Williamson (1) research notes

I have living memory, family stories passed down and the Brooker tree in our own 1930s (ie during Thomas's lifetime) copy to confirm that I have the right starting point for my digging. The basic details come from GRO certificates for births, deaths and marriage, and censuses 1881, 1891 and 1901, and a headstone. They tie up as well - ages, places, children's and parents' names, etc.
I'm relying on family tradition for TE's retirement, and I think it is a little sketchy. I'd need to find some sort of address document or directory to confirm that. Also have the word of family who lived at the Croft that it was built no later than the 1870s and the date on the porch pertains to the porch. And before that, for his going to his uncle's at Allonby.
Could look for a will, land ownership records.
I don't think he served in the military. He was already 40 in 1914 and as a farmer I have a vague idea he may have been in a reserved occupation, so I'm not sure whether there would even be documentation relating to his not serving - but I don't really know anything about military service and should perhaps check it out.

There ought to be some record of the Quaker reaction to their marrying before the priest - minute book?
Need to check the precise birth date of their first child, who may have arrived as little as six months after the marriage.

Joseph Robinson and Sarah Jane are well-proven ancestors by all the evidence that shows I have the right birth for their son Thomas Edward (which shows TE's parentage) and by the rarity of JR's name (there are no Google hits other than this site for "Joseph Robinson Williamson" or "Williamson Joseph Robinson") and other matches such as location and religion that make it certain I have the right JR Williamson in the other evidence about him.

The best evidence I have that Thomas and Hannah were parents to my ancestor William (until I get his birth record) is William's marriage record, which names them both as his parents with their residence at Allonby. I don't have specific detail such as an address or maiden name that ties this reference to other events naming Thomas and/or Hannah, but the Allonby Quaker community wasn't that large so I'm confident that all the references are in fact to the same people.

Most of what I know about the family is in Brooker - here I will detail what I have corroborated myself.

I have Thomas's birth in the Quaker record, backed up by his age at death and parentage given at his own marriage.

The marriage record is from Quaker registers as well. Also in Quaker registers I have the birth of their eldest Jonathan and second youngest Thomas - the other births are from Brooker so far, though corroborating ages or parents are given in some of the notes I have on their later lives - see below. A sad Quaker record gives the dates of death and burial and the age as 'about one month' of their first daughter Hannah, so that acts as a source for her birth as well. Her precise date of birth is from Brooker - I don't know if he has another source or if he is just relying on the age at death as if it were precise.

The deaths and burials of the parents Thomas and Hannah are both from Quaker burial records.

The information about the adult lives of their other children is from the 1851 census where I've made direct reference to that, from Quaker burial records in the case of Rebecca, and from Brooker for the other deaths.

Jonathan and Rebecca are given as the parents of Thomas in Quaker records of his birth and marriage.

Jonathan's own birth is in Quaker registers. That his wife was Rebecca is firmly attested to by the birth/marriage records of their children, and by Rebecca's own burial record, but I haven't found a marriage record for them. Brooker gives the year in both 83 Williamson of Newhall and in 99 Wilson of Greythwaite, so there should be some source for that - finish searching RG6 and parish records.

I've noted the possibility on the main page that they married before the priest and were disowned for it. The Quaker birth registrations of their children are suggestive in this regard. I should go back and check the dates of the records above and below, but in RG6/1247 (births, Allonby Monthly Meeting, 1648-1780), folio 0, there are three births spread over 7 years listed one after another on the page - Jonathan and Rebecca's first three children Thomas, Sarah and Ann. Does this suggest that they were all registered at once after the birth of the last one? That could be compatible with the parents having been out of the Society since they were married. Also I don't yet have a birth record for the next child Hannah in 1746 (check parish records). I do have stand-alone Quaker records for the younger two boys.

Jonathan's occupation/status as a yeoman is from his son Thomas's Quaker marriage record. Their residence at Allonby is consistent throughout all these Quaker records.

The deaths and burials of both Rebecca and Jonathan are in Quaker registers.

William and Mary are given as parents of Jonathan in Quaker registers for Jonathan's birth. The births of the other two children are also in Quaker registers. Likewise the deaths of William and Mary the parents.

I'm still working on filling out the story of this family, and especially William and Mary's origins. William left a will and this is high on my list of wills to order. I'd be looking for references to siblings, nephews/nieces, cousins etc. and also to property in Bridekirk/Tallentire. I know from relatives (and I'll put in here more documentary evidence as it comes) that there was Tallentire property in the family until at least I think the late 19th century.

Brooker strides on confidently here and lists another four generations of the family, but this definitely needs verification. He lists William as 'b 31 Oct 1662'. This is clearly a conflation of two baptisms which appear in the Bridekirk parish register. I'll discuss them briefly here, and possible siblings below.

