The Craggs Line

Matthew Farndale and his wife Mary Ann (nee Liverseed) at Craggs Hall in about 1900

The genealogy of the line of Farndales, descended from Matthew Farndale and Mary Ann Liverseed who settled at Craggs Hall Farm

Home Page Return to the Home Page of the Farndale Family Website

The Farndale Story The story of one family’s journey through two thousand years of British History

The Farndale Lineages The 84 family lines into which the family is divided. Meet the whole family and how the wider family is related

The Farndale Directory Members of the historical family ordered by date of birth

Themes Links to other pages with historical research and related material

Related Family Stories The story of the Bakers of Highfields, the Chapmans, and other related families

This webpage comprises the genealogical family tree of the Craggs Line and then summarises the deeper ancestry of this line of the Farndales.

The Story of the Craggs Line

The Craggs Line is the family associated with Craggs Hall Farm. Cragg Hall Farm is a Farmhouse, probably late seventeenth with adaptations and alterations through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The plan is derived from longhouse tradition, now referred to as false longhouse.

Craggs is the hill which looks over Carlin How, the hill of the witches, where a Saxon princess lay buried for centuries until she was excavated in 2005.

William Farndale (1725 to 1789) (FAR00146), the father of the Kilton 3 Line, was a farmer at Craggs. It is not known whether this was Craggs Hall Farm. But his family were associated with Kilton.

It was Matthew Farndale (1850 to 1927) who bought Craggs Hall Farm. There is a family story that Matthew, the younger brother of three, had been asked by his older brother, Martin, to buy Craggs Hall Farm for Martin, but bought it for himself. They appear to have made up and Martin later bought Tidkinhow Farm. The Craggs Line is the family of six of Matthew. From this family derive the Wakefield Line and the Thirsk Line.

Mary Ann Farndale (FAR00397) had vivid memories of holidays at Cragg Hall Farm. She knew it is Cragg and not Craggs although it is called Craggs Hall today and on modern maps. Matthew was affectionately called Mattha by Mary Ann who was an elderly widower by then and he appeared to enjoy her fussing over him. Mary remembers a beautiful rose garden hidden at the back of the farm seen only by those at the farm, fruit bushes dripping with berries, taking the farmworkers lunches out to the fields at midday, being allowed to go shopping on her own to Carlin How or Brotton (she was only 5 or 6 at the time) and reading Pilgrims Progress in the rarely used ‘front room’ A special treat was to be taken for rides in the side car of Herbert’s motor bike. Herbert, Matthews’ son was presumably running the farm by this stage. (Record from Judith Bremner).

Mary Ann Farndale in front of Craggs Hall in about 1920 Craggs Hall Farm in 2021 Matthew Farndale, Mary Ann Farndale, Robert Farndale and Ruth Farndale, in front of Craggs Hall, about 1920

The family tree

The family tree is colour coded to show the flow of relationships between individuals. You can also follow the hyperlinks in brown text to link directly to other related family lines and the hyperlink in blue text to reach the webpage of each individual, where you can read about their lives in more detail.

Jane Hall

Ralph Liverseed 1757

Elizabeth Rowland 1790 to 1840

Thomas Liverseed 1781 to 1848

Joseph Hutchinson 1795

Mary

The Kilton 1 Line

Robert Liverseed 1810 to 1882

Mary Ann Margaret Hutchinson 1821 to 1905

William Farndale 1725 to 21 February 1789 Married nee Taylor Farmer of Craggs See the Kilton 3 Line FAR00146

Matthew Farndale 25 June 1850 to 27 February 1927 Married Mary Liverseed Farmer Craggs Hall Farm, Skelton, Stockton, Brotton FAR00383

Mary Ann Liverseed 1857 to 4 November 1933

Joseph Liverseed

Robert Liverseed 1848

Thomas Liverseed 1851

William Liverseed 1853

John Liverseed 1855

Andrew Liverseed 1859

Robert Farndale 20 August 1885 to 27 March 1972 Married nee Alcock Wakefield, Craggs, Stockton, Brotton, Staincliffe Served in the Labour Corps in WW1 FAR00606

Ruth Farndale 14 December 1886 to 1974 Travelled to Canada in 1929 Married her cousin, Martin Farndale (FAR00571) in Canada in 1932 Craggs, Guisborough, Trochu Alberta, Brotton, Ripon, Harrogate, Northallerton FAR00619

