INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

to his

Notes on Various Occasions

 

REMINISCENES

- of -

JOHN WILLIAM HALL

 

 

 

3/23/l925   -     I seldom feel inclined to write anything, but occasionally am very spry in such desires.  I feel very generally that what I write is not worth much. To-day I feel to be recovering from pains and aches not previously experienced;   to-day my right shoulder complains.   I am concluding to write about what imme­diately concerns me.

7/17/1924   -   I am beginning to write early recollec­tions, nothing in this for any but the family, only matters of family interest.   x   x   What I may write down is what I remember of early days and what was spoken to me by Father, Aunt Sarah, cousin John Grieve, and lastly my sisters Hannah and Mary.

July 11, 1925   -  “I find I can only write scrappily what turns up at the time. “

“I will now go on with a history of my own times. If I get through with this I may be able to speak more of my family.   After looking through what I have written, I have an impression that what I write is not of much value and only fit for the waste paper basket.

        Dec. 28, 1928  - recollections spring up at odd times and a desire arises to write them down.

 

 

The name of Hall is very common in Northumberland and the history of the County shows that it was over-run by Norsemen and Danes and was under their dominion for a long period.

The pronunciation of the name of HALL was more like HAAL.  I was very much astonished at that, and it shows how the country was peopled by Danes.  A large family of that name was resident at Mamborough, Otterburn, Berwick, Embleton and in that district, and one of that name espoused the cause of the Pretender and lost his life.   Many of them made their way southwards and joined up with the Quaker preachers, and some became “Public Friends”.

The dalesmen of this part of England have strong charac­teristics of their own.   The Cheviot Hills are the feature of the northern part of the County, and the rest of it is cut up by the Dales running North and South to join the Tyne  Little grain is grown in these hill regions, and the farmers might be described as ‘pastoral’ farmers, many as ‘yeomen’ farming their own land.

There was at one time a Northumberland Quarterly Meeting which included Newcastle itself and extended as far as Berwick. But these meetings of the Northumberland dales have long been joined to Cumberland Quarterly Meeting.   Meeting Houses were built, and still exist, at Alston, Coanwood, and Allendale Town.  At the latter place the first building used by Friends was dated 1600, this was rebuilt in 1753, and the one now standing is the one which I well remember being put up in 1857.   These three meetings belonged to Allendale Monthly Meeting and their members were almost exclusive1y farmers.

The earliest record we have of any of the Halls is of Isaac Hall, who lived at Aske Hall and Hagg House, near Berwick, and joined Friends in George Fox’s time.   He is re­ported to have visited the Friends in prisons at Morpeth, Newcastle, Hexham and Berwick.   His two sons Joseph and Benjamin removed to Allendale from Embleton, near Bamborough Castle.   The former was employed by the Allendale Town Brewery Company to introduce the use of malt in brewing. The latter kept a school on the Heating House premises, afterwards removing to Manchester and we have no further trade of him Joseph died in middle age, leaving a son Isaac and a daughter. They lived on a small farm called Moorgate.   The widow carried on hand-loom weaving for her living, the son when very young began to attend Brampton, Alston and Allendale Markets to dispose of their goods.   From accounts given by his oldest grandson the young man led a very busy life, farming, attending markets, starting very early in the morning and working late.   He was so tired when he went to bed that his Mother shaved him as he lay asleep; John Grieve tells of this.   But evidently hard work suited his constitution, showing that it is not hard work but worry that kills. Eventually he took up visiting the markets with a horse and cart and sold or carted for other people.   Later in life he undertook contracts for Mr. Beaumont and transported; wood from the shire and Slaley across the fell to Allenheads for Mr. Beaumont’s lead mines.   His contracts must have been profitable for in due time he was able to buy High Studdon and moved there to live.   At High Studdon you still may see the water trough which was brought from Moorgate.    It measures 6 feet by 3 by 2 and is hewn out of a solid block of stone.   It is kept full by a little stream of water and to all appearance is as imperishable as the hills themselves. High Studdon is a farm two miles South of Allendale Town, and stands 1400 feet above sea level.   The farm lands ex­tended from the river Allen to the enclosed lands on the hillside; and there were two small holdings belonging to it. From High Studdon itself, and from the fells near it, there is a very magnificent view of the surrounding hills stretch­ing away to Scotland and the Border heights.  The valley of the South Tyne can be followed with the eye as far east as Newcastle.   The nearest town of any size is Hexham, on which converged, every market day, processions of dales-people who had started from their homes on the high fells early in the morning and would only get back again in time for bed.

Cousin Hannah Wilkinson

My grandfather was an only son.   His one sister married a Mr. Brown of Newcastle.   My grandfather and father lost heavily with the Browns.   Their daughter Hannah, after-wards Hannah Wilkinson, who lived in Hexham as a widow to a great age and died in her 103rd year, was the only satisfac­tory cousin that Father had.   She told him she wove her own linen and sheets and bed-tick when she married.    She had only one daughter who died in early life, and her husband did not live to be old, so she was left a widow for many years.

She joined the Church of England with her husband. She was very active and well known in Hexham both for her public and private work.   She had many kind interested friends in her later life.  She told me she had means of her own and also her husband’s fortune left her well cared for. Thinking she could live without her husband’s money, she divided it out in shares as she considered best.  She called these relatives together and with the help of her kind friend and solicitor, L.C. Lockhart, gave each their share, and they all kissed her and said good-bye.   She lived in a quiet little house in Hexham with one servant.   My father and all our relatives never missed calling to see her.  One day when I called in passing through, she remarked on the poor quality of servants now-a-days.  “I thought I would engage my niece to live with me, and do without a servant, but she was just like the rest, a lazy inactive hussy, so I sent her home.’   “How old was she, Hannah?” I asked. Her reply was, ‘Why only 75 and as slow as you like.  I could not do with her ways any longer.”   Thus she confirmed the saying that we are only as old as we feel.  She told me that Louis Lockhart read the Church prayers to her every Sunday and his sister twice weekly.   Accidentally many years after in a train between York and Thirsk I met a clergyman who told me that he was formerly a curate in Hexham and when H.W. died the Vicar was from home, and he had felt it a privilege to read a service over so good a woman.

Isaac Hall 1741-1822

Married Hannah Shield whose family lived at Sinderhope and previously at Woolley Burnfoot and are relatives of John H. Shield who now lives at Burnlaw. They had two sons and three daughters, most of these born before they moved to High Studdon. The children were Hannah, Joseph, Sarah, Isaac, Jane.

Joseph died unmarried at about the age of 35. He helped his father in the contracts for leading wood, and later was employed in the grocery business of Daniel’ Oliver (Sen.) of Newcastle.  He was once chased by the press-gang, but, being an athlete, he escaped them and running into a house with the door open, he was safe from capture. He died of pneumonia from overwork and exposure whilst on a visit to North Shields. Our father often talked about his elder brother.

The eldest daughter, Hannah, married John Grieve, a Friend from Cumwinton, Cumberland, who settled on one of the small holdings on Studdon estate.  Having some means of his own, he simply assisted my father on the High Studdon farm.

Sarah and Isaac lived together always at High Studdon and Jeanie married George Roddam.

My grandfather was a middle-sized man of a very active nature and very healthy.   He died in 1822 and left no will.   He had had uninterrupted good health until he was 84 years old, when one day my Father saw some change and offered to stay near.   “No”, said his father, “go and do your work as you have planned it.”   When my Father came back next the old man had passed away.   As the only son he heired all the house property and farms but thought it right to pay his brothers-in-law and sister what he considered to be their portion.   It all came back (i.e., the Grieve share) to our family on the death of John and Thomas Grieve (our cousins) being about £790 to each of my brothers and sisters including myself.   In his business transactions he always declined to take advantage of the troubles of others, and in making ad­ditions to High Studdon always paid full value for the land he bought.

Isaac Hall 1793-1861

My father was about 28 years of age then his father died and, with the help of a married man, he farmed High Studdon.   In the cottage at High Studdon lived John Grieve and his two sons Thomas and John; at the birth of the latter his mother, my Father’s eldest sister Hannah, died.  John Grieve ever after engaged housekeepers for him-self and his two sons who built stone walls all over the farm.   The walls to-day show little sign of decay:  they are soundly built the stone, sandstone grit, remains perfect­ly hard.   My father was clumsy with his hands and had to rely on his head for good management, hence his brother-in law and his nephew were invaluable, indeed the nephews might have been sons, and they were so attached to father and all the family.   J. Grieve afterwards bought a farm in West Allen-dale “Black Cleugh which he and his own sons carried on. Thomas was interested in all passing events as far as his surroundings and education permitted; his strong sense of humour, accounted for the liberality of his views.  John was intensely methodistical and a great supporter of that body. Their affection for our father was very marked, as boys they were with him on the farm always.  Wigton School was not in existence in their time, my sister Hannah who was 10 years their junior being the first of the family to be favoured by that great enlightenment for the children of Cumberland and Scotch Friends.   Uncle John was fond of shooting and grouse was very plentiful so they kept the larder replenished with the gun - it was a flint gun.   I remember well the old man with his long grey hair growing down his shoulders, and his giving me half-a-crown when I went off to Wigton School after each vacation.

After my grandfather’s death John Grieve with his two sons bought Black Cleugh farm in West Allen and they farmed there until the death of Thomas Grieve when the remaining brother, John, sold out the stock and let the farm.  John re­moved to High Studdon to the cottage were he was born, and there he died in his 66th year and was buried in the Allen dale Friends’ Burial Ground as was also his family.

(The Wedding at Gretna Green is more interesting when the circumstances are gone into)

Frank Philipson was a miner and a small tenant farmer; a man of strong character but hasty in temper, a kind father and thoughtful for his children.   He bought for every child a quart size fancy jug with name and date of birth duly burnt into the pottery.   These are carefully preserved by the family and my sister Mary has my mother’s jug.

Thinking of my mother this morning, her mother was a Friend, the family name was Green.   They were dyers at the Peckridding by the Allen Water.    One of the family emi­grated to the United States and was a notable minister among Friends.  Frank Philipson married Mary Green and she died at the birth of her only child, my mother Mary Philipson.  Frank Philipson married again and had a family of 6 daughter and 7 sons with his second wife, so my mother had many (step) rela­tives of the name of Philipson.   The sons became lead miners with their father.

  Isaac Hall jun., after his father’s death, was living at High Studdon with his mother and two sisters Sarah and Jeanie.   Jeanie was engaged to be married to George Roddam, a young yeoman farmer who became very pressing.    So the marriage came off and Jeanie left Friends   She had two daughters and one son and there are descendants of the daughters.   One, John William Pearson, is engaged in ship­ping in London.   I have not seen him since he was a child living near Staward Peel.

My grandmother was old and Aunt Sarah always in deli­cate health, so when Aunt Jeanie left home Mary Philipson aged 16 came to take her place in the family.   She was described as a very bonny girl with bright red cheeks and black hair, and little wonder that in course of time my father was overcome with the fascination of youthful loveli­ness and personality of character,   My grandmothers and aunt were disturbed, and Mary with our father’s consent went to live with a neighbour at Throstle Farm (a house on the Studdon property just below the “new road”.)   Her father who lived 5 miles away hearing of this immediately came along in much warmth to take her home.   By chance M.P. was in the garden some 700 yards away near the river so a daughter of the house ran to the garden and informed M.P. who fearing the wrath of her Parent bolted into a wood near by and from it to another dark fir plantation and made her way up the hill to High Studdon.   Communicating her plight to I.H. apparently she hid amongst the hay in the barn   Her father sought for her in vain and returned home at night.   That night 2 horses were saddled.   The farm man I.H. and Mary P. rode off for Gretna, M.P. riding behind the man.   The setting off was not without incident for my Grandmother in protesting kept back part of the Coat Tail of T.H’s Quaker coat as a memorial protest.   They rode through the night to Gretna and the couple were married early in the morning.  The marriage certificate is a document beautifully written and inscribed in foolscap partly hand printed.   On the way home my mother rode behind her husband, and on their arrival let it be said that the whole family were immediately reconciled and lived happily.   Mother1s father had sought her erring daughter without avail, returned to his home miles away and renewed the search on the second day.   But it is said alls well that ends well.

My mother was perfectly happy, and she and Aunt Sarah were truly sisters ever afterwards, living together in the same house and our Aunt Sarah a second mother to us all.

My Mother was not a Friend, her Mother having been disowned for marrying Francis Philipson.   When she came home from Gretna Green the Rector of Allendale came to see them and he insisted on their getting properly married but charged them no fees for the ceremony.   My Father agreed that Friends should disown him for marrying a non-Friend, but said that he and his wife would attend Meeting all the same. So he was disowned, and afterwards re-instated, and my Mother joined Friends at the same time.

My Mother had a beautiful face.   She was loving yet strict with the children and excellent in her love of law and order.   It was beautiful to see her attachment to our Aunt Sarah and how they were able to look so closely after the family.

Mother died as the result of an accident, in 1853 when I was 11 years old and somehow father never was the same man again; he lost interest in life and died eight years after in 1861.   He and I were greatly attached to each other and after I left school I only saw him for 13 days every July.

Still all my life was centred in the thought that I must do nothing in life contrary to his own desires. This I carried out to the letter.

Our Father, Isaac Hall, 1793-l86l

I ought to write something special about our father. He was a very affectionate father; I never remember an unkind word from him.   Each day as he went over the farm he liked all the children at liberty to go with him.   We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, often four or more of us were trying to be helpful, running round among the cattle and sheep.   Although we kept a dog, Father did not care for rousing either sheep or cattle, which certainly is the case when a dog is sent round barking, and forcing the stock.   It was much better to go quietly among them, counting them or driving them to another pasture.  There was a little hill where four fields met and we could have a good view of the animals in all directions, also the converging walls gave shelter from any wind that blew, so it was a good place to sit down on the grass, and father used to teach us to repeat Scripture or some interesting poetry.   Sometimes we would learn about the plants and the flower2, birds, butter­~1ies and all animated nature, we learned their names and their habits.

Father was strongly built with powerful hands and arms, and, I might say, legs, for in the hayfield he seemed to do work equal to two ordinary men.   In those days there were no grass cutters or other modern machinery and the cutting of’ the grass was done by scythes.   The hay season lasted through July, August and even September and was a trying time.   We usually paid three men from Hexhamshire who would mow 21/2 acres per day.   They were followed by haymakers, Father, Mother and all the children.   Aunt Sarah was at home cooking.  We spread the swathes, gathered them into cocks, spread them again in the sun.   Then, if dry, the hay was rowed up, put on sledges and drawn to the barns, turned over to the forker to fork into the barn to the stack-maker.   The horse with empty sledge made speed back to the field to be filled.   When six years old I was tied to the horse’s back given a stick and reins, and having acquired a knowledge of language understood by Diamond, the work was at once both engaging and exhilarating, and to those eventful days my memory is green.

When my grandfather bought High Studdon the property included the Throstle Farm so that it extended from the Allen to the fell.   My father bought the Holmes Lot of Mr. Lowe also the Far Lot of someone else.   He let off the Throstle to John Graham the man who accompanied the couple to Gretna

Green.   The Hall children went to school with the young Grahams.   Some sixty years later J.W.H. knocked at the door of William Graham at Sinderhope, and asked “do you know me?”   Without any hesitation Mr. and Mrs. Graham re­plied “Why it’s John Willie.’   Come in.”

My father also let a portion of the property, with house attached, to John Grieve, his brother-in-law, and the family kept the High Studdon house and farm going for many years without either a man or women servant, excepting occa­sionally employing a man for draining or dyking (building walls) at 15/- per week.

My grandmother inherited a farm at Sinderhope which she gave to Aunt Sarah.   This farm and also Throstle was exchanged with Mr. Beaumont for land at Low Studdon.

The status of a farmer is little understood by out­siders.  He requires excellent judgment.   In his live­stock he must fully understand what to keep, what to sell and when to sell.   He must have an inherent qualification as to values, and expert knowledge of foods suitable for growth or fattening.   He requires a chemical knowledge of soils and of fertilisers suitable for the various qualities of soil.   Then there are weather conditions to meet; de­cision of character is needed to act for the best at the psychological moment.   Perseverance and patience are most necessary.   It is a common proverb “If a farmer is to be successful he must marry the dairymaid - a trained wife well trained is necessary for success.”

