Author: Peter Collinge

The Establishment of Wigton Select Vestry and the Appointment of William Buttery as Assistant Overseer, 1822

By Peter Collinge

Vestries were committees set up in parishes to administer local and ecclesiastical government. They tended to meet at Easter each year to appoint parish officials, to examine accounts and at other times as and when the need arose.

At a vestry meeting on 2 May 1822 the inhabitants of the township of Wigton resolved unanimously that Revd Richard Matthews, in the absence of the vicar of Wigton was to take the chair, to establish a select vestry. Its members comprised ‘substantial occupiers’ of property in Wigton, together with the vicar, church wardens and overseers of the poor. The select vestry was to consist of no more than twenty men and no fewer than five to deal with the ‘concerns of the poor’.

The original members of the select vestry were:

Joseph Hodges of Highmoor

John Taylor esq. of Wigton

Joseph Parkin of Wigton

Thomas McAlpin of Wigton

John Pattinson or Pattison of Newstreet

Joseph Pattinson or Pattison Innkeeper, Wigton

William Bradshaw of Wigton

John Blackstock of Akehead

Thomas Armstrong of Standingstones

John Henderson of Moorhouse

John Smith of Mains

Robert Wise Shopkeeper of Wigton

Mr Isaac Westmorland of Wigton

Thomas Irving, Innkeeper, Wigton

By a ‘plurality of votes’ they resolved to ‘nominate and elect some discrete person to be assistant overseer’ of Wigton.

On 24 May 1822 the select vestry appointed William Buttery ‘as a fit person to be the Assistant Overseer’ with a salary of £12.

Sources

Cumbria Archives, PR/36/119, Wigton, Vestry Minute Book, 1735 – 1885

Tim Hitchcock, Robert Shoemaker, Sharon Howard and Jamie McLaughlin, et al., London Lives, 1690-1800 (www.londonlives.org, version 1.1, 24 April 2012)

The Appointment of Joseph Lancaster as Assistant Overseer, Wigton, 1819

By Peter Collinge

At a meeting of the inhabitants of Wigton on 9 December 1819 it was resolved unanimously to nominate and elect ‘some discreet person’ to be assistant overseer to the poor of Wigton pursuant to an Act passed in the 59 year of the reign on George III. It was also resolved unanimously that shopkeeper Joseph Lancaster of Wigton was just such ‘a discreet and proper’ person and he was duly nominated and elected.

It was agreed that his duties were to be ‘the same in all respects as those which the Rotation Overseers have heretofore been required to execute and perform’. A yearly salary was fixed at £8.

The details of Lancaster’s appointment were entered into the vestry book and signed by the chairman John Dodd.

Sources

Cumbria Archives, PR/36/119, Wigton, Vestry Minute Book, 1735 – 1885

Betley in 1834

By Peter Collinge

Abridged from White’s Directory of Staffordshire.

Betley is one of the smallest and pleasantest market towns in the county, consisting of one wide street, on the Nantwich Road, 7½ miles, west north west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, near the confines of Cheshire; the boundary line between the two counties extending here through the middle of a fine lake of 80 acres, called Betley Mere, abounding in pike, perch and other fish. The appearance of the houses is uncommonly neat, and the town is greatly ornamented by two very handsome seats, Beltey Hall and Betley Court, the former of which is the residence and property of George Tollet esq and the latter of Miss Fletcher.

The parish contains about 1200 acres of land and 870 inhabitants. Mr Tollet is lord of the manor and the other principal proprietors are Sir T. F. F. Boughey, who has a large estate here, and the Earl of Wilton, who owns Betley Mere.

The market on a Friday has long been of such trivial consequence, that it may be said to be obsolete, but a large cattle fair is held here on July 31, and another is about to be established, to be held yearly in May. The parish wake is on the first Sunday after October 6.

The church, though inferior to many in the neighbourhood, deserves notice, as affording the earliest attempt at Gothic architecture in this kingdom.

The Methodists have a small chapel in town; and the parishioners have the benefit of an endowed school.

