Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society (Volume vol 14 no 1) online

The register shews that two names, Tweddle and Robson, once
predominated in the parish to a remarkable degree. Tweddle,
though to a less extent, still abounds here; but Robson has dwindled
to a single representative. Of other old names Barnfather, Burt-
holme, and Harding, remain in diminished numbers. Crowe,
formerly well represented, has entirely disappeared.

In the answers to the Articles of Inquiry for 1666 we get the
following piece of information concerning the educational status
of the parish: " Parish Clerke or Schoolmaster we have none but a
young boy ". A few years later the churchwardens were much
exercised with persons " refusing to come to church ", whom they
indiscriminately style "papists or nonconformists" and sometimes
"recusants " or " ffanatics".

I may here mention that, while rector (1885-1890) of Newton
Reigny, I was permitted by the late episcopal registrar to arrange
the transcripts of that parish, that they might be bound in a volume
by Messrs Thurnam ; and Mr G Howard (now Lord Carlisle), on
my telling him what I had done, agreed to pay the cost of binding
the Lanercost transcripts. The same work has been done for four

other



238 CUMBERLAND PARISH REGISTERS, NO. I.

other parishes, Bishop Goodwin paying for the binding of Dalston
and Stamvix transcripts, the late Miss Hill of Castle Bank for those
of Appleby, and the parishioners of Aspatria for their own. From
the Lanercost transcripts I have now copied all the extant entries
from 1666 to 16S9, and the names of the churchwardens down to
1812, into a book which I have placed in the parish chest. The
Newton Reigny register does not contain any burial entry from
1679 to 171 1, the period of "burying in woollen". They were
doubtless registered in a separate book, which has been lost. But
I recovered them from the transcripts at Carlisle. For a similar
recover}- from the Brampton transcripts see ante, p. 214.

STAPLETON.

J Hope, Curate : — " No. I (bound), baptisms, burials, and mar-
riages, April 11, 1725, to April 18, 1771, imperfect between July 29,
1723, and February 27, 1732. No. II (bound), baptisms and burials
1771-1813, perfect. No. Ill marriages 1771-1813".

Whellan (p 693) : — " The parish register commences in 1728, and
continues to the present time, but there is a deficiency for three or
four years previous to 1738 ".

Mr Hope, who made the return in 1832, was for more than 20
years curate to the non-resident rector, Thomas Pattinson, and
succeeded him as rector in 1834.

His return requires explanation ; for how could a register book
be described as imperfect before it begins ? The register, instead of
explaining the return, makes it more difficult to understand ; for the
oldest existing book, which seems not to have lost any of its leaves,
does not begin until February 27, 1732, and continues to June 16,
1782. The explanation of these discrepancies between the register
and Mr Hope's return is supplied by the following note subjoined
to a copy of the register: "I, John Hope, curate of the parish of
Stapleton, do declare that the writing hereto annexed, purporting to
be a copy of the Parish Register of the said parish from the 11 th of
April 1725 to the 18 th of April 1771, contains all the entries of Births,
Marriages, and Burials, contained in the said Register, and which
remain legible at the present time, and that no error is designedly
contained in the same. Witness my hand this 17 th day of June
1825 ". There must then have been extant in 1825 the remnant,
perhaps loose leaves, of an old book which ended at 1732, the
earliest remaining leaves of which (1723 & 1724) were in such a
mutilated condition that Mr. Hope did not think it worth while to
copy any entries previous to 1725 ; and in 1832, when sending in his

return



CUMBERLAND PARISH REGISTERS, NO. I. 239

return, it was his copy (1725-1771) and not the original that he
reported as Xo. 1. This-,copy, beautifully written in a "bound"
book, with a line ruled above and below each entry, must have cost
Mr. Hope a deal of time and trouble; and perhaps he or one of his
successors thought that it rendered the loose leaves of 1723-1732 not
worth preserving. Anyhow they have disappeared.

