My DNA and that of my relatives never ceases to amaze me.  Although I have very few matches at 4th cousin or closer, (not surprising given how few immediate relatives I actually have), smaller matches that originate deep in my family's past are now providing proof of links to ancestors many generations ago.  Most of these matches are living overseas, which reinforces my theory that the sense of 'identity' is heightened by separation.  A type of 'displacement' has occurred that heightens the sense of ancestral belonging which is the driving force behind why more people than ever are testing their DNA. 

Many just want to test their 'admixture' or, as Ancestry calls it 'ethnicity', which represents the ancient migratory paths taken by our ancestors.  Others are keen to use 'cousin matching' to reconnect with lost family members.  Whatever your motives are for testing, do take some time to consider the potential downsides and the emotional upset it may cause before you 'spit'.  A while ago, Margaret Ross contacted me for a little help which did lead to a revelation which could potentially have caused a great deal of family upset.  I suggested she write about her experience so that others may be forewarned.  She very kindly agreed.  I hope you all enjoy the read.

​Susie

Like many people, I got into researching my family’s history after the death of my parents, picking up where my father had left off from his forays into the public library. My interest was especially stimulated by his story about a tree he had drawn up with his paternal great-aunts which his mother destroyed on sight. I doubt if he knew, that not only did one of her husband’s aunts have an illegitimate son, but so also did at least two of her own aunts. Such things were never spoken of ninety years ago. My mother, who died nearly 20 years ago, would most likely have cut contact with her one and only first cousin had she known that she was illegitimate. Luckily, times have changed.

As my research got under way, I became more interested in locating the diaspora than going straight up my direct lines. In the nineteenth century numerous siblings of my ancestors (mostly agricultural labourers or mariners) emigrated from the British Isles to make new, and hopefully better lives for themselves and their descendants. Others went overseas with the military or colonial service. It has been fascinating to discover how they succeeded, where their thousands of descendants live, and to have contact with far-flung family members.

Four years ago, I was given an Ancestry DNA test to help me dig deeper into my family history. I put a note on my Ancestry Member’s page to say I’d tested, including details of my GEDmatch number. I gave my closest cousins kits to help identify where my matches fitted into our tree. But there were several lines where I had to try to persuade newly-discovered, overseas cousins to take the test. As far as I was aware, this was unsuccessful.

Last month I discovered a new tree on Ancestry which had incomplete details of some of my ancestors. I left a note for the tree owner, not expecting any response. Luckily, he replied immediately, saying that he had looked at my member’s page, and was surprised that we did not show as DNA matches, because we were third cousins (3C) sharing great-great-grandparents. Nor did I match a kit he managed for my second cousin once removed (2C1R) in the same line.

Alarm bells began to ring in my head. This is one of the largest group of relations in my tree, a group which is very proud of – and partly identifies with – our shared Celtic heritage. It was one where I’d been trying to persuade cousins to test on Ancestry. I gave my new contact the names of DNA-confirmed cousins of mine in this line and a link to Blaine Bettinger’s Shared cM tool. There were too many relevant cousins in his DNA matches to list: he opened his matches to me so I could check for myself.

Instantly, I could see that I had succeeded in persuading cousins to do DNA testing with Ancestry! At least 50 of his matches were on my own paper tree at 3C2R or closer. But neither I nor my own confirmed cousins on that side matched anyone in this family. It was obvious that our shared paper trail was wrong; there was no way we were related.

Neither my new contact nor I could identify at least eight close mutual matches he had with his known cousins in this line. The mutual matches he had with each of these eight invariably included most of the rest of that group. They all had a distinctly different ethnicity from his known cousins.  My assumption was that their trees could lead me to whoever was his great-grandfather if that was not my x2 great-uncle. Given these doubts, I felt the least I could do was try to find the true parentage. I needed to identify someone of the right sex (male) who was travelling through or living in the correct isolated, rural location in the Rockies over a period of at least 15 years.

It would have been inappropriate for me to contact any of this group, and certainly my newly discovered “Not 3C” wouldn’t want to. Only one had a public tree linked to their DNA, with 21 people in it. Another three had unlinked trees with one, five and 25 people. Three had no trees but one had a locked tree of around 450. I noticed that this DNA match was managed by Susie Douglas of Borders Ancestry, a professional genealogist living here in Scotland whose blog we follow in this household. After a lot of soul-searching, I decided to contact Susie in case she was puzzling as much over her matches with my “cousins” as I was over her match to my erstwhile family.

Whilst I was waiting for a reply from Susie, I started building a “quick and dirty” tree for each of these unknown matches. I saw that the two closest, both at 3C level, had the same surname as a further possible 3C whose linked tree revealed the name behind her alias. This suggested to me that the three were siblings, maybe researching their history after one or both parents had died. An Ancestry search on their father’s name brought up a recent result in the Find A Grave Index where hyperlinks enabled me to build back several generations on both sides of their family. I had no idea to which side my “cousin” connected but suspected it was through the paternal line. Another match in this group (unlinked tree) descended from a line with that name spelled differently.

With the help of Google and comparing the two very small unlinked trees, I discovered that two distant matches for my “cousin” were themselves first cousins. I built back their shared ancestral line for several generations, once more with no idea where I should be concentrating. At that stage I could not join up the two first sets of matches.   Although my own search was not relevant to Susie’s research, she very generously worked up a few ancestral lines in a “quick and dirty” tree for this set of matches. She provided me with the surnames of their shared ancestors living in England and New Jersey, America back in the eighteenth century. Luckily for me, one of these names was the maiden name of a paternal great-grandmother of the three sibling 3C matches, suggesting that my “cousin’s” true ancestor was most likely one of her sons or, less likely, a brother.

I needed to study the census returns. The couple lived on the east side of North America and had four sons and two daughters. Based on relationship probability, I discounted the grandfather of the 3C matches, leaving three sons to research. One had died before some of the children had been born, another showed up consistently in all relevant records living in the east. However, the census showed that the second oldest son, a Government official, had moved to the Rockies sometime in the late 1880s. From that time until his death in the 1930s he lived within ten miles of my great-great uncle’s family and would have travelled extensively throughout the whole area as part of his Government duties. He never married.

I have no doubt that this man, not my great-grandmother’s brother, is the ancestor of the large group of people I hoped were my relatives. One of the children was given his mother’s first name. We shall never know which man fathered the only one of the children who was childless, and who had the same name as my great-grandmother’s mother, but they all had my ancestor’s surname.  Their descendants share great pride in the farming and engineering projects the man they believe is their ancestor carried out in the area and he was without doubt a loving and caring, “hands-on” father and grandfather after a divorce, when their mother moved away.

After careful consideration, I told my cousin what I had discovered. He was very disappointed but, given his understanding of DNA testing, not really surprised. Together we have researched deeper into the history of the area at the turn of the twentieth century. There is the possibility that the man fathered other children locally; if he did, then this could further confuse anyone in either family undertaking a detailed analysis of their DNA results.  The surprise is that none of my “not 3C”’s close relations has queried their results yet. His assumption is that finding out about ethnicity and health risks is more important for most of them. And those who do research the family do not go further back than two generations. At present, he is not inclined to share this story with them; he expects that some elderly relatives would be distraught to know the truth.

To end on a more positive note, we have now discovered that my “not 3C” is distantly related to both sides of my husband’s family, certainly through his paternal line and probably through his maternal line as well. He still has Celtic connections!  This account only serves as reminder that DNA testing comes with the following caveats, albeit often tucked away in the small print …

It was with much sadness I learnt of the passing of Robert Bolam on Saturday 30th March 2019, the very day the story of his Bolam ancestors was published online. The following blog is therefore dedicated to his memory, with sincere condolences to his son Malcolm and the rest of the Bolam family.

​Professional family historians are no strangers to being regaled with accounts from folks stating they can trace their ancestry back to Charlemagne.  It is at this point most of glaze us over and immediately lose interest.  Whilst it is true that some undoubtedly do, for the majority, even if a connection does exist proving it is another question entirely!  As many of my regular readers will know one of my ongoing personal projects is the mammoth task of mapping the farming families of Northumberland.  This month’s blog is about one such family that sits on the periphery of my own – the Bolams.   I have been promising our local butcher Malcolm Bolam that I would sketch out a tree showing his connection to this family in an organised and digestible manner, as the prolific ‘bilge’ in online trees is causing complete confusion.  Once again not a single tree is correct!

​The final prompt came whilst looking for something else which turned up the following letter written to George Aynsley-Smith (GAS) from a William James Bolam, a Land Agent living in Ravensdowne, Berwick in 1911.  

​The correspondence formed part of a communication between GAS and historian John Hodgson regarding the ever problematical Grey lineage.  Attached to the letter was a Bolam pedigree claiming descent from the aforementioned Charlemagne of which he states.  ‘I know very little about it [the tree] but if I can assist you then let me know.  My father and Uncle took a great deal of pains about the pedigree and I don’t think it can be far wrong’.  Oh dear – cue eyes skyward!  The outline tree that was attached to the letter doesn’t actually give much information about the Bolam family per se.  

​Rather, it relies on the accuracy of connections within the pedigree of the Grey family of Longhorsley and later of Milfield.  It is highly possible that the Bolam tree was based on the genealogical study into the Grey family published by Edmund Hepple in 1856, taken from the ‘Milfield Manuscripts’.  (Claire Grey has published a copy along with a transcription on her website ‘The Milfield Greys’).  However, as stated by Claire herself ‘The Hepple tree … has Charlemagne 800 at the top of it, and for that reason alone should be treated with a great deal of scepticism …  Attempts at verifying the connection between the Milfield Tree and Hepple's tree have so far proved inconclusive’.  Once again the pursuit of ‘gateway’ ancestors has obliterated a family with its own very interesting history, with links to places that will be very familiar with my local readership.  

