Saturday 29 February 2020

Stokesley 1823-1834: the flax-spinning mill behind the High Street

This follows the post The linen mills of Stokesley & Hutton Rudby: 1823-1908

1823 was the year in which the spinning factory of Messrs T & J Mease was erected just off Stokesley High Street.

The Mease family had been a presence on the High Street since the early 1790s.  The head of the family was John Mease, a respectable Wesleyan Methodist shopkeeper; at the beginning of 1823 he was 56 years old.  He and his wife Isabella Turnbull had two sons and three daughters: Thomas, Isabella, John, Rachel and Mary.  

John Mease was in business as a grocer and draper, but he was also a butter and cheese factor and sold Cleveland's dairy products to the London market.  Twenty years earlier, in 1802, Bell's Weekly Messenger on 14 November had carried a report from the police office at Union Hall in Southwark which gives us a glimpse of John.  

He was in London on business and that morning was "returning from Westminster through Lambeth-road" when he was approached by a respectable-looking man who, asking him if he was from Yorkshire, fell into conversation with him.  The stranger invited Mease to meet someone he knew who was in the same line of business as himself at Woolwich, and doing very well as he had a contract to supply the Navy.  They went to a pub where they met the man, one William Hill, who asked Mease the name of the salesman he used in London and promised him an order.  This, however, was merely window-dressing – the men were confidence tricksters and were hoping to cheat Mease out of the money they guessed he was carrying.  When Mease proved too suspicious for them, Hill snatched the money and ran, but was caught by Mease and some passers-by and brought before the magistrates. 

We can see that John Mease was no country bumpkin, ignorant of the ways of the world.  And Stokesley at the time of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) was a lively, outward-looking town.  The poet William Mason described its "busy and active life"
in a day when your public houses included, in addition to the present thirteen inns, the George and Dragon, the Half Moon, The Masons Arms, the Chequers, the Raffled Anchor, the Ship Inn, &c; 
when the war of American Independence had only subsided, followed by the French Revolution, and the wars of the Bonapartes were at their prime; 
when your captains in the East India Company’s service, your sailors in the mercantile marine, your harpooners who had gone down to the sea in ships and struck the Leviathan in the iced waters, came back to lay up for the winter, as well as the Jack Tar on leave from the Royal Navy, who had gone either by impressment or accepted bounty; 
when your markets were great gatherings of the rurals; your butchers’ shambles were filled with meat; when coals stood for sale in front of the square at the Swan, and the turf-graver brought his wares in donkey carts from Osmotherley; 
when the farmer and his dame rode on the pillion seat to the steppings at the inn; when handloom weaving was good, and intelligence amongst that class of operatives was great; 
when all these met at the hostelries to hear tales of adventure from the sailors, and the sparkles of wit from the literati of the town 
This was the world in which John's son Thomas, who was baptised in Stokesley in February 1792, grew up.  Thomas was remembered by his family (according to tradition in Hutton Rudby) as a gifted artist, inventive with his hands, a carver of objects in jet, a speculator and inventor who often had to take his family abroad to avoid his creditors.  His life history shows that he must have been a man of charm and charisma, who loved the public stage, was eager to take on arguments and controversies, and who made ambitious plans and entered into them boldly.

In or by 1800 (according to the Stokesley Flax Mill timeline on the Stokesley Heritage website, quoting Title Deeds research by Tom Berry), John Mease and an unnamed cabinet maker leased the house we know now as Number 42 High Street, Stokesley, "with shop and yard, garden and orchard behind".
Number 42 is the tallest building on the left
It stands on the north side of the High Street – known in the 19th century as North Row – not far from the Wesleyan Methodist Church (until 1883 this was the site of the Black Swan Inn) and was until recently occupied by Barclays Bank.  It is described in the Stokesley Society's Buildings of Stokesley as 
the jewel in the crown of the High Street.  Built of small bricks with handsome sandstone quoins and kneelers and a moulded cornice at the eaves ... retaining its bow windows, flat well proportioned sash windows and, best of all, its doorway under a wonderful shell canopy, the whole being completed with dormer windows in its Welsh slate roof.
In 1816 Thomas, aged 24, married Mary Mellanby in Whitby, where St Mary's parish registers describe him as a grocer.  A couple of years later, the Durham County Advertiser of 11 July 1818 records what must have been one of his earliest entries into public life when he and his father were among the many signatories to an address to the Mayor of Stockton requesting a meeting of the town and neighbourhood to consider forming a Canal to take cargoes such as coal and lime from Evenwood Bridge in County Durham to the Tees, for the benefit of trade.  (In the event, the Stockton & Darlington Railway was built).  Then in 1822 Thomas burst into print in the Stokesley "Paper War".

