Act 12
Arrival in the Old Bruce lands around
Skelton Castle
The story of the family’s arrival in
Cleveland. The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century families of Kirkleatham,
Skelton, Moorsholm and Liverton
The
Farndale footprint
It’s time
for a recap.
The
emigrants from Farndale of
the early fourteenth century had moved south across the Vale of York to York, Sheriff
Hutton and Doncaster. There had been some probing to the
area north of the North York Moors, such as De
Willelmo de Farndale who settled in Danby and De Johanne de Farendale who ventured as far as Egton, though he later returned to Rosedale and
his family were probably those who settled in York.
The family of the cattle rustler John Farndale
were probably living as far up country as County Durham in the late fourteenth
century. There was a Thomas fyndaille in Lythe on
the Cleveland coast in 1524. However the footprint of the family was south of
the dales and the main family line seems to have become focused on Doncaster and Campsall.
Yet from the
mid sixteenth century almost all records of the family, which by that time were
starting to be well preserved in the parish records, were from Cleveland, north
of the North York Moors. This continued until a family emerged around Yearsley near Ampleforth, not
so far from the family’s ancient homelands around Kirkdale and Farndale, in about 1783, that
family moving there via Thirsk.
So when we
look at the pattern of the records, it is probable that the line of the family
from whom the modern family descends, had moved to the area around Doncaster by the early
fourteenth century, stayed there until the mid sixteenth century, and then
moved north to Cleveland, where they lived from the mid sixteenth century, with
a branch moving to the Ampleforth area in the late eighteenth century.
It’s only a
very few royal or aristocratic families who can be sure of family relationships
before the sixteenth century. In most cases it’s not possible to be sure how
individuals meshed together before parish records
started to record births, deaths and marriages from about 1538.
However
medieval records of individuals who must have been our ancestors have allowed
us to piece the clues together, so that we have significant evidence as to how
these individuals are linked.
We know that
before 1572 we don’t find evidence of Farndales in Cleveland, but instead
mainly around York, Sheriff Hutton and Doncaster. Yet after
1572, we find almost all Farndales in Cleveland, apart from a family that later
emerged around Ampleforth in the eighteenth century. The probable explanation
is that the Farndale family moved, sometime in the sixteenth century, from
south to north of the North York Moors.
Scene 1 – Moving North
The
emigration to Kirkleatham
Parish
records began to be kept, by the orders of Thomas Cromwell, from about 1538[1]. By about 1573 there were pretty
good records being kept. As we reach the mid sixteenth century we start to
emerge from the age of the most probable to a modern age of greater certainty.
From that date, we benefit from records which allow us to follow family
relationships beyond reasonable doubt. And so it is that we know that Nicholas farndaile
was buried
in the parish of Kirkleatham,
in Cleveland, near Skelton
on 6 August 1572[2].
Assuming that Nicholas might have lived for 60 years, he might have been born in about
1512.
We also know
that an Agnes Farndale was buried at Kirkleatham on 23 January 1586[3]. So it’s pretty clear that Agnes was Nicholas’ wife.
|
1512 to 6 August 1572
The most likely paternal and maternal ancestors of modern
Farndales, who died in Kirkleatham having probably emigrated with their
family into Cleveland |
Given what
we know for certain of the generations to follow, Nicholas and Agnes are likely
to be the paternal and maternal grandparents of all modern Farndales. The
records are still not good enough for us to be sure about that. However when we piece together some tangible evidence, it
seems very probable.
We also know
that a Jean
Farndale married Richard Fairley, a relatively pedigreed fellow, in Kirkleatham on
16 October 1567[4]. As the wedding was in Kirkleatham parish it seems likely that
Jean was the daughter of Nicholas and Agnes.
A William
Farndale died on 24 January 1606 and was buried at St John the Baptist Church
in Skelton[5]. We don’t have his birth record, but
William was likely to have been the son of Nicholas
and Agnes in the adjacent parish of Kirkleatham. Since we have already
identified that a William Farndale married Margaret Atkinson in Campsall, near Doncaster in 1564[6], it is tempting to deduce that this
is the same person. That would mean that Nicholas and Agnes and their children
William and Jean were originally from Doncaster or Campsall,
but then moved into Cleveland probably in the 1560s shortly after
William’s marriage.
|
|
|
William and
Margaret (nee Atkinson) Farndale c 1539 to 24 January 1606
The couple who married at St Mary Magdalene Church in Campsall
north of Doncaster, and who emigrated to Cleveland and were buried in Skelton |
Whilst we
have no direct evidence of this, it provides us with an explanation as to how
the family, with a footprint south of the North York Moors, came to live in
Cleveland, to the north of the North York Moors. Before long we will find
another clue as to why the family might have made that move.
The
Christian names of Nicholas and William, though commonly used, also link the
fourteenth and sixteenth century records. It is not unlikely that Nicholas and
William Farndale who we find in Cleveland in the sixteenth century are from the
same family as Nicholaus and William Farndale who we find in Doncaster in the fourteenth
century. Of course that might just be coincidence, but it adds to the picture
we have.