The brother of letter writer, Mr William James Bolam was George Bolam – ‘A highly regarded naturalist of the region who published books on the birds of Northumberland and co-founded the Northern Naturalist’s Union’.  His extensive archive, which includes a family tree, (which I have not yet had sight of) is lodged at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle.  This branch of the family can be found in various census returns living in Ravensdowne, Berwick, which was the focus of a study under taken by Berwick Archives and can be freely accessed online.  Their parents were Robert George Bolam and Mary Bolam who were first cousins, both being the grandchildren of John Bolam of Tritlington and Mary Bolam of Throphill, Mitford near Morpeth.  They too may very well have been related but the exact connection, if it does exist, has yet to be established – I suspect the answer lies in the Northumbrian hills around Rothbury, Alwinton and Elsdon.

For the purpose of this particular blog, John and Mary Bolam have been taken as the foundation parents.  Mary was the daughter of Christopher Bolam of Throphill, Mitford, and his wife Jane.  Mary had three known siblings, Elizabeth b. 1758, Christopher b. 1765 d. Feb 1794 (5 months after his father) and Isaac b.1769.   Malcolm Bolam descends from Mary’s brother Isaac and his wife Jane Jobson who remained at Throphill Farm until circa 1824.  By the time their own son Isaac died in 1830 and  daughter Eleanor in 1831, although still living in the Morpeth area they had vacated the farm.  It is the Will of Isaac and Mary’s Bolam’s brother, Christopher, proved in 1796 that holds the key to unravelling the rest of the family.

​Christopher’s sister Mary had married John Bolam at Mitford on 20th May 1788.  The couple’s four eldest children were born whilst the couple farmed at Tritlington (Hebron).  John’s lease expired in 1795 when it would appear that the family moved to Brinkheugh [Brenkheugh] near Brinkburn where two further sons were born.

In 1806 John and Mary along with their ‘five sons and a daughter’ moved to the farm of Low Hedgeley near Powburn where they stayed for 24 years and where Mary died in May 1824.[1]  She was interred at Mitford on 1 June 1824.   In 1830 John and the remaining family moved west to the nearby farms of Fawdon and Clinch which the Bolam family occupied until 1894.  John appears in the 1841 census at Fawdon with two of his unmarried children William Isaac and daughter Ann and where he died on 15th January 1848 aged 88.​

Of their five children, two, Anne and Isaac William did not marry.  Whilst Thomas married Mary Ann Young of Shiel Dykes at Edinburgh in 1853 they had no children, so the main body of Bolam descendants of John Bolam of Tritlington and his wife Mary, including the Bolam family of Alnwick stem from the couple’s remaining three sons, George, John and Christopher.  Christopher Bolam married Isabel Gibson in the mid 1820’s and together they had a large family, many of whom died in infancy as the family’s monumental inscription at Ingram bears witness.

​Christopher is known to have occupied several different farms, including Way to Wooler, Low Trewitt and Ratcheugh, where he can be found in the 1861 census.  (His cousin Isaac Milburn was living at that time in the adjacent Ratcheugh House, but the story of this extraordinary gentleman cannot be given the justice it deserves here.)  There is an interesting reference to a Bolam family at High Trewitt in the 1816 survey of Households possessing Bibles in Rothbury. 

​A search in the press of the day finds a John Bolam listed amongst other bankrupts in 1815, followed by a dispersal sale of farmstock and household goods.  (Note the term fieri facias confirming the sale was to settle unpaid debts)

Exactly where this family of High Trewitt sits in the family equation is undetermined, as it is deemed that the children of John and Mary would have been marginally too young at the time, and the entry mentions two sisters, not one.  However, it has not been totally ruled out and the names would certainly suggest a familial connection.  When combined with the interests at other farms mentioned in the area, this small piece of evidence may prove invaluable in tracing the family back in time.  

​To date the only confirmed descendant of Christopher Bolam and his wife Isabella Gibson to marry and propagate this branch of the tree was their grandchild Ellen or Eleanor, daughter of their son John Christopher.  Christopher died at Ratcheugh and was buried at Ingram in March 1863.[3]

​Christopher’s eldest brother George married Ann Liddell at Rothbury on 16th June 1825.  The couple had 5 known children, 4 of whom survived until adulthood.  Sons John and George and daughters Mary and Ann.

The two brothers would make quite a mark on the agricultural landscape of Northumberland.  The country was in the grip of the Post Napoleonic depression and the Corn Laws introduced in 1815 were having a crippling effect of agriculture.  Farms were frequently changing hands as many farmers unable to make it pay left the industry.  The Diaries of William Brewis of Mitford 1833 – 1850 includes frequent references to farms coming up for rent, and the general plight of the agricultural markets.  However, there are always those who manage to prosper despite adverse conditions, and  in Northumberland John and George Bolam were amongst their number.

​It appears that John focused his attention on farms in and around the Shawdon, Rothbury and Alwinton areas.  In 1861 he can be found visiting his brother George at Low Hedgeley, the second time the family had taken the tenancy.   On 20th January 1865 he married Ellen Thompson, daughter of William Thompson of Little Ryle at Rothbury and in July the following year their daughter Ann was born.  Just weeks later tragedy struck and John was killed in a riding accident.

(Please note Bolam researchers that this John Bolam was NOT the head of the farming family with interests in Alnwick!)
​
In 1866, his brother George was farming at Horton Grange, but as a result of John’s untimely death relinquished the tenancy to concentrate on the family’s interests nearer home.   George, aged 45 married a Catherine Hall in Edinburgh on 1st August 1873.  Together the couple would have three children, George b. 1879, Catherine Annie b. 1882 and Johnina Jane  b. 1885.  In 1881 George was ​living and farming at Alwinton but by 1891 had taken up residence at the family farm of Fawdon.  In 1893 George too met with an accident that would ultimately cause his death.

​However, the full extent of this family’s farming interest becomes even clearer in an obituary that appeared in the press preceding the dispersal sale of his various interests and makes impressive reading, particularly in light of the prevailing economic climate in which it was achieved.

​The obituary also provides significant proof of George's lineage, which on its own should prompt the re-evaluation of the majority of online family trees.  It also highlights that at the time of his death the only member of the family still to be farming was John Bolam at Bilton.  This is NOT his brother, but his cousin, the son of his uncle John Bolam and his wife Mary Proctor who was born at Wooler in 1825.  It is he who was the renowned farmer, seedsman and miller of Alnwick, and whose family established the shop on the cobbles in Alnwick, which many local readers will remember.

​As for the writer of the letter in 1911 William James Bolam - he was the nephew of John Bolam of Bilton.  He was the son of Robert George Bolam who married his first cousin Mary Bolam.  Mary was the daughter of George Bolam and Ann Liddell, and one of the sisters of the eminent farming brothers featured in the press cuttings above, thus also connecting this branch of the Bolam family to the Greys.  

Whilst this family may not be the easiest to accurately follow through the records, it is certainly not the most challenging.  The skeleton facts behind this blog were pulled together in less that 48 hours.  It is just a combination of applying the correct research techniques, knowing where to look and the application of a modicum of common sense.  If you find yourself struggling or bogged down by what appears to be conflicting evidence or facts, I would urge you to seek professional advice, rather than place information that has been ‘made to fit’ in the public domain where it can be copied all too easily.

Although the extent of farming activities of the Bolam family was undoubtedly exceptional, they do provide a fascinating indication of the mobility of farming families of Northumberland in the early 19th century.  They also illustrate how these successful families adapted to challenging economic conditions and changed their farming practice to meet demand and command higher market prices.  The Bolam family has many more familial connections not covered here, but the door has been opened to establish their earlier origins.  For now at least, I hope I have managed to steer researchers of this family in the right direction and provide a solid foundation on which to build.  Malcolm Bolam and his family will now be able to indulge in a spot of #AncestralTourism and enjoy a day out visiting the numerous places associated with his extended family, both those featured in this brief outline and others who have even more fascinating stories to tell!

[1] Obituary of George Bolam 1893;  Freereg
​ https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/5c9f66b5f4040b7459219d64?locale=en
[2] Rothbury Bible census https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/NBL/Rothbury/Rothbury1816
[3] Bishops Transcripts for Ingram ​

​Just because something is written in history books does not mean it is correct. It should be noted that this is an observation and not a criticism!   Many historians and genealogists have done excellent work in laying the foundations for understanding our families past on which we can build.  However, as the authors were or are only human they, like us, can only draw conclusions based on the information they have before them, or the sources they chose to consult.  The same applies for some of the pedigrees these histories contain.   For many researchers they are the first port of call for information, particularly in the pre-census and statutory period.  For those trying to piece together earlier generations where non-conformists baptisms and marriage information does not appear in parish registers and is in short supply, these printed pedigrees provide an easy ‘one stop shop’ of seemingly credible information.  However, they remain secondary sources.  They are not always as reliable as their reputation would suggest which is perfectly illustrated by the case in question.  It relates to three branches of the Carnaby family of Northumberland, some of whom were known to be ‘recusants’ or adherents to the Roman Catholic faith.  

The Carnaby Pedigree which appears on pages 19 – 21 in ‘A history of Northumberland’ Volume 4, published in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1893 is irrefutably incorrect in several details. Most importantly, it is missing a whole generation preceding the marriage of Ralph Carnaby to Ann Dobson at Longhorsley in 1719.  Resulting hypotheses drawn from this pedigree are therefore questionable, and researchers of this family are missing a group of descendants that may just provide the link they are seeking.
​
Below is an outline of the Pedigree as published, supposedly linking the Carnaby families of Hexham to those of Great Tosson and Todburn:

​The Northumberland History is not alone in making this fundamental error either.  Dr Annie Forster whose extensive research into the catholic families of Northumberland in the 1960s, has also failed to spot the missing generation.  It is somewhat incredulous that such eminent historians should have either missed the Will of Ralph Carnaby of Todburn dated 25th April 1702, along with annexed inventory and bond, or have chosen to ignore it.  Researchers then as now appear to be pre-occupied in establishing links with titled or landowning classes, in this case the armorial family of Carnaby of Halton.  By doing so they are missing out on vital information regarding their own family and its place in history.

