Turning Down The Empty Glass #2

#1 in this proposed 4-part series featured my paternal grandfather Edward James Scott and his forebears. His wife, my paternal grandmother was Mary, maiden name Midgley. I am fortunate that local genealogists linked to the Midgleys had already done much digging in the parish registers of East and North Yorkshire before I ventured down this family history rabbit hole. Thanks to them I've been able to delve much deeper into this particular part of my gene pool than I could manage in Grandad Scott's case.

MIDGLEY the name: Two possibilities:
1) an old Yorkshire name, probably first arising in West Yorkshire, where there's a village called Midgley; how, or if the East and North Yorkshire Midgley branch links to the village isn't clear.
2) A derivation of Michelson or Mitchelson. There is evidence that a Christopher Midgley on the Acklam Land Tax Assessments, in successive years, went from signing Chris. Michelson to Chris. Midgley. Christopher's father was John Mitchelson. I haven't yet connected John and Christopher to my direct line of Midgleys, but my forebears have clear connections to Acklam, so I'd say that it's highly likely that this is where my line of Midgleys got their name, rather than from a village in West Yorkshire.

My own relatives can be traced back to the mid-1700s; beyond that though, the families of several Midgley spouses, my 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th 8th 9th and 10th great grandmothers, can be traced back - and back - into the 1500s.

My Midgley line's earliest known character was a Richard Midgley probably of Sheriff Hutton, Yorkshire, born about 1734. His son Richard, born 1769 married Hannah Nichols on 6 December 1790 in Kirkby Grindlyth on the East Yorkshire Wolds. Richard the younger was Parish Clerk as well as being involved in some form of agricultural employment. He and Hannah had 10 children. Hannah, maiden name Hicks, hailed from Hutton Bushel, a village between Pickering and Scarborough.

Maps below show the general area involved in the family history included in this #2 chapter.
Click on an image for a bigger version.

Richard and Hannah's large family and their descendants formed a tangled Midgley network around the Wolds of East Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and the Moors. It was very easy to be led astray once entering this network, due to many similarities of first names in similar time spans. More than once I followed mistaken threads and had to start over.

Of Richard and Hannah's ten offspring, two are significant to my own line: Thomas Midgley born 10 June 1801, and Benjamin born 10 January 1812 - both recorded in Kirky Grindlyth parish, though the nearby village of Duggleby could well have been their home.

The reason I link to two members of Richard and Hannah's offspring: Benjamin's youngest daughter married one of Thomas's grandsons. That caused lots of confusion! Thomas Midgley and his wife Mary (nee Wallis) had a son, Abel. Abel and wife Elizabeth (nee Boyes) had a son, John Thomas who married Benjamin Midgley's youngest daughter Fanny.

John Thomas Midgley, born in 1861 in Acklam, and Fanny Midgley born 1863 in Duggleby are recorded as marrying in 1887. They became parents of William, born 1889, Emma Midgley, 1890, Ben Midgley, 1892, Tom Midgley, 1894, George Midgley, 1896 and Ida Midgley,1898. However, and it's a big however, in the census of 1891 there's another offspring listed as daughter of the couple, born 1885, before their marriage. This daughter, Mary, then aged 6, was my grandmother. By the 1901 census Grandma was listed as "servant to veterinary surgeon", and by 1911 she was married to Grandad Scott and mother of four, with six more to come.

Now - was Mary, my grandmother, the daughter of both partners, born before they married, or was she daughter of one partner only? Her name would still be Midgley either way. I'll never know this, it's a second brick wall in my family history, matching that of Grandad Scott's unknown father. The fact that Fanny and John Thomas were...(?) second cousins, or cousins once removed does mean that, in any event, the onward reach into the past, via Midgley spouses will remain relevant to my own genealogy. I think it more likely that Grandma Mary was definitely Fanny's daughter, if not also John Thomas's.

