Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Journal Volume 21, Number 3 • Fall 2015
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Anglo-Celtic Roots Quarterly Journal 1 Volume 21, Number 3 Fall 2015 Family History Research The Cowley Family Saga—Part 3: Back to the Beginning© BY CHRISTINE JACKSON Christine introduced 1774 by the Royal Duchy of us to the pioneering Lancaster to one Daniel Cowley of Cowley family in two Ollerton, Nottinghamshire, might previous ACR issues. hold the answer to the Cowleys’ In Fall 2013 she earliest origins. It had renewed an outlined the family's nineteenth- and immunity from paying road and twentieth-century other tolls anywhere in the kingdom Ottawa Valley history. Then in our Fall that had first been granted in 1629. 2014 issue she explained the variety of One interpretation of the Charter sources she used to trace the English claimed that it meant the Cowleys origins of the family back into had actually lived in Ollerton since eighteenth-century Nottinghamshire, in 1629.1 But I found no Cowleys the English Midlands. In this issue registered there before 1760, the Christine describes how unconventional year the first of Daniel Cowley’s four sources exposed the very earliest traces children was baptized. Searching of this family and uncovered much more about the lives of early Cowley ancestors further afield in the same county, than a long-destroyed parish register the only possibility that the online could ever have done, while also databases at familysearch.org and revealing an entrepreneurial spirit in the ancestry.co.uk turned up was a family going back at least to the “Danyal” Cowley baptized in 1731 sixteenth century. in Carburton, Nottinghamshire, son of another “Danyal” (both referred So where did the Cowleys to hereafter as Daniel). come from? After a careful review of the 1774 This was the question with which I Cowley Charter, I realized that all it concluded Part 2 of the Cowley had done was to renew a privilege family story, at which point I had first granted in 1629 to all tenants traced the Cowleys back to the mid- chy of Lancaster and that, in 1774, 1700s in Nottinghamshire. Daniel Cowley Jr. was one such I had initially thought that the so- tenant. The Charter did not, in fact, called Cowley Charter, granted in say or imply that the Cowleys had lived in Ollerton since 1629. I was Anglo-Celtic Roots Quarterly Journal 2 Volume 21, Number 3 Fall 2015 therefore satisfied that “my” Robert Smith, shopkeeper of Cowleys had lived in Carburton in Warsop. When their son Daniel (b. the early 1700s, and I went on to 1731) surrendered inherited find Daniel’s siblings there—in a copyhold lands in 1767, Robert hamlet only six miles from Ollerton. Smith was named in the manorial documents as his grandfather and My next step in the journey back Elizabeth Cowley as his late mother, was to find the marriage of Daniel’s so I knew that the 1726 marriage parents. Starting my search for a licence was for the right couple.3 marriage for a Daniel Cowley in Carburton, the online data sources Daniel Cowley Sr. certainly seemed turned up nothing, but I did find one to have been a person of in nearby Warsop. That marriage consequence in his community by took place on 26 December 1726, the time of his death, something following the issue the previous that was attested to in an 1888 book day―Christmas Day!―of a very I found online containing informative marriage licence and transcriptions from the early bond.2 I understand it was not Carburton parish registers.4 uncommon to be married on either This book also contains all the Christmas Day or Boxing Day in monumental inscriptions that were those days, because those were the to be found in St. Giles Church, only days some people had off work. Carburton (Figure 1) and even includes Daniel Sr.’s will (1769)―what a find, a genealogist’s dream! From this book I learned that in the chancel floor of St. Giles Church are three stones commemorating Daniel, his wife Elizabeth, and their young married daughter Elizabeth Bayley—and recording their death dates and ages! Daniel’s age of 71 at his death in January 1769 nicely matches a Figure 1: St Giles Church, Carburton Daniel Cowley baptized in 1699 in Source: Author Ashbourne, Derbyshire, son of Giles From the marriage licence I learned Cowley—according to the online that Daniel Sr. was a husbandman databases, the only Daniel Cowley in (farmer) from Carburton, aged over the English Midlands to have been 25 years, and his bride was baptized around the right time to Elizabeth Smith of Warsop, aged “23 years or thereabouts,” daughter of Anglo-Celtic Roots Quarterly Journal 3 Volume 21, Number 3 Fall 2015 have grown up to become Daniel tivity that existed here in the Cowley of Carburton. 