lyth

1780 Nominal returns by parish; very useful, especially those for Lythe which give families with their children; also appendixed. All other dates dealt with are civil lists giving papists by name in each parish, again forming an appendix.

As to be expected the early lists are content to relate merely the names with little or no embellishments so Mary Lyth,a spinster, is entered as an Egton Papist in 1637 the imiddle of the reign of King Charles I. Notwithstanding the growing difficulties between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, time was found to compile a much more comphrehensive list only four years later in 1641. This time Egton Parish papists include Elizabeth Lyth a widow, George Lyth a tailor, Mary his wife, and John Lyth also a tailor perhaps his son, Alice Lyth a widow, and John Lyth a fuller.

1680 list for Egton, made up at a time when the government is viewing the attempts of the king Charles II to lighten the lot of the papists with grave disquiet, shows John Lyth junior, together with Elizabeth and Ellin no doubt his children, and Mary Lyth and Francis Lyth in separate entries.

Having, by 1691, obliged King James II, the even more lenient brother and successor of Charles II, to leave the country (the Queen had recently given birth to a son and heir to the throne - how similar to the case of King Farouk of Eygpt some years ago) the government proceeded with vigour to round up the papists and other dissenters. Their efforts produced a massive dossier containing, in the case of Egton Parish, no fewer than 172 names. It is not a little suprising therefore to discover only one Lyth - Richard, among all these. The reader may make his own conclusions as to the whereabouts of the other Lyths; their absence from the list seems to have created a precedent for the next Egton list dealt with has only 36 names. Nevertheless this does not preclude the possibility that some Lyths as well as other families may have conformed due to the pressure of the laws against them.

This list dated 17l6 in the begining of the reign of George I, once again has only one Lyth - John.

By 1735, the return of Archbishop Blackburne the Lyths of Egton appear either to have given up the struggle, died out or moved to another area, since only Margaret "poor" and Mary a servant remain.

Ambrose Lyth, recusant, is living at Egton in 1745, and by 1753 is entered as having a papist wife and four chidren. This is immediately after the Stuart effort by Bonnie Prince Charlie to regain the throne. It is more than a coincidence that many of the civil lists appear after a severe scare. The 1680 one above, was made after the Titus Oates "plot" which resulted in the arrest and cruel execution of the Egton born missionary priest the Ven. Nicholas Postgate in 1679. The one for 1716 was the year after the earlier attempt by the Stuarts on the throne.

At the time of the Gordon Riots in London in 1780 another list appeared. In it we find John Lyth with seven children, William with none, Thomas and Anna with one child, another Thomas, Mary his wife and six children, Elizabeth with one child and Richard and Mary with two children.

It is not known whether any of tshe above lists include Glaisdale papists as for a considerable time it was a chapelry of Egton. However a Thomas Lyth is one of six names of Glaisdale papists in 1745. Three Lyth families from Glaisdale are in the 1780 return. They are Thomas and Elizabeth his wife and two children, John and Mary his wife and two children, Francis and Mary his wife and one child and Eleanor with none.

When the Lythe parish returns are examined, the year 1691 shows Elizabeth Lyth from Hildaswell the old name of Hinderwell, the year 1716 reveals John and Elizabeth his wife and William, Maria and John Children. 1735 Richard, wife Isabell with John and Ellen children, but in 1745 only John Lyth is present, and in 1780 only one family namely Richard and Susanna with no children entered.

Although Ugthorpe, a chapelry of Lythe merits long lists in its own right, there are no Lyth names between 1691 and 1745.

No Lyths appear to have moved to Whitby in great nunbers. 1691 reveals Margarita and 1735 Ambrose and Mary. Ambrose being a carpenter.

So far no certain lines of continuity of descent are visible. The first traces to appear are to be found in the records of Rev. John Hervey alias Rivett a missionary priest who served Ugthorpe for eleven years between 1734 and 1745, in which year he was arrested, imprisoned and banished from the district. Mention of his exploits and the stir he made by them in the Archepiscopal circles has been made already.

Of the marriages which follow, neither date or parish are known only where children have been baptised. Fortunately place names occur more regularly in later records and from burials such are found, that add considerable interest to otherwise drab lists.

