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One leg of my family tree links back to Thomas Stapylton who lived and died in Leyburn. If his father was a Leonard Stapylton, he was left £20 in his will. From Thomas's will, he had become quite a wealthy man when he died in 1805 aged 72. From that I feel some history of this family might well have been somewhere recorded.

His wife, Margaret Hutchinson provided 4 surviving children, Thomas, Ralph, Margery and Martha. Thomas's will made monetary awards to other children, but his property assets were shared amongst his lawful issues, and in turn to pass to their lawful children. Neither boy married, so their shares under the will would pass to the girls and their children.

Margery married Charles Sanderson, produced 4 children, none of whom married. The census did show two grandchildren.
Martha married Matthew Dobson to have 6 children surviving into adulthood, three of those married and had children.

In 1845, a year after brother Ralph died, Mr & Mrs Sandersons filed a bill against Mr & Mrs Dobson, their children and the heir at law of the surviving executors of the will of brother Thomas Stapylton who had died in 1808. It appeared some of Thomas's property was unaccounted, and was eventually judged it should have been equally divided between Margery and Martha.

In 1861 Margery died and Martha in 1865, but the story of the wills didn't end there. In 1868, Martha's eldest son Ralph Stapylton Dobson, was accused by elder sister, then Margaret Hannah Bowness, of stealing his mother's will. This case was Known as Bowness v Dobson.

Could anyone advise or kindly point to any publication that might provide a more full account of this family than I have so far uncovered?   
 

Born January 26, 1836 at Grimness on South Ronaldsay, he began working life fishing in Herring Boats, but in the1861 census he was an AB Seaman aboard the "British Isle", a 297 ton barque of the Port of Sunderland. He married in Sunderland in the next year and from March 27th, 1866 he was on "Jane", 195 tons registered at the port of Boston, where later that year he would sail as Mate.

The 1971 census show him at home in Sunderland with his wife and three children, but in the 1881 census his wife is shown as widow. I can find no death in the usual records, so wonder if he might have died at sea and there may be some other record for that.

My greatest thanks to you. I've spent an absolute age searching.

Eric.

In the graveyard of St. Andrew's, South Church, Bishop Auckland, Co Durham is a monument, the face of which appears to have been lost, but was engraved:-
 
Dorothy Antram relict of John late
of South Hampton Feb 1st,2,1815
Aged 69
George Bowness of Bp Auckland
died July 26th 1825 Aged 83
his wife Ann died Jany 23d 1822
Aged 80

The reverse is shown below.



Also
Thomas Bowness of Bp Auckland
who died in London May 20th 1822
Also of Susannah daughter of Thomas
and Ann Bowness of Bp Auckland and
Cousin of the above died Jan 4th
1833 Aged 19

My hope is to find the precise relationships and some details of all those in the grave.

Dorothy (Todd) married John Antram at St Michael's, Southampton on 03/03/1787, he a butcher of that parish and she from Holy Rood. According to her will, she and Ann, wife of Geoge Bowness were sisters.
George Bowness and Ann Todd were married on Jan 1st 1764 at Brancepeth, Co Durham.
Thomas Bowness who died in London, married Margaret Fair of Cheapside at St Mary-le-Bow on Jan 13th 1818, it was reported in The Times. Both died at around the same date, but I don't know where she was buried nor the age of either.
The parents of Susannah are my main interest, but this is so tangled that the smallest scrap of seemingly irrelevant information has on occasion had colossal value. Ann was also Todd, but so far I've found no link to the others. Her father was George Todd, a sailmaker of Sunderland who died 23rd Dec 1808. This Thomas Bowness would seem to have been born in Bell Yard, London on 26th Dec 1779, married Ann in Sunderland in 1804 to be lost overboard from the Duchess of York in the Atlantic on May 5th, 1819, leaving her with five surviving children. One of the very many coincidences of this complicated saga is that Caroline, elder sister of this Thomas, married a John Antram at St Michael's Southampton on March 22nd 1801. I was kindly sent information from a copy of the Salsbury and Winchester Journal of November 4th. 1799 of an article of John Antram thanking customers as successor to his late uncle John's butcher business of Southampton.

Can anyone provide evidence that the John Antrams were related or any information on the lives of those mentioned?