CASE OF CHOLERA, AND CAUTION TO DRUNKARDS

On Tuesday last, an inquest was held before Mr John Settle, at the Angel Inn, in Stranton, on view of the body of Joseph Honeyman, a native of Hutton Rudby, in Yorkshire, and who was a seaman on board the brig Zephyr, then lying in the West Dock, at Hartlepool, on board of which the deceased was viewed by the jurors.  

From the evidence, it appeared that the deceased had been drinking for several days, in London, previous to the vessel leaving the Thames, and that he had got quit of about nine sovereigns in eight days, during which time he had been drunk every day.  

When off Flambro' Head on Saturday last, the deceased was suddenly attacked about five o'clock in the afternoon with illness.  He was sick and vomited very much, he was purged and subjected to cramps, and was also cold at the extremities.  He lingered about thirty hours from his first being seized, and died on board the Zephyr, at the harbour of the West Dock.  

Dr Green, of Hartlepool, attended the deceased on the arrival of the ship, and, at the inquest, he stated that deceased's was a case of malignant Asiatic cholera, the exciting cause being drink.  Deceased was 24 years of age.  Verdict, "Natural death, from Asiatic cholera."

From information received almost daily in this country, from many parts of the Continent, it is manifest that, that dreadful scourge of human life, the CHOLERA, is spreading its devastating influence over many parts; and, from all accounts, the inhabitants of this country have the strongest reasons for dreading its quick approach to these Isles; and of all the towns in the kingdom, none can have greater cause of fear than Hartlepool ...

The abuse of alcohol was frequently linked with vulnerability to cholera, by the newspapers and the doctors.  It struck a chord with the public, as this was the dawn of the temperance movement, and alcohol now carried increasing associations of poverty and lack of self-control.  Moreover, the usual medical advice was to abstain from strong liquor during the epidemic and take wine in moderation.  In fact the gastritis and malnutrition caused by excessive use of alcohol did favour the disease.

SOIREE OF THE HUTTON RUDBY MECHANICS INSTITUTE 

On Thursday, November 6th, the first anniversary of the Hutton Rudby Institute was celebrated in the large room of the Spinning Mill, the use of which was kindly allowed for the occasion.  The room was tastefully decorated with evergreens, and though the day was very unfavourable nearly 400 persons sat down to tea, which was provided gratuitously by the ladies of the village, who presided at the tables.  Mrs Burnett, the well-known vocalist, assisted by Mr S J Taylor, who presided at the pianoforte, sung several popular songs, during the evening, and added greatly to the enjoyment of the assembly.  As soon as tea was over, and the room had been cleared of tables, &c., the Rev J S Barlow [actually the Rev R J Barlow] was called to the chair. 

The CHAIRMAN opened the proceedings by assuring the meeting that he felt duly sensible of the honour they had conferred upon him.  As he had not been accustomed to take part in public meetings, he consented to take the chair very reluctantly, fearing he should damage the cause they were met to advocate.  He said few things could be more cheering to a person in his position, than to see efforts made to elevate the tastes and habits of his parishioners, especially the tastes and habits of the labouring classes, and he sincerely trusted they would avail themselves of every means of improvement which was offered by the Institute. 

The SECRETARY read the report, from which it appeared the Institute had been established one year; that it numbers upwards of sixty members; that a reading-room well supplied with newspapers and periodicals; and a library well supplied with books had been opened; that the committee had expended about forty pounds during the year, and that they had a creditable balance in hand. 

Mr JOSEPH TAYLOR, of Middlesbro', addressed the meeting, at considerable length, on the advantages of mechanics' institutes.  He said the object of those institutions was to give young men facilities for mental culture, and to assist them to acquire such a knowledge of business as should enable them to compete with men who had been favoured with a superior education in their boyhood, or had enjoyed the advantages of living in larger towns.  He made a powerful appeal to the young men present, who had not joined the institute, to come forward and do so.  He said it was impossible to say to what a man would attain who resolutely "willed" to be "onward." 

HENRY PEASE, Esq., of Darlington, on presenting himself, was warmly applauded.  He said they were not to expect a great speech from him, he did not take himself the credit of being an eloquent speaker.  He had long been connected with mechanics' institutes; he had some knowledge of what they had done for the people, and if he could say anything that evening calculated to promote the interests of the Hutton Rudby institute, it would afford him much pleasure.  He said there was nothing Englishmen respected more than manliness of character; and to possess true manliness of character, a man must be educated; ignorance was slavery.  He would advise every young man to apply himself studiously to one branch of education until he had mastered it.  He would urge upon every young man the necessity of depending upon himself; to trust in no man, and in no body of men; to trust in nothing but his own efforts, and God's blessing upon those efforts.  Determine to do credit to yourselves, and credit to the institute of which you form a part.  He was very anxious they should attend well to the classes.  He would advise them to adopt a good system of reading.  It was astonishing how little some people appeared to know, though they read a great deal; they read without any system, and they could not command either true ideas, or proper expressions, when they wanted them.  He urged upon all the importance of doing their best to improve their position.  He said there were [illegible] encouraging examples of men who had attained the highest positions, with everything apparently unfavorable at their start.  He had seen much of Mechanics' Institutes, and he knew their tendency was for good; let those institutes be well conducted, and have the support of which they were worthy, and he was certain they would see, in every town, a different and a better state of things. 

Mr JOHN TAYLOR, made some useful remarks on the claims of Mechanics' Institutes.  He said he had several times visited Hutton Rudby to advocate Temperance, and it gave him much pleasure to be with them on that occasion.  He was certain the formation of the Mechanics' Institute would constitute an important era in the history of Hutton Rudby, and he trusted it would meet with that support, from the inhabitants generally, as should make it a real blessing to the village and neighbourhood. 

The meeting was also addressed by Mr John Jordison, of Middlesbro', G O Wray, Esq., R R Burgess, Esq., and Mr Joseph Hutton, of Stokesley. 

A vote of thanks was given to the chairman, and, about half-past ten o'clock, the largest and most enthusiastic meeting, ever held in Hutton Rudby, was brought to a close.

We know that by the end of the century the Institute was housed at the top of North End, and perhaps in 1851 it was already installed there.  The photograph below is thought to have been taken in the 1880s.

North End, Hutton Rudby

The building was later used as a Reading Room and Library, then a Snooker Hall, and in the 1960s it became a shop.  Originally it was a long, low building but it was altered in about 1900 when a mock-Tudor black-and-white frontage was added.

Postcard of North End, Hutton Rudby

This second photograph shows the new frontage.

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 10 July 1895

Mr Henry Fell Pease, Mrs Pease, and other members of the family visited many of the villages nestling at the foot of the Carlton Hills yesterday, and at all places met with a hearty reception.  At Hutton Rudby there was a well-attended meeting, many of those present being sailcloth makers from the Cleveland sailcloth works, which with its ivy-clad walls can boast of the prettiest warehouse in England.  Mr Pease spoke well both at Swainby and at Hutton Rudby.  Mr Pease stayed at Hutton Rudby, and to-day he moves on to Carlton and Stokesley.  Whilst engaged in the western Mr Henry Fell Pease's supporters were active in the eastern extremity of the division.  Both at Coatham, New Marske, and Eston meetings were held approving of his candidature, strong committees being formed at each place.

Northallerton House of Correction had an unenviable reputation.  Samuel Holberry, the young Sheffield Chartist leader, had become a martyr overnight when he died in 1842 at York Castle after imprisonment in Northallerton.  His associate, John Clayton, had died in Northallerton.  North Riding Chartists then took up the case of William Brook, a Bradford Chartist who had been 'reduced from a stout athletic man to a mere skeleton' in the 'Northallerton Hell'.  

