David Smyth writes:- In the early 1600s, one ancestor, Ralph Smyth, married Elizabeth (or Alice) Hawkesworth of Hawkesworth Hall, Yorkshire. The Hawkesworth family can be traced back for at least another four hundred years, through seventeen generations, to a Robert de Hawkesworth who lived in Yorkshire in the early Thirteenth century. I am in contact with a member of the Hawkesworth family who says he can provide another two hundred years’ worth of Hawkesworth ancestors, to a few years before the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
The village of Hawksworth (Hawkswarde and other spellings) appears in Domesday Book. It was always a part of Otley, and as such was a berwick of the manor of Otley, held in the time of Edward the Confessor by Archbishop Eldred, who at the coronation of William I placed the crown on the Conqueror’s head. Eldred died in 1069, and as Archbishop Thomas was not appointed until 1070, William I was Lord of the Manor of Hawksworth for eight months. The boundaries of Hawksworth have not changed much since Saxon times, and include about 3,000 acres. Hawksworth is a place name, not a family surname as such, and this gives rise to confusion in the early recorded history of the place. The custom of using as a surname the name of the manor or village was introduced by the Normans and was entirely unknown before the Conquest. It brings complications (there are 14 Thorntons and 32 Thorpes, each of which have given a name to a family. A Gumel Hochesworda appears in the Pipe Rolls of the 12th century, and in 1203 Henry Haeuekswarde was fined 6/8 for default. During the 12th century there were several lines of Hawksworth living in the village. There is nothing to indicate that they were all of one stock, but it is tempting to believe that they were, the ancestors of what was to become an important family in the area. During the 12th century the Hawksworths appear to have possessed only a little land in the area. The manor up to the early 14th century belonged to the second Simon de Warde of Guiseley who gave this ward patrimony, the manorial rights of Hawksworth, to Walter Hawksworth on his marriage to Beatrice de Warde. There is much to relate at each branch of the pedigree. Religious problems during the Reformation; divided loyalties at the time of the Civil War, and the personalities of the Hawksworth men, make interesting reading. The Hawksworth daughters were married into great families, and as the years went by the family assumed greater importance. An interesting facet is that part of the pedigree which shows Walter Hawksworth, who married Ann Wentworth, having died in 1503. His two children Thomas and Joan both died very young. Young Thomas about 9 years old, Joan about 12. The manor went to Thomas Hawksworth, who had married Margaret Acclomb, heiress of Danby of Yafforth, and his descendants. It is a fact that in 1511, at the Michaelmas term of post mortem inquisition, one William Clark, yeoman, Alice Hawksworth, and Thomas Hawksworth were indicted that they did poison and murder Thomas Hawksworth, son of Walter Hawksworth and Joan Hawksworth, daughter and heir of the said Walter Hawksworth, by administering rat poison from which they both died. The defendants were sent to the Marshalsea, later transferred to York prison. As no one appeared at the trial to prosecute, they were acquitted! There were many, many girls born at Hawksworth Hall, and eventually in the early 18th century the second baronet, Sir Walter Hawksworth, who made many of the alterations to the house and gardens, died, leaving two daughters, Frances and Judith. Frances married Thomas Ramsden in 1722, and he assumed the name of Hawksworth. Their son, who died in 1760, was named Walter, and from his marriage came a daughter, who married a Beaumont. This Walter Ramsden Beaumont Hawksworth was born in 1746, and it was he who succeeded to the Farnley estates in 1786, under the will of Francis Fawkes of Farnley, and assumed the name of Fawkes. The mother of Francis Fawkes was Margaret Ayscough, whose sister Judith had married Sir W. Hawksworth the second baronet. Various people lived in Hawksworth Hall after the departure of the Hawksworths to Farnley. The family Wilkinson have a commemorative shield with arms in the Stansfield Chapel of Guiseley Church, where there are many Hawksworth memorial tablets. Timothy Horsfall of Bradford lived in the hall for 50 years until 1924. His coat of arms in tile is under the carpet in the entrance hall. Reuben and Mrs. Gaunt lived in the hall from 1924 until about 1960, when