The following list of Wigton Vestry Members, 1788, 1822-1834 is drawn from the vestry minutes. The year 1828 is not included. In most years the occupation or status of the person was also recorded. Where possible these have been checked against entries in trade directories. Some occupations not included in the minutes have been taken from the directories.

Surname	First Name	Location	Status	Years
Armstrong	Thomas	Standingstones	yeoman	1822-34
Atkinson	John			1788
Barnes	John	Dockray	yeoman	1824-31
Barwick	Joseph			1788
Barton	William	Wigton,	spirit merchant	1829
Baxter	Abraham	Aikhead	farmer	1827
Baxter	William	Wigton	grocer	1826-30
Blackstock	John	Akehead		1822-24
Bradshaw	William	Wigton	spirit merchant	1822-23, 1826
Clark	Wilfrid			1788
Crookdake	William	Wigton	gentleman	1823-26
Crozier	John	Aikhead	farmer	1834
Dalton	George	Wigton	farmer	1829-34
Dalton	Richard	Wigton	currier	1831-34
Dodgson	William	Wigton	manufacturer	1826-27, 1832-34
Donaldson	John	Wigton	brewer	1830-34
Edgar	James			1788
Fiddler	Edward	Wigton	manufacturer	1833
Fiddler	Jos	Mains	yeoman	1829-31
Furnass	John	Wigton	hat manufacturer	1830-34
Halliby	Anthony	Wigton	callico printer	1823, 1825
Henderson	John	Moorhouse	yeoman	1822-23, 1825-34
Hewson	Joseph	Wigton	blacksmith	1832-34
Hodge	Joseph	Highmoor		1822-23
Hodgson	Jonah Ashburn	Wigton	common brewer	1829
Hodgson	Joseph	Wigton	attorney	1823-32
Howson	William			1788
Irving	J		chairman 1827	1827
Irving	Thomas	Wigton	innkeeper	1822-23
Ismay	John	Wigton	stationer
Ismay	Jos			1788
Little	William	Lowfield House	farmer	1834
Lowes	John Faulder	Wigton	brewer	1825
Manduel	John	Oakshawhill	yeoman	1827
Mc Alpin	Duncan	Wigton	calico printer	1830-34
Mc Alpin	Thomas	Wigton	calico printer	1822, 1824, 1826-28
Matthews	Richard		reverend	1822, 1824-26, 1829, 1832, 1834
Meals	John	Wigton	spirit merchant	1826-34
Messenger	John			1788
Moor	Joseph	Wigton	mason	1824
Parkin	Joseph	New Street, Wigton	gentleman	1822-32
Parkin	William	Wigton	manufacturer	1825-27
Pattinson	John	New Street, Wigton	manufacturer	1822, 1825, 1827, 1829
Pattinson	Joseph	Wigton	manufacturer	1822-24, 1826, 1830
Pattinson	Isaac	Wigton	gentleman	1830-31
Pattinson	William Blair	Wigton		1823, 1827, 1830
Pingney	John	Wigton	farmer	1824-25
Reed	William	Wigton	currier	1827, 1832-34
Reymond[?]	John	Spittal	farmer	1834
Richardson	Joseph	Wigton	painter	1832
Rigg	Samuel	Wigton	mercer	1824-26, 1829-30
Robinson	John	Wigton		1823
Robinson	John jun	Wigton	mercer	1826-27
Rooke	John	Aikhead	yeoman/gent	1824-26, 1829-32, 1834
Sandorson	John			1788
Saul	John	Wigton	painter	1833
Selby	Matthew	Dockray	yeoman	1833
Shadwick	Joseph	Moorhouse	miller	1829
Sheffield	Joseph	Wigton	butcher	1826, 1833
Simonds	James	Wigton	gentleman	1829-34
Simonds	John	Wigton	farmer	1831, 1833
Smith	John	Mains		1822
Strong	John	Wigton	yeoman	1833-34
Studholme	Joseph	Wigton	attorney	1823-24, 1826-32, 1834
Taylor	John	Wigton		1822
Twentyman	Timothy	Wigton	gentleman	1823-27, 1830, 1832-34
Westmorland	Isaac	Wigton		1822
Willis	John	Wigton	attorney	1830-32
Wilson	Matthew			1788
Wise	Robert	Wigton	shopkeeper/grocer	1822, 1824-29, 1831-33

