Act 14
Spreading out from Brotton and Loftus
The story of a second large family
whose heart was around Brotton and Loftus and comprise another substantial
division of the family
Brotton and Loftus in about 1850
We now meet
the second Hub of the family. This was another large section of the family who
initially also made Kilton their home for a
generation as the Kilton 2 Line,
before dispersing across Cleveland and beyond. They are a little more difficult
to define geographically as they dispersed widely. However the heart of the
family was Loftus, also once known as
Lofthouse, two kilometres east of Kilton,
and Brotton, two kilometres north of Kilton. So this family were living in close
proximity to their relatives of the
Kilton 1 Line, who we met in the last Act.
This was a
family who left the protection of the rural extended family,
and struggled for survival in Georgian and Victorian Britain. Their
resilience against the odds is sometimes inspiring, often tragic, and reflects
the challenges of Victorian Britain. Some made successful lives for themselves,
but many suffered, particularly during the terrible decade of the 1870s, the decennium
horribilis.
From 1873 to
1896, a period sometimes referred to as the Long Depression, most European
countries experienced a drastic fall in prices. This was a period of two
decades of stagnation, and this family suffered the worst of these years of
agricultural and economic struggle.
The stories
of struggle, alongside achievements against the odds, reveals a quiet
determination by this determined branch of the family.
When
sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.
(Hamlet, Act
IV, Scene V)
Scene 1 – The Loftus Farndales
William Farndale
(1690 to 1782) was the son of George and Ellis
Farndale of Liverton and Loftus. We met George in Act 12 and you might remember
that he was fined for letting his horse graze on the Common at North Loftus in 1700.
William was
born in Liverton and baptised there on 23
November 1690. He was a church warden at Skelton in 1729 and in 1738,
he married Mary Butterwick of Brotton. He
seems to have lived in Kilton, and they
had five children who were baptised at Skelton church, but were
probably born in Kilton which lay within
the Skelton estate. He died in 1782 and was buried at Brotton.
William and Mary
had five children. The youngest was John Farndale who
worked in Ormesby now in Middlesbrough
and later took property with his brother, William, in Loftus. William Farndale The Younger
(1739 to 1813) was the older brother, baptised in Skelton on 3 January 1739.
William married Hannah Toes of Lythe in 1761,
where they lived until about 1765 before they moved to Loftus. Loftus
was the family home of William’s grandparents, George and Ellis
Farndale, so this probably felt like moving back to the paternal family
home. William seems to have quickly established himself in Loftus and in 1781 at this Court Leet
William Farndale was elected and sworn as Constable for the year for South and
North Loftus.
Law
enforcement and policing before the eighteenth century were not administrated nationally, but organised by local communities such as town
authorities. Within local areas, a constable could be attested by two or more
Justices of the Peace. From the 1730s, local improvement Acts made by town
authorities often included provision for paid watchmen or constables to patrol
towns at night, while rural areas had to rely on more informal arrangements. In
1737, an Act of Parliament was passed for better regulating the Night Watch
of the City of London which specified the number of paid constables that should
be on duty each night. Henry Fielding established the Bow Street Runners in
1749 and between 1754 and 1780, Sir John Fielding reorganised Bow Street like a
police station, with a team of efficient, paid constables. Parish
constables, played a variety of roles, and in more populated areas could
make a reasonable living from fees. They were professional, competent, and
entrepreneurial. They were regulated to some extent by systems of legal
incentives and warnings. The main form of oversight on them and limit on their
power was the possibility that they might be subject to a lawsuit. Watchmen in
towns were waged, with less legal power than constables, and subject to more
supervision, including periods of definite duty.
By 1784, William Farndale
The Younger was a freeholder and tenant of property in South Loftus. Hannah died in 1801 and William The Younger
lived until the age of 75 and was buried in Loftus
on 19 June 1813.
William Farndale
The Younger and Hannah had a family of five, the Loftus 1 Line.
Their
youngest son was John
Farndale (1772 to 1842). John married Jane Pybus at Skelton in 1794 and they in
turn had a family of eight, the
Brotton 3 Line, all baptised in Brotton. John and Jane’s family might have lived in Brotton itself, or might have lived in the
associated township of Kilton. John was a
farmer, and his son George Farndale
was also a farmer, and he certainly farmed in Kilton.
Of John’s
family of eight, Jane
Farndale and Mary
Farndale seem to have died in infancy. Hannah Farndale
suffered a rape in 1819 when she was only 14 years old at Brotton, but in 1825 she married Francis
Cooper. Then almost 20 years later, presumably after Francis had died, in 1843
she married a farmer, George Ventress, with whom she had three children. Mary Ann
Farndale married a cartwright called John Porritt of Moorsholm.
It is the
stories of the other four siblings, who we now follow.
Scene 2 – A Stockton Family
John Farndale
(1796 to 1868) was the eldest son of John and Jane Farndale
born on 16 March 1796 in Brotton. He
married Elizabeth Wallace in 1827 and worked for a while on farms at Kildale
near Great Ayton before he became a Yeoman Farmer in Skelton. In 1830 a Bill of
indictment for felony was issued against Hannah Bradley and Jane Mark both
single women, lately of the House of Correction at Northallerton, for stealing
three pecks of wheat value 3s, the property of John Farndale. The offence was
committed at the parish of Skelton on 6 October 1830.
In 1831, a
certain Masterman Patto appointed John Farndale and William Hugill to act as trustees
and executors to resolve the division of Masterman Patto’s farm between his
daughters after he died. The somewhat complex arrangements suggest that John
Farndale was respected in the local community in Skelton. However
he seems to have then worked on an off as a farmer and farm worker particularly
around Coatham.