This model
helps to explain a lot, but it is an aspect of our history that needs some more
research, and we may never get to the bottom of the riddle.
So this
allows us to draw up a possible family tree for the Doncaster-Kirkleatham-Skelton
Line of Farndales.
If we are
correct, the ancestors of the modern family must have emigrated north after
William and Margaret’s wedding in St Mary Magdalene Church in Campsall in 1564
and before Jean’s wedding to Richard Fairley in Kirkleatham in 1567.
|
1485 to 1603
Sixteenth century England |
This
emigration occurred in the midst of the Elizabethan
age, thirty years after the Reformation during Henry VIII’s reign (1509 to
1547) had fundamentally transformed English society by removing Rome’s
supremacy. The First Act of Succession in 1534[7] had resolved Henry’s marital and succession issues and two
Acts of Supremacy[8] confirmed Henry VIII as supreme head
of the church of England. This was the first time England had brexited from the European world. To most ordinary folk,
these issues were probably remote and caused little to change, but there was a
heightened awareness of religious difference which impacted everywhere. This
religious difference would have impacted on the Farndales living around
Doncaster in 1536 when the
Pilgrimage of Grace reached both York and Doncaster. It
probably impacted all corners of the nation during the reign of Bloody Mary
(1553 to 1558), which brought a devastating Counter Reformation and the burning
of protestants, cruel heresy laws, when John Foxes’s Actes
and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days,
known as the Book of Martyrs[9], compiled the shocking stories of
the persecutions.
Elizabeth I
(1558 to 1603) brought some calm and toleration back to her realm. The Act of
Supremacy 1558[10] was An Acte
restoring to the Crowne its Jurisdiction over the State Ecclesiasticall
and Spirituall, and abolyshing
all Forreine Power repugnaunt
to the same, The Act of Uniformity 1559[11], authorised a book of common prayer
which was similar to the 1552 version but which retained some Catholic
elements, and the Thirty Nine Articles 1563[12] provided a compromise return to a
new Anglican world. This was the foundation of a new religion which was later
called Anglicanism. It looked Catholic and sounded Protestant. It was a
religious middle way. It was a compromise and perhaps the foundation of the
British spirit of compromise. It contrasted to a time of Catholic versus
Protestant polarisation in Europe. Elizabeth had little sympathy for hardliners
from either wing of the religious divide. She stopped heresy trials. This was a
brave new world, though still to be threatened for a while by Spanish invasion
plans and a medley of plots.
Over time
however, there were acts by her monarchy which supressed Catholicism, which was
still popular in Yorkshire.
The mid
1560s were therefore a period of renewed hope, whilst still threatened by
opposing ideas. It was in 1568 that Mary Queen of Scots escaped from Loch Leven
Castle and fled to England and was interred in a succession of castles,
including Bolton Castle in Wensleydale. Soon after Mary’s arrival, a rebellion began in the pro
Catholic north of England led by the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland.
The Rising of the North of 1569[13], also called the Revolt of the
Northern Earls or Northern Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by
Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England
and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.
|
A history of Yorkshire rebellions through time |
It was at
this time that Jean Farndale
had married Richard Fairley in Kirkleatham on 16 October 1567. This was the
first event which marked the family’s arrival there. The Fairleys
were a Scottish family once known as de Ros who adopted the name Fairlie when
they were granted lands at Fairlie in Ayrshire by Robert the Bruce, that Scottish King of
Yorkshire descent[14]. Fairley was thus a locative name
from Fairlie in Ayrshire near the mouth of the Forth of Clyde. By 1881 the
later family were centred around Midlothian and Lanarkshire, but also Durham
and Northumberland. The family was also in Ireland. The two branches of the
Bruce family had lands in Annandale in Ayshire and
around Skelton.
William
Fairlie was referred to in 1306 to 1329 in the Great Seal of Scotland[15]. Wiliam Fayrly
or Fayrley was referred to in the Exchequer Rolls of
Scotland in 1329. William de Fairlie was referred to in Rotuli
Scotiae, in 1335.
As well as
Richard Fairley, Jean Fayrley in 1571, also Ellen Fayrlay in 1579 appeared in
the Kirkleatham records[16]. Germane Fairlye
in 1571 and Henrici Fairley in 1609 were referred to in the parish records for
nearby Marske in Cleveland[17].
Jean Farley,
who might have been Richard Fairley’s sister, married Christopher Chapman at Kirkleatham on 3 November 1588[18]. There was also a marriage between
Jean Farley and Railphe Marcam
on 8 March 1602. There was also a Francis Fairlye who
was buried at Kirkleatham on 30 August
1568[19]; John Farley who was buried at Kirkleatham on 15 December 1579[20]; an Ellen Fairlie who was buried at Kirkleatham on 3 August 1580[21]; Elizabeth Farley who was buried at Kirkleatham on 8 June 1583[22]; and a Mary Fairley of East Coatham
who was buried at Kirkleatham on 17
November 1618[23].
