Category: People

Daniel Dunglinson (1764-1829),and Sarah Sowerby, (1730-1812)

By NMDEA

Daniel Dunglinson was the governor of Kendal Workhouse, Westmorland, for over 20 years. He was baptised at Crosthwaite, near Keswick, in the adjacent county of Cumberland. His parents were Daniel Dunglinson (1730-1814) and Dinah Fisher (1731-1810). His name can be found on letters and bills sent to Threlkeld parish, four miles from Keswick, between 1805 and 1811 concerning Sarah Sowerby. It is assumed that Sarah’s parish of settlement was Threlkeld and she had not gained any settlement rights in Kendal.

A letter with an attached bill to Joseph Dixon, overseer, in Threlkeld from Daniel Dunglinson reveals that Sarah had become a resident in Kendal Workhouse. [1 ] Expenses for Sarah include £1. 11s. 4 1/2d for casual relief June 23 to August 18 prior to her admission to the workhouse in 1805.[ 2] This was a lot of money. Prior to this, Sarah’s name appears on their St. Thomas’s Day account sheets receiving casual relief of £4. 5s. 0d. in 1801 [3] and in 1803 £0.7s 0d.[4] She found it necessary, however, to ask for further help. A letter written on her behalf (5 December 1801) by D. Morland asks that she be remembered at Christmas as she is more feeble and ‘she struggles to get her meat‘. She hopes something will be sent as kindness has been shown to her in the past. [5]

Letter written By D Morland on behalf of Sarah Sowerby from Kendal December 5 1801 SPC21/8-11 23B
Letter written By D Morland on behalf of Sarah Sowerby from Kendal December 5 1801 SPC21/8-11 23B

While in the workhouse various requests and payments occur between Kendal and Threlkeld. Typical examples of expenditure for Sarah are:-

May 5 1807 26 weeks board at 3s. 6d. total cost £4. 11s. 0d.[6] Her board for 26 weeks had increased by 7 November 1809 to 4s. a week.[7] Items of clothing and fabrics, for example, a handkerchief, 1s. 11d.; flannel for petticoats, 3s. 1 1/2d.; 2/4 yards bratting, 1s. 10d., 10 December 1805;[8] new shoes, 7s. 6d. 16 April 1807.[ 9] Items requested, 2 brats 1s. 4d., and 2 shifts, 5s. 5d.; 4 August 1807. [10 ]

Expenses for Sarah Sowerby 1805 sent to the Threlkeld SPC21/8-11 98A
Expenses for Sarah Sowerby 1805 sent to the Threlkeld SPC21/8-11 98A


In November 1806 Sarah had been ill but was recovering. By August the following year Daniel Dunglinson wrote ‘the old lady has been poorly for some time back and confined to her bed. She is something better at present and getting to stirring about in her room’. [11] Sarah had been requesting items of clothing for herself. Threlkeld was slow to agree the request as a letter from Thomas Winter overseer in Kendal to Threlkeld December 1807 reveals. He again asks for their agreement to having these items supplied to her [12]

May 12 1807 Letter written by Daniel Dunglinson to Threlkeld Overseers' SPC21/8-11 48A
May 12 1807 Letter written by Daniel Dunglinson to Threlkeld Overseers’ SPC21/8-11 48A

Sarah’s name appears on a bill for a pair of hose and other items on 31 January 1811[13] but is absent from the St.Thomas Day account of 1812. [14] Sarah having died that year, had been a resident in the workhouse for seven years.

Other inmates, if the Kendal Mercury accounts are accurate, were there longer. One example on the 14 May 1836 is given of a Betty Holmes who had been in the workhouse since 1801. A servant in Kendal she had jumped from a window when ‘love crazed her brain’, subsequently losing a leg and never regaining her reasoning. Kindly regarded by charitable ladies of the town, she was allowed to visit them once a fortnight. [15 ] Unlike Betty nothing could be found to give an idea of Sarah’s life before she entered the workhouse. Access to the workhouse day book may give more information. [16]

The vouchers, along with adverts in the newspapers every January from 1821 as a supplier of oats to the workhouse, [17] give an indication of the length of tenure of Daniel Dunglinson at Kendal Workhouse. His wife died in 1828, Daniel died the following year. His obituary (4 April 1829) reads ‘For may years he filled the office of governor of the workhouse with credit and respectability, he was a truly upright honest man greatly respected in society. [18 ] He was at the workhouse either at or just after the inception of the production of hardens [sacking type fabric] at the workhouse in 1801. [19]. See separate post.

Daniel and Mary (Bailey) Dunglinsons children
Of their children, William the eldest was once a weaver, married to Mary Peill. Together they were responsible for Keswick charity houses and the workhouse,[20] Mary carrying on alone after Williams death in 1845. Henry (1793-1817) married Margaret Lindsey and died aged 23 shortly after their first son Daniel was born. Daniel (1795-1797 ) died in infancy. John (1797-1860) is difficult to positively locate. He may have moved to Shoreditch, Middlesex. marrying first Hannah Sharp (c1784-1832) then Dinah Banks (1804-1876). Only daughter Dinah (1799-1887 ) in later life can be found first in Liverpool running a boarding house, then in London. [21]

sources

[1] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 98, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, 11 December 1805

