all saints’ church

Cornelius Sadler (1794-1857) of Bristol and Newcastle upon Tyne

/ Paul S. / 2 Comments

I’m currently living and working in the city of Bristol in south west England. With a few notable exceptions, my paternal ancestors are all from the north east, so I was surprised to discover that a four-times great grandparent was born in my adopted city.

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My great-great-great-great grandfather Cornelius Sadler was baptised on Tuesday, 9 December 1794, at Holy Cross church in the parish of Temple, which lay in the part of Bristol south of the River Avon, in the historic county of Somerset. Cornelius’s father was also called Cornelius (a Biblical name which became popular in England from the 16th century onwards, possibly through Dutch influence); his mother was Ann.1

The ruins of Temple Church, Redcliffe, Bristol. 'The Leaning Tower of Bristol', its west tower has leaned 2.7° away from the vertical ever since its initial construction on soft clay in the 15th century. © Copyright Matt Gibson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The ruins of Temple Church, Redcliffe, Bristol. ‘The Leaning Tower of Bristol’, its west tower has leaned 2.7° away from the vertical ever since its initial construction on soft clay in the 15th century. © Copyright Matt Gibson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Temple Church was reduced to a ruin by the Luftwaffe on the night of 24 November 1940, when it took a direct hit from an incendiary bomb during the Bristol Blitz. The parish registers stored within the church were damaged by fire and by the water used to quell the flames, and the church itself was left an empty shell which is now a Grade II* listed monument.

While the original, damaged Temple parish registers (held at Bristol Archives) are not in a fit state for production, luckily the Diocese of Bristol’s transcripts of the records for the years including the baptism of my four-greats grandfather have been microfilmed.

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On 13 March 1815, one Cornelius Sadler married Mary Harper at All Saints’ Church, Newcastle upon Tyne. Cornelius and his bride are both described as “of this parish” (i.e. at the time of their marriage they both lived in the parish of Newcastle All Saints, which included the eastern part of the city of Newcastle as well as the township of Byker on the other side of the Ouseburn Valley).2

Later records confirm that this is ‘my’ Cornelius Sadler, born in south Bristol in 1794. So far I have found no records that might help to explain what had brought him to a city hundreds of miles away from his birthplace, nor any definite further trace of his father, Cornelius Sadler senior, in Bristol* or elsewhere.

(*There is a record of a marriage of a Cornelius Sadler to an Elizabeth Bryant at St Nicholas’ Church, Bristol, in December 1810, but at the moment I have nothing to tell me whether this is a second marriage of Cornelius senior, a very early first marriage for Cornelius junior—he would have been only 16 years old at the time—or that of an unrelated person with the same, surprisingly common, name. More research needed.)3

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Back in the north east, Mary Harper and Cornelius Sadler had seven children:2,4

  1. Mary, baptised 3 December 1815, Newcastle All Saints (N.A.S.)
  2. Isabella, b. 25 July 1818; bapt. 28 January 1821, N.A.S.
  3. James, bapt. 28 January 1821, N.A.S.
  4. Cornelius [III], b. 22 December 1822; bapt. 12 January 1823, N.A.S.
  5. Anne Charlotte, bapt. 21 January 1825, N.A.S.
  6. Tamar, bapt. 18 November 1827, N.A.S. – d. 1836 (aged 8)
  7. Thomas Mark, bapt. 22 September 1833, Aycliffe, County Durham

On their childrens’ baptism records the family are recorded as living in the Ouseburn area of east Newcastle – save their youngest child Thomas Mark Sadler, who was baptised in County Durham while the Sadlers were living in the village of Brafferton.4

Map of Ouseburn, Newcastle. Ordnance Survey six-inch map of Northumberland (sheet XCVII), 1864. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Map of Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Ordnance Survey six-inch map of Northumberland (sheet XCVII), 1864. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland. (The image has been edited and the River Tyne and Ouseburn River coloured blue for clarity.)

By the time of the 1841 census of England, the 47-year-old Cornelius, his wife Mary, and five of their seven children were back in Newcastle and living in Jesmond Vale, further up the Ouseburn Valley. Reflecting their baptism records, only Cornelius and his son (Thomas) Mark are enumerated in this census as not having been born in the county of Northumberland.5 Ten years later, the census return for 1851 confirms that Cornelius’s birthplace was Bristol.6

In both censuses and at all of his children’s baptisms, Cornelius was described as a flax dresser. This job involved separating and preparing the coarse fibres of flax or hemp with a tool called a heckle, so that it could be spun into linen fabric by weavers like my own Stainthorp ancestors. (This is also the origin of the verb ‘to heckle’ meaning for a member of an audience to shout derisory or disruptive comments at the speaker.)

