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Born
John Farndale, son of William & Mary Farndale
(FAR00183) of Kilton, baptised 9
October 1791, Brotton.
(Brotton PR & IGI)
www.birdsinthetree.com indicates DOB 15 August 1791
Married:
John Farndale of the Parish of Skelton and Martha Patton of this Parish (ie Yarm) were married by licence with the consent this
18th Day of May in the year 1829 by me John Graves, Curate. This marriage was
solemnised between us, John Farndale and Martha Patton in the presence of Rob
Coulson and Elizabeth Patton.
www.birdsinthetree.com indicates this John Farndale married
Ann Nicholson on 12 December 1813 at the age of 22
Family
William Masterman Farndale, born Skelton 24 Mar 1831 (FAR00312).
Mary Farndale, born Stockton 1832 (FAR00316).
Elizabeth Farndale, born Skelton
5 May 1832 (FAR00319).
Teresa Farndale, born Skelton
5 Dec 1833 (FAR00325).
Annie Maria Farndale, born Skelton
9 Jun 1835 (FAR00334).
John George Farndale, born Skelton
27 Nov 1836 (FAR00337).
Charles Farndale, born Skelton
27 Feb 1838 (FAR00341).
His son, Charles Farndale's birth
certificate in 1838 shows John was then living in Skelton and occupied as a farmer (MC
& IGI).
Emma Farndale, baptised Skelton
20 Dec 1839 (FAR00346).
(Stockton District Records)
(Skelton PR)
Lived
In 1805 (it is suggested that this was
when celebrating the Victory of Nelson at Trafalgar, though he would have
been 14 then) he fell down a well but was saved by his buckle – as he later
wrote:
I remember a draw well stood near the house of my father’s foreman. One day I
was looking into this well at the bucket landing, when I fell head foremost.
The foreman perceiving the accident, immediately ran to the well to witness,
as he thought, the awful spectacle of my last end. I had on at the time a
pair of breeches, with brass buckles on my shoes (silver ones were worn by my father and others), and
to his great astonishment, he found me not immersed in water at the bottom of
the well, but dangling head foremost from the top of a single brass buckle,
which had somehow caught hold.
Anyone directly descended from John, therefore owes their
existence to a shoe buckle!
In 1815 (now 24), he was celebrating
victory at Waterloo:
From Kilton How Hill we have a fine view of the German
ocean, Skinningrove, Saltburn, Huntcliff, Roe-cliff, Eston Nab, Roseberry
Topping, Handle Abbey and Danby beacon. Here, too, at not much distance from
each other, may be seen no fewer than five beacons, formerly provided with
barrels of tar to give the necessary alarm to the people if Buonaparte at
that period had dared to invade our peaceful shores. After the great battle
of Waterloo, and Buonaparte had been taken prisoner, that glorious event was
celebrated at Brotton by parading his effigy through the street and burning
it before Mr R Stephenson’s hall, amidst the rejoicings of high and low, rich
and poor, who drank and danced to the late hour. The author formed one of a
band of musicians that played on the occasion, and he composed a song
commemorating the event, which became very popular in that part of the
country. Brotton bever before or since saw the like of that memorable day.
By the 1820s, he was a Yeoman farmer.
1823:
John Farndale, yeoman farmer, living at Kilton (record at Skelton)
1822 and 1833.
Skelton Parish Church Warden’s
Accounts 1825 -1840;
1825 Assessment for bread and wine at 8s per
house
and 12d per oxgang;
John
Farndale @ 1 Oxgang...........5s 6d.
1826 Assessment @ 2s 6d per house and 1s
8d
per oxgang;
John
Farndale @ 4 oxgangs.........7s 6d.
George
Farndale @ 1/2 oxgang...1s 9d.
(His
brother 215?).
1827 Assessments @ 2s 6d per house and 1s
3d
per oxgang;
John
Farndale, 4 oxgangs............7s 6d.
1828 Assessments @ 1s 6d per house and 1s
per
oxgang;
John
Farndale, 4 oxgangs............5s 6d.