Richard
Fairley died in 1584 and was buried on 1 September 1584 at Kirkleatham[24].
This was a
Scottish family, of some pedigree, who seem to have been well established in Kirkleatham.
|
A
history of Kirkleatham and Wilton, the place where our family first settled
in Cleveland |
It seems
probable that the Farndales had moved from Campsall to Kirkleatham between 1564, when William
had married Margaret Atkinson, and 1567, when Jean had
married into the Kirkleatham Fairley family of Scottish descent. This may have
been a time of some renewed emigration for new opportunities at the onset of a
time of greater tolerance, after many difficult years of religious tension.
Scene 2 – A Family Established
Sixteenth
century Cleveland
As they
arrived in the ancient Bruce
landholdings focused on Skelton
castle, the estate lands were in the hands of the Conyers family.
|
The baronial Yorkshire family
from whom later Scottish Kings would derive and who dominated the early
history of our later Cleveland home |
|
A family tree of the House
Brus, the Lords of Skelton and Annandale, and the family relationship to the
Kings and Queens of England and Scotland |
|
A history
of Skelton and its old church. The Farndales arrived in Moorsholm in the
Parish of Skelton in about 1588 and lived there through the tumultuous years
of the Civil War |
John, Lord
Conyers had died intestate in 1556 and the estate was
divided between his three daughters, Anne, Katharine and Elizabeth. There was
soon tension between the three families focused on arguments between the three
husbands. The dispute was resolved by the sale of the Skelton
estate to Robert Trotter in 1577. The Trotters held the estates until
the early eighteenth century. So as the Farndales
arrived, the overlordship was in something of a turmoil.
Cleveland,
circa 1600
In the
sixteenth century Cleveland was rural and agricultural. It was not dissimilar
to the Farndale lands and the agricultural communities at the edge of the dales
to the south of the moors.
Its
immense ranges of majestic hills; its far-extending moors, interspersed with
fruitful valleys and picturesque dales; its embowering groves of beech and
pine, and wide-spreading forests of oak; its calm and peaceful rivers, clear
and musical with the rush of innumerable mountain streams; the beauty or
sublimity of the ocean, girding its romantic shores; the enormous chain of
towering sea-cliffs against which in calm the billows leap with playful sportfulness, or in tempest fiercely hurl their thunders, all
these combined present a majesty and loveliness in Nature, unsurpassed, we may
venture to affirm, within the circuit of the British isles.[25]
The earliest
record of the name Cleveland is in the twelfth century Orkneyinga
Saga, which recorded Harald Hardrada of Norway landing in Klifland[26].
These were ancient
lands stretching from the River Tees to the coast at Whitby. Roseberry
Topping, south of Guisborough, is
an area of rich Bronze and Iron Age history. There had been extensive
Scandinavian settlement, evident in place names. Guisborough is the fortified town of Gigr and became an important settlement. After the
Conquest in 1120 Robert de Brus founded the Augustinian Gisborough Priory. The
spelling of the priory is distinct from the town spelling.
The Black Death had swept through
Cleveland just as elsewhere and killed two thirds of the population and Black
Death graveyards at Great Ayton,
Wilton, Seamer were testament to the trauma of plague. The religious tensions
such as the Pilgrimage of Grace
had also reached Cleveland. Sir John Bulmer of Wilton was hanged
and his wife was burnt at the stake. George Lumley of Kilton was executed.
The
Recusancy Acts in 1558[27] required attendance at Church of
England services, returning to Henry VIII’s Reformation. Those who refused to
do so were called Recusants[28] and were brought to Court to face
penalties. In Cleveland, at first Egton, with
nine Recusants, was the most visible centre of dissent. By 1586, Brotton had nineteen presentations for
Recusancy, Egton thirteen, Hinderwell ten and
Skelton eight[29].
There was
strong adherence to Catholicism in northern England and Elizabeth I’s reforms
to purge Bloody Mary’s regime led to the Rising of
the North, led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland. It was an
unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose
Elizabeth I and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots. Reprisals against the
rebels of 1569 began and 600 rebel commoners were hanged in local towns.
A Poor Law
authorised Counties to establish houses of correction for vagrants in 1576 and
for the Punishment of the Mother and Father of a
Bastard[30]. The Bastardy Laws relieved the
parish from the cost of supporting the child and children born out of wedlock
and put such children at significant risk of infant mortality.
In 1586,
with the threat of war from Spain, there was a degree of mobilisation and the
Wapentake of Langbaurgh, which included the relevant areas of modern Cleveland,
was required to provide 350 men. This was also a year of severe famine.
