Alsop Families in Parwich

Allsop/Allsopp/Allsope/Alsop/Alsopp

Copyright © 2002 Peter Trewhitt

When I started on the series on ‘Parwich families of the Nineteenth Century’ I had not realised how much was involved.  Initially ‘the Alsops’ were to be included in the previous issue as a sub-section of the ‘A’s, but it grew too large for a single issue, so this section was transferred to the current issue. This section is long, but I feel it is worth including in full as it gives a feel for changes in life in Parwich over the last two hundred years, and information on more than just the one family.  I hope you will be patient with me.

 Alsop Hall, the home of the Alsop family for over 500 years

In the Domesday Book ‘Alsop’ is spelt ‘Elleshope’ which is Old English meaning the “valley of a man called Aelle” (Mills, 1998).  By 1535 the place name had become ‘Alsope in le dale’ giving us the tautology ‘Aelle’s valley in the valley’.  Initially people took their surname from the place they lived, though here we have the interesting possibility that the Alsops, as inhabitants of Alsop, could also be descendants of Aelle, who gave the place its name.  In 1086 Alsop was attached to the Manor of Parwich, which was held from the King by a man called Colne, who Craven & Stanley (2001) suggest was the ancestor of the Alsops, his son or  grandson being the first to be styled ‘de Alsop’.  The Alsop family held the Alsop estate from the beginning of the twelfth century, and they had the current Hall built in the late sixteenth century.  Craven & Stanley suggest that the house may have then been larger than it is now.  The family crop up at various times in English history: a Hugh de Alsop went on Crusade to the Holy Land with Richard I; a John Alsop provided shelter for Thomas Becon, when he fled the persecution of Protestants by Mary I, Thomas Becon commented in one of his books on John Alsop’s fine library at Alsop Hall; and another Alsop was in the Light Horse at the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588 (see Tiley, Vol. 2.p.205).

In the late seventeenth century, the estate was sold by the creditors of Anthony Alsop.  It passed through various hands including the Beresfords and Brownsons, before being purchased in the 1880s by Sir Samuel Allsopp, Bt., later 1^st Lord Hindlip, a Burton brewer and a descendant of the original family.  By this time there were Alsops scattered across the globe, and anyone with a general interest in the Alsop family is referred to ‘Allsop Ancestors: the Allsop Family Journal’.  (The Local Studies Library in Matlock has the full run from issue 1, published in 1985, to the present day.  Issues 6, 50 and 51 are particularly relevant for Parwich.  Also a web search for Alsop will produce a wealth of information.)

Of Parwich, Helena Birkentall wrote in the 1952 Parish Magazine: “The Alsop Family.– The first member of this family is mentioned in the old registers of 1639.  The last of her line was Miss Anna Alsop, died at the Close in 1912.  At her death, the beautiful and valuable heirlooms of the Alsops were sent to Christies’ of London to be sold.  They included a spinet; a tall-boy; a fine dinner-service of pewter on an old oak dresser; fine china and carved high-backed chairs of great beauty.  Two of these fine chairs are now in the Chancel of Alsop Church: a gift from Miss Alsop.”

The Alsops in Parwich are confusing given the number of different branches of the family, and also the number of members of the family with the same Christian name.  A list of the Alsops in the Parwich registers is given below.  There seem to be a number of main lines, but the one Helena Birkentall refers to seems to be the one shown in the family tree above Line 1, although I can not find her entry of 1639.  This family marries into a second line (see family tree above Line 2), though they may already have been related to each other.  Issue 6 April 1986 of Allsop Ancestors has family trees with more information on this family, but does not indicate who compiled them.  The earliest John Alsopp, and his sons John and Thomas were described in their wills as yeoman, and would have presumably been tenant farmers.  Some of the family moved away, for example, Samuel (baptised 17th Oct 1782) became a cotton manufacturer in Manchester and Matlock, and obviously had wider connections still, with his first wife coming from Blackburn, and his second wife from Liverpool.  His descendants seem to have remained in Manchester.  By the nineteenth century censuses the Alsops still in Parwich were prosperous farmers, though they seemed reluctant to marry and with one exception had few children in the latter part of the nineteenth century.  The farms they occupied included Close Farm, a farm on the site of Green Gates then at Slate House, a farm on the site of Parwich School, and Orchard Farm.

On the 1841 Census Close Farm was occupied by William Alsop (1772 to 1843) with his nieces, Mary and Sarah, an Adam Parkinson Alsop and two servants. Adam Alsop was born in approximately 1821 and is presumably a relative.  The family trees given in issue 6 of  Allsop Ancestors indicate he was William’s nephew, the eighth child of William’s brother Samuel, who, as mentioned above, was a cotton manufacturer.  Adam was to become a debt collector in Manchester. He only appears on the 1841 Census for Parwich, though he was buried here on 5th June 1872, aged 52 years.  By the 1843 Tithe Map Close Farm is tenanted by William’s nephew Francis (1817 to 1879), who rented some 55 acres primarily in Eaton Dale from William Evans Esq.  Francis lived with one or other of his sisters, though he appears to have married in the 1860s.  Unfortunately his wife died within a few years of their wedding.  After Francis’ death his youngest sister Ann continued to live at Close Farm until her death in 1912.

