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An Introduction to Farndale Family History
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This page is an
introduction to the history of the Farndale family. It should help you to
understand the history of the family and its origins back to Saxon times and as
a platform from which to explore the wider website, with a few suggestions and
hyperlinks to link you to further exploration through the thousands of pages
which now make up our more detailed history on this website.
As you read this
page, you can explore more detail through the hyperlinks.
The Farndale
Name
The Farndales
descend from the folk who made up the engine room of British history. For the
bulk of such families, it is generally very difficult to go back in time much
beyond about 1500. However the Farndales are
privileged to have a locative name, which is rooted to a place. What is more that place
is a relatively small, rural valley in North Yorkshire, which provides a
uniqueness which helps research of early medieval records. The name therefore
provides a unique beacon which makes navigating the medieval sources much
easier. This has made it possible to find significant records of individuals
back to the thirteenth century. We are
extraordinarily privileged to be able to see back that far.
You will find a
bit more information about names in family history which might help to
understand why a locative name such as Farndale provides a special opportunity
to see further back in time.
The locative
nature of our surname also means that even before we can identify individual
people who were or may have been our ancestors, we can explore the earlier
history of the place itself. The place is an important part of our story. That
means we can find a route even further back in time, to the earliest history of
Farndale,
a wild forested place, as it first emerged as a place known to local folk. So
even beyond the identification of individual ancestors, we see back to the
period shortly before the Norman Conquest, with some reasonably detailed optics
to about the turn of the first millennium in 1000 CE.
If you are a
Farndale, or descended from Farndales, then this introduction and the wider
website provides your Tardis to travel back in time to meet and understand your
earliest ancestors.
The Early History of Farndale the Place
There is a
beautiful Saxon Church about a mile west of Kirkbymoorside, south of the North
York Moors, which overlooks the Hodge Beck. Within the porch at the entrance
door is housed a Yorkshire treasure. It is a Saxon sundial, and it bears the
inscription “Orm the son of Gamel acquired St Gregory’s Church when it was
completely ruined and collapsed, and he had it built anew from the ground to
Christ and to St Gregory in the days of King Edward and in the days of Earl
Tostig”. The inscription refers to Edward the Confessor and to Tostig, the
son of Earl Godwin of Wessex and brother of Harold II, the last Anglo Saxon
King of England. Tostig was the Earl of Northumbria between 1055 and 1065. It
was therefore during that last peaceful decade, immediately before the Norman
conquest, that Orm, son of Gamel rebuilt St Gregory’s Church.
Orm was
prominent in Northumbria in the middle years of the eleventh century. He
married into the leading aristocratic clan of the region. His wife Aethelthryth
was the daughter of Ealdred, Earl of Northumbria in the mid eleventh century.
His brother in law was Siward, Earl of Northumbria
until 1055, famous for his exploits against Macbeth, the King of Scots. Orm’s
name suggests that he was of Scandinavian descent, but by his lifetime, he was
very much a Christian, and a part of the Saxon world.
The Parish
Church was a part of the wider estate, most likely handed out to Orm by King
Cnut, then known as Chirchebi, but known to us today as Kirkbymoorside.
Somewhere within that great estate lay the forested valley that would later
become known as Farndale.
The Normans
invaded England in 1066, and although the north was not immediately subdued
under Norman rule, the harrying of the north meant that the location with which
we are interested was under the Norman thumb by 1086, which was the date when
the Domesday Book recorded the extent of Norman domination. The Domesday Book
also evidences the administrative efficiency of the new overlords. A millennium
later, that efficiency provides us with the tools with which to have eyes on
the historical events of our very distant past. The Domesday Book recorded
every important place in the country - what was there, who owned it prior to
the conquest, and to whom it was transferred after the Conquest.
We therefore
know from the Domesday Book, that Chirchebi was in the possession of Orm
at the time of the Conquest and that it comprised ten villagers, one priest,
two ploughlands, two lord’s plough teams, three men’s plough teams, a mill and a church.
Presumably the
villagers and the cultivated land were located together near the church, on the
banks of the Hodge Beck. Before the Conquest, Orm seems to have held five
carucates of land at Chirchebi. A carucate was a medieval land unit
based on the land which eight oxen could till in a year. So presumably this
area of land described the five carucates of cultivated land around Kirkdale. [I
need to do a bit more work on Saxon Chirchebi to confirm this]. However this area of civilisation was part of a much wider
estate of Chirchebi, which was said to be twelve leagues (about 42
miles) long by the time of the Normans.
So whilst there was a small community of
folk living at Kirkdale, within this wider estate, the bulk of the estate was
deep forest, stretching up through the dales towards the highlands of the North
York Moors. This forest was probably largely impenetrable, and certainly not
settled. It may have been used for hunting. Centuries before, the Venerable
Bede had described this region as ‘vel bestiae commorari vel hommines
bestialiter vivere conserverant’, ‘a land fit only for wild beasts, and men
who live like wild beasts’.
Within this
uninhabited woodland, there lay a forested valley, which was then unknown, but
which was nestling quietly in those woods, the place which in time would become
the cradle of the modern Farndale family. The land which was to become Farndale
was little more than a possession, and a place which the owner himself did not
likely know, and which after the Conquest, would continue to be possessed,
transferred, perhaps sometimes hunted within, for another two centuries.
After the conquest,
the estate of Chirchebi was forfeited to Hugh fitz Baldric (Hugh, the
son of Baldric), a German archer who had served William
the Conqueror and became the Sheriff of the County of York in 1069. Hugh
died in 1086 and the estate passed to de Stuteville family, but they were
deprived of it in 1106 when it was granted to Nigel d’Aubigny, one of Henry I’s
“new men”. Nigel d’Aubigny then passed to his son, Roger de Mowbray, initially
under the guardianship of Nigel’s widow, Gundreda.
The Mowbrays
were significant benefactors of several religious institutions in Yorkshire. And so, in 1154, we are introduced
to Farndale the place for the first time in the Chartulary of Rievaulx Abbey
when Gundreda, on behalf of her guardian, gave land to the abbey.
Roger of
Molbrai, to all the faithful, both his own and strangers. Let it be known that
I have granted .
. to the Rievallis brothers, in perpetual alms, Midelhovet - scil. that meadow
in Farnedale where Edmund the Hermit dwelt, and another meadow called
Duvanesthuat, and the common pasture of the same valley - scil., Farnedale: and
in the forest wood for material, and for the own uses of those who remained
there, save the salvage. Witness Samson de Alb[aneia]; and
Peter of Tresc; and Anschetillo Ostrario; and Walter Parar; and Eicardo de
Sescal [or ? Desescal.]; and John the Scribe; and
Walter de la Eiviere; [and] Eiinaldo le Poer.
And
so, as we first lay our historical goggles onto Farndale the place in 1154, we
appear to enter a Lord of the Rings World, with a dash of Game of
Thrones. The House Mowbray (a competitor to the House Stuteville) has given
to the monks, who live in their exquisite Elven home at Rievaulx, a place called Midelhovet, where
Edmund the Hermit used to dwell, and another called Duvanesthuat, together with
the common pasture within the valley of Farndale.
Rievaulx, in its Elven valley, taken by
the website author in 2016
Midelhovet
is almost certainly the area in Farndale known today as Middle Head and
Duvanesthuat is probably the place where the Duffin Stone lies today.
The northwestern end of Farndale showing
Middle Head and the Duffin Stone.
The area of Middle Head in 2021
So
by this time, the dale had become known as Farndale.
Of course whilst Farndale is today dominated by
moorland bracken and ferns, ferns are naturally a woodland plant, so it must
have been the ferns of the forested Farndale which gave rise to its name.
Perhaps it was Edmund who must have known the valley intricately, who first
chose its name.
The House
Mowbray supported the wrong side in a revolt against Henry II and the estate of
Kirkbymoorside was ceded back to the House of the de Stutevilles. Robert III de
Stuteville was one of the northern barons who had commanded his forces the
English at the Battle of the Standard at Northallerton
on 22 August 1138. He claimed the barony, which had been forfeited by his
grandfather, from Roger de Mowbray, who by way of compromise gave him
Kirkbymoorside.
The Stutevilles
favoured the Benedictine monks of Saint Mary's Abbey, York, and their own small
House of nuns founded by them at Keldholme, just to the east of Kirkbymoorside.
Rievaulx Abbey therefore went out of favour in its claim to Farndale. In about
1166 Robert de Stuteville granted to Keldholme Priory the timber and wood in
Farndale. Farndale itself then disappeared from the records for about a
century, though we can still follow the fortunes of the Stuteville family and
of the estate of Kirkbymoorside. In 1216, Joan de Stuteville, the daughter of
Nicholas II de Stuteville and Devorguilla of Galloway and the heiress of the
Stuteville estates was born. She married Hugh Wake, feudal lord of Bourne and
later Hugh Bigod, Chief Justice of England, but as a widow was known as Joan de
Stuteville, the ‘Lady of Liddell’. Before her death in 1276, she enfeoffed the
manor of Kirkbymoorside to her son, Baldwin Wake.
It is during
the time of Joan de Stutevilles, that we meet the first settled inhabitants of
Farndale. Under the next chapter heading below, we will take up that story. But
before we do so, we should just complete our history of the de Stutevilles who
were the overlords of the Kirkbymoorside estate and therefore of the lands of
Farndale during the following centuries, as our ancestors started to work on
the land there.
The custody of
Baldwin Wake was granted to Henry de Percy, who transferred it to the Society
of the Ballardi of Lucca. However this was not ratified by the King, but later
‘not recollecting the confirmation of the grant’, he ‘caused the
manor, then in the hands of the merchants, to be taken into his hands, and he
delivered it with fees &c, who since he has held the said manor has
received £340 out of the issues thereof, for which Henry de Percy has made
supplication to the King to caused satisfaction to be made to the merchants for
his exoneration.”
