The diarist, Thomas Tyldesley, died in 1715, before the outbreak of the rebellion, and was buried at Churchtown, near Garstang. Edward Tyldesley, his eldest son, who succeeded him, had two children by his wife Dorothy—James and Catherine. He was accused, tried, and acquitted of taking part with the rebels of 1715, although the evidence clearly convicted him of having led a body of men against the king’s forces. At the death of Edward Tyldesley, in 1725, Myerscough no longer belonged to the family, but Holcroft, acquired by marriage in 1679, passed to his son James, who twenty years later served with the troops of Prince Charles, the younger pretender, and died in 1765. The offspring of James Tyldesley by Sarah, his wife, were Thomas, Charles, James, Henry, and Jane, all of whom with their descendants seem to have sold or mortgaged the remnants of the once large estates, and gradually drifted into poverty and obscurity.
It will not be out of place in concluding the notice of a family connected with the earliest infancy of Blackpool, to state something of the character and habits of Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, as disclosed by, and deduced from, the entries in his diary, which unfortunately comprises only the last three years of his life. At the present time the appearance of a party of gentlemen in this neighbourhood decorated with curled wigs, surmounted by three-cornered hats, and habited in long-figured waistcoats, plush breeches, and red-heeled boots, would excite no little astonishment, yet in the days of the diarist the sight must have been one of usual occurrence, for such was the style of costume worn by the wealthier classes. The lower classes were clothed in garments made from the undyed wool of the sheep and called hodden gray.
Thomas Tyldesley was a great equestrian, his journeys being so frequent and rapid that it is difficult to be certain of his whereabouts when he finished his day’s work and its minute record, with the final “soe to beed.” He was on terms of intimacy and friendship with the Rigbys of Layton, the Veales of Whinney Heys, the Westbys of Burn Hall, and all the wealthy families in the neighbourhood. Fishing, hunting, coursing, and shooting were his favourite recreations. Nor was he unmindful in the midst of these amusements of the interests of his farm, as the accompanying remarks amply testify:—“Very bussy all morning in my hay;” and “Alday in the house and my garden, bussy transplanting colleflowʳ and cabage plants;” whilst at other times we find him in communication with various tenants relative to some portion or other of the Myerscough property. Unless confined to bed by gout or rheumatism, and the self-imposed, but fearful, “Phissickings” he underwent, swallowing doses whose magnitude alone would appal most men of modern days, he was ever actively engaged in either business or pleasure. Every item of disbursement and every circumstance that occurred, even to the most trivial, has found a place in his diary, and from it we learn that while evidently anxious to avoid unnecessary expenditure, he was neither parsimonious nor illiberal, always recompensing those who had been put to any trouble on his account, and paying his share of each friendly gathering with a scrupulous exactness. There is, however, a satisfaction expressed in the words, “but spent noe thing,” after the brief notice of the horse-race he had attended on the Hawes, which, when we call to mind his natural generosity, showed that his income required care in its expenditure, and was barely sufficient to support the position he held by birth. Many other entries in his diary prove that he was frequently short of money, and as his mode of living appears to have been far from extravagant, it seems difficult at first sight to account for the circumstance. But when we discover that he had for years been connected, as one of the leading members and promoters, with a Catholic and Jacobite Society at Walton-le-dale, having for its object the restoration of the Stuarts, then in exile, and remember that a scheme of such magnitude and importance could not possibly be matured or kept in activity without the purses of its more earnest supporters suffering to a great extent, we obtain in some measure an explanation of the matter.
The character of Thomas Tyldesley, as gleaned from his diary, may be summarised as follows:—He was in every sense a country gentleman, fond of field sports, happy on his farm, thoughtful of the condition and comfort of his cattle, although sometimes given to hard, or at least far, riding; for the rest, he was active and intelligent, liberal to his dependants, careful in his household, and strictly honourable in all his dealings, but above all he had an earnest and deep reverence for his creed and principles that spared no sacrifice.
VEALE OF WHINNEY HEYS.
