Highlee of Highlee, the richest man in Sowerby

Instead of an 'On this day' feature this month we have an 'In this month' post.

In 1886 The Surtees Society published a work in its series of 'Yorkshire Diaries & Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries'. It was called 'Some Memoirs concerning the Family of the Priestleys, written, at the request of a friend, by Jonathan Priestley.' It was written in 1696 in the 63rd year of his life.

Jonathan was one of the seven sons of Joseph Priestley and his wife Elizabeth. The family lived at Goodgreave in Soyland, a village near Sowerby and five miles south west of Halifax. Priestleys had lived in Soyland for many generations. Joseph was a yeoman clothier combining cloth-making with farming. The family took some of their cloth to sell at the cloth exchange in London.

The Priestley family suffered at the time of the Civil War between 1642 and 1644. The yeoman farmers and weavers rebelled against King Charles's policies and took up arms against them. Joseph joined the Parliamentarian cause and fled into Lancashire in August 1643 along with his son Samuel when the Royalists occupied Halifax. The Priestley's home and lands at Goodgreave were ransacked and plundered.

Joseph was captured on Blackstone Edge and imprisoned in Halifax but became ill with a fever and died. In November 1643, after the Royalists had fled following the Battle of Heptonstall, Samuel found a Royalist soldier lying in the River Hebden. He waded into the water and rescued the man but died from pneumonia shortly afterwards.

In his memoirs Jonathan referred to his father's dealings with 'Highlee of Highlee'.  

The property Highlee has been mentioned in previous posts. Enter 'High Lee' in the 'Search This Blog' box to read them.

The person called Highlee was James, the son of Michael - see the post of 11 September 2021. His son was also called James - 'young Highlee' in the excerpt above.

The Barkers of Inchfield

In the past this Blog has included posts on families with links to the Hileys - namely the Heaps of Cornholme, the Parsonses of Sabden and the Harrisons of Walsden. This post looks at the Barkers of Inchfield, Walsden.

John Travis

                                                                                                                                                                                    The Blog has already included excerpts from John Travis’s ‘Notes: (Historical and Biographical) mainly of Todmorden and District’, published in 1896.  Among his many other books on Todmorden and Walsden and their inhabitants was 'Walsden families in olden times', the front cover of which is shown below.

The book includes a chapter on the Barkers of Inchfield, reproduced below:

Thomas Barker of Inchfield married Betty Law in Todmorden in 1782. Their 7 children are listed by John Travis above. Their daughter Sally married John Harrison of 'Raked Barn', or Rake Head Barn, and their 9 children are also listed. Sally and John's daughter Betty married Charles Hiley in 1844. The post of 8th February 2021 told about the Harrisons of Walsden.

Thomas Barker died in 1821. The record of his death shows him living at Thornsgreese in Higher Inchfield at the time. John Travis says that Thomas was carried from Inchfield and buried at Cross Stone Church in Todmorden. Records of the cemetery show that there is a grave in the old yard at Cross Stone that was owned by Thomas Barker of Inchfield, but it is now overgrown and there is no record of a headstone. Betty died ten years later.

Thornsgreese in 2018

Another connection between the Barkers and the Hileys arose in 1875 when Mary Barker married Robert Highley in the United Methodist Free Church in Inchfield Bottom. Mary was a great granddaughter of Thomas and Betty Barker of Inchfield and Robert was a great grandson of John and Grace (nee Ogden) Highley. John and Grace's was the first Hiley marriage to take place in Todmorden after the move west from Warley.