Clayton, Brook and others, the Chartists claimed, had been subjected illegally to work on the treadmill.  Northallerton and Brompton Chartists raised a fund to enable Brook to buy his own provisions and petitioned the Home Secretary for his release.  Isaac Wilson, a Brompton weaver and Chartist leader, became treasurer and made weekly prison visits.  Donations came from as far afield as Dundee, Trowbridge, Spitalfields, Brighton and Abergavenny as well as Darlington.  

That in the Gaol of Northallerton, six Chartist prisoners, whose sentence was merely imprisonment, were put to hard labour, on the treadmill, contrary to law. 

That William Brook, one of the said prisoners, who had been convicted of sedition and conspiracy, at the same time as Peddie [convicted in 1840 at York], and whose sentence was three years, fell off the mill; and, though he informed the Visiting Surgeon, that he was frequently troubled with a cramp, yet he was forced, contrary to his sentence, to work upon the wheel, for nearly one calendar month, until removed by an order from the Most Honourable the Secretary of State for the Home Department. 

That your petitioners have been informed that John Clayton, a Chartist, who lately died in Northallerton House of Correction, had been sentenced to solitary confinement, upon a charge of violating the silent system. 

That your petitioners have every reason to believe, from what they have heard of the conduct of the authorities of the prison, that he came to his death in consequence of the cruel manner in which he was treated. 

That Wm Martin, who had been confined in the said House of Correction, Northallerton, was removed to Lancaster Castle, in consequence of the severity of the silent system, and of the tyranny of Wm Shepherd, the superintendent. 

That your petitioners have likewise been informed that the physical condition of the prisoners in the House of Correction, Northallerton, is deteriorated not only by the hard labour of the mill and the horrid silent system, but by the filthy manner in which they are obliged to sleep; that they have been for a fortnight at a time without a clean shirt, and their beds infested with vermin; that the only place where they are permitted to wash, is at a stone trough in the yard, and the superintendent is in the habit of coming to the yard gate and shouting to the petty officers to report the men for being too long washing themselves; that some of the prisoners have been punished for using too much soap, which is a proof that the object of the Governor is to enrich himself instead of attending to the comforts of the unfortunate convicts.

• William Jackson (bur 7 June 1658) marr Dorothy (bur 13 Apr 1685).  Children: Jane, William, Richard, Margery & Robert
• Jane Jackson (b c.1641), marr William Harrison
• William Jackson (bap 5 May 1644, bur 20 Nov 1673), marr abt 1669 *Ann.  Children: Ann & Dorothy
• Ann Jackson (bap 24 Jan 1670, d 1742) marr on 17 June 1690 Charles Tracey (d between years 1714 & 1727).  Child: see below
• Dorothy Jackson (bap 20 Mar 1672, d 1718).  Marr firstly on 18 June 1691 John Harper (1674-94).  Marr secondly abt 1698 Clement Sadler (d between 1700 & 1704).  Marr thirdly abt 1704 William Lee (bap 18 Mar 1673, d1727 .  Children: see below
• Richard Jackson (b abt 1650, bur 21 Oct 1673)
• Margery Jackson (bap 3 July 1653, bur 16 Apr 1678)
• Robert Jackson (bap 7 Jan 1657, bur 19 Aug 1737).  Marr Hannah Blakey/Blacky, who marr secondly abt 1740 Stephen Harrison.  Children: see below

The above is based on Robert Jackson’s submission of his claim against his niece Anne Tracey et al, all the children of William and Dorothy Jackson who were alive when father William died are displayed in this family tree.  

It has to be presumed that the Edwards children shown were born before the marriage of Edward  Edwards to Ann Jackson née unknown

• Ann Jackson (bap 24 Jan 1670, d 1742) marr on 17 June 1690 Charles Tracey (d between years 1714 & 1727).  Child: Elizabeth Tracey
• Elizabeth Tracey (bap 30 Aug 1692, d 1 Aug 1743, bur 3 Aug 1743) marr 30 Apr 1728 James Amead/Amaday/Amaiday/Amyday (d before 1742)
• Dorothy Jackson (bap 20 Mar 1672, d 1718).  Marr firstly on 18 June 1691 John Harper (1674-94).  Marr secondly abt 1698 Clement Sadler (d between 1700 & 1704).  Marr thirdly abt 1704 William Lee (bap 18 Mar 1673, d1727).  Children:  see below

1. Henry Harper/Harpur (bap 30 Nov 1693, d 1759) marr 30 Nov 1719 Mary Silvester [?] (bur 13 Dec 1748)
2. Dorothy Sadler/Lee (b abt 1701, bur 13 May 1773) marr on 3 Mar 1738 Charles Pember (d 1750/1) (who had married firstly on 25 Feb 1730 Ann Sebbon, bur 3 Mar 1736)
3. Jane Lee (b abt 1705, bur 1773) marr 6 Jun 1731 John Sebbon (bur 19 Oct 1737)
4. Ann Lee (b abt 1707, bur 14 Sep 1773)
5. Kirby William Lee (b abt 1710, d before Apr 1738
6. William Lee (b abt Dec 1711) marr abt 1750 Rachel
7. Richard Lee (b 2 Feb 1712, bap 26 Feb 1712, d 1742)
8. Wharton Lee (b 3 Apr 1716, bap 8 Apr 1716, d before Dec 1742)

The data concerning the Lee children has been partly compiled from data drawn from various Bills of Complaint and Defendant’s answers in the cases between Robert Jackson and Henry Harper et al.  This has confirmed that Dorothy was the daughter of Clement Sadler and Dorothy Harper née Jackson, and the subsequent six of Dorothy’s children are inserted in order of birth.  

Note: Some apparent incompatibility of dates is the result of New Year’s day being the 25th of  March.

• Robert Jackson (bap 21 Mar 1731, bur 30 Aug 1785[?]).  He married firstly Sarah Leng 16 Sep 1755 and had Ann.  He married secondly Mary [?] Kitching (bur 2 Feb 1799[?]) and had Robert [?] & Mary
• Ann Jackson (bap 16 Apr 1758)
• Robert Jackson [?]
• Mary Jackson (b 10 July 1784, bap 8 Sep 1784)
• Dorothy (bap 11 Dec 1733) marr 2 July 1753 [?] John Raw (b abt 1729).  Children: Catherine, Miriam, William, John, Frances, John, James, Jane, Richard & James
• Catherine Raw (bap 21 Nov 1753)
• Miriam Raw (bap 8 Dec 1755) 
• William Raw (bap 25 Apr 1757)
• John Raw (bap 11 Nov 1758, d before May 1761)
• Frances Raw (bap 23 Apr 1760, bur 1 Aug 1760)
• John Raw (bap 20 May 1761)
• James Raw (bap 3 Aug 1763, bur 9 Sep 1763)
• Jane Raw (bap 5 Feb 1766)
• Richard Raw (bap 29 Mar 1768)
• James Raw (bap 14 Jan 1771)
• William Jackson (bap 11 July 1736) marr Mary.  Children:  William, Mark & Jane
• William Jackson (bap 29 Oct 1758)
• Mark Jackson (bap 8 May 1760)
• Jane (bap 20 Oct 1767)

1. George Harrison (bap 12 May 1743)
2. Stephen Harrison (bap 15 Jan 1745)
3. Thomas Harrison (bap 4 Jan 1749, bur 10 Jan 1763[?])

Only children identified in the Kirkby cum Broughton Old Parish Register are included here.  Other children may have existed.

