INTRODUCTION

FEW families in this country can trace a more authentic record of their European ancestry than can the Spoffords. The name appears in the Doomsday Book, which is a record of the lands of England, as parceled out after the conquest by William, Duke of Normandy, in the year 1066. The entry in the index of the book is as follows:--

"Spoford;--Possession Genera, M. mot, prat, silva past; Comitatus, Eurvicsc W.R.; Hundred vel Wapentac, Borgescire Wap.; Possessor, Will de Perci; Fol. 322, Col. 2."

At the place referred to, we find a few lines of abbreviated Latin in ancient characters which, but for the inadequacy of modern type, might with interest be here introduced, and which are evidently a record of extensive domains, of greater interest perchance to the Percys, who still hold them, than to us, though it is certain that our ancestors, prior to the Conquest, were owners, and either, after the Saxon mode, gave their name to this place, or received it therefrom in Norman fashion.

A still earlier allusion to the name is found in the following extract from "Chronicles of the Saxon Times in England," taken from the History of Ilkley, Ancient and Modern, edited by Rev. Robert Collyer, D. D., and a noted antiquary named Horsfall Turner, published in 1885:--

"A. D. 1065. All the thegens (thanes) in Eoforwicscire (Yorkshire) went to Eoforwic, (York) and there slew all the huscarls (Danish body Guard) of Earl Tostig.

"For the accursed murder of the noble Northumbrian thegens--Gospatric, whom Queen Eadgith commanded to be craftily slain in the King's Court for the sake of her brother Tosti; Gamel son of Orm, and Ulf, son of Dolphin, whom Earl Tosti commanded to be slain craftily at York the year before, as well as for the immensity of the tax which he had unjustly taken from all Northumbria; the Northumbrian thanes Gamelbearn (son or child of Gamel,) Dunstan, son of Athelnoth, and Glonieorn, son of Heardulf, came to York and slew Tosti's huscarls, Anund and Reavensuart (Black Raven), and the following day, two hundred of his courtiers."--Florence of Worcester.

Gamel, son of Orm, was Lord of Thorparch, on the river Thorpe in Yorkshire, and of vast domains. He was murdered by Earl Tosti, the Dane, in 1064. He had two sons, Orm, who married Etheldritha, daughter of Earl Aldred, and Gamelbar or Gamelbearn, Lord of Spofforth, Plumpton, Braham, etc., and revenged himself, against Tosti at York, as related above. From him the Spofforths of Yorkshire are lineally descended.

On a dial over the door of the church of Kirkdale, near Helmsley, in Yorkshire, said to be the oldest Saxon church in England, is the following inscription in deeply graven letters:--

"ORM Gamalsuna bohte scs. Gregorius minster vonne hit w‘s al tobrocan and tofalan and he hit let macan newan from grvnde Chr. and Scs. Gregorius in Eadward dagvm Cng. and in Tosti dagvm eorl."

                                  Kirkdale Dial (Yorks. Arch. Jour.). 

The translation of which is: "Orm, son of Gamel bought St. Gregory Monastery, when it was all broken and fallen, and he it let make anew from ground, to Christ, and S. Gregory, in Edward days, King, and in Tosti days, Earl."

Gamel, according to the Doomsday Book, had immediately after the Conquest been dispossessed of his lands, at any rate in Ilkley, for we find:--

                Terra Willelmi de Perci. [1085.] 

(Translated.) "Land of William de Percy. In Ilkley, Gamel had three carucates of land to be taxed, where there may be three ploughs. William now has it and it is waste. Time of King Edward it was valued at twenty shillings. There is a church and a priest, wood-pastures one mile long, and four quarenteens or furlongs broad."

Further: "In Nessfield, Gamelbar had three carucates of land to be taxed where there may be two ploughs."

This is the record of the town and parish of Ilkley, made between 1080 and 1085 A. D., and we gather from it that before the Conquest by William the Norman, in 1066, Gamel was Lord of the manor of Ilkley, and his son Gamelbar, who owned Nessfield, Spofforth, <Plumpton, Rougharlington, Brame, Bilton, Rossett, Beckwith, and many other manors in the Knaresborough forest district, was, like Gamel, a Saxon Thane.

In the Calendar of Inquisitions after death, of the year 1353 Calendarium Inquis' post Mortem page 174, No. 52a, 26, of Ed. III. Henricus de Percy, Spofford Maner' cum mem?? is et foedis pertin' viz.: Lynton, Lethely, et Axelthorpe, Foeda-Folyfate, Aiketon, Spoford, Ribbeston, &c &c &c is the following list of

FIEFS OF THE BARONY OF SPOFFORD.

Folyfate, Aiketon, Spoford, Ribbeston, Plumpton, Colthorp, Stockton, Lynton, Heselwode, Sutton, Sighelinghale, Lofthowse, Kibelingcotes, Guthmundenham, Cloughton, Pokethorp, Esthorp, Hoton, Fosseton, Wandesford, Nafferton, Queldryke, Wartre, Thriberg, Edelington, Middleton, Stubbum, Skaln, Colesburn, Nesselfeld, Inwely, Wheteley, Askwith, Dalton, Horton, Casteley, Letheley, Walton, Bergheby, Arlesthorp, Soreby, Hemelsby, Steynton, Asmonderby, Merkingfeld, Hornyngton, Wolsington, Yedon, Rondon, Oxton, Tadcastre, Snawes, Haghornby, Gramhope, Kerkby, Kerkby-Orblawers, Carleton, Midhope, Remington, Neusome, Boulton, Horton, Gersington, Lynton, Ketelwell, Thresfeld, Arnecliffe, Addingham, Routherneck, Stynton, Estborne, Malghum, Brunby, Swyndon, Halton, Pathorne, Elgfeld, Thornton, Bunyngeston, Difford, Gisborne, et Westeby ("omnia foeda p' dicta pertinent ad maner' de Spofford" = all the preceding fiefs belong to the Lordship of Spofford).

