By Miss I. E. Gaddes, Librarian

The following is an outline list of some of the material held at the Lancaster library [Ed now held primarily at Lancashire County Archives Preston] which may be of interest to researchers in local history.

It is a preliminary listing which will be added to as time permits.

[Ed This information is written prior to the census returns and newspaper archives being readily available on the Internet for a subscription, also available at local libraries]

• Census Enumerator’s Returns these are on microfilm and cover the returns for 1841 (no specific places of birth), 1851, 1861, 1871, and 1881. They cover lancaster district, an area within about a 15 mile radius of Lancaster.
• Directories from the 1770’s approximately every five years, to 1970. Earlier directories tend to exclude all but gentry and master tradesmen.
• A “Finding list” of streets is not available until 1899.
• Electoral Rolls or Roll Books from 1784, with a gap from 1888 to 1908 inclusive. They gradually become more comprehensive as electoral reforms extended the franchise. Women appear in the 20th century.
• Rolls of Free Burgesses printed ones cover 1680-1840 and have indexes; professions stated. Father usually named. Originals at Lancaster town hall [Ed may now be at Lancashire County Archives] and in progress. Men only listed.
• Apprentice Registers for Lancaster (microfilm) 1736 to late 19th century. An earlier volume is at Lancaster town hall. Most useful and more comprehensive from 1736 to c.1810. Parent and master and trade are listed. Card index of apprentices in 18th century excludes the town hall’s volume.
• Lancaster Charity School Register 1770-1819. Notes Parentage and future master and trade. Card index of boys.
• Lancaster Royal Grammar School register printed and very selective with short biographical notes of notable scholars.
• Biographical Index and Files the library has an alphabetical index of biographical items including manuscripts which may date back several centuries. Some items have been put in manilla files under the family name. Items are mostly sporadic but for some families we have more numerous documents of printed pedigrees; for instance, Backhouse, Cumming, Faithwaite, Parkinson, Beakbane.
• Biographical and Obituary Cuttings of local notable people from 1800 to 1932. Then there is a gap until the 1950’s when cuttings began to be taken systematically once again.
• Newspaper Index sporadic from 1801 to date. As well as the subject entries there are alphabetical entries under personal names and names of houses and streets. Births, marriages, and deaths have only been entered in detail for the early years of the 19th century. There is a list of the general subject headings which are commonly used.
• Colonel Chippindall’s Files and Books the colonel died in the 1940’s and left a set of files which are kept alphabetically under family name. These include manuscript pedigrees and transcripts of families in the Lune Valley area and some from Lancaster. Colonel Chippindall published books which include much interesting detail on Ireby, Tunstall and Gressingham parishes.

Sets of Transactions and Publications of Societies

• Chetham Society
• Lancashire Parish Register Society (Warton registers, vol 73)
• Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society Transactions
• Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Catholic Record Society
• Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society

Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 10 Winter 1985

by Jean Chatterley

By the late 1880’s, following the rapid growth of Carnforth from a village to a busy manufacturing and railway centre, the situation in regard to public health was being seen as alarming by the residents.

In November 1887 the Rural Sanitary Authority (R.S.A.), a subsidiary of the Lancaster Union’s Board of Guardians¹, received a letter of complaint from a Carnforth resident (Lancaster Gazette 26 Nov 1887): it and the discussion which ensued illustrate the state of affairs as the time.

The complaint concerned a triangular plot of land behind the writer’s house, Ash Cottage, Carnforth, a former sand and gravel quarry which was being filled with town rubbish and filth from the local ash pits². Fifteen houses had backdoors within a few yards of this ‘nuisance,’ and the writer linked it to the current scarlet fever epidemic. A discussion followed: the site had been visited and indeed found to be a ‘great nuisance’; moreover, it was only 5 yards from the church, and the ‘smell experienced’ by the congregation was ‘very bad.’ There was still room for waste disposal on the shore, it was said. The homes of the scarlet fever cases had been supplied with disinfectants, and ‘all care had been taken.’ All three cases involved young children.