[2] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 98, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, 11 December 1805
[3] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 22, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, St. Thomas Day Accounts, 1801
[4] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 8, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, 1803
[5] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 23, D. Morland, Letter for Sarah Sowerby, 5 December 1801
[6] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 49, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, 16 April 1807
[7] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 40, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, May – November 1809
[8] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 98, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, December 1805
[9] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 49, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, April 1807
[10] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 47, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, 4 August 1807
[11] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 48, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, 12 letter from Daniel Dunglinson, May 1807
[12] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 37, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, Letter from Thomas Winter, December 1807
[13] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 52, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, 31 January 1811
[14] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8-11 98, Threlkeld Overseers’ Vouchers, 1812 St. Thomas’ Day Accounts
[15] Kendal Mercury, 14 May 1836, p.3 col. e
[16] Cumbria Archives, (Kendal) WC/W/1/34, Workhouse Day Book, 1807-1810
[17] Westmorland Advertiser and Kendal Chronicle, 12 January 1823, p.1 col.d
[18] Westmorland Gazette, 4 April 1829, p.3 col.e
[19] Westmorland Advertiser and Kendal Chronicle, 7 December 1811, p. 4, cols, b-c
[20] Kendal Mercury, 28 March 1840
[21] www.ancestry.co.uk

footnote

Robert Hook, East Hoathly

By Hilary Holt

The parish of East Hoathly comprised around 350 inhabitants at the time Thomas Turner was writing his diary and boasted two shoe menders: Thomas Davey and Robert Hook. There was enough work for both to make a living: the inhabitants of the parish seem to have been hard on their shoes. There appears to have been no rivalry between the two men. In February 1756 Thomas Davey brings Turner a new boot to try on “being 1 of a pair I have bespoke near 12 months of Robt. Hook”.[1] Perhaps there is a note of complaint here at the delay in making the boots.

While Thomas Davey was a friend of Turner, often visiting his house of an evening, Robert Hook knew Turner as a member of the small group of village dignitaries and tradesmen who ran parish affairs. Hook served as surveyor of the highways in 1756,[2] and as headborough during 1758.[3] In 1757 at the end of Hook’s term as surveyor, he asked Turner to help draw up the accounts to be presented to the Justices of the Peace. This necessitated Turner meeting him at Jones’s, the local inn, and Turner’s record of the evening contains a condemnation of “that most detestable poison called gin!”[4]

In February 1758, in his capacity as headborough, Robert Hook accompanied Thomas Turner to “take up” Mary Hubbard, the servant of Thomas Osborne Senior, to persuade her to swear the father of her illegitimate child. The year before Hook was also involved in the pursuit of George Hyland, who led the parish officers a merry dance over his reluctance to marry Ann Durrant, having fathered her child, until enough inducements were offered.

Hook wrote a clear hand, submitting long bills annually to the parish Overseers for shoe repair and shoe making. His tone is informal; he refers to children only by their family name e.g. ‘young Trill’, or ‘young Bristow’. This may be because the father’s name was the important one and his wife and children mere dependants, or an indication of familiarity and social cohesion within the parish.

Robert Hook died in early 1775 – the last item on the invoice paid after his death is on February 10th. Besides shoe mending, this final invoice itemises the supply of ‘poals’ and bundles of laths for Thomas Sinden’s house,[5] which suggests that Robert Hook possessed or cultivated a parcel of land, which would have supplied the wood, or that he acquired the wood by trade.

Robert Hook was married with at least two children that we know of. In 1758, his daughter Mary described as “a poor wild girl”[6] had a trial as maid in Thomas Turner’s house but this did not work out and one month later “Molly Hook went away.”[7] Mary Hook would have been twelve or thirteen at the time. In 1767 Mary married William Start, or Sturt, a member of another East Hoathly family. A William Hook was taken on as an apprentice to Hook in 1773, but it is not clear whether he was Robert’s son, or a relative. Robert Hook’s family remained in the village after his death, and his son, another Robert Hook, was also involved in parish affairs. In 1782 he obtained a settlement certificate on behalf of Elizabeth Overing from the Uckfield magistrates. This second Robert Hook, who was also a cordwainer, died in 1824 at the age of 70 and is buried in the Friends Burying Ground in Lewes.

[1] The Diary of Thomas Turner 1754-1765 (1984), David Vaisey (Ed) Page 79

[2] Op. cit. Page 79

[3] Op. cit. Page 133

[4] Op. cit. Page 79

[5] ESRO: PAR378/31/3/14 Itm 22 Lines 19 and 20

[6] The Diary of Thomas Turner 1754-1765 (1984), David Vaisey (Ed) Page 154

[7] Op. cit. Page 158

The ‘wayward’ Thomas Turner

By Sue Carnochan

Although Thomas Turner served East Hoathly well as a shopkeeper , providing many goods which the parish distributed to the poor, he occasionally behaved in an “unseemly manner” and here is some evidence to support this view!        

On Christmas Day 1758 Thomas Turner wrote ‘Oh may we increase in faith and maintain and keep the good intentions we have this day taken up.’  His good intentions did not come up to expectations!  As years went on, feasting at East Hoathly increased during the Christmas period. Thomas , the rector, Mr Porter and neighbours took part in behaviour which could only be called debauchery! Apparently, for weeks after Christmas Day, they met at each other’s homes to play ‘brag’, eat and drink to excess, dance and shout and play pranks which included carrying the ladies ‘pick a back’ and dragging each other out of bed, which bordered closely on ‘indecency’.  Shame on you Mr. Turner!   

Bibliography : Fleet, Charles. Glimpses of Our Ancestors in Sussex ; Charleston, SC: BiblioLife, reprinted 2009.

       

James Finlinson

By William Bundred

The puzzle of the several James Finlinsons and their Occupations

Every now and again in the poor law vouchers we come across an unusual surname and think that this would be a good person to research, based on the belief that the more unusual the surname, the easier they will be to locate in the records. All too often, we find the sources confusing with more than one person sharing the same name. What follows is about two people sharing the name James Finlinson who had a tendency to move around a great deal.

