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Brettargh

George Thomson

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A Doctor at Anzio 1944

A Doctor at Anzio 1944

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There are many accounts of the Anzio Campaign, but this is a personal account by someone who was there. Rather than a broad strategic overview of the campaign, it offers a worms-eye view of what life was really like on the ground.
James Thomson and his Native Family

James Thomson and his Native Family

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James Thomson was from the Isle of Lewis. He worked as a fur trader in the wild north of Canada. As well as his wife in Stornoway he took a native wife from the local Chipewyan (Dene) Indian tribe, and together they were alleged to have had a daughter.
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Holt Hall Farm

The Brettargh Family of Liverpool

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The Brettargh Family of Liverpool

Overview

I have used family correspondence and memoranda of pedigree from the College of Arms to trace the family back to James Brettargh who died in 1664. The original copies of all of these documents were originally in our possession, but have now been donated to the Kendal Record Office, in Cumbria, along with all the other Yeates related correspondence and diaries, and made available to the public. The documents referred to in this article have been made available for download at the end of this article.

For information about the Brettargh family earlier than that date I have relied upon an excellent article written by R Stewart-Brown MA FSA entitled the Brettarghs of Brettargh Holt in Woolton. This article was published in Vol 88 of Transactions 1936 and the information therein is reproduced with the kind permission of the editor and council of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire.

Margaretta Brettargh

“Madge” Brettargh as she was known to her family was born in Liverpool, England on 6 August 1802, the eldest daughter of William Brettargh and Margaret Kendall. Her story is told here.

The Brettargh family can trace their heritage in Liverpool back to the twelfth century, or to the reign of King John as her husband, John Richards, describes it in one of his letters to his wife.

This page is an overview of the Brettargh Family. I have deliberately avoided trying to document the direct line of succession. That information is available in other places including my tree on Ancestry.co.uk. Instead I wanted to focus on the connection to the family and also provide some anecdotes about the rise and fall of the fortunes of this family over the centuries. 

Letter from John Richards to his wife
Letter from John Richards to his wife

Childwall

The letter opposite is dated April 27th 1831. It is a letter from John Richards to his wife Margaretta “Madge” Brettargh. John Richards is in Childwall, Liverpool, which was the original home of the Brettargh family since the twelfth century. 

It seems that John had gone to Liverpool to try to find a connection between his wife’s father William Brettargh and the Brettargh family from Brettargh Holt which is near Childwall. Maybe, he just wanted to do a little family history research or perhaps he hoped to enhance their social standing by association with a notable and armorial family. His letter transcribes as follows:

Childwall April 27th 1831

My dear Madge

You told me not to write long letters, and this is likely to be the shortest you will ever get. I have been too long in the church searching the Registers that I am quite tired, and half blind, but you will wish to hear me safe, my morning’s work has convinced me that there is something wrong about this family Estate. Give my love to Mr Anthony and Mr George and believe me,

Yours ever affectionately

John Richards

PS John Haswell very kindly came with me. JR

 

Draft Pedigree of Brettargh and Yeates

The draft pedigree opposite shows the confirmation by the York Herald, Rev William King, that the attached pedigree may be considered to be proved subject to the supply of some additional documentary evidence. The transcription reads as follows:

“I think that this pedigree may be considered as proved from James Brettarghe and Deborah his wife to their great grandson John Brettarghe who died in 1779.  It will be desirable however that copies of the wills mentioned should be procured, as the abstracts are not very clear.”

“The issue given to John, abovementioned require to be somewhat corroborated as the evidence of their baptisms is scarcely sufficient for their identification; and the affiliation of William Brettarghe who died in 1804 to Henry must be identified.”

Rev Wm. King, York Herald

Heralds College

17 Jan 1865

As the Pedigree was eventually accepted by the College of Arms, I assume that the deficiencies identified by the York Herald were rectified.

Draft Pedigree of Brettargh
Draft Pedigree of Brettargh
Holt Hall Farm before demolition.
Holt Hall Farm before demolition.

Holt Hall Farm, Woolton, Liverpool

Brettargh Holt was the ancestral seat of the Brettargh family. It has now been demolished, but it was located in what is now the Childwall area of Liverpool. All Saints Parish Church in Childwall contains many memorials and graves of the Brettargh family.

The original Brettargh Holt was located on about 300 acres of land to the west of Tarbock Hall and north of Childwall Brook on land that is now occupied by Childwall Golf Club.

