Lancelot and Gilbert, the sons of Thomas and Joan Dowbiggin, appear to have gone up to London to push their fortunes under the guidance of the uncle Christopher, and Lancelot died there. Evidence of this latter fact is contained in a document of which the following is a copy:-

Manor of Hornby, in the County of Lancaster:-
The Court Baron of the Honourable Francis Charteris, lord of the said Manor, the seventeenth day of June, in the year of our Lord 1745, before James Wemyss Esquire steward a suitors of the said court. To this court came Elizabeth Faithwaite wife of Henry Faithwaite, and sister and next heir of Lancelot Dowbiggin, late of London, deceased, one of the customary tenants of the said Manor, upon the death of the Honourable Francis Charteris, last general admitting lord of the said Manor, and prayed to be admitted tenant of one messuage or tenement at High Winder in Roberindale, with all its appurtenances to the same messuage or tenement belonging, now in the possession of the said Henry Faithwaite or his assigns, within the said Manor of the yearly rent of two pounds, two shillings, and sixpence - halfpenny; whereupon, the said Francis Charteris, on payment of seventeen pounds and fourpence for his general fine, at the time accustomed, doth hereby admit the said Elizabeth Faithwaite tenant to the said premisses, with the appurtenances unto the said Elizabeth Faithwaite under the yearly rent abovementioned, and by paying and performing the rents, fines, dues, duties, and services according to the custom of the said Manor -- Francis Charteris

I have shown how the Benisons of Lancaster and the Dowbiggins of Roeburndale become allied by marriage in the early part of the eighteenth century. In this connection it may be stated that the mother of the famous Dr. Whewell was one of these Lancaster Benisons. Writing from Cambridge to his aunt in Lancaster, February 28, 1819, William Whewell refers to the serious illness of his cousin, Thomas Benison (who died shortly afterwards), and says;

"He was my constant companion and playfellow for many of the first years of my life, and if he were to go it would seem as if almost all that connects me with my childhood were gone too. I could have wished that he and I might have gone through life like two people who have started from the same place and taken different roads, each of them good."

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