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CHAPELTOWN RESEARCHES. 
 
CHAPELTOWN RESEARCHES, 
 
 ARCH^OLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL; 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 OLD-TIME MEMORIES OF THORNCLIFFE, ITS IRONWORKS AND 
 COLLIERIES, AND THEIR ANTECEDENTS. 
 
 MATTHEW HENRY HABERSHON, 
 
 HONORARY CORRESPONDENT OF THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE ; AUTHOR OF " THE 
 
 WAVE AND THE ROCK"; "CHRISTMAS EVE ON THE MOORS " ; 
 
 "THE MONKS' GRANGE"; "FESTIVAL VERSES," ETC. 
 
 ' If studious, copy fair what time hath blurr'd." — Ghorge Herrert. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SiMPKiN, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co. Limited. 
 
 SHEFFIELD: 
 
 Pawson and Bkailsford, Printers, High-st. and Mulberry-st. 
 
 1893. 
 
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 LIEUTENANT-COLONEL 
 
 THOMAS CHAMBERS NEWTON, J. P., 
 
 CHAIRMAN OF 
 
 MESSRS. NEWTON, CHAMBERS AND COMPANY LIMITED, 
 
 THIS CENTENARY VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY 
 
 INSCRIBED BY HIS FRIEND 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
" The smallest thing rises into consequence when regarded 
 as the commencement of what has advanced, or is advancing, 
 into magnificence." — John Foster's Essays. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is natural for people to desire to know something of the past 
 of the place where they reside. If they were born where they 
 live, interesting is likely to be the history of the locality that is 
 memorable as their native home. Is there not in the lifetime of 
 most men some event--personal, social, or national — to which is 
 applicable the admonition, " tell ye your children of it, and let 
 your children tell their children, and their children another 
 generation ? " Is there not, from that admonition, to be drawn the 
 inference, that the prophet Joel meant, that the preservation of 
 the memory of special occurrences, by their being talked of, cele- 
 brated and recorded, was important as bearing upon the education 
 of the race ? He does well who does his best to help historically 
 to instruct and interest, and thus benefit, humanity. 
 
 Of the land we are wont to boast of as peerless in freedom, as 
 foremost in science, as unrivalled in song — the land of Alfred, 
 Hampden and Cromwell, of Newton, Watt and Faraday, of 
 Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton — there is no city, town or hamlet 
 of which the historical and archsological explorer cannot find some- 
 thing special to say of its long ago ! That this affirmation is true 
 of the rural district comprising Chapeltown and villages adjacent, 
 it is the purpose of the author of this volume to endeavour to show. 
 In Dugdale's " England and Wales Delineated," there is mention 
 of Chapel, in Essex; of Chapel-Brampton, in Northamptonshire ; 
 of Chapel-Sacken, in Cumberland ; and of Chapel-Allerton, near 
 Leeds ; but this place, called Chapel formerly, and now Chapel- 
 town, appears to have been either too insignificant to be known to, 
 or to be noticed by, the antiquarian compiler of that gazetteer. 
 Although it had a place of worship in Catholic times, its chapel 
 was unendowed, and therefore no account would be taken of it 
 ecclesiastically. The inference, however, from the village having 
 been thus ignored, is not against, but in favour of, the residents 
 
VIII 
 
 in and near it being furnished with information as to its history, 
 
 obtained on the spot by one of themselves; for the vestiges, not 
 
 only of the families of knightly rank who for centuries abode in 
 
 this neighbourhood, but of its industries in connection with iron 
 
 and coal, are certainly not devoid of interest. To those who now 
 
 have their home in this district of Yorkshire, where the Parishes 
 
 of Ecclesfield, Tankersley, Wath and Rotherham unite, it is 
 
 needless to prove that, as yet — 
 
 " Its hills are green, its woods and prospects fair, 
 Its meadows fertile," 
 
 although it has been liable, owing to its wealth of minerals, to 
 
 have its beauty marred, as has been many a fair landscape, by the 
 
 demand for fuel, and the supremely serviceable metal with which 
 
 the nation chiefly constructs its mechanical inventions. 
 
 Before the importation of foreign charcoal-made bars of iron 
 
 into England, there passed from this neighbourhood to Sheffield 
 
 many a load of the material of which were manufactured arrow 
 
 heads, knives, scissors, razors, and the many steel implements for 
 
 which that town has long had a world-wide reputation. The line 
 
 in Geoffry Chaucer's poem — 
 
 " A Shefeld thwytel bore he in his hose " 
 emphasizes the fact that, in those years of the fourteenth century 
 during which Chaucer lived (1327 — 1400), blades were made in 
 Sheffield for which steel would be required ; and may not the 
 surmise be entertained, that, at the works on Thorpe Common, 
 carried on by monks of Kirkstead until Edward III. forbade 
 ecclesiastics trading (and probably afterwards by their tenants), 
 would be "fabricated" a sort of iron, with just sufficient car- 
 bon in it to produce a steel-like product which would submit to 
 the forge, and, after tempering, sustain an edge? From the 
 historic fact that there were in existence as long ago as 1160 
 those mines and furnaces, arises the inference that, at no great 
 distance from those primitive works, there must have been a 
 market for what they " fabricated." It requires little effort of the 
 imagination to picture, passing down the road now called Grange 
 Lane, and through Brightside, on the north side of the river Don, 
 packhorses carrying material such as would be used by the ancient 
 Hallamshire blacksmiths. 
 
IX 
 
 And of a later date, there is that which research brings into 
 view of products of the Chapeltown furnace, where probably was 
 made the cannon which the Duchess of Newcastle says was 
 ordered by her husband after he had taken possession, on behalf 
 of Charles I., of Sheffield Castle. 
 
 If, as stated by Mr. Hunter, it be true that " till the 
 time of James I. the iron forges standing in the township 
 of Brightside Byerlow, commonly called Attercliffe forges, were 
 in the hands of the Earls of Shrewsbury, and worked for 
 their benefit " : and as it is undoubtedly true that the smelt- 
 ing furnace, which was a part of the ironworks of the Lord 
 of the Manor of Sheffield, was .at Chapeltown; we have to 
 go far back if we would solve the problem, When and by 
 whom were the Chapeltown Works, with their water-wheel 
 and blast furnace, started? There is an entry in* the diary 
 of John Hobson, of Dodworth Green, of date March 17, 1726, 
 published by the Surtees Society, which is positive evidence 
 as to the connection between the Chapeltown furnace and the 
 Attercliffe forges. 
 
 Before then, as far back as the reign of Charles II., Chapel- 
 town furnace was in the hands of Captain Copley, who, about 
 1678, gave the works up to tenants, whose names are given by 
 Mr. Hunter. How long they had been in existence when Copley 
 took to them is a question which, as yet, research seems not able 
 to answer. 
 
 The agreement by which was secured a site for the Thorn- 
 cliffe Works was signed December 13th, 1793, and the arrival 
 of the one hundredth year of their history is deemed a fitting 
 occasion for the publication of some pages descriptive of the 
 district in which, for a century, they have been prominent and 
 important as a scene of Yorkshire skill, industry and enterprise ; 
 and for placing on record what research has been able to gather 
 of the men who founded those works, and whose " footprints on 
 the sands of time " — as their earthly career was ended before 
 the present century was twenty-five years old — have become 
 well-nigh obliterated. 
 
Scholars in the schools in this neighbourhood will, pef 
 haps, better remember certain events in their nation's history 
 by being shown how it is linked with people who lived 
 here, were affected by those events, and helped to make that 
 history. The few pages of fiction in which, by a dream, Joan 
 Mounteney appears as an attendant upon the Princess Elizabeth, 
 may serve to interest youthful readers in the fact that, in the 
 fifteenth century, royal and noble-born personages were exposed 
 to contingencies of misfortune and peril such as happily in these 
 days no privileged, or unprivileged, class of persons in this free 
 realm is liable. The Plantagenet Edward, Earl of Warwick, who 
 merely because he was the son of the Duke of Clarence, was 
 during his whole life a prisoner, first at Sheriff-Hutton, where, 
 for a time he had the Princess Elizabeth his cousin for a com- 
 panion, and then in the Tower of London, until he was put to 
 death, at the age of 29 years, by order of Henry VII. 
 
 For the benefit of those whom they concern, and for whom 
 old-time memories have a living voice, are issued these notes of 
 researches, briefly archaeological, historical and biographical, at 
 Chapeltown and places near that hamlet, from the point of view 
 of the author. 
 
 Of his indebtedness to the historical works which have 
 facilitated his researches, especially those of the late Joseph 
 Hunter, F.S.A. ; the Rev. Alfred Gatty, D.D., Sub-Dean of York; 
 the late Rev. Jonathan Eastwood, M.A. ; the late John Guest, 
 F.S.A., of Rotherham ; and the Halifax Historian, John Crabtree, 
 Esquire, the author desires to make full acknowledgment. To 
 friends and neighbours from whom he has received information 
 and assistance, he offers his best thanks. 
 
 Greenhead Cottage, 
 
 Chapeltown, near Sheffield, 
 Nov. lyTH, 1893. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Christmas Day at Chapeltown, a.d. 1482 : a Dream and its Amplifications i 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 Notes referring to records between the lines of which imagination found 
 
 space to dream . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 House at Greenhead built by A. W. in 1684 ; Cowley Manor, castle-Iike 
 and moated, of the De Renevilles and the Mounteneys ; and Hesley 
 Hall, also rebuilt after the Lord of the Manor of Sheffield had 
 purchased their estates . . . . . . . . . . 37 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 Tankersley; its Church, Hall and Park; and the Tankersleys, Elands, 
 
 Saviles and Wentworths . . . . . . . . . . 59 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 Howsley Hall and other remaining 17th century buildings in the district ; 
 Mortemley Hall; Chapeitown House; Lound School; Ivy House; 
 High Green House ; St. John's Church, Chapeltown ; St. Saviour's 
 Church, Mortomley . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 
 
 Chapter V. 
 Barley Hall ; Methodism at Thorpe, High Green and Chapeltown .. 127 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 Old-time Memories of Thorncliffe: its Ironworks and Collieries, and their 
 antecedents at Furnace Hill, Sheffield; Chapeltown Furnace ; and 
 at the top of Grange Lane, in the Township of Kimberworth, where 
 the Monks of Kirkstead Abbey in the twelfth century established 
 Ironworks . . . . . . . . ■ . . ■ . . 143 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 Notes Biographical of the Thorncliffe Partners, supplementary to the 
 
 previous Chapter upon Qld-tinje Memories of Thorncliff? ,, 185 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Sketch of the Grange erected by the Monks of Kirkstead Abbey, who had 
 Ironworks in the neighbourhood of Chapeltown in the year 1160 
 
 Old Barn at Cowley Manor 
 
 Fac-simile of Letter written by Richard III., in 1483 
 
 Old House at Greenhead, built by A.W., 1684 
 
 Cowley Manor 
 
 Hesley Hall 
 
 Tankersley Old Hall 
 
 Howsley Hall 
 
 Mortomley Hall . . 
 
 Chapeltown House 
 
 Ivy House 
 
 Portrait of Dr. Falding 
 
 Barley Hall 
 
 Mount Pleasant Chapel 
 
 Portrait of Mr. George Newton 
 
 ,, Mr. Henry Longden 
 
 the Rev. Adam Clarke, LL.D. 
 Iron Lighthouse made at Thorncliffe for Goodwin Sands 
 Old Th'undercliffe Grange, pulled down in 1777 
 Portrait of Mr. Matthew Chambers, senior . . 
 
 Mr. Thomas Newton 
 
 Mr. Thomas Chambers, of Lane End House 
 
 Mr. Thomas Chambers, of Melbourne .. 
 
 Mr. John Chambers, of Belmont 
 
 Mr. Matthew Chambers, of Barbot Hall., 
 
CHRISTMAS DAY AT CHAPELTOWN, 
 
 A.L). 1482 : 
 
 A DREAM AND ITS AMPLIFICATIONS. 
 
 " Where, as at Tankersley, 
 Time hath but left a hollow roofless shell, 
 To show what written records fail to tell, 
 Surmise may fill the space the lines between 
 And fancy paint what, p-rhaps, of yore hath been.' 
 
" England's music feeds 
 
 On past events not dim 
 Though distant in our land's career, 
 
 And we to freedom cling 
 To-day the more because we hear 
 
 Of them our minstrels sing." — The Monks' Grange. 
 
PART FIRST. 
 
 PREFATORY. 
 
 " At length an oak chest, that had long lain hid, 
 Was found in the Castle — they raised the lid." 
 
 T. H. Baily's song: " The Mistletoe Bough." 
 
 The "moated castle-like" mansion of the Mounteneys, 
 which for centuries was as much the chief dwelling at Chapel- 
 town as yonder mansion of Earl Fitzwilliam is the principal 
 house at Wentworth-Woodhouse, is represented in name, but 
 in name only, by the present Cowley Manor. The only struc- 
 tured relic of the buildings which were in existence when the 
 Mounteneys had a home at Cowley, is an outhouse — a sort of 
 barn — the roof of which is supported by massive oak posts let 
 into the ground and uniting at the top so as to form three 
 Gothic arches. It is a place likely to be dreamt about ; a 
 place likely to have become, when the old mansion was pulled 
 down, the receptacle of such things of uncertain value as people 
 have to find a place for when they re-build, or "flit" from 
 one house to another. If there be at such times an old chest 
 at hand, naturally there are placed hastily in it — parchments, 
 papers, and other things taken from shelves, drawers, and cup- 
 boards. Years pass, and curiosity leads to the inspection of 
 what may be inside that ancient bin, coffer, or box.* 
 
 ' There is scope for imagination to dream of there being 
 found in such a chest in that barn, what is archseologically 
 interesting — documents, in a script not readable by the finder, 
 but which an expert can easily decipher. 
 
 After becoming familiar with the passages in the several 
 historical works in which the Mounteneys are referred to, such 
 
 *In the notes of the late John Wilson, Esquire, of Broomhead Hall, there is 
 mention of there being in Bradfield Church, an old iron-bound chest, hewed out 
 of a solid tree, in which, in 1616, the writings of the Church were kept. It is 
 r.ow used as a receptacle for general lumber. 
 
as the one which says, "Among the English Knights who 
 " agreed to sail to the Crusades with the Prince, or to follow 
 " him, appears the name of Robert de Mounteney, who with 
 " two attendant Knights received three hundred marks for 
 " their expenses," and, "At a tournament at Dunstable, in 
 "the second year of the reign of Edward II., appeared Sir John 
 " de Mounteney," the mind is likely to be astir with conjecture. 
 By the bye, how is it that a matter-of-fact individual, whose 
 brain when he is awake never imagines or invents, has before 
 him when he is asleep elaborate pictures of scenes entirely 
 fanciful and fictitious ? This is a question not easily answered. 
 But the probability may be conceived that, after research, 
 which has resulted in the production of a local archaeological 
 and historical volume, the writer of it — if a dreamer — would 
 have visions. Not unnaturally it comes to pass that, after 
 persistently reading and musing, he has before his mind's eye 
 such vivid pictures of the past, that his dreams become coloured 
 by his researches. Long ago people, of whom history has told 
 him scarcely anything but their names, become as distinct and 
 familiar as if they were his contemporaries. In this way may 
 be accounted for such a dream as this, and its imaginary 
 amplifications. 
 
 There is a blank, or omission, in the Mounteney pedigree 
 which seems to demand the invention of some hypothesis to 
 supplement or elucidate the record. Joan, the daughter of Sir 
 Thomas Mounteney, born Michaelmas day, 1321, had two 
 husbands, and it is strange, says Hunter, that of the former, 
 from whom the genealogical line descends, there is no trace. 
 Her son John was legitimately born before her marriage with 
 Thomas, Lord Furnival, but the name of his father is not 
 given. That son's name, "^Si^rjphn de Mounteney, Knight," 
 so called " jussu matris " (fajs-^i^of his mother, as appears 
 in a deed bearing that lady's seal), may not have been derived 
 from his father, but assumed in consequence of his mother in 
 her widowhood resuming her maiden name. The reader 
 
naturally wonders why this mystery and concealment ? The 
 beautifully illustrated missal which belonged to this lady, Joan 
 Mounteney, "quandam uxor Thomas Furnival, Chevalier," 
 which Mr. Hunter hopes will turn up some day, is surely in 
 somebody's library somewhere (unless there has been a fire 
 destroying the premises where it was treasured). A dream so 
 practically useful as to reveal where that missal is deposited 
 would establish for dreaming in this scientific age, a place 
 higher than either clairvoyance or spiritualism has attained ! 
 
 In the year here recalled, 1482, the later Joan's grandfather, 
 Thomas Mounteney, had been dead nine years, and her father 
 Nicholas and her mother Elizabeth would be living at Cowley. 
 Her father's will is dated 1499, so he was residing there after 1483 
 for seventeen years. In that will she, as well as her brothers 
 Robert, Thomas, Alexander and Nicholas, is mentioned. Her 
 age is not indicated, but she was the youngest of the family 
 and an only daughter (as, strange to say, has been the rule, 
 with few exceptions, in families residing at Cowley throughout 
 its history down to the present day : Miss Ramsden has no 
 sister; Mr. John Jeffcock had only one daughter ; immediately 
 preceeding him was resident there Mr. Smith, who had one 
 daughter ; Mrs. Kirk, the grandmother of the wife of Mr. 
 Smith, was an only daughter of a Cowley household). 
 
 An extract from the pedigree of the Mounteney family 
 will help to a perception of the young lady Joan's environment. 
 
 Nicholas Mounteney, of Shiercliffe, Esq.=EliEabeth, daughter of 
 
 In his will dated 6 June, 1499, he 
 
 mentions all the children 
 
 below. 
 
 John Drax, Esq., 
 
 by Margaret Barley, 
 
 his wife. 
 
 Isabel = 
 
 1 1 ! 1 1 
 
 = Robert, of Cowley and Shiercliffe. Thomas. Alexander. Nicholas. Joan. 
 
 first 
 
 His second wife, Anne. 
 
 From whom (dreamt of as 
 
 wife. 
 
 His will is dated 3 Aug., 15 19, on 
 
 descended lady attendant 
 
 Living 
 
 which day he died, and was 
 
 the Mounteneys upon the 
 
 1499 
 
 buried in the church at Ecclesfield. 
 
 of Kotherham, of Princess 
 
 and 
 
 
 Creswick, and Elizabeth, 
 
 1505' 
 
 
 of Wheatley, near daughter of 
 Doncaster. Edward IV.) 
 
 Jo 
 
 in, = loan. 
 
 
 of Cowley and 
 
 Living 
 
 
 Shiercliffe, 
 
 24 May, 1536. 
 
 
 Founder of the 
 
 
 
 Orator 
 
 V in 1536. 
 
 
 
 • Smethy=Dorothy, Barbara, =Thos. Thwaites 
 
 died without issue. sole heiress. 
 
In his will, dated 6th June, 1499, Nicholas desired that his 
 body might be buried before the image of Saint Mary in the 
 church at Ecclesfield, and directs that a priest shall say mass 
 for his soul for one full year after his decease. To the fabric 
 of the church of Ecclesfield, he gives one seme of iron ; to 
 Robert, all his heirlooms, among which are specified — "unum 
 calicem argenti, unum mese boke, unum primarium cum armis 
 meis pictis, cum omnibus ornamentis capelle mee pro capellano 
 seupresbyteromeocantantiet missam celebranti ;" to Isabella, 
 the wife of his son Robert, he gives a girdle used by his wife 
 Elizabeth ; and he makes his sons Thomas, Alexander and 
 Nicholas his executors, who are to order for his soul's health 
 as they think fit. Thomas Clarke, vicar of Ecclesfield, he 
 nominates one of the supervisors. 
 
 We may assume that the father, mother, and five younger 
 persons specified in the pedigree were of the household of 
 Cowley in the year 1482, and we may be sure that that 
 daughter Joan had often in her hands the illuminated missal 
 of her namesake, bequeathed by her father to her eldest 
 brother Robert. 
 
 Several historical facts being distinctly remembered which 
 correspond in date with this period, the incidents of the vision 
 have an aspect of reality ; for instance a parchment at Wortley 
 Hall evidences that, while the High Chancellor of King 
 Edward IV., Archbishop Rotheram, was building his college 
 at Rotherham, he, for the most part, was the guest of his 
 friend Sir Thomas Wortley, and that it was in 1481, the year 
 after the King's Chancellor was made Archbishop of York, 
 that he founded that college in the town of his nativity. 
 
 The Countess of Richmond, the mother of Henry Vll., 
 and therefore ultimately the mother-in-law of Elizabeth, the 
 daughter of Edward IV., had a first cousin, Lady Paston, whose 
 daughter became wife of a gentleman of this neighbourhood, 
 Sir John Saville, of Tankersley. A daughter of this Sir John 
 and Lady Saville married the head of the house of Wortley. 
 
Taking foi' granted that the families at Wortley, Tanker^ley 
 and Cowley were neighbourly, it is natural that these persons 
 should be thought of, and their intimacy with the Queen 
 accounts for the position, at her court, of the lady Joan as atten- 
 dant upon, and instructress of, the Princess. 
 
 Although the personal appearance, character and endow- 
 ments of this sole daughter of Nicholas Mounteney are not on 
 record, no one has grounds for saying of the dreamer's portrait 
 of her, as has been said of Sir Walter Scott's description of 
 Amy Robsart, " she was not all his fancy painted her," for in 
 the case of the Kenihvorth lady the actual facts are known. Here 
 the real person, which the pedigree verifies, and the ideal portrait 
 and circumstances associated with her individuality, are not sub- 
 ject to an analysis that can separate the one from the other. The 
 conception of her sweetness, accomplishments and goodness, fit- 
 ting her to be the instructress of the Princess, and of her occupying 
 that position through the recommendation of one who knew 
 her intimately and had influence at Court, may claim to be 
 credible and tenable. It is no use anyone trying to prove the 
 real Laura whom Petrarch loved was less beautiful than his 
 immortal lyrics describe ! Archdeacon Farrar, a reproducer of 
 the events of the first century of the Christian era, has lately 
 written a book, which he calls " An Historical Tale." " He 
 " has," says a reviewer, " elaborated the hints of Pagan 
 " writers, and availed himself of personal allusions in the 
 " salutations of the Pauline epistles for the woofs running 
 " across his webs of fact." ..." He gives identity to 
 " Pudens and Claudia, to Linus and Prisca and Aquila, and to 
 " many others who, in the salutations of the Epistles, are 
 " often names and nothing more." 
 
 Archseologists are not wont to describe dramatically the 
 ancient abbeys and castles they write about as Shakespeare 
 romances about the Plantagenet kings and queens and their 
 associates ; but we find the judicious and unromantic Mr. 
 Hunter, in his " History of Hallamshire," which is not a book 
 
8 
 
 professing to deal with nice points of ethics or chivalrous 
 sentiments, writing of Matilda, the heiress at a very tender age 
 of the last of the male line of the Lovetots, words of protest, as if 
 he were a modern liberal politician defending " women's rights." 
 He says : " The right of chief lords to dispose in marriage the 
 " heiresses of those who held land of them, is one of the most 
 "indefensible points of the feudal system. It may have had 
 " its convenience in regard to the superiors ; but what did the 
 " tenants gain by it ?— and, in a well regulated community, all 
 " general political institutions will be directed to the benefit of 
 " the more numerous class. In this instance a thousand 
 " objections, arising out of some of the most sacred feelings of 
 " human nature, immediately present themselves, which no 
 " reasons of expediency or policy ought ever to have been 
 "allowed to countervail." (p. 42.) 
 
 In the dream is blended with Mr. Hunter's words quoted, 
 a passage in Dr. Collier's English History, which says, " It 
 " was a strange feature of Edward IV. 's foreign policy, that he 
 " endeavoured to make marriages for his children from the day 
 " of their birth ; but none of his schemes succeeded. At the 
 " conclusion of the war he had with Louis XL, King of France, 
 " one of the conditions of the peace-treaty of Pecquigny, was, 
 " that Louis' eldest son, the Dauphin, should marry the English 
 " Princess Elizabeth." 
 
 At the date of that treaty of peace, assigning her to the 
 Dauphin, 1475, she would be nine years old, and 16 in 1482. 
 Henry VII. became King, August 22nd, 1485, so she could not 
 be more than 20 when Richard III., her uncle, wanted to 
 marry her, and perhaps would have compelled her acquiescence 
 had he lived a few months longer, notwithstanding the dissua- 
 sion of hischief counsellors Ratcliffe and Catesby. The blood- 
 thirsty savage, the murderer of her two brothers, and deserving 
 only to be thought of with execration, she knew to be intent 
 upon making her the means of confirming his usurpation, and 
 she seems to have thought of herself as utterly helpless. 
 
There is a letter in her hand-writing in the cabinet of the 
 Earl of Arundel and Surrey, from which may be inferred that 
 she had the feeling that it would be perilous to refuse if the 
 unscrupulous monarch demanded her hand. The letter is 
 written to the Duke of Norfolk, desiring him to be her mediator 
 for her marriage with the King, whom she calls her only joy 
 and maker in the world. (Buch's Life of Richard III.) 
 
 Well might her mother weep, when, notwithstanding her 
 forebodings, she consented, at the request of Archbishop 
 Rotheram, to let her boy be taken from her. Did the Princess 
 Elizabeth know of those tears ? — of the fate of her two brothers ? 
 — of the character of her uncle ? No doubt she did ! We cannot 
 interpret the obscure words in her letter without bearing this in 
 mind. 
 
 This episode would need some word of apology if the 
 purpose of the author of " Chapeltown Researches" had been 
 only to inform or remind his readers by the reproduction of 
 historical facts. He aims to make his volume entertaining, 
 as does the artist, who, painting a historical picture, in order 
 to depict the scene as effectively as possible, introduces persons 
 and objects not known to be, but presumed to be, associated 
 with it. 
 
 ,«l^> 
 * 
 
lO 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY 1482. 
 
 In accordance with license granted— such as that which, 
 half a century earlier, was granted by Kempe (Archbishop of 
 York) to Dominus Robert Normanton (Vicar of Ecclesfield)— 
 there were services in the winter months in the little chapel at 
 Chapeltown, which had given that hamlet its name; but on 
 the day of long-ago, now brought into view, the church bells at 
 Ecclesfield ringing merrily a Christmas peal, have invited and 
 attracted the parishoners far and near to assemble in the richly 
 decorated edifice which used to be designated " the Minster 
 of the Moors." Moreover it is known that morning that a 
 high dignitary of the Church is to be present. Thomas 
 Rotheram, who is not only the King's Chancellor, but has 
 lately been promoted to be Archbishop of York, and who is 
 staying with his friend Sir Thomas Wortley, at Wortley Hall, 
 has promised the Vicar (Thomas Clarke) that he will help him 
 to officiate. 
 
 That he should do this is in accordance with the interest 
 he takes in the parish of Ecclesfield, for when he founded and 
 amply endowed the college at Rotherham, he provided that, in 
 the election of pupils into that college, the parishes of 
 Rotherham and Ecclesfield were to have a preference, and the 
 provost of the college had, for part of his duty, to preach the 
 word of God in the parishes of Rotherham and Ecclesfield. 
 There is evidence in the Archbishop's will that he regarded 
 himself as closely identified with the parish, for in bequeathing 
 property in it to John Scott, his cousin, he refers to the Scotts, 
 his mother's family, having had a " small estate, descending 
 successively in the same name and blood from a time beyond 
 the memory of man." 
 
II 
 
 In the Catholic church (as from the gospel of Luke it is 
 known that the event of Christ's birth was in the night) there 
 was a mass service at midnight. In the iirst three centuries 
 of the Christian era there was probably no celebration of the 
 event ; the usage was to celebrate the death of remarkable 
 persons rather than their birth ; but in the fourth century a 
 festival was established in memory of our Lord's birth. In 
 the Western church the time fixed in the fifth century for the 
 celebration was the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of 
 Sol, on the 25th of December, though no information 
 respecting the day of Christ's birth existed. In Catholic 
 churches there was also a service at daybreak, and another in 
 the forenoon. Whether at Ecclesfield church in the fifteenth 
 century there would be the midnight and daybreak service is 
 uncertain, but no doubt there would be the mass celebration in 
 the forenoon. 
 
 After this service, dispersing worshippers exchange saluta- 
 tions. Nicholas Scott, of Barnes Hall, and his sister Anne 
 Scott (afterwards married to John Watts, of Muckleton) linger 
 to have a few words with their relative the Archbishop. The 
 horse on which he has ridden from Wortley Hall to the church 
 the servants have brought to the porch, but it is not further 
 required, for he has accepted an invitation from his Cowley 
 Castle friends to spend the remainder of that Christmas day 
 with them, and the weather being so fine, it is decided that a 
 walk over the crisp snow will be preferable to riding, for his 
 Grace, at the age of 58, is in vigorous health. The group, 
 pictured to the mind's eye, ascending the pack-horse track 
 towards the common, includes members of the Cowley house- 
 hold, namely, Nicholas Mounteney, his wife Elizabeth, the 
 sons Robert, Thomas, Alexander, Nicholas, and their sister 
 Joan, also the vicar, Thomas Clarke, who is asked to dine with 
 them, and the worthy yeoman Master Wylkinson, of Crowder 
 House. 
 
12 
 
 A Christmas dinner of those days has been often ^'""tely 
 described, and can be readily pictured, especially the dish ot a 
 boar's head, and the richly spiced globular pudding, unknown 
 in this land until introduced by the Crusaders. _ 
 
 After the feasting and the toasting and the special ob- 
 servances of the festival banquet had been gone through, how 
 natural would it be for the Archbishop to entertain the 
 assembly by words seasonable and appropriate. For those 
 around him on the dais, the distinguished scholar of Edward 
 IV.'s New College at Cambridge, and previously of that at 
 Eton, would be likely to produce (perhaps not a printed volume, 
 for only two or three years before then Caxton had issued the 
 first book printed in England, but) a manuscript copy of the 
 Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, and read the lines in 
 which the poet satirizes the monks and friars-for the Arch- 
 bishop, as well as Chaucer, was a man to appreciate much of 
 the advanced teaching of Wickliff. He knew that the poet 
 had given offence to the clergy by adopting many of the 
 reformer's tenets, but he admired his conscientiousness and 
 zeal in the pursuit of truth. He did not think the worse of 
 him for lacking the courage to prefer martyrdom rather than 
 tell what he knew of the doings of the Lollards in the City of 
 London in connection with the election of a Lord Mayor. 
 
 It is likely the Archbishop would refer to King James I. 
 of Scotland, and tell how that learned monarch, while a 
 prisoner in England, had studied Chaucer's poems, and, 
 himself a poet, written thereon, admirably, comments which 
 were published. 
 
 A good deal is known of the character, as well as the 
 prosperous career of this son of Sir John Rotheram, of 
 Rotherham, but there is no trace of bigotry or intolerance to 
 be found in his words or conduct.* John Vere, the 12th Earl 
 
 •Shakespeare thought of him, as kind and gentle, for he makes him say to 
 the young Duke of York's mother (who has exclaimed, " Go to, you parlous boy, 
 you are too shrewd."') " Good madam, be not angry with the child ! " And, " My 
 gracious lady, go, and thither bear your treasure and your goods ; for my part, 
 I'll resign unto your grace the seal I keep ; and so betide to me as well I tender you, 
 and all of yours I Come, I'll conduct you to the sanctuary." — (Rich. III., Act 2.) 
 
13 
 
 of Oxford, observing the high merits of his fellow collegian, 
 chose him for his chaplain, and his connection with that 
 nobleman brought him under the notice of the king, Edward 
 IV., who took him into his own service, and finding him to be 
 an able and steady partisan of the House of York, treated him 
 with marked favour; made him Provost of Beverley, and 
 Keeper of the Privy Seal ; then Bishop of Rochester, 1467 ; 
 then Bishop of Lincoln, 1471, and while he was Bishop of 
 Lincoln he had, in 1474, committed to his custody the Great 
 Seal, the possession of which constituted him the Lord High 
 Chancellor of England. He also became chancellor of the 
 University of Cambridge. The King, given to pleasure and 
 indulging in indolence — unless excited by some great peril, 
 when he could display much energy and courage— threw upon 
 his minister all the common cares of government. 
 
 In 1480, the High Chancellor became also Archbishop of 
 York. On the 24th January, 1482, he opened Edward IV. 's 
 last parliament with a speech from the text, " Dominus illumi- 
 natio mea et salus mea." We can form a pretty good idea as 
 to what sort of a man he was when, at Christmas the same 
 year, he was the guest at Cowley of Squire Nicholas Mounteney. 
 The scene, if we can recall it after four centuries have passed, 
 may help us to enjoy the leisure and social intercourse of the 
 Christmas present. 
 
 As the host, his family, and his guests are grouped around 
 the large wood fire in the hall of the mansion, " castle-like 
 and moated," how natural is it for the conversation to include 
 the work the Archbishop is engaged in in his native town. 
 The previous year, 1481, after his promotion to the see of 
 York, he had started his new college project, and he was 
 remaining in the neighbourhood to ensure it being carried out 
 according to his design and intent ; and there is talked about 
 the building of a church at Rotherham, on an extensive scale, 
 and with ample means, on the site of the old, small Saxon 
 edifice ; and the assistance which Roland Bilton, the Abbot of 
 
14 
 
 Rufford, and Henry CornebuU, the Archdeacon, are affording 
 the Archbishop in his laudable undertaking. The new style of 
 Gothic architecture, called Three-pointed, or Perpendicular, 
 selected, and which is the style adopted in the erection of the 
 King's St. George's Chapel, at Windsor, is discussed. Master 
 Wylkinson makes a remark about the condition of the labourers 
 employed on the farms, which opens the question whether the 
 recent wars of the Roses have not put an end to serfdom or 
 villenage, and if that be not " a consummation devoutly to be 
 wished." 
 
 Later in the evening, the fair Joan, the sole daughter of 
 the house, is urged to let her sweet voice and wel practised 
 fingers contribute to the hilarity, sober and restrained as was 
 customary on such occasions at Cowley, though as much 
 cannot be said of houses generally. She consents to be led to 
 her harp, and there is merriment in the music she discourses ; 
 though her cheerfulness is rather assumed than real, for she 
 is somewhat troubled by a foreboding that an admirer — a 
 worthy gentleman in the King's service — for whom she has an 
 affection, will be compelled to marry a lady whom the King 
 assigns to him. Suiting her music to her mood, after singing 
 a number of lively and humourous songs, she selects an old 
 Troubadour lyric referring to a Persian monarch's court, 
 where was a young maiden, fair as Esther, firm of purpose as 
 the beautiful Queen Vashti, and whom the min'strel tells of as 
 having shown self-sacrifice in a most extraordinary way. The 
 song affirms that she was driven to the dire expedient of 
 staining her skin a reddish colour rather than be made to marry 
 a satrap whom she hated, instead of the prince to whom she 
 was betrothed, and who was so devotedly her lover that, rather 
 than lose her, he approved her desperate resolve. 
 
 At the conclusion of the harp-accompanied recital of this 
 Eastern story, the singer of it for a moment or two touches 
 softly the strings in continuance of the strain, and then adds 
 commentatory verses of her own, expressing her sentiments in 
 
15 
 
 regard to compulsory marriages, and hinting at what she 
 icnows to be the disturbed feeling of the Princess Elizabeth in 
 view of the precariousness of her position. The Archbishop, 
 as Chancellor, has great influence in the royal household, and 
 the verses are sung to awaken or stimulate his sympathy. 
 
 Modernized, as regards both the words and their metrical 
 arrangement, the lady's verses, headed, in the ancient manu- 
 script, " Stiches sung at Christmas by Joan Mounteney," 
 read thus : — 
 
 If that banished young man from the Court Ispahan 
 
 And the lady each other thus loved, 
 It is well that their wrongs should have place in our songs 
 
 Till the burdens we bear are removed. 
 
 Thus disfigured for life that she might be his wife ! 
 
 We might doubt if that ever could be 
 If we had not in view of ourselves, what is true. 
 
 For 'tis certain we here are not free. 
 
 We're of those who the most of their chivalry boast, 
 
 But 'tis less than a chivalrous thing. 
 When an heiress's hand is assigned with her land, 
 
 Though the act of s lord or a king ! 
 
 The practice is vile in this feudal-cursed isle, 
 
 Of treating sweet flow'rs as weeds ! 
 Pure affection ignored, to advantage a lord, 
 
 Or a dynasty, rarely succeeds. 
 
 'Tis said, on the morn when the Princess was born. 
 
 That her father determined a scheme 
 or alliance — as if he could measure her life, 
 
 And the love Heaven gives were a dream ! 
 
 When but nine summers old to be bartered or sold, 
 
 Is betrothal not such as is bless'd ; 
 But as yet not a bride, nor as yet set aside 
 
 Is her state, and 'lis oneof unrest. 
 
 When I say to her why does your ladyship sigh ? 
 
 She doth naught of the wherefore confess: 
 If I ask of a breeze why it sighs in the trees, 
 
 Though I have no reply, I can guess. 
 
 The Archbishop applauds, and remarks, " The Princess is 
 virtuous and amiable, and grieved should I be were she to be 
 married against her will, and to one who would not be kind to 
 her. Ministers of State have great responsibility resting upon 
 them in connection with such marriages. It is a great national 
 misfortune at times, when Royal personages are wrongly mated. 
 While it is true that only when affection is the basis of the 
 union is a marriage what it ought to be, Cupid not seldom is 
 
I6 
 
 a most mischievous intermeddler. If our King had not fallen in 
 love with the widow of Sir John Grey while the Earl of War- 
 wick was negotiating for him a marriage with the sister of the 
 King of France, we should not have had so much fighting for 
 the crown during the last twenty years. I was not the King's 
 Chancellor when that treaty was arranged in 1475. The Great 
 Seal had passed into the hands of Bishop Gray of Ely, who being 
 a fluent master of the French language, was better suited than 
 myself to accompany the King and negotiate the treaty with 
 Louis. I am not responsible for that clause in the deed signed 
 on the bridge of Pecquigny ! The Great Seal was not returned 
 to me until the 20th of August, 1480, two years ago. I am 
 supposed to be an adviser of His Majesty now, but neither he 
 nor I know what the Dauphin intends." Addressing Joan 
 Mounteney, he adds, " Have you lately heard any news of the 
 Princess ?" 
 
 She replies, " Sir John Saville has arrived at Tankersley 
 from London, and he brings the news he heard talked about 
 just before he left. He says it is rumoured, and Lady Paston 
 believes it to be true, that the Dauphin is to be married to 
 Margaret, the daughter of Maximilian of Austria and Maria of 
 Burgundy, notwithstanding the treaty of Pecquigny." 
 
 "That is not bad news," remarks the Archbishop, "unless 
 the Princess has got to like him. Is that making her unhappy ?" 
 
 Joan replies : " I know nothing of her not liking him ; but 
 the suspense is very trying, and must cause a state of unrest. 
 She knows that her feelings will not be considered by those 
 who will make it their business, and have the power, to dispose 
 of her in marriage. For the past seven years there has been 
 over her life a cloud of uncertainty and danger, and she has 
 not been free from the apprehension that it may become a storm- 
 cloud of suffering and dire misfortune. She knows, of course, 
 what has been the fate of her uncle, the Duke of Clarence, and 
 how cruelly many others have been treated." His Grace then 
 observes : " The King will be very angry if a scheme for which 
 
17 
 
 he has always had a peculiar fondness should be frustrated. 
 He will awake to the treachery of the French King, and 
 rush forthwith into war." 
 
 The Vicar here exclaims : " My feelings are not so much 
 exercised by the Princess not being free to choose a husband, 
 as in regard to the affairs of the heart of another lady with 
 whom I sympathise, but whom I hope to congratulate, some 
 day, when the obstacles she has to contend against will be over- 
 come. I happen to know that a certain gentleman, who, when 
 he made the promise to the King, swears that he was deceived — 
 was not told why the King wished him to marry the lady, and 
 that not ' all the King's horses nor all the King's men' will be 
 able to drag him to fulfil that promise." 
 
 " Ah !" says Squire Mounteney, " the course of true love 
 never did run smooth ; but unmarried priests, like our friend 
 here, although they have many things confided to them in the 
 Confessional, know little of the contingencies and experiences 
 of the course true love travels upon." 
 
 " That may be," replies Vicar Clarke, " but it is not from 
 choice I forego the experience !" 
 
 " I may say the same," says the Archbishop, " but still 
 we know a good deal. For instance we know the story of the 
 maiden Rebecca, who was left free to go or not go with Eliezer, 
 the messenger sent to deliver to her Isaac's offer of marriage ; 
 which Hebrew incident is a good basis for an argument on the 
 question whether our feudal usages are justifiable or otherwise. 
 Who can deny it was wrong for the young heiress of Hallam- 
 shire, Matilda Lovetot, while a child seven years old, to be 
 compelled to be betrothed to Gerard Farnival ? or deny it was 
 wrong for Isabella of France, when only eight years old, to be 
 married to our Richard II., as his second wife ? Ere long the 
 stories in the Bible will be better known by our people. The 
 printed pages of Wickcliffe's translation are sure to be read, if 
 only from curiosity. The invention of printing will have a 
 prodigious effect in many ways. It will help to turn the world 
 
upside down." This remark leads to a conversation as to the 
 books, beside the Bible, likely to be printed, and if they will be 
 cheap or dear. The Archbishop remarks " the time will come 
 when printed books will be cheap ; but they are not cheap yet, 
 as I happen to know, for three years ago I gave 27 volumes to 
 the University Library, and they cost a good deal of money. 
 There are a few I know of, recently published, I am desirous to 
 purchase. One is a folio from Caxton's press, entitled ' Con- 
 fessio Amantis,' by Sir John Gower, the Poet Laureate, and 
 Chief Justice of the Common Pleas ; and another is 'Caesar's 
 Commentaries on the War in Gaul,' a quarto, printed only four 
 months ago at Venice. In this the Latin words are 
 admirably well printed, on good paper, and there is at the 
 beginning of each part a blank space left for the initial letter 
 to be ornamentally traced by a brush or a pen." 
 
 This allusion to the adorning of books reminded Joan of 
 her ancestor Lady Joan Furnival's illuminated missal, and she 
 said, " I must show your Grace a something our family 
 possesses of that sort, which is very beautiful, and which 
 proves how skilfully, a hundred years ago, a monk, who was 
 an accomplished artist, could embellish a volume." It was 
 produced, and the Archbishop examined the miniatures and 
 heraldic decorations carefully and admiringly. " Verily," he 
 said, "this is an heirloom to be treasured. Here is Furnival 
 impaling Lovetot, and here Mounteney impaling Furnival. 
 This and the Luterel Book were probably executed by the 
 same person." 
 
 There was also shown to him a seal, of beautiful device 
 and workmanship, executed for the same lady, which has on it 
 the representation of the branch of a tree, having suspended 
 from it, on each side of the trunk of the tree, a shield, one of 
 which bears the arms of Furnival and the other those of 
 Mounteney, and having around them the inscription Sigillvm 
 JoHANNE DE FuRNivAL. This Seal is appendant to a deed 
 which, being extant, authenticates those Mounteney records 
 
19 
 
 between the lines of which imagination finds space to idealize. 
 That deed is worded thus : — " Sciant presentes et futuri, quod 
 ego Johanna Mounteney filia et hseres Thomse Mounteney, 
 quondam uxor Thomas Furnivall Chr. dedi. concessi, &c. 
 Johanni Mounteney Alio meo manerium meum de Bulcotes 
 cum omnibus pertinentiis in Com. Nott. Dedi etiam prsedicto 
 Johanni omnia terra et tenementa prata, &c., in Risheton juxta 
 Rothewell in Com. Northampt. &c., ac in Swynton et Scoles 
 in Com. Ebor. Habend, &c., prsedicto Johanni heredibus et 
 assignatis suis, &c. Data apud Shierclyffe in Com. Ebor. in 
 festo Sci Marteni Episcopi in hyeme 15, Rio. II." 
 
 Absent from this vision of Christmas long ago, cannot be 
 the something spiced, in an earthenware bowl, which the 
 festival-keepers partake of. Whether it be the pure unfuselled 
 product of the grape, such as the English people ought to be 
 able to obtain from abroad in these days, the dreamer ventures 
 not to affirm. Whatever be the beverage — harmless or other- 
 wise — the friends continue their conversation until a somewhat 
 late hour. The final topic of the evening is the new parliamen- 
 tary enactment touching " excess of apparel." The discussion 
 of it elicits no Utile merriment, for there is freely expressed 
 the probability that as the Chancellor is Chairman of the 
 House in which the Bill was introduced, he had a good deal to 
 do with it. Squire Mounteney's son Nicholas protests against 
 the privileges in it allowed to the nobility. " Because I am 
 not a lord," says he, " I am not to wear a mantle as short as I 
 fancy will suit me best ! " 
 
 There is cheerfulness suited to the season beaming in 
 every countenance, when at length the Archbishop pronounces 
 the benediction, " Gratia Domini nostri Jesu Christi sit 
 vobiscum," and the party separates, each one to sleep — per- 
 chance to dream ! 
 
PART THIRD. 
 
 Edward IV. died the year after the Christmas-day on 
 which Joan Mounteney had been referring to the disturbed feel- 
 ings of that King's daughter. The event was not only important 
 as affecting the Princess, but in regard to the young lady Joan, 
 for there was, owing to the King's death, no further interference 
 with the freedom of her friend and admirer, who was expected to 
 marry, not as he desired, but as best served the interests of the 
 selfish and sensual monarch. Ere another Christmas-day came 
 round she became — if a dream can supply what history fails to 
 record — the bride of a man, nameless in the pedigree of 
 her family, but of whom there is mention in the notes of the late 
 John Charles Brook, Esquire, Somerset, herald-at-arms, and 
 from whose record Mr. Hunter, for his " History of Hallam- 
 shire," constructs the following paragraph : — 
 
 "On the 2ist of February, 15 Henry VI., 1436, Robert 
 Normanton, vicar of Ecclesfield ; Richard Pigburn, of Scausby; 
 John Skyres, of Wath ; Thomas Greff, of Sturch hill ; and 
 John Wilson, of Wadsley, granted to John Howsley and Joan 
 his wife, for their lives, all the lands, &c., which they (as 
 trustees) had the gift of, of the said John Howsley, within the 
 bounds of Chapel, in the parish of Ecclesfield, to hold, &c., to 
 the said John and Joan his wife ; remainder to William, son 
 of John, and the heirs male of his body; remainder to John, 
 brother of William ; remainder to the right heirs of the 
 father." "John Howsley appears in 1505, and Thomas 
 Howsley in 1532." 
 
 The John Howsley, who was alive in 1505 (twenty-three 
 years older than he was in 1482), was married at Ecclesfield 
 church by Archbishop Rotheram, and, by that friend of h 
 bride's family, put in possession, as tenant, of Howsley Hall, 
 which the Howsley-s had lost the hold of. Vicissitudes not 
 now traceable caused the estate to pass into the hands of the 
 Wortleys, and the Archbishop, as he mentions in his will 
 bought It of Sir Thomas Wortley. His grace left it to his 
 
 is 
 
21 
 
 relative John Scott, a cousin, and on May 14th, 1560, Anne 
 Scott marrying Thomas Howsley, the manor passed again into 
 the Howsley family, and in 1594, by the marriage of Anne 
 Howsley to Gerard Freeman, to the Freemans. 
 
 The fact is on record that Richard HI., after the death of 
 his wife Lady Anne, put pressure upon Archbishop Rotheram 
 to use his influence with the dowager Queen, the widow 
 of Edward IV., in order to promote Richard's scheme of 
 marrying himself to his niece, the Princess Elizabeth. He 
 was equal to any act of either crime or folly. He had put the 
 Archbishop in the tower for handing the great Seal to Edward 
 IV. 's widow, but he could be liberated if he would thus 
 promote the unscrupulous Richard's scheme. There is uncer- 
 tainty as to what the Archbishop did. The death of the King 
 at the battle of Bosworth relieved him of the pressure put upon 
 his conscience. Lord Campbell, in his •'' Lives of the Chan- 
 cellors," says " Rotheram certainly identified himself, so far 
 as an adherent of Richard, as to place the crown on his head 
 at his second coronation at York." Richard III. was not twice 
 crowned. If Rotheram had taken part in a coronation at 
 York, there would be some mention of it in the memorials of 
 him in York Cathedral. Lord Campbell was misled by the 
 report of an incident which took place at a dinner at York, 
 which a writer exaggerated into a coronation. 
 
 Archbishop Rotheram died at Cawood, in Yorkshire, of 
 the plague, May 29th, 1500, aged 76 (as he was born August 
 24th, 1423). His coffin, in his vault in York Cathedral, was 
 opened in 1735, and there was found in it a well-carved bust, 
 from which the portrait of him was painted, which is in King's 
 College, at Cambridge. As he died of the plague, it is probable 
 that his body would be immediately buried, and an image of 
 him substituted in the more solemn and ceremonial interment. 
 He was one of the most conspicuous men of his day, not only, 
 says Leland, "secretary to four Kings, but Legate of the 
 Apostolic Chair." 
 
 c 
 
22 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 In these December days of Anno Domini 1892, the 
 question,— "To whom will a certain royal personage be 
 married ?" is one that is being asked. It is one that will be 
 among the topics talked about on the Christmas day nigh at 
 hand, as was discussed at Cowley Castle four hundred and ten 
 years ago the marriage of the daughter of King Edward IV. 
 
 The Princess whose name will be mentioned has had an 
 experience which assures her that, whatever be her fate matri- 
 monial, the English people believe she is worthy to have a place 
 in their affections. If, in due time, the rumour of to-day 
 should prove true — that bridal flowers are about to take the 
 place of signs of mourning, "the garment of praise for the 
 spirit of heaviness"— the news will be welcomed as glad 
 tidings in this corner of Yorkshire, as elsewhere throughout 
 the realm. 
 
 $:^^ii>i«^0 
 
 The foregoing episode was printed on the eve of last Christ- 
 mas, that the author might send a copy of it to friends whom he 
 is wont to greet when that festive season comes round. As time 
 has verified the rumour hinted at in the postscript, it is allowed to 
 remain ; and, as a further prelude to the several chapters of the 
 volume, the following supplementary and elucidatory notes are 
 appended. 
 
