R
Raby, Doris (1903-1994), amateur actress and teacher, Barrow, daughter of Richard Raby (1871-1946) and Sarah Ann Bowes (1874-1961), taught in primary schools Barrow, had a fine aquiline profile and strong personality which led to excellent character performances in The Elizabethans drama group in 1950s and 60s, usually wore enormous rings (in the manner of Edith Sitwell), lived 15 Croslands Park, for some years with her partner Miriam Hall, a speech and drama specialist, lived latterly at a care home in Bardsea, on the coast road to Ulverston
Radcliffe family, earls of Derwentwater, also see Ratcliffe and Radclyffe
Radcliffe, Ann (1764-1823; ODNB) (nee Ward), author and pioneer of Gothic fiction, born in London, 9 July 1764, daughter of William Ward (d.1795), haberdasher, and his wife, Ann (nee Oates) (d.1796), passed much of her childhood in the households of more prosperous and socially elevated relatives, moved to Bath in 1772 and may have attended a school for young ladies run by Sophia and Harriet Lee, innovators themselves in writing of Gothic fiction and drama, marr (1787) William Radcliffe, parliamentary reporter and later proprietor and editor of the English Chronicle, who encouraged her in her first writing ventures, first novel The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne published anonymously in 1789, followed by A Sicilian Romance also anonymously in 1790, which received some favourable attention from the reviewers, The Romance of the Forest (first edition anon 1791 but authorship acknowledged in second edition 1792), established her as the supreme practitioner of the Gothic mode, then referred to ‘the Terrorist System of Novel Writing’, ‘the hobgoblin romance’ or eventually ‘the Radcliffe romance’, The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) established her literary reputation with novel’s popular success at home and abroad, enthusiastic traveller, made tour of Netherlands and Germany with her husband in summer of 1794, travelling down the Rhine as far as the Swiss border, and of Lake District in autumn, prob first woman tourist to venture up the mountains, her account of Skiddaw was printed in later editions of West’s Guide, with publication of the tours in 1795 (To Which Are Added Observations During a Tour to the Lakes of Lancashire and Westmorland, and Cumberland), though the tours of southern Europe undertaken in the novels were based on travel books, fashionable landscape paintings and a vivid imagination, with the scene painting heightened by verse, published The Italian, or The Confessional of the Black Penitents in 1797, which consolidated her reputation as ‘the Great Enchantress’, described by Walter Scott as ‘the first poetess of romantic fiction’, her works translated into many languages, new financial independence led to her retiring from publishing, toured Kent and south-east coast in 1797, was subject of a laudatory essay in the Critical Review (attributed to Coleridge) in 1798, toured Southampton, Portsmouth and Isle of Wight in 1801, completed Gaston de Blondeville after visiting Kenilworth Castle in 1802, but disinclined to publish it (later published posthumously together with a narrative poem St Alban’s Abbey and other works in 1826), later increasingly shunned literary society for privacy, The Poems of Ann Radcliffe, an unauthorised reprint of her poems from the novels, was published in 1816, died of asthmatic fever after a bout of delirium, 7 February 1823
Radcliffe, Ernest Bond (1919-2003; ODNB), police officer
Radcliffe, Francis (15xx-16xx), MA, Queen’s College, Oxford, Headmaster of St Bees School 1630-1679
Radcliffe, Sir Francis (1563-1622), involved in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 and decribed as ‘an obstinate, dangerous and not unlearned recusant’, created baronet in 1620 and bought the manor of Alston in 1619, his son Sir Edward 2nd Bt fought in the civil war, his grandson Sir Francis was created earl of Derwentwater (qv); Hud (C)
Radcliffe, Henry Miles (1851-1908), JP, High Sheriff of Westmorland, 2nd son of Samuel Radcliffe (1814-1876), of Werneth Park, Oldham, marr, 1 son (Captain Miles Radcliffe (1883-1914) killed in action, leaving 1 son, Miles Claude (b.1914)), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1896, of Summerlands, near Kendal, died in 1908
Radcliffe, James (1689-1716; ODNB), 3rd earl of Derwentwater; dispossessed in 1716 as a Jacobite and executed, did not live in Keswick but at Dilston, Northumberland; his estates were given to Greenwich hospital, London and his 17thc clock from Dilston is at the church at Alston
Radcliffe, John (1650-1714) MD, physician, b.Wakefield, lived Cumberland; mss Jackson library [now CRO?], portrait Tullie House, biography Jackson library Carlisle, also The Golden Headed Cane, lives of MDs
Radcliffe, Margaret (c.1582-1654; ODNB), abbess (name in religion Margaret Paul), second daughter of Sir Francis Radcliffe (1563-1622) of Dilston, Northumberland and Derwentwater
Radcliffe [Radclyffe], Sir Richard (d.1485), of Derwentwater, acting Sheriff of Westmorland 1483, supported Richard III at Bosworth Field 1485 as ‘one of the satellites’ and died on the field
Raffel, John (20thc), motor taxi proprietor, Carlisle, also licensee of Bowling Green hotel in Lowther St; Perriam, 2022, 37
Ragg, Frederick William (1845-1929), MA, FRHistS, clergyman and antiquary, educ Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1874, MA 1877), d 1877 and p 1878 (Cant), curate of Nonington, Dover 1877-1880, vicar of Marsworth, Tring, Bucks 1880-1906, elected fellow of Royal Historical Society in 1905, member of CWAAS from 1902 and member of Council, sent ‘voluminous letters’ to WGC as editor of Transactions re his articles on Westmorland manors (letter of 21 March 1909), author of Quorsum (19xx), Last Post and Reveille (1912), a volume of sonnets on the state of public affairs, marr (wife joined CWAAS in 1914), of The Manor House, Lower Boddington, Byfield, died in 1929 (CW2, xxx, 234)
Raghton, Henry de, (of Raughtonhead ?) son of Ivo (qv), held his demesne as of fee of the king, marr Juetta, his son John; collection of fine rolls PRO temp Edward III
Raghton, Ivo de (14thc), master mason, influenced the design of the east window Carlisle cathedral, worked at York, Beverley, Selby, Southwell and Lincoln, his son Henry also in C.; mss Kew
Raikes, Arthur Hamilton (1858-1929), MA, JP, headmaster, born 22 February 1858, yr son of Revd F T Raikes (qv), educ Oxford (MA), marr (15 April 1886) Minnie Aubrey, dau of Edward Wise, Judge of Supreme Court, Sydney, NSW, 1 son (Marcus Hamilton (1889-1942), MA (Oxon), Captain, of The Cottage, Windermere), Headmaster of Old College, Windermere [later Phoenix Centre], JP Westmorland, of Knipe Tarn, Crook, Kendal, died 1929
Raikes,Frede rick Thornton (1819-1895), clergyman, born 20 February 1819, yr son of Richard Mee Raikes (1783-1863), of London [see BLG, Raikes, of Llwynegrin] and of Jane (d.1875), dau of Samuel Thornton, marr 1st (27 July 1843) Eliza Euphemia (d.15 March 1845), dau of John Hamilton, of Dover, 1 dau (Margaret, d.1845), marr 2nd (29 January 1849) Harriet (d.1 February 1905), dau of James Stubbs, 2 sons (A H qv) and 5 daus (eldest, Julia, wife of William Stavert, qv), formerly Lieut in HM 62nd Regt, d 1859 and p 1860 (Carl), curate of St George’s, Kendal 1859-1860, vicar of Milnthorpe 1860-1895, chaplain to Milnthorpe Union 1874-18xx, died 26 March 1895, aged 76, and buried at Milnthorpe, 30 March (KCN, 06.04.1895)
Rainbow(e), Edward (1608-1684; ODNB), DD, MA, bishop of Carlisle and college head, born at Blyton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, 20 April 1608, son of Revd Thomas Rainbow, the vicar, and his wife Rebecca, dau of Revd David Allen, rector of Ludborough, the neighbouring parish, and godson of Edward Wray of Rycot, Oxon, educ school in Gainsborough, then sent in April 1620 to study under John Williams, a prebendary of Peterborough and old friend of his father, transferring to Westminster School in 1621, obtained scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in July 1623, but received a nomination to one of the Wray scholarships founded at Magdalene College, Cambridge by father of Frances, dowager countess of Warwick, in July 1625, BA 1627, MA 1630, accepted mastership of school at Kirton in Lindsey in July 1630, but soon moved to London, first at Fuller’s Rents and later at Sion College, for use of its library, ordained in April 1632, apptd curate at Savoy Chapel after unsuccessful application for chaplaincy at Lincoln’s Inn, returned to Cambridge in November 1633 and elected to a by-fellowship of Magdalene College, with a pre-election to first open fellowship to fall vacant, successful tutor (pupils inc two sons of earl of Suffolk, Theophilus Howard), presented to small vicarage of Childerley, near Cambridge and elected dean of Magdalene in 1637, appointed master in 1642 succ Henry Smyth by Suffolk (now James Howard), proved effective master, putting college registers in order, ably managing finances and increasing student numbers, granted a pass into Holland on 16 May 1645, DD 1646, became rector of Great Easton, Essex in 1648 and prob used liturgy from Book of Common Prayer, preached funeral sermon at interment of Susanna, Countess of Suffolk, dated at Audley End, 11 September 1649, expelled by Parliament in 1650 for refusing to swear to the engagement for regulation of universities on grounds of conscience, marr (1652) Elizabeth (d.1702), dau of Henry Smyth, his predecessor at Magdalene, no children, lived peaceably during Commonwealth, accepting living of Little Chesterford, Essex from Suffolk, presented by earl of Warwick to rectory of Benefield, Northants, on 23 March 1659, restored to mastership of Magdalene at Restoration and apptd a chaplain to king in 1660, apptd dean of Peterborough in 1661, but returned to Cambridge on his appointment as vice-chancellor in November 1662, nominated as bishop of Carlisle in April (on translation of Richard Sterne to York) and consecrated bishop by archbishop Sheldon in Westminster Abbey on 10 July 1664, had to borrow money for his consecration and first fruits, also found his palace at Rose Castle in ruined state, involving him in heavy outlay in building new parlour and chapel, receiving £400 in dilapidations from Sterne after protracted litigation, formally visited cathedral on 6 September 1666, published his visitation articles in 1667, endeavoured to raise standards in parishes, commissions issued for Carlisle deanery in December 1668 and for rest in September 1669, with negligent clergy defying him publicly, spent winters in London in house on the Strand, near Suffolk House (the palace of his Howard patrons), on fringe of court life, esp with wife establishing range of contacts through Suffolks, outspoken critic of immorality, poss translation to Lincoln in 1668 blocked (prob by Lady Sedley), also poss candidate to succ Sheldon in 1677, but received no offer, preached sermon at funeral of Lady Anne, countess of Pembroke, at Appleby on 14 April 1676 and published it ‘with some Remarks on the Life of that Eminent Lady’ (London, 1677; reprinted as one of the Carlisle Tracts by Samuel Jefferson (qv) in 1839), which while going too far in eulogising her is an important source for her personal life, often having discussed her life and times with her, gives telling details of her domestic life and attests to her command of theological issues and scriptural language, as well as quality of her conversation, praised her building as a work of piety and her charity as a benefaction, despite coded phrases in his three-hour-long panegyric of a sermon, his own hospitality and charity were extensive, buying barley in years of scarcity to distribute to poor (150 relieved in one day at Rose), made monthly payment of 30s. to poor at Dalston and Carlisle, paid for education of poor boys at Dalston school and putting them out as apprentices, supported poor scholars at universities, also subscribed to French protestants and foreign converts, his own domestic life a model of piety, orthodox but moderate Anglican, though sympathetic to nonconformists, friendship with Presbyterians like Francis Tallents, famous as a preacher, later abandoning ornate rhetoric for plainer style, planned a treatise on Verba Christi, but never completed before he died at Rose on morning of 26 March 1684, aged 75, after winter of ‘the great frost’, and buried in Dalston churchyard, 1 April, under simple slab of ‘plain common freestone’ with short latin inscription, with sermon preached by his chaplain and chancellor, Thomas Tullie (qv), and published with his meditations and short poems in The Life of … Edward Rainbow by Jonathan Banks in 1688, ‘a pious and worthy prelate’ (Todd, i, 183); his widow Elizabeth (whose recipe book of 1670s/80s survives at Dalemain) lived mainly at Dalemain after his death with her sister’s son, Sir Edward Hasell (qv), until she died in 1702 and also buried at Dalston (portrait attrib to C Netsher in LAC, 217, portraits also at Dalemain and at Magdalene College) (PPLC, 273-281; FiO, i, 174)
Raincock, Fletcher (17xx-1840), FSA, barrister at law and last recorder of Kendal, elected 7 December and sworn 21 December 1818, office discontinued under Municipal Reform Act 1835, died at Liverpool, 17 August 1840, aged 71
Raincock, John (1768-1835), see Fleming
Raincock, William (17xx-1xxx), clergyman, rector of Ousby, marr Agnes, eldest sister of Fletcher Fleming (1753-1777), son (John, qv)
Raine, Kathleen (1908-2003), poet, critic and scholar, born Essex, dau schoolmaster George Raine of Co Durham, her mother Scots, educ Girton college, Cambridge, wrote on Keats and Blake, numerous poetry collections including Stone and Flower (1943), The Pythoness (1949), On a Deserted Shore (1973), Collected Poems (2000), co-founder of the Temenos Academy, lectured widely including at Grasmere, a friend of Helen Sutherland (qv) who fostered two of her children during the war, several autobiographical works including The Lion’s Mouth (1977); obit Guardian 8 July 2003
Ramsden, Carola Eloise (1938-2009), dau of John St Maur Ramsden and granddaughter of Sir John Frecheville Ramsden 6th Bt (qqv) married in 1961 George Fillmore Miller III of New York, the son of George Fillmore Miller Jr (1900-1978), they had one son and divorced, she then married Robert Ernest James Phillipi (b.1932), they had one son, (are the Fillmore Millers related to Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the USA ?); thepeerage.com
Ramsden, Frederic J [1859-1941], son of Sir James Ramsden (qv), superintendent of Furness Railway line from 1896, joined board of directors in 1909, and apptd chairman from 1917, previously deputy chairman (FR, 61), lived at Abbotswood, which though built by the Furness railway came into the ownership of the borough, was used and badly damaged by soldiers in the 2nd WW and demolished in the early 1960s; obit Barrow News 8 November 1941; his marble bust as a child is in the town hall
Ramsden, Sir James (1822-1896; ODNB), DL, civil engineer and civic leader, the driving force behind the growth and development of Barrow, first locomotive engineer of Furness Railway in 1845, memorably supervised the landing of the first local steam engine onto a pebbly beach below the newly laid railway line at Barrow, then raising it into position on the track, secretary and general manager of Furness Railway Company from 1850, also of Ulverston and Lancaster Railway (opened 1857) and Coniston Railway (opened 1859), both of which were taken over by the Furness in 1862, together with the Whitehaven & Furness in 1866, managing director from 1865 (with Henry Cook transferred from Whitehaven to be new secretary of company and also traffic manager), impressed by his energy and efficiency the railway company built for him the vast house of Abbotswood (demolished 1960s) above Furness Abbey, first mayor of newly incorporated borough of Barrow, serving for 5 successive terms 1867-1872, knighted in 1872, High Sheriff of Lancashire 1873, gave first public baths to the town, bronze statue by Matthew Noble in Barrow erected in his own lifetime in the eponymous Ramsden Square, died at Abbotswood, Barrow, 19 October 1896 and buried in Barrow cemetery in his own mausoleum; his heraldic ram’s head appears as the crest upon the Barrow coat of arms and elsewhere in the town, not least as eight finials on the octagonal tower of the town hall; Jack Kellett, Sir James Ramsden; stained glass to Millom; Rod White, Furness Stories Behind the Stones; Lindop, 271-2; David A. Cross, Public Sculpture of Lancashire and Cumbria, 2017, 131-2
Ramsden, Sir William 5th Bt (1831-1914), descendant of 1st Bt of Byrom (Y) and John 1st viscount Lonsdale, became under-secretary for war, marr Lady Helen St Maur, dau of the 12th duke of Somerset, their son Sir John Frecheville Ramsden 6th Bt (1877-1958), succ to the estates of his kinsman the last Lord Muncaster (qv) (Frances the daughter of the 4th Bt had married the 3rd baron Muncaster), the 6th Bart’s son John St Maur Ramsden left a daughter Carola Eloise (qv) who married George Fillmore Miller III of New York; Hud (C)
Ramsden, Sir (Geoffrey) William Pennington- (1904-1987), 7th Bt, BA, army officer, born 28 August 1904, yr son of Sir John Frecheville Ramsden, 6th Bt, and Joan (d.1974), dau of G F Buxton, CB, of Hoveton Hall, assumed by deed poll name of Pennington in lieu of Ramsden in 1925, then resumed name of Ramsden after that of Pennington by deed poll in 1958 when he succ his father as 7th Bt, educ Ludgrove School, Eton College, and Jesus College, Cambridge (BA), joined 11th Hussars 1925, transferred Life Guards 1927-1938, served WW2 and seconded to Provost Branch, APM 9th Armoured Division and APM 14th Army, Major 1942, marr (1927) Veronica Prudence Betty, only dau of F W Morley, formerly of Biddestone Manor, Chippenham, Wiltshire, 4 daus (inc Phyllida (born in London 1929, died 2011, aged 82), wife of Patrick Gordon-Duff-Pennington, 4 daus (Prunella, Anthea, Iona and Rowena), took over running of castle in 198x, and Penelope Lucinda, wife of Peter A N P Laing), High Sheriff of Cumberland 1962-63, but spent only part of year at Muncaster Castle, also of Versions Farm, Brackley, Northants and of Ardverikie, Newtonmore, Inverness-shire
Ramsey, Alex (d.10 December 1956), fireman Silloth Fire Brigade, with John Johnstone, Joseph Bell and Stan Graham were all drowned in an open boat responding to a call out to assist a wildfowler in difficulties at Grune Point, Skinburness, the pill box there is now their memorial; Curry, Cumrian Coast, p.34
Ramshay, John (fl.late 18thc.), agent and steward, agent to earl of Carlisle at Naworth Castle, mortgage on Calees Farm transferred to him from his son Thomas (qv) in 1781 and loan not repaid until 1796 (CW2, lxxii, 149)
Ramshay, Thomas (late 18thc-early 19thc.), agent to earl of Carlisle, wrote to J Turner in November 1771 describing huge flooding of river Tyne, damage to bridges, etc, head Distributor of Stamps for county in 1799, partner in Messrs Ramshay and Grey, brewers, of Brampton (Ramshaw in Pigot, 1828-9) (CW2, lxiii, 305, 311; lxxix, 81) – but is he father or brother of John Ramshay ?
Ramshay, Thomas (17xx-18xx), clergyman, son of John Ramshay (qv), was mortgagee of Calees Farm from George Wright (a yeoman farmer, of The Abbey, Lanercost), in 1776 with further loan in 1778, was in Dublin with Lord Carlisle, then viceroy of Ireland, in 1781 when he transferred mortgage to his father, and loan not repaid until 1796, vicar of Brampton 1795-1841, rector of Nether Denton 1795-1834, produced original Lanercost Cartulary in a cause in Carlisle consistory court in 1826 and left it in diocesan registry for duration of trial, not returning it to Naworth, after which it ‘disappeared’, escaping great fire at Naworth in 1844, but in fact taken home by Robert Mounsey, deputy Registrar, until identified by Bruce Jones at Castletown House, near Carlisle in May 1982 (CW2, lxxii, 149; LC, 44)
Randles, Sir John Scurrah (1857-1945), JP, ironmaster and politician, born at Boston, Lincs, 25 December 1857, only son of Revd Marshall Randles (1826-1904), DD, professor of Theology at Wesleyan College, Didsbury, and president of WM Conference in 1896, and his wife, Sarah Dewhurst Scurrah, of Padiham (marr 1856), educ Lincoln and Woodhouse Grove School, marr (1883) Elizabeth Hartley, dau of Robert Spencer, no issue, member of Cumberland County Council for Workington South (1906), MP (Conservative) for Cockermouth 1900-1906 and 1906-1910, losing to Sir Wilfrid Lawson in January 1906 election, but regaining seat in August 1906 by-election, but lost again in December 1910, Unionist MP for North-West (later Exchange Division) Manchester 1912-1922, director of Furness Railway Company to 1923, director of Star Board (Eagle, Star and British Dominions Inc Co Ltd), Knight cr 1905, Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium, Order of the Rising Sun (Japan), 2nd class, supporter of Wesleyan Methodists, of Stilecroft, Stainburn, Workington (1906) and later of Bristowe Hill, Keswick, died 11 February 1945
Rankin, Elaine (nee Lister) (19xx-2000), FRCS, JP, gynaecologist and general practitioner, born Lister in Kent, qualif at Royal Free Medical Hospital, London 1953, obtained post in obstetrics and gynaecology at City General and Maternity Hospital and Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle in 1957, marr (1958) Archibald (Archie) Macpherson Rankin, MB, ChB (Glas) 1960, FRCGP 1986, former chairman of Cumbria Family Practice Committee, son of Dr Archibald Kilmorack Rankin (in partnership with Dr Ian Macquarrie), 1 son (1959) and 1 dau (1961), joined husband as GP in practice at Brandraw, Aspatria from 1967 until retirement in 1987, JP on Wigton bench from early 1960s until 1990, governor of Nelson Thomlinson School, Wigton for 10 years, of Hill House, Aspatria, died of cancer (CN, 10.03.2000)
Rankin, John (1845-1928), JP, LLD, shipowner, born at Greenbank, New Brunswick, Canada, 14 February 1845, son of James Rankin (1787-1870), of Broom, Mearns, co Renfrew, and his wife, Marion Ferguson (d.1880), of Oldhall, Dunlop, who had transferred to New Brunswick in 1830, but lost everything on being shipwrecked in the Allan Gilmour, and nephew of Robert Rankin (1801-1870), of Bromborough Hall, Cheshire (who established firm of Rankin, Gilmour & Co and moved head office from Glasgow to Liverpool), came to England with his brother Robert in the Aciaeon from Miramichi, NB, in 1854, educ Dr Ihne’s school, Liverpool, Madras College, and University of St Andrews, NB, entd office (original parent firm of Pollok, Gilmour & Co, timber merchants of Glasgow, founded by Allan Gilmour in 1804, which came to have biggest shipping fleet in UK by 1840s) in 1861, apptd cashier in 1865, partner in Rankin, Gilmour & Co, Pollok, Gilmour & Co, and Gilmour, Rankin, Strang & Co from 1 January 1871, director and chairman of Rankin, Gilmour & Co Ltd (as surviving firm became known) from 1 January 1906, marr (1 September 1875) Helen Margaret (died 2 August 1937), dau of James Jack, of Liverpool, 2 sons (Robert (qv) and James Stuart (MP for Liverpool East Toxteth) and 1 dau (Agnes Dorothea, wife of William Rathbone), member of Mersey Docks and Harbour Board 1900-1912, chairman of Bank of Liverpool 1906-1909 and director 1900, chairman of Royal Insurance Company 1909-1912 and director 1892, director, British and Foreign Marine Insurance Committee 1909, Pacific Steam Navigation Company 1898-1910, member of committee of Liverpool and London Steamship Protection Association 1896-1911, Lloyd’s Registry of Shipping (Liverpool) 1880-1910 and chairman 1892, member of London Committee 1884-1910, member of Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society 1880-1896 and chairman 1891-1896, member of council of Liverpool University 1902-1907, founded chair of methods and practice of archaeology at Liverpool University in 1906 [first holder was Professor John Garstang, previously reader in Egyptian Archaeology, 1907-1941, when it was discontinued and endowment applied to Rankin lectureship], also founded chair in modern history in 1906 (co with Andrew Geddes endowment), chair in geography in 1917 (with endowment completed in 1920), and chair of thermodynamics of heat engines in 1920 (later electrical machinery 1925-1945, and electrical engineering from 1945, associated with his son, Robert), hon Freeman of City of Liverpool, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1910, JP Westmorland, Governor of Sedbergh School 1911, donor of Egyptology collection to Kendal Museum, presented east window in New Hutton church in memory of “Queen Victoria the Good” (by H Gustave Hiller), generous benefactor, gregarious host, of St Michael’s Mount, St Michael’s Hamlet, Liverpool, and of Hill Top, Hay in New Hutton, where he was resident by 1905 (guest book of visitors to Hill Top 1907-1922 in CRO, WDX 1449; photos of Hill Top in WDB 86/File 21, Mawson gardens?, Robert Coward was head gardener in 1905-06), author of A History of Our Firm; being some account of the firm of Pollok, Gilmour and Co. and its offshoots and connections, 1804-1920 (Liverpool, 1921), died at St Michael’s Mount in 1928
Rankin, Sir Robert, 1st Bt (1877-1960), MC, MM, JP, shipowner, born 18 October 1877, er son of John Rankin (qv), educ Sedbergh School and Clare College, Cambridge, served WW1 enlisting as a private in Public Schools Brigade (18th Royal Fusiliers) 1914, Corporal 1915, Lieut ASC 1915, and Captain, April 1917 and invalided December 1917, joined family firm in 1896, chairman of Rankin, Gilmour & Co Ltd, shipowners, of Liverpool, MP for Liverpool Kirkdale October 1931- June 1945, created baronet 5 March 1937, lord of manor of Broughton, built Victory Hall at Broughton-in-Furness in 1929 (restored from 1996, completed in June 2002), High Sheriff of Lancashire 1948, marr 1st (17 July 1907) Renee Helen Mary (died 13 March 1932), dau of Dr James Edmund Baker, of Teheran, Persia, 2 daus (Corise and Cecile), marr 2nd (2 August 1940) Rachel Dupin, dau of Charles Dupin Drayson, of Chichester, Sussex, of Rufford Old Hall, Rufford (1919) and of Broughton Tower, Broughton-in-Furness, which he purchased in 1920 and left to Lancashire County Council after he died in 1960
Ransom, Gordon (1xxx-19xx), artist, associate of Royal College of Art evacuated to Ambleside during WW II, based in Salutation Inn, painted mural of rushbearing ceremony on wall of St Mary’s Church, Ambleside 1944
Ransome, Arthur Harold (1872-19xx), MA, clergyman, bapt at Lindale, 10 November 1872, 5th of six sons of Revd John Henry Ransome (qv), educ Clare College, Cambridge (BA 1894, MA 1898), d 1895 (Carl) and p 1897 (Barrow for Carl), curate of Dacre 1895-1898, Dalton-in-Furness 1898-1902, special service clergyman, Carlisle 1902-1903, St Matthew, Barrow-in-Furness 1903-1905, and dean 1905-1907, lic to pr, dio Manchester 1908-1909, 1911-1914, and from 1917, incumbent of St John the Baptist, Keremeos, BC, Canada 1909-1910, rector of St Theo Taber, Alberta, Canada 1910-1911, curate of Dacre 1914-1915, Hutton-in-the Forest 1915-1917, lic to pr, dio Carlisle from 1917 and dio Blackburn from 1927, perm to offic, dio Oxford from 1917, dio St Albans from 1919, dio Chichester from 1931 and dio Southwark from 1932, with a roving brief, acting curate-in-charge of Bampton during vacancy following death of Revd G E F Day (qv) and before arrival of next vicar, Revd W H Cormack (qv) in 1931, of 10 Musgrave Street, Penrith (1938-39), decd by 1948
Ransome, Arthur Michell (1884-1967; ODNB), CBE, journalist and children’s novelist, worked in Russia from 1913 and during the revolution, marr Ivy Constance Graves Walker (1882-1939), dau of George Graves Walker, (of independent means), spent summer holidays in Lakes with Collingwood family, at Lane Head when his dau Tabitha (1910-1991) was bapt at Coniston on 7 November 1910 (born 9 May), inspired by his contact with the Collingwood grandchildren to write the Swallows and Amazons series of novels which resulted in two films, living at Penrith in 1940, reporter in Russia and knew Lenin and Trotsky, beat Lenin at chess, 2nd wife Evgenia Shelelpina (1894-1975) (qv), joined CWAAS in 1948, his home Hill Top was improved by Janet Gnosspelius (qv), died 3 June 1967 and buried at Rusland Church; biography by Hugh Brogan, 1984; also Christina Hardyment, Captain Flint’s Trunk; Arthur Ransome Society publications; photographs in Brotherton Library, Leeds
