THE SPEDDING FAMILY OF GILLING WEST AND MELSONBY
When we came to search for our family roots we were stunned to find that family records, going back to 1650, had been destroyed in a fire around 1900. All we had to go on were a couple of red herrings – great grandfather Spedding had lived in India, and several family members were named Carlisle Spedding. Was this a reference to Cumberland origins? Not so, we found out. Research over the past 15 years has proved our family to be Yorkshire born and bred for many generations with possible Viking origins. Fortunately we have been able to chart their lives from many sources including family wills, church and land records in Gilling West and Melsonby, newspapers and personal recollections. The following is what we know to date.
Our earliest date is 1576. On 12th July of that year, Matheus Spiddinge married Agnes Millner, daughter of Johis Millner, a wool worker, in St. Mary’s Parish Church, Richmond. However one month later, on 19th August, Agnes Millner married Xpofer (Christopher) Spence in Richmond! We don’t know the significance of this coincidence and the exact relationship to our family isn’t proven; however Matthew Spedding in its spelling variations was very much one of our early family names.
The next mention of the known family comes 64 years later in Gilling with the birth in 1640 of “ffrancis, sonne of Matthew Spenig”. Spedy, Spedim and Speedim were other spelling variations found at this time. Francis married Mary Massam in Melsonby in 1673. At that time, the Massams were living in High Grange and the Speddings in Low Grange, both in Melsonby. Francisc Spedy is recorded as a Gardiam or church warden in 1678 and 1679 for St. James, Melsonby. The family were yeoman farmers and farmed in Hartforth, Gilling and in Low Grange, Melsonby where they held the freehold.
Their son Thomas, the eldest of four (the others were George 1676, Margaret 1678 and Francis 1681) was born in 1674 and married Mary Middleton of Sedbergh in 1714. He farmed in Gilling and Melsonby, had six children born in Gilling and died at Low Grange in 1756 aged 82. His burial note in the parish register describes him as a “Scr er.” This possibly means a scrivener or scribe – an intermediary for arranging contacts between masters and apprentices, or possibly a writer, drafter of documents, notary, broker or even a moneylender. In his will he left £20 to his son Francis, £40 to his son Marmaduke and 2/6 each to his daughter Mary Lockey and to Thomas Glover, husband of his late daughter Elizabeth. To his eldest son Thomas he left 1/-, a possible example of someone being “cut off with a shilling” and thereby legally unable to contest the will, though there may be more logical reasons for this. In rural districts often the eldest son inherited the farm, as Thomas jr. did, so other siblings would have to be duly compensated. Of these six children, Mary married William Lockey of Gainford, Thomas, Elizabeth, Marmaduke and William settled in Melsonby, while Francis stayed in Gilling. Hereafter we will now follow the Melsonby and Gilling lines separately.
THE SPEDDING FAMILY OF MELSONBY
The eldest son Thomas was living in Melsonby when he married Eliza Harrison of Forcell. Of their four children, only William Henry 1778-1829 married, and tragically so. His first wife Sarah Linn died in 1805 of consumption aged 26. His second wife Mary Saunderson died in 1810 of “phtis” (phthisis or T.B.) aged 24. His only child to survive childhood, Mary, inherited her father’s house, butcher shop and orchard in Melsonby and an allotment on Gatherley Moor, so Low Grange seems to have passed out of the family. At age 38 she married Thomas Iveson of Aldborough and their son Spedding Iveson, a joiner and cowkeeper, took over the tenancy of a small place in Melsonby in 1884. This property was sold to the Wesleyan School in Melsonby in 1898, Spedding Iveson having returned to Aldborough in 1891.
William Henry’s younger brother, George 1779-1857 was born in Richmond. Originally a butcher, he was landlord of The Angel in Catterick for 28 years at the end of the coaching days. He married Elizabeth Best in Melsonby in 1808. Their daughter Mary, born in 1809, married Matthew Parkinson Cooke, a school master in Gilling where their three children – William, Ann and George Cooke - were all born. Mary was probably the last of the Spedding family to live in Gilling.
Mary’s brother William Spedding 1814-1871 was a mercer or hosier by trade, living in Blackwell Gate, later in Victoria Road in Darlington. In 1837 he married Sarah Thompson, daughter of James Thompson, a silversmith in Darlington. William died of rabies and a lengthy obituary in the Darlington and Richmond Herald dated 18th February 1871 told the sad story.
