James Wilson of Hutton Rudby (c1775-1865)

An old resident of Hutton Rudby has turned up in Massachusetts, and I think he may like to come home.  You can see him in this fine mid-19th century portrait by Clement Burlison.

Mr James Wilson of Hutton Rudby

James Wilson was born in about 1775 at Woodhouse, a few miles from Alnwick, in Northumberland.  He married Mary Straker in Gateshead on 30 January 1798.  They had a large family – I have found the names of three daughters (Jane, Matilda and Mary) and six sons (William, James, John, Henry, George and Edward) and there were possibly more – and they lived in Newcastle.

We don't know when his wife died, but by 1840 James was living in Hutton Rudby.

The fortunes of his son George (1810-76) had brought him to the village.  George was to be the founder of the Hutton Rudby Sailcloth Mill on the banks of the River Leven.

George had come to Hutton Rudby as a very young man in the 1830s when he was working as a clerk for the linen manufacturers & spinners, Messrs Clarke, Plummer & Co.  

It seems to me now, after looking at the newspaper reports that are now available online, that he had gone into the business in which his father had worked for many years.

This report shows that a Mr James Wilson had worked for Clarke, Plummer & Co for 37 years at their Northumberland Flax Mill at Ouseburn:-

Northern Liberator, 25 May 1839

A dinner was given on Monday last, by the workmen of the Northumberland flax mill, to Mr James Wilson, on the occasion of his retiring from his situation, when a silver cup was presented to him, bearing the following inscription:- "Presented to Mr James Wilson, by the workmen of Messrs. Clarke, Plummer, and Co., of the Northumberland flax mill, Ouseburn, as a token of their high respect for him, he having been agent for thirty-seven years to the said works. - 20th May, 1839."

I think it's very significant that James's daughter Mary, who generally recorded her place of birth in censuses as Newcastle, in the 1881 census was more specific – she said that it was Ouseburn.

There had been a flax mill by the Ouseburn near Newcastle since the mid-18th century (cf. here) and Clarke, Plummer & Co were evidently operating from there from the earliest years of the 19th century.  I assume they began with a water-driven flax spinning mill (cf here) but a steam engine was soon added.  Their first serious fire happened in 1822, when a flake of soot flew from the engine chimney and ignited a stock of flax and tow, and they had a very damaging fire in March 1836, when initial losses were estimated at £4,000.  For the men, women and children working there, the loss was of course of livelihood and means of subsistence. (For more on the lower Ouseburn industrial area, see here).  The fire of 1836 occurred while James Wilson was agent; I rather hope that it was during this calamity that he earned the respect of the workmen who gave him his silver cup on retirement.

Two years before James Wilson's retirement, this advertisement had appeared in the newspapers:

Newcastle Journal, 28 October 1837

ROBINSON & WILSON,

(SUCCESSORS TO MESSRS CLARKE, PLUMMER & CO. AS) 

LINEN MANUFACTURERS,

AT HUTTON RUDBY, YORKSHIRE, AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE; 

BEG respectfully to acquaint their Friends that they have REMOVED their Stock from the Warehouse at the Northumberland Flax Mill, Ouse Burn, to a newly erected and commodious one at

No. 79, PILGRIM-STREET,

Where they intend to keep an extensive Assortment of every kind of LINEN GOODS OF CLEVELAND MANUFACTURE, for the accommodation of their Customers in this District, and where all Orders will be received and attended to from this Date.
Newcastle, Oct. 11th, 1837

This was George Wilson's venture, and from this advertisement it seems that he was originally in partnership with a Mr Robinson.  It looks rather as though George has taken over the Hutton Rudby end of Messrs Clarke, Plummer & Co's business.  I know that he continued to keep a warehouse in Pilgrim Street,  Newcastle, as it is mentioned in the Shields Daily Gazette of 11 May 1864, when it was reported that his bookkeeper and manager had absconded after 26 years with the firm, taking with him at least £600 from the till.

