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Our Farndale ancestors and the Robin Hood Legends
Exploring the connections between our Farndale outlaw ancestors and the legends of Robin Hood
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Contents and
structure of this webpage
This
webpage has the following section headings:
- The
idea of Robin Hood
- The geography of the Robin Hood legend
- The Robin
Hood stories and local ecclesiastical links
- Campsall
- Ancestral
Farndales and the idea of Robin Hood – actors and story tellers
- Our
rebellious ancestors
- Dick
Turpin
- Other
references
- Links, texts and books
Dates
are in red.
Hyperlinks
to other pages are in dark
blue.
Headlines
are in brown.
References
and citations are in turquoise.
Contextual
history is in purple.
The idea of Robin Hood
An idea had
crystalised into stories by the mid thirteenth century, about the outlaw Robehod.
By the fifteenth century those compound stories, with a stock character
encountering various formulae of adventure, had evolved into more formal tales
of Robin Hood, a forest outlaw.
The first
surviving written stories date to about 1450 by which time there were large
numbers of rymes, some of which have survived (Robin Hood and the
Monk, Robin Hood and the Potter; Richard
Morris, Yorkshire a Lyrical History of England’s Greatest County, 2018,
184). Robin Hood was then portrayed as a yeoman
(I shall you tel of a gode yeman, His name was Robyn Hode – The Gest, Fytte 1, 1) and characters such as Maid
Marion and Friar Tuck had not yet emerged. By then he lived in a green wood
with merry men, including Little John, Will Scarlock and Much the miller’s son.
The sheriff of Nottingham was their nemesis. They hunted the king’s deer,
although they were loyal to the King. They were selectively anti clerical.
Friar Tuck was
a real outlawed priest, Frere Tuck, of the 1400s.
Maid Marion was
a character from French literature, and was added
later.
The association
with Robin Hood and Richard the Lionheart set the story in the 1190s, but this
was a later elaboration of John Major, a Scottish
historian, in the sixteenth century, later enhanced by Walter Scott in Ivanhoe
in 1819.
In the late
fifteenth century, the tales were brought together into A Gest of Robyn Hode
(“the Gest”), which was structured into sections or fyttes.
Various editions of the Gest were printed between 1490 and 1550.
The idea of
Robin Hood represents a nostalgic view of a past heroic age, of topsy turvy
justice, where justice was administered by the noble outlaws. The protagonists
of the tales were not real people, but as all epic literature, it provides a
contemporary record which emerged from historic events and experiences.
The
emergence of the Robin Hood stories in the 1400s was likely to have been
inspired in part by the complaints against oppression that led to the Peasants’ Revolt in
1381,
which itself was triggered by the imposition of three poll taxes in 1377, 1379
and 1381.
Robert Tombs, The English and their History, 2023, 128:
Popular Robin Hood stories, recited in verse by travelling minstrels, go
back to around the 1330s, they were referred to, disapprovingly, in Langland's
poem Piers Ploughman, c 1377, and were first written down in the early 1400s.
The stories traditionally originate in adjoining parts of Yorkshire and
Nottinghamshire. It has been suggested that if there ever was a real Robin Hood
(Robin Hod), he fought the Sheriff of Yorkshire between 1226 and 1234.
Robin Hood’s 700 year
survival into modern popular culture is unique.
There
is an In Our Time podcast on the centuries
old myth of the most romantic noble outlaw, Robin Hood and whether he was a yeoman, an
aristocrat, an anarchist or the figment of a collective imagination.
About
this time the memorable hero Robin Hood flourished in a romantic manner
(1066 and all that, Walter
Sellar and Robert Yeatman, 1930).
The geography of the Robin Hood legend
The earliest
references to Robin Hood are more associated with Barnsdale Forest than
Sherwood. Many of the names given to geographical locations in that area, such
as Robin Hood’s Well and Robin Hood’s cave, were given in the nineteenth
century. Some names though are much older, such as Barnsdale’s Stone of Robin
Hood (about 500m north of Robin Hood’s Well), which was mentioned as a boundary
marker in 1422 (John Leland, The Itinery in or
about the years 1535-1543 edited by L T Smith, London, Bell, 1909, 51;
Richard Morris, Yorkshire a Lyrical History of England’s Greatest County,
2018, 183; https://robinhoodlegend.com/monkbretton-priory-2/).
In Robin
Hood and the Monk the geography was focused on
Sherwood and Nottingham. Robin Hood and the Potter named Wentbridge (Went
breg) in Barnsdale. In Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, the action
took place in Barnsdale, and the sheriff was slain when he tried to flee to
Nottingham.
The Gest places
Robin Hood firmly in Barnsdale. It begins (Gest, Fytte I, 3):
Robyn strode
in Bernesdale,
And lenyd
him to a tre.
Barnsdale is a
constant reference in the Gest:
But as
they loked in to Bernysdale,
Bi a dernë
strete,
Than came a knyght ridinghe;
Full sone
they gan hym mete.
Now is the
knight gone on his way;
This game
hym thought full gode;
Whanne he
loked on Bernesdale
He blessyd
Robyn Hode.
(Gest, Fytte II, 57)
The same knight
later watched wrestling at Wentbridge:
He bare a launsgay in his honde,
And a man
ledde his male,
And reden
with a lyght songe
Vnto
Bernysdale.
But he went
at a bridge ther was a wrastelyng,
And there
taryed was he,
And there
was all the best yemen
Of all the
west countree.