SHOCKING DEATH FROM HYDROPHOBIA
“On Feb 11, in Victoria-road, Darlington, aged 57, Mr. Wm. Spedding. On Saturday evening, about 5 o’clock, Mr. William Spedding, proprietor of a hosiery establishment on the High-row, died under especially lamentable circumstances, at his residence in Victoria-road. During the second week in November he was bitten by a small bull-terrier which he kept to guard the shop. The dog was destroyed shortly afterwards, but as the wound was not a severe one, and healed up well, he paid little attention to it. Up to Thursday last he had been in his usual health, but on Friday began to be evidentially unwell, and the symptoms became so alarming that on Saturday he was attended by three doctors who were unanimous in the conclusion that he was suffering from hydrophobia. At intervals he was perfectly sane and calm, and at these times, having the awful consciousness of the madness which was in his system, he would earnestly desire that nothing should be given him to drink, as he could not swallow, and he was extremely sensitive to even a breath of air. Whilst the paroxysms had possession of him he was with difficulty restrained and as the end approached he suffered great agony.”
William and Sarah had two daughters. Sarah married John Waldie and their son William Spedding Waldie lived in Darlington, was a founder of the Darlington Art Players and a church warden at St. James parish church. He died in 1936. Anna Marie (Minnie) Spedding married George Wharton Simpson, M.S., F.S.A. and lived in Islington, London.
Other family members who settled in Melsonby were Marmaduke (1724-1805) known as Duke, who married Margaret Baker in Melsonby. Their eldest daughter Mary married John Robinson of South Cowton and their grandson Christopher Robinson was a farmer, butcher and brewer at the Blue Anchor farm in Middleton Tyas. Daughter Elizabeth married Robert Thompson and son Marmaduke (1760-1849) a weaver, lived in Melsonby and never married. All of his father’s generation married relatively late in life; Thomas at 30, Mary at 25 and Elizabeth at 27. Francis married for the first time at 25, for the second time at 30 and for the third when he was 70. Marmaduke was 32 and the youngest son William was 68 when he was married for the first and only time to Mrs. Ann Linskill. William was a carpenter, lived at Bachside, Melsonby and left a brilliant will which mentions all the members of his family.
One last note before we leave Melsonby. The following somewhat threatening memo was found written into the Melsonby parish records.
“Note also the late Rector Thos. Kay bought in his lifetime a set of Communion Plate – vs 2 Chalices and Covers and a silver offering plate for use of the parish of Melsonby and at his death bequeathed a silk pall to the said Parish on condition they would abolish the custom of carrying corpses in napkins and adopt a mode of carrying them shoulder height otherwise I’ll (deliver) it to the Parish of Richmond.” Witness my hand William Lazonby, 1737.
THE SPEDDING FAMILY OF GILLING WEST
This branch of the family descends from Francis Spedding, second son of Thomas Spedding and Mary Middleton. Francis was born in Gilling in 1722 and lived there nearly all his life. His first wife Jane Bow was the daughter of William and Margaret Bow of Marrick, Yorkshire. They married in Richmond in 1747 when Francis was 25 and Jane was 17. Their daughter Mary was born in Richmond a year later but sadly Jane died in 1749 aged 19. She has a tiny tombstone half hidden under a tree in the Gilling churchyard, where so many family members are buried.
Francis was 30 when he married Isabel Redhead in 1752. She came of a well-known Gilling family. Isabel died in 1789 after 37 years of marriage and two children – Margaret, born in 1753 and Samuel born in 1757, later the Chief Constable of Gilling. Francis married in Gilling for the third time in 1792 when he was 70 years old. His third wife was Hannah Cooke and their son Thomas was born the following year. Sadly this child of his old age died in 1800 aged 7. Francis lived at The Butts, Gilling, where he died aged 85 in 1808.
The only surviving son, Samuel Francis Spedding, farmed extensively and kept an inn before being appointed Chief Constable in 1815 and attending the Assizes in York. His fees were:
Every watch warrant – 1 shilling
Every freehold warrant – 1 shilling
Return of the 14 articles twice a year – 1 shilling
Collecting public money – 1 shilling per pound
Every receipt for a quarterly payment – 1 shilling.