Ransome (nee Shelelpina), Evgenia Petrovna (1894-1975), b. Petrograd, met Arthur Ransome in 1917 when she was Trotsky’s secretary, lived with him in Estonia until the early 20s, married and returned with him to England, lived near Finsthwaite, d. Finsthwaite, buried Rusland churchyard with AR; E.R. ‘was still well disposed to Bolshevism and, if she lacked her former employer’s Messaianic vision, had inherited his distrustfulness, his venom and his guile’ (Philip Ziegler, Rupert Hart-Davis biography, 92)
Ransome, Gordon (1921-1986), artist, born Rugeley, Staffs, student at RCA, after the wartime evacuation of the college to Ambleside painted the rushbearing mural at Ambleside church (1944), marr Clare Founier, dau of a French artist, three sons born in France, later head of Graphic Design at St Martin’s College, London, the family plan to deposit his original drawings for the mural at the Armitt; Lancaster Life, 27 Jan 2021
Ransome, Revd Henry Alfred (1860-1917), MA, clergyman, born in parsonage of Lindale-in-Cartmel and bapt 5 August 1860, eldest son of Revd J H Ransome (qv), then PC of Lindale, educ St John’s College, Cambridge (late Baker Exhibitioner, BA 1882, MA 1886), Cambridge Clergy Training School 1883, d 1883 and p 1884 (Carl), curate of St George’s, Barrow-in-Furness 1883-1885 and Langport, Somerset 1885-1886, vicar of Field Broughton 1887-1917, ministered for 30 years among his own people, found the 18th century church in poor condition and replaced it with new structure (thanks to munificence of Thomas and Henry Hibbert), keen to see that evensong was provided and the singing quality maintained in small rural parish, established monthly choral eucharists, set aside three hours’ devotion on Good Fridays, also raised funds for new vicarage to replace old inadequate parsonage once new church was completed and consecrated, man of firm and distinct faith and churchmanship, his whole ministry being consistent and based on belief and practice of the primitive undivided church, marr Hilda, 1 son (Edmund Henry Leigh, bapt 29 June 1899) and 2 daus (Emilie Margaret (bapt 27 May 1897, died in Meathop Hospital, aged 71, and buried 14 November 1969) and Mary Fielden (bapt 29 September 1901, died at Gate House, Cartmel, aged 30, and buried 23 April 1932, all at Field Broughton), died at Field Broughton Vicarage, aged 56, and buried in churchyard, 6 July 1917 (memorial sermon by Revd C G Townley on 8 July 1917 in CRO, WD/Fa/box 3)
Ransome, John Henry (c.1830-1892), MA, clergyman, son of John Atkinson Ransome, MRCS, (died 10 Febrary 1837, aged 57), educ Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1857, MA 1865), d 1857 and p 1858 (Manch), curate of Warton and Freckleton, Lancs 1858-1860, perpetual curate of Lindale-in-Cartmel 1860-1877, where he built chancel and gave (with his mother and siblings) east window in memory of his father, 26 November 1864, vicar of Kirkoswald 1877-1892, restored and beautified church and rebuilt bell tower, hon canon of Carlisle from 1879, aged 30 when marr (22 September 1858, at Cartmel) Emily (aged 27; died at Newlands, Grange-over-Sands, 28 June 1904, aged 73, and buried at Lindale, 30 June, aged 74), yr dau of late Alfred Binyon, gent (qv), of Lindale in Cartmel, 6 sons (Henry Alfred (qv), Maurice John (qv), Frederick Stanley (bapt 13 December 1868), Lionel (bapt 14 August 1870, buried 29 March 1871), Arthur Harold (qv) and Cyril Marshall (bapt 3 January 1875, buried 19 January 1875)) and 4 daus (Emily Susan (bapt 13 July 1862), Gertrude Lucy (bapt 8 November 1863, buried 26 January 1864), Dora Frances Mary (bapt 14 May 1865), and Hilda Maud (bapt 23 September 1866) all at Lindale), died at Kirkoswald Vicarage, 7 June 1892, aged 63, but buried at Lindale, 10 June 1892; memorial tablet near pulpit in Kirkoswald church (CW2, xiii, 295)
Ransome, Maurice John (1861-19xx), BA, clergyman, bapt at Lindale-in-Cartmel, 16 June 1861, 2nd son of Revd J H Ransome (qv), educ St John’s College, Cambridge (BA 1882), d 1884 (Man) and p 1886 (York for Bp elect of Man), curate of Lytham, Lancs 1884-1886, Poulton-le-Sands 1886-1887 and Malpas 1887-1889, rector of Croglin 1889-1891, licenced for special services, dio Carlisle 1891-1893, curate of St Thomas, Stockport 1894-1898, St Peter, Blackburn 1898-1900, and Odd Rode 1901-1902, vicar of Holy Trinity, Mossley 1902-1908, rector of Pulverbatch, dio Hereford from 1908
Raper, James Hayes (1820-1897; ODNB), schoolmaster and temperance reformer, born Carlisle, 12th child of George Raper a stonemason and his wife Jane Pattinso, brought up by his mother and grandmother who were Wesleyans, he attended his first temperance meeting aged fifteen and signed the pledge the following year, a gifted orator and respected lobbyist, he travelled even to Canada and the USA to discover more about Prohibition, he was also anti-slavery and detested tobacco, died Kensington
Rashdall, Hastings (1858-1924; ODNB), DD, DCL, LLD, FBA, moral philosopher, theologian and historian, dean of Carlisle 1917-1924, fellow of New College, Oxford, tutor at University College, Durham, vice-president, CWAAS from 1917, died at Worthing, 9 February 1924 and buried at Holywell cemetery, Oxford, 13 February; monument in south aisle of Carlisle cathedral bears his likeness; Dorothy Postle and Margaret Marsh, Hastings Rashdall: Dean of Carlisle, Whitley Bay, 2000; biography also by Matheson
Ratcliffe family, baronets and earls of Derwentwater; also spelled Radcliffe and Radclyffe; the 3rd and 5th earls were both executed for treason, one in 1716 and the other in 1746; CW2 iv 288; also see below
Ratcliffe, Charles (1693-1746; ODNB), de jure 5th earl of Derwentwater, Jacobite, son of 2nd earl and Lady Mary Tudor (qv under Ratcliffe and Tudor), grandson of Charles II, involved in the 1715 rising, captured and imprisoned in Newgate, escaped to the continent, marr the wealthy Charlotte, countess of Newburgh, at the court of James III in Rome, returned to Scotland in 1745, captured and beheaded on Tower Hill in 1746, ‘one of the bravest and most loyal supporters of the house of Stewart’; Northumbrian Jacobite Society website
Ratcliffe, Derek Almey (1929-2005), conservationist, grew up in Carlisle, PhD Bangor University, m Jeanette 1978, research on the impact of pesticides and the decline in the populations of raptors such as the peregrine falcon, high levels of DDT were found to increase the fragility of the eggshells and thus reduce the population of viable chicks, his research was used by Rachel Carson (1907-1964) in her hard hitting book Silent Spring (1962) which was one of the early triggers of the environmental movement, published The Peregrine Falcon (1980) and The Raven (1997) and Lakeland in the Collins New Naturalist series (2002), lived latterly in Cambridge and died in Yorkshire in May 2005; Guardian obit 30 May 2005
Ratcliffe, Dorothy Una, (later Mrs McGrigor-Phillips) (1887-1967), poet, socialite, author and campaigner for Yorkshire dialect; lived latterly in Acorn Bank, Temple Sowerby (N.T.) where she had her own press; Cumbria Life April 2001, 70-77
Ratcliffe, Edward (1655-1705), 2nd earl of Derwentwater, m. Lady Mary Tudor (qv Ratcliffe and Tudor)
Ratcliffe, Francis (1563-1622), involved with the Gunpowder Plot
Ratcliffe, James, 3rd earl of Derwentwater (1689-1716; ODNB), son of 2nd earl and Lady Mary Tudor (qv), illegitimate daughter of Charles II, thus a grandson of the king
Ratcliffe, John (1713-1731), de jure 4th earl, son of the 3rd earl, died young
Ratcliffe, Mary, nee Tudor (1673-1726), countess of Derwentwater, illegitimate daughter of Charles II by the actress Moll Davies, went on the stage herself, aged 14 married the 2nd earl, the mother of James the 3rd earl and Charles the 5th earl and grandmother of the 4th, lived to see the execution of her son James the 3rd earl, when widowed, she married Henry Graham of Levens (c.1676-1706/7), on his death she married Major James Rooke, son of Maj Gen Heyman Rooke, she died in Paris in 1726 aged 53
Ratcliffe, Richard (d.1485; ODNB), royal councillor, younger son of Thomas Ratcliffe of the Island of Derwentwater and Margaret Parr, daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendal (qv), from 1475 in the service of the duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) (qv),sherrif (W), probably died at Bosworth Field in 1485
Rathbone family, dynasty of merchants and ship owners in Liverpool, see Robert Benson, William IV Rathbone (1757-1809; ODNB); statue of William Rathbone V in Liverpool
Rathbone, Aaron (b.1571/2), land surveyor and author, surveyed estates in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Durham and Lincolnshire, published Rge Surveyor on Foure Bookes (1616)
Rathbone, Sally (1751-1827) dau of William Rathbone III, m. Robert Benson, their families est Rathbone and Benson in 1786; Benson (qv)
Rathbone, William IV (1757-1809; ODNB)
Ratti, Achille (Pope Pius XI) (1857-1939), priest and keen mountaineer, Alpine guide in youth, in 1942 bishop Pearson (qv) established the Achille Ratti Climbing Club as an outward bound venue for the boys of Lancashire, 1st hut at the rear of the Dungeon Ghyll hotel provided by Chris Bulman (qv), 1st secretary Fr Atkinson of Ambleside, the co-founder was Sir Arnold Henry Moore Lunn (1888-1974) of Lunn Poly travel agents, himself a keen skier
Raven, Catherine (1866-1949), embroiderer, marr Henry Holliday (qv), see Holliday
Raven, Dame Kathleen Annie (1910-1999; ODNB) DBE FRCN, nurse, matron, government health official, b. Coniston, dau of Frederick William Raven, director of a slate quarry and his wife Annie, dau of Miles Mason (1752-1822), potter, in childhood climbed, skated, fished and rowed, educ Ulverston GS and Bart’s, ward sister in 2nd WW, matron Leeds, involved with nursing training L:eeds, council Royal College of Nursing, examiner to the department of health 1958, chief nursing officer in succ to Dame Elkzabeth Cockayne, on retirement went to the Middle and Far East as an adviser, governor of two schools, marr Prof John Thornton Ingram (1899-1972) in 1959 as his second wife, he was effectively the founder of the discipline of dermatology, d. Oxford; brother of Ronald Raven (qv)
Raven, Tom Sinten (1890-1919), mariner, of Maryport, lost at sea outward bound for America as a result of a fire on board his ship, buried at Louisburg, Nova Scotia; his brother Joseph Bell Raven aged 35 drowned at sea and was buried in Bilbao; Annie Robinson (qv)
Raven, Ronald William (1904-1991), international cancer surgeon and chair at the Royal Free hospital, born next door to Ruskin Museum, Coniston, son of Frederick William Raven, director of a slate quarry and his wife Annie, dau of Miles Mason (1752-1822), potter (who made classic blue and white chinaware), educ Ulverston GS and Bart’s, ass surgeon Gordon Hospital 1935 and Royal Cancer Hospital 1939-46, 2nd WW service in N Africa in RAMC, supported the concept of a single discipline of oncology, immense contribution to the literature from 1934 until his death, editor and contributor to Cancer 1957-63, Hunterian professor, founder of the Ronald Raven department of clinical oncology at the Royal Free hospital in 1990, regular speaker at conferences, OBE, Col TA, president of Marie Curie charity, buried near Ruskin in church yard; sister of Dame Kathleen Raven (qv); Plarr’s Lives
Rawes family of Wetsleddale Hall, Richard Rawes (1742-1814), son of William Rawes (d.1763) yeoman, founded the Rawes Academy in Bromley, Kent; Robert Booth Rawes (1785-1841) succeeded him in that post, he is said to have been Dickens’ model for Mr Pickwick; The Bromley Magazine Conducted by the Pupils of Mr Rawes Academy (1845), www.rawes.co.uk
Rawes, Elizabeth (Betty) (bap 1755), daughter of William Rawes of Longsleddale (qv), married Isaac Hodgson, stonemason, mother of the historian of Northumberland the Rev John Hodgson (qv); www.rawes.co.uk
Rawes, Henry Augustus (1826-1885; ODNB), catholic divine (a convert), son of the Rev William Rawes (1764-1827), headmaster of Houghton le Spring GS, of the Wetsleddale family
Rawes, Richard (1784-1931) brother of Robert Booth Rawes (qv) was a Captain EIC and imported some of the first camellias from China, one pink variety, Captain Richard Rawes, is named after him; www.rawes.co.uk
Rawes, Richard, mayor, of the Wetsleddale family, mayor of Kendal 1832-3
Rawes, Richard (17xx-18xx), woollen manufacturer, also linseys, and dealer in waistcoating and fancy goods, of Wildman Street, Kendal (1829), mayor of Kendal 1832-33, of Beezon Lodge, Kendal (built for him by George Webster, 1825), owner of house with Lound Field and Town End Field on Kendal Corn Rent map 1835 (WoK, 67 from WG, 23.01.1981)
Rawes, Robert (1804-1880), bottled mineral water manufacturer, Robert Rawes and Co, Burneside, also farmer and producer of lime at Plumgarths, m. May (1810-1900), tomb Burneside
Rawling, Tom (1916-1996), teacher, angler and late developing poet, born Ennerdale, educated Whitehaven GS, University College, London, Royal Artillery in 2nd WW, ran from 1979 the Old Fire Station poetry workshop at Oxford, keen fly fisherman and friend of the writer and film maker Hugh Falkus (qv) who lived in Eskdale, his poetry highly recommended by Grevel Lindop (Country File 19 Feb 2012), Ghosts at my Back (1982), The Names of the Sea Trout (1993); published by Neil Astley prior to the founding of Bloodaxe Books;
How Hall: A Passion for Ennerdale, Lamplugh and District Heritage Society
Rawlinson family; CW2 lxiii 285
Rawlinson, Christopher (1677-1733), graduate Queen’s College, established Saxon scholarship, translator of Boethius De Consolatione, antiquary interested in Lancaster and Westmorland, originally of Cark Hall, son of Curwen Rawlinson MP of Lancaster, buried St Albans cathedral; Father West, 265-6
Rawlinson, Daniel [1616-1679] merchant and vintner, b. Hawkshead, lived London, friend of Pepys, rebuilt Hawkshead Grammar School 1674
Rawlinson, John, DD, king’s chaplain 1609, preached at Paul’s Cross 1617
Rawlinson, John Job (1798-1864), JP, barrister and tithe commissioner, born 27 March 1798, 2nd son of William Rawlinson (1740-1808), of Graythwaite, and of Catherine (d.1831), yst dau of John Waldie, of Hendersyde Park, co Roxburgh, marr (8 February 1831) Mary, dau of Revd John Romney (qv), of Whitestock Hall, 3 sons, one of commissioners for tithes for northern counties, built house Silverholme on opposite side of road from Graythwaite Old Hall and moved there, died 16 October 1864, succ at Graythwaite by his grandson, John Baldwin Rawlinson (1867-1945)
Rawlinson, Richard (1690-1755; ODNB) FRS, clergyman and bibliophile, son of Sir Thomas (qv), brother of Thomas, educ St Paul’s, Eton and St John’s Oxford, consecrated bishop in the non-juring C of E, endowed the Rawlinson chair of Anglo Saxon at Oxford; his books are at the Bodleian with 5000 mss
Rawlinson, Robert (1610-1665), of Cark Hall, JP, Grays Inn; Father West, Antiquities, 265
Rawlinson, Thomas (1614-1679), Kt., of Grisedale and London, son of Daniel, lord mayor London 1706, portrait by Kneller (Vintner’s Company), tomb Hawkshead
Rawlinson, Sir Thomas (1647-1708), vintner, lord mayor of London 1705, son of Daniel Rawlinson, originally of Graythwaite, m. Mary Taylor daughter of the innkeeper of the Devil’s Tavern, Turnham Green, sons Thomas (1681-1725; ODNB) barrister and bibliophile and Richard (1690-1775; ODNB), priest and bibliophile whose books are at the Bodleian (qqv), tomb Hawkshead church
Rawlinson, Thomas (1681-1725; ODNB) FRS FSA barrister and bibliophile, son of Sir Thomas above, educ Cheam and St John’s Oxford, called to the bar at Middle Temple, lived Grays Inn, inherited wealth from his father, the vintner, but ruined in the South Sea Bubble, sales in his lifetime of books and 1020 mss (and more after his death), he had continued to accumulate books and slept in the passage, bought a house to shelve entirely and triple bank the collection, described by Thomas Addison (qv) as ‘a learned idiot’ (the ‘Tom’ folio of The Tatler no 158), governor of hospitals, married a servant Amy Frewin who had worked in a coffee house; his mss Bodleian Library
Rawlinson, William (1606-1680), of Low Graythwaite, ‘a Gent. of good family & fortune & a Quaker’ (TWT, 327)
Rawlinson, Sir William (1640-1703; ODNB), serjeant at law, commissioner of the Great Seal, born Graythwaite, son of William of Graythwaite and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Sawrey of Plumpton, his father served at Marston Moor and Ribble Bridge, educ Hawkshead GS and Christ Church, Cambridge, called to bar at Grays Inn in 1667, chancery lawyer, serjeant at law, one of three commissioners for the Great Seal, knighted by William III in 1689, bought a London house at Hendon, buried in the church with a fine monument, married twice, his forst wife had two daughters the mothers of William Rawlinson Earle MP for 40 years and William Aislabie (1700-1781) MP for 60 years (for many years acknowledged as the longest serving MP), Sir William’s second wife was Jane Noseworthy daughter of Edward Noseworthy of Devon, she died leaving £500 for the founding a school for girls
Rawnsley, Cdr Conrad Franklin RN (1907-1997), naval officer and businessman, born Sevenoaks, Kent, grandson of Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley (qv) and ‘a chip off the old block’, son of Noel Hardwicke Rawnsley (qv) and Violet Hilton Cutbill, educ Osborne and Dartmouth, invalided out of navy in 2nd WW, ran businesses in Sussex, in retirement was appointed as Appeals Director for the National Trust and set up Operation Neptune to preserve coastline, but felt that the new ideas regarding the country houses scheme were inappropriate and in defiance of the ideas of the founders, he caused a rumpus in calling an extraordinary general meeting but his ideas were voted out, also called for a decent monument to HDR in Waterloo Place, London near his great uncle Sir John Franklin but was unsuccessful; Allen and Rawnsley biography of HD Rawnsley
Rawnsley, Edith (nee Fletcher) (1846-1916), artist, dau of John Fletcher (qv), of the Croft, Clappersgate, Ambleside, marr (29 January 1878, at Brathay) H D Rawnsley (qv), 1 son, member of Lake Artists’ Society, devoted to Ruskin and concentrated on design and craft work rather than developing career as independent artist, co-founder of Keswick School of Industrial Arts [KSIA], described by her descendant and biographer Rosalind Rawnsley as HDR’s ‘largely unsung wife who was not only his helpmeet in all his enterprises and parish work but was also largely responsible for the day to day running of the KSIA.......until a manager was appointed, not only a talented artist and designer but also a self taught sculptor and metal worker and an efficient businesswoman who in spite of her talents remained self-effacingly in the background. There are scarcely any photographs of her, compared with the dozens of HDR himself who was a self publicist par excellence’, she died 31 December 1916 (LAR, 87-95, 108-114, 115-132, 194-95); email Rosalind Rawnsley in 2020, Rosalind Rawnsley, Keswick Characters vol.2; Lake Artists, Renouf, 51-2
Rawnsley, Edward Preston (18xx-19xx), of Raithby Hall, Spilsby, cousin of H D Rawnsley (qv) and nephew of Margaret Dawson, wife of James Dawson (qv), of Wray Castle, through them he inherited the estate, also patron of living of St Margaret’s, Low Wray from 1875, which he gave to his cousin Hardwick, sold Wray to David Ainsworth (qv) in 1898, died in 19xx, after which estate changed hands a number of times before Sir Robert Noton Barclay (qv), Lord Mayor of Manchester, bought castle in 1928 and gave it to National Trust in 1929, used as a youth hostel and offices until it became a Merchant Navy training school after WW2, then used by a telecoms company until 2004 before intended conversion to quality hotel (CuL, Sept 2011, 36-41)
Rawnsley (nee Foster Simpson), Eleanor (1873-1959), secretary, 2nd wife of Canon Rawnsley (qv), m.1918, wrote a rather brief and inadequate biography of HDR; buried Crosthwaite; Simpson (qv) obit. CW2 lix 177
Rawnsley, Revd Hardwicke Drummond (1851-1920; ODNB), clergyman, activist, conservationist and prolific writer, born at Shiplake Rectory, Oxon, 28/9 September 1851, twin son of Revd Robert Drummond Burrell Rawnsley and Catherine Franklin (died in May 1892), educ Uppingham School, invited by Edward Thring (ODNB) to stay with him at Grasmere in summer holidays, graduated Balliol, Oxford, ordained deacon at Gloucester in December 1875 and priest at Carlisle on 23 December 1877, Curate of St Barnabas, Bristol 1875-1878, vicar of Low Wray 1878-1883 (presented by his cousin Edward Preston Rawnsley (qv)), where he met Beatrix Potter when her family rented Wray Castle in summer of 1882, vicar of Crosthwaite and rural dean of Keswick 1883-1917, King’s chaplain, hon canon of Carlisle, marr 1st (29 January 1878, at Brathay) Edith (d.1916, qv), dau of John Fletcher, of the Croft, Ambleside, 1 son (Noel), his best man being his friend Gerard Baldwin Brown, marr 2nd (1 June 1918, at Grasmere) Eleanor F Simpson (qv) and moved to Allan Bank, Grasmere, formed Lake District Defence Society, opposed Ennerdale railway scheme, one of the three founders of National Trust, founded with first wife Edith the Keswick School of Industrial Arts, established the Herdwick Breeders Association in 1899, established the Knights of St Kentigern (qv Ruskin’s Guild of St George), opened Ruskin Museum 1901, bought Greta Hall and rented it to Keswick school, member of CWAAS from 1883, great builder of monuments, maker of bonfires and a prolific writer, ‘the most active volcano in Europe’, (Hunter Davies [Walk, 28] states that 148 of his bonfires were visible from the top of Skiddaw for the 1887 Jubilee), died at Allan Bank, Grasmere, 28 May 1920, and buried in Crosthwaite churchyard (his tombstone carved by W. Bromley (qv) calls him ‘a helper of his time’ but he has not yet been fully appreciated or understood; less appreciative comments include Lees-Milne’s ‘one of the founding zealots in that tradition of Ruskin and Morris’ and [who] ‘the ubiquitous Canon Rawnsley’; one of the relatively unsung heroes of Cumbria, he deserves a greater monument than a mere inscribed slab in a wall at Friar’s Crag; for now, when standing on a central fell, one might say: ‘Si monumentum requiris circumspice’ (the inscription for Sir Christopher Wren at St Paul’s (qv)); The Rawnsley Centre at Keswick is named in his memory; a Rawnsley shield is presented at the Carlisle music and drama festival; there are beaten metal plaques at Keswick and Abbot Hall Art Gallery (MOLLI); memorial brass with his likeness, Carlisle cathedral, south aisle; Alan Hankinson, Keswick Characters vol.1; David A. Cross, PMSA, 2017, 226 index; British Library catalogue; Carlisle Library ref. ZH8513; silverware in the treasury; bequeathed a drawing by JMW Turner to Tullie House; Merlin Waterson two publications; Matthew Hyde and Nikolaus Pevsner; Stephen Matthews anthology 2020; www.hrawnsley.com, Michael Allen and Rosalind Rawnsley, An Extraordinary Life, 2020; Armitt Journal 1998; (CW2, xx, 260-261; PPLC, 453-54; CL, No. 227, September 2017, 56-59)
Rawnsley, Noel Hardwicke (1880-1952), born Wray near Ambleside, only child of Hardwicke Rawnsley and his first wife Edith (qqv), marr Violet Hilton Cutbill, four children: Una, Conrad (qv), Derek and David, contributed his knowledge of Flinders Petrie’s excavations at Abydos to his father’s book The Resurrection of Oldest Egypt, ran several small businesses including Beaver Press, died in Capri
Rawnsley, Willingham Franklin (184x-192x), elder son of Revd Robert Drummond Burrell Rawnsley and er brother of H D Rawnsley (qv), educ Uppingham School, first Chairman, Armitt Trust (Library founded 1909 and opened 1912), edited The Church of Grasmere (Kendal, 1912) and Rydal (Kendal, 1916) by the late Mary Armitt for publication, author of Early Days at Uppingham, Introductions to the Poets, and Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire, member of CWAAS from 1903, his wife painted a watercolour of Mary Armitt’s garden at Rydal Cottage, used as frontispiece in Rydal, lived Loughrigg Holme, Loughrigg, Ambleside (1905 through to 1925, gone by 1929, but wife there to 1934)
Rawson, Revd Christopher Thomas Wright (1842-1899), MA, clergyman, born 20 October 1842, eldest son of Christopher Rawson (1816-1896), JP, late Captain and district paymaster of Lower Canada (who was a nephew of Stansfield Rawson (qv) and a cousin of John Rawson, qv), and his wife Ellen Frances (d.1894), dau of John Naylor Wright, of Liverpool and Beaumaris, and er brother of Admiral Sir Harry Holdsworth Rawson, GCB, GCMG (1843-1910) and Comdr Wyatt Rawson, RN (1853-1882), educ Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Canada (BA 1863, MA 1866), d 1865 and p 1867 (Quebec), curate of Picton, Ontario 1865-1869, chaplain of Quebec Cathedral 1870-1882, returned to England to be vicar of Low Wray 1883-1885, vicar of Brathay 1885-1899, marr (28 December 1865) Janie Forsythe Grant, of Sherbrooke, Canada, 1 dau (Mabel (b.1866), wife of Arthur F S Ward), died at Brathay Vicarage, 26 July 1899, aged 56, and buried at Brathay, 28 July
Rawson, John (1813-1899), born 21 November 1813, 2nd son of William Henry Rawson (1781-1865), of Haugh End, near Halifax, who was descended from John Rawson (1505-1564), of Ingrow, near Keighley (BLG), marr (2 July 1840) Elizabeth Marianne (died 10 January 1876), dau of John Priestley, of Thorpe, Yorks, 1 dau (Gertrude Elizabeth, died young, 23 December 1859), had Fallbarrow built on Rayrigg Road, Windermere, a large Gothic villa on site of an earlier house, attrib to J S Crowther (Pevsner, 173), but in fact by Joseph Bintley (WD/Cu/198) and built by Pattinsons, for his yr brother, Revd Arthur Rawson (1818-1891), MA, former vicar of Bromley Common, Kent (1843-1882), who died at Fallbarrow in 1891, died at Brockwell, Halifax, 8 February 1899
Rawson, Stansfield (1778-1856), DL, JP, born 23 December 1778, 2nd son of John Rawson (1744-1815), of Stonyroyd, Yorks (BLG), marr (5 May 1802) Elizabeth (died 2 September 1866), dau of Timothy Leach, of Clapham, 3 sons and 4 daus, of Gledholt, near Huddersfield and of Wasdale Hall, died 27 November 1856; succ by his 2nd son, Charles Stansfield Rawson (1812-1863), also of Gale Syke, Wasdale, born 20 December 1812, marr 1st (18 February 1840) Octavia (died 21 October 1850), dau of Revd John Collinson, of Boldon Rectory, co Durham, 5 sons and 2 daus, marr 2nd (29 April 1854) Eleanor Charlotte Berkeley, 2nd dau of Sir Joseph Edward Leeds, Bt, died 2 June 1863
Ray, James (fl.1715-1762), soldier, of Whitehaven, kept diary of his experiences as volunteer with the duke of Cumberland (qv) in 1745, The Acts of the Rebels, … author of A Compleat History of the Rebellion, living in Howgill Street, Whitehaven in 1762 (DH, 130-132)
Ray, Tom (fl.1880s-1904), of Ulverston, pole vaulter at Grasmere Sports, inspired by Edwin Woodburn (qv) and the most successful, winning 100s of prizes and in his prime in the days before the Olympics ‘the best in the world’ reaching his record of 11’ 8.5”, competed successfully in Canada and the USA; Soulby Ulverston Advertiser August 1904; David Owen www.inside thegames.biz/articles
Rayment, Albert Montagu (1890-1978), b Camberwell, son of Joseph Thomas Rayment (1865-1918) and his wife Chrissie Ellen Hayward (1866-1945), customs and excise officer in Barrow (1939), author Memoirs of an Excise Officer (1975), d Barrow
Rayment, Frank (1903-1997), businessman, b Ulverston, son of Joseph Thomas Rayment (1865-1918) and his wife Chrissie Ellen Hayward (1866-1945), brother of Albert (qv), marr Mary Elizabeth Holme (1902-1953) MD, ran a woodworking firm in Leeds (1939), published Memoirs, 1980, d. Bradford; also Emma Griffin, Bread Winner (2020)
Rayson, John (1803-1859), poet, born Aglionby, published Bandylan Bet, The Deil’s i’ the Lasses of Penrith, and The Salamanca Corpus: Miscellaneous Poems and Ballads chiefly in the Dialects of Cumberland etc (1858), asked by Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte (1813-1891) to translate the ‘Song of Songs’ into the Cumbrian Dialect (published by the Prince 1859), appointed overseer of Penrith Union in 1845, died of a heart attack; Time and Star 31 May 2012
