Part 4
But when Sir Richard married Elizabeth of Urswick, and got with her the manors of Urswick, Coniston, Carnforth, and Claughton, they chose to live at Coniston; and being wealthy, they probably built a mansion which, rebuilt two hundred years later, became the Coniston Hall we now see. Their settlement here would be about 1250 or later.
Sir Richard, being a knight, must have brought his men with him, and let them have farms near at hand on condition of following him to the wars. No doubt he turned out the Norse holders of Heathwaite and Bleathwaite, Little Arrow (Ayrey, "moor") and Yewdale, or took on them as his men. Billmen and bowmen he would need, and we find a Bowmanstead in the village.
These tenants followed his son, Sir John, to Scotland in 1299 to fight Wallace; and got, with him, special protection and privileges from Edward I. for bravery at the siege of Caerlaverock. John's son, Sir Rayner, was in favour at Court, and held the office of King's Steward, _Dapifer_, for these parts, in the beginning of the fourteenth century. So West says.
His son, Sir John, had three children. The daughter Joan married John le Towers of Lowick; his eldest son William died without children; and so Coniston Hall fell to the younger brother, Sir John, who lived there in Edward III.'s time, while Adam of Beaumont and his fellows were outlaws in the fells, and doubtless shot the Coniston deer. Sir John died in 1353, and was succeeded by Sir Richard, who married Catharine of Kirkby, and died about 1392. Of his three sons, Sir Thomas, the eldest, succeeded him. He married (1371) Margaret of Bardsey, then Elayn Laybourn (1390), and then his deceased wife's sister Isabel (1396). His elder son was Thomas, for whom in his childhood his father arranged a marriage with an heiress, Isabel de Lancaster. She brought Rydal into the family.
Up to this time the knights "le Fleming" had lived for 150 years at old Coniston Hall; during Sir Thomas' life (he died about 1481) the Hall seems to have been rebuilt, so far as can be gathered from the architecture of the remains. Part of his time he spent at Rydal, perhaps while rebuilding Coniston Hall.
After him there are no more knights "le Fleming," but a series of Squires Fleming, keeping up both the Coniston and Rydal Halls.
Squire John, son of Sir Thomas, was a retainer of the lord of Greystoke, a fighting man in the wars of the Roses. He married Joan Broughton, and his son John in 1484-5 moved to Rydal, leaving Coniston Hall as dower-house for his stepmother Anne. He died about 1532. His son Hugh lived at Coniston, and married Jane Huddleston of Millom Castle. He died in 1557, and his son Anthony died young; and so his grandson William succeeded him in the last year of Queen Mary.
West says:--"This William Fleming resided at Coniston Hall, which he enlarged and repaired, as some of the carving, bearing the date and initial letters of his and his lady's name, plainly shows; he died about 40 Elizabeth (1598), and was buried in Grasmere Church. The said William Fleming was a gentleman of great pomp and expence, by which he injured an opulent fortune; but his widow Agnes (a Bindloss of Borwick) surviving him about 33 years, and being a lady of extraordinary spirit and conduct, so much improved and advanced her family affairs, that she not only provided for, and married well, all her daughters, but also repurchased many things that had been sold off.... This Agnes established a younger branch of the family in the person of Daniel, her then second son. When her son John married and resided at Coniston Hall, she retired to Rydal Hall, where she died 16 August, 7 Car. I. (1641)."
There is a tradition that Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) visited at Coniston Hall. There used to be an old book with his name in it and "Fulke Greville is a good boy" scribbled in an antique hand on a fly-leaf. It is probable that Squire William, the "gentleman of great pomp," invited many visitors, especially young men of distinction, for hunting parties in his deer park; and Sidney is said to have stayed at Brougham Castle, so that he may well have been, once in a while, in the Lake District.
Dr. Gibson tells a legend, which he says he collected at Coniston, of Girt Will o' t' Tarns--"one of the Troutbeck giants." (Hugh Hird, the chief of them, flourished in this period.) Girt Will is represented as carrying off "the Lady Eva's" bowermaiden, and being caught and killed at Caldron Dub on Yewdale Beck (a little above the sawmills), where his grave was shown, still haunted, they said. There is no "Lady Eva" in the records, but (allowing for distortion) there may be a grain of truth in the story, if it really was a tradition.
