Wednesday 1 May 2013

The family of Nathaniel Langborne (1739-1807), son of Michael & Eleanor Langborne

Nathaniel Langborne was born 26 December 1739. 
On 17 July 1766, he married Ann Baker; he is described in the parish register entry as Carpenter. 

Nathaniel Langborne (1739-1807) and Ann Baker (c1742-84) had 15 children in 18 years of marriage.
Nine of the children died in infancy, and two died in their teens. 

Ann herself died at the age of 42 and was buried on 29 Aug 1784, a week after the funeral of her last baby, Henry, who had lived only 12 days after his baptism.  She was survived by five of her children, but her daughter Anne died, aged 8 at her mother’s death, died ten years later.

The children were:
•    Michael, b 2 May 1767, bur 12 Jan 1768
•    Mary, b 1768, bur 6 Apr 1769   
•    Eleanor, b 22 Feb 1769, bur 29 Dec 1782 (aged 13)   
•    George, b 1 Feb 1770, bur 7 Oct 1770
•    Nathaniel Langborne (1771-1833)   
•    George, b 28 May 1772, died the same year   
•    George Langborne (1773-1832)   
•    Michael, b 12 Nov 1774, bur 23 Nov 1774     
•    Anne, b 3 Dec 1775, bur 11 July 1794 (aged 18)
•    Mary Langborne (1777-?)     
•    Frances, b 16 Feb 1778, bur 11 Apr 1778      
•    Michael, b 1779, bur 13 Sep 1779 (aged 3 weeks)
•    John Langborne (1781-1836)
•    Michael, bap 17 Dec 1782, bur 19 Dec 1782       
•    Henry, bap 10 Aug 1784, bur 22 Aug 1784       
Nathaniel, George, Mary and John lived to be mentioned in their father Nathaniel's Will.



Nathaniel died in 1807, and his Will shows that he had at some point remarried after the death of Ann Baker in 1784.  His second wife was also called Ann [1].  He gave
"to my dear wife Ann such Part of my household Furniture as belonged to her previously to our marriage And all the residue of my household Furniture with my Plate and Linen I give unto and equally amongst my Wife my three sons Nathaniel George and John and Daughter Mary.  I give unto my said dear Wife one Annuity or yearly Sum of Sixty Pounds … and … I give and devise my House or Tenement situated near the Church-Stairs-Foot in Whitby aforesaid, in the occupation of William Arnet unto my son Nathaniel"
Nathaniel’s executors were his brother George Langborne, Shipbuilder, his nephew William Langborne, Gentleman, his son George Langborne, Mariner, and Jonathan Sanders, Merchant.  The first three were sworn as executors, but Sanders, "being one of the people called Quakers", affirmed instead [2]. Nathaniel's estate (gross personalty) was valued at under £15,000.

Schooner (from Richard Weatherill's book)

Nathaniel Langborne (1771-1833), son of Nathaniel Langborne and Ann Baker

Nathaniel was their fifth child, and was born on 7 Jun 1771. 
He was a Ship Owner.
On 21 Sep 1808 he married Susannah Widowfield.  The Athenaeum magazine of November 1808 (Vol 4)
records: 
At Whitby, Mr Nathaniel Langborne, of that place, to Miss Widowfield, of Stokesley, grand-daughter of the late gallant Captain Hornby [or Hornsby] of the Wrightson and Isabella, who, with five men and three boys, fought a French privateer of ten carriage and eight swivel guns, and seventy-five men, for six hours, when the latter blew up’ for which gallant conduct he received a gold chain and medal from the hands of his late Majesty, George II as a reward for his bravery.
From which it would appear that Susannah was the Susannah Widdifield, daughter of Richard Widdifield and Jane Hornby [sic], baptised at Stokesley on 14 Oct 1779.

Nathaniel Langborne (1771-1833) and Susannah Widowfield (c1777-1853) had two children:
•    Nathaniel Langborne, bap 13 Nov 1810, buried 11 Dec 1834 (aged 24)
•    Ann Hornsby Langborne, born 1815 and buried 23 Jun 1816.
Nathaniel died 24 Sep 1833, aged 62.  He was then living at Farndale Fields (this was the Skinner Street district).  The sole beneficiary and executrix of his Will was his widow Susannah; the estate was valued at under £1,500. 