Sources

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

Francis Jollie, Cumberland Guide and Directory (Carlisle: 1811)

E. M. Parson and E. W. White, History, Directory and Gazetteer of the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland (1829)

Pigot and Co., National Commercial Directory [Part 1: Cheshire – Northumberland] for 1828–29 (London and Manchester: J. Pigot and Co., 1828)

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

 

Thomas Wilson appears in two overseers’ vouchers, both relating to Wigton. See ‘Thomas Wilson JP Over-Rules Overseer Isaac Lightfoot of Wigton, Re: Joseph Blackburn, 1773’ (28 Aug 2018) and ‘Thomas Wilson Overrules the Overseers of Wigton Again: Jane McCall, 1776’ (20 Sept.2018)

According to his memorial in Carlisle Cathedral, Thomas Wilson was prebendary for 21 years and dean of the cathedral for 14 years from 1764. He died on 25 September 1778, aged 63.

Wilson attended Giggleswick School and Christ’s College, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1742 and became vicar of Torpenhow in 1743. The following year he married Margaret Morley, the younger daughter of John Morley of Beamsley Hall. She died 2 February 1780, aged 62.

Thomas and Margaret had two sons, the elder, also called Thomas (1748–1812), also took holy orders and became vicar of Corbridge (1773–1784) and, from 1785 until his death, rector of Distington. He also served as vicar of Brigham (1797–1812).

Wilson was a witness to the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 when Prince Charles Edward Stuart returned from exile and launched his bid to take the English throne. After taking Edinburgh, his forces defeated George II’s army (commanded by Sir John Cope) at Prestonpans, and marched into England. The garrison at Carlisle Castle surrendered to Charles’ army. When the prince’s army marched southwards, around 100 Jacobites remained in Carlisle. The Jacobite army reached Derby before retreating. They returned to Carlisle where around 400 faced a siege led by the Duke of Cumberland. In the face of the siege they surrendered, and many were subsequently executed.

During this time Wilson wrote a number of letters in which he commented on what was happening. In one dated 9 January 1745/46 he wrote:

The conduct of this place has been strangely misrepresented, and the people now in it are not looked upon as faithful and good subjects. I’m persuaded when truth comes out and circumstances are fairly stated, Carlisle will be pitied, and allowed to suffer on all hands. A demand made … in the Duke’s name, of the bells of our Cathedral … was a surprise upon the members of the Chapter here.

In a letter dated 20 January 1745/46 he continued on the subject of the cathedral and the bells: ‘

It was a scandalous, unprecedented, and illegal demand … Things are settling here, and I hope in a little time we shall be better thought of, and better treated … It will be sometime yet before it be safe to have service again in the Cathedral. Proper methods I’m assur’d will be taken to have it purifyed’.

A week later he wrote:

No further demand has been of our Bells … You may imagine better than I can describe the condition the Rebs. left the Parish Church in, for yt was their prison: I was given to understand the damage it suffered wd. be made good, but upon enquiry no further power was given than to the cleaning and washing of it. This proves of little use, for the flags being old, spungy and ill-laid, the earth under then is corrupted; and till that is removed the Cathedral Church will not be sweet, nor will it be safe to have a service in it.

Sources

Cumbria Archives Service, PR 36/V/3/9, Wigton Quarter, Overseers’ Vouchers, Jos Blackburn’s order, 29 April 1773

PR 36/V/6/83, Wigton Quarter, Overseers’ Vouchers, Jane McCall’s Order, 1776

Gentleman’s. Magazine, 1778, xlviii , p.4

R. C. Hudleston and R. S. Boumphrey, Cumberland Families and Heraldry (1977)

George Gill Mounsey, Carlisle in 1745: Authentic Account of the Occupation of Carlisle in 1745 (London: Longman, 1846).

