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THE
QUAKER FIELDENS OF TODMORDEN AND WALSDEN |
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Bottomley |
Joshua
Fielden inherited the land and farm at BOTTOMLEY, Walsden,
from his mother Elizabeth in about 1637. Bottomley
was quite a bustling settlement in these days of the mid 17th.
century. There were a few cottages along the fold and some
of these are still there today. |
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Today's
approach is a narrow, steep and twisting lane that culminates
at the main settlement, comprising 3 neighbouring farmhouses:
North, South and Middle Bottomley, an old cottage called Sweet
Briar and a collection of other barns and buildings. Not one
building is more than a stones throw from the next. They are
built at peculiar angles to the road and to each other. The
original road, a packhorse trail runs right through the middle of them and
then off to the left towards DEANROYD and beyond. |
The
packhorse road cuts through the settlement |
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The
land was only good enough for sheep, but these provided wool
and meat to put clothes on their backs and food on their table.
They also provided the raw material for the manufacture of
woollen cloth. As was required by law at the time, Joshua
and his bride were married in front of a Magistrate, Edward
Hopwood J.P., on 21st. October 1656 after the banns had been
read for 3 consecutive weeks at the Parish Church, St. Chad's
in Rochdale. His wife was Martha Greenwood of NORTH HOLLINGWORTH in Walsden. |
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Joshua
and Martha became members of the newly formed Society of Friends,
or Quakers, and allowed their home to be used for Meetings. Life
as a Quaker before the 1689 Toleration Act was dangerous.
The Church of England had the power to punish those whose
thoughts, deeds or religious loyalties were elsewhere, and
the curate of Todmorden at this time was a Quaker-Hater. He
was the REV. HENRY CRABTREE.
On more than one occasion he raided the various farms where
the Quakers had set up Meeting Houses. The Fieldens of Bottomley
were fined heavily, and on refusing to pay the fine had their
household goods seized. In 1684 Joshua had some bedding and
a brass mortar seized in lieu of a 5 shilling fine, and in
1685 they had pewter and a Bible seized, worth together 17
shillings. Joshua
died in 1693 and Martha in 1708. They are both buried at the
Quaker Burial Ground at Shoebroad, Langfield. |
George
Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, or Quakers (1624-1691) |
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The
entrance to the burial ground |
The
Toleration Act allowed Protestant Christians to maintain
their own places of worship provided they were certified to
do so and they signed a loyalty oath. THE QUAKERS of Todmorden
& Walsden built such a Meeting House at Shoebroad, Langfield,
in 1696, having first been given a certificate. They signed
an oath of allegiance in January 1695, and amongst the signatories
were John and Joshua Fielden, sons of Joshua of Bottomley. |
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Joshua and Martha had 6 sons and a daughter. The sons were brought
up to work on the farm and as clothiers and "putters out''
of raw wool to the neighbouring cottage people to spin and
weave. They
were likewise brought up as Quakers and 5 of the brothers
became successful, enterprising men. They were John, Joshua,
Thomas, Nicholas and Samuel.
John
Fielden of Todmorden Hall
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John
was the youngest of the brothers and the most successful.
In 1703 he bought Todmorden Hall, which had been in the hands
of the Radcliffe family for 400 years. Elizabeth Radcliffe
had been the only child of the last owner and had married
unwisely. Her husband, Roger Mainwaring, dissipated the family
assets and ended by selling the Hall to John in order to clear
his debts. |
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John
started a woollen business at the Hall in partnership with
his brother Samuel who had recently married Elizabeth Veepon
in a Quaker ceremony. Four years later, John married
Tamar Halstead, an heiress of Erringden. They married at a
Quaker Meeting House on 9th November 1707. She brought a dowry
of £400 to the marriage and they moved to live at the
Hall. Samuel and his wife moved out to live at FLAILCROFT FARM. |
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The
taking in and putting out steps built by John
at the rear of Todmorden Hall |
John's
woollen business flourished. As a clothing manufacturer he
found employment for his nephews, nieces and a great many
small farmers and cottagers of the district who spun and wove
his wool. They would bring back the finished pieces to the
Hall, climbing the 'taking in' and 'putting out' steps to
the rear of the building. John also ventured into the export
market, selling his cloth to Holland. He transported the pieces
via packhorse over the hills to Hull on the East coast from
where they were shipped to Amsterdam. |
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He
was a devout Quaker and attended meetings all over the North
of England, serving as a travelling minister. He records in
his diary that he often travelled to meetings in York with
his wife, both of them on horse-back. They lived all their
married life at the Hall, making many additions and alterations.