When Ralph Carnaby’s Will and administration of 1702 is taken into account a very different picture of familial relationships to that recorded in Vol IV emerges.  It reads:

In the name of God amen first I commend
My soule to Almighty god and body to be bu-
ried in Rodbury [Rothbury] Churchyard and I dispose
goods as followeth
 
I give to Ralph Carnaby son to Francis Car-
naby what house and lands I have in Rod-
bury at the tutoring of his father till he
come to years
 
I give to my daughter Cissely Pringle at
the end of the leas of Todburn five yeows
and lambs for her legacy
 
I give to my daughter Jane hardy at the
end of the said lease one why stirk[1]
or thirty shilings of money for her legacy
 
I give to Ralph Pott one yeowe and a lamb
at the same time for his Legesy
 
I give to Jane Pott one why or forty of
money whether the executors hath a mind
to give her for her legacy
 
I give to Ane Carnaby wife to franke Carnaby
one yeow and a lambe at the same time
for her legacy
 
I give to franke Carnaby and Raiph Young
what husband worke geare is at the end
of this time to be equally divided be-
tween them
 
I leave Raiph Younge the farme
which I nowe injoy with what
Stocke theire is paying my debts
and Legacys afore mencioned and
to be my soll executor
 
This is my last will and Testament
being in perfect memory
his mark and sealle
Witnes our hands
 
Robert Errington
Francis Carnaby
Edward C Errington[2]

​The inventory taken shortly after his death (below) is typical of a yeoman farmer of the day with the majority of his moveable wealth being on the hoof rather than in the hand.  What is most unusual, however, is the first entry.  Whilst it is commonplace to list a horse and apparel, to make the point of itemising a sword is not! 

The appended bond dated June 1702 clarifies the relationship between the testator and Ralph Young:

The Northumberland History claims a relationship existed between the Carnaby family of Hexham and those of Great Tosson and Todburn, citing the Will of Roger Carnaby in 1713 as proof of the familial link.  Whilst this Will undoubtedly proves the link between the families of Hexham and Great Tosson, I am struggling to see how and where it verifies a link to the family of Todburn.

​Roger’s Will of 1713 tells us that:

• His wife at the time of his death was called Mary
• He was owed money from a Francis Carnaby and Richard Carnaby both of Hexham by bond
• He had a mortgage on a house at Green Harbour Court, London.
• His nephew was William Carnaby of Tosson who had a wife named Barbara.
• He had a niece called Isabella by his brother John
• He had a sister called Mary who benefitted from money owed to him by a John Carnaby, plumber in Carlisle which on her death would benefit John’s children.[3]  (Was this plumber another relation?)
• He had a niece called Mary (no father named) and a niece called Jane the daughter of his brother Richard.
• He had a sister in law called Frances who was the wife of Thomas Liddell a Glover in Hexham.
• He leaves money to a Thomas Beadland of Haggerston but no relationship is given – possibly a servant as it closely followed by a bequest of '£10 to my black boy Wandoe', his present manservant.
• He was due money upon a South Sea bill.  This was to be paid to his cousin Jane of Hexham, widow, for her children.  He also had a cousin called Elizabeth Lisle, a nephew James Winsellow, (who had a daughter called Mary Winsellow) and a cousin called Barbara Ord a spinster

What it does NOT tell us, NOR confirm, is any relationship between Roger Carnaby of Hexham’s family and the Carnaby family of Todburn.  Nowhere is the mention of any of the Todburn descendants.  The only potential ‘stray’ is his niece Mary Carnaby to whom he bequeaths £20.  This cannot be Mary granddaughter of Ralph Carnaby d. 1702 (as per Vol IV) as;

1. Ralph Carnaby junior did not marry Ann Dobson until 1719 six years after Roger’s death
   
2. The surviving Mary of this union who married Lionel Aynsley was not born until 1735.  

​It is therefore currently believed that the Mary mentioned in Roger's Will must be another daughter of Richard Carnaby of Great Tosson baptised at Rothbury in 1695, (the most likely - a baptism of another child, Richard, at Rothbury in 1700 has also been missed) or his brother John about whom very little is known other than he had a daughter named Isabella.  A familial relationship between the families has not been ruled out but nor, as yet, has it been proved.

Roger’s Will of 1713 also provides evidence of trade connections, possibly with the Carolina’s – was Wondoe his black manservant named for the Wando River in South Carolina - and what exactly is meant by the ‘South Seas’?  Is this a reference to the ‘South Sea Trading Company’ formed in 1711 which became known as the South Sea Bubble before its collapse in 1720?  Certainly the presence of Wando would suggest evidence of Roger’s involvement in the Slave Trade.  A bit of digging in the newspapers within the ‘Burney Collection’ uncovered possible evidence of trade with Virginia.

​Whilst there is no evidence to confirm this is the one and the same Roger Carnaby it is certainly possible, particularly when it is known he also had a house in London.  It is tempting to speculate that Wando was also aboard the shipped that docked in 1703 and was bequeathed £1 for every year of service until Rogers death in 1713, however, without firm evidence, speculation is what it must remain.

The above is just an extract from a much larger piece of research, which at present is set to rival if not exceed the 18,000 words of last years Master's dissertation! I must thank Archivist Sue Wood and Paul Ternent of Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn for their assistance thus far, no doubt I shall be imposing myself upon them again in the not too distant future.  Forewarned is forearmed as they say!  If you are interested in acquiring a copy of this research or indeed would like to contribute to it then please do get in touch.

[1]  A Why or Quey Stirk was a young cow or heifer.  When written in Scots the ‘qu’ is often used in place of a ‘w’.  Origin – Danish.
[2] Members of the Errington family were also recusants and known Jacobite activists.  This particular branch farmed at Old Park, Netherwitton. 
[3] Appointed plumber at St Mary’s in 1687, undertook leadwork on Tullie House, Abbey St in 1689.  Dismissed by St Marys in 1713 for substandard work, reinstated in 1721.  Son in 1717 worked on Carlisle Castle Downpipes.  Father died 4 Oct 1742 aged 87.  His children are mentioned in will of Roger Carnaby of Hexham dated 1713.  Descendants of this Carlisle line married daughters of George Hare and Elizabeth Wright of Ingram.  Is this Hare family related to the Hare family that married James Carnaby, Thomas Brewis and Thomas Collin in late 1700s and also potentially linked to the descendants of Francis Carnaby of Todburn?

​I am really enjoying the Beeb’s latest offering the ‘Victorian House’ which delves into the traditional skills and ethos that formed the basis of the ‘Arts & Crafts Movement’  and puts them into practice in the restoration of traditional Victorian country house.  Think of the colours and patterns of William Morris, the art and vision of John Ruskin and iconic stores in London such as Heal’s and Liberty and the picture will start to emerge.  

​It ran in my mind that a branch of my own family had been involved in the artistic movement of the age, but unsure as to the extent set off to investigate.  What emerged was a family surrounded by artists and artisans who were enmeshed in the social reforms of the late Victorian period to an extent more far-reaching than I had previously realised.  Added to this is an interesting back-story of loss and family that has not only been missed by all other family history researchers to date, but where it appears in online trees their history has also been  inaccurately portrayed.  A typical case of records and dates being made to fit without corroborating the evidence.  It is a sad fact that if there are 14 trees with the same information and one that dares to be different, human nature is (often mistakenly) drawn to the consensus of opinion.  This blog is intended to illustrate how some fairly basic research techniques can help avoid these pitfalls, fill the gaps in knowledge and to share the parts of this family’s story that appear to have been missed or misrepresented.

​The starting point for this research was my 3rd great grand aunt, Mary Ann Eliza Egerton, the third of four children born to 4th great grandfather James Egerton and his wife Alice Spriggins.  In Nov 1840 Mary Ann Eliza married artist Henry George Hine at St Marks, Kennington, Surrey.  Henry George Hine began his career as an illustrator for Punch magazine but became most well known for his landscape paintings of Sussex and Northumberland.  He was the son of Hampshire born William Hine who worked his way up from agricultural labourer to become a Coach Proprietor on the London to Brighton route until his death in 1846.

​Mary Ann Eliza Egerton and her siblings were all christened in London between 1814 and 1826.  Although their parents address, and father’s occupation is different each time, family activity prior to these dates appears to be centred round the ancient church of St Giles, Cripplegate, London.

​Of the 14 online public trees that appear on Ancestry – only 1 has spotted the 4th child!  This is probably due to the age that appears in the transcript attached to her marriage record in 1862 to William Henry Huckwell.  Checking the original document it reads ‘age 21 and upward’.  This along with the phrase ‘of full age’ is fairly typical of marriage records at this time and should not be taken literally.  A simple check of the census records following her marriage confirms her date and place of birth and that her age at marriage was actually 39.

The Egerton children’s father, James, is recorded as a ‘Trimming Maker’ in 1814, a ‘Boot Maker’ in 1815, a ‘Traveller’ in 1817 but by 1823 he was a ‘Coachman’.  By the time of his son James John’s marriage in 1840 his father’s occupation had risen again to that of ‘Coach Proprietor’.  Of the same 14 online trees 8 give no date of death for James and 6 state it to have been in 1829.  This date is wrong – although his demise was still before the advent of Civil Registration, a check of the newspapers graphically describes the tragic circumstances in which his untimely death occurred.

​James was buried in Maidstone, Kent on 13 April 1832.  The above account indicates that in addition to his 4 children James was survived by a wife, although his will, fortuitously written at Maidstone in 1831, makes neither mention nor provision for her.  Instead, James entrusts the administration of his estate ‘whatsoever and wheresoever’ to his elder brother John whom he makes both the ‘sole guardian’ of his children and sole executor of his will.  This would suggest that papers may have been mistaken, and lets face it, it wouldn’t be the first time!  This theory is corroborated by a notice placed by John in the press on 1st May 1832, where he refers to his brother’s children as orphans.

​No death, burial or alternative marriage has been identified for his wife Alice, nor has she been found in subsequent census records.  As such, the outside possibility remains that the couple had become estranged.