My four-greats grandfather Cornelius Sadler died on 6 March 1857, at or near his home, in Stepney Bank, Newcastle. He was 63 years old.7,8

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My three-greats grandfather was Cornelius’s fourth-eldest child and namesake, Cornelius Sadler [III] (1822-1882). He was a blacksmith, grocer and provision dealer, working out of premises on Lime Street, Ouseburn, for more than thirty years.8–12
This younger Cornelius married Jane Dixon Hall in Newcastle in 1844;13 they had ten children (five boys and five girls) including:

  • A son, Cornelius Sadler [IV] (1848-1909) – he became a blacksmith like his father and was the last to bear the name ‘Cornelius’ in this direct line, though the name crops up again in several collateral lines (i.e. nephews and grand-nephews); there are also separate dynasties of Sadlers in which Cornelius was a popular forename – in Wolverhampton, Sheffield, and Norfolk/Suffolk.
  • Identical twin boys, Mark Harper Sadler and Thomas Leighton Sadler, born 13 May 1855. M. H. Sadler (the elder twin by twenty minutes) was a real ‘local worthy’—serving as a member of the South Shields Board of Guardians, as an Alderman on the South Shields Town Council, as the representative for that town on the North-Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee, and as chairman of the South Shields Institute for the Blind and Blind Persons Act Committee—and a successful local businessman, as was his twin brother. In 1935 the twins celebrated their 80th birthday in South Shields; a family photograph taken on that occasion records a huge gathering of the surviving Sadler siblings along with dozens of children, grandchildren, etc. Mark Harper Sadler also wrote a very comprehensive ‘Chronicle of the Sadler family‘ in 1901, which has been very useful in confirming details of the bewildering number of Sadler cousins…14
  • A daughter, Annie Sadler, who ran a grocer’s shop in her own right before marrying currier Thomas Edward Heslop in 1894.13,15 Their own daughter, Jane Sadler Heslop, was my great grandmother. During WWI she was employed at the Armstrong-Whitworth engineering works in Elswick on the banks of the Tyne, and she was a keen musician, singer and amateur dramatist. Jennie Sadler Heslop married my great grandfather David Gray in Gosforth in 1921.16 She passed away in May 1979, just a couple of months after I was born.17
Sketch family tree of the Sadler family showing four generations named Cornelius.

Sketch family tree of the Sadler family
showing four generations named Cornelius.

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Thanks to Bristol Archives and to the Bristol & Avon Family History Society for their assistance with local records.

Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com).
Version 1.0, updated 9 September 2018.

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References

  1. Temple Church (Bristol, Somerset, England), bishop’s transcripts, microfiche, Bristol Archives.
  2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “England, Durham Diocese Bishop’s Transcripts, 1639-1919”, digital images, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ ; citing Durham University Library.
  3. St Nicholas’ Church (Bristol, Gloucestershire, England), parish registers, microfiche, Bristol Archives.
  4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Parish registers for Aycliffe, 1560-1919”, digital images, FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/ ; citing Durham County Record Office.
  5. “1841 England Census”, digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ ; citing The National Archives, Kew.
  6. “1851 England Census”, digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ ; citing The National Archives, Kew.
  7. England and Wales, “GRO Online Index”, database, General Register Office, https://www.gro.gov.uk/ .
  8. Newcastle Journal, “British Newspapers 1710-1963”, digital images, Findmypast, http://www.findmypast.co.uk/ ; citing British Library.
  9. “1861 England Census”, digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ ; citing The National Archives, Kew.
  10. “1871 England Census”, digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ ; citing The National Archives, Kew.
  11. “1881 England Census”, digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ ; citing The National Archives, Kew.
  12. United Kingdom, “Find a will: Wills and Probate 1858 – 1996”, digital images, GOV.UK, https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#calendar ; citing National Probate Calendar.
  13. “FreeBMD”, digital images, FreeBMD, https://www.freebmd.org.uk/ ; citing General Register Office.
  14. Family artefacts, privately held by Paul Harland Stainthorp, [address for private use], Bristol, England, 2018.
  15. “1891 England Census”, digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ ; citing The National Archives, Kew.
  16. England and Wales, marriage certificate (certified copy), General Register Office, Southport.
  17. England and Wales, death certificate (certified copy), General Register Office, Southport.

The brothers Francis Stainthorp (1803-1882) and John Stainthorp (1810-1858), weavers of Hutton Rudby

/ Paul S. / Leave a comment

Early life

Francis Stainthorp was born on 22nd August 1803 in Hutton Rudby in the old North Riding of Yorkshire. He was named after his father Francis Stainthorp (1765-1822); his mother was Francis’s second wife Hannah née Waring (1768-1836).1,2 The younger Francis was my great-great-great-great grandfather.