Squire John lived at Coniston. He was twenty-three at his father's death. His first wife was Alice Duckett of Grayrigg (died 1617); his second, the widow of Sir Thomas Bold, and daughter of Sir William Norris of Speke, the famous old timbered hall near Liverpool. She died at Coniston Hall, and was buried in Coniston Church, which Squire William had built. His third was Dorothy Strickland of Sizergh, for whose sake he became a Roman Catholic at a time when Roman Catholics were persecuted; and consequently, after being J.P. and High Sheriff, he was heavily fined, and had to get a special licence to travel five miles from home. He had a turn for literature; we find in the Rydal letters one enclosing the latest playbook and (Massinger's new work) the _Virgin Martir_.
His son William was only fourteen at his father's death in 1643, and soon afterwards died of smallpox in London. Consequently the Hall went to his cousin William (son of the Daniel before mentioned), born there in 1610, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was one of Charles I.'s cavaliers, and suffered severely in pocket for his loyalty. He married Alice Kirkby in 1632, and died at the hall in 1653.
His eldest son Daniel, born in 1633, studied at Queen's College, Oxford, and Gray's Inn. He married, in 1655, Barbara Fletcher of Hutton (who died 1670), and they had a large family. He was a cavalier, heavily fined by Cromwell's sequestrators, and living in retirement until the Restoration, busied in improving his estates and his mind. He became a famous scholar and antiquary, corresponding with many learned men, and distinguished, among other things, for his knowledge of Runic inscriptions. Under Charles II. he took a very active share in public business; was knighted at Windsor in 1681, and elected M.P. for Cockermouth, 1685. He died 1701.
This Sir Daniel finally forsook Coniston for Rydal. In his lifetime the Hall was held by his bachelor brothers, Roger and William, lieut.-colonel of cavalry and D.L. for Lancashire. In the Rydal MSS. there are many letters to and from them; for instance, Major W. Fleming writes (July 1st, 1674) to the constables of Coniston about arming the men of Colonel Kirkby's regiment--the pikemen to have an ashen pike not under sixteen feet in length, the musketeers to have a well-fixed "musquet" with a barrel not under three feet in length, and a bore for twelve bullets to the pound, with "collar of bandeleers" and a good sword and belt.
Other relatives of the family lived at the Hall, which was kept up as a sort of general establishment. In September, 1680, Sir Daniel notes that his bachelor uncle, John Kirkby, "did fall sick Sept. 15, and he died at Coniston Hall, Sept. 28. I had not the happ to see him dureing his sickness." But Sir Daniel was sometimes there, and speaking of one visit, he says (December 14th, 1680), "my tenants there and I did see a blazing starr with a very long tail--reaching almost to the middle of the sky from the place of the sun setting--a little after the sun setting, near the place where the sun did set. Lord, have mercy upon us, pardon all our sins, and bless the King and these Kingdomes." He got over it by Christmas, and "paid the Applethwait players for acting here, Dec. 27th 00-05-00" (5s).
On February 26th, 1681, his mother died at Coniston Hall, and was buried in Lady Bold's grave, close by her brother, John Kirkby--"Mr. John Braithwait preaching her funeral sermon upon 1 Tim. 5, 9, and 10, and applying it very well to her." Her three sons put up the brass in the church to her memory.
There was no intention then of letting the Hall go to ruin. Sir Daniel notes (March 20th, 1688), "This day was laid the foundation of the great barn at Coniston Hall"--not the new barn to the south of it, which is a much later building.
We get a glimpse of the friendly relations of hall and village in a letter of November 16th, 1689, from George Holmes at Strabane to the colonel at the Hall, describing the famous siege of Derry, and adding--"Pray do me the favour to present my humble service to Mr. Rodger and all the good familie, to the everlasting constable, and to my noble friend the vitlar."
Dr. Gibson, about 1845, was told by an aged inhabitant of Haws Bank that one of the cottages in that hamlet (pulled down to build Mr. John Bell's house) was formerly an alehouse, and that a neighbour who died at a great age when the doctor's informant was a boy, used to relate that he remembered having seen two brothers of the Fleming family, who were staying at the Hall, go there for ale, and make a scramble with their change amongst the children round the door, of whom the relater was one. The names of the brothers, he stated, were "Major and Roger."
