John (died 1578) and Jane WILLIAMSON of New Hall
New page 17 July 2019
Links:
Immediate ancestors: Humphrey WILLIAMSON and unknown
Immediate descendant: John WILLIAMSON
The Williamson of Crosthwaite story - WILLIAMSON of Crosthwaite research notes
index of surnames
(Apart from the overall shakiness of the Crosthwaite connection). John and Jane are listed as the parents of a son John in the Crosthwaite parish registers, which I have consulted in transcript. The son John and many other relatives are named in the will of John the father (and also that of a cousin). The residence New Hall strongly links the adult John of a generation later with the young son and heir of this John. My inherited family tree, printed by James Gorton Brooker, gives this John, with wife Jane, their son John and other children, and young John's own wife and children, including Humphrey, as our ancestors but it does have some mistakes in it that I have found. So there is a bit of work to nail this link down.
John's father was Humphrey WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite, Under Skiddaw in the parish of Crosthwaite.
I have not yet identified Jane's parents, though she reportedly came from a SANDS family of the large St Bees parish.
John was one of nine children of Humphrey WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite, Under Skiddaw in the parish of Crosthwaite in Cumberland. He seems to have been one of the older children, or at least the more trusted, and was perhaps born in or around the 1540s, judging from his marriage in 1567 and from the fact that the two youngest of his siblings had their education provided for in their father's 1577 will (one entrusted to his care).
In the seventh year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (between November 1565 and November 1566), a John bought a place called New Hall from one Thomas WILLIAMSON, whose grandfather had acquired the manor of Crosthwaite earlier in the century on the dissolution of Fountains Abbey, but who was by this date in Denford, Northmptonshire. The deed [which I need to get a copy or sight of and reference for] states that New Hall was at the time occupied by a tenant: Humphrey Williamson, gentleman--who seems likely to have been this John's father. [research note, check whether there was another such at this time]. Note below evidence that I think Humphrey may have funded or helped fund the purchase and that he may have carried on living at New Hall without John for a few years.
I'm struck by this Williamson-Williamson property rental and then sale, because to me it hints that Thomas WILLIAMSON of Denham, and Humphrey and John WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite-New Hall, may be related. If I could establish how, I could link up with pedigrees in the Heralds' Visitations and extend my ancestry considerably. Maybe even a coat of arms into the bargain.
Jane was from St Bees parish, which is a large one, but even the closest part (Ennerdale) is quite a few miles from Applethwaite. I have not investigated her parentage, but her surname was SANDS, which if I remember correctly also occurs in Crosthwaite. Possibly the two met through a family connection? John mentions Jane's brother Robert, and a Mabel who may have been her sister, in his will, so he was perhaps close to some of his in-laws.
John and Jane married in Crosthwaite (not the bride's parish, slightly unusually) on 29 April 1567. John was described as 'of Crosthwaite' at their marriage--in the Crosthwaite parish register, I think 'of Crosthwaite' means that a person lived in the village itself, near the parish church, rather than one of the many outlying hamlets and farms. The baptism (1569) and burial (August 1570) of their first child John also described them as 'of Crosthwaite'. From the baptism and burial of Katherine (July 1571) they are described as 'of New Hall'. Now, I think New Hall was on the edge of Great Crosthwaite village (see below) so it could be that these are just different ways of describing the same residence, or it could be that they moved. One possible scanario I surmise that after buying New Hall about 1566 they left it in Humphrey's occupation (and that of John's younger siblings and possibly other household members), and lodged in the village in the interim. Although, there's one event in the PR in the next generation that describes the family residence as "the Newhall in Crosthwaite", so it may be possible that they moved in at New Hall straight away and it is just decribed with more or less precision in different entries.
I perhaps ought to make New Hall a location page of its own, but for now I will note that my best evidence for its location is in William Green's Guide to the Lakes, 1819, volume 2 page 453, which seems to suggest that New Hall lay after Monk Hall (now I think the site of the Mary Hewetson Hospital) and Great Crosthwaite village as you left Keswick on the Bassenthwaite road (modern A5271-A591), but before the first turnoff to Ormathwaite. So perhaps about where the old railway line or the A66 roundabout now is. I think this would be consistent with the parish register entry that gives their address as 'Newhall in Crosthwaite'. I have also seen reference to a document (of 1810) describing it as Under Skiddaw, which may be stretching it, unless it just meant that Crosthwaite had a township boundary and New Hall was the Skiddaw side of it. Unless it was simply a house in Great Crosthwaite, it looks to have disappeared at some point in the 19th century, as there's nothing named for it or looking like a stand-out house on maps I've seen from the 1890s. The construction of the railway in the 1860s would seem like an obvious time for an old house in the vicinity of the line to be demolished.