​James was also survived by his father James Egerton snr, who contrary to popular opinion did not die in 1810 and was not buried at Little Gaddesdon, Hertfordshire!  17 of 18 online trees contain this incorrect information, with the other, also incorrect as it gives the date as 1828.  James snr, a Cordwainer (or Shoemaker), described as a Gentleman in his Will also written at Maidstone 14th September 1833, actually died in 1834 and is described of Pollard Row, Bethnal Green!  He makes his only surviving son John his sole executor and residual beneficiary after making further bequests of £500 to his daughter Jane Hudson the wife of John Hudson, and £50 to his son in law John Cannee, the husband of his daughter Elizabeth Egerton.   In all James Egerton Snr and Lucretia Wood had seven known children all baptised at St Giles, Cripplegate, and possibly an eighth, Susannah baptised at St Giles in May 1776 indicating that Lucretia Wood may have required ‘a big bouquet’ at her marriage the previous September.  She is believed to have been named for Lucretia’s mother whose surname was possibly Saunders but this is unverified.

​All the children were baptised at St Giles, Cripplegate, to James Egerton and wife Lucretia.  Susannah is the exception in that the father’s name is recorded as John which has subsequently been struck through, but not amended in the original register.  Their father's occupation is consistently given as a Cordwainer – or shoemaker.  Cordwainers were one of the Livery Guilds of London and produced artisan footwear made from soft kid leather from Cordoba in Spain.  The Guild records are housed within the London Metropolitan Archives but have not been consulted as part of this research.  Several children including Jane and Elizabeth mentioned above were married at St Lukes, Old Street, as were their parents, which was built to relieve the church of St Giles, Cripplegate, as the population of London expanded in the eighteenth century.

​Six of their children are known to have survived into adulthood.  Of Susannah there is no further trace and eldest son  Thomas died in infancy and was interred in Spa Fields burying ground Clerkenwell in 1779.  Spa Fields would later became the subject of a particularly unsavoury and rather gruesome scandal.

The ‘Countess of Huntingdon Connexion’, and record set RG4 referenced in Thomas’ burial record may indicate that the family followed at some point at least, the Calvinistic movement within the Methodist Church.  This may in part explain the group baptisms of four of the Egerton children at St Giles in 1798.  It should also alert the researcher to possible non parish baptisms and references to non conformism in the parish registers for earlier branches of this particular Egerton family.
​
James’ older brother John was also a coach proprietor at the time of his brother’s untimely death.  By 1827 he had moved from London to Brighton and was running a coach from the Spread Eagle Inn to Hastings.

​Although he was good to his word and took over his brother’s business, the ‘Reliance’ coach had changed hands by May 1838.

John, then turned his hand to dealing in Corn and keeping Livery Stables from his premises in Waterloo Street, Brighton.  He married twice, and passed away at the grand old age of 90 in 1881. ​

All the children of his brother James Egerton junior’s children, had married before the 1841 census, except for the youngest Elizabeth Caroline, making it difficult to assess the John’s level of involvement in the upbringing of his nephew and nieces.

​However, Elizabeth Caroline can be found in 1841 living with her cousin Elizabeth Amy Egerton, John’s daughter by his first marriage, who in 1839 had married Frederick William Woledge, another artist of the day well known for his depictions of Victorian Brighton.  The Woledges would go on to have 11 children, 10 of whom would survive until adulthood.  (Caution should be exercised over a possible 12th child Eliza E born 1857, who appears on the 1881 census return.  As there is no record of a birth marriage or death for an Eliza E to the correct parentage, and her age is the same as that of Percy, (look at original, not transcript which is wrong), this is believed to be Percy’s twin sister Florence.)

​Although 11 children may be considered a large family even back in the day, it pales into insignificance to her cousin Mary Ann Eliza Egerton, the starting point for this research, who, together with her artist husband Henry George Hine had an eye watering 15 children, 11 of whom survived into adulthood.

​Artistic talent was strong in the Hine family to which the 1988 Christie’s Sale Catalogue bears witness, with a total of 81 lots spanning 42 pages, sadly illustrated internally in Black and White.

In terms of the ‘Arts and Crafts’ movement it was their two youngest daughters Ethel and Maude who were the most influential.  Although the quotation that the sisters came "on the one side from peasant folk and on the other from old aristocracy"[1] which is uncited, leaves me somewhat rubbing my chin as to it’s origin, there can be no doubt that these two women and their husbands were the driving force behind the establishment and running of the ‘Peasant Arts Society’ based in Haslemere, Surrey.  By the time of its inception in 1894-97, Ethel had married artist Godfrey Blount in April 1887, and Maude, Jospeh King, later the same year.  The couples together with King’s cousin Greville MacDonald, shunned mass production instead believed in ‘practising their radical beliefs of creating art for ‘love not money’ and restoring ‘country life, its faith and its craft’.[2]

​A most informative website about the movement, its work and connections to the wider ‘Art & Craft Movement’ can be found at the Peasant Arts Blogspot, together with biographies and obituaries dedicated to members of the Hine family and other prominent persons.  Needless to say the women were also passively active in the Suffragette movement of the day, and amongst other matters were the exponents for comfortable dress for women.  I am eternally grateful to the role by Ethel Blount, my 1st Cousin 4 x removed for the role she played in the removal of the corset as an item of necessity from the female wardrobe!  More can be read on the sisters and indeed the Society’s wider involvement in the Suffragette movement, at Peasant Arts & Suffragettes

​Being a little more serious, none of the sources that I have used to compile the history of this Egerton family and its story requires specialist knowledge or skills.  The records used are readily available online.  The difference between my research and that of others, is that time has been taken to cross reference the facts, and read the ORIGINAL documents rather than relying on the transcripts.  Incorrect information in family trees does in fact have far reaching implications, particularly since the advent, and exponential growth in DNA testing.  This is leading folks to believe that as they DNA match others with the same named ancestors in their trees it proves that connection, when in fact the DNA is sometimes pointing to a relationship which is either further back, or, in a different line entirely.  I myself have 2 DNA matches out of 12 with hints which suggest a connection to individuals that simply cannot be.  This is a problem that I can only see getting worse as more people test and speedily create trees copied from others without verifying the information they contain.

​
[1] Arts & Crafts Network https://www.accn.org.uk/Ethel-Blount-Maude-King/
[2] Peasant Arts http://peasant-arts.blogspot.com/p/introduction.html

​Christmas is a time of year when many of us gather with friends and family and our thoughts often turn to Christmases past and memories of those who are no longer with us.  As the generations pass and living memory fades into oral tradition we family historians turn to researching the lives of our forebears and the times in which they lived in dusty documents, photographs and other more ‘obscure’ sources of information, until we hit that inevitable brick wall.  Of these my particular favourites are diaries as they contain a wealth of contextual information as well as familial information.  Those such as the ‘Six North Country Diaries’ and the Diary of Archie Simpson 1878, which I plan to fully transcribe and annotate are two fantastic examples spanning a broad range of dates.  The latest addition to my collection is ‘The Diaries of William Brewis of Mitford 1833 – 1850’ and for those researching their farming ancestors in Northumberland I would suggest it is essential reading as it covers a period of national and international radical social and political change somewhat resonant of today.

​At what point the knowledge of our heritage fades differs widely – some of us carry unusual names that serve as a reminder.  My own ‘Smith’ family has carried the name Aynsley in the male line since 1866 as a reminder of that aspect of our ancestral legacy, and the name Carnaby in the female line to earlier ancestors of that same Aynsley line dates from 1735.  Clearly, as the names of these families live on they remain an obvious part of our heritage, but it is often to the exclusion of the many others that make up who we are. 

​The diary of William Brewis of Throphill, Mitford 1833 – 1850 stands testimony to how quickly familial connections can be forgotten.  He was born at Throphill in 1778 to parents Thomas Brewis and Margaret Hair [Hare].  Through the marriage of his Mother’s sister Ann to James Carnaby, he became 1st cousin to their offspring.  Following the tragic death of his cousin Barbara’s daughter Barbara Collin Donkin when she struck by lightening on the eve of her wedding in 1837, this line particular branch of the Carnaby’s would die out as non of his other Carnaby cousins left issue.  William noted the event in his dairy entry July 24 – 30th.

Ralph and John Carnaby didn’t marry, and being a prosperous farmer and lawyer respectively, it may not be too uncharitable to speculate that Mr Brewis had his eye on a share of the ‘pot’.  Ralph died at Shawdon Woodhouse on 13th July 1842 and again the event is noted in his diary.

His account would infer that James Carnaby and his mother’s sister married after Ralph had been born, however, this is not the case as they married at Mitford in 1768, some 4 years before Ralph’s birth in 1772.  Although Mr Brewis is a blood cousin through the female (Hair) line he is remiss in failing to remember that Ralph and John Carnaby did in fact have another close Carnaby blood relation, the son of a first cousin, John Aynsley of the Chirm, by the marriage of their aunt Mary Carnaby (sister to James) to Lionel Aynsley.  

​At his death in 1842 Ralph’s estate was valued at circa £9,000 an estimated £988,444.67 as of 2018.  As it happens, the executors of his will John Crea, surgeon in Glanton and Michael Carr of Titlington Mount and all bequests made by Ralph, other than to his brother John appear to have been made to parties with whom there is no known familial connection; Dorothy Crea spinster, an annuity of £80 so long as she remained unmarried; Michael Carr a legacy of £100; the unmarried daughters of William and Barbara Boak (decd) freehold property in Rothbury, (possibly that which was purchased in 1682 from John Gibson), the residue of his estate he left to his brother for his lifetime.  Not an Aynsley or Brewis in sight!

​John Carnaby died at Whittingham 7th February 1849 and it is perhaps the diary entry relating to this and subsequent events which is most telling of all. 

​An entry in Week 22 is even bitterer.

​Ooooh feel the burn!  John Carnaby had in fact been declared bankrupt in 1818 and the sale of his goods and chattels indicates he had enjoyed a good standard of living. 

​Despite bankruptcy John Carnaby left an estate worth circa £12,000 at the time of his death in 1849.  His will does make somewhat complicated reading, as it includes two codicils in favour of the Trotter, Pawson and Smart families as William Brewis suggests.  In the original written shortly after his brother’s death in 1842 he does, however, remember his family with the first two bequests being; Thomas Brewis of Angerton (a nephew of the diarist), a freehold dwelling house in Rothbury and the sum of £500 and John Aynsley of the Chirm, the sum of £500.

