William Baines (abt. 1624 - bef. 1700)

Born about 1624 in Killington, Westmorland, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died before 1700 before about age 76 in Wyersdale, Lancashire, England

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Biography

William was a Friend (Quaker)

A branch of the Scottish Baines clan appears to have emigrated from Inverness Shire Scotland to the west coast regions near Lancaster, England during the time of the great political upheaval of the Great Civil War Era.^[1]

William Baines was a landowner of an estate at Stangerthwaite, Killington, Westmoreland County since 1651 when he purchased it from his father James. Clearly he had been a resident of the region for several years prior. The estate would eventually fall to William's son James in May 1685.^[2]

After George Fox, the founding Quaker, preached on Firbank Fell in 1652, a high proportion of the leading families of Killington, which included the Hodgsons of Hallbeck, the Alexanders, the Storeys of Bendrigg, the Parrotts of Grassrigg, and indeed the most influential of all - the Baines of Stangerthwaite, joined the Quakers. Brothers William and Joseph Baines were residents of Strangerthwaite, Killington, Westmoreland County, England and helped to build Brigflatts Friends meeting house in 1675. Killington is a small hamlet with extensive farms and lands along the river Lune. The hamlet itself lies in a sheltered fold of the hills in the Vale of Lune, about seven miles east of Kendal.^[3]

See History of Brigflatts Meetinghouse and History of Brigflatts Quaker Meeting.

William, his brother Joseph, and several faithful Friends became staunch adherents and defenders of their faith in the vicinity of Kendal, Killington, Sedbergh and the parish of Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland County. Joseph also invested in William Penn's Quaker experiment in Pennsylvania (all detailed further below).

William and/or his son Matthew presumably relocated south settling in Wyresdale, Lancashire County^[4] and lived there until the Quaker Revivals under William Penn.

Joseph died at his estate called Stangerthwaite in 1714.^[5]

Spouse and Children

At least one wife of William's was named Sarah.^[6] Three sons are documented in probate records; one son is suggested in regional histories of early Pennsylvania Counties.

• James Baines b1655, married Sarah, died at Stangerthwaite, Killington, Westmoreland, England in 1705^[7]
• Joseph Baines b1657, married Rachel, died at Stangerthwaite, estate descended to son William.^[8][9]
• Maria Baines b1660/1.
• Sarah Baines b1664.
• Jonathan Baines b1668.^[10]
• Mathew, of Wyresdale, Lancashire, England^[4]

See Joseph, James, William: Will Records for Three Generations of Baines Men Residing at Stangerthwaite, Killington, England, 1705-1726 for a published abstract of William's descendants.

Quaker Meetings and Harassment

Most of the surviving records documenting William's ties to his community of Friends relate suffering and loss of funds and resources to State actors. The new non-conformist religion was not tolerated by the Monarchy or established English religions. The Quakers exacerbated their situation by refusing to swear oaths to the Monarchy and to pay lawful parish tithes. The lives of both Joseph and his brother William were inextricably linked through their shared and continual persecution between1660 - 1690, detailed chronologically below:

1660. On 20 January 1660, William and Matthew Baines were accosted by soldiers at a Lancaster Quaker meeting. Swords, pistols and muskets were brandished and 29 congregants were taken to the Castle and distrained. On the 27th of the same month a women's Meeting in Lancaster was disrupted and Dorothy Baines was one of 6 taken to prison.^[11][12]

1660. In the eleventh and twelveth months, 229 inhabitants of West Riding, Yorkshire were imprisoned for refusing to swear an oath. Joseph Baines was one of the detained.^[13]

1661. William Baynes was one of six subscribers to a petition dated "14th day 11th mo., 1661" (14 Jan 1661) on behalf of over 50 prisoners decrying their captivity in Lancaster Castle for more than 14 weeks for practicing their faith.^[14]

1662. William and Joseph Baines are among 21 men removed from a Meeting at Thomas Taylor's home in Sedbergh, held for a time in custody of the constable before being imprisoned at Yorkshire Castle more than 50 miles from their homes.^[15]

1670. Ten Quakers were fined for attending Meetings at Sedbergh in Yorkshire including James Corney of Killington, 15s., Richard Parrott of the same 15s.; Joseph Baines of the same for himself and for Margaret Walker £1 15s. All which fines were levied by distress on their several goods and chattels.^[16][17][18]

