Hawkshead parish

I hope you find your way here David.

I hope you are ready for an amazing journey into the past.

We are so lucky to have such an interesting part to our family trees.

I hope you find it as interesting as I have.

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I hope my other relatives also find there way here too.

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I do make mistakes.

I am far from an expert.

This is my interpretation of the information gathered so far.

I am learning all the time.

There are still missing pieces.

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I shall refer to the village as just Hawkshead. The parish of Hawkshead extends over a large area.

The Satterthwaites at the time when surnames were beginning, came from Satterthwaite (now a village about 4 miles south of Hawkshead) in the Parish of Hawkshead. The people called Satterthwaite  might not all have been related to each other. At some time some moved to Colthouse on the outskirts of Hawkshead. In 1652 George Fox came to Westmorland preaching and the Quaker movement developed. Several Satterthwaite families in Colthouse became Quakers, it is not known if they were related to each other. There were other Satterthwaite families that did not become Quakers.

The name Satterthwaite was very common. It is very difficult to identify and link everyone. There are many family trees online. 

Last year I was really lucky to be able to visit Hawkshead for the first time, and that has helped me understand our history a bit more. It is a beautiful, beautiful place - hidden away in a wooded valley and its very isolation from the rest of the world has preserved it in much the same way as it must have been in the distant past. There has been some new building but the centre remains as it was. It is a certainty that our ancestors even without knowing their names, were familiar with the market in Hawkshead and would have attended and been buried in the church which sits perched up above the village. It was quite an eerie feeling stepping inside that ancient place. In even earlier times, our ancestors would have been living under the influence of Furness Abbey and the mother church at Dalton. Colthouse is about 15 mins walk away along narrow lanes. Some of the original homes of those Satterthwaite Quakers are still standing, along with the Meeting House and a burial ground which I nearly missed. I think from early times the people had to find ways of earning a living because they could not be self sufficient in growing their own food. That and the lack of space meant that when children grew up, apart from the one taking over the family property, they would be forced to move away and seek a living elsewhere. 

Today Hawkshead is in Cumbria, but it was originally in Lancashire. Today it is linked with two famous people - Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth. It means there is a lot of interest in the area.

H. S. Cowper has written two books which are really interesting to read - they are available to read online free at archive.org. The oldest Register Book of the Parish of Hawkshead, and Hawkshead the northernmost parish of Lancashire. Transcripts of the Parish Registers are also online for free on the site lan-opc.org.uk.