WRATHALLS OF YORKSHIRE

In 1997, Milton Matthews of Salt Lake City (1919 - 2005) recalled that during a visit to Wetherby, Yorkshire (northeast of Leeds), he met two Wrathall sisters, one of whom was married to a wealthy auto wholesaler named Paul. They told him how they had toured the States in the early 60's, and had stopped in Grantsville, Utah (Milton's hometown) without realising how many Wrathalls had lived there.

Derek Wrathall of Skipton is currently active in research on Wrathalls of Lancashire and Yorkshire, possibly representing the oldest branch of the family. Roy Wrathall has been working in Halifax, and he recently had a chance to visit Derek near Skipton. Derek has some genealogical info that sheds new light on the Wrathall family tree and how various branches are related. Roy has posted much of that new info at his website, Wrathall Family Tree . I have also posted a version of Roy and Derek's descendancy .

Derek has worked out the link between his branch and that of John J. Wrathall of Rhodesia . To view the results of Derek's research so far into Wrathalls related to the Rhodesian branch, including census and birth certificate information, click HERE .

Derek has been collecting Wrathall data from quite a number of sources, including monumental inscriptions (see Roy's site ), marriage records, obituaries, births and other information. He is an expert in the Wrathall ancestral areas of Yorkshire and Lancashire thanks to his lifelong residency and engineering work throughout "Wrathall country", and has generously given me the results of his research so far.

Derek's information of John J. Wrathall of Rhodesia has been invaluable in clearing up the lineage of that branch, which is included in Derek's collection of Obituaries of Lancashire and Yorkshire Wrathalls .

Click HERE to view Derek's transcription of the Wharfedale Family History Group (WFHG) records for burial register for the parish church of St. Wilfrid, Burnsall in Craven (1813 - 1997), as well as memorial inscriptions from Burnsall and Utley. For more info on the WFHG, see Wharfedale Family History as well as the WFHG website at http://www.yorksgen.org.uk

Derek has been working with the records in the St. Catherine's House Index of births, marriages and deaths to extract data pertinent to Lancashire and Yorkshire Wrathalls. The St Catherine's House Index is compiled from the National records held at the Public Records Office, and copies are held on microfiche or film by the larger British reference libraries. Here is the list of Derek's extractions:

Derek has also been investigating the The Linton Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels for Wrathall burial and memorial information. He has provided a copy of the plan of the church (prepared by church member John Wright) which shows interior burials and memorials, and has also sent a photo of the Wrathall Memorial Window. Click HERE to view these two items. In addition, Derek has extracted Wrathall data for the period 1813-1878 for Linton Parish; click HERE to view the records.

Quite a bit of crucial information needed to link the various Wrathall branches together comes from the British census records, which start in 1841. Derek has been working on extracting Wrathall data from census records for Lancashire and West Ryding, Yorkshire. For an discussion to Derek's census work, click HERE . For a list of Derek's census extractions and other civil records, click HERE .

Derek has copies of the "Alehouse Calendar of Recognizance for the Wapentakes of Staincliffe and Ewecross in the West Riding of Yorkshire" for the years 1771, 1781 and 1803. For some extracts from this source, click HERE .

In late September 2000, Derek attended an exhibition in Burton-in-Lonsdale, produced by the Burton Millennium History Group, called "Glimpses of Burton's Past". Click here to read Derek's account of his meeting with a distant cousin at the exhibition (William E. "Ted" Wrathall), and how Ted is related to the Canadian Wrathalls via his father William Foster Wrathall (1886-1967). In July 2002, Derek sent an obituary and biography of John Wrathall (1845-1938), Ted's grandfather; click here to read it.

Derek sent a copy of a poem he obtained from one of the members of the Wharfedale Family History Group entitled "IMPROMPTU LINES On the death of LUPTON WRATHALL, of Appletreewick, on April 4th, in his 82nd year"; click HERE to read it, along with explanatory text from one of Lupton's descendants.

In Feb. 2001, Derek sent some information from poll-booth records for the election on May 11 & May 12 1835, taken from "The West Riding Poll Books 1835" in the series "Raymonds Original Pollbooks", published by SA & MJ Raymond, 6, Russett Avenue, Exeter, EX1 3QB. : Derek mentioned that in order to be eligible to vote at the time, one apparently had to have property of a certain rentable value, so these were the more affluent Wrathalls. These men were probably of the line whose names arose in connection with research mentioned by Peter Fattorini of Linton ; click HERE to read that reference.

In Mar. 2001, Derek mentioned that the WFHG had published a booklet, "Kettlewell St. Mary, Marriages - Baptisms - Burials 1813 - 1837". Click here to view Derek's extraction of Wrathall data from the booklet. In Apr. 2001, Derek sent some photos and an historical perspective of the Ingleton area, where his grandfather William George Wrathall built a bridge across the river Greta. Click here to view the photos and Derek's info on the bridge, Ingleborough and other related matters regarding William George's work. In May 2001, Derek sent more photos of William George and family; click here to view them.

At about the same time, Derek received information on Wrathalls of the Ingleton area from William Wallbank Wrathall ; Click here to read this data. In Feb. 2002, Marian Barrow (neé Wallbank) of South Craven, North Yorkshire contributed additional information on the Wallbank-Wrathall family, as well as two old family photos; click here to view the photos and read the data.

