Timeline - 1500 - 1800



TIMELINE 1500 -1800

1515 - 1568 ROGER ASCHAM -Scholar / Educationalist / Writer. Born in Kirby Wiske. Most important work The Schoolmaster 1570. The three great educational principles he put forward were the need for gentleness in instruction (especially at an early age); the importance of developing 'hard wits' rather than 'quick wits' and the superiority of learning over experience. Described as "The greatest educationalist of his time". In 1534 he wrote a defense of Archery entitled Toxophilus dedicated to King Henry V111 In 1553 he published his Report on the Affairs of Germany. (Sources - Tweddell - Bards and Authors and Burnett - Old Cleveland Worthies and Writers and Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1515 - 1565 SIR THOMAS CHALONER, THE ELDER - Tweddell says of the Chaloners "It is seldom that genius descends from Sire to son; but the first three generations of the Chaloner family connected with Cleveland were remarkable for mental activity and literary ability, producing no less than five men of letters, first and foremost being Sir Thomas Chaloner, the Elder." Distinguished warrior, statesman and poet, born in London. educated at Cambridge. From the 20th July 1547 procured letters patent of the house and site of the late priory of Gisbro' which for three hundred and eighteen years remained in their family. His works included - Of Restoring the English Republic in 1561. In 1564 (the birth year of Shakespeare, he addressed a Latin Elegy to his sovereign. Writing mostly in Latin he - composed a Dictionary for Children,and translated from Latin a book Of the Office of Servants, and other works. He was one of the contributors to the first part of that famous work - A myrroure for Magistrates in 1559. and also to The Last Parte of the Mirour for Magistrates published in 1574. which included verses composed by Chaloner.(Source Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1517 - 1584 BERNARD GILPIN - Divine. Born at Kentmere Hall in Westmoreland. After being Rector of Houghton Le Spring, he was relocated in the vicarage at Norton on Tees. Known as the Apostle of the North.(Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1524 - 1579 DEAN (William) WHITTINGHAM - Born in Chester. Dean of Durham Cathedral.Translations of 14 Psalms. Found in The Whole Book of Psalms, Collected into English Metre by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins and others. You'll find the initials W.W. Tweddell quotes the Fiftieth Psalm and The Tenth Commandment of God. As a prose writer he produced On the vestments of the Clergy also quoted by Tweddell. Included not because of an association with our area but because it's included in Tweddell's Bards and Authors which included writers from South Durham. (Source Tweddell's Bards and Authors).

c1530 - 1587 PETER LEVENS -Scholar / Medical Writer. Born at or near Eske in Yorkshire. Little is known of him but a contemporary writers described him as an eminent Physician.

1559 SIR THOMAS CHALONER, THE YOUNGER. The only son of Sir Thomas Chaloner, the Elder. In 1580 he published A Short Discourse of the most rare and excellent Virtue of Nitre, wherein is declared the sundry Cures by the same effected. To this worthy, we owe the introduction of the manufacture of Alum into England, about the close of the 16th Century; the first Alum being being made on his estate at Gisbro'. (Source Tweddell - Bards and Authors).

1590 - 1625 REV. EDWARD CHALONER - The second son of Sir Thomas Chaloner the Younger. Many of Edward's sermons were published one being Sixe Sermons. preached by Edward Chaloner, Doctor Diuinitie, and Fellow of All-Sovle's College Oxford, London, printed by W. Stansby 1623. It is a samll volume of three hundred and sixty pages. Tweddell says after quoting False Priests "Vigorous language this; and the extracts I will now give will show the reader that Dr Chaloner was a Divine of considerable ability." Other works include The Originall and Progresse of Heresie published 14 years later. Also a small quarto of a hundred and fifty pages entitiled Six Sermons now first published, Preached by that learned and worthy Divine Edward Chaloner lately decease'd, Dr. in Divinity, sometimes Chaplaine in Orinary to our Soverign K. James, and to his majesty tht now is; and late Principall of Alban Hall in Oxford. Printed according to the Author's Coppies, written with his owne hand. At Oxford, Printed by W. Turner, for Henry Curtyn, Ann Dom 1629. Another volume Tweddell tells us about is - Credo Ecclesian Sanctam. 1638. (Source Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

