Crust, Todd and Mills, solicitors of Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire

John Hymers was born in Ormesby, North Yorkshire, in 1803, the son of Thomas Hymers (1763-1834), a farmer, and his wife Esther Parrington (1767-1831), daughter of the vicar. He had an older sister and brother (twins), Thomas and Esther, a younger sister, Jane, and a younger brother, Robert Hymers (b.1807). John Hymers went to school at Wilton-le-Wear and Sedburgh and then went to St John's College, Cambridge, as a sizar, becoming second wrangler in 1826. He became fellow and then tutor at St John's and became fellow of the Royal Society in 1838. He was a mathematician, whose publications were largely about calculus, conic sections and equations theory. In 1841 he took a doctorate in divinity and became Lady Margaret professor and in 1848 he was elected president of St John's (Dictionary of National Biography; Scott, Hymers College, chpt.1).

John Hymers was a man who made college life his home for the first part of his life. His mother, father and two of his siblings died in the early 1830s prompting him to go on a grand tour of Europe, which he followed with several years in college, preferring to remain unmarried. However, he slowly became disillusioned with the incursion of the university into the independent life of the colleges and in 1852 he left St John's for the rich college living of Brandesburton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He tried to return soon after but St John's refused him his old post with the result that he spent the rest of his life in an isolated Yorkshire parish. However, it was a living that provided 1500 per annum, a sum that he regularly spent on books, paintings, railway shares, railway travel and on setting up a local school and library. The church gradually became ruinous and accounts of his value as a parish priest are not flattering (Scott, Hymers College, chpt.1).

In the final years of his life John Hymers became close to the family of his older sister, Esther Jackson (1802-1864), and her daughter, Esther Jane Jackson, became his housekeeper for a while and eventually a major beneficiary of his will and governor of Hymers School in 1901 (there is a letter to Esther Jackson at DDCV[2]/79/10 dated 1861). John Hymers was a man who combined focused miserliness with focused generosity. Though he let his church fall apart, he did spend money on the village and his will was equally generous. When he died in 1887 he left a personal estate of nearly 170,000. Apart from specific bequests to his younger brother Robert and various members of Esther's family, including his nephew Robert who died in a lunatic assylum, and several local charities which included the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the Infirmary and the Seaman's orphanage in Hull and the Sea Bathing Convalescent Home in Scarborough, he left all his estate to Hull Corporation to build `a grammar school in this town on the model of the grammar schools at Birmingham and Dulwich for the training of intelligence in whatever social rank of life it may be found among the vast and varied population of the town and port of Hull' (Dictionary of National Biography; Scott, Hymers College, chpt.1;DDCV/214/11).

John Hymers' will was not shown to his solicitor, James Mills, and it was declared invalid after his death. However, his heir-at-law, his younger brother Robert (himself a solicitor), set to work with James Mills to honour the intentions of the testator and the Corporation received a 50,000 bequest to set up what became Hymers College in Hull. Papers about the foundation of the school and the subsequent presentation of Robert Hymers as freeman of Hull in 1891 by the Corporation are all in the collection.

From the guide to the Papers relating to the Will Of John Hymers, 1796-1899, (Hull University, Brynmor Jones Library)

Bishop Burton is about 4 kilometres west of Beverley on the main York road at the foot of the East Yorkshire wolds. It is an estate village dating largely from the lordship of the Hall-Watt family from the late eighteenth century. Before the Reformation the manor had been owned by the Archbishop of York. After reversion to the Crown in 1542 it was sold a decade later to John Dudley, Duke of Northunberland who forfeited it a year later on attainder. It then went through leasing and sale before being bought by the Crompton family, who in turn sold it to William Gee (d.1612) in 1603. It subsequently descended in the Gee family until being bought by Richard Watt in 1783 (Allison, History of East Riding of Yorkshire, iv, pp.3-4).

The Gee family came from Rothley in Leicestershire. Henry Gee of Rothley was the common ancestor of a senior branch of the family who remained in Rothley and the father of William Gee who first moved to Hull as a master mariner. William Gee became a Merchant of the Staple and acquired great wealth through this means and through public office. He was sheriff of Hull in 1560 and mayor in 1562, 1573 and 1582. He was the benefactor of Hull Grammar School, donating 80 and 20,000 bricks in 1583 for its rebuilding, as well as founding a hospital for ten poor women and providing the town with a gold chain to be worn by mayoresses. He was married twice, the second time to Elizabeth Jobson, who died in 1599 and by whom he had five children. His will is dated 1600 (Wildridge, Old and New Hull, pp.41, 171-2; Foster, Pedigrees, iii; English, The great landowners of East Yorkshire, p.25).