The original building became known as Holt Hall Farm and has now been demolished.

Location of Brettargh Holt

“The Holt” is located on the right of the map and is circled in red ink.

The map has been created by overlaying the 1840 OS 6 inch to the mile map over contemporary satellite imagery and reducing the opacity of the top map to allow the satellite imagery to be visible below this map.

Map of Brettargh Holt 1840. Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland.
Map of Brettargh Holt 1840. Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland.

Location of Brettargh Holt Site Today

The location of Brettargh Holt has been identified in red ink on the satellite photograph opposite. 

It is immediately adjacent to Childwall Golf Club which can be clearly seen to the north west, and the M62 is clearly visible at the top of the photo.

 
Aerial photo of location of Brettargh Holt. Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland.
Aerial photo of location of Brettargh Holt. Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland.
William Brettargh died 1804
William Brettargh died 1804

William Brettargh

Opposite is a small extract of the pedigree that was submitted to the York Herald at the College of Arms. William Brettargh was Madge Brettargh’s father and died when she was just two years old, just like her husband’s father died when he was also aged two. No wonder this couple want to establish their pedigree!

The Herald’s comments are marked on the pedigree in red ink and read as follows:

“There is no evidence at present to show that he was the son of Henry. His Uncle’s will might establish the fact.”

We have to assume that these deficincies were rectified as the Draft Pedigree was eventually accepted by the College of Arms.

Connecting the two families

It seems that John Richards and John Haswell continued their search of the parish registers and gravestones in All Saint’s Church in Childwall. John Richards writes again to his wife and an extract is transcribed below.

John Haswell has found a paper amongst his fathers, which fully establishes the connexion of your father’s family with the Holt Estate, it is an account of the payment of eight hundred and ten pounds, which seems to me to be a compensation in lieu of Dower, due to your great grandmother, but tomorrow I have to see it. Leigh whose father seems to have been the attorney upon the question.

My visit to Childwall was very satisfactory, the register confirmed the abstract which I have got, but I do not wonder at your father’s name being omitted for I could barely ? from the bad spelling (Bretar).

Extract of letter from John Richards to his wife from Childwall.
Extract of letter from John Richards to his wife from Childwall.
Brettargh Chart
Brettargh Chart

Pedigree

This is the section of the Brettargh Pedigree which includes John Richards and it describes John Richards as follows.

John Richards of Kirkland in the Parish of Kendal, Co Westmorland. In the Commission of the Peace for the Borough of Kendal & for the County of Westmorland 1837.  Took the name & Arms of Yeates only by Royal Sign Manual dated 31 May 1837.

The Pedigree does not include George H B Yeates who was not born until 1841, so it was reasonable to assume that the Pedigree was created between 1837 and 1841. But it is a mystery why the comments on the pedigree by the York Herald are dated 1865, unless George Yeates wanted to verify that the heraldry to be used in the stained glass window, which he was installing in Holy Trinity Church, Kendal in memory of his parents was correctly designed in terms of the heraldic shields.

James Brettargh

Our family papers record the history of the Brettargh family as far back as James Brettargh, who died in 1664.

James Brettargh of Brettargh Holt
James Brettargh of Brettargh Holt
Memoranda John Yeates (formerly Richards)
Memoranda John Yeates (formerly Richards)

Memoranda

I found the document opposite amongst John Yeates’ papers. It is entitled Memoranda, but reads very much like a To Do list that we would use today. It reads as follows:

  
To enquire of Reveley [his solicitor] if he has an old Memorandum sent to my [father] by Mr Martin of the Heralds Office, taken from a book given by the late Duke of Norfolk to the office in which the Brettarghs are traced up to King John’s time.
 
Information included below about the Brettargh Family before this date has been derived from an article in Vol 88 of the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, and is reproduced with the kind permission of the editor and council of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire.

The Brettargh Family

The Brettargh family can trace their history back to 1180, when John, Constable of Chester granted the “vill” of Brettargh to william de Suonis. In 1324 William de Huyton settled Brettargh and about 100 acres of land on Avice, who was thought to be either his daughter or his discarded wife. At this time, Avice was the wife of Roger the Walker, and together they became de Brettargh.

By the end of the fifteenth century the family pedigree can be traced fairly accurately to current times. Though never a family of the front rank, the Brettarghs of Brettargh Holt were of prominence and position in Lancashire.

