14 ISLE OF MAN EXAMINER www.iomtoday.co.im Tuesday, July 3, 2018 FEATURE Milntown and its related buildings in Cumbria

Simon Artymiuk looks at new discoveries made about the restored Milntown man- sion and its background as a home for many centuries of the Christian family. He also looks at the family’s other homes in Cumbria and how they have not fared so well in recent times.

oday, the restora- tion of Milntown on the outskirts of Ramsey as a visitor attrac- tion has been a success story, Tproviding an opportunity to explore a building that is the nearest the island has to a stately home. For centuries the estate was the main seat of the Christian family. However, recent discover- ies made by a Manx historian in archives held in Cumbria have revealed that the house is not, as was once thought, a rebuild on the same footprint as the original mansion. In- stead it has at its heart a ‘new’ mid-18th-century farmhouse built on an entirely different site but which reused mate- rial from the demolition of the original, somewhat ram- bling, complex of buildings. Milntown, near Ramsey, is now a great visitor attraction That this discovery was made in Cumbria is entirely ceeded as owner of Milntown in the grounds of the mansion, ry of 1675 shows what a ram- Nevertheless Ewan XIII ment. In Cumbria, mean- appropriate, as the Christian by his eldest son William IX. with proceeding conducted in bling house Milntown had and his wife Mary made reg- while, John XIV acted as family seems always to have It was this William IX who Manx Gaelic. become, with two parlours, ular summer visits back to steward and land agent to the based itself there as well as in renewed family connec- Ewan X and Katherine a hall, ‘the late Deemster’s Milntown with five of their Duke of Somerset in both the the Isle of Man. tions to the Cumbrian coast had six children, the young- study’, a chimney chamber daughters. manor and borough courts The family’s power in the by marrying a Culwen rela- est of whom was the Manx with loft, outbuildings in- The youngest, Alicia, mar- of Egremont, close to Ewan- island was already well es- tive of the Curwen family of patriot William Christian, or cluding a buttery loft, beer ried her cousin, the MHK and rigg. John’s wife Bridget – a tablished by the 15th century, Workington Hall, a fortified ‘Illiam Dhone’, destined to be buttery, kitchen, milkhouse, Captain of the Parish Quayle member of the Cumbrian with a charter of 1408 de- mansion that two centu- executed by Charles, 8th Earl milkhouse chamber, store Curphey, of Ballakillighan. Senhouse coal mines family scribing John McCrystyn as ries later was destined to be of Derby, in January 1663 at house and cattle-house loft. The mill and farm income – claimed descent from King ‘Justiciarius Insulae’ – a Latin owned by one of his Chris- Hango Hill, Castletown, for At about the same time the from Milntown continued to Edward I. way of saying Deemster – and tian family descendants. his actions during the Eng- estate’s holdings grew when be an important part of the John XIV and Bridget’s another charter of that time William Christian IX’s lish Civil War. the Ronaldsway branch of family income and the House youngest son Charles mar- reveals that John’s son Wil- heir, Ewan X, born in 1579, in- We know that Ewan X the Christian family sold Ed- of Keys appointed Ewan XIII ried Ann Dixon of Moorland liam was an MHK. The family herited Milntown at the age ended his days in 1655 liv- ward the mill at Cornaa. to be one of their commis- Close, near Cockermouth in used the names John, Wil- of 14 and spent some years ing at Illiam’s Ronaldsway sioners sorting out the vexed Cumberland, and was father liam and Ewan so often that living in Cumberland. mansion, but in 1638 he had owever, Miln- question of the ‘straw tenure’ of Fletcher Christian of Mu- the different generations of made an important move as town’s time as system of landholding when nity on the Bounty fame. these names were numbered e married a regards the future prosper- the Christians’ James, 10th Earl of Derby, with Roman numerals. Cumbrian ity of the Christian family by main seat came inherited the Manx Lord- t was John XIV’s eldest By the early 1500s John girl, Kather- buying the West Cumber- to an end with ship in 1702. The resulting son and heir, barrister McCrystyn V is recorded as ine Harrison land estate of Ewanrigg, also Edward’s death in 1693. The Land Settlement Act, passed Ewan Christian XV, owning land in Lezayre and of Bankfield, known as Unerigg. nextH heir, Ewan Christian XIII, by Tynwald in 1704, has been who in 1750 made the Maughold plus several mills. Eastholme, but by the age The next heir, Deemster continued to own it but, hav- dubbed the ‘Manx Magna deal – only recently John McCrystyn V’s great ofH 26 he had been elected a John Christian XI, made ing spent much of his child- Carta’. brought to light through the grandson William VIII, who Deemster in the Isle of Man further building additions hood living in Cumbria. He Earl James later repented researchI of Manx historian inherited Milntown in 1539, and remained one for 51 years. to Milntown in the mid- made Ewanrigg his main seat that he had agreed to this Act Nigel Crowe – to have the old