Cragg of Greenbank, Wyresdale

[Phil Tomlinson]

I thought this link should have its own heading.  I had nothing to do with writing/publishing this wonderful volume but am simply providing easier access to it.  It is a great window into the lives of our ancestors and their neighbors from this time and place i.e Wyresdale in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=2365

[jinks]

Why can the book not be reprinted I've been after a copy
for years.

The nearest I've found, which I think is still in print

Greenbank In the country of the past
Written by W H Graham

This book has a chapter on the craggs after they emigrate
to Greenbank, Ontario, Canada, so I have got one of my
friends on the hunt for it.

Jinks

[Aulus]

Thanks for that link PhilTom.  It was an interesting - if tantalising - read looking at the extracts relating to the time before the voyage to Canada.

It's a shame, that site only has odd pages, and not the whole text.  Edit: just realised that there's more there than first appeared - the "next arrow" seemed to be leaping around the text a bit.

I was interested as I currently live in Lancaster and know most of the places mentioned, but also I have some slightly-off-the-direct-line relatives (Simpsons and Winders) living in Over Wyresdale and direct ancestors (Nobles) living just over the hills, through the Trough, at Sykes and in and around Whitewell at about the same time.

[jinks]

Are you related to the Simpson that married the Pye from
this area originally, if you like I can PM you with the details I have
of this family

Jinks

[Aulus]

Hi Jinks, (sorry couldn't resist  )

I've not come across a Pye in my tree (yet), but these Simpsons are a bit distant, so I've not fully explored them.

They come in when a great (x3) great-aunt, Isabella Marsden (1794-1871) marries a John Simpson (1795? - 1845) in Slaidburn on 13 Nov 1819.  (I've just posted a bit more on these Marsdens and a Winder marriage here on this thread.)
I've not found the couple on the 1841 census (probably just not looked hard enough), but the widowed Isabella Simpson is on the 1851 and 1861 censuses as a farmer of 94 acres at Lower Moorside in Over Wyresdale, before appearing on the 1871 census at Sharoe Green, Preston, where she died 28 Nov 1871

I think this is John and Isabella Simpson's gravestone in Over Wyresdale churchyard:
IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF
JOHN SIMPSON
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE SEPR 27TH 1845
AGED 50 YEARS
ALSO OF ISABELLA, WIFE OF THE ABOVE,
WHO DEPARTED T[HIS LI]FE NOVR 26TH 1871
AGE[D ...  YE]ARS

Very irritating blob of lichen in just the wrong place!

[Aulus]

Couple of other Simpson graves from Over Wyresdale, in case they're any use:

[jinks]

Hi Aulus

I think it the same family I will have to look into it.

I also have connections with the Winder, Cragg, Kelsall families.

I have some connection with the Marsdens, from Bowland
(maternal) and outskirts of Blackburn, Lancashire (paternal)

Also one of my Mercers from Chipping married John William
Noble, think the date was late 1800s,

Jinks

 

[Aulus]

They're bound to be connected somehow, I'd have thought.  Wyresdale and Bowland weren't (still aren't) major centres of population!

My main Noble family seems to have been at Fence Wood farm near Whitewell.  T'internet tells me it's now farmed by a Hoyle family.

Wonder which estate Fence Wood was/is part of?  and whether tenancy records still exist?

I'd love to be able to trace back the Thomas Edward Winder and Isabella Winder that are on the 1871 census at 123 Stretford Road, Hulme (RG10/3998; Folio: 12; Page: 18), who appear to be looking after my great grandfather, Henry Thomas Stevenson, to see if they really are related to him, and how.

[jinks]

The Simpsons I am related to are living at
Sharoe Green Lane in 1881 Census
Head John Simpson aged 53
his wife Jennet Simpson (nee Pye) aged 48 born
Wyresdale.

Jennet is the daughter of William Pye and Hannah
Hawthorntwaite--- my direct ancestors.

Jinks