This must have been in Queen Anne's days, when perhaps Colonel William and his brother Roger were gone. But of Sir Daniel's sons, one was Major Michael, M.P. for Westmorland in 1706, died before George I. (his daughter married Michael Knott, Esq., of Rydal, whose family afterwards came to Coniston Waterhead); and another was Roger, afterwards vicar of Brigham.
So we bring "the good familie" at the Hall down to the second decade of the eighteenth century, after which they seem to have deserted Coniston and left it to decay. Fifty years later it was an ivy-covered ruin.
A novel by the Rev. W. Gresley, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield, called _Coniston Hall: or, The Jacobites_ (1846), professes to recount the fortunes of "Sir Charles Dalton" of the hall, in the rising of 1715. But the local colour is inaccurate, and the circumstances impossible.
About 1815 it was patched up into a farmhouse; the ruined wing was left to the ivy, and an inclined way was built up to the old oriel window of the dining-hall to make it into a barn. Later, the old oak was carried off. Quite recently the dwelling-house and the chimneys have been newly cemented, which, necessary as it was, takes away from the picturesqueness. The main features of the interior can be traced; we can make out the daïs, the great fireplace, the carved screen through which doors led to the stairs going down to buttery and kitchen, and the fine old roof with its great oak beams. From the middle beam, in which the grooves for planking are still seen, a wainscot partition was fixed to the back of the daïs, and behind it was the withdrawing room. There you see its large fireplace and windows on both sides, and in the corner is a spiral staircase, leading down to a door opening on the garden, and up to the loft or solar, in mediæval times the best bedroom, of which we can see the footing of the flooring joists up in the wall, and the little window looking east to catch the morning sun. That was no drawback; folk were early risers when they had only candles to sit up by.
In its old state the Hall must have been a fine place on a fine site; damp, it might be thought, but you note that its dwelling rooms are not on the ground floor, and in those big fireplaces you can imagine the roaring fires that were kept when wood was plentiful. The lake is close at hand for fishing, and along the shore towards Torver extended the deer park, still a lovely bit of park scenery. That they kept deer even after the head of the family had settled at Rydal, Sir Daniel's accounts testify. On December 22nd, 1659, he notes, "given unto George Fleming's boy for bringing a doe from Coniston, 2s.;" and on Christmas Day, "given unto Thomas Brockbanck for killing the doe at Coniston, 1s. 6d." It was not only at Christmas that they indulged in venison. On July 11th, 1660 (King Charles had just come home, so cavaliers could feast), George Fleming brought two deer from Coniston to Rydal, and got 2s.; and on September 11th, 1661, Sir Daniel treated his brother-in-law, Sir George Fletcher, to a hunt, and gave the tenants 1s. for drinks, "and next day more for the hunters to drink, 2s. 6d." It sounds little, but money was more valuable then, and he did not always kill a deer so cheaply. On July 27th, 1672, "paid my brother Roger which had spent in killing the buck at Coniston, 6s. 6d.;" and August 12th, 1677, "delivered to my son William when he went to Coniston to kill a buck, 5s."
* * * * *
The following useful bit of topography is taken from the old copy kindly lent by Dr. Kendall:--
"The ancient bounds of the manor of Coniston, besides the Water or Lake of Coniston, and certain tenements in Torver, Blawith, and Woodland thereunto belonging, are in these terms, namely:--
"Beginning at Coniston otherwise Thurston Water and so by the Eastern bank of Yewdale Beck up the same on to the low end of the close called the Stubbing and so upwards round the said close by the hedge that parts it from Waters Head Grounds into Yewdale Beck, and so up Yewdale Beck into the foot of Yewdale Field and so upwards by the hedge which parts the several Allans[A] belonging to Yewdale from Furness Fell grounds unto Yewdale Beck and so up Yewdale Beck unto the foot of a close called Linegards (otherwise Lang Gards) and so upwards round the said close by the hedge thereof betwixt it and Holme Ground unto Yewdale Beck and so up the said beck unto Mickle Gill head, and from thence ascending to the height of Dry Cove over against Green Burn and from thence by the Lile Wall to the height between Levers Water and Green Burn and so to the head of Green Burn and from thence by the Rear or Ray Cragg[B] and Bounders of Seathwaite unto Gaites Hause and so by the south side of Gaites Water and so down by Torver Beck to the foot of Fittess,[C] and so straight over to Brighouse Crag Yate and from thence to the Moss Yate and so down by a little Syke unto Brundale Beck and so down to the Broadmyre Beck and so down the same to Coniston Water aforesaid."