The fiefs attached to a barony, lordship, or manor (at that time these words were indifferently used as the translation of "manerium") were not necessarily contiguous, forming one large body of land, but they were scattered many miles apart, often in several different counties.

Most of the localities named in the above list can now be identified, though in many cases the spelling is somewhat changed. Folyfate is now Follifoot, Edelington is now Edlington, etc. The townships of Follifoot, Linton, Plumpton, and Little Ribston are in Spofford Parish, which contains 3,044 inhabitants.--Moule, Vol. II., 467. Plumpton and Wetherby, the latter a market town of 1,217 inhabitants, are also mentioned as in the parish of Spofforth.--Moule, Vol. II., 468. Probably Wetherby is the fief mentioned in the list as Westeby.

Gamelbar, or Gamelbearn de Spofforth, had a son called William of Spofforth, who had in 1066, the year of the Conquest, four ploughs and nine villains and ten borderers (people of consequence in the position of yeomen), four acres of meadow, wood-pasture one mile long and one broad; the whole sixteen quarenteens long and twelve broad; value in King Edward's time, twenty shillings (query, does this refer to the tax thereon?), and in William the First's time, sixty shillings. (See Doomsday Book.)

This William was, in 1086, deprived of his possessions, for refusing to pay Dane Gelt an obnoxious tax abolished by the Confessor, King Edward. "He assisted Aldred, Archbishop of York, in resisting the imposition, and his estates were confiscated and apportioned among the Norman adventurers, William de Perci, Archil, Gislebert, or Gilbert Tyson, and the King."⁽¹⁾--Doomsday Survey, 1086.

Walter, the son of the above-named William, was killed during an invasion of England by Malcolm, king of Scotland (38 Dunhelm, p. 200); and his son John, who lived in the time of Henry the First, A. D. 1105, only distinguished himself by forming an alliance with the ancient family of Plumpton, of Plumpton, near Spofforth, who held vast possessions under the Percys in the neighborhood of Spofforth.⁽²⁾

The next in succession as descendants of Gamel and Gamelbearn were Henry (temp. Stephen), Elwine (temp. Henry II., A. D. 1186), Gamel de Spofforth, who was Marshal to Nigel de Plumpton, William, and Nicholas, who lived in the time of Henry III., 1265, and married Dyomysia de Plumpton (see Plumpton Correspondence, published by the Surtees Society), and his brother, John Spofforth, who is mentioned in the Compotus, or household book, of Bolton Priory, A. D. 1260, now in possession of the Duke of Devonshire, as having sung, in company with Wm. Myoths and the Baron de Greystock, at the festival on the fiftieth anniversary of William de Malgam, one of the monks.

Then came Roger (temp. 1287), who joined in the attack on Scarborough Castle, under Lords Pembroke and de Warrenne, and assisted in conveying Piers Gaveston, the king's favorite, to Blacklow Hill, near Warwick. He obtained pardon for participation in the murder in 1313.--Palgrave's Abstract of Parliamentary Writs, Vol. II., Div. 1, p. 107. Then Robert, who married a daughter of the now long extinct family of Castelay, and had three sons, namely, Robert, of whom hereafter; Henry de Spofforth, a priest in 1338, who held the manor of Grassington as craven or feoffee in trust for Sir William de Plumpton and Christiana, his wife, by a deed dated 18th May, 1338, 12 Edw. III. (See Plumpton Correspondence, Chartul No. 182, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.)

Robert, the eldest son, was eighth Prior of Helaugh, elected April 8, 1320, and served thirteen years. (See Dugdale's Monasticon, Vol. VI., p. 437.)

He also had Walter de Spofforth, or, as he signed his name, de Spofford, an Augustine canon, who was also Prior of Helaugh. "Friar Will de Spofford confrater domus sit Roberti de Knaresborough, Vicar of Hampsthwaite near Spofforth. Mort Oct. 9, 1369."--Torres MSS., Archdeaconry of York, 195.

The next in succession was Robert, who married a lady named Evorta, the relict of John Vavasour de Norwode, in 1337, and from him descended Robert, of whom presently, and Roger, who is notable only as having signed as witness to the settlement of the Plumpton estates in 1396, and as being the father of Thomas Spofford, or Spofforth, who was Abbot of St. Mary's, York, succeeding Thomas Pygot in this dignity, June 8, 1405.

"The Abbat of St. Mary's was but little inferior to the Archbishop of the province, being mitred and having a seat in Parliament which entitled him to the appellation of 'My Lord.'

"He and the Abbat of Selby were the only two Abbats thus honored in the north of England." (See Leland's Itinerary, Vol. VII.)

  Date of the     Entry on skin 19 of the 2d. part of the Patent Roll of the 
  entry is 8 
  June, 1405.       sixth year of the Reign of King Henry the Fourth. 

De Regio assensu. Rex custodi spiritualitatis Archiepiscopatus Eboracensis sede vacante salutem. Sciatis quod electione nuper fact‘ in ecclesia conventuali Beat‘ Mari‘ Eborac: de fratre Thoma de Spofforth, commonacho ejusdem domus in abbatem loci illius regium assensum adhibuimus ac favorem. Et hoc vobis tenore pr‘sentium significamus, ut quod vestrum est in hac parte exequanimi. In cujus rei testimonium, &c. Teste Rege apud Eborac. viij die Junii.

