THE LANGTON FAMILY of TEETON and RAVENSTHORPE

Elizabeth Leatherland (nee Langton)

Elizabeth Langton married Samuel Leatherland in Claybrook, Leicestershire in 1818. Samuel was from Monks Kirby, Warwickshire.  She was described as spinster of this parish.  Samuel signed the register, but Elizabeth was unable to sign so she made a mark. In the 1841/51/61 censuses, Elizabeth said she was born in Ravensthorpe, a Northants village roughly midway between Northampton and Rugby - although in 1861 she gave her place of birth as Teeton, a hamlet of Ravensthorpe one and a half miles west of the main village.

I have not found Elizabeth Langton's baptism in Ravensthorpe. She should have been born around 1795.  But there are a number of Langtons in the area during the 19th century. Indeed some members of the family were prominent local landowners and figures. Elizabeth Langton married a humble farm labourer so I am not quite sure how she fits in with this.

I have started a mini project to find out more about the Langtons of Ravensthorpe.

                                            Ravensthorpe

Ravensthorpe has a number of historic buildings and structures, including twenty-nine Grade II listed buildings, and eleven Grade II listed walls. These include: Coton Manor (a seventeenth century manor house with a datestone of 1662), the Old Forge House (two houses, now joined as one dating from the mid 18th century), Fieldside (a former farmhouse with a datestone of 1733), the Church of St Denys (whose tower has 13th century origins), and various barns, farmhouses, stables and walls. In 1871 its population was 701 comprised of 155 houses.

Teeton is a hamlet of Ravensthorpe. Teeton Hall is a late 18th century house. The Old Stone House near the entrance to Teeton Hall was formerly Teeton Hall Farm. It was built in the 17th century and still has many 17th century features. It is reputed at one time to have been used as a court house.

                                       Langtons in Ravensthorpe

There are no Langton baptisms in the first half of the eighteenth century in Ravensthorpe. But there were fifteen baptisms in the neighbouring village of East Haddon : eleven to William and Martha Langton between 1710 and 1721, and four children to William and Ann Langton  between 1729 and 1745. There are a number of Langton baptisms in Ravensthorpe during the later 18th century

Thomas Langton, Esquire, and his wife, Susannah, had nine children between 1762 and 1778 (although the two earlier Anns probably died in childhood). Thomas is described as Esquire, meaning that he was a gentleman / member of the local gentry. They seem to have lived in Teeton and probably married around 1760/62, although I have not found their marriage.

There are no male Langton marriages in Ravensthorpe between 1700 and 1837, but there is a marriage of Richard Henry Langton of Teeton in Barby in 1803. There were several female Langton marriages in Ravensthorpe as follows : 

Susanna Langton o.t.p. to Revd William Brotherhood of Rowell (by licence) 1805

Elizabeth Langton o.t.p. to Henry Bullivant Esquire of Guilsborough (by licence) 1809

Jane Langton of Ravensthorpe to Thomas Lockton o.t.p. Church Brampton (by licence) 1810

The 1814 New Monthly Magazine reported the death of John Langton Esq aged 81 at Teeton House.

The Old Stone House, Teeton (formerly Teeton Hall Farm)

                      

                                                      The Old Stone House, Teeton

At the time of writing, the Old Stone House in Teeton is currently on the market for sale for £650,000. The sales particulars describe it as “a handsome 17th century house, listed Grade II refurbished to a high standard and offering a wealth of period features in this popular village".It describes it as an imposing 17th century house constructed in ironstone with mullioned and stone cross windows, listed Grade ?. The Old Stone House was formerly Teeton Hall Farm and is sited near the entrance to Teeton Hall.

                                   Teeton House in the Censuses

The censuses show that the Langtons were substantial farmers and landowners.  There follows a list of Langtons in Ravensthorpe and Teeton in the census years :

1841

Thomas Langton (70) – farmer

Stephen St Peter Langton (25) – no occupation, born outside Northants.

William Blencoe (15), Susannah Brotherton (70), Mary Wright (40), Martha Hickman (20), and Elizabeth Marsh (40).

