THE STORY OF THE HARLANDS OF EGTON This begins with the birth of a child shortly after the death of Queen Mary in 155?. Apart from her name, Katherine, nothing is known about her early years nor about her parents. They would, of course remember when the people of the North rose in protest against the tyranny of the Queen's father in 1536. The child's grandfather perhaps, had even rallied to the banner of the Five Wounds and heard for himself, as he leaned on his pitchfork, that all their grievances would be met if they returned to their homes. Katherine would be about five or six when her father heard the Call of the North again and joined the rising of 1569 to earn for himself, perhaps, a 'traitors' noose upon one of Egton's oaks. Those may have been the memories that clouded her childhood as she grew up in a community bewildered as why the law forbade them worship as they and their ancestors did, for centuries before.
So round about the year that Nicholas Postgate was born, 1596, Katherine married Christopher Harland and made her home at Horsemireheads, Egton. It was from there that she was presented for recusancy in 1611. She had already broken the law by being married secretly so it was no wonder that in 1614 she was convicted as a popish recusant of ten years standing aged 50 years, among no less than one hundred and thirty four of her fellow villagers. Although Christopher's name was not listed, he was not apparently of the same caliber as his wife for his name appears on the certificate those conforming to the legal establishment 1616. No names of children are known but considerable Harland activity is evident from the Egton registers without any specific preference to recusancy, all the time. They show that Christopher died, was buried rather, on April 25th 1623, whilst Katherine followed on December 1st of the same year.
An interesting marriage took place, perhaps it would be better to say, was recorded on July 3rd, 1636. The parties were Richard Harland and Mary Harland. This gives every evidence of being another instance of a secret marriage followed, sometimes several years later by a 'marriage' before the vicar with the accompanying entry in the parish register so avoiding the penalty for clandestine unions.
By 1641 the protesting villagers had risen in number to one hundred and fifty eight, among whom were the names of twelve Harlands of whom Richard was one. Thirty three years later in 1674 the 'obstinate papists' had again risen to two hundred and twenty seven in number, the fruit, no doubt, of the indefatigable work among them of Nicholas Postgate above. Among them were fourteen Harlands including Richard and Mary his wife.
'The Glorious Revolution' of 1688 was instrumental in producing the recusant list of 1691 when the Egton constable could only muster one hundred and seventy two Officers. Nevertheless there were ten Harlands with two Richards among them. A positive link with Katherine whose steadfastness opens this chapter is afforded by the burial entry "Richard Harland Horsermirehead April 12th 1696" some three months before his 'official' diamond jubilee although it is not known whether his wife Mary was still alive, by that time. Richard senior and junior were among those presented in 1716 and in the first major church list of 1735 there were again ten Harlands. A small civil list of 1745 gives two Harlands one of whom is from Glaisdale, Francis. The special 1753 list has six adults and five unnamed Harland children. Between this time and the time of the next and last major ecclesiastical list in 1780 the family continues to move away from Egton so that one adult with four children is the only Harland reference there for that date. The return for Whitby in the same year gives three names from one family only. Out of ninety seven recusants listed for Lythe in the 1780 returns there are no Harlands at all. The Whitby numbers, eighty seven, show an increase of nineteen upon the figures for 1767 and those for Egton, two hundred and sixty can be broken down to one hundred and fifteen parents, one hundred and thirty one children and fourteen servants.
The story, somewhat piecemeal, is continued from the first registers dangerously kept by the infant churches in the early dawn of emancipation. From there it is found that the family, although apparently diminished in numbers, remains faithful to the traditions of its forebears, Its representatives still attending Mass together with the descendants of other recusant families in the beautiful church half a mile below the Mass House.
The homestead Horsemirehead having Harland connections for more than a century is the obvious point of departure in this story. Beginning no doubt long before the time of Christopher and Katherine, in the closing years of Queen Elizabeth I, the family were in occupation still in the time of the early Georges. Richard died there in 16?. Whether or not he is the recusant reported with his wife Mary in 1674 cannot be proved but is quite probable. Thomas a fuller, died there in 1724 but actually the deceased's name was John, Thomas being evidently his son. The Egton registers tell the story this way. Susanna the daughter of Thomas, a fuller of Horsemirehead was baptised on May 1st 1722, but John a fuller of Horsemirehead was buried on March 10th 1724. Thomas had two more daughters, Elizabeth in 1724 and Dorothy in 1727.The latter child died in 1728 pre deceasing Elizabeth of Horsemirehead widow who died the following year. This is the last reference to the homestead of the Harlands and it appears that it no longer survives.