Which is translated as follows:--

June 8, 1405, 6 Hen. IV. The Royal assent to the election of Thomas de Spofforth, as abbot of St. Mary's, York. Henry, by the grace of God king of England and France and lord of Ireland, to the guardian of the spiritualities of the archbishopric of York, the see being vacant, sends greeting. Know ye that we have given our royal assent and good-will to the election lately made in the conventual church of the Blessed Mary at York, of their confrere Thomas de Spofforth, a monk of the same house, as abbot of that place; and this we signify to you by the tenor of these presents, so that you might execute that which belongs to your office. In testimony of which we have caused these our letters patent to be made. Witness ourself at York, on the eighth of June, in the sixth year of our reign. By writ of Privy Seal.

"1420 Thomas Spofford Episcopus Herefordiensis primo Abbas Seint Maria Eborac dieu Episcopus Rofensis electus sed ante consecrat, translatus ad Hereford. Sepultus est Spoford Ebor in Mariane Monasterius." (See Leland's Itinerary, Vol. VII., fol. 66, et Vol. VIII., fol. 77a, 776.)

In 1414, while Abbat of St. Mary's, Thomas Spofforth was appointed by Henry V. one of the ambassadors to the celebrated Council of Constance. This Council was called to put an end to disturbances caused by the election of popes, and also to prevent the spread of the doctrines of Huss. The tribunal is said to have comprised, beside the Emperor Sigismund and Pope John XXIII., who had been elected in the place of Alexander V., lately deceased, more than twenty cardinals, twenty archbishops, ninety-one bishops, six hundred prelates and doctors, and about four thousand priests.

The Council ended the schism by removing the three rival Popes. John XXIII. and Benedict XIII. were deposed, and Gregory XII. voluntarily resigned, after which the Council elected Cardinal Colonna, who took the name of Martin V.

Subsequently Thomas Spofforth was elected Bishop of Rochester, but before installation was appointed by the Pope to the See of Hereford, A. D. 1420, which position he resigned in 1448, and began prebendinare in St. Mary's, York, on Aug. 5, 1456.

"Adm recollud‘ memori‘, Tho; Episc Hereford inter septa mon B. M. Ebor dum vixit prebendinatis, et ibidem decendentio,"--was granted to John Shalford, a monk of that house.

The above appears in a note appended to a bequest in the will of one John Carre, dated 1487, as given, p. 26, Vol. IV., of Testamenta Eboracensia, edited by Canon Raine, published by the Surtees Society, 1871.

The bequest is as follows: "Also I bewit to the Abbot of Seynt Marie Abbay, a payr of Spectacles of sylver and gylted, and a bonet that was sumtyme the Bisshoppis of Hertforth."

The following is a quotation from the Register of the Corpus Christi Guild in the city of York, published by the Surtees Society in 1872, and edited by Canon Raine.

"To the Corpus Christi Guild Bishop Spofforth was a munificent benefactor. Shortly after his admission he gave to it 'unum magnum liminare cum toto apparatu.'

"In 1449, after his return to York, he presented the fraternity with a magnificent shrine of silver gilt, valued at œ256, which doubtless formed an important feature in their annual processions; and to this valuable gift he subsequently added, as stated in the Register, 'alia jocalia in numero non pauca.' "

"In an account of a pageant in celebration of the Festival of Corpus Christi, it is related that the most prominent and attractive object was a shrine presented by Thomas Spofford, Bishop of Hereford, in the year 1449, to the Guild, an organization composed of persons of the highest rank, having charge of the annual celebration of the festival.

The following description is given: "The shryne is all gilte havyng six ymages all gylded with an ymage of the birthe of our Lord in mother of perle sylver and gylte, and three small ymages enamyled standing about the same; and a tablett of golde, two golde ryngs one with a safure the other with a perle, and eight other little ymages and a greate tablett of golde having in it the ymage of our Lady in mother of perle, which shryne conteyneth in length three quarters of a yerd and a nayle, and in brede a quarter and half and more and in height half a yerd and over besides the steple stonding on the same, said steple having a wether cokke thereuppon, and also beying within said steple a berall whereyn the sacrament is borne."--Extracts from the Municipal Records of the City of York, by Robert Davies.

A minute description of this shrine, and of the jewels and ornaments belonging to the Guild, is also given in the Surtees Society Papers, Vol. I., 1871, No. 57.

Canon Raine, a noted antiquary, and one of the Canons of the Cathedral of York, in one of the Surtees Society Papers, York Registry, 4, 1420-1509, Eboracensia, p. 29, gives it as his opinion that this Bishop was the hero of one of the Robin Hood ballads,--known to have been written in the fifteenth century,--in which the outlaw is described as robbing the Bishop of Hereford. The Canon writes:--

"It is quite possible that our Bishop, in one of his numerous journeys to Yorkshire to see his relatives, fell into the hands of the Barnsdale Rovers and lost his money, unde nomen et carmen. It was not every day that a Bishop of Hereford found his way into Yorkshire.

         " 'Some will talk of bold Robin Hood, 
              And some of Barons bold; 
            But I'll tell you how he served the Bishop of Hereford 
              When he robbed him of his gold.' " 

Canon Raine, being asked for an explanation of the anachronism apparent in the supposed time during which Robin Hood performed his exploits (viz., temp. John and Richard the Lionhearted), replied:--

"Robin Hood must not be treated as an historical personage with a date assigned to him. The Ballads seem to be of the 15th and 16th centuries, and a robbery of Bishop Spofforth might easily be incorporated in them. They are, no doubt, by various writers, and of various dates."

The record of Bishop Spofforth's abdication is printed in Rymer's Foedera, Vol. X., p. 215. In Wilkins's Cornelia, Vol. III., p. 538, is a writ of pardon to Bishop Spofforth for abdicating in favor of his successor.

The Pope testified by his Bull that Bishop Spofford had expended on the building of his cathedral upward of 2,800 marks, and that he had also made great alterations in the Palace of Sugwas, near Hereford, where his initials, T. S., still remain in a stained glass window. (See Burton's Cath. Arc. of England, Vol. III.)