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/fasti-ecclesiae/1541-1847/vol11/pp14-18 accessed 29 October 2018

http://www.tulliehouse.co.uk/collections/carlisle-and-1745-jacobite-rebellion accessed 29 October 2018

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

Thomas Greenup farmed Stainsgill at Culgaith in the parish of Skelton. The overseers vouchers of Joseph Turner, Matthew Cowper and Thomas Thompson for the years 1772-1775 with regard to expenses paid out for the poor show that Greenup was receiving large amounts of money throughout the year from the parish. On three occasions for £11.13s.4d ( 2 March 1773 , 15 May 1775 and an unknown date), once for £11.8s.4d (25 May 1772) and on another occasion for £23.6s.8d. A payment in 1772 says that it was “for the use of the poor”. In 1775 the payment is listed as “to expenses at to letting the poor”. It is not known if this was for accomodation or work or something else to provide ‘outdoor relief’.

He rented a farm from Matthew Atkinson of Temple Sowerby from at least 1772. The farm was advertised for sale in Cumberland Pacquet and Wares Whitehaven Advertiser 18 June 1782 . After six months the farm had still not sold and was offered on a tenancy basis of £200 per annum, the amount that Thomas Greenup was paying . It was described as a large freehold estate and farm consisting of a new Farmhouse, Barns, Granaries, Stables and Outhouses with 200 acres of pasture land as well as a further 280 acres of enclosed land.

Subsequent vouchers may provide information as to the exact use of this money.

Sources

Cumbria Archives Service, PR 10/V/3, Skelton Overseers’ Voucher

Cumbria Archives PR 10/V/6,  Skelton Overseers’ Voucher

Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser 18 June 1782

Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser 27 May 1783

Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser 15 July 1783

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

Researched and written by Margaret Dean.

In 1833-34 John Tordiff’s name appears on a Church Warden’s bill for the Parish of Wigton for the supply of wine at a cost of £1.10.0. The bill was settled by Henry Hoodless, Stationer, Wigton. On the reverse side of Tordiff’s bill is a second bill for registers from Mr Hoodless for £5.10.0. It is from this side of the bill that the date is assumed.

The surname Tordiff is quite common in the Wigton, Holme Cultrum, and West Cumberland area, therefore, John Tordiff’s movements prior to this bill and business as Spirit Merchant in Market Street, Wigton, cannot currently be discerned with certainty.

On 29 August 1833 Tordiff married Mary Russell (b. 20 May 1808) in Whitehaven. Her father, John Russell, worked as a maltster. Shortly after the marriage Tordiff took over the grocery premises of John Meals in the Market Place, Wigton. John Meals’ name also appears on the same bill for the supply of wine (and on sveral other vouchers). Meals eventually retired to Cockermouth with his wife Mary (née Brown). In the 1851 Census the Meals were living in Castle Street. Meals died in 1857. Prior to this, Meals had placed a notice in the newspaper stating that he had relinquished his business and informing the public that John Tordiff had taken over his stock. In the practice of the time, Meals hoped that the public would favour Tordiff with its business.

In the Carlisle Journal there is further evidence of Tordiff in Wigton; an advert for the sale of a freehold estate at Hayton. The property was being sold at the Sun Inn, the house of John Cloag, innkeeper, Aspatria on 31 July 1834: ‘Particulars may be known on application to John Tordiff of Wigton Spirit Marchant’. Tordiff had also been acting as umpire in a horse race involving a wager between John Kidd, a Mr Pattinson, Mr William Buttery (erstwhile assistant overseer of Wigton) and a Mr Simpson.

By August 1834 John and Mary Tordiff had a son, John Russell Tordiff and all appeared to be going well. By December 1836, however, Tordiff’s fortunes were changing. His business ceased trading. In effect he has been declared bankrupt and those appointed to settle his estate were charged with the task of calling in the money owed to him so that they can pay his creditors. In February 1837 a dividend of 10s was paid out to creditors by the assignees at John Hewson’s office. Tordiff’s business was taken over by Daniel Harrison.