He was baptised at the parish church of All Saints on 4th November 1803, when he was two months old.2 His fourteen-month-old sister Hannah was christened on the same day. As well as Hannah, Francis had two older half-sisters, Margaret and Jane, from his father’s first marriage. Then after Hannah and Francis would come Mary and Ann. (Three other siblings died in infancy.)1

Last of all, Francis’s brother John Stainthorp was born in 1810 and baptised on 19th August that year.3 John and Francis both became hand-loom linen weavers like their father before them. At the time of their birth, Hutton Rudby was still dominated by the cottage weaving industry, and the brothers were doubtless among the one hundred and twenty-three weavers enumerated in Hutton in the 1831 census.4

Inheritance

The Hand Loom Weaver by F.W. Jackson

The Hand Loom Weaver by F.W. Jackson (Manchester Art Gallery).
Licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

When their father Francis Stainthorp senior died in 1822, he left a considerable amount of property to his widow and seven children: a house each for his older daughters Jane and Margaret; forty pounds apiece and all his remaining household goods to his other daughters Hannah, Mary and Ann. Francis and John inherited all of their father’s “…farming stock, Implements of Husbandry and stock in Trade…” (i.e. weaving), and no fewer than four additional houses, two acres of land, and an orchard in Hutton Rudby – with all the rents and profits going to their mother Hannah until she died or remarried.5,6

Francis’ and John’s half-sister Margaret died in February 1828 when she was only thirty-six. Francis Stainthorp was appointed as the joint administrator of her estate, along with her full-blood sister Jane.7

(Jane Stainthorp had married John Oates on 17th August 1827 at Rudby. Of the other sisters, Mary married Thomas Raney in 1826, Ann Thomas Robinson in ’27, and Hannah John Furness in ’28.)1,7

Like his father, the property Francis owned entitled him to vote in general elections, even prior to the wider suffrage which would shortly be introduced by the Great Reform Act.8

Marriage of Francis

Francis married Ann Seamer on 16th June 1829 at Rudby.9 He was twenty-five; Ann three years older. Ann was the daughter of William Seamer and Susannah (née Osbourne) and was born in the parish of Ingleby Arncliffe, five miles from Hutton Rudby.10 Francis and Ann Stainthorp had three sons:

  1. William (bapt. 11th April 1830 – died of consumption aged seventeen, 14th February 1848)11,12
  2. Francis (bapt. 4th August 1833 – died of consumption aged seven, 24th May 1840)13,14
  3. Charles (bapt. 27th December 1835)15

Only the youngest, Charles, survived to have children of his own: his brothers both died of ‘consumption’ (i.e. tuberculosis), though William lived long enough to be recorded on his death certificate as a weaver in his own right.12 Around one in four deaths in England in the early 1800s have been attributed to TB.16

Francis’ and John’s mother Hannah also passed away in 1836, aged sixty-eight. She was buried with her husband in the churchyard of Rudby All Saints; there is a headstone.17

In 1840, Francis Stainthorp was one of sixteen Cleveland weavers who added their names to a letter submitted as part of a House of Lords inquiry into the hand-loom weaving industry, confirming that a man could earn, on average, 9s. 6d. a week from weaving, based on a twelve-hour working day.18

Bridge over the River Leven, Hutton Rudby. © Copyright Paul Buckingham

Bridge over the River Leven, Hutton Rudby.
© Copyright Paul Buckingham and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

The censuses

From this point on it is possible to use census records to trace the Stainthorp family in Hutton Rudby. The first ‘modern’ census of UK households was taken on 6th June 1841. Although censuses had been taken every ten years since the passing of the Census Act 1800, these earlier, pre-1841 censuses were anonymous head-counts of residents and occupations and are not generally useful for family historians.

In 1841, Francis would have been thirty-seven years old but appears on the census as thirty-five (adults’ ages were rounded down to the nearest five years). His wife Ann was forty. Their two sons William and Charles were eleven and five respectively – their middle son Francis having died a year previously. Also living with them is John, aged twenty-five (i.e. twenty-nine). Both Francis’ and John’s occupations are recorded as “L[inen] Weaver“, and the whole family are living together at North End, Hutton.19

North End is probably the oldest part of the village of Hutton Rudby, and many of the village’s weavers lived in the cottages around the green.20

Marriage and death of John

John Stainthorp married Mary Bennison on 15th April 1850 at the parish church of St Peter and St Paul in the market town of Stokesley, four miles from Hutton Rudby. Mary, the daughter of Thomas Bennison, was born in the tiny village of Easby, just to the east of Stokesley.21 Mary and John had two sons:

  1. Francis (born 13th January 1851)22
  2. Robert (born 11th November 1852)23

By the 1851 census, Francis and Ann, by now aged forty-eight and fifty-one, were living alone in North End. (Their remaining son Charles was away as a farmer’s servant in nearby Normanby.)24 Brother John aged forty, his wife Mary aged thirty-four and their eleven-week old son Francis were right next door in North End; probably this was a pair of cottages which they had inherited from their father as tenants in common. Again both Francis’ and John’s occupations were recorded as “Hand Loom Weaver Linen“.25