There is a note in the parish registers, which states,
"On 18 Oct 1833 my father [ie James Andrew, minister] received (as I find by his private notebook) £10-10s being his fee for a Brick Grave for Nathaniel Langborne Esquire.  Signed Wm Andrew (minister) 24 Jan 1844" [Grace Dixon]     
Susannah Langborne survived her husband and children for some twenty years.  She died on 5 Apr 1853 at the age of 76.  She appears to have lived in Well Close square for some time, and is listed there in the 1834 and 1840 Directories.  In the 1851 Census, she is in Poplar Row.  At the time of her death her address was Skinner Street.

Susannah's Will, dated 27 Sep 1852, gave numerous charitable bequests and legacies to the younger generation of her husband's family: 
Her "linen apparel and ornaments" were divided between her own nieces. 
She gave legacies of £50 each to the Silver Street Chapel for the Church or Sunday Schools, to the London Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Whitby Marine Bible Society – it may be seen from these that she was a Nonconformist, presumably attending the Silver Street (congregationalist) chapel. 
She left £25 each to the Whitby Public Schools for boys and girls. 
Her executors were to choose "such poor widows of deceased Ships Carpenters whose husbands may have sailed from the port or resided in the Borough of Whitby" and distribute £50 to them. 
Nineteen guineas apiece were given to George Langborne, son of William, and "my late husband's cousins Mrs Blackett of Shields and Jane Middleton of Liverpool".  (These may have been relations on his mother, Ann Baker's, side.) 
After various other legacies, the estate was divided as to one half for Susannah's nieces and nephews, and as to the other half, equally between her husband's nieces and nephews (see later for their details). 
Each of the six surviving daughters of George Langborne and the four children of Mary Jameson received a thirteenth share.  The four Buchannan boys took their mother's thirteenth share between them.  Frank Langborne, son of John, was given a two-thirteenths share to himself; we do not know why Susannah did not leave a share to his brother George.  The estate was valued at under £1,500 – the amount Susannah had received from her husband.

George Langborne (1773-1832), son of Nathaniel Langborne and Ann Baker

George was their seventh child, born 17 June 1773. 
He was a master mariner, ship owner and ship builder.

He was twice married: to his cousin Eleanor Langborne (1773-1804), daughter of his uncle George Langborne & Mary Rymer), and then to Jane Galilee (1783-1856).

George married Eleanor Langborne on 10 Dec 1801.  They had one daughter:
•    Mary Ann Eleanor, baptised on 18 Nov 1804. 
Within a week Eleanor was dead, and was buried in the parish churchyard on 25 November.  Mary Ann died at the age of three, and was buried on 5 Jan 1808.

George’s second wife Jane Galilee, bears a Whitby surname but was born in Rotherhithe, where she was christened at the age of one at St Mary, Rotherhithe on 4 Apr 1784.  Her parents were Thomas Galilee of Whitby and Jane Atkinson of Kirkleatham. 

George Langborne (1773-1832) and Jane Galilee (1783-1856) had seven daughters and one son:

Their son, Nathaniel, died unmarried at the age of 29.  Only one of the daughters married.  Their children:
•    Jane Langborne, b 15 Aug 1812, d 1 Feb 1858                          
•    Nathaniel Langborne, b 19 May 1814, d 13 Aug 1843                  
•    Ann Langborne, b 9 Aug 1817, marr 21 Sep 1841 to John Buchannan (1810-91), solicitor.  She died 30 May 1849, while the family were living at Lythe Hall.  The family vault and monument can be seen in Lythe churchyard.  Ann left four young sons:
o    George Buchannan (1843-1920), married Marianne Croft
o    Charles Buchannan (1844-1919), married Sarah Ellen Weatherill
o    Hugh Buchannan, b 8 Aug 1846, d 22 Aug 1857 – an entry in Thomas Atkinson's Bible records that he was "drowned while bathing"  
o    Arthur Buchannan (1849-95), married firstly Katharine Weatherill and secondly Margaret Elizabeth Richardson, née Weatherill
•    Mary Eleanor Langborne, b 24 Sep 1819, d 23 Apr 1884                                   
•    Harriet Langborne, b 28 May 1821, d 26 Sep 1889                     
•    Margaret Langborne, b 27 Apr 1825, d 4 May 1910            
•    Eliza Langborne, b 2 Dec 1826, d 28 Sep 1866                    
•    Georgiana Langborne, b 5 Mar 1829, d 14 May 1903 
George Langborne died on 7 June 1832. He was then living in New Buildings (St Hilda's Terrace); he had bought the site in 1815. 