However,
twenty years later in 1851, John seems to have lost his farm and was working as
a farm labourer, having suffered bankruptcy. By 1861 the family had moved to Stockton, where John was working in the iron
foundry.
Iron
Foundry, Stockton
John died in
Stockton in 1868.
John and Elizabeth Farndale had a large family of ten children, the Stockton 1 Line, who made Stockton their home. This was a time of
momentous change in Stockton. In 1822, Stockton witnessed an event which heralded the dawn of a new era in industry and
travel. The first rail of George Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington Railway
was laid near St. John's crossing on Bridge Road. Hauled by Locomotion No 1,
the great engineer himself manned the engine on its first journey on 27
September 1825. The Stockton and Darlington Railway (“S&DR”)
operated from 1825 to 1863.
The route of the Stockton &
Darlington Railway in 1827, shown in black, with today's railway lines shown in
red
John
and Elizabeth Farndale’s eldest son was John Farndale
(1829 to 1899) who became a grocery warehouseman in Stockton. After his first wife Ann Thrattles died he married his
sister in law, Ellen Thrattles in 1873. John and Ann
had five children.
Their second
son was George
Farndale (1835 to 1887) who became a druggist and grocer in Stockton. George married Catherine Wemyss
Leng at Stockton in 1865. In 1873 George,
like his father, was forced to petition for bankruptcy and his chemist,
druggist and grocery business went into liquidation. In 1875 George served on a
jury in Northallerton, by which time he had restarted a chemist business. However he seems to have been made bankrupt again in 1878.
In 1850, in The
Personal History and Experience of David Copperfield the Younger, Charles
Dickens, reflected on the hardships of Victorian bankruptcy. Mr Micawber was
waiting for me within the gate, and he went up to his room (top storey but one), and cried very much. He solemnly conjured me, I remember,
to take warning of his fate; and to observe that if a man had twenty pounds a
year for his income, and spent nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence,
he would be happy, but that if he spent twenty pounds one, he would be
miserable.
George and
Catherine suffered further tragedy when their three daughters, Mary Frances
Farndale, Catherine
Wiley Farndale, and Annie Louisa
Farndale, all died aged 7, 4 and 3 within nine days of each other at
Christmas, between 17 and 26 December 1874. There was a smallpox pandemic in
1870 to 1874, which originated in France. The Vaccination
Act 1853 helped to mitigate its effect in England, but perhaps this was the
cause of three sisters dying in the same year. There was also a cholera
epidemic at the time. This was also at the time when George’s grocery business
was struggling. When the last of the three girls died in such short succession,
an unspeakably sad notice on 2 January 1875 seemed to summarise the ill fortune
that the family had met, Death on the 26th
Dec, at Newport Road, Middlesbrough, Annie Louisa, aged three years, the
beloved and last surviving daughter of Mr Geo Farndale. The 1870s was the
Stockton Farndales decennium horribilis.
However, out
of these tragic circumstances, the younger brother, William Leng
Farndale, survived, and he has a story to tell, which we will pick up again
below.
After his
second bankruptcy, George and Catherine moved to 22 Great Oxford Street,
Liverpool, where he was a druggist’s assistant, lodging with a Russian and
German family of tailors. He died aged 52 in Gateshead.
The youngest
sons of John and
Elizabeth Farndale were William Farndale
and Peter Farndale,
who both became solicitors’ and court clerks in Stockton.
Both brothers took active roles in legal proceedings in the Stockton courts during the second half of the
nineteenth century.
Peter
Farndale regularly helped to clarify the law on various matters. For instance on 18 May 1878 a case of threat and assault came
before the court when there was a complaint about the milk being short, and
the female accused had replied to her complainant that she wanted none of
her nonsense. Further altercation ensued and Mrs Oliver ejected the female from
the cow byer. She quickly returned and said that if she did it again she would smash her face, and to a certain extent
carried out that threat by doubling her hand into prosecutrix’s face. Mrs
Oliver also called the defendant a “wizen faced old devil”. The male prisoner,
having heard the disturbance went towards them and told his wife that if she
didn't smash prosecutrix’s face he would smash hers. He told his wife to “pull
the cat and croker.” The accused gave evidence
that she knew nothing about watering the milk that was to be sent to the
Union, as the doctor would not allow it. She might have used the words “wizen
faced old devil”, but not a stronger expression. John Finlowe,
a lad who said he was groom; George Barker, the milk boy; John Kilgore, another
boy; and the manservant, Stephen Davey, all spoke to Mrs Oliver putting the
female prisoner out of the byer, and then the latter threatening her if she did
that again. Mr Hutchinson, the magistrate, said the question of the
water had not come out in evidence. Mr Draper replied that he could produce the
girl who would prove it. Mr Farndale, the deputy clerk, said the prisoner
could not call witnesses in a case of this nature. The female prisoner was
then discharged, and her husband bound over to keep the peace for two months,
himself in £10, and one surety in £5. Mr Hutchinson observing as he left the
bench that he did not think all the evidence had come out. There had been some
intimidation amongst the boys. Mr Draper denied anything of the kind on his on
the part of his clients.