Probably never a wealthy family, but fortunes began to go downhill in the seventeenth century largely due to the extravagance and recklessness of Nehemiah Brettargh and his son James. Further heavy liabilities were incurred by James grandson of James. He sold the valuable property at Aigburth, which had come to the family in the sixteenth century by the marriage with the heiress of John Toxteth. 

The entail of “The Holt” was broken and the ancestral estates heavily mortgaged. Before his death in 1747 James Brettargh seems to have been forced to leave “The Holt”, and he was the last Brettargh to live there. About 1790, The Holt estate was thrown into Chancery, for non-payment of a mortgage.

Brettargh Pedigree
Brettargh Pedigree

Original Documents

This article has been prepared from the Yeates Family Documents and Diaries, the original copies of these documents have now been donated to the Kendal Record Office and have been made available to the public for viewing or download.

 

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Download Original Documents
Yeates Window Holy Trinity Church, Kendal

John Yeates and Margaretta Brettargh

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John Yeates and Margaretta Brettargh

John Yeates (formerly Richards)

John Yeates was born on 30 May 1796 in Kendal, Westmorland, England and baptised as John Richards. He changed his name in later life as a condition of benefitting from the will of Anthony Yeates, his guardian. His father, who was also called John Richards was from Llanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth. He was originally a Ship’s Surgeon but became a ship’s captain in the slave trade sailing out of Liverpool. To avoid confusion I will refer to John Richards, father and son, as Senior and Junior.

John Richards Senior married Jane Yeates in St Anne’s Liverpool on 27 February 1794. Jane came from Kendal and Old Hutton in Westmorland. Sadly, John Richards Senior died on his second voyage as the Captain of the Slave Ship Brookes and was buried in Kingston, Jamaica in 1798. His son, John Richards Junior, would have only been two years old, when his father died. Jane Yeates and her son John returned to Kendal in Westmorland and lived with her uncle, Anthony Yeates 1744-1837, who was a wealthy business man in the leather tanning industry in Kendal.

Margaretta Brettargh

“Madge” Brettargh as she was known within the family was born in Liverpool, England on 6 August 1802, the eldest daughter of William Brettargh and Margaret Kendall. John Richards and Madge Brettargh traced the earlier history of the Brettargh Family of Liverpool and this story can be read here.

The Brettargh family were an old armorial family whose family pedigree has been authenticated by the College of Arms back to the twelfth century. The history of the Brettargh family has also been documented in an article in the Journal of the Historic Society of Lancs and Cheshire Vol 88 (1939) by R Stewart Brown MA FSA entitled “The Brettarghs of Brettargh Holt”.

Brettargh Holt was the ancestral seat of the Brettargh family. It has now been demolished, but it was located in what is now the Childwall area of Liverpool. All Saints Parish Church in Childwall contains many memorials and graves of the Brettargh family.

John Richards Junior, who changed his name to 'Yeates'
John Richards Junior, who changed his name to ‘Yeates’

John Richards Junior

John Richards Junior, having been brought up by his great uncle Anthony Yeates in Kendal, married Margaretta Brettargh at St Benet Fink Church in Gracechurch Street, London on 6 August 1825, Madge’s 23rd birthday. The seventeenth century building in which they were married was demolished in 1844.

Between 1826 and 1836 John and Madge raised six children at their home in Park Head, Levens near Heversham in Westmorland. Two of their children died in childhood. Their seventh child, and our ancestor, George Henry Brettargh Yeates was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany on 24 July 1841, only six years before the death of both his parents. There is a separate page on the history of George Yeates and Beatrice Boulger. It should be said, however, that recent ancestral DNA testing provides circumstantial evidence that George Yeates might have been an adopted child of John and Madge Richards.

John Richards Junior, was elected Mayor of Kendal in 1836 and was the first Mayor elected after the Reform Act. The painting of John Richards on the left was commissioned ty the Kendal Town Council and hangs in the Town Hall.

 

Jane Yeates

The painting opposite has been dated to approximately 1800. The subject of the painting is not known, but it is believed to be Jane Yeates, John Richards Junior’s mother. The child in the picture appears to have been added at a later date and is considered to be painted by a different artist.

Jane Yeates died in Kirk Maughold in the Isle of Man on 24 March 1830.

Jane Yeates c1800
Jane Yeates c1800
Slave Ship Captains
Slave Ship Captains

The Slave Trade

The Slave Trade, sometimes referred to as the triangular trade, due to the three legged voyages undertaken by the ships. The ships departed from Liverpool laden with local goods, most probably cotton goods from the Lancashire mills. They sailed to West Africa where they sold the cotton in order to buy slaves, who were then transported across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, where they were sold. Sugar was purchased from the proceeds of the sale, which was then transported back to Liverpool.

