A social history of Loweswater: through three periods in time 1092‐1919

With a focus on the inhabitants and the people who influenced their lives A talk given to L&DFLHS on 13 Jun 2019 by Derek Denman Structure of talk • Medieval Loweswater – before 1400 – Feudal lordship – Monastic control • Early modern Loweswater ‐ 1485‐1689 – Landowners gaining property rights – Reformation, and freedom of religion • Modern Loweswater – 1750‐1919 – Tourism and Romanticism – Landowners gain control – Growth of the civil state Economic basis of Loweswater life Mid Britain around 800 no border Loweswater 1086 – not in Domesday Creation of the Scottish border by William II ‐ 1092

Carlisle Castle built to enforce the new border. Southern (English) peasantry imported. Creating the baronies Allerdale was granted to Waldeof, a native, with the boundary initially along the Derwent.

Copeland (Egremont) was granted to William le Meschin a Norman.

Five Towns and Derwentfells transferred to Waldeof around 1100.

Boundary now the Cocker. Part 1. Medieval Loweswater Ranulph de Lindesay – died by 1158 • Anglo‐Scottish knight, Crawford Castle • Part of the retinue of David I. • Cumbria in Scottish hands again 1139‐ 1157. Ceded by Stephen. David’s seat at Carlisle. • Ranulph with David at Lamplugh c.1140 • Married Ethereda, sister of Alan, Lord of Allerdale (son of Waldeof). • Acquired manors, including Lorton and Loweswater. • Gave High Lorton to Priory at Carlisle, and David I Loweswater chapel plus land to St Bees.

Dividing the Barony of Egremont ‐ 1230 Sara de Flete (1) = Thomas de Multon = (2) Ada de Morville = (1) Richard de Lucy d. 1240 Ld of Egremont d.1213 Guardian, then Step‐father, then Father‐in‐law

Lambert de Multon = Amabel de Lucy Ld of Egremont 1230 equal heiresses Held most of barony

Alan de Multon = Alice de Lucy c.1192‐1270 1207‐1288 Ld of Derwentfells held part of barony inc. Loweswater created the park Thomas de Lucy d. 1305 held manor and seat of Balnes

Anthony de Lucy Ld of Cockermouth

Loweswater hamlet by 1300 – likely extent The moated hall or manor house at Balnes

• Built by Thomas de Lucy around 1290 • A timber structure, using a prehistoric moat? • Perhaps for defence in the first Scottish war of independence, 1296‐1328 • Building last recorded in 1313 • Embleton sacked in 1322, and possibly Loweswater also • The Park let to tenants before 1437 Raising the chapel to parochial status

• Licence granted to the Priory in 1782 1281, when Thomas de Lucy was Lord • Not actual done until 1403 • Burials started in 1403 • When was the start of the four 1819 quarters? ‐ Thackthwaite Quarter ‐ Low Quarter [Mockerkin and Sosgill] ‐ Park Quarter ‐ Middle Quarter [Waterend?] Sheep increasingly dominant economically How many sheep in Loweswater?

• ‘The inhabitants here are very much enriched by their vast stocks of sheep, which feed upon these mountains’ – Thomas Denton on Lorton 1687‐8 • In 1839 there were 7000 sheep and lambs in Loweswater, with 30 owners. – Survey of the tithes of lambs and wool • Sheep drove the economy, and therefore also social relations. • Disputes with Mosser from the 13th to 19th centuries St Bees management of sheep

• St Bees held a ‘grange’ farmstead at Kirkstile of 20‐30 acres, a ‘shepegate’ of 80 acres and rights to use the common • Their income derived from the export of fleeces or cloth • They held the tithes, claiming one in ten lambs and fleeces from other inhabitants • Ceased with the dissolution of St Bees in 1539 Loweswater textiles in early C15th – Percy manor

Graveyard 1403 Feudal lines of authority in 1300

Catholic Church Manor State/King & Monastery tithes owns law souls land & war monastic‐ people taxes land

P e a s a n t r y Part 2

• Early modern Loweswater ‐ 1485‐1689 Tudor and Stuart England, to the Act of Toleration 1689

– Reformation, and freedom of religion – Loweswater tenants gaining property rights in 1619 agreement

Richard Robynson, Priest, d.1549 London • From yeoman stock, the Robinsons of Loweswater • Made over 20 local personal bequests • Trained as a priest. • Chaplain of Loweswater by 1508. At the Kirkstile? • Disputatious with manorial authority • Chantry Priest at Brigham, ejected 1532 by Henry Percy, sixth Earl, restored 1533? Richard Robynson – Manorial Property