(Gest, Fytte II, 81)
In a later part
of the story, Robin Hood intercepted two Benedictine monks on the highway north
of Doncaster:
But as
[t]he[y] loked in Bernysdale,
By the hyë
waye,
Than were they ware of two blacke monkes,
Eche on a
good palferay
(Gest, Fytte IV,130)
262.
He dyde
him streyt to Bernysdale,
Under the
grene-wode tre,
And he
founde there Robyn Hode,
And all his
mery meynë.
After Robin’s
royal pardon, when he was in royal service, he longeth sore for Bernysdale
(Gest, Fytte 8, 442)
439
Forth than went Robyn Hode
Tyll he came to our kynge:
'My lorde the kynge of Englonde,
Graunte me myn askynge.
440.
'I made a chapell in Bernysdale,
That semely is to se,
It is of Mary Magdaleyne,
And thereto wolde I be.
441.
'I myght never in this seven nyght
No tyme to slepe ne wynke,
Nother all these seven dayes
Nother ete ne drynke.
442.
'Me longeth sore to Bernysdale,
I may not be therfro;
Barefote and wolwarde I have hyght
Thyder for to go.'
We will return
later to Robin Hood’s longing to see his chapel of Mary Magdalene, when we meet
a direct ancestor of the modern Farndale family, William
Farndale, who was married at St Mary Magdelene’s church at Campsall, to
Margaret Atkinson, on 29 October 1564.
The King
allowed Robin to return to Barnsdale for a short time (Seven nyght I gyve
thee leve, No lengre, to dwell fro me.' Gest, Fytte 8,
443).
So Robin gratefully returned to Barnsdale
forest.
444.
'Gramercy, lorde,' then sayd Robyn,
And set hym on his kne;
He toke his
leve full courteysly,
To grene wode then went he.
445.
When he came to grene wode,
In a mery mornynge,
There he herde the notës small
Of byrdës mery syngynge.
446.
'It is ferre gone,' sayd Robyn,
'That I was last here;
Me lyste a lytell for to shote
At the donnë dere.'
447.
Robyn slewe a full grete harte;
His horne than gan he blow,
That all the outlawes of that forest
That horne coud they knowe,
So on his
return to the grene wode at Barnsdale, he slew a hart (as Roger milne
(miller) of Farndale (FAR000013A), son of Peter (FAR00008) had done in January 1293),
and gave a joyous blast of the horn he had made, so his merry followers would
know that he had returned. Robin then did not rejoin the King,
but returned to his old ways and lived in Barnsdale for another 22 years
until he was betrayed by the prioress of Kyrkësly
to her lover, the knight, Sir Roger of Donkestere.
450.
Robyn dwelled in grenë wode
Twenty yere and two;
For all drede of Edwarde our kynge,
Agayne wolde he not goo.
Kirklees Priory
was a Cistercian nunnery whose site is in the present-day Kirklees Park,
Clifton near Brighouse, Calderdale, West Yorkshire. The priory is featured in
the medieval legend of Robin Hood. According to Robin Hood's Death, Robin was
killed by the prioress of Kirklees. She was medically treating Robin by
bleeding, but treacherously drained too much of his blood instead.
Robin Hood’s
association with Barnsdale was more widely recorded. For instance
the Scottish poet and Augustinian canon Andrew of Wyntoun in his Orygynale Chronicle
of circa 1420 wrote in the Allusion (in book VII under the year 1283,
i.e. during the reign of Edward I):
litill Iohne and Robyne rude
Waichmen were commendit gud
In Yngilwod and Bernysdale,
And vsit þis tyme þer travale.
(Wemyss MS,
ll. 3453-56)
Litil Iohun and Robert Hude
Waythmen war commendit gud;
In Ingilwode and Bernnysdaile
Þai oyssit al þis tyme þar trawale.
(Cottonian
MS, ll. 3525-28)
"Yngilwod" is Inglewood forest in Cumberland. Wyntoun is the only writer
to locate Robin Hood's activities in that area. However
the reference to Barnsdale was more aligned to the wider tradition.
‘Robin Hood in Barnesdale Stood’ was
quoted by a judge in the court of Common Pleas in 1429 (Court of Common Pleas, 1429, 7 Henry 6).
The locations
with which Robin Hood is associated, like the stories themselves, are imagined
over centuries of storytelling. The places, like to stories, are ephemeral and
locating the green wood precisely is not the right approach to take. Yet there
is no doubt that the idea of the green wood has a very close association with
Barnsdale, Campsall, and the area immediately to the north of Doncaster. Robin
Hood’s domain, though flexible to the imagination of countless story tellers,
clearly stretched to Doncaster - My purpos was to haue dyned to day; At Blith or Dancastere (Gest,
Fytte 1, 22). Robin Hood’s ultimate betrayal was to the knight, Sir
Roger of Doncaster. Barnsdale forest was then at the eastern edge of the great
swamp land that dominated the land westward to the Humber estuary.
The parish
church at Campsall, still the Church of St Mary Magdalene, coincides with
Robin’s chapell in Bernysdale, That semely is to
se, It is of Mary Magdaleyne. There were several churches dedicated to Mary
Magdelene, including the parish church in Doncaster itself, but the church at
Campsall is the most likely association as it sits in the heart of the area
associated with Barnsdale.