This public-spirited prelate also erected in the Church of Lud. low, within his diocese, a magnificent window of stained glass, said to be one of the finest in England, and in this window is still to be seen a representation of the Bishop in full canonicals, in an attitude of prayer, apparently adoring his patron saint, Saint Anne. The only part of the label remaining is Media precor Anna.

Placed before the Bishop is a table with this inscription:--

Thomas Spofford Dei ??ra Hereford ??p'us.

The Yorkshire Heraldic Visitations, according to Whitaker's Richmondshire, Vol. II., p. 31, furnishes the following inscriptions:--

"In the East window of the Church at Catterick in Yorkshire are these figures, 3 St. Anna, and below is inscribed,--

Eternum mana mihi Spofford impetret Anna."

The interpretation of which is: "St. Anna prays that eternal manna may be given to Spofford."

Also the following inscription:--

??rate pro anima D'ni Thome Spofford Abbatis Monasterii Beate Marie Eborum istius ?? Rectoris.

Which being translated is: "Pray for the soul of Lord Thomas Spofford, Abbot of the Monastery of the blessed Maria of York, and Rector of this (Catterick) parish."

Bishop Spofforth had two sisters, described in the Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi (p. 19) as,--

Decimo Anno.         AGN: SPOFFORTH   | Sorores abbatis. 
     1417-1418.      MATIL: SPOFFORTH | 

At this time the Spofforths appear to have held intimate relations with the Plumptons of Plumpton, for in the Plumpton Correspondence (Surtees Society Papers) it is stated that on Nov. 29, 1450, temp. Henry VI.: "Master George Plumpton conveyed to Feoffees, viz.:--the worshipful Fader and Lord, Thomas Spofford late Bishop of Hereford, and others, lands and tenements in Yorkshire and Ripon, to the uses of a last will and testament."

The neighborly intimacy here alluded to must have been of long standing, as appears from a story entitled "The Plumpton Marriage with a King's Ward," published as one of a series of papers under the general name of Legends and Traditions of Yorkshire. In this romantic tale it is related that a certain priest of the family of Spofforth, by performing the marriage service in private, securedto his friend, Gilbert de Plumpton, as his bride, the fair Eleanor de Guilevast, a young heiress, whose love he had won in opposition to the will of King Henry II., whose ward she was.

To return to the direct line of the descent, viz., Robert, who in 1360 married a co-heiress of Thomas de Malebis:--

He had issue, Thomas Spofforth, a priest, who became Vicar and presbiter of Bredon in Leicestershire, appointed 16 Kal. Ap. 1377, resigned 1381.--Nichol's Leicestershire, Vol. III., p. 669. The second son was John Spofforth, who resided at Newsam, near Spofforth, mentioned in the Pipe Roll, 15 Richard II., 1396, who married Maria Meynel. They had a son called Robert, who resided at Menthorpe, near Selby, and who was a member of the Corpus Christi Guild of York, described in its records as "Dom. Robert Spofforth monachus," A. D. 1431. (See Surtees Society Papers, 1871, Vol. I., p. 32.) He had a sister named Elizabeth Spofforth, a member of the same Guild.--Vol. I., p. 150.

From this Robert last mentioned descended lineally Robert, who lived at Wistow Manor, near Selby, in 1480, and who married a daughter of Bryan Roncliffe of Cowthorpe, near Spofforth (third Baron of the Exchequer); and they had a son, Bryan Spofford, a priest, who was Rector of Barton in Ryedale, now called Barton le Street, near Helmsley in Yorkshire. This priest married, contrary to the edicts of the Catholic Church, as did Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and others at that period. On his refusing to put away his wife, he was deprived, in Queen Mary's reign, 1554, of his benefice. (See Yorkshire Archoeological Journal, part 37, p. 95.)

From this date the family became Protestants, and appear to have declined in property and influence for many generations; but one of the grandsons of Bryan Spofforth (the priest recusant) was John Spofforth, Vicar of Silkeston Parish in Yorkshire, who was born in 1588.

We now quote from Burke's Visitation of the Seats and Arms of England, Vol. III., omitting his references to the persons mentioned on the foregoing pages, and of whom we have gleaned knowledge from other sources. After an extended notice of Thomas Spofforth, Bishop of Hereford, Mr. Burke proceeds: "After this the family became converts, and John was for many years Vicar of Silkeston, from which he was ejected, for non-conformity, in 1663. John, his son,--with many families from that part of Yorkshire,--was driven during the civil wars to America, where, as one of the Pilgrim Fathers, he was founder of a large and influential family in Massachusetts." Mr. Burke is Ulster King of Arms, and his recognition of this connection is sufficient to establish it as a fact that John, the immigrant of 1638, was a son of him of the same name and faith who was made Vicar of Silkeston four years later.

The Journal of the House of Lords for Dec. 24, 1642, after a preamble setting forth the bad character and want of qualification of many who had been promoted to ecclesiastical offices by the late King, Charles I., just dethroned, proceeds as follows:--

"It is this day ordered by the Lords and Commons that John Spofford, clerk, shall be enabled to serve the church and receive the profits of the Vicarage of Silkeston, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. And the Archbishop and the Archdeacon are hereby prohibited to present or grant institution or induction to any other clerk for the Vicarage of Silkeston till both Houses of Parliament shall take further action concerning the same."--Journal, Vol. V., p. 516.

Of the same person, Calamy, an ecclesiastical historian, says:--

"Mr. John Spawford or Spofford was for many years Vicar of the church, which on account of its beautiful structure was called the Minster of the Moors.

"He was a pious man, of competent learning and ability, facetious in his conversation, and a lover of all good men.

"He was ejected for non-conformity about 1663, when Mr. Robert Cotton, a worthy, pious gentleman of the parish, took him to his house, where he died in 1668, aged 80 years."