Brooker gives William's parents as Jonathan WILLIAMSON (originally from Crosthwaite) and Mary nee BOWES of Tallentire. The father's name, the location and the birthday all make me think Brooker had in mind the following entry in the Bridekirk parish register: 1669 October 31 Gulielmus filius Jonathan Williamson de Talentyre. The erroneous year in Brooker possibly comes from another entry in the same register: 1661 March 16 Gulielmus filius Johannis Williamson de Dovenby in the register. At the time 16 March 1661 was at the end of the year - by the modern calendar with New Year on 1 January, we'd call it 16 March 1662. Tenuous - I'm not sure that Brooker in other cases in this tree 'corrects' from Julian to Gregorian - maybe he just mis-read the 9 as a 2.

Leaving aside William's birth, I know he was married to Mary and they were Quakers of Allonby at the start of the 1700s, but I have found no corresponding Quaker marriage by searching RG6 online. I've tried the IGI online (William WILLIAMSON marrying Mary, England, 1685-1705) and got hits in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, London, Huntingdon, Durham, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Cheshire and a clear front runner: Wm WILLIAMSON m Mary BEEBY, Bromfield, Cumberland, 10 April 1698 (extracted records from Bishop's Transcripts). Bromfield is the parish containing Allonby.

Apart from the fact that the location match and the date makes this by far the best IGI candidate for the marriage of my William and Mary, I'm very taken by the bride's surname. BEEBY was both before and after 1698 an established Allonby Quaker family. A connection with them might explain why a WILLIAMSON who didn't appear to have been a Quaker previously would have entered the Society. I've now looked at the original handwritten Quaker register for the birth of William and Mary's children, and to me it looks like Jonathan in 1699 and Sarah in 1702 are insertions, written in after the entries below them on the page, but that Mary in 1704 is in sequence. This might be consistent with a family who converted to Quakerism, or a mother who had been born a Friend, was disowned for marrying in the Church of England (in 1698), and re-admitted along with her husband and children about 1703 - after a suitable period during which they showed their desire to be part of the Society of Friends and keep its rules (this, I understand, was a normal pattern in such cases).

So, Following my speculation that I might be looking for a Quaker Mary BEEBY, I've looked in Allonby Quaker registers (RG6/1247, I think it was) for possible births. There is one in 1664, daughter of John and Ann of Allonby, and another in 1673, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth of Bowscales. I think the later one is perhaps more likely given the dates of marriage and children, but need to verify this somehow. Robert of Bowscales left a will, but it was in 1675 so would pre-date any marriage by his youngest daughter (and I guess would be unlikely to leave her any named property I could then trace). Hmm, there is also a will of his son John of Bowscales, 1716 - he had plenty of his own children, but if he was brother to Mary WILLIAMSON (then a widow with three teenage children) he might perhaps remember her in his legacies. I should get a look at the original Bromfield register and see if it gives a residence or father's name for Mary. Or indeed William.

The marriage of their daughter Sarah is from Brooker - I don't think I've so far found it in RG6 but I don't think I've looked widely enough to expect to find it.

I have Brooker saying that these were my ancestors, and the Tallentire property connection, which I think I can possibly trace in Wills, etc.

Leaving that aside, I'll note my efforts to substantiate what Brooker has said about them.

Brooker for some reason gives no birth details for Jonathan, though he does assert that his father was Humphrey, of the New Hall Williamsons - see below. I've seen no evidence of this, but all I have on Jonathan is the Bridekirk PRs.

I have not found any marriage record for Jonathan WILLIAMSON and Mary BOWES so I don't know what Brooker's evidence is. He must have had something.

Brooker lists the following children in the following order:
Mary 22 Nov 1654
Jane 15 Nov 1656
Thomas 30 Jan 1659
Agnes 4 June 1665
Isabella 6 Oct 1667
John 25 Feb 1677
Dorothy (no birth/baptism date)
Ann (no birth/baptism date)
William 31 October 1662

My transcript of the Bridekirk PRs shows that there is one Jonathan Williamson baptising children in the parish of Bridekirk at that time, and he is indeed of Tallentire. It lists the following children for him (I've left the names in Latin and the dates Julian):
Maria 4 Aug 1654
Jane 15 November 1656
[blank] 30 January 1659
Agnes 4 June 1665
Isabella 6 October 1667
Gulielmus 31 October 1669
Johanes 23 February 1670

So, we have exact matches for Jane, Agnes, and Isabella. A different date in the same year for Mary. No name on the date that Brooker ascribes to Thomas (there is a fatherless Tho: Williamson on 30 September 1662 - I think he might not make sense at least until I can see the original register or a film of it). A different year and slightly different date within it for John. And a different year for William - see above for my speculation on what cased that confusion. Dorothy and Ann appear only in Brooker.

So what is going on here? Assuming that the date discrepancies are probably down to some misreading or clerical error on Brooker's part, I'm taking the information in the transcript where there is any. Which shows that Jonathan Williamson of Tallentire had children in 1654, 1656, 1659, 1665, 1667, 1669 and 1670. It is quite plausible that that is all one father. Assuming that is the case, what questions remain? Why does the run of births begin in 1654; why does it end in 1670; why is there a gap from 1659 to 1665; when were Dorothy, Ann and Thomas born?

My only source for Humphrey being my ancestor is Brooker - I have no primary evidence to connect him with Jonathan of Tallentire.

