The Family of John HOWE of Threlkeld 1759-1835

John HOWE was the older son of Robert HOWE and Sarah COCKBAINE, farmers at High Row, Threlkeld, Cumberland. This is John's family story. You can go back to his father's family here or his brother Christopher's family here.

John HOWE 1759-1835

The transcribed parish records tell us that John HOWE was baptised at the parish church at Threlkeld, Cumberland on 20 December 1759. His parents were Robert HOWE and Sarah COCKBAINE.

John married Mary ABBOT at Threlkeld on 20 July 1783. Both John and Mary were aged 23 years. Mary had baptised at Caldbeck Cumberland on 17 February 1759, her parents were William ABBOT and Mary NELSON, who had married at Caldbeck on 29 October 1758.

The HOWE family tree from William HOWE to John William BENTON
William===v===Mary  Christopher===v===Esther            Jo==v==Mary
 HOWE  m:1701 WREN   COCKBAINE m:1731  GRAVE         ABBOT |
          |                       |                         |
        Robert                  Sarah                    William  Mary NELSON
      1706-1798                 1708-                     1736-       |
          |============v==========|                         |=====v===|
                     m:1759                                     m:1758
                       |                                          |
                     John==================v==================Mary ABBOT
                   1759-1835             m:1783               1759-1850 
                                           |
  |-------------------------------|--------|------------------------------------------------|--------------|
Sarah                            Mary     Ann                                             Robert         Esther
1783-1851                     1785-1861   1787-                                         1790-1825        1795-  
  |-------------------------|     |        |                                                |              |   
m:1808                   m:1826          m:1809                                           m:1815         m:1817
Daniel                     John           John                                            Jane          Robert 
PEARSON                 JENKINSON       MAKEMSON                                         DIXON         DAVISON
1774-?                  1789-1858          |                                            1787-1863          |
  |                         |              |                                                |              |
  |-------|-----|----|      |        |-----|-----|--------|-----|-----|----|--------|       |      |-------|-------|    
Daniel Joseph  Ann  John  Robert   Mary   Ann Elizabeth Thomas John Hannah Wilson William  Mary  Mary    John    Robert 
1808-   1810- 1813- 1819-  1828-   1811- 1813-  1816-    1821- 1823- 1826- 1828-   1832-   1811- 1818- 1819-1819  1820-
                                                             
                                                        

John was aged 39 when he inherited the family farm at High Row, Threlkeld from his father Robert when he died on 13 June 1798. John married Mary ABBOT on 29 July 1783 at Threlkeld. Mary was born in 1759 and baptised 17 February 1759 at Caldbeck, Cumberland, a small village a few miles north of Threlkeld. Her parents were William Abbot and Mary NELSON, married at Caldbeck on 14 November 1736.

John and Mary had five children:

NameBirthMarriageDeath
Sarah 31 Aug 1783 25 Feb 1808: Daniel PEARSON 26 Feb 1914
Mary 7 Nov 1785 - 2 Aug 1861
Ann 3 July 1787 26 Jan 1809: John MAKEMSON
Robert 1 March 1790 28 Nov 1815: Jane DIXON 19 Dec 1825
Esther 27 Feb 1795 20 Sep 1817: Robert DAVISON Bur 20 Oct 1839

John died 7 October 1835 and was buried 2 days later at Threlkeld Church. His wife Mary and daughter Mary both remained at the farm. In the 1841 census Mary the mother is listed as Farmer, together with her daughter Mary. Mary the older died on 1 April 1850 and was buried at Threlkeld on 3 April 1850. Mary the daughter remained living at High Row Farm.


1841 census for Mary HOWE and her daughter at High Row Farm on Blease Road, west of Threlkeld

1851 census for Mary (the daughter) at High Row Farm

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The Children of John HOWE and Mary ABBOT

Sarah HOWE

Sarah HOWE was baptised at Threkeld on 31 August 1783. She married Daniel PEARSON at Threlkeld on 25 February 1808. Daniel does not appear to have been a local lad. The baptism for a Daniel PEARSON at Bassenthwaite on 7 February 1774 would appear to be the best match, especially as there are births for four children to a Daniel and Sarah PEARSON in the years following 1808. If this is correct then Sarah was aged 24 at marriage and Daniel was 34.

Daniel and Sarah had four children, all baptised at Bassenthwaite:

NameBirth
Daniel Born 21 June 1808;
bap 28 June 1808
Joseph bap 6 Feb 1810
Ann bap 25 June 1813
John Howe bap 10 October 1819

Daniel's death cannot be found in the parish records, but it must have been after mid-1819 (his son John Howe PEARSON was baptised on 10 October 1819) and before October 1826. We presume he died, because on 29 October 1826 Sarah PEARSON married John JENKINSON at Cockermouth. We can be sure this is the corrrect Sarah, as the 1841 census has her son John living with her and the 1851 census has her son Joseph and his son Joseph living with her.

John and Sarah had one child, Robert JENKINSON, baptised at Cockermouth on 28 July 1828. Sarah was nearly 45 years old at the time. Robert married Mary APPLEBY at Cockermouth on 20 May 1850. They moved to Whitehaven where Robert was a "clogger" (made wooden clogs). Robert and Mary had 13 children of which only 6 survived.


1841 census for Sarah (née HOWE) and her son John PEARSON living at St Helens St Cockermouth

1851 census for Sarah, now with her son Joseph.

Sarah JENKINSON (PEARSON, née HOWE) died in Cockermouth in December 1851 and was buried at All Saints Church, Cockermouth on 11 December 1851. Her husband John JENKINSON died in Cockermouth a few years later in the first quarter of 1858. There is no parish register burial for him.