THOMAS CHALONER, THE COMMONWEALTH MAN - was the third son of Sir Thomas Chaloner the Yonger. He was recruiter for the Richmond Long Parliament, and one of the judges chosen to try King Charles the First. He ws also a member of Cromwell's Rump Parliament and one of Cromwell's council of States. He was author of several political pamphlets during the struggle between King and Country. The Answer of the Commons Assembled in Parliament, to the Scots Commissioners Papers of the 20th, and their letter of the 24th of October last. (Source Tweddell - Bards and Authors).

D. 1649 JAMES CHALONER, THE COMMONWEALTH MAN - The fourth son of Sir Thomas Chaloner the Younger. He was a recruiter for Aldborough in the Long Parliament, and was chosen as one of the King's judges, but unlike Thomas Chaloner above, his name wasn't among those on the King's death warrant. He is author of Description of the Isle of Man,published in the original edition of King's Vale Royal, though some have erroneously attributed it to another James Chaloner, a native of Chester. (Source Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1600 - 1661 BRIAN (BRYAN) WALTON Doctor of Divinity, Bishop of Chester and Editor of English Polygot Bible - Final Volume (6 Volumes in all) published 1657. Born in a small cottage, nearly opposite the church in Seamer in Clevleland, nr what is now Middlesbrough. He also published 1752 his treatise, written 1640, relating to the Collectanea & Ecclesiastica to the rights of the Clergy of the Church of England by Samual Brewster.More willbe found in an article to come to this site or in these sources - (SourcesTweddell - Bards and Authors / Burnett - Old Cleveland worthies and Writers / Cleveland Hall of Fame)

c1622 MICHAEL DRAYTON'S POLYOLBION - As part of Drayton's extensive poem around the British Isles, he visited Guisborough noting the Alum mining, the most ancient and important in Yorkshire and England according John Walker Ord. Ord writes "The extensive Belman Bank, Nr. Guisborough, are universally acknowledged to be the oldest in this country, and were commenced, and most probably carried into active operation, by Sir Thomas Chaloner, previous to the year 1600. Drayton who was born in 1563 and died in 1631, alludes to them in his Polyolbion" -

"Mark Gisborough's gay cite,

where nature seems so nice,

as in the same she makes a second paradise

whose soil embroider'd is with so rare sundry flowers

Her large oaks so longgrown, as summer there her bower

Had set up all the year; her air for health reformed;

Her earth with Allum veins most richly intertwined.

1632 - 1669 Rev. HENRY FOULIS B.D. - Historian, Divine. Born Ingleby Greenhow where his family owned the estate. Began a career in the church but his strong interest in history led to the publication of two books attacking religious extremes of the time, namely Presbyterianism and popery. The History of the Wicked Plots and Conspiracies of our Pretended Saints and Presbyterians. 1662. A History of the Romish Treasons and Usurpation's was printed after his death in 1671. (Sources The History of Cleveland - Graves /Tweddell - Bards and Authors / Burnett Old Cleveland Worthies and Writers and Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1638 - ? MERITON (OR MERYTON) Dramatist. Born Castle Levington near Yarm. Much of his work was completed early in life. Love and War 1658. Other works were not given great exposure The Wandering Lover was acted privately by the author and friends. Several Affairs a comedy and The Chaste Virgin, a romance, were only shown to Meriton's friends. (On the previous site there was a comment from a descendant of Meriton and I will re-upload that to this site soon) (Source Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1641 - 1713 THOMAS RYMER - Archivist, critic and historiographer royal. Born Appleton Wiske In 1692 Rymer was appointed historiographer royal to King William 111 and over the previous few years he had written a number of dramas and criticisms which were note particularly noteworthy. These included a tragedy Edgar of the English Monarchy, A Short View of Tragedy 1692 and The Tragedies of the Last Age Considered 1678.The work that gave Thomas Rymer a claim to literary fame was Foedora Conventiones, et cruiuscunque generis Acta Publica. A collection of public records and treatises from 1100 AD to 1654, which he editied until his death 1713. The collection was contained in twenty volumes which were published between 1704 and 1735. (Source Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1668 - 1733 THOMAS RUDD - Antiquary. Baptised in Stockton. In 1707 he produced a Latin Syntax and Prosody for use by his scholoars before embarking on a new career in the church. He contributed articles on Arundelian Marbles to volumes of Miscellaneous Observations upon Authors Ancient and Modern.Published in 1731-2 (Source Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1668 LYKE WAKE DIRGE This is probably the oldest surviving dialect verse in Cleveland and likens the journey after death to the crossing of a great moor. John Aubrey gives this an antiquity of 1686. Richard Blakeborough records that it was last sung at a funeral near Kildale about 1800. The Dirge has given it's name to the popular 40 mile Lyke Wake Walk that crosses the North Yorkshire Moors from Osmotherley to Ravenscar. The dirge itself has been recorded by numerous contemporary folk artists including Pentangle, Teel Eye Span and Buffy St. Marie.

