# A History of Cawthorne/Barnby Hall, Banks Hall, Manor House, &c.

CHAPTER V.
BARNBY HALL, BANKS HALL, &c.
BARNBY HALL.
The conspicuous and pleasantly-situate house on the Barnsley Road which is now Barnby Hall was built about sixty years ago on or very near to the site of a former residence of considerable importance, the seat of a "family which derived from it their hereditary name, and ranked with the principal gentry of these parts." In the Pedigree of Barnby of Barnby given by Hunter the family is traced up to a William de Denby, who married Sarra, daughter of Sir Alexander Venavre, Veneur, Le Hunt, or Le Hunter. From his mother, their son Robert is given as receiving eight bovates in Barnby. This Robert's son is called Robert de Barnby, who married Margaret daughter of John de Dronsfield: their son Edmund married Alice daughter and heiress of John de Midhope, which, says Hunter, "was a great advance to this family. They were further enriched by the marriage with the niece and co-heir of Sir Anthony Nutthil, one of the attainted Lancastrians. The Nutthil lands lay in Holderness. The attainder appears to have been reversed. The lands of Nutthil, Preston, and Stockholme, part of his inheritance, were at least in the hands of Robert Barnby, father of John, in 7 Henry VII., when he was a party to indentures with Sir Robert Hildiard, of Winestead, by which it appears that Sir Robert had those manors to farm of the lease of John son of Robert, paying to certain feoffees the annual sum of £10, &c"
The following is a deed of the above William de Denby who is not to be confounded, Hunter remarks, with another William de Denby, lord of Denby in Peniston, who was his contemporary:
"Sciant, &c. Will: de Denebi confirmavi Adæ fratri meo &c., homagio suo et servitio suo, totam terram illam in uno assarto quod vocatur Billecliffe in territorio de Calthorn, quam Sarra mater mea ​eidem Adae et heredibus suis dedit et concessit. Test. Dno Rob. de Holand milite, Willo Dno de Denabi, Will. de Pengeston" and others.
The Barnby family were at one time or other connected by marriage with all the neighbouring great families of Le Hunter, Bosvile, Rockley, Hilyard, Waterton, Burdet, and Green.
In the will of a Nicholas Wortley, Esq. of South Kirkby, Dec. 25, 1492, a Ralph Barnby—"Radulphus Barneby, armigero"—is given as a witness. Testamenta Ebor. Vol. IV. p. 76. (Surtees Society, Vol. 53.)
In an inquisition after the death of Ralph Barnby in 1 Elizabeth, part of his estates are given as "a capital mess. and three tenements in Barby, held of Thomas Waterton as of his manor of Cawthorne; two messuages and lands in Cawthorne, and the Manors of Midhope, Langside, Bilcliffe, Swinden, Holden, and Penisal."
The family began to fall into comparative decay about the reign of James I.; and after selling off several parts of the estates, Sir Charles Barnby's son and heir Thomas, who married Mary, daughter of William Green of Micklethwaite, no sooner came of age than he sold the Manor of Midhope in 19 James I. (1623.)
In the Civil War, the estates of Thomas Barnby were sequestered, he himself was adjudged a delinquent, and was called upon by the Parliament to pay a fine of £188 as a composition, The charge was brought against him of having "signed a petition for erecting a garrison at Wortley, to be maintained and kept against the Parliament, and that he voluntarily contributed towards the maintenance of the forces raised." His estate, in which are included some ironworks (whence Barnby Furnace), is returned at the annual value of £111. He is given, however, in the "Parish Survey" of 1648 as possessing 349 acres, with a rental of £200 year. In answer to the charges, he replies, that, "being under the power of the enemy, he was compelled to set his hand to the Petition which he could not possibly avoid without the ruin of himself and family, and asks for an annuity which was charged upon the estate to he continued to his grandmother, who was then living, and concludes by giving list of his debts: Mrs Sara Wortley, £64; Mrs. Mary Barby, ​£108; Mr. Wm. Milner, £50; and Margaret Monckton, £52.' (Royalist Composition Papers, 2nd Series: Vol. XIV: pp. 589-601.)