That the home was left is shown by the further entries; Ann wife of Thomas fuller Glaisiale, buried January 15th 1742, to be followed very tragically by Elizabeth his daughter, four days later, Susanna his other daughter, three months after that.
That sometimes two or more families work one farm has been mentioned before, and the homestead of Briscoe(Buscow) is a case in point. Lythe records show that Francis son of Francis Harland Buscow was baptised on May 12th 1730, whilst Dorothy daughter of John of Busco was christened on January 27th 1733 only to die thirteen years later. Meanwhile Robert and Elizabeth were at Sandsend, Nicholas and Mabil were at Lythe, moving to Ugthorpe by 1759 where Matthew and Margaret have their abode, and Stephen and Frances make their appearance at Cockthwait about the same time. This homestead seems to be another which cannot be traced today. At this period Lythe records are more helpful than those of Egton whose scribe was content with adding 'householder' to a name and nothing more. This is perhaps due to annual transcription of the records for the Archbishop, becoming a chore done as quickly as possible; although it has been suggested already that there may have been a reason for it. However it is to the vicar's personal copy that recourse has to be made for further elucidation. From it, it is found that William and Ann made their home at Dowson Garth ( marriage 23 refers), that widow Alice of the transcript was a papist so being the widow of George the Egton recusant among others (in 1735 marriage 19 refers), that the death of John son of John mason on November 6th 1776 was due to smallpox and that he to was a papist, and that the disease carried off his mother in January following, and further John 'poor' was buried on 26th December the same year. Whether marriage 17 is concerned in these sad events there is no means of knowing nor is any sign of where they took place.
Tranmire nurtured Harlands as early as 1660. Moorside seems to have been occupied by the Harlands certainly before 1744 when Fr. Hervey records Hannah as a godmother. George a mason was buried from Moorside on December 19th 1791 and the same source gives William aged 77 buried on September 22nd 1835 so Hannah can either be his mother or aunt. This William's marriage is 28, and they were listed in the Ugthorpe Easter Communions in 1803 and in those of Egton in 1826. An interesting point arises in the U.P.R. where Elizabeth Harland was baptised on June 28th 1790. Coming from the first register of the infant church only name and home were given and no names of parents. Could she be mason George's daughter? By l851 Mary, William's widow is the only return made in the census for Moorside which by 1861 becomes a Harrison home, that of her nephew and niece, the children of her sister Dorothy, the wife of 'Bacon' John Harrison 623 of that story.
The death of William R.C. from Egton Village aged 91 in 1835 and of Mary R.C. from the same place aged 79 in 1821 show the evidence of recusancy amongst the Harlands there too. Marriage 25 appears to be the relevant one here. By the way another snippet on Moorside has been omitted namely the death of John, farmer in November 1810. Egton Bridge too had its share of recusant Harlands because John R.C. was buried from there aged 76 on December 6th 1817 and Leaserigg sees John and Elizabeth living there in 18? and their son and daughter-in-1aw still there, farming forty acres in, and very likely after 1861.
Information from the Easter Communions above bring Barton Hole into the story, for in 1788 it was from thence that Matthew, Mary, John, Wi11iam and Hannah came. Marriage 27 accounts for Matthew and Hannah by this time barely eighteen months married, so the other three could include a child and both his parents, but the marriages overleaf are no help here.