1. Henry Harper/Harpur (bap 30 Nov 1693, d 1759) marr 30 Nov 1719 Mary Silvester [?] (bur 13 Dec 1748).  Six children – see below
2. Dorothy Sadler/Lee (b abt 1701, bur 13 May 1773) marr on 3 Mar 1738 Charles Pember (d 1750/1) (who had married firstly on 25 Feb 1730 Ann Sebbon, bur 3 Mar 1736)

• Charles Pember & Ann Sebbon had 3 children: 
• Elizabeth Pember (bap 17 Feb 1731)
• Mary Pember (bap 30 Aug 1733) 
• Herman/Harman Pember (bap 3 Mar 1736, bur 12 June 1741)

1. Ann Sebbon (bap 4 Dec 1734)
2. Samuel Sebbon (bap 10 Mar 1736)

1. Mary Lee (b 10 Oct 1752, bap 8 Nov 1752, d after Apr 1773)
2. William Lee (bap 4 Nov 1759, d after Apr 1773)

1. Katherina (Catherine) Harper (b 1722)
2. John Harper (b 1725, d before Mar 1757?)
3. Mary Harper (b 1728)
4. Henrietta Harper (b 1729, d before Mar 1757?)
5. Henry Harper (bap 6 Apr 1732, d 1790) mar 20 Oct 1755 Sarah Marshall (b 1734, d 1790)
6. Robert Harper (b 1735)

Neither John nor Henrietta were mentioned in Henry Harper’s Will, hence their suggested early deaths

in a day when your public houses included, in addition to the present thirteen inns, the George and Dragon, the Half Moon, The Masons Arms, the Chequers, the Raffled Anchor, the Ship Inn, &c; 

when the war of American Independence had only subsided, followed by the French Revolution, and the wars of the Bonapartes were at their prime; 

when your captains in the East India Company’s service, your sailors in the mercantile marine, your harpooners who had gone down to the sea in ships and struck the Leviathan in the iced waters, came back to lay up for the winter, as well as the Jack Tar on leave from the Royal Navy, who had gone either by impressment or accepted bounty; 

when your markets were great gatherings of the rurals; your butchers’ shambles were filled with meat; when coals stood for sale in front of the square at the Swan, and the turf-graver brought his wares in donkey carts from Osmotherley; 

when the farmer and his dame rode on the pillion seat to the steppings at the inn; when handloom weaving was good, and intelligence amongst that class of operatives was great; 

when all these met at the hostelries to hear tales of adventure from the sailors, and the sparkles of wit from the literati of the town 

(see Chapter 5 of Remarkable, but Still True) 

In or by 1800 (according to the Stokesley Flax Mill timeline on the Stokesley Heritage website, quoting Title Deeds research by Tom Berry), John Mease and an unnamed cabinet maker leased the house we know now as Number 42 High Street, Stokesley, "with shop and yard, garden and orchard behind".

Number 42 is the tallest building on the left

the jewel in the crown of the High Street.  Built of small bricks with handsome sandstone quoins and kneelers and a moulded cornice at the eaves ... retaining its bow windows, flat well proportioned sash windows and, best of all, its doorway under a wonderful shell canopy, the whole being completed with dormer windows in its Welsh slate roof.

I did not believe Humanity and Charity to be at all the object in view of their employers, and that in my humble opinion they had much better stay at home and cultivate the Heathen among their own sect.

Flax spinning mill

A considerable manufacture of linen is carried on here, and that trade is likely to be extended, by a mill, which Messrs Thomas and John Meale [a typo for Mease] are now erecting, to be worked by the power of steam.  

Leeds Mercury, 26 April 1823
Wanted, at a Flax Spinning Mill, Three or Four large Families of Children.  If the Fathers of such Families are either Hecklers, Weavers, or Husbandmen, the Whole can have constant Employment at good Wages.
Further Particulars can be had on Application to Mr Meek, of Knaresbro'; or Mr Howgate, at West-End Mill, near Otley

Samuel Downe, who was born in Shrewsbury in 1804, worked in Ditherington Flax Mill from the age of 10. He described working conditions in the factory during a Parliamentary Enquiry in 1832:
 "we used to generally begin at five o’clock in the morning till eight at night".  When asked had he received punishment he replied "yes, I was strapped most severely till I could not bear to sit upon a chair without pillows, and I was forced to lie upon my face at night. I was put upon a man’s back and then strapped by the overlooker".  When asked why he was punished he replied… "I had never been in a mill where there was machinery, and it was winter time, and we worked by gas-light, and I could not catch the revolutions of the machinery to take the tow out of the hackles; it requires some practice and I was timid at it."
Improvements followed, and in 1834 the 92 children working at Ditherington Flax Mill only worked part-time and had some schooling between 9-11 am and 3-5 pm.

Sussex Advertiser, 23 May 1825

Marriage Extraordinary

The 24th ult. a marriage was celebrated at Stokesley, in Yorkshire, of a pair who had passed the delightful, anxious period of courtship in the factory of Messrs T and J Mease.  

A fellow workman of the bridegroom's having accepted the important office of giving away the blooming bride, and all the necessary preparations having been attended to, the morning was ushered in by the ringing of the church and factory bells.  The town-crier officially announced the wedding to take place at half-past nine o'clock, and gave a general invitation to the inhabitants to attend.  

The important moment came, and Richard Chambers, sweet sixteen, led forth his blooming bride of fifty-five, "all blushing as Aurora from the East," to the hymeneal altar of the good old town of Stokesley.  All other business was now at a stand.  The town band preceded the nuptial procession to the sacred fane, playing, "Come haste to the Wedding," and other appropriate airs.  After the indissoluble knot had been tied, the "happy, happy, happy pair" were borne in triumph, in chairs, round the town, preceded by the musicians, and followed by a concourse of spectators and guests.  

The ludicrousness of the scene was greatly heightened, by the bridegroom, who is of a very diminutive stature, being publicly shaved by the celebrated tonsor of the place, with a gigantic razor, 30 inches long!  Rustic festivities followed, and mirth and humour drew the curtains of evening over the hilarities of the day.

an excellent little work that has just issued from the press, and which we have perused with no common pleasure ... The author is evidently a man of considerable talent; he has condensed into a pamphlet of 80 pages, a collection of important facts and irrefutable arguments, which might easily have been expanded into a bulky volume.  His language is remarkably terse and perspicuous and the work throughout displays considerable elegance of composition.

If, then, the Church have no rightful property in tithes, and their compulsory enforcement, under existing regulations be an anti-christian exaction, injurious to both payers and receivers, by exciting bitterness and contentions – and oftentimes expensive law suits too – the only question for determination is, – whether at this crisis of agricultural and national distress, the Clergy of the establishment ought not to be placed upon the apostolical footing of voluntary maintenance; like the accredited Pastors of the general body of Dissenters, who, in learning, and talent and respectability, and usefulness – although certainly not in wealth, and titles, and worldly enjoyment – are by no means their inferiors; that tithes, for the public good, may be duly appropriated to the exigencies of the State.

1960s aerial view looking towards the New Mill buildings (now Millbry Hill country store).

Thomas went into partnership in his new venture of building a flax-spinning mill on Levenside with James Blacket. 

Two substantial Freehold dwelling-houses situate in the North Row of the Market Town of Stokesley aforesaid, with a Four-stalled Stable, Granaries, Coach-House, and other Out-offices, and a good Garden well stocked with Fruit Trees, behind the same, late in the several Occupations of Messrs John Mease, the Elder, and Thomas Mease.  The above Premises are well adapted for a wholesale or retail Business.