He was aged 59 and died intestate, which suggests that his death came unexpectedly.  His estate was valued at under £12,000.  His wife Jane outlived him by more than 30 years, dying on 29 March 1856 aged 72.

George and Jane Langborne's family vault can be found in the churchyard of St Mary’s, not far from the footpath leading from Church Steps to the Abbey.


Nathaniel, the only son, died at the age of 29 in 1843.  He had become a solicitor and was in partnership with John Buchannan, his brother-in-law, in the firm Belcher, Buchannan & Langborne.  This must have been soon after 1840; in the 1840 White's Directory, there are two separate firms – John Buchannan, Solicitor & Coroner for Whitby Strand and Liberty, Flowergate, and Belcher & Langborne, attorneys, in Grape Lane. 
In his Will dated 11 May 1841, Nathaniel left £50 to the Church Pastoral Aid Society and ten guineas to each of his sisters "to purchase a mourning ring or other memorial".  He left his estate, including the house at St Hilda's Terrace which he had inherited from his father as heir-at-law, to his mother.  His Will was witnessed by George Weatherill, probably the artist.
Margaret Langborne

His mother Jane died on 29 Mar 1856.  The announcement of her death in the Yorkshire Gazette of 5 Apr 1856 said, “She was deservedly held in the highest estimation by all who knew her for her meek and unobtrusive piety.” 

By her Will dated 25 Jan 1856, she left the house at St Hilda's Terrace to her eldest daughter Jane, and the contents equally between the six daughters.  The remainder of the estate was divided equally between the daughters, the Buchannan boys taking their mother's share  Her executors were John Buchannan and "my friend the Revd John Barry Brodrick of Sneaton".  She died within a few months of making the Will, leaving six unmarried daughters aged between 27 and 44. 

Jane, her daughter, made her Will on 11 June 1856 and died two years later aged 45.  Her executors were her cousins William Jameson and Frank Langborne, solicitor, and she left the house to her sisters while they were spinsters, and afterwards to the four Buchannan boys.

Harriet Langborne
The remaining Langborne daughters lived with on in some state and comfort in St Hilda's Terrace, surrounded by furniture, pictures and plate inherited from their parents.

They were wealthy women and fond of visiting spa towns.  They seem to have been particularly fond of Leamington, where they gave an altar cloth to the parish church and subscribed to the building of the church tower.  Indeed, they owned a house there, possibly 4 Newbold Terrace, Leamington Priors, where Margaret and Georgiana, then aged 74 and 71, were living at the time of the 1901 census.

Eliza, the sixth daughter, died in 1866 in Torquay.  Mary Eleanor (the third) died in 1884, Harriet (the fourth) in 1889.  The youngest, Georgiana died in Leamington in 1903 aged 74.

Margaret, the fifth daughter, died in 1910 aged 85.  Subsequently, her great-nephew, the solicitor Archibald Buchannan, lived in the house in St Hilda’s Terrace.

