High Sprintgill

High Sprintgill and "Sally End"

High Sprintgill - The Present

Hector and Joanna Davie own High Sprintgill.

High Sprintgill - The Past

1589 - GILES HALL

1667-1679 - GILES HALL

Giles Hall was at Sprintgill in 1667, and remained there until his death in 1679.

??-1716 - ROBERT HUNTER

Robert Hunter of Streetside owned High Sprintgill in 1716

1716-1730 - THOMAS HUNTER

Thomas Hunter was at High Sprintgill when his father, Robert, died in October 1716. He was thirty four. His brother, Richard, farmed at Bowberhead. Thomas (and his wife Elinor???) had five sons, Robert, born in 1712, Richard, Thomas, John and William born in 1720. (This was his second wife, and she seems to have been quite a bit younger than him - his first wife, Robert's mothcr, was remembered by the panel chest in the house). Like his brother, Thomas was an educated and devout man - he owned two bibles, one in single, one in double print, and a testament with the Book of Common Prayer and a Book of Psalms. The house was well furnished, with two great tables and two cupboards, as well as a dresser. There was a close bedstead in the parlour, and chests for malt and meal, the latter a long one. The main room had a long settle, and the fire burnt in a 'fire vessel' - it was a peat fire.

When Thomas died, aged 57, in February 1730, he had also bought Low Sprintgill from his neighbour, William Fawcett. William went to live at Ash Pot. In his will, Thomas apportioned his farming implements - two of his gavelocks: large crowbars used for winning stone; his son Robert was to have a pair of the best wheels, but William was to have all the oak wood "except some stooths uon the high loft which Robert is to have." When he died he had some £11 in his purse. His horses, cows and sheep were valued with the hay, at £63. The household goods - brass, pewter, butter, cheese, stockings, cushions, new clothes, wool, saddles, chests, books, desks, etc. were valued at £30/6/6.

1730-1764? - ROBERT HUNTER

Robert Hunter, who had been born in April 1712, was only seventeen when his father died. His mother continued to live with the family, and was, for example, supposed to pay the land tax, which in 1734 amounted to 6/3 - slightly more than the average farm. In 1734, too, the family had to find a large sum (as did everyone in Ravenstonedale) to commute the tithes - one of several advantageous developments took place when Lord Lonsdale bought the manor.

Robert married Mary Fawcett on 4 November 1738, and this obviously led to pressure on the accommodation available, for the next year, he erected a cottage - presumably that just to the north of the house - "contrary to order", for which he was fined the token sum of 13/4 in the manorial court.

Quarter Sessions in 1749 reimbursed him for 8s 4d spent in "conveying vagrants from Sprint Gill to Bowes by the order of Roger Wilson."

Robert had a number of children, several of whom died in infancy. He lived on at High Sprintgill until at least 1758, probably leaving when his eldest son, Fawcett Hunter, married in 1764. We know that he was at Streetside in 1776. Eleanor, his stepmother presumably moved to Low Sprintgill: she survived her husband by 46 years. Robert finally died at Townhead in February 1784.

1764-1792? - FAWCETT HUNTER

Fawcett Hunter was christened on 6 October 1744. He married Ann Robinson on 23 February 1764, at the age of 19. He described himself then as a yeoman. He owned High Sprintgill and was living there in 1781, when a son, John Robinson Hunter (who was to die 'unpensioned, unpreferred' in 1811) was born, but he later moved to Waingarths, in 1792, and, presumably in 1797, to the large new house at Dovengill, where his and his wife's initials are carved on the mantel lintel. He died in 1813.

1824?-1837 - ROBERT HUNTER

Robert Hunter owned and occupied High Sprintgill in 1824. However, the land was occupied by Thomas Thexton.

In 1824, the new road was authorized, passing though the lower fields of High Sprintgill, and the old road to Studfold was closed.

1824-1841 - THOMAS THEXTON

Thomas Thexton occupied High Sprintgill from 1824 until the 1840's. He was born in the 1770's, and eventually retired with his son, Thomas, to Dovengill.

1851 - EDWARD KNEWSTUBB

Edward Knewstubb was farming at High Sprintgill in 1851. He held the freehold. He was 66 at the time. He had moved from Wray Green at some time between 1842 and 1849, with his second wife, Mary (née Harrison), five sons, aged between 9 and 32, his 61-year-old sister, and a fifteen-year-old servant girl, Ann Lindsay. (One son had emigrated to New Zealand in 1848.)

Edward died in 1857, and by the provisions of his will (dated 1851), the farm was sold. His eldest son, Michael, went to farm at Studfold.

1861 - WILLIAM THEXTON

William Thexton, who had been farming at Murthwaite, moved in in the 1850's. He was born in 1805. He died in 1863, and the farm passed to his wife, Barbara, and his son, Thomas.

1871-1874 - BARBARA THEXTON

Barbara Thexton was at High Sprintgill in 1871. Born in Soulby in 1810, she was probably the sister-in-law of Thomas Thexton, farming at Low Sprintgill. She died in 1874.

187??-1887 - THOMAS THEXTON

Barbara Thexton's son Thomas Thexton, probably Thomas's nephew, son of William, became head of the household in the 1870's. He died at High Sprintgill on 28 October 1887, aged about 47.

1887-19?? - ELIZABETH THEXTON

Thomas' widow, Elizabeth Thexton lived on at the farm, until the beginning of the twentieth century. She died around 1920. (A son, William Thexton, born in 1878, died on 3 December 1957.) A dairymaid, Mary Hutchinson and a shepherd, John Gibson, were living in in 1881. In 1901, the widowed Elizabeth was head of the household, and lived with her five children, Isabell, William, George, Barbara and Elizabeth.

189?-1902 - ANTHONY METCALFE-GIBSON

Anthony Metcalfe-Gibson had in the meantime bought the freehold. He died in 1902, and his son, also Anthony, inherited.

1901-1924 - JOHN BELL

John Bell farmed High Sprintgill in the early years of the century. He was born in 1861, at Mickleton in Yorkshire. He married Agnes Robinson, from Foggarthwaite in County Durham, in the third quarter of 1886. They had six children. Robert William Bell, born at Bowes in 1889, and his brother Richard Adam Bell, born in 1897, are said to have been lazy. There was a daughter, Mary Jane, born at Bowes in 1891. Another daughter, Elizabeth Hannah, was born at Scargill in Yorkshire in 1906. His widow, Agnes Bell survived, living on at High Sprintgill until she died, on 15 April 1924, at the age of 67. John died on 24 June 1919.

DICKENSON

The Dickensons left in 1972.

Interior at High Sprintgill

This page was last modified on 10 June 2009 by Hector Davie.
Please mail me about any errors, or if you have any comments!