By the end
of the sixteenth century, the poor, old and sick had no place to go for relief
and many starved to death. In 1601 the new Poor Law
placed a legal obligation on parishes to care for those unable to work. The
Poor Relief Act placed responsibility for local affairs on the Vestry, a
committee of the leading figures of a Church Parish, who ran the daily business
of the area. Each Parish was made responsible for the maintenance of its own
poor. The churchwardens and parishioners had to elect two Overseers of the
paupers in each Church Parish. These men collected Poor Rates, which were
levied in the same way as Church Rates, and this money was applied to the
relief of the local poor in return for useful work if possible. This system for
dealing with the Parish poor continued until the Victorian Workhouses from
1834.
As the
Farndales arrived in the area, there were early signs of the future industrial
revolution which would soon reinvent Cleveland. By 1595, Sir Thomas
Chaloner established alum works at Belman
Banks. The first
profitable alum site in Yorkshire was opened in 1603 at Spring Bank, Slapewath, which was then part of Skelton. The new alum business
was owned by the Athertons and D’Arcys
who had married into the ownership of Skelton Castle. Britain had been an
agricultural nation and wool was its chief export. Alum was used in the dyeing
process as the setting agent and was also needed in the tanning of hides. It
was a highly valued product, which previously had been imported. In 1610, James
I made Alum production a monopoly of the Crown. By 1616 alum production began
at Selby Hagg, near Hagg Farm, Skelton.
Ships anchored off Saltburn to
transport the finished product. They brought with them casks of urine, which
was mixed with the liquid that had been obtained from the calcined shale as
part of the process. This was probably done in an Alum House near Cat Nab in Saltburn. The shale liquid ran
from Selby Hagg by gravity down a trough that followed the course of Millholme Beck.
|
The important alum trade in
Cleveland |
Pastoral
scenes were starting to be laced with the smells and the sweat of a future
industrial age.
In 1623, the
estate of Kirkleatham and Kirkleatham
Hall, once traditional Percy lands (rivals of the Nevilles of the Sheriff Hutton
lands), were purchased by John Turner, the brother in law of John Pepys
daughter, Jane.
Nearby Skelton Castle had been the
heart of the Bruce lands. There were close marital links between the House
Bruce and the de Thweng family of Kilton castle. Kilton was part of the Skelton
estates.
In 1635 the
Quarter Sessions at Thirsk ordered No person within the North Riding shal be lycenced to keepe an alehouse but by the Justices assigned to performe the services concerninge
alehouses within the division wherein the said person shall dwell, and that all
other lycences granted by any other Justices
otherwise shal be voyde.
It was
also ordered for the better performance of the good and necessary lawes and statutes made for the reliefe
of the poore, and for the punishinge
of such persons as are declared to be rogues, vagabondes,
and sturdy beggars, and for the keeping of order in alehouses, that Constables,
Churchwardens, and Ale-conners within every parish shall make particular
monthly certificates in manner following: That they have none amongst them that
do brew, drink, or sell without lycence, or doe take
above one penny for an ale quart of their best drink, or if they have they must
sett down their names and the tymes of the offence
committed. That they know of noe person that hath sitten tippling in any alehouse contrarie
unto the law, or if they have…That they know of noe
vagrant begger that hath passed through their parish
without punishment …[31]
The family
arrival in Cleveland coincided with the first hint of a transition from
pastoral to industrial, and from Catholicism to Protestantism, sometimes tinged
with a puritan streak.
Moorsholm
In a deed of
1592, a George fferndale of Moorsholm was referred to several times
relating to property at Skelton as to whether he
had purchased it a previous date. Whilst we cannot be sure, George was probably
a son of William and Margaret Farndale. These were still the early days of
parish records, and there remains some doubt about the exact mesh of
relationships. It is George Farndale and his descendants where the mist clears
and inter-relationships become more certain.
|
The Family Tree of the arrivals in Cleveland |
|
c1570 To 9 March 1606 Married Margery Nelson
from Wilton, near Kirkleatham in 1595 Skelton |
|
|
It seems
likely that the early family looked something like this.
George Farndale
of Skelton married Margery Nelson of Wilton in 1595[32]. Wilton is only 2 kilometres south
of Kirkleatham. Moorsholm was part of the parish of Skelton, about five
kilometres southeast of Skelton, so it seems likely that the 1592 reference and
his wedding in Skelton mean that George and his family lived in Moorsholm, within the parish of Skelton.
Moorsholm is a Scandinavian name, the settlement on the moors.
Originally Great Moorsholm was where the modern village lies, and there was
also Little Moorsholm.
George
Farndale and his sister, Eln, both married spouses from Wilton near Kirkleatham and Eln’s
husband had the same surname, Atkinson[33], as her mother, so is likely to have
been a cousin. This might suggest that when William had married Margaret
Atkinson in Campsall,
north of Doncaster, the Atkinson family came from Wilton near Kirkleatham. The
reason why the family moved from Campsall near
Doncaster to Kirkleatham near Wilton
might therefore be that the whole family chose to live near William’s new wife,
Margaret Atkinson’s family. There are many Atkinsons in the Kirkleatham Parish
records[34], so this was a family established
there.
George ffarnedayle of Moorsome was
mentioned in the Inspeximus in Skelton Church
Records in 1602.
