Pioneers

The pioneering spirit from the nineteenth century

Return to the Contents Page

This webpage is still to be written

Pioneering Genes

Whilst it is perhaps misleading to over-categorise a family of the size of the Farndales, it is possible to identify trends and a broad summary might define the Farndales as farmers, pioneers and soldiers.

Our early ancestors were the inhabitants of Farndale. We know of some of those who lived in Farndale in medieval times (see FAR00001 and FAR00002). We know a little of the forest of Farndale (FAR00003 and FAR00004). Edmund the hermit was presumably not one of our ancestors. But perhaps William the Smith of Farndale, 1240 (FAR00009), John the Shepherd of Farndale, 1250 (FAR00010), Roger milne (miller) of Farndale, 1265 (FAR00013A) and Simon the miller of Farndale, 1282 (FAR00021) were our early ancestors living in Farndale.

Over time, folk started to adopt names which described them by place or occupation. Examples are Nicholas de Farndale, the first personal name linked to Farndale (see FAR000006 and Farndale 1), Peter de Farndale (see FAR000008 and Farndale 2), Gilbert de Farndale (FAR00018 and Farndale 3), and Simon de Farndale (FAR00021 and Farndale 4). So our ancestors started to called themselves de Farndale, and in time just used the Farndale name. That process signalled the start of a spread of our ancestors out of Farndale to the surrounding lands. At that time, such movements were no doubt as bold and significant as later emigrations to Australia, Canada and New Zealand. We know for instance that De Johanne de Farndale, 1275 (FAR00014) moved further afield to Egton.

Initially the spread of the Farndales remained tight. They moved into the area of, or adjacent to, the North Yorkshire Moors. For instance Walter de Farndale, 1275 (FAR00015) was vicar who moved widely. Richard de Farndale, 1275 (FAR00016) had a gift of land at Marton (now part of Middlesborough). Over time there became established a large grouping of our ancestors to the north of the moors, in Cleveland, around Kilton, Skelton and Kirkleatham.

If Farndale was ‘the cradle of the Farndales’, Cleveland became the heart of the wider family over centuries.

From an early stage, Farndales started to move beyond the bounds of the North Yorkshire Moors. For instance William Farndale, 1342 (FAR00038) became vicar of Doncaster.

There appear to have been some early migrants to Sussex such as Robert Farndale, born 1460, Rector (FAR00056) and Essex such as William Farndale, born 1450 (FAR00056A).

There were many Farndales who moved to London including

• the London 1 Line descended from Samuel Farndale 1866-1936 (FAR000475) and who became a clerk at Portsea near Portsmouth and then moved to London;

• the London 2 Line descended from James Farndale 1911 to 1935 (FAR00778A) who moved to Hammersmith;

• the London 3 Line descended from George Farndale, born 1921 (FAR00871), who moved to Lambeth and Greenwich; and

• the London 4 Line who were descended from Joseph Farndale, 1931 to 1986 (FAR00919)).

Other Farndale families moved to:

• Bradford (the Bradford 1 Line, descended from Robert Farndale, 1909-1978 (FAR00755); the Bradford 2 Line, descended from Wilfred Farndale 1910 to 1965 (FAR00766); and the Bradford 3 Line, descended from Henry Farndale 1916 to 1945 (FAR00832))

• Leeds (the Leeds 1 Line descended from Joseph Farndale, 1896-1950 (FAR00675); and the Leeds 2 Line descended from Charles Farndale, 1906-1964 (FAR00738))

• Wakefield (the Wakefield 1 Line descended from Thomas Farndale 1839-1919 (FAR00344) and from whom descended Joseph Farndale (FAR00463) who became Chief Constable of Birmingham)

• Bishop Auckland (the Bishop Auckland 1 Line descended from Thomas Farndale 1822-1854 (FAR00280))

Farndales migrated to Holderness, Cumbia (Carlisle and the Lake District)

Others migrated to Nottingham, Leicester, Cambridge, and Uxbridge

The Wales 1 Line and the Wales 2 Line moved to Wales.

Nineteenth century migrations

The vast migrations of Europeans and Asians began in the 1500s and peaked in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

New South Wales was a tiny, starving and violent convict settlement in the 1790s, but in a few decades had a convict designed church, a grammar school, university, cathedral and parliament.

Of some 50m emigrants from Europe between 1815 and 1930, there was a disproportionate number of British (11.4M) and Irish (7M) contrasted to Germany (4.8M).

British and Irish Migration

	US	%	British North America (Canada)	%	Australia and New Zealand	%	Cape and Natal	%	Total
1815 to 1830	150,160	40.2	209,707	56	8,935	2.3			373,338
1831 to 1840	308,247	43.8	322,485	45.8	67,882	9.5			703,150
1841 to 1850	1,094,556	65	429,044	25.5	127,124	7.5			1,684,892
1851 to 1860	1,495,243	65.4	235,285	10.3	506,802	22.1			2,287,205
1861 to 1870	1,424,466	72.4	192,250	9.9	280,198	14.2			1,967,570
1871 to 1880	1,531,851	68.7	232,213	10.4	313,105	14	9,803		2,228,395
1881 to 1890	2,446,018	70.8	395,160	11.4	383,729	11.1	88,991	2.5	3,455,655
1891 to 1900	1,814,293	68.2	328,411	12.3	131,629	4.9	215,590	8.1	2,661,532
1901 to 1914	3,449,173	51	1,865,807	27.6	540,557	8	447,120	6.6	6,764,310
Total	134,714,007	62	4,213,362	19	2,359,961	10.7	761,504	3.4	22,126,047

Indigenous populations, especially hunter gatherers though, saw an end of their world. Indigenous populations collapsed from disease. A quarter of the population of Fiji died from measles. In North America, the native population fell from about 10M to under half a million and in New Zealand from 100,000 to 40,000; Australia from 750,000 to 60,000.

The settlers believed that the inhabitants of undeveloped sparsely populated land could just move on, but the nomadic peoples were spiritually and economically dependent on their intimate knowledge of their territory.

Parliamentary committees from 1814 began to consider the plight of the Aboriginal Peoples of the British Empire and enacted laws to restrain British subjects. The Society for the Protection of Aborigines was an international human rights organisation founded in 1837, to ensure the health and well-being and the sovereign, legal and religious rights of the indigenous peoples while also promoting the civilisation of the indigenous people who were subjected under colonial powers.

Gladstone hoped that political responsibility would make settlers more moderate in their actions, but in places like New Zealand and South Africa, British troops fought wars with native peoples to secure land often destabilised by the settlers. However the ambitions of 50M were probably uncontrollable.

(Robert Tombs, The English and their History, 2023, 548 to 551).

The Victorian Era saw significant emigrations of Farndale families to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This was an age of large families which could not be supported on the available land, whilst new opportunities beckoned across the British Empire.

In more recent times of course Farndales have naturally found home in many places overseas.

For instance Keith Farndale (FAR00976) spent time in Paris.

Return to the Contents Page

or

Go Straight to the Albertans