THE OLDEN DAYS
Old times at the Guesthouse
The Old Language (Cumbrian Dialect)
Farming in the Olden Days (under
construction)
Geological Times in the Lake District The
Ice Age. (not yet written: Phanerozoic Eon, The
Holocene)
The Distant Past.
From before the twelfth century, and probably from before the Norman
Conquest, the land which Low Nest Farm now occupies was part of the
Manor of Derwentwater and Castlerigg and belonged to the de Derwentwater
family.
| "A portion of the parish of Crosthwaite and
the land above Keswick were out of the bound of Allerdale
barony. Before the Norman conquest there ruled here a very
ancient family, descended from Danish or Saxon ancestry. What
was their patronymic does not appear, but they were allowed by
the Normans to retain their domain in peace, and they adopted,
from the place, the name de Derwentwater. This family
subsequently acquired possessions in Westmoreland and
elsewhere, and in the time of the Plantagenet kings took a
leading part in the affairs of the shire." ref
1
Little is known of the de Derwentwaters. Effigies of some of
them may be seen in Crosthwaite church. Although they had
extensive estates elsewhere their principal residence was a
castle or fortified manor house on Castlerigg, overlooking
Derwentwater. This Castle is supposed to have been abandoned
about 1470 and fell into ruins. An archaeological search
in 2008 for the remains of the castle failed to find it but
found instead the foundations of a large Roman
fort.
Possible locations of the
Derwentwater Castle. |
de Derwentwater effigies in Crosthwaite church |
The More Recent Past.
The de Derwentwater dynasty ended for want of a male heir and
in 1417 the estates passed to the Radclyffe family when Elizabeth,
heiress of John de Derwentwater married Sir Nicholas Radclyffe,
Sheriff of Cumberland. The Radclyffe's were an equally ancient and noble
family originating from Radclyffe tower in Lancshire before the
twelfth century. The Radclyffes took over as Lords of the Manor
and retained the name Derwentwater.
The Derwentwater estates later expanded, with the
marriage in about 1485 of Sir Edward
Radclyffe, grandson of Sir Nicholas Radclyffe of Derwentwater,
to Anne Cartington, heiress to the Cartington and Claxton
estates in Northumberland including
Cartington Castle and Dilston Hall. Dilston Hall became the
seat of the Northumberland branch of the Radclyffes of
Derwentwater in the mid 1500's.. The Derwentwater branch of the
family built a new residence on Lords island in Derwentwater.
Notable Derwentwater Radcliffes include Sir Richard Radcliffe
who was knighted by Edward IV on the battlefield at Tewkesbury
in 1471, became a trusted advisor to Richard III, was slain
with him at Bosworth Field and was attainted
by Henry VII.
In 1688, six generations on from Sir Nicholas, Sir
Francis Radclyffe was created Viscount Radclyffe and Earl of
Derwentwater by James II.
Sir Francis' grandson James Radclyffe, The third Earl of
Derwentwater (1689-1716) was imprudent enough to take part in
the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 and lost his head on Tower Hill.
His estates (including Dilston Hall and the Manor of Castlerigg
and Derwentwater) were attainted by
the crown and subsequently given to Greenwich
Hospital. Lord Derwentwater was held in high regard by his
tenantry and is remembered in folklore. In 1832 Greenwich
Hospital sold the Manor of Derwentwater to John Marshall Esq.
of Leeds. |
Stained Glass window in Crosthwaite Church representing the
coat of arms of the Radclyffes of Derwentwater Note
1 |
Footnotes and References
Attainder
A bill or writ of attainder is an act of legislation which allows
parliament or a monarch to declare a person guilty of some crime and
have him executed Note 2
without the inconvenience of a trial. The property and estates and
titles of a person who pleads guilty, or is found guilty of the said
crime reverts to his Lord, or if he is himself a Lord, to the monarch.
On the other hand, in the case of a person who dies beforehand
(excluding suicide which was itself a crime) or who elects not to plead
and instead to suffer the horrific penalty of peine forte et
dure, their property and titles are not forfeit.