George
Farndayll was buried, seputs at Skelton on 9 March 1607[35].
In 1609 the
administration of the Goods of George Farndale, late of Moorsome,
deceased was granted to Margerie Farndaile and Isabel
Pinckney, for their own benefit and for Susan, George and Richard Farndaile,
children of the deceased. In the same year, the Dean of Cleveland granted guardianship
of William Farndaile, Susan, George and Richard Farndaile, children of George
Farndale, deceased, together with administration of their affairs, goods,
rights and portions to Margery Farndale by choice of the said children[36]. This suggests that George and
Margery’s children had to make a choice as to who they would live with. Perhaps
this was something to do with George’s interest in the mysterious Isabel
Pinckney.
On 3 April
1611 George’s brother in law, Valentine Wraye, a yom'n,
was fined 20s at Skelton for
uttering contemptuous words and threats against certain men - viz. Will. Gedge,
Anth. Hutton and Nich. Harker, bound as witnesses in
the matter of a certain felony committed by Chr. Hobson and Henry Robinson,
late of lastingham, in contempt &c. [37]
The records
then provide us with certainty about the evolving shape of the family. George and
Margery Farndale were
the parents of William
Farndale (1599 to 1697), Susan
Farndale (c 1601 to c 1660), George Farndale
Junior (1602 to 1693); Infanta Farndale
(died at birth in 1603) and Richard
Farndale (1604 to c 1685).
George Farndale
Junior (1602 to 1693) had four children including Nicholas Farndale.
It is through Nicholas that the ancestry of the modern family descends.
|
William Farndale
c
1539 to 24 January 1606 Married
Margaret Atkinson at Campsall on 29 October 1564 before the family moved to
Kirkleatham Doncaster,
Campsall, Wilton, Skelton |
→ |
George Farndale
c1570
To 9 March 1606 Married
Margery Nelson from Wilton, near Kirkleatham in 1595 Skelton |
→ |
George Farndaile
16
March 1602 to 17 August 1693 Married
Jaine or Jane Skelton,
Liverton, Moorsholm, Loftus |
→ |
Nicholas Farndale
6
July 1634 to 28 February 1693/4 Married
Elizabeth ? and Elizabeth Bennison A
Liverton Family, Nicholas had four children from his first marriage and two
from his second Liverton |
It was at
this point that the family would start to split into separate families around
Cleveland from the early seventeenth century. In the early eighteenth century,
some moved back south of the North York Moors around Yearsley near Ampleforth.
Broadly, the
family started to diverge along four main branch lines, which in time would
further diverge into smaller family lines. The four main groups were a family at Kilton,
a second family
focused on Kilton, Brotton and Loftus, a number of families at Whitby
and the Yearsley family. We
will explore these four hubs of the family in more detail in the following Acts
of the Story.
|
Act 13 – 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 |
|
Act 14 – Spreading out from Brotton and Loftus The Second Hub The
story of a substantial division of the family who spread widely across
Cleveland and beyond from Kilton, Brotton and Loftus |
|
Act 15 – The Mariners of Whitby The Third Hub The story of the Whitby Farndales who settled in the bustling port of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries |
|
Act 16 –
Return to the Vale of York The Fourth Hub The
Ampleforth Farndales who returned south of the North York Moors to Yearsley
near Ampleforth |
Civil War
|
1603 to 1714 Seventeenth century England |
The Act of
Settlement in 1662 attempted to prevent anyone from settling elsewhere than
their place of birth[38]. It was intended mainly to prevent
paupers moving to be maintained by a Parish other than their own, as each
Parish had to collect a Poor Rate to maintain their own poor. Removal orders
were made returning people to their own Parish right up to the 1840s and the
start of the Workhouse.
The Act of
Uniformity 1662[39] prescribed the form of public prayers, administration of
sacraments, and other rites of the Established Church of England and included
laws for preventing mischiefs and dangers that may arise by certain persons
called Quakers, and others refusing to take oaths. The act declared it altogether
unlawful and contrary to the word of God to refuse to take an oath, or to
persuade another person to refuse to do so. It was also an offense for more
than five persons, commonly called Quakers, to assemble in any place under pretense of joining in a religious worship not authorized
by the laws of this realm.
To help
raise over a million pounds for the Royal Household a Hearth Tax was imposed in
1662[40], whereby each household was
compelled to pay 2s per annum for every fireplace that they owned.
George
Junior’s older brother, William Farndale
(1599 to 1697) continued to live in Moorsholm
in Skelton Parish and in 1674
he had two hearths[41], for which he was taxed. William
then moved to Liverton by
1685[42] and died in Great Ayton, where he
left his will[43]. He had four children and lots of
grandchildren. We have a lot of information about his family, which can be
explored in the Skelton Line
and his grandchildren were the Moorsholm
1 Line and the Great
Ayton 1 Line. His grandson William Farndale
was sworn in for Jury Service at Loftus in
1700[44].
|
|
Roundhead helmet, c 1645 (Doncaster Museum)
George Junior’s younger brother Richard Farndale (1604 to about 1685) moved to Liverton,
where he married Emme Nellice on 29 July 1632[45]. He became a church warden at
Liverton church[46]. Richard and Emmie had five
children, the Liverton 1 Line.
