Greystoke, a fighting man in the wars of the Roses. He married
Joan Broughton, and his son John in 1484-5 moved to Rydal, leaving
Coniston Hall as dower-house for his stepmother Anne. He died
about 1532. His son Hugh lived at Coniston, and married Jane
Huddleston of Millom Castle. He died in 1557, and his son Anthony
died young; and so his grandson William succeeded him in the last
year of Queen Mary.
West says:--"This William Fleming resided at Coniston Hall, which
he enlarged and repaired, as some of the carving, bearing the date
and initial letters of his and his lady's name, plainly shows;
he died about 40 Elizabeth (1598), and was buried in Grasmere
Church. The said William Fleming was a gentleman of great pomp and
expence, by which he injured an opulent fortune; but his widow
Agnes (a Bindloss of Borwick) surviving him about 33 years, and
being a lady of extraordinary spirit and conduct, so much improved
and advanced her family affairs, that she not only provided for,
and married well, all her daughters, but also repurchased many
things that had been sold off.... This Agnes established a younger
branch of the family in the person of Daniel, her then second
son. When her son John married and resided at Coniston Hall,
she retired to Rydal Hall, where she died 16 August, 7 Car. I.
(1641)."
There is a tradition that Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) visited at
Coniston Hall. There used to be an old book with his name in it
and "Fulke Greville is a good boy" scribbled in an antique hand
on a fly-leaf. It is probable that Squire William, the "gentleman
of great pomp," invited many visitors, especially young men of
distinction, for hunting parties in his deer park; and Sidney is
said to have stayed at Brougham Castle, so that he may well have
been, once in a while, in the Lake District.
Dr. Gibson tells a legend, which he says he collected at Coniston,
of Girt Will o' t' Tarns--"one of the Troutbeck giants." (Hugh
Hird, the chief of them, flourished in this period.) Girt Will
is represented as carrying off "the Lady Eva's" bowermaiden, and
being caught and killed at Caldron Dub on Yewdale Beck (a little
above the sawmills), where his grave was shown, still haunted,
they said. There is no "Lady Eva" in the records, but (allowing
for distortion) there may be a grain of truth in the story, if it
really was a tradition.
Squire John lived at Coniston. He was twenty-three at his father's
death. His first wife was Alice Duckett of Grayrigg (died 1617);
his second, the widow of Sir Thomas Bold, and daughter of Sir
William Norris of Speke, the famous old timbered hall near
Liverpool. She died at Coniston Hall, and was buried in Coniston
Church, which Squire William had built. His third was Dorothy
Strickland of Sizergh, for whose sake he became a Roman Catholic
at a time when Roman Catholics were persecuted; and consequently,
after being J.P. and High Sheriff, he was heavily fined, and had
to get a special licence to travel five miles from home. He had a
turn for literature; we find in the Rydal letters one enclosing
the latest playbook and (Massinger's new work) the _Virgin Martir_.
His son William was only fourteen at his father's death in 1643,
and soon afterwards died of smallpox in London. Consequently
the Hall went to his cousin William (son of the Daniel before
mentioned), born there in 1610, and educated at St. John's
College, Cambridge. He was one of Charles I.'s cavaliers, and
suffered severely in pocket for his loyalty. He married Alice
Kirkby in 1632, and died at the hall in 1653.
His eldest son Daniel, born in 1633, studied at Queen's College,
Oxford, and Gray's Inn. He married, in 1655, Barbara Fletcher of
Hutton (who died 1670), and they had a large family. He was a
cavalier, heavily fined by Cromwell's sequestrators, and living
in retirement until the Restoration, busied in improving his
estates and his mind. He became a famous scholar and antiquary,
corresponding with many learned men, and distinguished, among
other things, for his knowledge of Runic inscriptions. Under
Charles II. he took a very active share in public business; was
knighted at Windsor in 1681, and elected M.P. for Cockermouth,
1685. He died 1701.
This Sir Daniel finally forsook Coniston for Rydal. In his
lifetime the Hall was held by his bachelor brothers, Roger and
William, lieut.-colonel of cavalry and D.L. for Lancashire. In the
Rydal MSS. there are many letters to and from them; for instance,
Major W. Fleming writes (July 1st, 1674) to the constables of
Coniston about arming the men of Colonel Kirkby's regiment--the
pikemen to have an ashen pike not under sixteen feet in length,
the musketeers to have a well-fixed "musquet" with a barrel not
under three feet in length, and a bore for twelve bullets to the
pound, with "collar of bandeleers" and a good sword and belt.
