Danby Wiske, Yorkshire One Place Study

Date: [unknown]
Location: Danby Wiske, Yorkshire, England
Surnames/tags: one_place_studies wilkinson alcock

Back to One Place Studies Project

Contents 1 Introduction 2 The Project 2.1 Intent 2.2 Limits 2.3 Goals 2.4 Tasks 3 Village History 3.1 Historical Highlights 3.2 Notable Personages 3.2.1 George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore 3.2.2 Maud Balliol, sister to a Scottish King 3.2.2.1 A Hypothesis for Maud's 'Effigy' 3.3 Excerpts from the Parish Register 3.3.1 Horse Thief Executed at York 3.3.2 A Generous Village 3.3.3 Connections to I'ANSON Family 3.3.3.1 Captain John I'ANSON of Hauxwell 3.3.3.2 Other I'ANSONs in Danby Wiske to Research 3.4 Other Snippets 3.4.1 Evaluation of Little Danby in 1361 4 Resources 4.1 Village 4.2 Genealogy 4.3 Maps 4.4 Archive Locations 4.5 GREAT Examples of Excellent Work 5 You can contribute a little or a lot... 6 Privacy Notice 7 Sources

Introduction

My earliest known paternal ancestor is John WILKINSON who married at Danby Wiske in 1736, and there are earlier WILKINSONs I would like to lay claim to. Coincidentally, it turns out that I grew up right across the road from the ancestral farm.

Other branches of my family originate from neighbouring parishes:

• PEARSONs of Yafforth
• TAYLORs of Hutton Bonville
• ALCOCKs of Eryholme

-- Project Leader Jane WILKINSON

**This One Place Study is NOT officially registered

The Project

...PERMANENTLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT...

Intent

This is a place to AGGREGATE and SHARE facts, information, and memories of Danby Wiske, focusing on the genealogy of people in the village and parish.

The outcome will be connecting those facts - 'joining the dots' - to tell the stories of ordinary people and families living their lives in an ordinary Yorkshire village, and to establish their connections to each other and larger historical events.

This project has no deadline, no minimum commitment, and the only qualification for participants is a desire to contribute, share, and learn.

Limits

• Parish boundary rather than village boundary
• Includes hamlets of Streetlam and Lazenby
• Yafforth as a chapelry of Danby Wiske could/should be included, but Yafforth has its own separate parish register, so maybe not?

Goals

• people associated with with named houses, farms and locations
• surnames analysis
• lifespan/fertility/mortality analysis
• professions analysis
• land tax/property/electors analysis
• migration to/from the area
• list of document references for future research
• WikiTree cemetery page (?)

Tasks

• parish register
• census
• 1939 register
• newspapers, London Gazette
• village newsletters
• land/property/rent/tax lists
• wills
• electoral rolls
• bastardy records
• poor law records
• quarter sessions
• muster rolls
• recusancy returns
• non-conformist records
• estate records
• Hearth Tax Returns
• county histories
• commercial directories

Village History

Historical Highlights

• Domesday Book of 1086
• Originally Danebi, latinized to Danby super Wiske, now Danby Wiske
• Roman Catholics in Danby Wiske in 1604
• Undedicated parish church
• Battle of the Standard 1138
• Prominent families
• Great North Road
• Turnpikes
• Enclosure
• Railways
• Agriculture
• Migrations
• WWI & WWII
• Coast-to-Coast walk
• Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee (1977)
• New Millenium (2000)

Notable Personages

George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore

George Calvert was born at nearby Kiplin in 1579 the son of a country gentleman and Catholic, Leonard Calvert of Kiplin. George's parents were regularly pressured to conform to the state religion, one result being that brothers George and Christopher were given a Protestant education at Bilton near York. Academically inclined, George went on to Oxford University at the age of 14 to study foreign languages, and by 1597, had earned his degree.

After university, George is known to have travelled extensively on the continent, broadening his mind and worldview far beyond his humble parochial origins.