Rea, Alec Lionel (1878-1953), CBE, JP, merchant banker, born 1878, yr son of Rt Hon Russell Rea (1846-1916), PC, MP, of Tanhurst, Dorking, Surrey, (3rd son of Daniel Key Rea (d.1884), of Eskdale), founder of R & J H Rea, Liverpool steamship owners and merchants, and yr brother of 1st Baron Rea, of Eskdale (qv), marr 1st (18 April 1900) Ethel Marguerite (died 17 December 1946), dau and only child of Charles H Requa, of Brooklyn, New York, USA, marr 2nd (17 July 1947) Elizabeth Collins, of Green Leys, Barton, Cambs, no issue, chairman Rea and co, merchant bankers, built Keldwith, a little known Arts and Crafts house in Windermere, designed in 1910 by Herbert Luck North, the Welsh architect, whom he met while on holiday in Lanfairfechan in 1909, house lavishly fitted with central heating, electricty, lifts, and complex plumbing (services making up more than a third of total building costs), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1917, [no longer resident in county by 1921 onwards], master of Pattenmaker’s Co 1929 and 1939, chairman of Overseas League 1930-1933 and of Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 1938-1939, CBE (1945), Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur, also of 88 Berkeley Court, London, of Gore Court, Otham, Kent, and latterly of The Poplars, Brinkley, nr Newmarket, Cambs, died in 1953
Rea, Alice (fl.late 19thc.), author of The Beckside Boggle and other Lake Country Stories (1886) and Dalefolk (3 volumes, 1895)
Rea, Daniel Key (1805-1884) of Eskdale, m. Elizabeth Russell, daughter of Joseph Russell shipbuilder, father of Russell Rea (qv)
Rea, Russell (1846-1916), ship owner Liverpool, son of Daniel Key Rea (1805-1884) of Eskdale and grandson of Joshua Rea (b. Manchester and d. Bootle), father of Walter Rea (qv)
Rea, Walter (1873-1948) MP, later Baron Rea of Eskdale, businessman and Liberal peer, son of Russell Rea (1846-1916) (qv), MP Scarborough, junior Lord of Treasury, Liberal Chief Whip 1931-1935, comptroller of Royal Household, of Low Holme, Eskdale, built gatehouse Eskdale Green, gardens designed by Mawson (qv)
Read, Jane Betham (1773-1857), artist, daughter of Isabella Betham, a silhouette artist (qv) and granddaughter of William Betham of Little Strickland (qv), taught by John Opie (1761-1807; ODNB), she married John Read a solicitor
Read, Joseph (16xx-17xx), mayor of Carlisle, named on Carlisle Market Cross 1682, built the shambles at Brampton (grant of land in front of the Howard Arms on 22 January 1693, his widow Catherine sold the shambles to Charles Howard, earl of Carlisle, lord of the manor, in April 1721 (CN, 16.09.2016)
Read, Matthias (1669-1747), painter, active Whitehaven, employed as a tutor in painting and drawing to children of William Gilpin (qv), (Lowther steward at Whitehaven), religious works for local churches, Ouse Bridge and several versions of his fine Bird’s Eye View of Whitehaven (Yale Centre for British Art), work at the Beacon, Whitehaven and the Mellon Collection, Yale, Mary Burkett and David Sloss, Read’s Points of View, c.1989, lost painting Egremont Castle referred to in CW1 iii 365; also a Whitehaven landscape CW1 ii p.363
Read, Miles William (1803-d. by 1861), LSA, surgeon and apothecary at Staveley (CW2, xciii, 202)
Read, Roger (17xx-1833), tithe collector, of Stricklandgate, Kendal, buried at Kendal, 5 June 1833, aged 87, and his wife Mary buried with him, 11 June, aged 75
Read, Samuel (18xx-19xx), Grasmere bookseller and stationer, clerk and collector to Local Board/Urban District Council, assistant overseer, clerk to burial board, and secretary to Grasmere and Lake District Annual Athletic Sports, and insurance agent, of Church Stile (1890s) and Broadgate House (by 1906)
Read, Stephen (1950-2022), marr Ruth, two daus, studied for the Diploma in Regional and Local History and an MA at Lancaster, secretary of Levens Local History Group, obtained lottery funding to support field surveys and community archaeology projects in Sizergh and Levens, published Luck to Levens (2014) and Levens in the Shadow of the Great War (2020), articles in CWAAS Transactions and reports via Oxford Archaeology North to the NLHF; Obit West Gaz 5.10.2022; CWAAS newsletter autumn 2022
Reade, George Edwin Pearsall (1841-1937), MA, clergyman, born at Paisley in 1841, educ Trinity College Dublin (BA (Jun Mod in Eth and Log) 1860, MA 1864), d 1865 and p 1866 (Ches), curate of St Peter, Chester 1865-1866, St Mary-on-the-Hill, Chester 1866-1867, and Etherley, near Bishop Auckland 1867-1872, vicar of Skelsmergh 1872-1895, succ Revd F T Raikes (qv) as vicar (PC) of Milnthorpe in 1895, started on stipend of £26 p.a., also chaplain to Milnthorpe Union 1895-1910, involved in bitter dispute when a plain brass altar cross donated by Sir Henry Bromley (qv), of Dallam Tower, was placed on Holy Table for the 8 a.m. Communion on Easter Day 1897, but it disappeared before Morning Prayer at 10.30 a.m., later being found in churchwardens’ pew at west end and being regarded by them and others as ‘Popery’, leading to big dispute at Easter Vestry meeting, refused to withdraw cross but he had to promise that it would go no further (WG, 01.05.1897), but anti-popery sentiment remained strong in parish thereafter, Easter Vestry in 1902 refused offer of local woodcarvers to provide a chancel screen, larger churchyard needed by end of 19th century, with a field east of Bindloss Homes 600 yards from church given as a site by Bromley-Wilson in 1902 and eventually consecrated by Bishop Ware on 10 August 1904, arranged lectures on bee-keeping and on vegetable growing after first allotments were provided by Captain Bagot on Beetham Road, Milnthorpe in 1890s, first chairman of [Eversley] Choral Union formed by Mrs T A Argles (qv) in 1900, resigned as vicar of Milnthorpe in 1910 on grounds of ill health, his convalescent trip to Lake Lucerne in 1907 having failed to effect a cure (WG, 06.04.1907), concluding his final sermon ‘by asking for forgiveness if there had been any grievances, for now cometh the end’, vicar of Ings 1910-1919, hon canon of Carlisle from 1914, then retired to Windermere, marr (1866) Lydia Theed Dearden, of Isle of Man (buried at Ings, 10 April 1934, aged 90), member of CWAAS from 1892, author of The Chapelry of Hugil or Ings in the Ancient Parish of Kendal: some account of its history and endowments (1916), large and jovial character, lover of countryside, of The Poplars, Bowness-on-Windermere, where he died aged 95, buried at Ings, 5 June 1937
Reaney, Percy H (18xx-19xx), MA, LittD, PhD, FSA, schoolmaster, formerly Assistant Master at QEGS, Penrith, author of Records of Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith (CWAAS Tract Series, X, 1915), The Grammar of the Dialect of Penrith (Cumberland): descriptive and historical with specimens and a glossary (MUP, 1927), A Dictionary of British Surnames (1958) (with second revised edition by R M Wilson, 1976), member of CWAAS from 1913, when of Silver Street, Ilminster, Somerset, then of Liscard, Wallasey (1915), moved from Penrith to retirement home in Kent, of Hildenborough, near Tonbridge, Kent (1958) (mss in Sheffield University Library)
Reay, John (1776-1850), son of John Reay of Cross Canonby, sheriff of London 1815, two of his great grandsons Charles (1825-1886) and Joseph (1829-1902) were major generals; Hud (C)
Reay, Nicholas (16xx-1736), clergyman, marr (31 May 1713, at Cumwhitton) Elizabeth Morley, perpetual curate of Cumwhitton 1711-1718 (instituted on 23 November 1711), rector of Nether Denton and perpetual curate of Farlam 1718-1736, residing at Denton, leaving Farlam register to be kept by an assistant curate until 1724, made immediate presentment in 1718 for repairs to steeple, no bell or decent communion table, careful registrar, buried at Nether Denton, 15 September 1736 (CW1, xiv, 223-4, 226-7, 229)
Rebanks, Thomas [fl.1715-56], master of Friends’ School, Stramongate, Kendal from 1715-1756, he established boarding from 1728, the catalogue of his extensive library of books sold at auction in 1772 was printed, many copies survive
Redfern, Harry (1861-1950), architect, built fourteen new model inns in Carlisle for the State Management Scheme from 1916 which aimed to control excessive drinking, arts and crafts inspired, they include The Cumberland (1928) on Botchergate, with mullioned windows and panelled interiors; The White House with its balcony and The Malt Shovel (now Adriano’s) on Lowther St; Hyde and Pevsner index
Redfern, Richard (1800-1900), artist, member Lake Artists, Renouf p.46-7
Redford, Francis (18xx-18xx), BA, clergyman, incumbent (PC) of Low Holme or Holme St Paul, near Wigton (Holme Cultram parish) from 1850, church of St Paul having been erected as a chapel of ease to Holme Cultram at Causewayhead, built in Early English style, nave with bellcote and chancel, by William Armstrong in 1844-49, in conjunction with Holme St Cuthbert, before development of Silloth, living was declared a rectory on 27 December 1867, marr, 2nd dau (Catherine Edith) marr Dr John Leitch, MB, CM, of Criffel Street, Silloth (qv sub Cecil Leitch)
Redhead, Brian (1925-1994), writer and broadcaster, son of a silk screen printer in Newcastle, educated at RGS Newcastle and Downing College, Cambridge, began as a journalist for the Manchester Guardian, became the popular presenter of the ‘Today’ programme on Radio 4 from 1975-1993, and ‘Points North’ on TV, wrote A Love of the Lakes (1988) with Geoffrey Berry (qv) and The National Parks of England and Wales (1994), his unfailing sense of humour is exemplified by his observation that ‘the weather will be brighter in the north than in the south, like the people’
Redhead, Tyras (17xx-18xx), journalist, editor of Westmorland Advertiser and Kendal Chronicle 1822-1825, then of Westmorland Gazette 1825-1837 (retiring editorial, 1 April 1837)
Redman family, see Redmain and Redmayne, the name comes from the village of Redmain near Isel; Hud (C)
Redman of Levens, family; CW2 ii 272
Redman, Christopher (d.1710), mayor of Kendal 1679-80, but discharged from office for refusing to sign the association at midsummer sessions, marr 1st Mary (bur at Kendal, 30 September 1693), dau (Jenett, bapt 23 March 1673/4, wife of William Christopherson), marr 2nd (1693x98) Elizabeth Park (‘Old Mrs Redman’ died 25 May 1719 (in Joseph Symson’s letter book), widow, of Stricklandgate, and buried at Kendal, 27 May, probate of will, 20 June 1719), 2 sons (George and Henry) and 1 dau (Ellin, bapt 18 July 1698, d.1736), of Stricklandgate, buried at Kendal, 12 July 1710
Redman, Christopher, mayor of Kendal 1749-50, 1760-61 and 1761-62, had cabinet-maker’s shop in building up Redman’s yard off Stricklandgate, Kendal [later Dawson’s printing office, then Braithwaite’s cycling works by 1900]; his sister was mother of Daniel Gardner (qv)
Redman, Daniel (fl.1650s), soldier, Colonel, from Kirkby Lonsdale, marr sister of Sir John Otway (qv), served under Henry Cromwell in Ireland and received an Irish estate for capturing Ballinabola castle, near Lilkenny (ref on his MI in KL church?), but purged by Rump Parliament, persuaded by Otway to come over to Monk’s movement for Restoration with Colonel Clobery (who had married Otway’s wife’s sister and died in Winchester in 1687)
Redman, Giles [fl.1630-1650], mayor of Kendal 1649-50, feltmaker (apprentices enrolled in 1630 and 1640, BoR, 269, 271)
Redman, Giles, mayor of Kendal 1690-91; son Christopher buried at Kendal, 4 March 1689
Redman, Giles, mercer, mayor of Kendal 1725-26, moved to Kirkby Lonsdale and removed from Kendal Borough aldermen
Redman, John (sometimes Rydman) (1499-1551; ODNB), theologian and college head, son of William Redman (d.1536) of Twistleton, Yorkshire and Urswick, his mother was Mary Tunstall dau of Thomas Tunstall (bishop Cuthbert Tunstall’s half brother), educ Corpus Christi Oxford, St John’s Cambridge and Paris, 1st master of Trinity College Cambridge, app by Henry VIII, in post 1546-51; probably related to the Redmans of Levens
Redman, Richard (d.1426; ODNB), Kt., soldier, administrator and speaker of House of Commons, son of Sir Matthew Redman of Levens; CW2 lx 79 pt. 1; CW2 lxii 113 pt.2
Redman, Richard (d.1505; ODNB), abbot of Shap and bishop of Ely, probably son of Richard Redman of Bossal, of the Levens family
Redman, Thomas (1761-18xx), clergyman, born at Orton and bapt there, 29 May 1761, son of James Redman, of Dalefoot, and his wife Elizabeth, with sister Barbary (bapt 21 October 1770), vicar of Kirkharle, Northumberland and widower of 88, when living in Hartley village (1851)
Redmayne family of Brathay, descended from the Ireby family, see Giles Redmayne below
Redmayne family of Ireby
Redmayne, George Tunstal (1840-1912), architect, son of Giles Redmayne sr of Brathay, married Katherine, the sister of the architect Alfred Waterhouse (qv), worked with Waterhouse, eventually running his Manchester office, his grandson was Sir Martin Redmayne (1910-1985) DSO TD PC (later baron Redmayne)
Redmayne, Giles sr (1793-1857), mercer, born 1793, son of Giles Redmayne (d.1801), descended from Redmaynes of Ireby Hall, and of Agnes Tunstall, his wife, became a mercer in Bond Street, London, bought Brathay Hall in 1834 and built Brathay Church in 1836 [extract from letter by Wordsworth to Mr Kenyon in praise of new chapel, 1837], marr, 2 sons (Giles (qv) and George Tunstall, d.1912), grandson Leonard (his 2nd son was Martin, later Sir Martin, 1st Bt, PC, DSO, TD, Baron Redmayne, of Rushcliffe, another son was Geoffrey B, who wrote from Lymington, Hants to Vicar of Brathay in 1975 to request a memorial tablet in church, though wishing to be cremated at Bournemouth (corresp in CRO, WPR 64)); the ancestor of the actor Eddie Redmayne
Redmayne, Giles jr (1820-1898), JP, er son of Giles Redmayne sr (qv), whom he succ at Brathay Hall in 1857, but male line failed with his great grandson, Giles Marmaduke Storey (1911-1954), who sold Brathay Hall to Francis Scott (qv) in 1939
Redmayne, Hugh (1855-1936), DL, JP, surgeon, son of Giles Redmayne jr, of Brathay Hall, Ambleside, trained at St Thomas, London (Medical Reg, 25 April 1879), DL Westmorland (apptd in October 1900) and JP for Ambleside PS Division, marr (1883, at Brathay, some sources give Ambleside) Katherine Mary Blomfield, of Lowfield, Ambleside, granddaughter of Charles Blomfield, bishop of London, her sister Dorothy Gurney (nee Blomfield) (qv) poet and writer of hymns who wrote ‘O Perfect Love’ for their wedding
Redmayne, Samuel (1829-1890), clothier, later tailor, born Bishop Auckland, marr Ellen Brewis in Penrith, est clothing factory in Station Rd, Wigton, friend of Samuel Plimsoll (qv), business taken over by his son William, grew to twenty tailoring branches based at Wigton, had idea of ‘old suits copied’ which was a great success, now also at Savile Row, London, given a Royal Warrant
Redmayne, Martin, later Sir Martin, 1st Bt, (1910-1983) PC, DSO, TD, Baron Redmayne, of Rushcliffe, 2nd son of Giles Redmayne, sr (1793-1857) (qv)
Redness, Richard de (fl.early 15thc), following a major fire in the city built Redness Hall on the Greenmarket, Carlisle, soon afterwards in 1406-7 assigned Redness Hall (now the Guildhall, Carlisle) to the mayor and citizens of Carlisle after his death (Hud C); English Heritage
Redmayne, Sir Richard Augustine Studdert (1865-1955; ODNB), mining engineer, born Gateshead, descendant of Giles Redmayne of Brathay Hall (qv), educ Durham College of Science in Newcastle, under manager Hetton colliery, then manager in South Africa and Seaton Delaval, 1902 professor of mining at Birmingham, on commission for investigating mining disasters at Whitehaven and elsewhere, improved conditions in mines, 1908 chief inspector of mines, involved in the work which led to the Coal Mines Act of 1911, published Modern Practice in Mining in several volumes
Redshaw, Joan Mary (nee White, later Lady Redshaw) (1910-1996), born in London, daughter of William White, a foreman lighterman and his wife Jane Woolner, married Leonard Redshaw (qv) in 1939, lived at Netherclose, Ireleth, apart from her considerable work supporting her husband she was much involved in local flower clubs with Joan Ward, the wife of Cedric Ward (qv) and Mary, the wife of Ken Fisher (qv), in her house at Netherclose, Ireleth one fascinating feature was a plate glass window engraved with the profile of the fells visible across the Duddon estuary
Redshaw, Sir Leonard (1911-1989; DCB), shipbuilding engineer, born at Barrow-in-Furness, shipbuilding apprentice at sixteen, educ Liverpool University (Naval Architecture), research into welding, deputy chief executive of Vickers Ltd and chairman of Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Group, President of Welding Institute, clear-sighted leader, driving force behind Barrow becoming lead yard for nuclear submarine programme, resp for launch of Orsova, world’s first all-welded steel passenger liner in 1954, HMS Dreadnought, first nuclear submarine, in 1960, and British Admiral, world’s first 100,000 ton tanker, in 1965, also resp for Vickers’ diversification into offshore and sub-sea engineering, marr, 1 son (Peter) and 1 dau (Jill Gillett), died in 1989 (Vickers Master Shipbuilder by Leslie M Shore, 2011)
Reeau family of High Furness; CW1 xi 361
Reece, Beatrice EM, medium and psychic, marr Cyril Perfect violinist, lived Bouth, mother of the keyboard player Christine McVie (nee Perfect) (qv) of Fleetwood Mac, she is said to have cured people of cancer
Reed, Alice (1893-1896), drowned on the SS Drummond, dau of William and Margaret Reed of Dalton-in-Furness (Margaret was the daughter of John Walker of the White Hart in the town), in fog en route from Cape Town to London the vessel struck the Pierres Vertes of Ushant, of 143 passengers and 103 crew, only three survived, the Reed family included, Alice’s body was found by fishermen who dressed her in traditional Breton costume and placed her in a cradle flanked with flowers and candles prior to her burial, some villagers prayed nearby, the moment being captured by the artist Charles Cottet, the painting may be seen at the Petit Palais; Rod White, Furness Stories behind the Stones online
Reed, Frederick John (1808-1888), of Hassness, Buttermere, High Sheriff 1878, his descendant Frederick William Reed Sale (b.1868) was deputy official receiver for Cumberland and deputy coroner for East Cumberland; Hud (C)
Reekie, Henry Enfield, headmaster, educated Clare College, Cambridge, headmaster of St Bees School 1946-51 and Felstead 1951-1968, in 1964 welcomed the Queen mother to lay the foundation stone of the new music school
Reeve, Clara (1729-1807; ODNB), novelist and historian of fiction, b. Ipswich, dau of Revd William Reeve, rector of Freston and Hannah Smithies, native of Suffolk, wrote The Old English Baron: A Gothic Story (1777) in response to Horace Walpole’s Castle of Otranto, reprinted by W Stephen, Penrith, 1816, and The School for Widows (1785), she was also a pioneering historian of fiction, writing The Progress of Romance [1785], her brother was vice admiral Samuel Reeve; portrait by AH Tourrier, Fiona Price, The Female Aesthetic Subject, PhD e-thesis, Durham, 2000
Reeves, Captain, of the city of Carlisle, died Kingston Jamaica, tomb and draped cross Stanwix churchyard
Reeves, Richard Harman Jeffares (1836-1920), politician NZ, b. Co Wexford, ed Barrow GS and Tarvin GS, Cheshire, this latter school chosen probably via the reputation of Canon Thomas Stanley Bowstead [1788-1852] qv, master for many years, speaker New Zealand Parliament; Dictionary of NZ Biography
Regan, Mary (1911-1986), local councillor and charity worker, worked as a clerk for Provincial Insurance Co, husband Tony was a turner at Gilbert Gilkes & Gordon, Westmorland County Councillor for Castle (Eastern) Division of Kendal Borough 1969-1974 and Kendal Borough Councillor 1966-1974, worked for Kendal flood relief scheme and local charities, of 30a Kendal Green, Kendal, until 1985 when she moved into Stone Cross Nursing Home, but died 1986; memorial plaque at end of Jennings footbridge, Aynam Road, Kendal
Reid, Revd David Alexander (19xx-197x), BA, clergyman, educ St Chad’s College, Durham (BA 1938, Dip Theol 1939), d 1939 (Penrith for Carl) and p 1940 (Carl), curate of Holy Trinity Kendal 1939-1941, and Great Yarmouth 1941-1942, curate-in-charge of Fairburn, Yorks 1942-1943, curate of Embleton 1943-1947, curate-in-charge of Longsleddale 1947-1949, where he set up a parish magazine, with first issue written and produced by himself in July 1947, grateful for welcome to him and wife in valley, also set up a church council with finance and ladies committees, a church choir, and flower rota, wife setting up a Girl Guides group, whist drives organised to raise funds for church and children’s Christmas party, reported on local issues (esp poor state of road and lack of electricity and public telephone), and most impressed by sincerity of Longsleddale harvest festival services, in American church 1949-1956, vicar of Haydon Bridge 1956-1971, died by 1975
Reid, Elizabeth Jesser (nee Sturch) (1789-1866; ODNB), slavery abolitionist and founder of Bedford College, born in London daughter of a wealthy ironmonger, married John Reid MD who died in 1822, her independent income allowed her philanthropic ventures, funded Harriet Martineau (qv) to allow poor people to buy houses in the Lake District, provided hospitality to Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) when she spoke on slavery in London, and to Sarah Parker Remond (1826-1894) the first black woman to give a lecture tour in England, keen on the education of women, she put up the funds for the founding of Bedford College, London, here early students included Barbara Bodichon (1827-1891) and George Eliot (1819-1880)
Reid, Revd Peter (fl.1871-73), independent minister, commenced duties as pastor of Independent Chapel at Kirkby Stephen on 13 February 1871 and publicly ordained as pastor on 7 November 1871, with Revd W H Bassett of Penrith addressing church and Revd W Darwent giving the charge to him, but moved on after December 1873 (his last burial service at cemetery) and 17 May 1874 (his last baptism), succ by Revd Dr Thomas W Bowman (qv), wife Helen, son John Loudoun (born 28 January and baptised publicly 23 February 1873)
Reid, Robert Corsane Mabon (c.1883-1963), LLD, historian and antiquary, honorary member of CWAAS from 1937, having first joined in 1910, died at his home, Cleughbrae, Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, 21 April 1963, aged 80 (CW2, lxiv, 418-19)
Reiss, George Francis (19xx-19xx), pork butcher and artist, 15 Market Place, Kendal; engravings in Abbot Hall Art Gallery, scrapbook in CRO (WDX 363) (WG, 27.09.2012); Marshall Hall
Reiver Families: Armstrong, Elliott, Fenwick, Forster, Graham, Irvine, Johnstone, Maxwell, Nixon, Turnbull et al.; George Macdonald Fraser, The Steel Bonnets, 1971; statue The Border Reiver by John Parkinson; The Reiver Pavement by Tullie House, Carlisle; David A. Cross, Public Sculpture, 2017, xvii and 151-2; (qv) the very apt Jazz Music album title: ‘Disorder on the Border’ by the US saxophonist Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969)
Relf, Joseph (d.1723), attorney, of Cockermouth, marr (1 March 1712, at Greystoke, by licence) Barbara, yst dau of William Williams (qv), of Johnby Hall, died 1723; she left bequest for educational purposes by will of 1727
Relph, Revd Josiah (1712-1743; ODNB), clergyman and dialect poet, born 3 December 1711/12 at Sebergham and bapt 26 December 1711/12 [confusion over date in parish register and biographies] at St Mary’s Sebergham, eldest son of John Relph, of Churchtown Farm, and Jane (died 17xx), his first wife, with two younger brothers and a sister, his father marr 2nd (July 1725) Elizabeth Marshall and had 2 further daughters (Jane and Ann), educ Appleby Grammar School (entd 1722 under Richard Yates) and Glasgow University, one of first dialect poets (Josiah Relph of Sebergham, England’s First Dialect Poet, together with a facsimile copy of Poems of the Rev. Josiah Relph, of Sebergham, with the Life of the Author, embellished with Picturesque Engravings on Wood by Thomas Bewick, printed by John Mitchell, Carlisle, 1798, and dedicated to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, of Brayton Hall, by Stephen Matthews, Carlisle, 2015); CW1 vi 253; Laurie Kemp, Tales from Carlisle
Relph, Ted (1925-2020), local historian, born Crosby Ravensworth, son of James Relph, joiner and his wife Dorothy Jane Page from Essex, educ Queen Eliz GS Penrith and St John’s York, in 2nd WW was in India and Burma, taught Kirkby Stephen, keen on wild flowers and a mainstay of the Lakeland Dialect Society holding several posts and finally president emeritus; Gordon Bowness, Ted Relph, Life in Crosby Ravensworth, Cumbria Local History Fed, 2020; Jean Scott Smith, TR, countryman, local historian and the dialect society, CLHF, 2020
Remington, also see Rimington
Remington family of Aynsome, near Cartmel; CW2 lxxxix 263
Remington, Henry (1797-1866), landowner, born 1796, eldest son of Reginald Remington (qv), succ to Crow Trees and to Aynsome in 1854, marr (7 September 1826) Mary (died October 1883), only child of George Ashburner, of Holm Bank, Ulverston, 4 sons (Reginald (qv), George (1829-1898), Henry (1833-1901) and Thomas Machell (qv)) and 2 daus (Agnes (b.1831), wife of Revd T E Petty (qv) and Catherine (1834-1914), wife of Revd Canon J Allen Wilson (d.1917), Rector of Bolton-by-Bolland, Yorks, marr at Cartmel, 24 April 1860), died 17 February 1866
Remington, Henry (1863-1934), clergyman, born 30 May 1863, only son of Revd Reginald Remington (1827-1919), eldest son of Henry Remington (qv), marr (14 July 1892) Mary Frances (died 9 December 1935), dau of Revd John Fernie, rector of Burton, Lincs, 2 sons (both educ St Bees) and 2 daus, vicar of Hutton Roof 1906-1913 and of Melling 1913-1934, sold The Crow Trees, died 12 February 1934
Remington, John Stewart (1872-c.1960), analytical chemist, born in 1872, son of George Remington (1829-1898), of Ulverston (2nd son of Henry Remington, qv) and of Mary Ann, dau of J Stewart, marr (1898) his cousin, Margaret Emily, dau of Revd Thomas Machell Remington (qv), had a lab at Aynsome manor, Cartmel, member of CWAAS from 1892, author of A Peep into the Past (1935); William Francis and Leonard Hill, Pigments, their manufacture and properties, 1954
Remington, Reginald (1770-1854), JP, born 1770, son of Henry Remington, of Melling, and of Isabel Bainbridge, of Kirkby Lonsdale, marr (October 1796) Catherine (died March 1857), yst dau of Thomas Machell, of Aynsome, Grange-over-Sands, 3 sons (Henry and Thomas, qv), of The Crow Trees, Melling, died in August 1854
Remington, Reginald (1827-1909), MA clergyman, born 3 July 1827, eldest of 4 sons of Henry Remington (qv), educ Sedbergh and Pembroke College, Oxford (MA), clerk in Holy Orders by 1860 and of Downham in parish of Whalley, aged 32, when he marr (21 June 1860, at Cartmel) Frances (aged 31; died 13 June 1890), eldest dau of Alfred Binyon, of Merlewood, Grange-over-Sands, Lancs, 1 son (qv) and 6 daus, of The Crow Trees, Melling, died 10 April 1909
Remington, Thomas [1802-1855], MA clergyman, b. Melling, Lancs., 2nd son of the Rev Reginald Remington qv, educated Giggleswick, Emmanuel College, Camb., vicar of Cartmel 1834-55, achieved considerable restorations at the priory and built the Hampsfell hospice and another ornamental tower, turned down the offer of the bishopric of Chester
Remington, Thomas Machell (1836-1900), MA, clergyman, born 21 October 1836, yst of 4 sons of Henry Remington (qv), educ Trinity College, Cambridge (MA), curate of Caton 1860-1865, vicar of Arkholme 1866-1873, rector of Claughton 1873-1885, member of CWAAS from 1890, marr (1867) Alice Maud (d.1884), yst dau of Alfred Binyon, of Merlewood, Grange over Sands, Lancs, and sister of Frances, wife of Revd Reginald (qv), 1 son (Thomas Machell) and 3 daus (one of whom marr her cousin, J S Remington, qv), of Aynsome, died 16 May 1900, aged 63, and buried at Cartmel, 17 May
Rennie, John (1761-1821), architect and civil engineer, provided harbour plans for Whitehaven in 1823 and his design for the west pier was completed construction in 1838; also his estimate for Ulverston canal in 1792 (ms in CRO) was followed by its construction from 1793-6
Renwick, Frances Mary (d.1911), dau of John Nixon Renwick of Newcastle, marr Joseph Fisher JP (qv) of Higham Hall, Bassenthwaite (Hud C) (is she a descendant of a family named after the village ? and distantly related to Thomas Renicke who married Elizabethe Rumley at Kirkoswald in 1632 and even Lord Renwick and the Renwick baronets ?)