William’s sister Sarah Alsop (1777 to 1855) married a Thomas Alsop (1782 to 1866).  They had some seven children, including the Francis and Ann at Close Farm mentioned above.  Thomas was a wheelwright and farmer, based at a house on the site of Parwich School.  On the 1843 Tithe Map Thomas rents some 55 acres from William Evans Esq., primarily in the Bletch valley.  His son, George (1812 to 1892) seems to have worked with him, with various sisters completing the household.  Presumably their house was demolished for the building of Parwich School in 1861, and I have not so far been able to work out where they moved to.  Perhaps this union of Thomas and Sarah, both Alsops is why their children seem to have a pride in their parentage; Ann buried in her ninetieth year had her parents’ names inscribed on her grave stone, and Elizabeth’s grave stone uses the name Alsop making no reference to her albeit short lived marriage.  Elizabeth seems to have lived primarily with her brother George.  She had two children in the late 1850s (John & Mary Ann), with Thomas Swindell reputedly being the father of John.  On the 1861 Census both John, aged 4, and Mary, aged 2, are being boarded with the family of William Lees (master tailor).  John again appears on the Parwich Censuses much later.  Thomas Swindell, at least later on, acknowledges his son, who on the 1891 Census is, with his wife and children, living and farming with his father at Sitterlow.  Elizabeth is as unlucky in marriage as her brother Francis: some time between 1861 an 1871 she both marries a Mr. Brooks and is widowed.

In the nineteenth century Orchard Farm is the home and property of Henry Alsop (1789 to 1868), the brother of Thomas, wheelwright discussed above.  He owns and farms some 30 acres, on the 1843 Tithe Map, though his land appears to be very scattered.  There are some confusions with the censuses in relation to Orchard Farm, with Henry not appearing on the 1851 Census, but being replaced by a Thomas Alsop aged 55 years and farming some 65 acres.  By 1861 we are back to Henry and 30 acres, but aged 63 years.  There is not a Thomas the right age in the records, so I suspect it is in error for Henry with a great deal of confusion around his age.  Henry did not marry.

The remaining Alsop farm was in 1843 some 100 acres rented mainly from John Goodwin Johnson Esq. and Samuel Swindell.  A house and outbuildings on the site of Green Gates and what is now Rosemary Cottage, together with the field behind the old Post Office and its cart shed on Kiln Lane were rented from a James Thompson.  This was held by John Alsop (1810 to ?), he was born in  Macclesfield, but married a Parwich girl, Lydia Swindell.  If I am  correct in my assumption that he was the son of John and Elizabeth Alsop of Offerton, he is then the nephew of Thomas and Sarah across the Square at the School site.  John is listed on the 1851 Census as farming 134 acres and on the 1861 Census as farming 174 acres.  He does not appear on the 1871 Census, but we do find his son Frank/Francis farming 118 acres from Slate House.  Did John and Lydia die, they lost three of their children in the autumn of 1864, presumably an epidemic, and they also presumably died by 1871, though they don’t appear in the Parwich burial records.  Alternatively they may have inherited land else where, as John      Alsop of Offerton died in 1868.  The move of Frank and his brother John to Slate House, was perhaps to enable the rebuilding of Green Gates as a general store, the building taking its current form some time in the second half of the nineteenth century.

There are a number of other Alsops in the early parish records that the first two family trees do not include, but trying to slot them together is like doing a jigsaw with most of the pieces missing. The bits of family tree above and opposite illustrate the difficulty in trying to bring this information together.  Given the similarity of Christian names in these fragments, it is possible that we are dealing with branches of a single family, that is also related to the lines show in the two family trees above, but we do not have enough information to sort this out.  It may be possible to fill in some gaps from neighbouring parishes, from the Bishop’s Transcripts of the Parwich Register, or from wills.  Are there any enthusiastic Alsop descendants out there that want to follow this up?

The nineteenth century censuses also reveal that there were new branches of  Alsops settling here.  One family in particular was to make Parwich its home.  In the 1880s a Sampson Allsop moved here from Alsop Moor, and it is from him that the current Allsops and Allsopps in the village are descended (see Family Tree below Line 3).  The family still have Sampson’s Bible, which places him at Alsop Moor Cottage in 1878.  (Note: even in Sampson’s Bible there seems to be uncertainty as to spell the name Allsop or Allsopp.)  He married Jeanetta Katherine Brownlee of Parwich at Alsop Church in 1885. John Edward Allsop (1997) tells us that Sampson was a road mender on Dam Lane, getting the stone from a quarry, by the side of the lane, between Parwich Lees and Alsop-en-le-Dale.  Though he also appears as an agricultural labourer on some of the censuses.  His eldest son, Sampson Edward Allsop (known as Sampie), started work at the Post Office in Parwich, first as a farm servant and then  taking the mail to and from Ashbourne on horseback.  He followed up a career in the Post  Office, during the First World War serving with the Royal Engineers Postal Section in Europe, then as Deputy Head Postmaster in Turkey for the British after the war.  As well as serving in various locations in England, he was British Postmaster for the Morocco Agencies based in Tangiers and responsible for 15 British Post Offices scattered across Morocco, including Marrakech (JE Allsop, 1997).

