click here for outline family
tree
HARESNAPE
A FAMILY HISTORY
ROBERT HARESNAPE and WILLIAM KENNETH WARHURST
The following pages contain extracts from the book “Haresnape A Family History” written and published in 1995 by Robert Haresnape and William Kenneth Warhurst. The authors have carried out further research since 1995, and have also been supplied with information from other persons, and they include the results here with additions and corrections as necessary. It is hoped that this will be an ongoing process.
UPDATED 6th June 2009. RECENT UPDATES IN RED TEXT.
The original book has a copyright and this copyright applies to the extracts.
Main U.K.
research: William Kenneth Warhurst
Additional
U.K. research: Stephen William Haresnape, Dr. John Norman Haresnape, and Robert Haresnape
New Zealand
research: William Raymond McDonald Haresnape
Hairsnape
research: Peter Hairsnape, Simon Hairsnape
Acknowledgements:
Thanks are
given to all others who have provided information for this book including Mrs. Dorothy
Disclaimer
The dates and
descriptions connected with individuals given in this web site should not be regarded as
totally accurate. While a great amount of effort has been expended in researching and
recording the information, care should be exercised in relying on the data. If in doubt,
the original records should always be consulted.
INTRODUCTION
A number of
individuals have, in the past made efforts to research the Haresnape family history. These
may have consisted of a trace along their own particular lineage. The results of their
work may have been lost or perhaps stored on pieces of paper but never compiled into a
work that could have been of benefit to the Haresnapes in general.
This account
aims to present all that is known about the family history to date and will provide a
basis for future research. It is hoped that the contents will survive the passing years
and may be read by Haresnapes yet to be born. TO PROTECT PRIVACY OF INDIVIDUALS AND TO
COMPLY WITH DATA PROTECTION REGULATIONS WE ARE LIMITING THE INFORMATION HERE TO EXCLUDE
DETAILED INFORMATION ON PERSONS BORN POST 1907.
There are
limitations to the extent of the data, the contents largely relying on information given
by relatives and also by the fact that originally a time limit of one year was applied to
the preparation of the book. We have also imposed the limitation that the research would
be restricted to the male Haresnape lineage only. We are aware of the fact that if we
regress through 10 generations to say William Haresnape and Alice Chatburn who were
married in 1688, there are in theory some 1022 other persons in that generation who do not
bear the Haresnape name (no doubt some of them noteworthy people) from whom each of the
tenth generation is equally descended. We have little idea who these ancestors were.
Similarly the same William and Alice are direct ancestors (through the male and female
lines) of perhaps some 10,000 living individuals.
As we enter
the new millennium it is a time for looking forward. But we should also remember our past
and our origins. At the very least our surname is a useful tool in helping us to do so.
Robert
Haresnape and William Kenneth Warhurst
May
1995, with additions 2001 onwards.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
In England,
surnames began to appear in the 12th century and were used as a means of improving
identification. There were a variety of systems. A person may have been named after his
trade, and today for example we have Tom Baker, John Carpenter, Margaret Thatcher. These
trades were clearly in existence at that time (there are no Astronaut surnames about!).
Sometimes colors were used e.g. Karen Black, Gordon Brown, Graham Greene. Looking for
inspiration our ancestors took animal's names e.g. Christopher Wren, Michael J. Fox,
Michael Fish. Father's Christian names were employed giving us Emma Thompson, Richard
Nixon, Richard Wilson. Place names were often used and the names Susannah York, Abraham
Lincoln and Judith Durham spring to mind. Of course these towns would have had to exist in
the 12th century. The localities may have been quite small and very small landmarks
sometimes feature e.g. Graham Hill, Rupert Brooke, and Winston Churchill. As about 50% of
Lancashire surnames were named after places, it is thought that our surname may well fit
into this last category.
The spelling
of words has changed over the centuries and is continuing today. This change applies to
surnames as much as to other English words. However, this poses few problems for
identifying many of the above surnames, even though the spelling has changed. With a name
like ours, however it is more difficult. Each of us must have plenty of experience in
trying to get others to understand our name and often we have to carefully spell Haresnape
out. Can you imagine trying to do that in the 16th century when you possibly couldn't
spell anyway? The clergyman at a ceremony would have to use his own interpretation of what
he heard, and bearing in mind the variations in accents, we may have been given a good
variety of appendages. This may also have inadvertently produced new surnames; for example
Hasnip which exists today could be a corruption of our name. There are many possible
variations of the surname, and examples include Hasnip, Harsnip, Asnip, Harslop, Hyrasnip,
Haysnepp, Hearsnep. All of these could have a common root back in medieval times. There is
no true spelling of Haresnape.
If we
examine the earliest parish records in Lancashire from 1540 onwards and ignore the branch
of the family that headed to the north of the county and then on to Westmoreland, we find
that about 95% of the names from 1540 to 1830 began with the Har sound rather than the
Hare or Hair sound. This suggests that the original sound of the name was of the Har form.
Again looking at the second syllable, Snep or Snap was more common than the sound Snape or
Snaip. There is today a natural tendency to associate Haresnape with the more common
surnames Hare and Snape. There is no possibility of a Mr. Hare marrying a Miss Snape and
combining the two, as this practice (using hyphening) only became popular in the 19th
century.
The word
Snape itself is an old term once used in the north of England for an inferior pasture, or
a winter pasture and is probably derived from the old Norse word "snap" for
scanty grass, or poor grazing. This explanation is fairly well founded. However the
syllable "Har" used in some place names is open to some doubt. It may well be
from "hara", Old English for the animal hare, or is perhaps "har"
again OE meaning old, gray or hoary the syllable being used as an adjective to describe an
object that was naturally gray. An example of the use of the latter is in Hoarstone which
is a gray lichen covered stone, these stones apparently being used as simple boundary
markers. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Place Names states that it is unlikely that
"har" itself meant a boundary. It also seems unlikely that a pasture could be
described as gray, so we must examine other possibilities. The dictionary also says that
another version to consider is the word "Haer", again old English. This word is
related to a Swedish word "har" for stony ground, a Low German "har"
for ridge or height and a usage in Ireland for a stone cairn. Although the exact meaning
of the old English version is unknown it may be for stone or stony ground.