1701 - 1782 WILLIAM EMERSON - Born Hurworth-On-Tees. One of the most gifted mathematicians, mechanists and philosphers of the eighteenth century. In 1743 Emerson published his Doctine of Fluxionsthen in 1749 he published two works The Projection of the Sphere, Orthographic, stereographic, and Gnomonic. And The Elements of Trigonomentry. In 1754 he published his Principles of Mechanics. In 1755 he published his work on Navigation. In 1763 - three more works appeared - A Treatise of Arithmetic / A Treatise of Goemetry / A New Method of Increments. In 1764 A Treatise of Algebra. in 1767 - The Arithmetic of Infinities and the Differential Method, Elements of the Conic Sections and the nature and properties of curve lines. In 1768 Elements of Optics and Perspective. And in 1769 two works - A System of Astronomy / Mechanics, or the Doctrine of Motion, with the laws of Centripetal and centrifugal force. In 1770 he published Mathematical Principles of Geography, Navigation and Dialling / Short comment on Sir Isaac Newton's Principia; to which is added, A Defence of Sir Isaac agaist the objections that have been made to several parts of his works / A Volume of Tracts / Cyclomathesis or an Easy Introduction tot he several branches of mathematics (in ten volumes). (Source Tweddell's Bards and Authors)

1713 - 1768 LAWRENCE STERNE Author of Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey. Regular visitor to John Hall Stevenson's Skelton Castle (Crazy Castle) - Sterne's Seat was along the lane outside. Hall Stevenson was his Eugenius in his novels, they met at Cambridge. Pioneered the Stream of Conciousness before the term was coined by William James. WH Burnett - Old Cleveland

1714 - 1795 WILLIAM ROMAINE -Divine. Born South Gate, Hartlepool. Educated in Houghton Le Spring at a school run by Bernard Gilpin (who is also featured in this history). In 1748 he edited a new edition of the Hebrew Concordance of Marius de Calasio. His theology and conception of the spiritual life are expounded in three treatises. The Life of Faith 1763 / The Walk of Faith 1771 / The Triumph of Faith 1795. (Source - The Cleveland Hall of Fame)

