lawson

THE LAWSON STORY

The year 1655 saw the first recusancy in this family, that is to say, the first recorded recusancy on the Egton lists. The culprits were Henry a mason, Elizabeth wife and Thomas also a mason. The parish burials show that Henry died two years later.Thomas and his wife Elizabeth were presented in 1641. The family continued to break the penal laws because another Henry and Katherine a spinster, together with John and Jane his wife, and William and Henry, no doubt their children form part of the huge Egton presentment for 1674 comprising no less than two hundred and twenty seven farmers and villagers. One of these Henrys died in 1682. Ellinor, WIlliam's wife, and daughter Jane were cited in 1680 implying non-recusancy on the part of the husband, but he and Ellinor were together eleven years afterwards wwith the addition of Hannah to Jane. A family William and Elizabeth, and Mary the wife of John, appeared on the Danby list the same time. A Joseph was listed for Ugthorpe to. Thomas and Maria were the first recusants at Whitby in 1716 when John represented Ugthorpe and Henry Egton. By 1735 Ellinor is a widow represented with John and Mary. A George appears for Egton in 1745 and in 1753 his wife and six children are listed with him, and Mary is a widow with four children. The fact of these children being unnamed is an unhappy chance, which repeated in the last Egton list in 1780 showing four families:-

Philip and Jane and three children

Joseph and Dorothy wwith four children

George and Petronella with one child

William and Mary

The Whitby lists on the other hand names the children of Henry ans Isabella as Robert, William, Jane and Mary, and adds Mary a spinster. There was a Henry junior as well.

Egton registers show the deaths of William a husbandman of Egton in 1722, and that of Ellin widow, poor of Egton in 1738. That one of the Henrys lived at Limber Hill is shown by his death there in 1727. It may be wise to refer to Egton transcripts since the registers give a number of items which haave not been transcribed. Three such are the wedding of William and Mary Harland on May 30th 1757 and that of Joseph and Dorothy Harrison on November 6th 1770 the bride being 71, not years but identity number of that story. The burial of Mary papist on June 11th 1771 is the third omission. Philip married Barbara Elders on January 1st 1757. He was a tailor at the time of his wifes death in 1771, a little fact unkown except for the existence of the original fragment of Egton registers referred to in an earlier story. He has a son Philip baptised in the Glaisdale section of the same fragment on January 26th 1762 whose recusancy is noted above. He marries Jane Hoggarth of Whitby at Egton on April 4th 1780. William who was a stonecutter at the time of his wedding in 1757 was styled a mason at his death in 1783, and Mary the papist above, could well be his wife. Joseph also a mason apparently lost a son Joseph in 1795 and died himself in1811 to be followed by his wife Dorothy in 1818. They lived at Egton Bridge. George, Petronella's huband died in 1783. He was a laborer of Egton and his widow survived him for another thirteen years. No trace around 1780, has been found of a wedding between William and Mary the remaining family of recusants. Even so many of the twenty four entries on the transcripts between 17?? and 1830 refer to recusant families. The wedding of a pair of recusants John and Elizabeth Readman on July 1th 1792 came when their listing as such had ceased and their family records had begun to be entered in the new chapels which the law had permitted. It is these first records which continue the story into the time of the repeal of the penal laws and compulsary registration of 1837.

No Lawson occurences are to be found in Fr. Hervey's baptisms, but it is the Ugthorpe records which give the younger members of Henry and Isabella the Whitby recusants for it appears that the port, at this time, was drawing many people from the country, the Lawsons among them, John and Elizabeth. By 1853 when the Egton estate was offered for sale there were no Lawson tenants on the whole of the property. Somewhere among these Whitby Lawsons there was born the child who was to found the ptosperous store which once occupied premises 16 Grape Lane a century ago amid all the bustle of ships sails ropes and the height of current fashion, jet. From this town not only this families members but those of all the others sailed away to begin new families all over the world. The tomb of the master draper is marked by a well weathered stone barely ten yards from the north-west corner of St. Mary's Church on the East Cliff, but there is nothing of the shop below.

From this stone and the inscriptions {illegible}, still decipherable a few years ago, was revealed the death of Philip Lawson on June 6th 1835, and Elizabeth, the wife of John Lawson draper, on Feruary 2nd 1855. What is not remarkable, however, is that an inspection of the Whitby transcripts for the year 1835 show Philip to have attained the age of one hindred and four years. This immediately turns the story back to the beginning again, where he can be identified with the Philip who married Barbara when he was twenty seven, a marriage refered to above, and is the father of the Philip an Egton recusant in 1780, and the grandfather of John the draper, although he may not necessarily be one of Jane's children. The lower, and therefore later inscriptions had received more weathering and were not able to be read. That John could have been a child of Joseph and Dorothy is a possibility which may now be considered. Fr. Hervey baptised Dorothy in 1741 the first child of John (7) Harrison and it is probable that Joseph would be about the same age or even a little older than his wife. This means he could not be a son of Philip senior and that it would be unlikely that any of his children would be buried with the old man. Both Joseph and his wife died at Egton Bridge, John was married in 1792 and Philip junior in 1780 so the evidence points to John's father being an unknown son of the patriach.

