More about James

Another newspaper article much earlier than the last, this time in the South Bourke Standard for the 11th September 1863 mentions James again:

"Hawthorn Police Court, Tuesday September 8th
WAGES James Rigmaiden v Thomas Billing; work and labour 7s 6d. The plaintiff deposed that he was in the defendant's employ for a week at 8s a week and he had only received 6d. The defendant deposed that he only agreed to give the plaintiff what he was worth and he was not worth his food. He had offered him 3s a week. Verdict for 5s 6d and 2s 6d costs"

The judges were P O'Brien JP and W H Pettet JP.
Strangely enough, on the same day, there was a case against Thomas Herbert Power (in his absence) for letting two of his horses stray for which he was fined 2s 6d and 2s 6d costs.
Thomas Herbert Power just happened to be the father of James Rigmaiden's cousin through marriage, Herbert Power. I will be writing about the Rigmaiden descendants in Australia via the Hammill, Cunningham and Power families in a later post.

South Bourke was an electoral region east of Melbourne, Victoria, abolished in 1889.

Hawthorn is a suburb of Melbourne and according to Wikipedia:

 "The area was first settled in the late 1830s. The Boroondara Roads Board, the first municipal authority, was set up in the 1850s and covered a remarkably similar area to the present City of Boroondara. Boroondara is an aboriginal word reputed to mean place of shade. However, the Hawthorn Roads Board and the Kew Roads Board split from the rest of Boroondara in 1860. The HRB evolved into the Town of Hawthorn and the City of Hawthorn. The state government amalgamated the Cities of Camberwell, Hawthorn and Kew in 1994 to form the City of Boroondara.

The name Hawthorn, gazetted in 1840 as "Hawthorne", is thought to have originated from a conversation involving Charles La Trobe, who commented that the native shrubs looked like flowering Hawthorn bushes. Alternatively the name may originate with the bluestone house, so named, and built by James Denham St Pinnock (see Australian DNB), which stands to this day.^[2]

The region is generally regarded to be one of Melbourne's surviving bastions of post-Gold Rush expansion and today, one of Melbourne's most affluent and influential suburbs. Land values in the region are among the country's highest, with streets such as Hawthorn Grove, in the prestigious Grace Park Estate, straddling the suburb's northern boundary and Yarra Park's Coppin Grove in the west, located closer to theYarra River have been arguably the most sort after with properties commanding prices to match. Interestingly, there is also a considerable amount of student accommodation, due mainly to the presence of Swinburne University. This is located in the Hawthorn East and Auburnareas"

Back in James's day the estates referred to above would have been in their infancy.

Further mentions of James again in 1871, both in the newspaper The Argus (of Melbourne):

"Police: City Court, 31st March

MINOR OFFENCES: ....... James Rigmaiden who had been found standing naked except for his breeches in Carlton Gardens, was fined 40s or a month's imprisonment ....."

According to Wikipedia "The Carlton Gardens is a World Heritage Site located on the northeastern edge of the Central Business District in the suburb of Carlton, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

The 26 hectare (64 acre) site contains the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne Museum and Imax Cinema, tennis courts and an award winning children's playground. The rectangular site is bound by Victoria Street, Rathdowne Street, Carlton Street, and Nicholson Street. From the Exhibition building the gardens gently slope down to the southwest and northeast. According to the World Heritage listing theRoyal Exhibition Buildings and Carlton Gardens are "of historical, architectural, aesthetic, social and scientific (botanical) significance to the State of Victoria."

The gardens are an outstanding example of Victorian landscape design with sweeping lawns and varied European and Australian tree plantings consisting of deciduous English oaks, White Poplar, Plane trees, Elms, Conifers, Cedars, Turkey Oaks, Araucarias and evergreens such as Moreton Bay Figs, combined with flower beds of annuals and shrubs. A network of tree lined paths provide formal avenues for highlighting the fountains and architecture of the Exhibition building. This includes the grand allee of plane trees that lead to the exhibition building. Two small ornamental lakes adorn the southern section of the park. The northern section contains the Museum, tennis courts, maintenance depot and curator's cottage, and the children's playground designed as a Victorian maze."

Aerial photo of the Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne and Carlton Gardens

"Police, City Court, 4th May

FELONIOUS INTENT: James Rigmaiden who, at four o'clock in the morning,  had taken the boots off a drunken man in Bourke Street was sentenced to three months imprisonment"

According to Wikipedia again: "Bourke Street is one of Melbourne's best known streets. Historically been regarded as Melbourne's "second street", with the main street being Collins Street and "busier than Bourke Street" is a popular catchphrase. Bourke Street has traditionally been Melbourne's entertainment hub. In its heyday it was the location of many of Melbourne's theatres, cinemas as well as a major retail shopping precinct. Today the street remains an entertainment hub best known as the location of the Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne's main pedestrian mall and one of the city's main tourist destinations.

Bourke Street is named for Sir Richard Bourke, the Governor of New South Wales (and thus, of Melbourne as well) in 1837 during the drafting of the Hoddle Grid."

Painting of Bourke Street in 1886 by Tom Roberts

And that is the last recorded event I have for James.

