Skidmore Lead Miners of Derbyshire & their descendants 1600-1915 Skidmore/ Scudamore One-Name Study 2015 www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com [email protected] SKIDMORE LEAD MINERS OF DERBYSHIRE, AND THEIR DESCENDANTS 1600-1915 by Linda Moffatt 2nd edition by Linda Moffatt© March 2016 1st edition by Linda Moffatt© 2015 Minor changes were made to This is a work in progress. The author is pleased to be informed of this account by Linda Moffatt errors and omissions, on 8 April 2017. alternative interpretations of the early families, additional information for consideration for future updates. She can be contacted at [email protected] DATES • Prior to 1752 the year began on 25 March (Lady Day). In order to avoid confusion, a date which in the modern calendar would be written 2 February 1714 is written 2 February 1713/4 - i.e. the baptism, marriage or burial occurred in the 3 months (January, February and the first 3 weeks of March) of 1713 which 'rolled over' into what in a modern calendar would be 1714. • Civil registration was introduced in England and Wales in 1837 and records were archived quarterly; hence, for example, 'born in 1840Q1' the author here uses to mean that the birth took place in January, February or March of 1840. Where only a baptism date is given for an individual born after 1837, assume the birth was registered in the same quarter. BIRTHS, MARRIAGES AND DEATHS Databases of all known Skidmore and Scudamore bmds can be found at www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com PROBATE A list of all known Skidmore and Scudamore wills - many with full transcription or an abstract of its contents - can be found at www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com in the file Skidmore/Scudamore One-Name Study Probate. CITATION Please respect the author's contribution and state where you found this information if you quote it. Suggested citation 'Skidmore Lead Miners of Derbyshire & their descendants 1600-1915 by Linda Moffatt at the website of the Skidmore/ Scudamore One-Name Study www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com'. PRIVACY The Skidmore/ Scudamore One-Name Study does not, as a matter of course, publish any biographical detail from approximately the last 100 years, unless with permission of descendants. CONTENTS Introduction 2 Notes & Unknowns 161 Generation 1 10 Appendix 1 Outline of Numbering system 165 Generation 2 11 Appendix 2 Cumberland Co., NovaScotia 173 Generation 3 16 Appendix 3 Eyam Hearth Tax 181 Generation 4 19 Appendix 4 Folkingham, Lincolnshire 182 Generation 5 23 Appendix 5 N.E. Nottinghamshire 187 Generation 6 28 Appendix 6 Trades & Other Directories 192 Generation 7 39 Generation 8 61 Generation 9 94 Generation 10 125 1 Skidmore Lead Miners of Derbyshire & their descendants 1600-1915 Skidmore/ Scudamore One-Name Study 2015 www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com [email protected] INTRODUCTION THE MOVE FROM SOMERSET TO DERBYSHIRE Skidmore families arrived in the High Peak area of Derbyshire in the early 17th century and their descendants comprise the second largest branch of the UK family, accounting for about 18% of individuals bearing the name Skidmore1. Their ancestors were in Somerset from the mid-15th century and have been admirably described in a piece by Warren Skidmore, The Skydmore Family Of Chewton Mendip, Somerset, and Eyam, Derbyshire, 20072. I have attempted here to pick up the family after its move to Derbyshire and describe descendants down to the beginning of the 20th century. Thomas Skydmore, born around 1565, was the first of his name at Chewton Mendip, a son of Robert Skydmore of Dunkerton - both places in Somerset. Two of Thomas' sons, baptised at Chewton Mendip - Arthur in 1593 and Simon in 1600 - were probably the first Skidmores in Derbyshire where they became lead miners in the parish of Eyam. Lead was then mined in two main areas of England, around Chewton Mendip in Somerset and Eyam in Derbyshire. The miners in Somerset had devised a superior method of smelting lead with a fixed ore hearth on the ground. This greatly improved productivity and profits for the owners, and an increasing number of Somerset migrants, Arthur and Simon Skidmore among them, took the new process up to Derbyshire and did not return to Somerset. The small village of Eyam is located in relative isolation deep in the heart of the Derbyshire Peak District, surrounded by a rugged landscape of limestone hills and dales. The parish church lies in the village and is dedicated to St Lawrence. Its parish registers survive from 1630 - unfortunately about 30 years after the first Skidmores arrived there. The 2006 transcript of these registers published on CD by Valerie Neal has been used for the purposes of this account (as have those for the parishes of Hope, Tideswell, Great Longstone and Stoney Middleton). Richard Skidmore, the brother of Arthur and Simon, also had lead mining interests but was primarily a yeoman of Taddington parish in Derbyshire. 