John and Jane's children, with baptismal dates from the parish register were:
John 1569 (baptised 10 July, and lived about a year, buried 17 August 1570)
Katherine 1571 (baptised 12 July but duried the following day)
Mabel 1573 (baptised 22 November)
John 1575 (baptised 21 December)
Isabel 1577 (baptised 18 August
John's father Humphrey made his will in December 1577 'seike in bodye fearyng the pange of deathe', and died the following month. The will was proved on 30 July 1578. In it, the family farm seems to have gone to John's brother Nicholas. John got a sheep and a silver spoon (for his infant son John) and responsibility for the upbringing of his youngest sister Janet (at this point I think a teenager). It was one of Humphrey's best silver spoons, mind.
Seriously, this scanty provision in the will sort of suggests to me that John had been set up by his father already--perhaps he helped fund John's purchase of New Hall? That might help explain why John doesn't appear to move in for a few years--it was in John's name but Humphrey and his family still lived there because really he was paying for it.
John dated his own will 1 June 1578, himself ill and using the same formula about fearing death. He was buried on 12 June in Crosthwaite. He left his surviving children aged from not quite 4 to under 1.
John left his property in Jane's hands for the paying of his debts and the benefit of their children, and to go to his son when he came of age (21). Jane was charged with the education or upbringing of their daughters until they were 18 or married, and it was specified that Jane should provide ten pounds yearly to her daughters' uses out of what he had left her. In case Jane (or her husband if she married again) did not, then the supervisors of John's will were to take control of his estate in order to look after his daughters.
Jane did marry again after a year or so of widowhood, to a John LANCASTER of Dacre, several miles away. This was in Crosthwaite parish on 13 September 1579, and she was described as Jane WILLIAMSON of New Hall. I do not know whether the step-father moved in at New Hall, or whether Jane and her children went to Dacre, or what.
John made a will on 1 June 1578, shortly before he died. The will was proved in August the same year. It looks pretty thorough to me, making careful provision for the children and for what John thought was the proper disposal of his estate, and a number of minor points and remembrances.
In it he left the bulk of his goods and property to his son John (held by Jane until John came of age as noted above). Helpfully for the genealogist (if not for 16th-century feminism), he felt that real estate should go to a man, so he made provision for what should happen if his young son John should die without having sons of his own. In that case different elements of the property went to various other male relatives, named and with their relationship given, or their heirs male (heirs in the male line only). In each case there was the provision that the stipulated beneficiary of the property should compensate John's heir general (his elder surviving daughter Mabel, her heir if any, his younger daughter Isabel, or her heir, in that order I think) with a specified amount of cash, which I am taking to represent an estimate (perhaps conservative--they are in very round numbers and I think it would cause trouble for these conditional legacies to leave the male 'beneficiaries' out of pocket) of the approximate value of the property.
The main property was 'lands and inheritance' in Crosthwaite (not sure whether by this he means a class of property anywhere in the parish, or whether he's referring to New Hall and whatever else was in or near Great Crosthwaite village), which in default of heirs male was to go to John the testator's brother Anthony or his heir male, for a compensatory payment of 100 pounds.
The next element was 'title and tenantright of my tenement and farmhold' and 'all my corn mills and my two cottages' in Applethwaite, which in default of heirs male was to go to John's brother Nicholas, for a compensatory payment of 40 pounds. This is clearly not property that John owns outright. He says he 'holds it of' Thomas PORTER (the tenement and farmhold) and John THRELKELD (the mills and cottages), so I take these to be the freeholders and John's landlords for this property. But as far as I can tell from some internet searching, tenantright was a permanent and transferable form of landholding for fixed rent. With gradual inflation and the increase of market rents over the years, the fixed rent became attractive, and the right to hold land at that rent permanently therefore became valuable, hence there is a cash value attached to the tenantright. Thomas PORTER is later in the will described as John's cousin [and I have some note somewhere of a transaction between them I think].
The next was 'title and tenantright of my tenement and farmhold called Thornyplett lying in Normathwaite', which in default of heirs male was to go to John's sister Mary's son John WARD, for 20 marks (a mark was two-thirds of a pound, so 20 marks is 13 pounds, six shillings and eightpence). There was a farm or house called Thony Plats on Spoonygreen Lane, the track up towards Ewe Howe Under Skiddaw. I take it 'in Normathwaite' was a mis-transcription for 'in Ormathwaite', which was another hamlet Under Skiddaw--the Thony Plats I saw was close to it. Thornyplett was held of John DALTON.
