Tag: settlement

John Tunstall and Family, Papcastle

By NMDEA

In 1828 William Nichol of Bothel brought an action against John Tunstall claiming the horses he had were not his. They were seized despite his attempts to stop it.   As a consequence, Tunstall must have felt he would struggle  to make a living  and  applied to William Askew, a bleacher by trade living in the village of Goat and overseer of Papcastle, for relief. Askew suspecting that Tunstall’s place of settlement lay elsewhere and faced with the prospect of a large family needing relief,  sought their removal to Greysouthern where he thought  their place  of settlement might be.  The services of Joseph Steele and Son, attorneys of Cockermouth, were employed to investigate. This is just one example of the cases taken on by Steeles for the parish of Papcastle and demonstrates the lengths they went to to determine the facts.[1]

In 1828 John Tunstall and wife, Ann Fletcher, were living in Papcastle just outside Cockermouth. A considerable number of their children were all baptized in the Parish of Papcastle. They were: John (1811), Thomas (1812), James (1814), Fletcher (1816), Jane (1817), twins Sarah (1821) and Mary (1821), Ann (1823), Martha (1824), William (1826) and Joseph (1828). With the exception of one, William who died in 1823 aged three, all went on to live into adulthood.[2]

John Steele. Journey to Examine the Registers, April 1829 SPC110/1/3/2/5

John Tunstall’s grandfather James Tunstall (1742-1820) had inherited his father’s Moses’ (1700-1757) farm and pottery named Fox House, at Broughton in 1757. Moses was born in Burslem, Staffordshire, and married Sarah Jackson in  Duffield, Derbyshire, the place of her birth in 1730. They moved north helping establish some of the potteries of West Cumberland. Moses’ aunt, Margaret Tunstall (1678-1748) and her husband Aaron Wedgewood (1671-1746) of the Wedgwood pottery family of Stoke had already  moved from Staffordshire, starting a pottery at Harker Marsh near Dearham at the beginning of the eighteenth century.[3] However, John Tunstall didn’t venture into the pottery trade of his forebears.

The Tunstall case at the Easter Assizes 1829 was described in two local newspapers. The removal order issued was challenged by the parish of Greysouthern.

Joseph Steele and Son expenses. 14 Nov. 1828
SPC110/1/3/2/5 8

The following is a summary of events from the evidence given. John Tunstall’s challenge was to prove Papcastle as his place of settlement.

Tunstall was baptized in the parish of Bridekirk on14 December 1788. Papcastle was a township of Bridekirk. His father Thomas Tunstall (1768-1840) was born in Great Broughton. He married his first wife Sarah Johnstone on 15 July 1788 at Dearham. She died on 20 November 1801 and in 1803 he moved to Greysouthern where he rented a property for over £40 a year, therefore gaining a settlement there. In 1804 he married Jane Walker, a widow. Tunstall worked in the local coal mines. Tunstall got into difficulties around 1808 and subsequently his son, John, managed his property while he was in Carlisle Goal.

John Tunstall then moved to Papcastle to work for Thomas Fletcher, and married his granddaughter Ann Fletcher in  June 1810. When Thomas Fletcher died the main beneficiary in his will was his daughter Jenny Fletcher, Ann’s mother. The Tunstall family and Jenny lived together. John Tunstall supported his family by taking on a variety of  work. Reliant on a horse and cart, he also used to lead wood ( convey wood) for Jenny, . Although her father is described  as a yeoman in his will Thomas Fletcher may have diversified into wood leading. Following a difference of opinion and Tunstall claimed he went to rent a property of his own.

Tunstall Family Removal
SPC110/1/3/2/5 8  April 1829

There are many contradictions in the depositions taken from various people and confusion about who leased what from whom. The voucher lists the detailed expenses incurred by Steele’s to determine the truth.

Among those examined were Richard Blackburn and William Atkinson, present when the property belonging to John Pooley was let. Pooley,  stated he would never let property to Tunstall as he was a servant to Jenny Fletcher. William Twentyman, who leased all of Pooley’s property for three years, subsequently sublet parcels  to others. In the interim, Twentyman died, so it fell to his son Robert to be questioned about the letting arrangements. Robert said he couldn’t remember events. William Dean of Keswick who had said he paid rent to Jenny Fletcher for Tunstall for one of the properties had also died in January 1829. His wife, Mary,  was asked to travel from Keswick to Carlisle to give evidence.

