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Barwick Parish in 1700.


from The Barwicker No.56


The King of England in 1700 was William III, Prince of Orange, who had been invited in 1689 to become joint monarch with his wife Queen Mary. They succeeded Mary's father, King James II, who had been deposed because of his attempts to introduce Roman Catholic doctrines into the country. The accession of William and Mary is often called 'The Glorious Revolution' and it introduced major economic, political and constitutional changes, with an increase in the powers of parliament. Trade became much freer with the ending of many monopolies and there was an increase in foreign trade, particularly with the colonies. War against France began with John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, commanding the British armies on the continent. Did any men from Barwick parish serve in his armies we wonder?

Mary had died in 1694 and they had no children. The heir to the throne was Mary's sister Anne, who had five sons and seven daughters, all but one of whom were stillborn or died in infancy, and there were six other stillbirths or miscarriages of unknown sex The sole survivor was William, Duke of Gloucester, but he died in 1700 at the age of 11. In order to maintain the protestancy of the monarchy, an Act of Succession in 1701 named Sophia, the Electress of Hanover and a granddaugher of James I, as heir to the throne rather than James II's son, James Edward Stuart, the 'Old Pretender'.

After Anne's death in 1714, Sophia's son George I came to the throne bringing in the Hanoverian dynasty which was to last until the beginning of 20th. century. It is unlikely that these dramatic events at the seat of power had much effect on the lives of the parishioners of Barwick, but some repercussions of the subsequent Jacobite revolt of 1745 were felt here, as told in Harold Smith's article in 'The Barwicker' No. 49.

The lord of the manor of Barwick in 1700 was Sir Thomas Gascoigne of Barnbow, the 4th.baronet, whose wife had brought him a generous wedding portion but no children. They lived at Barnbow Hall, a substantial house which was assessed for tax in 1672 as having 19 hearths, the biggest dwelling in the area after Temple Newsam. An inventory drawn up in 1661 lists the following rooms:

'My ladies chamber'
the backchamber
outer backchamber
garden chamber
old chamber
gallery
dining room
wainscot room
red chamber 		backchamber belonging to the red chamber
chapel chamber
'little bourdened room'
high chamber
Mr John's chamber
maid's chamber
Mr Wright's chamber
Postgate's chamber 		little parlour
great parlour
hall
pantry
out pantry
ordinary beer buttery
strong beer buttery
kitchen
larder		'pestrie'
bake house
old brew house
wash house
milk house
back store chamber
new brew house
chapel
vestry.


This house and grounds would provide employment for men and women of the parish as indoor and outdoor servants, as well as professional posts such as secretary, land agent (bailiff), superintendent of coal mines, teachers, etc.

Sir Thomas died in 1718 and was succeeded by his brother Sir John Gascoigne of Parlington, the 5th baronet. He had five sons and six daughters, born between 1691 and 1702. 4 children died in infancy and were buried at Barwick and three daughters became nuns (one the Abbess) at Cambrai in northern France. Only one son had sons to continue the baronetcy. We can see that there was high infant mortality and difficulties in maintaining the succession even amongst royalty and the gentry.

Another prominent Barwick landlord was William Ellis, the owner of Kiddal Hall. Although he was described as 'of London' and he married there, some of his children were baptised at Barwick between 1691 to 1696, so perhaps he lived at Kiddal during this time. In 1672, the house was taxed for nine hearths. His financial problems led eventually to the renting out and ultimately to the sale of the Kiddal estate by the Ellis family.

John (or Jordan) Tancred (or Tankard) was rector of Barwick from 1695 to 1703. The rectory was shown in the Hearth Tax returns of 1672 as having 10 hearths, a sizeable building, all or some of which remains as 2 Aberford Road, the eastern part the present structure. Despite this ample accommodation, he added the centre portion of the present building in 'Queen Anne' style.

Another of Mr Tancred's bequests to Barwick was the parish records of baptisms, marriages and burials which, unlike all his predecessors and successors, he wrote in Latin rather than English. However they are easily translated from the printed volume ''Wills, Registers and Monumental Inscriptions of Barwick-in-Elmet' by G D Lumb.

All the baptismal entries follow the same pattern, giving the name of the child, the name of father(not the mother!), the name of the settlement of residence (hamlet, etc.) within the parish, which included Roundhay, and the date of baptism, e.g:

1699 William, son of Andrew Jackson of Scholes, Feb.18 1700 Sara, daughter of John Potter of Barwick, Sept.28.

 The first of these entries is in fact in 1700 because, before the changing of the calendar in 1753, the old year was recorded as ending, not on 31 January but on the following 25 March, so the year in the entry is now usually shown as 1699/1700.

There were several pairs of twins baptised at this time and it was usually a time of sorrow and family loss as the following entries illustrate in 1699/1700.

John and Anna, twin children of William Shenton of Barwick bap.Jan 29. Anna, wife of William Shenton of Barwick buried Jan 31. Anna, daughter of William Shenton of Barwick buried Jan 31. John son of William Shenton of Barwick buried Feb 6.


