Wilkinsons of Kelbrook 1740

[cdunne]

Hi
I'm new to your site and I would like to thank you so much for creating the forum, I have been trying to find out more historical information with regard to Kelbrook and surrounding areas for some time. I found Stanley's transcripions of the Thornton Registers (Thornton in Craven ByGone Days) and the 'History of Baptists in Barnoldswick' insightful and although I have not had chance to read the full transcripts I have set them to one side and will wait until I can steal an hour away from my three kids and work to digest all.

I am originally from Lancashire but now live in Ireland, having researched my family tree for several years I have found many fascinating stories with my earliest branch going back to 1600. However quite early on I came to a brick wall with my direct ancestor Thomas WIlkinson. (My 4th Great Grandfather - My father's direct line)

My ancestor Thomas Wilkinson married Judith Dobson in 1766 to in Thornton in Craven - I have found baptisms for four of their children - all baptised in Ebenezeer Baptist Church in Bacup. (Elijah 1777 - notes he was born in Kelbrook, Britchet 1780, Elisha 1783, Dinah 1787). With a gap of eleven years between 1766 and 1777 I am sure there must have been more children but I cannot find them! I am also at a dead end on finding Thomas's father - I do have a possiblity - baptised 17th Feb 1747 to a Thomas Wilkinson in Thornton in Craven. (Possible mother Sarah Smith married Thomas senior in 1742 in Keighley, but this is just a very flimsy guess.

Any help or advice that anyone can give would be amazing. Even if I find out that I will never find Thomas's parents or other children it would still be fantastic to have just a little bit of history about Kelbrook, or an interesting Wilkinson in the area. I do know the Wilkinson's are an old family in the area so was hoping there would be some old stories. Thanks so much for reading my post.
yours
Clare Dunne(nee Wilkinson)

[Gloria]

Hi Clare, welcome to the site, you will find everyone helpful on here, and I'm sure someone will come up with something.

[Stanley]

Welcome Clare. Have you tried putting 'wilkinson' in the site search embedded in the banner at the top of the page? It will throw up a lot of clues for you.

[Wendyf]

Hello Clare, I'll have a look in the Earby & District Local History Society archives. If you haven't already discovered it our website is very useful.

http://www.earbyhistory.co.uk/

[Wendyf]

I've looked through the Thornton in Craven baptisms and as you say there are no children there for Thomas & Judith. Looking at their marriage both Thomas & Judith are noted as being of Harden, which is the hillside & clough above Kelbrook where I live. It is a long trail to Thornton in Craven church from here, a distant corner of the parish and they may not have bothered to baptise their children straight away or could have ventured to Colne instead.

[Wendyf]

A landowner called Richard Wainman of Cowling acquired some of the farms in Harden throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, among them was Clough farm, now Harden Clough and previously known as Bannister's farm. I have some notes on file of various documents relating to Wainman's estate and there is mention of a Thomas Dobson occupying that farm in 1766. As Dobson doesn't seem to be a common name around here and Harden is only a small area I think this may be Judith's family.
13th January 1766. memorandum that it was agreed between Richard Wainman & Stephen Bannister as follows: That the said Stephen Bannister for the consideration hereinafter mentioned shall convey to the said Richard Wainman...
All that Farm in Harden in Thornton Parish now in Richard Ellis's possession and all that House or Houses there in the possession of Thomas Dobson....
Just another thought, there is a baptism in the Thornton Parish registers 3/3/1741 for a Thomas Wilkinson son of Francis husbandman of Kelbrooke. In a list of Richard Wainman's business contacts there is a Francis Wilkinson. Wainman had land all over the place so it is only a tenuous possible connection!

[cdunne]

Thank you so so much to all,

I'm almost in tears at all the help everyone is giving me. I have only just got to sit down from a full days work and putting the kids to bed and I wasn't expecting any replies, but was blown away by all the comments and every one of them brilliant and very useful.

First to hear that Thomas and Judith are from Harden, then to see that that you have information on a Dobson family in that area that could be connect to Judith, just these pieces of information mean so much. There is a baptism for a 'Judith Dobson' in the records and it is the same day of the marriage between Thomas and Judith, it has her father as being John Dobson - unsure that this is Judith but thought that it was too much of a coincidence that there was a Judith Dobson being baptised on the same day as a Judith Dobson being married!.

Great to get a possiblity on Thomas's father - however unsure about Francis as the family never had any children or grandchildren named Francis and I have found it common place that the family were taking the names of their parents and grandparents, unless it was the case that Francis was not very nice!

Thanks for the links, you have given me so much more information to look through. I did put wilkinson into the search engine and am going through the results - will spend most my weekend researching. My brick wall is definitely crumbling!

Finally - love coincidences so was amused to see a 'Mr Greenwood Wilkinson' in the transcript of the parish records and noticed that Stanley had also reposted a 'Wilkinson Index' of which a Greenwood Wilkinson is seen on the 1871 census. Although it is 100 years away from my Thomas the families of Greenwood (Clerkheaton) and Wilkinson do combine in the early 1900's.

If there is any help I can give you please do let me know. My ancestors are almost all from Yorkshire/Lancashire (with a hint of scottish/irish and norwegian thrown in) but I now live in Ireland so if you are trying to find Irish ancestors (not an easy task at the best of times) I will definitely try and help.
Thank you again so much
yours
Clare

[Whyperion]

Depending on location and surnames I can help - if you havent found Ireland Reaching Out and similar .ie websites on some of the irish records - though being in ireland will help you, there is a lot more than when I started researching, much of mine is guesswork from abstracts of now destroyed wills, copies of census returns and records of dog licences and magistrates fines to find mentions through the C18th and C19th.

