Having not found any direct information for the link between John Hoggarth and Philip and Ruth of Dunbogs working from John back to Philip and Ruth of Dunbogs I though to look at what they had to offer. Neither of them left a will that I can find so I thought to try for something from Ruth's father Henry TOPLIFF (or Topcliff).
What do we know of Henry Topliff in addition to his will?
A bit of geography first. Buscho or Briscoe is a farm in the Parish of Lythe close to Ugthorpe; which was well known to be a haunt of Roman Catholics. Dunbogs is a farm very close to Brisco. Both can be found on present day maps. After a lot of years of confusion I am now satisfied that when the parish records refer to Briscoe they may have meant the area and not specifically the farm called Briscoe.
Spelling - There is a village in North Yorkshire called Topcliff and I think this is why the name is so often spelt that way though the owners of the name seem to have preferred to do without the "c". There may be some connection with the Topliss name.
Looking in the Transcript of the Parish Records (PRT) of Lythe at the entries in the index against Henry Topliff we find, in chronological order:
page
146 - Baptism 1697 November 26, Henry s Christopher Toplif of Buscho.
page
276 - Marriage 1725 (new style) January 29, Henry Topliff bac & Alice Knags
page
201 - Baptism 1726 (new style) March 20, Mary d Henry Topcliff of Ugthorpe
page
205 - Baptism 1729 (new style) January 19, Esther d Henry Topcliff of Ugthorpe
page
210 - Baptism 1731November 21, Alice d Henry Topcliff of Ugthorpe
page
214 - Baptism 1733 December 16, Hannah d Henry Topcliff of Ugthorpe
page
221 - Baptism 1737 August 21, Rachel d Henry Topcliff of Ugthorpe
page
228 - Baptism 1742 September 26, Jacob s Henry & Alice Topcliff of Dunboggs
page 5v2
- Burial 1770 October 15, Alice wf Henry Topcliff of Busco
page 14v2 - Burial 1775 December 7, Henry Topcliff of Dunbogs.
Now lets try to match these names with the ones in Henry's will of 1775 taking the names off the will in order.
The
Will has "my son Jacob" - no problem there. In volume two
page 82 (of the PRT) in 1764 July 17 there is the marriage of a Jacob Topcliff to Elizabeth X
Knaggs both of this parish banns, witnesses Ruth Topliff, George Gibson, Rachel
Hansel, Thomas Milburn (parish clerk).
The National Burial Index has Jacob Topcliff age 39 12th May 1782, Whitby St
Mary's.
The Will next has a son in law George Stonehouse. I can't find a marriage of him to a Topliff in Lythe, but there is a marriage of George Stonhouse to Esther Topclif on 7th Feb 1753 in Kirkby Moorside.
Then we
have Nathaniel Jefferson and in Volume 2 page 79 we have Marriage 1761 July 6
Nathaniel X Jefferson house-write & Rachel X Topcliff spinster both of this
parish, witnesses William Jefferson, Ruth Topliff,
Thomas Milburn (parish clerk).
Nathaniel
and Rachel had several children and were described, on different occasions, as
being from Busco or Dunbogs.
( for
"house-write" I guess it is like House Wright or a House Builder, as
in Cart Wright).
The will then has a son in law Thomas Fletcher who is not found to marry a Topliff in the Lythe parish register nor in the IGI.
The will then mentions a son in law Philip Hoggart. In volume 2 page 84 we have in 1766 July 1 the marriage of Phillip X Hoggart & Ruth Topcliff (signed Topliff) both of this parish banns, witnesses Thomas Milburn and (illegible) X Topliff. In 1775 April 26 (page 12 of Volume 2) Philip and Ruth baptised a son called George and were at Busco. The Egton burial records show that both Philip and Ruth were R. Catholic and of Dun Bogs. Philip was buried 1824 6 20 aged 85 and Ruth 1820 3 1 aged 80. I think I read somewhere that the Papists sometimes ensured that the eldest son was Christened in the Anglican Church so that his inheritance would be ensured.
The will then leaves the residue to Daughter Hannah Thomson (widow). There is a marriage of 1755 of Isaac Thomson & Hannah X Topcliff btp banns wit Bartho Newton, Thomas Milburn. No sign of the death of Isaac but there is on 8the December 1774 the burial of Isaiah Thompson of Sandsend, stonecutter.
Though there are some oddities in the above I do not think there is much doubt that Philip and Ruth Hoggarth of Dun Bogs were the daughter and son in law of Henry Topliff.
Now the reason for all this is to try to find some evidence to back up a theory that Philip and Ruth are the parents of the John Hoggarth who lived at Newbiggin and was the father of Lawrence John Hoggarth etc. Unfortunately Henry Topliff did not mention in his will a grandson called John Hoggarth - probably because John had not yet been born.
Still the story does not end here. If the daughter Hannah was a widow and was given all the residue of the estate might she have been generous to her nephews when she came to make her will? So I tried to find out if she had left a will.I checked the PRT for Lythe for the death of a Hannah Thomson
without success but then found she had married again on August 2nd 1778.
The Lythe PRT gives:
John X Dennison wid & Hannah X Thompson btp banns, wit Martha Watson, Robert
King. They had a few children and Hannah was buried on June 12th 1803 -
wife of John Dennison of Lythe, Milner, aged 68. Her husband John made
out his will 26 September 1803. In this will it says "To
my nephews John Ward and Dennison Ward to my nieces Mary Hessey,
Jane the wife of
Thomas Green ~~~~".
SO - the Dennison Ward who was married in Fylingdales in 1800 (with a witness called John Hoggarth) was the nephew of the second husband of Hannah the sister of Ruth Topliff and this Mary Hessey is very likely the sister or sister in law of Jane Essey the wife of John Hoggarth.
With such a long association with Busco, Briscoe and Dunbogs I thought it
worth looking to see who was living there in 1841. The record shows (all
of them were born in YKS):
Briscoe
Mary WATSON
75 Ind
Thomas WATSON 40
Farmer
Hannah Do
45
William Do
5
Elizabeth ?????? 25 FS
Matthew HUTCHINSON 20 MS
Robert NEWTON 14 MS
Dun Boggs
William ROBINSON 40 Farmer
Elizabeth do
40
Sarah
do
5
Jane
do 10 FS
Thomas CALVERT 25 MS
Dun Boggs
John HESLOP
60 Farmer
Sarah do
50
Hannah do
25
Sarah do
13
James do
20
John
do 15
Thomas HOGGART 15
Who this Thomas HOGGART is (born between 1820 and 1825) I do not know.
Nor can I find a link with the ROBINSONs (though I have some relatives of that
name about that time and place) nor with any HESLOP.
The Hannah WATSON was baptised Hannah STEPHENSON 15 June 1795 in Lythe parish
church. Born at Birkhead to John STEPHENSON and Elizabeth WOMPRA and
therefore an aunt of my G Gmam Mary STEPHENSON who married Allin HOGGARTH.
Allin was a grandson of John HOGGARTH who I am supposing came from
Dunbogs.
A useful exercise would be to list all of the people being baptised married and buried where the names Briscoe and Dunbogs were mentioned.