Act 15

The Mariners of Whitby

The story of the Whitby Farndales and their maritime adventures

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As a mood setter, you might enjoy some music before you read this page.

Orientation

Having arrived in Cleveland the family settled in Kirkleatham and Skelton and became associated with small towns such as Moorsholm and Liverton. We have met two family hubs who then settled for six or seven generations in Kilton, Brotton and Loftus and more widely across Cleveland.

Now we will meet the third hub, those who were drawn to the thriving port of Whitby.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Cleveland was a rural landscape, like the lands south of the moors which the family had left. So over time, there was adventure to be had by leaving the farmland of Moorsholm, Liverton, and later Kilton to find new opportunities in the thriving port of Whitby.

We will meet several master mariners in this Act. A master mariner held an unlimited license. A master mariner could serve as the master of a merchant ship of any size, of any type, operating anywhere in the world, and it reflected the highest level of professional qualification amongst mariners and deck officers. The term master mariner has been in use at least since the thirteenth century. In guild or livery company terms, such a person was a master craftsman in this specific profession, equivalent to master carpenters, master blacksmiths and other such people. In the British Merchant Navy a master mariner who had sailed in command of an ocean going merchant ship was titled Captain, although a professional seafarer who held a restricted or limited master's certificate who had sailed in command of a ship also tended to be referred to as a captain. Where the movements of ships were recorded in the shipping news and other media, the name of the ship was followed by the name of the Captain.

Scene 1 – Of Carpenters, Weavers and Sailors

The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things, of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings

(The Walrus and the Carpenter, Lewis Carroll)

The first of the family to appear in the records in Whitby was John Farndale (c 1636 to 1712) who married Alice Peckock of Whitby on 19 November 1661. Although I am not certain, he was probably the son of Rychards and Emme ffarnedayle (1604 to c1685) of the Liverton 1 Line who we met in Act 12. Poor Alice died only two years after she married John, and she was buried in Whitby on 28 November 1663. A decade later John married Margarita Herd in Whitby on 25 November 1673 and John and Margarita had a daughter, also called Margarita, and three sons. Their family were the Whitby 1 Line. Their third child was Thomas Farndale (1683 to 1747).

Thomas Farndale married Sarah Perkins at Sneaton, south of Whitby on 11 January 1707. Thomas and Sarah had four sons. Certainly by 1713, and probably earlier, Thomas was a carpenter in Whitby, most likely working in the substantial maritime industry of the thriving port.

Lewis Carroll stayed in Whitby on many occasions. Eighty five years after Thomas Farndale’s death, Lewis Carroll wrote his famous nonsense verse about a carpenter on the sands of Whitby. It is thought he drew his inspiration for his poem The Walrus and the Carpenter from the nearby village of Sandsend.

Thomas and Sarah Farndale’s eldest son John Farndale (1709 to 1790) became a sailor and on 31 July 1751 he was enlisted on the Coal Cat or collier ship called the Three Brothers on which ship James Cook, soon to be the discoverer of new worlds, had just been promoted to mate. John Farndale served on the Three Brothers and the Friendship, on a series of voyages under James Cook as mate, which included transporting British troops from the Netherlands at the end of the War of Austrian Succession, trading with Norway and in the Baltic, and taking part in a not very successful whaling expedition. After James Cook had joined the Royal Navy and by the time of Cook’s third voyage of exploration, John Farndale had advanced his own career in the merchant navy and had been promoted to captain of the Friendship, the same ship which Cook had previously served on as mate.

John Farndale had married Hannah Christian at Whitby on 30 May 1736, and they had a family of four, the Whitby 2 Line. Their eldest daughter, Sarah, married a joiner in Whitby.

John and Hannah’s third child was John Farndale who married Phyllis Holdforth of Loftus and then moved back to Loftus, where he became a weaver. On 9 July 1787, his apprentice ran away. John Sanderson, Apprentice to John Farndale, Weaver of Lofthouse, Yorkshire; he is stout made, a little pitted with the small pox, dark brown hair, and has a bald spot on the top of his head, occasioned by a fall; he had on when he went off, a blue jacket, a yellow striped waistcoat, leather breeches, and brown and white mottled stockings. If the said Apprentice will return to his Master, he will be kindly received; and any person or persons harbouring or employing him after this public notice, will be prosecuted with the utmost vigour, and any person giving notice of the said John Sanderson to the said John Farndale, will be handsomely rewarded. By 1798 John was an alehouse keeper in East Loftus and by 1800 he was a police constable and gave evidence in the prosecution of a yeoman for stealing delft or earthenware goods, namely two teapots, two decanters, two pitchers, two basins or small bowls and one cream pot belonging to the said James Lynas.