Various family members were called upon including Jenny Fletcher, Thomas Tunstall, his father, John Tunstall his uncle resident at Fox House Farm and Pottery and joint lease holder of the Glass House Pottery, Ginns, Whitehaven, Martha Fletcher (Barton), his sister in law and Jenny Fletcher’s youngest daughter born in 1796; and others.

The dictum was that John Tunstall had not legally held any property. The result was that Tunstall’s settlement was that of his father’s a few miles away at Greysouthern and the Removal Order was upheld. [4]

In subsequent years John Tunstall continued to live and work around the area. His wife Ann (baptized in the parish of Papcastle, 11 March 1785) died in 1856.  John then went to live  with his son Thomas in Appleby. Both stated their occupation as carter in 1861. John died around 1864.[ 5]

Jenny Fletcher remained in Papcastle. With members of John’s family around her in 1841 she was  living with  John’s son Thomas and his wife Martha (Spark) and their two children. Next door was Mary (Miller) wife of John’s son James and two children. Mary had been recently widowed, as James had been killed in a waggoning accident in May 1841. [6]

William Askew, married to Eleanor Blackstock, had three sons:  Robinson, William and Henry. All three  predeceased  him. In later life he moved into Cockermouth. His obituary in 1864 suggested he had become quite wealthy. His estate valued around  £5000. [7]

Joseph Steele was born in the port town of Whitehaven in 1758. He moved to Cockermouth where he became an apprentice attorney with John Wordsworth, the father of the poet William Wordsworth. By 1785 he had married Dorothy Ponsonby and they went on to have six sons and one daughter, Dorothy. His wife  died in 1799 and Steele remarried in 1804. With his second wife,  Mary Hodgson, he had a further four sons. His  fourth son, Miles, become an attorney in London but died in Nice, France, in 1827.[8]  His eldest son John  joined his father’s business and worked on the Tunstall case.  Joseph Steele died 27 February 1844, two days after his second wife.[9] The business in Cockermouth continued in the hands of John and Edward Bowe Steele a son from his second marriage[10] until John became MP for Cockermouth in 1854.

Steele and Sons  main  bill  came to  £30 14s 1d in September 1829. With hindsight  it perhaps doesn’t seem to have been the financially prudent thing to do to issue the removal order, but looking to the future the parish of Papcastle may have feared the burden of the Tunstall family should they not be able to support themselves in the future. However, the Tunstalls, according to subsequent census returns did support themselves except son John  who periodically received parochial relief.

[1] Cumbria Archives, Papcastle Overseers’ Voucher, SPC110/1/3/2/5 8, Nov. 1828 to April 1829
[2] England, Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [accessed at www.ancestry.co.uk, 2 April 2021]
[3] Sibson Florence,  The History of the West Cumberland Potteries, Volume II, (Distington: Cope Publishing, 2008).
[4] Carlisle Patriot, 2 May 1829, p.2; col. d,e.;  Cumberland Pacquet and Whitehaven Ware’s Advertiser 5 May 1829, p. 3 col. a;    Wake Henry Thomas, 1878 , All the Monumental Inscriptions in Bringham and Bridekirk 1666-1876 at www.books.google.co.uk     Cumbria Archives, PROB/1812/W543, Will of Thomas Fletcher.
[5]  General Record Office, Search Index www.gro.gov.uk
[6] 1841 Census HO107; Piece: 161; Book: 7; Civil Parish: Cammerton; County: Cumberland; Enumeration District: 14; Folio: 14; Page: 22; Line: 5; GSU roll: 241278
[7] Whitehaven News, 8 December 1864, p. 5, col, d;    Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England [accessed at www.ancestry.co.uk, 14 April 2021]
[8] Carlisle Patriot, 10 March 1827 p. 2, col. a
[9] Carlisle Journal, 2 March 1844 p. 2, col. g
[10] Slater’s Directory (1848), p. 26.

footnote

The principal people have  been named  from  the  bill only as it is length.