It is not intended to follow up the female line in any family unless that family has well known recusant antecedents. A number of clear liness of continuity are evident and pin point family settlements the chief being Stonegate, Shorefoot, Egton Village, Howe House, Westonby. These are all within easy reach of one another and illustrate the movement of the families more to Egton than to Lythe or Whitby parishes. To facilitate reference the marriages have been numbered. The subsequent story of each branch of the family will be traced after the pattern of the previous Harrison story.

Apart from the confirmation of recusancy afforded by the records of Fr. Hervey, and the recusant returns themselves, independent confirmation comes in the addition of R.C. to the entries of burial. This practice of the local vicars continued well into the beginning of the nineteenth century supplanting the former endorsement "papist", and provided proof where everything else failed.

So Elizabeth and Wilelmena are daughters or daushters-in-law of Richard 31. As the census reference to Thomas relates to an Egton one, Thomas Shorefoot must be another and the former a possible son of Richard tailor. The absence of Egton - papist - baptisms before 1814 and the missing Ugthorpe ones between 1812 and 1818 is largely the reason why the recurring cases of confused identity continue. Thomas Shorefoot would then be either Q 1. or Q 4.

Richard Q 6. married Hannah Readman at Egton Bridge on May 4th 1844 as November 27th 1837 was the date when "St. Hilda's Whitby, St. Anne's Ugthorpe and the Catholic Chapel Egton Bridge (were) registered for marriages" and the precaution of the "midnight marriage" was no longer necessary.

His children as returned on the census for 1861 are below Taking Thomas born 1807 as a son as Richard the Egton tailor, the story left off above is continued by relating his family. He married Rose Harrison at Egton on June 9th 1832 when the witnesses were Ambrose Lyth and Elizabeth Harrison. Most of his children are known : -

In 1762 Mary Lyth a widow died leaving a will in which she mentioned Richard of Greenhouses and his sister Ellen Harrison, William, John, Thomas and Ambrose, Mary the wife of William Frankland, Catherine Lyth, Susannah the wife of John Road (Roe ?). She refers to William son of William Lyth deceased, Susannah Marshall and Susannah Keble, the latter as "the mother of the said William Lyth executor." The will was witnessed by Francis Harrison.

Father Hervey some twenty odd years earlier, was officiating at the marriages of some of these children at Ugthorpe:- The Lyth Parish Registers add some further light on the subject at this stage. An entry dated 27/12/1739 indicate the banns of marriage between Ambrose Lyht and Susannah Marshall. Whether they were actually married there is not certain. The marriages of William and John above are entered under the dates 2/2/1741 and 16/6/1741 respectively showing they were both married earlier at Ugthorpe. This illustrates a common recusant practice which continues until "non-parocial" unions were recognised in 1837. The first Lyth in the register is entered as "Mary, daughter of Timothy Lythe February 18th 1653. An interesting marriage entry is as follows:-

"May 11th 1656 John Lyth of Leiserirr - Elizabeth Ducke of the same by Thomas Lascelles Esq. J.P. North Riding, York, witnesses Robert White of Egton and Richard Harland of Godeland."

The spelling of the surname is significant. A child Elizabeth daughter of John Lyth was baptised on November 4th 1657. The burials add more information:-

John Lyth's wife died or rather was buried on March 14th 1654, John Lyth of Buscoe was buried February 23rd 1670. A third John Lyth of Cockernuke was buried on August 8th 1711, whilst Mary , daughter of Richard Lyth of Cockernuke was buried on May 25th 1705.

A will of Buscoe John has been found which tells of his wife Alice and sons John and Thomas.

That Cockernuke was a recusant homestead it is fairly safe to assume but no evidence of recusancy relates to the other parish occurences. The coincidence between the Susannah wife of Ambrose and the Susannah Marshall in the first will above, has not been overlooked neither has the almost certain identity of Ambrose as the son of Mary above mentioned.

Disregarding, for the moment, the records of Father Hervey, the close ot the eigteenth century sees the establishment of the earliset post-recusant communities and the beginning of their precautionary Latin registers. These provide the source material for the next section of the family history, with some help from the parish registers since use was made of both bt those anxious to avoid the fines for non-registration. Some even went so far as to have their children "registered but not baptised" a practise which was permitted by some less bitter vicars. So it is seen that not all entries are certain evidence of a bastism or marriage in that church.