Sampson and Jeanetta Katherine had  seven children.  The next after Sampie was Fanny who married a Cecil Hardy and settled in Chapel-en-le-Frith.  Then came Lily, who married a  Walter Schofield and settled in Bingham.  The next son was ‘Vic’ (Francis Victor) who remained in Parwich raising his eight children at the Square.  Vic can be seen in the drawing by Edward Halliday in the Memorial Hall, here he is dressed in a Home Guard uniform.  Later he moved to Sycamore Cottages where two of his sons still live.  Horace Ernest also remained in the village, but died relatively young in an accident at Alsop Moor Quarry, where he worked.  His son Eric married Kathleen Brownlee, who still lives in the village.  The next child Violet died relatively young, but her niece (Violet Oldfield) was named after her.  The youngest child was Rosa who married Frederick Twigge.  Rosa worked for a while at the New Inns (now Newton Grange), and her husband worked at Alsop moor Quarry until it closed just after the Second World War.  He then worked at Ballidon Quarry, first ‘baring’, that is stripping the soil off new areas before quarrying could begin, and later as night watchman.  Two of their children remain in the village.

                     This is the last will and Testament of I, Jeanetta K. Allsopp

Sampson and Jeanetta Katherine bought the house just above the School (now called Lilac Cottage) in the winter of 1915/16 from the Lewis Family for the princely sum of £110.  (This house was recently on the market with an asking price of £345,000, though it had been substantially altered since the Allsops sold it.)  It had a splendid garden with spectacular rose beds, and views of the Hall and Parwich Hill.  Jeanetta Katherine continued to live here after the death of her husband.  Despite the provision made in her will copied out above, Jeanetta, her husband Sampson and her daughter Violet’s graves in the church yard are unmarked, as is the grave of her son Sampson Edward.

There are a number of individuals in the records that do not seem to fit into any of these families, and may be from other lines such as the Brassington Alsops.  A list of the Alsops on the Censuses that we have not been able to fit into any of the Parwich families is included below.  Also I am interested in finding out about William Baker Allsop who was a publican in Parwich around 1900, dying here on 14th August 1944, aged 88 years.  He is shown as landlord of the Crown Inn on the 1901 census as well as being a shoemaker.  He was born in Brassington.  He and his wife Annie had at least two children, Annie Sylvester, born in 1902, and Jean Gertrude, born in 1901.  Annie, the wife, had at least three other children by a previous Keeling marriage.  If any one has any further information on William Baker Allsop, please let me know.  Also did any of his children remain in the area?

This can not be a full study of the Alsop family which extends far beyond the boundaries of our area, but I hope this will prompt others to check the details of the family trees shown, and see if they can take them back further to Alsop en le Dale or in the neighbouring parishes.

John Edward (Jack) Allsop (1997) “The life of Sampson Edward Allsop” Allsop Ancestors, June 1997 no. 51 p. 3-4.

Sampson Allsop’s notes in his family Bible with permission of Geoff  Allsop.

Jeanetta Katherine Allsopp’s “Last Will & Testament” with permission from Violet Oldfield

M Craven & M Stanley  (2001) “The Derbyshire Country House” Landmark, Ashbourne.

“A Transcript of the Memorial Inscriptions in the Church and Church Yard of St Peter Parwich Derbyshire” The Derbyshire Ancestral Research Group. (See also website www.parwichchurch.co.uk)

A D Mills (1998) “Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names” O U P, Oxford.

Parish Registers for Parwich, based on Brian Foden’s transcription.

Parwich Censuses 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891 based on transcriptions by Parwich & District Local History Society.  (See website www.parwichhistory.com)

Tiley (1893) “Old Halls, Manors and Families of Derbyshire” Vol. 2.

Parwich Tithe Map of 1843 transcribed by Brian Foden.

The Allsop Family Journal

“The Allsop Ancestors: the Journal of the Allsop Family” is issued quarterly together with  details of their annual gatherings.  For more information contact: Mrs. W. E. Waterall, 86 High Street, Heanor, Derbyshire, DE75 7LF.

List of Alsops in Parwich Parish Records

Copyright © 2002 Brian Foden

The following information was taken from the Parish Registers, transcribed by Brian Foden, and the Monumental Inscriptions in Parwich church yard.  Entries in italics are assigned to one of the three main family trees show in the text.