pearson

THE STORY OF THE EGTON PEARSONS

During the years the keepers of the records have spelt this name differently. The Stuart scribes favoured Pearson, later Peirson came in, and Fr. Hervey, not having met the name before, apparently, wrote Pierceson.

From what has gone before, the conclusion can be drawn that it was not an isolated occurence nor any one family that were presented on the early recusant lists, but the local constable's unenviable duty often meant including members of his own family amongst the names of his fellow villagers and perhaps guiltily witholding his own. The simple reason being the total unacceptance of the new order by the common people. An exact parallel exists now where a rising generation is growing up without the close and necessary links with the steadfastness, the rugged endurance and solid faith of their forebears which it is the aim of this book to portray.This is said with full knowledge of the family names which gradually disappeared from the lists during the penal times. The story of those who persevered must be written lest in a secular age it be forgotten.

So it is not a surprise to find Pearsons there at the start. The practice of the wife's name rather than that of the husband being submitted has already been mentioned, and is readily understood when it is realised that the imprisonment of the husband could provide very great difficulties. Yeoman Henry's wife Elizabeth has pride of place. They lived at Whitegill. It may well be that one branch of the family lived at Mirkhouseside (Murkside House today) or the nearby farm of Thackside since the time of Elizabeth I till the present. Yeoman William and his wife Anne begin the saga being there till 1611, to be followed by Yeoman Francis and his wife Elenore. The unhappy omission of place names from the first parish records makes the odd inclusion all the more useful. Thus George from Murkside baptised a son Robert in 1696 and Fr.Hervey gives Francis a godfather in 1774 from Mockerside. George was at Thackside in 1851.

A peculiar thing about the Pearsons however, is that other families discussed had a marked reluctance to use the parish registers it was not so with them, for more than one hundred and fifty separate entries relate to them in the first hundred years. About half that number of presentments were made during the whole period during which they were necessary. From this it may be gathered that the family as a whole conformed straight away, yet it cannot be said that all the hundred and fifty or so were all conformists. Take, for instance the family name Francis, ten convictions concern that name although some may be duplicated and between 1600 and 1700 six Francis Pearsons were born. To separate them is an impossible task so who were and who were not recusants remains a mystery.

Agnes, born 1558 was a widow of six years standing when she was listed in 1614. 1625 produced only one William a husbandman. Christopher a butcher and his wife Jane, and Elizabeth, yeoman Francis's wife and Ann a widow were all the papist Pearsons in 1641. A second Christopher with his wife Ann accompany the first together with Francis and Elizabeth, perhaps those in 1641, and Ann the wife of yet another Francis appear in the list for 1674. This is not the end for Francis and his parents Thomas and Mary are on the Lythe list for the same year, and it is probably the wife of this Francis, Martha by name presented for that village in 1716 when Robert and his wife Ann are as well. Two Francis Pearsons, father and son are on the 1716 Egton list. The dilemma is continued in 1755 when three couples, William & Elizabeth, Francis & Ann, and Francis cobbler and Grace are listed together with Ann a widow, William Richard and Margaret a grandchild of Eleanor Whitfield. Williams take over the struggle for there are three for 1753 and five for 1780, when the Piersons appear on the Goathland list. There are some of the family at Newbiggin where Margaret died early in 1697 and almost a hundred years afterwards WilIiam from there takes the modified oath. It must have been the same William who dying aged 91 on February 27th 1830, left £20 to the young chapel at Whitby.

The 1780 lists for Lythe and Whitby contained no Pearson entries but some were at the port by the beginning of the next century. As the family patterns discernable from the Egton occurences are not necessarily of papists they will not be discussed at great length.

PEARSON, PIERSON, PEARCESON MARRIAGES FROM 1600 ONWARDS

The Pearson marriages bring out one or two items worthy of mention, but in the first place the reader may make what he can of the enigma presented by numbers 10 and 11. There are two instances where Pearsons married Pearsons, occurences duplicated in other families which may be significant. The registersof Egton have other significant entries namly marriages without a precise date (21 and 38) both relating to a Francis, and the latter endorsed (papist). The bride in this case was Ann Keld of which Egton family was one of its richest men William Keld, an account of whose funeral tea is given else where. The above endorsement makes it fairly safe to say that Francis and Ann recusants in 1735 are the pair married in 1704 but the paucity of information accompanying the various entries about this time, together with the several persons so named, not overlooking the fact that the very people sought may not even be in the register, make the proverbial 'needle in a haystack' seem an easy task in comparison.