1 A numerical analysis of the 1861 British census can be found at www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com. 2 This can be found at www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com. 2 Skidmore Lead Miners of Derbyshire & their descendants 1600-1915 Skidmore/ Scudamore One-Name Study 2015 www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com [email protected] For the family historian, an understanding of the parishes in the area is useful. The High Peak Hundred of Derbyshire included only 11 ancient parishes, but some were very large and contained numerous townships. Bakewell, All Saints. A CD prepared by Valerie Neal, containing a transcription of the parish registers of All Saints Church, which survive from 1642, has been used here, together with the Bishop's Transcripts to 1812 (kindly studied by Mrs Velma Skidmore). A baptism or burial at Bakewell did not necessarily mean that the family lived in Bakewell village. The extensive parish of Bakewell comprised: the township of Bakewell itself; the townships of Blackwall, Brushfield, Calver, Curbar, Flagg, Froggatt, Over and Nether-Haddon, Harthill, Hassop, Little Longstone, Rowland, Great Rowsley, and part of Wardlow; besides the parochial chapelries of Ashford, Baslow, Beeley, Buxton, Chelmorton, Great Longstone (CD transcript used), Monyash, Sheldon and Taddington. Castleton - including Edale. Chapel en le Frith - including Bowden Edge, Bradshaw Edge and Combs Edge. Tideswell - including Litton, Wheston and Wormhill. CD transcript used. Darley - including Wensley & Snitterton. Edensor - including Chatsworth and Pilsley. Youlgreave - including Birchover, Elton, Gratton, Middleton & Smerrill, Stanton and Winster. Glossop - including Charlesworth, Chinley, Bugsworth & Brownside, Chisworth, Chunall, Dinting, Hadfield, Hayfield, Ludworth, Mellor, New Mills, Padfield, Simmondley and Whitfield. Eyam - including Foolow and Eyam Woodlands. CD transcript used. Hathersage - including Bamford, Derwent, Outseats and Stoney Middleton. Hope - including Abney & Abney Grange, Aston, Bradwell, Brough & Shatton, Fairfield, Fernilee, Grindlow, Hazlebadge, Highlow, Hope Woodlands, Great Hucklow, Little Hucklow, Nether Padley, Offerton, Stoke and Thornhill. CD transcript used. The High Peak area (red) of Derbshire (white) and Peak Forest, an extra parochial liberty. From wikipedia The High Peak area relative to surrounding principle towns. 3 Skidmore Lead Miners of Derbyshire & their descendants 1600-1915 Skidmore/ Scudamore One-Name Study 2015 www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com [email protected] A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SOME OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISHES MENTIONED IN THIS ACCOUNT. EYAM [From: History of Derbyshire by David Peter Davies, 1811] HOPE [From: History of Derbyshire by David Peter Davies, 1811] 'A small village and parish, containing about 110 houses and 930 A small village, ... situated on the banks of the Derwent' ... 'is mentioned in inhabitants. Domesday 'as having a priest and a church in the time of Edward the Confessor'. In the Archdeaconry of Derby. Living a rectory; church dedicated ...'The moors of Hope parish afford an extraordinary instance of the preservation to St. Helen. of human bodies interred in them'. The parish contains the hamlets of Fowlow, Grindlow and Living a vicarage; church dedicated to St. Peter; patrons - the Dean and Chapter of Grindleford, containing, together with the Woodlands, about Lichfield. In the Archdeaconry of Derby. 112 houses.' [Note: although Davies does not list them, the following townships were in the parish of Hope: Abney, Aston, Fernilee, Highlow, Great Hucklow, Little Hucklow, Offerton, Shatton, Stoke, Thornhill, Thornton.] WARDLOW split between the parish of HOPE and the parish of LONGSTONE. BAKEWELL [From: History of Derbyshire by David Peter Davies, 1811] Wardlow is a surprising place. In early days, when there was no church here, the village suffered the affliction of being part of 'The most extensive parish in Derbyshire. ... It contains 9 chapelries and several two parishes. The main street marked the boundary between large hamlets, containing altogether about 1200 houses'. Longstone parish and Hope, and one side of the village was The 9 chapelries were: therefore in Hope parish, and the other in Longstone (or more Ashford 130 houses, 600 in habitants, cotton spinning, agriculture, usually in the records, Bakewell). The church deemed it as a 'lost marble manufactury. place'; and it was said that 'Wardlow women scarcely could Monsal Dale, 'a most pleasing sequestered retreat', is at trudge the long Derbyshire miles to either church and the men a little distance to the west. seldom did!' Baslow 130 houses, hamlets of Bubnal, Froggat and Curbar. Beeley 60 houses, agriculture This apparently was a source of confusion at the 1871 census, Calver and Rowland 110 houses even for the Census ennumerator John OUTRAM, who, whilst Great Longstone 80 houses not a native of the village, had lived in the village for some Great Rowsley 30 houses, agriculture considerable time. He recorded the whole of the village Hassop together on the census returns, but then had to cross it all out Monyash 55 houses and start again, recording the same households again, in two Taddington 70 houses separate lists, one for 'Wardlow in the Parish of Hope', and the [description of Taddington from the 1857 trade other for 'Wardlow in the Parish of Bakewell'.