1717 - 1788 RALPH BRADLEY - Conveyancy Barrister - Born Greatham. In Stockton 1779 he published An Enquiry into the Nature of Property and Estates as defined by English Law in which are considered the opinions of Mr Justice Blackstone and Lord Coke concerning Real Property. After his death, Bradley's accumulated experience and technical expertise were included in a publication which appeared in London in 1804. Practical points on maxims in conveyancy drawn from the daily experience of a late eminent conveyancer (Bradley) with critical observations on the various points of a deed by J. Ritson. (Source Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1718 - 1785 JOHN HALL STEVENSON Born at Skelton Castle. Studied at Jesus College Cambridge where he became friends with Laurence Sterne and left university without a degree to embark on a grand tour of Europe. Inherited Skelton Castle and with time and money on his hands declared that his sole aim in life was to amuse himself. He did not share the interest of his contemporaries in field sports and divided his time between literature and entertaining guests. Stevenson's library included a large proportion of witty or humourous books and his friends included Robert Lasceelles (clergyman), Zachary Moore, Andrew Irvine of Kirkleatham (School master), Col Lee. Col Hall and an architect named Pringle joined Hall Stevenson to form a club of demoniacks who met several times a year at Skelton to indulge is a round of drinking, jesting and debauchery. During the periods between orgies he would write imitations of La Fountaine and trips to London where he mixed with important literary or political figures such as Wilkes and Horace Walpole. During the 1760's he wrote a number of pamphlets which gained a very mixed reception. A Lyric Epistle in 1760 and which was addressed to his friend Laurence Sterne following the publication of Tristram Shandybut Hall Stevenson's work ws described by Gray 'as absolute Nonesense.'. Several editions of Crazy Tales were issued and these described the wild parties at Skelton Castle. Some people such as Horace Walpole saw ' a vast deal of original humour and wit' in Steveson's work but eminent contemporary writers and critics were usually contemtuous in the their comments which appeared in Contemporary Review. This seems to have fired his appetite for producing scathing counter attacks in verse. In 1760 he published a number of pamphlets including A Nosegay and a Similie for the Reviewers which were retorts to his critics. After meeting Wilkes, he produced a number of pamphlets in politics which attacked both Whigs and Tories in the 1760's. Hall Stevenson appeared in Sterne's Tristram Shandy and Sentimental Journey under the name of Eugenius where he is portrayed as a prudent councellor and this seems likely to be linked with his patronage of the author. 'Sternes seat' is said to have been located along the lane from Skelton to Markse. Sternes is said to have rested their and may have written some of Tristram Shandy at Skelton althogh evidence is lacking. Certainly Sterne often stayed at Skelton Castle using the library there and during thesummer of 1767 he and Stevenson raced eachother on along Saltburn beach in chariots! Stevenson seems to have imitated Sterne in many respects - in A Sentimental Dialogue between two souls in the palpable bodies of an English Lady of Quantity and an Irish Gentleman. Published in 1768. (Burnett - Old Cleveland)

1722 - 1788 LIONEL CHARLTON - A native of Hexham. Opened a school in Whitby. In 1779 he published by subscription - The History of Whitby, and of Whitby Abbey, collected from the Original Records of the Abbey, and ,other authentic Memoirs, never before made public;. Amoung the literay subscribers - Allan the Antiquarian / The Honourable Daines Barrington; The Rev. John Brewster; Richard Gough; Rev. John Graves; Francis Grose; John Hall Stevensn; Eli Hargrove; Thomas Hinderwell; Dr. Samual Johnson; Mrs Montague (a pupil of Dr. Conyers Middleton's); Rev Dr Percy, Sir Joshua Reynolds; Joseph Ritson; George Steevens and Archbishop Markham. It was published in 1817. (Source Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1723 - 1787 JOSEPH REED - Dramatist. Born Stockton. Main interest was in writing dramatic poetry. August 1744 - poem In imitation of the Scottish Dailect on the death of Mr Pope published in Gentleman's Magazine.The following year, his first play, a farce entitled The Superannuated Gallant was performed at Newcastle. 1758 Reed's tragedy Madrigal and Trulletta was performed at Covent Garden Theatre but seems to have been too long and was badly recieved by the critics. Reed was undaunted and replied in a pamphlet entitled A Sop in the Pan for a Physical Critick published in 1759. he had more success with a farce The Registry Office which had a good run at the Drury Lane Theatre in April 1761. It's strongest appeal was perhaps its characters who included Margery Moorport from 'Canny Yatton Under Roseberry' (Now known as Gt. Ayton in North Yorkshire). A tragedy Dido also enjoyed brief success in Marcy 1767 until a disagreement with the manager of Drury Lane ended its run and in The Retort Courteous, or aCandid Appeal published in 1787, Reed attacked the theatre manager for not recieving the play. Tom Jones, a comic opera adapted from Fielding's work, also enjoyed a fair measure of success and his last acted play was The Imposters or a cure for Credulity which was performed at the Covent Gardens Theatre March 19th 1776. Other writings include a contribution to the Monitor which was issued in support of the Earl of Bute's administration in 1761 and in 1764 he sent a witty antobiography to Universal Museum. (Source - Cleveland's Hall of Fame / Burnett - Old Cleveland Worthies and Writers / Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1727 DANIEL DEFOE described Stockton and Yarm as "two large well-built towns which have greatly increased of late years, especially Stockton which is now the chief port"

