Page created April 2018 - revised from April 2023 and posted as a work in progress January 2024
These Williamsons are not definitely my ancestors, but they had property that later appears to have come to my ancestors so I suspect a link and am investigating (slowly). They lived mainly in the parish of Crosthwaite, Cumberland (and specifically in the Under Skiddaw area in hamlets called Applethwaite and Ormathwaite, and at addresses Grange and New Hall) in the 16th and 17th centuries
This page covers four generations of Williamsons, with the generations numbered using my counting-back system as if they fit onto my ancestry where I suspect they might.
I inherited a family tree for this line, printed in about 1935 by a Cumberland Quaker genealogist called James Gorton Brooker. This tree shows Humphrey in generation 11, and his younger brothers as the sons of John Williamson of New Hall in generation 12. It then shows generation 12 John of New Hall as the son of John of New Hall in generation 13.
2023 revision: I had once noted that gen 12 John and Winifred of Ormathwaite, baptising daughters at the end of the 1500s, might be the same as gen 12 John and Winifred of New Hall, baptising sons at the start of the 1600s, but was overlooking this note and leaving my main tree as given by Brooker. Recently, another researcher, David Hancock, also with a connection to Williamsons of this parish, told me he had identified this as one family with a change of residence, which seemed obviously more likely once he set them out together in one sequence. Credit is also due to David for highlighting that New Hall could go to Anthony's heirs under the terms of a will, and predicting that the John born in generation 12 at New Hall would turn out to have died without heirs. I found a matching burial record at exactly the predicted time and place, and am therefore revising this page to connect Humphrey with his older sisters and correct grandfather, Anthony. The current version is a bit of a holding publication while I get some obvious additional research done.
**Note to self: Need to create pages in the WilliamsonC folder for Anthony1565 and his son John1565. Then edit the existing individual pages to reflect my new understanding**
14. Humphrey (died 1577/78) of Applethwaite, Under Skiddaw in the parish of Crosthwaite, Cumberland.
Brief story below - more on his own page.
13. Anthony and Elizabeth of Ormathwaite, Under Skiddaw, later 17th century. Elizabeth was originally also a WILLIAMSON
***Brief story below - more on their own page
12. John (born 1565) and Winifred of Applethwaite and later New Hall, married 1588. Winifred had been a RADCLIFFE, also of Applethwaite
***Brief story below - more on their own page
11a. Humphrey (born 1602) and Dorothy (died mid 1630s), married 1620. Dorothy was previously a TICKELL of Thornthwaite.
Brief story below - more on their own page
11b. Humphrey (born 1602) and Bridget, married 1636. Bridget was previously a SOWERBY of Millbeck.
Brief story below - more on their own page
13. John (died 1578) and Jane of New Hall, married 1567. Jane was born a SANDS of St Bees parish and after John's death married a LANCASTER of Dacre.
Brief story below - more on their own page
12. John (born New Hall 1575, buried Dacre 1600)
Brief story below - more on his own page
13. Nicholas (died 1588) and Margaret of Applethwaite, married perhaps early 1580s and not in Crosthwaite.
Brief story below - more on their own page
12. John (died 1609) and Alice, married probably 1602, in which case Alice was previously a RADCLIFFE.
Brief story below - more on their own page
WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite and New Hall research notes
index of surnames
Humphrey WILLIAMSON of New Hall and Applethwaite lived in the 16th century; I do not know exactly when he was born but he died a grandfather in 1578. Applethwaite is a hamlet in the Under Skiddaw area. This is north of the town of Keswick and on the southern slopes of the mountain called Skiddaw. Historically, it was a township of the parish of Crosthwaite in Cumberland.
Humphrey was fairly wealthy as country folk went: when he died the inventory of his goods came to a value of 160 pounds - David Hancock suggests that for most yeomen (owner-operators of agricultural land) the figure was more usually 20 to 50 pounds.
I do not so far know Humphrey's wife; she is not mentioned in his will so I guess she had died by 1577. Humphrey and his wife (or possibly wives) had several children: at least seven between maybe the later 1530s and 1556, then two more before 1562. The relevant ones for this summary are Anthony, John and Nicholas, all by 1556, but Nicholas perhaps younger than the other two, who I think married in the 1560s.
