812 at the Silver Street Independent Chapel in Whitby. Young John hardly knew his parents – before his sixth birthday, his father was gone and his mother and his sister had both died.
One family story tells that John Buchannan was lost at sea, drowned on the Haisbro Sands. Another version holds that his ship was called the Pearl. Years afterwards, however, his son John stated that that his father "left England and died abroad", a turn of phrase that suggests that perhaps he deserted his family.
While her husband was at sea, Sarah kept a shop in the house that she owned in East Row, Sandsend. She had a sad life, and her Experience indicates that she was always of a sensitive and perhaps melancholic turn of mind. A stanza of her son’s poem My Mother's Grave speaks of her grief following the loss of husband and baby daughter:
Sarah made her Will on 10 May 1816. Her health was failing fast and her signature is shaky; she died on 20 June, aged 32. She entrusted her little son to the Silver Street Chapel. Mr Arundel, the minister, witnessed the Will, and Sarah named chapel members as her executors. She left her "money, household Furniture and effects of every nature particularly my dwelling house … at Sandsend … together with the Gardens and everything thereto belonging" to her executors Edward Nettleship, baker of Whitby, Francis Norman, famer of Ruswarp, and Christopher Colthurst, dyer of East Row, Sandsend, in trust for her "dear son" John.My Mother! whilst imprison'd here,
Thine was a life of melancholy;
When all which thou hadst deem'd most dear,-
The treasur'd feelings pure and holy,
The lov'd one who had cherish'd thee,
In sunny hours or days of gloom,-
The little bud whose infant glee
Was buried in the silent tomb,-
Were snatch'd away, and only I
Was left to soothe thy misery!
Sarah’s plan was that her young unmarried sister Jane should move into her house and shop and carry on with the business in order to provide a home and an education for John. The house and the furniture were not to be sold until John reached the age of 21, unless Jane and the executors were agreed that it was necessary "for the improvement of my effects and the maintenance of my Son."
Sarah died in June 1816 and her Will was proved by Mr Nettleship and Mr Colthurst on 19 September 1816. Her effects were sworn at "under £100" (under the system of banding that was in operation at the time); it did not include the value of the house. The Death Duty Register shows that the value of the personalty bequeathed to John was £36.
In My Mother’s Grave, John, then aged 17, remembered his mother’s death:
His own health gave his guardians serious cause for alarm – his obituary writer recorded,Day after day I saw thee pine,
Till neither health nor strength was thine;
The hue of death was on thy cheek,
But now and then a hectic streak
Would tinge it with a deeper dye,
As if in solemn mockery.
I stood beside thy dying bed,
And strove to raise thy feeble head;
I gazed upon thy sunken eye,
And wept, but yet I knew not why, –
I dreamt not what it was to die.
"When I was young," we once heard him say, "it seemed likely that I should die of consumption. I went into the dales to stay a while with a good old Wesleyan called Willie Sinclair."We don’t know how long John stayed in the dales with Willie Sinclair, whether he grew up with his aunt, or where he was educated (Whitby was proud of its schools), but two years after her sister Sarah’s death, on Boxing Day 1818, Jane Arr married James Pyman at Lythe and began a family of her own.
James had been a crew member on a man o' war and came from a family of seamen. In the 1841 Census he was described as a mariner but in 1851 he is recorded as working in the local alum works. This must have been temporary work, as by the time of his death in 1861 he had returned to the sea.
Jane and James Pyman had four children: Sarah Ann Pyman, George Pyman, Thomas Arr Pyman and Alexander Pyman. They, like their cousin John, grew up in the congregation of the Silver Street chapel.
While Jane Pyman’s boys went to sea young, John Buchannan stayed at school until he was 14 or 15, when he was sent to work as a clerk in a solicitor’s office. He was a poet and deeply involved in the literary life of Whitby, where he became a prominent solicitor.
 |
| George Pyman (1822-1900) |
He first went to sea at the age of ten, when he took the place of an ailing uncle in the crew of a fishing smack. At twelve, he went to work in a shop in Lythe, but soon was back at sea, and his Master’s Certificate of 1850 describes him as “Apprentice, Mate and Master 15 years in the coasting and foreign trade”.
He left the sea in 1850 or 1851 and went to the new port of West Hartlepool.
Viscount (Walter) Runciman, in his book Collier Brigs and their Sailors (1926) wrote:
"The generation ahead of me, and of some even ahead of them, graduated from leaky old collier brigs to that of shipowners at the north-east coal ports.
The late George Pyman, father of many sons, went to sea in an old collier brig belonging to Whitby, became a captain and owner, and traded successfully from Hartlepool to London for a number of years; unlike many of his contemporaries, he instinctively saw that this class of vessel was nearing its end, and at once threw all his resources of mind and capital into the new order of transit by contracting for a steamer. He rapidly went from one success to another, until he became the largest steamship owner on the north-east coast, and continued as long as he lived a most influential and popular man of affairs, with advanced ideas that contributed to the making of the Hartlepools into a great centre of shipping enterprise."
 |
| John Buchannan (1810-91) |
Both George and John had an acute sense of public duty and a strong religious belief. One of the most interesting divergences between their careers can be found in their religious allegiance.
John Buchannan seems to have been a seeker all his life, perhaps marked by the bereavements he suffered.
He lost his parents and sister while he was still a child, his first wife died in childbirth, his second wife died aged 32. By the age of 40, he was a widower with five children under the age of 12. His son Hugh died eight years later, aged eleven. John did not remarry.
His cousin George Pyman, meanwhile, remained a prominent member of Silver Street Chapel, continuing to worship there whenever he was at Raithwaite. He was a founder member of the church in West Hartlepool and was an influential Nonconformist all his life.
George Pyman was an open-minded man. When Ralph Ward-Jackson stood as a Conservative candidate for Parliament in the first elections held for the Hartlepools, George actively supported him out of gratitude for Ward-Jackson’s achievements in establishing West Hartlepool, although he himself was a Liberal – and while he was Mayor of West Hartlepool (1888-9) he visited every Sunday school in town, without reference to denomination.
He died at his home, Raithwaite Hall, on 23 November 1900, aged 78. Sadly, he had not lived to see the completion of his recent gift to Sandsend – the Pyman Institute, which was built on the site of the cottage where he was born.
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| Skinner Street, Whitby © Copyright Colin Grice |
West Cliff Congregational Church (formerly Silver Street Chapel), from geograph.org.uk (and licensed for reuse under their Creative Commons Licence). The chapel originally known by John Buchannan and George Pyman was rebuilt; these buildings date from 1867.
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| The Pyman Institute © Copyright wfmillar |
Early morning suns lights the Pyman Institute (from geograph.org.uk and licensed for reuse under their Creative Commons Licence)
Notes:
For more on George Pyman, his business and his family, see The Pyman Story by Peter Hogg & Harold Appleyard (pub. 2000)
Henry Lord Mulgrave's portrait is from the engraving by H. Meyer from the original by J. Jackson
There is a link between the Pyman family and Hutton Rudby – George's son Thomas English Pyman lived for some years at Linden Grove.