The eldest son, William Gee (b.circa 1562), was secretary of the Council of the North and Keeper of the Signet from 1604. He purchased the Bishop Burton estate in 1603 and built on it a hall later known as the Low Hall and pulled down to build the Victorian High Hall by the Hall-Watt family in 1874. A sketch of the Jacobean house is in Samuel Buck's notebooks. William Gee married first Thomasine, daughter of Mathew Hutton. They had one son and two daughters before Thomasine died aged 29 years in 1599. The son predeceased his father and on the family monument in York Minster built by William Gee's second wife none of these children was depicted suggesting that they all died young. William Gee's second wife was Mary Crompton, daughter of one of the queen's auditors. There were six children by the second marriage, the eldest of whom was John Gee (b.1603). William Gee died in early 1612 at the age of only 50 and his wife was forced to buy the wardship of his eldest son for 750 to maintain some family control over the estates (Foster, Pedigrees, iii; English, The great landowners of East Yorkshire, p.25; Pevsner & Neave, York and the East Riding, pp.147, 330; DDHE/6/19).

John Gee married Frances, daughter of Sir John Hotham, and they had only one child, William (b.1625), before John Gee died prematurely in 1627. William Gee married first Rachel Parker and by her had one son, William Gee (b.1648), before she died aged only 18 in early 1650. He married secondly Mary Spencer and by her had two sons and a daughter. The elder son, Richard Gee (b.circa 1657), inherited through his mother lands in Orpington, Kent. William Gee died in 1678; his widow in 1702. The younger William Gee was MP for Hull and Beverley and a supporter of William of Orange and also married twice; first, to Elizabeth Hotham by whom he had 11 children and, second, Elizabeth Cracroft by whom he had 3 more children. Bishop Burton was inherited on his death in 1718 by his eldest son, Thomas Gee (b.1673), but when he died in 1750 he was succeeded by his grandson, Roger Gee (b.circa 1737), son of his youngest child, William Gee (d.1745). The Gee family had slowly accumulated debts and Roger Gee was the last member of the family to own the manor and hall of Bishop Burton. It was held in trusteeship for five years before sale in 1783. Descendants remained in the East Riding, intermarrying with other local gentry family (Foster, Pedigrees, iii; English, The great landowners of East Yorkshire, p.25; Borland and Dunning, Bishop Burton, pp.98,102).

The estate was bought by Richard Watt (b.1751), who was born in Standish in Lancashire. Richard Watt was a man of acquired wealth, starting life as a coach driver before joining a merchant ship bound for the West Indies. There he bought a plantation and exploited slave labour to produce rum and sugar. He returned, a successful merchant and shipowner and some of his estate accounts for Jamaica are in the collection. Twelve years after buying Bishop Burton he also purchased Speke Hall in Lancashire. He probably never lived at Bishop Burton but the village grew up as an estate development from the time of his tenure. When he died in 1798 it was inherited by his nephew, Richard Watt (d.1812) and then his grandnephew, also Richard Watt (1786-1855). The latter was a horse breeder who had four winners of the St Leger. He divided his estates between his eldest son, also Richard Watt, who upset his father by marrying a housemaid and was given Speke Hall and this estate was held by the senior branch of the family until 1921. Bishop Burton was given to his younger son, Francis Watt, who was high sheriff of Yorkshire in 1865. Francis Watt died in 1870 and the estate passed to his brother, William Watt (b.1818) who was building a new hall on his death in 1874. The house lay unoccupied and the succession unsettled until 1886 when it all passed to Ernest Richard Bradley Hall-Watt (b.1865), who was William Watt's great-nephew. He was high sheriff in 1896 and owned nearly 5000 acres in and around Bishop Burton. He was an early motoring enthusiast and died in a car accident in 1908 when he was succeeded by his son, Richard Hall-Watt (b.1898), who was killed on active service in 1917. Richard Hall-Watt was succeeded by his brother, Alvery Digby Hall-Watt (1901-1961), who sold the estate in 1930. It has since been sold to the council and the Victorian High Hall has seen use as an agricultural college which is now independent (Borland and Dunning, Bishop Burton, pp.98-9, 102, 107-113; Allison, History of East Riding of Yorkshire, iv, pp.3-4; Pevsner & Neave, York and the East Riding, p.330).

From the guide to the Papers of the Bishop Burton Estates of the Gee And Hall-Watt Families, 1194-1931, (Hull University, Brynmor Jones Library)

The earliest title deed for a member of the Fawsitt family in the collection indicates that a Richard Fawsitt owned land at Paull and Thorngumbauld in 1673. By the early eighteenth century the Fawsitt family was rich enough to expand considerably; John Fawsitt `of Hull' was able to spend 2310 on the manor of Thorngumbald in 1720 as well as buy 200 acres at Hunsley from Richard Tate in 1723. The Fawsitt family established itself in the village of Hunsley (now depopulated) and family members are buried in the parish church (Rowley). John Fawsitt's nephew, Hugh, inherited from him just over 500 acres in Hunsley and when his son, also Hugh, died in 1752, the land was held by his widow, Mary (will at DDFF/6/3 [1753]), and daughters, Anne, Elizabeth and Mary (Allison, History of the county of York East Riding, p.144).

