Facebook post #054 (Jan 2020)
The arrival of the English did not immediately finish Elmet, land of my mother’s fathers. Before there was a Leeds or a Sheffield, there was an elm forest of mythology guarding Yr Hen Ogledd – The Old North. In these parts, Camelot was at Camulodunum in the Elmet, on the Roman road East to Eboracum (later York). In the late 6th century, English from Bernicia encroached on Eboracum and the Pennines. In 597 or so, a warband of North British warriors and foot soldiers, including Madog of Elmet, took to the battlefield at Catterick to resist. They were crushed.
Perhaps the inhabitants still hoped that the King of Deira (Lincolnshire) would leave them in peace, fostered as he was by my undoubted ancestor, King of the Britons, in Gwynedd (Cadfan ap Iago, 6th gt-grandson of Cunedda – post #034). But it was not to be – Edwin invaded this last British outpost in 617 and established a royal vil at Camulodunum. In 627, following an assassination attempt by the King of Wessex, Edwin was christened with all his court. It didn’t help him – he was killed and burned in the Elmet vil by the pagan Mercians. Hilda, one of his court, survived to found Whitby Abbey.
In 866, The Great Heathen Army (of Danes) swept all before them and thus was born Yorkshire, God’s Own County. (Nevertheless, the Elmet is genetically distinct to this day.) In 927, Æthelstan overthrew the Danes in York, and England was finally united. Ten years later, he defeated Scots and Scandinavians at the Battle of Brunanburh: “never yet as many people killed before this with sword’s edge… since the east Angles and Saxons came up over the broad sea”. As thanks for this victory, he gave the manors at Sherburn in Elmet and Cawood to the Archbishop of York. The palace at Sherburn was used as a hunting lodge by the Archbishops, and the associated church was wealthy.
In September 1066, the militia was called up after reports that Scarborough had been burned. With reinforcements from across Mercia and Northumberland, they crossed the River Ouse at Fulford, ten miles or so beyond Sherburn. Here they met the invading Norwegian army of King Harald. The battle-hardened Norwegians pushed the English back into the marshes and the Ouse, securing the last Viking victory. King Harold had to march his troops up from London to deal with the Norwegians and then back down to the south coast to face the Norman invasion. The victorious Normans harried the North, laying waste to many manors in Yorkshire as they crushed any resistance.
Despite the hardness of these times, the Domesday Book shows no drop in income in Sherburn and there was continuity in the Church of Rome, albeit with French-speaking senior clergy. Around 1100 the Saxon church was replaced by that which still stands (pic), much augmented since. The palace had fallen into ruin by 1361, so the Archbishop had it demolished and the stone used in the building of the choir at York Minster. It was apparently replaced by a fortified manor house at Rest Park, just outside the village (license to crenellate: 1383).
In 1422, despite being less than a year old, King Henry VI of England succeeded to the French throne. The arrangement worked well enough until Henry was old enough to get involved in affairs of state: by 1453 he had lost all of France, except for Calais, and had a nervous breakdown. By the time he had recovered his senses, the Lord Protector, Richard of York, was considered a popular alternative. Not for the first time, disputed succession led to war. King Henry’s Lancastrian army eventually gained the upper hand but when a fearful London would not open its gates, they withdrew to York. In March 1461, Edward of York was crowned as a rival King and marched north. After a skirmish at Ferrybridge, the Lancastrians fell back to Tadcaster; the Yorkists made camp at Sherburn in Elmet. The rival forces were huge – anything up to 100,000 men in total – up to 5% of all Englishmen and a much higher share of the young.
The Battle of Towton was fought on 29 March 1461, on the open plain between the villages of Saxton (by Sherburn) and Towton. It was probably the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. Soldiers fought for hours amidst a snowstorm. Up to half, perhaps 28,000, were killed in the battle and the ensuing rout of the Lancastrians. Showers of razor-sharp arrows rained down on the lightly armoured retreating men, and they were cut down by sword, mace and hammer. Early cannon were used (less than ten years after they brought about the Fall of Constantinople); evidence has even been found of very early handguns. Henry fled and was deposed. When I visited, 550 years later, there were fresh flowers and Palm Sunday crosses on the monument.
Within living memory of Towton, in around 1540, Rest Park was dissolved, along with Whitby Abbey and the other monasteries. The oldest records of the local area date to this period, and my oldest known ancestor, John Squire, was born there in the same year. His son James (1566), grandson Edward (1608) and great grandson Edward (1647) were born in Saxton.
Two years earlier was the Battle of Sherburn in Elmet, the last battle of the First English Civil War. The village had changed hands four times. The royalists, under Sir Marmaduke Langdale, had gained the upper hand but as reinforcements arrived for both sides, Lord George Rigby mistook the men fleeing through Sherburn’s streets as being from his own side, and swiftly departed. Langdale’s cavalrymen could not stand alone: 700 men, and the arms and the weapons piled up in Sherburn’s streets, were captured. So was Digby’s coach, containing all the royalists’ secret plans in his correspondence with the King.
Edward Squire’s son was also Edward (1671) – born and died in Sherburn in 1736, the latter at least probably at Rest Park. The next two Edwards were born (in 1696 and 1743) at Rest Park. The next Edward died young and the manor (or perhaps its tenancy from the bishop) was inherited by John Squire (1784). I have a pile of copies of lengthy handwritten wills for these generations. Some years ago, I met an eight cousin online who had employed a professional researcher and confirmed most of the line. As a result, I met an eleventh cousin!
There was a bill before the Commons in 1797, providing that “divers low grounds in the Selby district, including Rest Park, be more effectually drained, preserved and improved, and the commons and waste grounds be inclosed, divided and allotted unto the land owners.” In 1840, the York & North Midland Railway came to Sherburn – it runs through Rest Park. In 1848, John had a vote in the Election of a Knight of the Shire for the West Riding of Yorkshire, in consequence of the removal of Lord Morpeth to the House of Lords.
The next Edward inherited the farm, so his younger brother, my 3rd gt-grandad, Alfred (1820), had to move on… More anon…