[Stanley]

That was a nice post Clare, nice to know that we are helping you to make progress. The site search is good for finding odd forgotten references in the material on the site. Try 'Dobson' in it as well?

[Wendyf]

Clare, how unusual that there is a baptism and a marriage on the same day! Would she have to be baptised before she married?

[Gloria]

Clare, told you someone would come up with something, this is a brilliant site for that.

[cdunne]

Hi

Stanley will definitely look at Dobsons too. You all have given me so many links that I will be very busy for a long time. It is amazing how many Wilkinson's are in the area and even if some of them are not related some seem to have led very interesting lives.

Wendy - yes I thought it very unusual to find a baptism for Judith on the same day as the marraige, so presumed like yourself that she was never baptised and had to be baptised before marriage - with the links you have given me I have been able to also pin down that her father John Dobson was a labourer from Harden, giving further proof to that this is my Judith as you confirmed that her and Thomas were from Harden.

Think I may have found another good possibility for Thomas's parents - Thomas and Maria (Mary) from Kelbrook married 30 Jan 1733 - they have several children baptised between 1734 and 1748. Odd thing is they were both Wilkinsons! (Nothing is ever easy!!) Their son Thomas was born 16 Feb 1748, baptised 17 Feb 1748 and was the youngest of 8 children, it looks like his mother (Mary) died in child birth as it notes Thomas is a 'widower and woolcomber' - Very sad to leave a man with 8 kids!

Will continue to pop in and keep you updated on progress and if I manage to connect the Wilkinsons in the area I will send you on a tree.

All the best
Clare

[Stanley]

Lovely posts.....

[cdunne]

Hi Wendy,

Can you help? Just a quickie - I'm trying to get my head around distances. You said Harden was the 'hillside and clough' just above where you lived, how many miles would that have been from Kelbrook? Have seen a Harden on a modern day map but that is nearer Keighley and would be around 20 miles from Kelbrook. Is this the right Harden?

Many thanks
Clare

[Wendyf]

No not that Harden Clare, it is part of Kelbrook. If you look at this 1853 OS map Harden is an area east of Kelbrook going right up to the furthest corner of Thornton in Craven parish.

https://maps.nls.uk/view/102344851

[Stanley]

[Wendyf]

I don't have any photos of Harden Clough Farm but I've found these two images online from someone's walking blog. You can get some idea of the area where your ancestors lived! One photo is looking down onto the roof of the house (now a beautiful home) and in the view across the field it is the property on the right.

3957540_orig.jpg

2978862_orig.jpg

[Stanley]

Whoever did those pics knew what they were doing! Lovely....

[cdunne]

Thanks Wendy

So beautiful,I figured I was looking in the wrong place. When I'm retired me and my hubby will defintely come and visit and walk the area.

You may think I'm a bit nuts but it feels like home...that is probably because it looks alot where a grew up (at the edge of the pennies in Rossendale) and it looks alot like where I live now (in the summer). At the moment it is a bit different as I am watching Storm Jorgen rolling in over the Slieve Bloom Mountains, the blue sky is disappearing, giving way to the dull grey and a flurry of snow. I'm getting ready to be bashed for the 3rd or 4th weekend in a row, the wind is just starting to give a mummered growl around the house, this will turn into a prolonged howl later! So many storms recently, several areas around us are flooded - heard that Yorkshire didn't fair too well either hope you all are ok. I have a really good friend that lives near Hebden Bridge who posted the damage that Storm Ciara and Dennis did, hope that Jorgen is not going to cause too much problems for you all.

Upside is I get to do a bit of study and bore you to tears with my description of Storm Jorgen!!

Take care
Clare

[Wendyf]

We are waiting for the storm to arrive this afternoon, getting fed up with it now! The ground is absolutely soaking and walking is a trial rather than a pleasure at the moment. It's nice to look at those photos and to remember how beautiful it is in summer....the sun is shining just now though!
Just snapped this photo through the raindrops on my window.

20200229_110353.jpg

[cdunne]

Wendy

Yes miss walking, the rain has just been none stop and we are all getting a bit stir crazy and fat!!I will have to post some photos of around here for you to have a nose. Ireland is very similar to the north of England.

I was looking at other posts on this forum (some so interesting) and noticed you got your DNA done with ancestry. I was hesitant at first (old hippy and consipiricy theories going wild!) but my hubby bought me it as a xmas pressie and it actually was one of the best things that I ever did. I had been researching my tree for sometime, got to the stage where alot was instinct and guess work, but the DNA helped prove my paths right and opened up alot of others.

So I'm 91% Engand, Wales and Northern Europe (focuses around Lancashire and Yorshire) 5% Norway and 4% Ireland and Scotland - acually would have thought I would have more Irish in me as I have found my Irish ancetors (and was ginger when I was younger) but I have yet to come across anyone from Norway! Maybe they are the Vikings you are talking about. Would be a real coincidence if you and I match!! My tree is public on ancestry (Wilkinson Tree if you search Lewis Wilkinson born 1904 Bury you should find it) and my profile is Cldunne27.

Now back to research - was trying to find that Thomas Dobson you were talking about from Harden Clough farm in the registers (Think he must be related in some way to Judith and her father John - maybe John's brother or father) but there is no sign of him in baptisms, marriages or deaths. Typical my family always had to do it the hard way. From your links I found the registers in pdf form on the Earby and Local History site - these are an amazing asset thanks.

Batten down the hatches Storm Jorgen is on the way...
Clare

[Stanley]

Brush Dobson used to run the Beech Street dairy in Barlick in the 1950s....