HARLAND MARRIAGES FROM 1600 ONWARDS

	Date	Parish	Parties	Home or witnesses
1.			Christ. & Katherine	Recusants 1611/14 Egton
2.	3/7/1636	Egton	Richard & Mary Harland	Recusants 1674 Egton
3.			William & Margaret	Recusants 1641 Egton
4.			Edward & Ann	Recusants 1641 Egton
5.			John & Ann	Recusants 1641 Egton
6.			Matthew & Alice	Recusants 1641/74 Egton
7.	9/ 2/1642	Egton	Thomas & Ann Hill
8.	10/11/1672	Egton	Francis & Mary Hudson
9.			John & Dorothy	Recusants 1674 Egton
10.			Edward & Mary	Recusants 1674 Egton
11.	26/10/1675	Egton	Thomas & Mary Pearson
12.	25/11/1679	Egton	Richard & Ann Daile
13.	25/10/1681	Egton	Thomas & Ellen Walton	Recusants 1691 Egton
14.			Matthew & Elizabeth	Recusants 1691 Egton
15.			Richard & Elizabeth	Recusants 1691 Egton
16.			Richard & Anna	Recusants 1691 Egton
17.	6/5/1718	Lythe	John & Elizabeth Frankland
18.			Francis & Mary	Recusants 1735 Egton
19.			George & Alice	Recusants 1735 Egton
20.			John & Catherine	Recusants 1735 Egton
21.	28/5/1740	Egton	John & Ann Mead
22.	4/12/1761	Egton	Thomas & Jane Harland
23.	27/ 6/1742	Egton	William & Ann Fletcher
24.	3/ 2/1783	Egton	John & Christiana Biggins
25.	4/1783	Egton	William & Mary Smith
26.	11/ 4/1786	Egton	John & Mary Shaw
27.	22/ 8/1786	Egton	Matthew & Hannah Welford
28.	5/ 6/1797	Egton	William & Mary Roe
29.	4/ 4/1798	Egton	Thomas & Mary Calvert
30.	22/ 1/1801	Egton	William & Mary Sleightholme
31.			Thomas & Ann
32.			Robert & Ann Welford
33.			George & Jane Wood	secondly Elizabeth Emison
34.	14/ 5/1814	Lythe	Christopher & Mary Sanderson
35.	28/ 2/1328	Lythe	John & Elizabeth Taylerson
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.			William & Mary Knaggs
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.	At first sight, the compilation of this list seemed to imply a lack of source material, yet upon revising the same it was found that the family itself was thin numerically with greater strength in the Whitby area.
50.
51.
52.
53.	2O/ 1/1872	Eg.Br.	William & Jane Roe

Recusancy among the Harlands of Aislaby is confirmed by the Ugthorpe Easter Communions and by endorsements 'papist' or R.C. in the Egton registers. The former give Matthew 1803 and William 1809. The latter give Matthew's marriage, no. 2?, the death of his daughter Hannah in 1809, his own death aged 53 in 1815, and that of his wife aged 51 in 1817. Although both were from the parish of Egton, no trace of either baptisim was found being obviously performed secretly. Reference to George fmr. Aislaby is made, the first records of the Whitby recusants, more correctly of their children, providing the name of his wife Jane and some of their children. Using both records a picture of deadful tradgedy is unfolded. Jane dies aged 34, two months after the birth of her son John in 1816. The family had already lost sons Ralph in 1812, and Thomas aged 5, the next year. Ralph was five too when he died. WillIam above was the sponser at his baptisim, being very likely, therefore, George's brother. The widower shortly afterwards married Elizabeth Emison by whom he had three further children, Matthew born 1819, Jane Ann 1821 and George 1823 who was born the day after his fathers dearth at the early age of 35. Elizabeth with at least two step-children, for John had a sister Isabella two years older than he was, and three of her own, is in a more difficult situation than that which overcame her late husband, and finds in Thomas Readman a man willing to marry her and foster her children. This marriage took place in Septemtber 1824 when Elizabeth was 24 years of age. She even gave him a son of his own, baptised John in 1825. Nothing further is known to add to this Readman family, but misfortune continued to dog the Harlands for Isabella died aged twelve in 1826 and George son of William R.C. Aislaby died aged three months the following month, predeceasing Hannah fifteen months, 1829 and Elizabeth aged two and a half in 1830. Whether these calamities continue to afflict the family is unknown. The fact that George was a stonemason recalls to mind another fact that the stone for Whitby piers came from Aislaby quarries which may well account for the considerable activity in the village about this time. The misreading of an entry of baptism as one of a burial makes an even sorrier secuel to this story. It appears from the Whitby records above that George and Jane had a son Ralph born in 1807 who must have died for the Egton baptisms give that of Ralph again, born in 1812 dying in 1816, so actually neither of the Ralphs reached the age of five. Such a chapter of sustained adversity clearly illustrates the endurance engendered in the recusants which today seems sadly lacking in their descendants. One wonders whether George was killed in a quarry accident.
