The Grimshaws of Ivy House. Ref.22

In 1672 Sarah Grimshaw of Ivy House made an application for her home to be used as a regular Meeting Place. This was after Charles II had issued his Declaration of Indulgence granting freedom of worship to all non-conformists except Roman Catholics. Sarah entered her denomination as Independent.

The first Grimshaw at Ivy House was Sarah’s father-in-law, Abraham Grimshaw I (1603-1670). He was a small farmer and clothier, who was discontented with the State Church. As early as 1632, two Rawdon dissenters had paid 20 shillings to purchase a piece of land called Benton Hill with plans for their own place of worship there.

Before they were able to build a meeting house the Independents met secretly at Buckstone Common under the huge rock. ( A yearly service is still held there to commemorate their courage) .

Sarah Grimshaw taught her children not to raise their hats to the gentry, not out of rudeness but because she did not believe in an attitude of servility to the ruling classes. For Quakers the annual tithes collected by the local parish church were a bone of contention. Many refused to pay and were imprisoned. The Book of Sufferings kept at the Quarterly Meeting at York records that in 1683 Sarah Grimshaw of Rawdon had taken on account of tithes by the servants of William Breary, priest of Guiseley or his agents - corn valued at £1.5s.

Sarah died in 1695 and was buried on a piece of land at Esholt Springs, Dib Lane, Guiseley, known as Quaker Wood after it had been released to the Dissenters as Dibhouse Burial Ground.

This is now part of William Matchell’s Timber Yard and has a commemorative stone to mark the site. Ref.23

Her son Josiah had succeeded his father as Master of Ivy House and married Sarah Ibbitson of Ripon. His eldest sister Marie married James Frankland of Kirby Moorside. Both these marriage partners were Quakers. How did the young people meet ?

It can be assumed that Knaresborough Monthly Meeting enabled Quakers from surrounding villages to meet regularly. Substantial clothiers, like the Grimshaws, visited the wool fairs at Leeds, Pontefract, Wakefield and Ripon and their business contacts with other Quakers led in some cases to marriage.
The Quaker Meeting House at Rawdon was built in 1697, standing well back from the road and with a high wall in front of it. The ground was conveyed to the Trustees on 15^th February 1697. A list of trustees included Josiah Grimshaw and several other clothiers from Rawdon. Quakers from surrounding parishes were also allowed to meet there and bury their dead in the graveyard. The opening of the new Meeting House as a recognised place of worship must have been a great occasion.

Family  Tree

In 1707 Josiah’s younger brother, John moved to Calverley Carr and from him and Josiah sprang a prolific family, whose descendants are still to be found in the area today. Abraham, older son of Abraham and Sarah Grimshaw became a wool stapler and one member of this branch of the family married one of the Hustler family of Yeadon. John Hustler became the ‘father’ of the Bradford wool trade.

Jeremiah, Ref.24  the second born, was, through his son Joshua and his wife Jane the great-great-great grandfather of the Leeds artist John Atkinson Grimshaw. Jeremiah was one of a deputation which presented a "Humble Address" to George I from the Yearly Meeting held in London 26^th May 1716. A Letter from Henry Gouldney to Sir John Rodes, 31^st May 1716 relates " … honest Jeramiah Grimshaw was particulery showed to the King, and gave him a reverend bow, which the king was pleased to returne againe."

Throughout this century the Grimshaws of Ivy House supported Rawdon Meeting. When sets of trustees were appointed in 1697, 1733 and 1797 included each time was the master of Ivy House. A pattern of family life there emerges. When a son succeeds his father as master of Ivy House, the widow or retired couple move into the cottage. Sons were apprenticed to their fathers as weavers whilst the women in the family did the spinning. When the cloth was ready it was taken down to one of the Leeds Cloth Halls to be sold.

In 1733 Abraham III was involved with others, including his cousin John in drawing up a new lease for the Meeting House. The Meeting House was licensed at the Quarter Sessions and provided that Friends paid their tithes they were left alone. It was laid down that Quakers should only marry within the society and this worked well in the case of the Grimshaws as records of births, marriages and deaths show.

The trustees indenture of 1765 reveals that Abraham III is the Ivy House clothier whilst Abraham Junior is the woolcomber.

The Grimshaws also served their local community, caring for the poor and looking after the highways in Yeadon.

Abraham IV and his wife Eleanor had a family of six boys and two girls.

In 1786, The eldest boy Joseph followed his father as clothier at Ivy House. Two of his brothers, Abraham and Aaron, also became clothiers and the youngest Benjamin a grocer, all in Yeadon.

There is evidence that Joseph tried to keep up with the inventions that were changing wool manufacturing methods. He erected a small, horse powered scribbling mill in his own yard, but larger textile mills were starting up. William Thompson built Low Mill down by the river at Calverley in 1796.

In 1797 we read that Joseph Grimshaw and James Thompson have both been appointed as Trustees of the Meeting House. Joseph Grimshaw is described as a worsted manufacture and James Thompson as a clothier.

In 1812 three families, descended from Abraham Grimshaw IV, left Rawdon Meeting after a quarrel there which had made Joseph Grimshaw’s position as first trustee untenable. The man who took his place was William Thompson of Low Mill.

Moving towards the latter years of the 19^th century we find that the first Rawdon Rate Book dated 1878 states that yet another Abraham Grimshaw was the occupier of Ivy House and its land which had a rateable value of £34. This Abraham left Ivy House in 1889 and up to this time his entry in the street directory of Rawdon was ‘Abraham Grimshaw - cloth buyer and farmer, Ivy House.’ He died in 1902 aged 68 and was buried at Rawdon Baptist Chapel, the last of the Grimshaws to live at Ivy House. Ref.25

Photograph of Ivy House taken in 1996 by Enid Sheldon with kind permission of the then owners Mr.&Mrs. Lawson.