1829 Assessments @ 1s 6d per house and 6d
per
oxgang;
John
Farndale, 4 oxgangs.............3s 0d.
(Year
of his marriage).
1830 Assessments; 1st class house 1s; 2nd
class
house 6d and 3d per oxgang;
John
Farndale 4 oxgangs/2nd class
house..........................................1s
2d.
1831 Assessments; 1st class house 1s; 2nd
class
house 6d and 3d per oxgang;
John
Farndale, 4 oxgangs/1st class
house..........................................2s
0d.
(Skelton PR)
Rates altered marginally and John Farndale paid 3s in 1832;
4s in 1833; 5s in 1834 and 1835; 4s 6d in 1836; 4s in 1837 and 1838[ 3s in
1839. His name is crossed out in 1840. His wife died in December 1839 and he
is next shown in the census as being in Durham.
Baines' Directory)
Wife’s
death
Martha, wife of John Farndale of Coatham-Stob buried aged
39 on 9 Dec 1839. (Therefore born 1800).
(DR)
Obituary:
‘Dec 6th. At Coatham-Conyers, in Stockton Circuit, Matha,
the wife of John Farndale. She was truly converted to God in the twenty sixth
year of her age; and from that period she was a consistent member of the
Wesleyan Society. Her death was rather sudden but she was found ready. Aware
of her approaching dissolution she said, ‘This is the mysterious Providence; but
what I know not now, I shall know hereafter.’ Some of her last words were,
‘Tell my dear husband for his encouragement, that I am going to Jesus. How
necessary it is to live life for God? Oh Lord help me that I may have
strength to leave a clear testimony that I am gone to Jesus.’ It was
enquired, ‘Do you feel Jesus present?’ She replied, ‘Yes,’ and soon fell
asleep in Him.’ MJ.
(Methodist magazine, 1840, page 172)
Martha Farndale's death registered Stockton District
Oct-Dec 1839
Perhaps she died during the birth of
their last daughter, Emma who was baptised in December that year.
John did not remarry, so at the age of 48 he was a widower
with a large family.
Lived
1841 Census, Coatham Stob, Long Newton
John
Farndale, 45, a farmer
William
Farndale, 10
Mary
Farndale, 9
Teresa
Farndale, 8
John
Farndale, 5
Charles
Farndale, 3
John
Farndale, 15, male servant
Matthew
Farndale, male servant, 12
John
Malburn, 25, male servant
Thomas
Shirt, 15, male servant
Mary Disson,
24, housekeeper
I cannot
find any record of John in the 1851 nor 1861 census
By 1871 he
is an insurance broker, living on his own in Stokesley. But meantime he has
been writing his works on Saltburn and Kilton. What was his link to Saltburn?
In 1864 he
wrote How often here on a fine summer’s eve have I strolled to this
most retired and enchanting retreat, Huntcliff, with my gun, to enjoy a sport
of shooting the sea bird darting up the cliff over-head; an advantageous
sport, when an ordinary marksman need not fail to bag a brace or two. This
retreat was part of my Huntley Hall farm, and is only a short drive from
Saltburn-by-the-Sea.
So he seems
to have farmed at Hunley Hall Farm, which is on the north edge of Brotton
during these years. Ordnance Survey Grid NZ688204.
1871 Census,
49 Back Lane, Stokesley
John
Farndale, a widower, aged 79, insurance agent (born at Brotton in about 1792)
Living with
Joseph Blackburn, his grandson, aged 9
In his book
on Saltburn, in 1864, he advertised:
So by the 1860s when he was writing his books, as recorded in the 1871 census,
he was an insurance agent and corn merchant.
He was a witness
to the Will of his sister, Anna Phillips (nee Farndale), in which he was
recorded as a Corn Merchant:
The Will of Anna Phillips late of
Stokesley in the county of York deceased who died 22 November 1867 at
Stokesley aforesaid was proved at York by the oath of John Farndale of
Stockton upon Tees in the County of Durham Corn Merchant the sole Executor.