John Stainthorp was just forty-seven years old when he died, on 30th April 1858, of typhoid fever.26 John’s brother Francis reported his death to the Stokesley registrar, and he was buried two days later.1

Map of Hutton Rudby showing North End and South Side/Goldie Hill. Ordnance Survey six-inch map of Yorkshire (sheet 28), 1856. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Map of Hutton Rudby showing North End and Goldie Hill.
Ordnance Survey six-inch map of Yorkshire (sheet 28), 1856.
Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.

Later censuses

By 1861, Ann and Francis had left North End and moved a few hundred yards to South Side on the main street in Hutton, next door to the Primitive Methodist Chapel.27 The widowed Mary was still in North End, raising her eight- and ten-year-old sons on her income as a flax winder and charwoman (“chore-woman”, a jobbing maid or cleaner, and nothing to do with “char” being an Anglo-Indian word for tea!).28,29

Ten years later in the 1871 census, Ann and Francis were still by the Methodists’ Chapel on South Side, in a corner of the village which is still known as Goldie Hill.30 By now Mary in North End was also living alone; she is recorded on the census as a washerwoman.31

The last time they appear together is on the 1881 census. Ann and Francis are still on the main street at Goldie Hill. By now, at the age of seventy-seven, Francis had quit weaving (in fact, by now hand-loom weaving had all but quit Hutton Rudby…) and was recorded on the census as deriving income from his land.32 At sixty-three Mary was still working as a charwoman but by 1881 she had been rejoined in North End by her thirty-year-old son Francis—by now an ironstone miner—and his own wife and daughter.33

Deaths of Francis, Ann and Mary

Francis Stainthorp died on 14th August 1882 of bronchitis and general debility. He was seventy-eight years old.34 His widow Ann née Seamer followed five months later on 5th Feb 1883 aged eighty-two; her death was registered by their young granddaughter Maria.35 They were both buried at Rudby.1

Francis and Ann’s remaining son Charles Stainthorp (1835-1905) married twice and had eleven children. He was a butcher and farmer in Hutton Rudby before he left the North Riding and ended his days as a dairyman in Newcastle upon Tyne. Charles lived an eventful life and will be the subject of a future post. He was my great-great-great grandfather.

By 1891, Mary Stainthorp née Bennison was living with her younger son Robert and his family in Carlin How, near Saltburn on the Yorkshire coast.36 She died in the year 1900 at the age of eighty-two.37

Mary and John’s younger son Robert Stainthorp (1852-1937?) worked as a farm servant as a young man before marrying Mary Ann Dixon in 1881, settling down in Carlin How as a railway platelayer, and having seven children of his own (Tom, Maggie and Henry, plus four who died in childhood).38

Robert’s elder brother Francis Stainthorp (1851-1914) also worked as a farm servant, and later as an ironstone miner and blast-furnace labourer. He married Ann Parks in Skelton-in-Cleveland in June 1873, had two daughters (Annie Elizabeth and Mary Jane), and died in Middlesbrough on 24th February 1914.39

Sketch family tree showing the family of Francis and John Stainthorp in Hutton Rudby.

Sketch family tree showing the family of Francis and John Stainthorp in Hutton Rudby.
Some dates of birth and death are unconfirmed.
Image created using Family Echo software (www.familyecho.com).

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Acknowledgements

This post is thanks to the National Archives, Borthwick Institute for Archives, Lincolnshire public library service, the libraries of Robert Gordon University and the University of Lincoln, the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society, the RootsChat web forum and the ENG-NORTH-YORKS mailing list.