NOTE 1.--Surtees Society, Vol. LXV., p. 26, Yorkshire Diaries Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries; Diary of Capt. Adam Eyre, 1647:--

"18, April. This morn I went to Cawthorne to church where I heard Mr. Broadley preach. I gave to Capt. Shirt a letter and a book from Mr. Bosvile. Then I went to dinner with Capt. Shirt, and after we went to Broadgate, and I spent 4d. and rid to Silkston to hear Mr. Spofford preach, who labored mainly to uphold the excellency of the ministry in the people's opinion."

NOTE 2.--"The Rev. John Spofford, Vicar of Silkstone, from which he was ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1662, when he was 74 years of age. The character given him by the biographer of the non-conforming clergy is that he was a pious man of competent parts and abilities, very plain in his speaking and holy in his life, facetious in discourse and a lover of all good men. 'His widow, Mistress Spawford, died in April, 1679, aged 94, in dotage, at John Hulme's, that married his daughter,' says Oliver Heywood."

NOTE 3.--Same volume, p. 256, John Hobson's diary:--

"19 July, 1726. Mr. Cockshut, Minister of Cawthorne, told me that an old man called(???)Turton, his parishioner, who died about seven years ago, who was clark at Silkston in the Civile Warr time, was present at the church when some soldiers came and forced him out, and obliged him to run unto Silkston fall to hide himself. He was ejected and(???)Spofforth who lied burried in Silkston Churchyard was put in his place."

The Vicarage of Silkeston, in the patronage of the Archbishop of York, is described as in the West Riding of Yorkshire, four miles west from Barnsley (which is fourteen miles north of Sheffield), the parish containing 13,728 inhabitants and comprising several townships. The church is dedicated to All Saints, and is the Mother Church of the Wapentake.

It must have been an important living at the time of the incumbency of John Spofford, and his convictions of duty were indeed strong in assuming an attitude which must inevitably lead to its loss, when the infirmities of age were already upon him.

The present Vicar (1888) is Rev. William Stafford Barker.

Of the history of the family in later years, Mr. Burke relates that "After the Revolution (1689) the family property was in Wistow Lordship, Turnhead House, and Barlby Manor, Yorkshire, and alliances were formed with the Fawkeses, Nixons, Lacys, Lodges, Listers, &c. They migrated to Howden, and have since intermarried with some of the most influential families of the district."

The town of Spofforth is about equidistant between Knaresborough and Wetherby. An interesting ruin still bears the name Spofforth Castle, and is the property of the second Lord Leconfield, whose father was the son of the third Earl of Egremont, an illegitimate descendant of the Percys.

Spofforth is, in ecclesiastical parlance, a rectory, ranking next above a vicarage, and below a deanery. The only incumbent of whom we have knowledge is Rev. James Tripp, "an earnest evangelical, ordained in 1810, and in middle life appointed to the beautiful living of Kirkby Overblow, in Yorkshire; and in 1847, to the great rectory of Spofforth, which he held till his death at the age of 93."

We quote from a history of Yorkshire:--

"Spofforth, or Spofford, is a small parish town three miles from Wetherby. Before the Conquest, Gamelbar de Spofford was lord of this manor, after which William de Percy had here four carucates of land, nine villains, and ten borders. William de Percy obtained a grant for a market here on Fridays in the year 1224, and in 1309 Henry de Percy procured a license to fortify his castle here. Henry de Percy, first Earl of Northumberland, was slain at Bramham Moor, within a few miles of this house, in 1407.

"After the battle of Towton, in 1461, so fatal to Henry VI., in which were slain the Earl of Northumberland and his brother, Richard Percy, their estates were laid waste and everything destroyed by the enraged conquerors."

Leland says: "The manor house of Spofford was sore defaced in the time of the civil wars between Henry VII. and Edward IV., by the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Montecute. After lying in ruins some time, we find that the house was again made tenable, for in the year 1559, Henry, Lord Percy, obtained a license to fortify his houses of Spofford and Leckonfield.

"It is most probable that this mansion was last demolished in the time of Charles I., about 1635, as Samuel Ingoldsby, Esq., steward to the Duke of Northumberland, resided here in 1600.

"The present ruins extend forty-five yards from North to South, and sixteen from East to West. The situation is on a sloping bank ending in a low wall of rock within the Castle, affording convenience for lower appartments. The hill, which has been a most magnificent apartment, was seventy-five feet in length and thirtysix in breadth, and seems to have been built about the time of Edward III., when the idea of a castle began to give way to that of a palace."

The following, though coming down from the Norman conquerors, commemorates our name, and gives a lively picture of the songs and revelry which once rang through the ancient castles and halls of England:--

                "Lord Percy made a solemn feast 
                   In Spofford's princely hall, 
                 And there came lords and there came knights, 
                   His chiefs and barons all. 

                "With wassail, mirth, and revelry, 
                   The castle rung around: 
                 Lord Percy called for song and harp, 
                   And pipes of martial sound. 

                "The minstrels of that noble house, 
                   All clad in robes of blue, 
                 With silver crescents on their arms, 
                   Attend in order due. 

                "The great achievements of that race 
                   They sung, their high command, 
                 How valiant Manfred o'er the seas 
                   First led his northern band. 

                "Brave Galfrid next, of Normandy, 
                   With vent'rous Rollo came, 
                 And from his Norman castle won, 
                   Assumed the Percy name. 

                "They sung how in the Conqueror's fleet 
                   Lord William shipped his powers; 
                 And gained a fair young Saxon bride, 
                   With all her lands and towers." 

                                        Hargrave's History of Knaresboro, p. 295. 