In the spring of that year Thomas's wife Mary and another lady had called twice upon the bookseller and radical Robert Armstrong for donations to the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society.  He took the view that they had been sent out to beg by their husbands and he was not in sympathy with their cause, telling them
I did not believe Humanity and Charity to be at all the object in view of their employers, and that in my humble opinion they had much better stay at home and cultivate the Heathen among their own sect.
On Monday 2 June 1822, Thomas Mease gave a forceful speech to a Wesleyan Methodist Missionary meeting in which he attacked Armstrong and his beliefs.  He was so pleased with the reception of the speech that he arranged for it to be printed.  Armstrong responded, hostilities began and the Paper War was soon in full swing.  It lasted until the summer of 1824.  The full story, including the unedifying quarrels over the deathbed of old John Appleton in the workhouse, is told here

Tom Berry's research shows that by 1822 Number 42 High Street belonged to John Mease and Thomas Mease with two tenants, and that within a few years it was occupied by John and both his sons, Thomas and John junior.  They converted the garden, which lay behind the house, and the warehouse wine vaults into a "corn mill and spinning factory".

John senior had not been content with his shop but had branched out into selling butter and cheese to London.  Thomas had gone into the same line of business as his father and is listed in Baines' Directory of 1823 as a grocer & tea dealer and linen & woollen draper, but he expanded into the production of cloth.  

Stokesley, like Hutton Rudby, was a centre of linen weaving and one of Thomas's earliest ventures was into linen manufacture – which is to say, employing handloom weavers to produce cloth which he sent to a bleachyard and then sold on.  We catch a glimpse of this business, which was evidently running concurrently with the spinning factory, in a notice in the London Gazette of 22 May 1829.  This records the end of a linen manufacturing partnership between Thomas and John Mease and John Barr of Stokesley.  This had also been a side venture for John Barr, who was listed, like Thomas, as a grocer & draper in the 1823 Baines' Directory.  Evidently while he and Thomas had managed the Stokesley end of the business, John Mease was in charge of marketing their cloth in Manchester because he is named in the notice in the Gazette as "John Mease of Manchester".  

The "spinning factory" was a more ambitious venture.  Baines' Directory 1823 shows that Thomas and his brother had set up the business of "T & J Mease," flax & tow spinners.  (The subordinate position of the "J" in the firm name must mean that this was his brother John, who was seven years younger than Thomas and now about 24 years old, not his father John.)  

They were embarking on the mechanised spinning of flax and tow into yarn.  It had proved much easier to mechanise the production of cotton than linen, but linen manufacturing began to make up lost ground when in 1787 the first machine to spin flax was developed in Darlington by John Kendrew.  Flax and tow are produced when the flax plant is broken down, resulting in long line fibres that make a fine, strong yarn and short tow fibres that make heavier, coarser yarn.  (A succinct description of the processes can be found here).  
Flax spinning mill
Baines' Directory recorded that
A considerable manufacture of linen is carried on here, and that trade is likely to be extended, by a mill, which Messrs Thomas and John Meale [a typo for Mease] are now erecting, to be worked by the power of steam.  
The Mease brothers' plan was to power their frames of spindles with a steam engine and the machines in which they invested will have been later models than Kendrew's, developed in Barnsley and Leeds. 