Repton, Humphrey (1752-1818; ODNB), landscape designer, visited the Lakes and was ‘overawed’; Hankinson The Regatta Men, 3
Reveley, Samuel (1757-1809), clergyman, marr Ruth, son (Thomas, qv), vicar of Crosby Ravensworth 1783-1785 and 1789-1809, died in November 1809
Reveley, Samuel John (1826-1888), solicitor, born in London, 2 December 1826, [son of Thomas Reveley?], educ Sedbergh School (entd August 1842, aged 15, left June 1843), qualified as solicitor and practised at Cartmel (Harrison & Reveley), also clerk to magistrates, of The Hollies, Cartmel (1876), but also owned burgage house and garden on west side of Kirkland, Kendal (1886), died 31 August 1888, aged 62, and buried at Cartmel, 3 September (SSR, 207)
Reveley, Thomas (1787-1861), attorney and antiquary, bapt at Crosby Ravensworth, 22 May 1787, son of Revd Samuel Reveley (qv), resident of Kendal by February 1826 when he made public affirmation of confidence in the two local banks of Messrs Wilson, Crewdson & Co and Messrs J Wakefield & Sons during the financial crisis of that year (KK, 37), died 18 March 1861 (WCN, i, 198; CW2, lxiv, 81-85)
Reynolds, Colin (1942-2018), MBE, PhD, research scientist and local councillor, born in London, June 1942, brought up in Shropshire, educ University of London (PhD), senior scientific officer with Freshwater Biological Association at Ferry House from 1970, secretary April 1997-December 1998 and director 1999-2003 and 2005-2010, author of over 75 scientific papers (esp into microscopic algae and plankton in rivers, lakes and reservoirs), member of South Lakeland District Council in 1980s-1990s, esp active in environmental health, housing and policy and resources committees, member of Kendal Town Council and Mayor of Kendal 1992-1993, played major role in setting up of Stricklandgate House as base for voluntary groups and director, Stricklandgate House Trust Ltd from September 1993, chairman of Kendal and District Home Safety Committee, Lakes Line Action Group, and Cumbria Trust for Nature Conservation, director Cumbria Wildlife Trust Ltd 1997-2001 and Field Studies Council 1997-2003, marr (19xx) Jean, 2 sons (Stephen and Simon) and 1 dau (Sarah), of 18 Applerigg, Burneside Road, Kendal, died at Heron Hill Care Home, 3 December 2018, aged 76, funeral at Holy Trinity and St George Catholic Church, Kendal, 14 December (WG, 13.12.2018)
Reynolds, Edward Morris (18xx-19xx), JP, MA, clergyman and schoolmaster, educ Emmanuel College, Cambridge (BA 1856, MA 1859), d 1855 (Man), curate of Holy Trinity, Stockton-on-Tees 1858, fellow of St Peter’s College, Radley, asst master, Clifton College 1868-1878, Haileybury College 1874-1876, author of chapter on ‘Fox-Hunting on the Fells’ in W G Collingwood’s The Lake Counties (1902), revised by R E Porter for new edition of 1932, JP Westmorland by 1906, of Meadow Bank, Rydal Road, Ambleside (1894 to 1906), decd by 1910 (Miss Reynolds only)
Reynolds, Sir James Philip (1856-1932), 1st Bt, Lieut-Col, marr (1931) Helen Mary, er dau of Charles Richard Gillow, of Leighton Hall, (his 2nd son Major James Roskell Reynolds, TD, of Leighton Hall), tenant of Levens Hall in 19xx when T H Mawson made suggestions for a water garden (CRO, WDB 86/roll 108)
Rhayader, baron, see Leif-Jones
Rheam, Philip (18xx-19xx), solicitor, agent, steward, and local councillor, clerk to Milnthorpe magistrates (from before 1894 until at least 1925, retired by 1930), solicitor in firm of Talbot & Rheam at Burton and Milnthorpe (later joined by George Webster in firm of Rheam & Webster by 1921, then Talbot, Rheam & Webster by 1925), commissioner for oaths, steward to manor of Burton, agent for Heverham and Burton Vicarage lands, steward for Woodhouse Charity lands, agent for Guardian & Royal Exchange Insurance Co, office in Main Street, Milnthorpe, Conservative registration agent for Milnthorpe, Endmoor and Burton polling districts, secretary of Tattersall’s Almshouses, Milnthorpe Rural District Councillor (1905), chairman of Milnthorpe Parish Council (1905), marr Annie Elizabeth, of Rock Cottage, Milnthorpe (1894, 1905, 1914, 1921), then of Yew Bank, Milnthorpe (1925, 1929, 1930), pres decd by 1934
Rhodes, Godfrey S (1823-1905), JP, army officer, born 1823, 3rd son of William Rhodes (1791-1869), DL, JP, Captain, 19th Light Dragoons, of Bramhope, Yorks, Colonel, 94th Regt, owner of the Grove Estate, inc Stock Ghyll Park and Falls, for admission to which he charged 1d. (poster of 1885), gave lecture on Suez canal and Red Sea to Ambleside Mechanics’ institute on 1 November 1876 (LC, 11.1876), spoke in favour of Ambleside Railway Bill 1886, purchased the Ambleside “Curates’” Bible from J R Dore in 1894 (who had sold it on understanding that it be restored to Ambleside church), but did not present it to vicar, poss bec not in accord with his doctrine, had well known bias for polemics, effects sold at Ambleside in 1906 after his death, when Bible was bought by H S Cowper and Miss M L Armitt, of Rothay Holme, Ambleside (from 1885 at least), died in 1905 [not buried at Ambleside] (ALH, 261-62, 288; CW2, vii, 143)
Rhodes, Harold (18xx-19xx), solicitor, town clerk of Kendal from 1932, of 14 Kent Street, Kendal
Rhodes, Alan (d.c.2017), architect, of Rhodes and Gill, built the Royal Windermere clubhouse, lived in half of Voysey’s Moor Crag
Rhodes, Philip Sidney (1906-1989), garage manager and boatbuilder, b. Romilley, Cheshire, son of Sidney Herbert Rhodes, director cotton mill, Hazel Grove, and Lucy Watson, dau of Daniel Watson buyer of cotton goods, m. Stella Haslam Urquhart (1911-1977), one son Bernard, one dau Veronica, tenant of Fell Foot, Newby Bridge from 1948, encouraged scout and guide camping, fostered the Lakeland Canoe Club, later lived at The Bield, Field Broughton, his son Bernard was co-founder of the South Windermere Sailing Club at Fell Foot in 1961 (also held the record for the fastest single handed crossing of the Atlantic c.1964 in Klis, a vessel he had built himself at Fell Foot, later captained a Greenpeace vessel)
Rice, also see Spring-Rice
Rice, Hugh Ashton Lawrence (1909-1974/5), clergyman and author, d 1933 and p 1934 (Guild), curate of St Michael, Aldershot 1933-1939, St Martin, Sarum 1939-1940, CF (EC) in WW2 1940-1946, chaplain, School of St Helen and St Katharine, Abingdon 1946-1947, rector of Holy Trinity, Winchester 1947-1949, chaplain, Prestfelde School 1949-1958, vicar of Little Ness, Shrewsbury 1958-1963, chaplain and tutor, Greystoke College 1963-1970 (living at Matterdale), curate, Kirkby Lonsdale 1970-19xx, acted as chairman of Hutton Roof PCC from May 1972 to October 1973, editor of Home Words for 5 years, member of CWAAS from 1970, author of Lake Country Portraits (1967), with foreword by Roger Fulford (qv) (biographical chapters on Lake Poets and other notable figures), Where Rise the Mountains: A Cumbrian Miscellany, published by Frank Graham, Newcastle upon Tyne (1969), which presents much soundly researched information on a wide variety of subjects in an attractive form, interspersed with several of his poems, Greystoke Parish Church (1971), Parish Church of Kirkby Lonsdale (1972), Lake Country Echoes, WG (1973), Curiosities of Lakeland, (1974) Lakeland Companion: A Guide for Visitors, (19xx) and Kirkby Lonsdale and its Neighbourhood, WG (1983), his Lake Country Towns (1974) which treated Carlisle, Penrith, Kendal, Cockermouth, Keswick, Ambleside, Hawkshead, Cartmel and Grange, and Ulverston in a way to provide the interested visitor with some historical background, but also to alert residents to greater vigilance in defence of their historic buildings and townscapes, generally concerned to protect ‘this precious possession of ours’ (Lake District), also author of religious works Thomas Ken, Bishop and Non-Juror (SPCK, 1958), Prayer Book Heritage: An Introduction to the History and Development of Anglican Worship (1959), The Bridge Builders: Nine Great Anglicans (inc Ken, Law, Bray, Wilson, Woodard, Neale and Gore), Biographical Studies in the History of Anglicanism (1961), Where Your Treasure Is (1963), To Be a Pilgrim: A Book of Devotion and Duty for Members of the Anglican Church, Abbey Press, Newry (19xx), God and Goodness (OUP), of St Mary’s Lodge, Kirkby Lonsdale, died after January 1974
Rich, William James (18xx-19xx), schoolmaster, of the Schoolhouse, Coniston (1912), succ? John Morris (qv)
Richard II (1367-1400; ODNB), king of England, son of the Black Prince (1330-1376; ODNB) and Joan the Fair Maid of Kent (c.1328-1385; ODNB) (qqv), born at the abbey of St Andre in Bordeaux, his maternal grandmother was Margaret Wake, 3rd baroness of Liddell Strength, Kirkandrews on Esk, Cumberland (qv), he inherited the throne aged ten in 1377, his mother was alive for a further eight years
Richard III (1452-1485; ODNB), king of England, previously duke of Gloucester, son of the 3rd duke of York and Cecily Neville, brother of Edward IV and uncle of Edward V (one of the ‘princes in the Tower’ and who was never crowned), on his marriage to Anne Neville he was given Sheriff Hutton, Penrith and Middleham, he was sheriff of Cumberland for life and given the demesne lands of the castle of Carlisle, he was also a leading figure in Furness and Clitheroe but he had lands elsewhere, his coat of arms appear on Dockwray Hall, Penrith
Richard, negro or Indian servant of Henry Fletcher MP, baptised West Ward 1771
Richards, Dorothy Eleanor (nee Pilley) (1894-1986; ODNB), mountaineer, born Camberwell, dau of John James Pilley, lecturer in science, she climbed in North Wales on a family holiday, in 1915 encouraged in rock climbing by Herbert Carr (1896-1986), the family protested as this was dangerous, but she climbed exciting and new routes in Wales and the Lakes, joined the Fell and Rock Club in 1918, climbed in the French Alps, joined the Pinnacle Club in 1921, climbed in the Mont Blanc chain, the Pyrenees and the Italian Alps in the 20s and later in the Canadian and American Rockies, marr I A (Ivor Anstey) Richards (1893-1979; ODNB) the literary scholar and critic in Honolulu in 1926, in the Himalayas she celebrated the first ascent of the North Ridge of the Dent Blanche, published Climbing Days (1935 and 1965), spent her last New Year aged 91 in a climbing hut in Glen Brittle on Skye, drinking whiskey and talking mountains
Richards, Gordon Waugh (1930-1998), jockey and trainer, born in Shropshire, following a fall as a jockey when he broke his back he set up as a trainer at Beadnell Northumberland in 1964 and then in 1968 at Greystoke, near Penrith, he trained two winners of the Grand National, father of the trainer Nicky Richards, friend of the racing journalist John Budden (qv); John Budden, The Boss: The Life of Horseracing Legend Gordon Waugh Richards, 2000; bust at Carlisle Racecourse
Richardson, Albert James (19xx-2018), mayor of Preston 1990-1991 and 2010-2011, burgher 1992, honorary alderman 2014, died at Summerhill Nursing Home, Kendal, 3 September 2018, aged 82, funeral at St George’s Church, Kendal, with interment at Parkside Cemetery, 17 September (WG, 13.09.2018) [native of Kendal?]
Richardson, Anthony (1738-1787), merchant, born in America, the son of the Richardsons of Byerstead, St Bees, returned to England to work in partnership with his relative Anthony Bacon MP (qv), they owned estates in Dominica and Grenada from 1761, later also in Tobago, his will requires the sale of his land and slaves for the benefit of his wife Hannah and children, his son Sir John Richardson was a judge of the common pleas; Hud (C)
Richardson, Sir Charles (1769-1850), KCB, Vice-Admiral, RN, reputedly born at Barker Hill in parish of Shap, other source gives near Bampton, natural son of Captain Charles Wood (1831-1882)??, RN, of Bowling Hall, Yorkshire, and brother of Sir Francis Wood, 1st Bt, educ Bampton School, of Painsthorpe, Yorks, portrait by W. Derby, his house [birthplace?] was drawn by Thomas Bland (qv) [Jackson Coll. Ref. Ct 05889], large plaque memorial Bampton
Richardson, Eric (fl.20thc.), Pennine lead miner, worked at Nenthead, his life Eric Richardson of Nenthead (1979) written by WR Mitchell (qv)
Richardson, James (18xx-1890), leather manufacturer, of Summerhill Grove, Newcastle upon Tyne, marr (16 June 1857 at Quaker MH, Pilgrim street, Newcastle upon Tyne) Augusta Ann Dixon, built Balla Wray at High Wray about 1870 for his retirement, but died before completing his business in north east, 16 June 1890; his widow Ann, of South Ashfield, Newcastle, made Balla Wray permanent family home and erected granite drinking fountain on road between Hawkshead and High Wray in his memory (papers in CRO, WDX 184)
Richardson, John (c.1766-1812), steward, employed as steward by earl of Lonsdale at Lowther, also steward of manor of Longmarton (1801) and of Kirkby Lonsdale (1803), buried at Lowther, 29 January 1812, aged 46
Richardson, John (1774-1866), architect, born at Kendal, 13 May 1774, marr (23 August 1806), designer of Wesleyan Chapel, new theatre in Shakespeare Yard 1829 (for Thomas Simpson, of Wattsfield), Castle Street Infants’ School, Kendal 1829, Town View (for William Wilson) 1831-32 (photograph by J H Hogg taken on 13 May 1864, his 90th birthday, with his wife, aged 88, in WD/SE, repro in KK, 143), died 1866
Richardson, Sir John (1787-1865; ODNB), CB, FRS, MD, arctic explorer and naturalist, born at Dumfries, 5 November 1787, (taught TH Huxley and his influence led to Huxley’s appointment as surgeon on The Rattlesnake), one of the great explorers with Sir John Franklin (1786-1847; ODNB) of northern Canadian wilderness, retired to Lancrigg, Grasmere, where he died, 5 June 1865, aged 77, and buried in churchyard, 9 June (MI and portrait medallion in Grasmere church); Rob David, In Search of Arctic Wonders
Richardson, John (1817-1886), dry stone waller, builder, dialect writer, later a schoolmaster, born Naddle Vale, in St John’s-in-the-Vale in 1817, (his best known poem It’s nobbut me is a classic of Cumberland vernacular poetry), author of article on Old Customs and Usages of the Lake District (TCAALS, 1876), died in 1886; buried St John in the Vale; Brian Wilkinson, Keswick Characters vol.1
Richardson, John (Johnny) (19xx-after 1988), huntsman of Blencathra Fell Pack until 1988, succ by Barry Todhunter, who had served as whipper-in to him for 15 seasons before that (only seven huntsmen since pack was established in 1826)
Richardson, Joseph (1790-1855), maker of the ‘musical stones’, son of Daniel Richardson of Keswick, taught himself ot play the musical stones (or lithophone) of his own construction, the stones were hornsfel of Skiddaw which had better tone and a longer period of resonance, the first lithophone was made by Peter Crosthwaite (qv) in 1785 but the much larger Richardson instrument went on tour and played to queen Victoria; Jamie Barnes, Keswick Characters vol 1
Richardson, Joseph (18xx-18xx), newspaper proprietor and author, formerly of Middlesbrough, which he left on 3 October 1863 with his wife and family of 5 after ‘struggling on for nearly nineteen years’, selling the Middlesbrough Weekly News and Cleveland Advertiser to Joseph Gould, a printer in Middlesborough, for Kendal, where he started the Kendal Times, Westmorland Reporter, and Lake District Advertiser in 1863 at premises in Highgate opposite Town Hall (first issue in January 1864) until selling to Edward Gill (qv) in 1866 (then amalgamated with Kendal Mercury), also published a Guide to the Lakes by George King Matthews and a Shilling Guide to the Lakes of his own production, celebrated Tercentenary of Shakespeare’s Birthday by illuminating Kendal on 23 April 1864, unsuccessful in these ventures and so moved to Barrow, invited by James Ramsden to set up in business, taking lease of premises in Duke Street in December 1865, started up first penny paper in Barrow, the Barrow Times, on 6 January 1866, author of Furness Past and Present: Its History and Antiquities (2 volumes, Barrow, 1880), which he dedicated to Duke of Devonshire, left for London in 1886 (WNB, 58-59; CW2, lxxv, 357-358, lxxviii, 187-198)
Richardson, Mary Anne (1811-1852), dau of John Richardson (1766-1812) (qv), marr James Strachan, merchant of Manila and Madras, their son James Leigh Strachan-Davidson was the master of Balliol 1907-1916; Hud (C)
Richardson, Richard (1622/3-1689; ODNB), Quaker, at Swarthmoor Hall in 1660, then to London, was at the hub of Quaker administration as their second recording clerk, George Fox used him as a research assistant, his books are now in the library of the Society of Friends in London
Richardson, Peter (17xx-18xx), clergyman, minister of Cartmel [1804x1812] (letters to him from committee room at Lloyds Coffee House, London, re subscriptions for relief of prisoners in France in CRO, WPR 89/2712/4-10)
Richardson, Sydney (1931-2013), BA, headteacher, born at The Crescent, Kirkby Stephen, in 1931, er son of Stephen Richardson, salesman, of Rowgate, KS, and his wife Minnie (nee Alderson), attended Primitive Methodist chapel in KS with his mother (who died in Garlands Hospital, Carlisle, aged 34, and buried in KS cemetery, 9 October 1938) and his grandmother, then at Congregational church, and moving to parish church in his teenage years, becoming a member of Boys’ Brigade and youth club, educ Kirkby Stephen Council School, Appleby Grammar School (scholar, prefect, played football, cricket and hockey) and, after two-years’ national service in RAMC and commissioned into Royal Army Service Corps, being sent to assist victims of Linton and Lynmouth flood disaster in 1953, at Queen’s College, Oxford (scholar, history, played hockey for college, BA 1955), obtained teaching certificate from Leeds University 1956, of Hawbank, Rowgate, when he marr (8 August 1956, at Kirkby Stephen parish church) Rhoda Marjorie (teacher at Warcop School, d.1999), dau of William Jackson, cycle and sports dealer, of Market Street, Kirkby Stephen, and his wife Margery, of wool shop, and Myrtle Cottage, High Street, KS, 1 son (Jonathan), moved to Leeds, where he was appointed history teacher at Leeds Modern School, then head of history at Allerton High School for Girls in 1961, promoted to deputy head in 1971 and then to Headmaster in 1977, which post he held until his retirement in 1989, member of St Barnabas’s church, Alwoodley for all his time in Leeds, being committee secretary for many years and played instrumental part in planning of a new church building in 1962, also Christian Aid area organiser for Leeds, continued his sporting interests by playing badminton and taking up golf as member of Sandmoor Golf Club, Alwoodley (writing history of club on its 75th anniversary), developed his interest in local history after retiring by taking external course at Lancaster University, specifically on village of Brampton, the home of the Richardson family since late 16th century at least, becoming an authority on history of Brampton, also involved in CWAAS and CFHS, moved back after wife’s death to settle at Kirkby Lonsdale, becoming a member of St Mary’s church and researching lives of all the servicemen commemorated on the War Memorial, latterly companion of Phyllis, lived a life of service, integrity and humility, died at home in Kirkby Lonsdale, 6 January 2013, aged 81, and buried at Kirkby Stephen cemetery after service of thanksgiving at St Mary’s church, Kirkby Lonsdale, 11 January (CWH, 19.01.2013)
Richardson, Thomas (d.c.1717), lived Rownehead or Ronhead (today Roanhead aka Sandscale Haws), Dalton-in-Furness; Proc Barrow Field Naturalists xvii 54
Richardson, Thomas (1771-1852), quaker financier, m. Matta Beeby of Allonby, built school and North Lodge Allonby, with its fine octagonal privy (demolished c.1995)
Richardson, Thomas and William, wrestlers of Caldbeck, Caldbeck Characters, Caldbeck Local History Society, 1995
Richardson, Thomas (1868-1928), politician and coal miner, born at Usworth, co Durham, 6 June 1868, eldest child of Robert Richardson, coal miner, who died in pit explosion at Usworth colliery, with 41 others, in 1885, and his wife Margaret, marr (1888) Mary Ellinor Purvis, 4 children, started as a coal miner, became active member of Independent Labour Party (his brother William also an active member and later became treasurer of Miners’ Federation of Great Britain), elected as first Labour MP for Whitehaven in December 1910 (thanks to no Liberal standing), but stood down in 1918 to fight Bosworth, unsuccessfully, died 22 October 1928, aged 60
Richardson, Thomas Miles Sr (1784-1848), artist; b. Northumberland, visited the Lakes
Richardson, Thomas Miles Jr (1813-1890), artist; b. Northumberland, visited the Lakes
Richardson, Thomasin (17xx-1839), philanthropist, dau of James Dowker (qv), of Kendal, marr William Richardson (qv) (d.1809), owner of Kendal Castle, responsible for planting belt of trees skirting standing masonry, started Society for Relieving the Sick Poor in Kendal in 1811, endowed new church of St Thomas in Kendal with £1000, also endowed new chapel at Milnthorpe, dedicated to St Thomas, with £1,000, but unable to attend laying of foundation stone on 2 December 1835 through indisposition, when school children and 80 poor women were presented with 1s each from her, of Main Street, Kirkby Lonsdale (1829) and of Stricklandgate, Kendal, died aged 81 and buried in Kendal churchyard, 11 January 1839; executors gave £19 12s. to Kendal Dispensary in 1840
Richardson, William, wrestler, see Thomas Richardson
Richardson, William (1699-1767) curate and schoolmaster Crosthwaite, later vicar of Dacre, published on the Natural Hstory of the Ullswater area: mammals, birds and fish and also rare plants
Richardson, William (1728-1807), merchant, bapt at Stanwix in 1728, yr son of John Richardson (buried at Stanwix, 19 January 1789, aged 87), yeoman, late of Rickerby and then of Sprunston, and his wife Jane, went to London as young man and made fortune as merchant in City, bought farms in 1767 and lordship of manor of Rickerby in 1768 (1 December, for £200) from the Gilpins of Scaleby Castle, bought up other land and property, of Rickerby House, Carlisle, died unmarried at Rickerby, 5 February 1807, aged 79, and buried at Stanwix, 9 February; will proved at Carlisle, 16 February 1807 (CW2, xcii, 230ff)
Richardson, William (c.1751-1809), attorney and recorder, listed as attorney in Kendal (UBD, 1790), prob marr Thomasin Dowker, recorder of Kendal, buried at Kendal, 24 November 1809, aged 58
Richardson, William (18xx-1883), last of long-established and prominent family in Crosby Garrett, died 21 January 1883
Richardson, William (‘Honest Bill’) (1839-1920), emigrant farmer, born at Walkers House, Bleatarn, near Warcop, 25 December 1839, and bapt at Warcop, 22 January 1840, son of Michael Richardson, from Sleagill, and his wife (marr at Kirkby Stephen) Dorothy Dent, of Soulby, emigrated to Australia at age of 17, joining his elder brother John , working as a goldminer, at Melbourne, started work as a carter, known as ‘Honest Bill’ for his straight dealing, bought with his brother two years later bush land in Murrumbidgee basin on Hillas Creek, which became known as Deltroit, south of Sydney, to start up a cattle and sheep farm, favoured Shorthorn cattle and requested dairy Shorthorns from William Fawcett, of Sandford, near Appleby, who sent beef and dairy Shorthorns out to Australia in 1870s, which original stock was foundation of later famous Deltroit herd, became a noted Shorthorn judge in Australia, also ran sheep farm, made additional land purchases to increase size of farm to 7,500 acres, kept on going despite hard conditions, after death of his brother too, took daily walk of about 20 miles until well into his 70s, built Deltroit House in 1903, died in March 1920, aged 81 (Nicola Crichton-Brown, Deltroit and the Valley of Hillas Creek, 2012; CWH, 05.01.2013)
Richmond family of High Head Castle; CW1 ii 108
Richmond, Elizabeth, of Catterlen, absentee owner R.C.; CW2 lix 127
Richmond, Sir Thomas de, of Corby (d.1316), present with Edward I at seige of Caerlaverock in 1300, given the honour of Cockermouth, killed in Jedburgh forest in 1316 by the earl of Douglas, his son conveyed Corby to Sir Andrew de Harcla (qv)
Richmond, Thomas (1802-1874), portrait painter, brother of George Richmond the artist, lived Windermere, friend of Ruskin, assisted in the repairs at Brantwood; Dearden, Facets of Ruskin, p.26
Richmond, Thomas Knyvett (1833-1901), clergyman, vicar Crosthwaite, Keswick, the son of George Richmond, artist
Rickerby, Arthur Douglas (Doug) (1920-2018), MC, army officer and company chairman, born in Carlisle, 22 September 1920, educ St Bees School and Brasenose College, Oxford (reading law, but studies cut short by WW2), marr (1945) Patricia Semple, 3 sons, died at Barn Close Residential Home, Stanwix, Carlisle, 22 January 2018, aged 97 (CN, 02 & 09.03.2018)
Rickerby, Joseph (1851-1926), farm implement manufacturer, b. Kirkland near Wigton, son of Joseph Porterhouse Rickerby, m. Mary Ann Yeoman, est firm 1880, established patents on a range of equipment, successful family business for four generations, lived Broad St, Carlisle in 1901 and 3, Chatsworth Square until his death, d. Carlisle
Rickerby, Val (d.2021), journalist, co-wrote the first Percy Kelly book with Mary Burkett (qv), lived latterly at Evening Hill, Thursby
Riddell, David (18xx-19xx), MD, JP, medical practitioner, qual MD Glasgow, first appears as physician and surgeon in Kendal by 1910, served WWI and returned (on roll of honour in CRO, WDX 1538), of 134 Highgate, Kendal, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1947, of Langbank, Windermere
Ridehalgh, George John Miller (1835-1892; DCB), JP, landowner and yachtsman, of Fell Foot and Broughton Lodge, born at Prestwich, Lancs, only son of George Lewis Ridehalgh (d.1849), of Polefield House, Prestwich, lord of manor of Urmston, family of mill owners and merchants, originally of Colne, educ Eton, succ to Winkfield House, Ascot, at age of 14, bought Fell Foot estate, Newby Bridge, from Astleys in 1859, installed private gas supply at Fell Foot (Georgian house built by Jeremiah Dixon (qv), former mayor of Leeds (c.1775-80), but demolished in 1907 by Mrs Hedley, who died in 1908, grounds now property of National Trust), also owned Broughton Lodge (built by Josiah Birch, of Failsworth, c.1770-1780), director of North Lonsdale Iron & Steel Co, built private steam launch Fairy Queen (65 feet long) in 1859, launched at Fell Foot in 1860, and served as timekeeper, umpire and spectator boat during regattas and races for 20 years until replaced by larger steam yacht Britannia (100 feet long) in 1879, one of founders of Windermere Sailing Club 1860, and served on first sailing committee, donated many prizes, Commodore 1862, 1870, 1875, 1878, 1884, 1888, and 1890, captain, Westmorland Rifle Volunteers 1860, major, lieut-col comdg by 1881, hon colonel of Border Regiment on retirement in 1890, master of Windermere Harriers, marr 1st (1856) Fanny Rosetta Reade (buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 8 May 1879, aged 45), of Congleton silk manufacturing family, no issue (love letters between them discovered in writing desk being restored in 2006), marr (18xx) 2nd his cousin, Elizabeth Ridehalgh (buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 30 September 1904, aged 70), no issue, presented cups Allithwaite sports, never fully recovered from injury to his arm on dismounting from cab in Manchester in 1887, died at Fell Foot in October 1892, aged 57 (probate £44,376), and buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 20 October (RWYC, 175-176); succ by cousin, George Ridehalgh (1869-1907), LLB (Cantab), who was of Kents Ford, G-o-S, when buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 25 April 1907, aged 38, then by his brother, William Smith Ridehalgh (1872-1923), hon treasurer of North Lonsdale Unionist Association in 1917, who was of Broughton Lodge, Field Broughton, when buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 1 June 1923, aged 50, marr (19xx) Ethel xxx, of Broughton Lodge (buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 6 October 1975, aged 90), and whose only son, George William Ridehalgh (1916-1940), bapt 14 June 1916, Lieut Welsh Guards, was killed in action, but buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 3 April 1940, aged 23, and 1 dau, Marjorie Ethel (buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 23 December 1980, aged 62), wife of Geoffrey Forrest, land agent, of Broughton Lodge (now flats), later of Farm Cottage by gate, with a son George Christopher (bapt 31 March 1956); Mary Elizabeth Ridehalgh, of Kents Ford, Grange-over-Sands, buried at Staveley-in-Cartmel, 30 July 1906, aged 78 = mother of George Ridehalgh (1869-1907)?