Peter
Farndale was not shy of directly enforcing the peace in Stockton. On Tuesday 15
October 1878 an Irishman named Samuel O'Neill was brought before the
Stockton Borough Bench today (Tuesday) on a warrant charging him with having
been drunk and disorderly in the street, and also with
having committed an aggravated assault upon his paramour, Jane Johnson. It
appears that the prisoner brutally ill treated the
woman a few days ago, and pawned a quantity of her
clothing to supply himself with drink. On Monday morning he continued to
threaten to take the woman's life, and the woman in consequence went to the
police court and requested the magistrate to grant a warrant for the prisoner’s
apprehension. The bench told the woman to go to the office of the magistrates clerk in Finkle Street. This she did; But whilst
there, the prisoner entered the office brandishing a knife and threatening to
murder her. Mr Jennings, the deputy magistrates clerk,
and Mr Farndale, one of the clerks, immediately seized the infuriated man
and prevented him carrying out his rash intention. Inspector Caisely and Police constable Grey were then called in, and
after handcuffing the prisoner they took him to the police station.
A few days later on 18 October 1878, at Stockton Police Court, a
dejected looking female named Mary Hayward, a tramp, was committed to Durham
Gaol for 14 days for being found secreted in the office of the town clerk for
an unlawful purpose. Prisoner was found by Mrs Sanderson, the office keeper,
sitting behind a corner in the passage leading into the offices. She
informed Mr Farndale that she had had a drop of drink, but
meant no harm. When people got drunk they went
into strange places. She just went there to smoke her pipe.
In September
1879, a man named David Porter, living in Bowser Street, was charged with a
breach of the peace. When asked if he had any defence
he at once commenced a long speech, telling the magistrates clerk, Mr
Farndale, not to interrupt, and when the bench seemed impatient adjured
them with “don't be so fast, your honours.” He then went on to say he had been
16 years in the town, was a ratepayer, and had never done any wrong except
perhaps taking a glass of drink and being rather noisy etc. The bench cut him
short with the inevitable 5s and 5s 6d costs, or 14 days.
Peter’s older brother George had
suffered by the death of his three girls in 1874 during the smallpox pandemic
in 1870 to 1874, which originated in France. The Vaccination Act 1853 which had prevented many deaths, was nevertheless controversial and
there was a strong anti-vaccination
movement in late Victorian Britain.
On 22 June
1891, an ironworker alleged a double marriage on the part of his wife after his
wife complained in court that her husband had stayed out several nights last
week, and she had not seen him since Friday. There had been nothing but trouble
since defendant had commenced to go down to the betting ring on the quayside.
He wanted to pull a ring from her finger to pledge it to bet. The accused
ironworker seems to have counter attacked his wife when he alleged
she had been married before. Her first husband’s name was Jas Fawcett. She
could not swear he was dead, but seven years ago she was told by a friend who
saw him in America he was living with another woman and had a family. She
afterwards heard he was dead. She was married to defendant in November 1888. Mr
Thomas applied that only an order should be made on defendant to contribute to
the child, the parentage of which he admitted. Mr Farndale the clerk, said
there was only a statement but no actual proof as to bigamy, and
accordingly the bench ordered defendants to pay 7s to complainant.
A special
meeting of the Stockton police court was held on 22 March 1892 to investigate charges of shop
breaking against several young fellows who supposed recent escapades have
created quite a sensation of alarm in the town. Evidence was given that
when he came into the police station the accused said
“I don't know anything about these tools.” Elsey: “Might I say a few words
gentlemen? I believe he has been in the habit of reading “the Boys of London”
and the “Detective” week by week. You might be as lenient as you can on account
of my wife.” Mr Farndale, the assistant clerk: “you had better not say
anything”. Anderson, in reply to Mr Farndale’s query as to whether he wished to
ask any questions, said: “He, witness, says we took a box of chocolate, but we
never took any”.
William and
Peter Farndale were clearly at the centre of the colourful tales of Victorian Stockton.
When Peter
died in June 1895, his obituary read To a
very wide circle, especially in the legal profession, the intelligence we now
record of the death of Mr P Farndale, or 52 Hartington Road, Stockton, will be
startlingly sad information. Mr Farndale was a native of the Coatham district,
but since his boyhood had been in the offices of Mr Faber and Messrs Faber,
Fawcett and Faber. His special department, which he held for over 20 years, was
that of clerk to the present Mr Faber, and also his
father, in connection with their clerkships to the Stockton borough and county
justices. He was a gentleman with wide and accurate knowledge of criminal law
and general police court work. Reticent by nature, he was nevertheless both
courteous and obliging and imparting his knowledge to those whose duties
brought them in contact with him. Most regular and methodic
in his habits, he was thoroughly reliable and correspondingly respected. Last
Friday, in pursuit of his duties, he had occasion to visit Port Clarence, where
he caught a chill, but no serious consequences were apprehended, for both on
Saturday and on Monday morning he went to his duties as usual. About ten
o’clock, however, on Monday morning, after he had made his usual preparations
for attending the petty sessions, he complained and went home. He became worse,
the attack resolving itself into one of diphtheria, and on Tuesday afternoon he
succumbed shortly after undergoing the operation of tracheotomy. He had no
children, but leaves a widow, who was a member of the well known family of Devereux, of Stockton, and with
whom much sympathy is felt.
John Farndale,
the author, of the Kilton 1 Line
was also at the heart of colourful; Victorian Stockton, and his webpage
tells more of his adventures there.
The family
witnessed Stockton, at the peak of its
Victorian influence, suffering its Victorian trials, but also participating in
its excitement.
Scene 3 – the Struggles of the Family
of Ladgates Farm
William Farndale
(1801 to 1876) was the third child of John and Jane Farndale,
born at Craggs House, Brotton, on
9 August 1801. He married a lass from Hartlepool
called Jane Scott on 31 May 1841 at the Chapelry at Brotton. He lived next door to his brother, Robert Farndale,
who was the Brotton grocer.