As with all recusant famiIies the difficulty now arises, which has already been encountered, namely that of linking up vaious names into the correct families. It will be well to commence with the earliest positively recusant group that can be seen to be a well established family and because few of the names on the previous page fulfil these requirements a start will be made with that of Mary Lyth above. A similar numerical identification to that used in the Harrison story will be adopted, and where conjecture comes to be made, it will be pointed out as and when necessary. This conjecture is not to be taken as synonymous with wishlul thinking, an easy and most likely inacurate procedure, making arduous research a useless folly.

It cannot be proved that Mary's husband is the Ambrose the carpenter in the 1735 Whitby list without more information. The marriage has not yet come to light.

THE RECUSANT LYTHE FAMILY OF COCKWOODNUKE (COCKERNUKE CUCKETNOOK) P. LYTHE

Whether or not Cockwoodnuke was ever a non-recusant homestead it is very difficult to know. After 1762 when Mary Lyth died it may have changed. Lyths were there before 1700. As in the Harrison story, the order of mention in her (Mary's) will can indicate order of birth of her children because only seldom were papist children entered in the parish books. Being married around 1740 they would be born around 1720. Although four of the above enteries have been referred to on the previous page, they have been repeated for obvious reasons. The reference also to "the almost certain identity of Ambrose" must be read in the light of the information above because Elizabeth's Ambrose is certainly a recusant whereas doubt now surrounds the other. A Lythe burial, overlooked, reads:-

Susannah w. of Richard Lyth of S(andsend) shoemaker, aged 76 March 23rd 1793

shows she was born in 1717 and could well be the recusant listed with Richard Lyth in the L.R.R.1780 and whose children by which time would be adults.This conjecture gives Richard 1's wife a christian name. The other persons in the will are too confusing to include.

Fr. Hervey's records, ending when he was arrested, only tell us of a few of the chiIdren of the parents above-menytioned. The names of the baptismal godparents are quite helpful. Underlined identity numbers indicate conjecture.

William was born at Cockwoodnuke and Mary at Howe House see above. The children are not necessarily the first in the family as the date of the marriage is not known. Egton Parish Burials give:-

Ambrose Lyth R.C. How House 4/6/1835 aged 92.

This makes him born 1743 and therefore 65 will do for his number. 63 and 64 and 66 etc are not discovered, nor are any offspring of 7, 8 or 9.

At this point it may be well to say that there are many Lyths who could fit into the empty spaces above but there is no evidence as to which family or even non-recusant ones. Their names are in the mairiges contracted in the surrounding parish churches, necessary by law after 1753. There seems to be a growing recusant practice about this time of parties being married in parishes other than their own, banns being entered elsewhere. Sometimes one takes place "by licence" An instance of this concerns one of these "orphan Lyths" once more a Richard, banns for whose marriage to -believe it or not- Susannah Stonehouse were entered at Skelton on July 25th 1763.

On July 30th 1833 died Jane Lyth, R.C. aged 32 and nine years earler, also at Egton died John Lyth on March 6th 1824 R.C. as well. John was ninety and was from Egton Village, Jane from East-end, that part of the village adjoining the road to Lamplands and Aislaby.

THE LYTHS OF WESTONBY IN THE PARISH OF EGTON

Here a fairly straight Iine of descent from the Lyths of Cucketnook becomes apparent Thomas a son of William and Ann (Booth) was born on February 27th 1743. He married Mary Cornforth at Danby on March 31st 1768. By 1780 the Egton Recusant Returns show Thomas and Mary with six children of whom only what appear to be the first two have been traced:-

Mary's mother died aged 44 on February 21st 1820 at Thackside House across the Murk Esk from Beckhole Goathland, a spot some what removed from the other Lyth homesteads. Her father married again, this time to Mary Harrison on October 21st 1822 at Egton. A son William was born on August 21st 1823 and married Elizabeth Harrison on November 13th 1844 in the Egton Bridge Chapel, having obtained a dispensation from a third degree inpediment of consanguinity. It was this marriage with its dispensation that solved the identity of one of the children of 61 Joseph Harrison who had three children on the G.R.R. of 1780. This has since been confirmed in the recently discovered separate Glaisdale Registers. An "upsidedown" tree will illustrate the problem best. The parents of the bride and groom being known from their marriage entry must be, (two of them) first cousins, whilst two of their grand-parents must be from the same family. It follows that two of their great-grand-parents must be husband and wife. In this case William Harrison had only one brother 61 Joseph who is therefore Mary's father, and Mary gets her Harrison identity number 613. Harrison 611 has not been found, 612 is 8/5/1778 Joseph son of Joseph Harrison papist. Mary's entry reads 22/4/1780 Mary daughter of Joseph Harrison tailor. 614 is Ann described like Mary, under the date 12/2/1782. It is easy to see taht once the family with the relationship is recognised, the antecedents of the other people can be ignored.