Tuesday 2 July 2013
Sandsend & Lythe in 1823
Baines' Directory 1823:
Sand's End, in the parish of Lythe, wap. and liberty of Langbargh; 3 miles NW of Whitby, situated on the face of a rocky cliff near the sea. Here is an extensive establishment for making of alum, the property of Lord Mulgrave. There is also an abundance of terrace-stone, which is burnt and used for cement ; the soil abounds with limestone. In the rocks here, and other places along the coast, black amber or jett is frequently found, of which Solinus says, "in Britain there is a great store of Gagetes or Jett, a very fine stone; if you ask the colour, it is black and shining; if the quality, it is exceedingly light; if the nature, it burns in water, and is quenched with oil; if the virtue, it has an attractive power, when heated with rubbing.
Lythe, in the wap. and liberty of Langbargh; 4 miles WNW of Whitby. Lythe is pleasantly situated near the eastern extremity of Cleveland, about 1 mile distant from the sea. Peter de Mauley, III. in the 38th of Henry the Third, obtained a licence for a weekly market, and a fair yearly, to be held on the Eve of St Oswald, but being in the vicinity of Whitby, both the fairs and market have long been discontinued. The lord of the manor is the Earl of Mulgrave, who resides here, in a stately mansion, which stands a little South of the village, upon the brow of a gently rising hill, commanding a pleasing and extensive prospect of the country and the sea. The Church, dedicated to St Oswald, is an ancient structure, but owing to a thorough repair, which it received in 1819, has rather a modern appearance at first sight … There is also a Methodist Chapel, built in 1822. Pop. 1,134
Letters are despatched to, and received from Whitby every day at 1 o’clock.
Champion Mrs. gentlewoman
Long Rev. Wm. officiating curate
Porter Rev. Thomas, vicar
Sowerby John M., land & alum agent for Earl Mulgrave
Stonehouse Thomas, master mariner
Academies
Chapman John
Ward John
Blacksmiths
Jackson John
Newholm Wm.
Farmers
Bean John
Hoggart Wm.
Humphrey Philip
Laverick Francis
Laverick Wm.
Stanghow Mrs.
Stonehouse Robt.
Taylorson Wm.
Ward John
Grocers, &c
Leonard Geo.
Mackenzie John
Joiners, &c
Davison James
Thirlwall John
Shoemakers
Elland Wm.
Leonard Geo.
Rountree John
Ward Thos.
Stonemasons
Watson Leonard
Watson Richard
Wheelwrights
Taylor Clement
Thompson John
Thompson Thos.
Duck Mary, vict. Red Lion, (post office)
Frank John, gamekeeper
Hill James, weaver
Huntrodes Wm. tailor
Naggs Thomas, vict. Ship
Readman John, tailor
Tyas James, butcher
Sand's End, in the parish of Lythe, wap. and liberty of Langbargh; 3 miles NW of Whitby, situated on the face of a rocky cliff near the sea. Here is an extensive establishment for making of alum, the property of Lord Mulgrave. There is also an abundance of terrace-stone, which is burnt and used for cement ; the soil abounds with limestone. In the rocks here, and other places along the coast, black amber or jett is frequently found, of which Solinus says, "in Britain there is a great store of Gagetes or Jett, a very fine stone; if you ask the colour, it is black and shining; if the quality, it is exceedingly light; if the nature, it burns in water, and is quenched with oil; if the virtue, it has an attractive power, when heated with rubbing.
Lythe, in the wap. and liberty of Langbargh; 4 miles WNW of Whitby. Lythe is pleasantly situated near the eastern extremity of Cleveland, about 1 mile distant from the sea. Peter de Mauley, III. in the 38th of Henry the Third, obtained a licence for a weekly market, and a fair yearly, to be held on the Eve of St Oswald, but being in the vicinity of Whitby, both the fairs and market have long been discontinued. The lord of the manor is the Earl of Mulgrave, who resides here, in a stately mansion, which stands a little South of the village, upon the brow of a gently rising hill, commanding a pleasing and extensive prospect of the country and the sea. The Church, dedicated to St Oswald, is an ancient structure, but owing to a thorough repair, which it received in 1819, has rather a modern appearance at first sight … There is also a Methodist Chapel, built in 1822. Pop. 1,134
Letters are despatched to, and received from Whitby every day at 1 o’clock.
Champion Mrs. gentlewoman
Long Rev. Wm. officiating curate
Porter Rev. Thomas, vicar
Sowerby John M., land & alum agent for Earl Mulgrave
Stonehouse Thomas, master mariner
Academies
Chapman John
Ward John
Blacksmiths
Jackson John
Newholm Wm.
Farmers
Bean John
Hoggart Wm.
Humphrey Philip
Laverick Francis
Laverick Wm.
Stanghow Mrs.
Stonehouse Robt.
Taylorson Wm.
Ward John
Grocers, &c
Leonard Geo.
Mackenzie John
Joiners, &c
Davison James
Thirlwall John
Shoemakers
Elland Wm.
Leonard Geo.
Rountree John
Ward Thos.
Stonemasons
Watson Leonard
Watson Richard
Wheelwrights
Taylor Clement
Thompson John
Thompson Thos.