Ten years
later by 1851, he was a farmer at a small coastal farm of 35 acres, a kilometre
to the east of Old Saltburn, called Ladgates.
William was
a tenant at Ladgates Farm when it was sold at auction
by its owner, a ‘gentleman’, in 1860. The life interest of a gentleman, aged
40, was sold in August 1860 including Ladgate
Farm and premises, at Brotton aforesaid, containing 100 A, 2
R 26 P, of the annual value of £30, in the occupation of William
Farndale. It comprised a farm house and
outbuildings, and about 35 Acres of Arable, Meadow, and Pasture Ground
adjoining.
It appears
that there was a reservation for ironstone and minerals and a railway from Brotton to join the Middlesbrough and Guisborough Railway was intended to pass
close to the farm leased by William Farndale. The Vendors reserve the right
to themselves of working and taking away ironstone and other minerals, upon the
whole or any part of the Premises, and the right of making Tramways and other
Roads for taking and carrying away the same, but they will pay the purchaser of
any Lot any surface or other damage he may sustain thereby. A railway is in the
course of formation from Brotton to join the Middlesbrough and Guisborough
railway at Guisborough, and is intended to pass over
or close to the farms in the occupation of Henry Elot
and William Farndale. Another Railway is about to be formed, to join the North
Yorkshire and Cleveland railway, at Ingleby, with the Middlesbrough and
Guisborough railway, at or near to the Nunthorpe station, which will pass
through the Wood Land and Premises at Easby.
The railway
craze had reached the Saltburn coast by 1860.
William and Jane
Farndale had three daughters, Mary Jane
Farndale, Hannah
Farndale and Sarah
Ann Farndale. All three married, but all three, with their children, lived
with their parents in Marske by 1871.
By 1873,
William was working in Saltburn
when he raised a complaint against an engine fitter, for obtaining by false
pretensions the sum of 10s from William Farndale, of Saltburn, labourer.
The defrauder was imprisoned for a month after he gained possession of 10s
from Mrs Farndale on the representation, which was untrue, that he had been
sent for the money by her son in law, Richard Agar, a drainer of Saltburn.
William died
on 20 February 1876 in Saltburn,
by which time he had been working as a cartman. Later that year his wife Jane
seems to have started a grocery business, which went into liquidation. All three of the girls had died young in
their late twenties in the early 1870s, and left their
children to be brought up by their now widowed grandmother, who struggled to
keep her family afloat by working as a laundress.
The 1870s
was also the Saltburn Farndales’ decennium horribilis.
Jane
Farndale, who clearly struggled against the odds to see her four grandchildren,
Eva Appleby, Fenna and Sarah Agar, and Lily Purdy into adulthood, lived until 2
January 1900 when she was buried at Saltburn.
William and Jane Farndale also had a son, William George Farndale, who married but by 1908 was struggling when William George Farndale,
a labourer, of no fixed abode, was on Tuesday at Guisborough fined 21s, with
the alternative of a month’s imprisonment for obtaining food and lodgings by
false pretences from Catherine Cogan, of West Dyke, Redcar. The evidence showed
that he obtained board and lodgings by representing that he was employed by Mr
F Senior in asphalting in connection with the new school at Redcar. He came to
her house on March 28th, and Mr Senior was today called to prove that he left
his service on March 21st, and that he had no authority to say that he was
working for him at Redcar schools. Inspector Hall stated that when Farndale was
charged with false pretences he replied, “It is alright, she will be paid.”
Superintendent Rose said the defendant was a joiner by trade, and a native of
East Cleveland, but he had lived a roaming life. However
by 1911, he was working as a butcher in Marske, but he died aged 57 in 1915 in
the workhouse at Guisborough.
Life was not easy at Saltburn.
Scene 4 – The Farmer of Kilton
George Farndale
(1807 to 1847) was the fifth child of John and Jane Farndale
baptised on 15 March 1807 at Brotton. He
became a farmer in the parish of Brotton,
where he married Ann Child, a widow, and sister of George Ventress, who had
married George Farndale’s older sister, Hannah Farndale.
His farm was
in Kilton, that generational hub of the
Farndale family, where the family lived at Sykes House. So
George had moved back into the fold of the rural extended family, which seems
to have been a better place to weather the storms of the later Victorian
period.
He died in
1847 when he was only 40, but his determined widow, Ann Farndale, took on the Kilton farm where she ran the farm business
with three employees.
George and Ann
Farndale had one child, a son, George Farndale
(1843 to 1917), born on 8 March 1843 and baptised on 12 March 1843 in Brotton.
By the age
of 18, in 1861, George was still at Kilton
and took work with the millers of Kilton mill, John and Eliza Child. In 1867 he
married Hannah Mary Walker, the daughter of a blacksmith at Loftus, and by 1871, George was working as a
blacksmith himself at 54 Lambs Lane, Liverton.
By 1875, George was working as an ironstone miner.
George was
clearly a person of artistic talent and in August 1883, he exhibited in the eighth
annual exhibition of the Horticultural and Industrial Society run by the
Skinningrove Miner’s Association. The exhibition took place in a field
pleasantly situated within half a mile at the village of Skinningrove and the
German ocean. It was Queen’s weather. The sun from early morning shone out
magnificently, and although at noon the heat was somewhat intense, the gentle
breezes wafted up the valley from the sea so tempered the burning rays as to
make the day and most enjoyable one. In the ornamental and mechanical
department there was a great improvement, especially in fretwork, the first
prize being awarded to Mr George Farndale for a magnificent clock frame, the
design being purely gothic, made of black walnut and white Maple, nicely
varnished.