My father had a large share of these qualities.  His judgment was excellent, he was most conscientious in his attention to all his animals and his stock was much sought after and could always command a good price.  He considered it a waste of time to attend markets unless he had business because it meant neglecting the farm.   He said his duty lay in close attention to breeding and rearing his animals. It was an entirely pastoral farm; cattle, sheep and horses were the stock kept.   In dealing and trading he told me he never took advantage of a seller obliged to sell, but ever gave them the full value.

His father left no will and lawfully all the land and houses fell to him by inheritance.   However he could not rest but had all valued and engaged to pay his two sisters (and their husbands) one third each.   He paid them out as he was able from his savings, and after his mother’s death the family at High Studdon settled down to a life of sim­plicity and economy.

There was a division of part of the moors into en closed allotments according to the claims of the various owners of land.   My father owning four farms, his share was considerable and he bought other shares.   John Grieve and his sons put up the enclosing dry walls, strong and extremely well built.   My father tried his hand, but was so faddy and the building got on so slowly that he gave it up.  His wall to-day shows his painstaking method.   They quarried the stone themselves on their own land.

A kiln was built for burning the mountain limestone The lime was spread over the ling which then died and was followed by rich grass and clover.   Very often the ground was drained with two inch tiles previous to liming.  To-day in these fields you cannot find a trace of ling but instead valuable feeding grass and white clover, and the ground will carry nearly double the stock.   There was a plan of turning the sheep during the day on to the moor for a change to eat heather or bent grass.   The owners still had shares called “stints” on unenclosed moors.   These stints could be bought or sold and each allowed the owner pasturage for 5 sheep on the moor.

My father had not opportunity for much education; his only schoolmaster was the vicar of Allendale who later performed the church marriage ceremony.

He was entirely in agreement with the principles of the Society of Friends, and read all the early journals of Friends that he could lay his hands on.   In dress and use of plain language he was very particular:  his sister and my mother wore Friends’ bonnets, and his daughter’s bonnets were neatness itself and perfectly plain   Father did not approve of the disagreement common in that that amongst Wilburites and Gurneyites:  what he approved was the fellow­ship of worship with or without utterance.

When my father was a young man he went to Newcastle, about 35 miles, with two others.   In returning they called at a public house and had a glass of ale before they got out of the town.   Further on his companions got two glasses additional and as it was hot, the alcohol took ef­fect on them and they both lay down by the roadside, help­less, and went to sleep.   My father was so struck by the incident, that, when he reached home, he turned out all alcoholics and refused ever after to drink or “treat” any­one else.   In his necessities to make use of inns for business he always paid the landlady generously for the accommodation required.   Thus he became an abstainer years before Temperance Societies arose; and the fact that both his father’s and mother’s relatives were given to consuming alcohol (indeed it was then rum) only strengthened his determination to neither take it himself nor allow it in the house.

As a Liberal, my grandfather actively supported the party at elections, and my father used to tell stories of his early adventures in politics.   When an election came on his father used to say, “Now, Isaac, get the galloway (Dales pony from 14 to 15 hands, very hardy and high spirited ani­mals) saddled and be off; come back when all is over.” These yeoman farmers, numbering seldom less than 500 horse­men rode as escort to Mr. Beaumont.   As they rode along from town to village, and village to town, they took pos­session of every public house, and turned them into com­mittee rooms.   These journeys were a great success.  Every body was roused by this well-equipped bodyguard of support­ers, with blue flags flying, and brass bands playing with deep sounding drums.   My father relates how he was with Mr. Beaumont and his agent Mr. Crawhall after his successful campaign.   Mr. Beaumont was completely floored then he found the total cost was £100,000 and said it would be his ruin.   Mr. Crawhall replied gaily “Cheer up, Mr. Beaumont, last year we made £100,000 out of the Allendale lead mines. You have only spent one year’s income and you have won the election”.

My father had at least two severe illnesses, each time inflammation of the lungs.   He got an eye much dam-aged by a cow’s horn and was some time at Newcastle Infirmary.

Between J.W.H. and his father there was a very in­timate friendship, and he felt it deeply when in l86l his father died while he was at Sunderland and had no word that his father was ill.

Aunt Sarah 1790-1860

Aunt Sarah was born at High Studdon in 1790 (or 1788?) and father in 1793:  they lived through the whole of the 22 years French war.   After the peace in 1815 intoxication be­came rife, as at the conclusion of the Franco-German war everyone began to smoke.

From a child Sarah Hall was the light of the house and the special favourite of her father.  Wherever she moved her presence was always felt.   After my father’s marriage she continued to live at High Studdon and was much beloved by her nephews and nieces.   The parlour had been built on to the house and this and the bedroom above she claimed as her own.   My mother and she were great friends   I never remember my father being anything but kind to his children and we all loved him but Aunt Sarah was an indulgent aunt and apt to spoil us.   She had a wonderful recipe for ginger snaps which were used as bribes or otherwise as required.

Aunt Sarah kept the house lively although she reckoned to be delicate and got her breakfast in bed   strong Coffee, an egg and hot buttered toast.   Mother was the centre of law and order in the house, and she and Aunt Sarah were de­lightful together.   My Aunt Sarah was clever and good look­ing and a very attractive personality from every point of view, and had a wide circle of friends.   She used sometimes to ride to Newcastle, through Hexham, to pay them visits. I hardly like to say she was a flirt but she certainly was an attraction to aspiring young men.   She inherited a little property from her mother, which no doubt added to the attraction.   She had a host of admirers, and received twelve offers of marriage but remained single.   I think her natural attractiveness and desire to be sociable must have led the young men to expect better treatment than they got. I remember stories about some of her suitors.   One of them said:  “I have come a long time to see thee Sarah.           She only replied “Well, I never asked thee to”   A second re­tired without incident. A third was accepted and the wedding was arranged, but at the last moment she backed out. Yet another was accepted and the wedding day was approaching when her father said to her “I don’t know Sarah but that we may see thee keeping a little shop and baking tea-cakes for sale”. “I never will bake tea-cakes for anybody” she raged,   and no wedding took place.   Again - ‘That little bowdiekite actually asked me to get married to him as we walked through the plantation.   But I said Have I lived so long  to be married to a little bowdiekite like thee. Her eleven nephews and nieces at High Studdon had good reason to rejoice over her steadfastness;  and her cheer­fulness and humour ever kept our house a home to be re­membered

My aunt was fond of horses and took many journeys on horseback, visiting relatives at Newcastle, attending Quarterly Meeting at Carlisle and Cockermouth and Monthly Meetings.   She refused to ride in a conveyance or train, her safe way of travel was on horseback,   A story is told how on one occasion she set off to Q.M. wearing a complete outfit of new clothes, every single thing new.   She was lifted on to the horse so that her new boots might remain unsoiled and set off along the told road  which comes into Allendale town down a very steep bank called Lonkley.  The road was muddy and slippery at this steep place;  the horse could not keep its feet but fell, throwing the rider and her new clothes down into the mire.   In complete disgust, she mounted the horse and rode home again - no Q.M. for her that time.

She was attractive at home as well as among the Quaker young men, and kept the whole house alive so that it was in­teresting to all comers.   There was a perpetual controversy between her and her brother - my Father.   She had a theory that she suffered from several ailments; her brother on the contrary used to say that there was never any illness in the Dale until the Scotch doctors made their appearance.  She bargained with the doctor to pay him £10 a year to feel her pulse every Saturday, and look at her tongue, and keep her constantly supplied with medicine.   It was fortunate that she was usually content with only smelling the bottles. She never encouraged anybody else to be ill.  The listening children enjoyed these doctors’ visits very much, especially as the doctor was the nicest man, a quack doctor.  “I see, Madam, he said on one occasion, “that you will probably die at the rise of the sap, but if not, then certainly at the fall of the leaf.   So I will say good-bye to you”.    She lived several years longer than any of her brothers and sisters.

Aunt Sarah was the first person in the Dale to be the proud owner of an umbrella.   Whether she used it is question­able, for the story goes that when a shower came on, she hid the umbrella under her cloak to keep it dry, or possibly she felt shy of making herself a spectacle.

Allendale Mining

The length of the Dale is about ten miles from Allen heads on the south to Catton on the north, and at that time it was thickly populated quite unlike the present time. Lead mining was extensive and very prosperous, and houses were scattered everywhere.   High Studdon had 3 miners families, Low Studdon 6, West Studdon 2, Scotch Hall 10 families, Sinderhope 18 families.   The Beaumont family owned all the land in the neighbourhood, as well as the mines, and they cut up their estate into small holdings for the miners.   Working four days a week, or even only three, a miner was an old man at fifty, the work was so unhealthy.   So his little farm occupied him the remaining time.   The miners stood in water up to their knees more often than not, and the mines were ill-ventilated.   A com­plaint of the breathing was very common.   Boys began at the age of ten to wash the ore outside the mine.  I remember going to see the ore being washed.   The boys called me “the little Quaker”  for I never said 1”Monday  but “Second Day” and used theeand “thou”.   The boys with whom I went to school were sons of miners for the most part.

The miners would keep two or three cows on their land and usually each family had a fell pony.   Every family in April or May cut peats on the fell, each about 18 inches long and 4 inches thick, enough for about fifty cart, loads They were left to dry and in July, August or September, the men would lead then home and pack them in large stacks. Coals were little known in the district in the early days, so the miners had considerable occupation in leading twelve months supply.   They were allowed to cut their peats for nothing on the moors, and these ponies of theirs were often called “peat leaders”.

The Primitive Methodists were very strong in the dis­trict and quite a number of chapels were erected.  The miners were distinctly religious, and betting and gambling were unknown.   Several fairs were held through the year and these were a great opportunity for friendly greetings, also for a display of horsemanship with these spirited galloways” or mountain ponies   there was furious riding and all manner of sports.   As these ponies lived on the fells and went in droves, it was not uncommon to borrow without leave a neigh­bours horse and ride off to the fair before the rightful owner had reached the fell.   Mountebanks and all manner of sights could be met with and a good deal of treating and drinking was everywhere apparent.   To-day these fairs are things of the past.   At Christmas they had much feasting and had “toffee joins” at each other’s houses.   Toffee was made from, say, one stone of black treacle and some butter, and when cooked everyone had a share.

These mines were very productive yielding Wentworth Blackett Beaumont £100,000 per annum.   I went to the day school when I was six years old - viz. in 1848.   At that time Mr Sopwith, the mining agent for Mr. Beaumont, brought young Wentworth to visit the school and introduced him to the children as 17 years of age.   Last  week the son of this seventeen-year-old died aged 63 bearing the title of Lord Allendale.   His father was described as the wealthiest commoner in England and used to say he could walk thirty miles in a straight direction without stepping off his own land.

The mines now employ only forty or fifty men.   The rest are scattered, the county of Durham getting a large number.  Many went out to Australia to the gold mining there, including several of Frank Philipson’s sons, step-uncles to the High Studdon family.   Probably the men went first and their wives and children followed.   One little boy called Harland Philipson ran away and hid when his family were ready to start, not wishing to leave Allendale.   In later years he corresponded with J~W.H. and sent a Photograph of his family, and soon after the war brought over two of his boys, Ralph and Thompson, whom we were glad to know.  They were total abstainers and non-smokers, neither swearing nor gambling:  they carried their convictions into the army and returned to their home pure, and untarnished by the temptations placed in their way.

At the time of King George’s coronation, Sarah Ann Richardson nee Philipson was over from Australia, a charming and beautiful woman; a niece of my mother.   She told me that there were 75 of her father’s relatives, a clan of Philipsons out in Queensland;  that they were all Methodists and total abstainers and not one had disgraced the family. Some are poor, some are wealthy, and one is a millionaire. Many are taking a useful part in public and church life in the township of Charters Towers, Queensland.

Some Early Recollections

I was born on Jan. 26th, 1842.   The day was to be remembered all over the north of England and Scotland as one of the heaviest snowstorms on record.   The doctor -Armstrong by name - who attended my birth rode on horse­back and found the greatest difficulty in reaching High Studdon and was utterly benumbed with cold on arrival. In meeting George Collings of Carlisle many years after and comparing notes of ages, he informed me that he was born in Carlisle at the time of a terrible snowstorm on Jan. 26th, 1842!

Doctors were of recent introduction into Allendale in these days;  my father used to say he had no recollec­tion of illness in the Dale until two competing Scotch doctors arrived on the scene and then pains and aches be­gan to multiply.

My earliest recollection was the death of my next sister Sarah at 6 mos. Old.   I remember seeing Marmaduke Forest in his hat, carrying a box out of a room in our house, which I knew was a coffin containing the remains of my young sister.   My second remembrance was lying bed with 12 black leeches on my chest, a perfect horror to me.   I had inflammation of the lungs and judging from the effects in after years in getting rid of the poisons I had imbibed makes me feel I must have inherited a strong consti­tution.   At the time of my illness hay harvest was in full swing.   I was so ill that the family gave me up and mother and sister Hannah made me - by the evening - a burial robe, but in the middle of the afternoon my father left the hay and walked to see the doctor bringing back a medicine which he said would either kill or cure; it was two or three years before I threw off the effects of that medicine.

As a family flannel was little worn and not until I had been at Wigton three years were my parents asked to send me flannel vests.

I was ever a prattler and when very young I became more and more a talker, and also learned quite a lot of poetry each year.   Negro slavery was the great theme of conversation and I could repeat no end of Negro hymns.  My mother took great interest in babies and I went with her on her numerous visits to farm houses to see how the mother and child fared, my talkativeness made me ever welcome. Mother was extremely active and executive.   When I went with mother visiting round the district, afternoon teas and girdle cakes with currants had a special interest to me.

As mentioned before I was taught negro slave rhymes which I have never forgotten discanting on the little nigger boy “bathing in the river like a brisk water rat and at night sleeping soundly on a little piece of mat”.  “But there came some wicked men who stole him far away, they took him from his house and home and his mother dear” etc. I could repeat whole lines of such: - lisping in my speech, trying to be eloquent in rhyme and repeating with pathos.

From S.A.Haydock’s recollections of life at High Studdon from a letter dated Oct. 19, 1923 to J.W.H.

I am trying to see how I can help in thy early re­collections.   Really I remember very little of mother really nothing worth while, previous to her death.   I do remember well thy (J.W.H.) being very late in coming home from school one day and mother became very anxious and then she and the 3 of us younger sisters, myself, Maggie, and Susie, made our way down the fields to the Throstle (the farm house let off with 5 fields) to see if thou was with the Graham boys, and sure enough we found thee there with a beautiful bunch of wild flowers which thou said thou had picked for Sarah Ann.   Of course I was immensely pleased but dear mother far otherwise, she ordered thee home at once and we followed.   Mother supplied herself with a birch rod which she used very freely ~to our sad grief) as soon as we got home.   Dear father was so patient, I never remember a harsh word, how we children loved him and how we never wished to grieve him, we followed him everywhere to the high Allotments to look after the cattle and sheep, to the fells for peats with old Diamond the mare, and to the lower fells for rushes.   No children were happier.   On first days it was a great joy to go to Meeting.   I can recall sitting by dear mother and see the tears slowly trickling down her cheeks and wondering why.

We loved every bit of ground at High Studdon and to-day I love (in my imagination) to go all about through all the fields and “lots” as we used to do and over Holmes Bank with dear Aunt Sarah for a walk by the old quarries, and sitting down where we could watch the Sinderhope folks come out of the chapel.   I just love to go over all that - to me - sacred ground, for I seem to recall every part so clear­ly.        Very few of our old dales people remain I should think. I never loved any place so dearly all my life.   I have en­joyed going to Meeting all my life and realise the great privilege in so doing, and I trace it back to my happy child­hood’s experiences.   Dear Father was no talker but his ac­tions how loudly they spoke.   After going to Wigton School I found Jane R. Choate (Brockbank) a steadfast friend, my schooldays were very happy also my time with John Grubb Richardson and family of Moyallan and afterwards at John R. Proctor’s of Low Lights, North Shields where I was governess at each place.”