Duck Mary, vict. Red Lion, (post office)
Frank John, gamekeeper
Hill James, weaver
Huntrodes Wm. tailor
Naggs Thomas, vict. Ship
Readman John, tailor
Tyas James, butcher
Monday 10 June 2013
People of Hutton Rudby in the C18/19: Southeran to Swallwell
... from my working notes ... accuracy not guaranteed ... for explanatory note, see post of 14 Feb 2013
Southeran
11 May 1868: Codling mortgage: Mustard garth bounded by John Oates & George Davison to E, Robert Southeran to S and John Sidgwick to N
Spence
Yorkshire Poll Book 1807: Hutton Rudby: William Spencer [sic] weaver
ET 604: 12 & 13 Sep 1823: 4a close in Hutton Moor, previously occ by Bart Wright now by Simon Sidgwick the weaver, bounded by lands late belonging to Margaret Smith & now to William Spence to E
FQ 249: 13 & 14 Mar 1829: exors of Wayne to Barker: the Carpenters Arms with the cartwrights shop and stable on the west end thereof, the garden and the privy on the south & backside of the premises, bounded by road to East Rounton to E, by Mrs Elizabeth Hildreth to W & S, by road to East Rounton, John Robinson and Mr Farnaby to N – occ by Edward Meynell; the garth occ by Edward Meynell, bounded by Elizabeth Hildreth to E, by John Burdon to W, by Thomas Passman, Elizabeth Hildreth, Mr Kendall & William Spence to N, by road to East Rounton to S; the site where buildings lately occupied by John & Hannah Kay & taken down by Mark Barker stood; the garth now used as garden ground to the E & backside of the sd site; the new houses built by Mark Barker on the site and part of the garth: some of the houses and the garden ground “at present unoccupied”, the others occupied by Robert Hall, William Souter, George Sanderson, John Kay, Mary Lamb, Jackson Richardson, John Wild and Thomas Shaw: bounded by house & lands bel to Rev Richard Shepherd to E & S, by Arthur Douglas and townstreet to N & W
FS 577: 9 Jun 1831: Robert Norman paper maker to Robert Holliday Dobson of Potto gent: 6a close in Hutton known as the Cottages bounded by Widow Johnson to S, road to the Rountons to N, William Spencer to W, Mr Rickaby to E, occ by Robert Norman
GG 130: 31 Oct 1835: Thomas Spence of Hutton weaver & Dorothy his wife (1) Henry Collins of Stokesley gent (2): 2 houses now used as one, the weaver’s shop adjoining & the garden or orchard of 1r behind, occ by Thomas Spence; the butcher’s shop adjoining the weaver’s shop occ by William Sherwood: bounded by Lord Falkland to E, street to W, Mrs Kingston to N, Edmund Taylor to S; also Gowdie/Gowlay Hill Garth 1a with cowhouse occ by Thomas Richardson: bounded by John Charlton to E, by Francis Stainthorpe to W, by street to N, by Jane Willans & Edward Meynell to S; also house with garden & garth behind 2r, occ by William Merrington: bounded by street to E, William Wood to W, John Seamer to N, John Rymers & Francis Stainthorpe to S; also 3 closes formerly 2 closes called the Cottager 7a, previously occ by William Braithwaite as tenant to William Spence decd: bounded by Robert Halliday Dobson to E, George Hunter & William Ableson to W, by Rounton road to N, by Richard Johnson to S; “& all other the messuages lands tenements and hereditaments formerly belonging to Thomas Smith late of Hutton yeoman decd and comprised in his Will”
GZ 204: 2 May 1842: Thomas Spence late of Hutton weaver but now of Middlesbrough baker & shopkeeper (1) John Snowdon of Stokesley shoemaker (2) Thomas Sidgwick of Hutton linen manufacturer (3) George Wilson of Hutton linen manufacturer (4) reciting indres of 1839: John Snowdon had lent Thomas Spence £90 with £4-17-5d interest also owing, on Spence’s property on East Side: Spence sold Sidgwick the house (formerly 2 houses) & garden for £180, the mortgage to be paid off: the garden & orchard to be sold to Sidgwick was staked out and contained 33 p; previously occ by Thomas Spence and now by William Meynell; the rest to be sold to John Oates; mortgagee George Wilson
GZ 206: May 1842: Thomas Spence to John Oates for £50: the 2 shops, one formerly a weaver’s shop and now a carpenter’s and the other a butcher’s shop, with the ground behind now staked out and measuring 9 p: now occ by William Meynell, William Sherwood and John Oates: bounded by Thomas Sidgwick’s purchase from Spence to E & N, by street to W, Edmund Taylor to S; mortgagee George Wilson
Mrs Spence is in a list of names in the Middleton Book
Anne Spence is in a list of names in the Middleton Book
Mark Spence was given a prayer book worth 10d in the Rudby School accounts – Middleton Book
Catherine Spence is in a List of Girls – Middleton Book
M Spence was in A List of Boys – Middleton Book
Thomas Spence of East Side was a weaver, and he and his wife Dorothy appear in the 1836 Wesleyan class lists
They had children: Moses baptised 23 Feb 1831; and Titus baptised 15 Feb 1830; also Dorothy who lived 1837 to 1838. Moses died in 1831.
In 1835 he owned a house (previously two houses, now used as one) with a weaver’s shop and a garden behind, amounting to 1 rood.
He also owned an acre with a cowhouse at Goldie Hill, and a house and 2 roods of land occupied by Wm Merrington, just below Tisbut Row, and three closes called the Cottager or Cottage Fields out in the Hutton Fields/Moor area, on the Rounton road
The cottage fields had been occupied by Wm Braithwaite, as tenant to Wm Spence decd, and the deed included all lands “formerly belonging to Thomas Smith late of Hutton yeoman decd and comprised in his Will”. [William Spence of Hutton was buried aged 63 on 19 Jun 1835. Wm and Ann Spence(r) had Margaret in 1796, Thomas in 1797, William in 1799, and Elizabeth in 1801; possibly more.
1840 Whites: Hutton Rudby: Thomas Spence, grocer & draper – ie. the depression in weaving has forced him to change occupation.
In 1842 Thomas had left Hutton to become a Baker and Shopkeeper in Middlesbrough. He owed £90 to John Snowdon, and he sold up his Hutton property: the house and part of the garden (33p) was sold to Thomas Sidgwick for £180 - this was bounded by Mrs Kingston on north. The weaver’s shop, now used as a carpenter’s shop, with the butcher’s shop and 9p of land was sold to John Oates for £50. The mortgages were paid off, and it appears that George Wilson was the purchasers’ mortgagee.
The result can be seen on the 1891 map – the northern (Sidgwick) property has the majority of the garth.