A yearly rent charge of £4 4s for apprenticing poor children of Betley is paid out of land called Rushy Heys, being purchased for that purpose with £75, left in 1674 by William Palmer. The poor parishioners have the following yearly doles, viz 10s as the interest of £10 left by Joseph Cope in 1692; 40s for bread, 30s for clothing, and 40s for schooling, left by Marmaduke Jolly; 10s for bread left by Richard Gorton; and 4s for bread left by William Abnet.

The school was rebuilt partly by subscription, in 1826, and has four acres of land. It is now conducted on Dr Bell’s system, and in it is kept a parochial library of 200 volumes.

Here is also opened, once a month, a branch of the Pirehill Savings Bank, which has its principal establishment at Stone.

Source

William White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire (Sheffield: 1834), 616–17

Yoxall in 1834

By Peter Collinge

Abridged from White’s, Directory of Staffordshire.

A large and well-built village in a pleasant valley near the south western border of the enclosed forest of Needwood, seven miles north-north east of Lichfield upon the Ashbourne Road. It was anciently a market town. The parish includes several hamlets and scattered houses and contains 1582 inhabitants and 4791 acres. The church is an ancient Gothic fabric dedicated to St Peter.

Two cattle fairs are held each year on 12 February and 19 October and a feast or wake on the first Sunday in July.

The hamlets in Yoxall parish are Hoar Cross, Longcroft, Hadley End, Morry, Olive Green and Woodhouses. Hoar Cross Hall, now the seat of H. C. Meynell esq, was anciently the residence of the Willes family and was rebuilt by its late possessor Lord Scarsdale and used as a hunting lodge. Longcroft Hall is the seat of Mrs Arden. At Morry is a large tape mill established about 40 years ago. It produces15 cwt of tape each week. Yoxall Lodge has long been the residence of the Rev Thomas Gisborne.

The parish possesses many valuable benefactions including:

The Town Lands consisting of about 24 acres, let for upwards of £50 a year have been held in trust for the benefit of the parish for more than two centuries. In a copy of the court rolls for this manor, the rents are declared to be for the repairs of Trent Bridge, Hall Bridge and the Church of Yoxall and for the funding of an armed man for the service of the king, or for any other necessary uses for the village of Yoxall as should seem expedient to the ‘major part of the better sort of inhabitants’. But 20s a year is paid out of the rents as the interest of legacies left to the poor by three persons named Robotham, Bell and Sutton.

The Church Lands comprise ten acres, let for £17 7s a year, which is applied by the churchwardens in aid of the church rate.

The Free School was rebuilt by subscription, about 1818, and founded in 1695 by Thomas Taylor. Here is also a Girls’ National School, built in 1817, by subscription.

In 1690 Richard Crosse bequeathed 22 acres calle Bigg Car, for the maintenance of six widows of deceased parishioners.

Source

William White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire (Sheffield: 1834), 470–72.

Isaac Lightfoot’s Will, Wigton, 1817

By Peter Collinge

Many testators endeavoured to make an equal distribution of their estate amongst their surviving children. Often the distribution to women consisted of personal estate with money placed in the hands of trustees. Men tended to inherit real and personal estate outright. As an attorney, we might have expected Isaac Lightfoot to have followed this pattern. His will, however, shows what appears to be an unequal distribution of his estate with his eldest son receiving nothing and the favouring of his youngest son Osmotherly. We should be careful, however, as it is entirely possible that John and some of his other siblings had received in-life gifts not mentioned in the will. This may account for the distribution that was made.

In his will of 15 June 1814 (proved 27 March 1817) Isaac Lightfoot described himself as a gentleman. After his just debts and funeral expenses had been paid out of the real estate he owned in Greystoke, his daughters Mary and Margaret were to receive £200 each and £20 each yearly for ten years. They were also given a bed and bedding. Mary was to receive the chest of drawers in the parlour and Margaret the clock and case from the kitchen.

If either daughter died before the expiration of the ten years, leaving lawful issue, then their children would stand in place of their mother and receive their share of Isaac’s estate. If the daughters died leaving no children then the clock and chest of drawers were to go to Isaac’s son Osmotherly. Osmotherly was also to receive all of Isaac’s real estate in Greystoke.

