Anthony and Elizabeth WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite and Ormathwaite, 16th century
New page 19 October 2024
Links:
Immediate ancestor: Humphrey WILLIAMSON
Immediate descendant: John WILLIAMSON
The Williamson of Applethwaite story - WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite research notes
index of surnames
Anthony Williamson of Applethwaite is linked to his son John by the record of John's baptism in Crosthwaite in 1565. Strong confirmatory evidence is that there is a John of New Hall after 1600, when I believe John Williamson, the son of John of New Hall, was buried in Dacre. Since the terms of the will of John of New Hall provide, in the event that John junior died without heirs male, for it to pass to Anthony or his heirs male, then the John of New Hall in the 1600s must be son of this Anthony, who was brother to John of New Hall in the 1500s. (More discussion of that line of reasoning on the story page for this whole line.)
Anthony's father was Humphrey WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite (and later New Hall). Anthony is named in Humphrey's will as his son, along with various siblings including John who inherits New Hall and other Crosthwaite property.
I have not found the parentage of Elizabeth, Anthony's wife. However, the marriage register gives her surname as also WILLIAMSON so presumably that was their surname, and it's possible that they were related in some way to Anthony.
I don't have any records for Anthony or Elizabeth before their marriage in 1565. Working back from that and the baptisms of their children, I would estimate Elizabeth was born in the 1540s or maybe late 1530s, and Anthony also about then or before. Anthony's family is known to have been fairly well-off, and seems to have been from the hamlet of Applethwaite in Crosthwaite parish.
Anthony and Elizabeth are recorded as baptising eight children in Crosthwaite parish:
John 1565
Janet 1567
Ellen 1570
Gawine 1572
James 1574
Mary 1577
Anne 1580
Dorothy 1584
We can note that Anthony and Elizabeth are recorded as being of "Appil" (which I read as Applethwaite) at the baptism of their first child John, which came just six weeks after their marriage in 1565. So we can infer that they married in the knowledge of this impending arrival, and that they were still resident in Anthony's home hamlet of Applethwaite. By the baptism of their second child in 1567 they were resident at Ormathwaite where they stayed for the baptism of their remaining children, so I'm inclined to interpret that as their finding a satisfactory independent home when they got the chance.
Sadly it seems likely that some of the children died before reaching adulthood. Possibilities from the parish register include: Janet in 1570 (aged just about 3) or 1578 (about 10); James in 1588 (aged 13); Ann and Dorothy within days of each other in 1593/94, aged 13 and 9 respectively. None of them are identified by age or parentage - James and especially the two possible burials for Janet are therefore speculative but Ann and Dorothy seem quite likely to be these two as there are few others of similar names/addresses in the registers, and both close together does suggest disease or other calamity striking a family.
(There is also an infant burial record for Edward Williamson of Ormathwaite in 1570/71 - I don't have another obvious family that he goes with, but there isn't really a gap in the birth sequence for this family so I'm presuming for now that he doesn't belong here.)
Whichever children didn't die in childhood are likely to have grown up with their parents until they married or otherwise made lives for themselves - there's a section below on what became of them. Possibly some of the daughters married while still teenagers, so these would have been major events in the life of the family in the 1580s and 90s.
Also there's a baptismal entry in 1585 for Gawine son of John Williamson son of Anthony and Agnes Ritson, base gotten. I can't see another Anthony Williamson baptising a John in the parish in the right time frame, so this looks likely to be our John and Anthony here. If so, John would have been only 20 and evidently still sufficiently connected to his parents for Anthony to be named in the parish register. So I'm sure that if the identification is right then that would have been a major incident for this family, I guess quite scandalous. Sadly I don't have any further information on Agnes or little Gawine - RN to look for them under RITSON. John went on to marry and have children with someone else as mentioned below and on their own page.
A side note is that Anthony is described as 'junior' in the baptisms from 1565 to 1572, but not in any of those from 1574 onwards. I infer then that there was an older Anthony Williamson living in the same hamlet at least up to 1572, and (unless the practice of the clerk keeping the register changed) he probably died or moved around 1573. There are no marriages or baptisms mentioning Anthony senior so I don't have any information on him. I don't see a burial either, so maybe he moved to another address or died out of parish.
I don't yet know the dates of death for Anthony or Elizabeth. Elizabeth must have survived to at least 1584 to bear Dorothy, and Anthony 1583 to be her father. I also think that the mention of Anthony in the 1585 illegitimate baptism seems to hint that he is still living then. I haven't found a burial for either of them and I've been through the parish register up to about 1599 so far, so I will hope to find their burials in the 1600s (they'd have been at least about 50 by 1600). However I note that when New Hall comes to this family in 1600 it is John who moves in rather than Anthony, when Anthony would have become the legal owner if alive. So perhaps Anthony had died by then, or perhaps it was just that Anthony and Elizabeth as empty-nesters (see below) let their heir and growing family of grandchildren move into the house that became available.
John has his own page and based on the story there I'm ignoring several possible John Williamson burials in the 1500s.
As noted above, there are possible childhood burials for Janet, James and (more confidently) Ann and Dorothy.
There are also possible marriages of daughters in this family to local men:
Janet, in 1585 (aged 17) to Richard WILSON of Bassenthwaite. (If she remained unmarried there are more possible burials of Janet Williamson in 1597 (when she'd have been about 30) or 1599 (32).)
Ellen (under the name of Eleanor) in 1592 (aged 22) to Gawine BIRKETT of Portinscale. It's possible that Gawine was the widower of Ellen's aunt Isabel Birkett nee Williamson (they had married in 1580). RN look for any burial of Isabel BIRKHEAD or similar 1588-92, maybe someday investigate the Crosthwaite BIRKETTs generally.
Mary, in 1597 (aged 19) to Robert FISHER of Borrowdale in 1597.
If one of the Janet possiblities and all the others are right for this family, then that leaves just Gawine unaccounted for - I suppose he either moved out of the parish or remained single to at least 1600 (when he'd have been 28).
If you are interested in this family I'll be pleased to hear from you. Click this link to email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider.
Links:
Immediate ancestor: Humphrey WILLIAMSON
Immediate descendant: John WILLIAMSON
The Williamson of Applethwaite story - WILLIAMSON of Applethwaite research notes
index of surnames