Atkinson - Walker

St. Mary's Church at Longsleddale, Westmorland

There is an interesting History of Ambleside at:
http://www.amblesideonline.co.uk/history.shtml

and some wonderful photographs of old Ambleside at:
http://www.amblesideonline.co.uk/oldpics.html

The parents of Isabella Atkinson were Thomas and Mary Atkinson (nee Walker). Thomas Atkinson was a Boot and Shoemaker in Ambleside, and appears in the Parson and White's Directory of 1829.

Thomas and Mary were married February 26th 1797 at Longsleddale, a valley that is part of the Lake District National Park, in what was Westmorland, and is now Cumbria. They were probably married in St. Mary's Church, Longsleddale, an ancient Church of England church in the parish of Kendal. I thought it would be easy to track down Thomas Atkinson's parents, but Atkinson was a very common name in Westmorland and I found far too many, rather than too few candidates.

However, I did find the names of Thomas and Mary's children through the IGI. Their first child was Ann, born in Ambleside in 1798, so it seems that Thomas and Mary settled in Ambleside after their marriage. Elizabeth was born in 1800, then Agnes in 1802, Robert in 1805, and finally, Isabella in 1806.

How did Isabella Atkinson, born in the rather remote (particularly at that time) village of Ambleside, meet Richard Cartmell of Lathom, Lancashire, and end up living in Preston? My theory is that Ambleside, and the Lake District in general, became popular places for wealthy cotton maufacturers from the North of England to build summer homes. Many of the young people in Ambleside were hired as domestic staff in these homes, and Isabella was reported as being a former domestic servant in the 1881 Census. Possibly, she started working for a family from Preston and then was taken with them back to Preston during the winter months.

Lathom was a hamlet in Lancashire, and Richard Cartmell was a joiner, so he would likely have moved to Preston to work.

** Used with the permission of Ancestry.com