Since the 1559 Act of Uniformity, anyone aspiring to hold high office had been required to swear an Oath of Allegiance to the Queen as monarch and as head of the Church of England, and indeed George Calvert's career and attendant success would not have been possible without doing so. Religious persecution aside, Elizabethan England was an era of progress and opportunity, and George boldly navigated his path in life from local gentry to national prominence in the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and later achieving fame beyond England's shores.

1603 was the final year of the Queen Bess' reign, and it was after her death that George Calvert was hired as a private secretary to Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State and famed spymaster to King James VI of Scotland, James I of England at the beginning of the Stuart era.

In 1616, George Calvert was granted the manor of Danby Wiske. 3 years later in 1619, George received a knighthood and with it, the right to style himself 'Sir George Calvert.' The same year, King James I issued a license granting George Calvert permission to purchase the Kiplin estate of his birth from Philip Lord WHARTON, wherein George is described as the King's "secretary of state, and faithful counselor."By 1622, George is in the midst of building himself a Jacobean mansion that would be known as Kiplin Hall, and it's reasonable to think he spent a significant amount of time in Yorkshire over the previous 6 years, tending to his interests in Kiplin and in the manor of Danby Wiske.

Between his boyhood spent in Yorkshire, and later managing his properties as a grown man, George Calvert was plenty fond of Yorkshire, declaring in a 12 Sep 1630 letter to fellow Yorkshireman Sir Thomas Wentworth: "I love Richmondshire with all my heart and it warms me when you talk of it, as cold a country as it is". Both a compliment and a 'put down,' the remark perfectly encapsulates the Yorkshire art of humourous backhanded compliments ideally delivered in a deadpan manner.

1620, he founded the colony of Avalon in Newfoundland, eventually spending £25,000 to support it. Wife died in 1622

In 1625, George was in middle age and ever more inclined to revert to the 'Old Faith' of his youth and his heritage, but such a decision would have serious consequences, especially for a man lately risen to status and property. By year's end, George had publicly declared his Catholicism. Catholic or not, the King granted him lands in County Longford, Ireland and the title 1st Baron Baltimore (after a hamlet in Longford of the same name)

Like many victims of religious persecution before and after him, George's faith ultimately led him to his most ambitious project yet: emigrating to a new continent in 1627-28. He went of course to his own colony of Avalon, but discovered the harsh climate did not suit him, so moved on to Virginia in 1628. Unwilling to swear an oath of loyalty to the King, the Burgesses of Virginia refused his request for a charter to found a colony there.

.... MORE STUFF...

Known as the "founder of the Colony of Maryland," Lord Baltimore never set actually foot in the Colony, dying in 1632 5 weeks before the charter for lands in Maryland was granted, whereupon his son Cecil become 2nd Baron Baltimore.

Danby Wiske boasts at least 1 possible tribute to the 1st Baron Baltimore, namely a place identified as Calvert's Field on 1850's Ordinance Survey maps and located a little over 1 mile south of the village along Mounstall Lane, but by the 1890's had been renamed Brogden.

^{[1] [2]}

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Maud Balliol, sister to a Scottish King

Maud (Balliol) FitzAlan -(1340) was not a local girl, or even an English one, but her husband Sir Bryan FitzAlan was Lord of the manor of BEDALE (8 miles SW of Danby Wiske), and descended from Count Alan Rufus, 1st Lord of Richmond (12 miles due West of Danby Wiske), a companion and kinsman of William the Conqueror.

Maud was a 5th generation descendant of King David I of Scotland, and fate was such that Sir Bryan FitzAlan's position as Guardian of Scotland meant he was tasked with ensuring that Maud's brother John Balliol of Scotland inherited the Scottish crown in 1292. John's reign was disastrous and ended 4 years later in 1296, when he was forced into exile. But Maud had now met the man she would marry, and her future would unfold in Yorkshire.

Maud died in 1340 and 202 years after her ancestor King David I's soldiers had rampaged their way through the Danby Wiske area in 1138 during King Stephen I 's reign. They had left the scars of their swords on the parish church before the slaughtering began on Cowton Moor at the Battle of the Standard'.

