There is a saying "It is not what you know but who you know" and this month I am looking at very intricate lines of communication that crossed the country between people who shared the same faith. I will start with Brandsby, a village not far from Easingwold where the hills rise up with wonderful views over the Vale of York to the Pennines beyond. From the 16th century the Lords of the Manor were the Cholmeleys, a Roman Catholic family who owned the village and many farms. For a large part of our history being a Roman Catholic put you outside the law and many had to conform against their will. But there were significant landed families who were able to withstand the penalties and fines and were also able to shelter small Roman Catholic congregations by having a chapel within their estates and employing a priest, often under the guise of a servant. Such a family was the Cholmeleys who had a Roman Catholic chapel within their Hall. First the family in the 1881 census. Here is Thomas C Cholmeley of the Royal Navy and Justice of the Peace and his wife Rosalie nee Strickland (another Roman Catholic family), and some of their children. They also had a lot of servants, 16 listed as living in the Hall. This is just some of them, and fifth from the top there was Adam Robinson, butler, born Catterick. The eagle eyed may also notice the gardener but more of him another time. Adam is the interesting one whose life is an example of networking. Catterick is a very pleasant village with two village greens, a beck with little bridges crossing it and the parish church of St Anne's. But Adam was not baptised there, Adam, son of Adam Robinson, was baptised at the Roman Catholic chapel in Brough Hall, the home of the Lawson family nearby. Adam son of Adam & Ann Robinson, carpenter of Catterick, baptised 1832 14 December, sponsors Thomas & Mary Hardy. There are other Robinson entries in the same register. Brough Hall was the home of the Lawson family, but as was the case with many landed families, different generations changed their surname in order to inherit, and they intermarried with other Catholic families, and seemed to share servants. A Henry Lawson had married an Anastasia Maire (of Lartington) and had two daughters and two sons John and Henry. Their elder son John had two daughters, Elizabeth married John Wright, and Anastasia married a Strickland. Elizabeth's son William's name was therefore William Wright but as his uncle Henry Lawson died without any children (and he had already changed his name to Maire) William took the name Lawson. He lived from 1796 to 1865 and had several daughters who became nuns and one of his sons became a priest, and they kept the Roman Catholic faith going around Catterick and built the Roman Catholic church in Richmond next to their town house, and a Roman Catholic church next to Brough Hall in 1837 which replaced an earlier chapel. So Adam the butler was baptised Roman Catholic because of the Lawson family at Brough Hall. In 1851 Adam Robinson was not far away at a farm called Winterfield on the estate of Hornby Castle, in the household of Robert James Wiley, a land steward originally from Brandsby. The Wiley family were significant farmers in the district of Brandsby and Stillington. Hornby Castle estate belonged to the Dukes of Leeds who were not Roman Catholic. This is the Hornby between Bedale and Catterick. By 1861 Adam had made a huge move both geographically and occupationally. He had risen to become a butler in far away Berkshire. Where he worked between 1851 and 1861 I do not know. The writing is not easy, but it says that Adam Robinson was a butler in a house called The Firs at Binfield in Berkshire. The owner of the house was not present and only servants were there on the night of the census. Digging around for information has not been easy as the house called The Firs in 1861 had changed its name both before and since. It is possible that this was the house known also by the names of Binfield Lodge, Arthurstone, Pope's Manor and was more recently the head quarters of Bryant Homes and then Taylor Wimpey. The bit on the left is more modern than the time when Adam was working there. It was the home of Gerald Fitzgerald whose wife was the Honourable Charlotte Talbot daughter of Colonel Richard Talbot and his wife Margaret O'Reilly. The Honourable Charlotte was titled Baroness Talbot of Malahide. She died at The Firs in 1863 and her husband Gerald Fitzgerald was a Lieutenant Colonel in the 23rd Dragoons born County Laois. Gerald Fitzgerald died at The Firs on 15 December 1873. All these names hint at an Irish and a Roman Catholic connection. This census is for 1871, Adam was still at The Firs - but - his name in the census was Roberston, but it is him, a butler, born Catterick - but - he had a wife and children. So back track a little bit. In the 1871 census it says his wife was Caroline - not so. However in the same household was Adam's father in law, Thomas Rea, born Ireland, formerly a domestic servant. Adam Robinson had married CHARLOTTE not Caroline Rea in the district of Kensington in 1866, Caroline also had been born in Ireland, though she had been a domestic servant for a farmer near Wantage in 1851. Adam remained at Binfield for some time and after his marriage in 1866 five children were born there, Adam, Thomas, Mary, Joseph and Ellen in 1873. As Gerald FitzG died at the end of 1873 it is likely that the household was broken up and Adam and family had to move. Sometime between Ellen's birth in 1873 and the next child in 1879 the family all moved to Yorkshire. Their next home was Rudding Park. This is not far from Harrogate near the Yorkshire Show ground. This belonged to the Radcliffe family. It is now a hotel and golf club, but I have a guide book from the days when it was a country house (price 2/-) and it describes the interior of the rooms. The present house had been purchased by Sir Joseph Radcliffe in 1824 when it was only partly built and he finished it. It held portraits and memorablia