LONGTOWN - 1851 to 1901
I am researching the history of the Richardson side of my Cumbrian family.
In the 19th century they lived in Longtown, Cumberland, about 10 miles north of Carlisle. My grandfather John ('Jack') Richardson had often told me that he was born in Longtown so once or twice I have been for a visit to see if I can find anything out. Usually I have been diverted to the Graham Arms for lunch because the old men sitting on the bench on the green never seemed to have much to tell me. Once I went with my father, once with a girlfriend, and once with my entire MBA class from Strathclyde University. We had been on a day out by coach from Glasgow to visit a Philips TV factory on Tyneside and I persuaded the driver that the Graham was the best place for lunch. It wasn't bad that time, but my memory of the earlier lunch with the young lady was of food so tasty that I suppose other appetites were satisfied at around the same time. So the class suffered a bit from my fantasy memory of succulent food of the very best with French wines, but there was probably nowhere better and anyway we were students.
The only serious effort made to try to trace the family was on the visit with my father. We sat down with the old men on the bench on the green. They remembered Jack Richardson, they said, but he came from Brampton. We didn't like the sound of this. Having believed for so long that Longtown was our ancestral home the idea of transferring allegiance to Brampton was not on. No, said my father, it can't be the same Jack, and that was that - off to the Graham Arms (for the first time) and a teetotal lunch (for the last time).
Longtown is a little town just a mile or so south of the border with Scotland. As it is now it was created in the 18th century, laid out by the Lords of Graham (hence the name of the pub), in the first lengthy period of peace in that area for many centuries. Lawlessness had been the rule prior to that time as the reivers from both sides stole cattle, murdered and pillaged, among them Armstrongs, Hendersons, Routledges, and (even) Richardsons. Surpisingly for such quiet people, all those names exist in our family tree.
Just north of Longtown were the 'debatable lands' where the border had not been fixed and on which there was no agreement as to whether they belonged to Scotland or to England, even after most other similar issues had been agreed upon. In these debatable lands lived outlaws of all sorts including some of the reiver families. It became law in both England and Scotland that bona fide citizens of either country had the right to pillage, murder, or steal from anyone who had settled in the debatable lands. the inhabitants were considered all round to be vermin, or even game.
This issue was settled at the time of the union of parliaments, and building a town for the first time for centuries looked like a good idea. It would be interesteing to know how the lords of Graham came into possession of the land, but their family researchers can no doubt tell us.
The first record I have so far found of the Richardson family in Longtown is in the 1851 census. This was a period of great change. The railway network was expanding fast and Carlisle suddenly became a major junction and depot. Both Carlisle to Glasgow lines bypassed Longtown on their way north but ten years later, in 1861, a station was built at Longtown on the Waverley Route between Carlisle and Edinburgh. The Industrial revolution was in full swing and the change from a textile industry based on homeworking artisan weavers to the factory system is visible in the family history.
In 1851 at 18 Bridge Street lived George Richardson, then 43 years old, a handloom weaver, with his wife Jane, two sons John (18) and William (12), two twin dughters Ann and Elizabeth (7) and a step daughter Mary Gordon (4). In order to help with the finances there was a lodger Jas. Murray (22), an agricultural labourer. George is recorded in the census not just as head of the household, but as having the status of 'master' which meant that he was his own master and not employed, not a 'worker'. Both John and William were handloom weavers.
The next time we meet the family is in the 1861 census. The railway arrived in that year and handloom weaving was a fast disappearing occupation. It looks as if factory work was not for everyone and in any case the nearest mills were in Carlisle. So George appears as a railway labourer. Later the family dispersed around the North of England, with a later George listed as a boarder with a family in Hebburn on Tyneside working as a shipyard labourer.
My father kindly gave me a family tree some years before he died. It has no dates but at least the names of the various generations have helped me to check against the census results that I am looking at the right Richardsons. As anyone from north of Lancaster knows, the largest number of Richardsons are found in the counties now called Cumbria and Tyneside, so it's important to trace th right family.
By the time my father was born his father Jack was living in Carlisle, employed in a textile factory as a maintenance man. I keep trying to find out more about my grandmother Mary Ann, Jack's wife. It may not be so easy. She came from a family called Ward. When I was a child my father took my brother and me on a holiday to Ireland. We stayed in the north, at Holywood near Belfast, but took a day trip to Dublin. At sometime in the afternoon we walked to a church and my father tantalisingly said that this was where his mother had been christened. I seem to remember that there is a photo of it from that time, so I haven't completely given up trying to find out more about her and her family.
But in 1916 the public records office in Dublin was damaged by fire and many records were lost, including Mary Ann's birth record, so that church must be the only answer.
There are lots of loose ends. Although there was a census every 10 years the family disappears in one survey, only to re-appear in the next. So where were they? Or wasn't the census as thorough as it looks?