A Hypothesis for Maud's 'Effigy'

Who would want to have an effigy in the village of Danby Wiske? It's presence could only benefit the local inhabitants, but to what end? And for what purpose? It's no small undertaking to move a big slab of stone, or an entire tomb, so it wouldn't be a trivial reason or purpose....

Locals likely still told, and felt, the gruesome tales of the battle fought by their ancestors going back a mere 5-7 generations. It's not unreasonable to think that they may even have commemorated such an important local historical event.

The 200th anniversary of the battle might have been especially poignant, and provided the impetus for a special commemoration, perhaps the kind where an important physical object connected to the Scottish king might be used to enact a ritual to avenge their slaughtered ancestors? The existence of life-sized likeness or effigy of a 5th generation descendant of King David I would be almost too perfect for such a purpose, and perhaps a few years after the bicentennial, providence supplied an opportunity to 'acquire' the tomb cover that would be repurposed as an effigy.

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Excerpts from the Parish Register

Horse Thief Executed at York

Between 1724 and 1730, John CHAPPELLO & Cecily FRANK (married 7 Jun 1724 at Middleton Tyas) had 4 children baptized at Danby Wiske. By 1734, John had been executed at YORK for the crime of horse stealing. With 4 fatherless children to feed, Cicely had remarried to John WHELDON at Danby Wiske by later that same year.

I can be confident that the fellow hung at YORK is the same John CHAPPELLO who fathered the children baptized in Danby Wiske, because the parish priest saw fit to go back in the register and make note of the execution in the margins beside the entry for several of the children's baptisms. ^[3]

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A Generous Village

Mr. Roger WILKINSON, later High Constable, was the first 'WILKINSON known to be baptized at Danby Wiske on 26 Mar 1636/37, by parents Roger & Alice. In 1676, Roger was entrusted with the money collected by parishioners for victims of a fire in Southwark in Middlesex. Danby Wiske residents had donated £0 8s 3d to the cause, with a further £0 2s 0d collected from Yafforth. The receipt in the parish register reads:

1. "For Southwark w[hic]h by a fire on May 26 1675 [should be 1676] lost in goods £26,000 13s 0d in buildings £58,375 0s 0d, in total £84,375 13s 0d gathered eight shillings and three pence[.] This and two shillings for Yafford was paid to Mr Roger WILKINSON High Constable January 1676/7"' --- [Roger WILKINSON's signature]"

[Overshadowed in popular history, the fiery destruction of an estimated 624 houses in Southwark was comparable to the Great Fire of London 10 years earlier in 1666.]

The same page in the parish register is filled with similar donations for the period 1673-1679, nearly always on account of fires. Donations were collected for towns, for churches and even for individuals. The generosity of Danby Wiske villagers' generosity benefitted poor souls across the country in places such as:

• John Baker of Knaresborough, Yorkshire - fire 10 Mar 1673 resulting in loss of £150?. Donation: 16d: (Yafforth: ???)
• Northampton, Northamptonshire - fire 20 Sep 1675 caused £102,008 4s 6d in losses, and "£50,000 more" in damage to public buildings. Donation: £0 10s 4d 1/2 (Yafforth: 3 shillings)
• Newent, Gloucestershire - due to church falling, rebuilding cost £2,000. Donation: £0 1s 3d (Yafforth: 1 shilling)
• Oswestry?, Shropshire - church pulled down. Donation: £0 0s 19d 1/2 (Yafforth: £0 0s 13d)
• Eaton (near Windors), Buckinghamshire - fire on 14 Dec 1676, rebuilding cost £2,399 8s 0d. Donation: £0 2s 9d (Yafforth: a? shilling)
• Cottenham, Cambridgeshire - fire 29 Apr 1679 resulting in losses of £13,342 5s 0d. Donation: £0 2s 0d (Yafforth: £0 1s 11d)
• Towcester, Northamptonshire - fire resulting in losses of £1,637 6s 8d. Donation: £3 1s 6d (Yafforth: £1 6s)
• Wem?, Shropshire - fire resulting in losses of £3,077 3s 4d. Donation: £3 4s 1/2d (Yafforth: ???)
• Pattingham?, Staffordshire - fire Donation: £3 5s 0d (Yafforth: £1 6s 0d)

Roger WILKINSON was not alone in being entrusted to remit parishioners donations, other such trustees include: Miles OVINGTON(2x), John STRANGEWAYS(1x), James DARLING(?)(1x) and William HUNTBOARK col(5x).

