W
Waane, William (fl.late 18th - early 19thc.), ‘the presiding genius of Urswick tarn’, an old man who sat by the tarn in a black oak armchair from morning ‘til night, wearing an ancient blue overcoat with large metal buttons. He had long lappets on his waistcoat, leather breeches and huge shoes with silver buckles, three inches square. His cocked hat was of coarse wool.......; details recalled by Malachi Cranke (qv)
Waddell, Cosslett Herbert (1858-1919), MA, clergyman, b Co Antrim, rector Greyabbey, TCD, contributed list of fungi growing in district around Kendal to the Westmorland Natural History Record, Vol.1 (1888-89), 61-63, contributed to the J of Botany being keen on bryophytes
Waddell, Maud ‘Tod’ (fl.early 20thc.), governess, dau of James (1850-1938) a woollen manufacturer of Heads Nook, living Glencairn in Great Corby, mother Sarah Ellen Mudd (b.1853), sister of Winifred (qv), governess of Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989; ODNB), who was closer to Tod than her mother; the nickname came from their reading of Beatrix Potter’s Jemima Puddleduck, which features Mr Tod
Waddell, Winifred (1884-1972), MBE, botanist and teacher of mathematics, born in 1884, dau of James (1850-1938) a woollen manufacturer of Heads Nook, living Glencairn in Great Corby, mother Sarah Ellen Mudd (b.1853), educ Carlisle and County High School for Girls and Royal Holloway College, London (1st class honours in maths), emigrated to Australia in 1915, teacher at Melbourne Church of England Girls’ Grammar School, later deputy headmistress, also tutor in maths at University of Melbourne, used to camp and ride in Australian Alps with the High Plains cattlemen and developed passion for protecting native plants, responsible for Australia’s first wildflower sanctuary in 1949, founder of Native Plants Preservation of Victoria, awarded MBE (1964) and Australian Natural History Medallion (1964), died in Melbourne in 1972, aged 88 (CN, 28.08.09); Australian Garden History, 2011, 22 [4],13-18; sister Maud (qv) was a governess to Daphne du Maurier
Waddington, William Hartley (d.1961), artist, taught art at Charlotte Mason College, from 1914-31, friend of J.B. Priestley (1894-1984), member of the Lake Artists, President of the society 1949-1960; Renouf, 68-69
Wade, during the Windermere freeze in 1895, two men called Studholme and Wade drowned when the ice broke
Wade, John (16xx-1766), cardmaker and mayor of Kendal, bought site of 84 and 123 Stricklandgate in 1722 and built a property (said to have remained in family for about 100 years), died in 1766 (YoK, 101)
Wade, John Charles (1908-1984), LL, OBE, JP, businessman, born 15 February 1908, educ St Bees School, general Manager, West Cumberland Farmers Ltd, patron of Voluntary Action Cumbria (1977), Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland 1968-1974 and Cumbria 1974-1983 (retirement dinner in Tithe Barn, Carlisle, 8 February 1983), unmarried, of Hillcrest, Whitehaven, died 7 May 1984 (WN, 10.03.1983)
Wadeley, Frederick W (1882-1970), organist and composer, born Kidderminster, son of organist William Edward Wadeley (1855-1943) (who studied at Worcester cathedral as a contemporary of Elgar and played at St John’s Kidderminster for 66 years) educated Royal College of Music and became organ scholar at Selwyn Coll Cambridge, organist at Malvern Priory and for fifty years at Carlisle cathedral, married Ethel Stokes, 2 daus 1 son, fellow of RSCM 1947, considerable output of organ and choral music, songs and larger works including ‘The Merman’ and ‘The Mermaid’ (Tennyson), ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (1938), ‘Christmas Carol’ (1938) and music for the Carlisle Pageant; P. L. Scowcroft, musicwebinternational Cumbrian Music
Wadham, Edward (1828-1913), DL, JP, civil and mining engineer, and mining agent, born at Frenchay, Gloucestershire, in 1828, son of Thomas Wadham (1797-1849) and Elizabeth Cook, marr Mary Elizabeth Ainslie, dau of Montagu Ainslie (qv), 1 son Walter Francis (qv), originally firm of Wadham & Turner, civil engineers and surveyors, commissioned to prepare plan to build new town of Millom and supervise some of work on site (inc 500-600 houses, spacious main street and market) in hope that Millom would become ‘a sort of model town’, though only possible if landowners were willing to cooperate (WH, 14 July 1866), but this did not materialise as sanitary regulations were not enforced and overcrowding resulted in outbreaks of typhoid and dysentery (CW2, lxvi, 45859), later as Wadham & Son, civil and mining engineers, architects and surveyors, of 111 Duke Street and Parade Street, Barrow, he was mining agent and receiver to Duke of Buccleuch for Furness (still holding office at age of 80), at 12 Cavendish Street, Ulverston (1882), daily routine of supervising iron ore mines at Lindal Moor, Lindal Cote, Stainton, Eure, Roanhead, Stank and Askam, made weekly inspections of Coniston slate quarries and by train to Whitehaven for mines at Frizington, Lamplugh and Kelton Fell, planned tramways to convey ore to Barrow for shipment, his advice frequently sought by investors considering purchase of land and leases locally but also further afield in North Wales and Isle of Man, also regularly employed in advising and adjudicating in trespass disputes in mining districts, superintended repairs to Dalton Castle in 1856 (plans by Sharpe & Paley, of Lancaster), when some surrounding cottages were pulled down (with others later in 1896), had mining works at Crooklands, town councillor, mayor of Barrow-in-Furness 1878-1881, director of Furness Railway, president of Dalton Conservative Club (established in 1887), president of committee of North Lonsdale Hospital, School Street, Barrow (founded in 1866), member of CWAAS from 1895, subscribed for three copies of Alfred Fell’s The Early Iron Industry of Furness (1908), knew well the principal business and social leaders of his day, including James Ramsden, Henry Schneider, James Rawlinson, Myles Kennedy, Robert Hannay, Thomas Roper, and William Ainslie (qqv), of Millwood, Dalton-in-Furness (built on the site of the old property inhabited inter alia by George Romney’s grandfather (qv)), where he died in June 1913, and buried at Satterthwaite (memorial window by Shrigley & Hunt in south aisle of Dalton church and tablet in Lindal church); his widow Mary Elizabeth Wadham died in February 1932, (also memorial window in Dalton church) (diaries from 1852 until his death in CRO, Barrow); here, for example, he describes Romney’s granddaughters at Whitestock Hall as ‘old girls, but amusing’; the diaries are now on CD Rom
Wadham, Mary Elizabeth (nee Ainslie), dau of Montague Ainslie (qv) of Grizedale Hall, marr Edward Wadham (qv), mother of Walter Wadham (qv), lived Lindale Mount and later Millwood, the family owned a steam vessel called the Mary Elizabeth Wadham
Wadham, Walter Francis Ainslie (18xx-19xx), MA, VD, JP, MICE, engineer and surveyor, son of Edward Wadham (qv), director of Barrow Haematite Steel Co Ltd, ecclesiastical surveyor, Diocese of Carlisle, member of CWAAS from 1909, subscribed to Alfred Fell’s The Early Iron Industry of Furness (1908), also of Millwood (1909, 1912)
Wailes, William (1808-1881), stained glass artist, b. Newcastle, exhibited Crystal Palace in 1851, numerous windows by him and his team in Cumbria; Hyde and Pevsner see index
Wain, Richard William Leslie (1896-1917), VC, born at Penarth, Glamorgan, 5 December 1896, son of Harris Wain and Florence Emily (nee Tucker), of 4 The Avenue, Llandaff, educ Llandaff Cathedral School and St Bees School, intended for Oxford University, 1st WW served with Manchester Regt at the Somme, acting Captain, A Battalion Tank Corps as section commander in charge of three tanks, which failed 60 yards short of German position, killed in action leading attack with a Lewis gun, Marcoing, during battle of Cambrai, 20 November 1917 (OSB)
Waind, Arthur Philip Booth (1915-2005), DSC MD MRCP FRCP, physician, born Carshalton, his father died a year later on the Somme, brought up in Yorkshire, educated Archbishop Holgate Grammar School, York, Leeds university, surgeon lieutenant RN, saw action on board HMS Hardy in a blizzard at Narvik, the vessel sank a German destroyer but was shelled and badly damaged herself, despite being wounded himself he cared for the wounded and eventually swam ashore with his seriously wounded captain, supporting him until he died, the captain Bernard Warburton-Lee (1895-1940) received the VC, Philip a DSC, later twice mentioned in despatches, POW until 1944, posts in Yorkshire and then appointed consultant general physician at Barrow-in-Furness in 1950, respected for his diagnostic skills, great believer in the NHS, retired 1979 and lived Ulverston, m. Catherine Rycroft of Skipton, also a doctor, who later ran the Family Planning clinic, five children: John, Sarah, David, Peter and Johanna, vice-chairman Furness Building Society, past president of Rotary, commodore of South Windermere Sailing Club; Munk’s Roll; www.submerged.co.uk/cyril-cope-survivor
Waind, Catherine (nee Rycroft), (1923-2012), physician, born in Skipton, daughter of Rawson Rycroft, director of Rycroft Hartley Textile Co, and his wife Elizabeth Parker, married Philip Waind (qv) with whom she had five children and lived in Croslands Park, Barrow, here with her neighbour Sybil Cross (qv) they looked after their nine children between the two houses and gardens, this space was often a magnet for other local children, enjoyed sailing at Fell Foot with the South Windermere Sailing Club, later ran a family planning clinic in Barrow, involved with Cumbria Marriage Guidance, moved to Woodland Rd, Ulverston, organised tremendous parties at her home, enjoyed attending lectures on the visual arts, regularly swam in Coniston with Betty Daniels, the widow of Harry Daniels, surgeon (qv)
Wainwright, Alfred (1907-1991; ODNB), MBE, walker, writer and illustrator, b Blackburn, son of Albert Wainwright (1871-1932), a mason born at Thirlstane (Y), moved from Blackburn to Kendal in 1941 to join borough treasurer’s dept, Borough Treasurer of Kendal 1948-1967, marr 1st Ruth Holden (1909-1985) and 2nd Betty McNally (1922-2008), given books by mayor and committee ‘for much effective help in connection with Holidays-at-home Week’ in 1942 and 1943, hon curator of Kendal Museum 1945-1974, took decision in 1952 to climb and record all fells and mountains in Lake District, which took him 13 years, author of 40 guide books to Lakes, also book of drawings of Kendal in the Nineteenth Century (19xx) drawn from 130 old photographs of buildings and street scenes in town, appeared in several TV programmes, autobiography Ex-Fellwanderer published on his 80th birthday, died 1991, ashes scattered at Innominate Tarn on Haystacks; Wainwright Society formed in 2002; AW mss purchased by Cumbria County Council with HLF grant in 2012; ms notebook and 20 of his own annotated OS maps sold by H&H Auction Rooms in Carlisle for £8,000 on 25 June 2012; (Hunter Davies, Wainwright (1998); Bob Swallow, Breakfast with Wainwright; Richard Else Wainwright Revealed (2017))
Waite, John and his wife Joan (both d. 24th June 1944), of Barrow, began 2nd WW in navy but hgis ship went down in 1941, joined the RAF as leading aircraftman, in London together having only been married a week, they were killed together by a VI flying bomb in Westminster; N.W. Evening Mail 27th June 1944; Rod White, Furness Stories behind the Stones [in Barrow Cemetery], no.14
Waithman, William, flax manufacturer and merchant, partner with John Waithman, Holme Mills 1848 (Deed in CRO, WD/K/187)
Wake, Baldwin III de, son of Hugh de Wake, who died in 18 Hen III [1234] succ to barony of Arthuret
Wake, Capt Drury (d.1787 aged 43), fought in North America
Wake, John, 1st baron Wake of Liddell (1268-1300), son of Baldwin Wake and Hawise de Quincy (qv), claimed descent from Hereward the Wake (fl.1070-1071; ODNB), great great grandson of King John and the great grandfather of Richard II, father of 2nd baron Wake (1298-1349; ODNB), joint captain of the March of Scotland in C and W, fought at Falkirk in 1298
Wake, Thomas, 2nd baron Wake (1298-1349; ODNB), son of John Wake (qv)
Wakefield, Augusta (d.1894), of Eggerslack, Grange-over-Sands, buried at Crosscrake, 19 May 1894, aged 61
Wakefield, Augusta Mary (1853-1910), founder of music festival, born at Old Bank House, Stricklandgate, Kendal, dau of William Henry Wakefield (qv), of Sedgwick House, founded Westmorland Music Festival in 1885 (often referred to as the Mary Wakefield Festival), resigned as conductor after 15 years and presented with diamond laurel wreath 19 April 1901, composer of North Country Songs (15 lyrics written by Dorothy F Blomfield (qv), V.M.F., James Strang and W H Hadley, with footnotes by AMW, dedicated to her nephew, William Henry (qv), and published in 1893 not only as a song book but as a conscious link with traditions of the past), author of anthology to her father In Memory of W H Wakefield (1889) and Cartmel Priory and Sketches of North Lonsdale (1909), of Nutwood, Grange-over-Sands, died unmarried, aged 57, and buried at Crosscrake, 19 September 1910 (Memoir of Life of MW by R Newmarch; Festival papers in CRO, Kendal, WDSo 11)
Wakefield, Daisy, doctor, sister of Arthur Wakefield, educ St Andrews, Bristol, and Edinburgh University, qualified as doctor in Nigeria, served WWI in Serbian hospital, later returned to Africa
Wakefield, Edward William (17xx-1873), of Birklands, Kendal (built for him by George Webster, 1831-32), first chairman of Temperance Society (established 1 February 1832), secretary of Kendal Dispensary (1831), marr Susannah Birkbeck, (will in WD/AG/ box 112) (WoK, 72)
Wakefield, Edward William (1862-1941), DL, JP, Captain, aviator, barrister, and estate manager, born 8 September 1862, at Strickland Ketel, son of William Wakefield (qv), educ Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1883), called to Bar, Inner Temple 1883, marr (8 September 1886) Mary (author of Jacobite Essays (1922)), dau of J R Wilkinson, of Burnside, Skipton, 1 dau (Marian Alice, b.1887, marr (1912) Peter Christian Gordon, of Lane Head, Helsington (1937)), joined Wakefield Crewdson family bank, but left on death of his father just before it was taken over by Bank of Liverpool (now Barclays), served in Boer War as Captain, Border Regt (invalided home, but raised another local company and returned to South Africa), served WW1 as Capt, 11th Bn Cheshire Regt 1914-1915, 4th Res Bn Border Regt 1916, and 37th Labour Coy, France 1917-1918 (Chevalier of Order of the Crown of Italy), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1900-01 (completing term of William Graham (qv) from November 1900 until March 1901), DL Westmorland (apptd in October 1900), mayor of Kendal 1925-26, 1926-27 and 1937-38, Westmorland County Alderman and Councillor (for Strickland South Division), chairman of Kendal Ward Petty Sessions, Kendal Borough magistrate (qualif 19 November 1894), admitted honorary freeman of borough of Kendal on 6 April 1937 (and at special meeting of council on 25 May 1937), submitted designs based on Chester properties to Malcolm Shaw (qv) for new shops built on site of old Moffat’s Court on Stricklandgate (MOK, 85-86), also lord of manor of Seaton in Cumberland, aviation pioneer in 1909 at the Blackpool Aviation Meeting he saw planes for the first time and was told of the many accidents upon landing, he suggested the alternative of landing on water and invented a float which enabled him to demonstrate in 1911 a landing for the first time on water, in 1912 he flew and landed on Windermere in his Water Hen with Gertrude Bacon (qv); Humphrey Wakefield, CWAAS newsletter 2021 p.10-11, known for high speed driving on roads, of The Old House, Stricklandgate, Kendal, died 1> August 1941 and buried in Castle Street cemetery, 6 August; will made 21 August 1939 and proved 25 November 1941, leaving his real estate to William Wavell (qv) and inter alia his current account monies for charitable purposes, esp supporting medical missionaries of CMS assisting emigration and political refugees (BLG; SEW, 21-22; WoW, 9)
Wakefield, Jacob (c.1766-1844), continued woollen manufactory business of John Wakefield & Sons, by Dyer’s Beck, Kendal, opened inn next door known as the ‘Black o’Moor’, died at his house in Stricklandgate, Kendal, 3 October 1844, aged 78, and buried in Friends’ burial ground, though his Christian views were said to be in doctrinal accordance with Church of England
Wakefield, Jacob (1860-1948), DL, JP, born 1860, 2nd son of W H Wakefield (qv), of Sedgwick House, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1893, DL (apptd in May 1893), Westmorland county alderman (resigned 4 May 1940, after 45 years on council), Kendal borough magistrate (qualif 9 July 1890), chairman of River Kent Catchment Board 1931-1939 (resigned in October 1939 owing to ill-health), chairman of general purposes committee, Westmorland County Hospital from January 1923 (at least) to July/Sept 1939, a governor of Sedbergh School (1895), sold land at Pedge Croft, Sedbergh to Herbert Newsome Baxter for £922 in 1896 (who built a house there later becoming Baliol School for Girls), of Sedgwick House (sold in 1947)
Wakefield, John (1738-1811), gunpowder manufacturer, Sedgwick, later established a bank in Kendal in 1788, his sister Deborah married George Benson Jr qv, ; I. Tyler, The Gunpowder Mills of Cumbria, 2002
Wakefield, John (1794-1866), JP, banker and landowner, born June 1794, eldest son of John Wakefield (17xx-1832), of Sedgwick House, educ Sedbergh School and Friends’ School, Tottenham, marr Fanny, dau of Dr McArthur, of Glasgow, 1 son (WH qv), partner, Wakefield & Co, bankers, mayor of Kendal 5 times, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1853, JP, conveyed part of Lords Close in Kendal Park and Castle lands to Kendal Burial Board as ground for Parkside cemetery for £1,150 on 12 January 1855 (deed in CRO, DRC 10/Kendal), died aged 71 and buried at Heversham, 13 April 1866 (SSR, 169)
Wakefield, Roger Cuthbert (b.1906), involved in the Sudan Survey
Wakefield, Roger William (1865-1958), MB, BCh, JP, doctor, born 1 November 1865, son of William Wakefield (qv), of Birklands, educ Sedbergh School (entd May 1881, aged 15, prefect, 1st XV, and left in December 1882) and Trinity College, Cambridge (1st Trinity First Boat and College XV 1888-89), studied medicine at London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, London E (1895), marr Ethel Mary, dau of John Frederick Knott, of Stalybridge, 4 sons (inc W W, qv), cremated ashes buried at Castle Street cemetery, Kendal, 8 October 1958 (SSR, 291)
Wakefield, William (1825-1893), DL, JP, banker, born 30 April 1825, 2nd son of Edward William Wakefield (1799-1858), of Birklands, and Susanna (d.1898), dau of William Birkbeck, of Settle, marr (16 October 1861) Marianne, dau of Edmund Minson Wavell, JP, of Field House, Halifax, 5 sons and 3 daus, Kendal Fell trustee from 1861 for more than eight years, alderman of Westmorland County Council, JP Westmorland (qualif 29 June 1871), DL (apptd 16 August 1890), a trustee of Kendal and Northern Counties Permanent Benefit Building Society and also of Cottage Benefit Building Society [estab 17 November 1864] (1873), of Birklands, Kendal, died 19 April 1893
Wakefield, William Henry (1828-1889), DL, JP, landowner and agriculturist, born at Broughton Lodge, near Cartmel, 18 May 1828, only son of John Wakefield (qv), of Sedgwick House, nr Kendal, marr (8 August 1851) Augusta, dau of James Hagarty, American Consul in Liverpool), x sons and x daus (Augusta Mary (qv) and Agnes (qv sub Argles)), came to live at Old Bank House in Stricklandgate, Kendal, town councillor and guardian of poor, JP Westmorland (qualif 4 January 1856), Kendal Fell trustee from 1861 to at least 1875, mayor of Kendal twice, then removed to Prizett (built for him) and after father’s death in 1866 rebuilt Sedgwick House, farmed 500 acres at Sedgwick, sympathetic to agriculture, originating insurance society for cattle on threat of rinderpest, chairman of Farmers’ Club, vice-president of Royal Agricultural Society and member of council 1880, exhibitor and prize winner for horses and cattle, and took charge of show in Windsor Park in summer of 1889, vice-president of Cumberland & Westmorland Agricultural Society (1868), gave site for rebuilding of Crosscrake church in 1874-75 and contributed liberally towards its cost, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1871, chairman of Westmorland Quarter Sessions, declined to allow his name to go forward at nomination meeting in Shire Hall, Appleby as parliamentary candidate for Westmorland on 5 February 1874, more business, sporting, agricultural and charitable interests, gave organ for All Hallows Chapel on Fell Side, Kendal (opened 13 January 1869), apptd a trustee of will of George Henry Brettargh Yeates (qv) in place of Daniel Harrison (qv) in 1878 but relinquished in 1879, died suddenly of heart attack while out hunting with the Oxenholme Harriers at Wellheads farm, 8 November 1889, aged 61, and buried at Crosscrake, 13 November (funeral sermons preached by bishop of Carlisle at Crosscrake and by archdeacon Cooper at Kendal on Sunday, 17 November); pulpit memorial in Preston Patrick church given by his tenants and farmer friends (In Memory of William Henry Wakefield, of Sedgwick, Kendal, 1889); [His wife Augusta witnessed the marriage of her sister Mary Hagerty, of Liverpool, aged 26, to Capel John Sewell, aged 31, clerk, of Kendal, son of Thomas Sewell, at Holy Trinity, Kendal, on 22 December 1864]; succeeded with Sir Francis Powell (qv) in the prevention of the financial collapse of Sedbergh school
Wakefield, William Wavell (1898-1983; ODNB), 1st baron Wakefield of Kendal (cr. 1963), politician and rugby union player, born at Beckenham, Kent, 10 March 1898, eldest of four sons of Roger William Wakefield (qv), nephew of E W Wakefield (qv), and brother of Sir Edward Wakefield, 1st Bt, and Roger Cuthbert Wakefield, educ Sedbergh School and Pembroke College, Cambridge, ‘one of England’s greatest rugby forwards’, winner of gold medal for 100m in 1924 Olympics, marr (1919) Rowena Doris (died 18 April 1981, aged 85, ashes buried at Castle Street cemetery, Kendal, 23 April), dau of Llewellyn Lewis, MD, OBE, JP, 3 daus (Joan Raynsford, Sheila Mary Hensman, and Ruth), disentailing deed, 5 November 1938 (CRO, WD/W/1/1/3), Conservative MP for Swindon 1935-1945 and for St Marylebone 1945-1963, knighted in 1944, created baron Wakefield of Kendal in 1963, member of council, Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society (1953), instrumental with Colin Gilbert in preservation of Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway in 1961, proposed project for “A Chair Lift for Helvellyn” to Harry Griffin in January 1966, died 12 August 1983, aged 85, and ashes buried at Castle Street cemetery, Kendal, 18 August
Waldegrave, Right Revd Samuel (1817-1869; ODNB), DD, MA, bishop of Carlisle, born 1817, 2nd son of 8th earl Waldegrave, educ Oxford (double first), fellow of All Souls College 1839-1845, MA 1842, DD by diploma 1860, rector of Barford St Martin 1844-, Bampton Lecturer 1854, canon of Salisbury 1857, nominated bishop of Carlisle, 19 September, and consecrated 11 November 1860, bishop of Carlisle 1860-1869, held narrow evangelical views, like his predecessor H M Villiers (qv), and would not promote clergy of high church leanings, died 1 October 1869 (Letters 1860-1869 in 4 volumes privately published by John Burgess, Carlisle, 1985-87); effigy below east window in Carlisle cathedral, David A. Cross, Public Sculpture, 2017, 144
Walker family of Wellknowe Farm, Cartmel, John Walker (1762-1839) farmed there with his wife Catherine (1777-1847), their son James (b.1800) went to Wigan where he became a master cordwainer, his son Edwin and his brothers were ironmasters at Wigan and his fourth son was George Edward Walker (1839-1909), an eye surgeon in Liverpool and founder of the St Paul’s Eye Hosital; www,wiganlocalhistory.org/resources/Walker-bros-pagefield-ironworks; Plarrs Lives livesonline.reseng.ac.uk/biogs
Walker, Adam (1730/1-1821; ODNB), natural philosopher, itinerant lecturer, writer and scientific instrument maker, born at Troutbeck in 1730/1, son of a weaver, developed early aptitude for mechanics, went to school at Ledsham, Yorks, as an usher in c.1746, then qualified himself for mathematical mastership in free school at Macclesfield in 1749, became a popular lecturer in natural philosophy, lectured at Eton and Winchester, friend of George Romney from his Kendal days (qv) who painted him with his family (NPG), designed instruments for Joseph Priestley (1733-1804; ODNB) (was in his house when it was attacked by the mob), designed lamps for the Scilly Isles lighthouse, corresponded with Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) about improvements to harpsichord design, author of A Tour from London to the Lakes [‘Remarks made in a Tour from London to the Lakes of Westmoreland and Cumberland, in the Summer of MDCCXCI, originally published in the Whitehall Evening Post, and now reprinted with additions and corrections, To which is annexed, a Sketch of the Police, Religion, Arts, and Agriculture of France, made in an Excursion to Paris in MDCCLXXXV,’ by A Walker, Lecturer in Experimental Philosophy; and author of ‘Ideas suggested on the spot in a Tour to Italy’, &c.], dated at George Street, Hanover Square, 4 June 1792, and printed for G Nicol and C Dilly, London, 1792, marr Eleanor (d.1801), sons (William, 1766-1816), died 11 February 1821 (WW, ii, 335-338), also Franklin Walker, probably named after Benjamin Franklin (qv)); David A. Cross, A Striking Likeness, 2000; R. Holmes, Age of Wonder, 2008, 482
Walker, Admiral Sir Baldwin Bt (1803-1876), son of John Walker of Whitehaven, mercer, and his wife Frances Wake dau of Drury Wake, given permission to take a commission in the Turkish navy, became admiral known as as Yaver Pasha (he and his son were hereditary pashas of the Ottoman empire), later admiral RN and comptroller of the navy, cr bart in 1856, son Vice Admiral Sir Baldwin W Walker 2nd Bt, grandson Admiral Wake Walker active at Dunkirk; portrait wearing a fez
Walker, Ann (1810-1872), sub-curator Kendal museum, employed by the Kendal Natural History and Scientific Society from 1837-1870, m. to Harriman Walker a wool warehouseman, they had free accommodation in Stramondgate, described by Cornelius Nicholson as ‘most obliging and efficient’ she was on duty six days a week and was involved in preserving specimens; Kendal Museum information
Walker, Bernard Eyre (1887-1972), artist, son of William Eyre Walker (qv), member of Lake Artists; Renouf, 100-102; Marshall Hall
Walker, Charles (1842-1920), DL, JP, er son of Charles Walker (d.1872), of New Lanark, marr, sons, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1895, original trustee of Levens Institute in 1903, of Brettargh Holt, Levens [built in 1871, Mrs Sarah Walker (mother ?) resident in 1885, [Mary Helen Walker, spinster, of Brettargh Holt, in 1903], unoccupied after 1920, then by John A F Young in 1925, but unoccupied again (?) in 1930s, later the Sacred Heart Convent, which opened on 8 December 1944, and Maternity Home, which opened on 10 February 1946 and ceased in June 1968; now a conference and retreat centre run by Salesian Sisters of St John Bosco], died in 1920 (sale particulars for Brettargh Holt in 1920 in CRO, WDB 22)
Walker, Sir Charles (b.1871), of the Admiralty, served for 36 years; letter to Lord Jellicoe 1917 (British Library)
Walker, Sir Charles (1871-1940), KCB, JP, BA, eldest son of Charles Walker (qv), was deputy secretary of the Admiralty 1921-1931, accountant general of Navy 1918-1921, and asst sec, Admiralty 1917-1918; Charles Walker, 36 Years at the Admiralty, 1933
Walker, Revd Edward (18xx-19xx), clergyman, vicar of Coniston from 1922, marr Lilian, 2 sons (Robert Edward Lea (born 24 May 1923 and bapt 23 June by bishop of Carlisle) and John Anthony Lea (born 22 February 1925 and bapt 18 March by Robert Walker, rector of St Paul’s, Silloth)), but left by end of 1925
Walker, Sir George Augustus (Gus) (1912-1986; ODNB), KCB, DSO, DFC, AFC, RAF pilot, rugby player, born 24 August 1912, son of G H Walker, of Garforth, Leeds, educ St Bees, 2nd WW bomber pilot, lost arm in explosion, and afterwards jet aircraft pioneer, Air Chief Marshal, and died 11 December 1986
Walker, George Henry (1874-1954), JP, trade unionist and politician, born [Kendal] in 1874, educ Kendal British School, marr (1897), 1 dau, compositor, member: National Executive Council of the Typographical Association, elected Westmorland County Council 1937-1949, and Employment Insurance Committee for Westmorland, contested Blackburn for Labour in 1935 general election, elected Labour MP for Rossendale 1945-1950 (one of oldest MPs ever to be elected at age of 70), retired, of 50 Oxenholme Road, Kendal, died 24 January 1954
Walker, James Bewsher (18xx-19xx), architect, started as apprentice in Mawson Brothers’ Lakeland Nurseries, became a foreman, then manager of London Office for four years before returning to take charge of Lakeland Nurseries on death of Robert Mawson in 1910, but soon applying for new jobs and considered setting up his own business in 1912
Walker, James (b.1800), born in a farm ‘round the back of the racecourse’ at Cartmel, went to Wigan where he became a master cordwainer in the market place, his sons founded Walker Bros of Wigan, ironmasters, his son George Edward Walker (1839-1909) was a prominent eye surgeon and a founder of the St Paul’s Eye Hospital in Liverpool (now demolished), he published on eye diseases; family information; Plarr’s Lives
Walker, James (fl.1940s-1970s), leather dealer and eccentric, with his brother Richard ran the cavernous Leather Shop for 43 years in the old Liberal club, in Fountain St., Ulverston, drove an enormous wooden framed shooting brake, supplied terrific sheepskin gauntlets ideal for snowballing
Walker, Jeremiah (1xxx-18xx), BD, clergyman and schoolmaster, had a boarding academy at Broom Hill, Broughton-in-Furness (1849)
Walker, John (1759-1830; ODNB), MD, physician, vaccinator and writer, born at Cockermouth, 31 July 1759, son of blacksmith and ironmonger, educ Cockermouth Free Grammar School, apprenticed in father’s business for five years, went to Dublin to study with Esdale, published Elements of Geography and Universal Gazetteer (1788), worked in engraving ornamental metalwork, etc, in Paris during the revolution, studied medicine in Leiden, learned vaccination skills in Malta and Naples, marr (23 October 1799 in civil ceremony at Glasgow) Anne Bowman, of Cockermouth, no issue, following Dr Jenner’s work on vaccination, was appointed resident vaccinator at the new Jenner Society premises, active in vaccinating soldiers in the Napoleonic wars, ran the London Vaccine Institution, claimed in later life he had vaccinated more than 100,000 persons, died in London, 23 June 1830 (WC); was he also an Egyptologist ?
Walker, John (18xx-19xx), MA, clergyman, LTh (Durham University), perpetual curate of Martindale (admitted October 1903) (1929), succ by Revd J B Roberts (qv) in 1931
Walker, John (d.c.1805), mariner and slave owner, b. Kirkoswald, d. West Indies; CW1 or CW2 xlv, 144
Walker, Joseph (c.1779-1820), farmer and compiler of first shepherds’ guide or smit book, of Martindale, saw need for book identifying marks of fell flocks and also acting as a registration book, so that ‘everyone might have the power of knowing the owner of a stray sheep and so be able to restore to everyman his own’, each farm being represented by two sheep, one showing lug marks and the other smit marks, indicating ownership, starting with his neighbour, William Jackson, then sending blank papers round from farm to farm in locality, resulting in 1817 in publication of The Shepherd’s Guide or a Delineation of the Wool and Ear Marks on the different Stocks of Sheep in Martindale, Barton, Askham, Helton, Bampton, Measand, Mardale, Longsleddale, Kentmere, Applethwaite, Troutbeck, Patterdale, Ambleside, and Rydale, with index of proprietors’ names and places of abode, printed by W Stephen at Penrith in 1817, the first such guide in the north of England, an overseer of poor in Martindale parish in 1816, buried at Martindale, 23 April 1820, when aged 41, of Waternook (Introd to Lakeland Shepherds’ Guide 1985, compiled by G F Brown and W Rawling)
Walker, Louisa, of Brettargh Holt, suffragist, Charles Walker (qv); CW3 x 243
Walker, Miles, clergyman, one of six brothers of Sarah Walker (who married William Wilson, b.1844), one of whom Robert was vicar of Longsleddale and of High Swinklebank, he owned Low Swinklebank, Longsleddale, died at Courteenhall, Northants, left £500 to father of Mary Cape and £500 to Longsleddale school, unmarried (see family history by Mary Cape in CRO, WDY 90)
Walker, Myles (c.1750-1813), of Rusland Hall, marr Jane, 1 dau (Bridgett, bapt at Rusland, 12 May 1811, qv sub Archibald), died 6 April 1813, aged 63, and buried at Rusland Church, 9 April (Dorothy, widow of Thomas Walker, of Rusland Hall, died 26 June 1794, aged 84, and buried at Rusland, 29 June – mother of Myles?)