Many of Thomas and John's employees are likely to have been very young.  R P Hastings' Hutton Rudby: An Industrial Village (1979) notes that in 1841 the Hutton Rudby mill was worked by two flaxdressers and ten spinners who were mostly girls and boys in their 'teens.  An advertisement placed by an Otley mill at this time shows the workforce they were seeking:
Leeds Mercury, 26 April 1823
Wanted, at a Flax Spinning Mill, Three or Four large Families of Children.  If the Fathers of such Families are either Hecklers, Weavers, or Husbandmen, the Whole can have constant Employment at good Wages.
Further Particulars can be had on Application to Mr Meek, of Knaresbro'; or Mr Howgate, at West-End Mill, near Otley
This excerpt from Historic England's website gives an idea of what happened when a child was not quick to learn the knack of the work
Samuel Downe, who was born in Shrewsbury in 1804, worked in Ditherington Flax Mill from the age of 10. He described working conditions in the factory during a Parliamentary Enquiry in 1832:
 "we used to generally begin at five o’clock in the morning till eight at night".  When asked had he received punishment he replied "yes, I was strapped most severely till I could not bear to sit upon a chair without pillows, and I was forced to lie upon my face at night. I was put upon a man’s back and then strapped by the overlooker".  When asked why he was punished he replied… "I had never been in a mill where there was machinery, and it was winter time, and we worked by gas-light, and I could not catch the revolutions of the machinery to take the tow out of the hackles; it requires some practice and I was timid at it."
Improvements followed, and in 1834 the 92 children working at Ditherington Flax Mill only worked part-time and had some schooling between 9-11 am and 3-5 pm.
So the noise of spinning frames and a steam engine and the smoke of a mill chimney were added to the general clamour of Stokesley.  Though the economy took a bad hit after the Napoleonic Wars ended, Stokesley was still a lively place with a broad sense of humour – as can be seen from this account, told as a ridiculous story and evidently picked up by newspapers across the country.  This is from the Sussex Advertiser 
Sussex Advertiser, 23 May 1825
Marriage Extraordinary
The 24th ult. a marriage was celebrated at Stokesley, in Yorkshire, of a pair who had passed the delightful, anxious period of courtship in the factory of Messrs T and J Mease.  
A fellow workman of the bridegroom's having accepted the important office of giving away the blooming bride, and all the necessary preparations having been attended to, the morning was ushered in by the ringing of the church and factory bells.  The town-crier officially announced the wedding to take place at half-past nine o'clock, and gave a general invitation to the inhabitants to attend.  
The important moment came, and Richard Chambers, sweet sixteen, led forth his blooming bride of fifty-five, "all blushing as Aurora from the East," to the hymeneal altar of the good old town of Stokesley.  All other business was now at a stand.  The town band preceded the nuptial procession to the sacred fane, playing, "Come haste to the Wedding," and other appropriate airs.  After the indissoluble knot had been tied, the "happy, happy, happy pair" were borne in triumph, in chairs, round the town, preceded by the musicians, and followed by a concourse of spectators and guests.  
The ludicrousness of the scene was greatly heightened, by the bridegroom, who is of a very diminutive stature, being publicly shaved by the celebrated tonsor of the place, with a gigantic razor, 30 inches long!  Rustic festivities followed, and mirth and humour drew the curtains of evening over the hilarities of the day.
Raucous days in Georgian times.  I wonder who wrote it (perhaps Thomas Mease?) and whether all the details are correct or whether the newspaper embellished the account.  It's interesting to note mention of the factory bell, the town-crier and the town band.  It's certainly true that the parish registers record the marriage of a Richard Chambers to Elizabeth Rodery on 25 April 1825. 

Things began to change at the end of the 1820s.  John Barr had retired from the linen manufacturing partnership in May 1829 leaving Thomas and John to continue the business together.  Then on 3 March 1831, a notice in the London Gazette shows that the brothers' flax-spinning partnership had come to an end and that Thomas took over the business.  

By 1834, according to Tom Berry's research into Deeds, 42 High Street was occupied by John Mease, grocer, and sons Thomas, flax spinner and John, linen manufacturer, along with "land and items behind Numbers 36 and 38".  Buildings of Stokesley records that a passage between Numbers 38 and 42 leads to outbuildings that have survived since the Meases' time "with their arches and loading doors with elegant stone surrounds".

The Stokesley Directory database records that Pigot's Directory 1834 lists John Mease jnr as a Linen & Damask Manufacturer on Beck Side, while Thomas was listed as a Flax Dresser, Spinner and Patent Thread Manufacturer on Front Street.

However, there is always a slight lag between the compilation of a Directory and its publication and by the time Pigot's came out, Thomas's plans for a greatly expanded business were well underway.