The
Todmorden Hall Estate was vast, including a great deal of
land and numerous farms and buildings such as Edge End Farm,
and a great amount of land within Todmorden itself. In fact,
he owned much of where the current town of Todmorden stands
today. At that time, Todmorden was barely there. The only
village settlements were the Hall itself and St. Mary's, with
Scaitcliffe Hall and Stansfield Hall a mile or two away, each
with a few cottages. The rest was farmland, woods and marshes.
Most people lived on the shelf lands - narrow plateaux between
the heavily wooded and marshy valley bottoms and the absolute
desolate moors at the very top. There were settlements at
Mankinholes, Gauxholme, Bottomley, Inchfield, Warland, Shore
and Carr House Fold, but nothing in the village centre at
all. In 1728 John and Tamar had the New Inn and farm built
right in the centre of the village next to the church. This
later became known as the WHITE HART. Sometime before he died,
John gave the New Inn to his nephew Samuel Fielden, the youngest
son of his brother Joshua.
In
addition to his own estate, John and his brother Nicholas
shared the ownership of the CORN MILL AT GAUXHOLME. When
Nicholas died in 1714, leaving 3 small children, John and
Tamar took responsibility for the children and ran the mill
at Gauxholme for their benefit entirely.
John
outlived all his siblings, and he and Tamar were childless.
His enormous fortune fell to be distributed amongst his nephews
and nieces - about 15 of them in all. At the time of his death
he held: Todmorden Hall and estate, with gate houses and cottages
then in the occupation of himself, his nephew Abraham Fielden,
John Tattersall, William Farrar and William Travis; a dwelling
known as Dog House; a messuage and tenement called Edge End
in the tenure of Elizabeth Fielden, widow of his brother Samuel;
a domain known as Buckley Wood in Todmorden and a tenement
called ALLESCHOLES in Walsden.
John's
will appoints as Trustees his friends William Greenwood the
elder of Langfield, yeoman, Thomas Lawson of Todmorden, yeoman,
John and William Greenwood of Langfield, sons of William Greenwood
the elder, bachelors, and Henry Dyson of Rishworth, yeoman.
In case of any of the Trustees to his will dying, the survivors
are to:
"Select
another substantial person of the people commonly called
Quakers and
if any Trustees turn away from the principles of the
Quakers another
is to be appointed in his place".
The
greatest portion of his estate, including a life interest
in Todmorden Hall, was left to his favoured nephew, Abraham
Fielden, second son of his eldest brother Joshua. He was charged
with the responsibility of making payments to other beneficiaries
from the rental income. The choice of Abraham as main beneficiary
is evidence that John had disowned Abraham's older brother,
Joshua junior, his widow and his 3 children. Joshua junior
had already died by this time, but he had a young widow and
3 very small children. However, they were completely disinherited
by John for reasons that we will see later.
Tamar
received back her original dowry of £400 plus, for her
lifetime, the dining room, the new parlour, the meal house
and the new chamber. William Fielden, son of his brother Nicholas
deceased, was to receive the annual sum of £10 out of
the estate bequeathed to Abraham. To Thomas and Samuel, sons
of his late brother Samuel, he left ALLESCHOLES, in equal
shares. Lower Allescholes was to go to Thomas and the rest
of the estate to Samuel . The rest of the nephews and nieces
were bequeathed sums of money ranging from £10 to £80.
John
died on 20th May 1734 and Tamar the following year on 8th
February. They are both buried at the Quaker Burial Ground
at Shoebroad. |
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The
burial ground in 2004
Joshua
Fielden of Bottomley
Joshua
was the eldest of the brothers. He married Mary Sutcliffe and carried
on the farm and the cloth business started by his father at BOTTOMLEY.