The forest of
Barnsdale is somewhat intangible for a retrospective analysis, for there is no
forest at Barnsdale today. It seems likely that a large area around Campsall
was once forested. It may even have stretched past Doncaster to merge with
Sherwood (eg H L Gee, Folk Tales of Yorkshire,
London, Nelson, 1952, 48). The medieval records do not though suggest
forest at Barnsdale, at least of an administered nature, like Pickering,
with its forest verderers and regarders. Barnsdale or Bernysdale was known as a
lightly wooded area that was not officially a forest, but it was a place of
ambush in the fourteenth century. Highway robbery in Yorkshire in the
fourteenth and fifteenth century was a significant problem and there were
recorded holdups around Barnsdale and Wentbridge. There was at least one inn at
Wentbridge, where stories would have been retold. The area along the road from
Doncaster and Pontefract at that time, was likely a melting pot of
storytelling.
Yet the
references in the tales of Robin Hood and the grene wode to which he
returns is obviously associated with Barnsdale. Carey’s
map of Yorkshire 1754-1835 referred to Barnsdale Lodge (also known as
Barnsdale House) near the modern Barnsdale Bar on the A1 junction.
Richard
Morris, Yorkshire a Lyrical History of England’s Greatest County, 2018,
183 suggests: If the
Gest was designed to be recited in instalments, what if someone in the vicinity
adapted a selection of tales that were already widely known for a local
audience? If such a collection was then printed and began to circulate it would appear that the stories had originated around
Barnsdale.
Perhaps then
the written record which has been passed through the generations originated in Barnsdale, but arose from a collective memory of stories
from Barnsdale and from further afield.
There are hints
of the Robin Hood stories more directly associated with the North York Moors
and Kirkbymoorside. There are stories of Robin Hood’s butts above Robin Hood’s bay from where he fired an arrow that landed in
the bay, taken as a positive sign for the future seaside village. There are
other Robin Hood butts near Danby in Cleveland and associations with Castleton.
It was suggested that Robin Hood regularly fled the law at Robin
Hood’s bay and was given local shelter, sometimes heading out to sea with
the fishing boats. The English ballad The Noble Fisherman tells a story
of Robin Hood visiting Scarborough, taking a job as a fisherman, defeating
French pirates with his archery skills, and using half the looted treasure to
build a home for the poor. However, the ballad is only attested to in the 17th
century at the earliest.
There is also
recorded history of forest outlaws in such places as Pickering
forest.
The Robin Hood stories and local ecclesiastical links
Most English
writers of the fifteenth century had at least some association with the Church.
Those who captured the rymes of Robehod into the written word were
therefore likely to have had some ecclesiastical background.
Richard
Morris, Yorkshire a Lyrical History of England’s Greatest County, 2018,
183 surmises a likely
association of the stories with Barnsdale and Robin Hood’s chapel, dedicated to
Mary Magdalene. The original building resembled a collegiate church and was the
investment of two Norman families of the twelfth century, seeking a long term legacy. By the sixteenth century, there was a
vicar and a deacon at Campsall (Valor
Ecclesiasticus, Record Commission 1810 to 1834 v179). There were also
chantry priests in the vicinity who sang masses for the repose of the souls of
individuals who left endowments to the church. Morris suggests that the chantry
priests were supernumerary to the parish clergy and may have been involved in
teaching and he surmises that the first floor chamber
above the vaulted west bay of the south aisle at St Mary Magdalene, dating from
the late thirteenth century might have been a space used for such a purpose.
The emergence
of the theologian Richard of Campsall (1280 to 1350) suggests a well established tradition of teaching in Campsall. Richard
of Campsall (Ricardus de Campsalle) was an English theologian and scholastic
philosopher, at the University of Oxford. He was a Fellow of Balliol College
and then of Merton College. He is now considered a possible precursor to the
views usually associated with William of Ockham. He commented on Aristotle's
Prior Analytics, with emphasis on "conversion" and
"consequences". He is an apparent innovator in speculation about
God's foreknowledge, particularly concerning future contingents, around 1317.
By the
fifteenth century the villagers at Campsall had formed a fraternity,
and hired their own priest to pray for the parishioners living and
the souls departed (The Certificates of
Commissioners Appointed to Survey the Chantries, Guilds, Hospitals etc I, 200).
The references in the stories of Robin Hood, including Barnsdale, the Saylis
and Wentbridge suggest a very local knowledge of those who captured the stories
into writing. Doncaster
is just seven miles to the south. By 1540 its population was about 2,000.
The historian John
Paul Davis wrote of a connection between Robin Hood and
the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene at Campsall. Davis surmised that there is
only one church dedicated to Mary Magdalene within what might reasonably be
considered to have been the medieval forest of Barnsdale, being the church at
Campsall. The church was built in the late eleventh century by Robert de
Lacy, 2nd Baron of Pontefract. Indeed, a local legend suggests that Robin
Hood and Maid Marion were married at the church of Saint Mary Magdalene, at
Campsall.
Campsall
From early times the parish of Campsall
consisted of six townships or hamlets; Campsall,
Askern, Fenwick, Moss, Norton and Sutton. At the time of the Domesday survey in
1086, the area was in the possession of Ilbert de Lacy, the founder of
Pontefract Castle. The fact that Domesday does not mention a church here is no
proof that such did not exist, since cases are to be found where there is
similarly no such reference. Yet the existing church contains work of
pre-Conquest date; there may have been merely a chapel attached to the manor
without parochial rights. The earliest existing work in the church is of
twelfth century date.