1728 CAPTAIN COOK born in the parish of Marton on October 27th of that year. George Markham Tweddell had intended to include Cook in his proposed second volume of Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham. The 2nd volume never appeared and any notes Tweddell had made towards it are believed destroyed in the Stokesley floods of the 1930's. Presumably his entry in to Tweddell's literary canon would have been in regard to Cook's Ship's log or memoirs - unless anybody knows otherwise!

1736 - 1790 RALPH JACKSON Kept a lifelong diary for forty years from the age of 13 until his death, most useful to historians. He was a North Yorkshire landowner and man of business about whom we know a considerable amount because the diaries he composed have almost all survived. More about him here http://www.historic-cleveland.co.uk/topics/topics.php?id=5&mode=main

1738 -95 THOMAS ELLERKER - Jesuit, Theologian. Born at Hart. and entered Society of Jesus 1755. He published religious tracts and has been called one of the ablest Professors of Theology that the English Province ever produced. (Source - Clevelands Hall of Fame).

1743 - 1808 JOHN JACKSON- Master of Rudby School - esteemed in Stokesley as a Classical and Mathematical teacher. Manufactured sun dials for Cleveland area. Renowned for the song The Cleveland Fox-Chase which was set to music by the author and first printed by Tweddell in his Yorkshire Miscellany July 1846, 38 years after the death of its author and 61 after it's composition. (Source - Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1744 - 1792 THE HON.COMMODORE CONSTANTINE JOHN PHIPPS, M.P. AFTERWARDS BARON MULGRAVE - His father was Constantine Phipps (grandson of Chancellor Phipps), who, having obtained from the King a lease on the estates of Mulgrave, in Cleveland, was created Baron Mulgrave of New Ross 1767, in the county of Wexford, in the peerage of Ireland. A sailor, he related the various attempts before him to find a North West Passage to India by way of the Artic regions in the Introduction to his A Voyage towards the North Pole; undertaken by His Majesty's Command 1773 by Constantine John Phipps. Tweddell proposed to cover his journeys also in The People's History of Cleveland.He also had some talent in Political Economy and Tweddell speculates, via his association with the Royal Society, whether he had familiarised him self with the then new teachings of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, in which the idea that 'labour was the source of all wealth' was first most choerently put forward. (Source Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1750 THE HOBKIRK PAPERS appeared in Stokesley - Published in Tweddel's Miscellany.

1750 DREE NEET (similar to the Lyke Walk Dirge - but later) was known at least from 1750 in Old Cleveland.

1751 - 1806 THOMAS SHERATON Furniture Designer. Born Stockton. Strong Baptism convictions led to the publishing of a religious tract A Scriptual Illustration of the Doctrine of Regeneration in 1782. After moving to London his first two London publications (compiled in Stockton) were a series of eighty four plates on furniture design published under the title of Design for Furniture and in 1791 The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterers' Drawing Book. Back in Stockton around 1795 he published the Cabinet Dictionary. In 1804 he began work on The Cabinet Maker, upholsterer and General Artists' Encylopedia which appeared in 125 monthly parts. Only 30 parts of the Encyclopedia were actually published owing to poverty and ill health. Some forty years later the significance of Sheraton's work was appreciated. The most distinguishing feature of Sheraton's cabinets was the swan necked pediment surmounting the cornice and the theme of his design work was that successful simplicity is more desirable than excesss of ornamentation. (Source Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1752 - 1803 JOSEPH RITSON - Lawyer / Writer. Born Stockton. Although a Lawyer by trade, Ritson soon developed an interest in literature, published pamphlets and became friendly with writers and musicians. Especially interested in Ancient literature, poetry and drama. He became one of the earliest collectors of local verse and published a number of northern collections during the 1780's and early 1790's, but eccentricities resulted in controversies with other writers. Many of these were conducted in the columns of the Gentlemen's Magazine and during the mid 1780's he successfully demonstrated that John Pinkerton's Select Scottish Ballads were made up of forgeries. In 1781 he issued The Stockton Jubilee or Shakespeare in all his Glory - a witty attack on the senior citizens of his home town. For a number of years he supported the Jacobite cause. (Source - Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1759 WILLIAM BUCKTON noted as a Bookseller in the Stokesley Register. This was the earliest reference to Printing or allied trades in Stokesely that appeared in the Parish Register.

