The Minor Family of Somerset

Name Suffix:<NSFX> of Hope in Baildon
Memorals of an Ancient family. Pg 13.Rosamund Lister M. Willi
am Hawkesworth 26 June 1544 (settlement date) who died age abou
t 54 11 Feb 1587/8 his will Feb 1587/8 proved 25 feb 1588/9 . H
eand his wife were buried at Ottley having had issue (besided R
ev Robert; Thomas, ancestor of the Hawkesworths of forest, Queen
's Council,Richard,John,Peter,Rosamund, married Cyril Arthington
.
from Bradford Antiquary an article, "Hawksworth Hall and is asso
ciations by Harry Speight
(Read before the Society, February 13th, 1903).
The rustic and retired little village of Hawksworth,with its pi
cturesque old Hall, is so familiar to the people of Bradford, an
d presents so many features of attraction in its pleasant scener
y and wide and beautiful views, - not to mention its extensive
, lately-formed golf links -that one may excuse surprise at the
r absence of any particular record aboutit.
The principal histori8cal life of the place centres round the ol
d manor-house, which must always have been a notable building, a
nd still is, in its antique gables and contemporary decorations
, one of the most charming manorialresidences of the early Jaco
bean period remaining in Yorkshire. By the kindness of Mr. Dunc
an G. Law, the present lessee of the hall, the Council of this S
ociety was privileged last year to inspect its interesting inter
ior andsurroundings, and to that visit is mainly due this prese
nt record.
As to itsearly history we know nothing positive until the 10t
h century, when Athelstan "the Glorious" achieved his great succ
ess over the pagan Danes in the year937. It was in accordanc
e with a vow which he made in case of victory, to liberally endo
w the ancient Churches of York, Beverley, and Ripon, that Hawksw
orth came to the See of York, as part of the manor of Otley, an
d of the extensive and valuable Liberty of Cawood in the upper d
ivision of Skyrack Wapentake, and in the Saxon times its inhabit
ants would owe suit at the chief courtof the wapentake (suppose
d to have been held at the old 'Shire Oak' at Headingly), as i
n Norman times its lords owed suit to the Archbishops of York
. The boundaries of the township have probably never much chang
ed since the Saxon ownership and now embrace an area of 2462 acr
es.
In Willliam's inquest the extent is not given, being surveyed me
rely as one of the many berewicks attached to the lordship of Ot
ley. But lying contiguous to the ancient town and parish of Gui
seley one might have deemed it a practicable unit of that parish
, but this was not the case. The parish of guiseley was not the
n formed;it was, like Hawksworth, simply a berewick of the mano
r of Otley, held in the time of Edward the Confessor by Archbish
op Eldred, who at the coronation ofthe Conqueror in Westminste
r Abbey in 1066, placed the crown on the monarch's Head. Archbi
shop Eldred died 18th Sept, 1069, and as Archbishop Thomas wasn
ot appointed until the Whitsuntide following, the See of York wa
s vacantin the interim. William the Conqueror, in consequence
, became nominally lordof the manor of Hawksworth for a perio
d of eight months.
Archbishop Thomas,who was formerly a canon of Bayeux, appears t
o have obtained his possessionsin this country as compensatio
n for money lent to William to undertake his invasion of England
. Among those who accompanied the INvader, the old chornicler
s tell us, was one John de Hawksworth, who was killed at the bat
tle of Hastings, where he is said to have commanded under one o
f the Cliffords of Clifford Castle. But this probably a story c
oncocted seventeenth century heralds to gratify family caprice
. It cannot be correct. Hawksworth is a place-name,* and loca
l surnames did not exist in the Wistow and Otley, ranted at th
e same time.

• (In DomesDay it is spelled two ways: (1) Henechesuurode, and (

2. Hauocesorde. In the first spelling the Norma