Although there are only 20 marriages of Pearsons male between 1700 and 1800 solmnised at Egton there are 92 births and 82 deaths in the same family. The incidents of recusancy, therefore will have to be approached from the other end where the practice of adding the word 'papist' to a burial entry is of some help. Since in these post-1813 burials domicile and age are also given some backward progress can be made. William and Mary both R.C.'s were buried from Westonby in 1827 and 1830 respectively aged seventy both. However no birth of William in 1751 was found but the death of William, householder Westonby took place on September 14th 1756 and a marriage between William and Mary took place on May 23rd 1782, merely giving Egton as the home of the bridegroom. An earlier reference to Westonby is interesting since it involves Marmaduke Pearson. This individual's name is easy to follow. He apparently married the daughter of the curate of Egton on May 1st 1700 and Thomas son of Marmaduke, skinner, Westonby was baptised on August 15th 1718 and a previous baptism was William son of Marmaduke June 14th 1714. A second William died at Westonby on February 26th 1776. Marmaduke, Egton was buried on June 6th 1734. This gives a continuity of domicile for over a hundred years but of recusancy the question is open.

Similarly, Elizabeth R.C. was buried from the 'Grange' on September 16th 1814 aged 67 leading to a John Pearson farmer who had a son William baptised on April 7th 1703 from the 'Grange' which identification was omitted from the baptismal entries of subsequent children of John.

Glaisdale papist Pearsons take a backward start from John R.C. Thornythwaite, who was buried on september 12th 1822 aged 73, and immediately come to a halt when his birth cannot be found. Matthew was a butcher and George a householder in the village in the 1720's. William was a householder there twenty years later. Francis, a cooper, and his wife Ann were from Glaisdale the latter predeceasing her husband by twenty-six years in 1770. Benjamin lived at Carr End where Elizabeth died aged 59 on March 16th 1819. Yet only the first John is a papist.

Busco (Brisco) has Pearson connections for a considerable period when the various entries are shared between the registers of both Lythe and Egton. Robert died there in 1704, Francis 1721, Robert married Ann Thompson at Egton on June 6th 1737. Lythe burials show Ann's death in 1747. Matthew son of a younger Francis was born in 1724 and was still at Brisco with his own family 1759. All the family names are here but it is not thought they were recuants unless it can be shown that the Anna and Martha wives of Robert and Francis in the 1716 returns of Lythe are the wives of the two men similarly named above. Egton gives the younger Francis's death in 1753.

Bank House, Egton Banks also has a long Pearson connection. It begins with the marriage of George, weaver to Eleanor Knaggs making their home there in 1723. Apart from a first child William who appears to have died in 1743, no other entries occur untill the death of George in 1774 and that of his widow at Glaisdale in 1783. Alice the daughter of another George was born at Bank House in 1782 and William and Mary follow also born at the family home. An older William is also in residence there for his children too, Mary, Nancy, and another Mary are born there, this Mary in 1798. The next reference is in the marriage of John to Susanna Thompson on July 12th 1813 when William their first child was born there. Later this family moved to Egton Grange being still there in 1821.

Mary Pearson widow, poor, died at the Delves on Octoter 15th 1739, and Mary daughter of William, farmer was born there on February 2nd 1782 and John rented a cottage and garden at the Delves in 1853, and in between times Mary Ann daughter of John and Ann was born there on January 9th 1814.

Snowden Nab merits a place in the Pearson saga being the home of Michael, weaver and farmer from 1774 when a son Thomas was born. Jane and Susanna were born in 1780 and 1782 but Thomas died in 1797. The death of Elizabeth aged 72 at the Nab in 1819 could give this paragraph an earlier start but not much. Perhaps she was Michael's wife.

Leaserigg also features in the story. The first record being the baptism of Hannah the daughter of william and Ann on October 29th 1820 and John farmed 69 acres there in 1853.

An examination of Lythe records between 1700 and 1770 shows an exact parallel with those of Egton in sofar as the Pearson occurences are there in plenty, hardly a hamlet failing to have Pearsons dwellings there. Busco turns out to be a little nest of four families Lyths, Harlands and Knaggs being there as well as the Pearsons all using similar christian names. Tranmire had its quota of Pearsons at least until the beginning of the eighteenth century. They reveal too that the Egton recusants Francis the cobbler and his wife Grace are at Ugthorpe where Mary a daughter was born in 1758.

This brings up the records of Fr. Hervey at Ugthorpe into the picture again.There were Piercesons at Mickleby in 1739 and Ralph Pierceson married Elizabeth Daile on October 20th 1742 being apparently the second Ralph in the village. Monox the son of the first was baptised on July 21st 1737 given by Fr. Hervey one of his own names. The two Ralphs belonged to Ugthorpe not Mickleby. Mary a sister of Monox had Francis Pierceson as godfather. Ralph Pierceson of Ugthorpe and Grace Pierceson of Egton were godparents to Elizabeth Roe daughter of William and Elizabeth Roe in 1742. The connection with Mockerside and Francis has already been rnentioned. That there were Pearsons at Foggitfoot is confirmed when Helen from that homestead is godmother to one of the Atkinson twins referred to in the Harrison story. Margaret a widow died there in 1728 the same year that Francis the householder himself passed away. One of the Ralphs betrayed Fr. Fervey testifying against him at his trial.

