Isaac Littledale (1735-1791)
Written by Tim Cockerill
Occupation: Merchant
Family Background
The Littledale family can be traced back to the 16th Century at Ennerdale, a village on the bank of the River Ehen, about 8 miles SSE of Whitehaven. Joseph Littledale, who married Janet Sharpe in 1679, moved to Whitehaven at about this time and founded a dynasty which, according to the authors of Cumberland Families and Heraldry 'played such an important part in the commercial life of Whitehaven in the 18th and 19th centuries.'
Joseph's grandson, another Joseph (1710-1744), a mariner, married in 1733 Mary (1714-1754 ), daughter and heiress of Isaac Langton of The Howe, Ennerdale by his wife Frances (1683-1767) , eldest daughter and co-heiress of Anthony Patrickson (d. 1729 ). The ancient Patrickson family were known as the ' Kings of Ennerdale' and The Howe, later known as How Hall or Castle How, was the principal estate in the area and included Ennerdale Water. This marriage must have been a step up the social scale for the Littledales and subsequently the estate passed through the families of Tiffin, Senhouse, Birley and Dickinson.
Joseph and Mary Littledale were the parents of Isaac Littledale, the subject of this biography. He was baptised at Whitehaven in 1735, the eldest of their five sons. His younger brothers Joseph (1738-1754) and Anthony (1743-1763) both died unmarried before attaining their majorities. Their brother Henry (1741-1796 ) either founded or joined the family firm of mercers and drapers in Scotch Street, Whitehaven as well as being a founding partner in Whitehaven’s first private bank (see below). Later he moved to Liverpool, having married in 1766 Sarah (d. 1808), daughter of John Wilkinson of Whitehaven. Amongst the ten children of Henry and Sarah Littledale were Sir Joseph Littledale (1767-1842) PC, a judge of the Court of Queen's Bench (qv) and Elizabeth, who married Colonel John Bolton of Storrs Hall (qv). Isaac's youngest brother was Thomas (1744-1809), a merchant in Rotterdam, who married and left issue. Their only sister Isabella Littledale (b. 1758) married John Dixon of Gilgarron, Distington, whose descendants later became known as Robertson-Dixon and married into the Hartley family of Whitehaven, as her brother Isaac had done in 1764.
Career
Young Isaac was apprenticed in 1750 to William Gale (c.1693-1774) of Whitehaven, a merchant, for which his widowed mother Mary paid a premium of £21. The Gale family were the largest importers of tobacco into Whitehaven from Virginia and Gale's brother, Colonel George Gale (1672-1712) married in 1700, Mildred, widow of Lawrence Washington, mother of George, first President of the USA. William Gale was an ancestor of the Richmond -Gale- Braddyll family, later of Conishead Priory. Littledale, however, seems later to have had a number of business interests of his own in Whitehaven and principally in the firm bearing his name, which, inter alia, 'invested in prize', as well as owning shares in vessels built in Bridlington, Leith, Great Yarmouth and Borrowstowness, Falkirkshire. In addition it seems likely that he was involved in Hartley's Bank of Whitehaven, founded in 1786, his younger brother Henry being one of the original partners, the others being John and Thomas Hartley, rope makers and Samuel Potter, a draper. The Hartleys, into whose family Littledale married, were also owners of a number of plantations and many slaves in the West Indies, so Littledale may well have invested in these enterprizes as well. His close relations included several local lawyers including Henry Littledale, a leading Whitehaven attorney- at-law who died in 1779 aged thirty-three and John Littledale, Collector of Customs for the port of Whitehaven, who died in 1834 aged sixty-three. In addition, the Littledales married into or were closely connected with other active Whitehaven merchant families.
Family Life
On 19 September 1764, at St James Church, Whitehaven, Isaac Littledale married Mary Hartley (1732/3-1822), third daughter of Thomas Hartley the elder of Whitehaven. They had four sons and five daughters but two sons and three daughters died young. Of the surviving sons Joseph (1770-1805) was unmarried, Isaac (1771-1843) a JP, was unmarried and the third son Thomas (1773-1847) was of Braystones, Cumberland and Highfield House, West Derby. He was mayor of Liverpool from1826-27 and married in 1815 Anne (d.1825), the daughter of Thomas Molyneux of Newsham House, West Derby and left four sons and two daughters. These included Elizabeth Littledale, who married in 1815 Captain John Wordsworth HEIC, a nephew of William Wordsworth the poet, and Ann who married Matthew Atkinson of Temple Sowerby and Morland, a prominent merchant and Island Secretary of Jamaica. The best pedigrees of the Littledale family are set out at some length in Burke's Family Records 1897 and Howard and Crisps Visitations of England and Wales 1893 -1905.
Will Death and Burial
Isaac Littledale's Will is dated 20 November 1789 and refers to his wife Mary, his brother Henry and friends John and Thomas Hartley, the latter being either his father-in-law or brother -in-law, and his children. He gives his wife a lump sum of £1,000 with £100 for funeral expenses and an annuity of £80 pa. He then mentions unnamed landed estates at St Bees, Cumberland and in Westmorland. His son Joseph is to have the first option of purchasing his estate at Cross for £2,400 and his estate at Netherend for £1,000, or if he declines to his other sons in seniority. His personalty (non -landed estate) was sworn for probate purposes at 'under £5,000', now at least £300,000, to which must be added the (unknown) value of his landed estates and houses.
He died on 24 March 1791 aged 55 and his widow outlived him by thirty-one years, dying on 30 January 1822 aged 89. They are both commemorated by a wall monument on the north side of the tower entrance, to St James Church, Whitehaven, together with their nine children. Isaac and his wife are buried in St James churchyard, whilst three of their children are buried elsewhere.
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In 1967 the author bought a framed oil painting of Isaac Littledale for £20 from the executors of Thomas Milham Hartley (b.1878) of Silchester House, Silchester, Hants, the last male Hartley of this branch, formerly of Whitehaven and then of Armathwaite Hall, near Cockermouth, whose only son had died on active service in 1942. It is by an unknown artist and is here reproduced. It was probably painted in about 1760 and had been handed down in the family. It was accompanied by a professional photograph of the portrait taken many years ago which luckily identified the sitter. This painting was given by the author to the National Trust some years ago and is now on display at Wordsworth's House, Cockermouth, together with a similar portrait of Thomas Hartley, Littledale's brother-in-law.
Burkett and Sloss (p.42) include un-coloured reproductions of portraits of Isaac's parents, Joseph and Mary Littledale, (Private Collection), attributed by Daniel Hay to Mathias Read.
Sources
- Atkinson, Richard, Mr Atkinson's Rum Contract, London, 2020
- Boumphrey, R.S., C.Roy Hudleston and J. Hughes, An Armorial for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Kendal, 1975
- Burke, Ashworth P., Family Records, London,1897, pp.385-9
- Burke, Sir Bernard, Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, London, 1871, pp.795-6
- Burkett, ME and Sloss D, Matthias Read: Points of View, Skiddaw Press, 1995
- Caine, Caesar, The Churches of Whitehaven Rural Deanery, Whitehaven , 1916
- Howard, Joseph Jackson, and Crisp, Frederick Arthur (editors), Visitation of England and Wales, privately printed 1893-1905, vol. 1, pp.238-240, vol. 13, pp. 52-56, and notes, vol.3, pp,74-75, plus coat of arms
- Hudleston, C. Roy, and Boumphrey, R. S., Cumberland Families and Heraldry, p. 208, Kendal, 1978
- Thompson, T.W., Wordsworth's Hawkshead, (edited by Robert Woof ), Oxford, 1970. pp.357