He was also in the bleaching business, possibly from his early days in linen manufacture.  Operating your own bleach works saved the cost of sending your unbleached, brown linen elsewhere.  Thomas was a partner in Messrs Benjamin & John Claxton & Company, operating a bleach mill with a steam engine of 16 Horse Power at Broughton Bridge.  (Broughton Bridge is outside Stokesley, on the left of the road going towards Great Broughton, about 200 metres past the turn-off onto Ellerbeck Way, the entrance to the Industrial Estate.  The Bleach Mill was sited on Broughton Bridge Beck, which becomes the Ellerbeck; this flows through the Industrial Estate on its way to the Leven.)  The road from Stokesley to Great Broughton runs from the top left of the O.S. map 1888-1913 shown below, and obviously Old Beach Mill means Old Bleach Mill!

O.S. map 1888-1913, reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland from their website

men of sufficient enterprise and ability, and prosecuted with ardour and determination; but whether from the cost of coals, the remoteness of markets, the expense of carriage, or the unpropitious state of trade at the time, it was found necessary to close the speculation, and the buildings and machinery were accordingly put to the hammer [ie sold at auction]

The Commissioners under the bankruptcy of William Stephenson of Stokesley, linen manufacturer and grocer, sat today at Ludley's Hotel, Stockton for the proof of debts, and choosing assignees.  It appeared that Mr Stephenson's bankruptcy was occasioned by his accepting accommodation bills for Thomas Mease, late a flax-spinner at Stokesley, to the amount of upwards of £5,000. 

STOKESLEY, - By Messrs Appleton and Farrow, on Tuesday, the Nineteenth Day of June, 1838, at the House of Mr William Naylor, the Sign of the Golden Lion, in Stokesley, in the County of York, at Three o'Clock in the Afternoon, either in the following or in such other Lots as may be agreed upon at the Time of Sale, and subject to the Conditions to be then produced: 

Two substantial Freehold dwelling-houses situate in the North Row of the Market Town of Stokesley aforesaid, with a Four-stalled Stable, Granaries, Coach-House, and other Out-offices, and a good Garden well stocked with Fruit Trees, behind the same, late in the several Occupations of Messrs John Mease, the Elder, and Thomas Mease.  The above Premises are well adapted for a wholesale or retail Business. 

Also all that extensive Flax and Tow Spinning Mill, conveniently situated behind the said Dwelling-Houses, late in the Occupation of the said Thomas Mease, comprising a capital STEAM-ENGINE, 28 Horse Power, with Two Boilers complete; Nine Spinning Frames, containing 406 Spindles; Two Double and Two Single Carding Engines; several Drawing and Roving Frames, Shafts, Wheels, Drums, and other Requisites.  Also a Counting-House and several Warehouses contiguous to the same.  The Mill is sufficiently large for containing Four Times the Quantity of Machinery. 

Lot 2.  All that capital FREEHOLD BLEACH MILL, with the Water Power and a STEAM-ENGINE, 16 Horse Power, and all other Requisites for carrying on the Bleaching Business on an extensive Scale, and Two Closes of excellent Grass Land, situate at Broughton Bridge, near Stokesley aforesaid, containing together, by Estimation, 13 acres and 2 roods, or thereabouts, be the same more or less, late in the Occupation of Messieurs Benjamin and John Claxton and Company. 

Immediate Possession may be had of all the Premises (except the House lately occupied by Thomas Mease), and if the same be not sold they will be let.

Lot 3 All that Extensive Building, lately used by Thomas Mease, a Bankrupt, as a Flax and Tow Spinning Mill, with the Out-Offices attached thereto, situate behind the said Dwelling-Houses
Lot 4 All that Four-stalled Stable, with the Saddle Room, Granaries, & Coach-house, adjoining the last Lot
Lot 5 A freehold dwelling house and building, lately used as a Bleach Mill, immediately adjoining a good Stream of Water, with the Mill Dam and Race and 2a 2r 21p of Land, siuate at Broughton Bridge, near Stokesley aforesaid, late in the occupation of Messrs Benjamin and John Claxton and Company
Lot 6 A close of grass land, adjoining Lot 5 and containing 5 acres
Lot 7 A close of grass land, adjoining Lot 6, and containing 8a 2r 11p.

Two thirds of the Purchase Money of each of the above Lots may remain on Mortgage, if required.

A Steam Engine, 16 Horse Power, a Water-wheel, two Wash-Mills and Shafts, Metal Pump, three Lead Pumps, Boiler, Bars and Starching Kettle, two Souring and one Booking Tub, Crane, Shafting and Wheels, two Beetling Engines, one Dutch Calendar, Press, five Tables, Leaden Retort, two Cisterns & Pan, rolled Iron Pan, two broken Metal Pans, and all other the Bleaching Utensils.

Freehold Mansion-House, substantially built of Brick and beautifully faced with Free Stone, suitable for the residence of a genteel family, eligibly situated at the west end of Stokesley aforesaid and late in the occupation of Mr Thomas Mease, Flax Spinner.  

Freehold Shell of a Mansion-House, adjoining to and built in the same style ... This Shell may, at a trifling expense, be completed and rendered fit for the reception of a large family.

Joseph Mellanby Mease lost his arm in 1860 and lived until 1928, a much celebrated centenarian.  The story of how he lost his arm and his reminiscences in later life can be found here and here.

Joseph Mellanby Mease

George arrived in Hutton Rudby as a very young man in the 1830s.  His father worked for Messrs Clarke, Plummer & Co, linen manufacturers & spinners, for 37 years at their Northumberland Flax Mill at Ouseburn.  George himself came to Hutton Rudby as a clerk to the company.  His job was to put out work to the local handloom weavers, have the cloth bleached and send it north to the firm's warehouses in Newcastle.

an extensive bleach-ground ... with a bleach-house, situated on the eastern brink of the Leven, (over a stone bridge of one arch,) at a little distance from, and nearly opposite to the village; which consists of two beetling mills, and a variety of other machinery, where linens are made up similar to the Irish.

In the newspaper reports of the trial we can hear the actual voices of the villagers themselves, and their testimonies reveal a vivid picture of life at the time – lived under the scrutiny of close neighbours, often outside the houses, in the street. 

The past is brought alive: rising at dawn; shared loomshops in the yards; men drinking late at night in the kitchen of a public house; a labourer breaking stones at the roadside in return for parish relief; the local habit of poaching in the Crathorne game preserves; the little shops run by the women of the village in their own homes; the long distances people were accustomed to walk; the clothes they wore; how the village governed and policed itself; the emigration ships sailing from Whitby.

Newcastle Journal, 28 October 1837 

ROBINSON & WILSON,

(SUCCESSORS TO MESSRS CLARKE, PLUMMER & CO. AS) 

LINEN MANUFACTURERS,

AT HUTTON RUDBY, YORKSHIRE, AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE; 

BEG respectfully to acquaint their Friends that they have REMOVED their Stock from the Warehouse at the Northumberland Flax Mill, Ouse Burn, to a newly erected and commodious one at

No. 79, PILGRIM-STREET,

Where they intend to keep an extensive Assortment of every kind of LINEN GOODS OF CLEVELAND MANUFACTURE, for the accommodation of their Customers in this District, and where all Orders will be received and attended to from this Date.

Newcastle, Oct. 11th, 1837

The inhabitants of this place, met Mr Bussey on entering the town with a procession and banner; the banner being a white ground – motto – "England expects every man to do his duty."  He was conducted to the Black Bull Inn, in the Market-place, from one of the front windows of which he addressed the people with considerable effect; after which resolutions were passed, adopting the petition and pledging themselves to support the Convention.