1760 - 1767 LAURENCE STERNE - of Shandy Hall, Coxwold, near Helmsley and Thirsk and the witty eccentric parson and friend of John Hall Stevenson of Skelton (Crazy) Castle, wrote Tristram Shandy andA Sentimental Journey in what later became known as a Stream of Consciousness style. Early copies were hand illustrated.

1761 - 1832 THE REV. JOHN GRAVES - Born in Threekeld in Cumberland, he wrote the first history of Cleveland and was married in Stockton on Tees in 1783 by the Rev. John Brewster, who 13 years later wrote the History of Stockton. No one would percieve at the time that both the Clergyman and the Bridegroom would both be famous later on as local historians. His book was published in 1808, printed at Carlise and called The History of Cleveland in the North Riding of the County of York; comprehending an Historical and Descriptive View of the Ancient and Present State of each Parish within the Wapentake of Langbaugh; the soil Produce, and Natural Curiosities; with the Origin and Genealogy of the Principal Familes within the District.The book was dedicated to The Very Reverand George Markham, DD Dean of York, (then Rector of Stokesley). as a grateful tribute of respect. George Markham Tweddell himself was the son of George Markham's son, although largely estranged from the Markham's at the time.

1762 JOHN HALL STEVENSON of Skelton Castle and friend of Lawrence Sterne, was a lesser known author who wrote Fable for Grown Gentlemen and Crazy Tales, publishing several other works including an obscene sequel to Sterne's A Sentimental Journey and pieces of political satire.

1765 THOMAS GRAY (The Poet) staying two days in Hartlepool visiting the Spa there.

TAKKY BURTON Of Lastingham on the moors. (Date uncertain) One of his lines in the Cleveland dialect goes "He wrote some well putten together lines"

1766 GEORGIAN THEATRE Stockton on Tees established in a former Tithe barn, partially built from stones from the former Stockton Castle and N.E. end of the Green Dragon Yard. Along the way it has also been a sweet factory. In 2006 it was home to the Writers Cafe spoken work and acoustic performence night, on the first weds of every month, run by Trevor Teasdel and managed by Teesside Music Allience. The theatre has, in recent times ben the home base of the music allience.

1771 - 1798 THOMAS BROWN Poet of Lastingham. One of his poems is called Awd Daisy.

1773 -1828 DANIEL TYERMAN - Missionary. Born Osmotherley. Works written by Tyerman include An Essay on Baptism 1806 / Evangelical Hope - an essay 1815 / The Dairyman - the life of Joseph Wallbridge 1816. Essay on the wisdom of God 1818. A Journal of his missinary tour, much of it written by himself (though the early part was inco-operation with George Bennette, published in 1831. He also published texts, dictionaries, grammars as Professor of Indian languages at Fort William College. (Source - Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1776 A LITERARY BOOKCLUB was formed in 1776 in Stockton on Tees. The first of it's kind in this place. (Source - A History of the Town and Borough of Stockton on Tees - by Tom Sowler 1972 (page 121 and in the appendix)