Brooker gives a date of baptism and parents for Humphrey, which are confirmed by the Crosthwaite parish register - see below.

Brooker gives Humphrey's first marriage to Dorothy Tickell, and it is confirmed by the Crosthwaite parish register (or at least the IGI extraction - I've not gone to the original yet). Likewise, Brooker lists their five sons, with dates (except for Jonathan), and these are confirmed as baptismal dates by the IGI (except that the year for John, 1716, well over a century after his father's birth, is obviously wrong - the rest of the date is right which suggests a typo rather than a false source - speculation: the 1716 date could have crept in if it pertains to his death or something?).

Brooker gives no details of Dorothy's death and I don't have a burial record or anything, but we can infer it from Humhprey's remarriage (and the longer gap between his children).

11b. Humphrey and Bridget

Brooker gives the second marriage, dated to 29 July 1636. The IGI has it on 5 July in an extracted record as well as (for what it's worth) three patron submissions. The patron submissions all give a residence for Humphrey of Newhall, so they presumably have a source for that and I'm guessing it would be in the original PR. Brooker doesn't mention Humphrey and Bridget's children but they appear in the IGI and I'm assigning them to this Humphrey as they seem to fit the marriage and there's no evidence of another Humphrey.

Brooker's assignment of John as Humphrey's father is supported by a baptism record in the IGI.

John's own birth is hard to trace. Brooker doesn't give a date, but does give him parents: John and Jane (see below). Assuming that is right, then the IGI candidates are baptisms on 10 July 1569 and 21 December 1575. See below for my speculation that both of these two are to the same parents, the first having died young. However, there are lots of other John baptisms in about the right period so I would need to look for some other evidence for which is mine, such as some source that names Jane as this John's mother, and/or a residence for this John.

Brooker doesn't give a marriage date for John and Winifred. The IGI has one result for John Williamson marrying Winifred anywhere in England in 1582-1610, and it is in Crosthwaite: to Winifred Radcliffe on 13 October 1588. Let's leave that to one side for now.

Brooker gives John and Winifred four children:
Humphrey 14 February 1601-2
Francis 4 April 1604
John 4 April 1606
Anthony 10 June 1608
These are all confirmed as Crosthwaite baptisms from the IGI.
However, there are also baptisms to parents John and Winifred Williamson of:
Janet 28 October 1589
Margery 13 November 1591 Isabel 27 June 1594 Anne 13 June 1596 Mary 25 March 1597 Katherine 27 October 1599

So, it seems very likely that the baptisms starting in 1589 go with the marriage in 1588, but why does Brooker ascribe the later 4 boys (or 3 boys and a girl - I don't think that at this date Francis/Frances was a reliable boy/girl distinction) to different parents? From the IGI there's no evidence that they're not all one family. I can only speculate that the original registers give a residence or something that shows the parents to be different couples. Though the families on Brooker's division don't overlap in dates or names so even if the residence is different I'm not sure what rules out the interpretation that it is the same couple moving house about 1600. The total span between the first child and the last is about 19 years which is perfectly possible for one mother's fertility.

I did have some email correspondence about this some years ago that I don't have time to dig out just now, in which I was told that a researcher taking notes many years ago thought that the couple in the 1588 marriage was John Williamson, Merchant, of Ormathwaite, son of Anthony Williamson of Ormathwaite, and Winifred Radcliffe of Applethwaite. If I do come to researching these events, it would be worth going back to this - was the email with Ann Brownrigg?

It certainly seems a bit unlikely that the John Williamson given as my ancestor by Brooker, bapt 1575, would have married aged 13 and promptly had all those children. For what it's worth there is an IGI patron submission of "John Williamson born about 1576 Of Crosthwaite, Cumberland, England, spouse Winifred", which suggests there may be evidence somewhere to tie a John of the right age to a Winifred wife and therefore make him a candidate for father of some of the later baptisms to John and Winifred.

The death of the John son of this family in 1608, and those of the parents John and Winifred soon after, are from Brooker - no burials on the IGI to check. Actually, that's a point - if there are burials of John and/or Winifred with locations to match the early births, maybe that tells you that they didn't move and the parents of the later births in another location are different people.

See above for speculations as to the sort of evidence that might suggest that John and Jane of Newhall are parents to the John who was father to Humphrey in 1601.

I have no evidence either from Brooker or the IGI for John senior's own birth, or that of his wife Jane. But I think the Crosthwaite registers are extracted to the IGI only from about 1562 (and therefore may only survive from then) and they would have been born before then - see the birth dates of their children.

Again Brooker doesn't give a marriage date for John and Jane, or a maiden name for Jane. There are a number of candidates in the IGI, including John Williamson md Jane Sands 29 April 1567 Crosthwaite, John Williamson md Janet Richardson 6 Sep 1568 Dacre and (less likely - see children's dates) John Willimson md Janet Sanderson 23 Jul 1570 Crosthwaite.

Brooker says that the children of John and Jane were:
John (birth date unknown)
Katherine, 12 July 1571
Mabel 22 November 1573
Isobel 18 August 1577.