An English correspondent, Mr. Markham Spofforth, of London, communicates an item of interest concerning this ancient estate. Writing under date of May 11, 1870, while paying a visit at Eridge Castle in Sussex, the seat of the Earl of Abergavanny, who is the head of the family of Nevill, so famous in history, and a direct descendant of the Earl of Warwick, the king-maker, Mr. Spofforth says: "While looking over some old family papers with my host, we discovered that his own park at Eridge Castle and the park at Spofforth Castle were enclosed parks for deer at the time of the Domesday Survey, there being but few enclosed parks at that period. The park at Spofforth was done away with after the Norman Percys turned out Gamelbar de Spofforth and his family, but the Eridge park is as it was, the red and fallow deer with which it is abundantly stocked being as hereditary as the Nevills themselves."

An American lady of Spofford descent, while on a recent European tour, writes thus of her impressions of this spot: "The photograph, which is familiar to many, gives a good representation of the ruin. The face which is there shown is the best part, the interior being but a crumbling mass of d‚bris, and there was no friendly cousin to welcome me. The ivy, which was mixed with other blossoming vines when I saw it, reached to the top of the arched windows and over the tower at the left, the effect being very beautiful. I wished for some one interested to help me in my fancy pictures; but I was alone, my party having kindly consented to wait for me at York. I tried in vain to get information from people or books. One old gentleman was disposed to be very chatty, but he could tell me nothing except that the ruin was a fine one; but as I was convinced of that before, I did not consider that I had made much headway."

History informs us that Rev. Ezekiel Rogers,⁽³⁾ with many families from Yorkshire, England, where he had been a laborious minister for seventeen years, emigrated to this country in 1638, and settled between Newbury and Ipswich in April, 1639; his grant extending from the seashore to Cochichawick, now Andover,⁽⁴⁾ and was enlarged in 1640, to include the "neck on Merrimack river," as the settlers, about sixty families, were "straightened for land"; so, in addition to the present site of Rowley, Georgetown, and Boxford, the General Court granted in addition the territory now occupied by the towns of Bradford and Groveland.

We have no list of the names of this company, more than may be gathered from records of the division of lands, births, deaths, marriages, and those who held offices among them. This is doubtless owing to the burning of the house of Mr. Rogers, who would not have failed to record the names of the pioneers in so important an enterprise.

The name of John Spofford appears on the record of the first division of lands into homestead lots, in 1643. He had a houselot of one and a half acres on Bradford Street, so called, near the centre of the present town of Rowley. Lots were also assigned him in the "fresh meadows, the salt meadows, the village lands, the Merrimack lands, and shares in the ox pasture, the cow pasture and the calf pasture." His wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Scott, of Ipswich, but we find no record of their marriage. The birth of a daughter, Elizabeth, is recorded, Dec. 14, 1646.

He lived for about thirty years in what is still Rowley, and in the spring of 1669 removed to "Spofford's Hill" in the west part of the town, and was without doubt the first settler in Georgetown, and the progenitor of all of the name in the United States and Canada;⁽⁵⁾ and also of most of the Harrimans and Brocklebanks, and many of the Nelsons, Chaplins, and Tenneys, of Georgetown; also many of the Kimballs, Haseltines, Hopkinsons, Parkers, Burbanks, and Woods, of Bradford and Groveland; and many of the Peabodys, Kimballs, and Adamses, of Boxford.

The town of Rowley, in 1668, laid out a farm "at the Gravelle Plain near the Bald Hills," to which, tradition says, the name of "Bald Pate" was given, the trees having been removed to clear the land for pasturage; a use to which most of it has been devoted to the present day.

This farm John Spofford took on a lease for twenty-one years. For the first five years he was to pay as rent "three hundred feet of white oak plank, and after that time, ten pounds each year, one half in English corn at price current, or Indian corn, if he pleases, the other half in fat cattel or leane, at price current." This lease was assigned to his sons, John and Samuel, March 16, 1676, and the rent reduced to eight pounds, and to be wholly remitted "duringe the time of the Indian wars," and it was extended by agreement threescore years from the date thereof. John, Jr., was twenty years of age at the date of this lease, and he and his son John lived, reared families, and died on this farm before its expiration. Samuel, then twenty-four years of age, survived the lease nearly seven years.

Why this removal several miles into an almost unbroken wilderness was made, and this farm taken upon a lease, by John, Sr., when land was so plenty, and after having half a dozen lots assigned him in the division, does not appear; perhaps the "benefit of penning the cattel" was a valuable privilege. His descendants were owners of nearly one thousand acres of adjoining lands, at the time the lease expired, when the farm reverted to the town. The northerly part of it was soon after set off to the Second Parish, and was sold or leased for nine hundred and ninety-nine years. The remaining part was let on seven-year leases, until 1851, when it was sold to Mr. Sewall Spofford, whose portrait appears elsewhere, and is at present (1888) owned by his son, Charles Sewall Spofford.

At the date of the first edition of this work it was not doubted that John Spofford spent the remainder of his days on this farm, but later research makes it highly probable that he returned to Rowley two years before his death, on the assignment of the farm to his sons, and the devising the lease of the "Prudence Cotton Farm" to his wife and youngest son.

This Prudence Cotton Farm was probably once owned by Dr. Anthony Crosby, the physician of Rowley, from 1652, and perhaps earlier, to the time of his death, about 1670. His widow, whose given name was Prudence, became the second wife of Rev. Seaborn Cotton, of Hampton, N. H., as related in Gage's History of Rowley, p. 390; and this marriage and removal may have opened the way for the lease of her farm in Rowley to John Spofford, Sr., and his return to the older settlement when he assigned to his sons the lease of the farm on "Spofford's Hill," in 1676. The theory that his death occurred at old Rowley is confirmed by the fact that his will, made shortly before his death, was witnessed by residents of that village, probably his neighbors at the time.