In August
1884, at the Spennymoor Floral and Industrial Exhibition, the fretwork duchese dressing table cut by G Farndale, Loftus, which
has already at other shows been so much admired, received premier honours again.
In September 1884 at the Durham Floral, Horticultural and Industrial Show, Mr
George Farndale, Loftus, entirely merited the first prize for a beautiful
toilet table, which was a marvel of fretwork.
By 1891,
George was working as a joiner in Middlesbrough.
By 1903, he was a member of the religious Order
of Rechabites. The Independent Order of Rechabites, also known as the Sons
and Daughters of Rechab, was a fraternal organisation and friendly society
founded in England in 1835 as part of the wider temperance movement to promote
total abstinence from alcohol.
At the age
of 68, in 1911, he was working as a picture framer in Middlesbrough, where he died in 1917.
George and Hannah
Mary Farndale had a family of four, who comprise the left side of the
family tree of the Loftus 2 Line.
Their eldest
son, William
George Farndale was a clerk in Middlesbrough,
who clearly followed his father’s passion for social reform and in June 1892, succeeded
in keeping large numbers of men out of the public houses by providing a
pleasant musical programme. I’m not sure if that would work today. It was
also in 1892 that William married Annie Emma Bell.
In 1896
William was acting as a returning officer for council elections for Great Ayton. By 1901 he was an assistant
bookkeeper working in a part of Great
Ayton known as ‘California’ where he also started translating books from
Spanish. Houses were built in north east Great
Ayton for hundreds of men who came to the village to work as whinstone and
ironstone miners. This large scale immigration was
likened to the American gold rush, which is why it became known as California.
There was no street planning and anyone in the village who owned land put up
terraces of houses wherever they could, hence the irregular street plan. In
1901 an advertisement appeared for Erimus,
Impressions of Middlesbrough from the Spanish of F
Alderete Sanchez, translated by W G Farndale. The public were given a
taster of the story. The train has arrived. The streets have become quiet
and still, and a dull silence reigns over the town. Here and there the stern
athletic figure of a policeman stands out, vigilant and alert, passing along
his beat with slow and measured step, imperturbably scrutinising each belated
passer by hurrying rapidly homewards. The town hall clock has just struck the
hour of 12, and the echoes of the last peel are slowly dying away. “Erimus” has given himself over to repose. But yonder on the
other side of the river there is no such thing as repose. Human energy is
always in full activity. It matters little that daylight fades;
in that extensive suburb of Middlesbrough.
Why there
was a necessity to translate a novel set in Middlesbrough from Spanish is not
explained. It all seems rather bizarre.
William and
Annie emigrated to the USA in 1907 and by 1910 they had settled in Riverside
City, California, where William had become a naturalised citizen and was
working as an accountant. It is tempting to suppose that William was so
impressed with the attempt to recreate California in Great Ayton, that he couldn’t resist
experiencing the real thing. The reality seems to be that Annie had relatives
in California, and they ended up living with Eliza Bell in Riverside, which may
explain how William became naturalised so quickly.
George and Hannah
Mary Farndale’s second child was Sarah Anne
Farndale who lived in Great Ayton with her husband Arthur Wilks, and later,
as a widow, in Sheffield. Their fourth child, Edith Emily
Farndale, was a milliner, who later married John Smith, and settled in Middlesbrough.
George and Hannah
Mary Farndale’s third child was Arthur Edwin
Farndale (1875 to 1962), who became a clerk at the Battersby Rail Junction
with the North Eastern Railway Company. Arthur married Mary Annie Burns in 1896 and they had six children. Arthur and Mary’s eldest
son, George
William Farndale (1897 to 1953) became a shipping clerk and financial
accountant and a clerk with the Army Pay Corps and Army Service Corps during
the First World War. Their second son, Arthur Edwin
Burns Farndale (1901 to 1952) was an assistant manager and accountant with
a finance company in Wiltshire. Their third son, Alfred Farndale,
was an engine cleaner with the North Eastern Railway Company and Railway Engine
Firemen at Middlesbrough. Their son Bernard
Farndale (1912 to 1944) was shot down over Denmark in a bombing raid during
the Second World War, and we will pick up his story again later. Their youngest
son Albert
Farndale (1914 to 1986) was an airman and Corporal in the Royal Air Force
in the Second World War and later settled in Chichester.
Their
grandchildren included John
Alan Farndale (1932 to 2012) who also emigrated to USA, whose descendants
are the American 3 Line, and Brian
Picton Farndale (1934 to 2009), son of the bomber
crewman, who settled in Wales, and whose family are the Wales 1 Line.
The family
of the Kilton farmer had diversified to a wealth of different experiences by
the twentieth century.
Scene 5 – The Master Grocer of
Stockton
Robert Farndale
(1814 to 1866) was the seventh child of John and Jane Farndale.
By 1841, he was the grocer in Brotton and
he married Sarah Taylor in 1841, the daughter of John Taylor of the
Preventative Service. The
Preventative Service were engaged in preventing the smuggling trade, and I
wonder if John Taylor might have come from the same family as Elizabeth Taylor,
granddaughter of the notorious smuggler John
Andrew, who married Martin Farndale
in 1842. Poachers and gamekeepers lived lives not so far apart.
In 1844
Robert and Sarah moved to Stockton where Robert
continued working as a grocer.
By 1862, he
was the proprietor of his own grocery business and on 16 May 1862 he announced Near
the North Eastern and Hartlepool Railway Station. R
Farndale, announces to his friends and the public in general, that he has
Opened the Shop lately occupied by Mr M Welch, where he intends to carry on the
above business in all its respective branches. Having had 19 years experience in one of the largest establishments in
the town, RF trusts that by diligent attention to business and supplying a good
article, to merit a share of public patronage and support. Bishopton Lane,
Stockton, 8th May, 1862.
