|
Probably because he told Horsfall Turner more about himself during
the interview of 1889, knowledge of George's early years is more extensive
than of his future wife. George had been told (perhaps by his grandfather
John Tweddell, 1770-1850), that the Tweddell family had originated
in the border area of Scotland, but had migrated in the middle of
the seventeenth century to escape religious persecution and settled
in Easby, at that time a detached part of Stokesley parish. George
Tweddell (the name by which he was baptised) was born on 20th March
1823 and claimed he was the son of a Royal Navy Lieutenant, George
Markham, who had been born in 1797 in the Rectory, Stokesley. His
father, another George
Markham (1763-1822), was the Rector of Stokesley, whilst also
holding the post of Dean of York, and his grandfather was Archbishop
Markham (1719-1807), famed for saving the walls of York from demolition
in the first decade of the nineteenth century with the help of the
author Walter Scott. Lt Markham had lived an adventurous life in the
Royal Navy, had been mentioned in dispatches during the late Napoleonic
campaign on the Mediterranean coast of France and was wounded in the
Siege of Algiers in 1816. Obviously, one must imagine that his dalliance
with Elizabeth Tweddell (1800-1841) while on leave in Stokesley during
summer 1822 resulted in George Tweddell's birth the next year and
must have been a typical event in the pre-Victorian period. So too
was the way the child was welcomed by this mother's yeoman family
without social problems; George would be perceived as an extra worker
in the family's various enterprises and brought the added advantages
of 'noble blood' to add it to the Tweddell line. Members of the following
generations used to say George had 'aristocratic hands', by which
they meant broad, long and powerful hands and fingers with slim wrists.
But these same people found it difficult to accept the circumstances
of George's birth, living as they did a generation later during Victorian
and Edwardian times when the hypocrisy prevalent during the period
(what they called 'respectability') had taken its grip on changed
social norms. The family made up a story to rationalise George's illegitimacy
presumably so they could continue to discuss George's literary exploits
and the glorious history of their Markham ancestors (which stretched
back through John of Gaunt to the pre-Norman thane, Claron of West
Markham) whilst preserving their own 'decorum'.
George Tweddell never met his paternal grandfather as Dean Markham died
in September 1822 whilst on a visit to Scone Palace, the home of one
of his daughter's father-in-law, Lord Mansfield, before the child was
born. As a result the remaining Markhams left Stokesley by 1823 when
the next Rector took over the living. Lieutenant George is the subject
of a brief chapter (§19) in Sir Clements Markham's family history
of 1913, Markham Memorials, stating that, during the time of
his relation with Elizabeth Tweddell (the author makes no mention of
it, unsurprisingly), he was suffering from a head injury the result
of a fight following a dispute during a gambling game at sea. Perhaps
Elizabeth found him an attractive partner - prestigious and courageous
but also in need of her feminine reassurance. Although he returned to
sea, Lt Markham never recovered from the injury and died in 1834 tended
by his second sister, Henrietta Montgomery, at her home, Nunton House
near Salisbury where her husband was vicar. Documentary evidence of
Lt George's death was available in George Tweddell's time in Foster's Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire (1874), but one
must assume he could not have found it, as he leaves a gap for his father's
date of death in his notes, presumably hoping to fill it in when
he found it.
The main house of the extended Tweddell family, Garden
House, was a 15-acre farm one mile along the Great Ayton road
from Stokesley and must have been considered too small to sustain
a family adequately even in those days. Fortunately the family also
had two businesses in Stokesley with accommodation attached, and whilst
George was working in the town in the late 1830s, he lived in their
grandfather's grocery shop in West Green. His Uncle, John Tweddell
(1794-1862), had early become a successful businessman (and reputedly
a Quaker), trading as a draper and building West Villa for himself
and his wife around 1815 along with some artisans' cottages nearby.
George's mother worked in her father's grocery shop, and from an early
age took George for walks around the district when time allowed during
which she taught him all she knew of country lore. Consequently George
developed a keen interest in everything around him while the bonds
between them became very strong. When George became older he was put
forward as a student at the local charity foundation school, Preston
grammar school, but the governors refused to accept him, despite his
obvious merit. In a way this was fortunate for, by attending the National
School, he came into contact with an inspirational teacher, William
Sanderson, who took him under his wing expanding the school's teaching
with an informal education given around the countryside during fine
evenings. These discussions built up the boy's knowledge of science,
philosophy and history and he acquired a life-long love of literature,
particularly for poetry.
It is likely too that his future radical views were developed at the
school for it gave him the opportunity to meet the children who lived
in the workhouse, many of whom were either orphans or, like George,
illegitimate but less fortunate in their family circumstances. This
became particularly significant in 1835, (George was 12 at this time),
when the governors of Stokesley Workhouse Union, the local organisation
charged with the operation of the new Poor Law Act, defied its requirements
in common with many other Yorkshire unions. The Act demanded (consistent
with its punitive objectives) that the teaching of workhouse children
must take place within the confines of the workhouse to ensure that
these children received a lower standard of teaching given by less
qualified teachers. More enlightened, the Stokesley governors arranged
for the six children in their care to attend the National School and
consequently they received closer contact with other children and
the same quality of education.
Liberal ideas were also prevalent in the Tweddell family. There is
a story of some like-minded Stokesley yeomen, John Tweddell included,
making up a jovial party when riding to York in 1807 to vote (the
first opportunity property owners in Yorkshire had had to vote since
1741). We might hope, with hindsight, that they voted for the Tory
candidate William Wilberforce, to encourage his anti-slave campaign,
but unfortunately they did not, choosing the Whig candidate, presumably
more to their political tastes.
Search for knowledge and unconventionality also runs through the family
in the years before George's birth and is reflected in the two books
that survive from this time. The flyleaf of the first book below lists the names of the owners, from the first
owner, Horatio Tweddell (1729-1806, George's great grandfather) until
the present time. One was the 1794 edition of A New Geographical,
Historical and Commercial Grammar of the World (14th edition), that
was a very popular book (it ran to over 20 editions) and included a
wide-range of interests, among which was the current on-going exploration
of Australia. The second book was Whistons' translation of the Jewish
History of Josephus, The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus published
in Newcastle on Tyne in 1786. The French philosopher Voltaire, the most
progressive personality of the Enlightenment, used this book as one
source of the historical implausibility of the Biblical gospels, and
thus questioned the veracity of Christ's existence. Is it possible that
Horatio Tweddell chose to buy Josephus and explore Voltaire's
ideas further? Early in his life he had shown independence of mind by
leading the anti-Catholic 'Mass House riot' recorded in John Graves' History of Cleveland of 1808.
|