Ridgeway, Charles John (18xx-1927), DD, MA, bishop of Chichester, vicar of Christ Church, Lancaster Gate 1884-1905, preb of St Paul’s Cathedral 1899-1905, rural dean of Paddington 1901-1905, dean of Carlisle 1905-1908, nominated bishop of Chichester on 21 December 1907 and consecr 25 January 1908, resigned 1 May 1919, died 28 February 1927
Ridiard family (formerly Furnival), curriers and leather sellers (19thc) and latterly (20thc) proprietors of a shoe shop on the Cocker Bridge, Cockermouth, descendants of George Furnival (d.1847) currier of Friars Green, Warrington and his wife Lydia Chorley, also of a leather making family, George’s sons left Warrington after a massive and disastrous fire in their premises in 1838, his son George came to Cockermouth
Ridley, John Matthew (1820-1899), son of John Ridley of Park End (N) and Knorren, Askerton and his wife Bridget, dau of Matthew Atkinson of Temple Sowerby, he rowed for Cambridge 1840-43, his son John Hilton Ridley rowed for Cambridge 1869-70; Hud (C)
Ridley, Joseph (c.1837-1895), clergyman, St Bees Theol Coll 1861, d 1863 and p 1864 (Ches), curate of St Catherine’s, Wigan 1863-1869, St George’s, Bolton 1869-1874, and St Paul’s, Withington, all Lancs 1874-1879, chaplain, mission to seamen in Mersey 1879-1880, curate of Garforth, Yorks 1880-1885, Crosby Garrett 1885-1886, and Felkirk with Brierley, near Barnsley 1886-1891, vicar of Martindale from 1891 until he died at Martindale vicarage, 19 July 1895, aged 58, and buried in churchyard, 22 July
Ridley, Mary (1815-1892), Methodist preacher, native of west Cumberland, served for 15 years in an itinerant capacity in Cumberland before doing evangelistic work in Border counties for Primitive Methodists, died at Prospect, near Aspatria in 1892 (CWHS, 68, Autumn 2011, 6-12)
Ridley, Sarah, wife of Thomas Ridley of Walton Rigg, her tomb states that she was ‘devout, meek, diligent, industrious and charitable’; Hud (C)
Ridley-Vaughan, see Vaughan
Rigby, Richard Cuthbert (1850-1935), artist, born in Liverpool and apprenticed to architect, went on sketching tour of Cumberland in 1872, gave up architecture, moved to Kendal and became landscape painter and watercolourist, inc ‘Kendal Hiring Fair, Whitsuntide 1891’ (in Town Hall), exhibited at Royal Academy, illustrated Lake Country Romances by H V Mills (1892) and first edition of W G Collinwood’s The Lake Counties (1902), founder member of Lake Artists’ Society in 1904, of 21 Greenside, Kendal for many years (1894, 1897), later of Spy Hill, buried at Brathay, 13 March 1935, aged 84; Renouf
Rigbye, Harriette (fl.19thc), artist, friendly with Ruskin, lived with Frances Tolmie (qv) at Thwaite Cottage, Coniston from 1874-1895; letters at Yale, the Morgan Library and in Connecticut Archives
Rigg, the Misses, sisters of Richard Rigg MP q.v., members of Primrose League and attended gathering at Windermere in 1892
Rigg, Rev Arthur Sr, clergyman and lecturer, 1st principal of Chester College 1839-69; Ian Dunn, The Bright Star in the Present Prospect: The University of Chester 1839-2008, 2008
Rigg, Arthur (1812-1880), mathematician, born Carlisle 10 March 1812; Boase vi 472
Rigg, Arthur Jr (1839-1914), industrialist and inventor, son of the Rev Arthur Rigg, operated at the Phoenix Iron Works, patents re propellors (1864), centrifugal pumps (1865) and fan (1884), president society of engineers
Rigg, George (18xx-18xx), bobbin manufacturer, of Howtown, owned Howtown bobbin mill, his apprentices used to augment John Jackson’s church choir at Martindale, marr Agnes, 3 sons (George, bapt 2 November 1844; Charles John, bapt 3 January 1847; William, bapt 22 July 1849) and 2 daus (Elizabeth, bapt 16 December 1842; Agnes, bapt 22 June 1851)
Rigg, George (19xx-20xx), baker and bookseller, of The Bookworm, Highgate, Kendal, marr (19xx) Helen Elizabeth (died at WGH, Kendal, 11 February 2019 and buried at Parkside cemetery, Kendal, 22 February), 2 sons (Timothy and Simon) and 2 daus (Kathryn and Gillian) (WG, 14.02.2019)
Rigg, Hugh (1782-1866), clergyman, bapt at Crosby Ravensworth, 10 March 1782, son of Jonathan Rigg and Margaret his wife, of Lodge, Crosby Ravensworth, marr (18 May 1808, at Crosby Ravensworth) Maria, dau of Christopher Addison, 3 sons (at least), clerk/curate of Hauxwell, near Leyburn (1808), perpetual curate of Patrick Brompton and Hunton, near Bedale, North Riding Yorks for 56 years, died in 1866
Rigg, Hugh (1823-1881), DL, JP, born 1823, 3rd son of Revd Hugh Rigg (qv), Lieut-Col, 21st Madras Native Infantry, inherited Crossrigg Hall from his great-uncle, Robert Addison (qv) in 1862, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1867, died in 1881
Rigg, Hugh Carthew (18xx-19xx), JP, qual as JP Westmorland, 6 January 1881, of Crossrigg Hall (to> 1910), but Crossrigg Hall estate sold by auction by trustees of his will, 29 July 1913 (sale partics in CRO, WDX 1033/12), also Crossrigg and Whitber Farm with Lane End Farm, 9 September 1919 (sale partics in CRO, WD/HH; Rigg family papers and deeds in CRO, WDX 886)
Rigg, John ‘Chairy’ (fl.mid 19thc.), chair and rush seat maker, son of John, also a chair maker (b.1788), lived in the garden house and apple store of Ambleside Hall on Stock Gill Beck, now known as the Bridge House (NT), then owned by the Braithwaite family (qv), he is said to have had six children living with him (census 1851), (the building probably then extended a little onto the far bank of the beck), the Bridge House was bought by a group inlclduing Mrs Hardwicke Rawnsley (qv) to save it for posterity; Gill Jepson, Windermere Grasmere and Coniston Water Through Time, 2018
Rigg, John Sewell (18xx-19xx), JP, local councillor, apptd Honorary Freeman of Appleby in 1937 for 49 years’ service as councillor and alderman of Appleby Borough, inc three terms as mayor 1896-97, 1910-11 and 1911-12
Rigg, Moses (fl.18thc.), quarryman and smuggler, lived Buttermere, his story popularized by Will Ritson (qv) of the Wastwater Inn, Moses located a track to make it quicker to transport slate over the tops, known as ‘Moses Trod’, also found it useful as a route for smuggled wadd which was a very lucrative trade in this period, his pony (and trap – seems implausible) was also the vector of bootleg whiskey which he made using the peaty water of Fleetwith Pike; observers over the intervening decades have wondered whether this tale is an elaborate invention by Ritson who was famed as ‘a great liar’; in 2005 Guy Proctor located a remote ruined hut, with a shelf bearing two lumps of wadd which he believes was Moses’ secret hideout; other sources wonder whether this was a total invention by Ritson, a notorious liar; R.B.Graham, Fell and Rock Journal, 1924, Wainwright refers to him, H.E.Winter booklet, 1992
Rigg, Richard (1815-1866), hotelier and pioneer of stagecoach services, brought up at Applegarth Farm, Kirkby Lonsdale, anticipated the arrival of the railway at Birthwaite (re-named Windermere) in 1847 and built a hotel costing £1,327, architect Miles Thompson and builder Abraham Pattinson (qqv), becoming the first manager of the Windermere Hotel in 1847, by 1854 ‘Riggs Windermere Hotel’, his coaches ran from Windermere through central Lakeland to Keswick and elsewhere, his coachmen in white box hats and red coats with brass buttons became famous, esp Tom Fidler (qv), won the Royal Mail contract, by 1880s the family had built and owned five hotels, including the Grange hotel and had two hundred horses each season until the 1920s, was dubbed ‘the coaching king’, m. Sarah and had seven children: John, Thomas, Mary, Richard, Sarah, Jane and Lucy; civicvoice.org.uk; Saeko Yoshikawa, Wordsworth and Modern Travel, 23; (CRO, WDX 450/39/2)
Rigg, Richard (1877-1942), OBE, FSA, JP, politician and hotel proprietor, born in Kendal, 22 August 1877, and bapt at Windermere St Mary, 3 October, son and only child of Alderman John Rigg, of Applegarth, proprietor of the Windermere Hotel, and of coaching business, and his wife Sarah Anne, educ Sedbergh School (entd in January, but left in April 1892), Hawkshead Grammar School, and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, called to bar, Inner Temple 1899 and King’s Inns, Dublin 1902, Captain in Westmorland Volunteers 1897, later Major, and instructor in musketry for 2nd VB, Border Regt. 1896-1901, marr. (September 1904 at St Andrew’s, Penrith) Isabel Gertrude (died 5 weeks before him), of Stagstones, Penrith, eldest dau of Thomas Anderson, of Moorhouse Hall, Warwick, nr Carlisle, Liberal MP for North Westmorland 1900-1905 (resigned), proprietor of Windermere Hotel until 1921, promotion of social welfare and temperance for rest of life, compiled memoranda book of Rigg family history while at Grange Hotel, G-o-S, in 1909 (CRO, WDX 450/39/2), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1909-1910, JP for Westmorland, Durham and North Riding Yorkshire, mayor of Westminster, member of CWAAS from 1902, acted as one of executors of Sir George Mills McKay (qv), of 157 Victoria Street, London, died at Hove, 29 August 1942, aged 64 (CW2, xliii, 215 & 3, vi, 198-201; SSR, 351; CL, June 2010, 209
Rigg, Robert (1792-1861), inorganic chemist, born Bowstead Hill; Lonsdale’s Worthies; Boase iii 175
Rigge, Ambrose (c.1635-1705; ODNB), Quaker preacher, born Bampton, schoolmaster Grayrigg, preached widely, imprisoned Basingstoke, published The Banner of God’s Love (1657) and A Lamentation over England (1665), died Reigate; some mss are at the Society of Friends Library
Rigge, Edward [1683-1770], of High Wray; CW2 xcix 221
Rigge, Henry Fletcher (1809-1887), DL, JP, BA, antiquary, son of Gray Rigge (1783-1857), DL, JP, of Wood Broughton, educ Cambridge (BA), marr (18xx) Rosetta Margaret, son (Gray, bapt 26 April 1857, Captain, King’s Own Royal Lancs Regt, assumed surname of Grayrigge in 1875, and died in 1885) and dau (Rosetta Ellen, bapt 26 February 1865), both at Staveley-in-Cartmel, High Sheriff of Lancashire 1870, DL and JP, lord of manor of Lindale and Hampsfield, died in 1887
Rigge, Thomas MD (1723-1794), son of Thomas Rigge of Arklid, educated Padua university, settled in Preston and Bristol; Hud (W)
Rikard, (mid 12thc), the mason, carved the font at Bridekirk which includes his self-portrait; Pevsner and Hyde183 and plate 16
Riley, Hamlet (1851-1922), DL, JP, LLB (Cantab), of Ennim, Blencowe, 2nd son of James Riley, of Brearley House, Yorks, educ Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge (Capt., CURUFC in first Varsity match v. Oxford), settled at Ennim 1878, High Sheriff of Cumberland 1901, Major, C & W Yeomanry Cavalry, member of CWAAS from 1884, marr (25 April 1878) Anne (died 21 April 1933), er dau of William Lewthwaite (qv), of Broadgate, son (Hamlet Lewthwaite (1882-1932), DSO, OBE, BA, Lt-Col, Rifle Brigade, marr, 2 sons (yr, Timothy Richard, qv), died 14 October 1922 (CW2, xxiii, 300)
Riley, Sydney, RA, artist, grave by chapel in Kendal cemetery
Riley, Timothy Richard (Tim) (1928-2017), army officer, racing administrator and local councillor, born at Ennim, Blencowe, 11 December 1928, yr son of Lt-Col Hamlet Lewthwaite Riley (qv sub Hamlet Riley) and his wife, Joyce Nancy, dau of Lt-Col Timothy Fetherstonhaugh (qv), educ Lime House School, Wetheral, Shrewsbury School and RMA Sandhurst (huntsman of reformed Sandhurst Beagles 1946), served with Rifle Brigade (on duty at Coronation 1953, played polo for Army, champion jump jockey in Germany with BAOR, liaison officer getting trops in and out of Berlin, retired as temp Lt-Col), joined Lonsdale’s Estates in 1966, helped get Lowther Wildlife Country Park up and running followed by the caravan park, suggested horse driving trials to Lord Lonsdale as a new venture, which came to enjoy the royal patronage of the Duke of Edinburgh and support of George Bowman of Penrith, with addition of a country fair, attracting over 60,000 visitors by the early 1990s, all organised with military precision, began riding as an amateur in point-to-points from 1947 (winning nine) plus 19 races under rules before retiring in 1954, general manager and director of Cartmel Steeplechases Limited from 1985, transformed fortunes of Cartmel and Carlisle racecourses, serving as clerk of course to both, later adding Kelso and Hamilton courses, public service as member of Penrith Urban District Council 1967-1970, Cumberland County Council 1969-1974 and Cumbria County Council 1974-1989, Cumbria Police Authority 1979-1989 (and chairman 1984-1989) and several regional crime squad committees, chairman of governors, Ullswater School, Penrith 1978-1985, High Sheriff of Cumbria 1989, had lifelong passion for whole range of countryside pursuits, marr (11 April 1955) Ankaret Tarn, dau of Sir William Jackson, 7th Bt, 2 daus (Nicola (b.1959) and Antonia (b.1962)), died at Burbank House, Blencowe, 6 September 2017, aged 88, and cremated 15 September, with service of thanksgiving at St Andrew’s Church, Greystoke, 5 October (CWH, 16.09.2017)
Riley, Winifred Agnes (fl early 19thc), BA Liverpool 1917, (thesis on St Louis), studied George Moore (qv)
Rimington, also see Remington
Rimington family, owned Greenside mine at Glenridding, lived Tynesfield House Penrith where there is a date stone bearing the initials N + ER 1804
Rimington family of Penrith, showed great energy and determination in rising from Timothy, a chairmaker c.1735 to a banker, a barrister and a general, Sir Michael F Rimington (1858-1928) (qqv)
Rimington, George Arthur (1856-1931), JP, MA, barrister, born in 1856, eldest son of Michael Rimington (1807-1869), of Tynefield, Penrith, and his wife Emma Caroline (marr at Barton, 7 June 1855), dau of Revd Thomas Hattam Wilkinson (qv), educ Oxford University (MA), marr (18xx) Frances Dykes (d.1928, aged 78), dau of Sir Robert Brisco, 3rd Bt (qv), sons, chairman of Cumberland Quarter Sessions 1906-1930, member of Cumberland County Council, formerly of Bishop Yards (1906), then of the Mansion House, Penrith (1921), also of Tynefield, Penrith, cricket enthusiast, who expedited transfer of Penrith Cricket Club from Foundry Field to Tynefield at a reasonable rent and played in first game there against Keswick in May 1907, died in 1931; [Michael Rimington (1807-1869), son of George Rimington, gent, of Penrith, and his sister Susanna (49) marr John Thompson (49), widower, son of John Thompson, of Penrith, at Barton on xx xxx 186x]
Rimington, George Arthur (1856-1931), great grandson of Timothy Rimington (qv) was a barrister and chairman of Cumberland quarter sessions, he lived at the Mansion House, Pemrith and later at Tynefield.
Rimington, Geoffrey Brisco (1891-1952), Kenyan civil service, trained a zebra and ate at table with his chimpanzee Mabel; Hudleston ( C )
Rimington, Sir Michael Frederick (1858-1928), KCB, CVO, BA, army officer, born in 1858 (prob in London), yr son of Michael Rimington, of Tynefield, Penrith, and yr brother of George Arthur (qv), educ Highgate School and Keble College, Oxford (BA 1879), joined army, entering 6th Dragoons in 1881, Captain 1887, Major 1897, Lieut-Col 1900, Brevet Col 1902, Colonel 1903, Major General 1910, and Lieut General 1919 (retired), military career in South Africa, Colonel, 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons 1912, awarded CB 1900, CVO 1912 and KCB 1921, marr (1888) Agnes, dau of Henry Forestal Cuningham, of Oakley Park, co Galway, 1 son (Reginald Gordon Ward, b.1891), died in 1928
Rimington, Timothy, son of William Rimmington of Sedbergh, moved to Penrith c.1735 and established himself at Castlegate as a chairmaker, his son Michael (d.1814) was a grocer and banker and built Tynefield, Penrith in 1805, his grandson George (b.c.1784) was a banker at Ludgate Hill, London and the settled at Tynefield; Hud (C)
Rimmer, Revd J Stuart (18xx-19xx), MA, FRHistS, rector of Ulverston, author of The Story of Ulverston (1925)
Ring, Charles Gore (18xx-18xx), LRCP (Edin), MRCSE, surgeon and medical officer of health, of The Cottage, High Street, Keswick (1894, but not on medical list in 1897), marr Nina (memorial tablet and altar rails in Crosthwaite church erected in 1889), dau of William Browne (qv), of Tallantire Hall, issue?, (MI to both in Crosthwaite churchyard)
Rinpoche, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (1931-2022), founder of the New Kadampa tradition of Buddhism, came to the UK as the resident teacher at the [earlier?] Manjushri meditation centre, founded the Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre at Conishead Priory, Ulverston, wrote 23 books on Buddhism and meditation, established 1300 meditation centres in the world, trained 100s of teachers; NWEMail 26 September 2022
Rippon, John (c.1755-1833), clergyman, rector of Long Marton 1803-1833, buried at Longmarton, 29 May 1833, aged 78
Rishton, Henry (1820-1877), ironfounder, engineer, plumber and painter, ran Stricklandgate foundry, Kendal (portrait in CRO, WDX 1212); son, Henry Rishton, sanitary engineer and kitchen range manufacturer, of Stricklandgate foundry (1894); Alfred Kendal Rishton, ironfounder, of Stricklandgate, Kendal, buried at Parkside cemetery, 18 November 1921, aged 57
Rishton, Mary, widow of Henry Rishton (qv), ? grandfather of Henry (founder of the business ?), announced in September 1813 that she was continuing business of plumbing, etc. (LC, 5)
Ritson, Elizabeth, sister of Hannah Walker, both members of Society of Friends, remembered (in 1836) seeing bodies of twelve troopers killed in skirmish with Jacobite army on Clifton Moor in December 1745, laid on straw in her father’s stable, and also gave G F Braithwaite (qv) a cannon ball found after fight (still in his possession in 1884)
Ritson, Graham (fl.20thc.) JP, railwayman, politician and naturalist, born near Wigton, Border Regiment in 1st WW, rose from engine cleaner to engine driver, ASLEF and Labour party activity, ‘Tullie House was his university (Perriam), m. Hannah Ferguson 1958, three sons, John, Alan and William, local politics as councillor from 1939, member and chairman of education and library and museum committees, elected as mayor of Carlisle 1956-7 and given the freedom of the city (his son Alan was mayor 1981-2) , documented wildlife in the Newcastle fells and Gilsland moors from 1920-1960, 60th; Birds of Lakeland (1943), A Border Naturalist (1993), other volumes on badgers and on deer, contributed to Carlisle Natural History Society Transactions vol. VI, of which society he was president; portrait by Robert Forrester
Ritson, Isaac (1761-1789; ODNB see Joseph Ritson), writer, born at Eamont Bridge, Penrith in 1761 [no bapt in Barton], proficient in Greek under the Rev Blain at Eamont Bridge by the age of nine, then in mathematics under John Slee at Kendal Quaker school, then sent to study mathematics further under John Lee, of How Hill, at Mungrisdale, mastered first six books of Euclid quickly, started teaching in Carlisle at age of sixteen, one of his pupils was the poet Robert Anderson qv, opened a school in Penrith, after two years moved to Edinburgh to study medicine for two years, supporting himself by writing thesises for students, eventually settled in London and contributed medical articles to Monthly Review, wrote preface and much of text of James Clarke’s Survey of the Lakes (1787), translated Hymn to Venus ascribed to Homer in 1788 (wrongly credited to Joseph Ritson, antiquary, d.1803), but died prematurely in a lodging at Islington, London in 1789, aged 27/8, his numerous mss never being found; probably wrote The Borrowdale Letter, in dialect, [printed Whitehaven, 1866], later reprinted in Clark’s Survey of the Lakes; believed to have influenced Anderson’s ‘Borrowdale Jwohnny’; J. Walker, History of Penrith, [1858] appendix
Ritson, Jonathan (1776/7-1846; ODNB), woodcarver, born in Whitehaven and bapt at St James’s, 9 February 1777, son of Joseph Ritson, carpenter [not related to either antiquary Joseph Ritson or Isaac Ritson], followed father’s trade, employed on estates of duke of Norfolk at Workington and Greystoke, contracted to assist with restoration of Arundel Castle (esp library and baron’s hall), then after duke’s death in 1815 employed by earl of Egremont to complete carved work at Petworth House (left unfinished by Grinling Gibbons), but potential never fully realised bec of drunken habits, portrait by George Clint in Petworth gallery, died at Petworth, 9 April 1846, aged 69 (GM, 1846, 548)
Ritson, Revd Joseph (b.early 18thc.), of Cockermouth, marriage settlement with Mary, dau of Revd Thomas Jefferson, 26 June 1738 (see CRO, DX 1139/1 as part of France family papers in Hames Hall estate collection)
Ritson, Joseph (1752-`1803; ODNB), antiquary, born Stockton on Tees, son of Joseph Ritson sr (d.1778) (of a Westmorland yeoman family of Hackthorpe) and his wife Jane Gibson, educated for the law, settled as a London conveyancer, wrote a number of books including Gammer Gurton’s Garland and A Select Collection of English Songs, engraving of him by James Sayers; Henry A Burd, Joseph Ritson, 1916
Ritson, Robert (1810-1887), shipbuilder, ran family shipyard on Irish Street, Maryport, with brother William after death of father John Ritson in 1844, William died in 1866, and his 2 sons joined in business as Ritson & Co until 1902 when yard was taken over by William Walker
Ritson, Will (1808-1890), innkeeper, huntsman and liar, born at Rowfoot in 1808, added a wing to the family home, transforming it into an inn, the Wasdale Head Inn, boasted that Wasdale had highest mountain, deepest lake, smallest church and biggest liar in England (eg story of crossing hounds with eagles to produce winged offspring to outrun any fox), lies not malicious but ‘They’re nobbut big exaggerations’, tended Herdwick sheep, keen hunter becoming huntsman to Rawson of Wasdale Hall, came to be known with some affection as ‘Auld Will’ and became a major attraction in the area, marr (18xx) Diane, of Little Ground (1883), died in 1890, aged 83 Cumbria, November 2016, 35-36)
Ritson, William (fl.19thc), curator; monograph Harry Fancy, 2009
Rivington, Charles Robert (1846-1928), DL, JP, FSA, of Castle Bank, Appleby, clerk to the Stationers’ Company, DL Westmorland (apptd in December 1894), died August 1928 (mem window in Great Asby Church)
Roach, John (b.1748), mariner, shipwrecked and taken prisoner by the native people near Nombre de Dios (now Panama) in South America; The Surprizing Adventures of John Roach, Mariner of Whitehaven, 1810
Roach, John (fl late 18th-early 19thc), shipwrecked mariner, probably born West Cumberland, captured by native people in Guatamala and imprisoned by them, after some years made his escape and returned to Whitehaven; published The Surprising Adventures of John Roach, Mariner of Whitehaven (1810)
Robb, R Lindsay (1885-1972), NDA, NDD, agricultural scientist, brought up on Ayrshire dairy farm, farm director at West of Scotland Agricultural College, head of agriculture at Wye College, Kent, University of London, principal of Newton Rigg College 1919-1925 (Cumberland & Westmorland Farm School established in 1896), worked overseas as a grassland adviser for ICI in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, served WW2 as director of agriculture to British Forces in North Africa, with rank of Lieut-Colonel, worked for United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in central America in 1950s, retiring in early 1960s and worked for Soil Association as a consultant at its research farm at Haughley, Suffolk, wrote editorial notes for Mother Earth in January 1964 (between death of Jorian Jenks, editor since 1946, and appt of Robert Waller), called for a broader social and ecological perspective in article Altius, Cytius, Longius, which was printed in Mother Earth, vol 2, Spring 2010 (Soil Association journal, October 1972)
Robert the Bruce, see Bruce
Roberts, Cecilia, Lady (1868-1947), dau of the 9th earl of Carlisle, marr Charles Henry Roberts JP (qv), mother of Winifred Nicholson (qv), involved with Christina Henrietta Wood (qv) in setting up the Brampton refugee hostel in 2nd WW, Basque children gave demonstration of dancing at the opening of the new Brampton playground in July 1937; obit Times 7 May 1947; Rob David, A Community of Refuge 1933-1941, 2020
Roberts, Charles Henry (1865-1959), JP, son of Revd Albert James Roberts of Sussex, educ Marlborough and Balliol, fellow of Exeter college, MP for Lincoln from 1906, Comptroller of the Household, chairman of Cumberland County Council from 1938-58, formerly vice-chairman, deputy chairman of Cumberland Quarter Sessions 1945/6, chairman of Border Rural District Council, made (with Lady Cecilia) grant of land at Pickerings Hill, Moatside, Brampton to Brampton Parish Council for Basil & Agnes Murray playground in 1929 and 1937 (CRO, SPC 16/79-80), correspondence 1935-1947 in CRO (DSO 42/2/141), marr (7 April 1891) Lady Cecilia Maude Howard (born 1868, died 6 May 1947), 2nd dau of 9th Earl of Carlisle (qv), 1 son (Wilfred) and 2 daus (Winifred and Christina), of Boothby, Brampton (faculty, dedication and order of service for memorial window in north aisle of Lanercost Priory to Lady Cecilia in 1949 in CRO, PR121/19, 28 and 224); CW2 lix 179
Roberts, Christina Henrietta, later Wood (19xx-1982), dau of Charles Henry Roberts (qv) and sister of Wilfred (qv) and Winifred(qv), educ Girton College, Cambridge (agriculture course), keen to support war agricultural effort, diaries of her experience working on estate farms, marr Alexander Lewis Sanderson Wood, farmer; letters 1917-1947 in CRO, DX 1690/1/1/1, 2/1/10, 4/1/2, 6/1/35, 7/1/2)
Roberts, David (1896-1864; ODNB), artist, born Edinburgh, his early work was in scenery painting for James Bannister’s circus, in that capacity he visited Carlisle c.1816, later he was an influence upon Ruskin; Helen Guiterman biography, 33
Roberts, Henry (18xx-1918), bookseller, of Kendal (PROB/1918/W512a)
Roberts, Humphrey Owen (1889-1972), BA, schoolmaster, retired from St Bees School (master 1913-1927) to Ambleside, assistant librarian and hon secretary, Armitt Trust 1953-1972
Roberts, John (1791-1849), collier and inventor, born St Helens, collier Whitehaven pits, invented a fire escape safety hood, demonstrated its efficacy at Bolton and Preston, the hood was adopted by the London Fire offices, lived at Ginns at the gates of the glass house yard, supported in his invention by the editor of the Whitehaven News and JC Curwen (qv); Transactions RSA vol 43 1825, Grace’s Guide, Bolton newspaper account 26 Sept 1825
Roberts, John (1797-1868), farm servant and fisherman, b Bristol 1797, worked Carlisle as a farm servant and later a butcher, well known trout and salmon fisherman, waling regularly to Barron Wood, died Cumberland Infirmary 3 November 1868; Boase iii 197
Roberts, John (d. c.1840), inventor of safety hood, native of St Helen’s, working as miner in Whitehaven collieries and living in small cottage adjoining gates of glass-house yard, Ginns, died at Bilston, Staffordshire, 14th ult [March or November if 1840] , aged 49
Roberts, Revd John Bevan (18xx-19xx), clergyman, trained at St Michael’s College, Llandaff, perpetual curate of Martindale from 1931, succ Revd John Walker
Roberts, Robert J (c.1933-2024), headmaster and poet, born Penrith, graduate of Cambridge university, housemaster and head of English at Fettes (one pupil was Tony Blair), here he was active as a rugby coach, director of drama, 6th form tutor, timetable buff, headmaster of Worksop College 1975-1986 where he ran a tight ship, married Patricia and had one son and one daughter, in retirement won several Bridport poetry prizes, established Pikestaff Press to publish some of his own verse and latin translations, generously published first collections for several poets whose work he admired; lived latterly at Harpford on the river Otter in Devon where he was a supportive and devout member of the small congregation
Roberts, Wilfred Hubert Wace (1900-19xx), politician, born 28 August 1900, son of C H Roberts (qv), and brother of Winifred (qv) and Christine (qv), educ Gresham School and Balliol College, Oxford, marr, 3 daus, Liberal MP for North Cumberland 1935-1950, chairman of Cumberland County Council (photo in CRO, DX 163/23/84), of Banks House, Low Row, Carlisle, and of Russell House, South End Road, London NW3 (1938), also of Boothby Manor House, Brampton
Roberts, William (d. January 1789), ship’s captain, on about 19 January 1789 the brig Druid from Port Amlwch in Angelsey was wrecked near North End, Walney, captain Roberts and eleven crew drowned and were buried at Walney Chapel from 21st January to 5th February, as their bodies were recovered; Tony Diamond, Shipwreck and Boating Accidents of Barrow and District,
Robertson, David (19xx-2017), United Reformed Minister (pres), marr Rhona, 1 son (Calum, decd) and 2 daus (Mairi and Elspeth, died at home, 3 February 2017, and cremated at Beetham Hall, 12 February, with service of thanksgiving at United Reformed Church, Highgate, Kendal (WG, 09.02.2017)
Robertson, James [1783-1858], naval officer, b. Stornoway, the mate on Nelson’s Victory, later Lt Cdr, married 1824 Ann Walker, an heiress of Gilgarran at Moresby in 1823; Matthews, David Dunbar, 37-8
Robertson, James (b.c.1790), master mate, born Stornoway, served on Admiral Nelson’s Victory as midshipman from 6 November 1805 to 12 January 1806, he had been recommended by Capt Conn to Nelson but was not on board for the great battle at Trafalgar in October 1805, married Anne Walker, sister of William Walker of Gilgarren, Distington, described as ‘a man of transcendant abilities’; John Marshall ed., RN Biographies, re Commander JR Walker
Robertson, James Forbes- (1884-1955), VC, DSO and bar, MC, DL, army officer, born at Brighouse, Yorkshire, 7 July 1884, son of F Forbes-Robertson, military family, moved to Cheltenham, educ Cheltenham College, excelled as sportsman and rifle shot, entered Border Regiment 1904, Captain 1914, served WW1 with 29th Division (wounded at Gallipoli, despatches thrice, MC, DSO and bar, VC (at Vieux-Berquin on 11-12 April 1918), battalion Lieut-Col, commanded Border Regimental Depot, Carlisle Castle for 3 years, Lieut-Col, Gordon Highlanders 1926, comdg 2nd Bn Gordon Highlanders 1926-1930, commander 152nd (Seaforth and Cameron) Infantry Brig, TA 1932-1934, retired pay 1934, marr (1927) Hilda, ARRC, yr dau of Sir Ralph Forster, 1st Bt (1850-1930), of The Grange, Surrey, 1 son (Kenneth) and 2 daus, retired to Scotland, DL Sutherland, served WW2 with Home Guard, later moved back to Cheltenham area, Chardwar, Bourton-on-the Water, Glos, where he died, 5 August 1955, aged 71, and buried in Cheltenham cemetery
Robertson, Joseph (1726-1802), translator, born at Knipe and bapt at Bampton, 22 September 1726, son of Joseph, a maltster of Rutter near Appleby and his wife Elizabeth Robertson, of High Knipe, educ Appleby GS and queens College, Oxford, among other works translated The Adventures of Telemachus (1795) from the French version by Fenelon, (WW, ii, 148)