Ernest Farndale 1889 to 30 November 1913 Died aged 24 Craggs, Brotton FAR00633

Herbert Farndale 30 March 1892 to 23 July 1971 Craggs, Brotton Sergeant (and later Second Lieutenant) in WW1 awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in WW1 and whose house at Craggs Hall Farm was hit by a German bomb in WW2 Farmer and Independent Councillor for North Riding County Council FAR00652

William Farndale 14 July 1894 to 16 March 1974 Married Mary Coverdale on 9 December 1916 Farmer at Plane Tree Farm, Maunby. Thirsk, Craggs, Guisborough, Danby, Northallerton FAR00665

Edwin Farndale 23 July 1898 to 30 January 1983 Bank manager of Middleton on Tees (near Barnard Castle) Married Mary Rogers in 1922 Craggs, Wakefield, Middleton ion Tees, Haydon Bridge FAR00691

Married into the Tidkinhow Line

The Thirsk Line

Julia M Farndale 1924 to 13 October 2016 Married Ian Arthur Benjamin Parnall on 28 January 1956 Castle Ward, Hexham, Northumberland FAR00891

Ruth Farndale 1911 to 31 October 1918 Died aged 7 of meningitis and pneumonia. Wakefield FAR00775

Robert Edwin Farndale 13 April 1913 to 3 August 1976 Dairy Farmer Married Florence Cooper (or Hooper) in 1939 Wakefield, Grassington, Keighley FAR00795

Maurice Farndale 11 April 1915 to 14 December 2002 Married Lena Stanley in 1939 Dairy Farmer Wakefield, Nelson, Staincliffe FAR00816

Ada Farndale 19 January 1917 Married Robert Walker in 1939, a dairy farmer Wakefield, Skipton Cockitt Farm, Earby FAR00836

Ronald Martin Farndale 22 January 1919 to 3 July 1974 Emigrated to New Zealand and served in 6th Field Ambulance RAMC in Greece and Crete and was captured as a Prisoner of War at Sidi Rezegh. He became a Carpenter and builder in Masterton, near Auckland, New Zealand Married Margaret Madge Maxted in 1945 (she died in 1956) and Doris Elaine * Wakefield, Mastamata, Wellington, Auckland, New Zealand FAR0852

Alan Farndale 1940 Married Pamela Taylor in 1963, Lynda Mckinstry in 1979 and Janet Fisher in 1996 Engineer and Architectural Designer FAR00968

John Leslie Farndale 6 July 1942 to 1994 Married Iris J Casselden in 1986 Nelson, Lancashire, York FAR00978

Patricia Farndale 1947 Married Vincent George in 1970 Nelson, Staincliffe FAR01014

Jean Farndale 1952 Married Peter Brennand in 1975 Staincliffe, Burnley and Pendle FAR01056

The New Zealand 1 Line

The Cambridge Line

If you are subscribed to Ancestry you can also visit the Farndale Family Tree on Ancestry, which links the whole family together.

The Deeper Ancestry of the Craggs Line

The matrix below will transport descendants of the Craggs Line into a personal journey into their deep ancestry. It is an extract of the Farndale Story which is bespoke for the Craggs Line descendants. It will take you back to the earliest history of our ancestors and each box will transport you to a more detailed narrative to unlock your history.