Mr Bussey addressed a meeting of the inhabitants of Swainby, a considerable village, six miles from Stokesley, in the open air, at four o'clock in the afternoon, when the inhabitants poured in from the surrounding places, namely, Osmotherley, Carlton, Faceby, Hulton, Rudby [Hutton Rudby], Potter [Potto, spelled phonetically], and Trugleby [probably Ingleby]; the whole amounting to many hundreds; a beautiful green and white flag floated in the air; the whole presenting an appearance of beauty calculated to inspire the ardent lover of liberty with a fresh impulse to go forward in defence of the rights of the masses.  

Mr Douglas, an operative shoemaker, occupied the chair, who, after a few preliminary remarks, read the National Petition to the assembly, and then introduced Mr Bussey, who was received with loud and continued cheers.  He addressed them at great length in a powerful and effective speech, which seemed to be well understood and appreciated by the intelligent but simple peasantry, of whom his audience consisted.  He was vociferously cheered throughout.  The Charter and Petition were unanimously adopted, and a vote of confidence and determination to uphold the Convention was enthusiastically carried. 

The mill had never belonged to Blacket & Mease, and there was no gas.  However, the rest was true – George Wilson had taken a tenancy of the disused flax-spinning mill and was weaving sailcloth.  He was setting up in competition with the likes of Messrs Yeoman and Messrs J Wilford & Sons of Northallerton.  In the 1861 census he identified himself for the first time as a "sailcloth manufacturer".

Sailcloth from Cleveland Sailcloth Works.  Courtesy of Allan and Joy Barthram

His speciality was his "Cleveland Sailcloth" and he sent samples of it to the Great International Exhibition of 1862, the world fair held from 1 May to 1 November in South Kensington, on the site now occupied by the Natural History Museum

Newcastle Journal, 11 April 1862 

Hutton Rudby will be represented at the Great International Exhibition by the Cleveland sail cloth, manufactured by Mr George Wilson, and now so very extensively used and appreciated for its strength and durability.  On the 26th ult., two cases were sent off, containing eight sample rolls of splendid canvass, which will be placed on view, in a neat mahogany case with plate-glass front, made expressly for their reception in class 19 of textile fabrics.  Numerous visitors, who saw the canvass before it was sent off, were unanimous in their praise of beauty and quality.

Even his Scottish rivals, reporting on the flax and jute manufactures, praised George Wilson's canvas:

Dundee Courier, 3 July 1862 

Yorkshire comes out particularly strong in Canvas, as well as in many other kinds of Linens and Linen Yarns, and we shall notice them first.

(The report lists Messrs Wm Booth & Co, Leeds; Messrs Carter Brothers, Barnsley; Mr C J Fox, Doncaster; Mr J Gill, Headingley; Messrs W B Holdsworth & Co, Leeds; Messrs Marshall & Co, Leeds; Messrs J Wilford & Sons, Northallerton)

Messrs J Wilford & Sons ... have a beautiful display of Linen Drills, adapted for Trouserings, Vestings, &c., Bleached, Dyed, and Printed.  The patterns are very pretty, the cloth of most superior quality of material, and well woven, and the goods finished in fine style.  The goods are worthy of high commendation, as they are both very sightly, and of real merit 

Mr G Wilson, Cleveland:  Exhibit "The Cleveland Sail Cloth."  It is from extra long flax, tied up with the yarn of which it is made to shew the quality, which is most superior.  The cloth is firm, well drawn up, really good, and deserving of high praise.

Cleveland Sailcloth stamp.  Courtesy of Marie Wray

Messrs Yeoman & Co, Northallerton:  Show a neat case of Yarns, Ducks, Drills, Huckabacks, &c.  The Yarn is level and well spun, and from fine material.  The Ducks are well made, superior cloth.  The Huckabacks are good, useful cloth, and the Drills are of various finish – brown, bleached, dyed, and printed.  They would make beautiful trouserings and vestings, and are of very nice shades of colour, and admirably finished.

The Yorkshire Drills are especially deserving of notice, being very handsome, strong goods, and most suiitable for the purposes intended.  They show very favourably with similar character of Irish goods.

(The other English exhibitors of Linens are: Mr T Ainsworth, Whitehaven; Mr A Cleugh, Bromley; Messrs Costerton & Napier, Scole, Norfolk; Messrs Faulding, Stratton & Brough, London; Mr Harford, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Mr W F Moore, Douglas IoM Mr John Morison, Norton Tolgate, London; Messrs Stephens, Hounsells & Co, Bridport; Messrs Wilson Brothers, Whitehaven, Messrs Wilks, Brothers & Seaton, London)

Hutton Rudby church and mill The chimneys of Leven House can be seen at the right

It was a business which required skilled hands and advertisements for the Hutton Rudby Mill can be found in newspapers through Yorkshire and Cheshire and into Scotland, for example

Leeds Mercury, 22 December 1873
WANTED, WOMEN WINDERS for heavy flax yarns; piece work, good wages and constant employment.  Apply personally or by letter to George Wilson, Sailcloth Works, Hutton Rudby 

Dundee Advertiser, 28 January 1881
TENTER (Competent) Wanted for Sailcloth Looms.  None but Steady Men Accustomed to Sailcloth need apply.  Address Cleveland Sailcloth Works, Hutton Rudby, near Yarm, Yorkshire

A tenter was the mechanic responsible for running and maintaining the power-looms, as can be seen from this letter from a Power-Loom Tenter to the Glasgow Mechanics' Magazine 1832.

There are still stories in the village of men waiting at Potto station to see girls arriving from Scotland in response to the advertisements, hoping to spot a future bride, and several men did find wives among the Scottish girls.

Hutton Bleach Works

There was a Bleach Works associated with the Sailcloth Works, It lay on the Hutton side of the River Leven but the access road was from Rudby.  This O.S. map dated 1888-1913 shows its position clearly – it is marked as The Holmes, the bleachyard having closed by then.

Reproduced with permission of the National Library of Scotland from their website https://maps.nls.uk/index.html

I don't know if this had always been the site of the Hutton bleach grounds, but it seems very likely.  I was once told that there were the remains of machinery at the bottom of North End, where the linen manufacturer George Bewick once lived, that had been used for winching bales of cloth down to the bleach ground below.  It isn't clear whether the Bleach Works was exclusively used or operated by the Sailcloth Works nor whether it was owned by the Wilsons.  Very little is known of the Works, but there are several photographs showing the buildings with yarn hanging out on the long lines in the field in front.  According to Bulmer's Directory, twelve hands were employed at the Works in 1890.

The Bleach Works, Hutton Rudby

Men at work at the Bleach Works, Hutton Rudby

The Wilsons & the village

Meanwhile, George and his wife Ann Hutton raised a family at Hutton House, on the Green.  In 1856 their youngest child was born.  They now had four sons and a daughter: James, Allan, Thomas, John and Annie.

George was – naturally, given his position – involved in village life from the beginning.  He was a churchwarden in 1838 and it's clear he took very wisely charge of the Revd R J Barlow's accounts – for the church and the Bathurst Charity – Mr Barlow was rather slapdash about money and paperwork.  Secondary in importance to the Falkland and Ropner families of Skutterskelfe Hall, the Wilson men were significant as employers and charitable donors and their involvement can always be seen in the celebrations of royal occasions.  When the Prince of Wales married Alexandra of Denmark on 10 March 1863, the mill was very much part of the village celebrations (for a full account see here) 

A correspondent says that on the wedding day the British and Danish flags were seen waving in the air from the summits of the Cleveland Sailcloth Manufactory, and in various prominent places of the village.  The Hutton brass band sent forth its animating and melodious strains, and Mr George Wilson provided a liberal banquet for all his workmen and their wives, in which the band joined them, and all enjoyed themselves most heartily.  