He died in 1715 at Bottomley and is buried at Shoebroad Burial Ground.
Joshua and Mary had 3 sons worthy of note; Joshua junior, Abraham
and Samuel.
Joshua
junior, his oldest son, committed a great sin in the eyes of his
Quaker family when he married his sweetheart Elizabeth Crossley
of Walsden. She wasn't a Quaker and she stuck by her own loyalties
to the established Church. They were married at the Parish Church
of St. Chad's in Rochdale in 1723. Joshua junior and his family
were disowned by his parents and uncles and had to make their own
way in life. Sadly for Elizabeth, Joshua junior had a riding accident,
suffered a gangrenous leg, and died at the age of 29 in 1731. They
had 3 small sons, and very soon after she was widowed, Elizabeth
had them baptised at St. Mary's in Todmorden, on 19th March 1732.
This sealed their fate in the eyes of their Quaker relatives and,
publicly at least, they were cut off from any inheritance that would
otherwise have come their way. Joshua junior, being the eldest son
of John's eldest brother, would have been a natural choice to be
the main beneficiary of John's will as he would have been the legal
next of kin. However, he pre-deceased his uncle John, and his widow
and children were entirely by-passed in favour of his younger brother,
Abraham.
Abraham
was the middle son of the three. He went to live with his uncle
John at Todmorden Hall, working in the clothing trade, where he
later remained, becoming the favourite nephew. Abraham inherited
the estate and business after his uncle John died in 1734. He lived
at the Hall until his death in 1779. He, too, is buried at Shoebroad.
After his death the estate was sold off to Anthony Crossley.
Samuel,
the youngest son, was only 4 years old when his father died. When
he was a young man he went to his uncle Nicholas at Edge End to
learn the clothing trade, and then returned to Bottomley and took
possession of the property about 1745. His uncle John of Todmorden
Hall gave him, as a free gift, the WHITE HART INN and farm. However,
he preferred his life at Bottomley and remained there, working at
his own trade. He installed his own son, Samuel junior, as tenant
at the inn and farm. After his wife died in 1770, Samuel turned
his farm at Bottomley over to his son John and went to live in a
cottage at Doghouse in Todmorden.
Doghouse
cottages in Todmorden
It
was whilst he was there that he sold the White Hart Inn Farm to John Greenwood
of Langfield for the sum of £460. The land included the messuage,
1 barn and other outbuildings, plus "about 41 days work of
land". It also included the ground rents of 9 shillings a year
on some new buildings being erected on the land, namely: a preaching
house (Doghouse Wesleyan Chapel established 1784) and 5 dwelling
houses leased by Mr. John Crossley, Simon Whip, Richard Thomas,
James Scholfield and Betty Crossley. Samuel excluded from the sale,
reserving ownership for himself, 3 old cottages known as Doghouse,
an old cote at the end of the cottages and a croft behind the cottages
with a strip of land to the front.
SAMUEL'S WILL, dated
17 March 1786, left everything he owned to his eldest son, Samuel junior. This
included the whole of the proceeds of the sale of the White Hart,
including that portion not yet paid over, three cottages at Doghouse,
Doghouse Croft, and a piece of land in front of these houses. He
named the current tenants and occupiers as Ambrose Veevers, John
Ingham, Martha Hopkinson and Samuel junior. The very next day he
added a codicil to his will leaving his clothes, household goods,
bed and bedding to his other children, Joshua, John and Mary the
wife of JAMES SCHOLFIELD.
Samuel
left Doghouse and returned to Bottomley where he lived another 12
years, dying in 1798 aged 87 at Bottomley.
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path from Bottomley to Deanroyd |
Salter Rake at Hollingworth |
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the path as it reaches the burial ground |
There
were 160 people at Samuel's funeral. The cortege went by Deanroyd,
Hollingworth and Salter Rake, by the old highway and down
by Top of Rough to the Friends Burial Place at Shewbroad.