Other relatives of the family lived at the Hall, which was kept up
as a sort of general establishment. In September, 1680, Sir Daniel
notes that his bachelor uncle, John Kirkby, "did fall sick Sept.
15, and he died at Coniston Hall, Sept. 28. I had not the happ
to see him dureing his sickness." But Sir Daniel was sometimes
there, and speaking of one visit, he says (December 14th, 1680),
"my tenants there and I did see a blazing starr with a very long
tail--reaching almost to the middle of the sky from the place of
the sun setting--a little after the sun setting, near the place
where the sun did set. Lord, have mercy upon us, pardon all our
sins, and bless the King and these Kingdomes." He got over it by
Christmas, and "paid the Applethwait players for acting here, Dec.
27th 00-05-00" (5s).
On February 26th, 1681, his mother died at Coniston Hall, and
was buried in Lady Bold's grave, close by her brother, John
Kirkby--"Mr. John Braithwait preaching her funeral sermon upon 1
Tim. 5, 9, and 10, and applying it very well to her." Her three
sons put up the brass in the church to her memory.
There was no intention then of letting the Hall go to ruin. Sir
Daniel notes (March 20th, 1688), "This day was laid the foundation
of the great barn at Coniston Hall"--not the new barn to the south
of it, which is a much later building.
We get a glimpse of the friendly relations of hall and village in
a letter of November 16th, 1689, from George Holmes at Strabane to
the colonel at the Hall, describing the famous siege of Derry, and
adding--"Pray do me the favour to present my humble service to Mr.
Rodger and all the good familie, to the everlasting constable, and
to my noble friend the vitlar."
Dr. Gibson, about 1845, was told by an aged inhabitant of Haws
Bank that one of the cottages in that hamlet (pulled down to
build Mr. John Bell's house) was formerly an alehouse, and that a
neighbour who died at a great age when the doctor's informant was
a boy, used to relate that he remembered having seen two brothers
of the Fleming family, who were staying at the Hall, go there for
ale, and make a scramble with their change amongst the children
round the door, of whom the relater was one. The names of the
brothers, he stated, were "Major and Roger."
This must have been in Queen Anne's days, when perhaps Colonel
William and his brother Roger were gone. But of Sir Daniel's sons,
one was Major Michael, M.P. for Westmorland in 1706, died before
George I. (his daughter married Michael Knott, Esq., of Rydal,
whose family afterwards came to Coniston Waterhead); and another
was Roger, afterwards vicar of Brigham.
So we bring "the good familie" at the Hall down to the second
decade of the eighteenth century, after which they seem to have
deserted Coniston and left it to decay. Fifty years later it was
an ivy-covered ruin.
A novel by the Rev. W. Gresley, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield,
called _Coniston Hall: or, The Jacobites_ (1846), professes to
recount the fortunes of "Sir Charles Dalton" of the hall, in
the rising of 1715. But the local colour is inaccurate, and the
circumstances impossible.
About 1815 it was patched up into a farmhouse; the ruined wing
was left to the ivy, and an inclined way was built up to the old
oriel window of the dining-hall to make it into a barn. Later,
the old oak was carried off. Quite recently the dwelling-house
and the chimneys have been newly cemented, which, necessary as it
was, takes away from the picturesqueness. The main features of
the interior can be traced; we can make out the daïs, the great
fireplace, the carved screen through which doors led to the stairs
going down to buttery and kitchen, and the fine old roof with its
great oak beams. From the middle beam, in which the grooves for
planking are still seen, a wainscot partition was fixed to the
back of the daïs, and behind it was the withdrawing room. There
you see its large fireplace and windows on both sides, and in the
corner is a spiral staircase, leading down to a door opening on
the garden, and up to the loft or solar, in mediæval times the
best bedroom, of which we can see the footing of the flooring
joists up in the wall, and the little window looking east to catch
the morning sun. That was no drawback; folk were early risers when
they had only candles to sit up by.
In its old state the Hall must have been a fine place on a fine
site; damp, it might be thought, but you note that its dwelling
rooms are not on the ground floor, and in those big fireplaces
you can imagine the roaring fires that were kept when wood was
plentiful. The lake is close at hand for fishing, and along the
shore towards Torver extended the deer park, still a lovely bit
of park scenery. That they kept deer even after the head of the
family had settled at Rydal, Sir Daniel's accounts testify. On
December 22nd, 1659, he notes, "given unto George Fleming's boy
for bringing a doe from Coniston, 2s.;" and on Christmas Day,
"given unto Thomas Brockbanck for killing the doe at Coniston,
1s. 6d." It was not only at Christmas that they indulged in
venison. On July 11th, 1660 (King Charles had just come home,
so cavaliers could feast), George Fleming brought two deer from
Coniston to Rydal, and got 2s.; and on September 11th, 1661, Sir
Daniel treated his brother-in-law, Sir George Fletcher, to a hunt,
and gave the tenants 1s. for drinks, "and next day more for the
hunters to drink, 2s. 6d." It sounds little, but money was more
valuable then, and he did not always kill a deer so cheaply. On
July 27th, 1672, "paid my brother Roger which had spent in killing
the buck at Coniston, 6s. 6d.;" and August 12th, 1677, "delivered
to my son William when he went to Coniston to kill a buck, 5s."
