
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)
WILLIAM BURNE and MARGARET STONEHOUSE (10)
WILLIAM BURNE. Elizabeth Burn, who married Francis Dickinson in Fylingdales, was the daughter of William Burne and Margaret Stonehouse.
From the date of his marriage we should expect William’s birth to be around 1670 and close to Fylingdales where he raised his family. This makes the following highly probable.
Baptism. St John, Sneaton.
1668 May 24 William son of Francis Burne
His mother was Elizabeth Garbutt.
Sneaton is a village 2 miles south of Whitby. It is an inland parish, separated from the coast by the parish of Fylingdales. Little that we see today was there in William’s time. Sneaton Castle was built in the 19th century and the Victorian church of St Hilda replaced the ancient church of St John.
The village stands high, overlooking Whitby and the sea.
William was an only child, though not because either of his parents died young. The circumstances of William’s birth may have meant that Elizabeth could have no more children.
At the time of his death, William’s father was living at Little Beck. This is a tributary of the River Esk in Fylingdales. William may have gone walking through Little Beck Wood to the 30 ft high Falling Foss waterfall.
Fylingdales is a parish south of Whitby. There is no Fylingdales village, but a collection of hamlets and the small fishing port of Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Yorkshire coast. The ancient parish church of St Stephen was in the hamlet of Raw above Robin Hood’s Bay. The 19th-century redundant church there now replaced the medieval one.
We find baptisms for the children of William Burne in Fylingdales from 1696 onwards. This makes it very likely that William’s marriage is the following, a year earlier in nearby Whitby.
Marriage. St Mary the Virgin, Whitby.
1695 Apr 4 William Bourn and Margarit Stonehouse Longrigg
The Long Rigg Beck runs through the parish of Fylingdales.
MARGARET STONEHOUSE was the daughter of William Stonehouse of Whitby .
Baptism, Whitby.
1667 May 22 Margarite daughter of William Stonehouse.
We do not know her mother’s name.
Margaret seems to be the eldest child. A brother Richard was born in 1671, but must have died in infancy. A second Richard was born two years later. John Stonehouse, born in 1684, may also be a brother. Pages of the Whitby register are faded, so there may be more.
Whitby was a fishing port on either side of the River Esk. The houses were built on the steeply sloping sides of the valley. On the cliffs above stand the ruins of St Hilda’s abbey.
The couple grew up in the years following the Restoration of the Monarchy under Charles II. They saw the deposition of James II in 1689 and the accession of his daughter Mary II and her husband William III.
Their marriage is followed by five baptisms in Fylingdales.
Baptisms. St Stephen, Raw, Fylingdales.
1696 Aug 30 Ann
1697/8 Feb 27 William
1703 Jun 23 Isaac
1706 Apr 28 Elizabeth
1710 July 16 John
When their daughter Elizabeth and her husband Francis Dickinson were burgled, Elizabeth lost a quantity of jewellery. This suggest that the family were not among the less well off.
Burials. Fylingdales
1730 Apr 13 William Burn Householder
If we have the correct baptism, he would have been nearly 62.
1746/7 Mar 11 Margaret Bourn widow Raw
She was 80.
Raw is a hamlet above Robin Hood’s Bay
[1] © Margaret Clough. Creative Commons Licence.
NEXT GENERATION: 9. DICKINSON-BURN
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 11. BURNE-GARBUTT