By 1840, George's father James had joined him in Hutton Rudby, and was listed there under the

James Wilson (c1775-1865)

description 'Gentleman' in the 1840 White's Directory.  

I suspect that George must have been glad of James's presence in the village to supervise matters when George had to travel to Newcastle on business.  By that time, George was a family man.  He had married Ann Hutton in Newcastle on 9 June 1836, and their son James Alder Wilson was born in 1837, followed by Allan Bowes Wilson in 1839.

The censuses for 1841, 1851 and 1861 show that James lived in the last house at the west end of South Side.  (The house nowadays has a West End address, but the name West End was not used in the 19th century.)

This is a photograph of the house from the 1930s (courtesy of Malcolm McPhie), looking eastward along South Side:

Mrs Sidgwick in her front garden, Hutton Rudby 

The house looks rather different today: it has been rendered, the window glazing has been altered and, most noticeable of all, an enclosed porch has been added to the front door.

James lived there until his death on 14 July 1865 at the age of 90.

The family of James Wilson & Mary Straker

James & Mary's daughter Jane (c1806-77), married John Ingo, a shipowner and ship's captain (1800-77), who was born in Whitburn, Co. Durham.  They had no children, but their nephew John J Brunskill, ship broker's clerk, is with them for the censuses of 1861 and 1871.
In 1861 the Ingos were living in Sawdon House, Gosforth.  In 1871, they had moved to No 1 The Grove, Gosforth, where John died, a few months after his wife, on 30 December 1877.
In the 1851 Census, Jane is to be found in Hutton Rudby visiting her father.

James & Mary's daughter Matilda (1808-96) married a master mariner, Thomas Churnside.  She was a widow by the time of the 1861 census.  They had at least four children:  Matilda (b c1836), Mary, (b c1838), Edward (b c1841) and Jane Ingo Churnside (b c1842).
Young Matilda was to be found in Hutton Rudby in 1851, acting as housekeeper to her grandfather.  In 1861, Matilda and her children were living at 45 Fowler Terrace, Bishopwearmouth.  By 1891, old Matilda was living with her son (a Master Mariner – the census notes that he was deaf) and her widowed daughter Mary Robinson, at Bar Moor, Ryton, Gateshead.

James & Mary's daughter Mary (b c1817) married a Mr Todd (probably John Todd).  Their children were (or included) James Wilson Todd (b c1842), Edith (b c1855) and Mary (b c1852).
At the time of the 1861 census, Mary was staying with her father in Hutton Rudby, together with little Edith, while James Wilson Todd, a ship broker's apprentice, was staying with the Churnsides.  In 1871, Mary (described as a schoolmistress) was living with her daughters at 38 Tatham Street, Bishopwearmouth, and in 1881 she and her son James (then unemployed) were living at 10 Harlow Street, Sunderland.  

So it can be seen that the fortunes of Matilda and Mary were not as prosperous as those of their brother George.  Of the other brothers, William, James, John, Henry and Edward, I have no details.  Perhaps they too had George's entrepreneurial flair.

George Wilson & Ann Hutton lived at Hutton House, Hutton Rudby.  Their children were:

James Alder Wilson (1837-1910), Rector of Crathorne 

Allan Bowes Wilson (1839-1932) of Hutton House
for details of Allan's interest in the works of artist Ralph Hedley, see my blogpost here 

Thomas Bowes Wilson (1845-1929).  He and his wife Maria Hutton lived at Enterpen Hall.  They had three children:  Capt. George Hutton Bowes Wilson (1877-1915), solicitor, who married Nora Dulcie Linney;  Lt Col John Hutton Wilson (1880-1917); and Mary Hutton Austin.
for details of the life and early death of George, see my blogpost here

John George Wilson (1849-c1930) was a prominent solicitor in Durham.  He married Anna Louisa Eade, daughter of the Rev Canon Eade, vicar of Aycliffe, in 1879.  He inherited Staindrop Hall in Co. Durham on the condition that the family surname was changed to Luxmoore.  Their son Allan Aylmer Luxmoore was also a solicitor in Durham. 