John and Hannah’s youngest son, Robert Farndale, also became a master mariner by 1780. Robert Farndale was buried on 7 June 1827 and his place of burial, along with many others of the Whitby family line, was the Churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, overlooking Whitby, which would be forever associated with the story of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which association is explained at the end of the page about Whitby’s History.

Sacred to the memory of ROBERT FARNDALE Master mariner who died June 2nd 1827 aged 74 years. And of HANNAH his wife who died March 28th 1845 aged 89 years Robert Farndale’s Will

The story of John Farndale who sailed with James Cook is told in more detail in another webpage.

Mid eighteenth century press gang HMS Experiment The Nore Battle of Cartagena de Indias

Thomas and Sarah Farndale’s third son was Giles Farndale (1713 to 1742) who was press ganged into the Royal Navy at Whitby at the age of 27 in 1740. On 29 June 1740 Giles was on the muster list of HMS Experiment at the naval muster point at the entrance to the Thames known as the Nore. From there HMS Experiment sailed for Port Royal, Jamaica where she arrived on 15 September 1740. From there until June 1741 the ship was either in Port Royal, at sea, or in Cartagena. Giles was present at every muster until 9 May 1741 when he was marked DD, Discharged Dead. During the time of Giles’ service, HMS Experiment served under Admiral Vernon during the War of Jenkins’ Ear in the Spanish Main, and took part in a large amphibious operation against the port of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia.

You can read the full story of Giles Farndale’s service in the Royal Navy in another webpage.

Thomas and Sarah Farndale’s second son was Francis Farndale (1711 to 1772), who was a carpenter like his father. Francis married Margaret Spark on 28 May 1738 when he was 27. They had six children, Sarah, Giles, Francis, Spark, Thomas and another Thomas. It seems likely that their first five children died at birth or in infancy. The second young Thomas Farndale married Jane Calvert on 22 February 1785 and he was a third generation carpenter. Thomas and Jane Farndale had nine children. Five of those children, Francis, William, another Francis, Phillis, and Thomas also died in infancy.

Flowergate, Whitby, late nineteenth century

Margaret Farndale was a spinster who lived in Flowergate in Whitby by 1841. Mary Farndale, also a spinster, was a seamstress in Flowergate in 1851. A second Thomas Farndale died aged 35 in 1832. The youngest daughter was Elizabeth Farndale who married James Husband on 2 February 1819, when she was 21.

The older Francis Farndale’s wife Margaret probably died in the late 1740s and Francis married Margaret Gray in Whitby on 4 November 1750, by which time he was 39 years old. Francis and the second Margaret had triplets, born on 3 September 1759, Mary, Christian and Frances Farndale. Frances Farndale had two children when she was unmarried, William (who died at birth) and Margaret Farndale (who died when she was one year old). Frances Farndale later married Robert Heselton in Whitby in 1791.

It seems that by the fifth and sixth generation of this Whitby family, life was a struggle with high infant mortality. Though still a thriving port, Whitby could also be a challenging place to live.

Scene 2 – Of Victorian Captains and Shipwrights

William Farndale (1743 to 1777) was born in Kilton and baptised in Brotton on 13 July 1743, the son of William and Abigail Farndale. We met him in Act 13, Scene 2 and he was born into the Kilton 1 Line. William Farndale the Younger married Elizabeth Barry of Whitby and became a master mariner in Whitby, the captain of colliers, like his kinsman John Farndale William was captain of the Abigail and Martha on voyages between Whitby, London and Newcastle. Since Abigail was the name of his mother and his daughter, this suggests he had a proprietary interest in the vessel. William and Elizabeth had two daughters, Abigail and Elizabeth and two sons Robert Farndale, a ship’s carpenter, and John Farndale, the Whitby 3 Line. William was buried at Brotton on 27 April 1777, so the family seem to have maintained their links with their family home at Kilton and Brotton.

John Farndale (1773 to 1833) seems to have been engaged in some form of military service. John married Dinah Boyes in Loftus on 23 April 1799 and they had seven children, the Whitby 4 Line. After John died, aged 60, in 1833, the widowed Dinah Farndale seems to have petitioned for a pension through the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, so perhaps John served in the Royal Navy, possibly as a ship’s carpenter.

John and Dinah Farndale had eight children and seven were girls. Ann Farndale did not marry and worked as a dressmaker, living at Brotton and later Loftus. Hannah Farndale married a joiner called Edward Hunt and they lived in Church Street, Whitby. Jane Farndale married Nicholas Rippon who was another master mariner, and in old age worked in an iron foundry. They lived in Stockton. Dinah Farndale married Robert Stamp, a ship’s carpenter and later a master shipwright in the bustling port of West Hartlepool. Dinah was later a shareholder in Robert’s business. Mary Ann Farndale died in infancy and Elizabeth Farndale lived with her sister Jane Rippon in Stockton, but died when she was only 16. So this was a family who settled across Cleveland.

