By Nancy Thomas
The following is neither an ’article’ nor a ’document’ as such; it is an entertaining and interesting short extract from an account or day book kept by Abraham Rawlinson, Esq, of Ellel Hall, in the 1780’s1. This gentleman was one of a very large, well-connected, and successful family of early Lancaster industrialists and West Indian traders, and the grandson of Abraham Rawlinson, the Iron Founder.
You may wonder what the Rawlinsons of Ellel and Lancaster have to do with Warton parish. Actually, that is the very question I was trying to answer when I came across this piece in a mass of Rawlinson business accounts. That there is a connection is witnessed by Yealand Manor, formerly Morecambe Lodge, in Yealand Conyers, a Rawlinson residence in the 18th century and the home of the John Rawlinson Ford’s for many years.
The family is a genealogist’s delight, because they regularly preserved maternal surnames in the Christian and middle names of their many offspring. Thus, Thomas Hutton, whose daughter Dorothy married Thomas Rawlinson in 1665, is memorialised by succeeding generations of T. Hutton Rawlinsons; and when John Ford of Morecambe Lodge named his first three sons Hutton Rawlinson (1804), Charles Dillworth (1806), and Robert Lawson (1809), he was proclaiming the blood link between the Fords, the Rawlinsons (grandmother), the Dillworths (great grandmother), and the Lawsons (mother), all important and wealthy Quaker merchant families in 18th century Lancaster.
What I was looking for and what I hope to find is the particular role Yealand Conyers played in the lives of these people, and also what effect they in turn had on Yealand Conyers. Although the following extract sheds no light at all on that subject, I offer it anyway for its domestic and human interest.
‘House Expence a/c from June 1 1782 to June 1 1783
| For my Expences with Miss Hinde & my Son Hutton to Durham, theirs, my Polly & Miss Nelly Hindes with my Coach 5 horses. & 3 Servants from Durham to Rusher Ford to Sedgfield Newcastle Jollerford Bridge Glenwhelt Branton Carlisle Corby Castle Penrith Ulzewater Shap Kendal & home | 288 Miles Sep. 25 to Oct. 10 is 16 days | £44.16 |
| Colthurst Chaise & 4 horses to Sedberg | 27 miles @ 15d | £1.13.9 |
| Colthurst Chaise & 2 horses to Sunderland | 6/- | |
| Colthurst Chaise & 2 horses to Glasson | 5/- | |
| Oct 19 a Load of Oats & Grinding | 16/6 | |
| Nov 2 pd for Hutton attending Philosophical Lectures | £1 1/- | |
| Nov 11 Catons Wigs & 1 yrs dressing & dressing Hutton & Shaving myself | £6 | |
| Nov 18 One Years Subscription to Lancaster Dispensary | £ 3 3/- | |
| Nov 20 Two New Barrels to my hand organ | £ 4 4/- | |
| Nov 30 Paid my Lovely Wife | £63 | |
| Dec 5 Stanley Turner a Chaise & 1 pair horses | 13 Aug. to 24 Sep. 1779 is 43 days @ 10/6 – £22.11.6 a grey Mare bought of[f] him. – £10.10 | £33. 1. 6 |
| Laborers wages from 1782 Sep. 1 to 1783 Feb. 15 | ||
| Wm Humber Gardener | 168 days @ 2/ | £16.16 |
| John Thornton Laborer | 137.5 days @ 1/6 | £10.6.3 |
| John Hodgson | 132.5 days@ 1/6 | £9.18.9 |
| Wm Wilson | 26.5 days @ 1/6 | £1.19.9 |
| Lawr. Cutler | 26 days @ 1/6 | £1.19.0 |
| Chas Wilson from Aug 18 | 147.5 days @1/6 | £11.1.3 |
| John Hartley from Aug 24 | 150 days @ 1/6 | £11.0.5. |
| Dec 12 Flower Potts @ 1/- | £0.63.7 [Ed this is interpretation of magazine] | |
| Oct 12 John Whitehead a vine last March | 1/6 | |
| 6 Peaches and Nectarine trees | 9/- | |
| Nov 2 R. Carder 6 Loads Beans @ 13/6 £.4.1 6 Loads Beans @ 14/6 £.4.4 | | £0.8.5 |
| Nov 22 WM Sturzaker 4 Dwarf Plumbs £.4. 5 Peaches & Nectarine Trees in Feb £.7.6 | £0.11.6 | |
| Oct 18 Thos Shaw a sun dial calculating painting guilding and fixing to South end of Dining Room | £4. 4, | |
| 1783 Jan 3 John Procter Porter, Bottles & corks July last | £4.. | |
| Jan 18 James Cornthwaite Black Smiths Bill 1 Yr | £ 6. 8.5 | |
| Jan 18 Wm Townson 7 Carts hedging & Peasticks | £1.5 | |
| Jan 27 John Peacock duty 1 Male Servant to 8 Jan | £ 1. 2.0 | |
| 1 Years Duty on Coach to 20 Dec 1783 | £ 6.17 | |
| Feb 13 Pd my Lovely Wife | £ 21 | |
| Feb 5 d the Rev. Win Cotton for 1 years tuition of my Son Hutton ending 9 Oct 1782 | £42. . | |
| Mar 23 & Mar 30 Pd my Lovely Wife | £57.15.0 | |
| Mar 7 Pd John Beakbane for Porter in 1781 | £3.1.0 | |
| Mar 7 Pd Henry Walmsley Bill of Stationary | £2.6.0 | |
| Mar 7 Pd Jas. Barrow £300 Insurance against Fire | .13.0 | |
| Apr 8 Pd Fayrer & Co. repair of Coach etc | .18.4 | |
| Apr 21 Apr 8 Pd Fayrer & Co. repair of Coach etc…, £18,4 21 | £9.15 |
- Lancashire County Archives ref MS 3714 [Ed the layout of the magazine may mean there are inaccuracies in the above] ↩︎
Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 8 Summer 1984