A month later, things were no better. Mr Jowett reported a further three fever cases in Carnforth (report of RSA meeting, 24 Dec 1887), in the same houses as the earlier cases. The premises had been fumigated and disinfectants freely used. Dr Jackson reported that there were many other fever cases and recommended ‘a thorough search round the place with regard to privies and ash pits, and also an investigation into connecting all houses with the new sewer system.’ Dr Parker, the Medical Officer for the Lancaster Union, was called upon to give a report: there had been ‘only’ 39 cases of fever in 12 months in Carnforth and in ‘that portion of Warton called Dudley’, he said,

and in the absence of an isolation hospital and compulsory notification, I do not see what the Authority can do to prevent the spread of epidemic disease. The ashpits shall be inspected, and if found to be insanitary must be cleansed out and put in proper order.

He asked that a copy of the by-laws relating to ashpits be sent to him. He went on to say that because of the three new fever cases, the trustees of the school (350 children on the roll) had thought it necessary to close the school until February 1st.

Dr Jackson thought fever cases ought to be reported to Dr Parker by law. Practitioners were not paid to do so at that time.

Matters were brought into sharper focus in the new year, January 1888. The Gazette for 7 January reported the meeting of the Guardians, as it always did, and it is worth looking at this report for the vivid picture it gives of Carnforth in 1888, of the workings of local government at the time, and of Mr Edward Barton. As well as being a Guardian, Mr Barton was the manager of the Carnforth Iron Works and was living at Warton Grange, which had been built for him on Sand Lane. The meeting was warned to take precautions against a smallpox epidemic which was spreading northwards and already ‘raging’ in Sheffield and Leeds. It was suggested, for immediate pre- cautions, that all tramps visiting the Workhouse in Lancaster be examined, and that work on the isolation hospital [now Beaumont Hospital] should be finished as soon as possible. A member of the Board wondered if the porter at the Workhouse was discriminating enough to spot smallpox cases as they entered and refer them to the M.O. It was decided to pay the M.O. extra money and ‘require him to visit the Workhouse every day, instead of twice a week, for the duration of the epidemic.

Mr Edward Barton then addressed the meeting. He expressed the ‘very strong feeling of dissatisfaction in his neighbourhood at the entire absence of any provisions for dealing with an epidemic. ‘In his district,’ he said,

many of the ashpits were erected contrary to the by laws, and although they had gone to great expense in sewering the place, many of the houses had no connection with the sewer whatever …. They might instruct the Master to be careful about the admission of tramps … but that would be no use at all at Carnforth unless they had some means of isolation open to the whole Union. At Carnforth, as they knew, the population was of a migratory character, and every day almost they had new inhabitants in the place …. they ought to get to know authoritatively … whether this hospital [the isolation wing] at the Workhouse would be available for them or not in case an epidemic broke out. .. and he would like to know .. . whether anyone, either the. medical officer, a local doctor, or anyone else had power to send a person to that hospital and demand that the person should be admitted ….

Mr Barton continued to speak plainly:

We have had fifty cases of scarlet fever in our district and not one tenth of them have been reported to the Board. If there are fifty cases of smallpox, and they are dealt with in the same way … then they will not come under the notice of the Board until it is too late.

Mr Barton spoke at length and I have been selective. His contemporaries on the Board, however, were far more verbose, and Mr Barton comes across as being comparatively blunt and direct! The discussion became quite heated, but eventually Mr Barton was obliged to accept a decision that the M.O.’s word would be sufficient.

The floor was then taken by the Sanitary Inspector who reported three more cases of scarlet fever in two of the houses already infected, and, he said

There is small pox in Sheffield, and the railway officials, though living in Carnforth, stay all night in Sheffield.

He wanted a building in Carnforth to be set aside for use as a temporary hospital, and he and Mr Thwaites, the Poor Law Guardian for Carnforth, were empowered to look for a suitable house. Another Guardian, Mr Kellet, suggested that ‘carts for collection of ashes be sent round every day for a short time until the. ashpits had been thoroughly cleaned out.’ When questioned, the Inspector explained that usually ‘the carts were sent round once a month.’ Most of the houses in Carnforth had water closets.

Yes, agreed Mr Barton, ‘but there were still a great number of houses with filthy, stinking ashpits, the contents of many of which were exposed to the weather.’ He thought Carnforth was ‘losing its character as a rural place’ because of these problems.