In the reign of Edward
I Henry Lacy obtained a royal charter for a market at Campsall, which would
suggest that it was a place of some consequence by that time. By 1288 the
benefice was in the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV (1291) and had an annual value
of £66 13s. 4d. By a curious arrangement, the chapel of St. Clement in
Pontefract Castle had a share in tithe. The probable explanation of this
anomaly is the fact that Ilbert de Lacy and his successors held both estates
and adopted this method of supporting the chapel which was an important foundation in its own right. In 1336 there was a composition
under the sanction of the Archbishop of York in the name of Thomas de Bracton,
Rector of Campsall, and William de Mudene, Prebendary of the chapel, by which
one hundred shillings was to be paid by the Rector in lieu of the tithe.
A great change took place in 1481 when
Edward IV granted the rectory of Campsall to the Priory of Wallingwells in
Nottinghamshire, a small house of Benedictine nuns. In the following year
Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York, appropriated it to this purpose and
decreed that henceforth the benefice should be served by a Vicar, and gave the
appointment to Cambridge University. After the dissolution of the monasteries
under Henry VIII the rectorial tithes passed into lay hands.
St Mary Magdalene, Campsall is a large church
with at least two main phases of twelfth century building identifiable: at
first it had a cruciform plan; later, nave aisles enclosing a west tower were
added. Pevsner 1967, 154, says Campsall
church has ‘the most ambitious Norman west tower of any parish church in the
Riding’. Subsequently, alterations were made to the aisle arcades, windows,
chancel and south doorway. The church was restored between 1871 and 1877 by G.
G. Scott (Borthwick Institute Faculty Papers 1871/2
with plan) and piecemeal after. Restoration of stonework on the tower
was in progress in 2005. Romanesque sculpture is on the west doorway and tower;
one chancel window (inside and out); arches at the crossing; and numerous loose
and reset fragments.
Hunter 1831, 460, says 'Campsal church was the joint
work of the Lacis, the chief lords, and the Reineviles, the subinfudatories. It
exceded [the churches of Bramwith, Owston and Burgh] in magnificence as much as
it did in the extent of country that was attached to it'
The manor of Campsall thrived after the
Conquest, rather than retracting, and was largely owned directly by Ilbert de
Lacy (Hunter 1831, 463).
There were originally two rectors, one
appointed by each family; and this continued until about the time of Henry III
(Hunter 1831, 463).
Ancestral Farndales and the idea of Robin Hood – actors and story
tellers
Robert
Tombs, The English and their History, 2023, 128: It has been suggested that if there ever was a real
Robin Hood (Robin Hod), he fought the Sheriff of Yorkshire between 1226 and
1234.
There are three aspects to the history
of the Farndale family which support a close association with the Robin Hood
stories.
First, the earliest records associated with our ancestors who
started to leave the dale itself, but adopted its name, provide us with a dozen
or so direct references to poachers and outlaws in Pickering Forest.
- Farndales
indicted for poaching in 1280 (FAR00019)
included Roger, son of Gilbert of Farndale, Nicholas de Farndale, William
the smith of Farndale, John the shepherd of Farndale, and Alan the son of
Nicholas de Farndale;
- Peter
de Farndale (FAR00008)’s
son Robert (FAR00012)
was fined at Pickering Castle in 1293. Robert son of Peter de Farndale, (FAR00012)(The Farndale 2
Line) was outlawed for hunting in 1293.
- Roger milne (miller) of Farndale (FAR000013A), son of
Peter (FAR00008) of Spaunton
on Monday in January 1293,
killed a soar and slew a hart with bows and arrows at some unknown place
in the forest. He with others were outlawed on 5 April 1293.
- Richard
de Farndale (FAR00016)
was excommunicated for stealing in 1316.
- Robert
of Farndale (FAR00024)
was fined at Pickering Castle for poaching in 1322.
- John
de Farndale (FAR00026)
was released from excommunication at Pickering Castle on 9 Apr 1324.
- Simon
de Farndale (FAR00021)
(The Farndale 4
Line), whose son Robert was fined at Pickering Castle in
1332.
- Robert
of Farndale (FAR00031)
was outlawed with others for hunting a hart in the forest in 1332.
- Nicholas
de Farndale (FAR00022)(The Farndale 3
Line) gave bail for Roger son of Gilbert of Farndale who
had been caught poaching in 1334 and 1335.
- William,
smith of Farndale (FAR00037)
on Monday 2 December 1336, came hunting in Lefebow with bow and arrows and
gazehounds………’
- Gilbert
de Farndale (FAR00018)
was bailed by Nicholas Farndale (FAR00022)
for poaching in 1344 and 1345.
- Commission
of oyer and terminer on 17 January 1348 to a long list of names including
William Smyth of Farndale (FAR00040)
the younger and Richard Ruttok of Farendale for breaking in to the park at
Egton, hunting and carrying away the property of the owner with deer, and
for assaulting the owner’s men and servants causing their inability to
work for a long time, for which they were fined 1 mark.
The emergence
of the Robin Hood stories in the 1400s was likely to have been inspired in part
by the complaints against oppression that led to the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381,
which itself was triggered by the imposition of three poll taxes in 1377, 1379
and 1381. It is notable that Nicholaus de ffarnedale
(FAR00838A)
paid 4d for the second Poll Tax in 1379, and may well have had rebellious
sympathies with these ideas.
Second, the family who called themselves
Farndale, by the early fourteenth century were focused around
Doncaster, and by the sixteenth century, were living in or around Campsall,
where Robin Hood had made a chapell in Bernysdale.
It seems
probable that the descendants of the outlaws of Pickering Forest were living in the area of Barnsdale at the same time that the rymes
were committed to writing, including in the form of the Gest.
