De Johanne de Farendale

c1273 to c1345

A pioneer who had left Farndale for Egton

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The webpage of De Johanne de Farndale includes a chronology and source material.

The traveller’s return

John might have been born in about 1273 in Farndale and was maybe one of the younger sons of Nicholas de Farndale.

By the time of the 1301 Subsidy, John was in Egton, to the north of the North York Moors. He paid 22d tax at Eggeton’ cum Lecerigge et Westingby et Cokewalde in the Wapentake of Langburgh, in the levy known as the Yorkshire Lay Subsidy, to fund Edward I’s Scottish wars. The reference is to Egton, Lease Rigg (at Grosmont), Westonby (north of Egton) and Cucket Nook. 22d or 1s 10d, was equivalent to perhaps £70 today. The levy was a fifteenth of wealth, so this suggests John’s overall wealth was in the region of £1 7s 6d. He paid less tax than many others of his community.

His brother, William, probably a smith, paid 3s in the same levy in Danby. William might have ben John’s brother, so perhaps they set off from Farndale together, across the moors, to settle in new places.

I think De Johanne de Farendale was probably the father of Johannis de Farnedale, born about 1303, who became a saddler, and freeman of York in 1363. He may also have been the father of Richard Farndale.

A record of 1334 suggested that twenty years previous to 1334, in about 1314, John de Farndale had an interest in six acres of land at the vill of Cropton in Rosedale, of which five acres grew oats and the sixth acre was wasteland. This is almost certainly a reference to Cropton at the entrance to Rosedale a short distance from Lastingham. So perhaps John left Egton for Rosedale at some stage in the early fourteenth century.

It is possible that John then returned to Farndale, the adjacent dale to Rosedale, and might have been a miller in Farndale by 1323. Both his sons were involved in poaching incidents from about 1323 and in many incidents were referred to as the son of John the miller, but in listings involving others from Farndale. There were two mills in Farndale. It seems likely that there was a substantial mill at Low Mill, which was probably a more established business of Simon the miller of Farndale, who was the wealthiest member of the Farndale community in 1301. It is possible that John returned to Farndale from Egton sometime after 1301 and set himself up as the miller of the second mill at High Mill near modern Church Houses. This might have been a secondary mill.

The references generally to John the miller (and only once to John the miller of Farndale) contrasted to the references to Simon the miller of Farndale. This might support the theory that John had left Farndale and returned, and contrasted in the way he was addressed to Simon who had always been the Farndale miller.

John might have lived until about 1345.

Although John might have returned from Egton to his homelands, his son was more itinerant, and his family eventually seem to have settled in medieval York.

How does De Johanne de Farndale relate to the modern family?

It is not possible to be accurate about the early family tree, before the recording of births, marriages and deaths in parish records, but we do have a lot of medieval material including important clues on relationships between individuals. The matrix of the family before about 1550 is the most probable structure based on the available evidence.

If it is accurate, De Johanne de Farndale, was related to the thirteenth century ancestors of the modern Farndale family, and it is possible that his descendants were the York Line and the individuals who settled in Doncaster from whom the modern Farndales might descend.

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