1779 - 1854 JOHN OXLEE - Divine. Born Guisborough. Numerous unpublished writings include Armenian and arobic Lexicon and one hundred or more vocabularies of such words as form the stamin of human speech commencing with the Hungarian and terminating with the Yoruba 1837 - 1840. He sent contributions to the Anti Jacobean Review / Valpy's Classical Journal / The Christian Remembrance / The voice of Jacob / Voice of Israel / Jewish Chronicle / Jewish Repository / The Yorkshire Man / The Sermons for Sundays and Festival. (source - Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1782 - 1849 ANTHONY WHITE - Surgeon. Born at Norton.In 1846 he published Treatise on the Plague / An Enquiry into the proximate cause of Gout and its National Treatment 1848. (Source Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1783 - 1851 THOMAS WEBBER - Born at Tiverton in Devon was known for many years as Stockton's Poet Laureate. In 1806, he worked for Joseph Pease and Co at Darlington. In 1814 moved to Stockton on Tees, where according to Tweddell "he was ready to rhyme on all occasions, serious or merry, if a few shillings were to be honestly earned in that manner." However he would not attempt to blacken a fair character or or write or speak in favour of oppression, however much he might need the gold. Tweddell also says that to list the many titles that he wrote, would take up more space than he has in his book, for he seems to have sung an elegy on the death of every Stocktonian of consequence for many years. (Source Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1783 NICHOLAS TAYLERSON One of first printers in Stokesley. The first book he printed was called Roseberry Toppin', or the Prospect of a Summer's Day. by Thomas Pierson - school master, blacksmith, gun smith & later Customs House official in Stockton.

1786 THOMAS PIERSON of Stokesley wrote a play founded on fact and performed at Stokesley under the author's direction and called The Treacherous Son in Law. In !783 he had written the following verse. -

"Here, sensual riot, merriment obscene / employ the day and revel the night /Justice too little rules, no order guides /but stiff opinion everyman protects / party owes party : self divided town / the stronger claim the weaker always rules"

1787 - 1867 THOMAS COLE born. He was 34 years parish Clerk at Stokesley and the father of Elizabeth Cole - late Elizabeth Tweddell AKA the poet Florence Cleveland still famous today for her Rhymes and Sketches in the Cleveland dialect.

1789 - 1857 WILLIAM SCORESBY Jnr Born Cropton. Son of Arctic explorer William Scoresby based at Whitby. In 1820 his Account of the Arctic Regions and Northern Whale Fishery was published and soon became the basis of Scientific research in the Artic. From 1849 he began writing on scientific subjects. In 1850 he published The Franklin Expedition and a year later My Father,being Records of an Adventurous Life of the Late W. Scoresby. (Source - Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1792 - 1862 THOMAS JEFFERSON HOGG - First Biographer of Shelly. Born Norton near Stockton on Tees. Became friends with Shelly at Oxford. 1811 produced a pamphlet of satirical poetry attributed to Margaret Nicholson, the would be assassin of King George 111. Both Hogg and Shelley were expelled from oxford because of their writings. In 1827 after a tour of Germany and Italy he published Two Hundred and Nine Days or The Journal of a Traveller on the Continent. In 1832 Hogg published a biography of Shelley in the New Monthly Magazine. In the 1840s Hogg wrote a number of articles for periodicals such as The Westminster Review, Edinburgh Review, New Monthly Magazine. Often they were badly reviewed as when Thackeray ridiculed Some Recollections of Childhood which appeared in Bulmer's Monthly Chronicle. Hogg receive £2000 in Shelley;s will and in the mid fifties began work on a biography of Shelley. After writing the first two volumes, they were not well recieved by some people and much of the material that he needed was withdrawn before it was complete. To others Hogg's style was refreshingly different and his vivid impressions of people and events gained this eccentric humourist a fair measure of acclaim. According to the Norton Heritage Group, Shelley, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Byron were all visitors to the Hogg's Norton House residence. (Source Cleveland's Hall of Fame)

1792 A SUBSCRIPTION LIBRARY was established in Stockton on Tees.

1792 JOHN CASTILLO born at Rathfarnum, three miles from Dublin. He grew up and lived and wrote at Lealholm on the North York moors. He became a stone mason, Methodist preacher and became known as The Bard of the Dales. His reputation still lives on. (Tweddell - Bards and Authors - Burnett - Old Cleveland