He bought land on the other side of the River Leven, not far from the packhorse bridge, and was building another flax-spinning mill there.  The building survives as the premises of Millbry Hill (formerly called Armstrong Richardson).  

I have not been able to find confirmation that he built a gas works next to the Mill, as is stated in the letter written to Michael Heavisides (author of Rambles in Cleveland, 1909) by Thomas's son Joseph.  However, that's not to say that he didn't – it would have been an obvious way to increase profits by ensuring long working hours and he would, as stated by Joseph Mellanby Mease, have been able to sell gas to the town under the Lighting and Watching Act 1833.

While Thomas was occupied with business, and with chapel attendance – he was a Wesleyan class leader – he was also engaged in politics.  When the Hon. William Duncombe visited Stokesley during his successful campaign to be elected Tory MP for the North Riding in the winter of 1832/3, the Tories claimed that Thomas had stirred up something approaching a riot when Duncombe tried to address the voters.  Thomas instantly denied the charge and subsequently produced a pamphlet entitled "Two Letters on Tithes and Corn Laws, addressed to the Hon W Duncombe, M.P."  In this Thomas addressed two urgent political questions of the day: reform of the system of tithes and the abolition of the Corn Laws and it was reviewed in the York Herald of 13 July 1833 in the most favourable terms, largely because the reviewer wholeheartedly agreed with Thomas's point of view: 
an excellent little work that has just issued from the press, and which we have perused with no common pleasure ... The author is evidently a man of considerable talent; he has condensed into a pamphlet of 80 pages, a collection of important facts and irrefutable arguments, which might easily have been expanded into a bulky volume.  His language is remarkably terse and perspicuous and the work throughout displays considerable elegance of composition.
The reviewer quotes a passage from the pamphlet to illustrate his point.  In this we can hear Thomas's voice – though we might not agree that this, the first sentence quoted, is so "remarkably terse":
If, then, the Church have no rightful property in tithes, and their compulsory enforcement, under existing regulations be an anti-christian exaction, injurious to both payers and receivers, by exciting bitterness and contentions – and oftentimes expensive law suits too – the only question for determination is, – whether at this crisis of agricultural and national distress, the Clergy of the establishment ought not to be placed upon the apostolical footing of voluntary maintenance; like the accredited Pastors of the general body of Dissenters, who, in learning, and talent and respectability, and usefulness – although certainly not in wealth, and titles, and worldly enjoyment – are by no means their inferiors; that tithes, for the public good, may be duly appropriated to the exigencies of the State.

The linen mills of Stokesley & Hutton Rudby: 1823-1908

The next posts will tell the story of five mills: the two flax-spinning mills of Stokesley, and the flax-spinning mill and two sailcloth mills in Hutton Rudby.

It's also the story of three families – Mease, Blacket and Wilson – and an unusual self-made man, William Surtees.

I have been able to find a great deal of new information, some of which overturns previous assumptions and all of which, I hope, adds greatly to our picture of the people and events concerned.  This is above all thanks to being able to search the online London Gazette and increasing numbers of digitised newspapers.

I have tried to incorporate sources and references as much as possible into the text, hoping to tell the story in a readable fashion. 

One source I have not used is Michael Heavisides' Rambles in Cleveland (1909).  His information derives from a letter he received from Joseph Mellanby Mease.  Joseph was only ten when his father Thomas was made bankrupt and his information seems to me to derive from family anecdotes alone.  Some of it is demonstrably inaccurate and the rest I cannot corroborate, so I have decided to ignore the whole. 


Saturday 15 February 2020

Jacksons of Broughton Grange

Here I have done my best to convert Jim Watson's family trees into content that can make sense and be searchable on the internet.

The family tree begins with Robert Jackson of Wilton Manor, father of William

1st generation   
William Jackson & Dorothy.   William Jackson was a son of Robert Jackson of Wilton.

2nd generation 
William Jackson & Ann
Robert Jackson & Hannah Blacky

3rd generation 
Dorothy Jackson's children
Henry Harper & Mary Sylvester

The 17th & 18th century Jacksons of Broughton Grange

With many thanks to Jim Watson for this information.  We hope that publishing it here will be helpful to people trying to disentangle their Jackson ancestors as well of course to those interested in Great Broughton.

