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The Birtwhistles of Craven and Galloway
Carleton - in - Craven: the final chapter Until her death in 1852, Anna appears to have made extended summer visits to Skipton, arriving around Whitsun time, and staying for several months. The 1841 census shows both Anna and her daughter staying with the King family, next to Skipton Parish church, but in 1851 it was only Anna who was at Mill House. The Bristol census of 1851 shows Agnes Niven then head of household at 3 Dowry Parade, Bristol, her guest being Sarah, the youngest daughter of the Skipton corn miller. We might have expected Agnes to have memorialised her mother in Skipton Parish Church, where her forbears had been buried, but an impressive marble statue to her mother is in the nearby village of Carleton-in-Craven. The reason for choosing Carleton rather than Skipton probably lies in an unusually large Birtwhistle monument high on the aisle wall in Skipton Parish church. Ostensibly a celebration of John Birtwhistle (1715-1787), a close inspection shows that the monument was erected by John Purdie Birtwhistle, listing all the members of the extended Birtwhistle family from his grandfather to himself, with the exception of Agnes Vardill, nee Birtwhistle, and members of the Vardill branch of the family. The Skipton church memorial should be seen as a celebration of John Birtwhistle’s success in Birtwhistle vs Vardill, rather than a genuine memorial to his grandfather, and the Carleton church memorial as an attempt by Agnes Niven to counter the triumphalism of her mother’s adversary in Birtwhistle vs Vardill. Somewhat surprisingly, on 11^th November 1852, only 5 months after her mother’s death, 27 year old Agnes Niven made a will which left her real estate to John Robinson of Skipton, the banker who had managed the Birtwhistle estate in Yorkshire for both her mother and her grandmother. Henry Crabb Robinson was a witness to the will, which gave life annuities to Maria and Caroline Denman, to several members of the King family of Skipton, and small bequests to members of the Niven family. The residual estate was to be split between the Carleton alms house, a residence for 6 female inmates, and any such London hospitals as her executors thought fit. There was a request that a tablet at the Carleton alms house should show the names of herself, her mother and grandmother - which it does.
Figure 36 The memorial to Anna Jane Vardill in Carleton church and the Carleton alms house endowed in her name, and the names of her mother and daughter
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