» Lives» The Revd Jeremiah Gilpin (1751-1793)

The Revd Jeremiah Gilpin (1751-1793)

Written by Tim Cockerill

Occupation: Priest

Background

Jeremiah Gilpin was born 25 December 1751 at Broughton-in- Furness, North Lancashire (now Cumbria) and baptised there on 1 January 1752, the sixth and youngest child and fourth son of Robert Gilpin (d. 1755), of Broughton Tower, who married Ruth Hall (1714-1783), daughter of Reynold Hall of  Newcastle-upon-Tyne at St John's, Newcastle in 1735. After her husband's death in 1793 Ruth married the Revd Timothy Cooperson, vicar of Broughton (1749-1777), at Broughton in 1756 and was buried there in 1783 as a widow.  

Robert Gilpin, Jeremiah's father, was the younger brother of John Gilpin Sawrey also of Broughton Tower, who was buried at St James's, Westminster in 1733.  He was also the brother of two East India Company officers: Richard Gilpin (1741-1766), who died at Cossimbazar in the East Indies and Martin (1734-1824), a Lieutenant in the 107th Regiment of Foot (Bengal Light Infantry), but by 1766 he was a Major in the local Militia. Martin married Frances Nicholson of Egremont in 1790 and they latterly lived at Broomhill, Broughton-in-Furness. There were also two unmarried sisters: Ruth (1739-1793) and Faith (b.1745).

Broughton Tower was enlarged and Gothicked in 1777 by Richard Gilpin-Sawrey, the only son of Jeremiah Sawrey, to whom the manor and estate were conveyed by his father on his marriage in 1688 to Susannah, sister of Robert Gilpin. This earlier Jeremiah was the son of Roger Sawrey of Scaleby Castle, near Carlisle, a Parliamentarian in politics and an ardent Anabaptist in religion, the purchaser of the Broughton estate from Edward Lee in 1658. However, Richard Gilpin-Sawrey died without issue and left his estates to his cousin, John Gilpin (1738-1773), eldest son of the above-mentioned Robert Gilpin, who then assumed the surname of Sawrey in addition to his own. In 1762 he married Esther Cookson of Camden, Greater London, at St George's Church, Camden. Their only son was John Cookson Gilpin Sawrey (1769-1799), who died without male issue and devised his estates to his sister Sarah who in 1787 married John Bertrand Baubec de Brouguens (b.1751), a Lieutenant Colonel in the French Army, who became a British citizen by Act of Parliament in 1802. Their second son John, assumed the surname of Sawrey in 1820 on succeeding to the estate and died in 1881.  Having no immediate family, John bequeathed the Broughton Tower estate to his kinsman James Cookson (1818-1888) of Neasham Hall, Co. Durham, who also assumed the additional name of Sawrey but died soon afterwards, in 1888. At about this time the estate comprised 1,279 acres. In 1910 James’s widow Mrs Georgina Margaret Sawrey Cookson of Broughton Tower was listed as the lady of the manor of Broughton and one of the principal landowners, but in 1924 she disposed of the estate before dying later in the same year.  By 1991 the house was owned by Lancashire County Council and for some years had been run as a school for special needs. By 1999 it had been converted into 12 luxury apartments, set in 10 acres with another 50 acres of parkland and lakes surrounding it.

Education

As one of six children of a landed family Jeremiah may have had a private tutor or attended a private or grammar school. There were Gilpins at Hawkshead Grammar School at about the right time but not of this branch of the family, and the same goes for Eton, Harrow and Winchester. However, in 1770 he was admitted pensioner at St John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1774; M.A. 1777).

Clerical Career 

Jeremiah Gilpin was ordained deacon at Ely in 1774 and priested at Chichester in 1776. From 1777 until 1788 he was vicar of Broughton-in-Furness, where he established Sunday schools. However, in 1789 William Cleaver (1742-1815), the bishop of Chester, presented him to the living of Bolton-le-Moors, eleven miles N.W. of Manchester, a parish comprising just over 33,400 acres, although much of it was then moorland. The township had a population of about 12,500 in 1801. Now simply known as Bolton its present population is 298,900. When Daniel Defoe visited Bolton in the 18th Century he found nothing remarkable about it, but noted that the manufacture of cotton had reached the town. The old church of St Peter's , which was demolished in 1866, was said to have had little merit. However, one of Bolton's claims to fame was the invention in 1780 of the Mule, a combination of the spinning jenny and the water -frame by its inhabitant Samuel Crompton. It appears that Gilpin left Broughton-in-Furness for Bolton in 1789, where he remained until his death four years later. As vicar of Bolton he had the patronage of four episcopal chapels at Blackrod, Bradshaw, Little Lever and Walmsley.

