William ATKINSON, Sr.

- Bef 1679

• Name	William ATKINSON
  Suffix	Sr.
  Gender	Male
  Death	Bef 10 Dec 1679	Scotforth, Lancashire, England
  Burial	10 Dec 1679	Lancaster, Lancashire, England
  Notes	(1) Hough, Oliver, Atkinson Families of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Reprinted from the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vols. 30 and 31, pp. 81-86: THE CHRISTOPHER AND JOHN ATKINSON FAMILY. [For much of the following, concerning Christopher and John Atkinson themselves, and their father, William Atkinson, I am indebted to Charles Francis Jenkins, Esq., one of their descendants, who very generously put at my disposal material he had collected and arranged; the following extract of his letter to me under date of 9 mo, 29, 1904, on this subject, will explain itself: "I have your letter of September 28th, and will be entirely willing to let you have all my Atkinson matter, which along the lines of John and Christopher is almost complete. I had intended publishing it in book form, but seemed never to find time to get it arranged. If you care to have the material and increase it with your investigation, I have no objections and will be glad to let you have it. It is practically ready to put in the printer's hands." I shall quote frequently below from Mr. Jenkins' manuscript. O. H.] William Atkinson, Senior, father of Christopher and John. Mr. Jenkins begins: "Among the group of listeners to the words of an early Quaker preacher one First day in 1660 was William Atkinson of Scotford. Swarthmore Hall the home of Margaret Fell and of Geo. Fox where this unlawful 'conventicle' was being held is sixteen miles or more from the old town of Lancaster, the county seat of Lancashire. The distance is much less when the tide of the shallow bay is out for then the road stretches across the shining sands with a gently winding course avoiding here and there the deeper depressions which the retreating tide has turned into shallow pools. A few hours later the rushing waters have covered the road and greatly lengthened the path of the traveler from Lancaster to Swarthmore." "On this particular day we know the names of many who were gathered in this earnest company for before they had dispersed they were arrested and carried off to Lancaster castle for 'unlawful conventicle.' Let us hope the tide was out and that the little band of prisoners was able to take the shorter road across the hard and level sands. How long William Atkinson was confined within the high wall of Lancaster castle Besse's Sufferings of Friends does not say. This gray pile was once the stronghold of John of Gaunt whose storm-worn effigy still sits grimly over the entrance way." Besides this imprisonment Besse mentions that in 1685 William Atkinson and Nathan Kennedy "for nine weeks absence from the national worship," had goods taken from them to the value of £3,5s.,6d. Mr. Jenkins continues with a description of the village where William Atkinson lived, called indiscriminately Scotford or Scotforth, but which he says was no doubt anciently Scotford, i. e. the Scot's ford for it is on the high road to Scotland: "Scotforth, the home of William Atkinson is a little cross roads village nearly two miles south of the city of Lancaster, on the high road connecting the northwest ot England with the south. The houses are low and small, built of dark gray stone and mostly lacking the setting of flowers and climbing vines and roses which make attractive even the humblest cottage in many parts of rural England. To the east of the village are the rising lands and hills and from the hillside nearby the gray roofs of the hamlet seem to nestle down among the green trees in the valley, while at one side runs a little stream winding its way across the intervening flats and at low tide across the sands to mingle with the waters of Morecambe Bay. To the north the tall, smoking chimney stacks on the outskirts of Lancaster pierce the horizon." This, of course, is a modern description, and was written by Mr. Jenkins from personal observation, he having made a trip to Scotforth a few years ago when he was collecting his Atkinson notes. Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England, (3 ed., Lond. 1838) describes it: "SCOTFORTH, a township, in that part of the parish of Lancaster which is in the hundred of Lonsdale, south of the sands, county palatine of LANCASTER, 1½ mile (s.) from Lancaster, containing 557 inhabitants." As to the parish Lewis says: "LANCASTER (ST. MARY), a parish, comprising the borough, port and market town of Lancaster, having separate jurisdiction, and several chapelries and townships, partly in the hundred of LONSDALE, south of the sands, and partly in the hundred of AMOUNDERNESS, county palatine of LANCASTER." The History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Doncaster, by Edward Baines, Esq., M. P. (London, 1836), says, (vol. iv, p. 474): "The hundred of Lonsdale is formed into two districts, called North and South Lonsdale, the vast expanse of sands, constituting the upper portion of the bay of Morecambe, forming the broad boundary line between the two, and imparting to each the appellation of Lonsdale