William Spence, weaver of Hutton, and his wife Lucy had their son George baptised on 16 Jan 1831
Southeran
11 May 1868: Codling mortgage: Mustard garth bounded by John Oates & George Davison to E, Robert Southeran to S and John Sidgwick to N
Spence
Yorkshire Poll Book 1807: Hutton Rudby: William Spencer [sic] weaver
ET 604: 12 & 13 Sep 1823: 4a close in Hutton Moor, previously occ by Bart Wright now by Simon Sidgwick the weaver, bounded by lands late belonging to Margaret Smith & now to William Spence to E
FQ 249: 13 & 14 Mar 1829: exors of Wayne to Barker: the Carpenters Arms with the cartwrights shop and stable on the west end thereof, the garden and the privy on the south & backside of the premises, bounded by road to East Rounton to E, by Mrs Elizabeth Hildreth to W & S, by road to East Rounton, John Robinson and Mr Farnaby to N – occ by Edward Meynell; the garth occ by Edward Meynell, bounded by Elizabeth Hildreth to E, by John Burdon to W, by Thomas Passman, Elizabeth Hildreth, Mr Kendall & William Spence to N, by road to East Rounton to S; the site where buildings lately occupied by John & Hannah Kay & taken down by Mark Barker stood; the garth now used as garden ground to the E & backside of the sd site; the new houses built by Mark Barker on the site and part of the garth: some of the houses and the garden ground “at present unoccupied”, the others occupied by Robert Hall, William Souter, George Sanderson, John Kay, Mary Lamb, Jackson Richardson, John Wild and Thomas Shaw: bounded by house & lands bel to Rev Richard Shepherd to E & S, by Arthur Douglas and townstreet to N & W
FS 577: 9 Jun 1831: Robert Norman paper maker to Robert Holliday Dobson of Potto gent: 6a close in Hutton known as the Cottages bounded by Widow Johnson to S, road to the Rountons to N, William Spencer to W, Mr Rickaby to E, occ by Robert Norman
GG 130: 31 Oct 1835: Thomas Spence of Hutton weaver & Dorothy his wife (1) Henry Collins of Stokesley gent (2): 2 houses now used as one, the weaver’s shop adjoining & the garden or orchard of 1r behind, occ by Thomas Spence; the butcher’s shop adjoining the weaver’s shop occ by William Sherwood: bounded by Lord Falkland to E, street to W, Mrs Kingston to N, Edmund Taylor to S; also Gowdie/Gowlay Hill Garth 1a with cowhouse occ by Thomas Richardson: bounded by John Charlton to E, by Francis Stainthorpe to W, by street to N, by Jane Willans & Edward Meynell to S; also house with garden & garth behind 2r, occ by William Merrington: bounded by street to E, William Wood to W, John Seamer to N, John Rymers & Francis Stainthorpe to S; also 3 closes formerly 2 closes called the Cottager 7a, previously occ by William Braithwaite as tenant to William Spence decd: bounded by Robert Halliday Dobson to E, George Hunter & William Ableson to W, by Rounton road to N, by Richard Johnson to S; “& all other the messuages lands tenements and hereditaments formerly belonging to Thomas Smith late of Hutton yeoman decd and comprised in his Will”
GZ 204: 2 May 1842: Thomas Spence late of Hutton weaver but now of Middlesbrough baker & shopkeeper (1) John Snowdon of Stokesley shoemaker (2) Thomas Sidgwick of Hutton linen manufacturer (3) George Wilson of Hutton linen manufacturer (4) reciting indres of 1839: John Snowdon had lent Thomas Spence £90 with £4-17-5d interest also owing, on Spence’s property on East Side: Spence sold Sidgwick the house (formerly 2 houses) & garden for £180, the mortgage to be paid off: the garden & orchard to be sold to Sidgwick was staked out and contained 33 p; previously occ by Thomas Spence and now by William Meynell; the rest to be sold to John Oates; mortgagee George Wilson
GZ 206: May 1842: Thomas Spence to John Oates for £50: the 2 shops, one formerly a weaver’s shop and now a carpenter’s and the other a butcher’s shop, with the ground behind now staked out and measuring 9 p: now occ by William Meynell, William Sherwood and John Oates: bounded by Thomas Sidgwick’s purchase from Spence to E & N, by street to W, Edmund Taylor to S; mortgagee George Wilson
Mrs Spence is in a list of names in the Middleton Book
Anne Spence is in a list of names in the Middleton Book
Mark Spence was given a prayer book worth 10d in the Rudby School accounts – Middleton Book
Catherine Spence is in a List of Girls – Middleton Book
M Spence was in A List of Boys – Middleton Book
Thomas Spence of East Side was a weaver, and he and his wife Dorothy appear in the 1836 Wesleyan class lists
They had children: Moses baptised 23 Feb 1831; and Titus baptised 15 Feb 1830; also Dorothy who lived 1837 to 1838. Moses died in 1831.
In 1835 he owned a house (previously two houses, now used as one) with a weaver’s shop and a garden behind, amounting to 1 rood.
He also owned an acre with a cowhouse at Goldie Hill, and a house and 2 roods of land occupied by Wm Merrington, just below Tisbut Row, and three closes called the Cottager or Cottage Fields out in the Hutton Fields/Moor area, on the Rounton road
The cottage fields had been occupied by Wm Braithwaite, as tenant to Wm Spence decd, and the deed included all lands “formerly belonging to Thomas Smith late of Hutton yeoman decd and comprised in his Will”. [William Spence of Hutton was buried aged 63 on 19 Jun 1835. Wm and Ann Spence(r) had Margaret in 1796, Thomas in 1797, William in 1799, and Elizabeth in 1801; possibly more.
1840 Whites: Hutton Rudby: Thomas Spence, grocer & draper – ie. the depression in weaving has forced him to change occupation.
In 1842 Thomas had left Hutton to become a Baker and Shopkeeper in Middlesbrough. He owed £90 to John Snowdon, and he sold up his Hutton property: the house and part of the garden (33p) was sold to Thomas Sidgwick for £180 - this was bounded by Mrs Kingston on north. The weaver’s shop, now used as a carpenter’s shop, with the butcher’s shop and 9p of land was sold to John Oates for £50. The mortgages were paid off, and it appears that George Wilson was the purchasers’ mortgagee.
The result can be seen on the 1891 map – the northern (Sidgwick) property has the majority of the garth.
William Spence, weaver of Hutton, and his wife Lucy had their son George baptised on 16 Jan 1831
Saturday 25 May 2013
Local solicitors in 1886
from Waterlow Bros & Layton’s Legal Diary and Almanac for 1886
Coatham, near Redcar (Yorks.)
Meek, J M (M.A.) – 1872, p. com. and at Middlesborough ..... Adam Burn
Spry, S – 1876, com. oaths, and at Middlesbrough and South Bank ..... Williamson, Hill & Co
Wethey, R E – 1884, 5, Albert-road, and at Middlesboro' ..... Smiles & Co
Guisborough (Yorksh.)
Buchannan, A – 1870, com. oaths, clerk to lieutenancy of North Riding, coroner for Langbaurgh East district, clerk to guardians and rural sanitary authority, clk. to Guisbro’ local and burial bd., Guisbro’ school bd., Skelton local bd. and burial bd., and Brotton local bd., hon. sec. South Durham and North Yorkshire law soc., solr. to Guisbro’ and dis. bldg. soc ..... Pitman & Son
Carrick, W L – 1880 ..... Gray & Mounsey
Ord, C O – 1840, p. com., com. oaths ..... R M & F Lowe
Richardson, W – 1882 ..... Pitman & Son
Trevor, W C – 1866, p. com., com. oaths, deputy clk. of the peace for North Riding, clk. to mags. for div. of Langbaurgh East, and at Northallerton ..... R M & F Lowe
Hutton Rudby (Yorks.)
Kindler, A W – 1882, and at Stockton-on-Tees ..... H F Wood
Extracted from:
List of Country Solicitors
Corrected by comparison with the Roll of the Incorporated Law Society; the list of Commissioners to administer oaths, and list of Perpetual Commissioners, and from direct correspondence
Corrected by comparison with the Roll of the Incorporated Law Society; the list of Commissioners to administer oaths, and list of Perpetual Commissioners, and from direct correspondence
Perpetual commissioners were those appointed to take acknowledgments of deeds made by married women. This finally became unnecessary after the Married Women's Property Act 1882.The year stated against each entry is the date of admission to the Roll.The name in brackets is that of the firm, but it is not always stated.The name in italics is that of the firm of solicitors that acted as the solicitor’s London agents.
Coatham, near Redcar (Yorks.)
Meek, J M (M.A.) – 1872, p. com. and at Middlesborough ..... Adam Burn
Spry, S – 1876, com. oaths, and at Middlesbrough and South Bank ..... Williamson, Hill & Co
Wethey, R E – 1884, 5, Albert-road, and at Middlesboro' ..... Smiles & Co
Guisborough (Yorksh.)