• In 1531 Henry Percy gave Cumberland estates to Henry VIII. Pilgimage of Grace 1536 caused forfeiture. • Robinson purchased manors of Loweswater & Thackthwaite from Henry VIII in 1545. • He did not recover Mockerkin and Sosgill, later restored to the Earls of Northumberland. Grant of Loweswater and Thackthwaite manors to Richard Robynson, 1545 Richard Robynson – Monastic Property

• 1539 St Bees Priory dissolved • 1545 Robynson purchased rights of Loweswater Chapel from widow of Thomas Legh • 1549 Robynson purchased monastic property in Loweswater from Ld Grey of Wilton, plus manor of Brackenthwaite. Richard Robynson – property descent

• 1549 Richard Robynson left his property to John Robynson of Loweswater, 15 • Executor was Thomas Stanley, Master of the Mint • 1562 John Robynson sold to Stanley Thomas Stanley, Lord of the manor of Loweswater, Thackthwaite and Brackenthwaite from 1562 ‐ 1571 Loweswater enclosures from 1545 Kirkhead – the manor house of Henry Patrickson

Farm bldgs 1819, later Kirk Gate Lordship in the Robinson Era • 1531‐1545 Henry VIII • 1545‐1549 Richard Robynson • 1549‐1562 John Robynson • 1562‐1571 Thomas Stanley • 1571‐1592 Sir Edward Herbert, husband of Mary Stanley • Through this period Loweswater and Thackthwaite tenants probably experienced a benevolent lordship Tenantright disputes with the Patricksons 1592‐1619

• Anthony Patrickson needed more income from Loweswater and Thackthwaite • Enclosed the Holme, hiked entry fines, denied tenantright • Tenants won tenantright in 1597 • James I denial of border tenantright enabled Patricksons to reopen disputes • Most Loweswater and Thackthwaite tenants purchased rights in 1619, near to freehold Religious toleration ‐ Quakers John Burnyeat of Crabtreebeck

A Quaker since 1657

Threatened with the stocks at Loweswater Chapel

Beaten with bibles and staffs at Brigham Religious toleration – Quakers (2) Quaker meetings illegal from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660

Quakers tolerated from 1689, after the glorious revolution, under William and Mary

The focus of Quaker community was the meeting at Pardshaw. Lines of authority in 1689 Loweswater

Church Manor State/King

Protestant Rights to religion land law Rates Shared war Poor Laws taxes Highways Commons managed

Inhabitants Part 3

• Modern Loweswater ‐ 1750‐1919 From the ‘discovery’ of the English Lakes to WWI

– Early tourism and Loweswater – Weakness of the Marshall lordship – Predominance of the State Early tourism missed Loweswater Lake

• The young Thomas Malthus’ diary record from the 1770s

‘I found myself at dinner without having seen Loweswater, but I comforted myself with the reflection, that I should certainly not have missed it in so extraordinary a manner, if it had not been very small & not worth seeing.’ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1799

• Diary record of an introductory tour with Wordsworth

‘We pass the Inn at Scale Hill, leaving it to our right & and to our right is Lowes Water which we see – tis a sweet Country that we see before us, Somersetshire Hills & many a neat scattered House with Trees round of the Estates Men. –– the White Houses here beautiful & look at the river & its two arched Bridges.’ Wordsworth’s Guide text, 1810

• In Wilkinson’s Select Views, on Loweswater Lake, not in later editions

‘… Nor will the most hasty Visitant fail to notice with pleasure, that community of attractive and substantial houses which are dispersed over the fertile inclosures at the foot of those rugged Mountains, and form a most impressive contrast with the humble and rude dwellings which are usually found at the head of these far‐winding Dales. …’ Modern descent of the Manor of Loweswater (with Thackthwaite) • C17th & C18th Lawsons of Isel • 1807‐ 1809 Joshua Lucock Bragg • 1809‐1813 Trustees of JLB • 1813‐1845 John Marshall, Flax Spinner of Leeds and Hallsteads (Ullswater). • 1845 – C 20th, William Marshall and descendants John Marshall and William Wordsworth

John Jane Dorothy William Marshall Pollard Wordsworth Wordsworth

= 1795, honeymoon BFF In Keswick 1778 ‐ 1855

Their only shared interest – dramatic natural scenery and planting wood Flax mills in Marshall Street, Leeds, 1850 Marshall’s Manor Map 1819

Loweswater Lake

Watergate Farm

Holme Holme Wood – Watergate not planted

Watergate Farm Purchase of Nether Close ‐ 1823 Marshall’s attempt to plant Crummock 1824 Marshall, a dissenter, probably did not generously support the rebuilt chapel of 1829 Marshall paid for and endowed the new school in 1839 Lines of authority in 1919 Loweswater

Church Manor State/King

Collecting law C of E payments War religious Taxes community Keeping Civil records parishes

Inhabitants/landowners Memorial to the Loweswater men who fell in WWI St Bartholomew’s 1919 Th_ En^

Loweswater, by Edward Lear