by M.L. Walling
Among the society archives listed in the Mourholme Magazine for Local History (1999 – 2000, No. 1) is a photocopy of a document held in the Lancashire Record Office (QSP 2784/18). It dates from 1821 and concerns a ‘Settlement Dispute’. There had been an argument between Silverdale and Warton-with-Lindeth townships as to which was responsible for caring for Jonathan Walling and his family, who were in need of support from the poor rates. By law this duty usually fell on the parish where the unfortunate had been born, no matter how long he or she had lived and worked elsewhere. The new parish is sometimes granted ‘legal settlement’, particularly if the Overseers thought the newcomer was so well-to-do, or so safely employed, that he would be an asset to the parish rather than a liability. Jonathan Walling had not managed to acquire formal settlement in Silverdale. He did not even have a certificate to say which parish was responsible for him, which in view of his father’s unsettled life style as recounted below, is not surprising. So when the Overseers of the Poor in Silverdale objected to using township money on him it was left to the two J.P.s hearing the case to settle the matter. They decided, on 26 May 1821, that Jonathan, his wife Ellen and seven of his children (aged between 23 and 5) were the responsibility of Warton township, (for reasons which they do not give) and that they must be conveyed thither. The document is annotated that this was done by Wm Dobson (presumably the constable) on 28 May, 1821.
My interest is chiefly that Jonathan Walling was my Great-Grandfather x 3. He was descended from a line of Wallings who were of Dyke House, Jenny Brown’s Point, in 1605. Jonathan’s father, John Walling, inherited Bradshawe Gate about 1742, when only 9 years of age (having a sister Mary born 1728 and brother Jonathan born 1738). In 1744 John’s mother, Helen, married Lawrence Gibson of Hale in Beetham parish. It seems the family then went to Hale. About 1753 John Walling sold Bradshawe Gate to his uncle, Mathew Walling, who had possibly occupied the place during his nephew’s minority. John then goes south for over twenty years; what his occupation was is not known.
Over twenty years ago I decided to do a Walling Family Tree. Lancaster Reference Library enabled me to look at Warton records. Wallings in plenty – but getting them sorted out not easy. Census records for 1841 and 1851 were more detailed. There was Jonathan Walling, born 1775 in Westminster. Two or three years later I tried the Mormon records. Success!
Jonathan Walling was baptised at Swallow Street Scotch Church, Westminster in September 1775. He was entered as the son of John and Grizel Walling. Further Mormon records reveal an Isabel Walling baptised in Canterbury Independent and Presbyterian Church in October 1768. She too, was a child of John and Grizel. In March 1774 William, son of John and Grizel, was baptised in Chichester Presbyterian Church. The father’s occupation not given.
The next information is from Warton parish registers. On 21 January 1776 a record was made of the burial of a John son of John and Grissy Walling of Silverdale. Young John’s age is not given. In October 1799 the same register records the burial of John Walling, age 66, pensioner, of Lindeth (who paid pension?). Then in February 1822 comes the burial of Grizel Walling, age 86, widow of John Walling, weaver.
On 4 July 1797 Jonathan Walling married Ellen Armistead. By 1819 they had produced 11 children. John, the first born died in 1816, aged 19. In the baptismal registers Jonathan is given as of Lindeth till 1805, after which he was in Silverdale.
By 1821 times must have become difficult for the cottage weaving industry. William Dobson of Silverdale, who was given the job of removing the family to Warton, would be in a rather embarrassing situation, having to carry out his duties, by order of the Justices, on people who were well known to him. He would not have far to go to hand them over to the Overseers of Warton-with-Lindeth. But where did they go to? Would mother Grizel, then 85 and near the end of her time, put two adults and seven children into her cottage? The eldest three children were not amongst those moved – possibly away on farm service. In the 1841 census the Wallings were residing at Silverdale Green. William, the second son, died aged 23. In 1822 Jonathan, born 1800, went to Dalton-in-Furness and was an iron ore miner, also Daniel born 1809.
Mathew, born in 1805, my Great Grandfather x 2, went to farm work in the Lyth valley. He married there in 1830 and somehow got his foot on the farming ladder. He married twice and had sixteen children. Isaac, born 1807, spent most of his life in Silverdale and was a stonemason. He had nine or ten sons. The Westmorland Gazette (6 October, 1860) described Jonathan Walling as a ‘Hale veteran’, stating he was aged 89 and that he had been Clerk of the Silverdale Chapel since he was 19 years of age. The paper furthermore recorded that, after shearing 11 hattocks of grain on Monday, he walked to Lyth, a distance of 14 miles to visit his son Mathew on Tuesday, and walked home again on Wednesday!
Jonathan’s wife, Elinor, had died in 1851, but in 1842 their youngest child Sarah gave birth to a son, Thomas. Sarah died after the birth. Jonathan was on his own at the 1861 Census and died at Silverdale Green in February 1866. His son Isaac was residing nearby at the Row. Old Jonathan had seen his share of tragedy in his 92 years. Later a Thomas and Emma Mabel Walling of Liverpool baptised two children at Silverdale. Was this Sarah’s son?
Published in the Mourholme Local History Society Magazine Issue 37 1999