Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle
Family History
The Highfields and their relations | George Littleworth Haden, and the Rev. John Thorp | The Jenkinsons, and the Hadens of Holywell House
Andrea Paula Dale and her family Clergy in the Family
The 1881 Census reveals that George Littlewood Haden, then a widower, was approximately 70 years of age and had succeeded his uncle, John Haden, Gentleman, Senior, as the owner of what was then named Holywell Farm, an estate in Swinton, Yorkshire, of in excess of 70 acres. Part of the same estate has recently been offered for sale through Savills for offers above one million pounds.
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While George Littlewood Haden is noted in that Census record as a farmer, as he did have his own land farmed, he did so out of joy more than necessity, and was known as a Gentleman Farmer. His modest probate record of 1897 designates him as a gentleman.
The gentlemen brothers John Haden and George Littlewood Haden were the children of Thomas Haden and Frances Littlewood, who married in Barnburgh, Yorkshire on 2nd April 1807. Frances Littlewood, who was baptised in Rotherham on 11th February 1785, was the daughter of James Littlewood and his wife Esther Thorp.
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James Littlewood and Esther Thorp married in York on 3rd May 1784. Esther, baptised 20th May 1760 at Masbrough Independent Chapel, was the daughter of Rev John Thorp and his wife Esther Fawley. John Thorp was the founding minister of Masbrough Independent Chapel, then a Congregationalist church, and his name can be seen along the right margin of the following records from that Chapel, where it indicates that he performed many of the baptisms. Esther Thorp's baptismal record is amongst these entries.
The story of John Thorp's conversion and resultant ministry is an interesting one, as what commenced as a wager with friends in a public house became a moment of inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as an article of 15 June 1900 on page 6 of the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent recounts.
The Rev John Thorp is the seven times great grandfather of Mark Paul Lindley-Highfield of Ballumbie Castle and the five times great grandfather of Phyllis Jenkinson.
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The memorial plaque at Masbrough Independent Chapel attested to the Rev John Thorp's role in that institution, one that commemorates a fascinating journey of personal faith.
John Thorp married Esther Fawley in Kirkburton, West Yorkshire on 22nd September 1757. He was baptised at Penistone in West Yorkshire on 22nd August 1725 and was the son of Dan Thorp. Dan Thorp married Anna Thewlis at Penistone, West Yorkshire on 16th December 1717. He was baptised in Kirkburton, West Yorkshire on 8th August 1694. Dan Thorp's parents were William Thorp and Martha Croslay, who married in Kikburton, West Yorkshire on 4th June 1683, interestingly the date of the marriage of Phyllis Jenkinson to Charles Leonard Highfield many years later.
William Thorp, grandfather of John Thorp, appeared in the Roman Catholic Oath Records of 25th October 1715, which listed Roman Catholics who failed to take the oaths of abjuration, allegiance and supremacy which were enforced through an Act of Parliament passed that same year, denoting a marked shift in religious identity within two generations.
The story of the Thorp family, chronologically speaking, began with a reluctance to relinquish an old faith, and ends here with the adoption of a new one, inspired by a profound sense of personal spirituality.
Whether within the Roman Catholic Church or a more independent form of Protestant Christianity, faith was important to the Thorp family, who in different ways made stands for those things that they believed in.