Children of Jane and John Hewitson

"The Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford," through their attorney or agent, William Paver, of Peckfield, Milford Junction, have during 1870 made the following claims, which they have enforced by distress warrants upon the respective parties:—

On Mary Ann Hewitson and Hannah Hewitson, of Headingley.

For this the following articles were taken:—

[ . . . ]

The parties suffering these distraints are members of the Society of friends, who, believing in the freedom of the gospel ministry, and that all compulsory payments for religious purposes are opposed to the teaching of the New Testament, have, with their fellow-believers for long above 200 years, conscientiously refused to pay all such demands.

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DEATH OF A LEEDS "LADY BOUNTIFUL."

The death has occurred, at the advanced age of 97 years, of Miss Mary Ann Hewitson, of Woodlands, Headingley, Leeds. The deceased lady was well-known in the city as a friend of the poor and a helper of charitable institutions. Among Miss Hewitson's earliest recollections were the celebrations at Newcastle when George IV. came to the throne. She came to Leeds in 1852 with the rest of her family. A few years later her brother, who had worked as a draughtsman in the foundry of Lord Airedale's father, was admitted a partner to the firm. Miss Hewitson was a Quakeress.

BOUNTIFUL LEEDS QUAKERESS.

A Leeds Quakeress, Miss Mary Ann Hewitson, has died at the age of 97 years, at Woodlands, Headingley. She was well known in the city as a friend of the poor and a helper of charitable institutions.

Among Miss Hewitson's earliest recollections were the celebrations at Newcastle when George IV came to the throne. She came to Leeds in 1852 with the rest of her family. A few years later her brother, who had worked as a draughtsman in the foundry of Lord Airedale's father, was admitted a partner to the firm.

BEQUESTS TO LEEDS.

TOTAL OF £6,400 TO VARIOUS CHARITIES.

The executors (the Right Hon. Robert Spence Watson and Mr. Edward Watson) of the late Miss Mary Ann Hewitson, of Woodlands, Headingley, Leeds, who died on the 28th day of September, 1907, inform us that by various testamentary dispositions she bequeathed the following legacies to the undermentioned institutions and societies:—

The Friends' Foreign Mission Association, £3,000; the Friends' Bedford Institute, £2,000; the Medical Mission, Constantinople, £1,000; Friends' School, Ackworth, £1,000; Leeds Public Dispensary, £500; Leeds Tract Society, £500, United Institution for the Blind, Deaf, and Dumb, Leeds, £500; Leeds City Mission, £500; Leeds Benevolent or Strangers' Friend Society, £500; Leeds Unmarried Women's Benevolent Institution, £500; British and Foreign Bible Society, £500; Anti-Slavery Society, £300; Aborigines Protection Society, £300; Protestant Italian schools visited by members of the Society of Friends, £300; Dr. Barnardo's Homes, £300; Hilton Crèche, Stepney, £300; Leeds Guardian Home, £200; Leeds Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society, £200; Newcastle-upon-Tyne Aged Females' Society, £200; British and Foreign School Society, £200; Leeds Hospital for Women and Children, £200; Belle Vue Mission, Paris, £200; the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, £100; the Headingley Orphan Homes, £1,000; Newcastle-upon-Tyne Preparative Meeting of Friends, £200; Leeds Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends, £300; Allendale Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends, £200.

Mary Ann Hewitson was the eldest of the three children of John and Jane Hewitson, née Watson, of Allendale, where she was born. Her parents removed to Newcastle when she was five years old, and the last fifty-four years of her life were spent in Leeds, whither she came with her family in 1853.

Her father was a "convinced" Friend, and his children were brought up in a carefully guarded manner. His younger daughter Hannah showed signs of "love for dress" which was duly admonished. She was very proud of a little purple silk umbrella which was given to her, and the first time she used it she was tripping lightly along holding it up, when, alas, a sudden gust of wind wrenched it from her grasp, and carried it over the tops of the houses and out of sight for ever. She was told it was "a judgment" on her "vanity." She mourned its loss in silence.

When eleven years of age, Mary Ann Hewitson was sent by stage coach to Ackworth School, where she remained for four years without a holiday. She was very loyal in her attachment to the school, and would never own that it was a mistake to have no holidays, though she frankly admitted that she was homesick for a year after going, with the prospect of four years there before her. After leaving school she resided at home, helping her mother in the care of her sister, who was six years her junior, and whom she looked upon as a child to the end of her life. She entered fully into the life of the young Friends of that day, living in the midst of a large circle of relatives and Friends, among whom a considerable share of nursing fell to her lot, in the days when there were no trained nurses, and when the care of the sick was lovingly shared by those who had leisure in the Meeting.

When forty-two years old Mary Ann Hewitson removed to Leeds with the rest of her family. Her father died two years later, and in 1863 it was a great blow to the sisters to lose their only brother. For ten years the two sisters were almost entirely cut off from social life, being in constant attendance on their invalid mother, whom they faithfully and lovingly tended till her death in 1870 at the age of ninety-five. When their task was over, it was found that they had been by no means narrowed during these quiet years; their hearts were full of loving sympathy and they again became regular attenders of meetings for worship and church affairs, and took a keen interest in everything connected with the Society of Friends. They were diligent readers of Friends' books, and read and re-read such lives as Daniel Wheeler, Stephen Grellet, James Backhouse, Joseph John Gurney, and many others, and could relate many anecdotes of the wonderful faith and power of the early Friends.

