Background
Author: Nev. Ramsden
The Hartley Family of Whitehaven
It is considered that the origins of the merchant family of Hartley originated in Bridekirk in Cumberland and that they came to Whitehaven during the 17th century.
Any reader with a particular interest in the Hartley families of Whitehaven should consult the following source which is held at the Whitehaven Record Office:
YDX 309/12, Hartley family papers - Correspondence, papers, copy documents, articles and photographs relating to the Hartley family of Whitehaven, Gillfoot and Moresby 17th & 18th century
Banks
“It may surprise readers to know that Whitehaven had one of the first banks in the country. An article in the Cumberland Pacquet of May 17, 1786 announces that the partners of this Bank would be John and Thomas Hartley, Henry Littledale and Samuel Potter along with a Mr Harrison, of London, and that the bank would open in Coates Lane. The Hartleys were a well known local family who had had a rope and twine manufactory in the town since the 17th century. They were also ship owners”.
Thomas, one of the founders, lived for a time in Howgill Street, then moved to Gillfoot, Egremont, where he became an ironmaster. John's son Milham lived at Rosehill, Moresby. Henry Littledale was a merchant who lived at 14 Scotch Street, now a solicitors office, opposite the Record Office. A relation, Isaac, was a candidate at the first contest for the Whitehaven parliamentary seat in 1832 ,when he was defeated by the Lowther nominee Mathias Attwood from Birmingham.
Dame Edith Brown, pioneer of medical education for women in Ludhiana, north India, was born in the Bank buildings, Coates Lane, when her father was the manager.
A second bank which opened in the Old Brewery in Irish Street was the victim of a daring robbery in January 1809. £500 reward was advertised for the capture of the four culprits. Two were soon apprehended and convicted at the Assizes, but the other two were still at large in November of that year when a further #500 reward was on offer, namely Thomas Spooner alias Willis and Richard Wright alias Black Dick, who had absconded from Birmingham jail in the February.
This private bank was established in 1786 as Hartley, Littledale, Hartley & Potter. The partners were brothers John and Thomas Hartley, merchants; Samuel Potter, a draper; and Henry Littledale. It was also known as Whitehaven Bank. In 1837, when known as Hartleys & Co, the bank was converted into a joint stock bank, the Bank of Whitehaven.
The detailed list of the Banks name changes:-
Hartley, Littledale, Hartley & Potter in 1786
Hartley, Littledale & Co by 1796
Hartleys, Potter & Co by 1810
Hartley, Hartley, Harrison & Hartley by 1829
Hartley, Hartley & Harrison in 1834
Hartleys & Co in 1837
It was also known as the Whitehaven Bank.
taken from: https://www.rbs.com/heritage/companies/hartleys-and-co.html
Biographies
Milham Hartley
4th Dec 1771 - 30th May 1839
Mortgagee and owner of enslaved people in Jamaica, and banker and industrialist of Whitehaven, part of a family of merchants and ship-owners with some participation as slave-traders in the 1760s. Partner with his brother Thomas Hartley II and his nephew Thomas Hartley III. Millham Hartley inherited a 1/5th share in the bank then known as Hartleys - Potter under the will of his father John Hartley, proved 29/01/1816.
Born 1771 at Whitehaven, son of John Hartley and probably nephew of Thomas Hartley I. Milham Hartley, of Rose Hill, High Sheriff of Cumberland 1818, married Mary [Lewthwaite] of Broadgate, Millom, at Whitehaven 1799. The couple had several children, all baptised Whitehaven St Nicholas: John (1800-45); Mary Ann (b. 1802), married Anthony Benn 1842; Milham (b. 1805); Isabella (1806); George (1808); Gilfred William (1810-74), married Margaret Randleson, daughter of a banker in the Whitehaven Joint Stock Bank; Isabella is believed to have died by 1839 as she was not mentioned in her father's will.
Milham Hartley was reportedly one of the founders of the Joint Stock Bank of Whitehaven in 1818, originally Hartley’s Bank founded 1786 by his father and uncle John and Thomas Hartley [although the RBS Heritage site shows the conversion to a joint stock bank only in 1837]: he was certainly a partner in the bank. Milham's principal business was the Ropery at Corkickle/Coach Road, Whitehaven. The family had connections to the Armitsteads, a prominent local family. Richard Armitstead Jnr was a solicitor who operated in Jamaica at the beginning of his career.
