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The data on this page is taken mainly from Jane W. T. Brey, A Quaker Saga: The Watsons of Straw-berryhowe, the Wildmans, and other Allied Families from England's North Counties and Lower Bucks County in Pennsylvania (Phila.: Dorrance & Company, 1967), especially pages 23 through 31. Information from other sources will have footnotes that, when clicked on, will give you the source. If you have additions or corrections to anything here, please let me know at .
For an explanation of the numbering system, which is different from that which Brey used, click here.
Earliest Proved Generations
ThomasC Marke and his wife Hannah (DAWSON) are the first certain members of our line, although the family dates back as early as the fifteenth century in Cumberland. It has the variations of spelling one expects of names in those centuries when literacy was not wide-spread and consistency in spelling was not assumed to be a virtue.ThomasC and Hannah's son ThomasB Marke and his wife Elizabeth (SLEE) lived in Mosedale. She was the daughter of John and Margaret Slee of How in Grisdale, Greystock Parish. They were presumably married in the parish church ca. 1637. Mosedale is in a quiet vale through which the small Caldew River runs. Thomas and Elizabeth lived in the largest of the small houses strung along the dirt track through the valley. In the 1960s Mosedale was a tiny hamlet in the large Caldbeck Parish.
Greystock ("anciently" called Greystoke) was a parish in the union of Penrith, Eastern Division of Cumberland, eleven miles west by north of Penrith. It is a rich and fertile land, with diverse and "beautifully-romantic scenery". The village is near the source of the river Petterill. The church of St. Andrew was made collegiate back in 1382, and in the mid-nineteenth century still had stalls for the six canons. As with so many places in the British Isles, reminders of history are scattered across the landscape. There is a prehistoric circle of stones about 17 yards in diameter near Motherly. There are vestiges of a Roman encampment, still called Redstone Camp. During the Civil War the old baronial castle was garrisoned by the Royalists and beseiged by the Parliament forces under General Lambert. The garrison finally surrendered in 1648 and the castle was demolished soon afterwards. Only a few ruined towers remained. But around 1670 the Howard family built a new castle nearby.[1]
Thomas, Elizabeth, her mother Margaret Slee, and brother John Slee, Sr. apparently all became Friends shortly after George Fox first preached in the area. Soon after he came in 1653 a meeting was settled in Mosedale. Early male members included Thomas Mark, John SOWERBY, John GREENLOW, and Hugh PEACOCK, as well as young boys, Jonathan Sowerby aged 15, John TODHUNTER, 8 years, and William Greenlow, 6 years. A meeting house was built at Mosedale; the group was part of the larger Carlisle Monthly Meeting. Elizabeth signed the 1659 "Handmaiden's of the Lord" anti-tithe petition.
There was a cost to being a Friend. Besse's Sufferings record, in 1661 "John NICHOLSON, Thomas Mark and John Peacock on an attachment out of Exchequer were committed to Carlisle Gaol in the monthe of April this year and detained there about three years."
Thomas was buried 2 February 1682 in the small graveyard beside the Mosedale meeting house. His will lists specific bequests to a number of children and grandchildren.
Elizabeth died four years later and was buried 10 December 1686 in the same meeting burying ground.
Children of Thomas and Elizabeth (Slee) Mark:i. ThomasA, b. ca. 1638; d. 20 June 1696; m. 8 Apr. 1658 Mary BEWLEY. He inherited one great chest from his father. His son Thomas inherited one ewe lamb from his grandfather.
ii. Margaret, b. ca. 1640; bur. 18 Feb. 1681 shortly before her father made his will. She m. 1657 Thomas BEWLEY, son of Thomas and Dorothy (Nicholson) Bewley of Haltcliffe Hall. They lived at Woodhall, the old Bewley estate in Caldbeck Parish; 9 children. Margaret's son Mungo Bewley inherited one ewe lamb from her father.
iii. Elizabeth, b. ca. 1642; d. before 1681 when her father made his will; m. 4 Fifth Month 1672 at John SOURBIE's house,"Bouscale", William WALKER. Her daughter, Elizabeth Walker, was bequeathed £10 by her grandfather.
iv. Isabel, b. ca. 1645; m. 1669 at Grenay Grag, Thomas CARLTON of Little Salkeld. They moved to Ireland. Isabel's father bequeathed forgiveness of 40 shillings loaned to her husband, and something to each of his five grandchildren in Ireland: Mark Carlton (b. 1670, m. Susanna WATSON, immigrated to Kennett in Chester Co., Penna. in 1711), Thomas Carlton (b. 1672), Daniel Carlton (b. 1675), Quartus Carlton, and Deborah Carlton.
v. George, b. 24 Apr. 1654; since he is not in his father's will, it is assumed he died young.