The following entries are probably due to the not uncommon practice of the baptism of several children from one family at the same time.

Francis, son of Thomas Brunton of Shippen, August 25, 1700. Mary, daughter of Thomas Brunton of Shippen, August 25, 1700.


There are several examples of the baptism of illegitimate children, the name of the father (if known) being recorded, presumably to ensure that he took financial reponsibility for the child and it did not become a burden on the parish poor rate.

Infant mortality was high. In 1700, there were 35 baptisms recorded and the burial records show that six of these children died within one year of baptism, plus one mother. Another child died a short time afterwards.

The burial records fall into six groups depending on the circumstances of the dead person. These are shown below with the numbers in each group for the three year period 1 January 1698/1699 - 31 December 1701,

Type of Burial Record Numbers
Individual Males (Heads of families and unmarried older men)25
Individual Females (Unmarried older women) 5
Wives of named heads of families13
Widows of named heads of families 7
Sons of named heads of families (infants, children, adolescents and young men dying before marriage).15
Daughters of named heads of families ( infants, children, adolescents, young women dying before marriage).14
Total 79
Number of males 40
Number of females 39


These limited figures show that about twice as many wives died before their husbands as those who die in widowhood. This means that in 1700, unlike at the present time, women did not live as long as men, presumably because of the risks of childbirth and associated illnesses. 29 out of 79 (37%) of males and females died before marriage, many in infancy or childhood.

The totals numbers of baptisms and burials in the above three year period of people from the various settlements in the parish are shown below

Residence
of father		Number
of baptisms 		Number
of burials
Barwick 24 24
Winmoor 15 16
Scholes 10 9
Potterton 10 5
Roundhay 7 3
Garforth Moor 7 2
Barnbow 5 1
Kiddal Lane 5 3
Shippen 5 1
Brown Moor 1 3
Lazingcroft 1 0
Grimsdyke 1 1
Morwick 1 0
Stanks 0 2
Munkay 0 2
Parlington 0 2
Leeds 0 1
Aberford 0 1
Not given 0 3
Total 92 79


Two very approximate methods of calculating the total population of parish are to take average annual number of baptisms and multiply by 30 and the average annual number of burials and multiply by 31. These methods give a total of 920 from baptisms and 808 from burials, an average of 864.

The Hearth Tax returns of 1672 for Barwick and Roundhay townships show a total of 186 dwellings (households). With an average number of 4.5 persons per household, the approximate total number of people in the parish is calculated at 837. This is probably too low because of tax avoidance. Calculation of the population of the parish from baptism and burial returns in the 1630s (see'The Barwicker' No.6) gave a total of about 900, indicating little change during this period.

The marriage records of the time give the names of the couple and their parish of residence at the time . For the 5 year period 1 Jan 1687/1698 to 31 December 1702, there was a total of 20 marriages (with one service at York). In 13 cases, both the man and the woman lived in the parish. In the other 7 cases Barwick women married men from outside the parish: from Leeds, Wetherby, Ryther, Walshford, Whitkirk, Thorner and Seacroft. It was the usual practice for a woman to marry in her own parish.

For Barwick village the population calculated from baptism and burial records is approximately 244, which is between 1/4 and 1/3 of the total for parish. The number of households is approximately 54. It is interesting to speculate how this figure compares with that many centuries before. Inspection of early maps of the village such as the 25 inch to a mile Ordnance Survey map of 1890s shows that it was carefully laid out in tofts for houses with long back plots on Main Street (west side), the Boyle and the Cross. This village plan was probably laid out in medieval times perhaps as early as 1200. There are about 40 of these tofts shown on the above map and this is likely to have been higher in past times, before alterations to plot boundaries occurred. So it is possible that there were as many houses, and the population of Barwick was as great, in 1200 as it was in 1700.

In 1700 Scholes had a population of about 100 (22 households) so that the combined totals for Barwick and Scholes amounted to less than half that of the parish as a whole, where the majority must have lived in tiny settlements or in scattered houses. Now almost all live in the two villages. Apart from Barwick village, Winmoor was the largest settlement with about 160 inhabitants in about 36 dwellings. This is rather surprising as Winmoor was common land where no-one was allowed to erect fences and buildings. However, from the incidence in documents of 'intakes' and 'encroachments', we must presume that the Barwick parish authorities and the lord of the manor had allowed this settlement in order to house people from other parts of the parish, perhaps following the process of enclosure that landlords had been carryied out since Tudor times. To avoid loss of commoners' rights, these dwellings would probably have been scattered about the moor.

Careful reading of the parish documents and a little speculation, allows us to draw up a picture of Barwick life in 1700. More than half of the population lived in tiny settlements or in scattered dwellings. Life in Barwick village, with security, company, professionally built houses, wells, the church, ale-houses and services such as wheelwright, blacksmith, tailor, etc., must have contrasted greatly with that of the inhabitants of Winmoor with their unsafe, lonely existence and lack of facilities. And for the inhabitants of the great houses the contrast must have been even greater. But for all, the frequency of infants' and childrens' deaths was a constant fear.


ARTHUR BANTOFT


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