In the year before I went to school I was sent on a visit to Uncle John Grieve who had 2 sons - Thomas and John. Some years previously their father had bought the Black Cleugh farm in West Allendale.   It was a very wet soppy farm joining up to the Fell.   The Fell itself was valuable as excellent herbage for sheep.   They kept a large number of sheep which were on the fell winter and summer.    The sheep were under the management of Thomas, John looked after the cattle.   Every attention was paid to the wants of the stock which when sold commanded high prices.   The housekeeper was Milly Armstrong who was certainly a treasure.   At night Milly occupied the Parlour.   Uncle John and his father slept in the kitchen whilst John and I slept in the attic above.   Four-posted beds were in each room, all carefully covered in with hangings of stout cloth. The roof in the house was covered with thick grey tiles, and to keep the wind from coming through the quantities of dried moss were wedged in during the summer; but all the same on a starry night I have seen the stars peeping through.   We slept in wonderfully warm blankets and the fresh breezes were delightful especially on a windy night. As I said before we had a large rainfall, and I found it impossible to keep my feet dry, and I soon got used to en­joying wearing stockings constantly wet.   We lived in splen­did simplicity, rising when light in the morning.   Milly made a splendid peat fire - we had peats galore, we should probably burn at Black Cleugh 100 cart loads yearly, no coals when the kettle boiled, Thomas and John made each an oatmeal crowdy and one for me.   It consisted of medium but highly roasted oatmeal, a little salt, boiling hot water poured on the meal, stirred quickly to a nice consistency; then splen­did butter milk poured on and it made a meal fit for a king. About 9.30 we had a cup of tea, bread and butter and old home-made milk cheese.   For dinner a leg of mutton was boiled on Sunday, potatoes, bread and broth galore.  Through the week we had bacon fried for dinner and also suet puddings, plain or with currants or raisins; also rice pudding.   Tea was an extravagant meal;  very strong coffee fresh ground, cream, bread and butter (always brown rye bread).

They tended their flocks and herds with assiduity, every animal was a pet, and when any were for sale, they had numerous buyers.   Their mare was a great favourite but when my uncle died in 1850, the sons had to part with her as she was difficult to handle.   In the hay season, the dried hay was taken to the stack-yard on a sledge.   The mare objected to have anything to do with the sledge, the only plan was to yoke her in, in a cart and fasten the sledge behind.    In other ways too she was headstrong and at last was sold to younger men to manage.

The simplicities of their lives were an example. There was no clock in the house but three watches hung in a row over the kitchen dresser.   The kitchen was their living room.   Their ~ants were simple and few, and they gave generously to religious objects.   Of cheerful, humor­ous dispositions, they were frequent visitors to High Studdon where they were ever welcome.   The brothers Thos, and John looked on their uncle as their second father.

Our Life at High Studdon

The house when bought by my ancestors consisted of a kitchen and a back kitchen with a bedroom over each. They call such a house  “tufoad”   two-fold.  When I first remember the house it’s size had been doubled by the addition of a parlour with a bedroom above it, and attics. It was a grey stone house, with a roof of grey slates or heavy flag stones.   There were trees planted on three sides of the house, chiefly ash trees but with a few firs among them.   It stood about midway between the bottom of the valley and the moor, so that the ground rose steeply above it.   The fields were divided up by dry stone walls, built without mortar or lime and six feet high;  the cost in wages at the time they were built was not more than 2/6 a day.   The farm work as I remember it included draining the fields, and get­ting mountain limestone from the bed of the Allen, burning it in a kiln at the farm, and spreading it upon the land, where its beneficial effects were soon seen in replacing the ling by good grasses and clovers.

Father and Mother slept in the kitchen, in a “boxbed such as is used in Scotland.   The parlour had also one of these beds in it; indeed there was not a room in the house without a bed in it.

The chief work of the farm was raising sheep.  On the moors we kept Black-faced sheep, and in the lower pastures Border Leicesters.   My father was bent on improving the class of Shorthorn cattle in the Dale, and he always gave his neighbours the benefit of anything he had for this pur­pose.   At the present time the stock in that valley is as good as anywhere in the kingdom.

High Studdon is some distance from the main road~ there is a steep winding rough road up through the fields to the house, which is some 1200 feet above sea level.  The farm land and especially the fell where the sheep grazed is 200 ft. higher.   One of Fathers chief occupations was to see the stock every day, but I think that at certain times of the year the sheep on the fell were neglected and we should lose at least 20 every year;  they strayed away from their usual tracks and were seen no more.  In the winter all the cattle were housed at night but turned out about 10 o’clock into the pastures.   I was usually expected from quite an early age to drive the stock to the pastures.  The dog Moss, a spotted animal, was my own age, a half breed -part fox-bound, part sheep dog - and was my constant com­panion.   Moss’s growl was fearsome in meeting strangers, not that it ever led to biting anyone, but still his man­ners and deportment commanded respect.   Hedgehogs made him furious, his mouth bled with the pricks.   I once found a hedgehog with a nest of very small young ones the mother growled audibly and I made a quick retreat.   Moss could not catch a hare on his own.   Thanks to Uncle John and his two sons all the stone walls were high and solid and there was only one gate into a field so if a net were placed against a gateway, if a hare was in the field, and Moss roused it, of course it made for the gateway and flew right into the net and was caught.   Hare pie was the correct thing and helped the family dietary after the weekly leg of mutton had been consumed.

It was when I went out with Moss that I got the habit of collecting birds’ eggs.   Moss put on a severe habit if strangers came in our way.   I had no fear of bulls or other cattle, and we would wander over the fells making new discov­eries.   Often in these journeys I would stay out all day fairly famished with hunger, and I had to reckon with mother for these delinquencies.   We always kept a bull, and this animal was a source of danger, but with Moss at my heels I had no fear.   I had to open the gates and cross the high road on the way to the high pastures and managed as well as I could.   In seasons when the crop of hay was short and the animals were turned out on the fell, it was extraordinary the distance the cattle travelled, browsing all the day and returning as the day darkened to find a large bundle of hay to go at.   Each animal knew their stalls and each in turn were tied up to a strong upright.   It is extraordinary how to be able to look back and remember the name and colour of each animal.

I had an ambition to ride all animals, including horses, cattle, sheep and pigs.   I began to ride the mare when 5 yrs. of age, was tied on to its back and with a stick in my hand led the hay on sledges from the field to the barns.

Cutting the grass was an exciting time. The mowers were often cutting into the nests of the brown humble bee. I often looked after the honey and though stings were painful, honey was sweet;  we children made the most of the honey season. My father made a practice of going to Hexham every 2 or 3 months for a supply of groceries etc., and as a boy I used to accompany him.   We kept two Dales horses about 15 hands, high spirited, and when they had been on holiday for 2 or 3 days, were, to say the least, difficult to keep in order. They were extremely hardy and could live if necessary on heather, brackens, and strong fibred grass.   A special favourite was “Diamond”, a mare who was apt at times to ap­pear human, seeming to understand all we said.   Her eyes, ears, face, were expressive.   Frequently she had to draw the cart over moors wet and soppy on which she could hardly walk without sinking.   It was then she looked for help, and if a supply of ling was thrown in front of her, she could stealthily move forward so long as it was safe.    We cut and dried about 60 cart-loads of peats which had to be led home for winter.   The journeys were beset with difficulties. Father talked to the mare and she seemed to understand him. If  very serious she would give vocal expression to her fears. She was a great favourite with all the family.

The start for Hexham was usually at 7 o’clock in the morning.   We travelled across the fell in an ordinary cart: there were only tracks and to avoid large stones deep holes and hills required care, so progress was slow.   On a bright April morning as we entered upon the fell all was life -~ the peewits wheeling round us, the golden plover’s plaintive cry;  the snipe was on the wing and the curlew very nosy, but most noisy of all the grouse, the gorcock (male grouse) strutting round most defiant in his call.   As we got further on the moor, the curlew flying round with his well known cry would follow us for a mile or more.   In two miles we came to Baxton Cleugh where a few stunted rowan trees grew, and on one of these could always be seen a carrion crows nest. All these sights kept me alert.   In another two miles we came to a large wood where we left the fell and entered upon Hexhamshire.   There for the first time I saw a red squirrel running along a wall top.   At once I laid chase, but the little animal sprung on to a Scotch fir and was soon safe at the top of the tree.   The country became quite new to me then. There were two cottages in one of which lived a man called Old Nickwho kept bees, and in the other a gamekeeper lived and had a family of children who even to us seemed very wild and shy, like the wild animals.   We saw furze for the first time, we were not familiar with that.   I used to take little plants of it home, but they always died.   Here I saw the blackcock and the grey hen.   The cock was handsome, a splen­did tail, black all over;  the hen, grey like a hen pheasant, only shorter, smaller and stumpy, they perch on trees.  This bird is shy, of little use for shooting drives, he simply makes for high heaven and flies in the direction he chooses irrespective of the shouts of the beaters.

On the way to Hexham on our left we saw Staley and Father told me that when he was young, he and his older brother Joseph and his father led - in wood waggons - years after year fir wood from large plantations at Staley to the mines at Allenheads.   We passed through a village called Doton (i.e., Dalton) and soon after reached the crest of the hill and then saw Hexham two miles away down a steep hill. There I saw the Tyne valley for the first time, looking N.W. to Haltwhistle along the South Tyne and looking far north the Cheviot Hills seemed no great distance.    Then the valley of the North Tyne with Chollerford and the Roman Wall were visible, the two Tynes joining up at Hexham to become at times a formidable river.   Besides the Moot Hall in Hexham I was greatly struck with the Abbey and old archways.  One thing I particularly remember was that people called my father Mr Hal instead of Hall (the old Danish pronunciation) and the Tyne burr was quite new to me.   In the dales no “burr” is known, but the Dales people were slow in speech and the Tyne burr much quicker.   My father bought a 20 stone sack of  flour a mixture of barley, rye, oats and wheat meal and made a dark loaf - also 20 stones of rye meal and 5 stones of white flour.   We bought the oatmeal at home, there were no less than 4 mills in the dale for oatmeal grinding.   We bought all ordinary groceries, not forgetting raisins and currants and coffee and tea to last 2 or 3 months.   The we got the groceries from was that of John Grey and curiously enough when my father-in-law Bartholomew Smith went to live at Weston-super-Mare he made the acquaintance of descendants of this John Grey living there.   After feeding the mare and getting some dinner we yoked her into the cart and. went to Greys to load up.   I think my father took 3 mos. credit.  I was constantly reminding father not to forget the raisins which were used in rice puddings or suet puddings for Sunday dinner, and it was always a moot point with me, whether raisins were more plentiful in pudding ends or in the middle I don’t think I ever reached a decision.

Diamond was always most brisk on her homeward journey and as she was heavy laden I had to walk quite a lot.   Of course the younger children were on the look-out for our re turn and expected fairings, indeed I looked at Mr. Grey with deep meanings expressed in my eyes.  We were disappointed if father did not bring home a big package of brown bullets.

Our fuel at High Studdon consisted mainly of peats. We should cut and lead about 20 loads in the year though of course the cart loads were not large as the improvised roads across the ling were apt to be treacherous after a day or two of rain.   Railway coals had to be led ten miles, small “cat” coals used for burning lime could be obtained nearer, but all householders cut peats.   These peats were well dried and light by September~ and we led 5 cart loads daily. Before I went to Wigton, I helped my father quite a lot in filling the light, specially-constructed cart.

Before I went to Wigton whenever I was not otherwise needed, Moss my large spotted dog used to go with me on to the fells, and I knew very part thoroughly well.   In the vicinity of Bleaberry Cleugh on the moor, there were quite a number of springs of water bursting out.    In severe weather wild ducks and geese gathered round these springs which never froze.   In later years my brother Isaac brought these springs and unfluctuating streams to the notice of the Hexham authorities, and now they supply Hexham with abundant water.

In looking back on these years I feel struck with awe, then the country thickly populated - to-day thinly populated. remains of houses everywhere, either pulled down or in ruin. The inhabitants used to cut peats on the moors universally no coals in those days;  now not a peat cut, only the shepherd is seen on the moors;  the road across to Hexhamshire is no more, the railways, buses and motors have taken the field. The dales pony is fast disappearing and everything is changed. Even the fells are altering, once there were only black ling moors with gor-cock (grouse) calling loudly, and now grass is usurping the land and the heather is disappearing.   Only one new bird I discovered the other year that was the stone curlew, a real chatterbox.   Possibly the solitariness of the fells at present accounts for this.   Ravens were often seen in my Father’s time, and also hen-harriers who lived on the grouse which were so plentiful on the fells.   We became familiar with a large number of birds and animals which make their home on the wild fells, and the list which I can think of is a long one and includes the following:

Curlew, Stone Curlew, Green Plover, Peewit  Common Snipe, Ring Ousel, Stone Chat, Wheatear, Whin Chat, Meadow Chat, Titlark, Yellowhammer, Various Owl, Cushat (Wood Pigeon), Ringdove - Seagulls, flock of wild Geese and other visiting birds came round in severe weather, the common Wren sheltered among the ling, Missel Thrushes were very common but the Song Thrush did not live there, Wild Duck bred there.   And of animals there were Squirrels, Foxes, Weasels and Stoats.   My Father never carried a gun so we had a good chance of seeing all the creatures.  The rabbits did not increase, being kept down by the other beasts; Hares we killed whenever we could, Father was ever in the habit of taking the children with him round the farm or on the fell.   One day he took Hannah with him on the fell carrying her part of the time.   When he found that he had to go some distance over the carrs, a part of the moors where great boulders of millstone grit was scattered everywhere.   He wrapped Hannah up warmly and told her to stay there until his return, however when  he came back she was nowhere to be seen.   He covered the ground all round and called out loudly, but no reply, he rushed home and called out Uncle John Grieve and his two sons, also calling at two farmhouses, getting all possible help   they soon found her half a mile away in a sound sleep.   In  working his farm he would make us do our share of the work as far as we were able;  and on his rounds of the farm would take with him the younger children and so teach them many things by the way.   He taught us Scripture, and reciting hymns and poetry and we learnt a great deal of wild Nature on the high pas­tures and the moors, on those never-to-be-forgotten rounds.

I used to sit on the moor above Studdon, or on Sinderhope Carrs, which was the highest point, and look away into Scotland and wonder who lived there, and what the coun­try was like so far away.   Near home was Catton Beacon, on the other side a beacon at Allenheads where on occasion huge fires were lit giving warning to Durham and Teesdale.  Near Catton Beacon is Slaward Peel a four-sided building with im­mensely thick walls, standing on ¾ acre of ground where people could drive in all their stock of cattle etc., and thus secure them from the attacks of raiders.   Within 2 miles of the Peel is Langly Castle - a strongly built castle secure from any attack so that the Scots could be entirely checked in this particular direction.   Stories of invasion by these Scotchmen were common in those days.

Southwards we could see Kilhope Law, the highest moun­tain in the district.   It is situated at the junction of three counties - Durham, Northumberland and Cumberland - and its slopes lie in all three.   There grew knout-berries galore not so bad for jam, about the size of a garden straw­berry, pink and white in colour.   We were very fond of them.

Our parents had eleven children, and  with Aunt Sarah there were fourteen persons to feed.   We made about a score of cheese every year, and that was always on the table but it was made of skimmed milk.   We creamed all the milk, and the butter was sold, at about 8d. a pound in those days. Beef was not sold by the butchers, only mutton; the beef all went to the town.   For breakfast we children had por­ridge and skim milk - no sugar or treacle - and coffee and bread and butter.    “Crowdie” was much used in the Dale; you pour boiling water on the oatmeal, and eat it with milk, but we made porridge in our family.   This was our bill of fare along with fresh air and water.   I have eaten scores of Crowdies;  when I was with my cousins the Grieves I never had anything else.   For dinners, we always had a boiled leg of mutton on Sundays, went on with that as long as it lasted, and then had bacon.   In the winter we cured half a young beast, a neighbour taking the other half.   We treated it the same way as bacon, and it was very good.   For tea there was bread and butter, but the butter was put on very thin. Sometimes it was dry bread and cheese.   The bread was brown, made with leaven, the meal being a mixture of rye and wheat in which rye predominated.   It was made in loaves weighing about ten pounds.   Sister Hannah learned how to make pastry when she was in Newcastle and brought her art with her to High Studdon.   I indulged in currant and raisin cakes and loaves, and dumplings on every possible occasion.