Taking
"Haer" or "Har" with "Snape" the name may
describe either:
1. A poor
old pasture
2. A poor
pasture where hares live
3. A poor
stony pasture
Take your
pick!
Looking
again at the Lancashire parishes, we find that the Har version of our name continued in
use in the south of the county (spreading east and being recorded in many towns as far as
Manchester) up to about 1830.
After that
date the version seems to have disappeared, along with those branches of the family
(although continuing along female lines). However, we are almost certainly descended from
the ancestor who left and moved north to Cockerham in about 1610. This person used the
Hare sound for his surname and this Cockerham version grew more dominant as the years
progressed. The snape sound in the name became progressively more used and by about 1820
the spellings had firmed down to the two versions that we see today, i.e. Haresnape and
Hairsnape. This date probably coincides with the general improvement in standards of
education.
The two
different sounding forms of the surname i.e. "har" and "hare or hair"
can themselves be useful in identifying to which branch of the family a particular person
belonged
To elaborate further, I propose that all the many variants of the surname come from one unique family (or a few!). The earliest parish records from 1540 or so show just two families groupings, one at Aughton and one at Croston in South West Lancashire. These villages are about 10 miles apart. It is obvious that the surname was created some years before then (say 200 years or so). The place of the origin of the name has not been identified. Owing to the time lapse, the surname in 1540 cannot be regarded as in the initial form. However, (with some exceptions) the form over the years is consistant in containing the letters H S N and P. The vowels used were generally A or E. Also there was often an R in the sequence. We may take HA**SN*P* as a general form or framework of the surname.
As explained many times, our ancestors were in general illiterate, ie they could not read or write. This was common until the mid 19th century. The surname was guessed at by the local clergyman, whenever the family had a marriage, death or christening. This would not have been too much of a problem if the family stayed in one place eg Aughton. The continuence of having services at one church would have created some stability in the spelling of the surname. There would have been some variation with the coming and going of clergymen, but it would have been easier to track through family records.
However, people being people, the young men left home to seek pastures new. Some got married elsewhere. They couldn`t spell their name, so new varieties of the name were created by the local clergyman. The further the HA*SN*P* s travelled, the more numerous the variations became. What is important though, is that gradually people became more literate and would be able to spell their name. The form that was eventually taken would depend upon the accepted version at that location at that time. The date of this may have depended on matters such as the educational background or even the people the family mixed with. Thus, the Haresnape form was more or less established by 1650, at Cocherham, with a Hairsnape side-line developing from this at Lancaster/Blackburn in 1800. The version Hearsnep did not "settle down" until about 1800. There appear to have been other lines leading off the surname mixture eg Harsnip appearing in the county of Lincolnshire in 1685 about 150 miles away from the Aughton area . This created a lineage of Harsnips.
Footnotes
1. Place names in Denmark
have the spelling Horsnab and Horsnaes.
2. Recently noted is another village in Denmark(on the island of Fynan/Fyn at 55N.10E) with the name of Hersnap. This is quite similar to the early forms of the surname. On the island there is a unique Viking Longboat burial site. Is it possible that the Danish Vikings brought the name over with them when they settled in the Danelaw area of South West Lancashire, or is this again a coincidence?
FAMILY ORIGINS
It is
possible only to trace the origin of the family back to the first use of the surname. As
mentioned previously, the name seems to have been taken from a place viz. a pasture. This
pasture could have been anywhere but we find in today's maps that there are places in
England that have names associated with the OE for poor pasture i.e. Snape. There is a
Snape town in Suffolk, and a Snape village in North Yorkshire. Similarly there is a
Blacksnape near Darwen in Lancashire and also a Fairsnape Fell near Garstang, also in that
county. Incidentally, the Snape village in Yorkshire does contain several families with
the surname Hare, but this is probably a coincidence and we have no evidence to support
the theory that the family originated in that village.
More
significantly, less than 10 miles from both Croston and Aughton in Lancashire there is a
very small place with the name Snape Green. Ken Warhurst visited this spot in 1994 and was
rather surprised to find that opposite the road sign for Snape Green was a similar sign
for Hare Lane. It would seem rather a coincidence for these places to be so close to each
other, and to the parishes of Croston and Aughton (where the earliest examples of our
surname appear) for there not to be a connection with the family's origins. Snape Green is
not listed in the 1086 Doomsday Book, but apparently very minor localities were not listed
individually. Its earliest known reference concerns a right of way in 1577, and given the
lack of development in those years, it would seem plausible that Snape Green existed when
our surname was first used.
At present therefore, although we do not have definite proof, it seems that in the 12th or 13th century at this place in South West Lancashire, an ancestor of ours lived there and took his name from a poor pasture which was either old or stony in nature or perhaps where hares were seen.
The Research
In England
and Wales, the General Register Office in London holds the Indexes for births marriages
and deaths of individuals since 1837. The
indexes are arranged in alphabetical order and copies are now available in many public
libraries on microfiche. The early years provide limited information e.g. births in the
1850s do not give the parents' Christian names and a John Brown born in say 1860 in
Lancaster with no parental details would be difficult to place on a family tree. Similarly
before about 1915 the marriage indexes do not contain data on the wife's surname at
marriage, making identification of a couple somewhat tedious. It is possible to find the
missing information but it can be time consuming and costly. The modern indexes are more
informative e.g. from 1916 the birth indexes give mother's maiden names and generally the
details make for easier identification of individuals. All of these indexes are a summary
of a particular event and if further information is desirable e.g. exact place (house) of
a birth or death or the cause of the latter, or perhaps who was a witness at a marriage,
it is necessary to apply for the appropriate certificate from the Registrar concerned. The
cost of each of these being over 5 pounds it is obviously not economic to obtain these for
all the Haresnapes concerned.
Censa have
been carried out in this country since 1801 (1790 in the USA), and are very useful once an
area has been identified. A census gives the details of the head of the household
including his employment, and lists the persons who reside in that house at that time,
including their ages. These facts can be valuable for building up a picture of a family,
confirming birthdates and other children etc. and possible connections with other family
branches. As expected the early censa contain less detail than the more recent ones. The latest
census released for public viewing was for 1901 and so restricts our knowledge of recent
households. If a home has been identified by name or street number we may find that the
property exists today and we may visit or photograph the home of our ancestors.