Sons Isaac, Joseph and Osmotherly, were to receive money amounting to £640 due to Isaac the elder on bond or otherwise from John Lightfoot, the brother of Isaac, Joseph and Osmotherly. The amount was to be divided as follows: Joseph £100; Isaac £100 (but if Isaac died the sum or the remainder of it was to be given to Joseph); and £440 to Osmotherly. Osmotherly was also to inherit Isaac’s goods, chattels, bills, bonds, securities for money and personal estate.

Isaac, Joseph and Osmotherly were appointed as executors.

The will was witnessed by Robert Norman and John Mingins.

The value of his effects was under £100.

Sources

Cumbria Archives, W184, Will of Isaac Lightfoot of Wigton, 1817

This is a work in progress, subject to change as further research is conducted.

Isaac, Robert and John Lightfoot’s Articles of Clerkship and other career-related matters, Wigton

By Peter Collinge

Isaac Lightfoot seems to have had a faltering start to his legal career. This may explain the covenant included in the agreement binding his son in 1792.

On 26 November 1767 attorney Charles Christian of Moorland Close, Cumberland, paid the duty on Isaac Lightfoot’s apprenticeship indenture. The following year Isaac was articled to Henry Lowes. What prompted this change is unclear at present. Isaac made sufficient progress however to set himself up in practice as one of attorneys of George III at the Court of King’s Bench at Westminster. In January 1775, by articles of agreement he took on William Wilkinson, the son of John Wilkinson of Arkelby, Cumberland, for seven years.

Robert Lightfoot’s early progression in the legal profession followed the same path as his brother Isaac. He too was apprenticed to Charles Christian and then to Henry Lowes.

On 2 November 1792, by articles of agreement, Isaac took on his son John as an apprentice in his legal firm. By the agreement John ‘did put and bind himself clerk to the said Isaac Lightfoot to serve him as such from the day of the date of the said Articles for the term of five years … subject to a covenant’. The covenant stated that if Isaac thought it proper he could assign over his son and the articles binding him at the end of the first, second, third or fourth years of his apprenticeship to ‘any attorney in London or Westminster or elsewhere’ that Isaac though fit to serve out the remainder of his term of five years.

By 1799 Isaac Lightfoot was one of four certified attorneys in Wigton. The others were his son John, and Joseph Martindale, Joseph Stamper.

Sources

The National Archives (TNA), IR 1/25, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures, 1710-1811, Charles Christian, master, Moorland Close, Cumberland, Isaac Lightfoot, apprentice, 26 November 1767

TNA, CP 5/77/3, Articles of clerkship (as a solicitor or attorney) for Isaac Lightfoot, articled to Henry Lowes, with affidavit, 1768

TNA, Court of Common Pleas: Registers of Articles of Clerkship and Affidavits of Due Execution; Class: CP71; Piece: 1, Henry Lowes, attorney, Wigton, Cumberland, Robert Lightfoot, apprentice, 14 June 1768

TNA, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures, 1710-1811, Charles Christian, master, Moorland Close, Cumberland, Robert Lightfoot, apprentice, 7 July 1768

TNA, Court of King’s Bench: Plea Side: Affidavits of Due Execution of Articles of Clerkship, Series I; Class: KB 105; Piece: 6, Isaac Lightfoot, attorney, Wigton, Cumberland, John Lightfoot, apprentice, 12 January 1793

The New Law List 1799

This is a work in progress, subject to change as further research is conducted.

Isaac Lightfoot, Overseer, Attorney, and Bankrupt, Wigton

By Peter Collinge

Amongst the Wigton Overseers’ vouchers many are signed by Isaac Lightfoot. One, dated 7 May 1771, was an acknowledgement from Daniel Steel overseer for Wigton Quarter that he has received the remaining cash from Isaac Lightfoot late overseer of Wigton parish.