Of course there were plenty of grumbles about them – and there was plenty of time for this as the Wilsons lived in the village until after the Second World War.  It has still not been forgotten that the houses at the east end of South Side and the houses of Barkers Row have little or nothing by way of garden because the land was absorbed into the own gardens and orchards of Hutton House.  For many years the cottages of Barkers Row only had windows opening onto the Green, as Mr Bowes Wilson objected to the occupants looking into his gardens.  When Mr Robson of Robsons, Painters & Decorators had an advertisement painted onto a nearby gable end on South Side – one that happened to face directly towards Hutton House – Mr Bowes Wilson objected and it was painted over.  The black paint has been washing off the brickwork for many years now.  The well which was once reached by the footpath called the Wellstand seems to have disappeared when the gardens of Hutton House were enlarged.

Three of George and Ann Wilson's children made their homes in the village.  George took Allan and Thomas into the business with him while Annie stayed at home, unmarried.  (I was told that a descendant once said that "she wasn't allowed" to marry.)  James and John both went to Oxford, James to Wadham College and John to Worcester.  James was a clergyman, becoming Rector of Crathorne in 1878; John George was a solicitor in Durham and an eminent figure in the civic life of the county.

In the summer of 1876 their father died

York Herald, 10 July 1876
Wilson. - On the 8th inst., at Hutton Rudby, Mr George Wilson, aged 66 years

and less than a fortnight later, John Mease died at Leven House.  It must have seemed like the end of an era.

Allan Bowes Wilson was then 37 years old and his brother Thomas Bowes Wilson was 31 and newly married:

York Herald, 15 June 1876
Wilson - Hutton.  On the 13th inst., at St Andrew's church, Newcastle, by the Rev Marsden Gibson, M.A., Master of the Hospital of Mary Magdalene, Thomas Bowes, third son of George Wilson, of Hutton Rudby, Yorkshire, to Maria, only daughter of John Hutton, of Claremont-place, Newcastle-on-Tyne

The brothers continued to run the mill.  The following year, because of a Chancery case in the estate of John Mease, his property in Hutton Rudby was offered for auction and the Mill was included:

A Building called the “CLEVELAND SAIL CLOTH FACTORY,”
WORKED BY STEAM POWER,
In the occupation of the Executors of the late GEORGE WILSON. 

A WATER CORN-MILL,
With Iron Water-wheel, Three Pairs of Millstones, Hoist, Corn-screen, Flour Dressing Machine,
Large Granary, Cart-house, Stable, Outbuildings, Dwelling-house, and Office and Yard,
In the occupation of WILLIAM KETTON and the Executors of the late GEORGE WILSON.

I don't know what happened at the sale and whether the Wilson brothers decided to buy the freehold of their premises; I believe the Mease trustees still owned land in Hutton Rudby in 1928.

A notice in the York Herald of 28 October 1878 shows that their mother Anne died on 25 October, a couple of years after her husband.  Allan and Annie continued to live at Hutton House for the rest of their lives.  

Allan Bowes Wilson in Hutton House

There is a photograph of Allan at ease with a book with the light pouring in through the window.  He and his brother John were keen collectors of the paintings of Ralph Hedley 

Meanwhile, Thomas built Enterpen Hall for his family (see Stately Homes of Hutton Rudby)

But by 1890, the sailcloth business was beginning to slacken and neighbouring sailcloth factories closed:

Newcastle Chronicle, 17 May 1890 

Dead Industries at Stockton. - Harker's sail cloth factory, near the railway station at Stockton, which was established many years ago, and where a lucrative business was carried on for a long time, was recently closed, and the buildings are now being pulled down.  On the site of the factory, and on the bleaching field behind, a large number of superior artisan dwellings are to be erected.  Building operations have been commenced, and already a number of houses are in course of erection.

The Wilson mill continued – and was fêted in the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough in 1895 for having "the prettiest warehouse in England".

R P Hastings recounts (Industrial Village, p17) from local knowledge, that the mill remained viable by supplying markets in the Baltic, including the Russian Navy, and that one of its most valuable assets was a British Admiralty contract for its well-known blue-line sail cloth.  Working hours were from 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening in the summer months and from 6 in the morning until the light failed in the winter.  It was an intensely hot and noisy place and often at the end of a shift the workers would emerge covered with white lint.  

In 1900 the Wilsons installed electric lighting powered by a generator.  It was to commemorate the Relief of Mafeking – Thomas's son John Hutton Wilson was a professional soldier who served in the Boer War, where his life was saved by a sergeant later awarded the Victoria Cross.

John Hutton Wilson returns from the Boer War

This rather dark photograph shows mill workers pulling his open carriage through the village upon his return from South Africa.  (He died in the First World War, as did his solicitor brother George.  They are commemorated by brass plaques in the church)

The lighting was a "gift" to their workers because it gave them extra earning hours through the winter, but of course it was a very useful gift to the Wilsons themselves.

Hutton Rudby Sailcloth Mill seen from upstream of the bridge Courtesy of Joyce Walker

The closure of the Mill

However, by 1908 the mill was no longer viable and it had to close.  Hastings records that a handful of families migrated to find work in Dundee and the mill machinery was sold to a firm in Leven in Fife.  The mill buildings once again were used only for meetings, until finally they were demolished in 1937 when the road was widened so that the dangerous approach to the bridge was made safer.  

Thomas's wife Maria had died on 16 April 1904 at Newcastle aged 55 (according to the National Probate Calendar); after the mill closed he left Hutton Rudby to join his daughter in Scotland.  The old mill was used as the venue of the auction of the furniture, glass, pictures and ornaments that had once graced Enterpen Hall:

Whitby Gazette, 9 July 1909

HUTTON RUDBY

One Mile from Potto Station, N.E.R.

Highly Important Unreserved Sale of Valuable Chippendale, Oak and Cabinet Furniture; Carpets, Oil-paintings, Engravings, Water-colours, Antique China and Glass, Books, etc.
MESSRS HODGSON & FARROW, honoured with instructions from T BOWES-WILSON, Esquire (who has left the district), will SELL BY AUCTION, in the old SAIL-CLOTH FACTORY, on THURSDAY & FRIDAY, July 22nd and 23rd, 1909, the FURNISHINGS & APPOINTMENTS of dining, drawing, and morning rooms, library, bedrooms, entrance hall, kitchens, and outside effects, removed from Enterpen Hall.
On View on Wednesday, July 21st, by Catalogue only, price threepence each.
Auctioneers' Offices:
Market Place, Stokesley.
Established 57 Years

Thomas died on 29 June 1929 at St Andrews.  Allan died three years later.  His death notice appeared in the newspapers after his quiet burial:

Leeds Mercury, 8 July 1932
Wilson - July 4, at Hutton House, Hutton Rudby, passed peacefully away, aged 93, Allan Bowes Wilson.  His wish was for a quiet village funeral – no mourning or flowers.  He was buried in Rudby-in-Cleveland Churchyard July 6, 1932

Allan had been a generous benefactor of the church and his last gift was the lychgate.  It was dedicated by the Rev A L Leeper in May 1933.

Lychgate at All Saints', Hutton Rudby soon after it was built by Jim Barthram.  Courtesy of Allan & Joy Barthram

The mill buildings were demolished in 1937 so the narrow road up Hutton Bank with its dangerously tight corner could be widened and straightened.

