The Rule Family

Ref. S2 

THE RULE FAMILY

See here for an alphabetical list of all surnames in the Rule pages with links to the relevant text.

PART ONE

 Jane Rule (1808-1876) became part of the Smart family story (see Ref. S1) when she married Sheena’s great-great-grandfather John Smart, a miller, 13.4.1832 in Wooler.  Jane came from a significant family of slaters and plasterers and this marriage was the conduit by which the Rule slating business at Wooler passed to the Smart family when Jane died 20.8.1876 (at Wooler).

As explained in the introduction to the S Series, our normal approach would not involve saying anything more about the Rules after this date, but writing more than 150 years later it is clear that if we presented no information about how the Rule family developed in that time we could hardly expect a modern Rule family researcher to readily connect with this website, something that it is intended to do.  After all, to such a researcher Jane Rule could be a 4-great aunt, possibly beyond what many researchers achieve in many branches of their research.

We therefore invite those who do not immediately recognise our Jane to look at Part Two [hyperlink] below where, as the phrase goes, “they may find something to their advantage”

Rule -Davy Family

Reverting now to our usual procedure, Jane Rule was the fifth child and fourth daughter of Robert Rule, slater, and his wife Mary Davy who married at Wooler 3.2.1799.  The very conscientious Vicar was in the habit of noting the parties’ antecedents, so we learn that Mary, a native of Wooler, was the daughter of John Davy (see Ref. S21).  At the time of the marriage Robert was 25 and Mary about a year older.  Like his brothers George and Joseph, Robert was a master slater in Wooler.  Robert and Mary had eight children, as set out in Appendix 1 hereto. He was on Vicar Haigh’s census of 1826 as a C of E adherent.  Robert Rule died at Wooler 1.12.1846 aged 73 and his widow Mary likewise 7.12.1850 aged 78.

Rule-Anderson Family

Robert Rule was the seventh child and fifth son of John Rule of Ford and his wife Mary nee Anderson (See Ref S22) who married at Ford 28.7.1759.  All the five sons who survived childhood became slaters, one setting up in Norham, one remaining at Ford, while the three youngest worked from Wooler.  The family’s details are given at Appendix 2 hereto.

Mary Rule died at Ford 5.5.1787, aged only 56.  By then, the eldest son, William Youngson Rule had married at Ford in 1783 just before his 20th birthday (hastened perhaps because his bride was three months pregnant).  They had their first child baptised at Ford but then moved to Norham.  When John Rule was widowed he was 54 and only one of his other four sons, i.e. John, aged 20, was perhaps out of his apprenticeship, the other three being 17, 14 and 12 years of age.  His daughter Mary was 25 and the fact that she had not, by then, got married suggests that her presence at home was much needed.  Mary no doubt became acquainted with her future husband, George Grey, while she was at Ford but only married (29.7.1791) after the family had moved to Wooler.   Why Wooler?  Well, it was a much bigger centre of commerce than Ford and we speculate that two of the younger sons may have been serving their apprenticeships with Wooler master slaters.  The trigger for the move could have been the youngest son Joseph reaching, say, 14 (1789) and becoming apprenticed likewise in Wooler.  This would mean Mary Rule and George Grey’s courtship might not have been stretched more than a couple of years or so.  When, in 1791, Mary departed back to Ford, the Rule family at Wooler comprised John 59, his mother Jane 90, George 21, Robert 18 and Joseph 16.  George married 1793, Jane died in 1796,  Joseph married 1796 and Robert married 1799.  John Rule was then 68 no doubt having passed over most or all of the  business to his three sons.  He eventually died at Wooler 28.12.1806, aged 74, and was buried alongside Mary at Ford 1.1.1807.

As Appendix 2 recounts, by the time of their father’s death, George and Joseph Rule had both been widowed, having between them nine children under the age of 13.

Rule-Turner Family

John Rule was a native of Rothbury, being the third child (second son) of Thomas Rule (sometimes “Ruil”) and Jane Turner (See Ref S23) who married there 4.6.1726.  They had a daughter and four sons in Rothbury, the details being at Appendix 3 hereto.  Jane was 24 when she married and, although we have not seen direct evidence of Thomas Rule’s birth or baptism, we believe that he would be of a similar age, in that he became an apprentice* stone mason 12.6.1716, presumably when he was just a teenager.

*We actually possess two-thirds of the Indenture document, a transcription of which appears at Appendix 4 hereto, with some information about his master’s family, the Lightens.  We acquired the document from the late Cosser Smart of Wooler.  With many other papers, it was tucked into an old pocket book or daybook belonging to the Rule business and dealing with the period December 1772 to January 1780.  This book and a later one for 1800 to 1805 (the George Rule Day Book) lay undisturbed for years in a pigeon hole of the desk that had been used in the office of the Rule-Smart business and came into Cosser Smart’s possession with the desk.