High Studdon had two cottages occupied, one with grey slate roof, the other with a ling-thatched roof, this was tenanted by Tommy Stobbs and his wife Tabitha, the other by Marmaduke Forest - both were lead miners.   Aunt Betty, as we called Forest’s wife, was evidently his second wife as she had one son and tvwo daughters called Joseph, Jane and Sally Philipson, all three married during my reco1lection. Aunt Betty farmed 5 fields let off from High Studdon, her house was a place of constant resort for our children, I al­ways had Sunday dinner with them until I was six when I started to go to Meeting.   Our dinner was always suet dumplings cooked with raisins to which I was always partial.

Our clothing was not luxurious in quality or quantity. In the neighbourhood there was a mill to which we took our fleeces to be spun into “gairn” (yarn) which was spun in the winter evenings into wool, and from that they knitted the stockings and other things for the household.   I remember the spinning wheel standing in the kitchen, but it was put in the garret when not in use;  it was found in the garret when my brother left the farm, and Emmeline Cadbury has it now.   Scotch  “pethers” (Pedlars) used to come round to the houses with bundles of cloth, and sell a good deal I be­lieve;  but our family usually bought from the shops.   My sisters wore what they called “Tuscan” bonnets, with ribbons from the ears to the front, but on no account were they al­lowed ribbons round to the back; afterwards this was ad­mitted.   My Mother wore long “scuttle” bonnets.   There were dressmakers.   John Hewitson married Hannah Watson, whose son settled in Leeds and became an engineer.   These Watsons made dresses for my sisters and Aunt.  I remember carrying a fleece over to the mill with my Mother, calling on friends till it was done, and carrying it home.

 

The Brothers and Sisters

 

 

         1.    Hannah born 12 mo.2.1825 married Matthew Henderson in 1851.

         2.      Joseph born 4 no.22.1828, died 9 mo.20.1846, aged 18 yrs.

         3.       Isaac born 7 mo.11.1830, married Margaret Wigham 9 mo.22.1864 - died 1907

         4.  Elizabeth born 12 mo.15,1832 married. Matthew  Stephenson 1858 died l904

          5.         Mary born 8 mo.13.1835 married Thomas Little of Alston 7 mo. 1860

          6.         Jane born 8 mo.18.1838 married Joseph Pickering 7 mo.5.1860   died 1911.

         7.         John William born 1 mo.26.1842 married Mary Anne Smith of Thirsk.   M.A.S. died 1911, J.W.H. died 1929

            8.         Sarah Ann died young  (aged 6 mos.)

            9.         Sarah Ann born 9 mo.1845 married Richard Haydock 7 no.15.1868.   R.H. died 1900.

            10.        Margaret born 11 mo.19.1848 married Samuel C1emes in Switzerland 12 July 1884  (2nd wife)

            11.        Susannah born 4 mo.21.1851 married Samuel Clemes  1 mo.16.1872.  Susan died May 4.1882 aged 31.

 

When I was born, my father would be 50, my mother 36. My mother hugged me with many a hug, and lullabies galore,. her affections were unstinted., but she was executive in a high degree, my father was quiet and when sitting by the fire there was competition for one knee or even two - no fault-finding.   Aunt Sarah often had a heated wordy argu­ment - the brother and sister were near akin - on these oc­casions never a syllable from mother.   As an elder daughter Hannah was a great help to her mother.

When I can first remember my two older sisters and two older brothers had left Wigton School..   Hannah was a nursery governess with Wm. Pattison of the Felling, Joseph was with Chas. Bragg a Friend of Newcastle - a draper in Pilgrim Street.   Isaac and Elizabeth remained at High Studdon.   Jane was the next older and my younger sister died at 6 mos. old.   The next sister Sarah Ann was four years my junior, then followed Margaret and Susan.

JOSEPH

My oldest brother Joseph was a great success at Wigton, he was head boy.   He took great interest in natural history, both in birds and flowers, and botany was a great subject with him.   Daniel Oliver, afterwards Prof. Oliver of Kew, keeper of the Herbarium was a great friend of his and they carried on a correspondence after leaving school, botany being a great link between them.   Joseph made a large collection of birds’ eggs~ some 50 different kinds, amongst others were some jackdaws  eggs which he got by descending a chimney.   Many years afterwards I attempted the same chimney with adventures which are related elsewhere.   Joseph brought home rabbits and guinea pigs,  he made a special run for the rabbits, collecting a large quantity of branches of trees and covering them with soil.   Years afterwards my father   in memory of his son - objected to the killing of the rabbits, but our neighbours managed to get them at night.    After leaving school Joseph went on as an apprentice teacher at the School.   The then superintendent Robert Doeg and the teacher Samuel Hare were no disciplinarians.   There was a rebellion in the school and the superintendent and teacher were put into the area by the boys.   Joseph rescued them,. but left the school and went to Newcast1e~on~Tyne to Chas.. Bragg as mentioned before.

Joseph made me a little wicker carriage with wheel. I remember how once he took me off to Uncle John’s in West Allendale carrying me most of the way over the long heather which it was not easy for me to walk amongst.  It would be seven miles there and of course we had to come back.  Pro­bably this would be the same year that he died as I was only four years old at the time of his death; he was of a very affectionate loving nature.   We have still some of his letters in our possession.   Letters were costly to send in those days, so writers contrived to send a lot of news when they wrote.

In his 18th year a severe epidemic of malignant typhus fever from the Continent raged in Newcastle.   He died of it after two or three days’ illness, without our parents seeing him, in fact the doctor and housekeeper were the only ones who did see him after being taken ill. His remains were brought to Allendale Meeting burial ground.   Joseph had black hair and dark complexion like our mother.

HANNAH

My sister Hannah married Matthew Henderson, she had several suitors, but my father much approved of Matthew Henderson.   I well remember the wedding morning. Matthew came with a dogcart, there was a grand breakfast, and then they drove off to Hexham to be married

In early life Matthew was a Sunday School teacher at the Primitive Methodist Chapel in Allendale.   He was re­served in manner, extremely kind-hearted and very fond of his children.   He was very particular to keep Sunday as a day of rest and as an opportunity for religious thought4.  He was much in sympathy with the Society of Friends though he never joined the Society as they grew up.   Matthew live~ to his 87th year and it was a pleasure to see how peacefully he and my sister spent the last few years of their lives - she survived him a few years.   Hannah like Joseph was dark com­plexioned.   Like all her sisters she had a strong will and managed her family with great discretion; a tower of strength to her husband in his very active life as he was never Slow to acknowledge.   She died in her 86th year.   After my fathers death I often spent my holidays with my sister Hannah. She was looked up to and loved by all.   One of my holidays when I was l8 I found the parents in the deepest distress and despair, their twin boys only a few months old were very ill. The doctor had just left the house giving slender hopes of recovery, and as we sat looking at the two infants in their double old-fashioned cradle I suggested, “Why not put them both into a hot bath up to their necks and then straight back into bed?”   I retired for the night with little hope of success from our venture.   In coming downstairs in the morn­ing, I faintly enquired if they were both dead, and received the joyful reply that they were both alive and lively; so we thought the hot water bath a marvellous cure.

ISSAC

My brother Isaac had not good health in his early  life. One winter father and he were caught on the fell in a terrible snowstorm.   When they arrived home both my father and Isaac were nearly perished with cold, from the immediate effects of which my brother Isaac took four or five years ~ recover and as a consequence only got one year’s education at Wigton School.   It had the effect of making him nervous and irritable and had some effect on his memory, he however gradually outgrew this and lived to be 90 years of age.

JOHN WILLIAM

J.W.H.    writes of himself that he was a “spoilt child”. On one occasion his brother Isaac, twelve years older than the little boy, thought well to administer chastisement. The youngster promptly called the dog Moss and set him on Isaac.   The dog caught hold of Isaac’s clothing and he could do nothing.    Hold on, Moss, hold on.” said the little boy, and Moss held on till Isaac had undertaken to forego the threatened thrashing, and then at last Moss received the order to leave go.   One can imagine an inter­ested family watching these proceedings.

Isaac and his wife lived for some years at High Studdon, afterwards settling at Ashington.   Here his interest in en­gineering found scope for his energies.   The-re his son Joseph was, and still is, a head engineer for that large group of collieries where 12-13,000 Miners are employed.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth married Matthew Stephenson, who was a local preacher amongst the Wesleyans.   She had brown hair, had the sweetest of tempers and was easy going, but difficult to read and had a way of her own.   In disposition she was like her father.   In after years she joined the Wesleyans.

MARY

Mary.was a handsome brilliant girl full of determina­tion  missing no points, and especially devoted to her young brothers and sisters, arranging for their education and future prospects.   She became a pupil teacher at Wigton after leav­ing school.   We four youngest children were her special and constant care, and she lived a long life to be loved by her children and all who knew her.

JANE.

Jane was at Wigton with Mary, afterwards coming home to live at High Studdon.   She was not so clever as her sisters at school but perfectly true and conscientious -no deceit in her nature.   She married Joseph Pickering of Garrigill on the same day as Mary married Thomas Little of Alston;  the double wedding took place at Allendale Meeting House, both the bridegrooms being “Friends” and the dinner was held in the town inn.

Five of my sisters at some part of their lives were engaged in teaching, two Where at  Home engaged in domes­ticities. I consider that the five had distinct advantages over ­the two   They got further education which was all to the good.

Further Notes on Brothers and Sisters.-

Of the three youngest sisters J.W.H. has not written specially in these sets of notes, for he seemed to have looked back for the most part to earlier days.   They were young children when he went to Wigton and after leaving school he lived at Sunderland, then on their father’s death the home at High Studdon was broken up.   Their sister Mary Little, then living at Alston, took charge of them and they were always welcome at the home of their eldest sister Hannah Henderson.   After the marriage of J.W.H. another home was open to the three, but Sarah was married shortly after her brother, and went to live in Ireland.

SARAH ANNE HALL

Was born 9.26.1845 and was at Wigton from 6 mo. 1855 to 9 mo. 160 so she was at school with J.W.H. for nearly two years, and left a few months before her father’s death. She writes - “After going to Wigton School, I found Jane R. Choat (later Brockbank) a steadfast friend.   My school days were very happy, also my times as governess with John Grubb Richardson’s family at Moyallon and afterwards at John R. Procters home, Low Lights, North Shields.   After my marriage to Richard Haydock (1868), I received every kindness from Friends in the North of Ireland, and here in New York can say the same.”

MARGARET HALL

Was born 11.19.1848.   She spent five years at Wigton and two at the Mount School - York, and in after years studied at Edinburgh and in both France and Germany, so was well qualified for her work as a teacher, and had a Wider edu­cation than most young women of those days.   She acted as governess in a Hodgkinson and a Pease family, and was on the Ackworth staff for a year.   In the intervals she was a much valued aunt to a large circle of nephews and nieces.

She took the post of governess at Wigton School in 1882 when Samuel Clemes (retired from the mission field) was engaged as first class master.   The death of her sister Susan Clemes gave her the double jobs of governess on the girls’ side and housekeeper at the cottage for S.C. and his three motherless children.   After trying this for a year, she gave up the teaching and found plenty of occu­pation otherwise.   At one time she was knitting knees into the stockings of Maggie and Willie every week.    In the summer holidays of 1884 Margaret Hall and Samuel Clemes were married in Switzerland.

Samuel Clemes came of a Cornish family with ex­cellent brains and more than a touch of genius, and he had his share of both.   He was naturally a Pioneer, ready to open new ground.   He said that as long as any boy or girl stayed at school he would teach them any subject they wanted - he felt sure he could keep a week ahead. Wigton was probably the first Friends’ School to teach chemistry by practical work in the laboratory, but nothing less than that would contend S.C.   So a new classroom was built and a laboratory opening out of it with folding doors and the first class held four periods of chemistry per week including one hour in the laboratory, all culminating in South Kensington examinations, written and practical.   By these means he provided three science teachers for Friends’ schools at a period when there was a scarcity of such.   But his Scripture -lessons were his most notable achievement - an hour on Friday nights with the 1st and 2nd classes, with much illumination on the interesting incidents which abound in the Old Testament history   an hour on Sunday afternoon or evening when the whole school listened eagerly to his inspired interpretation of the gospel stories.

In 1886 after four years at Wigton, he was off with his family to Hobart to found the long-desired Friends’ School there.   It was the same missionary spirit which had led him to Madagascar, desire to serve others and no thought for what would by most people be considered his “own interests”.

SUSAN HALL

The youngest child, known in the family as “Susie”, was a very sweet and lovable person.   She was born in 1851 and went to school at Wigton three months before her father died, after which Alston was her home.   After four years at Wigton, she spent two years as scholar at Ackworth and then went on there as  apprentice.   Samuel Clemes was a student at the Flounders College, somewhat older than most of them.    A storm arose when he and Susan announced their engagement, for “apprentices” were not allowed to make matrimonial plans till their time was up.   J.VT.H. went over to Ackworth to interview George Satterthwaite the superintendent and the young man, but all came right and before Susan was twenty-one she was married at Thirsk meeting from her brother’s house, to S. Clemes.   Among the Flounders students who were present was Geo. Wilkie and this was his first meeting with Sarah Henderson, the bride’s eldest niece.   Directly the wedding was over S. and S.C. set off to take up their work in Madagascar as missionaries under the F.F.M.A. and there they stayed for ten years.   During that time M.A.H. was their agent in England, and from Thirsk went out lead-lined tea boxes with boots and clothing and toys for the children and all sorts of necessaries, and to Thirsk came brilliant sashes, quaint little woven baskets and horn spoons of Malagasy make a   Furloughs come more frequently now-a-days, and ten years in Madagascar was too long.   In 1882 they came home and in May of that year Clemes died at Thirsk in the little house prepared for the family to live in, and was buried in the Friends’ graveyard.

My Education

The only schools in the dale were private schools, in which little was taught except reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling.   Illiteracy was almost universal.   In Allendale about 1844, Mr. Beaumont built schools at Allendale, Sinderhope (Planting End?) and Allendale town, and provided masters practically at his own expense, the parents paying a trifling sum.

As the children of our family arrived at school age, they went to the Planting End day school two miles away, and when ten years old they were sent to Wigton School for four or five years, with only one holiday in the year, in the summer time.   When about 7 years of age I went with my sister Jane to Planting End school kept by a master who used a crutch.   His learning was not extensive but his crutch settled his avocation;  in after years he became a butcher.   I have great recollections about this school. I took my dinner with me each day, but unfortunately got little of it, all sorts of boys came begging it, so that often I returned home faint and hungry.   I had my first and last fight at this school, the boys called for fair play and I finished. the fight by throwing the boy into a cow midden, when he got out he left one clog behind, I was so conscience-stricken about the whole thing, that I made my way into the midden and restored the clog - but I was most unhappy about the whole transaction.

