The family of Thomas Dowbiggin and his wife, Joan Thornton, appears to have comprised two sons and two daughters¹ -- Lancelot, named after his paternal grandfather; Gilbert, named after his maternal grandfather; Elizabeth (1), who died in infancy, and Elizabeth (2), whose Christian name was the same as both Grandmothers. In his pocket-book, Thomas Dowbiggin records the births of his own daughters thus:--

"May 25, 1693. My daughter Elizabeth was then borne being Holy Thursday and was baptized by Mr. Parker upon Sunday following being the 28th May aforesaid att home." (This daughter lived only a few weeks.)

"September ye 1st, 1694. My second daughter Elizabeth was borne then it being Saturday in the morning about sunrising and Baptised Tuesday next following being the fourth day of the said September by Mr. Edward Gibson at Lower Salter."

Mrs. Dowbiggin's father, Gilbert Thornton, of Harterbeck, Roeburndale, died on March 1, 1700; her mother Elizabeth died on May 6, 1719, at the same place. Gilbert, the son of Richard Thornton, entered into possession at Harterbeck, in succession to his father, in April 1654, the commissioners before whom he received the grant of admission under Lord Morley and Mounteagle, being Thomas Carus, Henry Porter, and William Leake.

Mrs. Thomas Dowbiggin died in December, 1732, in Pott Yeats, Littledale. With regard to her great niece, who became the wife of John Fenwick, the Rev. T.E. Gibson, in the article already referred to, expresses the opinion that "she must have been nearly allied" to the Faithwaite family. This point I may clear up in a sentence. Mrs. Thomas Dowbiggin's daughter Elizabeth became the wife of Henry Faithwaite, yeoman, of Pott Yeats; and we have already seen that Henry Faithwaite's mother-in-law was aunt to Mrs. John Fenwick's mother. With regard to Mrs. Dowbiggin's religious faith, to which I have already made some reference, there can be no doubt, I think, that so came of a family that had been for many generations adherents to the Roman Catholic Church. One of her ancestors, Oliver Thornton, of Harterbeck, who died about the year 1576, married Margaret Rigmayden, who belonged to the staunch Roman Catholic family then living at Wedacre, near Garstang. A near relative of Mrs. Dowbiggin's, Dorothy Thornton, became the wife of John Sargeant, yeoman, of Ellel, a Roman Catholic, whose name appears in the list of non-jurors in 1715.

Webmaster's Notes:
¹There was actually another son, Thomas, christened 13 May 1690 in Melling, buried 05 June 1693 in Melling. I found this information in the Melling Parish Register. --Diane Main, May 2000

Click here to go to the Bibby Manuscript Introduction.

Click here to go back to Part II.

Click here to go on to Part IV.

Click here to go back to the DFHS website.