I contacted a genealogist in Australia to look into the prison records but she could not find anything to confirm whether he served his sentence as the prison record books for the period were missing. She did find out that in court he claimed to have arrived in Australia via the ship The Eastern Empire, but on looking into this further his name did not appear in the ships' crew or passenger list. I did find that there was more than one ship with that name; including one that had been shipping horses to troops in India.

I hope that the last record of him is not a prison conviction.

James Smith Rigmaiden (update)

Since my first post about James Rigmaiden I have uncovered some new information. I was lucky enough to find out about a website called Trove which is compiled by staff at the National Library of Australia and contains pages from newspapers, books, images and so on. I was surprised to find several entries about James there and, as they are so interesting, I will reproduce them here, firstly from the Melbourne Telegraph of the 21st February 1871:

A Colonial Leander
An extraordinary story comes from Sandridge. A man named James Rigmaiden, who is known as a good swimmer, whilst at Sandridge on Sunday, boasted that he could swim to Williamstown and back. His companions received the statement with a good deal of laughter, and after some badinage, Rigmaiden stripped and took to the water. Little attention was paid to him at first, but bye and bye, as he got further and further from the shore, his companions began to be afraid that he really meant to try the extraordinary feat. They watched him of upwards of  an hour until his head disappeared between intervening boats and the Williamstown shore. He started at about half past three, and an anxious watch was kept until after dark for his return. The conclusion was eventually arrived at that Rigmaiden was drowned, and his sorrowing comrades thought the wisest thing to do was to report the matter to the police. His clothes were accordingly collected and carried to the police station. The occurrence was duly entered into the police records and reported to the chief station. Next morning, however, to the astonishment of the police, the missing man, dressed in a sailor's suit, walked into the Sandridge station anxiously inquiring for his clothes. He stated that he swam to Williamstown, and after a short rest, without leaving the water, he started on his return trip. When about half way back and near the ship Chelsea he found that "there were sharks about" and, getting frightened, he made for the jolly boat of the Chelsea, fastened astern of that ship. He managed to get into the boat and shouted to those on board. A very fierce dog forms part of the crew of the Chelsea, which effectually kept Rigmaiden from ascending the side.The growling and disturbance made by the animal aroused those on board. The captain at last came on deck, and the poor fellow was assisted on board pretty well exhausted. He was well cared for, and next morning dressed in sailor's clothes and sent ashore

An incredible story! To this day there is held a "Big Bay Swim" every February between Sandridge (now called Port Melbourne) and Williamstown across Melbourne Bay and the estimated time of the swim is about 2 and a half hours, although some finish it sooner. Is it a coincidence that it is the same time of year as James Rigmaiden's swim - except he got a lift back and a rest in between!

This is Sandridge Beach these days in preparation for the Big Bay swim

Map showing Williamstown in relation to Port Melbourne

In the UK census of 1871 later that year his wife Catherine described herself as a widow - had she received a message about his supposed demise and not known it was a mistake. If James had been abroad for a long time she might have decided to call herself a widow - seven years was the usual period of time allowed to elapse - but did not bother to have it legally approved. Or was James just on a short trip to Australia. I have not yet been able to find out, but his companions seemed to know him well and were fond of him. 
More articles about James in the next post

Beatrice May Rowland Killey

Beatrice May was the daughter of Maggie May Rigmaiden from her first marriage to Charles Rowland and was born in 1896. She married Charles Killey in 1916 in West Derby, he being 29 and born in Birkenhead. According to the 1891 census his father, Thomas Henry, was a solicitor's clerk and his mother was born on Jersey in the Channel Islands, her maiden name being Legros. In 1901 they were living in New Bebington on the Wirral and Charles' occupation was a messenger. He had an older sister Lilian Jesse and a younger brother, Herbert Henry. By 1911 his mother has died as his father was then living with his new wife, Cornelia, 23 years his junior.

Charles does not seem to appear in the 1911 census but on his WWI US draft records for 1917-8, he states that his year of immigration into the United States was 1902, so he could have been living there already.  According to the United States census of 1920 the address for Charles  and Beatrice Killey is  9 65th Street, Kings, New York. He is aged 32 she 23. She entered the US in 1916 and in 1920 was recorded as an alien. Both Charles and Beatrice were recorded as born in England and their mother tongue was English. Both fathers were English and their language was  English, her mother the same, but his mother was from the Channel Islands and mother tongue was French. He was a stevedore (docks) foreman, she had no occupation. 

Beatrice applied for naturalization and signed the Oath of Allegiance on 5 June 1928. Her petition shows that she lived at 301 73rd Street Brooklyn she was a housewife and was born on the 29 February 1896 in Liverpool.  She had left Liverpool on the 19th August. Her husband was born on the 20 April 1887 and she married January 11th 1916 at Liverpool. Her husband was naturalized on June 7th 1924, Brooklyn, and the petition shows her signature. Her husband Charles is a witness, occupation painter; the other witness is Frederick Truchsess a plumber. Beatrice and Charles had no children at that time.