I will describe a day, going to school at Planting End.   We had to be at school by9 o’clock.   Next to High Studdon was the Holmes farm, the house was near to the Waterside close to the Holmes Lynn, a semi-circular waterfall which was a fine sight in flood.   There are 30 to 40 acres of meadow land by the Waterside and on rising ground were 30 acres of pine woods joining the road the whole length of the dale;  and across the road very hilly pasture land about 400 acres,   The farmer kept a number of black polled cattle and with these cattle was regularly kept a black bull, who took strict charge of the herd, anyone appearing in sight could be at once followed by terrible roars and often a gallop.   I had to cross each morning this field ¼ mile across from wall to wall, if I could get half way across before I was seen I would run with all speed and climb the wall before the bull could gallop up; if not, then I had to make a long detour and get into the old high road and so back to the footpath. The return journey was also to be considered,   When we arrived at the village of Sinderhope a number of children would meet, and we together would follow the high road to the school.   As mentioned elsewhere I found it difficult to keep my dinner for myself but as I got older I learned to smuggle my food into various pockets, rush out of school, clear a 6-barred gate and run down to the plantation as fast as I could and then get my dinner in peace.   I don’t know whether the children who tried to get my dinner from me were underfed or not, but I think my sisters very often gave me tastier dinners than some of the children would have.  The schoolmaster, Robert Dixon by name, was distinctly bad-tempered, and used his leather “tawse” freely - I made acquaintance with it at times.   The bane of my school life came under the heading of “disobedience”, if a master wanted to pay off an old score he understood how to work his ends, only to tell me to do something he knew I would not do, and then he got his opportunity.   My different schoolmasters soon got to know not to rub me up the wrong way.   Once at Wigton School I had to write disobedience” 5,000 times;  I did it but the teacher had the worse time of it in the end.   Indeed many years after Martin Lidbetter said that Allendale boys could be led, but they could not be forced against their will.”  Possibly the trouble raging between the Northumbrians and Scotch for generations might have developed certain family character­istics.   Robert Dixon was not learned, he had a long leg and a short leg and had a crutch.   One day he accidentally fell:  I was some distance away, but he saw a smile on my face and when he got up he showed a lot of temper.   On assembling the school he called me up amongst others (I was about 7 ½ yrs. of age) and told me to hold out my hand  -his tawse descended but my hand had disappeared, so I had to hold it out again, and this time with the ruler he caused yells and screams.   Justice having been adminis­tered, school began as usual.   The leather tawse had a wooden handle and was used for minor offences - a round ruler for severe cases, I had experience of both.

Towards winter we had a “barring out” day - that is we all came early, took possession of the schoolroom lock­ing the master out;  he of course made demonstrations but we all called out “Toffy stick”:  he would then get say half a stone of treacle from the shop, which he carried home and in the afternoon returned with the treacle stick~ -distributing two to each scholar and away we started for home for the day   We were taught very little at Planting End.

When I appeared at Wigton at the age of 9 ½ years, I felt that I had arrived at a new world and that the brightest.   In the entry book where the attainments of new arri­vals are recorded, I am described as “very ignorant.”   I was least boy for 2 ½ years and when I left at the age of l4 ½ years I still sat among the little boys.   On the playground I was mostly tossed about on big boys  shoulders, and was nicknamed Anak.   I was very short in the leg, but strong built.

My sister Mary was a pupil teacher at Wigton when I went, and the way she looked after and helped me then (and from that day till her death in her 86th year) I can never forget.   Jane who was three years my senior was also at school with me.

Being the smallest boy I had to sit next the teacher, and was much occupied in holding up the plates while he carved.   In consequence I had less time to get on with my own rising appetite and possibly was led to bolt my food. One occasion when we had cherry pie deserves a remark  -there was an enormous crop of cherries that particular year. I got a plate of cherry pie, but on the table there were two narrow tins, one holding gravy, the other treacle sauce. Unfortunately I poured the gravy upon the cherry pie, a terrible affair!   Quick decision led me to bolt the gravy and cherry pie and hand up for another helping, and this time treacle sauce was added.   Wasn’t this delicious?

The Committee of Wigton School were ever most kind and thoughtful for the children.   The food given was plen­tiful and nourishing.   For breakfast we had porridge and milk ad. lib. (the favourite meal of the day), for dinner suet or rice pudding served first, followed by neat and potatoes, for supper dry bread and milk as much as we liked.

At that time the charge for a child at Wigton was £12-£20.   This included a pair of shoes, a black jacket and vest, a pair of dark cotton cord trousers;  all repairs to clothing and shoes were free.

I had a happy tine at the school and on the whole got along well, but was always shy and dreaded being too near the top of the class.   At the end of nine months, I was top of the lowest class, the next year I was second in the second class, and for three years was in the first class - in each of the three years the same lessons were gone through as the year before.   I frankly wrote home to say I was wasting time.   The teaching we got was moderate.   Each year we went through Lindley Murray’s grammar, our geography was good, we were well grounded in English History;  our Arith­metic was poor, never further than mensuration, reading was well taught and poetry was much in evidence.   We spouted Milton, Cowper, Byron, Oliver Goldsmith, Mrs. Hemans, and for prose Earl Chathams denunciation of the American War.  Slave subjects engaged our attention, and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was all the rage at that time.   Scriptural information was well to the fore, and many portions of Scripture were learned by heart and much poetry.

Frederick Rous was superintendent for five years.  He had great influence with the boys and raised the tone of the school to a high pitch.   Above all things he trusted the boys, and could not bear to think that they could be anything short of truthful, and I believe there was not such a thing as untruthfulness in the school.   When he left, H.B. Smith from Croydon took his place and he was a very suspicious man, always skulking about.   The boys in a body addressed him on the subject and assured him that they were accustomed to be trusted and were quite trustworthy.   Shortly after that I wrote asking our people to bring me home, which they did. H.B.S. left the school a year or two afterwards.

The second class teacher was Henry Jones, brother to William Jones (the peace advocate). Wm. Jones was married whilst I was at school and he and his bride called at the school on their wedding tour and gave the boys a grand spread for tea.   Henry Jones afterwards went to Australia where he was the head of a state school.   Charles Elcock came on, after Jones left, and Richard Graham also came for a time,but was a failure.

There is a cry now of children being unmercifully forced with their lessons.   I have all pleasant recollec­tion~ of school life, especially the games and walks and drill. The boys were ever full of every kind of game according to season.   Frederick Rous thought the boys were too round-shouldered, stooping and walking awkwardly, so fifty poles of the nature of broom sticks were brought into requisition and these we used in all manner of exercises of arms and shoulders. Then there was marching under the charge of the junior master. On one occasion the marching boys suddenly charged across their playground, then across the girls’ playground and finally cleared the beech hedge into the garden’.   This caprice led to toeing the line for twenty minutes’ reflection.

Early in school life I proved to be a very quick runner, and in all games where running and dodging were important I was always difficult to catch.   There is a good deal of jealousy and competition in games and races,   I usually let one or two boys keep ahead, then pushed to the top speed in the last few yards and with a good spurt I would pass them.

Our walks on Wednesday and also on Saturday afternoons were simply delightful.   Old Carlisle, High Pow, Catlands and Wedholme Flow were ever a source of interest.  Natural history was most absorbing but we ever found at the Catland Hills the most variety in plants and other specimens    At Wedholme Flow harmless snakes were very common, appearing to live on frogs, &c.   There we seemed to be nearing the Solway, and sea birds were numerous, summer bird visitants were also plentiful.   I once found a grasshopper warbler’s nest, the only nest of that bird found whilst I was at Wigton.   The nest and eggs were sent to Newcastle-on-Tyne to a Natural History Collection.   I was much interested in collecting wild birds’ eggs in season, and found and collected 40 distinct kinds.   In one case I had an adventure.   It was hand­ed down to me that my eldest brother Joseph when at school had got Jackdaw’s eggs out of a chimney at a farmhouse near Old Carlisle.   I found the farmhouse but could only get up by climbing a cherry tree against the wall;  this I did, and crawled along the green Cumberland slates till I got to the chimney.   I found it was wide at the top so I could des­cend to where it narrowed, and there I saw two nests - one with fledged birds.   Unfortunately they fluttered out of the nest and fluttered down into the farm kitchen and I heard a fine row.   The family were evidently getting dinner, and presently they came outside, the dogs  barked and there was no end of loud talking from members of all ages in the family.   I kept quiet and out of sight for 20 minutes until all was quiet, and got out as quickly as possible, down the cherry tree.   No-one saw me, and I got clear away, but no eggs.   I ventured again in a few days, this time getting eggs, and said good-bye for all time to this farmhouse.   Boys are usually full of courage in pur­suit of hobbies but if I had been caught by the farmer I should have been well thrashed.

  I have often thought of late of my schooldays at Wigton, of what we boys thought of the meeting and the Friends composing it and the whole Cumberland Ouarterly Meeting.   In the first place the meeting was silent ex­cept for Alexander Dirkin’s and wife’s addresses,  He had been a tailor and lived most of his life in America, and had the full Yankee twang in speaking;  he usually said the same thing every time.   He used to warn Friends “to beware of the world with all its pleasures, and with all its treasures, and with all its gratifications and this applied to man and consequently woman.”   He mostly spoke from the Psalms and the prophets.   Mrs. Dirkin was eloquent and evangelical.   She usually undid her bonnet strings, and pushed back her bonnet warming up with the subject.   It was delightful to listen to her voice which was excellent, the Sing-Song tone was refreshing, quite as much so as of our fervent hymns sung to-day.   Long silent meeting~ lasting 1 ½ hours were not good for boys, their minds wan­dered at times.   They had quick ears to listen to Friend’s conversations in the Meeting House yard, on fifth day be-fore and after meeting.   Maryport and Carlisle railway shares would be discussed, and how far they might be a sub­ject of the thought of Friends in meeting might be ques­tioned.   In looking back on my school-days I am surprised to find how many of my School fellows have separated them­selves from Friends.   Friends were extremely kind to us but the quietness of those days, the dress, the plain lan­guage, the exclusiveness of the meeting - no outside visitors attending - the keeping out of public life &c. left, little room for their development.   Friends were known in trade and farming as always truthful and dealing fairly, and this led them to become (shall I say?) wealthy.  Since these days great changes have come.   Young Friends have in some cases gone to the opposite extreme, but healthy conditions we hope have now set in which I need not, enumerate.   On the lines of the Lord’s Prayer we to  pray “I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest preserve them from evil.” To-day the Society of Friends have immense opportunities to spread the Redeemer’s Kingdom in the earth and one can not but hope and believe that a great field of labour is open to Friends.

 

Our family each in turn were sent to Wigton School and the education they got there was simply invaluable in the formation of character and the brightening of their lives.   Many parents imagine that only through the parentsspectacles can children develop, a most prepos­terous and conceited conception.   Children from their early days can drink in life and character, and if their surroundings are good they cannot but receive an impetus that is all for the good.   I consider that the years at school and the succeeding years up to 21 are the most im­portant opportunities in life.   Young People are very susceptible at that age, and character is both formed and fixed and the outlook in life becomes settled.   Youths begin to smoke early and if the habit is acquired it is almost impossible to get rid of it.   So again with intoxicants, gambling and other vices, they can best be re­sisted in early life.   If, for instance, you encourage a love for God, a love for your fellow man, an overcoming desire to live a righteous life in harmony with God and Man, you escape the dangers of worldliness and the passion for gain.  My two most successful apprentices shortened their lives by 25 to 30 years by intense action to make money.

The daily family reading of the Bible, especially the New Testament, is most helpful in the daily round and task of life.   A prayerful consideration of your duties to your Maker and to your fellow men, the chief desire to follow after righteousness, all tend to prolong life and make life truly worth living.

 

Allendale Meeting

Our father and mother were so much of Friends and Bo impressed their children with the same spirit that when afterwards one of our sisters married a non-Friend, she brought her children up as Friends.   Father had a religious influence over every member of the family and his influence was in favour of Quakerism.

Meeting was held on First Day at 11 o’clock in the morning and 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and also on Fourth Day at 11 o’clock.   We all went to meeting~   It was fully two miles each way and on Sunday we only had time to get our dinner and start back again, and we children were apt to be drowsy in the afternoon.   I never remember any of us refusing to go the long walks to meeting but they were time of great interest - so much variety in people, houses, land­scapes, the Kirk bells were pleasant to hear on First Day and we saw numbers of people wending their way to their respective places of worship.   I remember on Fourth Day beg­ging for a penny to buy shortbread snaps at a little shop, or in the summer I got threepence from my father and went down to the Peck Riding Mill and bought rhubarb from the new garden there.

In later days father got John Hewitson of Newcastle to buy a second-hand dog-cart for him from Isaac Lowthian Bell, which would carry five of us  to meeting on Sunday morning.   This was quite an event for it was the only gig in Allendale except one belonging to Mr. Beaumont’s agent. So after this we children trotted away to meeting in style with the horse Diamond.

The meetings were ever silent unless a strange minister came to visit us.  I have often thought since that sitting still from 60 to 90 minutes is advantageous in training, and we believed that we were associated with good men.

My father and mother always made a great fuss over ministering Friends when they came to see us, and we were very pleased to welcome them.   Father once entertained Stephen Grellet and drove him over to Coanwood meeting.  He was struck by the fact that S. Grellet called lambs “little moutons”.

S.A. Haydock writes, “One meeting I remember was when Sarah Ann Doeg from Carlisle, wife of Robert Doeg, was pre­sent.   Another time Mary Nicholson of Whitehaven and her cousin Hannah Maria Peile (afterwards H.M Wigham of Dublin) visited the meeting, and Isaac drove them over to Whamlands to our sister Hannah (then married), and I pointed out to them various houses we passed on our way.   Our Burnlaw yearly gatherings used to be great days, with Abraham Shield and his wife, also Hugh Shield and his wife, and in these early days Thomas and Jane Hall from Cumberland were often visitors at Burnlaw.   At the first meeting I remember, Jacob Watson, a grey-headed little old man, sat at the head of the meeting.   Bill Wilson, a shoemaker, sat next to him, and then father, facing the meeting;  Abraham and Hugh Shield, Joseph Pattison and Joseph Wilson were also lead­ing Friends.   Many of the small farmers living near the school I attended at Sinderhope, were apparently Friends There is a grave stone - now surrounded by iron railings -at a farm called the “Hay Rake”, which records that the occupier spent 11 years in prison for not paying tythes -his name was Thos. Williamson.   When a child I remember Joseph Bevan Braithwaite spending 2 days at High Studdon, my father and he spent the time deciphering the writing and cutting out with their knives the words nearly erased.

The advices about “the unnecessary frequenting of taverns and other public houses  was given a large margin of liberty.   Jacob Watson kept a respectable public house, and his eldest son was manager of a brewery.  William Wilson, his neighbour in the minister’s gallery, was a keen temperance man and a personal teetotaller;  and so in this meeting (as at Thirsk) Friends were divided on this question.   Jacob Watson is reported to have said to William Wilson, “Thou makest my trade not respectable, I’ll not deal with thee at thy shop any more”.  No doubt many Friends left the Society or were disowned. in the dales as a consequence of drinking.   In my early days I saw three men under the influence of drink who were closely connected with Friends.   The lack of ministry in the meetings was fatal.   Friends met together in silence which in itself is an opening for utterance.   The Bible was not allowed to be read and the meetings frequently  lasted an hour and a half.   If a minister from a distance visited our meeting, three or four notices were written out end posted in the town.   I remember, when a boy, asking our older members, if it would not be well to ask our neighbours to come.   The reply was given to me, “Those whose hearts are moved by the Lord will come, it is not our part to interfere”.

Allendale M.M

This Allendale M.M. included Allendale Alston and Coanwood where Meeting Houses existed from C. Fox’s times. The first Meeting House became a stable, the second Meeting House was built 1733;  this again was rebuilt in l866. Meetings were held at Tedham near Allenheads, Alston and in West Allendale.   The Meeting House at Alston has been closed for many years except for M.M.   The Meeting at Coanwood is now composed entirely of 2 members of the Wigham family.

Of Friends composing the Allendale meeting formerly, the Watson family were most numerous.   Members of the family attended both Tedham and Allendale meetings.   Afterwards the Watsons removed to Newcastle, almost in a body;  Robert Spence Watson was a representative of the family in later years.   Isaac Hall, my brother, married Margaret Wigham whose mother was a Watson, and her grandfather Jacob Watson was brother to Joshua Watson the grandfather of R.S. Watson

My father related that John Hewitson of Sparty Lea was a fine specimen of a dalesman who began to attend meet­ing in his youth, and laid himself open to persecution not easy to bear.   He married Esther Watson of Tedham and was accused by his follow miners of marrying for money. Quakers had the name for being wealthy.   We were once having the Meeting House repaired, and a conversation be­tween some men on the roof was overheard – “Get on with your work.”   No need,  Backhouse’s Bank you know”   So it used to be in Allendale, Friends in those days were accused of industrious and economical habits. 