This was Mary Midgley/Grandma Scott:

I have hazy memories of her. She'd visit us during my young childhood, every Friday evening, never failed to leave a shilling for me. She was known as a sweet-natured, hard-working woman. She brought up 10 children of her own and several grandchildren whose parents were encountering difficulty. She attended "chapel" every Sunday, the strangely named Primitive Methodist Continuing Chapel. Grandma died in 1952.

I met Fanny Midgley, my great grandmother, just once when I was very young, around 4 or 5 years old I think. My only memory is of a lady in a long dark dress, and of feeling afraid of her. I was told by my parents, amid laughter, that my only comment to my great grandmother had been "I don't like you!" What a charmingly outspoken brat I had to be! I hereby apologise.

Fanny Midgley's father, as mentioned above, was Benjamin Midgley. Her mother was Mary, maiden name Bogg, born in Duggleby 1821. Mary Bogg's parents were Jonathan Bogg and Margaret Vasey. Whereas most of the later Midgleys were agricultural labourers of one sort or another, several of the Boggs, from various census entries, appear to have been tradesmen, such as grocer, postmaster, joiner.

Margaret Vasey, Jonathan Bogg's wife and my 3rd great grandmother was born in Allerston, North Yorkshire. Her family line is capable of being traced way back, via her father William Vasey.

VASEY:

 Ruins of Rievaulx Abbey

Vasey the surname (and its several alternative spellings) is said to have originated with those involved in the Norman invasion of England. First recorded spelling of the family name is, it is thought, that of Robert L'enveiset, dated 1131, in the register of Rievaulx Abbey, in North Yorkshire, during the reign of King Henry 1st of England (1100 - 1135). Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. Surnames in every country have continued to "develop" resulting in variations of the original spelling. L'enveiset became De Vesci; De Vesci became Vasey, Vasie or alternative spellings.

At a website 1066 Medieval Mosaic in the section titled THE BATTLE ABBEY ROLL. WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NORMAN LINEAGES, the Vesci chapter outlines the De Vesci family's tangled ties with lands in a newly Norman England. My interest is in a particular area of Yorkshire, and place names there are mentioned as having been, at some point in the mists of time, in ownership of some member of the De Vesci family. Allerston, Hutton Bushell, Pickering Marishes are mentioned - all villages or areas which turn up regularly in relation to my Vasey connection.

It'd be good to feel fairly confident that the Vaseys named below had some kind of family link to those De Vesci characters from Norman France, but I have no proof. How the surname might have appeared in this area otherwise is puzzling though:

My Vasey line proceeds via: Margaret Vasey (my 3rd great grandmother), her father, William Vasey (1756-1823), his father Matthew of Marishes Vasey (1690-1784). Matthew's father was Thomas of Marishes Vasey (born between1640 &1665, died 1704). Thomas's father was Matthew of Boswell Moor Vasie (1603-1664) and his father was another Thomas Vasie, born 1580.

Place names involved are in a tightly bounded area around Allerston and Pickering (see map above). I haven't yet been able to identify "Boswell Moor", but suspect it could have been the name of a single farm or piece of land in the same general area as Marishes - on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors.

The last mentioned Thomas Vasie is my 8th great grandfather. There the direct Vasie name trail ends. Before leaving the Vaseys though, there's this (click on it for a bigger version). It must refer to the Matthew Vasey noted as "of Boswell Moor", due to the date. Which could be a clue that the location of Boswell Moor was really the same as Marishes, as in the name of his grandson Matthew.

 King Charles II

Restoration of the Monarchy, after the Civil War and Oliver Cromwell's time in power, occurred in 1660. Prince Charles (King Charles the Second)whose father had been beheaded, had been in exile until 1660 by all accounts. I guess he could have slipped into England from Europe, to a quiet port on the Yorkshire coast - there were many - and made his way inland across the area near Allerston.





OWSTON

Another name of interest, linking to the Vaseys, comes via the wife of my 6th great grandfather Thomas of Marishes Vasey, she was Elizabeth Owston.

The name Owston almost certainly refers to a location. There's a village of Owston in South Yorkshire.