1851

Thomas Langton (83) widower, farmer of 300 acres employing four labourers at Teeton Mill (born Teeton) 

William Langton (70) ag lab and his wife Esther (77) at West Haddon (born Ravensthorpe).

R. Henry Langton (76) and wife Mary, in Spratton. Henry was an annuitant (living off the income of an annuity). He was born in Teeton.

Brooks Langton born Teeton 1820 with wife and children in Bryans Lodge, Teeton. His elderly widowed mother Ann Langton also living there (age 68 pauper, born Hollowell).

Thomas Powell (72) widower, landed proprietor and farmer of 289 acres employing four out labourers and three in labourers. He was living in Ravensthorpe with his 30 year old married daughter, Louisa R Langton, and 6 month old granddaughter Louisa I Langton.  Louisa was married to Stephen St Peter Langton.

1861

William Langton (80) widower ag lab, at the Alms House, Town Street, West Haddon, born Hollowell.

Thomas Langton (78) widower ag lab, also at the Alms House, Town Street, West Haddon, born Hollowell.

Elizabeth Langton (55) widow, born Watford Northants, with three children all born West Haddon (the son was an ag lab, the daughters lace makers) at Town Street, West Haddon.

Thomas Langton (54) widower, retired farmer, born Barby, in Spratton as lodger in household of Charles Tyrrel (tailor).

Brooks Langton (42), married ag lab, born Teeton, with wife and children, at Spratton.

Perridge Langton (45) married farmer of 116 acres employing one man and two boys, born Whitton.

Mary Langton (44) married needlewoman, born Ravensthorpe.

1871 Census

Brooks Langton (51) an ag lab with his wife and a daughter in Teeton Village. It was noted in the census that the daughter suffered from epileptic fits.

Mary Langton  (45) a widowed charwoman (the census seems to say 'chairwoman') with two sons and a daughter at Chequer Inn, Ravensthorpe.

1881 Census

Louisa Langton (30) and her mother Louisa R Langton, were at Teeton Hall, no occupation but both in receipt of “income from land and dividends”, both born Ravensthorpe with four servants.

Brooks Langton (61) an ag lab with his wife and daughter in Teeton.

Mary Langton (56) a char woman born in Coton. Living with her were her two sons both ag labs in their twenties and her daughter who was an unemployed housemaid.  One of her sons, Joseph, remained in Ravensthorpe and appears below in later censuses.

1891 Census

Joseph Langton (38) an ag lab, with his wife Ann, three daughters, two sons and a lodger in Village Street, Ravensthorpe.

1901 Census

Joseph Langton (47) and his wife Annie still in Village Street, Ravensthorpe. He was a labourer in the waterworks. They had four daughters and two sons between the ages of 2 and 12.

This was the only Langton family in Ravensthorpe or Teeton.

1911 Census 

Louise Isabella Langton (60) a widow of independent means, born Ravensthorpe, living with a companion and three servants in Teeton House.

Joseph Langton (57) a labourer was living in Ravensthorpe with his wife Annie and four children. They had been married for 30 years. The two boys were 12 and 14 year old errand boys.

The Northants Record Office holds deeds, manorial records, family and estate papers (including papers of the predecessor Breton family) for the Langton family of Teeton (from 1200 to 19th century). In due course I hope to find out more from these papers.

Stephen St Peter Langton

I own a unique handwritten unpublished book of poems by Stephen St Peter Langton. The sale particulars said : “UK, Unpublished. First Edition. Half-Leather, 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Approximately 200 pages, of which the last half or so is unused. The first half of the book contains a unique collection of unpublished poems by Stephen St. Peter Langton (1814-1851), all beautifully compiled in a small copperplate handwriting".

He is said to have been born in 1814 the great-great grandson of John Langton of Teeton, Northants, educated at Guilsborough Grammar School and later at Oakham School before going up to Oxford.

The notes with the sales particulars of his unpublished poems said that he was born in 1814, that he was the great-great grandson of John Langton of Teeton, that he was educated at Guilsborough Grammar School and later at Oakham School, and that he  studied at Oxford. I have not yet verified all this.