In Torre's Testementary Burials (about 1687) is the following entry: "6 May, A.D. 1623. Thomas Barneby of Barneby-hall, Esq., made his will proved 29th May, 1627, giving his soul to God Almighty, his Creator, hoping through Jesus Christ to be saved; and his body to be buried in the Churchyard of Cawthorne, and on a stone to be from Heath Quarry with his name and arms engraven and layd above him."
The Barnby family was one of the few in this neighbourhood which retained the Roman faith, and had to suffer civil penalties as "Recusants," refusing to obey the Act of Parliament which required them to be in communion with the Church of England, as a safeguard (so it was thought) against Papal intrigue against the State.
In the "List of Roman Catholics in the County of York in 1604: E. Peacock, F.S.A.," there is given the entry made on the somewhat mutilated second page of the Rawlinson MSS. B 452:
"Caiethome parishe.
"Beatrix Barneby wief of Tho. Barnby, Esq Robert Barnebye sonne of ye said Thomas Barneby. Isabell Barneby. Dorathie Barnby doughters of ye said Thomas. Alice Walton servant to ye said Thomas Barneby. Margaret Champney wedow. Charles Champney. Nicholas Champney, sonnes of ye said Margaret. Elizabeth Champney wief of ye said Nicholas and all there children. Arthur Burdett gent, Mary his weif. ffrancis Tyngle et Michaell servants to ye said Arthure. Alice Walker wief to Charles Walker.
"Recusants, but no tyme is sett downe.
Semynary Priestes. ffrances Barneby son of Tho. Barneby Esqe. "and Percival Champney, otherwise popishly called Anthony, being both semynary priestes, have resorted divers tymes within this xij moneths last past to the houses of Thomas Barneby, Esq. and Margaret Champney as the presenter have heard."
Hunter gives the following as being presented as Recusants at Cawthorne in 1624: Lady Barnby; Ann Barnby, wife of Mr. Barnby; Isabel Barnby, a daughter of Thomas Barnby, Esq.; also James Beaumont and Ann his daughter, and Margaret Rodes.
​This Thomas Barnby was son of Ralph Barnby and Beatrix, daughter of Sir Thomas Waterton of Walton, his wife Beatrix being the daughter of Thomas Burdett of Birthwaite. Their daughter Frances married a Walter Spencer, of London, gent.; their eldest son was the Sir Charles Barnby, Knt, whose son Thomas is mentioned above as having sold the Manor of Midhope.
In the Visitation of Yorkshire in 1585 is given the pedigree of the Barnby family: "Thomas son of Ralph and Beatrix Waterton now living," Sir Charles being "aet. 16, 1585." In 1612, Sir Charles is given as "married to Hester Disney and has Thomas, aet. 11 (1612) and Mary aet. 16 (1612)."
"Thomas Barnby de Barnby, ar.," is given in the Visitation among the "Liberi tenentes" of Staincross, along with Georgius Woodruffe de Woolley, ar., justic., Gervasius Nevill de Chevet, ar., justic., Radulphus Wortley de Wortley, ar., Franciscus Bosvile de Gunthwaite, ar., Willielmus Rockley de Worsborough, ar., Mathæus Wentworth de West Bretton, ar., Henricus Burdett de Denby, ar., Franciscus Burdett de Burthwaite, ar., Johannes Moxon de Hoyland-Swaine, and others.
Sir Charles's son Thomas Barnby had only two daughters co-heiresses, by his wife Mary Greene, of Micklethwaite (Banks), Beatrix, who married John Allot, of Bentley Grange, and Mary, who became the second wife of Nicholas Bowden, of Bowden in Derbyshire, whose first wife was a Woderove (Woodruffe), of Woolley.
