19.1 5xgreat grandmother Mary Stoney, Kettlewell Mantua Maker (1756-1799)

 My 4xgreat grandfather William Moorhouse Stoney had a long and varied life, and several brushes with the law – including time on a prison Hulk. Most of this was before his second marriage and the births of his children, including my 3xgreat grandmother Catherine Alice Stoney.

The Hulk Registers of 1819-1823 confirm his place of birth as Kettlewell, Yorkshire, his birth year as around 1778. Kettlewell is in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in Wharfdale, postal town Skipton (which William Moorhouse Stoney gives as his birthplace in the 1851 census). His birth year in the censuses ranges from 1765 (probably rounded down)-1771. I have not found a baptism for any William Moorhouse Stoney in online records between 1765-1778. I did find a baptism at Kettlewell in 1776:

The entry from FindMyPast reads (2^nd line in image above): William, natural son of Mary Stoney, Bapt. Dec 31^st . There are many other Stoney baptisms in West Yorkshire, particularly Pateley Bridge, Leeds and Huddersfield within a similar period. However, the above baptism seems the most likely in terms of date and place. FindMyPast also has records of Stoneys living at Kettlewell from the 1600s, although the surname is widespread across Yorkshire.

So what more – if anything – can be found to prove or disprove that William Moorhouse Stoney was the son of the unmarried Mary Stoney of Kettlewell?

If Mary Stoney remained unmarried, then she may be the woman of that name, aged 42, who was buried in Kettlewell on 10 April 1799. The burial record (Bishop’s Transcript) at FindMyPast gives her occupation: Mantua Maker (see second line below):

Other women whose burials are recorded in pages of the register are usually shown as ‘widow’ or ‘wife’ of a man or, if unmarried, their place of residence or occupation. This is not conclusive, but as her burial entry follows this pattern, it suggests that Mary Stoney was a single woman who had an occupation to support her at the time of her death.

mantua | Fashion History Timeline (fitnyc.edu) quotes Elizabeth Lewandowski in The Complete Costume Dictionary (2011), who defines a mantua as:

“Early Georgian (1700-1750). Formal gown with formerly drapery in the back. Worn over boned bodice and with elaborate skirt. Popular in the United Kingdom longer than elsewhere.” (186)

The Kettlewell incumbent may not have known the precise fashion difference between a Mantua or the styles that came later, or rural Yorkshire ladies may have continued, as the quote above suggests, to wear them long after they fell out of fashion elsewhere, and require their local mantua maker to sew them for them.

However, the same site also notes: “In addition the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion explains the enduring legacy of the mantua on later fashion:

“The pulled-back overskirts of late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth-century mantuas (loose-fitting gowns) emphasized this area [the rear of the dress], and pads or “cork rumps” sometimes supported the swagged-up styles of the late 1770s and 1780s.” (204)

It is likely that Mary Stoney constructed mantuas for her Yorkshire customers well into her 30s, in the late 1790s, perhaps adjusting styles to reflect more modern tastes.

If aged 42 in 1799, it is likely that she was born around 1757. A search for her baptism at Kettlewell around that time finds a very untidy parish register for 1756 at FindMyPast.

Just legible in the sloping entry is March 27 Bap: Mary ye Daughter of John Stoney of Kettlewell Yeoman.

The only other likely records we might find for Mary Stoney beyond her baptism and burial, could be if there was an examination by the poor law guardians to find the name of the father of her illegitimate child. But if she wasn’t a pauper or the child was unlikely to be a burden on the parish, this may not have happened. Was she supported by her family? Who was her father, John Stoney, Yeoman of Kettlewell?

For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view