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References

  1. Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society. Handwritten transcriptions from the registers of the parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entries for ‘Stainthorp’ and related spellings. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com).
  2. Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the baptism of Francis Stainthorpe, 4th November 1803.
  3. Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the baptism of John Stainthorpe, 19th August 1810.
  4. Hastings, Robert P. Hutton Rudby: industrial village (c.1700-1900). Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society, 1979.
  5. Exchequer Court of York. The will of Francis Stainthorpe. Probate register 167, folio 621. Deanery of Cleveland, 11th November 1822. York: Borthwick Institute for Archives.
  6. Estate Duty Office. Death duty registers. Archive reference IR 26/932, S-T, folio numbers 1642-1942. Entry for Francis Stainthorpe, 11th November 1822. Kew: The National Archives.
  7. Prerogative Court of York. Admon of Margaret Stainthorpe. Probate register 178. Deanery of Cleveland, July 1828. York: Borthwick Institute for Archives.
  8. The copy of the lists of persons entitled to vote in the election of two Knights of the Shire for the North-Riding of the County of York, in respect of property situate within the several and respective parishes, townships and places, within mentioned, in the Division or Wapentake of Langbaurgh-West… etc. Northallerton: E. Langdale, 1834. Ancestry Library Edition. http://interactive.ancestrylibrary.com/2410/32969_605905_2052-00053/ (accessed 7th November 2014).
  9. Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the marriage of Francis Stainthorpe and Ann Seamer, 16th June 1829.
  10. Parish of Ingleby Arncliffe. Parish register. Entry for the baptism of Ann Seamer, 16th March 1800.
  11. Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the baptism of William Stainthorp, 11th April 1830.
  12. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of death. Entry for William Stainthorp, 14th February 1848. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley 24 399. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=WTid0xIRy7p4MMXBgtkdJg&scan=1 (accessed 15th October 2014).
  13. Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the baptism of Francis Stainthorp, 4th August 1833.
  14. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of death. Entry for Francis Stainthorp, 24th May 1840. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley XXIV 326. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=hFGOb3hYcdX31Axmj%2FMOYA&scan=1 (accessed 15th October 2014).
  15. Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the baptism of Charles Stainthorp, 27th December 1835.
  16. Douglas, Laurelyn. ‘Health and hygiene in the nineteenth century.’ The Victorian Web: literature, history & culture in the age of Victora. 1991. http://www.victorianweb.org/science/health/health10.html (accessed 15th October 2014).
  17. Headstone of Francis Stainthorp, All Saints, Rudby-in-Cleveland. Photograph taken by Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com), 6th April 2014. Find A Grave. http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Stainthorp&GSfn=Francis&GRid=128813340 (accessed 30th April 2014).
  18. Reports from Assistant Hand-loom Weavers Commissioners. The sessional papers of the House of Lords, in the session 1840 (3° & 4° Victoriæ). Vol. XXXVII. Westminster: House of Lords, 1840. Google Books. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9xFcAAAAQAAJ (accessed 4th November 2014).
  19. General Register Office. 1841 census returns. Archive reference HO107, piece 1258, book 9, folio 13, page 18. Entry for North End, Township of Hutton, Rudby in Cleveland.
  20. Barrigan, Alice. A history walk round Hutton Rudby. Hutton Rudby History Society, 1997. North Yorkshire History. http://northyorkshirehistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-history-walk-round-hutton-rudby.html (accessed 14th October 2014).
  21. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of marriage. Entry for John Stainthorp and Mary Bennison, 15th April 1850. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley XXIV 665. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=BLCItMhJYmcTHB2CkO0cUg&scan=1 (accessed 14th November 2014).
  22. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of birth. Entry for Francis Stainthorp, 13th January 1851. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley XXII 559. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=Sktp6nlISW5P5E%2FZW1EjtA&scan=1 (accessed 7th November 2014).
  23. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of birth. Entry for Robert Stainthorpe, 11th November 1852. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley 9d 381. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=Vxj4h4HyZsjKd2eZoTHEfg&scan=1 (accessed 7th November 2014).
  24. General Register Office. 1851 census returns. Archive reference HO107, piece 2375, folio 268, page 27. Entry for Tees Tilery, Normanby, Guisborough.
  25. General Register Office. 1851 census returns. Archive reference HO107, piece 2376, folio 279, pages 15-16. Entry for North End, Hutton.
  26. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of death. Entry for John Stainthorp, 30th April 1858. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley 9d 311. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=dc%2B1re4MDF%2BbZ94BWsEQMQ&scan=1 (accessed 17th November 2014).
  27. General Register Office. 1861 census returns. Archive reference RG9, piece 3659, folio 16, page 10. Entry for South Side, Main Street, Hutton Rudby.
  28. General Register Office. 1861 census returns. Archive reference RG9, piece 3659, folio 23, page 24. Entry for North End, Hutton Rudby.
  29. Oxford English Dictionary. Entry for ‘charwoman, n.’ Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/30845 (accessed 12th December 2014)
  30. General Register Office. 1871 census returns. Archive reference RG10, piece 4861, folio 16, page 9. Entry for Goldie Hill, Hutton.
  31. General Register Office. 1871 census returns. Archive reference RG10, piece 4861, folio 18, page 13. Entry for North End, Hutton.
  32. General Register Office. 1881 census returns. Archive reference RG11, piece 4867, folio 13, page 2. Entry for High Street, Hutton Rudby.
  33. General Register Office. 1881 census returns. Archive reference RG11, piece 4867, folio 26, page 28. Entry for North End, Hutton Rudby.
  34. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of death. Entry for Francis Stainthorpe, 14th August 1882. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley 9d 435. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=R3yuf%2FUe7RBo1B8engtTeQ&scan=1 (accessed 21st October 2014).
  35. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of death. Entry for Ann Stainthorpe, 5th February 1883. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley 9d 453. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=hfX2WwpnTXEC0soyDLQJKg&scan=1 (accessed 21st October 2014).
  36. General Register Office. 1891 census returns. Archive reference RG12, piece 3998, folio 38, page 40. Entry for 4 Railway Cottages, Brotton.
  37. General Register Office. Index to the register of deaths. Entry for Mary Stainthorpe, September Quarter 1900. GRO index reference: Guisbro’ 9d 340. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=TdfMGRsn3QYMD%2FLELT7hVw&scan=1 (accessed 17th November 2014).
  38. General Register Office. 1911 census returns. Census reference RG14PN29163 RG78PN1689 RD534 SD1 ED12 SN291. Entry for 4 Railway Cottages, Carlin How, Brotton.
  39. Ancestry.com. Public Member Trees. Wilkins – Crooks_2011-08-21. Entry for Francis Stainthorpe. Ancestry Library Edition. http://trees.ancestrylibrary.com/tree/43012929/person/12605101672 (accessed 26th November 2014).

