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The Birtwhistles of Craven and Galloway
Although Birtwhistle vs Vardill was settled in the House of Lords in 1841, Anna’s prediction that the B’hive might have difficulty in agreeing how to divide their portion of the estate proved to be correct; it was only in 1847 that deed PO83 278 was registered at Wakefield which defined Agnes Niven’s share of the Birtwhistle estate. Agnes still held the Carleton portion of this estate when it was shown on a map which accompanied an offer for sale of a substantial Carleton estate owned by Henry Wilson Currer of Eshton Hall, Gargrave in 1855. Agnes purchased several of Henry Currer Wilson’s sale lots, and these are shown in figure 37, together with the Birtwhistle holdings in Carleton at the time of the tithe survey of 1841. In 1857 Agnes Niven built a substantial mansion in Carleton known as Ravenshaw, on land held by the Birtwhistles in 1841, but the 1861 census shows retired banker John Robinson, her heir- at- law, living there. Perhaps like her mother, Agnes was in the habit of staying at different places at different times of the year, only occasionally staying at Ravenshaw with her heir-at-law. Her initials appear over the door at Ravenshaw, and Agnes was probably living there at the time of her death in 1872, for the plaque on the wall of the Carleton alms house describes her as “of Carleton”. Two of the Carleton tenants of the Birtwhistles at the time of the Tithe Survey of 1841 were Thomas and James Slingsby, and the Long Preston Tithe Survey of the same year reveals the brothers as holders of seven acres of pasture on the Long Preston hilltops, adjacent to the Langber pasture holding of the Birtwhistles ( see figure 2 for location). Thomas Slingsby was a resident of Liverpool, and was described as a grazier and butcher, and the two brothers would appear to have emulated the Birtwhistles in having a brother at each end of a droving route. Although we have records from the 18^th century showing the Birtwhistles taking cattle to East Anglia, it is only from 19^th century records that we are aware of cattle travelling through Carleton to Liverpool. Another way in which the Slingsbys emulated the Birtwhistles was in becoming mill owners. In 1860, William Birtwhistle, surgeon of Skipton, sold the Swan Inn to William Slingsby who, in 1861 erected a substantial mill on the croft behind the inn he had just purchased.
Figure 38 The Swan Inn (left) and Slingsby mill built on the croft behind the inn
Mill owner JArthur Slingsby later inherited the Ravenshaw mansion through marriage, which may explain why some of Anna’s artefacts were in his hands when WEAxon consulted him when researching Anna’s work. Slingsby loaned Axon the engraved copper plate used by Anna for the frontispiece for the third edition of her “ Poems and Translations” in 1816 (see figure 23), and Axon used this in 1908 for his article on Anna’s work in transactions of the Royal Society of Literature .
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