Early Life
Phoebe Walton was born on the 25
th December 1796. There were a few Phoebe Waltons born in Cumberland around this time, but we know that this is the right Phoebe because obituaries for her husband (
Hugh Lee Pattinson) remarked that he and Phoebe shared the exact same birth date. This being the case, baptismal records show that Phoebe was the daughter of
Thomas Walton and
Margaret Walton, residents of
Nest, a hamlet outside of
Alston in Cumberland..
Family Life
The
Waltons were evidently a major family in
Alston; indeeed, it's possible that the family itself originated from that town. The will of Phoebe's uncle
Jonathan Walton names many brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces (including quite a few illegitimate ones), indicating a very large wider family. The following extract from the
Newcastle Courant, 4
th October 1878, gives us some more flavour on Phoebe's family.
The late Mr Hugh Lee Pattinson is said to have married the prettiest girl around Alston, and her name was Phoebe Walton. Of her parents Dr Lonsdale says they were a hearty lot of fellsiders, were small landed proprietors, and long held the estate called "The Nest". Phoebe’s grandfather, John Walton, was a liberal minded jolly personage, who took a leading part in all the sports and fun of Alston Moor, and was known as "the old Cock of the Nest." He held large shares in mines, and when he and his partners found a good vein of ore, they brewed a peck of punch in its honour, generally on the Saturday or pay nights of the miners. Unfortunately, this jollification of the laird’s was apt to extend over Sunday and Monday— nay, Tuesday sometimes witnessed his “homeward bound” — and then he feared to encounter the ruffled feathers of his “Nest” mate. Approaching very cannily the threshold by a small flight of steps, he would open the door of the house and cry "Mary, lass," then throwing his cocked hat into the kitchen, where he expected his spouse Mary would be sitting in the "doldrums," would ask, "is that welcome, Mary? If there was no response after repeating the question, the silver-headed stick followed the cocked hat, and "Is that welcome then, Mary?" On the first trial of this mode of conciliation on the part of the “Old Cock,” who had absented himself for three days, Mary was in no melting mood, and sat silently. Finding no welcome, jolly John picked up his head-gear and stick and returned to Alston for another carouse. This was a home lesson not lost on Mary, who, being appealed to on similar occasions, would call to John, standing behind the door, "Come in wi’ thee, thou ne’er- deeweel, and hae some tea;" and all was straight again.
Apparently
2, the
Waltons were one of the initial mining families in the region, which was a lead mining area
4:
In 1780, Messrs. Walton and Co. bought a mine at Nenthead [a few miles NE of Alston] for £ 205, and, being fortunate here, they engaged in other subterranean adventures in Alston, and thus commenced a new era in mining... [A few years after 1796] another important improvement was introduced into Alston by Mr. Utrick Walton [possibly 1747-1842, Phoebe's great uncle], a respectable and successful miner. This was the crushing mill, which now forms so conspicuous an object in the washing floors of large mines....Mr. Walton, in returning from a mine to his residence at the Nest, near Alston, discovered in a burn a vein which had been laid bare by a recent thunder shower, and on the same day he applied to the Moor Master for leave to try it, which was soon after granted.
Phoebe married
Hugh Lee Pattinson on the 25
th of December 1815, in
Alston3.
Phoebe Walton was the observed of all observers at church and market, and the belle of the happy social meetings in and around Alston at Christmastide. She was tall and fair, with beautiful blue eyes; her brown ringlets adorned a splendid complexion; and, in short, she was a fascinating person. Of course she had lots of suitors, and the fact of her sometimes helping her brother, who had a draper’s shop in Alston, afforded bashful wooers and blither lads the double opportunity of buying handkerchiefs and courting the fair saleswoman.
Phoebe inherited the property known as
The Nest from her uncle Jonathan on his death in 1857
1. The estate
consists of two farms, Low Nest and High Nest, about 1.5 miles south of Alston itself.
Death
Phoebe died on the 6
th of April 1861 in
Newcastle, aged 64. The executors for her will were Thomas Bell (possibly her grandson, though this was a common name in the area) and Utrick Bainbridge (most probably her second cousin: Phoebe's grandfather
John Walton was the brother of Utrick's grandfather Utrick Walton...though it's quite possible there were multiple Utrick Bainbridge's because Phoebe's uncle Jonathan in his will refers to an Utrick Bainbridge as "my friend" even though Jonathan was 51 years older than the Utrick Bainbridge we are talking about here). One wonders why Phoebe didn't nominate her own son,
Hugh Lee Pattinson junior, to be an executor.
Footnotes
[1] From his will:
I give devise and bequeath unto my niece Phoebe Pattinson wife of Hugh Lee Pattinson of Scots House near Gateshead in the county of Durham gentleman all those my two Leasehold Estates Messuages and Tenements situated at and commonly called and known by the names of High Nest and Low Nest in the parish of Alston aforesaid with the Cottage houses and premises thereto belonging and appertaining All which Hereditaments are now in the occupation of Joseph Craig, Joseph Pickering, and Peter Bainbridge, and of Hannah Stephenson, Isaac Oliver and Jacob Peart as my tenants thereof.
[2] p 119-121,
An Account of the Mining Districts of Alston Moor, Weardale and Teesdale in Cumberland and Durham, by T. Sopwith, printed Durham 1833 by W. Davison
[3] From a profile of Hugh Lee Pattinson available at
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/special-collections//collections/daguerreotypes/worthies.pdf
[4] Alston gazetteer:
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CUL/Alston/Gaz1868
1796 - 1861 (64 years)
[1] 