In 1870, in The
History of the Ancient Hamlet of Kilton-in-Cleveland, printed by W Rapp, Dundas Street,
Saltburn 1870 (see further below), he wrote:
"My first remembrance began in my nurse's arms when I could not have
been more than 1 1/2 years old; a memory as vivid as if it were yesterday.
She took me out on St Stephen's Day 1973 into the current Garth (a small
enclosure) with a stick and 'solt' to kill a hare. A great day at the time”. Another time (after celebrating the
victory of Trafalgar, 1805) he was dangling head foremost down the draw well
hanging by the buckle of his shoe. He goes on to describe a very happy
childhood and he clearly adored his mother. "At this time I believe I loved God and was happy."
He remembered "an
old relation of my father" (there were several in Kilton at that
time) remarking that his elder brother George was a "prodigal son", while John was the
son at home with his father. But he describes how he got up to many frolics
and had some narrow escapes, although he was no drunkard or swearer.
His parents, he said, "were strict Church people and kept a strict look out. I became leader
of the (Brotton) church signers, clever in music" and he excelled his
friends. He had a close friend, a musician in the church choir. One day he
met him and said he had been very ill and had been reading a lot of books including
"Aeleyn's Alarum" and others "which nearly made my hair stand
on end." . His friend told him that he was going to alter his way of
life and if John would not refrain from his revelries, he would "be
obliged to forsake your company.". "That was a nail in a sure
place. I was ashamed and grieved as I thought myself more pious than he. Now
I began to enter a new life as suddenly at St Paul's but with this
difference, he was in distress for three days and nights but for me it was
three months". He fasted all Lent and describes his torment. "How
often I went onto the hill with my Clarinet to play my favourite tune."
Alleyn’s Alarm was a pious text from
the time:
His companion lived one mile away (at Brotton perhaps?) and
they met half way every Sunday morning at 6am for prayer. He remembered well
meeting in a corner of a large grass field. George (Sayer) began and he
followed. When they finished they opened their eyes to see "a rough farm lad standing over us, no
doubt a little nervous. Next day this boy said to others in the harvest field
'George Sayer and John Farndale are two good lads for I found them in a field
praying.' " On the following Sunday they moved to a small wood and
met under an oak tree and met an old man who wanted to join them. As usual
George began and John continued when the old man began to roar in great
distress
Died
John Farndale aged 86 years, Gentleman, died of senile
debility at Kilton. Charles Farndale, son
was present at the death 28 Jan 1878.
(Mon R)
Gravestone Old Brotton
Churchyard;
In memory of Martha the wife of John Farndale who died 6th
December 1839 aged 39 years. Emma their daughter on the 18th aged 18 days.
Verse
[unreadable]
Also the above John Farndale who died 28th January 1878
aged 86 years, loved and respected.
(Brotton PR)
Thou
hast been my Defence and
Refuge
in the Days of my thoughts.
It would appear that Martha died from childbirth and her daughter
Emma then died a few days later
John Farndale buried, Brotton
aged 86, 31 Jan 1878. (Therefore John born, 1792).
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Scroll down for more information about the writings of John Farndale
Can
anyone help me with more access to the writings of John Farndale, of which I
have many extracts, but not the whole set of writings? Please email me at rcfarndale@hotmail.com?
John Farndale
1791 to 1879
In early recorded uses, a yeoman was
an attendant in
a noble household.
The later sense of yeoman as
"a commoner who
cultivates his own land" is recorded from the 15th through 18th
centuries. Yeomen farmers owned
land (freehold, leasehold or copyhold).
Their wealth and the size of their landholding varied. The Concise Oxford Dictionary states
that a yeoman was "a person qualified by possessing free land of 40/-
(shillings) annual [feudal] value, and who can serve on juries and vote for
a Knight of the Shire. He is sometimes
described as a small landowner, a farmer of the middle classes". Sir Anthony
Richard Wagner, Garter Principal King of Arms,
wrote that "a Yeoman would not normally have less than 100 acres"
(40 hectares) "and in social status is one step down from the Landed gentry,
but above, say, a husbandman". Often it was hard to distinguish
minor landed gentry from the wealthier yeomen, and wealthier husbandmen from
the poorer yeomen.