Robert died
at the age of 51, by which time he was a Master Grocer.
Robert and
Sarah had six children, the
Stockton 2 Line.
Robert
Edward Farndale (1844 to 1875) was an Iron ship builder’s clerk and later a
plasterer and cement maker of Stockton
who later lived in Birmingham. His business was bankrupted, and he died five
years later.
Thomas
William Farndale (1848 to 1899) was a brass polisher at the brass foundry
in Stockton.
Mary Emily
Farndale (1860 to 1923) was a private school teacher in Stockton.
Thomas
William Farndale married Elizabeth Shinton White and they had three
children. William
James Farndale became a solicitor’s clerk, and he married Mabel Hills, and
their son William
Hills Farndale (1917 to 2009) became a gas and chemical engineer, who
invented a coal effect fire.
Scene 6 – The Rothbury Farndales
You will
recall that William Leng
Farndale (1876 to 1932) was the last surviving child of George and Catherine
Farndale, who had suffered so much hardship in Stockton in the 1870s. He was born in Middlesbrough and moved with his family
to Liverpool and then to Gateshead by 1891, where William became a clerk in an
iron foundry. In 1896 he married Margaret Johnston and
they moved to Rothbury, north of Morpeth in Northumberland. Rothbury is the
town adjacent to the remarkable house at Cragside, the home of the visionary Victorian inventor
Lord William Armstrong and his wife Lady Margaret Armstrong. In the late
nineteenth century, probably shortly before the arrival of the Farndales in
Rothbury, William Armstrong had been building his extraordinary home fitted
with the most pioneering technology and powered by renewable energy, mainly
hydro power.
William Leng
Farndale served with the Northumberland Imperial Yeomanry (Hussars) and
might have taken part in the Second Boer War between 1900 and 1902, when that
Regiment was used as mounted infantry.
William was
a sergeant in the Northumberland Hussars by 1902. In November 1902, perhaps
shortly after their return home, the annual dinner given to the members and
ex members of the Rothbury Detachment of the Northumberland Hussars Imperial
Yeomanry by Major Watson Armstrong was held in the Queen's Head Hotel,
Rothbury, the splendid repass being catered for by the host and hostess, Mr and
Mrs Bell. Major Watson Armstrong presided, the vice chairs being
occupied by the Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant Bell and Sergeant Farndale.
The shooting prizes given by Major Watson Armstrong were then
distributed by the chairman, who observed that they Rothbury Detachment stood
high in the Squadron so far as marksmanship was concerned. The Colonel’s Cup
(Colonel J B Cookson CB)
was held by Sergeant Farndale... The Silver Cup of the
Rothbury Detachment... Fourth prize, Sergeant Farndale … Mr D D Dixon proposed “The Northumberland Hussars” coupling with
the toast the name of the Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant Bell, who replied.
He observed that when he joined in 1894 he received
the kit of a yeoman who had immigrated to Australia, and who, when the war
broke out, went to South Africa... The Chairman, in reply, said that reunion
gave him much pleasure, especially the reunion of those who had fought in
South Africa. He welcomed them back. Applause. It was a happy thought of Mr
Harvey to bring ex trooper Wilson from Hepple with him. Applause. This was the
first time he had met then since he was appointed Commander of the C Squadron
of the Regiment. Sergeant Major Wilson had told them that the C Squadron had
been specially creditably mentioned by Lord Chesham. He had the privilege of
being the oldest yeoman in the room.
At the
Yeomanry Ball in January 1903, the duties of MC were agreeably performed by
Major Watson Armstrong, Regimental Quartermaster J W Bell, and Sergeant
Farndale and in 1904 the general arrangements for the Yeomanry
Ball that year were in the hands of Sergeant W L Farndale, who is to
be complemented on the success of the same, everything passing off without a
single hitch and again in 1907.
In 1905 he
was awarded the Imperial Yeomanry Long Service Medal.
By 1907 he
was managing the Rothbury brewery. In April 1907 William Farndale’s distillery
business had supplied a landlady who later adulterated the whisky
and he gave evidence in the trial. The licensee of the Turks Head hotel,
Rothbury, was summoned on a charge of having sold adulterated whisky. Sergeant
Taylor, who is an inspector under the Food and Drugs Act, stated that on Feb
19th, he visited the Turks Head and purchased from the landlady a pint of
whisky. He divided the whisky into three parts, one of which he returned to the
landlady, informing her that one of the others would be sent to the county
analyst for analysis... William Farndale, manager for Messrs Storey and
company, Rothbury, the Brewers who supplied to the whisky to Mrs Stevenson,
stated that the whisky was always scientifically tested before being sent out
to customers, and the class of liquor in this case was never more than 22%
under proof. Questioned by one of the Magistrates, Mr Farndale said the Firm
gave certificates as to the strength of the whisky with their sales of whisky.
Replying to Mr. Perry, witness said that a very small quantity of water would
be required to reduce a gallon of whiskey from 22% to 27.2% under proof,
probably about ¾ of a gill, or as much as would cover the bottom of a gallon
measure. The magistrates retired to consider the case, and the returning the
chairman said the Bench had been uncertain whether or not
to convict, but they had decided not to, on the defendant paying costs.