The historical
record suggests that those individuals who left the dale, but adopted its name,
first headed south across the agricultural plains around York and settled in York
itself, around Sheriff
Hutton to the north of York and to the area around Doncaster
where William
Farndale was the chaplain immediately after the Black Death and then parish
vicar from 1397 to 1403.
The written
record is at least for the moment, cold, after 1403 until William
Farndale, son of Nicholas
Farndale and Agnes
Farndale, married Margaret Atkinson at St Mary of Magdalene, Campsall on 29
October 1564. We can then directly link William’s son, George
Farndale to all (or probably all) modern Farndales. It seems probable that
the direct ancestors of all modern Farndales therefore lived in or around
Campsall in 1564 before they emigrated north of the North York Moors to the
Cleveland area by 1567. It seems very likely that the family group who lived in
or around Campsall in the mid sixteenth century were the descendants possibly
of William
Farndale, the vicar of Doncaster himself, but very probably of his wider
family.
Third, the family who called themselves
Farndale, and who lived in the area of Barnsdale at that time, were probably
descended from the vicar of Doncaster, William
Farndale of the fourteenth century. If the church of St Mary Magdalene was
a centre of learning by the late thirteenth century, this places our family at
the same location where the stories of Robin Hood may well have first been
committed to writing. Given that they were likely descended from outlaws of Pickering
Forest, who poached for hart and soar in desperate acts of survival, they
had the inspiration to romanticise about their ancestors’ exploits.
There are other
associations with the Farndale’s ancestral past. Perhaps the oldest Robin Hood
story, which appears in the Gest, is that of a knight, Richard of the Lee who
had become indebted to the abbot of St Mary’s, York who threatened to possess
his lands. Robin Hood came to his aid by robbing the monks themselves to repay
the loan. It will be recalled from the
general history of the Farndales’ origins, that after the Norman Conquest,
the lands of Kirkbymoorside were the property of two rival baronial families,
the House Mowbray and the House Stuteville. Farndale was first mentioned as a
gift by Roger de Mowbray’s ward to the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx. However the Stutevilles favoured the Benedictine monks of St
Mary’s Abbey in York and so in 1209 it was St Mary’s who had rights in the
forest of Farndale.
The Robin Hood
stories are well rooted in historical experiences, of which our Farndale
ancestors were players and direct witnesses.
In passing, it
is interesting to note that the valley which runs parallel to Farndale, and
with which it is closely associated in the medieval records, is Bransdale, and
it is tempting to draw some association with those around Campsall who later
named the area of Barnsdale. Only two letters shift!
It seems
probable that our ancestors were both the actors who, no doubt amongst many
like them, inspired the stories of Robin Hood, and may well have been amongst
those who passed down the stories and eventually recorded them to writing.
Our rebellious ancestors
Hence, we find
our family history in the heart of Robin Hood territory. There is a historical
documentary series on Sky television, called The
Britains, and episode 2 which depicts
two outlaws pursued in Pickering Forest whilst poaching for deer. They were
brothers called Philips, but they may as well have been Farndales. The
documentary observes that it was such folk who would inspire the legend of
Robin Hood, and their archery skills would one day comprise the successful
armies who fought at Crecy and Agincourt.
The medieval
sources record a significant number of our ancestors who were fined, outlawed
and even excommunicated, for poaching and illegally hunting, particularly
within the Royal Forest of Pickering. At the time they were petty
criminals, but they later became the heroic ‘merry men’, and there are plenty
of such characters in our history.
A historical
explanation for this activity might have been the struggles of the villein
classes in the thirteenth century and the Great Famine following bad weather
and poor harvests in 1315 which gave rise to widespread unrest, crime and
infanticide; followed by the Black Death which hit Yorkshire in March 1349.
A rebellious
trait is a seam which runs through the history of the English people and is
perhaps the origin of the democratic gains which were slowly achieved through
time. Our family’s association with this trait can be identified regularly in
the records. For instance John
William Farndale in 1936 was the youngest member of the Jarrow marchers.
As we learn
more about our ancestral history, this nostalgia for a world where justice and
fairness is administered by a noble outlaw on behalf
of the ordinary folk, weaves itself easily into the factual narrative of our
ancestors.
We cannot say
that our descendants were the fictional Robin Hood nor his merry men, but our
ancestral path weaves closely betwixt the idea of Robin Hood, and it seems
probable that our ancestors were those who inspired the tales and who, in later
generations, were close to those who wrote them down for posterity.
Other references
Yorkshire
is the Birthplace, refuge and burial place of Robin Hood (copied text for
further review)
Robin Hood of Wakefield
One theory of origin was proposed by
Joseph Hunter in 1852. Hunter identified the outlaw with a "Robyn
Hode" recorded as employed by Edward II in 1323 during the king's progress
through Lancashire. This Robyn Hode was identified with (one or more people
called) Robert Hood living in Wakefield before and after that time. Comparing
the available records with especially the Gest and also
other ballads, Hunter developed a fairly detailed theory according to which
Robin Hood was an adherent of the rebel Earl of Lancaster, defeated at the
Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. According to this theory, Robin Hood was
pardoned and employed by the king in 1323. (The Gest does relate that Robin
Hood was pardoned by "King Edward" and taken into his service.) The
theory supplies Robin Hood with a wife, Matilda, thought to be the origin of
Maid Marian, and Hunter also conjectured that the author of the Gest may have
been the religious poet Richard Rolle (1290–1349), who lived in the village of
Hampole in Barnsdale. Hunter's theory has long been recognised to have serious
problems, one of the most serious being that "Robin Hood" and similar
names were already used as nicknames for outlaws in the 13th century. Another
is that there is no direct evidence that Hunter's Hood had ever been an outlaw
or any kind of criminal or rebel at all; the theory is built on conjecture and
coincidence of detail. Finally, recent research has shown that Hunter's Robyn
Hood had been employed by the king at an earlier stage, thus casting doubt on
this Robyn Hood's supposed earlier career as outlaw and rebel.