Eventually the young pair made their way to New-castle and J. Hewitson opened out a business as cheese­monger and butter dealer.   They afterwards moved to Leeds. Their family were   -William who became  an  engineer  and two daughters Mary Ann and Hannah who lived in an old­fashioned house named Woodlands in Headingly and were very interesting old Friends, wearing their Quaker bonnet and cap to the end of their lives;

Another interesting family also sprang from Allanda1e - the famiIy of Wilsons.   Wm. Wilson was a shoemaker greatly esteemed;  he had two children Wm. and Mary.   Members of that family removed first of all to Cotherstone, then to Staindrop and finally Caleb Wilson settled in Sunderland carrying on various businesses;  he married Ann Hall from near Wigton a,,nd their four sons, under the name of “Joshua Wilson Bros.”  carried on an extensive business in Sunderland.

The Shield family were numerous living at Woolley Burnfoot and Burnlaw.

In the early days of the Society Friends were numer­ous but declension must have set in quite early.   The lack of education through ministry deadened the church and al­cohol claimed its victims.

The M.M. is held regularly at Allendale and Coanswood and occasionally at Alston.   Practically all are farmers, their solidarity of character is most noticeable and their attachment to the meetings held by their fathers is an in­centive to their continuance.   Wigton School is an incalcu­lable boon for the education of their children who in this way keep well in touch with the Cumberland Q. Meeting.

 

Sunderland .

David Blair, a Friend living in Carlisle, got me a situation at Sunderland, and I was apprenticed to Caleb Stansfield Wilson the youngest of four brothers.   I went there a perfect stranger but soon felt at home with the Wilson brothers.   The work undertaken by the oldest brother Joshua Wilson was practically only clearing tea, coffee, and tobacco out of bond as required.   He was however en­gaged in public work which kept him fully occupied he was on the town council and the River Wear Commission.  Henry Wilson, the second brother, acted as ledger clerk and was thus  constantly occupied:  the day books and small ledger were under the care of the clerks in the downstairs office. He   as also cashier and paid out for all Purchases, so his work was onerous.   He was a bachelor, took long walks  in the country and was a constant bather in the sea.  Charles looked after the tobacco business.   Henry and Caleb bought all the groceries between them.   We mostly sold Derbyshire cheese which Henry went to buy.   The brothers all dressed in black Quaker attire and used the plain language also for days and months.   They were painfully conscientious in their business, no two prices and their word was yea and nay.Their example was never lost upon me  but again my own father was equally conscientious, and my wife was the same.

Besides their wholesale and retail grocery business, Wilson Brothers were tallow-chandlers and supplied the candles to the colliery owners.   Half-a dozen men were employed in making clay pipes, from short pipes to 22 inch ones.  These were exported to India and China and indeed wherever the firm’s ships sailed.   We supplied many ships with stores and it was quite a business to get rebate for all duty paid on such articles as tea, tobacco &c., for the customs offi­cers were none too easy to please.   Wine and spirit mer­chants supplied any alcohol that was required, for our people refused to make a single penny out of alcohol.

Our five ships went sometimes to New York and St. Petersburg, but usually to India and China a year’s voyage, from which they returned with tea and rice or timber.  Suf­ficient water was taken to last 12 months for cooking and drinking and it was astonishing how well the water kept.  I remember once when some water was left over, the captain wanted to take the same water out again.   When the ships set sail or when they returned, I usually was at liberty to watch them put to sea or to go out on the steam-tug which brought them into port.   There were exciting times coming into port, but in going out the sailors liked to be cheered up by alcoholic inspiration.   Shipping has to be profitable because a ship does not last very long.   We had a ship called the Malvern” which cost £9,000 and in 3 years re­turned that sum to the owners, but after this repairs and re­placements became necessary.   A Friend, Robert Gayner, be­gan the business of buying up second-hand ships (the smaller vessels) which he sent out as trading vessels to South America.   They traded all round the S. American states from Rio to Chili and Peru, and eventually he made a fortune of £50 - £60,000 in that way.   Sunderland has grown to three times the size it was in those days and many of its citizens have become rich.

One new ship of the Wilsons  was named the “Allendale and I liked to take it as a compliment to myself, but the Wilsons came from Allendale originally removing to Cother­stone, then to Staindrop and finally Sunderland.

About twelve assistants and apprentices lodged in the house.   A housekeeper and two servants were in charge.  We had separate beds and the young men were mostly Friends. After shop hours we followed our own inclinations but we had to be indoors by 10 pm.   We spent twenty minutes over our breakfast of porridge, coffee and bread and butter.

As the youngest apprentice I had the duties each morning of cleaning brass scales and weights, washing the counter and sweeping the shop.   I had thirty minutes to do this in and not a minute to spare.

My work was behind the counter as a salesman.   Also we had to weigh up 5,000 half-ounces of tobacco and a thousand ounces every week - to be sold retail over the counter; this occupied three days.  Then tea into quarter and half ounces one, four and eight ounces, two hundred of each.   There were three individuals behind the counter and a constant run of customers.   I developed as a salesman but was no use as a clerk.   They had three elderly men to weigh up all other groceries such as sugar, fruit and spices.   We seldom took less than £60 each day and on Saturday two or three clerks out of the office helped behind the counter.

I soon fell in for extras such as Posting letters and carrying the money to the bank.   The money was put into a sack which I carried thrown over my shoulder.    Joshua Wilson often walked behind me, nervous and pressing me to walk faster.   This walk of 15 minutes up the street at quick pace left me breathless.   Edward Backhouse Mounsey was youngest in the bank and had to count the silver over. Protests were given with smiles, and chaff from the senior clerks was refreshing.   Thomas Hodgkin was in the bank at that time, a tall man with healthy face and always inter­esting.   As I grew older I took Henry Wilson’s Monday’s journey when he was away from home say Ackworth School Com­mittee or other meeting.   I had to call on chemists and also grocers for their weekly orders.   They used to pay very often in silver as well as gold and notes.   One day I remember filling all my purses, trouser, coat and waistcoat, every pocket I had, so I had to walk back to the bank to empty my pockets and check the receipts, then again return­ing to my labours.   I liked selling goods, suggesting cheap lines, prospects of rising prices and so I have often thought since that if I had been put to travelling for orders, I could have been a very profitable apprentice.

The last two years of my apprenticeship I took charge of the tea department.   We sold 130,000 lbs. annually, all Chinese tea in those days.   The business was not good for health and trying for the nerves, as I was often tea-tasting from 9 in the morning till 4 in the afternoons. Weighing and blending tea, clearing it out of the bond warehouse, paying the duties, &c., &c., kept me hard at work.   I had an Irishman, a porter, to help me each day. I got to understand the tea trade thoroughly which has ever been a great advantage in my business.   Only China tea came into England then.   Now China teas are little consumed and Ceylon and Indian tea are entirely to the fore. Nearly all our coffees came from India, Ceylon and Arabia, now South Africa and the Soudan have the principal coffee plantations.

Tobacco was a very expensive article to clear.   The cases of tobacco were very heavy.  Possibly I am repeating, but I was a man to fill up temporary vacancies such as clearing teas and tobacco from bond, in such cases I carried the money in gold and notes to the custom house~   Once, carrying over £1,000, I took £100 short in error;  it was not dis­covered until balancing at night, when the treasurer rushed into the shop in terror saying he would lose his situation. After balancing our cash, I found £100 to spare so that crisis passed over happily.

Those years of business were an excellent training and the great variety of occupation and responsibility was not lost upon me.

The tobaccos sold by our firm were high class  tobaccos, and went mostly to London to the high-class retailers. Some of our apprentices smoked;  I never did nor did any of the four Wilson brothers.   I always had a strong objec­tion to smoking and drinking, indeed I saw the waste of money, and I never had pocket money to waste.   To-day in 1925 I notice ordinary people, and even poor people, spend say 6/- weekly on tobacco, 6/- on alcohol, and 6/- say on horse-racing, how they mount up’.   If you give way to any of these things they become a comfort which cannot be de­nied.   Such things as food and clothing, rent and rates are most trying expenses, and as a magistrate I notice what a hardship it is to pay rent and rates.

The year after I left the Wilsons gave up this pro­fitable tobacco business from conscientious motives.  In­deed all the brothers lived the life of endeavouring to have & conscience void of offence toward God and man. Ever since I lived with them I have never ceased to remem­ber the influence for good that I received from them, and in my life since I have endeavoured to live up to their standard of rightness in business transactions and dealings with my fellow men.

Prom a business point of view we had the opportu­nity of learning to take a wide o~t1ook on life which is so necessary for every man, enabling him to meet the changing conditions of life, for instance it is wise early to remember in competition in business that everyone has the same right to live as yourself.

I had a number of associates.  William Sykes, a native of Pontefract, had served an apprenticeship at York with a Friend who was short of capital and they had difficulties to contend with.   William was always planning to be on his Own and make the most of his small capital.   Eventually he started business at Bishop Auckland where I went for 3 days to give him a hand.   He did well but was attacked by con­sumption and died after five years business life on his own.

Isaac Stephenson Neave was an intellectual man.  He got me to study English history.   I took up Harriet Martineau’s “History of the 30 years  Peace  that is from 1815 to William the Fourths reign.   This led me in the end to interest myself in Liberal politics and had the tendency to temper my zeal for business.   All through my life I have busied myself much in politics, which may have lost me much trade, but broadened and strengthened my character, and led me eventually into association with some notable poli­ticians including the first Marquis Of Ripon (who appointed me a county magistrate), the Hon. George Lascelles, Lord Helmsley, E.R. Turton, Hon. Geoffrey Howard and many members of parliament.   All this variety modified my life.   I got a larger view, a widened outlook and was more fitted to help my fellow men.

The winters were unusually severe those years.   At Cleadon three miles from Sunderland, we had abundance of skating.   One year the frost lasted over two months.  The river Wear was frozen within two miles of the sea:  the ice, being lifted by the rise of the tide and falling down with the receding tide, made a noise like thunder    one night we skated four miles up the river getting home at three in the morning;  it was very rough ice, in some place there were hills of  “cat”  ice blown up into quite large heaps.   It was a night never to be forgotten, weird and exciting.   In the season we bathed in the sea at  the Hendon shore from June to October.   We bathed very fre­quently.   I got to be a good swimmer;  this led to over confidence on one occasion, for I got outside the pier, and had the greatest difficulty in getting back, however the idea of drowning never occurred to me    When I got within shouting distance from the shore I called for help which soon came.   When I came to shore, I  lay  for some time before I was able to get up.   It was early  in Octo­ber and the water was cold.   I have noticed that swimmers are often dangerously venturesome and that experience was not lost on me.   There were many people walking on the sea­shore on half-holidays.

My life in Sunderland was most interesting.   I got to know a wide circle of Friends in Durham Q.M. and became great ly interested in the Society of Friends.   I never missed at tending morning and evening meeting on Sundays and also went on 5th day morning.   I taught a class of boys at the Sunday School in the morning and E.B. Mounsey took this class in the afternoon.   At least once every year our class had a sumptu­ous tea at John Mounsey’s house and a most jolly time.   E.B. Mounsey was special in legerdemain, indeed all his life he was ever in excellent spirits.   Some three or four years before his death, I met E.B.M. and his wife in Darlington station and we were talking over our early days in the Sunday School when he remarked that he heard we had a flourishing Adult and Children’s Sunday School and Band of Hope at Thirsk. I replied “It is no credit to me - all owing to the stimulus of Mrs. Mounsey’s  plum-cake which created those enthusiasm of days gone by which are unforgotten memories to-day. This sort of answer just suited him.   I notice his family, like their father, are much engaged in all good works.

One story is interesting to relate.   When I went to Sunderland I wore a Quaker jacket and suit, and always used the plain language in speech.   The only families who dressed their boys in this way and used the plain language were the Mounseys and Backhouses.   After meeting on Thursday, I called in at a barber1s shop to get my hair cut.  The barber took me to his special room, making a great fuss over me, besmearing my head with special bear’s grease and odours and charging me 1/-, which I paid.   I reported my adventure to the young men, hence a rush to the barber’s to hear in ex­ultant tones his experiences with the young Backhouse, the very summit of his dreams and ambitions~ explaining my gentlemanly manners, etc.   In course of time he was unde­ceived, but it was so good a tale that it became a Quaker public adventure and I was invited thereafter Lo aristo­cratic gatherings in Quaker Society.   As time went on I retired from Quaker costume and language.

The Wilsons were kind but especialIy Henry the bachelor was very kind to me, taking me with him to Dar­lington Q.M. also Newcastle and paying expenses, indeed whenever I went with him he paid all costs    Once he took me to Ackworth.   I dont know whether he did so with others but as I said before I did not associate much with the young men, neither having money to spend nor inclination to join up with their evening adventures,   Once I was asked to go to North Shields to M.M.  but excused my­self on account of costs.   Stephenson Wilson said  - “Oh!  I’ll pay costs “ and gave me a penny telling me to walk to South Shields and cross the Tyne by the halfpenny ferry. I went and enjoyed the walk by the sea past Marsden Rocks and so on to South Shields and across the ferry.   I had dinner with Charles Brown the father of Dr. Vipont,  Wm., and Alfred Brown.   Their mother was first cousin to my wife, she being a niece of Bartholomew Smith    C.B. was a beauti­ful character and his wife was above all things large-hearted. Q.M’s took me to Darlington;  one time Dinner at John Pease’s and tea at Joseph Pease’s.   John Pease’s  two daughters were not then married - the elder afterwards married T. Fry, the younger J.B. Hodgkin.   My sister Margaret later became Governess to the six children of Henry Pease of Pierremont.

In my life in Sunderland I was painfully aware of my father’s critical health.   I heard of him regularly from my sisters but 13 days each year was the only opportunity I had of seeing him and at the time of his death by some mis­understanding I did not even hear of his illness in time to get home to see him, indeed I only reached home on the morn­ing of the funeral.   It was a great trouble to me and I became morbidly affected:  for we always were greatly at­tached to each other.   He died in 1861.

I was sorry to leave Sunderland and the meeting.  I enjoyed the spiritual addresses of Henry Binns and his brother Watson Binns.   Edward Backhouse was a large -hearted man of faith holding evangelical views    I have always thought since, and even then, that the acknowledgment of ministers did not help meetings.   I think it ought to be the duty of most men and women, at one time or another, to give expression to the Spirit of God working in their hearts. The greater the variety of ministry the better and es­pecially helpful is the ministry of young people in keep­ing the ministry healthy

Some who get into a habit of frequently taking part in meeting often get beyond their message, and thus are without life.   I often hear of fault finding with the ministry and I always think the reason is that some Friend or Friends are unfaithful to messages distinctly put be­fore them to give, but they quench the Spirit.

When we meet for worship, the whole meeting should be as one man, bearing each other’s burdons and so fulfil­ling the law of Christ.  How is It that sometimes we feel the meeting to be cold and lifeless and other times full of life and of the Spirit of God.

When first going to Thirsk (1863)

and then returning to Thirsk (1868)

I left Sunderland when twenty-one and stayed with my relatives in Allendale for three months.   Then owing to the illness of a man at Thirsk I took a three months’ engagement with B. Smith; the young man died and I was asked to remain.