The Jackson family of Broughton Grange, 
descendants of Robert Jackson of Wilton
by Jim Watson  

Today, Broughton Grange is a large arable farm set at the south end of the village of Great Broughton, near Stokesley in North Yorkshire.

Broughton Grange was a farm under Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, from 1316 until the Abbey’s dissolution in 1538.  The subsequent lease changed hands several times before being granted to Hester and John Hewerdyne by Queen Elizabeth.  The Hewerdyne family was resident at Broughton Grange at least until 1629. 

Some time between 1629 and 1636, the Jackson presence at Broughton Grange commenced with William Jackson son of Robert Jackson of Wilton.  In 1637, William Jackson was sued for non payment of tithes for some fields for the year 1636.

In 1650, William Jackson of Broughton Grange conveyed to his brother Robert of Lazenby a messuage and 2 oxgangs of land at Lazenby, and in the same Indenture the conveyance by William’s father Robert to William of Topliffe Farm Great Broughton was recorded.

William died in 1658, leaving his widow Dorothy with five under-age children.  The eldest Jane married William Harrison of Kirkleatham.

It has been recorded in several submissions to the Court of Chancery, that following her husband’s death, Dorothy set about acquiring property to ensure that her three sons would have satisfactory incomes.  It was also recorded that Dorothy spent large sums of money on the Mansion House at Broughton Grange, in excess of £300.  This makes it clear that the Jacksons of Broughton Grange were a wealthy family.

Son William achieved his majority in 1665, and it may be no coincidence that there is a lintel in the Mansion House bearing the initials WJ and the number 1665.  William junior married and had two daughters Anne and Dorothy.  William’s brother Richard died in October 1673, followed by William in November 1673.  Subsequently William’s widow Ann married a widower Edward Edwards, probably about 1681.  The record of the marriage has not been found, and it doesn’t appear to have occurred in the local church St Augustine’s in Kirkby.

Widow Dorothy’s second daughter Margery remained single until her death in 1678.  Dorothy died in 1685, leaving her youngest son Robert as her only surviving male descendant.  About 1690, the Edwards family moved to London, where William and Ann’s two daughters Anne and Dorothy found themselves a husband each, respectively Charles Tracy a lawyer and John Harper a watch maker.

It is possible that there was no Jackson presence at Broughton Grange from about 1690 until Robert Jackson first became a tenant of part of Broughton Grange in 1705.   Later Robert became tenant of the all of Broughton Grange and by 1707 he was also agent for Ann Tracy and Dorothy Lee and their husbands.

Robert remained as tenant at Broughton Grange until 1727, possibly a few years later.  By this time Robert was already in his seventies, but he had recently married, and he disposed of a significant amount of property to a local mason Robert Patton in 1729.  It was about this time that Robert Jackson became embroiled in a nasty sequence of suits with the London section of the family that eventually ended up in the Court of Chancery.  Robert’s property sale may have been to ensure Robert had sufficient funds for his legal expenses.  The Court found in balance in Robert’s favour, but not until after his death.  In the meantime, Robert and his wife Hannah retired from Broughton Grange to the Dog House, a property Robert had purchased about twenty years earlier.

By the time that Robert retired, Anne Tracy née Jackson, by then a widow had probably returned to Great Broughton and for most of her time in the village she lived at Broughton Grange, though she owned other property in the village.

Shortly before her death, Anne moved into one of her other properties in the village along with her widowed daughter Elizabeth Amaiday.  Broughton Grange was sold by Henry Harper, Anne’s eldest nephew, to John Preston an attorney of Stokesley in 1742.  Anne died in 1742 and her daughter Elizabeth died in 1743.

Jackson family presence in Great Broughton continued after Robert Jackson’s death.  Robert and his wife Hannah had three children, Robert, Dorothy and William.  Robert had the unenviable task of executing his father’s over generous Will, effectively a hopeless task, even after the Court of Chancery settlement produced in excess of £600.  Fortunately, Robert’s mother, brother and sister cooperated in solving the financial headache, and eventually the matter was dealt with, but at the cost of the complete disposal of father Robert’s estate, including splitting the Dog House into four separate dwellings and much reduced legacies to Hannah and Dorothy.

