Brunton Family History

This research was presented to the Staveley Historical Society by the Author,

Elizabeth Larrabee Ontario. Canada.

Introduction

Pedigree
1st Generation
2nd Generation
3rd Generation
4th Generation
5th Generation
5th Cont 1
5th Cont 2
5th Cont 3

Appendix
Index

This is MARIA's story .....

What a beautiful name - given to my maternal great-grandmother by her grandmother. The story begins in northern England, in a tiny village Staveley, county of Yorkshire. Maria was the firstborn of seven children, to her parents who lived their entire married lives in the village. The All Saints' Parish Church was central to important family events, and the adjacent school was attended by all the children. At first her father John was a jobber, then farmer on a few acres on Spellow Grange, finally cattle and pig dealer. In later years her parents lived on Staveley's Main Street.

Maria started school at age five, according to the school's Log Book. Sometimes she was late or missed class because she was needed at home. Her cousin Elizabeth lived with Grandmother Mary Morley Brunton. Maria never knew her Grandfather Brunton, a butcher in Staveley who had died at an early age of dysentery.

Neither was Maria able to know her Grandfather Farmery who lived in Bishop Monkton, a nearby village where Maria's mother Jane was born. Maria's parents had been married in Burton Leonard, another small village where Grandfather Thomas also owned land. Besides being a farmer, he was a tailor.

All grandparents were born within a small radius of Staveley - from Leeds in the south, moving north to Harrogate and Knaresborough, on to Ripon. The earliest known John BRUNTON (and there were a succession of "Johns") was born and married in Leeds, three children baptised in Knaresborough, the last by 1769 in Staveley. MORLEY  ancestors were from Knaresborough area, although Maria's great-grandmother Sarah was born in Ripon. Grandfather FARMERY'S birthplace is unknown but his three marriages  took place in Ripon, His wife Maria HOYLE was born in Knaresborough.

While working as a servant and living at home, Maria had a son William Edward who was  raised by her parents. He attended the same local school, at least until age twelve, and  from 1891 nothing further is known. He may have followed Maria's brothers back to  Harrogate area where one descendant other brother Harold still lives.

In the Hyatt Album were single photos of Maria, husband John William Johnson, and  "Grandfather Brunton". In the Johnson Album were two other photos of Maria and John.  Notes written in a few china heirlooms indicate marriage in England 1880, about the time  of emigration. Maria and John raised their four children near the village of Compton Quebec where John worked at the Anglican Rectory, then as foreman on an estate farm.  Sadly it does not appear that a return was ever made to English soil. And still a mystery  are John's roots and reason for their voyage.