Mary Winfield Lambert
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Mary Winfield Lambert Background When Richard Winfield purchased the farm known as the Outerthwaite Estate on the edge of Allithwaite in about 1799 he could not have envisaged the changes that would occur in the area sixty-five years later as a consequence of this purchase. Until 1865 Allithwaite was just a cluster of cottages and scattered farmsteads between Morecambe Bay to the south and the village of Cartmel (Churchtown) to the north. In 1851 Mary Winfield Lambert put land at Little Templand in trust as the site for a church and school18. Her will17 left adequate money to enable the Church, Vicarage, School and Schoolmistress’s house to be built. She died on 29 November 1857 and so the bequest became a reality when the buildings came into use in 1865. The hamlet became a village. What is known about Mary Lambert Local historians James Stockdale1, Sam Taylor3, and John Dickinson4 mention the generous benefactor. All these authors note that the wealthy Mary Lambert of Boarbank House, Allithwaite was responsible for the Church and School being built. There are several paragraphs devoted to her in a booklet about the History of Boarbank Hall5 written by the current owners, the St Augustine Sisters. There is the comment that little is known about Mary's parents or background. Ron Stevens's History of Allithwaite6 published in 1990 to mark the 125th anniversary of the founding of Allithwaite Church devotes a chapter to Miss Lambert and her will, focusing on the bequest of money to build and maintain the church and school and its associated buildings. David C Mycock7 has two chapters on the area in his history of Abbot Hall, Kents Bank, which Miss Lambert had inherited from her Aunt, Harriot Carter in 1835. The book draws on all the local histories but does not expand on Miss Lambert’s background. 1 2 views of Allithwaite Church 2005 (Pat Rowland) Introduction Who was Mary Winfield Lambert? Why was she so generous to the inhabitants of Allithwaite? The following explains the background to her life and describes life in Allithwaite at the beginning of the 19th century. The story traces her connections with the Cartmel Peninsula where her grandfather, Richard Winfield purchased land. It examines the scandal surrounding her Aunt Harriot. It tries to explain where her wealth came from and how she bequeathed her fortune to the community, her family and friends. Her parents, grandparents and early years in Kendal Mary was born at Watchfield Kendal on 25 October 1787, the only daughter of Josias and Beatrice Lambert. Josias had married Beatrice, the eldest of two daughters of Richard Winfield, on 22 January 1787 at Holy Trinity Church Kendal. Josias was an attorney of law, the last in a long line of Lamberts who practised law in Kendal. He was the eldest son of John and Margaret Lambert and he was baptised in January 1763. The Lambert family had lived in the isolated 17th century farmhouse known as Watchfield, south of Kendal town and Kirkland hamlet for over a century until 1801 when the house was sold on the death of John Lambert. His estate was valued at under £1000. The house is now known as Wattsfield and is a listed building within the boundary of the borough of Kendal. Beatrice died in Kendal at Soutergate aged 28 on 10 November 1793 when Mary was only 6 years old. Josias remarried on 24 March 1794 at Addingham in Cumberland and on 28 November 1794 Margaret de Lambert was born at Lazonby where Josias and his second wife Mary (formerly Bardgett of Lazonby) lived. At least eight half brothers and sisters to Mary Winfield Lambert were born in subsequent years but not all survived childhood. Josias Lambert’s second wife Mary died on 30 April 1827 and was buried at Lazonby. In 1829 Josias was living at Helsington Laithes Kendal close 2 to Watchfield11. He died in 1841 and was buried in the family vault at Kendal Holy Trinity Church. There is no record of him leaving a will. Richard Winfield, Mary’s grandfather, was a wealthy Kendal manufacturer of linsey- woolsey cloth9. This cloth was a combination of the rough wool of the fells and the flax of the lowlands produced and grown locally. Much of the wealth of Kendal at this time came from this type of cloth manufacture. The family first appear in Kendal records in 1771 when the baptism of Harriot, Beatrice’s younger sister is recorded and shows they were then living in Wildman Street. Richard, who was from York, and his wife Mary Corbett had married in Selby, Yorkshire in 1765. Beatrice was born in the following twelve months but I have not been able to establish where she was born or baptised or when the