Finally, Mr Barton announced that:

unless some steps were taken to remedy the present state of affairs, there was only one course that would be open to them, and that was to sever themselves from the Union altogether and take measures to obtain powers to make their own. sanitary arrangements …

‘He had been agitating,’ he said, ‘for the last eight or ten years for the provision of a hospital for the isolation of cases of infectious diseases, and they did not seem to be any nearer its accomplishment …. le could take them to houses in Carnforth where there were five or six persons in one house suffering from fever.’

Two weeks later the Board met again (Gazette, 21 Jan 1888). Mr Barton’s fears were confirmed when a Clerk read letters to the effect that only paupers were entitled to beds in the Workhouse’s isolation wing. By now there were 51 cases of scarlet fever in Carnforth and Dudley, and two had died. Even so, families were unwilling to notify cases to the authorities. Three cottages on the Kellet Road had been taken with the idea of using the middle one as an infectious diseases hospital, but Dr Parker disliked the choice because it was too near other dwellings and the road. The ashpits and privies had been surveyed, and, as expected, found to be ‘in an improper condition.’ ‘In Dudley,’ Dr Parker remarked,

although the houses are in most instances provided with a means of screening their cinders and letting the ashes run into the pit of the privy, in only one or two instances were those outbuildings in proper use. In the outhouse containing the screens it is the rule to keep fowls, ducks or rabbits, which are so neglected as to give rise to an unpleasant odour. The day upon which I visited Dudley was very wet, and I observed in nearly every privy children playing; and considering the offensive state of the pits in the cleanest of privies, it cannot be considered a proper place for children to spend any length of time. The only property I could find not connected with the sewers is Midland Terrace, and two detached houses situate between the Midland Railway and the river Keer.

He then went on to make numerous recommendations. These included the Board’s Rural Sanitary Authority’s acquiring the Waterworks and compelling all houses to be supplied from it, and closing all the wells and pumps. Other measures proposed were the control of keeping fowl, etc, the paving and sewering of all the ‘back streets,’ the conversion of all privies to water closets, the covering of all ashpits, and the compelling of all owners of property to drain into the sewer. He then reported that the three cottages referred to had already been abandoned as a potential hospital: people were threatening to leave the surrounding houses! He urged the building of a proper hospital.

By the time the R.S.A. met on 4 February 1888, Mr Edward Barton had been busy investigating the possibilities of another idea to cope with the expected imminent arrival of smallpox. He could not attend the meeting in person, because of another engagement in Manchester, but by letter he offered the R.S.A. the use of the ‘barracks’ belonging to him at Warton. The Chairman, Mr Dawson, explained:

The building referred to by Mr Barton was erected in connection with the Warton embankment reclamation scheme, and was now unoccupied. It was made to accommodate about 40 men … would be available for a certain time if they liked to take it; but there was this objection, that it was a long distance from any doctor’s residence.

Other Guardians and local residents had also offered solutions. Thomas Jackson, of Hall Croft, Carnforth, offered the use of ‘any isolated portion of my ground’ if an epidemic broke out and if a mobile hospital could be provided, and this offer was considered ‘a handsome one.’ Details of two types of portable hospital were then discussed, and the R.S.A. decided upon a Docker Field Hospital. The Docker Field Hospital had two wards for eight patients, 5,200 cu. ft. of ward space. It had a room for a nurse, a roof ventilator, and ‘an arrangement for a stove.’ It weighed 64 cwt when packed up and would cost £220.

Within 3 weeks the portable hospital had been set up and was being furnished, on a site at Skerton known as the ‘Folly.’ On 25 February, Dr Jackson was asking the Board if he could use it, ‘a case had occurred at Carnforth in the house of a poor fellow who had lost his wife. He had six children, and the fever had broken out amongst them. ‘ That case was left in the hands of Dr Jackson, Dr Parker, Mr Thwaites, and Mr Jowett. (It transpired that only one of the children was infected, and the case was a mild one). By June, there were records of cases of scarlet fever being sent to the new hospital.

Interestingly, the portable hospital cost the Lancaster R.S.A. only £205.17s.0d, and the Newcastle company which produced it paid the £143 cost of transporting it!