One James Finlinson (1783-1847),was a man pre-occupied with parochial office becoming Governor of the Workhouse, Assistant Overseer, Registrar, Surveyor and Manager of Roads for the parish of Dalston. Despite his accumulation of posts, James has been somewhat of a difficult person to trace especially before his appointment as Governor of the Workhouse in 1825. He and his wife, Elizabeth’s (1784-1869) association with the poorhouse lasted for many years.

In 1825 James and Elizabeth were appointed as Governor and Matron of Dalston Workhouse with the salary of £14 per annum and a room for a loom. In 1826 a new workhouse in Dalston was built. On 26 April 1827 James was appointed assistant overseer of the poor for Dalston with a salary of £13 and keeper of the workhouse with an additional of £12.

In the Militia List, Cumberland Ward, for 1818, is a James Finlinson, weaver, aged 32, of Buckabank. Given his occupation, this is likely to be the same Finlinson who became the workhouse governor.

Finlinson is one of those people whose association with parochial office spanned the old poor law and the changes brought about by the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. In 1843 he was appointed as manager of the roads and in November 1844 resigned as Overseer.

He was reappointed Overseer in February 1845.

Dalston Vestry minutes of 1844 show that Finlinson’s offer regarding Dalston workhouse was resolved. Rent of £6 10s per annum was accepted for part of the workhouse, including the kitchen, vestry room, lodging room above vestry room, the garden and one out building.

James’ parents were James Finlinson, yeoman, of Houghton and Ann [Nancy] Corry who were married by licence on 30 October 1779 at St Michael’s, Stanwix, (licence granted 24 October 1779). At the time their first child John was baptised at Stanwix 28 October 1781, James and Ann were living at Pepper Moss. John went on to marry Mary Wood, and became a farmer at Warblebank Westward.

James was baptised at Bolton parish church, Cumberland, in 1783. Other children followed: Sarah, baptised 24 July 1785; Ann baptised 6 March 1791, both at Bolton. Joshua, son of James Finlinson of Little Dalston, husbandman, and his wife Ann late Corry, was baptised 11 June 1797 at Dalston.

Joshua became a blacksmith and parish clerk in Thursby. He is buried in Thursby churchyard. Also buried in Thursby churchyard are James (d.23 February 1834, aged 81), and Ann (d.20 February 1824, aged 70).

James Finlinson the younger, married Elizabeth Pape on 11 May 1809 at St Mary’s, Kingston-upon –Hull, by banns.

Why they married in Hull is a mystery.

One theory is that James was serving in the Military, but no mention of James has been found in Military records.

Elizabeth was baptised in Mordon, Sedgefield, County Durham, on 18 December 1784. Her parents were Robert Pape, a cordwainer, and Ann. The family moved to Whitby, Yorkshire, where a daughter, Ann, was born on 10 January 1789 (baptised 13 January 1789 at St Mary the Virgin, Whitby). Robert Pape was buried in the same church on 20 October 1812, aged 63.

In the 1841 no occupation for James or his wife Elizabeth is stated. In their household is a William Finlinson, aged 15, who most likely was the son of Joshua blacksmith of Thursby.

James died on the 25 November 1847. He is buried in Dalston churchyard. The inscription on his grave reads:

In Memory of James Finlinson many years assistant overseer for this parish,

who died Nov. 25th 1847, aged 65 years

Also Elizabeth, his wife,

Who died November 13th 1869, Aged 85 years.

This stone was erected

By the members of the Loyal Caldew Lodge,

Dalston, of the Independent Order of Oddfellows, M.U.,

As a token of respect for his valuable services

After his death, although this has not been determined for certain, it seems that Elizabeth continued to live in what was the Poorhouse for a while. In both the 1851 and 1861 Censuses she had her sister Ann were living at the Forge, Buckabank. Her occupation was given as laundress and that of her sister as a boot binder.

One of the other James Finlinsons in the area was a schoolmaster. He also had a wife Elizabeth. James married Elizabeth Shepherd on 5 September 1796 at St George’s, Bloomsbury, London. This James and Elizabeth Finlinson certainly had two children baptised Helen (25 January 1804) in Wigton, and Joshua in Penrith (6 June 1807) who went on to become a Church of England clergyman.

There were also three daughters of a schoolmaster James Finlinson and Elizabeth Finlinson who were baptised on 20 October 1814 at St Mary’s Carlisle, but, despite the title ‘schoolmaster’, it is not certain yet as to which James and Elizabeth were their parents.

Sources

Dalston Memorial Inscriptions, p.79 No. 224

Parson and White, Directory of Cumberland 1829, p. 372, James Finlinson Governor of the Workhouse

Mannix and Whellan Directory of Cumberland 1837, p.193, James Finlinson Registrar Dalston

James Finlinson entries in the Carlisle Journal and Carlisle Patriot:

Unless there is reference in the newspaper articles to Dalston, it is difficult to determine to which James Finlinson they refer

Carlisle Journal 5 Jan 1811

Advert for Pupils J Finlinson Grove House near Wigton

Carlisle Journal 17 Aug 1811 p.1 col.D

Letting of farm at Bog-Hall Bolton parish near Wigton.

James Finlinson was owner & occupier of the estate

Carlisle Journal 27 Nov 1819

Letters to the Carlisle newspapers regarding a dispute over recording a County meeting. James Finlinson was said to be an obscure schoolmaster of Carlisle

Carlisle Patriot 8 Jan 1820

Private Tuition offered to inhabitants of Carlisle by J Finlinson

Carlisle Journal, 19 May 1838 p.3, col. D.