In September
1907, the Partnership heretofore subsisting between the undersigned, John
Wardle Nicholson, Rachael Temple and Cuthbert William Storey, carrying on
business as Brewers and Wine and Spirit merchants, at Rothbury, in the county
of Northumberland, under the style or firm of Geo Storey & Co, have been
dissolved as from the date hereof so far as concerns that said Cuthbert William
Storey, who retires from the said firm. All debts due to and owing by the said
late firm will be received and paid respectively by the said John Wardle
Nicholson and Rachael Temple and William Leng Farndale of Rothbury
aforesaid, who will continue to carry on the said business in partnership under
the style or firm of Geo story and Co. Dated this 28th day of August 1907.
So, William
Farndale continued the business of Brewers and Wine Merchants trading as Geo
Storey and Company in Rothbury.
In November
1907, William attended a Unionist gathering at Rothbury at which speeches were
given by Lord Armstrong of Cragside and Colonel
Bates.
William was
regularly involved in social activities in Rothbury and by 1916, he was leading
decision making of the local victualling trade. In
February 1916 a meeting of the licenced victuallers of Rothbury and district
was held at the Railway Hotel. Mr W L Farndale, manager for Rothbury Brewery
Company, presided. It was unanimously decided, owing to the considerable
increase in the price of spirits, that on and after today an increased charge
of 1 penny per glass be made. It was also decided that steps be taken to form a
licenced victories association for Rothbury and district.
Then in
February 1920, he was involved in a violent burglary at his brewery in
Rothbury. The little town of Rothbury, nestling among the Northumberland
hills, has been the scene of one of those sensational affairs which have lately
become almost commonplace of the wave of crime. There has been a murderous
attack on a local constable, following an attempted burglary, the latter alone
being quite sufficient to stir the place out of its usual placid calm. The
facts of the affair are: Constable Sinton, about 9:15
on Saturday night, in the course of his round, suspected that there was someone
tampering with the back premises of the block utilised by the Rothbury Brewery
Company. He stopped a local man named James Curry in the street,
and asked him to keep watch on the front of the premises, a one storey
building in the Main Street, with a backyard and outbuildings, while he went
for assistance. It would appear that Sinton had gone
in search of the Sergeant, the only other policeman in the vicinity, but
returned alone, and asked Curry to go over the road and inform the local
manager of the firm, Mr William Farndale, that something unusual was afoot.
What
happened after that will best be explained in the words of Mr Farndale. “I was
called from my home about 9:15 by Curry, who told me that he had been sent by a
policeman. I went to the firm's premises at the other side of the street in my
slippers. As I entered by the gate leading to the back premises a man came
running out, and I immediately tackled him. We struggled for a time, but when I
heard a shot fired behind me, I thought that I could do more
good in the fight which I thought the police were having. The man I was
fighting with escaped, leaving his white muffler in my possession, and I ran to
the back door of the premises. Curry followed, and we were surprised not to
find anyone there. We tried the door twice, and it was only when leaving that Curry
said to me ‘What is that in there?’. We went inside the shed. I found Constable
Sinton in a sitting position. He had his baton lying loosely in his hand, but
he was unconscious from a severe wound on the head. I at once thought that this
had been caused by the shot I had heard, but it is now
clear that the constable was struck by a heavy weapon. We had him conveyed to
his home, and up to the present he has been unable to give any information
about the affair. He is badly hurt, but it is expected that he will live.”
That a
burglary at the brewery was frustrated by the intervention of the constable
seemed certain, but so far the identity of the
miscreants remains a mystery. It was suspected that they had escaped in a motor
car, and, very soon after the occurrence, the
principal roads from Rothbury were being watched and all cars stopped and the
occupants questioned. The car came under the inquisition of the police.
As a
result of an encounter with two men who attempted to break in
to the office of the Rothbury Brewery Company at about 9:15 on Saturday
night, P C Francis Sinton received severe injuries to his head, supposed to
have been inflicted by an iron bar or a jemmy.
Before long
two Russian sailors were arrested. The police proceedings against Peter Klighe and Carl Strautin, the two foreigners, of Newcastle, now in custody awaiting
their trial at the next assizes on burglary charges, were continued at Rothbury
this morning. Two charges were preferred against them, one of having attempted
to murder PC Francis Douglas Sinton, and the other of alleged warehouse
breaking at the Rothbury Brewery on February 28.
The evidence
of the assaulted PC Sinton was that he saw the two prisoners, he said, leave
the 7.5pm train at Rothbury on February 28. At 9.10 on the same night, he was
on duty on the roadway near the premises of the Rothbury Brewery Company. He
heard a noise, but was under the impression that it
came from the inside of the premises. He listened at the door, and heard glass
breaking, which he still thought was inside. He sent a messenger to Mr
Farndale, the manager, and he himself went round to the rear of the premises.
He shone his Lantern into the bottle shed and saw the smaller of the two
prisoners, Klighe, standing in the opening. Accused
shouted something in a foreign language and ran inside the shed. Witness
followed him in, keeping the light on him. He rushed to the far end of the
shed. When witness followed him in, accused took a revolver from his right hand pocket in his overcoat, and told witness if he
came forward he would fire on him. Witness drew his truncheon from his pocket
and rushed at him. Witness got hold of him by the right shoulder. The man
immediately fired at him, the bullet passing the side of his head. Somebody
else came behind him, and he was struck on the head with something. His cap was
knocked off, then he was struck a second time on the bare head. He was knocked
to the ground and was insensible for several days afterwards.
William Leng
Farndale gave further evidence at the trial that shortly after 9 pm on
February 28th, he was sent for by the police. He ran across to the brewery at
once. A photograph, produced, showed the gateway into which he ran. After he
had got about a couple of yards into the gateway, a figure appeared, coming
towards him on his right, close to the main building. There was nothing showing
distinctly except a white muffler. He got hold of the muffler with both hands.
