Fate of Christian's Milntown Compared to Their Ewanrigg
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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. Hnext 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 Hof 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 Iresearch 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.