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Samuel's
son, John, to whom the Bottomley lands passed, was always known
as "Little Quaker". He started off as a butcher and then
took over the farm at Bottomley and the woollen business. He extended
the farm and re-built the barn and cattle shed in 1784. His initials
appear over the archway. It was designed so that a long passage
within the house led directly in to the cattle shed and barn, without
the need to go outside. |
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Also
about that time he built a small spinning mill on his land
and moved over to the production of cotton. On the left is
the possible site of the old mill, on the sloping banks of
a small waterfall behind his home. |
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John
helped to establish the first Sunday school for children in his
own large home at Bottomley. The
first anniversary of the school was held at DEANROYD in 1810. The
collection amounted to £10 and the people wondered how such
a large sum could be spent. It was decided a purpose-built school
should be erected and in the year 1818 the school was completed,
originally known as Bottomley Lane Foot, and then LANEBOTTOM SCHOOL.
John Fielden of Bottomley donated the land on condition he could
send one scholar free of charge to the day school and that the school
should welcome children of all denominations. |
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A
stone was placed above the door with the inscription:
The
School was built by public subscription for instructing
the
children of all denominations |
The
school |
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was a Trustee of the school along with his sons, sons-in-law,
and grandchildren. He died in 1822 aged 80 and is buried at
St. Mary's in Todmorden. |
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Nicholas
Fielden of Edge End |
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Nicholas
was the second of the brothers. He married Ann Helliwell and
moved to Edge End Farm where he became a prosperous clothier.
Ann died young, leaving Nicholas with 3 small children. He
re-married, but died himself shortly afterwards, leaving his
3 children to be brought up by their step-mother. They were
financially sound, thanks to their uncle John who continued
to run their father's business at GAUXHOLME CORN MILL on their behalf. |
Edge
End Farm |
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Nicholas'
son, Nicholas junior, died suddenly in 1729 when still quite young.
Ann married Jonathan Craven. The third child was William. He inherited
an annuity of £10 a year out of the Todmorden Hall Estate
from his uncle John. This was a considerable sum in those days and
he would have been very wealthy. He married Mary Armistead from
Settle in a Quaker ceremony in 1730. Despite his tragic early life,
losing his mother at the age of 2, his father at the age of 5, and
having a step-mother to bring him up, he and Mary had 4 children
and settled down......or did they?
Thomas
Fielden of North Hollingworth |
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North
Hollingworth Farm |
Thomas,
the third brother, married Alice Lees and took over his mother's
old home at NORTH HOLLINGWORTH FARM where he became a wealthy
yeoman farmer and woollen cloth manufacturer. He died in 1726.
His nephew, Thomas, son of Samuel and Elizabeth, went to look
after the widowed Alice at Hollingworth, and also the farm
and the business, eventually inheriting the farm for himself. |
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Samuel
Fielden
The
fourth brother was Samuel. He married Elizabeth Veepon of Briercliffe
at the Friends Meeting House at Colne in 1703. Samuel joined his
elder brother Nicholas at Edge End Farm in the woollen clothier
trade, which he mixed with farming. After his marriage he moved
into Todmorden Hall, which had recently been purchased by his younger
brother John. Together, John and Samuel started a clothier business.
After John married, Samuel and Elizabeth moved out to FLAILCROFT FARM, and it was there where their second son, Joshua, was born
in 1708. The family moved to Edge End after brother Nicholas had
died in 1714. Samuel himself died in 1722, leaving Elizabeth with
a considerable number of young children to care for. She remained
at Edge End until her death in 1747.
Two
of Samuel's sons, Thomas and Samuel, inherited the farms at ALLESCHOLES from their uncle John. When Samuel junior reached the age of majority
he sold his half share to Thomas. Thomas then moved to live at North
Hollingworth to look after his aunty Alice, the farm and the business,
which he later inherited. |
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Their
other son, Joshua, married Mary Merrick of Warrington, and
on 29th December 1748 they had a son, Joshua junior, born
at Edge End Farm. Little did they know at the time that Joshua
junior was to become the founder of a Fielden Dynasty, father
of the Merchant Princes who shaped the whole future of Todmorden. |
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