In addition to his parochial duties, Gilpin was the private chaplain to Charles Jenkinson (1729-1808), a prominent politician, who was created the first Baron Hawkesbury in 1786 and the first Earl of Liverpool in 1796. The reason for this connection is not apparent, although Jenkinson's first seat in the House of Commons in 1761 was that of Cockermouth and the two families might have been aquainted. From 1778 Jenkinson was Secretary at War and, from 1786, as Lord Hawkesbury, he was President of the Board of Trade. Another north-western link was that he sat for his portrait to George Romney from 1786-7 (National Portrait Gallery).

The only published work by Jeremiah was A sermon preached in the parochial chapel of Broughton in Furness in the County of Lancaster on Sunday 13 May 1787, being  the Anniversary of the institution of Sunday Schools in that Place by Jeremiah Gilpin M.A., Minister of Broughton and Chaplain to the Rt.Hon. Charles Lord Hawkesbury, published for the benefit of the Institution, printed by James Ashburner of Kendal in 1787. This publication was advertised in Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser on 13 June in that year as available in London, Newcastle, Ulverston, Lancaster, Kendal and Hawkshead priced at one shilling.

Gilpin also had antiquarian interests as evidenced by a paragraph under the parish of Bootle in The History of the County of Cumberland by William Hutchinson (1794-1797) which states that the Revd. Mr Gilpin of Broughton had a view of the ancient stone circle called Swinside engraved, but a copy had not then been traced (nor can Cumbria Record Offices at Barrow-in-Furness and Whitehaven find any mention of the engraving if it was ever completed).

Marriage and Family

In 1777 Jeremiah Gilpin married, at Broughton-in-Furness, Jane (1751-1793), the eldest of the six daughters of Thomas Mirfield Law (1723-1796) of Hestholme, Millom, variously described in the parish register as Mr or Gent. By occupation Law was a money scrivener, defined as a person engaged in the business of arranging for the loan of money to others; he was also a dealer and chapman. He was declared bankrupt in 1785 and found himself in Carlisle prison. Law was the son of Edmund Law of Leeds, Gent (d.1730) who in 1720 married Mary Mirfield at Guiseley, near Otley, where their son Thomas was baptised. Thomas was living at Hestholme, a property later called Hestholme Hall and now known as Hestholme Hall Farm, from at least 1730, when his father died there, when he was only seven years old. After a somewhat rackety career Thomas died at Millom in 1793 and was buried at Broughton.  Frank Warriner asserted that the Millom branch of the family were related to Edmund Law (1703-1789: ODNB), Bishop of Carlisle 1768-1787 and his third son Edward Law (1750-1818: ODNB),who was Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench and created Baron Ellenborough, in 1802. This branch of the Law family comprised old established yeoman of Askham and Bampton, although the bishop's fathe , the Revd Edmund Law (b. 1674) of Buck Crag, near Lindale Brow, was curate of Staveley-in-Cartmel from 1705-1742 and was the village schoolmaster for forty-nine years. Edmund was a commonly used name in the Law family and Jeremiah Gilpin's father-in-law Edmund Law reveals in his Will of 1730 that his brother was John Law of Askham, so the connection is confirmed.

The Gilpins had seven children, three sons and four daughters, the first five being baptised at Broughton-in-Furness and the last two at Bolton. Their son Bernard Gilpin (1790-1861) FRCS, studied medicine at both St Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, and, after qualifying as a general surgeon, joined the Royal Navy in 1812. Later he practised as a general surgeon in Ulverston, taking on a number of other appointments such as Inspector of Factories and Surgeon to the Lancashire Yeomanry Cavalry. He lived at Belle View House, Ulverston and practised in the town for more than 40 years. His tombstone in St Mary's churchyard adds that he did so 'usefully and with honour'.  He was unmarried and left his estate (sworn for probate purposes at 'under £4,000’) to his nephew Bernard Gilpin Cooper of Cheadle in Cheshire. His younger brother Richard (1792-1848) was elected to the Clergy Orphan School, Acton in 1800. As his father had died when he was only a year old this explains this charitable arrangement. He was subsequently a surgeon in the East India Company, by 1841 was a surgeon on the Isle of Man but died at Halifax in 1848. In addition to these two sons there was an elder brother Robert Martin Gilpin (1781-1835), who married Agnes Dodson of Thornthwaite, Kirkby Ireleth in 1803, and daughters Margaret (b.1779) who married Joseph Cooper  (1761-1841), son of the yeoman Miles Cooper ( 1736/7-1803) of Beckfoot, Ulpha, whose wife Tamar ( nee Nicholson of Bootle) was the sister of Mary, wife of William Lewthwaite (1766-1809) JP of Broadgate, Millom, Jane ( b.1784) and Mary Wise Gilpin (b.1785) who married George Cooper ( 1778-1831), brother of the above-named Joseph Cooper, and Matilda ( b.1787).