Charles' ‘Old Man’s’ registration card for WW11 shows him living at 361 95 St Brooklyn with Beatrice but the address has been crossed out and replaced with 427 Palm Drive Beverley Hills. His employers are Wood Dolson & Co of 290 W 72 St, New York [ a real estate company]. He is 6 ft tall and 155 lbs with brown eyes, hair and light complexion. He registers April 27 1942. The street in Beverley Hills is the same one in which Simon Cowell has his mansion!

The next piece of evidence is Charles' death record in Los Angeles in May 1964. Beatrice dies in October 1965, also in California. They do not seem to have had any children.

Fifth newsletter of the Rigmaiden Family History (One Name Study), 

Thomas Rigmaiden 1746-1803: Part 2

Thomas Rigmaiden of Liverpool married Margery Jackson on the 22nd June 1780 at the church called St Anne’s in the Richmond area of North Liverpool. This was an area of Liverpool popular with merchants in the 18th century. The marriage register of St Anne’s records the marriage thus:
[No596] Thomas Rigmaiden of the parish of Liverpool, mariner, and Margery Jackson of the same place, spinster, were married in this Chapel by licence this 22nd day of June in the year 1780 …. [Name of the minister is illegible but it is not the usual one]
This marriage was solemnized between us [signatures of Thomas Rigmaiden and Margery Jackson]
In the presence of [signatures] Dorinda Salthouse, Will Cort & John Jackson
The marriage bond tells us that Thomas agreed with William Jackson a bond of £50 and that Thomas was at that time a mariner and they were both of Liverpool. The document contains the signatures of both men. We know from the date of her death that Margery Jackson was born c1756 and her brother was John Jackson (as mentioned in husband Thomas's will). The diocese of Chester baptism records her baptism date as the 16th February 1758, daughter of William & Alice Jackson of Netherton. Netherton was a small village north of Liverpool
Their marriage was announced in the Leeds Intelligencer of the 4th July 1780: “Thursday the 22nd inst was married at Liverpool, Captain Rigmaiden to Miss Jackson of Crosby”
Their children were also baptised at St Anne's Church in the Richmond area of Liverpool which opened in 1772. "The church was built at the expense of Thomas and Richard Dobb, cabinetmakers, of Williamson Square and a Henry North, fruit merchant, Dale Street. The church was built on land belonging to them. According to an article in 'Topographical News cuttings: St. Anne's Church, St. Anne Street' [Liverpool Record Office] for many years 'the original St. Anne's held the most aristocratic congregation in the town and the pews at one time were sold for sixty and seventy guineas to some of the most noted families of the period'. There were no free pews in the church, the pew rents and money given for burial plots in the churchyard having largely made up the incumbent's income". However, it went downhill in the nineteenth century and was eventually demolished in the 1870s.


Some of the baptism records of their children (between 1781 and 1785) name their address specifically as Rainford Gardens. The website www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk gives the origin of Rainford Gardens and Rainford Square as being established by Peter Rainford who was Mayor of Liverpool in 1740. He bought a piece of land on the bank of the Pool of Liverpool and laid it out as a market garden. In the nineteenth century this area became part of the fruit and provision trade with many warehouses built there. (See Nikolaus Pevsner's book Lancashire: Liverpool and the south west). Incidentally, in the 1960s, a street connecting Rainford Gardens to North John Street was Matthew Street where the famous Cavern Club of Beatles fame was located.
By 1790 Thomas (merchant) was listed in Gore's Directory as being at 13 St Ann Street near the area where the Liverpool Community Fire and Rescue Service building is now located. Margery and Thomas went on to have 12 children of whom nine survived into adulthood. Their children were:
Margaret or Margery, born 9th May 1781, christened 2nd June 1781 
John, christened 2nd July 1783
Catherine was born 1784 and died at 11 days of age, christened 12th July 1784
Another Catherine was christened on the 23rd July 1785, and died 26th Sept 1785, at 2 mths 26 days
Their fourth child was Thomas, born on the 29th Oct 1786, christened on the 22nd December 1786
Another Catherine was born, christened on the 22nd December 1787, but died on the 8th Oct 1794, aged 7 years

Elizabeth was christened on the  14th Feb 1789, born the 17th January
Mary was born on the 27th January and christened on the 25th february 1790
Edward was born 12th May and christened on the 10 June 1791
James was christened on the 20th Oct 1791 and born on the 25th september 1791 according to the 1810 parish register for St Peter's Church, but this should surely be 1792 making James the younger brother to Edward.
Henry was born 25th March 1794 and christened on the 17th April 1794.
The twelfth child and the ninth to survive, Lucy, was baptised on the 25th Sept 1796
All except James were baptised at St Anne's.

