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)
THOMAS CATTERSON and MARGARET? (13)
THOMAS CATTERSON. Thomas was the first known of this name to be a tenant of the plot of land in Skipton High Street that became the Red Lion.
Until 1536, it had been part of the estates of the Priory at Bolton Abbey and was transferred at the dissolution to the Clifford Lords of Skipton Castle. However, in 1306 the canons at Bolton Abbey had seized the estate from the Lords and people of Skipton. Traditionally, the site of the Red Lion Inn was originally that of the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene that was a free chapel in Skipton. The advowson of the church belonged to the Lord of the Honour of Skipton and was founded by the ‘alms of the said lord and freemen of Skipton for the support of Lepers’.
Thomas Catterson is the earliest of our Cattersons we can confidently trace. He was said to be seventy-five years old in 1612 when he was buried. That would mean that he was born about 1537. This was the time of the English Reformation under Henry VIII. In 1538 he ordered every parish to keep a register of baptisms, weddings and burials. Thomas may have been born just to early for this, even if the earliest register had survived. We have the Skipton registers only from 1592.
The earliest records we have of the Catterson surname come from the village of Elslack, 4 miles west of Skipton, with Alano de Kaherton in 1219 and Alan de Catherton in 1305. Two centuries later, there was a Robert Catterson in the village of Storiths, 6 miles west of Skipton. It is possible that he is Thomas’s father.
His will shows that Thomas Catterson became a yeoman.
Thomas is likely to have married in the 1560s, in the reign of Elizabeth I. This is too early for it to appear in the Skipton registers, as are the baptisms of his children. We have to rely on evidence from his will.
At the time of his death, his wife was Margaret, but a clause in his will expresses the wish “that my said children be friendlie to my wife & use her as a mother”. This suggests that Margaret was his second wife, and not the birth mother of his children.
On the other hand, Margaret’s will leaves legacies to her sons and daughters, naming Thomas’s children. This reads as though she is indeed their mother.
MARGARET. Whether she was his first or second wife, we do not have a record of her marriage to Thomas Catterson, so we do not know her maiden name, or where she lived.
Dr Geoffrey Rowley’s extensive notebooks on Skipton history give us a family tree for the Cattersons, beginning with Thomas. He lists five children: Stephen, Thomas, Isabell, Jane and Elizabeth. Thomas’s will also mentions a son Francis.
In 1603, Thomas Catterson leased the site of Red Lion in the centre of Skipton from the Lord of Skipton Castle. This was the year that Queen Elizabeth died and the throne passed to James I of England and VI of Scotland.
This is the first record we have of the Cattersons’ connection with the Red Lion. There may have been older Cattersons who were tenants.
The original building of the hospital dates from 1205.
HOSPITAL OF ST MARY MAGDALENE, SKIPTON
“It appears from an inquisition as to the extent of the manor of Skipton in Craven taken in 1310 that this was a free chapel within the castle of Skipton, and that the advowson belonged to the lord of the castle. The chapel was called the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene, and had been founded by the alms of the said lord and the freemen of Skipton for the support of lepers. In 1327, John, Prior of Bolton, was attached to answer Thomas of Gargrave, the master of the hospital, for seizing goods belonging to it, valued at 20 marks in 1306, the hospital at that time being vacant. The goods taken consisted of corn, barley, oats, and brazen cups and plates. The master claimed 100 marks damage, and the case was sent to a jury.” [1]
It became part of the estates of the Priory of Bolton Abbey, 5 miles from Skipton. The takeover was partially reversed in 1536, when the land was seized by the Crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries and handed to the Cliffords, Lords of Skipton Castle.
The Red Lion was built on the site in the 15th century as both an inn and a farmhouse, as was typical with Skipton inns. It is the oldest pub in Skipton. The 16th century timber frame survives on the inside. To the rear is a large 17th century barn and a rear yard with outbuildings of the same period. Behind it lay Jerry Croft, part of its extensive farmland. This became the market place and is now a car park.
17-century farm buildings at the rear of the Red Lion showing 1
On 3 Jul 1609 we have the burial of “Ould William Wayte servant to Thomas Catterson of Skipton”.
The 1611 Rent Roll again shows Thomas Catterson as the tenant of the Red Lion.
Thomas died three years later.
Burial. Holy Trinity, Skipton
1612 Jun 23 Thomas Catterson of Skipton aged about 75 years was buried in the Chancel.
Ages at death were not usually given at this time, so Thomas must have been considered unusually old.
In the notebooks of Dr Rowley, we have an abbreviated form of Thomas and Margaret’s wills.[3]
WILLS YORK
17.6.1612 Thos Catterson of Skipton yo. [yeoman] being growne into many years and sicke in body.
To wife Mgt my mess. tens [messuages & tenements] & grounds which I hold of my rt. Hon Lord the Earl of Cumberland for res[residue] of Lease; Wras [whereas] I have been at a v.gt. charge with Thos C my son for his better preferment to the value of more than I think his childe’s parte of gds [goods] would amount unto – £3 p.a. for residue of Lease; Wras Francis C my son hath had of me £25; Stephen C son, wish “that my sd [said] children be friendlie to my wife & use her as a mother and please her who hath taken great care for me as a verie honest wife could doe”
This suggests that there may have been strained relations between Margaret and his children.
Margaret died four years later, in 1616.
Burial. Holy Trinity, Skipton.
1616 Jul 7 Margrett wiffe of Thomas Catterson late of Skipton deceased.
This entry is followed by a circle containing a cross, which occurs in a few other entries. It may indicate a burial in the church.
29.6.1616 Mgt Catterson of Skipton wid. Bequeath my lease in reversion of m.& ten [messuage and tenements], unto son Stephen C – sole exor [executor]. daus Eliz & Jane £10 each. bed standing in the house where Lawrence Taylor dwelleth; dau Jane – to my sd daughter’s child Geo. Goodgion; sister Ann [Aliosone?]. To Thos Catterson to augment income left by his father.
At Margaret’s death the tenancy of the Red Lion passed to Thomas’s oldest son Stephen. In 1615 Stephen Catterson married Mary Pettye in Skipton. Thomas’s second son, a younger Thomas Catterson, married Isabel Pettie in Skipton in 1605. She was from a different family of Pettys in nearby Kildwick. His daughter Isabell married Edward Smyth of nearby Kildwick. Jane married William Goodgion in 1609. Elizabeth married Henry Fothergill in 1611.
There were frequent links between the Cattersons and the Petties.
Lease 13.10.1634 to Wm Pettie of Storiths yo [yeoman]– mess. 2 Barns, 1 stable & garth heretofore in pn [possession] of Stephen Catterson decd. Prem. £60. 21 y. 43/-
William Pettie of Storiths married Stephen’s widow Mary née Petty. They were the parents of Isabel Pettie, who married Thomas’s grandson Francis Catterson.
[1] A History of the County of York. Vol 3. Victoria County History, 1974. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/vol3/pp330-336#p19
[2] The Red Lion Inn, Skipton, and the Catterson family © Angela Petyt. Not for commercial use.
[3] Rowley Ellwood Collection, Skipton Library. Bk.1, p.67. https://rowleycollection.co.uk/notebooks/index.asp
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