In 1558 the ranking member of the wider Williamson family in the parish, John WILLIAMSON of New Hall, died. His son and heir, Thomas, moved south and did not live at New Hall long-term. By 1566 Humphrey was living there as a tenant. In later 1565 or earlier 1566, Humphrey's son John bought New Hall from Thomas, but Humphrey was recorded as the occupier and John may not have moved in until 1571. I suspect that Humphrey may have funded the purchase in John's name as a way of giving John his inheritance. Humphrey was later recorded as 'of Applethwaite' so he must have moved out at some point, perhaps when John had a young family.
More on Humphrey's own page.
In the 1560s, John and Anthony (and their sister Mary) married and set up their own households.
Anthony married in 1565. His bride was called Elizabeth WILLIAMSON, so potentially a cousin of some sort, but I don't know her parentage or residence. They married in the parish of Crosthwaite - I think in something of a hurry, as they married on 29 July and baptised their first son John on 9 September, while they were still resident at Anthony's native hamlet Applethwaite. (research note, that although the pure PR admits some doubt, we know this birth must go with Anthony brother to John of New Hall because Anthony's son young John ends up inheriting NH, presumably under the entail in uncle John's will) By 1567 they seem to have set up an independent household at nearby Ormathwaite, where they had a large family (details on their own page).
John married Jane SANDS of St Bees in 1567. Jane had a brother called Robert SANDS and is seems possible that he was an individual mentioned in Cumberland Families and Heraldry (Hudleston and Boumphrey) as the governor of St Bees School and heir to the estates of a 14th-century knights-of-the-shire family SANDES of Rottington. John and Jane lived, at least by 1571, in New Hall, the property John (or Humphrey in John's name) bought in 1565-6. **holding this here until I make a locality page: I think New Hall was on the fringe of Great Crosthwaite village, on the approach to the Under Skiddaw area. I had thought for years it might be another name for Millbeck Hall (which was also Under Skiddaw and also occupied by Williamsons around this period), but I now think not.** John and Jane had children, but the first two they baptised died very young. Full details are on their own page, but we end this section in 1578 with a two-year-old called John plus two sisters, one older and one just a baby.
In 1578 both Humphrey and his son John died, with their wills shaping the residences and fortunes of the WILLIAMSON family and providing a good deal of genealogical information. Humphrey made his will in December 1577, "sick in body and fearing the pang of death". His fear was well-founded, and he was buried the following month. His will does not pass much real estate to his sons and so I guess that he may have provided for them during his lifetime, as I suspect he did with John and the purchase of New Hall. But the inventory of his portable goods amounts to over 150 pounds in value: considerably more than a typical yeoman of the time, so David Hancock tells me. I discuss the will in more detail on Humphrey's own page, but here I will note that it is consistent in my view with John and Anthony having been set up with their own places during Humphrey's lifetime, and Nicholas taking over Humphrey's yeoman property at Applethwaite.
John, Humphrey's son, made his will at the beginning of June 1578 when he was also ill, and was buried within a fortnight. His only surviving son was also John, aged just 2. John's will settled landed property and rental rights on little John, and (very fortunately for genealogy) makes provision for what should happen to it if he does not go on to produce lawful male heirs in his turn. There are several provisions for different bits of property but the relevant point for this story is that the Crosthwaite property (which I think includes New Hall) would go to Anthony or his male heirs. Anthony's male heir was also called John, now aged 12 with an expanding family of younger siblings.
Fifteen months after John of New Hall's death, his widow Jane married John LANCASTER of Dacre (a village several miles east of Crosthwaite, towards Penrith). I think she relocated to Dacre where the LANCASTERs were also part of the local elite, taking the children with her. I don't think there is evidence in baptisms, marriages or burials of another family residing at New Hall for the rest of the century; I remember seeing a burial of someone residing there and described as a servant, but I can't find the reference just now.
Another son of Humphrey of Applethwaite, Nicholas married Margaret FISHER of Grange; there was a Grange at the other end of Derwent Water, which may be the one referred to. As a family they seem to have switched between the two residences several times. They had a son, John, in 1583, then two other children who seem to have died very young. More on their own page.
