Diaries provide a real insight, Teesdale Mercury

Diaries provide a real insight

Apr 1, 2008

DIARIES are quite remarkable documents, particularly if they were originally written  for private consumption. They can give an insight into the mind of the writer and the society in which they lived in a way that no other document does. 

Teesdale is fortunate in that a number of its inhabitants have written diaries. And unusually some of these diarists lived more than 200 years ago - an added bonus to the local historian.

One of Teesdale's more famous diarists was a man called Christopher Sanderson who was born over 350 years ago in 1617. The Surtees Society has published his diary - or at least extracts from it, so you can go to the library and read it for yourself. Christopher was the third son of a Barnard Castle haberdasher, and his grandfather Bartholomew was also from Barney. Christopher Sanderson did quite well for himself, becoming a J.P. and then the owner of Eggleston Hall and estate. He married three times so maybe it was simply that one of his wives was particularly wealthy. 

He married his first wife, Christian Thursby in 1641. The Thursby family farmed Woolhouse Farm, which still stands to the West of Barney. Woolhouse is a fine farmhouse - Grade II listed actually. However the Thursby's didn't own the farm, it being part of the Raby Estates. And Christian was one of 12 children so she can't have brought much money with her when she married. It was at the start of their married life together that Christopher began his diary.

Christopher and Christian had 6 children together before Christian died in 1653 at the age of 36. One of their sons was born at Woolhouse but the Sanderson's probably made their home in Barnard Castle. The 12 years they were married were the years of the Civil War, a particularly turbulent time both locally and nationally. You do wonder how much that war impinged on the life of ordinary dalesmen and women. Fortunately we do have some idea because we have Christopher's diary. 

The Sandersons were at Barney at the time of the plague in 1644 and when the king's party marched through the town in August 1648 and later in the same year when Oliver Cromwell visited Blagrove's House. Christopher records all these events and gives some idea of the views of ordinary people. For instance when the king's party came to Barney he records that, ‘I htero Repht ffel vey god adn found ell the acualeers' - ‘I heard Ralph Fel say, God confound all cavaleers'. I haven't seen Christopher Sanderson's diary - only the transcription - but if the above extract is a typical example then I wouldn't have liked the transcriber's job! Perhaps Christopher was using a kind of code like Samuel Pepys.

Ralph Fel's comments do suggest that the sympathies of at least some of the inhabitants of Barney lay with Oliver Cromwell. The description of the visit of Oliver Cromwell reinforces that view. Christopher comments that Cromwell was met by a deputation outside the town and escorted by them to his lodging. There he was presented with burnt wine and shortcake. The names of the men who rode out to meet Oliver Cromwell are all recorded by Christopher - all 12 of them. 

It isn't only the events of the war that interested Christopher Sanderson. Like all dalesmen, past and present, he was interested in the weather. He writes that the summer of 1652 was very dry  - so dry in fact that many wells dried up, there was ‘no corne to be gott in at the 29th of August about Barnard-Castle that yeare.'  He also commented that people went ‘dry-shod acrosse the Teese'.   

The following year in March 1653 Christopher's wife Christian died. He writes that she died whilst at William Wharton's house. William Wharton was one of the group of men who entertained Oliver Cromwell on his visit to the town five years earlier. Presumably he and the Sandersons were in the same social set.  Christian was interred within St. Mary's Church ‘in the pue or stall where my father sitts'. Christopher writes that Mr George Sanderson preached her funeral sermon. This man had been appointed by the Commonwealth as vicar of Gainford, replacing the sitting incumbent. Do you think he could have been related to Christopher - does anyone know? It should be possible to find out. Christian died less than five months after the death of Hannah their youngest child who would have been two when she died.

Christopher didn't spend long mourning his wife. In September 1653, barely 6 months after her death, Christopher married Margaret Webster, ‘daughter to Robertt Webster of Hartenpoole, merchant'. Do you think he means Hartlepool? They were married at Langley Hall the house of Gabriel Jackson, Christopher's cousin. The Websters are also described as being of Startforth so maybe the family had two houses.

During this second marriage in 1659 Christopher bought Eggleston Hall from Toby Ewbank. Of course this was not the Eggleston Hall that we know today. The Hutchinson family built the present hall early in the 19th Century. 

I hope this article has encouraged some of you to start writing a journal so that later generations can learn about life in 21st Century Teesdale.

First published in the Mercury, Wednesday, March 26, 2008