On 24 March 1789 the London Gazette announced that a commission of bankruptcy had been brought against Isaac Lightfoot of Wigton. Described as a money-scrivener, dealer and chapman, and a prisoner in Carlisle Gaol, he was required to surrender himself to the Commissioners at the Guildhall, London, on 4 and 11 April at 10 o’clock in the morning and at 5 o’clock in the afternoon on 9 May. On these occasions he was to make a full disclosure of his estate and effects. His creditors were also to come to the ‘guildhall to prove their debts’. At the second meeting the creditors were to appoint the assignees (those responsible for gathering in as much of Lightfoot’s estate as they could). At the third meeting Lightfoot was required to finish his examination whereupon the creditors would be required to assent or dissent from the allowance of his certificate. (Granting a bankrupt a certificate would allow him to continue trading in the hope that it would result in the creditors being repaid more of what they were owed). All persons indebted to Lightfoot, or any who were in possession of his effects, were not to pay or deliver them to Lightfoot but to those persons appointed by the Commissioners appoint and to inform Mr Mounsey of Castle-street, Holborn, London.

On 11 April 1789 the Gazette announced that the commissioners were to meet on 21 April following an adjournment on 11.

On 8 September 1789 the Gazette desired that the creditors who had proved their debts should meet Lightfoot’s assignees on 25 September at 3 o’clock at Mr Carlisle’s, at the Half Moon inn, Wigton, in order to assent to or dissent from the assignees commencing, prosecuting or defending any law suits relating to Lightfoot’s estate or effects, including submitting to arbitration, or any other matter relating to the bankruptcy.

More than a year later, in October 1790 Lightfoot was still in Carlisle gaol. The bankruptcy commissioners called a meeting for 16 November to be held once again at the Guildhall, London, (following an adjournment on 27 July 1789) to make a dividend to Lightfoot’s creditors. Any creditors who had not yet come forward to prove their debts were requested to do so, or they would be excluded the benefit of the dividend. All claims not then proved would be disallowed.

The Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser announced that those creditors who had proved their debts under the commission of bankruptcy against Lightfoot should attend the assignees at the Half Moon on Tuesday 7 December 1790 at one o’clock to receive the second dividend from the bankrupt’s estate and to consult on some special matters which would be laid before them. A final dividend was made in November 1791.

In April 1793, more than four years after Lightfoot had been declared bankrupt, the commissioners certified to the Right Hon. Alexander, Lord Loughborough, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, that Isaac Lightfoot ‘hath in all Things conformed himself according to the Directions of the several Acts of Parliament made concerning Bankrupts’. They gave notice that Lightfoot would be granted his Certificate of Discharge on or before the 25 May. From that time onwards he would be free of his bankruptcy.

It is perfectly possible that Lightfoot’s bankruptcy had been occasioned by his activities as a money scrivener, a person who Webster’s 1828 dictionary defined as ‘a person who raises money for others’, and who also invests money on behalf of others in return for a payment of interest. Indeed, the survival of a small number of documents relating to Dubmill Mills shows that Lightfoot was owed money.

Sources

Cumbria Archives, PR36/V/2/46, 7 May 1771 Acknowledgement from Daniel Steel overseer for Wigton Quarter

Cumbria Archives, PR 122/439, Copy of documents relating to Dubmill Mills, (Sale, 1778; repairs 1783; bankruptcy, 1789) (names not stated), on back of copy of declaration by Robert Sibson of Old Mawbray, concerning the money due to Isaac Lightfoot of Wigton, Joseph Osmotherley of Allonby, Richard Barns of Dryholm, and Jeremy Barwise of Nook from the £1867 paid him by “Margery Jackson of London”

Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser, 01 December 1790, p.3

This is a work in progress, subject to change as more research is conducted.

 

 

 

Rules of Wigton Female Friendly Society from Frederick Morton Eden’s ‘The State of the Poor’ (1797)

By Peter Collinge

Morton summarises the main rules of the society and adds his own comments.

Healthy women under 43 years of age are admitted, on paying 1s 9d, entrance money, 7d box money, and 1d towards providing a doctor.

A member of 3 years standing is allowed, in case of sickness, 5s a week for the first 10 weeks; 3s a week there afterwards; but no sickness, or lameness, in the time of pregnancy, entitles a member to relief from the Society; but if they are the consequence of pregnancy, such member is entitled to the allowance, to commence one month after her lying in. £5 are allowed towards the funeral expenses of a member, and £2 towards the funeral expenses of a husband; but a member cannot receive the last allowance more than once in her life.

Widows are allowed £2 on the death of a child; and unmarried members £2 on the death of a father, brother &c.

