Chapter 15.
EARLY EMIGRANTS FROM ROXBY.
Reference to our charts will show that a few of the Daggetts moved from Pickhill and started up branches in other local parishes.
Norton Conyers in Wath parish. The first of these emigrants was John, son of Robert of Roxby and baptised lst December 1622. He married about 1647 and had six children, five of whose baptisms are recorded in the Wath parish registers. John was a brother of Michael, our own ancestor.
Wath is a small village consisting of a single street with cobbled sides leading to the parish church at one end. It lies about two miles from Pickhill and 3½ miles north of Ripon. The parish contains the chapelries of Norton Conyers, Middleton Quernhow and Melmerby which, in 1840, had populations of 60, 120 and 321 respectively, while Wath village accounted for 208. The registers of the parish were sometimes divided into separate sections covering each of the four places. At other times a single register dealt with the whole parish, when it is not clear which chapelry was involved. Many of the earlier records are indecipherable or missing, some are in Latin, and many were beautifully transcribed in 1855 by the Rector, John Ward.
It appears that an extensive Daggett family inhabited Middleton Querrhow from 1663, but the one that concerns us was that started by John at Norton Conyers. This is a manor house in very extensive grounds, with an ornamental gateway immediately outside Wath village. The Daggetts probably lived on the estate. This was owned by the Norton family until 1570 when Richard Norton was punished for his part in the Rising of the North. John Daggett returned to Pickhill for his burial in 1669. His son William (1655-1703) was described as "farmer" and so was probably a tenant of the owning family at the time. His widow, Isabel, was "surety" at the baptism of a Mary Farmery at Kirkby Malzeard in January 1707/8. The Graham family were the owners of Norton Conyers for many years (see reference to Metcalfe Graham at Pickhill) and in an inventory of his belongings after his death William was noted as a yeoman. This inventory contains such interesting items as :-
Four Cowes and a Calfe and a Goake of Hey
Corne in Grahams Barne Hardcorne Barley Oats and Pease
Far Chamber Three Bedds & One Pannell Chist
High Parlour One Bedd & other Householdmts
Hy Chamber one Arke a Kimbling & Churne
Servts Chamber 2 Beds and one Spinning Whele
In spite of this apparent affluence, William's son John died in 1762 as a pauper in a hospital founded in 1693 by the Rector, Dr.Peter Samwaies.
The Norton Conyers Daggetts have not been researched further - although we know that William had another son, William born in 1692 who married and had two daughters and a son.
Patrick Brompton is nine miles north-west of Pickhill. The parish contains the village of Hunton. The Daggett connection was started by Thomas who was a great-great-grandson of "Magnus" and who will be commented upon in the next chapter.
Hutton Buscel. The connection between George Daggett, brother of our William III, born at Pickhill in 1697 and the George Daggett who married Mary Poskitt at Hutton Buscel in July 1728 is one of those cases where we have found no proof but no alternative. But Hutton Buscel is near Scarborough and about forty miles from Pickhill. Moreover, the later George was a weaver, a rather unusual occupation for a native of Pickhill. The registers for years before 1723 are almost unreadable, so at present we do not know whether there were any Daggetts at Hutton Buscel before George was married. Certainly, the Mormon I.G.I. does not present any, but there have been many Daggetts on and near the Yorkshire coast at various times. We must retain an open mind about this.
Kirby Wiske is a parish adjacent to Pickhill, just across the River Swale. There have been a few Daggetts recorded there from 1686, beginning with Richard. They are dealt with in Chapter 17.
