Tubman
Author: Nev. Ramsden
The Tubman Family of Whitehaven
It would appear that the Whitehaven Tubman’s originated from the Parish of Bridekirk. There were two separate families arriving in Whitehaven, the earliest to arrive were the Henry Tubman’s; the second, and much later, the Robert Tubmans who came to Whitehaven via Cockermouth. In common with other early families in the development of Whitehaven commerce these Tubmans had an affinity with non-confomity in their religious outlook.
Elizabeth Tubman (1634-1702)
Elizabeth (Dickinson) was baptised 9 November 1634 , and married Richard Tubman of Muncaster Mill, on the 6th October 1656, at Tallentire, in the parish of Bridekirk, in the presence of Lancelot Fletcher. She was buried 11 June 1702.
Quite what happened here isn't clear. Richard Tubman moved to Tallentire, the ancestral seat of the Fletcher family, and became very prosperous, with his descendants becoming merchants and landed gentry.
As the marriage is recorded in the Bridekirk register, it seems that he was already at Tallentire before the marriage. Did he meet Elizabeth at that stormy day marriage of her sister in Tallentire a year earlier? Was William Dickinson impressed enough by this young man that he encouraged the match? Did Lancelot Fletcher encourage it?
See:
Extract from the Cockermouth Congregational Church Book, 1655-1659 :- Brother George Woods was laid under a “publicke rebuke” for “fighting with one Richard Tubman - following him foorth of his own house into the street at Ravenglasse & beating him etc.”
The Cockermouth Congregational Church Book (1651 - c.1765) Edited by R.B. Wordsworth, June 2012, 208 pages
……... Although Thomas Addison, Port Customs Officer for Whitehaven, did not for some time abandon the Parton dock proposal his opposition to Lowther became much more subdued, in spite of his nearby collieries ……..
The elder John Gale had taken the quarrel between the Gale & Addison families a stage further by laying information against the Addisons, as a result of which in 1679 an Exchequer Commission took many lengthy depositions at Whitehaven about their irregular conduct as Customs officers. Forty-eight witnesses deposed at the Commission concerning Thomas Addisons' trading and business activities. According to Robert Biglands statement, the “Addisons traded as merchants on a grander scale than any other in Whitehaven save their brother-in-law Henry Tubman”. Both John Gale and Tickell testified to the hold Addison had over the Ships’ masters by his employment of them in carrying iron ore to Ireland, a trade especially welcome in the summer when demand for coal slackened.
taken from - Sir John Lowther 1642 to 1706 – Christine Churches, her University Thesis
Motives of Honour ………
When merchant Edward Tubman of Whitehaven first approached William Fauntleroy of Lancaster County in Virginia in 1748 about selling a cargo of goods for him in return for tobacco, William was initially reluctant, explaining that his experience was limited to selling small amounts of goods that he had imported on his own account. Tubman persisted, however ...
The Forgotten Trade [meaning the trade in slavery] …………..
Merchants of the port, reluctant to commit themselves to a full-scale Guinea voyage, kept their hand in the business by way of the re-export trade. Joshua Dixon and Edward Tubman financed the voyages of the Griffin of Whitehaven to Barbados and then with slaves to Rappahannock, Virginia in 1741 and 1743.
……… The second iron project based on [Whitehaven] merchant capital was at Maryport. A seven-man consortium leased from Humphrey Senhouse a site adjacent to the river Ellen, in order to erect furnaces and forges. At least three of the partners - Edward Tubman, John Gale and Thomas Hartley — were Whitehaven merchants; a furnace began to blow at this site in 1754 - but no forge was ever erected
...see:- Coal and Tobacco: The Lowthers and the Economic Development of West Cumberland 1660 to 1760... By J. V. Beckett, Professor of History, University of Nottingham