"Nicholas Bowden, of Bowden, gent., marryed Mary ye daughter and one of ye co-heirs of Thomas Barnby, of Barnby, in the County of York, Esq., sext. day of Sept, 1652.
"Barnby Bowden was born ye 5th day of August, 1653, about 6 of ye Clock in ye morning, and was baptized ye 16th day of ye same, Thomas Barnby and — Foljamh, Esq., godfathers, and Katherine Wentworth, wife of Michael Wentworth of Woly, Esq., godmother.
"Thomas Bowden was born ye 4th day of October, 1654, about 3 o'clock in ye morning, and was baptized ye 18th of ye same, Hen. Bagshawe, of Ridge, and Tristram Stafford, godfathers, and Mrs. Woderofe, godmother."
("Register, Chapel en le Firth." The Reliquary, Vol. VI. p. 228.)
​It was from this Woderofe (Woodruffe) family that the Wentworths of Woolley bought that estate about 1600.
This last-named Thomas Bowden is given in the "Freeholde Booke" for about 1660 as in possession of considerable estate at Cawthorne, the rental given to it being exactly what the Barnby estate is valued at in the above-mentioned "Parish Survey" of 1648:
A Mr. Thomas Bowden died at Barnby Hall in 1681, aged 44, and was buried at Cawthorne, April 15th. We shall see the recently discovered monuments of his mother, who died in 1665, and of her father, Thomas Barnby, who died at Barnby Hall in 1668, in the description of the Church.
The other sister and co-heiress, Beatrix, who married John Allott of Bentley Grange, had a son John, who married Elizabeth, daughter of William Bosvile, of Gunthwaite. They had one daughter and heir, Mary, who married Godfrey Copley, of Skelbrook, Esq., and had no issue. "Mr. Godfrey Copley and Mrs. Mary Allott married October the 3rd, 1689."—Par. Reg. In Hunter he is given as selling the moiety of Barnby Hall to Mr. John Spencer in 1701. He died, however, in 1700, and Mr. Spencer was a trustee under his will, the estate being heavily involved. A Mr. Dickens is spoken of at this time as having "a great deal of money on the Barnby estate."
A letter of Tho. Simpson to Sir John Kaye of Woodsome, dated Wakefield, 23 Sept., 1701, says, "Barnby is sold to Mr. Spencer."
Mr. William Spencer, his son, bought the other moiety of the Barnby estate from Sir John and Lady Ramsden in 1755 for £6,400, and the property continues part of the Cannon Hall estate.
​There are many records of this Barnby family in the Dodsworth MSS.
The Arms of the family (they are said in the Visitation of 1612 to be "in the Churche of Barnesley," and are also noticed there by Dodsworth about 1620):
Or, a lion rampant sable, charged with four escallops, argent.
BANKS HALL.
This house, which was formerly called Micklethwaite or The Bank, the residence since 1851 of the Misses Frances and Maria Spencer-Stanhope, was for many years the seat of one of the branches of the Greene family. It is pleasantly situate about a mile to the southwest from the village, the house facing south and east.
A Pedigree of the Greene family from the sixteenth century—36 Henry VIII.—is given in Hunter down to a Samuel Green, of the Bank, living there in 1733, whom we shall find erecting a monument in the Church in that year to his "ancestors and relations."
There is a "Thomas Greene of Cawthorne in com. Ebor. to whom Richard St. George, Esq., Norroy K. of Armes granted the coate and crest here exprest, 6 Oct, 1612," being the same as those allowed to William Greene of Micklethwaite in 1666.