One of his children was John Farndale, who
moved to Whitby, and we will pick up his
story in a later chapter.
Another was Richard
Farndale, a yeoman farmer who married Matha Sawer in Brotton.
His family, the Brotton 1 Line,
included the ancestors of one of the Kilton Line of descendants, and we will
also pick up their story in a later Act.
|
|
The modern
Farndale family descend from George Farndale Junior
(1602 to 1693). Like his brothers, George had moved to Liverton by 1623[47], but by 1642, as the English Civil
War started, he moved back to Moorsholm,
where he had one hearth in 1673 and two hearths in 1674[48].
The English Civil War which began in 1642 was part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1639 to 1653[49]. Parliament voted on 12 July 1642 to raise a force under the command of the Third Earl of Essex and required an oath of allegiance. The King issued commissions of array to allow the raising of militias and raised his flag at Nottingham on 22 August 1642. Each side seized towns, strongpoints and military stores. The King was locked out of the largest military depot at Hull. Counties petitioned for compromise. Counties such as Yorkshire dragged their feet.
It is too
simplistic that the war was just a fight between liberty on the part of the
Parliamentarians against the tyranny of Stuart absolutism. Nor was it primarily
about class struggle. The ancient peerages tended to back the Parliamentarians
as they disliked the novelties of Stuart government. Religion was the clearest
dividing line, but religious spectrums were fluid and nearly everyone belonged
to the Church of England. A third of Puritans in 1643 were Royalist. Instead there was division everywhere and every town and
village and many families were divided. Most fought because they were
conscripted. Families split. There were shifting coalitions and people changed
sides. It was the sixteenth century equivalent of Brexitian
and Trumpian division.
Early in the
Civil War there was a campaign for the north in 1643[50]. When the first great battle of the
Civil War, at Edgehill on 23 October 1642[51], failed to deliver the expected
resolution, both Royalists and Parliamentarians rushed to take control of
extensive territories as the basis from which to support a long campaign. In
the north the King gave this task to the Marquis of Newcastle. By November 1642
the Royalist city of York was coming under
increasing threats from the Parliamentarian forces of the Hothams
and Cholmley from the north east and the Fairfaxes from the west.
The Royalist
Marquis of Newcastle raised an army some 6,000 to 8,000 strong and marched to York. He initially swept away the
Parliamentary opposition and took York as a
key strategic hub. Parliamentarian opposition in Yorkshire was led by
Ferdinando Lord Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas. The heartland of their power
was in the cloth towns of the West Riding. They had become cut off from their
main port at Scarborough. However they were able to recruit a significant force of
musketeers from their cloth towns base.
The
Parliamentarian strategy was to interrupt the Royalist supply of arms. In mid
January Sir Hugh Cholmley led a small Parliamentarian army from Malton to Guisborough.
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A small
skirmish took place somewhere between Skelton
and Guisborough, in the
immediate vicinity of the new Farndale homes of Moorsholm and Liverton, on 16 January 1643 between
Royalists under the command of Colonel Guildford Slingsby and Parliamentarians
under Sir Hugh Cholmley and Sir Matthew Boynton[52]. The Parliamentarian army of about
380 men seem to have approached the battlefield from the moors and they were
met by Slingsby’s force of about 400 foot and 100 horse, who were being drilled
in Guisborough.
Slingsby took the initiative by charging his cavalry against Cholmley’s horse
with some success. However, his foot soldiers were forced back by the
Parliamentarians, and he withdrew to rally his inexperienced recruits. As he was doing so, he was caught by case
shot from the parliamentarian artillery and mortally wounded. The Royalist
force crumbled and many were captured.
George Farndale
was 41 in 1643, living at Moorsholm[53] and his brother Richard
Farndale was 39, living at Liverton[54]. They were both about eight
kilometres from the battle. It is difficult to find lists of civil war soldiers[55]. Loyalties were divided. It is quite
possible that one or more of the brothers were part of the newly recruited army
of Colonel Guildford Slingsby who were being drilled in Guisborough. This was a pretty chaotic period of time. Whether the brothers took part of the
battle, it must have been a significant event. They must have smelt it, heard
it, seen it perhaps.
Cholmley
returned over the moors to Malton and later defected to the Royalists, but he
had sent his force on to a bridge crossing over the River Tees at Yarm[56], south of Stockton, to try to stop a large Royalist
munitions convoy travelling from Newcastle to York on 1 February 1643. The Parliamentarians, who may have
set up barricades, were quickly overwhelmed, losing over thirty men killed and
many wounded and captured. Others fled. The prisoners were marched to Durham.