The death of Milham Hartley was registered Q2 1839 at Whitehaven RD and was buried at Moresby. The Will of Milham Hartley of [Rosehill] Moresby Cumberland was proved 30/08/1839. In the will he left freehold land at Moresby to his son John Hartley, together with his half interest in real assets and business of the ropery at Corkickle/Coach Road in Whitehaven held by Thomas and Milham Hartley & Co.; he left further property in Whitehaven including the counting house and warehouse of Thomas and Milham Hartley to his daughter Mary Ann Hartley, together with £15,000 in consols.; he left his son Gilfrid Willam Hartley the Rosehill estate and £10,000 in consols. and his son George £8000 in consols.
Thomas Hartley II
1766 - 1831
Partner in Whitehaven bank of Hartleys & Co., with his brother Milham Hartley (q.v.) and with Thomas Hartley III, probably his son.
The will of Thomas Hartley of Gillfoot Cumberland proved 20/05/1831 identifies him as the brother of Milham Hartley and his wife as Anne, the daughter and heir of Thomas Hartley [I] [and hence presumably his first cousin]. It was attested by Thomas Hartley of Gillfoot, not further identified but apparently his son. In a codicil Thomas Hartley II he mentioned that he had given £2500 to his son Grayson Hartley before the latter's departure to New South Wales. An Arbitration award had followed the death and intestacy of Thomas Hartley I of Gillfoot 06/06/1815. Gillfoot - Egremont
Thomas Hartley III
1803 - 1855
Partner in Hartley's bank at Whitehaven, nephew of Milham Hartley (q.v.), and probably son of Thomas Hartley II.
Tentative identification as grandson of both John Hartley of Whitehaven and Thomas Hartley I of Gillfoot (d. c. 1815) who had been the co-founders of Hartleys & Co, in which Thomas Hartley III was a partner.
taken from - Legacies of British Slave ownership, published by the University College of London
Thomas Hartley
1841 UK census for Gillfoot shows Thomas Hartley merchant aged 38, Georgeanna Hartley (née Rimington) aged 22 and Georgeanna Hartley 3 mo.
1851 census shows Thomas Hartley Magistrate aged 48, at Gillfoot, Egremont, with George Anna [sic] Elizabeth his wife aged 37, Georgeanna Louisa 10, Caroline Mary 8, Ann 5, Thomas 5, Adline 2. The death of Thomas Hartley is shown at Whitehaven RD Q2 1855.
The will of Thomas Hartley of Egremont was proved 21/07/1855. He confirmed his settlement of the penal sum of £10,000 to secure his wife's annuity of £500 p.a. and left each of his children other than his eldest son (who was his residuary legatee) £5,000 each.
Free Settlers and Felons
Grayson Hartley was born in May 1807, the second son of Thomas Hartley of Gillfoot, near Whitehaven.
He arrived in the Australian colony, with another young man, Joseph Rookin on the Medway in December 1829, having departed Liverpool on 28 June. The two men formed a partnership and probably had high hopes for the future. Both were granted land on in the Williams River district but neither of them were destined for a long life.
Grayson Hartley resided at Minchinbury. On 19th December 1830, he and Francis Watkins were robbed while travelling by gig to Parramatta. Two men rushed from the bushes with fire arms at the ready and robbed them of money and other belongings. The bushrangers were William Webber and John Walmsley, former companions of the notorious Bold Jack Donohue. While Donohue had been shot and killed in 1830, these two had escaped and continued with their robberies. This was not a violent robbery and there was quite a conversation between the two bushrangers and their victims.
Francis Watkins when interviewed later as a witness at the trial of Webber stated that when they found out who Mr. Hartley was, they would not have stopped them, but would have let them pass by unmolested. He then returned Mr. Hartley's watch and other articles which he had previously taken, although he kept the money. When asked by Watkins what induced him to lead such a life, Webber replied that starvation and tyranny were the cause in the first instance, which caused him to take to the bush and that it was then too late to retire.
Walmsley was sent to Van Diemen's Land in 1832 and Webber was later hanged for his crimes.
Grayson Hartley went on to marry Sophia Peash in April 1835 and by 1837 had moved to Maitland. He was robbed by his former assigned servant James Kelly during the night of 25th June 1837. For his crime, Kelly received a sentence of death recorded with a recommendation that the sentence by commuted to transportation for seven years.
Grayson Hartley died on the 1st October 1838 at Maitland and was buried in the Old Glebe cemetery. He was about twenty-nine years of age.
taken from:- https://jenwilletts.com/index.htm