Returning to the Lythe records it is found that Ralph married Elizabeth at Lythe on November 11th 1741! It is learnt that Matthew was a butcher in Mickleby who married Isabel Barker on December 26th 1705, his wife dying twenty years afterwards. Ann the wife of the first Ralph died at Ugthorpe on June 28th 1740. Two younger Ralphs appear in Ugthorpe, Elizabeth the wife of one of them died in 1765 whilst Rachel the child of the other's wife was baptised in Lythe on January 2nd 1768. Finally comes the death of Ralph the weaver of Ugthorpe, forgiven by Fr. Hervey, probably the one referred to above as the first. He died on December 16th 1793 aged 90. Neither Egton nor Lythe have any record of his baptism.

For a while in the 1740's and perhaps longer Pearsons lived on Shorefoot. Thomas a bachelor died there in that year and Ann a widow in December 1746.

Somthing must have happened to the Pearson papists of Ugthorpe for even when they continued to live in the district they are conspicuously absent from the Easter Communion Lists of the early Ugthorpe Chapel and also from the subscription lists of Fr. George Leo Haydock for the enlargement and later renewal of the Chapel in the first decade of the new century. Only one, John from Glaisdale is found, being very regular from 1809 the first entry until 1821 the last. This infornation links him with John of Thornythwaite above who died in 1822. The single Egton list, however shows them on Egton Grange - Thomas and Mary, Hazelhead - William and two Marys, Westonby - George, Mary and William, Dibdale - William and Mary, Roxby - William, and Goathland - William and Elizabeth, Christopher, Thomas, George and James. The list dated 1826 shows John and Mary Roe at Thornythwaite, Harrisons at Murkyside, Lyths at Thatchside, William Fletcher at Brisco, Hoggarths and others at Snowden Nab all one time homes of the Pearsons. The Egton Estate Sale Schedule 1853 continues the Pearson line at Westonby when Francis was the tenant. It is also recalled that a Francis, father and son were witnesses to the will of William Hodgson in 1730.

Before bringing in the census returns to assist, the Glaisdaie baptisms reveal a sequel to the story of Ralph the weaver. There is found the entry 'Ralph son of Ralph the weaver' September 30th 1768 followed by two sisters daughters of Ralph and then the peculiar entry 'Joseph April 4th 1778, 10 1/2 years old' This means he was born in 1767. Now should the 'younger Ralphs' of the above paragraph actually refer to the weaver himself, a very sorry tale can be told.

Born very likely of Recusant parents in 1703, he would be secretly baptised, and spent his childhood in or near Ugthorpe. His home would be similar or worse than those described in the Hodgson story and the 'purse and apparel' and worldly wealth much less than £50. From such a home he married Ann whose surname is unknown, sometime before the arrival of Fr. Hervey in 1734. The priest baptised two of his children and shortly afterwards buried Ann, who died about six weeks after her baby's birth. He then befriended the young widower and his infants giving them every assistance. Mr. Ward's narration of Fr. Hervey's account of these incidents has already been given. Elizabeth his 'good careful' second wife died on December 12th 1765 and Rachel the daughter of 'Ralph and Rachel' was baptised in the early days of 1768. Even now the story clarifies for Ralph and Elizabeth Daile are now seen to be not other persons but the ones 'married for nothing' by Fr. Hervey and Joseph and Rachel above children of the third marriage. Perhaps grief turned him from his benefactor twenty odd years before and the second like trial turned him against the church resulting in the boyhood baptism by the parish curate. Whether he outlived his third wife is not known.

It is from the Egton Bridge records that a tie up becomes possible. It relates to Carr End Glaisdale and its Pearsons, and to those of Thackside Egton and also of Westonby. In the first place Mary from Carr End was buried on March 3rd 1880 aged 71. The Egton records Carr End references point to the likelihood that Richard who was buried from there on August 18th 1782 was the father of Benjamin who was still there in 1814 at least.

George Pearson of Thackside died a member of the Guild of St. Hedda on February 15th 1874, and recusant connections remiain in Westonby where Thomas the son of Francis married Mary the daughter of Richard Lyth of Shorefoot in St. Hedda's Church on May 4th 1878.