Walker, Richard (1830-1905/7), schoolmaster and artist, ‘sine manibus’ (see below) born at Burneside and bapt there, 12 January 1831, son (with twin sister Agnes) of George Walker, stone mason, of Strickland Roger, and his wife Jane, sent to the paper mill as a punishment for non-attendance at the village school, at age of 12, became a favourite with Cornelius Nicholson and was put to work on machine called the calenderer used for putting the gloss on the paper, consisting of six heavy rollers, three above and three below, with the paper placed between zinc sheets and then passed between the rollers, when on morning of 9 August 1843 his hands got caught between the rollers, all hands at mill engaged in extricating him, but his hands were crushed to pulp and four doctors from Kendal came to amputate them, leaving him helpless, (hence ‘sine minibus’) but went back to village school and made progress by having pen or pencil tied to his arm and learnt to write letters and words, but dispensed with all appliances and did all his work with his arms, ………spent 34 years as schoolmaster, clerk, choirmaster and organist at Blawith, school rebuilt in 1859, with endowment of £12 a year, for which five children are taught free, and interest of £21 (bequest of Mrs Sherwen, of Highfield Cottage) given to schoolmaster yearly (the school ‘is very efficiently conducted by Mr Richard Walker, and this, too, under what might be considered insuperable difficulties: he is without hands’, Mannex Directory 1882, 243), resigning after serious illness in 1895, when of Nibthwaite………lost his wife about two years before he died at Millom, 27 ult [date of WN report missing] and buried in St George’s churchyard, Millom, ca.1905/07 (The Lord’s Prayer written by him in elaborate style, dated 17 October 1860 (framed) in CRO, WDX 1706)
Walker, Richard (fl.1950s-80s), leather dealer and eccentric, with his brother James (qv) ran the cavernous Leather Shop in Fountain St., Ulverston, in the old Liberal club, for 43 years, drove an enormous wooden framed shooting brake, supplied terrific sheepskin gauntlets ideal for snowballing, a good pianist, played the piano in his shop; photos by Fred Strike (qv)
Walker, Robert (1710-1802; ODNB), ‘Wonderful Walker’, clergyman, schoolmaster, scrivener, domestic wool spinner, farm labourer, born at Undercragg, Seathwaite in Dunnerdale, 21 February 1710 [no baptisms until 1721], yst of 12 children of Nicholas Walker (d.1728), yeoman, and his wife, Elizabeth, thought too delicate for manual work, so ater a period at Seathwaite chapel and further education at Eskdale and Lorton supplied by clerical patrons, became schoolmaster at Loweswater, curate and schoolmaster at Buttermere, returned to Seathwaite in 1736 as curate, schoolmaster, farmer, lawyer and village innkeeper, marr (5 January 1736) Ann Tyson (1707/8-1800), a domestic servant from Brackenthwaite, 12 children (3 sons and 7 daus bapt at Seathwaite - Zaccheus (born 10 February and bapt 2 March 1737), Elizabeth (born 30 March and bapt 6 April 1738), Mary (born 20 December 1738 and bapt 5 January 1739), Moses (born 16 September and bapt 14 October 1741), Anne (born 1 March and bapt 24 March 1742), Sarah (born 19 September and bapt 17 October 1744), Mabel (born 9 September and bapt 7 October 1746), Eleanor (born 19 March and bapt 20 April 1748), William Tyson (born 24 May and bapt 9 June 1751), and Anne Esther (born 22 April and bapt 20 May 1753)), known as ‘a man singular for his Temperance, Industry and Integrity’, his stipend of no more than £50 per annum, but he invested in Newland Company and left £2,000 at his death, aged 92, buried at Seathwaite, 28 June 1802 (LPRS, 127 (1988), Seathwaite, 47); appears in Wordsworth’s Duddon Sonnets and The Excursion, also in The Old Church Clock by Richard Parkinson and Edwin Waugh (qqv), these writers failed to record that he had enhanced his income by selling ale, his clipping stone and plaque survive at Seathwaite church; by the late 19thc ‘the wonderful Walker type of parson might be considered to be as extinct as the dodo’ (Samuel Barber, 1892); his son William Tyson Walker taught the young Sir John Barrow (qv), his granddaughter married Isaac Gaitskell (b.1797) of Irton, later vicar of Whitworth near Rochdale
Walker, Robert Neil (b.1851), captain, born Maryport, captain of the Takachiho-maru in the Nippon Yusen Kaisha fleet, 3 masted iron screw steamship, she hit rocks in fog at Nagasaki in 1891, all the crew survived, died Canada, related to Wilson Walker (qv)
Walker, Robert (18xx-19xx), FRIBA, architect and surveyor, set up practice first in Kendal, then in Windermere in 1870s, designs for four churches and chapels in Bowness and Windermere, inc Carver Memorial Congregational [now United Reformed] Church (1879-80) and St Herbert’s Roman Catholic Church (1883-84), though a Congregationalist himself, apptd architect and surveyor to Windermere UDC in 1898, joined in firm by son Frank Hugh Walker and James Carter in 1903 (Walker, Carter & Walker, Institute Buildings, later taken over by Stables & Gilchrist)
Walker, Robert Henry (18xx-19xx), schoolmaster, assistant overseer and master of Gamblesby Board School (built in 1874 and endowed with interest from £600 invested in land by W Harrison, of London, and native of Gamblesby) in parish of Addingham (1894, 1897, 1906, 1910), marr, son Frank (born 29 July 1888, entd Appleby GS, aged 15, 24 September 1903, awarded Mayplett Exhibition, day boy January 1905, left January 1906, 5th Encise Exam 1908)
Walker, William (fl. late 18thc.), merchant, lived Whitehaven and made money during the Napoleonic wars, bought Garrengill House where he lived with his sister Anne, built a new house at Gilgarren Park with stables, school, chapel and water supply, both keen botanists and travellers, on board the Brunswick attacked at sea by a Spanish corvette Pronto, WW mortally wounded and Anne brought home in a RN frigate commanded by Captain James Robertson, his heroism led to their marriage at St Nicholas Whitehaven, their son Robton Walker was high sheriff in 1891; haigpit website
Walker, William (19xx-1986), JP, son of Herbert Wilson Walker (d.1934), of Wasdale Hall, lord of manor of Derwentwater and Castlerigg, alderman of Cumberland County Council, high sheriff of Cumberland 1963, died in December 1986
Walker, William Eyre (1847-1930), artist, father of Bernard Eyre Walker (qv), exhibited Lake Artists; Renouf, 59-60
Walker, Wilson, mariner and brewer in Japan, born Maryport, buried Sakamotomachi cemetery, related to Capt RN Walker (qv)
Wall, Francis Hewson (18xx-19xx), MA, LLD, educ Trinity College, Dublin (MA 1869, LLD 1879), vicar of Denton, Leeds 1899-1904, rector of Aldingham from October 1904
Wallace, Doreen Agnew (1897-1989), teacher, novelist and social campaigner, b Lorton, dau of RB Agnew Wallace and Mary Elizabeth Peebles, educ Malvern Girls college and Somerville College, taught Diss GS, marr Rowland Rash a Suffolk farmer, 3 chuildren, contributed to WEA courses, wrote 40 novels with comic and tragic themes involving cross purposes between different classes, generations and sexes, including How Little We Know (1949), Daughters (1955), Woman with a Mirror (1963), often set in the Lake District, believing in the unacceptability of tithes she campaigned against them, her house was besieged and she experienced aggression from Blackshirts; June Shepherd, Doreen Wallace, 2000
Wallace, James (1729-1783; ODNB), KC, lawyer and politician, born at Brampton and bapt, 12 March 1729, eldest son of Thomas Wallace (1697-1737), attorney, of Asholme, Knaresdale, and Featherstone Castle, nr Haltwhistle, Northumberland, and Dulcibella Sowerby (b.1705 and marr 2nd Revd William Plaskett), marr (8 January 1767) Elizabeth (d. 11 April 1811), dau of Thomas Simpson (qv), and sister and heir of Hugh Simpson, of Carleton Hall, Penrith, 1 son (below) and 1 dau, MP for Horsham 1770-1780, solicitor-general 1778, attorney-general 1780-82 and 1783, died in Devon, 11 November 1783 and buried in Exeter cathedral, 16 November 1783 (portrait by Romney in Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University); Laurie Kemp, Tales from Carlisle
Wallace, Joseph Ritson (1805-1895), born Lorton, son of John Wallace (1778-1836) and Elizabeth Ritson (1776-1828), apprenticed to a sugar refiner, marr Elizabeth Lonsdale, travelled in the Pacific islands and brought home items which were the basis of his private museum in Douglas, here too he est with John Penrice the Manx Liberal newspaper in 1836 which ran until 1870, he moved to Distington where 7000 items were on display; his biography, The Life and Interesting Times of Joseph Ritson Wallace (1805-1895) was published by Harry Fancy (qv) in 2010
Wallace, Lucille (later Curzon) (1898-1977), harpsichordist, dau of Edward W Wallace (b.1870) of Chicago and his wife Caroline Craig (b.1877), marr Clifford Curzon, pianist (qv), no children, after the death of the opera singer Maria Celobari (1910-1949) and her late husband Gustav Diessl (1899-1948), they adopted her two sons, had a cottage at Patterdale, died 1977 and buried at Patterdale
Wallace, Robin, R.B.A. (1897-1952), artist, b. Kendal, member of the Lake Artists; Renouf, 88-9
Wallace, Thomas, 1st baron Wallace of Knaresdale (1768-1844; ODNB), PC, MA, DCL, politician, born at Brampton in 1768, only son of James Wallace (qv), MP, later attorney general under Lord North, succ to Carleton Hall estates, spared no expense in beautifying Hall, rebuilding part, adding stables and out-buildings, laying out gardens and pleasure grounds (SoL, 6), sold Carleton Hall and other Simpson estates in 1828, cr baron Wallace of Knaresdale 1828, marr (16 February 1814 at St George’s, Hanover Square, London) Jean (1766-1829), 6th dau of John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun, and widow of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, no issue, left all his estates to his late wife’s nephew (Col Hon James Hope, who took addnl name of Wallace and died 7 January 1854, aged 46) and only £1,000 to his cousin and heir-at-law, John Wallace (2nd surv of 6 sons of his father’s yr bro, John Wallace, of Sidcup, Kent), died at Featherstone Castle, 23 February 1844, aged 75, and buried with wife in mausoleum there (portrait as a boy by Romney in Provost’s Lodge at Eton College) (GEC, HHN)
Wallace, William (c.1270-1305), Scots leader, plundered and destroyed Cockermouth c.1297-8 but the castle held
Wallace, William Herbert (1878-1943), draper’s assistant and convicted murderer, exonerated on appeal b. Millom, draper’s assistant Barrow, then Manchester, India for two years, marr Jean and in 1931 convicted for murder, later verdict overturned on appeal, (considered uncertain event otday) and the tale used as the basis of Jonathan Goodman’s The Killing of Julia Wallace (1969)
Wallas, John (1813-1871), MA, clergyman, born at Sedbergh and bapt there, 4 September 1813, son of Robert Wallas, statesman, of Soolbank, Sedbergh, and his wife Eleanor, educ Sedbergh School (entd January 1830, aged 16, left May 1834) and Queen’s College, Oxford (Hastings Exhibitioner, BA 1838, MA), perpetual curate of Crosscrake 1844-1871, built Crosscrake parsonage and considerably increased income during his incumbency, man of great self-denial, left £500 for poor of Sedbergh parish and several other sums to poor, author of A Work on the Church Catechism, died in April 1871, aged 57, and buried at Sedbergh, 24 April (SSR, 187)
Waller, Bryan (17xx-18xx), clergyman, d 1793 (Carl), vicar of Burton-in-Kendal 1806-1842
Waller, Ivan Mark (1906-1996), mountaineer and engineer, born 27 December 1906, educ Trinity College, Cambridge, started climbing and skiing in mid-1920s, became engineer, working for many years in experimental department of Rolls-Royce, then with aero engines and later with tanks, travelling to America to demonstrate and maintain Cromwells, loved tinkering with engines, but ‘mountains for him were his whole life’ (AHG), involved in first ascent of many severe routes in North Wales, inc Belle Vue Bastion to accompaniment of gramophone playing jazz from terrace on north buttress of Tryfan in 1927, and in Lake District (seconded Colin Kirkus on first ascent of the Mickledore Grooves on east buttress of Scafell in 1930), survived falling out of Flake Crack on central buttress on Scafell, died in Kendal, 2 October 1996, aged 89 (AHG)
Waller, John, of Park, Cornwall (d.1810) purser in Royal Navy, gave by his will to his trustees sum of £200 of his 4% annuities ‘for the erection of Piazzas against the Church Wall of the Parish of Kirkby Stephen as a shelter for the people going to & returning from church in rainy weather, also for the benefit of the market people, … provided the Earl of Thanet & Proprietor of the Church have no objection’ (extract from will in CRO, WD/Hoth/box 33); built post obit as he directed, cloisters signed and dated George Gibson, architect, 1810
Waller, John (c.1767-1822), MA, clergyman and schoolmaster, native of Winton, Kirkby Stephen, educ Appleby Grammar School and Queen’s College, Oxford (matric 1783 aged 17, BA 1786, MA 1790), master of Appleby Grammar School 1794-1822 (apptd 31 December 1794, licensed 11 January 1796, died in office), carried out repairs to school premises at his own expense (comm plaque now by memorial gates ‘J. W. restaur. 1798’), numbers at school said to be between 70 and 80 (Nicholas Carlisle, 1818), his ‘fame as a successful master still survives in Westmorland and neighbouring counties’ (Times, 1883), vicar of Sulhampstead Abbots with Sulhampstead Bannister, Berkshire 1808-1822 (living in gift of Queen’s College, employing curate to discharge duties while he remained at Appleby), died in office, aged 56, and buried at St Lawrence, Appleby, 3 May 1822 (AGS, 56-58; CRO, DRC1/8)
Wallis, Sir Barnes Neville (1887-1979; ODNB), CBE, FRAeS, aeronautical engineer and designer, b Ripley, Derbys, son of Charles George Wallis and Elizabeth Eyre Ashley, educ Christ’s Hospital and Haberdasher’s Aske’s but left aged 17, apprenticed to J Samuel White, shipbuilders, Cowes, apptd chief designer to H B Pratt, chief engineer, airships, Vickers, at Barrow-in-Furness in 1913, assisted with No.23 and R26, but started own work on design of radical new R80 in shed on Walney from 1916 (did not fly until July 1920), had breakdown in 1919 and laid off in 1921, in 2nd WW developed the bouncing bomb which successfully destroyed dams in the dambusters’ raids of 1943, had great love of walking in Lakes and spent holidays in Lake District nearly every year (except during WW2) from 1925 until 1971, many photographs taken by his wife (d.1986), died in 1979, aged 92, dau (Mary, wife of Harry Stopes-Roe, of Moseley, Birmingham)
Wallis, Peter J, (19xx-198x), MA, FRIMA, FRHistS, mathematician and education lecturer, of department of Education, University of Newcastle, author of ‘An Early Best Seller’ (Mathematical Gazette (October 1963), xlvii, No.361), ‘Westmorland Schools about 1676: Christopher Wase’s Survey’ (CW2, lxvii, 168-185), with supplementary note (CW2, lxxiii, 352-354), of ‘Abraham Fletcher’s Universal Measure’ (CW2, lxvii, 236-239), and (with F J G Robinson) of ‘Some early mathematical schools in Whitehaven’ (CW2, lxxv, 262-274), also read and contributed to Alec Swailes’s history of Kirkby Stephen Grammar School 1566-1966
Walliss, John Richard (1885/6-1985), electrician to Lowther Estates Ltd, founder member and secretary of Lowther & District Men’s Society, marr (27 December 1909) Alice Peasgood, 1 dau (Margery Howe, d. 2009), died aged nearly 100 (papers in CRO, WDSo 346)
Walls, Patrick (1847-1932), trades unionist, early Labour party member, born in Ireland, moved to Middlesborough as a blastfurnaceman, in 1887 went to Workington to resolve a dispute which led to the founding of the Union of Blastfurnacemen, by 1890 they had negotiated an eight hour day, general secretary 1892, lived Workington, a founder member of the Independent Labour Party 1893, Workington town councillor and later Cumberland CC; Whitehaven News 2 August 1900
Walpole, Sir Hugh Seymour (1884-1941; ODNB), novelist, b Auckland, NZ, son of Revd George Henry Somerset Walpole (1854-1929) canon of Auckland cathedral, educ Emmanuel College, Cambridge, encouraged by Henry James (1843-1916) and Arnold Bennett (1867-1931), author of novels including Mr Perrin and Mr Traill (1911) and Rogue Herries (1930), satirised as the bestselling novelist Alroy Kear in Cakes and Ale (1930), of whom W Somerset Maugham later said ‘he was easy to like, but difficult to respect’ (1950), presented a copy of Katherine Parr’s prayer book to Henry Airey (qv), mayor of Kendal, in 1937, of Brackenburn, Manesty Park, Keswick, life member of CWAAS from 1926, died 1941 and buried in St John’s churchyard terrace, Keswick (cross designed and cut by J Bromley); memorial seat Cat Bells; portrait bust Epstein; biographies by Rupert Hart-Davis [1952] and Elizabeth Steele; Ph.D. by John Hartley; Grevel Lindop, Literary Lakeland; mss and portrait Keswick Museum, memorial bench on Cat Bells; Keswick Characters vol.II; Trevor Haywood, Walking with a Caravan in Herries’ Lakeland
Walrond, Theodore Hunter Hastings (1872-1935), MA, FRCO, organist, born 1872, son of Francis Charles Walrond, educ Oxford University (MA), music master at Giggleswick School 1899-1905 and at Carlisle Grammar School 1906-1911, organist at St Cuthbert’s, Carlisle 1906-1908, acting organist at Carlisle Cathedral 1908-1910, died 1935 (CW2, lxxxiv, 119; BLG 13)
Walsh, Sir John Benn- (1759-1825), 1st Bt, son of William Benn, of Moor Row, Egremont, and his wife (marr 1751) Mary, dau of Timothy Nicholson, of Whitehaven, by his wife (marr 1731), Elizabeth, sister of Dr William Brownrigg (qv), made fortune in India 1777-1786, marr (1787) Margaret (d.1836), dau of Joseph Fowke by Elizabeth, dau of Joseph Walsh, Governor of Fort St George, Madras, assumed additional surname and arms of Walsh 1795, purchased The High, Underskiddaw 1797 (CRO, DX 448), succ to Ormathwaite estate on death of his great uncle Dr Brownrigg 1800, cr baronet 1804, died in 1825
Walsh, Sir John Benn- (1798-1881; ODNB), 2nd Bt, 1st baron Ormathwaite, born 1798, son of John Benn, later Sir John Benn Walsh (qv), educ Eton and Christ Church Oxford, (despite his name, his title (see his father’s inheritance) he was more involved in his mother’s Radnorshire inheritance), Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire 1842-1875, cr Baron Ormathwaite, of Ormathwaite in 1868, died in 1881
Walshaw, Sonia Babette (d.1973), local councillor, Westmorland County Councillor for Staveley, died in July 1973
Waltheof, brother of Dolphin, lord of Allerdale
Walton family, lead mine owners Alston; Alastair Robertson, A Lead Mining Dynasty in the North Pennines, 2004
Walton, George (c.1855-1890), artist, born in Northumberland about 1855, studied in London and Paris, visited Melbourne, Australia, in 1888, portraits in oils mostly from 1880s in state galleries in Australia, The Acolyte (1889; AG NSW Australia), returned to the UK, died in Appleby, 30 December 1890, with his cousin, Agnes H Longrigg in attendance (she was the daughter of Isabella, proprietress of the Tufton Arms), and buried at Holy Paraclete, Kirkhaugh, Northumberland, 2 January 1891 (Hexham Herald; A-i-W Society Newsletters, 95-97, May-Sept 2011); not to be confused with G. Walton (1867-1933)
Walton, Jacob (1808-1863), mining agent, born at Greenends, Alston, in 1808, worked in Allendale with mining interests in Weardale, also landowner on Stainmore by 1841, mine agent for eight of the 26 mines listed in 1847 Directory, mined coal, copper, zinc, witherite and iron and was described as being ‘an extensive mining proprietor of considerable ability’, also prospected for ironstone, instrumental in bringing railway to Alston in 1852, later lived Nenthead, early and poss founder member of Alston Literary, Scientific and Mechanical Institution, marr Phoebe, died in 1863; obelisk to him outside Alston Town Hall until 1960s, then stored in old quarry, now restored beside the town hall; Alston Moor Newsletter, Autumn 2004, issue 52; Alastair Robertson, A Lead Mining Dynasty in the North Pennines, 2004
Walton, James (Jim) Edmund (1929-2019), scientific glassblower and local historian, son of Thomas Walton, a civil servant (d.1955) and his wife Margaret Newby (d.1973) who ran a sweet shop in Tudor Square, Dalton in Furness (Margaret was the daughter of Samuel Wardle who worked at Vickers, Barrow and was a successful local sportsman), educ Chapel St school, Dalton 1932-36, Broughton Rd school 1936-1940, Ulverston grammar school 1940-1944, began work in the accounts department of the local Co-op 1944-8, National Service in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards in Egypt and Libya, used his scientific and artistic skills at Glaxo, Ulverston as a scientific glassblower 1950-1989, marr Moyra Wardle (1930-1996), two sons Stephen (b.1958) and Peter (b.1962), published A Concise History of Dalton in Furness (1972), Dalton in Furness in Picture Postcards (1983), A History of Dalton in Furness (1984), Tales of Old Dalton (1993), Dalton in Furness Past and Present (1995), Glaxo Wellcome at Ulverston: The First 50 Years (1998), A Directory of Surnames, Streets and Addresses (2004), Country Lanes and Footpaths around Dalton in Furness (2005), new edn (2006), Dalton in Furness from A-Z (2007) and Songs of Furness (original compositions) (2012), a keen classical pianist, established the Dalton Footpaths Society c.1982 and the Dalton Civic Society in the 1980s, when the role of ale taster to the town was restored in 1993 (abolished in 1923) he initially performed this role himself; information from Stephen Walton
Walton, John Bailey (c.1867-1916), MA, BCL, solicitor, mine owner and councillor, son of Thomas Walton (qv) by his wife Mary Ann, dau of George Henry Bailey (qv), had sister Mary, educ Durham University (read classics), qualified as solicitor in 18xx, marr (1900) London-born wife (?Mary, buried at Brough, 14 November 1916, aged 48?), 1 son (a research chemist who marr (1929) dau of Revd Edward Sugden (qv), twin sons), worked in London for 14 years before returning to Brough, of Main Street, Brough (1905), active member of community as on committees of reading room, electricity company, agricultural show, Oddfellows, and Masons, wife supported Brough choral society and brass band, and helped with Belgian refugees in WW1, member of Westmorland County Council from 1893 (defeating Revd William Lyde (qv) by 133 votes to 59) for 20 years, of Liberal persuasion, kept scrapbook of local events and collection of local photographs, died aged 50 and buried at Brough, 14 March 1917
Walton, John Featherstone (18xx-1932), LTh, clergyman, (native of Dufton?), trained Bishop Wilson School, IoM 1909 and University of Durham 1912, d 1912 (Carl), curate of Upperby 1912, vicar of Nether Wasdale from 1920, buried at Dufton, 24 August 1933, aged 63
Walton, Thomas (18xx-18xx), mine owner, son of John Walton, of Stanhope, co Durham, had brother Robert, of family connected with coal and lead mines, lead smelting, coke works, and lime kilns in area stretching from Alston to Stanhope, with offices in Darlington and Middlesborough (family also inc Jacob Walton (qv) and Sir Joseph Walton, MP), sent by his father to sort out problems in area when lead mine at Augill had petered out, made innovations at Augill by altering smelter to deal with iron nodules found nearby, also took over Borrowdale coalmine on Stainmore (remaining in family until 20th cent), listed (incorrectly) as owner of Aisgill colliery (recte Augill mine) in 1858, settled in Brough and marr (4 July 1865) Mary Ann, dau of G H Bailey (qv), of local family, son (John B, qv) and dau (Mary); Alastair Robertson, A Lead Mining Dynasty in the North Pennines, 2004
Walton, William de (fl.1279x1299), prior of Cartmel in late 13th century, tombstone under low arch on north side of altar in Cartmel Priory, inscribed with ‘HIC IACET FRATOR WILELMUS DE WALTONA PRIOR DE KARTMELL’ and a flowered cross, in design influenced by London patterns, dated to c.1300-1340 by Dr J Blair (PoC, 56)
Wane, Mary (1924-2023) OBE, civil servant (British Council), born Liverpool, daughter of Norman and Charlotte Wane, educated Liverpool University, with British Council from 1945-47 in Vienna, organised exchanges with the Soviet Union and exhibitions of the work of Henry Moore and David Hockney, 1968 Oslo, 1972-9 Paris, returned to Oslo as director, retired to Cumbria, supported the Liberal Democrats, contributed to the Victoria County History and was a patron of the Lake District Summer Music; Guardian Brief Lives 16 February 2024
Wane, Marshall (1833-1903), itinerant photographer; CWAAS, 2017, 183
Wappett, Mrs A (19xx-19xx), local councillor, last mayor of borough of Appleby 1973-1974; perhaps related to Duncan Wappett, electrician or Frank Wappett who rescued the 90 year old Mrs Eleanor Gibson during the floods of 1968
Warburton, Arthur (18xx-19xx), Manchester textile industrialist, of Cragwood, Troutbeck, Windermere, employed T H Mawson for garden scheme in 1910; William Warburton also of Cragwood in 1910/1914 (or same?), Richard Rigg of Cragwood cottages was gardener to him in 1910/14; Mrs Warburton there in 1921 through to 1938
Warburton, Henry, MP for Kendal (1843-1847), helped draft and comment on successive medical acts debated in Parliament in 1840s (with Thomas Wakley (ODNB)) (Address to electors of Kendal, 23 October 1843, CRO, WDX 977)
Warcup, the Rev Thomas, vicar of Wigton from 1612, experienced trouble through his loyalty to king Charles, his epitaph (rather dull) was recorded by William Andrews
Ward, Cedric Willoughby (1919-1996), businessman and local politician, son of George Ernest Ward (1880-1942) and his wife Edith Ann Walker (1882-1951), ran his family plumbing glazing and decorating business in Emlyn St Barrow, founded in 1872 by his grandfather Thomas Ward (1851-1896) of Preston, carried on by his father George as T. Ward and Son [incorporated in 1927 as T Ward and Co. Ltd] which later became the Ward Group, married Joan P. Lee in 1945, two children David and Judith, councillor, mayor of Barrow for the centenary of the borough in 1967, welcomed the queen Mother who arrived by helicopter at the town football ground, lived latterly at Pennington Hall, diversified into double glazing with his son David, in 1986 sold half the firm to Peter Redshaw, son of Sir Leonard (qv), in retirement a local character often encountered in Ulverston
Ward, EM, writer, publ. Deborah in Langdale, 1933
Ward, James (1784-1850), artist, bapt 20 June 1784, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Ward, of Oddendale, Crosby Ravensworth, marr (1 February 1819, at Kendal/Natland) Ann Berry, friend of James Northcote, RA (Conversations), died in Kendal
Ward, James Clifton (1843-1880; ODNB), cleric, geologist and cartographer, born at Clapham, south London, 13 April 1843, son of James Ward, schoolmaster, 23 papers written for the Royal Society, arrived in the Lakes in 1869, curate St John Keswick, m. Elizabeth Benson of Cockermouth, 2 daus, founder of Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science in 1875, author of Geology of the Northern Part of the English Lake District (1876), gave up position with Geological Survey in 1877, ordained at Carlisle Cathedral in 1878, asst curate of St John’s, Keswick 1878, perpetual curate of Rydal 1880, but caught chill and died within weeks of taking up post, 16 April 1880, aged 37, and buried at St John’s, Keswick (MI) (RM, 75-81); Keswick Characters vol.1
Ward, James Thornbarrow (1799-1863?), JP, clergyman, son of Jonathan Ward, of Asby, and Nancy (nee Thornber) (marr at Asby, October 1793), vicar of Askham and master of Lowther Grammar School 1832-1864
Ward, John (1819-1905), built Nether Street and Wilson Street, Kendal (CRO, WDX 1211)
Ward, Mary Augusta (nee Arnold) (1851-1920; ODNB) CBE JP (better known as Mrs Humphrey Ward), novelist, philanthropist and political lobbyist, born 11 June 1851 in Hobart Town, Tasmania, dau of Thomas Arnold (1823-1900), inspector of schools, (2nd son of Dr Thomas Arnold of Rugby (qv)), returned to England in 1856 and settled at Fox How, Ambleside, and boarded at Anne Jemima Clough’s school at Eller How, Ambleside 1858-60, reunited with rest of family at Laleham in 1867, wrote numerous books including A Westmorland Story (1870), Robert Ellsmere (1888), The History of David Grieve (1892), living at Levens when writing Helbeck of Bannisdale (1898), marr (6 April 1872) (Thomas) Humphry Ward (1845-1926), co-author with William Roberts of the 1904 George Romney catalogue raisonne, 1 son and 2 daus (yr, Janet, marr (1904) G M Trevelyan, qv), of Robin Gill, Great Langdale (Miss D Ward in 1921), opposed women’s suffrage, was to give address at opening of new Carnegie Library in Kendal 1909 but too ill and read for her by Miss Cropper, asked T H Mawson for plans to improve gardens at Stocks, Aldbury, near Tring, in 1909, but could only afford to add carriage court and rose garden with balancing summerhouses, died 24 March 1920 in London and buried at Aldbury, Herts; (THM Life, 152-53; CRO, WDB 86/photos/2), biography by her daughter Janet Penrose Trevelyan (1923), biography by John Smallwood, OUP, 1990; another more recently by John Sutherland; Lindop 271-2
Ward, Matthias (1708/9-1784/5), clergyman, bapt at Warcop, 24 February 1708/9, son of Revd Richard Ward (qv), educ prob at Sedbergh School and Queen’s College, Oxford, marr (18 February 1739/40, at Warcop) Isabel Braithwaite, vicar of Warcop 1735-1785 (SSR, 99)
Ward, Ned, highwayman, with his accomplice Broderick, authorities arrived with warrants and caught Broderick but Ward broke through the thatch of his cottage and fled on a constable’s horse
Ward, Richard (1658-1714), MA, clergyman, son of Edmond Ward, of Firbank, educ Sedbergh School and St John’s College, Cambridge (entd 1676, aged 18), poss curate of Greystoke in 1686, vicar of Warcop 1684-1714, marr (by 1695), 5 sons (Edmond, bapt 21 May 1696, Lancelot, bapt 18 October 1698, Richard, bapt 30 December 1701, Anthony, bapt 25 June 1706, and Matthias, qv) and 8 daus (Anne, bapt 12 November 1700, Mary, bapt 22 April 1703, Esther, bapt 16 April 1704, Hellen, bapt 23 May 1705 and buried 7 January 1706/7, Dorothy, bapt 14 July and buried 30 July 1707, Deborah, bapt 8 May 1712) and twin daus (Elizabeth and Elianor, bapt 1 February and buried 3 February 1709/10), died 3 September 1714 and buried at Warcop, 5 September (ECW, ii, 1127; SSR, 99)
Wardale, Robert (1706-1773), clergyman, curate of Stanwix, remained in Carlisle during Jacobite occupation of November to December 1745 and was thought to be rather friendly with new commander of the garrison, John Hamilton (qv), Hamilton was executed in 1746, so Wardale was indeed fortunate not to share his fate
Ware, Ellen King (nee Goodwin) (18xx-1911), educationist, eldest dau of Harvey Goodwin, Bishop of Carlisle (qv), marr (1887) Revd Henry Ware (qv), great support to her father as bishop and carried on his many works, esp cause of deaf and dumb, befriending young people and restoring good character of girls, visitor at Carlisle Prison, enthusiast for work of county education, co-opted member of County Council Authority for Education, supported appt of inspector of religious knowledge for county schools and syllabus for religious instruction, first chairman of committee of new Carlisle High School for Girls, laid foundation stone of Goodwin Memorial School in Blackwell Road, Carlisle (built in memory of her father ) on 13 September 1892, kept open house at The Abbey when in Carlisle, member of CWAAS from 1882 and contributor to Transactions (inc papers on Carlisle Diocesan Seals in CW1, xii, 212-227 and xiii, 400-401), her health broke down under strain of nursing her husband and scarlet fever, died in London, 4 June 1911 and buried at Crosthwaite, Keswick, 8 June (Canon Rawnsley officiating)
Ware, Henry (1830-1909), MA, DD (Cantab), bishop and antiquary, born at Farnham, Surrey, 22 June 1830, educ Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1853, MA 1856), fellow and asst tutor 1855-1862, d 1860, p 1862 (Ely), instituted to Kirkby Lonsdale, 25 June 1862, vicar 1862-1888, rural dean 1867-1888, responsible for restoration of church (at cost of Lord Bective) and constituting chapelries as separate parishes (except Lupton), hon canon of Carlisle 1870-1879 and 1883-1888, canon residentiary 1879-1883 and 1888-1909, inaugural bishop suffragan of Barrow-in-Furness 1889-1909, consecrated additional burial ground at Milnthorpe on 10 August 1904, president, CWAAS 1900-1909, founder member, contributed many papers and edited bishop William Nicolson’s Diaries for Transactions in five parts, a governor of Sedbergh School (1895), marr 1st Elizabeth Sarah (d.1884), dau of E G Hornby, of Dalton Hall, marr 2nd (1887) Ellen King Goodwin (qv), daughter of bishop Harvey Goodwin, no issue, retired to How Foot, Grasmere, but died in Rome after long illness, 16 April 1909 (CW2, ix, 338, xxix, 190-191; AKL, 114); CWAAS 150th volume, 303ff; further references in entry for bishop Pelham (qv)
Ware, John (1726-1791), of Whitehaven, printer and publisher, published The Book of Common Prayer, the first title in Manx, founder of the Cumberland Pacquet in Whitehaven; Victoria EM Gardner, ‘John Ware and the Cumberland Pacquet’, J. of Social History Society, 2012 vol.10; John Ware [fl.late18th and early 19thc], bookseller of Whitehaven, ? son of the above
Warlow, T P W Meyler- (18xx-19xx), MA, LLD, schoolmaster, master of Free Grammar School, Wigton, Market Hall (1897) – before split of Nelson School for Boys and Tomlinson Grammar School for Girls
Warner, Sylvia Townsend-, see Townsend
Warren, Albert (18xx-19xx), MA, clergyman, educ Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (BA 1874, MA 1876), d 1874 and p 1875 (Chester), curate of St Paul, Warrington 1874-1876, curate of Barrow Island 1876-1878 and vicar 1878-1880, vicar of St Michael, Appleby, from 1880, and surrogate, man of great energy and enthusiasm, instrumental in formation of Appleby Cycling Club, recalling his days riding an old ‘bone-shaker’ as a student and later in Germany and England, inspired to start club after gap of 15 years as ‘cycling was a healthy exercise of which nearly all young men could take advantage if so disposed’, hosted cycling club suppers and events at St Michael’s vicarage, hoping that ‘they used their cycles to the glory of God’, moved ?or died in 1916 (AWS Newsletter, No.102, November 2012)
Warters, Edmund B (17xx-18xx), Methodist minister, appointed first full-time minister resident in Keswick in 1835, but transferred to new Workington Circuit on its formation in 1838 (Keswick and Cockermouth WM Circuits amalgamated in 1854, new Wesleyan chapel opened in Southey Street, Keswick in 1863 (enlarged in 1909), while Primitive Methodists had Tithebarn Street Chapel built in 1869)
Warwick, Francis (18thc.), of Warwick Hall, R.C.; CW2 lix 132
Warwick, Jane, of Warwick Hall, said to have been the only member of the Cumberland gentry to have entertained Bonnie Prince Charlie to dinner during the siege of Carlisle in 1745; talk to Lorton History Society 12 May 2022
Warwick, John (18xx-19xx), town clerk of Workington, town hall, Washington Street (1897), then Oxford Street (1906, 1910), clerk to Local Board, when of 4 Argyle Terrace, Workington (1883), later of Brundholme, Park End Road, Workington (1894, 1897, 1906, 1910), marr, son (Colin Winder, born 28 August 1891, educ prep school and Appleby G S, entd 24 September 1903, Oxford Junior Local 1908, served WW1, MC, killed 1918) and dau (Miss Warwick is of Brundholme in 1921), pres dead by 1921
Warwick, Mary (18thc.), of Warwick Hall, R.C.; CW2 lix 131
Washington family of Whitehaven; CW1 iv 97
Washington family of Helton Flecket, this family married into the de Morvilles (William Washington marr Mary de Morville 13thc); W Percy Hedley, CW2 lxviii, 48-56
Washington, Augustine (1694-1743), the father of George, the founding President of the USA, attended Appleby Grammar School; Mildred Washington (qv)
Washington, George (1732-1799), the founding President of the USA, numerous family links with Cumbria: father, uncle and two half brothers, all attended Appleby GS, he would have followed them but his father’s death prevented it; Mildred Washington (qv). Washington ordered and shipped stone from Barrowmouth, Whitehaven to the USA. [Was this Cumbrland alabaster ?], Memoirs of Geological Survey, vol Whitehaven, prob 209-10 or 220-1
Washington, John (16xx-167x), whitesmith and mayor of Kendal, marr Jennet, son (Richard, qv) and dau (Dorothy (buried at Kendal, 25 January 1681/2), wife of Robert Hutton, of Market Place, Kendal (bur 25 March 1687)), mayor of Kendal 1657-58 (sworn 5 October 1657), will made 15 January 1676 (transcript in CRO, WDY 606)
Washington, Lawrence (1718-1752), eldest surv son of Augustine Washington (1694-1743) by his first wife, Jane Butler (1699-1729), and half-brother of George Washington (1732-1799), first President of USA, educ Appleby Grammar School (1729-32), subscribed 10s 6d to library when he left in 1732 (his yr bro, Augustine (1719/20-1762), also at school 1732-1741, like their father), marr (1743) Anne Fairfax, no issue? (CW2, lxxi, 151-198)
Washington, Margaret Helen (nee Hasell) (1925-2011), OBE, DL, charity worker and High Sheriff, born in 1925, yr dau of Major Edward Hasell (qv), of Dalemain, spent rural childhood with elder sister Sylvia (qv sub McCosh), with dogs, ponies, cats and a pet fox, educ at home with governess and later at Roedean, which was evacuated to Keswick in 1940 (with teaching in station waiting room, a local hotel’s conservatory and Wesleyan chapel), established Cumberland Farmers’ Hunt (South) and branch of Pony Club in 1943, joined Women’s Royal Naval Service in 1944, doing decoding work, returned to run family’s Dalemain Estate Office after WW2, but moved to London in 1952 and trained as nurse at St Thomas’ Hospital, marr (1956) Tim Washington (qv) and moved with him during his army career, settled at Dacre Lodge after his retirement in 1975, threw herself into voluntary work and supported numerous charities, which work was recognised by award of OBE in 1990, apptd first woman High Sheriff of Cumbria in 1993, died at home in Dacre, 21 May 2011, aged 85, and buried at St Andrew’s, Dacre, 3 June (CWH, 28.05.2011)
Washington, Mildred (1671-1701), (nee Warner, later Gale), dau of Col Ausustus Warner of Gloucester county Virginia, grandmother of president George Washington, 1st husband Lawrence Washington (1659-1698), married her 2nd husband George Gale of Whitehaven in 1700, died following the birth of their child only a year later and Gale educated her orphaned Washington sons including Augustine (qv) at Appleby; buried in St Nicholas churchyard Whitehaven, tomb untraced but plaque erected, the Gale house in the town also has a plaque
Washington, Richard (16xx-1xxx), whitesmith and mayor of Kendal, son of John Washington (qv), marr Ann, dau of William Curwen, of Helsington, gent, alderman and mayor of Kendal 1685-86, apptd an executor (together with William Curwen and William Brownesword) in trust of his cousin James Simpson’s will, dated 9 June 1687 (BoR, 250)
Washington, Timothy John Clulow (1923-2000), MC, army officer, born 26 June 1923, son of Peter Washington, of Pine Farm, Wokingham, Berkshire, marr (1956) Margaret Helen, yr dau and coheir of Major Edward William Hasell (qv), of Dalemain, 2 daus (Diana Summerson and Celia, artist), served in Army 1941-1978: WW2 with 27th Lancers 1942-1945, 12th Lancers 1945-1960 and 9th/12th Royal Lancers 1960-1978 (Lieut-Col, retd 1975), of Dacre Lodge and also of Mains House Farm, Pooley Bridge, died in April 2000, aged 76
Wassall, Samuel, (1856-1927), VC, soldier and electrician, born West Midlands, worked in Barrow shipyard, fought in Zulu wars, presented with VC 1879; London Gazette 17 6 1879; Jane Bancroft, 2013; Rod White, Furness Stories Behind the Stones
Wastell of Shap, family, and Wastell Head; CW2 i 147
Waterhouse, Alfred (1830-1905), architect, b Liverpool, son of Alfred Waterhouse, cotton broker, educ Quaker school, Tottenham, architectural studies with R Lane in Manchester, his sister Katherine m. George Tunstal Redmayne (1840-1912), son of Giles Redmayne sr of Brathay Hall (qqv), thus his brother in law GTR ran his Manchester office, designed alterations to Rothay Holme (1854; now called Ambleside Lodge) and Brathay Hall (1855), then Fawe Park (1856), Elleray Bank (1856-61), was involved with the Quaker meeting house at Cartmel (1859), designed the reading room Allonby (1861), Lunefield, Kirkby Lonsdale (1868; now demolished) and Lingholme (1874-5), also designed the Manchester Assize Courts and the Natural History Museum in London, following the success of his Manchester town hall (1877) he was asked to assess the design competition for Barrow town hall (c.1880) and perhaps unsurprisingly the winning design by WH Lynn ‘owes a lot to Manchester’ [Hyde]; Hyde and Pevsner
Waterhouse, Jerome (15xx-1633), MA, BD, clergyman, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, instituted to Kirkby Lonsdale on 19 February 1607/8 on death of John Williamson (qv), but held living only briefly before ‘inducted Parson of Greystocke by Sir Thomas Shaw, Vicker of Crosbye by Aucthoritie from my Lordes Grace of Yorke’ on 2 October 1616 and preached sermon on text of St Luke 16, 8-9 and read the articles on Sunday, 6 October, preached at Watermillock on 13 June 1619 and 26 May 1622, marr, 2 sons (Thomas, bapt 20 August 1623; Gregory, bapt 1 December 1626) and 3 daus (Mary, wife of Lancelot Fletcher, of Tallentire; Margaret, bapt 3 September 1618; Eliza, bapt 25 July 1622), two of his servants (Richard Leafe and Siceley Dawson) were married at Greystoke on 22 July 1632, while James Hayg ‘an ancient servant to Mr Waterhouse’ was buried there on 10 May 1626, rector of Greystoke from 1616 for 16 years, 7 months and 17 days, died about 4 o’clock on Monday morning, and buried at Greystoke, ‘being Tewsdaye’, 10 February 1632/3 [acc to GPR, 215, but Tuesday was 12 February] (ECW, i, 455-456, 515, 690; ii, 1010)
Waters, George, photographer, of Bowness-on-Windermere; his photographs salvaged from tip by Fenty Robinson (qv)
Waterton, George Webb (18xx-19xx), Roman Catholic priest, MR, rector of Catholic Church of Our Lady and St Joseph, Warwick Square west, Carlisle (1897); stained glass memorial window in west end baptistery
Watley, Robert, surveyor, saved by John Swinburn from execution by an angry mob in 1537 at Cockermouth, Watley was surveying on behalf of Dr Thomas Leigh the monasteries for the king; Hudleston (C)
Watkins, Mary Agnes (nee Myerscough) (1818-1908), benefactor, born 9 May 1818, 2nd dau of Simon Myerscough (d.1834), carriers’ agent, of 26 Lowther Street, Kendal, and Dorothy Burns (1790-1879), of Colton, marr (at Hobart, Tasmania, 1841) John James Aston Watkins (1817-1866), barrister, clerk of Supreme Court of Tasmania (1843), marshal of Vice-Admiralty Court (1858) and registrar of both courts (1860), but he died of cancer, aged 49, and buried in Hobart Catholic cemetery, son of John Watkins (1785-1855), clockmaker, of Monmouth, and Anne Aston (who all emigrated to Tasmania by 1840), no issue, his widow Mary returned to Kendal by 1881, made will in 1906, leaving £3,000 to be invested for her sisters, Charlotte (1825-1907) and Eleanor (1830-1914), with provision for residue after their deaths to be used for establishing almshouses for poor residents of Kendal (not exceeding four of either sex, married or single, fifty or over, of any religion) to be called the Mrs John Aston Watkins Almshouses, died in Kendal, 9 January 1908; her executors and trustees, Charles Hoggarth and Henry Hoggarth, bought part of Town End Field (part of Wattsfield estate in Nethergraveship) fronting Romney Road in 1920 to build a house to designs by L S Hoggarth (1926) (plans in CRO, WSMB/K/R17; J & S Satchell, 2002)
Watson, Campbell West (1877-1953), CMG, MA, primate and archbishop, born 23 April 1877, son of Adam West Watson, merchant, of Liverpool, and Caroline, dau of Theophilus Campbell, dean of Dromore, educ Birkenhead School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge (scholar, BA 1899, 1st class Theol 1901, Carus Greek Testament Prize and Crosse Theological Scholarship, MA 1903, Hon DD 1910), Ridley Hall, Cambridge 1901, ordained d 1902 and p 1903 dio Ely, bursar and lecturer of Ridley Hall 1902-1903, fellow and lecturer in Theology, Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1903-1909, chaplain 1903-1907 and dean 1907-1909, Junior Proctor, Cambridge University 1907-1908, Examining Chaplain to Bishop of Carlisle 1905-1920, bishop suffragan of Barrow-in-Furness 1909-1926, canon of Carlisle Cathedral 1909-1921, rector of Aldingham 1921-1926, archdeacon of Westmorland 1915-1923, archdeacon of Furness 1923-1926, proctor in convocation 1912-1926, moved to New Zealand in 1926 as bishop of Christchurch 1926-1951, primate and archbishop of New Zealand 1940-1951, TCF 1918, hon CF 1919, chaplain, Order of St John and Sub-Prelate 1938, CMG 1952, author of School Commentary on English Acts of Apostles (Revised Version 1908), marr Emily Mabel Monsarrat (1876-1936), 2 sons and 3 daus, retired in 1951 to Stoke, Nelson, New Zealand, died 19 May 1953; Watson, Mitred Men of Cumbria
Watson, Charles Edward (1823-1894), JP, landowner and army officer, Lieut-Colonel, late Royal Fusiliers, son of Revd Richard Watson (qv), marr (1864) his cousin Louisa (1843-1888, died in August 1888), dau of Richard Luther Watson (qv), no issue, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1877, of Calgarth Park and Rothay Holme, Ambleside, trustee of Ambleside Turnpike Road from 1870 to 1875, reporting on 26 November 1874 on proposed improvements to road at Lesketh How, Ambleside, widening it on west side by taking in land from his cousin and father-in-law, R L Watson (minute book in CRO, WST/1), died in January 1894 (memorial window at east end of south aisle of St Martin’s church, Bowness, also commemorating William Luther Watson, late 1st South Lancs Regt, died February 1896)
Watson, Christopher Godfrey (1864-1912), army officer, yr son of C K Watson (qv), marr Violet Elmslie, 3 sons and 1 dau, served in Royal Artillery (incl action in Mivanzai expeditions of 1891), retd as major, put Calgarth Estate up for sale by auction in July 1908 (purchased by Oswald Hedley, qv), but stayed on as tenant for year till moved into Calgarth Old Hall
Watson, Christopher Knight (c.1824-1901), MA, FSA, yst son of Revd Richard Watson (qv), marr Emma Jane Godfrey (d.1881), 2 sons, secretary of Society of Antiquaries of London 1860-1885, of Bedford Square, London
Watson, Revd Daniel (1719-1804), clergyman, born at Wigton and bapt at St Mary’s church, 30 March 1719, son of Daniel Watson, of Reseuen [Rosewain], Wigton, rector of Middleton Tyas, Yorks 1763-1804, friend of William Hutchinson (qv)
Watson, Dawson (1803-1870), solicitor, born at Warton, near Carnforth, and bapt there, 11 July 1803, yr son and 2nd of four children of John Watson (1777-1810; born 29 December 1777 and bapt 26 January 1778, son of Robert and Sarah Watson, of Up-Hall in (Priest) Hutton, <rel to Bishop Watson?>, who died of consumption, aged 32, when of Borwick Hall, and buried at Warton, 28 January 1810), and his wife (marr at Warton, 22 February 1800) Jane (1773-1853) (nee Dawson), his yr sister Sarah (bapt at Warton, 3 October 1805) was wife (marr 1829) of Christopher Edmondson (d.1839), solicitor, of Giggleswick, marr (17 March 1832 at Dent) Mary (1808-1902; died 6 February 1902, aged 93, buried at Sedbergh), eldest dau of William Bragg, of Dowbiggin, Sedbergh, by his first wife, Frances Preston, and sister of Richard (Bonny) Bragg (qv), 4 sons (John Dawson (qv); William (1839-1878), surgeon, of Lancaster; Robert (1844-1882), with Wakefield Crewdson’s Bank, Kendal and later secretary to his eldest brother; and Thomas James (qv)) and 4 daus (Jane (b.1834), wife of Edward Whalley, of Liverpool; Sarah (b.1837), wife of William Goodall Shiells, of Edinburgh; Frances (b.1842), wife of Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899; ODNB) (qv); and Margaret Eleanor (1850-1894)), moved into Oakville after his marriage, steward of manor of Sedbergh (perambulation of boundary in August 1836), solicitor in Sedbergh (witnessed deeds of Independent Chapel or Meeting House at Garsdale in 1842 and 1856 in CRO, WDX 1611), gifted amateur artist and encouraged his children’s artistic talent, died aged 66 and buried at Warton, 20 January 1870
Watson, Donald (1910-2005), b Mexborough (Y), teacher, fell guide, est the Vegan Society in 1944 with friends in Leicester, died aged 95 (Cumbria, Feb 2011)
Watson, George (1824-1907), CE, architect and surveyor, and antiquary, born in Sunderland in 1824, taken to Keswick at age of 12 in 1836, where he lived until 1845, studied in London for five years, then settled in Penrith as architect and surveyor, with office by St Andrew’s churchyard (1873), (later Watson & Son, architects and civil engineers, of 3 St Andrew’s Place – son, George, jun, of 45 Wordsworth Street), contributing to modern development of town, and spending his leisure in antiquarian study, member of CWAAS from 1885 and member of council from 1894 to 1904, author of Anne Clifford, Dowager Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery; her Ancestors and Descendants (Penrith, 1901), which was a revised and enlarged edition of his lecture delivered to Penrith Literary and Scientific Society in 1885 and first published in TCWAALS (ref…), ten articles in Transactions (OS, xi to NS, iii), besides various other papers, of 18 Wordsworth Street, Penrith, before moving in 1904 to Belvedere, Bath Road, Bournemouth, where he died, 6 March 1907 (CW2, vii, 316)
Watson, Henry (fl.1955-1963), police officer, assistant chief constable of Cumberland and Westmorland 1959-1963, chief constable of Cheshire, Queen’s medal for distinguished service
Watson, Rev Howard Simon (1841-1911), clergyman, nephew of the Rev Thomas Watson (1796-1851) and youngest son of Christopher Watson (1791-1823) of Marsh House, Easton, Bowness on Solway, where the family had lived since the 16thc., educ Manchester GS and scholar of Pembroke College, Cambridge, he rowed in the boat race of 1864 (Oxford won by nine lengths in a fast race, with the fastest time since 1845), he and his cousin the Rev TS Watson (qv; see Rev TW) were sent to prison for a week while undergraduates for persistently disrupting catholic services in the town and resisting arrest, he was the vicar of Water Orton, Worcestershire from 1871-1911, and the first incumbent of the new church (consecrated 1879 the land was given by GW Digby Esq of Sherborne Castle, Dorset, the medieval church on an adjacent site was demolished in 1887-8), marr Mary Yates, dau of General Jonathan Yates (1780-1854) of the Life Guards and resident at East Tytherley Manor, Hants (uncle of Sir Robert Peel 2nd Bt (1788-1850) the PM), despite his long sojourn in Worcestershire, Watson was buried in Bowness on Solway, his youngest son the Rev Thomas H Watson(1880-1944) was educ at St Bees and also a Grindal scholar at Pembroke, he played first class cricket for the university and Warwickshire
Watson, Isobel (1930-2016), artist, trained at Manchester College of Art, where she met her husband Chris, marr, 3 daus, came to settle in the Lakes, teaching art at St Anne’s School, Windermere, while Chris taught at secondary school in Keswick, elected a member of the Lake Artists Society in 1970, but resigned in 2014 bec of declining health, specialised in painting wild flowers and fungi, particularly distinctive gouache style, quiet and reserved, died in 2016 (FOLAS 44, March 2017)
Watson, James, accountant, founder of firm Armstrong Watson, Carlisle, elected auditor of Cumberland Building Society on 20 August 1867
Watson, (the Rev) John (ed), publ. The Annals of a Quiet Valley, 1894, an account of Longsleddale
Watson, John, writer, publ. The English Lake District Fisheries, 1925
Watson, John (17xx-18xx), clergyman, rector of Castle Carrock 1828-1839, perpetual curate of Cumrew 1828-1866 (living worth about £100) with residence built in 1832 at cost of £450 (£200 from QAB and rest borne by himself), school and house built in 1845 at cost of £195 on piece of ground belonging to Cumrew in township of Newbiggin in parish of Croglin, also perpetual curate of Renwick (worth £90 p.a.)