Thomas Wake remained
in possession of the lands until he died in 1349. His heir was his sister
Margaret, wife of Edmund Earl of Kent, whose son John succeeded her. John died
three years later, however without issue, and his sister Joan, ‘the Fair Maid
of Kent’, became the heir. The
impression of the Fair Maid of Kent’s seal depicted a lady riding on horseback
sideways, which is a horse riding style which she is
said to have been the first to adopt. Her first husband was Thomas Holand,
created Earl of Kent in 1360, by whom he had a son and heir Thomas Holand.
Later Joan married Edward the Black Prince, with whom in 1365 she settled this
manor on Thomas and Alice his wife and their heirs, with reversion to the
prince and herself. In 1397 Thomas Earl of Kent died and Alice was left in
possession for life. Of her sons, Thomas the Elder was beheaded as a traitor in
1399 and his brother Edmund died before his mother in 1408, when the earldom of
Kent fell into abeyance.
The First
Farndales
The word
‘assart’, from the French word essarter means to remove or grub out
woodland. It refers to the clearing of forested lands for use in agriculture.
In the Middle Ages, land was sometimes cleared as common land, or for the
benefit of the feudal overlord to improve his holding, or for monastic communities,
particularly the Cistercians. We might suppose that the work was done by the
villeins, the serfs or ‘peasants’, who were put onto the land to work it
although it is difficult to imagine how men of villain status, compelled to pay
rents of 1s 0d per acre for tiny holdings of marginal land, could also have
managed to undertake their own assarting. Perhaps the land had already been
reclaimed in advance of letting by the Lord’s agents. Assarting was described
by the landscape historian Richard Muir as typically being "like bites
from an apple" as it was usually done on a small scale though large areas
were sometimes cleared. The evidence of standard rents being applied in
Farndale by 1276 suggest a single campaign on a large scale rather than piece
meal assarting. Field names in Britain which originate in assarting include
such names as 'Stocks'; 'Stubbings'; 'Stubs'; 'Assart'; 'Sart'; 'Ridding';
'Royd'; 'Brake'; 'Breach'; or 'Hay'.
1276
Only a few
years after the death of Joan de Stuteville, the Lady of Liddell, the Inquisition
Post Mortem taken after Joan’s death in 1276, reveals assarting on a grand scale.
In Farndale, bonded tenants were paying a standard rent of 1s 0d for each acre.
This produced total income of £27 5s 0d, suggesting a cultivated acreage in
Farndale of 545 acres. So this provides us with a
snapshot to suppose that assarting must have started from about 1230, when
individuals were placed from the surrounding lands into Farndale to clear land
for agriculture and then to toil for their feudal overlords, paying them rents
to provide the landlords with an income from the land, in return for bond
holdings from which to scrape their own meagre living.
1282
The Inquisition
Post Mortem of Joan’s Son, Baldwin Wake, taken only six years later in 1282, noted that
the bonded villeins were said to hold their land ‘not by the bovate of land,
but by more or less’ (a bovate is an eighth of a carucate). The 1282 extent
shows a considerable increase over that of 1276, but this probably means
nothing more than that a new and up-to-date survey was used as the basis for
the later document. The Farndale rents now amounted £38 8s 8d together with a
nut rent and a few boon works and if the rate of 1s 0d per acre still applied,
this would give a total acreage held in bondage of 768 acres. In neighbouring
Bransdale rents were up to £4 14s 3d which would relate to about 188 acres at
the old rent of 6d per acre for that valley. For the first time the number of
bondmen were given - 25 in East Bransdale and 90 in Farndale.
1301
The lay
subsidy assessments of 1301 afforded a brief glimpse of the settlement
pattern, listing several contributors bearing the names of the farms
which are still to be found at Farndale such as ‘Wakelevedy’ (Wake Lady Green),
‘Westgille’ (West Gill), Monkegate (Monket House) and ‘Elleshaye (Eller House)
and which are scattered all around the dale.
So between
about 1230 and the end of the thirteenth century, we have a picture of villeins
or serfs or peasants, who together formed the body of folk who must have been
our ancestors, toiling the soil in a dreadful battle of survival.
We might I
suppose imagine that those individuals in turn were plucked from the cauldron
or primeval sludge of Bronze Age Beaker Folk, Iron Age
Settlers, Brigantes, Romans, Vikings, Angles and Saxons that had roamed the
moors and Dales of Yorkshire since about 9,000 years BCE.
The Early
Farndale Pioneers
Imagine a group
of folk, all called William or Philip, Robert or
Peter, who meet at the start of a day’s work one day in Farndale. To
distinguish themselves, the Williams might call each other by their jobs
(William the Smith, or William the Shepherd), by their father’s name (as Orm
Gamalson, son of Gamal did), or by some other description. They would not have
called themselves by place, or at least by the place where they all lived,
being Farndale, for that would not distinguish them at all.
But suppose
another William leaves Farndale and travels to the Wapentake of Langbaugh. He
might well call himself William of Farndale which would distinguish him from
other Williams. And so the folk who stayed in Farndale, were more likely to
adopt descriptive, patronymic or occupational names, or defined by the location
of places outside Farndale from whence they had come previously as can be seen
in the list of names in the 1301 record. But when De Willemo de Farndale appeared in the same
1301 Subsidy in the Wapentake of Langbaugh, he was the one to call himself
William of Farndale.
So those who first described themselves as de Farndale,
were those adventurous and pioneering soles, who ventured out to new places. As
we are introduced to our later pioneer ancestors, we might reflect that we come
from a stock of pioneers and adventurers.
Ordinary folk were starting to use such descriptions beyond Christian
names by the early thirteenth century. However these
names tended to fluctuate until about the fourteenth century. If William of
Farndale moved from Langbaugh to York, he might have started to call himself
William of Langbaugh. However by the fourteenth
century, such names became fixed, and started to be passed down as hereditary
names. We can actually see this happening in the
Farndale history. From about 1310, we see the ‘de’, ‘of’ being dropped. This
tends to suggest folk no longer defining themselves as ‘of’ a place, but using
a name, with more permanency. So we see the first example of William Farndale (FAR00034) born in about 1310, and then
William Farndale of Sheyrefhoton (Sheriff Hutton)(FAR00036), born about 1332. He is not
William of Sheriff Hutton, but William Farndale, who lives in Sheriff
Hutton.
The records of
the first individuals using the Farndale name tended to record the payment of
taxes, surveys of the inhabitants of the land, and illegal activity.
To accompany
this introduction you will find a timeline of Farndale history from 1000 to 1600,
which provides a summary of the history to this stage, and which draws out the
individual characters who appear from this point. The colour coding interlinks the history of individual
Farndales, with the history of the feudal
overlords who held the land, with the Kings
and Queens at the pinnacle of the hierarchy, and with the dominant events at the
national level of British history.
So it is, that
we learn much from the records about a significant number of our ancestors who
were fined, outlawed and even excommunicated, for
poaching and illegally hunting, particularly within the Royal Forest of Pickering. There
is a historical documentary series on Sky television, called The Britains,
and I would steer you particularly to episode 2, which depicts much of the
historic background to the events described so far. It also depicts two outlaws
pursued in Pickering Forest called Philips, but who may as well have been
Farndales. The documentary observes that it was such folk who would inspire the
legend of Robin Hood, and whose archery skills would one day comprise the
successful armies who fought at Crecy and Agincourt. Park this thought about
the links to the legend of Robin Hood, because we shall find ourselves in the
heart of Robin Hood territory before too long.
So whether you perceive these folk as
petty criminals or heroic ‘merry men’, you will find plenty of such characters
including:
·
Farndales
indicted for poaching in 1280 (FAR00019) Roger, son of Gilbert of
Farndale, Nicholas de Farndale, William the smith of Farndale, John the
shepherd of Farndale, and Alan the son of Nicholas de Farndale;
·
Peter
de Farndale (FAR00008), whose son Robert (FAR00012) was fined at Pickering Castle in
1293.
·
Robert
son of Peter de Farndale, (FAR00012)(The Farndale 2 Line)
was outlawed for hunting in 1293.
·
Roger
milne (miller) of Farndale (FAR000013A), son of Peter (FAR00008) of Spaunton
on Monday in January 1293, killed a soar and slew a hart with bows and arrows
at some unknown place in the forest. He with others were outlawed on 5 April
1293.
·
Richard
de Farndale (FAR00016) was excommunicated for stealing
in 1316.
·
Robert
of Farndale (FAR00024) was fined at Pickering Castle for
poaching in 1322.
·
John
de Farndale (FAR00026) was released from excommunication
at Pickering Castle on 9 Apr 1324.
·
Simon
de Farndale (FAR00021) (The Farndale 4 Line),
shoes son Robert was fined at Pickering Castle in 1332.
·
Robert
of Farndale (FAR00031) was outlawed with others for
hunting a hart in the forest in 1332.
·
Nicholas
de Farndale (FAR00022)(The Farndale 3 Line)
gave bail for Roger son of Gilbert of Farndale who had been caught poaching in
1334 and 1335.
·
William,
smith of Farndale (FAR00037) on Monday 2 December 1336, came
hunting in Lefebow with bow and arrows and gazehounds………’
·
Gilbert
de Farndale (FAR00018) bailed by Nicholas Farndale (FAR00022) for poaching in 1344 and 1345.
·
Commission
of oyer and terminer on 17 January 1348 to a long list of names including
William Smyth of Farndale (FAR00040) the younger and Richard Ruttok of
Farendale for breaking in to the park at Egton, hunting and carrying away the
property of the owner with deer, and for assaulting the owner’s men and
servants causing their inability to work for a long time, for which they were
fined 1 mark.
A historical
explanation for this activity might have been the Great Famine following bad
weather and poor harvests in 1315 which gave rise to widespread unrest, crime and infanticide; followed by the Black Death which hit
Yorkshire in March 1349.
As individuals
who started to use the name Farndale, started to appear outside the dale, it
becomes obvious from the records that there are some geographical groupings of
Farndales in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries around Sheriff Hutton
(of which family have been preserved two wills from two generations) , York (which family bore three generations of
freemen of York) and then Doncaster.