Cottages on Hutton Bank

The photograph above shows the blind corner on Hutton Bank before the Mill and the cottages were demolished.  Leven House is to the right of the picture.

Demolition of the Mill from the Stockton & Teesside Weekly Herald, 22 Jan 1937

The last part of the Mill to be demolished was the chimney.  The schoolchildren were taken down the bank to watch it fall.  Go to the Hutton Rudby & District Local History Society's Facebook page to see Maurice Atkinson's sketch capturing the moment when it fell.  The base had been weakened by removing courses of brickwork and a rope attached partway up the chimney. The rope was tied to a steel stake, anchored in the hillside, and four men swung on the rope until the chimney started to rock, eventually falling to much cheering from the children.

Many thanks to Malcolm McPhie and the Hutton Rudby & District Local History Society's Facebook page for the photographs

Next post: Hutton Rudby 1876 to 1877: the Albion Sailcloth Mill

Yorkshire Gazette, 4 June 1853 

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between the undersigned WILLIAM SURTEES, of Hutton, near Rudby, in the County of York, Stonemason, and ROBERT TODD, of Marton, in the same County, Stonemason, carrying on business as Stonemasons and Contractors at Marton aforesaid, under the firm of "ROBERT TODD," was this day DISSOLVED by Mutual Consent. 

All Debts due and owing to or by the said Partnership will be paid and received by the said ROBERT TODD, who will complete all existing Contracts on his own account.  As witness our hands this Twenty-Seventh Day of May, 1853. 

(Signed) WILLIAM SURTEES
ROBERT TODD
Signed by both parties in the presence of
J PEIRSON HOLT,
Solicitor, Middlesbro'

Collingwood Paper Mills

Eden Cottage & the Thorman family, 1880s Courtesy of Sue & Bob Hutchinson

In 1869, Clara gave birth to another baby girl.  She was baptised Amy Louisa Victoria on 29 March by the Revd R J Barlow, and her father's occupation given as Builder.  The 1871 census finds them all at Eden Cottage: William, Clara, Thomas (now aged 12), Eva (aged 3) and 2 year old Amy.  Clara was by then pregnant with Laura Adelaide, who was born a short while after the census was taken and baptised on 7 August.

Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough, 24 June 1873 

For Sale by Private Contract,
The Albion Steam Crushing and Cutting Mills, occupying the space between Boundary-road and Dale-street, Middlesbrough, in full work, and open to inspection.
Apply, by letter, in the first instance, to William Surtees, Eden Cottage, Hutton Rudby, via Yarm.

York Herald, 15 January 1876 

Stokesley Petty Sessions
William Surtees, of Hutton Rudby, stone mason, was charged by Police-constable Thompson with being drunk on licensed premises, occupied by Eliza Raney, of the Wheat Sheaf Inn.  Defendant said that he was quite capable of talking on scientific subjects and transacting business.  Fined 5s. and costs

Northern Echo, 13 October 1877 

Hutton Rudby, in Cleveland – Albion Sailcloth Works and Freehold Land 

TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, at the Wheat Sheaf Inn, Hutton Rudby, in the County of York, on Thursday, October 25th, 1877, at Two for Three o'Clock in the Afternoon (subject to such conditions as shall then agreed),
Mr J J HANSELL, Auctioneer 

All that newly-erected FREEHOLD SAILCLOTH FACTORY, situated at the north end of the village of Hutton Rudby aforesaid, together with the adjoining Field of Old Grass LAND, containing 1a. 1r. 15p., or thereabouts, be the same more or less. 

The Factory comprises a large Manufacturing-room, measuring 64ft by 24ft 9in, together with Office, Storeroom, and Engine-house, and contains Six Parker's Patent Mathematical Looms, with all the necessary Preparing Frames and Finishing Machinery; also Paper Calendar, Horizontal Steam Engine, Boiler, and Cold Water Pump.  The Machinery is of the best description; it has all been recently fitted up, and is in good condition, having been but little used.  There is a capital supply of Water. 

The Land is known by the name of the "Town End Field," and is splendidly situated, with a commanding view of the Cleveland Hills and surrounding district, and having extensive frontages to high roads on the North and East boundaries thereof, it may be easily sub-divided into excellent sites for the erection of Villas or other Residences. 

Potto Station, on the North Yorkshire and Cleveland Branch of the North-Eastern Railway, is within the distance of One Mile from the Property. 

A considerable portion of the Purchase Money may be left on Mortgage of the Premises on terms to be stated at the time of sale. 

The Property will in the first instance be put up for sale in One Lot, and, if not sold, it will then be offered in such Lots as may be agreed upon. 

Further particulars may be obtained on application to Mrs WILLIAM SURTEES, Hutton Rudby, near Yarm, Yorkshire; or to 

Mr JOHN GEORGE WILSON, Solicitor,
Hutton Rudby and Durham.
Hutton Rudby, October, 1877

Albion Terrace in the 1930s

Sydney Morning Herald, 11 October 1922 

MRS C SURTEES
Mrs Clara Surtees, Liverpool's oldest resident, died suddenly at her home, George-street, Liverpool, on Thursday last, at the age of 87 years and was buried on Saturday.  

She remembered Liverpool when the present asylum was used as a military barracks, and the stocks and triangles were employed to punish rebellious convicts.  Among her recollections were the scenes when hundreds of Chinese were to be seen marching through the town on their way to the diggings; another was the time when George's River was navigable as far as Liverpool.  She had seen steamers conveying supplies to the town and unloading at wat at present is the dam.  

Her husband, Mr William Surtees, built the Liverpool paper mill.  He was a Yorkshireman, and after completing that work he went with his wife and one daughter to England, residing there until his death.  Mrs Surtees then returned to her native town of Liverpool.  

Her eldest brother, the late Mr George Graham, was a well-known solicitor of his day in Sydney, and took a team of aboriginal cricketers to England so many year ago that the occurrence is well nigh forgotten.  His son, George Graham, lately retired from the position of secretary to the Government Printing Office.  Mrs Surtees's mother was a sister of Lieutenant Wilson, who first sighted the promontory on the southern coast which was named after him [Wilsons Promontory?].  A cousin, Mr George Smith, of Undercliffe, Manly, was the first Mayor of that borough.  In the Liverpool cemetery the oldest family tombstone bears date 1809.  When Mrs Surtees was 81 years of age she sustained an attack of double pneumonia, and although she recovered from it, her health was permanently impaired.

Cholera had always been endemic in pockets of India, but now, perhaps spread by the new conditions of greatly increased trade and British troop movements, it broke out explosively, and soon produced on the minds of the medical attendants the strong conviction that it was a new disease – a most fearful Pestilence.   

It swiftly passed its usual boundaries and spread widely and rapidly along the trade routes of Asia.  An exceptionally severe winter prevented its further spread into Europe, but a second pandemic beginning in Bengal in 1826 spread rapidly across Asia and the middle East. 

By August 1830 it had reached Moscow, and helped by large numbers of refugees from a savage military campaign in Poland, it travelled rapidly along the complex of busy trade routes across Europe.  It carried with it a terrifying reputation, and even though its impact in Britain was far less damaging than had first been feared, it would cause over 31,000 deaths in England, Scotland and Wales in the years 1831 to 1832. 

The British quarantine regulations were developed from those devised to combat plague and yellow fever.

Dr Simpson [who studied the 1832 outbreak] wrote in 1849: 

If quarantine could be strictly enforced, there cannot be the slightest doubt that it would be successful.  The difficulties, however, of enforcing quarantine, between countries where extensive commercial intercourse is constantly going on, would appear to be quite insurmountable.

