The Reverend Tovey Jolliffe had various posts in Hampshire before becoming Rector of Skelton on 11 June 1791. The living of Skelton was in the patronage of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, from where he had obtained his qualifications (B.A 1768, M.A 1772 and B.D 1781). From 1795–98 he was also Rector of Brooke, Hampshire.
Jolliffe was born on 16 January 1750 at Newport, Isle of Wight, to James Jolliffe (1717– 95) and his second wife Frances Smith (1716–87). Shortly after coming to Skelton Tovey married Grace Dobinson (1751–1832) in Carlisle on 27 May 1793. Two of Grace’s sisters, Catherine and Mary, had also married clergy, whilst a third sister, Elizabeth, remained unmarried. M. Yates’ letter in the Memorials of a Family in England and Virginia 1771–1851 recounts: ‘It is talked that Miss Grace Dobinson is to marry a Parson whose name is Jolliffe. He has a living near Greystoke’. Tovey and Grace Jolliffe set up home in Skelton.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries local affairs were run by parish vestries with the local squire and parson often in charge. There are several accounts of Jolliffe’s involvement in the parish affairs. Newspaper items respond favourably on his provision of coal and beef to the poor at Christmas.
The Carlisle Patriot (30 December 1820, p. 4) noted:
On Friday week, the Rev. Tovey JOLLIFFE, of Skelton, with his usual liberality, distributed a quantity of excellent Beef to the poor inhabitants of that village. It is the constant practice of this benevolent gentleman to give large quantities of Soup to the same people every week during winter. He also supports and superintends a Sabbath School, and the children undergo a weekly examination by him.
The last occasion on which he donated food was the Christmas before his death when he gave 30 stones of beef and 636 pecks of coal. Others of means also did the same. The Earl of Lonsdale gave beef, blankets and clothing to those in the Lowther Castle area, and Joseph Cowper of Unthank gave soup to the poor at Christmas. Jolliffe’s visits to the poorhouse with supplies of tea, sugar and soup are reported as regular occurrences too. Jolliffe contributed to the subscription for relief of the Waterloo sufferers following the Napoleonic Wars.

Jolliffe concerned himself with the education of the children at Skelton school. The disbursements record that in 1819 and for the next 18 years until he resigned his post and moved to Workington, Robert Loraine, schoolmaster of the parochial school, was paid £16.3s.5d every half year. The trustees of the school were led by Rev’d Jolliffe. In 1798–9 Overseers of the Poor and Churchwarden account books report Jolliffe striking out one churchwardens and replacing him with one of his choice.

The Rectory provided Jolliffe with an income, some coming from tithes and rents. In 1823 Leeds Intelligencer Jolliffe’s name is on a list of gentleman who had reduced tithes in order to help those struggling with high wheat and grain prices as well as stagnant wages. In publishing the list it was hoped that pressure would be exerted on others to do the same.

From early on, Jolliffe had purchased small pieces of land around Skelton and continued to do so for the remainder of his life. As open ground started to be replaced by enclosed land, opportunities arose for the creation of a market in land purchase. In 1796 Jolliffe’s mother’s cousin (Betty Smith) died leaving Jolliffe half of Hale Manor and the tenement of Stile House in Arreton, Isle of Wight, near where he was born. By his death in 1830 he had at least 27 properties including fenced of areas of land, allotments, orchards and property to his name in Skelton. He also had property mortgaged to him between 1798–1814. One property he purchased in 1820 was occupied by Jane Sewell (b.1759). Sewell’s name appears on overseers’ vouchers between 1784 and 1788 for the maintenance of her child. Payments of £0.19.0 and £0.16.0 were made by Isaac Dodd, clerk. The parish register records the birth of this child, Mary, as base born in 1779 and a further illegitimate child, Ann, being born to Sewell in 1789. Jane had lived in Skelton since 1781. What happened to her after Jolliffe purchased the property is unknown.
Jolliffe collected rents for the properties he owned. Tenant Joseph Robley who had a 21-year lease paid £36 a year; William Whitelock and Joseph Thompson paid £82 a year each. A churchwarden’s voucher of 1802 shows a payment made by William Whitelock: ‘Rec’d of William Whitelock by the hands of Rev’d Jolliffe the sum of one pound, one shillings and sixpence due to the estate of the late Jos Sanderson’.