Watson, John (1811-18xx), jnr, surveyor, born 30 June 1811, of Bolton Park, Wigton, marr (stillborn child on 21 January 1837), kept journal of his survey of Kendal Parish and other work (leaving Snow Hill for Kendal on 7 October 1834, up to 5 January 1838), left Kendal for Penrith to take charge of his father’s cattle to London on 16 March 1837, returning on 14 April and unemployed till 15 May when he contracted to survey township of Great Strickland, surveyed Oaks Farm estate at Lindal for Mrs Bolton of Storrs Hall on 28-30 August 1837, but eyesight deteriorated and had to get spectacles in October 1837, rode boundary of Hutton Park estate with Richard Wilson (qv) on 20 November 1837, making small plan of Watercrook for C Wilson in January 1838, announced intention on 10 August 1844 to publish by subscription a new map of Kendal and precincts from an entirely new survey as no correct map now extant, kept notebook of owners and occupiers of land served with notices re proposed Kendal Reservoirs between 21 and 30 December [1846/7], surveyed Kendal Fell Lands (plan 1847), author of An Essay on the best method of Reclaiming Heath Land (undated ms) (CRO, WDB/35/ box 16); [R H Watson was of Bolton Park in 1879]
Watson, John (1818-1871), hotelier, moved to India, built c.1860 the Esplanade Mansion Hotel, (originally Watson’s Hotel, in its time the best in Bombay [Mumbai]), erected by civil engineer Rowland Mason Ordish who was an assistant on the roof of St Pancras station, on his return to Cumberland built Gelt Hall and his brother bought Holme Eden at Warwick Bridge; D. Perriam CN 21 August 2009
Watson, John (18xx-19xx), JP, Westmorland County Councillor for Kendal Borough Serpentine division (1894) when of Thorney Hills, and alderman (to 1916), of Eden Mount, Kendal Green, Kendal = ?
= John Watson, naturalist, of Fern Leigh, Kendal Green, elected a Fellow of the Linnaean Society on 5 December 1889, contributed to the Westmorland Natural History Record, inc ‘A List of the Birds of the Lake District’ and ‘The Extinct Animals of the Lake District’
Watson, John Dawson (1832-1892; ODNB), RWS, RBA, RCA, artist and illustrator, born 20 May 1832 and bapt at Sedbergh, 29 May, eldest of four sons and eight children of Dawson Watson (qv), his yst brother Thomas James (qv), also an artist, while his third sister Frances (1841-1921) was second wife of Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899; ODNB), made large number of original drawings before the age of seven, educ Sedbergh School (entered in February 1841, aged 8, and left in June 1847), where he was assisted by Mrs Green, wife of Revd Isaac Green (qv), the second master, and dau of Julius Caesar Ibbetson (qv), left Sedbergh in 1847 to study at Manchester School of Design (1847-51), moved to London in 1851 to work in studio of Alexander Davis Cooper and to study at Royal Academy, first picture for RA, The Painter’s Studio, exhibited in 1853, moved back to Manchester where he had a studio 1852-1860, won Heywood Prize at Manchester for The Parting, toured Lake District in 1854-55, witnessed Garsdale deed of 1856 (in CRO, WDX 1611), married his cousin, Jane Dawson (b.1831), eldest dau of Christopher Edmondson, solicitor, of Giggleswick (qv sub Dawson Watson) in Settle in 1858, 3 sons and 4 daus, living in Edinburgh when eldest dau Jane was born in 1859 and had first contact with George Dalziel (who became a lifelong friend with his brother Edward), removed to London in 1860 and living in Marylebone in 1861, his illustrations for the Pilgrim’s Progress helped to make his name, in Tynemouth (with his brother Thomas nearby) in 1871, but living at Milford in Surrey most of time between 1865 and 1876 (when his three younger children were born) as neighbour of his brother-in-law, Myles Birket Foster [his dau marr Lancelot Glasson, qv], his yr brother Robert acted as his secretary, took art classes at South Kensington Museum, back in Marylebone in 1881, won medal at Vienna International Exhibition for The Poisoned Cup (exhib RA, 1866) in 1873, and gold medal and £100 prize at Westminster Aquarium for The Stolen Marriage, elected Associate of Old Watercolour Society (AWOS) in 1864 and of Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours (ARWS) in 1865 and then member of WOS in 1869 and of RWS in 1870, elected an honorary member of Royal Watercolour Society of Belgium in 1876, member of Society of British Artists in 1882, founder member of Royal Cambrian Academy in 1881, moved to Conwy in 1884, where he died at his home, Plas Uchaf, Lancaster Square, 3 January 1892, of respiratory complaint, aged 59, and buried at St Agnes cemetery, Conwy, 7 January, benevolent and helpful to younger artists, his work ‘at all times full of tender refinement, beauty and sympathetic feeling’ (George and Edward Dalziel), found it no trouble to draw and often felt unchallenged, but had interest in theatre and costume design; over 60 of his works remain on public view at Castle Hotel, Conwy, together with bust of him by Edward E Geflowski; his surviving son Dawson (1864-1939) was also an artist and pupil of Mark Fisher, RA, and died in USA (Philip Bryant 1979 and in SDHS Newsletter, August 1984; C G Hollett in SDHS Newsletter, April 1985; Diane Elphick, ‘John Dawson Watson and his Circle: A Sedbergh Artist’s Life in Pictures’, with photographs, in SH, Vol.VI, No.3 (2012), 31-40; SSR, 206)
Watson, Mary, land girl, 2nd WW; Solway Plain website
Watson, Musgrave Lewthwaite (1804-1847; ODNB), sculptor, born at Hawksdale, 24 January 1804, 2nd son of Thomas Watson (d.1823), of The Bogg, Sebergham, encouraged by David Dunbar (qv), exhib Carlisle Academy of Art (the sculptor carving a bust on the facade of the Academy building (now demolished) may be his likeness (Bushby (qv)), his finest work in Cumbria is his father’s monument at Sebergham church (illus Pevsner), also a statue to the earl of Lonsdale at the citadel, Carlisle and another at the law courts to Francis Aglionby (qqv), models at Tullie House (notably a model of the monument to the Jacobite physician Dr Archibald Cameron who was at Culloden [1847] and executed afterwards, the marble finished version having been destroyed at the Savoy chapel in 1864), died of heart disease at his London home, 13 Upper Gloucester Place, 28 October 1847, aged 43, and buried in Highgate cemetery; memorial with a likeness by George Nelson (qv) beside south door of Carlisle Cathedral (DBS, 414-415); biography Henry Lonsdale; David A. Cross, Public Sculpture, 2017, 143-4
Watson, Richard (1736-1816; ODNB), DD FRS, clergyman and scientist, bishop of Landaff, born at Heversham, son of Revd Thomas Watson (qv), educ Trinity college, Cambridge, fellow, prof of Chemistry, bishop of Landaff 1782-1816, author of An Address to Young Persons after Confirmation (London, 1789) (copy in CRO, WD/TE/box 30), A Sermon preached before the Stewards of Westminster Dispensary at the Anniversary Meeting, in Charlotte Street Chapel, April 1785 (London, 1793), contributed Preliminary Observations to the General View of the Agriculture of the County of Westmoreland by Andrew Pringle (qv), published in 1794, invented both the black bulb thermometer and cylinder retorts for manufacture of charcoal (installed at Elterwater and Gatebeck) (IALC, 77), witnessed deed of release of interest in Grayrigg Foot estate by his wife Dorothy with Edward Wilson of Dallam Tower and her three surviving sisters, dated 21 December 1798 (CRO, WD/SE/Grayrigg deeds), lived Calgarth Park, planted 1000s of trees, died at Calgarth Park, 4 July 1816, aged xx, and buried in St Martin’s churchyard, Bowness; monument by Flaxman in church (WW, i, 185-230; portrait by Romney at Oxford, CW2, xciv, 171-200), Dorothy’s portrait by Downman (Fitzwilliam museum)
Watson, Richard (c.1788-1858), clergyman, yst son of Right Revd Richard Watson (qv), marr Dorcas Knight Sanders, 5 sons
Watson, Richard (19xx-1993), clergyman, vicar of St John’s, Keswick, died 2 May 1993, aged 51, and buried on churchyard terrace alongside Hugh Walpole (qv)
Watson, Richard Luther (1811-1875), born 1811, only son (twin with Mary Anne Juliana) of Charles Luther Watson (1774-1814) and Maria Lowry Corry (d.1848), marr Louisa Anne Cole (d.1881), 4 daus, agreed to line of new turnpike road going through his field in front of Salutation Inn at Ambleside in 1832 (minute book in CRO, WST/1), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1857, had estate of 2,915 acres (1871), of Ecclerigg, Windermere, died 1875
Watson, Robert Harrison, landowner, of Bolton Park, Wigton (1883)
Watson, Ron (fl.1960s-70s), engineer and playwright, worked at Vickers Barrow and wrote plays including Seeing Red and Sounding Drum performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Barrow, encouraged by Donald Sartain (qv), later wrote scripts for Coronation St and other television series
Watson, Stanley (1906-1986), mountaineer, founded the British Mountain Guides in 1930, had a climbing school at Newton Place in Borrowdale, favourite mountain was Great Gable (LDF, p.19), mss in Nat Archives
Watson, Thomas (1670-1753), clergyman and schoolmaster, bapt 31 August 1670 at Shap, son of Anthony Watson, of Hardendale, ordained deacon in order to be curate of Grayrigg in 1695, marr Agnes Newton, 2 sons and 1 dau
Watson, Thomas (1771-1860), mason, dry-stone waller, Wesleyan lay preacher and poet, of Fellgate, Renwick, his legacy of a slim volume of poetry was published shortly after his death in 1860 as The Patriarch’s Aeolian Harp by two fellow Wesleyans, his son-in-law, Isaac Robinson, of Renwick, and Thomas Hodgson (qv), printer, of Penrith (copy in CRO, Carlisle, DX 1755/15/1), and contained fifty poems on 56 pages, costing 1s., advertised in the new Penrith Herald of 15 Decmber 1860 and continuing through 1861, then disappeared from view until a new edition was published by the Herald’s successor, the Mid-Cumberland and North Westmorland Herald in 1906 (copy of 1906 edition in Carlisle Local Studies Library, J580), not overtly autobiographical verse but gives insight into less documented world of east Cumbrian rural labouring class, defended ‘true religion’ against hypocrisy of established church, but like many Wesleyans he still attended his parish church every Sunday, concluded that disputing between church and chapel folk is past in ‘Renwick Village’ poem (photograph in old age in frontispiece of 1906 edition) (Jane Platt, ‘Thomas Watson, Peasant-Poet: The Reading, Writing and Religion of a Cumbrian Dry-Stone Waller’, Northern History, XLIX:2, September 2012, 323-344)
Watson, Rev Thomas (1796-1880), clergyman, son of Christopher Watson (1751-1823) of Marsh House, Easton, Bowness on Solway, where the family had lived since the 16thc., educ St Edmunds Hall, Oxford, vicar of St Philip’s Clerkenwell, in 1850 the Lord Chancellor presented him to the living of East Farleigh, Kent on account of his anti-Tractarian views, following the conversion to Catholicism of his predecessor the Rev Henry Wilberforce (1807-1873) (son of William Wilberforce the abolitionist), wrote many books and tracts on religion, including Spiritual Life Delineated (1838), Shiloh’s Sceptre (1843), Hill of Zion (1846), The Baptism of the Spirit (1850), Christ Not Anti-Christ or Papal Heresies (3rd ed 1851), also The Two Cities in the Visions of Ezekiel and St John Explained and Harmonised, and The Flaming Sword, marr Frances Springett, dau of Richard Springett of Finchcocks, Goudhurst, Kent, had several children including the Rev Thomas Springett Watson (1842-1872) (qv; see the Rev HS Watson), educ Tonbridge and Pembroke Coll Cambridge
Watson, Thomas (1829-1920), born Warwick Bridge, pupil of the Rev Thomas Woodrow (qv) at Carlisle Sunday Schools, upon the visit of President Woodrow Wilson (qv) to Carlisle he was the only former pupil of the president’s grandfather surviving to be presented to him; Mary Slee, Older Carlisle: Local Worthies p.5
Watson, Thomas James (1847-1912), ARWS, artist, yst son and 7th child of Dawson Watson (qv), born at Sedbergh and bapt privately there, 3 February 1847, yst brother of John Dawson Watson (qv), studied at Royal Academy, spent winter of 1870 in Cullercoats on Northumberland coast with his brother and other London artists, exhibiting Fisherman’s Courtship and Waiting for the Boats at Royal Academy in 1871, elected ARWS in 1880 and a member of Society of British Artists in 1882, marr (1875) Florence G Collis, 2 sons (John Everard (b.1876) and Thomas Collis (b.1878)) and 3 daus (Florence Mary (b.1879), Millicent Dorothea (b.1883) and Sylvia Annette (b.1886)), listed as landscape painter living with family in Surrey in 1891, continued to exhibit up to his death in 1912
Watson, William (1826-1917), methodist minister, born at Kirkoswald in November 1826, son of Joseph Watson, of Scalehouses, near Renwick, bridge builder in Eskdale and Ravenglass areas, and Wesleyan local preacher at Renwick, and his wife from Newbiggin, near Croglin, educ Croft House Academy, Brampton, started own village school at age of 14, later moving to Wigton to teach there and became a local preacher, great walker and climber, trained for Wesleyan ministry at Didsbury College, Manchester in 1849-50, then served in Wareham Circuit in Dorset 1850-1853, Southampton 1853-1854, Wimborne 1854-1857, Bodmin 1857-1860, Hoyle 1860-1863, Market Rasen 1863-1866, Knaresborough 1866-1869, Colne 1869-1872, Clitheroe 1872-1875, Hyde 1875-1878, Heywood 1878-1881, Cockermouth 1881-1884, Kirkoswald 1884-1887, and Ambleside 1887-1890, retiring to Prospect Hill, Lowther Street, Penrith and preaching regularly in Penrith Circuit, led a large class at Wordsworth Street Church, supported numerous Methodist activities, marr (185x) Miss Harding (died 1914, aged 88), of Salisbury, 1 son (died inf) and 1 dau (died aged 30), died at Prospect Hill, 21 August 1917, aged 91, and buried in Penrith cemetery after funeral at Wordsworth Street Church, 24 August (CWH, 25.08.1917; CWHS, Journal 81, Spring 2018, 20-21)
Watson, William (1858-1935; ODNB) Kt., poet, lined up to be poet laureate instead of Robert Bridges, his breakdown made this impossible, though some state that he had annoyed the establishment, d. Ambleside, his poems include ‘The Eloping Angel’, the ‘Prince’s Quest’, ‘Lachrymae Musarum’, upon the death of Tennyson and his ‘Wordsworth’s Grave’ was described by AE Housman as ‘one of the precious things in our literature’ (Percy Withers Memoir of Housman); Jean Moorcroft-Wilson, I was an English Poet, 1981
Watson, William, Baron Thankerton (1873-1948; ODNB), PC, KC, judge and politician, born in Edinburgh, 8 December 1873, 3rd son of William Watson (1827-1899), Baron Watson, of Thankerton, and his wife Margaret Bannatyne (1846-1898), educ Winchester and Jesus College, Cambridge (3rd in law tripos 1895), admitted to Faculty of Advocates 1899, took silk 1914, advocate deputy 1919, procurator to general assembly of Church of Scotland 1918-1922, entered politics as Unionist MP for Lanark South 1913-1918 and Conservative MP for Carlisle 1924-1929 (defeating Labour candidate by over 2,000 votes for Conservative success in city for 50 years), solicitor general for Scotland 1922, lord advocate 1922-1924 and 1924-1929, privy councillor 1922, went straight from the bar to House of Lords in 1929 on being apptd a lord of appeal in ordinary, created baron Thankerton, of Thankerton in County of Lanarkshire, 1 May 1929, it is said he would knit in court, marr (1902) Sophia Marjorie, dau of John James Cowan, of Bavelaw Castle, Balerno, 2 sons and 1 dau, died aged 74, 13 June 1948
Watson, William Henry (1859-1934), kt. JP FCS FGS, of Braystones, industrial chemist, artist and antiquary, his father Henry Hough Watson was a pupil of John Dalton, the business was making soap and dye, he produced a test to identify milk adulteration, member of the board of guardians Whitehaven, erected jubilee tower at Braystones to Victoria in 1897 which contained a museum, member of the Lake Artists, memorial window Beckermet; Renouf, 67-8; Neil Curry, Cumbrian Coast, 132
Watt, Professor Ian (1917-1999), literary critic and professor of English, b. Windermere, educ Dover County School and St John’s Cambridge, 2nd WW wounded at the battle of Singapore, imprisoned in Changi Gaol and nearly died on the Burma railway, later very critical of the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, professor at Stanford university, author of The Rise of the Novel (1957) and Myths of Modern individualism, obit Stanford News
Wattleworth, DR, writer, published jointly with JY Lancaster, The Iron and Steel Industry of West Cumberland (1977)
Watts, David Pike (1754-1816), son of a London cooper, clerk to and principal beneficiary of the vintner Benjamin Kenton in 1800, patron of Christ’s Hospital, the Institute of Sunday Schools and the Central National School in Baldwin Gardens, bought Storrs Hall from Sir John Legard in 1804, sold it in 1806 to Col Bolton (qqv), uncle and benefactor of the artist John Constable (1776-1837; ODNB; qv) whom he encouraged to visit the Lakes in 1806, lived Portland Place, died in London, his dau and heiress Mary marr to Jesse Russell (later Jesse Watts-Russell), son of Jesse Russell Sr, an eminent soap manufacturer said to be worth £500,000 (Farington), they lived at Ilam Hall, Staffs from 1811, built an octagonal memorial chapel attached to Ilam church as a mausoleum to accommodate a sculpture (1827) by Sir Francis Chantrey (of DP Watts, his daughter and her three children for a fixed price of £5000), described by Nicholas Penny as ‘one of the most impressive sculptural groups created in this country (Church Monuments in Romantic England, 1977); Gent Mag, ODNB, John Constable’s Correspondence (ed James Greig, 1922), Farington’s Diary (ed JB Beckett, 1964)
Watts, Ronald (Ronnie) (1920-1982) Ronald Watts devoted the last twenty-two years of his life to Border Television, being the first member of staff to be recruited in 1960, as Company Secretary and Chief Accountant, before the foundations were laid for the studios at Harraby; holding the position of Company Secretary and Chief Accountant, in 1966 he was also appointed Station Manager, and at the time of his death, aged 62 years, he was Deputy Managing Director and Company Secretary. During the Second World War, Ronald served in the Royal Artillery in Europe, North Africa and Italy, being demobilised with the rank of Major. Until he joined Border TV, he was a senior accountant with General Motors. For many years, he was Treasurer of the Penrith and Border Conservative Association. He was a founder member and former president of the Carlisle (South) Rotary Club and in 1977 served as chairman of the finance committee of the Carlisle Historical Pageant and as a stage manager. He left a widow, Evchen (who died in February 2011, aged 89 years), two sons and a daughter. Sir John Burgess, first chairman of Border TV, paid tribute to his outstanding service, observing that he was loved and respected by the whole workforce. Tragically, latterly suffering from motor neurone disease, his courage, moral and physical, was remarked upon, as an inspiration to all. He is buried at Wreay cemetery.
Wauchope, Robert, vice-admiral (1788-1862), of Dacre, his geological collection presented to town of Penrith by his representative and housed in museum (in new Town Hall building as of 1938); information Penrith Museum
Waugh family, descendants of the 18thc bishop of Carlisle; CW1 xii 440
Waugh sisters, of the Rev Canon John Waugh of Carlisle, grandson of bishop Waugh (qv), lived Tullie House and were excellent joint hostesses for him, Judith (1731-1799), Isabella (1735-1809), Elizabeth (1737-1814), Mary (1739-1803) and Margaret (1743-1803)
Waugh, Edward (1816-1891), politician and solicitor, born in 1816, son of John Lamb Waugh, of Seat Hill, Irthington, and his wife Catherine, dau of Richard Miles, of Pates Hill, Irthington, marr (1843) Mary, dau of Thomas Liddell, of Carlisle, issue?, admitted solicitor in 1840, partner in firm of E & E L Waugh & Musgrave [Edward Lamb Waugh (his son?)], registrar of county court and clerk to magistrates, and to road trustees, director of Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway Company, elected MP (Liberal) for Borough of Cockermouth in 1880, succ William Fletcher (qv), as last member for parliamentary borough before it was replaced in 1885 by a new county division, which he did not contest, president of Cockermouth Cricket Club, of Burroughs, Papcastle (1883), died 26 March 1891, a huge free-standing memorial clock tower was erected in Main St. [1893] by public subscription, came to be familiarly known as ‘Neddy’, demolished [1960s]; the bell used to be in Cockermouth library and a plaque survives near the Cocker Bridge; E L Waugh was clerk to magistrates and registrar of county court by 1894; Thomas Baker Ashworth (qv) served his articles with him in the early 1860s
Waugh, Edwin (1817-1890; ODNB), dialect poet, born Toad Lane, Rochdale, son of Edward Waugh (1789-1826), shoemaker, and his wife Elizabeth Howarth, apprenticed to Thomas Holden a printer, as a journeyman travelled all over England, returned to Rochdale, secretary to Lancashire Public Schools Association, worked in Manchester, his most famous verse is Come whoam to the childer and me (1856), visited the Lakes and published Rambles in Lake Country (1861), his poem ‘Jannock’ in Tufts of Heather may describe ‘Wonderful Walker’ (qv), he may also have contributed to the inspiration of Mrs Mercier’s Last Wolf (qv), eventually was awarded a civil list pension, portrait by William Percy; he is prominent on the Dialect Writers’ monument in Rochdale (beside the statue to John Bright), also a 20thc monument Waugh’s Well was erected on the moor above Edenfield, Lancashire which has a likeness in bronze; David A. Cross, Sculpture of Lancashire and Cumbria, 2017
Waugh, Evelyn (1903-1964), novelist, stayed at Higham Hall in 1926, en route to Scotland with the Fisher family, from Higham he admired the view of Skiddaw, they were driven round several lakes and went otter hunting, he was travelling with his friend Alastair Graham nephew of Sir Richard Graham with whom he visited the grounds at Netherby; Evelyn Waugh Society information
Waugh, John (1660-1734; ODNB), clergyman, b Scattergate, Appleby, son of a yeoman farmer, bishop of Carlisle (WW, i, 133-136)
Waugh, John (d.1765), dean of Worcester, son of the bishop
Wear, William (18xx-19xx), JP, mayor of Whitehaven 1937-38, councillor for central ward
Weaver, Harriet Shaw (1876-1961; ODNB), editor, political activist and patron of James Joyce (qv), born Frodsham, Cheshire, daughter of Frederick P Weaver, a physician, and his wealthy wife, forbidden to attend university by her old fashioned parents, nonetheless attended courses at the LSE, involved in women’s suffrage, saved the radical periodical The Freewoman from closure and later edited it as The Egoist, her literary editor was Ezra Pound who encouraged her to serialise James Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man in 1914, supported Joyce for many years and gave him great encouragement, on a visit to Penrith, Weaver came across the Giant’s Grave in St Andrew’s graveyard and sent Joyce a leaflet which he used in the early pages of Finnegan’s Wake
Webb, Clarence Stanley (18xx-19xx), FRHS, nurseryman, seedsman and florist, and mayor, son of Cambridgeshire policeman, proprietor of Webbs Horticultural Stores (established in 1810) at 18 Highgate, Kendal (photo c.1910 in RKB (1995), 164), town councillor, mayor of Kendal for two successive terms 1930-1931 and 1931-1932, admitted honorary freeman of borough of Kendal on 1 June 1942, purchased ‘Museum Yard Gardens’ from William Barrack in 1890, attempted to organise Corporation allotments during food shortages of 1916-17, but discouraged by poor response of public (Webbs’ nursery grounds later built on by Gateway supermarket opened in 1986, now Marks and Spencer), of 2 Aikrigg Villas, Burneside Road, Kendal
Webb, Henry J (1846-1893), BSc, PhD, principal, Aspatria Agricultural College 1886-1893, member of Education Cttee, kinsman of Captain Webb (Channel swimmer), athlete and cyclist, marr Ann, dau of John Todd of Mereside (noted shorthorn breeder); Ann succ to the ownership of College on his death on 28 November 1893, and looked after domestic and residential arrangements
Webb, Nigel James Clarkson- (1925-1987), army officer, major, High Sheriff of Cumbria 1986-87, joint hon treasurer of Westmorland Conservative Association from July 1973, marr Ruth (who marr 2nd xx Adorian), yst dau of Lord Wakefield of Kendal, of Buckstone House, Tewitfield, died 3 May 1987, aged 61, and buried at Burton-in-Kendal, 8 May, service of thanksgiving in Kendal parish church (CRO, WDX 878)
Webb, J. Roderick (fl.mid 20thc), poet, published ‘Loweswater’; NN anthology
Webber, William Augustus (18xx-19xx), JP, local councillor, apptd honorary freeman of Appleby in 1937 for 35 years’ service as councillor and alderman of Appleby Borough, inc two terms as mayor 190-03 and 1903-04
Webster, Crayston (18xx-1891), land agent and surveyor, started business on own account in 1844, apptd borough surveyor of Kendal in 1845, carried out valuation of Sizergh Estates and manor of Sedbergh for W C Strickland in 1870, took into partnership son Alexander and John Banks to found firm of Webster, Son & Banks in 1874, with offices in his house at 100 Highgate, Kendal, governor, Newton Rigg College, author of On the Farming of Westmorland (Journal of RASE, 1868), died in March 1891 (PROB/1891/WCOD 234);
Alexander Webster, son, inherited house and office, but lived next door at 102 Highgate;
John Crayston Webster, JP, farmer, of Beetham Hall (1906, JP by 1910, 1914), (sons, b.1879 and 1883; dau b.1889), dead by 1921; William Simpson Webster, farmer, and Ada Margaret, of Beetham Hall (1921, 1930), later of Cherry Tree Cottage, Beetham (1934, 1938)
Webster, David Edward (1939-2009), clergyman, born 13 September 1939, at Rainhill, Merseyside, eldest of 3 children of verger at Rainhill Church, involved in church youth events, trained at King’s College, London (1960) and Edinburgh Theological College (1962), marr (January 1964) Monica Reed (later Revd, NSM), 2 sons and 1 dau, d 1964, p 1965, curate, St Andrew’s, Maghull, nr Liverpool 1964-1969, vicar of St Mary, Wavertree, Liverpool 1969-1976, team vicar of Greystoke, Matterdale and Mungrisdale 1976-1981, rector of Lowton 1981-1988, rector of Stoneleigh with Ashow and Baginton and chaplain of National Agricultural Centre, Stoneleigh 1988-2001, trained agricultural chaplains from all over country, founder member of Farm Crisis Network (to provide help to farmers in distress), priest-in-charge of Pennington, Lindal-with-Marton, and Bardsea 2001-2002 and vicar 2002-2006, rural officer in dio Carlisle, retd, but ill with brain tumour at end of 2008, died August 2009, with burial of ashes at Matterdale Church, 13 September (CN, 28.08.09)
Webster, Francis (1767-1827), mason, builder and architect, mayor of Kendal 1823-24, marr 1st (1793) Janet Slater (1771-1805), 3 sons (inc George, qv) and 4 daus, marr 2nd (20 January 1808, at Ulverston) Margaret Lowry (c.1768-1815), widow (nee Ashburner), died 10 October 1827 (portrait by James Ward, 1823, in Kendal Town Hall); Angus Taylor, Janet Martin ed. The Websters of Kendal, 2004; CW3 vii 113, CW3 viii; Pevsner and Hyde
Webster, George (1797-1864; ODNB), architect, mayor of Kendal 1829-30, marr (1827) Eleanor Lowry (1804-1867; buried 4 May 1867), 1 son (Francis (1829-1872), who purchased 6 Thorny Hills, Kendal from Isaac Braithwaite (qv) on 13 February 1852, then sold it to Robert Moser, of Kendal, on 4 June 1855 (deeds in CRO, WDX 138/T3-4), marr (1860) Sarah Huddleston (1835-1914, died at Middleton and buried at Lindale, 17 October 1914, aged 79), died at Cartmel and buried at Lindale, 6 July 1872, aged 43) and 4 daus (Margaret (b.1830, wife of William Potts), Jane (1832-1901, died at 20 Craven Road, London, aged 69, and buried at Lindale, 8 October 1901), Eleanor (1834-1837), and Ellen (1840-1900), wife of Stephen Hart Jackson (1835-1927)), of Eller How, Lindale, buried at Lindale, 22 April 1864, aged 66; Angus Taylor, Janet Martin ed. The Websters of Kendal, 2004; Pevsner and Hyde;
George Webster (1862-1931), prob son of Francis and Sarah Webster (infra), of 23 Regent Street, Lancaster (1886), but owned freehold house at 5 Kent Terrace, Kendal, died at Kendal and buried in family vault at Lindale, 7 December 1931, aged 69
Webster, John, steward of barony of Barton 1680s
Webster, John (17xx-18xx), clergyman, curate of Thrimby 1805 (letter to Lord – re church in CRO, WPR 105/)
Webster, Robert (c.1626-1693), bailiff, employed as bailiff of Cockermouth 1657 and bailiff of the Five Towns 1664-1692 (see Webster family ancestry in CW3, viii, 256-58)
Webster, Robert (1726-1799), mason, of Quarry Flatt, Cartmel, eldest son of Thomas Webster and Mary (d.1745), marr (1754 at Cartmel Priory) Ann Crosfield, will made 12 June 1793, proved 1800 (copy in CRO, WDY 502) (WoK, 3-5)
Webster, Robert (18xx-19xx), clergyman, prob rel to George Webster [officiated at funeral of Jane Webster at Lindale in 1901], at St Bees 1875, d 1877 and p 1878 (Carl), curate of St James, Barrow-in-Furness 1877-1878, vicar of Haile 1878-1883, curate of St Katharine, Southbourne, Hants 1883-1885, vicar of Millbrook, Beds 1885-1888, vicar of Crosby Ravensworth 1888-18xx, vicar of Winster 1901-1903 (between August 1901 and January 1903) – between incumbencies of George Boag (qv) and Richard Hindle (qv) with a number of officiating ministers between 1899 and 1904, pres decd by 1914
Webster, Thomas (fl.1868-70), independent minister, of Airedale College, when invited to be pastor of Independent Chapel at Kirkby Stephen on 2 June 1868, following resignation of Charles Calloway (qv), with salary of £100 (inc grants from West Riding Home Missionary Society and Lady Hewley’s Charity), commencing duties on 16 August, taking on cottage service at Nateby on Sabbath afternoons, and allowed four Sundays a year for rest, but gave in resignation at meeting on 6 January 1870, which was not accepted, but he had moved on by February 1871, when Peter Reid (qv) took up his duties (minute book of Independent Chapel at Kirkby Stephen in CRO, WDFC/C3/1)
Wedgwood, Aaron (1671-1746), potter, b. Burslem, having arrived in 1698 trialled local clay, established pottery at Whitehaven, m. Margaret Tunstall; ancestry.com
Wedgwood, Aaron II (1705-1758), potter, born Broughton Manor Bridekirk, marr Anne Ardell, died Flimby Hall
Wedgwood, Aaron III (1732-1813), potter, married Mary Dixon, lived Flimby Hall
Wedgwood Benn, Anthony (aka Tony Benn) (1925-2014; ODNB), 2nd Lord Stansgate (title disclaimed for life), Labour politician, lectured in Carlisle c. 2014 in a packed St Cuthbert’s church
Weedall, Joseph Norman David (Dave) (19xx-2012), mayor of Carlisle 1979-80, wife Noleen, 2 sons (Mark and Antony) and 1 dau (Jane), died at home in Carlisle, 7 April 2012, aged 77; civic service at St Cuthbert’s church, Carlisle, and cremated at Carlisle, 18 April (CN, 13 and 20.04.2012)
Weight, Carel (1908-1997), artist, hon advisor to Tullie House from 1953-1962, painted portrait of Mary Burkett (qv)
Weir, Mark (1966-2011), entrepreneur and mine owner, born at Carlisle, 30 January 1966, son of parents who ran a farm and tourism business near Keswick, grew up in Borrowdale on shores of Derwentwater, educ Lairthwaite Secondary Modern School, Keswick, leaving at sixteen with no qualifications, had love of flying from early age and soon starting his first business, ran a commercial helicopter operation in Leeds, also a building contractor and restaurateur, commuted daily by helicopter from his home in Loweswater to Honister Slate Mine, which he revived and turned into a successful commercial operation as well as a tourist attraction, (having been inspired by flight over then defunct mine with his grandfather, who had worked there from age of 14), never having worked in the industry before, but driven by determination to provide jobs in rural community, he bought lease of mine from McAlpines in 1997 with his business partner Bill Taylor, initially struggling to make it viable, his Westmorland green slate was used on roof of Buckingham Palace and widely in the building trade and also crushed for businesses like B&Q, opened visitor centre and cafe, offered guided tours of eleven miles of tunnels at mine, staff of 30, drawing 60,000 visitors a year, launched new attraction in 2007 with Via Ferrata, a mountain path following old miners’ route which zigzags up to summit of Fleetwith Pike, using fixed cable, steel ladders and bridges, proposed a £250,000 1,200 metre zip-wire attraction in 2010 to run from Black Star to base of visitor centre, supported by Cumbria Tourism but opposed by conservation groups and withdrawn, continually frustrated by red tape of national park planners, a driven, creative and highly energetic entrepreneur, and self-made millionaire, partner of 27 years Jan Wilkinson, 2 sons and 1 dau, killed in helicopter crash near Honister mine, 8/9 March 2011, aged 45 (Times, 29.03.2011); garden created in his memory, a Coastal Retreat, designed by Tracey Hutchison and built by Nigel Walker, both of Cockermouth
Welch, Henry Thomas (1835-1906), DL, JP, landowner, born 8 March 1835, only son of Revd Thomas Robinson Welch (1792-1844), MA, and his wife, Olive, dau of John Bond, educ Harrow and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, marr (17 May 1859) Jemima Caroline (died at Leck Hall, 13 January 1936, aged 95), only dau of Major Edward Jacob Bridges, RA, 1 son (Henry Edward Parker (1860-1926), JP) and 1 dau (Caroline Agnes (1865-1937), unm), DL and JP Westmorland, of Leck Hall, died 2 August 1906 (HPT, 83)
Wells, Benjamin (fl.19th cent), dancing master and fiddler, much in demand at merry neets (social gatherings) and at Christmas, the poem Ben Wells is by A C Gibson (qv)
Wells, Rev William (1649-1699), vicar of Millom and headmaster of the school, drowned in Duddon sands
Wells, William Keys- (18xx-1891), JP, clergyman, rector of Clifton 1870-1891, qual as JP for Westmorland, 21 October 1886, died in 1891
Wells, William McC Keys- (c.1856-1943), clergyman, probably the son of the above, rector of Clifton 1891-19xx, died at the rectory, aged 87, and buried xx October 1943
Wells Brown, William (1814-1884), escaped slave and abolitionist, born in Kentucky of mixed race and descended from Stephen Hopkins a Mayflower passenger, wrote the first novel by an African American, lectured on abolition in USA and UK, visited the Lake District in 1851 and stayed with Harriet Martineau (qv) an established critic of enslavement, and visited Felicia Hemans (qv) and the Wordsworth graves; CWAAS newsletter 2022
Welton, Gilbert (fl.1353-1362), cleric and church administrator, visited the pope at Avignon, bishop of Carlisle from 1353-1362; The Register of Gilbert Welton, ed. R.L. Storey, CWAAS, 1999 contains court records and wills
Wennington, Miles (1726-1777), cleric, b. Thwaites near Millom, graduate of Queen’s college, headmaster of Carlisle GS, taught Myles Cooper (qv) and Thomas Sanderson; his brother John also at Queen’s
Werge, John, itinerant photographer; CWAAS 2017, 183
Wesley, John (1703-1791; ODNB), clergyman and founder of Methodism, preached from village green at Seaton on 2 June 1752, first preached at Kendal in 1753, at Flookburgh in May 1759, at Workington on 19 April 1761, made 25 visits to Whitehaven between 1749 and 1788 (Whitehaven and District Civic Society and CWHS plaque 1998), using the port to make visits to his followers in Ireland and Isle of Man, first chapel opened in Michael Street in 1761 (Wesley’s Journal (1938), preached in several other places in the county including Brough and at Temple Sowerby, where there is a plaque by the maypole; the tree at Appleby (wrongly stated to record a visit there) was blown down in 1959; CWHS, Journal 68, Autumn 2011, 13-19; David Jackson in Journal 81, Spring 2018, 4-8, Kenneth J. Collins, A Wesley Bibliography, 5th edn. online; Howard Oliver, Travelling Geographer, 2015
West, John Alan (d.1964), victim of murder, driver of a laundry van, lived at Seaton near Workington, his murderers Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen were the last to be hanged in England
West, Revd George Arnold (c.1895-19xx), minister of religion, of 8 Ashleigh, Burneside Road, Kendal, aged 33, when he marr (28 July 1928, at Wesleyan Chapel, Wordsworth Street, Penrith) Mary Isabella Harrison, aged 28, headmistress, of Station House, Cliburn
West, Richard (fl. mid 20thc.- c.2016), E flat clarinettist, trained at Royal Academy of Music under John Davies, won John Solomon prize for woodwind, m. Judith, taught Royal College of Music, played at Sadlers Wells, National Symphony orchestra Dublin, retired to Carlisle and restored a house in Abbey St, lived on Tiree and latterly the Isle of Bute
West [formerly Daniel], Thomas (1717x20-1779; ODNB), SJ, priest, antiquary and writer, born in Inverness, Scotland, probably on 1 January 1720, but parents unknown, distantly related to Sir Thomas Preston [CWAAS, 1910, 332], educ in public schools in Edinburgh, a traveller in trade for some time, not certain when or why he changed his name to West, began divinity studies, joined the Jesuits in 1751, mission priest in Furness and Westmorland, settled at Tytup Hall near Dalton in Furness, where he wrote most of the Antiquities of Furness (1774), but his Guide to the Lakes (1778) was critical in stimulating demand to visit Lake District, his assistant in the work was William Cockin (qv), his great contribution to interpretation of landscape was idea of ‘stations’ or the best viewpoints to which tourists were gently directed (influenced by stations of the cross?), his first ‘station’ at Claife on Windermere became the site of a fine gazebo (after years of neglect by the National Trust now partly restored, with stained glass), large quantities of his guides sold by Peter Crosthwaite’s Museum at Keswick (516 copies bought between 1789 and 1811), Crosthwaite (qv) enhanced its value by surveying the individual lakes and printing a series of maps in the 1790s which show West’s stations (new edition by Bill Rollinson qv), one of first writers to advance theories concerning destruction of coastal settlements in Low Furness (mentioned in Domesday Book and known to have existed during early monastic period) by suggesting they were destroyed by tidal inundations (AoF, 21), also author of Antiquities discovered in Lancaster, 1776 printed in Archaeologia (1779) (see CW2, lxxi, 23), died at Sizergh Castle, 10 July 1779, and buried (as ‘the Revd Thomas West from Sizergh’) at own request ‘just outside’ Strickland chapel in Kendal parish church, 12 July, aged 62 (no known image?; mss inc corresp, abstracts of deeds of Strickland of Sizergh, and drafts for Antiquities and Guides in LRO as part of the Hornby Presbytery Collection, ref: RCHy; CW2, lxxix, 131-138); obit. Cumberland Pacquet 20th July 1779; note in front of the Jackson Library copy of his Guide to the Lakes [1778] refers to his ‘modest and inoffensive behaviour and useful qualifications’, the guide ran to twelve editions in 45 years; West’s Guide was used heavily by Wordsworth in his own later guide [1810], and was acknowledged there; later editions of West’s Guide continued to sell in tandem with Wordsworth’s until the 1820s; new information and biographical notes added by William Cockin (qv), editor of the second edition
West Watson, see Watson