If the
property cannot be identified or is just a ruin, an old tithe map may be of help to locate
the position of the original building where our ancestors lived. Tithe maps were produced
around 1840.
Prior to
1837 it is necessary to turn to Parish Records. Copies of these are held in some main
branch libraries, but often a visit to the Public Record Office in London or a County
Record Office is required. There is an index of parish records which have been compiled by
the Church of the Latter Day Saints and again these (the International Genealogical
Indexes) are viewable on microfiche in libraries. Unfortunately the index is incomplete
and does not include listings of burials. However even its present form the index is a
valuable aid in providing an instant identification of the source counties and it will
also give the name of parishes where a more detailed research can be pursued.
The Parish
records commenced in 1540 by an act of Parliament under the order of King Henry the
Eighth. This followed the King's break with Rome and his establishment as head of the new
Anglican Church. Early records were haphazard, some illegible, some missing or destroyed
and much depended upon the diligence of the church official. Baptisms do not appear to
have been regularly recorded before about 1580. It was a command of Queen Elizabeth the
First that put further pressure upon the clergy to improve records. The religious
structure of the country was based upon a "middle road" Protestant faith and it
is unknown exactly what effect this would have had upon the baptisms, marriages and
burials of the families that had kept to the old Catholic tradition, or indeed those that
followed a more extreme puritanical faith. The drastic events of the English Civil Wars in
the 1640s and the plagues may have also put a strain upon the adequate recording of
ceremonies. In the case of the Haresnapes, by careful examination of records, there is now
some confidence that from about 1600 there is an identified unbroken line of ancestry down
to modern times.
The
examination of wills can be rewarding, the contents providing knowledge that is difficult
to otherwise obtain. A will of say 1750 giving bequests of 10 cows or a plough would
indicate that the deceased was a farmer. This data would perhaps not have been available
elsewhere.
Prior to
1540, Parish Records were apparently not kept and it is largely a matter of luck to come
across any reference to an ancestor. Wills again may be a source of information or
sometimes Manorial Records may be of value. However not everyone drew up a will and land
ownership was only for the richer members of society. Therefore unless a family was of a
higher status we are unlikely to find an ancestor prior to 1540, and even if we do it
would be very difficult to link through to the later lineages.
Various
other sources can be tapped for information, e.g. military and university records and
other listings but these are not detailed here. It is hoped that the above will give an
appreciation of the research methods used and how much time can be spent in gathering
data.
The research
back along the male lineage follows the normal European traditions of genealogy and the
usual passing of title and surname down through male heirs. There is no reason other than
the increased difficulty for not using a female lineage for research. At the very least we
are fortunate in having Haresnape as a surname to use as a valuable tool in accessing our
past.
In the
future, given the quantity of information that is now stored, and its rapid means of
retrieval, we may perhaps in the comfort of our own homes call up a display on our
television screens which will give an instant listing of all our fifth cousins, or perhaps
we may find quickly how exactly we are related to the President of the United States.
Footnote: In
the five years or so since this was written (1995), the use of the internet for family
history research has increased, and the number of individuals actively conducting such
research will provide even more information than currently available. The use of this web
site will assist in the gathering and recording of data.
January 2001
BRIEF FAMILY HISTORY
1400-1500
In 1403 in the reign of Henry the Fourth, the Island of Mann was given to John Stanley for life, and the Stanleys ruled as Kings of Mann for 350 years. John Stanley's grandson later became Earl of Derby, and this title still exists today, the seat being situated at Knowsley near Liverpool. John Stanley's son appointed local Lancashire men as various officers, and in 1417 under the first Governor, Michael Blundell, he appointed two commissioners one of these having the name of Roger de Haysnap. See
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/manx/manxsoc/msvol04/v3p010.htm. These commissioners were responsible for looking after affairs on the island. It is clear that this would have been quite an important duty at that time. We cannot be certain but from that spelling, Roger was our earliest known ancestor. Also in 1423 on the Isle of Man, a soldier Thomas of Hasnap was tried for not having a saddle. See
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/manx/jmmuseum/d235.htm. Both of these instances support the case for our surname having originated from a place name. The place may have still been in existence in 1423 but no proof as yet.
In 1492 a Thomas Harsnape was recorded as the Rector at Binfield in Berkshire.
1500-1600
The first Parish record of our family was on the 24th August in 1542 when Ellen Haresnape married Henry Heskin at Croston in Lancashire. This was closely followed by the marriage of Robert Harsnep to Margaret Tarleton at Croston on 26 August 1542, and the marriage of John Haresnape to Anne Crosse on the 19th November 1548 at Aughton (which is about ten miles south west of Croston). See sketch map of area.
The family seemed to have been fairly static in the 16th century, living in two groups around these small towns. The majority of the population was involved in agriculture (even if this meant being farm labourers or perhaps using a strip of land themselves under the ancient open field system). It is unknown how our ancestors lived at that time but it may be assumed some of the family was similarly involved. This work was probably supplemented with some other occupation during the winter. It was common in northern country areas for weaving of wool to be carried out in rural homes and farmhouses. The weaving was traditionally carried out by the man of the house, the raw wool being spun by the women. In addition to farming there were of course other manual trades e.g. carpenter, thatcher, butcher, baker, wheelwright, miller etc. (in fact many of the occupations that had produced numerous English surnames!).
For the fortunate few, the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge had for centuries provided education for the learned professions, but for the majority of the population education was non existent and most people were illiterate (although no doubt as intelligent as ourselves).
The profit to be made from wool began to change the nature of farming, and the strip system gradually disappeared to allow better grazing, large areas of land becoming enclosed. To avoid too great a loss of land for food production, Henry the Eighth enacted a law in 1534 to limit the size of enclosures and in 1563 Acts were passed by Elizabeth's parliament to try to increase the amount of arable land available. The years 1595 to 1598 saw a succession of poor harvests and a series of localised famines. To alleviate the suffering caused by this and the after affects of the war with Spain, the first Poor Laws were introduced. These placed the responsibility for care of the poor firmly at the door of the parishes. Overseers were appointed in the parishes, and each parishioner had to donate a proportion of his income into the fund for the parish poor. To enable some control of the system, the Law of Settlement of 1601 was enacted to ensure that vagrants did not travel from parish to parish, seeking money from each. At birth, people were allocated to that parish, and if in later years fell on hard times, could be forced to go back to their place of birth (clearly an early form of repatriation!) These 1597 Poor Laws were to form the starting point for subsequent Acts over several hundred years.