The Veales, of Whinney Heys, who during a time of considerable license and extravagance, were renowned for their piety and frugality, were descended from John Veale, of Mythorp. This gentleman was living during the reign of Elizabeth, and furnished 1 caliver and 1 morion at the military muster which took place in 1574. Francis Veale, the son of John Veale, of Mythorp, is the first of the name we find described as of Whinney Heys.[63] Francis Veale left a son, Edward, who resided at Whinney Heys, and appeared amongst the list of Free-tenants of Amounderness in 1621. According to Sir William Dugdale, he was a justice of the peace for Lancashire in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. Edward Veale married Ellen, the daughter and co-heiress, with her younger sister Alice, of John Massey, of Layton and Carleton, and in that way the Veales acquired much of their property in the neighbourhood of Whinney Heys. The offspring of this union were—John, who was born in 1605; Massey; Edward; Francis; Singleton; Ellen, who married Thomas Heardson, of Cambridge; Juliana; Dorothy, who married George Sharples, of Freckleton; Anne, who became the wife of John Austin, of London; Alice; and Frances, the wife of William Wombwell, of London. The maiden name of Mrs. Edward Veale’s mother was Singleton, she being the daughter of Thomas Singleton, of Staining Hall, and for that reason we find the name borne by one of the sons of Edward Veale. John Veale, the eldest son, succeeded to the Hall and estate, and espoused Dorothy, the daughter of Matthew Jepson, of Hawkswell, in Yorkshire. John Veale was fifty-nine years of age in 1664, and at that date entered the names of his ancestors, etc., before Sir William Dugdale at Preston, who was on his heraldic visitation in Lancashire. The children of John Veale, by Dorothy, his wife, were—John, Edward, Helen, Susan, and Jane. John Veale, who was twenty years old in 1664, became the representative of the family on the decease of his father, some time previous to which he had married Susannah, the daughter of Geoffrey Rishton, of Antley, and by her had issue—Edward, born in 1680; Ellen, the wife of Richard Sherdley, of Kirkham, born in 1698; and Dorothy, who died unmarried in 1747, aged 76 years. John Veale was a justice of the peace for this county, and died in 1704. After the death of John Veale, whose remains were interred at Bispham church, Edward, his only son, inherited the lands and Hall of Whinney Heys. Edward Veale was living at the same time as Thomas Tyldesley, of Fox Hall, Blackpool, and between the two gentlemen a close friendship seems to have existed, as we glean from the diary of the latter, in which Edward Veale is frequently mentioned, being invariably, for some reason, styled Captain,—perhaps he once held that rank in some temporary or reserve force, for there is no record of his ever having been connected with the regular troops. The following is a short extract from the above diary in 1712:—
“Aug. 2.—Att my returne I wentt to yᵉ King’s Arms, and got my dinʳ with Broʳ. We spent 1s. a pice in whitte wine, and as wee went through yᵉ hall met with Just. Longworth,[64] Capᵗᵗ Veale, Just. Pearson, Franke Nickinson, and small Lᵈ of Roshall.[65] Wee were very merry upon yᵉ small Lord, and spent 1s. a pice in sack and white wine, wʰ elevated yᵉ petite Lᵈ that before he went to bed he tucke yᵉ ffriedom of biting his man Sharocke’s thumb off just beyond yᵉ nail. I found cos. W: W: att home.”
Edward left issue at his death in 1723, at forty-three years of age—John, Sarah, and Susannah. John Veale, the heir, entered into holy orders, and subsequently died unmarried. Sarah and Susannah Veale, the co-heiresses of their brother, married respectively Edward Fleetwood, of Rossall Hall (the small lord), and John Fayle, of the Holmes, Thornton, who erected Bridge House in Bispham, after the model of the original Hall of Whinney Heys. The lands and residence of Whinney Heys eventually passed into the possession of the Fleetwoods, of Rossall, through the wife of Edward Fleetwood. The Veales were Puritans in religion, and one of the family, named Edward Veale, whose father was the third son of Edward and Ellen Veale mentioned above, and a lay member of the Presbyterian Classis for this district in the time of the Commonwealth, attained considerable eminence, first as a Puritan preacher and afterwards as a Nonconformist minister. Calamy, in his Nonconformist Memorial, tells us that “Mr. Edward Veale, of Christ Church, Oxford, afterwards of Trinity College, Dublin, was ordained at Winwick in Lancashire, August 4th, 1657. When he left Ireland he brought with him a testimonial of his being ‘a learned, orthodox minister, of a sober, pious, and peaceable conversation, who during his abode at the college was eminently useful for the instruction of youth, and whose ministry had been often exercised in and about the city of Dublin with great satisfaction to the godly, until he was deprived of his fellowship for nonconformity to the ceremonies imposed in the church, and for joining with other ministers in their endeavours for a reformation;’ signed by Richard Charnock and six other respectable ministers. He became chaplain to Sir William Waller, in Middlesex, and afterwards settled as a Nonconformist pastor in Wapping, where he lived to a good old age. He had several pupils, to whom he read university learning, who were afterwards useful persons; one of whom was Mr. Nathaniel Taylor. He died June 6th, 1708, aged 76. His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. T. Symonds, who succeeded him.”