Some of the modern Owston family have taken their genealogical investigations to extreme levels - DNA testing. An article titled Owston DNA Studies: Another F2642 Y-DNA Mutation Reported refers. There has, so far, been no definite conclusion as to origins. A recent test shows links to France. That's not surprising because William the Conqueror, after victory in 1066, gifted his many royal relatives, nobles and hangers-on with big chunks of England to play with. Reference the De Vesci's (aka Vasey) above!

The Owston's history is tied up with the Vaseys:

Earliest known Owston is Peter, my 10th great-grandfather, and his wife Petronel my 10th great-grandmother. (Taken from THIS website)

Peter Owston the husbandman of Sherburn, died in 1568 leaving quite a young family made up of three sons, all minors (under twenty one years)....... Peter lived through interesting times. He would have probably been born during the reign of King Henry VIII, seen the abolition of the Monasteries, the rise of Protestantism, possibly heard of the Pilgrimage of Grace and known about the other risings in the North. Petronel survived at East Heslerton with her second husband and was probably the "Widow Borman" who was buried on the 7th April 1594 at West Heslerton.

In spite of misty notions that "we" (via Owston and Vasey connections) could possibly have roots originating in characters involved in the Norman invasion of England, most of my ancestors have remained within the levels of, at best yeoman (owned own farm), or husbandman (tenant or smallholder); the majority, pre-World War 1, were just lowly agricultural labourers, the females domestic servants to the gentry.

Others linked to my Midgleys, through marriage and reaching back into the 1600s, include surnames Fiddis, Belt, Hopkin, Smartfoot and Lawne.

So...concluding my paternal family history wander, a photograph from a Scott family wedding at which both Grandma Scott (Midgley) and Grandad Scott were present, though oddly standing apart, he at the back of the group, she at the front. (Click on photo for a bigger version). In other wedding pictures the same thing happened - Grandad was obviously camera shy! The wedding here was of my father's younger brother, George, just after World War 2, so mid-1940s. My Dad is on George's left and my Mum, whose family history will follow in chapters #3 and #4, is the one in the snazzy hat behind Dad's left shoulder. Grandma Scott is to my Mum's left. Where's Grandad Scott? Hiding: back row second from right. See the Scott likeness, Grandad and sons? I'm not familiar with most others in the photo, relatives of Uncle George's wife, Nan, whose father was the guy in military uniform. I think Dad's youngest sister, Mary, is present but almost hidden behind Grandma; the rest of the Scott clan must have been about their business elsewhere on that occasion.

For Grandma Scott, the Midgleys, Boggs, Vaseys, Owstons, and all others who made up this branch of the family, I turn down an empty glass.

And when Thyself with shining foot shall pass
Among the guests star-scatter'd on the grass,
And in thy joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one - turn down an empty glass!

Helpful sources on Midgley family history:

Bonson History - Midgleys of the Wolds
Midgley Webpages, East Yorkshire.

TURNING DOWN THE EMPTY GLASS #1

First decision - what to title the four essays I hope to complete, touching on my family history? I had the draft titled Family History #1. A bit dry that! I went to what has always been a fruitful source of inspiration The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, as translated into English by Edward FitzGerald. The last quatrain:

And when Thyself with shining foot shall pass
Among the guests star-scatter'd on the grass,
And in thy joyous errand reach the spot
Where I made one - turn down an empty glass!

My father's father, or poshly stated, my paternal grandfather - his name was Edward James Scott - was born in 1882 in Suffolk, in the south-east of England. Before getting into the family line that led to Grandad Scott, my Dad, then me, I sensed a mystery connected to the surname itself: Scott. I'll delve into that before getting to specifics, for thereby hangs a tale. Many stories start long before they begin.(I borrowed that good line from Terry Pratchett's Small Gods.)

