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.
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