Also interesting is that I have not so far found any reports of cases of smallpox being found in the Lancaster Union area, either in the Workhouse or amongst the migrant population of Carnforth and Dudley.

Notes

1. The Lancaster Union had been formed in the early 1840’s and comprised 19 parishes: Lancaster, Aldcliffe, Ashton-with-Stodday, Bulk, Carnforth, Cockerham, Ellel, Heaton-with-Oxcliffe, Middleton, Overton, Over Wyresdale, Priest Hutton, Scotforth, Silverdale, Skerton, Thurnham, Warton-with-Lindeth, Yealand Conyers and Yealand Redmayne. ↩︎
2. Ash pits were forerunners of dustbins ↩︎

Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 10 Winter 1985

By M. R. Walling

For many years the origin of the name ‘Jenny Brown’s Point’ has been the subject of much speculation. Several writers on local history have suggested that Jenny was a large steam engine, used for copper smelting in the vicinity of the chimney at Jenny Brown’s Point. One theory was that the famous lady was a lodging-house keeper looking after Irish Miners employed in copper mining and smelting. I think that the will of John Walling of 1671 suggests another, and better, identity for the elusive lady.

The rental and survey of Warton with Lindeth of 1609 mentions William Browne and Thomas Browne both holding pasture on Lindeth Marsh. John Wawen [Walling] is also listed in the survey. Warton Parish Registers record the baptism on March 9, 1605, of John, son of John Wawen of the ‘Dikehouse’ in Lindeth. Dikehouse was the name of the dwelling at what is now Jenny Brown’s Point.

The will of John Walling dated August 29, 1671, makes his two daughters, Jann Walling and Jennye Browne, beneficiaries of sums of money to be paid to them by his son William. Jennet, Jennye’s baptismal name, is one of the commonest names in the wills of this period, but ‘Jenny’ occurs only this one time. I think the proven existence of a woman called Jenny Brown who lived in the place now called Jenny Brown’s Point provides the simplest and most reasonable explanation for the place name.

The Inventory of John Walling is of considerable interest. He was the owner of a ‘mere’ (mare) and a gelding worth £3, bease (cattle) worth £10, sheep worth £8.5s, and Torfe (peat) worth 13/4. Amongst his other goods were Netes, Stukes and panyers worth 5s. This indicates fishing, perhaps, for both his own use and income supplement. The total value of goods is £31.15.8. This includes 11s owing to William Stout, perhaps the famous Ironmonger of Lancaster.

John Walling’s son William died at Dikehouse in 1722. The property then passed to a daughter who married a Hutton. William Walling married Elizabeth, a daughter of the Waithman family. William Walling’s son, another John, had by this time established himself at Bradshawgate in Silverdale.

It is from these people that my family descend; they may have been kin to the more affluent Wallings of Slackwood. The Marsh must have been extensively grazed in Jennye Brown’s time, as the area of hard land there is small and would be needed for winter fodder. The tides would also have to be watched closely. Livestock would have to be moved to the higher land in periods of high tides. The grass must have been kept very short by the various livestock. Lindeth Marsh was probably grazed by several others, as well as the Browne and Walling families; perhaps William Waithman also had grazing here. At the east end the Slackwood and Crag Foot holdings would also graze the Marsh.

Jenny Brown must have been a local character to have given her name to this rather isolated place. There is another example in Silverdale of a woman giving her name to a property.

When Thomas Clark, blacksmith and farmer, died in 1717, he left his smithy and farm at Elmslack, in the care of his wife Julia [Jullian, Gillian]. She survived him at the farm by 31 years, and when her son sold the property in the 1740’s, it had become known as Gillian House and the field in front of the house as Gillian Field. Over the years the name suffered certain corruptions, some 19th century records refer to it as Tollian House, for example, but Gillian Field is still called by that name today. Perhaps Jenny Brown was a widow like Jillian Clark, who held the farm on the Marsh for so long that her name came to identify the place.

Published in Mourholme Magazines Issue 10 Winter 1985

By K. Hodgson

What to do on a wet, miserable winter’s day? Why; how about sitting in a nice warm library – like Lancaster’s first floor Reference Room – where you can make Mrs Jean Chatterley happy by reading some 19th century newspapers and helping the Mourholme Society expand its knowledge!