Correspondence with a Mr J Routledge of Brampton regarding Jane Hall a pauper belonging to the parish of Cumwhitton

Carlisle Journal 26 Feb 1842 p.1 col. B

Nominations for Election of Guardians of the Poor James Finlinson for Dalston

Carlisle Journal, 5 March 1842, p.1, col. E

Nominations for Election of Guardians of the Poor James Finlinson for Dalston

Carlisle Journal, 7 May 1842, p.1, col. A

Notice of order of road diversion Barras Lane Dalston. James Finlinson Surveyor of the Parish of Dalston.

Carlisle Journal, 27 April 1844, p.3, col. C

Alterations to Highway at Hawksdale James Finlinson surveyor

Carlisle Journal, 20 July 1844, p.3, col. C

Poilce Intelligence case of John Cairns false entry of birth J Finlinson overseer & registrar

Carlisle Journal, 10 August 1844, p.3, col. H

Under reports from the Cumberland Assizes

James Finlinson assistant overseer for Dalston witness in case of George Cairns who was prosecuted for obtaining money under false pretences from the registrar of births deaths & marriages for Dalston district.

Carlisle Journal, 27 February 1846, p. 1, col. D

Election for the Guardians of the Poor James Finlinson for Dalston

Carlisle Journal, 6 March 1847, p.1, col. F

Notice of Appoint of Joseph Shields of Buccabank as Deputy Registrar to James Finlinson

Thanks to Margaret Dean, and Bob Nichols for their help.

Alexander Cockburn (1794-1842), Pipe Maker, Grocer, and Miller

By NMDEA

Although baptised in Swinton, Berwickshire, Alexander Cockburn and his brother John (1781-1835) were to establish themselves in business in Carlisle. John may have arrived first, with Alexander joining him later. Marrying Mary Storey, the daughter of Johnathan Storey, a spirit merchant in Shaddongate Parish, the register describes Alexander as a pipe maker in 1817.[1] The Cockburn brothers also had a small premises in Fisher Street where they also sold tobacco. [2]

Clay for the pipes was available locally. The Pipery was situated near the Mill Race in Shaddongate.[3] Once a small suburb of Carlisle, it was on the road to Dalston just outside the city walls. At the end of the eighteenth century Shaddongate saw an influx of migrant workers looking for employment opportunities in the manufacturing industries. Many of these workers were of Irish and Scots origin.


Alexander and Mary’s daughter Margaret was baptised 28 February 1819 [4] by which time Alexander also had a Grocer’s shop at Annetwell Street within the area of the old city. Shortly after this in 1823 the canal was opened improvng trading links especially to Liverpool. It was here that another brother James (1801-1868) moved. Initially a flour miller, he married his first wife Ann Storey (1805-1852), [5] the sister of Mary Storey in 1824. While the brothers’ sister Mary Anne Hepburn (1797) married Steven Somerville and lived in Edinburgh, other siblings were Alison (1783-1811), Robert (b.1786), Margaret (b. 1789), Agnes (b.1791), and Isobel (b.1801). [6] Their parents being Alexander Cockburn (1752-1825 ), a fewer or blacksmith, and Margaret Service (1757-1829). [7]

Alexander and Mary don’t appear to have had any more children, before Mary died in childbirth on 22 November 1824 aged 29 at Annetwell Street. [8]

The brothers continued with their Pipery in Shaddongate despite the unrest that had developed in the area. Living conditions were poor, overcrowding common for many. The migrants being unfairly blamed for some of the trouble. John, Alexander’s brother gave evidence at the subsequent investigation into the resulting deaths in the Shaddongate riots of 1826. After the Riots’ of 1826, the Cumberland Pacquet and Whitehaven Ware’s Advertiser described the arrival of Benjamin Batty to direct efforts to restore order in the area. He was to instigate the formation of a police force to combat insubordination in the suburb. His first attempt to restore order in February 1827 led to him having to take refuge in Mr Storey’s house after being set upon. It is possible this could have been Mary Story’s father’s abode.[9]

24 January 1831 Alexander married again. His wife Jane Ross (1793-1873). [10] was the widow of Hugh Ross and the daughter of John Tallentire and Jane Henderson. A son, John Tallentire, was born 21 December 1834.[11]

For a brief time John Cockburn, after trading as a haberdasher and paper dealer, became a bookseller at 34 Scotch Street, once occupied by Mr Jollie the publisher. At the time, Alexander was listed at Irish Gate Brow [Annetwell Street].[12]

On Alexander Cockburn’s headed bill of September 1835 to Dalston’s Overseers he is described as a grocer supplying goods to Agness Ha[e]rdman for 23 weeks at a cost of £2.17s. 6d. [13] Agnes’s life is a mystery.

SPC21/2/48/159 Dalston Overseers’ Voucher September 1835


Well established in Carlisle, Alexander was elected a Counsellor. [14] All appeared to be going well. He owned three farms which he let. [15] Then on 16 September 1835 brother John died aged 54 [16] and on 3 January 1837 a fiat of bankruptcy was issued against Alexander. [17] The fact being made well known by various newspapers. The Cumberland and Westmorland and Whitehaven Ware’s Advertiser further reiterated his status ‘Peter Dixon was elected to Alderman of the Corporation of Carlisle on Tuesday in the rooms of A Cockburn a bankrupt’.[18] He relinquished the office of Alderman on 9 November 1836, [19] and his farm properties were advertised for sale. [20] Creditors were asked to make it known what they were owed. The Pipery in Shaddongate was advertised for lease, by the now owner Mrs Armstong in May 1838. [21] A Certificate was issued in April 1837 [22] which would effectively discharge him of what was asked of him under the bankruptcy proceedings, while final dividends were paid out in 1838. [23]

Denton Corn Mill was offered for lease by Mrs Dixon [24] and Alexander was successful in taking over the Mill. He placed a notice in the Carlisle Journal of 1838 as follows:-

A Cockburn having entered on this commodious mill respectfully informs the public that the arrangements which he has made enable him to execute all orders in this line with the greatest care and expedition’. [25]

Alexander Cockburn was not re-elected Councillor in November 1841 at the Municipal Elections for Caldewgate Ward.[26] The next year, on 21 May 1842 Alexander died aged 48. [27] His death appeared in the Liverpool Standard and Commercial Advertiser on 27 May, where brother James was living at Aigburth, Toll Gate near Liverpool.[28] The obituary emphasised his role for Carlisle Corporation. Alexander was buried at Holy Trinity Church where his brother John had also been buried, in close proximity to where they had been in business together.

