The ancient family of the Curwens of Workington can trace their
descent to Ivo de Tailbois and Elgiva daughter of Ethelred, King
of England. Ivo came to England with the Conqueror, was the
first lord of the barony of Kendal, and brother of Fulk, Earl of
Anjou and King of Jerusalem. Ketel, the grandson of Ivo, had two
sons;--Gilbert, the father of William de Lancaster, from whom
descended, in a direct line, the barons of Kendal; and Orme, from
whom descended the Curwens. These took their surname by agreement
from Culwen, a family of Galloway, whose heir they married. It
is said, that Culwen, which is on the seacoast of Galloway, had
its name from a neighbouring rock, which was thought to resemble
a white monk; that being the meaning of the word in the Irish
language. It is also said, that the family name was changed to
Curwen, by a corruption, which first appeared in the public records
in the reign of King Henry VI. Orme having espoused Gunilda,
sister of Waldieve, first lord of Allerdale, received in marriage
with her the manor of Seaton below Derwent, and took up his abode
there. Their son, Gospatrick, received the manors of Workington and
Lamplugh from William de Lancaster in exchange for Middleton, in
Westmorland. He was succeeded by his son Thomas, who became lord of
Culwen in Galloway, and died in 1152, and was buried in the Abbey
of Shap, to which he had been a benefactor; his estates descending
to his second son, Patric de Culwen, who removed his residence from
Seaton to Workington, where his descendants have since remained.
Sir Thomas Curwen, the seventh in descent from Patric, died in
the thirty fourth year of Henry VIII. In reference to this member
of the family, Sandford in his M.S. History of Cumberland relates
an instance of the pleasant manner in which conventual property
at the dissolution was dealt with, and disposed of, among that
monarch's favourites and friends. It is thus given:--"Sir Tho.
Curwen Knight in Henry the Eight's time, an excellent archer at
twelve score merks: And went up with his men to shoote with that
reknowned King at the dissolution of abbeis: And the King says
to him, Curwen, why doth thee begg none of thes Abbeis: I wold
gratifie the some way: Quoth the other, thank yow, and afterward
said he wold desire of him the Abbie of ffurness (nye unto him)
for 20 ty one years: Sayes the King, take it for ever: Quoth the
other, its long enough, for youle set them up againe in that time:
But they not likely to be set up againe, this Sir Tho. Curwen sent
Mr. Preston who had married his daughter to renew the lease for
him; and he even renneued in his owne name; which when his father
in law questioned, quoth Mr. Preston, yow shall have it as long as
yow live: and I thinke I may as well have it with your daughter as
another."[8]
There is probably some truth in the anecdote, related by Sandford.
For it is said by West, that not long after the dissolution of
Monasteries, Thomas Preston, of Preston-Patrick and Levens,
purchased the site and immediate grounds of Furness Abbey from the
trustees of the crown, with other considerable estates to the value
of £3000 a year: after which he removed from Preston-Patrick, and
resided at the Abbey, in a manor house built on the spot where the
Abbot's apartments stood. Of his two sons, John the elder married
the daughter of Curwen. His descendants were called Prestons of the
Abbey, and of the Manor; and continued for four generations, when
the two great grandsons of the purchaser died without issue. The
family of Christopher, his second son, were known as the Prestons
of Holker. Of these, Catharine, the fifth in the direct line from
Christopher, was the mother of Sir Thomas Lowther, Baronet, of
Yorkshire, to whom on the failure of the elder branch, the property
of the Prestons in Furness was granted by George the First. This
gentleman, by his marriage with the Lady Elizabeth Cavendish,
daughter of the Duke of Devonshire, had an only son and heir, Sir
William Lowther, Baronet, the last descendant of the Prestons of
Preston-Patrick, who died unmarried in 1756, bequeathing all his
estates in Furness and Cartmel to his cousin Lord George Augustus
Cavendish, through whom they passed by inheritance to the present
Duke of Devonshire.
In a report to the government of Queen Elizabeth, of the date of
1588, inserted among the Burghley Papers, the son and heir of
this sharp-handed son-in-law of Curwen is mentioned in somewhat
detractory terms, in a passage which describes "the Pylle of
Folder," or Pile of Fouldrey. "The same Pylle is an old decayed
castell of 'the dowchie of Lancaster, in Furness Felles, where
one Thomas Preestone (a Papyshe Atheiste) is depute steward, and
comaunders the menrede and lands ther, which were sometime members
appertayninge to the Abbeye of Furnes.'"
Workington Hall, the seat of the Curwens, is a large quadrangular
building, with battlemented parapets, situated on a woody acclivity
over looking the river Derwent, at the east end of the town. It has
been almost entirely rebuilt within the present century. The old
mansion was castellated pursuant to the royal license granted by
Richard II., in 1379, to Sir Gilbert de Culwen. It is remarkable
for having been the first prison-house of the unfortunate Mary of
Scotland, after she had landed within the dominions of her rival.
Having left the Scottish shore in a small fishing boat, she landed
with about twenty attendants near the Hall on Sunday, May 16th,
1568; and was received by Sir Henry Curwen as became her rank and
misfortunes, and hospitably entertained by him, till she removed to
Cockermouth, on her route to Carlisle. The apartment in which the
Queen had slept was long preserved, out of respect to her memory,
as she had left it. But some recent alterations of the mansion
having become necessary, it was found that these could not be
effected without the destruction of that portion which had been so
long distinguished as the Queen's Chamber.
Mr. Denton, who wrote about the year 1676, says, "I do not know any
seat in all Britain so commodiously situated for beauty, plenty,
and pleasure as this is." And Mr. Sandford, who wrote about the
same time, has the following rapturous description, "And a very
fair mansion-house and pallace-like; a court of above 60 yards long
and 40 yards broad, built round about; garretted turret-wise, and
toors in the corner; a gate house, and most wainscot and gallery
roomes; and the brave prospect of seas and ships almost to the
house, the tides flowing up. Brave orchards, gardens, dovecoats,
and woods and grounds in the bank about, and brave corn fields and
meadows below, as like as Chelsay fields. And now the habitation
of a brave young Sq. his father Monsir Edward Curwen, and his
mother the grandchild of Sir Michael Wharton o' th' Wolds in
Yorkshire."
Even Mr. Gilpin, a century later, was struck with "its hanging
woods and sloping lawns," and speaks of its situation as "one of
the grandest and most beautiful in the country."
The anecdote upon which the poem is founded was related by a person
who about fifty years ago was much acquainted with what was current
in some of the principal families in the West of Cumberland. She
stated that it was commonly repeated among the servants of the
different houses, and was quite credited by them: and that she
herself had not any doubt as to the truth of the story, but could
not give the period to which the circumstances refer.
One of the domestics of the Hall was said to have been surprised by
her master in the manner described, and to have been overheard by
him, uttering the words,--
"Who knows what may happen, or what may befall?
I may be Lady of Workington Hall!"
The butler was instructed to repeat the words publicly in the
presence of the Maid, who fled from the mansion, overwhelmed with
confusion. She subsequently formed a matrimonial alliance with a
principal member of the family; and thus in a manner her prediction
was verified.
Such was the story, and such the narrator. It may be added, that
the published notices of the family are devoid of anything to
give confirmation to the story; but as it was related in the
neighbourhood in the spirit alluded to, a place has been given to
it among the traditions of Cumberland.