What became of Robert Jackson’s three children?  Robert, became a mariner and appears to have left the village about 1760.  William became a bricklayer and lived in Stokesley.  Dorothy married John Raw with whom she had at least ten children, three of whom died in infancy.  John and Dorothy Raw lived in Great Broughton till 1771, thereafter they appear to have left the village.

Sources

Borthwick Institute:  
Cause Papers:  CP.H.2171 (1637),  Dispute re Tithes, Sutton v Jackson
Wills and Probate;  PROB Register 85, Folio 150 on MIC 1005, Robert Jackson’s Will      

National Archives:  
Cause Papers:  
C 6/289/59  1664,  Watson v Howardyne et al, gives details of previous lease holders.
C 11/1/44  1713,   Cornforth v Geer,  contains reference to the conveyance of the Dog House and Harrisons Farm from John and Margaret Cornforth to Robert Jackson
C 11/1495/36  1731,  Harper v Jackson
C 11/2695/42  1732,  Jackson v Tracey
C 11/2695/47  1733,  Jackson v Harper
C 11/1370/14  1733,  Harper v Jackson  Statements taken at Durham
C 11/1370/17  1734,   Harper v Jackson, Deponents statements
The above five references relate to the financial dispute between Robert Jackson and the executors of William Lee, Dorothy Jackson the younger’s third and last husband.  They include some vital event data for the London Jackson family, ie Tracy,Harper, Sadler and Lee.

North Yorkshire County Record Office:
Kirkleatham Papers:  
ZK 4223  Conveyance of property within the Jackson family in 1650.
Old Parish Registers:  
Kirkby cum Broughton, vital event data relating to Broughton Grange and Great Broughton.
Wills and Deeds:   
DB 114 53, refers to sale of property by Robert Jackson to Robert Patton, original Indenture to be retained by Isaac Chapman, 
A 503 616,  14/8/1738,  Henry Harper agrees terms for Anne Tracy occupying part of Broughton Grange.  Anne had been living in Great Broughton several years before this Indenture was executed.
P 379 619  2&3/1742,  I 392 460  3/2/1742  and  B 120 33  3/2/1742,  all relate to the sale of Broughton Grange by Henry Harper to John Preston.



Tuesday 4 February 2020

The Treadmills of Northallerton

The new "retail and leisure destination" to be built on the site of the former prison in Northallerton is to be called "the Treadmills"

Along with many others, I have always thought this name showed distinctly poor taste and by chance I've just come across this, from R P Hastings' Chartism in the North Riding of Yorkshire and South Durham, 1838-1848, (Borthwick Publications, 2004)

Chartism was a nation-wide, radical, grass-roots, movement of the working classes calling for reform and, above all, for the vote.