My coming to Thirsk was as follows

My special friend was Isaac S. Neave of Manchester, he was an assistant at 74 High Street, Sunderland and was behind the counter with me.   He was my senior by 3 or 4 years.  He was cousin to John S. and Joseph Rowntree.   I often talked with him about my chances after my apprenticeship was over, and when I left Sunderland I wrote to John S. Rowntree to know if they had a vacancy.   The reply was no vacancy, but a few days later I heard that Bartholomew Smith had a 3 mos. vacancy to offer through the illness of his assistant.  On hearing this I went at once to Bishop Auckland to consult William Sykes who advised me to write and offer my services for 3 mos. for £10 and my keep.   This was accepted and I came at once by Stanhope, and Darlington to Thirsk.   My belongings were all packed in a carpet bag, the fashionable equipment of the day.   On arriving at Thirsk station, I apprehended I was in the town, but found I had to walk for half an hour through the fields adjoining the road.   Of course I had to rest a time or two as my bag was heavy.  I soon found the shop and walked in - Mr. Smith was out so I went to the grocery department, opened out my carpet bag for an apron. fastened  It on and went behind the counter and began wrapping up sugar along with two apprentices.  In an hour’s time it became known to the household that I had arrived, and soon M.A. Smith came to ask if I would come and have refreshment.  I declined saying that tea-time would meet the case.   When I went upstairs, I was shown my room and afterwards came tea, but first of all In the drawing room I was introduced to Mrs. Smith and her daugh­ters Eliza Harris, Mary Ann and Gulie, also a small boy of eight named Arthur.   I was greatly taken with the welcome accorded to me, but felt awkward, never having been much in the company of young people.   I did not go back in the shop that evening but stopped and talked to the mother. In the evening S. Smith arrived from York and the next morning I was shown over.   Two apprentices and myself had to do all the work.   Not having had any warehouse experi­ence in handling puncheons of treacle or cleaning currants and raisins, I found myself in a hole at once,   On the quiet I gave the lorry-man silver to help me with the treacle putting into the cellar &C  until I had picked up the

elementary warehousing work. I soon picked that up, but again - the small business I could not grasp, being before only engaged in a large way. It was very trying. B.Smith had the eye of a panther (?) and liked the goods packed in the fixtures smart.   Here I had all to learn, and except for the kindness of the ladies I should have fled..   I ever had such a high opinion of my sisters, I verily believed there were no women like them and I was bound to my sisters by the closest brotherly love.   During the whole of my apprentice­ship I associated almost entirely with my elders, both men and women.   In coming to Thirsk I found another sister and talked with her, never for a moment assuming anything beyond. The first disturbing element arose from an old lady Friend, Jane White, over 80 years of age, sister to Thomas Richardson, the great London banker, who left large sums of money to our Friends’ Schools.   His niece, Mary White, married John Baker of Thirsk.   Jane White being very old was taken care of by John Baker’s sister and they lived in Thirsk.   Jane White never came to meeting and people used to say she was a witch. I never spoke to her in my life.   How ever she set the story going that I was to marry M.A. Smith and take over the busi­ness, - which came true in course of time.   I thought little of it at the time and so did everyone else, it was only con­sidered one of her vagaries.   Nevertheless another prophecy of hers came true which I heard from the people themselves.

 

The next happening was that Thomas Smith came home from York school suffering from suppressed measles which at once became serious.   He sent for me, and I went to his bed­side (he was 17).   He at once told me he was not going to live, and he gave me his blessing and said we should marry and be happy - this was a shock to me.

A definite engagement came about in this wise.   One evening B. Smith desired to see me and spoke about the close intimacy I had with Pollie.   I was shocked and said at once,

“We are only brother and sister - there is much in common between us.”    But he added “Something more might come of it and asked what were my prospects.   I managed to say that my father left me £800 which I could have when I wanted it. I still would not consent to any publicity and I never said anything to my friends, however I thought I had better leave Thirsk and I went back to Allendale. A month later I went to see the (Smith) family at Borrowdale and while there I saw an advertisement in the Carlisle Journal  a business to be sold.   Of course I made no decent enquiries; it was really a bankrupt business and two people previously had been bankrupt.   However I took the stock in trade, fixtures, &c, &c., and had it fitted out to the latest.

To commencing business, I advertised strongly.  The advertised prices were taking, and my personality had its advantages.   I lost £140 the first year and in the second I c1eared £100 and got married on the strength of business returns.   Our marriage was on August 1st, 1867.

About the end of that year, my father-in-law found that his manager had got greatly into debt and must leave, and I was asked to join up in the business at Thirsk.    William Baines of Sunderland, who was with me there, took my business, and his sons continue with my business to this day in Carlisle.

His Wife - Mary Anne Smith.­

She intensely disliked the family name of Mary Ann and was usually called Pollie.

From the first day of my coming to Thirsk between M.A.S. and myself there was much in common - our tastes in poetry and prose, and the love of nature and natural scenery.   The whole family seemed to be often roaming over the Hambleton Hills:  Rievaulx Abbey, Fountains Abbey and other places of interest in the neighbourhood fell in for visits.

It was a fact that we were never parted in the even­ings.  Books of interest were read:  Mrs. and Robert Browning’s poetry - Carlyle was a great hero, Longfellow’s poems, and those of Mrs. Hemans were in vogue.   Besides I had taken up Harriet Martineau’s History of Thirty Years’ Peace” 1815-1845.   I spent months over this his­tory and became very political, reading the “Morning Star”, Bright’s paper.   I went three times to hear John Bright. As I said before, I had begun to read quite a lot.  I found that M.A. Smith had strong literary tastes, which had been fostered by her aunt Mrs. John.Davies of Birkenhead, also her aunt and’ cousin (both Jane Oddie) at whose schools at Birkenhead and Southport she had spent some happy years. She was head girl at Ackworth School when only 13 so left there for Southport.   Our mutual literary tastes led up to a strong friendship and then to an engagement, so that I found myself engaged to be married before I was 23 years of age.   This engagement I kept from my relatives until in the summer (1865?) we both turned up in Allendale and I have no reason to suppose that it was other­wise than acceptable as our welcome was (to say the least) great.

M.A.H began married life with the idea that poetry reading would play a large part, but she had not al1owed for hens, which were never in her line.   However at one time, they got through some reading in bed in the morning   two volumes of E.B. Browning’s letters, and two more of the letters which passed between E.B. and Robert Browning   the latter person familiarly spoken of by J.W.H  as “Robert” and held up as the model man.   J.W.H. often told in early life he made up his mind that he would never marry a “doll , for his sisters had taught him to appreciate women with brains and sense.

J.W.H. was a pure Northumbrian of Quaker descent. His wifes ancestors include early converts to Quakerism in Yorkshire, Cumberland, and Lancashire.   A forefather on the Smith side joined Friends through the Preaching of Wm. Dewsbury while imprisoned in Crayke Castle, near Easingwold, and his daughter Mabel Barker nee Robinson travelled in the ministry acceptably, throughout Yorkshire. M.A.H’s grandmother Elizabeth Smith nee Harris was of the Harris family. of Cumberland, and her father Captain William Harris of the ships “Friend”  and “Christian” of Maryport was the e1dest of six brothers who all married and had families so Elizabeth Smith had many first cousins, one of whom, Isabella Harris Jun., was the mother of the gifted Lord Lister who did so much for surgery.

M.A.Hs mother Isabel Smith nee Oddie was a des­cendant of John Ecroyd of Folds House, Briarcliffe, Lancs, who joined Friends about 1670.   His daughter Mary Ecroyd married William Oddie in 1711 and Isabel Oddie who married B. Smith of Thirsk was their great-grand daughter.

Thirsk Nov. 25th 1923.   Had my dear Pollie been living yesterday she would have been 82 years of age, She died the 29th of September 1911.

My wife was ever my mentor   for she as truly con­scientious in her whole life.   Of all the Books she read E. Barrett and Robert Browning’s writings appealed most to her.   Their robust faith appealed to her sense of rightness and righteousness.   On her deathbed we only felt we were losing a joyous soul, and she died with a loving smile on her face.

Carlisle

The business at Carlisle turned out a success after the first 6 months;  from that time I had a good trade keep­ing an assistant and an apprentice.

On August 1st, 1867 we got married at Thirsk  It was a great day, the church bells rang peals the whole of the day, two outriders dressed in scarlet carried us to and from the meeting house to Stoneybrough - the new house that the bride’s father had built and just moved into, in time for the wedding.   I may say here that these unusual additions to a Friend’s” wedding were arranged for by Harry Jacob who with his wife Eliza, the bridees eldest sister,  were over in England from Zanzibar.

We went to Scotland for a ten days  honeymoon~ and then settled in a newly-built house in Carlisle.

After settling in Carlisle,  sister Margaret, who had been one of the bridesmaids  came to assist us.   My wife brought c little maid from Thirsk with her, but house-keeping was all new and cooking a curiosity.   One day in making soup some pepper was spilled on the table, and economy being the order of the day Maggie said “It’s a pity to waste it”, and put it into the soup.   This soup was in­deed economical, for a little went a long way, and it last­ed us several days; it was a joke for many.

My first efforts in the furnishing direction had been to buy a set of china:  it was “Worcester” green and white, and very expensive, Jane Little a maiden lady of Carlisle meeting assisted me and advised;  the price was a shock, and after that economy in furnishing became the first thought, indeed a purchase of chairs we reconsidered and re-sold them in the market    Carlisle Friends were ex­tremely kind and M.A.H. much appreciated the welcome they gave her and when afterwards we had to remove to Thirsk we were both very sorry to leave.

About the time I began business many other interest­ing young Friends were starting business life: some busi­nesses were failures.  In my business I stuck closely to it never leaving it, I arrived at a cash trade and did a good business, my successor Wm. Baines went in for high class trade.

I had (Adventures, my shop was burglared, but there was no money left there to rob, a footpad attacked me on a Saturday night on my way home, I dodged him in his attack and by extra agility I left him behind me.   My landlord was a curious personality although I did not. suffer at his hands, yet his grasping propensities led to his death by an old soldier whom he had cheated soon after our leaving Carlisle.

I found the Carrs very good supporters and indeed most of the Friends supported me in trade, and I had every reason to think well of Cumberland Friends.   I never could have done other than a small trade in Carlisle, the premises were so cramped, and I preferred a more promiscuous business.

Before leaving Carlisle I ought to name that there were 7 young men - not including the Carrs - all engaged in business, four of these were unsuccessful and three succeeded, the difference practically was this, the four took holidays and did some spending, the three were glued to their work and no temptations would take them away, business at all times is difficult, and you must enjoy and be interested in your occu­pation, a real love of it is necessary for success.

The young Carrs were most enthusiastic in whatever they became connected with.

Before and after that time a strong wave of Evangelism swept through our Society - it was a protest against a prac­tice and belief which became rampant even in Geo. Fox’s time and caused that man much anxiety to combat the Quaker belief that a spark of God is inherent in every soul, which if al­lowed will lead to Christ and the acceptance of His love, and life given for His children.   Large numbers of Friends took up the belief that  ”that of God in  them”   would reveal to them every action in life necessary, so that they would not even send their children to school, maintaining that God would teach them.   This went on for about ton years and the children turned out little rascals; Geo. Fox started at once the idea of the necessity of schools, and an excellent education.   Still the thought of guidance without effort has been a stumbling block to Friends in every generation since, hence the smallness of numbers. How many Friends speak highly of the Society’s practice of not proselytising as a virtue, but Geo. Fox and the early Friends far otherwise.   Of course any human plan more or less has weakness.

Experiences as a Magistrate.

It is now 19 years since I promised to be loyal to my King and country and to dispense justice without fear or favour.   The whole business connected with it was very trying to contemplate.   First of all) under Sir Wm. Harcourt’s  wing, the temperance party were induced to hope for a large measure of temperance~ reform, and temperance people all over the country were advised to consent to accept nominations for justice of the peace.   When I was asked, I shrank from it, mostly from natural shyness and also from a certainty that I should be sure to lose much trade.   When it became known that my name was being brought before the Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding (then the first Marquis of Ripon) Wm. Turton spoke to me of the impropriety of my am­bitions as the County bench was only meant for County people, and I was only a tradesman.   It was not natural for me to fall in with such an argument, and naturally I resented it strongly.   I should have been only too glad to write to Lord Ripon (and refuse?) but instead I told Turton that I would not withdraw.   Liberals from Harrogate, Ripon and York stood by me; the Liberal agent C.H. Parkinson was unceasing in keeping me up to the mark;  Robert Spence Watson as a friend of Lord Ripon was called in on my behalf.   On the other hand Lord Ripon received numerous local North Riding letters, some of which were abominable, alluding for in­stance to mental incapacity.

Some time later Lord and Lady Ripon celebrated their golden wedding and, as I had been very active in the Worth Riding Liberal Association, I was appointed with others to present an illuminated address to them.   We went to Studley Royal, lunched with Lord and Lady Ripon, and in presenting the address we each had to make a short speech to which he replied.   Afterwards the others scattered over the Fountain Abbey grounds and the park but I chose to stay at the house and it was a most interesting day for me.   Lord and Lady Ripon both took to me amazingly, and he gave me a history of his life from childhood.   He was born at 10 Downing St. when his father was Prime Minister.   From his childhood he was filled with the determination that his life must be spent in the interests of his country and for his country. He was descended on his father’s side from Oliver Cromwell and on his mother’s side from John Hampden and he longed to follow in their footsteps.   He went on to day that he adhered closely to the Liberal and Radical party and was a member of all Gladstone’s governments.   I queried whether he was sacrificing the social aspirations of his wife since Tory social functions, so thick on the ground around them, would be denied to them, and whether this was fair to Lady Ripen.   She was quick to reply that if she lost anything, she gained more;  that after the marriage of Alexandra with King Edward, then Prince of  Wales, they visited Studley Royal and stayed some days, and with animation Lady Ripon went on to say “From the time of that visit we have addressed each other as sisters and have never failed to write to each other every week once”    Their son afterwards 2nd Marquis acted as Treasurer of Queen Alexandra’s household.

Lord Ripon explained to me that he had two large es­tates managed by two separate land agents    He found that through drink and extravagance some of his tenants came to grief;  he then gave orders for them to have a sale, never troubled them about back rents, but let them retire with what they had.   In conclusion he said – “I am thankful that I never sold a tenant up”.

The first year I came to Thirsk, June 1863, was the month of the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and in July their visit to Studley Royal was undertaken. Thirsk and Ripon with numerous other places determined to unite in giving a welcome to the newly-married couple. Shops wore all closed at Thirsk and I went with the rest to Ripon~ Princess Alexandra planted a young   tree in the Abbey grounds, which we both (i.e., J.W.H. and M.A.S.?) went to see after it was planted, and always afterwards took an interest in it.   It is now a huge tree at least 30 to 40 feet high. while at Studley Royal I alluded to this tree and this gave rise to the conversation previously narrated.

We had afternoon tea and then Lord Ripon told me he liked me and would I write to him as often as I liked, and he would always write himself in return.   I had little time to write but whenever I did I always get a good long reply.

At that time the Tories were in office and it was conveyed to me that he could not forward my name to the Lord Chancellor as the Thirsk local magistrates were so much op­posed to my nomination that it would certainly not be accept­ed by the Chancellor.   But when Campbell Bannerman became premier, I came in at once, the first Quaker and the first Liberal on the Thirsk bench.

The Thirsk magistrates appeared to be doubtful what I would do with regard to licensing and with drunks.  I told them I loved a publican and loved a drunk, and that as cir­cumstances permitted I would help all I could.   They were afraid I would dislike signing papers and  &c.,  however they were soon disabused.   The fact of Quakers keeping themselves hidden from the public gaze in their meeting houses, and usually assuming an apologetic air for being a Quaker and acting as if they were individuals not belonging to the common herd, brings me to the opinion that the largest infusion possible of new blood is necessary to get rid of this feeling.  I was once most seriously asked how long an aspirant to membership had to sit behind the door before being admitted.  Front these ideas  arose the magis­trates’ fears as to my usefulness.

I have ever been successful in not taking offence at slights or, worse still, attention addressed with a desire to wound.  On such occasions to be dense or thick is an ad­mirable possession.

I soon made friends and it was remarked by one of the magistrates to myself, that trio of our colleagues were quite jealous of me.  My reply was that possibly I had had a su­perior training.  I did not feel troubled about such matters

Vagrants soon came in for my attention.  It was thought that the best way to get rid of vagrants was to give them im­prisonnents from 14 days to 28 days or longer, but the more prosecuted the more they increased.  At the casual ward there was a bed, a bath, clothes stored every night, and a hundred­weight of stones to break in the morning.  This treatment had varying effects but you had to deal with hardened villains and likewise with innocents not specially mentally competent. Often we had to deal with men who had known many years imprisonnent.  In all these cases a magistrate ought to be most painstaking in dealing generously and justly in administering the law.  There is a certain amount of the superior air combined with a lack of education in its broadest sense in some magistrates.  There should be a sense of generosity, a strong desire to do the right between man and man, for which one needs to have a large share of discrimination. Above all things it is desirable to help to give hope to your fellow man; even in the worest cases, occasion should be found to point to the better way.  On the whole the position of a magistrate is or ought to be an opportunity to be help­ful to, and a desire to help, his fellow man and the community at large.  Abundant opportunity is given for helping in all the relations of life.  Advice is often asked for, and advice should be given on Christian lines.