Mr. Gage, in his history of Rowley, mistakes the death of John Spofford, Jr., on the Rowley records in 1696, for that of the father, which occurred in 1678. The son survived eighteen years, and was buried at Bradford, while they worshipped with that church. John Spofford, Sr., being fifty years old in 1662, as we learn from an affidavit on file at Salem, was but sixty-six years of age at his decease, in 1678, in which year his will was entered at the probate office, "6th. 9th. month" (November, old style).

This will shows him to have been possessed of a competent share of worldly goods, and as we have so few records of this man, holding the important position of progenitor of all the Spoffords in America, we shall give it entire, as an ancient and authentic record of one of his last acts.

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF JOHN SPOFARD, SENIOR.

I comit my soule into the hands of God who gave it, and my body to the earth, to be decently buried, and as to that estate which the Lord hath given, I dispose of it as follows after my debts are payd.

Imprimis:--As for my dear and loving wife, I give to her the lease of the house and lands of Mrs. Prudence Cotton.

Also I give to her all the household stuff, to be at her disposal, except the arms and ammunition. Also I give to her two cows, and one calfe, also four sheep. I give to her and my son Francis, to be equally divided between them, one young horse, also to have the use of four acres of land at the farm during her life. Furthermore, I will that my son Francis his portion be at my wife's disposal till he comes to the age of twenty-one years if she live so long, for that end that he may be helpfull to her to carry on her husbandry work.

Item: That which I give to my son Francis, is the two young oxen, and the mare, and the cart, and all the furniture belonging to husbandry. Also one yearling calf, these to be at my wife's disposal till he be of age above said, and these things, or the worth of them, to be faithfully payd to him. Also I give him the small gun, and four acres of land at great meadows, and what may so fall by virtue of any town grant.

Item: I give to my son John, two stears coming three year old, and the long fowling-piece, and one halfe of the lease of the farm together with twenty pounds stocke I formerly gave him.

Item: I give to my son Thomas, my vilage lands, and the gray horse, and two sheepe, and one spring hog, and one two year old heifer and the great musket.

Item: I give to my son Samuell, the other halfe of the lease of the farm and two young steers, one that comes three year old and one that comes four year old, and one spring hog, and about ten pound stock I have already given him.

Item: I give to my daughter Elizabeth one two year old heifer and two sheep.

Item: I give to Hannah one cow, one three year old heifer, and two sheep.

Item: I give to my daughter Mary one cow and one calf and two sheep.

Item: I give to my daughter Sarah, one cow and one calf and two sheep.

Item: I also appoint my louing wife and my son Thomas to be joint executors of this my last will, and my children to be payd at marriage or at coming one and twenty year old, and if any die before, their portion to be devided among the rest.

In witness whereof I have set my hand and seal 8th 8th month,

      (Oct. 7th) 1678. 
                                                         JOHN SPOFARD. 
Signed, sealed and delivered 
     in presence of us, 

                  JOHN JOHNSON, 
                  PHILIP NELSON. 

In court held at Ipswich, 6th. 9th. month, 1678, this will proved to be the last will and testament of John Spaford, by the oaths of Philip Nelson and John Johnson.

The disposal of the lease at the new settlement to his older sons, and the provision that he makes for his wife and youngest son, then but thirteen years old, together with the request that he may be "useful to her in her husbandry work," indicate that he was expecting soon to leave them, and to this pious care he was probably admonished by failing health rather than by the infirmities of age.

The exact date of his death is not known, but it doubtless immediately preceded the presentation of his will at the probate office, Nov. 6 (old style, or 17, new style), 1678. His decease was four years before there was any organized church or any burying-ground in Bradford, and more than fifty years previous to the formation of the church in Georgetown, which leads us to the conclusion that he must have been buried at Rowley, though diligent search has failed to discover any stone marking the place of his rest.

His "loving wife" Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Scott, of Ipswich, merchant, must also have crossed the ocean, as she is known to have been the wife of John Spofford, only eleven years subsequent to the settlement of Ipswich, by newly arrived emigrants from England. We have no record of her death, but she was no doubt laid beside her husband in that hallowed ground which contains the dust of nearly all the first settlers of Rowley, where,

             "Each in his narrow cell forever laid, 
              The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." 

We may learn something of the character of the man of whom we write, from an anecdote, creditable to him and characteristic of the time in which he lived, which has been handed down by tradition from Samuel Spofford, who was born in 1653 and lived to be ninety-one years old, through a descendant born in the middle of the last century, and who related the story to the writer.

During his residence at Rowley, a severe drought was followed by a great scarcity of food, and our good forefather repaired to Salem to purchase corn for his family and neighbors. The merchant to whom he applied, foreseeing a greater scarcity and higher prices, refused to open his store to supply his want. Having pleaded the necessities of himself and others in vain, he cursed him to his face; but on being immediately taken before a magistrate, charged with profane swearing, he replied that he had not cursed profanely, but as a religious duty, and quoted Prov. xi. 26 as his authority. The words are, "He that withholdeth corn from the hungry, the people shall curse him." He was immediately acquitted, and by the summary power of courts in those days, the merchant was ordered to deliver to him as much corn as he wished to pay for.

John Spofford, 2d, as it appears, continued to live on the spot where the first house in Georgetown was built, and March 9, 1675, married Sarah Wheeler, of Rowley. He died,⁽⁶⁾ leaving eight children, April 22, 1696, aged forty-nine; and his widow, four years subsequently, married Caleb Hopkinson, of Bradford, now Groveland. Her daughter Martha married Caleb Hopkinson, Jr., from whom the many families of the name in Groveland are descended. This Martha, after the death of her husband, who was known as Ensign Caleb Hopkinson, married Ebenezer Kimball, of Bradford, but lies buried beside the grave of her former husband, in the cemetery in Groveland.

