An evident link of Branch A from near Sheffield back to the Main Plant Homeland by Dr John S Plant, June 2019.

Abstract. It is clear that some of the Duckmanton Plants in north-east Derbyshire settled in and around nearby Sheffield. Their descendants form the basis of Branch A of the Main Plant Family, as identified by Y-DNA testing. This branch A groups together several Plants whose earliest known ancestries are apparently all around the southern tip of Yorkshire and to Sheffield’s south east in Derbyshire. The earliest identified individual is a William Plant of Duckmanton whom, for convenience, I denote Wm(0). However, we are missing a suitable baptism around 1700 for him. Indeed, the surviving evidence indicates that this baptism must have been 30 miles or more away. One possibility is around 35 miles further north into Yorkshire, where there is a relatively well defined Plant family; but, as I shall outline, this presents us with a couple of problems. With more promise, the main homeland of the Plants is over the county boundary to the west of Derbyshire, around 30 miles to the west from Duckmanton; there are a couple or more suitable baptisms there. In this main Plant homeland however, the problem is one of many similarly named Plants; it seems essentially impossible, with few exceptions, to identify the genealogies of the several Plant families there.

Some earlier considerations for this baptismal link In 1997, I considered some possible baptisms for a William Plant of Duckmanton – Wm(0) - who we now have as the earliest identified Plant in Branch A. I gave further details in ‘Chapter 15’, which in fact rather than a chapter, was one of a series of articles that I have since made available at http://plant.one-name.net/articles/articles.html I have more recently extended Figure 15.5 of Chapter 15, to produce the descent tree shown overleaf. This indicates a possible link to Wm(0) as shown near its top right of the Figure. (There are in fact a number of different dates for the baptism of this William near Leeds but they all seem to be transcription errors of 5 Nov 1695). The problem is then: there is a burial date of 1775 for the William near Leeds, further north in Yorkshire and we already have a burial date of 1769 for Wm(0) at Duckmanton. (There is also in fact a 1759 burial for a William Plant at Rotherham). Hence, the single baptism for a William Plant near Leeds does not account for the different burials. Perhaps the situation near Leeds might have some hidden complexity that might explain this difficulty. Indeed, in the same Figure, we have two burial dates for for the name Mark Plant with only one suitable known baptism throughout a very wide region. The only suitable baptism in the region for a Mark Plant is in 1703 whereas there are two burials for the this name within 5 miles of the baptism, in 1712 and 1716. Nonetheless, this clearly throws up some doubt about a link of Wm(0) to this more northerly Plant family near Leeds. Moreover, there are some clues that favour a link elsewhere, to the west of Duckmanton in the main Plant homeland around north Staffordshire instead.

Clue 1: Some Sheffield area Plant apprenticeship records The Hallamshire Company of Cutlers controlled trade over a wide region extending through north Derbyshire and elsewhere. The Master Cutler was appointed in charge for a year; he was based in their Cutlers’ Hall in Sheffield. I gave some further details in Section 14.1.2 of ‘Chapter 14’ at http://plant.one-name.net/articles/articles.html which in particular lists two apprenticeship records, for two early Plants near Sheffield:

Robert Plant, son of William of Duckmanton, brickmaker; to sicklesmith William Staniforth of Hackenthorpe, 1741.

James Plant, son of William of Branside, Prestbury, carpenter; to (I) scissorsmith John Hollingworth of Coalpit Lane, 1768; to (II) scissorsmith Benjamin Oaks, 1772.

The first refers unambiguously to ‘William of Duckmanton’ whose 1768 will is listed at http://plant.one-name.org/plant-wills.html – this apprenticeship record tells us that this William’s son Robert was apprenticed (form other records, aged 14) at Hackenthorpe, which is just 5 miles south-east of central Sheffield. From other records we have that this William of Duckmanton – Wm(0) - was a yeoman farmer and a brickmaker in NE Derbyshire.

The second apprenticed Plant record refers to Coalpit Lane, which was at the southern edge of the then small town of Sheffield itself. It would seem that this reference to a Plant at Coalpit Lane might relate to another son of William of Duckmanton, known also to have been there. Specifically William’s son Benjamin Plant of Sheffield Moor was a bellows maker who is known to have been in Sheffield by 1766 (as described in Chapter 12 of the aforementioned series of articles) and to have been at Coalpit Lane, at the southern edge of the small town, at least by 1774 (Chapter 13) where he collected rent for nineteen properties around ‘Late Plant Yard’ at the head of Sheffield Moor before residing at the subsequent site of ‘Plants Yard’ with his brother John Plant at the Moor’s foot in a separate small settlement called Little Sheffield. In 1766, he had married into a family which provided three Master Cutlers – 1790, 1798, 1816. For example, in a newspaper called the Sheffield Register dated Fri 23rd Nov 1793, it was announced that Benjamin Plant of Sheffield ‘Gent’ had held a certificate for shooting game from the 23rd Sept to 2nd Nov.

