The Book of Coniston

by W. G. Collingwood

His eldest son Daniel, born in 1633, studied at Queen's College, Oxford, and Gray's Inn. He married, in 1655, Barbara Fletcher of Hutton (who died 1670), and they had a large family. He was a cavalier, heavily fined by Cromwell's sequestrators, and living in retirement until the Restoration, busied in improving his estates and his mind. He became a famous scholar and antiquary, corresponding with many learned men, and distinguished, among other things, for his knowledge of Runic inscriptions. Under Charles II. he took a very active share in public business; was knighted at Windsor in 1681, and elected M.P. for Cockermouth, 1685. He died 1701.

This Sir Daniel finally forsook Coniston for Rydal. In his lifetime the Hall was held by his bachelor brothers, Roger and William, lieut.-colonel of cavalry and D.L. for Lancashire. In the Rydal MSS. there are many letters to and from them; for instance, Major W. Fleming writes (July 1st, 1674) to the constables of Coniston about arming the men of Colonel Kirkby's regiment—the pikemen to have an ashen pike not under sixteen feet in length, the musketeers to have a well-fixed "musquet" with a barrel not under three feet in length, and a bore for twelve bullets to the pound, with "collar of bandeleers" and a good sword and belt.

Other relatives of the family lived at the Hall, which was kept up as a sort of general establishment. In September, 1680, Sir Daniel notes that his bachelor uncle, John Kirkby, "did fall sick Sept. 15, and he died at Coniston Hall, Sept. 28. I had not the happ to see him dureing his sickness." But Sir Daniel was sometimes there, and speaking of one visit, he says (December 14th, 1680), "my tenants there and I did see a blazing starr with a very long tail—reaching almost to the middle of the sky from the place of the sun setting—a little after the sun setting, near the place where the sun did set. Lord, have mercy upon us, pardon all our sins, and bless the King and these Kingdomes." He got over it by Christmas, and "paid the Applethwait players for acting here, Dec. 27th 00-05-00" (5s).

On February 26th, 1681, his mother died at Coniston Hall, and was buried in Lady Bold's grave, close by her brother, John Kirkby—"Mr. John Braithwait preaching her funeral sermon upon 1 Tim. 5, 9, and 10, and applying it very well to her." Her three sons put up the brass in the church to her memory.

There was no intention then of letting the Hall go to ruin. Sir Daniel notes (March 20th, 1688), "This day was laid the foundation of the great barn at Coniston Hall"—not the new barn to the south of it, which is a much later building.

We get a glimpse of the friendly relations of hall and village in a letter of November 16th, 1689, from George Holmes at Strabane to the colonel at the Hall, describing the famous siege of Derry, and adding—"Pray do me the favour to present my humble service to Mr. Rodger and all the good familie, to the everlasting constable, and to my noble friend the vitlar."

Dr. Gibson, about 1845, was told by an aged inhabitant of Haws Bank that one of the cottages in that hamlet (pulled down to build Mr. John Bell's house) was formerly an alehouse, and that a neighbour who died at a great age when the doctor's informant was a boy, used to relate that he remembered having seen two brothers of the Fleming family, who were staying at the Hall, go there for ale, and make a scramble with their change amongst the children round the door, of whom the relater was one. The names of the brothers, he stated, were "Major and Roger."

This must have been in Queen Anne's days, when perhaps Colonel William and his brother Roger were gone. But of Sir Daniel's sons, one was Major Michael, M.P. for Westmorland in 1706, died before George I. (his daughter married Michael Knott, Esq., of Rydal, whose family afterwards came to Coniston Waterhead); and another was Roger, afterwards vicar of Brigham.

So we bring "the good familie" at the Hall down to the second decade of the eighteenth century, after which they seem to have deserted Coniston and left it to decay. Fifty years later it was an ivy-covered ruin.

A novel by the Rev. W. Gresley, M.A., Prebendary of Lichfield, called Coniston Hall: or, The Jacobites (1846), professes to recount the fortunes of "Sir Charles Dalton" of the hall, in the rising of 1715. But the local colour is inaccurate, and the circumstances impossible.