[A] _Allans_, land bordering water, like _holme_; and supposed to be from the Celtic _Eilean_, island.
[B] _Rear_ or _Ray Crag_, like _Rear_ or _Ray Cross_ upon Stainmoor, from the old Norse _Rá_, "boundary."
[C] _Fittess_, like _Fitz_ at Keswick, Colwith _Feet_, Mint's _Feet_, &c., seems to be akin to the Icelandic _Fit_ (plu. _fitjar_), "meadow near a river or lake;" not found in Anglo-Saxon.
VII.--THE CHURCH AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
There was probably no church at Coniston before the time of Queen Elizabeth, though services may have been held by the squire's chaplain. Monk Coniston was, and still is ecclesiastically, in the parish of Hawkshead.
Coniston Church was built in 1586 by William Fleming, the "gentleman of great pomp and expence." It was consecrated and made parochial by Bishop Chaderton; the original dedication is not known. In 1650 the Parliamentary enquiry shows that there was no maintenance but the £1 19s. 10d. which the people raised for their "reader," Sir Richard Roule--"Sir" meaning "Rev." in those days. With liberal squires at the Hall, no doubt the "priest," as they called him, was not badly off, though Colonel Fleming, writing to his brother (November 27th, 1688), says:--"Tell the constable the same hearth man (hearth-tax collector) is coming again. Tell him to be as kind as his conscience will permit to his neighbours, and play the fool no more. The priest and he doth not know how happy they are." The income was eked out by the old custom of "whittlegate," right to have his meals at various houses in turn; and it is said that the Priest Stile opposite Mount Cottage was so called because he was so often seen crossing it on the way to his accustomed seat at the squire's table.
Until the end of the eighteenth century the curate was also schoolmaster, and as late as 1761 was nominated to the dual office by the six men or sidesmen representing the inhabitants. The patronage was afterwards in the hands of the Braddylls of Conishead Priory; eventually it passed into the possession of the Rev. A. Peache, and the living is now in the gift of the Peache trustees. Its net value is £220.
The original church, for we do not know that it was rebuilt between 1586 and 1818, was a small oblong structure with lattice windows and a western belfry tower.
In the Coniston Museum there is a mutilated document (found by Mr. Herbert Bownass among some old deeds) which not only shows the quaint arrangement of seats in the church separating the sexes, but also gives what is practically a directory of the parish in the time of Charles II.
Coniston A Devision of men's and women's fforms made by the Church. Minister, six men & churchwardens in the year of our Lord 1684.
Imp^s Seats in the Quier:
In the seat with the Minister, one for Silverbank & one for ffarr end.
2 The next seat above:
One for Silverbank for Robert Vickers, for Robert Dixon Bridge End & Jno. Atkinson de Catbank & for Holywarth.
3 The second fform above:
Edward Tyson, Rich. Hodgson, John Holms, Wm. Hobson de Huthw^t, Wm. Atkinson de Gateside.
The third fform above: Wm. ffleming jun^r de Littlearrow, Jam. Robinson, Tho. Cowerd, Park Yeat.
The fourth fform above: Tho. Dixon de Littlearrow, Mich. Atkinson, Huthw^t, Geo. Towers, Hows bank.
The fform next the wall or the highest fform: David Tyson de Tilb^rthw^t, Wm. ffleming de Catbank, one for ffar end.
The back fform next Quier door: Jo. ffleming, Low Littlearrow, Henry Dover de Brow, Wm. Harrison de Holywarth, Wm. Atkinson, Above beck, Myles Dixon & Robt. Dixon de Tilb^rthwaite.
