Sowerby St Peter's graveyard

Registers for baptisms and burials at St Peter's begin in 1643. There are five burials recorded in 1643, then a break until 1648.

James Hyleley of Hyley was amongst these first burials. James has already been mentioned in this Blog:

25 March 2020 - early references to the property High Lee in Sowerby

11 September 2021 - his father Michael's baptism and the family tree

19 November 2021 - described as the richest man in Sowerby

St Peter's Sowerby burial records
(with the permission of West Yorkshire Archive Service)
www.wyjs.org.uk/archives

Also buried at St Peter's were James's son James (buried 1680) and his son's wife Mary (nee Nailor, buried 1662). There were other relations of James buried here as well, including a number of infants.

There are no remaining gravestones bearing an inscription for any of these burials. 

                                                                    The church and graveyard today:

View from Towngate near the church looking across the Calder valley.
Sowerby Lane leading to High Lee is in the top left

Early references to High Lee

The Blogpost of 10th February 2019 discussed the origin of the Hiley surname.

The first reference to High Lee as an actual location in Sowerby was in the will of Michaell Hilleley who died in 1588. His will begins:
In the name of god Amen the thirtieth day of January Ann Dm 1588. I Michaell Hilleley of the Hilleley in the township of Sowerby and diocese of York sick in body but of good and perfect remembrance...…………….

Five years later, John Hileley of Tyrvin made his will and bequeathed:
…..all the household stuff within the house and parlour to Elizabeth Hileleye the wife of Gilbert Hileley of the Hileley.

The West Yorkshire Archives contain a number of records describing various land transactions in Sowerby. Mentioned in some of these are:
Edmond Hylyley of Hileley in Sowerby, yeoman (1596)
James Hylilee of Hylilee (1608)
James Hileley of Hiley in Sorby, co. York, clothier (1624)

In the Publications of the Surtees Society, Yorkshire Diaries & Autobiographies include 'some memoirs concerning the family of the Priestleys', written by Jonathan Priestley in 1696. He refers to:
….one Highlee of Highlee in Sowerby.....; this man was the richest man in Sowerby.....having sixty houses and farms....
This was James Highlee who died in 1643.

In 1664 James Hileley of Hathershelfe, son of the James mentioned above, transferred his farm of Hileleigh in Sowerby to his eldest son Henry, but made provision that if he should outlive his son he might freely use a cooking room and a room above the cellar, together with a rent charge of £12 a year.

This transaction is recorded in the Wakefield Court Rolls 1664-5 (Yorkshire Archaeological Society).

James Hileley transfers his farm to his son Henry

It seems that there were no Hileys occupying the High Lee property after the end of the 1600s.

High Lee today

Below are some recent photos of High Lee and the surrounding area. Part of the property is now a Care Home and part private residences.

High Lee taken from Sowerby Lane

Looking from Hathershelf across to High Lee Green. In the distance on the left is the Warley hillside across the Calder valley

From above Luddendenfoot on the Warley hillside 

looking west across the Calder valley

From behind the cricket field of Luddendenfoot C.C.

The buildings at High Lee

The Myers map of Halifax

This month the posts will concentrate on the area where the Yorkshire Hileys originated.

George Redmonds, the expert on Yorkshire surnames, said that the Hiley name came from High Lee in Luddenden. Go back to the post of 10th February 2019 for more about the origin of the name.

J.F. Myers produced a map of the Parish of Halifax in 1834-1835. An extract from it is shown below.

High Lee is situated on the Sowerby hillside to the west of Luddenden Foot across the Calder valley. Strangely it seems to be marked as 'Higher Lee', a name not seen anywhere else.

The map is held by the Halifax Antiquarian Society and the digital image belongs to the Digital Archives Association (www.digitalarchives.co.uk). Permission to show this extract has been given by both of these organisations.

You will need to click on the map to enlarge it.

Myers map of Halifax

Origin of the Hiley name

George Redmonds, in ‘A Dictionary of Yorkshire Surnames’, says that the Hiley/Highley name is from High Lee in Luddenden near Halifax. High Lee is a small area on the Sowerby hillside above the Calder valley.

The modern Hiley or Highley name has generally been assumed to mean a ‘high clearing’ or a ‘high meadow’. But the early records, like Helileghe or Heylyligh, include an extra syllable. In ‘The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire’ A.H. Smith suggests that the first part of the surname is from the Anglo Saxon word ‘hygel’, a hillock. ‘Leah’ was an Anglo Saxon word for clearing. So the name might have originally meant a 'clearing on a hillock’.

In ‘Yorkshire West Riding’ in the English Surname Series, George Redmonds gives the first appearance of the name in the West Riding as being in 1297. This is an entry in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield for Thomas del Hegeleye, and this name would fit in with Smith’s reasoning, but there appear to be no other spellings similar to this one, i.e. including the letter g.

George Redmonds writes: ‘The problem with Highley has always been the interpretation of the earliest spellings. I have to say that I gave that as evidence because it fitted A.H. Smith’s etymology of the Luddenden place-name. Since that time more evidence has become available but no similar spellings that I know of. Mostly the surname examples follow a pattern, e.g. Heylilygh, Helylye and that persists well into the fifteenth century. I have sometimes wondered if Hegeleye was a mis-transcription for Heyeleye’.

This photo is taken from Hathershelf looking across to High Lee. In the distance on the left is the Warley hillside across the Calder valley.