For the first half of the century you can read a year’s papers in about two and a half hours. There is more national news than local; the gossip of the district must have been passed by word of mouth, and it is mainly the adverts that make you get our your biro and start writing. However, the latter half of this period you will be hard put to cope with three months worth of news in two and a half hours, especially as you are more inclined to let your eyes dwell on matters other than Warton’s doings.

So I indulged in the events of 1829 one wet day. I would have preferred the Lancaster Guardian, but I was before its time and had to have the Lancaster Gazette on microfilm. In January various toll gates were to be let, the nearest to us was Beetham Gate at £217.

At the end of January an advertisement ‘To Stone Masons and Stone Getters to be let by ticket. To the getting of stones and the building of a barn, stables, shippons and offices at Borwick.’ Now then, Borwick readers, that should get you interested? Where is that barn now?

February was short of news unless you wanted a coffee plantation in Jamaica or a read about someone setting fire to York Minster.

By March the ploughing match had taken place at Over Kellet and George Townson and William I’Anson of Borwick had won prizes along with John Lindsey of Warton.

April – To be Sold, One-Third part or share of the Rectorial Tithes of the Parish of Warton.

End of May and a sale by Auction at the house of Mrs Jennings at the sign of The Shovel, Warton, of a messuage or dwelling house with Barn, Stable, etc, in Warton, 3/4 of an acre, in the late occupation of Mrs Mary Grey, deceased.

July – ‘To be Sold, a steam engine, 10-12 horsepower with 2 boilers – apply to Waithman & Co., Yealand.’ What does that mean, you Yealand people, any ideas?

September – ‘To be let by proposal for a term of years and entered on at Candlemas and May-day next’ …. a newly erected farmhouse belonging Rev. William Mason, with 173 acres and a limekiln.

What a lot of to be sold adverts. Many more for Warton and I will be late home!

At the house of Joseph Western at the sign of the Red Lion in Warton is to be an auction for 4 valuable Closes – Lower Boon Town, Higher Boon Town or Bracken Bank, Pots Close, and Crooklands.

Also a Close called Byerstead in possession of James Robinson, the last mentioned held under the Lord of the Manor of Warton for 3/6.

To be Sold by Auction. Dale Grove in Warton – Farmhouse etc, totalling 55 acres 2 roods.

‘Contiguous to Canal. ‘ Apply Mr Kew of Dale House.

By October the Dale Grove property is given in 5 lots all detailed.

By October 17th, the Sale of Dale Grove is withdrawn!

I look for more interesting ads but the property market is quiet, no more articles about our locality. So, I wind back the microfilm and I shall be home in reasonable time after all. Nevertheless, it has made me forget the weather, and Mrs Chatterley can cross off another year of the 100 years of newspapers on her list. If you wish to follow in my footsteps and read and make notes of newspapers for our archives, Mrs Chatterley will be pleased to advise you.

[Ed these notes are now in our archives, but can also be accessed at local libraries or a subsription]

Published in Mourholme Magazine Issue 10 Winter 1985

By Mrs Ann Wheeler

Ann Coward was born about 1735 in Cartmel. As a young woman, she left North Lancashire for London where she married Captain Wheeler, a seaman in the Guinea trade. At his death she returned to the north and lived with her brother, W.M. Coward, at Arnside Tower until her death in 1804. During her years at Arnside, she wrote several books, including The Westmorland Dialect in Four Dialogues in which she tried to convey the local dialect phonetically.

It is not only the dialect spoken in our area at the end of the eighteenth century that her Dialogues recreate. Their subject matter is drawn from the life of the time and the place, and though fictitious, they do seem to tell us something about the way our predecessors here two hundred years ago may have lived.

The selection included here is entitled

‘A Prefatory Discourse.’ It is hoped it will introduce readers to Mrs Wheeler’s phonetic technique, in preparation for extracts from the main Dialogues.

Mr A. Green of Arnside brought the Dialogues to my attention and with his help I have prepared the ’translation’ which accompanies the passage. I apologise both to those who don’t need such an aid and may consider it patronising and to those who do and may find it insufficient.