Jolliffe had also purchased land in Carlisle. Evidence for this is found in 1830 when a meeting of benefactors and subscribers for the building of an Infirmary in Carlisle agreed to purchase land at Coldcoates from Jolliffe.
Jolliffe died suddenly on Sunday August 1830. His remains were interred in Skelton Parish Church. A memorial can be seen in the church today. It reads:
‘Underneath are deposited the remains of Rev’d Tovey Jolliffe B.D 39 years Rector of this Parish who die on the first of August 1830 in the 81st year of his age. Also of Grace his widow who died at Carlisle the 19th day of June 1832 aged 82 years.’
Grace died at her home in Castle Street, Carlisle. Tovey and Grace had no children.
The Jolliffes appear to have amassed an estate of considerable value. Jolliffe left a new cottage and garden to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Joseph Cowper had the two thirds of Jolliffe’s estate he purchased from the Jolliffe family valued in 1839. It records the purchase price as £2200.
Jolliffe is also listed as a donor to King’s College, London. His contribution was £50.

Information for future research
Both Tovey and Grace Jolliffe left wills accessible at Cumbria Archives Carlisle
Robert Loraine, schoolmaster, married Mary Marie Wright in Moffat, Dumfriesshire, on 27 October 1834. Her father was John “Squire” Wright (1752–1821) of Hutton in the Forest
William Whitelock died 8 May 1817 aged 78 years. He is buried in Skelton Churchyard along with his wife, Rebecca, who died 28 November 1820, aged 80 years.

Sources
Cumbria Archives, Carlisle
PR 10/V/24 Skelton Overseers’ Voucher, 1804-5
PR 10/V/12, Skelton Overseers’ Voucher, 1784
PR 10/V/16, Skelton Overseers’ Voucher, 1788
PR 10/14, Lease for 21years at £36 a year from Rev’d Tovey Jolliffe to Joseph Robley, 24 March 1792
PR 10/15, Lease for 21 years at £82 a year from Rev’d Tovey Jolliffe to William Whitelock and Joseph Thompson, 24 March 1792
PR 10/81, Overseers of the Poor and Churchwardens account books entry. 1798-9 by Rev T Jolliffe
DCC 1/63, Personal account and memoranda book of Joseph Cowper of Unthank, Valuation of Rev. T Jolliffe estate 1839
DX 748/214, Deeds of house on Castle Street, March 1798
DX 748/215, Lease and Release of piece of waste ground, formerly bought by Watson Carnaby, March 1798
DX 1/47 Deeds, mostly of various small properties in Skelton, mainly sold to Thomas James and family of Thornbarrow (p. Hutton) and Penrith, 1736-1801, and to the Rev. Tovey Jolliffe, rector of Skelton, 1796–1820
DCC, 1/32, Deeds relating to the purchase of the Skelton estate of the Rev. Tovey Jolliffe deceased, in which Joseph Cowper of Unthank Esq. (with his brother John of Carleton Hall and of Stamford Street, Blackfriars, London, as co-party) bought two-thirds of it from the Jolliffe family, 1831–34

Isle of Wight Record Office
JER/SEL/1A/16, Schedule of deeds re. BROOK ESTATE, I.W., delivered to Rev’d Tovey Jolliffe, clerk, mortgagee, by James and William How, 6 August 1806

Newspapers
Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser, 21 December 1821, 5 January 1824, 10 January 1826, 23 January 1827
Carlisle Patriot, 22 January 1820, 30 December 1820, 22 January 1830, 23 January 1830, 19 June 1830
Hampshire Chronical, 9 August 1830
Leeds Intelligencer, 9 March 1823
Oxford Journal, 14 August 1830
Stamford Mercury, 13 August 1830
Secondary Sources
The Skelton Parish Histories. Skelton Parish Council Millennium Project (2000)
A. E. Tirrell, Memorials of a family in England and Virginia 1771–1851
Websites
www.theclergydatabase.org.uk
www.ancestry.co.uk
www.nfknowlege.org/record/na-254cdec Probate will of Betty Smith, parish of Carisbrooke, dated 4 October 1796, proved 7 February 1804
www.kingscollections.org/calendarscollection/1880-1881/page-572 accessed 9 November 2018
This is a work in progress, subject to change with additional research.

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.

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.