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Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). Version 1.1.0, updated 12th December 2014.

Francis Stainthorp (1765-1822), weaver of Hutton Rudby

/ Paul S. / Leave a comment
Thumbnail photo of my children with the grave of their six-greats grandparents

Thumbnail photo of my children with the grave of their six-greats grandparents.
Copyright © Paul Stainthorp, all rights reserved

My great-great-great-great-great grandfather (i.e. five greats) Francis Stainthorp (1765-1822) and five-greats grandmother Hannah née Waring (1768-1836) are buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church, Rudby-in-Cleveland, in the north-east corner of the North Riding of Yorkshire, about nine miles south of Middlesbrough.1

My Stainthorp ancestors lived in the adjoining village of Hutton Rudby from at least the early 1600s until c.1890.2 Our surname derives from the former market town of Staindrop, across the River Tees from Hutton, in County Durham. The placename matches Old Norse steinn + þorp meaning the ‘stony’ settlement or farmstead, or one belonging to a Dane named Steinn,3,4 but is probably a Scandinavianization of an underlying Old English placename stǣner (‘stony’) + hop (‘valley’).5 Staindrop is spelt Stainthorp or -thorpe on some eighteenth-century maps and gazetteers.6,7 The manorial district around the village was anciently known as Staindropshire.8 A Gilbert de Steyndrope, goldsmith and sheriff, was recorded in London in 1346.9

The market town of Stainthorp (Staindrop), in “A Map of the BISHOPRICK of DURHAM North from London” by T. Badeslade and W.H. Toms, 1741.

The market town of Stainthorp (Staindrop), in “A Map of the BISHOPRICK of DURHAM North from London” by T. Badeslade and W.H. Toms, 1742.

The local history society in Hutton Rudby have transcribed the parish records for All Saints:2 despite dozens of Stainthorp burials recorded in Rudby over two centuries, Francis’s is the only one of my ancestor’s graves marked with a headstone.10 The memorial inscription is very well preserved and reads:

The headstone of linen weaver Francis Stainthorp (1765-1822) and his wives Jane née Kendale (1764-1795) and Hannah née Waring (1768-1836). All Saints, Rudby

The headstone of linen weaver Francis Stainthorp (1765-1822) and his wives Jane née Kendale (1764-1795) and Hannah née Waring (1768-1836). All Saints, Rudby. Copyright © Paul Stainthorp, and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License

“Sacred
TO THE MEMORY OF
FRANCIS STAINTHORP,
who died July the 19th, 1822;
Aged 57 Years.
ALSO
JANE his First Wife,
who died June the 17th, 17[95?];
Aged 31 Years.
ALSO OF
HANNAH his Second Wife,
Who died August the 14th, 1836;
Aged 68 Years.”

Francis Stainthorp, the only? son of Robert Stainthorp (d. 1820?) and Margaret née Wilchinson (d. 1771), was baptised at Rudby parish church on 10th March 1765.2 He became a linen weaver – hand-loom weaving at home was the traditional occupation in Hutton, which was at the centre of the Cleveland linen industry, processing Baltic flax brought into the Tees ports.1,11 The village was also notorious for its connections to smuggling:

“Hutton Rudby, Enterpen,
Far more rogues than honest men…”
— traditional rhyme.12

Francis married twice and had a total of ten children.2 Of those ten, three died in early childhood and the parents re-used their forenames for subsequent births. (This seems odd today but was not uncommon in the early nineteenth century.13 I have used Roman numerals I, II and III to distinguish the births below.)