Robin Hood of York
The historian L. V. D. Owen in 1936 and
more recently floated by J.C. Holt proposed that the original Robin Hood might
be identified with an outlawed Robert Hood, or Hod, or Hobbehod, all apparently
the same man, referred to in nine successive Yorkshire Pipe Rolls between 1226
and 1234.There is no evidence however that this Robert Hood, although an
outlaw, was also a bandit.
The early ballads give a number of possible historical clues: notably, the Gest
names the reigning king as being an unnamed "Edward", but
unfortunately the ballads cannot be assumed to be reliable in such details.
This is of little help as in addition to King Edward I who took the throne in
1272 with an Edward on the throne until the death of Edward III in 1377, there
was also Edward the Elder (900–924), Edward the Martyr (975–978) and Edward the
Confessor (1042–1066)
Robin Hood as an alias
It has long been suggested, notably by
John Maddicott, that "Robin Hood" was a stock alias used by thieves.
What appears to be the first known example of "Robin Hood" as stock
name for an outlaw dates to 1262 in Berkshire, where
the surname "Robehod" was applied to a man apparently because he had
been outlawed. This could suggest two main possibilities: either that an early
form of the Robin Hood legend was already well established in the mid-13th
century; or alternatively that the name "Robin Hood" preceded the
outlaw hero that we know; so that the "Robin Hood" of legend was so
called because that was seen as an appropriate name for an outlaw.
Another theory identifies him with the
historical outlaw Roger Godberd, who was a die-hard supporter of Simon de
Montfort, which would place Robin Hood around the 1260s. There are certainly
parallels between Godberd's career and that of Robin Hood as he appears in the
Gest. John Maddicott has called Godberd "that prototype Robin Hood".
Some problems with this theory are that there is no evidence that Godberd was
ever known as Robin Hood and no sign in the early Robin Hood ballads of the
specific concerns of de Montfort's revolt.
Robin Hood, the high-minded Saxon yeoman
The idea of Robin Hood as an Anglo-Saxon
freedom fighter opposing oppressive Norman lords found popular appeal in the
nineteenth century. The most notable contributions to the idea are Sir Walter
Scott's Ivanhoe (1819) and Augustin Thierry's Histoire de la Conquête de
l'Angleterre par les Normands, A History of the Conquest of England by the
Normans (1825). Robin Hood appears as a character along with his "merry
men" in Ivanhoe, a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott published in 1820,
and set in 12th-century England. The character that Scott gave to Robin Hood in
Ivanhoe helped shape the modern notion of this figure as a cheery noble outlaw.
In the novel Robin is depicted as a follower of King Richard the Lionheart and
helps him and Wilfred Ivanhoe to fight against the Knights Templar. It is in
this work that the modern Robin Hood – "King of Outlaws and prince of good
fellows!" - as Richard the Lionheart calls him – makes his debut!
Academics indicate that there are a number of verifiable historical clues that allude to the
legend's Anglo-Saxon origins. In particular, The
Coucher Book of Selby Abbey, a manuscript dating from the eleventh century,
records that ‘a certain Prince of Thieves by the name of Swain, son of Sigge,
constantly prowled around Yorkshire's woods with his band on perpetual raids’.
The medieval chronicler speaks of how a 'cursed villain' in Swein's gang robbed
Abbot Benedict of Selby. J. Green indicates that Hugh fitz Baldric, the late
eleventh century Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, held responsibility
for bringing Swein-son-of-Sicga to justice.[31] William E. Kapelle indicates
that Hugh fitz Baldric needed to travel around Yorkshire in the company of a small
army because of the threat that was posed to his safety by the region’s
outlaws. Historians indicate that the deeds of Yorkshire's eleventh century
outlaws, men such as Swein-son-of-Siccga, and their battles against the Sheriff
of Nottingham, merged together to form the legend that
is today universally known as The Adventures of Robin Hood.[33]
Yorkshire
Nottinghamshire's claim to Robin Hood's
heritage is disputed, with Yorkists staking a claim to the outlaw. In
demonstrating Yorkshire's Robin Hood heritage, the historian J. C. Holt drew
attention to the fact that although Sherwood Forest is mentioned in Robin Hood
and the Monk, there is little information about the topography of the region,
and thus suggested that Robin Hood was drawn to Nottinghamshire through his
interactions with the city's sheriff. And, the linguist Lister Matheson has
observed that the language of the Gest of Robyn Hode is written in a definite
northern dialect, probably that of Yorkshire.[48] In consequence, it seems
probable that the Robin Hood legend actually originates
from the county of Yorkshire. Robin Hood's Yorkshire origins are universally
accepted by professional historians.
