76 Front Street, Sowerby, Thirsk, North Yorkshire
The first family in residence
This blog post is the story of a family home, a house in Sowerby, near Thirsk in North Yorkshire which has been home to my great aunt and her parents, my grandfather and then my own parents.
When I started my research I assumed that there would always be records that showed when a house was built but that is not the case. I have been very lucky to have access to the deeds to number 76 going back to Thomas Kirby the elder 1781–1866 (and possibly the builder). From here I will refer to Thomas Kirby senior as Thomas Kirby (s) or it will get very confusing. №76 and №76a were originally thought to have been one property that was divided at some point in history but this now looks unlikely. Number 76 is the larger house with street access and 76a is about half the size and opens into the archway access for carriages and horses in the eighteenth century.
I have always associated this house with the church of St Oswalds opposite, as I child I found it romantic to look out of the window and watch the weddings, baptisms and funerals happen in front of me. The fact that so many occupants of the house took part in all of these events links the two for me.
The first recorded family to occupy 76 Front Street.
Thomas Kirby (s) 1781–1866 and Jane Firman 1781–1859
Thomas Kirby (s) was born in 1781 in Sowerby, a baptism record shows his parents as William and Catherine Kirby nee Fothergill who were married in Sowerby in 1778. He was a builder and business man and by 1827 he was already selling properties.
The 1834 Pigot’s Directory for Thirsk described Thomas Kirby (s) of Sowerby as a joiner.
76 and 76a Front Street (aka Main Street) were built in a prominent position in the village opposite the church. The two houses were attached to each other and included workshops, stables, yard, garden, a croft behind the houses, also the cottage at the top end of the yard extending to Back Lane and to the Croft Heads Lane.
The first documented evidence that I have of the house is on the tithe maps from 1843 held at the archives in Northallerton, at that time the two houses making up 76 and 76a Front Street were occupied by Samuel Watson, a publican (1776–1843) who lived in 76a and 76 was the home of the Reverend William Barker b.1806. William Barker officiated at St Oswald’s church opposite but the vicar at the time was William Dent who lived in the big vicarage next to the church.
In the 19th century the market town of Thirsk prospered and many of the wealthy families moved out of the town to the nearby village of Sowerby, building large villa style houses on the main street. This must have been a good time for Thomas Kirby (s) as his family lived and worked in the centre of Sowerby and had a timber yard and joiners.
There are no records about the building of the house that I am interested in but I am assuming that it was built by the Kirbys for their own family use, they appear to be the first owners as opposed to Samuel Watson and William Barker who were tenants.
There are not many remaining details about Thomas Kirby (s) as a young man. What is documented is that he married on the 11th of December 1808 in Sowerby and that his wife was called Jane, they were the same age and Jane was born in Cold Kirby eight miles away. From the document below announcing their banns it appears that her surname was Firman or Fyreman but it is difficult to read.
The witnesses to their banns were Benjamin Harwood, Amos Windcroft and William Mason.
Following their marriage the couple had three sons, Thomas was born in 1811, William was born in 1815 and John was born in 1823. I can’t find a baptism document for Thomas.
In 1840 Thomas Kirby (s) was listed in the Yorkshire, East and North Ridings, White’s History, Gazetteer and Directory as a timber merchant. This must have been Thomas senior because at this time his son Thomas was a builder and an architect who designed the pavillion for the newly formed Yorkshire Agricultural Society in Northallerton.
Thomas junior got married on the 21st of March 1840 in Sowerby, His wife was Sarah Meek and their first child, a baby boy called Thomas was recorded as being born on the same day in Hull! Thomas and Sarah moved into number 76 after their wedding. This was also the year when Sarah’s father Thomas Meek died, aged seventy seven. His occupation was given as ‘gentleman’ and his son in law Thomas Kirby was the witness and present at death.
The next available document is the 1841 census, it shows that Thomas Kirby (s) and Jane were living at the smaller of the two houses, 76a with their youngest son John. Thomas (s) was living on independent means and he was sixty years old.
Their son Thomas lived next door in 76, he was thirty years old and he lived with Sarah, their baby son Thomas who was sixteen months old, and a servant.
By the time the 1841 census was taken the previous tenants William Barker and Sampson Watson had moved to other houses on the same street.
In 1844 Thomas (s) and Jane’s son was William married in Thirsk. His wife was Isabella Gilling whose father was the founder of Gilling and Co. a local currier company and so Isabella was brought up in an affluent household. The couple started married life in Finkle Street off the market square in Thirsk where William worked as a corn merchant. By 1861 they were living at the Railway Station Hotel in Thirsk (often described as being in Sowerby in newspaper articles) where William was the first Station master at Thirsk Junction and the proprietor of the Commercial Hotel in Thirsk.
In 1853 Thomas (s) and Jane’s son John married Margaret Faint, her father was the landlord of the Black Swan Inn in Thirsk.
In 1859 both Jane Kirby and her son Thomas died, Jane was seventy eight years old and Thomas was thirty years younger. They were both buried in St Oswald’s churchyard opposite the house. Jane died of Erisipelas, an infection and Thomas died of liver disease. The witness at both deaths was Elizabeth Place, there were three women of this name in Sowerby/Thirsk at this time but none of them were registered in any medical role, they were all labourers.
In 1860 Thomas Kirby (s) was planning to build two homes and he exhibited the plans at his son’s hotel.
In 1861 the heads of the newly bereaved households were both described as ‘proprietor of houses’, Thomas (s) was eighty and his daughter in law Sarah was fifty five. Sarah’s younger daughter Susannah was fourteen and was still living with her mother but her older daughter Sarah had moved in next door with her grandfather in no.76a and was working as his housekeeper.
In 1862 Thomas and Jane’s son William died, he was forty seven years old and he was also buried across the road from the house at St Oswalds Church. He was a father of seven and his youngest child was only three years old.
His widow Isabella re married the following year, her second husband was John Harker who was a brewer and the proprietor of the Royal Oak Hotel in Thirsk, John was the business partner of Isabella’s brother Thomas and was fourteen years younger than his wife. Two years after their marriage their only baby died as an infant and the obituary stated that John Harker was living at the Commercial Hotel so I assume that Isabella was running the hotel with him. In about 1871 John and Isabella moved away from Sowerby and went to live in Hartlepool, John held a respected position on the town council but died at just forty two years old in 1879 leaving Isabella a widow for a second time. John and Isabella had retained a ‘… pleasant country residence at Sowerby, near the old-fashioned town of Thirsk’ and this was where John died, he was buried across the road from no. 76 in the graveyard of St Oswald’s church. Isabella continued to live in Sowerby with her daughter Louisa where she appeared to have been left with enough money for a comfortable old age. Isabella was buried in St Oswalds but she died in Hartlepool at the home of her son Henry when she was seventy two years old. Henry was also buried in St Oswalds in 1909 as was her daughter Emma in 1849
In 1866 Thomas Kirby (s) died, he was eighty five years old and he was buried in the churchyard of St Oswalds. In his will he was described as a ‘gentleman’. Thomas lived to a great age for the time and outlived two of his three children. His remaining son John died the following year.
Thomas left everything to his daughter in law Sarah for her lifetime and then to her adult children.
In 1867 the last of Thomas (s) and Jane’s sons died, John was forty four years old. His wife Margaret died in 1880 and both were buried in St Oswalds church yard
The house at 76 was still occupied by Thomas’s daughter in law Sarah until her death in 1888 but Sarah’s daughter (also called Sarah) was still living with her in 1881 with her husband Thomas Walker and their two small children.