On 23rd May 1786, Francis married Jane Kendale at Rudby All Saints.2,14 They had three children:

  1. John I, died in infancy
  2. Margaret (b. 9th March 1791)
  3. Jane (baptised 9th February 1794)

Francis’s wife Jane died in 1795 aged just 31 and he married Hannah Waring on 14th April 1798.2,15,16 Hannah and Francis had a further seven children:

  1. John II, died in infancy
  2. Hannah (b. 25th August 1802)
  3. Francis (b. 22nd August 1803 – d. 14th August 1882)
  4. Mary (bapt. 24th May 1805)
  5. Ann I, died in infancy
  6. Ann II (bapt. 16th October 1808)
  7. John III (bapt. 19th August 1810 – bur. 2nd May 1858)
Title page of the poll book for Yorkshire, 1807

Title page of the poll book for Yorkshire, 1807. Scan of a work in the public domain

The two boys who survived were my four-greats grandfather Francis (1803-82), and John (1810-58). Both became hand-loom linen weavers like their father.17

In 1807, the 42-year-old Francis Stainthorp’s name and occupation were recorded in the county poll book for that year’s election to the House of Commons of the two county MPs for Yorkshire – the so-called “Knights of the Shire”.18 Francis had the vote, pre-Reform Act, becaue he was a freeholder resident in the liberty of Langbaurgh (the wapentake which included Hutton Rudby). This was no secret ballot: how each man voted was recorded and published. Francis’s candidate—the incumbent anti-slavery MP William Wilberforce—retained his seat.19

As his gravestone inscription records, Francis Stainthorp senior died on 19th July 1822 at the age of 57; he was buried two days later in the churchyard at Rudby All Saints, where his bones presumably still lie.2,10

In his will, written on 21st January 1822, and proved at the Exchequer Court of York later the same year, Francis left a considerable amount of property to his wife, five surviving daughters (Hannah, Mary, Ann, Margaret and Jane) and sons Francis and John. The will mentions several houses in Hutton occupied by tenant weavers, two acres of land, an orchard, “farming stock, Implements of Husbandry, and stock in Trade… Household goods, furniture, plate, linen and china“, and sums of money to be given to each of his children. A copy of the will is held on microfilm at the Borthwick Institute for Archives in York;20 the will is also summarised and the estate valued in the death duty registers held at the National Archives.21

“I give to my said Wife for her own use
absolutely the Cow now in my possession…”
— excerpt from Francis Stainthorp’s will.20

After his death, some of Francis senior’s property in Hutton—consisting of two houses with a garden, orchard, [work]shop & stable—was bought by David Hebbron, a butcher.22 Francis’s elder son, Francis, lived to 78 and was one of the last hand-loom weavers in the village.23 Francis junior and his wife Ann Seamer had three sons of their own in the 1830s,2 though all but the youngest died in childhood.24,25

Section of Francis Stainthorp's will, held in the Borthwick Institute in York

Section of Francis Stainthorp’s will, held in the Borthwick Institute in York

Francis junior’s third son Charles Stainthorp (1835-1905) and grandson William (1862-1924) became butchers, after the industrial revolution brought cheap imported linen to Britain and put paid to cottage hand-loom weaving in north-east Yorkshire. Ironically one of the last uses of Hutton Rudby home-spun linen was to make blue apron material for butchers like Charles and his descendants.26

After a series of family and financial tragedies in the 1870s and ’80s, Charles and William Stainthorp both left the North Riding and moved their families to what would later become the metropolitan area of Tyne and Wear. William’s youngest child: my great-grandfather Henry Harland (Harry) Stainthorp, was born in Sunderland in 1904. He carried on the Stainthorp family butchering business on Tyneside, succeeded by his own eldest son: my grandfather, who ran a butcher’s shop in Whitley Bay until he retired in 1986.

There were no (living) Stainthorps left in Hutton Rudby by the end of the nineteenth century.

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Acknowledgements

I’m grateful to the following people, some of whom do not even know me, but without whose help I would not have been able to write this post :– my late grandad Bill Stainthorp and my grandma Marjorie, Joan Stainthorp, Gill S., Carole A., John and Marianne S., Margaret Brabin, Alice Barrigan (North Yorkshire History), J. E. Stainthorp, the staff of the Lincolnshire public library service, the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York, and several people on the RootsChat family history forum. Thank you.