Robeson, Paul (1898-1976), US singer, actor, civil rights activist, performed at the Coronation Hall, Ulverston in 1931, this was on a tour which included Preston; Evening Mail, 3 Sept 1931, 23 April 2018
Robinson family of Little Bampton, said to have been granted a coat of arms 3 Henry IV (c.1370), for taking prisoner Mordaunt, earl of Fife, nephew of David II, the King of Scots; Hud (W)
Robinson, Annie (fl. early 20thc), wrote Memorials to Maryport Men and Ships (undated), many references appear here (qqv)
Robinson, Anthony (d.1824), medical student Edinburgh, son of Anthony Robinson (1762-1827) of Wigton (qv), alleged to have been a victim of the body snatchers Burke and Hare
Robinson, Anthony (1762-1827; ODNB), sugar refiner and writer, born Kirkland near Wigton, son of John Robinson a junior landowner, educ Wigton GS and Bristol Baptist Academy, minister in London, returned to Wigton in 1796, est a sugar refining business, his circle included Joseph Priestley (1733-1804; ODNB), chemist, William Belsham (1752-1827; ODNB) political writer and Henry Crabb Robinson (1775-1867; ODNB) lawyer and diarist, his son Anthony as a medical student in Edinburgh is said to have been a victim in 1824 of the body snatchers Burke and Hare, published A Short History of the Persecution of Christians (1793), at the time of the American revolution he was part of the anti-war group with Charles James Fox
Robinson (nee Sandford), Armine (1929-2011), actress and BBC announcer, born St Germans, Cornwall, niece of Sir George Richie Sandford (qv), played in The Saturday Playhouse (1958), Sunday Night Play (1960) and The Big Pull (1962), she was also a member of the Century Theatre, married Norman Lewis Robinson, she was also a BBC announcer and the first to read the TV news, blue plaque Burbage; Hud (C)
Robinson, Sir (William) Arthur (1874-1950), GCB, CBE, BA, civil servant, born at Long Marton, 9 September 1874, son of William Robinson, of Saunders House in centre of village, postmaster and village shop owner, educ Appleby Grammar School (from 1886) and Queen’s College, Oxford (Hastings Exhibitioner 1891, BA 1897), passed out first in Civil Service examination in 1897 and served in Colonial Office until 1912, also asst secretary to Imperial Conference 1907-1912, asst secretary, Office of Works 1912, permanent secretary to Air Council and secretary to Air Ministry 1918, and first secretary, Ministry of Health 1920-1935, awarded CB 1915, CBE 1918, KCB 1919, and GCB 1929, was considered ‘one of the most successful administrators of his generation’, esp in terms of changes to local government in his period (Times obituary), guest speaker at Appleby Grammar School Speech Day in 1936 after his retirement when he donated an oak-faced electric wall clock for school hall, marr (24 October 1910) Jean Pasley, 2nd dau of Robert Mitchell, 1 son, of 12 Albion Street, Hyde Park, London, died 23 April 1950; widow living at Barkeys, Offham, near Lewes, Sussex (1953); tower of Long Marton church restored in his memory in 1957 (with £200 donated by his sister, Mrs Herbert Potter)
Robinson, Cato (c.1750-1794), a negro baptised Whitehaven 1773, employed by John Hartley, m. Margaret Sharp 1778, his son John Robinson baptised 5 April 1777, died a pauper and buried in Workington 1794
Robinson, Cedric (1933-2021), sand guide, born Flookburgh, his father was the fisherman William Robinson and his mother Gladys Miller, played trombone in Flookburgh silver band, worked with his father catching and selling shrimps, marr Olive Nickson from Leeds with whom he had five children and who supported him by selling his books to visitors, appointed sand guide in 1964 at a salary of £15 and a rent free house Guide’s Farm, regularly planted branches of laurel or ‘brobs’ to mark the safe route, often took more than a hundred people safely across at a time, guided the duke of Edinburgh (qv) driving four in hand across the sands in 1985, ceased guiding in 2019; Times obituary 19 Nov 2021
Robinson, Charles (c.1703-1760), merchant and alderman of Appleby, born in 1703, 6th of 14 children of John Robinson (qv), educ Appleby Grammar School, set up (with Revd William Bird, qv) a charity for apprenticing of poor boys (‘the sons of decayed burgesses of the freemen of the borough’) with gift of £60 to corporation to fund annual apprenticeship grant of £3 (CRO, Hill MSS, III, 633), applied to corporation to extend butcher’s shambles he owned in 1736, freeholder and member of common council for three decades, alderman, but never mayor, marr Hannah, dau of Richard Deane, sons (eldest, John qv)
Robinson, Charles Best, see Norcliffe
Robinson, Charles William (c.1876-1955), printer, born of Cumbrian farming stock, joined Charles Thurnam & Sons Ltd., Carlisle, printing, publishing and bookselling firm, as a youth and retired as its head in 1946 (directed later by one of his 2 sons), progressive employer and improved facilities for technical education, held position in Federation of Master Printers, close friend of Edward Wilson of Titus Wilson & Son, keen golfer and salmon fisher, member of CWAAS from 1922 (special interest in dialect), of 11 English Street, Carlisle, died 25 October 1955, aged 79
Robinson, Christopher (d.1597), Catholic priest martyred at Carlisle in 1597, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1987; shrine and diorama in St Joseph’s Carlisle [RC]
Robinson, Edmund, of Kendal; CW2 lxiii 291
Robinson, Elihu (1734-1809; ODNB), yeoman farmer, meteorologist and horticulturalist, b. Kirkby near Cockermouth, son of Samuel and Elizabeth, an influence upon his youthful neighbour John Dalton (qv), m. Ruth Mark of Bowscales, lived Eaglesfield
Robinson, Elizabeth (1939-2022), teacher and lecturer, daughter of Dorothy Kovary (qv), a Viennese holocaust survivor, spent part of her childhood in Israel, moved to England and lived in Workington, married and brought up two boys, worked as a teacher and later as an administrator for the Newcastle university extra mural department with Bill Scammell (qv) and Jean Ward, lectured in ballet, organized trips to ballet performances in London and elsewhere with her mother, who ran Opus 3, a music shop in Cockermouth, wrote The Kremeners and the Kovarys: A Saga from Austro-Hungary, 2018
Robinson, Frank (‘Fenty’) (18xx-19xx), draper, fent dealer, photographer and collector of miscellanea, of Crag Brow, Bowness-on-Windermere, opened shop on 17 December 1887, also acted as registry office for servants for a time, closed on 2 April 1959 and pulled down on 30 August, wrote dialect stories inc Fadther Kersmas, annotated by S J Brownrigg (1926, 1930) (CRO, WDX 1439) and advertising leaflets for Christmas 1931 and 1937 (WDX 1383) (Fenty’s Album by Irvine Hunt, 1970)
Robinson, George [fl.1834-1871], Westmorland county bridge master (papers 1834-1871 in CRO, WD/CAT/H-3158)
Robinson, George, bookseller, Dalston; Camden
Robinson, Gray, itinerant photographer; CW3 xvii 177
Robinson, Henry (15xx-1616; ODNB), MA, DD, bishop of Carlisle and college head, provost of Queen’s College, Oxford 1582-1598, principal of St Edmund Hall 1576-1581, rector of Fairstead, Essex 1580, bishop of Carlisle 1598-1616, also held living of Greystoke in commendam from 1609 to 1616, died ‘at his howse at Rose Castel aboute two of the clocke in the afternoone’ of Wednesday, 19 June 1616 ‘and the same night was buryed in Saint Maries Church at Carliell’ (ECW, I, 454-455; GPR, 172-173)
Robinson, Revd Henry (17xx-1806), MA, clergyman, formerly Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, vicar of Kendal from 1789 until his death, secretary of Kendal Sunday Schools committee 1799, secretary of Kendal Dispensary (1804) (CRO, WD/HCW), reputed to have had Unitarian sympathies, on friendly terms with Market Place dissenters, his virtues recorded in verse by J T in Unitarians’ Monthly Repository (1810), cooperated with Kendal’s first great musical festival in September 1792 (Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabeus being performed in parish church) and again in 1801, marr (1790) Catherine Darby (died 1799, aged 38; MI in south wall of parish church), of Diss, Norfolk (CP, 11.08.1790), no issue?, died ‘after a long and tedious illness’, 25/28 February 1806, aged 58 (LG), and buried at Kendal, 3 March; his extensive library of some 1,200 volumes sold by auction at White Hart Inn, Lancaster from 2 July 1806 (ONK, 373-74; GPK, 20-21)
Robinson, Henry Crabb (1775-1867; ODNB), friend of Wordsworth, with whom he travelled in Switzrland and Italy, drew up articles of reconciliation between Wordsworth and Coleridge after their split, on 24 March 1813 he rejoiced that WW had been appointed to Ambleside stamp office; Correspondence of HCR with the WW Circle 1808-1866 (1927)
Robinson, Revd Hugh (d.1763), clergyman, 2nd son of John Robinson (qv) and uncle of John Robinson, MP (qv), educ Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, vicar of Lowther and chaplain to Viscount Lonsdale from 1738 (CW3, x, 219)
Robinson, Hugh (1735/6-1802), Admiral, RN, son of Charles Robinson, of Appleby, and yr brother of John Robinson, MP, captained frigate Guadalupe when it was disabled by an American on-shore shot as part of flotilla penned into Chesapeake Bay by a French fleet at time of surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, marr (1787) Mary Myers, a cousin once removed, 13 children (inc eldest son, Charles (1788-1864), Captain, RN, of Oak Bank, Ambleside), settled at York
Robinson, Jacob (fl.late 19thc), co-wrote with Sidney Gilpin (qv) Sketches of Famous Wrestlers (1893), this volume (copy in CRO) includes notes on bull and badger baiting; NN anthology; included in Litt’s Wrestliana (qv)
Robinson, Jeremiah (1742-1793), barrister, yr brother of John Robinson, MP (qv), lived in the White House, Appleby, but vacated it in 1790 and was successively in Buxton and Bath, where he died in January 1793, aged 50, and buried in St Lawrence’s churchyard, Appleby, 28 January (memorial in Lady chapel of St Lawrence’s church); his ‘books, papers, plate and pictures’ taken from Appleby to Stockton-on-Tees, but lost in a shipwreck before reaching London
Robinson, John, last Prior of Lanercost
Robinson, John (fl.1685), chapel founder, yeoman of Howgill and later of Kendal, founded and endowed Howgill chapel and school in 1685 ‘as a lasting monument of his piety’, and provided a fund for relief of poor inhabitants by his will
Robinson, John (fl.1690-1710) (aka John Fitzroberts), shoemaker and botanist of Kendal, sold specimens to scientists and collectors, specimens at Natural History Museum, also collected fossils
Robinson, John (1673-1746), mayor of Appleby, son of Thomas Robinson (qv), owned 7 hearths in 1674-75 (WHT, 195), marr, 14 children (inc eldest sons, Thomas and Hugh, who were educ at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge), alderman of Appleby and mayor four times (1713, 1726, 1732 and 1740) (CW2, lcv, 199-245; CW3, x, 218)
Robinson, John (1727-1802; ODNB), MP, DL, JP, politician, born at Appleby, 15 July 1727, eldest son of Charles Robinson (c.1702/3-1760) (qv), merchant, and of Hannah, dau of Richard Deane, and grandson of John Robinson (qv), educ Appleby Grammar School (1736-44), articled to his uncle, Richard Wordsworth (qv), who was married to his aunt Mary Robinson, practised as attorney-at-law in Appleby, apptd clerk to Appleby Corporation in 1750-51, Lieut-Colonel in county militia in 1751, marr (30 April 1752, at St Michael’s, Crooked Lane, London) Mary (1733/4-1805), dau of Nathaniel Crowe, decd, a Barbados planter, 1 dau (Mary (1759-1796), wife of Henry Nevill, later 2nd earl of Abergavenny), steward to Sir James Lowther, Lowther’s agent in Appleby and successful in challenging 1754 election and rewarded with tenancy of White House, Boroughgate, mayor of Appleby 1760-61, MP for Westmorland 1767-1774 and for Harwich 1774-1802, surveyor of woods and forests 1787, died after stroke at Harwich, 23 December 1802, and buried at Isleworth, 2 January 1803; portrait attrib to G F Joseph with engraving by William Bond; bequeathed £177 to Appleby corporation (with interest to provide poor children with copies of specified devotional works) and £100 to provide £5 a year for a town organist (WW, ii, 151-160; CWMP, 431-32; CW3, x, 217-23; supported the Wordsworth family in their battle with Lord Lonsdale; Robinson also administered a trust for Charlotte Smith, the novelist, who was married to his wife’s stepbrother; Andrew Connell, CW3 x 217, CW3 xi 247, CW3 xvii 155; origin of ‘Jack’ Robinson CW2 lxxxviii 248
Robinson, John (d.1803), attorney of Ulverston; CW2 lix 139 pt.1; CW2 lx 120 pt.2; CW2 lxii 275 pt.3
Robinson, John (1774-1840; ODNB), historian, born Temple Sowerby
Robinson, John (17xx-18xx), steward of manor of Beetham 1788, 1800 (CRO, WD/AG/ box 114; WD/TW/acc1990/1)
Robinson, John (17xx-18xx), schoolmaster, of Christ’s College, Cambridge, master of Free Grammar School at Ravenstonedale, author of An Easy Grammar of Universal History, Ancient History, Archaeologia Graeca, or The Antiquities of Greece, and Modern History for the Use of Schools (from age of Charlemagne to 1807) published on 8 July 1808
Robinson, John (d.c.1841), Anglican priest, vicar of Clifton and Cliburn, writer of several school books; J. Walker, History of Penrith, [1858] appendix
Robinson, John MD MRCS (d.1851), apothecary, son of John Robinson of Scalesceugh, Carleton, apothecary to Carlisle Dispensary, his dau Frances marr John Harrison of Gatesgill, inscription at Wetheral church refers to his ‘private worth and valuable and benevolent services…..rendered to the poor’; Hud (C)
Robinson, John (1802-1866), gunpowder manufacturer, born 14 January 1802 and bapt at Troutbeck, 11 July, son of John Robinson (1778-1848), carrier and maltster
Robinson, John (c.1824-1877), clergyman, rector of Bowness, Cumberland 1855-1877, marr Ellen (b.1817), only dau of Revd Henry Lowther (qv), rector of Distington, died s.p.
Robinson, John (1832-1909; DCB), MIMechE, MICE, FRGS, FGS, civil engineer, born in Kendal in 1832, educ in Kendal before going to London, engineer in construction of railways, bridges and docks, pupil of Charles Sanderson at Reading and Westminster, then under Robert Syer Hoggar on railway surveys in Scotland, assistant to William Baker on LNWR, worked on construction of Highland and Great North of Scotland railway systems for 6 yrs from 1858, joined staff of Sir George Barclay Bruce in 1864 and apptd resident engineer on section of East Prussian Railway, Chief Engineer in India and agent on southern extension of Great Indian Peninsula Railway, with Messrs Waring Bros on part of Honduras Railway in 1870, apptd chief of staff to Sir John Wolfe Barry for construction of Buenos Ayres and Rosario Railway 1872-1874, rejoined G B Bruce and prepared drawings for railways in Spain, New Zealand and Holland, and in Notts and Cumberland, on construction of Lewes and East Grinstead Railway and survey of branch of Brighton Railway for J W Barry 1877-1881, on survey of proposed line from Brisbane to Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia 1881-1883, rejoined J W Barry for dock works at Barry, South Wales, completed in 1889 (Telford Medal of InstCE 1890), of East Barry House, Barry, Cardiff, when apptd Engineer to company till 1893, acted as Resident Engineer for part of extensions of docks at Middlesbrough and Grangemouth 1898, also engaged on drawings for new bridge over Thames at Kew, retd 1904 and returned to Kendal, highly regarded member of profession, esp knowledge of geodetic surveying, of retiring disposition, member of CWAAS from 1886, marr Emily (Hoggar?), 1 son (Richard Syer Robinson), and brother (Frederick James Robinson), author of paper on Robinson-Rokeby connection (CW2, vi, 171-172), died at 8 Vicarage, Terrace, Kendal, 21 February 1909, aged 76, and buried at Parkside cemetery, Kendal, 25 February, will dated 2 May 1904, with codicil appointing his eldest grandson, John Robinson, an additional trustee and executor, 30 June 1908, probate on 31 March 1909 (CRO, WDX 313; library of books in CRO, Kendal, using bookplate with same crest as William Robinson (qv), of Hill Top; CW2, ix, 338)
Robinson, John (19xx-2001), BArch, ARIBA, architect, born in Durham, raised in Northumberland, worked in Kent, London, Cheshire and Hampshire before coming to Cumbria in 1979, last County Architect of Cumbria, retiring in 1990, member of CWAAS from 1978/9, contributed Notes on Brampton Old Church to Transactions (CW2, lxxxii, 1982), researched medieval structures of the North by drawing and measuring them, in collaborative venture with historian Denis Perriam, resulting in publication of The Medieval Fortified Buildings of Cumbria (CWAAS Extra Series, Vol XXIX, 1998), also researched medieval grave slabs in Cumbrian churches (Handlist of Effigies in Cumbria (1996) in Carlisle Library), which he handed on to Peter Ryder for use in his survey and eventual publication of The Medieval Cross Slab Grave Covers in Cumbria (CWAAS, Extra Series, Vol XXXII, 2005), which was dedicated to his memory, of Tindale, Brampton, died 30 December 2001
Robinson, John (1921-2009), local government officer and railway enthusiast, born at St Bees in 1921, family moved to Ulverston when a boy, served WW2 with RAF as radio operator, entd local government service in 1946, retiring early as deputy clerk to Ulverston Rural District Council on LG reorganisation in 1974, bought draper’s business in Egremont, which he ran with his wife Dorothy until 1982, retired to Spark Bridge, near Greenodd, latterly with son, Graham, after death of wife, founding member of Cumbrian Railways Association in 1976 (and former committee member), chairman of Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway Preservation Society for many years, also involved in local horticultural society, Ulverston Jazz Club, and churchwarden at Spark Bridge church, man of many interests and organising ability, deep voice and great sense of fun, died at Ulverston Hospice, 29 August 2009 (CR, 133, Feb 2010)
Robinson, John Harrison JP (1850-1935), businessman, descended from the Rev Isaac Robinson (1754-1819) of Whitbarrow Hall, in Greystoke parish, in 1869, aged 19, he left Whitbarrow for Blackpool which he saw grow from a village of 5000 to 100,000 people, returning to Whitbarrow Hall in 1903 he became a member of Penrith RDC and a director of the Ullswater Steam Navigation Company, his grandson was Sir Roland Robinson (qv)
Robinson, John Wilson (1853-1907), rock-climber, born at Whinfell Hall, Lorton, 5 August 1853, eldest son of John Wilson Robinson, farmer, of Whinfell Hall, Lorton, Quaker, pioneer rock-climber with W P Haskett-Smith (qv), especially associated with the climbing of Pillar Rock, introduced the alpine rope to the Lake District, estate agent at Brigham (1906), the founding of the Fell and Rock Club was his idea in 1887, but it was not a reality until 1906-7 just before his death, died at Brigham, 20 August 1907, and buried at Pardshaw FMH, 23 August; memorial (papers in CRO, WDSo 163/15-18; A Lakeland Climbing Pioneer by Michael Waller, 2007); raconteur, generous tutor of neophytes, Robinson’s Cairn built as a memorial near Pillar Rock; Michael Waller, Cumbria Life, June-July, 2008, 190-91
Robinson, Joseph, surgeon-apothecary Whitehaven Dispensary; Sydney, biog of Dr Dixon 38-9
Robinson, Joseph (bap.1721-1792), turnpike surveyor, died Greystoke 1792; CW2 lii 126
Robinson, Joseph (1734-1776), clerk of the peace for Westmorland, son of Charles Robinson, of Appleby and yr brother of John Robinson, MP (qv)
Robinson, Joseph (Jossie o’ the Knott or Jossie o’the Whips) (d.c.1821), eccentric, lived in a solitary house at Bretherton near Orton called Knott House, ‘a strongly made man, honest and inoffensive’ but who was of ‘weak intellect’, he would decorate himself with peacock’s feathers and foxes’ tails and carry several whips, he had a number of rings on his fingers, occasionally he carried a few books and would say: ‘Come, will ta buy a beuk ? It will tell thee twenty good stories and mebbe forty lees (lies)’, he was a keen hunter, whenever the hounds were out Jossie was sure to be present, he died and was buried in Orton churchyard. The vicar the Rev George Bowness (qv) wrote his epitaph: Beneath this lowly grass-encircled spot, Lie the remains of Joseph of The Knott Death, grisly tyrant, no distinction shows, ‘Twixt him who all and him who nothing knows. Yes, ye ! Ye mighty ones of boasted wit –All, all, like Joseph must to death submit. Tho’ on his fingers many a ring he wore, And on his brow the gaudy honours bore, For him, his plumes although the peacock shed, And reynard’s brush graced Joseph’s hoary head, - Though armed with whips he constantly appeared, Death mocked his honours, nor his armour feared. But, ah ! Despise not Joseph’s humble lot, His life so mean, his death so soon forgot. In the last day, that great decisive day When death shall yield his temporary prey, By lords, by kings, his fate may be desired, Where nothing’s given, nothing is requir’d. From William Andrews Epitaphs (1883 rpr 1899)
Robinson, Joseph (1844-19xx), archaeologist, photographer, and bank manager, born at Tarn Hill, Clifton Dykes, south of Penrith, 29 June 1844, son and only child of John Robinson (died May 1856), of a Long Marton family, and his wife, Isabella James, of Clifton, education not known, but mother was resident in Church Street, Maryport by 1866, appointed manager of Maryport branch of Cumberland Union Banking Company in August 1872, at 49 High Street, Maryport, at salary of £250 p.a., rising to £300 in 1874, £350 in 1876 and £400 in 1879, but criticised on occasion from 1881 onwards for slackness or irregularities in books of the branch, suggesting indisposition in health (caused by poor sanitary arrangements at the bank where he lived on the premises), being absent unwell from September 1882 to April 1883, with several severe illnesses leading to his resignation from bank in April 1886, also treasurer to board of trustees of Town and Harbour of Maryport (1883), suggested construction of the Promenade, the sea defence wall in 1875 (stretching from root of north pier 450 yards to the north under Roman fort and completed in six weeks with volunteer labour under his direction), elected member of CWAAS on 4 June 1878 with four others from Maryport (Thomas Carey (qv), E T Tyson, J R Corner and W W Wood), Carey in particular being his friend and constant companion on his excavations, blazed into prominence as archaeologist in 1880s, able excavator and writer of reports, taken in hand by Chancellor Ferguson and contributed to many articles appearing under Ferguson’s name, first mentioned in his letter to Carlisle Patriot in 1880 concerning their investigation of sites between Bowness-on-Solway and Cardurnock, in which he is described as the “most energetic ‘amateur navvy’”, also carried out investigations on his own account at Aughertree (tumulus), Caermote (Roman fort), Snittlegarth (Roman ‘camp’), possibly in financial difficulties from involvement in grain trade on his own account, left Maryport after his resignation from bank, ceased to be a member of CWAAS after 1885, but regarded by Eric Birley as ‘by far the ablest field archaeologist and excavator thrown up by the Cumberland and Westmorland Society in its early decades’ (Bellhouse), discovery of his old glass plate negatives in a derelict house in Maryport in 1962 led to identification of Robinson’s archaeological photographs (see RLB’s account), (Richard Bellhouse, Joseph Robinson of Maryport: Archaeologist extraordinary, Otley, 1992; Stephen Harbottle, ‘Joseph Robinson – a biographical note’, in Romans on the Solway, CWAAS, Extra Series XXXI, 2004)
Robinson, Joseph Clark (d. 1974/5?), OBE, of Staveley, chairman, Lakeland Dialect Society (CRO, WDSo 101)
Robinson, Mary (c.1777-1837; ODNB), the ‘Beauty of Buttermere’, dau of innkeeper of the Fish Inn, Buttermere, first discovered by Captain Joseph Budworth (qv) in 1792 and described in lavish terms, drawing attention to her charms (though De Quincey (qv) gave a less flattering description later), visited again by Budworth in January 1798 who warned her against strangers with bad intentions, but eventually she was seduced by John Hatfield (qv), alias ‘Honourable Colonel Hope’, married at Lorton on 2 October 1802, but Hope was exposed as bigamist and fraudster, arrested and executed, Mary later married Richard Harrison, farmer, of Todcrofts, Caldbeck, 4 children, died 7 February 18xx and buried in Caldbeck churchyard; subject of The Maid of Buttermere (1987) by Melvyn Bragg (CL, March 2009)
Robinson, Mary O.B.E. (c.1920-c.2013), OBE, lived Chatsworth Square, Carlisle for most of her life, married to a solicitor, great supporter of Chatsworth Square Gardens
Robinson, Norman (1905-1973), BSc, clergyman, born 18 February 1905, educ Ulverston Grammar School, Liverpool University (BSc), and Ridley Hall, Cambridge, asst master, Quarry Bank School, Liverpool, teaching mathematics, ordained 1935, curacies, vicar of Newbarns with Hawcoat, Barrow-in-Furness 1940-1948, vicar of Penrith 1948-1959, rural dean of Penrith 1954-1959, hon canon of Carlisle 1954-1959, rector and rural dean of West Derby 1959-1961, provost of Blackburn cathedral 1961-1972, of Broomfield, Preston New Road, Blackburn, died 27 April 1973
Robinson, Norman (19xx-2016), clergyman, vicar of Rosley, near Wigton, marr Mary (poet), died suddenly in 2016; flower festival held in his memory on 10/11 June 2017 (CN, 09.06.2017)
Robinson, Richard (fl.1532-1549), chantry priest; CW2 lxxxviii 97
Robinson, Richard (16xx-17xx), attorney, of Stainton, parish of Heversham, marr (18 January 1676/7, at Kendal) Mrs Elizabeth Prickett, of the Gill in Kendal parish
Robinson, Richard (b.1829), clipper captain, born Seaton, sailed the Fiery Cross in the famous race of the tea clippers in 1866, he made a good start but was overhauled by the Ariel and the Taeping. The Fiery Cross was designed by William Rennie and built in Liverpool, launched in 1860, she was the first ship home in 1861, 1862 and 1863, and again in 1865.
Robinson, Robert A. (fl.19thc.), of Cockermouth, chief agent for Lord Lonsdale, one of original promoters of Cleator and Workington Junction Railway, also director of Rowrah and Kelton Fell (Mineral) Railway Co (incorp. 1874)
Robinson, Sir Roland PC KCMG MA LLB (1907-1989), politician, later Lord Martonmere, grandson of John Harrison Robinson of Whitbarrow and Blackpool (qv), educ Trinity Coll Cambridge, called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn, MP for Widnes 1931-35 and for Blackpool 1935-45, and Blackpool South 1945-64, cr baron Martonmere of Blackpool, from 1964-72 he was governor of Bermuda, marr Maisie Maud Meacham Gasque (1909-1989), dau of Clarence Warren Gasque (1874-1928) of Chicago and New York, died in Nassau, Bahamas 1989; Hud (C)
Robinson, Roper (1836-1908), dialect writer who used the pseudonym Roger Piketah (qv)
Robinson, Thomas (1644-1711), mayor of Appleby, eldest son of 14 children of John Robinson (d.1667), of Kirkby Thore, educ Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, alderman of Appleby and mayor three times (1679, 1692 and 1706), marr, sons (John (qv) and Charles) and dau (Mary, wife of Richard Wordsworth, qv)
Robinson, Thomas (fl.1696-1715), leaseholder Caldbeck mine; CW2 143
Robinson, Thomas (d.1719; ODNB), natural philosopher, obscure northern origins, ordained deacon at Carlisle 1668 and priest 1669, appointed rector of Ousby on 3 August 1672, marr (4 September 1669 at Addingham) Jane Relfe, 8 children, failed attempt to reopen Newlands mines, near Keswick, for Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, 1693-1703, author of Anatomy of the Earth (1694), New Observations on the Natural History of this World of Matter and this World of Life (1696), and Essay towards a Natural History of Westmorland and Cumberland (1709), buried at Ousby, 28 May 1719 (CW2, v, 243-265); his Anatomy of the Earth (1694); CW2 v 243
Robinson, Thomas 1st Bt (1703-1777) of Rokeby (Y), son of William Robinson (1675-1720) also of Rokeby, MP and governor of Jamaica 1742-7, married in 1728 Elizabeth the daughter of the 3rd earl of Carlisle and the widow of Nicholas, Baron Lechmere (1675-1727) (MP for Appleby and then Cockermouth), he was an amateur architect, led a most extravagant life, rebuilding Rokeby Park and being involved in Ranelagh Gardens and was much lampooned, he was appointed to the West Indies’ post to keep him out of harm’s way, after five years in Barbados he was recalled home, his second wife the widow of Samuel Salmon (nee Booth) refusing to go with him, Robinson’s brother was Richard Robinson (1708-1794), archbishop of Armagh and 1st baron Rokeby, he is thus a rare example of a man who attained both a crown and a mitre (qv Bishop Crewe of Durham (1633-1721) who was also Lord Crewe in his own right); Hud (W)
Robinson, Thomas (17xx-1xxx), Captain, son of Charles Robinson, of Appleby, and yr brother of John Robinson, MP (qv), pocket ledger for 1778 (CW2, lcv, 199-245); CW2 xcv 199
Robinson, Thomas (17xx-1810; ODNB), artist, native of Bowness-on-Windermere, trained under George Romney, moved to Dublin in 1790, then to Ulster in 1793, settling in Belfast in 1801, marr Ruth Buck (d.1826), one of his major works The Battle of Ballynahinch [Malahide Castle], father of Revd Dr (John) Thomas Romney Robinson (1793-1882; ODNB), MA, BD, FRS, third Astronomer at the Armagh Observatory from 1823 (founded in 1793 by Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh, Lord Rokeby, ODNB), died at Armagh Observatory, 28 February 1882, aged 90 (CW2, vi, 172); Marshall Hall
Robinson, Thomas (1819-1873), clergyman, born at Hincaster, near Milnthorpe, 22 November 1819, vicar of St Bartholomew, Naylor Street, Liverpool, died in his study, 16 May 1873, aged 53 (copy report from Liverpool Courier, 17 May 1873 in CRO, WDX 313)
Robinson, Thomas (18xx-18xx), clergyman, St Bees College 1836, d 1838 and p 1839 (Chest), vicar of Muncaster 1844-1872, Farsley, Yorks 1873-1875, Grinton, Yorks 1876-1878, Langton-on-Swale, Yorks 1878-1879, Bellerby, Yorks 1879-1883, vicar of Arkholme from 1883
Robinson, Thomas Edward (b.1925), seed merchant, lived Eden House, Kirkandrews on Eden, much involved with Carlisle racecourse, father of Jancis Robinson the wine critic
Robinson, William (c.1570-16xx), BA, son of Thomas Robinson, mediocris fortunae, of Crosby Garrett, poss ‘Willyam sonn of Thomas Robinsonn’ bapt at Crosby Garrett, 1 October [1570], educ Kirkby Stephen Grammar School and [St John’s College, Cambridge?], admitted sizar at age of 22 in 1595/96 and graduated BA in 1598/99, first scholar from KS known to have gone on to university, later career uncertain, but prob taught locally = as below?
Robinson, William (15xx-16xx), schoolmaster, master at Kirkby Lonsdale School 1617-1622 and at Middleton 1620-1622, and Ravenstonedale 1630-1662, = as above ?