From the Indenture we learn that “Thomas Ruell’s” father was “John Ruell late of Wooler deceased, yeoman”, the latter indicating he was a leading citizen of the town but so far we have not been able to get any further back.

As to the local demand for stone masons, it may be relevant to note that in the 1720s Revd Dr Thomas Sharp, Rector of Rothbury had a tower built at Whitton, half a mile south of Rothbury, on the edge of the Simonside Hills, to provide employment for local stone masons.  Although known as Sharp’s Folly, it was a useful building in that the Rector used it for his astronomical observations.  Of circular ashlar construction, the Folly is some thirty feet high and originally there was a view of the sea from its top.

There is a family tradition that Thomas, Jane and their young family moved from Rothbury to Flodden Farm, which occupied a tract of land on the left or western bank of the river Till in East Flodden just across the river from Ford.  This was after the death (burial 1.2.1739 at Ford) of the previous incumbent, one George Rule. At that time Thomas Rule would probably be approaching 40.  The eminent Victorian Rule family chroniclers took it that Thomas was George’s son. Naturally, the apprenticeship document speaks decisively against that and there is also the difficulty that no offspring of George (and his wife Ursula Candlor whom he married at Ford 31.7.1693 and who survived him by about three years) have been found.  Nonetheless we are inclined to think the Thomas and George were related.  The late Brian Rule, a cousin who lived in Melbourne Australia, believed that the farm was the same one as described as “John Rule’s farm” in a survey plan drawn up in March 1763 and copied to Brian by Northumberland CRO.  This might have been to do with winding up Thomas Rule’s affairs, At that time, John, the second son, would be 31.

We may note that John Rule may well have had some involvement in the rebuilding of Ford Castle by Sir John Delavel in 1761.  It is John Rule who wrote up the earlier of our day books and also another one that a fellow researcher had.

Respected fellow researchers have cited burial entries at Rothbury for Thomas Rule 2.3.1761 and Jane Rule* in Wooler 28.8.1796, at the age of 95, no less!

*Rather convincing support for this lady being “ours” is a remark made in 1876 by George Rule^, agent, living in Newcastle upon Tyne, to the effect that his father, then aged 88, knew or had known seven generation of Rules.  He was referring to Thomas Rule (1787-1878) who had doubtless just met his new great-grandson William S., son of Joseph J, son of George, while being able to remember the funeral of “Nan” Turner when he was 9 years old.  She was his great-grandmother, his descent being through John Rule and Mary Anderson and William Youngson Rule and Ann Strother.

^”Effendi” Rule.

As the above footnote bears out, the Rule family has been subject to the attention of many assiduous family historians, starting in Victorian times and there is therefore a wealth of material relating to the generations that came after that of Jane Rule (Smart), the family spreading to Australia and Canada amongst other places.  So far, however, no one has produced clear evidence of the family’s origins prior to 1700.

November 2021

Appendix 1 to Ref. S2

Robert and Mary Rule Family

 Robert Rule, a slater, married Mary Davy at Wooler 3.2.1799.

They had children born at Wooler as follows:

 Mary Rule (1799 -1876)

Baptised 6.9.1799.  Married Thomas Thompson, joiner, [where? when?  Brian Rule said 1818 at Wooler but 1825 more likely].  They had five sons and three daughters, the youngest being born after Thomas died at St Andrews Newcastle (burial 25.7.1839).  In 1851 the widow Mary, with he five youngest children were near the eldest son George in Middle Street, Jesmond and she continued to live in Jesmond until she died at Wooler 1876 Q4 aged 77.  Thomas and MaryThompson had eight children as follows:

Son George baptised 26.3.1826 Gateshead.  1841 with the family at Prudhoe Place, St Andrews, Newcastle.  Became a solicitor’s clerk and married Newcastle 1848 Q3 Hannah Wilson, setting set up home in Middle Street, Jesmond.  They had a girl and two boys then 1864 Q4 Hannah died.  In 1871 George and his three children were sharing a house in Brandling Place, Jesmond, with his mother and his youngest sister Isabella Jane (both laundresses).  George died 1891Q2 aged 65.