‘A Prefatory Discourse.’

I kna many of my readers will think, nay en say, I hed lile et dea tae rite sic maapment about nae body knas wha; I mud hev fund mitch better employment in a cuntry hause, tae mind milkiness, sarra th coafs, leak heftert pigs en hens, spin tow for bord claiths en sheets; it wod hev been mitch mair farently then ritin books, a wark ets fit for nin but parson et dea; but en ea mud rite I sud hev meaad receits for sweet pyes en rice puddins, en takin mauls aut eth claiths, that mud hev done gud, but as tae this, nea yan knas what it means, it’s a capper.

It wur net ith time of Oliver Crumel ner King Stune, but sum udder king, two men com a girt way off, ameast be Lunon, an they wanted toth gang cwar Sand, but when they com an leaked what a fearful way it wur owar, en nae hedges ner tornpike tae be seen, they wur flayed en steud gloarin about net knain what toth dea, when belive a man com ridin up tew em en eshed whaar they wur bawn; they sad owar Sand, but it wur sic a parlish way they didn’t like tae gang, for feard ea been drownt; this mon sed cum gang wie me, I’ll tak ye’th seaf owar I’ll uphod ye’th; wie that they set off, an thor men hed bean at a college caod Cambridg, en they thout tae hev sum gam wie their guide, soa as they raidd alang, yan on em sed ho wod give a supper an a crawn baul of punch if they cud cap him ea ony six words; they tryd mony a time, but cud net deat. At last they gat seaf owar Sand, en ridin up Shilla, two wimen wur feighten, hed pood yan udder’s caps off en neckcloths; they steud and leakd et em a lile bit, when th guide cood out ‘En udder blae el deat.” Upon hearing this, our travellers sed yee hev won the wager, for that wur a language unknawn to onny university.

Translation
I know many of my readers will think, nay and say, I had little to do to write such nonsense about nobody knows what; I might have found much better employment in a country house, to mind the dairy work, feed the calves, look after pigs and hens, spin tow for table cloths and sheets it would have been much more suitable than writing books, a work that’s fit for none but a parson to do, but if I must write I should have made recipes for sweet pies and rice puddings, and taking mauls cut of cloths, that might have done good, but as to this, no one knows what it means, it’s a capper.

It was not in the time of Oliver Cromwell nor King Stune, but some other king, two men came from a great way off, almost by London, and they wanted to go over the Sands, but when they came and looked what a fearful way it was over, and no hedges nor turnpike to be seen, they were afraid and stood gazing about not knowing what to do, when, believe it, a man camo riding up to them and asked where they were bound, they said over the Sands, but it was such a dangerous way they didn’t like to go, for fear of being drowned; this man said come go with me, I’ll take you safe over, I’ll take care of you; with that they set off, and these men had been at a college called Cambridge, and they thought to have some sport with their guide, so as they rode along, one of them said he would give a supper and a crown bowl of punch if they could stump him with any six words; they tried many a time, but could not do it. At last they got safe over the Sands, and riding up Shilla, two women were fighting, had pulled one another’s caps off and neckcloths; they stood and looked at them a little bit, when the guide called out “En udder blae el deat.¹” Upon hearing this, our travellers said you have won the wager, for that was a language unknown to any university.

This Dialogue² entitled ‘Between Ann and Mary, upon running away from a bad husband,’ describes a bad domestic situation but in the telling reveals a glimpse of Arnside/Silverdale at the turn of the 19th century. 

Notes

The dictionaries consulted for the following definitions are:
The English Dialect Dictionary, Nodal & Milner’s
A Glossary of the Lancashire Dialect,
Oxford English Dictionary.

sarra [from sarrow]: serve, feed
tow: hemp or flax fibres
farently [from farrand]: fit, becoming mauls: ?
capper: something which beats one’s comprehension
flayed [from fley]: frightened
gloarin [from glower]: to stare with wide open eyes, to gaze intently
King Stune: ?

1. Another blow’ll do it ↩︎
2. Wheeler, Ann, The Westmorland Dialect, in Four Dialogues (1834) ↩︎