Yeomen were often constables of
their parish,
and sometimes chief constables of the district, shire or hundred. Many yeomen held the positions
of bailiffs for
the High Sheriff or for the shire or
hundred. Other civic duties would include churchwarden,
bridge warden, and other warden duties. It was also common
for a yeoman to be an overseer for his parish. Yeomen, whether working for a
lord, king, shire, knight, district or parish, served in localised or
municipal police forces raised by or led by the landed gentry. Some of
these roles, in particular those of constable and bailiff, were carried
down through families. Yeomen often filled ranging, roaming, surveying, and
policing roles. In districts remoter from landed
gentry and burgesses, yeomen held more official power.
 
John Farndale with the photographer’s
logo on the reverse.
John Farndale
 
 
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FROM THE WRITINGS OF JOHN FARNDALE
1791-1879
John wrote:
The History of
the Ancient Hamlet of Kilton-in-Cleveland, printed by W Rapp, Dundas
Street, Saltburn 1870
History of Kilton dedicated to the Reverend William Jolley , Returning
Immigrant, by John Farndale
The Emigrants Return, printed by Burnett and Hood, Exchange Offices, Middlesborough,
1870
A Guide to
Saltburn by Sea by John Farndale - Farndale, John, A Guide To
Saltburn By The Sea and the Surrounding District With Remarks on Its
Picturesque Scenery, (Darlington: Hird, 1864)
·
John Farndale wrote a small guidebook to the
area in 1864 noting that Saltburn was but an `embryo`, but he complimented
the Improvement Company, noting that they already made substantial progress
as `already the hand of improvement has effected (sic) a revolution at this
place.
A text, Impact of Agricultural Change
on the Rural Community - a case study of Kilton circa 1770-1870, Janet Dowey includes
much about John Farndale and his writings
This first extract comes from Impact of Agricultural Change
on the Rural Community - a case study of Kilton circa 1770-1870, Janet Dowey:
...
The most predominant family at Kilton was the Farndales, their ancestry ages
old. Its most distinguished member John Farndale wrote numerous books on the
area. Kilton, the village itself had been a thriving community consisting of a
public house, a meeting house, two lodging houses and a schoolhouse, from
which sprang two eminent schoolmasters. A butcher's shop, a London tailor and
his apprentice and eight others, a rag merchant, a shop which sold some
books, pens, needles, tape and thread. Five sailors, two soldiers, two
missionaries plus a number of very old people.
The picture John Farndale paints is of a peaceful rural community who boasted
of no poachers, no cockfighters, no drunkards or swearers. A church going
people who met together on a Sunday afternoon. Kilton at that time had nearly
20 houses and a population of 140 men, women and children, a Hall, stables,
plantation and the old Castle plus 12 small farms stop when John wrote these
books he was speaking of a time long since gone (the early nineteenth
century), he listed each family that lives lived within the village.
Robert Jolly was a farmer and a staunch Wesleyan. After his death his farm
was carried on awhile by his sons. This being the time of Nelson's death
(1805), John goes on to say that there was great reformation in Kilton
estate, "the little farms were joined together, about 150 acres each.
Every farmer had to move to a new farm. The sons of Robert Jolly each moved
away at this time, one became a lifeguard to George III and the other
eventually became a minister. William Bulmer was another native of Kilton and
married with nine children, he made his living buying and selling, but all
his children moved away into 'respectable' situations."
Many of the farmers were weavers too, one in particular, George Bennison, had
two looms plus his land and also prepared a colt for Northallerton fair once
a year stop. The children of these farmers continually moved away from the
district and agriculture. John Farndale says "and now they disappear,
but where are they gone, I know not". John Tuke says "it is
observable, but in those families which have succeeded from generation to
generation to the same farm, the strongest attachment to old customs
prevails. For conduct and character, the farmer under survey must deservedly
rank high among their fellows in any part of England, they are generally
sober, industrious and orderly; most of the younger part of them have enjoyed
a proper education, and give a suitable one to their children, who, of both
sexes, are brought up in habits of industry and economy. Such conduct rarely
fails meeting its reward; they who merit, and seek it, obtain independence,
and every generation, or part of every generation, may be seen stepping
forward to a scale in society somewhat beyond the last."