Next Generation
Thomas MarkA, born ca. 1638, inherited his parents' estate at Mosedale. He married under the care of Friends on 8 April 1658 Mary BEWLEY, daughter of Thomas and Dorothy (NICHOLSON) Bewley of Haltcliffe Hall. Apparently they were not persecuted for non-payment of tithes or other Quakerly offenses.In 1680 they purchased Bleckell Hall in St. Cuthbert's Parish, two miles from Carlisle. Hanging in the entrance hall of the present Hall, built ca. 1812, is a plan of the original Hall, in 1690, when Thomas and Mary (Bewley) Mark lived there.
St. Cuthbert was one of two parishes that encompassed Carlisle. The church, dedicated to the Bishop of Lindisfarn, was rebuilt in 1778 on the site of a much earlier one. So it no longer looks like it would have when the Marks lived there. There was a grammar school in the parish, founded by Henry VIII, but I do not know if any Marks or Bewleys attended. They certainly would not have attended once they became Friends.[2]
Thomas died 20 June 1696 and was buried the next day. His will, dated 17 June 1696 was proved 4 July that year. It mentions first his granddaughter Deborah WATSON, giving her £10. Deborah's mother was to get a heifer named Boney. His widow Mary presumably remained at Bleckell Hall with her son Thomas and his family who were apparently not Friends.
Children of Thomas and Mary (Bewley) Mark:
i. Benjamin1, b. 14 Apr. 1659 in Mosedale; m. 13 Aug. 1690 under Carlisle Meeting, Sarah LANGHORNE; bur. 19 Nov. 1697 at the Kirkhouse, Seckmurkey, Cumberland County, Eng. He apparently moved there sometime after the death of his father in 1696, attending Pardshaw Monthly Meeting at Pardsay Cragg. Sarah d. after the birth of their fourth son, who d. 28 Oct. 1697 at the age of 8 days. 4 sons. ii. Isaac, b. 20 July 1662 at Mosedale; bur. 18 Sept. 1673.
iii. Rebecca, b. 24 Feb. 1663 in Mosedale; bur. 11 Sept. 1742 in Oxford, Bucks Co., Penna.; m. 4 Jan. 168_ under Carlisle Monthly Meeting, Thomas WATSON; 7 children.
iv. Mary, b. 19 Mar. 1666 in Mosedale; d. after 1696 when she was mentioned in her father's will.
v. Thomas, b. 24 Mar. 1670 in Mosedale; m. Elizabeth HUDSON, daughter of Mungo Hudson, gent. of Sowerby. He inherited Bleckell Hall and lived there until 1696; 6 children.
vi. Josiah, b. 12 Aug. 1674 in Mosedale; as he is not mentioned in his father's will, it is assumed he died young.
vii. George, b. 10 Aug. 1677 (?) in Mosedale; m. 10 Dec. 1691 Mary STORDY. She was b. 5 Sept. 1670, daughter of Thomas (carpenter) of Moorhouse. Apparently they moved back to Mosedale after 1696. The Quaker minister Thomas STORY relates visiting George Mark at Mosedale again, where he had a comfortable meeting and was well cared for by him and his family; George Mark's 4 servants who were not Friends were convinced and joined the Society at that time. 2 children.
viii. Deborah, d. 23 June 1680.
ix. Deborah, b. 22 July 1683 at Bleckell Hall; apparently d. young as she is not mentioned in her father's will.
For more on Rebecca (Mark) Watson there will in time be a page for the Watson line. But it has not yet been posted.
Return to the index of Collateral Lines.
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Citations
to sources other than Brey's Quaker Saga
1. Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England, 5th ed. (London: 1842), 2:318.
2. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England, 1:514-15.
This page was last updated on 7/23/2012.