Internal quarantine was considered:

The Board of Health had considered the possibility of internal quarantine to limit the spread of cholera once it arrived, but it was obviously impracticable.  Given the terrifying nature of the disease reported in Asia and eastern Europe, they recommended local isolation of the first cases and the separation of the sick from the healthy.  This was to be done by a network of local Boards of Health.  The Board envisaged the removal of the sick into cholera hospitals, and thence into convalescent homes, while their contacts would be taken into isolation houses; if all three buildings could be in the same enclosure, this could be conveniently guarded by the local military.  Their homes would be purified with chloride of lime and hot lime wash; the dead would be buried swiftly in ground close to the house for the infected.  Their first circular, published in the press, called for local Boards to be established,

There should be established a local board of health, to consist of the Chief and other Magistrates, the Clergyman of the parish, two or more Physicians or Medical Practitioners, and three or more of the Principal Inhabitants…

The Central Board advised the magistrates to prevent, as far as possible, intercourse with any infected town.  Magistrates and clergy were asked to improve the conditions in which cholera spread:

the poor, ill-fed, and unhealthy part of the population, and especially those who have been addicted to the drinking of spirituous liquors, and indulgence in irregular habits, have been the greatest sufferers from the disease…. 

This circular was published on 20 October 1831 shortly before the news of the first official case of cholera was confirmed in Sunderland in late October. 

a luxurious country residence 'with spacious drawing, dining and breakfast rooms and nine bedrooms with dressing rooms', lavishly furnished with 'rosewood and spanish mahogany furniture, Brussels and tapestry carpets' and the usual accoutrements of early Victorian fashion. Attics, kitchens, scullery, butler’s pantry, cellars, and outbuildings, stables and coach house with pigeon loft, not to mention fourteen bee boles, completed the establishment. 

Northampton Mercury, 31 December 1870

Kettering

CORN EXCHANGE, - On Tuesday evening a tea meeting, with a Christmas tree, took place in connection with the Wesleyan Society.  There was also in the room John Wesley's umbrella, with a leather case.  The umbrella was made of strong green silk.  Mr Wesley gave it to James Rodgers, and his son presented it to Mr Thos Mease, of Stokesley, who gave it to the Rev James Everett, of Sunderland by whom it was lent to Mr H Heighton as an attraction on this occasion.  A goodly number was present both at tea and at the sale of the various articles on the Christmas tree during the evening.  The proceeds were upwards of £20, which is to be devoted to the liquidation of the circuit debt.

Leeds Mercury, 9 December 1815

On the 22d ult. at Stokesley, the Rev Robert Pilter, of Pontefract, Methodist minister, to Miss Mease, of the former place

Newcastle Guardian & Tyne Mercury, 15 January 1853

Misses Pilter (daughters of the late Rev. R Pilter), gratefully acknowledge the continued liberal support of their friends, and respectfully announce that the duties of their Establishment will be Resumed on Tuesday, January 18th.

Howard Street, North Shields

Leeds Mercury, 18 November 1854

WILLOW LODGE, NEAR SOWERBY BRIDGE

THE MISSES PILTER (daughters of the late Rev R Pilter), beg to announce that they intend to open the above Establishment for a limited number of Pupils immediately after the Christmas vacation.

Willow Lodge (lately the seat of J F Sutcliffe, Esq.) is a most commodious mansion, in a beautiful and salubrious situation, and surrounded by extensive pleasure grounds.  Its proximity to the Leeds and Manchester Railway renders it easy of access from all parts of the kingdom.

The constant aim of the Misses Pilter will be to ensure the health, happiness, and intellectual improvement of their pupils, by granting them every indulgence consistent with a well ordered household, and by imparting sound instruction in English and Continental literature.

For terms, apply to Misses Pilter, Howard-street, North Shields

Every attention is paid by the Misses Pilter to the Health and happiness as well as the moral and intellectual improvement, of their pupils ... Mrs Pilter superintends the domestic arrangements ... Terms and highly respectable references on application.

Yorkshire Post, 27 January 1868

WILLOW HALL, SKIRCOAT, Near Sowerby Bridge – The Misses Pilter (Daughters of the late Rev R Pilter) have availed themselves of the Cambridge University Local Examinations as a test of the efficiency of their School, and have great pleasure in referring to the success of their pupils.  All the candidates from Willow Hall passed in every subject in which they were examined.  The NEXT TERM will commence on THURSDAY the 30th instant.

In each of the last three years a fifth of the whole number of pupils at Willow Hall

Honours have been taken in English, religious knowledge, French, music, and drawing

Yorkshire Gazette, 19 September 1846 

The Cleveland District Agricultural Show 

We understand that the entries for the present show were, on the whole, more numerous than those of the preceding year.  

We believe that the cattle and sheep did not occupy so great a space of ground in the show field, which, as in 1844, was kindly lent for the use of the society, by Col. Hildyard; but in the horses – the beautiful Cleveland bays – so celebrated in our own country and so great favourites with the foreigners who attend our fairs, – there was a manifest improvement, both as regards quality and quantity.  

The same remark applies to the pigs, to the implements, and the poultry.  The latter class combined great beauty and variety, and attracted the especial attention of a large and fashionable assembly of ladies.  We noticed that the show of pigeons was much greater than in former years, and it will be seen that premiums have this year been awarded to the exhibitors of rabbits.  We heard that encouragement to the breeding of rabbits had been objected to by some, principally on the ground that it would lead to trespassing in the turnip and clover fields, and perhaps there may be something in this suggestion; nevertheless we think it may be fairly urged that the interest which will be excited among the rising generation in these exhibitions will sufficiently counterbalance if not outweigh any small inconvenience that may arise in this respect ... 

The day throughout was beautifully fine, and the harvest being all but at an end in this district, the concourse of visitors to the town of Stokesley was immense.  We suppose that at one part of the day there could not be less than from two to three thousand persons in the show field.

about noon the town was alarmed by two most tremendous reports, resembling those of the discharge of heavy cannon

It appears that Mr Simpson, the manager, and his son, two persons of the name of Carter, from Sunderland, who had been engaged in fixing the gasometer, which has recently been removed, two labourers named Gray and Caldwell, and some other persons who had been brought to the spot through feelings of curiosity, were mounted upon the top of the gasometer.  The object of those who had business there was either to try the amount of pressure, or to discover if there was any foul air in the tank.  We were told both, but whichever was the object matters not to our purpose, for the result would not have been different.  

In order to ascertain one or both of these facts, a lighted match was applied to a hole in the top of the gasometer, and a jet of light was, of course, immediately produced.  When the necessary observation had been made, one of the men, instead of blowing the flame out, suddenly placed his finger over the hole, and thus forced the flame within the gasometer.  

An instantaneous explosion was the consequence, the gasometer being forced completely out of its place, and the parties being thrown from the top in all directions.  They were all more or less injured, and Caldwell so much so that when we left Stokesley on Saturday, we were told that his recovery was very doubtful.  He was much hurt about the head and back.

Teesdale Mercury, 23 May 1866 

Wholesale Destruction of Fish 

The river Leven has long been noted as an excellent trout water, but we regret to learn that from Stokesley to where the Leven falls into the Tees, below Yarm, the fish have been totally destroyed.  The water in the gasometer at Stokesley being pumped, the tank having to be emptied, the water through which the gas was purified for years past, about 350 tons, was allowed to flow into the river.  The consequence has been that all the fish are killed from Stokesley to the end of the Leven.  Large quantities of trout and other fish were taken out of the water dead, and dying, on Tuesday last.