The quotation above, in original handwriting, is amongst the entries relating to the above business, but apparently was continued, at least until 20/3/1784, when they cease. The left-hand page shows particulars of the people, whilst the corresponding financial details are shown on the right. All and sundry were his customers, since the names include several obvious recusants and, in the time of general illiteracy, there was plenty of demand.

HIS LORDSHIP THE BISHOP OF MIDDLESBROUGH has very kindly shown his approval in the following letter:-

"I am very grateful for the booklet on the Missionary Priests of Ugthorpe & Egton Bridge which I have read wth great interest. It is a record that has taken much time and care; it is creditably done and was, I am sure a labour of love. It is good to have so much information in handy form. We have reason to be most grateful to Mr. Ward for such an excellent work."

There is no date, but it is very likely l933. The transcript above is a copy written by Mr. Ward and appears in a manuscript book most likely a draft of his booklet. There is also his "Origin of the name Egton Bridge" as follows:-There was a bridge at HOLM WATH & a chapel on it previously to the year 1400, also a chapel at Grosmont Bridge, and a third, I believe, would be at Beckhole. These chapels would be dedicated to St. Anthony, though all record of them is lost. The modern survival of the bridge at Holm Wath is Egton Bridge which did not get its name before the 16th. century. It was, of course, the old pack-horse road to Rosedale Abbey, thence to Pickering and York.

He includes the pedigree of the Royal Descent of the Egton Bridge Smiths from Edward III through the Craythorne and Constable families:-

Edward III married Phillipa of Hainault
Lionel Duke of Clarence married Elizabeth de Burgh
Phillipa, only child, married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March.
Roger Mortimer married Eleanor Holland daughter of the Earl of Kent
Anne Mortimer married Richard Earl of Cambridge
Richard Duke of York married Cecily Neville of Raby
Anne Plantaganet married Sir Thomas St. Leger
Anne St. Leger married George Manners Lord Ross
Catherine Manners married Sir Robert Constable of Everingham
Everilda Constable married Thomas Craythorne of Craythorne
Ralph Craythorne married Bridget Yaxley of Yaxlev Suffolk
Mary Craythorne married Joseph Constable of Upsall Castle
Everilda Constable married Thomas Smith of Egton Bridge

-- and also the pedigree of Foster of Adderstone, Northhumberland, Earswick, Co. York & Stokesley in Cleveland:-
After many generations,

Thomas Foster married Florence daughter of Lord Wharton
John Foster married Agnes Lascelles of Braokenborough
William Foster married 1st Isabel Thwing
2nd Isabel Langley
3rd Mary Booth of Killingholm
William's sister Anne married Rich. Smith of Egton Bridge
Sir Richard Foster married Anne Middleton of Myddleton. This Richard was made a baronet by Charles I, Lord of Manor of Stokesley and died in 1661, being buried at St. Mary's Abbey, Pontrise.
Sir Richard Foster married Clare Meynell of Killvington. He was living at Egton Bridge when the banns of marriage were published in Whitby market place in 1657.
Sir Richard Foster who, dying without issue, the baronetcy became extinct.
William Foster's second wife, Isabel Langley died for the Faith in York Prison 1597. She was the daughter of the Ven, Richard Langley, who was executed at York 1st Dec. 1586, for harbouring priests.

A number of other items are of relevance:-

AN OLD TRADITION The old house at Brideholm Green was said to have had seven doors into it, which were never locked night or day, and a meal was always set ready during the Penal days, so that any priest, a refugee, could , if he called satisfy his hunger. Many did so, told no doubt, by those boys and girls who went overseas to France & Spain & other countries from Egton Bridge. They in their colleges and convents would meet many of those brave men of old on their way to Enrgland, & if captured, certain death. Whitby was a great port for these missionaries to come to, and the moors and dales in those days were safer hiding-places than the towns.

No comments are needed on the following item penned on a tattered corner:-
"------ Hon. the Earl of Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies, in order to promote the Protestant Religion & Interest in Ireland, has ordered £5 out of his private fortune to be given to every Papist now living upon his estate in the North of Ireland, who shall conform to the Established Church, and that his Lordship had also ordered that no Leases of any part of his Estate shall for the future be granted to any Papist whatever."

That pastors had to care for temporal as well as spiritual needs is well illustrated by the quotations below, as well as the entries above.
"The following Receipt was the means of preserving a number of cattle in George the Second's reign at a farm in Yorkshire, where the cattle in every adjacent farm were ill, but not one in that farm died. Take rue, sage, wormwood, & lavender, a handful of each, infuse them in a gallon of white wine vinegar in a stone pot covered close set on warm ashes for four days; after which strain the liquid through a fine flannel & put it into bottles well-corked. Into every quart bottle put a quarter of an ounce of Camphire. The herbs the liquor is made from, set in a tub in the cow-house (the Cows are fond of the smell) & every morning & night as the Cows come to be milked, dip a spunge in the liquid, & rub the nostrils & mouth of the beast well."

The family doctor was often part of his ministry too. In a section titled 'Phys; the Robinsons had 'An almost infallible cure for the Ague'
Take two tablespoonsful of the juice pressed from sage well pounded, & an equal quanity of vinegar and let the patient swallow the dose when the fit comes on.