His wife and son didn’t stay on at Denton Mill. [29] They lived in Stanwix Village for a while, as did daughter Margaret who later married William Roxburgh (an estate agent from Liverpool who at one time lodged with them).[30] James Cockburn died in the Workhouse Liverpool 1868 where he appears to have sought surgical treatment. Jane Cockburn died 18 April 1873 aged 80, [31] but before her will could be enacted, her son John Tallentire died 24 April 1873 aged 38 intestate. By then, John Tallentire was a fairly successful building contractor of Bolton Place, Carlisle. As he had no close relatives, the estate went to John Alexander Cockburn (son of Alexander Cockburn’s brother John) of Allenwood Paper Mill.[32]

View of Carlisle from Blackwell Building s on the left of the the Industries that once followed the River Caldwe towards Shaddongate
Left buildings of the Industries which followed the River Caldew into Shaddongate April 2020

Sources
[1] Carlisle Patriot, 26 April 1817, p,3. col. e.
[2] Pigot & Co., National and Commercial Directory Cumberland Westmorland and Lancashire for 1828-29 (London and Manchester, J Pigot & Co., 1828).
[3] Carlisle Journal, 2 March 1844, p.4, col. b.
[4] Cumbria Archives, PR/47 25, St Mary’s Parish, Carlisle, Baptism Register 1813-1822
[5] Liverpool, England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1935 [accessed at www.ancestry.co.uk, 6 June 2020]
[6] Berwickshire Swinton and Simprim Church of Scotland Birth serach [accessed at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk 6 June 2020]
[7]Alexander Cockburn and Margaret Service gravestone at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125134655
[8]Carlisle Patriot, 27 November 1824 p,3. col,e
[9] Ware’s Cumberland Pacquet and Whitehaven Advertiser, 13 February 1827 p,3. col,e  Carlisle Patriot 10 June 1826 p 2-3
[10] Cumbria Archives, PR/47 14, St Mary’s Parish Carlisle Marriage Register 1825-1837
[11] Cumbria Archives, PR/47 27, St Mary’s Parish, Carlisle, Baptism Register 1830- 1853
[12] J. Pigot, National Commercial Directory of Cumberland and Westmorland (London and Manchester: J Pigot & Co., 1834 [accessed at www.ancestry.co.uk p. 23]; Carlisle Journal 9 August 1834
[13] Cumbria Archives, SPC44/2/48/159 Dalston Overseers’ Voucher, September 1835, Alexander Cockburn Grocer , dealer in Tea, Hams, Bacon Butter Flour &c
[14] Carlisle Patriot, 26 December 1835 p,3. col,e
[15] Carlisle Journal, 15 August 1835 p,2 col,e
[16] Carlisle Journal ,19 September 1835 p,3 col,f
[17] Carlisle Journal, 7 January 1837 p,2. col,c
[18] Ware’s Cumberland and Westmorland and Whitehaven Advertiser ,24 January 1837, p,2. col,d
[19] Carlisle Journal, 21 January 1837 p,3. col.b
[20] Carlisle Journal, 29 July 1837 p1 col,e
[21] Carlisle Journal, 12 May 1838 p,2 col,d
[22] Perry’s Bankruptcy Gazette, 8 April 1837, p,6
[23] Carlisle Journal, 15 September 1838 p,1 col,a
[24] Carlisle Journal, 30 December 1837 p,2 col,f
[25] Carlisle Journal ,17 February 1838 p,1 col b
[26] Carlisle Journal, 6 November 1841 p,3 col,6
[27] Carlisle Journal, 21 May 1842 p.3 col f
[28] Liverpool Standard and Commercial Advertiser, 27 May 1842 p,8 col g
[29] Carlisle Journal, 28 May 1842 p,1 col,c
[30] Carlisle Patriot, 30 July 1847 p, 2 col,h
[31] Cumbria Archives, PROB/1873/W346A269, Will of Jane Cockburn
[32]Cumbria Archives , PROB/1873/96, Administration John Tallentire Cockburn 9 May 1873

This is a work in progress subject to change with new research

footnote
Margaret Cockburn [Roxburgh] died 15 January 1848 at her Stepmothers home in Carlisle Carlisle Journal 21 Jan 1848
James Cockburn 2nd wife was Jane Pickering (Graham) married Liverpool 11 February 1855

Curious Change of Occupation or dual occupations for Henry Tibbats?

By Malbedenk

Voucher number D4383/6/1/9/3 in the collection for Wednesbury is a fairly usual sort of bill but was rather feint. It is a bill from Henry Tibbats to Mr Gest dated 30 April 1782.

It reads that Mr Gest Bott [bought] of Henry Tibbats for the [use?] the poor 16 yds woollen jersey at 14d £0.18s. 8d. Recd. the contents of this Bill by me Hen. Tibbats

However, because it was feint I thought I would check to see if Henry was listed in Wednesbury in the 1791 Universal British Directory to make sure I had read the name correctly. Sure enough Henry Tibbats appears in Wednesbury but as a Saw and Trowel Maker.