Annie Hutton Wilson (1856-1947)

Allan and his brother Thomas took over the running of the Sailcloth Mill on their father's death.  For details of the mill in 1860 see this blogpost.  And for details of the mill in 1877 see this one.

The portrait by Clement Burlison (1815-99)

Clement Burlison was a native of the city of Durham.  A few newspaper clippings serve to track his career, and you can see that it was his bequest that established Durham's first art gallery:-

Durham Chronicle, Friday 27 November 1846

Our talented townsman, Mr Clement Burlison, returned to England a few days ago.  He has been spending the last two years for improvement in his profession in Rome, Florence, Venice, &c, and we understand brings with him a magnificent collection of studies from the Old Masters, &c, which will add materially to the fame which, before he left England, he had acquired as a first rate historical and portrait painter.  He sent home during his travels several excellent pictures, which were included in the last exhibition of the Royal Academy.

Northern Echo, 6 February 1899

DEATH OF MR BURLISON, OF DURHAM. - We regret to announce the death of Mr Clement Burlison (83), which occurred at his residence, Victoria-terrace, Western Hill, Durham, on Saturday.  

Mr Burlison, who was one of the oldest citizens of Durham, was an artist by profession, and his abilities gained for him considerable local reputation.  On many occasions he received commissions to paint the portraits of notable citizens, and many of those now occupy prominent positions on the walls of the Durham Hall, where they are much admired for the lifelike fidelity with which Mr Burlison has invested them.  In other directions beside that of portraiture Mr Burlison's talents were greatly appreciated.  He leaves a widow and one daughter.

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 4 June 1901

ART GALLERY FOR DURHAM
The Lord Lieutenant of Durham (the Earl of Durham) yesterday formally opened the art gallery which has been established in Durham by means of the bequest of the late Mr Clement Burlison, a Durham artist, who left to the city his collection of fifty pictures conditionally upon the city authorities providing a public gallery for their reception within a definite period.

The art gallery premises were in Sadler Street according to the Sunderland Daily Echo & Shipping Gazette of 31 May 1901.

Burlison left a record of his early life in a short book called The Early Life of Clement Burlison, Artist. Being His Own Record of the Years 1810 to 1847.  It was first published in 1898 and, according to the Newcastle Journal of 8 May 1914, "gives interesting information about the artist's methods of work".

You can find other paintings by Burlison online here, on the Art UK website, and also here.  You will be able to see from the Art UK website that Co. Durham still holds quite a stock of his civic portraits.  Other works by Burlison can be found in the online auction house sales records.

James Wilson's fine portrait has been found by Brad Verter of Carpe Librum Books, Williamstown, Massachusetts.  Brad deals in books and art and tells me that Clement Burlison had his creative peak in the 1840s and 1850s, which is when he thinks this portrait was completed.

And how could Brad tell that this grand old chap was James Wilson of Hutton Rudby?  Because he is

helpfully holding a letter addressed to himself.

This seems to me to be rather odd for a portrait intended for family, so I wonder if it was perhaps painted for some association or institution to which James belonged.  I wonder how it made the journey to the USA ...

If you are interested in acquiring James for your own walls (especially if it is a wall that James once knew, in Hutton Rudby or Crathorne!) please contact Brad at brad@carpelibrumbooks.com

The painting is for sale at $1,500 (about £1,125) plus shipping, which will be charged at cost.

And how can you resist, when old James is so finely rendered as this?

Schoolmaster wanted at Ormesby, 1793

An advertisement from 1793.  Revolutionary France had declared war on Britain on 1 February that year.  Little did anyone know that war would continue for the next two decades.

The Ormesby churchwardens were looking for a new schoolmaster for the "Publick Schoolhouse" which still stands in the High Street.  It had been built in 1744 and rebuilt in 1773, presumably just before the previous schoolmaster arrived.  The requirement that the master could teach Navigation is a reminder that Cleveland was a maritime area – and, of course, Stockton-on-Tees was then the nearest town.

