19.2 6xgreat grandparents John Stoney, Yeoman of Kettlewell & Ann Pawson

The baptism of Mary Stoney, my (possibly) 5xgreatgrandmother, at Kettlewell, Yorkshire in 1756 names her father as John Stoney, of Kettlewell, Yeoman.

A search online for the meaning of Yeoman in the mid-late 1700s suggests that this body of men formed a social class between the gentry and tenants, that is, they owned and worked small farms or tracts of land for themselves. They weren’t big landowners like the gentry, but they didn’t work for someone else, like tenant farmers. They were entitled to vote in elections and would have paid taxes. In Elections and the Yeoman: The Changing Identity of the English County Voter, 1700 to 1850 - BASKERVILLE - 1998 - Parliamentary History - Wiley Online Library the author suggests that “the numbers and social status of English yeomen altered dramatically in the course of the eighteenth century” as a result of parliamentary enclosure on the one hand, and a ‘drive’ towards ever larger farms, with tenants paying rent.

What, if anything, then, can be found out about my potential 6xgreat grandfather John Stoney, of Kettlewell, Yeoman? And what, if any, light might this throw on the life of his daughter Mary Stoney, the potential – but not proved – unmarried mother of my 3xgreat grandfather William Moorhouse Stoney, born around 1776 in Kettlewell? William Moorhouse Stoney’s life was one of twists and turns, and he may not always have stuck to the truth. His timeline shows what I have discovered, but linking him back to his grandfather and beyond, and the rest of the family, is difficult. His middle name seems to have appeared part-way through his time in the prison system; before that, he was plain William Stoney. His birthplace in the 1851 census is ‘Skipton, Yorkshire’. On his prison record, it is more specifically Kettlewell, in the West Riding. His occupation varies enormously and includes Grocer, General and Coal Dealer, Commercial Traveller, Agent and ‘Gentleman’.

FindMyPast, in partnership with The Borthwick Institute at the University of York, has a good selection of records for the Stoney families of Kettlewell. The Village’s website has brief information about the History of Kettlewell in the Yorkshire Dales. Ancestry also holds electoral records – poll books – covering registered voters of Kettlewell. In 1741, John Stoney of Kettlewell is recorded as a voter, casting his vote for George Fox Esq (a Tory politician – George Fox-Lane, first Baron Bingley). His name is shown as Stoney in the poll book, and Stoner in the summary book of freeholders who voted for Fox (also at Ancestry).

FindMyPast has nine records relating to a John Stoney of Kettlewell in the 1700s. The earliest is in 1743, a burial – too early to be the father of Mary Stoney, baptised in 1756. The next is a difficult to read marriage entry headed Marriages in ye Year 1748:

It reads: Nov: 1 Married John Stoney Yeoman & Ann Pawson spinster, both of this Parish by Banns by me John Currer Vic.

The site also has the Bishop’s Transcript of the original register which is easier to read, with the addition of Kettlewell at the end of the line – though whether this applies to the Vicar John Currer, or to the parties to the marriage, is not entirely clear:

 

GENUKI: Kettlewell, Rectors transcription, Yorkshire (West Riding) has a list of the vicars of St Mary, Kettlewell dating from 1348. John Currer AB was appointed to the living in 1740. CCED: Browse Persons (theclergydatabase.org.uk) shows that Currer was an Oxford man (Brasenose) who became curate at Kettlewell in 1726, so he would have been familiar to the parishioners – including the Stoneys – for at least two generations. He continued in his role until his death in 1760.

The next record at FindMyPast is for the burial of John Stoney on April 3^rd, 1771, in Kettlewell.

As a Yeoman, he would have had land and possibly property to leave to his family, and the next record is for the Will of John Stoney, proved in October of that year. I ordered a copy of the Will from the Borthwick Institute which shows that, at the time he wrote it in 1771, John Stoney, Yeoman of Kettlewell, had a wife, Ann, a son, Jonathan, daughters Dorothy, Ann, Mary, Alice and Hannah and two brothers - James and Robert.

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