This apparent connection at Coalpit Lane between two brothers, both seemingly from the Duckmanton Plant family, seems to identify ‘William Plant of Duckmanton with, in the second apprenticeship record, William Plant of ‘Branside, Prestbury’. This indicates a 30- mile link across from Sheffield to Brand Side at the far side of Derbyshire near the Main Plant Homeland. It is possible that the situation is somehow more complex, especially given that these Williams had two different stated occupations – brickmaker and carpenter. This is not a major hurdle however, he could have been both, and so we can reasonably surmise that Wm(0) could have been baptised in the area around Bran[d]side. The precise location of Brandside with this baptismal possibility is discussed further below.

Debatable Clue 2a: Some north Staffordshire Plant wills The following map shows part of the moorlands associated with the main Plant homeland. The above is extracted from an 1846 map and it covers a distance of about 6 miles from top to bottom. Brand Side is at the extreme right edge of the map, just below Fair Thor[ns], which is just below Dale-H[ead] near to the top right corner of this map. Buxton is off this map further to the east (right) from here whereas Leek town is off down (south) beyond the bottom left. The precise location of Brand Side differs somewhat on early maps. It seems that the word Bran(d/t) has been applied severally to some particular landscape feature in this hilly region. Place names initially often had a very early origin, when different words were used to describe subtle differences in landscape features which were apparent to pedestrian locals who at that time rarely travelled far. On this relatively modern 1846 map, Brand Head is around 2 miles to the south (down) from Brand Side. There is also a Brantcolt which is just half a mile to the north of Stony Cliff. Stony Cliff (a longtime known haunt of Plants) is at the bottom edge of the above map near the centre.

In the aforementioned list of wills, there are some Plants of possible relevance. There is for example a 1713 will for a yeoman farmer William Plant of Stoneycliffe. A 1696 will for a husbandman John Plant of Stoneycliffe is apparently for this William’s brother and together these two wills have overlapping information which reveals further brothers: Richard, Robert and Thomas. There are a few different Williams in this family including a William Plant junior who was the sole executor of the 1696 will. Both a William of Carsual and a William of Stoneycliffe are mentioned in 1713. Moreover, in a further generation, there are at least two more Williams, one of whom is known to have been in his minority in 1713. After various bequethals, the residue of 1713 will went to William of Carsual who was the executor of this will with an inventory totally £132-2-6. Carswell is an early spelling for Creswell and, interestingly, there is a parish of Elmton with Creswell in north-east Derbyshire; this Creswell is just 5 miles from Duckmanton, though it is around 30 miles from Stony Cliff. That could perhaps explain how a William Plant appeared “seemingly from nowhere” in 1725 at Ault Hucknall then Duckmanton, with the wherewithal to become landed. Another and more usual interpretation of Carsual in these north Staffordshire Moorslands however is Caverswall which is around 14 miles south from Stony Cliff. Such a distance is not unreasonable at that time. For example, it is recorded that on 30 Aug 1718 that Rebekah Plant of Gawsworth married Thomas Thornbury of Cheadle in Staffordshire and these places are around 22 miles apart.

There was, for example, a William Plant baptised at Leek on 14 April 1706 to William and Elizabeth though, if his father were the one baptised in 1669 and who married Elizabeth Haggetts (age 32) on 1 Dec 1706 at Carswell, that would suggest that this 1706 baptism was for a William who was illegitimate. To add a further point, it should not be overlooked that Leek is notorious for missing records at that time, not to mention that there are a couple of other known Williams who might have been father to this Plant baptised at Leek in 1706.

Even if William Plant of Carsual did refer to Creswell (rather than more likely Caverswall) there are several places so named and the variety of other possible locations erodes confidence that the 1713 will necessarily referred to its main benmefactor William being sometime at the Creswell that was near Duckmanton. There is even a small hamlet called Creswell near Caverswall which has appeared with such a spelling as Careswell. Further south, around 25 miles from Stony Cliff, there is also a small village called Creswell, near Stafford town, though this is then approaching a similar distance from Stony Cliffe as the Creswell near Duckmanton. The mention of William of Carsual suggests at least some migration from Stony Cliff, perhaps to Caverswall. There is nothing to confirm a migration from north Staffordshire before the 1725 wedding of Wm(0) of Duckmanton at Ault Hucknall, both around 30 miles to the east in north-east Derbyshire.

Possible variant clue 2b: Concerning specifically ‘Branside Prestbury’ The previous section has considered the word Brandside in the context of north Staffordshire, though the aforementioned 1768-72 Hallamshire apprenticeship record specifically refers to ‘Branside Prestbury’ and Prestbury is a large ancient parish in Cheshire. Though the upland moors are spread around the join here of three counties, the detailed geography is somewhat problematic in connection with the modern understanding of Brand Side which is in Derbyshire whereas Prestbury is in Cheshire. The following map is an extract from a 1789 map of Derbyshire (this is shown more fully as Figure 15.9 in Chapter 15 of the aforementioned articles). It shows Brand Side (item 1 in the following map) in a similar position as shown above but with the road loosely indicated to pass on its eastern (right) side whereas, on modern maps, Brandside is shown on the downward slopes to the east of the road. Indeed this 1789 map indicates Brand Side seemingly wrapping around the whole of an uplands region and it is possible that this is how the Hallamshire Company of Cutlers understood “Branside, Prestbury”, at that time. The date of this map is almost identical to the time when the Hallamshire Cutlers Company recorded the second afforementioned apprentice’s record, for his apprenticeships of 1768 and 1772. It seems likely that they were not fully aware of the detailed geography, at least not as is currently recorded. Since this was for this region around 30 miles away from the headquarters of the Cutlers Company in Sheffield, this is not unduly surprising. Thus, in the apparent understanding at that time, “Branside” can be taken roughly to have sloped down to the boundary with Prestbury parish which is in Cheshire to Derbyshire’s west (left).