The final parcel of property was 'title and tenantright of my tenement and farmhold lying in Wythbottom'. In default of heirs male it went to John's bother James for 20 marks. The Wythbottom property was held of John BRISKOE [not sure how if at all to modernise that spelling] and Thomas BRAITHWAITE. I think (source that Wythbottom is an old alternative for Wythburn, at the south end of Thirlmere--ten or a dozen miles from Keswick by road, but along valley-bottom routes and I think part of the same large parish)
John as the principal heir also got the agricultural equipment, riding gear, bedsteads, some silverware and 120 sheep. He was entitled to the rest of the sheep when he came of age, but was to pay his mother three shillings and fourpence a head for them.
There were some small individual legacies:
"to my syster Janet five markes to be payde the daye of her marriage and not before". Janet was John's youngest sister, and I think a teenager at this point. He had been charged with her upbringing and education in their father's will (who I think had died not long before) As well as John's twice-married older sister Mary (who took over Janet's education), there was also a middle sister I think, not mentioned in John's will. I don't see a marriage for a Jane or Janet WILLIAMSON in the Crosthwaite parish registers up to 1599, so she may have collected this legacy some time later, or not at all.
"to Thomas my brother an olde angell". The angel was a gold coin at this time. In 1578 it was worth ten shillings, half a pound. But it had originally been issued at just two-thirds of that value (six shillings and eightpence, half a mark, one-third of a pound), and had also been valued at 7 shillings and sixpence and at eight shillings at different times in the reign of Henry VIII. So all I can really say is that this looks like a legacy of a few shillings, or perhaps of an out-of-date gold coin John had kept. Thomas was I think grown up at this date, but probably younger than the other brothers Anthony and Nicholas mentioned in this will. There were also two still younger brothers not mentioned I think.
Bequests of livestock to John's sister Mary and John WARD her son, to John's cousin Mary SANDS (not sure whether to read 'cousin' here as meaning 'wife's cousin' or more generally 'in-law' or whether to think that John and Jane might have been cousins themselves, or just that SANDS was also a local name and John had a SANDS cousin as well as a SANDS wife coincidentally), and to his sister-in-law Mabel (the will gives her surname but it is hard to read--might be BIRKETT or BRISKOE which are both local names--try looking for a marriage for a Mabel SANDS some time)
To the Crosthwaite Free School, 13 shillings and fourpence (a mark, two-thirds of a pound)
And some small legacies to individuals, not all of whom I have successfully made out. There's six shillings and eightpence 'for Remembrance' to someone who looks like Oswald OYKES. Three and fourpence to the curate Richard BIRKETT. A lifetime entitlement to the hay from an acre of meadow for Mr W? WILSON. And I think grass in Ullock for the term of John's lease there to Simon WILSON, Edward somebody and I think two other people.
The residue of his property (I suppose furniture, clothes, linen, silverware, livestock, cash or other moveable goods not specifically left to John or others?) went to Jane, Mabel and Isabel.
Jane (and Mabel and Isabel, presumably when they came of age) was made executor of the will, but the supervisers of the will had a significant role, as noted above under Later Life. I list them here because I think they suggest men who John was connected to and felt had the judgement and influence to be effective supervisers of what looks to have been a sizeable estate:
Mr Francis RADCLIFFE, Mr somebody BRISKOE "who I Desire to be good to his godson", Mr Thomas BRAITHWAITE (perhaps one or both the same as John's landlord/s in Wythbottom), Mr Robert SANDS John's brother-in-law, Mr Thomas PORTER John's cousin (and as noted above perhaps John's landlord in Applethwaite), Mr Nicholas WILLIAMSON also John's cousin, Simon WILSON, Gawaine RADCLIFFE son of Edward, Edward RADCLIFFE, Anthony and Nicholas WILLIAMSON John's brothers
I like this will, and not just because it gives a wealth of genealogical detail. Some character comes through, and I there seem to be stories behind some of these bequests.
John has his own page. I do not have information on Mabel or Isabel so far.
If you are interested in this family I'll be pleased to hear from you. Click this link to 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.
Links:
Immediate ancestors: Humphrey WILLIAMSON and unknown
Immediate descendant: John WILLIAMSON
The Williamson of Crosthwaite story - WILLIAMSON of Crosthwaite research notes
index of surnames