Attainders were nearly always subsequently reversed by the children
of the victim petitioning Parliament to have their land and titles
restored. For example the attainder of Sir Richard Radcliffe by Henry
VII was reversed in 1495 at the request of his son Richard. (This
attainder was because these were the internecine Wars of the Roses and
Henry VII opposed and defeated the Yorkist Richard III.)
The attainder of James Radcliffe, the third Earl of Derwentwater was
unusual in that it was never reversed. There were religious and
political reasons for this. The Northern aristocracy, including
Lord Derwentwater, were mainly Catholic and favoured the Catholic Stuart
dynasty of Scotland as the rightful heirs to the British throne
over the imported, protestant, Hanoverian George I and George II -
hence their involvement in the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 and the later
rebellion in 1745. The Derwentwater estates which included parts of
Westmorland and Durham and vast tracts of Northumberland was the second
largest and richest in the country (after the estates of the Duke of
Ormonde) and provided the finances and, equally importantly, the
manpower (their loyal tenantry) to mount an insurrection. The Whig
government found the writ of attainder a very efficient
instrument for impoverishing and neutralising the power of these
troublesome northern Lords. The Whigs passed an act of parliament
specifically for the purpose of debarring Lord Derwentwater's
nephews from inheriting. When Lord Derwenwater's son died in a
riding accident in 1731 the way was clear to settle the Derwentwater
estates on Greenwich Hospital. (Lord
Derwentwater's younger brother Charles was captured with him after the
battle of Preston and also attainted. However he escaped from Newgate
prison and went to join the Stuarts in France He was eventually captured
in November 1745 on a French warship, off Dogger Bank, bound for
Montrose with supplies of arms to take part in the 1745 uprising. He was
executed for his original offence of taking part in the 1715 rebellion)
ref 2
|
Greenwich
Hospital
Greenwich Hospital was a hospital and charity for old
sailors of the Royal Navy established by William III to
satisfy, posthumously, the wishes of his wife Queen Mary II.
The charter for the hospital was back-dated to 25 October 1694
so that it could be in the joint names of William and Mary.
Mary died 28 December 1694 of smallpox at the age of 32.
The equivalent charity for old soldiers, The Chelsea
Hospital, (remember the Chelsea Pensioners on armistice day?)
was established by a warrant of Charles II dated 22 December
1681. The Greenwich pensioners wore blue uniforms similar in
style to the red uniforms of the Chelsea Pensioners
Some old maps such as James Clarke's map
of 'The Roads, Lakes etc. Between Ambleside and Keswick"
published in 1787 label the land to the south of the road into
Keswick as 'Greenwich Hospital'. This same map shows Low Nest
as 'Pyat Nest' and identifies the occupier as "Mr
Scot".
Jollies Cumberland Guide and Directory
1811 records as one of the principal residents of Keswick
"Scott John, Steward for Greenwich Hospital, Piet
Nest." |
 |
Note 1 The quadrants of this coat of arms
are :-
top
left:
The arms of
the Radclyffes:
"Argent, a bend engrailed sable"
bottom right The arms of the de
Derwentwaters:
"Argent,
2 bars gules on a canton of the second, a cinquefoil or" ref4
top
right bottom left:
?Unknown?:
"Barry argent and or, two lions
passant guardant azure" (leopards
?)
Glossary of heraldic
terms
Note 2 The justice system in medieval times had an admirable
simplicity - essentially it was the ten commandments with a few minor
additions such as treason. Everyone knew and concurred with the ten
commandments - and the penalty for any transgression was death. ref
3 by public execution.
This system had its merits in terms of transparency, deterrence and zero
reoffending.
In later centuries the penalty for very minor misdemeanours was commuted to
transportation to the colonies, flogging or even the soft option of
imprisonment, however the prisoners had to pay for their board and
lodging.
.Ref. 1 Transactions of the Cumberland and
Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society
Part 1., Vol XII,
Art. XIV.—Some
Manorial Halls in the Vale of Derwent. By Michael W. Taylor, M.D.,
F.S.A.
(Warning this is a large document 17MB)
Ref 2. Dictionary of National Biography.
ed. Sidney Lee
Ref 3. A
Review of the History of Forfeiture in England and Colonial America
By Cecil Greek
Ref 4 Magna
Britannia: volume 4 ,Daniel and Samuel Lysons,
1816 (Gentry: Families extinct before 1500)