Thomas Fletcher’s  signed his Will made in 1809 with his mark. Having considerable property in the Papcastle area most of those who were to receive a legacy were his family. It being stipulated how each dwelling was to be allocated most of their names are prefixed by reputed. For example his reputed wife Jane, his reputed daughter Jenny Fletcher , grandson Thomas son of his reputed son Thomas Fletcher of Cockermouth, and his reputed great grandson Thomas Fletcher natural son  of Ann Fletcher who was the natural daughter of his  reputed daughter Jenny Fletcher.  Jenny Fletcher’s other two daughter’s  Martha (Barton) and her twin Mary were to receive twenty pounds.

 

 

Settlement, Redemption and Connections – Richard Ward of Alrewas and Burton, shoemaker (1789-1869)

By jmkrolik

The Covid-19 lockdown has had many of us setting about de-cluttering and tidying at home. For me a principal tidying target has been the collection of notebooks in which I’ve recorded snippets of information and jottings from research at Staffordshire and Lichfield record offices. Going through one of these a few days ago to make sure I had entered up everything on my laptop in a more organised way, I found some brief notes I’d been trying to track down for ages. These concerned a Richard Ward, shoemaker and the source was Burton St Modwen vestry minutes [1].

On 9 July 1817 these minutes reported that it had been resolved to bring Richard Ward into the workhouse to be employed in making and mending shoes and that his goods be redeemed. On 1 May 1822 the minutes reported that Richard Ward of Alrewas be allowed £5 to assist him in his rent, he being unwell at times. This money was sent to him by a courier. On 16 April 1823 Richard Ward of Alrewas was supplied with some bedding.  Now this was a puzzle. Richard was born in 1789 in Streethay, just north of Lichfield. Parish register entries indicate that his family gradually moved northwards to Fradley and then Alrewas. So why was Burton parish a good eight miles away taking responsibility for him? Clues come from the Alrewas parish register [2] where his marriage by licence to Elizabeth Wootton in 1811 indicates he was “of Burton” and this is confirmed by the associated marriage bond and allegation. [3] He may have gained a settlement in Burton, possibly through apprenticeship.

Resolving a person’s settlement could be a fraught business if they sought parish relief and the overseers suspected another parish should or could be liable. It could also be expensive for the parish if a challenge was disputed. Among the project vouchers submitted by lawyers there are many, many examples of the bills incurred by overseers to resolve matters of settlement.

Sadly, overseers’ vouchers for Burton have not found their way to Staffordshire Record Office, so it is not possible to delve further into Richard’s shoe making and mending while in the parish workhouse in Hawkins Lane. Likewise, vouchers for St Michael’s parish in Lichfield (which includes Streethay) have not survived. Vouchers for Alrewas parish were processed for the project and these show that it did not have its own workhouse but sent paupers over to nearby Rosliston in south Derbyshire. [4]

At one of the workshops held at Stafford in connection with the project, Dr Joe Harley set out how useful pauper inventories could be as sources of information. His talk drew on research published in 2015. [5] His paper sets out evidence for the able-bodied poor using the workhouse as a short-term survival strategy. This may well have been the case for Richard.

Overseers’ vouchers for Uttoxeter [6] show that the constable was ordered on 15 Feb 1832 to grant relief to William Breeze to redeem his bundle of clothes and resume his journey to London, and that Joseph Barnes was paid 8 shillings on 20 March 1835 to redeem four articles belonging to Sarah James. Likewise overseers’ vouchers for Tettenhall [7] show payments of 2s to Francis Taylor on 24 Feb 1831 to redeem James Billingsley’s coat, of 6d on 28 June 1832 to redeem Maria Williams’ shawl and of 19s 2½d on 29 June 1832 to redeem Thomas Williams’ coat and for an inquest .

Richard Ward’s experience of Burton workhouse did not put him off returning to the town after his youngest child was born in Alrewas in 1825. It is possible to track the family living in Burton through the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses until Richard died in 1869 and was buried in Burton’s new municipal cemetery at Stapenhill. Two of his sons (William and Richard) lived out their lives in Burton, too. I have visited all their graves and stood the proverbial six feet above. Richard was my 4xgreat grandfather and William my 3xgreat grandfather. I know lots about their various doings.