Son Robert born 4.5.1827 baptised 10.6.1827 Gateshead. 1841 with the family in Newcastle.  By 1851 with brother Thomas with uncle John Rule at High Street, Wooler as a slater journeyman.  Married  at Wooler 1856 Q3 Jane Morton ( born in Wooler). In 1861 Robert was still in the house of John Rule with Jane (31) and their children Thomas 3 and Sussanah Jane 1.  Jane died 1864 Q3 and at some point in the next seven years Robert married Mary ??? from Lowick and we see him in 1871 at Market Place, Wooler as a slater and plasterer with her and the two children. There were numerous Robert Thompson-Mary marriages indexed at Newcastle and Tynemouth but none in Glendale.  Robert died 1879 Q1, aged 51 and in 1881 we find his widow Mary at Path Head, Wooler with daughter Susannah M, a 21 year old teacher.  Her profession is given as slating and plastering business and she has three boarders, one a young shopman, the others a 70 year old invalid lady and her nurse.  We have not seen anything of her after 1881.  Sussanah Jane married George Rea at Wooler 3.9.1883 and in 1891 they are at the post office in Market Place, he being  a 31 year old postmaster and china dealer (born in Wooler).  They had one child, Charles B Rea.  In 1901 George was still a postmaster at Wooler but ten years later a cook assistant in an ordnance factory in Elswick, where 19 year old Charles was an apprentice engineer.

Son Thomas baptised 2.11.1828 at Stamforham.  In 1841 with brother John at Wooler with grandparents Robert and Mary Rule.  In 1851 with brother Robert with uncle John Rule at High Street, Wooler as a slater journeyman.  In 1861 he was living at the Wooler High Street home of Jane Smart, his aunt.  He married in Glendale district 1862 Q3 Ann Young , a native of Kirknewton and the daughter of William and Ann, born 1835-36.  In 1871 they were living at Humbleton with one child.  By 1881 they had moved to Sea View, Newbiggin, with Thomas, still a slater, declaring himself to have been born at Black Heddon (between Stamfordham and Belsay).  They had four children by then.  They remained there – last seen in 1901.

Daughter Mary baptised 9.4.1830, as “daughter of Thomas Thompson and Mary Rule”.  1851 still at home as a washerwoman.  8.3.1857 at St Andrew’s Church,Newcastle, she married William Chilton, a joiner and son of William Chilton.

Daughter Catherine baptised 24.6.1832 Newcastle.  1851 still at home as a washerwoman.  1858 Q4 she married George Storey, a merchant and son of George Storey.

Son John born 1834-35 Newcastle.  1851 still at home then in 1861 (when last seen) back with mother Mary in Jesmond as a 26 year old widower.  Details of marriage not known

Son James baptised 18.2.1838 (residence: Prudhoe Place).  Last seen 1861 still at home as a clerk (in a hat maker’s).

Daughter Isabella Jane baptised Newcastle (residence: Prudhoe Street).  1861 still at home as a servant.  1873 Q2 at Newcastle she married Thomas Maughan.

John Rule (1801-1870)

Baptised 3.4.1801.  Slater who succeeded to the Wooler business on his father’s death in 1846.  We believe that he did not marry but an illegitimate child, Mary, who was baptised in 1823, was attributed to “John Rule, slater” and Mary Bolton, Spinster.  As John’s cousin, also John Rule (son of George) had died 18.12.1821, we presume that this event should be attributed here.  We have seen nothing more of either Mary Bolton or her child and at the 1841 Census John Rule was living with his parents. As neither of his slater uncles George and Joseph left sons who were involved, it is likely that all the Wooler trade gravitated to John.  At any rate the Censuses have him as employing eight or nine men.  He was one of the committee which raised funds (£189.11s.10d) for the installation of the Church clock in 1856, as the commemorative plaque there duly records.  He was also one of eight people present at a public meeting on 3 August 1857 to re-organise the water company.  He died 26.1.1870.

Margaret Rule (1803-1812)

Baptised 31.3.1803.  Died, aged 9, of croup, 14.6.1812.

Isabella Rule (1806-1882)

Baptised 5.2.1806.  Remained unmarried.  At Wooler Vicarage as a cook in 1851 and 1861 and at High Street in 1871 and 1881 with her sister Barbara.  Died 2.12.1882.

Jane Rule (1808-1876)

Married John Smart at Wooler 13.4.1832.  Sheena’s g-great grandmother.  See main text and Appendix 3 to the Smart Family story.

Barbara Rule (1810-1886)

Baptised 29.4.1810.  Remained throughout at the High Street, Wooler, house, keeping house after her parents’ death for her brother John, then, after his death, having sister Isabella with her.  Died 28.2.1886

Robert Rule (1812-1812)

Baptised 26.6.1812.  Died at 4 months old 26.10.1812

Margaret Rule (1815-1816)

Baptised 22.11.1815. Died aged 8 months 1.7.1816

Robert Rule, father of the above, died at Wooler 1.12.1846, aged 73 and his widow Mary likewise 7.12.1850, aged 78.

October 2025

Appendix 2 to Ref. S2

John Rule and Mary Anderson Family

 John Rule married Mary Anderson at Ford 28.7.1759, where they had children born and baptised as follows:

Jane Rule (1760 – ?)