Perhaps there is some interrelationship between these three families. Perhaps
those who settled in Doncaster by 1335 were somehow linked to the York family.
I recently
drove south from the North York Moors to the York ring road and on to
Doncaster. The land is flat and richly agricultural, albeit with rivers and
floodplains. York was Eboracum, the Roman capital of northern England (and
Jorvik the Viking capital thereafter), so even after Roman decline, a natural
focal point. Similarly Doncaster was previously the
Roman city of Danum, at the crossing on the Rover Don. So
it’s not surprising the find the Farndales of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries drawn in that direction. Although our history from 1500 will be
firmly rooted in Cleveland, to the north of the moors, at this stage there is
no evidence at all of any of our ancestors anywhere but the southern region.
So let’s take stock:
·
Farndale
as a place was a remote forested valley, possibly unknown until it became the
dwelling place of a hermit called Edmund in the mid twelfth century. Even at
that time, it was the mystic location of Midelhovet and Duvanesthuat, and the
Elven monks of Rievaulx, and the play piece of the Houses Mowbray and
Stuteville.
·
From
about 1230, the land was cultivated and our villain forefathers no doubt lived
a pitiful life, surviving each day as they could.
·
By
1276, there was a more developed community of folk who were farming in
Farndale, and we start to be introduced to individuals.
·
From
1280, we start to see records of poachers and huntsmen who were fined,
outlawed, or even excommunicated in the imposing Norman Pickering Castle.
·
The
country faced the hardships of the Great Famine of 1315 and the Black Death
from 1349 in Yorkshire, though in time, with a decimated population, that would
provide greater power to the peasantry, to negotiate a better deal for
themselves.
·
By
the thirteenth and fourteenth century, the inhabitants of Farndale who had
started to use its name to define themselves had moved south and had clustered
around Sheriff Hutton, York and Doncaster.
The
Doncaster Age
Modern Doncaster is
strongly characterised by its industrial past. However
the Doncaster to which we now turn our attention was a very different place. It
was the place of a significant Roman Fort. After the Norman Conquest, Nigel
Fossard had built a Norman Castle. By the thirteenth century, Doncaster was a
busy town. In 1194 Richard I had given the town recognition by bestowing a town
charter. There was a disastrous fire in 1204 (fires seem to feature heavily in
Doncaster’s history) from which the town slowly recovered.
In 1248, a
charter was granted for Doncaster Market to be held in the area surrounding the
Church of St Mary Magdalene, which had been built in Norman times. But over
time the parish church was transferred to the church of the old Norman castle,
the castle which by then was in ruin. The new parish church was the
original Church of St George. During the 14th century, large numbers
of friars arrived in Doncaster who were known for their religious enthusiasm and
preaching. In 1307 the Franciscan friars (Greyfriars) arrived, as did
Carmelites (Whitefriars) in the mid-14th century. Other major medieval features
included the Hospital of St Nicholas and the leper colony of the Hospital of St
James, a moot hall, a grammar school and a five-arched
stone town bridge with a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Bridge.
It is in this
setting that we meet William Farndale. We first see his name in
a grant of land in Latin by Walter de Thornton, the vicar of Doncaster, and Wm
de Farndell, his chaplain on 11 April 1355. Perhaps William may have been about
twenty then, so perhaps he was born in about 1335. The Black Death had ravaged
Doncaster from about 1349, and its population had been reduced to about 1,500. So William must have survived the Black Death. Perhaps he
was already a chaplain then, experiencing the horrors with pastoral
responsibilities. Or perhaps it was his survival of those horrors that was his
path to the church.
It is possible
(but there is no evidence of this) that William Farndale might have been the son
of Walter de Farndale (about 1300 to 1370),
who was a vicar at Haltwhistle, Lazonby, Illis- haghe hospital, Upmeadon, and Chemlsford and that
his grandfather might have been Walter de Farndale of Cayton (about 1275 to
1328), for whose death in 1328 Hugh de Faulkes of Lebreston
was required to join an expedition against the Scots in exchange for his pardon.
There is no evidence of this, but the ecclesiastical links makes it a
possibility. Perhaps this was a family whose links with the church provided
opportunities to venture more widely.
We then spot William
of Doncaster again in the patent rolls of 1358:
On 7 December
1368, Robert Ripers transferred five acres of land at Lovershall (just south of
Doncaster) to Sir William Farndale, still chaplain. The term ‘sire’ was used as
an address to religious men such as priests, it does not denote a knight. ‘Know
men present and to come that I Robert Ripers of Loversall have given, granted,
and by this my present charter confirmed to Sir William Farndale, chaplain, 5
acres of land with appurtenances lying in the fields of Loversall, extending
from the meadows of the Wyke to the Kardyke, of which 1 acre 1 rood lie in
Wykefield between the land of Robert son of John son of William, son of Robert
on both sides. And 2 1/2 acres lying in the Midelfild between my own land on
the west and the land of Richard son of Robert on the east. And 1 rood lying in
Wodfild between my own land on the west and the land of John of Wakefield on
the east. To have and to hold the said 5 acres of land with appurtenances to
the said William and his heirs and assigns, freely, quietly, well and in peace,
from the chief lords of the free by the services then owed and customary by
right. And I, said Robert, and my heirs, will warrant the said 5 acres with
appurtenances to the said Sir William, his heirs and assigns against all men
for ever. In witness whereof I have affixed my seal to this present charter.
These being in witness; Sir John of Loversall, Chaplain; William Vely, Robert
Clerk, Richard Rilis, John son of William son of Roger
and others. Given at Loversall on Thursday after the Feast of St Nicholas, 42
Edward III. (7 Dec 1368).’
Sir William
Farndale then became the Vicar of Doncaster from 8 January 1397 (aged about 61)
to 31 August 1403 (aged about 68) when he resigned.
A drawing of the
early church in about 1300 from the History of St George’s Church,
Doncaster, Destroyed by Fire, February 28, 1853, by the Rev J E Jackson.
So William was the vicar of the impressive
early
Church of St George’s at the end of the fourteenth century. Whilst
not yet of the stature of the impressive Doncaster Minster of St George’s,
which was rebuilt on the site after a fire destroyed the early church in 1853
and which was given Minster status in 2004, it was even by then an impressive
church.
William
transferred his land at Lovershall to John Burton in 1402; “‘Know men
present and to come that I, William Farndalle, Vicar of the Church of
Doncastre, have given, granted and by this present charter confirmed to John
Burton of Waddeworth, his heirs and assigns 5 acres of land with appurtenances
lying in the fields of Loversall. Viz, those 5 acres of land which I had as
gift and feoffment of Robert Ryppes of Loversalle and which extend from the
meadows of the Wyke to the Kardyke as the charter drawn up for me by Robert
Ryppes more fully sets out. To have and to hold the said 5 acres of land with
appurtenances to the said John Burton, his heirs and assigns from the chief of
the lords of the fee by the services thence owed and customary by right. And I
William Farndalle and my heirs will warrant the said 5 acres of land with
appurtenances to the said John Burton, his heirs and assigns against all men
for ever. In witness whereof I have affixed my seal to this present charter.
These being witnesses; John Yorke of Loversalle, Robert Oxenford of Loversalle,
William Ryppes of the same, John Millotte of the same, William Clerk of the
same and many others. Given at Loversalle 6 April 3 Henry IV. (6 April 1402).”
In 1403 we see
the installation of William Couper as the vicar of Doncaster, on William
Farndale’s resignation.
The record then
goes silent, albeit I do intend to do some detailed work in the Doncaster
record. So we don’t know if William Farndale
married or if he had children.
However our radar warms up again on 29
October 1564 when a wedding took place between a William
Farndell and a Margaret Atkinson in the Church of St Magdalene in the
village of Campsall, which is only a few miles north of Doncaster.
So on a balance of probabilities, it seems
more likely than not that William Farndell who married in 1564 came from the
same line of Farndales as William Farndale, the vicar of Doncaster. There must
have been a generation or two between them. It is possible that William the
Younger was descended from a brother of William the Elder, or perhaps he was a
direct descendant.
Now this is where we remind ourselves of
our more distant ancestors who were outlaws in Pickering Forest, reminiscent at
least of the ‘merry men’ of Robin Hood. Now it is to be observed that Campsall
is a town which was then dominated to the west by the inaccessible and
waterlogged marches of the Humber levels and to the west, by Barnsdale Forest,
an area (together with Sherwood) closely associated with the legend of Robin
Hood. Robin Hood is largely a creature of ballads composed in the fourteenth
century (at the time of William Farndale, the vicar). He is reputed to have
operated in the twelfth century. A map showing the geographical locations
associated with Robin Hood reveals that Campsall is in its heart:
Indeed a
fifteenth century ballad A Gest of Robyn
Hode suggests that Robin Hood built a chapel in Barnsdale that
he dedicated to Mary Magdalene - ‘I made a chapel in Bernysdale, That seemly
is to se, It is of Mary Magdaleyne, And thereto wolde I be’ and it has been
suggested that this was their wedding place. Given the location of the Church
of St Mary Magdalene at Campsall, it has been strongly suggested that this is
the church of Robin Hood repute, and it was here in 1538, that William Farndell
married Mary Atkinson.
If Robin Hood
was a legend, might it not be that the fourteenth century ballads which told of
his exploits in the twelfth and thirteenth century days of Richard I and King
John, might have been strongly influenced by the tales of our own Farndale
ancestors in the forest of Pickering, outmanoeuvring the sheriffs of Yorkshire?
There have been many suggestions that the legend of Robin Hood may have its
real roots in Yorkshire.
Whilst the
records have not allowed me to put beyond doubt a link between the Doncaster
Farndales, and the family who lived predominantly in Cleveland, to the north of
the North York Moors, who are the undoubted ancestors of modern Farndales, the
evidence strongly points to that being so. If it is, then this provides modern
Farndales with a direct ancestral linkage to Sir William Farndale, Vicar of
Doncaster, and thence to the Farndales of Sheriff Hutton and York and the
emigrants from Farndale the place, who we have already met.
