Will of George Fell the Elder

A recent discovery has been the will of George Fell, father of Judge Thomas Fell. It has remained undiscovered due to its being filed in the Lancashire Archives under the date 1681, some 40+ years after George's death. However, it is a copy of an earlier document now lost.

Herewith a corner of the Will.

It is a remarkable find, not least because it describes some if not all of Judge Fell's siblings, nieces and nephews who were given bequests.

A brief look at a portion of the document illustrates its usefulness in our attempts to fill out the story of Swarthmoor and its people.

Item, I do give unto Francis Corker, daughter of Thomas Corker and my Grandchild, £1 6s 8d yearly for seven years next after my decease, to be paid by my son Thomas Fell forth of the Close I bought of Reginald Holme and the close I bought of Francis Corker and the dale I bought of Myles Hunter; to be paid as he thinks fitting for bringing her up.

Item, I give unto Janett Corker, daughter of the said Thomas Corker and my grandchild, five pounds due forth of Hawkswell Rent at Candle-mass 1638 and to be paid forth by my son Thomas Fell and my son in law, Henry Lindow for four years next after my decease; and to employ it only for her.

Map of Hall and estate c1760

Having recently returned from a jaunt down to Friend's House in London to look through the archives Martin turned up at Meeting today with an extraordinary map. Clearly associated with the sale of Swarthmoor to James(??) Lindow it is quite fascinating in its depiction of the Hall and environs as they passed out of the hands of Thomas Fell, great grandson of Margaret & Thomas Fell c1760. It is surely an accurate representation of how the place appeared to the Fell family & George Fox.

There is much to be seen though many questions are posed.


The estate, of 98 acres, is only part of the larger holding that Thomas Fell lost as a consequence of his bankruptcy in 1758. It seems likely that all his assets in Lonsdale & Furness passed into the hands of his creditors who then disposed of them in parcels.

The box at the bottom describes field names, intriguing in themselves. 'Hemplands' being one. Does Sarah Fell's account book allude to hemp?

The orchards and gardens cover over 3 acres. Interestingly the account of a visitor to the Hall in the 1860s describes the orchards as extending to both sides of the beck; the map appears to confirm this. Orchards also extend north, beyond the present meadow, formerly the orchard. There also appears to be a trackway disecting the orchard to the north of the hall. This corresponds to a notable agger or embankment that is still visible in the meadow and which Emma Clarke Abraham proposed to resurface c1912. It also begs the question as the whether the gateway in the boundary wall to the north (top) of the meadow was inserted by ECA or whether she restored an existing feature.

To the east of the house (right) is a representation of a square feature. A Dovecot?

However, the most intriguing feature is the wood to the west of the Hall that appears to have a central arbour with walks radiating outwards like the spokes on a wheel. Might this be the remains of a formal garden?

Any gardening historians out there?

I look forward to reading the sale document associated with this map.

In the course of the next few days I will put up a somewhat clearer picture which will be downloadable and readable.

History Group update

Thursday evening saw 32 people come to the presentation by Dr Colin Phillips, late of the History Dept at Manchester University whose subject throughout his academic career was the the social dynamics of early modern Cumberland & Westmorland.

He talked about the Rise of the Gentry in the 16th/17th centuries. Many new families emerged in the post reformation years and the Fells of Swarthmoor were part of this process. Largely fuelled by the huge re-distribution of former monastic lands to the established gentry and noble classes it also econically empowered a burgeoning merchant and entrepreneurial class. This in turn enhanced their status and allowed their sons to be educated, creating a new dynamic that gradually eroded the dominance of the old aristocratic and landed families such as the Nevilles, Harringtons, Cliburns and Le Flemings.

Our next group/public meeting, on November 15, will be a bit of a celebration. It will be two years since we started The History Group at the Hall when Rod Ireland presented a review of the (Quaker) London Lead Company of Alston and district. As always there will be tea and cakes of course and a revue of 'the dig' with discussions on next years targets. In addition Martin should have sorted some of the archival material at Friend's House and Neil, Viv & Sarah might have taken a look at some more accessible archives in and around South Lakes. Hopefully others will have joined in the search for more material.

There are lots of online sources that can illuminate the story of the Hall and its inhabitants. A2A is growing in volume and there has been a significant increase in the cataloguing of UK archives. Try 'Thomas Fell' as a search term. Some fascinating documents appear from Chester & Cheshire archives about Thos as a judge. Also many where a Thos Fell appears as a witness to legal documents in the mid 1630s around Ulverston when he was a newly qualified lawyer & barrister.

Rod - of the London Lead Company - helped me in the creation of a topographical map of the environs of Swarthmoor. Click to download!