'Relief from the Gout'
On the least symptom of the approach of the disorder, take Jesuits bark in Red Port & repeat it till the fit goes off, which will be in a few days if constantly taken.

Many persons have been greatly relieved by following this prescription.
'A cure for the Ague'
Take as much flower of Brimstone as will cover a half-crown. Moisten to a paste with Lemon-juice; mix it with a glass of Ru- (edge missing) and take it as the fit comes on.

'For Chillblains'
Soak them in warm Bran & Water & then rub them well with Mustard-seed flower. It must be done before they break.

'A cure for the Dropsy'
Two ounces of Bark, two ounces of Battel Gunpowder, & one ounce of coarse mustard seed steeped in a quart of Mountain wine & well shaken together; let three wine glasses be taken every day.

The first and last appear to be in what may well be Jonathan Robinson's hand, and the remainder in that of his son Richard. The passage beneath is typical of the sermons in the book.The author seems to be Jonathan.
"It is a grand mistake to suppose any wicked man is happy. He may, I own, have the luck to cheat the gallows of its due; nay get wealth & honour by his villainy, & live splendidly in the possession of them afterwards. For this reason the misjudging vulgar pronounce him an happy man; but oh.! there is that within that makes him feel he is miserable amidst his affluence. His guilt may not appear to the world but it cannot be conceiled from himself. Conscience is more than a thousand Wittnesses, more merciless than a thousand tortures. There the action lies in its true nature; there is no shuffling, no such thing as perverting her evidence, eluding her sentence or flying out of reach of her scourge ------------"

TRANSCRIPTS RE HARRISON AND THE MASS HOUSE FROM FR.GERARD HARRISON

It was a John Harrison who lived in the Mass House at the time of the discovery of the Oratory with the altar prepared for Mass in 1830. Fr. Postgate did not come to celebrate the Mass which had been foreseen 150 years before, because he was arrested and executed. The chapel was sealed off and forgotten. Since 1832 Fr. Postgate's relics were kept by the Harrisons, and every time someone of the family was married, they took a relic to their new homes. From Fr. Basil Harrison.

Letter from Hilary Harrison to Fr. Gerard Harrison.

								17 Manor Close

								Kirkbymoorside

								York February 21st 1972.

Dear Fr. Gerard,

	I read with interest your letter in the Universe re the Mass House and I feel 
I ought to point out some errors in your dates. I feel sure the finding of the secret 
oratory was in 1830, but to make sure l called to see Miss Alice Dunwell who lives in 
Kirkby and has a copy of Dom Bede Camm's "Forgotten Shrines" published in 1910. I was 
right, it was in 1830 that the oratory was discovered. There is a photo of some of Fr. 
Postgates relics, including two different kinds of Pyx and a very detailed description 
of them.
	The whole article was quite lengthy and l was very interested in the following
extract:- "In the 'Catholic Magazine' 1838 there is a paper on 'Nicholas Postgate the 
old Catholic Priest' by a writer who signs himself J.W. and dedicates his work with 
much affection to Fr. Nicholas Rigby"  In the early days of the Guild at E.B. there 
was a Fr. Rigby who was chaplain and wrote half-yearly reports in the minute books 
which I read  many years ago. I think if will be the same man.
	In 'Forgotten Shrines' there are several photos of the Mass House and what 
was found there, a stole, rosary beads, a small crystal cross containing a relic of 
the True Cross, etc,. To refer to your letter again, I too remember Fr. Storey showing 
us some of Fr. Postgate's relics in the school, but they were not found at that time. 
Canon Callebert had some in his possession many years before then. I think we were 
shown these things just to show us what had been found at some time in the past. In 
Dom Bede's account, soon after the 'find', the Bishop came to Egton and took certain 
things away with him, but left among other things the altar stone which Fr. Postgate 
used. When the new altar was fixed in the Lady Chapel at E.B. this altar stone was 
fixed in the altar. I dont know what year it took place but you may have left E.B.by 
then. There is another point you may be interested in, when the Mass House was 
pulled down a bag of coins and an offertory plate was found in the thatch.
	I have some postcards  photos of these and printed on the back is a brief 
description and the date 1928. The plate by the way had been broken and repaired
not with leather thongs as some writers say, but with cobbler's wax-ends; in case 
you dont know what I mean, I've seen old cobbler Roe at Egton make these wax-ends 
(as they were called) many times. He used to take a bunch of hemp or flax (I'm not 
sure which) and rub the hard wax through it, thus making it very strong indeed. Had 
the plate been repaired with leather it wouldn't have held it together all these years. 
The chair of Fr. Postgate which was mentioned in the Universe was not found in the 
Mass House. My cousin Aidan Readman thinks it was found in the Hermitage at 
Ugthorpe where Fr. Postgate lived, I do hope you dent mind me telling you all this and 
will certainly look forward to a reply. 
		      		Yours Sincerely, Hilary Harrison.

End of transcript
Mrs Dorothy Milestone (nee Harland) of The Cottage, Lamb's Walk, Pickering wrote mentioning the post-cards as well. She and her brother George are children of 'tailor ' Bob Harrison 62145

Nor spared they Father Posket's blood,
A reverend priest devout and good,
Whose spotless life in length was spun
To eighty years and three times one.

Sweet his behaviour, grave his speech,
He did by good example teach.
His sanctity to that degree,
As angels lived so did he.

										V.0'C.

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