​It is from here on that his wishes become somewhat convoluted and complicated;  William Trotter (Dr) the sum of £1000 and Robert Smart of Bishop Wearmouth the sum £1,000; the residue of his estate in equal share and proportion to William Trotter and Robert Smart, subject to the payment of £2,000 to ‘selected’ creditors under his bankruptcy agreement of 1818.  Codicil One adds £300 to relatives of his sister Barbara’s husband Edward and Robert Donkin in satisfaction of a bond.  It is dated soon after the original will in 1842 which in all other respects remained unaltered.

​Codicil Two is dated just a few weeks before his death on 25th January 1849.  In this second codicil he bequeaths to; Adam Pile of Whittingham, Innkeeper £50; Elizabeth Pile his wife £50; Ann Pile spinster £50; Mary Ann Pawson, (nee Trotter sister of Dr Trotter) wife of William Pawson of Shawdon Hall Esq £1,500; Mary Trotter of Morpeth spinster (niece of Dr Trotter) £1,000; Elizabeth Aynsley, Sarah Aynsley (several possibilities but none confirmed) and Ellen Elsdon (niece of Adam Pile, Innkeeper), John Pile and George Pile £10 each;  Mary Ann Pawson and Mary Trotter ‘aforesaid’ all the household furniture and effects from his house at Whittingham. 

​Why John chose to favour the Trotter family to such a great extent over his own flesh and blood is not known – they certainly didn’t need it – Dr Trotter at his own demise in 1857 left an estate valued at around £40,000.  They were, however, a very interesting family.  Dr William Trotter was one of four sons and three daughters born to the Rev Robert Trotter, Presbyterian Minister of Morpeth and his wife Mary Akenhead of Falstone.  William was actively involved in establishing a dispensary for the poor in Morpeth in 1816.  Other than his sister Mary Ann who married William Pawson of Shawdon, sometime High Sheriff of Northumberland, the only one of his siblings to have issue was his brother John Spottiswood Trotter an officer in the East India Company.  It is ‘said’ he married a local lady while stationed in India and where Mary was born circa 1824.  Her parents succumbed to the fever later that year and her father John, along with other military colleagues, is remembered in a monumental inscription in Madras.  An image of the memorial can be seen at the FIBIS website and reads:

​Mary was brought to England where she was raised by her uncle the doctor.  In November 1855 she married Richard Welch Hollon a Drug Merchant and moved to York where her husband became Lord Mayor of the City in 1864.  However, Mary never forgot the people of Morpeth and in 1860 she donated the three clock faces that adorn the steeple of St George’s Church in memory of her uncle Dr Trotter and her grandfather the Reverend Robert. 

​She died at York in 1880 aged 55 and in remembrance of their happy marriage and love for Morpeth her husband Richard established a fund to provide an annuity of £10 and a tonne of coal to 25 Morpeth residents over the age of 60.  In April 1885 a drinking fountain was erected on the site of the old market cross in her memory and to mark her husband’s generosity to the town.

The ‘Hollon Tea’ as it has become known still thrives today.  It is celebrated each year on the 5th November, the anniversary of Mary and Richard’s marriage.  In 2018 over 80 Morpeth residents over the age of 75 enjoyed the ‘Hollon Tea’ and received their traditional cash annuity.  It would be nice to think that these generous and charitable attributes were recognised by John Carnaby when he wrote his will, and that in some small way his legacy, as well that of Mary and Richard Hollon, lives on through the annual ‘Hollon Tea’.  A far cry from the resentment recorded by the diarist at the time of John's death, but rather a lasting legacy indeed.

​Every family has its legends, some prove to be true whilst others turn out to be utter fiction and mine is no exception!  Amongst the family papers is a small book ‘The Diaries of Harriett Newell’ published in 1817.  Inside the cover is a handwritten note ‘Esther Smeaton, Eglinton Castle, December 1817’ and underneath in the hand of her daughter is written ‘Jane Montgomery Marshall, July 2nd 1843’.  Now legend has it that Esther was a relative of the famous engineer John Smeaton of Eddystone Lighthouse fame.  Intrigued and it has to be said somewhat sceptical I decided to investigate.  

John Smeaton of Eddystone fame was born in 1724 at Whitkirk near Leeds in Yorkshire, the only surviving son of William Smeaton, a local attorney, born Kirkgate, Leeds in 1684 and his wife Mary Stones.  John’s biography states his grandfather, who was a watchmaker, moved from York and built the family home of Austhorpe Lodge in 1698.​Esther Smeaton by contrast was born in 1786 at Stichill, Roxburgshire. The extended pedigree and Arms of the Smeaton family of Whitkirk appear on page 60 of the ‘Records of Whitkirk Parish’  and prove the family’s lineage there as early as 1682.  There are no apparent links with Scotland and no apparent familial connection whatsoever.  So just where and when did the family legend originate?

​Esther was the youngest of six children born to parents John Smeaton and Elizabeth Hamilton born at Stichill. 

• Jean b. 1773
• George b. 1775
• Margaret b. 1777
• John b. 1779
• Helen b. 1782
• Esther b. 1786

​From the Stichill and Hume parish baptisms and marriages the Smeaton family have a line which can be traced back here into the mid 17th century too.  However, by the time of the 1841 census no Smeatons can be found in the parish of Stichill, with only a Janet Smeaton and her son William at Coldside Farm in the neighbouring village of Hume in Berwickshire.   The last entry in the registers is dated 1830.  The lack of death records for the parish of Stichell and Hume makes it difficult to eliminate children that may have died in infancy. Here I must thank my friend and colleague Fergus Smith of Old Scottish for looking up the memorial inscriptions at Stichell which have been crucial in unravelling certain members of this family.

​What appears to be Esther’s brother George married a Janet Marshall daughter of George Marshall, a merchant of the Eastend of Hume and his wife Catherine Henderson.  Together George and Janet had at least the following children, born in Hume, Berwickshire but recorded in the Stichell, Parish Registers, in Roxburghshire with which the Church of Hume was joined.

• John b. 16.1.1806
• Catherine b. 1808 died 1819 buried at Stichill with her grandfather.
• Elizabeth (Betty) b.1810
• George b.1814
• William b. 1819 later of Coldside Farm.

​It is to the children of George and Janet that attention must be turned for clues as to the origin of the family legend.  It transpires that George junior was an eminent theologian:

George, or at least the biographer who researched him for Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae, believed the family legend was true.

​So far as can be determined this familial relationship is impossible as the John Smeaton of Eddystone fame had no brothers.  His father William did have a brother John who died at Whitkirk in 1743 but no issue from his marriage is indicated in the family pedigree.  For the familial connection to be true, George’s grandfather would have had to have been the son of John died 1743 above which he is not. He appears to have been born to John Smeaton and Margaret Shiel at Stichill in 1736.

​George’s mother Janet who had been widowed before 1841 died at his home in Mansionhouse Road, Edinburgh in 1866.  George himself passed away in 1889 and is interred with his wife and his three children, including his youngest son Oliphant, in Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh. Oliphant, (full name William Henry Oliphant Smeaton) was a well known ‘Scottish writer, journalist, editor, historian and educator’

​George junior’s sister Elizabeth (Betty) married first a William Henderson of Auchterader at Stichill and Hume in 1830.  She married secondly a George Clark of County Down, possibly in Ireland as it was there that their eldest child, Janet Marshall Clark, was born in 1842.  Her husband George died on 3rd December 1864 at Rostrevor, Killkeel, County Down, following which the family was once more on the move.  This time the destination was New Zealand where youngest daughter Wilhelmina married her cousin Oliphant Smeaton in New Zealand in 1878.  Elizabeth died at Queens Street, Thames New Zealand on 3rd June 1884.  The familial connection was confirmed by her obituary in the newspaper.

​Brother William born 1819 remained at Coldside Farm and appears to have died unmarried at some point after 1861.  The Farm of Coldside was advertised to let in 1862 and William is named as the current tenant, but no death record has been identified for him to date.  Then we come to eldest brother John who also seems to claim the same relationship as his brother George as evidenced by this article that appeared in the Scotsman in 1827.

​Confirmation that this was the correct gentleman came from another reference to the prize

As it happens – possibly inspired by his supposed ‘kinsman’, the John Smeaton in the press also went on to become an engineer of some note. He died in October 1841 and is buried in Kensall Green CemeteryGrace's Guide contains the following entry:
​
John Smeaton (1806-1841), born at Hume, Berwickshire
Civil Engineer to the London Dock Co
1842 John Smeaton of the London Docks, became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers

​In 1844 a case was brought in front of the Court of Chancery between George Smeaton for his brother John and William Marshall likely to have been his uncle.

​In 1827 Esther Smeaton (the original owner of the book) married John Marshall a tenant farmer of nearby Fallside Hill.  In 1828 their only child, a daughter, was baptised Jane Montgomery. Esther died in 1834 and in the 1841 census, Jane aged 13 and her father can be found living at Fallside Hill with a Mary Thomson aged 14 and Helen Cameron aged 30.  

Her father John died in 1842 and Jane went to live with her unmarried paternal aunt Janet Marshall with whom she can be found in Wester Row, Greenlaw in 1851.  She married John Smith of West Chevington at Durham in 1858 and died in 1860.  She is remembered on the family memorial stone in Norham Churchyard.  It is through this marriage the book came to be in our family’s possession.  In 1863 John Smith married again and the rest, as they say, is history.
​
Was the familial association dreamed up by the young Smeaton’s father to inspire them?  We shall never know but the legend has endured to this day.  The reason why Esther was at Eglinton Castle in 1817 remains a mystery and as no records for Smeaton can be found in Ayreshire it will likely remain so.

​It’s not everyday you stumble across the occupation ‘Parliamentary Reporter’ in the 1841 census, let alone one that was born in Berwick upon Tweed.  Intrigued, I set off to retrace his life’s journey.  A memorial of his career written in 1883 described him as ‘A big burly man, possessing a burly mind … he died after a hard working life which he commenced as a journeyman painter at Berwick on Tweed’.