23 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Notes referring to records between the lines of which 
 imagination found space to dream. 
 
 Note A, page 3. Sketch of the interior of the Old Barn at 
 Cowley Manor. 
 
 To show that the manuscript dreamt of as having been found 
 in a chest in that barn, centuries after it was written, would not 
 likely to be readable by the finder, here is a fac-simile of part of a 
 letter written at Lincoln, October 12th, 1483, by King Richard III. 
 Three months after his coronation he commands the Lord Chan- 
 cellor to send him with all haste his great seal, the possession of 
 which is necessary for carrying out his schemes against the Duke 
 of Buckingham. The letter of the court official whom the King 
 had commanded to write, appears not to have been expressed in 
 
language strong enough for the humour his majesty was in, so 
 with his own pen he adds to it thus :— " We wolde most gladly 
 " ye comme yourselffe yf that ye may, and yf ye may not we pray 
 " you not to fayle, but to accomplyshe in all dyllygence oure sayde 
 " comawndement to send oure scale in contenent apone the syght 
 " heroffe as we trust you with suche as ye trust and the offycers 
 " pertenyng to attend with hyt praying you to assertayne us of 
 " your newes. Here, loved be God, us alia welle and trewly de- 
 " termyned and for to resyte the malysse of hyme that hadde best 
 " cawse to be trewe, the Due of Bokyngame, the most untrewe 
 " creature lyvyng whome with Godes Grace we shall not be long 
 " tj'Ue that we wylle be in that partyes and subdewe his malys. 
 " We assure you there was never falsse traytor better purvayde 
 " for as this berrerre Gloucestre shall shewe you." 
 
 There is evidence that a century before the time Richard III. 
 thus wrote, the language of this country had become English, As 
 early as 1385 a schoolmaster tells us that he had entirely ceased 
 to employ French in his teaching, for he found that the mother 
 tongue of the people was a far better medium for teaching the 
 Latin grammar to his boys, as they scarcely understood a word 
 of French. In 1362 the two Houses of Parliament were opened 
 with an English speech. At the same time the Government 
 enjoined the Courts of Law to have their proceedings conducted 
 in English. 
 
 Note B, page 21. Character of Richard III. : " Equal to any act 
 of crime or folly." 
 
 Dr. W. F. Collier's History contains the following para- 
 graph : — " The character of the last of the Plantagenets has 
 " been painted by the historian and the dramatist in the 
 " darkest colours. He is represented as a man cruel and 
 "treacherous, lured on by the demon of unbridled ambition to 
 " commit crimes most terrible and unnatural. Though he 
 " cannot have been a good man, yet it is due to his character 
 " to remember that the picture of Richard III., familiar to our 
 " minds, was drawn under the Tudor sovereigns,, and that, on 
 " this account, some allowance should be made for the rancour 
 
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 " of a hostile feeling." " Cannot have been a good man I" Is 
 that the way a judicious historian should remark about the 
 character of Richard III., when, apart from the words of 
 Shakespeare and prejudiced historians, he had the means of 
 inferring from facts as to which there is no uncertainty? 
 Richard's murder of his two nephews alone prevents a 
 questioning of the familiar picture painted by Elizabeth, the 
 dowager queen. She says to the king, her brother-in-law: — 
 
 Thou cam'st to earth to make the earth my hell ! 
 
 A grievous burden was thy birth to me ! 
 
 Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy I 
 
 Thy school days frightful, desperate, wild and furious ! 
 
 Thy prime of manhood daring, bold and venturous ! 
 
 Thy age confirmed, proud, subtle, sly and bloody ! 
 
 More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred ! 
 
 What comfortable hour canst thou name 
 
 That ever graced me in thy company ? 
 
 Shakespeare's Richard III., Act iv., Scene 4. 
 
 Turk-like as was the morality of that age, when princes did 
 
 not scruple to destroy life either within the circle of their own 
 
 family or out of it when it suited their interests to do so, this 
 
 king's foul murders were too heinous to admit of the slightest 
 
 extenuation. 
 
 Note C, page 8. — The arbitrary disposal, in feudal iitites, by 
 marriage, of heiresses. 
 
 All heirs and heiresses, being wards of the king, were by him 
 given in marriage, and this "indefensible point of the feudal 
 system " continued until the early part of the reign of Charles I. 
 
 What that feudal system was, some of the customs of which 
 existed among our Anglo ancestors, but which was mainly trans- 
 planted here by William of Normandy, is well shown in Hallam's 
 " History of the Middle Ages," and also in Sir Francis Palgrave's 
 " Proofs and Illustrations of the Origin of the English Common- 
 " wealth." 
 
 The claims of the lord of the fief in connection with wardship 
 and marriage were based upon the conditions upon which the land 
 was held. The victorious Franks shared according to their rank 
 or merit, but the chief, or leader of the army, had not the power 
 of supreme disposal, and did not, as some writers suppose, divide 
 
26 
 
 among his followers the conquered lands, to be held on condition 
 of their rendering him service. Too proud a spirit of independence 
 reio-ned among those tierce warriors to admit of any such arrange- 
 ment. Each felt his mdividual importance and looked for his 
 share of the spoil, not as a gift from his leader, but as his right. 
 He watched with the greatest jealousy the claims of his sovereign, 
 as the following story shows. " Clovis, King of the Franks, when 
 " plundering a church at Soissons of its rich utensils, appropriated 
 " to himself a splendid vase over and above what fell to his share ; 
 " but one of his soldiers dashing it to pieces with his battle-axe, 
 " exclaimed, 'You shall have nothing here but what falls to you by 
 "lot.'" The property acquired in the first instance by the 
 subordinate chieftains was subject to their appearing in defence 
 of the commonwealth, but it was not subject to other obligations. 
 The kings, however, received a much larger share than any of 
 their officers. Royal demesnes were appropriated to the king for 
 his own use and for the maintenance of his dynasty, and of these, 
 in many cases he made grants under certain conditions to his 
 favourites. 
 
 Military service was expressly annexed to these grants. 
 Charlemagne required the possessors of such estates to take the 
 field in person, but those who held lands allotted to them, and 
 which they owned absolutely, had only to furnish soldiers, the 
 rate being one for every three farms. This was feudalism in 
 France, but in England there was a modification of the system. 
 There is no land here that is not held of the sovereign (Nuttall's 
 Dictionary anent the word allodium is my authority for this 
 assertion). Whatever might have been the custom in Normandy, 
 it is clear that in this country the lord of the fief was the guardian 
 of the heir during his minority. He had the custody of his person 
 and of his lands, without rendering any account of the use made 
 of the profits. In the case of a male, the guardianship continued 
 until the minor arrived at the age of twenty-one ; in the case 
 of a female it terminated at the age of fourteen. Before she 
 attained that age her lord could offer her in marriage to whom he 
 pleased, provided it was without disparagement or inequality of 
 rank. The husband of the heiress had to do suit and service for 
 
27 
 
 her. If the lady refused the alliance, she had to forfeit from her 
 estate as much as the person to whom her hand had been offered 
 would have given for having been selected. The penalty was 
 more severe if she married without the baron's consent ; for in 
 that case a fine equal to double _what an alliance with her was 
 valued at was exacted by her ruthless sovereign. In addition to 
 this, the feudal lord in England extended his authority over the 
 daughters of all his vassals, not allowing any of them to be 
 married without paying a certain sum, so that marriage yielded 
 him an abundant revenue. 
 
 Ancient records abound with evidence of this arbitrary 
 authority being exercised by the crown ; for instance, we read 
 that Joan, a cousin to Nigell de Fossard, an heiress, was given 
 in marriage to Robert de Turham by Richard I. That monarch 
 was not on the throne when he selected a husband for Matilda 
 Lovetot, but his father, Henry II., deputed his son Prince Richard 
 to act for him. 
 
 The date of the marriage of Edward IV. with Elizabeth, the 
 widow of Sir John Grey and daughter of Sir Richard Wydeville 
 and his wife Jacqueline, widow of the regent Bedford, was IVIay 
 1st, 1464, and the date of the birth of the Princess Elizabeth, 
 Edward IV. 's eldest daughter, February nth, 1466. She was 
 not therefore quite nine years old on August 25th, 1475, when the 
 Peace Treaty was signed at the Bridge of Pecquigny, containing 
 a clause which promised she should be the wife of the Dauphin. 
 
 The widow Lady Grey appeared before the king to plead for a 
 recognition of the right of her two sons to certain estates, and thus 
 she became known to him, and came into matrimonial competion 
 with the Lady Bona of Savoy, the King of France's sister, for 
 whom the Earl of Warwick had been sent to negotiate on King 
 Edward's behalf. One of those two sons was Henry Grey, 
 Marquis of Dorset, the father of Lady Jane Grey, the accom- 
 plished, virtuous, and unfortunate young lady who, when scarcely 
 seventeen years old, was beheaded owing to her having been, 
 against her will, proclaimed queen after the death of Edward VI. 
 
28 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots, was one week old when, in December, 
 1542, her father, James V., died, and her uncle, Henry VIII., 
 immediately conceived the idea of marrying her to his son 
 Edward, who, born October 12th, 1537, was five years older. 
 
 Note D, page 8. The Treaty of Peace at Picquigny. 
 
 There is extant, in the Public Record Office, the document 
 on which is written the minute of the proceedings of a council 
 held in the English camp, near Peronne, on August 25th, 1475, 
 at which council King Edward IV. empowered certain persons in 
 his retinue to treat with Louis XI. of France for peace. The 
 document bears King Edward's signature and that of brothers 
 Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and George, Duke of Clarence. 
 
 Note E, page 10. The reference in the Will of Archbishop 
 Rotheram to jfohn Scott. 
 
 The John Scott mentioned on page 10 would be either the 
 son of the Archbishop's uncle Scott, the brother of his mother 
 Alice Scott, or the son of the Archbishop's brother George 
 Rotheram, who might have taken the name of Scott. The 
 evidence is conflicfting and someone has blundered, probably 
 owing to the Archbishop being styled " Thomas Scott, alias 
 " Rotheram," in the " Succession of the Archbishops of York." 
 
 The words in the Archbishop's will, " Item volo, quod 
 " Johannes Scott, consunguineus meus," show that the John Scott 
 to whom he bequeathed the manor " De Bernes" was a blood 
 relation, but are indefinite as to what was that relationship. 
 
 " Richard St. George, Norroy-King-at-Arms," says Hunter, 
 " on his visitation to the northern parts, 1612, subscribed a 
 "pedigree declaring that it 'was well proved by authenticall 
 " ' matters,' in which it was stated that the Archbishop of York 
 " and Lord Chancellor of England died in May, 1500, aged 76, 
 " that his brother married and had Sir Thomas and George. 
 " George had John, who had Richard Scott of Barnes Hall, who 
 " had Nicholas, who had Thomas, married to Isabel, daughter to 
 " Arthua Alcock, of London, by whom Richard, living in 1612, Sir 
 " Richard Scott founded the hospital near Barnes Hall, and 
 " endowed it with thirty pounds per annum." 
 
2g 
 
 Dr. Gatty's son, Mr. Alfred Scott Gatty, who is a genealogist 
 and Rouge Dragon at the Heralds' College, writes in a paragraph 
 quoted in " A Life at one Living " : — " He (the Archbishop) was 
 
 " son of Sir Thomas Rotheram, knight, by Alice , most 
 
 " probably Alice Scott of Ecclesfield, his wife, and he was born 
 " at Rotherham." 
 
 This is undoubtedly true, and Hunter is wrong in regarding 
 the Archbishop's brothers. Sir Thomas and George, and the 
 descendants of the latter, including Sir Richard of Barnes Hall, 
 as all inheriting the name of Scott. The sentence on page 1 1 
 beginning with the words " Nicholas Scott, of Barnes Hall, and 
 his sister Anne," &c., which is somewhat inexact, as dreams are 
 wont to be, would have been more chronological if worded thus : 
 " Richard Scott, of Barnes Hall, and his wife, the daughter of 
 Edward Barber, of Rowley, linger to have a few words with 
 their relative the Archbishop." 
 
 Note F, page 17. Treachery of the French King. 
 
 Louis XL, before he succeeded to the French crown, married 
 Margaret, one of the daughters of James L of Scotland and his 
 wife Joan Beaufort. It is in accordance with what history affirms 
 of the character of Louis for the English Chancellor Rotheram to 
 be imagined to say he was " treacherous," for he is described as 
 " crafty, cruel and cold-hearted.'' 
 
 Note G, page ig. The Wine likely to have been provided at the 
 Cowley Manor Banquet. 
 
 There is extant a letter dated 1386, written by Richard n.,in 
 which he instructs the Chancellor to issue a patent for the 
 securing, every Christmas, to Elizabeth, Prioress of St. Magdalen, 
 at Bristol, a tun of Gascony wine. 
 
 Note H, page 16. 
 
 Which of the Sir John Saviles is the one here mentioned, 
 as brino-ing news from London to Tankersley, should be made 
 clear. A glance at the pedigree sheet of the Saviles will assist 
 the reader. The Sir John who had been in company with Lady 
 Joan Paston was her son-in-law— the Sir John Savile who, by the 
 
30 
 
 death of his grandfather at Sandal Castle, had in that year of the 
 dream, 1482, come into possession of the family estates, his father 
 having died previously. By his marriage with Elizabeth, the 
 daughter of Sir William and Lady Paston, his relations with the 
 Court of Edward IV. would be such as, when honours were being 
 distributed, to put him in the way of participating. He was ap- 
 pointed to be Captain of the Isle of Wight. In his own county 
 he was sheriff. In the Public Record Office, reference to him are 
 met with, as in the following entry : Nov. igth, i Henry VII., 
 1485, " Mandate to the treasurer and chamberlain of the 
 " Exchequer; reciting that Sir John Savyle, Knt., had been 
 " appointed by Richard, late in dede and not in righte, King of 
 " England, Lieutenant and Captain of the Isle of Wight, with 
 " power to ordain and depute under him all manner of officers 
 '■ there, and that certain fees and wages were granted therewith, 
 " and that he had had great costs and charges in the keeping 
 " of the said Isle of Wight, and has not had payment thereof 
 " from Easter to Michaelmas last : to pay all the said wages, 
 " fees, &c. during the said term, to which his letters patent 
 " entitle him." P.S. No. 473. 
 
 A family pedigree is not an uninteresting document if the 
 persons of whose names it is composed — or some of them — are 
 worthy of being remembered, and their doings recorded. The 
 utility of that mode of placing before the eye the position of each 
 individual in relation to the lineage to which he belongs is obvious. 
 Annexed to the chapter upon Tankersley, is one of the Savile 
 family, and also one compiled from English history, showing how 
 the Tankersley Saviles and the Wortleys are linked with the Royal 
 line, by the marriage of their ancestor, in the fifteenth century, 
 with the daughter of Lady Joan Beaufort, whose father, Edmund 
 Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, was grandson to John of Gaunt, son 
 of Edward III., and how, from three sons of that monarch, Lionel, 
 Duke of Clarence, John, Duke of Lancaster, and Edmund, Duke 
 of York, were descended the disputants engaged in the long war 
 of the roses, nearly ended in the latter part of the reign of 
 Edward IV., and of which, in 1485, the battle of Bosworth was 
 the final conflict. The same genealogical sheet shows that the 
 
31 
 
 Joan Beaufort, who was the wife of James I. of Scotland, was 
 aunt to Lady Paston, the mother of Lady Savile of Tankersley. 
 
 Note J, page 12. The Prisoner, King Raines I. of Scotland. 
 
 The sUght reference on this page to the cultured prince is 
 not all that need be said about him in these '■ Researches." His 
 wife, Joan Beaufort, being sister to Lady Paston's father, Edmund 
 Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, is fair reason for surmising that 
 Archbishop Rotheram would be likely to refer to him as a 
 student of Chaucer's poems. The Archbishop would be likely 
 to know a good deal of the interesting story of his eighteen years' 
 captivity — probablj' more than is known in these da3's — and he 
 would know that the ancestor of the wife of the captive prince, 
 the Catherine Synford, who was Duchess of Lancaster, was 
 sister-in-law to the poet Chaucer, for Chaucer was born in 
 Picardy, his father being an attendant on Philippa of Hainault, 
 the queen of Edward IIL 
 
 The story of the eighteen years captivity of James L of 
 Scotland is interesting, and as he was, as shown, the husband 
 of Joan Beaufort, the aunt of the Lady Joan, whose daughter 
 Sir John Savile married, it comes within the scope of these local 
 " Researches." It may, for the benefit of youthful students of 
 English history, be thus briefly related : — 
 
 Robert H. of Scotland, dying in 1389, the crown came to his 
 son Robert IIL, whose eldest son was David, Duke of Rothsay, 
 inhumanly starved to death in Falkland Palace, by his uncle, the 
 Earl of Fife. King Robert III. was of weak intellect, and lacked 
 the power to assert his rights and to punish his brother who 
 committed that murder. To save his younger son, then in his 
 tenth year, from a similar fate, he determined to send him to 
 France to be educated. On the way thither the youth was so ill 
 from sea-sickness that he was landed that he might have tem- 
 porary relief from it, at a place on the coast of Norfolk ; but while 
 there he was seized by some mariners of the seaport Clay and 
 taken before the English king, Henry W ., who, that he might 
 have a hostage for the good behaviour of Scotland, placed him 
 in the tower. The prince had been furnished by his father with 
 
3^ 
 
 a letter to King Henry in case accident should throw him on the 
 English coast, and this he presented and begged to be allowed to 
 return home, but Henry, unmoved by his " frantic appeals," 
 resolved on detaining him. 
 
 One reason for his retention is thus described — "About this 
 " time a person appeared in Scotland who was supposed to be the 
 " dethroned King Richard II., although that Prince was declared 
 " by Henry IV. to have died long ago. The Duke of Albany 
 "took him under his charge, and, being anxious that the young 
 " Prince James should be detained in England so that he might 
 " himself enjoy the government without interruption, held up the 
 " mysterious person who had fallen into his hands as a kind of 
 "bugbear to the English sovereign, insinuating that if the right- 
 " ful heir of Scotland should be let loose, so also should the 
 " rightful monarch of England. Thus the two usurpers (for such 
 " they might both be considered) kept each other in check, very 
 " much after the manner of two ordinary felons who knew each 
 " other's secrets." 
 
 The amiable old king, Robert III., did not long survive the 
 captivity of his son, and the government falling into the hands of 
 the Earl of Fife, who became Duke of Albany, and Regent, that 
 unscrupulous ruler found in the absence of the heir to the throne 
 too many advantages to take any serious measures for his ransom, 
 though, to preserve appearances, ambassadors were sent annually 
 in form to England, under pretence of demanding the release of 
 the prince. But the two Courts understood each other too well, 
 and James continued to remain a captive. 
 
 It is to the credit of the English king, Henry IV., that he 
 had his prisoner well educated. The proof that he did this is in 
 the fact that the Scotch captive became the most accomplished 
 prince of his age and one of the wisest. He had been instructed 
 in the sciences and liberal arts, in oratory, jurisprudence and 
 philosophy, while he was not untrained in all the exercises then 
 usually practised by young men of rank, such as tilting, wrestling, 
 archery and horsemanship. His studies no doubt soothed many 
 a weary hour of solitary restraint. 
 
53 
 
 In 1413 he was removed to Windsor Castle, and in 1416 
 received permission, on giving security for his return, to visit his 
 native country. 
 
 In 1419 he accompanied Henry V. to France that he might 
 use his influence in getting 7,000 Scotchmen to return home, who 
 were aiding the French against the English armies, a scheme 
 which seemed likely to be, but was not, successful. 
 
 He appears to have studied Chaucer and Gower, and 
 himself written some charming verses. Even at this day 
 there are ballads of his that are said to be popular, namely, 
 " Peebles to the Play," and " Christ's Kirk on the Green." The 
 best of his writings which have come down to us, is, " The King's 
 Quhaer (the King's Quire, or Book). A copy of this poem, pre- 
 served in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, was printed in 1783, 
 the editor being William Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee. The 
 Royal Poet's verses, written after his first sight, from the window 
 of his place of captivity in Windsor Castle, of the young lady Joan 
 Beaufort, who became his wife, are in the allegorical style of the 
 age, and not devoid of touches of feeling and imagination. 
 Shakespeare would be likely to appreciate them, if, as is likely, he 
 found a copy among the manuscripts he examined and culled 
 from. 
 
 The obsolete words and obscure lines in the poem are too 
 many for its insertion here verbatim, but the portions of it as to 
 vk'hich there is no uncertainty, may be thus, without the metrical 
 form being adhered to, briefly reproduced : — 
 
 " Bewailing in my chamber all alone, despairing of all joy 
 and remedy, tired of my thoughts, and woe-begone, I walked to 
 the window to see the world outside and any one who might be 
 passing ; and thus to look did me good. 
 
 "Now by the tower's wall was a fair garden, and in the corner 
 of it an arbour, and all the place was planted with trees, and 
 hedges of hawthorn, and so thick were the green boughs they 
 shaded the paths. There was the green sweet juniper growing 
 fair, and on its small green twigs sat the sweet little nightingale, 
 which sang loud and clear the hymns consecrate to love's use. 
 
34 
 
 " Casting my eyes down, I saw walking under the tower a 
 fairer and fresher young flower than I ever beheld before, which 
 sent all the blood of my body to my heart. No wonder for a 
 little while I was entranced ! and why ? I was so overcome with 
 pleasure and delight, my heart became the thrall of her sweet face. 
 
 " Hastily I drew in my head, but soon looking out again, I saw 
 her walking, and I said to myself. Ah ! sweet, are ye a worldly 
 creature, or a heavenly in likeness of nature ? or, are ye Cupid's 
 own princess come here to loose me out of my bondage? or are 
 ye the very goddess Nature, that has painted with your heavenly 
 hand this garden full of flowers ? What shall I think ! What 
 reverence shall I minister unto your excellence ? 
 
 " She was arrayed in rich attire. Her golden hair was arranged 
 like fretwork, with white pearls, and great precious stones glitter- 
 ing as the fire, with many an emerald and "fair sapphire, and on 
 her head a chaplet of plumes, red, white and blue. Above all 
 this there was beauty enough to make a world to dote. About 
 her neck, white as enamel, was a goodly chain of small gold 
 work, from which hung a ruby shaped like a heart. More than 
 my pen can report she was in shape and feature, womanly, 
 youthful and beautiful. 
 
 "When she had walked in the garden for a little time, beneath 
 the sweet green bending branches, she turned and went her way, 
 and to see her go, brought to me aches and torment, for I, a 
 captive, might not follow ! Methought the day was turned into 
 night !" 
 
 As the Bishop of Winchester, the Cardinal of St. Eusebius, 
 Henry IV. 's brother, schemed for the marriage of his niece to 
 the captive prince, he may be imagined to have had something to 
 do with their thus being near to each other at Windsor. 
 
 On his return from captivity to wear the crown of his fore- 
 fathers, the prince said, " If God grant me life, there shall be no 
 " spot in my realm where the key shall not keep the castle, and 
 " the brackin bush the cow, even though I should lead the life of 
 " a dog to accomplish it." 
 
35 
 
 He evidently had a high ideal of what a king should be, but 
 the age in which he lived had barbarous ways of administering 
 justice. It is said of him, " Though he reformed many abuses, 
 "made excellent laws, and conducted himself with so much firm- 
 " ness and good policy, that even to this day his name in Scotland 
 ". is held in reverence ; one of the first acts of his reign was an 
 " unhappy one, for he brought to the block nearly every surviving 
 " member of the family of Albany, though it does not appear that 
 " his cousin Murdock usurped his crown and authority as his 
 " uncle had done. Yet he and his two sons, Walter and Alexander, 
 " and his father-in-law, the Earl of Lennox, about eighty j'ears 
 "old, were all beheaded on the Castle Hill at Stirling. Joan 
 " often interceded, successfully, with her husband for criminals 
 " and traitors. In 1427, when Alexander, Lord of the Isles, was 
 '' convicted of acts of hostility, and Archibald, Earl of Douglas, 
 " suspected of treason, they were pardoned by James when his 
 " dearly loved queen begged for their lives." 
 
 " The young king had wild Highland robbers and disaffected 
 " nobles to contend with, and the battle was too much for one 
 " man." 
 
 He was so firm and decided in his dealings with the people 
 that they began to grumble and to look upon him as a tyrant. 
 He suppressed an attempt to introduce the Lollards, or Wickliffe 
 heresy, into his dominions, and (sad to say, he, lacking, like all 
 the monarchs of Christendom, perception of the high ideal of Oliver 
 Cromwell, that rulers had no right to force the conscience in 
 religious matters) allowed a Bohemian physician, one Peter 
 Crawar, who visited Scotland as a missionary of that faith, to be 
 persecuted by church officials and burnt. 
 
 He was far superior to his nobles and courtiers — a superiority 
 produced by his education while a prisoner in England. One of 
 his biographers remarks : " Among the Scottish nobles he 
 " appeared as a man among children, as a person adorned with 
 " all the accomplishments of civilization among a horde of 
 " savages, as some angel sent from heaven on an errand of 
 " chastisement among the erring, refractory, astonished mortals 
 " whom he comes to punish," 
 
36 
 
 Bearing in mind that the result of his forbearing to put to 
 death his enemy, Sir Robert Graeme, was fatal to himself, it is 
 difficult to judge as to how a ruler in that turbulent age ought or 
 ought not to have acted. It was difficult for Queen Elizabeth to 
 decide how she should deal with Mary Queen of Scots when all 
 Catholic Europe, aiding Mary, was intent upon Elizabeth's 
 overthrow. 
 
 Note K, page 13. 
 
 ■■■ If Henry VIII. had adhered to what he affirmed as to the 
 importance of preserving collegiate institutions, the Archbishop's 
 project at Rotherham might have continued to this day. The 
 King said to his hungry courtiers, flushed with abbey lands, and 
 wishing to spoil colleges also, " I tell you, sirs, that I judge no 
 land in England better bestowed than that which is given to our 
 universities." 
 
 Note L, page 18. 
 
 In the Duke of Devonshire's library, at Chatsworth, there is 
 treasured a copy of the " History of Troy," printed by Caxton, 
 and published in 1471 at Cologne, the first book printed in the 
 English language. It belonged to Elizabeth Grey, the Queen of 
 Edward IV., and the thought may be entertained that before the 
 year 1482 it would have been seen in her palace by the High 
 Chancellor Rotheram, and be one of the books he would speak 
 of that Christmas day at Cowley. 
 
37 
 
 CHAPELTOWN RESEARCHES. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 House at Greenhead, built ey A. W. in 1684— Cowley Manor, 
 "castle-like and moated," of the De Renevilles, and the Mounte- 
 NEYS ; and Hesley Hall, also rebuilt after the Lord of the Manor 
 OF Sheffield had purchased their estates. 
 
 Of the tradition that the ancient chapel which gave Chapel- 
 town its name was situated at Greenhead, Mr. Eastwood, in 
 his "History of Ecclesfield," thus writes: — "At Greenhead, an 
 old fashioned house, now divided into cottages, must have 
 been formerly a superior residence. It bears the date 1684, 
 and initials A. W. There are said to have been grave- 
 stones in front of this house almost within memory of 
 persons now living ; if so, this may have been the site of 
 the ancient chapel, but it is very doubtful." 
 
 As the late Professor Owen, from a single bone of an 
 extinct animal could make out of what sort of a creature that 
 bone was a portion, I may theorise in this matter, and, I 
 think, support the tradition, for recently I found in the garden 
 of my residence at Greenhead, while removing the material of 
 a rockery or mound, some fragments of stone deeply grooved, 
 as are grooved the stones of the arches of Early English 
 
39 
 
 Gothic church windows. I compared what I had found with 
 the slcetch of an arch shown on page i6o of Mr. Eastwood's 
 book ; and I said to myself, where did these come from ? 
 Not from a distance ; for who would be likely to bring them ? 
 They argue the existence not far from here of an ecclesiastical 
 building to which they belonged ! They certainly make less 
 doubtful the tradition that the old chapel was at Greenhead ! 
 That tradition is supported by the statement of an old inmate 
 of one of the Almshouses. She said to a person, who repeated 
 the statement to me, that her mother had been heard to say 
 that she had seen in one of the cottages in that neighbourhood, 
 what was once the altar of a church. Looking at the pieces 
 of grooved stone which I had found, in the light of the 
 tradition as to the site of the chapel, I conceived the probability 
 that the "old fashioned house," on which are to be seen the 
 letters A.W. and the figures 1684, was built of the stones of 
 that demolished place of worship.* The old chapel would 
 supply material for the present building, the stones of the outer 
 walls of which are such as are likely to have been squared for 
 the earlier building, but the stones of the arch of a church 
 window would not be available. They would be left unused, 
 become broken, be likely to remain unnoticed debris, unseen by 
 anyone with archaeological proclivities, until I discovered them 
 buried not more than fifty yards from that old house. The two 
 letters, A.W., were to me an unsolved problem until I chanced 
 to see in Whitaker's "History of the Parish of Whalley," in a 
 pedigree of a branch of the Townley family, the words : — 
 " John Wilkinson of Greenhead, Com. Ebor. Arm. had the 
 manor of Dalton, and moiety of the manor of Deighton." 
 
 I should like to know the history of that old-fashioned 
 house. I know little more than that about the beginning of 
 the present century it was the property of the grandfather of 
 
 * It is said that of the stones of the old Sheffield Castle, was built what 
 was the Grammar School, in Townhead Street, before it was located near St. 
 George's Church, in 1824. 
 
40 
 
 the late Reverend Frederick John Falding, M.A., D.D.,* 
 Principal of the Yorkshire United College at Bradford, who 
 was born at Loundside, Chapeltown, in the house now 
 occupied by Mrs. Charles Falding. 
 
 That the hamlet was formerly called Chapel, and not Chapel- 
 town is certain. It is thus named, in his enumeration of the 
 places comprising the parish of Ecclesfield, by Roger Dodsworth 
 (born 1585, died 1654), the indefatigable collector of Yorkshire 
 antiquities (whose 162 folio volumes are in the Bodleian Library 
 at Oxford). In all, except what historians would call recent 
 documents, it is written simply Chapel or Capel. As early as 
 1249, in the reign of Henry III., the name Hugh de Chapel 
 appears, along with that of Robert de Mounteney, as witness- 
 ing the signature of a charter by Matilda de Lovetot. In a 
 deed by which that lady granted certain lands in this 
 immediate neighbourhood, which had belonged to Josselin 
 de Burne, to John Camerario, there is mention of Chapel as 
 being where Burn was situated. " All the lands, in Burn, in 
 Chapel," are words in that deed which evidence that at the 
 date when Matilda de Lovetot signed it, Chapel was the name 
 of the place, and also show that, if it got its name from a place 
 of worship, the building was erected not later than the end of 
 the twelfth century. In the year 1366 there is mention of 
 " Capel near Cowley." In parish accounts of later date the 
 name, without "town" attached to it, very frequently occurs. 
 Just before 1602 there was a person carrying on the business of 
 a tanner, who is described in the will of Edward Scott, of 
 Shiregreen, as " Robert Shirtcliff of Chapel within the said 
 parish of Ecclesfield." 
 
 We know that Time not seldom has produced curious 
 transformations in names, and for a moment the question may 
 
 * Dr. Falding was a man of whom the place of his birth should have some 
 memorial. The author of this volume, a pupil at the Brampton Academy, 
 where he came to be one of the teachers, and associated with him during many 
 of the years of his Rotherham life, can testify that he was worthy of the 
 reputation to which he attained. 
 
41 
 
 be asked — Has some word of which we have no trace got 
 changed into Chapel ? However possible that may be, we 
 know for certain that there was here, many centuries ago, a 
 place of worship in connection with the Church at Ecclesfield, 
 and it was called a chapel. A separate " cure of souls " not 
 being assigned to it, there is difficulty in tracing its history. 
 
 Mr. Hunter remarks : " The records of the See of York 
 are very deficient of information respecting the origin of the 
 chapels which were of early foundation, and when these fail us 
 the utmost that can be expected is that we should fix a period 
 before which the chapels must have existed, and show on 
 probable grounds to whom the foundation is to be attributed." 
 " The addition of clericus or capellanus to the name of a 
 witness who is described of any place affords a probable 
 ground of inference that there was a chapel in the place at 
 the time he lived." 
 
 The name Chapel, or Capel, is not in the Domesday 
 Survey. If the place as a hamlet had been in existence at 
 the time of that survey, we may conclude it would have been 
 mentioned, for, says Ingulphus, "There was not a hide of land 
 in the whole of England but the king knew its value and 
 possessor, nor a lake, nor a place but it stood described in 
 the king's roll." 
 
 At some unknown date the place may be believed to have 
 got its designation in consequence of a chapel having been 
 built here either by an owner of the Cowley or the Howsley 
 estate, perhaps the latter, as Greenhead is so near to 
 Howsley Hall. Why a place of worship was thought to be 
 required in the winter months by parishioners residing some 
 two miles from the church at Ecclesfield is on record, for " On 
 September 2, 1426, Archbishop Kempe granted a license for 
 two years to Dom Robert Normanton to celebrate, or cause 
 to be celebrated, divine service in the chapel of Ecclesfield, 
 from Michaelmas next following to the octave of St. Martin 
 in winter, in both years, causa peregrinacious." 
 
42 
 
 In 1545 the Parliament granted alt colleges, chantries and 
 free chapels to King Henry VIII. "The chantry lands at 
 Ecclesfield shared the fate of more than two thousand similar 
 endowments in other parts of England, which were sequestered 
 to the use of the Crown and then granted to some favoured 
 laymen." I should like to know the name of the favoured 
 layman who got the unendowed building and plot of land at 
 Chapeltown. The Domesday survey shows that among the 
 owners of lands in Ecclesfield which Roger de Busli became pos- 
 sessed of, there were six Saxon lords who had held the six manors 
 which comprised the large parish, namely, Elsi (from which is 
 derived Elsecar), Ufac, Godric, Dunnic, Elmar and Norman. 
 To which of those lords this district was assigned is uncertain. 
 Mr. Hunter, after mentioning that there was a church at 
 Tankersley, at Hope, at Treeton and at Rotherham before the Nor- 
 man Conquest — that is before either Ecclesfield or Sheffield had a 
 church — says: "The Church of Rotherham, noticed in Domes- 
 day Book, seems to have better pretentions to be the mother-church 
 ofthehigher parts of the vale of the Don than others. Rotherham, 
 rising like Doncaster out of a station on one of the Roman high- 
 ways, was probably, like it, a place of considerable comparative 
 consequence before the Conquest." There may, however, have 
 been a Saxon church in the district which bears the name Eccles- 
 field, for the word Ecclesfelt, favours that hypothesis. 
 
 The word KIRTON, the ancient name of the place now 
 called Bradfield, suggests that there may have been a church 
 there in Saxon times. 
 
 As long ago as the eleventh or twelfth century the De 
 Renevilles owned land in this district, for a charter of Richard 
 de Lovetot mentions that the land he is granting adjoins the 
 possessions of Jordan de Busli and De Reneville. By them 
 doubtless would be brought into cultivation some of the acres 
 of the wide district laid waste by the vengeance of William I. 
 after the revolt with which Waltheof was connected. We 
 read that the Renevilles held much land of the De Lacis. 
 
43 
 
 As the Cowley family had free warren at Wath, we may 
 surmise that Rainborough Park, which is between Wath and 
 Wentworth, is a name associated with Reneville, which is also 
 written Rainville and Ranville. The farm called Reinforth, 
 between Smithy wood and Grange lane, is thought to have got 
 its designation from the same source. There is, in the Parish 
 of Ecclesfield, a farm called Mounteney-Hagg, which is a 
 perpetuation of the name. 
 
 As the manor of Cowley is not referred to in the Domes- 
 day survey, there was probably no separate holding here at 
 that date. In the Nomina villarum — an enumeration of villages 
 and towns in the ninth year of Edward II., 1316 — there is no 
 mention of a hamlet of the name Chapel. We may infer that, 
 in the days of the Renevilles, although there might have been 
 here a chapel, there were not houses sufficient in number to 
 constitute the place a hamlet. After the chapel was built, travel- 
 lers on the road or pack-horse track between Sheffield and 
 Barnsley would begin to call the place where, about half way 
 between the two towns, they stopped to bait and refresh, Chapel, 
 because the building would be there conspicuous. The exact 
 spot where was the inn would be somewhere about the present 
 market place, where are the old houses, " The Wagon and 
 Horses" and the "White Horse." On the latter there is the 
 date 1720. A little to the west is an old tenement which 
 has upon it the date 1667, and which is supposed to have 
 been long ago a public-house. It is upon the Chapeltown 
 House estate, which for two centuries was the property of 
 the Aliens of Chapeltown, and is now owned by George 
 Dawson, Esq. 
 
 Three centuries ago, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, on 
 April 1st, 1572, the Chapeltown estate of the Mounteneys 
 passed by purchase to the Earl of Shrewsbury, the lord of the 
 manor of Hallamshire. Their "stately, moated, castle-like 
 mansion" at Cowley was then demolished, and of the materials 
 the house as here pictured would be built. The site of the 
 

 1^ ^is'/fe ii\'K ■ 
 
 ■T ^^^ 
 
45 
 
 former building may; be exactly identified on an eminence 
 immediately at the back of the present Cowley Manor and 
 near to a stone quarry past which flows the "'Blackburn Beck" 
 (as the rivulet is designated in the Harleian MSS.), "the head 
 of which is at Wortley Park, and which runneth by the south 
 skirt of Tankersley by Cowley woods, sometyme the possession 
 of Mounteney. The Holbrook flows into it, for it springeth 
 in Wortley lordship, comes to Holbrook, thence to Mortemley 
 by Ecclesfield, Thunnercliffe Grange, and so into Dun at 
 Mady-hall."* 
 
 Where the road between Chapeltown and Rotherham 
 passes on the north-east, was probably part of the moat which 
 surrounded the mansion. 
 
 Dodsworth says that " the Mounteneys had at Cowley a 
 stately castle-like house, pulled down not long since by the 
 Earl of Salop, after he had purchased the lands." 
 
 Dr. Gatty words his description of the family and their 
 Cowley habitation thus: "The family of the Mounteneys, a 
 family of Knightly order through the middle ages, owned 
 Cowley Manor, which was castle-like and moated, with great 
 woods and abundance of red deer." 
 
 If the Duke of Norfolk would allow, and facilitate, some 
 excavating to be done at the well-defined site of the old 
 building, probably some relics of interest to archaeologists 
 would be discovered. 
 
 Mr. Eastwood, in his History of Ecclesfield, says : "After 
 the village of Ecclesfield, the ancient manor of Cowley claims 
 the first place, for though not mentioned in Domesday, nor in 
 the Nomina Villarum of the time of Edward H., it is of remote 
 antiquity as a separate manor from that of Ecclesfield. Jordan 
 de Reneville, son of Adam de Reneville, belonging to a family 
 which held much land of the De Lacis in various parts of their 
 fee, is the first person actually mentioned as lord of the manor 
 of Cowley ; his name occurs in a charter of Richard de Lovetot, 
 ♦ No. 8oi, Harleian MSS. 
 
46 
 
 of the twelfth century, as having lands adjoining to those given 
 to the hermitage of St. John the Baptist in this neighbourhood. 
 His daughter, Margaret de Reneville, was living in 1266, and 
 succeeded to Cowley, which thence forward became the 
 inheritance of the Mounteneys, she having married Sir Robert 
 de Mounteney, son of Arnald de Mounteney, who had married 
 a daughter of Gerard de Furnival and Maud de Lovetot. In or 
 about 1390, John Mounteney, chevalier, is returned as having 
 free warren in 'Colley, Shirtcliff juxta Sheffeld, where he had 
 a park, Ecclesfeld, Roderham and Wathe.' The Mounteneys 
 had also a residence and chapel at Shirtcliffe, and another at 
 Hesley, and continued to reside on the three estates until the 
 eldest branch of the family ended in Barbara, daughter of 
 John Mounteney." 
 
 The above-mentioned Maud de Lovetot is the young 
 heiress of Hallamshire whose hand in marriage, when about 
 seven years old, Prince Richard (coeur de lion) had the disposal 
 of, his father. King Henry H., having placed with him the 
 responsible selection of a husband for her. He assigned her to 
 his comrade in the Crusades, Gerard de Furnival. 
 
 Put genealogically the descent stands thus : — 
 
 Maud de Lovetot = Gerard de Furnival. 
 
 Their daughter = Arnold de Mounteney, younger brother of Sir Robert de Mounteney. 
 Sir Robert de Mounteney ~ Margaret de Reneville. 
 
 "The connection," says Mr. Hunter, "between the houses 
 of Mounteney and Furnival is affirmed in the received pedigrees 
 of the former family, and attested by a series of armorial 
 empalements which were once to be seen in a window of the 
 church at Ecclesfield. But the best proof is a charter which 
 Gascoigne had perused of 51 Henry HI. (1267), wherein Sir 
 Robert de Mounteney is described as nepos, that is, the grandson 
 of Maud de Lovetot." 
 
 The family named De Reneville may be thought of as 
 having held the Cowley estate at least as long ago as about 
 
47 
 
 one hundred years after what is called "the Conquest,"* that 
 is A.D. 1066. 
 
 Jordan de Reneville had no son to continue the name, and 
 his property descended to his two daughters, Margaret and 
 Aliena. Margaret was the only one of the two whose 
 descendants kept the estates in the family, for her sister 
 Aliena's son, Stephen de Bella Aqua, died without issue. 
 
 Before the Mounteneys were lords of Cowley manor, they 
 had possessions in what is now called the township of Brightside 
 Bierlow, and which, in Saxon times, was in the manor of 
 Grimshaw,t held by Ulfac, the last Saxon proprietor. " It 
 passed to De Busli and De Lovetot, but a considerable portion 
 was granted off very early to the family of De Mounteney, who 
 had a hall and park at Shiercliffe, and who claimed manorial 
 rights." Hunter says the arms of Mounteney were, " Gules a 
 bend between six martlets or," and he showsa sketch of the shield. 
 
 Within the memory of persons still living, says Mr. East- 
 wood, writing in 1862, separate courts for the manor have 
 been held at Cowley, and that there were deer in the park as 
 late as 1664. 
 
 The Mounteneys of Cowley appear to have descended, not 
 from the first name in the pedigree, Sir Robert de Mounteney, 
 but from his younger brother Arnold, thus : — 
 
 Sir Robert de Mounteney. Arnold de Mounteney, = Matilda de Furnival, daughter of 
 
 Gerard de Furnival and his wife 
 Matilda, the heiress of the 
 Lovetots, 
 
 Sir Robert = Margaret de Reneville, 
 
 de Mounteney, one of the two daughters to 
 
 whom the Reneville estates 
 descended, A.D. 1266. 
 
 The Reneville and Mounteney pedigree, as furnished by 
 Mr. West, of Rotherham, the Earl of Shrewsbury's seneschal 
 for Hallamshire, stands thus, as copied by Dodsworth : — 
 
 * In the feudal law the word conquest had not quite the meaning attached 
 to it now. It meant the acquiring of something out of the common course of 
 inheritance. In the feudal sense it is applicable to the Duke of Normandy 
 succeeding Edward the Confessor on the throne of England. In the modern 
 sense it is applicable to him as being Conqueror of Harold. 
 
 + Grimshaw and Grimesthorpe are words of the same origin. 
 
48 
 
 Adam de Reniville,= 
 
 I 
 
 Jordan de Reneville 
 Styled Lord of the Manor of Cowley 
 
 Margaret de Reneville. = Sir Robert de Mounteney. 
 Living in 1266. I 
 
 Aliena = Thos. de Bella Aqua, 
 
 Sir Robert = Constance, daughter Thomas de = Isabella. Stephen, died without issue. 
 
 de Mounteney, 
 
 of Cowley, 
 3 Ed. IL, 1310. 
 
 and heir of John 
 Saint Liz. 
 
 Mounteney. Living in 
 1287. 
 
 John 
 dc Mounteney. 
 
 Constance = John 
 Bosvile, 
 of Chevet. 
 
 Sir Thomas 
 de Mounteney. 
 Living in 1325. 
 
 I 
 
 Joan, 
 
 sole daughter 
 
 and heir, 
 
 born 1322. 
 
 died 1396. 
 
 Daughter of Hugh de Godlington. 
 
 First, the Secondly = Lord Furnival, 
 husband, called the Hasty 
 
 whose name Ob. S.P. 39, 
 
 is unrecorded. Ed, IIL, 1366. 
 
 Sir John Mounteney, Knight, so called 
 " jussu matris," 41 Edward HI., and 
 
 15 Richard II., son and heir of Joan 
 Mounteney, aged 40, 19 Richard II. 
 
 Sir John Mounteney, Knight, born 1396. 
 
 Living in 1444, when he received a 
 
 surrender of lands in the court of the 
 
 Carthusians of Coventry for their Manor of 
 
 Ecclesfield. 
 
 Thomas, born 1396, 
 Lord of the Manor of 
 
 Shirtcliffe 1451, 
 died 4th Dec, 1473. 
 
 Robert, born 
 Nov., 1397. 
 
 Nicholas Mounteney, of Shirtcliffe, Esq. 
 Will dated 6th June, 1499. 
 
 Elizabeth, daughter of John Drax, Esq., 
 by Margaret Barley his wife. 
 
 Robert Mounteney, 
 
 of Cowley, and Shirtcliffe, Esq. 
 
 Will dated 3rd Aug., 1519, on 
 
 which day he died. 
 Buried at Ecclesfield Church. 
 
 Isabel, 
 
 daughter of 
 
 Nicholas 
 
 Wortley, Esq, 
 
 Living 1499 
 
 and 1505. 
 
 I 
 
 Thomas. 
 Living 
 
 1499- 
 
 Alexander. 
 
 Living 
 
 1499- 
 
 Nicholas. 
 
 Living 
 
 1499- 
 
 Joan, 
 
 Living 
 
 1499. 
 
 I 
 
 John Mounteney, of Cowley and Shirtclifie, 
 founder of the Oratory in Ecclesfield 
 Church in 1536, died that year and buried 
 in that church. 
 
 Joan. 
 
 Living 
 
 May 24th, 
 
 1536. 
 
 Thomas, 
 
 of 
 Whealtey. 
 
 John Mounteney, of Creswick, 
 
 born at Cowley, died 1573, 
 
 buried in Ecclesfield Church, 
 
 married Maud, daughter of 
 
 George Wasteneys. 
 
 Nicholas, of 
 
 Rotherham, whose 
 
 grand -daughter 
 
 married Charles 
 
 Tooker. 
 
 I 
 Dorothy Mounteney, 
 born 17th October, 1527, 
 
 married Smethley, 
 
 died without issue 
 before 4 Edward VI. 
 
 I 
 
 Barbara, at length 
 
 sole heiress of the eldest 
 
 line of her family, 
 
 born Sep. nth, 1530, 
 
 buried at Ecclesfield 
 
 30th Nov,, 1585. 
 
 Thomas Thwaites, 
 
 of Marston, near York, 
 
 and secondly 
 
 17th Nov., 1562, 
 
 Thomas Cotton, Esq. 
 
49 
 
 Adam de Reneville, the earliest name to which the 
 pedigree goes back, would be living and be owner of Cowley 
 about the year 1200. He had a son, Jordan de Reneville, 
 whose daughter Margaret married Sir Robert Mounteney. 
 Their eldest son, Sir Robert, had no children, and Thomas 
 succeeds his brother. His name has not the prefix, sir ; but 
 it reappears in the next generation, for his son is Sir Thomas 
 Mounteney. This knight has no son, and his heir is an only 
 daughter, Joan, the name of whose first husband is, for some 
 unknown reason, omitted in the pedigree, and whose second 
 husband was Thomas, Lord Furnival. By her expressed wish, 
 (" jussu matris ") the son of her first husband and herself takes 
 her maiden name, and becomes Sir John Mounteney. He has 
 no children, and his brother Thomas is his heir. The sign of 
 knighthood in the family here disappears. His son is 
 " Nicholas Mounteney, armiger," who died in 1499, and his 
 eldest son Robert is his heir, the father of John, who founded in 
 Ecclesfield Church the oratory to which the inscription there 
 still to be seen refers. The Latin words, carved in relief on the 
 upper border of a bench, are — 
 
 " Orate pro animabus Robarte Mountney et Anne uxoris 
 ejus, ac pro bono statu Johannis Mountney et Johanne uxoris 
 ejus, qui hoc oratorium fieri fecerunt xxiiij die mensis Julii, 
 anno dni mcccccxxxvi." 
 
 " Pray for the souls of Robert Mountney and Anne his 
 wife, and for the good estate of John Mountney and Johanna 
 his wife, who caused this oratory to be made 24 day of the 
 month of July, in the year of our Lord 1536." 
 
 No doubt there is in existence somewhere the missal 
 which Mr. Hunter asks for — that curious and beautiful relic 
 of the early Mounteneys which Dodsworth saw in the hands of 
 Mr. Thomas Mounteney, of Wheatley, with adornments 
 " executed by one of the illuminators of the time for Johan de 
 Mounteney, the heiress who married Thomas Lord Furnival." 
 Mr. Hunter expresses the wish that his notice of it " may be 
 
50 
 
 means of bringing it again into view, or of drawing from its 
 fortunate possessor a more particular account of the miniatures 
 with which no doubt it was richly adorned." Dr. Gatty 
 suggests that from it was taken the picture to be seen on a 
 fragment of glass, in the church, of a lady in prayer with a 
 book open before her, and who " certainly," he says, " is Isabel 
 Wortley, who married Robert Mounteney about 1499-" 
 
 The John who founded the oratory left two daughters, 
 co-heiresses, Dorothy and Barbara. Thus, in the reign of 
 Henry VIII., the Mounteney pedigree, as had that of the 
 Renevilles, ended in two daughters, who inherited the estates. 
 One of those ladies, Barbara, was married to Thomas 
 Thwaites, of Marston, near York, who died in 1562, and his 
 widow, Barbara, daughter of John Mounteney, married 
 Thomas Cotton, no doubt of the family of the John Cotton 
 mentioned in the letters patent of King Edward VI., con- 
 ferring chantry lands at Wakefield, Ecclesfield, and other 
 places, and who is there spoken of as " our trusty servant 
 John Cotton, gentleman, in consideration of his good and 
 faithful service done to us and to our late noble father." Mr. 
 Thwaites, the brother of Mrs. Cotton's first husband, in 1568, 
 bought the manors of Cowley, Hesley, and Shiercliffe from two 
 gentlemen who probably were the executors of Thomas Cotton, 
 namely, Sir Thomas Wharton and Robert Bowes, Esquire. 
 This purchaser, John Thwaites, sold in 1572, Cowley, Shier- 
 cliffe and Hesley, to George, the Earl of Shrewsbury. 
 