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References

  1. Page, William (editor). ‘Parishes: Rudby-in-Cleveland.’ In: A history of the county of York, North Riding. Volume 2. London: St. Catherine Press, 1923. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64663 (accessed 14th October 2014).
  2. Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society. Handwritten transcriptions from the registers of the parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entries for ‘Stainthorp’ and related spellings. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com).
  3. Mawer, Allen. The place-names of Northumberland and Durham. Cambridge University Press, 1920. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/cu31924028042996 (accessed 14th October 2014).
  4. Simpson, David. ‘Place-name meanings P to S.’ England’s North East. 2009. http://englandsnortheast.co.uk/PlaceNameMeaningsPtoS.html (accessed 14th October 2014).
  5. Mills, Anthony David. A dictionary of British place-names. Oxford University Press, 2011. Google Books. http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN9780199609086 (accessed 14th October 2014).
  6. Badeslade, Thomas and Toms, William H. ‘A map of the Bishoprick of Durham north from London.’ In: Chorographia Britanniæ: or, a new set of maps of all the counties in England and Wales, etc… 1742.
  7. Camden, William. Britaine, or, a chorographicall description of the most flourishing kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland. London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610. Transcription by Dana F. Sutton, 14th June 2004. A Vision of Britain Through Time. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Camden/27#pn_9 (accessed 14th October 2014).
  8. Dufferwiel, Martin. Durham: over 1,000 years of history and legend. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 2011. Google Books. http://books.google.co.uk/books?vid=ISBN9781780573946 (accessed 14th October 2014).
  9. Sharpe, Reginald R. (editor). Calendar of letter-books preserved among the archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall: letter-book F, 1337-1352. Folios cxxi-cxxx, pages 143-156. London: John Edward Francis, 1904. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=33540 (accessed 14th October 2014).
  10. Headstone of Francis Stainthorp, All Saints, Rudby-in-Cleveland. Photograph taken by Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com), 6th April 2014. Find A Grave. http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Stainthorp&GSfn=Francis&GRid=128813340 (accessed 30th April 2014).
  11. Barrigan, Alice. ‘Linen weaving and the paper mill.’ In: Remarkable, but still true: the story of the Revd R.J. Barlow and Hutton Rudby in the time of cholera. Guisborough: Westgate, 2007. North Yorkshire History. http://northyorkshirehistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/chapter-2-linen-weaving-paper-mill.html (accessed 14th October 2014).
  12. Pierson, Thomas. Roseberry Topping: a poem (originally published 1783): with notes, and also a notice of the author and a memoir of the late Thomas Jennett. Edited by John Walker Ord. Stockton: Jennett & Co., 1847. Google Books. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HbksAQAAMAAJ (accessed 14th October 2014).
  13. Fraser, Susanna. ‘What’s in a necronym?’ In Love and War. 9th June 2011. http://authorsusannafraser.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/whats-in-necronym.html (accessed 14th October 2014).
  14. Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the marriage of Francis Stainthorpe and Jane Kendale, 23rd May 1786.
  15. Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the marriage of Francis Stainthorpe and Hannah Waring, 14th April 1798.
  16. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Transcription from the registers of the parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the marriage of Francis Stainthorpe and Hannah Waring, 14th April 1798. Genealogical Society film number: 918436. FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NKBD-X5W (accessed 14th October 2014).
  17. General Register Office. 1841 census returns. Archive reference HO107, piece 1258, book 9, folio 13, page 18. Entry for North End, Township of Hutton, Rudby in Cleveland.
  18. County of York. The poll, for Knights of the Shire. York: T. Wilson and R. Spence, 1807. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/countyyorkpollf00unkngoog/ (accessed 14th October 2014).
  19. ‘Yorkshire election 1807.’ Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire_election_1807 (accessed 14th October 2014).
  20. Exchequer Court of York. The will of Francis Stainthorpe. Probate register 167, folio 621. Deanery of Cleveland, 11th November 1822. York: Borthwick Institute for Archives.
  21. Estate Duty Office. Death duty registers. Archive reference IR 26/932, S-T, folio numbers 1642-1942. Entry for Francis Stainthorpe, 11th November 1822. Kew: The National Archives.
  22. Barrigan, Alice. ‘People of Hutton Rudby in the C18/19: Southeran to Swallwell.’ North Yorkshire History. 10th June 2013. http://northyorkshirehistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/people-of-hutton-rudby-in-c1819_10.html (accessed 15th October 2014).
  23. General Register Office. 1871 census returns. Archive reference RG10, piece 4861, folio 16, page 9. Entry for Goldie Hill, Hutton Rudby.
  24. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of death. Entry for Francis Stainthorp, 24th May 1840. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley XXIV 326. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=hFGOb3hYcdX31Axmj%2FMOYA&scan=1 (accessed 15th October 2015).
  25. General Register Office. Certified copy of an entry of death. Entry for William Stainthorp, 14th February 1848. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). GRO index reference: Stokesley 24 399. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=WTid0xIRy7p4MMXBgtkdJg&scan=1 (accessed 15th October 2015).
  26. Barrigan, Alice. ‘Epilogue.’ In: Remarkable, but still true: the story of the Revd R.J. Barlow and Hutton Rudby in the time of cholera. Guisborough: Westgate, 2007. North Yorkshire History. http://northyorkshirehistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/chapter-24-epilogue.html (accessed 15th October 2014).

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Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com). Version 1.2.5, updated 19th November 2014.