The defeat may have helped influence parliamentarian Sir Hugh Cholmley to
change sides a few weeks later.
The attempt
to disrupt the Royalist army moved its focus to the Tadcaster area and there
was another Parliamentarian defeat at Seacroft Moor near York on 30 March 1643[57].
A year
later, the Battle of Marston Moor took place west of York on 2 July 1644[58]. During the summer of 1644, the
Parliamentarians had been besieging York.
Prince Rupert had gathered a Royalist army which marched through the northwest
of England, gathering reinforcements to relieve the city. The convergence of
these forces made the ensuing battle the largest of the Civil War. Rupert
outmanoeuvred the Parliamentarians to relieve the city and then sought battle
with them even though he was outnumbered. Both sides gathered their full
strength on Marston Moor, an expanse of wild meadow west of York. Towards evening, the Parliamentarians
themselves launched a surprise attack. After a confused fight lasting two
hours, Parliamentarian cavalry under Oliver Cromwell routed the Royalist
cavalry from the field and, with the Earl of Leven's infantry, annihilated the
remaining Royalist infantry. After their defeat the Royalists effectively
abandoned Northern England, losing much of the manpower from the northern
counties which were strongly Royalist in sympathy and also
losing access to the European continent through the ports on the North Sea
coast. The loss of the north was to prove a fatal handicap the next year, when
they tried unsuccessfully to link up with the Scottish Royalists under the
Marquess of Montrose.
In December
1644, a New Model Army of 22,000 men was formed by the Parliamentarians under
Lord General Sir Thomas Fairfax[59]. This was the nation’s first
professional army. There was a new officer corps. The Self Denying Ordinance removed Members of Parliament from
military command, though with the notable exception of the MP Oliver Cromwell,
who was given command[60]. The army was detached from civilian
society. Harsh discipline was imposed with penalties for drunkenness and
blasphemy. Sir Thomas Fairfax came from a Yorkshire gentry family. The Fairfaxes were among Parliament's leading supporters in
northern England.
The Royalist
forces suffered painful defeats in 1645. Nevertheless, there was factionalism
amongst the Parliamentarians. The Scottish Alliance had brought with it the
threat of an authoritarian system based on Scottish Presbyterianism. A faction
of Independents emerged within the Parliamentarians who sought liberty of
conscience. Many in the Army supported the Independents.
The New
Model Army soon became a problem. Its cost and the need for taxation caused
resentment. The army came to be hated by the civilian population. But
disbanding was also a problem with significant arrears of pay, amounting to
£3M. The army was seeking its own terms, including protection from being sent
to fight in Ireland and indemnity from prosecution for acts during the war.
By 1645,
many clergy who could not agree with puritan ideals were removed from their
livings and Marske Parish records of this time shows evidence of this amongst Skelton folk.
In July
1647, the army commanders offered conciliatory terms, Heads of Proposals, which
included tolerance for the Anglicans. Charles was initially conciliatory but
eventually rejected the terms. Charles was taken to Hampton Court.
Active
political debates were started in the period of political instability following
the end of the civil war. The Putney Debates were held from 28 October to 8
November 1647 which discussed such ideas as every man that is to live under
a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that
government[61]. The Levellers came to prominence at
the end of the Civil War[62], led by John Lilburne[63], and were most influential
immediately before the start of the Second Civil War. Leveller views and
support were found in the populace of the City of London and in some regiments
in the New Model Army. The Levellers wanted limited government, though Lilburn
denied that he wanted to level all men’s estates.
A Second
Civil War restarted in 1648. In June 1648 Royalists sneaked into Pontefract
castle, only a few miles north of the old Farndale home of Campsall, and
took control. The Castle was an important base for the Royalists, and raiding
parties harried Parliamentarians in the area. Oliver Cromwell led the final
siege of Pontefract Castle in November 1648. Charles I was executed in January
1649, and Pontefract's garrison came to an agreement and Colonel Morrice handed
over the castle to Major General John Lambert on 24 March 1649. Following
requests from the townspeople at a grand jury at York,
on 27 March 1649 Major General Lambert was ordered by Parliament that
Pontefract Castle should be totally demolished and levelled to the ground
and materials from the castle would be sold off.
George Farndale
Junior’s first son William Farndale
(1625 to 1677) lived at Liverton[64] and had a
daughter, Ane
Farndale who had been born in 1625[65] with his wife, Ellin. George also
had two daughters, Jane
and Isabal born in 1636 and 1637[66].
The family
story though, follows the fortunes of George’s second son, Nicholas Farndale
(1634 to 1693).
Nicholas continued
to live at Liverton, where he was
christened on 6 July 1634[67].
In about 1660[68], Nicholas
married Elizabeth, who died on 10 February 1670[69]. Nicholas and
Elizabeth had three sons and three daughters. Their eldest son George Farndale
moved to Loftus and was fined 1s in 1700 by
the Jury of the Manor Court of North Loftus for letting his horse go on the
North Loftus Common[70]. George’s son William moved
to Kilton, and we will pick up his story
in Act 14.