The illustration opposite shows that John Richards Senior was the Captain of the Slave Ship Brookes and that he died in Kingston, Jamaica on 16 June 1798. This date is corroborated by a Memorandum of Pedigree authenticated by the College of Arms.

British Slave Ship Brookes

The illustration opposite shows the stowage plan for the slaves being transported to Jamaica. It defies belief that slaves could be chained side by side like sardines for the duration of the crossing. 

This poster had such an apalling effect on the public that it was adopted and used as publicity by the anti slavery movement. Mercifully, by 1807 the slave trade had been banned in the UK. 

More information about the Slave Trade Abolitionist Movement can be found at the Royal Museums Greenwich website. Every year on 23 August, the National Maritime Museum commemorates International Slavery Remembrance Day, featuring a day of talks, workshops and performances exploring the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies.

Stowage Plans of Slave Ship 'Brookes'
Stowage Plans of Slave Ship ‘Brookes’
The French Frigate Clorinde, on left, was captured by the British in 1814
The French Frigate Clorinde, on left, was captured by the British in 1814

HMS Clorinde

John Richards Junior served in the Royal Navy and his first posting was on board the Clorinde. The Clorinde was a French frigate of 40 guns which had been captured by the British in 1814. It was orginally called HMS Clorinde, but was later renamed HMS Aurora.

John Richards sailed on HMS Clorinde to the eastern Mediterranean in accompanying HRH the Princess of Wales.

He also sailed to the Falkland Islands in 1820, 1821.

John Richards Diary 1843

We have no birth certificate for Madge Brettargh, but John Richards’ diary for August 6th Sunday 1843, provides circumstantial evidence of her birth on 6 August 1802 and their marriage on 6 August 1825. For convenience I have transcribed his diary entry below.

“August 6th Sunday. My wife’s birthday and our wedding day, 41 years of age and eighteen years married, mother of seven children, five living and two gone, I trust, to heaven and happiness. It was a hard trial to leave them for they were good children. But every day that passes shortens the period of our separation. May each succeeding year teach us the increasing value of a decreasing time, so that when the day comes that we are to render the body to the earth and the spirit to the God who gave it, we may now be altogether.”

Margaretta Brettargh - Birth Evidence
Portrait of Anthony Yeates
Portrait of Anthony Yeates

Anthony Yeates 1744 – 1837

Anthony Yeates was the guardian of John Richards Junior, and with whom he lived at his home in Kirkland, Kendal. He is generally regarded as the patriarch of the various branches of the Yeates family, largely on account of the fact that he lived to the grand old age of 93 at a time when the average male life expectancy was about 40. There is no doubt that he built a successful leather tanning business on the back of hard work, but he also outlived most of his siblings and relatives and seems to have inherited well from his family, to the extent that by the time of his death he was a wealthy man.

His considerable fortune was shared between two nephews, Robert Henry Machel Michaelson and John Richards Junior on condition that they adopt the name and Arms of Yeates.

The Yeates family of Old Hutton

Anthony Yeates was born at the farmhouse of Hood Ridding in Old Hutton near Kendal. He was part of a large extended family, some of which are commemorated in the plaque opposite which can be seen in the church at Old Hutton. 

It is clear from tha ages on this plaque that longevity was an inherited condition of the Yeates family. Most of the Yeates family are buried by the entrance door to Holy Trinity Church, Kendal.

Plaque in Old Hutton Church to the 'Yeates' family
Plaque in Old Hutton Church to the ‘Yeates’ family
Drawing of Hood Ridding Farm, before it's demolition in 1913
Drawing of Hood Ridding Farm, before it’s demolition in 1913

Hood Ridding Farm, Old Hutton

There is still a farmhouse at Hood Ridding, but it is not the farmhouse where Anthony Yeates would have lived. This was demolished in the early twentieth century. Fortunately, the owner of Hood Ridding allowed me to photograph a sketch of the old farmhouse before it was demolished, for which I am very grateul.

It gives us an insight into the early lives of the Yeates family.

Map of Kendal 1833

The map opposite shows the layout of Kendal in 1833, shortly before Anthony Yeates’ death. He lived in the property just across the road from the Holy Trinity Church, and this is also where John Richards Junior spent his early years.

Anthony Yeates was also a friend and neighbour of the artist George Romney RA, before Romney moved to London. 