Arrival in
Cleveland
Parish records
began to be kept, by the orders of Thomas Cromwell, in 1538. From that date, we
benefit from records which allow us to follow family relationships with
certainty. And so it is that we are able to identify with certainty that Nicholas farndaile
was buried in the parish of Kirkleatham, in Cleveland, five miles to the west
of Skelton on 6 August 1572.
That is all
that we know about Nicholas. Martin Farndale assessed a possible birth date of
1512, assuming that he might have lived for 60 years. That is not a
known fact. I know that many Farndale family trees on Ancestry and Find
My Past have used this now long established
estimate as the basis for Nicholas’ dates 1512-1572. That may well be right,
but he may have been born at some other time.
We also know
that an Agnes Farndale was buried at Kirkleatham on
23 January 1586. That is all that we know about Agnes. It has therefore been
assumed that Agnes was Nicholas’ wife. Perhaps they married in about 1537.
These are carefully considered guesses, and on a balance of probabilities, they
are likely to be about right.
Nicholas and
Agnes may well be the paternal and maternal grandparents of all
modern Farndales.
We also know
that a Jean Farndale married Richard Fairley, a
relatively pedigreed fellow, in Kirkleatham on 16 October 1567. It seems
probable that Jean was the daughter of Nicholas and Agnes.
And then there
was a William Farndale who died on 24 January
1606 and was buried the next day at St John the Baptist Church in Skelton, five
miles east of Kirkleatham. Because there are not many Farndale candidates about
at that time, it seems pretty likely that William was
the son of Nicholas and Agnes. Since we have already identified that a William
Farndale married Margaret Atkinson in Campsall, near Doncaster in 1564, we have
concluded that this is the same person. Of course we
can’t be sure about that. However it helps us to make
sense of the records. It seems quite likely.
We don’t find
any evidence of Farndales in Cleveland before 1572. After 1572, we find almost
all Farndales, and all Farndales who are ancestors of the Kilton lines from
which I and most others descend, in Cleveland. So we
have to explain how the Farndales who had become concentrated solely south of
the North York Moors before 1572, came to move into Cleveland, such that they
were predominantly clustered north of the North York Moors after 1572.
On a balance of
probabilities, whilst acknowledging the difficulty in putting this beyond
doubt, we might surmise that:
·
Nicholas
and Agnes Farndale, who both died in Kirkleatham, were born in Campsall or
thereabouts, around Doncaster, perhaps in about 1512 and 1516 respectively. If
so, they were likely descended from William Farndale, the Vicar of Doncaster,
or at least from his wider family (his brother perhaps).
·
William
Farndale junior was born in say 1538, and Jean Farndale in say 1540 to Nicholas
and Agnes.
·
William
Farndale married Mary Atkinson at the Church of St Mary Magdalene in Campsall
in 1564.
·
Between
1564 and 1567, the family moved to Kirkleatham. We don’t know why. Maybe that
was Agnes’ ancestral home. Perhaps more likely Jean had met Richard Fairly, a
relatively well established fellow, whose family were
Scottish, but who had more recently become associated with Cleveland and
Kirkleatham. Perhaps the family saw opportunities by a move north.
·
On
16 October 1567, Jean married Richard Fairley in Kirkleatham.
·
The
family lived generally at Kirkleatham until Nicholas and Anne’s death in 1572
and 1586, though William had by then realigned slightly eastward, to Skelton.
So this allows us to draw up a family tree
for the Doncaster-Kirkleatham-Skelton
Line of Farndales.
George Farndale was the second sibling of
four, and in all probability was the son of William and Mary. George is the
first of our direct ancestors, about whose life we can confidently record. He
seems to have moved to Moorsholm,
about three miles from Skelton, by 1592. He married Margery Nelson in 1595.
They had five children, one of whom was another George Farndaile,
born in 1602. George had four children, and the second was Nicholas Farndale. Nicholas was baptised on
6 July 1634 and married Elizabeth in about 1660, with whom he had four
children. He paid a hearth tax for one hearth at Liverton in the 1660s to 1680s. Elizabeth
died in 1670 and Nicholas remarried an Elizabeth Bennison on 23 November 1676.
Nicholas died in 1694. Nicholas Farndale is the founder of the line we have
called the Liverton 2 Line.
It is from this
point that the Lines which lead to modern Farndales, start to diverge,
From Nicholas’
first marriage was born the ancestor of some other lines of modern
Farndales, George Farndale, whose son William
Farndale was founder of the Kilton 2 Line.
From Nicholas’ second marriage was born my own
ancestor, John Farndale, and founder of the
Kilton 1 Line.
Common
history of all modern Farndales
Modern
Farndales are descendants of the Kilton 1 Line,
the Kilton 2 Line,
the Ampleforth Line
and a group of the Whitby Farndales.
Subject to some comments about the Ampleforth and Whitby families, that means
that all those whose name is Farndales, or who descend from Farndales, share
the history I have recorded so far, and can:
1.
trace
their direct ancestry back to Kirkleatham and the early sixteenth century;
2.
almost
certainly trace their ancestry back directly to Doncaster and the early
fourteenth century;
3.
trace
their indirect ancestry back to the villeins of Farndale in the early
fourteenth century and those who emigrated out from Farndale;
4.
imagine
their further ancestors swirling within the primeval swamp of Bronze Age Beaker
Folk, Iron Age Settlers, Brigantes, Romans, Vikings, Angles and Saxons that had
roamed the moors and Dales of Yorkshire since about 9,000 years BCE; and
5.
identify
their geographic routes in the Saxon lands of Chirchebi that would
become Kirkbymoorside and the valley called Farndale
where Edmund the Hermit roamed when those lands first became visible in 1154.
The
branching of Lines
From the early
seventeenth century, the family started to diverge. Between the mid sixteenth
century and the early eighteenth century, I have only found Farndales north of
the North York moors in Cleveland. For that reason, I think it likely that the
perhaps single family (the Doncaster-Kirkleatham-Skelton Line) who we have seen moved into
Cleveland in the mid sixteenth century, were the ancestors to all the family
lines who started to diverge to Whitby and around Cleveland from the early
seventeenth century and then some back south of the North York Moors around
Ampleforth in the early eighteen century.
Broadly, the
family started to diverge along four main branch lines, which in time would
further diverge into smaller family lines:
·
A
family emerged in Whitby,
and engaged in the maritime life of the port. We can call the larger family the
W1 Family, who diverged into the Whitby 1 Line, the Whitby 2 Line and the Whitby 4 Line.
·
A
family settled in the village of Kilton
and later diverged across Cleveland, Stockton, Northumberland, and to Wales and
Surrey and to California. We can call the larger family the K2
family.
·
Another
family settled in the village of Kilton
and later diverged into the biggest group. This family would expand across
Cleveland, Great
Ayton, Whitby,
Bishop Auckland, Richmond, Thirsk, Tidkinhow on the moors, Wensleydale and to
London, Wales, Bradford, Wakefield,
Holderness, Jarrow, and to Ontario,
Newfoundland
and Alberta in
Canada, USA,
Australia
and New
Zealand. We can call the larger family the K1
family.
·
A
family emerged around Coxwold and Ampleforth in the early eighteenth century
and later diverged to the wider area around York, including Malton and Huttons
Ambo, and to Thornaby, Stockton, Bradford, Leeds, Cheshire, Norwich, and to USA
and New Zealand. The hub of this family is the Ampleforth 1
Line. We can call the larger family the A1
family.
The divergence
of these families can be seen in the second family Timeline, and the different
main families can be differentiated by the tags A1, K1, K2, and W1.
The divergence
of the whole family can be seen in 88 family lines into which this genealogy has
divided the wider family The family lines can be navigated like an underground
railway map and you can change lines to trace your own history or that of a
particular family. There is an interface chart which acts like a general
underground map.
Martin Farndale
had originally ordered the family in a chronological list by date of birth,
which he called the Farndale Directory. This directory also
provides a means to navigate the family, particularly if you want to start by
finding an individual (or maybe yourself), from which to explore the ancestry.
As a rule the research only provides the most basic
information about living Farndales; generally year of birth and link to direct
ancestors, so that there is enough to link in to and explore the historical
ancestry. The website is intended only to provide a ‘way in’ for living
Farndales to the historical research. The detail starts with our forebears, no
longer with us.
Each individual
member of the family has his or her own webpage. As well as a historical
record, this also provides a remembrance for each member of our family beyond a
stone monument. The research tries to tell as full a story as is possible of
every Farndale.
So from this point, the Farndale family
remains related, but the family’s stories diverge. Yet we are all very likely
the ancestral descendants of Nicholas and Agnes, and perhaps of William, the
vicar of Doncaster. So the historical record which now
follows tells the extraordinary story of multiple adventures and achievements
of a significant body of folk who followed their own distinct paths. Wouldn’t
Nicholas and Agnes (and perhaps Sir William of Doncaster) be proud, if only we
could share these following stories with them?
From this point
the second Farndale
Timeline for the modern period from 1600 to the present day,
accompanies this introduction.
The Whitby
Farndales
On 19 November 1661, John Farndale
of Whitby married Alice Peckock at Whitby Parish Church. Whilst I have
not traced his parents, it seems very probable that he descended from the
Farndales of Cleveland who we have already met, and that this was a family who
moved naturally from the Cleveland countryside to the port town of Whitby. So it is very likely that this Whitby family were descended
from the Cleveland Farndales who we have already met.
John and Alice
are the Founders of the Whitby 1 Line, from which the Whitby 2 Line and the Whitby 4 Line descend.
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1636
to 1832
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1711 to 1827
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1773 to 1938 Whitby and around |
Those Farndales
who are descendants of the Whitby 1, 2 and 4 Lines, can be identified in the timeline
by the annotation W1. This
maritime family included:
·
Giles Farndale (W1), the Whitby 1 Line
was press ganged into the navy in Whitby, at the age of 27 and died at sea on
board HMS Experiment in the Caribbean having almost certainly fought in
the Battle for Cartagena de Indias, during the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
·
John Farndale, (W1), founder of the Whitby 2 Line was a seaman named in a list of
42 of the crew of The Friendship of Whitby when James Cook was
Mate (later the famous Captain Cook).
