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| Thomas Girtin, Carlisle Cathedral c.1795 |
The familysearch.org site of the Latter Day Saints indexes many parish records not available on ancestry.com. This is where I go to look for evidence of pre-1838 families outside of London. Today then, off to Carlisle, so to speak, and the report of a next generation of Birketts - actually a prior generation - the possible siblings and parents of John Birkett, solicitor of London. These dates are the furthest back I have gone for any family line, comparable to the Arnolds of Thoroughly Thoroly and Beyond. Beforehand, though, I offer this disclaimer; as with that post, the conclusions here are not as certain as I would like, based only on a single series of baptismal entries. But I also see some connections between the Birkett and Blow families.
Several months ago, in Meet the Birketts, I introduced the family of John Birkett, and his wife, Charlotte (possibly nee Lloyd). Their second-oldest daughter was Sarah Halton Birkett. At the time I speculated that Halton was a family name. Two generations later, Halton was one of my 2xgreat grandmother's middle names, Zoe Davina Halton Young Hanrott. (For more on the Young Hanrott story, see A Change of Name and How Many Ways to Spell Zoe).
Articles of Clerkship had revealed that John Birkett, solicitor of Cloak Lane, London was the son of John Birkett, Yeoman of Carlisle. So my first search was for any marriage record of John Birkett and Sarah Halton in Carlisle. I was in luck, since the parish records for St Mary Carlisle have just such a marriage dated 12 June 1762. Unfortunately, no fathers' names are recorded.
My next search was for baptisms of children belonging to any couple with names John Birkett and Sarah at this church from 1760 to 1800. The following list is the result. Note that all are children of John Birkett and, except for the first four below (as John Birket, no mother listed), have mother's name Sarah. The last has Sarah Halton as mother, that is, including her maiden name, which I have not seen much in England, but which is routine on this kind of record in Scotland. The dates are for their baptisms, except for the two burial dates.
Margaret 27 Mar 1763 of John Birket
Burial 12 Jul 1764 of John Birket
Jane 3 Mar 1765, buried 2 June 1769 of John Birket
Mary 24 May 1767 of John Birket
Elizabeth 25 Mar 1770 of John Birkett and Sarah
John 27 Sep 1772 of John Birkett and Sarah
Jane 7 Apr 1775 of John Birkett and Sarah
Henry 15 Feb 1778 of John Birkett and Sarah
Sarah 22 Oct 1780 of John Birkett and Sarah
Ann 12 Oct 1783 of John Birkett and Sarah
Anna Maria 7 Jan 1787 of John Birkett and Sarah Halton
There is no guarantee that these are all children of the same parents, but this list certainly looks like the issue of a single family with the spacing between siblings I have come to expect. The sixth entry, John Birkett, would be my 5xgreat grandfather. As we saw previously, his Articles of Clerkship were filed in 1788. He would therefore have been 16 years old when he began it, which seems about right to me.
We could take this a little further, looking for marriages of Birkett children at St Mary, Carlisle, from which I found these two:
Mary Birkett to Henry Pottinger on 31 May 1792
Elizabeth Birkett to John Barnes on 2 October 1790
Nor are there guarantees that these are the same Mary and Elizabeth as on the baptism list above, since Birkett is a common name in the area. And perhaps we ought not go too much further on this path so speculatively. However, I find it interesting that one of the husbands is named John Barnes, who is possibly the attorney (or the son of the attorney) from whom John Birkett junior received his legal training, and the name he gave to his eldest son.
A marriage in 1762 suggests that John Birkett, senior and Sarah Halton were born about 1740. There are many John Birketts born 1735 to 1745 in the neighborhood of Carlisle, making it difficult to locate our specific John Birkett. On the other hand, I found only one Sarah Halton. She was baptized 4 Nov 1742 in Dalston, Cumberland, her father's name: Jeremiah. Again, this is suggestive without being conclusive.
You may remember that during one recorded bankruptcy in 1847, Messrs. Birkett, Taylor and Cox were working on the case in London, while Messrs. Blow and Relph were on the same case in Carlisle (where the bankrupt resided). Note also, that John Birkett, junior had given Blow as a middle name to two of his children, suggesting, perhaps, a close professional, or even family, relationship. (By 1847, the Birkett of the law partnership is a son, Frederick Blow Birkett, his father John Birkett having died the previous year).
Raising the possibility of the record of a sister of Sarah Halton, St Cuthbert Carlisle records the double baptism on 13 August 1786 of Jeremiah and Mary Blow, the children of Edward Blow and Rachel Halton. Perhaps Sarah and Rachel are sisters, making Edward Blow and John Birkett senior, brothers-in-law. At St Mary Carlisle, Edward Blow and his wife Rachel (probably, the same Edward and Rachel), baptized the following:
Jane 9 Oct 1774
John 17 Aug 1777
Edward 9 Apr 1780
At St Mary Carlisle, Jane and Jeremiah Blow, children of Edward Blow are recorded as buried 16 Dec 1796 and 11 Sep 1799 respectively, while one Edward Blow (father, son or whoever) was buried at the 14 Apr 1800.
The John Blow, above, baptized 1777, may be connected to the Blow of the law partnership in Carlisle. The more so since there are Articles of Clerkship between the father/son pair Edward and John Blow on the one part and John Barnes on the other, the same attorney with whom John Birkett (junior) had served his clerkship. Furthermore, the deponent witnessing the agreement is none other than John Birkett, Yeoman (that is, the senior)! These Articles describe Edward Blow as Innkeeper of Carlisle.
Maketh Oath, that he this Deponent did see John Barnes one of the Attorneys
of his Majesty's Court of Kings Bench Edward Blow of the City of Carlisle
aforesaid Innkeeper and John Blow his son severally Sign Seal and as their
several Acts and deeds in due form of Law deliver certain Articles of Agreement
bearing the Date the Twenty Second Day of July last past [1791] and made between
the said Edward Blow and John Blow his son of the one part and the said John
Barnes of the other part.
Thus I am pretty sure that John Blow and John Birkett (junior) are cousins through their mothers, Rachel and Sarah Halton respectively. And it's possible that the father of these sisters is Jeremiah Halton. The father of Sarah Halton born 1742 is definitely Jeremiah; and then there is the possibility that the young Jeremiah Blow was named for his grandfather.
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