 The Earl did not immediately get the property, for the 
 right of John Thwaites to sell it was disputed by his heir James 
 Thwaites, and the suit ended in his favour ; but at length all 
 difficulties were removed, and the Earl secured possession of 
 the manors. By him the old Cowley mansion was demolished 
 and the present house erected. The name of the first tenant 
 was Guest, and for two hundred years a family of that name 
 were the occupiers. In 1637, Mary Guest, a widow, pays a 
 a rent of ^^6 i8s. 5d. In 1681, a Gerard Guest there died, 
 
51 
 
 whose only daughter, Ann, was married to Robert Kirk, of 
 Anston. He became tenant, and his second son, Gerard Kirk, 
 was the next occupant, whose daughter, Ann Kirk, became the 
 wife of Mr. Thomas Smith, of Cawthorne, and he Hved at 
 Cowley, as did his son William, until he purchased Barnes 
 Hall in 1823. 
 
 The late Mr. William Smith, of Barnes Hall, of the next 
 generation, was born at Cowley, and when commencing his 
 career as a lawyer he had his office at the old house in 
 Chapeltown, where is the Post Office, where Mrs. J. Gibson 
 resides, and where is the grocer's shop of Mr. Gradwell. 
 
 In the year that Mr. Smith left Cowley Manor, John 
 Jeffcock, Esq., J. P., became its tenant, brother of the first 
 mayor of Sheffield, and father of the heroic and amiable 
 Parkin Jeffcock, the civil and mining engineer, who lost his 
 life in trying to rescue the unfortunate victims of the Oaks 
 colliery explosion, which occurred December 12th, 1866 [and to 
 whose memory there is an inscription in Ecclesfield churchyard, 
 which reads thus : " Parkin Jeffcock, late of Duffield, in the 
 county of Derby, Esq., civil engineer, eldest son of John and 
 Catherine Jeffcock, of Cowley Manor, in this parish, where he 
 was born October 27th, 1829. He died in the great explosion of 
 the Oaks colliery, near Barnsley, leading a band of volunteer 
 explorers, December 13th, 1866, and was buried here October 
 7th, 1867." A memoir of him was published by his brother, 
 the Rev. Prebendary Jeffcock, M.A., F.S.A., the present rector 
 of Wolverhampton.] Mr. Aaron Ramsden is the present 
 occupant of Cowley Manor. 
 
 After the forfeiture of the estates of the Earl of Arundel 
 during the civil war in the time of Charles I., Cowley Manor 
 was leased, along with other manors, by the Parliamentary 
 commissioners to two persons, named Philips and Holland 
 (about the year 1647 or 1648), but on November 24th, 1648, 
 the House of Commons voted that the Earl of Arundel should 
 be admitted to the composition of his estates for £6,000, regard 
 
52 
 
 being had to what loss he had suffered by the ParHament 
 forces, and that the -^6,000 should be paid for the use of the navy. 
 
 There is evidence that the Mounteney knights took part 
 in those tournaments of which such a vivid description is given 
 by Sir Walter Scott in " Ivanhoe." In 1244, in the reign of 
 Henry III., when discontented barons and knights assembled at 
 Dunstable for the ostensible purpose of holding a tournament, but 
 in reality to prosecute their political designs in connection with 
 the revolt headed by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, the 
 husband of Eleanor, the king's sister, Robert Mounteney would 
 be with them, for his name is mentioned among the names of 
 chief persons in this neighbourhood who took part with the barons, 
 and in connection with which revolt Sheffield castle was burnt. 
 
 How formidable was the power of these feudal barons is 
 indicated by what then occurred at Dunstable. The tourna- 
 ment was prohibited by royal mandate, but, in the name of the 
 assembled barons and knights, a peremptory order was sent by 
 Sir Fredk. Fit^warren to the Pope's nuncio, whose proceedings 
 had given great offence, that he should instantly quit the 
 kingdom. The authority of King Henry was insufficient to 
 protect him, and he was obliged to obey the order. 
 
 In Mr. Hunter's additional notes we find the following : — 
 " In some previously unpublished notices of the times of Ed. I., 
 given in a paper in vol. viii. of the Arch^ological Journal, p. 46, 
 among the EngHsh knights who agreed to sail to the crusades 
 with the prince, or to follow him, appears the name of Robert 
 de Mounteney, who, with two attendant knights, received three 
 hundred marks for their expenses. Only eighteen names are 
 given, and those mostly of persons of the highest stamp. 
 The prince's uncle and cousins, De Clifford, De Clare, 
 De Percy, De Wallace, etc." 
 
 "At a tournament at Dunstable, 2 E. ii., appeared Sir 
 John de Mounteney with these arms, viz. : — On abend between 
 six martlets or, a mullet zu." 
 
 Col. Top et Gen., vol. iv., p. 72. 
 
53 
 
 The knight Sir John Mounteney who took part in the 
 tournament at Dunstable in the second year of Edward II., 
 1309, would be the son of the Lady Joan Mounteney, as to 
 whose first husband there is, in the family pedigree, no men- 
 tion — the lady for whom was executed the beautiful illuminated 
 missal of which Roger Dodsworth gives a description. It was 
 seen by him at the house of one of the descendants of the 
 family, a Mr. Mounteney who resided at Wheatley, near 
 Doncaster. On the first page, Dodsworth says there is thus 
 recorded the birth of the lady for whom the missal was compiled : — 
 
 " Nota est Joha filia Thomas militis in fo Sci Michis 
 Archangele An"^ Dni 1321." 
 
 "The other entries of the same nature have been used 
 in the composition of the pedigree. They extend to the time 
 of James I." 
 
 " This missal was doubtless executed by the same hand to 
 which we owe the Luterel Book which Mr. Gage Rokewode 
 has described in the Vetusta Monumenta of the Society of 
 Antiquaries." {Hallamshire, pp. 391, 392.) 
 
 As to the absence in the pedigree of this lady's first 
 husband, the fact that her legitimate son and heir was born 
 when she was thirty-five years old, is an item of circumstantial 
 evidence in the direction of the assumption that she was twice 
 married, and that her first marriage was not a happy one, or 
 that for some mysterious reason the continuance of his name 
 in the family was undesirable. 
 
 There is a legend connecting Hallamshire with the war 
 in France in the year 1453, when the first Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 80 years old, was killed at Chatillon. It is said that a large 
 part of the Earl of Shrewsbury's army of 8000 men was from 
 Hallamshire, and that "so greatly did they suffer while fighting 
 round the Earl as he lay bleeding on the field of battle, that 
 there was not a family nor a house in all Hallamshire that did 
 not lose a father or a brother or a husband or a son on that 
 fatal day." 
 
54 
 
 Thomas Mounteney, of Cowley, would be 57 years old in 
 1453. As he was alive until 1473, he was not one of the 
 Hallamshire men who were mourned for after the disastrous 
 battle at Chatillon in Gascony, but he might have been there. 
 The records do not affirm that he was, but there is ground for 
 the conjecture that he went with the lord of the Sheffield 
 manor, and his son John Talbot, to endeavour to retrieve the 
 losses which England sustained on the continent after the death 
 of Henry V. We can imagine that Thomas Mounteney was 
 among the Hallamshire survivors, when from Bordeaux "home 
 they brought (their chief) their warrior dead," to bury him in 
 the family sepulchre. 
 
 At Ecclesfield, over the vestry door, is now to be seen the 
 Mounteney shield. It is one of the fragments of old glass 
 collected in 1863 and formed into a scrap window. 
 
 Parts of the inscriptions, which were in the private oratory 
 of the Mounteneys, have been preserved, and have been com- 
 pleted from Dodsworth's notes. Finely cut in oak, in the 
 south side chapel, is the inscription in Latin, dated 1536 — 
 
 " Orate pro animabus Robarte Mounteney et Anne uxoris 
 ejus ; ac pro bono statu Johannis Mounteney et Johanne uxoris 
 ejus, qui hoc oratorium fiere fecerunt xxiii, die menis Mali 
 Anno Dni Mcccccxxxvi." 
 
 On two sepulchal stones : — 
 
 "Orate pro anima Robarte Mounteney de Cowley armigeri, 
 qui obiit tertio die mensis Auguste A° Dni Mccccc°xix°, cujus 
 animge propitietur Deus." 
 
 " Orate pro anima Johis Mounteney de Cowley armigeri, 
 qui obiit 11° die mensis Auguste A° Dni M.ccccc°xxx°vi° cujus 
 animse propitietur Deus. Amen." 
 
 Over the pew was painted in black letters on the wall : — 
 
 " Sedes domini domus antiquae et manerii de Cowley : 
 et * * • • id juris tenent, 1663." 
 
 " It must be regretted," remarks Mr. Hunter, "by all true 
 lovers of the remains of ancient time and ancient art that the 
 
55 
 
 church of Ecclesfield was despoiled of its beautiful and appro- 
 priate window ornaments," and he deals with the question, at 
 what period, and by whom the despoliation was done. There 
 is not, he thinks, any proof of the existence of those ornaments 
 at a period later than the time of Dodsworth, who visited this 
 church before the outbreak of the war between King Charles 
 and the Houses of Parliament. Common fame will, of course, 
 ascribe the destruction to the Parliamentarians, and Brook has 
 preserved a tradition that the church did suffer much in the 
 civil wars when, amongst other things, its organ was destroyed. 
 It is, however, but justice to the parliament of 1643 to 
 transcribe a clause from the act of that year, "for the 
 suppression of divers innovations in churches and chapels, 
 &c.," expressly framed for the protection of such ornaments as 
 those in the church of Ecclesfield. 
 
 " Provided that this act or anything contained shall not 
 extend to any image, picture or coat of arms in glass, stone or 
 otherwise in any church, chapel, churchyard, or place of public 
 prayer as aforesaid, set up or graven only for a monument of 
 any king, prince or nobleman, or other dead person which hath 
 not been commonly reputed or taken for a saint, but that all 
 such images, pictures, coat of arms, may stand and continue in 
 like manner and form as if this act had never been had nor 
 made ; anything in this act to the contrary thereof in anywise 
 notwithstanding." It would not be during the Commonwealth 
 that the demolition was done. Before the civil war, painted 
 windows in churches were broken by individuals of strong anti- 
 popish feeling. In 1630, at Salisbury, the recorder, whose name 
 was Sherfield, broke one in St. Edmond's church in that city. 
 He boasted of what he had done in defiance of the bishop of 
 Salisbury's express command, and because such monuments 
 were monuments of idolatry. He was tried for the offence, 
 fined ;f5oo, condemned to make a public acknowledgment, 
 to be bound for his good behaviour, and removed from his 
 office. 
 
56 
 
 The portrait of Robert Mounteney, who married a sister 
 of Sir Thomas Wortley of Wharncliffe celebrity, and the portrait 
 of his lady, with the arms and effigies of his ancestors, once 
 appeared in the east window of the south aisle of the church at 
 Ecclesfield. That window was placed there by him in 1505. 
 His will bears date the 3rd of August, 1519, and he was buried, 
 according to his directions it contained, in the church of Eccles- 
 field. As before mentioned, fragments remain of the sepulchal 
 stone of this Robert Mounteney and that of his son and heir John 
 Mounteney, who was interred in the same church in 1536. 
 
 Their heirs, says the Hallamshire historian, probably 
 thought that the memorials which they placed over their 
 graves would endure for ever, when, having cut the inscription 
 deep in the stone, they filled up the letters with some pitchy or 
 metallic substance. But these are now a far less perfect 
 memorial of this ancient and opulent family than is another 
 inscription in the same church carved in oak, requesting 
 prayers for the souls of Robert Mounteney and Anne his wife, 
 and for the good estate of John Mounteney and Joan his wife, 
 who constructed the oratory in 1536. This John Mounteney, 
 the last of his name at Cowley and Shiercliffe, died in the 
 prime of life ; and a tradition is not to be wholly passed over 
 that he was assaulted and wounded in the church porch of 
 Sheffield, of which wound he died, but by whom it was 
 inflicted or on what account the tradition does not explain. 
 By inquisition taken after his death, 28 Henry VHI. (1537), 
 he was found to hold the manor of Cowley of the king, as of his 
 honour of Tickhill, by knight-service : the manor of Shiercliffe, 
 of whom or by what service (he held) the jury knew not : and 
 the manor of Steynton (he held) of the king by knight-service ; 
 and Dorothy and Barbara were found to be his daughters and 
 co-heirs. The furniture of the oratory which he and his wife 
 founded, dated 1536, is still to be seen in Ecclesfield church. 
 
 There is evidence of the Mounteneys being related to the 
 Saviles, in a deed of the time of Edward H., thus worded : — 
 
57 
 
 " Sciant, &c., quod ego rhomas de Savile, dedi, &c. D'ne 
 The. de Mounteney et Constancise uxori suas, manerium meum 
 in villa de Dodworth, quod vocatur Sayvile-hall, una cum 
 omnubus terris meis in Staynborough et redd, ann 2s in villa 
 Coldwell, quEe habui ex dono Baldwini patris mei Dat. apud 
 Seyvill hall in crastino Sanctse Trinitus 4 Edw. fil Edw." 
 
 Peter de Savile, from whom the Tankersley Saviles descend, 
 had a brother Baldwin Savile, who owned one of the ancient 
 homes of the family, called " Sayvile-hall," situated on the 
 northern bank of the river Dove, and his son Thomas de Savile 
 having inherited the estate, bestows it by the above deed to 
 Sir Thos. de Mounteney and his wife Constance, in possession 
 of whose descendants, the Bosviles of Chevett (near Barnsley) 
 and Neviles of Ragnal and Grove, it continued until 16 Eliz., 
 1574, when George Nevile sold it for £240 to Thomas Headily. 
 
 Hesley Hall was a possession of the Mounteneys, and was 
 sold to the Earl of Shrewsbury at the same time as Cowley and 
 Shirtcliffe. The present house is old, but not so old as the time of 
 the Mounteneys. The ancient moat is still in existence in part, 
 with water in it. The Earls of Shrewsbury used the Hall for the 
 residenceof the keeper of the red deer, mentioned by Dodsworth. 
 
 At an inquisition taken at the death of Robert Mounteney, 
 Esq., 5 Aug., 1519, he was found seized of, amongst other 
 things, " Maner, Colley in soc' et per 34s. redd' in c, at al. in 
 poch' de Ecclesfield ten' de Geo. Comit Salop ut de Maner' 
 Sheffeld Maner Shercliff 20th &c Maner Hesteley &c"* 
 
 In Harrison's Survey, 1637, " Humfrey Northall holdeth 
 at will Heslowe farm, by the yearly rent of xxx^^ imprimis, a 
 tenement called Heslow Hall, moated round, &c." And among 
 the out-payments that year is " Humphry Northall, the keeper 
 of Couley woods, his wages 3;^." 
 
 In 1664, "To Henry Priest, for looking to Cowley woods 
 and ye outlying red deer, in Humfrey Northall's place 4^^." 
 
 In 1697, " Valentin e Hurt, for Hesley farm, 35£." 
 
 • Coles' Escheats, Harleian MS., 759, p. 151. 
 
59 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 TANKERSLEY. 
 
 The hamlet of Tankersley as now known is a rural place, 
 consisting of the Church, the Rectory, the Grange, several 
 farm houses and a few cottages ; but the parish of that name, 
 including the lordship or township of Wortley, is of con- 
 siderable extent. Its church in remote times was larger and 
 of more importance than the present one. Of its stained-glass 
 windows Dodsworth makes mention. Between the nave and 
 the chancel may be now seen columns which indicate that 
 originally the architecture was Saxon. The large octagonal 
 font is evidently very old ; the tower is of later date. In 
 olden, times the Park was almost as nearly in contact with 
 the hamlet of Chapeltown as were the woods of Cowley ; but 
 the acreage of the former being extensive and the mansion on 
 the far side, the ruins of the old hall are not so immediately 
 contiguous to our Greenhead standpoint of vision as the site 
 of the demolished Cowley Manor. 
 
 That there was a church at Tankersley at a very remote 
 date is evidenced by the Doomsday survey. That survey of 
 the eleventh centuiy is silent as to any church in the manors 
 which constituted the parish qf Sheffield, says nothing of one 
 at Ecclesfield, while it speaks of Rotherham, Treeton, Aston, 
 Hope and Tankersley having each a Christian edifice. The 
 first Tankersley rector of whom there is mention is a Richard 
 de Tankersley ; and next, in the year 1226, a William de 
 Tankersley has presented to him, by a Henry of that name, 
 a moiety of the living of the church. John de Lekes is 
 instituted March, 1290 and April, 1291, on the presentation of 
 Richard Tyas and Hugh Eland ; a Richard le Tyas, acolitus. 
 
6o 
 
 became rector in 1312, on the presentation of Richard Tyas 
 and Alice his wife ; in 1329, Jac. Eland, acolitus, was rector on 
 the presentation of Robert Bradfield and Joan his wife, called 
 Lady Joan de Tankersley. There was a Sir Francis le Tyas 
 in 1280, who was witness to a charter ; perhaps the Hall and 
 the Rectory were the residences of the two families, Tyas 
 and Tankersley. 
 
 Mr. Hunter says, " The family of the name Tankersley 
 became extinct iive centuries ago." He seems not to have 
 known anything of Dr. William Tankersley, who, in i5go, 
 emigrated to the United States of America, and who was the 
 orphan son of George, the son of Sir Henry Tankersley. It is 
 true, however, that though the family was not extinct, no one 
 bearing the name lived at Tankersley after the close of the 
 thirteenth century, for 1308 (3 Edward II.) is the date of the 
 death of the Sir Hugh Eland, who some years before had 
 become the owner of the estate by his marriage with the 
 heiress of the Tankersleys, for in 1291 he presented to the 
 rectory. 
 
 As early as 1246 (30 Henry III.) and in 1275 (3 Edward i.) 
 there was living at Elland Hall, near Halifax, a Sir John Eland, 
 and descended from him was a Sir John, who was concerned in 
 a quarrel which arose between Thomas the Earl of Lancaster 
 and the Earl of Warren regarding Alice de Laci, heiress of 
 Pontefract, Lancaster's wife, and daughter of the Earl of 
 Lincoln. That Earl of Lancaster, grandson of Henry III., was 
 beheaded in 1332, and his wife died in 1348, which dates give 
 the time about which that " deadly feud " occurred, one of 
 the results of which was the passing of Tankersley from the 
 Elands to the Saviles. 
 
 For several generations the ancient family of the Elands 
 
 had their seat at Elland Hall, on the north side of the River 
 
 'Calder, in the township of Eliand-cum-Greetland, and lived 
 
 there in great splendour until there occurred the feud by which 
 
 the male descendants lost their lives. In 1341 Sir John 
 
6i 
 
 Eland was Sheriff of Yorkshire, and is mentioned as being 
 in that year "lord of Eland, Tankersley, Fulbridge, Hinchfield 
 and Ratchdale." 
 
 After his death and the death of his son Hugh, both in 
 connection with that feud, a member of the ancient Yorkshire 
 family of the Saviles became possessed of the estates which 
 had been owned by the Elands. Sir John Savile, Knight, 
 purchased, in 1350, from the lord of Pontefract, for two hundred 
 pounds, the wardship of the heiress Isabel Eland, daughter of 
 the said Sir John Eland, and was married to her at some date 
 previous to the year 1399. There is evidence that this Sir 
 John Savile was son of John and Margery Savile, of Golcar, 
 for there was formerly a chantry at Ell and where prayers were 
 offered for " Sir John Savile, Knight, and Isabel his wife, for 
 John Sayvill and Margery his wife, parents of the said John 
 Sayvill, Knt., also for Thomas de Eland and Joan his wife, 
 parents of the said Isabel." 
 
 In 1475 Sir John Savile, Knight, and Thomas Savile, 
 Esquire, his son, appear in an indenture disposing of the 
 Grange of Ainley, in the chapelry 01 Elland, to John Savile, of 
 Hullenedge, and William Wilkinson. 
 
 The gist of the feud story is that Sir John de Eland, when 
 Sheriff of Yorkshire, 15 Edward III., went privately in the 
 night, at the head of a body of his tenants, and put to death, 
 in their own houses, three neighbouring gentlemen, whose 
 friends, nursing their wrath and biding their time, had their 
 revenge. They waited until the sons of those murdered 
 gentlemen were grown up, and then killed both Sir John Eland 
 and his son. 
 
 This barbarous mode of executing private revenge was 
 not infrequent among the Norman barons and their descendants. 
 
 In Brady's " History of the Reign of King Stephen," 
 p. 281, there is the following passage: — " If earls or great men 
 found themselves aggrieved by another, they frequently got 
 together all their men-at-arms or knights that held of them, 
 
62 
 
 their other tenants and poor dependants, and as much assistance 
 from their friends and confederates as they could, and burnt 
 one another's castles, houses, &c." 
 
 Will our race ever have so progressed as to be superior to 
 this evil propensity of revenge, which in all lands and all ages 
 has caused blood to be shed and coloured history with tragedy? 
 Bright, indeed, is the vision which we are permitted to have a 
 glimpse of, when, high enough above the paths adhered to by 
 agnostics and pessimists to see as they do not, we can behold 
 that He— 
 
 " Who laid the foundations of the earth, 
 Who stretched out the heavens like a curtain, 
 Hath made known His ways unto Moses, 
 His doings unto the Children of Israel," 
 
 and thus apprehend something of the verities implied in the 
 Psalmist's important declaration, confirmed by the Teacher 
 who, in proving by his resurrection that He was what He 
 claimed to be, proved that He knew what is true. The 
 question as to what may be hoped for of humanity is prompted 
 by the following newspaper paragraph which has happened to 
 come in my way while writing this chapter : — 
 
 "A startling story reaches us (says the Globe) hy the Indian 
 mail in connection with the murder of Major A. H. S. Neill, of the 
 Central India Horse, some time ago. It will be remembered that 
 the Major was shot on parade by one of his men. He was a son 
 of General Neill, of Cawnpore fame, and the man who shot him is 
 now said to have been the son of a Duffadar in the Light Cavalry, 
 who was executed for the murder of General Wheeler at Cawnpore, 
 after having been flogged. The man, who was arrested on the 
 recapture of Cawnpore, stoutly denied his guilt, and urged that he 
 had been forced to mutiny against his will. Before being hanged 
 he left a dying message for his infant son, and prayed the Prophet 
 to strengthen the child's arm to avenge the death of his father on 
 General Neill or any of his descendants. The son grew to 
 manhood, and served under Major Neill for years before he came 
 to know that his officer was the son of the man who had ordered 
 his father's execution. Lying ill in hospital one day the news 
 
63 
 
 was conveyed to him by a Fakir, and the dying imprecation of his 
 father now repeated to him had such an effect on the man's mind, 
 that though he had been treated with special kindness by Major 
 Neill he thought of nothing but revenge. Accordingly, on the 
 earliest opportunity he shot the Major on parade, keeping his 
 object so secret that the murder seemed wholly without motive. 
 He was sentenced to death by Sir Lepel Griffin, and died without 
 making any statement. The explanation is now given by a man 
 who was at Cawnpore during the mutiny." 
 
 The tragic story of the murderous doings of Sir John 
 Eland, and the retribution which came to him fifteen years 
 afterwards, is extant in the form of an old English poem, en- 
 titled " Sir John Eland and his antagonists," transcribed in 
 the year 1650 by a Mr. Hopkinson. The 124 verses, from a 
 literary point of view, are loose and crude, and can only claim 
 to rank as doggerel ; but they are evidence of historic events 
 which happened 550 years ago affecting the ownership and 
 occupancy of one of the chief houses in this neighbourhood. 
 The deadly feud story has been commented upon by distin- 
 guished antiquarians, namely, Watson, the Halifax Historian, 
 Beaumont of Whitby, and Dr. Whitaker. Beaumont supposed 
 the whole to be a fiction, because, he said, at the very period 
 of the last act of the tragedy the different parties appear to have 
 been at peace, as may be inferred from the evidence of their 
 having attested each others' charters. This argument, however, 
 is not conclusive. The fire of revenge during the fifteen years' 
 interval between the first act and the second was not extinct, 
 but smothered under embers, and decent appearances were kept 
 up between the survivors of the fainilies. Dr. Whitaker says, 
 that, in his opinion, "the poem authenticates itself. The 
 estate passed, by the marriage of a sister of the last Eland, to 
 the Saviles, although she had a brother named Henry, and why 
 he did not inherit is not accounted for in the poem ; but it 
 informs us that this Henry was a brother of the half blood, and 
 therefore, the immediate ancestor having died intestate, could 
 
64 
 
 not inherit. This could not have been invented. I cannot 
 conceive the story to be a fable, as it is so circumstantial — the 
 places, dates, &c., so specific and so consistent." 
 
 While my researches v^^ere making out in what way the 
 Tankersley estate got into the hands of the Saviles, I found 
 that not the least interesting facts of that family's history are 
 connected with a remarkable personage, a lady, who had four 
 husbands, lived to a great age, was of royal lineage, and is a 
 link in a genalogical chain which unites the Saviles and the 
 Wortleys with the Plantagenet Kings of England, as shown in 
 the pedigree appended. At Tankersley Hall she resided in the 
 latter part of her long life, not ended before 1542, for in that 
 year her will is dated ; and to Tankersley she would be taken 
 as a bride, for her first husband was Sir John Savile, Sheriff of 
 Yorkshire, Captain of the Isle of Wight, the owner of the estates 
 at Tankersley, Thornhill, &c., by inheritance from several 
 generations of knightly ancestors. At Tankersley Hall would 
 probably be born her daughter who was married to the head of 
 the house of Wortley. This lady, the wife of Sir John Savile 
 until his death in 1504, was daughter and co-heir of Sir William 
 Fasten and his wife Lady Joan Beaufort, daughter and co-heiress 
 of Edmund Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, grandson of John of 
 Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster ; and to the Countess of Richmond, 
 mother of Henry VH., Lady Savile's mother was first cousin. 
 
 The widow of Sir John Savile became the wife of Sir 
 Richard Hastings, a younger son of Lord Hastings, who was 
 beheaded by Richard HL, and who was brother to the Countess 
 of Shrewsbury of Sheffield Castle. When next a widow, 
 she was courted by Sir 'Edward Poynings, and became 
 his wife, and her fourth husband was Thomas Gargrave, 
 of Tankersley. Whether the lady whose name had 
 become Gargrave was a widow for the fourth time when, at 
 Tankersley, she made her will in 1542, does not appear. We 
 may suppose that after her first husband's death in 1504 
 Tankersley continued to be her residence, and that her second 
 
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 W N 
 
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 ^ii ^ 
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 3« 
 
 »5 
 
 
 ^f-^pl 
 
66 
 
 husband, Sir Richard Hastings, did not require her to live 
 elsewhere, for he was the guardian of her son Henrj', who, at 
 his father's death, was only six years old. When Sir Richard 
 died, the Earl of Shrewsbury had the custody of the youth, and 
 probably the Earl was Sir Richard Hastings' executor, for in 
 1514 the right to present the Tankersley Chuixh living was in 
 his hands. During the years she was the wife of her second 
 and third husbands perhaps she had not her home at 
 Tankersley, but it is clear that she had, by right or per- 
 mission, a residence there after she married Robert Gargrave, 
 who is called "Robert Gargrave of Tankersley," and there her 
 will is dated. Her son Henry Savile had been under the care 
 of the Earl of Shrewsbuiy, and when in 1518 or 1519 he became 
 of age, he would become the owner of the other family mansion 
 at Thornhill. He need not, therefore, if he had the power or 
 will, interfere with his mother's occupancy of Tankersley Hall. 
 Twenty-three years after the son had attained his majority, 
 and when he would be forty-four years old, she made her will. 
 Her death about that time would give him the choice of living 
 either at Thornhill or Tankersley. He seems to have preferred 
 the latter, for he there spent much of his time. There is 
 extant a letter which he wrote in 1546, in which he says : 
 " Lord Talbot was at Tankersley, and killed two stags in 
 Wharncliffe-walks." 
 
 The Gargraves doubtless sprang from the village of 
 Gargrave in Cravan, of which family was Sir John Gargrave, 
 who was Governor of Pontoise under Henry V., and there 
 intei-red. His son. Sir Thomas, was Master of the Ordnance 
 in France, and fell at the siege of Orleans in 1428. This latter. 
 Sir Thomas Gargrave, is mentioned by Shakespeare as among 
 the companions of the first Earl of Shrewsbury, then Lord 
 Talbot, in the French wars. In 1514 there lived a Thomas 
 Gargrave at Alverthorpe, near Wakefield, who in his will, 
 made that year, directs his body to be buried with somewhat 
 expensive accompaniments in Wakefield Church. Doubtless 
 
this was the same person, with Thomas, who married 
 Elizabeth Levett, and whose son. Sir Thomas, was knighted 
 in Scotland in the year 1547 by the Earl of Warwick. In the 
 first Parliament of Queen EHzabeth the latter was member for 
 Yorkshire and Speaker of the House, and it was he who, in 
 1559, May 27, by direction of the Treasurer of the Queen's 
 Household, " caused to be assembled at Tankersley twelve 
 members of the Savile family to take some stay for Edward 
 Savile's inheritance, he having been found by a jury to be 
 incompetent." {See " Introduction to the Savile Corres- 
 pondence," published by the Camden Societ}'.) I find 
 there is mention in " Pepy's Journals " of a Sir Robert 
 Paston, who for his eminent services in the Civil War and 
 his activity at the Restoration was created Viscount Yarmouth 
 (25 Charles II.) 
 
 He was probably descended from the John Paston who 
 was Sheriff of Norfolk in the reign of Henry VII., and to 
 whom was probably addressed a letter which is to be seen 
 among "The Paston Letters," vol. it, p. 36, of date 1470, 
 headed, "To my cosyn J. Paston." 
 
 In 1518, the ninth year of Henry VIII., Sir Henry Savile — 
 the son of the lady who had four husbands — " was of full age 
 and had livery of his lands." Of the Honour of Pontefract he 
 was Steward, and of the Manor of Wakefield ; was Sheriff of 
 Yorkshire in 1538 and in 1542, and was made a Knight of the 
 Bath at the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn. His wife was 
 a great heiress, being co-heir to the Fitzwilliams. They had 
 one son, who was married before his father's death. When that 
 event took place, it was found that the father had settled as much 
 of his estate as was at his disposal upon an illegitimate son, 
 Robert of Howley, from whom descended a race of Saviles, who. 
 Hunter says, " over-peered the genuine branches for the greater 
 part of two centuries, the Lords Savile and Earls of Sussex." His 
 will is dated February 15th, 1555, the year of his son Edward 
 Savile's marriage at the age of 20, and at which date the Manor 
 
68 
 
 of Tankersley was settled by the son upon his wife. Mr. Hunter, 
 who prints two letters signed Edward Savile, surmised that 
 there must have been some deficiency of intellect in the young 
 man, for he seems to have placed himself under the protection 
 of the powerful family of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The two 
 letters do not evidence that he was of unsound mind when 
 he wrote them, and Queen Elizabeth thought he was not so 
 defective as he was said to be. Hunter says : " There 
 must have been an examination as to his mental condition, 
 if the story be true which Dr. Johnson heard, that when 
 Edward Savile was under examination, and he was asked, 'how 
 many legs have a sheep ? ' he answered ' two.' This appeared 
 conclusive against him, but he surprised the court by telHng 
 them, 'since he could remember, there were two legs and two 
 shoulders, and that if they had asked him how many feet, he 
 had told them four.' " The date when twelve members of the 
 Savile family were summoned by Sir Thomas Gargrave, by 
 direction of the Treasurer of the Queen's household, to assemble 
 at Tankersley " to take some stay for Edward Savile's in- 
 heritance, he having been found by a jury to be incompetent," is 
 May 27th, 1559. That would be 45 years before his death, for he 
 lived until 1604. Those twelve members of the Savile family 
 would be interested in believing him to be incompetent. He 
 was, however, deprived by his father of property which could be 
 diverted from the line of legitimate descent. As the pedigree 
 shows, he had no children, and his wife was divorced, upon whom 
 at the time of his marriage his Tankersley estate was settled. 
 
 It appears from fines levied in the 8th and gth of Elizabeth 
 that the Manorof Burkisland was "to remain to the heirs male of 
 the body of Thomas Savile, of Lupset, deceased, for want of issue 
 male on the line of Savile of Thornhill and Tankersley, which 
 line failed in the person of Edward Savile, the sixth lineal 
 descendant from Henry Savile, which Henry married Elizabeth, 
 daughter and heiress of Simon Thornhill, whereby the Manor 
 passed from the name of Thornhill to that of Savile." 
 
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69 
 
 In the reign of James I. (September 4th, 1604), Sir John 
 Savile, Knight, a descendant of Thomas Savile of Lupset, was 
 one of the commissioners, under the Statute 43 Elizabeth, to 
 redress the misemployment of lands given to charitable uses ; 
 and the bequest of Thomas Smith, of Crowland, the founder 
 of the Sheffield Grammar School, came under his inquisition 
 at the above date at Wakefield. 
 
 In 1577, 19th of Elizabeth, George, Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 joined with the said Edward Savile and Henry Savile in 
 conveyances within the Manor of Burkisland. The trust 
 reposed in this noble family arose from Sir George Savile, 
 Knt. and Bart., son of Henry Savile, of Lupset, marrying 
 Mary, daughter of the said George Talbot, sixth Earl of 
 Shrewsbury. Lady Mary's husband was second cousin to 
 Sir Henry Savile, of Tankersley. Mr. Hunter says he had not 
 found anything to enable him to determine whether Tankersley 
 passed to Sir George Savile or to the Earl of Shrewsbury, nor 
 evidence as to who ha,d possession of the estate in succession 
 to Edward Savile up to the time when it was purchased by 
 the first Earl of Strafford. 
 
 On the evidence of the Earl's letter, written in Ireland, his 
 obtaining the Tankersley estate would be at a date previously 
 to the year 1635. 
 
 The Savile pedigree shows that the nobleman George 
 Savile, Baron Eland of Thornhill, Marquis of Halifax — the 
 eminent political writer, who was born in 1630 and died in 
 1695, who on the death of Cromwell helped to restore 
 Charles II., and whose portrait is to be seen at the mansion 
 of Mr. Vernon Wentworth, of Stainborough — was the eldest 
 son of Sir William Savile, of Thornhill, the third baronet, 
 Governor of Sheffield Castle for Charles I. in the Civil Wars. 
 There was a Savile prominent in Parliament at that time who 
 was not on the King's side, and who is referred to in a passage 
 commenting on the trial of the Earl of Strafford, thus:—" It 
 was the second day after the Earl of Strafford's arrival in 
 
 F 
 
70 
 
 London that he was impeached (Nov. 13, 1640). Why was the 
 action of his opponents so prompt ? It is said that the 
 promptitude of the measure was owing to the fact that 
 Wentworth was about to impeach Savile and some other 
 lords of a treasonable correspondence with the Scots, inviting 
 them to an invasion of the kingdom." I imagine Wentworth 
 might hate this Savile, because he had had something to say 
 about the way the Tankersley estate had got into Wentworth's 
 hands. There is, in the beautiful mausoleum at Wentworth 
 Woodhouse, along with busts of seven other friends of the 
 Marquis of Rockingham, that of Sir George Savile, Baronet, 
 of Sandbeck, who (a descendant of Sir John Savile, the knight 
 of Tankersley, killed at Sandal Castle in 1482) was one of the 
 best speakers and most distinguished statesmen of his time. 
 He had much to do with the introduction into this country of 
 canal navigation, and a hearty acknowledgment of his services 
 was expressed in a resolution passed at Halifax on May i8th, 
 1769, by the company of proprietors of the Calder and Hebble 
 Navigation. 
 
 Appended to a sketch of the Tankersley Old Hall in the 
 Sheffield Weekly Independent of August 29th, 1891, there 
 appeared the following : " Thoroughly dismantled as it now 
 is, enough remains to refer its origin to the Tudor period, and 
 to set it in company with the Hardwicks, Wingfields and 
 Haddons of that manor-loving age. The Saviles of Tankersley, 
 who built the hall, seem to have been distinguished in their 
 way. One of them became by marriage a distant relative of 
 Henry VII., and at a later time another held Sheffield Castle 
 for the king, Charles I., during the civil wars. At Tankersley, 
 in 1643, the year before his defeat at Marston Moor, the 
 Royalist Earl of Newcastle won a victory over 2,000 local 
 Parliamentarians, some of whom " were slain and some taken 
 prisoners." This is stated in the Duchess of Newcastle's 
 memoirs of the life of her husband. She writes : " Imme- 
 diately after, in pursuit of the victory, my lord sent a 
 
71 
 
 considerable party into the west of Yorkshire, where they 
 met with about 2,000 of the enemy's forces, taken out of their 
 garrisons in those parts to execute some design, upon a moor 
 called Tankerley Moor, and there fought them and routed 
 them ; many were slain and some taken prisoners." Eight 
 years before this (1635) the Tankersley estate had passed into 
 the possession of the first Earl of Strafford, who, while 
 carrying out " Thorough " in Ireland, found time to send 
 directions as to the preservation and management of his new 
 possession. He was appointed Viceroy in 1633. 
 
 The following is one of the letters written from Ireland in 
 1635 by the Earl of Strafford to Mr. Greenwood, Rector of 
 Thornhill : — 
 
 " I appoint my cousin Rockley, Master of the Game at 
 Tankersley, desiring him he will now and then look into the 
 house to see that it be kept from decay ; that the woods be 
 preserved without cutting or lopping, which is almost as bad ; 
 that the park be sufficiently maintained, the deer increased till 
 they come to three hundred ; that the ponds may be from time 
 to time kept in repair and maintained. In like manner I 
 appoint my brother Hutton, Master of the Game at Kimber- 
 worth, always provided that you have the liberty to command 
 in either park what deer you list, and that I would have 
 venison sent to my cousin Wentworth of Wolley, to my cousin 
 Wentworth of Emsal, and to my brother Rhodes every season; 
 and that any of them may command a piece of venison when 
 they have occasion to desire it. Sir Richard Scott hath power 
 to dispose of a buck in either park in summer and a doe in 
 either park for winter; and soe I pray you let him know that if 
 he have any friend he may pleasure them therewith as he likes 
 best himself." 
 
 At a later period, after the death of the first Earl of Straf- 
 ford, the Hall at Tankersley was lent, as a residence, to Sir 
 Richard and Lady Fanshawe, about whom there is on record 
 much that is interesting. During the reign of Charles I., Sir 
 
72 
 
 Richard Fanshaw was secretary to the Prince of Wales, 
 afterwards Charles II. At the battle of Worcester, Sir Richard 
 was wounded and taken prisoner. After the Restoration he 
 was ambassador at several continental courts. 
 
 In a memoir of her own and her husband's life, written by 
 Lady Fanshaw, she writes : — " In March we went with our 
 three children into Yorkshire, where we lived a harmless 
 country life, minding only country sports and country affairs, 
 There my husband translated ' The Lusiad' of Camoens. This 
 he dedicated to William Earl of Strafford, from his lordship's 
 park at Tankersley, May ist, 1655, and he says that from the 
 hour he begun it to the end thereof he slept not once out of 
 those walls. Whilst there he translated also a Spanish play, 
 ' Querer por solo Querer.' He edited what is known as ' Oldy's 
 Notes,' in which there is a reference to some remarkable yew 
 trees to be seen in Tankersley Park, particularly one called 
 Talbot's yew, as to which in Oldy's notes on the margin of 
 ' Langbaine's Account of Dramatic Writers,' there is, ' A man 
 on horseback might turn about in it. " 
 
 Daniel Defoe, author of " Robinson Crusoe," in his "Tour 
 through England," published in 1727, says that the best red 
 deer in Europe were in this park, and that one of them stood 
 higher than his horse, " which was none of the least." 
 
 The Lady Fanshaw who resided, as she describes, at Tan- 
 kersley, was a person of whom any neighbourhood might be 
 pleased to preserve a memorial. My researches have discovered 
 about her some interesting particulars. She was the daughter 
 of a Sir John Harrison and his wife Margaret, of an ancient and 
 highly respectable family of the name Fanshawe, "an emi- 
 nently pious and accomplished lady." Their daughter, Ann 
 Harrison, born in London, March 25th, 1625, was so well 
 trained, that at the age of 15 years, when her mother died, she 
 was able to take charge of her father's house in a highly 
 exemplary manner. At the age of about ig she married Mr., 
 afterwards Sir, Richard Fanshawe, a relative of her mother's. 
 
He had been educated a lawyer, but not liking his profession, 
 went abroad with his wife, and was appointed Secretary to the 
 English Ambassador at the Spanish Couii. He was a loyal 
 adherent of the house of Stuart, true to Charles I., and the 
 confident and counsellor of Charles 1 1 . During the struggles and 
 violence of those terrible times, this good wife shared the dangers 
 and sympathised with the feelings of her husband. When he 
 was in prison, after the battle of Worcester, she, with a dark 
 lantern, at four o'clock in the morning, would often be under 
 his prison window to converse with him, regardless of rain, 
 danger or darkness. At length, released on a heavy bail, he 
 was free to devote himself to literary pursuits, for which also 
 his wife had the taste. Tlaere was a friendship and family 
 connection between the Fanshaws and Sir George Radcliffe, 
 the friend of the Wentworths, who owned the Tankersley estate, 
 and thus it would happen that the Hall was lent to Sir Richard 
 and Lady Fanshaw as a temporary residence. After the 
 Restoration he was in great favour at Court, had a seat in 
 Parliament, and was sent as Ambassador to Spain and to 
 Portugal. Owing to some change of policy, he was recalled, 
 and while he and his family were preparing to return to 
 England, he suddenly died. The Queen of Spain was greatly 
 moved by the desolation of the heart-broken widow, and would 
 have provided for her a pension of 30,000 ducats per annum, 
 and a handsome provision for her children, if she could have 
 embraced the Catholic religion. Lady Fanshaw was deeply 
 grateful, but could not accept any favour upon such conditions. 
 Her own language will indicate her feelings under this severe 
 affliction. She thus writes in her journal : " Have pity on me, 
 Lord, and speak peace to my disquieted soul now sinking 
 under this great weight, which, without Thy support, cannot be 
 sustained. See me, with five children, a distressed family, the 
 temptation of the change of my religion, out of my country, 
 away from my friends, without counsel, and without means to 
 return with my sad family to England. Do with me, and for 
 
74 
 
 me, what Thou pleasest, for I do wholly rely on Thy promises 
 to the widow and the fatherless ; humbly beseeching Thee that, 
 when this mortal life is ended, I may be joined with the soul 
 of my dear husband." The body of her husband was embalmed, 
 and for several months she had to wait before she could reium 
 with it to England, for she could obtain no money from the 
 Government. Even the arrears due to her husband were with- 
 held by the ungrateful and profligate Charles II., who lavished 
 upon his minions and mistresses what was due to his tried 
 and suffering friends. At length, Anne of Austria, widow of 
 Philip IV., gave Lady Fanshaw 2,000 pistoles, saying, with true 
 feminine delicacy, "that the sum had been appropriated to 
 purchasing a farewell present for Sir Richard, had he lived." 
 The body was interred in the vault at St. Mary's Chapel, in the 
 Church at Ware, and Lady Fanshawe erected a handsome 
 monument to'her husband's memory. Their union of 22 years 
 had been a pattern of conjugal truth, and of as much happiness 
 as the married state can attain. The widow continued as 
 constant to the memory of the dear departed as she had been 
 in her affection to him while he lived. She ever planned and 
 aimed for the education of her children, and "for her dear and 
 only son." She wrote her own memoir, and survived her 
 husband 14 years, dying January, 1680, aged 54. 
 
 Her conclusion, based upon experience as to what a wife 
 should be, appears in the following passage from her memoir 
 referring to the time when Sir Richard was Secretary to the 
 Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II.: — "I knew him (my 
 husband) to be very wise and very good, and his soul doted on 
 me ; upon which confidence I will tell you what happened. My 
 Lady Rivers (a brave woman, and one that had suffered many 
 thousand pounds' loss for the King), for whom I had a great 
 reverence and she a kinswoman's kindness for me, in discourse 
 tacitly commended the knowledge of State affairs, mentioning 
 several women who were very happy in a good understanding 
 thereof, and saying none of them was originally more capable 
 
75 
 
 than I. She said a post would arrive from Paris from 
 the Queen that night, and she should extremely like to know 
 what news it brought, adding if I would ask my husband 
 probably he would tell me what he found in the packet, and I 
 might tell her. I, that was young and innocent, and to that 
 day had never in my mouth, " What news ?" now began to 
 think there was more in inquiring into public affairs than I had 
 thought of, and that, being a fashionable thing, it would make 
 me more beloved of my husband than I already was, if that 
 bad been possible. When my husband returned home from 
 the Council, after receiving my welcome, he went with his 
 hands full of papers into his study. I followed him ; he turned 
 hastily, and said, ' What would'st thou have, my life ?' I told 
 him I heard the Prince had received a packet from the Queen, 
 and I guessed he had it in his hand, and I desired to know 
 what was in it. He smilingly replied : ' My love, I will 
 immediately come to thee ; pray thee go, for I am very busy.' 
 When he came out of his closet I revived my suit. He kissed 
 me and talked of other things. At supper I would eat nothing. 
 He, as usual, sat by me and drank often to me, which was 
 his custom, and was full of discourse to company that was 
 at table. Going to bed, I asked him again, saying I could 
 never believe he loved me if he refused to tell me all he knew. 
 He answered nothing, but stopped my mouth with kisses. I 
 cried, and he went to sleep. Next morning very early, as his 
 custom was, he called to rise, but began to discourse with me 
 first, to which I made no reply. He rose, came on the other 
 side of the bed, kissed me, drew the curtains softly, and went 
 to Court. When he came home to dinner he presently came 
 to me as was usual, and when I had him by the hand 1 said, 
 ' Thou dost not care to see me troubled,' to which he, taking 
 me in his arms, answered, ' My dearest soul, nothing on earth 
 can afflict me like that ; when thou asked me of my business 
 it was wholly out of my power to satisfy thee. My life, my 
 fortune shall be thine, and every thought of my heart, in which 
 
76 
 
 the trust I am in may not be revealed ; but my honour is 
 my own, which, if I communicate the Prince's affairs, I cannot 
 preserve. I pray thee with this answer rest satisfied.' So great 
 was his reason and goodness, that upon consideration it made my 
 folly appear to me so vile that from that day until the day of 
 his death I never thought fit to ask him any business except 
 what he communicated freely to me in order to his estate or 
 family." 
 
 Whatever heroic deeds may have been done by the persons 
 of knightly rank who were occupants of TankersleyHall, it is not 
 probable that, if we had a complete record of them, we should 
 find anything affording such scope for comment as the act of 
 Charles I. which sanctioned the execution of Thomas Went- 
 worth. Earl of Strafford, on the 22nd of May, 1641. Tradition 
 has so associated the Earl's name with Tankersley Park, that 
 few tourists who wander there fail to hear referred to the 
 statesman who held the reins of power under Charles I. after 
 the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham, and whose name 
 occupies such a prominent place in history. Local tradition 
 affirms that from beneath a certain tree in Tankersley Park the 
 Earl was arrested. We know that it was by command of 
 Charles I. and against the inclination of the Earl that he went 
 to London at the time of the meeting of the Long Parliament, 
 and when the King was perplexed and desirous of the assistance 
 and advice of his Minister ; and if the arrest of the Earl took 
 place in Tankersley Park, as the tradition has it, he must have 
 (when the indictment had become a serious matter) run down 
 into Yorkshire. Perhaps for family reasons, or that in the 
 quietude of his rural abode he might deliberate, he hurried 
 away from London. 
 
 When Sir Henry Vane had discovered, in a red velvet 
 cabinet, some papers which had upon them the notes, in 
 Strafford's own handwriting, of the counsel he had given to the 
 King, and after Vane had shown those papers to Pym, who 
 used them as witnessing to the treasonable intentions of 
 
77 
 
 Strafford, he would have reason to feel that the impeachment 
 would put his abilities to the test. It was that discovery which 
 decided his fate. It afforded the prima facie evidence which led 
 to his being apprehended. 
 
 Of his career the following is a summary:— Sir Thomas 
 Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, was eldest son of Sir William 
 Wentworth, of the ancient Yorkshire family of that name. 
 He was born in London in 1593, and a student at St. John's 
 College, Cambridge. After leaving the University he travelled, 
 and on his return received the honour of knighthood. By the 
 death of his father in 1614 he came into possession of a large 
 fortune, and soon after he was appointed custos rotulorum of the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire in lieu of Sir John Savile. In 1621 
 he was the representative in the House of Commons of the 
 County of York. When Charles I. asserted that the Commons 
 enjoyed no rights but by Royal permission, Sir Thomas 
 Wentworth strenuously and eloquently urged the House to 
 maintain that their privileges were rights by inheritance. 
 When the new Parliament was convened, in 1625, he was one 
 of six popular members who were prevented being eligible 
 to serve by being appointed sheriffs. He submitted to this 
 arbitrary act in silence ; but soon after, the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham, alarmed at the measures taken against himself in 
 Parliament, made overtures to him, which he declined, and 
 the favourite revenged himself by obliging Wentworth to restore 
 the office of custos roiulorum to Sir John Savile.* 
 
 When Charles had recourse to forced loans, Wentworth 
 refused to pay, and was imprisoned and then confined to a 
 range of two miles round his residence at Dartford. This 
 restraint was removed when a new Parliament was summoned 
 in 1628, and he was again member for Yorkshire and was one 
 of the most conspicuous advocates of the Petition of Right. As 
 he had proved the strength of his abilities, high terms were 
 offered him by the Court, which, alas 1 for his reputation, he 
 
 *Sir John Savile, of Lupset, who died in 1659. 
 