North of the Sands, and Lonsdale South of the Sands. This hundred is comprehended in twenty-one parishes; of which nine are to the north of the Sands, in the district called Furness, and twelve to the south of the Sands." As we see by Lewis's description above, Lancaster parish is not all in one hundred, (although that part we are concerned with is all in Lonsdale Hundred), nor is it even all contiguous territory. Baines says of it (iv, 482): "The parish of Lancaster comprises so many detached and distant parts, that it is not possible to describe its boundaries." . . . . "The length of the chief trunk of the parish, if it may be so called, is upwards of ten miles, from north to south, and the breadth about nine, from west to east. The next considerable portion, consisting of Stalmine with Stainall, and Preesall with Hackensall, in the hundred of Amounderness, is about four miles by one and a half, and in some places two miles. The total number of statute acres in the parish appears to be about 68,084." Of William Atkinson's station in life it may be said that he was of the upper yeoman class, for he was a freehold landowner, though on too small a scale for him to have claimed gentility; and while we have no knowledge at all of his ancestors, it is safe to assume that their station was the same, for at that time families in this position almost invariably remained in the same state generation after generation. Besides in William's time there were many Atkinsons in exactly similar station in the Hundred of Lonsdale, both in Lancaster parish, and in the neighboring one (that is across Morecambe Bay) of Cartmel. . . . William Atkinson's freehold landownership is shown by the will of his son William, as will be seen later, as well as by his own, which, Mr. Jenkins says, "you will find in the records ot the Archdeanery of Richmond, deposited at Somerset House, London. The inventory of the estate was taken Sept. 17, 1673," but he gives no further particulars except to say: "His modest estate amounted to but £68 and included a drove of thirty two sheep." Of course, it is needless to remark that this amount . . . had a value then of many times the same sum now. William Atkinson's wife was named Ann, but her family name is unknown, as the meeting records do not go back to the time of their marriage; it was perhaps Holme, as her son William, in his will mentions his "uncle Thomas Holme," but Holme might have been an uncle by marriage. William Atkinson died in 1679, and was buried 10 mo. [Dec.] 10, of that year, in Lancaster meeting house yard. William and Ann Atkinson had issue: [i] WILLIAM ATKINSON, JUNIOR, of Scotford, eldest son, b. ____, d. unmarried, 1679/80 and was buried 11 mo. [Jan.] 14, in Lancaster meeting house yard. Mr. Jenkins says: "Within a few weeks after the death of William Atkinson his oldest son William to whom he had left the disposition of his estate died also. William Atkinson, the younger, directed in his will that his body should be buried in Friends' burying place belonging to Lancaster meeting and he further gave ten pounds to 'such poor people as are in scorne called Quakers.' The little holdings in Seotford which had come to him from his father were all given to his brother Christopher, the next oldest son. He describes the property as 'those severall p'cells lying and being within the libertyis of Seotford and knowne by the names of Heron's Shreason, Cookstooll, Steell End and Great Acre all contayning by Estimacon six Acres and a halfe' and also the half of one acre 'on the backside of the same' which belonged to Christopher Atkinson but which was evidently not entirely paid for. The house where William lived, which was called Beckside, also in Scotford, was given to his brother John. After making provision for his mother, Ann, and numerous small legacies to relatives and friends and after giving 'twoe of my best sheepe' to 'little John Padgett (sonne of Francis Padgett),' he appointed his brother John his executor." This will was dated Dec. 22, 1679 and proved Feb. 11, 1679, (1679/ 80), in the Archdeanery of Richmond. [ii] CHRISTOPHER ATKINSON, b. ____, d. July __, 1699. Mar. 8 mo. 8, 1679, Margaret Fell. [iii] JOHN ATKINSON, b. ____, d. 1699. Mar. 2 mo. 8, 1686, Susannah Hynde. (2) England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837 [database online], Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013: Name: Willm Atkinson Event Type: Burial Death Date: abt 1679 Burial Date: 10 Dec 1679 Burial Place: Lancashire, England Meeting: Quarterly Meeting of Lancashire Piece Description: Piece 1616A: Quarterly Meeting of Lancashire (1776-1794, 1644-1775)
  Person ID	I38825	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family	Ann HOLME[?]
  Children	1. Christopher ATKINSON,   b. Abt 1657, Scotforth, Lancashire, England d. Jul 1699, at sea aboard ship Brittania (Age ~ 42 years)   2. John ATKINSON,   b. Abt 1660, Scotforth, Lancashire, England d. Abt Jul 1699, at sea aboard ship Brittania (Age ~ 39 years)   3. William ATKINSON, Jr.,   b. Scotforth, Lancashire, England d. Bef 14 Jan 1680, Lancashire, England
  Family ID	F16719	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024