			Kirkdale Cave A Time Machine to a different era of geological time in the heart of our ancestral home
			The Primeval Swamp The Iron Age, Bronze Age, Neolithic, and Mesolithic evidence of the people of the immediate vicinity to Farndale
Isurium Brigantum (Aldborough) The Roman Regional Capital of the lands around Kirkdale	Hovingham A Roman Villa on palatial scale just south of Kirkdale	Beadlam A Roman Villa only 2km from Kirkdale in the heart of our ancestral lands	Roman Kirkdale 71 CE to 580 CE The lands which would become the lands of Kirkdale and Chirchebi in Roman and Pagan times	The Roman Arm Purse A Roman arm purse which can be seen in the British Museum in London today, found in about the second century CE by a cairn overlooking Farndale, which will transport you back 2,000 years	Eboracum (York) The Roman Capital of northern England where Constantine was proclaimed Emperor
			Anglo Saxon Kirkdale 560 CE to 793 CE Kirkdale and the Chirchebi Estate in the Anglo Saxon Period	Anglo Saxon Kirkdale Kirkdale from its founding in about 685 CE to the beginning of the Scandinavian period in about 800 CE	Eoforwic (York) Deirian and Northumbrian York, a political, cultural and educational Hub on the European stage The Deira The people who dominated our ancestral lands	Alcuin and the birth of modern education The world of Ecgbert and Aethelbert, successors to Bede, and their pupil Alcuin, who took York’s powerhouse of knowledge to the court of Charlemagne to pioneer the European educational system
		Orm Gamalson The powerful figure at the heart of the aristocracy, who rebuilt Kirkdale and put our ancestral lands firmly onto the national political stage	Scandinavian Kirkdale 793 CE to 1066 Kirkdale and the Chirchebi Estate in the Scandinavian Period	Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian Kirkdale Kirkdale in the Anglo-Saxon-Scandinavian period from about 800 CE to 1066, with a brief summary of its history through to 1500	Jorvik (York) The Scandinavian centre of northern England	The Kirkdale Sundial A unique treasure whose secrets transport us into the world of the eleventh century upon which you can stare today, imagining direct ancestors who did the same a thousand years ago
		Norman Domination Regime Change	Game of Thrones 1066 to 1200 The People of the Kirkbymoorside (“Chirchebi”) Estate after the Norman Conquest	Rievaulx Abbey This history of the Cistercian monastery of Rievaulx, in whose Chartulary the name Farndale was first recorded in 1154
The Pathfinders Our Pioneer ancestors who left Farndale but took its name to settle in new places	Poachers of Pickering Forest Tales of a surprisingly large number of our forebears who were poachers in Pickering Forest. Their archery skills would foretell the legends of Robin Hood and the English army at Agincourt	Medieval Farming Rural lifestyles from the Norman Conquest	The First Family Tree A model which relies on extensive medieval evidence, to suggest the most probable family tree of the earliest ancestors of the Farndales	The Cradle Thirteenth Century Farndale Clearing the dale to build our new home	The Story of Farndale to 1500 The story of the dale of Farndale to 1500, to accompany the family story	Medieval Warfare Tales of archers and men at arms who fought with Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V and an observation post in the home of the Nevilles and Richard III from which to view the Wars of the Roses
Campsall and Barnsdale Forest The history of the village of Campsall north of Doncaster, where we find our ancestors in the sixteenth century	The History of Doncaster to 1500 The History of pre industrial Doncaster from its Roman inception as Danum to the end of the sixteenth century	The Vicar of Doncaster The Family of William Farndale, the Fourteenth Century Vicar of Doncaster	The Kirkleatham Skelton Line	Arrival in the old Bruce lands around Skelton Castle The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Families of Kirkleatham, Skelton, Moorsholm and Liverton in Cleveland	Kirkleatham A history of Kirkleatham and Wilton, the place where our family first settled in Cleveland
			The Liverton 2 Line
The Miners The family story of mining, mainly for ironstone, the primary resource behind the industrial development of Cleveland	Transition to the Industrial Revolution John Farndale, my great x2 uncle, was a prolific writer who captured the essence of the late eighteenth century and its transition into the Industrial Revolution. The family’s history provides a direct pathway to experience these years of momentous change	Brotton Old Graveyard Three generations of Kilton Farndales in one place. A side trip to nearby Boosbeck and Skelton take you to the gravestones two later generations. Take in Wensley and you’ll find two more recent generations. Seven generations of the family in one short drive	The Kilton 1 Line	The Farmers of Kilton The First Hub The story of the Kilton Farndales, a family who dominated a village, since lost to time, over two centuries	Kilton, the Lost Village The story of the lost village of Kilton and its sylvan landscape Kilton A journey around modern Kilton, of farms, a ruined castle and a small village of Kilton Thorpe to capture the essence of the two century home of Farndales	The Smugglers of Old Saltburn Stories of smugglers, led by my great x3 grandfather known as the King of the Smugglers, and the undoubted involvement of our forebears
	Carlin How and Saxon Witches The burial ground of a Saxon princess who lay for thirteenth centuries overlooking the Hill of Witches where the Craggs line of Farndales would later make their home		The Craggs Line	The Craggs Hall Farndales The story of Matthew Farndale and his family of Craggs Hall Farm	The First World War Soldiers The story of the many soldiers from the family who took up arms in the First World War The First World War The context of the First World War to the Farndale Story