John and Dinah Farndale’s only son amidst the seven girls was John Christopher Farndale the Elder (1802 to 1837). John was a Master Mariner and Captain of the William and Nancy. He was a merchant sea captain who sailed around the British shores and may even have travelled to Archangel in Russia. John Christopher married Ann Ling and they had two sons, William Farndale (1825 to 1887) and John Christopher Farndale the Younger (1830 to 1868). Their epic adventures at sea, which include hard labour for absconding as an apprentice, an assault on the high seas, voyages across the Baltic, and the eventual loss of John and his crew in the Bay of Biscay, is the subject of another webpage. John Christopher the Elder and Ann’s other children were Thomas Farndale, a ship broker’s clerk, Mary Farndale, a straw bonnet maker, and James Farndale who died an infant.

William Farndale married Ann Brown and they had two children John Thomas Farndale (1854 to 1930) and Jane Farndale (1856 to 1938). They also seem to have adopted their niece, probably a daughter of John Christopher Farndale the Younger, Maria J Farndale.

John Thomas Farndale and Jane Farndale each did not marry, but lived together in Thirsk, where John Thomas became manager of Barclays Bank and both were prominent members of Thirsk society in the early twentieth century. Another webpage explores their lives.

Scene 3 – Of Innkeepers, Policemen, Engineers, Presbyterians, Soldiers and Pioneers

There was another family originated in the Kilton 1 Line, who came to settle in the lands immediately to the west of Whitby, at Newholm, in Eskdale and around Goathland, Danby and Egton.

John Farndale was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Farndale, the cabinet maker family who again we met in Act 13, Scene 2. John was born in Kilton and baptised in Brotton. He married Ann Nicholson of Danby on 12 December 1813 and they had five children, the Whitby 5 Line. John seems to have been an agricultural labourer and farmer at Danby and Brackon Riggs, but was buried in Egton.

John and Ann Farndale’s eldest son was William Farndale (1814 to 1886). William Farndale married Sarah Saunders on 19 April 1841 in Egton and they had seven children, many of whom were ironstone miners of Egton and Cleveland who we will meet in Act 18. From this family would descend the Loftus 3 Line and the Ontario 2 Line. Their grandchildren included John William Farndale (1869 to 1938), a farmer, butter huckster, innkeeper and Butcher of Danby and Egton; Samuel Kirk Farndale (b 1871), who emigrated to Ontario, and we will meet again later; and George Farndale (1891 to 1917), a Blacksmith striker who was killed in action on 27 May 1917, during the Battle of Arras, barely a month after arriving in France.

John and Ann Farndale’s third child was John Farndale (1818 to 1874) who was a farmer of Newholm, an agricultural labourer and quarry waggoner of Eskdaleside. The younger John Farndale married Margaret Dawson on 18 June 1838 and they had two sons, Thomas Farndale (1839 to 1919) who became an innkeeper in Wakefield and Joseph Farndale. John and Margaret Farndale’s son Joseph Farndale (1842 to 1901) and their grandson, Thomas Farndale’s son, also Joseph Farndale (1864 to 1954) became the Chief Constables of Birmingham and Bradford respectively and had extraordinary police careers. We will meet them both again in Act 30.

Thomas Farndale married Sarah Bell and their other children were Thomas Dawson Farndale (1862 to 1940) who was a stone mason and then clerk of works and eventually a civil engineer; Samuel Farndale (1866 to 1936), a clerk in Portsea in Hampshire who later lived in London and worked in the civil service with the Admiralty rising to become clerk to the engineer in chief, whose descendants were the London 1 Line and Margaret Farndale (1868 to 1955) who married James Law, another publican in York.

John and Ann Farndale’s youngest child was Joseph Farndale (1825 to 1875), a labourer and carter of bricks who moved to Brick Yard Lane in York. Joseph married Margaret Brown and they had seven children, including William Farndale (1859 to 1909), a railway porter and Methodist local preacher, then town missionary, and later baker and confectioner at Macclesfield and Chorlton. William’s son was Rev Dr William Edward Farndale, a leading Methodist who would become President of the Methodist Conference in 1947. We will meet them again in Act 29.

From this part of the family would also descend a family who settled in Holderness, the Holderness Line, where William Derrick Farndale, a motor fitter and tractor driver, was patrol commander of the Withensea Patrol during the Second World War.

This was a diverse section of the family who fanned out from Eskdaleside immediately to the west of Whitby, across the nation, to become innkeepers, leading policemen, civil engineers, leading Presbyterians, soldiers and Canadian pioneers.

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You might also be interested in

Rev. George Young D.D, A Picture of Whitby and its environs, 1840. You can get a copy from Yorkshire CD Books.

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