From the baptism records we learn that after 1785 Thomas Rigmaiden was referred to as a merchant rather than mariner. Margery died 5th December 1798, aged 42 years and was buried on the 9th December in St Anne's churchyard. When she died their youngest child, Lucy, was have been two years old and the oldest, Margery was 17. The first of the children to marry was Margery in 1800 to James Dickson, gentleman, at the age of 19. They had a son, Thomas Benson Dickson, in 1803 and they gave their address as St Ann Street.
Thomas died 6th April 1803, aged 57 and in his will named his executors as James Dickson (son in law) and John Jackson (brother-in-law). All his children who were under age, that is all of them except Margery, who was married to James, were placed in the care of his executors.
Rigmaiden as mariner

Liverpool Old Dock in the eighteenth century

Thomas earned his living on the sea, initially a ship's captain and eventually as ship owner. There is a possible source of confusion here, as there are two Thomas Rigmaidens who were mariners about this time. There is a marriage record for a Thomas Rigmaiden to Mary Nowland in 1793 on the 28th January in Liverpool at St George’s by licence. The witnesses were Eliza Clare, Mary Moss and Richard T Clare. This Thomas was also a mariner, but by this time the first Thomas was a merchant. It is possible that the second Thomas is the one baptised at Netherton in 1752, son of William Rigmaiden of Ince Blundell as mentioned in the last newsletter. There will be more about William and his family in another newsletter.
Unfortunately, it is a rather unpalatable truth that both Thomas's made their money from the slave trade. A website detailing the passages of slaves ships and their owners and captains can be found at www.slavevoyages.org. Here we find that there are 11 entries for Rigmaiden as captain and they are:
1771 Ship's name William (a brigantine) joint captain with William Graham, sailing from Liverpool to the Windward coast of Africa and thence to Antigua. The voyage began on the 19th June 1770 and was completed on the 23rd August 1771. They acquired 135 slaves for the ship owner William James and landed at St John in Antigua with 120, so they lost 15 on the voyage which, though terrible, is not a bad result compared to some of the later voyages.
1773 Similar voyage with the same ship and captains to St Vincent during which voyage they lost 11 crew and 17 slaves. They set out on the 22nd October 1771 and returned on the 28th May 1773
1773 Ship's name Sally (a snow) with the same captains and owner from Liverpool to Bassa in Africa to Jamaica. On this voyage they lost 33 slaves on the voyage. They set out on the 3rd December 1771 and returned on the 9th July 1773. 
As the above two voyages overlap it may be that Thomas Rigmaiden was captain of one and William Graham the other 
1775 Again on the Sally but only Thomas Rigmaiden as captain; owner William James and the journey from Liverpool to the Windward coast (Bassa) to Grenada in the Caribbean. They set out on the 39th August 1773 and returned on the 30th June 1775, having lost 27 crew and 44 slaves
1777 Ship's name Blossom, captain Thomas Rigmaiden, same owner and voyage from Liverpool to The Windward Coast to Jamaica. Dates this time were 10th Feb 1776 to 23rd Jan 1798, number of slaves lost on the voyage were 31
1779 Ship's name Spy (a ship). This is the first time that Thomas Rigmaiden (captain) is mentioned as one of the owners who are: W James, Joseph Ward, Alex Wotherspoon, Jonathan Zwill, Joshua Rose, Chas Bromfield, Joseph Caton, William Jackson, Thomas Rigmaiden. Presumably the William Jackson mentioned is Thomas's future father-in-law. The voyage began on the 28th October 1778 and was completed on the 24th March 1780, 17 slaves were lost on the voyage from a total of 214.
1782 Ship's name Sturdy Beggar , captains Thomas Rigmaiden and Thomas Hughes, the owner was Parker. The voyage was begun in Liverpool and ended in St Lucia, the dates were 5th October 1781 to 25th September 1782. The number of slaves delivered was 328 out of 359, 8 crew deaths during the voyage. It is possible that Thomas, now an experienced captain is training up Thomas Hughes as he was, presumably trained by William Graham.
To add some colour to this voyage there was in the Manchester Mercury 8 October 1782 a report that:  recently landed in Liverpool from St Lucia, in The Sturdy Beggar, was Tha Rigmaiden with 163 h[ogs]h[ea]ds [of wine], 15 tcs, 74 bls sugar, 100 bags cotton for J Tomlinson & Co.
There is a gap in the records until 1790 so I  believe that the first Thomas Rigmaiden now concentrates on being a ship owner and merchant on land and the second Thomas Rigmaiden, the younger one mentioned above, takes to the sea. The first Thomas would have been married to Margery Jackson in 1780 and was now a father as well. After 1785 in his children's baptism records he refers to his occupation as merchant and not mariner.