* * * * *
The following useful bit of topography is taken from the old copy
kindly lent by Dr. Kendall:--
"The ancient bounds of the manor of Coniston, besides the Water or
Lake of Coniston, and certain tenements in Torver, Blawith, and
Woodland thereunto belonging, are in these terms, namely:--
"Beginning at Coniston otherwise Thurston Water and so by the
Eastern bank of Yewdale Beck up the same on to the low end of the
close called the Stubbing and so upwards round the said close by
the hedge that parts it from Waters Head Grounds into Yewdale
Beck, and so up Yewdale Beck into the foot of Yewdale Field and so
upwards by the hedge which parts the several Allans[A] belonging
to Yewdale from Furness Fell grounds unto Yewdale Beck and so up
Yewdale Beck unto the foot of a close called Linegards (otherwise
Lang Gards) and so upwards round the said close by the hedge
thereof betwixt it and Holme Ground unto Yewdale Beck and so up
the said beck unto Mickle Gill head, and from thence ascending to
the height of Dry Cove over against Green Burn and from thence by
the Lile Wall to the height between Levers Water and Green Burn
and so to the head of Green Burn and from thence by the Rear or
Ray Cragg[B] and Bounders of Seathwaite unto Gaites Hause and so
by the south side of Gaites Water and so down by Torver Beck to
the foot of Fittess,[C] and so straight over to Brighouse Crag
Yate and from thence to the Moss Yate and so down by a little Syke
unto Brundale Beck and so down to the Broadmyre Beck and so down
the same to Coniston Water aforesaid."
[A] _Allans_, land bordering water, like _holme_; and supposed to
be from the Celtic _Eilean_, island.
[B] _Rear_ or _Ray Crag_, like _Rear_ or _Ray Cross_ upon
Stainmoor, from the old Norse _Rá_, "boundary."
[C] _Fittess_, like _Fitz_ at Keswick, Colwith _Feet_,
Mint's _Feet_, &c., seems to be akin to the Icelandic _Fit_
(plu. _fitjar_), "meadow near a river or lake;" not found in
Anglo-Saxon.
VII.--THE CHURCH AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
There was probably no church at Coniston before the time of Queen
Elizabeth, though services may have been held by the squire's
chaplain. Monk Coniston was, and still is ecclesiastically, in the
parish of Hawkshead.
Coniston Church was built in 1586 by William Fleming, the
"gentleman of great pomp and expence." It was consecrated and made
parochial by Bishop Chaderton; the original dedication is not
known. In 1650 the Parliamentary enquiry shows that there was no
maintenance but the £1 19s. 10d. which the people raised for their
"reader," Sir Richard Roule--"Sir" meaning "Rev." in those days.
With liberal squires at the Hall, no doubt the "priest," as they
called him, was not badly off, though Colonel Fleming, writing to
his brother (November 27th, 1688), says:--"Tell the constable the
same hearth man (hearth-tax collector) is coming again. Tell him
to be as kind as his conscience will permit to his neighbours,
and play the fool no more. The priest and he doth not know how
happy they are." The income was eked out by the old custom of
"whittlegate," right to have his meals at various houses in turn;
and it is said that the Priest Stile opposite Mount Cottage was so
called because he was so often seen crossing it on the way to his
accustomed seat at the squire's table.
Until the end of the eighteenth century the curate was also
schoolmaster, and as late as 1761 was nominated to the dual
office by the six men or sidesmen representing the inhabitants.
The patronage was afterwards in the hands of the Braddylls of
Conishead Priory; eventually it passed into the possession of the
Rev. A. Peache, and the living is now in the gift of the Peache
trustees. Its net value is £220.
The original church, for we do not know that it was rebuilt
between 1586 and 1818, was a small oblong structure with lattice
windows and a western belfry tower.
In the Coniston Museum there is a mutilated document (found by Mr.