The fform above it: Wm. ffleming de Park Yeat, Geo
The fform under the Pulpit: Jo. Harrison de Bowmansteads
Men's fforms ith church: ffirst Jo. Dixon, Wm. Dixon, Tho. Dix ffleming of Bowmansteads.
The second fform beneath: One seat for ffarr end, Wm. Towers
The third fform Smartfield, Jo. Tyson, Low House Low Udale, Wm. Denison
The ffourth fform: One for Silverbank, Rob. Walker Parks.
Womens} The Highest ith Church: fforms} Wm ffleming wife de Upper Sam^{s}. Henry Dover wife de Brow Hallgarth and Myles Dixon wi[fe]
2 The second fform Beneath: David Tyson wife de Tilberthw^{t} wife, Dixon Ground, Wm. Dixon, Geo
3 The third fform: Outrake, Gill, Howsbank wives, Jo. ffleming wife, Low Littlearrow, & Park Yeat.
4 The ffourth form: Silverbank, ffarr end, Ed. Tyson de Nook, Tho. Dixon de Littlearrow, Wm. Atkinson, Above beck, their wives.
5 The ffifth fform: Smartfield, Wm. Atkinson, Wm. Cowerd, Wm. Hobson de Huthw^{t}, Jo. Atkinson and Wm. Atkinson, Catbank, their wives.
6 The sixth fform: Jo. Harrison & Tho. ffleming de Bowmanstead, [----] Dixon ground, Ed. Park, Wm Denison, Upper Udale, their wives.
7 The seventh fform: Myles Dixon, Upper Udale, Rob. Walker & Wm. Addison, Low Udale, Wm. Walker, Wm. Harrison & Elizabeth Parks.
To this devision we the Minister, six men and churchwardens have set our hands the year ffirst written, Anno Dnî 1684
Jo. Birkett cur. Wm. ffleming } Wm. ffleming } Christo. Dixon } Sidemen Wm. Harrison } Wm. ffleming } Myles Dixon }
Mich. Atkinson } Churchwardens Myles Dixon }
In 1817 the curate in charge, John Douglas, and the churchwardens, Joseph Barrow and William Townson, obtained a faculty to rebuild the church. A sum of £325 was raised by subscription, a further sum by assessment, and the Incorporated Church Building Society made a grant of £125. The new church was consecrated by the Bishop of Chester on November 20th, 1819--Coniston being still within the diocese of Chester, not yet transferred to that of Carlisle.
In 1835 a faculty of confirmation was issued from the Consistory Court of Chester by which pews were assigned to the contributors of the building fund and other parishioners. In 1849, Dr. Gibson described the building as "oblong and barn-like, with a few blunt-arched windows in its dirty yellow walls, and overtopped at its western extremity by an unsightly black superstructure of rough stone, which some might call a small square tower badly proportioned, and others, with apparently equal correctness, the stump of a large square chimney."
In 1866 the same writer, in a paper read to the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, said:--"The church of Coniston, which occupies a position central to the village, is a chapel of ease under Ulverston, with a stipend of £146, recently augmented, derived from land, houses, bounty, dividends and fees. It was rebuilt in 1819 on the site of an older edifice. The only part of the former church that remains is the belfry tower, which, being out of keeping and small in proportion to the body of the present building, confers but little ecclesiastical and no architectural distinction upon it."
The late Mr. Roger Bownass, in marginal pencillings on this paper, noted:--"This is an error. The Belfry Tower was wholly rebuilt at the same time as the church, i.e., in 1818-19; the writer of this note having seen the old Tower pulled down, and new Foundations laid; One reason for the Landowners rebuilding the Church (which they did chiefly at their own expense) being the alleged state of the old Tower, the Bells of which, the Sexton pretended he durst not ring for fear he should bring the Tower down about his ears, though it was so difficult to get it down. So strongly was it built and cemented together that it had to be cut through nearly, near its base, before it could be brought down." Mr. Bownass goes on to say that his father, as one of the guarantees, contributed nearly £50, "which his widow had to pay, he himself dying before it was finished, and was the first person carried into the Church while the shavings, etc., lay on the floor, as the writer, his son, of 6 years of age, can well remember."