A very early Cantabrian: a grave concidence

 

Horrid weather, pre- and post-operative blues ... time to head back to the 19th century ...
I've got a new favourite amongst ebay dealers "charles rivers 0654" so I went for a wee wander through his listings ... with the most surprising results.
I decided I liked the look of this rather difficultly decipherable chappie, from the old village of Sedberg(h), Westmoreland.

and here is his wife ...

A small place, a complex name ... should be easy. Wasn't.

First of all decipher the surname. Conley? Cottley? Cossley? Crossley? The middle name looks more straightforward. Dampier. First name C****. 90% of the time that will be Charles. Not this time.

But I got there. He was christened Croslegh Dampier. Crossley was his mother's maiden name. So you stick your mother's name on to your father's? Is this just a yearning for a hyphen, or ...  It was 'or'. I should have guessed: wealthy uncle leaves fortune to nephew with the proviso that he assumes the family name. Croslegh covered both courts: he took both his parents' names.

OK. Here we are! When you know, it's easy ! 

"Scaitliffe Hall is beautifully situated in a picturesque part of the Burnley Valley. The south part was rebuilt in 1666 and the north part in 1738, but it was completely pulled down and re-erected in 1833. It is now a hotel and restaurant, but from mediaeval times it had been the home of the Crossley family..."

"The next owner of Scaitliffe was John's son and heir, also John Crossley of Scaitliffe ... married the only daughter of Thomas Ramsbottom of Centre Vale Mill Todmorden 27 September 1834. They were childless and therefore John devised Scaitcliffe and his other estates in Lancashire and Yorkshire to his nephew, Croslegh Dampier, son of his sister, Matilda. This was with the request that Croslegh Dampier would take the surname and the Arms of Crossley ...

Just to keep things straight, Matilda Crossley's husband was a solicitor by name Christopher Edward Dampier and they had four children: Mary Elizabeth, Matilda
Catherine, our man and Harry who died aged 25. Father was 'of Amwell Cottage, Ware' and clerk to local institutions, until he headed for 48 Lincoln's Inn Fields.

We are told that Mr Crossley took his young namesake under his wing, and taught him to become a gentleman farmer ...

And now the other side gets into the act. Christopher emigrated ... to New Zealand. Why? Well, in the 1840s the church decided upon 'the colonisation of New Zealand',
and things moved quickly as the land-grabbing began ..

The solicitor deputed to sail for New Zealand, on the Phoebe Dunbar, bearing the documents of Association was ... Mr Dampier. 'Without further delay' he set out, and arrived in Canterbury 8 November 1850. The famous 'first four ships' which every New Zealand schoolboy was taught of in my day, sent out by the Association, was two months behind him ... Christopher was quick to get his business on wheels and quick to invest in the new community. In March 1851 he bought 47 acres at Heathcote. He had a grocery shop erected on his property at London Road (it went broke), Lyttleton, purchased land in Kilmore and Chester Street, Christchurch, and entered full tilt into the colonial squabbles, political and urban finagling, and pettifogging and property-broking of the time. He was the first to moot a Lyttelton Tunnel, introduced the mulberry tree for silkworming, and also grew peaches and strawberries. And at some stage in 1870 he gave up Lyttleton.

Ah! Here is the Roehampton arriving from England 7 March 1858 bearing Mrs C E Dampier and two sons! mother Matilda, Croslegh and teenaged Harry. And a few weeks later, Croslegh in his turn purchases a large chunk of Hurunui. And another. And when father isn't in court defending or prosecuting sheep stealers, he's in court trying to secure his boundaries ... or pinch a bit of someone else's run. Usually successfully.

So, there we are. Croslegh Dampier arrives in New Zealand. In Hurunui. At what became known as Eskhead Station. And there he would stay. I see him referred to from time to time as 'of Leithfield', 'of Woodend', 'of Brockenhurst' or 'of Rangiora' ... good grief I live 12 mins from Rangiora!!!! but the 'run' at Eskhead remained the Dampier-Crossley headquarters. He also returned periodically to Britan. Brother Harry died on one trip (1866) and Croslegh got married, his bride being Mary Eliza Palin, daughter of a country vicar (b Stifford, Essex 7 June 1847; d Woodend 7 June 1893). And, of course they had their photos taken at Sedberg(h). John Crossley having died, CD inherited the lands and titles, and duly became CDC. And then they returned )1868 to Canterbury.

The family historians credit them with two sons and three daughters. John DC, Henry Maurice CDC, Isabella Catherine (Mrs Potts) and Mary Ethel (Mrs Macrae) ... and, hang on, I seem to have an extra daughter (1870). 