·
John Christopher Farndale the Elder, (W1), the Whitby 4 Line was Master Mariner of Cragg, Whitby
about whom we have extensive records of his mercantile adventures, who died aged
only 37.
·
Robert Farndale, (W1), the Whitby 2 Line was buried at St Mary the
Virgin Churchyard, Whitby, the setting for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, along
with several Whitby Farndales.
·
John Christopher Farndale the Younger, (W1), the Whitby 4 Line, later a ship’s captain who was
charged for absence as an apprentice, was later involved in many maritime mercantile adventures, but was lost at sea
in the Bay of Biscay in 1868.
·
William Farndale (W1), the Whitby 4 Line was a Master Mariner like his
father and brother with extensive records of his commercial maritime journeys as Captain
of various ships including the William and Nancy.
·
This
was a family of mariners at the heart of the maritime coal industry in the mid Victorian era. The second generation ventured widely
around the North Sea (often called the German sea at the time) and the Baltic
and further south.
·
John Thomas Farndale, (W1), the Whitby 4 Line was manager of the Thirsk
Branch of the York Union Bank and a free mason. He was a member of the naturalists society of Thirsk. He was involved with the
Church. He was involved in the cycling club. He was a member of the Thirsk
chess club. He was involved with the National Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children. He was involved with a historic pageant and play. He continued to take an interest in Whitby,
where he exported his pageant ideas to. He was a member of the National Service
League (campaigning by 1911 to introduce compulsory military training).
The
Ampleforth Farndales
Elias Farndale was born, perhaps around
Thirsk, in or about 1733. He married Elizabeth Raper at Thirsk on 28 February
1753. He is Founder of the Ampleforth 1 Line. Because I have not
yet been able to identify his parents, I cannot directly link him, and his
descendants into the wider family. It is possible he was not related to the
Farndales who arrived in Cleveland by about 1567. However
the fact that I have only found evidence of Farndales in the immediate
centuries after 1567 in Cleveland, means that I think it is highly probable
that Elias (and therefore his descendants) are somehow linked to the families
in Cleveland who we know about in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In
other words Elias is probably descended from the known
family above, but we have just not yet managed to prove that or establish
exactly how he links in. There is a ‘missing link’ here, but it is still
probable that he is part of the same family we have met above.
So, Elias is
the Founder of the Ampleforth 1 Line
which branches into a significant part of the modern Farndale family
(the lines with ** are contemporary lines which still have family members alive
today):
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1728 to Date
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1788 to Date
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1826 to Date Leeds and around |
1849 to 1993
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1927 to Date South Australia,
Northern Territory |
1936 to Date Thornaby and more
widely |
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1875 to 1948 Wetherby, York,
Northallerton |
1910 to Date Bradford and
around |
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1870 to 1933 Norwich and area,
and New Zealand |
1911 to Date New Zealand |
1912 to 1945 Uxbridge and area |
Those Farndales
who are descendants of the Ampleforth 1 Line can be identified in the timeline
by the annotation A1. This family included:
·
William Farndale (A1), the
Ampleforth 1 Line the sub post master
at Huttons Ambo, near Malton, saved a child from drowning in the river at
Huttons Ambo.
·
Herbert Arthur Farndale (A1), the Norwich Line was a mustard packer in Norwich.
·
Private William Farndale (A1), the Ampleforth 1 Line
who joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and later the Lancashire Volunteers.
Later, he was an agent for Prudential Assurance by 1939.
·
Private James Farndale, (A1), the Ampleforth 1 Line
who joined the 1st Devonshire Regiment and later the Wiltshire
Regiment in 1914. He served in Egypt in 1915. Reminiscent of the War Horse
play, he worked in animal husbandry in both World Wars and tended horses in WW1
and his War Service years were 31 August 1914 to 10 March 1919 and then from
1939 to 1941.
·
Lance Corporal George Weighill Farndale,
(A1), the Bishop Wilton Line
joined the West Yorkshire Regiment and was an
infantryman in the first world war. He was killed in action at Arras during the
Third Battle of the Scarpe. He had also served in Egypt in 1915.
· Lance Corporal Herbert Arthur Farndale (A1), the Norwich Line, of the Norfolk Yeomanry, the Northamptonshire Regiment and later the Royal Berkshire Regiment, was wounded in October 1917.
·
By
1917 James Arthur Farndale, (A1), the Bishop Wilton Line,
was a drawing foreman at the Saltaire Mills at Shipley now in north
Bradford. Due to the importance of his work, he was excused military duties at
consecutive military tribunal hearings. James became a dominant person in the
Saltaire community. He was later manager of the drawing room until he retired
in 1942. He was a keen cricketer and a life member of the Saltaire cricket
club, voluntarily tending its ground for five seasons. He died in 1952 on a bus
returning from a football match. The Saltaire Mills were a Victorian ‘model village’ in
Shipley to the north of Bradford. The site is now a World Heritage Site. James Arthur Farndale, and his descendants
(see the Bradford 2 Line) were
influential in its history.
·
By
1921, John W Farndale, (A1), the Bishop Wilton Line
was a gardener for Lord Allerton at the Firs, Wetherby. His daughter
with his first wife Annie Thomspon, Lily Farndale had been tragically killed
when playing ball in 1933. His second
wife Jane Wade aroused the neighbourhood when there was a fire at the village
smithy at Walton in 1952. John is the Founder of the Wetherby 1 Line.
·
By
1934, Wilfred
Farndale, (A1), the Bishop Wilton Line,
was the Sanitary Inspector for Shipley. Quiet and unassuming, and a successful
cricketer in the Shipley team, he was a very popular member of the community.
He gave lectures and wrote about his work, which is all recorded on his
webpage. He was also elected President of the Shipley Branch of the National
and Local Government Association and President of the Shipley Rotary Club. He
married Kathleen Dawson. Wilfred is the Founder of the Bradford 2 Line.
·
Private James Farndale, (A1), of the Stockton 3 Line, of the West Yorkshire
Regiment, died of wounds on 16 March 1941 in Eritrea. James is buried at Keren
War Cemetery.
The Kilton 2
Farndales
Of the routes
we can be certain about, William Farndale was founder of the Kilton 2 Line. The Kilton 2 Line branches
into a segment of the modern Farndale family, of which several lines (denoted
by **) still have family members alive today.
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1690 to 1841
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1739 to 1833
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1772 to 1917 Loftus, Brotton,
Whitby, Marske, Middlesbrough |
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The George
Farndale part of the Loftus 2 Line
** 1843 to Date
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1796 to Date
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1814 to Date Stockton,
Middlesbrough and more widely |
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1914 to 1944 Surrey, Sussex |
1932 to Date California,
Oklahoma, Arizona, Washington |
1934 to 1966 Pontypridd,
Glamorganshire |
1913 to Date Northumberland |
|
Those Farndales
who are descendants of the Kilton 2 Line can be identified in the timeline
by the annotation K2. This Kilton family included:
·
William Farndale (K2), the
founder of the Loftus 1 Line
was elected and sworn as a constable for Loftus in 1781.
·
William Leng Farndale (K2), of the Stockton 1 Line became a Sergeant in the Northumberland
Hussars by 1902. That Regiment served in the Boer War, so he may have served
there.
·
George William Farndale (K2) of the Loftus 2 Line enlisted on 10 December 1915
and became a clerk in the Army Pay Corps at Blackheath. After the Great War,
her was a shipping clerk with George Alder Limited in Middlesbrough.
·
Sergeant Bernard Farndale (K2), 115th
Squadron RAF, was killed in action over Denmark on 30 August 1944. On the night
before 30 August 1944 nearly 600 RAF bombers flew over Denmark on bombing raids
to Königsberg and Stettin. Particularly the planes for Stettin were attacked by
German night fighters, when they were passing the
northern part of Jutland and the Kattegat. Avro Lancaster Bomber LAN ME718 was
hit and flew for a moment through the air before it crashed like a burning
torch at Oue (about 400 m west of Rinddalsvej in Denmark). All
of the bomb load exploded on impact. All of the
crew were killed. The Germans did not want to collect the bodies and left them
in the field. The locals were appalled by this behaviour and collected the
remains in wickerwork baskets. The Wehrmacht ordered the Danes to hand the
baskets over, and these were thrown in the crater at the crash site and
covered. When the Germans had left the area, the locals together with members
of the Civil Air Defence opened the crater and placed the remains in a coffin
which was driven to Oue church. A memorial still stands to the dead airmen at
Oue.
·
John Alan Farndale, the American 3 Line (K2) saw
service during the Korean War in the Royal Air Force.
The Kilton 1
Farndales
The other
certain path to family Lines of the modern family derive from John Farndale, the founder of the
Kilton 1 Line.
John Farndale son of Nicholas Farndale, of the Liverton 2 Line (which Line preceded both K1 and K2),
married Elizabeth Bennison at Brotton on 5 February 1705. By then he was living
in Kilton and was one of the first members of the family, with his brother George Farndale (founder of the Kilton 2 Line), to live in Kilton. John and
Elizabeth were the founders of the Kilton 1 Line,
a core hub for the development of the history of the wider family.