SCOTT - the simplest and most obvious origin of the surname has to come via early wanderers from Scotland who, back in medieval times on settling in England, would have been given names such as Robert the Scot, or Robert Scotus, later becoming Robert Scot(t). There are other theories though. A book, History of the Scott Family by Henry Lee states:

"Historians claim that the name of Scotland itself was derived from the family name; in fact, claim that a family of primitive gypsies gave a name to the country in which it located instead of a country giving a surname to divers wanderers from its borders. In support of this theory Boethius, Vermundus, Cornelius and Scaliger claim that the name of Scott originated from Scota, the daughter of the Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea. The story told in support of this origin of the name follows : Gathelus, a son of Cecrops, King of Athens, being banished from that kingdom, fled to Egypt with a large band of followers. This was in the time of Moses and Pharaoh being engaged in war was glad to accept the aid of the followers of Gathelus, whom he made a general of the combined forces. The enemy nations were subdued and as a reward Pharaoh gave his daughter Scota in marriage to the victorious Gathelus. Later Gathelus and Scota, with a goodly following, escaping from the plagues in Egypt, fled to Spain, naming that portion of the country Port Gathale which is now known as Portugal. Here Gathelus gave to his followers the name of "Scottis" from the love he bore his wife Scota. After years of war with the natives of Spain these nomad "Scottis" once more set sail and landed in Ireland from whence they afterwards went over to the northern part of the adjacent island of Britain, naming the country Scotland or the land of the Scottis.

This theory of the origin of the name is treated by many historians as fabulous, but Geoffrey Keating, the Irish antiquary, claims that the followers of Gathelus and Scota landed in Ireland A. M. 2736 (B. C. 1303); and a number of ancient antiquaries and historians agree that the name of Scott is derived from the Egyptian Scota.

A tall tale indeed, but interesting - and who could ever prove it true or untrue now?

There are numerous Scotts to be found among the clans of Scotland and in English counties near to the Scottish border, with a rather sparser sprinkling of the name throughout England. Whether some Scottish wanderer back in the mists of time travelled as far south as Suffolk isn't known, but there has been a clutch of Scotts in the county for centuries.

A little more research threw up the first evidence of Scott surnames in the south of England generally, in Kent to be exact.

The book mentioned earlier tells that

Sir William Scott, the founder of Scots Hall and the Scott family of Kent, was the son of John Scott, seneschal of the manor of Brabourne, Kent. Sir William was a Justice of the Common Pleas, appointed 1336, and knighted on the day Edward the Black Prince was created Duke of Cornwall. He died in 1350. The tradition is that Sir William was descended from a younger brother of John de Baliol, King of Scotland and of Alexander de Baliol, Lord of Chilham, Kent. Family records show that in 1402, Peter de Coumbe made a settlement of the Manor of Coumbe in Brabourne, on William Scott who died in 1434. He is credited with the building of the Hall, afterwards known as Scots Hall, and had two sons, John and William. The latter, Lord of the Manor of Woolstan and founded of the family of Scott of Chigwell, died in 1491. The elder, Sir John, Sheriff of Kent in 1460, was knighted and made Comptroller of the Household by Edward IV in 1461. He was also Lieutenant of Dover Castle, Warden of the Cinque Ports and Marshal of Calais. He died on 17th October 1489.

Now I come from a long line of oppressed and downtrodden, nameless and faceless English peasants, "ag labs" (agricultural labourers) and domestic servants. I have no pretensions to grandeur whatsoever, in fact my socialist blood would boil at the very idea! However, the Scott strain found in Suffolk is said to be an offshoot of the Kentish Scotts of Scots Hall. One of the earliest references, in Suffolk Probate Records, is of an Adam Skott de Bradfield who, in 1474/5 left his estate to George Scott and Benedict Freg. Several Scotts were living around Rattlesden and Bradfield area of Suffolk in the 1400s to 1600s - a location not a long distance from where my Scotts would have been labouring in the fields some decades later. One family of Suffolk Scotts, including Thomas, Elizabeth and their children, along with Thomas's mother Martha, widow of Henry Scott of Rattlesden, hightailed it to New England in the vessel "Elizabeth" of Ipswich, Suffolk on the last day of April 1634. One son, Roger Scott remained in Rattlesden until his death. The Scott adventurers settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, later moved to Ipswich, named after its original in Suffolk, England. Thomas Scott was town officer in the US version of Ipswich, in 1653. I noticed that a wife of one of the Scotts who emigrated to the US was executed as a witch after trial in Salem.