1791 - 1870 HENRY HEAVISIDES Born in Darlington where his father, Michael Heavisides, was a printer and bookseller. Michael himself was a native of Norton on Tees and lived for a while in Billingham. Henry Heavisides worked as apprentice to William Pratt, printers and publishers in Stokesley. Although a poet he worked on the Hull Packet and Leeds Mercury. Later he was a foreman in Stockton at Messers Jennett & Co. for forty two years. In 1857 he commenced business on his own account as a printer and stationer at No 4 Finkle St. he was author of The Pleasures of the Home, and other Poems. He took part in the Reform movement of 1832. he was also a musician and leader of an amateur band in Stockton. he also sketched some of the woodcuts used in Brewsters History of Stockton. In 1860 he published The Minstrelsy of Briatain; or at a glance at our Lyrical Poetry and Poets, from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth tot he Present Time, including a Dissertation on the Genius and Lyrics of Burns. In 1864 he published Courtship and Matrimony; their Lights and Shades: Comprising of Practical Considerations for the Married and the Unmarried. Also The Annals of Stockton on Tees, with Biographical notices. ( Source - Tweddell - Bards and Authors)

1791 STOCKTON SUBSCRIPTION LIBRARY ESTABLISHED.

1792 - 1845 JOHN CASTILLO (The Bard of the Dales) Born in Rathfarnum, three miles from Dublin, his family (having been shipwrecked) settled in the quiet hamlet of Lealholm on the North York moors (where Caedmon had written). He began writting poetry that he would sing to a flute in the ballad tradition but soon became notorius in the area as the Bard of the Dales, and his poetry is remembered today. A dry stonewaller, he also became a Methodist preacher and many of his verses reflect his beliefs. One of his poems reflects the lonliness in the hamlets on the moors after many families had bordered ships at Whitby for America - including his own father. A rare poetical glimpse into this emigration. He produced several volumes of his verse - the first Awd Isaac, The Steeplechase and other poems(with a glossary of the dialect) published by Horne and Richardson, Whitby. In 1858 Stokesley printer WF Pratt published The Bard of the Dales with a life of the author written by himself. After Castillo's death another Stokesley pritner / publisher George Markham Tweddell published Castillo's Dialect Poem or Local Poems of the Late John Castillo - with historical and topgraphical notes. (Sources - Tweddell - Bards and Authors / Burnett Old Cleveland Worthies and Writers and Ann Winruss, who has supplied this site with some of the benefits of her own research into the poetical works of John Castillo. These notes will be restored to this site shortly.)

1793 NICHOLAS TAYLERSON AND RICHARD HODGSON (Who predate William Pratt) designated printers in the Stokesley Register. (Source Stokelsey Local History Society). Nicholas Taylorson was given as 'Printer' at the time of his marriage to Miss Amelia Clarke in 1793. His family gave name to the Pack Horse Bridge in Stokesley. A note pasted in George Markham Tweddell's Yorkshire Miscellany from Middlesbrough poet William Mason, has is that Taylerson was not succeeded by William Pratt and Sons as there was already a printer in Stokesley named Richard Hodgson. Hodgson "was the son of Reverand Richard Hodgson of Kirby Stigson"

1797 GEORGE MARKHAM born. Son of another George Markham - the Rector of Stokesley and Dean of York whose Grandfather was Archbishop Markham. This George Markham however was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy his (illigitate) son was George Tweddell (later adopting his father's surname to become George Markham Tweddell). The Markham's genalogy can be traced back both to Royalty and to Cromwell!

c1799 WORDSWORTH AND SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE - having published their collection of poems Lyrical Ballads, were courting the Hutchinson siters, both at Sockburn and at relations in Stockton on Tees. Wordsworth was wooing Mary and Coleridge Sara.

1799 JOHNNY COATES - a tenant of Middlesbro' farm (before it was a town) and a Jacobite, emigrated to America. He purchased some landand called it Cleveland. The log cabin has disappeared but there now stands the City of Cleveland Ohio. An America source says Coates was not only a sportman, breeding horses, but had the nucleus of a library. He became well read and was known as a man of scholoarly tastes and aquirements. For Shakespeare he had an excessive fondness and his volumes of that work, still preserved,, bear marks of careful reading. He brought many of his works to America and, in the wilds of Ohio, Oscar O'Brian, also a pioneer, said he often visited Coates and to his boyish fancy, that little library equelled in magnitude, the Alexandrian library of antiquity. (From The Story of Cleveland, Minnie Horton - Cleveland County Library 1979)

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