Now I cannot see the connection between supplying Woollen Jersey material for the Poor in 1782 and being a Saw and Trowel maker in 1791 unless Henry has a wife running a shop under his name (but that is not listed in 1791). Either that or there were two Henry Tibbats

John Peake (b.1798), Ironmonger, Furniture Broker and Bankrupt, Lichfield

By Peter Collinge
Figure 1: SRO, LD20/6/7/202, Lichfield, St Mary’s Overseers Vouchers, John Peake, 21 November 1831

Living in Lombard Street, by 1851 John Peake, then operating as a furniture broker (which usually meant a dealer in second hand goods) had a large family. Born in Lichfield in 1798, his wife Charity had been born in Exeter in 1806. Between them they had nine children: Edward (b. 1831), a writing clerk; Ann (b.1834); Peter (b. 1837), a tailor’s apprentice; Thomas (b. 1838); Elizabeth (b.1842); Charity (b.1842); Philip, (b. 1844); Steven (b. 1847); and Arthur (b. 1850).[1] With the exception of Elizabeth, Charity and Philip, who were born in Barton, Staffordshire, all the children were born in Lichfield.

This was his second marriage. The Birmingham Journal in 1826 reported the death of ‘Mrs Peake, wife of Mr John Peake, ironmonger, of Market Street, Lichfield’.[2] She was 32.

Listed in Pigot’s 1828 directory and in White’s 1834 directory as resident in Market Street, Peake supplied the overseers St Mary’s with ironmongery such as nails, coffee pots, and canisters, but, as his bills show, he was also a colourman or dealer in paints and oils.[3]

An advert in the Staffordshire Advertiser in 1829 reveals more about Peake’s business.[4] He was a bell hanger, lock and jobbing smith. His stock, offered at low prices with a five per cent discount for ready money, included cutlery, 52-piece table services, grates, lamps, fenders, fire irons, Britannia metal and ‘japanned’ goods, locks, bolts, hinges, nails, and screws. The same advert also announced that Peake was seeking ‘A respectable youth’ as an apprentice.

Things started to go wrong in July and August 1837 when a fiat of bankruptcy was issued against Peake and his business partner Thomas Hall.[5] They were required to present themselves before the bankruptcy commissioners on 7 September and again on 6 October at the Old Crown Inn, Lichfield. There they were to ‘make a full discovery and disclosure of their estate and effects’, and their creditors were ‘to come prepared to prove their debts’. Those indebted to the bankrupts, or who had any of their effects, were to contact solicitors Messrs. Bartrum and Son, of Old Broad Street London, or Messrs. E. and F. Bond, solicitors, Lichfield. The Bonds also undertook work for the parish of S. Mary’s.

At the end of September the Birmingham Journal announced the immediate disposal of the stock-in-trade, counters, shelves, and implements of Messrs John Peake and Co. ‘ironmongers, braziers, and tinmen in Market Street’.[6]

A dividend was paid to creditors in February 1838 at which point creditors, who had not already proved their debts, were requested to attend the meeting at the Old Crown to prove their claim, or be excluded the benefit of the dividend. Claims not proved at the meeting were to be disallowed.[7]

A certificate of discharge for Peake and Hall was issued in March 1838.[8] This allowed them to pursue business once again. This, however, was not the end of the issue. In December 1838, creditors were informed of a meeting to take place, once again at the Old Crown, with the assignees of the bankrupts’ estate on 21 January 1839.[9]

At the meeting the creditors were to assent or dissent from the assignees commencing a law suit against the trustees and managers of Lichfield’s Bank for Savings and against John Peake, Thomas Hall, and others for the purpose of ‘recovering certain sums of money, now in the hands of the said trustees and managers of the said Bank’. The assignees claimed that the money formed part of the separate estate of Thomas Hall. The creditors were also asked to assent or dissent from allowing the assignees to submit to arbitration in the matter. The matter rumbled on.

Six years later in December 1844, it was announced that John Balguy, a commissioner authorized to act in bankruptcy cases would sit in January 1845 at the Birmingham District Court of Bankruptcy, in order to ‘Audit the Accounts of the Assignees of the estate and effects’ of Peake and Hall.[10]

Alongside his wife, in 1861 were their sons Stephen (sic), an architect’s clerk, aged 14; and Arthur; and their grandson, Charles Peake, aged eight.[11] By 1871 Peake’s household in Bore Street was reduced in size again. Living with himself and his wife were their daughter Charity and her husband George Smart who had been born in Essex.[12]

[1] TNA, HO 107/2014, Census 1851.

[2] Birmingham Journal, 4 February 1826, p.3/5.

[3] Pigot and Co., National Commercial Directory [Part 2:] for 1828–29 (London and Manchester: J. Pigot and Co., 1828), p.  716; William White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Staffordshire and of the City of Lichfield (Sheffield: 1834), p. 160.

[4] Staffordshire Advertiser, 28 March 1829, p. 1/1.

[5] London Gazette, 25 August 1837, p.  2261; 10 December 1844, p. 5139.

[6] Birmingham Journal, 30 September 1837, p. 5.

[7] London Gazette, 13 February 1838, p. 333.

[8] Globe, 8 March 1838, p. 3.

[9] London Gazette, 28 December 1838, p. 3002.

[10] London Gazette, 10 December 1844, p. 5139.

[11] TNA, RG9/1972, Census 1861.

[12] TNA, RG 2913/37, Census 1871.

Joseph Collins (b.1795), Currier, Tea Dealer and Wine Merchant, Lichfield

By Peter Collinge

Currier Joseph Collins was born in Claydon, Oxfordshire, in 1795.[1] He was the son of Quakers William and Elizabeth Collins. His father was a farmer.