Our ancestors in the 16th century in this area of Lancashire most likely lived in wooden framed homes of Cruck construction, the roofs of thatching and the walls of trellis and mud (wattle and daub). Living, cooking and sleeping areas may have been in one room. The room quite possibly had no modern chimney, a central fire venting out through a hole in the roof. The homes may have been self built by the owners with local materials and the wooden frames of the house simply lashed together. If our ancestors were prosperous, they could have paid craftsmen to construct their homes using long lasting English oak and good joints. There are surviving examples of this type of house in various parts of Britain (e.g. Shakespeare's home at Stratford).
Although the majority of those homes may no longer exist, more robust structures of those times remain to be seen today. This is true for many of the churches where our ancestors were christened or married, including the parish churches of Croston and Aughton.
Croston takes its name from a local stone cross and lies on the river Yarrow. Its 15th century church is still there, (see photo) as are the almshouses built in 1692 by the Croston family. Aughton has a church mainly constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries, although the spire is from the 1300s. We can perhaps look at the old fonts in these churches and imagine how many Haresnapes were baptised there over the years.
In the final years of the 16th century,a Robert Haresnepe left Croston or Aughton to be married to Jane Battersby at Stalmine just to the north.
1600-1700
In about
1613, George Haresnape 1590 who was born in Stalmine and may have been the son of Robert
1568 arrived in Thurnham with his wife Jennet. He seems to have been the first tenant of
Haresnape's Farm and presumably gave it the name that exists today. n.b. the number shown
following each Christian name is the date of birth for that person.
Superstition
is common in any period of history and these years proved no exception. Disasters, plagues
and misfortunes were often believed to be the result of evil forces rather than natural
occurrences. Cottagers may have nailed horseshoes and suchlike over the entrances to their
homes to ward away bad luck. Some individuals were singled out as witches who could be
blamed for current misfortune. These people could be legally tried and punished for their
supposed crimes. At nearby Lancaster castle in 1612, in one infamous event, nineteen men
and women were convicted of witchcraft and ten of them were subsequently hanged on Gallows
Hill (Witches of Pendle).
Haresnape`s
farm in the 1600s was one of several which belonged to the Dalton family who were Lords of
the Manor and lived at Thurnham Hall about half a mile from Haresnape`s farm, the Hall
having been built in 1556. The Daltons had originated at Dalton, situated fairly close to
Croston. There is some evidence that the Haresnapes were leaseholders on the Dalton estate
here and moved north from Bispham to Cockerham when the Daltons sold the Croston estate
and purchased the Thurnham estate (this was in 1556).
The farm
buildings, like many of the cottages in the area were constructed using stone blocks from
the abandoned monastery at Cockersand on the coast. The abbey had once belonged to the
Order of Premonstarianism (White Canons) but had suffered dissolution in 1536 - 1539 under
the changes wrought by Henry the Eighth. The land on which the farm lies may have been
monastery property at one time. The farmhouse itself was of single storey with a thatched
roof.
In those
years, Thurnham had no church of its own but services were held at the parish church at
nearby Cockerham. Plague certainly came to the area for one of the vicars is recorded as
burying 11 members of the same family before he himself succumbed. In 1631 at Preston some
15 miles to the south, 1070 of the population (about a third) died from an epidemic. This
illustrates that plague was a regular visitation to the population and not confined
to the infamous great outbreak of 1665 in London.
The Daltons, as did many of the upper class families, retained their Catholic faith following the Reformation and built priest holes (hiding places) into the walls of their home. For a century the Daltons were buried in the grounds of the old monastery (in the 13th century chapter house) and we can imagine the funeral processions trundling down the lane and past the farm, where our ancestors would have stood in respect. Further to this it has been observed that the Haresnapes at the farm at the end of the 16th century were Catholics too, being listed as “convicted recusants”. It is possible that their Catholic faith had survived continuously from before the Reformation, and was to continue into the next century (at least 150 years). The close association with the Daltons and later with the Gillows seems to confirm this. This Catholic tradition was not applicable to all the Haresnapes during these years, as can be seen from the fact that in 1674 a Roger Harsnep was incarcerated in Lancaster gaol for about 15 months for not paying his tithes (taxes to the Anglican church). He was also to be fined eight shillings in 1679 for attending a meeting at the house of Richard Cubban in Bickerstaff. Roger lived in the Aughton area and seems to have been an early Quaker.
The whole
area is low-lying and at one time was regularly flooded by the sea. Although the area is
now dyked and drained, the land in the 1600s may not have been suitable for crops and the
farm used as a source of moss fuel. However there is evidence that the Haresnapes had
shearing rights, and therefore sheep were probably kept on the land.
In 1641, the
first raw cotton to arrive in Lancashire from America was unloaded from a sailing ship at
Sunderland Point. This should have been visible from the farm, but it would have been
impossible for the Haresnapes (John 1614 and his wife Ales) to have known what a
tremendous change this heralded for the lives of the people of Lancashire, and indeed the
future Haresnapes.
1642-52
encompassed the years of the English Civil Wars. Again, we do not know how this affected
our ancestors, but perhaps everyone in the country was somehow touched by this dramatic
period. Certainly the Daltons played their part and were Royalists supporting King
Charles. Thomas Dalton was killed in the Battle of Newbury (Berkshire) in 1643. It has
been said by historians that tenants would have followed the allegiances of their
landlords, so we might speculate that the Haresnapes were Royalists too (even if passive
ones). Civil War action in the area included the current Lord Derby (Royalist) trying to
siege the castle walls at Lancaster, some five miles to the north, in 1643. He failed in
his attempt and perhaps in frustration his army set fire to the thatched roofs of the town
and these burnt fiercely. It took several years for the town to recover. Eight years later
Derby was to be publicly beheaded at Bolton. In 1648, there was a major battle at the town
of Preston, which had changed hands several times in the war. Oliver Cromwell and his
battle - seasoned army put to route a far larger group of untrained Scots under the
command of the Duke of Hamilton. There is a tradition at Cockerham that at this time
Cromwell and his army crossed a stile here on their way to remove a band of Royalists from
the church at Cockerham. (I wonder if any of these were Haresnapes). The stile is still
referred to as Oliver`s stile.