The original book (1732-1782) is now in a very precarious con-
dition, and should be rebound, that it may not go the way of the
loose leaves of 1723-1732, and of the earlier leaves of the book to
which they belonged. That whatever book was in use during the
last 30 years of the 17 th century and the first 14 years of the 18 th
was likely to be in danger of falling to pieces will easily be imagined
by any one who has read Bishop Nicolson's report on Stapleton
church, which he visited in 1703. Referring to the then rector,
Richard Culcheth, he says: "His father & he have kept this Liveing
many years, and are answerable for all its deficiencies " (Miscellany
Accounts, p. 54). The father occurs in the county histories, without

date of his institution, as " William Culcheth " ; but the period

of his incumbency is approximately indicated by his signature to
the transcripts from 1669 to 1683. He resigned in favour of his son
Richard, who was rector of Stapleton from 1683 to 1714. Bishop
Nicolson in 1703 found in Stapleton church " not one pane of glass
in any of the windows, no Reading-Desk, nor did they ever hear
that they had a Bell, only some few scraps of the Common-prayer
book, and an insufferably torn Bible of the old Translation, no
Surplice to be found, nor did ever any such thing (as far as any one
present could remember) belong to the Church" (ib). The register
was not likely to be in any better condition.

The rector who succeeded Richard Culcheth in 1714 had a long
innings, the end of which is thus recorded in the register : " The
Rev d James Jackson, Rector of Stapleton, was buried 29 th February
1771 (aged 83 Gentleman) ". Whether he ever posted up the register
himself I cannot say. But down to 1739, judging from a signature
on the flyleaf, I think it was posted up by "John Richardson,
parish clerk and schoolmaster ". In 1771 a new rector appears on
the scene, announcing himself thus: "Be it remembered that on
the 17 th of July I William Graham late curate of Kirkandrews on
Esk was presented to the Rectory of Stapleton by R Graham clerk
M.A. Lord of the Manor of Solport". It was not until November 9
that Mr Graham took the register in hand, and proved himself a
very efficient registrar. He was a scholarly man, a translator of
Virgil's Eclogues; for an interesting account of whom see Hutchin-
son, vol ii, p. 562.

It



240 CUMBERLAND PARISH REGISTERS, NO. I.

It is to be noticed that Mr Hope reported his copy, which he
called No. I, as containing marriages to 1771. This is also true of
the original, as no separate book for marriages was procured in
1754. But neither in 1771 was a separate book procured for
marriages; which, however, from 1771 to 1778, entered in accor-
dance with the form prescribed in 1754, are relegated to a separate
place in the original, in which also are contained the baptismo and
burials from 1771 to 1778, kept apart after 1773 in accordance with
an injunction thus recorded in the register : " 1773, June 16, The
General Chapter at Carlisle, when it was enjoined that the Registers
of Burials & Christnings should be kept separate and apart from
each other as in the following pages ".

The predominant clan in Stapleton in the last century, as shewn
by the register, were the Forresters; and the Elizabethan register,
had it been now extant, would doubtless have shewn that they had
the same predominance in the 17th century and earlier. " The
chancel", says Hutchinson (ii, 560-1), speaking of the old church,
since taken down and rebuilt in 1830, " is large in proportion to the
church, and seems to have been designed as a burial place for the
Forresters of Stonegarthside, dated 1598". They are still re-
presented in the parish, some of them abbreviated into Forster.
Other old Stapleton names are Armstrong, Carruthers, Gillespie,
Graham, Kennedy, Lamb, Moscrop, Musgrave, Nixon, Storey, and
Telford, all ot which but the last three are still represented here.

The transcripts begin at 1665. But down to 1723, when Mr
Hope's copy of the register begins, more than half of them are
missing.

The presentments often complain of " clandestine marriages with-
out banns or licence"; also of the prevalence of Quakerism, e.g.,
" 1667 manie in Solbert quarter are more ready to go to heare the
Quakers than to come to church, the Quakers meeting place being
now at Parkrigge". Quakers are not mentioned in the presentments
from any other parish in this deanery. Perhaps they were mostly
relegated by churchwardens to the general category of "phana-
ticks".

WALTON.

" No. I, baptisms and burials 1684-1813. No. II, banns & marriages
1754-1813".

Whoever forwarded the return in 1832, besides omitting to sign
his name to it, omitted also to examine attentively the first volume
of the register, or he would have seen that down to 1753 it records
marriages as well as baptisms and burials.