78 
 
 finally accepted. In 1628 he was created Baron Wentworth, 
 and soon afterwards a viscount and privy counsellor. On the 
 resignation of Lord Scrope he was nominated President of the 
 North. 
 
 The assassination of Buckingham, soon after, freed him from 
 a powerful enemy at Court, and he became so influential in the 
 King's council, that his power in the four northern counties 
 over which he presided became enormous. His commission 
 contained 58 instructions, of which scarcely one did not exceed 
 or violate the common law. In the exercise of this authority 
 he displayed haughtiness, impetuosity and ability. By his 
 strictness in levying exactions, he increased the revenue in his 
 district to four or five times the previous amount. He was 
 sent to Ireland as Lord Deputy in 1632. Nothing could be 
 more arbitrary than his government there. It was his boast 
 that he had rendered the King as absolute in Ireland " as any 
 prince in the whole world could be." 
 
 On the first signs of resistance to the royal authority, he 
 counselled the strongest measures ; and after the failure of the 
 King's first expedition against Scotland in 1639, he was sent 
 for from Ireland, and made Earl of Strafford, and Knight of the 
 Garter. Fle returned to Ireland with the full title of Lord- 
 Lieutenant, so that he might gain subsidies and troops, in 
 which he fully succeeded. Coming again to England, he took 
 command in the north. Obliged to retire before the Scottish 
 army, he retreated to York. 
 
 It was then that the King's necessities obliged him to call 
 the Long Parliament, and then that Strafford — aware of the 
 enmity he had inspired among the popular leaders — begged to 
 be excused coming to London, and allowed to return to his 
 post in Ireland. But the King, hoping that the Earl's great 
 talents would be serviceable, demanded his presence, assuring 
 him that " not a hair of his head should be touched by Parlia- 
 ment." Very soon Strafford had the proof that his apprehen- 
 sions were well founded. On the i8th of November, of the 
 
79 
 
 year of the assembling of the Long Parliament, 1640, Pym 
 appeared at the bar of the House of Lords, with the resolution 
 of the House of Commons, to impeach him of high treason. 
 
 It was easier to prove that he acted as a friend and pro- 
 moter of arbitrary measures, than to substantiate any particular 
 fact to justify a capital charge; and Strafford, without any 
 assistance of counsel, was able to show that the charge could 
 not be sustained. The impeachment was abandoned, and his 
 opponents proceeded to bring about his punishment by Act of 
 Parliament. A Bill of Attainder having passed both Houses, 
 and received the King's signature, the Earl was beheaded on 
 May 22nd, 1641. At the scaffold he addressed the people 
 assembled, asserting the good intention of his actions, however 
 misrepresented. He left behind him a memorable, but certainly 
 not an unspotted name. 
 
 We may judge of Strafford by the evidence he supplies in 
 his own letters. Writing to Archbishop Laud, he says: "In 
 truth I still wish Mr. Hampden, and others to his likeness, 
 were well whipped into their right senses, and if that the rod 
 be so used that it smarts not, I am the more sorry." — (Strafford 
 Papers ii., 138-158). " It (the spirit of the times) is a grievous 
 and overspreading leprosy, less than thorough will not overcome 
 it. There is cancerous malignity in it, which must be cut 
 forth, which long since hath rejected all other means." — (ii., 
 136. " I know no reason, but you may as well rule the common 
 lawyers in England, as I, poor beagle, do here ; and yet that I 
 do, and will do, in all that concerns my master, at the peril of 
 my head." " The debts of the crown being taken off, you may 
 govern as you please ; and most resolute I am that the work 
 may be done." There is in his letters sent to Laud, between 
 1629 ^^^ 1640, much which shows that nothing less than the 
 overthrow of the constitution was intended — the suppression of 
 law whenever opposed to " a sovereign power." 
 
 Hume's excuses for the King will not bear examination. 
 He says in one place: "It seems unreasonable to judge of 
 
So 
 
 measures embraced during one period, by the maxims which 
 prevail in another." He is speaking of the severity of the 
 star-chamber, " which was," he says, " perhaps in itself some- 
 what biamable, but will naturally, to us, appear enormous, who 
 enjoy so much liberty." What he calls " maxims," are moral 
 principles which are eternally obligatory. Religious injunctions 
 divinely revealed, he speaks of as would an agnostic of to-day, 
 as " subjects where it is not allowable for human nature to 
 expect any positive truth or certainty." A lie is heinous now, 
 and it was not less so in the days of Cromwell, who would 
 have acted differently with Charles had it been possible to 
 trust him. 
 
 The description Lord Macaulay gives of that man of 
 genius is graphic : " But, Wentworth ! whoever names him 
 without thinking of those harsh, dark features, ennobled by 
 their expression into more than the majesty of an antique 
 Jupiter; of that brow, that eye, that cheek, that lip, wherein, 
 as in a chronicle, are written the events of many stormy 
 and disastrous years, high enterprise accomplished, frightful 
 dangers braved, power unsparingly exercised, suffering un- 
 shrinkingly borne ; of that fixed look, so full of severity, of 
 mournful anxiety, of deep thought, of dauntless resolution, 
 which seems at once to forbode and defy a terrible fate, as it 
 lowers on us from the living canvas of Vandyke ? Even at 
 this day the haughty Earl overawes posterity as he overawed 
 his contemporaries, and excites the same interest when 
 arraigned before the tribunal of history which he excited at the 
 bar of the House of Lords. In spite of ourselves, we some- 
 times feel towards his memory a certain relenting, similar to 
 that relenting which his defence, as Sir John Denham tells us, 
 produced in Westminster Hall. This great, brave man 
 entered the House of Commons at the same time with 
 Hampden and took the same side with Hampden. Both were 
 among the richest and most powerful Commoners in the 
 kingdom. Both were equally distinguished by force of 
 
character and by personal courage. Hampden had more 
 judgment and sagacity than Wentworth ; but no orator of that 
 time equalled Wentworth in force and brilliancy of expression." 
 
 Mr. Forster, in his " Life of Sir John Eliot," thus 
 describes the Thomas Wentworth who became Earl of 
 Strafford :— 
 
 " Here, among the legislators, raw and inexperienced, who 
 had sat in no former Convention, Eliot's glance fell upon a tall 
 young man from Yorkshire, Thomas Wentworth, whom men 
 noted even thus early (a contemporary tells us) for his stoop in 
 the neck, for the cloudy shadow on his face except when 
 lighted up bj' anything that moved him, and for the fierce far- 
 reaching look of the eye." 
 
 The question. Was it a false charge of treason which lost 
 him his life, or was he guilty? will be answered differently; but 
 all will agree that he was basely treated by the King. 
 
 Hume writes : — " Strafford, sensible of the load of popular 
 prejudices under which he laboured, would gladly have 
 declined attendance in Parliament, and he begged the King's 
 permission to withdraw himself to his government in Ireland, 
 at least to remain at the head of the army in Yorkshire (this 
 would include days of quietude at Tankersley and Wentworth 
 Woodhouse), where many opportunities, he hoped, would offer 
 by reason of his distance to elude the attacks of his enemies. 
 But Charles, who had entire confidence in the earl's capacity, 
 thought that his counsels would be extremely useful during 
 the critical session approaching ; and when Strafford still 
 insisted on the danger of his appearing amidst so many enraged 
 enemies, the King, little apprehensive that his own authority 
 was so soon to expire, promised him protection, and assured 
 him that not a hair of his head should be touched by the 
 Parliament." The excuse for the King, that the power of the 
 Houses of Parliament had become so great that he was 
 helpless, has not the weight of a feather. The unpopular and 
 unconstitutional acts of Strafford were the carrying out of the 
 
82 
 
 King's own foolish, treasonable design to exalt his own 
 prerogative and make his rule autocratic. Instead of taking 
 Juxon's advice, to " refuse his assent to the Bill if his conscience 
 did not approve " : instead of saying to the Parliament, 
 "Strafford has been faithful to me, carried out my wishes, and, if 
 what he has done be treason, the fault is mine, not his "; he sinks 
 his manhood below the level of that " honour among thieves," 
 which forbids one of them, to save his own life, implicating a 
 comrade. The King's remorse, shame, and grief must be 
 estimated by his course of conduct which had brought him 
 into such an extremity. A man who is habitually false to his 
 word and his oath, deliberately and solemnly given, may not 
 expect people to believe in the profoundness of his contrition 
 when his last act of faithlessness has proved disastrous. 
 
 The maxim, " The king can do no wrong," had much to do 
 with his servant Strafford being held accountable for the King's 
 misdeeds; though it is surely nonsense. "It was a wrong of the 
 most criminal description to attempt a subversion of the most 
 sacred laws of the Commonwealth. To assume, because of that 
 maxim, that Strafford acted not merely without the King's 
 consent, but in violation of his commands, is utterly absurd. To 
 make the maxim fit, we have to suppose that Strafford would 
 be lying when he said that what he did he did at the King's 
 bidding ; Charles was, and did, what the wife of Colonel 
 Hutchinson truly says of him : " The example of the French 
 King was propounded to him, and bethought himself no monarch 
 so long as his will was confined to the bounds of any law; but 
 knowing that the people of England were not pliable to an arbitrary 
 rule, he plotted to subdue them to his yoke by a foreign force, and, 
 till he could effect it, made no conscience of granting anything 
 to the people which he resolved should not oblige him longer than 
 it served his turn, for he was a prince that had nothing of faith or 
 truth, justice or generosity in him : he was obstinate, and so 
 bent upon being an absolute uncontrollable sovereign, that he 
 was resolved either to be such a king or none." (Vol. i, I20.) 
 
83 
 
 The question whether the Bill of Attainder against Strafford 
 can be justified, has been much discussed. A writer in the 
 Edinbro' Review (Sept., 1828, 116-117) said: "Look around 
 the nations of the globe, and say in what age or country would 
 such a man have fallen into the hands of his enemies without 
 paying the forfeit of his offences against the Commonwealth 
 with his life. * * * Something beyond the retirement or 
 dismissal of such ministers has seemed necessary to ' absolve 
 the gods ' and furnish history with an awful lesson of retri- 
 bution. The spontaneous instinct of nature has called for the 
 axe and the gibbet against such capital delinquents. * * * 
 In condemning the Bill of Attainder, we cannot look upon it as 
 a crime." 
 
 I have no admiration for the talents of this great states- 
 man that is not neutralised by his conduct. It is beyond doubt 
 that his show of patriotic feeling when he spoke so eloquently 
 in favour of the Petition of Right in the House of Commons 
 had behind it no reality. He had no patriotic convictions 
 strong enough to resist the faintest intimation of favour from a 
 quarter whence wealth and titles where obtained. When the 
 prospect of sharing in the honours and opulence of a court was 
 set before him, the lure was so far attractive that, though it 
 required him to unsay every good thing he had ever said 
 and to undo every good deed he had ever done, he was 
 unable, even on these conditions, to resist it. The Petition 
 of Right had just passed when the Court overtures were made 
 and accepted by the man who had argued, " Grievances and 
 supply should go hand in hand, and the latter in no case 
 precede the former. * *- * Let us leave all power to His 
 Majesty to bring malefactors to legal punishment, but our laws 
 are not acquainted with sovereign power. We desire no new thing, 
 nor do we offer to trench on His Majesty's prerogative, but we 
 may not recede from this petition either in whole or in part." 
 No man did more towards securing the important recognition 
 of English liberty contained in the Petition of Right than the 
 
84 
 
 Thomas Wentworth who, when sojourning at Tankersley, was 
 the near neighbour of the people who lived at Chapeltown two 
 hundred and fifty years ago, and no statesman in a more marked 
 manner suddenly changed his political colours than did he, 
 deceiving no one, for the offers of reward were not made in 
 secret. 
 
 It was on the nth of November, 1640, eight days after the 
 assembling of the famous Long Parliament, that the Earl of 
 Strafford was impeached of high treason and taken into 
 custody, and on May ist, 1641, his trial on that impeachment 
 began. The statement in books of English History that he 
 was beheaded on a false charge of treason is absolute nonsense. 
 He aided and abetted the King to commit acts of high 
 treason — that is, to do things in violent opposition to the 
 laws and the constitutional authority of the realm. The 
 charge of treason rested on unquestionable facts, which were 
 not affected by the trial by impeachment not having reached a 
 verdict. His defenders argue as if that trial had gone on, and 
 a verdict of acquittal been the result. 
 
 The crime which attacks directly the supreme authority of 
 the State has in all civilised countries been considered treason, 
 and only by the false assumption that Charles I. had a right to 
 rule independently of the limitations of the Constitution upon 
 which the English Government is based can the justice of the 
 sentence against the Earl of Strafford be questioned. 
 
 If the clever servant of Charles I. had more closely 
 considered the character of his master he would have seen 
 reasons for not trusting, as he did, to his magnanimity. He 
 would probably not have written the letter in which he tells 
 the King to ratify the Bill of Attainder if by doing so his 
 Majesty could secure his own safety. That the Earl found 
 how greatly mistaken he was in his opinion of the King may 
 be inferred from his words when, without regard to the promise 
 that not a hair of his head should be touched, the King 
 sacrificed him on an altar of expediency. Strafford exclaimed, 
 
85 
 
 lifting his. eyes to heaven and putting his hand on his heart, 
 " Put not your trust in princes nor in the sons of men, for in 
 them there is no salvation." 
 
 There are words in Hunter's " Hallamshire" referring to 
 the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century which are in striking 
 contrast to much that has been affirmed by less unbiassed 
 writers. He says : — 
 
 " We are now arrived within the sound of those wars which 
 interrupted the peace that England had so long enjoyed, and 
 were the occasion of infinite natural and moral evil, though 
 they issued in the establishment of our free and envied Consti- 
 tution, and in placing on the British throne for its protection, 
 first, a Prince of the House of Orange, and afterwards the 
 august family of Brunswick ; for, however the truth may be 
 disguised, there is no essential difference between the opposi- 
 tion which was made to Charles I. and that which in later 
 times was presented to his son; and had James H. been 
 successful in his war in Ireland, and had by force of arms 
 regained possession of the throne, we might have had another 
 Clarendon to have given us the history of another rebellion. 
 
 " In both instances there was much of private resentment 
 and unworthy passion interfering with the great public principle 
 on which the parties proceeded ; there were some men who (as 
 is the case in all unsettled times) sought to benefit themselves by 
 engaging in the contest, and both parties showed too little 
 willingness to come to a just accommodation when the sword 
 had once been unsheathed. But the substantial question on 
 which the parties were at issue, both in the time of Charles I. 
 and of James II., was whether the ancient constitution of 
 England had not left the Crown in possession of certain prero- 
 gatives, the exercise of which was incompatible with the safety 
 and welfare of the subject. The powers of the ancient 
 monarchy of England had been usurped in dark and barbarous 
 ages by military chieftains or voluntarily conceded to answer 
 particular purposes, which purposes no longer existed. In the 
 
 G 
 
86 
 
 early part of the reign of Charles I. the controversy might be 
 said to have begun when the people by their representatives 
 in Parliament called for the reduction of the royal prerogative. 
 The King heard with impatience requests which seemed to him 
 to strike at the very root of his authority ; and at last, weary 
 with the importunity of his Parliament, he listened to those 
 counsellors who advised him to assemble that body no more. 
 For eleven years England had no Parliament. This of itself— 
 to every man who wished not that his life and fortunes should 
 be at the mercy of a single person — must have shown that the 
 power of the Crown to summon, or to suspend the summoning 
 of Parliament, required some regulation. But without a 
 Parliamentary grant, even in those days, the King was unable 
 to defray the expenses of the State, much more to take any 
 active part in the contentions of the Continent. To supply 
 himself with money. King Charles had recourse to the expedient 
 of reviving obsolete powers of the Crown by which tyrannical 
 princes in former times had enriched themselves at the expense 
 of their subjects. Again was evidence afforded of the necessity 
 of curtailing the Royal prerogative. Precedents were to be 
 found for most of the King's measures — perhaps for all of them. 
 But the times were changed, and just notions of civil liberty 
 and the rights of the subject were pretty widely diffused. Nor 
 indeed was it a difficult thing to convince most men that there 
 could be no good and sufficient reason for calling upon all the 
 gentry of the kingdom to take upon themselves the honour of 
 knighthood, or to give subsidies under the name of loans at a 
 time when there was no pretence of danger from abroad. The 
 ship-money was at least of doubtful obligation, and at a time 
 when men were becoming impatient of the acknowledged 
 prerogative, it was not to be expected that they would acquiesce 
 in the revival of those claims which, if they had ever existed as 
 rights of the Crown, had long become obsolete. Accordingly, 
 when the King's necessities at last obliged him to call 
 Parliament together, the two parties found themselves at issue 
 
87 
 
 on some of the most important questions of civil policy, which 
 it was hardly to be expected could be decided but by the 
 sword." 
 
 " But other things," Mr. Hunter goes on to say, " combined 
 to produce the state of mind and feeling which was manifested. 
 There was at that period a numerous party in the kingdom who, 
 with an increase of civil libertj', wished also for a change in 
 the ecclesiastical constitution of the country. They thought 
 that the Reformers had not gone far enough ; that many cere- 
 monies were retained which became not the simplicity of the 
 Gospel, and for which they contended that there was no 
 Scripture warrant. Many went so far as to think that a church 
 government similar to that which was adopted in Scotland 
 and by some reformed churches abroad was more accordant 
 with the apostolic form than the existing hierarchy ; while 
 others were for abolishing church government altogether, and 
 leaving every congregation to manage its own concerns." 
 
 The above words, from a present-day point of view, afford 
 little room for controversy. The next sentence I quote without 
 entirely assenting. " The soundness of the principles on which 
 the Presbyterians and Independents of those times acted, is 
 much more problematical than that of the doctrines of political 
 freedom for which others contended, and which were indeed no 
 more than were a few years afterwards acknowledged by the 
 estates of the realm to be fundamental principles of the British 
 constitution, when the nation's controversy with the house of 
 Stuart was brought to its final issue." 
 
 Comparing the two problems — civil freedom and religious 
 liberty — I venture to affirm that the latter is a sound principle, 
 and more easily proved to be fundamental than the former; and 
 that bad as was the conduct of Strafford, that of Laud was 
 worse. 
 
 In the Introduction to Fox's History of James I. (Brodie, 
 III., 99), the question of Strafford's guilt is discussed thus : 
 •'That he told the King that he might use his prerogative in 
 
raising mone}', and was absolved from the rules of government, 
 is indisputable : indeed he admitted that he mght have used 
 thus his prerogative, and his quibble about the meaning of the 
 words never could have been seriously listened to, when it is 
 considered that the advice was given because the legal mode 
 (of raising money) had proved ineffectual. If this be estab- 
 lished, what related to his bringing over the Irish army was of 
 no importance. He who recommends the adoption of an 
 arbitrary course, and that particularly of taking the money of 
 the subject by violence, necessarily calculates upon either 
 having already a sufficient force to effectuate the object, or on 
 being able to command it. Therefore, the conclusion is inevit- 
 able that Strafford either was prepared to introduce the Irish 
 army, or flattered himself that the executive had strength to 
 carry through the measure without its assistance. Surely then, 
 whatever may be said of the Bill of Attainder, it must be 
 admitted that he committed the most aggravated treason 
 against the state, and that there would have been a deplorable 
 defect in the constitutional system if criminality of so horrid a 
 dye — partly acted upon too — had been permitted to escape 
 punishment in a country where the heavy penalties of justice 
 were severely visited on each petty offender." 
 
 That Lord Strafford, making every allowance for the 
 peculiar circumstances of Ireland, abused the high powers 
 entrusted to him, is beyond dispute, and not less certain is it 
 that in exacting ship-money he did that which was a violation 
 of the fundamental laws of the kingdom. From the evidence 
 produced on his trial, and still more from his private letters 
 since brought to light, it is quite as certain that it was his 
 constant aim to subvert the dominion of the laws, and to sub- 
 stitute the tyranny of a single will in its place. " If this was 
 not treason," says Dr. Robert Vaughan, " it was, perhaps, high 
 time it should be made such, since few treasons had equalled it 
 in atrocity. That the Earl of Strafford deserved to die, according 
 to the most acknowledged principles of society, was the sincere 
 
89 
 
 conviction of nearly all those men who had shown any real 
 concern for the public welfare, and their object was to conform 
 the technicalities of the law to the moral character of the case." 
 
 The dealing with Strafford by a Bill of Attainder has been 
 censured by some men of strong views in direction of liberty, as 
 a departure from the sacred rules of justice. They have 
 questioned the justice of the act on the ground that it was 
 retrospective — the making of a law for a purpose referring to a 
 past offence. They say to warn is the end of punishment. In 
 reply it is asserted that to warn is not the only reason for 
 punishing. An incorrigible offender needs to be removed from 
 the community that it may not suffer further by his conduct. 
 A powerful and unscrupulous statesman, who could not be 
 displaced as in these days by a vote of no confidence, had to 
 be dealt with by such measures as were available, and with a 
 severity commensurate with the enormity of his offences, even 
 though it were certain that his fate would not deter others from 
 imitating his example. There are times when an Act of Par- 
 liament has to be passed to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, and 
 thus interfere with one of the fundamental rights of Englishmen : 
 that a trial by twelve of their compeers shall, without delay, 
 follow their being taken into custody by an official of the Govern- 
 ment. Nobody argues that this power of Parliament should 
 never be exercised. If the Legislature, in order to reach a 
 peculiar form of delinquency, may be justified in suspending a 
 statute, may not the Legislature be justified, while pursuing 
 the same end, in creating a statute such as the exceptional 
 circumstances of the case require ? 
 
 The historian Hallam remarks : " They who grasp at 
 arbitrary power : they who make their fellow citizens tremble 
 before them : they who gratify a selfish pride by the humiliation 
 and servitude of mankind; have always played a deep stake, 
 and the more invidious and intolerable has been their pre- 
 eminence; their fall has been more destructive and their 
 punishment more exemplary. Something beyond the retirement 
 
go 
 
 or the dismissal of such ministers has seemed necessary to 
 ' absolve the gods ' and furnish history with an awful lesson 
 of retribution. The spontaneous instinct of nature has called 
 for the axe and the gibbet against such capital delinquents." 
 My opinion is that, assuming that 'the axe and the gibbet' are 
 necessary and expedient in any case, not only the Earl of 
 Strafford but the King, his master, "died justly before God and 
 man." 
 
 There was perhaps this difference between the two cases of 
 capital punishment for high treason — in the one, that of the 
 Earl, it was right and expedient, while in that of the other, the 
 King, it was right but not expedient. John Goodwin, the 
 philosophic historian, writing before the Restoration, remarks: 
 " The notion was everywhere prevalent that a Sovereign 
 could not be called to account — could not be arraigned at the 
 bar of his subjects. And the violation of this prejudice * * 
 gave to his person a sacredness which never before appertained 
 to it. Among his own partisans the death of Charles was 
 treated and spoken of a sort of deicide. It may be admitted 
 as a universal rule that the abrupt violation of a deep-rooted 
 maxim and persuasion of the human mind produces a reaction, 
 and urges men to hug the maxim closer than ever. I am afraid 
 that the day that saw Charles perish on the scaffold rendered 
 the restoration of his family certain." [John Goodwin, the 
 philosophic historian who was deprived of his church living 
 (Coleman Street, London) in 1645 for refusing to administer 
 the Sacrament to his people promiscuously. He wrote a 
 vindication of the death of Charles I. He was excepted out 
 of the Act of Indemnity.] 
 
 Not long after Straffoi'd's death, Parliament mitigated 
 his sentence as regarded his children ; thus they were not 
 disinherited. He married three times — first a lady of the 
 noble house of Clifford, secondly Arabella, daughter of Holies, 
 Earl of Clare, the mother of his one son and several 
 daughters. 
 
91 
 
 When the division of the Yorkshire estates of the Went- 
 worth family took place, and the obelisk to mark that division 
 was erected on the Barnsley road, the Tankersley portion fell 
 to the share of the Wentworths of Wentworth Woodhouse, the 
 head of which is our much-respected neighbour, Earl Fitz- 
 william. 
 
 The prefix Sir seems to call for a remark. The honour 
 attached to the knighthood conferred by the Stuart kings has 
 to be measured by the qualifications of the recipients of the 
 honour. " In the year 1630, Anthony Bentley, of Ovendon, 
 gentleman, paid ^f 10 composition money for not receiving the 
 order of knighthood at the coronation of Charles I." " In 1630 
 Henry Cockcrofte, of Mayroides, in the county of Yorke, 
 gentleman, paid the sum of £15, and it was discharge of a 
 composition by him made with His Majesty's Commissioners 
 for compounding the fines and forfeitures for not attending and 
 receiving the order of knighthood at His Majesty's coronation, 
 according to the law in that case provided." James I. 
 notoriously offered rank and titles for money. In six weeks 
 he created more than two hundred knights. He instituted the 
 title of baronet, and the charge he made for it was £1000. His 
 son Charles II. called upon all the gentry of the kingdom to 
 take upon themselves the honour of knighthood, and fined those 
 who refused. Every man holding lands to the amount of £^0 
 per annum who failed to present himself to the King at his 
 coronation to receive the order of knighthood was fined. 
 
 The practice was introduced by Henry III., but until the 
 age of the Stuarts little more than a form was the summons 
 issued. The means resorted to for raising money rather than 
 have recourse to Parliament were most tyrannical and dis- 
 graceful. Richard Chambers, a merchant of London, daring 
 to appeal to the laws of his country against the unauthorised 
 demands of the Crown, was fined £2000, and sentenced to be 
 imprisoned until he made submission before the Star Chamber, 
 the Council and at the Exchange. These terms were not 
 
92 
 
 complied with, and after being twelve years in prison he 
 found himself completely ruined. He said before the Star 
 Chamber that the traders of Turkey were not more screwed 
 up than the merchants of England. It is strange the Long 
 Parliament did not have regard to the petition of the " sturdy 
 Puritan " for redress. 
 
 "The civil authorities, after the example of the spiritual, 
 had managed to convert the sins of the people into a source of 
 revenue by admitting a host of delinquents to compound for 
 their offences." (Brodie, ii., 276-278.) 
 
93 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HowsLEY Hall and other remaining 17TH century buildings in the 
 
 DISTRICT — MORTOMLEY HaLL, ChAPELTOWN HoUSE, &C. 
 
 The family abode in this district next in importance to the 
 hall at Tankersley and the mansions of the Mounteneys, would 
 be, in the 15th and i6th centuries, Howsley Hall, which in the 
 reign of Edward IV. was the property of that monarch's 
 chancellor, Thomas, son of Sir Thomas Rotheram and Arch- 
 bishop of York, the worthy and illustrious prelate, who was 
 born at Rotherham, who founded a college there, and who 
 rebuilt the church. In his will, dated 1498, he says he bought 
 for cxl. lib. the Barnes estate of Robert Shatton, and, of 
 Sir Thomas Wortley, Housley Hall, for cxx. lib. 
 
 The mother of the Archbishop Thomas de Rotheram 
 was of the family of the Scots, of the parish of Ecclesfield, 
 and to a member of that family, John Scot, his cousin, the 
 estate descended by his bequest, and thence to Alice Scot. She, 
 in 1560, married Thomas Howsley, of the family of that name, 
 which long before had owned it. At an early date in the 
 history of the parish of Ecclesfield a John Howsley is 
 mentioned as the owner of lands within the bounds of Chapel 
 in that parish. Mr. Hunter, in his reference to this estate, 
 takes us back to the 12th century. He says : " Maud de 
 Lovetot, the great heiress of Hallamshire, granted by deed, 
 without date, to John Camerario all the lands which were 
 Josselin de Burne's, in Burne, in Chapel, which lands in 
 process of time came into possession of the family of Howsley, 
 who seated themselves there, and from whom the capital 
 messuage or seat was called Howsley Hall." There was a 
 deed as early as 1436, in which the trustees of a John Howsley 
 grant to John Howsley and Joan his wife, for their lives, and 
 
94 
 
 to William their son after them, and then to John, his brother, 
 all the lands of the feoffment of the said John Howsley within 
 the bounds of Chapeltown. 
 
 In 1505 the name of John Howsley appears, and a Thomas 
 Howsley in 1532, but neither of these could be, at those dates, 
 in possession of the hall at Chapeltown, for the Archbishop 
 died in 1500, and the Alice Scott to whom, by his bequest, John 
 Scott, his cousin, it descended, did not marry Thomas Howsley, 
 of Howsley Hall, until May 14th, 1560. How the estate, and 
 at what date, passed into the possession of Sir Thomas 
 Wortley, of whom the Archbishop bought it, does not appear, 
 but it is clear that sixty-two years before the date of Arch- 
 bishop Rotheram's will it was in the possession of the Howsley 
 family. The children of Thomas Howsley and the Alice 
 Scott, whom he married in 1560, were Elizabeth and Anne. 
 The former was the wife of Gilbert Dickinson, who, in the 
 reign of James I., lived at Howsley Hall, and for whom 
 and his wife, Dodsworth mentions there was an inscription 
 on the wall of Ecclesfield Church over a pew, of date 
 1601, and he says it was appointed by the Earl of Shrewsbury. 
 This Gilbert Dickinson was the brother of Francis Dickinson, 
 of Rotherham. The younger daughter Anne was married 
 in 1594 to Gerard Freeman, who died in 1637, leaving 
 Howseley Hall to his son, named Howsley Freeman, aged 
 36. From this son the estate descended three generations 
 later to Captain Howsley Freeman, of the militia, who 
 had no sons, and whose three daughters, namely, Grace, 
 wife of Richard Brown, of Aberford ; Lydia, wife of John 
 Lambert, of Leeds ; and Margaret, became his heirs. They 
 divided the property into three portions, for which they drew 
 lots. The Howsley Hall estate fell to the lot of the eldest 
 daughter, Grace. She left it to the daughter of her sister 
 Lydia, and this niece, Lydia Lambert, and her husband, Mr. 
 John Mackereth, of Wakefield, clerk, having complied with the. 
 condition that she and her husband should change their names 
 
95 
 
 to Freeman, became, in 1787, owners of the estate. She lived 
 until 1837, but did not reside at the hall, but at Howsley 
 Cottage, Ridal Mount, Ambleside, and her ancestor's antique 
 Chapeltown dwelling was let, either divided or as a whole, to 
 various tenants, namely, Mr. William Froggatt, whom she 
 appointed executor ; Mr. Henry Longden, Jun., Mr. Matthew 
 Chambers, Sen., in 1818 ; Mrs. Thomas Chambers, after the 
 death of her husband in 1814 ; Mr. Campsall, the surgeon, 
 and Mr. Warburton, Mr. Froggatt's son-in-law, who had a 
 boys' boarding school there. When Mrs. Freeman died it was 
 found that she had left the Howsley Hall estate to the Right 
 Hon. James Stuart Wortley. Of him his cousin, the Earl of 
 Wharncliffe, bought it. There is a paragraph in Dr. Gatty's 
 volume, " A Life at One Living," which says : " I remember 
 Mr. Wortley telling me that Mrs. Freeman's unexpected legacy 
 of her property at Chapeltown (for he had no acquaintance with 
 the lady, who lived and died at Ambleside) reached him in a 
 curious manner. A letter was delivered at Wharncliffe House, 
 London, addressed to himself, but with a postage of five 
 shillings upon it. Thinking it was probably a monster adver- 
 tisement, or a hoax, he refused to open it, and it went to the dead 
 letter office. But in a few weeks he received a letter from the 
 solicitor at Ambleside, to whom it had been returned, which 
 ultimately ensured it a very cordial welcome. The parcel-letter 
 contained the title deeds of the estate, which is now, by purchase, 
 in the possession of the Earl of Wharncliffe " (p. 49). 
 
 Mr. Warburton's widow was married to Mr. Swallow, the 
 father of the present Mr. Swallow, J. P., of Mosbro', the owner 
 of cottages near to the Howsley Hall Park, and which were 
 built by Mr. Froggatt. Of this Mr. Swallow's progenitor there 
 will be mention further on in connection with the Chapeltown 
 Furnaces. 
 
 "The first Howsley Freeman and his son Thomas com- 
 pounded for their estate under the Commonwealth. Their 
 delinquency was that they did collect money for the service 
 
\ I 
 
 
97 
 
 against the Parliament, but were comprised within the Articles 
 of York. They petitioned April 14th, 1649, desiring considera- 
 tion of their timely tender to the power of the Parliament, 
 having, ever since July, 1644, attended the confirmation of 
 those Articles. They compounded for an estate of which the 
 fither was seized in fee (the son having only an expectation 
 thereof), of messuages and lands in Ecclesfield Parish, and a 
 cottage in Rotherham, worth £52 per annum. Their personal 
 estate was ^^48, their debts were ^^350, their fine -|ri56." 
 
 The Gilbert Dickenson who married Elizabeth Howsley, 
 and had previously lived at Barnes Hall, would be descended 
 from the Gilbert Dickenson and his wife who (Dodsworth 
 mentions) had a pew in Ecclesfield Church over which — on 
 the wall — was an inscription of date i6or. This husband of 
 Elizabeth Howsley had to answer a charge brought by Richard 
 Lord, Vicar of Ecclesfield, for what is now called " practical 
 joking." He was concerned with others in the killing of deer 
 in Wharncliffe Chase, pulling down paling in the park, and 
 otherwise grossly insulting Sir Richard Wortley. 
 
 In Ecclesfield Church there are the following tablets : — 
 " Sacred to the memory of Miss Margaret Freeman, who departed 
 this life the 6th March, 1783, at Bombay, in the East Indies. 
 Her disconsolate mother erected this monument as a memorial 
 of the virtues of the best of daughters. 
 
 " Sleep on, blest creature, in the grave, 
 My sighs and tears cannot awake thee ; 
 I shall but stay until my turn. 
 And then, O then, I shall o'ertake thee." 
 
 "Herelieth the remains of Howsley Freeman, of Howsley 
 Hall, who was interred March 5th, 1783, aged 71 years; also 
 Grace Brown, his sister, who was interred July 8th, 1787, aged 
 73 years; also Lydia Lambert, his sister, who was interred 
 December 28th, 1792, aged 77 years ; also Margaret Freeman, 
 his sister, who was interred March 31st, 1795, aged 76 years; 
 also the Rev. John Lambert, his nephew, who was interred 
 November 30th, 1817, aged 6g years." 
 
98 
 
 "This tablet, to the memory of Mrs. Lydia Mackereth 
 Freeman, was erected by William Frogatt, of Howsley Hall, in 
 this parish, whom she appointed (Executor).* She died at her 
 residence, Howsley Cottage, Ambleside, Westmoreland, March 
 2nd, 1837, was interred at Troutbeck, in the said County, and 
 was the last of the family of Freemans, of Howsley Hall." 
 
 On what was formerly a part of the park of Howsley Hall, 
 are Almshouses founded by this Mrs. Ann Freeman, who died 
 March 2nd, 1837. I" the centre is a large reading room or 
 chapel intended to be used every Wednesday afternoon for a 
 service for the benefit of the inmates, for which Mrs. Freeman 
 instructed her executors to invest ;^300 in Government Stock. 
 The other annual income of the charity from an endowment of 
 ;£'2,ii4 15s., amounts to about £70, devisable among the 
 occupants of the said tenements. She left ;f 100 in Consols, 
 standing in the name of the Vicar and Churchwardens of 
 Ecclesfield, the interest to be distributed among the poor by 
 the said Vicar and Churchwardens. Her reasons for leaving 
 her estate in Yorkshire to the Hon. James S. Wortley, are thus 
 stated in her will (proved May 31st, 1837) : — 
 
 " And whereas I feel a strong desire that the family estate 
 of the Freemans should at all times be kept in the style suited 
 to the station which that family has filled in the world, and as 
 a strong attachment formerly existed between my late uncle 
 Howsley Freeman, late of Howsley Hall, Esquire, deceased, 
 and the grandfather of the present Lord Wharncliffe, I have 
 selected a member of the house of Wortley to succeed to my 
 estates in Yorkshire, . . . not doubting that he will prove 
 himself a worthy descendant of that honourable house, and a 
 suitable representative of my own family, &c." 
 
 In the garden at Howsley Hall, there was a cork tree, a 
 
 unique specimen in this district. It was blown down by a 
 
 storm of wind on the 24th October, 1868. The tree was (in 
 
 * This word is not on the tablet, but seems to be implied. He was not related 
 to her. There was left him, for his life, the rental of three farms, tradition says, 
 for reasons arising out of his marriage. 
 
99 
 
 its prime) not less than 35 feet high, with branches extending 
 12 to 15 feet. The bark— that is the actual cork— varied from 
 two to three inches. There is no record of its age, but it was 
 thought by Mr. George Parker, Lord Wharncliffe's woodman, 
 to be about 120 years old when blown down. 
 
 During the years 1808 until 1811, while the eldest son of 
 Mr. Henry Longden, one of the partners when the Thorncliffe 
 Works were started, was residing at Howsley Hall, it was the 
 birthplace of the present Mr. William Longden, and his sister 
 Mrs. Joshua Moss. It was when Mr. Matthew Chambers, sen., 
 removed from Low Moor to take part in the management of 
 the Thorncliffe Works, after the death, in 1817, of his father, 
 that Howsley Hall became his residence. Afterwards he re- 
 moved to Chapeltown House, which he took on a lease for 
 21 years, dated February 2nd, 1826. The widow of his elder 
 brother, Mr. Thomas Chambers, also resided at Howsley Hall. 
 Mr. Campsall, the surgeon, lived there until he bought the 
 house at Chapeltown lately pulled down by the Midland 
 Railway Company in constructing their branch line between 
 Wincobank and the Thorncliffe Works.* 
 
 Mortomley, near to Chapeltown, on the north-west, has a 
 history which goes back to 1227. The following is Mr. East- 
 wood's account of the hamlet : — " It is mentioned among the 
 estates of Lord Furnival in 1365, and again among those of 
 William de Furnival in 1365, as yielding 50s. per annum. In 
 both cases it is spelt Northumley. If this be the true form, it 
 seems to point to the etymon, North-holm-ley, similar to 
 Bright-holm-ley, in the chapelry of Bradfield. In 1227, 
 Jeremiah de Morthumley was witness to a deed of John de 
 Midhope. In the same century Gerard de Furnival granted to 
 Ralph Wortley lands in Troghesels, and lands of Ralph 
 Duddefyn in Mortomley, with common of pasture in Eccles- 
 field and Mortomley ; and, among the Cottonian Charters, a 
 
 * In the cottage near to Howsley Hall lived for a time John Sheldon, the 
 father of Jabez and Benjamin Sheldon, well-known in this neighbourhood. 
 
lOI 
 
 deed of 4 Henry IV. (1403) mentions that Nicholaus de 
 Mortumley quitclaims to Arnald Wyke, Vicar of Ecclesfield, 
 and John Raynold, chaplain, a messuage and three plots of 
 land in Waldershelf, which formerly belonged to Adam de 
 Sewynok. In a deed of 27 Henry VI. (1449), William de 
 Brekersherth de Rotherham gives to John Talbot, Knt., of 
 Salop, all his lands in Mortomley, which he had of John Boton, 
 of Rotherham." 
 
 The present Mortomley Hall, of which there is here 
 a sketch, was built on the site of the older house by John 
 Parkyn, in 1703, who put that date and the initials of his 
 own and his wife's names over the door. The older house, 
 part of which remains, had long been the home of the 
 Parkyns. As far back as 1567 they owned the estate. 
 In the time of Henry VIII. lands at Mortomley were held 
 by Robert Parkyn (as evidenced by proceedings in Chan- 
 cery of date 1602), and from him the property descended 
 through ten generations of the name to Miss Catherine 
 Parkin, who became the wife of John Jeffcock, Esq., J. P., 
 brother of the late William Jeffcock, Esq., of High Hazles, 
 the much respected first Major of Sheffield. The son of 
 that lady, the Rev. John Thomas Jeffcock, M.A., F.S.A., 
 Rector of Wolverhampton, Prebendary of Lichfield, compiled 
 for Mr. Eastwood a pedigree of the Parkins which shows that 
 William Parkin, Esq., who married, first, Mary, daughter 
 of Lionel Copley, Esq., of Sprodborough, and secondly, 
 Catherine, daughter of Patientius Warde, Esq., of Hutton- 
 Pagnel, died, aged 60, on May 2nd, 1757, without issue, 
 and that his entailed estates at Mortomley and Darley 
 descended to a nephew, Thomas Parkin, who married a 
 daughter of William Wilkinson, of Crowder House, and 
 from that Thomas Parkin to his grand daughter, Mrs. 
 Jeffcock, sole heiress of her father, after the death of her 
 brother. This family of Parkyn, which was settled at Mortom- 
 ley Hall in the reign of Henry VIII., dates back in the female 
 
 H 
 
I02 
 
 line through ancestors bearing the names Adams, Castleford, 
 Rockley, &c., to Swain, the son of Ailric, the son of Rychard 
 Aschenald, Lord of Staincross,* &c., in the time of Edward 
 the Confessor.t 
 
 In Ecclesfield Church, in the south choir, is a tablet in- 
 scribed thus : — " Sacred to the memory of Thomas Parkin, 
 late of Mortomley Hall, in this parish. He was born January 
 21, 1770, and departed this life June 15, 1808, aged 38 years." 
 "And near this place lie interred the remains of 'William 
 Parkin, son of Thomas Parkin, Esq., and last male heir of the 
 family; he was born October g, 1807, and died, much lamented, 
 aged 17 years, January 17, 1825. He was a youth of virtuous 
 and pious principles, and of amiable and endearing manners. 
 He bore a long affliction and much acute sufferingwith Christian 
 patience and fortitude, and died in hope of a joyful Resurrection 
 into eternal life." 
 
 In the nave of the church is the following : "Here lieth 
 interred the body of Mary, wife of William Parkyn, gentleman, 
 of Mortomley, daughter of Lionel Copley, of Sprotborough, 
 Esqre., obt Oct. ye 26th, 1736, set 34." 
 
 " Here lieth interr'd ye body of William Parkyn, Esqre., 
 of Mortomley, Obt. ye 2nd of May, 1757, aged 60." 
 
 "In memory of Thomas Parkin, Esqre., who departed 
 this life April i6th, 1776, aged 46 years." 
 
 " Also Hannah, the wife of the aforesaid Thomas Parkin, 
 Esqre., who departed this life Novr. the 23, 1790, aged 58 
 years." 
 
 " Ako of Catherine Parkin, one of the daughters of the 
 above named Thomas and Hannah Parkin, who departed this 
 life the 23rd day of June, 1804, aged 42 years." 
 
 *A district which includes the Parish of Tankersley. 
 
 +1 may add, as an item of genealogical interest to those whom it may concern, 
 that Catherine Jeffcock, the grandmother of Mr. John Jeffcock, of Cowley, and his 
 three brothers, was daughter of a race whose descent is traced lo a possessor of 
 land granted by Roger de Laci, who died October ist, I2ri. (See Whitaker's 
 History of the Parish of Whalley, p. 316, 1800 edition). 
 
I03 
 
 "Sacred to the memory of Thos. Parkin, Esqre., late of 
 
 Mortomley, who departed this life June the 15th, 1808, aged 
 
 38 years. 
 
 " Through death's dark vale we hope to find the way 
 To the bright regions of eternal day ; 
 Life's but a moment : death that moment ends ; 
 Thrice happy he who well his moment spends, 
 For on that dreadful point eternity depends," 
 
 Mr. William Parkin, by his will in 1757 left ^50 for the 
 purchase of Communion plate, and the articles that bequest 
 provided are a solid silver flagon and four solid silver plates. 
 On the flagon is inscribed : " This given to Ecclesfield Church 
 1759 by the late William Parkyn, Esqre., of Mortomley Hall, 
 by will, for the Communion table." Upon the plates there is 
 this inscription : " Given by will to Ecclesfield Church by 
 William Parkyn, Esq., of Mortomley Hall, 1759." 
 
 William Parkin, of Mortomley, also by will in 1757 left £"50- 
 charged upon the Mortomley estate, the interest to be paid to 
 the schoolmaster of Lound School for teaching six poor children 
 of Mortomley and Mortomley Lane End. 
 
 Formerly belonging to members of the Parkyn family who 
 resided at Horbury, was Greg House, near the Sheffield and 
 Barnsley road, " a complete specimen of a farm-house of the 
 period about 1680. Paul Parkyn, of the Horbury, died seized 
 of it in 1751. The name is said to be a contraction of Gregory 
 House, from a family still numerous in that neighbourhood, 
 which has a considerable local reputation for musical talent." 
 
 Preserved among the papers of Mr. Thomas Parkin, of 
 Mortomley, is a list of his pack of hounds, the members of 
 which were sent to "Summer" with various persons. For 
 tenancy of some sort, Mr. William Parkin, at Mortomley, in 
 1771, paid £4 5s. to the Duke of Norfolk. 
 
 As a memorial of Mr. Parkin Jeffcock, who lost his life in 
 his heroic effort to rescue miners at the time of the Oaks 
 Colliery explosion, was erected, 21 years ago, St. Saviour's 
 Church at Mortomley. 
 
104 
 
 High Green House, where for some years in the middle of 
 this century Mr. George Chambers resided, is associated in 
 local records with the names of Sylvester, Phipps, Reresby 
 and Foster. In 1637, Elizabeth Stones, widow, and her son 
 Ralph, were joint occupiers of High Green Farm. The name 
 Silvester occurs very frequently on the parish records ; the 
 earHest being Robert, buried 1583 ; and Edward, in 1594, 
 churchwarden, and, in 1616, Feoffee. The latter is described 
 in the Parish Register as " of Hyegrene," in September, 1599. 
 I surmise that his residence would be the present High Green 
 House (or one on the same site 300 years ago), and that after- 
 wards, in 1670, it would be in that "sole house of importance," 
 in what Mr. Eastwood calls "that straggling hamlet." By 
 Edward Sylvester, of the Tower of London, one of the High 
 Green family, was founded the Mortomley Lane End hospital. 
 He was probably brother to John Sylvester, of Burthwaite, in 
 the parish of Darton, near Barnsley. Mrs. Anne Sylvester, 
 spinster, sister to the above John and Edward, by will dated 
 August 14th, 1711, left "the income of two hundred pounds to 
 be given and distributed yearly some time before Easter, at the 
 discretion of the trustees, to the Poorhouse-keepers within 
 Greno Firth or Quarter, and that the income of the residue 
 or remainder, be it more or less, be employed in putting forth 
 of poor children belonging to the aforesaid Firth or Quarter 
 to trades ; the vicar of Ecclesfield for the time being to be 
 always a trustee, and the rest to be nominated by my 
 Executor, John Silvester, of Burthwaite, in the parish of 
 Darton and county of York, Esquire. The " residue or 
 remainder" was about ;fioo, and the whole of Mrs. Anne 
 Sylvester's bequest to the parish was laid out in purchasing 
 a farm at Whitley. 
 
 In that hospital are seven rooms for seven poor men 
 or women of the parish of Ecclesfield, respect being had to 
 those who live on the north side of the parish, and who are 
 entitled nearly to 30/- or more if the estate produces more. 
 
105 
 
 Mr. Nicholas Silvester was to have the patronage during 
 his life, and then the vicar and churchwardens of Eccles- 
 field. 
 
 There is a monument in Ecclesfield church of a George 
 Phipps, senior, of High Green, who married Susanna, the 
 daughter of Immanuel Knutton, the vicar of that parish, during 
 the Commonwealth. She was buried at Ecclesfield, June igth, 
 1720, aged 70 years. In 1649 there was living at Holbrook, 
 near to High Green, a Thomas Phipps, who owed ;^ioo to 
 Mr. Dickinson, of Howsley Hall. 
 
 High Green School, which has recently fallen into the 
 hands of the Ecclesfield School Board, was oiiginated by a 
 member of the Reresby family. The report of the Charity 
 Commissioners for 1839 states that " Ann Reresby, by will 
 dated June 23rd, 1801, bequeathed to the Rev. Samuel Phipps, 
 Samuel Tooker, Esq., and Mr. John Foster the sum of £500, 
 the interest thereof to be applied to the education of any 
 number of poor girls not exceeding thirty within the several 
 places called High Green, Thompson Hill, Potter Hill and 
 Mortomley. In an old cottage or school-house children were 
 being taught by a Mrs. Elizabeth Arthur, and for the benefit 
 of this school Mrs. Ann Reresby gave ^200. Mr. John Foster 
 was the trustee who received the money, but before he had 
 invested it he died. His heir, in 1839, conveyed to William 
 Smith, of Barnes Hall, Esq., "a cottage at High Green, with 
 croft, formerly in the occupation of John Foster, deceased, 
 afterwards of John Foster of Lingodell, and now, or late, of 
 George Chambers. This cottage and old school-house together 
 occupied 362 square yards." The rent was paid to the master, 
 and in 1862 amounted to £2 12s. 
 
 In 1840 (Dec. 31) Mr. Smith conveyed the above to George 
 Chambers, Thomas Chambers, Thomas Newton, William 
 Smith, jun., John Jeffcock, and John Bower Foster, in trust 
 for school uses, and in or about 1843 the present school-house 
 was built, at a cost of ;f6oo, on another site containing 3420 
 
io6 
 
 square yards, let by the Duke of Norfolk, Oct. 6, 1842, for 
 99 years, at an annual rent of 5s., to George Chambers, 
 Thomas Newton, Thomas Chambers and John Chambers. 
 The amount for the building of it was raised by voluntary 
 subscriptions and grants from the British and Foreign School 
 Society, hence it has been known as " The British School." 
 