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Mary HOWE

Mary was born to John and Mary HOWE and baptised at Threlkeld Church on 7 November 1785. She appears to have lived on the family farm at High Row, Threlkeld for nearly all of her life, never marrying. After her father, John, died in 1835 she remained on the farm. with her mother.In the 1841 census Mary the mother is listed as Farmer, together with her daughter Mary. Mary the older died on 1 April 1850 and was buried at Threlkeld on 3 April 1850. Mary the daughter remained living at High Row Farm, but the farm was now run by Thomas NEWTON. By 1861 Mary had moved into Threlkeld and was boarding with Joseph BELL, the local tailor and grocer. Mary died later that year on 2 October 1861 and was buried 5 October at Threkeld Church. It would appear that Mary inherited the farm, or at least part of it as she is recorded in the 1861 census as "Land Holder". When Mary died later in 1861 she left a Will with executor being her sister Ann (MAKEMSON) of Cockermouth.


1851 census for Mary (the daughter) at High Row Farm

1861 census for Mary (the daughter) at Threlkeld

Index to Death Duty Registers for Mary HOWE in 1861 with the Executor being her sister Ann MAKEMSON.

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Ann HOWE

Ann HOWE was born at Threlkeld in mid-1787 and baptised at Threlkeld Church on 3 July 1787. She presumably lived on the farm until she married John MAKEMSON at Threlkeld 26 January 1809. John MAKEMSOM had been born in Cockermouth, Cumberland in late 1787 to Thomas MAKEMSON and Mary MAXWELL and was baptised there on 6 January 1788. John was a stone mason and in later documents is described as a "waller" - a person sho built dry stone walls. As there types of walls are abundant throughout the Lakes District, John may have been working at Threlkeld when he met Ann. The couple later moved, first to Bassenthwaite (a few miles northwest of Threlkeld) and later back to John's home town of Cockermouth. There are nine baptisms for John and Ann's children, but I suspect that their daughter Ann(e) was baptised twice, at Bassenthwaite in 1813 and again in Cockermouth in 1818. The first Ann may have died in infancy and the name reused but I cannot find a burial record for the first Ann.

NameBaptised
Mary 29 Sep 1811; Threlkeld
Ann 4 Oct 1813; Bassenthwaite
Elizabeth 28 July 1816; Bassenthwaite
Anne 19 Aug 1818; Cockermouth
Thomas 19 Feb 1821; Cockermouth
John 31 Aug 1823; Cockermouth
Hannah 1 March 1826; Cockermouth
Wilson 12 Oct 1828; Cockermouth
William 25 Mar 1832; Cockermouth

1841 census for Ann and John MAKEMSON at St Helens St, Cockermouth

1851 census for Ann and John at St Helens St, Cockermouth

1861 census for Ann and John still at at St Helens St, Cockermouth

John MAKEMSON died 12 September 1863 at Cockermouth. Ann died a few years later on 25 July 1867 also at Cockermouth.


Probate for John MAKEMSON in 1863.

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Robert HOWE

Robert was born in 1790 and baptised at Threlkeld Church on 1 March 1790. He married Jane DIXON at Threlkeld on 28 November 1815. Robert was aged 25 and Jane was 24. Robert and Jane had only the one child - Mary, baptised in Threlkeld on 3 June 1816.

Robert HOWE died on 19 December 1825 and was buried on 21 December 1825 at the church in Threlkeld. Jane remained in Threlkeld and married local farmer and Master of Hounds Joseph CROSIER there on 19 June 1829. I cannot find any children for Robert and Jane. Joseph owned the farm known as Riddings, and was regarded as the local squire. In the 1841 census his occupation is simply "gent". Joseph had a family from his first wife, Ann Robinson. Their son John inherited the farm and later became well known as Master of the Hounds, taking over the pack from his father when Joseph died in 1840. There is a brief description of Joseph on the Blencathra Hounds website:

Joseph Crozier settled in the vale about the beginning of the last century, and married Ann Robinson, who came out of an old Threlkeld family. His first home was at Gate Ghyll; but, later on, he bought Riddings, a small farm on the southern slope of Blencathra, from the Greenhow family, and there he went to reside. It was in this house of Riddings that his son John was born, on the 29th of September 1822.

(Note that Robert HOWE's uncle, Christopher HOWE, married Sarah GREENHOW in Threlkeld in 1788.) See this article about Joseph and John.

Joseph CROSIER died in 1840 and was buried at Threlkeld Church on 14 November 1840. His wife Jane and her daughter from Robert HOWE stayed on at Riddings Farm as she is in the 1841 census along with John CROSIER the son of Joseph. Jane died at Threlkeld and was buried at Threlkeld Church on 22 July 1845.


1841 census for Jane (DIXON/HOWE) at Riddings Farm, Threlkeld

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Esther HOWE

Esther HOWE was born at Threlkeld and was baptised there on 27 February 1795, the youngest of the five children of John HOWE and Mary ABBOT. Esther married Robert DAVISON at Threkeld 20 September 1817. The couple had three children:

NameBaptisedDied
Mary15 Feb 1817; Threlkeld
John 17 Sep 1819; St Johns by Keswick20 Oct 1819; St Johns by Keswick
Robert 4 Aug 1820; St Johns by Keswick

There is little more known about the Davison family. Robert appears to have died in Stanwix, a northern suburb of Carlisle and was buried there on 15 November 1834. Esther died there also and was buried 20 December 1839. The two surviving children are obvious in other records including the 1841 census.

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Last updated: 20/04/2020