Item 2 on the map below indicates the join of all three counties: Staffordshire (to the south, including Leek parish); Cheshire (to the west, including Prestbury parish); and Derbyshire (to the east). As already considered, this confusion of precise location could have extended into north Staffordshire but also to and across the boundary into Prestbury in Cheshire.

Towards the top of this 1789 map, on the Cheshire side of the county boundary, there is mention of Tax Hall. The more normally spelled Taxal had been a separate parish since it separated from Prestbury in 1377. Again, this suggests that the 1789 Derbyshire map provided a rather loose understanding of this local geography, in that Tax Hall appears on this map in place of the more normal ‘Taxal’. The much larger parish of Prestbury dates back to before 1312 and it contains ten constituent chapelries and thirty townships1 though only those towards the south east of Prestbury

1 Prestbury parish contains the chapelries: Bosley, Capesthorne, Macclesfield, Macclesfield Forest, Marton, Pott Shrigley, Poynton, Rainow, Siddington, Wincle. It also contains the following townships: Adlington, Birtles, Bollington, Bosley, Butley, Capesthorne, Fallibroome, Henbury cum Pexall, Hurdsfield, Kettleshulme, Lower Withington, Lyme Handley, Macclesfield, Macclesfield Forest, Marton, Mottram Saint Andrew, Newton, North Rode, Pott Shrigley, Poynton, Prestbury, Rainow, Siddington, Sutton Downes, Tytherington, Upton, Wildboarclough, Wincle, Woodford, Worth. parish seem most obviously relevant to the specific mention of ‘Brandside, Prestbury’. This is very near the main Plant homeland with known Plants around here from the fourteenth century. The detailed geography might suggest that it is most appropriate to consider the Pennine foothills in the south-eastern parts of Prestbury parish for Wm(0)’s missing baptism. Here, there is a record of possible note: on 12 July 1696, a William Plant was baptised at Gawsworth as a son of a William Plant. Together with Stony Cliff this provides two known possible locations for a William baptism that could relate to a William Plant 30 miles away in Duckmanton. Also in the Chapel of Ease at Gawsworth, it seems that William’s father William Plant had married Ellen Braddock of Gawsworth on the 29 Sept 1690 and she was buried there as a widow on 6 May 1705. Besides this one at Gawsworth in 1696, there are known baptisms of a William Plant at Leek, albeit in north Staffordshire: on 29 April 1702 with parents John and Lydia and on 19 April 1706 to William and Elizabeth. Also at Leek perhaps less likely through a wider date range, there are: in 1679 to John and Mary; in 1687 to Richard and Margaret; and in 1711 to Lawrence and Margaret.

Summary The balance of probability appears to favour a William from the region of the main Plant homeland for the identity of Wm(0) rather than from Leeds in Yorkshire. There are at least three possible main homeland baptisms for a William Plant here who might have become William Plant of Duckmanton. The first one at Leek is suggestive of a William with the wherewithal to become a successful farmer and brickmaker though any provision for his basic education is not reflected by the fact that he gave his mark rather signing his 1768 will. The second baptism near here as I have mentioned is at Gawsworth (1696) and this perhaps makes a somewhat clearer sense of the detailed geography, as curiously described apparently from 30 miles away in Sheffield. There is also a known 1702 baptism at Leek within a reasonable date range. This does not prove that there were not yet other Williams around here with origins that evade us. There were complaints by the vicar of Leek to his bishop that many in Leek Frith were not keeping him informed of births, which needed to be documented as baptised with a copy sent to him. This leaves a fog of uncertainty for the detail though it remains quite feasibly that Branch A of the main Plant family arrived near Sheffield around 1700, before the 1725 marriage of Wm(0) of Duckmanton, directly from the main Plant homeland. That said, there were earlier Plants in north Derbyshire around the trek of 30 or more miles along this route (as outlined in Chapter 15 of the aforesaid articles). These Plants date back to the sixteenth century and were nearer to Duckmanton; despite having no known suitable baptism for Wm(0), they might perhaps have been involved in a more complex interwoven scheme of Plant family relationships connecting ‘Branside, Prestbury’ with newly appearing Sheffield area Plants by the 1720s. In particular, the problem is not a lack of possibilities, both known and unknown, in connection with origins from so-called ‘Branside, Prestbury’, but rather too many possibilities to identify detailed family relationships in general and for Wm(0) in particular.