Following
the defeat of King Charles, the English Commonwealth Period lasted from 1649 to 1660. We
need not go into this period in detail but although civil registration did apply during
these years, it somehow produced either a lack of church records or the loss of many of
them. Because of this many family lineages are broken at this point.
Whatever our
ancestors` allegiances were during these years, they had to continue with everyday life.
There appear to have been at least three generations of Haresnapes running the farm until
the early 1700s. As well as the farm tenants, other Haresnapes would have lived in the
general area, until the name died out there (probably by early 1800s). However by that
time, some Haresnape males had moved on and married, the name thus being established in
other locations. This would appear to be the general pattern with an unusual name, being
recorded in an area for a period (perhaps several hundred years) before disappearing as
the males gradually disperse for various reasons.
Footnotes
1. Thurnham
today is a collection of farms and cottages.
2. Haresnape`s farm building stayed much the same over the centuries, and a
photograph taken in the 1930s shows its single story and the thatched roof. (see http://www.ormandy.co.uk ). Although originally a
single story stone cottage, Haresnape`s farm was given a second story of brick in about 1938. It was finally demolished in 1993.
3. A lane
passing the farm today reaches the ruins of the abbey.
4. Cockerham church dates from the 14th century but only the tower is original, the remainder having been rebuilt in the 19th century. The church is reached by lanes through the fields and gives the impression of being somewhat separated from the village.
1700-1850
This period
saw great changes in Britain and both the Agrarian and the Industrial Revolutions
influenced the lives of the population.
The
development of improved farming techniques necessitated the change from the use of small
sections (or strips) of land to larger single areas which were better suited to the
application of the first farm machinery (even if horse drawn!). At the same time, the
enclosure of land by hedges and walls, which had been proceeding slowly for centuries
gathered pace and between 1751 and 1810 about 3000 enclosure acts were passed by
Parliament. Many of these were during the Napoleonic wars of 1803-15 when food prices were
high. The result of increasing the sizes of the farms and the introduction of mechanical
methods was to remove a source of livelihood from the population.
As the
Industrial Revolution progressed from around 1750, the means of earning a living changed.
Lancashire was as much altered by the industrialisation as any county, and the population
increased steadily over the years as the rural poor took up the chances to earn a wage in
the new factories. The Irish potato famine of 1845 also created a large immigration from
that country. However, not everyone found work and the Poor Laws continued to be applied
and altered. As a measure to assist the destitute, workhouses were introduced in each area
and these provided accommodation, food and work for the infirm, the elderly and the
orphans. At least two of our ancestors were resident in these establishments.
Transport
gradually improved. The Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 and the need for rapid movement of
troops and armament led to a realisation that British roads did not meet the requirements
of the day. The inventiveness of engineers such as Telford and McAdam improved matters,
resulting in better communications (e.g. by coach) across the country. However the
expansion of industry necessitated the transport of bulk quantities of materials and
products. The first way of achieving this was by the use of the canal system built in the
years 1750 – 1850, and this extended over several thousand miles. However from about
1830 the railway system developed at a great pace and was well established by 1850.
The
preaching of John Wesley throughout Britain from about 1740 –1790 led to the
establishment of the Methodist movement. Some Haresnapes were converted, and in later
years at least one became a lay minister.
The years
1700 - 1850 take us through Georgian Britain and into the first years of Queen Victoria's
reign. The quality of life of the population in the last 50 years of this period has been
well described by novelists such as Charles Dickens. Although no doubt exaggerated at
times, his books do give a detailed account of the years through which our ancestors
lived.
With this as
a background, we can continue with the history of our lineage.
The first
ancestor to leave Thurnham was John Haresnape born 1655. He was a grandson of George 1590
and Jennet. John 1655 married Mary Smith at Cockerham and after the birth of their sixth
child in 1693, they packed their belongings together and with the aid of perhaps an ox
cart travelled a few miles north over the dirt roads to make their home in or near the
ancient city of Lancaster. Here Mary gave birth to a further six children, each baptised
at the medieval church of St. Mary's, (see link) just
by the castle. Their descendants lived in the parish until at least 1750 and were there
when Bonnie Prince Charlie and his army lodged at the castle in 1745. He was on his way to
try to regain the throne for Scotland.
Unfortunately,
we know very little at present about these Lancaster Haresnapes and their male lineage
seems to have died out. However from about 1800, distant cousins of this lineage also
lived in Lancaster and perhaps the two branches were reunited.
John 1655
had several cousins including Robert born 1655 and his brother William born in 1660. Robert`s trade was as a house carpenter at Cockerham and his two of his sons followed that trade. They were all Catholics. As for William, we do not know his trade but the evidence suggests
that they were not poor. He married Alice Chatburn form Stoneyhurst in Lancashire. This
particular family was probably Catholic, and had associations with the local Dalton and
Gillow families. One son George 1701 was an apprentice and later a business partner with
Robert Gillow the founder of the furniture manufacturer. It
has also been suggested that George was somehow involved in slave
trading. The knowledge of wood-working may have later led to the
Haresnape`s involvement with bobbin-making, which lasted for up to 200
years.
The eighth child of William 1660 was Robert born 1705. He was
probably a great grandson of George 1590. Robert 1705 is in our direct lineage and he
married Anne Jackson at Cockerham in 1737. He and his wife and family left Thurnham in
1753 to settle on the coast at Bolton le Sands.
This family
must have "moved in the right social circles" for one of the daughters, Sarah
was married to Richard Gillow, a cabinetmaker of Clifton Hall, Forton. He seems to have
been the son of the Robert Gillow above. A son John Haresnape was married in 1772 at
Cockerham to Jane Whitehead of Forton Hall. Jane's family has a coat of arms and John
appears on the Whitehead Pedigree today. John would have been 32 years old then and thus
appears to have either stayed or returned to the Thurnham area.