In the 1841 census Stephen was 25 years old living at Teeton House with his father 70 year old Thomas Langton. In 1847 at the age of 33 he married Louisa Rebecca Powell in Ravensthorpe. She was the daughter of Thomas Powell, a landed proprietor and farmer of 289 acres who (in the 1851 census) employed four out-labourers and thirteen in-labourers. The marriage certificate described Stephen as a Gentleman residing in Teeton, his father Thomas Langton was also a Gentleman. Stephen and Louisa had a baby daughter also Louisa born in 1850. 

In the 1851 census we find Stephen away from home occupation “XXXX of miner”, staying in Caldbeck, Cumberland as a visitor in the household of William Jefferson, a mining agent. This census said he was born in Carmarthenshire, Wales. (I have not yet found his baptism although the IGI has a baptism of a Stephen Langton, father Thomas in Cornwall 1819). 

Tragically, Stephen died in Cumberland in September 1851 at the age of 37. The cause of death on the death certificate is hard to read but was some sort of fever.

I notice from internet book searches that a bookseller has a first edition of 'The Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York' by Daniel Defoe (1810 - two volumes) for sale. Both volumes are said to be signed by Stephen St.Peter Langton on the title pages on February 7 1822, with a family bookplate in the front of volume 2.

There is further evidence of Stephen St Peter Langton's occupation in a book 'The Gentleman's Annual Diary with Almanack for 1849' which has his name as owner in the front and contains a diary and cash accounts, all fully filled in with a fine Victorian hand in ink. The accounts section include cash accounts for three companies : the Whitbeck Mining Co, Barlocco Co and Driggith Company.

In March 2010 the Northants local press ran a story that various Lordships of the Manor were being sold including the lordship of the manor of Teeton. The Northampton Chronicle reported that : “Teeton village is in Ravensthorpe parish and is bordered by Guilsborough, Spratton, Creaton and West Haddon. The manor was held for five centuries by the Breton family, before being sold to John Langton after a failure in the male line in 1714. His heirs then conveyed it to the Agar-Robartes family, of Cornwall and Cambridgeshire, in the 19th century, under Lord Robartes, an extremely wealthy banker who later became Viscount Clifden.”

                                                Teeton Hall

Teeton Hall is a Grade II listed building dating from the late 18th century. The www.listedbuildings.co.uk site says : “House. Late C18, by W. Smith. Lias ashlar. 3-unit plan. 2 storeys with attic; 3-window range. Central C19 sash entrance, flanked by C19 stone mullioned bays. Plain sashes at first floor with stone lintels and keystones. Centre bay breaks forward. Moulded stone cornice with gables above. Ashlar quoins and string course to each bay. Brick stacks at ridge. Later C19 wings to right. Rear originally 3-window range with gables. Central C19 porch with pediment of chequered brick. C19 stone mullions with cross transoms. Datestone 1870 on rear gable probably date of remodelling. Similar C19 wing to right. Interior: Fine C18 staircase with turned balusters, 3 to each tread; moulded cornice to entrance hall and first floor landings.”

                            Bosworth (Highgate House) Collection

The Northants Record Office holds the Bosworth (Highgate House) collection. The catalogue description says that the Bosworths lived at Highgate House in Little Creaton.  Highgate House was an inn on the main Northampton to Market Harborough road, malting, brewing and serving its own beer and providing limited accommodation to travellers. There was also a leasehold farm attached. The family papers mainly span the 19th Century and are dominated by the letters of two successive and overlapping generations.

Thomas Wright Bosworth, 1805-1856, his wife Matilda, nee Pearson, his unmarried sister Clara Bosworth at Cheltenham and his widowed brother in law, the Rev. John Owen of Thrussington, Leicestershire, form the focus of the older generation.

In the second are Thomas Wright Bosworth's five children, his eldest son Thomas Jones Bosworth, b 1843, Henry Wright Bosworth of Loughborough, a solicitor, 1847-1908, Col. Arthur Bosworth of the West Indian Regiment, 1852-1898, Helen Maria, Mrs Richard Worthington, b.1842 and Mary Louis, the wife of John Frederick Homan, rector of Chicklade, Somerset, b.1849.

