see cht. 8-0
Robert Walker was born in Driglington of Bately Parish, Yorkshire, England on 22 May, 1755, the 1st child of Robert (1717) and Hannah (born Hopkins) Walker.
In April of 1779 Robert and his mother travelled from Gildersome to Darley to attend the Quaker Preparative Meeting at Dacre (near Darley) to announce Robert’s intentions to marry Rachel Spence of Darley. The announcement took place on 25 Apr. 1779. A copy of the original entries in the Ladies Minute Book of the Dacre Meeting are contained in Biography 30-A.
On 2 June, 1779 Robert married Rachel Spence at Dacre Meeting House, which at that time was the Quaker Meeting House for Darley area. Rachel was born in Darley on 28 May, 1761. the 5th child of Joseph (1714) and Grace Spence. The wedding is recorded in the Quaker Marriage Digests of the Knaresborough Monthly Meeting. A copy of the original Marriage Certificate is also enclosed as a part of biography 30-A. The wedding was attended by several relatives of both families, namely; Robert’s father, his brother Thomas, his sister Sarah and his brother-in-law, Thomas Horsfall (husband of his half sister, Mary), and Rachel’s mother, her brothers Robert and John Spence and John’s wife, Ann. Four years later Robert’s sister, Sarah, married Rachel’s brother, Robert Spence.
The obvious question that arises is, “How did Robert and Rachel ever become acquainted when one lived in Gildersome and the other in Darley, which was at least two days travel apart?” Firstly, it was the Quaker way of life to travel considerable distances to attend Monthly and Quarterly Meetings. Secondly, both parents were actively involved in the education of their children. Robert’s father took a large share in the management of the Quaker school at Gildersome, established in 1772. Included in the list of scholars who attended this school from 1772 to 1779 was “Rachel, daughter of Joseph Spence of Darley”. It was inevitable that Robert and Rachel became acquainted while attending both the school and the Quaker Meetings at Gildersome during this time period. In addition, Quaker parents made it their duty to introduce their children to other Quaker families, to encourage marriage within the Quaker faith.
There was, no doubt, considerable influence for Robert and Rachel to live in Darley as Robert was able to lease a thatched cottage, one barn and 3 Closes of land thereto belonging, containing by estimate four acres and one rood, from his new brother-in-law, Robert Spence, this having been the Estate of Rachel’s father, the late Joseph Spence. The location of this parcel of land is identified by Joseph Spence’s name on an “Enclosure Act” map, dated 1770-1778. In addition to this, Robert also leased from his brother-in-law, a parcel of land situated on Darley Carr (Carr being low lying land), containing 3 acres, 2 roods and 11 perches. Sometime later Robert was able to purchase all of this land and its buildings. Thus Robert left his family home at Gildersome in 1779 and took over the linen weaving business that his wife’s brother had inherited from Joseph Spence, their father. This is confirmed by a diary written by John Spence of Birstwith in 1809 which says Robert and Rachel
“went to reside in the house where my grand father Spence used to live and commenced the same business as my grand father had before carried forward”
In addition he later became a shopkeeper and
"sold farm necessities to farmers up the Dale, buying their wool and selling it, along with wool from his own flocks, to the markets of Leeds and Bradford where industrialization of the woollen trade was gathering pace."
Robert was the first of our Walker family to live in Darley.
In 1900 Maria Walker of York and her niece, Louisa Walker of Norwich, Ontario, Canada, visited Darley to see the old Walker homes. Maria was a granddaughter or Robert and Rachel. A letter written by Louisa to her family in Canada, describes how they took the train from York to Darley, then walked from the Railroad Station through the fields to visit “Field House”, where Maria’s uncle Benjamin (1799) once lived. A small portion of the letter says:
“As we came away Aunt Maria pointed out the house where great grandmother used to live and the stone steps up to the door reminded me of father’s story about falling down these steps”.
Ninety two years after this letter was written, H. L. (Bud) Walker, of Canada, a great, great, grandson of Robert, and Richard Walker, of England a great, great, great, grandson of Robert, together visited the same houses and saw where the steps that Louisa refers to, had once been. We also saw strong evidence of where the weaving shop was located, in the upper story at the east end of the barn, where there were numerous hooks in the ceiling, which we suspected were used in the weaving process.
Robert and Rachel had 12 children, all born in Darley:-
Sarah was the first child of the Walker’s of Darley to attend the Quaker Ackworth Boarding School, where she attended when she was 12 years of age, from 1792 to 1793. When her father died she inherited a legacy of £8 a year, to be paid at £4 every 6 months for life, plus her bed she sleeps on, with bed stocks, blankets, sheets, bolsters, curtains and quilt. In the probate documents associated with her brother Joseph’s death in 1835 she is described as a spinster of Darley. She died in Darley where she was buried in the Friends Burial Ground, in row 3, plot 10.
Hannah died one month short of her 20th birthday, and she too was interred in the Friends Burial Ground, in row 2, plot 4. In a letter written by Hannah’s father in 1803, to her brother, Joseph, in New York, U.S.A., he says about Hannah:-
“On fourth day morning she was very poorly and seemed as though she was going and continues sensible until fourth day afternoon about 3 o’clock gradually breathed weaker and weaker and passed away without a groan or struggle. Thy younger brother is named Spence Walker at the request of thy sister, she saying her younger brothers would know their mother’s maiden name when she was gone farewell”.
