13. PETTIE of Embsay

Riley Tree

THOMAS PETTIE and AGNES (13)

 

THOMAS PETTIE of Embsay Kirk is the earliest of the Petties of Embsay, Embsay Kirk and Eastby from whom we can confidently trace Jack Priestley’s descent. This is one of three Petty families in the Skipton area from whom he is descended. The others are the Pettys of Storiths and Kildwick.

We meet Thomas first at the baptism of his daughter in 1599. This puts his likely birth in the 1570s. We only know of one couple of this name in the Embsay area in the previous generation. Edward Pettie of Embsay died in 1615 and his wife Margaret in 1621. They are almost certainly Thomas’s parents, but we have no confirmation of this. We have the Skipton registers only from 1592.

In the earlier 16^th century we have records for John and Robert Petty farming in Embsay and neighbouring Eastby. They may well be Thomas’s ancestors. He appears to have come from a reasonably well-off farming family.

Thomas was thus born in the reign of Elizabeth I, probably in Embsay. In adult life he moved a short distance to Embsay Kirk.

Embsay Kirk lies just north of Embsay. These were then rural townships in the parish of Skipton, some two miles from the town. Embsay Kirk takes its suffix from the ruins of the Augustinian priory founded there in 1120. In 1154 this moved further east to the present Bolton Abbey on the River Wharfe. The priory church at Embsay Kirk remained in use until the mid-16^th century, when it fell into disrepair. Thomas would probably have known it only as a ruin.

 

AGNES. We know from the burial register that Thomas’s wife was Agnes. Since we do not have their marriage, we do not know her maiden name or where she came from. The wedding may have taken place in Skipton before 1592, or in another parish whose early registers have not survived.

 

We know of two children from their marriage.

Baptisms. Holy Trinity, Skipton.
1599 Jun 3  Marie daughter of Thomas Pettie of Embsay Kyrke.
1607 Mar 25  Richard the sonne of Thomas Pettie of Emsaie.

The wide gap between these means that there may have been other children, whose baptisms have become illegible. In 1635 we have the burial of Robert son of John Pettie of Emsay Kirk. John may well have been another of Thomas and Agnes’s sons.

It has been suggested that Thomas may be the footman Thomas Petty recorded in the diary of Lady Anne Clifford.[1] She was at Knole House in Seven Oaks, Kent, in 1616 when he brought her the news of her mother’s illness in Appleby in Cumberland. As well as Skipton Castle and the lands around it, the Cliffords owned vast estates in Westmoreland and Yorkshire.

Since our Thomas was ‘of Embsay Kirk’ in 1599 and 1607, this identification seems unlikely.

The Pettys did, however, have links with the Clifford family. Before the Reformation, the Pettys of Embsay and Eastby leased land from Bolton Abbey. After the dissolution of the monastery in 1539 the priory lands were sold off. Most were bought by the Cliffords, who were almost certainly Thomas’s landlords.

Thomas Petty was a well-to-do yeoman farmer. On 20 December 1616 he leased a quarter of the corn mill in Embsay . This lease was shared with at least three others including a Matthew Jackman of Embsay. Both Thomas Petty and Matthew Jackman are described as yeomen farmers.

This is the year following the death of Edward Pettie, whom we have assumed to be Thomas’s father. Edward may also have leased the mill and his death would have necessitated a renewal of the lease. Or it may have been a new venture for Thomas.

Gillian Waters says: ‘The lease of the corn mill was granted for 3,000 years, which does seem a very long time. The length of the lease probably accounts for the high cost of twenty-eight pounds and ten shillings for a quarter part of the lease. In addition, the rent was set at ten shillings a year, which would have been more than a servant’s yearly wage. At this time Francis Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, and Lord of Skipton, leased out many properties to raise much needed ready cash in the short term. The length of the lease would of course mean that in the long term the rent could not be increased for 3,000 years, and Francis had effectively alienated the corn mill from the Clifford patrimony. The corn mill was water driven in 1616, but it may have been reused in the eighteenth century as a cotton mill, and may have been the place where the French family worked in the 1850s.’[2]

Thomas and Agnes had been born in Elizabeth’s reign, but lived on to see her successors, James I and Charles I.

 Burial. Holy Trinity, Skipton.
1635 Oct 16  Thomas Petty of Embsay Kirke.

There are two records of this burial. One of them ends with “ch”, meaning that he was buried inside the church. This is one of only four such entries on a page of 28 burials.

Agnes outlived Thomas by only three years.

Burial. Holy Trinity, Skipton.
1638 Apr 6  Agnes the wife of Thomas Petty late of Embsay Kirk.

Agnes was also buried in the church.

Tensions had been growing between King Charles and Parliament, but neither Thomas nor Agnes lived to see the Civil War of the 1640s.

[1]  http://www.bgwaters.co.uk/petyt3.htm
[2]  http://www.bgwaters.co.uk/petyt3.htm