Members disclosing the secrets of the Society, upbraiding one another, refusing to be silent, after due notice, &c are liable to a fine; the framers of these rules, which are very minute, seem to have entertained strong ideas of the loquacity of the sex.

The following rule seems well calculated to punish dissoluteness of manners, among the female part of the labouring class.

If any single or unmarried woman, having had a child, before she entered the Society, shall commit the same crime, when in the Society, she shall be excluded; or, if any married woman shall have a child in the absence of her husband, she also shall be excluded, provided she cannot satisfy the Society in six months.

Members of 20 years standing are allowed 2s a week for life, while the fund consists of £100 and upwards.

For managing the concerns, and keeping the keys of the strong box of this Society, two stewardesses are taken by rotation, and continue six months in office; two collectors, who are chosen by the stewardesses, collect fines, &c: a beadle, and warden, (both females), are likewise taken by rotation; the former is the message bearer, and the latter inspects the public affairs of the Society, to see that the officers discharge their duty, and attends the door on club nights. A committee of six women, is taken by rotation, from the roll every six months, whose business is to determine all controversies, to accept members, with the concurrence of the stewardesses, and to give their assent to the lending or disposing of money, or other things, belonging to this Society. The club meets once a month at an ale house in Wigton, the landlady of which is bound under the penalty of 2s 6d to find them good ale.

A Description of Wigton from William White, History Directory and Gazetteer of Cumberland and Westmorland (Leeds: Edward Baines and Co.,1829)

By Peter Collinge

Though the pressure of the poor rates appear to be as heavy here [in Cumberland] as in most other parts of the kingdom, it would still be much greater if its evils were not alleviated by the munificent posthumous charities that have been bequeathed at different periods…

Population of Wigton parish

1801 3357

1811 4051

1821 houses 991, families 1240, persons 5456

Wigton Parish is about 5 miles in length and three in breadth … On its western side is the river Waver, besides which it is intersected by several small brooks, and the Wiza rivulet, and contains a small lake called Martin Tarn, in which pike, perch and eels are taken. The land is generally low but possesses a dry and fertile soil, varying from loam, clay and gravel. Here is plenty of red freestone, but no limestone or coal. A spring called Hally-well, rises from iron ore; and near Kirkland is a ‘Spaw well’ said to possess medicinal virtues and also a powerful spring, which sends forth to the Wiza about nine gallons per minute. The parish contains four townships, of which the following forms an enumeration.

Wigton Parish 1801

persons

 1811

persons

 1821

houses

 1821

families

 1821 persons
Oulton twp 294 321 76 77 336
Waverton High and Low twp 375 409 89 89 477
Wigton twp 2450 2977 729 956 4056
Woodside Quarter twp 238 344 97 118 587
Total 3357 4051 991 1240 5456

 

Wigton, the capital of this parish and of the Deanery to which it gives its name, is a neat, commodious, and well-built market town, standing in a pleasant and healthy situation … The streets are tolerably spacious, and contain many good houses. During the last thirty years many improvement have been effected. The heavy and clumsily built shambles and market cross, which so much incommoded the market place, have been removed, and the site formed into a spacious square, with an ornamental cast iron pump in the centre. The late Mr T. Holmes erected several elegant buildings, which have greatly improved the eastern aspect of the town. The high roads in the vicinity are now in excellent repair, and some new ones were formed and several good bridges built about twenty years since, under the inspection of Mr T. Bushby. Since the year 1801, Wigton has nearly doubled its population, owing to the inclosure of the commons and the increase of its manufactures, which formerly consisted of tow-cloth, Osnaburghs, coarse linens, striped checks, and calicoes, but of late years fustians, muslins, ginghams, &c have been introduced. An establishment for the printing of calicoes was commenced at the Spittal in 1790 by Messrs. Brummell and Irving. Here are also three dyehouses, and three hat and five nail manufactories, besides several breweries, tanneries &c, &c… The town is supplied with coal and lime from Bolton about four miles distant … A market is held every Thursday and a Horse Fair on the 20 February and a fair for cattle and merchandise on 5 April.

Wigton church, dedicated to St Mary, is a large elegant fabric, which was built in 1788. There was a Free Chapel in Wigton, called the Hospital of St Leonard, but its founder is unknown.