Newcastle Chronicle, 28 December 1793

To SCHOOLMASTERS 

WANTED, at Ormesby, in Cleveland, near Stockton upon Tees, 

A SCHOOLMASTER, qualified to teach the English grammatically, Arithmetic, Navigation, &c, &c – A Person so qualified may have every Information respecting the Situation, by addressing a Letter (Post-paid) to John Hymers, or John Trenholm, Churchwardens of Ormesby; or R. Christopher, Bookseller, Stockton. 

N.B.  A good modern-built House and School-House adjoining, Rent-free with 3l a Year for teaching six poor Children to read. 

The late Master being dead, who occupied the same for above twenty Years, occasions this Vacancy.

Charles Hall goes coursing greyhounds, 1818

York Herald, 12 December 1818

In addition to the several convictions which have lately taken place in Cleveland, under the game laws, John Leng, of Bilsdale, carpenter, was convicted before the Very Rev. the Dean of York, on Friday week, in the penalty of £20 for setting snares in the estate of Sir Wm Foulis, at Ingleby Greenhow, on Sunday the 29th ult. and Charles Hall, of Hutton, near Rudby, labourer, was convicted on the same day before Sir W Foulis, in the like penalty, for coursing with greyhounds, without having obtained a game certificate

I think this is the Charles Hall mentioned in my research notes (People of Hutton Rudby in the C18/19):-

30 Nov 1817:  Charles Hall of Whorlton married Mary Taylor otp [of this parish].  Their children’s baptisms:  Jane 1818, Elizabeth 1819, Charles 1821, John 1823, Benjamin 1827, Robinson 1829, Marianne 1831, Isabella 1837.  Charles is described as farmer 1818-9, and labourer thereafter.  Their son Benjamin married in 1851 and remarried in 1861.  Charles died in 1854 a60.  His family’s gravestone [MI 396] is near the cholera mound, and records Charles, Elizabeth his daughter who d1844 a22, and Mary his wife

(On the subject of the Game Laws, it looks as though Gentlemen & Poachers: The English Game Laws 1671-1831 by P B Munsche is definitely the book to read.  I see from the 'Look Inside' preview pages on Amazon that Charles Hall should have paid £1 a year tax for keeping a greyhound.)

John Richard Stubbs: death announcement 1916

For those of you who have enjoyed reading John Richard Stubbs' diaries, this is the announcement of his death in the local newspaper:- 

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 8 December 1916

Death of Mr J R Stubbs

Doyen of the Legal Profession in Middlesbrough 

The death has taken place at his residence, Trafalgar-terrace, Coatham, Redcar, of Mr John Richard Stubbs, one of the best known and most highly-respected citizens in the North Langbaurgh Division, and also in Middlesbrough, for many years past. 

The deceased gentleman was admitted a solicitor in 1860, and was the oldest practising member of the profession in Middlesbrough.  At one time he was in partnership with Mr Fred Brewster, and later with his son, Mr T D H Stubbs. 

For nearly 30 years the deceased gentleman had been clerk to the magistrates in the Langbaurgh North Petty Sessional Division (South Bank).  He was also for a considerable time the Official Receiver for Middlesbrough. 

In his 78th year, Mr Stubbs had not been enjoying very good health for the past few months, never having completely recovered from the shock caused by the death of his grandson, Mr Duncan Stubbs, a midshipman, who went down with HMS Aboukir, early in the war. 

He leaves a widow, a son, and a daughter. 

His son is Major T D H Stubbs, of the North Riding Battery of Artillery, and who is a solicitor and Deputy Coroner for Cleveland. 

The interment has been fixed to take place tomorrow afternoon at Coatham.