Death and Burial

The Revd. Jeremiah Gilpin died 14 November 1793 at Bolton, aged only 41, and was buried there, his wife Jane following him on 22 September of the same year. In Broughton-in-Furness church there is a wall monument to him inscribed: 'this monumental stone is placed here, the humble record of his conjugal and paternal affection; of his disinterested and inflexible integrity and unremitted diligence in the discharge of his pastoral duties. DICTIS FACTISQUE SIMPLEX (this motto of the Gilpin family translates as: Simple Words and Deeds). His death at such a young age is reflected in a letter about his illness and other related material (Bow Lane archives, Preston Ref DDHU 5/1).  The Revd Thomas Bancroft, his successor, also appointed by bishop Cleaver, had a stipend of £250 p.a.

His cousin, Sir Joseph Dacre Appleby Gilpin (1745-1834, the youngest son of Captain John Bernard Gilpin (1701-1776) of Carlisle, was his near contemporary and also worked as a doctor. He attended the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen and became a military surgeon.  Having served in America and the West Indies, he was in Gibraltar and with great prescience was able effectively to quell an outbreak of plague.  Sir Joseph was the nephew of Susannah Gilpin (1689-1769), the first lady archaeologist on Hadrian’s Wall and the brother of both the Rev William Gilpin (1724-1804; ODNB), advocate of the picturesque and Sawrey Gilpin RA (1733-1807; ODNB), a rival of George Stubbs as a painter of horses. (qqv)

Sources

  • Baines, Edward, A History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County Palatine of Lancaster, Liverpool, 1825, vol. 1 p.129 and vol. 2, p.668
  • Boumphrey, R.S., Hudleston, C. Roy and Hughes, J. An Armorial of Westmorland and Lonsdale pp.136 (for Gilpin) and 185 (for Law), Lake District Museum Trust, 1975
  • Bulmer, T. and Co., History, Topography and Directory of Furness and Cartmel, Preston,1910 (?), p.179
  • Caine, Caesar, A History of the Churches of the Rural Deanery of Whitehaven, Whitehaven, 1916, pp.14,29, 35,47-49, 65, 68-70, 189, 202 and 275,
  • Clark, John, transcriber and Robert Dickinson, editor, The Registers of Broughton-in-Furness Chapel in the parish of Kirkby Ireleth 1634-1812, Preston, 1950
  • Dickinson, Robert and Florence, compilers in 1935/6, Monumental Inscriptions at Ulverston, Lancashire, Kendal , 1973
  • history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol8/pp400-406
  • Hudleston, C.Roy and R.S. Boumphrey, Cumberland Families and Heraldry, pp. 129-130, Kendal,1978
  • Hutchinson, William, The History of the County of Cumberland, Wakefield, 1974, vol. 1, p.555, reprint of the 1794-1797 edition, Plarr's Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England Online
  • Robertshaw, Colin and Stan Aspinall, of the Duddon Valley Local History Society, e-mails to the author in 2024 containing much information about the Gilpin, Hall and Law families
  • Robinson, John Martin, A Guide to the Country Houses of the North-West, p. 168 (re Broughton Tower), London , 1991
  • St George, Richard and Dugdale, William, edited by Joseph Foster Visitation Pedigrees of Cumberland and Westmorland 1615 and 1666, 1891, facsimile edition, Michael Moon, Whitehaven, 2010, p.52 (pedigree of Gilpin of Scaleby)
  • Stockdale, James, Annals of Cartmel, pp. 192-195, 1st edition 1872, republished by Michael Moon, Ilkley, 1978
  • Warriner, Frank, The Millom District, a History, 1932, republished by Michael Moon, Beckermet, 1974, p. 37 (re Thomas Mirfield Law),
  • www.bolton-encyclopaedia.com (re Thomas Bancroft)

Further Gilpin Sources

  • Barbier, CP, William Gilpin, his Drawings, Teachings and Theory of the Picturesque, 1963 (this volume also contains family information)
  • Birley, Eric, Research on Hadrian’s Wall, 1961, p.204 (re Susanna Gilpin)
  • Cross, David A., Sawrey Gilpin RA: Rival of Stubbs, The Armitt Journal, 1998, pp.64-85
  • Cross, David A., ‘The Bust of Sir Joseph DA Gilpin’, Public Sculpture of Lancashire and Cumbria, 2017, pp.142-3
  • Cross, David A., Captain John Bernard Gilpin, Cumbrian Lives (full life), 2022
  • Gilpin, William, Memoirs of Dr Richard Gilpin of Scaleby Castle in Cumberland and of his Posterity in Two Succeeding Generations (written in 1791), 1879