family arrived in Kendal. Richard Winfield established his textile firm at 125 Soutergate9 (now Highgate) Kendal and the family, having moved from Wildman Street, set up home in the house that fronted the long narrow plot, which ran down to the River Kent. On 6 May 1788 Richard was appointed a trustee23 of Kendal Fell Trust and he served until 3 May 1792. This illustrates that by this time he was a substantial property owner with the desire to do some public duty as the Kendal Fell Trust8 was set up to manage the town (paving, lighting cleansing etc) and the poor. The Trust comprised the Mayor and twelve inhabitants of the borough who were owners of property of the yearly value of £10 and rated and assessed to that amount. Each trustee served for four years. Another example of his wealth was the loan of £1050 he had made to the Lamberts which was secured on their Wattsfield estate. By 1799 Richard Winfield, though living in Kendal, owned the extensive Outerthwaite agricultural estate at Allithwaite. The land, about 200 acres, was bounded by Applebury Hill, Boarbank Lane on the edge of the hamlet of Allithwaite, Humphrey Head, Morecambe Bay and Flookburgh. Cartmel Peninsula was a remote peninsula. Its main access was ‘over the sands’, an ancient route over the Kent and Leven Estuaries of Morecambe Bay linking Lancaster, Kents Bank, Flookburgh, Ulverston and then over the Duddon Estuary onward to Whitehaven. The old packhorse road between Cartmel and Kendal over Cartmel Fell and Whitbarrow Scar was the only other transport route at this date. The Kendal towards Ulverston track was improved into a road and subsequently turnpiked in 176321. The Levens turnpike (the route of the present day A590) was not opened until 1818. However the toll-free, treacherous over-sands route remained the preferred route21, until the Carnforth- Ulverston railway, which opened in 1857, passed through the area. Investing money made in manufacturing to buy agricultural land enabled him to earn income from the land. Money made in industry was considered vulgar and to be accepted socially in upper class society a person had to be a landowner living off income from land holdings. Perhaps he was also advised that the purchase would be a good investment as common land in Cartmel would soon be enclosed and local landowners would be able to purchase more land. Several other Kendal industrialists owned land in the area. The Cartmel Land Enclosure Act of 1796 appointed commissioners, who first met in January 1801, to divide the allotments amongst the seven townships of the parish for 3 rating and other parochial purposes. Richard bought four pieces of land totalling about 48 acres in the Lower Allithwaite Township1. His purchases, totalling £1199, made him the 6th largest purchaser (in money terms) of Cartmel common land. His purchases were land at Moss Ellerside, Winder Moor and Templand Bank, all in Lower Allithwaite. John and Jacob Wakefield were the biggest purchasers and they were also linked to Kendal1. These brothers were sons of the Wakefield family who had established a bank in Kendal in 1788 and they resided in Field Broughton. Richard died on 27 November 1820 aged 79 and was buried at Holy Trinity Church, Kendal. His wife Mary had predeceased him on 12 August 1806. His estate was left (by a will dated 10 July 1816)22 to his only surviving daughter Harriot and his 33 years old granddaughter, Mary. Harriot inherited his Kendal, Cartmel and Crook of Lune properties. Mary inherited all his Westmorland land and buildings excluding the Kendal property left to Harriot but individual addresses of these properties were not included in the will. The estate was valued at about £10000 when the will was proved on 22 January 1821. Harriot Winfield Curwen9 recounts that Harriot, Mary’s aunt, ran away to Gretna Green to marry Thomas Carter whose family lived close to the Winfield’s on Soutergate. Thomas was appointed Dean of Tuam in 1813. Curwen says that Richard was so annoyed by the marriage that he cut Harriot’s dowry short and only allowed her £10000. In fact Harriot and Thomas married at Holy Trinity Church Kendal on 21 July 1821, eight months after her father’s death and Mary was a witness. At this date Harriot was 50 and Thomas was 56. Thomas had married Ann Collison in Hitchen, Herts in 1797. He had been appointed Prebendary and Rector of Ballymore, Armagh in 1803 and their home was at Tandragee. His wife, Ann, died in 1815 leaving Thomas with eight children aged between 15 and 2 years. Thomas remained rector of Ballymore until his death from cholera in 1849 when he was 84. He is buried at St Patrick’s Church, Tandragee in the Parish of Ballymore, Armagh14.