 Mrs. Reresby was the last, according to her epitaph, of a 
 very ancient family in Yorkshire, which family is said to have 
 come into the county from Ashover in Derbyshire. Its origin 
 has been traced to a place of the name in Lincolnshire. Mr. 
 Eastwood says : — " There was a Ralph Reresby who is said to 
 have married a daughter of Ralph de Normanville, of Thri- 
 bergh, of which place in 1328 Sir Adam Reresby was owner 
 as heir to his uncle. In the thirteenth generation from him 
 was Leonard, son of Godfrey and nephew of Sir Thomas 
 Reresby, who died in 1619. This Leonard Reresby is described 
 as of Ecclesfield. Two more generations are given in the 
 pedigree, in the second of which Mary, daughter of Leonard 
 Reresby the younger, married William Sitwell, of Sheffield, 
 Sept. 21, 1693, from which connection the present Sir Sitwell 
 Reresby Sitwell, of Renishaw, Bart., derives one of his names." 
 
 On a brass plate in the north aisle of Ecclesfield Church 
 there is the following inscription :—" Ann Reresby, spinster, 
 died the 24th day of September, 1802, aged ^-j years. Her 
 extensive charities will be long remembered and felt, and the 
 aged occupants of the Lane End Hospital and the Charity 
 School for poor girls at High Green bear testimony to her 
 benevolent heart. She was the last of the ancient and 
 respectable family of Reresby in this county." 
 
 At High Green House was resident for forty years, holding 
 the office of coroner, Mr. John Foster, a gentleman belonging 
 to an old-established family in this district.* He died October 
 
 *He was uncle to, and his house at High Green was for some years the home 
 in his youth of my relative the late Mr. Joseph Foster, Town Councillor and 
 High Bailiff of Doncaster, who liked to tell of his Lound schooldays, and of the 
 bear-baitings he witnessed at High Green. 
 
107 
 
 4th, 1822. He was associated with the musical reputation for 
 which this neighbourhood has some claim, for he was a com- 
 poser and an enthusiastic player of the violoncello. " Mr. 
 Foster, about the year 1820, published a volume of sacred 
 music of his own composition. One of the tunes, called High- 
 Green, is considered to have very great merit." — {Eastwood p. 
 548). He married the daughter, Sarah, of a Mr. Phipps. She 
 died September 24th, iSog, aged 66. One of their sons, Joseph 
 Foster, was the father of Thomas Wood Foster, of Ecclesfield, 
 surgeon, who died December i8th, 1852, aged 39 years, leaving 
 a son, Arthur Reresby Foster, and two daughters. 
 
 Lound School, built upon land given by George Allen, of 
 Chapeltown, a tanner, had its origin in the will of Mrs. Anne 
 Sylvester, a maiden sister of John Sylvester, Esquire, of Burth- 
 waite, in the pansh of Darton, in this county. In that docu- 
 ment, dated August 14th, 1711, she left ;fioo in these words : — ■ 
 " I give and bequeath the income of one hundred pounds for 
 teaching so many poor children to read as the executor here- 
 after named, together with the feoffees in trust, shall think 
 convenient, belonging to Chapeltown, Mortomley Lane End 
 and Burn Cross, provided that the inhabitants of the above- 
 named places shall erect a school-house in some convenient 
 place for that purpose ; the Vicar of Ecclesfield for the time 
 being to be always a trustee, and the rest to be nominated by 
 my executor, John Sylvester, of Burthwaite, in the parish of 
 Darton, and county of York, Esq." A stone preserved from 
 the old school building, and which is to be seen over the 
 main entrance of the present school, has upon it, " Mrs. Anne 
 Silvester by will, Augustjai4th, 1711, left £5 per ann for 
 teaching poor children of Grenoforth, and 3^15 per ann to 
 be divided amongst the poor, and to put out children belonging 
 to the same." During more than a century this simple 
 establishment, opened on the 9th April, 1716, was the regular 
 school for;poor children of the Grenofirth quarter of the parish 
 of Ecclesfield ; and, as there]was'no limit to the admission of 
 
io8 
 
 scholars, in addition to those who were taught free, it was 
 often very numerously attended. The children were taught 
 " to read the bible, and learn the catechism and the elements 
 of writing and arithmetic " ; and once every year they were 
 publicly catechised in the Parish Church, at Ecclesfield, by 
 the Vicar, the ex-officio trustee. 
 
 Grants of money by the Privy Council and the National 
 Society having been obtained for the re-building of the school, 
 so that it could be used as a place of public worship, the 
 first stone of the existing edifice was laid in November, 1844, 
 by Lord Wharncliffe, and it was opened in 1845 for 276 
 scholars. From that time the building was used for public 
 worship, until the Rev. John Kidd, the first incumbent after 
 the village was made into a separate ecclesiastical district, 
 built a school near Cowley, which he used for divine service in 
 preference to the one at Loundside. In 1859, on November 
 3rd, was laid the first stone of the St. John's Church, conse- 
 crated on the 28th November, i860. This church is scarcely 
 old enough to be included in antiquarian researches, but in its 
 grave-yard is the tomb of the late Mr. Thomas Newton, who, 
 after the death of his father, Mr. George Newton, in 1825, was 
 head of the firm of Newton, Chambers & Co., and there are 
 buried the earthly remains of those of his family who have 
 passed away, namely, Mrs. Newton his wife, his eldest son 
 George, and his youngest daughter Mary Harriet, also his 
 brother George Newton, who died at Staindrop Lodge, in 1863, 
 also of Mrs. Thomas Chambers (Mrs. Thomas Newton's mother), 
 who died June 4th, 1865, aged 85 years. In that churchyard 
 was also buried the vvidow of Robert Chambers, the second son 
 of Mr. Chamber?, senior. She, Sarah Gregory, and Robert 
 Chambers were married February 17th, 1793. She survived 
 him until June 4th, 1865, attaining the extreme age of 94 years. 
 One of the smaller windows of the Church is of stained glass, in 
 memory of Matthew Edward Chambers, who died March i8th, 
 1875, younger son of Mr. Matthew Chambers, of Barbot Hall. 
 
log 
 
 The present vicar, the Rev. William Micklethwaite, was 
 appointed in 1857. He is one of the family referred to in the 
 following paragraph of Mr. Hunter's History of South Yorkshire 
 (p. 293, vol. 2). — "Here," Swaithe Hall, "was also a family which 
 derives its name from the place, and who appear as witnesses or 
 principals in very early charters. It afterwards belonged to the 
 name of Micklethwaite, one of whose co-heirs married an Elm- 
 hurst, Richard Elmhurst, of Houndhill, married Margaret, 
 daughter of Richard Micklewaite, of Swaithe Hall, his first wife." 
 
 Allen is a name which appears frequently in connection 
 with Chapeltown in the last century. To the Aliens belonged, 
 for at least two hundred years, Chapeltown House. When, a 
 few years ago, Mr. George Dawson was negociating with Major 
 All^n for the purchase of it, mention was made of the fact that 
 it had been the property of the family of the Aliens for two 
 hundred years. From a Mr. Thomas Allen, of Huddersfield, the 
 house was taken on lease, in 1826, for twenty-one years, by Mr. 
 Matthew Chambers, senior, at whose death, in 1828, his son 
 Matthew removed into it, and remained the tenant until he had 
 Barbot Hall offered to him by Earl Fitzwilliam, in 1847. Miss 
 Allen, the last of the family, resided at Chapeltown House before 
 she removed to Highfield, Sheffield, some time previous to 1826. 
 Her monument in Ecclesfield Church bears the following in- 
 scription : — " Sacred to the memory of Mary Allen, spinster, late 
 of Highfield, near Sheffield, and heretofore of Chapeltown, in 
 this parish, last surviving child of the late Mr. John Allen,* of 
 the latter place. She died on the 4th of December, 1836, in the 
 76th year of her age, and was interred in the cemetery of this 
 church in the same grave with her father of pious memory. In 
 all the relations of life she exemplified in no ordinary degree the 
 power of Divine Grace, by which she constantly sought to be 
 guided. This monument was erected by the children of a 
 deceased sister, whose early loss to them she had supplied 
 with all the tenderness of a mother." 
 
 *This John Allen died August 7th, 1807, aged 78 years. 
 
<IX1 
 
 
Ill 
 
 One of the family of the Aliens married Susanna, daughter 
 of Joseph Scott, of Alverthorpe, near Wakefield, gentleman, 
 and grandfather of the late Joseph Scott, of Woodsome and 
 Badsworth, Esq. Others are mentioned on tombstones in the 
 churchyard at Ecclesfield, the earliest being in 1722. They 
 seem, says Mr. Eastwood, to have been connected with the 
 ironworks at Chapeltown. 
 
 Thomas Allen, gentleman, married, first, Gertrude, 
 daughter of Thomas Steade, of Onesacre, and by his 
 wife, Elizabeth Creswick, of Boroughleigh, had issue John 
 Allen, whose grandson was Benjamin Haigh Allen, of Green- 
 head, Esq., J. P. He married, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter 
 and finally heiress to Robert Middleton, of Eyam, and had a 
 daughter Sarah, who married the Rev. John Carver, Rector of 
 Whiston and Treeton, and from them descended John Carver 
 Athorpe, of Dinnington, Esq., J. P. Members of the Allen 
 family "are said to have lived at the old-fashioned substantial 
 house at the cross-roads in the middle of the village." Thus 
 Mr. Eastwood describes the building where is now the post- 
 office and where Mr. Gradwell has a grocer's shop. The 
 portion of the premises on the south side here shown, covered 
 with ivy, and now known as Ivy House, is the residence of 
 Mrs. John Gibson. For many years the building has been owned 
 by the Thorncliffe Company. It was there they formerly carried 
 on a retail business to supply their workmen with groceries, 
 drapery goods, &c. 
 
 Mr. George Allen, who gave the land for the building of 
 the Lound School, opened April gth, 1716, was a tanner, and no 
 doubt had his home either where is now the post-office or at 
 ' Chapeltown House. There are names of persons mentioned 
 whose abodes cannot be identified. For the White Lane 
 Coalpits and coalpits at Mortomley, Edward Wingfield and 
 Thomas Ragge paid rent to the Earl of Shrewsbury — for the 
 former ten, and the latter forty pounds per annum. That was 
 in the year 1637, in the reign of Charles I., when the Atter- 
 
"3 
 
 cliffe forges would no longer be in the hands of the Earl for 
 his own benefit, but let to tenants ; and the question arises — 
 Was coal then used for smelting the ironstone obtainable in 
 the neighbourhood of Chapeltown ? In that year, 1637, 
 Zachray Parkin paid a coal royalty to the Earl of Shrewsbury 
 of forty shillings, and in 1711 seventy-five shillings were paid 
 by John Parkin. 
 
 The name Falding has been known in this district since 
 the middle of the last century. It appears in the Ecclesfield 
 list of churchwardens. John Falding was warden for Greno- 
 forth in 1731, "William Falden " in 1754, Wm. Falding in 
 1846, and Joseph Falding in 1852. Two bachelor brothers of 
 the name are said to have built the house at Chapeltown 
 recently demolished to make way for the branch line of the 
 Midland Railway Company, and which, after Mr. Darwin left 
 it, became the residence of gentlemen of the medical pro- 
 fession, namely. Dr. Campsall, Dr. Aveling, Dr. Stone, Dr. 
 Samuel Drew and Dr. Snadden. The site of the old Mount 
 Pleasant Chapel, built in 1805, was a croft owned by a 
 Mr. Falding. At Greenhead, Loundside, Burncross and 
 Ecclesfield the Faldings have been owners of house property. 
 Greenhead Cottage has upon it the date 1838, and initials 
 J.M.F., indicating that it was built by Joseph and Mary 
 Falding. This Mrs. Falding and Mrs. Horsfield were the 
 two sisters who erected in Ecclesfield Church a monument to 
 the memory of their brother, and which is thus inscribed: — 
 " Sacred to the memory of Thomas Cliffe, schoolmaster, late 
 of Whitley Hall, in this parish, who died April 6th, 1824, '" 
 the 29th year of his age. He owed his elevation in life chiefly 
 to his pious habits, with persevering industry and high attain- 
 ments in literature. When these seemed to promise him 
 continued prosperity, a short illness removed him from his 
 earthly prospects, deprived his friends of a most affectionate 
 relative, and the rising generation of a kind and intelligent 
 instructor. 
 
114 
 
 " Triumphant Death exulting seized his prey, 
 And as we wept his trophies waved on high ; 
 But virtue lives : the vanquished makes his way, 
 Is conqueror crown'd and reigns beyond the sky. 
 
 His two sisters erect this tribute of affection in commemoration 
 of his many excellencies." 
 
 Of the member of the Falding family who was for the 
 the greater part of his life connected with the Rotherham 
 Independent College, first as student and afterwards as prin- 
 cipal, the Rev. H. H. Oakley uttered, from his pulpit at 
 Broompark Congregational Church, words which show what 
 he thought of his old tutor from a student's point of view :— 
 
 " Dr. Falding impressed and influenced his fellow men, whether 
 they were students in the College or fellow citizens in the town, less 
 by what he did or gave than by what he was. It was as a noble 
 character more than as a noble thinker or worker that he won the 
 reverent esteem of all with whom he had to do. Goodness — not 
 birth nor wealth, nor brilliant parts, much less any artful pandering 
 to popular ignorance or prejudice — was the pedestal on which, to 
 the eyes of his fellow worshippers and fellow citizens in general, 
 the doctor stood conspicuous and eminent. Dr. Falding entertained 
 a fatherly solicitude for the true success of his students in the work 
 of the Christian ministry. In these traits of character all saw 
 Dr. Falding's best equipment for the delicate and responsible office, 
 the duties of which he discharged so faithfully, so discretely, so 
 efficiently, and so long ; and in which, however valuable his 
 services of other kinds and in other fields, his noblest and most 
 fruitful work was done. Dr. Falding was a conspicuous example of 
 patient continuance in well being. He had in a very eminent degree 
 the grace of steadiness — much of his strength lay in this ; much ot 
 the beneficence of his influence came from this source. He was 
 not given to change, neither did he meddle much with them 
 that were. He had certain principles clearly apprehended and 
 tenaciously held on which he ruled his conduct. He believed in 
 the power and ultimate victory ot truth, and in steady believing 
 labours. He held nostrums of all kinds in abhorrence. Nothing 
 made him so angry as to see people run after practisers of a mere 
 
Dr. Falding, born at Chapeltown June 14, i8ib ; died December, 1892. 
 
"5 
 
 trick, or follow some may-be self-deluded advertiser of short cuts 
 to the millennium. Charlatancy in literature, in religion and in 
 politics was amongst the few things which could move him to show 
 temper. He believed in progress, but he was slower and surer than 
 some in making up his mind what progress was. As a result, every 
 year of his long life improved his record, added weight to his 
 opinion, and increased his power to present persuasively with that 
 moderation of tone and statement which is born of long conviction, 
 and is of all things the most convincing — the truth by which he 
 lived." 
 
 Gills is an old Chapeltown name of some prominence. 
 Nicholas Gills in 1644 was churchwarden for Grenoforth, and 
 one of the same name in 1693. In 1735 Nicholas Gills, of 
 Chapeltown, by will dated October 20th left, amongst other 
 things, " ioo£ for teaching six poor children, born of honest 
 parents in Grenoforth Quarter, till such times as they can read 
 well in the Bible, and also towards apprenticing the same to 
 honest trades." On his tombstone he is described as a " Nail 
 Chapman, of Chapeltown, who departed this life the 5th of 
 March, 173I, aged 79." Vicar Steer says : " He died an old 
 bachelor worth ,^2000, which he had got himself, and with a 
 fair character." 
 
 In the Ecclesfield Register is the following entry, 1605, 
 Nov. : " Nychns fil. Nicholi Gyiles & Margaretse yxoris eius 
 et neptis eius de Chappell bapt. x° die." 
 
 The name Almond is also an old one in this neighbourhood. 
 Mr. James Almond, the present Mr. John Watson Almond's 
 father, lived on the premises now called Ivy House, and also 
 owned the property adjacent, where is Mr. Beard's shop, and 
 the building where Mr. Barton had a school, and where the 
 first Wesleyan Methodists in this hamlet worshipped. Paul 
 Almond, of the same family, lived at the Farmstead, at Green- 
 side, lately occupied by the Whittakers.* The public-house, 
 the Norfolk Arms, at the end of Warren lane, of which Mr. J.W. 
 
 * He was Churchwarden for Grenofirth (for Mr. Freeman), in 1773. In 1767 
 and 1768, Philemon Alniond, of Hole House, was Grenofirth Warden, 
 
ii6 
 
 Almond is landlord, is a very ancient habitation, some portions 
 of it being four centuries old. The "White Horse " public-house, 
 in the Market place, the property of Launcelot Iveson, Esq., has 
 upon its signboard the date, 1720. The other old house, the 
 " Wagon and Horses," is no doubt as ancient. The house in 
 Station road, near wh^e was the toll bar, and which pleasantly 
 faces the wood, was the residence of Mrs. Brothers, the widow 
 of an officer in the army, and sister of Mr. James Malam, who 
 was much at ThornclilTe in connection with the first use of 
 coal-gas for lighting purposes. She and her four sons, 
 Orlando, Valentine, Colin and Horatio ; and her two 
 daughters, Rebecca (Mrs. Darwin) and Rosalind (Mrs. Wilson) 
 were well-known in this neighbourhood fifty years ago. 
 
 The old brick house at Greenside, pulled down by Mr. 
 Dowson, and on the site of which he built the villa which 
 has lately been purchased with a view to its being converted 
 into a much needed hotel, was the residence of Mr. George 
 Hall, a maltster, brother of the late Rev. Francis Hall, Vicar 
 of Greasbro'. There was a rector of Tankersley named 
 Francis Hall, who in 1773 sold the estate of his family, 
 Nether Swaithe, to Major Milner, of Burton Grange. 
 
 
117 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Barley Hall. — Methodism at Thorpe, High Green and Chapeltown. 
 
 " To uphold the integrity of the Christian dogma, to trace its workings, 
 and to exhibit its adaptation to human thought and human welfare in all the 
 varying experience of the ages is, in my view, perhaps the noblest of all tasks 
 which it is given to the human mind to pursue. This is the guardianship of the 
 great fountain of human hope, happiness and virtue." — W. E. Gladstone, 
 Content. Rev., July, 1875 (p. 144)- 
 
 Alluding to the forty-eight years during which the 
 Rev. James Dixon was vicar of the parish of Ecclesfield, 
 Mr. Eastwood says : " It was rather a period of the Church's 
 slumber, and if a cloud was over the ecclesiastical affairs of 
 Ecclesfield, it shadowed also the whole northern province. 
 John Wesley could not move as he wished within the Church, 
 so he found scope for his energies beyond the pale of her 
 discipline ; and connected with that extraordinary man's visit 
 to Sheffield at this time was the foundation of Mount Pleasant 
 Chapel at Loundside." Not irrelevant to this chapter is the 
 question, " How came there to be over ecclesiastical affairs 
 that cloud, hiding the light from heaven which reveals that 
 ' God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself?' " 
 
 We are told that Mr. Dixon " was chaplain to the 
 Marquis of Rockingham, which caused him to be a great deal 
 at Wentworth House, where he met the celebrated Rousseau, 
 and came under the influence of the false conclusions of that 
 talented man. No doubt the thought of the age was tainted 
 by the sceptical theories of Paine, Voltaire, Rousseau and 
 Spinoza, and other learned writers, who, because Christianity 
 reveals mysteries which reason apart from faith has not the 
 power to reach, were unreasonably and foolishly its opponents. 
 At that time, of the state of religion in England we know 
 that Bishop Butler wrote : " It is come, I know not how, to 
 
ii8 
 
 be taken for granted by many persons that Christianity is not 
 so much as a subject of enquiry, but that it is now at length 
 discovered to be fictitious, and accordingly they treat it as if, 
 in the present age, this were an agreement among all people of 
 discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a 
 principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were, by way of 
 reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of 
 the world." But there was a cause more likely to have 
 produced the condition of ecclesiastical affairs which Mr. 
 Eastwood describes as a state of slumber — a cause traceable 
 to the character of the government of the disreputable and ill- 
 advised King Charles II., to whom is unquestionably applicable 
 the familiar line — 
 
 " The evi) which men do lives after them." 
 
 It suits the purpose of some historians to make no 
 mention of the fact that the reaction brought about by the 
 Restoration included not only the suppression of the eccen- 
 tricities of the Puritans, but of the godliness (iisebia), the 
 fountain forth from which spring virtue, morality and good 
 citizenship. 
 
 Alluding to the time when the Directory of the West- 
 minster Assembly was substituted for the Book of Common 
 Prayer, Mr. Eastwood says : " In 1645, Jan. 3, an Ordinance 
 of Parliament took away the Book of Common Prayer and 
 established in its stead the ' Directory for the Public Worship 
 of God in the Three Kingdoms.' This was followed, Aug. 23, 
 by another Ordinance 'for the more effectual putting in 
 execution the Directory.' Henceforth to use the Book of 
 Common Prayer in any public place of worship or in any 
 private place or family within the Kingdom was punishable by 
 a fine. Then came a time of hypocrisy and violence, during 
 which the voice of the Church of England was silenced and 
 Presbyterianism, after trying to bring a spiritual despotism 
 into every parish and household, was in its turn obliged tg 
 yield to Independency — ' a hydra of many heads.' " 
 
iig 
 
 I remark (being free equally with Mr. Eastwood to intro- 
 duce an ecclesiastical opinion) that in comparison with the 
 times preceding and immediately subsequent to the Common- 
 wealth era, the description of it as "a period of hypocrisy 
 and violence " cannot be justified. Surely it is true that Royal 
 and Episcopalian tyranny had been far in excess of the inde- 
 fensible restrictions of religious freedom of the Long Parliament. 
 As to the forbidding of the use of the Prayer Book may be cited 
 'as a set-off the expulsion, in 1768, from St. Edmund's Hall, 
 Oxford, of six University men for reading and expounding the 
 Scriptures and for being so Methodistical as to offer extempore 
 prayer, one of the six being the Rev. Thomas Grove, who 
 became the minister at the Masborough Independent Chapel. 
 It is surely a fact that the religious principles openly professed 
 and acted upon by the adherents of Independency were the 
 very opposite of those which allow of persecution. 
 
 Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians all sanctioned 
 the enforcement of religious belief by the State, as did not the 
 Independency hydra which had Milton for its champion. It is 
 necessary to regard Cromwell as a hypocrite in order to be in 
 accord with the tone of Mr. Eastwood's comments. A fairly 
 accurate knowledge of what Cromwell wrote and said and did 
 and of the public events of his day should surely forbid a 
 candid student of history repeating that slander. It is one of 
 very many groundless assertions to which is applicable the 
 remark, anent another matter, of Mr. Froude, who says : 
 " Loose statements of this kind, lightly made, fall in with the 
 modern humour. They are caught up, applauded, repeated and 
 pass unquestioned into history. It is time to correct them a 
 little." I venture the opinion that, if the time of the reign of 
 Charles II. had been no more a time of "violence and hypocrisy" 
 than was the time of the Commonwealth, there would not have 
 been such a cloud overshadowing ecclesiastical affairs. The 
 men removed from their pulpits in the time of Cromwell 
 were interfered with because they failed to show they were 
 
I20 
 
 competent to do the work for which they had been appointed. 
 That has never been said of those who were ejected when the 
 Act of Uniformity was passed and put in force. Speaking 
 generally of the two thousand who gave up their livings (as 
 men are not wont to do merely from "a spirit of opposition ") 
 rather than be false to their convictions, they were not shepherds 
 dismissed because they were not fitted to tend their flocks. 
 Mr. Eastwood, having quoted from Collier's strongly-coloured 
 " Ecclesiastical History," says : " These sweeping statements 
 coming from the opposite party, must doubtless be accepted 
 with a reservation; such names, for instance, as Heywood and 
 Baxter can never be mentioned without respect, as being those 
 of truly pious, conscientious men, whose great object was the 
 spiritual welfare of their fellow men, and who spared no pains 
 and shrank from no hardships in trying to attain that object. 
 Others endured hardships too, but in many instances worldly 
 motives and the spirit of opposition shine through and woefully 
 detract from the merit of their proceedings." It is more easy 
 for those who fail to see the merit of the proceedings of the 
 " separatists " to attribute worldly motives to them than to 
 show good grounds for the suspicion. After losing most of its 
 best ministers in 1662, the State Estabhshment did little to 
 instruct the people religiously in accordance with the teaching 
 of Christ and His apostles. What was done was by various 
 sorts of Evangelists, chiefly outsiders, who were not merely 
 Christians in name, as evidenced by their lives, but showed 
 that they knew by personal experience the saving truth under- 
 lying the formularies of Christianity, and were active and 
 zealous in its dissemination. 
 
 In tracing how the influence of Methodism reached this 
 district, which a cloud is said to have shadowed, we find there 
 is mention in the last century of the visits of eminent and 
 zealous men who came to preach the " Word of God " (the 
 same divine message but with fewer human perversions than 
 that which Archbishop Rotheram had, three centuries before, 
 
121 
 
 by his will provided that the provost of his new college at 
 Rotherham should preach in the parish of Ecclesfield as well 
 as in that of which he was a native). To High Green often 
 came Grimshaw, the vicar of Haworth, and occasionally heard 
 there were the stirring appeals of George Whitfield. At Barley 
 Hall, on the opposite side of Chapeltown, year after year were 
 uttered earnest Gospel words by that "extraordinary man," as 
 Mr. Eastwood designates him, John Wesley, and sometimes 
 those of his brother Charles Wesley. George Whitfield, on 
 returning to England from America in 1741, declared his full 
 assent to the doctrines of John Calvin, while Mr. Wesley 
 professed an Arminian doctrine. The difference in the views 
 of these two great evangelists caused a separation. The 
 Methodists were thus divided, one part following Mr. Wesley 
 and the other Mr. Whitfield. They were, however, agreed on 
 the question — What can the Gospel of the New Testament do 
 for humanity ? They both emphasized in their preaching the 
 fall and depravity of man, the atonement, restoration through 
 the merits of a crucified Saviour, repentance and regeneration. 
 They preached in a popular style, with eloquence, vehemence 
 and enthusiasm, their zeal presenting a marked contrast to the 
 philosophical indifference of most of the established clergy. 
 Whitfield, the boldest of the apostles of Methodism and the 
 most eloquent, often collected hearers in fields, churchyards 
 and even at fairs, in numbers estimated at from ten to twelve 
 thousand. The distinctive character of Methodism is not so 
 much in its doctrines as in the application of them : the 
 bringing out of creeds — what is divinely true — 'into the minds 
 and lives of men that they may be saved. The fruits of Whit- 
 field's preaching were perhaps not less than those of Wesley, 
 but the latter reaped what they both had sown. He had the 
 organising skill of the illustrious general of his family whose 
 name, Wellesley, had not been shortened to Wesley. 
 
 "The rise of Methodism," says the writer of an article 
 in one of our Encyclopedias, " was a revival of religion in 
 
^p^l'>^ 
 
 fc. 
 
 C^^^^^'''j\ ^§*vii^S 
 
 Slli ' ' 
 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 
 Mf 
 
123 
 
 England. Since the Reformation there had been no such efforts 
 made in the cause of religion ; no preaching so awakening, so 
 little sectarian y no preachers with more zeal, singleness of 
 purpose, and power of exhortation. It awoke the slumbering 
 Church from its lukewarmness, and Dissenters to more bold 
 and united efforts of Christian zeal. It addressed the ignorant, 
 the poor, the hardened, in such a manner as to interest their 
 feehngs and command their attention. It has done much and 
 is doing much to instruct as well as to excite them. It made 
 its way at first through persecution and outrage, and after 
 spreading over its native country, it has established missions 
 in the most distant parts of the old and new world.* 
 
 The distinct affirmation of this quotation is too obviously 
 true to be questioned, although Methodism may be open to 
 the animadversions of those who dislike, in religious advocates, 
 what is irregular and thought to be extravagant. Of course 
 what is of sterling value in Methodism is to be judged of in 
 the light of the teaching of Christ and his apostles, apart from 
 the theology and ecclesiasticism which have come down to us 
 from other sources. " 
 
 Evidence as to what John Wesley believed and preached 
 may be found in a summary written, in the year 1771, by the 
 Rev. John Fletcher, vicar of Madeley, who says : — " For 
 above sixteen years I have heard him frequently in his 
 chapels, and sometimes in my church ; I have familiarly con- 
 versed and corresponded with him, and have often perused " 
 his numerous works in verse and prose ; and can truly say, he 
 maintains the total fall of man in Adam, faithfully points 
 out Christ as the only way of salvation, and holds, as a funda- 
 mental doctrine, holiness of heart and life ; holds that without 
 the grace of God man has not the ability to take any one step 
 towards his recovery ; that faith is the only means of receiving 
 
 *Dr. W. F. Collier's school book, " History of the British Empire," alludes 
 to the work of Wesley and Whitfield thus: — "To these two men our country 
 owes much, for they led the van in the revival of religion of which in the present 
 day we are reaping the harvest " (p. 279). 
 
124 
 
 Christ and the benefits of his righteous life and meritorious 
 death ; and that genuine faith produces the aspiration to be 
 holy in heart and life. He preaches a fuller salvation than 
 most professors expect to enjoy in this world — that God can 
 so shed abroad His love in human hearts by the Holy Ghost 
 given, as to sanctify wholly, soul, body and spirit. He holds 
 also a general redemption and its necessary consequences. 
 With Paul, he asserts that ' Christ tasted death for every 
 man ' ; with John, that ' Christ is the propitiation, not only 
 for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world ' ; with 
 Peter, that ' the Lord is not willing that any should perish, 
 but that all should come to repentance.' He accepts, as 
 based upon gospel truth, the invitation, ' Whosoever will, let 
 him come and take of the water of life freely.' After Christ's 
 example and command, he preaches the gospel to every 
 creature — that Christ is a king as well as a priest ; that all are 
 under a law to Him ; that all who will not have Him to reign 
 over them will be slain ; that He will judge the secrets of men, 
 and will be the author of eternal salvation to none but them 
 that obey. He knows the word grace necessarily implies the 
 freeness of a favour ; and the word will, the freedom of choice. 
 When the will is touched — as he knows by blessed experience 
 — by divine grace, and yields to the touch, it is free to good 
 as it was before to evil. He believes that none are converted 
 but those who have a free will to follow Jesus. He supposes 
 he can as soon find a stone without gravity as either a good or 
 a bad man without free-will. As a consequence of the doctrine 
 of general redemption, he lays down two axioms — first, all our 
 salvation is of God in Christ, and therefore of grace ; secondly, 
 all our condemnation is of ourselves, by our unbelief and 
 avoidable unfaithfulness. The first he builds upon such 
 Scripture as, ' No man cometh unto me except the Father 
 draw him ' — ' Christ is exalted to give repentance ' — ' Faith 
 is the gift of God.' The second he founds upon such passages 
 as, ' This is the condemnation, that light is come unto the 
 
125 
 
 world, and men loved darkness rather than light ' — ' Ye 
 always resist the Holy Ghost ' — ' See that ye refuse not Him 
 that speaketh from heaven ' — ' Ye will not come unto Me 
 that ye may have life.' " 
 
 In the light of the New Testament I see nothing in the 
 above to object to. The man who thus believed had, as had 
 the Apostles, a leverage by which to move the world, without 
 the aid of a clear insight as to what the Sovereign Ruler had 
 predetermined before the foundation of the world. 
 
 About twenty-six years ago, at the opening service of the 
 new Wesleyan Chapel at Warren, I heard preach the Rev. 
 Romily Hall, who about that time was President of the 
 Wesleyan Conference. When I heard him announce his text, 
 Romans viii. 29, 30, I was reminded of a conversation I had 
 had with him a short time before at Lane End House, and I 
 wondered what he was going to say about the doctrine of 
 Election, that fruitful ground of polemical discussion ; but 
 he said : " Underneath these words there is a mine of endless 
 controversy, but I am not going down to that strata. I shall 
 confine my remarks this afternoon to what is on the surface." 
 Had he explained the doctrine of predestination as the mother 
 of John Wesley understood it, I could have assented without 
 caring to determine whether her theological view agreed with 
 Wesleyan Methodism or modern Calvinism. She says in her 
 letter of date August 18, 1725, addressed to her son John when 
 he was about twenty-two years old, " I firmly believe that God 
 from all eternity has elected some to eternal life ; but then I 
 humbly conceive that this election is founded on His fore- 
 knowledge, according to Romans viii. 29, 30. Whom, in His 
 eternal prescience, God saw would make a right use of their 
 powers and accept of offered mercy. He did predestinate and 
 adopt for His children. And, that they may be conformed to 
 the image of His only Son, He calls them to Himself, through 
 the preaching of the Gospel, and, internally, by His Holy 
 Spirit, which call they obeying, repenting of their sins and 
 
126 
 
 believing in the Lord Jesus, He justifies them, absolves them 
 from the guilt of all their sins, and acknowledges them as just 
 and righteous persons, through the merits and mediation of 
 Jesus Christ. This is the sum of what I believe concerning 
 predestination, which I think is agreeable to the analogy of 
 faith, since it does in nowise derogate from the glory of God's 
 free grace nor impair the liberty of man. Nor can it with 
 more reason be supposed that the prescience of God is the 
 cause that so many finally perish, than that one knowing the 
 sun will rise to-morrow is the cause of its rising." 
 
 The late Mr. Spurgeon, after having preached in a chapel 
 lent to the Baptists by the Wesleyan Methodists, said, " I 
 have to express, for the loan of this building, our thanks to my 
 good brother who occupies this pulpit. The only difference 
 between him and me is that he thinks a man divinely regene- 
 rated can fall off the rock, and I don't think he can." Brought 
 into a concise utterance, so as to be thus illustrated, never 
 before were the diverse theological views of Calvin and 
 Arminius. Surely Whitfield and Wesley need not have 
 separated " one from the other," as did Paul and Barnabas, 
 if that were all about which they disagreed. " Christ sent 
 me not," said Paul, " to baptise, but to preach the gospel." 
 The two Methodist evangelists might have said something of 
 the same kind and acted upon the conviction, without the 
 world being any the poorer. 
 
 The preaching of John Wesley in America did little good, 
 for the reason he gives. When he returned he discovered that 
 he who had been voyaging to convert others had never been 
 converted himself, and he felt, as he observed, " a want of the 
 victorious faith of more experienced Christians." This con- 
 viction was strengthened by a Moravian missionary, Peter 
 Boler, with whom he had much intercourse. At length, 
 according to his own statement, on the 24th of May, 1738, at 
 a quarter before nine in the evening, while hearing, in the 
 Society in Aldersgate street, someone read Luther's preface 
 
127 
 
 to the Epistle to the Romans, the eyes of his soul were 
 suddenly opened. To have his faith strengthened he went to 
 the Moravian Brethren at Herrnhut and remained there until 
 September. Then he commenced the systematic labours 
 which made him the patriarch of the great religious bodies 
 known in these days as Methodists. " Wesleyan Methodism," 
 says Everett, " is deeply indebted to Moravianism, and it will 
 admit of a doubt whether it would ever have been what it is 
 had it not been for the instruction which Mr. Wesley, under 
 God, received from the Moravians." 
 
 The rise of the " United Society of People called 
 Methodists " Mr. Wesley describes as being in London in the 
 latter part of the year 1739, when eight or ten persons called 
 upon him for advice, and out of which rose the class meetings. 
 About that time he began a course of incessant labour, 
 preaching often three or four times a day and visiting prisons 
 and other places in the metropolis, and in the country where 
 he knew there needed a distribution of the bread of life. He 
 accepted an invitation from Whitfield to join him at Bristol, 
 and in May, 1739, the first stone of a Methodist meeting-house 
 was laid in that city. Difficulties arising as to the liability of 
 the trustees nominated, in regard to the expenses of the 
 erection, Mr. Wesley was induced to take himself the respon- 
 sibility, and thus was laid the foundation of the unlimited 
 powers which he had in connection with all the operations, 
 architectural and ecclesiastical, which he sanctioned. All 
 chapels were vested in him or in trustees bound to give 
 admission to the pulpit only as he should direct. 
 
 The dislike of ministers of the Establishment to join in 
 the work he was doing obliged him to appoint lay preachers to 
 itinerate among his societies. He kept in his hands the power 
 of nominating those preachers, and thus, as the societies 
 multiplied, his authority received indefinite augmentation. 
 The progress of his cause was favoured by the strict and 
 orderly discipline established, commencing in the classes 
 
128 
 
 and ending in the annual conferences of the preachers. 
 The whole was wisely designed to bind, harmonize and 
 consolidate. 
 
 He was almost perpetually travelling, and his religious 
 services, conducted while he was engaged in literary and con- 
 troversial work, were almost beyond calculation. The approach 
 of old age did not in the least abate the zeal and diligence of 
 this " extraordinary man." 
 
 In the "Methodist Magazine" for 1825 (p. 386) appeared 
 the following description of John Wesley, written by Joseph 
 Benson. No wonder that the extraordinary man's labours 
 were productive of great results : " I was constantly with him 
 for a week. I had the opportunity of examining narrowly his 
 spirit and conduct, and I assure you I am more than ever 
 persuaded he is a none such. I know not his fellow — first, for 
 abilities, natural and acquired ; and, secondly, for his incom- 
 parable diligence in the application of those abilities to the best 
 of employments. His lively fancy, tenacious memory, clear 
 understanding, ready elocution, manly courage, indefatigable 
 industry really amaze me. I admire, but wish in vain to imitate 
 his diligent improvement of every moment of time; his 
 wonderful exactness even in little things ; the order and 
 regularity with which he does everything he takes in hand ; 
 together with his quick despatch of business and calm serenity 
 of soul. I ought not to omit to mention (what is very manifest 
 to all who know him) his resolution, which no shocks of 
 opposition can shake ; his patience, which no length of trials 
 can weary ; his zeal for the glory of God and the good of man, 
 which no waters of persecution or tribulation have yet been 
 able to quench. Happy man! * * * thou shalt rest from 
 thy labours, and thy works shall follow thee !" 
 
 His death took place March 2nd, 1791, in the 88th year of 
 his age. He had a countenance in which mildness and gravity 
 were blended, and which in old age was extremely venerable. 
 In manners he was social, polite and conversable, without 
 
129 
 
 gloom or austerity. In the pulpit he was fluent, clear and 
 argumentative, often amusing, but never aiming at, or reaching, 
 like Whitfield, the eloquence of passion. 
 
 John Wesley was a successor of the apostles, not because 
 he was ordained by his Grace John Potter, Primate of all 
 England, but because to show forth God in Christ reconciling 
 the world unto Himself was his heaven-appointed vocation ! 
 
 We do not know that he ever preached at Chapeltown, 
 but he never came into this part of Yorkshire without visiting 
 the Thorpe Hesley homestead, known as Barley Hall, and 
 while Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were there to welcome him. That 
 house became the head-quarters of a numerous society. 
 
 As early in his career as when he was about thirty years 
 old he was at Wentworth, for his father, in 1733, had occasion 
 to consult some books in the library of the Marquis of Rocking- 
 ham, and he was accompanied by his son John, then resident 
 at Oxford, where he had begun to be distinguished. On the 
 Sunday of the week they were at Wentworth he was asked to 
 take part in the service at the church, and he preached. There 
 was present on that occasion Mr. Birks, a resident at Thorpe, 
 and with him his son Samuel, a boy eight years old — the same 
 Samuel Birks whose likeness when ninety-five years old is 
 shown in "Everett's Methodism in Sheffield." There was also 
 present at that service Mr. John Duke, one of Mr. Wesley's 
 local preachers in 1742, the grandfather of Mr. John Duke who 
 afterwards resided at Barley Hall, and gave the bells which have 
 lately been removed from the old to the new church at Went- 
 worth. Mr. Everett says (p. 52) : " One of the early seats of 
 Methodism was High Green, about a mile from Thorncliffe. 
 Both David Taylor and John Nelson had visited it, and were 
 entertained by Mr. Joseph Smith, a farmer, in whose house 
 they preached, and where a society was now formed consisting 
 of ten or twelve members." Of Mr. Whitfield's first visit to 
 High Green, in 1743, he thus writes : " When Mr. Whitfield 
 first visited these parts he was met by Mr. S. Birks (of Thorpe) 
 
130 
 
 and Mr. John Johnson (of Barley Hall) at Rothwell, near 
 Wakefield, and they acted as guides to him to High Green, 
 near Thorncliffe, where he slept all night at Mr. Joseph 
 Smith's. He set off next morning to Rotherham, and preached 
 there in a large orchard ; thence he journeyed to Sheffield." 
 He was in this neighbourhood in 1746, and preached to an 
 immense concourse of people on Sheffield Moor, from the text, 
 " Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, 
 O house of Israel ?" Mr. Grimshaw, of Haworth, who was 
 united with the Methodists as far as a clergyman could be, 
 began about the year 1747 to itinerate, and very often 
 preached at High Green. He is said to have preached outside 
 his own parish about 300 sermons annually. He died of a fever, 
 April 7th, 1763, aged 54 years. In visiting a person ■ thus 
 stricken he caught the disease. Two years after his death the 
 little society at High Green was dispersed, for when Mr. Joseph 
 Smith was no longer there to open his house to Mr. Whitfield, 
 Mr. Grimshaw, Mr. Edwards (of Leeds), Mr. John Thorpe, 
 Mr. William Green, Mr. Joseph Rose, and other preachers, 
 there were not the facilities for holding the services. It had 
 been one of Mr. Thorpe's favourite places. He generally 
 preached there on Sunday, morning at eight o'clock, and often 
 on Saturday evening. At Charlton Brook, near to High Green, 
 was born, Oct. 30, 1745, Mr. Thomas Cooper, a member of 
 the Methodist Society for more than half a century, and whose 
 father, John Cooper, was the first class-leader at Potter's Hill. 
 James Bailey, of Potter's Hill, was in the habit of going with 
 his brother, his sister and others to Thorpe, Greasbro' and the 
 Holmes to hear the Word of God preached. Alice Murfin, 
 when the only Methodist in Rawmarsh, and before there was 
 a society at Rotherham, used to walk to Barley Hall. 
 
 When David Taylor commenced his career as a preacher 
 he had. no connection with Mr. Wesley, and probably had 
 never heard of him. The name Methodist was not known 
 here when David Taylor, in 1738, first preached in a barn at 
 
131 
 
 Thorpe Hesley, and made the acquaintance of Samuel Birks 
 of that village, to whom we are indebted for some particulars 
 of the early history of his spiritual instructor, imparted to Mr. 
 Everett by Mr. Birks himself. " David Taylor," he said, 
 " came to Sheffield from Leicestershire. He lived in the 
 family of Lady Betty Hastings, as butler. His attention was 
 first directed towards personal religion by the circumstance 
 of her ladyship's chaplain having one day been absent at the 
 time of evening prayers. After the family had waited some 
 time, someone said, ' Who is to read prayers ? ' The reply 
 from several persons was ' David Taylor.' With hesitancy 
 and diffidence he took his stand at the desk, and the idea of 
 assuming, though only for an occasion, so sacred an office, 
 made a great impression upon him. On leaving the service 
 of Lady Hastings he resided in the family of Mr. Wardlow, 
 of Fulwood, probably as a friend, as he had saved a little 
 money ; and he was travelling about as a religious teacher too 
 frequently to have been a person whose services at home would 
 be constantly required. Mr. Wardlow was a Dissenter, and 
 when David Taylor began to pray and exhort in private houses, 
 his doing so better accorded with the views of Mr. Wardlow 
 than might have been had Mr. Wardlow been a member of the 
 Established Church. People assembled around him in little 
 groups, the tidings were borne to others, and public attention 
 was attracted. One of the principal places of his early labours 
 was Heeley, then about a mile from Sheffield, where was 
 formed what may be considered the first Methodist Society 
 in those parts." 
 
 The parents of Mr. Birks, of Thorpe, when he was twelve 
 years old, being on a visit to some relations at Heeley, heard 
 David Taylor preach, and gave him an invitation to come 
 over to the village of Thorpe ; and they sent their son on a 
 pony, and with a horse to convey the preacher. The result 
 was that something like a society began to make its appear- 
 ance, 
 
132 
 
 Mr. Wesley, whose way was well prepared in these parts, 
 first visited Sheffield June 14th, 1742. In his diary he says :— 
 " Having a great desire to see David Taylor, whom God has 
 made an instrument of good to many souls, I rode to Sheffield, 
 but not finding him there, I was minded to go forward 
 immediately; however, the importunity of the people con- 
 strained me to stay, and preach both in the evening and the 
 following morning." David Taylor returned home in time for 
 them to meet. Mr. Wesley proceeded to Barley Hall and 
 preached there in the afternoon. He was there received as 
 " an angel of light " by Mr. Johnson. 
 
 Charles Wesley was at Barley Hall in 1743, and David 
 Taylor with him, who, in the assault made upon them, was 
 wounded in the head by a stone, and lost his hat. 
 
 In the year 1744, Mr. Charles Wesley's coming to Barley 
 Hall was the occasion of " a violent outbreak on the part of the 
 local opponents of Methodism. On its becoming known that 
 he was to preach there, the prime movers in the opposition 
 gathered their forces in the village of Thorpe Hesley, through 
 which he would pass on his way to the hall. The plan was 
 for one division to line the edges on each side of the road in 
 advance, and the rest to close up the rear immediately the 
 preacher and his party had entered the lane. Mr. Charles 
 Wesley appearing, accompanied by Mr. Birks and a few other 
 friends, they were met by a shout from the mob in front ; 
 turning to escape they found the way of retreat cut off by the 
 enemy in the rear, who had left the edges and blocked the 
 lane. Now was the time, if help must come at all ; and come 
 it did from an unexpected quarter. Mr. Birks' son Samuel, a 
 sturdy young fellow of eighteen, who had gone earlier to plough 
 than usual, in order to be at the preaching, was at that moment 
 bringing home his team along the lane in the direction of the 
 mob. Guessing the state of affairs, he mounted one horse, 
 led a second, and driving two abreast before him, dashed — 
 with crack of whip — into the midst of the fray, and the mob 
 
133 
 
 broke and fled. Mr. Wesley lost his hat, but with his hand- 
 kerchief tied over his wig, and b}/ going round by Chapeltown, 
 he reached Barley Hall in time to preach, as arranged, at one 
 o'clock in the afternoon, young Birks being one of his hearers. 
 
 Mr. John Wesley's journal shows that he wa_s at Barley 
 Hall in 1743 and also in 1744, 1745 and 1746. On May 13, 
 1747, in the evening, he preached at Sheffield, and on the 14th 
 rode to Barley Hall and there preached. At 3 o'clock next 
 morning he set off for Leeds to see Mr. Perronet, who was ill 
 of a fever; arrived there between 7 and 8 a.m., preached at 
 noon in Leeds, and then hastened back to Barley Hall, where, 
 at 7 in the evening, he again preached, his text being 
 " Glorify God with your bodies and your spirits which are 
 God's." This journey means 50 miles on horseback ; but the 
 next day he was mounted again, passing through Sheffield, 
 Chesterfield, Mansfield, Nottingham and forward to Markfield, 
 scattering as he went along conversational blessings. 
 
 In that year (1747) a son of Mr. John Johnson, of Barley 
 Hall, was married to Margaret Lomley, the daughter of 
 a Christian man who was steward of Mrs. Finch, of 
 Thryborough Hall. On their marriage they came to reside at 
 Hoyland, and opened their door for the Methodist preachers. 
 Of these good people the clergyman officiating at Wentworth 
 was pleased to propagate a false report, for which he got 
 rebuked by the Marchioness of Rockingham, who made it her 
 business to inquire as to the credibility of the report, and found 
 it to be the invention of the malevolent. She had a high 
 respect for the Johnson family. 
 
 After that date there is no mention for several years in 
 Mr. Wesley's journal of his having visited this neighbourhood. 
 In 1752 he writes of Sheffield : " All is peace here since the 
 trial at York, when the magistrates gave orders that the 
 meeting-house which the mob had pulled down was to be 
 rebuilt. He preached in the shell of the new building after an 
 absence from the town for upwards of two years. In that year 
 
134 
 
 (1752) he visited Rotherham for the first time. Wilham Green 
 and his good wife had made every preparation for him. In 
 his journal the following year (1753) Mr. Wesley wrote : " It 
 being still sultry, I preached at Barley Hall under a shady tree, 
 and in an open space at Rotherham in the evening." In 1755 he 
 was at Sheffield and Rotherham, and no doubt at Barley Hall. 
 
 Some time previous to this the Marquis of Rockingham, 
 his lady, and Earl Fitzwilliam's father attended a service at Mr. 
 Johnson's, Barley Hall, and heard Mr. James Kershaw preach. 
 In 1757, on Wednesday, July 27th, Mr. Wesley preached at 
 noon at Barley Hall and the same evening in Sheffield. 
 
 At Wentworth House, in the year 1760, one public day 
 when there were visitors present, one of them introduced the 
 subject of Methodism, expressing astonishment that the 
 Marquis of Rockingham should suffer the Methodists to plant 
 societies on his estates. After listening for some time to 
 opinions pretty freely expressed, and during which a request 
 was made to his lordship to employ his power and influence 
 to check the progress of such schismatical proceedings, he 
 dismissed the subject with: " You converse like country gentle- 
 men. Are you not aware that the Methodists preach 
 immediately under His Majesty's eye ?" (This would be 
 George II., who died October 25, 1760.) 
 
 On Monday, July 27, 1761, Mr. Wesley preached at 
 Barley Hall, and on Wednesday, the 29th, at Woodseats and 
 at Sheffield. On Thursday and on Friday he preached in the 
 shell of the new octagon house at Rotherham. His preference 
 for that form of construction for the chapels he appears not to 
 have retained. 
 
 In 1764 he was at Sheffield, and he preached at Rotherham. 
 The story of the donkey coming into the chapel there is told 
 in connection with the visit. The chapel in Mulberry street, 
 Sheffield, which afterwards became the printing premises of 
 the Sheffield Independent newspaper, would be the building in 
 which Mr. Wesley says he preached on March 26th, 1766. 
 
