Person:Robert Curwen (1)

History

I have ventured to incorporate conjecturally the two Curwen pedigrees, given in St. George’s Visitation of Lancashire,* in my pedigree sheet, because I find family names in the main line contemporary with those of the progenitors in the Visitations. I regret that I have not the same clue, slight though it may be, in the case of the Curwens of Myerside Hall, and Cark Hall, in Cartmel, though I entertain no doubt that they were of the same blood. Walter Curwen purchased from Nicholas Gardner and Richard Gardner, his son, the residue of a lease of 81 years of Myerside Hall, which had been granted to them March 17, 1526, by James, Prior of Cartmel. Walter Curwen, by his wife, Elizabeth, had three children, Robert, Nicholas, and Margaret. Robert married Anne Pickering, the heiress of Cark Hall.^† Having no children, and having acquired from the Crown, June 28, 1602, the fee simple of Myerside Hall, and having purchased in 1646 from William Thornburgh, Hampsfield Hall, the ancient seat of that family, he left the whole to his nephew Robert, the son of his sister Margaret and William Rawlinson. There must have been some previous connection between the families of Curwen and Thornburgh, for Edmund Pereson, of Bethome, tanner, in his will dated December 21, 1542, enumerates amongst his debtors “Maistree Curwen when sche was widow at Hampfelll, xls”.^‡ The above-named estates have all descended to Henry Fletch Rigge, Esq., of Wood Broughton, who has favoured me with valuable information.

—taken from: The Curwens of Workington Hall and Kindred Families by W. Jackson, F.S.A. – Read at Workington Hall, June 16th, 1880. Published in 1881.—^S2

The Feodary or Feudary was an officer of the Court of Wards, appointed by the Master of that Court according to the Statute 32 Henry viii (1540) whose business it was to be present at Inquisitions with the Escheator to give evidence for the King as well concerning the value as the tenure and to receive all the rents of the Ward's lands within his circuit. The office was taken away by Statute 12, Charles II, (1660).

...

Curwen, Robert, was Feodary in 1609, 1610, 1611, 1612, 1616, 1617, 1619, 1621, 1623, 1626, 1634, 1636, 1637, 1639, 1640, and 1641.

The State Papers (fn. 1) give us two letters, dated 20 January, 1619, and 26 January, 1621, from Robert. Both are dated from Cartmel and in both he is designated "Feodary of Westmorland." It is therefore probable that Robert the Feodary was the son of Walter Curwen of Mireside Hall near Flookburgh. Baptised in Cartmel Church 19 June, 1575; one of the cup-bearers to queen Elizabeth; he succeeded his father at Mireside in 1602; married Anne, daughter of Thomas Pickering of Cark Hall, 20 January, 1603; purchased Cark Hall in 1615; on the 23 March 1632 he compounded for refusing Knighthood; (fn. 2) in 1636 he purchased from William Thornburgh the manor of Lindale with Hampsfield Hall; in 1640 he was appointed one of the King's attorneys to take possession of the dissolved premises of Cartmel Priory; in 1643 he was one of the Lancashire committee for sequestering the estates of "delinquents, papists, spies and intelligencetrs"; and he died, 2 March 1650, leaving no issue and bequeathing his property to his nephew Robert, the son of his sister Margaret.

Footnotes: 1. Cal. State Papers, 1619-23, pp. 6, 216; 2. Misc. Lancashire Record Society vol. xii, p. 220.

—taken from: 'The escheators and feodaries for Westmorland', Records relating to the Barony of Kendale, Vol. 2. Published in 1924—^S3

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Annales Caermoelenses or Annals of Cartmel, by James Stockdale. Ulverston: Wllliam Kitchin, Printer, Market Street. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. 1872 - 'Cartmel Parish Registers'
   p. 551.

   « 1575. ... / " June 19. Robert Curwenn do. (bapt.)
   Accessed on 26 Aug 2013 at: books.google.co.uk

2. ↑ The Curwens of Workington Hall ‘and Kindred Families’ by W. Jackson, F.S.A. – Read at Workington Hall, June 16th, 1880. Published in Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian & Archæological Society. Volume V. Editor: Richard S. Ferguson, M.A., L.L.M., F.S.A. 1879-1880. Printed by T. Wilson, Highgate, Kendal, 1881, pp. 181-232 > Art. XXII
   pp. 231-232.

   Accessed on 26 Aug 2013 at: books.google.co.uk

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} 'The escheators and feodaries for Westmorland', Records relating to the Barony of Kendale: volume 2 (1924)
   pp. 440-441.

   Accessed on 26 August 2013 at: british-history.ac.uk