The



CUMBERLAND PARISH REGISTERS, XO. T. 24I

The marriage entries, however, as at Lanercost, do not begin till
1687, and the burials not till 1689. Both of these registers, be it
noticed, begin at 1684 ; and the Walton register, like the Lanercost,
is manifestly a copy down to 1711. On its cover is a note stating
that "this book was bought March ye 15 th , 1711"; and doubtless
the Lanercost book was bought at the same time. We have seen
that in 1684-5 trie Lanercost churchwardens reported " a register
book of parchment in which are set down the names of all persons
baptized, married, and buried". In like manner the Walton church-
wardens in 1684-5 report " a register book of parchment wherein we
have sett down the names of all persons baptized maryed and buryed
with a transcript thereof caryed every year into the Bishopp's
Register". What I have said about the Lanercost book or books
of earlier date than 1711 applies equally to the old Walton book or
books. But I have now to suggest that whatever register book was
used at Walton or Lanercost before Mr Dickenson's time, and for
some years after his coming, was common to the two parishes.
The Lanercost transcript for 1668-9 i s headed "A true note of all ye
persons baptized married and buried within ye parish of Leonnard-
cost and Walton from September ye 12 (68) till May ye 5 (69) " ; for
1682-3 " a true note of the Register book of Abbey & Walton " ; and
for 1686-7 " A note of the Register Booke of Walton p'ish and
Leonardcost ". It is true that in 1682-3 an d 1686-7 the entries from
the two parishes are not mixed as in 1668-9, and that in other years
there is no such heading as is above noticed. But the p. curate
may usually have sorted the entries for the transcripts, while
occasionally giving in the heading an incidental sign that there was
only one register book. This arrangement, I suppose, was at last
found to be inconvenient, and two new books were procured in 171 1,
into which the entries from 1684 to 1711, properly sorted, were
forthwith copied.

The p. curate of both parishes from 1681 to 1724 was Mr Dicken-
son, who seems to have resided at Walton, as both he and his wife
were buried there. Of his predecessor T Bell, and his successors
Anthony Wilton and T Fawcett, who all held Lanercost with
Walton, I have already spoken.

Whellan alone gives a list of Walton p. curates, which more suo is
a very meagre list, beginning with " Stamper — ", and next to him
•' T Ireland 1804". Mr Stamper, as we have seen, also held
Irthington, to which he was instituted in 1763.

In one matter the nameless p. curate who wrote the Walton
return in 1832 deserves commendation. His is the only return from
this deanery which mentions " banns " ; which the Parish Registers

Abstract



242 CUMBERLAND PARISH REGISTERS, NO. I.

Abstract excludes from its summary of the Walton return. Too
often, when search is made for a marriage entry, the banns book is
overlooked. But suppose a marriage certificate wanted, and only
the bridegroom's parish known to the searcher. A case in point
happened to me only a few months ago. Some one wrote to me
asking for a certificate of the marriage of a man known to have
lived and died in Lanercost. My correspondent did not know the
wife's name or parish. I did not find the marriage in Lanercost
register; but the banns book, revealing the wife's maiden name and
parish, enabled me to specify the church in which the marriage
must have been solemnized. And I soon received a letter stating
that the required certificate had been obtained.

There is a local tradition that Walton was anciently part of the
parish of Lanercost. But we learn from the Lanercost chartulary
that before the foundation of Lanercost priory Walton was a rectory.
It was by consent of Enoc, rector of Walton, that Gilmor, the Celtic
lord of Gilsland, erected a chapel of wickerwork at Triermain,
which place, now in Lanercost parish, must then have been in
Walton parish. Enoc's successor as rector of Walton was one
Thomas, during whose incumbency, in or about 1169, Robert de
Yaux, the second Norman lord of Gilsland, founded the priory.
Thomas became a canon of the priory, to which Walton rectory was
forthwith appropriated, and its church was served from the priory
until the dissolution, when its revenues with the rest of the priory
possessions were seized by the king. Triermain, then, having been
anciently in Walton parish, and there being nothing in the chartu-
lary to shew that before the foundation of the priory there was any
parish church of Lanercost, it is not unreasonable to infer that part of
is now the ecclesiastical parish of Lanercost was included in Walton
parish ; on which subject, if space permitted, more might be said.