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The family of
Nicholas Farndale |
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10
August 1662 to 20 December 1740 Churchwarden
of Loftus who was fined for letting his horse loose on North Loftus common
Married Ellis (Alice?) Petch Liverton,
Loftus, Skelton |
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27 June 1680 to 5
October 1757 Married Elizabeth
Bennison on 5 February 1705 and Catherine Jackson on 8 October 1730 Householder of
Brotton, the first Farndale at Kilton Kilton, Brotton,
Liverton |
In 1658, the
North Riding Quarter Sessions sitting at Thirsk ordered That the Sheriff of
the County of Yorke do forthwith cause the following rates of Artificers,
Labourers and Servants wages to be proclaimed in and throughout the N Riding
and especially in every market towne in the said
riding[71]
By day with meate By day without meate
Carpenter 6 d 12 d
His
Apprentices 4 d 8 d
Mason 6 d 12 d
His
Apprentices 4 d 8 d
Taylor 4 d 8 d
His
Apprentices 2 d 4 d
Theaker
[Thatcher] 6 d 12 d
Mower 6 d 12 d
Corn Reaper 4 d 8 d
Woman Corn
Reaper 3 d 6 d
Woman hay
worker 2 d 4 d
Ordinary
labourer, summer 3 d 6 d
Labourer,
winter 2 d 4 d
A manservant
in charge of husbandry £4 for the yeare
Ordinary
manservant £3
for the yeare
A
maidservant in charge of dairy £2
for the yeare
Ordinary
maidservant 30s
for the yeare
Maidservant
between 14 and 21 yrs 20s for the yeare
In 1676, Nicholas,
still living at Liverton with a property
with one hearth, married again[72] and with his second wife they had
two sons. Their younger son John Farndale
married Elizabeth Bennison on 5 February 1705 at Brotton[73] and they
were the parents of an important hub of the family, the Kilton 1 Line, and their story
will be told in Act
13. There is still a place called Bennison Banks in the woodland to the
west of Brotton.
So, by the
end of the seventeenth century, the family’s centre of gravity was around Whitby and Kilton, where we
will soon pick up their story next.
Between 1649
and 1653, the family lived through Republican England[74]. This was a time of religious
fervour, Diggers, Fifth Columnists, and of the world Muggletonians[75] and Adamites[76]. In 1649, Thomas Hobbes, a Royalist
in exile in Paris, wrote Leviathan[77], which he presented to Charles II.
Its premise was that humans originally lived in a barbarous state of nature, but emerged by yielding individual rights to an all powerful sovereign. In practice he upset both the mid
seventeenth century camps and copies of Leviathan were burned in Oxford.
Political philosophers refer to it as a statement on the sovereignty of the
state and the law rather than sovereignty by the person of a prince. On the
Parliamentary side of the argument, John Milton, including Paradise Lost,
Sir Henry Vane the Younger and Algernon Sidney wrote their treatises.
From 1655
Cromwell ordered that each County in England be governed by a Major General[78]. This was a form of military
government which was an attempt to provide better law enforcement in the
country as well as to reform the nation’s morals. One of their responsibilities
was to punish those who had fought for the King. They were to punish all manner
of vice including drunkenness, wearing and fornication. It was a repressive
regime. Racehorses, fighting cocks, bears and dogs were banned.
John Lambert
was the Major General for Yorkshire and other areas. Owing to his other
responsibilities on the Council of State, day to day matters in his region were
overseen by Lambert's two deputies, with Robert Lilburn[80] responsible for Yorkshire.
A Decimation
Tax (10% of income) was imposed on former royalists.
The
instability of the age continued with the Restoration of Charles II, which is
perhaps best summarised in more satire from Yeatman and Sellers.
These were
frightening times to live through. Perhaps the family were sufficiently tucked
away in the lands around Skelton Castle, to continue their lives in much the
same way as they had always done. It may well be that, whilst the headlines
portrayed grim news, the ordinary folk of the countryside just ignored the
trauma and pressed on, as they had always done, with the everyday hurdles they
faced.
Go Straight to Act 13 –
The Lost Village of Kilton
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This
is a new experiment. Using Google’s Notebook LM, listen to an AI powered
podcast summarising this page. This should only be treated as an
introduction, and the AI generation sometimes gets the nuance a bit wrong. However it does provide an introduction
to the themes of this page, which are dealt with in more depth below. |
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You could
also read a bit more.
The Skelton-in-Cleveland History by
the late Bill Danby, is maintained by the Skelton History Group.
The Cleveland Family History Society is
probably more useful for later periods.
You might
also be interested in John Walker Ord’s History and Antiquities of Cleveland,
1846. You can get a copy from Yorkshire
CD Books.
There is
also the History
of Cleveland Ancient and Modern by Rev J C Atkinson, Vicar of Danby,
1874, to be found in many libraries.
The History
of Cleveland by Rev John Graves, 1808.
The Victoria
History,
1923.