During Dr Pete Collinge’s Zoom-based talk to the Erasmus Darwin Society on 28 Jan 2021 on ‘Food and the Georgian pauper: evidence from Sandford Street Workhouse Garden , c. 1770-1834’, a lady attending provided illuminating and fascinating information about cottages on Sandford Street in Lichfield and on the Sedgewick family from her own family memories. It never ceases to amaze me just what detail emerges from studying the overseers’ vouchers and other records in connection with this project and the buzz of excitement that comes from connecting with one’s own family.

[1] SRO, B12, Burton St Modwen Vestry minute book, 1805-1840

[2] SRO, D783/1/1/6 Alrewas All Saints, Register of marriages

[3] SRO, PAL/C/6,7/1811/Ward, Alrewas marriage bond and allegation

[4] SRO D783/2/3 Overseers’ vouchers for Alrewas

[5] Harley, J., ‘Material lives of the poor and their strategic use of the workhouse during the final decades of the English old poor law’. Continuity and Change, 30, (2015), pp. 71-103 doi:10.1017/S0268416015000090

[6] SRO, D3891/6/37/12/1 and D3891/6/41/7/21 Overseers’ vouchers for Uttoxeter

[7] SRO, D571/A/PO/65/13; D571/A/PO/69/71; D571/A/PO/69/173 Overseers’ vouchers for Tettenhall

Isaac and Mary Mark. When will they be Settled?

By NMDEA

Three letters which relate to Isaac Mark and his wife Mary can be found with other Greystoke overseers’ vouchers. The first dated 2 June 1821 is an examination of Isaac Mark’s antecedents by the magistrates of Leath Ward to determine his place of settlement . Isaac is described as a labourer late of Kingside Hill, Holm Cultram. Born at Bowscale in Greystoke Parish he had, until about the age of 15, worked on a farm at Newlands. His father rented it from William Pattinson for £50 a year. In 1788 Newlands was described as being in both Castle Sowerby and Sebergham Parish [1]. After that, Isaac served in first the navy for twelve years then in the 81st Foot Army Regiment for twelve years. Not being in any one place more than six months, he had been to Malta, Gibraltar, Sicily, Naples, and Lisbon amongst many other places. He was married in Gretna around 1804-5. His son was born about 3 months later. He said he had not tried to gain a settlement elsewhere.[2]

Examination of Isaac Mark June 2 1821 PR5/67-C3


Isaac Mark was baptised on 30 October 1771, at Bowscale, Cumberland, the third son of Thomas (1736-1812) and Sarah Pattinson(1738-1805). He was the brother of George (b.1762), Mary (b.1762), Elizabeth (b.1765), Ruth (b.1767) John (b.1769), Thomas (b.1774), Sarah (b.1779) and Benjamin (b.1785). All were baptised as Quakers.[3] Isaac’s family were descendants of the Bewley and Mark families whose names dominated the Quakers of Mosedale, Cumberland. Some were persecuted for their faith. [4]

Perhaps struggling to make a living, Isaac left the farm. Military conflict may not have sat well with any Quaker principles he had.

It is not known where his wife Mary was born. The marriage document gives her surname as Marey Gels of Higton Lancshire[sic]. Their son, Thomas, appears to have been baptised in Bolton le Moors Lancashire on 17 June 1804.[5] Shortly afterwards, on 17 October 1804 Isaac enlisted in the 81st Foot Regiment at Londonderry, Ireland. He appears on a list of others in the Regiment serving in Canada [6].

While Isaac was absent Mary and Thomas were removed from Bolton le Moors to Greystoke on 3 October 1808, only to be sent back.[8 ] At a future appeal at the Quarter Sessions, they were returned to Greystoke where they were accepted by the overseers and given relief. The overseers account book shows that Mary was given £1 every 4 weeks but towards the end of 1813 payments were sometimes £2 every 8 weeks.[9]

Cumbria Archives PR 5/45 1810-1814 Poor Account Book payment 11 February 1811

On 14 November 1808 an order was given to remove Mary described as a widow and her son named Benjamin aged about 1 year from the Caldewgate Parish of St Mary’s in Carlisle to Castle Sowerby. The record refers to her son as Benjamin, no reference is made to her son Thomas although a subsequent document refers to a son called Thomas suggesting he was still alive. Further research has revealed that as a twelve year old the overseers of Greystoke arranged for him to be apprenticed to George Harrison a husbandman at Skelton Parish . Mary either thought she was now widowed or claimed she was. It is possible that there were two sons, Thomas and Benjamin. The 1851 census records Benjamin Mark aged 43 a Bricklayer of English Damside, Carlisle living with William Gilmore and his wife Mary Gilmore. Although referred to as Son-in-Law it may be that Benjamin Mark was his stepson and Mary Mark his wife. Isaac having died [10]