Buchannan, A – 1870, com. oaths, clerk to lieutenancy of North Riding, coroner for Langbaurgh East district, clerk to guardians and rural sanitary authority, clk. to Guisbro’ local and burial bd., Guisbro’ school bd., Skelton local bd. and burial bd., and Brotton local bd., hon. sec. South Durham and North Yorkshire law soc., solr. to Guisbro’ and dis. bldg. soc ..... Pitman & Son
Carrick, W L – 1880 ..... Gray & Mounsey
Ord, C O – 1840, p. com., com. oaths ..... R M & F Lowe
Richardson, W – 1882 ..... Pitman & Son
Trevor, W C – 1866, p. com., com. oaths, deputy clk. of the peace for North Riding, clk. to mags. for div. of Langbaurgh East, and at Northallerton ..... R M & F Lowe
Hutton Rudby (Yorks.)
Kindler, A W – 1882, and at Stockton-on-Tees ..... H F Wood
Tuesday 7 May 2013
Jane Langborne's cookery book
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| Jane Langborne's cookery book & handwritten recipes |
Jane Galilee (1783-1856), the second wife of George Langborne (1773-1832), owned a copy of Mrs Rundell's celebrated book, A New System of Domestic Cookery; formed upon Principles of Economy: and Adapted to the Use of Private Families
The small volume is packed with recipes: Soles in the Portuguese way – rolled beef that equals hare – Spadbury's Oxford sausages – green sauce for green geese – eel pie – gooseberry fool – stewed golden pippins rout drop-cakes ...
There are instructions for the cook: how to stew a shoulder of venison – how to salt pork – how to brew very fine Welch ale ...
There are chapters of advice on how to manage the dairy and the poultry yard and on cooking for the sick and for the poor. A chapter headed Various Receipts includes instructions on how to make Lavender Water, on how to make ink, and how to preserve furs and woollen from moths.
No wonder it was a publishing sensation in Britain and America, as this article in the Guardian explains. Mrs Rundell was the Mrs Beeton or Delia Smith of her age.
Jane's copy was the 1810 edition, published in London by John Murray. A couple of recipes are jotted on the last page of the index. One is a Receipt for making Ink:
5 oz of Powdered Gall("Watter" for "water" must be a reflection of the local dialect – as can be found in Wordsworth, in fact).
2 oz of Copperass
1 oz of Gum Arabic
1 oz of Rock Alum
1 Quart of Watter
Infuse them a month
stirring them every Day
Useful recipes on slips of paper have been preserved between the pages: Calves Foot Jelly, Raspberry Vinegar, Plum Cake ...
For anyone eager to try it, here is a useful recipe for Parkin:
2 lbs of oatmealand in these straitened times, the recipe that Mrs Holtby kindly wrote out for Mrs Langborne might be useful:
2 lbs of treacle, warmed
half a pound of brown sugar
½ an ounce of ground ginger
¼ lb of candid lemon
a table spoonful of carbonate of soda
½ lb of butter melted & mixed with the treacle
bake into dishes or tins well buttered in a slow oven
A Cheap Plum Pudding
Half a pound of Potatoes, ¼ lb of Carrots boiled till they can be mashed quite fine, ½ lb of Flour, ¾ of Currants, ¼ of Suet shred fine, ¼ lb of Moist Sugar to be mixed with the Potatoes and Carrots when you mash them, 1 oz of Candied Lemon, a little Cinnamon, and Nutmeg, to your taste. Mix all together over night, and boil it 4 hours.
[signed] Mrs Holtby
As you might have guessed, I did not spoil the charm by altering the spelling of the originals ...
Sunday 5 May 2013
Jane Atkinson of Kirkleatham, wife of Captain Thomas Galilee (1744-97)
This page was revised, rewritten & reposted on 4 March 2022
The two letters quoted below were among the small collection of letters referred to in the post of 4 March 2022 about Jane's brother, the Revd William Atkinson. I have made some alterations to spelling and punctuation for readability's sake.
Jane was born in 1751, the daughter of Thomas Atkinson of Scaling Dam (a hamlet on the Whitby to Guisborough road) and his wife Elizabeth Featherstone. She grew up at Kirkleatham where her father was Master of the Blue Coat Boys at Sir William Turner's Hospital. Her younger brother Thomas Atkinson was a surgeon who wrote a journal of a whaling voyage to the Davis Straits in 1774
Jane married Thomas Galilee on 4 June 1775.
The Newcastle Courant of Saturday 17 June 1775 records:
Last week at St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe, London, Capt Thomas Galilee of Whitby, to Miss Atkinson of Kirkleatham
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| St Mary's Rotherhithe by Rob Kam |
Jane and Thomas spent many years in Rotherhithe, where their daughters were born and baptised, living in a house that Thomas owned in Princes Street. They were living there in 1788 when he wrote to his wife from Narva in Estonia on 21 May. At the time, the main trade with the Baltic was in timber and Thomas was taking on a load of sawn boards ("deals").
Narva, May 21st 1788My Dear Jane,I have now the pleasure to acquaint you that I am all Loaded except one pram of deals which I hope to get on board to night. We have had a very troublesome time of it in the Bay and very cold weather that several of my people is laid up. I hope in God this will find you in good health and all my dear children as bless God I am at present and I hope soon to have a happy meeting. I have no news to tell you as this is the first time I have been in town since I arrived – it seems to be a poor place and every thing is very dear so that I have not bought you anything. Please to acquaint Mr. Richardson of my being loaded and not to forget the InsuranceI hope soon to have the pleasure to see you, pray give my love to my children &c, I am your ever affectionate andLoving HusbandThomas Galilee
It seems he had two passengers with him – perhaps they were there for the experience – but they hadn't enjoyed the trip much. He ends his letter
My Two young Gentlemen is very well but I fancy this Voyage will make them sick of the sea.
It seems very likely that, when the Ship News in the Kentish Gazette on 20 June 1788 reported that the "Amphion, Gallilee, from Narva" had passed Gravesend on 16 June, it was Captain Thomas Galilee returning home.
The following year, the French Revolution began and in 1792 Britain and France were at war. The days of peaceful sailing to the coasts of Europe were over and life must have become considerably more complicated for master mariners. By the summer of 1795, Thomas and Jane had moved across the river to Number 168 Wapping High Street where Jane was now trading as a China and Slop-Seller, with help in the business from the older girls. Because of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain's Navy and merchant marine were of great size and enormous importance, so there must have been plenty of possibilities in selling slops – that is, clothing for sailors. In 1797 Jane was left a widow with 6 daughters aged between 10 and 19 – I can't find out whether Thomas died on land or at sea.
A letter written by Jane to her daughter Elizabeth on 18 March 1808 gives us a glimpse of her character and her situation. Elizabeth was 28 years old and at home in Wapping. She would soon be married to William Williamson, a master mariner.