Nicholas made his will in December 1587 and died in February 1587 (Old Style, 1588 New Style). Margaret evidently survived Nicholas, and the will provided for her to look after John but, if she were to marry and not keep him, for Nicholas' brother Anthony and two other men to have his care and education. Margaret does seem to have remarried, to a George Radcliffe FOSTER - the records don't show exactly where John grew up but his own later will doesn't suggest he's on bad terms with his step father.
Later in 1588, John Williamson of Ormathwaite (the son of Anthony) married Winifred Radcliffe of Applethwaite. I think this may have been the first marriage between the Williamson and Radcliffe families (RN - go through the PR and see if I can identify Winifred's baptism, parentage, any connections between the Radcliffes here and generally figure out more about the family). The senior line of the Radcliffes were I think greater gentry who would become ennobled in the 1600s, but it isn't clear how closely connected to them Winifred was (I do think it is likely she was connected somehow since the Radcliffe history suggests they were newcomers to the area the previous century, when one married the heiress to the Derwentwater family - therefore any Radcliffes in the parish were likely to be descendants of that union or at least connections who moved there because of it). John and Winifred lived at Applethwaite for the rest of the 1500s and had I think five or six daughters. He was at one point described as 'bailiff', which I think at this date was a court official and probably in this case the local manorial court, but potentially the hundred or shire court. There's more information on their own page.
This is a placeholder for any additional information I can find from the Dacre parish register. I'll be looking for information about the LANCASTER family of Dacre, step-family to John WILLIAMSON born 1575 New Hall, son of John of New Hall. I'll also be looking for any clues to John's life in Dacre, which might include a marriage or children, since he lived there until his mid-20s. However, what I do already know from the Dacre parish register is that John WILLIAMSON of Dacre Castle was buried in 1600 (so having died aged about 25). And what happened next (see below) tells us that he died without a surviving male heir, because his property in Crosthwaite, including New Hall, went to his uncle Anthony - or rather to Anthony's male heir, John Williamson of Applethwaite, the late John of Dacre Castle's first cousin.
So John, Winifred and their daughters (of whom two or three may have died young already, but I think at least three seem to have been living at this point) moved from Applethwaite to their unexpectedly inherited property New Hall. While resident at New Hall in the 1600s they had four sons, of whom the eldest was Humphrey, baptised in 1601. Again, more information about this part of their family on their own page.
The third of these cousins all called John WILLIAMSON, John son of Nicholas, married an Alice, possibly Alice RADCLIFFE in Crosthwaite in 1602. They seem to have lived at Applethwaite and had two sons who both died in infancy, and a surviving son (Simon) and daughter. But John died in 1609/10 with his surviving children still very young. In his will he left provision for what should happen if Simon died without issue, naming in turn the surviving sons of John Williamson of New Hall as his next heirs. Alice also outlived John and may have remarried, possibly twice. More on their own page.
The Brooker tree says that John of New Hall also died in 1610, but since it is demonstrably fallible around here, and his namesake John of Applethwaite died that year (New Style) I'm reserving judgement on this. I need to go through the parish registers a bit further and see which John WILLIAMSONs were buried when.
**place-holder: I could do a little demolition of the Brooker tree here, which merges the parentage and siblings of John son of John with the sons of John son of Anthony and the death of John son of Nicholas. Maybe in a separate page.**
John of New Hall's eldest son Humphrey married Dorothy TICKELL, of Thornthwaite (most likely the Thornthwaite hamlet across the valley from Great Crosthwaite and Under Skiddaw, though it's a common placename in Cumberland) in 1620, when he was only about 18. They baptised five sons etween 1623 and 1633, including a Jonathan, second son in 1625, who I strongly suspect to be the Jonathan of Tallentire in the parish of Bridekirk, who heads my main WILLIAMSON 1 line page and whose descendants had property they called New Hall in Crosthwaite.
Dorothy seems to have died in the mid 1630s, because there's a bit of a gap in the baptisms and Humphrey remarried in 1636, to Bridget SOWERBY, of Millbeck (presumably the one under Skiddaw, though again there are many more in Cumberland). They had two more children, later in the 1630s. More on their own page.
If you are interested in this line I'll be very pleased indeed to hear from you. Email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider.
WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite and New Hall research notes
index of surnames