Robinson, William (d.1661), grocer, founder of the school which bears his name (now Penrith Museum), he bequeathed £35 p.a. to be paid by the Grocers Company for this purpose, the school opened in 1670, dedicated at his request to poor girls, it was closed in 1971 after 300 years
Robinson, William (1711-1784), attorney and author, bapt at Kendal 19 March 1710/11, son of William Robinson, of Kirkland, and Elizabeth, his wife, a cousin of John Robinson, of Beckside, Crook, marr (18 May 1755, at Grayrigg) Jane Toppin, of Whinfell, 2 sons (John and Thomas) and 1 dau (Jane), attorney at law in Kendal, author of many writings both in prose and verse, (16 ms poems on topical and local subjects dated between 1769 and 1776), ‘universally esteemed by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance’ (CP), friend of Thomas Ashburner (qv), of Kirkland, and of Hill Top, New Hutton, buried at Kendal, 10 November 1784, aged 73 (mss in CRO, WDX 313; crest on bookplate ‘Wm Robinson, 1756, Hill Top in Hay, Kendal, Westmorland’)
Robinson, Sir William Arthur (1874-1950; ODNB), civil servant, born Long Marton (W), son of William, a sailor, educ Appleby GS and Queen’s Coll Oxford, to the Colonial Office, 1912 assistant secretary at the office of works and 1918 permanent secretary at the new Air Ministry, later at the Ministry of Health, described as ‘a mailed fist beneath of velvet glove’
Robinson, William Peart, JP, of Hyning, JP Milnthorpe Division 1925, dau marr Drew
Robinson, William Leefe (1895-1918), VC, Captain, RAF, airman, born on family estate near South Coorg in southern India, 14 July 1895, yst of seven children of Horace Robinson, coffee planter, and Elizabeth Leefe, sent to England aged about six for educ at Dragon School, Oxford (1901-1903), Bishop Cotton School in Bangalore for 4 years, and St Bees School (1908-1914, Head of Eaglesfield House 1913 (succ his elder brother, H L Robinson, who died in action in Mesopotamia in 1916), Rugby 1st XV, sergeant in OTC and school prefect), entd RMC Sandhurst (August 1914 and grad December), gazetted 2nd Lt in Worcestershire Regt, transferred to RFC as observer in March 1915, posted to No 4 Sqdn at St Omer and wounded in action in air over Lille, started pilot training at Farnborough in June 1915, followed by advanced course at central flying School, Wiltshire, attached to 19th Reserve Sqdn (later 39th) at Sutton’s Farm, nr Hornchurch in February 1916, flying his BE2c in role of night-fighter on patrol against German airships SL11 bombing raid on 3 September 1916 when he shot down first airship over London, crashing behind Plough Inn at Cuffley, to great acclaim, recommended for VC on 4th September, gazetted on 5th and invested by king at Windsor Castle on 9th, posted to France as Flt Comdr with 48 Sqdn in April 1917, flying new Bristol F2 fighter when shot down by superior Albatross DIII fighter, wounded and captured, imprisoned at Karlsruhe for few days and transferred to PoW Camp at Freiberg-am-Breisgau, attempted to escape, poorly treated, later transferred to Zondorf and Holzminden PoW camps, kept in solitary confinement till released in November 1918, repatriated to England on 14 December, but sick and weak, contracted flu while staying with friends in Middlesex, and despite nursing by his sister Kitty (Baroness Heyking) and fiancée Joan, died 31 December 1918, aged 23, and buried in All Saints’ churchyard, Harrow Weald, 3 January 1919; memorial obelisk near A121 at East Ridgeway erected in 1986 (WN, 13.11.08)
Robinson, Wilson John (fl.1756-63), mayor of Kendal, from Maryport, marr (17xx) Margaret (born at Kirfitt Hall and bapt at KL, 3 August 1735, and died at Beckhead, 11/12 February 1812, aged 76, and buried at KL, 15 February), dau of Revd Thomas Mawdesley (qv) and sister of Ann, wife of John Wilkinson (qv), 2 sons (Godsalve Thomas, born 3 April 1757, bapt at Kendal, but lost at sea, and Wilson, born at Kendal, 2 October 1759, but died young) and 2 daus (Mary (born 1 January 1761, wife of Henry Bainbridge (qv) and buried at Maryport) and Margaret (born c.1763, wife of William Gibson (qv), of Beck Head, KL, died 10 August 1808, aged 45, and buried at KL, 14 August)), mayor of Kendal in 1756-57, his wife Margaret sold Rigmaden (inherited from her grandfather Thomas Godsalve (qv) through her mother Margaret) to John Satterthwaite (qv), of Castle Park, Lancaster, in 1784; (CW1, xiv, 450)
Robinson, Wilson John (17xx-17xx), mayor of Kendal, born in Maryport, marr Margaret (bapt at Kirkby Lonsdale, 3 August 1735 and died at Beck Head, 12 February 1812), yr dau of Revd Thomas Mawdesley (qv), 2 sons (Godsalve Thomas (born at Kendal, 3 April 1757 and bapt 2 May, lost at sea) and Wilson (born at Kendal, 2 October 1759 and bapt 4 December, died young)) and 2 daus (Mary, wife of Dr Henry Bainbridge (qv) and Margaret, wife of William Gibson (qv)), who with her niece Mary Wilkinson sold joint manors of Mansergh and Rigmaden to John Satterthwaite (qv), of Lancaster, 28 October 1784, mayor of Kendal 1756-57, of Highgate, Kendal, died in 1??? (CW1, xiv, 454; portraits at Whelprigg)
Robson, Arnold Christian (1907-2008), wartime tank engineer, garage owner and car dealer, during WW2 presented with a ceremonial dagger by a German U boat commander upon surrender, freemason, golfer; Cumberland News, 25th January, 2008
Robson, Charles (1597/8-1638), clergyman and travel writer, son of Thomas Robson of Queen’s College, Oxford who was headmaster of Carlisle GS from 1612-1614, educated himself at Queen’s, he was appointed a fellow, then appointed chaplain to the Levant Company in Aleppo in 1625, he described the eruption of Stromboli, returning to England in 1730 he was deprived of his fellowship but given the living of Holme Cultrum, published Newes from Aleppo (1628)
Robson, George Fennell (1788-1833; ODNB), artist, born in Durham in 1788, eldest son of John Robson, wine merchant, and his second wife Charlotte, had precocious talent for drawing from early age, mixing with artists sketching views of architecture and scenery of Durham city, could learn nothing from Mr Harle, the local drawing master, stayed with a kinsman, Mr Robinson of Great Queen Street in London in 1804, first exhibited at Royal Academy in 1807, published a print in 1808 of Durham (dedicated to Bishop Dr Shute Barrington, who became his patron and friend), that was well subscribed and funded his first visit to Scotland (Scenes of the Grampian Mountains published in 1814), exhibited two views of Windermere at the Old Watercolour Society in 1816, contributed 33 watercolours between 1826 and 1833 with subjects including Derwentwater, Vale of St John, Thirlmere, Brotherswater, Ullswater, and castles of Brougham and Dacre, also two views of Grasmere owned by Wordsworth Trust (described by Robert Woof in 2005), ‘As an artist, Robson was original. He followed no one, his style was founded on nature. If he was a mannerist, his manner was his own!’ (Times obituary), died 8 September 1833, aged 44, probably due to chronic food poisoning (The Messenger, No.53, Autumn 2016); monument in St Mary le Bow church (now Durham Heritage Centre), his self portrait bequeathed by his descendant Maureen Hepburn (nee Duckworth) (d.2021), of Gressenhall, Norfolk, also to hang there
Robson, John (1845-1915), photographer, CW3 22, 155
Robson, Robert (1942-2021), teacher and wrestler, b. Alnwick, involved with Cumberland wrestling for nearly seventy years, lived Ivegill, won Guinness trophy in 1964, 1970 and 1980, taught at Trinity and St Aidan’s schools, Carlisle, retired early and bred sheep and belted Galloways, wrote the wrestling report for the C News for 41 years, president C and W Wrestling Association 2005-2009 and from 2011, m. Jill, three children: Heather, Simon and Catherine
Roby, Henry John MA Hon LLD (Cantab and Edin) (1830-1915), academic, son of Henry John Roby, attorney, writer on Roman Law, educated Bridgenorth GS and St John’s Cambridge, taught at Dulwich College 1861-65, professor of Jurisprudence at UC London 1866-68, keen on the reform of school governance he wrote a report on the state of 800 schools, Commissioner of Endowed Schools 1872-1874, MP for Eccles 1890-1895, governor of Owen’s College, Manchester and MGS, retired to Lancrigg, Grasmere, on his 80th birthday he celebrated by climbing Scafell; Hud (W), Times obit 5 Jan 1915
Rochdale, Viscount, see Kemp
Rodick, Henry Gibson, auctioneer, of Beela House, Beetham (1880) and of High Cote, Beetham (1882/85), marr Annie Elizabeth, 2 daus
Rodick, Thomas (c.1788-1855), JP, Liverpool merchant, local treasurer of Unitarian Market Place Chapel restoration appeal 1845, had country seat near Arnside, where he died, 7 June 1855, aged 67 (ONK, 417)
Rodgerson, George (d.1800), mariner, brother of John Rodgerson of Seaton Ironworks, died at sea, buried Workington churchyard under the epitaph: Stop my friends when this you see, George then John both went to sea; John lies here, Makes Friends to weep, But George lies in the Mighty deep. From William Andrews Epitaphs (1883 rpr 1899)
Rodway, Rachael (1951-2022), solicitor, born Thornton Cleveleys, dau of Baron Rodway (c.1915-2000) the last of a dynasty of dentists and Elisabeth Kendall (d.2021, dau of William Kendall a cotton mill owner in Colne, Lancashire (at Heatherley’s Art College, she was proud to have been a student of the printmaker Iain McNab and she painted and exhibited until her 90s)), educ by nuns at Layton Hill School, Blackpool, active in the girl guides and became a Queen’s Guide, attended secretarial college and soon became a senior administrator in an Oxford hospital, encouraged by a colleague she applied and was accepted for a law course at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brooks university) gaining a 1st class degree, served her articles with Burnett’s in Carlisle, after a few years she and David Burnett separated from the old firm and established their own practice in Brunswick St, Carlisle in conveyancing and probate and she occasionally spoke in the local courts, keen on bell ringing she regularly rang in the cathedral tower, in 2005 she gave a new bell (‘a sharp second’) in memory of her aunt Monica Rodway and named after St Aelred, an animal lover, she had at one time five cats, she enjoyed horse riding and for a number of years practiced dressage, having a fine calligraphic hand she supported writing classes in a local primary school, always politically aware, upon retirement she became the chair of Carlisle One World Centre and was involved with Sustainable Carlisle, soon she founded the city food bank (independent of the Trussell Trust) and built a significant group of loyal helpers based first at the Salvation Army Centre at St Nicholas, then in the Citadel and later at West Tower St, she renewed her piano skills with John Hammond and spent one morning a week learning Latin with a local linguist, as an excellent cook with a wicked sense of humour her friends in Cumbria appreciated her generous hospitality, she was a keen gardener and was fortunate to have an attractive walled garden at her home in Raven St, her command of botanical names was encyclopaedic and here she regularly filled several bird feeders, having made light of poor health for some years she died on 25 April 2022; information from family and friends
Roe, Charles, of Macclesfield, took over the Coniston copper mines in 1750
Roger, parson of Kirkby Ireleth, presented to living by Abbot of Furness before 1189, still rector in 1208 (LPR, 363,366)
Rogers, John Coulson (1907-1985), MA, clergyman, educ Keble College, Oxford (BA 1930, MA 1941), Chichester Theological College 1940, d 1941 and p 1942 (Carl), practised as solicitor before ordination, curate of St James, Whitehaven 1941-1944, and St John the Baptist, Upperby 1944-1947, rector of Patterdale 1947-1960, Rural Dean of Penrith 1960, then apptd Chaplain to British Embassy at Helsinki and at Moscow 1960-1962, Rector of Rockingham with Caldecote 1962-1967, rural dean of Weldon 1965-1967, invited to return to Patterdale as rector on vacancy in 1966, succ Revd David Wingate, and staying until his retirement in 1976, kept ‘open house’ for all who came to see him, caring, witty sermons, died in 1985 and buried near south door of St Patrick’s chuch, Patterdale
Rogers, Samuel (1763-1855; ODNB), poet, influential cultural figure, his poetry includes ‘The Falls of Lodore’ and ‘Keswick Lake’, his The Pleasures of Memory refers to the Lake District including St Herbert’s Island, he commissioned JMW Turner to create a watercolour of a fantasy chapel modelled on Eton chapel (Tate), as if it were built on the island named after the hermit, this was engraved by Le Keux as an illustration to his Poems (1830-32), his book Italy (1822 and 1828), given to the young Ruskin as a present, was a great inspiration to the artist
Rogerson, Frederick (1921-2010), fell runner, born in Kentmere, 26 January 1921, and bapt at Staveley, 6 March, son of Florence Agnes Rogerson, of Fellfoot Mill, Staveley, father unknown (acc to marr cert) [Robert Rogerson and Henry Rogerson, both labourers, had children bapt at Kentmere in 1902-1910], educ Staveley School, drawn to the fells in his early years, joined Territorial Army in 1937, L/Cpl, 6 Border Regt, posted to India in 1942, contracted malaria and left army in 1945, of Fell Foot, Staveley, marr (9 October 1941 at St Martin’s, Bowness-on-Windermere) Margaret Elizabeth (aged 19, nurse auxiliary, whom he met while guarding a crashed plane near Bowness), dau of Thomas Bockley Coward, farmer, of Lindeth Farm, Bowness, daus, worked as builder in Windermere area (building his own home) until retd in 1986, keen follower of Coniston Foxhounds, engaged in orienteering, founded the Bob Graham (qv) 24-Hour Club in 1971 for all those who successfully complete 72-mile, 27,000 feet circuit of 42 highest peaks in Lake District in 24 hours, though he never completed it himself, Honorary Life President and former vice-president of Lake District Mountain Trial Association, of Tethers End, Lindeth, Windermere, died November 2010, aged 89, and his ashes spread along route of Bob Graham Round on 15-16 July 2011 (WG, 18.11.2010; 14.07.2011)
Rolfe, Frederick (aka Baron Corvo) (1860-1913; ODNB), writer, artist, photographer and eccentric, son of John Rolfe piano tuner London, stayed at Brathay Hall, Ambleside, with Hugh Redmayne in December 1894 until January 1895 to develop their shared interest in colour photography, Rolfe wanted money to promote this project but his demands were considered too great and a risky proposition, later Redmayne was going on a commercial mission to China, Persia and Japan and there was some talk of Rolfe and his partner John Holden going with him as his secretaries, this also came to nothing; Benkovitz, Frederick Rolfe, 1977, 73, 82
Rolland, Charles F (1920-2008), MD, FRCP Ed, BA, physician, born in Bolton, Lancs, 17 December 1920, er son of William Rolland (died by 1945), his younger brother Graham killed in action in WW2 while serving with RAF, aged 18, educ Loretto School, Edinburgh, and Cambridge University (played rugby, president of mountaineering club, BA medicine, 1st class, 1941), returned to Edinburgh for his clinical medical training, qualifying MB 1944, called up to join RAMC and volunteered for RM commandos, but crossed wires sent him to India with Royal West African Frontier Force, marr (1945) Venetia Payne (qv), 1 son (Andrew, born 1951) and 1 dau (Fiona, born 1948, wife of Dr Jim Cox), before leaving for India for next two years, returned to Edinburgh to continue postgraduate studies (MRCP 1948, MD 1953, thesis on diabetes, FRCP 1956), appointed a consultant physician in Edinburgh in 1954, moving to Carlisle in 1956, joining other talented consultants of that time (Tommy Studdert, Bruce MacLean, Josephine Ewbank and Geoffrey Scott-Harden), died at his home, Knocker House, Caldbeck, 27 July 2008, aged 87 (NW Evening Mail, 08.08.2008; RCPE obit at www.rcpe.ac.uk/publications/obituaries/2008/rolland)
Rolland, Venetia (nee Payne) (1922-2013), artist, born in East Anglia in 1922, worked as a nurse during WW2 at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, where she met her future husband Charles Rolland (qv), marr (1945), 1 son and 1 dau, moved to Edinburgh after his return from India, then to Carlisle in 1956, studied at Carlisle College of Art in 1960s/70s, worked in oils and acrylics, usually in the studio from sketches and notes, held a series of solo and mixed exhibitions that spanned more than 40 years and made her work well known locally and nationally, showed locally at the Lake Artists at Grasmere, Upfront Gallery, Meadow Bank Farm, Akthwaite, Dumfries, Galloway Fine Art Society and the Broughton Gallery, elected to the Lake Artists’ Society in 2001, of the Dovecote, Scotby, later of Knocker House, Caldbeck, Wigton, died at Penrith Hospital, 31 January 2013, aged 90, and cremated at Carlisle crematorium after funeral service at St Kentigern’s church, Caldbeck, 8 February
Rollinson, William (1937-2000), MA, PhD, FRGS, human geographer, local historian, author, and lecturer, born at Barrow-in-Furness in 1937, educ Barrow Grammar School for Boys and Manchester University (BA Hons Geog 1960, MA 1961 with thesis on The Rural Landscape of Low Furness), assistant in Dept of Geography at Glasgow University 1961-1962 before apptd asst lecturer in Dept of Geography at Liverpool University 1962-1964 and Lecturer from 1964, as a popular, lively and engaging speaker took courses on Development of Cumbrian Landscape for Dept of Extra-Mural Studies, Liverpool University, and was Organising Tutor for Department of Continuing Education, member of CWAAS from 1963, hon secretary 1971-1973 and member of Council 1975-1978, founder member of Barrow Civic and Local History Society in 1984, author with M Twyman of John Soulby, Printer, Ulverston (1966), edited Diary of William Fisher, author of A History of Man in the Lake District (1967), introduction to reprint of Peter Crosthwaite’s A Series of Accurate Maps of the Principal Lakes of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancahire… surveyed between 1783 and 1794 (1968), Lakeland Walls (1972), Life and Tradition in the Lake District (1974), A History of Cumberland and Westmorland (1978), Dictionary of Cumbrian Dialect, Tradition and Folklore (1997), television work inc documentary film on drystone walls for Granada, A Tale of Two Dales (Wasdale and Mundal in Norway) for C4/Norwegian TV, and Britain’s Natural Resources for ITV, adviser for Melvyn Bragg’s C4 series Land of the Lakes, lecturer to many local and national bodies, formerly of 1 Hawke Street, Barrow, latterly of Fox Howe, Burlington St., Ulverston, mentor of David Cross, gave him his early opportunities in adult education in the 1980s and supported the founding of Cumbrian Lives, invited to the first meeting but was probably too unwell to attend, died 20 March 2000, well attended funeral at Urswick, eulogy given by Melvyn Bragg, obit. Guardian 29 March 2000; Rollinson Collection of books, pamphlets and photographs deposited at Barrow Library and Record Office (indexed 2001), Cumbrian Miscellany published in his memory (2001), also Our Bill, c.2001 and Our Barrovians, 56-72, all edited by Alice Leach (qv); oldbarrovians.org/alumni
Rollo, Gilbert de Ste Croix (18xx-1932), 5th son of 10th Lord Rollo, owned Highmoor House, Wigton from 1922 until his death in 1932
Rolt, Rev Clarence Edwin (1881-1918), rector of Watermillock 1914-1917, relative of LTC Rolt (1910-1974), the writer on engineers and waterways
Romanus, Flavius (late 2nd c. – early 3rd c.), Roman military clerk, murdered Ambleside; CW3 iii 228
Romney family, sometimes Rumney and Rumley, of Colby and Dalton-in-Furness; (could this name be a corruption of Romelli or Rumelli ? as in Alice Rumeli (qv))
Romney, George (1734-1802; ODNB), portraitist, b. Beckside, Dalton-in-Furness, son of John Romney (qv), cabinet maker and smallholder, attended Dendron school where he met his lifelong friend Thomas Greene (qv), apprenticed to Christopher Steele (qv), married Mary Abbot, went to London and had early success and involvement with the Society of Artists, visited Italy in the mid 1770s, on his return was soon more successful and rivalled Reynolds and Gainsborough, established studio Cavendish Square, retired to Hampstead in the late 1790s where he built a house with a sculpture gallery at Holly Bush Hill, enfeebled by a series of strokes returned to Kendal to the house by the Nether Bridge where his wife cared for him, his amanuensis was William Cockin (qv), d. Kendal, buried with monument Dalton in Furness churchyard, cenotaph Kendal parish church, monument upon façade of Kendal Town Hall funded by the Romney Society; his coat of arms [granted to his son the Rev John Romney] appear on stained glass at Field Broughton church to a Rawlinson descendant killed in the 1st WW; plaque on Dalton town hall, plaque on house by Nether Bridge, Kendal, plaque on Holly Bush Hill, Hampstead, plaque in Kendal Museum which was salvaged when Romney’s studio in Redman’s Yard, Kendal, was demolished in the 1960s to create a car park; Grove Dictionary of Art; CW2 xci 145; David A. Cross, A Striking Likeness, 2000; Alex Kidson, catalogue raisonne, 2016; Romney Society Transactions publishes numerous articles; also see his pupils James Lonsdale, Thomas Robinson and Daniel Gardner (qqv) and the astronomer Thomas Romney Robinson (ODNB)
Romney, George (1831-1920), Mormon clergyman, bishop of the Mormon church in Utah, son of Miles Romney (1806-1884) and a descendant of Thomas Romney of Dalton-in-Furness (brother of John Romney, cabinet maker (qv)), marr Jane Jamieson; he was an ancestor of Mitt Romney the presidential candidate; the Morman church published the Romney pedigree as an example in the early period of their promulgation of retrospective conversion (copy Barrow CRO)
Romney, James (c.1740-c.1804), officer EIC, born Dalton-in-Furness, son of John Romney and brother of George Romney the artist (qqv), he appears in an early candlelit portrait by his brother (Abbot Hall) and also in A Conversation (Yale) which shows both James and Peter Romney, joined the East India Company in 1779 and rose to be Lt Col, unmarried, retired to Bath and is buried in Bath Abbey; wrote plays including a dramatization of Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (Special Collections, Canberra University), diary in UK National Archives; David Cross, A Striking Likeness, several references; James Mulholland, Before the Raj (2021)
Romney, John Sr (1703-1778), father of the artist, cabinetmaker and smallholder, known locally as ‘Honest John’, marr Anne Simpson (1704-1759) of Sladebank, Whitbeck (whose mother Bridget Parke was related to William Lewthwaite of Kirkby Hall and had an interest in the iron mines of Furness), built his own house at High Cocken, Hawcoat (now Barrow), made first iron ploughshare in Furness, experimented with downhill ploughing using a sail for power and with shellfish for manure; David A. Cross, A Striking Likeness, 2ff
Romney, John Jr (1757-1832), clergyman and biographer, son of the artist, fellow of St. John’s Cambridge, friend of Henry Ainslie (qv), lived latterly at Whitestock Hall, Rusland, wrote a biography of his father and donated the best of the artist’s 5000 drawings to the newly founded Fitzwilliam museum; David A. Cross, A Striking Likeness, see index
Romney, John (1817-1875), MA, born at Colton, 25 February 1817, son of Revd John Romney (qv), of Whitestock Hall, educ Sedbergh School (entd August 1832, left June 1836) and St John’s College, Cambridge (MA), curate at Newcastle upon Tyne, vicar of Swaffham Bulbeck, Norfolk, marr (1849) Eliza Jane, dau of John Bertram Orde (1783-1863) Major, 2nd Dragoon Guards, of Longridge, Norham, formerly of Soulby, Kirkby Stephen [her sister, Harriet (b.1824), marr Revd Charles Charlton, ? inc of St Paul’s, Alnwick], lived at Whitestock Hall from 1850, died 2 July 1875 (SSR, 190)
Romney, Peter (1743-1777), artist, born Dalton-in-Furness, son of John Romney and brother of George Romney the artist (qqv), apprenticed to his brother in Kendal, appears in A Conversation (Yale) which shows both James and Peter Romney, worked in pastel in London, Manchester and Ipswich, had talent but insufficient application, was imprisoned for debt in Ipswich, had several unhappy love affairs, took to drink and died young; Rev John Romney, The Life of George Romney has an appendix about Peter; David Cross, A Striking Likeness, several references
Romney, Thomas, brother of John Romney Sr and uncle of the artist, his son migrated to the USA and became bishop George Romney of the Mormon community, the ancestor of Mitt Romney, the presidential candidate
Rooke, John (1780-1856; ODNB), JP, landowner and writer, born at Aikhead, Wigton, 29 August 1780, eldest son of John Rooke (1750-1817), surveyor and farmer, and of Peggy (d.1838, aged 80) nee Barnes, of Little Bampton, educ Aikon School, farmed until aged 30 when he inherited two properties, studied political economy, advocate of free trade, geologist, mathematician, scientist, and musician, author of An Inquiry into the Principles of National Wealth, illustrated by the Political Economy of the British Empire (1824), Free Trade in Corn (1828), Free and Safe Government, A Treatise on Geology, The Landlord: and the True Policy of the State, Geology of Cumberland, of Westmorland, of Northumberland and Durham, often written anonymously ‘by a Cumberland landowner’, president of Wigton Mechanics’ Institute, unmarried, died at Aikton, 25 April 1856 and buried at Wigton (portrait in B R Haydon’s The Banishment of Aristides painted in 1845) (WC)
Rooke, John (1807-1872), apptd professor of drawing at St Bees School in 1854
Rooke, Henry (1711-1775), administrator, son of William Rooke (d.1731), town clerk of Carlisle (qv), chief clerk of the records at the Tower of London; Hud (C)
Rooke, Joseph (c.1750-1831), weaver, autodidact, teacher, mathematician and philosopher, born Aikbank, Wigton, son of a weaver, ‘attained to considerable perfection in different branches of science although almost entirely without education’ (Bell), also said to excel in music, botany and optics, ran a small school at Aikbank where he taught John Rooke (1780-1856; ODNB) (probably a distant relative), his thrift led to the purchase of land and was advised by John Rooke to use more manure, interred in his own garden at Aikbank; Henry Lonsdale, Worthies of Cumberand, 217, Bell’s Gazetteer (1835), William Whellen’s directory and several other directories refer to him as a prominent figure of Wigton
Rooke, William (c.1652-1xxx), MA, BD, clergyman, born at Workington, son of J, entd Queen’s College, Oxford as batler, 11 October and matric 22 October 1669, aged 17, BA 16 May 1674, MA 30 October 1677, BD 12 April 1690, elected and admitted fellow 15 March 1679 (as one of five from C and W to be so), referred to as ‘Mathematick Lecturer’ in same letter of Thomas Dixon (qv) to DF, chamberlain 1683-1685, and treasurer 1690-91 and 1693-94, Vicar of Plumsted 1691, while retaining his fellowship, presented by college as senior fellow to rectory of Hedley, Hampshire in 1695 (FiO, i, 279)
Rooke, William (d.1731), son of Thomas Rooke of Kelsick, Dundraw, town clerk of Carlisle, acquitted on charges of barratry (a complex term, perhaps instigating litigation for the purpose of harassment or profit) ; Hud (C); CW2 iv 64
Roop, Len (1917-2005), artist, active in Cockermouth in 1990s
Roos (or Roose, or Ros), John de (d.1332), bishop of Carlisle from 1325-32, died at Rose Castle; Hud (C)
Roosevelt, Edward ‘Teddy’ (1858-1919), American President, visited Furness Abbey in childhood [and where else ?]