Samuel, the third son of John the immigrant, is worthy of notice as the patriarch of a very numerous posterity, among whom are the many who during the last century removed to New Hampshire and Maine; and also as being a connecting link between the first and fourth generations, living as he did to the advanced age of ninety-one years. The legacies bequeathed by him to his children, prove him to have been a person of good estate, and it is quite evident that he was possessed of more than the ordinary amount of learning in his day. We have had the pleasure of seeing an account book kept by him, and in which he was wont to note down his family affairs, and which is now in the possession of one of his descendants, Mr. M. A. Stickney, of Salem, who also has in his keeping the wedding dress of his great-grandmother, a daughter of Samuel Spofford, the subject of this notice, and which is indeed an interesting relic, almost a century and a half having elapsed since the sun shone upon her bridal day. At the house of this daughter, Mrs. Stickney, of Byfield, the father spent his last days, and died Jan. 1, 1744, having sustained during his long life a connection with the old churches in Rowley, Bradford, and New Rowley.

John Spofford, 3d, from whom, with most of the families of the name in this vicinity, the author of this work descended, was born and spent his entire life upon the farm which was leased by the first settler. He seems to have been an industrious and thriving farmer, and in his will, made about two months previous to his death, in August, 1735, he confirms to his sons, Francis, John, and Abner, deeds of lands,--probably farms which he had already given them,--and makes ample provision for his wife and "our three little sons," Daniel, Eliphalet, and William by name, children of a second wife, Sarah Poor.

Of these "three little sons," it may be of interest to relate that William died in the army during the French and Indian wars; that Eliphalet was captain of a Rowley company attached to the regiment in command of his brother Daniel, which marched as far as Cambridge at the time of the Lexington fight, but failed to reach the scene of action till the affray was over. A son of Capt. Eliphalet, and the father of the writer, being absent when his regiment left, hastened home, equipped himself, and following on foot and alone, overtook the regiment at Topsfield.

Little value seems to have been placed upon the shares falling to the family of John Spofford, Sr., in the division of lands in the various parts of the town. He gives, as we have seen, to his son Francis "what may fall by virtue of any town grant," and to Thomas "my village lands," which, according to the meaning of these old records, refers to lands in the out-settlements. As we find no evidence that either of these persons left any posterity, the rights must have reverted to others of the family,⁽⁷⁾ as John, 3d, in his will, authorizes his wife to "sell and dispose of out-skirts of land and meadows, and rights in new townships not yet settled, and of rights in any common, not yet divided, for the benefit of herself and little sons." This will was made in the near prospect of death, as he says, in connection with several expressions of Christian faith and resignation. He, with his wife, Dorcas Hopkinson, was admitted to the Bradford church, 11th, 3d month, 1702; and he united, together with his second wife, Sarah Poor, with the second Rowley church at its formation in 1732, and presided at the first parish meeting, Oct. 5, 1731. He died Oct. 4, 1735, and lies buried in the old cemetery in Georgetown.

There has long been a tradition that our family name originated in the word Spa, a spring of mineral water, and the ford is of course quite obvious. An English correspondent gives the same etymology of the words, and says, "The district in which Spofforth lies is a mineral one, and there are numerous mineral springs in the neighborhood."

The family name has varied much in its spelling, both in England and America. The English authorities are copied as printed. In the body of the before-mentioned lease, the name is twice spelled Spofforth,--it is signed Spofford,--but the renewed lease in 1676 is signed John and Samuel Spofforth. On the gravestone of this John, 2d, in the old burying-ground at Bradford, bearing the date 1697, it is spelled Spafford; and on the gravestone of Samuel, in the cemetery in Georgetown, it is Spaffard. The name was usually spelled with an a, at the time of the Revolution, and the descendants of those who left this vicinity at about that time retain this orthography; but Spofford is now nearly uniform in Massachusetts, and it is claimed conforms with the most ancient authorities in England.

It will be the plan of this work to spell the name of each family according to its own usage, though it is found that in the earlier generations the name of the same person is often written in many different ways.

Some confusion may arise to those unacquainted with the localities named, from the number of towns into which Rowley has been divided. The part of the town in which the family first settled is Rowley still, but we think no one of the name has lived there since the first settler left in 1669; while New Rowley, being the second parish in Rowley, now Georgetown, has sent out many sons and daughters to people distant places. Bradford was set off from Rowley in 1675, Georgetown in 1838, and Groveland from Bradford in 1850. There were in Georgetown in 1813 twelve families and twenty voters of the name, and nearly the same number may be found there at present. There are also a few families in Groveland and in Boxford, but by far the largest number of the descendants are scattered in different towns and States.

⁽¹⁾ Three hundred years later, viz., in 1407, King Henry IV. granted the manor of Spofforth to
Sir Thomas Rokeby, of Rokeby, for defeating the Earl of Northumberland (a descendant of Will
de Perci, the adventurer) at Herselwood, near York. (See Rymer's Foedera, Vol. VIII., p. 376.)

⁽²⁾ At about this period, one John Spafford was made Provost of Limerick. This was before a
charter was granted by King Richard, after which the title was changed to Mayor, the powers and
duties being the same. The photograph of a page of a "History of Limerick," recently received
from Ireland, shows the following: "Part V. Containing a list of the Provosts, Mayors, Bailiffs,
and Sheriffs, from the Reign of Richard the first to the year 1786. A. D. 1195. John Spafford,
First Provost or pr‘positus of Limerick, elected and sworn on Monday after Michaelmas Day, and
to continue such till Monday after Michaelmas of the year following."

⁽³⁾ "Feb. 21, 1621, Ezekiel Rogers, Clerk, was instituted to the Rectory of Rowley (void by the
death of Henry Pickard, Clerk) on the nomination of Sir Francis Barrington, Bart."--Letter of
Joshua Coffin.

⁽⁴⁾ See Winthrop's Journal, Vol. II., page 17.

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