added the Ronaldsway Estate Soon after his election he be- 1660s, after his son Edward instead. and at one point imprisoned rambling ancestral pile at to its holdings through mar- gan enlarging and embellish- XII moved into the mansion He subsequently expand- all 24 MHKs for refusing to Milntown demolished and riage. ing the Milntown mansion, with his Westmoreland-born ed it from a typical Cumbrian obey his judicial orders. replaced. Nigel discovered the The change of the fam- including adding decorative wife Dorothy and their large defensive pele tower (a legacy The next heir to Miln- truth in 2014, while looking ily name from McCrystyn to plaster ceilings and a library family of six sons and five of centuries of conflict with town, John Christian XIV, through documents relating Christian is thought to have fitted out with furnishings daughters. Scotland) into a mansion was chosen to present a peti- to the Christian and Curwen happened in around 1568, of bog oak, and the sheading From the time of the next boasting views across the tion to the Privy Council in families at the Whitehaven when William VIII was suc- court for Ayre was often held heir, Edward XII, an invento- Solway Firth. 1723 over this harsh treat- Archives and Studies Cen- Tuesday, July 3, 2018 www.iomtoday.co.im ISLE OF MAN EXAMINER 15 FEATURE

Ewanrigg Hall in Edwardian hand-tinted postcard

shows demonstrating new While Milntown is now farming methods which thriving as an island attrac- were attended by notable tion, the other Christian figures from all over Britain, homes have not fared so well. including the Isle of Man. A On the island, Ronaldsway branch of the Workington House was demolished in Agricultural Association was the 1940s to allow airfield actually set up in the island. improvements that have re- All was not perfect – as sulted in today’s airport cov- with Poldark there were ering the site. infidelities on John Chris- Over in Cumbria, Ewan- tian Curwen’s part, as he was rigg went into decline in the always something of a ladies’ Victorian period, In the 20th man, and his long periods century the top storeys of the Workington Hall in the 19th century by A F Lydon away at Westminster were once grand Ewanrigg were just as difficult for his wife removed, leaving only a wing as BBC viewers have seen as a rundown farmhouse and tre. A plan he found there yet was proud of his Welsh In 1780, John XVII tried to Carlisle. Like the fictional with Demelza Poldark. Jane the remainder of the rest as showed that the old Miln- descent. In 1768 he wrote persuade the Lord Chancel- Ross Poldark he also cam- Christian’s diary records of outbuildings. Now surround- town buildings had clearly not a grovelling letter to the lor to allow him to marry his paigned for greater rights for Isabella: ‘My brother’s long ed by Maryport housing matched the footprint of the island’s then Lord, the 3rd 17-year-old ward Isabella. His the ordinary man, an end to absences grieve her greatly.’ estates, not long ago the site current one, and he found a Duke of Atholl, requesting former father-in-law, Speak- inflated charges for food- Isabella died in 1820 and was damaged by fire but a contract drawn up between a grant of land on the slopes er John Taubman, was one of stuffs and impositions such in John XVII’s last years the developer recently proposed Ewan Christian XV and the of North Barrule to build the those who spoke in his favour as payment of church tithes, difficult post-Napoleonic developing it as flats. estate’s then tenant, the summer residence – now at a Chancery hearing. When Parliamentary reform and an Wars climate hit his estate Ramsey-based merchant John a ruin still known as Park this didn’t work, John and end to the slave trade. and mine income hard. orkington Llewellyn. Llewellyn. Other letters re- Isabella eloped to Edinburgh To reinforce a point he When he died in 1828, he left Hall, mean- The contract revealed veal that he must have once and married there where once turned up in Parlia- only debts to his heirs. while, was that as a condition of been involved in the island’s the Lord Chancellor had no ment dressed in the garb of a While Workington Hall left by the Llewellyn obtaining a new smuggling trade. influence. Cumbrian farmer, complete was inherited by John and Curwen 21-year lease to Milntown, Another document found A month later John and Is- with clogs, to demonstrate Isabella’s children, Milntown family to the local council with the merchant would under- by Nigel Crowe in the White- abella had another ceremony the hardships they lived un- and Ewanrigg went to John Wthe aim of it becoming a town take to, within the space of a haven archives reveals that in at Bermondsey, London, just der. Christian XVIII, his son born hall. This never happened and year, remove ‘the old ruined 1767 John Llewellyn reached to make sure – and then took to first wife Margaret. More instead the authority removed dwelling house’ and build a agreement with John Chris- Jane and Bridget with them ohn XVII also used serious than his father, John John and Isabella Christian new Georgian-style farm- tian XVI to build a new wheat on honeymoon to the South the House of Com- XVIII was also more attached Curwen’s 18th