Herbert Bownass among some old deeds) which not only shows the
quaint arrangement of seats in the church separating the sexes,
but also gives what is practically a directory of the parish in
the time of Charles II.
Coniston A Devision of men's and women's fforms made by the
Church. Minister, six men & churchwardens in the year of our
Lord 1684.
Imp^s Seats in the Quier:
In the seat with the Minister, one for Silverbank & one for ffarr
end.
2 The next seat above:
One for Silverbank for Robert Vickers, for Robert Dixon Bridge End
& Jno. Atkinson de Catbank & for Holywarth.
3 The second fform above:
Edward Tyson, Rich. Hodgson, John Holms, Wm. Hobson de Huthw^t,
Wm. Atkinson de Gateside.
The third fform above: Wm. ffleming jun^r de Littlearrow, Jam.
Robinson, Tho. Cowerd, Park Yeat.
The fourth fform above: Tho. Dixon de Littlearrow, Mich. Atkinson,
Huthw^t, Geo. Towers, Hows bank.
The fform next the wall or the highest fform: David Tyson de
Tilb^rthw^t, Wm. ffleming de Catbank, one for ffar end.
The back fform next Quier door: Jo. ffleming, Low Littlearrow,
Henry Dover de Brow, Wm. Harrison de Holywarth, Wm. Atkinson,
Above beck, Myles Dixon & Robt. Dixon de Tilb^rthwaite.
The fform above it: Wm. ffleming de Park Yeat, Geo
The fform under the Pulpit: Jo. Harrison de Bowmansteads
Men's fforms ith church: ffirst Jo. Dixon, Wm. Dixon, Tho. Dix
ffleming of Bowmansteads.
The second fform beneath: One seat for ffarr end, Wm. Towers
The third fform Smartfield, Jo. Tyson, Low House Low Udale, Wm.
Denison
The ffourth fform: One for Silverbank, Rob. Walker Parks.
Womens} The Highest ith Church:
fforms} Wm ffleming wife de Upper
Sam^{s}. Henry Dover wife de Brow
Hallgarth and Myles Dixon wi[fe]
2 The second fform Beneath: David Tyson wife de Tilberthw^{t}
wife, Dixon Ground, Wm. Dixon, Geo
3 The third fform: Outrake, Gill, Howsbank wives, Jo. ffleming
wife, Low Littlearrow, & Park Yeat.
4 The ffourth form: Silverbank, ffarr end, Ed. Tyson de Nook, Tho.
Dixon de Littlearrow, Wm. Atkinson, Above beck, their wives.
5 The ffifth fform: Smartfield, Wm. Atkinson, Wm. Cowerd, Wm.
Hobson de Huthw^{t}, Jo. Atkinson and Wm. Atkinson, Catbank, their
wives.
6 The sixth fform: Jo. Harrison & Tho. ffleming de Bowmanstead,
[----] Dixon ground, Ed. Park, Wm Denison, Upper Udale, their
wives.
7 The seventh fform: Myles Dixon, Upper Udale, Rob. Walker & Wm.
Addison, Low Udale, Wm. Walker, Wm. Harrison & Elizabeth Parks.
To this devision we the Minister, six men and churchwardens have
set our hands the year ffirst written, Anno Dnî 1684
Jo. Birkett cur.
Wm. ffleming }
Wm. ffleming }
Christo. Dixon } Sidemen
Wm. Harrison }
Wm. ffleming }
Myles Dixon }
Mich. Atkinson } Churchwardens
Myles Dixon }
In 1817 the curate in charge, John Douglas, and the churchwardens,
Joseph Barrow and William Townson, obtained a faculty to rebuild
the church. A sum of £325 was raised by subscription, a further
sum by assessment, and the Incorporated Church Building Society
made a grant of £125. The new church was consecrated by the Bishop
of Chester on November 20th, 1819--Coniston being still within the
diocese of Chester, not yet transferred to that of Carlisle.
In 1835 a faculty of confirmation was issued from the Consistory
Court of Chester by which pews were assigned to the contributors
of the building fund and other parishioners. In 1849, Dr. Gibson
described the building as "oblong and barn-like, with a few
blunt-arched windows in its dirty yellow walls, and overtopped
at its western extremity by an unsightly black superstructure of
rough stone, which some might call a small square tower badly
proportioned, and others, with apparently equal correctness, the
stump of a large square chimney."
In 1866 the same writer, in a paper read to the Historic Society
of Lancashire and Cheshire, said:--"The church of Coniston, which
occupies a position central to the village, is a chapel of ease
under Ulverston, with a stipend of £146, recently augmented,
derived from land, houses, bounty, dividends and fees. It was
rebuilt in 1819 on the site of an older edifice. The only part of
the former church that remains is the belfry tower, which, being
out of keeping and small in proportion to the body of the present
building, confers but little ecclesiastical and no architectural
distinction upon it."