Westall, William (1781-1850; ODNB), RA, FLS, artist and engraver, born in Hertford, 12 October 1781, son of Benjamin Westall (1736-1794), brewer, and his 2nd wife Martha (1752-1806), dau of Henry Harbord, of Norwich, and yr brother of Richard Westall, RA (1765-1836; ODNB), educ schools in Sydenham and Hampstead, taught drawing by his elder brother, engaged as landscape draughtsman on the Investigator for voyage to New Holland (Australia) in 1799 and introduced to Sedbergh area by ship’s astronomer, James Inman from Garsdale, appears to have had a mental breakdown in 1815, became a regular visitor to Lake District with the help of Sir George Beaumont and became acquainted with Wordsworth and Southey, his Views of the Valley and Vale of Keswick published with introduction by Southey in 1820, three sonnets by Wordsworth suggested by his views of the caves in Yorkshire in 1818, produced a third book of drawings from London to Edinburgh (inc bridge in Kendal), marr (22 September 1820) Ann (1789-1862), dau of Revd Richard Sedgwick (qv), vicar of Dent, and sister of Adam Sedgwick (qv), 3 sons (William (born in London 1821 and educ at Sedbergh School), Thomas and Robert), living for a time at Stock Beck (or Kitchens) in upper Dentdale exhibited 70 works at the Royal Academy, 30 paintings and drawings at the British Institution, and seven in the Suffolk Street Gallery, died at Northbank, St John’s Wood, London, 22 January 1850, and buried in Highgate cemetery near John Constable (SDHS Newsletter No 12, April 1985)
Westmorland, earls of, see Neville and Fane, for two centuries the Neville family held this title and then after 1571 the Fane family; qqv; ODNB
Westmorland family, yeomen and tanners, Penrith
Westmorland, Lt. Col. Horace (1886-1984), climbed Pillar on his 65th, 75th and 85th birthdays
Westmorland, Mary (b.c.1860), youthful sportswoman, aunt of Horace (qv), in 1873 climbed Pillar Rock and skated the length of the frozen Ullswater and back in 1879
Westmorland, Thomas (17xx-18xx), clergyman, curate of Buttermere from 1829 (when Revd Thomas Benson officiated), later vicar of Sandal, nr Wakefield, vicar of Brantingham with Ellerker, Yorks from 1857, dau Mary (marr (1825) Revd Wilmot Cave-Browne-Cave (1802-1857), 4th son of Sir William Cave-Browne-Cave, 9th Bt, and later of Rosebank, Temple Sowerby and died in 1897 at The Cedars, in the same village in her 97th year)
Westoll, James (1889-1969), JP, BA, landowner, born 1889, son of James Westoll (1860-1929), JP, of High Coniscliffe and The Cloisters, Sunderland (son of James Westoll (d.1895), of Sunderland), educ Cambridge University (BA), Captain, by 1920 settled at Glingerbank, Kirkandrews-on-Esk, Longtown, High Sheriff of Cumberland 1933, marr, 2 sons, died 1969
Westoll, James (Tim) (1918-1999), DL, JP, MA, barrister and local government leader, born 26 July 1918, er son of James Westoll (qv), educ Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge (MA), marr (1946) Sylvia Jane (born 1 July 1922), MBE, 3rd and yst dau of Sir Arthur Fairfax Charles Coryndon Luxmoore (d.1944), PC, QC, a Lord Justice of Appeal (see BLG, Luxmoore, formerly of Okehampton), of Bilsington, Kent, 2 sons and 2 daus (Joy was formerly secretary to Willie Whitelaw (qv)), served WWII, Major, Border Regt (despatches), called to Bar, Lincoln’s Inn 1952, member, NW Electricity Board 1959-1966, county councillor 1947, chairman, Cumbria County Council 1973-1976, Cumbria Local Government Reorganisation Joint Committee 1973, and Cumberland County Council 1958-1974, county alderman 1959, and Deputy Chairman, Cumberland Quarter Sessions 1960-1971, High Sheriff of Cumberland 1964, DL 1963, CStJ 1977, KStJ 199x, vice-president of Voluntary Action Cumbria (1977), of Dykeside, Longtown, died 7 February 1999, aged 80
Weston, George Frederick (1819-1887), clergyman and artist, born in London, 12 August 1819, educ Cambridge University, travelled widely in Europe and Near East before ordination, keeping journals and making sketches and watercolours, produced many views of Cumbria and Mediterranean subjects, also lithographed his work (inc Holy Trinity Parish Church, Kendal before the restoration of 1850), p Chester, curate of Kendal 1847-1848, vicar of Crosby Ravensworth 1848-1887, hon canon of Carlisle 1879, rural dean of Lowther, author of A Few Words on a Resolution Passed at the Diocesan Conference held at Carlisle, September 1885 (1885), in which he advocated action in support of each rural dean forming a committee of clergy and laity to educate people in history of the Church and its endowments in opposition to the pro-disestablishment and disendowment position of the ‘Liberation Society’, chairman of governors and correspondent of Crosby Ravensworth School until his death, marr 1st (1848) Mary, 1 son and 3 daus, 2nd (1861) Caroline (died in childbirth, Biarritz, 1864), 3rd (1883) Elizabeth, 2nd dau of Richard Breeks, of Warcop, died about 2.30 am, 14 November 1887, after a few weeks’ illness, and buried at Crosby, 17 November (D Risk, 2010); Mary Weston, his sister?, died at Torquay, aged 31, and buried at Heversham, 6 December 1855. Mark Blackett-Ord described him as ‘a rather grand vicar of Crosby Ravensworth’ who was ‘cultured, energetic and had travelled much in Europe and the Middle East in the 1840s’, he remodelled his church with funds from the Dent family of Flass and the gargoyles at the church are said to represent him and his three wives, his son JW Weston (qv) was later an MP and baronet; CWAAS newsletter 2021
Weston, Sir John Wakefield (1852-1926), 1st Bt, TD, DL, JP, gunpowder manufacturer and politician, born at Crosby Ravensworth vicarage, 13 June 1852, son of Canon G F Weston (qv) and nephew of W H Wakefield (qv), educ Blencow Grammar School, nr Penrith, and University College, Oxford, but recalled in 1872 to take over as general manager of Wakefield gunpowder works, purchased plot of land in Endmoor (the Orchard) in 1873 and built house ‘Enyeat’ on site of old cottage, marr (8 January 1890) Kate (died 2 May 1927, aged 61, and buried at Preston Patrick, 4 May), dau of J R Brougham, of Carshalton, 1 son (John Archibald, Lieut, 1st Royal Fusiliers, born 11 February 1896, died at Aldershot, unmarried 23 May 1920) and 2 daus (Mary Elizabeth, Mrs Herman Willink, and Alfreda Theodosia, secretary and later master of Oxenholme Staghounds in 1930s), county councillor for Crooklands, chairman of Westmorland County Council from March 1908 to September 1926, MP for South Westmorland 1913-1918 and 1922-1924, unveiled Kendal War Memorial on 8 July 1921, Colonel, late 4th Bn Border Regt, vice-chairman of Westmorland Territorial Army Association, secretary of Oxenholme Staghounds (1914), first president, Kendal RUFC 1905-07, DL Westmorland (apptd in November 1899), cr Baronet, 31 July 1926, of Enyeat, Endmoor, died in Boundary Bank Lane, Bradleyfield, after presenting prizes to territorials on Kendal Fell, 19 September 1926, aged 74, and buried at Preston Patrick, 22 September; His Life and Work in Westmorland by his wife (pr. 1927) (CRO, WDX 313; GMC, 52~80)
Weston, William Basil (1924-1945) VC, b. Ulverston d. Burma
Westropp, Ralph Michael Lanyon (1907-1992), MA, clergyman, born in 1907, educ New College, Oxford (BA 1929, MA 1942), Westcott House, Cambridge 1942, d 1943 and p 1944 (Lon), curate of St John the Baptist, Greenhill 1943-1946, vicar of Sudbury, Middx 1946-1952 and of Cookham 1952-1961, Commissary Zulu from 1958 and Cape Town 1959-1965, and Swaziland 1970, vicar of St Mary, Windermere 1961-1970, rural dean of Kendal and vicar of Natland 1970-1975, hon canon of Carlisle from 1972, presented altar cross to Natland church, retired after five years and presented with hand-made oak coffee table on 19 January 1976, then retired to Inglewood House, Low Biggins, Kirkby Lonsdale, Perm to Offic from 1977, chairman of management committee of Garthwaite Community (a Leonard Cheshire Home for Handicapped Children) at 21 Kendal Green from November 1978 until March 1980, formerly vice-chairman from September 1977, and remained a member until resigning in November 1982, while still retaining a close interest in the home, marr Rachel, children; memorial service at Kirkby Lonsdale, 10 January 1992
Westwood, John, bookbinder, lived Carlisle, designed several early bindings for the Folio Society; Journal of the Bookbinders Society vol.17, 2003
Wetheral, Rowland, mathematician and astronomer, published perpetual calculator or almanack in middle of 18th century
Whall, Veronica (1887-1967), stained glass artist, trained by her father Christopher Whall (1849-1924), some of her glass in Carlisle, Aldingham, Keswick and by her father at Killington; Hyde and Pevsner
Wharton, Gilbert (16xx-1679), MA, BD, clergyman, ‘our 3rd Senior whom Mr Sands educated’ (pres Thomas at Kendal) acc to letter of 23 March 1679 from Thomas Dixon to Sir DF (CRO, WD/Ry/HMC 2157), entd Queen’s College, Oxford as batler 11 May and matric 26 October 1660, BA 15 October 1664, MA 7 May 1668, BD 19 July 1677, elected taberdar 23 June 1663, Fellow 4 March 1669, chamberlain 1674-75, and treasurer 1676-77, rector of St Clement’s, Oxford from 1674 until his death, while still a fellow, in February 1679, and buried in old chapel (FiO, i, 279)
Wharton, John (c.1834-1906), clergyman, rector of Ormside, died at the rectory, Ormside, aged 72, and buried at Milburn, 14 July 1906 [rel to Ophelia Wharton, of Stainmore, Brough, buried at Milburn, 8 November 1866, aged 24; John Wharton, of Appleby, 28 February 1858, aged 57]
Wharton, Mark Henry (1924-2010) Educated at Appleby-in-Westmorland, Mark Wharton was the son of George and Clair Wharton. He studied at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary School in Edinburgh, where he became the athletics champion in 1946; a fellow pupil was Alf Wight, the author of the James Herriot books. On qualification in 1946, he joined the large animal practice of Craig Robinson at Carlisle, later, in 1961, setting up his own large animal practice, which he developed to include small animals, establishing an enviable reputation over a very wide area in and around Carlisle; he retired from the practice in 1989. Closely involved in community activities, he served as treasurer of The Twelve Men of Wreay and was also a governor of the Austin Friars School, Carlisle. In 1994, he became closely involved with the Veterinary Benevolent Fund, as a board director; serving as its honorary treasurer for eleven years, he oversaw the transformation of its finances, his work recognised by the first fellowship the Fund awarded. At home, in Heads Nook, he was a great gardener. Dying aged 85 years, he was survived by his widow, Kathleen (who died in 2015), a son and three grandchildren. He is buried at Wreay cemetery.
Wharton, Mary (1677-1727), heiress, was the daughter of Philip Wharton and had inherited the manor of Farleton, Kendal, she was abducted aged 13 in 1690 by Captain James Campbell, the brother of the 10th earl of Argyll, who married her without her consent, the marriage was annulled later the same year by act of Parliament, her guardian Col Robert Byerley of Goldsborough (Y), became her second husband in 1692 and they had two sons and three daughters; is this family related to Captain Byerley who named the Byerley Turk, a key ancestor of racehorses ?
Wharton, Posthumus (c.1650-1714), schoolmaster, born at Barton Kirk, son of Humfrey Wharton, educ Barton School, admitted St John’s College, Cambridge, 24 June 1667 (with William Birkbeck from Westmorland as tutor), BA 1670, MA 1674, headmaster of Sedbergh School 1674-1706 (apptd by governors rather than master and fellows of St John’s), resigned on 26 June 1706 and became a governor, well regarded master of his time, lived at Thorns Hall, married three times: 1st (4 May 1676 at Sedbergh) Barbara Corney (died at Thorns and buried on 30 September 1681), 4 sons and 1 dau; 2nd Mary (died at Thorns in childbirth of twins (Mary and Margaret) on 7 September 1690 and buried on following day), dau of Sir John Otway (qv); 3rd (7 June 1696) Margaret (born 7 October 1659, buried 24 March 1737 at Sedbergh), dau of John Cowper of Pedgecroft, Sedbergh (a governor of school), left by his will property in Thorns, Underbank and Esher in Sedbergh, and at Slough in Docker, Kendal, and £50 to Governors to maintain a scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, died at Thorns Hall and buried in Sedbergh churchyard on 27 March 1714 (SSR, 14-18; FiO, iii, 481-82)
Wharton, Thomas (fl. 1422-1453), MP for Appleby 1436-37
Wharton, Sir Thomas, 1st baron Wharton, (1495-1568; ODNB), b Wharton, er son of Thomas Wharton and Agnes, dau of Reginald Warcop of Smardale, marr 1st Eleanor, 2nd Lady Anne Bray, dau of Sir Brian Stapleton, of Wighill, 2 sons (Thomas – 2nd baron (1520-1572; ODNB) and Henry) and 2 daus (Agnes and Joan), warden of West March 1544-, deputy warden-general of all three Marches in July 1552 (CPR), acquired manor of Kirkby Stephen in 1546, founded Free School at Kirkby Stephen (M E James), inventory 1568 (Joan Evans, AJ, cii, 134-150); CW2 lxxxvi 133; CW2 xcv 111; monument in KS church; they also held the manor of Croglin until the death of Philip James (grandson of the 4th baron) the 1st duke of Wharton [1698-1731; ODNB]; Mark Blackett Ord, Hell Fire Duke [1982]
Wharton, Sir George, 1st Bt (1617-1681; ODNB), astrologer and royalist, born at Strickland, near Kendal, 4 April 1617, son of George Wharton, blacksmith and farmer [KPR gives baptism of George, son of Edwarde Wharton, of Stricklandkettle, on 6 April 1617], inherited estate of about £50 a year after father’s early death, brought up by uncles, William and Cuthbert Wharton, sent to Oxford to study mathematics and astronomy in 1633, but returned home without matric, moved to Bishop Auckland by 1641, published his Loyal Almanac as ‘George Naworth’, commissioned a captain of horse on 8 March 1645, raising troop by selling his estate in Westmorland, apptd Treasurer and Paymaster of the Ordnance in November 1670, cr Baronet, of Kirkby Kendall, 19 December 1677, marr Anne Butler, 4 sons (George (died v.p.), Polycarpus, Richard and William) and 3 daus (Dorothy, Jane and Anne), died at his house in Enfield, Middlesex, 12 August 1681, and buried in St Peter’s chapel within Tower of London, 25 August; succ by eldest surv son, Sir Polycarpus (WW, ii, 225-228; BEDB, 562)
Wheatley, Francis (1747-1801; ODNB), artist, visited the Lakes
Wheatley, George (fl.1760s/80s), steward of manor court of Lowther, Hackthorpe and Whale, steward of court baron of Sir James Lowther’s manors in Marquess Fee (1778)
Wheatley, George Andrew (1908-19xx), MA, BCL, admitted solicitor 1932, deputy clerk of County Council for Cumberland 1939 and deputy clerk of Peace 1941, clerk of County Council and clerk of the Peace, also clerk to County Licensing Committee, Standing Joint Committee, Education Committee, Cumberland 1942-1946, then moved to Hampshire
Wheatley, James Atkinson (18xx-19xx), deputy mayor of Carlisle 1893-94, of 8, Portland Square, Carlisle
Wheeler, Agnes [Ann] (1734-1804; ODNB), writer on dialect, author (as Ann Wheeler) of The Westmorland Dialect (dedicated to James Wearing, Esq. of Knowsley) (1790) (new edition 1840), Strictures on the Inhabitants of a Market Town, Female Restoration and Acco and Ego (a dialogue), bapt at Cartmel, 3 July 1734, dau of Edward Cowherd (Coward) (qv) and his wife Eleanor, of Church Town, Cartmel, educ Cartmel, spent 18 years in London (part as housekeeper in gentleman’s family), marr xx Wheeler, captain of vessel in the Guinea trade, returned after his death to live with her brother, William Machel Coward, at Arnside Tower, where she died on 2 November 1804 and buried in chancel of Beetham Church (as Mrs Aggy Wheeler, aged 68), 15 November 1804 (Dialogues published by Len Smith, 2011)
Wheeler, Margaret, of Workington, convinced that she had been presented with the wrong baby after she had given birth in the maternity ward, corresponded with G.B. Shaw; Rebecca Swift ed., Letters from Margaret, 1992
Whelan, Revd Thomas W (d.1970), Roman Catholic priest, parish priest of Arnside and Milnthorpe 1956-1961, died in June 1970
Whineray, Samuel (c.1803-18xx), tanner and currier, born in Kendal (aged 48 in 1851), son of Robert Whineray (born 1780 at Whineray Ground, Dunnerdale, moving to Kendal, as his elder brother John took over farm, then succ by his eldest son William Mason and then by his eldest son John, who later moved to nearby Sykehouse until his death in 1914, leaving only a dau Mary Anne, who married her cousin Alfred Henri (infra) and died in 1968), alderman, and mayor of Kendal 1843-1844 and 1848-1849, when living at 100 Highgate, Kendal (between Isaac Braithwaite and Crayston Webster’s occupation), employing 8 men and 5 apprentices in 1851, marr (by 1825) ??, 1 son (Samuel, 20) and 2 daus (Sarah Adlington (26) and Fanny (22) in 1851), moved to Hollin Bank, Underbarrow (where a son Alfred Henri was born, who was living at Wreaks End, Broughton-in-Furness with his wife Mary Anne (infra) and children (incl John Samuel (qv) and Anne Mary by 1911), died in 18xx (WG, 15.12.2016, 60)
Whineray, John Samuel (19xx-1975), clergyman, son of Alfred Henri Whineray and his wife Mary Anne, succ to Whineray Ground in Dunnerdale on death of his mother in 1968, former vicar of Wasdale, died at Ulpha in 1975, when Whineray Ground passed to his married sister Mrs Anne Mary Atkinson
Whipp, Thomas (20thc), joined Martin Long (qv) early on the development of Eden Construction, retired to the Isel of Man
Whitaker, Cedric Hugh (18xx-1948), dye and chemical manufacturer, born in Kendal, educ Kendal Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford, mayor of Kendal 1942-1943, and one of youngest Borough councillors, Westmorland County Councillor (elected for Highgate Ward, 6 March 1942), president of Rotary Club of Kendal, master mason, governor of Kendal Grammar School and manager of Kirkland and Central Schools, chairman of committee of Kendal Squadron, Air Training Corps from its inception, churchwarden and Church-husband of Kendal Parish Church, secretary of PCC, keen cyclist and walker and supporter of Kendal Rugby and Cricket Clubs, of 50 Gillinggate (1919), Kentrigg (1924), and Woodlands, Queen’s Road, Kendal (1938), buried at Parkside cemetery, 16 November 1948 (CRO, WDX 1401/Misc)
Whitaker, Charles (c.1846-19xx), BA, clergyman and theologian, born in Kendal, 3rd son of James Whitaker (qv), trained at London College of Divinity 1866, later TCD BA 1880, d 1869 and p 1871 (Ripon), curate of South Crossland, Yorks 1869-1872, returned to London as London Diocesan Home Missionary at St Peter’s Limehouse Mission 1872-1875, discovering pitiful state of orphan boys living on the streets, met Edward Rudolf, a Sunday School teacher, who later founded the Waifs and Strays Society in 1881, and became great friends, vicar of Natland 1875-1897, founded St Mark’s Home by taking four boys from W&WS on 1 July 1882 and housing them in schoolmaster’s house on green, feeling it too selfish of him to live in ‘such pleasant country when he might have stayed among the poor of London’, local people playing a big part in success of venture as well as it having a clear religious purpose (three boys baptised at Natland church with addnl name of ‘Mark’), raised enough money to purchase land and build a Home for 24 boys (foundation stone laid by bishop of Carlisle on 1 April 1884 in Home Field and opened by bishop on Whitmonday, 25 May 1885), warden of St Mark’s Home for Waifs and Strays from 1884 (as affiliated to W&W Society) until formally taken over in 1894 [continued until 1975 when it became Holiday Home for children, closing on 31 December 1994], also instrumental in bringing a water supply to village in 1882, vicarage built, additions made to church and school, had several resident students at vicarage preparing to train for the ministry, had his books printed by the boys at St Mark’s Home, found time to write theological works, author of Students’ Aid to the Prayer Book (printed at St Mark’s Orphanage, Natland [1891]), Rufinus in Symbolum Apostolorum, and a Condensed History of the Creeds and Councils (2nd edition, dedicated to Harvey Goodwin, Bishop of Carlisle, printed at St Mark’s, Natland, 1888), died ?? (WG; A Home in the Country by Laura Oldham, 1993)
Whitaker, James (c.1813-18xx), schoolmaster, born at Kirkoswald, aged 38 in 1851, master of Blue Coat School, Sandes Hospital, Kendal for 46 years, wife Mary, from Manchester, aged 34 in 1851, 5 sons (James (12), Edward Jackson (11), John Sampson (7), Charles (5) and Joseph Birkett (3)) and 2 daus (Anne (10) and Lucy (8) in 1851 census), an ‘earnest Christian’
Whitchurch, Henry Frederick [1866-1907], surgeon captain, VC, ‘the hero of Chitral’, a siege in 1897 at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, presented with his medal at Carlisle; Alice F Jackson, Heroes of Chitral, 1897, Dr Barnes (qv) reference in BMJ presidential lecture cited in life of Sir Joseph Gilpin (DCB; qv)
White, Geoffrey Howard (1910-1990), MA, clergyman, born in Sale, Manchester in 1910, 2nd of 3 sons and 2 daus, trained Kelham Theol College 1927, d 1934 and p 1935 (Leic), curate of St Michael AA Belgrave 1934-1937, Holy Trinity, Eltham 1937-1939, CF 1939-1946 (prisoner of war), vicar of Loweswater 1946-1973, curate-in-charge of Buttermere 1949-1973, retired after heart attacks, president of Loweswater and Brackenthwaite Agricultural Show 197x, close friend of Joyce Grenfell (1910-1979) (gave address at her Memorial Service in Westminster Abbey on 7 February 1980), marr at Levens (1980) Joan, JP, dau of Wentworth Bird Robinson (former churchwarden), died at his home Jenkin, Loweswater, 23 January 1990 (A Dash of White: The Memoir of the Reverend Geoffrey Howard White, Vicar of Loweswater, edited and completed by Rosemary Southey, 1990)
White, George Davis (18xx-19xx), MA, clergyman, educ St Bees School and St John’s College, Cambridge (BA 1887, MA 1926), d 1890 and p 1891 (Chester), curate of St John, Birkenhead 1890-1895, and New Brighton 1895-1897, vicar of Shotwick 1897-1902, and St Luke, Lower Tranmere 1902-1914, rector of Wallasey 1914-1936, rural dean of Wallasey 1929-1936, hon canon of Chester 1930-1936 and canon emeritus from 1936, licence to preach, dio Carlisle from 1937, president of Old St Beghians’ Club 1943-1945, retired to Wallasey, Kirkby Lonsdale, died by 1949x57
White, John (b.1820) and William (1826-1912), shipbuilders, sons of William (b.1784) and Mary White of Whitehaven who moved to Ulverston, the father and sons worked with Petty and Postlethwaite as shipbuilders, in 1861 William Jr set up his own yard; J Snell, Ulverston Canal, 73ff
White, John (1866-1933), b. Roe Farm, Dearham, ed. Didsbury college, established in 1891 Waddilove high school and teacher training college in Rhodesia, funded by Sir Joshua Kelley Waddilove (1841-1920); Charles Freer Andrews, John White of Mahonaland, 1935
White, John Pagen (d.1868), FRCS, author of Lays and Legends of the English Lake Country, with copious notes, published by his brother (B. J.) unrevised after his sudden death in 1868 (London and Carlisle, 1873)
White, Margot Cairns (1912-1960), lived at Denton Holme before the war, attended Carlisle Girls High School, married ‘Lord Haw Haw’ (qv)
White, William (1826-1912), last Ulverston shipbuilder, author of Furness Folk and Facts (1930) (based on articles in local press entitled Peeps into the Past between 1923 and 1926 and edited by his son, W E White), of 24 The Ellers, Ulverston, son of William White, ship designer for Messrs Petty and Postlethwaite at the Low Yard (moved to larger yard at head of canal in 1867) (FFF, 45)
Whitehaven Child Miners, the pits of West Cumbria (and elsewhere) employed children as young as 8 for long shifts underground, often being in the dark for long periods, 76 names listed on the monument at Whitehaven of children who died in the pits (St Nicholas churchyard) David A. Cross, Public Sculpture, 2017, 187-88
Whitehead, Anthony (1820-1914), dialect poet, lived at Reagill and a friend of Thomas Bland (qv), wrote ‘The Witch of Tebay’, and Legends of Westmorland and Other Poems (facsimile edn. 1896), includes The Death Chant of the Prostrate Sycamores at Reagill, involved in Bland’s festivities at Reagill, usually in fancy dress, he is described in some detail in the Bland material; volumes in Jackson collection; Journal of Lakeland Dialect Society, no 32, 1970, 30
Whitehead, George (c.1636-1723), Quaker, born at Sunbiggin, Orton, educ Blencow Grammar School, where he kept sober company of studious scholars rather than that ‘of loose extravagant boys, though of the gentry or richer sort’, good enough to be employed as a tutor, parents considered him for training in church, but embraced opinions of Quakers at age of sixteen when he went to meeting at Sunny Bank (Captain Henry Ward’s house), near Grayrigg chapel, frequented meetings at Sedbergh (at Thomas Blaykling’s house, at Gervase Benson’s, and at Richard Robinson’s at Brigflats) as well as at Grayrigg, then went out next year to preach truth in midland counties, later of City of London, Devonshire House monthly meeting, colleague of William Penn, minister of Gospel for about 68 years, died 8 March 1723 and buried in Friends’ burial ground near Bunhill Fields (WNB, 154-160; Memoirs of George Whitehead, orig pub 1725, later edition introd by Samuel Tuke, 2 vols, 1830)
Whitehead, Henry (1825-1896), MA, clergyman and antiquary, born at Ramsgate, Isle of Thanet, Kent, educ Lincoln College, Oxford (BA 1850 and MA 1854), ordained d 1851 and p 1852 dio London, curate of St Luke’s, Berwick Street 1851-1856, when outbreak of cholera in 1853 led to 700 deaths, held six other curacies in and around London before becoming vicar of Brampton 1874-1884, member of CWAAS from 1874 and member of Council, close friend of the nonconformist Peter Burn (qv), incumbent of Newlands 1884-1885, rector of Newton Reigny 1885-1890, declined earl of Carlisle’s offer of Morpeth in 1890 but accepted his offer of Lanercost vicarage 1890-1896, died suddenly 5 March 1896, aged 69 (CW1, xiv (1897), 253-258; Brampton Church by Arthur Penn (1983), 32-34)
Whitehead, Sir James, 1st Bt (1834-1917; DCB), DL, JP, FSA, merchant, politician and lord mayor of London, born at Bramhall, Sedbergh, 2 March 1834, yr son of James Whitehead (1793-1861), of Raisbeck and Orton, family later moved to Appleby, educ Appleby grammar school (scholar 1843-1848 and formed life long friendship with John Percival, (qv)), cousin of Titus Wilson (qv), and his schoolfellow at Kendal, at age of 19 a fine athlete, champion high jumper and wrestler in North of England, apprenticed to draper in Kendal, then to Bradford, and moved to London to set up business on his own account, quickly making his fortune, alderman of City of London 1882-1896, lord mayor 1888-1889, sheriff of county of London 1890-1891, intervened in Great Dock Strike of 1889 at side of Cardinal Manning, an advanced Liberal receptive to idea of state-organised welfare, created baronet 26 November 1889, admitted honorary freeman of borough of Kendal on 12 September 1889, also of Appleby 1889, died at Wilmington Manor, Dartford, Kent, 20 October 1917, aged 84 (CW2, xvii, 265; CW2, lxxxiv, 249; WG, 27.10.1917; The Applebian, Summer 1934, 3-4)
Whitehead, James Faulkner (c.1890-1974), MBE, JP, printer and local councillor, grandson of John Whitehead (qv), chairman of directors, J Whitehead & Son, superintendent registrar of North Westmorland Registration District, Bridge Street, Appleby (1938), apptd honorary freeman of Appleby in 1950 for 15 years’ service as councillor and alderman of Appleby Borough Council, inc term as coronation mayor (1936-37) and deputy mayor during WW2 (during mayoralty of Lord Hothfield), later served as mayor in coronation year 1953-54, and again for four consecutive terms in 1959-60, 1960-61, 1961-62, and 1962-63 (taking up office again after sudden death of Richard Langley on 24 May 1962, the day after his election), of Highfield, Appleby, died in 1974
Whitehead, John (1824-1890), postmaster and printer, born 1824, er son of James Whitehead, of Raisbeck and Orton, and brother of Sir James Whitehead (qv), entered solicitor’s office of John Heelis in Appleby, gave up law when appointed postmaster of Appleby and superintendent registrar in 1851 at salary of £15 p.a., the year in which he established firm of J Whitehead & Son, of Appleby, booksellers, stationers and printers, marr (1853) Mary Cockfield, of Dunbar, 12 children, died in 1890
Whitehead, Robert, clergyman, elected mayor of Appleby in October 1813, inducted vicar of Ormside, later chaplain on HMS Briton (CRO, WPR 2/2)
Whitehouse, John Howard (1873-1955), follower of Ruskin (qv), was an MP, founded Bembridge School, Isle of Wight, on Ruskinian principles, accumulated a vast archive of Ruskin mss and memorabilia (now at the Ruskin library, Lancaster university), bought Brantwood, Ruskin’s last home on Coniston and was the founder of the trust which now runs it, also the organiser of the fund which bought the Fram, the arctic vessel used by Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), the explorer and Nobel Peace laureate
Whitelaw, Alexander (1823-1879), iron and steel master, former manager of Gartsherrie Ironworks, Monkland Canal, Lanarkshire, partner, William Baird & Co, Knockmurton & Kelton Iron Ore Mines, Murton from 1860, director of Rowrah and Kelton Fell (Mineral) Railway Co (incorporated 1874), Conservative MP
Whitelaw, Celia Doriel (1917-2011), Lady Whitelaw, (nee Sprott), born Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire, dau Major Mark Sprott (1881-1946) and Meliora Hay (1885-1979), granddaughter of Lt Gen John Sprot (1830-1907), marr William Whitelaw (qv) in Edinburgh in 1943, four daughters, lived with her family at Ennim, near Penrith, keen gardener, followed horse racing, patron of Dr Barnardos (Cumbria), president of the Red Cross (Cumbria), involved Lakeland Horticultural Society and Eden Valley Hospice, after the death of her husband lived in Peebles, funeral Dacre 13 Dec 2011; obit West Gaz 12.12.2011, obit Indep 13 Feb 2012, Scotsman 15.12.2011
Whitelaw, William Stephen Ian (Willie) (1918-1999; ODNB), 1st Viscount Whitelaw, KT, CH, MC, PC, politician, cr Viscount Whitelaw 1983, great grandson of Alexander Whitelaw (qv), resigned his commission in Scots Guards after WW2 to manage family estates in Lanarkshire, elected MP for Penrith and the Border in 1955 and moved to Ennim, Blencow, made freeman of city of Carlisle in 1988, chairman of governors of St Bees School (temp 1983), opened new Science Block at Kendal Grammar School in 1971, died at Ennim, Blencowe, near Penrith, 1 July 1999 and buried in Dacre churchyard, 4 July (memorial east window in south aisle of Dacre church); Lady Whitelaw, Celia, dau of Mark and Meliora Sprot, born and brought up in Scottish Borders, joined ATS in WW2, marr (1943) Major Willie Whitelaw, Scots Guards (qv), 4 daus, moved to Ennim after his election as MP for Penrith & Border in 1955, active member of Blencowe WI, very keen gardener, member of Lakeland Horticultural Society and vice-president of Penrith and District Gardeners’ and Allotment Holders’ Association, patron of Cumbria branch of Barnado’s, president of Cumbria branch of Red Cross, active supporter of Conservative Party events in the constituency, horse racing enthusiast, sold Ennim after husband’s death in 1999 and moved to Peebles area, died in Edinburgh, aged 94, and buried at Dacre, 9/16 December 2011 (CWH, 10.12.2011; CN, 16.12.2011); William Whitelaw, The Whitelaw Memoirs, 1989
Whiteley, Henry (18xx-19xx), MA, clergyman, educ St John’s College, Durham (MA), vicar of Frizington from 1931
Whitelock, John (d.1832), cleric and poet, born Cockermouth, verse includes Loweswater; H. Winter, Great Scholars of Cockermouth
Whiteside, Francis X (d.1985), Roman Catholic priest, priest-in-charge of Arnside and Milnthorpe parish 1950-1951, lodged with the Murrays in Arnside, died in June 1985
Whiteside, Joseph (1861-1952), MA, clergyman and antiquary, born at Towcet and bapt at Thrimby, xx June 1861, yr son of Revd Stephen Whiteside (qv), spent most of his childhood in Shap village, educ locally and Trinity College, Oxford (BA (3rd cl Mods) 1884, MA 1894) and University of Durham ad eundem (MA 1895), d 1890 and p 1892 (Dur), asst master at Epsom College 1888-1890, curate of All Saints, West Hartlepool 1890-1892 and Kirkby Lonsdale 1892-1894, rector of Kirkbride 1894-1896, succ his father as vicar of Shap with Swindale and chaplain of Shap Workhouse 1896-1900, perpetual curate of Helsington 1900-1916, asst master at Kendal Grammar School 1900-1901, special preacher in Kendal parish church on 21 December 1902 (with a course of Advent sermons on Wednesday evenings), moved to Norfolk as rector of Plumstead with Matlaske 1916-1939, asst master at Gresham’s School, Holt 1918-1919, chaplain of Erpingham Institution 1923-1939, member of CWAAS from 1887 and elected member of Council 1901-1916, author of Shappe in Bygone Days (1904), writing it to fill a need for details about the parish, and contributed papers to Transactions on ‘Matterdale Church and School’ and ‘ Swindale Chapel’ (CW2, i, 235-267) and ‘Some Accounts of Anne, Countess of Pembroke’ (CW2, v, 188-201), marr, son (C F Winton) and 2 daus (Angela and Carrol H M), died at Hill Top, Shap, 4 April 1952, aged 90 [but not buried at Shap] (CW2, lii, 222)
Whiteside, Stephen (18xx-1896), MA, clergyman, educ Queen’s College, Oxford (BA 1854, MA 1857), d 1856 (Ripon) and p 1858 (Carl), curate of Great Smeaton, Northallerton, Yorks 1896-1857 and of Lindale-in-Cartmel 1858-1859, priest in charge of Thrimby 1859-1863, vicar of Shap 1863-1896 with Swindale 1876-1893, marr Ellen (died at Green Croft, Great Strickland, aged 94, and buried at Shap, 6 October 1925), 2 sons (Arthur Barker (bapt at Thrimby in September 1859) and Joseph, qv), died at Shap vicarage, aged 66, and buried at Shap, 18 May 1896
Whitfield, John (d.1768), highwayman, born Cotehill, hanged Carlisle, gibbeted at Barrock Hill; Daniel Scott, Bygone Cumberland, 1899
Whitfield, Sir Matthew (fl.15thc.), of Whitfield, Northumberland, marr (by 1434) Margaret (d.1475), one of four daus and coheirs of Sir John Lancaster (qv), bringing a moiety of the manor of Rydal to Whitfield family, son John (1434-1487)
Whitmore, Alfred MD (1876-1946), son of the Rev Canon Henry Whitmore (1835-1896) of Carlisle and Rebecca Brade (1840-1924), brother of the Rev John Whitmore (qv), Rebecca Brade’s great aunt Agnes Brade married the Rev John Brocklebank and their daughter married Professor Joshua King, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge (qv), Alfred Whitmore was educated at St Bees and Caius College, Cambridge, married Muriel Ray (1875-1937), became a noted pathologist and worked in that capacity and as the senior surgeon at Rangoon Hospital, he was also a founder of the Rangoon Medical School, he discovered the disease melioidosis, caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, a condition affecting opium users, sometimes called Whitmore’s Disease; family information
Whitmore, John (c.1875-1952), BA, clergyman, educ University of London (BA 1898), d 1906 and p 1907 (Carl), curate of Christ Church, Cockermouth 1906-1911, and St Mary, Windermere 1911-1914, vicar of Tebay 1914-1918, vicar of St Mary, Carlisle 1918-1928, also acting chaplain to Forces, Carlisle Castle, and vicar of Brough-under-Stainmore for 24 years from 1928 until his death, having spent his entire ministry in diocese of Carlisle, died at the vicarage, aged 77, and buried at Brough, 12 February 1952
Whittaker, Jeremiah (b.1837), writer of letters, born Great Clifton near Workington, sailed to New Orleans in 1865 on the SS City of Cork towards the end of the American Civil War, worked with his brother Henry in his dry goods store and corresponded with family back in Cumberland, expressed his frustration with the vagaries of the postal system in war conditions but also described local festivities such as the Mardi Gras; Carlisle CRO DX 1378/4; Chris Donaldson, CWAAS newsletter summer 2022, no 100, 14-15
Whittaker, John William (17xx-18xx), clergyman, vicar of Blackburn, purchased Belmount, Hawkshead in 1841 (CRO, WD/GH)
Whitwell, Francis Albert (18xx-19xx), FRIBA, architect, in practice at Church Street, Ambleside (until c.1930), started work on plans to convert Calgarth Park into orthopaedic hospital for wounded officers from May 1916 (to 1919), trustee and member of both executive and general committees of Ethel Hedley Hospital for Crippled Children at Calgarth, with Mrs Whitwell on general committee (as at 1930), of Nanny Brow, Ambleside (built for him in 1904, 1914-1934, gone by 1938)
Whitwell, Isaac (1765-1835), wholesale grocer, Highgate, Kendal, son of John Whitwell (qv)
Whitwell, George (18xx-1924), apptd caretaker of Serpentine Woods, Fellside, Kendal in 1873, when original time gun was installed, responsible for firing time gun at one o’clock every day, also discovered a fern (Scolopendrum vulgare whitwelli) on his second day as caretaker, retired in 1920, died in June 1924 (MOK, 137-138)
Whitwell, John (1735-1782), linsey manufacturer, son of John Whitwell, currier, of Kendal, marr (1765) Dorothy (1741-1774), dau of Isaac Wilson, of Kendal, 1 son Isaac (qv)
Whitwell, John (1811-1880), DL, JP, MP, carpet manufacturer and politician, born 6 September 1811, 2nd son of Isaac Whitwell (qv), educ Friends’ Schools, Kendal and Darlington, apprenticed with Messrs Atkinson, carpet manufacturers, later partner with Joseph Atkinson, and eventually sole proprietor, expanded to become lucrative business as Whitwell & Co, Stricklandgate (1849), adopting steam power for the production of carpets, with many mechanical and artistic improvements, received first prize medal at Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851 and also first prize at Dublin in 1853 (confined to Kidderminster quality), held festival (with Messrs J J & W Wilson) in Dockwray Hall Mills on 29 December 1855 after Paris Exhibition (when among the seven leading carpet manufacturers in country to obtain second class medal), began wool merchant and brokers business in Lowther Street in 1857 in partnership with Edward Busher, but with increase of business built Albert Buildings (opened in 1864), joined in business by J E Hargreaves in 1872 (Busher retired in 1875), mayor of Kendal six times (1854, 1856, 1862, 1863, 1865 and 1867), deputy chairman, Kendal & Windermere Railway 1855-1859 and director 1845-1859, built wool warehouse on Beezon Field (served by its own rail line crossing road), not open to new thinking on social housing for working class poor (see CW2, lxxxvii, 183-214), qualified JP 18 November 1865, alderman of Kendal Corporation, MP for Kendal 1868-1880 (address to electors, 4 February 1874, in CRO, WDX 413/19), president, Association of Chambers of Commerce of UK 1880, one of leading founders of CWAAS in 1866, authority on old Kendal, author of historical papers, inc The Old House of Kendal, or The Local Perambulator (1866) given originally as paper to Kendal xxx on 23 August 1866, marr (1836) Anna (died in Stricklandgate, Kendal, 1848, aged 35, and buried in Castle Street cemetery), dau of William Maude, surgeon, of Horton Grange, Bradford (by his 2nd wife, Ann Marriott), 2 sons and 3 daus, of Bank House, Kendal, where he died of pneumonia, at 9.30 pm, 28 November 1880, aged 69, and buried in Castle Street cemetery, 2 December (KMT, 3.12.1880); his Old Houses of Kendal [1866] is bound with other pamphlets in the John F. Curwen collection at Kendal CRO