Also conspicuous are their older cousins, the two daughters of the Rev. Owen, Selina and Matilda, the latter marrying the Rev. Henry Smith of St. Albans. The girls were old enough to be prolific correspondents with their uncle and aunt. Their letters in particular paint a vivid picture of life in Thrussington and mention many neighbouring Leicestershire families they were on calling terms with. Arthur Bosworth's letters home from Jamaica in the 1870s also stand out and he filled a book with notes on the history of the West Indian regiments. Arthur died of sun stroke in Sierra Leone in 1898.

Thomas Jones Bosworth's wife Annie left a series of diaries between 1877 and 1890 and a journal of her childrens' progress through the years 1882 to 1909. Their son Thomas Owen Bosworth, a teacher at Northampton Grammar School, was a notable geologist but sadly few of his papers survive in the collection.

One non member of the family features significantly amongst the papers, the Rev. Thomas Jones, 1745-1845, who lodged on a permanent basis at Highgate House. Jones was curate of Creaton from 1785, curate of Spratton between 1810 and 1825 and finally rector of Creaton from 1829 to 1833. He was an influential evangelical in the Church of England at a national as well as a local level who was instrumental in founding the first Bible Societies and who translated the Bible into Welsh. Amongst his papers are a notebook which includes the beginnings of an autobiography, and an 1811 census for Spratton and a diary for 1796-1799. Letters dominate again and are mainly addressed to Clara Bosworth between 1813 and 1840. Jones's biography was written in 1851 by the Rev. John Owen and a copy can be found in the Record Office library.

The collection includes papers from several related families as set out in the appended family trees and they naturally feature heavily in the correspondence. Thomas Wright Bosworth took his second name from his mother's family, the Wrights of Holdenby. Mrs Bosworth's father, Joseph Pearson ran a City business from Aldersgate Street and had himself married a Wright. Amongst the Pearson papers are letters concerning the death of a brother, George, in Spain in 1841. Preserved also is a little family history, a copy of a vivid report by Captain Richard Pearson of his engagement at sea with the American John Paul Jones in 1779. From the younger generation comes a double connection with the Worthingtons of Peckleton in Leicestershire, Thomas Jones Bosworth and his sister both marrying into the family. Matilda Owen married the Rev. Henry Smith, the son of neighbours of the Bosworths in Little Creaton. Smith became vicar of Christchurch, St. Albans and his autobiography of 1886 contains wonderful, descriptions of the Creaton neighbourhood, Thomas Jones and the Langtons of Teeton Hall as well as his own family. Letters from their children, the Rev. Henry Powell Owen Smith, vicar of Douglas, Lancashire and Mrs Luisa Isabella Salt occur in the main collection. Mrs Salt describes her time as a nurse in India in the late 1880s. A large part of the archive relates to executorships and trusteeships held by Thomas Wright Bosworth mainly for the Abbott family who were cousins. These consist of the executorship of the late John Winns Abbott of Barby who died in 1828 and trusteeships for his sister Mrs Sarah Pearce of Daventry and London, 1828-1832 and his granddaughter Matilda Bosworth Abbott, later Mrs Thomas Langton of Teeton, 1840-1841. A long run of bills from Daventry and Barby tradesmen represent the winding up of J.W. Abbott's affairs.

Thomas Jones Bosworth managed the Teeton hall estate for Miss Louisa Langton and there is a series of informative letters from her about matters at Teeton between 1877 and 1885. These include a plan of the garden. Bosworth moved from Highgate to Cadeby in Leicestershire in 1883. Later they moved to Peckleton, then to Leicester and on to Northampton.

                           Lost Langtons Family History Website

There is a Langton family history website www.lostlangtons.co.uk which is packed full of interesting Langton information. A feature on Northamptonshire Langtons is promised for the future. There is a brief reference in the coat of arms section which looks at Lincolnshire Langtons. The site shows the arms of Sir Thomas Langton who was Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1762.

The site says that the Langtons of Teeton did not seem to appear suddenly there around the time of the Sheriff. Apparently the family had lived in the area east of Teeton for generations, moving gradually toward Teeton over the years, appearing in the villages of Ravensthorpe, Haddon, Long Buckby, and Whilton.

There is no doubt given the shield that these Langtons were of Lincolnshire originally.