Nicholas and Agnes Farndale

The most likely paternal and maternal ancestors of modern Farndales, who died in Kirkleatham having emigrated with their family into Cleveland

Direct paternal and maternal ancestors of the modern Farndale family, who moved eighty miles north from Campsall to Kirkleatham in about 1565.

Return to the Contents Page

Piecing together the jigsaw

We know from the Parish records of Kirkleatham Church that Nicholas farndaile was buried in the parish of Kirkleatham, in Cleveland, near Skelton on 6 August 1572.

We also know that an Agnes Farndale was buried at Kirkleatham on 23 January 1586. 

We also know that a Jean Farndale married Richard Fairley, on 16 October 1567.

A William Farndale died on 24 January 1606 and was buried at St John the Baptist Church in Skelton . We have already identified that a William Farndale married Margaret Atkinson in Campsall, near Doncaster in 1564. 

That is all we know for sure.

We are now at the boundary between the certainty which parish records provide, and the preceding period when we have to do what we can to assemble the jigsaw.

Cleveland Bound

This is what I think probably happened.

Nicholas was probably born in about 1512, assuming he lived until he was about 60, perhaps a little earlier. I think he was probably a descendant of Nicholaus and Alicia Farndale who we have already met in Doncaster and I think his family had probably moved just north of Doncaster to Campsall, or somewhere nearby in Barnsdale Forest.

Since Nicholas and Agnes both died in Kirkleatham in 1572 and 1586, they were almost certainly married. So Nicholas probably married Agnes in or around Campsall, probably in about 1537 when Nicholas was 25. Agnes might have been about 21, so born in about 1516. I have seen a suggestion that Agnes’ maiden name was Null, but I’ve not managed to verify that.

I suspect that William Farndale was their eldest son, born in about 1539.

I am pretty sure that Jean Farndale (who we know married in Kirkleatham in 1567) was their daughter, born in about 1540.

We know that William Farndale married Margaret Atkinson at St Mary Magdalene Church in Campsall on 29 October 1564. If we are right about this narrative, he would have been about 25 years old.

I think the family then moved eighty miles north to Kirkleatham and I think that is probably because Margaret’s family came from Wilton, a small village two kilometres south of Kirikleatham. This may have been very shortly after they married, so perhaps in 1564 or 1565.

Nicholas Farndale would have been about 52 at this stage, so perhaps they moved north because the newly married William and Margaret decided to settle in Margaret’s homelands.

Two years later, on 16 October 1567, Jean Farndale married Richard Fairley, an established Scottish family who, by that time had a large family in and around Kirkleatham.

By 1568, Nicholas and Agnes had their first grandchild, Jane Farndale who late married Valentine Wraye. In about 1570, their grandson George Farndale was born and he is the grandson who took the family lineage forward to the modern family. They also had a granddaughter Eln Farndale, born in about 1573. Eln married et Atkinson, who we know came from Wilton. It seems very likely that Pet Atkinson was part of the same family, perhaps a cousin, as her mother. Margaret Atkinson. Whilst the medieval church banned marriage within four degrees of consanguinity, cousin marriage was pretty common in small agricultural communities and there are several examples in the Farndale family including Martin Farndale who married his cousin Ruth Farndale in 1929. Their fourth grandchild, Isabell Farndale, died at birth in 1592.

Nicholas died in 1572 and he was buried in Kirkleatham on 6 August 1572. Agnes lived for another fourteen years and was buried on Kirkleatham on 23 January 1586.

Is this right?

I can only be sure about the place and dates of Nicholas and Agens’ deaths.

The evidence which helps to support the narrative of events regarding this family is:

· The chronology fits the facts.

· The narrative relies on William Farndale who died in Skelton in 1606 being the same person who married Margaret Atkinson in 1567. That could be wrong. However:

o Although William was a very common name, there is a reasonable probability that this was the same person.

o His age on the relative dates works.

o The fact that we know his son married Pet Atkinson of Wilton near Kirkleatham, with the same surname as his mother, Margaret Atkinson, tends to corroborate a link between William Farndale of Campsall and William Farndale of Kirkleatham and Skelton.

o There also seems to have been a Margaret Farndale/Atkinson who died at Skelton in 1573, which would confirm the link, but needs to be checked.

· Although Nicholas and William were both common names, there is a consistency in the use of these Christian names between the fourteenth century Doncaster family and the sixteenth century Kirkleatham family. The same Christian names were commonly passed down through families.

How do Nicholas and Agnes Farndale relate to the modern family?

We cannot be sure, but it is probable that Nicholas and Agnes Farndale are the paternal and maternal ancestors of all modern Farndales. If we have pieced the jigsaw together correctly, then Nicholas was a descendant of Nicholaus and Alicia Farndale of Doncaster, brother of William Farndale the Vicar of Doncaster.

There are some branches of the family (including the Ampleforth Line) about which there is some doubt of the direct ancestry. However it seems most likely that they are a common link to the whole family.

Return to the Contents Page

or

Go Straight to Act 12 – Arrival in Cleveland

You can read the individual webpages of Nicholas Farndale and Agnes Farndale, with a chronology of their lives and references to sources.