The Kilton 1 Line branches
into a very significant part of the modern Farndale family (the lines with **
are contemporary lines which still have family members alive today):
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1680 to 1973
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1743 to 1797 Whitby, Lythe |
1753 to 1790 Brotton, Skelton |
1788 to Date
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The Australia 1
(Birregurra) Line 1793 to 1923 Birregurra and
Victoria, Australia
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1795 to 1953
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1795 to 2005
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1822 to 1989 Bishop Auckland,
Newcastle |
1827 to 1984
|
1836 to Date Ontario via the
Crimean War |
1845 to 1992
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1850 to 1974
|
1875 to Date
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The John Farndale
part of the Loftus 2 Line ** 1848 to Date
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1883 to 1928
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1922 to Date Wetherby, Thirsk,
Northallerton |
Hartlepool and
more widely |
1890 to 1934 Illinois, Iowa,
Wisconsin |
1885 to Date California, Texas |
1897 to Date Wensleydale and
more widely |
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1940 to Date Wales particularly
Glamorganshire |
1886 to Date Newfoundland |
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1907 to Date London and Sussex |
1911 to Date London, Bedford,
Northampton, Essex |
1921 to Date London |
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The Robert
Farndale part of the Wakefield 1 Line
** 1885 to date
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1894 to Date Thirsk,
Northallerton, Richmond |
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The Thomas
Farndale part of the Wakefield 1
Line 1839 to 2002 Wakefield and more
widely
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1849 to 1993
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1909 to Date Nottingham and
more widely |
1914 to Date Holderness, Hull |
1947 to Date Wide geographical
spread |
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1909 to Date Bradford,
Chesterfield |
1904 to 1943 South Shields,
Bradford |
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1919 to Date New Zealand,
particularly Masterton |
1940 to Date Cambridge, London,
Middlesex |
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1871 to 1912 Ontario, Canada |
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1866 to Date London and more
widely |
1886 to Date Leicester,
Nottingham and more widely |
1916 to 1945 Bradford |
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Those Farndales
who are descendants of the Kilton 1 Line, can be identified by the annotation K1 in the timeline. This is by far the largest hub of the family
and included:
·
Johnny Farndale (“Old Farndale of Kilton”),
(K1), the Kilton 1 Line had moved to How Hill Farm on the Wharton
Estate at Kilton,
a farmer and a merchant who was involved in the alum trade and later told tales
of smugglers at Cat Nab at Old Saltburn.
·
Wiliam Farndale, (K1), the Kilton 1 Line, a farmer and merchant of
Kilton like his father, who pulled down Kilton Lodge to build his new home, and
imported rods, coals and bacon at Cat Nab from sloops out to sea.
·
John Farndale, (K1), the Kilton 1 Line, saved by his buckle from
tumbling down a well, an author of many books about Kilton and the wider area, narrator of
Victorian innovation, poet after the Battle of Waterloo, an agent, and the
subject of many great stories.
·
Matthew Farndale (K1), the Kilton 1 Line, with his wife Hannah, his
daughter Mary Ann Martin and her new husband William Martin, and their youngest
daughter Elizabeth Farndale, left Liverpool on the Argo, bound for
Melbourne, Australia. The voyage took 103 days or just over 14 weeks. Thus started the Australia 1 Line. You can read more about the
Australian Farndales and about the Martin family.
·
John George Farndale, (K1), the Kilton 1 Line, took part in the Crimean War and there are
letters from him from Sebastopol on his web page. He served in the 28th of
Foot, a Yorkshire Regiment and may have transferred to that Regiment from the
Coldstream Guards. His descriptive letters show that he took part in the
battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman and was at the Siege of Sebastopol. He
later emigrated to Canada. There is an unsubstantiated story that he went to
Australia first. He is the Founder of the Ontario 1 Line.
·
William Masterman Farndale,(K1), the Kilton 1 Line was an officer of HM Customs, a tide waiter at
Cleveland port who discovered a fire on the ship Hydrus in Middlesbrough
and caused the fire to be extinguished to save the vessel, though the captain
was found ‘burnt to a cinder’ in his cabin.
·
John Henry Farndale, (K1) the Great Ayton 3 Line, was killed by a fall or
ironstone at the Poston Mines, Ormesby.
·
Martin Farndale, (K1), the Kilton 1 Line, farmed 600 acres at Kilton Hall Farm with 16 employees.
·
Charles Farndale
(K1), the Kilton 1 Line took
over Kilton from Martin Farndale,
his uncle, since
Martin had no children of his own. Charles was a farmer at Kilton of 207 acres
by 1851, with 9 employees, and later 577 acres. He was a methodist: “For
very many years services have been held in the spacious farm kitchen of Mr C
Farndale, Kilton Lodge, which was also that of his father before him. Methodism
in the neighbourhood, and the cause of righteousness generally, owes much to
the high Christian character and active interest in all good works displayed by
this devoted Methodist family.”
·
Joseph Farndale the Older, (K1), the Whitby 5 Line was Chief Constable of
Birmingham City Police and involved in the Fenian Dynamite Conspiracy with a
peak of activity in 1883. An article in the Birmingham Daily Post on 18 April
1942, suggests that the British habit of forming an orderly queue was down to
Joseph.
·
Joseph Farndale CBE KPM, nephew of Joseph
the Elder, (K1), the Wakefield 1 Line
became Chief Constable of Bradford City Police Force. Joseph was
involved in a new system for using fingerprints in 1903; a campaign to supress
scurrilous picture postcards in 1904; meeting the Prince and Princess of Wales
in 1904; the earliest use of a speed trap in 1905; the prohibition of the
shocking ‘posings’ of the actress Pansy Montague, ‘La Milo’ in Bradford in
1907; managing strikes and street violence in Bradford in 1913; dealing with an
epidemic of ‘bad language’ by children in Bradford in 1914; enforcing the
control of the possession of homing pigeons in Bradford during World War 1
under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 and in enforcing the Aliens Restriction
(Change of Name) Order 1914; welcoming
Belgian refugees in Bradford in 1914; making arrangements for public house
licencing during World War 1; a parade exhibiting a captured 77mm German field
gun lost at the Battle of Loos, in 1915; meeting the King and Queen in Shipley
in 1918; and managing street congestion in 1924. Joseph was the inventor of the
Police Box in 1929 in Bradford. He proposed the use of miniature police
stations, kiosk shaped and equipped with a telephone, desk and red warning
light to provide a police service at a hundred points in the City,
instead of the present twelve points. So but for
Joseph Farndale, Dr Who would not have had his tardis.
·
William Farndale, (K1), the Whitby 5 Line an ironstone miner in Loftus, and founder of the Loftus 3 Line, witnessed the death of his colleague, Henry
Durham, in the Loftus mines.
·
Samuel Farndale, (K1), the Wakefield 1 Line,
and brother of Joseph Farndale the Younger, later the
Chief Constable of Bradford, was a humourist (the ‘comedian’ of the family)
appearing at soirees in Wakefield
in 1889.
·
Samuel (Kirk) Farndale, (K1), the Loftus 3 Line, travelled from Liverpool to Quebec on SS
Sardinian. He settled in Oshawa, Ontario. He became a farmer at Brooklin,
Pickering, Ontario. The locality in Ontario was clearly settled from his
compatriots from the same area, since the towns there
bore names like Pickering and Whitby Township. Kirk and his wife Mary were
founders of the Ontario 2 Line.
·
John William Farndale MRCS Eng, LRCP Lond,
(K1), the Whitby 5 Line was registered as a medical
practitioner and worked in Ba in the Fiji Islands in 1901.
·
John Martin Farndale, (K1), the Loftus 2 Line, who had lived at Loftus and was a grocery store manager at Guisborough
married Bessie Stainthorpe and they went to Newfoundland just after they were
married. John was a grocery store manager in St John’s, Newfoundland. John and
Bessie were founders of the Newfoundland Line.
·
James Farndale (A1), the Stockton 3 Line was a Druid in Stockton in
1909. He worked in Stockton in the iron and steam engine works.
·
James (“Jim”) Farndale, (K1), the Tidkinhow Line, went to Canada in 1911, the year before the
Titanic Sank. There is a transcript of Jim’s
diary recording his emigration to Canada. In 1911 James arrived to
stay with Martin Farndale in Alberta. He did not stay
long in Canada before he went to America for the rest of his life. He was involved
with the Carpenter’s Union on the Boulder dam project and later was elected a
Senator for Nevada. He was a great man of American politics.
·
George William Farndale, (K1), the Coatham Line, who
had been a road labourer and plumber in Coatham, emigrated to USA. He married
Frances Hilton in New York of Chicago in about 1915, but she died from swine
flu in 1918. He saw service in the First World War. He later married Rose
Cunningham in Clinton, Iowa in 1921. He became a naturalised citizen of USA on
16 May 1934. George founded the American 2 Line. George was later a teacher in vocational
education in Milwaukie, Wisconsin.
·
John George Farndale, (K1), the Hartlepool 1 Line was
Treasurer of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (“the Buffs”) in
Hartlepool.
·
As
President of the Primitive Methodist Conference in 1947 Rev
Dr William
Edward Farndale, (K1), the Whitby 5 Line, and founder of the William Line, sounded the Call of the Countryside and
launched a “Back to the Soil” campaign.
·
Florence
Farndale, wife of Rev Dr William Edward Farndale, (K1), the Whitby 5 Line was President of the North
Eastern Federation of Suffragettes. She campaigned for ‘why women need the
vote’. She was later very involved with the British Women’s Total
Abstinence Union.
·
Lieutenant Graham Price, a World War 1
Flying Ace, the younger brother of Florence Farndale, wife of Rev Dr William
Edward Farndale, (K1), the Whitby 5 Line was killed in action over the east coast of
Scotland in a duel with a German aeroplane at 8,000 feet.
·
Corporal William Farndale, (K1) the Great Ayton 3
Line enlisted
at Stokesley into the Yorkshire Regiment on 12 October 1914 and arrived in
France on 27 August 1915. In a letter home in October 1915, he joked that since
he was in France, he had the Germans on the run. He served in France and Italy
and came home on leave in August 1918. He was 5 feet and 7.5 inches tall. He
was discharged in December 1920 with a 30% disablement from the War.
·
Herbert Farndale, (K1), the Craggs Line was enlisted into 2/4th
Battalion, Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own (Yorkshire Regiment) and
undertook training. He was 23, a farmer, 5 feet and
6.5 inches tall and weight 140 lbs, of good physical
development. Later Sergeant Herbert Farndale, 10th Battalion The
Yorkshire Regiment and later the 2nd Battalion the West Yorkshire Regiment, was
awarded the Military Medal for gallantry and the British War Medal and the
Victory Medal. His Military Medal for bravery arose for
service from 11 August 1915 to 30 June 1916 and particularly on 1 July 1916,
with the Expeditionary Force in France. He was commissioned in 1918. Herbert
later lived at Craggs Hall Farm and on 3 September 1940 the farmhouse received
a direct hit by a German bomb. The house was rebuilt. Herbert was an
independent Councillor, a member of Skelton and Brotton urban council.
