Chapter 17.
THE DESCENDANTS OF RICHARD DAGGETT OF ROXBY
We have dealt in much detail with our own direct line which came down from John Daggett of Roxby who was buried at Pickhill in 1608, via William I and Robert.
We have also discussed at some length the parallel line closest to our own via William "Magnus" Daggett.
The next nearest related Daggetts are those descended from Richard Daggett of Roxby who died in 1597. We assume, in the absence of any real proof, that Richard was John's brother although, as we pointed out earlier, the two men's names were linked in a Deed of 1567. The smaller of our large charts lists names and events that have been found but there are some additional facts that need to be noted.
A Deed of 1592 names Richard Daggett in some negotiations over land near Pickhill but we are not clear whether this refers to the Richard in question here. Richard of Roxby appears to have married but we have found no record of this. Of his three children Jane married William Power of Kirklington on 23rd April 1592 at Pickhill. There are no further details of a Robert whose death has been given as 1620. Michael, who married Margaret Wigglesworth in 1592, has been better documented. Without the dates of birth of these three it is impossible to be certain that we have entered them on our chart in the correct order.
Michael and Margaret brought up three sons.
1. John settled at Holme, a manor and hamlet a mile southeast from Pickhill Church. He married, had five daughters and no sons, and died in 1640
2. Henry, who died in 1638, married Margaret Lumley in November 1624 and had a daughter in 1628. Her name has been obliterated in the register but it may have been Ann. Henry junior died at the age of ten. Ann or Andrew, baptised at Pickhill on 17th February 1632 has been entered on our chart with a query. The parish register says "Anne son of Henry Daggett of Pickhill..."
See paragraph 5 in the "Notes on Charts for Daggetts of Roxby".
John was baptised on 14 May 1636 but no further trace is evident. Margaret died when only two years old.
3. Richard is the only one to have produced any continuing line of descendants. He was baptised at Pickhill on 12th November 1598 and he married Elizabeth Wynde of Synderby in June 1622. They had three sons. The first two, Michael and Robert died at the respective ages of 13 and 19, but Richard junior (born in March 1630) married Ellen --. Much of the information about this Richard has been gleaned from his Will of February 1675 which was followed, after his death, by an inventory of his goods. In his Will he described himself as yeoman. His first two children had died in childhood. He left £300 to his daughter Elizabeth when she became 21, four years later. Similarly his daughter Ellen was to get £250 and both were allowed £10 a year for their education.
The eldest son William received all his father's lands in "Pickhill cu' Rookesbye Sinderbee Houlme and Burneston"
The younger Richard was left all "my lande in Kirkbe upon Wiske" as well as "fourtie poundes". His father requested "Symond Lumley of Carlton yeoman and John Pybus of Kirkbe upon Wiske yeoman to take care for my children" and to assist his wife Ellen, to whom he bequeathed the rest of his estate. Lumley was the maiden name of Richard's Aunt Margaret and it is also the name of a place about five miles west of Ripon.
Richard senior had an afterthought and added a Codicil "that Richard Daggett his sonne had too little given him by the said Will" and so allowed him an extra £20. The proved Will has the date 21st April 1676 and the place Burrowbridge written on the bottom. The Inventory bears the date 30th March 1676 and has three written signatures including that of William Daggett. It lists such items as:-
- Barley in the Barn at Sinderby
- One table, one form at Sinderby
- A field of peas at Sinderby
- A field of corn at Sinderby
- Corn in the Barn at Rokesby
- Corn in the fields at Sinderby
- 10 Kine and one Bull
- 1 Heifer and 2 Stirkes. ( these were yearlings )
- 3 Horses
- 42 Sheep
- Various farm implements
- Beds and other Furniture about the House
- In the Buttery three brass pots, foure kettles, six pans with other implements
- In the Milk House two dozen of milke bowles two Churnes foure barrells, one mash fatt one guile fat two tubs five skeeles
- One pannell chest five clog chests one Cradle one Kimlin without meale and one tiffany.
The object of the Inventory was to establish the total value of the deceased's possessions and so each item had its estimated value set against it.
The Pickhill Churchwardens' Accounts include contributions for the Poor from Ellen Daggett of Pickhill and Roxby in 1678 and 1680. This probably referred to Ellen, Richard's widow who lived until 1683.
Richard's daughter Elizabeth, baptised in 1658, took the place of an earlier Elizabeth who had died at the age of two. The second Elizabeth married John Clarke at Kirby Hill in February 1681/82. Ellen married Christopher How of Snape, a village five miles west of Pickhill, in 1682. Young Richard settled at Kirby Wiske and married Margaret---, who died there in 1752. They had a son, another Richard, born in 1686. He married Ann Walker in 1716 and they had three children.
