Sometimes, without any reason at all, wool can get into an awful tangle. I can, and do, spend ages carefully untangling it, I will never cut it, ever. I have spent hours untangling tangles of embroidery threads, (not mine, inherited), and will carefully re-wind it, following each yarn. This piece of research is following a thread, slowly, carefully, winding up the story. Sometimes you come upon the "other end" and can start to wind from that end too . I save the string used to tie up the beans or tomatoes, and rewind it for next season, untying knots as I go ! So let's follow the thread ...... This is the start. Oliver Cromwell [ 1599 - 1658] he does not need an introduction; Parliamentarian who ruled during the Commonwealth period until his death. This portrait is by Peter Lely [1618 - 1680] and is at the Museum of London. And this, I hope, is Dr John Bathurst [1600 or 1607 - 1659] He was a member of the Royal College of Physicians. This portrait is on the website of the said institution identified as him, but on the ArtUk website the same portrait is of a "Doctor" and it could be any of three, one of whom was Dr John Bathurst. It was painted by Cornelius Johnson [1593 - 1661] , I hope it is Bathurst, because of his association with the dales. He went to Pembroke College, Cambridge, then the Royal College of Physicians, he was the personal physician to Oliver Cromwell and became M.P. for Richmond. He married a local girl, Elizabeth Willance of Clints, and bought the Manor of Arkengarthdale in 1656. For anyone local, you cannot separate the name Bathurst from Arkengarthdale. Dr John Bathurst left a will dated 23 April 1659 [PROB 11/301] in which he was very generous to all his family and also very generous to the local people of the Yorkshire dales. Here he is setting up a charity to support two poor scholars in the University of Cambridge, they had to be virtuous and competent and would get £4 each per annum as long as they were at University. There was also money for setting out as apprentices two poor boys from Richmond, selected by the Aldermen, Burgesses and Schoolmaster of Richmond. The manor of Arkengarthdale was charged with £16 p.a. for the maintenance of the Schoolmaster in Arkengarthdale to teach children of the said manor to read, write and cast accounts and the rudiments of Latin. £4 was for putting out as apprentice a poor boy of the dale, but he had to be able to read perfectly, on sight, a chapter of the Bible. Bathurst's manor of Clints was charged with 20 shillings to pay for a schoolmaster at Marske, and land at Kirkby Hill was charged with £16 for the maintenance of a schoolmaster to teach the children of New Forrest, and £4 for apprenticing a poor boy of New Forrest, if none applied, then the money was to buy Bibles. Bathurst's property and land in Richmond town fields was charged with £12 for ever unto the Aldermen and Burgesses of Richmond for the apprenticing of boys and the maintenance of scholars at Cambridge. The house at Clints no longer exists, this is a sketch by Samuel Buck. But St Edmund's Parish Church in Marske is a delight, with quaint box pews and little gallery. So wondering who were the beneficiaries of all this charity, a look inside the Minute Book of the Bathurst Charity to see how the money was spent - This page records that in 1770 one student was William son of the Reverend Andrew Layton of Ipswich, now at Trinity College, Cambridge. Ipswich ! a very long way from Swaledale and Arkengarthdale. How on earth was he a beneficiary of Bathurst's Charity? Start following the thread ..... Who was the Reverend Andrew Layton of Ipswich? This was his church, St Matthew's in Ipswich. A guide book for this church records that Andrew Layton was descended from an ancient family of West Layton in Yorkshire. I followed this thread from both ends and the ends did not tie together. He was from Yorkshire, but not East or West Layton. Andrew Layton had graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, so is listed in the Alumni. Here, more accurately, it gives his birth place as Coxwold. A delightful and picturesque village just off the A19 between Thirsk and Easingwold. St Michael's Church in Coxwold is impressive both outside and in, and has some splendid tombs. The Layton family appeared in the Coxwold Parish Registers from 1600 onwards. I traced several generations, who they married, how many children, and the Reverend Andrew of Ipswich was born in 1719 the son of another Andrew Layton and his wife Elizabeth Midgley. He had brothers and sisters, Joseph, Sarah, Robert and Elizabeth. So leaping forward, the Reverend Andrew Layton, born Coxwold in Yorkshire, parson in Ipswich, died and left a will in 1772 [PROB 11/978] How very curious that he had property in the WEST Riding of Yorkshire. Here he bequeaths all that Freehold messuage cottage or tenement farm and lands being at Stead near Otley, and more land at Breary .... not quite so surprising was the property he had in Thirsk, which is only a few miles from Coxwold, and all was left to his son William Layton who at the time was still at Trinity College, Cambridge. He had also acquired land in Suffolk. Eventually William also became Vicar of St Matthew's in Ipswich, but he never married. His will in 1818 was short and sweet, not mentioning any Yorkshire property, but leaving everything to his sister Marianne. However, when Marianne made her will in 1842, the Yorkshire property was listed again. This little snip from her will [PROB 11/1993] mentions the land at Stead near Otley. These places took some finding! Stead is just west of Burley in Wharfedale. Breary is in the parish of Adel just north of Leeds. But how on earth did these remote (then) and tiny places, come into the portfolio of property belonging to a Reverend in Ipswich who had