Jane wrote from Stapleford near Cambridge where she had been looking after her brother William
My dear GirlI recd: your affection letter by the Fly [a light type of coach], accompanied by Margaret's, with both of which I was very well pleased. I have since then had little to communicate and writing time is attended with great difficulty, as your Uncle now gets up as early as I do, he is very much amended since I wrote last, he eats very well and all his complaints diminish gradually, except his deafness, and that continues very much the same, he has walked in his Close almost every day but now that must be all over for a time as it is snowing very fast
She expected to be back in Wapping before long as she wasn't really needed in Stapleford any more.
Give my kind love to Mr: W[illiamson]: I am much obliged to him for his kind attention to me, and I shall always make it my study to make every thing as agreeable to you both as I possibly can, it is my constant wish that you should remain with me until Michaelmas at least, and in all that time we shall be able to make a more prudent arrangement, than we possibly could in this short time
I'm not sure if that means that she wants Elizabeth to delay getting married or that she would like the newly-weds to live with her till September. At any event, Elizabeth married Mr Williamson twelve days later in Wapping. One of the witnesses was her married sister Mary Richmond and another was either her mother Jane, or her sister Jane.
Jane was now planning her own future. Elizabeth's younger sister Harriet was at Stapleford as her uncle William's housekeeper and Jane Galilee intended to move there herself. Her plans had taken a little careful management of her brother
I never mentioned the cottage to your uncle before yesterday, he said he never meant to let it until I could think of taking it, though it is a matter I often wished. I was very doubtful whether to take it or not when it came within my reach, I explained to him all my motives for taking it, without reserve and how I wished to live there, and I could find, that his wishes and views were widely different to mine. This was what I always expected, however I am quite decided to stick to my original plan, and he seemed very much pleased upon the whole, and I believe Harriet is the same.
Harriet's situation was clearly an important consideration for Jane
I hope it should be a great relief to her, she is very much confined, and the rest of the people she does see can neither afford her much advantage or amusement, but we can talk all this over when we must, and I should [not] have mentioned [it] now, if I had not got this immense sheet of paper.
A little maternal advice was now in order:
It is gratifying to me to find that my dear Elizabeth is perfectly satisfied with the protection I have been able to afford her, and I will be equally candid in telling her, that I am thoroughly satisfied with the return she has made, I am proud to recollect some instances which placed her in a very amiable light, however I will not affect to misunderstand what you allude to, as I think it almost your only fault, to be rather hasty in your temper. It is therefore my duty to advise you to correct it. Your good sense will however point this out to you, as it sometimes happens that a few acrimonious words will disturb the harmony of my years.
My dear Girl, if I thought you would be seriously hurt at what I have written I would blot it out, and I should not have so, if I did not think you alluded to it yourself, as it is a matter that never gave me any lasting pain, knowing as I did how good you were in essentials.
She then goes on to give the news. They hadn't had so many visitors in the last two or three days. A Mr Pagett had gone to London, a Mr B. to Norfolk. The doctor hadn't come for a week and the judge was in Cambridge. Elizabeth's sister Harriet
has had several Fits this last week, I am much concerned for her
but that must have been something that Elizabeth knew all about, so Jane moved swiftly on to bonnets
I do not suppose I can do any thing for you or your Sister? Harriet called at Mrs Rawlings with Mrs Martindale, but there was not a single Bonnet to be seen. Mrs [illeg] says the straw is very cheap now, I had a mind to bring some home and get a Bonnet made in London.
I've made some guesses at some of last lines of the letter, which ends warm and affectionately:
I shall now conclude this unconnected Epistle, by desiring my dear Girl [should have] no scruple in expressing any wish that I can be ---ciable [?] in, as she may be assured that I will, now and ever, be proud and happy to do everything promote her comfort, and happiness
and Jane ends with her prayer for Elizabeth's married life
that both parties may mutually concur in deserving, and enjoying, that happiness, which the good and virtuous can only know, shall be ever the prayer of your Affectionate Mother
Jane GalileeMy kindest Love to your Sisters
Jane spent her last years in the cottage in Stapleford where she died on 19 December 1817 aged 66. She was buried at Whaddon, a few miles from Stapleford, because it was there that the graves of her parents and brother Isaac were to be found.
Thomas Galilee and Jane Atkinson had 6 daughters who survived infancy:
- Mary Galilee (1778-1857)
- she was baptised at St Mary's, Rotherhithe on 26 August 1778
- she married Sunderland-born George Richmond (1790-1862), master mariner and shipowner on 29 January 1807 at Wapping parish church.
- by the time of the 1851 Census, she and husband and their daughter Jane were living in the Trinity Almshouse at Greenwich
- Mary died in 1857 and George in 1862
- Mary and George had two children:
- Jane Richmond (1812-1904) remained unmarried. The censuses find her living with one or more of her unmarried nieces in various parts of London
- George Richmond (1817-85) was a journalist and editor of the Sussex Express and Surrey Standard.
George lived in Lewes, Sussex for many years until his death. He and his wife Maria had 5 daughters and 3 sons. The report of his funeral in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 23 May 1885 said he was "the oldest Tory journalist in Sussex, and was the Editor of the Sussex Express before some of those writers who now call themselves middle-aged were born. He was known as a very consistent man, and one who always upheld the policy of Conservatism"
- Elizabeth Galilee (1780-1867)
- she was baptised on 22 March 1780 at Rotherhithe
- she married William Williamson (1790-1832), master mariner, on 30 March 1808 in Rotherhithe
- they had 3 children
- William Williamson (c1810-99)
- Emma Williamson (1817-1901)
- Harriet Williamson (1820-1903)
The story of the Williamsons is told in The Revd William Atkinson of Kirkleatham & Cambridge (1755-1830)
- Harriet Galilee (1782-1862)
- she was baptised 31 July 1782
- she lived in Stapleford near Cambridge as her uncle William's housekeeper and afterwards with her unmarried sisters in Stapleford
- she died on 22 May 1862 aged 80 and was buried at Whaddon with her mother, uncles and grandparents
- Jane Galilee (1784-1856)
- she was baptised 4 April 1784
- she was the second wife of George Langborne (1773-1832), master mariner, ship owner and ship builder of Whitby. They married on 3 October 1811 at Wapping and lived in Whitby
- she and George had 7 daughters and 1 son:
- Jane Langborne (1812-58), b 15 Aug 1812, d 1 Feb 1858
- Nathaniel Langborne (1814-43)
- Ann Langborne (1817-49), wife of John Buchannan (1810-91), solicitor.
