Jack Priestley’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from Jack’s as (1)
WARWICK SAGAR and ANN FAWCET (8)
Warwick Sagar was baptised in Askrigg on 21 July 1737. [1]
Baptism. St Oswald, Askrigg
1737 July 21 Warwick son of John Sagar of Askrigg Clark
He was the son of John Sagar and Elizabeth Tiplady.
Warwick was the sixth of eight children. There were also two surviving children from his father’s first marriage.
Market Cross, Askrigg
Askrigg is now an attractive village in upper Wensleydale. In the 18th century it was a prosperous little market town. It was noted for its cottage industries, including knitting and making clocks and watches.
His father’s role of parish clerk was one of some standing. It was noted beside the father’s name in the baptismal register. Warwick himself became parish clerk in due course.
ANN FAWCET. There are many baptisms in Yorkshire for Ann Fawcet. The most likely is the year after Warwick’s baptism and also in Askrigg.
Baptism. St Oswald, Askrigg.
1738 Sep 3 Anne dau of James Fawcett of Askrigge
She was the third of the four children of James Fawcett and Mary Nicholson. Her younger brother was born posthumously three months after their father’s death in Dec 1740. Ann was only two.
The address “of Askrigge” means that the family were living in town, and not in one of the outlying hamlets.
Her mother did not remarry.
Warwick Sagar married Ann Fawcet in 1757
Banns. St Oswald, Askrigg
Warwick Sagar and Ann Fawcet of the chapelry of Askrigg within ye parish of Aysgarth were published ye 9th and 30th of October as also on ye 6th November in this parish Church and were also married there on ye 13th day of November following be me John … and was then and there solemnized between Warwick Sagar, Ann X Fawcet. In the presence of us: Chr. Lympson, James Sagar, Mary Tiplady, Mary X her mark Fawcet.
Warwick signs his name, as you would expect from a future parish clerk, but Ann makes her mark.
Baptisms. Askrigg.
1758 Nov 5 Bridget Dau of Warwick Sagar of Askrigg
1762 Jun 10 John
1764 Sep 2 Nanny
Warwick’s father, John Saygar parish clerk, was buried in 1764. The office was passed down from father to son. Warwick’s older brother John took on the role, but died the following year. There was still the second son, James. In 1788. there is a burial for the Rev James Sagar of Askrigg. If this is Warwick’s brother, it would explain why Warwick and not he became the next parish clerk.
The first record we have of his appointment is at his second marriage in 1783, but the baptism register had by this time ceased to record the father as parish clerk, so Warwick probably took office in 1765.
Family Search has a lively account of the parish clerk’s duties.
“Much of the work of the parish was carried out for a small salary by the Parish Clerk, an office held for life and commonly passed from father to son. He attended practically every service, keeping dogs out and people awake and collecting pew rents and customary fees. He wrote the accounts if the wardens and overseers were illiterate, made out fair copies of the lists of church rates, assisted officers in their collection, and was capable of dealing with intransigent Independents and Quakers, perhaps assisted in a town by a beadle. He collected tolls on sheep pastured in the churchyard (too sour for cattle), on those who hung their washing there and from those who set up stalls along the path on market days. He collected money also on the approved appeals to assist those who had suffered loss by fire or other misfortune.” [2]
More baptisms followed.
1766 Dec 21 James
This first James died aged one and a half. He was buried on 21 May 1768
1769 May 7 Betty
1772 Feb 9 James
1774 Nov 6 Mary
1777 Aug 17 Peggy
Ann died in 1782, aged 43.
Burial. St Oswald, Askrigg.
1782 Jun 9 Anne wife of Warwick Sagar of Askrigg
The following year Warwick married again, this time to Mary Pratt.
Banns. St Oswald, Askrigg
Banns of Marriage between Warwick Sagar and Mary Pratt were published on the 7th the 14th and the 21st of Sepr 1783 by me James Lamb
Warwick Sagar of this parish Parish Clerk and Mary Pratt of this parish Widow
Married in this chapel by banns this twenty-sixth day of Sepr in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty three by me Jas Lamb
This marriage was solemnized between us Warwick Sagar, Mary Pratt
In the presence of James Tiplady, Rose Pratt, William Smith.
Both Warwick and Mary sign their names.
Mary was two years older than Warwick. She was a twin, the daughter of William Terry the younger of Askrigg. She had previously married William Pratt, a plasterer, in 1768. She also was able to sign her name.
William Pratt died in 1774.
We have found no children of this marriage.
Three children followed the marriage of Warwick and Mary.
1784 Jun 6 Warwick
Warwick junior died the following year. He was buried on 17 April 1785.
1786 Jun 25 Eleanor
1789 Jan 25 Dorothy
Mary, wife of Warwick Sagar Clerk, died in 1802. She was buried on 7 Jun.
Warwick probably lived until 1814. There is a burial for Warwick Sagar in Askrigg on 28 April. The age is hard to read. It could be 80, which would be three years more than Warwick’s true age. Another possible reading is 30. This would fit with his son Warwick, born in 1784, but we have a burial for this child in infancy.
Warwick’s younger brother Edmund Sagar was a noted clockmaker, whose work can still be seen. He moved from Askrigg and set up a shop in Skipton. This may be how Warwick and Ann’s daughter Ann (Nanny) came to move to Skipton, where she married the blacksmith Thomas Barker. A James Sagar, who may be the son of Warwick and Ann, also became a blacksmith in Askrigg.
[1] BMDs from parish registers on Findmypast.
[2] www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Parish_Administration_in_England_and_Wales
NEXT GENERATION: 7. BARKER-SAGAR
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 9. SAGAR-TIPLADY
9. FAWCETT-NICHOLSON