I must find that photo.
I am researching the history of the Richardson side of my Cumbrian family.
In the 19th century they lived in Longtown, Cumberland, about 10 miles north of Carlisle. My grandfather John ('Jack') Richardson had often told me that he was born in Longtown so once or twice I have been for a visit to see if I can find anything out. Usually I have been diverted to the Graham Arms for lunch because the old men sitting on the bench on the green never seemed to have much to tell me. Once I went with my father, once with a girlfriend, and once with my entire MBA class from Strathclyde University. We had been on a day out by coach from Glasgow to visit a Philips TV factory on Tyneside and I persuaded the driver that the Graham was the best place for lunch. It wasn't bad that time, but my memory of the earlier lunch with the young lady was of food so tasty that I suppose other appetites were satisfied at around the same time. So the class suffered a bit from my fantasy memory of succulent food of the very best with French wines, but there was probably nowhere better and anyway we were students.
The only serious effort made to try to trace the family was on the visit with my father. We sat down with the old men on the bench on the green. They remembered Jack Richardson, they said, but he came from Brampton. We didn't like the sound of this. Having believed for so long that Longtown was our ancestral home the idea of transferring allegiance to Brampton was not on. No, said my father, it can't be the same Jack, and that was that - off to the Graham Arms (for the first time) and a teetotal lunch (for the last time).
Longtown is a little town just a mile or so south of the border with Scotland. As it is now it was created in the 18th century, laid out by the Lords of Graham (hence the name of the pub), in the first lengthy period of peace in that area for many centuries. Lawlessness had been the rule prior to that time as the reivers from both sides stole cattle, murdered and pillaged, among them Armstrongs, Hendersons, Routledges, and (even) Richardsons. Surpisingly for such quiet people, all those names exist in our family tree.
Just north of Longtown were the 'debatable lands' where the border had not been fixed and on which there was no agreement as to whether they belonged to Scotland or to England, even after most other similar issues had been agreed upon. In these debatable lands lived outlaws of all sorts including some of the reiver families. It became law in both England and Scotland that bona fide citizens of either country had the right to pillage, murder, or steal from anyone who had settled in the debatable lands. the inhabitants were considered all round to be vermin, or even game.
This issue was settled at the time of the union of parliaments, and building a town for the first time for centuries looked like a good idea. It would be interesteing to know how the lords of Graham came into possession of the land, but their family researchers can no doubt tell us.
The first record I have so far found of the Richardson family in Longtown is in the 1851 census. This was a period of great change. The railway network was expanding fast and Carlisle suddenly became a major junction and depot. Both Carlisle to Glasgow lines bypassed Longtown on their way north but ten years later, in 1861, a station was built at Longtown on the Waverley Route between Carlisle and Edinburgh. The Industrial revolution was in full swing and the change from a textile industry based on homeworking artisan weavers to the factory system is visible in the family history.
In 1851 at 18 Bridge Street lived George Richardson, then 43 years old, a handloom weaver, with his wife Jane, two sons John (18) and William (12), two twin dughters Ann and Elizabeth (7) and a step daughter Mary Gordon (4). In order to help with the finances there was a lodger Jas. Murray (22), an agricultural labourer. George is recorded in the census not just as head of the household, but as having the status of 'master' which meant that he was his own master and not employed, not a 'worker'. Both John and William were handloom weavers.
The next time we meet the family is in the 1861 census. The railway arrived in that year and handloom weaving was a fast disappearing occupation. It looks as if factory work was not for everyone and in any case the nearest mills were in Carlisle. So George appears as a railway labourer. Later the family dispersed around the North of England, with a later George listed as a boarder with a family in Hebburn on Tyneside working as a shipyard labourer.
My father kindly gave me a family tree some years before he died. It has no dates but at least the names of the various generations have helped me to check against the census results that I am looking at the right Richardsons. As anyone from north of Lancaster knows, the largest number of Richardsons are found in the counties now called Cumbria and Tyneside, so it's important to trace th right family.
By the time my father was born his father Jack was living in Carlisle, employed in a textile factory as a maintenance man. I keep trying to find out more about my grandmother Mary Ann, Jack's wife. It may not be so easy. She came from a family called Ward. When I was a child my father took my brother and me on a holiday to Ireland. We stayed in the north, at Holywood near Belfast, but took a day trip to Dublin. At sometime in the afternoon we walked to a church and my father tantalisingly said that this was where his mother had been christened. I seem to remember that there is a photo of it from that time, so I haven't completely given up trying to find out more about her and her family.
But in 1916 the public records office in Dublin was damaged by fire and many records were lost, including Mary Ann's birth record, so that church must be the only answer.
There are lots of loose ends. Although there was a census every 10 years the family disappears in one survey, only to re-appear in the next. So where were they? Or wasn't the census as thorough as it looks?
I must find that photo.