Returning to the subject, Ann, William and Mary Lyth made their Easter duties from "Tatchside" according to the 1826 Egton list previously mentioned. How this ties up with the death of William D 2's first wife six years before is not clear. What is obvious is that the Lyths are on the move, probably due to increase in numbers, away from their settled haunts. The 1826 list also gives Thomas, Ann and Mary at Westonby. They could be children of D 2's first marriage, D 21 Mary being ten then. Philip, the son of the Egton tailor, also took to wandering marrying Elizabeth Elwick at Whitby on November 24th 1832, when he was 28. He lived at first, it seems, at the home of the Elwick's on Eskdaleside where his brother-in-law Thomas was a railway labourer living at Sleights Gatehouse. Soon he was a raiway employee himself moving to Incline Bottom Beckhole in 1847, after a period in Egton Bridge.

Margaret his first child was born on July 2nd 1840, Hannah Lyth being the only godparent.

Jane was born on November 6th 1842, Godparents Joseph and Ann Cringe.

Ann was born on November 22nd 1846, Godparents Philip Hoggarth and Rose Lyth (Harrison).

John was born on April 18th 1850, Godparents William Pearson and Ann Hodgson.

Thomas was born on May 8th 1853, Godparents John and Susanah Sleightholme (Lyth).

He returned to Egton Bridge at a later date, was left a widower on March 4th 1881, and died himself on May 5th 1887, aged 86, at no. 2 Station cottages where the old couple used to keep four boarders.

Almost as a postscript, U.P.R. gives Elizabeth Lyth Westonby baptised May 9th 1780, perhaps the last child of Thomas and Mary above.

Long-lived Lyths seem to be the pattern, Shorefoot and Egton (Bridge) 86 years, Westonby 89 & 90 years and How House 92 years, for persecution in adversity breeds rugged endurance.

THE LYTHS OF HOWE HOUSE IN THE PARISH OF EGTON

Barely four fields distance due east of Westonby lies Howe House a farm overlooking Egton Flats the heath across on the other side of Mally Harland's Slack.

Into this house came Ambrose and Elizabeth Lyth from Cockwoodnuke where their son William was born.Their new abode saw the birth of their next child Mary on January 13th 1737. In 1745 he was reported for his recusancy and in 1753 the special Egton list described him as with a wife and four children, one of whom was Ambrose the younger born in 1743. His mother died a widow on March 13th 1785 by which time he had married Mary Welford at Egton on February 4th 1783. Strangely enough, no trace of any children of this marriage has been found. His sister Mary above, died on July 3rd 1750, his wife on January 20th 1825. Alone, except for William and Hannah Welford who made their Easter Communions with him in 1826 from Howe House, he remained there till his death on June 4th 1835. The Welfords most likly his brother-in-law and wife were tenants of the farm when Egton Estate was put up for sale in 1853. The mystery of his late marriage remains.

THE LYTHS 0F WHITBY

The recusancy lists are largely silent about the Lyths of Whitby, the one and only reference being found in the returns of Archbishop Blackburne 1735 stating Ambrose and Mary his wife. Strictly speaking however, another single name occurs in the civil list of 1691, the name of Margaret Lyth. Three families from Whitby have already been mentioned at the bottom of the list of Lyth marriages above, that of John and Hannah being the most informative. His children and their godparents illustrate this. A Richard again, with brothers Thomas and John and sisters Ann and Elizabeth. Two Esthers both born in 1817, one daughter of Richard and Esther Shorefoot, the other at Whitby. The one known child of the second pair Ambrose (again) and Isabell, married much later, is another Richard born July 30th 1834 with godparents Richard and Mary Lyth. Peter, the first on the list above, married Mary Ann Welford on a date unknown and had two children known.