Whitwell, Robert Jowitt (18xx-1xxx), solicitor, secretary of Kendal and District Footpaths’ Preservation Society (letters 1884-87 in CRO, WDSo 1/1-62), solicitor, of 69 Highgate, Kendal (1885, 1894), and (home) of 1 Airethwaite (1885) and 114 Highgate (1894)
Whitwell, William (fl.1685-1695), bell founder and brazier, responsible for casting great bell of Dalton church anew at Kendal (first rung on 2 July 1685) and to be maintained by him for a year ‘if nott abused’ (LPRS, 104, Dalton, p.171), listed as brazier in 1695 (CRO, WD/Ry)
Whitwell, William (1809-1890), wholesale grocer and manfr of British wines, er son of Isaac Whitwell (qv) and brother of John Whitwell, MP (qv), director, Kendal & Windermere Railway 1845-1852, of Towerson ? Hall, near Kendal
Widdrington, Catherine (nee Graham) (1677-1757), landowner, born in 1677, er dau of Sir Richard Graham, 3rd Bt of Esk, 1st Viscount Preston (qv), marr (about July 1718) William, 4th Baron Widdrington of Blankney (died at Bath, 19 April 1743) as his 2nd wife, not long after his reprieve from execution for high treason on 24 February 1716 (for part in Jacobite Rising of 1715) and pardon on 22 November 1717, but his title and estates forfeited, she succ as coheir to the Graham family estates in Cumberland and Nunnington in Yorkshire on death of her nephew, Charles, 3rd and last Viscount Preston, on 22 February 1739 with her yr sister, Mary Susan, who died unmarr in 1753, died s.p. in Brook Street, London, 11 December 1757, aged 80, and buried at Nunnington, Yorks, near her husband, by her will of 1 to 8 February 1757 (proved 23 December 1757) (VCH, Yorks NR, i, 546), having devised family estates to her cousin, Revd Robert Graham, yr son of Very Revd William Graham (qv) and father of Sir James Graham, Bt of Netherby (qv)
Wigton, Margaret de (1292-1349), married four times, fought for her inheritance; CW2 xxix 81
Wilberforce, William (1759-1833; ODNB), politician, philanthropist and abolitionist, wrote diary while an undergraduate at St John’s College, Cambridge, of his Journey to the Lake District from Cambridge 1779 (edited by C E Wrangham, published in 1983), friend of the Rev Thomas Gisborne qv at Oxford, visited the Legards at Storrs Hall, rented Rayrigg Hall at Bowness from 1780-87 where he did some important writing; Hyde and Pevsner, 693
Wilcox, Frederick Thomas (1876-1956), MA, LTh, clergyman, born 27 April 1876, late exhibitioner, Hatfield Hall, Durham (BA 1897, LTh 1898, MA 1903), d 1899 (Wakef) and p 1900 (York), curate of Goole 1899-1902 and of St Michael and St Leon, Malton 1902-1906, vicar of Coniston 1906-1922 and 1936-1956, TCF 1916-1918, rural dean of Ulverston 1918-1922, vicar of Wigton 1922-1933, rural dean of Wigton 1930-1933, vicar of Kirkoswald 1933-1936, hon canon of Carlisle cathedral from 1929, vice-chairman of the Arts and Crafts of the Lake District (held in the Institute, Hall, Coniston) (1912), marr Dorothy Lansdowne (1880-1972), died at the vicarage, 2 March 1956, aged 79, and buried at Coniston, 6 March
Wild, James Anstey (18xx-1922), JP, landowner, lord of manor of Warcop, died 19 March 1922, and buried in Warcop cemetery, 22 March
Wilde, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills [1854-1900; ODNB], dramatist and poet, visited the Senhouses at Netherhall, Maryport in 1878, lectured in Cockermouth public hall 13 February 1884 on ‘Impressions of America’, Carlisle Co. Hall, 18 February on ‘The House Beautiful’, Ulverston Temperance Hall, 22 February, also Penrith and Maryport, it is probably no coincidence that he called one of his plays Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892); Grevel Lindop, Literary Lakeland
Wilhelm II, Kaiser (1859-1941; ODNB), Emperor of Germany 1888-1918, grandson of Queen Victoria and cousin of Edward VII, made visit to Lake District in 1895 to stay at Lowther Castle with Hugh Lowther, the yellow earl, a former aide de camp and a friend through yacht racing, arrived on special train to Penrith to a lavish reception, came up Ullswater upon steamer landing at Glenridding and travelling on in one of yellow Lonsdale carriages over Kirkstone, grouse shooting on Wemmergill moor in Yorkshire and rabbit shooting at Lowther, private telegraph office opened in Lowther Castle for close communication with Berlin, apptd Lonsdale to an honorary position on his staff in August 1895, lost popularity in Britain during South African War and opposition to von Bulow’s naval expansion policy, but regained it with second visit to Lowther in 1902, triumphantly stage-managed by Lonsdale, who was made a knight of the Order of the Prussian Crown (YE, 113-122, 129-131); a bungalow at Dale Head built in 1910 as a shooting lodge in honour of the Kaiser’s visit suggests he came a third time, or was expected at any rate; see Sladen
Wilkins, Arthur Godfrey MB (d.1927), of Place Fell House, son of Professor AS Wilkins of Manchester, his collection at Manchester medical school
Wilkins, schoolmaster, Lowther; CW2 lxiii 231
Wilkinson, George (16xx-1679), sexton, of Kirkland, Kendal, bellhouse, property, will proved 4 June 1679; son, Edward, also bellman and town crier
Wilkinson, Henry will, 1598 (BT)
Wilkinson, Isaac (1695-1784; ODNB) potfounder, ironmaster and inventor of an improved flat iron, b. West Cumbria, involved Backbarrow Ironworks, then Bersham near Wrexham, his expertise facilitated the success of the Dowlais Iron Company at Merthyr Tydfil, marr 1st (1755) Ann (d.1756, aged 23), er dau of Revd Thomas Mawdesley (qv), 1 dau (Mary, bapt at Kirkby Lonsdale, 12 April 1756, marr Revd Houlbrooke, of Market Drayton, with issue who died young); father of John Wilkinson (qv)
Wilkinson, Isaac (1753-1837), friend of Fletcher Christian (qv), defended his character in a poem against Byron, volume of his verse published in 1824; H. Winter, Great Scholars of Cockermouth
Wilkinson, John (1728-1808; ODNB), ironmaster and industrialist, born at Clifton, eldest son of Isaac Wilkinson (qv) and bro of William Wilkinson (qv), pupil at Dr Caleb Rotheram’s Academy, constructed first iron vessel about 1750 to bring peat down river Winster to fuel his iron furnace at Wilson House in Cartmel, invented precision boring for cannon barrels, supplied cylinders to Boulton & Watt, a main sponsor of the Iron Bridge, involved in blast furnaces in the Midlands at Broseley, Bersham and finally Bradley, made a considerable fortune, sometimes described as ‘Iron Mad’ Wilkinson, purchased Castlehead estate near Grange-over-Sands in about 1778/9, which he made his headquarters, brother in law of Joseph Priestley (qv), died in Shropshire, body placed in wooden and lead coffin and transported across Morecambe Bay for burial at his house at Castlehead, the iron coffin stipulated was too small, so he was buried in temporary grave until larger one arrived, but first grave hit solid rock, eventually buried in Castlehead grounds until house sold in 1828 and then body removed to Lindale churchyard, iron obelisk with portrait medallion nearby in the village; hisheirs were tree illegitimate children, consequently lawsuits brought by his nephew depleted the fortune, portrait by LF Abbott (Wolverhampton Art Gallery), another sold Sotheby’s 24 November 1999 [742]; industrial token bearing his name (Wolverhampton A.G.), Norbert C. Soldon, John Wilkinson, English Ironmaster and Inventor, 1998; Roger Osborne, Iron Steam and Money, 2013
Wilkinson, Sir John Gardner (1797-1875; ODNB), Egyptologist and explorer, born at Hardendale, Shap, or ? perhaps at Little Missenden Abbey, Bucks
Wilkinson, John William (1906-1994), cartoonist, known as ‘Wilk’, lived Keswick; Donald Wilkinson, Keswick Characters, vol. 2, 151ff
Wilkinson, Jonathan, unpublished poet, ‘The Lass of Bencowe’; H. Winter, Great Scholars of Cockermouth
Wilkinson, Joseph (1764-1831), clergyman and artist, born in Carlisle, lived with his wife’s Brownrigg relatives at Ormathwaite under Skiddaw, did painting of Windy Brow on river Greta (1795) at time when Wordsworths were there, but left north for good in 1803 when he became vicar of East Wretham in Norfolk, published book in 1810 of 48 uninspired drawings, Select Views in Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire, which were produced as soft plate etchings by William Frederick Wells, with descriptive notes by Wordsworth (who thought so little of the volume that he insisted on remaining anonymous, but did state here that the Lake District was ‘a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy’) [see WDW, 227-229], reissued in 1817 and 1821 (copy gifted to Wordsworth Trust by Hunter Davies in 2016)
Wilkinson, Joseph (b.1865), cleric and artist, Whitechapel, London, son of Alice Beck of Carlisle; Perriam CN, 25 November 2011
Wilkinson, Ven J R, clergyman, secretary of Diocesan Education Committee 1947-1955, with Day Schools Council reconstituted in 1948 (SLD, 65, 76, 115)
Wilkinson, Ken (1918-2017), flying officer, born in Barrow-in-Furness, son of an aircraft maker, found love for flying when watching aircraft tests at Farnborough, joined RAF in 1939 and flew with 616 and 19 Squadrons, one of ‘The Few’, the Spitfire pilots in the Battle of Britain, also regarded as one of the Brylcreem Boys, chartered surveyor in Solihull after the War, died 31 July 2017, aged 99
Wilkinson, Matthew (c.1609-1669), MA, clergyman, prob native of Moorah Hill, Bampton, precise birth and parentage not known [Bampton par reg only survives from 1637], educ Queen’s College, Oxford (matric 21 November 1628, aged 19, BA 1 June 1633, MA 11 May 1637), vicar of Bampton from 1641 on presentation by king Charles I, also holding mastership of Bampton Grammar School (like his predecessor, James Atkinson, qv), approved by Cromwellian Commissioners in 1653, being appointed minister of Bampton and given tithes of Bolton by lease from dean and chapter of Carlisle ‘for Increase of his Maintenance’, dated at Newcastle, 31 March 1653 (Lambeth MSS (Plund Min), 1006) and approved as ‘a fit person to preach the Gospell & such a one as deserves all due Incouragement’, dated at Whitehall, 2 February 1655 (ibid, 968), had naturally strong nonconformist sympathies, but held living through changes of Restoration and unaffected by Act of Uniformity, prob helped by being from a prominent family in parish, regarded as a fine scholar and most learned man ‘who laid so lasting a foundation of grammar or improved it to that height in this school, as hath been ever since… if not envied yet justly admired’ (M E Noble, History of Bampton, 158), buried in choir of Bampton church, 1 March 1668/9 (ECW, ii, 1212-1214)
Wilkinson, Peter Richard (Dick), (b.1926), teacher, forester and collector of metaphors, graduate of Cambridge, lived South Cumbria, after many years of accumulating examples his Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors, a standard work, was first published in 1994 by Routledge; N. W. Evening Mail, 21 November, 1994
Wilkinson, Robert (1752-1839), clergyman and schoolmaster, bapt at Cockermouth, 24 November 1752, son of Thomas Wilkinson, educ Cockermouth Grammar School (from near seven to over thirteen) and St Bees School (for near four years), then lived with parents for one year learning mathematics, master of grammar school at Dovenby for one year [1771], then went to Hipperholme School early in 1772 as first of three assistants for four and quarter years, apptd curate of Lightcliffe, Yorks, 1782, headmaster of Heath School, Halifax 1789 and vicar of Darton 1790 until his death, marr (15 July 1782) Sarah Robinson (d.1833, aged 73), of Hipperholme, issue?, died in 1839 (white marble monument in Halifax parish church) (CW2, lxxii, 339-340)
Wilkinson, Robert Noble (1859-1874) and George Ashworth were drowned in Haweswater 10 July 1874, Robert from Backsode Farm Longsleddale; Kendal Mercury, 18 July 1975
Wilkinson, Thomas (1751-1836), Quaker poet and gardener, born 29 April 1751, of Yanwath, lived with sister Barbara in house on banks of Eamont, known for his abolition work and his concern for the labouring poor, visited by Wordsworth for two days in 1806 and talked poetry, WW’s poem ‘To the Spade of a Friend’ written later in his honour (CPW (1950), 211), drawing comparison between his care for his garden and his concern for humanity, using spade as symbol of his hard work and for his ability to cut through dirt and discern ‘false praise from true’, he was friendly with the Smith family of Tent Lodge (qv) (see Sarah Holmes Griffiths’ life of Elizabeth Smith (2020))author of pamphlet opposing enclosure of common adjoining townships of Eamont Bridge, Yanwath, Tirril and Sockbridge in 1812, entitled Thoughts on Inclosing Yanmouth Moor and Round Table (incl poem ‘Sorrows For the Common’ in middle of tract), closing with wish that he will be remembered as ‘the Poor Man’s Friend’, also author of Tours to the British Mountains (1824), died 13 June 1836 and buried at Tirril (article by Joan Percy in Garden History Journal, 1993, offprint in CRO, WDX 1122; personal description by G F Braithwaite in Ang Rem (1884), 63; Heidi J Snow, PhD (2008),158-165)
Wilkinson, Thomas [alias Berrington] (c.1762-1857), Catholic missioner, born in Hornby locality about 1762, entered seminary at Douai towards end of 1777, passed out 20 July 1792, minister at Kendal 1793-1853………, died aged 95 (memorial west window over altar in church of Holy Trinity and St George (CW2, lxvi, 432-448)
Wilkinson, Thomas (c.1836-1916), organ builder, of Kentfield, Aynam Road, Kendal, new organ for Zion Chapel, Kendal, 1873 (CRO, WDFC/C1/21), died aged 80, and buried at Parkside cemetery, Kendal, 29 April 1916
Wilkinson, Thomas Hattam (1793-1873), MA, clergyman, born at Wandsworth, London, 1793, son of Henry Wilkinson, of Wandsworth, who was son of Joseph Wilkinson, of Thrang Crag, Martindale, (Martindale Registers, 92), dau Emma Caroline (marr 7 June 1855 at Barton, Michael Rimington, of Tynefield, Penrith)
Wilkinson, William (16xx-1708), clergyman, vicar of Crosby Ravensworth 1685-1708, instituted 13 April 1685 on presentation from Alan Bellingham and inducted by William Atkinson, vicar of Morland, 3 June 1685, ‘Clerk of Crosby’ by 1683, ‘Here entered W Wilkinson, Vicar’ January 1684, 5 sons (William matric at Queen’s College, Oxford, 17 March 1699, aged 17; Henry bapt 10 March 1683; James bapt 20 August 1685; John bapt 4 January 1690, also grad of Oxford; Christopher bapt 9 May 1692) and 2 daus (Catherine bapt 9 Sept 1687 and Mary bapt 9 May 1694), buried at Crosby Ravensworth, 5 January 1708 (ECW, ii, 1199)
Wilkinson, William (16xx-1751), clergyman and schoolmaster, born at Crosby Ravensworth [poss? bapt 22 January 1695, son of Nicholas Wilkinson, of Reagill; two other Williams bapt in 1699], educ Queen’s College, Oxford (BA 1712), p 1716, headmaster of Lord Lonsdale’s school at Lowther (an academy ‘for none but gentlemen’s sons’) from 26 December 1716 to 29 March 1739, vicar of Lazonby 1739-1751, also vicar of Bromfield, marr (31 December 1717 at Barton) Mary (bapt 3 October 1695 at Penrith, died in 1755), dau of Ambrose and Elizabeth Nicolson, of Penrith (CW2, lxi, 205, 210-217)
Wilkinson, William (1744-1808; ODNB), ironmaster, yst son of Isaac Wilkinson and brother of John (qqv), marr (1 January 1791) Mrs Elizabeth Kirkes (d.1808), of Liverpool, widow of Morecroft Kirkes (qv) and dau of James Stockdale (qv), dau Mary Anne marr (24 February 1817, at Cartmel) Matthew Robinson Boulton, of Handsworth, co Stafford
Wilkinson, William (1797-1859), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1856, brother-in-law of Richard Breeks, of Warcop, built Eden Gate house in Warcop, which he left to his nephew, James Wilkinson Breeks (qv), his widow continued to live at Eden Gate until moving to Helbeck Hall, Brough
Wilkinson, W G, organ builder, Kendal (Wilkinson & Sons, Aynam Road, firm established in 1829), of Kentfield (1885)
Wilks, Washington (1826-1864), radical journalist, biographer of Edward Irving (1792-1854) founder of the Catholic Apostolic Church, worked for the Carlisle Journal but left in 1857 to found the Carlisle Examiner, taken into custody for libel in 1858 and discharged on 1st June the same year, wrote in London for the Morning Star, well respected figure and popular public speaker, supporterof Cobden and the reform party in Parliament, wrote The Three Archbishops, published the verse of Mary Smith; Miles Taylor, The Decline of British Radicalism, 1995, 259-84
Willan, Robert (1757-1812; ODNB), physician, born near Sedbergh, son of a local doctor, ed St Bees Edinburgh medical school, physician Darlington and then at Carey StDispensaryin london, created the first taxonomy for skin diseases, founder of British dermatology, won the Fothergill gold medal, author of On Cutaneous Diseases (1808)
Willance, Robert (d.1616), huntsman, son of Richard Willance a draper of Westmorland (d.1602) and his wife Elizabeth, the family was involved in the wool trade and moved to Yorkshire to exploit business in a new area, Richard became a draper and cloth merchant of Finkle St in Richmond (Y), Robert was not born in Westmorland and married a member of the Pynckney family and was a member of the corporation, he lived in Frnechgate and owned property at Clints near Marske in Swaledale, out hunting in 1606 on an inexperienced horse, it bolted, careering headlong over the edge of Whitcliff Scar, the horse died but Richard survived with a seriously broken leg which had to be amputated, he erected three stones on the Scar to commemorate this event, the area becoming known as ‘Willance’s Leap’, the stones were restored and replaced at various dates (most recently in 2006, the 400th anniversary of his escape), an obelisk was erected in 1906 for the 300th anniversary, as an alderman in 1608 he was a wealthy man leaving £751..5s and debts owing to him of £1,119.14s, thus it appears he may have acted as a local banker, his wife Elizabeth survived him, he left a silver bowl to the corporation and money allowing 20s to be distributed to the poor on Christmas Eve, his leap is a treasuered part of local folk lore; Jane Hatcher, Richmondians, 2021, 317-9
Willatt, Guy Longfield (1918-2003), MA, schoolmaster and cricketer, born at The Park, Nottingham, 7 May 1918, yst of 3 sons (Hugh and Geoffrey his elder brothers), educ Repton School and St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, played cricket for Cambridge University (1938-1947, captain, left-hand batsman, scoring 90 in Varsity Match 1947), Nottinghamshire (1939-1948), Scotland (1948-1950), Derbyshire (1950-1956; captain 1951-54), and MCC (1951-70), scoring 8,325 runs in 185 matches (av.29), also football blue at Cambridge, served WW2 with Royal Artillery, resuming studies at Cambridge after war, moved to Edinburgh to teach at Edinburgh Academy (1948-1950), taught at Repton from 1950, being released during summer term to captain Derbyshire, 1952 being his most successful season, appointed headmaster of Heversham Grammar School in April 1955, but continued playing for Derbyshire until 1956, also played for Kendal Cricket Club, his period at Heversham included opening of new library and formation of school choir in 1956, acquisition and conversion of Springfield House in 1957-58 and later renamed Handley House, formation of CCF signals section in 1958, building of tennis courts on Bottom Pitch in 1959, acquisition of old school buildings on Heversham Head for use as Scout Troop HQ in 1959-60, formation of Fleming, Hunt and Romney Houses (replacing Argles, Whewell and Wilson) in 1960-61, reflecting steady expansion of boarding side to day pupils, also taught history himself, strict disciplinarian, principled and authoritative, with approach to character building that emphasised acceptance of responsibility and the tempering of the individual, less aloof and more approachable than he appeared, nicknamed ‘Guybrows’ for his bushy eyebrows and piercing dark eyes, resigned in July 1966 to take up post as headmaster of Pocklington School, Yorkshire, where he remained until retirement in 1980, returned to Derbyshire to live, becoming chairman of Derbyshire cricket committee 1986-1990 and president of club in 1995, being a moderniser eliminating amateur-professional segregation at the club, marr (19xx) Marion (died 4 September , aged 76, funeral at St Peter’s church, Hartshorne, 13 September), 3 sons (Neil, Graeme and Jonathon), of Hartshorne, died at the Nightingale Macmillan Unit, Derby, 11 June 2003, aged 85, and funeral at Repton School chapel, 20 June
William II (known as William Rufus) (c.1060-1100), marched to Carlisle and drove out Dolfin in 1092, established the Solway as the frontier, built Brough Castle c.1095
William (fl.1156-1160), chaplain, witnessed charters as chaplain to William of Lancaster, baron of Kendal, and also chaplain of Warton; (CW2, x, 39; LPR, xx)
William (fl.1205-1208), Prior of Cartmel, c.1205-1208 (MoN, 319)
William (d. c.1256) of Rothwell, Prior of St Bees c.1254-c.1256, buried in priory
William Augustus, duke of Cumberland (1721-1765; ODNB), army officer, re-took Carlisle castle 1745, dubbed ‘Butcher Cumberland’ following his brutal victory at Culloden, but to his supporters he was ‘Sweet William’; (CW3 x)
William fitz Duncan (b. ante 1094, d.1151x54; ODNB), son and only known child of Duncan II, king of Scots 1093-94, and Etheldreda (or Octreda), dau of Gospatric, earl of Northumbria, who fled to Scotland in 1072, probably came to Scotland with his uncle David (qv), whom he supported loyally after he became king in 1124, led contingent which attacked Wark Castle in January 1138, ravaged Yorkshire, won a victory at Clitheroe, and devastated Craven before joining David I at Cowton Moor, north of Northallerton in August, where he opposed attempts of Robert (I) de Brus (d.1142) (qv) to persuade David to return home, fought at battle of the Standard on 22 August, then not heard of again (except for witnessing of charters) until 1151, when David confirmed him by force in honour of Skipton and Craven, marr Alice de Rumilly (qv), who inherited lands in Copeland and Skipton, and he himself inherited Allerdale south of Derwent through his mother, probably also had Scottish lands, called ‘earl of Moray’ in a 13th century English inquest, but made no known claim to the throne of Scotland, died by 1154 (charter evidence), 2 sons (Gospatric and William, ‘the boy of Egremont’, who succ to father’s English lands, but died childless in or soon after 1163, with his inheritance then passing to his three sisters)
William, Hugh William ‘Grecian’, (1773-1829), artist, visited the Lakes
Williams, Arthur Anderson (18xx-19xx), MA, clergyman, educ St John’s College, Cambridge (BA 1874, MA 1879), d 1879 and p 1880 (Ripon), curate of Batley, Yorks 1879-1882, licensed to officiate by bishop of Carlisle at Mardale, 6 December 1882 (license in CRO, WDX 101/3) as perpetual curate 1882-1884, vicar of Colton 1884-1895, St Paul, Manningham, Bradford 1895-1898, and Osmotherley, Northallerton 1898-19xx, when at Colton he looked through parish chest for information for a history of Colton and was struck by ‘the dilapidated state of the Parish Registers, which are rapidly succumbing to decay and damp’ and determined to take steps to transcribe and publish them, with assistance of James Pennington Burns (of Springfield, Colton), who did the whole of transcription work, and were joint editors of The Registers of Colton Parish Church, in Furness Fells (Kendal and London, 1891), and also joint editor (with R H Kirby, G Rubie, and J Pennington Burns) of The Rural Deanery of Cartmel in the Diocese of Carlisle, its Churches and Endowments (Ulverston, 1892)
Williams, Gerald (19xx-1995), educator, born in Kirkland, Kendal, author of Life on Old Fellside (Kendal) & its Dialect (LDS, 1991), committee member, Lakeland Dialect Society 1974, general secretary, Yorkshire Dialect Society 1975-1985, principal lecturer in English, Sheffield City College of Education (later Sheffield City Polytechnic), died 2 June 1995
Williams, Herbert Henry (18xx-1961), DD, bishop of Carlisle 1920-1946, principal of St Edmund Hall, Oxford 1913-1920, patron, CWAAS 1920, elected member 1913, wife (granddau of Revd Christopher Hilton Wybergh, (qv)) predeceased him, died at Chester, 28 September 1961, aged 88 (CW2, lxii, 359)
Williams, J.B. (1903-1965), film director; b. Workington, his films include White Cargo (1929), The Chinese Bungalow (1930), The Stars Look Down (1940), We Die at Dawn (1943) and The Tell Tale Heart (1953) based on Edgar Allan Poe
Williams, Ralph Vaughan (1872-1958; ODNB), composer and collector of folk music, friendly with Sybil Mounsey-Heysham (qv) and visited Carlisle in 1906, here he collected six folk songs which were versions of lyrics by Robert Anderson (qv); Keith Gregson, The Cumberland Bard, Folk Music Journal vol 4 no 4 1983, 333-365
Williams, Roger (d.1664), steward, from St Nicholas, Glamorgan, became known as the ‘learned steward’ of Greystoke and Burgh baronies, bought Johnby Hall c.1650, died at Greystoke Castle, about 5 am on 29 September 1664 and succ by son, William (qv), the estate was later owned by the Hasells (qv), following William’s daughter Dorothy’s marriage to Edward Hasell (GPR, 256)
Williams, Rowland (c.1784-1834), sea captain, Captain of the Isabella, property of Captain Robert Greenwood (qv), which sailed between Milnthorpe and Liverpool, found dead on the sands near Low Meathop, aged 50, and buried at Witherslack, 28 February 1834
Williams, Thomas (b.1845) slate merchant, drowned; G. Stebbens, Duddon Valley, 122-8
Williams, William (d.1680), steward, son of Roger Williams (qv), fought in Royalist army, steward of barony of Greystoke from 1664, marr (6 June 1666, at Greystoke) Barbara (died 16 January 1722 at 4 pm and buried at Greystoke, 19 January), dau of Miles Halton (qv), of Greenthwaite Hall, Greystoke, 1 son (Roger, born 20 May 1669, about 6 pm, and bapt 27 May, but buried 13 July 1669) and 4 daus and coheirs (Dorothy (born 1666) marr (1696) Sir Edward Hasell (qv); Lettice (born 1668) marr 1st John Winder (qv) and 2nd Joshua Blackwell; Mary (1671-1722) marr Very Revd Thomas Gibbon (qv); and Barbara (1674-1724) marr Joseph Relf (qv), buried at Greystoke, 13 January 1680 (GPR)
Williams, William Morgan (b.1926), sociologist, wrote The Sociology of an English Village (1957) based on Gosforth
Williams-Ellis, Sir Clough (1883-1978; ODNB), architect, designed a new Dalton Hall, Burton-in-Kendal (see AF Mason-Hornby), also houses at Moss Bay Hill, Workington (1941) and the Killington service area (1964), he lived latterly in George Romney’s eccentric house at Holly Bush Hill Hampstead
Williamson, Daniel Alexander (1823-1903), artist, member of a group of artists in Liverpool who were influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, in London from 1849-1857, he moved then to Warton in Lancashire and made regular painting forays with William Lindsay Windus (1822-1907), his Westmorland Hills and Near the Duddon are in the collection of Wirral Museums Service (Art UK)
Williamson, David (17xx-18xx), Presbyterian minister, pastor of United Secession church, High Street, Whitehaven, published Lectures on Civil and Religious Liberty (c.1803), also Political Debates and Correspondence (with Revd John Newton, of London)
Williamson, Frank (c.1917-1998), police officer, son of chief constable of Northampton, joined police force in Manchester in 1936, rising to chief superintendent, apptd first chief constable of newly amalgamated Cumberland, Westmorland and Carlisle City Constabulary in 1963 to 1967, HM Inspector of Constabulary 1967-1971, when he resigned, having investigated alleged corruption in Metropolitan Police in 1969 with very limited success, marr, 1 dau, retired near Macclesfield, died aged 81 (CN, 08.01.1999)
Williamson, George (1706-1783), MA, clergyman and diarist, born in 1706, 5th of seven children of Joseph Williamson (d.1737), of Whinhow, Thursby, and his wife Ruth (d.1714), had elder brother John (1699-1737) an apothecary in Appleby, early educ not known, matric Glasgow University 1727 (MA 1730), ordained at Rose Castle in 1731, licensed as curate of Addingham, curate of Arthuret by 1742, vicar of Crosby Ravensworth 1747 until his death in 1783, diaries show that he kept abreast of national affairs, regular meetings with Justices at Quarter Sessions and Assize judges at Appleby, dined frequently with local gentry, recorded his companions for tea and dinner, sowing of crops, purchase of goods, visits to local races and cockfights, occasional riding to hounds, and his favourite occupation of fishing, climate observations, as well as conscientious in his clerical duties, marr (3 June 1754, at Morland) Elizabeth Holme, of Barnskew, 3 daus (Mary (1755-1760), Ruth (1757-1830), wife of Revd Samuel Reveley (qv), and Elizabeth (1761-1838) unm), died aged 76 (Diaries edited by T Relph, Part 1: Arthuret and Longtown 1742-1747 (1997) and Part 2: Crosby Ravensworth 1747-1782 (2010)); Ted Relf [ed.], George Williamson: Arthuret and Longtown, 1997
Williamson, George Charles (18xx-19xx), LLD, historian, member of CWAAS from 1918, and author of John Zoffany, RA, his life and works, 1735-1810 (with Lady Victoria Manners) (1920), Angelica Kauffmann, RA (also with Lady Victoria Manners) (1924), Daniel Gardner (1921) (though actually written in 1908-09), Third Earl of Cumberland (1558-1605): His Life and Voyages (1920), Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery 1590-1676 (1922), of Burgh House, Well Walk, Hampstead, London (to 19xx), later of Mount Manor House, Mount Street, Guildford, Surrey
Williamson, Henry (18xx-18xx), iron founder, son of linen draper, started Canal Iron Works, Kendal with his brothers, William and Benjamin, in 1853, trained as engineer in Liverpool, first made farm machinery such as straw chaff cutters and small threshing machines, later produced vortex turbines (first order for a 5 h.p. water turbine built to vortex design of James Thomson (1822-1892; ODNB), brother of Lord Kelvin (1824-1907; ODNB), on 17 August 1856, purchased by W E Maude for use on farm near Holmescales), firm built some 440 turbines before being sold to Gilbert Gilkes (qv) for £5,000 in 1881/?87 (catalogue of agricultural implements and machines, 1857 in CRO, WD/CAT/A1961)
Williamson, James (1813-1879), linoleum magnate and builder, b. Keswick, his father was a woollen manufacturer, painter and decorator, est. a linoleum and oilcloth business, married Eleanor Miller in 1837, his son James became Lord Ashton of Lancaster, chancellor of Lancaster in 1853-65, mayor 1864-5, est. a Ragged School, laid out Williamson Park and presented it to the city, photograph of JW in Lancaster Museum; David A. Cross, Sculpture of Lancashire and Cumbria, 2017
Williamson, James (1st baron Ashton) (1842-1930; ODNB), b Lancaster, son of James Williamson (qv), linoleum manufacturer, his son Lord Ashton built the vast domed Ashton (or Williamson) memorial, the Victoria monument in Dalton Square, Lancaster (this has a likeness of James Williamson on one of the bronze freizes) and the magnificent war memorial at St Annes on Sea, where he had retired, this last munificence was the result of his disagreement with Lancaster council, as a further result Lancaster has a modest war memorial
Williamson, John (fl.1740s), watchmaker and alchemist, born Whitehaven, lived Dalton-in-Furness, a keen violinist and early mentor of George Romney, there is a tradition that during one experiment he accidentally blew up his own workshop; David A. Cross, A Striking Likeness, 2000, 6
Williamson, John (17xx-1832), land surveyor, inclosure commissioner for township of Undermillbeck (his boundary line was confirmed by QS after appeal by Revd William Barton (qv), on 10 January 1814 (WQ/O/12)), surveyed some two dozen estates in area around Kendal between 1796 and 1810, inc Crosscrake in November 1801, with maps surviving (CRO, estate plans catalogue), one of which refers to a John Williamson, Jr in 1831, died at Horncop Hall, Kendal, in his 75th year (WG, 21.07.1832), his widow Mary died aged 82 (WG, 03.12.1842)
Williamson, Joseph (c.1599-1634), clergyman, said to be aged 27 in 1626, the first year of his institution to parish of Bridekirk (PR 65/1), ordained deacon as ‘literatus’, 23 May 1624 and instituted on presentation to living of Bridekirk by king, 19 March 1625, though N&B give his presentation by Henry Baxter, of Sebergham, and Thomas Hutton, of Hameshill, assigns of Sir Thomas Lamplugh (qv) (N&B, ii, 100), marr, 2 sons (Henry (bapt 14 February 1627) and Joseph (qv)) and 1 dau (Jane), buried at Bridekirk, 10 August 1634 (ECW, i, 708)
Williamson, Sir Joseph (1633-1701; ODNB), MA, MP DCL FRS, administrator and politician, born at Bridekirk and bapt there, 4 August 1633, yr son of Revd Joseph Williamson (qv), educ St Bees and Westminster Schools, a very able administrator, employed by Robert Tolson (qv), MP for Cockermouth, as his clerk, from 1660 under secretary of state to Charles II and from 1774-9 secretary of state, a collector of intelligence vital in foreign policy and to counter innumerable plots, he lost this post following ‘the Popish plot’ in February 1679 (N&B, ii, 101; FiO, i, 139-140; ECW, i, 60-61; A Marshall in Historical Research, 69 (1996), 18-41), MP for Thetford, held a key role in the Royal Africa Co which had a monopoly on the slave trade, 2nd president of the Royal Society, a generous supporter of Queen’s College, Oxford (funding a new building and donating his library) and Cumberland students at Oxford
Williamson, Joseph (c.18thc.), merchant and ship owner, founded a school at Parton; CW1 iii 378
Williamson, Richard (1855-1939); see DCB Lives
Williamson, W., clergyman, wrote Reflections, vol. I includes his life
Willink, Alfred Henry (1860-1947), JP, paper manufacturer, born 24 May 1860, 6th and yst son of Revd Arthur Willink (1822-1862), vicar of St Paul’s, Tranmere, Cheshire, and of Sarah Wakefield (1824-1890), 2nd dau of John Cropper, of Dingle Bank, Liverpool, and sister of James Cropper (qv), lived at Dingle bank from age of six, educ Pembroke College, Cambridge, joined James Cropper & Co in 1879, papermakers, apptd partner in 1884 and director in 1889 (and major shareholder), largely in charge of day-to-day running of mills by 1890s, remaining an active director until retiring only months before his death, marr (19 April 1885) Beatrice Amy (noted embroidress, d.1924), dau of Major Robert Luard-Selby, RA, of Ightham Mote, Kent, no issue, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1931, JP 1898, county councillor and alderman, hon secretary (with Mrs Argles) of Westmorland Music Festival from 1900 (succ L Gardner Thomson, qv), governor of Westmorland Sanatorium, Meathop for over 50 years since its inception (opened in 1900) and as a composer and artist was president of Mary Wakefield Festival (1935) and hon district secretary for Kendal, Burneside and Staveley for Kendal Exhibition of Pictures and Decorative Art in 1899, ran woodwork classes, of Whitefoot, Burneside, Capt TF, died 18 September 1947, aged 87 (JC, 96-97); Renouf, 40
Willink, Arthur (18xx-19xx), MA, clergyman, late Scholar of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (BA 1873, MA 1876), d 1875 and p 1876 (Heref), curate of Ross 1875-1877, Grantchester, Cambs 1877-1880, Lindale-in-Cartmel 1880-1889, St John Evang, Bromley, dio Canterbury 1889-, marr Margaret, children bapt at Lindale, died by 1914
Willink, Beatrice (d.1924), artist, cousin of the Cropper family, member Lake Artists, Renouf, 40
Willink, Derek Edward (1902-1986), paper manufacturer and local councillor, born 1902, son of William Willink (1856-1924) and Florence Urmston, and nephew of A H Willink (qv), apptd a director of James Cropper & Co in 1928, and chairman 1967-1971, postponing his retirement after sudden death of Anthony Cropper (qv), member of Westmorland county council and county alderman (to March 1974), marr (19xx) Joan Smallwood, 3 sons and 2 daus, died in 1986
Willink, John Wakefield (18xx-1927), MA, DD, clergyman, one of five sons of Revd Arthur Willink (1822-1862), vicar of St Paul’s, Tranmere, Cheshire, and brother of A H Willink (qv), educ Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA (3rd cl Theol) 1881, Winchester Reading Prize 1882, MA 1884), d 1881 and p 1882 (Durham), curate of Auckland St Andrew 1881-1885, PC of St John, Sunderland 1885-1891, vicar of St Helens 1891-1904, hon canon of Liverpool 1898-1906, vicar of Great Yarmouth 1904-1912, rural dean of Flegg 1905-1912, hon canon of Norwich 1906-1912, select preacher, Cambridge 1912 and Birmingham 1912, rector of Birmingham 1912-1919, hon canon of Birmingham 1912-1919, dean of Norwich Cathedral 1919-1927, died 22 September 1927 (memorial tablet in Norwich Cathedral)
Willis, Joseph, of Kirkoswald, shoemaker, married Mary, father of Richard (qv)
Willis, Richard (1777-1855), b. Kirkoswald, son of Joseph (qv), a prominent colonist of Australia, probably served time as a shoemaker, marr Anne Harper of St Kitts in London, dau of Thomas Harper, eleven children, arrived Hobart on The Courier on 2 Dec 1823, good contacts, granted 2000 acres plus a further 1000, north of Campbell Town which he called Wanstead, 3000 sheep, 25 cattle and a stallion, became a magistrate, had the service of 35 convicts, his argumentative nature led to his return to England in 1839, died 1855; Dictionary of Australian Biography
Wilman, J (WG, 10.05.2012), Lunesfield Agric Soc depositor
Wilson, Albert, author of The Flora of Westmorland (An account of the flowering plants, ferns and their allies…so far known to occur in the county; with particulars as to their localities, usual habitats…also a description of the physical geography, topography, geology, climate and botanical features, a bibliography, and a short account of some early pioneers of Westmorland field botany (privately printed for author, Arbroath, 1938), collection in Yorkshire Museum; copy of his Flora inspired Professor Geoffrey Halliday’s own work, which resulted in his publication of A Flora of Cumbria (CNWRS, Lancaster, 1997)
Wilson, Allan (fl.1720s), manorial official, steward of manor of Over Staveley with Hugill 1716>1730, succ John Harrison as steward (1711/12) (verdicts in Levens Hall MSS, Manor of Staveley, Box 7/3)
Wilson, Andrew (1830-1881; ODNB), orientalist and writer, born in Bombay, 11 April 1830, editor of Chinese Mail for some years, frequent contributor to the Athenaeum, Blackwood’s Magazine, and Carlisle Journal, said to have been able to understand fifteen languages, ancient and modern, author of Abode of Snow and Ever Victorious Army (for General Gordon), while resident at Bank House, Howtown, where he died, 8 June 1881, aged 51, and buried at Martindale, 11 June
Wilson, Anthony (1683-1755), forge partner, bapt at Grasmere, 18 May 1673 [not 1683 at Hawkshead], son of John Wilson (1641-1675), of Little Langdale, and Elizabeth, his wife, had four sisters, marr (8 July 1702, at Colthouse) Dorothy (born at Stang End, 17 April 1678, died 23 July 1755 and buried at Colthouse, 25 July), dau of George Benson and his wife, Margaret (dau of James Braithwaite, of Field Head, Hawkshead), 4 sons (John (marr 1729), George (1706-1777), Anthony (1709-1776) and Isaac (1715-1785) (qv)) and 2 daus (Elizabeth (1703-1781), wife of Reginald Holme, and Dorothy (d.1772), wife of William Waithman), purchased estates in Hawkshead parish and built house at High Wray in 1728, partner in Invergarry furnace 1727, associated with Cunsey forge, died at High Wray, 21 June 1755, and buried at Colthouse, 24 June (CTF, 243; WHWK, 1; A Fell, EIIF, 350)