In May 2001, Derek sent extracts from the Register of Persons Entitled to Vote in Craven in the year 1885/6. He mentioned that it adds a little information in the gap between the 1881 and 1891 censuses; click here to view Derek's extraction of Wrathall data from the Register.

Myra Simmonds and Kathleen Hayhurst are two researchers interested in the Wrathall line. In May 2001, Derek sent charts that comprise some of Kathleen's research as of Sept. 2000; click here for Derek's discussion, an old family photo and Kathleen's descendancy of John Wrathall and Anne Pickersgill of Linton. In Jan 2004, Thomas Tomlinson supplied additional data pertaining to Kathleen's descendancy .

Myra Simmonds (who, like Derek, is a member of the Wharfedale Family History Group (WFHG)), has graciously provided us with the results of her ongoing research into her Wrathall ancestors. Two items transcribed by her have particular historical interest: the will of Henry Wrathall (Linton, 1677-1720) and the will of Henry's wife Susanna Wrathall (neé Lupton) (Linton, 1680?-1753). Myra has also prepared several descendancies of Linton Wrathalls, with associated historical notes and references; click here for Myra's discussion of her research.
In July 2001, Derek sent the aforementioned Linton records, as well as parish records for:

In May 2002, Derek was the presiding officer at the Sutton polling station in the local elections, and Colin Wrathall came in to vote. Derek later visited Colin, who introduced Derek to his father, Herbert Wrathall of Ingleton. In August 2002, Derek compiled information from Herbert, who is a grandson of Isaac Wrathall and Jane Mattinson, on his family tree; click here to read this data.
In Sep. 2002, Julie Wrathall (who can be reached at julie(at)wrathall(dot)go-legend(dot)net) sent the following info:
I believe that I am the great grand-daughter of Robert Wrathall of Farnhill Hall and the grand-daughter of his son Tom, who married Clara Augusta Hartley at St Andrew's Church, Kildwick on 6 October 1908. They had 4 children - Nannie, Jenny, Robert (Bob) and Peter (Cedric Peter) my father - all now deceased. Between them they had 10 children who are now scattered in North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire and Gloucestershire. Some of them have children. So much for the reference to the line dying out! Hope this adds to your extensive and fascinating info.
Julie's data has been added to the Descendants of John Wrathall and Elizabeth Leech along with that of her 2nd cousin Robert William (Bob) Wrathall of Leicestershire.
In November 2002, Derek Wrathall contributed new information about the family of William Wrathall of Linton that developed from an article Derek wrote for the Wharfedale Family History Group Newsletter. Click here to read how this branch has ties to Belgium, Canada and Switzerland.

In April 2003, Derek mentioned the following about meeting Josie Walsh, genealogist of Sutton, South Yorkshire:
Just over a week ago I was helping on our "stall" at a family history day in Skipton and during the course of the day had a look around the other stalls. On one I met a lady called Josie Walsh who has, she says, been doing family history research for over 30 years. She had name indexes for censuses and PRs in areas of interest to us so I had quite a conversation with her. The upshot has been that I have spent 4 hours at her house copying all the Wrathall information which she had produced and had waiting for me. Her filing system was very impressive. Also, she has given me all the information without any charge and kept me going with cups of coffee to boot. She lives in Sutton, but her son, who is the computer expert in the family, lives in Cowling and runs the Cowling website at www.cowlingweb.co.uk .
Josie supplied data from which Derek transcribed Wrathall information from the Kildwick ( St. Andrews) Parish Registers (1822 - 1919) , as well as some census information for 1891 and 1901.

In Dec. 2003, Denis Poole of Switzerland found some new information regarding Wrathalls of Keighley and Long Preston; click here to review his research.

In Nov. 2004, Arthur and Stella Wall and Anthony Wreathall contributed data on Wreathalls of East Yorkshire, indicating a connection between them and Wrathalls of Burnsall.

Also in Nov. 2004, Derek Wrathall found some information in the Lancaster library on the Cotton Mill at Westhouse.
Roy Wrathall of Mytholmroyd mentioned the following about a long-lost cousin:
I happened upon another member of the Wrathall family in October 2000. He runs a Shoe Repair shop in Todmorden. First impressions are that he links to my tree though I hope to confirm that when I collect my shoes!
Ian Harcourt Lewis had this query about in October 2000:
As time allows I think I would like a bit of help from you Wrathall lot. I spent many many years researching my family history, travelled the country, talked to people, scoured archives and libraries. Then one day ten years ago a cousin accidentally let it drop that I was adopted. A fact of which I was in complete ignorance.

Following the shock, I did trace my real family, and my mother's maiden name was Wrathall. They came from a little village near Huddersfield I believe. I could never get up the enthusiasm to start it all again. But now my daughter is coming up 21 and I always intended writing a family history for her birthday. Though I try to persuade myself otherwise I know that her interest will be in her 'blood' not my adoptive links.

Do you know of any Wrathalls in the Huddersfield area? Could I download a ready made tree?

Best wishes.

Ian Harcourt Lewis.

(Born David Thornton, or David Wrest, or David Wrathall, take your pick!!!!)_
PETER FETHNEY'S COMMENTS ON THE WRATHALLS

Peter Fethney is an historian of Grassington , a market town east of Linton in Wharfedale (see map ). Richard de la Fountaine founded and endowed the hospital in Linton. Peter mentioned that the Wrathalls were prominent contributors to the de la Fountaine Trust in the 18th century, having prospered as merchants and sheep husbandmen, and that they were stout yeomen of good reputation.