New Close Farm, Hutton Rudby, in 1812

York Herald, 10 October 1812

Hutton, otherwise Hutton Rudby

TO BE SOLD,

PURSUANT to an Order of the High Court of Chancery, bearing date the 8th day of July, 1811, made in a Cause wherein THOMAS BINKS is Plaintiff, and the Right Hon. MORRIS Lord ROKEBY and Others, are Defendants, a FREEHOLD and in part TITHE FREE ESTATE, called NEW CLOSE HOUSE, situate in the Township of Hutton, near Rudby, otherwise Hutton Rudby, in the County of York, consisting of a Mansion-House and Offices, and divers Closes or Pieces of Arable, Meadow, and Pasture Land, containing 143 Acres, or thereabouts, with Barns, Stables, and Outhouses. 

The said Estate will be sold in one Lot, before SAMUEL COMPTON COX, Esq. one of the Masters of the said Court, on FRIDAY the 20th day of November, 1812, between the hours of TWO and THREE o'clock in the afternoon, at the public Sale-Room of the said Court, in Southampton-Buildings, Chancery-Lane, London. 

Particulars whereof may be had (gratis) at the said Master's Chambers, in Southampton-Buildings aforesaid; of JOSEPH EGERTON, Esq. Solicitor, Gray's Inn Square; of Messrs TURNER and PIKE, Solicitors, Bloomsbury-Square; of Mr WHELDON, Barnard-Castle; and of Messrs CLARE and GREY, Solicitors, Stockton upon Tees 

New Close Farm lies off Black Horse Lane.  It was obviously a very desirable property, with its "Mansion-House", but why it was involved in this Chancery case, I do not know. 

Morris, Lord Rokeby (1757-1829) inherited the title as 3rd Baron Rokeby from his uncle, Matthew Robinson.  He came from a remarkable family. 

The first Baron Rokeby was the clergyman Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh.  The title was created for him in 1777, with special remainder to Matthew Robinson (1694-1778) of West Layton, near Barnard Castle, his second cousin twice removed.  Very keen on public works, not so bothered about people, seems to have been the general verdict about Richard.  Sir Thomas Robinson, the extravagant creator of Rokeby Hall, was his brother.

Matthew, the 2nd Baron, heavily bearded, deeply eccentric, was the brother of two distinguished women of letters: the bluestocking Elizabeth Montagu and the novelist Sarah Scott.

Morris himself was an author, but his play The Fall of Mortimer is described in Biographia Dramatica (David Erskine Baker, 1812) rather discouragingly as

Never performed.  There is frequently force and spirit to be met with in the diction of this play; but the incidents and conduct of it are not so managed, as to produce the necessary degree of interest to have rendered it successful on the stage.

Speedy business, 1825

A reminder of a slower time:-

Yorkshire Gazette, 3 September 1825

On Monday week, Mr John Langdale, of Menithorpe, near Malton, started from Easingwold at one o'clock, and rode to Thirsk, where he did business; thence he rode to Potto, making three calls on business; from Potto he proceeded to Hutton Rudby, Middleton, Hilton, and to Stockton, making eight other calls; from Stockton, by Seamer, to Hutton Rudby, all with six hours, being a distance of at least fifty miles.

The first Primitive Methodist Chapel in Hutton Rudby is opened, 1821

I was very pleased to find this report from a Leeds newspaper when I was searching the digitised newspapers available on findmypast.co.uk.

It's an account of the opening of the first Primitive Methodist chapel in Hutton Rudby.  As you can see, Primitive Methodism had become very popular and great numbers of people filled the street.  It will have been a scene filled with lively singing and huge enthusiasm:- 

Leeds Intelligencer, 3 September 1821

Ranters.– A neat and commodious chapel was opened at Hutton Rudby, on Sunday, the 5th instant, for the use of the ranters.  There were three public assemblages in the street at the same time that public worship was performed in the chapel; and the concourse of people was immense, and of all descriptions.  Since the Ranters have had reason to apprehend prosecutions for preaching in the open air, many landholders and farmers in the north riding of Yorkshire have accommodated that sect with the use of their barns and other outbuildings.  They continue to increase in numbers and zeal.

You can find more information on the arrival of the Primitive Methodists – often known at the time as Ranters because of their style of worship – here in Chapter 1. Hutton Rudby: a North Riding Township of my book, Remarkable, but Still True.