He married Mary Crawford of Auckland in 1784 and they had ten children known to survive. The eldest, Francis, was born in Gilling in 1785. He is listed in the Yorkshire Directory of 1824 as a Malster and Brewer and had a malt-kiln, brew house, offices, yard and paddock in Gilling. He was also a warden at St. Agathas in Gilling for 21 years. He married Mary Sayer in Manfield in 1815. Mary was the sister of Elizabeth Sayer, wife of his brother Samuel Spedding, an interesting example of brothers marrying sisters. Samuel was also in the family occupation of butcher and brewer in Gilling and had six children:
Elizabeth 1815 married Thomas Umpleby of Carthorpe, Yorkshire
Samuel 1817 born in Manfield, died aged 26
Christopher 1819 married Ann Gardner in Bishopwearmouth
Mary Ann 1821
Thomas George 1825 married Jane Harper in Newcastle upon Tyne
Alice 1830, unmarried, a school teacher
We have tried to trace these families but can find no descendants so far.
Not all the children of a brewer could hold their drink. Francis’ eldest son William died in London after five days of delirium tremens in the Great Northern Hospital dispensary at Kings Cross. The third son Sayer Spedding was a brewer in South Church and in Bishop Auckland but was declared bankrupt at age 33. Sayer is next found in the 1880 census for New York State, brewer, living in German Flatts, Herkimer County with a wife and two children, Margaret and Frank, neither of whom apparently ever married. Frank was last noted in the 1920 United States Federal Census as a patient in the Arizona State Hospital, a well-known treatment centre for tuberculosis.
The 4th son William Redhead Spedding was born in Gilling in 1800. He farmed in nearby Kirby Hill where he died aged 29. All his family are commemorated on a stone in Kirby Hill churchyard, where he is buried under the trees and facing the pub.
The 5th son Joseph was born in 1807. In 1829 then aged 22 he appears in Baines Directory as a “Chymist, Druggist and Tea Dealer” in Market Place, Richmond. A Joseph Spedding is known to have rented property in Melsonby in 1850 together with a George Spedding, but we have been unable to trace these two or their families.
Of the 4 daughters of Chief Constable Samuel, Isabella married John Tweddell in Darlington, Ann married Charles Marston in Melsonby and Elizabeth, born in 1801, ran “Elizabeth Spedding Academies” in Gilling in the 1840s. Jane married John Smith Almond in 1831 in Darlington, where her husband was the innkeeper of the Green Tree Inn at Skinner Gate.
A brief snapshot of Yorkshire village life emerges from the following statistic and illustrates how the beginnings of social movement away from the land affected Gilling. In 1821, the area covered by the West Gilling wapentake contained 14 new houses and 79 uninhabited houses. The great Victorian move from the rural to the urban life was getting underway. By 1850 it would appear that few members of the Spedding family remained in this area where they had lived for over 300 years.
One last member of the family should be mentioned. The Rev. Francis Spedding was born in Gilling in 1818 to Francis Spedding and his wife Mary Sayer. We have often wondered how he managed to rise above the yeoman farming community which had produced so many generations of his family. One clue lies with the Hartforth School in Hartforth, a hamlet just north of Gilling. This school was founded in 1678 for the education of the poor boys of Gilling and is now closed. Each year two boys were to have apprentice fees of £5 each and one was to be sent to either of the Universities (Oxford or Cambridge) and have a yearly stipend of £5. It is possible that Francis, who appears to be the first Spedding to go on to exceptionally higher learning, arrived at Cambridge via this route. He was admitted sizar (a student allowed free commons privileges etc.) in 1839 to Emmanuel College. He was ordained at Durham and was curate in Shifnal, Shropshire, before becoming vicar of Donisthorpe in Derbyshire, now Leicestershire. He loved Gilling and often took services in St. Agathas in Gilling, though not for the sad burial there of two of his young sons, who had died of scarlet fever in Shifnal.
In his will he asked to be buried in Gilling, but he died the winter of November 1884 and was buried in Donisthorpe, probably because of the road conditions. At this time, none of his three children who had survived childhood were present to carry out his wishes. His son Frank Sayer Spedding was an artist and illustrator living in New York, Charles Spedding was a civil engineer in India and daughter Marion had married George Richardson and moved to Ireland.
Our branch of the family descends from Charles, known to us as The Famous Engineer, a colourful Victorian character. He carried out exploits in northern India, building roads and railways while protected by his private army, Spedding’s Pathans. But his is a story for another day.
I have tried to name as many family connections as possible. If anyone knows of this family or of anyone who may be connected, or can add to this account in any way, please let me know. I sincerely hope that we are not the sole descendants of this once thriving Yorkshire family.
Nan Spedding
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Nan and Michael Spedding,
6864 East Boulevard,
Vancouver B.C., V6P 5R3,
Canada.
nanspedding@shaw.ca