There were two families in Bowes of the name of Laidman. The one whose pedigree is annexed lived at the upper end of the village. There is a family tombstone in the churchyard, on the south side of the church, not far from the porch.

LAIDMAN PEDIGREE.

NOTE III.

"Till Edwin came, the pride of swains."-Ver. vi. P. 12.

WRIGHTSON FAMILY.

To the name of Henry Wrightson, of Bowes, whose burial register bears date July 11, 1689, the designation of yeoman is annexed. It may therefore be concluded that he was possessed of a small estate in land.

As far as can now be ascertained, he had two sons and one daughter. His wife died about three years before him, and all his children survived him. To them his property was transmitted.

His daughter, Isabel Wrightson, seems to have been possessed of some personal property, which, with the exception of two small legacies, of like amount, to each of her brothers, she gave to her executrix, Alice Whitell. At the date of her will she resided at Bowes, but subsequently removed to Gilmonby, where she died in 1702.

Henry Wrightson is mentioned in his sister's will before his brother Roger, and was in all probability the elder brother. He was married, but left no children surviving him. The place of his residence it would now be very difficult to identify. It was probably between the Free Grammar School and the Archway now standing. The situation of some part of his land may be ascertained from the description in the deeds of conveyance of adjoining property.

By an indenture bearing date the 21st May, in the sixth year of the reign of King George the First, and made between John Winnington of the one part and Margaret Morland of the other part, a mortgage was

created of "all those two mansions, messuages, or dwelling-houses and garden, with one yard or garth on the back side thereof lying or adjoining, together with a house or stable thereupon standing and being; and all those two pieces or parcels of ground called or known by the name of Croft thereto adjoining, containing by estimation one acre and a half, be the same more or less, adjoining on the ground then or late belonging to Widow Wrightson and William Hanby on or towards the east, the Cow Close belonging to Bowes aforesaid on or towards the north, the grounds then or late of Samuel Newton on or towards the west, and the King's high street on or towards the south."

The above premises were purchased in 1741 by the Rev. Joseph Taylor, and in the deeds of 1741 (April 14, 15) the boundary is thus described: "Adjoining on the ground late belonging to Widow Wrightson and William Hanby, but now to Sarah Petty and Margaret Bland, on or towards the east, the Cow Close belonging to Bowes aforesaid on or towards the north, the ground late of Samuel Newton, but now of Joseph Taylor, clerk, on or towards the west,* and the King's High Street on or towards the south."

Henry Wrightson died in November 1705.

In addition to his real estate, he seems to have possessed no inconsiderable personal property. Being childless, it might have been expected that his brother Roger would have succeeded to the bulk of his worldly wealth. It was far otherwise, however. Having made ample provision for his widow, a legacy of 107. is given to his brother Roger after the death of his widow; and another legacy is given in these terms:-" To my said brother Roger Wrightson the further sume of twenty pounds, provided he behave himself without debait, strife, and litigious unlawfull suites to or with my executors."

The charitable supposition that their father's landed property was apportioned equally between them, would form no sufficient justification for Henry's conduct in disinheriting his brother.

After giving to his wife his messuage in Bowes, wherein he

* See below, p. 63.

lived, with the adjoining croft and one cattle-gate, to hold the same so long as she should continue his widow, he devised all his real estate in tail to Thomas Brunskill; and, in default of issue male of the body of Thomas Brunskill, he then gave and bequeathed his real estate to Christopher Whitell, in fee simple. It is uncertain what relationship existed between the testator and the families of Brunskill and Whitell. His landed property thus passed into the Brunskill family.

The legatees under Henry Wrightson's will are numerous, and some of them are mentioned as being relations. It is not improbable that the Wrightson family either came originally from a distant part of Yorkshire, the neighbourhood of Borobridge, or that some of them had removed to that locality from Bowes, as the names of Buck, Orton, and Wrightson are found in the registers of Kirkby Hill, near Borobridge, in which neighbourhood, it will be seen below, the husband of Roger Wrightson's daughter Hannah lived.

Roger Wrightson, the other son of Henry Wrightson the elder, was married, and had by his wife Elizabeth four or five children. Two daughters were living at the time of the melancholy death of his son Roger.

The residence of Roger Wrightson, the King's Head Inn, as far as I have been able to ascertain, was on the site of the house now standing immediately to the west of the Archway which has been already mentioned. The description of the premises is given in the deeds of conveyance to the Rev. Joseph Taylor.

1735. Sept. 24, 25. Indentures of lease and release made between Charles Newton, of St. Martin's le Grand, citizen and cutler of London (son and heir of Samuel Newton, late citizen and cutler of London, and of Sarah Newton, his wife, both deceased), and Mary, wife of the said Charles Newton, of the one part, and the Rev. Joseph Taylor, of Bowes, in the county of York, clerk, of the other part, of "all that messuage,