Barnsdale
A tradition dating back at least to the
end of the 16th century gives Robin Hood's birthplace as Loxley, Sheffield, in
South Yorkshire. The original Robin Hood ballads, which originate from the
fifteenth century, set events in the medieval forest of Barnsdale. Barnsdale
was a wooded area which covered an expanse of no more than thirty square miles,
ranging six miles from north to south, with the River Went at Wentbridge near
Pontefract forming its northern boundary and the villages of Skelbrooke and Hampole
forming the southernmost region. From east to west the forest extended about
five miles, from Askern on the east to Badsworth in the west. At the northern
most edge of the forest of Barnsdale, in the heart of the Went Valley, resides
the village of Wentbridge. Wentbridge is a village in the City of Wakefield
district of West Yorkshire, England. It lies around 3 miles (5 km) southeast of
its nearest township of size, Pontefract, close to the A1
road. During the medieval age Wentbridge was sometimes locally referred
to by the name of Barnsdale because it was the predominant settlement in the
forest. Wentbridge is mentioned in what may be the earliest Robin Hood ballad,
entitled, Robin Hood and the Potter, which reads, "Y mete hem bot at Went
breg,' syde Lyttyl John". And, whilst Wentbridge is not directly named in
A Gest of Robyn Hode, the poem does appear to make a cryptic reference to the
locality by depicting a poor knight explaining to Robin Hood that he ‘went at a
bridge’ where there was wrestling'. A commemorative Blue Plaque has been placed
on the bridge that crosses the River Went by Wakefield City Council.
The Saylis
The Gest makes a specific reference to
the Saylis at Wentbridge. Credit is due to the nineteenth century antiquarian
Joseph Hunter, who correctly identifed the site of the Saylis. From this
location it was once possible to look out over the Went Valley and observe the
traffic that passed along the Great North Road. The Saylis is recorded as
having contributed towards the aid that was granted to Edward III in 1346-47
for the knighting of the Black Prince. An acre of landholding is listed within
a glebe terrier of 1688 relating to Kirk Smeaton, which later came to be called
‘Sailes Close’. Professor Dobson and Mr Taylor indicate that such evidence of
continuity makes it virtually certain that the Saylis that was so well known to
Robin Hood is preserved today as ‘Sayles Plantation’.[55] It is this location
that provides a vital clue to Robin Hood’s Yorkshire heritage. One final
locality in the forest of Barnsdale that is associated with Robin Hood is the
village of Campsall.
The Church of Saint Mary Magdalene at
Campsall
The historian John Paul Davis wrote of
Robin's connection to the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene at Campsall. A Gest of
Robyn Hode states that the outlaw built a chapel in Barnsdale that he dedicated
to Mary Magdalene,
‘I made a chapel in Bernysdale, That seemly is to se, It is of Mary Magdaleyne, And thereto
wolde I be’.
Davis indicates that there is only one
church dedicated to Mary Magdalene within what one might reasonably consider to have been the medieval forest of Barnsdale, and that is
the church at Campsall. The church was built in the late eleventh century by
Robert de Lacy, the 2nd Baron of Pontefract. Local legend suggests that Robin
Hood and Maid Marion were married at the church.
The Abbey of Saint Mary at York
The backdrop of Saint Mary's Abbey at
York plays a central role in the Gest as the poor knight who Robin aids owes
money to the abbot.
Robin Hood's grave at Kirklees
At Kirklees priory in Yorkshire stands
an alleged grave with a spurious inscription, which relates to Robin Hood. The
fifteenth century ballads relate that before he died, Robin told Little John
where to bury him. He shot an arrow from the Priory window, and where the arrow
landed was to be the site of his grave. The Gest states that the Prioress was a
relative of Robin's. Robin was ill and staying at the Priory where the Prioress
was supposedly caring for him. However, she betrayed him, his health worsened,
and he eventually died there. The inscription on the grave reads,
'Hear underneath dis laitl stean
Laz robert earl of Huntingtun
Ne’er arcir ver as hie sa geud
An pipl kauld im robin heud
Sick [such] utlawz as he an iz men
Vil england nivr si agen
Obiit 24 kal: Dekembris, 1247'.
Robin Hood's Grave in the woods near
Kirklees Priory
The grave with the inscription is within
sight of the ruins of the Kirklees Priory, behind the Three Nuns pub in
Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Though local folklore suggests that Robin is buried
in the grounds of Kirklees Priory, this theory has now largely been abandoned
by professional historians.
All Saints church at Pontefract
A more recent theory proposes that Robin
Hood died at Kirkby, Pontefract. Drayton’s Poly-Olbion Song 28 (67-70) composed
in 1622 speaks of Robin Hood’s death and clearly states that the outlaw died at
‘Kirkby’.[59] Acknowledging that Robin Hood operated in the Went Valley,
located three miles to the southeast of the town of Pontefract, historians
today indicate that the outlaw is buried at nearby Kirkby. The location is
approximately three miles from the site of Robin’s robberies at the now famous
Saylis. In the Anglo-Saxon period, Kirkby was home to All Saints Church. All
Saints Church had a priory hospital attached to it. The Tudor historian Richard
Grafton stated that the prioress who murdered Robin Hood buried the outlaw
beside the road,
‘Where he had used to rob and spoyle
those that passed that way…and the cause why she buryed him there was, for that common strangers and travailers, knowing and seeing him
there buryed, might more safely and without feare take their journeys that way,
which they durst not do in the life of the sayd outlaes’.
In a similar fashion, the Gest reads,
‘Cryst have mercy on his soule, That dyed on the rode! For he was a good outlawe, And dyde
pore men moch god’.
All Saints Church at Kirkby, modern
Pontefract, which was located approximately three miles from the site of Robin
Hood’s robberies at the Saylis, accurately matches both Richard Grafton's and
the Gest's description because a road ran directly from Wentbridge to the
hospital at Kirkby.
The new church within the old. After All
Saints church was damaged during the civil war a new one was built within.