Richard, who later married and had a daughter Christiana or Christy, baptised on Christmas Eve 1751. She eventually married Metcalfe Graham Steel in Knaresborough when she was 22.
Margaret, born in February 1718/19, who married William Daggett of Pickhill, a very distant relation, on 5th November 1744 and they returned to live at Pickhill.
Thomas was born in June 1722 but he died when he was only four years old.
William, the eldest son of Richard senior and Ellen, was baptised at Pickhill on 12th June 1661.In July 1684 he married Elizabeth -- of Aynderby, a marriage that was followed by the birth of ten children, or more likely nine. The Ann registered at Knaresborough in 1700 was entered merely as the daughter of William Daggitt and perhaps did not belong to the family that was pretty consistently in Pickhill or its neighbour, Kirby Wiske.
A Richard Daggett of Kirby Wiske appears in the Yorkshire Poll Book of 1741, so one of the two Richards there at the time must have been fairly wealthy or influential. The child following Ann was Thomas "son of William and Elizabeth Daggett of Maunby" and was baptised at Kirby Wiske on 9th January 1701. (Ann had been baptised on 30 November 1700, so, unless her baptism had been delayed some time after her birth, it does look as though she was part of a different family altogether.) Now Maunby is a hamlet in the parish of Kirby Wiske and just across the River Swale from Pickhill. When he was 27 Thomas married Elizabeth Dickinson in 1728 in Knaresborough, where he settled. They had three children, after which Elizabeth died the next year, in early October 1732. Six months later Thomas remarried, to Ann Lowery at the end of March 1733. They had one child, Elizabeth, born in February 1733/34, and Ann died in the middle of 1736. After his unhappy experiences, Thomas waited three years before marrying for a third time, this time to Elizabeth Jackman. Their three children included Mary, who died in infancy; Richard who died at the age of seven; and Thomas who lived until he was only 24. He was a currier by trade, like his father, and he married Mary Bowers by licence in February 1769. They had a daughter Elizabeth baptised on 29 June 1770 at Knaresborough, but she lived for only three years. Thomas himself died when she was only six months old, leaving no further issue.
We now return to the 1arge family of which the first Thomas was a member. He had a brother William who was ten years his senior and who had been introduced as "son of William Daggett junior of Roxby" when he was baptised in September 1691. He in his turn became known as junior, but he also had other nicknames. We were surprised and amused to come across the statement in the Pickhill registers that, in October 1727, Ann had been baptised "the daughter of Lord Dagget" : Other references to this William are in the Pickhill registers.
In 1731 we learn that "The visitation was held this year at Richmond May 18. Mr.Christopher Wilson of Ainderby and Mr.William Daggett, alias Major, were chosen Churchwardens good men and true."
In 1736 "The visitation was held by the Commissary at Richmond May 4th 1736. Mr.Peter Kilvington and Lord Daggett were chosen Churchwardens for the current year."
And in 1738 "Churchwardens Mr.William Raper junior of Hoome and Mr.William Dagget junior alias Major."
Major and minor are terms used nowadays to signify differences in age, but "major" would be contradicted by "junior" in the third of these examples. Major can also be used, like magnus, to denote physical size. Could the term have had any military significance at that period?
William married Anne Willey at Pickhill in February 1715 by whom he had four children over the next twelve years. The first, another William, died after a few months. A daughter Jane born in 1723 suffered the same fate.
The youngest daughter Ann grew up and married William Lazenby in 1748 when she was 21. Richard was born in 1720 and married Isabella Walker in 1750. He died five years afterwards and then Isabella married Christopher Wilson, probably the son of the Christopher noted above in 1731.
Quite by the way, it was interesting to come across another Christopher Wilson of Kilburn (a few miles from Thirsk) whose marriage to Jane Scruton of Carlton Miniott in 1721 is recorded at Sand-Hutton (Thirsk). She died in 1745, he in 1752. And then there was the marriage of Hellen Daggett of Ainderby to Christopher Wilson in February 1724/25 registered not only at Sand-Hutton, but also at Acomb near York and at Pickhill.
It has been suggested that Isabella Walker married the younger Richard's uncle i.e. Richard born 1694. I think this unlikely because he would have been 56 at the time, while young Richard would have been only 30. Whichever is the correct version, we still do not know the fate of the other Richard! With this proviso, the Daggett line from Richard of Roxby who died in 1597 comes to an end here.