One daughter (Matilda Constance) died, aged 3. In 1892, I spot them travelling with 'two daughters' so I guess they lost the 1870 one as well. John died, aged 40, and it was Harry who succeeded to Esk

Anyway, CDC was a JP and a pillar of society and sheep, bred, dealt in and raced horses, and polo ponies, was president of the Brackenfield Hunt, and his mini-obituaries credited him with being 'the first man to take sheep to the West Coast' A story there?  In 1893 his draft totalled 3000 ewes and wethers. 

Cruising through Charles's list I found more photos labelled in that forceful handwriting ... 'Miss Catherine Dampier' is clearly Matilda Catherine (Christopher's second daughter).

Catherine (b 8 November 1837) came south too. She married one Andrew David Mason Allan, and died at Akaroa 6 February1901. Apparently they had bought a piece of Little River. That's where our peafowl came from ...  oh lawks (and squawks). Lots more to discover. But back to the photos ..

So, eldest sister Mary Elizabeth. Mary married ship's captain John Frank Atkinson (12 June 1860) of the East India ship Blenheim, and of Micklegate House, Pontefract ... in Yorkshire, and  in the same bundle of pictures I find another 'Aunt and Uncle'...  Robert Atkinson and wife ... 

Well, John Frank's father was Robert -- 'gentleman of Abingdon Street' -- (m 1806). So was one of his sons. But the latter was born in 1866. Did he have a brother Robert? Who is the Robert who witnesses JF's marriage? Along with John Crossley, Mary Hepworth (an aunt) of Ackworth Lodge and Dr James D Simpson? The Robert Atkinson of Iron Bridge Cottage, Brixton who teamed with JF (of Amwell End, Ware) to execute the will of -- yes, their mother --, Louisa Jane née Street, in 1868? Yep, Uncle Robert. Born 18 June 1810. And now I know, I see there was a sister, Louisa Archer Atkinson, and a William Bilboa (b 7 November 1818), a Thomas Francis (b 18 June 1813) and a Margaret (b 15 February 1815) ...   

Robert Atkinson, chief clerk at the Admiralty. Wife Elizabeth née Stone (m 28 February 1839). This is they. 

So, thats the photos sorted. But whose photos were they? My theory is that, to have a Dampier aunt and uncle, and also an Atkinson aunt and uncle our photo collector would have to be a child of Captain Atkinson and Mary Elizabeth. Hummmm. Choice of six. (One son died as an infant). The eldest, Hepworth Frank Atkinson became a clergyman, executed his mother's will, and would be my guess.

Well, there's a heap more to find and record here.  

Here is Croslegh divesting himself of part of his Uncles property ...

Must pop down to Rangiora and Woodend cemeteries. You never know! When it is a nicer day. But findagrave already tells me that CDC is buried in Rangiora Cemetery (damme! I passed within 10 metres of it today!)

Oh dear! What removes lichen ...?

Little Matilda Constance is at Woodend ... as is mother Mary Eliza née Palin ... 

Catherine lies in a broken grave at Wainui Cemetery ...

What a shame. But I can't mend any more graves of Canterbury Pioneer Women. I'm on a pension now. Lucy Sutton was my last effort.

https://kurtofgerolstein.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-woman-of-canterbury-end-of-story.html

So maybe the descendants will do so, and send me a photo. ganzl@xtra.co.nz

CDC in later life

This isn't finished. Today being a mild Sunday I got out my tiny red car, and headed off on a cemetery trawl. Result: half fig, half raisin.  Rangiora first. Nicely mowed. Many, many broken and rotted stones. Hobbled around the alleys. No Croslegh. He's in G1. Section 1. But there are no letter guides. More homework to be done. The remnants of a sign refers to it as the Ashley Road Cemetery. No church. Am I in the wrong place? I suppose there was more than one Anglican Cemetery in Rangiora? I mean being Anglican was almost compulsory in the 19th century. Back to square zero.

Dispirited, sweaty, the good leg aching from compensating for the useless one, my temper tortured by the broken marble ... come on, marble steles last longer than a century, see ancient Greece/Rome ..

and Sunday, and no ice cream stand ....

Deep breath. No I'll continue to the planned Part II of my trip. St Barnabas, Woodend. WELL! World of difference. Beautiful little (hurrah!) church 

Immaculate graveyard, still active by the sight of the modern plastic grave-goods (see lower left), and not too huge. I can manage this. Off we hobble. Bugger why did I not bring my stick!

As the trudged the rows ... marvelling at the sensitivity and scholarship with which good old Barnabas had replaced any destroyed memorial with a white inscribed cross ... heart sinking ever lower ... and bingo! Third last row

Mother and daughter. With a re-openable gravetail where I suppose CDC was meant to join them. He, for some reason, went to Rangiora.

Anyway mission semi-accomplished ...

Now I just have to work out how to make the insane Blogger stay in one font, one size, one layout ....