1673. William Baines of Killington, Westmoreland for a demand of 5s. for Priest's wages had goods taken from him worth 14s., and Joseph Baines for a demand of 4s. had goods taken worth 20s.^[19][17][18]

1674. William Baines, of Killington, was cited into the Court at Richmond for a Claim of Easter-Offerings, and put to an Expense of 20s^[19][18]

1675. Joseph Baines, John Hodgson and John Yeates, all of Killington, were prosecuted for Easter Offerings. In the same year William and Joseph Baines were cited into Richmond Court at the suit of John Wood, priest of Killington for wages, but before the Court-day came John Wood was taken sick and died under much trouble of mind.^[19][17] William Baines was again confined to Lancaster Castle in 1675 for unpaid tithes.^[20]

1681. Joseph Baines, of Killington, and John Thirnbeck, of Middleton, being summoned to serve on a jury at the Quarter-Sessions, appeared, but refusing to swear, were fined 20s each, and had their goods taken away; the former at the value of 40s, the latter at the value of £2 10s.^[21][18]

1690. Four Baines men of Stangerthwaite had product taken from their fields for tithes from 1681-1690 inclusive, the value of which was reported as follows:^[22]

• Joseph, £4..8.9
• James, £4..8.6
• Joseph the younger, £0..7.6
• Wlliam, £2..5.3

William and Joseph Baines' ties to Pennsylvania

Joseph obtained a warrant for 500 acres of unsurveyed land in Pennsylvania from William Penn in 1683. He did not act on the warrant but conveyed it to his daughter and son-in-law Hannah and Daniel Jackson of Lamplugh, Cumberland, England in 1699. Daniel had the acreage surveyed in Buckingham twp, Bucks County in 1702.

Although William Baines never voyaged to North America, Matthew Baines, a son born about 1650, embarked to Pennsylvania with his family in 1687. He did not make it. Matthew, his wife Margaret, and at least two children died during the crossing. However two children, William Baines and Elin Baines, survived and thrived. The orphan William Baines became the seed for the many Baines, Banes and Beans that sprouted in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.^[4]

Research Notes

Seeking better confirmation that Matthew Baines of Wyersdale, Lancashire is the son of William Baines of Stangerthwaite, Killington, Westmoreland.

• Did William die at Stangerthwaite? Three documented sons, James, Jonathan and Joseph were at Stangertwaite in 1705 when James Baines wrote his will.
• Last reliable evidence of William Baines at Stangerthwaite is in 1690 when unpaid tithes for the period 1681-1690 inclusive are recorded.^[23] This is after Matthew's death.
• A William Baines of Wyresdale married Phebe Wharton^[24] and had several children in Wyresdale in the decade 1670-1680. Is this a brother of Matthew?
• 7 March 1679, A William Baines of Wyreside and Netherwyresdale, Lancashire County is enumerated on a list of Quakers identified as follows: "a list of the names of several persons called Quakers that are prosecuted as Popish Recusants but in reality [are] true Protestants."^[25]

Descendants of Clan MacBean still live in Lancashire. Variants of surname include Bayne, Baine, or Bane in the region [all are pronounced Bane with a long a sound]. In North America, the variants Bean and Beans took hold within a generation.