- Mary Eleanor Langborne (1819-84)
- Harriet Langborne (1821-89)
- Margaret Langborne (1825-1910)
- Eliza Langborne (1826-66)
- Georgiana Langborne (1829-1903)
For more on the Langborne family and Jane Galilee and the lives of her children see The family of Nathaniel Langborne (1739-1807), son of Michael & Eleanor Langborne
- Margaret Galilee (c1785-1880)
- she was born c1785 (but I can't find her baptism)
- she never married. She lived with her sisters Harriet & Henrietta in Stapleford and outlived them both, dying at the age of 94 on 17 August 1880. I think, from her grant of Probate, that her niece Jane Richmond lived with her in her last days. She is buried at Stapleford.
- Henrietta Galilee 1787-1872)
- she was baptised 1 August 1787
- she lived at Stapleford with her sisters until her death aged 84 on 17 February 1872 1872. She is buried at Stapleford
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| St Andrew's Stapleford, Cambs. CC BY-SA 2.0 by John Salmon |
Friday 3 May 2013
Captain Thomas Galilee (1744-97) and his family
Jane Galilee (1783-1856), the second wife of George Langborne (1773-1832), was the daughter of Captain Thomas Galilee of Whitby and Jane Atkinson of Kirkleatham.
Her father Captain Thomas Galilee and his brother Samuel (also a master mariner) are examples (as in the story of Captain Thomas King, merchant of Wapping of the link between Whitby and the River Thames.
Jane and her five sisters were all born in Rotherhithe, where Jane was christened at St Mary's, Rotherhithe on 4 April 1784 at the age of one.
Captain Thomas Galilee (1744-97) was the son of John Galilee and Mary Campion of the parish of Hinderwell, on the coast north of Whitby:
John Galilee married Mary Campion at Hinderwell in 1741.
Her father Captain Thomas Galilee and his brother Samuel (also a master mariner) are examples (as in the story of Captain Thomas King, merchant of Wapping of the link between Whitby and the River Thames.
Jane and her five sisters were all born in Rotherhithe, where Jane was christened at St Mary's, Rotherhithe on 4 April 1784 at the age of one.
Captain Thomas Galilee (1744-97) was the son of John Galilee and Mary Campion of the parish of Hinderwell, on the coast north of Whitby:
John Galilee married Mary Campion at Hinderwell in 1741.
Their children wereA note, written by a much later hand (possibly Capt Galilee’s granddaughter Miss Margaret Langborne 1825-1910) on the inside back cover of Thomas Atkinson's Whaling Journal was very useful in confirming that this was the family of Captain Thomas Galilee. It states:
• Jane Galilee, bap 8 Oct 1742
• Thomas Galilee, bap 27 Feb 1744
• John Galilee, bap 29 Sep 1747
• Robert Galilee, bap 20 Sep 1750
• Mary Galilee, bap 17 May 1753
• Samuel Galilee, bap 9 Dec 1755
• Hannah Galilee, bap 26 Oct 1758
• Margaret Galilee, bap 23 Jul 1761
• “female” (?Henrietta) Galilee, bap 2 Sep 1763
"Robert lived at Staithes and Jack at Sunderland both I believe also [drank?] like fishes as was the correct thing in those days for sailors.[The word in square brackets is fairly illegible, but I’m afraid it does look very like “drank”!]
Aunts Potter and Chilton were sisters"
Wednesday 1 May 2013
The family of Nathaniel Langborne (1739-1807), son of Michael & Eleanor Langborne
Nathaniel Langborne was born 26 December 1739.
On 17 July 1766, he married Ann Baker; he is described in the parish register entry as Carpenter.
Nathaniel Langborne (1739-1807) and Ann Baker (c1742-84) had 15 children in 18 years of marriage.
Nine of the children died in infancy, and two died in their teens.
Ann herself died at the age of 42 and was buried on 29 Aug 1784, a week after the funeral of her last baby, Henry, who had lived only 12 days after his baptism. She was survived by five of her children, but her daughter Anne died, aged 8 at her mother’s death, died ten years later.
The children were:
On 17 July 1766, he married Ann Baker; he is described in the parish register entry as Carpenter.
Nathaniel Langborne (1739-1807) and Ann Baker (c1742-84) had 15 children in 18 years of marriage.
Nine of the children died in infancy, and two died in their teens.
Ann herself died at the age of 42 and was buried on 29 Aug 1784, a week after the funeral of her last baby, Henry, who had lived only 12 days after his baptism. She was survived by five of her children, but her daughter Anne died, aged 8 at her mother’s death, died ten years later.
The children were:
• Michael, b 2 May 1767, bur 12 Jan 1768Nathaniel, George, Mary and John lived to be mentioned in their father Nathaniel's Will.
• Mary, b 1768, bur 6 Apr 1769
• Eleanor, b 22 Feb 1769, bur 29 Dec 1782 (aged 13)
• George, b 1 Feb 1770, bur 7 Oct 1770
• Nathaniel Langborne (1771-1833)
• George, b 28 May 1772, died the same year
• George Langborne (1773-1832)
• Michael, b 12 Nov 1774, bur 23 Nov 1774
• Anne, b 3 Dec 1775, bur 11 July 1794 (aged 18)
• Mary Langborne (1777-?)
• Frances, b 16 Feb 1778, bur 11 Apr 1778
• Michael, b 1779, bur 13 Sep 1779 (aged 3 weeks)
• John Langborne (1781-1836)
• Michael, bap 17 Dec 1782, bur 19 Dec 1782
• Henry, bap 10 Aug 1784, bur 22 Aug 1784
Monday 22 April 2013
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
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
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: 1823-1908John 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
Friday 22 February 2013
Snowstorms in 1900
With snow still lying on the moors and in the hedge-backs, and flakes of snow in the wind today, I thought now would be a good time to post this – which I found quite by accident yesterday.
In the first half of February 1900, Britain was hit by severe snowstorms causing great disruption for days.
On Friday 16 February, the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough had the headlines:
In the first half of February 1900, Britain was hit by severe snowstorms causing great disruption for days.
On Friday 16 February, the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough had the headlines:
HISTORY OF THE BLIZZARD
An Unparalleled Storm of Wind and Snow
NOT EXCEEDED DURING THE PRESENT GENERATION
EXCITING AND THRILLING EXPERIENCES
An Unparalleled Storm of Wind and Snow
NOT EXCEEDED DURING THE PRESENT GENERATION
EXCITING AND THRILLING EXPERIENCES
On Saturday 17 February, the report began:
THE GREAT STORM
Further Stories of Adventure and Suffering
SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE
Trains Fast in Snowdrifts
BREAKDOWN OF COMMUNICATIONS
Further Stories of Adventure and Suffering
SERIOUS LOSS OF LIFE
Trains Fast in Snowdrifts
BREAKDOWN OF COMMUNICATIONS
One effect of the snowstorm is found in the delay to which news for Middlesbrough is being subjected. All telegrams are being sent by train. This accounts for the fact that the news of the relief of Kimberley, which was handed in in London yesterday morning to be sent over the wires in the usual way, has only been received by us to-day. We are in the appalling position, that, with the exception of a telegraph wire to West Hartlepool, there exists no other communication with anywhere, either by telephone or telegraph. We have been besieged by the elements, and are almost as completely isolated from the outside world as Ladysmith at the present time, or Kimberley until yesterday.