However Thomas Hardy in his book "Tess of the D'Urbervilles",
states "all mutations so increasingly discernible in village life did
not originate entirely in the agricultural unrest. A depopulation was going
on." The village life which Hardy talks about had previously "contained"
side by side with agricultural labourers an "interesting and better
informed class". These included a carpenter, a Smith, shoemaker,
huckster "together with nondescript workers" in addition to the
farm labourers. A group of people who "owed a certain stability of aim
and conduct to the fact of their being life-holders or copyholders or
occasionally small freeholders." When the long holdings fell in they
were rarely again let to identical tenants, and they were usually pulled
down, if they were not needed by the farmer or his workers. "Cottagers
who were not directly employed on the land were looked upon with disfavour,
and the banishment of some starved the trade of others, who were thus obliged
to follow." Families such as these had formed the backbone of the
village life in the past who were the depositories of the village traditions,
had to seek refuge in the large centres; the process, designated by
statisticians as the tendency of the rural population towards the large towns
being really the tendency of water to flow uphill when forced by machinery.
And so to the conclusion:-
"An introduction to this small work, although small, yet I hope it will
be interesting to the tourist. The emigrants returning after a long series of
years to his nativity, as well as the missionary from the continent, the
soldier from his long campaign; the lifeguard from the city of London all
these we have hailed with joy to their dear home Kilton, which strange to say
there are no little boys ought and girls playing there. Is this well
pleasing, to kind providence, who said to our first parents, when he puts
them into the Garden of Eden, "be fruitful and multiply, and replenish
the earth." Would it not be advisable to divide and subdivide and divide
again this great continent - this farm, and obey our Father's commands, being
fruitful and multiplying, and what a noble race of young girls would then be
playing in this Jerusalem, as in the olden time.
We are now surprised to hear the above, on their return from a far country
saying, "no place can equal Kilton for loveliness" standing as it
does, in the midst of sylvan scenery, beautiful landscape and woodland
scenery, and what a perfume of sweet fragrance from wildflowers, particularly
the primrose acres that would grace any gentleman's pleasure ground of beauty
into loveliness. Kilton as it is situated, is fitted only for a prince"
"Now much has changed, we oft times have looked and looked again, but no
corner of this large farm has been neglected. Witness, this rich stack yard
of 100 acres of wheat, the staff of life, and 100 more, oats, beans, peas,
hay, clover, potatoes and turnips piled up against the winter storms. In the
fold are housed 100 head of sheep, a stable with 14 farming horses, besides
the young horses, pigs and geese in abundance, carts, wagons, ploughs and
harrows and all implements.
"He makes across the hills adorn,
He clothes the smiling fields with corn,
the beasts with food his hands supply,
and the young ones when they cry."
This was the Kilton John Farndale knew and loved. It had changed beyond
belief. Several of the very old and larger states were less crowded than they
had been; where a better cultivation had taken place, the small cottages had
given way gradually to shape a farm worthy of the person having such money to
improve it. A lot of the field structures and hedges were still in place,
only some of the hedges had been taken out to make bigger fields. The hedge
structure at Kilton was probably there 50 years before John Farndale was
born. In one instance a hedge appears to have been put in to divide a field.