Sources

1. ↑ Clan MacBean in North America, Volume II, Fifth Edition, Revised 1993, by Joseph S. Bean, page 818
2. ↑ Ware, Rev. Canon, Art. XI, Killington, Kirkby Lonsdale, its Chapel Salary in Transactions, Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, Richard S. Ferguson, editor. Kendal: T. Wilson, 1886, volume VIII, pp 93-108. Description: Communicated to the Society of Seascale, September 25th, 1884. A presentation of a 1696 lawsuit, William Slater, curate of Killington v several Quaker residents of Kirkby Lonsdale parish, for unpaid tithes. The suit included James Baines of Stangerthwaite. The article transcribed and analyzed original documents belonging to the Chapelry of Killington.
3. ↑ http://www.visitoruk.com/Kendal/killington-C592-V12377.html
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} History of Bucks County Pennsylvania, editor Warren S. Ely and John W. Jordan, second Edition, New York and Chicago, 1905, page 722
5. ↑ 'A Book of Old Quaker Wills', by W.G. Collingwood, in Transactions, Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society, Kendal: Titus Wilson & Son, 1929, volume XXIX, pp 1-38. Will abstract of Joseph Baines, p11. Description: a collection of 68 old Quaker Wills from the period 1697 - 1777 written by members of the Society of Friends who lived in the area of Westmorland and Yorkshire covered by the Ravenstonedale, Garsdale and Grisdale meetings. pdf available for download. https://cumbriapast.com/cgi-bin/cwaas/cp_main.pl#A
6. ↑ Piety promoted, in a collection of dying sayings of many of the people called Quakers: with a brief account of some of their labours in the Gospel, and sufferings for the same. American edition: A new and complete edition, comprising the eleven parts heretofore separately published. Edited by William Evans, Thomas Evans in four volumes. Volume First, John Tomkins original editor. Philadelphia, 1st month, 1854, p267. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa&cc=moa&sid=95e3f6e828e116b80d4cccd93c806bc1&view=text&rgn=main&idno=AGU9163.0001.001
7. ↑ Collingwood, 1929, Will abstract of James Baines, p5
8. ↑ Collingwood, 1929, Will abstract of James Baines, p5
9. ↑ Collingwood, 1929, Will absract of William Baines, p17
10. ↑ Collingwood, 1929, Will abstract of James Baines, p5
11. ↑ Besse, Joseph, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers: For the Testimony of a Good Conscience from the Time of Their Being First Distinguished by that Name in the Year 1650 to the Time of the Act Commonly Called the Act of Toleration Granted to Protestant Dissenters in the First Year of the Reign of King William the Third and Queen Mary in the Year 1689, Volume 1. London: Luke Hinde, 1753, p307-8 pages. https://archive.org/details/collectionofsuff01bess/page/307
12. ↑ Nightingale, Benjamin, Early stages of the Quaker movement in Lancashire. London: Congregational Union of England and Wales, 1921, p29. https://archive.org/details/earlystagesquake00nighuoft/page/n31
13. ↑ Besse, Joseph, Volume 2, 1753, p101.
14. ↑ Nightingale, p108.
15. ↑ Besse, Joseph, Volume 2, 1753, p110.
16. ↑ Besse, Joseph, Volume 2, 1753, p21.
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1 17.2} 'Supplementary Records: Killington and Firbank', in Records Relating To the Barony of Kendale: Volume 3, ed. John F Curwen (Originally published by Titus Wilson and Son, Kendal, 1926), pp. 305-307. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/kendale-barony/vol3/pp305-307 [accessed 30 October 2019]
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3} Early Cumberland and Westmoreland Friends: A Series of Biographical Sketches of Early Members of the Society of Friends from those Counties, by Richard Saul Ferguson. London: F. B. kitto, 1871, pp197-8, 204. https://archive.org/details/earlycumberland00ferggoog/page/n213
19. ↑ ^{19.0 19.1 19.2} Besse, Joseph, Volume 2, 1753, p22.
20. ↑ Nightingale, p54.
21. ↑ Besse, Joseph, Volume 2, 1753, p28.
22. ↑ Besse, Joseph, Volume 2, 1753, p35.
23. ↑ Besse, Joseph, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers: For the Testimony of a Good Conscience from the Time of Their Being First Distinguished by that Name in the Year 1650 to the Time of the Act Commonly Called the Act of Toleration Granted to Protestant Dissenters in the First Year of the Reign of King William the Third and Queen Mary in the Year 1689, Volume 2. London: Luke Hinde, 1753, p35 pages.
24. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L92Z-768G?i=130
25. ↑ 'Entry Book: March 1679, 1-10', in Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 5, 1676-1679, ed. William A Shaw (London, 1911), pp. 1251-1261. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books/vol5/pp1251-1261 [accessed 14 October 2020].

See also:

• Besse, Joseph, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers: For the Testimony of a Good Conscience from the Time of Their Being First Distinguished by that Name in the Year 1650 to the Time of the Act Commonly Called the Act of Toleration Granted to Protestant Dissenters in the First Year of the Reign of King William the Third and Queen Mary in the Year 1689, Volume 2. London: Luke Hinde, 1753, 638 pages.
• http://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/william-bean_12323709
• http://www.adamthwaitearchive.org.uk/welcome-history/4531727246