Saturday 15 December 2012
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.
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.
Monday 3 December 2012
Literary Wars in Whitby: 1825 to 1833
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| Whitby harbour: from a papier mache tray |
Young men and women horrified their elders by buying radical literature from Mr Armstrong’s shop and the 'Stokesley Paper War' between Armstrong and the Methodist businessman Thomas Mease polarised opinion in the town.
In 1825, the year after Thomas Mease published the last edition of The Extinguisher in triumph over his now absent adversary, a new monthly magazine began to appear in Whitby.
Before long, Whitby would have its own paper war.
But there the debate was not political – Whitby had little by way of radical tradition. Instead, the factions came from different Nonconformist churches, and the arguments were literary and personal.
Sunday 2 December 2012
Whitby in 1823
The town stands on two opposite declivities at the mouth of the Eske, by which river it is divided into two parts, which are connected by a draw-bridge so constructed as to admit vessels of 32 feet wide …
Owing to the northern aspect of the district and the rising of the land to a considerable distance into the country, the sun beams fall so obliquely on the town and its immediate vicinity, that its climate may be considered nearly on an equality with Shetland and the Orkneys.
It is closely and irregularly built, though the houses of the opulent inhabitants are large and commodious; the streets in general are narrow and inconvenient, and the act obtained for paving, lighting and widening them has been very imperfectly carried into effect …
The ruins of the once famous abbey stand on a high cliff south-east of the town near the parish church, and the ascent to it from the town is by a flight of two hundred steps. A small distance south of the abbey Mr Cholmeley has a splendid mansion, built probably with the materials from the monastery …
if the situation [of the abbey] is bleak the prospect is commanding and presents a view of the town and port of Whitby, with the frowning heights of the black moors rising in the horizon in front, while in the rear is the vast expanse of the ocean, and the tout ensemble is truly magnificent …
When the abbey of Whitby was in the zenith of its glory, the town was little more than a small fishing station … the important discovery of the alum mines at the close of the reign [of Queen Elizabeth] raised Whitby from its obscurity … and elevated the town to a degree of maritime consequence … two great branches of trade were opened at the port of Whitby – one for supplying the works with coals, the other for conveying the alum to distant parts.
Friday 30 November 2012
Rev Malcolm Buchannan (1880-1954)
Malcolm Buchannan was one of Whitby's characters.
An energetic High Church Anglican priest, his obituary from 9 July 1954 gives a full story of his remarkable life. I am not sure where, in his far-flung ministry, this photograph was taken – possibly the Transvaal.
By the death of the Rev Malcolm Buchannan, which occurred on Sunday night at his home, St Hilda's Terrace, Whitby, the town lost a man who defied ill-health to continue his vocation almost to the end.
A native of Whitby, Father Buchannan was educated at Hallgate's School at Whitby, and subsequently attended Durham School and Durham University, where he gained prominence as an oarsman, rowing in representative events for the Varsity.
He was a son of Mr Charles Buchannan, and a grandson of Mr George Weatherill, the famous artist, and he felt the call to the work of the Church, and as a priest of the Church of England did an outstanding service to his fellow men, not only in England, but in Canada, South Africa and Trinidad.
A man of great personal charm, Father Buchannan's chief characteristic was his sincerity. He was ordained curate in 1903 at Durham and his first appointment was as a curate at St Mark's, South Shields, where he remained for three years, being priested in 1904.
An energetic High Church Anglican priest, his obituary from 9 July 1954 gives a full story of his remarkable life. I am not sure where, in his far-flung ministry, this photograph was taken – possibly the Transvaal.
 |
| Rev Malcolm Buchannan |
FAITHFUL PARISH PRIEST
Rev M Buchannan's Notable Life
By the death of the Rev Malcolm Buchannan, which occurred on Sunday night at his home, St Hilda's Terrace, Whitby, the town lost a man who defied ill-health to continue his vocation almost to the end.
A native of Whitby, Father Buchannan was educated at Hallgate's School at Whitby, and subsequently attended Durham School and Durham University, where he gained prominence as an oarsman, rowing in representative events for the Varsity.
He was a son of Mr Charles Buchannan, and a grandson of Mr George Weatherill, the famous artist, and he felt the call to the work of the Church, and as a priest of the Church of England did an outstanding service to his fellow men, not only in England, but in Canada, South Africa and Trinidad.
A man of great personal charm, Father Buchannan's chief characteristic was his sincerity. He was ordained curate in 1903 at Durham and his first appointment was as a curate at St Mark's, South Shields, where he remained for three years, being priested in 1904.
'George Weatherill – his family, and their art' by the Rev Malcolm Buchannan
This is the text of an address given by the Rev. Malcolm Buchannan, M.A., grandson of George Weatherill on October 7th, 1949.
It is a delightful talk, particularly such stories as his grandfather walking from Yarm to York as a teenager to attend a court case for his employer, and walking back again the next day – and how he used to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning to paint the sunrise from East Cliff.
It is a delightful talk, particularly such stories as his grandfather walking from Yarm to York as a teenager to attend a court case for his employer, and walking back again the next day – and how he used to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning to paint the sunrise from East Cliff.
Thursday 29 November 2012
The artist George Weatherill (1810-90) and his children
George Weatherill was born in Staithes in 1810 and died in Whitby in 1890. His delicate, subtle watercolours of the Whitby area have always been widely known and loved – he has been called the "Turner of the North".
One of the largest and most important collections of his work was that of County Alderman Robert Elliott Pannett (1834-1920). His devotion to the welfare of Whitby and its people led him to many acts of generosity, and in 1902 he bought land near the centre of the ancient, crowded town because he believed that both residents and visitors would benefit from a park where they could enjoy fresh air, trees and flowers. He bequeathed the land to the town – it is now Pannett Park.
There you will find the Pannett Art Gallery. This was another gift to Whitby from Mr Pannett, built to house his art collection. It opened on 1 August 1928, with one gallery devoted entirely to the display of 148 paintings by George Weatherill. (I think the Art Gallery website is very new and still under construction – I look forward to more appearing on their Galleries page.)
George taught all his children to draw and paint, but their work is less widely known.
One of the largest and most important collections of his work was that of County Alderman Robert Elliott Pannett (1834-1920). His devotion to the welfare of Whitby and its people led him to many acts of generosity, and in 1902 he bought land near the centre of the ancient, crowded town because he believed that both residents and visitors would benefit from a park where they could enjoy fresh air, trees and flowers. He bequeathed the land to the town – it is now Pannett Park.
There you will find the Pannett Art Gallery. This was another gift to Whitby from Mr Pannett, built to house his art collection. It opened on 1 August 1928, with one gallery devoted entirely to the display of 148 paintings by George Weatherill. (I think the Art Gallery website is very new and still under construction – I look forward to more appearing on their Galleries page.)
George taught all his children to draw and paint, but their work is less widely known.
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