the village and hall were sold off. I knew Mrs. Gaunt and learned much of the Hawksworths from her. Eventually the hall was bought by the Spastic Society, who unfortunately in their efforts to make a suitable place for handicapped children committed sacrilege behind closed doors. A wonderful tithe barn (1611) was destroyed and a great deal of original Jacobean panelling removed, together with other extensive alterations which completely changed the place. I have spent many, many hours in the hall, and was about during the alterations. The first principal was a friend of mine, and I was able to continue my investigations. I have a full account, including a report from the Commission on Ancient Monuments which confirm a very early Middle Ages construction, followed by another building (the existing one began about 1611 and altered in 1664). Panelling in the second floor corridor and some rooms is original. I saw one priest hole revealed during alterations, and later filled in. This was behind the fireplace in the Royal Room. Another existed over and above the fireplace in Reuben Gaunt’s study. The Royal Room is remarkable, with a plaster suspended ceiling. The coat of arms of James I are at one end, and the Hawksworth and Danby arms at the other. James I is supposed to have slept here! Actually he never was nearer than Pontefract. Hawkesworth Hall - Description from Langdale's Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire (1822) HAWKSWORTH, in the parish of Otley, upper-division of Skyrack, liberty of Cawood, Wistow, and Otley; (Hawksworth Hall, the residence of George Carroll, Esq.) 4 miles from Otley, 6 from Bradford, 12 from Leeds. Pop. 323. This place gave name and residence to a family of the highest antiquity, to which authentic records usually ascend; and is one of the instances in which property has descended in the possession of one family from the conquest to the present time; for it appears by a pedigree of the family, attested by the "King of Arms." in 1642, that John, the father of Walter de Hawksworth, the first possessor of this place, came over with the Conqueror, and was killed at the battle of Hastings, where he commanded under Richard Fitzpoint, a Norman Baron, surnamed Clifford, Lord Clifford, of Clifford Castle. It is now the property of Walter Fawkes, Esq. of Farnley, a lineal descendant of the family, and whose father resided there till 1786. The Hall is an irregular stone building of various periods. The oldest part bears the date of 1611, on some rich and curious plasterwork, very characteristic of that age. But it has been improved and modernised by the family, at various times. From "Mysterious Britain" - "The Hawksworths of Hawksworth Hall were Lords of the Manor of Baildon. 17th century Hawksworth Hall in the village of Hawksworth is reputed to be haunted by 3 ghosts - a woman who opens doors, a negro pageboy who leaves dirty handprints on pillows and the standard haunting of a hooded monk. James I (the witch hunting king and author of Daemonologie: Booke I, Booke II and Booke III) also stayed at the hall - his coat of arms decorates the ceiling of the main room of the hall."
This table was sent to me by David Willcock of the Aireborough and Horsforth Museum Society. He says the earlier parts are based on Dugdale’s “Heraldic Visitation of Yorkshire 1660.” He adds that “it does not show a marriage between Elizabeth Hawksworth and Ralph Smith in the 1600s, but that does not mean that it did not take place. Some daughters were not of much importance in those days.”
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died 1603
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This table was sent to me by David Willcock of the Aireborough and Horsforth Museum Society. He says the earlier parts are based on Dugdale’s “Heraldic Visitation of Yorkshire 1660.” He adds that “it does not show a marriage between Elizabeth Hawksworth and Ralph Smith in the 1600s, but that does not mean that it did not take place. Some daughters were not of much importance in those days.”
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Frances bapt. 1702 married Thomas Ramsden 1722 Judith
married William Stanniforth
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Walter Ramsden, died 1760 | 23 Walter Ramsden Beaumont Hawksworth born 1746, died 1792. Succeeded to Farnley estates in 1786 under the will of his grandmother’s first cousin, Francis Fawkes, and assumed the name of Fawkes. The mother of Francis Fawkes was Margaret Ayscough, whose sister Judith married Sir Walter Hawksworth. |