Detail from painting 'Boarding a slaver' by L Burke

There are four voyages recorded in the 1790s with Thomas Rigmaiden as captain (the second one?) which are: 1790 Mary Ann (New Calabar, Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands to St Vincent; owners John Tarleton, Daniel Backhouse, Clayton Tarleton, Thomas Tarleton) 1791 Banastre (New Calabar, Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands to Dominica; owners: John Tarleton, Daniel Backhouse, Thomas Tarleton) 1792 Mary (New Calabar, Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands to Montego Bay, Jamaica; owners: John Tarleton, Daniel Backhouse, Thomas Tarleton) 1796 Bridget (Cameroons, Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands to Martinique, owners: John Tarleton, Daniel Backhouse. This ship was unfortunate to be captured by the French before they had delivered the slaves so it is not clear how captain and crew arrived home). The Tarletons were a family of whom three generations were slave traders and had much influence in Liverpool politically and one of whom, Banastre (also the name of one of their ships), fought for the British during the American War of Independence
For Thomas Rigmaiden, as part shipowner, there are 52 entries from 1779 to 1803, the year that Thomas died. Rather than list them all here I am including a print out of the ships names, voyages and captains as an attachment. It should be stressed that Thomas was a part-owner of the vessels in a syndicate of up to seven others so would only receive a % of the profits of the voyages. Other co-owners that crop up in the lists with more or less frequency are: Plato Denny, Joseph Ward, John Perkins, Ralph Fisher, Thomas Dickenson, Joseph Caton, John Eckley Colley, Charles Wilson, William Begg, Benjamin Hammond, John Houghton, James Carruthers, Richard Middleton, William Forbes, William Gregson, John Carson, Alex Wotherspoon, Jonathan Zwill, Joshua Rose etc.
A popular haunt of sea captains when in Liverpool, and merchants, was The Three Tuns in Strand Street and, in an essay by C F Birbeck Wilson "The records of a Liverpool fireside 1775-1781" printed in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 1896, mention is found on page 141 of Thomas Rigmaiden. It was a custom of the house that drinkers there should pay a "fine" on the occasion of a celebration of some sort, for example a wedding. "1780 June 24. Captain Thomas Rigmaiden has paid 5s, by hands of the groomsman for entering into the Honourable State of Matrimony". Similar payments were made on the birth of an offspring or for the purchase of a fair wind in their next passage. Some of Thomas Rigmaiden's co- owners, named above, are also mentioned. It gives an interesting glimpse into Liverpool mercantile life and is a recommendeded read. 
Another, rather grim, glimpse is given into life at sea in a report to the House of Lords about the slave trade:
"Mr William James testifies as follows: 'In the year 1779, being master of the Hound, sloop of war, and coming from the Bay of Honduras to Jamaica he fell in, off the Isle of Pines, with two Liverpool Guineamen on the middle passage, commanded by Captains Ringmaiden and Jackson, who had very imprudently (but whether wilfully or not he cannot say) missed the island of Jamaica. Captain Nugent gave them chase and caught up with them. Mr James upon boarding them found them in great distress, both on account of provisions and water. He asked the captains (for both of them were on board one ship) why they did not go into the watering place at the west end of the Isle of Pines (near Cuba). They replied that 'they had attempted to get in but got into shoal water'. He then asked them what they intended to have donewith their slaves if they had not fallen in with the Hound. They replied 'to make them walk the plank' - that is, to make them jump overboard. Mr James asked them again why they did not turn a number of the slaves on shore at the Isle of Pines and endeavour to save the rest. They replied again 'that in such case they could not have recovered the insurance, and that the rest would have gotten on shore'. 
However, Captains Jackson and Ringmaiden denied the veracity of William James' report as quoted in "Observations given on the evidence given before the Committees of the Privy Council and the House of Commons in support of the Bill for abolishing the slave trade" by John Ranby, 1791. A footnote observes:
"Thomas Ringmaiden, captain of the ship Spy and William Jackson, late captain of the ship Rose severally made oath etc. That being at Tobago when an account was received that the French fleet had taken possession of Grenada, and were hourly expected at Tobago, they took a hasty departure on the 10th July 1779, and in order to avoid the enemies cruisers, for some days kept in pretty close to the Spanish main, which proved to be the cause of their being carried much to the westward of what they supposed or expected; and that this was the real cause of their being forced to the leeward of Jamaica and not either imprudence or bad intention etc. That the account given by Mr James, of his boarding them, finding both commanders on board one ship, the questions he asked them, and the answers he received from them, is a false, malicious and scandalous aspersion of the of the Commanders of the Spy and the Rose , who each for themselves says that they were not chased, but voluntarily stood for the Hound; and that each commander was on board his own ship; and that both ships ready for an engagement. That upon coming up and finding that the vessel was an English sloop of war, they were not boarded but went themselves in one of their own boats on board of the Hound , and met with every mark of kindness and assistance from Captain Nugent. Mr J did not ask them the questions , nor receive the answers from them set forth in his evidence. They never heard the term - walk the plank - till they saw it in Mr J's evidence, nor should they have known its meaning if they had not seen Mr J's explanation annexed to it. Each of them was largely concerned in the ships and cargoes, and their property therein far from being fully insured; they should therefore have greatly injured themselves in acting the part of which they stand accused by Mr James."
The Liverpool Museums website has interesting information about the slave trade and Liverpool at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Liverpool slave ship, c1780 by William Jackson

In the 1790s Thomas was much connected with the church, although this may seem a strange contradiction to us, and seems to have been one of the sidesmen. In an extract from Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser for May 2nd 1791 he is mentioned in an announcement of the annual vestry: "On Tuesday last Mr John Houghton and Mr John Jackson (merchants) [presumably Thomas's brother-in-law] were elected churchwardens; Mr Thomas Rigmaiden and Mr John Dixon, sidesmen for this parish for the coming year. It is not clear which church this was. 