135 
 
 " On February i8th, 1769," writes Mr. Everett, " good old 
 Mrs. Johnson, of Barley Hall, took her flight to the Paradise 
 of God." At what date her husband died there are now no 
 means of ascertaining. With emotions of pleasure he says he 
 " visited the venerable domain where this pious pair lived and 
 died, and where Mr. Wesley and the first Methodist preachers 
 found a temple and a home," of which he rejoiced to be able 
 to bring away a sketch for insertion in the history he was pre- 
 paring. Prior to Mr. Johnson's occupation of the house and 
 farm they belonged to a Mr. Hague, a tanner. Mr. Johnson, 
 who succeeded him, carried on the skinning business exclusive 
 of tanning. Mr. Bowers was the next occupant, and then 
 Mr. Ellis. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were originally " Dissenters," 
 and were brought among the Methodists through the instru- 
 mentality of David Taylor. 
 
 JuneaSth, 1780, Mr. Wesley's birthday, he was in Sheffield. 
 In that year, Sept. 4th, he wrote from Bristol the following 
 letter to the leaders at Sheffield : — " My dear Brethren, — Let 
 the persons who propose to subvert the Methodist plan by 
 mixing men and women together in your chapel consider the 
 consequences of so doing. First, I will never set foot in it 
 more ; secondly, I will forbid any collections to be made for it 
 in any of our societies. I am, my dear brethren, your 
 affectionate brother, John Wesley." 
 
 He wrote, Feb. 10, 1781, to Samuel Bardsley, one of the 
 Sheffield ministers, " I did not doubt but you would agree 
 with the people of Sheffield. They are a loving and affectionate 
 people." His last visit to this part of Yorkshire was in 1786, 
 when 83 years old. He was in Sheffield several days. Tradition 
 says that he went to Wentworth House, accompanied by Mr. 
 Birks, of Thorpe, and that when they were leaving Mr. Birks 
 asked Mr. Hall, the steward, if it would be agreeable for Mr. 
 Wesley to pray with the family before he left. Permission was 
 courteously given, the household summoned and the prayer 
 offered. From this, his last visit to Barley Hall is less uncertain 
 
136 
 
 than was supposed by the writer of the following, paragraph in 
 the Weekly Independent, accompanying a sketch of that old home- 
 stead : " Probably Mr. Wesley was not there after the death 
 of Mrs. Johnson in 1769. Meeting-houses led to the disuse of 
 private dwellings as preaching places. Three Methodist chapels 
 in Thorpe show that Barley Hall had long ago done its work. 
 But, even with collieries invading its silence, it keeps its touch 
 and air of the past. One almost expects to see steady-going, 
 clean-shaven men, in old-world dress, step up to the preaching; 
 or equally staid women, in. " coal scuttle " bonnets and long 
 black cloaks, wend their way hither of an afternoon to Mrs. 
 Johnson's ' class.' But they do not come! and the old house 
 seems to be wondering why." 
 
 Charles Twigg, in his " Village Rambles," mentions that 
 his grandmother heard Mr. Wesley preach at Hoyland in 
 August, 1772, from some stone steps at the end of what is 
 called Tithe Lathe, formerly a tithe barn, and now made into 
 cottages, and says that in the afternoon, after thus preaching 
 at Hoyland, he arrived at Thorpe. 
 
 Probably owing to Chapeltown being so near to Barley 
 Hall, Wesleyan Methodism did not get located here in the life- 
 time of John Wesley. The earliest record I have met with of 
 a Methodist service in the village, refers to William Green 
 having preached in 1765 from the text, " Ye must be born 
 again." A person living in 1822 heard the sermon. 
 
 The first place of meeting which the Wesleyans had in 
 Chapeltown was an upper room, or warehouse, near the present 
 post-office, the one in which Mr. Barton had his day school. 
 
 In Mr. George Newton's diary there is the following 
 entry: — "Mr. Longden being a local preacher in the 
 Methodist connexion, as soon as we got a covered building 
 in Thorncliffe we opened a door for the preaching of the 
 Gospel, which through the Divine blessing was the means of 
 working a great reformation in the neighbourhood. It was 
 soon admitted into the local preachers' plan, and has since that 
 
137 
 
 time been regularly supplied. Very many have had abundant 
 cause to praise the Lord for the unspeakable privilege ; and 
 surely when we reflect on the kind and gracious dealings of 
 our heavenly Father towards us, we must allow that we were 
 bound in gratitude to contribute to the utmost of our power to 
 the advancement of His cause and interest in the world." * 
 
 " In the Spring of 1805 we commenced the building of 
 Mount Pleasant Chapel, and collected about ;^5oo for that 
 purpose. When it was completed, the seats were entirely let. 
 It was opened on Sunday, May nth, 1806, by the Rev. William 
 Jenkins, who to a crowded congregation preached an excellent 
 sermon from Isaiah ii. 2, 3, ' And it shall corne to pass in the 
 last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be 
 established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted 
 above the, hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many 
 people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the 
 mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; 
 and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.' 
 
 "The Society (which had been meeting in a warehouse at 
 Chapeltown, and which had been stationary for some years at 
 about 45 members) was soon doubled. Our contributions 
 increased, and we got the travelling preachers to supply, at 
 first every third Sunday and in a short time every other 
 Sunday, so that the work of the Lord prospered and our 
 privileges and comforts increased. 
 
 " On January 18, 1807, we established a Sunday school 
 in the chapel, which in a short time amounted to three 
 hundred children. In a few months, however, the novelty 
 having subsided, they decreased to about two hundred, which 
 continued stationary for several years. It has proved a great 
 blessing to the neighbourhood and an unspeakable advantage 
 to the children." 
 
 * The first sermon was preached in the warehouse chamber at Thorncliffe, 
 on March 12th, 1801, by Rd. Reece. His text, " The desire of all nations shall 
 come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts,"' — Hag-g-n/ ii. 
 7,— was to be seen inscribed on a window pane in that chamber until the time 
 of the fire, by which wood models, &c., were destroyed, about the year 1845. 
 
139 
 
 The society of 45 persons which Thorncliffe Methodism 
 numbered in the early years of its history, included names 
 which witness to the fact complained of by the Coroner, Mr. 
 Foster of High Green House, that the founders of the Thorn- 
 cliffe Works had brought " a lot of Methodists into the 
 neighbourhood."* Naturally the influence of Mr. Longden a 
 Thorncliffe partner, and one of Mr. Wesley's foremost local 
 preachers, tended to this. At the village of Eyam, in Derby- 
 shire, which he often visited, as it was then included in the 
 Sheffield circuit, there lived a worthy class-leader named John 
 Sheldon, and his second son, John, when a young man of 
 about 20 years, at the suggestion of Mr. Longden, applied at 
 Thorncliffe for employment as an iron-stone miner. 
 
 Thus in the beginning of the year 1796, the John Sheldon 
 who for 50 years was the leader of the singing at the Wesleyan 
 services (and whose portrait the late Mr. Thomas Newton got 
 painted and gave to Mr. Benjamin Sheldon), came to Chapel- 
 town. In the spring of that same year, the Eyam class-leader, 
 the father of that John Sheldon, followed to work at Thorn- 
 cliffe, and in 1797 brought here his family. Here he lived 
 until his death in 1820, at the age of 78 years. In 1802, his 
 son John, the choir official for so many years, was married to 
 Elizabeth Windle, and of the faithful services of sons and 
 grandsons of theirs, both the business at Thorncliffe and the 
 Methodism of the neighbourhood have on record highly 
 honourable mention. In the late Mr. Thomas Newton's 
 memoir of this John Sheldon, read by the Rev. James Sugden 
 on the occasion of his funeral sermon being preached in the old 
 Mount Pleasant chapel to a crowded congregation, May loth, 
 1855, there appear the following remarks ;— " He was almost the 
 last link of a race of class-leaders whose names will be remem- 
 bered with interest by many in this congregation, as Longden, 
 Chambers, Shel don (senior), Fullelove, Booth, B a mford, 
 
 * Hostile as he was to Methodism, he was shrewd enough to appreciate 
 what was excellent in Mr. Newton and Mr. Longden, for in his will he appointed 
 them his executors. 
 
140 
 
 Stanley, &c." " Since the lead-miners were drowned out, other 
 Derbyshire men were probably by the same influence led, about 
 this period, to engage themselves at the neighbouring works." 
 
 At Grindlelow, near to Eyam, was William Bamford, a 
 weaver, who came to Thorncliffe and became a class-leader. 
 He was married to a Mary Longden, and their eldest child 
 Eliza became the wife of Benjamin Myers, who for many 
 years lived in the Thorncliffe yard, and was caretaker of the 
 works. 
 
 John Fullelove, referred to above as a class-leader, was 
 employed at Thorncliffe almost immediately after the works 
 were started. He was born at Thorpe Hesley, Dec. 14th, 1759, 
 and died at Lane End, Chapeltown, April ist, 1825. In the 
 Wesleyan Methodist Magazinefor January, 1826, there appeared 
 an obituary notice of him, signed "Thomas Newton," which 
 contains words not unworthy of being reproduced in these "Old 
 Time Memories." " At the age of about ten years he was put 
 apprentice to a nail maker at Chorlton Brook, the John Cooper 
 who was (as mentioned on page 130) the first class-leader at 
 Potter's Hill. He was a steady, well-disposed lad, but as he 
 grew up he became somewhat loose in his morals, and was 
 addicted to cock-fighting, a practice of which after his con- 
 version he spoke with abhorrence and detestation. When about 
 twenty-five years of age, he was married ; soon after which he 
 began again to attend the ministry of the gospel, and in about 
 two years obtained peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. This happy event occurred about thirty-eight years 
 before his death, and he never turned back again to sin and 
 folly, nor is it known that he ever lost his evidence of the divine 
 favour. He was a man of good sense, of a social and com- 
 municative disposition, a good husband and an affectionate 
 father, remarkably industrious and strictly honest." 
 
 In the latter part of his life he had charge of the garden 
 at Staindrop Lodge, Mr. Newton's residence, and that of 
 another of the Thorncliffe partners; and about eight years 
 
141 
 
 before his death, " a gentleman (from London) who was a 
 dealer in seeds, called at his house one Sunday for the purpose 
 of business, when Mr. Fullelove was engaged at the Sunday 
 school. A message was sent to him, and his reply was, " Tell 
 him that his money is ready for him, that he may have it in 
 the morning as soon as he pleases, but that he cannot have it 
 to-day." On the following day John walked to Rotherham, 
 and paid the money. The next journey, the traveller mentioned 
 the reproof and acknowledged the justice of it. 
 
 In the Mount Pleasant Chapel, opened in 1806, the learned 
 Dr. Adam Clarke is known to have preached at least once, for 
 in his life (p. 433) there is on record his own mention of the 
 fact. He writes : " I went to Thorncliffe, where, instead of 
 thirty or forty shillings, I had eleven pounds for the missions." 
 This was in May, 1832. 
 
 It is not generally known that Mr. James Silk Bucking- 
 ham, one of the members of Parliament for Sheffield after the 
 Reform Bill of 1832 had enfranchised the town, was a man 
 who exercised his gifts as a local preacher. On one occasion 
 he came over from Dodworth and preached in Mount Pleasant 
 Chapel. 
 
 In that old chapel often would the service be conducted 
 by the Rev. William Morley Punshon, D.D., for, as one of the 
 ministers of a Sheffield circuit which included Thorncliffe, he 
 was resident for twelve months at Chapeltown, occupying part 
 of Chapeltown House. Both as a preacher and a lecturer he 
 was a celebrity to be remembered by all who had listened to his 
 felicitous and eloquent words. 
 
 The poem he wrote when the news reached him of the 
 passing away, on Sunday, April 30th, 1854, of James Mont- 
 gomery, goes far to show not only that he was himself a poet, 
 but that— 
 
 The inspiration is not absent here, 
 Which, as a zephyr, in the atmosphere. 
 As the iEolian harp the silence breaks. 
 Breathes music when emotion thought awakes. 
 
142 
 
 Having regard to the date of that poem, there may be 
 indulged the surmise, that it would be in Dr. Punshon's abode 
 at Chapeltown that he wrote : — 
 
 " 'Twas then, when toil had laid him down, 
 
 And meek devotion knelt to pray ; 
 And the glad sun sat, like a crown, 
 Upon the forehead of the town — 
 
 A poet pass'd away. 
 No more, alas ! the fragrant air 
 
 Shall be with that high music blent; 
 The heavenly harpers could not bear 
 The minstrel from their host to spare ; 
 
 God touched him, and he went. 
 Green be his grave ! the chartered wind 
 
 Shall play around its flowery sod ; 
 His clay must be to earth consign'd, 
 But angels have his victor-mind, 
 
 Borne heavenward up to God." 
 
 At the recent annual united gathering at Mount Pleasant 
 Church, in connection with the Thorncliffe Wesleyan Metho- 
 dist Circuit, the Chairman congratulated the friends present 
 on the position of Wesleyan Methodism in the district. He 
 said : " more than usual interest was attached to their gathering 
 that evening, frofn the fact that their church had reached its 
 centenary. It was just 100 years since the founders of the 
 Thorncliffe Ironworks introduced and established the present 
 Wesleyan brotherhood at Thorncliffe. The year 1793 saw 
 Messrs. Chambers, Newton and Longden start business at 
 Thorncliffe, and as soon as the firm got a covered building 
 they opened it on Sundays for Divine Service. In 1805 the 
 first Mount Pleasant Wesleyan Chapel was built, and two 
 years later saw the birth of their beloved Sunday School. 
 Since that time Wesleyan Methodism had continued to 
 prosper, until at the present time they had flourishing societies 
 at High Green, Ecclesfield, Warren, Piley and Westwood, 
 sprung from the parent society at Thorncliffe. He contended 
 that the material prosperity of Thorncliffe, Chapeltown and 
 surrounding districts was in a large measure due to the 
 influence which the Wesleyan Church had exercised." 
 
^43 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Old-time Memories of Thorncliffe, its Ironworks and Collieries, 
 and their antecedents. 
 
 In the year 1793, under a cliff, and at about the centre of 
 a triangle, of which the villages Chapeltown, High Green and 
 Tankersley form the corners, and where at that time the park 
 of Tankersley touched the rivulet which separates the Wapen- 
 take* of Strafford and Tickhill from that of Staincross, was 
 obtained from Earl Fitzwilliam a well-selected site for the 
 erection of the works which bear the name Thorncliffe. The 
 centenary year of these works having been reached, it seems 
 to be fitting that some account should appear of their rise and 
 of their progress in the early stages of their history, and of the 
 men who founded and carried on the business. The names of 
 these and their relation to each other genealogically are here 
 shown, also portraits of two of the three original partners. I 
 regret that a likeness of Mr. Chambers is not obtainable. 
 
 *It is not easy to explain why the divisions of Yorkshire are called 
 Wapentakes, while in other counties hundreds is the word used. The ceremony 
 of touching armour, from which comes the word Wapentake (weapon-touch or 
 weapon-take) would not be peculiar to the Anglo-Saxons who gathered in this 
 part of the country at their genotes, or assemblies for discussing public affairs. 
 Claro Hill, between Borough Bridge and Wetherby, was the place where the 
 freemen of this district met, and when the president of the assembly had taken 
 his place, touched his spear, in accordance with the laws of King Edgar. 
 
144 
 
145 
 
 Thomas Chambers, 
 bom June 17th, 1745, 
 died January 4th, 1817. 
 
 George Newton, 
 
 born July nth, 1761, 
 
 died October 22nd, 1825. 
 
 Henry Longden, 
 
 born Feb. 6th, 1754. 
 
 died Feb. 24th, 1812 
 
 withdrew from the 
 
 firm in i8ir. 
 
 Thomas Chambers, 
 bornMar.26th,i77i, 
 died Oct. 16th, 1814, 
 
 before the recon- 
 struction of the firm 
 after the death 
 of his father. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Matthew Chambers, 
 born Sep. 17th, 1776, 
 died Jan. 26th, 1828. 
 
 I 
 Joseph Chambers 
 born Jan. 17, 1783, 
 died Mar. 3, 1824. 
 
 I 
 
 Isaac 
 Newton, 
 
 born 
 May 24th, 
 
 1792, 
 died July 
 igth, 1820. 
 
 Thomas 
 Newton, 
 
 born 
 Sep. 5th, 
 
 1796. 
 died May 
 8th, 1868. 
 
 Thomas 
 Chambers, 
 
 of 
 
 Lane End 
 
 House, 
 
 born Jan. 7, 
 
 1798, 
 died Oct, 29, 
 
 : Johanna, 
 daughter 
 
 of 
 Matthew 
 
 Chambers, 
 
 John 
 Chambers, 
 
 of 
 
 Belmont, - 
 
 born 
 
 who died April 27th, 
 in 1828. 1805, 
 
 died June 
 2ist, 1869. 
 
 Elizabeth, 
 
 daughter of 
 
 George 
 
 Newton 
 
 and 
 
 widow of 
 
 Mr. Railton. 
 
 I 
 
 Thomas 
 
 Chambers 
 
 ceased to be 
 
 a partner 
 
 July I2th, 1839, 
 
 and 
 
 emigrated to 
 
 Melbourne, 
 
 Australia, 
 
 born Dec.2ist, 
 
 1796, died 
 Aug. 16th, 1875 
 
 Matthew 
 Chambers, 
 
 of 
 
 Barbot Hall, 
 
 born Nov. ii, 
 
 1798, 
 
 died March 23, 
 
 1862. 
 
 Lucy Ann, = George Dawson, 
 
 eldest managing 
 
 daughter. director of 
 
 Newton, Chambers & Co. 
 Limited. 
 
 Arthur Marshall Chambers, J. P., 
 
 managing director of 
 
 Newton, Chambers and Co. 
 
 Limited. 
 
 Hannah, 
 daughter ot 
 
 Thomas 
 Chambers, 
 
 who died 
 in 1814. 
 
 I 
 
 Thomas 
 
 Chambers 
 
 Newton, J. P., 
 
 of 
 
 Staindrop Lodge, 
 
 chairman and 
 
 managing 
 
 director of 
 
 Newton, 
 
 Chambers &Co. 
 
 Limited. 
 
 The iron-works at Thorncliffe and Chapeltown, and the 
 colheries there and at Tankersley, Hoyland Common and 
 Thorpe Hesley, transferred in 1881 by the trustees of the late 
 Mr. Thomas Newton, of Mr. Thomas Chambers, of Mr. Matthew 
 Chambers, and of Mr. John Chambers, to Messrs. Newton, 
 Chambers and Company Limited, were referred to by the 
 Sheffield Independent newspaper, at the time of that transferrence, 
 as having long been regarded as " amongst the largest 
 and most successful commercial undertakings in Yorkshire ; 
 and as having had an important and permanent influence 
 upon the entire neighbourhood, and upon the trade of the 
 country." 
 
 The size of the concern has recently been considerably 
 augmented by the annexation of the Grange Colliery, at 
 Dropping Well, on the estates of the Earl of Effingham and 
 the Earl Fitzwilliam. 
 
 What Thorncliffe was in i88x may be judged of by the 
 prospectus issued at the time the trustees of the deceased partners 
 
146 
 
 were taking steps towards the formation of a Limited Company. 
 That prospectus contained the following particulars : — 
 
 " The business was founded in 1793, and has been gradually 
 brought to its present high development and reputation by 
 the energy and integrity of three successive generations of 
 proprietors. 
 
 "The average annual output of coal for the last three 
 years has been 612,000 tons ; the output in 1880 was 620,000 
 tons, and during the first nine months of the present year it 
 has amounted to no less than 553,000 tons. The second 
 Rockingham Pit, which is already sunk to the ' Silkstone ' 
 seam and provided with permanent engines, can be completed 
 at a cost of about ;^20,ooo, by which it is estimated that the 
 output will be increased to upwards of 800,000 tons per annum. 
 The manufacture of coke forms an important item in the 
 economy of the business. There are 311 ovens, producing over 
 2,400 tons per week of the best quality for Bessemer, steel- 
 melting and blast furnace purposes. 
 
 "The iron-works consist of the Thorncliffe and the Chapel- 
 town works, including two large blast furnaces of the best 
 modern construction, which yield annually 31,000 tons of 
 pig-iron ; extensive foundries, in which about 13,000 tons 
 of pig-iron is converted into castings ; and a large and 
 complete engineering plant, embracing all necessary machinery 
 for the manufacture of boilers, roofs, bridges, etc. 
 
 " These works are well known for the manufacture of all 
 kinds of gas-making apparatus ; also for lighter goods and 
 cooking apparatus of various kinds, including the well-known 
 ' Thorncliffe Patent Range.' The iron-works sales for 1879 
 amounted to ^198,000, and for 1880 to £210,000. 
 
 " Twelve miles of railway belong to the firm, the rolling 
 stock consists of 4 locomotives and above 1,200 railway wagons, 
 of which upwards of 500 are the absolute property of the firm. 
 
 " The farms consist of 600 acres, with the requisite farm- 
 steads and buildings. 
 
Henry Longden, born February 6th, 1754, Thorncliffe partner from 1793 until 1811, 
 
147 
 
 " The freehold estates of the firm comprise i8a acres of 
 land, and the Silkstone, Thorncliffe and Parkgate seams of coal 
 lying under about 70 acres thereof; a large workmen's hall, 
 and 165 houses and cottages ; also 20 acres of land near 
 Buxton, giving an abundant supply of the best limestone. 
 
 " There are also 85 houses and cottages held under lease, 
 at low ground rents." 
 
 The total amount of the verified valuation in this 
 prospectus, dated October 26th, 1881, was £448,963. 
 
 The founders of the business were Mr. Tl^omas Chambers 
 and Mr. George Newton. These two names stand alone at first 
 in the record of its origin, but almost immediately after they 
 had resolved on the project, Mr. Newton's friend in London, 
 Mr. Maskew, consented to join them as a " sleeping partner," 
 and the firm became Maskew, Chambers and Newton. There 
 was, however, an unforeseen difficulty in the way of his con- 
 tinuing his connection with the undertaking, for his partner 
 in London did not favour the venture of Mr. Maskew on an 
 enterprise for which he had no experience or technical know- 
 ledge that would be available, and he had to withdraw, or sever 
 his connection with his London partner. Some one with 
 capital to take Mr. Maskew's place was thus wanted, and at 
 length, Mr. Henry Longden was admitted into partnership, 
 and the firm became first. Chambers, Newton and Compan}', 
 and when, three or four years afterwards, in January, 1796, 
 Mr. Longden received, by the bequest of his uncle, Mr. John 
 Turner (the West India merchant who resided and had his 
 counting-house in the Hartshead, Sheffield) the capital he had 
 been led to expect and relied upon, it placed him at the head 
 of the firm of Longden, Newton, and Chambers. 
 
 The following extracts describingthe origin of the business are 
 from the newspaper article before quoted : " The works have from 
 the most unpretending beginnings gone on developing and extend- 
 ing, until, having outgrown the ordinary limits of private enter- 
 prise, it has been decided to transfer them to a limited company." 
 
148 
 
 " In the latter half of the last century there was in Work- 
 house croft (Sheffield), at the north of Queen's foundry yard, a 
 small establishment in which Messrs. George Newton and 
 Charles Hodgson carried on business together as manufacturers 
 of spades, shovels, trowels, and similar goods. They were 
 well known as industrious, honest men ; they made a good 
 article, and their business so increased that larger premises 
 were needed. They entered into a contract with one William 
 Cooper to erect for them ' two dwelling-houses, a warehouse, 
 and suitable workshops on Pond hill, near to the Duke of 
 Norfolk's coal yard,' and to their new premises the firm 
 removed in 1791. Towards the close of the next year Mr. 
 Thomas Chambers, who had been some years in the service of 
 Messrs. Smith, Stacey & Co., iron-founders, of the Queen's 
 foundry, Paradise square, informed Mr. Hodgson that he was 
 about to leave his situation, and that he wished to commence 
 business on his own account, or in connection with a friend 
 who could advance a few hundred pounds for that purpose. 
 The result of further interviews was, that Mr. Newton severed 
 his connection with Mr. Hodgson — who, it may be mentioned 
 was an ancestor of the Messrs. Hodgsons, corn millers, of 
 Rotherham — and entering into partnership with Mr. Chambers 
 and Mr. Maskew of London, there was established the firm of 
 Maskew, Chambers and Newton. They purchased property 
 on Snow hill, together with land extending to Furnace hill, 
 and there in December, 1792, they commenced the erection of 
 the Phoenix foundry. The work of building proceeded so 
 rapidly that they were able to commence the casting of goods 
 on the first of March, 1793. In that year Mr. Maskew with- 
 drew from the business, and Mr. Henry Longden, grandfather 
 of the present Mr. H. Longden, who then lived in Meadow 
 street, joined the firm, and it was carried on as Chambers, 
 Newton & Co. Business prospered, and looking round to see 
 in what way it could be further extended, they decided if 
 ■possible to commence the manufacture of iron." 
 
149 
 
 " One day — still in 1793 — Mr. Chambers and Mr. Newton 
 took a ride with the intention of applying to Mr. Bowns, of 
 Darley Hall, Bank Top, near Barnsley, steward to Earl Fitz- 
 william, for a site on which to erect blast furnaces. Little did 
 they imagine what would be the great and far-reaching results 
 from that quiet afternoon's ride. They met Mr. Bowns on the 
 road, and having acquainted him with the object of their 
 journey, he referred them to Joseph Hague, steward of the 
 colliery at Westwood, thinking that that locality would suit 
 them. Mr. Hague, however, pointed out Thorncliffe as much 
 preferable to Westwood, being in close proximity to the estate 
 of the Duke of Norfolk, on which iron-works and collieries had 
 been conducted for at least a century. On the 7th December, 
 1793, the partners met Mr. Bowns by appointment at Thorn- 
 cliffe, and, after fixing on the spot most suitable for the erection 
 of their works, terms were proposed and agreed upon for a 
 lease for 21 years." 
 
 Supplementing the foregoing extracts, which in most 
 respects are in accordance with my own researches, I take 
 up the story. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Chambers — one of the founders of the 
 Thorncliffe business, and whose connection with the iron 
 trade commenced at the Holmes, near Rotherham, where 
 were the blast furnaces of Mr. Samuel Walker — was born at 
 Rawmarsh, on the 17th of January, 1745. The entry in the 
 register of baptisms there, dated February 21st, 1745, shows 
 that he was the son of John Chambers, of Rawmarsh. The 
 register of burials at Rotherham church evidences the death 
 of his first wife Elizabeth, who died, when his age would 
 be about 23 years, on the 20th of December, 1768. Six 
 months afterwards, on the 22nd of June, 1769, he was 
 married at that church to Hannah Oxley, the daughter of 
 Robert Oxley, of Greasbro'. The entry in the register 
 describes him as Thomas Chambers, widower, married 
 by banns to Hannah Oxley, spinster, by J. Loyd ; and the 
 
150 
 
 witnesses were Joseph Lodge and John Bagshaw, probably the 
 father of the Thomas Bagshaw whom he appointed one of his 
 executors. There is the register of Hannah Oxley's baptism 
 at Rotherham church, March loth, 1744, so she was a few 
 months older than her husband. There is in existence no 
 portrait of Mr. Chambers. Tradition says he was " a fine- 
 looking man. I regret that I never enquired while there 
 were persons living who knew him, what he was in appear- 
 ance. There is no one to be met with now who is old 
 enough to be likely to have seen him, as he died seventy- 
 six years ago. An old workman, Joseph Lax, of whom I 
 sought information, said, "I do not remember what he was 
 like, though, when a little lad, I suppose I sometimes saw 
 him, but I have not forgot that when he died, a man came 
 into our house at Tankersley farm, where my father was 
 bailiff, and said, 'T'oud maister's dead !' " I imagine him to 
 have been rather a tall man with dark hair and eyes, for the 
 six grandsons of his whom I knew were, when in the prime 
 of manhood, of that sort. Up to the time of his sudden 
 death, at the age of 72 years, he took an active part in the 
 management of the business. Before the house* in the Thorn- 
 cliffe foundry yard was built, which for some years was his 
 residence, he would more frequently walk than ride the seven 
 miles between his two places of business. I infer that he 
 was a man strong both physically and mentally. He would 
 be forty-eight years old in the year 1793 when the Thorn- 
 cliffe works were started. 
 
 At the foundry, mills, and smelting furnaces of Messrs. 
 Samuel Walker and Company he seems to have acquired 
 knowledge and experience, which he had the energy to make 
 good use of. Leaving their service (owing to a dispute in 
 the pattern-making department, about the infliction of a fine 
 of one shilling for the breaking of one of the tools he 
 
 'Afterwards his son Thomas, and his grandson Thomas Chambers resided 
 there. In 1829 the house was divided, part being used as a counting-house, &c. 
 It has now altogether vanished. 
 
151 
 
 worked with), he found employment at the Queen's Foundry 
 of Messrs. Smith, Stacey and Company, situated at the corner 
 of Queen street and Workhouse croft, Sheffield. That he was 
 a man whose services, skill and character his employers at 
 Rotherham appreciated, may be inferred from the efforts they 
 made to induce him to return. Mr. Walker went over to 
 Sheffield to see him, but the means used to get him back to 
 Rotherham were not successful. How many years previous 
 to December, 1792, when he entered into partnership with 
 Mr. Newton, were spent at the Queen's Foundry is uncertain. 
 Messrs. Hodgson and Newton's place of business being adjacent 
 to that of Messrs. Smith, Stacey and Co., that contiguity led 
 to Mr. Chambers becoming acquainted with his future partner, 
 Mr. Newton. 
 
 The business of Mr. Hodgson and Mr. Newton was 
 extended to include the sale of cutlery, tea, &c. They also 
 erected, at Nether Slack, Owlerton, a plating forge and tilt, 
 paying for the stream ^45 a year. This extension absorbed 
 more capital than they had command of, though they were 
 assisted by Mr. Maskew to the extend of £2000. The war 
 with France made trade bad, and they had to contract their 
 sphere. It was at this point of time, Dec, 1792, that Mr. 
 Thomas Chambers intimated to Mr. Hodgson his intention to 
 leave the Queen's Foundry and begin business, leading to the 
 separation of Mr. Newton from Mr. Hodgson and the estab- 
 hshing of the firm of Maskew, Chambers and Newton, in 
 connection with the ambitious smelting -furnace -building 
 designs of Mr. Chambers. 
 
 As has been mentioned, Mr. Maskew's project was dis- 
 hked by his London partner, and Mr. Maskew was compelled 
 either to withdraw from it or sever his connection with Mr, 
 Hetherington. The French Revolution's interference with 
 trade made the finding of a partner to take the place of Mr. 
 Maskew somewhat difficult. At length Mr. Longden, Mr. 
 Newton's class-leader, became the substitute. 
 
152 
 
 Mr. George Newton, who, in conjunction with Mr. Thomas 
 Chambers, commenced the business the centenary of which 
 has led to the publication of this volume, was a gentleman of 
 whose life and character many particulars are on record. In 
 the possession of his grandson, T. C. Newton, Esq., J. P., are 
 his diaries and memoirs of his life written by himself; and in 
 the " Wesleyan Methodist Magazine" for the month of Novem- 
 ber, 1826, there is an obituary notice of him, evidently written 
 by some one who knew him well. He was born July nth, 
 1761, at Staindrop, a small market town in the county of 
 Durham, thirteen miles west of Darlington. His father carried 
 on business at Staindrop as a manufacturer of a woollen cloth 
 called " cheney," which was sent to London and exported to 
 places abroad, where it was used for bed-hangings, etc. He, 
 the cheney manufacturer, married the widow of Mr. Robert 
 Burrow, of Brancepeth, near the city of Durham. Of the 
 eighteen children born of this marriage only three survived 
 their childhood, John, George and Tobias. The second name 
 is the one with which Chapeltown became familiar. 
 
 Of the brothers of Mr. George Newton something is known, 
 because he refers to them and their adventures in his auto- 
 biographical records. John, the oldest, was unheard of by his 
 family for six years, and he was supposed to have lost his life in 
 connection with the Lord George Gordon riots in London, in 
 1780, which Charles Dickens has so well described in " Barnaby 
 Rudge"; but it turned out that he had been "pressed" for a 
 soldier and sent to the East Indies. He was heard of as being 
 alive and well there in 1797, and not afterwards. Of Tobias it 
 was known that he was engaged in the war against Hyder AUi 
 and his son Tippoo Saib, and that he died in Calcutta, June 
 loth, 1790. 
 
 From the time of Mr. Newton's removal, on the 27th of 
 October, 1800, from Sheffield to Greenhead, Chapeltown, may 
 be dated the project of building the Mount Pleasant Chapel, 
 which was accomplished within a few years. He was one of 
 
153 
 
 the most prominent promoters of the cause of Wesleyan 
 Methodism in the district, contributing liberally both money 
 and personal service. 
 
 In 1806 Mr. Newton obtained from thfe Duke of Norfolk 
 the lease of an acre of land at Mortomley Lane End, upon 
 which he built Staindrop Lodge. He removed from Green- 
 head into his new residence in October, 1807. Afterwards the 
 freehold was purchased, and Staindrop Lodge is now the 
 property and home of his grandson, Mr. Thomas Chambers 
 Newton. 
 
 What that home was to the gentleman who built it we 
 can picture from the memoir of him in the " Methodist 
 Magazine," which says: "As his circumstances improved he 
 gratified his love of reading by procuring a choice collection of 
 books on science and divinity. Few men of business at that 
 day had so good a library, or made so good a use of it. His 
 memory was very tenacious, and his mind was richly stored 
 with knowledge of the most valuable kind. To this was added 
 a communicative disposition, which rendered him a highly 
 interesting companion. In the latter part of life his increasing 
 deafness interfered with his joining in general conversation ; 
 when with particular friends, he would, however, exert himself 
 to take part in the discussion of any interesting topic. His 
 ear was ever open to the prayer of distress and the cry of 
 suffering. None who applied to him for relief, and were 
 worthy of charity, were ever dismissed without a timely 
 supply. Though discriminating in his liberality, he had a 
 heart which devised liberal things. He was truly a benevolent 
 man, and contributed to nearly all the charitable institutions 
 which have emanated from the ingenuity and mercy of 
 Christians in the present day. In conducting his worldly 
 affairs he was systematic and accurate, punctual and dili- 
 gent, expeditious and persevering. Few men have been able 
 to get through so much business, yet he never seemed in a 
 bustle, but went about his many engagements in a calm. 
 
154 
 
 collected and cheerful manner. His improving circumstances 
 produced no change in the simplicity of his manners or in the 
 humility of his heart. He could "condescend to men of low 
 estate, and perceived virtues in many of the poorest of the 
 flock of Christ which abased him in their presence and excited 
 him to abound in love and good works. He never assumed 
 airs of importance or ventured into the dictator's chair. On 
 all occasions he was meek and affable, uniting the ease and 
 courtesy of a gentleman with the familiarity of a friend and 
 the piety of a saint." The hymns which he wrote for special 
 occasions may not be of any particular poetical merit, but 
 they show that their author had culture and intelligence. 
 He is described as having had a good constitution and excel- 
 lent health until he was about 52 years of age. At this period 
 he received an injury in the casting house to one of his legs. 
 The wound, through neglect at first, was difficult to deal with. 
 It laid the foundation of a series of complaints which termina- 
 ted in his death in his 65th year, Oct. 22, 1825. The late 
 Joseph Lax, one of the workmen, speaking of his funeral, 
 told me he went with it to St. James' Church, Sheffield, along 
 with a number of other lads. 
 
 Mr. Henry Longden, who took the place of Mr. Maskew, 
 of London, soon after that gentleman had withdrawn from 
 the firm of Maskew, Chambers and Newton, was a native of 
 Sheffield, the son of a man born at Ecclesfield. In the " Life 
 of Mr. Henry Longden," published in 1813, the date of his 
 birth is stated to be February 6th, 1754, after his father had 
 established himself in business at Sheffield as a manufacturer 
 of table knives. The son, who was a partner with Mr. 
 Chambers and Mr. Newton when the Thorncliffe Works 
 were founded, was placed in his youth as an apprentice 
 with a razor manufacturer. The memoir of him contains 
 extracts from his diary and letters which show what he was 
 in the early years of his life and before religion began to 
 influence his conduct. 
 
155 
 
 Mr. Longden's wealthy uncle, Mr. John Turner, watched 
 with interest his nephew's career, and showed his willingness 
 to help him by lending him, on two occasions, ;f 500, and when 
 the time came for him to be consulted respecting the proposal 
 of Mr. Chambers and Mr. Newton that Mr. Longden should 
 join them, he was acquiescent, promising that his two nephews 
 should be participants of the property he was possessed 
 of. They— Mr. Longden and Mr. Binney — were, when he 
 died, the chief beneficiaries under his will, and the capital of 
 the business carried on at Furnace hill and Thorncliffe was 
 augmented by Mr. Longden's share, in accordance with the 
 expectation of Mr. Chambers and Mr. Newton when they 
 arranged for Mr. Maskew's withdrawal. They did not, 
 however, expect that Mr. Longden would have to wait until 
 Mr. Turner's death before he received the assistance his uncle 
 had led him to anticipate. 
 
 In the "Life and Times of John Wesley," by the 
 Rev. Luke Tyerman, mention is made of the preaching 
 of Mr. Henry Longden, at Barnsley, in the year 1783, when 
 a man, who had resolved to murder him, " ran up to him 
 while preaching and aimed a blow which would probably 
 have been fatal, but Longden leaped aside and providentially 
 escaped." 
 
 The last fifteen years of Mr. Longden's life, that is from 
 1797 until 1812, "he was not," as is stated in his Memoirs 
 (p. 119) " occupied with any personal attention to business." 
 Those who bore the burden of the management did so well 
 with what Mr. Longden had invested that during that period 
 his capital was more than doubled. When he retired in 1811 
 it amounted to £25,222, which was paid to his executors by 
 instalments of £3,000 a-year. 
 
 January 26th, 1798, he wrote in his diary : " Went to 
 Thorncliffe and met the happy praying colliers. They appear 
 to be men after God's own heart. I felt much enlargement in 
 praying for Mr. N. and his family." 
 
156 
 
 Mr. Longden preached in 1790 at Darfield, standing upon 
 a wall opposite the Church, and between the rectory and 
 vicarage. (That parish is peculiar in having both a rector 
 and a vicar to officiate in the same church.) He had ridden 
 from Sheffield, so as to be in time to conduct the service at 9 
 o'clock in the morning, and after having had some refreshment 
 at a public-house, he asked the landlord to show him a 
 convenient place where he could preach, and the said wall 
 was pointed out. The singing soon brought to the spot 
 a large company. The two clergymen, disapproving of the 
 intrusion, took steps to disturb the service ; one of them 
 ordered the bells to be rung, and the other mounted his 
 horse and galloped up and down the street to disperse the 
 people if possible. Mr. Longden however persisted, and the 
 congregation heard, notwithstanding the interference, an 
 earnest appeal which produced upon the conscience of some 
 of them the same effect which Paul's preaching, in the open 
 air, by a river side, had upon the heart of a Lydia, at 
 Philippi. 
 
 On page 206 of Mr. Longden's memoirs there appears the 
 following paragraph, which it is due to his memory to quote : — 
 " Some years ago a friend wrote to him, faithfully declaring 
 that he was afraid he was not sufficiently liberal. His remarks 
 upon this letter in his journal are as follows : ' I find, upon 
 examining mj' cash book for the last six months, I have given 
 to the poor exclusively, one-seventh part of my income. 
 Perhaps my friend is right : it is possible that I ought to give 
 much more away than I do ; but my dear friends do not know 
 that I am prohibited, by our articles of co-partnership, from 
 receiving more than simple interest of my capital in trade. 
 Add to this, that the supplies of another mercantile concern 
 into which I was persuaded, contrary to my judgment, have 
 been nearly ten times as much as the original contract ; and 
 these supplies have been necessarily taken from time to time 
 from my yearly income.' " 
 
157 
 
 In writing of Mr. Longden's character as a companion and 
 friend, his biographer says : — " He was formed for society, 
 possessing strong sense, an enlarged mind, an uncommon flow 
 of spirits, and a most affectionate disposition ; hence his com- 
 pany and friendship were in extensive request. Nor was he 
 averse to social intercourse : happy himself, he loved to be 
 surrounded with cheerful countenances, provided only that 
 the cheerfulness arose from such a source as was consistent 
 with the religion of Jesus Christ. He possessed a fund of 
 most interesting anecdotes ; and when in company with a 
 small number of friends he would open out his store in a 
 manner peculiar to himself, and excite sensations in his hearers 
 of delight and sympathy which it is impossible to describe." 
 
 He was tall and remarkably well made ; his figure was 
 finely proportioned ; and though at one period he rather 
 inclined to corpulency, yet till he was worn, away by illness he 
 never lost the expression of great muscular strength, combined 
 with great activity. His complexion was fair, and his manly 
 countenance was unusually prepossessing. His voice was a 
 full bass, and highly melodious ; his ear for music finely 
 correct. His monument in Carver Street Chapel is thus in- 
 scribed : — 
 
 " Near this place lie the remains of Henry Longden. 
 " He was a member of the Methodist Society thirty-five years. As a Christian his 
 conduct was exemplary. As a class-leader he was affectionate and faithful. As 
 a local preacher he was wise to win souls regardless of fatigue or danger. He 
 was an honoured instrument of good in this and the surrounding circuits, turning 
 many to righteousness. Two-and -thirty years, with unabating zeal, he preached 
 a present, free and full salvation, through faith in the Atonement. He departed 
 this life in the full triumph of faith, February 24th, 1812, aged 58 years. 
 "'Deo laus sit, et omnia honos.' " 
 
 Mr. Newton, in his diary, gives an interesting account of 
 the circumstances in connection with the resolve of Mr. 
 Chambers and himself to erect smelting furnaces ; but he does 
 not mention as one reason for acting upon their resolve, that 
 the Sheffield iron-founders had difficulty in getting the pig-iron 
 they required. The supply, although trade was bad, was not 
 equal to the demand, and when that is the case prices usually 
 
158. 
 
 rise so as to yield a good profit. The design which had long been 
 in the mind of Mr. Chambers corresponded with a thought in the 
 mind of Mr. Appleby, who had a foundry near to the works of Mr. 
 Chambers and hispartners at Furnace hill, and while Mr. Cham- 
 bers and Mr. Newton were looking out for a site for furnaces on 
 the estate of Earl FitzwiUiam, Mr. Appleby was doing the same 
 in Derbyshire and ultimately found one at Renishaw. 
 
 At that time the trade of the country was in a very 
 depressed state. The French people, on the 2ist of June, 
 1793, had put their king to death, and war had broken out 
 between France and England. Mr. Newton's diary contains 
 the remark, "It was a most enterprising thing which we did 
 that morning when we rode to Wentworth to have an interview 
 with Earl Fitzwilliam." They saw, at Wentworth House, the 
 steward, Mr. Bowns, but the Earl seemed not to be there. 
 Fortunately, however, for the success of their expedition, his 
 lordship was not far off. Just as they were remounting their 
 horses to return to Sheffield, he appeared in the stable yard, 
 and there they had an opportunity of speaking to him, and of 
 explaining their errand. Had they missed seeing him they 
 would probably have failed to obtain what they wanted, for, 
 as they learned afterwards, Mr. Richard Swallow, a gentleman 
 well-known in connection with the iron trade of this district, 
 had been making the same request, and though he had been 
 hesitating to agree to the terms proposed, immediately after 
 their visit he renewed his application, consenting to the terms 
 for minerals previously offered. His delay in deciding perhaps 
 influenced his lordship, for he gave Mr. Chambers and Mr. 
 Newton a favourable reply. Impediments had to be encountered, 
 but Mr. Newton says, in his description of that journey, that 
 "the sequel fully proved the word of the nobleman to be as un- 
 changeable as the laws of the Medes and Persians." 
 
 For a long time I wondered how it was that Mr. Chambers' 
 and Mr. Newton's application for the Thorncliffe site was so 
 favourably entertained by Earl Fitzwilliam, as I supposed they 
 
159 
 
 would be strangers to his lordship; but I discovered, in 
 searching the Rotherham Church registers, that Mr. Chambers' 
 second wife, Hannah, was the daughter of a Robert Oxleji, of 
 Greasbro', which village is on the Wentworth Estate, and, thus, 
 Mr. Chambers would not be unknown at Wentworth House. 
 
 It was on the 13th of December, 1793, after having on the 
 7th of that month arranged with Mr. Bowns, the steward, as to 
 the site and the price of the minerals, that an agreement was 
 signed at the Angel Inn, Sheffield, promising a lease for 21 
 years. Evidently the actual obtaining of that lease from Earl 
 Fitzwilliam was not a matter of urgency, for it was not until 
 the I2th of August, 1797, after more than three years of the 
 term had expired, that the document was signed. Instead, 
 therefore, of being for 21 years, it was for a term of 18 years, 
 namely, from March 25th, 1797, until March the 25th, 1815. 
 
 The terms of that first lease were £70 per acre for the 2ft. 
 6in. bed of coal, £^0 for the 5ft. seam, and ^^140 per acre the iron- 
 stone. Those prices were no doubt fair and liberal, but not so 
 favourable as those which, in 1746, Mr. Walker got from Lord 
 Effingham. The situation of the works in Mr. Walker's case, 
 near a navigable river, was much to his advantage. His 
 castings were conveyed by barges direct from the Holmes to 
 the Humber, and thence without reshipment to the Thames. 
 He was especially favoured by having the confidence of the 
 Marquis of Rockingham, who helped him when he needed 
 capital, and no doubt said a good word for him at the 
 Admiralty and the War Office. 
 
 The services of an experienced foreman of the name of 
 Joseph Hague were secured lor the new undertaking, and 
 forthwith, on New Year's Day 1794, operations at Thorncliffe 
 were commenced, a sough or drain being first constructed. 
 On the 27th of April, 1795, the first furnace was put into blast. 
 
 There is extant a memorandum of the quantity of iron 
 produced weekly after the first furnace was got to work, and 
 some letters which show the market value of pig-iron in 1793. 
 
i6o 
 
 Although of the twelve or fifteen thousand pounds inherited 
 by Mr. Longden by the bequest of his uncle a large portion 
 was* available for the Thorncliffe extension of the firm's 
 business, more capital was soon needed, and Mr. Robert Scott, 
 of London, a friend Mr. Newton had known for some years, was 
 taken into partnership, and also his brother, Mr. John Scott. 
 The firm then became Longden, Newton, Chambers and Scotts. 
 This new partnership was for 21 years from January ist, 1799. 
 
 Mr. Robert Scott, who became " a sleeping partner " in 
 the Thorncliffe firm in the year 1799, and who continued to 
 have a considerable amount of capital invested there long 
 after the death of Mr. Longden and Mr. Chambers, and for 
 several years after the death, in 1825, of Mr. Newton, was 
 the friend in London to whom Mr. Newton was indebted for 
 his initiation into the principles of Wesleyan Methodism. As 
 he states in one of his letters, he was induced to comply with 
 the wish of Mr. Newton and his partners that he should join 
 them, in order to promote the interests of his brother, Mr. 
 John Scott, who, having also a share, would give personal 
 service. The latter, however, in the course of a few years 
 sold his share to his brother and returned to London. Mr. 
 Robert Scott in the latter part of his life resided at Pensford, 
 near Bristol. Dr. Adam Clarke and he were on terms of 
 affectionate intimacy, and there are published letters referring 
 to Mr. Scott written by that eminent minister, which help us 
 to estimate the influence which Christianity, in the form of 
 Wesleyan Methodism, had upon the Thorncliffe partners in 
 the early days of its history. 
 
 On Thursday, the iqth of February, 1801, a time of great 
 distress and high price of provisions, there was a distribution 
 made to the workmen at Thorncliffe of rice, and a vessel in 
 which to cook it. To every man was given i lb., with i lb. 
 for his wife and half-a-pound for each of his children, also a 
 five quart " Digester," an iron vessel for boiling, invented by 
 Dr. Ure, and of which, at that time, the firm were making a 
 
i6i 
 
 considerable quantity. I have the list of the recipients before 
 me, and it is evidence that the names of many of the present 
 residents in the neighbourhood are linked by honourable de- 
 scent with those connected with the business at Furnace hill, 
 Sheffield, and Thorncliffe ninety-two years ago. The cost of 
 the donation was ^^35, and the number of the recipients 514, 
 of whom 102 were wives and 253 children. 
 
 During the first few years of the Company's history the 
 ordinary foundry operations f)f the business were carried on at 
 the Phoenix Works, Furnace hill, Sheffield, and only the 
 smelting and mining done at Thorncliffe. On October 27th, 
 1800, Mr. Newton and his family removed from Sheffield to 
 Chapeltown, where they occupied the house at Greenhead, 
 now the residence of Mrs. Thomas Gibson. Then was com- 
 menced the erection of casting-sheds and other buildings at 
 Thorncliffe, and such good progress was made with them that 
 in June, 1802, the premises at Sheffield could be quitted and 
 disposed of. 
 
 After that date, for the business which had to be transacted 
 in Sheffield, the rendezvous of the partners and others who 
 drove into the town, and those whom they had to meet, was 
 the King's Head Hotel, in Change alley. The landlord reserved 
 for their use on market days what got to be called the Thorn- 
 cliffe room. The dinner provided every Tuesday (at which, for 
 many years, there was almost always present a Mr. Newton or 
 a Mr. Chambers) became an institution of note in the town, 
 and continued to be so until, by the death of Mr. Thomas 
 Jessop, the president, that " Birthday Club " dinner collapsed, 
 and could not be resuscitated. That historical house of enter- 
 tainment, however, still finds the accommodation the Thorncliffe 
 Company requires, as it did ninety years ago. 
 
 At the house at Greenhead Mr. Newton resided until 
 his new abode, Staindrop Lodge, was ready. The date on 
 the walls of this substantial, commodious and pleasant habita- 
 tion is 1807. 
 
1 62 
 
 In the year 1806 was obtained from the Duke of Norfolk a 
 lease of the minerals on the farm of Mr. John Foster, of High 
 Green, consisting of the Bromley or Silkstone coal, and the 
 Claywood or Gallery Bottom ironstone. They first attempted 
 to win these minerals by means of a water-wheel, but that plan 
 was not successful. 
 
 I have at hand a printed list of prices, dated January ist, 
 1807, of foundry products. It may be interesting to persons in 
 the trade to know something of the prices charged at that 
 period. For wheelbarrow wheels, was charged i8s. 8d. per cwt. ; 
 for anvils, from 14s. to i6s. ^d.; for sad-irons, 23s. ^d.; for sash 
 and clock weights, 14s. Six months' credit given, or five per 
 cent, allowed for prompt cash. The list is headed, " Longden, 
 Newton, Chambers and Scotts, Thorncliffe Iron-works, near 
 Sheffield." 
 