Mary Ann and Hannah Hewitson continued to reside at Woodlands, standing in its beautiful grounds. Of simple tastes and habits themselves, they looked upon their ample means as held in trust from their Heavenly Father, and it was their constant desire to use them in His service. For twenty-five years they employed a Bible Woman Nurse among the poor in Leeds, and no deserving case she brought to their knowledge was ever sent empty away. And it was all done so quietly and unostentatiously; the writer remembers their refusing to subscribe their names to a circular for a local colliery disaster, and the following day giving her £10 to slip into the collection box for them at First-day morning meeting for the same cause.

In 1894, Hannah Hewitson had a paralytic seizure, and passed two happy years before the call came for her. Her room was the brightest spot in the home, and many happy hours were spent with her. In conversation one day, she said that she had done "one very naughty thing," which she had "regretted" all her life; on being asked what it was, she said, "I was walking along the street with my mother, when I was a little girl, and I took one currant from a shop window, and I have been sorry that I did it ever since."

In 1896 for these two, who seemed so inseparable, the time of parting came, and Hannah Hewitson was taken to her Heavenly Home. It was touching to see the elder sister thus left at eighty-five to pursue her journey alone, but she was surrounded by those who truly loved her, and she bravely held on her way. She loved to be read aloud to, till increasing deafness made it difficult for her to hear. Her favourite chapter was the seventh of Revelation, which she used to ask for every day. When Friends visited her, and had "a little message" for her, on being asked sometimes if she had heard, she would reply, "Not all, but I could feel it."

As years crept on, she became more and more helpless in mind and body, but when she realised who her friends were, when they called on her, her loving welcome was the same as of old. To those always about her, her mind seemed clearer, and only a few days before her death she sent a message to the little boy whose life had been linked in with her own so happily during the last few years of her life, and who was from home for a few days: " Tell little Jamie I have asked God to bless him." A few hours of discomfort in breathing, and then her gentle spirit winged its flight to Heaven; so peaceful was the close, that her loved ones standing by her could scarcely tell when the end came.

Truly of these two sisters it can be said. "The memory of the just is blessed." There are many who have cause to thank God for their hallowed lives, and the memory of them will ever remain sweet and sacred to those who came in contact with them.

MARY ANN HEWITSON (scholar 1821–5), daughter of John and Jane Hewitson, née Watson, was born at Allendale, Northumberland, in 1811, and lived nearly ninety-seven years. The family removed to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, when M.A. Hewitson was five years old. From there she was sent to Ackworth by stage coach, and she stayed at school four years without ever going home, and only on one occasion did she see her father.

In 1852, along with her father, mother and sister, M.A. Hewitson removed to Leeds to join her brother William Watson Hewitson, who was a draughtsman at Airedale Foundry, Leeds. After seven years he was admitted a partner in the firm of Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson, engineers. The home at Woodlands became a centre of hospitality in which the sisters took their full share. Throughout her long life M.A. Hewitson was keenly interested in everything that affected the welfare of the Society of Friends. She and her sister were diligent attenders of Meetings for Worship and Discipline. On their brother's death, in 1863, the management of his affairs devolved upon the two sisters. Their own wants were simple, and they were, therefore, able to gratify their large hearted and generous dispositions in giving freely to others.

M.A. Hewitson's sister Hannah passed away eleven years ago. It is interesting to note that her mother died at the age of ninety-five, so that the period covered by the lives of mother and daughter was 132 years. Mary Ann Hewitson died on the 28th of September, 1907, aged nearly ninety-seven.

Returning to Newcastle, he entered his father's business. It soon became clear, however, that his interests and abilities lay elsewhere, for in his spare moments he was always drawing models of details of machinery and locomotives.

LEEDS REFORMATORY SCHOOL, ADEL.— [ . . . ] The Reformatory School at Adel is, we think, most creditable to the designer, W.W. Hewitson, Esq., and the other members of the committee who have superintended the building along with him. The site is very eligible, and the interior arrangements are most commodious. It is adapted to contain about sixty inmates,—a considerably larger number than was at first contemplated. [ . . . ]

[ . . . ] came to Leeds in 1852 with the rest of [his] family. A few years later, [having] worked as a draughtsman in the foundry of Lord Airedale's father, was admitted a partner to the firm.

IN CHANCERY.

TAYLOR & OTHERS v. TAYLOR & OTHERS.