Mary inherited a legacy from her father in 1820 of £50 of lawful money. Apparently Mary never married. She died at age 35 and was interred in the Friends Burial Ground at Darley, in row 3, plot 6.
Robert Jr. died at age 25 and was buried in the Friends Burial Ground in row 3, plot 3. He is described in the Quaker Death Digests as a Linen Manufacturer of Darley. There is no record of a marriage.
Thomas, (1790) died at age 4 in Darley, however, as he died prior to the existence of the Darley Meeting House and Burial Ground he was buried in the Dacre Meeting House Burial Ground. This writer visited the Dacre Burial Ground in 1990, but unfortunately the grave markers were no longer there.
Note that Robert and Rachel had two children named Thomas. It was not uncommon in those days, when one child died at an early age, to give the same name to the next child born. Thus you see here a child named Thomas who was born very shortly after the first Thomas died.
See separate biographies for the remaining children.
It has been said a number of times by numerous descendants of Robert, perhaps most notably by Charles Walker, (1860), that Robert and Rachel “Set up house in a thatched cottage in Darley, and started housekeeping with a tea chest as a table”. Richard and Bud Walker revisited Darley in 1999 to see, much to our sorrow, that the entire building no longer existed as it once had, for nearly 240 years. As Richard so aptly put it:-“The thatched cottage no longer exists in any recognizable form to those who had so lovingly looked upon that Ancestral Home”. In the name of progress the inside of the cottage, the barn and the shop have been completely “gutted” and totally modernized into new living quarters. The exterior, however, has retained it’s original stone walls which includes a lintel that reads:- “G-J-S-1763” is interpreted as “Grace & Joseph Spence, 1763”. Such an inscription indicates who the original owner was, and the date the building was constructed. Thanks to Richard both he and I (Bud Walker) have a small piece of the iron scroll from the oven door of the kitchen hearth, where Robert and Rachel and their family not doubt spent many an hour.
In 1795 Robert’s Quaker convictions led him to refuse to pay the sum of 16 sh (shillings) 8 pence for “Army & Navy Rate”, a Government imposed tax to raise money to support the Napoleonic wars. This led to the sequestration of Robert’s goods to the actual value of £1-6s-0d, which was is more than the Army & Navy tax amount. It was common practice for the Constables to sequestrate more than the actual tax, to allow for a sum for themselves. The amount taken in Robert’s case was made up of 7 yards of printed cotton, 4 leather skins and one handkerchief. Two years later he had sugar and flax taken, to the value of £1-16s-6d. Flax was the raw material for the production of linen. In 1800 linen yarn to the value of £1-3s-6d was taken for not paying “Priest & Warden” rate.
Robert Walker died on 2 Nov. 1820, at age 65. He was buried in row 3, plot 4 of the Darley Quaker Meeting House Burial Ground. He is described in his Will as a shopkeeper and linen weaver of the Parish of Hampthswaite, County of York. From his Will it would appear that he purchased the above mentioned land and buildings from his Brother-in-law, Robert Spence, sometime between 1793 and 1820 as his will says in part;- “I give and bequeath unto my son Benjamin Walker all my estates of land laying situated in Darley, with all hereditments and appurtenances thereunto belonging, with all my stock in trade and manufacturing utensils and farm utensils” Robert bequeathed unto his wife Rachel a legacy of £16 a year, plus a legacy which today seems rather amusing, as follows: “I give and bequeath unto my dear wife, Rachel Walker, for and during the term of her natural life, all the aforesaid 4 rooms, with an unmolested road to them through my dwelling house.”
Rachel (Spence) Walker died on 10 Apr. 1836, at age 75. She was buried in the Friends Burial Ground at Darley, in row 3, plot 5, alongside her husband.
The following is an excerpt from Knaresborough Monthly Meeting concerning Robert Walker;
"Our beloved Friend, Robert Walker of Darley, died the 2nd Day of the 11th Month, 1820 and was buried in Friends Burial Ground at Darley, the 7th of the same, aged 65, a Minster about 25 years. As this our Friend yielded to the preparing hand of the Lord and submitted to the sanctifying influence of His Spirit, he became a bright example, being a Preacher righteousness in life and conversation, and though his appearances in the Ministry were not large or frequent yet they were lively and acceptable. His services were confined to his Particular and Monthly Meetings, these he diligently attended; and the exercises and travail of his Spirit therein were truly helpful to his Friends. During his last illness he manifested much patience and resignation to the Divine Will, so that although we have cause to mourn our loss, yet as he, in simplicity and Godly sincerity, not with fleshy wisdom, but with the Grace of God, had his conversation in the world, we have no doubt but our loss is his gain, and that he was fully prepared for a mansion of eternal rest."
By:- R. B. Walker, Eng. & H. L. (Bud) Walker, Can.- Rev:- 4, September, 2002.
Sources
:-Brotherton Library, Leeds University, Leeds.
:-Friends Library of London. England.
:- Borthwick Institute of York University, York
:-Ackworth School records, Ackworth, Yorkshire.
:-Swarthmore College Pennsyvania, USA.
:-Charles Walker's diary.