Margaret Langborne (1825-1910) in old age

Mary Langborne (1777-), daughter of Nathaniel Langborne and Ann Baker

Mary was their tenth child, born 16 Jan 1777.  She married William Jameson on 30 July 1805.  He was a ship owner in Baxtergate. 
For some years, he was in partnership with the brothers Nathaniel, George and John Langborne, trading as John Langborne & Co.  He was one of the executors of the Will of George Langborne (1735-1817)

Mary Langborne (b1777) and William Jameson had four children:               
•    William Jameson, b 13 Jul 1806.  Shipowner, married Eliza Barr.  Children: Eliza Jane Jameson, George Jameson and Charles Jameson     
•    Mary Ann Jameson, b 15 Jan 1809, married George Browne   
•    Eleanor Jameson, b 19 Aug 1810     
•    Elizabeth Jameson, b 23 Nov 1811
The Jameson children took a one-thirteenth share under the Will of Susannah Widowfield (c1777-1853), widow of Nathaniel Langborne (1771-1833). 
William Jameson the younger was executor of the Will of his cousin Jane Langborne.
In 1851, William, Eliza and their children and his unmarried sisters Eleanor and Elizabeth are to be found living in Walker Street.  In 1871 Mrs Mary Ann Browne (62), widow, is living at 5 Esplanade with Eleanor and Elizabeth; William and his wife Eliza lived in Bagdale.


John Langborne (1781-1836), son of Nathaniel Langborne and Ann Baker
John was their thirteenth child, born 7 Jan 1781. 
He married Margaret Haviside of Stokesley, aged 21, daughter of John and Margaret Haviside, in 1817.  (The name was variously spelled at the time: Haviside, Heaviside, Havisides). 
They lived in Bagdale.

John Langborne was a shipowner and shipbuilder, as can be seen from the Directories and Richard Weatherill's book, and was in partnership with his brothers and brother-in-law: for example, the ship Admiral Moorsom was built in 1827 by John Langborne and the owners were John, Nathaniel and George Langborne and William Jameson.  She was sold in 1828 for £5,288-10s-6d.

Margaret Haviside’s family in Stokesley were dyers in the town for many years, with a branch in London; one of the family was Captain Tom Havisides of the East India Company, famous for his presence of mind in saving the cargo of the Royal George from a fire in 1825, and after whom Heaviside's Dolphin (Cephalorhynchus heavisidii) is named.  Margaret Havisides' sister Dorothy married Robert Barry of Park Hill, Fylingdale, near Whitby, and died in 1823 aged 28.  Some years later, John Langborne named her widower a trustee of his Will.

In 1836, when his youngest surviving son Frank was four years old, John Langborne died.  His Will was hastily made, and he signed a much altered draft copy in case he died before the Will was engrossed for signature.  This did in fact happen, and Henry Belcher (Nathaniel Langborne's partner), who witnessed the Will, had to give an affidavit regarding the draft to obtain probate. 

John named four trustees: Robert Barry Esq; Thomas Simpson of Whitby, banker; William Jameson (the son) of Whitby, ship owner; and Nathaniel Langborne (son of George) of Whitby, gentleman.  Provision was made for the trustees to keep the ships in business and to carry on ship building until John's son George could decide the future of the business.  George was only nine years old when his father died.

In 1837, the attempt to keep the business running was abandoned.  There had been a bad depression in the ship building trade in 1829-30, but the industry had revived in about 1835, boosted by the requirements of building the Whitby-Pickering railway.  Possibly it was felt inappropriate to keep the yard running for such a long time during the boys' childhood.  Frank became a solicitor, and George entered the army of the East India Company.

In the 1851 Census, John’s widow Margaret is to be found living at St Anns Staith with her son Frank, then aged 18, an articled clerk.  Her son George was by then married and in India.
Margaret died, acording to the transcription of her tombstone in Stokesley churchyard (as recorded in Stokesley Selection by Alec Wright) on 28 Nov 1871 aged 79 years; but it seems likely from freebmd.org.uk that she in fact died in late 1870, aged 76.  She was living in Holgate Road, York at the time of her death. 