After this episode, John and Mary Tordiff went to Liverpool, where a daughter Hannah Elizabeth was born in 1838. There is no information as to his circumstances or if he was in business. He would only have been allowed to start a new business, however, once a certificate of discharge from his bankruptcy had been declared. All did not go well.

On May 5 1839 an inquest was held at The Grapes, Church Row, Aldgate London on John Tordiff, aged 35. The suggestion is that he may have taken his own life as two phials of laudanum (a preparation of alcohol containing the opium derivative morphine), were found with his body. He had been living for a month at the Three Colts, Old Ford, and was employed by Messrs Chapman, distillers. It is here that Tordiff’s wife had sold some stock from the funds at a disadvantage. A nurse who gave evidence said Tordiff had been in the London Hospital and had told her he had taken laudanum before. Bell’s Weekly Messenger reported his death as a ‘Determined case of poisoning of a decayed merchant’, stating that he had formally been in a very extensive way of business. Examination of his body showed he had led a dissipated life.  It would seem that John Tordiff died by his own hand either by accident or on purpose. He was buried at St Botolph Without, Aldgate, London May 1839.

John Tordiff’s wife Mary, aged 30, went to Aspatria with their children John Russell and Hannah Elizabeth aged six and two respectively. She took up work as a schoolmistress. On 26 July 1845 she married spirit dealer Robert Graham (b.1821 in Distington, Cumberland) and had two further children: Mary Jane (b.1847) and Dorothy (b.1851). They can be found at Scotland Road, Liverpool, on the 1851 Census along with her and John Tordiff’s children John and Hannah. In 1861 Mary was widowed again but carried on Graham’s business as a victualler.

Death notices in Gore’s Liverpool General Advertiser 4 April 1867 and the Liverpool Mercury 2 April 1857 reported the death of an Elizabeth Tordiff age 81 at 36 Lodge Lane. For 40 years she had been the landlady of the Rams Head, Workington and latterly nurse at the Deaf and Dumb Institute, Oxford Street, Liverpool. According to the 1841 Census Elizabeth was living in Toxteth, Liverpool, and then at the above Institute in 1861 as a widow and Sick Nurse. It is possible that this is John Tordiff’s mother.

Hannah Elizabeth Tordiff (1838–1906) married William Wilson (a pilot mariner then dock worker) in Liverpool on 7 December 1861 and had five children: Alex Poole, Dorah, William R., Harold W. and Isabella.

John Russell Tordiff (1834–1871) was in business with a Benjamin Lambert prior to the dissolution of the business in1868. He also was a book keeper dealing with accounts, and lived with his sister’s family prior to his death on 9 May 1871. His death announcement in the Carlisle Patriot 19 May 1871 states he is the son of John Tordiff late Spirit Merchant of Wigton.

Sources

Cumbria Archives, PR36/V/21/4, Wigton Overseers’ Vouchers, 1833–34

Ancestry.co.uk, England Select Marriages 1538–1973

britishnewspaperarchivesonline.co.uk

Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 5 May 1839

Carlisle Patriot, 23 November 1833, 16 April 1836, 28 March 1857, 19 May 1871

Carlisle Journal, 14 June 1834, 5 July 1834, 18 July 1834, 31 December 1836, 4 March 1837

The Chartist, 5 May 1839

Gore’s Liverpool General Advertiser, 4 April 1867

Liverpool Mail 7, December 1861

Liverpool Mercury, 2 April 1867

Liverpool Daily Post, 13 May 1871

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

 

Dr. William Ballantine

William Ballantine was of the Ballantine family of Crookdake Hall

The Ballantine family inherited the seat from a younger branch of the Musgrave family of Edenhall Anne Musgrave marrying Sir John Ballantine JP [1632-1705] of Corehouse Clydesdale, he was knighted in 1663 and High Sheriff of Cumberland in 1694. Their son  William Ballantine [d 1710] was High Sheriff 1709 he married Grizell daughter of Sir  James Johnston of Westerhall without his father’s consent. Their son John Ballantine [1699-1756] High Sheriff in 1726 married Jane daughter of Frecheville Dykes. Dr. William Ballantine was their son, he was baptised 7 December 1736 in Bromfield Church.