​The earliest record found for George to date is the baptism of his son John Fleming at Holy Trinity Church in Berwick.  At the time he was described as:

​Shortly afterwards the family moved to Salford, Lancashire where daughter Isabella was born in 1836, closely followed by a son Robert Owen Fleming in 1838 and herein lies the clue.

Manchester and Salford displayed vibrant support for Owenism the Salford Social Institution, a large meeting place for the local Owenites, and the first in the country, was opened in the late 1830’s. 

It would have been around this time as the Community Association’s secretary that he wrote and delivered a lecture entitled ‘The Infidelity of the Professed Church or, The Church and Competitive Society Tried By The Bible And Convicted’ at the Salford Social Institution.  By the time of the 1841 census George was firmly entrenched in his journalistic and literary career and living with his family at Alfred Place in Leeds.  By 1842 he had moved to London where his youngest daughter Emily, (another colourful character) was born.

An obituary which appeared shortly after his death in 1878 reflects an interesting, varied and principled life.

​It is interesting to note that whilst he would be ‘missed by a large circle of friends’, no mention is made of a widow or family.  Together with his wife Isabella Gray, the couple had 6 children, 3 boys John, Robert Owen, George Alexander jnr and 3 girls; Isabella, Jane and Emily.  George’s wife Isabella died in London in early 1861 and by 1871 George, a widower and three of his unmarried children had moved to Carlton Terrace in Hastings where this curious notice appears in the press.

​Is it possible his family was bleeding him dry?  Certainly by the time of his death in 1878 in London his estate was valued at under £200 and he had acquired a wife for whom no marriage, or any other record for that matter can be found!

​I suspect his Will may make interesting reading!  Are you related to this extraordinary man or the elusive Anna Maria Lovelace? - if so we would love to hear from you.

​My Watson family ancestors have had me somewhat perplexed, hence to date I have not written of them before.  As a researcher I have witnessed many oddities and irregularities, but I have never had an ancestor rise from the dead before!  Could it be that a simple error of name in a register of deaths has been the brick wall for so many years?

Before now the earliest point of absolute certainty with my Watsons is the marriage after banns of a John Watson to Emma Barber on the 8th January 1870 at St Georges, Camden Hill, in London.  John, aged 26 is recorded as a groom and living in Dorset Cottage, and gives his father’s name as James, occupation Farmer.  Emma, aged 28, of no occupation was living at 7 Stanley Crescent and gave her father’s name as William, a Coachman.   They were both a long way from home with Emma having been born in the December quarter of 1841 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and John in 1844 in Crawfordjohn, Lanarkshire.  That Emma is my 2x great grandmother is beyond doubt as all the DNA testers in this line of my family have inherited a generous dollop of Barber blood with several strong matches to descendants of her siblings.  The same is not the case with the Watsons, with matches to known descendants of John and Emma being way too small for given their relationships casting doubt over John Watson’s paternity of certainly one of her children, that is until now.  A new match has appeared suggesting that John Watson is both my 2x great grandfather and 2x great uncle through a bigamous marriage to Caroline Smith at Cheltenham in 1866.  Even though John is a bit of a slippery fish I don’t believe this to be the case, the match of only 8 cMs is just way too small to be any closer than 3rd cousin. If I had not seen the link to Crawfordjohn a tiny place in Lanarkshire, I would probably have written the match off as an error in the tree.

​Emma, who suffered a similar rollercoaster of fortunes akin to Thackeray’s Becky Sharpe, was clearly not in a position to be living on her own means at 7 Stanley Crescent.  It is possible she followed her brother Oliver to London, where he was studying to become a surgeon at University College and living in lodgings in Camden Town in the 1871 census, or her brother William a Grenadier Guard and a patient in Rochester Row military hospital the same year.  Indeed all the Barber children forged careers and marriages that would appear to have been somewhat above the station for offspring of a Coachman!  Emma appears to have been the Black Sheep.  Following her marriage to John the couple moved to Newcastle and in 1871 can be found at Seaton Burn House, with their first child James born in December 1870.  John is now Coachman to Joseph Snowball and although he and Emma have a further seven children, it is the last we see of him.  In the 1881 census he has been replaced as the Snowball's coachman by a Thomas Robson and Emma is living with her children in a tenement block in Longbenton, a coachman’s wife and married.  Of John there is no sign but he appears to have died in the subsequent inter-census period as by 1891 Emma and her family are living at 22 Gainsborough Grove and she is described as a widow.  John’s death has not been found to date as there are simply too many possibilities.  Emma is last sighted running letting apartments in Cambridge Avenue on her ‘own account’ in Whitley Bay in 1911.  No date or place of death has been found for her either, as it would appear to have taken place outside of Newcastle and district.

John Watson was born on the 24th of July 1844 and baptised at Crawfordjohn to parents James Watson and his wife Janet Martin.  This has now been confirmed through DNA matches to descendants of Janet Martin's siblings, and others from Janet's maternal Ewart line.  I believe that John Watson husband of Caroline Smith was born in Crawfordjohn in March 1845 to parents John Watson and Jane/Jean Newbigging.  The DNA match would indicate that the two Johns may have been related, the question is how.  

In 1851 James and Janet are farming 10 acres at Meadowbank, Crawfordjohn.  Between 1851 and 1861 they had moved to Castle Eden in Durham.  Births of subsequent children proved the mother’s maiden name to be Martin whom James had married in February 1844 when obviously pregnant with John.  In 1861, his father James is described as a Countryman and son John a Coachman.  James and Janet had moved to Cullercoats by 1871 with the last known address for James being Coxlodge, Gosforth in 1891. In the 1851 Scottish census James aged 29 gives his place of birth as Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire but no corresponding baptism can be found for him there for the corresponding period.  However, all the children of a John Watson and Mary Renton of Abington were entered in the Crawfordjohn Parish Register en-masse with dates for births but no date or place of baptism is given.

​This particular family of Watsons had interests in various places in both Lanarkshire, Dumfriesshire and Dalry, Kirkcudbright, so it is highly possible that James was born at Thornhill near Sanquhar in November 1821.  A fact happily supported by the 1841 census for Crawfordjohn which shows James and his mother Mary as not born in the county.  

​This family is easily identifiable due to twin daughters Elizabeth and Lillias.  However, there is no John, the potential father in law of Caroline Smith!  By 1851 John and Mary had moved to Millmark Farm near Kirkcudbright.  Living next door are John and Jean Watson with a John junior born Crawfordjohn in 1845 and siblings Robert and Mary.  This is the family to which I believe my DNA match’s ancestors descend.  The various family entries for John and Mary dominate over a page, but their son James is not present.  Well he wouldn’t be if he was at Meadowbank in Crawfordjohn, right?   Here comes a double ended spanner:

​On the 24th of February 1852 James Watson son of John Watson farmer of Millmark died!

​The family grave in Wandell and Lamington although the name is no longer legible gives his age as 26. There is something all wrong about this record as the potential birth year of 1825/26 is five years out. James, son of John and Mary was born in 1821, yet no other James or John Watson can be found at Millmark in the 1851 census.  Furthermore, the stones which all lie together in Wandell and Lamington Kirk Yard, indicating it is one family, are obviously badly weathered making many of the details unreadable or incorrect.

​1852 was a bad year for the Watsons in addition to the possible record for James above, John and Mary’s son Thomas died too and was interred at Lamington just 5 days later .  Should the Dalry register have read Thomas and not James? Given his birth date of 10 March 1825, Thomas would have been aged 26 at the time of his death, which would agree with the age given on the headstone.

​John and Mary’s brother in law James and nephew William were also interred together at Lamington in June of the same year:

Consumption (Tuberculosis) was sadly rife in this family!  It took Welshy a daughter of James Watson and his wife Welsh (also nee Watson) in 1858 and their remaining sons John and James in 1862 and 1868 respectively.

​At the other end of the spanner, James, son of John Watson and Mary Renton of Milbank seems to have made a remarkable recovery from his fatal infliction as he appears as clear as day in his father’s will which was written in 1864!

​As the will also has a codicil added slightly later if some oversight had occurred it would have been rectified there, but it does not.  As it happens it was Alexander Carmichael Watson who predeceased his father by only a few weeks.  Alexander’s wife Priscilla Bell was a native of Brancepeth in County Durham some 14 miles from Castle Eden, home to John Watson and Janet Martin in 1861.  Alexander and Priscilla had married at Durham in 1862.  Is it possible that they met through his brother James or married sister Lillias who by 1861 was living in Tow Law?  It certainly seems a plausible explanation.  Mary Renton died at Walworth Terrace, Glasgow in 1872.  From the valuation rolls it appears the farm was vacated by 1875 in accordance with John’s last wishes and Priscilla and her boys had returned to her family home in Brancepeth by 1881.  Hoping that David Watson who graduated from Glasgow University as a surgeon in 1863 would hold some further clues, I was frustrated to find he had emigrated to New Zealand in 1870 and his trail has gone cold for now.

​In John Watson’s death record of 1871 his parents are named as James Watson and Elizabeth Barclay, which ties in with the family graves in Wandell and Lamington, the earliest of which belongs to William Watson (1717-1790) and Lillias Simpson (1721 - 1795).  Elizabeth Barclay died in 1835 and husband James Watson in 1843 - he too left a detailed will.  At the time of his death he was residing at Southwood, a farm also associated with William Watson above.  In it he refers to houses and yards in Linton, Peeblesshire (possessed by son John), a house in Thornhill, Dumfriesshire, (possessed by his daughter Alison McCaig) and names his other children as Welshie Watson wife of James Watson of Abington, Lillias Watson wife of Louden Cranstoun in Abington and his youngest son James with whom he is joint tenant of the farms of Castlemain of Crawford and Southwood. Finally, James makes a bequest of £200 to a grandson James Hunter, the son of his deceased daughter Elizabeth.