He married twice. First in 1817 to Elizabeth Vaughton, at St Michael’s, Lichfield; and second, to Elizabeth Langley of Rugeley in 1823.[2] The second marriage took place at St Martin’s, Birmingham, on 22 September 1823.[3]

In 1851 Joseph and Elizabeth Collins, were living in Tamworth Street, with their children, Charles, 23, also a currier; and Emma, 19, an organist; and servant, Mary Beech, 20.[4]

Joseph was not listed in the 1818 trade directory, although gardener and seedsman John Collins was listed with an address in St John Street, and an Edward Collins, of the Fountain Inn, Beacon Street.[5] Two curriers and leather dealers were listed: John Langley in Tamworth Street, and Thomas Langley in Bore Street.[6]

By 1828 Joseph Collins of Tamworth Street had replaced John Langley. Thomas Langley continued to operate from Sandford Street.[7] By 1834 Collins was still in business in Tamworth Street, Thomas Langley had disappeared, and the only other currier listed was William Hughes of Dam Street.[8]

A currier’s job was to process tanned hides which involved a number of processes: cleaning, scraping, stretching and finishing with oils, wax or polish.[9]  Collins was also a tea dealer and wine merchant.

SRO, LD20/6/6, Lichfield, St Mary’s Overseers’ Voucher, Joseph Collins, 22 July 1829

Joseph Collins supplied the overseers of St Mary’s with leather. His bills are elaborately headed with three distinct images.[10] The first shows the armorial bearings of the Worshipful Company of Curriers with its motto ‘Spes Nostra Deus’ (God is our hope). At the top, arms hold up a currier’s shave, and on the shield are four more pairs of shaves.[11]

In the middle is a classic representation of the tea trade: ‘Chinamen’, tea chests, water and a distant ship.[12] Above this are the printed words ‘Agent to the London Genuine Tea Company, 23 Ludgate Hill’. In 1843, the London Genuine Tea Company placed a notice in the Staffordshire Advertiser.[13] Two circumstances had prompted the announcement: growing concern over the adulteration of tea, which they described as ‘disgraceful transactions’; and the ‘peace recently concluded with the Chinese’. The latter had enabled the Company to increase its stock of the finest teas. Eager to promote its ‘pure and unadulterated teas’, it listed its provincial agents, including Joseph Collins of Lichfield.

The third image shows a woman in a classically-inspired dress standing next to a barrel adorned with vines, and grapes. In her hand and she holds up a wine glass. On top of the barrel is a wine bottle and surrounding the barrel are casks, bottles and a bottle carrier. In the background is a three-masted ship. This image reflects the third strand of Collins’ business, that of ‘Agent to the Wine and Spirit Compy, 141 Fleet Street, London’.

In 1835 elections were held in Lichfield. The results created ‘dissatisfaction’ and the episode was reported widely in the press.[14]

The Staffordshire Advertiser reported that the ‘natural quietude’ of Lichfield ‘has not been proof against the excitement of electioneering ardour … Scarcely has the exercise of the parliamentary franchise ever produced so strong a sensation … Squibs, manifestoes, exhortations, and denunciations have succeeded each other with a rapidity unexampled in the annals of the borough-city’. It continued: ‘Two chief parties divided the town. The Elective Franchise Society … held their meetings at the George Inn. A second and mixed party then met at the Old Crown Inn … [who on polling day] made no public display, and indeed many of them declined voting altogether’.[15]

The Sun commented that the Elective Franchise Society, established soon after the last election, ‘has worked wonders … considering how the city had been confined by the Tories previously thereto. The Tories ‘using all the influence that they were possessed of, as well as using their threats of turning several people out of the official situations which they held, if they did not vote according as they were wished’, failed to get the result they hoped for. The Elective Franchise Society proposed 18 reformers; 17 were elected. One of those newly-elected was currier, Joseph Collins. Other suppliers to the overseers of St Mary’s were also elected: Stephen Brassington, John Meacham, and Nicholas Willday. The one remaining place went to a Tory ‘who had ‘the least number of votes’.

The Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser noted that ‘The result of the election has created dissatisfaction and the opponents of the liberals now blame themselves for not having made vigorous opposition’.[16]

[1] TNA, RG 6/34, England and Wales, Society of Friends, Birth 1578-1841, Berkshire and Oxfordshire: Monthly Meeting of Banbury.

[2] SRO, D27/1/18, Lichfield, St Michael, Marriages, 13 April 1817.

[3] Staffordshire Advertiser, 13 December 1823, p.4/3.

[4] TNA, HO 107/2014, Census 1851.

[5] Parson and Bradshaw, William Parson and Thomas Bradshaw, Staffordshire General and Commercial Directory (Manchester: J. Lynch, 1818), p. 170.

[6] Parson and Bradshaw, Directory, p.185.

[7] Pigot and Co., National Commercial Directory [Part 2:] for 1828–29 (London and Manchester: J. Pigot and Co., 1828), p.  716.

[8] William White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Staffordshire and of the City of Lichfield (Sheffield: 1834), p 158.

[9] The Worshipful Company of Curriers, https://www.curriers.co.uk/history [accessed 26 June 2020].

[10] SRO, LD20/6/6, St Mary’s, Lichfield, Overseers’ Vouchers, 22 July 1829; 31 December 1829

[11] https://www.curriers.co.uk/history [accessed 26 June 2020].

[12] Peter Collinge, ‘Chinese Tea, Turkish Coffee and Scottish Tobacco: Image and Meaning in Uttoxeter’s Poor Law Vouchers’, Transactions of the Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, XLIX (June 2017), pp. 80–9.

[13] Staffordshire Advertiser, 25 March 1843, p. 1/3.

[14] Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser, 30 December 1835, p.2/6.