Noting the local Chartists' tendency to exploit "every propaganda opportunity", Dr Hastings writes:
Northallerton House of Correction had an unenviable reputation.  Samuel Holberry, the young Sheffield Chartist leader, had become a martyr overnight when he died in 1842 at York Castle after imprisonment in Northallerton.  His associate, John Clayton, had died in Northallerton.  North Riding Chartists then took up the case of William Brook, a Bradford Chartist who had been 'reduced from a stout athletic man to a mere skeleton' in the 'Northallerton Hell'.  
Clayton, Brook and others, the Chartists claimed, had been subjected illegally to work on the treadmill.  Northallerton and Brompton Chartists raised a fund to enable Brook to buy his own provisions and petitioned the Home Secretary for his release.  Isaac Wilson, a Brompton weaver and Chartist leader, became treasurer and made weekly prison visits.  Donations came from as far afield as Dundee, Trowbridge, Spitalfields, Brighton and Abergavenny as well as Darlington.  
This is an excerpt from the "Proposed National Petition, to be signed throughout the country, and entrusted to the care of the "Political Prisoners' Release and Charter Petition Convention" from the Chartists' newspaper The Northern Star of 20 March 1841.  This section deals with the "Northallerton Hell" and the treadmill.  (The "silent system" had been introduced to Europe from the USA; under it, strict silence was enforced at all times.)
That in the Gaol of Northallerton, six Chartist prisoners, whose sentence was merely imprisonment, were put to hard labour, on the treadmill, contrary to law. 
That William Brook, one of the said prisoners, who had been convicted of sedition and conspiracy, at the same time as Peddie [convicted in 1840 at York], and whose sentence was three years, fell off the mill; and, though he informed the Visiting Surgeon, that he was frequently troubled with a cramp, yet he was forced, contrary to his sentence, to work upon the wheel, for nearly one calendar month, until removed by an order from the Most Honourable the Secretary of State for the Home Department. 
That your petitioners have been informed that John Clayton, a Chartist, who lately died in Northallerton House of Correction, had been sentenced to solitary confinement, upon a charge of violating the silent system. 
That your petitioners have every reason to believe, from what they have heard of the conduct of the authorities of the prison, that he came to his death in consequence of the cruel manner in which he was treated. 
That Wm Martin, who had been confined in the said House of Correction, Northallerton, was removed to Lancaster Castle, in consequence of the severity of the silent system, and of the tyranny of Wm Shepherd, the superintendent. 
That your petitioners have likewise been informed that the physical condition of the prisoners in the House of Correction, Northallerton, is deteriorated not only by the hard labour of the mill and the horrid silent system, but by the filthy manner in which they are obliged to sleep; that they have been for a fortnight at a time without a clean shirt, and their beds infested with vermin; that the only place where they are permitted to wash, is at a stone trough in the yard, and the superintendent is in the habit of coming to the yard gate and shouting to the petty officers to report the men for being too long washing themselves; that some of the prisoners have been punished for using too much soap, which is a proof that the object of the Governor is to enrich himself instead of attending to the comforts of the unfortunate convicts.
An overview of the history of imprisonment and an illustration of prisoners working on the treadmill, from Henry Mayhew's The Criminal Prisons of London (1862) can be found here.

Thursday 9 January 2020

Canon Atkinson of Danby's articles for the Hutton Rudby Parish Magazine

In July 2000, having discovered that the famous Canon Atkinson of Danby had written a series of articles in the years 1890 to 1893 for the Parish Magazine of All Saints' at Hutton Rudby, I scanned them to make a booklet.  

It has the lengthy (but fully explanatory) title of "Articles contributed to the Parish Magazine of All Saints' Church, Rudby-in-Cleveland by Canon J.C. Atkinson of Danby 1890-1893"

He covers many topics – "Ancient Britons", geology, his excavation of the burial mound at Folly Hill in the park at Skutterskelfe Hall – but perhaps is at his most engaging when he describes in great and loving detail birds, their nests and their eggs.

Malcolm McPhie has scanned the booklet and so anybody interested in these largely unknown articles by the famous Canon Atkinson can find them here on the Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society's Facebook page.

Sunday 22 December 2019

The prettiest warehouse in England – in Hutton Rudby

Who knew that Hutton Rudby boasted the prettiest warehouse in England?  What a claim to fame.
Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 10 July 1895
Mr Henry Fell Pease, Mrs Pease, and other members of the family visited many of the villages nestling at the foot of the Carlton Hills yesterday, and at all places met with a hearty reception.  At Hutton Rudby there was a well-attended meeting, many of those present being sailcloth makers from the Cleveland sailcloth works, which with its ivy-clad walls can boast of the prettiest warehouse in England.  Mr Pease spoke well both at Swainby and at Hutton Rudby.  Mr Pease stayed at Hutton Rudby, and to-day he moves on to Carlton and Stokesley.  Whilst engaged in the western Mr Henry Fell Pease's supporters were active in the eastern extremity of the division.  Both at Coatham, New Marske, and Eston meetings were held approving of his candidature, strong committees being formed at each place.
Henry Fell Pease, a member of the prominent Darlington Quaker family, was Liberal MP for Cleveland from 1885 until his death in 1896 at the age of 58.  

Here he is canvassing for the 1895 general election, the voting for which was held between 13 July and 7 August 1895.  Pease was successful but his party was not.  The election was won by Lord Salisbury's Conservatives in alliance with the Liberal Unionists, who had broken from the Liberal Party over the issue of Irish Home Rule.

It's possible that the ivy-clad warehouse was the long building which the Tithe Map shows behind the houses of Barkers Row, standing parallel to them.  Unless anybody else has a better idea?