The late Mr. Roger Bownass, in marginal pencillings on this paper,
noted:--"This is an error. The Belfry Tower was wholly rebuilt at
the same time as the church, i.e., in 1818-19; the writer of this
note having seen the old Tower pulled down, and new Foundations
laid; One reason for the Landowners rebuilding the Church (which
they did chiefly at their own expense) being the alleged state of
the old Tower, the Bells of which, the Sexton pretended he durst
not ring for fear he should bring the Tower down about his ears,
though it was so difficult to get it down. So strongly was it
built and cemented together that it had to be cut through nearly,
near its base, before it could be brought down." Mr. Bownass goes
on to say that his father, as one of the guarantees, contributed
nearly £50, "which his widow had to pay, he himself dying before
it was finished, and was the first person carried into the Church
while the shavings, etc., lay on the floor, as the writer, his
son, of 6 years of age, can well remember."
To resume Dr. Gibson's account:--"The new building is plain
even to meanness; but being now well screened by trees and
flourishing evergreens--and I may state that evergreens grow here
with a luxuriance that I have not seen elsewhere--it is not so
offensive to the eye as formerly. The interior has been greatly
beautified by improvements made in 1857, the cost being defrayed
by subscription. The addition of a reading desk, pulpit, reredos
and altar rail in handsomely carved oak, the painting of what used
to be an unsightly expanse of white ceiling, in imitation of oak
panelling, and the spare but tasteful introduction of tinted glass
into the windows, have made the inside as handsome as it is likely
to be whilst the pews are allowed to remain. The parish register
dates back to 1594. In the vestry is stored a library, chiefly
of works in divinity, sermons, etc., which have been purchased
from time to time with the interest of different sums left by
the Fleming family, commencing with £5 under the will of Roger
Fleming of Coniston, dated February, 1699. In the vestibule of the
southern entrance to the church is kept one of those curious old
chests, made from a solid block of oak, like that containing the
muniments of the Grammar School at Hawkshead. The only contents
of this are a number of slips of paper, each bearing the almost
illegible affidavit of two women that the corpse of each person
interred was shrouded in cloth only made of woollen material.
These worn and fragile evidences of a curious old protective
law--for I infer it could only be enacted to support the landed
interest--serve, if they do nothing else, to explain the line in
Pope which has puzzled many modern readers--
Odious!--in woollen!--'twould a saint provoke.
The following is a copy of one of the most legible of these
fugitive records:--
Lancr. P.ociall Cappell de Coniston.
We Jennet Dickson wife of Thomas Dickson and Isabell Fleming
widow--doe severally make oath that the Corps of Isabel Dickson
widow was buryed March y^e 15^{th} An^o Dmj 1692. And was not putt
in, wrapt or wound up in any Shirt, Shift, Sheet or Shroud, Made
or mingled w^{th} fflax, Hemp, Hair, Gold or Silver, etc: nor in
any coffin lined or faced w^{th} cloath etc: nor in any other
material but sheeps wooll onely According to Act of Parlyment. In
Testimony whereof we y^e s^d Jennet Dickson and Isabel Fleming
have hereunto putt our Hands and Seales the 15^{th} day of March,
An^o Dmj 1692.
Cap^t et Jur^t coram me Jennet Dickson
Henri Mattinson Cur^t her x m^k
de Torver decimo nono Isabel Fleming
die Martij Anno dom 1693 her x m^k
So far Dr. Gibson on the "new" church, now the "old" church, and
already of the past.
On November 17th, 1891, the church was reopened by Bishop Goodwin
after a "restoration" which almost amounted to renovation. The
Rev. C. Chapman, in his pamphlet on _The ancient Parochial Church
of Coniston_, 1888, had already been able to announce that £600
had been gathered for the Building Fund, beside about the same
amount spent in buying the old schoolhouse and playground in order
to improve the site. But the money did not suffice for entire
rebuilding; the ceiling and pews were removed, a chancel and
vestry added, a clock placed in the tower, the roughcast of the
exterior was cleared away, and stained glass windows have since
been inserted, of which the best is the little west window by
Kempe to the memory of the Beevers of the Thwaite. But few objects
of antiquarian interest remain. The old oak chest with a curious
padlock, the parish registers beginning 1594 and recommencing
1695, the old library, and the little brass on the south wall are
all that is left to record the ancient family of the Hall. The
brass is inscribed:--