·
Alfred Farndale (K1), the Tidkinhow Line, and founder of the Wensleydale Line, enlisted into the Machine
Gun Corps. He served in France, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and India. He served at
Ypres. He and Quartermaster Sergeant Zaccarelli had been galloping up to the
Front with an ammunition limber when the Germans started to shell them. Zaccarelli
was killed, along with a horse. Alfred managed to cut the dead horse free, drag
Zaccarelli’s body into a ditch and carry on up to the Front on one horse with
his delivery of ammunition. Alfred later emigrated to Alberta
and they settled at Huxley and built their house there. They returned to
Yorkshire after the Great Depression and the family farmed in Wensleydale.
·
Private (John) Richard Farndale, (K1), the Coatham Line, died at 21st
Casualty Clearing Station at La Neuville of pneumonia. He enlisted at Redcar, and joined the 1/4th (TA) Battalion of the Princess
of Wales’ Own Yorkshire Regiment, also known as the Green Howards. At the time
of his death the battalion was not in the line but in reserve at Proyart. On 31
Dec 1916 it was at Bazentin le Petit and in reserve at Flers on 7 Jan 1917. On
11 Jan the battalion moved to the front line at ‘Hexham Road.’ It was again in
the front line from 30 Jan to 11 Feb at Genercourt. The battalion moved to
Proyart on 19 Feb 1917. Richard was awarded the British War Medal and the
Victory Medal posthumously on 21 Jan 1921. He was presumably badly wounded at
Hexham Road or Genercourt or Proyart and evacuated to No 21 Casualty Clearing
Station at La Neuville, where he later died of pneumonia.
·
Private George Farndale, (K1), the Whitby 5 Line, was killed in action on 27 May 1917, during the Battle of
Arras, barely a month after arriving in France. He was serving with the 1st/9th
(Territorial Glasgow Highlanders) Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry in
100th Infantry Brigade of 33rd Infantry Division in operations against the
Hindenburg Line. He was 26 years old. On his web-page,
you will find extensive correspondence and records about his service and
correspondence.
·
William Farndale, (K1), the Tidkinhow Line had arrived
in Canada in 1913, and he went to Early Grey in Saskatchewan where he was a
butcher. He then served in the
Canadian Army in WW1 and was wounded in action at Vimy Ridge on 13 December
1916. Still weakened from his wounds, he died of the flu epidemic shortly after
the War ended, having insisted on transporting patients with flu to hospital.
· James (“Jim”) Farndale had enlisted into the US Army on 31 August 1917 and he served in France until 1918. He was discharged on 1 August 1919. His younger brother, William Farndale, had enlisted into the Canadian army. His youngest brother, Alfred Farndale, had enlisted into the British Army. So three brothers served in the British, US and Canadian army.
· Private Robert Farndale, (K1) the Hartlepool 1 Line was in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was wounded in 1917 and later joined the Labour Corps. He was admitted to the Fourth Stationary Hospital and discharged on 15 April 1918.
·
Henry Farndale (K1), the Wakefield 1 Line
was a Regimental Quarter Master Sergeant in the Royal Field Artillery who was
gassed in November 1917. Before the War he was a solicitor’s clerk and
engineer’s draughtsman. In 1920 the Army proposed that he transfer to the Corps
of Military Accountants, but he discharged from the army in Woolwich that year.
·
Gunner John William Farndale (K1), the Wakefield 1 Line
was severely wounded by a gas shell explosion and was admitted to a field
hospital in Rouen in 1918 and then to the General Hospital at Leicester. He was
later a leather salesman and founded the Leicester 1 Line.
·
Albert Farndale, (K1), the Kilton 1 Line was an architect who tragically shot himself at
Kilton in December 1918.
·
Mark Farndale, (K1), the Ontario 1 Line,
a farmer who had married Mary Wiltse in Ontario in 1908, died from the flu
epidemic on 29 November 1918.
·
George William Farndale (K1), the Great Ayton 2 Line,
became a well known comic actor. There are
extensive records of his performances on his web page. He regularly performed
with the Yorkshire Mummers and sang comic songs.
·
Grace Farndale (K1), the Tidkinhow Line, was assistant
matron at the Towers Boarding School for Girls at Saltburn
by the Sea. Grace was later a matron at Malvern and then emigrated to Alberta
where she and her husband Howard Holmes had a ranch.
· William Farndale, (K1), the Craggs Line moved to Plane Tree Farm at Maunby, Thirsk where William and Mary farmed for forty years. They were founders of the Thirsk Line. William chaired the Northallerton Branch of the National Farmers Union and had an active role in negotiations during the Second World War to get the most from the land.
·
John Joseph Farndale, (K1), the Great Ayton 2 Line, was a joiner and part of
the Ayton cricket team.
·
John William Farndale, (K1), the South Shields 2 Line was the youngest member of
the 185 men who set off on the Jarrow marches in 1936.
·
Audrey Celina McKelvie (nee Farndale), (K1), the Ontario 1 Line was a
comptometer operator with the Hudson Bay Company.
·
Thomas Henry Farndale, (K1), the London 1 Line was a detective sergeant, later
an Inspector, a real life ‘Foyle’s War’, who solved crimes during the Second
World War in Surrey. He was involved investigating a serious crime involving
the murder of a maid by three soldiers. He continued to solve crimes until he
retired in 1955. His experiences were well recorded in the media and in a
record of his service in the Surrey Mirror on 4 November 1955. After he retired
from the police, he was a licensee of the Plough Inn at Dormansland and later
President of the Caterham Licensed Victuallers Association.
·
Wilfred (or “Wilf”) Farndale, (A1), the Stockton 3 Line
lived at Filton, near Bristol, with his wife Doris Eveyln nee Howard. Wilf later worked with the Bristol Aircraft
Company making aircraft jigs, the framework on which aircraft were built. He
was involved with the Brabazon, Britannia and early stage of Concorde designs.
He was a football referee. The family then emigrated to New Zealand and founded
the New Zealand 2 Line.
·
Private
Richard (“Dick”) Farndale, (K1), the American 2 Line attested into the army on
28 March 1941 at Chicago, Illinois and served in the US Army during World War
II, spending more than four years in the Pacific theatre of Operation. He was a
mechanic with the 43rd Division.
·
Hazel Jane Farndale (“Janie”), (K1), the American 1 Line married John Elif Rydell.
John was a Master Sergeant in the US Air Force during WW2 and Korea. Janey
later lived in Austin, Texas and was a regular visitor to the family in
Yorkshire.
·
Ronald Martin Farndale, (K1), the Wakefield 1 Line had emigrated to New
Zealand and served in 6th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps
in Greece and Crete, before he was captured at the Battle of Sidi Rezegh in
1941 and became a Prisoner of War. He later became a builder and carpenter in
Masterton, near Auckland, New Zealand and founded the New Zealand 1 Line.
·
Sergeant William Derrick Farndale, (K1), the Whitby 5 Line was a patrol member in the
Withernsea Patrol on the East Yorkshire Coast from 1942 until 3 December 1944.
·
Jimmy Farndale, (K1), the American 1 Line enlisted into the US Army
on 15 December 1942 and served in the US Army Air Corps. In 1952 he flew around
the world visiting all continents by plane.
·
Raymond W S Farndale, (K1), the Newfoundland Line served in 59th
(Newfoundland) Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery and was commissioned into the
Royal Artillery in September 1943. The regiment trained in Northumberland but
by July1944 it was at Worthing in Sussex. It went to France and took part in
the battles for Caen. By VE-Day it was at Hamburg. Lieutenant RWS Farndale RA
went back to Canada in September 1945 with the Defence Medal, the 1939-45 Star
and War Medal with a Mention in Dispatches. He joined 166th (Newfoundland)
Field Regiment RCA (Reserve) and was with them until 1954, retiring as a Major,
earning the Canadian Forces decoration (CD). He became an accountant and lived
at St Johns, Corner Brook, Toronto and Halifax.
·
On
11 May 1945, only three days after VE day, Henry Stewart Farndale (K1), the Wakefield 1 Line
died as a pilot in training in a Tiger Moth over Leeds.
·
General
Sir Martin Farndale KCB (K1), the Wensleydale Line joined the Indian Army on 3 September 1946,
transferred to the British Army in 1947 and went to the Royal Military Academy
Sandhurst where he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. He served in
Egypt, Germany, Malaya, South Arabia, Ireland. He commanded The Chestnut Troop,
1st Regiment RHA, 7th Armoured Brigade, 2nd Armoured Division, 1st British
Corps and Northern Army Group. He became Commander-in-Chief British Army of the
Rhine and Master Gunner St James’s Park. He was awarded General Service Medal with
clasps for Malaya, South Arabia and Northern Ireland, the Silver Jubilee Medal
in 1977, and was made a Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1980 and Knight
Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1983. He was awarded the 125th
Anniversary of Canada Medal for services to Canada and an Honorary Degree of
Literature at Greenwich University.
·
Major
William Arthur James Farndale, (K1), the William Line was called to the bar by the
Middle Temple. He was later a Chairman of the Governors of Dovedale Manor
School in Camberwell. He regularly gave lectures and became involved later in
residential care.
The diverse experiences of
the family can be seen with more detail in the second timeline, and by delving deeper into
the website. The website records the many achievements, struggles, lives and relationships within our family over the
centuries. Some have enjoyed full lives and collectively the descendants of the
medieval and early Farndales such as Nicholas have a rich history of
accomplishment. Others have struggled, such as those who moved from the country
to settle in the town of Whitby,
some depending on Poor Law support. Some died very young, or at birth. Each has
his or her own page, so that each member of our family is recorded for their
life and role in society. The intention is that every historic Farndale will
have a place on this website. Although in the Twenty First Century, the family
has diverse and broad interests, we can perhaps summarise the historic
Farndales, as farmers, pioneers
and soldiers,
with many also taking to the sea, working
in ironstone mines in Cleveland and in many other occupations.