Robert 1705
and his family remained at Bolton le Sands long enough to see daughter Elizabeth marry,
but then for some reason decided to move again inland and into the county of Westmoreland,
making their home at Heversham. Several of his children were married here. Robert finally
died here in 1784 aged about 79. This was in the same year that two of his grandsons
drowned in a boating accident. As he is reported to have died out in the snow, we may
wonder if perhaps he had continued in the family's farming tradition and was an elderly
shepherd looking for a lost sheep.
At this
point, the lineage may be considered to have split into two main groups and therefore it
is easier to look at these in turn.
a. Firstly,
Robert's eldest son William, born in 1738 at Thurnham probably left his parent's home in
Heversham in 1763 to marry in the Kendal area to a Jane Nicholson. Robert was a shoemaker,
and it is interesting that Kendal town is today well known for shoe manufacture. However,
he lived only to the age of 27 dying two years after his marriage at Crossthwaite in the
Lake District. William died before the birth of his second son.
However,
William and Jane had two sons and the first of these was Richard born in Kendal area in
1764, and from whom all Haresnapes today are descended. The younger son William born 1766
(obviously named after his deceased father) did marry but with apparently no issue.
Richard 1764
settled in Kendal town, marrying at the age of 17 to Isobella Wildman and they lived at
least part of the time in Wildman Street. There were seven children born to this union but
Isobella died at the age of 53. Richard who was perhaps an example of the changing
employment of those years was variously described as a farm labourer, weaver and bobbin
turner. He was thus the first of a long line of Haresnapes who made their living at the
bobbin making trade.
Over the
following four generations, this family line lived in Kendal or in the surrounding
countryside.
At the time
of the 1841 census, there were five small houses in Kendal (mainly grouped around Castle
Street/Ann Street) which were occupied by the Haresnapes. Another Haresnape (11 years of
age) was a resident in the local workhouse. The Kendal Haresnapes do not appear to be
prospering at about this time, as one of Richard 1764`s sons was receiving relief from the
parish in 1847.
In the
increasingly crowded towns of Britain, it is well known that sanitation was very poor and
before about 1830 few towns had underground sewers. Cholera epidemics became a problem but
it is hoped that our ancestors living in these smaller towns would not have been affected.
However our
ancestors also lived in the villages of Heversham, Witherslack, and Martindale around this
period. Most of the Haresnape men in Kendal and Westmoreland were involved in the making
of wooden bobbins for the textile trade. Initially they would have had their mills
adjacent to streams.
Our
ancestors in this period were contemporaries of the Lakeland Poets Wordworth, Southey and
Coleridge. It was the attractiveness of the area presented in their poems, and the
improved transport that lead to an increase in tourism, and the building of some fine
homes by the newly rich mill owners of Lancashire. It was perhaps the realisation of the
potential rewards that prompted several of the family men to invest in their own bobbin
making businesses. Somehow they managed to raise funds to achieve their aims. This would
have been towards the end of this period. As steam power was becoming more popular, the
locations for the bobbin manufacture could be sited away from the streams and perhaps
nearer the textile factories. This resulted in some of the family drifting away from
Kendal and into the neighbouring counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire.
b. Looking
back at Heversham and the eleven children of Robert 1705, the only other son known to have
produced a male lineage that has continued to the present day, was the eighth child Robert
born in 1752 at Thurnham. He married a Jane Audlam from Lancaster in 1777 at Heversham.
There were three children all born at Heversham. Of these, the youngest John born in 1783
was married to a Susannah in Lancaster area. John was employed as a twine spinner and the
couple had at least four children, the first three christened at Lancaster St. Mary's
(again reforming the Haresnape link with this parish). The youngest and fourth child was
Edward born 1824. He remained in the Lancaster area, marrying there in 1848 to Mary Ann
Young, daughter of a blacksmith. He spelt his name in the Hairsnape form and this version
has continued down to the present day with his descendants.
Footnotes
1. Two Haresnapes became Benedictine monks in the 18th century. They were not directly in the family line described above but are related to us. They seem to have originated in the Ormskirk area (i.e near to Aughton). They were Brother Benedict Haresnape who died in 1760, and his nephew Dom Thomas Placid Haresnape. Dom Placid was a more senior person in the Benedictine Order, and was effectively Abbot of Lamspring Abbey in Westphalia. He was never formally given the title, the abbey being dissolved in 1803 at about the time he took charge.
2. In 1714 there is a record of an inn situated at the western end of the churchyard in Sefton Village, Merseyside. It was known as Church Inn but also as Harsnop`s. It is likely that the family had some association with this property.
1850-2000
It is clear
that there is to be no attempt here to write the history of this period in a few
sentences. Suffice it to say that most of the life style to which we are now accustomed
has arisen from developments occurring in the last 150 years. The common man has made the
majority of this possible. The Haresnapes, as
any other family, have played their part in the making of today, whether they were
Lancashire weavers, the farmers of Kansas or soldiers in the battlefield. In the same
manner we are today making history for our descendants.
Britain in
1851 was at or near the height of its powers. It had great wealth from its manufacturing
and exports and had colonies world-wide. Lancashire and the cotton industry provided a
great deal of this prosperity, and the benefits were beginning to be returned to the
working man. Education was still haphazard, provided for by a mixture of church, employer
subsidised (and apprenticeship), private and state education. The education acts of 1870
were drawn up to try to obtain a common standard and to ensure national literacy.
National
holidays were beginning to appear in England, and in Lancashire the seaside towns of
Blackpool and Morecambe benefited greatly from the spare money in the pockets of the
factory workers. Leisure facilities improved. Professional football teams in England came
into fruition and internationally the Olympic Games were re-established towards the end of
the 19th century. Two men in the family equipped themselves well in the pursuit
of success in both of these areas.
However it
is well known there was a darker side to life in Victorian England, and many took
advantage of the opportunities being created in the new lands abroad. In the years 1850 -
1910 Haresnapes emigrated to America, New Zealand and South Africa, and have now
established permanency in those countries.