 It was soon seen what sort of men they were who had 
 come into the neighbourhood, and who had commenced at 
 Thorncliffe their new works. Mr. Foster, the coroner, who 
 lived at High Green House, and occupied some pasture land 
 underneath which lay some of the minerals first used, did not 
 like the intrusion. It is said of him, that, seeing Mr. Chambers 
 talking to the men who were beginning to sink a pit, he 
 exclaimed, " What the devil are you going to do here ?" The 
 answer was, "With God's blessing, Mr. Foster, we are going 
 to get a bit of coal and ironstone;" and it is a part of the story 
 that the Coroner then said, " There now 1 see that ! I'm 
 swearing and you're praying!" 
 
 As soon as the first of the newly-erected workshops was 
 finished building, a service was held in it, conducted by 
 Mr. Longden. 
 
 After the withdrawal, in 1811, of Mr. Longden, and the 
 disposal by Mr. John Scott of his share to his brother, 
 Mr. Robert Scott, the invoice heads of the firm show that it 
 was styled. Chambers, Newton and Scott. Mr. Chambers died 
 in 1817, and on the ist of January, 1820, the signature of the 
 
i63 
 
 firm was changed to Newton, Scott, Chambers and Company, 
 the name Chambers representing sons of the deceased's first 
 partner of that name. 
 
 After the death of Mr. Chambers in 1817, and his eldest 
 son, Mr. Thomas Chambers, junior (who had taken an active 
 part in the management of the business), having died three 
 years previously, the chief control rested upon Mr. Newton, 
 assisted by Mr. Matthew Chambers, a younger brother of the 
 son who had died. For some years Mr. Matthew Chambers 
 had been at Low Moor, obtaining employment, knowledge and 
 experience at the large works of Messrs. Hird, Dawson and 
 Hardy; and when his father died, he came to Chapeltown, and 
 was resident at Howsley Hall, until he removed to Chapeltown 
 House. The two sons of Mr. George Newton — Mr. Isaac and 
 Mr. Thomas — also assisted in the management. 
 
 On January ist, 1820, a new partnership was constructed, 
 and a new lease for 21 years obtained from Earl Fitzwilliam. 
 The firm then were, Mr. George Newton, Mr. Robert Scott, 
 Mr. Matthew Chambers, Mr. Joseph Chambers, Mr. Isaac 
 Newton, and Mr. Thomas Newton. As Mr. Robert Scott had 
 in 1810 bought for ;^3,i5o his brother's one-ninth share, Mr. J. 
 Scott's name was not in the new list of partners. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Chambers had the management of the branch 
 establishment at Chapeltown, where the firm supplied their 
 workmen with groceries, and the various articles of food, 
 clothing, &c., which the sole retail shop of a village was wont 
 to provide when there were no railroad facilities as now for 
 travelling to a neighbouring market town. The old-fashioned 
 system "of paying by ticket was then in vogue. 
 
 In the year 1810 the colliers at Thorncliffe combined for 
 an advance of wages. This is evidenced by a charge made by 
 the lawyer, Mr. Charles Brookfield. 
 
 In the year 1820, on the 19th of July, a terrible disaster 
 occurred at the Thorncliffe Foundry. There was being cast, 
 for Messrs. Armitage of the Mousehole Forge, near Sheffield, a. 
 
164 
 
 shaft 18 feet 9 in. long, 16 in. diameter, octagon ; and weighing 
 about five tons. The pit in which it was to be cast was 15 feet 
 deep. The sand was rammed close up to the boxes, 10 or 11 
 feet. When the metal had been poured in the mould nearly to 
 the top, there was a terrific explosion. The lowest box burst. 
 The event occurred during a thunder storm, and in the presence 
 of several of the partners, one of whom, Mr. Newton's son 
 Isaac, lost his life, and eight of the workmen. 
 
 Mr. Isaac Newton in trying to get out of the way fell down 
 on his back, and the liquid metal, falling in showers all around, 
 so severely burnt him that he died five hours afterwards. The 
 partners, Mr. Newton, senior, Mr. Matthew Chambers, senior, 
 and Mr. Thomas Newton, escaped uninjured. Mr. Matthew 
 Chambers, junior, had his face and hands burnt, but not 
 seriously. 
 
 The men who lost their lives were, Jonathan Windle, junior, 
 and his son Alfred, James Nixon, M6ses Pingston, two brothers 
 of the name of Hurst, James Oxley and his son Isaac, and 
 Henry Hall, a young man just out of his apprenticeship, who 
 had come to the works to take leave before he returned home. 
 
 I am told that the pit in which this shaft was being cast 
 was over the sough or drain made when the works were first 
 started, and the water in it was in contact with the bottom of 
 the pit ; that it was a dry sand casting; that there was only 
 sand of the thickness of three inches in the box, which gave 
 way ; and that the foreman was blamable. Mrs. Batty, -who 
 had a high reputation for her practical skill in dealing with 
 ailments, attended Mr. Isaac Newton during the few hours of 
 his terrible suffering. 
 
 Jonathan Windle, senior, who was called upon to mourn 
 over the loss of his son and grandson, was one of a number of 
 the Thorncliffe workmen for whom the partners had a sincere 
 feeHngof respect and kindly regard. When his death occurred, 
 in October, 1830, the following paragraph, supplied by the late 
 Mr, Thomas Newton, appeared in a Sheffield newspaper : — 
 
i65 
 
 " On Thursday last, in the 79th year of his age, Jonathan 
 Windle, at the house of his son-in-law, at Birdwell, neai- 
 Barnsley. He entered the service of the Thorncliffe Company 
 28 years ago, and continued with them, giving satisfaction by 
 his uniform and steady conduct, until he was obliged by growing 
 infirmities to retire, about five years ago. He was a man of 
 peace, and much respected for his good nature and friendly 
 disposition. He had been a consistent member of the Methodist 
 society 36 years, and died, as he had lived, in the enjoyment of 
 true religion. He has left a numerous progeny behind him, 
 consisting of 8 children, 59 grandchildren and 6 great-grand- 
 children. His remains were borne to the family grave at 
 Ecclesfield by eight of his grandsons, accompanied by a large 
 concourse of friends and fellow workmen." 
 
 The death, in the prime of manhood, of Mr. Thomas 
 Chambers, the eldest son of the first of that name at Thorn- 
 cliffe, was an event which deprived the business of an active, 
 shrewd and industrious manager. His conspicuous shrewdness 
 got him the sobriquet among the workmen of " Long-headed 
 Tom." His eldest son, the Thomas Chambers of the third 
 generation, was about 19 years old at the time of his father's 
 death, and he was in the course of being trained in an old- 
 established ironmongery house with which the firm did business. 
 Without waiting for the completion of his term of apprentice- 
 ship, his grandfather and Mr. Newton, seeing that it seemed 
 desirable that he should be transferred to Thorncliffe, arranged 
 that his younger brother, George Chambers, should take his 
 place as an apprentice. Thus it was that Mr. Thomas 
 Chambers, of Lane End House, who for many years was 
 prominent at Thorncliife, first became connected with its 
 management. 
 
 In 1825 Mr. George Newton, who had been at the head of 
 the business for some years, died, at the age of 64 years. In 
 1827, after the death of the three original partners, viz., Mr. 
 Thomas Chambers, Mr. Henry Longden and Mr. George 
 
 M 
 
i66 
 
 Newton, and the death also of Mr. Joseph Chambers and of 
 Mr. Isaac Newton, there remained only Mr. Thomas Newton, 
 Mr. Matthew Chambers, senior, and Mr. Robert Scott. Mr. 
 Matthew Chambers was at the close of his life, for he died in 
 1828, and Mr. Scott was 75 years old, and wished to be paid 
 out. The question therefore of a new partnership was of 
 pressing urgency ; but before anything could be arranged the 
 demand of Mr. Scott had to be dealt with. Mr. Scott, through 
 his agent, asked for a larger sum than his partners thought 
 he was fairly entitled to, and Chancery proceedings were 
 commenced. 
 
 It is an interesting page in this history which tells of 
 Dr. Adam Clarke becoming arbitrator in the dispute, whereby 
 heavy lawyers' bills were averted. It was complimentary to 
 Dr. Clarke that he should be invited to look into the affairs of 
 the Company and decide what would be a fair amount for 
 Mr. Scott to receive, and sagacity was shown by the men who 
 proposed that he should be asked to be umpire. 
 
 The learned doctor was far away in the north of Scotland 
 when his name was mentioned, and Mr. Chambers of Lane 
 End was sent to seek him. The result was that he awarded 
 to Mr. Scott two thousand pounds less than he had asked for. 
 
 Mr. Scott died a few years after, at the advanced age of 
 82 years. There is mention of him in the life of Dr. Adam 
 Clarke, as the gentleman to whom the doctor first appealed, 
 after he had persuaded the conference at Bristol, in 1823, to 
 send two preachers to the Zetland Islands, and promised to be 
 responsible for the money required to sustain them. 
 
 The writer of that memoir says, "There lived at that time 
 at Pensford, near Bristol, a gentleman of great honour and piety, 
 Robert Scott, Esq., who, with his excellent lady, was always 
 willing to help the preachers in their enterprises to make the 
 Saviour known to the nigh and the far-off. Mr. Scott gave the 
 promise of a hundred pounds per annum for the support of the 
 missionaries, and of ten pounds towards every chapel to be built 
 
167 
 
 in the Islands. In fulfilling this promise, he always exceeded 
 the amount at first stipulated, while his admirable wife and 
 her sister, the late Miss Granger, of Bath, added handsome 
 donations." This Mr. Scott bequeathed ;f 3,000 in trust for the 
 Zetland mission, and Ur. Clarke was one of the trustees. 
 
 As the business established at Thorncliffe is a product of 
 Weslejan Methodism, and as Mr. Robert Scott 'was so well 
 known to Dr. Adam Clarke, we can conceive how likely the 
 doctor would be to comply with the request that he would 
 undertake this friendly office. It would be in 1828 that this 
 occurred, for it was in that year the doctor made his second and 
 last visit to the Shetland Islands, where he was "hard at work" 
 from the i8th of June until the iSth of July, helping the 
 missionaries Messrs. Dunn and Raby. What is said in the 
 memoir of this eminent man will illustrate his fitness to be 
 umpire in a business dispute : — 
 
 " As a pastor he inculcated the most inflexible principles 
 on the subject of commercial integrity. In preaching one 
 Sunday morning at the old chapel in Spitalfields, on the 15th 
 Psalm, he laid great stress on the relative duties laid down for 
 the guidance of men of business. In that Psalm there are 
 the words : 
 
 " ' Lord, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle ? Who shall 
 dwell in thy holy hill ? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh 
 righteousness, and speaketh truth in his heart. He that slandereth 
 not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his friend, nor taketh up a 
 reproach against his neighbour. In his eyes a reprobate is despised ; 
 but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to 
 his friend, and changeth not . He that putteth not out his money 
 to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth 
 these things shall never be moved.' — (Revised Version.) 
 
 " An eminent merchant who had heard the sermon over- 
 took him on the way home and observed, ' Mr. Clarke, if what 
 you have said to-day in the pulpit be necessary between man 
 and man, I fear few commercial men will be saved.' Dr. Clarke 
 
i68 
 
 replied, 'I cannot help that, sir! I may not bring down 
 the requirements of infinite justice to suit the selfish chicanery 
 of any set of men whatever ; it is God's law, and by it will 
 men be judged.' " 
 
 Political economy is not a science which prescribes, but 
 describes what is prevalent in business transactions. We are 
 often reminded of this, but we rarely meet with a protest by 
 a Christian writer upon that science against self-interest and 
 the desire for wealth being the guiding principle with that 
 portion of mankind which professes to be swayed by the 
 teachings of morality and religion. Why should not a treatise 
 upon that science tell us not only what is, but what should 
 be ? It is undoubtedly true that the leaven of Christianity 
 and morality works among all classes of business men. Would 
 it not be well, that it may work less slowly, if Christian 
 political economists had the courage of their convictions and 
 were to insist, as did Dr. Adam Clarke, upon the obligation 
 which rests upon Christian men of business so acting that 
 as far as they can prevent it, self-interest rather than Chris- 
 tian rectitude shall not be the dominant rule ; that when the 
 good and the bad, the selfish and the unselfish, come to act 
 in a mass, self-interest shall not carry the day, and so hasten 
 the time when the economic assumption that it always does 
 carry the day shall no longer hold good ? 
 
 The dissolution of the partnership of the old firm of New- 
 ton, Scott, Chambers & Co., after Mr. Scott had been paid out, 
 took place on the ist July, 1831, and was advertised in the 
 Sheffield Iris, November 15 of that year. The persons whose 
 names were attached to the deed of dissolution were : — 
 
 Thomas Newton \ 
 
 Thomas Wheailey I Executors of George Newton, 
 
 Samuel Owen [ (wlio died Oct. 22, 1825.) 
 
 Robert Scott (died aged 80, Jany. 28, 1832.) 
 
 „ „ ( Executor of Thomas Chambers, 
 
 Thomas Bagshaw -i 
 
 [ (who died Jan. 4, 1817.) 
 
169 
 
 Dr. Adam Clarke 
 
170 
 
 Thomas Chambers (grocer) 
 Matthew Chambers 
 William Chambers 
 Thomas Chambers (son-in-law) 
 
 Thomas Chambers (grocer) 
 T. Aldam 
 Thomas Newton 
 Thomas Newton 
 
 Executors of Matthew Chambers, 
 (who died Jan, 26, 1828.) 
 
 Executors of Joseph Chambers, 
 (who died March 3, 1824.) 
 
 Mr. Thomas Newton and Mr. Robert Scott being the only 
 personal partners whose names are attached to that deed, and 
 as, after the retirement of Mr. Scott, only Mr. Newton 
 remained, the immediate arrangements for the formation of 
 a new partnership had to be considered. Then commenced 
 the firm whose designation was Newton, Chambers and 
 Company, consisting of Mr. Thomas Newton, of Staindrop 
 Lodge, the father of the present Mr. T. C. Newton; Mr. 
 Thomas Chambers, of Lane End ; Mr. Thomas Chambers, 
 of Chapeltown and afterwards of Melbourne ; and Mr. Matthew 
 Chambers, then of Chapeltown House and afterwards of 
 Barbot Hall. Afterwards Mr. John Chambers, of Belmont, 
 became a partner. Mr. Thomas Chambers, who had managed 
 the branch business at Chapeltown, withdrew from the firm in 
 1839, and in 1852 with his large family emigrated to Australia. 
 
 For several years after the invention, in 1792, by a Mr. 
 Murdoch, of an apparatus for the manufacture of coal-gas, and 
 the demonstration of its utility by Messrs. Boulton and Watt, 
 at Birmingham, in 1S02, at the festival of the Peace of 
 Amiens,* Parliament opposed the general adoption of the 
 invention. But the time came when a demand for light thus 
 produced was widely heard of. By this, about nine or ten 
 years after the works were started, a large amount of business 
 was brought to Thorncliffe. In connection with Mr. James 
 Malam, who had made himself acquainted with the details of 
 the invention as developed at the Soho Works in Birmingham, 
 
 • The Peace of Amiens was concluded on the 27th of March, 1802, and 
 ratified on the following May the 13th. 
 
T71 
 
 the firm promptly adapted their appliances for the production 
 of every part of a gas apparatus large or small, and also for 
 supplying pipes and lamp posts for the streets. London, 
 Brighton, Yarmouth, Hamburg, Riga, and scores of towns in 
 this and other countries have been supplied with coal-gas by 
 the aid of the skill, labour and enterprise of this Yorkshire 
 iron-foundry. Gas was first used in the streets of London 
 in 1807. The quantity of coal sent away now to feed the 
 retorts of gas-works in London and elsewhere, is something 
 like half a million tons a-year. 
 
 After the close of the Peninsular war, and the final defeat 
 of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo in 1815, the diminution 
 in the demand for cannon caused the Walkers of Rotherham 
 to look for orders in other directions. They undertook to 
 make the iron three-arched Southwark bridge which crosses 
 the Thames, and at Thorncliffe were cast some of the parts of 
 that bridge. 
 
 There have been great changes in the smelting of iron, as 
 well as in the converting of iron into steel since the beginning 
 of the present century. Some years after the three blast 
 furnaces were erected at Thorncliffe, the hot blast process 
 was invented by Mr. James B. Neilson. As elsewhere, when 
 that invention was made known and tested, the cold blast was 
 discontinued — not however because the hot blast produced 
 better iron, but because of the saving of fuel ; for in the old 
 process, the best part of the ore being most easily melted, it 
 constituted the product of the cold blast furnaces, the inferior 
 portions of the ironstone remaining in the scoria. 
 
 In 1841 Messrs. Newton, Chambers & Company had the 
 contract for supplying castings for the construction of an iron 
 lighthouse on the Goodwin Sands, to the design of the patent 
 of Mr. William Bush, civil engineer. This copy of the 
 engraving of the structure proposed, shows what it was 
 intended to be. It was to consist of circular hollow castings 
 of considerable diameter, rising one above another and bolted 
 
172 
 
 together through flanges, with a circular staircase inside ; the 
 lowest casting let down through the sand to the rock, or such 
 foundation as might be found, and that lowest one and those 
 upon it as high as where the top of the pedestal would rise 
 above the surface of the water, filled up with solid material ; 
 above the pedestal the castings to be of slightly diminishing 
 diameter to the apex. The work of erecting the lighthouse 
 was carried on until the pedestal appeared above the surface 
 of the sea, ready for the superstructure. Unfortunately 
 further progress was interfered with. A thunder-storm of 
 exceptional violence occurred, and the weight of the upper part 
 not being upon the base under water, the latter was disturbed 
 by the storm. The Trinity House authorities had misgivings, 
 and would not go on with the project. They resolved to let 
 floating lights suffice to protect vessels coming near to those 
 dangerous sands, and to-day there is no lighthouse. 
 
 The "strike" of the Thorncliffe colliers which began in 
 the spring of the year 1869, was a serious affair. It is supposed 
 to have shortened the life of both Mr. Thomas and Mr. John 
 Chambers. It lasted from March, 1869, until August, 1870. 
 For seventeen months, more than a thousand miners refused 
 to work not only because the wages offered did not satisfy 
 them, but because the managers of the collieries declined, at the 
 dictation of a committee of Union men at Barnsley, to alter 
 two of the long established modes of conducting their business, 
 namely, to make the weighing of coal 20 cwt. to the ton in- 
 stead of 21 cwt. the rule at all the pits, and to have the 
 colliers' wages reckoned every week instead of every fortnight. 
 The furniture of the lower rooms of thirty new cottages, erected 
 at Westwood for the new hands, having been destroyed, a troop 
 of soldiers were brought from Sheffield, and were, along with 
 forty policemen, located in the neighbourhood for six months 
 to protect the men brought to the collieries to take the place of 
 those who refused to work, and the old hands, about a hundred, 
 who had not consented to join the Union. The "black sheep," as 
 
174 
 
 they were called, could not pass to and from their work — could 
 not even attend the funeral of one of their children — without the 
 risk of being abused or murdered. The Union spent ;^i7,ooo, 
 and the cost to the firm would not be less. In the Workmen's 
 Hall a temporary floor was placed on the level of the gallery, 
 across the large room, and iron beds were hired and put there 
 for the soldiers. 
 
 The contributor to Dr. Gatty's edition of Hunter's Hallam- 
 shire, who writes about the trade of the district, in the Chapter 
 upon the " Expansion of the Town and Trade of Sheffield," 
 seems not to have sufficiently considered certain credible state- 
 ments, some of which are to be found in the work which he 
 supplements. " In the middle of the last century," he says, 
 " there were forges at Attercliffe, Mousehole and Wadsley, 
 which annually made 520 tons of bar iron. Up to this period, 
 however, the iron trade, in its larger sense, had- never been 
 known here. What was at first an air bloomery was after- 
 wards blown with bellows, by which a stronger and surer 
 draught was obtained; and the blast furnace did not come into 
 use until coal was employed in melting the ore, about a century 
 ago. The iron, which abounded in the district, was never 
 worked for any castings of great dimensions, though small 
 foundries existed in the town." * * * " j^ must be 
 acknowledged that Samuel Walker was the real founder of the 
 iron trade in these parts." In these paragraphs there seems 
 to be an under estimate of what was done at Chapeltown and 
 Wortley, long before Mr. Walker's time. The writer seems 
 not to have known, or borne in mind, that the Duchess of 
 Newcastle, in her memoirs of her husband, mentions that the 
 Duke, while at Sheffield, during the civil war, finding there" 
 were ironworks in the neighbourhood which could produce 
 cannon and other implements of war, ordered some to be made. 
 Nor has that writer remembered that of the Attercliffe works 
 Mr. Hunter writes.:—" These forges are perhaps the oldest in 
 the neighbourhood. Till the time of James I. they were in the 
 
175 
 
 hands of the Earls of Shrewsbury, and worked for their benefit. 
 Afterwards they were leased to Captain Copley and others." 
 In his "South Yorkshire," Mr. Hunter mentions that from 
 Captain Copley the ironworks at " Chapeltown Furnace," 
 " Rotherham Mill," and " Wadsley Forge " passed into the 
 hands of William Simpson of Renishaw, Francis Barlow of 
 Sheffield, and Dennis Heyford of Millington, County Chester, 
 in the reign of Charles II. (about 1678). It may fairly be 
 surmised that the cannon and other implements of war which 
 the Duchess of Newcastle says her husband ordered to be 
 made at ironworks in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, were 
 not the product of a place where an iron trade was not in 
 existence. The "Chapeltown Furnace," as the foundry was 
 called, which was in connection with the Attercliffe forges, 
 was owned by the same person who owned Sheffield Castle, 
 which the Duke of Newcastle had charge of, and, therefore, 
 it is probable that that would be the foundry where the cannon 
 were made. The words of that contribution to Dr. Gatty's 
 edition of the History of Hallamshire which affirm, "The 
 blast furnaces did not come into use until coal was employed 
 in melting the ore, about a century ago," were written under 
 date 1869, not 1819, the year when Hunter's preface is dated. 
 The furnace at Chapeltown would be smelting with coal for 
 fuel before the year 1769, for there is a Report of a Committee 
 of the House of Commons on Patents which states that it was 
 in 1619 that Lord Edward Dudley took out a patent for the 
 process he invented for smelting iron-ore with pit coal instead 
 of wood, and that it was about a century afterwards that its 
 use became general. The dearth and scarcity of fuel caused 
 by the use of wood in smelting iron was complained of in the 
 early part of last century, and by about the year 1740 the 
 cutting down of trees for that purpose was generally discon- 
 tinued, and Lord Dudley's process adopted. In that year the 
 quantity of pig-iron produced in England and Wales was about 
 17,000 tons, from 59 furnaces, of which number Chapeltown 
 
176 
 
 Furnace would be included. Smelting by coal made no 
 very rapid progress until the steam engine was employed to 
 maintain the blast. The first steam engine was applied to a 
 cotton mill in 1785. The first in Manchester was in 1789; in 
 Glasgow in 1792 ; in Sheffield in 1786 (erected by Beilby and 
 Proctor, opticians). In 1700 the estimate of coal raised is 
 2,612,000 tons, in 1795 io,o8o,30otons,in 1892 191, 954,908 tons.* 
 
 The diary of John Hobson, of Dodworth Green, published 
 by the Surtees Society, is evidence that there was a smelting 
 furnace at Chapeltown belonging to the Duke of Norfolk in 
 1726. There is an entry in that diary, of" March i6th, 1726, 
 which says : " At Barnsley, where it is reported for certain 
 that Mr. Edward Wortley has taken the Duke of Norfolk's 
 iron-works, viz., Chapeltown Furnace, Wadsley and Attercliffe 
 Forges." The furnace that was there in 1726 would not be 
 different from that for which rent was paid in 1712 by " Mr. 
 Simpson, Mr. Fell and partners." 
 
 Searching for information respecting the Chapeltown 
 Furnace, with the knowledge obtained from the diary of 
 John Hobson, of Dodworth Green, dated 1726, I can better 
 understand the evidence supplied by the old rent books in the 
 Duke of Norfolk's office, where I found that on February 24, 
 1712, tenants who are styled " Mr. Simpson, Mr. Fell and 
 partners," paid £"8o 5s. as the annual charge for " forges, 
 furnaces, &c." In 1720 Mr. Fell paid for forges, furnaces, &c., 
 the same sum, and in 1729 the rent received from Mr. Fell for 
 the same was ;f 100. His firm continued each year to pay ^f 100 
 until 1768. In 1772 a rental of £106 was paid by Clay & Co. 
 for "forges, furnaces and slitting mill." In 1780 Mr. Richard 
 Swallow paid for "forges, furnaces and slitting mill" £Sy, and 
 in 1797 he was the tenant of the same at the same rental. 
 That the word "furnaces" in these entries refers to those at 
 Chapeltown is clear, because the number on the map at the 
 place where the Chapeltown furnaces are indicated corresponds 
 with the number in the rent book. 
 
 * of which more than 40,000,000 tons, including cinders, were exported. 
 
177 
 
 To this Mr. Richard Swallow was bequeathed, by the 
 widow of Mr. John Fell the younger, the mansion called 
 Newhall, which he had built near to the Attercliffe forges, 
 on the opposite side of the River Don. Both the father and 
 the son prospered in connection with those works, and the 
 latter placed his handsome brick house, with its spacious 
 gardens, within the sound and the reach of the smoke of those 
 ironworks where he and his father had acquired their wealth. 
 Mr. Fell, junior, died May 17, 1762, without a son to inherit, 
 and leaving a widow, who died January 29th, 1795. The senior 
 Mr. Fell, before he removed to that side of Sheffield, had been a 
 clerk at the Wortley Forge when it was in the hands of Mr. Hey- 
 ford. Mr. Swallow and his son both resided at Newhall. The 
 latter was married to a sister of Mr. Hugh Parker, of Wood- 
 thorpe. I suppose he would be the Mr. Swallow who in 1793 
 applied to Earl Fitzwilliam for the Thorncliffe site. 
 
 Wortley Ironworks, situated on the estate of the Earl of 
 Wharncliffe in the lordship or township of Wortley, and thus 
 in the parish of Tankersley, have been in continuous occupation 
 during the last four centuries. On a wall in the forge may still 
 be seen a sculptured representation of a tilt hammer, with 
 the initials S.W. and the date 1713, when the works were 
 enlarged and improved. A further testimony to the antiquity 
 of the works, and bearing date anterior to this, is the following 
 inscription, still legible on a gravestone in Wortley church- 
 yard: "Here lies the body of Francis Askew, of Upper Forge, 
 hammerman ; died October 24th, 1669." Although smelting 
 of iron-ore with coal in blast furnaces seems not recently to 
 have been done at Wortley as at Chapeltown, no doubt there 
 were there bloomeries formerly in which the process of smelt- 
 ing was carried on.* In the adjacent woods large quantities 
 
 * As foreign iron came into use in Sheffield — which it appears to have done 
 as long ago as 1557, imported from Denmark and Spain — " the smelting of iron 
 ceased to be carried on in the town, though it flourished in the neighbourhood." 
 In what other neighbourhood besides Chapeltown, I am unable to affirm on 
 reliable evidence. 
 
178 
 
 of scoria have been found. About a century ago the Wortley 
 Works were owned by Mr. James Cockshutt, F.R.S., civil 
 engineer, at one time a partner of Crawshay, the original 
 founder of the great Welsh iron industry. Mr. Cockshutt at 
 the Wortley Ironworks had one of the first mills for rolling 
 with grooved rolls; and "pig-iron," either from his own 
 smelting furnaces or purchased, he "puddled." He was one 
 of the pioneers of improvement in the manufacture of iron, 
 being amongst the first to appreciate the inventions of Henry 
 Cort nearly a century ago. Mr. Thomas Andrews, F.R.S,, 
 M.Inst.C.E., is the present proprietor of these works. 
 
 " The probabilities are strong," writes Mr. Hunter, "that 
 before the Norman invasion, and even while the Romans had 
 possession of the island, the iron mines of Sheffield afforded 
 employment to a considerable number of persons. Domesday 
 must be considered as neutral on this question ; and in. almost 
 the very next in chronological order of the records from which 
 we obtain our knowledge of the early state of this neighbour- 
 hood, about the year 1160, we have notice of pretty extensive 
 ironworks established by the monks of Kirkstead." The site 
 of these ancient works in the township of Kimberworth is on 
 high ground two or three miles eastward of Chapeltown, and 
 underneath that spot are the workings of the Grange Colliery, 
 which the Thorncliffe Company have recently annexed. Thus, 
 not only are the Chapeltown Ironworks antecedent to opera- 
 tions begun by Mr. Chambers, Mr. Newton and Mr. Longden, 
 a century ago, but the much older works, carried on by the 
 monks as long ago as the twelfth century, are linked with Mr. 
 Hunter's short sentence on page 428, " In the neighbourhood 
 of Chapel Town are extensive ironworks."* 
 
 The whereabouts of the place in the parish of Kimber- 
 worth selected by the monks for their ironworks, was to me, 
 for many years, an unsolved problem. The Rev. f. Stacye 
 
 •Had the Thorncliffe Works been not in the Wapentake of Staincross, but in 
 the Hallamshire about which Mr. Hunter was writing, probably " extensive " would 
 not have been the only descriptive word he would have applied to them. 
 
179 
 
 thus comments upon Mr. Hunter not having defined the two 
 properties respectively conferred on the monks by De Busli and 
 De Lovetot : — " Considerable misapprehension seems to have 
 arisen from its not having been sufficiently borne in mind that 
 two distinct properties were given to the monks of Kirkstead, 
 in the neighbourhood of Kimberworth, — the one (in the parish 
 of Ecclesfield) the donation of William De Lovetot, of the 
 hermitage of St. John (the Baptist) and its lands, with the 
 additions made by his son Richard ; the other (in the adjoining 
 parish of Kimberworth) the grant of Richard de Busli, of 
 ' unam managium in territorio de Kimberworth,' i.e., of one 
 homestead, with leave to erect forges and dig for minerals in 
 his whole manor here. Hence this latter establishment has 
 been looked for near the site of the present grange (formerly 
 the residence of the Earls of Effingham), where (or near to 
 where) the hermitage seems to have stood ; whereas there can 
 be little doubt that the forge premises of the monks were a mile 
 or so to the east of this, on the most lofty situation in the 
 neighbourhood, as would be necessary for the smelting of the 
 metal, before artificial blasts were used (and, he might have 
 said, because the minerals were there). Indeed it seems pretty 
 certain that the very building erected about a.d. ii6o, agreably 
 to the charter of De Busli, still remains, and a very curious 
 and interesting building it is. It is of most massive construc- 
 tion, and retains some of the small original Norman windows. 
 (Those on the north side have not been disturbed). The south 
 side has been a good deal altered, and many insertions have 
 been made, some indeed of very early date. The whole hill 
 side on which it stands is covered with large heaps of cinders, 
 from which the whole joint property seems to have derived one 
 of its names, viz., Synocliffe, Scenocliffe or Senecliffe, while 
 the other designation of Thundercliffe, i.e., the (or th') Under- 
 cliffe Grange, was properly applicable to the grange situated in 
 the valley beneath. In the Vol. Eccl., Henry VIII., it is 
 returned as one property, thus, ' Sinecliff firma grangix £4.' 
 
i8o 
 
 It seems not improbable that the Kirkstead monks introduced 
 the iron trade into- the neighbourhood." 
 
 The charter is extant in which Richard de Busli, a 
 nephew — according to Thornton — of Roger de Busli, "with the 
 consent of his wife Emma and her heirs, gives to the monks of 
 Kyrkstead, ' unum munagium in territorio de Kymberworth,' 
 and gives leave to erect four forges, two for smelting iron and 
 two for fabricating (ad fabricandum) whenever they may please; 
 to dig for minerals through the whole territory of the said vill 
 sufficient for the two fires, and to collect dead wood sufficient 
 for the four iires." 
 
 Later, when the Lovetots had succeeded to De Bush, there 
 is a grant from Richard de Lovetot in which he gives "to God 
 and the church of St. Mary at Kyrkestide, and the monks of 
 the same place, the hermitage of St. John in the parish of 
 Ecclesfield, with all the land which his father gave and which 
 he gives in addition, bounded by the landes of Richard de BusH 
 in Kimberworth and of Jordan de Reineville of Cowley," 
 
 Respecting that hermitage, Mr. Hunter says, " In that 
 retired part of the parish of Ecclesfield where it adjoins the 
 manor of Kimberworth, a religious solitary took up his abode." 
 His example followed by others, a hermitage became established 
 dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. The first William de 
 Lovetot settled certain lands upon the hermitage, and to this 
 gift his son Richard made a small addition. In his time the 
 hermitage lost its inhabitant, and Richard gave it with all 
 its appurtenances to the monks of Kirkstead, for 'his own 
 health, and of William his son, Cecilia his wife, and others.' 
 The monks of this Lincolnshire house * * found it expedient 
 to erect a grange for the residence of their tenant or bailiff 
 who had the oversight of these outlying lands and ironworks." 
 
 It seems to me that is not the only way of accounting for 
 the substantial building on Thorpe Common, which is not yet 
 quite a ruin (but I am afraid soon will be, for I see holes in 
 the roof which were not there a year or two ago). Some of 
 
I»I 
 
 the monks would probably be there themselves, for they were 
 not forbidden, as monks were afterwards, to trade with iron, 
 wool, &c., because they were getting inconveniently wealthy 
 by embarking in business undertakings. 
 
 William de Lovetot was buried at Worksop about the 
 year iioo. Richard his son, who gave the hermitage estate, 
 was living in the year 1161, in the reign of Henry II., for in 
 that year he had a dispute with the priory of Ecclesfield as to 
 the extent of their respective rights and territories. He says 
 in his deed in favour of the monks, " I have given, and all the 
 land that was that of Robert de Gras, to the church and 
 monks of St. Mary of Kyrkestede. free and quit from all 
 secular service and custom and all exaction, for the welfare of 
 myself, and William my son, and my heirs and brothers, and 
 for the souls of my father and mother and Cecilia my wife, 
 and all my ancestors, and they shall cause a monk to serve 
 there at the chapel (that is at the chapel at the monastery at 
 Eirkstead)." 
 
 Mr. Eastwood says, " Grange lane and Grange mill take 
 their name from a grange to which Grange lane directly leads, 
 and which is now called Parkgate farm. A very little exami- 
 nation takes away all reasonable doubt of its being the original 
 grange of the monastery of Kirkstead, which is known to have 
 been somewhere near here, though its site has hitherto been 
 placed half-a-mile lower down in the valley, near to where now 
 stands the mansion of the Earl of Effingham, where, or near 
 to, was another grange (Thundercliffe) and where doubtless 
 was the hermitage of St. John the Baptist, which formed the 
 nucleus of the possessions of Kirkstead* in these parts. 
 
 "A visit to the Grange, now called Parkgate farm, will well 
 repay those who are curious in the ancient architecture of five 
 or six centuries ago. * * The beams and lintels ^re of oak, 
 still perfectly sound and of amazing thickness, most of them 
 
 • The ruins of Kirkstead Abbey are to be seen between Horncastle and 
 Tattershall. 
 
 N 
 
i83 
 
 being a foot-and-a-half in depth and the same in breadth. The 
 ■door-ways and square-headed trefoil windows, also present 
 certain peculiarities of construction which fix their erection 
 at a very early date." 
 
 Of those monks whose abode, when they were engaged in 
 their mining and smelting and " fabricating " operations, is to 
 be seen to-day near the Sportsman's Inn on Thorpe Common, 
 nothing is known, not even their names. How long they were 
 thus personally engaged is uncertain. It could not be after the 
 year in the reign of Edward III. when ecclesiastics were for- 
 bidden to meddle with ti-ade and commerce — that is, between 
 1327 and 1377 — but the Abbey might have leased the works to 
 tenants, as they did their land in the parish of Ecclesfield. 
 
 A sketch of this very ancient building is placed as a frontis- 
 piece to this volume, because it is the oldest. Indeed there is 
 no roofed ruin so old in this part of England. There is a tra- 
 dition that it has been used as a prison. It would not be an 
 unsuitable place for the custody of captives who, during the 
 many wars in which the people of this land have been engaged, 
 had the ill-luck to lose their liberty, but there is no evidence in 
 support of the tradition. Kirkstead Abbey held the property 
 in Ecclesfield and Kimberworth for at least 365 years — that is 
 from A..D. 1160 to 1525. In the latter year it had passed to 
 the Crown, for a lease for ninety-nine years was then granted 
 to Nicholas Wombwell. In proof of this the collector of the 
 King's rent, Michael Wentworth, gives a receipt for rents 
 received in the seventeenth year of the lease— that is, 1542, 
 33 Henry VIII. The property is described in the Lord 
 Treasurer's Memorandum, 33 Henry VIII., thus: "Scenecliffe 
 Grange in parochiis de Ekkilsfeld et Rotherham." Before the 
 expiration of that lease the Crown granted the Grange on 
 the site of the hermitage of St. John the Baptist and other 
 property of the Kirkstead monks to Thomas Rokeby, the 
 elder brother of Archbishop Rokeby. This was in 1537. 
 The house which came to be known as th'undercliffe 
 
i84 
 
 GRANGE, and which passed to the Wombwells, was rebuilt 
 or enlarged by Thomas Wombwell in the year 1575. In 
 the hall of the old mansion, a sketch of which is here 
 given, were his arms, impaling those of Arthington, and 
 the initial letters T.W. A.W. 1575. Afterwards it became 
 possessed by a family of the name of Green, in which it 
 appears to have remained for six generations. At length it 
 was sold by a Dr. Green to Mr. Hugh Miller, of Shire- 
 green, who left it to his brother, who sold it to Thomas, the 
 third Earl of Effingham, the owner of considerable property in 
 the township of Kimberworth. The Earl pulled down the 
 house about the year 1777, and built, not on the same site, but 
 just outside the parish of Ecclesfield, and on his Kimberworth 
 estate, the present mansion close under the park wall. By the 
 boundary brook is the Grange Mill, on the very spot where the 
 Kirkstead monks had their mill seven hundred years ago. 
 
 
185 
 
 CHAPELTOWN RESEARCHES. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Notes Biographical of the Thorncliffe Partners. Supplementary to 
 THE Previous Chapter upon Old-time Memories op Thorncliffe. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Chambers, senior, who was one of the 
 founders of the Thorncliffe Works, and whose name is at the 
 head of a pedigree specifying the names of more than two 
 hundred descendants, died seventy-two years ago, having nearly 
 reached his seventy-second birthday anniversary. His tomb is 
 in Ecclesfield churchyard. He was thrice married. The mother 
 of all his children was Hannah, his second wife, who died 
 April 17th, 1802. After she was taken from him he remained 
 a widower until about 1805, when he married the daughter of 
 William Green, of Rotherham, a man of considerable promi- 
 nence in the early days of Methodism. He had a school at 
 Rotherham. Sons of Mr. Samuel Walker were his pupils. 
 William Green's second wife, the mother of Mrs. Chambers, 
 was a person of whom much that is interesting has been 
 written. Mr. Everett, in his History of Wesleyan Methodism 
 in Sheffield, says : " Mrs. Chambers, of Rotherham, and Mrs. 
 Bagshaw, of Rotherham, were the daughters of the second 
 wife of William Green, of Rotherham. After his first wife's 
 death in 1747, he married Miss Jane Holmes, the daughter of 
 a Mr. Holmes, the cousin of a gentleman of that name who 
 resided at Syke House, near Doncaster, and whom Mr. John 
 Wesley frequently visited." On page y^, he writes : " Of Mr. 
 Holmes (Mrs. Green's father) whose death John Nelson simply 
 notices, it may be proper to say a little more. He was a 
 branch of an ancient family whose ancestors came from Nor- 
 mandy with William the Conqueror. The eldest branch of it, 
 now nearly extinct, enjoy considerable estates in Holderness, 
 which were granted to them by that prince." 
 
i86 
 
 William Green's daughter Rebecca, Mrs. Chambers (who 
 survived her husband i8 years, and vi^as buried at Rotherham, 
 June i2th, 1835) was a worthy adherent of the Methodism 
 which canonized her mother "that saint of God," as Everet 
 designates her, and of whom Mr. Henry Longden, in his diary, 
 March 28th, 1798, writes: " I rode over to Rotherham to see 
 Mrs. Green. In the midst of her sore afflictions, long confine- 
 ment, and loss of worldly goods, she is all resignation, all 
 patience, all meekness, overflowing with heavenly love. I was 
 indescribably happy while I heard her gracious words. "What 
 a holy ambition has this venerable saint — to be conformed to 
 the image of her dear Lord in all things." A note at the 
 bottom of the page on which the above appears, says : " It is 
 a lamentable circumstance that no memoirs were written of 
 this great and good woman, that her virtues were not recorded 
 for the example of ages to come " (p. 142). 
 
 Mr. Chambers' eldest son, Thomas, who died in his 
 father's lifetime, did not attain to the position of a partner, 
 as he probably would have done had he been living when 
 the firm was re-constructed in 1820. Nor did the second 
 son, Robert, who was also employed at the works, but went 
 away. The wife of the former occupies a foremost place in 
 " Old Time Memories of Thorncliffe." The memoir of her, 
 written by her friend Miss Bennet, supplies many particulars 
 of the family history with which her long life was contem- 
 poraneous, for she lived to be 84 years old, the date of her 
 death being March 8th, 1853. Of her husband, the memoir 
 mentions his assiduous application to business in connection 
 with the Ironworks, and that his life was shortened thereby. 
 She describes him as "a man of a cheerful, but very easy 
 temper, clever in his business, and most industrious in his 
 habits." He died, aged 44, October i6th, 1814, three years 
 before his father. In the spring of 1795 he, with wife and one 
 child, removed from Sheffield to reside near to the Thorncliffe 
 Works, and soon afterwards, when the health of Mrs. 
 
i87 
 
 Chambers, senior, began to fail (and she required the help of 
 her daughter-in-law to receive and entertain persons who came 
 on business), they had their home at the works in the same 
 house. In the memoir of that daughter-in-law. Miss Bennet 
 remarks: "Her commanding figure and unsophisticated de- 
 portment secured respect, which was manifested by the 
 attention she received from many who visited the iron-works." 
 The husband's death " was followed by severe trials — the 
 natural result of such a loss," but the widow was a person of 
 great force of character and Christian faith. She never 
 doubted that the Lord would provide for her and her large 
 family, and, to use her own language, "so He did." " She 
 roused herself and those of her children who were able to 
 comprehend the extent of their loss : she informed them that 
 their future welfare would depend on their own efforts ; they 
 responded to their mother's call with a firm reliance on the 
 providence of God. They worked with undaunted courage, 
 and evinced to her who had set them the example the highest 
 respect and veneration." One of her children died of con- 
 sumption, a daughter who had been engaged as an assistant in 
 a school where she was very much respected on account of her 
 amiable disposition and great industry in the discharge of her 
 duties. Of the other children. Miss Bennet writes, " the 
 widow saw each one of them taking a position in society equal 
 to her most sanguine expectations. Her prayers had been 
 graciously answered; her troubles on their account had been 
 confined to their childhood." When the youngest became the 
 wife of Mr. Thomas Newton, who succeeded his father in the 
 firm, Mrs. Chambers gave up her residence and went to live 
 with them at Staindrop Lodge. 
 
 Chambers is rather a common surname. Whether the 
 origin of the name of this family be the Norman-French 
 " Chambres," or the English word which means a room in a 
 house, is uncertain. One member of it, the late Mr. Chambers 
 of Lane End, was remarkably like the brothers William and 
 
Robert Chambers, the Edinburgh pubHshers. From whatever 
 family branch sprang the ThorncHffe Mr. Chambers' father, 
 who settled at Rawmarsh in the early part of last century, the 
 son had the school education and technical industrial training 
 in his youth which enabled him to ascend the first steps of a 
 prosperous business career. 
 
 Like his partner Mr. George Newton, Mr. Chambers when 
 a young man was not a Wesleyan. He attended the chapel at 
 Masbro' built by Mr. Walker, near his residence— the chapel 
 where Thomas Grove, and previously John Thorpe, preached 
 Calvinistic doctrines. 
 
 One day when I was driving through the hamlet of 
 Bradgate, near Masbro', having with me the late Mrs. 
 Wright, sister to Mr. Matthew Chambers, of Barbot Hall, 
 she remarked, " this is where our grandfather Chambers 
 lived." This was, for me, interesting information ; and I said, 
 " and it is where my grandfather lived. We are now passing 
 the very house altered into two cottages. From the age of 
 twenty-one years (up to which time he was at school) he was 
 book-keeping and surveying in the service of Mr. Samuel 
 Walker, and your grandfather, twelve years his senior, would be 
 about that time engaged model-making at the ironworks of 
 that enterprising gentleman. Yes ! in this hamlet, near 
 neighbour to Mr. Chambers, would be resident Mr. Matthew 
 Haberjam or Habersham*, who came from Handsworth or 
 
 * The orthography of this surname is extremely irregular. The name of 
 this member of the family is on his tombstone " Habershon," but in his agree- 
 ment with Mr. Hirst it is " Habersham," and in the register of his baptism 
 " Haberjam." He was the second son of Mahlon Haberjam, of Handsworth, 
 whose great-grandfather lived in that parish in the reign of Elizabeth. In the 
 Harleian MSS., where is mention of the fa,mily arms, the name is " Haberiam." 
 In the Lancashire records, since the time or Henry VIII. it has been " Haberg- 
 ham " or "Habersham." In 1369 it was written " Habringham ;" in 1358 
 " Habrincham," Roger de Laci, who died 1211, granted land in Hambringham 
 to Matthew de Hambrigham. Whitaker says : " I have no hesitation in 
 referring the original spelling to the well-known Han or Hambrig." The 
 Hanbrig water was a small spring of alcali water between Burnley and Townley. 
 Thus a hamlet near a bridge over that spring would be Ham-brig-ham. Hambrig 
 Eaves, says Whitaker, means ground surrounding a principal mansion. The 
 old Habergham Hall was described to me in 1856 by an aged man who 
 remembered it. 
 
Handsworth Woodhouse to manage the colliery of Mr. John Hirst 
 of the Clough, and my grandfather Matthew Habershon, until his 
 marriage in 1785, the year after the death of his father, had his 
 home here." The fact that thus contemporaneous and known 
 to each other in those days were our Christian grand-sires, 
 suggested a thought akin to the one expressed upon another 
 page. They both aspired to be accounted worthy to be, by their 
 fidelity to their risen Saviour, partakers of the resurrection life ; 
 and we could think of them as being together with Him, and 
 many friends from whom we are parted, in the place He went 
 away to prepare in the spiritual paradise of His Kingdom. 
 
 Mr. GEORGE NEWTON. 
 
 (Portrait shown page 144^. 
 
 Mr. Newton records of himself, in the manuscripts which 
 I have had the privilege of inspecting, much that is interesting 
 in connection with the period of his early manhood in London, 
 which began in 1781. He mentions that the journey by stage 
 coach from his home, in the county of Durham, to London, 
 commencing on a Wednesday (October 17th), ended on the 
 following Friday evening, at about nine o'clock, at which hour 
 he found himself at the " George and Blue Boar," in Holborn. 
 
 After for a time travelling for the firm of Messrs. Flower, 
 Creak and Worstead, tea dealers, No. 69, Cornhill, he agreed 
 with Messrs. Hetherington and Maskew, wholesale tea 
 merchants, of 34, Nicholas Lane, to enter their service. Thus 
 commenced his acquaintance with Mr. Maskew, who afterward 
 became so truly his friend. 
 
 The business was partly managed by a merchant's clerk, 
 a Mr. James Chadwick, a young man who was a hearer of the 
 Rev. John Newton, St. Mary's Church, Walnorth. At the 
 funeral of this young man Chadwick, Mr. Newton made the 
 acquaintance of Mr. Robert and Mr. John Scott. They were 
 Wesleyan Methodists, and Mr. Newton's intercourse with them 
 led to a change in his religious views. H itherto he had supposed 
 that the Calvinistic doctrines of the Church of England, which 
 
I go 
 
 he heard preached by some of the most eminent evangelical 
 preachers of the day, from both church pulpits and from those 
 of Dissenters, were scriptural, although he was confused and 
 uncertain as to what was affirmed of " election " and " pre- 
 destination." He acknowledged, in a letter to Mr. Robert 
 Scott, that " though he had a sincere respect for the ways of 
 God and a love for His people, he was without being sensible 
 of bearing any part or connection himself therewith or therein." 
 
 Mr. Scott, in reply, asked him to spend the next Sunday 
 with him, and he took him to the City Road Chapel to hear 
 Mr. John Wesley, who, from what Mr. Newton had heard 
 said, held views to which he had an antipathy. In the evening 
 of that day, just before leaving Mr. Scott's house, Mr. Newton 
 noticed a book on the mantleshelf,entitled,"An appeal to matter 
 of fact and common sense," by the Rev. John Fletcher, Vicar of 
 Madely. This, Mr. Scott told him to put in his pocket and 
 read at his leisure. Mr. Newton mentions in his diary the 
 effect produced by the perusal of it. " The reading of that 
 volume was to me as rivers of water to the thirsty soul. While 
 reading it, light sprang forth as the morning, and the day-spring 
 from on high visited me. I rejoiced with exceeding great joy, 
 I felt in myself a new creation, I saw with new eyes, I heard with 
 new ears, and 1 was convinced that ' the Lord is loving unto 
 every man, and His tender mercies are over all His works.' " 
 
 It was a relief to him to be able to dismiss entirely the 
 thought of what was called " the doctrine of reprobation " being 
 true. Of course there is nothing of the sort in the teaching 
 of our Lord, who said, " it is not the will of your Father which 
 is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish " ; who 
 assured His disciples that God would save every man, if every 
 man would submit to be made fitted for the life eternal. 
 Nothing that expositors of Scripture say, nothing that any 
 fallible apostle may seem to have said, can nullify the trilth 
 divinely revealed, that "upon him that willeth it is that God 
 hath mercy." " Ye will not come unto me that ye may have 
 
igi 
 
 life." (John v. 40.) ■" As many as received him, to them gave 
 he the right to become the children of God, even to them that 
 believe on his name." " Born of God " are they who "believe 
 on his name." (John i. 12, 13.) 
 