Another donation receipt is dated 14 Jul 1701 in the amount £0 4s 6d for the benefit of "ye Captives of Maihater??" is further testament to the generous spirit of humble Yorkshire folk.

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Connections to I'ANSON Family

Captain John I'ANSON of Hauxwell

The METCALFE Society is well-known among Yorkshire genealogists, but another famous genealogy: "A History of the I'Anson Family" by Brian I'Anson was published in 1915. The early I'ANSON lineage of one Captain John I'ANSON of a 'man-of-war' during the reign of Henry VIII, and his descent from French nobility are largely unsubstantiated, but Hauxwell parish registers start in the late 16th century, so the book becomes useful at that point.

The first I'ANSON family connection to Danby Wiske begins when Elizabeth I'ANSON of HACKFORTH married DANBY WISKE native Ralph ALCOCK in 1742 at HORNBY (near BEDALE). Elizabeth I'ANSON is listed in the I'ANSON genealogy, and the EAST HAUXWELL parish register shows she was baptized on 9 Jan 1719/20 by parents Richard & Deborah I'ANSON living at HACKFORTH.

Elizabeth & Ralph ALCOCK's first 2 children were baptized at BIRKBY, followed by 7 children baptized at Danby Wiske. Remarkably for the period, all 9 children survived infancy and most of them lived well into old age: 2 living into their 90s, and 5 more living into their 80s.

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Other I'ANSONs in Danby Wiske to Research

• 1736 Will of Elizabeth (Wooller) I'ANSON widow of Northallerton who died 1740, probate files shows her son John I'ANSON is living in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1748 when he signed an affadavit regarding his mother's estate that was witnessed by Mayor John AMSON.
• John ROGERS alias JANSON was the father of Jane ROGERS baptized at Danby Wiske in 1721, and his wife's burial in 1729 records her name as Mary ROGERS alias JANSON, wife of John. John married 3 times: to Mary Gill at Brompton in 1721, to Grace ROGERS at Great Smeaton in 1729, and finally Catherine MASTERMAN at Danby Wiske in 1731.
  • Why was he using the names ROGERS AND also I'ANSON?
• Other I'ANSONs BMDs recorded on early parish registers at Northallerton and at Danby Wiske, often under the surname spelling variations: JANSON, JINSON or JHINSON.

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Other Snippets

Evaluation of Little Danby in 1361

Known as Little Danby Hall today, Little or 'Parva' Danby is located 1.5 miles south of the village along Mounstall Lane, and documents for a Chancery case from the year 1361 exist at The National Archives (UK) in Kew DOC REF: C 131/12/11 concerning creditor Thomas [no surname] chaplain of Danby Wiske's claim against debtor Thomas [no surname] of Little Danby.

As "Thomas de Little Danby has no goods or chattels in his bailiwick", on 9 Jan 1361/62, the bailiff of the liberty of the Abbot of St Mary's, York made an 'extent' [appraisal] of Little Danby, and recorded the following:

Quantity	Unit	Description	Category	Shillings (s)	Pence (d)	Value (s)
1		a capital messuage "clear"	Property	20		240
34	acres	meadow	Land	3	4	1360
200	acres	land	Land	3		7200
26	acres	wheat	Crops	3	4	1040
1	in the sheaf	wheat	Yield	24	4	292
1	in the sheaf	barley & oats	Yield	46	8	560
1	in the rick	hay	Yield	33	4	400
1		beans & peas	Yield	6	8	80
1	in the sheaf	mixtil	Yield	16		192
3	bushel	rye	Yield		5	15
5		calves	Animals	2		120
5		pigs	Animals	2		120
7		piglets	Animals		10	70
1		a cart with iron tyres	Goods	3	8	44
1		a jug and bowl	Goods		18	18
1		a lead cistern	Goods	3		36
2		brass pots	Goods	3	4	80
2		bowls	Goods	7	6	180
1		an andiron and a lamp	Goods		16	16
1		a little tub	Goods		12	12
		GRAND TOTAL		1006	3	12075

The pound (£) was introduced in 1497 by Henry VII - 138 years after this 1361 document was created, so the 'pounds, shillings and pence' (£ s d) notation was not yet in existence, and thus is not used here.