There was a struggle. The wearer of the muffler wriggled away and left the
muffler in his hands. At that time a shot was fired from the yard. He went
round the corner of the bottle shed but saw nothing unusual. He was joined by
James Curry, and with the aid of matches, made an examination of the back door.
At the far end of the bottle shed they found PC Sinton sitting on the ground,
his head covered with blood, and his cap and baton beside his right knee. He
asked PC Sinton if he was badly hurt, and he replied
“Is there anybody behind me?”. Witness ran for a light, and PC Sinton was
removed home.
It was also
reported that the little town of Rothbury was all agog yesterday when the
morning train arrived with the prisoners, Peter Klighe
and Carl Strautin, seaman, to answer a charge of
attempting to murder constable Francis Douglas Sinton on 28 February and also with breaking and entering the brewery premises on
the same date.
On the
charge of breaking and entering William Leng Farndale gave evidence that at
4.20pm on Feb 28th he fastened up the brewery premises and left everything in
order. Shortly after 9 o’clock the same night he was sent for by the police
and, with Sergeant Crossford, examined the premises of the brewery company. At
the head of the staircase abutting the brewery there was a window with six
panes. Two of the panes had been broken and one side of the frame had been
pushed away from its seating in the brickwork. There had not been bars in front
of that window. There had been two bars wrenched from its socket in the window
of the store room, which also abutted the little shed
room. The room bars produced were those recovered from the window. The crowbar
produced was the property of the brewery company and was generally kept in the
cart shed.
The attack
made upon the Rothbury policeman by two Russian seaman
had its sequel, at the Newcastle Assizes when the statement of the
case made by counsel was confirmed by the evidence of the witnesses PC Sinton
and Mr Farndale giving a graphic story of their encounter in the dark. Strautin, who is a Russian, said he had been in this
country since 1913, and since 1914 he had been working on British ships. On the
night at Rothbury, when on the roof, he saw a dark figure, and when he jumped
down and was seized he discharged a pistol in the air.
He saw no one to murder, and did not intend to do any
bodily harm to anybody.
Strautin said he was on the roof of the bottling shed, and had pulled
out two bars, and thrown them to the ground when Sinton appeared. He then
jumped down and ran away, and when seized by Mr Farndale he fired off his
pistol in the air to frighten Farndale. He never struck Sinton and did not
intend to harm anyone. Klinghe said he had sailed for
seven years on British ships, and having no money, had for three months prior
to his arrest been partner with Strautin in a career
of brigandage in Northumberland and Durham. On the night of this occurrence he was keeping watch, and just before Sinton
appeared told Strautin he was making too much noise.
Sinton then drove him into the shed, and he pointed a revolver at him, saying
“Don't move, I’ll shoot.” Sinton then closed with him, and in self defence he struck Sinton once with the iron bar. He
had no revolver, and the shot was fired in the shed.
The Russian
sailors were found guilty of attempted murder, and Counsel then drew the
judge’s attention to the fact that the four burglaries to which they had
pleaded guilty were only part of 23, most of which could be brought down to
them. In passing sentence his lordship said there was only one good thing to be
said about the defendants, they had apparently done honest work until labour
troubles prevented them continuing at a time when their country was in such a
condition that there appeared to be a reluctance to return to it. As soon as
people who started a career of crime took to going out with loaded revolvers as
these two men had done, prepared to shoot in order to
retain their liberty, a state of affairs arose which judges of the High Court
must try to end by passing sentence is which would serve an example. For the
burglary alone he would have opposed no more than three years penal servitude,
but this last crime shows they were perfectly reckless of any other’s life so
long as they could keep their freedom, and the sentences would be three years
for each burglary, to run concurrently, and 10 years for the attempted murder,
with a recommendation for deportation at the conclusion of the sentence.
William and Margaret Farndale
had seven children who lived in Rothbury, working variously as a clerk at the
brewery, hotel waitresses and a heavy worker at roadstone quarries. One of
their sons, Kenneth
Farndale went to Quebec, Canada in 1927 at the age of sixteen amongst boys
brought to Canada by the British
Immigration and Colonisation Association. This was a scheme for British
Boys aged 14-18, to work as farm hands and eventually become permanent
citizens. The settlers were selected
carefully as to their health, physical and mental characteristics, previous
records and adaptability. Kenneth returned to Northumberland in 1931.
Scene 7 – A small Kilton Family
There was
another family who settled at Kilton in about 1750. William Farndale
(1725 to 1789), the son of William and Mary
Farndale of the Brotton 1 Line,
married Mary Taylor in 1750 and he became a farmer at Craggs. William and Mary Farndale had
two sons and the younger son, John Farndale
(1755 to 1829) was a husbandman and later a farmer in Kilton too. Their family
are the Kilton 3 Line.
John married
Hannah Wilson and they had a family of six, including Wilson Farndale
(1794 to 1857) who worked as an agricultural labourer in Kilton and Lythe, and John Farndale
(1799 to 1877) who was a farmer of 143 acres at Long Newton near Stockton and sat on a jury in 1845. In 1847
John Farndale the Younger was praised at a meeting with Lord Londonderry. We
also beg to recommend to your Lordship the names of the following tenants who
deserve commendation for the spirited manner in which
they have cultivated their farms, viz Mr Farndale, Long Newton.
The twenty
first century Farndale family does not descend from this small Kilton family.
The larger
family of Kilton, Brotton, Loftus, Stockton, Northumberland and beyond, has
many descendants amongst the twenty first century Farndales.
or
Go Straight to Act 15 – The
Mariners of Whitby