He was also on the Committee appointed to inquire into the earnings of pilots, along with Joseph Brookes, Thomas Staniforth, Robert Ward, John Fisher, John Butler, Plato Denny, W Hutchinson and John Johnson. [Reference Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser 1791]
He was also a business partner with an Edward Bate as the London Gazette printed:
"Liverpool May 1799. Notice is hereby given that the partnership heretofore carried on in Liverpool by Edward Bate and Thomas Rigmaiden, under the firm of Edward Bate and Company is now dissolved by mutual consent; and that all debts owing to and from the said concern will be received and paid by Edward Bate at his counting house, bottom of James Street."
Further information about Thomas Rigmaiden, including his will, to be included in the next newsletter.
I have been asked whether I plan to write a book about the Rigmaiden family and it  may be that I will collate and edit the newsletters with updated research at some point into book form. I think that it will make an interesting read, but possibly for a limited audience so it may be best published in an electronic form with facility for printing copies out as required. In the meantime I would be grateful if readers could acknowledge this source for intellectual copyright purposes when quoting information herein.

Fourth newsletter of the Rigmaiden Family History (One Name Study), July 2013

Thomas Rigmaiden (1746-1803)

Thomas Rigmaiden is an ancestor that probably all of us interested in the Rigmaiden family are descended from, or related to in some way. From the information presently available he would seem to have been baptised on the 13th July 1746 at the church of St Lawrence in Chorley, son of John and Katherine Rigmaiden. The record was found on Ancestry.co.uk.
There is some confusion about his identity because another Thomas Rigmaiden was baptised at St Benet’s, Netherton on the 23rd September 1752, son of William Rigmaiden of Ince Blundell. (Ref: Findmypast.co.uk]
However, when Thomas died and was buried at St Anne’s Church in Liverpool in 1803 on the 3rd April his age was recorded as 58 years, making his birth year approximately 1745. Also the family at Ince Blundell were staunch Roman Catholics and St Benet’s was a, now redundant, Catholic Chapel. The present building, which is Grade II listed by English Heritage, replaced an earlier cottage and barn used by Benedictine priests. However, there is no evidence to link the Liverpool family and ‘our’ Thomas Rigmaiden with the Catholic Church as they all were baptised, married and buried in the Church of England, as far as I know. 
In terms of geography, Ince Blundell is much nearer to Liverpool than Chorley but perhaps the existence of distant relatives in Ince drew him there.
It would seem that his father, John Rigmaiden lived at Clayton in the Wood, which was at that time a village three and a half miles NNW of Chorley. He and Catherine had a second child, John, baptised on the 24th July 1748 at St Andrew’s in Leyland. Their abode is stated to be Clayton.
John married Katherine Kitchen on the 17th September 1745, both of the parish of Clayton-in-the-Woods, according to a transcription found on Findmypast.co.uk. There is also in existence a copy of the marriage licence bond in which John Rigmaiden pledges the seemingly astronomical sum for those days of £200 to William Waterworth, a linen weaver. John’s  own occupation is given as butcher and they are both 21 years or upward; she is a spinster.
It is possible that this John is the John Rigmaiden baptised on the 16th September 1722 at St Andrew’s, Leyland (near Chorley) and whose parents were Thomas and Isobel, abode Clayton and Thomas’s occupation husbandman (in other words a free tenant farmer or small landowner)
The record of a marriage between Thomas Rigmaiden and Isobel Margeryson on the 31st March, 1719 at St Andrew’s, Leyland appears on the Lancashire Parish Clerk website.
There are no further relevant records for the Leyland area, but there is a baptism record for a Thomas Rigmaiden at St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn on the 23rd January, 1693 to father John Rigmaiden, abode Mellor. 
The only marriage that I have found in the right time frame is that of John Rigmaiden to Mary Sprot at Garstang on the 14th June, 1681.  This leads to the birth of a John Rigmaiden in 1655, son of Robert of Catherall. Robert of Catherall (Garstang) married a Mary Hodgkinson in October 1654, and a Robert Rigmaiden was baptised at Barnacre in August 1617 whose father was Thomas. Barnacre, of course, is the adjacent parish to Wedacre the family home of the Rigmaiden family who were the lords of the manor there.
At the present time these premises are based on all the available matching online records, but other information may come to light in the future. Short of conducting an intensive search of parish registers in the Chorley area radiating outwards, which haven’t yet been transcribed and which are in the Lancashire Parish Record Office, we will have be satisfied with this line of descent for now. As Rigmaiden is such an uncommon name there are only a certain number of possibilities. Other Rigmaiden family groups in the 18th centuries were in the Chipping, London  and Lancaster areas. 
In the next newsletter I shall describe something of Thomas’ life and the large family he founded with his wife, Margery in late 18th century Liverpool.

