|
Page 55 |
|
|||||
|
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 |
|
|||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
||||
|
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 . |
|
|||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
Page 55 |
|
|||||