Tag: Wigton

Intersecting Lives at Hesket Newmarket Poorhouse, 1772-1784

By NMDEA

In 1772 one of the poorhouses of England was situated in the small market town of Hesket Newmarket, in the Parish of Caldbeck, some nine miles from the town of Wigton.

Market Cross, Hesket Newmarket

Vouchers for the parish of Wigton as well as the Account Book of Caldbeck poorhouse for 1772-73 name Jonathan Cape, apothecary; Joseph Bewley, mercer; and William Blair. Blair was responsible for the poorhouse. In addition, some of those boarded there are named, although detail is limited.

Suppliers

Dr Johnathan Cape provided medicine and treatments to the poor. [1] His bill of 1774 totalling £4 6s 0d begins ‘to the poor in the poorhouse Hesket Newmarket belonging to the Township of Wigton’. Among those named on his bill, are Isabel Hendrie, Mary McCullen, Sally Harrison, Peggy Little, Mrs Mary Kennedy, Mary Blackburn and Betty Thompson who was supplied with herbs on 4 March 1774 costing 4d. Bleeding from the arm, was a regular treatment costing 6d. [2]

Cape was baptised in the parish of Greystoke on 14 July 1737 and by 1759 was apprenticed to Richard Grave apothecary and grocer of Penrith.[3] In her book, Frances Wilkins describes Grave’s work at the estate of Dalemain; treating both the Hassell family and their servants.[4] Grave died in 1760 leaving his wife Mary with seven sons and one daughter. She carried on his business in the same vein. Some ten years later she married William Atkinson and continued in business. Only a year into his apprenticeship, it has been assumed that Johnathan Cape continued his apprenticeship with her or found someone else to take him on until he started out on his own. There is no evidence of him having a contract with the poorhouse at this time or what spectrum of society used his services [5].

Joseph Bewley, like Cape, sent a bill to William Blair concerning the supply of fabric and haberdashery items to the poor of Wigton in 1772-73.[ 6] In October two women are named on his bill Sarah Wiley, and Betty Thompson.  A further bill from him has similar items the following year [7] . However, by 1784 Bewley had been declared bankrupt. Several notices appear in the London Gazette between 1784 and 1793. Meetings of his creditors were held at the Crown and Mitre, Carlisle, and the George and Dragon, Hesket Newmarket.[8]

Overseers and Inmates

Of the inmates in the poorhouse, Betty Thompson was there between 1772 and 1776. Several bills show that her board was being paid for by the overseers of Wigton.  In 1776 payments for Thompson ceased after her death on 10 April. William Blair wrote to Isaac Robinson, ‘I have sent an account of Betty Thompson if we find anything else will let you know’.[12]  Itemised are her possessions, all clothing including unmade gowns and brats. Thompson may have been making her own clothes but like many of the others named identifying the circumstances that led to them entering the poorhouse can only be surmised.

Isabella Hendrie, her sons and Mary Kennedy also had their board paid for.[9]

John Henderson was the overseer in 1774-75. Two further overseers named in subsequent years are Isaac Robinson [10] and William Lightfoot. [11] The Hendrie and Blackburn families  were provided with their board and schooling. All the payments were made to William Blair.

By 1776 time William Blair and his wife Sarah Peascod were the parents of John, George, Stephen and Sarah. A fifth child, William, was buried  on 18 April 1776.

Elizabeth Thompson and  William Blair, Junior burial record. Caldbeck Parish.  PR 71/3

In 1784 William Blair appears in the overseer accounts of Thomas Clements in Threlkeld. [13] Named in relation to Hesket Newmarket poorhouse, he had by this time another son, William. There are various payments concerning Mary Pingey. On 9 March, 5s for her to be entered into the poor house at Hesket Newmarket, and a year’s board of £3 4s 0d. Shortly after further expenses appear for her; including ‘a journey to pay funeral expenses’ £1 9s 3 1/2d and ‘a Journey bringing her clothes’ 2s 6d . Mary Pingey was buried at Caldbeck on 20 November 1784.

Threlkeld Overseers’ Voucher SPC21/8-11, 1 1784

There are references to other inmates in Hesket Newmarket poorhouse in the accounts of Threlkeld around the same time. For instance, a charge of 9s 6d regarding Benjamin Nicholson when he was ‘brought out of the poorhouse’. Robert Lancaster and the Benson family are others named spending time in the poorhouse.

When William Blair’s tenure at Hesket Newmarket poorhouse ended is uncertain. One Thomas Dobson fulfilled this post but exactly when is not known either. [14]

The parish of Caldbeck had agreements with house the poor of other parishes, among them Sebergham and Blennerhasset being examples. [15]

 

