THE FIRST HENRY STOBERT 1787-1862

Henry Stobert, baptized at the Independent Chapel at Horsley in 1787, married Eleanor Hall at St. Mary's Parish Church in Ponteland in 1820. By the way, there are many different spellings of Stobert, for example, Stobart, Stobbart etc. Henry and Eleanor had two sons, George born about 1822 and James who was baptized at St. Mary's in 1825 when his father Henry was described as a miller. There was another marriage of a Stobert in Ponteland in 1815 when Thomas, a younger brother of Henry who was also a twin, married Margaret Potts.

We needed to find out when the Stoberts came to Ponteland and the Land Tax returns were searched for their names. This tax was paid on properties according to their rental value. The first listing was for the Messrs Stobert in 1817 when the tax due was 11s.4d on the property they rented in Ponteland. The next year 1818 it was £1.10.8 which suggests they were renting a larger property. Was it then that they took on the mill? We don't know if the brothers came together to Ponteland nor indeed what happened to Thomas and his wife since there are no more records of them at Ponteland. A Dissenting Certificate was found for Henry Stobert's house in 1824 when it was licensed as a place of worship for Dissenters of the Denomination of Presbyterians of the United & Associate Synod of the Secession Church!! What are we to make of that? The picture is further complicated because in the same year Henry was listed as a member of the Vestry. The Vestry was twenty four men of the parish charged with running its affairs, mainly collecting the parish rate and then paying out to the poor, for the church and for the upkeep of the highways, a forerunner of the Parish Council. In 1836 he was a churchwarden of St. Mary's.

In 1827 there were three estimates, to Edward Collingwood the owner, for a complete refurbishment of the mill with new timber and new machinery all costed at just over £200. The miller was an essential trade and bread was the staple food. The Napoleonic wars had ended in 1815 and the Corn Laws introduced to keep out foreign corn and to keep bread prices high. Food shortages, high prices and low wages were aggravated by bad harvests and there was agricultural depression as well as a lot of civil unrest in the first decade of peace.

Henry died in 1862 aged 76 years and we know little about him except that he was a miller and it was his son James who was to take up the Methodist cause in Ponteland. It does not seem that Henry was involved in the beginnings of Methodism in the village.

We date the beginning of Methodism in Ponteland from the date of the first license to worship in the west end smithy in 1814 The numbers of worshippers would only be small. We have no other records from this time but it is most likely that they were succored by itinerant preachers from Newcastle.

We know that in 1816, a license was given for worship in an unoccupied building in Ponteland belonging to Mr. Proctor Shotton. The license was sought in the names of Joseph Kyle. Edward Millins and John Pattinson and none other is recorded until the license for the chapel in 1842 .

The conviction of these early dissenters was strong and their numbers were growing so that a decision was taken to build a chapel for worship. There is an Indenture in our chapel archive dated November 1840 where we learn that the land, which was part of Clickem Inn Farm and called 'North Roods', was the property of one Thomas Dunn who sold it on to John Reay of Kenton in May 1840 and John Reay sold it on to the Trustees for £1 (one pound). The original plot was much smaller than the present premises and a building was erected and opened at Easter 1841. From another source, found by Alan Scott and dated 1861, we read that the church cost £190 to build and that the rent for seats brought in revenue of £4-18-0 per annum. The Reverend Joseph Fowler was the Superintendent Minister for the circuit and preached at the opening services. In 1851, there was a Religious Census taken and our next information is from this which is ten years after the opening of the chapel. The information is quite unexpected! We find that there were 70 free sittings and 50 others but that in the afternoon there were only 14 worshippers and the same number, probably even the same people in the evening.

The leader was a Michael Clipson who was a tile maker, originally from Lincolnshire. In Mr. Brown's schoolroom, the Coates Foundation, the Weslyan Methodist Reformers were meeting under the leadership of the young James Stobert . There were 50 worshippers in the afternoon and 60 in the evening as well as 10 scholars. This is the first time we have the Stobert name linked with Methodism in the records available but who were the Reformers and why were they not meeting in the chapel? This was a movement that broke away from the main body in 1849 over representation on governing bodies. Revolt was active in the North East and James Stobert's name is found on pamphlets produced in Newcastle. However by about 1856, the strands were united and presumably they worshipped within the chapel again.

James Stobert was only 21 years old in 1851 and this was the same age at which his son Henry in 1875 kept a diary of' his activities which is in our archives. Our next article will feature some extracts.

THE CHURCH DETECTIVES