Map of Kirkland, Kendal 1833
Map of Kirkland, Kendal 1833
Petiion to William IV to change name to 'Yeates'
Petiion to William IV to change name to ‘Yeates’

John Richards becomes John Yeates

In accordance with the requirements of the will of Anthony Yeates, John Richards Junior duly petitioned the King, William IV, in what must have been his dying days to change his family name to Yeates, and to adopt the arms of Yeates. This was granted on May 31 1837.

His six children had all been born and christened with the surname Richards, so this led to a few unusual names to reckon with, like his eldest son John Yeates Yeates. I could write a book about John Yeates Yeates as he kept a daily diary of his time from his enrolment in the Royal Navy at Devonport to his return to civvy street.

He took part in the final Royal Naval action under sail serving aboard HMS Thunderer, 84 gun Ship of the Line, at St Jean d’Acre and the seige of Beirut in Lebanon. The original diaries have been donated to the Cumbria Record Office in Kendal. Maybe someone could take on the challenge of telling this story. Please, someone pick up the challenge, it’s a fascinating story. 

Emigration to Frankfurt am Main

The letter opposite was written, but presumably never completed, or sent. It is dated Rye April 26th 1839. I have transcribed the letter below.

Rye April 26th 1839

My dear Proudfoot

You will be surprised to hear from me so far south but now that we have got our liberty there is no saying where we shall stop

He is writing to his friend and solicitor, and the letter seems to suggest that now is he is free from the shackles of Mayor of Kendal he has simply taken his family off on a journey with an unknown destination, which turned out to be Frankfurt am Main.

Rye 1839
Envelope addressed to John Yeates at Park Head.
Envelope addressed to John Yeates at Park Head.

Story

An envelope addressed to John Yeates at Park Head, Levens. 

It includes a penny red stamp which must have been just at the beginning of the Postal Service.

Brettargh Holt

In the illustration opposite, Park Head, is located at the bottom of the photo on the right, marked by a purple arrow.

Brettargh Holt is located at the top right marked by a red arrow.

Park Head, Levens. Bottom of picture with purple arrow. Image © Google Earth.
Park Head, Levens. Bottom of picture with purple arrow. Image © Google Earth.
Map of Park Head, Levens. Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland.
Map of Park Head, Levens. Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland.

Park Head, Levens

The map opposite shows the 1830 Ordnance Survey Map overlaying contemporary satellite imagery. The opacity of the OS map has been reduced to allow you to see how the map relates to features on the ground today.

You will also note that Brettargh Holt had not yet been built when this map was created, but the map below shows Brettargh Holt on the 1895 OS 25 inch to the mile map.

Brettargh Holt, Levens

The map opposite shows the 1895 Ordnance Survey Map overlaying contemporary satellite imagery. The opacity of the OS map has been reduced to allow you to see how the map relates to features on the ground today.
 
Map of Brettargh Holt, 1895. Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland.
Map of Brettargh Holt, 1895. Image courtesy of National Library of Scotland.
John Yeates Death Notice

Death Notices

The newspaper clippings opposite record the death of John Yeates and his subsequent burial in the churchyard at Heversham.

Holy Trinity Church, Kendal

After the death of John Yeates and Margaretta Brettargh in 1847, their son George Henry Brettargh Yeates commisioned a stained glass window in their memory in 1865. It is located just inside the entrance door of the church on the right hand side.

There are eight shields incorporated into the design. The simplest is the St. George’s Cross at the very top, whilst the most complex is in the centre. This shield is divided into six sections which relate to the names of Brettargh, Yeates, Toxteth, Ackberg which was in the possession of the Brettarghs in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, and Ives. The Toxteth & Ives connections arise from intermarriage with the Brettarghs.

The left hand panel shows an angel appearing to the centurion Cornelius (Acts 10 v. ff.3) a devout man and one who feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.

The right hand panel depicts another centurion beseeching Christ to heal his servant. Christ says of him, (Matthew 8.5) , I have not found so great faith, no, not in all Israel.

The heraldry details are from ‘The Stained Glass Windows of Kendal Parish Church’ by Roy Eaves.

Yeates Window Holy Trinity Church, Kendal
Yeates Window Holy Trinity Church, Kendal

Original Documents

This article has been prepared from the Yeates Family Documents and Diaries, the original copies of these documents have now been donated to the Kendal Record Office and have been made available to the public for viewing or download.

 

Ancestor Chart