 Having reached the conclusion that the doctrines taught 
 by the Wesleyan Methodists were nearer the truth than those 
 preached by the evangelical theologians of the school of Owen, 
 Doddridge, Watts, Toplady, Romaine, Whitfield and Rowland 
 Hill, Mr. Newton took leave of his " Calvinistic friends," " all 
 of whom, however," he says, " I still highly esteem and love 
 for their works' sake ; and, notwithstanding our differences in 
 sentiment, I fully expect to meet in heaven." 
 
 In December, 1787, he joined a society of the Wesleyan 
 Methodists in London. In the autumn of 1788, when 27 years 
 old, he was engaged in making preparations for entering into 
 business in Darlington, when he was suddenly deprived of the 
 sense of hearing. It was some months before he recovered 
 the use of one ear, and he was deaf of the other during the 
 rest of his life. This deafness caused him to abandon his 
 Darlington project. A train of providences he refers to as 
 having intervened between this date and his being in business 
 with Mr. Chambers in Sheffield. In that town Mr. Charles 
 Hodgson resided, who had married Miss Marshall, Mr. 
 Newton's cousin, and his journeying there led to his 
 becoming engaged to Mrs. Hodgson's sister.* 
 
 From the house of Mr. and Mrs. Hodgson, on tfie 7th of 
 June, 1789, Mr. Newton and the lady he had there seen and 
 become devoted to, were married at the Sheffield Parish 
 Church by the Rev. George Bayliffe. On the 12th of that 
 month they travelled to London and occupied apartments at 
 No. 6, City Road, until August 27th, when they removed to a 
 small, neat, pleasantly situated but lonely house at Holywell 
 Mount. " On the 4th of October thieves broke into the house 
 
 » Of this lady, Mrs. Thomas Chambers remarked in the hearing of her 
 biographer, Miss Bennett, " My sonin-lavv, Mr. Newton, is just like his mother." 
 
192 
 
 and," says Mr. Newton, " found a guinea, which was ail they 
 got ; but we, alarmed to remain there, removed to 34, Nicholas 
 Lane, to a part of Messrs. Hetherington and Maskew's house 
 of business." There their first child was born, March 20th, 
 1790. About this time, the beginning of 1790, occurred 
 changes which Mr. Newton thus describes :— " A few weeks 
 after our marriage my hearing began to be restored. My 
 brother-in-law, Mr. Charles Hodgson, had kindly offered me 
 a share in his business — a manufacturing of spades, shovels, 
 trowels, hinges, &c. About the beginning of 1790 we formed 
 a connection upon the plan of my continuing in London ; but 
 he (Mr. Hodgson) had to travel, and we altered our terms, and 
 it was arranged that I should remove to Sheffield and take an 
 active part in the business." He here alludes to the generous 
 assistance of a London gentleman, to whom he was beholden 
 for much of his prosperity. He was one of the partners of the 
 firm for whom he travelled, and the friendly feeling which 
 existed had been brought about or augmented by a service 
 which a religious motive had prompted. Mr. Newton, while on 
 one of his journeys, took an opportunity in a letter to this gentle- 
 man of expressing his views on the subject which, to his own 
 mind, had become, above all others, weighty and important. 
 He had the satisfaction, not only of receiving a favourable reply, 
 but, on returning home, of finding that what he had said was 
 " a word in season." They went together to hear Mr. Wesley 
 preach ifi the City Road Chapel, and the result of what Mr. 
 Newton had ventured to say was that the gentleman and his 
 wife and family were benefited. To this gentleman no doubt 
 Mr. Newton is alluding when he writes : " My valuable friend 
 Mr. Maskew generously assisted with a considerable sum of 
 money to enable us to extend and improve our concern." 
 
 The removal to Sheffield was accomplished on the 4th of 
 December, 1790. After a visit to Staindrop, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Newton got settled by Christmas in a house at the corner of 
 Edward Street and the Brocco. Afterwards they lived in 
 
193 
 
 Meadow Street, near the house of Mr. Hoyle, from whom 
 
 Hoyle Street is named. The manufactory of Hodgson and 
 
 Newton was in Workhouse Croft, at the bottom of Queen's 
 
 Foundry Yard, but the premises being too small, they got built 
 
 by a Mr. William Cooper, two dwelling houses and workshops, 
 
 &c., in Pond Hill. " We removed to our new house," says 
 
 Mr. Newton, "Oct. ist, 1791. Our second son, Isaac, was 
 
 born there May 24, 1792, and baptised at the Parish Church 
 
 June 20th." For the services at the opening of the Mount 
 
 Pleasant Chapel, May nth, 1806, he composed a hymn which 
 
 contains the following verses : — 
 
 Hail, Sovereign, everlasting Lord ! 
 
 Who giv'st command to preach Thy Word ; 
 
 We come, obedient to Thy call, 
 
 And at Thy sacred footstool fall. 
 
 Come in Thy condescending grace, 
 
 And let Thy glory fill this place. 
 
 Which, now united we agree 
 
 To consecrate, O Lord ! to Thee. 
 
 Among metrical productions of his which have been pre- 
 served are the following lines written while, in August, 1815, 
 he was enjoying a sojourn at Scarborough : — 
 
 " The Happy Man. 
 
 Happy the man whose head is clear ; 
 Happy the man whose ears can hear ; 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Whose senses five are all complete 
 
 * » • * 
 
 With bones well formed, and sinews strong, 
 With healthy lungs and nerves well strung ; 
 
 * * • * 
 
 Whose limbs are active, mind serene 
 And well-disposed and free from spleen. 
 Happy the man who, free from care, 
 Commits himself to God by prayer ! 
 With sleep refresh'd, can early rise 
 To pay his morning sacrifice ; 
 Then taste the sweets of early dawn. 
 In walk or ride across the lawn, 
 In meditation sweet— profound, 
 On fair creations ample round ; 
 Combined with health, to point the road 
 From " nature up to nature's God ! " 
 Happy who thus prepares his way 
 To meet the toils of every day. 
 With conscience pure, with temper even. 
 Serves God on earth and lives for heaven." 
 
194 
 
 Miss Bennett mentions in her memoir of Mrs. Thomas 
 Chambers that she spoke of Mr. Newton as " a very good and 
 pious man." "I shall," she said, "always remember his 
 kindness to me and my family. I loved Mr. and Mrs. Newton 
 as a brother and sister; he was a sincere friend to my husband. 
 When he went from home for change of air he would have my 
 husband to go with him." In reply to my inquiry of an aged 
 woman in the Sylvester Almshouses, Mrs. Elizabeth Grayson,* 
 if she remembered old Mr. Newton, she said : " He paid for 
 the schooling of a number of children at the day school of 
 Mrs. Walbrun, at Mount Pleasant, and I was one of them." 
 
 Mr. henry LONGDEN. 
 
 (Portrait shown page 147) 
 
 It is probable that the early years of Mr. Longden did 
 not in any way predicate the most prominent features of his 
 subsequent life. Whatever his home-training, he does not 
 appear, on the evidence of the several manuscripts from which 
 was partly compiled the memoir of him published in 1813, 
 soon after his death, to have been Godward in his youth. 
 After narrating how he and companions as wicked as himself 
 enlisted for soldiers, and how his father sought for him, liberated 
 him and brought him back to Sheffield, he relates the following 
 incident of his apprenticeship : — " My master and mistress were 
 the reverse of each other in their tempers and dispositions. 
 He was mild and pacific, dispassionate and sober ; but she 
 would alike disgust by her over-kindness or brutishness— ever 
 contriving unnecessary rewards, or satiating her malice by 
 revenge. At times my master sought quietness from home, 
 and often would not return till two or three o'clock in the 
 morning. It remained a mystery how he gained admission in-, 
 to his own house. The truth was I used to sit up in my room 
 
 • The daughter of James Norbion and grand-daughter of John Faries, one of 
 the first of the Thorncliffe workmen . 
 
195 
 
 till all the family were asleep, and then return to the kitchen 
 fire till my master tapped at the door, when I was ready to 
 open it. One night my mistress resolved, if possible, to pre- 
 vent my master gaining admission into the house as usual. 
 She took the keys out of the locks and carefully secreted them. 
 Afterwards I heard her cautiously creeping up to my lodging 
 room to examine if all was right there. I leaped into bed and 
 nearly covered myself, closed my eyes, opened my mouth, and 
 was snoring when she arrived. Having looked at me, she 
 turned about and said, ' Oh, I see you are safe.' To avoid 
 waiting, as usual, I followed her so close as to be able to pass 
 by her door just as she was shutting it. She heard a creaking, 
 opened the door, and having a glance of something, pursued as 
 quickly as she was able. There was no alternative, so I leaped 
 into a brewing copper, which had some water in it, and was 
 just composed when she arrived. I believe she looked every- 
 where but in the right place. Finding nothing, she felt alarmed, 
 and, believing it to be something supernatural, she hastened 
 to bed. As soon as I thought she was settled, I ventured to 
 leave my cold retreat and dried myself by the kitchen fire. 
 At two, my master tapped at the door. I had already un- 
 screwed the lock with a knife, and I admitted him to his great 
 satisfaction : I then screwed the lock on again, and went to 
 bed. When of full age, I sat down seriously to consider the 
 course of my future life. To continue in the business I had 
 learnt would have been the most profitable ; but when I 
 recollected the age and growing infirmities of my father, and 
 the gratitude and affection which I owed him as a son, I 
 resolved to offer him my services to conduct and manage his 
 business. He accepted my offer with readiness and great 
 affection. By unremitting industry I soon found my father's 
 trade to increase and prosper, and I look back upon the last 
 year of my father's life, which I spent with him in this manner, 
 with pleasing recollection. About six weeks before the death of 
 my father I entered the marriage state. It was on this wise. 
 
196 
 
 As I was walking one evening, in the country, I met two young 
 women ; as soon as I had passed them I found an involuntary 
 and unaccountable regard for one of them— a regard which I 
 had never felt for any other person. I paused, and 'lingering, 
 look'd behind.' I would have followed them but durst not for fear 
 of giving offence. I often walked on the same road hoping to 
 see her again, but in vain ; nor had I any reference or means of 
 inquiring after her or her friends. Some months after this 
 my sister told me she had invited a few female friends to tea, 
 and she hoped I should make it convenient to be with them, 
 to which I consented. What was my astonishment when I 
 beheld her whom I had sought in vain. After mature con- 
 sideration I offered myself as sacred to her, and some time 
 after we were united in the bonds of holy matrimony, for 
 which union I shall have cause to praise God in time and 
 eternity. Her name was Ann Wood." 
 
 It was after their marriage that they both attained to that 
 " assurance of faith " which was the theme of his preaching 
 and a blessing to many whose minds he influenced. In 1778, 
 when he was 24, he took for his motto, " Not slothful in busi- 
 ness, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." 
 
 From 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. his time was devoted to business, 
 in which ten hours, he says, "besides managing my little 
 business, I set myself to earn ten shillings, and this I did with 
 great ease. My business prospered more and more ; and there 
 being but few in the same calling, I could choose my con- 
 nections, which prevented much risk and trouble. I now had 
 money to spare for the support of God's cause and for the 
 relief of God's poor." 
 
 From 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. he made the hours sacred to 
 religious purposes. 
 
 He describes his being urged to allow himself to be 
 appointed a class-leader, which, he says, he "engaged in 
 with much trembling, considering it by far the most im- 
 portant office amongst the Methodists." 
 
197 
 
 His future partner, Mr. George Newton, was in his class, 
 and in this connection they could not fail to become well 
 known to each other. Thej- were kindred spirits, and only 
 upon one matter, which was one arising out of their connection 
 with each other in business, do they seem to have held diverse 
 views. As far as I can judge from their letters, &c., both were 
 right. 
 
 What Mr. Scott was as to his Christian belief may be 
 judged of by the letters respecting him written by his friend 
 Doctor Adam Clarke. There is one which reads thus : — 
 
 " The next day I received a letter from Mr. Scott, and 
 one from his wife, begging me to come and see him, as his life 
 hung in doubt and he wished to see me before he died. I 
 got into Bristol, Wednesday night, very late, and set off the 
 next morning for this place (Pensford). I found Mr. Scott HI, 
 but he would walk from room to room, talk about the things 
 of God, and appeared as if he would yet weather a few storms. 
 But he has continued to sink, and is now as low as well can 
 be. But he is quite sensible, and is very happy in God. He 
 seems to dwell in God and God in him. I have not found a 
 greater evidence of complete salvation. His mouth is ever 
 filled with the high praises of God for what He has wrought 
 in and for him. He is full of admiration of the perfections of 
 the Divine nature, and His wonderful condescension towards 
 the fallen race of man. ' God is love ' is a frequent ejaculation, 
 and he seems to feed upon it as the very food of his spirit. 
 He takes no food, but a little drink to weit his lips from time to 
 time. This morning he performed the last act of his life, viz., 
 signing a cheque for ^^50 for Zetland. He would do it, it being 
 the last instalment, and, though he had only to sign his name, 
 Mrs. Scott having filled up the cheque, he was at least a whole 
 hour before he could do this. His right hand had lost its 
 cunning, and its strength also. He will no more grasp a pen. 
 Having loved Zetland, he loved it to the end. When he found 
 he had succeeded, he spoke as well as he could these remarkable 
 
words : ' There, for the work of God in Zetland I send 
 my last cheque to heaven for acceptance, and the inhabitants 
 will see that the writer will soon be there himself.' He is 
 sinking very fast, and will to every human appearance keep 
 his next sabbath in heaven. He said to the doctor ' my soul 
 is perfectly resigned to the Divine will. I have a full assurance 
 of God's love, and it is no odds to me whether I be found in 
 this world or in the world of spirits an hour hence.' " 
 
 In another letter Dr. Clarke wrote, " I seem to have been 
 brought here to learn to die, and the lesson before me is both 
 solemn and instructive. Certainly Mr. Scott is dying a very 
 noble death. May God make my last end like his." 
 
 Mr. MATTHEW CHAMBERS. 
 
 Mr. Matthew Chambers, the third son of Mr. Thomas 
 Chambers, senior, was born Sept. 17th, 1776. On the 24th of 
 May, 1796, before he was of age, he was married to Mary 
 Louth. At the latter date the Phcenix Works at Furnace 
 Hill, Sheffield, had been in existence three or four years, and 
 he was employed there and had his residence in Smithfield, 
 the street adjoining, where his son Matthew (afterwards of 
 Barbot Hall) was born, as was also his elder brother Thomas. 
 Mr. Matthew Chambers, senior, would, after the death of his 
 father in 1817, occupy a position of considerable responsi- 
 bility, his eldest brother's valuable services in the business 
 having been terminated by his untimely death three years 
 previously. In a letter which has been preserved, dated 
 January 29th, 1817, the writer expresses some misgivings that 
 Mr. Matthew might not prove so energetic and thrifty as his 
 father was, at the same time hoping that Mr. Newton would 
 find him careful and attentive in helping to manage the 
 concern. He would then be 41 years old, and he would have 
 had a good deal of experience, gained at Sheffield, Thorncliffe 
 and Low Moor, for he went to the large ironworks at the latter 
 
igg 
 
200 
 
 place to acquire knowledge that would be likely to be con- 
 ducive to the prosperity of the Thorncliffe business. While 
 he was residing at Low Moor, some of his children were sent 
 to a school at Brough, a village seven miles from York, his son 
 Matthew being one of them. His daughter Rebecca (Mrs. 
 Wright) was born at Low Moor. He was living at Houseley 
 Hall on the 24th April, 1818, as the diary of John Senior 
 shows. The periodical journeys of Mr. Matthew Chambers, 
 senior, to London used to be on horseback. I was told this 
 by the late Richard Woodhead, who had many a time groomed 
 the mare upon which he travelled, a fine animal which was 
 thought much of, probably the one upon which the younger 
 Mr. Matthew rode when he galloped to Sheffield in about half 
 an hour, as I have heard him affirm, to summon a physician to 
 attend his grandfather in the illness which proved fatal. 
 
 Mr. ISAAC NEWTON. 
 
 Mr. Isaac Newton, the second son of Mr. George Newton, 
 admitted into the partnership on the ist of January, 1820, was 
 one of the nine persons who, on the 19th of July of that year, 
 were killed at the foundry by the explosion in the casting of a 
 metal shaft of five tons weight for the Mousehole forge. He 
 was born May 24th, 1792, married to a Miss Wilson, and their 
 residence was at Greenhead. They had no children. His 
 funeral sermon was preached at Mount Pleasant Chapel by the 
 Rev. J. P. Haswell, who soon afterwards married the widow. 
 
 Mr. THOMAS NEWTON. 
 Mr. Thomas Newton, of Staindrop Lodge — whose features 
 and expression are, I think, fairly represented in the portrait 
 annexed — the senior partner of the late firm of Newton, 
 Chambers & Company, was the third son in the family of the 
 Mr. George Newton who, with Mr. Chambers and Mr. 
 Longden, founded the Thorncliffe works a century ago. 
 
201 
 
 Thomts Newton, born September 5th, T/g6, partner from 1820 until 
 his death in 1S6S, 
 
202 
 
 From what has been written of the senior Mr. Newton, it 
 will be seen that his son inherited a name of good repute and 
 prestige, and he did much to sustain what his father had 
 founded' both of local family reputation and in the way of a 
 business structure. His integrity, suavity, gentleness, and 
 benevolence were evident to all who knew him. 
 
 His department at Thorncliffe was chiefly that of finance and 
 the counting house,* and he had for his assistant cashier Mr. 
 Burton. He took great interest in the affairs of the Wesleyan 
 Methodist "Societies," and gave liberally towards the erection 
 and sustaining of their places of worship and their Sunday 
 schools. Especially was he generous in regard to the require- 
 ments of the community of Christians with whom he worshipped. 
 For many years he was superintendent of their Sunday school. 
 Owing in a large measure to his Christian liberality and that of 
 his family, the Wesleyan Methodists here have now, for their 
 use, the beautiful and substantial Mount Pleasant church, and 
 the adjacent commodious school-rooms. Internally the church 
 seems to be all that could be desired, excepting that there is 
 too much light admitted behind the pulpit, the inconvenient 
 effect of which is, that the features of the preacher's face cannot 
 be seen ; and if, in the removal of this defect, there could be 
 accomplished the design to add to the ornate appearance of the 
 interior of the building, by introducing three stained glass 
 windows in memory of the three chief contributors to the cost 
 of the church, future generations of worshippers will be likely 
 to look upon what is thus done — if well done — with interest 
 and approval. 
 
 It was not necessary for Dr. Gatty to mention Mr. Thomas 
 Newton's name in describing how he got helped in 1844, in 
 paying for the rebuilding of Lound School. The vicar writes : 
 " I was their sole trustee, and I had my first experience of 
 
 *The late Mr. John Depledge was, when a boy, in the counting house, and I 
 have heard him say that it seemed quite natural for Mr. Newton, when all was 
 done and every one else had gone home, to say: "Now John, we'll ask God's 
 blessing on our day's work." 
 
203 
 
 building responsibility ; for when I had collected all the contri- 
 butions, I found they were ^loo short of what had to be paid. 
 This became known to a worthy old gentleman, who was not 
 a churchman, but had a large and liberal heart, and he induced, 
 by his own example, three friends to subscribe £25 each, 
 which released me from the difficulty."* To whom but to 
 Mr. Newton could these words refer ? 
 
 At one of the meetings at Mount Pleasant, at which Mr. 
 Chambers of Land End House presided, Mr. Newton, in 
 proposing that the chairman should be thanked for his services 
 in the chair, said, " We were together at school, we were 
 trained together for business, we are together as partners, 
 and I trust we shall be eternally together in heaven." 
 
 Mr. THOMAS CHAMBERS. 
 Mr. Thomas Chambers, grandson of the first of that 
 name at Thorncliffe, and who from the year 1829 until his 
 death forty years afterwards resided at Lane End House, was 
 known to be, by those who had transactions with the Thorn- 
 cliffe firm, a fine specimen of the best business men of his age. 
 He was shrewd, courteous, gentlemanly, energetic, industrious, 
 and religious. For nearly four years I was in close contact 
 with him. I saw him, not only daily in the counting 
 house, but when not engaged with business affairs. I had 
 often the pleasure of being his guest, and sometimes he 
 would do me the honour to be mine. I have been with 
 him when he was in London and at Scarborough, I was in 
 his bedroom during the illness which proved fatal, and from 
 my own observation I know him to have been a man 
 whom his children, his nephews and nieces (he seemed to be 
 uncle to every one) and his grandchildren have good reason to 
 regard as one of the family not least worthy to be remembered 
 and honoured. What he was in appearance at the close of his 
 life is shown, but not very precisely, in the portrait annexed. 
 
 *A life at one living, p. 60. 
 
r 
 
 204 
 
 Thomas Chamber.s of Lane End House, born January 7th 1798 
 from 1S32 until his death, October 29th, iS6q, 
 
205 
 
 Mr. THOMAS CHAMBERS, of Melbourne, Australia. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Chambers, the eldest son of Mr. Matthew 
 Chambers, senior, was a partner until July 12th, 1839, and 
 had charge of the branch establishment at Chapeltown. In 
 1852, he and his family emigrated to Melbourne in Australia. 
 He was born December 21st, 1796 ; married Mary Pollard, of 
 Burnley; and died in Australia, August i6th, 1875, in his 79th 
 year. His eldest daughter. Alary, married James Swift, brother 
 to WilHam Swift, of the Stamp Office in Sheffield, and of whom 
 there is a monument in the Sheffield Parish Church. The 
 widow of Mr. Thomas Chambers died in Australia, February, 
 1887, aged 83. 
 
 From his youth, until he left for Melbourne, he was closely 
 associated with the Wesleyans at Mount Pleasant Chapel, and 
 a class-leader. 
 
 Mr. JOHN CHAMBERS, of Belmont. 
 
 Of Mr. John Chambers of Belmont, I find I have at hand 
 the following newspaper obituary notice, of date June, i85g : — 
 " The announcement of the death of Mr. John Chambers, of 
 the well-known firm of Newton, Chambers & Co., of Thorn- 
 cliffe, will be received in a wide circle with deep regret. Mr. 
 Chambers' health had been failing for some time past, and a 
 few days ago he went to the English lakes to try the effect of 
 a change of air and scene. On Saturday he was seized with 
 paralysis at Ambleside, and died there yesterday, at the age of 
 64. Mr. Chambers had been all his life connected with the 
 Thorncliffe Works, and upon him devolved the management 
 of the colliery department. He was a practical miner — perhaps 
 the only one among the coalowners of South Yorkshire, and 
 thoroughly understood all the details of the trade. In early 
 life he worked indefatigably, and by his personal superinten- 
 dence and practical knowledge contributed in no small degree 
 to the success of the Thorncliffe Company. For some time 
 
206 
 
 Thomas Chambers, born December 2ist, ,790, partner from 183.' to 1839 
 died in Australia, August iCth, 1875. 
 
207 
 
 
 John Chambers, of Dtlmont. born April 27th, 1805, partner from 1840 until 
 his death, June 2rst iS^'g. 
 
2o8 
 
 past Mr. Chambers has been chairman of the South Yorkshire 
 Coalmasters' Association. In all the relations of private life 
 Mr. Chambers was most exemplary. The strictest conscien- 
 tiousness marked all his dealings, while his disposition was 
 singularly amicable. He was a leading member of the 
 Wesleyan body, and contributed liberally to the support of the 
 cause in his own neighbourhood. His loss will be severely felt 
 by the firm of which he was a member, by the community 
 dwelling in the neighbourhood of the works, but most of all in 
 his own family circle. He married a daughter of the late Mr. 
 G. Newton, of Thorncliffe, and left, besides a widow, four 
 sons and one daughter." 
 
 Mr. MATTHEW CHAMBERS, of Barbot Hall. 
 
 Mr. Matthew Chambers, of Barbot Hall, near Rotherham, 
 the second son of Mr. Matthew Chambers, senior, I ought to 
 be able to say something about, for, in 1855, I was married to 
 one of his daughters. I saw him first when, nearly fifty years ago 
 he and I travelled together, inside a coach, from Gainsborough 
 to Lincoln. Being unknown to each other, we passed the 
 couple of hours almost in silence, as is the way with most 
 English gentlemen unknown to each other as we then were. 
 At the end of the journey, however, we met at the Saracen's 
 Head Hotel, and became acquainted. He and Mr. Appleby 
 had come to Lincoln about a gas contract. He there showed 
 that if a straw on his path seemed to be an obstruction, it would 
 be likely to perturb and irritate. But, after I had got to know 
 him in after years, I found that the irritation-at-a-trifle, which 
 was one of his characteristics, lasted only for a few moments. 
 He was a high-spirited, well-intentioned and generous gentle- 
 man, attentive and competent as a man of business, and warm- 
 hearted as a friend. His musical proclivities made him, in his 
 own social circle, popular. He was never more complaisant 
 than when he had between his knees his violoncello. His 
 
209 
 
 Matthew Chambers, of Barbot Hall, born November nth, 1798, partner 
 from 1832 until his death, March 23rd, ia02. 
 
210 
 
 quartette-party performances, at Barbot, when he got to visit 
 him his musical friends — ^Mr. Stirhng Howard, of Sheffield ; 
 Mr. Carr, of Wath; and Dr. Sewell, organist at the Rotherham 
 Parish Church, were his delight. I have known one to begin 
 after a mid-day luncheon and continue until noon the next, 
 with limited intervals for dinner, supper, bed and breakfast. 
 When, midnight arriving, Dr. Sewell had to tear himself away, 
 without some favourite quartette having been gone through, 
 Mr. Chambers would say : " Walk up here after breakfast, and 
 we will have an hour or two more before we separate." He was 
 professedly a churchman from the time of his marriage, but he 
 always contributed liberally at the. Mount Pleasant Chapel anni- 
 versaries. He was popular with the Thorncliffe workmen, many 
 of whom were, and are, proficient amateur musicians. He would 
 occasionally invite some of them to bring their musical instru- 
 ments to his house, and join him in a homely concert. He 
 was in the foundry at the time of the explosion in 1820, and 
 sustained some injury, but he was soon after well enough to 
 take a journey, for I find in John Senior's diary, " September 
 19th, 1820, Mr. M. Chambers, junior, went his journey." He 
 was married, in 1826, to Miss Dodson, of Handsworth, two 
 years before the death of his father, Mr. Matthew Chambers, 
 senior, and the house they first occupied was one called 
 " Carnac," at the western side of Ecclesfield. In 1828 
 they removed to Chapeltown House, and in 1847 to 
 Barbot Hall. He was a man who attached great importance 
 to habits of punctuahty. He would leave Barbot Hall and 
 pass through the village of Greasbro' with such regularity that 
 the sight of his phaeton in a morning indicated the time almost 
 to a minute to those who saw him pass. He was church- 
 warden for Ecclesfield in 1827, and for Grenoforth in 1828, 
 In Ecclesfield churchyard, beneath the shadow of some elm 
 trees spreading their branches from the vicarage grounds over 
 the boundary wall of the sacred enclosure, is his tomb. In 
 conjunction with that tomb is the vault which I had constructed 
 
211 
 
 for the remains of my boy Wilfred, and to that " quiet 
 resting place " were brought from London those of my 
 daughter Catharine Chambers in 1883, and of my beloved 
 wife in 1887 — the memory of whose presence in my home is 
 still, as a ministering angel, helping to keep my thoughts in 
 touch with the life revealed and promised for those who are 
 " accounted worthy to attain to it by the resurrection from the 
 dead," and which life, like that of the angels, is dependent 
 upon no fragile "vesture of decay." 
 
 ^5-^i"^-^i^ 
 
 Pawson and Brailsforf, Printers, High-street and Mulberry-street, SheiBeld. 
 
213 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Act of Uniformity 120 
 
 Adams 102 
 
 Albany, Duke of 32 
 
 Alcock Arthur 28 
 
 Alice de Laci 60 
 
 Aliena Reneville 47 
 
 Allen 43, 107, log 
 
 Almond 115 
 
 Almshouses g8, 104 
 
 Amiens, Peace of 170 
 
 Andrews Thomas 178 
 
 Angel Inn, Sheffield 159 
 
 Apparel, Excess of ig 
 
 Appleby 158,212 
 
 Archbishop Kempe . . . 10, 41 
 Archbishop Rotheram 6,10.12,16,21 
 
 Armitage 163 
 
 Arundel, Earl of 9.51 
 
 Askew Francis 177 
 
 Aston Church 59 
 
 Athorpe iii 
 
 Attercliffe Forges .. .. 113,175 
 Aveling Dr 113 
 
 B 
 
 Bagshaw Mrs 185 
 
 Bamford 140 
 
 Barber of Rowley 2g 
 
 Barley Hall 117,121 
 
 Barlow Francis .. .; .. .. 175 
 
 Barnaby Rudge 152 
 
 Barnes Hall 11,29 
 
 Barrow Robert 152 
 
 Barton 115 
 
 Batty Mrs 164 
 
 Baxter Rev. Richard 120 
 
 Beaufort, Earl of Somerset . . 64 
 Beaufort, Cardinal and Bishop . 34 
 
 Beaufort Joan 64 
 
 Beaumont of Whitby 63 
 
 Bennett Miss 186, 194 
 
 Benson Rev. Joseph (quoted) . . 128 
 Bill of Attainder. . . . 79, 83, 89 
 
 Binney iS5 
 
 Birks Samuel 129,131 
 
 Birthday Club 161 
 
 Bishop of Winchester .. .. 34 
 
 Bishop of Ely 16 
 
 Bodleian Library 40 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Boleyn, Queen Anne .. .. 67 
 Boler Peter, the Moravian . . 126 
 Bona Lady, of Savoy . . . , 27 
 
 Bonaparte Napoleon 171 
 
 Book of Common Prayer . . . . 118 
 
 Booth 140 
 
 Bosworth, Battle of 21 
 
 Boulton and Watt 170 
 
 Bowns 149, 158 
 
 Bradfield 42, 99 
 
 Brady's History 61 
 
 Brancepeth 152 
 
 Bridge of Pecquigny 27 
 
 Brook, Herald-at-Arms . . 20, 55 
 
 Brookfield ; 163 
 
 Brothers 116 
 
 Brown Richard 94 
 
 Brown Grace 94 
 
 Buckingham, Dukeot ..24, 76, 77 
 Buckingham James Silk . . . . 141 
 
 Burkisland 68 
 
 Burne Josselin de 93 
 
 Bush William 171 
 
 Busli 42, 179 
 
 Butler Bishop 117 
 
 C 
 
 Calvinism 125 
 
 Cambridge, King's College .. 21 
 
 Camerario 93 
 
 Campbell, Lord 21 
 
 Campsall 95. 113 
 
 Cannon made near Sheffield . . 175 
 
 Canterbury Tales 12 
 
 Capel or Chapel 40 
 
 Carver in 
 
 Carver St. Chapel, Monument in 157 
 
 Catesby 8 
 
 Cawood 21 
 
 Caxton 18 
 
 Centenary of Thorncliffe 
 
 Methodism 142 
 
 Caesar's Commentaries . . . . 18 
 
 Chambers George 105 
 
 Chambers John 170,207 
 
 Chambers Joseph 170 
 
 Chambers Matthew Edward . . 108 
 
 Chambers Matthew I ^\^^f'2^J°' 
 
 Chambers, Newton and Co. . . 147 
 
214 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chambers, Newton and Scott ..162 
 
 ( 95. 105, 108, 
 
 Chambers Thomas j 143, 149, 163, 
 
 ( iS'j, 203, 205 
 
 Chambers Richard 91 
 
 Chambers Robert . . . . 108, 186 
 
 Chapeltown 40 
 
 Chapeltown Furnace .. 95. 175 
 
 Chapeltown House no 
 
 Charlemagne . . . . 26 
 
 Charles 1 69,71,76 
 
 Charles II 69,72,118 
 
 Chatillon 53 
 
 Charlton Brook 130 
 
 Chaucer Geoffrey (preface) vlii. 12,31 
 
 Christmas Day 10, 14 
 
 Christ's birth 11 
 
 Clarendon 85 
 
 Clarence, Duke of . . . . 28, 30 
 Clarke Dr. Adam. . 160, 166, 169, 197 
 Clarke, Vicar .. .. 10,11,17 
 Claro Hill . . . . . . . . 143 
 
 Claudia 7 
 
 Clay and Co 176 
 
 Cliffe 113 
 
 Clovis . . 26 
 
 Cockcroft Henry 91 
 
 Cockshutt .. ' 178 
 
 Collier Dr 8,120,123 
 
 Colton 50 
 
 Commonwealth 55. 95 
 
 Confessio Amantis . . 18 
 
 Conquest . . . . . . 42, 47 
 
 Cooper John 130 
 
 Cooper Thomas 130 
 
 Copley loi, 175 
 
 Cork Tree 98 
 
 Cornebull Henry 14 
 
 Cort Henry 178 
 
 Cowley Manor .. 3, 6, 11, 40, 44 
 Crawshaw . . . . . . . . 178 
 
 Creswick in 
 
 Cromwell 80, iig 
 
 Crowder House .. .. .. 11 
 
 Dalton 39 
 
 Darley Hall 101,149 
 
 Darfield, Rector and Vicar of .. 156 
 
 Dartford 77 
 
 Dawson 43, 109 
 
 Defoe Daniel 72 
 
 Denham Sir John 80 
 
 Depledge John 204 
 
 Dickens Charles 152 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dickinson 94,97,105 
 
 Digesters 160 
 
 Directory of the Westminster 
 
 Assembly 118 
 
 Dixon Rev. James 117 
 
 Dodsworth 40 
 
 Domesday 41,59,178 
 
 Dowson 116 
 
 Drew 113 
 
 Dropping Well 145 
 
 Duchess of Newcastle . . . . 70 
 Dudley Lord Edward . . . 175 
 
 Duke John . . . . 129 
 
 Duke of Norfolk 149 
 
 Duke of Rothsay 30 
 
 Dunn .. 167 
 
 Dunstaple 4> 52 
 
 Edgar , • • 143 
 
 Edinbro' Review 83 
 
 Edward I. (pedigree) 31 
 
 Edward II 4 
 
 Edward III 183 
 
 Edward IV 5, 20. 21, 28 
 
 Effingham Earl of . . . . 159, 179 
 
 Eland 60 
 
 Eliot Sir John 81 
 
 Elizabeth of York, Princess 15, 21 
 Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV. 25 
 Elizabeth (Tudor) Queen . . . . 68 
 Ellis (of Barley Hall) . . . . 135 
 
 Elmhurst log 
 
 Emsal 71 
 
 Falding 40, 113, 114 
 
 Falkland Palace 30 
 
 Fanshaw 71 
 
 Fell 176 
 
 Feudal System 26 
 
 FinchMrs.,ofThryboroughHall 133 
 Fitzwarren Sir Frederick . . . . 52 
 Fitzwilliam.. ..3,67,91,149,158 
 
 Fletcher Rev. John 123 
 
 Forster (quoted) 81 
 
 Foster John . . .. 105, 106, 139, 162 
 
 Fox 87 
 
 Freeman 94 
 
 French Revolution 151 
 
 Froggatt 95 
 
^15 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Froude iig 
 
 Fullelove 140 
 
 Furnace Hill 148,161 
 
 Furnival -I, ig, 46, gg 
 
 G 
 
 Garbut 215 
 
 Gargrave 64, 68 
 
 Gascoigne 46 
 
 Gascony 2g 
 
 Gaslight 170, 171 
 
 Gatty 45,50 
 
 Gaunt, John of 30.64 
 
 George II 134 
 
 Gibson in, i6i 
 
 Gills 114 
 
 Gloucester, Duke of 28 
 
 Golcar 61 
 
 Goodwin John go 
 
 Goodwin Sands 171 
 
 Gower Sir John 18 
 
 Gradwell in 
 
 Grange Colliery 17S 
 
 Grange Lane 181 
 
 Grange Mill 181,184 
 
 Granger Miss 167 
 
 Grayson Elizabeth ig4 
 
 Graeme Sir Robert 36 
 
 Green Dr 184 
 
 Green William . . . . 130, 136, 185 
 
 Greenhead 37, 152, i6i 
 
 Greenwood, Rector of Thornhill 71 
 
 Greg House 103 
 
 Grey Sir John 15 
 
 Grey Lady John 27 
 
 Griffin Sir Lepel 63 
 
 Grimshaw, Vicar of Haworth . . 121 
 
 Grove Rev. Thomas iig 
 
 Guest 50 
 
 H 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act 8g 
 
 Haberjam 188 
 
 Hague .. i49> I59 
 
 Halifax, Marquis of 6g 
 
 Hall "6, 164 
 
 Hallam (quoted) 8g 
 
 Hall Rev. Romily 125 
 
 Hambrigham 188 
 
 Hampden 79 
 
 Hastings 64 
 
 Hastings Lady 131 
 
 Haswell Rev., J.P 202 
 
 Henry III 91 
 
 Henry IV , ,. ■• 31 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Henry V 3I1 54 
 
 Henry VII., . . (preface) x, 7, 8, 64 
 
 Henry VIII 42,56 
 
 Hermitage 181 
 
 Hesley Hall 57 
 
 Hetherington .. .; .. .. 151 
 
 Heyford Dennis 175 
 
 Heywood Rev. Oliver . . . . 120 
 
 High Green 104 
 
 Hirst John (of Clough House) . . i8g 
 
 Hobson John 176 
 
 Hodgson .. 14S, igi 
 
 Hole House 200 
 
 Holmes Miss Jane 185 
 
 Hope Church 42 
 
 Hopkinson 63 
 
 Horsfield 113 
 
 Howley, Robert of 67 
 
 Howsley .. .. 20, 41, g3, 100 
 Howsley Cottage, Ambleside . . gs 
 
 Hume (quoted) 79. 81 
 
 Hunteron theCivilWar(quoted) 85 
 
 Hutchinson Colonel 82 
 
 Hyder Alii 152 
 
 I 
 
 Independency 118 
 
 Independent Chapel, Masbro' . . iig 
 Ivanhoe 52 
 
 J 
 
 James I. of Scotland . . .. 12,30 
 
 James I. of England 91 
 
 James II. of England .. .. 85 
 
 Jeffcock 5.5'. loi 
 
 Jenkins Rev. W 137 
 
 Jessop Thomas 161 
 
 Joan Beaufort 64 
 
 Joan Mounteney . . 4, 14, 20, 53 
 
 Joan Tankersley 60 
 
 Johnson Dr 68 
 
 Johnson Mr. and Mrs., Barley 
 
 Hall I2g 
 
 Josselin de Burne g3 
 
 K 
 
 Kempe, Archbishop .. 10,38,41 
 
 Kidd Rev. John 108 
 
 Kimberworth .. .. 71, I7g, 180 
 King's Head, Sheffield .. ..161 
 
 Kirk 51 
 
 Kirkstead, Monks of.. 178, i8r, 184 
 
 Kirton 42 
 
 Knutton, Vicar 105 
 
2l6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Laci 39 
 
 Lambert ■ • 94 
 
 Laud 79' 87 
 
 Lax 150, 154 
 
 Lighthouse for Goodwin) ,_, ^_, 
 
 Sands ) ' ' /-> 
 
 Linus 7 
 
 Lollards 12 
 
 Lomley i33 
 
 Longden . . 95, 99, 136, 154, 194 
 Longden, Newton & Chambers. 147 
 Longden, Newton, Chambers 
 
 and Scotts 160 
 
 Long Parliament . . 76, 78, 84, 119 
 
 Lord, Vicar 97 
 
 Louis XI 8, 16 
 
 Lound School 107, 204 
 
 Lovetot. . . . 8, 27, 40, 42, 93, 179 
 Luterel Book i8i 53 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay 80 
 
 Mackereth 94 
 
 Malam 116,170 
 
 Maria of Burgundy 16 
 
 Marquis of Dorset 27 
 
 Mary, Queen of Scots . . . . 34 
 Maskew, Chambers and Newton 147 
 Maskew .. ..147,151, 189,192 
 Maximilian of Austria .. .. 16 
 
 Methodism 120 
 
 Micklethwaite Rev. W log 
 
 Middleton iii 
 
 Midland Railway Company ... 99 
 
 Miller Hugh 184 
 
 Milner 116 
 
 Milton John iig 
 
 Montford Simon 48,52 
 
 Montgomery James 141 
 
 Mortomley gg, 100 
 
 Moss gg 
 
 Mounteney 3,4,5,6, 15,42,43, 48,52 
 Mount Pleasant Chapel . . 137, 193 
 
 Mousehole Forge 174 
 
 Murdoch 170 
 
 Mulberry Street Chapel, Sheffield 134 
 Myers 140 
 
 N 
 
 Neill Major 62 
 
 Neilson Jas. B 171 
 
 Nelson John i2g 
 
 Nether Swaithe 116 
 
 Neviles of Ragnal 53 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Newcastle, Duchess 01 . . . . 174 
 
 Newhall 177 
 
 Newton, Chambers and Co. . . 170 
 Newton, Chambers and Co. 
 
 Limited (prospectus) . . . . 145 
 Newton George ..144, 153, 188, i8g 
 Newton Isaac .. .. 163, 164, 200 
 
 Newton John 152 
 
 Newton Scott Chambers 16, 163, 168 
 
 Newton Thomas 202 
 
 Newton T. C 152 
 
 Newton Tobias 152 
 
 Nigell de Fossard 27 
 
 Nomina Villarum ..40,41,43,45 
 
 Norfolk, Duke of 9, 45 
 
 Normanton, Vicar .. .. 10,41 
 Northall Humfrey 57 
 
 O 
 
 Obelisk, on the Barnsley Road 91 
 
 Oldy 72 
 
 Owen Professor 37 
 
 Oxley James 164 
 
 Oxley Robert 149, I5g 
 
 P 
 
 Paine 117 
 
 Parker George gg 
 
 Parker Hugh 177 
 
 Parkgate Farm 181 
 
 Parkyn loi, 113 
 
 Paston 64, 67 
 
 Patents, Report of a Committee 
 
 on 175 
 
 Peace of Amiens 124 
 
 Pecquigny 8, 16, 28 
 
 Peebles to the Play 32 
 
 Peronne 28 
 
 Petition of Right .. .. 77,83 
 
 Petrarch 7 
 
 Pedigree of the family of 
 
 Mounteney 48 
 
 Pedigree of the family of Savile 6g 
 Pedigree ofthe family of Newton 214 
 Pedigree of the family of Cham- 
 bers 215 
 
 Philippa 30 
 
 Phipps g6, 105 
 
 Phcenix Works 148 
 
 Pingston 164 
 
 Political Economy 168 
 
 Potter, Archbishop 129 
 
 Poynings Sir Edward . . . . 64 
 Prices of Foundry Products . . 162 
 
 Priest Henry 57 
 
 Princess Elizabeth / . . 14, 15, 21 
 
217 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prisca 7 
 
 Pudens -j 
 
 Punshon Rev. W. M., D.D. .. 141 
 
 Py™ 73.76,79 
 
 Q 
 
 Quhier, The King's 32 
 
 R 
 
 Raby 167 
 
 Rainborough Park 43 
 
 Rainville 40, 43 
 
 Ragge Ill 
 
 Ramsden 47> 5^ 
 
 Ratclifife 8 
 
 Reece Rev. R 137 
 
 Reneville 40, 42, 43 
 
 Renishaw .. .. 106,158,175 
 
 Reresby 105, 106 
 
 Revenge 62 
 
 Richard 1 27 
 
 Richard II 17. 31 
 
 Richard I[1 8,9,21,23,25 
 
 Richmond, Countess of . . 6, 64 
 
 Rivers, Lady 74 
 
 Robert de Turham 27 
 
 Robert III. of Scotland .. 30,31 
 
 Robsart Amy 7 
 
 Rockingham, Marquis of 70, 134, 159 
 Rockingham, Marchioness of . . 133 
 
 Rockley 71,102 
 
 Rokeby Thomas 183 
 
 Rokewode Gage 53 
 
 Rotheram, Archbishop \ ' ' ' 
 
 Rotheram Sir John 12 
 
 Rotheram Sir Thomas . . . . 93 
 Rotherham Church . . . . 13, 59 
 
 Rosseau 117 
 
 Rufford, Abbot of 14 
 
 S 
 
 Sandal Castle 29, 70 
 
 Savile ,. .. 6,16,29,56,61,67 
 
 Scott Alice 94 
 
 Scott Anne 21 
 
 Scott Edward, Shiregreen . . 40 
 
 Scott George 28 
 
 Scott John 21 
 
 Scott Joseph Ill 
 
 Scott Nicholas n 
 
 Scott Richard 28,71 
 
 Scott, of London . . . . 160, i8g, 197 
 Scott Robert, of Pensford.. .. 166 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Scrape, Lord 78 
 
 Sheffield Grammar School .. 69 
 
 Shirtcliife 40 
 
 Shrewsbury, Earl of ..43, 50, 53, 57 
 
 Silkstone Coal 162 
 
 Simpson 175 
 
 Sir, the prefix 91 
 
 Smith Joseph, of High Green . . 129 
 Smith, Stacey and Co. .. 148,151 
 
 Sheldon John 139 
 
 Sherfield, of Salisbury . . . . 55 
 Sheriff Hutton . . . . (preface) x 
 Smith Thomas, tfCrowland .. 69 
 
 Smith William 51,105 
 
 Snadden Dr 113 
 
 Soho Works 170 
 
 Somerset, Earl of 64 
 
 Southwarl' Bridge 171 
 
 Spinoza 117 
 
 Sportsman's Inn 185 
 
 Spurgeon 126 
 
 Stacey Rev. J 175 
 
 Stainborough Hall 6g 
 
 Staindrop 152 
 
 Staindrop Lodge 153 
 
 Stanley 140 
 
 Steade 11 1 
 
 Steam Engine first used . . . . 176 
 
 Steer, Vicar 116 
 
 St. John's Church, Chapeltown 108 
 
 Stone Dr 113 
 
 Stones 104 
 
 Strafford, Earl of 6g 
 
 Strafford, Earl of — his children go 
 
 Strike of Miners 172 
 
 Sugden Rev. James 139 
 
 Surtees Society . . (preface) ix. 176 
 
 Sussex, Earls of . . 67 
 
 Swaithe Hall log 
 
 Swallow 95,158,176 
 
 Sylvester 104, 107, ir6 
 
 Synford Catherine 31 
 
 Synocliffe 179 
 
 T 
 
 Talbot John 54 
 
 Tankers]ey Dr. William .. .. 60 
 Tankersley . . . . 7, 42, 59, 60, 65 
 
 Taylor David 129 
 
 Thorncliffe 99 
 
 Thorncliffe Partners 145 
 
 Thornhill 66,68 
 
 Thorpe John 130 
 
 Th'undercliffe Grange .. i8r, 182 
 
 Thwaites 50 
 
 Tickhill 56 
 
2l8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wellesley 121 
 
 Wentworth Woodhouse .. 3i 43 
 
 Tippoo Saib 152 
 
 Tooker 105 
 
 Tournament 4i 52 
 
 Treeton Church 42 
 
 Troubadour Lyrics 14 
 
 Turner John 147 
 
 Twigg Charles 136 
 
 Tyas 59 
 
 Tyerman Rev. Luke 155 
 
 TytlerWm.(LordWoodhouselee) 33 
 
 V 
 
 Ure Dr 160 
 
 Y 
 
 Vane Sir H 76 
 
 Vashti, Queen 14 
 
 Vaughan Dr. Robert (quoted) . . 88 
 Vere John, Earl of Oxford . . 12 
 
 Vernon Wentworth 69 
 
 Voltaire ..117 
 
 Wadsley Forge 175 
 
 Wagon and Horses .. 40, 43, 116 
 
 Walbrum Mrs 194 
 
 Walker Samuel .. 16, 149, 174, 185 
 
 Waltheof 42 
 
 Wapentake 143 
 
 Ware, Church at 74 
 
 Warburton ., 95 
 
 Warde Patientius loi 
 
 Wardlow of Fulwood .. .. 131 
 
 War Office 159 
 
 Warren, Earl of 60 
 
 Warwick, Earl of 15 
 
 Warwick, Edward Earl of (preface) x 
 
 Wath 43 
 
 Watson the Historian . . . . 63 
 
 PAGE 
 Wentworth Mausoleum . . . . 70 
 Wentworth Sir Thomas . . . . 50 
 
 West, of Rotherham 47 
 
 Wesley Rev. Charles 121 
 
 Wesley Rev. John .. .. 117,121 
 
 Wesley Mrs. (letter) 125 
 
 Wesley (letter of John) .. .. 135 
 Wesley John, at Wentworth 
 
 House 136 
 
 Wharncliffe, Earl of . . . , . . 95 
 
 Wharncliffe Chase 97 
 
 Wharton Sir Thomas . . . . 50 
 Whitaker's History of 
 
 Whalley 39, 63 
 
 " White Horse". . .. 40,43,116 
 White Lane Coalpits .. .. 112 
 
 Whitiield Rev. G I2i 
 
 Whitley Hall 113 
 
 Wickliff 12, 17 
 
 Wilson John, Broomhead Hall . 3 
 Winchester, Bishop of .. .. 32 
 
 Windsor Castle 33 
 
 Windle 139,164 
 
 Wingfield in 
 
 Wombwell, Family of .. .. 184 
 
 Workman's Hall 147 
 
 Wortley Sir Thomas . .6, 10, 56, 93 
 Wortley James Stuart . . . . 95 
 
 Wortley Edward 176 
 
 Wortley Isabel 50 
 
 Wortley Sir Richard 97 
 
 Wortley Ironworks 177 
 
 Wylkinson of Crowder 
 
 House 11,14,101 
 
 Wylkinson of Greenhead . , . , 39 
 
 Y 
 
 York 21 
 
 York Cathedral 21 
 
 Z 
 
 Zetland Islands i65