Third newsletter of the Rigmaiden Family History (One Name Study), January 2013

I hope that everyone in the informal Rigmaiden One-Name Study group had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year and I must apologise for the lateness of this newsletter. Other activities at home meant that we were particularly busy during the run up to Christmas and I have only just managed to write a few lines.
 I have chosen to write about some Rigmaidens who lived between the 14th and 16 centuries most of whom are recorded in the Lancashire Victoria County History and whose lives are known to us from documents from the time, such as wills, indentures and bonds of various sorts which are available in the local record offices, and through disputes of one sort or another which would have been dealt with by courts and commissions and those documents would be kept in The National Archives at Kew, just outside London. 
During 2013 I will add to the body of knowledge already accumulated if possible, and try to discover some other descendants of the various Rigmaiden lines, both male and female.
First more information about an individual mentioned in the last newsletter:
William Rigmaiden, of Blyth Nottinghamshire (ctd)
We left William in 1401 as widower of the wealthy Elizabeth Townley.  His influence continued when he was made guardian of the land and person of his godson and nephew William Skillicorne who was heir to the manor of Preese in Kirkham as well as various holdings in Lancaster. William was the son of the older William’s sister, Margaret. He remained in this role until the boy came of age in 1407.
It is thought that he came into his estates in Blyth through a second marriage but it is known that he spent the rest of his life in Nottinghamshire. His first appointment was as escheator of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in 1406. He became involved in local administration being sheriff for three terms and spent 13 years sitting on the Nottinghamshire bench. He remained a staunch supporter of the Lancastrian cause but must have been advanced in years by 1415 when letters of royal protection were given him in anticipation of Henry V’s first invasion of France. Although he had a distinguished career as Crown employee he only attended one Parliament. He was knighted by 1418 and attended various Commissions of Inquiry between 1414 and 1419.
William was succeeded by his son William who never achieved the success of his father.
[The above information comes from the source History of Parliament Online]
[It should also be mentioned here that the family pedigree contained in the Chetham Society publication “Remains historical and literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancashire and Cheshire” vol cv, chapter VII “Old halls and old families: Wedacre or Woodacre Hall” claims that William died in 1386 and makes no mention of his illustrious career though it does state that he married Elizabeth Townley  who died in 1401. There are number of errors or inconsistencies in the early stages of this pedigree]


The Rigmaidens of Wedacre (ctd) [To recap from the last newsletter]
Near the town of Garstang in Lancashire there was a manor called Barnacre, originally no more than a hamlet. Within this manor were a number of smaller estates or manors, one of which being Wedacre or Woodacre.
This was once the residence of the Rigmaiden family beginning with John de Rigmaiden and his wife Isolda in the 1290s onwards. John and Isolda had two sons John and Marmaduke and the estate passed to John and then to his son Thomas and wife Joan. Thomas died before his father in 1328, his father being alive still in 1331. He left an infant son John in the care of Joan,  his wife,  who remarried to Robert de Culwen.  The same John married Lettice when he was old enough but died in 1355 leaving a daughter , Joan, as his heir. John’s wife Lettice remarried to Richard of Molyneux of Great Crosby. Unfortunately Joan died without issue in or before 1362 but was married to Sir John de Coupland who acquired through marriage the Rigmaiden manor of Upper Rawcliffe which went to the de Gynes or Coucy family 
The Wedacre manor then passed to Thomas de Rigmaiden (wife Johanna), son of Marmaduke (mentioned above). He left his estate to his son John who married Margaret, daughter of Robert de Hornby. In case they did not have children he left it then to his younger sons, in order, Richard, William and Peter , then to his daughter Agnes and her husband William de Bradkirk, and all their respective heirs.  However, it seems that John married again to Elizabeth (or Letitia who died in 1387) and left a son and heir, Thomas. The aforesaid John died before his father in 1379, so Thomas became the heir after Thomas.  He came of age in 1397. He was still living in 1431 but left the estate to his son Nicholas who inherited the estate in 1445. Nicholas’ son John having died before his father, the estate passed to Nicholas’ grandson, Nicholas aged at that time, in 1478, thirty years.  This second Nicholas died in or before 1496 but seems to have married Margaret, daughter and co-heir of Robert Lawrence of Ashton and Carnforth with whom he had a son, John. .  [This Margaret was responsible for the establishment of the Lady Chapel at the church at Churchtown in 1357]  John was married or contracted to Katherine, daughter of Sir John Pennington of Muncaster.  John’s  son was Thomas who came of age in 1514 but died in 1520 with his son, John,  being only five years old.  His wardship and marriage was granted to John Lawrence. Thomas’ will mentions also an Uncle James, brothers John and Richard, a sister Katherine and daughters Isabel, Margaret  and Eleanor.  His son John Rigmaiden died in 1557 and the estate passed to his cousin, another John (born before 1527) , grandson of the aforementioned Thomas’s brother, John. 
John Rigmaiden bc1527, d1587
This John Rigmaiden was the first to record a pedigree for the family in 1567 for the Herald’s Visitations (Visitation of Lancashire by William Flower) and in the military muster of 1574 was required to “furnish one light horse, two corselettes, two coats plate, two pikes, two long bows, two sheef arrows, two steel cappus, one caliver and one marrione”. He was also a recusant (ie a non-converted Roman Catholic) and was several times brought up before the court for resisting Queen Elizabeth’s attempts to quell the old religion. In 1567 he was called before the Earl of Derby at Lathom to answer for his recusancy, was admonished and allowed to depart, according to some sources. The book Reformation and resistance in Tudor Lancashire by Dr C Haigh, is more rigorous: 'In October 1567 Mollineux and eleven others were were interviewed several times by members of the [Ecclesiastical] commission and the earl of Derby's council, but no action seems to have been taken, though John Rigmaiden of Garstang was arrested and sent to Fleet Prison in London for hearing mass' (p250)
In Dr Haigh’s book, as above:  'On 31 July 1568 a special session of the Commission was held at the earl of Derby's dining chamber at Lathom.....  Seven prominent Lancashire gentlemen, Francis Tunstall, John Talbot, John Rigmaiden, Edward Osbaldeston, John Westby, Towneley and Mollineux, and one prosperous yeoman, Matthew Travers, were examined by the [Ecclesiastical]Commission. Four of the accused admitted that that they did not attend church, though the others claimed to be occasional conformists, and all admitted that they did not receive communion. Each of the eight had received into their houses recusant priests ….. all but Westby … agreed to attend church and receive communion. All eight were dismissed on bonds of 300 marks each to appear within twenty days of any summons....'
p260 'Between the end of the visitation proceedings in November 1571 and October 1578, fourteen Lancashire gentlemen were called before the High Commission [in York} a total of more than seventy times, and poor John Rigmaiden had to appear as often as 18 occasions. Eight of the fourteen spent various periods in prison at York, but the Commission tried to vary its practice according to the character of the individuals concerned'.
P261 'The commissioners subjected this group of gentry to the maximum inconvenience and uncertainty.  John Rigmaiden spent some time in prison and after he was released he was subjected to frequent journeys across the Penines and increasingly heavy recognisances'.
In 1581 he was reputed to have harboured a priest called ‘Little Richard’ which was unlawful and had to pay fines for his beliefs, though he claimed that he attended his parish church but did not take communion. 
Again from Dr Haigh’s book, p283 'Catholic gentlemen could make an important contribution to the number and the religious life of their co-religionists, especially as in the more difficult areas and periods their houses were the only ones large enough to conceal priests and masses.  ….In [1583] a series of priests took shelter in the house of John Rigmaiden of Garstang, where they said mass and were visited by other Catholics. ..'
In 1585 he was discharged as master forester for destruction of the forest and deer. Many of the Rigmaidens had held this position (of viridar) before him.  He died soon after in 1587. He had a sister called Margaret North. 
The estate passed to his son, Walter, born in in or before 1557, (whose mother was Jane, daughter of Francis Morley of Wemington), and married in 1573 at Garstang Church to Ann, eldest daughter of Edward Tildesley of Weardley. They had a son, Thomas, and three daughters all of whom seem to have died before 1586, as they are not mentioned in his father’s will. In 1577 the Lancashire Commissioners reported that he was worth £40 in lands per annum, but “in goods poore”.
 In 1587 an Inquisition was opened in Preston touching on the fact that he was incapable of inheriting his father’s estate. The original manuscript is so mutilated and damaged that it cannot be read clearly. Walter was also a Catholic recusant, persecuted for his religion and ordered to pay fines, and soon after declared a lunatic and died between 1598 and 1602. It was then that his representatives sold the estate to the Fyffes, passing  later to the Spencers, then to Sir Thomas Gerard (later Lord Gerard) and the manor and its title passed out of the hands of the Rigmaiden family.

