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| Skipton in 1830 |
The structure on the right of the High Street matches the description of the old market cross in Dawson's History of Skipton – it had a square awning supported by four piers, with tiers of steps around it and a small belfrey on top. It was removed in the 1840s
Where was Alice born?
- Alice's daughter Mary Hopkinson thought that her mother was born at Swadford House, a place she knew well herself from visits to her grandparents
- but this was the house of John Dewhurst's prosperity, and they moved there in the 1840s when Alice was in her late teens
- until then they lived in the High Street, and the 1841 Census shows that they were living on the west side of the High Street near the Black Horse Hotel and not far from the parish church of Holy Trinity
So Alice spent her childhood in the bustle and excitement of the High Street, which was sometimes known as the Market Place, because that was where the frequent markets were held:
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| Skipton market, late C19 |
An excellent weekly market is held here on Saturday; and a good fair for fat cattle and sheep every alternate Monday; the annual fairs are March 25th, Saturdays before Palm and Easter Sundays, the first and third Tuesdays after Easter, Whitsun-eve, August 5th and November 5th, chiefly for sheep, horned cattle, horses, pedlary &c.Pigot's Directory 1828-9
As the road wasn't then paved with setts, and especially as the Black Horse Hotel must have been popular with the farmers and merchants coming into town, it must have been a lively, noisy, dirty, exciting place for children.
(To try to give a flavour of the times, I'm adding here pictures by the young artist Mary Ellen Best of Clifton, just outside York. For more, see the excellent book, The World of Mary Ellen Best by Caroline Davidson)
Alice's brothers and sisters were described by their niece Mary Hopkinson
- Jane, the beloved eldest sister and family counsellor, was born in 1816
- her judgment was "wonderfully mature" from her early days and her brothers and sisters looked up to her with "reverent affection"
- John Bonny was born on the day of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819
- he was a studious, thoughtful boy – he went to Skipton Grammar School
- Ellen, born in 1821, was "a very bright, energetic and sociable girl"
- James, born on Christmas Eve 1822, was a merry, generous, loveable boy, "quite a wit and brimming over with fun and mischief"
- he was Alice's playmate and often led her into scrapes – she remembered how he once cut her hair "in Vandykes, much to the chagrin of her parents" (ringlets of some sort?)
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| Clifton Feast, May Day 1833 by Mary Ellen Best |
Alice came next, born in 1824, and then there was a gap of 4 years before her younger sister & brother were born:
- Elizabeth Ann – Lizzie – was born in 1828 with a club foot, which was a cause of much suffering to her in her youth
- eventually she was able to be treated and Alice went with Lizzie to London where she had "very skilful surgical treatment in London by Dr Taplin". In those days this was without anaesthetic so her fortitude and endurance can only be imagined, but the operation was successful – a "complete cure". The only surgeon I can find in any medical list is a Thomas Taplin of the Indian Army, whose listing shows he retired in 1849. Perhaps he practised in London when he was on leave, or after retiring from the Madras Presidency
- Thomas Henry ("Tom") was born in 1829 – he went to Skipton Grammar School and then (his father being now much more prosperous) was sent south to be a boarder at Mill Hill – founded in 1807 by Nonconformist merchants and ministers, who chose a site far enough out of London to keep the boys out of the "dangers both physical and moral" of the city streets
By about the age of 4, Alice could already read fairly well and she was learning to sew. She was very like her father, in his quick-tempered, impulsive and outspoken nature, and in his looks – the family called her "little Papa" and Mary Hopkinson said that, when you looked at the portrait of John Dewhurst that used to hang on the wall in his son Bonny's house, you could see why.
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| Miss Mary Kirby of the Castle Howard Inn 1832 by Mary Ellen Best |
- the 1822 Directory shows their seminary was kept by the Misses L and C Wimberley, but Charlotte married that year and Louisa carried on the school on her own
- by the time Alice became a pupil, Louisa was about 33 years old and was working under her maiden name – in 1825 she had married Robert Hume Mossman, who kept a Commercial and Mathematical School in Newmarket Street
- the Mossmans had a chequered life – they left Skipton soon after their marriage and came back again a year or two later, I suspect because Robert's attempt at a school in Wetherby failed. He was gaoled twice for debt in London in the 1840s
- Alice remembered Miss Wimberley for rapping her on the head with her thimble when Alice wasn't paying attention to her hemming in a sewing class – this reprimand was known as "thimble pie"
When the Mossmans left Skipton again, Alice was sent to Miss Mary Ann Dilkes' boarding & day school in Market Place
- Miss Dilkes appears as Miss Delk in the 1834 Directory – I can't find anything about her under either surname
- Alice was nearly 8 years old now and she felt that her "mental training" under Miss Dilkes was "exceptionally valuable", according to Mary Hopkinson
Alice was an intelligent little girl, keen and eager to learn and always, her daughter said, aware whether she had grasped a subject or not. She had a "remarkable faculty" for figures but she was always a great reader and her tastes were literary.