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Resources

Village

• Danby Wiske|Wikipedia
• Village of Danby Wiske including 2010 Parish Plan
• "Parish History: Danby Wiske"|British History Online(BHO) in A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 1, ed. William Page (London: Victoria County History, 1914), 172-176. British History Online, accessed 27 Oct 2021
• "History of Place Names: Danby Wiske"|A Vision of Britain through Time in Great Britain Historical GIS, University of Portsmouth. A Vision of Britain through Time, accessed 27 Oct 2021
• "Historical Data: Danby Wiske"|A Vision of Britain through Time in Great Britain Historical GIS, University of Portsmouth. A Vision of Britain through Time, accessed 27 Oct 2021

Genealogy

• FamilySearch: records - FamilySearch of Salt Lake City, Utah is 'the' major source for genealogical records worldwide, including parish registers, censuses, and much more
• FamilySearch: wiki - information about records held by FamilySearch (and others) pertaining to a place or region
• FreeUKGenealogy - a volunteer-based organization with 3 major transcription projects: FreeReg (parish registers), FreeBMD (BMD civil registrations), and FreeCen (censuses)
• Genuki - genealogical information about individual parishes; including named properties/locations, gazetteers, commerical directories, parish registers, archive locations for the the parish
• FindMyPast [$]
• Ancestry.com [$] ... OR ... Ancestry.co.uk [$]
• Upper Dales Family History Group (UDFHG) - an active online forum includes mentions of Danby Wiske in nearly 20 years of archived posts
• Cleveland Family History Society (FHS) [$] - created in 1980 covering most of the North Riding and part of Durham, with BMD and monumental transcriptions, and published journals

Maps

• maps, maps, maps

Archive Locations

• NYCRO North Yorkshire County Records Office: Catalog Search located at: 76-86 Malpas Road, Northallerton, North Yorkshire DL7 8TB (easy walking distance from the railway station)
• WYAS West Yorkshire Archives Service: Catalog Search 5 locations in Wakefield, Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds (Harehills, Gildersome)
• DCRO Durham County Record Office: Catalog Search archive service for County Durham and Darlington located at: County Hall, City of Durham, County Durham, DH1 5UL
• TNA The National Archives: Search Records Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4D7

GREAT Examples of Excellent Work

• Timeline of Orgate House in Marske by Virginia (Ward) BERGMANN - Amazing research on the history and people associated with a single location in the Yorkshire Dales.
• A Farmer in the Dales (2015) by Barbara J STARMANS in The Social Historian, accessed 27 Oct 2021. This article is a great example of genealogical storytelling that starts in Danby Wiske in 1782.

You can contribute a little or a lot...

• share first-hand memories of Danby Wiske in the MEMORIES section near the bottom of this page
• share old photos; e.g. Christmas parties at the Village Hall, weddings at the Parish Church, Women's Institute activities and outings, the Queen's Silver or Golden Jubilee celebrations
• share newspaper articles found online, or clippings from personal collections
• interview family members about their memories of Danby Wiske (notes, audio, video)
• start creating WikiTree profiles
• see task list below

Privacy Notice

• Please respect the privacy of living people, per WikiTree honor code and genealogical best practices.

Sources

1. ↑ Foster, James W, "George Calvert: His Yorkshire Boyhood" in Maryland Historical Magazine Winter (1960), Vol 12, p261-274 Internet Archive accessed 28 Feb 2022
2. ↑ A Kiplin Hall Treasury - Calvert
   
   (29 Mar 2020) Youtube video created by Kiplin Hall & Gardens, featuring curator Dawn Webster (11:01 min) accessed 28 Feb 2022
3. ↑ John CHAPPELLO executed 1734 | York Castle