​So, 1600 words on and the mystery of the connection between the two John Watsons that sparked this blog has still not been determined.  He cannot be descended from James of Castlemain and Southwood as he died unmarried in 1847.  The most likely candidate is John Watson b. 1759 son of William Watson and Lillias Simpson whose name does not appear on the family headstones at Lamington, but as this line has not yet been traced it is still speculative.  Of course it could be that the small amount of DNA shared with my new match may be in another line altogether and the Watson connection is nothing more than a coincidence and a total red herring.  I sense not but you never know …

(As a footnote to the above, subsequent research has proved the families buried together at Lamington are indeed connected. Working on the theory that the Christian name Welsh or Welshie when given to a Watson was likely to be connected with the family above has also born fruit.  It first appeared against a burial in the family plot of a Welsh Wilson Watson d.1785 the son of William Watson and Lillias Simpson.  To date this theory has proved correct, with all lines leading back to this very couple. It last appeared in a 1924 marriage of a Welsh Watson to a daughter of Janet Watson Dallas nee Newbigging!  This line still needs to be resolved, but may yet prove to be the 'missing link' to the DNA match. It is also interesting to note potential Watson links to the  family of Lamington ​members.ozemail.com.au/~msafier/watson/watson_lamington.html but this too will have to wait until another day!) 

​Last month when writing of the Newcastle Hostmen, who also had a strangle hold on coals shipped from Sunderland until the mid 18th century, my mind was drawn back to my own family and their lives on the waters of Wearside.  I touched on their story in a previous post ‘My DNA and the Ancestor that Dropped By’ and the murderous John Greig of Monkwearmouth Shore who danced the hangman’s jig from the Durham gibbet back in 1816 for fatally shooting a woman named Elizabeth Stonehouse.  At the time of his death he left a widow Mary nee Bulmer and six children Grace b. 1808, Eleanor b. 1809, Jane & Mary b. 1813, William b. 1814 and Frances born born just two months before her fathers demise 1816.  At the time of writing the original post a few rudimentary facts had been established in that Mary and her family had remained settled in the area, but little beyond.   Interested to know more about how Mary and her children fared after what must have been a traumatic and potentially stigmatising event I have found the time to do a bit more digging.  In addition, stepping back a generation into the family of Mary Bulmer, John Greig’s wife, has uncovered a few more interesting facts.  Spurred on by DNA matches to descendants of John and Mary Greig's daughter Frances, (43cMs) and two of Mary’s siblings, Frances Bulmer(17.5cMs) & (18cMs) & Richard Bulmer(12cMs) it was also time to find out more about the Bulmer family and their various family connections.  

​Mary was born in 12 August 1786 and baptised at St Peters Monkwearmouth on 29 Jan 1792 she was the eldest daughter and first child of eight children born to Richard Bulmer (a tailor) & Eleanor Johnson of Monkwearmouth Shore.  Brothers William, Robert, and Richard are all described as ‘shipwrights’.  This is not unsurprising as between the years 1846 – 1854 a third of all ships built in the UK were from Wearside, with 76 shipbuilding yards gracing the shores of the River Wear in 1840.

​Mary’s brother George Johnson Bulmer is described as a mariner.  Mary’s sister Jane married William Embleton, formerly a farmer at Boldon, but latterly a Clerk living in Crow Tree Road, Bishopwearmouth.  Sister Frances married a hairdresser by the name of John Collin by whom she had a veritable tribe of at least 10 children.  Sister Eleanor did not marry and indeed she is the key to establishing the various family relationships and a bit of background to the family’s social history.

​Eleanor died in 1852 at her home in Derwent Street, Bishopwearmouth and was the only sibling to have left a detailed will in the pre 1858 period.  The first family member to be mentioned in the will is her niece Grace Dixon nee Greig (widow, daughter of her sister Mary) to whom she bequeaths the freehold interest of a house on the ‘east side of Walton’s Lane otherwise Birds Lane in Sunderland’.  She next leaves to her great niece Jane Eleanor Ranson (granddaughter of her sister Jane Embleton) ‘all the remainder of my silver plate together with my work box and writing desk’ having left her ‘silver cup’ to John Douglas an unmarried ships broker of Sunderland.  We are clearly dealing with a woman who is of some means and apparently literate – why else would she possess a writing desk?  She then mentions her three surviving brothers, William, Richard and George Johnson Bulmer to whom she leaves the sum of £19 19 shillings each.  

​Next to be mentioned is her sister Mary (widow of John Greig) who is described as Mary Elliott.  From this it appears that Mary remarried and there is a possible candidate in John Elliott a shipwright who married a Mary Greig in Monkwearmouth in 1821.  As Mary would have been 35 at the time and very much capable of having further children, this should be born in mind in future research.  Mary was clearly alive at the time Eleanor wrote her will but no Mary Elliott has been identified in either the 1841 or 51 census.  A Mary Elliott died in Society Lane, Monkwearmouth Shore in 1859 aged 73 and although not proven, this is believed to be her.  (It most certainly is not Mary Greig who died 1860 in Sunderland as she was the infant daughter of unknown Greig with a mothers maiden name of Cooke. The Mary Greig who died in 1864 is at least approximately the right age at 78, but as she died in Dock Street she is believed to be the wife of Robert Greig, a baker there born in Perthshire, a potential (but unproven) sister in law to the hanged man).  

​Eleanor made further bequests of £50 each to nieces Elizabeth Carter, (daughter of her sister Jane), Eleanor Brown, (possibly the daughter of her sister Mary as Eleanor daughter of sister Frances was married to a mariner by the name of King, and Eleanor daughter of brother Richard was as yet unmarried) Mary Ann Ranson (daughter of sister Jane) and Mary Collin (daughter of her sister Frances).  Lastly, Eleanor left £5 each to Hannah Scouler, widow of Deptford Sunderland and her daughter Grace Blackett of Deptford, Kent for whom no familial connection has yet been firmly established.  However, from her marriage to William Scouler in 1815 it becomes apparent that Hannah’s maiden name was Greig, and a possible baptism in 1789 would indicate she was a sister to John, of the stray Mackem bullet.

​The strangest bequest, however, was the first.  Eleanor gifted the freehold of her house on the ‘north side of Derwent Street’ to Emma, Elizabeth, and Thomas Paterson children of Emma Paterson (deceased) late of Alnwick, the sister of the late John Coull Carr’.  What on earth was the connection here to warrant leaving the freehold of her house to three apparently unrelated children – and just who was John Coull Carr?  My interest was further piqued by a court document from 1836 that stated ‘Misdemeanour sending a challenge to fight a duel’ with pistols, for which offence he and a Mr Alexander Kirkaldy were sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.  

​It transpired the cause of the challenge amounted to little more than a slanging match between between the two ‘gentlemen’.  In January of that year Mr Carr had been elected a Councillor for Bridge Ward Sunderland, he was a timber merchant in his own right and also acted as a coal agent for the Earl of Durham.  Durham was none other than John Lambton, nicknamed ‘Radical Jack’ who in his capacity as Lord Privy Seal helped draft the Reform Bill of 1832.  Carr’s support for Durham had previously got him in hot water when he accused the Newcastle Journal of slander in 1833.  The case which became known as the ‘Durham Libels’ was caused by a difference in political opinion.

​Further rummaging through wills turned up the testament of the aforesaid ‘gentleman’ who having been declared bankrupt in 1842 died in 1847.  His will was written in February 1845 in which he bequeathed his entire ‘real and personal estate, household furniture, plate, linen outstanding debts money securities and all other personal estate and effects whatsoever and wheresoever’ to ‘Eleanor Bulmer spinster of Bishopwearmouth’ whom he also appointed his sole executor.   He must have experienced a remarkable turn around in fortune as he was in possession of an estate worth £800 at the time of his death.  Was this how Eleanor Bulmer came into her property?    The answer is inconclusive as Mr Carr cannot be traced in association with either of the properties mentioned in her Will.  In the 1851 census Eleanor is described as an ‘Annuitant’ living at No 9 Derwent Street, next door to her niece the widowed Grace Dixon, who is running a lodging house with children Isabel and Joseph. To date Eleanor Bulmer remains a bit of an enigma but she does appear to have been an intelligent and generous woman from her bequests to apparently unrelated persons.  What exactly was her relationship with the infamous Mr Carr?

​If like me you have few Ancestry DNA matches at 4th cousin or closer, tracing potential matches as far back as 4th and 5th great grandparents can be a tricky business.  Firstly there is no guarantee that we will have inherited any DNA from ancestors beyond our 3rd great grandparents and secondly, Ancestry does not show mutual matches beyond 4th cousin.  Here I would recommend transferring your raw DNA into other databases such as My Heritage, Family Tree DNA, and GEDmatch, all of which can be done for free.  Another obstacle is that many folks simply don’t know their ancestry that far back, meaning the potential most recent common ancestor (MRCA) is absent from their tree. Worse still are trees full of incorrect information thus obscuring the family you potentially match with – an all too common problem!  To help overcome this I would recommend you figure out the collateral lines of ancestors and add them into your own tree – if someone speculative is added, attach a note to the individual in question, to remind you how and why you think they might be related as an aide memoire to future research.  Another approach is to work the ancestral lines of DNA matches yourself, a laborious process perhaps, but worth the effort, particularly if you are suspicious where the match occurs.  

As a note to end this month's blog with all the connections to Wearside I can't help but wonder if another enigmatic filly 'The Mackem Bullet' by Society Rock, trained by Brian Ellison is worth a speculative flutter for next year's 1,000 Guineas

For those interested in the industrial history of Sunderland, David Simpson’s of England’s North East has an analysis of the 1851 census and findings make interesting reading, as do many of his other posts on his website http://englandsnortheast.co.uk/sunderland-industries/

Street Maps of Sunderland in 1860 http://www.durham-images.org/public/ms/spin.html
 
Sunderland: A History of the Town, Port, Trade and Commerce
https://archive.org/details/sunderlandahist00pottgoog
Personal recollections written by Taylor Potts of Sunderland in 1892

Looking for Durham Ancestors?  I thoroughly recommend using Durham Records Online as their records contain full transcripts which often yield far more information than other online indexes.  