Robin Hood place-name locations
Within close proximity
of Wentbridge reside several notable landmarks which relate to Robin Hood. One
such place-name location occurred in a cartulary deed of 1422 from Monkbretton
Priory, which makes direct reference to a landmark named Robin Hood’s Stone
which resided upon the eastern side of the Great North Road, a mile south of
Barnsdale Bar.[63] The historians Barry Dobson and John Taylor suggested that
on the opposite side of the road once stood Robin Hood's Well, which has since
been relocated six miles north-west of Doncaster, on the south-bound side of
the Great North Road. Over the next three centuries, the name popped-up all
over the place, such as at Robin Hood's Bay near Whitby Yorkshire, Robin Hood's
Butts in Cumbria, and Robin Hood's Walk at Richmond Surrey. Robin Hood type place-names occurred particularly everywhere except
Sherwood. The first place-name in Sherwood does not appear until the year 1700,
demonstrating that Nottinghamshire jumped on the bandwagon at least four
centuries after the event.[64] The fact that the earliest Robin Hood type
place-names originated in West Yorkshire is deemed to be historically
significant because, generally, place-name evidence originates from the
locality where legends begin The overall picture from the surviving early
ballads and other early references[66] indicate that Robin Hood was based in
the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire (which borders
Nottinghamshire), and that he made occasional forays into Nottinghamshire.
The
tales of highwaymen in the seventeenth and eighteenth century were a
modernisation of Robin Hood.
Richard
Turpin
(baptised. 21 September 1705 – 7 April 1739) was an English highwayman whose
exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft.
Turpin may have followed his father's trade as a butcher early in his life but,
by the early 1730s, he had joined a gang of deer thieves and, later, became a
poacher, burglar, horse thief and killer. He is also known for a fictional
200-mile overnight ride from London to York on his horse Black Bess, a story
that was made famous by the Victorian novelist William Harrison Ainsworth
almost 100 years after Turpin's death.
Turpin's
involvement in highway robbery followed the arrest of the other members of his
gang in 1735. He then disappeared from public view towards the end of that
year, only to resurface in 1737 with two new accomplices, one of whom Turpin
may have accidentally shot and killed. Turpin fled from the scene and shortly
afterwards killed a man who attempted his capture.
Later
that year, he moved to Yorkshire and assumed the alias of John Palmer. While he
was staying at an inn, local magistrates became suspicious of
"Palmer" and made enquiries as to how he funded his lifestyle.
Suspected of being a horse thief, "Palmer" was imprisoned in York Castle, to be tried at the next
assizes. Turpin's true identity was revealed by a
letter he wrote to his brother-in-law from his prison cell, which fell into the
hands of the authorities. On 22 March 1739, Turpin was found guilty on two
charges of horse theft and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Knavesmire on 7 April 1739.
Turpin
became the subject of legend after his execution, romanticised as dashing and
heroic in English ballads and popular theatre of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Texts, links and
Books
POPULAR
BALLADS OF THE OLDEN TIME SELECTED AND EDITED BY FRANK SIDGWICK, Fourth Series. Ballads of Robin Hood
and other Outlaws, 1906, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/28744/28744-h/28744-h.htm
REV.
EDWIN CASTLE (1843-1898) AND THE YORKSHIRE ROBIN HOOD (copied text for
further review) (One persistent legend attached to Campsall is that Robin
Hood and Maid Marian got married in St Mary Magdalene Church. There is a strong
claim amongst Robin Hood scholars that the legendary outlaw comes from
Yorkshire and not Nottingham. Based on the references to locations contained in
early versions of the Robin Hood stories, they argue that Barnsdale Forest is
the orginal, and Sherwood the imposter. And in one verse telling of the story,
Robin declares: I made a chapel in Barnsdale, That
seemly is to see, It is of Mary Magdalene, And there to would I be."
Campsall’s church is the only one in Barnsdale dedicated to St Mary Magdalene.
The wedding story was certainly widely told during Edwin’s tenure there. Unfortunately Maid Marian, like (perhaps) Sherwood, is a
later and fictional addition to the Robin Hood entourage. The historical Robin
Hood was in fact already married to a certain Matilda at the time of his
outlawing in 1322 (a time, incidentally, when for a very brief period the
sheriff of Nottingham had jurisdiction over Yorkshire).
Richard Morris, Yorkshire a Lyrical
History of England’s Greatest County, 2018.
Campsall bibliography
Arts Council of Great Britain: London,
Hayward Gallery, English Romanesque Art, 1066-1200, London, 1984
Borthwick Institute, Faculty papers,
Fac. 1871/2; Faculty Book 6, 18-19
Campsall, St Mary Magdalene guide, The
Story of St. Mary Magdalene Church, Campsall Yorkshire, n. p., 1965/1969
K. J. Conant, Cluny, Les églises et la
maison du chef d’Ordre, Mâcon, 1968
J. Fowler, “Note on the restoration of
the west doorway of Campsall church” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
of London 8 (1879-81), 130-31
J. Hunter, South Yorkshire: The History
and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster, in the Diocese and County of York,
2 vols. J. B. Nichols & Son, London, 1828-31
J. E. Morris, The West Riding, 2nd ed.
London, 1923
N. Pevsner, Yorkshire: West Riding. The
Buildings of England, Harmondsworth, 1959, 2nd ed, Revised E. Radcliffe, 1967
Victoria County History: Yorkshire, II
(General volume, including Domesday Book) 1912, reprinted 1974
Other Notes
Yorkshire Archaeological
Journal, Vol 36