In 1752 William Ballatine became apprentice to Henry Hall surgeon Wigton premium £42 0s 0d

William Ballantine was Master to these Apprentices

1759 Master [occupation Apothecary] to Jonathan Simpson Wigton premium £38 10s 0d

1762 Master [occupation Surgeon] to Robert Mccauland Wigton premium £25 0s 0d

1765 Master [occupation Surgeon] to John Shitfield Wigton premium £39 0s 0d

1766 Master [occupation Surgeon] to Thomas Mallison Wigton premium £50 0s 0

Marriage On the 28^th of February 1774 William Ballantine surgeon bachelor aged 38 married Jane Porter spinster aged 22 in Wigton Church both were of the parish of Wigton & were married by licence.

Carlisle Diocese Marriage Bonds records

28 Feb 1774 Ballatine Wm. parish Wigton Surgeon & Apoth & Porter Jane parish Wigton

Bondsman William Brownsword p. Wigton Attorney at Law

These are the baptisms of their children from the Wigton parish registers

20 Jan 1775 James son of William Ballantine Apothecary Wigton & Jane his wife born 10 Jan 1775

5 Jul 1776 Jane daughter of William Ballantine Apothecary Wigton & Jane his wife born 7 Feb 1776

20 Aug 1784 Ann daughter of William Ballantine Apothecary Wigton & Jane his wife born 10 Jan 1783

13 Oct 1787 William son of William Ballantine Apothecary Wigton & Jane his wife born 11 Feb 1787

Other references to William Ballantine found

Cumberland Quarter Sessions Rolls Petitions Easter 1761

William Ballantine of Wigton: petition for subsistence on behalf of William Watts, soldier in 2nd Regiment of Foot Command, left in care of petitioner whilst suffering from fever

From a Medical Register of 1783

Wigton Surgeons & Apothecaries

Mr. William Ballantine, Mr. Lancelot Walker, Mr. Edward Walker, Mr. Joseph Hodgson

Wigton Poor Law vouchers and small bills

Bills for treatment & medicines for Poorhouse in 1776 & 1777 from Dr William Ballantine

Dr William Ballantine appears in the Consultation Letters of Dr William Cullen (1710-1790) at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Letter from William Ballantine, concerning the case of John Baxter 1786

Dr William Ballantine is also mentioned in two other cases.

Cumberland Militia & Cavalry Papers Provisional Cavalry Cumberland Ward

An application for the exemption by William Ballantine of Wigton, Surgeon and Apothecary is now several years past the prime of life. That he is frequently prevented from following his practice by tedious, painful and oftentimes protracted fits of gout and other disorders [exempted by Col. Foster]

[Note this appears to be in papers dated around 1797

Marriage Bond for William’s daughter

Carlisle Diocese Marriage Licence/Bond 22 Dec 1804

Rimington Geo. parish Penrith draper  Ballantine Ann , p. Wigton

Bondsman Borradaile Chrs parish. Wigton gen

The marriage notice appears in the Lancaster Gazette 5 January 1805

The sale of William’s premises shop & dwelling house 15 April 1805 at the King’s Arms Wigton is advertised in the Cumberland Pacquet of 5 April 1805.

William’s burial is recorded in the parish register of St Martin Ludgate London 4 Oct 1812 agd 77 [New Vault]

It is recorded in Cumberland Pacquet 20 Oct 1812

Deaths Thursday the 1^st inst. in London, in the 78^th year of his age, Mr William Ballantine; many years an eminent surgeon at Wigton, and of the ancient family of the Ballantines if Crookdake, in this county.