​Something a bit different for Borders Ancestry readers this month.  As some of you may be aware I am a bit of a Flodden ‘geek’ but far from the military tactics, political backdrop and the auspicious persons that took part in the Battle of 1513, my interest lies more in the logistics of feeding the English army of circa 20,000 men, their followers and the impact on the lives of ordinary local people.  As part of local, rather than family history research the latest rabbit hole I have disappeared down concerns corn and corn production in the early sixteenth century in the area of the English Border with Scotland.  Historians seem to be particularly fond of saying ‘The northern Marches were obviously incapable of meeting a sudden demand for the feeding of 20,000 men’.  Needless to say this ‘incapability’ is often blamed on the Anglo Scottish Wars and the nefarious activities of raiding parties from both sides of the Border.  However, studies to date tend to focus on the macro issues of victualling a peripatetic army during either the period of the Anglo Scottish Wars 1297 – 1603 or the Tudor period from the accession of Henry VII in 1485 rather than the micro level at the time of the Battle.  Whilst these ‘raids’ undoubtedly had a significant impact on the local communities, were there alternative reasons that would restrict corn production in the Border Region in the early sixteenth century, if indeed it was restricted at all?  The type of farming practised, crops grown, topography and climate perhaps?  Furthermore, Flodden took place after a period of relative calm in the Border region following the signing of the ‘Treaty of Ayton’ in 1497 and ‘Treaty of Perpetual Peace’ in 1502.   It was not until Henry VIII declared his intention to invade France that rumblings of disquiet once again threatened ‘international’ relations along the Border in 1512.  Has the ‘historians’ fondness of portraying the North as a barren and inhospitable landscape occupied by lawless barbarous people been somewhat over exaggerated?

The type of forays practised in times of ‘war’ were in the manner of retaliatory Chevauches or ‘short sharp shocks’ which were high localised.  They generally involved the destruction of crops and stores by fire and the leading away of booty in the form of livestock and other household goods.  After isolated incidences of burning (if they did indeed burn standing crops) the land itself would recover quite quickly, indeed, until it was banned in the UK in 1993, the residual corn stubbles were often burned as it ; quickly clears the field and is cheap, kills weeds, kills slugs and other pests and can reduce nitrogen tie-up.

​The full transcription of 24 folios (pages) and analysis of the contents of Richard Gough’s account for corn shipments from Hull to Newcastle and Berwick in 1513 forms the basis of my dissertation and matters arising from it my hypothesis.  To date this document remains the only complete set of accounts identified to date for;

                ​vitayles[1] to be p[ro]vyded northewarde as Whete malt
                beanys & peson[2] taward[es] the vytayling of late
                Thomas Erle of Surrey Tresorer of englande
                grete Capteyn And deputie to owre saide Sov[er]ayn
                lorde & hys hoost in hys warres northwarde A
                ganyst the king of Scott[es] & hys subjett[es]

​Other oddments appear elsewhere which include a payment of £81 to the Mayor of Newcastle (John Brandling) for food ‘spoyled stolen and destroyed’ and a note of debts to Allen Harding of Newcastle and Richard Gough again in 1514.  This indicates the potential commercial interests of the merchants, guilds and the Corporation of Newcastle, which suggests they may have had far more involvement in the supply of corn to Surrey’s army than previously discussed in published works. 

​In search of evidence of an earlier corn trade between Hull and Newcastle, the city’s Chamberlain’s Accounts between 1508 and 1511 which was been transcribed in full by Dr C M Fraser in 1987, copies of which can be bought quite reasonably from the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries.   This has been analysed and the figures for corn imports extracted and entered into a database.  These are the earliest known surviving record of Newcastle’s municipal records and deals with both revenue and expenditure.  Whilst I have to admit that scouring each page line by line over the entire 240 pages of entries has probably been the most tedious part of the research process, the results have been most enlightening.  However, they come with the caveat that as the Chamberlains Accounts record the levies and tolls payable by the captains of all non Newcastle ships they are an indication rather than a measure of trade.  Indeed it was the ‘measurage’ and ‘portage’ at 4 old pence per chalder payable at Newcastle recorded in the Gough accounts of 1513 that helped identify the weight of a Newcastle Chalder (for corn at least) as approximately 4 quarters.   I don’t intend to bore readers with the statistical details of corn imports, which came mainly from the domestic east coasts ports of, unsurprisingly, East Anglia and Lincolnshire and whether or not they support my theory.  Instead it is to the wealth of other information contained in Chamberlains Accounts and their potential value to researchers of the life and times of the people of Newcastle and its hinterland in the early 16th century which is covered here.

​The shipments that appear in accounts are primarily concerned with the export of coal, grindstones together with the odd ‘dicker’ (packs or bundles of ten) hides.  Whenever this occurred the name of an ‘ost’ is recorded in the left margin above the names of the Chamberlains who signed for the receipt of the monies.  The ‘ost’ refers to the Hostman – a group of middle men who enjoyed a monopoly on the sale of coal and grindstones and through whom non ‘free men’ of Newcastle were forced to trade:  

The records are name rich, and amongst their number many will be familiar such as Brandling, Bell, Carr, Ellison, Robson, Ridell, Sanderson, Southern and Thomson.  The Master of the ship and port to which he belonged is also recorded which illustrates the extent and pattern of both domestic and international trade of ships entering Newcastle for coal.  Inbound cargoes from the Netherlands included apples, wine, herrings, potash, soap, tar, pitch with tiles from Antwerp and onions from Amsterdam to name but a few.  From France came nuts, prunes, salt, glass, iron and the occasional loads of corn but the overwhelming incoming cargo and indeed that which dominates the accounts both foreign and domestic is stones!  By far the majority of the ships entered Newcastle either ‘empty’ (carrying goods which attracted no levies and therefore not recorded) in ballast or carrying stones. This potentially highlights the importance of the outbound cargos rather than the import of corn and other goods.

​Although no purpose is ever stated for the incoming stones the prodigious number of entries under expenses paid to the Paviour (John Dun) and Masons (numerous) must surely be significant.  Maintenance of the roads and bridges was clearly a priority.  In the latter entries there are also frequent references to the building of a ‘newhous’.  These expenditure accounts are also name rich with many more lowly labourers, messengers, and city gate keepers – William Smith the keeper at Sandgate, Ralph Smith for keeping Westgate – are also mentioned by name no matter how small the service they rendered.  Women too appear amongst their number, sometimes listed as ‘wife of’ and others such as Dame Hebbron at White Friars, Wilkinson’s wife in the Cloth Market named as keepers of kilns and bakehouse ovens, and Proffett’s wife for ringing the bell in the Big Market. Gutter cleaning, snow clearing, ‘dightyng ramell fro Pylgramstrett pantt’ (clearing rubbish from Pilgrim St pant)  the giving of alms, even to inmates of Newgate Prison, and what appears to be the occasional burial all get a mention.

​The Feast Day of St John the Baptist on 24th June which was celebrated the night before with dancing and copious amounts of wine.  In June 1509 the Guild gave a hoghead of wine (63 imperial gallons) to the town (in 1500 estimated to equate to circa 5,000 inhabitants) at a cost of 20 shillings, which does not include the 3 gallons of wine supplied to the major himself at a cost of a further 2 shillings.  It appears the dancing ‘affor the mair’ was done by ‘schippmen’ or sailors at a reward of 2 shillings – were these perhaps the colourful keel boat men who ferried the coal from the shore to the ships moored in various streches of the river?  There is evidence from the seventeenth century that these ‘Keelers’ were largely comprised of Scots but whether this was the case during the sixteenth century is not known.  

​There is also evidence that St George’s Day was observed when in April 1510 materials and labour was expended on constructing and painting a dragon.  As the accounts span the death of one monarch and therefore the coronation of another it was somewhat odd to find no reflection of this within the accounts, other than the movement of the ‘great guns’ and ‘clearing the hill’ on the 28th April 1509, a week after the death of Henry VII.  Had the guns been taken to a high point such as the Town Moor and fired to let the townsfolk know they had a new monarch?  Another occasion when copious amounts of wine was consumed was recorded on 20th February 1511 to toast the ‘triumph of the prince’.  If this was a celebration of the birth of Henry VIII’s first son Henry, Duke of Cornwall, born on New Year’s day, it was late - if it was to mark his death it was two days early!  

What is also interesting to note, is the language in which the accounts are written.  It is a definite hybrid of Scots and English, typified by the use of the ‘qw’ in place of a ‘wh’ in ‘wheat’ and ‘white’, the Anglo Saxon yogh ƺ in place of a consonant ‘y’ (the letter ‘y’ was also used as an alternative for the vowel ‘i’ at this time) so the surname ‘Young’ appears as ‘ƺong’.  The endings of plural nouns in ‘is’ as in ‘collis’ and ‘dayis’, whereas the English documents favour the single ‘s’ ‘es’ or the equivalent contraction mark, and past tense verbs ending in ‘it’ instead of ‘ed’ e.g. departit instead of ‘departed’ reflect the influence of Latin which is typical of Scot’s documents of this period.  In contrast there is no use of ‘and’, typically a Scots ending of the English form of the present particle ending ‘ing’.

Extract from the original document, courtesy of Tyne and Wear Archives. 
'It[e]m paid to John yest[er] (note the yogh in place of the consonant 'y') ffor iij dayis (note the 'is' ending) d[imi] s[er]vying (note the yng ending where the y is used in place of the vowel 'i') the masons 10d ob (10 old pence halfpenny)'

​The Chamberlains Accounts of such an early period might not be at the top of everyone’s reading list, but for the history and customs of the town at the beginning of the sixteenth century it makes rich pickings and is well worth a read.  As for the other evidence for corn production in Northumberland and North Durham at this time, other records such as manorial records, corn tithe information, rent payments, correspondence (usually complaints) and inventories attached to wills need to be consulted.  However, these can be rather dry when compared to the accounts of the Newcastle Chamberlains.  Examples of some early wills and inventories have been transcribed by the Surtees Society and are available online but be warned the early examples are written in Latin.  In the words from the film ‘Meet Joe Black’ there is nothing ‘as certain as death and taxes’ but these are records where the information I seek can be found. 

Three centuries of English Crop Yields 1211-1491 Crop Yields Database ​