come from Coxwold? So I followed the thread backwards. Untangling lots of Laytons in Coxwold, I could not find any evidence that any of the Laytons had lived here. I did find another line of Laytons at Rawdon, who were connected to the ones in the parish of Kirkby Hill/ Ravensworth, but they never mentioned kin in Coxwold. A stray bit of yarn. But in untangling the Coxwold clan I did discover why the young William Layton had been a recipient of money from the Bathurst Charity. The schoolmaster in Richmond who recommended him had married his Aunt in Coxwold. Andrew Layton, born Coxwold, had an older sister called Sarah Layton, and she had married Anthony Temple who later was appointed Schoolmaster at Richmond Grammar school, and his nephew William Layton went to board there. So there was me thinking that local boys would benefit, this was Nepotism! And how strange is this? Here is Anthony Temple, staring at his pupils with a withering look. Not only do I keep string and wool, but also newspapers. This portrait was in The Darlington and Stockton Times 23rd October 2023 when a portrait of Anthony Temple turned up and was donated to the Richmondshire Museum. The artist, George Cuit was also local to Richmond. Back to the Laytons of Coxwold. The Reverend Andrew of Ipswich's parents had married in 1712 in the tiny village of Gilling East. Andrew (father) and Elizabeth Midgley (mother) married on May Day, the same day as Elizabeth's sister Jane who married George Deighton. Who were the Midgleys? Wondering how and when the Laytons got their hands on these farms in the West Riding, and property in Thirsk, I looked at all the families the Laytons had married into. Casting around at random Midgley wills there was a Midgley of London who mentioned he had a brother at a place called Breary in Yorkshire. Just one tiny mention in a long will. Robert Midgley Citizen and Barber Surgeon of London made a will 1673 [PROB 11/344], he had property in London and was expecting a large sum from a voyage to the East Indies, but he also just mentioned a nephew Robert Midgley son of his brother Ralph at Breary in the West Riding. Was Elizabeth Midgley any relation? Where had she come from? working out how old she would have been when she married, approximately, and looking for an Elizabeth Midgley of that time, she was from Thirsk. Elizabeth's parents were Mr Joseph Midgley and Mistress Saray Pybus, both of Thirsk, but they got married by licence at the church in Kirby Hill near Boroughbridge on the 24th March 1684. Yorkshire is confusing, we have TWO places called Kirby Hill, one adds an extra K, and two places called Gilling, East and West. Mr Joseph Midgley had a large family in Thirsk. Elizabeth was baptised at St Mary's parish Church, Thirsk on the 2nd March 1693. She had an older brother Robert, and lots of sisters, Mary, Jane, Frances and Sarah. Key to the family fortunes was that her father was the Schoolmaster at Thirsk. Joseph Midgley was the son of Ralph Midgley, born at Breary near Adel, he was educated at Ripon then Christ's College, first a deacon in 1678 and then ordained a clergyman in 1682, he died quite young in 1704 at Thirsk. He left an amazing will [at the Borthwick in York] where he bequeathed to all his infant children land in and around Thirsk, and cash. Elizabeth got land in particular open fields around Thirsk and £50. He also had money out on loan in mortgages. He mentioned a brother Robert Midgley. The inventory went round his house room by room, he had £40 worth of books in the library. He farmed, and had livestock, crops in the fields and £45 worth of Malt, £12 in debts for malt, that is owing to him, and his total inventory was valued at £292 13 shillings. Not bad for 1704. His son Robert Midgley, born at Thirsk in December 1684 also became a schoolmaster - at Coxwold. This is the Old School in Coxwold where Robert Midgley, sister of Elizabeth who married Andrew Layton, was the schoolmaster, and where Anthony Temple, schoolmaster of Richmond, had been educated under the said Robert Midgley. Anthony Temple was born at Crayke near Easingwold. Sometimes you have to concentrate hard, after all some of the strands you are unpicking all have the same name! So There was a Joseph Midgley in Thirsk, but had come from Breary in the West Riding. He mentioned his brother Robert Midgley. There was a Robert Midgley of London who mentioned that he had a nephew Robert Midgley of Breary. This Robert, brother of Joseph, also made a will in 1721 [Borthwick] and was "of Leeds", but mentioned he was possessed of land at Breary. He left many annuities to relatives and friends and "whereas I am possessed of a farm and divers lands at Breary for the remainder of a term of 1,000 years .... " he left the lease to a brother called James Midgley (not met him before now) and a sister, but after their decease to his NEPHEW Robert Midgley - the now schoolmaster at Coxwold. He was at this school for 53 years and died in 1761. I have not yet found if he left a will or not. However, all this property appears again, in the Layton family. This is a snip from the will of Joseph Layton, clergyman of Witham in the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire [PROB 11/971] dated 1771, who left everything to his brother the Reverend Andrew Layton of Ipswich, including the farms at Stead near Otley and Breary and property in Thirsk. Joseph was the eldest of this generation of Laytons , born in Coxwold in 1713. The following year, 1772, The Reverend Andrew of Ipswich made his will, and eventually the same farms and property turned up in his daughter Marianne's will in 1844.
All this began with wondering how money from a charity in Richmond in Swaledale benefitted the son of a clergyman in Ipswich !
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