The 1861 census confirms the presence of Pearsons at Newbiggin still, in the persons of George and Hannah and Francis, born at Egton in 1799 is at Low Newbiggin. John and Mary were at Swainsty with their children Ann 12, Mary 11, and John 5 all born at Egton. Richard son of William and Ann is at Leaserigg with Isaac and Ann his children and Mary and William his niece and nephew. Wiliiam and Richard, two widowers represent the family at Egton Village the former being the son of Francis a farmer, the latter the son of William and not the same person as Richard of Leaserigg. To add to the confusion William the widower had a son William born 1846 and Richard the widower one named Francis born 1844. Egton Grange finds a direct descendant of the Bank House family a hundred years earlier in Joseph son of John and Susanna who were married at Egton on July 12th 1813. A recusant link is noted here for Elizabeth Pearson R.C.was buried from the Grange in 1814 apparently a few years before Joseph and his wife Elizabeth set up their home in the tiny farm called The Dunnings, thirtythree acres wrested from the encroaching bracken on the edge of the moor. At the time of the census they had five children Mary 10, Elizabeth 8, Ann 5, Jane 3, and John one. Their immediate neighbours were 621 John Harrison of Grange Head Farm and Ralph Child. John and Jane were at the Delves just above William Bennison, and farmed a very small holding of two fields between the top of Arnecliffe and the road to Rosedale. Another John and Jane were at Hall Lane Glaisdale, this John being born in Glaisdale in 1803 whilst John from the Delves was born in Egton in 1802.

The fortunes of the children of the last recusants in the family can now be followed from the early post-recusant registers. Some dozen families are involved some of which have already received mention. They cover Egton, Ugthorpe and Whitby. Up to now Ralph the weaver's descendants have not been identified. The knowledge that Francis was a godfather to one of his first children does not help because of the great number of Pearsons so named.

The earliest Pearson reference in the post-recusant records is a single entry:-

Then follow:-

both from Whitby, and the next from Egton.

Another Whitby family George and Tabitha:-

William and Mary ? perhaps more children of the pair above.

Thomas and Mary Mead

George and Frances Harrison the groom being 24, bride 23, married at Whitby by Fr. George Leo Haydock on November 14th 1821.

George died however eight weeks after his son's birth. These Harrisons are very likely the children of 77 Henry in the story of that family.

Thomas and Christine Halshaw

Matthew Shaw and Mary Pearson see Shaw story.

Thackside Farm George and Mary Smith married at Egton on June 24th 1826.

It is evident from the above occurences that Fr. Nicholas Rigby succeeded Fr. John Woodcock at Egton Bridge and took the records with him when he went to Ugthorpe. This explains why Fr. Greenhalgh laments the lack of records on his arrival at Egton Bridge in April 1835 when he recommenced them and then sent them all to Somerset House. (See appendix) So baptisms of Egton families between May 16th 1827 and April 14th 1835 exclusive can be found in the Ugthorpe registers and Ugthorpe in the above entries means Egton Bridge. The same will apply to entries relating to other famlies between those dates. Some evidence is also seen of relationship between George and Mary Shaw nee Pearson, probably that of brother and sister which extends to others as will be seen.

The long line of Westonby recusants is continued by:-

Francis Pearson m. Hannah Mead marriage not traced

Other children are not known but the marriage of the last named Thomas in 1878, previously referred to, continues the story.

William Pearson m. Mary Wilson at Egton 23/10/1822 wit. Geo. P.

As the witnesses to the marriage of George of Thackside were Francis Pearson and Matthew and Mary Shaw it is fairly certain that George, William and Mary are brothers and sister and that Francis, Westonby is another brother. The home of this family could be Dibdale, as yet unlocated, or Hazelhead according to E.E.C. 1826.

William Pearson m. Dorothy Readman marriage not traced.

This family appears to be an Ugthorpe one.

Swainsty John Pearson m. Mary Shaw marriage not traced.

James Pearson m. Sara Herbert marriage not traced.

William and Mary above, are not to be understood as being of the Westonby family whose descendants have not been followed up after 1878, nor are the other families listed to be taken in the same way. However William their son continues a personal story, for having married Elizabeth Welford round about 1860 he had a daughter Elizabeth born on October 31st 1861 in whom the story proceeds. Meanwhile the Irish famine had become a bitter memory in the minds of many exiles in these islands. One of them Jeremiah O'Connor (sometimes styling himself Connors), the writer's grandfather, settling in the bustling noise and sweat of the thriving young town of Middlesbrough, married and got a first child John born on August 8th l857. The same happened to Elizabeth's parents who also came to work and live there too. John, christened Connors, became one of the first students at St. Mary's College Hammersmith, and as a young teacher married Elizabeth, eventually being headmaster of St. Cuthbert's School Stockton. Their first child, Aloysius followed in his father's footsteps exactly, succeeding him as headmaster of the same school, and now is living in well-earned retirement at Hartburn.

Strangely enough, the Pearsons were connected with the maternal ancestors of the writer, in that William the son of Francis above had godparents William and Margaret Readman; brother and sister, and Sara daughter of James had Henry and Margaret Harrison, Henry's wife being Margaret Readman. The significance of this spiritual relationship with the Pearsons is not fully understood.