The uncertainty as to Peter F(f)retwell’s
date of birth is acknowledged in this extract of a letter from WEF to the
archivist of the Huddersfield Library:
"I do not
know when Peter F was born, nor when and to whom he was married. It might
have been Mary whose death and burial is recorded in the Cawthorne parish
registers on 16th November 1710. As those registers were only started in
1653, they are of little assistance. However, Miss Meredith, the archivist
at the Sheffield Library, drew my attention to an entry in the Spencer
Stanhope deeds, where in 1617 a Peter Fretwell is allotted a seat in the
church, presumably Cawthorne. It is likely that this Peter was the
grandfather or father of the other Peter....”
Some
more information, though sketchy, has come to light since that letter was
written. WEF surmised that Peter was born about 1630, probably in the Cawthorne area. He is believed
to have married a woman named Mary (née?), again probably in Cawthorne, date
unknown, but presumably, around 1650. Peter's death is recorded as 16 January
1684. If the Mary tentatively identified by WEF was Peter’s wife, she outlived
him by some 26 years, and her burial is recorded in the Cawthorne Parish
Register for 1710 - Mary Fretwell (Maria Fretwell in B.T.) Nov 16th
- and if she had been born about the same time as her husband, she would have
been around 70 years old when she died - quite an age for the time. From the
records, it would seem that Peter and Mary had 9 children.
^See below
* twins
At this stage there is some question as to
whether Francis was the son of Peter and Mary. The Parish Register dates do
tally, the following must be read with this in mind. As the Cawthorne Parish
Registers so not commence until 1653, the children Francis, Robert and Jenitte
were born before that year.
At the time of Peter F(f)retwell the village boasted a Church, well ‘patronised’
by the Fretwells, which was a perpetual curacy, dedicated to All Saints, and a
Free-School founded in 1639 by decree of the Duchy court at Lancaster. The cost
of maintaining a master was shared between the Court, which appointed the
master, and the inhabitants of Cawthorne. By an Act of 1405 every town or
village was bound to provide a pair of stocks. This was a sign of dignity, and
if, along with this seat for malefactors, a village had the status symbols of a
constable and a pound for stray cattle, it could not be mistaken for a mere
hamlet.
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Cawthorne
Parish Church |
There was also a concern for the French
Protestants—the Huguenots—many of whom had fled to Protestant countries such
as England after the Massacre of St Bartholomew in 1560. The religious freedom
granted the French Protestants by the Edict of Nantes in 1598 was revoked in
1685, resulting in further emigration. The Cawthorne residents did their bit to
assist these persecuted people, as is duly recorded in the Parish Register.
Terriers 7.5.4
May ye 9th 1688
Received then of the Minister and Church Wardens of
Cawthorn the som of three pound thirteen shillings an eleven pens collected
for the P’sh of Cawthorn upon a breefe bearing date the 13th January 1687/88
and presented to the distressed Protestants of France. Received at Wakefield
by THOM. HOLMES
July the 9 1689
Collected in the Parish of Cawthorn for Just Protestants
and paid then to Mr. WALDBANK by us the sums of Three Pounds Ten shillings and
Three pens EDW.SMITHSON,
THOMAS DICKSON
THOMAS FAWLEY
Churchwardens
(In August 1690 another collection was given - this time One Pound Ten
Shillings and Three Pence - for the Just Protestants).
The Census of 1851 recorded that the people of
Cawthorne were principally engaged in agriculture and handloom weaving, with
some blacksmiths, tanners and coal miners, and it is likely that this range of
occupations was not much changed from the time of this first Fretwell
generation.
The most eminent family, and was still so up
to the mid 1950s, was the Spencer-Stanhopes, who oversaw the social and economic
life of the village from their estate residence Cannon Hall. Apart from
agriculture, their fortunes had been founded in the old iron industry and later
coal mining, and it was through these industries that the Spencer-Stanhopes
provided employment for the great majority of Cawthorne.
