ABOUT THOSE STRICKLAND'S

Turns out to be a lot of reading here, so don’t  feel obligated.  I did want to explain my ties to the part of England we’ll be walking through, and why that makes this walk so dang cool in that regard. But it's become a little like a family history, and I expect if you aren't related to me, reading this is kind of like looking at other people's vacation pictures.

A caveat with all of this family tree stuff.  When you get back several generations, some of this stuff can be vague. Heck, I’ve heard of family tree surprises that turn up within the current generation. Point is, I might get to Sizergh Castle and find that, instead of the family tree I think I’ve discovered, my progenitors include some bastard child of Henry VIII or some other member of English royalty. If that turns out to be the case, then all bets are off, and my return ticket will have to wait until I get a chance to talk to Aunt Elizabeth and work out some arrangements. 

I’ve been lucky to have some pretty good documentation about Strickland's to use in putting some family tree stuff together. I did some work on this 3-4 years ago, out of curiosity, and also to leave some family tree information for Matt and Jo. My mother had some family history stuff she had put together. I also had learned over the years that Sizergh Castle was the home of some Stricklands, although it was news when I learned that my ancestry .  It turns out that there has been a lot of work done on “The Strickland's of Sizergh Castle” including a 300 page book of that name done in 1908, and reprinted since. With that as a start, and with Ancestry.com,  I was able to get a whole lot further on the family tree than I ever expected. 

The name “Strickland” is derived from an early Norse term, “Sterca-land”, “sterca” meaning young cattle. Sterca-land then was country where  young cattle were were found,  and in the 12^th century the area in northern England in what was then northern Westmorland county was known by that name.

The use of Strickland as a surname in my genealogy can be pretty much traced to a couple in Westmorland county in the late 12^th century.  Sir Walter de Castlecarrock (1151 – 1235), a large landholder in Sterca-land (Westmorland), married Lady Christiana (1152-1200) a member of the enormously wealthy Fitz Renfrid family. (For those of you following the geography, “Castlecarrock” was, and is, a village in northern Westmorland county) Walter changed his family name to reflect his manor, and became known as Sir Walter de Stirkeland. 

Walter, Christiana, and their descendants lived in the manors of Great Strickland and Little Strickland for several  generations.  During this time they sorted out the various spellings of their name. It took a lot of time, but they finally got it right. 

Meanwhile, in the southern part of Westmorland, outside of the town of Kendal, the Deincourt family had also been doing pretty well for themselves, including a large grant of lands from Henry II.  Henry II’s grant included Sizergh Castle, a large, fortified manor house.

Then,  in 1239, upon the death of her brother, Elizabeth Deincourt became the sole heiress of Sizergh Castle and other holdings, and Elizabeth dutifully conveyed these holdings in marriage to her husband. Her husband  was William Strickland, great-great-grandson of Sir William Strickland (nee de Castlecarrock).

Sizergh Castle has been the home of the Strickland family since.

(The writer will now pause to contemplate the deeper meaning of his ancestors acquiring a castle by marriage, a notion completely foreign to him.)

For the next  few centuries, the Strickland’s spent their time managing their holdings, occasionally raising armies for their king,  and trying to stay on the king’s good side. As a result, a couple were made Knights, and one Sir Thomas, who had the honor of bearing the Banner of St. George at the Battle of Agincourt, a major English victory in France in the Hundred Years War.

Also of significance during this period,  Sir William’s daughter, Joan (my 20^th great aunt), married Robert de Wessington. Robert and Joan were given a generous grant of lands from Sir William as a result of their marriage. Robert de Wessington is the ancestor of the Washington’s of Lancashire, England. Members of the Washington family ultimately moved to the colony of Virginia where one of their progeny, George ( 20^th cousin?) was instrumental in severing the ties with the old country, and ultimately became deeply involved in politics. Nice work, cuz.

Back in Westmorland, several generations later, on February 20, 1627, another Strickland was born, apparently at the castle. This Strickland was named Matthew.  In 1649, when he was 22, Matthew married a young lady from Liverpool, Elizabeth Golsom.

After their marriage Matthew and Elizabeth emigrated to the colonies. (I haven’t been able to confirm the date). They landed in Isle of Wight, Virginia, where Matthew , as a colonist, was granted some land. He took up farming (apparently tobacco) and  traded in land and tobacco until his death at age 69 in Isle of Wight. During their marriage, he and Elizabeth had a son, Matthew, the first Strickland in my tree born in Virginia.

This Matthew married, lived his life in Isle of Wight, Virginia, married Ann Braswell, and had several children.

One of those children, Sampson Strickland, born in 1757, married Christiana McKinney in Isle of Wight, and they moved to Wake County, North Carolina, apparently in search of better tobacco farming opportunities than the Isle of Wight offered.

Sampson and Christiana are my 5^th great grandparents. Their progeny lived and died in Wake and Johnston Counties in North Carolina ever since, until my father left North Carolina for Northern Virginia in the 1940’s.