History of Cumberland and Westmoreland (1860)

It’s A History and Topography of Cumberland and Westmoreland actually. And a title page inside goes further:  A History and Topography of the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland.

But the title I’ve gone with is quite long enough!

It has some interesting things to say about Cumbrian folk, including their drinking habits and cleaniness!

Port Carlisle

It is kind of perceived wisdom that prior to the Carlisle canal (1823), the village of Port Carlisle  comprised just Kirkland House farm and The Binnacle inn.

This doesn’t work for me, as Hesket House (the Steam Packet) was built c1790.

One source for the ‘just Kirkland House and the Binnacle’ claim was written in 1860 and claims

“less than 30 years ago, it (PC) contained only two houses”.

The source is a hefty tome called A History and Topography of Cumberland and Westmoreland. It is only slightly smaller in length/width than an A4 sheet of paper, and runs to 896 pages.

There are sections on: ancient history and antiquities; on geology; a ‘geographical description’ (including a list of 248 bridges); on local government/national representation; and botany.

But the bulk of the book looks at places, by parish, starting with ‘The City of Carlisle’ and ending with Kirby Lonsdale parish.

And it is not a reliable source for anything!

Who wrote the book?

A History of Cumberland was compiled and published by a man called William Whellan, of Pontefract, Yorkshire.

A description of him shows up in a bankruptcy hearing, a year after the book was published:

William Whellan, formerly of the Union Mill, Pontefract, in the county of York, Corn Miller, Farmer, and also a Compiler and Publisher of Directories and Historical Works on his separate account, and latterly in copartnership with William Edward Bownas, under the style or firm of William Whellan and Company, and frequently residing in Rochdale-road, Manchester, superintending and directing the printing and publishing of the above-mentioned works.

London Gazette, Jan 25, 1861.

‘Utterly worthless’

The Gazette notice mentions ‘historical works’ plural, and Cumberland and Westmoreland wasn’t the first.

In 1850, the Northampton Mercury reported a court case between Wiliam Whellan and an Edward Dunkley. It related to a copy of A History, Gazeteer and Directory of Northamptonshire. 

Edward Dunkley had ordered a copy, but when it was delivered he refused to accept or pay for it. 

The defence was that:

‘the book was so incorrect as to be utterly worthless’.

Various witnesses then told the court some of the errors. These range from the names of landed proprietors being wrong, to key information and people being omitted,  to places being wrongly ascribed to certain parishes.

This volume also contained a map that was also inaccurate, and also mis-spelled some place names.

One told the court:

“I have not found a parish correct.’

The defence was:

‘it was impossible for such a work to be absolutely correct, but that did not affect the general value of the work’.

The judge found in favour of Edward Dunkley, and referred to five similar cases – other men who’d refused to pay for the book because it so full of errors.

And again…

In 1855, William Whellan published A History, Topography and Directory of the County Palatine of Durham &c.

The Durham Chronicle pointed out that two railway stations had been mixed up, and the city directory contained several errors. But thought it wasn’t bad for something put together without the supervision of people who were ‘intimately acquainted with the district’.

Charitable, but not a great endorsement.

History of Cumberland and Westmoreland

William Whellan credits named people for some sections of the book. But the parishes section is a complilation, by him, from multiple sources. 

It must have been a mammoth task to source all that information, especially in the mid-1800s. But unless he’d learned from the mistakes of the Northamptonshire and Durham editions, it would seem A History and Topography of Cumberland and Westmoreland was largely cobbled together from multiple sources, with no fact-checkers to verify it.

So, how accurate is it?

Fact-checking the 896 pages of History of Cumberland is not a task for the faint-hearted! And much of it would be impossible to verify. But ‘dipping in,’ I can make some observations. Starting with the ‘history’ section, by Thomas Wright – which is somewhat partisan in places, in favour of his own pet theories and dismissive of other people’s.

The parishes section is uneven. Some parishes include anecdotes about local characters/legends. Some are really lengthy, others very brief – not always due to the size/importance of the parish, but simply what information William Whellan was able to lay his hands on. 

And it is not above personal opinion – whether his, or someone else’s.

The clean people of Garragill

If residents of Garragill got hold of a copy, they’d have been pleased to read:

‘the inhabitants of Garragill are a remarkably clean people’.

And for sure, they’d have been able to read this, as the author put their cleanliness down to them being ‘favoured with a good and cheap education’.

Careless in Holme Cultram

If folk in Garragill felt patronised, the ‘strong, shrewd’ folk in Holme Cultram parish may well have felt insulted. For the book opines that they didn’t bother with feast days:

‘they only revelry in which the careless and irregular among them are wont to indulge is the revelry of the village alehouse’.

Meanwhile, Camerton’s men are ‘hard-working, but very illiterate and prone to drink’. But Stainton is ‘remarkable for its salubrity and the longevity of its inhabitants’. While St John’s-in-the-Vale is somewhat mixed: 

‘a shrewd, sensible and primitive set of people, remarkably peaceable, honest, and upright in their dealings’.

I did spot one that was downright rude about the local inhabitants (deemed dull and stupid, due to the place being isolated, to paraphrase). But it was on an initial ‘flick-through,’; I didn’t bookmark the page, and it would take a lot of reading to find it, to say where.

Back to Port Carlisle (!)

I started this by talking about the (to me) doesn’t-add-up idea of Fisher’s Cross comprising just Kirkland House, and the Binnacle. This is because  History of Cumberland makes that very claim.

As the book is all second-hand sources, it can’t be an original claim, I suppose. But where was that claimed before? And by whom?

And is A History and Topography of Cumberland and Westmoreland the source which has been used ever since to repeat the claim?

For sure, given William Whellan’s zero-fact-checking, I wouldn’t put any store in his ‘History’ as a reliable source for anything!