Swordhouse

(not to be confused with the Sword House on the south side of the Esk at SD149991)

(I think I have read somewhere that the name may be derived from a displayed(?) sword which was the means by which the tenant originally gained his customary tenancy - ie tenancy granted against the obligation to turn out for military duties.)

Plan of Sword House from Reference 1
Figure © reproduced by courtesy of Angus Winchester
from Deserted Farmstead Sites at Miterdale Head, Eskdale, by Angus J.L. Winchester
(CWAAS 1979 pp150-155)

Early Stevynsons in Miterdale were Nicholas Stephenson whose purchase of 20 lambs from Sir John Pennington is recorded in Sir John's commonplace book 1493 - 1511 and John Stevynson who was tenant at the time of the 1547 general fine. However the occupier of the property at Mytterdailhed in 1547 was John Nicholson.

It seems probable that the Stevynson's property then was Sword House which was occupied by Nicholas Stevenson at the time of the Percy Survey of 1578, which states

Nicholas Stevenson (within age) - tenement, barn & other buildings, 3 little parokes adj. + the Myre (little close) (1.5a), 1/3 share of the Younge Field (3a), 1/3 share of the Cragg Wood + Gill Wood Side (2 parcels of wood ground, 1.5a), with common: rent 6/-, also 1.3 share of improvement in the Brust (3r): 2d, Eme Garth: 2d. Total 6/4 yearly.

(N.B. 'within age' means that Nicholas was less than 'full age', in this context (I believe) less than 16 years old)

Another Nicholas Stephenson was admitted to Sword House in 1617, (D/Lec/299) following the death of his father William and was recorded as tenant in the general fine of 1633 following the death of the Earl of Northumberland.

Nicholas must have acquired the neighbouring property, Browyeat, from Nicholas Nicholson since in 1654 he surrendered Browyeat to his younger son Robert who, in turn in 1656 surrendered Browyeat to his brother Nicholas Stephenson. It is probably about this time that Nicholas moved to Yoadeparke (which he would have rented from the Pennington family) where he died in 1665. Presumably Nicholas (the younger) continued to farm both properties. In 1665 the ailing elder Nicholas surrendered Sword House to Robert who, though he moved to Plum Garth in Irton by 1676, retained Sword House and was tenant in 1674

(Nicholas' son, Nicholas, retained Browyeat but probably took over the tenancy at Yoadeparke since his children after his father's death were baptised at Waberthwaite. By 1685 he had moved to Crosbythwaite above Ulpha having first mortgaged Browyeat to his brother Robert and then sold it to John Hudson, the tenant at Low Place.)

In 1719 Richard (Robert?) Stephenson was admitted to Swordhouse following the death of his father Thomas Stephenson of Northwich, Cheshire. In 1720 he mortgaged the property for 7 years (to Philip Stanley). The mortgage was renewed in 1723 following Philip Stanley's death.

In 1730, James and Rebecca Stephenson of Chester appoint an attorney (Isaac Stephenson of Cockermouth) to surrender Sword House lying in Mytredale. This suggests a continuity of Stephensons at Sword House since 1578 and probably at least a century earlier.

Brown's survey of 1758 implies that Sword House (and Browyeat) had ceased to be inhabited before 1758.¹

In 1733 Henry Hartley surrendered Sword House to William Copeland of Miterdale Head
(C.R.O. D/Lec/Dimissions Book 1723 - 1733)¹. However Henry's children continued to be baptised from Miterdale until 1738, when he moved to Spout House at Boot.

At the time of the General Fine of 1750 it appears that William Coupland was the tenant (as well as of both parts of Miterdale Head) . In 1756 he requested permission to fell three small trees for timber for gates and bars on the farm but the occupier was actually William Dickinson. The Couplands appear to have lived in Whitehaven. The property had passed to John Coupland by 1760 and in 1774 was inherited by another John who in 1779 sold Swordhouse (with Miterdale Head) to James Russel, yeoman of Bankhouse, Eskdale. (Is this the same James Russel who was at Bakerstead in 1760?)