Wilson, Anthony Bagster (1871-1953), JP, MIME, MIMM, mining engineer, born 25 May 1871, 6th of seven sons of Isaac Whitwell Wilson (qv), educ Bootham School and Kendal, marr (15 August 1901), Jessie Macgregor, eldest dau of Peter Robertson, JP, of Achilty, Strathpeffer, Ross-shire, 3 sons and 3 daus, member of Cumberland County Council (Liberal), JP Cumberland 1913, lord of manor of Thornthwaite, member of CWAAS from 1900, of Thornthwaite Grange, near Keswick, died 10 November 1953, aged 82 (CW2, liii, 256)
Wilson, Bernard Hall Coombs (19xx-19xx), clergyman, brother of bishop John Leonard Wilson and canon Leslie Rule Wilson, educ Armstrong College, Durham (BA 1929), Ripon Hall, Oxford 1931, d 1932, p1933 (Roch), curate of Erith 1932-1935 and of St Martin, Birmingham 1935-1937, vicar of St Saviour, Birmingham 1937-1940, chaplain, RAFVR 1940-1945, chaplain to Iraq Petroleum Co and lic to offic, dio Jerusalem 1946-1960, senior chaplain at Kirkuk 1950-1960, hon canon of Jerusalem 1951-1960, vicar of St Bees 1960-1971 and chaplain to St Bees School 1967-1971, retired to Willand, Cullompton, Devon, where he died
Wilson, Bryan (17xx-17xx), apothecary, his widow Alice died aged 66 and buried at Kendal, 5 August 1788
Wilson, Charles (c.1821-1876), [no bapt at Troutbeck], eldest son of Admiral John Wilson (qv), of The Howe, Troutbeck, assistant surveyor general, Ceylon Civil Service, died at Nelson, New Zealand, 3 August 1876 (obit in LC, 20.09.1876)
Wilson, Charles Eric (1916-1999), JP, born 8 February 1916, er son of C H Wilson (qv), educ Harrow and Queens’ College, Cambridge, marr (19 September 1941) Sarah Daphne (died 16 December 2010, aged 98, funeral at St Peter’s church, Mansergh, 29 December), eldest dau of Augustus While, of Hollow Oak, Haverthwaite, 1 son (WW, qv) and 2 daus, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1962, of Rigmaden Park, died 8 December 1999
Wilson, Charles Henry (1846-1928), huntsman, born 20 December 1846, 3rd and yst son of William Wilson (qv), master (and huntsman) of Oxenholme Staghounds 1878-1919, succ by J R Heaton (qv), built Oxenholme House in 1890s, businessman in Kendal, died unmarried 1928
Wilson, Christopher (1704-1761), merchant and Quaker minister, of Greysouthen, Cockermouth (DIF, 449-450)
Wilson, Christopher (1731-1804), hosier, merchant and banker, born 17 October 1731, eldest son of Thomas Wilson (bapt 1700), of Natland, and of Ellen (d. November 1780), dau of Seth Burrow, of Foulstone, marr (10 October 1757) Margaret (died 2 July 1811, aged 81), yst dau of Thomas Parke, of Lowrow-in-Swaledale, Yorks, 2 sons (inc Christopher, qv) and 3 daus (inc Hannah, buried at Kendal, 5 November 1778, aged 20, and Eleanor, buried at Kendal, 3 June 1836, aged 76), mayor of Kendal 1788, a founder of Maude, Wilson Crewdson Bank, Kendal in 1788, made fortune in hosiery trade, of Blind Beck House, Kendal, died 17 August 1804
Wilson, Christopher (1765-1845), banker, born 1 April 1765, er son of Christopher Wilson (qv), marr (11 April 1793) Catherine (died 3 December 1853), dau of James Wilson, JP, of Kendal, 5 sons (2 died inf) and 9 daus (inc Hannah, buried at Kendal, 11 July 1810, aged 5, and Barbara, born 26 February 1806 and bapt at Kendal, 1 April), man of great wealth, bought Abbot Hall, Kendal in 1801 and Rigmaden estate in 1822, building a new mansion, died 22 December 1845
Wilson, Christopher, of Rigmaden, purchased pack of harriers from his uncle??, William Wilson (qv), of High Park, in 1864/65, hunting the Ambleside district and sharing Oxenholme country with Mr Pearson, of Crosthwaite till 1871, retired as master in 1878
Wilson, Christopher Hulme (1875-1941), JP, landowner, born 9 July 1875, eldest son of C W Wilson (qv), educ Harrow, marr (14 January 1915) Dorothy Nevill (later (1952) of Low Fell, Crosthwaite, nr Kendal), yst dau of Lt-Col Edward Brown Lees, of Thurland Castle, Kirkby Lonsdale, 2 sons (Charles Eric (qv) and Edward Hulme) and 1 dau (Mildred Olive, qv), succ to Rigmaden and lord of manor of Mansergh in 1918, JP Westmorland (1909), deputy master of Oxenholme Staghounds (1923), died 14 December 1941, aged 66, and buried at Mansergh, 17 December
Wilson, Christopher Wyndham (1844-1918), DL, JP, landowner, born 9 November 1844, eldest son of William Wilson (qv), educ Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, succ to Rigmaden in 1880, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1884, county councillor for Lunesdale (1894) when of 9 Eastern Terrace, Brighton, president of Westmorland & Kendal District Agricultural Society in 1882, Col late comdg Westmorland and Cumberland Yeo, marr 1st (7 October 1874) Mildred Eyre (died 14 April 1878), yst dau of J S Spedding (qv), of Mirehouse, nr Keswick, 1 son (Christopher Hulme, qv) and 1 dau, marr 2nd (25 October 1879) Edith (died 11 May 1913), yst dau of Sir Walter Minto Townsend Farquhar, 2nd Bt (and grand dau of Lady Farquhar, qv), 4 sons and 2 daus, died 8 December 1918 (memorial window to his first wife Mildred in north transept of St Peter’s church, Mansergh)
Wilson, Daniel (1680-1754), MP and landowner, born in March 1679/80, 2nd but only surviving of three sons of Edward Wilson (1651-1720) (qv), of Dallam Tower, previously of Nether Levens (1705), MP for County of Westmorland 1708-1722 and 1727-1741, rebuilt Dallam Tower 1720-23, purchased Grayrigg Foot estate from James Wilson for £1000 (by lease and release of 23 & 24 February 1729 in his abstract of title dated January 1798 in CRO, WD/SE/ Grayrigg Foot deeds), marr (1716) Elizabeth, dau of William Crowle, merchant, of Hull, 6 sons and 2 daus, will dated 23 May 1750 giving his sons George and Daniel £2000 each and ‘his neglected grandchild by her father and grandfather Catherine Fleming’ £500 at her marriage or at age of 21, etc, with codicil of 29 August 1751 being ‘in agitation for purchasing a Commission for his son George so far for fear he should drop before its confirmed’ and giving his said portion ‘for the purchase of his new Commission if it was obtained and if so he must have no other legacy’ (abstract, op cit), died aged 74, and buried at Beetham, 3 June 1754 (CWMP, 453)
Wilson, Daniel (1726-17xx), MA, clergyman, bapt at Beetham, August 1726, 6th and yst son of Daniel Wilson (qv), of Dallam Tower, and his wife, Elizabeth Crowle, educ Trinity College, Cambridge (Fellow 1749), succ James Smith (qv) as vicar of Beetham in 1753 until resigning in 1762, left £100 by will to parish of Beetham (not inc division over the Sands), 13 February 1785 (BR, 69, 113)
Wilson, Daniel (1747-1824), landowner, born in July 1747, eldest son of Edward Wilson (qv), whom he succ at Dallam Tower in 1764 as residuary devisee and heir at law, last in male succession, unmarried in 1777, but marr 1st (1778/79) Beatrix Egerton (d. 1779), no issue, marr 2nd (1779/82) Sarah (born 1764, died December 1829, aged 65), dau of Robert Harpur, of Heath, co York, gent, 1 son (Edward, born 6 September 1790 and bapt at Beetham, 7 October, and d.v.p.) and 4 daus (Sarah, Dorothy, Ann and Elizabeth), sold Grayrigg Foot estate to Arthur C Shepherd (qv) of Shaw End, Patton, for £3150 in 1798 (by lease and release of 19 & 20 January 1798, receipt dated 13 February 1798, but Daniel was to procure a release from his brother and sisters of their interest in said estate under will of their father Edward (qv), his wife had a settlement made previous to her marriage in lieu and bar of dower (estate at Grayrigg Foot not included in settlement made by Edward Wilson the father or his son Daniel upon their respective marriages), undated letter to Sir Michael le Fleming about his visit to Dallam having to be postponed because of his (DW) being at the Hunt at Dalton (CRO, WD/Ry/106/13), died in November 1824
Wilson, Edward (1618-1707), landowner, born at Lyth 1618, eldest son of Thomas Wilson (qv), of Heversham Hall, admitted Gray’s Inn 1641, of Park House, Tunstall, also of Casterton Hall and of Heversham Hall, bought Nether Levens 1690, built Dallam Tower, marr 1st Jane (died 15 June 1656, aged 36, and buried at Tunstall, with child, 17 June), dau of Gawen Braithwaite (qv), of Ambleside, 2 sons and 3 daus (and 1 inf), marr 2nd (marr sett 25 June 1658) Dorothy (died December 1707), dau of Roger (?Richard) Kirkby, of Kirkby Hall, Furness, 2 sons and 3 daus, died July 1707, aged 89 (EWNL)
Wilson, Edward (1651-1720), JP, landowner, bapt at Tunstall, 30 November 1651, er son of Edward Wilson (qv), by first wife Jane, educ Queen’s College, Oxford 1669, Gray’s Inn 1671, lived at Park House, Tunstall until death of his father in 1707, then at Dallam Tower, JP for Westmorland (qual 21 August 1684), marr (15 August 1677) Katherine (born September 1657, bur at Tunstall, 23 March 1702), er dau of Sir Daniel Fleming (qv), of Rydal, 3 sons and 2 daus, died 5 February 1720, aged 69 (EWNL)
Wilson, Edward (1719-1764), MP and landowner, born in 1718/19, eldest son of Daniel Wilson (qv), whom he succ at Dallam Tower in 1754, and brother of George Wilson (qv), who built Abbot Hall, educ Queen’s College, Oxford (1738), marr (1746) Dorothy (died in November 1797, aged 73), dau of Sir William Fleming, of Rydal, 3 sons (eldest Daniel, qv) and 7 daus (inc Dorothy, wife of Richard Watson (qv), Elizabeth, Barbara, Charlotte, wife of Charles Gibson, of Quernmore Park, Margaret (bapt 9 January 1755, died at Lancaster, aged 21, and (as Peggy in LPRS, Vol.88, 226) brought to Beetham for burial in church, 23 February 1776), and Mary (bapt at Beetham, 7 October 1756 and buried there, 21 March 1764)), MP for county of Westmorland 1747-1754, will made 20 March 1764 with details of legacy of £5000 to his younger children (in abstract of title dated January 1798 in CRO, WD/SE/Grayrigg Foot deeds), dying soon afterwards and buried at Beetham, 12 April 1764 (CWMP, 453)
Wilson, Edward (1796-1870), banker, born 29 December 1796, eldest of five sons of Christopher Wilson (qv), of Abbot Hall, Kendal, and Rigmaden Park, marr (24 June 1830) Anne Clementina (died 15 January 1831, only dau of Lieut-Gen Sir Thomas Sidney Beckwith, KCB, no issue, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1851, died 23 March 1870
Wilson, Edward Hugh (1849-1886), landowner, son of George Edward Wilson (qv), of Dallam Tower, Milnthorpe, died in office as High Sheriff of Westmorland in 1886; succ by his sisters, Gertrude Sophia (died 23 January 1892) and Emily Sarah (died 11 February 1892)
Wilson, Edward Meryon (1906-1977), MA, PhD, FBA, scholar of Spanish literature of 16th and 17th centuries, born in Kendal, 14 May 1906, 2nd son of N F Wilson (qv) and brother of Gilbert and Paul N Wilson (qv), educ Windermere Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, Cervantes Professor of Spanish, King’s College, London 1945-1953, professor of Spanish, Cambridge University and fellow of Emmanuel College 1953-1973, syndic of Cambridge University Press, member of CWAAS from 1936, interests in folklore, bibliography and printing, articles in Transactions (incl paper on ‘Ralph Tyrer, BD, Vicar of Kendal, 1592-1627’ compiler of Much Cry of Kendal Wool: An Anthology (?1420-1720) (CAT, 1980), unmarried, died in Cambridge, 21 November 1977, aged 71
Wilson, Enid Jean (1905-1988), writer, daughter of George D. Abraham, photographer (qv) and his wife Winifred Davies, cousin of the climber Owen Glynne Jones (qv), m. John Christopher Wilson, contributed Lakeland material to the Country Diary for the Guardian (1950-88), precursor of Harry Griffin, published A Lakeland Diary (illustrated with wood engravings) (1985) which won the Lakeland book of the year award; obit. Guardian 2nd August 1988
Wilson, Frank, JP, woollen manufacturer (J J & W Wilson), Castle Mills, Kendal, of Castle Lodge (1885)
Wilson, Frank Keith (1940-2016), schoolmaster, master at Heversham Grammar School before moving to St Bees School in 1970, teaching geography, coaching rugby and cricket, and commanding RAF section of CCF, housemaster of Eaglesfield and Lonsdale, retired in 1999, marr (19xx) Yvonne, 2 daus (Gayle and Kyrste), of Lindale, died at Anley Hall Nursing Home, Settle, 16 December 2016, aged 76, and cremated followed by service of thanksgiving at St Peter’s Church, Heversham, 5 January 2017 (OSB Bulletin, January 2017)
Wilson, George (1635-1703), attorney-at-law, born 1635, son of George Wilson (1608-1635), attorney-at-law, who drowned in Windermere in October 1635, and his wife Margaret (nee Dixon) (born Margery at Kendal in January 1611/12), of Black Hall, Stricklandgate, Kendal, known as ‘ye Attorney of Stricklandgate’, marr 1st (16xx) Jane (buried at Kendal, May 1687), 9 sons and 4 daus, marr 2nd (1687x95) Mary (buried at Kendal, 23 November 1695), no issue, marr 3rd (15 March 1695/6 at Kendal) Mrs Alice [dau of Sir Thomas] Braithwaite, no further issue, died intestate (son Roger was his administrator) and buried at Kendal, 14 September 1703 (EWNL, 47-48; RK, i, 123) = GW below ?
Wilson, George (16xx-17xx), coroner, ‘I sent my servant on Satterday last with the poor man the finder of the clippings to the Coroner Mr Geo Wilson,…’ (letter from E Wilson to Sir Daniel Fleming at Rydal, dated 8 August 1699, in CRO, WD/Ry/ HMC 5424)
Wilson, George (1723-1776), Colonel, born March 1723/24, 4th but 2nd surviving of six sons of Daniel Wilson (qv), of Dallam Tower, builder of Abbot Hall, prob to design of John Carr, of York, in 1759 at cost of £8,000, insurance of £1,000 ‘on his new built dwelling house only called Abbott Hall near Kendall’, £600 on his household goods therein, and £400 on stables adjoining, all stone and slated, £2,000 total, 7 October 1763 (Sun Insurance policy, Vol 151, no.203144, Guildhall MS.11936, copy in CRO, WDY 120), marr (1762) Ann Sibyl Harrison (d.1811), 1 dau (Sibella Elizabeth, bapt at Kendal, 5 June 1766 and buried at Lancaster, 24 February 1773), refurbished Heversham Grammar School, sold Abbot Hall to John Taylor (qv) in 1772, died in York, aged 51, and buried at Lancaster Priory (“brought from York”), 21 January 1776; he and his wife both sat to Romney, Alex Kidson catalogue raisonne; David A. Cross, Public Sculpture, 2017
Wilson, George (c.1790-1832), army officer, possibly(?) son of George Wilson, husbandman, of Borwick Ground, born 11 October and bapt at Hawkshead, 23 October 1791, purchased commission as Ensign in 34th Regt (The Cumberland Regiment) in November 1812 (on recommendation of Major-General Alexander Dirom, of Annan), aged 22 in 1812 and well educated, served 1st Bn of 34th Regt in India, Lieutenant 1816 but retired on half pay and returned to England in 1817, residing at Hawkshead at time of marr (5 November 1818, at Dalton-in-Furness) Eleanor Postlethwaite, of Roosebeck, 7 children, listed as Lieutenant George Wilson at Gleaston in 1829 (PW), died and buried in St Mary’s churchyard, Dalton-in-Furness, 1 July 1832 (ex inf Andrew Wilson, e-mail 02.12.08)
Wilson, George, formerly Smyth (1782-1853), JP, landowner and magistrate, Lieut-Colonel, born at Warmfield, Yorks, marr Sarah (1782-1831), er dau of Daniel Wilson (qv), last of Wilson male line, succ to Dallam estate in 1824, 1 son (George Edward, qv) and 1 dau (Elizabeth, aged 35 in 1851), died in 1853
Wilson, George Edward (1814-1879), landowner, eldest son of Lieut-Col George Wilson, formerly Smyth (qv), of Dallam Tower, Milnthorpe, marr Gertrude Mary (died 5 February 1892), 1 son (Edward Hugh, qv) and 2 daus (Gertrude Sophia and Emily Sarah, who both died within three weeks of each other in 1892, 23 January and 11 February, in influenza outbreak or possibly typhoid caused by a faulty drain), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1849, died in 1879; Harriet Maria Wilson, of Heversham House, buried at Heversham, 3 January 1852, aged 7 years and 3 months, but reinterred in family vault at Beetham, 8 February 1875 = another daughter?
Wilson, Gilbert (1899-19xx), PhD, MSc, geologist, born in Kendal, 5 March 1899, eldest son of N F Wilson (qv), educ Gresham’s School, Holt, Norfolk, McGill University, and University of Wisconsin, lecturer in Structural Geology, Imperial College of Science and Technology, marr (6 August 1927) Lucile, yr dau of Arthur Terroux, of Montreal, and Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada, 2 sons, of Cannon Hill, London NW6 (BLG, 1952)
Wilson, Harold Crewdson (18xx-19xx), drysalter, son of Thomas Crewdson Wilson (qv), moved with father and rest of family into home of his uncle, Isaac Braithwaite (qv) in 1898, joined firm of Isaac Braithwaite & Son, drysalters, in 1913 as partner with his uncle; father of Elizabeth Ransome Theresa (Tessa) Wilson and Annette Dorothea Sumsion; of 3 Greenside, Kendal (1955) - with wife, Dorothea Fry, Annette Dorothea and Kathleen M
Wilson, Henry (c.1533-1609), chapman, merchant and salter, first alderman of Kendal 1575-1576, son of Robert Wilson (son of Henry Wilson (b.c.1490), innkeeper of the ‘Hart Head’, Kendal), marr 1st Isabel (bur 15 December 1578), 2 sons (Robert (b.1561) and Thomas (d. before 1608)), marr 2nd [date and name unknown], 2 sons (William (bur 3 April 1585) and Henry (bur 1 July 1586)), marr 3rd (2 December 1606) Anne Braithwaite, of Kirkland, no further issue, first alderman of newly incorporated borough of Kendal by charter of 28 November 1575, burgess and justice of peace, but removed, displaced and discharged of office by order of corporation, 28 January 1579/80 for ‘living incontinently’ with Jennet, wife of Christopher Eskrigg, his lands in Kendal and Sparrowmire in Strickland Roger conveyed to eldest son Robert on his marriage to Elinor Rallinson, 11 June 1601, his land in West Bergholt, Essex, left in tail male to grandson, Ralph Wilson (son of late son Thomas), of Sparrowmire, but of Kirkbarrow (in will), died 14 March 1608/09 and buried at Kendal Parish Church, 22 March 1609; will proved 22 April 1609 (executors: son Robert, gr son Ralph, and brother-in-law Edward Potter (marr sister Alice)); IPM at Kendal, 27 September 1611 (KBR, 22, 49, 119-120; EWNL, 80; RK, i, 271-272)
Wilson, Henry (18xx-18xx), master of Friends’ School, Stramongate, Kendal 1855-1860, alderman of Kendal Borough Council, also ? professor of languages, of Eller Lea (1873)
Wilson, Henry Remington Allen (1869-1928), MA, clergyman, born 21 November 1869, 2nd son of six sons of Revd Canon James Allen Wilson (1827-1917), MA, JP, rector of Bowland-by-Bowland (see LG, Wilson of Jerusalem Hill), and of Catherine (d.1914), yr dau of Henry Remington (qv), of Melling and Aynsome (see LG, Remington formerly of Melling), educ Sedbergh and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1892, MA 1896) and Leeds Clergy School (1892), d 1893 and p 1894 (Chester), curate of St Thomas, Hyde, Cheshire 1893-1895, St Jude, Bradford 1895-1897, and Romaldkirk 1897-1899, rector of Marton, near Skipton 1899-1912, vicar of North Aston, Deddington, Oxfordshire 1912-1922/3, vicar of Mansergh 1923-1928, marr 1st (9 June 1897) Alice Maud (died 6 September 1915), eldest dau of William Illingworth, of Bramhope Manor, nr Leeds, no issue, marr 2nd (24 April 1919) Mary Hall (died at Vicarage, 25 July 1923, aged 39, and buried 28 July), eldest dau of Henry Hall Bedford, of Sharrow Hurst, Sheffield, no issue, died at The Vicarage, Mansergh, 30 April 1928, aged 58, and buried with 2nd wife in Mansergh churchyard, 4 May
Wilson, Isaac (1715-1785), shearman dyer and woollen manufacturer, born 16 March 1715 at High Wray, yst son of Anthony Wilson (1672-1755), of High Wray, and Dorothy (1678-1755), dau of George and Margaret Benson, of Stang End, Little Langdale, sent to Kendal probably in 1728 to be trained in business, apprenticed to firm of shearman dyers (Braithwaites or Wakefields?), occupied part of Castle Mills, Kendal by 1756 (probably the large mill across mill-race), entered deeds of co-partnership with Edward Nicholson and Joseph Gough jun, shearman dyers, and William Pennington, mill wright, all of Kendal, for cloth fulling and frizing business (Kendal cottons and linseys) at Castle Mills, 15 August 1757, renewed 17 June 1762 (CRO, WD/PW/acc.400), began own business in buildings between Stramongate and New Road, his annual accounts from 1742 to 1773 show his business capital increased from £751 to £6,011, letter book (Isaac Wilson and Son, woollen manufacturers, 1774-1776, in CRO, WD/K/72), clerk to Kendal Preparative Meeting of Society of Friends and also Westmorland Quarterly Meeting for over 30 years, frequently attending Yearly Meeting in London, reputation for great propriety and judgement, marr (18 December 1740) Rachel Wilson (qv), 1 son and 7 daus, died 18 October 1785, aged 70, and buried in Friends’ burial ground at Kendal, 23 October (WHWK, 6; IRW)
Wilson, Isaac (18xx-18xx), solicitor, marr (ante 1819) Fanny, twin sons (Thomas Henry buried 17 May 1837, aged 2 years and 5 months), and dau (Elizabeth Sarah buried 10 January 1838, aged 19), of Stramongate, Kendal
Wilson, Isaac, gentleman, formerly hosier, of Kirkland, Kendal, when his wife Isabella died aged 79 and buried at Kendal, 29 October 1840
Wilson, Isaac Whitwell (1833-1881), JP, manufacturer, born 22 January 1833, eldest son of John Jowitt Wilson (qv), of Kendal, educ Grove House, Tottenham, marr (12 July 1860) Anne (d. 26 July 1909), dau of Jonathan Bagster, 7 sons and 3 daus (Theodora Wilson (qv), Annie Whitwell, wife of F W Crewdson (qv), and Mary Wilson, wife of Sir James Hope Simpson (d.1924), of Liverpool), compelled by ill-health to decline mayoralty of Kendal, a trustee of Kendal and Northern Counties Permanent Benefit Building Society (1873), died 4 March 1881
Wilson, Sir Jacob (1836-1901), agriculturist, born at Crackanthorpe, educ Longmarton School, agricultural director of RASE shows, adviser to Board of Agriculture, member of Royal Commission on Agriculture, land agent to Earl of Tankerville at Chillingham, patron, Aspatria Agricultural College
Wilson, James (1740-1818), born in 1740, son of John Wilson, of Bleaze Hall, marr (1765) Jane (1742-1823), dau of Dr John Atkinson, 15 children (of whom 14th, dau, Eleanor (1785-1852), was only one to marry, wife of Joseph Braithwaite (qv)), settled in Kendal and became active member of community, apptd alderman in 1765 [but no longer in 1790], died in 1818 (portrait of 1764 by Romney in Kendal Town Hall until early 1900s when relocated to house of sitter’s great grandson, Wilson Garnett Braithwaite, and his son, Brigadier William Garnett Braithwaite (qv), later sold it at Sotheby’s on 12 May 1927)
Wilson, James (17xx-1818), JP, attorney and justice, deputy recorder of Kendal, had residence in house next to Blindbeck House, Kendal, formerly residence of Leyburnes of Cunswick, with carved and painted hood over entrance door, where his daughter Maria Wilson lived and died in December 1863, aged 91, 3 other daus, all of Highgate (Margaret, buried at Kendal, 30 September 1788, aged 3 days; Elizabeth, buried 9 November 1833, aged 64; and Jane, buried 28 December 1833, aged 65), died 5 May 1818, aged 77 (LC, 19) and buried at Kendal, 11 May
Wilson, James (1856-1923), MA, BD, LittD, clergyman and historian, born in 1856, son of James Wilson, of Drumgoland and Billis Grove, co Cavan, educ Trinity College Dublin (BA 1878, MA 1885, LittD 1905, BD 1912), d 1879 and p 1880 (Carl), curate of St Paul’s, Carlisle 1879-1886, chaplain of Carlisle Union 1884-1886 and HM Prison, Carlisle 1886-1888, vicar of Dalston from 1888, hon chaplain to bishop Diggle of Carlisle, hon canon of Carlisle cathedral, member of CWAAS from 1883, elected member of Council 1892 and vice-president 1903, also vice-president of Surtees Society, leading historian of diocese of Carlisle and of medieval history of Cumberland, took over editing of Victoria County History on death of Chancellor Ferguson in 1900, contributed over 30 articles and notes to Transactions, also contributed articles to Scottish Historical Review, author and/or editor (with notes and index) of The Monumental Inscriptions of Dalston (1890), The Monumental Inscriptions of the Parish Church & Churchyard, and the Congregational Burial Ground, Wigton, Cumberland (1892), Dalston Parish Registers 1570-1678 (1893) and 1678-1813 (1895), The Monumental Inscriptions of Caldbeck (1897), Inclosure of the Common Land of Dalston (1898), Victoria History of Cumberland, vol. i (1901) and vol. ii (1905), Rose Castle: the Residential Seat of the Bishop of Carlisle (1912), and The Register of the Priory of St Bees (CWAAS Chartulary Series, vol.III, and Surtees Society vol.?? (1915), refused to hand over parish histories of Cumberland until he received payment from VCH, and impasse unresolved at his death, when he or his wife had destroyed his mss [CW obit assumes they were still extant at his death], died at Dalston Vicarage, 26 March 1923 (CW2, xxiii, 301-02)
Wilson, James Christopher (1813-1xxx), born 1813, 5th and yst son of Christopher Wilson (qv), of Abbot Hall, Kendal, and of Rigmaden, Kirkby Lonsdale, marr (1861) Mary Harriet, dau of John David Hay Hill, of Gressenhall Hall, Norfolk, 3 sons and 3 daus (inc Lady Inglefield, qv), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1869, trustee of Kelsick’s Charity (1869), had estate of 1,541 acres (1871), of Low Nook, Ambleside
Wilson, James E (fl.early 20th.), confectioner, founded firm of J E Wilson & Sons in 1913, traded wholesale from warehouse in New Inn Yard, Highgate, Kendal, employed a sugar boiler and introduced ‘Wilsons’ Kendal Mint Cake, packed in distinctive green wrapper with inset view, business moved to (1975) premises in 1916, shop at 65 Stricklandgate, Kendal (1975)
Wilson, Jane (1727-1785), 2nd wife of John Bewick of Cherryburn (now NT), mother of Thomas Bewick the wood engraver, b. Ainstable, daughter of Thomas Wilson; see Bewick’s entry in ODNB; Jenny Uglow, Thomas Bewick, 2006
Wilson, John (?1692/1702-1751), botanist, born in Highgate, Kendal, in 1702 (WW, ii, 319), son of John Wilson, waller, of Longsleddale, apprenticed to cordwainer, land surveyor’s assistant, published Synopsis of British Plants (1744), first writer to attempt a systematic arrangement of indigenous plants in English language, died in Highgate, Kendal, and buried in churchyard (unmarked), 15 July 1751 (RK III,; WW, ii, 319-322)
Wilson, Revd John (c.1728-1791), clergyman, curate of Ambleside and former minister of Grasmere, died 6 April 1791, aged 63, and buried at Grasmere, 10 April (altar tomb on east side of church, WCN, i, 235)
Wilson, Sir John (1741-1793; ODNB), KC, FRS, MA, judge, born at The Howe in Applethwaite, 6 August 1741 and bapt at Troutbeck, 8 September, son of John Wilson, educ at Staveley, near Kendal, and Peterhouse, Cambridge (entd 29 June 1757, BA senior wrangler 1761, MA 1764, and elected a fellow on 7 July 1764), had clear mathematical ability, making an able reply while an undergraduate to attack made by William Samuel Powell on Edward Waring’s Miscellanea analytica (1762), and his theorem on the theory of numbers later included in Waring’s Meditationes algebraicae (1770), with his pupils including William Paley (qv), but changed course to career in law, admitted to Middle Temple on 22 January 1763 and called to bar on 7 February 1766, joined northern circuit in 1767 and built up large practice, appointed KC on 24 April 1782 and bencher of Middle Temple from 10 May 1782, appointed a justice of the court of Common Pleas from 6 November 1786, also a serjeant-at-law, knighted on 15 November 1786, appointed King’s or treasury devil in court of exchequer in 1788, appointed a commissioner of the great seal (after Thurlow’s retirement as Lord Chancellor) on 15 June 1792 and held office until 28 January 1793 (on Wedderburn’s appointment), well regarded by his contemporaries ‘no man of the profession is held in superior estimation, either on account of his professional abilities, amiableness of manners, or benevolence of heart’ (Rede, 155), esp so by Sir James Lowther, who placed great confidence in him, and reputed one of the best black letter lawyers, resigned his fellowship in November 1786, but kept up interest in mathematics as elected FRS on 13 March 1782, marr (7 April 1788) Mary Ann, dau of James Adair, a serjeant-at-law, 1 son (John, Admiral, qv) and 2 daus, suffered ill-health and attempted to recover at Lisbon, but collapsed in a paralytic fit while walking down street near his own door in Kendal and died after 14 days’ confinement, 18 October 1793, aged 52, and buried in parish church, 22 October; MI in church composed by his friend, Richard Watson (GM, 1st ser, 63/2 (1793), 965; WW, ii, 161-168)
Wilson, Revd John (c.1748-1791), Fellow and Bursar of Trinity College, Cambridge, son of Isaac Wilson of Lambrigg, held various livings in absentia, incl Helsington 1770-1781, vicar of Gainforth, co Durham, and Cattrick, co York, rebuilt Bank House on the Cross Bank (nos 112-114 Highgate), Kendal (designed by Robert Furze Brettingham, poss built by Francis Webster) (CRO, WD/AG/Box 117), died aged 52 and buried at Kendal, 16 January 1791
Wilson, John (1772-1856), born Kirkoswald, nephew of Kenneth Francis Mackenzie and managed Lusignan a plantation in Demarara, involved in a partnership with John Gladstone of Liverpool in 1807, called John Gladstone, Grant and Wilson from 1819-1829; spanglefish.co/slavesandhighlanders
Wilson, John (fl.mid 19thc.), shipbuilder, foreman of Schollick’s yard at Ulverston, later had his own yard, he built the Mary Ann Mandell in 1868, she was attacked by a German submarine in 1918 and having useful guns took the submarine by surprise by returning fire and driving her off, despite the loss of her main mast this was remarkable for a wooden vessel; J Snell, Ulverston Canal, 67-9
Wilson, John (c.1762-1838), schoolmaster, of Stricklandgate, Kendal, buried at Kendal, 18 April 1838, aged 76
Wilson, John (‘Christopher North’) (1785-1854; ODNB), author and journalist, born Paisley 18 May 1785, son of John Wilson (d.1790) a gauze manufacturer, educ Paisley GS, Glasgow university and Magdalene College, Oxford, his father died when he was 11, bought Elleray estate at Windermere in 1807, began building present house in 1808, lost his fortune in 1812 but lived there until 1815 when he moved to Edinburgh to earn his living as a writer, but still visited for holidays until sold in 1848 (or 1855?), editor of Blackwood’s Magazine, professor of moral philosophy, Edinburgh Unversity 1820-1851, great patron of all north country sports, esp boxing, fencing and wrestling, marr (11 May 1811) Jane (d. 29 March 1837), dau of James Penny (qv), of Arrad and Liverpool, (the leading belle of the Lake county’, 2 sons and 3 daus, died at Edinburgh, 2 April 1854, bur Dean cemetery; also his statue in Edinburgh off Princes St.; McKenzie, Public Sculpture, 276-7, volume edited by Stephen Matthews
Wilson, John (1789-1870), naval officer, son of Sir John Wilson (qv), of The Howe, Troutbeck, marr (18xx) Dorothy, son (Charles, qv) and 2 daus (Charlotte, born 18 May 1822 and bapt 15 June, and Mary Ann Jane, bapt 20 June 1825, both at Troutbeck) when Captain, RN, Admiral, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1854, died 1870; The Howe sold after his death in 1871 and demolished in 1938
Wilson, John B (18xx-19xx), coroner and solicitor, HM Coroner for Kendal and Lonsdale Wards and Borough of Kendal (1885, WG 19.07.1902), of 136 Highgate, Kendal, solicitor with Thomson & Wilson, Kendal
Wilson, John Hewetson (1xxx-1862), philanthropist, born at Ashton, Lancs, son of Thomas Wilson, of Boughton, near Chester (will dated 27 November 1844, proved at Chester, 17 June 1845) and his wife Isabella, sister of Henry Hewetson (‘Gold Lace Harry’), whose fortune of £61,000 and country mansion, The Grange, in Sussex he (as nephew) inherited in 1838 (will dated 20 December 1836), his sister Elizabeth was wife of Samuel Buckley, purchased lot of land in Staveley and Hugill area, built The Abbey Hotel in Staveley (caused a stir among locals (letter from his son, 1 July 1844) and noted as ‘the handsomest inn in the county’ (letter from William Sleddall, 9 October 1845) and by Mannex in 1851), also built large bobbin mill at Fellfoot in 1859 for Messrs William Philipson and Co (KM, 2.2.1859), helped start Staveley and District Agricultural Society in 1851 and encouraged new methods, invested in Kendal-Windermere Railway, subscribed to Kentmere Reservoir in 1846 and to Staveley Institute and its library in school in 1850s, improved his estates, planted trees and built saw mill, noted for his liberality, lived mainly in Sussex and Manchester, but visited regularly, marr Mary Ann, 1 son (d.v.p.), died in 1862, will dated 8 July 1862, leaving his estate to nephews and nieces, with nephew R W Buckley (qv), then of Boughton, Chester, inheriting Staveley and Sussex properties, and cousin Stephen Brunskill (qv), of Lambrigg Foot, as his executors (deeds and wills in CRO, WDX 572; LVTT, 14, 116)
Wilson, John Jowitt (1809-1875), JP, woollen manufacturer, born 22 December 1809, eldest son of Isaac Wilson (1784-1844) and Mary Jowitt (d.1846), marr (12 April 1832) Hannah Maria (d. 21 July 1875), dau of Isaac Whitwell, 2 sons (Henry (died aged 20) and Arnold (died aged 4)) and dau (Katherine, wife of Gurney Pease (qv)), purchased Castle Mills from Kendal Corporation for £5,000 in 1853, mayor of Kendal 1853-54, 1857-58, 1869-70 and 1870-71, alderman until November 1874, vice-chairman of Kendal Board of Guardians until 1874, pioneer of temperance cause and president of Kendal Temperance Society, trustee of the Cottage Benefit Building Society [established 17 November 1864] (1873), laid foundation stone of new Primitive Methodist chapel in Blackhall Yard, Kendal on 14 July 1870, director and deputy chairman, Kendal & Windermere Railway 1848-1854, involved in case of Hannah Rushforth (CW2, lxxi, 237-247), strong Liberal in politics, originally member of Society of Friends, but later joined Plymouth Brethren, of Kent Terrace, and later of Underfell, Kendal, where he died 16 February 1875, aged 65, and buried at Castle Street cemetery, 22 February, after largest funeral procession witnessed in Kendal (portrait by William Tyndal) (CRO, WD/PW/acc.1970; obituary reprinted from WG, 17 February 1875, in CRO, WDX 413/20)
Wilson, John Knubley (1785-1862), DL, JP, Lieut-Col, Royal Cumberland Militia, son of John Wilson (d.1830) and his wife (marr 1769) Sarah, dau of Edward Knubley (qv), of Finglandrigg, Bowness-on-Solway, marr 1st (1823) Harriet (d.1828), 8th dau of Walter Chambre (qv), of Whitehaven, marr 2nd (1831) Mary (d.1875, aged 86), dau of Henry Jefferson, of Whitehaven, no issue, built Evening Hill, Thursby in c.1836, died s.p. in 1862 [Colonel K W Wilson is listed as of Evening Hill in 1858, but is prob the same]
Wilson, John Tomlinson (1887-1961), baker, hotelier, guide book writer and founder of PUPs; Brian Wilkinson, Keswick Characters vol. 1
Wilson, Jonathan (1693-1780), farmer, malt and chair dealer, diary and account book; CW2 xcviii 207
Wilson, Jonathan (Jonty) (1893-1981), blacksmith, son and one of ten children of Robert Gilgrass Wilson, who was employed in running of the Home Farm for the Paget-Tomlinsons, his grandfather (1834-1923) being a packhorse owner, began work aged 14 at blacksmith’s shop in Kirkby Lonsdale in 1907, blacksmith for over 60 years at Kirkby Lonsdale, and had riding school at Fountain House, had passion for local history and an extraordinary memory for people and places, marr J, 2 daus (Audrey (Mrs A Cox, later Mrs A Phillips) and Hilda), of Fairbank, Kirkby Lonsdale, died in 1981 (photos in W R Mitchell, The Lune Valley and the Howgill Fells (2009), 97, 102, 130; WR Mitchell, Jonty Wilson of Kirkby Lonsdale, 1979; ledger of Fairbank Smithy, Kirkby Lonsdale 1834-1884 in CRO, WDB 89)
Wilson, Kathleen Mary (1882-1970), BA, teacher and school founder, born in 1882, 3rd child and only dau of Thomas Crewdson Wilson (qv), known as Lena as a child when family lived at 5 Bankfield, on south side of Greenside, Kendal, educ Friends’ School for Girls, Stramongate 1889-1896, then Kendal High School, and Westfield College, London University (BA), Certificate in Teaching (Cantab, 1905), went with rest of family to live with her uncle and aunt, Isaac and Mary Braithwaite, at Castle Lodge in 1898 after death of her mother, teacher at Stramongate Girls’ school from 1907 until school closed in 1910, when she opened new school for girls run on Quaker principles at Holly Croft (25-26 Kendal Green) in 1910 (house rented by her uncle and aunt), assisted by two teachers, Winifred Hird and Constance Bright, from Stramongate (school Field Club log book in CRO, WDS 110), submitted planning application in 1913 to join the neighbouring two semi-detached houses, Silver Howe and Overdale (23-24 KG), which were bought by her aunt on 11 May 1914, to form one larger school, not agreed, so resubmitted in 1914 for only a large glazed cover over the back yard between the two pairs of houses, new prospectus published with intention of taking boarders, but school closed in 1914 after she decided to look after her eldest brother Charles and his young son following death of his wife, houses then used to house Belgian refugees until 1919, Holly Croft later becoming a home for unmarried mothers and renamed St Monica’s, devoted rest of her time to Society of Friends, Old Girls’ Association of Stramongate School and British Women’s Temperance Association, later lived with Braithwaites at Ghyll Close, in which she had a flat from 1931 and where she died in 1970 (KG, 48, 118-121, inc photo; The Old Stramonian, 1963, 10-12)
Wilson, Lancelot (17xx-18xx), clergyman, native of Cumberland, vicar of Holy Island, intended subscriber to Hutchinson’s History of Cumberland, paying £3 to Mr Bailey of Chillingham on 20 July 1796, but found his name not included on receiving the two volumes on 7 July 1798, and complained to John Bell, the bookseller
Wilson, Mildred Olive (1919-1995), ARPS, photographer and local historian, born 24 September 1919, only dau of C H Wilson (qv), living with her mother at Low Fell, Crosthwaite, after father’s death, related to the Wilson family at Rigmaden, interest in genealogy and her descent from ‘Haycart Willie’ Wilson, member of CWAAS, had a remarkable ability to identify Lakeland fells in watercolours and oil paintings, lived latterly at Calgarth Park, owned a Pre-Raphaelite drawing, gave in her lifetime Ruskin material to Ruskin Library, Lancaster, died 23 May 1995
Wilson, Norman Forster (1869-1949), JP, AMICE, civil engineer, born 31 July 1869, 5th son of Isaac Whitwell Wilson (qv), of Elmhurst, Kendal, educ Friends’ School, Stramongate, Kendal, Whitgift Grammar School, Croydon, Bootham School, York, and at City and Guilds Institute, marr (7 June 1898 at KL) Henrietta Gwendolen Meryon (1876-1975, buried at Parkside cemetery, of 1 Greenside, Kendal (1955)), yst dau of Alfred Harris (qv) of Lunefield, Kirkby Lonsdale, 3 sons (Gilbert, Edward and Paul), bought holiday home at Low Fell, Crosthwaite, managing director, Gilbert Gilkes & Co, Engineers, Kendal, retd 1934, mayor of Kendal 1928-29 and 1929-30, alderman, Westmorland County Council 1943, chairman of Kendal Dispensary Committee 1931-1949 and member from c.1906, churchwarden of Kendal parish church, JP Westmorland 1907, active member of Liberal Party, Freemason, member of Fell and Rock Climbing Club in younger days, member of CWAAS from 1900, auditor 1926, and author of paper on ‘Ejected Ministers in Westmorland and Cumberland’ (CW2, xxiv, 66-77), formerly of Elmhurst, Kendal, died at Castle Lodge, Kendal, 12 September 1949, cremated ashes buried at Castle Street cemetery, Kendal, 16 September (papers and photographs in CRO, WD/PW; CW2, xlix, 233-34)