The church is the only episcopal place of worship in the whole of this populous parish; but there are in the town four dissenting chapels viz. the Friends’ Meeting House, in Allonby Road; the Independent Calvinist Chapel, at Market Hill, built in 1819, and two Wesleyan Methodist Chapels, one of which is an old building, (erected in 1788) in Meeting House Lane, and the other is a neat edifice, built in 1828 in George Street.

The Hospital in Wigton was founded in 1725, for the reception of six indigent widows of Protestant beneficed clergymen … £9 per annum is paid to each of the six inmates, and 10s extra to the eldest, who is appointed governess. They each have three apartments in the hospital, which is a humble but comfortable edifice … The Workhouse for Wigton is in Old Lane. William Buttery is the governor and assistant overseer. The sum collected for the poor rates in 1803 was £727 3s 2d …

There is in the town a Master Mason’s Lodge, No. 614; and also a Royal Arch Chapter, No 156, besides a few small annual benefit societies.

Wigton Free Grammar School: The school room and master’s house were built by the Revd Robert Tomlinson in 1730, the parishioners being at the expense of leading the materials and providing the ground … The headmaster is regularly to teach the Greek and Latin languages, except on Thursdays when he is allowed to teach his own scholars writing, arithmetic, mathematics, history, geography &c… The school is free to the children of the owners or occupiers of the farms or tenements, whose former proprietors contributed either money, materials or labour towards its erection or endowment… Mr Robert Sumners is the head master, and Mr Joseph Scott the second master.

Here are two Sunday schools, one attached to the Calvinist chapel where 80 children attend, and one belonging to the church, where about 240 boys and girls are generally in attendance. The latter is a spacious edifice, which was built in 182o.

A lending parochial library was established at Wigton by the associates of the late Dr Bray in 1783 but the collection of books is not very valuable. Here is also a Subscription Library in Church Street and a Circulating Library at Mr Ismay’s in King Street. In the latter street there is likewise a Subscription News Room, and at the Calvinist chapel there is a Congregational Library, to which each member, on being initiated, contributes a book, and continues to pay a yearly subscription.

Description of Wigton from Pigot and Co., Directory of Cheshire–Northumberland, Part 1, 1828–1829 (London and Manchester, 1828)

By Peter Collinge

WIGTON, a market town, in a parish of the same name and in the ward of Cumberland, is 305 miles from London, 16 from Maryport, 15 from Keswick, 14 from Cockermouth, and 11 from Carlisle. The town is tolerably well built, and consists of one long spacious street, many of the houses being handsome and modern. The Earl of Egremont is lord of the manor or barony of Wigton, and holds a court leet twice in the year, at one of which a constable is appointed; but the general government of the town lies with the county magistrates. The church, a neat light structure, was erected in 1788, and [there] is a vicarage, in the patronage of the bishop of the diocese: the present incumbent is the Revd Jonathan Irving. Here are chapels for the Wesleyan Methodists, independents, and a friends’ meeting house; also a free grammar school, and an hospital for six clergymen’s widows. Brookfield school, near the town, was established in 1826 by the Society of Friends, for the education of sixty scholars. Here are subscription, parochial, and diocesan libraries; last named presented by Dr Bray, for the use of the clergy. The principal manufactures of Wigton comprise checks, ginghams, calicos, and some linens, an extensive calico printing establishment; and a silk hat manufactory are also in the town. At a short distance from it pass the rivers Wampool and Waver, which turn a number of corn mills: coals are worked three miles off, and copper about five miles from Wigton.

About a mile to the south are the ruins of a Roman station, called “Old Carlisle,” where many antiquities have, at various times, been found. Wigton is seated in a beautiful and healthy part of the county in a fine agricultural district: the land in the vicinity of the town is flat, fertile, and well-cultivated … The weekly market is on Tuesday, which is well supplied with corn, butcher’s meat, &c. On St. Thomas’ day is also a very large one for butcher’s meat, apples, and honey. Fairs are 20th February for horses, which is one of the very largest in the north of England, 5th of April for cattle and horses, and on Whitsun Tuesday for cattle and the hiring agricultural servants, &c. In 1821 the township of Wigton contained 4,056 inhabitants.