Rootham, Cyril Bradley (1875-1938), composer, born Bristol, son of a singing teacher who taught Clara Butt, educated Bristol GS, St John Coll Cambridge and the RCM, organist at Christ Church Hampstead, St Asaph Cathedral, St John’s Coll, married Rosamond Lucas, conducted Cambridge University Music Society, his compositions include ‘The Lake Country’; P. L. Scowcroft, musicwebinternational Cumbrian MusicRothwell, Rainshaw (1884-1933), lived Broomriggs, Near Sawrey, son of Richard Rainshaw Rothwell (1860-1948) a landowner of Morebath, Devon, he married Ethel Holford, daughter of Frank Holford a wine merchant in Brighton, they had three girls and three boys, in 1911 in Morebath they had nine servants including a cook, a nurse, a footman and a groom, later he owned a 1926 Bentley and a 1932 Rolls Royce Phantom II (Bonham’s 2006), his two teenaged daughters Elsie (b.1907) and Marjorie (b.1908) were drowned in Windermere on 10 June 1925 aged 18 and 17, his son Frank Rainshaw Rothwell (1910-1985) was awarded an MC in the 2nd WW; Hud (W), ancestry.com
Roper, William Bryham (1838-19xx), civic leader, born at Shap, 13 May 1838 and bapt 8 July, son of John Roper, of Shap, sadler, and Mary, educ Shap and Reagill Grammar Schools, went to Preston at age of sixteen, worked for Messrs Horrockses, Miller & Co for three years, entd Preston Savings’ Bank as clerk in 1857, became actuary within twelve years, sound business qualities (SBD, 309-310)
Roscarrock, Nichols (1547x9-1633-4), catholic activist, hagiographer and martyr, b. St Endellion, Cornwall, lived Naworth Castle; G.M. Trevelyan, Studies in Social History, cited in CW2 lxii 330
Rose, Dr John, (fl 20thc.), medical missionary in China, he was blind but his wife supported him, retired to Aspatria of which he wrote with Margaret Dunglison a history, Aspatria: A Cumbrian Town (1987)
Rose, Edwin (1842-1924), locomotive engineer, born at Smethwick, Staffs, 1 January 1842, 3rd of seven sons of James Rose (manager of locomotive works at Ashford for South Eastern Railway from 1848, then locomotive superintendent of Whitehaven and Furness Railway from 1864 (succ William Meikle) till retiring in 1866) and his wife Annette, served engineering apprenticeship at locomotive works at Ashford, Kent, apptd locomotive foreman in charge of management of W&FJR and WJR stock at Preston Street, Whitehaven from 26 September 1864, then for Furness Railway from 1866, transferring to Barrow in early 1880, but apptd Divisional Locomotive Superintendent at Moor Row in May 1880 till he retired on 31 March 1912, responsible for managing Furness Railway locomotive fleet working WC&ER and C&WR, also consulting locomotive engineer to Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, local councillor and active amateur musician, marr (30 May 1868) Elizabeth Jones, of Whitehaven, 5 sons (all engineering apprentices) and 2 daus, latterly of Victoria Villas, Moor Row, died 30 May 1924, aged 82 (Locomotive Magazine, 15 July 1924; Cumbrian Railways, No.130, May 2009)
Rose, Thomas (17xx-18xx), author of descriptions of Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland, illustrated from original drawings by Thomas Allom, George Pickering, etc, published in 3 volumes by Fisher, Sons & Co, London, 1832-1835
Rosgill (Rossegille), John de (fl.1278-1292), coroner, from Rosgill family who were lords of manor of Rosgill, witnessed quitclaim of Alice, wife of John de Thirneby, to monks of Wetheral when ‘coronatore domini Regis in Westmerlandia’ (RPW, 334), and one of jurors in a plea against Abbot of Byland in 1292 (Placita de quo war, 789b)
Ross, Bill (19xx-2019), Methodist minister, former Army Medical Corps nurse, Methodist missionary in the Bahamas, and Kendal Methodist Circuit, retired 1989, died 11 February 2019, aged 92, and funeral at Arnside Methodist Church and cremation at Beetham Hall, 22 February (WG, 14.02.2019)
Ross, Field Marshall Sir Hew (1779-1868; ODNB), soldier, fought at Waterloo, Royal Horse Guards, lived Hayton House, near Brampton; Perriam, CN 13th September 2002 and 26th October 2007
Ross (Rosse or Ros), John (d.1332; ODNB), bishop of Carlisle
Ross, General Sir John (1829-1905; ODNB), b. Hayton, Carlisle; son of the field marshall
Ross, Sir John (1777-1856; ODNB), arctic explorer; Rob David, In Search of Arctic Wonders, Kendal, 2013
Ross, Richard Lowthian (d.c.1840), succeeded to Staffield Hall after the death of his uncle’s widow, here he planted thousands of trees, and made the walks opposite Nunnery Walks, he sold the estate in 1837; Hud (C)
Rosse, Susan Penelope (nee Gibson) (1652-1700), miniaturist, see Gibson
Rosser, Albert (1899-1995), artist, lived Cockermouth
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882; ODNB), artist, was stuck with Hall Caine in a railway siding en route to Legburthwaite
Rosterne, James (c.1860-1920), schoolmaster, headmaster of Shap Endowed School for nearly 40 years, of Wreay Villa, Shap (1914, 1921), where he died, aged 61, and buried 25 October 1920, his widow Agnes, formerly of Shap, died at Horton House, Silverdale Road, Arnside, aged 90, and buried at Shap, 2 May 1967
Rostropovitch, Mitislav, cellist, performed at Rosehill; Anthony Steel, Painful in Daily Doses, 2009; H Roberts, Sellafield and British Nuclear Culture 1945-1992, PhD thesis 2021
Rothenstein, Sir William (1872-1945; ODNB), artist, writer, lecturer b. Bradford, son of Moritz Rothenstein, ed Bradford GS, the Slade and the Academie Julien, war artist, portrait painter, 200 works in the NPG, a series of portrait drawings published as Oxford Portraits [1998], principal of the RCA, encouraged numerous artists, with John Fothergill qv set up the Carfax Gallery, his self portrait is at Tullie House as a fitting reminder of his involvement with Gordon Bottomley (qv) in assembling this collection, m. Alice Knewstub, two of his sons Michael and John active in the arts, drew pencil portraits of WH Bragg and Francis Derwent Wood (qqv)
Rotheram, Caleb (1693-1752; ODNB), DD, Presbyterian minister and tutor b. Great Salkeld, founder of Kendal Academy in 1733; (ONK, 292-329); CW3 ix 153
Rotheram, Caleb (1732-1796), Unitarian minister, born 21 November 1732 and bapt at Market Place chapel, Kendal, 6 December, 4th of five sons and 7th of nine children of Dr Caleb Rotheram (qv), minister of Unitarian Chapel, Market Place, Kendal, marr 1st (24 September 1755) Dorothy (born 29 May 1733, died at 5 am on 28 September 1770, aged 37, and buried in chapel yard, 1 October), dau of John Markett, of Meopham, Kent, no issue, marr 2nd (21 May 1789, by licence at Selside chapel) Hannah, dau of John Thomson, of Kendal, merchant, 4 sons, died 30 January 1796, aged 63, and buried in chapel yard, 5 February (ONK, 334-365)
Rotheram, William (1734-18xx), soldier, born 1 November 1734 and bapt at Market Place chapel, Kendal, 17 November, yst son and 8th of nine children of Dr Caleb Rotheram (qv), joined Marines, becoming captain 1759, major 1777, lieut-colonel 1791, colonel 1794, major-general, and commander of troops at Portsmouth dockyard (ONK, 318)
Rotherham, Rev Caleb (b.1694), Presbyterian minister, born at Rotherham Green, Great Salkeld, educated at Blencow GS and Whitehaven Academy, minister at Kendal 1716-1752, built the chapel ( now Kendal Unitarian Chapel) in the market place, Kendal, buried in Hexham Abbey, he was succeeded in 1754 by his son also Caleb who held the position until 1796, Caleb junior included occupational details in his registers; CFHS June 2022 pp.55-58
Rothwell, M M, later Mrs Thompson (18xx-19xx), MA, headmistress, historian by training, took over position of headmistress of Kirkby Stephen Grammar School in September 1940, in succ to Miss A Whitley (qv), who had retired after 31 years in charge, continued school progress along same lines, but with new developments for future of school, also established new links with past by initiating Founder’s Day, first celebrated in 1942, herself drawing up order of service with extracts from original Elizabethan charter and Lord Wharton’s Constitution, and giving an element of pageantry and ritual to a new tradition that remained unchanged (to present day?), also obtained permission from College of Arms to use Lord Wharton’s arms as badge for pupils’ blazers and took the crimson and gold from the arms as the school colours, introducing red blazer with badge, tie and red checked summer dress, had to deal with inadequacy of school buildings in time of war, persisted in getting a prefabricated hut with three classrooms erected in playground in use by 1944, but rapid expansion of school after Education Act of 1944 necessitated further accommodation and another prefab hut erected at corner of Vicarage Lane in use in 1946, also had to acquire a building for increasing number of boarders as too much strain on private accommodation in town, with lease of Melgates in Market Street from September 1946 for 25 girl boarders (under Miss A E Rae as matron), though still leaving 22 in lodgings (until it closed in 1960), but clear that a new school on one site was needed, but before embarking on changes required by 1944 Act, she moved on in 1947 and was succ by Miss M E Lowe (qv) [new school at Christian Head opened in 1955] (KSGS, 54-57)
Rothwell, Samuel, itinerant photographer; CWAAS, 2017, 183
Roudey, Francis (d.1727), tide waker (walker?), ‘brogged’ the sands with branches to mark to route, drowned in the Duddon estuary 1727
Roughton, James (1733-1806; ODNB), printer and bookseller, born Sebergham, apprenticed to a bookseller of New Bond St, married Ann Perritt (or Perrott) daughter of a developer of Grosvenor Square, sold many of his books via fixed price catalogues which was unusual at the time, sold some important collections including that of the physician Dr Richard Mead (1673-1754) which took 56 days and that of Maffei Pinelli (1736-1785) brought from Venice, which took 23 days, the latter collection included 1400 incunabula, he published a supplement to the New Biographical Dictionary of 1762, William Gilpin’s Essay on Prints (1768) and Richard Cumberland’s Odes (1776), he lived in Conduit Street and rebuilt the Trinity Chapel there, he was also high bailiff of Westminster in 1797
Roughton, Roger Edmund Heude (1916-1941; ODNB), writer and journal editor, born at The Croft, Storrs, father killed in WWI leaving a trust fund, educated at Heddon Court, Cockfosters and then Uppingham, he had been destined for Eton but the funds would not permit this, left school at 16, met his contemporary the poet David Gascoyne (1916-2001; ODNB) in 1933 with whom he shared a small flat, friendly in the USA with Dylan Thomas, worked as an extra in Hollywood
Round, Thomas (1915-2016), tenor, born at Barrow-in-Furness, 18 October 1915, began singing as a child in St Paul’s Mission church choir with rest of his family (father ‘a good comic song singer’, mother ‘a sweet soprano’, elder brother ‘a pleasant baritone’ and sister), left school to work as an apprentice joiner, started competing at local music festivals, joined police in 1936 and stationed at Lancaster, marr (1938 at St Paul’s Church, Barrow) Alice (died 2010), 1 son (Ellis), served WW2 in RAF, training at No.1 British Flying Training School in Terrell, Texas, later becoming a flying instructor for USAF, returned to England in 1943, joined the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company after being discharged from RAF in February 1946 and sang a variety of Gilbert and Sullivan roles (Nanki Poo in The Mikado, Frederick in Pirates of Penzance, Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore and Luiz in The Gondoliers) from 1946 to 1949, sang with Sadler’s Wells Opera Company in 1950s as Pamino in The Magic Flute, Jenik in The Bartered Bride, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Danilo in The Merry Widow (filmed in 1958), formed the ensemble Gilbert and Sullivan for All in 1963 with Norman Meadmore and Donald Adams, touring extensively in UK, North America, Australasia, and the Far East, presented a television series about Gilbert and Sullivan’s Savoy operas with Donald Adams in 1970s, devoting each programme to an individual opera, also sang in oratorios and recitals throughout his career and frequently heard on BBC radio (esp Friday Night Is Music Night), also made recordings of Victorian ballads, Irish songs and lesser known music by Arthur Sullivan, took up sailing as a hobby in 1980 with his son’s encouragement, moved from London to Bolton-le-Sands in 1988, became enthusiastic sailor on Lake Windermere, published his autobiography A Wand’ring Minstrel, I (2002), enjoyed the warm annual welcome given when he appeared for interviews at the Gilbert and Sullivan Festival at Buxton in his 90s, died in Bolton-le-Sands, 2 October 2016, aged 100 (Opera, January 2017, 35); Daily Telegraph obituary 4 October 2016
Rous, Lt Gen Sir William Edward CBE OBE (1939-99), army officer, born Barbon, son of 5th earl of Stradbroke (1907-1983) and Pamela Catherine M. Kaye-Shuttleworth, educated Harrow and Sandhurst, Coldstream Guards 1959, o/c 4th armoured division 1987 and Staff College Camberley 1989, quartermaster General to the Forces 1994, retired 1996, married Rosemary Persse, d.1999, buried Barbon
Routledge, George (1812-1888; ODNB), publisher, born Brampton, apprenticed to Thurnham in Carlisle, went to London in 1833, established a successful bookshop and then from 1843 a publishing business, one of his early successes was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin which generated considerable income, marr 1st Maria Elizabeth Warne and 2nd Mary Grace Bell; John Lee gave a talk on Routledge at Dove Cottage c.2010 [22nd May]
Routledge, James (18xx-18xx), editor of Kendal Mercury, issued with G H Farmer a Local Chronology of Kendal 1865
Routledge, Richard (‘Dickie’), caught 90 fish from the Eden in one day; K Harwood, Fish and Fishers, 2014, 233
Routledge, William, Australian merchant, lived Melbourne, marr Anne, their son William Scoresby Routledge (qv)
Routledge, William (1827-1891), Australian merchant, b Brampton, marr Anne Sophie Twycross 1 son 4 daus, d Eastbourne
Routledge, William Scoresby, his wife Katherine (qv) was the first to examine Easter Island statues; Johanne van Tilberg, Among Stone Giants, 2014
Routledge, William Scoresby (1859-1939) FRGS, anthropologist, b. Australia, son of William above, named after William Scoresby (qv), marr Katherine Maria Pease (1866-1935), dau of Gurney Pease, coal mine proprietor and manufacturer Darlington, together they studied the Kikuyu in E Africa and later they built their own vessel and went to Easter Island where their research (the 1st study) was crucial to an understanding of the Rapa Nui of the island, Katherine published The Mystery of Easter Island (1919); their collections are at the Pitt Rivers museum, Oxford and BM; Jo van Tilberg, Among Stone Giants: The Life of Katherine Routledge on Easter Island, 2005
Rowland, George Steedman (18xx-18xx), MCP, headmaster, master of Kirkby Stephen Free Grammar School, also actuary to savings bank, of Old Vicarage House, Kirkby Stephen (1858, 1873), school reorganised in 1878, gone by 1885
Rowlandson, Mrs, of the Kings Arms, Kendal, made potted char ‘the best of any in the country; Celia Fiennes Journal Ch 6
Rowlandson, James L, lived Westmorland; Gaskell, C and W Leaders, c.1910
Rowlandson, Miss (18xx-18xx), philanthropist, of Akay Lodge, Sedbergh, purchased a site at Grayrigg in 1867 and endowed it with £4,000 for the erection of six alms-houses for accommodation of poor widows resident in chapelry of Grayrigg, with a small weekly stipend to each widow (trustees inc John and Robert Rowlandson of Kilnhead, Lambrigg), also placed £400 with Charity Commisioners to be invested and income applied to increasing salary of mistress of girls’ school at Grayrigg and £300 similarly for benefit of mistress of girls’ national school at Sedbergh
Rowlandson, Thomas (d.1627/8), last meeting on Kendal Corporation in October 1627
Rowlandson, Thomas (16xx-17xx), will 24 May 1728, mayor of Kendal 1734-35
Rowlandson, Thomas, artist, visited the Lakes, in collaboration with William Coombe (ODNB) (who wrote the text) satirized the Revd William Gilpin (qv) in his series of prints exploring the adventures of Dr Syntax
Rowley, Guy Grant (Robin) (1936-2018), landowner and forester, born in Edinburgh, elder son of Major Guy Shafto Rowley (1889-1976), FRGS, Major 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars, of Glassonby Lodge, and his wife Muriel Elizabeth, dau of Robert McQueen Grant, yr brother Tim and sister Muriel, family originally from Yorkshire, educ Stowe School, did national service short service commission with father’s old regiment, died at Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, aged 82, funeral at Addingham Church, followed by cremation at Carlisle (CWH, 13.10.2018)
Rowling, Marjorie A (nee Thexton/Airey?) (c.1900-c.1980), MA, historian, teacher and folklorist, born and brought up in Kirkby Lonsdale, educ Manchester University (history), became a teacher, marr (19xx) Maurice Rowling, AIAA, PASI, architect, of 7 Lowther Street, Kendal from 1925 to 1963 [practice was C G Dean’s by 1965] (of Cliffside, Kendal, 1934/38), both members of CWAAS from 1948, also member of Lakeland Dialect Society and Folk Lore Society, vice-president of Cumbrian Literary Group, author of several books on medieval history, inc Everyday Life in Medieval Times (1969) and Everyday Life of Medieval Travellers (1971), but esp interested in folklore and local customs and traditions, resulting in a volume in ‘The Folklore of the British Isles’ series published by Batsford, The Folklore of the Lake District (1976), which was dedicated to her Thexton and Airey forebears, also wrote The Pageant of Kirkby Kendal for the quatercentenary celebrations of Kendal’s Charter of Incorporation in 1975, also wrote two novels with Lake District basis, formerly of Great Field, Windermere (1948), Heathwaite Manor (by 1958), The Eyrie, Heathwaite Manor, Windermere (1978), and latterly of Sevenoaks, Kent
Royden, (Agnes) Maude CH (later Royden-Shaw) (1876-1956; ODNB), dau of Sir Thomas Royden Bt (1831-1917), educ Cheltenham Ladies College and Lady Margaret College, Oxford, edited the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies’ journal Common Cause, came to Westmorland to support Mr Somervell the Liberal member against the anti-suffragette Capt Bagot, she had previsouiyl supported Sir Wilfred Lawson (qqv); Jo Vellacott, From Liberal to Labour with Women’s Suffrage, 2016; Roger Smalley, Political Dissent in Westmorland, 1880-1930, 2013
Roydon, Thomas (1662-1741), alias Cornforth, Roman Catholic priest, born in Yorkshire in 1662, son of Marmaduke and Catherine Roydon, nephew of Thomas Roydon, alias Mr Faceby (c.1630-c.1700), who left him his property at Lowhouse, Wetheral, took oath at Douai, 15 August 1681, taught for 6 yrs before leaving for England, 9 October 1692 to assist Bishop James Smith (1645-1711) in Yorkshire, apptd rural dean of Lonsdale Hundred, 3 January 1699, later vicar general in Lancashire and Westmorland, retired to Dodding Green, Skelsmergh, where he died, 30 October, and buried at Kendal, 1 November 1741 (SP, 2, 273 & 3, 191-192)
Rudd family, of Dovenby and Cockermouth, from 16thc-20thc, Mary A Rudd, Records of the Rudd Family, 1920
Rudd, Angus (1916-1997), non-conformist minister, b. Kirriemont, Angus, son of George Talbot Rudd (1895-1939) and Margaret Sherry Forbes Geir (1889-1934), educ Westminster College, m. Margaret, children incl Ailsa, minister of [Emmanuel?] church, Abbey Rd, Barrow-in-Furness, involved with the Abbeyfield homes, funded them via the sale of Infield Convalescent Home (former home of Theobald Fitzwalter Butler (qv)) in May 1967, his wife was much involved in amateur dramatics
Rudd, John (fl.1891-after 1948), rake maker, of Dufton, est his business at Nook Fold in 1891 having completed his apprenticeship as a carpenter with Thomas Langstaff at Warcop, he used silver birch and ash wood and only very small pieces of metal, a relative introduced his rakes to Lancashire farms and the business expanded, John retired in 1948 and the business carried on under his son John Joseph, in the 1950s American mechanised production undercut their market so they introduced machines in Dufton and prospered; dandelionstonetroughts.co.uk/dandelion-blog
Rudd, Thomas Trohear (1772-1803), he and his wife were murdered by slaves on their Skiddaw planation at Portland, Jamaica
Rudge, Anthony Benjamin (d.1886), burglar and murderer, with two accomplices Martin and Baker shot at Constable Byrnes (qv) and Constable Johnstone at Plumpton, the policeman survived but the defendants were hanged at Carlisle by James Berry; Baggaley, Murders in the Lake District, 63-78
Rule, Robert Carnie (1892-1964), artist, born in Carlisle, February 1892, son of David Rule, fishmonger, from Annan, and Eliza, his wife, of Newhaven, educ Fawcett Schools, Carlisle, joined his father in fishmonger business, living in Warwick Road in 1911, but had left for a post in Perth by 1914, volunteered to join crew of HMS Atherstone (a minesweeper launched by the Alisa Ship Building Co on 14 April 1916, which survived both world wars to be sold out of service and scrapped in 1952) of the Third Fleet Sweeping Flotilla, on which he kept a sketch book (incl sketch of German battle cruiser Hindenburg built in 1917 and scuttled by its crew at Scapa Flow on 21 June 1919), later returned to Carlisle in 1919 when demobbed, joined Dumfries and Galloway Art Society in 1924, the same year as his first one-man exhibition at W H Smith’s Library in Carlisle, where 66 of his watercolours were displayed, two pictures being purchased by Tullie House, other works shown at Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, travelled to USA in 1928 and again in 1930, latterly as a salesman and commercial traveller, being on the managerial staff of the Penn Fruit Co of Philadelphia, vice-president of the Border Art Society on its formation in 1949, final one-man show at Tullie House in 1962, marr (1932) Millicent Clarice Stevens (died 1951), headmistress of Margaret Sewell School, no issue, died in 1964 (CN, 23.12.2016)
Rumilly (Rumelli), Alice II de (fl.1195), wife of William Fitz Duncan (qv), heiress of Allerdale, gave land in Borrowdale to Furness abbey
Rumley, George (1642-1738), born at Colby near Appleby, migrated to Dalton in Furness, lived at the old farm complex at Millwood (later rebuilt rather more grandly by Edward Wadham (qv)), father of John Rumley (Rumney or Romney) (qv), grandfather of the artist George Romney, ancestor of the American Romneys; David A. Cross, A Striking Likeness, ch 1
Rumney of Gowbarrow and Mell Fell; see A. Wren Rumney; their ancient cup is illustrated CW2 xii 76-81
Rumney, A. Wren (1863-1942), MA, member of CWAAS from 1903, author of The Dalesman (Kendal, 1911), describing life and manners in a Cumberland dale of Lake District, written in form of novel, with photographs, also of Cycling in the English Lake District (1894), The Cyclist’s Guide to the English Lake District (1899), Sprogues on the Fells (with drawings from nature by G Forrester Scott) (1899), and The Way about the English Lake District (together with appendices on crag climbing and fishing and a comprehensive county gazetteer) [18--], and The Rumney Cup (CW2, xii, 76-81), which considers Rumney family of Mellfell, contributed short chapter on ‘Cycling’ to W G Collingwood’s revised edition of The Lake Counties (1932), formerly of Gowbarrow Hall, later of Skiddaw Cottage, Keswick, died by 1938?
Rumney, John (d.1671), pewterer, Penrith; CW2 lxxxv 163ff
Rumney, John (16xx-1728), clergyman, curate of Cross Canonby from 29 September 1712, though his licence is dated 2 June 1713, marr Isabell (buried 18 September 1723), died and also buried at Cross Canonby, 26 October 1728 (ECW, i, 737) [rel to John Rumney below?]
Rumney, John (1685-1738), clergyman, marr (9 May 1681, at Hesket-in-the-Forest) Isabell Sanderson, prob dau of Revd George Sanderson (qv), his predecessor as minister of Kirkoswald (sequestered on 25 May 1685), put in by sequestrators, but not licensed as curate until 3 October 1687, also incumbent of Renwick, where 2 sons and 4 daus were baptised between 1681 and 1697, with 1 son also bapt at Kirkoswald in 1685, died and buried at Kirkoswald, 16 November 1738 (ECW, i, 330, 344, 347-48)
Rumney (aka Rumley), John, see Romney, father of the artist
Rumney, John (c.1739-18xx), steward to Henry Curwen of Workington Hall, made deposition in case of Chancery proceedings on 1 Feb
Rundle, Mary Beatrice (1906/7-2010), CBE, senior WRNS officer, hon secretary and treasurer of Armitt Trust, Ambleside, and apptd a Trustee c.1973-, died 29 September 2010, aged 103
Rupert, Prince, count Palatine of the Rhine and duke of Cumberland (1619-1682; ODNB), royalist army and naval officer, created duke of Cumberland and earl of Holderness, 24 January 1644, but not created Baron of Kendal, as often stated, in same patent, died 29 November 1682
Ruskin, John (1819-1900; ODNB), writer, artist, social reformer, polymath, educated by tutors then at Christ Church college, Oxford, defended JMW Turner (qv) when attacked in The Times, published Modern Painters, travelled widely in Europe drawing and measuring buildings, prolific output of writing, energetic public lecturer, Slade professor at Oxford, immense impact upon his age, lobbied Venetian authorities to preserve architecture he loved, influenced and supported the Pre-Raphaelites, unsuccessful marriage to Effie Grey [later Lady Millais], lived from 1871 at Brantwood, Coniston, where he died, buried at Coniston, 25 January 1900, influenced many students notably WG Collingwood, Hardwicke Rawnsley and numerous other artists, craftsmen, educators and social reformers including Octavia Hill, it could be argued that one of his most important legacies was the founding of the National Trust by HR Rawnsley and Octavia Hill (qqv); Ruskin Library, Lancaster university holds many of his mss; Tim Hilton, biography; numerous publications by James Dearden, Van Aken Bird, Robert Hewison, Michael Wheeler and others; celtic cross monument designed by WG Collingwood (qv) in Coniston and a medallion set on a slate monument at Friar’s Crag, near Keswick, David A. Cross, Public Sculpture, 2017, 160-162 and 171-172
Russell, George (1930-1965), policeman shot while on duty at Oxenholme station; sandstone head carved high on Carlisle cathedral in his memory (high up on the southern side of the external wall at the eastern end); memorial service for the 50th anniversary at the station 2015
Russell, Isaac (1807-1844), b Aston, leader of the Church of Latter Day Saints
Russell, John Tait (1841-1888), Unitarian minister, born in Glasgow in 1841, studied at Manchester New College, London 1861-68, inducted as minister of Market Place Chapel, Kendal, 27 December 1868, re-established Sunday School, 14 February 1869, held combined meetings of Unitarian congregations of Kendal, Lancaster, Preston at Kendal in 1871-73, term expired on 5 April 1874, minister at Macclesfield 1875-1885, when he retired through ill health, died 27 February 1888 (ONK, 429-31)
Russell, John Fox- (1893-1917), VC, MC, soldier, born in Holyhead, Anglesey, 27 January 1893, son of William Fox-Russell (1865-1927), physician and surgeon, and his wife Ethel Maria, living at Plas Altran, educ St Bees, Captain, 1/6 bn Royal Welch Fusiliers, killed in action, 6 November 1917 (OSB)
Russell, Ken (1927-2011; ODNB), film director, educ Pangbourne college and university of London, national service RAF, married four times, lived in the 1970s and 1980s in the Lake District, his The Dance of the Seven Veils shown at the Keswick Festival on 15 Feb 1970 and subsequently banned, his 4th wife Lisi described Cumbria as ‘his spiritual home’, lived for some years at Coombe Cottage, Rosthwaite, Borrowdale, his most successful films include Women in Love (1969), The Devils of Loudun (1971), The Who’s Tommy (1975) and films on Delius, Elgar and Tchaikovsky; David Banning ed, Cumbria and the Lake District on Film, 2016; Cumbria Crack 17 Jan 2018
Russell, William (d.1374), bishop of Sodor, monk at Rushen on Isle of Man, complained to the Pope Urban V that his cathedral in Man was occupied as a fortress, buried Furness Abbey
Rutherford, David T (18xx-19xx), locomotive engineer, from North British Railway, apptd engineer to Furness Railway Company in 1909 (on retirement of W S Whitworth due to ill-health), apptd Locomotive Superintendent of Furness Railway in 1920, succ W F Pettigrew (qv), designed most spectacular locomotive class yet seen on Furness Railway (and many other railways as well), a series of five giant 4-6-4 ‘Baltic’ tank engines, the only inside cylindered ‘Baltic’ tanks built in Britain and employing saturated steam (built by Kitson’s of Leeds), nicknamed ‘Jumbos’, but were swansong of FR locomotives, with no further engines being designed or built before 1923 grouping, of 5 Cavendish Park, Barrow (1912)
Rutherford, Robert, clergyman, curate of Holy Trinity, Grange in Borrowdale 1864-1868
Ruthven, Bridget Helen CBE (1896-1982), wartime commander of women’s services in India, baroness of Freeland, dau of Maj Gen Walter Patrick Hore-Ruthven, 10th earl Ruthven, before the 1st WW was the senior controller of the Auxiliary Territorial Services, appointed director of the Women’s Auxiliary Corps (India), Women’s Royal Naval Indian Services, from 1962-1974 chair of the charity Attend, marr (1) George Howard the 11th earl of Carlisle and (2) the 1st viscount Monckton of Brenchley; Hud (C)
Ruthven, John (1793-1868), geologist, born in Kirkby Stephen in 1793, moved to Kendal and took up trade of cobbler, but made acquaintance of local geologists, Cornelius Nicholson (qv), Thomas Gough (qv) and Francis Danby (qv), and became a keen collector of rocks and fossils, tributes to his work at annual meeting of Kendal Natural History and Scientific Society on 18 September 1843, compiled his Geological Map of Lake District (published by John Garnett of Windermere in 1855), marr, son (George), died at his son’s house in London in 1868; watercolour portrait presented to Kendal Museum by his son (RM, 24-28; AK, 304.15)
Rutland, 5th duchess of (1750-1825), (nee Howard, later Manners), see Howard, Elizabeth
Rutson, Robert (1701-1760), shearman dyer, son of William Rutson, became mayor of Kendal in 1751-2, his son William was also mayor in 1772-3, he was later of the merchant firm Backhouse and Rutson in Liverpool, and much involved with slavery, he lived at Allerton Priory, then of Newby Wiske and Nunnington Hall (Y), the next generation was also a William Rutson (1791-1867) of Nunnimgton, JP DL who married Mary Ewart, his Liverpool business partner, there are equestrian portraits at Nunnington (NT) by George Ferneley, the family collection of musical instruments, including a Stradivarius, is now at the Royal Academy of Music; National Trust website; Hud (W)
Rutter, Henry (c.1755-1838), Roman Catholic priest, of Dodding Green, Skelsmergh, buried in Kendal churchyard, 21 September 1838, aged 83
Ryan, W W (d.1877), OSB, Roman Catholic priest, of Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Wilfred, Warwick Bridge, died 26 October 1877 and buried there
Ryder, Sue (1924-2000), founder of the charity bearing her name, born in Leeds, married Leonard Chesshire VC, established her charity in 1953, visited Barrow to see the charity shop there, one of many which supported the Sue Ryder Homes, soon after this she changed the system, originally the money raised for each donation was split between the donor and the charity, the new system required the whole to go to the charity, the Barrow manager Olwyn Kirk was unhappy with this change and set up another charity shop herself using the old distribution of funds
Rylands, Geoffrey Glazebrook (1885-1959), of The Mount, Howtown, was the son of John Paul Rylands (1846-1923), genealogist, Harry and Geoffrey, two of his four sons, were killed in action in the 2nd WW; Hud (W)
Rymer, Thomas (18xx-1902), JP, ‘The Abbot of Calder’, purchased Calder Abbey by public sale from Revd Samuel Minton-Senhouse on 9 September 1885, son of William Rymer, solicitor, of Manchester, and of Crumpsall and Ribchester, and succ by his nephew, T H Rymer (qv)
Rymer, Thomas Harrison (1852-1911), JP, born 23 October 1852, only son of William Rymer (d.1865), of Manchester, and Mary (d.1891), dau of Thomas Harrison, of Kendal (CRO, WDX 163/12 for marriage settlement), sister Emily Rymer, marr (1887) Amy Elizabeth (1858-1961), dau of Robert/John Falkner, of Kersal, Manchester, 2 daus and coheirs, proprietor of Messrs William and Thomas Rymer, cotton merchants, of John Dalton Street, Manchester, director of Manchester Ship Canal, deputy chairman, Rochdale Canal Company, hon auditor of Great Central Railway Company, involved in many commercial concerns about Manchester, treasurer of Lancashire Independent College, Manchester, prominently connected with Broughton Park Congregational Church, succ to Calder Abbey and Ribchester estates on death of his uncle, Thomas Rymer, in 1902, enthusiastic supporter of Churchill as Liberal candidate in Manchester North-West in 1906, High Sheriff of Cumberland 1910, JP Cumberland 1907, Fishery Conservator on West Cumberland Fishery Board, chairman of St Bridget’s Parish Council, manager of Calderbridge School, member of CWAAS from 1902, etc, died 13 April 1911, aged 58, and buried at Ponsonby church, 18 April (WN; CRO, WDX 163)