A few times I have stood in a minority of one as to judgments given which is necessary at times in order to keep a clean conscience.  The withdrawal of some two or three alcohol licences have been personal achievements, and I have taken a prominent part in quite a number of cases.  I have always endeavoured to look on the best side of everyone and make no enemies.  It is a great point attained when you have learned neither to take nor to give offence.  Life is then truly worth living and one should always try to bring out the best side of a man’s life and never descend to the low.   For instance it is not always wise to see a coarse joke;  it is better to be thick on the point.

Note:  On J.W. Halls 83rd birthday the chairman of the bench - E.R. Turton M.P., later Sir Edmund Turton said “he wished to perform the pleasant duty of wishing Mr  Hall many happy returns of the day. He hoped he would be able to wish Mr. Hall the same in ten years time, and they trusted he would enjoy health and happiness.

J.W.H. was on very friendly terms with Sir Hugh Bell the Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding and they had a great deal of correspondence and conversations chiefly on the appointment of new magistrates.   On one occasion when J.W.H. and a daughter were at Rownton Grange, Sir Hugh’s home, on a visit of this nature, Sir Hugh told him that he must never cease to take his place on the bench as long as it was at all possible to do so.   J.W.H’s increasing deafness was making it more and more difficult and in the end he had to discontinue his attendance for that reason.   Sir Hugh is a North countryman and he is descended from Friends;  this was one link between them.

Various Reflections on Quakerism.

The continuous religious excitements and revelations springing up had little effect upon me, and I could have nothing to do with sensationalism.    I believed in miracles and my own life was a miracle.   I was always sorry to see people go off at a tangent, and then perhaps to lose all faith.   If people would only stand and wait with their spiritual difficulties, they would see a light that would lead them.   I am glad that the salient points of George Fox’s life and experience are coming to the front now with great power, and again study is revealing the character of our Lord Jesus Christ as never seen before because of the mystifications of our prelates.

I was never afraid of Biblical criticism.   Take for instance the gospel of John:  read it critically, read it prayerfully, read it honestly - I am sure you want no more to lead you to the Kingdom of Heaven.

When I was twenty I went with my brother Isaac to the Yearly Meeting (1862) and was pained to see some of these dear people charging each other with being unorthodox. Neither then or since have I cared for dissension.   What I would say is – “ Do you feel it helpful to yourself to worship together in our meetings, in a silence which often leads to utterance?’~   This gives people the opportunity of experience, and they may in the long run either leave or see their way to applying for membership.   I think it is wrong to rush people into applying ~or membership.

Our meetings should be made attractive for children and young people.   Strangers should be encouraged to at­tend and our mode of meeting together explained to them. No hard and fast lines should be required of our new mem­bers.   Freedom, love and forbearance, and sound liberality ought to be extended.   We should remember that the sign of a healthy church are seeking for unity in essentials, and in all things charity.   We ought to look upon the church with the widest of vision and extend our love to all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.   The Society of Friends is not a sort of Freemason’s lodge with its secret signs, but with both arms extended is reaching to embrace the whole world.

George Fox and his friends had full faith in what they taught.   Is it possible that the major number of Friends think that the religious beliefs we held are only suitable for the few?   Many apologise for being Friends, say for in-stance that their forefathers were Friends, simply because they themselves have never been instructed in childhood or later in our faith.   I think we want mere of a teaching ministry in our meetings, a teaching that would encourage the young seeker.   I have often felt that the religious views held by Friends are so suitable for all, that all our meetings should be large live meetings.

I was often warned in my early days against “creaturely activity.”  This advice was well when addressed to thick-skinned natures, but if addressed to the most numerous class, modest and timid souls, the effect of such advice was killing.   I wonder how many young Friends interpreted the meaning of creaturely activity” to be “keep your mouth shut” - always a safe course to take.

The Friends of former days thought that dress and the plain thee and thou, the first and second day were safe-guards against worldliness.   The following is an account narrated by B. Smith of a visit of my wife’s uncle David Smith to London Yearly Meeting and the 1851 Exhibition. He was accompanied by his eldest daughter Rebecca Smith who wore a Friends’ bonnet, his son Jonn Wilson Smith and his nephew Samuel Woodhead Smith both dressed in Friends’ cloth­ing including hats with broad brims.  After attending Y.M. they went on to the Exhibition.  Their first sight on entering was some statuary to which D.S. objected, and they moved on to a large apartment in which people were gathering.. The four sat by a door in order to be ready for exit in case of necessity.  Presently behold! women came on the platform with low dresses and men with musical instruments.  David Smith, seeing this preparation of worldliness arose and made for the door of exit and found it locked.  It was a sight for all present - the dapper little Friend walking first and elbowing the Company as he passed saying - “Make way, make way.”  He was followed by his beautifully and plainly dressed daughter, and the two young men duly attired in broad brims surely upheld the correctness of attire. They departed from the room and from the building to their lodgings.  When the time for evening reading came, David Smith happened to open his Bible at Psalm 152 and began to read - “Lord, remember David in all his afflictions” but he got no further, for the humour of the situation appealed to him as well as to the young people.

Surely to-day Friends have got further enlightened and see the truth of the passage in the book of Samuel “Man looketh at the outward appearance, but God looketh at the heart.”-   We must hope that now and in the future, Friends as a Society will prosper as they dwell on reali­ties and their faith leads up to works.

 

 

 

For several years our Father occupied his spare time in writing down his recollections end was always wanting us to arrange these various writings for him into a straight story. Unfortunately we could not then find ourselves free to tackle what has proved to be a piece of work demanding both time and space.

Now we have been glad to set to work and go right through all the manuscripts and note books; and with the help and encouragement of our cousin Henry Haydock we have finished our transcript;

 

 

WinifredHall

Isabel M. Hall.

 

Sunnymead

Thirsk.

20 March, 1930

The Thirsk Family of Halls.

 

 

 

        John William Hall born at High Studdon 26. 1. 1842     Mary Anne Hall Born at Thirsk 24. Xl. 1841

married at Thirsk Friends' Meeting House 1. VIII. 1867.

M.A. Hall died Sept. 29th. 1911.  J.W. Hall died March 2nd. 1929. both buried in Thirsk cemetery.

Their children all born at Thirsk:

1. Winifred b. 24. Xll. 1868 d. 9. 1. 1934

2. Allan Bartholomew b. 9. Vll. 1870 d. 10. 1. 1945

3. Isabel Mary b. 12. Xl. 1871 d. 31.12. 1949

4. Mabel Susan b. 18. lX. 1873 d 1949

5. John Edward b. 5. lX. 1875

6. Marion b. 20. 11. 1878

 

Allan Bartholomew Hall m. Rose Gilling of Thirsk at Sowerby Church

27. VII 1898. Rose d. Sept 10 1946

Mabel Susan Hall m. Benjamin Walker of Harrogate at Thirsk Friends' Meeting House 24. VII. 1901.

Their children all born in London S.E.

1. Isabel Hall b. 25. VIII 1902 m. at Woolwich F.M.U. 10. lV. 1926. to Harry Davis of Singapore b. 11.11.1902

Their children Randall b. at Batavia, Java 21. 11. 1927, Bryan b. at Bombay 7. VI. 1929

2. Madeline Winifred b. 1. 1. 1904

3. Benjamin Claude b. 1. 111. 1906

John Edward Hall m. Helen Grubb of Fingringhoe, Sussex at Sidcot F.M.H. 31. VIII. 1904.

Their children all born at Thirsk.

1. Margaret Helen b. 3. XI 1905

2. John Philipson b. 13 XII. 1907

3. Roderick Smith b. 17 Xll. 1909

4. Mary Lecky b. 24.IV. 1902

5. Christabel b. 20. X. 1914

Marion Hall m. John Edmundson of Gateshead b. 22. IV 1879 at Thirsk F.M.H.28 VII. 1903

J.E. Edmundson d. at Hawick 17. lx. 1920 and was buried in Jesmond Cemetery, Newcastle.

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Their children are: -

1. Kathleen Mary b. at Scarboro' 28. 11. 1905

2. Norah Gertrude b. at Grantham 22. Vl. 1906

5. Joan Wigham b. at Grantham 8. X. 1907 d 2.5.1944

4. Arnold Watson b. at Grantham 6. 11. 1911

 

THE HALL FAMILY.

 

Information from John Hall Shield's study of old minute books.

The registers of the Society of Friends state the Benjamin Hall a member of Embleton Meeting son of Isaac Hall of Haghouse married Margaret Pescod at Burnfoot on the 7th. of 11th. mo. 1740. This is the earliest register I have any account of in this family.

The Hall family has been numerous in Northumberland. The first Q. Meeting of the Society of Friends in Northumberland was held at Otterburn 28th. day of 8th. mo. 1680 at which George Hall and Edward Hall are present. George Hall in 1694 was a representative from Otterburn at the Q. M. held at Brunton.

At the marriage of John Chisam and Mabel Dood (Dodd) at Otterburn in 1685 Edward Hall, Seth Hall and Elspeth Hall are amongst the witnesses at Otterburn when the Q. M. censured Francis Shield the younger and Mary Shield for their marriage, being first cousins Seth Hall, Edward Hall, Joshua Hall and George Hall sign the document testifying against them.

Isaac Hall and Robert Christin are the representatives from Embleton for the Quarterly Meeting held at Newcastle 8 mo. 3lst. 1706 and from that time forward Isaac Hall is frequently mentioned in the Q. M. minute Book.

At that date he was one of a committee to consider the purchase or hire of a meeting house at Hexham. He is frequently representative from Embleton meeting, John Doubleday being also another frequent representative. I. Hall being representative in 1720 and in 1751 Q.M. at Alnwick Abbey 5 mo. 31. 1712, this meeting being informed by Isaac Hall of the necessity of some poor belonging to Barwick meeting to whom he gave 2s. 6d. which the meeting has refunded and given him 5/- more to distribute to you as he may see occasion.

Q. M. at East Allandale 8 mo. 30th. 1712.

Isaac Hall or such other frds. belonging to Embleton Meeting as may have an opportunity are desir~d to make a further inspection into the state of Barwick Meeting and may contribute sixpence a week to Margaret 3tanton and ninepence a week to Ann Rilbon on this meeting's account. The meeting at Barwick appears to have suffered from dissensions amongst its members. Isaac Hall though a member of another meeting was appointed some-times to look after the poor members and also the Meeting House and provision for Friends travelling in the ministry.

 

It is supposed that Benjamin Hall mentioned on the 1st. page had a brother Joseph married to Hannah Brown (I have no documentary evidence at present.) The Friends Register says that Isaac Hall son of Joseph and Hannah Hall of High C1ose was born 2 mo. 25th. 1741.

Isaac Hall of Studdon, married Hannah daughter of Abraham and Hannah Shield of Thornley-gate

2 mo. 4th. 1782.

Children of Isaac and Hannah Hall of Studdon were:

1. Sarah who died at High Studdon 29.3.1861 aged 72 unmarried.

2. Joseph Hall died unmarried.

3. Isaac Hall 7 mo. 1st. 1793 married Mary Philipson about 1824 died 11. 29. 1861 aged 68 Mary his wife died 7 mo. 8th. 1853 aged 46.

4. Hannah married John Grieve of Brampton parish 16. Feb. 1808.

John Grieve died 4. 12. 1855 aged 73. They had two sons,

Thomas who died 16.12.1872 aged 62 years and John who died

27.8.1877 aged 65. Both unmarried. They lived at Black

Cleugh West Allendale and the latter died at Studdon.

5. Jane married George Roddam 1824 and had children viz.

William married - Mary married George Pearson of the Steel

and had children George, William Hall, John Hindmarsh &

Francis. George Roddam died in 1858.

 

Susan Hall Teaching at Ackworth 1871

From Mary J. Taylor's account of her Schooldays at Ackworth 1869 to 1875.

 

Our teacher (in the 4th. class) was Susan Hall. She was at that time almost engaged to Samuel Climes who afterwards went as a missionary to Madagascor. He was then a student at the Flounders College and we were delighted when we could bring a blush into S. Hall's pale face by mentioning his name in her presence.

Susan Hall was kind, conscientious and firm and was attentive to us out of school as well as in. In the winter evenings she used sometimes to come in and sit with us round the fire, and she used to talk kindly to us, or sing pieces to us that we could learn. She taught us "Little Nell". We loved her very dearly though we sometimes transgressed rules.

On one occasion Ida Brayshaw got into trouble with her. We were waiting for S. Hall to come into Scripture school on Thursday and she did not come, so, to improve the time, Ida got into the bin (window seat holding slates and work) shut down the lid and told us to tell her when we heard S. Hall's step that she might jump out and get to her place in time. Unfortunately we were so highly amused and engrossed by the seputchral grunts and groans coming from the bin that we were not aware of S. Hall's near proximity till she entered the room. There was a dead silence, no one knew what to do. S. Hall seated herself at the desk and was about to open her Bible when bang, bump, came from the bin as Ida pounded the lid with her fist and then proceeded to utter a mournful muffled howl. S. Hall stared and Stared, and we all choked and chuchled. "What ever is that?" said S. Hall. No answer but renewed signs, Groans and chuckles. S. Hall rose and went to the bin, opened it and disclosed to view a burrowing creature, which, startled by the sudden influx of outer light, worked itself round and looked up. In vain did S. Hall retain severity of countenance, but though one smiled a little one did not laugh and recovering herself she ordered Ida to go at once upstairs to bed and not to appear again that evening. Alas! I soon had to follow for I could not get over Ida’s ridicutous position, and choked and chuckled audibly until my dismissal.

Not long after this we two again got into trouble. S.Hall had been drawing up the quarterly report of each girls conduct, and had written them down on a large sheet of foolscap paper. After tea she went away leaving the sheet lying, writing downmost, on the desk. We knew that it was the report for S. H. had told us, and the temptation to look at our own characters was great, but we felt it would be underhand to look. However we gather around the desk, and suddenly, in fun, I shut my eyes and lifted up the sheet so high that Ida read 4 or 5 characters, amongst others hers and mine which were both p. g. (pretty good) and Ellen Elgar's which was v. g., (very good). As soon as we had done this we felt a mean little pair of sinners and retreated humiliated, to sit at our desks. After a few minutes pondering, I felt we ought to tell S. Hall, so we agreed to go to her after Scripture school and tell her. Accordingly when it was over and the other girls filed out into the passage for a walk in the playroom or to go straight up to bed, we lingered and conversed in dire confession what we had done.

S. Hall was very kind and quiet, and said she was glad we had come to tell her, and that she hoped we should not yield so easily to temptation another time, and she sent us off comforted to bed.

S. Hall loved and encouraged singing and learning poetry and often on sewing afternoons, she allowed us to play at "Capping Verses" when one said a verse and any one might then repeat a verse beginning with a letter of the last word. One favourite verse was.

Evil is a rolling stone

upon a mountain top

Which a child may first impel

But a giant cannot Stop. S.T.O.P.

We learnt while in S. Hall's class "The Loment of Richd. I over his father's body at Fontebrand Abbey" and "Pilgrims of earth who are journeying to heaven" and etc.

S. Hall used to read us poetry and I still remember the delight with which we listened to "Evangeline" and the intense anxiety with which we longed for her to find Gabriel her Beloved", and the hush which crept over us when we heard of her wish being granted so late.

In May another change was made in the classes (moved to the 3rd. class). Though we were pleased with the promotion we were very sorry to leave Susan Hall. Here we two newcomers enjoyed ourselves on the whole, though we missed S. Hall's kind care and pleasant ways.

(This girl by her own showing was a naughty girl and tiresome and rude with most of the teachers. She does not write of anybody else as she does of Aunt Susie.)

L.M.H

Copied. May 18. 1965 at Brighton.