And in the Matter of an Act of Parliament passed in the Session held in the 19th and 20th Years of the Reign of her present Majesty, and entitled, and Act to Facilitate Leases and Sales of Settled Estates. And of the Estates Settled by the Will of Joseph Taylor, Deceased.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that a petition in the above-mentioned Cause and Matters was, on the 11th day of June, 1858, presented to the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, by JOSEPH TAYLOR, praying that the conditional agreement therein set forth, dated the 17th day of March, 1858, as modified by an agreement of the 1st day of April, 1858, for a Lease to JAMES KITS, ISAAC THOMPSON, and WILLIAM WATSON HEWITSON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineers, of part of the residuary real Estate of the Testator, Joseph Taylor, therein mentioned, consisting of certain Plots or Parcels of Land, situate at Hunslet, in the Parish of Leeds, in the County of York, coloured blue, red, and yellow on the Plan, annexed to the Agreement dated the 17th day of March, 1858, with all Buildings and Erections erected thereon; and also the Boiler, Steam Engine, Going Gear, Stocks, Shafts, Pipes, Machinery, and other Apparatus, to the said Premises belonging, with the Appurtenances, may be approved of, and that his Lordship will be pleased to direct that a lease carrying out the terms of the said Agreement of the 17th day of March, 1858, as modified by the said Agreement of the 1st day of April last, may be executed by the said Joseph Taylor, as Lessor, or by such other Person or Persons as Lessor or Lessors as to his Lordship may seem fit upon the said James Kitson, Isaac Thompson, and William Watson Hewitson, executing a counterpart of such Lease, or that his Lordship may make such further or other order in the Premises as to his Lordship may seem fit.

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THE LATE MR. HEWITSON.—The obituary in our paper of to-day contains a notice of the death of another of those self-helpers who have reflected honour on Newcastle. Mr. William W. Hewitson, of Leeds, was the only son of the late Mr. John Hewitson, of this town, cheesemonger. Being a member of the Society of Friends, he was educated first at Ackworth School, and afterwards at a school in Kendal under Mr. Samuel Marshall. He then for a short time was employed in his father's shop, but showed little inclination for mercantile pursuits. His desire was to become an engineer, and eventually with great reluctance his father consented to his going into the works of Messrs. Stephenson & Co.; but thinking that this step was only from a passing whim, he made it a condition that his son should be employed in the same manner as the sons of working men. The lad desired nothing more; and during his apprenticeship he might have been seen daily going to and returning from his work carrying his tin can amongst the crowd of operatives who at certain hours darkened Fort Street and the other streets in the neighbourhood of the manufactory. On the expiration of his apprenticeship, Mr. Hewitson went to Leeds in search of employment. He first became foreman, and afterwards a partner, in the large works there known by the name of the Airedale Foundry, which have been lately carried on in partnership by himself and Mr. Kitson, the lat Mayor of Leeds. Mr. Hewitson was also a partner in the firm of Richardson, Duck & Co., of Stockton, shipbuilders; and a few years ago he became connected with Mr. Fowler, the inventor of the Steam Plough; and to his scientific knowledge and indomitable perseverance are owing many of the improvements which have recently been made in that important invention. Mr. Hewitson had for some years suffered from the effect of exposure whilst a young man in the way of his business; but he had so often rallied from the attacks of illness, that the intelligence of his death, which took place at his beautiful residence at Headingley on Thursday last, came suddenly and unexpectedly. His was an honoured and honourable life, and he has left a mother and two sisters, and a large circle of attached friends, to mourn his loss.

THE LATE MR. WILLIAM WATSON HEWITSON.—A few days ago our obituary recorded the decease of Mr. William Watson Hewitson, of the firm of Messrs. Kitson and Hewitson, locomotive engine builders and general engineers, of this town. Mr Hewitson came to Leeds about twenty-seven years ago, an unknown young man. He was employed for a while as draughtsman in the house of Todd, Kits, and Laird, and on the dissolution of that firm he joined Mr. James Kitson in establishing the works now so widely known as the Airedale Foundry. Along with engineering abilities of a very high order, Mr. Hewitson possessed uncommon talent for organising and conducting complicated business on a large scale. The eminent success of his firm has contributed to gain for Leeds its high position in what is now one of its important industrial departments. Apart from his rare scientific and business capacity, Mr. Hewitson was a man of sterling worth, of singularly kind and amiable disposition, and possessed a refined and cultivated taste. His benevolence found scope in a sedulous attention to the interests of the public schools of the Society of Friends, to which religious body he belonged. He was one of the founders of the Adel Reformatory, and we believe he himself designed the plans for the building in which it has been so successfully carried on. The funeral of this much-lamented gentleman took place yesterday, at the Friends' Burial Ground, Camp-lane-court, and was numerously attended by his fellow-townsmen, as well as by the workmen of the Airedale Foundry, whose stamp of respectability and intelligence must, we think, have impressed all who witnessed the mournful procession.

"The Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford," through their attorney or agent, William Paver, of Peckfield, Milford Junction, have during 1870 made the following claims, which they have enforced by distress warrants upon the respective parties:—

On Mary Ann Hewitson and Hannah Hewitson, of Headingley.

For this the following articles were taken:—

[ . . . ]

The parties suffering these distraints are members of the Society of friends, who, believing in the freedom of the gospel ministry, and that all compulsory payments for religious purposes are opposed to the teaching of the New Testament, have, with their fellow-believers for long above 200 years, conscientiously refused to pay all such demands.

[ . . . ]