Caldewgate was mainly and area of innkeepers, tradesman and manufacturers attracting people from other areas looking for employment. The poor could be looked upon badly, more being spent on removing a pauper than relieving them.[11] Whether Mary was removed is not known.

By 7 December 1816 Mary’s status was no longer described as that of a widow. Once again the Justices ordered that Mary and her son Thomas be removed from Caldewgate Quarter to Greystoke Parish. Mary and Thomas, aged about 11 years, were described as having previously been removed from Bolton le Moors and accepted by one of the Overseers of Greystoke, Johnby, Blencow, Motherby and Gill, about seven years previously. Isaac her husband a soldier could not be found at the time, his whereabouts until lately being unknown. The Magistrates believed that he had returned to the Greystoke area and his place of settlement. They rejected Greystoke’s appeal against her removal as they had been paying her relief and should have been less submissive in accepting her from Bolton le Moors. The onus being on them to prove a settlement in another neighbouring parish.[12] Isaac may have left the army after the Napoleonic Wars about this time and have returned to what he considered home looking for work.

On 9 June 1821 a short letter to Thomas Burn the Overseer for Greystoke from Isaac and Mary stated they had arrived in Wigton. It briefly describes Isaac and Mary’s journey. He writes ‘she desires you send her bed and what there is‘. [13 ]

Letter from Isaac and Mary Mark to Thomas Burn 7 June 1821 PR5/67-C17

The last letter, dated 17 June 1821, is from John Stalker, the Overseer of Castle Sowerby to Thomas Burn warning him that if they try to send Isaac and Mary to them they will lodge an appeal at the Quarter Assizes. Stalker wrote: ‘take care you do not incur a penalty by suffering a woman deranged as she is to be at large’. Greystoke to be trying to remove both of them [14].

Together by choice or necessity it is not known if they every gained a settlement anywhere.

Thomas Burn from John Stalker 17 June 1821 PR5/67-C2

Sources
[1] Cumberland Pacquet and Ware’s Whitehaven Advertiser,6 August 1788, p.1
[2] Cumbria Archives. PR5/67-C item 3, Greystoke Overseers’ Voucher, 2 June 1821
[3] Quaker Birth Marriage and Death Registers, 1578-1831 [accessed at ancestry.co.uk 21 February 1821]
[4] Rev. Edward Thomas Bewley. The Bewleys of Cumberland and their Irish and other descendants (1904).
[5] Gretna Green Marriage Registers [accessed at ancestry.co.uk]; Liverpool Parish Clerk Project Online. www.lan.upc.org.uk
[6] The National Archives, Kew, WO 25/481, 81 Foot British Regimental Registers of Service 1801-1816pp. 89-90 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/)
[7] Lancashire Archives, Salford Quarter Sessions, QSP/2575/31, Salford Epiphany 1809 or event date 3 October 1808
[8 ] Lancashire Archives Salford Quarter Sessions QSP/2575/31, Salford Epiphany, 1809 or event date 3 October 1808; Cumbria Archives, PR 5/57, Removal orders, 1737-1833
[9] Cumbria Archives, PR 5/45, Overseers’ Account Book, 1810-14
[10] Cumbria Archives, SPC 67/38, Castle Sowerby Removals, 1778 -1835; Cumberland Quarter Sessions, Q4/2, Christmas Sessions, 1809, p. 105. Cumbria Archives PR 5/59 Bundle of Apprenticeship Indentures 1763-1837
[11] Frederick Morton Eden, The State of the Poor (1797) Volume II page 60
[12]Cumbria Archives, PR 5/57, Removal Orders, 1737-1833
[13]Cumbria Archives, PR5/67-C, item 17, 9 June 1821
[14]Cumbria Archives, PR5/67-C, item 2, 17 June 1821

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