It shows quite graphically how Swarthmoor lies between the flood plain of the bay and the acid soils of 'Sweart Moor'. More importantly it lies at the confluence of two streams that appear to spring from the base of the limestone, not yet drawn on the map!

If anyone can think of features such as roads, springs, watercourses or anything else of interest that might be drawn in, let me know!

Sarahjayne's 'dig'!

Hi, I’m Sarahjayne and I would like to share my experience of the excavation at Swarthmoor hall with you.

I am currently nearing the end of my MA in Archaeology and excavation experience is of course crucial for this discipline, although opportunities are often hard to come across. I found this excavation on the CBA website as part of the festival of archaeology. It was a brilliant opportunity for me as it is not often that an excavation is so close to where I live and as it was only for a short period of time meant that I didn’t have to take too many days of work.

Day one started out by de- turfing the area, where I almost immediately came down on some concrete and thought that this could be the beginning and the end of the dig! However as the rest of the trench was de-turfed, other features began to come to light. The rest of Friday was spent trowelling back, looking for any more features or finds until we got rained off in the late afternoon.

On Saturday we managed to get to the deeper levels and I spent some of the day on a smaller trench that had been opened to see what had been going on as a sort of ‘control’ trench and another wall started to come through here. Saturday night is also when I decided to make my customised ‘Swarthmoor Hall’ T-shirt (see photos)! You will see ones like these on digs and as I had been wearing ones with other excavation names on all weekend it became a bit of a joke.

On Sunday I helped Dan with the surveying (using a total station) and then the planning of the features which I really enjoyed.

Throughout the whole of the dig I only found lots of modern pottery and glass although other volunteers found some interesting things. Doug’s drainage pipe with the bottle inside was rather impressive and carefully excavated with many thoughts from Doug as to what his features were! Other impressive finds were the base of a mullion window at the last minute (which always happens) and also several walls and other features began to appear which would be interesting to explore in future years!

I have been on a few excavations before but I have to say that this one was one of the most enjoyable with excellent guidance and experience on hand from Dan and lots of other lovely volunteers to work with. Also many thanks to Ian as I wouldn’t have been on the dig otherwise!

Before the dig started I looked into some of the documents held in the John Rylands library in Manchester. These documents were hard to read but very interesting to look at and seemed to relate to the sale and acquisition of the hall. As these may be helpful to figure out what was happening with the hall and surrounding area in times past, others who are more adept in reading these texts may wish to go and look at them.

By a strange coincidence when I got home a signed letter was waiting for me from the author of 'The Lady's Slipper' a book which includes settings at Swarthmoor Hall and Lancaster (where I live) and which I am now in the process of reading.

it's only a sparrow!

It’s only a Sparrow

One of things I joined up to do at Swarthmoor Hall was wildlife conservation. The natural gardens of the Hall and surrounding woods are a great place for all sorts of fauna and flora. A great deal has been done already by using a very “green” approach to management and sensitivity to the environment. I’m certainly no expert in conservation or in identifying plants, birds and animals so this was a great opportunity for me to learn some new stuff.

One of the things we are trying to do is to simply catalogue what wild life is around the Hall at different time of the year. So far I’ve been making a simple list of what I see when I take my walk around the grounds a couple of times a week. This has been mostly birds but I keep my eye open for anything unusual as well as the routine. I’d like to take a more structured approach and I’ve agreed with Bill to contact the Cumbria Wildlife Trust to see if we could get some help or advice on how to do this – so watch this space for developments.

In early May the Hall ran a residential course on Birding led by Roy Adams called “The Jizz and the Jazz” and I was invited along. During the two days Roy took us for a “Dawn Chorus” session beginning at around 4 am (yes in the morning!) where he showed us how to identify birds by their calls alone. This is not as easy as it sounds. Roy clearly had years of experience and could pinpoint a call in the background cacophony with ease. He identified several species I had not seen so was able to add to the Swarthmoor catalogue. We also went to Leighton Moss and Walney Island where we spotted a wide variety of birds largely thanks to Roy.

Wildlife doesn’t need to be unusual to enjoy it. The Hall boasts a wide collection of birds including Sparrows, Dunnocks, Blue and Great Tits, Wrens, Robins, Blackbirds, Goldfinches and more recently the Swallows . There are a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers knocking around (sorry!) too. Some of the less frequent sighting includes Kingfishers, Fieldfares and Grey Wagtails. We are very lucky to have such a variety of birds. In many parts of the country some of these species are in severe decline, in part, because we take our wildlife for granted. In the early 1600’s sailors arriving on the island of Mauritius could probably have been heard to say “It’s only a Dodo”. Sixty years later the Dodo was extinct.

So visit the grounds including the bird tables at the front of the house and enjoy the everyday birds that live there. And if you find yourself thinking “It’s only a sparrow” please think again.

Chris W.