1700s.7 I therefore began to feel Built in the late seventeenth century comfortable with the notion that and now a listed heritage building, Daniel Cowley Sr. of Carburton and Carburton Hall was, in 1722, in the his predecessors could have come northern fringes of Sherwood into Nottinghamshire from Forest. The land, or at least some of neighbouring Derbyshire. The next it, was obviously suitable for questions, however, were when did farming, however, as thrashing and that move happen?—and why? storage of corn is mentioned in Giles Cowley’s lease, as are woodlands, The Move into which were not to be cut down Nottinghamshire without Lord and Lady Harley’s Confirmation of a Cowley family permission. Moreover, Giles was move from Derbyshire came to me specifically required to apply while searching in the University of compost and manure to the land Nottingham’s online catalogue of annually and was forbidden to manuscripts and special collections plough up the meadow lying for anything I could find on a Giles between the house and the river. Cowley of Derbyshire, father of a Part of the surrounding Welbeck Daniel born in 1699. I found a Estate was used for sheep grazing, counterpart lease for Carburton Hall so this would have been one source in Nottinghamshire (see front of manure. cover) between Edward, Lord Harley and his wife Henrietta Giles Cowley and his wife Lydia Cavendish Holles Harley of the first Morley were aged 53 and 50 part, and Giles Cowley of Ashover, respectively in 1722 when they Derbyshire, gentleman of the second moved the 25 miles to the east. part, for a term of 21 years from 29 Their seven children were aged September 1722.5 from 27 to 16 years at that time, and second son Daniel, in his early 20s Lord Harley owned the Welbeck and destined to become a respected Estate in the area known as the husbandman in Carburton, most 6 Dukeries. Carburton Hall (known likely moved with his parents, today as the Manor House) is locat- considering that he married a local ed about eight miles downriver woman four years later.2 It seems as from the estate’s Welbeck Abbey; though the parents were becoming today the River Poulter flows empty-nesters and wanted a change through tranquil water meadows, of scenery, perhaps even a step up showing no sign of the industrial ac- in society. Anglo-Celtic Roots Quarterly Journal 4 Volume 21, Number 3 Fall 2015 Records of apprenticeships and Abraham, found his way to London, freedom of the City of London with or without his father’s help, indicate that, while still living in and in 1743 was granted the Derbyshire, Giles had taken steps to Freedom of the City of London (by ensure that his other sons had a redemption on payment of 48s 8d) trade from which to make a living.8 in the Company of Fanmakers. He In 1712 he sent his 15-year-old was married the next month and firstborn son Giles to Chesterfield referred to in the marriage bond as (Derbyshire), paying a premium of a victualler (innkeeper). Freedom of £30 (about $4,800 today) to have the City of London gave Abraham him apprenticed to a master tallow the right to practise his trade and to chandler (candlemaker). An undat- vote in parliamentary elections. ed draft lease tells us he helped his At this point, for clarification, son get started in this trade by co- readers may wish to refer to the signing the lease for a house and accom-panying two charts—Figure workshop in Chesterfield for a per- 2 is a partial family tree, while iod of seven years at £6 a year.9 In Figure 3 identifies the places in 1717, son Leonard was apprenticed which this Cowley family resided in at the age of 16 to a master baker of Central England. Nottingham, while another son, Figure 2: Cowley family tree Source: Author Anglo-Celtic Roots Quarterly Journal 5 Volume 21, Number 3 Fall 2015 Figure 3: Map of Central England showing Cowley places of residence Source: Susan Rowland So, perhaps not surprisingly, I found The Derbyshire Cowleys Giles Cowley's marriage in If Giles Cowley had been a “gentle- Ashbourne. He and Lydia Morley man of Ashover" in Derbyshire at married there in 1694 and only the time he signed the lease for moved to Ashover in about 1700. Carburton Hall, I wondered why his While looking for evidence of Giles’ first three children (including Dan- death, I found an inventory of his iel) had been born in Ashbourne, possessions made in April 1744 (he Derbyshire. Was Giles’ home parish had died intestate), which described Ashbourne or Ashover? The two are him as being a “yeoman of some 17 miles apart.