Wilson, Paul Norman, baron Wilson of High Wray (1908-1980), LL, OBE, DSC, JP, MA, FSA, born 24 October 1908, 3rd and yst son of N F Wilson (qv), educ Gresham’s School, Holt, and Clare College, Cambridge (MA), served WW2 as Lt-Cmdr.(E) RN, formerly of Castle Lodge, Elmhurst, later 36 Aynam Road, Kendal, and then of Gillinggate House, managing director of Gilbert Gilkes and Gordon Ltd, Kendal, contested Westmorland as Labour candidate in elections of 1950 (third with 9,031 votes) and 1951 (second with 9,117), Lord Lieutenant of Westmorland 1966-1974, Vice-Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria 1974-1980, cr Baron Wilson of High Wray 1976, governor of the BBC, president of Voluntary Action Cumbria (1977), county president of Westmorland Scout Association, member of CWAAS from 1952, president 1974-1977, patron from 1966, and member of Industrial Archaeological Committee from 1969, author of several papers (inc ms The Scenery of the English Lake District, 1927), marr (23 July 1935) Valerie Frances Elizabeth Fletcher (hon president, Kendal Stick and Wheel Club, died at Lunesdale House, Hale, 5 December 1995), of Johannesburg, South Africa, no issue, died 24 February 1980, aged 71, and cremated ashes buried at Castle Street cemetery, Kendal, 10 March; memorial service, 12 March (papers in CRO, WD/PW); CWAAS 150th volume 303ff
Wilson, Philip Whitwell (1875-1956), author and lecturer, born 21 May 1875, 7th and yst son of Isaac Whitwell Wilson (qv), educ Kendal Grammar School and Clare College, Cambridge, marr 1st (25 April 1899) Alice Selina (d.1939), only dau of Henry Collins, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA, 4 sons and 2 daus, marr 2nd (27 May 1944) Mary Elizabeth (died 2 January 1951), eldest dau of George Richard Cross, of Edgwater, New Jersey, USA, MP for St Pancras South 1906-1910, contested Appleby 1910, edited Greville Diary, emigrated to USA, journalist on New York Times, of Henry Hudson Parkway, New York City (1952), died 6 June 1956 [grand dau, Mrs Prudence Wilson Barton, of 155 Kessler Road, Lanesborough, MA, USA, has silver tea service given to John Jowitt Wilson (qv)]
Wilson, Rachel (1720-1775), Quaker minister, born 8 April 1720, 2nd dau of John Wilson, tanner, of Highgate, Kendal, and Deborah, dau of Thomas Wilson, tanner, of Stramongate, marr (18 December 1740) Isaac Wilson (qv), acknowledged as a minister of Society of Friends when 18 yrs of age, able preacher and travelled widely in British Isles and Ireland and to America in 1768-69, died 18 May 1775 (IRW)
Wilson, Richard (1xxx-18xx), DD, BA, schoolmaster, educ Sedbergh School and St John’s College, Cambridge (entd 1819, BA, fifteenth wrangler 1824, DD 1839), elected fellow of St John’s College 1826, but resigned in 1831 to start school in Eaton Square, London (SSR, 169)
Wilson, Richard (17xx-18xx), coroner and solicitor, coroner for Kendal and Lonsdale Wards 1835-1861 (elected after five-day contest with Thomas Wardle, by 762 to 569, at Appleby, 7-12 May 1835), resigned in 1861, office in Kent Lane, Kendal (1837), rode boundary of Hutton Park estate with John Watson (qv) on 20 November 1837, mayor of Kendal 1839-40, marr (18xx) Isabella (buried at Kendal, 13 July 1840, aged 33), later of Thorns Villa, Underbarrow; Thomas Wilson, yeoman, formerly manufacturer in Kendal, died at Thorns in Underbarrow, aged 66, and buried by John Graves, curate of Underbarrow, at Kendal, 6 June 1839
Wilson, Robert (fl early 19thc.), Presbyterian minister, apptd to Scottish Secession Presbyterian Chapel in Woolpack Yard, Kendal on death of Alexander Marshall (qv) in 1828 and ordained minister in December 1828, had established Sunday School in 1826, worked to pay off debts, but left Kendal after ministry of four years in 1832 (KK, 322-323)
Wilson, Robert (fl. late 19thc.), of Broughton, Grange and Cockermouth, co-founder of the Keswick Convention 1875 with Canon Harford Battersby q.v., their motto: All One in Christ: Love Joy Peace
Wilson, Roger (1663-1690), landowner, of Casterton Hall, born January 1662/63, yr son of Edward Wilson (qv) by his 2nd wife Dorothy, marr (by 1687) Jane (bapt at Whittington, 30 September 1662, died by 1714), er dau of John Foxcroft, of Holmehouse, Whittington, 2 sons and 1 dau, died and buried at Kirkby Lonsdale, 23 February 1690 (EWNL; HWC, 25-26)
Wilson, Roger (1690-1755), DL, JP, landowner, bapt at Kirkby Lonsdale, 2 July 1690, yr son of Roger Wilson (qv), of Casterton Hall, marr Elizabeth (bur at Kirkby Lonsdale, 20 December 1769, aged 75), dau of Thomas Andrews, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2 sons and 4 daus, DL and JP for Westmorland, succ to Casterton Hall on death of brother Edward (1687-1726) in October 1726, admitted to customary lands at Whittington, 12 December 1726, settled estate of Holmehouse on his son Roger by common recovery, 16 August 1748, buried at Kirkby Lonsdale, 7 August 1755 (EWNL; HWC, 26)
Wilson, Roger (1727-1769), recorder, born at Casterton and bapt at Kirkby Lonsdale, July 1727, er son of Roger Wilson (qv), paid descent fine to Holmehouse estate, 21 October 1756, and admitted again (on death of lord of manor, William Bordrigg) on 18 December 1766, bencher of Gray’s Inn, recorder of Kendal 1757-1766, died unmarried at Gray’s Inn, London, aged 42, and buried at Kirkby Lonsdale, 30 December 1769
Wilson, Ron (c.1925-2010), town clerk, joined Carlisle City Council on leaving school in 1941, city treasurer 1974, town clerk and chief executive 1978-1990, retiring in 1990, died in 2010, aged 85; memorial service at St Cuthbert’s church, Carlisle, 8 March 2011
Wilson, Rowland (15xx-1654), merchant, vintner and benefactor, born at Low Hall, Grassgarth, Ings, marr (14 December 1606) Mary, dau of John Tiffin, of London, 1 son (Rowland, infra), made fortune in London, paid £500 to be excused office of sheriff of City in 1630, gave silver gilt chalice with paten cover inscribed with his name and coat of arms to Ings chapel in 1634, died 16 May 1654, by will (proved 1 June 1654) founded trust for distribution of wheat or rye bread to poor of parishes of Kendal and Ings on every Lord’s Day immediately after divine service or sermon, also support and maintenance of school near Ings chapel for teaching of good learning, with Grassgarth estate left to his grandson, Ellis Crisp (as his son Rowland below had predeceased him) (IwH, 14-15); [Rowland Wilson (1613-1650; ODNB), parliamentary army officer and politician, bapt at St Lawrence Jewry, London, 1 September 1613, died v.p., xx February 1650, but not known where buried]
Wilson, Stephen (c.1526-1573), chantry priest and schoolmaster, described as clerk of age of 44 years on 18 March 1570, yr son of Thomas Wilson (who owned six tenements in Kendal at his death), marr (c.1550) Jennet (listed as his relict paying rent for messuage in ‘Le Hiegate’ for half year 1576-77 (RK, I, 95), will made 19 June 1589, proved Richmond 11 October), 2 sons (Stephen and Samuel) and dau (Susan), first noticed in 1552 (as Wylson) when paid stipend of £10 from lands in Lincolnshire as master of the Free Grammar School, Kendal (as succ to Adam Shepherd, qv), appealed to court for payment of arrears in 1557 (CCR, 33), lived at the Anchorage (Stephen, son of Samuel Wilson ‘of thancaras’, bapt 21 October 1593), buried at Kendal, 16 March 1573 (CW2, lxii, 170; lxiv, 382; RK, I, 95)
Wilson, The Misses, jointly ran Calder Girls School from 1884 (originally established at Park Nook, Gosforth in 1882, rented from Dr Arundel Parker (qv)), they were the daughters of John Wilson and Jane Hilton, and granddaughters of Christopher Wilson a farmer at St Bees, they were Mary Jane (1855-1942), Elizabeth (1859-1910), Ann Louisa (1863-1941) and Florence Ada (1867-1952), some sources say two of them studied at Newnham College, the school was badly affected by the Windscale incident and closed in 1967; mss Whitehaven CRO; HB Stout, Calder Girls School, 1977
Wilson, Theodora Wilson (1865-1941), novelist, pacifist and suffragist, born Castle Lodge, Kendal, eldest dau of Isaac Whitwell Wilson (qv) JP woollen manufacturer and his wife Anne Bagster, granddaughter of Samuel Bagster a bible publisher (1772-1851; ODNB), educ Friends School Stramongate, Croydon High School and abroad, est evening school for girls for needlework, bible study and singing, est Women’s Liberal Association, very critical of the 1st WW and was a leading pacifist in the Fellowship of Reconciliation, left the Liberals who had rejected the enfranchisement of women and joined the Labour Party in 1914, went to the Hague in 1915 for the foundation of the Women’s International League, wrote 62 books including many novels, The Last Weapon (1916) which manifested her deep disapproval of war caused outrage and many copies were pulped on the orders of the Home Secretary, other books included T’Bacca Queen (1901), The Magic Jujubes (1906), A Modern Ahab (1912), The Sole Survivor (1935), a play A Pig in a Poke (1931) and a commentary on the war Those Strange Years (1937), she observed the exploitation of the workers and oppressive patriarchal practices and her aim was to use her writing to change attitudes, she depicted local elites as ‘self-serving brigands’ (Smalley 2013) and strongly believed that decent wages for the workforce should be a greater priority than the dividends of shareholders, also advocated that the people of good will should stand up against government policy which aimed at maintaining a system of tyranny and slavery, lived Low Stack, Queen’s Road, Kendal, died unmarried at St Albans in 1941, cremated and her ashes buried 18 November at Castle St cemetery, Kendal, her obituaries referred to her novels but down-played her very significant radical contribution locally and nationally; CRO WDX 1100, CW3 x 239; Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 2006; Roger Smalley, Westmorland’s Forgotten Rebel, 2010; Roger Smalley, Political Dissent in Westmorland, 1880-1930, 2013
Wilson, Thomas (15xx-1586), DD, clergyman, dean of Worcester 1571-1586, born at Patton/Grayrigg, gave £10 towards building of Kendal Grammar School in early 1580s? and a further £10 for same as professor of divinity, member of ‘extreme Protestant party’ (BoR, 221, 224; AK, 191; AWL, 324-25)
Wilson, Thomas (1563-1656), merchant and landowner, born at Staveley Hall, moved to Nether Levens, founded Heversham Grammar School in 1613 (portrait by unknown artist, CC (AH), 6)
Wilson, Thomas (c.1674-1756), attorney, owned Kentmere manor, marr (25 February 1723, at Tunstall) Dorothy (bapt at Tunstall, 26 December 1689), er dau of John Fenwick (d.1732), of Nunridding, Northumberland, 2 sons (John and Thomas, qv) and 1 dau (Jane, wife of James Dowker, qv), died in December 1756, aged 82 (KK, 347 gives his wife as Elizabeth; ); copy of will dated 2 May 1754 (CRO, WD/W/1/2/1/31/1) [see details in Fenwick case in WD/Big/1/124]
Wilson, Thomas, mayor of Kendal 1763-64 (portrait by George Romney in Kendal Town Hall)
Wilson, Thomas (d.c.1796), hatter Cockermouth, his factory produced 4000 hats a week at its peak, will in National Archives at Kew
Wilson, Thomas Crewdson (18xx-19xx), woollen manufacturer, etc (J J & W Wilson), marr (1877) Anna Mary (born 25 January 1850, died 1896), only dau of Charles Lloyd Braithwaite (qv), 3 sons (inc Charles, Harold Crewdson (qv) and William E) and 1 dau (Kathleen Mary, qv), of Elmhurst, Kendal (1885), but in poor health after wife’s death and taken in with his children by his brother-in-law, Isaac and Mary Braithwaite, to their home at Castle Lodge in 1898, still in 1905
Wilson, Thomas Cragg (18xx-19xx), registrar, relieving officer for Kendal District, and registrar of marriages and deputy registrar of births and deaths for Kendal District, 17 Market Place, Kendal, when of 16 Serpentine Terrace, Kendal (1885), relieving and vaccination officer and registrar of births, deaths and marriages, Town Hall, Kendal, when of Castle Howe, Kendal (1905) [registry office moved from Market Place to Town Hall between 1897 and 1905
Wilson, Thomas Newby (1839-1915), JP, born 13 September 1839, only son of Thomas Wilson (b.1802, d. 22 February 1854), attorney, of Lancaster, and of Mary (bapt 23 April 1815, marr 12 May 1837, died 20 March 1847), only dau of Myles Harrison, of The Landing, Newby Bridge (by his wife, Elizabeth (died at The Landing, 15 July 1867 and buried at Field Broughton, 20 July, will dated 21 June 1866 and proved at Lancaster, 22 August 1867, probate papers in WD/AG, box 159), only dau of Thomas Newby, of Barber Green, Cartmel, and Kendal), of the Landing, also inherited Wraysholme Tower, Cartmel, from his mother and named his new built house at Ambleside after it (later the home of Sheona Lodge (qv)), also inherited a burgage property on Far Cross Bank, Kendal (later known as The Mill House, Appleby Road) as heir to Susanna Newby (died 19 May 1870 and buried at Cartmel, 26 May), dau (of unsound mind) of John Newby (died 1 December 1843), of Grange, and his wife Susanna (buried at Cartmel, 18 October 1852), which he then sold to Charles Shaw, miller, of Mealbank in 1874 (deeds in CRO, WDX 967/26-28), agreed to be a patron of Lake District Association (letter to G Gatey, 13 April 1878, in CRO, WDX 269), died 9 March 1915 (pedigree in CRO, WPR 101/Z8)
Wilson, Thomas Woodrow (1856-1924; Dictionary of American Biography), 28th President of USA 1913-1921, born 28 December 1856, 3rd child of Revd Dr Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822-1903) and Jessie Janet (1826-1888), she was born in Carlisle, dau of Revd Dr Thomas Woodrow (qv), keen on cycling tours, inc visit to Lake District, visited Carlisle, his mother’s birthplace, and his grandfather Rev Thomas Woodrow’s house in Warwick Rd, spoke at Lowther Street Congregational Church, Carlisle, died 3 February 1924 (Andrew Wilson, A President’s Love Affair with the Lake District, 1996); plaque on house in Warwick Rd
Wilson, Titus (1834-1917), JP, printer, local councillor and mayor of Kendal, born in Kendal, 6 August 1834, apprenticed to local printer, then went to Edinburgh and London for a time, returning to Kendal to take over printing and publishing business acquired from Hudson and Nicholson, also agent for Sun, Fire and Life Co, of 28 Highgate, county councillor for Kendal Borough Castle Park division (1894), Kendal town councillor 1876-1907, mayor of Kendal 1887-88 during which period his cousin Sir James Whitehead (qv) visited town as lord mayor of London, alderman 1889 and JP for borough 1890, Secretary, CWAAS 1871-1911, of Aynam Lodge, Kendal (1885), wife (member from 1881, died 30 January 1905), died at Aynam Lodge, 24 October 1917 (CW2, xvii, 265-266); Edward William, son of Titus and Mary Wilson, of Stricklandgate, Kendal, buried at Kendal, 29 January 1839, aged 8
Wilson, William (d.1814), benefactor of sailors by his will; Cumb. FH Society newsletter, 25, 1982
Wilson, William (1763-1827), dean and bursar of Queen’s College Oxford, descended from John Wilson of Hollin Hall (17thc), his grandson Robert Wilson of Hollin Root was a slate ‘pioneer’ in Longsleddale; www.rawes.co.uk
Wilson, William (1782/3-1873; ODNB), DD, MA, headmaster and clergyman, born in Kendal, son of John Wilson of Kendal, educ Queen’s College, Oxford (entd 15 July 1801, MA 1808, elected fellow in May 1815), apptd master of St Bees School on 5 January 1811 by Provost Collinson, involved in a mineral lease case, also curate of St Bees 1811-1817, noted for visiting sick in parish and taking communion to them, and holding popular preaching meetings in private houses, had evangelical outlook, left St Bees in June 1817, held post as tutor and chaplain in household of Lord Galway, then took up his fellowship at Queen’s until 1825, senior proctor 1819, dean and bursar 1822, DD 1824, presented to college livings of Holy Rood, Southampton and Church Oakley, Hants in 1824, with stewardship of college’s extensive estates in Southampton and Isle of Wight, also became chaplain to evangelical bishop of Winchester, Charles Richard Sumner (brother of Archbishop Sumner), and married his sister [or dau of Archbishop?], apptd to canonry at Winchester in 1832, for doing competent job (as suggested by his defence of the school’s rights), author of The Bible Student’s Guide (1850) and other works, died in 1873, aged 90 (CW2, lxxxiii, 163-171)
Wilson, William (1810-1880), DL, JP, born 13 January 1810, 4th son of Christopher Wilson (qv), had High Park, Oxenholme built about 1835 by George Webster (qv) of freestone with a central canted bay and broad eaves, later added wings in heavy Italianate style to design of Miles Thompson (qv) in 1861 (plan in CRO, WSMB/K/Bk 1/44), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1863, established pack of foot beagles (subsequently converted to harriers) in about 1856, but sold them in 1863 (later purchased by his nephew, Christopher (qv)), succ his brother Edward (qv) at Rigmaden in 1870, marr 1st (26 July 1843) Maria Letitia (died 15 December 1873), 2nd dau of Richard Parrott Hulme, of Stoke Gabriel, Devon, 3 sons (Christopher Wyndham (qv), William James (1845-1904), of High Park, and Charles Henry (qv)), and 5 daus, marr 2nd Elizabeth Joanna (d.s.p.11 December 1899), dau of John Morland, of Capplethwaite Hall, died 26 July 1880
Wilson, William (1836-1900), innkeeper, Keswick Hotel, member of CWAAS from 1885, author of paper on ‘Thirlmere and its associations’ (Trans CWA, ix, 1883-84), member of committee for making local arrangements for meeting in June 1899, died in 1900 (CW, i, 322)
Wilson, William (1875-1965; ODNB), FRS, PhD, DSc, FHAs, MAAC, physicist, of Goody Hills, Mawbray, near Maryport, student at Aspatria Agricultural College 1889
Wilson, William (‘Herdwick Billy’) (19xx-2015/6), sheep farmer and countryman, died aged 99 (CWH, 16.01.2016)
Wilson, William Forbes, postmaster, lived Grange over Sands, his unmarried daughter Miss Forbes Wilson produced several dramatic performances and a postcard survives of her with two portraits: one smiling after ‘a good rehearsal’ and the other looking grim after ‘a bad rehearsal’; this postcard is in the family collection of the Rev Ivor Farrar (qv), the photograph was taken by another Wilson, perhaps her brother Gilbert
Wilson, William Frederick (17xx-18xx), schoolmaster, master of Barton Free School, of Craco House, Barton (1829); Amos Wilson is listed as master of Grammar School in 1849
Wilson, William Wyndham (1946-2010), born 12 October 1946, only son of C E Wilson (qv), of Rigmaden Park, marr Margaret, 2 daus (Susannah and Elizabeth), member of CWAAS, formerly of 1 Sedbergh Road, Kendal, died at Rigmaden Park, 31 March 2010, funeral at St Mary’s, Kirkby Lonsdale, 17 April
Wilson, Revd Xxxx (19xx-19xx), clergyman, born in Leeds of a Dufton family, marr (dau Monica Deacon), Rector of Brougham, died in post
Wilson, Sir Maurice Bromley- (1875-1957), 7th Bt, DL, JP, landowner, born 27 June 1875, 2nd son of Sir Henry Bromley, 5th Bt (qv), educ Eton, succ to Dallam Tower, Milnthorpe on death of his cousin, Emily Sarah Wilson, in 1892, assumed by royal licence addnl name and arms of Wilson, 4 February 1897, succ his brother Robert as 7th Bt in 1906, marr 1st (16 December 1916, at St George’s, Hanover Square, London) Mrs Elizabeth Ann Armitage (qv), dau of William Turner, no issue, marr 2nd (1 September 1942) Violet Dorothea, widow of Lieut-Col Oswald Henry Ames (d.1927) and 2nd dau of Lord Francis Horace Cecil (2nd son of 3rd Marquess of Exeter), no issue, formerly Major, South Notts Yeo, High Sheriff of Westmorland 1901 (appt in WD/AG, box 100), lord of manor of Milnthorpe, leased Strands Meadow to village at nominal rent in 1900 for use as a playing field, presented one acre site for new burial ground for Milnthorpe church (consecrated on 10 August 1904), bought Kendal Otter Hounds pack from Bobby Troughton (qv) in c.1900, went bankrupt in 1913 and let out Dallam Tower to ? Peart Robinsons (dau marr a Drew, of Eversley), then of Stoke, Newark, Notts (1914, 1921) and of Nabwood, Storrs Park, Windermere (1929), chairman of Milnthorpe Division of Kendal Ward Petty Sessional Division (1929), generous and popular squire in Milnthorpe, died in 1957
Wilson, Elizabeth Ann, Lady Bromley-, formerly Armitage (nee Turner) (c.1867-1936), FRHS, horticulturalist, dau of William Turner, of Over Hall, Winsford, Cheshire, marr 1st Captain Godfrey Armitage, Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, of Nabwood, Windermere, marr 2nd (16 December 1916) Sir Maurice Bromley-Wilson (qv), of Dallam Tower, as his first wife, authority on gardening, elected Fellow of RHS, also bird lover, took keen interest in welfare of Milnthorpe and District Nursing Association, president of South Westmorland Women’s Unionist Association, member of CWAAS from 1926, died at Dallam Tower, Milnthorpe, 27 July 1936, aged 69 (CW2, xxxvii, 231)
Wilson, William Wilson Carus, (formerly Carus) (1764-1851), DL, JP, politician and landowner, assumed additional name of Wilson on inheriting Casterton estates in 1793, born 1764, er son of William Carus and Elizabeth Wilson
Wilson, Revd William Carus (1791-1859; ODNB), clergyman and school founder, born and bapt at Heversham, 7 July 1791, 3rd but eldest surviving son of William Wilson Carus Wilson (qv), educ Trinity College, Cambridge, vicar of Tunstal and later Whittington, est the magazine The Children’s Friend, founded in 1823 the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge attended by Charlotte Bronte, he appears as mr Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre, died at house in Montagu Place, Russell Square, London, 30 December 1859, about six weeks after his wife, and buried with wife in family vault at Casterton, 7 January 1860; will made 24 May 1858 (Jane Ewbank) (will and abstract of title, etc in CRO, WDTW/1585/1/1/1-2)
Wilson, Charles Edward Tryon- (1909-2001), CBE, DSO, DL, soldier and landowner, born [in BC, Canada?], 29 September 1909, 2nd of four sons of Charles Robert Tryon (1857-1916) and his wife Esther (of Woodlands, French Creek, Vancouver Island, Canada in 1952), only dau of Sir Henry Bromley, 5th Bt (qv), and nephew of Sir Maurice Bromley-Wilson (qv), of Dallam Tower, Milnthorpe, educ Shawnigan Lake School, BC, Canada, and Trinity College, Glenalmond, served in army as Brigadier late Royal Fusiliers 1930-1936 and later, and WW2 1939-45 (despatches twice, MBE 1943, DSO 1944 and CBE 1945), marr 1st (5 June 1937) Cicely Joan (died 14 March 1969), yst dau of Captain Henry Whitworth, of Kilnwick Priory, Pocklington, Yorks, 2 daus (Cicely Susan Esther (b.1938), wife of Timothy Francis Villiers Smith (marr 1961, div 1969), and Sarah Gay (1940-1941)), marr 2nd (197x) Rosemary Lucas, living at The Manor, Barnby Moor, York (1952), assumed additional name and arms of Wilson by Royal Warrant, 28 December 1951, succ to Dallam Tower estate in 1957, president of Cartmel Agricultural Society in 1983 and a vice-president from 19xx, Vice- Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria, DL Westmorland 1971-1974 and Cumbria from 1974, foundation governor of Dallam School from 1984, died 18 April 2001(WG; DT); succ at Dallam Tower by his grandson, Rupert Timothy Villiers Smith (b.1967)
Wimund (12thc), monk, bishop and later pirate, possibly the illegitimate grandson of king Malcolm III, as a scholarly young man became a copyist at Furness abbey, he developed a remarkable ability with stirring speech, sent to the Isle of Man to manage affairs at Rushen abbey, once there he much impressed the population, they begged he should be appointed bishop of the Isles (bishop of Sodor), which he was with his principal church on Skye, his ambition rose and he set up a well manned fleet which sailed to the Scots coast in the late 1140s, here (spurred by his belief in his paternity) he became a terror to the coastal communities and an annoyance to King David, he manifested ‘the power of a king and the insolence of a bandit’, eventually the king appeased him by giving him Furness and the abbey lands, but unhappy men of the peninsula set upon him, then blinded him and he ended his days at Byland abbey in Yorkshire; british-history.ac.uk/vch/Lancashire, William of Newburgh, Historia rerum anglicarum Bk 1 ch 24, hauntedpalaceblog.wordpress.com, Wimund appeared in the Blackadder series
Winder of Lorton; CW1 xii 439; CW1 xv 229; CW1 xiv 198
Winder, John (d. 1699), barrister, eldest son of John Winder (1627-1696), of Lorton and of Cockermouth (son of Peter Lorton, fl. c.1649), marr Lettice, 2nd dau of William Williams (qv), of Johnby Hall, 1 son (Williams, qv), barrister-at-law, of Gray’s Inn, died 1699; [a Mrs Lettice Williams, of Johnby Hall, spinster, buried at Greystoke, 7 February 1714]
Winder, John (fl.1723-1734), consul at Barcelona, father of Williams Winder (qv)
Winder, Joseph, iron and brass founder, Lound foundry, Kendal (set up by Railway company to cast girders for bridges on new LNW line; iron plate frontage to 39-45 Branthwaite Brow, Kendal, 1853); Mrs Elizabeth Winder, iron and brass founder and engineer, Lound Foundry (1873, 1885), site later taken over by K Shoes; Mary Elizabeth Winder, dau?, mistress at Infants’ National School, also at 3 Lound Road, Kendal; William Smallwood Winder, of 4 West View, Kendal, buried at Staveley, 9 July 1910, aged 41, artist, member Lake Artists; Renouf, 33
Winder, Williams (1690-1766), merchant, born at Johnby Hall and bapt at Graystoke, 16 October 1690, son of John Winder (qv), consul at Barcelona 1723-1734
Windross family, chancery case against the Middletons; mss Whitehaven CRO
Windross, Benjamin (1810-1888), linen draper of Whitehaven, born Broughton-in-Funress, marr Sarah Cook, lived Lowther St and King St at different times, his son Capt George Cook Windross (1844-1870) died at sea on the ship Frankfort Hall; gravestone Whitehaven Cemy
Windross, John Benjamin Windross, son of Thomas Cook Windross and Alice Eliza Beswick, dau of John Beswick of the Isle of Man and Cockermouth (qv)
Windsor, Barbara, DBE (1937-2020), actress and companion of the Kray Brothers (qv), is said to have accompanied them to Kirklinton Hall, the nightclub and casino in the 1960s
Winfield, Richard, linsey manufacturer, Kendal (QS,1785), probably identical with the Richard Winfield of Kendal who had Boarbank Hall, Allithwaite built c.1837 by George Webster, but completed for his gr dau, Mary Lambert (qv), who moved from Allithwaite Lodge c.1835 and also had Abbot Hall, Kents Bank built by George Webster in 1840 (WoK, 90)
Wing, Maj Gen Frederick Drummond Vincent CB (1860-1915), son of Major Vincent Wing 5th Regt, married Gertrude the daughter of Sir Francis Vane 3rd Bt, joined Royal Artillery 1880, fought in Boer War (Defence of Ladysmith), Brevet Lt Col 1900, companion of the Bath 1903, commanded Royal Artillery 3rd Division 1913-1915, killed in action during the aftermath of the battle of Loos 2 October 1915 (one of three divisional commanders killed in one week), awarded Queens Medal with five clasps and Kings Medal with two clasps, mentioned in despatches for times, promoted Maj Gen ‘for distinguished service’; monument at Wythop Church; commemorated at Noeux-Les-Mines, Pas de Calais
Winkley, Michael Stuart (Mike) (1940-2010), solicitor, born 2 December 1940, son of teachers in Morecambe, educ locally, Rydal School, Colwyn Bay, North Wales, and Oxford, joined Len Hayton and Jackson in solicitors firm of Hayton Winkley, Kendal, president of Westmorland Law Society, hon secretary of Cumberland County Cricket Club from 2006, died of brain tumour, 27 January 2010, aged 69
Winkworth, David (c.1930-2008), engineer and businessman, born in the south east, as a petroleium engineer worked in Equador for a firm which became part of Burmah oil, this was followed by a period as a chemical engineer at Bechtel’s Ectona plant at Siddick, c.1968 established the New Bookshop in Cockermouth with his wife Angela, a librarian, this was followed in c.1978 by The Printing House a museum of printing, one of very few in Britain with a collection of presses, here visitors could try their hand at printing on a 19thc printing press, he was a Rotarian, chair of the Chamber of Trade and the Civic Trust, with David Crosby the custodian of Wordworth House he established Cockermouth Festival, also a prime mover in the new town guide, he was also a sidesman at All Saints church and a member of the PCC, his wife and daughter Catherine Hetherington with her husband Stephen carried on the business after his death and sold it c.2021; obit Times and Star 10 June 2008
Winskill, Sir Archibald Little (1917-2005) KCVO CBE DFC, pilot, b. Penrith, ed Penrith and Carlisle GS, joined RAF 1937, flew spitfires in 2nd WW including the battle of Britain, in 1941 in squadron 41 was shot down over France and escaped with Resistance help to Gibraltar, then in squadron 232 in North Africa was again shot down and with Arab help evaded capture, this double feat may be unique, continued in the RAF being further promoted, after retirement was the captain of the Queen’s flight, much appreciated by the queen mother and supervised Prince Charles’ first parachute jump, m. Christian Bailleux of the Pas de Calais, one s one d
Winstanley, Michael (19xx-2012), local authority officer, died at WGH, Kendal, 8 March 2012 (WG, 15.03.2012)
Winter, Edward (d,1655), mercer, lived Elderbeck, Pooley bridge, member and treasurer of the Committee for the Propagation of the Gospel in four northern counties and is described as ‘a maintainer of Malignant Ministers’; Hudleston (C); B.Nightingale, The Ejected of 1662 in Cumberland and Westmorland, their Predecessors and Successors, 1921
Winter, H (fl.1980s-90s), lived Blindcrake, Cockermouth, wrote and self published several booklets on local history and biography including Great Cockermouth Scholars (c.1990); is he related to Henry Winter chairman of Penrith UDC, involved with the erection of the Penrith Boer War monument ?; David A Cross, Public Sculpture, 2017
Winter, Henry JP; Gaskell W and C Leaders c.1910
Winthrop Young, Geoffrey (1876-1958), writer and climber, b London, son of Sir George Young 3rd Bt (1837-1930) and his wife Alice Eacy (1840-1922) dau of Dr Evory Kennedy (d. before 1910) of Belgard Castle, Co Dublin (president of the Royal Coll of Physicians Ireland), established new routes on Lake District crags, lost a leg in WW1 but learned to climb again using a prosthetic, dedicated the bronze plaque and land at the top of Great Gable as a memorial to the 20 fallen members of the Fell and Rock club in 1924, met Kurt Hahn, the founder of Gordonstoun School and together established the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme, president of the Alpine Club, prime mover in the establishing of the British Mountaineering Council, author of The Roof Climber’s Guide to Trinity (1899), On High Hills: Memories of the Alps (1927) and Collected Poems (1936)
Wiper, Joseph (18xx-19xx), confectioner, ‘originator’ of Kendal Mint Cake, thought to have been developed by accident in 1868 when boiling sugar in his shop, produced it for 43 years as one of many lines of sweets, such as ‘Kendal Butter Toffee’, ‘Russian Toffee’, Black Bullseyes and Butter Drops, but Mint Cake became very popular with visitors by 1880s, at 78 Stricklandgate, Kendal (1885) before emigrating to Victoria, BC, Canada; business of J Wiper & Son, manufacturing confectioners, continued by family at Ferney Green works (1905), with his son Richard William (born 1874), of 1 Fern Lea, who marr (30 May 1901 at Kendal FMH) Alice (28), dau of Daniel Handley (decd), shoemaker, of 82 Highgate, Kendal, and his great-nephew Robert, who publicised it on a larger scale, first supplying Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition in 1914 and then Mount Everest Expeditions of 1922, 1924, 1933, 1935-36 and 1938, besides many other expeditions; Robert Wiper, Kendal Mint Cake Works, Entry Lane, Kendal (1975) carried on by his son Harry; Romney and Wilson mint cake (qqv)
Wise, Rev Joseph (1797-1852), poet, born Holme Cultrum, published several works including Nadir (check - there seem to be two Joseph Wise candidates for this)
Withers, Audrey (1905-2001; ODNB), journalist, daughter of physician and writer Percy Withers (qv), and his wife Mamie Summers (qv), spent early childhood at Abbots Bay on Derwentwater, educ governesses, a school at St Andrew’s and Somerville College, Oxford, 1924-7, editor Vogue 1940-1960, m. 1st Alan Hay Stewart and 2nd Victor Kennet, photographer; autobiography; Somerville College Register 1961, Julie Summers, Dressed for War: The Story of Vogue Editor Audrey Withers, 2020
Withers, Joseph (1841-1899), DL, JP, Colonel, 25th Bombay Native Infantry, son of Richard Withers (d.1884), JP, of The Uplands, West Derby, Liverpool, who acquired Briery Close, Troutbeck, marr (pres = Elizabeth, of West Derby, who died aged 65 and buried at Troutbeck, 11 December 1902), at least 2 daus (see OWE Hedley), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1894, died aged 58 and buried at Troutbeck, 28 November 1899
Withers, Mary (nee Summers) (1870-1947) OBE, daughter of nail manufacturer John Summers of Ashton-u-Lyne, educ Somerville College, Oxford, 1889-92, marr Percy Withers and mother of Audrey (qqv), lived in early marriage at Abbots Bay on Derwentwater, later Oxfordshire, co. executive and member of council NSPCC; Somerville College Register 1961; Julie Summers, Dressed for War: The Story of Vogue Editor Audrey Withers, 2020
Withers, Percy (1867-1945; DCB), medical practitioner and author, GP in Manchester, m. Mary Summers (qv above), wrote account of visit to Egypt (Egypt of Yesterday and To-day, 1909) illustrated with his own photographs including a fine felucca and the ‘Pharoah’s Bed’ at Philae, retired as doctor in Manchester, moving from Hale in Cheshire to Lake District in 1905, at Abbot’s Bay, on the shore of Derwentwater, where his children had an idyllic childhood and he wrote In a Cumberland Dale: Personal Memories and Reflections on the Lake District (Grant Richards, London, 1914), before family moved to Cotswolds, corresponded widely with literary and artistic figures of his time, inc Max Beerbohm, Sir William Rothenstein, Walter de la Mare and A E Housman, who inspired his memoir A Buried Life: Personal Reflections of A E Housman (1940), letter from AEH expressing concern on hearing of his illness (3 March 1922), friendly with Canon Rawnsley (qv) and a member of the National Trust council, dau Audrey (1905-2001), OBE (qv) was editor of Vogue from 1940 until 1959/60; his bookplate depicts a nude leaning against a large candle (Somerville College archives initialled WH); Somerville hold his extensive archive; son Michael Derwent Withers of Brook Cottage, Alkerton, buried at Epwell 29 Jan 1954, his own grave is as yet untraced
Wodehouse, William Wentworth (1846-1888), clergyman, born 13 March 1846, eldest son of Revd Algernon Wodehouse, MA (1814-1882), rector of Easton, a descendent of 1st Baron Wodehouse of Kimberley, and of Lady Eleanor Ashburnham (d.1895), 6th dau of 3rd Earl of Ashburnham, KG, marr (26 June 1878) Helen Maude (died 7 August 1932), yr twin dau of Arthur Brooke, and niece of Sir Richard Brooke, 7th Bt of Norton Priory, 1 son and 1 dau, rector of Distington 1874-1885, deprived of living on 16 December 1885 because of misconduct with Dorothy Jane Lace, formerly servant at rectory, his wife obtaining a judicial separation in 1885, adjudicated a bankrupt in 1886, died 26 March 1888 (CW2, lxxxiv, 122; BP)
Wolcot, John (1738-1819; ODNB), satirist known as “Peter Pindar”, b Devon, son of Alexander Wolcot, Gillray drew a caricature of Wolcot pleading with James Lowther (depicted as the devil) to compensate miners following the sudden closure of a Whitehaven pit, this relates to the libellous publication by Wolcot of his Epistle to James Lowther (1792); (DH, 133-134); Benjamin Colbert, Petria Pindarica: J Wolcot and the Romantics, 2005, online
Woll, Meredith (fl.20thc), solicitor, town clerk of Barrow-in-Furness
Wood, Captain, of Maryport; brought back to Carlisle a fragment of Nelson’s monument celebrating the Battle of the Nile which had been blown up by Napoleon; Jenny Uglow, The Pine Cone; Denis Perriam, Cumberland News, 16th May, 2003
Wood, Allan Carter (1890-1915), artist, killed in action, member Lake Artists; Renouf, 69-70
Wood, Charles (1702-1774), iron master and ‘discoverer’ of platinum, son of William Wood, ironmaster of Wolverhampton, marr Ann Peile of Buttermere (d.1740) and secondly Jemima Brownrigg (1721-1799), sister of Dr William Brownrigg (qv), established an iron foundry at Frizington in 1728 but was declared bankrupt through financial ramifications not entirely of his own making, went to Jamaica and South America, brought the first samples of platinum from what is now Colombia to the UK and via Dr Brownrigg they were shown at the Royal Society, William Watson (1715-1787) described him as ‘a skilful and inquisitive metallurgist’ at the RS on 13 Dec 1750, having established a forge at Egremont he next went to Wales where at Cyfarthfa, near Mertyr Tydfil built another; The Diary of Charles Wood, Cardiff, 2001
Wood, Christina Henrietta (fl.early 20thc), nee Roberts, dau of Cecilia Roberts (qv)
Wood, Christopher (1901-1930), artist, visited Ben Nicholson at Banks Head in 1928
Wood, Francis Derwent (1871-1926; ODNB) RA, sculptor, born Keswick, son of Alpheus Baylies Wood, pencil manufacturer, educ College Gaillard, Lausanne and Arts and Crafts school at Karlsruhe, modeler for a while at his maternal grandfather’s tile manufactury Maw and Co, Ironbridge, at south Kensington under Edouard Lantieri and assisted Thomas Brock (whose statue of Victoria is in Bitts Park Carlisle), numerous major public works including Keswick war memorial and fine bronzes in London and elsewhere, involved in facial reconstruction via masks for disfigured soldiers after WWI, a founder of the Royal Britsh Society of Sculptors; Matthew Withey, The Sculpture of Francis Derwent Wood, 2015; David A. Cross, 2017, 207-8
Wood, George William (c.1778-1843), politician, born in Leeds, son of Revd William Wood, Unitarian minister, of Leeds, became prosperous merchant in Manchester, MP for South Lancashire 1832-1835 (defeated), MP for Kendal 1837-1843, no previous connection with Kendal, but knew Dr Thomson of Halifax, Dr Dalton and Dr Holme, stood as ‘a friend to Civil and Religious Liberty’, criticised by Revd Edward Hawkes and local Anti-Corn Law League for seconding Address in Parliament in 1839, chairman of committee in August 1842 for alteration of law that led to Dissenters’ Chapels Act passed in 1844, well read and esp fond of botany and geology, but died suddenly in rooms of Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society on 3 October 1843, aged 65; son, William Rayner Wood, JP, of Manchester, was local treasurer of appeal for restoration of Market Place Chapel in 1845 and subscribed £10; and grandson, George William Rayner Wood, JP, of Singleton, had family papers (ONK, 405-07, 410-11, 417; AK, 304.15)
Wood, Sir Henry (1869-1944), conductor, performed at Kendal music festival founded by Mary Wakefield (qv)
Wood, John (?1659-17xx), schoolmaster, poss bapt 6 October 1659 as son of Thomas Woods, of Lamplugh, Cumberland, marr, 2 daus Beatrix (bapt on 13 February and buried on 10 March 1684) and Elizabeth (bapt on 28 December 1690), and 1 son William (bapt on 6 November 1688), parish clerk and schoolmaster of Dalton-in-Furness
Wood, John, cartographer, published maps of Kendal, Ulverston, etc.