The means by
which we make our living today are vary varied and could not have been envisaged by our
ancestors in 1850, let alone those in 1550! The Haresnape family
lines with which we are dealing, were in 1850 generally involved in the manufacture of
wooden bobbins, a requisite to the blossoming cotton industry. The Haresnape girls or the
wives of the Haresnape men were often employed in the cotton factories as weavers. In the
later years of the 19th century owing to the growth in population and its centralisation
in the towns, building of new homes for the workforce proceeded apace and some of the
family lines became employed in the building trade as joiners, plumbers etc. Eventually,
as general education improved and employment diversified owing to new industry and
technology, Haresnapes became involved in many aspects of employment including all grades
of education, art, literature, science and technology, farming, information technology,
medicine and the health service, veterinary practice, banking, clerical work etc.
If we now
look at the situation in 1850, it would be very difficult for us and confusing to follow
here in narrative each individual lineage down to the present. The listings in the later
section have been drawn up to give a means of providing a route through, and will also
provide details of family lines that have "disappeared".
However,
following our own particular lineage we see that in 1850, William 1808 who was a grandson
of Richard 1764, left Kendal and went on to live in various towns in Lancashire pursuing
his bobbin making trade. His wife Mary died and he was remarried to Jane Nickal. William
retired and died in the town of Wigan. Of his sons, Thomas 1842 married but his first wife
Ellen died in childbirth. Thomas resettled in the town of Derby setting up his own bobbin
making business. He remarried and established a family branch there, which still exists.
One of Thomas 1842's sons, William 1867 eventually emigrated to South Africa and there are
a number of Haresnape descendants there today. William 1808 by his second marriage had a
son William Nickal, who as a joiner went to live in the city of Liverpool and thus gave
rise to a large Liverpool branch of the family.
Of William
1808's brothers, Richard 1812, Robert 1814 and Thomas 1820 were all by 1851 working as
bobbin makers at Catterall in Lancashire, Robert apparently being the owner of the
business. Cousin Thomas 1819 was also working for him. Perhaps affected by the cotton
famine resulting from the American Civil War, that work came to an end in the early 1860s,
and both Robert and Richard retired with their families to the town of Preston where they
both died. Family branches from these sons were to continue in both Preston and the nearby
cotton town of Blackburn, and there are descendants who still live in these areas.
Thomas 1820,
who as a soldier married a Scottish girl in Edinburgh in 1849, returned to Scotland in the
early 1860s with his wife and family but was to emigrate to the USA in 1868, finally
becoming a farmer in Kansas. Haresnapes still live there but Thomas's descendants are now
spread throughout many of the fifty States.
William 1808
had a number of cousins, and these included the brothers William 1815, Richard 1822 and
Robert 1826.
William 1815
and his brother Richard 1822 left Kendal town sometime after 1841 and after some years in
Westmoreland as bobbin makers, they and their families made their home at Hebblethwaite
Hall, a stone built country house in the pleasant countryside near Sedbergh, Yorkshire.
(Sedbergh is only about ten miles east of Kendal).
See www.farfield-house.co.uk/views.htm for photos of
the area.
See the link in Part2a
for the recollections of 90 year old Richard 1822, given to a newspaper in 1911.
Richard was
the owner of the bobbin manufacturing business that was set up and the trade was
eventually taken over by his sons. In 1901 the trade had come to an
end and the Hall was owned by two farming families. Haresnapes no longer live in Sedbergh
and the descendants of Richard are now spread throughout many parts of Britain.
William 1815
stayed for only a few years at Sedbergh and then emigrated to New Zealand in the 1860s.
There are now a number of Haresnapes living in the Auckland area of that country.
William 1815
and Richard 1822 had a younger brother Robert 1826. In 1841 as a fifteen-year-old he was
probably still living with his parents (not in Kendal). In 1853 he left the area of
Westmoreland and was married at Chesterfield in the county of Derby. This area, like
Lancashire also had its cotton manufacturing and Robert as a bobbin turner presumably
supplied the local mills. Some of Robert's descendants still live near Chesterfield, but a
branch of the family moved to Derby town and this lineage still exists. If we remember,
the cousin of William 1815 (William 1808) had a son Thomas 1842 and he had also
established a family line at Derby. Because of this, there are now two distant branches of
the Haresnapes living in the same town.
Finally,
there are the descendants of Edward Hairsnape and Mary Ann Young. Edward and his wife were
in Lancaster in 1850 but moved to Blackburn town shortly afterwards with their son Robert
Edward. Hairsnapes lived in Blackburn for many years in the late 1800s and presumably they
knew of the Haresnapes also living there. Grandchildren of Robert Edward now live in
various parts of Britain.
As we have said before, it has been impossible to go into any great detail of the family tree in this narrative. This has just been an attempt to pull all the family history together, but further information on individuals may be found in the Listing section forming the major part of this booklet.
Lancashire Cotton
The first
raw cotton from America came to Lancashire in 1641. At first, it was hand spun and woven
together with linen into cloth. The cotton fibre did not have the necessary qualities by
itself to give a suitable material. The spinning and manufacture of the cloth was really a
continuation of the traditional home based trade for wool, whereby the man of the house
did the weaving and his wife and children supported him in his work. There were no
factories in Britain in those years.
From about
1750, the inventiveness of man began to make its mark on this trade. How or why the
various events arose is unclear - perhaps the introduction of machinery was encouraged by
inventions and practices in other areas, but whatever the reason, the result was a fairly
steady change from a purely manual tradition to a fully operational powered factory
system.
The first
moves were made by Hargreaves, Arkwright and finally Crompton who individually perfected
the means of spinning many separate lines of cotton thread on the same manually operated
machine. (the original spinning wheel produced a single continuous thread). The new
methods of spinning also produced a stronger thread allowing a 100 % pure material to be
made. This led to a great increase in the amount of cotton available for weaving, and as
the latter was still done manually by the men, produced a "golden age of
weaving".
However,
Cartwright (a clergyman!) for some reason decided to put his mind to improving weaving
methods and with no prior knowledge developed a water - powered loom by 1784. This was not
a resounding success at first and the hand weaving traditions continued in competition. It
was only a question of time before mass production problems were resolved and by the 1830s
the power looms were in the majority. The type of work did not require any heavy manual
labour and the nimble fingers of women and children were useful in the factories. Because
of the increasing output from the first factories the wages of the hand weavers dropped
drastically and they were forced to work very long hours to try to make ends meet. (one of
our ancestors Richard 1793 may well have been affected by these developments).
