Millom Names Project
As part of research for the book Millom Castle, the Huddlestons and the English Civil Wars, volunteer Jonathan Brind photographed various documents identified by Jan Bridget which are held at Carlisle Archive and belong to the Lonsdale Estate (Lord Lowther bought Millom Manor in the mid 18th century). These were the Fines Assessment Book for Millom which includes all the tenants in the Millom peninsula and how much they paid. Every time the lord of Millom died and another took over, all the tenants had to pay a fine. Copies were made of the fines assessments for the years 1645-46. Similarly, whenever a tenancy changed hands, an admittance fine had to be paid by the new tenant; photographs were taken of the documents for the period 1626; 1638-1642 and 1646.
Susan Cawthorne, another volunteer, transcribed the documents. We are delighted to say we have been given permission to add these lists to our website by Lowther Castle - we thank them. There are two documents: Assessments and Admittance.Whilst Jonathan Brind was searching other documents regarding the Huddlestons and the English Civil Wars which were held by another family, the Senhouse family (of Senhouse Museum, Maryport, fame), he came across a list of the names of 900 men, all from the Millom seigniory, dated 1690, who had taken an oath to King William and Queen Mary to promise their loyalty and uphold the Protestant faith (interesting as prior to this they would have been aligned with the previous Catholic monarchs). The Senhouse family have given permission via Carlisle Archives, "to community groups and other not for profit organisations to promote learning and outreach activity," so we are able to include the list on here. We thank both Carlisle Archive and the Senhouse family.
Here is a copy of the 1690 oaths transcribed by Susan Cawthorne: 1690 oaths.And here is Jan's presentation at our AGM held on 23rd November 2024: Names Presentation.
There is a wealth of information at Carlisle Archives. If your family is named in oaths it is highly likely they will be named in other documents, including the fines assessments and fines admittance books for later years - thus giving you the potential for linking up what you already know about your family history with even further back history. Here is a pdf of screen shots of the documents in Carlisle Archive. MANORIAL COURT RECORDS The Millom Seigniory Manorial records are held at Carlisle Archives. Within these records you can find the Court Books. Some of these were transcribed in the early 18th Century and are reasonably legible and do not need transcribing again. Our volunteer Jonathan Brind went up to Carlisle Archive and photographed well over 1,000 images from the Court Books - but these represent only a snippet! We are absolutely delighted that the Trustees of the Lowther Estate have given us permission to share these. We are breaking them down into smaller PDF files. I have also uploaded them as word documents so you can download single images and, if you have the appropriate app, lighten them to make them more legible. File 1. File 1b. File 2. File 2b. File 3. File 3b. File 4. File 4b. File 5. File 5b. File 6. File 6b. File 7. File 7b. File 8. File 8b. File 9. File 9b. File 10. File 10b. File 11. File 11b. File 12. File 12b. File 13. File 13b. File 14. File 14b. We have now completed resizing and uploading the copies we made at Carlisle Archive. The majority of the records cover the period of King Edward VI (1547-1553) but a few stray copies from the time of King Henry VIII (1509-1547) and Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) may have slipped in somewhere.Whether anyone wants to try and analyse them? But a huge task. However, lots and lots of local names in there both as jurors and as victims and as accused.