Wood, John Barlow (d.1949), artist, lived Kendal, member of Lake Artists, Renouf , 77
Wood, Joseph (18xx-1868), rector of Clifton 1848-1868
Wood, Robert (17xx-18xx), clergyman and schoolmaster, perpetual curate of Westward from 1822 and headmaster of church school, Church Hill (1829, 1847), still incumbent in 1858, dau Mary (1833-1869) was mother of Sir William Bragg (qv)
Wood, Victoria (1953-2016), actress and comedian, b. Prestwich, Lancs., her father Stanley Wood, an insurance agent, she later lived Silverdale and often visited the Lake District, filmed Housewife 49 in Barrow based on the book of Nella Last (qv), she also opened the Old Laundry’s Beatrix Potter exhibition
Wood, William (16xx-1739), physician, ‘Dr. of Physick’, of Stricklandgate, Kendal, marr (16 December 1737, at Beetham) ‘Mrs Margaret Dennison, of Bethome’, buried at Kendal, 3 June 1739
Wood, William, ironmaster; CW3 xiv 161
Woodall, Christopher (fl.mid 19thc), master of St Mary’s Workhouse, Carlisle from 16 January 1845, his wife Isabella became the matron, following the visit of Mr Hurst the Poor Law inspector he was investigated with regard to the poor treatment of the residents, an inquiry taking place in the town hall 19 August 1857; CFHS June 2022, p28ff
Woodall, Richard Barnes [1931-2009], pork butcher and purveyor of Cumberland sausages, 7th generation of pork butchers of Wabberthwaite, educated Denstone and Newton Rigg, Cumberland wrestler, founder of Cumbria Fine Foods in 1987, royal warrant 1990, ambassador of Cumbria Food Award 1995, Blamire Medal 2001, 45 years on the PCC, supporter of the Muncaster Centre for Complimentary Care, president Whitehaven Rugby League, keen fly fisherman; Old Denstonian Chronicle 2010, 13-14
Woodburn, Edwin (fl.1870s), stone carver and pole vaulter, lived Ulverston, won many prizes, often appearing at the Flan Sports in Ulverston, record of 11’ 1” in 1876; see Tom Ray
Woodburne, Thomas (1815-1893), solicitor, born 1815, 3rd son of John Woodburne (b.1780), of Thurstonville, Greenodd, and his wife, Margaret, dau of George Lowry, of Ulverston, admitted to Bar in 1839, practised as a solicitor in Liverpool for some years before moving to Ulverston about 1850, one of original shareholders in Hodbarrow mine, known in later years as ‘The Honest Lawyer’, marr 1st Mary Anne Park (d.1855, aged 28), marr 2nd Isabella (d.1914), dau of John Fell (qv), of Daltongate, 1 son (Robert Walker Hall (1872-1936), JP, Col, 3rd Bn Border Regt), died in 1893, aged 78 (CI, 24)
Woodcock, Francis (c.1799-1840), artist, of Highgate, Kendal, buried at Kendal, 9 December 1840, aged 41
Woodley, George (1785/6-1846; ODNB), clergyman and poet, born in Dartmouth and bapt at Townstal church there, 3 April 1786, son of Richard Woodley, of humble circumstances, largely self-taught and began writing poetry at age of eleven, while serving on a British man-of-war, lived at Plymouth Dock and then in London, trying to make a living as a writer, competed for gold medal of Royal Humane Society in 1804 for his essay on ‘The best means of preventing shipwrecks’, it arrived too late for a prize, but he claimed that his suggested methods were adopted, anticipating the 1807 invention of George William Manby (1765-1854; ODNB), (Manby designed a mortar which fired a thin rope into the rigging of a foundering ship, which, when attached to a stronger rope enabled sailors to reach shore), however, lack of recognition by authorities left Woodley bitter, left London late in 1808 for health reasons and settled in Truro as editor of Royal Cornwall Gazette, also wrote poetry and some music, competed for prize essays on theological and social subjects, published The Churchyard and other Poems (1808) and Portugal Delivered (1812), while living in Park Street, Plymouth, Redemption (1816), Cornubia (1819), The Divinity of Christ Proved (1819, 2nd edn 1821), which won him prize of £50 from Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, ordained deacon June 1820 and priest 15 July 1821 by bishop of Exeter and apptd missionary of SPCK to Isles of Scilly, with £150 pa, on islands of St Martins (rebuilt church) and St Agnes (restored church), published View of the Present State of the Scilly Isles (1822), marr at Stoke Damerel [1820s] Mary Fabian (died at Taunton in August 1856), 1 son (William Augustus, proprietor of Somerset County Gazette, died in Bristol, 11 March 1891, and buried in Taunton cemetery) and daus (who taught school in Martindale vicarage), retired in June 1842 with gratuity of £100 and pension of £75 pa, licensed to perpetual curacy of Martindale on 7 January 1843 (and inst 12 February), died suddenly on Christmas Day 1846, aged 60, and buried at Martindale, 30 December (MI in Martindale church; The Registers of Martindale (1907), 91, 101-02)
Woodmason, James Matthias (c.1819-1873), clergyman, student at St Bees Theological College, perpetual curate of Buttermere 1843-1873 and of Wythop 1847-1873, died in 1873, aged 54
Woodrow, James (1828-1907), AM, DD, MD, LLD, scientist and Presbyterian minister, born in Carlisle in 1828, son of Revd Thomas Woodrow (qv), uncle of President Woodrow Wilson (qv), emigrated to America with rest of family in 1835/6, educ Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Philadelphia (grad 1849), moved south to Alabama at several academies till apptd professor of Natural Science at Oglethorpe University, Milledgville, Georgia, ordained to Presbyterian ministry in 1860, then apptd professor of Natural Science in connexion with Revelation at Presbyterian Seminary of Columbia, South Carolina in 1861, died in January 1907, aged 78, and buried in Elmwood cemetery, Columbia, South Carolina (see Presbyterians and Evolution in the 19th century: the Case of James Woodrow by Frank J Smith, Contra Mundum, No.6, Winter 1993)
Woodrow, Janet ‘Jessie’ (1830-1888), mother of President Theodore Woodrow Wilson (qv), b. near Carlisle castle, lived Warwick Rd. 1831-35, plaque on house; her father’s church in Lowther St. has a large plaque to him
Woodrow, Thomas (1793-1887), Independent minister, born in Paisley, Scotland, marr Marion Williamson, of Glasgow, 8 children inc dau, Jessie Janet (born at Cavendish House, Warwick Rd., Carlisle in 1826, mother of President Woodrow Wilson, qv) and son (James, qv), Independent minister at Annetwell Street Congregational chapel, Carlisle (1829), succ Revd J Whitridge (new chapel opened in Lowther Street in 1843), his chair was seen in vestry there by President Woodrow Wilson on his visit to Carlisle on 29 December 1918 (later discovered in a Keswick hotel in 1946), emigrated to North America in 1835/36 with all his children (leaving his twin brother William Woodrow (d.1870), keeper of a temperance hotel, of 41 Chiswick Street, in Carlisle), with missionary intentions on Canada, but severe winter of 1837 sent them south to Chillicothe in Ohio; his church in Lowther St. has a large plaque to him
Woods, R. (fl.1800) presented his ‘Royal Waxworks’ show at Cockermouth in ‘the largest caravan in the kingdom’ including representations of ‘the unfortunate royal family of France, Lord Nelson, Mary Calder a dwarf.........etc.’ Entrance Ladies and Gentlemen 1/-, Tradesmen 6d; his more successful contemporary Madame Marie Tussaud (1761-1850) arrived from Paris in 1802
Woodville, Thomas, bought three acres of land in 1797 near Beck Leven outfall and built Brantwood Cottage, the first house on the site now associated with WJ Linton and Ruskin (qqv) sold to Samuel Carrington, Ann Copley bought it in 1827, widow of Edward Copley of Thorp Arch, Doncaster, her daughter enlarged house in 1830 but died in 1845, then Josiah Hudson and his son the Rev. Charles Hudson, Alpinist re Mont Blanc, in 1852 sold to WJ Linton, who in turn sold it to Ruskin; James Dearden, Brantwood’s Early Days, booklet 1975
Woodville, William (1752-1805; ODNB), MD, FRS, LRCP, physician, vaccinator and botanist, born at Cockermouth in 1752, yst son and 4th of six children of William Woodville (1714-1758), of Hudson Place, Loweswater (which he sold to John Pattinson in 1758) and Cockermouth, and his wife (marr 3 November 1743) Jane (1723-1804), dau of Isaac and Mary Fearon, of Shatton, Embleton, from family of well-to-do Quakers, educ local grammar school, began medical training in 1767 with short apprenticeship to William Birtwhistle, apothecary, before matriculating at Edinburgh University (MD 1775, with thesis on irritable fibres), returned to his mother’s house at Papcastle and practised in Cockermouth, but accidentally shot and killed a man he believed to be a robber in his garden in January 1778, disowned by his Quaker meeting and left area to set up practice in Denbigh for a time before moving to London by 1782, becoming physician to Middlesex Dispensary, admitted as licentiate of Royal College of Physicians in August 1784, member of Physical Society at Guy’s Hospital, involved in treatment of smallpox and pioneered vaccination with Edward Jenner (ODNB), wrote A Medical Botany [1790-94], appointed physician to London Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital at St Pancras in 1791, also had botanical interests, died at the Smallpox Hospital, 26 March 1805, having been moved from his house in Ely Place, Holborn, at his own request and buried at Bunhill Fields, London, 4 April; his library was sold at Sothebys on 3 July 1805 (DIF, 452); author History of the Innoculation of the Smallpox, 1796
Woof, Robert Samuel (1931-2005), CBE, FRSL, PhD, literary scholar, b Lancaster, son of a farmer, educ Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Oxford, PhD on Wordsworth and Coleridge, lecturer at Toronto University, Lord Adams of Ennerdale Fellow at University of Newcastle 1961-1962, lecturer 1962-1971 and reader in English Literature 1971-1992, took early retirement, director, Wordsworth Trust and museums director, Wordsworth Museum at Dove Cottage, Grasmere 19xx-2005, trustee c.1970, hon secretary and treasurer, Dove Cottage 1978-1995, bought coach house behind Dove Cottage c.1980 and converted into museum (opened 1982), despite opposition drove ahead the plans for the Jerwood Centre for housing the library and manuscripts (opened c.2000), author of numerous books and catalogues, including The Discovery of the Lake District (1984), ‘The Matter of Fact Paradise’ in The Lake District: A Sort of National Property (1986), Towards Tintern Abbey: A Bicentenary Celebration of Lyrical Ballads (1998) (with Stephen Hebron) and Treasures of the Wordsworth Trust (2005), marr (1958) Pamela Moore, 4 children, latterly of Sykeside, Townend, Grasmere, died November 2005; (bust in Jerwood Centre, Grasmere, by Andrew Sinclair, 2007); obit. Guardian, November 2005
Woolcock, George (c.1903-19xx), fell runner, of Weir Cottages, Chapel Stile, won Grasmere Guides’ Race three times in succession in 1920 (aged 17), 1921 and 1922, only 5 foot 7 inches in height and 9 stone in weight, gained knowledge of fell running by following local foxhounds
Wooley, John (d.1596), MA, clergyman, dean of Carlisle 1577-1595, died in 1596
Woolman, John (1720-1772), American tailor, merchant, quaker and abolitionist, visited Cumbria 1772; AM Gummere, Journal and Essays by John Woolman, 1922
Woolner, Thomas RA (1825-1892; ODNB), sculptor, founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1847, went to the Australian gold fields 1852-4, made the four bronzes on the pediment of the George Moore pyramid at Wigton, carved the effigy of Lord Frederick Cavendish at Cartmel priory and also the profile medallion of Wordsworth in marble which is inside Grasmere church, also some glass designed by him is at Ambleside church
Wordsworth, Adelaide (c.1833-1909), of Loughrigg Cottage, Rydal, died aged 76 and buried at Ambleside, 9 December 1909
Wordsworth, Christopher (1774-1846; ODNB), son of John Wordsworth, brother of the poet, master of Trinity College, Cambridge
Wordsworth, Dora (1804-1847), Dolly, daughter of the poet, stayed with the artist Miss Barker while visiting the Southey and Coleridge families at Greta Hall in February 1816, enjoyed the harpsichord, but received instruction in drawing from Miss Barker, who thought she had an eye and the patience to become an accomplished draughtswoman, ‘learns to draw from one of Mr Green’s daughters and offers very well’ (WW, 1817), marr (1839) Edward Quillinan, died in 1847 (K Waldegrave, The Poets’ Daughters, 2013; Olena Beal, Dora Wordsworth: A Poet’s Daughter, 2017)
Wordsworth, Dorothy (1771-1855; ODNB), sister of the poet, a great stimulus and support to him before his marriage, buried in Grasmere churchyard, 31 January 1855, aged 83
Wordsworth, Gordon G, grandson of the poet, trustee and member of general committee of Ethel Hedley Hospital for Crippled Children, Calgarth (1930), of Stepping Stones, Loughrigg, Ambleside, author of booklet on Wordsworth’s Aumbry
Wordsworth, John (1741-1783), attorney, son of Richard Wordsworth (qv), father of the poet, trained with his father as an attorney, became agent and steward to Sir James Lowther in Cockermouth from 1764, living at Castlegate until 1766, then in Main Street from 1766 to 1783 in the house (now Wordsworth House) built by Joshua Lucock (qv), also coroner for seignory of Millom, marr (5 February 1766) Anne Cookson (d.1778), 3 sons, Christopher (1774-1846), John (1772-1805) and William (1770-1850) the poet and one daughter Dorothy (1771-1855) (qqv), died 2 January 1784 leaving family in some financial difficulty, Sir James Lowther owed him a large sum of money which he refused to pay before his death in 1802, legal settlement eventually reached with William Lowther (1st Earl of Lonsdale) for £8,000 in 1804
Wordsworth, John (1772-1805), brother of the poet, captain of the East India Co’s vessel The Earl of Abergavenny, shipwrecked and drowned off Dorset coast 1805 en route to Bengal and China, the wreck represented the loss of a £74,000 of cargo including silver dollars, copper, tin and liquor, the event the subject of the poet’s Elegiac Stanzas; Ed Cumming, JW and the Wreck of the Earl of Abergavenny, 2016 online
Wordsworth, John (1803-1875), MA, clergyman, born at Grasmere, 18 June 1803, eldest son of William Wordsworth (qv), educ Sedbergh School (entd April 1820, left March 1823) and New College, Oxford (BA 1826), ordained 1828, rector of Moresby 1829-1834, vicar of Brigham 1832-1875, rector of Plumbland 1840-1875, translated some of his father’s poems into Latin (in Memoirs of William Wordsworth), marr, sons, died 25 July 1875 (SSR, 171)
Wordsworth, John (1837-1927), clergyman, born 1837, 3rd son of Revd John Wordsworth (qv), curate of Brigham 1870-1875 and of Harrington 1875-1876, vicar of Ennerdale 1876-1878, rector of Gosforth 1878-1895, vicar of All Hallows 1895-1925, marr Rose Geraldine, 2 sons (Edward Quillinan and John Stanley Curwen (1873-1929)) and dau (Lucy Henrietta) (memorial west window in All Hallows church; also memorial west window to Capt A G Wordsworth, 2nd Middlesex Regt, killed December 1914)
Wordsworth, John Fisher (18xx-1xxx), solicitor, of Liverpool, had lease of Glen Rothay, Rydal, from 25 December 1886, but of Oak Bank, Ambleside when he had lease of Rydal Mount from S H le Fleming, 1897
Wordsworth, Jonathan Fletcher [1932-2006], great great great nephew of the poet, Wordsworth scholar and a don at Exeter College, Oxford who was quite prepared ‘to take the old boy down a peg or two’, president of the Wordsworth Trust; he appears in Martin Amis’ memoirs Experience ; obit. The Guardian, June 2006; also The Messenger, no.13, Autumn 2006
Wordsworth, Richard (c.1680-1762), attorney, clerk of the Peace for Westmorland 1744-1750, alderman of Appleby Borough, steward to Henry, viscount Lonsdale 1728-1738, marr Mary (d.1778), dau of Thomas Robinson (qv), of Appleby, son (John), of Sockbridge Hall
Wordsworth, William (1770-1850; ODNB), poet, born at Cockermouth, son of John Wordsworth attorney (qv) and Ann Cookson, lost his mother at age of eight and father at 12, family left in debt (with money owed by Sir James Lonsdale (qv) who refused to pay before his death in 1802, a legal settlement eventually reached with William Lowther (1st Earl of Lonsdale) for £8,000 in 1804), educ Hawkshead GS and St John’s Cambridge, bequeathed a significant sum by his friend Raisley Calvert (qv) in 1795, collaborated with ST Coleridge (qv) in Lyrical Ballads (1798), following time in Somerset and France lived at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, began his lengthy work The Prelude in 1799 (not published until 1850), but soon after his marriage to Mary Hutchinson in 1802 found the cottage too small for a family, so moved to Allan Bank in Grasmere on 24 May 1808, where he wrote greater part of The Excursion, although bigger, this house was damp and dirty with soot, his Guide to the Lake District [1st edn 1810] drew heavily upon Father West’s Guide (1778) and later editions by William Cockin (qqv), some critics have noted how he celebrated the Lake District in his verse and drew attention to its important features in the guide both activities adding to the very crowds which clamoured for the train access which he was at pains to prevent, moved to Parsonage in 1811, his children were John, Dora, Thomas, William and Catherine (this 4th child prob Down’s syndrome, born 6 September 1808, died 3 June 1812) died while he and Mary were away in Leicestershire staying with Sir George Beaumont (qv; ODNB), and son Tom died five months later, (notable how Sarah Hutchinson, his sister in law, who outlived them all, looked after all family in their dying), stayed in Kendal with his friend and kinsman Thomas Cookson (qv) and was occasional worshipper at Market Place chapel, where he also made the acquaintance of John Gough (qv), the blind philosopher, whom he depicted in The Excursion, and from whom he learned story of James Patrick, the prototype of the Wanderer (W Pearson’s Papers, &c, 13), was opposed to Dissenters’ Chapels Bill (which alone prevented Kendal’s Market Place chapel from falling into hands of those who had no connection with the place), apptd Distributor of Stamps for Cumberland and Westmorland in May 1831 (after death of Mr James, of Penrith), (this office provided proof of tax paid on goods like medicine or vellum and must not be confused with postage stamps), succ by his son William jnr on his retirement in June 1841 with a pension, eventually succ Robert Southey (qv) as Poet Laureate in 1843, lived latterly at Rydal Mount, died and was buried in Grasmere churchyard, 27 April 1850 (ONK, 374); his widow buried in Grasmere churchyard, 21 January 1859, aged 88; memorial by Woolner in Grasmere church, (David A. Cross, Public Sculpture, 2017, 166-7), a bust at Cockermouth (ibidem), a large monument by Frederick Thrupp in Westminster Abbey (1854); Dove Cottage was preserved by the Wordworth Trust; the Jerwood Centre, Grasmere holds the permanent collections of mss, portraits and memorabilia and mounts annual exhibitions; several biographies including Stephen Gill (1989) and Jonathan Bate (2020); critical works by Geoffrey H Hartman (1964), Jonathan Wordsworth (1982), John Williams (2002) and Stephen Gill (2003); also Robert Woof (qv)
Wordsworth, William (1811-1883), DL, JP, born at Grasmere, 2nd surv son of WW, educ Sedbergh School (entd May 1822, aged 11), but left in June for better climate at Charterhouse, succ his father as Distributor of Stamps, died in 1883 and buried in Grasmere churchyard (SSR, 176)
Worfat, William de, author of A Bran New Wark; Revd William Hutton (qv)
Workington churchyard epitaph to a sailor (to whom ?) Though Boreas with his blustering blasts, Has tost me to and fro, Yet by the handiwork of God, I’m here enclosed below., And in this silent bay I lie, With many of the fleet,Until the day that I set sail, My Saviour Christ to meet. From William Andrews Epitaphs (1883 rpr 1899)
Workington churchyard, epitaph to another seaman who was wrecked and drowned in The Hardings, near Whitehaven in 1836: Awful and sad was my untimely death, In floods of sorrow I resigned my breath, The rushing torrent was my dying bed, No friend to close my eyes or raise my head. Ah ! Whilst affection heaves for me the sigh, In order set thine house, for thou must die. From William Andrews Epitaphs (1883 rpr 1899)
Workington, Thomas de (b.c.1130-1200), aka Sir Thomas Fitz Gospatrick, Lord of Culwen (the earlier form of Curwen (qv)), lived Preston Patrick 1191, established a Premonstratensian abbey at Preston which was moved to Shap in 1200
Workman, David (c.1797-1854), American pioneer and frontier trader, from Clifton, emigrated to USA in 1818, with wife Nancy, moved from Missouri to California, where his brother William had acquired a ranch (Rancho La Puente) near Los Angeles in 1840s, died in accident in gold fields in 1854 aged 57, leaving family of 3 sons, inc youngest William Henry (born 1 January 1839, died 21 February 1918, age 79), mayor of Los Angeles in 1887 and 1888 and city treasurer 1901-1907, who visited family origins in Clifton in 1912 (CWH, 24.02.2018)
Workman, William (1744-1811), clergyman, bapt at Clifton, July 1744, yst son and 7th child (two earlier Williams not surviving infancy) of Thomas Workman (died March 1763), of Brown How, Clifton, aged 19 on death of father and left home as farm went to his elder brother Thomas, went to Newcastle, ordained, first parish in 1768, chaplain to 1st Lord Delaval, by whom he was highly regarded, apptd rector of Ford, Northumberland, marr, son Henry (perpetual curate of Seaton Delaval from 1806 and vicar of Earsdon for 46 years, died 1857), died in 1811
Workman, William Henry (1839-1901), mayor of Los Angeles, born Missouri, son of David Workman (1797-1855), an American pioneer born in Temple Sowerby (later lived Clifton), and his second wife Nancy Hook settled in Franklin, Missouri, (David Workman was a saddler, one of his apprentices was Kit Carson (1809-1868) the trapper and scout who described him as ‘a good man and I often recall the kind treatment I received’), William became a real estate speculator and banker, was elected to LA council with his brother Elijah, eventually elected mayor of the city; LA Times 14 March 1901
Worsop, Battie (17xx-17xx), LLB, clergyman, instituted to vicarage of Penrith, succ Gustavus Thompson (qv), 24 June 1749, but ceded in 1750
Wreay family, had two major generals in India
Wren, Abraham (d.1866), pencil maker, Keswick, at Brigham Mill and later Southey Mill, houses there still named after him today, died in Co Londonderry, probably acting as a commercial traveller to increase sales; CFHS June 2024 p.27-31
Wren, Sir Christopher (1632-1723; ODNB), architect, said to be a friend of the Lowthers and that he influenced the grid plan of Whitehaven, an early example of a planned town; CW1iii 353
Wren, Gawen (1652-1738), born and died at Castlerigg, Keswick, son of Gawen Wren (1619-1683) of Borrowdale and Crosthwaite and his wife Jane Dowthwaite (1627-1690), Gawen junior married Ann Wilkinson, his arms bear three wrens and a chevron (Hudleston (C)), these arms are inside the church at Crosthwaite, Gawen senior’s father was Christopher Wren or Wrenn (b.c.1590) whose wife was Anne or Agnis; there are several notions of their origins but one of the most plausible seems to be that they came from Rennes in France, the idea that the ancestral Wren was diminutive may have resulted in the tiny birds being dropped from the chevron of the coat of arms, several pedigrees suggest that the early Cumbrian Wrens are the ancestors of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723: ODNB) the architect. This seems unlikely, but there are three wrens on one of Sir Christopher’s coat of arms which were carved above the door of the house at Cardinal’s Wharf in which he lived while building St Paul’s, this may suggest there were common ancestors, perhaps at Billy Hall, Binchester, Co Durham
Wright, C J C (18xx-1933), clergyman, vicar of Dalston, member of CWAAS from 1925, died as result of motor accident, 21 August 1933 (CW2, xxxiv (1934), 227)
Wright, David (1920-1994), poet, born Johannesburg, educ Oriel college Oxford, Gregory Fellow, Leeds university, later lived Braithwaite, Keswick, friend of Norman Nicholson (qv), often stayed at Millom, married twice: Phillippa Red (d.1985) and Ooonagh Swift in 1987, ed Faber Book of Verse; obit Independent 1 Sept 1994, NN anthology
Wright, James (18xx-19xx), Roman Catholic priest, Catholic church of Our Lady and St Joseph, Warwick Square, Carlisle, of the rectory, Warwick Square west, Carlisle (1921)
Wright, Jessie (later Tarlton), (1882-1965), governess, b. Barrow, dau of Benjamin Wright a draper and his wife Emma, sister of Winifred (qv), lived East Mount, Barrow, m. Leslie Jeffries Tarlton (fl.1908-1930s) a big game hunter who ran safaris in Kenya including one arranged for George VI and Queen Elizabeth, (she assisted him in this business, in 1909 Roosevelt was ‘exhilarated by a month long hunt with Leslie Tarleton’ (gradually, even in the 1930s as more visitors could afford to go on safari, the awareness grew that this butchery was inappropriate), Tarlton was born in EmuPlains in S Australia, fought in Gorringe’s Flying Coloum in the Boer War and in the Sudan Defence Force in the 2nd WW, ; I.H.Morse, The Story of Our Elephant Hunt (c.1930), Briane Herne, White Hunters: The Golden Age of Safaris, (1999), also H Paul Jeffrey, Roosevelt the Explorer, (2003)
Wright, John and Mary, innkeepers Low Wood Hotel 1782-1803; CW3 x 254
Wright, Joseph R.A. (1734-1797; ODNB), artist, b. Derby, successful portraitist and member of the Lunar society, his scientific paintings The Orrery and The Air Pump are most significant and impressive, visited the Lakes late in life c.1796 and produced the dramatic painting Ullswater (Dove Cottage), struck by the landscape, he wished he had come sooner; Judy Egerton exhibition catalogue, Tate
Wright, Maurice (fl.1950s-1980s), photographer, Barrow, studio on Abbey Rd near St Paul’s church, Our Barrovians, ed. Leach, 10-21
Wright, Richard, founder of Measand School in 1713, succ by his nephew, Richard Law (qv)
Wright, William (17xx-1835), ‘Willy Reet’, eccentric character, died 11 July 1835, aged 66, and buried at Kirkby Lonsdale, 14 July (TGPE, 12-14)
Wright, Winifred (b.c.1885), musician, b. Barrow, sister of Jessie (qv), studied for a B.Mus. before 1st World War in London and later in Vienna
Wrigley, Barbara (c.1915-1990s), teacher of elocution, dau of a draper and haberdasher who ran The Trimming Shop, taught pupils who often performed in poetry readings she organized, unmarried lived with her sister in Dane Avenue
Wrigley, Edgar Frederick (1877-1948), er son of Frederick Wrigley (d.1928) and bro of J B Wrigley (qv), marr (1904) Violet Helen, dau of Colonel William Alfred Lynde (1846-1933), VD, of Woodlands, Windermere, 2 daus (Nancy Lynde, wife of Col J F Hopkinson (qv), and A R, of Robin Rise, Windermere), High Sheriff of Westmorland 1932, Major, Lancashire Fusiliers, of Oakland, Windermere
Wrigley, James (1853-1931), DL, JP, of Ibbotsholme, Troutbeck Bridge, Windermere, son of James Wrigley (d.1891), of Holbeck, Troutbeck, and nephew of Thomas Wrigley (qv), DL Westmorland (apptd in January 1892); Pattinsons built Hydropathic establishment for James Wrigley – which?
Wrigley, John Basil (1882-1963), yr son of Frederick Wrigley (d.1928), who was son of Thomas Wrigley (qv), and yr bro of Major E F Wrigley (qv), High Sheriff of Cumberland 1932 (in same year as his brother was High Sheriff of Westmorland), member of CWAAS from 1913, of Steelfield Hall, Gosforth, died 8 March 1963, aged 81
Wrigley, Thomas (1808-1880), DL, JP, of Wansfell, Ambleside, High Sheriff of Lancashire 1872, son of James Wrigley (d.1846), paper mill owner, of Bury, 1 son (Frederick, d.1928)
Wright, John, carrier, of Low Wood, Windermere, tenant 1782, innkeeper with wife Mary by 1793, to 1803
Wyatt, John (1925-2006), first warden of the Lake District National Park and writer, born Ashton-u-Lyne, wrote inter alia, The Bliss of Solitude: A Conservationist’s Tour of the Lake District; obit W Gaz 6 April 2006
Wybergh family, William Wybergh of St Bees marr in 1365 Eleanor Engayne (or Engaine) of Clifton Hall near Penrith, thus acquired this estate which remained in the family until 1919; Hudleston (C)
Wybergh, Archibald Henry d’Engayne (1911-1980), JP, son of Archibald Wybergh (1871-1952), married Isabel Salkeld (1910-2010) (qv), High Sheriff of Cumberland 1960, of Borrans Hill, Sebergham
Wybergh, Christopher Hilton (1799-1876), clergyman, vicar of Isel from 1826 and vicar of Bromfield from 1827, grandfather of Mrs H H Williams, wife of the bishop of Carlisle (qv), had son Francis (1828-1909), of Warcop Tower and The Cottage, Warcop, who died 21 March 1909, aged 79, and buried in Warcop cemetery, 24 March (whose own son, Francis Minshull (1870-1920), was of the Cottage, but died unmarried, 5 October 1920, aged 50, and buried in Warcop cemetery, 8 October), died in 1876
Wybergh, Isabel (1910-2010), opera singer and singing teacher, born Carlisle, dau of Major Carlton Salkeld (1880-1959) and Octavia Johnstone Douglas (1881-1968), worked at the Royal Northern College of Music, one of her pupils was Ida Turri (b Carlisle), a soprano who sang in Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne and the ENO, died September 2010 in Carlisle, aged 99
Wybergh, John (1789-1873), JP, of Isel Hall and The Mount, Papcastle, brother of Wilfred Lawson, olim Wybergh (qv); Honora Glynne Wybergh, of The Mount, Papcastle, buried at Troutbeck, 20 April 1906, aged 83
Wybergh, Robert (d.1728), collector of customs at Poulton-le-Fylde in Lancashire, buried at Clifton in July 1728
Wybergh, Thomas (fl.16thc.), of Clifton (W), m. Ann Dacre of St Bees, acquired Whitehaven estates after the Dissolution of St Bees Priory, sold them to the Lowthers
Wybergh, Thomas (d.1738), buried at Clifton in August 1738
Wybergh, Thomas (1685-1753), of Clifton, town clerk of Appleby, marr (5 June 1713, at Warcop) Mary, dau and heir of Christopher Hilton, of Burton and Ormside, 20 children (inc Ciprian, bapt at Ormside, 11 January 1717/18)
Wybergh, Thomas (1788-1812), of Clifton Hall, Penrith, upon the first Lawson baronetcy becoming extinct, the 10th baronet (qv) left his estates to him, being his wife’s nephew, (Thomas was the 2nd son of Lady Lawson’s sister Isabel Wybergh (nee Hartley))
Wyck, Jan (1640-1702; ODNB), artist, b Haarlem, Holland, son of Thomas Wyck (1616-1677), to London as a child, married three times, painted battle scenes including The Battle of Bothwell Bridge (1679) and The Battle of the Boyne, visited Cumberland, painted A Prospect of Whitehaven in 1686 (Holker Hall), teacher of Matthias Read (qv), Sir Martin Beckman (1634-1702) and John Wootton (1686-1734)
Wykes, James Cochrane (1913-1992), MA, headmaster and educationist, born 19 October 1913, educ Oundle School and Clare College, Cambridge (open exhibition in classics, 1st class, pt I 1934 and 2nd class pt II 1935), assistant master (classics), Loretto School, Edinburgh 1935-1951, served WW2 with Black Watch (RHR) 1940-1944, headmaster of St Bees School 1951-1963, moved to Oxfordshire as head of educational broadcasting, ATV Network 1963-1966, director of television for Inner London Education Authority 1966-1975 and television adviser 1975-1978, retired to Edinburgh, marr (1938) Cecile Winifred Graham, dau of J Graham Rankin, of Edinburgh [educ at Calder Girls’ School, Seascale, moved from Edinburgh in 2000 to Aldeburgh where she died, 22 September 2010], 1 son (Christopher) and 1 dau (Rosamund, Mrs Somerville), author of Caesar at Alexandria (1951), of 36 Crimple Meadows, Pannal, Harrogate, died on his 79th birthday, 19 October 1992 (portrait presented to St Bees School in 19xx)
Wylie, Mark, druggist, Whitehaven, at the corner of Lowther St and King St, his advertisement illus in Sydney, biog of Dr Joshua Dixon (qv) p.69
Wymund (12thc.), monk, of the Cistercian community at Furness Abbey, bishop of the Isle of Man and border raider, later caught and blinded, his deeds are probably mostly legend; CW2 xxxix
Wyndesore, Alexander de (fl.mid 14thc.), of Grayrigg
Wyndesore, Sir William de (d.1384), son of Alexander de Wyndesore (qv), of Grayrigg, warden of West Marches 1367, served in Ireland under duke of Clarence, and lieutenant of Ireland 1369-1371, died at Heversham, 15 September 1384, having made will on 15 September 1380 and proved 12 October 1384 (SoS, 41)
Wyndham, see Lord Egremont and Lord Leconfield
Wyndham, Blanche Julia (1826-1918) CI VA, daughter of George Wyndham, 1st baron Leconfield of Petworth and Cockermouth and his wife Mary Fanny Blunt, dau of the Rev William Blunt, m. Lord Mayo [1822-1872] in 1848, he was Viceroy of India and assassinated by a felon in 1872 when inspecting the prison on the Andaman islands, Blanche became in widowhood a lady of the bedchamber to queen Victoria
Wyndham, Joan (1921-2007), diarist, b. East Knoyle, dau of Guy Richard Wyndham [1896-1948] and Iris Bennett granddaughter of Lt Col Guy Percy Wyndham [1865-1941] of the Petworth and Cockermouth Castle family, parents divorced when she was small, after a rather bohemian teenage period was accepted briefly by RADA, a member of WAAF in 1941, she knew Dylan Thomas and other raffish creatives, then married Maurice Rowden and had a dau Clare, set up the first espresso bar in Oxford, then a restaurant in Portobello Rd, her youthful diaries were published in her maturity as Love Lessons (1985) and Love is Blue (1986), one critic described her as ‘a latterday Pepys in camiknickers’
Wynne, Sir Arthur Singleton (1846-1936), GCB, DL, JP, army officer, keeper of the Crown Jewels, born 6 March 1846, son of John Wynne, Captain RA, descendant of Rt Hon Owen Wynne, MP (d.1789), marr (8 September 1886, at Warcop) Emily Mary (1862-1959) (of Warcop House, died at Haverthwaite, near Ulverston, but buried at Warcop, 20 January 1959, aged 96), dau of Charles Colville and Elizabeth Turner (memorial window to her brothers and sister in church), of Eden Gate, Warcop, 3 sons (Owen Evelyn, OBE, Col, RE (b.1887), Graeme Chamley (b.1889, d.1964, of The Old Rectory, Musgrave, ashes buried at Warcop, 17 August 1965, aged 75), OBE, Major, KOYLI, and Arthur Meredyth, AFC, Capt, RAF (b.1893, d.1967, of Warcop Hall, cremated at Carlisle, 4 August 1967, aged 74), entd Army 1863, Captain 1871, served Jowaki Expedition 1877, Afghan War 1878-79, South African War 1881, Sudan Expedition 1884-85, 1st Colonel on staff, Upper Norwood, at time of his marriage in 1886 [further career details], and South Africa 1899-1901 as Asst Mil Sec at HQ 1899, DAG, HQ 1902-1904, comd 6th Div of Eastern Comd 1904-1905, Military Secretary to Secretary of State for War and Secretary of Selection Board 1906-1911, General 1911, retd 1913, Keeper of Jewel House, Tower of London 1911-1917, (this role was established in 1216; in recent years there have been 142 objects in the collection, including the two main royal crowns, the orb and sceptre) Col, King’s Own (Yorks LI) 1913, DL Westmorland, of Haybergill, Warcop, and of 7 Riverview Gardens, London SW13, where he died 5 February 1936, aged 89, and buried in Warcop cemetery, 11 February; banner from his stall in Henry VII’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey, was brought to Warcop church after his death; brass memorial tablet in church
Wyvill, William, son of Christopher Wyvill of Burton Constable, married Mary, dau and heir of Leonard Musgrave of Johnby
Wyvill, Marmaduke, of Johnby and Winderwath, his sister ran off with Hutchinson, a play actor; William Coupland Hutchinson (d.1868) at Broughton in Furness aged 53 probably their son