Sources
[1] Cumbria Archives, PR 71/47, Overseers’ Account Book, 1753- 1773.
[2] Cumbria Archives, PR/36/V/3/ 7, [line 50]  Wigton Overseers’ Voucher,  The poor in the Poorhouse of Hesket Newmarket Belonging to the Township of Wigton, Johnathan Cape. 1773-1774
[3] www.findmypast.co.uk  [accessed 15 January 2021]
[4] Wilkins Frances, Two thousand five hundred Cumberland and Westmorland Folk (Wyre Forest Press, 2006)
[5] op.cit Johnathan Cape 1773-1774
[6] Cumbria Archives, PR/36/V3/6 [line 59], Wigton Overseers’ Voucher,  For the poor belonging Wigton, Joseph Bewley, 1772-73.
[7] Cumbria Archives, PR/36/V/3/5 [line 16] Wigton Overseers’ Voucher, 1772
[8] London Gazette, 25 May 1784,  p. 5
[9] Cumbria Archives, PR36/V/4/11, Wigton Overseers’ Voucher,  John Henderson, Overseer, 1774-75
[10] Cumbria Archives, PR36/V/6/78, Wigton Overseers’ Voucher, PR36/V/6. 78 Isaac Robinson, Overseer, 1776
[11] Cumbria Archives, PR36/V/6/62 [line 1],  Wigton Overseers’ Voucher, William Lightfoot, Blackburn girls schooling, c.1776
[12] Cumbria Archives, PR36/V/6/9, Wigton Overseers’ Voucher, Betty Thompson, 1776
[13] Cumbria Archives, SPC21/8/11/1, Threlkeld Overseers’ Voucher,  Thomas Clements Overseer Accounts, 1784
[14] Monumental Inscriptions of St Kentigern’s Church, Caldbeck, Cumberland
(Thomas Dobson, her son-in-law, late Governor of Hesket Workhouse, 4 May 1822, aged 99)
[15] Cumbria Archives, PR 75/13, Deeds and papers re: Caldbeck Parish Workhouse, 1779-1936

A Blog post about Clogs

By Peter Collinge
PR10/100/18, Skelton Overseers’ Voucher, An account of Grace Matthews clothes and goods, 2 June 1785

Clogs feature in both the Staffordshire and Cumberland vouchers. In 1829 and 1830, for example, the overseer of Uttoxeter Mr Wood paid John Green for the following:

2 Sept  1829 Pair of Clogs 1s 4d John Green Mr Wood
7 Nov  1829 1pr clogs 1s  8d
18 Nov 1829 1pr of clogs ordered by Mr Wood 1s 10
21 Nov  1829 1pr of clogs ordered by Mr Norres 1s 6d
18 Dec 1829 1pr of clogs ordered by Mr Wood 1s 10d
8s 2d
10 Jul 1830 4 pr boys clogs 5s 4d John Green Mr Wood

Clogs were also by the overseers of Darlaston, Staffordshire: in 1818 Thomas Challinor was paid for three pairs.

In Skelton, Cumberland, the inventory of Grace Matthews goods and clothes included one pair of clogs. There is a separate blog entry for Matthews.

In Wigton, Cumberland, Thomas Watman’s 1773 bill refers to the calking of clogs.

Details of two further vouchers from  Wigton (1771) and Skelton 1791 are shown below.

6 Dec 1771 John Barnes
John Little		 Daniel Steel
Daniel Steel		 John Barnes
John Little		 £0-3-8
£0-0-11		 for 3 pairs of clogs
Ironing 3 pairs of clogs
1 Jun 1791 Thomas Mather William Stalker Thomas Mather £4.19.0 Maintenance, repair of clogs & 6 mths house rent

In his State of the Poor Frederick Morton Eden recorded: ‘Some years ago clogs were introduced into the county of Dumfries from Cumberland, and are now very generally used over all that part of the country, in place of coarse and strong shoes. The person who makes them is called a clogger. “All the upper part of the clog, comprehending what is called the upper leather and heel quarters, is of leather, and made after the same manner as those parts of the shoe which go by the same name. The sole is of wood. It is first neatly dressed into a proper form; then, with a knife for the purpose, the inside is dressed off, and hollowed so as to easily receive the foot. Next with a different kind of instrument, a hollow or guttin, is run round the outside of the upper part of the sole, for the reception of the upper leather, which is then nailed with small tacks to the sole and the clog is completed. [The Staffordshire vouchers often contain quantities of ‘tacketts’]. After this they are generally shod, or plated with iron, by a blacksmith. [Calking clogs – adding iron strips or plates to improve their durability – appears on numerous bills for Cumberland]. The price of a pair of men’s clogs (in Dumfrieshire) is about 3s including plating; and, with the size the price diminishes in proportion. A pair of clogs, thus plated, will serve a labouring man one year … at the end of that period, by renewing the sole and plating, they may be repaired so as to serve a year longer… [Many of the Cumberland bills are for making such repairs]. They keep the feet remarkably warm and comfortable, and entirely exclude all damp.”

At Lancaster, Eden noted: ‘Ironed clogs, which are much cheaper, more durable, and more wholesome than shoes, are very generally worn by labouring people’.

The noise clogs made alarmed those unused to it. In August 1797 Henry Kitt recorded: ‘We were annoyed at first by the harsh clatter made by the clogs of the boys playing in the street … We were soon, however, convinced that these wooden shoes, capped with plates of iron, were well adapted to the use of the peasants who inhabit a rough and marshy country’.

Sources

Frederick Morton Eden, The State of the Poor, vols. I & II (1797)

Henry Kitt, Kitt’s Tour to the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmorland, vol. 5 (1797)

Cumbria Record Office, Carlisle

PR10/100/18, Skelton Overseers’ Voucher, An account of Grace Matthews clothes and goods, 2 June 1785

PR36/v/2/49, Wigton Overseers’ Voucher, 6 December 1771

PR V/36/3, Wigton Overseers’ Voucher, Thomas Watman 1773

Staffordshire Record Office

D1149/6/2/3/93, Darlaston Overseers’ Voucher, 19 October 1818

D3891/6/34/9/018, Uttoxeter Overseers’ Voucher, 2 September to 18 December 1829

D3891/6/36/8/12, Uttoxeter Overseers’ Voucher, 10 July 1830

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

By Peter Collinge

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

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