A number of occurences concerning Harlands took place at Leaserigg which do not have the word papist appended so it is not thought that they were recusants. John and Elizabeth were there in 1815/18 and William and Mary in 1851/61. Elizabeth died aged 70 in 1847. Some of these occurences have already been narrated earlier.
Little continuity is in evidence, William and Mary Knaggs, marriage 40, have three children baptised in the Egton bridge chapel. Elizabeth on November 2nd 1835, Isabella December 7th 1836, and Andrew October 14th 1838. Whilst an elder son John's baptism is in Fr. Rigby's book on January 25rd 1834. They now appear to be the Leaserigg family since the census for 1851 gives that families children a decade later. The same source reveals that William born in Ugthorpe in 1800 and his sister Margaret born fifteen years later in the same village were farming Ugthorpe Rails. No trace of William's baptism has been found and the possibility of Margaret's being discovered is lost with the missing baptisms at this period.
The family is still represented in Egton Bridge today, one branch farming at Swang farm for quite a considerable time, and another has renovated the homestead above Station Cottages. A century ago William son of William of Grosmont married Jane a daughter of Thomas Roe but their offspring are unknown, and a granddaughter whose christian name is also urnknown married into the Harland family. It is believed that Gertrude, Isabella, Cecilia and Vincent, the children of this marriage are still alive. Jane's marriage is number 43.
There is room for further research into the history of this family as the picture so far obtained is somewhat sketchy especially since 1840. This however can easily be filled in by interested parties from civil records.

A SECOND LIST OF HARLAND MARRIAGES BETWEEN 1600 AND 1872

	Date	Parish	Parties	Home or witnesses
1.			Christ. & Katherine	Recusants 1611/14 Egton
2.	3/7/1636	Egton	Richard & Mary Harland	Recusants 1641/74 Egton
3.			William & Mary	Recusants 1641 Egton
4.			Edward & Ann	Recusants 1641 Egton
5.			John & Ann	Recusants 1641 Egton
6.			Matthew & Alice	Recusants 1641/74 Egton
7.			John & Dorothy	Recusants 1674 Egton
8.			Edward & Mary	Recusants 1674 Egton
9.			Matthew & Elizabeth	Recusants 1691 Egton
10.			Richard & Elizabeth	Recusants 1691 Egton
11.			Thomas & Ellinor	Recusants 1691 Egton
12.			Richard & Anna	Recusants 1691 Egton
13.			Richard & Mary	Recusants 1735 Egton
14.			Francis & Mary	Recusants 1735 Egton
15.			George & Alice	Recusants 1735 Egton
16.			John & Catherine	Recusants 1735 Egton
17.			John & four children	Recusants 1753 Egton
18.	20/6/1765	Egton	William Roe & Elizabeth Harland
19.	22/11/1769	Lythe	William & Elizabeth Pearson
20.	3/ 2/1783	Egton	John & Christiana Biggins
21.	4/1783	Egton	William & Mary Smith	Hazelhead
22.	11/ 4/1786	Egton	John & Mary Shaw
23.	22/ 8/1786	Egton	Matthew & Hannah Welford	Barton Hole
24.	5/ 6/1797	Egton	William & Mary Roe	Moorside
25.	4/ 4/1798	Egton	Thomas & Mary Calvert
26.	22/ 1/1801	Egton	William & Mary Sleightholme
27.			Thomas & Ann
28.			Robert & Ann Welford	Aislaby
29.			George & Jane Wood	secondly Elizabeth Emison
30.	14/ 5/1814	Lythe	Christopher & Mary Sanderson
31.	28/ 2/1328	Lythe	John & Elizabeth Taylerson
32.
33.
34.			William & Mary Knaggs	Leaserigg
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.	29/11/1865	Eg. Br.	John & Mary Readman
40.			Andrew & Ann Eliz. Wilson
41.		&nbso;	Joseph & Elizabeth Readman
42.			John & Sara Readman
43.	20/1/1872	Eg. Br.	William & Jane Roe
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.

This list is not exclusive.

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