Twin sons John and Frances were born to John Lawson of Sleights on August 13th 1759, the former dying young, but as this entry is the only Lawson birth between 170? and 1830, that of Philip, son of Philip, tailor Glaisdale on January 26th 1762 above mentioned excepted, the difficulty of identification becomes readily apparent. What is obvious is that the Lawson recusants made virtually no use of the vicar's baptismal services a fact seen in practically all of the families under discussion. To say they did not live in the parish is discounted by the fact of their burials there. Every family study provides proof of the solid missionary endeavour of their native born priest Nicholas Postgate whose death at York would still be fresh in the memories of the elder Philip's parents. Their steadfastness continued notwithstanding the penaaalty "For not baptising a child publicly according to the service book within a month of birth £100 fine." This was not by any means the least of the penalties by which they were harrased as will be seen later.

The will of Petronella Lawson benefitted John the draper in a residual manner. She was a fairly wealthy spinster who died an "R.C." at Whitby in 1819 aged 71. Being born therefore in 1748 she was not Philip the elder's daughter but may have been a younger sister. Her main beneficiary was the daughter of her nephew John Tennant by the name Mary who receiving £500 promptly married John Roberts the same year in the Whitby Chapel. The testatrix left £100 to the priest Rev, George Leo Haydock to be invested and the interest was to go toeards "educating and purchasing books for poor Catholic children (or to parish debts)." She did not unfortunately state the relationship but perhaps John was another nephew. No trace of a wedding between one of her sisters and a Tennant Mary's grandfather, has been discovered, though no doubt it will turn up sooner or later.

John's children are quite well documented in the early Whitby Chapel records of Fr. Haydock and one of them Susanna, born in 1805, married Thomas Peckston of Scarborough in the same chapel on May 5th 1825, the bridegroom being twenty-four years of age. Jane another daughter married Captain William Garbutt also in the same chapel, on 25th November 1830. John his son born in 1795 married Ann White a marriage which may have been in Fr. Haydock's registers since that of John Roberts above was the fourth but the earlier ones were missing. It could well have been another case of a 'double wedding' for it was also contracted before the vicar in the parish church on May 25th 1818. Ann his eldest daughter became the wife of John Sanderson on January 7th 1817 this too being celebrated in the parish church. As the records show baptisims of children of Zahariah and Mary his wife formerly Lawson, it seems that she was his next eldest daughter, another Mrs Garbutt.

Young John carried on the drapery business and it is as a widower aged seventy-five that he completes the 1871 census styling himself as a Master Draper employing seven men and two servants and entering his bachelor son aged 37 as his partener by name Edwin Philip. Apart from John junior's numerous family being known, further information has not been gathered and the ultimate history of the family and its business will have to be sought elsewhere.

LAWSON MARRIAGES BETWEEN 1620 AND 1840 AND SOME LATER

This table is not exclusive.

No firm continuity is evident from an examination of marriages 1 to 10 only a piecemeal attempt can be made with number 11 although this one appears to tie up well with subsequent ones.

Philip Lawson (b. 1729 d. 1833) m.11 Barbara Elders (d. 28/12/1771) at Egton 1757

Perhaps two children preceded

3. Philip b. 26/1/1762 at Glaisdale and, no doubt, others followed.

The children of Philip 3's marriage 13 are not known, bur Philip senior isn't father of

7. John Lawson m.17 Elizabeth Readman at Egton 1792

72. John Lawson m.25 Ann White at Whitby on 25/5/1818

As the six children of George, the Egton recusants of 1753 have not been traced it could be thought that some of them may marry in the 1770's which immeadiately pinpoints marriage 12. That stonemason Joseph and his wife and four children by 1780 is already known as is the death of one of them called after his father, in 1785. Apart from this information little else has been discovered about them upto the time of writing, and the deaths of their parents at Egton Bridge have been referred to above.

What is most likely a Whitby family is that of John and Martha, formerly Trufitt. The Whitby chapel records show a child Mary born in 1795 so identity with W8. above is ruled out and the possibility arises that like his nameske 72 above is not a native to that town. However his family is known, and will be given an arbitrary number of

W9. John Lawson m.19 Martha Trufitt

Another Whitby family requiring an arbitrary number is

WX. Anthony Lawson m.29 Sara Dalton

Continuity with W94 Isaac is shown below:-

W94. Isaac Lawson m.30 Hannah Swales Eg. 4/2/1832

W942. John Lawson m.35 Agtha Harrison E.B. 14/4/1858

W943. Joseph Lawson m.36 Margaret Hill E.B. 7/5/1860

The children of this marriage are not known but the daughters are suspected to be those in the marriages 41/44.

This sketch is obviously incomplete especially in the latter years and like all the other family stories, open to correction arising from further research or from factual evidence given by living members of the family. It is nevertheless offered as an attempt to fill in what may be called the 'foundation' knowledge relating to the respective families in the hope that the superstructures may be soundly established as far as is possible.

Virtually nothing is known of the present family patterns and it is only in a very few cases has it been possible to link up with them. If however, these notes provide a 'quarry' of source material enabling the links to be made their compilation will be of use, and in a much more important sense if the reader is brought by them to an appreciation of the courage, steadfastness and perseverance of our forebears in the struggle to pass on the faith of their fathers, something of great value has been gained.

Should we, in our increasingly secular civilisation, fail in this appreciation an incalculable loss will be ours.