There was also a minor branch of the family living in Garstang in the 16th century. A Nicholas Rigmaiden died in 1521 and had a son and heir, John, then aged six. His son was also called John and there seem to have been some disputes in the 1550s and 1560s about land and entitlement to New Hall, Barnacre and Bradley House. John de Rigmaiden of Wedacre made a settlement in 1563 of New Hall, dovecote and a mill to the other John Rigmaiden. (see Fishwick, Garstang, Chethan Society 215)

  
Rigmaiden. Argent three stags' heads caboshed sable

The rest of the above is a précis taken from: 'Townships: Barnacre-with-Bonds', A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 7 (1912), pp. 315-320. 


More information about these early Rigmaidens can be found in the publications of The Chetham Society, The Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire and the Lancashire Parish Register Society where wills, birth, marriage and death records and property documents are transcribed and discussed. History of the manors and estates is found in the Victoria County History for Lancashire and which can be read on the website British History Online.
From 1553 church parish registers began to be maintained recording the baptisms, marriages and burials of parishioners. This was done by Thomas Cromwell on the orders of Henry VIII and has inadvertently benefited the family historian. Many of these have been transcribed and the results are available on the Church of the Latter Day Saints’ website FamilySearch free of charge. Original copies of some registers can also be found on Ancestry,  Find my past and BMD Registers (for non-conformist registers). Thus from this time in the sixteenth century we can begin to plot the concentrations of Rigmaidens throughout the country and find, from early times,  a group in London, a handful of individuals in Yorkshire and Cheshire as well as the majority of occurrences in Lancashire.
I have recently discovered two and possibly three generations in the family tree prior to Thomas Rigmaiden, merchant of Liverpool from whom we are all descended or related. I have definitely ascertained his place and date of birth and  names of his parents, their marriage and probably the birth of his father  and so,in turn, his father’s name. I shall write more about his connection with the family at Wedacre and life in Liverpool in the next newsletter.