Robin Longbottom on the secret life of a well-respected South Craven family

SHORTLY after 1780, Elias Pollard, his wife Mary and their three daughters settled at Eastburn, in the township of Steeton.

Being ‘off-cummed uns’ their arrival would have been reported to the Steeton constable.

Under the Poor Law Acts, they had to have sufficient means to support themselves and not become a burden to the township.

One of the constable’s roles was to move on vagrants and vagabonds, and if a family was destitute, return them to the husband’s native village. Elias’ place of birth was Long Preston, but after his marriage he and his family lived in Carleton, near Skipton.

His occupation was grazier and he had taken a lease on Red Lyon Farm where he settled for a few years, before moving to Knott on the hillside above the village. Knott, then known as Great Knott, comprised a house, barns, stables, an orchard and one hundred acres of meadow and pasture. It was ideal for his business, which entailed buying cattle and fattening them on his pastures before selling them to local butchers.

At this time cattle were big business in South Craven; drovers brought huge numbers south from Galloway in Scotland. John Birtwhistle, of Skipton, who died in 1787, is said to have brought 20,000 a year to the pastures of South Craven before sending them to markets in the Midlands and beyond to London.

Elias was soon a respected member of the community and by 1788 had been appointed an overseer for the poor of Steeton and Eastburn. However, what was not known to the community was that the Pollard family was leading a covert religious life and that when he and his wife, Mary Swarbrick, were married, they had undergone two ceremonies, one in public and the other in secret.

The couple’s wedding was in 1768 and the Marriage Act of 1753 required all marriages to be conducted by an Anglican clergyman in the parish where at least one of the parties lived. Banns had to read out in the church on three successive Sundays prior to the wedding or a marriage licence obtained. The act was designed to put an end to clandestine marriages, such as Fleet marriages in London that were conducted by unscrupulous clergy in the Fleet Prison and ale houses, and the local clog and shoe marriages. Clog and shoe marriages are mentioned in the Haworth parish registers and took place in the Forest of Trawden in Lancashire. They were conducted under ‘ancient forest law’ and the marriage contract was sealed by the exchange of a clog and a shoe. Only Jews and Quakers were exempt from marrying in an Anglican church.

In the case of Elias and his intended wife, Mary, her religion was prohibited. She was a Roman Catholic, and practicing the Catholic faith was forbidden by law. She probably worked in the service of the Tempest family at Broughton Hall, near Skipton. They were the leading Roman Catholic family in South Craven and the hall had a private chapel. To comply with the Marriage Act the couple's banns were read out at Long Preston and at Carleton church, where Mary lived. The wedding took place at Carleton on January 21, 1768, however, the day before they were secretly married by a Catholic priest in a ceremony at Broughton Hall chapel.

Had it been common knowledge that the family were Roman Catholics, Elias may not have been so welcome in Eastburn and may not have been appointed an overseer for the poor. Anti-Catholic feelings still ran high after the Jacobite rebellion in 1745. The first Roman Catholic Relief Act passed in 1778 repealed the prosecution of Catholic priests, but resulted in violent riots in London. Complete freedom of worship was eventually granted in 1791.