Social
Historical Context
Whilst ancestor
hunters might secretly like to search for their aristocratic forebears, what we
find is the privilege of something much richer, of ordinary folk, the engine
room of British society and their stories. What we find are stories of
endeavours, ordeals, passion, adventure, pioneering, and real life The rich
history of this single family, stretching through British history from the
Norman Conquest, through the age of rural serfdom, the Black Death and the
emergence of a more powerful workforce, associations with the legend of Robin
Hood, centuries of rural life, the industrial revolution and rapid social
change, into the horrors of the First and Second World Wars, and the era of the
Cold War, provides a direct historical perspective of social change over twelve
centuries of British history.
A note on
research methods
Parish records
were introduced in England by Thomas Cromwell, the lawyer and Chief Minister to
Henry VIII (and well known to us through the historical novels of Hilary
Mantel) on 5 September 1538. After 1538, family historians are
able to rely on extensive records of births, marriages and deaths, which
provide a framework upon which to build accurate genealogies. So from that date it is generally possible to compile
factually accurate family history. The practical date for the availability of
parish records is generally taken to be the start of the reign of Elizabeth I
in 1558.
Before
1538/1558, the genealogist’s task is much harder. Extensive records still exist
back to the Norman Conquest and the Domesday book. However
gaps in evidence are inevitable. Nevertheless, with a unique locative surname
like Farndale, it is still possible to navigate these more difficult sources
and build up an impressive history.
Martin Farndale, Richard’s father, began his
research into the family’s history in 1956. Before the age of computers and
databases, he travelled around north Yorkshire, taking hand notes from Parish
records, and compiling extensive card indexes, and achieved a remarkable
history of the family, and had already identified the heart of the history back
to the Norman Conquest. That Martin was the commander of the Northern Army
Group of NATO (the north half of NATO’s defensive line) at the heart of the
Cold War and wrote the history of the Royal Artillery along with an exhausting
portfolio of other interests and still found time to undertake this family
research is remarkable. He died in 2000.
Richard Farndale, his son and the author of
this website, took the baton from Martin in 2000. The Data Age blossomed from
2000, so that records could be analysed and compiled electronically and over
time national databases of historical material became more easily available so
that searches could be undertaken with exponential efficiency compared to what
was possible in the second half of the twentieth century. After a decade as an
artillery officer, Richard spent a quarter century as a lawyer, and dispute
resolution and the assessment of evidence were the heart of Richard’s
professional career. That has helped Richard to work through the previous
research, build on it, but also assess it evidentially and work on the
robustness of the historical record.
A lawyer
generally recognises two standards of evidence. The standard used in criminal
cases is ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, that is that facts are as near to certain as can be. The standard used in civil cases is
‘on a balance of probabilities’, that is ‘more likely than not’ or about 50%
likely.
The research
has tended to adopt the principle that for the post 1538 history of the
family, there is no reason why the history cannot be built up to meet the
higher test, beyond reasonable doubt. So the record is
built on recorded facts, and there are generally no, or very few gaps, where
guesses have to be made.
A litigator
also understands the importance of contemporaneous evidence over retrospective
evidence. In building up a factual narrative, it is always sounder to base the
work on the direct evidence that was recorded at the time.
The approach to
our history before 1538 has been, so far as possible, to build the
framework of events to the same standard, beyond reasonable doubt. In other words the primary focus has been to find physical evidence
from the recorded history, to provide a certain record of events. However the absence of comprehensive family records means
that it is impossible to identify every individual and core fact, so gaps in
our history are inevitable. Where there are gaps, and only where there are
gaps, it is therefore necessary to use common sense, logic, geographical
associations, family clusters and other clues, to make a best guess at the true
circumstances and family relationships. In general, where such an approach has
been necessary, the research has tried to apply the legal test of ‘more likely
than not’, or the ‘balance of probabilities’.
Where the work
is based on records, applying the test of beyond reasonable doubt, the history
is almost certainly correct, the risk lying in the accuracy of the
contemporary evidence itself.
Where, in our
pre 1538 history, it has been necessary to fill the gaps with an application of
logic, then the history is ‘more likely than not’. It could be wrong and
contrary evidence might take us down a different route in the future. But it is
the best analysis that is possible based upon the evidence that has been
reviewed to date.
There are some detailed
research notes, which cover the sources of research including the
medieval sources in much more detail, and this may be of particular interest to
family and local historians, particularly researching Yorkshire families.
Farndale
women – some comments on patrilineal lineage, descendants with other names, and
the importance of women in our history, despite the poor historical records
We should not blame the patrilineal
system of our lineage for this. As a former anthropologist, I know that the
passage of a name through the male line is not the only solution, and many
societies particularly in West Africa have adopted matrilineal systems, and
others have adopted multi-lineal systems such as clan systems. However the system adopted throughout Europe is a
patrilineal one. What is important to a family historian is that there is
structure, and the patrilineal nature of ancestry provides a structure which
allows us to peer deep into our history. Whilst theoretically possible to
explore every diverging family line backwards through time, that would be
impracticable. The unique locative nature of the Farndale name provides a
beacon, which we can follow through time, to find our history. It doesn’t
matter whether we still bear the Farndale name today, or are descended from a
relative however distant, who links into the Farndale chain, this family
history allows us to see far back to our more distant ancestry. It is no more
the history of modern folk bearing the name Farndale than a history of anyone
who is descended from this line of ancestry. The Farndale lineage provides a
tool to look back in time and no more.
In order to
keep this work finite, I’ve recorded a page for every person who was born a
Farndale. The record is equally about female as male folk who were born with
the name. I have not generally recorded those who married into the Farndale
family separately, but have included their stories
where I can. I have sometimes explored maternal ancestry in a few instances.
The patrilineal lineage thus provides a system to record a single family, both
male and female, and to keep the research within some structure and boundaries.
What is to blame for the
evidential focus on the menfolk is the historical record itself. However, the
evidence can only derive from the historical record. It would be completely
wrong for a historian to make up historical facts that were not recorded. So, I
think, what we have to do is to start by recording the
existing historical evidence, to build the story of the family. Inevitably it
is evidence dominated by the male stories. Wherever there is factual evidence
of the lives of women, those are of course brought in to play.
However, what we must then do, is to apply
our own perspective of what must have been. Of course
despite historical biases, women provided a bedrock of families through time.
My granny was at the heart of my own family. My father recalled in the years of
the Second World War, “My mother would come and sit with us as we went to
sleep at night and these moments became highlights of those days. I adored her,
she seemed to understand everything and she never
failed to set my mid at rest whatever my problems. I owe her a great deal
indeed. She ensured that we grew up with balance and understanding of other
people.” I suspect these sentiments reflect the reality of family life
stretching far back in time. So we might be forced to
tell stories of the recorded exploits of the menfolk, but we can add our own
perspective to provide more balance.
As I am still at a research stage, and continue to build the available evidence into
some cohesion, I am conscious that a future task will be to do what I can to
add more balance, to reflect this reality. The current focus will remain for
some time on researching the available historical material, so please bear with
me, but in time, I hope to use wider historical sources to build up a better
perspective about the lives of women, where those are not directly available
from the direct records.
Using the
website
Hopefully this
introduction has provided a general idea of the history of our family. The
wider website has over three thousand pages including individual pages for
every Farndale, with historical information about our forebears.
To go from here
you might start by finding yourself, or the particular
ancestor you are interested in by checking the
Farndale Directory, indexed by date of birth. I also suggest that
you explore the eighty eight Family Lines, and look at the Interface
Page which shows how they all link up.
For those with
less time, you can also look at the Headlines Page, which will take you
straight to some of our ancestors most interesting exploits.
I have started
to build up some underlying pages drawing together information about the geography
of the family and particular locations such as Farndale,
Rievaulx, Sheriff Hutton,
York, Doncaster, Pickering, Kirkleatham, Skelton, Moorsholm, Ampleforth, Kilton, Cleveland, Brotton, Loftus, Liverton, Great Ayton,
Stokesley, Lythe, Guisborough, Coatham, Redcar, Marske, Saltburn by
the Sea, Whitby,
Egton, Boosbeck,
Tidkinhow, Stockton, Darlington, Northallerton, Richmond, Wensleydale, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Scarborough, Wakefield, Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle, Australia,
Birregurra in Australia,
Geelong in Victoria,
Melbourne, USA,
California, Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam,
New York, Alberta, Huxley in Alberta, Three Hills in Alberta,
Trochu in Alberta,
Newfoundland,
Ontario and New Zealand.
However please note that these pages are crude and often in note form at this
stage, sometimes just capturing some material which I plane to look at further
one day.
I am also
starting to build up separate pages to explain the main occupations and
influences in which our ancestors were involved including agriculture,
pioneers,
the armed
forces, a table of the Farndales who served in World War 1,
sailors,
mining,
and as lawmakers
and law breakers. These pages all need more work.
I will also be
building pages on aspects of Yorkshire’s history that impacted on our family,
including James Cook,
Outlaws and the Robin Hood legend, the
Royal Navy in the eighteenth century, East Coast Yorkshire smugglers, the alum
trade, nineteenth century maritime commerce, Yorkshire and the First World War,
and other themes.
I will also
build pages on Yorkshire’s pre-history, eleventh century Yorkshire and there will
be further contextual historical pages including Roman Yorkshire, feudal
Yorkshire, Yorkshire and the Black Death, the
Parish of Doncaster, Elizabethan Yorkshire, Yorkshire in the Civil
War, Victorian Cleveland.
I will also be
building up an underlying social record focused on the local area, to give
wider context to the family story, including education, family self sufficiency, homes and big families in small houses, working in service,
religion, poverty, recalling the
past, women,
ambition, leisure
and entertainment, health,
children.
You may see
these pages evolving over time and gradually building up the wider context.
Meantime work continues on the wider project.