There are several Scott lines in Norfolk (the county adjoining Suffolk to the North). I've read that Scottish prisoners from the English Civil War's Battle of Dunbar in the mid-17th century were sent to Norfolk as labourers on the drainage of the fens. There would have been a few Scotts among them for sure, or if not, and if they survived their ordeal as prisoners and were later released or escaped, they'd soon have become known as, for instance, James the Scot, then later James Scott.

Onward to the nitty gritty:

My Dad didn't know much about his father's background, only that "he had walked up to Yorkshire from Suffolk when he was quite young". That'd be no "walk in the park" - it's 220 miles via today's roads. An uncle and a cousin I once approached for further information on Grandad Scott had no more clear information; my Uncle thought Grandad had come from Essex, my cousin thought Birmingham. This was the first mystery I tackled trying to construct our family tree. It turned out that there was probably some truth in all three ideas.

Grandad Scott was born in Suffolk, on 9 March 1882. I have it documented by his birth certificate, and in several other places in online census returns. It was in a small village called Stoke-by-Nayland. That area of England is known for its pastoral beauty.

The Cornfield by John Constable. Click on image for a bigger view. (For US viewers - corn in Britain = wheat, not sweetcorn as in USA)



Many of the paintings by John Constable, like the one above, feature lovely landscapes not a stone's throw from the village where Grandad was born. He did paint one featuring the very village, Stoke-by-Nayland, but online version doesn't translate well to computer screen.

The beauty, for Grandad and his mother, Mary Ann Scott, born about 1857, must have ended abruptly though. Mary Scott, my great-grandmother, bore her son out of wedlock. In census returns for 1861, 1871 and 1881 she is found living with her parents William and Lucy Scott, and her siblings, in Stoke-by-Nayland or neighbouring villages. By 1881 Mary was acting as housekeeper to her then widowed father. By the 1891 census, though, Mary, aged 33, son Edward, then aged 9, and a daughter Alice aged 5, are listed as inmates in the Stanway Workhouse, just over the southern Suffolk border in Essex. She is noted as "unmarried" he as "scholar". What happened between 1881 and 1891 and the name(s) of the father(s) of her children will forever remain a mystery. I thought it was strange for her to be admitted to a workhouse outside of her birth county, but research indicates, with some confusion, that it's likely that Stanway Workhouse (see below) just over the Essex/Suffolk border was an available venue for paupers from certain parishes in Suffolk, possibly due to extent of Poor Law Unions' borders, or other legalities.

Life in workhouses in the 19th century would have been grim, even grimmer, I suspect, after the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed in 1834. Emphasis in earlier times was more towards the relief of destitution rather than deterrence of idleness which characterized many of the institutions set up under the Act. Archived records of admissions to Stanway Workhouse were destroyed, so any hope of my being able to find out exactly when Mary and Edward were admitted are gone. Census states that Alice was born in Stanway; Edward wasn't born there, that's the only clue I have. Perhaps Mary and Edward had remained living with her father, William, for several years, then Mary became pregnant again and her father threw her out. Or maybe that happened immediately on the birth of Edward. I'll never know. A Minute Book of the Workhouse Guardians is stored in the Essex Records Office, searching through it may or may not throw up some snippet of information, but I'm not convinced it would be worth the expense of paying a professional to do the research.

I've wondered whether the name Edward might be a clue to my Grandad's father. There's no other Edward in this Scott line that I know of and babies, back then, seem to have been named in accordance with a kind of family name cycle. Grandad's middle name, James, matches that of Mary's grandfather, for instance. I looked around the census return for any Edwards living near Mary and her father in 1881, spotted a couple in a likely age group, but reading something into that would be mere speculation.

Mary was still listed at Stanway Workhouse in the 1901 census, with a daughter Lily aged 4. I haven't yet found trace of Mary, Lily, or Alice in 1911; perhaps in the intervening 10 years all three had died, or Mary had died, and Alice and Lily had left to seek work and/or married.