I have, as I expected, found it not easy to confine this
paper within the space at my disposal, especially when
dealing with the register with which I am best acquainted.
More than twenty years have come and gone since the
editor of these Transactions asked me to contribute a
paper on Brampton Parish Register. Whereupon I
carefully studied the Brampton register, with the result
that I found in its pages matter enough for half a dozen
lectures to the parishioners on " Bygone Brampton ". But
to this day the paper for the Transactions remains un-
written ;



CUMBERLAND PARISH REGISTERS, NO. T. 243

written ; for what I have now written is but a fragment
of the story of Brampton parish register. I am grateful
however to our editor for having started me on a line of
investigation which has been to me ever since an unfailing
source of interest.

I have only to add that, while collecting the materials
for the foregoing paper, nothing has more strongly im-
pressed me than (i) the need of repair or rebinding of
the older books, which in some cases has recently been
attended to in this deanery, but in other cases, both here
and in other deaneries, should forthwith be taken in
hand, (2) the need of fire-proof safes for proper custody
of the registers, which, when kept in the old wooden
chests or in the iron chests ordered by Rose's Act in
1812, are in greater danger of destruction by fire than if
there were no chest at all, (3) the desirableness of supple-
menting the registers from the transcripts, and of binding
the transcripts, and (4) the importance of custodians of
parish registers making themselves acquainted with their
contents, seeing how incorrect were some of the returns
made in 1832, and the information supplied to Whellan by
some of the incumbents in i860.



Addendum, p. 223, line 33 : after " Erasmus Dryden " supply :
" who was ancest r of the poet Dryden " (Hutchinson, vol. i, p. 177).



(244)



Art. XV. — Comparative View of Dimensions of the Vallum
in Cumberland. By Mrs. Hodgson, Newby Grange.

TX7HILST trying, at Mr. Haverfield's suggestion, to set
* ' down the dimensions of the Vallum in Cumberland
from the surveys made by my husband, I have been met
by two serious difficulties. First, the determining what
point in each slope to regard as intersecting the line of
original surface, and second, in the sections, to decide
from the present appearance of the upcast what was the
original width of the mounds. It is frequently evident
that the upcast has slid down from its original position,
and falling on a turf-covered *' berm " has produced an
extension of the "black line" beyond the mounds. It is
probable that another person taking the measures might
take them differently. The only thing to be said is that
one person taking all the measures will probably make
the same sort of mistakes in each, so that they may still
be useful for purposes of comparison.

I notice three principal types of profile, shown as A, B,
and C, in my diagram. (Mr. Haverfield, on p. 454 of the
Report includes the Brunstock section in type A. :,; But I
have marked it as A 1 because if so read it has a berm
between the inner mound and the ditch, which is not the
case with Dr. Bruce's profile). I have only seen A in
Cumberland at or near Appletree. Indeed, but for what I
have been told of the small inner mound as appearing in
Northumberland, I should regard A as a purely accidental
form of B, and even now, after studying the Appletree
section, I am disposed to think that this mound may be the
result of occasional cleanings out of the ditch. The upcast



* These Transactions, vol. xiii, pp. 453-469.

mixed



DIMENSIONS OF VALLUM IN CUMBERLAND. 245

was mixed, and very different from that in the two
prinicipal mounds. I write subject to correction, for I
have only this one example to go by.

So far as I have seen, the profile A or B is adopted on
solid ground, and the profile C only where the ground is
soft and would hardly have borne the weight of a single
large mound. It will be seen that in profile C the ditch
is generally smaller, and the whole earthwork narrower
than in profile B.

Gilsland seems to me wholly exceptional, not only in
having stone cores, but in the dimensions and plan of the
works. The north mound or mounds are on the edge of a
piece of high ground, the ditch lying partly in a natural
depression, and both mounds and ditch run down a steep
slope eastwards. The south mound can be traced when
the observer is at a distance, but has been much destroyed
in making the school-yard, etc. The north mound is ex-
tremely small. In the lower trench (No. 2) no trace of
an outer north mound is visible on the surface, but a
second and smaller stone core was found in cutting the
trench, so that it may once have existed.*

At Hare Hill my husband saw traces of an outer
south mound, but part of it was in a wood which prevented
the levels being taken.

The plates, illustrating Mr. Haverfields's Reports in
Art. xxxix, vol. xiii. of these Transactions and Art. x. of
the present volume, will explain the measurements of the
sections. The diagrams and tables of dimensions referred
to in this paper will be found overleaf pp. 246-251.

* See these Transactions, vol. xiii, p. 46S.



2 4 6



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