Alongside
the introduction of powered looms ran the development of powered spinning. In both cases
waterpower was first adopted and this required the factories to be sited near to fast
running streams, the power coming from a water mill. "Mill" was thus to become
synonymous with the word for factory. This power source was changed as steam engines came
to be used and it was more beneficial to site the mills near a coal supply and where a
good transport system could be provided. And so began the birth of the Lancashire cotton
towns.
The sixty
years after 1780 saw a tremendous growth in the cotton industry both in Lancashire and
elsewhere. Unfortunately, this rapid growth also required a similar one in the production
of cotton in America, and the increasing number of ships coming over with the fibre meant
more empty ones ready to be filled with slaves on the return leg from Africa. Because of
this, these years also showed the highest rates of slave transportation.
It is
difficult to overemphasise the effect the cotton industry had on Lancashire (and on
Britain). In the Victorian years up to half of Britain's income came from the manufacture
and export of cotton goods. Over 200 Lancashire towns were eventually involved in some way
or other, either spinning or weaving or providing the support industries for the main
business. Some of the larger towns had as many as 100 mills and the streets of Blackburn,
Burnley, Oldham, Shaw and other Lancashire towns hummed and clattered to the noise of the
vast number of machines. Fortunes were made (often by men from poor backgrounds) as the
industry expanded. The manufacture of the machinery for spinning and weaving was a great
business in itself and by the end of the 19th century, Platt Brothers of Oldham was the
largest engineering firm in the world, employing 14,000 workers. Lancashire had been
changed from a rural backwater to a major industrial region.
The cotton
mills needed other suppliers and the growth of the mining, railways, steel, boiler making
and chemical industries was one result. There were many other effects and spin offs (!)
from the cotton industry and these cannot be gone into in such a brief discussion.
For example,
however, it is claimed that the Toyota Motor Company owed its beginnings partly due to the
development of Japanese automatic looms and the competition thus arising with Platt
Brothers. Also the German Jewish cotton merchants of Manchester liked their own style of
musical entertainment. The result of this was that a Herr Halle from Germany used to play
there with his band, eventually forming the now world renowned Halle Orchestra.
The
industry, however, was totally dependent upon the supply of raw cotton from the Americas,
and the loss of this source during the American Civil War must have been devastating. Many
bankruptcies resulted and thousands were thrown out of work and into poverty. This
affected our “family” to some extent as many of them were employed in the mills
or were suppliers of wooden bobbins to the spinning factories, and the difficulties may
have influenced them in their decisions to emigrate. The industry did recover again when
the cotton flow was resumed and continued to expand until about 1910. After this date, it
gradually declined, partly as a result of the loss of some overseas markets during the
First World War, and also due to the increasing competition from foreign manufacture and
the introduction of synthetic fibres.
If we consider how great a quantity of cloth must have been produced during these years, and how many wooden bobbins must have been needed to hold the thread, it is not surprising that our ancestors could have been gainfully employed in the making of these bobbins for so many years.
Bobbin
Making
The cotton
industry required bobbins on which the thread was wound. About half of the many millions
made were supplied in the 18th and 19th centuries by the bobbin making factories of the
Lake District. There were about sixty of these and were generally sited on fast - flowing
streams where waterpower could be obtained. Originally many of these were old fulling
mills for the local wool trade, which had suffered a decline. In the Staveley and Hugil
area, where our ancestors worked, there were at least six mills on the rivers Kent and
Gowan. In the Kendal area there were a similar number on the rivers Kent, Sprint and Mint.
There were none in the town itself and this would have meant a walk or ride to work each
day. Bobbin mills varied in size from just two workers up to perhaps two hundred in the
larger factories.
The wood
used was obtained from the local forests by coppicing the trees, rather than felling. This
allowed continuous collection of wood over the years. The wood was processed in stages,
being cut to short lengths before the later stages of boring and polishing. The manual
process of boring a hole through the cylinder was particularly hazardous and the rapidly
spinning drill could find its way into the flesh of the operator as well as the bobbin
itself. There were no sophisticated safety devices in those days, and the craftsmen (or
child) just had to be very careful.
The advent
of steam power meant that in later years the bobbin mills could be built elsewhere, and
there were some advantages in siting them close to the cotton factories that used them,
and this may have been the case for the Haresnape mill at Catterall.
The eventual
decline of the cotton industry and the later introduction of plastics led to the demise of
this family craft.
There is an operating bobbin mill museum (Stott Park) near Newby Bridge, close to the shores of Lake Windermere, and this effectively illustrates the nature of the work in which many of our ancestors were involved.
HEARSNEPS, HARSNIPS and
Others
A few words here about other possible relatives. In Croston and Aughton in the 1500s there were various spellings used for our ancestors. The Haresnapes and Hairsnapes today came about because of one ancestor moving north to Cockerham and eventually Westmoreland. The remainder of our ancestors continued to live in the Croston and Aughton areas well into the 1800s. The surname varied as before but generally the Harsnep sound was favoured.
The descendants from these areas also spread outwards to other towns in Lancashire and the parishes of Melling 1700 - 1780, Warrington 1690 - 1760, Burtonwood 1740 - 1760, and Winwick 1780 - 1810 are examples where many ceremonies were performed.
The "Harsneps" were also attracted to London in the early 1700s and an examination of the records and the spellings suggest that these were also from Croston and Aughton. Interestingly in 1749 and 1778, several ceremonies were performed in the famous church of St. Martins in the Fields. At that time the church may still have been "in the fields" or the countryside, but is now by Trafalgar Square in Westminster. There are apparently no male lineages today from these London Harsneps.
The variations in the surname and some family histories of these may be found in the attached files:
Click on each name to access file
b. hearsnep
c. harsnips.htm
If you do come across someone with a possible variant of our surname, (however odd) you may somehow be related to them. Our surname is rare not only because of its unusual source but also because of the difficulty people have had over the centuries in spelling it!
click here for outline family
tree
It would be too difficult to
continue with the tree above in this format. However a rough knowledge of relatives`
recent ancestry will enable them to trace back their lineage to about 1600.
The following section (Listings) gives more comprehensive details of Haresnape lineages.