More on workhouse life at this link.

Grandad would have left Stanway Workhouse to try to find employment at a fairly young age - around 12 or 14. Exactly when he set out on his walk northward, or how long it took, I don't know. He could well have made many stops, taking work along the way. In the census for 1901, aged 20, he had arrived in an East Yorkshire village, Londesborough, is listed as "boarder" and shepherd at Londesborough Wold Farm. In 1904 he married my grandmother Mary, and by the 1911 census they were living in Driffield, an East Yorkshire market town, at Wold House Cottages. Grandad was still a shepherd, with 4 children, my father being the youngest at that time, aged 1 year. There would be 6 more children to come. Grandad would serve in World War 1, come home with a leg injury, and later obtain work as postman, a job he did until retirement. I found a record of his appointment on 17 September 1920 in the British Postal Service Appointment Books - records are now online.

My own memories of Grandad Scott begin in the early 1950s after he had retired from work. We used to go together to the cinema quite often, both enjoyed that a lot. He lived just around the corner from us in those days, used to like to visit the local auction saleroom and bring my parents boxes of bargain treasures he'd found there. I remember finding all kinds of interesting books and bits and pieces among those bargains. He was a keen gardener, often brought us baskets filled with his home-grown veggies. He had some other amazing skills too, he could repair clocks, made a hobby of it in fact. Also, my father told me, when all the kids were young Grandad would sit at a sewing machine making or re-making clothes for them all - 10 of 'em - so it was no mean task!

There's little more to tell via hard facts, other than that Mary's father, William Scott, born about 1821 was a son of James Scott and his wife Ann (formerly Lee). William was born in Ashbocking, Suffolk and appears to have moved to live near Stoke-by-Nayland, probably for work reasons; there he met his wife Lucy (formerly Lucy Shepherd). So far I can find background family links for neither Lucy nor Ann my 2nd and 3rd great-grandmothers. William and James were agricultural labourers, working on some of the many farms and estates of the landed gentry and aristocracy in Suffolk. James, born about 1791, was a son of John Scott, about whom little is yet discovered, probably born around 1768/70. John, who, in genealogical terms is my 4th Great-grandfather, was possibly farming as a tenant, a step up from labourer, though the work would have been much the same. I found a Land Tax Redemption record for a Jno Scott which indicates he was a tenant of land of the Earl of Ashburnham and C. Boone in 1798 in Ashbocking, and owed 15 pounds 16 pence in land tax. Whether Jno Scott and my John Scott are one and the same isn't 100% certain, but if they are it could be at around this point that my line of Scotts links to the early Suffolk Scotts. John would have to be a brother, cousin, cousin once removed, whatever, to a direct line of the Rattlesden Scott line (Roger being the only male of that brood left in England after the 1634 exodus to the USA.) From thence, a link to the Kentish Scotts and thence to the old, true Scottish Scott line.

On the other hand, for all I know my stragglers could be descended from some random band of travelling gypsies, or a Scottish prisoner deposited to work in Norfolk after the Battle of Dunbar, bearing the Scott name. I'd be very happy with that too! My Scotts could also have been labourers moved by some aristocratic landowner from an adjoining county to work on more far-flung areas of his lands, which would make further research difficult and results nebulous.

I've taken my Scott line, with a fair amount of certainty, back to the mid 1700s, but there the trail ends, unless other information surfaces.

Grandad died in December 1958. His eldest son, my father, died in April 1992, and my father's 9 siblings, as far as I know, have all now passed on too. Our version of the name Scott is carried on via four (I think) male cousins of mine.

#2 of this series of 4 posts will (in due course) be about Grandad Scott's wife, my paternal grandmother. I've been able to delve much further back into the mists of time in her case, mainly due to the work of other, distantly related, amateur genealogists.

For now, I toast members of my Scott line, known or unknown, and in their honour now turn down my empty glass.


For old Suffolk maps, hat tip to Foxearth.org