of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Earl of Derwentwater, James Radcliffe, executed for treason after the Jacobite rebellions in 1716, and Roman Catholic cardinals and the French Royal family. The Radcliffes were another family who changed their names to inherit. An earlier Joseph Radcliffe was the son of Joseph Pickford and Mary Radcliffe and changed his name under the terms of an uncle's will. He had a son Joseph Pickford Radcliffe (who was a Reverend) and he had a son Joseph Radcliffe of Rudding Park. This one had married Jacobina Maria Macdonnell. It must have been her line that strengthened the Roman Catholic influence at Rudding. One of her ancestors was a Colonel John Macdonnell who had been at the battle of Culloden fighting for Bonnie Prince Charlie. His sword was kept at Rudding Park. This family also built a Roman Catholic chapel in the grounds of Rudding Park. Whilst here Adam and Charlotte added another daughter, Bertha, to their family in 1879. But by 1881 Adam was at Brandsby Hall. The Cholmeley family were another strong Roman Catholic family who had a Roman Catholic chapel in their hall. One Francis Cholmeley so objected to the Anglican Parish Church right on his doorstep that he had it pulled down and rebuilt a bit further away. This present parish church evidently has memorials and windows to the Wiley family. In 1881 Thomas Cholmeley was the Lord of the Manor and he had married Rosalie Strickland. Captain Thomas had a brother Francis Cholmeley who had married Harriet Fairfax of Gilling Castle at Gilling East (not the Gilling West near Richmond), the Fairfaxes were an old Catholic family. Harriet was the daughter of Charles Gregory Piggott and Alathea Fairfax, so she should have been called Piggott, but her father assumed the name Fairfax when the line of the Fairfaxes daughtered out. Then when the Francis Cholmeley died his nephew inherited the Gilling estates and added the name Fairfax to his name of Cholmeley and became Hugh Fairfax Cholmeley. But in 1881 it was his father Thomas Cholmeley in residence. But - if you recall, Adam the butler was living in Brandsby Hall in 1881. Where was his wife and his children ? They were miles and miles away, in Lancashire ! Charlotte Robinson was head of a household at 38 Church Street, Great Harwood, Lancashire, born 1835 County Clare. The children were all with her, Adam the eldest was 13 and a cotton weaver, Thomas, Mary, Joseph , Ellen and Bertha were all scholars, so how was she surviving on the wages of a thirteen year old cotton weaver ? The first impression is that Adam and Charlotte must have parted company, but was this true ? Perhaps Adam was sending his butlering wages back to Charlotte somehow. It is a mystery why they were apart. Ten years later in 1891 Adam was also in Lancashire, not with Charlotte, but once again a butler in a grand house. This is the household of Thomas Byrnand Trappes of Clayton Hall. He had married Ellen or Helen Lomax and the family then assumed the names Lomax and Trappes hyphenated together. Thomas B Trappes was the son of Robert Trappes and Mary Fielding and Robert was the son of Francis Michael Trappes of Nidd Hall near Knaresborough in Yorkshire, a well known Roman Catholic family who had suffered much as Recusants. In 1891 there was mother Trappes and father Trappes and four Trappes children (I have no idea if they could sing) and eight servants living in Clayton Hall. Evidently this building no longer exists but was at Clayton le Moors in Lancashire and the next village is Great Harwood. Notice the proximity of the Roman Catholic church. Where was Charlotte ? Charlotte and the children were at Great Harwood in 1891. They had been there some time now. So in 1881 when Adam was at Brandsby Hall, had he been "loaned" as a butler from one family to another? The Robinson family were at Rudding Park until at least 1879 when Bertha was born, then in 1881 Charlotte and the children were in Lancashire with the eldest son working in a cotton mill, then in 1891 they were all in Lancashire, although in different households. In 1891 Charlotte was at 28 Edmund Street, Great Harwood, son Adam was now a Cotton overlooker, Thomas and Mary were weavers, Joseph was an agriculatural labourer, Ellen and Bertha were weavers. But Adam did not end his days being a butler. In October 1893 there was a long list of property put up for auction in Great Harwood and Clayton le Moors. Lot 1 was a public house called the Lomax Arms occupied by Adam Robinson. Now in 1891 the Lomax Arms had hit the headlines because the landlady, Mrs Elizabeth Ann Heap, had killed herself. Did Adam move after this ? Did all the family once again live under one roof ? It was a large pub or hotel because lots of clubs and societies met there, sometimes there were rowdy scenes and fisticuffs, and it was mentioned in advertisements for supplying whisky. Sadly on 23rd of May 1895 Adam Robinson died. Probate was granted to Charlotte his widow for an estate valued at £2,136, quite a sum of money at the time. The probate register described Adam as being a hotel proprietor. Sadly the Lomax Arms is now derelict and boarded up with planning hanging over it to turn it into apartments, but you can imagine what it might have been like. Adam Robinson of Catterick 1832 - 1895 Requiescat in Pace.
Charlotte took over as licencee for a while, and one drunken scene was reported as being dealt with by her daughter. By 1901 Charlotte , Ellen and Bertha were "Living on own means", and by 1911 they had disappeared from view. More next time on how the networking between masters and mistresses and servants worked. All of Adam's life from his baptism at Brough Hall chapel to his work in various large country houses was moulded by those landed families who had kept true to the "Old Religion", withstood the years of being outlawed and fined, and kept up the tradition of protection of their own and their servants. I will look again at how this networking worked.
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