(The aforementioned) Thomas Winder, died about 1663, leaving a daughter and heiress, Elizabeth, the wife of Lancelot Dowbiggin, High Winder. There were borne of the marriage of Lancelot Dowbiggin and Elizabeth Winder, so far as I can make out, three sons and two daughters. The sons were Thomas, John and Christopher; the daughters Triphena and Margaret. As was shewn in a previous chapter Thomas, in December 1684, married Joan, daughter of Gilbert and Elizabeth Thornton of Harterbeck. Gilbert was the son of Richard Thornton, of the same place, and a son of his own was baptised Richard on February 21, 1667. Thomas Dowbiggin died August 9, 1695 leaving a widow, two sons (Lancelot and Gilbert) and one daughter (Elizabeth). His father-in-law, Gilbert Thornton, died March 1 1700; Gilbert's widow Elizabeth, died May 6, 1719. The two sons of Thomas Dowbiggin went up to London, and I have no information concerning them beyond what appeared in my first chapter of this family history. Their sister Elizabeth became the wife of Henry Faithwaite, yeoman, Potts Yeats, Littledale in April, 1719, and descendants of the family through this branch are, I believe still to be found.1 I learn from a correspondent near Bentham that some Dowbiggins are now in that locality, and that they were naturally very much interested in the first article on their ancestors. Some of the Dowbiggins who first saw the light in Roeburndale, closed their eyes in the last sleep far away from the scenes of their youth. Among these may be counted Thomas Dowbiggin's two brothers, John and Christopher, and his two sons Lancelot and Gilbert. John and Christopher made considerable positions for themselves in London, where their nephews followed them, but how the latter fared in the metropolis I am unable to tell. In Thomas Dowbiggin's pocket book I find this entry - "ffor Mr. Lancelot Dowbiggin at ye honourable Mr. Baron Montague's chambers in Lincoln Inn, London." This entry has evidently been made long after Thomas Dowbiggin's death, and the inference to be drawn from it is that his son Lancelot held some appointment under Mr. Baron Montague. It would appear that this Lancelot Dowbiggin was dead in 1728, for in October of that year an admittance to a messuage or tenement at High Winder was granted to Elizabeth Faithwaite and (her husband) Henry Faithwaite, then described before the Honourable Francis Charteris, at Hornby, as heir of Lancelot Dowbiggin, late of London, Elizabeth Faithwaite being further mentioned as the assignee of Lancelot Dowbiggin. It is not improbably that these Dowbiggins of Roeburndale were related to the Dowbiggins who are mentioned as follows on memorial tablets in St. Mary's Church, Islington, London: -
"In memory of Mr. Lancelot Dowbiggin, citizen and joiner, of London, who died July 24, 1759, aged 70; architect of this church in the year 1754. Also of Mrs. Rebecca Dowbiggin, wife to the son of the above, who died March 9th, 1798 aged 72 years. Also to Mr. Samuel Dowbiggin, son of the above named Lancelot Dowbiggin, who died November 19th 1809 aged 85 years." (The last name was, I believe, a member of the London Corporation).
"Sacred to the memory of Emily Rebecca Cameron, the excellent wife of John Campbell Cameron, of the Hon. Society of Gray's Inn, and grand-daughter of Samuel Dowbiggin, Esq. She died lamented, as she lived beloved, on the 14th September, 1815, and in the 25th year of her age and her remains were interred in the family vault at the east end of this church."
In the previous article I shewed how Thomas Dowbiggin's niece, Ann Winder Dowbiggin (only daughter of John Dowbiggin, Westminster) married Thomas Benison, son of a Lancaster attorney, and how their only daughter Ann Bennison, became the wife of John Fenwick, Burrow Hall. Henry Faithwaite, Pott Yeats, who in 1719 married Thomas Dowbiggin's daughter Elizabeth, would be, I presume, identical with the Henry Faithwaite of Littledale, whose son John, was on November 10, 1746, bound as apprentice for seven years (the father paying a premium of £50) to John Gibson, mercer of Lancaster. In the latter part of the eighteenth and in the first half of the present century there were also named Dowbiggins - a Thomas and John among them in Lancaster. The best known of these perhaps, was John Dowbiggin, an attorney, with whom Mr. William Sharp served his articles. At different times John Dowbiggin had for partners Thomas Sheperd, John Baldwin, and finally William Sharp, the partnership with the latter beginning about 1804 and lasting until 1820. Thomas Sheperd, who became an alderman of the borough died in April, 1806, aged 61; John Baldwin, also an alderman, died in February 1819, aged 57; John Dowbiggin, who for the last 27 years of his life was deputy registrar of the Consistory Court in Lancaster, died in August, 1825, aged 60.
Since writing the above I have been informed by a friendly correspondent in Lancaster that on the door headstone of the house at High Winder, once occupied by the Dowbiggins, there is this inscription: -
16 79
LD ED
These initials may be taken as standing for Lancelot and Elizabeth Dowbiggin, already referred to. On a long table in the house is an inscription - "TD 1694." Here, no doubt, Thomas, the son of Lancelot Dowbiggin is meant. The black varnished stone over the fireplace is inscribed (in raised letters) as follows: POST NUBILUS PHOEBUS. meaning, after clouds the sun, or after adversity, prosperity.
A memorandum dated February 13, 1713, relates to Robert Brakin taking "liverance of eight-fower sheep of Joan Dowbiggin, of High Winder," and also some sheep belonging to Elizabeth Dowbiggin junior.
There was a Robert Bracking, yeoman, living in Roeburndale in 1730 and an Isabel Brackin, of Scambler Houses, died about eight years later. The Brackens were tolerably numerous in and near Lunesdale in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, being located at Hornby, High Winder, Salter, Scotforth (Bailrigg), Cabus, Aston and Lancaster. The surname is spelt about half-a-dozen different ways.
Webmaster's Notes:
1This branch is believed to have died out since the original time of this writing.
Click here to go to the Bibby Manuscript Introduction.
Click here to go back to Part X.
Click here to go on to Part XII.
Click here to go back to the DFHS website.