Mary and her daughters began to extend eastward into Walkington and land at Little Weighton and North Dalton came via the Hudson family. Anne Fawsitt seems to have predeceased her sisters. Elizabeth married the Reverend Francis Best (marriage settlement at DDEV/21/307) in 1759 and received her half share in her father's estate at that time. She died in 1771 and after her husband died in 1802 this land reverted to Mary, who had been married to Robert Burton. The three sisters seem to have been childless; after the death of Mary Burton (will at DDFF[2]/32 dated 1802) the Fawsitt lands were inherited by John Hornby, described by Mary in her will as a `relation'. The Hornbys had arrived from Lincolnshire in 1752 to take up a seven year lease on land in Hunsley from Mary Fawsitt and her daughters (DDFF/1/95). By the terms of Mary Burton's will, John Hornby assumed the name Fawsitt by royal licence and the family were required to retain it `forever' (Allison, History of the county of York East Riding, p.144; Lythe, Two families at Walkington, pp.26-7; the small amount of correspondence in the collection is of John Hornby [Fawsitt] at DDFF/1/92).

John Hornby (Fawsitt), who died in 1812, had three sons, John, James and Robert Fawsitt, all of whom held the Hunsley and Walkington inheritance for a while. John Fawsitt and his brother James died within a year of each other around 1831, though Robert lived a while longer and certainly held the land after their deaths in 1832. The two younger brothers left no heirs, but John Fawsitt left two daughters, Annie Elizabeth (b.1823) and Mary Annette (b.1825). Though these two women lived in Beverley they certainly owned the Fawsitt land by 1851 and as James Fawsitt had spent 4700 on nine more closes at Walkington, bought from George and Hannah Sampson in 1829, their inheritance was considerable (Allison, History of the county of York East Riding, p.144; Lythe, Two families at Walkington, p.27; DDFF/4/66).

Annie Elizabeth Fawsitt married John Daniel Ferguson (b.1816) in 1866 and they set themselves up at Walkington Hall which had been built by John Lockwood, a Beverley solicitor, in 1802. John Daniel Ferguson had been known as `Gravel Jack' before his marriage because as a steward of the Constables of Burton Constable he had been responsible for the sale of gravel from the foreshore of the Humber (a right the Constables held as seigneurs of Holderness; see DCC). He was not a stranger to Walkington, being one of the 13 children of Daniel Ferguson (and his wife Margaret nee Booth), rector of Walkington. His youngest brother, Douglas (b.1823), had taken over from his father as rector in 1860, inheriting at the same time a wealthy church glebe. Annie Elizabeth and John Daniel Ferguson-Fawsitt had holdings of 1440 acres so that between the two brothers most of Walkington village was accounted for. In 1876 the Ferguson-Fawsitts expanded further, spending 2235 on land from the Vickers family. The Ferguson-Fawsitts built a family vault in Douglas Ferguson's church, so severing finally the Fawsitt parish connection with Rowley church (DDFF/4/28; Lythe, Two families at Walkington, chpt.1; Pevsner & Neave, The buildings of England: York and the East Riding, p.729).

Annie Elizabeth and John Daniel Ferguson-Fawsitt married when middle-aged and had no children. Annie Elizabeth died in 1882 leaving the two brothers to live out the rest of their days as squire and rector. Douglas Ferguson was rather indolent with questionable morals for a cleric; he never rang the church bells on Sunday and had a longstanding affair with a woman in the village. He had a very small congregation and most of the village chose to attend the methodist chapel established by James Fawsitt in the 1820s. John Daniel Ferguson-Fawsitt was looked after by the Ashton family, his servants and retainers, who held regular parties after putting their octagenerian master to bed. When he died at the age of 91 in 1908 he left no direct heir (Lythe, Two families at Walkington, pp.16, 38-9).

However, Annie Elizabeth's sister, Mary Annette, had married a rich Leeds businessman, Joseph Holt, in 1851 and they had had one child, Annie Gertrude Holt (b.1853), before Mary Annette died prematurely in 1854. Joseph Holt remarried and Annie Gertrude became the heiress of her uncle's property. Like her aunt before her, she waited a long time to marry finally doing so in 1895. Her husband, Henry Gibbon Chater, did as her uncle had before him and took the name Fawsitt. The Chater-Fawsitts moved into Walkington Hall in 1908 and dismissed the Ashton family almost immediately. With a new incumbent rector they proceeded to lead a life of `fastidious gentility'. Henry Gibbon Chater-Fawsitt had a colonial background and his wife involved herself in charity work for African missions. The annual highlight in the village was Empire Day when the schoolchildren sat in the grounds of the Hall and sang `Children of a mighty empire', a song composed by the rector's wife. This tranquil life was shattered by the first world war and by the 1930s the Chater-Fawsitt's were trying to sell Walkington Hall. They succeeded in 1933 (it went to E Stephenson) and they died within two months of one another in 1936 (Lythe, Two families at Walkington, chpt. 3; Allison, History of the county of York East Riding, p.145).

From the guide to the The Fawsitt (Incorporating Hornby and Ferguson) Family Papers, 1615-1934, (Hull University, Brynmor Jones Library)