"Greene of Bancke. Pomfret, 7 April, 1666." In the Pedigree at this Herald's Visitation held as above by the illustrious Sir William Dugdale, "Ralphe Greene of Micklethwayt in the Parish of Cawthorne in Com. Ebor. 36 Hen. 8." is given as having a son William, who married the daughter of George Cressy of Elmhirst in Cawthorne, and had an elder son John Greene of Elmhirst; a second son Richard, "of Micklethwayt, vulgo Bancke, in ye Pariah of Calthorne," and a daughter Mary, wife of Thomas Barnby, of Barnby, Esq. Richard's son William married at Silkstone, June 10, 1654, Mary daughter of Michael Portington and his wife, who was a daughter of Matthew Wentworth, of Bretton, Esq. He is given "ætat. 33 annor., 7 April, 1666," his "son and heire William, æat, 9."
​The Thomas Greene of Cawthorne mentioned above is of another branch of this family whose pedigree is given in Hunter from a Simon Greene in the sixteenth century to the Visitation in 1612. One of this family, a Greene of Thundercliffe Grange, in Ecclesfield, had his coat-of-arms allowed at Doncaster, 3 Aug., 1665, the Wentworths' of Woolley being recognised on the 5th "at Barnesley," and the Spencers' on the 4th at Doncaster.
We shall find the name of Greene among the benefactors to the Living of Cawthorne.
Early in the seventeenth century "William Greene land belonging to Elmhirst" is given as 203 acres; "Mr. Greene land" [of Micklethwayt] as 154 acres, and in 1663 as 362 acres.
The Banks estate was sold about the middle of last century to Mr. Fawkes of Farnley, and was added by purchase to the Cannon Hall estate in 1826.
Banks Hall has in the present century been the residence of Mr. Thomas Wilson, Mr. Richard Thorp, and Mr. Thomas Ridley, of Northumberland, who tried the experiment of "gentleman-farming" there without much success. It was during the eleven years that it was occupied by Mr. Thomas Wilson, a man of conspicuous taste and ability, son of Mr. Daniel Wilson, of Barnby Furnace, that the grounds were laid out in their present form. After the heavy losses he suffered through unsuccessful mining operations, he was for many years connected with the Aire and Calder Navigation Company.
THE MANOR HOUSE
Of Cawthorne is situated very near to the Church, on the north side of it. The present house, which has only been built within the last few years, most probably occupies the site, or is very near to it, of the original Manor House of the first Saxon lords of Cawthorne, to whom we owe the first foundation of the neighbouring Church. There are no traces now of any antiquity about the house, nor has it for some centuries been occupied by its owner. It came into possession of the late Mr. Stanhope so recently as 1852, through a considerable exchange of property at Kexborough for the houses ​built upon the lord of the manor's commons and certain lands which Mr. Beaumont had in the village of Cawthorne. Mr. Beaumont still retains, as we have seen, the lordship of the manor, and is also the owner of Cinder Hill and Low Mill Farms in the Parish, and of the large wood which borders them on the north, and which still retains its old name of Cawthorne Park.
Among other observable houses in the parish Flash House may be mentioned as having been for several generations the estate of the Rowley family. Over the door are the letters "J. A. R., 1729," for John and his wife Alice Rowley, in whose time the house was built or rebuilt. The same letters with the date of 1689 are found on the barn. His father, also called John, died there in 1728, in his 87th year, whilst the son, who died in 1761, saw his 91st year. The Rowley estate of Flash House was bought by the late Mr. Stanhope after the death of the father of the present Mr. C. O. Rowley, of Barnsley, in 1829. A Mr. Daniel Rowley, of the same family, was living at Barnby Furnace in the early part of the last century.
Jowett House in the Parish was for many generations connected with the Lindley family, Upper House with the Shirts, Norcroft, Upper and Lower, with the Wooffendens and the West family. The original farm-house of Hillhouse was altered and enlarged into its present form about fifteen years ago, and was the residence for a few years of Mr. Roddam Stunhope. On the footpath leading from Hillhouse to the Church we find one of the most pleasing views in the Parish or neighbourhood. Rawroyd is one of the few remaining houses which still show the style of the principal farm-houses of more than two hundred and fifty years ago, whilst Hill Top House, built of red brick, shows the comfortable family residence of a century and a half later.
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