References

Cumberland families & Heraldry       Hudleston & Boumphrey

Britain Country Apprentices 1710-1808     Find My Past

Bromfield Parish Registers PR140         Cumbria Archives

Wigton Parish Registers PR36                Cumbria archives

Carlisle Diocese Marriage Bonds/Licences   Cumbria Archives

Cumberland Quarter Sessions Q/11/1/259/34    Cumbria Archives

The Medical Register for the year 1783        Google books

Wigton Overseer of the Poor Vouchers & bills PR36/V    Cumbria Archives

The Cullen Project Consultation Letters of Dr William Cullen (1710-1790)

Cumberland Militia & Cavalry Papers Q/MIL/5/16         Cumbria Archives

Lancaster Gazette Newspaper

Cumberland Pacquet Newpaper

London England Church of England Burials          Ancestry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whereas Joseph Blackburn of Wigton in the parish of Wigton

in the county of Cumberland hath made with oath before me

Thomas Wilson Dr in Divinity one of his majesty’s Justices

of the Peace and for the said county that he the said

Joseph Blackburn is poor and not able to provide for himself

and family and that he did on Sunday last the 25^th of April 1773

apply for Relief to Mr Isaac Lightfoot Overseer of Wigton

in the said Parish of Wigton and was by him refused

to be relieved & whereas the said Isaac Lightfoot hath

appeared before me but he hath not shewed any sufficient

Cause why the said Joseph Blackburn should not be relieved

I do therefore hereby order the said Isaac Lightfoot Overseer

of the Poor of Wigton in the Parish of Wigton aforesaid to pay

unto the said Joseph Blackburn immediately upon producing

this Order the Sum of five shillings and afterwards

weekly and every week the sum of four shillings

for and towards the Support and maintenance of

himself and family until such time as he shall be

otherwise ordered according to Law to forbear the

said allowance. Given under my Hand and Seal

at Carlisle in the said County the twenty-ninth Day of

April one thousand seven hundred and seventy three

Tho Wilson

The handwritten order above, dated 29 April 1773, from Thomas Wilson, Justice of the Peace and Dean of Carlisle Cathedral, has raised a number of questions about the relationship between Wilson and Isaac Lightfoot, the Overseer of Wigton. On the face of it, it seems very straightforward. Pauper Joseph Blackburn had applied to Lightfoot requesting assistance for himself and his family. Lightfoot refused. Blackburn appealed the decision by applying to Wilson. This was part and parcel of the Poor Law process. If they were not satisfied with the decision made by an overseer, claimants could go to the quarter sessions and ask the magistrates to review it.  As happened in this case, magistrates could overrule an overseer’s decision and stipulate what provision should be made for the claimant.

This is a handwritten order, but what is interesting is that there are two different colours of ink used. Most of it is in black including the statement that Lightfoot had appeared before Wilson but had failed to show sufficient cause to explain his refusal to assist Blackburn. Blackburn’s name, the date and the amount to be paid over, however, are all written in a sepia colour. This raises the possibility that this was not an isolated incident. The use of what looks like a standard response pre-prepared by Wilson or a clerk acting on his behalf leaving gaps to be filled in later, suggests that Wilson was in the habit of over-ruling Lightfoot’s decisions. One of our volunteers wondered how many cases were referred during Lightfoot’s tenure as overseer, before adding, ‘By refusing support he would look to be on the side of the rate payers, and when ordered to pay up by the Quarter Sessions he was not seen to be responsible for the expenditure!’ Perhaps a trawl through the quarter sessions may offer an answer. Equally, are there any other instances of this occurring in other parishes in Cumberland, East Sussex or Staffordshire?

Sources

Cumbria Archives, Carlisle, PR36/V/3/9, Wigton Quarter, Overseers’ Vouchers, Jos Blackburn’s order

Edgar Miller, ‘English pauper lunatics in the era of the old poor law’, History of Psychiatry 23(3) 2012, 321.

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)

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

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.