Some of the reasons for the demise of
Kilton were the industrial revolution, which was the need to centralise
craftsmen from the small villages, a revolution in farming methods and
farming machinery, a wholesale destruction of the village for the town. The
Napoleonic Wars had an influence on the price of farm produce, the price of
food was kept at a fairly high level during the war but after the war
finished the price of grain fell to one of its lowest levels along with
falling meat prices, and disastrous harvests. Farming methods were needed to
get the harvest in quicker. This finally led the landlord to enlarge the
farms and bring in a farmer with money to modernise the farm. The
mechanisation of farming policies on the one hand and the progressive
quantity of urban factories on the other, combined to drastically alter that
rural life. Taking into consideration also the turnpike roads, the invention
of the railway and the canal networks it is obvious that economic and
technological forces were bringing far reaching changes. During the period
when enclosure was in progress, "the revolution in agricultural
methods", there was moderately steady process of new village creation, a
considerable upsurge within the 18th century. Enclosure or amalgamation of
the Kilton village farms, probably happened in the late 1860s, thus was the
complete destruction of the village.
Kilton became a victim not only of the "Monstre
farm" but also of the Industrial Revolution.
"And now dear Farndale, the best of friends must part,
I bid you and your little Kilton along and final farewell.
Time was on to all our precious boon,
Time is passing away so soon,
Time know more about his vast eternity,
World without end oceans without sure."
John Farndale. 1870
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John was a prolific writer in the
eighteenth century - he wrote about Kilton.
He wrote The History
of the Ancient Hamlet of Kilton-in-Cleveland, printed by W Rapp, Dundas
Street, Saltburn 1870 and The Emigrants Return,
printed by Burnett and Hood, Exchange Offices, Middlesborough, 1870
I am slowly transcribing the writings of John Farndale
John Farndale was born at Kilton in Cleveland, Yorkshire on
15 August 1791, second son of William and Mary Farndale (née Ferguson),
farmers and business people. On his 84th birthday (1874) he wrote his
memoirs. He stated that he was in good health. He died in 1879 aged 88. The
following notes are taken from his memoirs which were written in very
descriptive Victorian English.
He first described Kilton as "of great interest with a
great hall, stable, plantation and ancient stronghold in ruins (Kilton
Castle)". "It is still a small place" he says and he describes
how many have left it and made their name.
"My first remembrance began in my nurse's arms when I
could not have been more than 1 1/2 years old; a memory as vivid as if it
were yesterday. She took me out on St Stephen's Day 1973 into the current
Garth (a small enclosure) with a stick and 'solt' to kill a hare. A great day
at the time. Another time (after celebrating the victory of Trafalgar, 1805)
he was dangling head foremost down the draw well hanging by the buckle of his
shoe. He goes on to describe a very happy childhood and he clearly adored his
mother. "At this time I believe I loved God and was happy."
He remembered "an old relation of my father"
(there were several in Kilton at that time) remarking that his elder brother
George was a "prodigal son", while John was the son at home with
his father. But he describes how he got up to many frolics and had some
narrow escapes, although he was no drunkard or swearer.
His parents, he said, "were strict Church people and
kept a strict look out. I became leader of the (Brotton) church signers,
clever in music" and he excelled his friends. He had a close friend, a
musician in the church choir. One day he met him and said he had been very
ill and had been reading a lot of books including "Aeleyn's Alarum"
and others "which nearly made my hair stand on end." . His friend
told him that he was going to alter his way of life and if John would not
refrain from his revelries, he would "be obliged to forsake your company.".
"That was a nail in a sure place. I was ashamed and grieved as I thought
myself more pious than he. Now I began to enter a new life as suddenly at St
Paul's but with this difference, he was in distress for three days and nights
but for me it was three months". He fasted all Lent and describes his
torment. "How often I went onto the hill with my Clarinet to play my
favourite tune."
His companion lived one mile away (at Brotton perhaps?) and
they met half way every Sunday morning at 6am for prayer. He remembered well
meeting in a corner of a large grass field. George (Sayer) began and he
followed. When they finished they opened their eyes to see "a rough farm
lad standing over us, no doubt a little nervous. Next day this boy said to
others in the harvest field 'George Sayer and John Farndale are two good lads
for I found them in a field praying.' " On the following Sunday they
moved to a small wood and met under an oak tree and met an old man who wanted
to join them. As usual George began and John continued when the old man began
to roar in great distress.
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