[15] Staffordshire Advertiser, 2 January 1836, p.3/4.

[16] Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser, 30 December 1835, p.2/6.

Mary Middleton, Wednesbury

By Malbedenk

Several Poor Law Vouchers for Wednesbury, Staffordshire1 are bills from either M. Middleton or Mary Middleton for supplying Oatmeal to the Overseers of the Poor. (Circa 1790-1814)

Mary obviously kept a low profile as she has proved very elusive and this is probably the same for many business women of the age.

As many other vouchers appeared to be in a male name with receipts often signed by a female I firstly looked for a marriage between a male Middleton and a Mary 1740-1795 but didn’t find one.

Then I looked for a Baptism in Wednesbury for Mary Middleton but didn’t find one.

After that I repeated the searches with a widened net and found 2 baptisms in Walsall for a Mary Middleton. The first one is on 2 Feb 1759 d/o Joseph and Ann but that Mary appears to die in 1760. The second baptism seems to be to the same couple 29 September 1763. Unfortunately findmypast.co.uk doesn’t have the images of the Baptism online just the transcript. Nor are they on Ancestry Library edition.

 I looked in the Historical records on Familysearch.org to see if they had Walsall images which they didn’t but I found the 1801 Census for Walsall and Joseph Middleton was listed in Ablewell St. as a victualler with 2 males and 3 females. Ablewell St. to Wednesbury would be 4.7 miles according to google maps. (1 of the 3 females could be Mary)

Mary is not listed in either the Universal British Directory 1791 or Parson and Bradshaw’s directory of 1818. However Mary’s Father Joseph Middleton is listed in 1818 as a Victualler and Maltster at the Royal Oak, Abelwell St. Walsall.

Mary does not appear in the 1841 Census so had presumably married or died before then as I failed to find her.

I also tried looking for a marriage for Mary Middleton after 1800 (and the dates on the vouchers) but the only one was in 1790 and if that is her she must have been in business using her maiden name.


Mary may have died in 1824 as I found a burial for Mary Middleton in the transcriptions of St Peter & St Paul Roman Catholic Church, Wolverhampton on 03 Jul 1824 no age is given. There were no burials for Mary in Wednesbury 1800-1840

 I am not sure if we will find anything else.

1  ( D4383/6/9/1/16/3 (1790) D4383/6/9/2/51, D4383/6/9/3/6/6, D4383/6/9/3/17, D4383/6/9/3/68, D4383/6/9/3/77, D4383/6/9/3/95, D4383/6/9/3/1/104, D4383/6/9/3/192, D4383/6/9/3/214

Stephen Garnett (1763-1840), overseer and obsessive?

By Alannah Tomkins

The salaried assistant overseer of Kirkby Lonsdale, Stephen Garnett, is one of the few characters we’ve come across who appears in the historical literature before the start of the vouchers project. Historian James Steven Taylor identified him as a generator and hoarder of parish correspondence, when he (Taylor) wrote about the pauper letters which survive for the parish.

He was baptised in Yorkshire and had moved to Kirkby Lonsdale by the time of his marriage in 1787. Garnett made a living as a grocer, an occupation much surveyed by this project. He was also a methodical and careful man: having been entrusted with the task of managing poor-law correspondence for his home township, he went on to gather over 1200 letters and other documents between 1809 and 1836. As beneficiaries of his record-keeping, is it unkind of me to suggest he might have been obsessive?

The majority of items in the collection are letters from or about the paupers who were legally ‘settled’ in Kirkby Lonsdale but who lived elsewhere. Paupers requested poor relief by post, and tended to ‘threaten’ to return home. They might prove more expensive if on the doorstep than if relieved at a distance. Letters were addressed variously to Mr Garnett, Mr Garner or Mr Gardner.

Garnett was paid £10 a year for his services to the township, a modest salary, and an early example of a wage being given to a deputising overseer of the poor. He was described as a ‘Guardian’ of the poor, terminology used because Kirkby Lonsdale had formally adopted ‘Gilbert’s Act’ for the purposes of poor relief. It entered a union with sixteen other townships in the early nineteenth century and built a workhouse for use by all the locations in the union in 1811.

Most of the letters were written to Garnett, but a small selection of copy letters survive from him to other places. They show that he could write with some asperity, in protection of Kirkby Lonsdale’s finances. See for example his letter to a fellow overseer Mr John Scorah in Wakefield, 1825:

        Kirkby Lonsdale Novr 1st 1825

  Mr Scorah

        Sir/

        Yours of the 30th Ult. is now before me Respecting a man of the name of Isaac Middlebrook it would have been well if he had given you more Information as respecting himself stating the grounds on which he claims a settlement here, I have examined the towns Books but can find no such name in them nor is any such person known here by the oldest Inhabitant

  On this account I cannot authorise you to relief him on our account, but i wish to be rightly understood it is not our wish to put any obstackels [sic] in the way or cause any unnecessary trouble, if he can tell whear his parents lived or whith whoom he himself lived and by what means he gained a settlement it will be attended to, when we receive this Information we shall be able to tell wether it is in this Township or some other Township in this parish, thear being nine different Townships in this parish all maintaining their own poor

                I am Sir yours Respectfully

                    Stephn. Garnett

The preservation of so much paper by one man is striking, if not entirely unique. We might suspect that a similarly full collection of letters (and vouchers) for the parish of Colwich in Staffordshire might well be owing to the incumbency of John Wetton in the post of assistant overseer there.

Sources: J.S. Taylor, ‘Voices in the crowd: The Kirkby Lonsdale township letters 1809-36’, T. Hitchcock, P. Sharpe and P. King (eds), Chronicling Poverty. The voices and strategies of the English poor 1640-1840 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 1997); www.workhouses.org.uk