A rough survey of the place of residence named in the parish registers of the Fylde area in which instances of the name appear suggest that the families were firstly in Goosnargh, Plumpton, Wood Plumpton, Kirkham, Inskip, Lea and Eaves in the late 1500s and early 1600s onwards.
They appear to have spread into Garstang, Poulton, Out Rawcliffe and St Michaels by the mid to late 1600s and to Freckleton, Hambleton, Stalmine by the mid 1700s. Liverpool had attracted them from the 1700s and Manchester from the 1800s..
HAMBLETON
The earliest Lewtas found whose descendants can be traced to the present day with certainty is George Lewtas of Out Rawcliffe anf his wife Mary. George’s children are the ancestors of many of the modern day lines of Lewtas families. George was buried at Stalmine church on June 22nd 1674 and in his will he is recorded as ‘late of Out Rawcliffe’. His will gives the following information about his family:
GEORGE LEWTAS OF HAMBLETON died 1674
Children
1) William who was buried on 17th December 1679/80 in Stalmine; in his father’s will William is described as ‘my eldest son’;
2) John who married Jennet Anyon in 1686 Their children were George, Jane, Anne & Thomas
3) Elizabeth
4) Matthew the blacksmith, described in his father’s will as ˜my younger son’. There is a record of a baptism of Mathew Leute to George of Stallinge at St Michael’s on 23rd September 1666.
George’s will says ˜when they shall reach the age of one and twenty’ suggesting the children were minors when he drew it up
GEORGE’S SON MATTHEW LEWTAS – led to the Liverpool connection
Mathew was the blacksmith in Hambleton and George’s youngest son. In his will dated 1719 – Matthew died the following year – he left the tools of his trade to his eldest son George and made financial provision for his younger children John, William, Thomas and Ester, who were minors. His wife mentioned in his will is Alice – the entry in the printed parish marriage registers names his wife as Anne Fox, who Matthew married in Garstang. presumably Matthew married twice. He left property in Stalmine and in Out Rawcliffe and a house with outbuildings in Hambleton.
Matthew’s descendants led to the Lewtas family’s main Liverpool connection.
GEORGE’S SON JOHN LEWTAS – led to the Poulton connection
Their son Thomas moved to Poulton on the early 1720s and his descendants led to families in Manchester and Blackpool
GEORGE’S OTHER CHILDREN – WILLIAM died young and ELIZABETH has not yet been traced
Collectively known as probate records, wills and inventories are among the most useful and interesting sources of information about individuals in the past, while collectively they can give crucial insights into the social, economic and cultural history of communities.
In his will George Lewtas, ‘sicke in body yet of good and perfect memory’ requested burial in the church yard of St Michael’s, which was the parish church for al the area now known as Over Wyre. Then it was simply Out Rawcliffe and included the present day village of St Michael’s. George had messuages and several closes of land in Out Rawcliffe and in ‘Stallming Moss’ His wife Mary and his ‘eldest son William’ were to be his executors. His daughter Elizabeth, and two other sons John and Matthew may have been quite young when George died as he ensured the financial support for the ‘maintenance, education and bringing up of all my children
The inventory, which was required from the early 16th century in order to assess the charges of the probate court, was a detailed listing of all the goods and livestock of the deceased Inventories are the most important source we have for details of household goods and furnishings, farm animals and equipment, craft and trade items, the contents of shops, clothing of relatively ordinary people, and the money transactions which are represented by debts due and debts owed. Inventories were rarely made after the mid 18th century.
MATTHEW LEWTAS OF HAMBLETON
Matthew was the blacksmith in Hambleton and would have been in important figure in the community. As the heir of his father George he inherited the tools of the blacksmithing trade and in his will dated 1719 – he died the following year – he left these to his eldest son George and made financial provision for his younger children, John, William, Thomas and Ester, who were minors. His wife was Alice – it appears he must have married twice, Ann Fox being his first wife married 1697. He left property in Stalmine and in Out Rawcliffe and a house with outbuildings in Hambleton.
His grandson, another Matthew, was baptised at Hambleton on September 12th 1736 the son of Thomas and Grace Cowell. This Matthew moved to Liverpool where married Mary West at St Nicholas on June 19th 1766. Matthew moved from Over Wyre to live in Poulton sometime between 1788 and his death in 1797 Matthew Lewtas was elected as churchwarden for Poulton in 1788 and again in 1792 and in the jurors’ lists for Amounderness in 1792 he is recorded as living in Poulton with his estate in Hambleton.
When he died in 1797 Matthew was described in his will as ‘of Poulton’ As was the fashion at the time Matthew left his goods to a wide variety of family members and others in Liverpool and the Fylde including Thomas Duxbury of Bispham who was left £5. (Thomas was the son of John Duxbury and Mary Lewtas of Poulton the daughter of Thomas Lewtas who owned the Lane Ends Hotel in Blackpool).
Mathew’s wife Mary inherited her husband’s share in the partnership in the sugar house in Liverpool – Slater Richardson & Co., etc on the north side of Coopers Row extending to King Street; his house etc on the south side of Bridgewater Street and pew number 7 in St James church Stalmine. He had also owned the property in Hambleton known as Boggery Gate, unfortunately destroyed by fire in the 1980s. Matthew also left money for the school master at Hambleton As he requested both Matthew and later his wife Mary were buried ‘within the chapel or chapel yard’ of Hambleton.
MATTHEW’S DESCENDANTS IN HAMBLETON
Martthew’s descendants can be followed through the census returns. The 1871 census records Matthew’s descendant James Lewtas born 1819 in Rawcliffe, a timber merchant and farmer of 81 acres living at Boggery Gate with Elisa Sophia his wife nee Robinson born 1839 in Pilling. In the same census Benjamin Lewtas is recorded as living in Watson Lane, unmarried, aged 40, also a timber merchant born in Out Rawcliffe. By 1881 Matthew & Eliza Sophia had two sons Matthew aged 7 and Robert aged 6 both born in Hambleton.