century addi- house on a different site. The mill at Milntown – perhaps of France. mons to champion to the Isle of Man. After tions to expose the medieval dimensions of the new house the one still there today. Following this marriage, the rights of the some years practising law in and Tudor workmanship of are precisely set out and Workington Hall became the Manx against impo- England, and after marry- the original fortified house. further conditions stipulate he next heir to Christian family’s main seat, sitions being demanded by the ing Susannah Allen in Bath, This resulted in the building that it should have a staircase Milntown and with its extensive coal mines J4th Duke of Atholl. Although in 1820 he was invited to falling into dereliction and to- with turned balusters ‘fin- Ewanrigg, John adding to the wealth now be- these efforts were not alto- become a Deemster and had day it is a gaunt ruin, while the ished in a handsome man- Christian XVII, ing accrued to ones on the gether successful, Christian arrived with his large family surrounding land is used as a ner’, should have windows was a 15-year-old Ewanrigg estate. The coal Curwen was presented with back on the island. While for public park. copied from a sash example living under the guardian- was shipped across to Dub- an engraved silver cup as a some years they lived at Fort The buildings of Schoose that Llewellyn was required shipT of his Cumbrian uncle, lin, then reaching its zenith mark of gratitude. Anne in Douglas, in 1829 the Farm crown the top of a hill. to take over to the Isle of Man Henry Curwen of Working- as an elegant and fashionable When it came to his own opportunity came at last to Fortunately a nearby Geor- from Ewanrigg, and that a ton Hall. This boy turned Georgian city, and the wealth estate workers and miners, return to Milntown. It was gian townhouse built in 1740 bedroom and closet over the out to be the greatest of the that resulted enabled John John Christian Curwen set John XVIII therefore who for the Curwen family’s land parlour should be reserved Christian family, becoming XVII and Isabella to remodel up special funds into which was responsible for again steward was later left to the for members of the Christian the only person to be both an the medieval Workington the workers themselves paid making it the family seat and town by a benefactress with family when they needed to MHK and Westminster MP, Hall with additions added a regular contribution and for covering the house built conditions that it be used visit the island. as well as an important agri- by the fashionable architect to which he himself then by John Llewellyn with the for the good of the people of Ewan XV probably never cultural and social reformer. John Carr of York. In 1790 contributed a matching or Gothic ‘icing’ and crenella- Workington. Now it is the saw the new Milntown house His involvement in Manx John XVII added the Cur- greater sum. Money was then tions (rather reminiscent of Helena Thompson Museum. as he died in 1752 at the age affairs began in 1773 at his wen family name to his own, paid out at times of need. Fort Anne’s) that are its de- The Belle Isle roundhouse of just 34. Having never mar- sister Dorothy’s wedding in becoming John Christian Many years later the idea was fining features today. (named after Isabella) on ried, he was succeeded by his Dearham Church, close to Curwen. copied to develop today’s Na- Meanwhile, the quest to Lake Windermere remained younger brother, John Chris- Ewanrigg. The bridegroom John XVII could per- tional Insurance system. find the location of the ‘lost’ in Curwen family ownership, tian XVI. Meanwhile over was Captain John Taubman, haps be termed an ‘Irish Sea On Windermere, where original mansion, includ- complete with Christian time Llewellyn extended the of Castletown and soon after Poldark’, as like Winston the Christian Curwens ing a recent archaeological family portraits and furni- new house as his family grew owner of the Nunnery, and Graham’s fictional Cornish owned the round mansion on survey, has unearthed some ture, until fairly recent times with the birth of five daugh- John Christian XVII fell in character he fought off a cor- Belle Isle, the couple started remnants but nothing con- but was partially damaged by ters and two sons. love with his sister, Margaret rupt dirty tricks campaign regular regattas which were clusive about the precise site. fire not long after being sold From documents among Taubman. He married her at by a grasping rival – in this attended by George Quayle Experts’ views on where it to new owners. Today it is in the Atholl Papers held by Kirk Maughold in 1775 and a case by James Lowther, Earl of Castletown with his yacht might have been differ quite private hands and not open Manx National Heritage, we son, also called John Chris- of Lonsdale, involving brib- Peggy, and at Schoose Farm widely, so Milntown contin- to the public, but it can be know that John Llewellyn tian. His wife died three ery and mob violence – to on the Ewanrigg estate they ues to hold on to some of its glimpsed from nearby Bow- was originally from Bristol years later. become Whig Party MP for also started agricultural secrets. ness and boats on the lake.