John Langborne (1781-1836) and Margaret Haviside (c1794-1870) had four children, two surviving infancy:
•    John Langborne, b 30 Mar 1818, bur 5 Apr 1818              
•    John Anthony Langborne, b 18 Mar 1819, bur 24 May 1819                  
•    George Langborne, b 5 Aug 1827. He attended the East India Company’s military college at Addiscombe, and on passing out at the end of 1845 he was posted to Bombay.  He was in England three years later, when on 2 Feb 1849 he married Emily Loy Merryweather (1832-1907), daughter of Dr George Merryweather in 1849. 
Dr Merryweather was a Whitby practitioner who had inherited land in Hutton Rudby and was the inventor of the Tempest Prognosticator.  Emily's mother was the daughter of Dr Merryweather's partner, John Glover Loy. 
The marriage announcement in the Yorkshire Gazette describes George as “George Langborne, Esq., 21st Bombay Native Infantry”.  He was made lieutenant in 1850, and his eldest son George was born in India in c1851.  He does not appear in the Mutiny Medal lists (1857), so perhaps was not in India at the time.  His son Frank was baptised in Whitby in 1859 (but if he is the Francis Langborne, married police constable living in Dilworth, Lancs in the 1881 census, he was also born in India.) 
When her eldest son George was born, Emily was about 19 years old.  She was 38 years old when her youngest child, Arthur, was born in London in 1870 (according to census replies, no other record of his birth so far found).  (Three children survived to adulthood – there may have been others who did not). 
George’s date of death is not known.  Emily was widowed and living with her son Arthur in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, by the time of the 1881 census.  She died in Shanklin on 12 Jan 1907. 
The children of George Langborne and Emily Loy Merryweather:
o    George Loy Langborne (c1851-1927).  The 1911 census shows that George was born in Nuseerabad, East India.  He married firstly Mary Jane Hopkins (c1862-94), who died in Malton and secondly Mary (1865-1950).  He was issued his certificate as First Mate in April 1873, he got his Master’s ticket in Sep 1880 and his certificate as Extra Master in Jan 1887.  He was in the P & O Mercantile Marine Service and rarely appears in the censuses.  By 1919 he was living at 'Severn Lodge', Malvern Wells.  His second wife Mary survived him by many years.
o    Frank Haviside Loy Langborne, bap in Whitby on 8 July 1859, emigrated to Australia in the 1880s.  I was informed that he was twice married: to Mary Roe and to Alice Gailey.
o    Arthur Langborne, born in London in 1870.  He was a builder in Shanklin, IoW at the date of his mother’s Will, 1889            
•    Frank Langborne, bap 18 Aug 1832, d 1908.  He was a solicitor.  In 1857 he was in practice in Guisborough and Whitby; he later practised in Malton. He married Esther Rose in Malton on 18 Sep 1867.  Esther died in 1889.  Their daughter:
o    Rosa Haviside Langborne, b 1870, married William Arthur Holmes, bank manager.  They lived in Yorkersgate, Malton.  They had two daughters, Gladys Esther Mary Holmes and Elsie Rosemary Holmes.  By 1911 the family was living in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Will of Susannah Widowfield (c1777-1853), widow of Nathaniel Langborne (1771-1833), left Frank Langborne a two-thirteenths share in her estate – this was not, as in the case of the other nephews and nieces, shared with his brother George.


Whitby Shipping (from Richard Weatherill's book)


...to follow - Galilees of Hinderwell and Atkinsons of Kirkleatham ...


[1]  It is possible that the second wife of Nathaniel Langborne (1739-1807) is the woman whose death is reported on 11 Nov 1833 in the Whitby Repository monthly magazine (indicating she was of some social status) but whose burial is not in the Whitby parish registers.  This lady's Will was drawn up and witnessed by John Buchannan, solicitor, and signed only five days before she died.  She was 89 years old and was unable, presumably because of infirmity, to sign her name to her Will, putting instead her mark in the form of a cross.

[2]  The Jonathan Sanders who was one of Nathaniel Langborne’s executors could have been Jonathan Sanders the elder, who died in 1810.  The Sanders had sailcloth factories in Guisborough and Whitby.  Jonathan the younger founded his Bank in Church Street in 1779, and he and his brother are said to feature as the Foster brothers in Mrs Gaskell's Sylvia's Lovers.

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