Abraham Shackleton (1696 - 1771)

Born 27 Oct 1696 in Harden, Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret (Wilkinson) Shackleton — married 1725 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England

Descendants

Died 24 Jun 1771 at age 74 in Ballitore, County Kildare, Ireland

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Biography

Abraham was a Friend (Quaker)

Abraham Shackleton is Notable.

Abraham Shackleton, "Son of Richard & Sarah Shackleton of Harden in ye p:rish of Bingley," was "Born ye 27th of 8th Mo: 1696" (27 October 1696).^[1] He may likely have been born at the family home, called the Shackleton House,^[2] which was in the village of Harden, in the parish of Bingley and county of York (now called Yorkshire, West Riding).

His father was Richard Shackleton and his mother, Sarah Brigg. They were Quakers and "took each other in Marriage" in the Quaker manner at house of Sarah's father in the parish of Keighley on 31 December 1682.^[3]

In his article published in the Dictionary of National Biography, the author Norman Moore relates many details about Abraham Shackleton:

Abraham Shackleton, schoolmaster, ... did not begin Latin till he was twenty, but worked so hard that he attained a good Latin prose style. He became a teacher in the school of David Hall of Skipton, Yorkshire, and married Margaret Wilkinson, a relative of the master. He removed to Ireland, and became a tutor to the children of John Duckett esq (1688-1738) of Duckett’s Grove, Co. Carlow, and to those of William Cooper (abt.1665-1714) of Cooper Hill in the same district. At their suggestion he opened a boarding school at Ballytore, Co. Kildare, on 1 March 1726, and continued its headmaster till 1756. During this time he educated four hundred boys of English, Scottish, or French descent, thirty-four of original Irish origin. Dr. Richard Brocklesby (1722-1797) was one of the pupils; but the most distinguished was Edmund Burke MP (abt.1730-1797), who entered on 26 May 1741...^[2][4]

Two Registers from the Monthly Meetings, one at Knaresborough and the other at Skipton, attest to the Marriage between Abraham Shackleton and Margret Wilkinson. In both instances, the records are incomplete.^[5][6]

Shackleton died on 24 June 1771, and was buried at Ballitore. He was survived by one son, Richard, and one daughter, Elizabeth, who married Maurice Raynor.^[2]

Concluding his article, Moore recounts the praise that his student, Edmund Burke, gave for his teacher:

"He was indeed a man of singular piety, rectitude, and virtue, and he had, along with these qualities, a native elegance good nature and unaffected simplicity of heart can give."^[2][7]

Mary (Shackleton) Leadbeater spoke of Abraham in her Memoir:

Abraham was a learned and good man, straightforward in all his dealings, and sincere in his converse with God and man. Such is the character handed down of the first of the Shackletons who settled in Ireland.^[8]

Research Notes

Sources

1. ↑ The National Archives; Kew, England; General Register Office: Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Class: RG 6; County: Yorkshire; Piece: 1091: Monthly Meeting of Knaresborough (1653-1785, 1654-1775). Citing Abraham Shackleton. Digital image available at Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837 [database on-line]: Image 200 of 397.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Moore, Norman. Abraham Shackleton (1697-1771). Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900. Vol. 51. Digital article available at Wikisource [database on-line]: #336. Shackleton, Abraham (1697-1771).
3. ↑ The National Archives; Kew, England; General Register Office: Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Class: RG 6; County: Yorkshire; Piece: 1091: Monthly Meeting of Knaresborough (1653-1785, 1654-1775). Citing p. 28, Richard Shackleton & Sarah Brigg. Digital image avilable at Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837 [database on-line]: Image 31 of 397.
4. ↑ Gerald A. J. Hodgett. The Shackletons of Ballitore: some aspects of eighteenth-century Irish Quaker life. (accessed 13 November 2021) Shackletons of Ballitore.
5. ↑ The National Archives; Kew, England; General Register Office: Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Class: RG 6; County: Yorkshire; Piece: 1091: Monthly Meeting of Knaresborough (1653-1785, 1654-1775). Citing p. 81 (37r), Abraham Shackleton & Marget Wilkinson. Digital image available at Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837 [database on-line]: Image 87 of 397.
6. ↑ The National Archives; Kew, England; General Register Office: Society of Friends' Registers, Notes and Certificates of Births, Marriages and Burials. Class: RG 6; County: Yorkshire; Piece: 1279: Monthly Meeting of Knaresborough: Skipton Preparative (1655-1829). Citing p. 13, Abraham Shackleton & Margret Wilkinson. Digital image available at Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837 [database on-line]: Image 14 of 130.
7. ↑ O’Donnell, Katherine. “‘Dear Dicky,’ ‘Dear Dick,’ ‘Dear Friend,’ ‘Dear Shackleton’: Edmund Burke’s Love for Richard Shackleton.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 46, no. 3, 2006, pp. 619–40. JSTOR, #3844524 (Accessed 2 Jun. 2022).
8. ↑ Leadbetter, Mary. The Leadbeater papers: The annals of Ballitore, by Mary Leadbeater, with a memoir of the author: Letters from Edmund Burke heretofore unpublished: and the correspondence of Mrs. R. Trench and Rev. George Crabbe with Mary Leadbeater. Vol 1. London: Bell and Daldy, 186 Fleet Street, 1862. Citing p. 1, Abraham Shackleton. Digital book available at Archive.org [database on-line]: Memoir, p. 1.