Born 6.7.1760, baptised 15.7.1760.  We know nothing more about her. 

Mary Rule (1761- 1816)

Born 25.11.1761, baptised 13.12.1761.  Married at Wooler  29.7.1791 George Grey of Ford, carpenter (banns at Ford 10.7.1791).  They seemed to have had five children when living at Ford Forge, as below, but given the gap before the family appear, we wonder if there were some older children baptised in a dissenting chapel.  Mary Grey (“of Ford Forge”) was buried 1.5.1816, aged 54.

Daughter Eleanor baptised 25.12.1796 the mother Mary described as “Dissenter born”.

Son William born 17.12.1799, buried Ford 27.12.1799

Daughter Mary baptised Ford 26.5.1800

Son John baptised Ford 11.11.1802.  A gardener, he married 23.5.1829 at Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury, Sarah Owen a native of Wem, in that county, her parents being William and Mary.  They later moved to St Asaph, Flintshire, and he finished as a nurseryman in West Derby, Liverpool.  They had five children

Son George baptised Ford as “3rd son” 29.3.1805.  A slater, seen in 1851 with a wife Jane, aged 47, a native of Tweedmouth anda daughter Mary, 17, born at Ford.  Lodging there was William Wilson, a Presbyterian Minister born in Scotland.  This strongly suggests that apparent absence of vital dates is due to them being dissenters.

William Youngson Rule (1763-1818)

Born 21.11.1763 baptised 25.12.1863.  We understand that it was customary for a tradesman’s son to be apprenticed away from his own family and we think that William Youngson served his time as a slater in Norham and then promptly married a Norham girl, Ann Strother.  Although the 26.10.1783 marriage was at Ford, banns were read at Norham.  This suggests that although Ann still lived at Norham, her family no longer lived there.  It is our belief that Ann Strother was the daughter of Roger Strother (and his wife Eleanor Bone) who lived in Norham at least up to the time he was widowed in 1878, after which he moved to Berwick.  This explains any references to Ann being from there.  The baptism at Norham 20.11.1760 was registered as Agnes.  As we have found no further reference to any possible Agnes we think that the registered name is an error, perhaps because of not being written up at the time but from a rough note or list some time later.  Significantly, the 1760 date fits in with an image of a tombstone in Norham churchyard (but no longer there) witnessing to the death of William Youngson Rule in 1818, aged 55, and Ann Strother in 1831 aged 71.  In setting forth the above we are reassured by a 1962 study by the late Julia Latham, a formidable Rule historian.  Furthermore we note that William Youngson and Ann named their first and second sons John and Roger which are the grandfathers’ names, according to the above.

William Youngson Rule was not quite 20 when he married and with John, their first child, arriving rather soon after the marriage we assume that they started off living with William’s family at Ford, which was where John’s baptism took place, but after that they settled at Norham. Numerous fellow researchers are or were descended from this branch.

William Youngson and Ann Strother had eight children:

Son John born 17.4.1784 at Ford.  Slater, married (1) at Norham 1.2.1802 Eleanor Dixon, daughter of George Dixon, Curate of Norham.  Son William Youngston (sic) born 21.11.1803 at Norham and baptised 27.11.1803.  Eleanor died 19.12.1803 and William Youngston died 21.4.1804.  John married (2) 3.8.1806 Margaret Hall.  They had eight children at Norham.

Son Roger born 27.4.1786.  Buried 7.12.1786.

Son Thomas born 27.12.1787.  Slater.  Married Mary Eadington (at Alnwick?), the daughter of Peter Eadington and Alice.  They had ten children at Norham.  Mary died at Norham 1858 Q4 aged 69 and Thomas’s death was registered 1878 Q2 when he was 91.

Son George born 25.11.1799.  Died 1822?

Daughter Mary born 8.1.1793.  Nothing more known.

Daughter Eleanor born 16.3.1795.  Married David Eadington, a miller and the brother of the above mentioned Mary.  They had four children born at New Mills, Alnwick.  David died there 18.8.1841, aged 49 or 50 and Mary died in 1863 at Denwick Mill, where their only son Peter was the miller (as well as farming), aged 68.

Son William Youngson born 12.8.1797.  Said to have emigrated and died in America in 1823.

Daughter Ann baptised 12.7.1801.  Died 24.3.1804.

Thomas Rule (1766-1775).

Born 7.5.1766 baptised 1.6.1766.  Buried 18.11.1775 at Ford.

John Rule (1768-1860)

Born 8.9.1768, baptised 13.10.1768 at Ford where he spent virtually all his life, working as a slater.  Seen in 1841 living alone at Ford, likewise 1851, said to be a widower.  His tombstone at Ford says he died at Spittal 10.11.1860, aged 91 (actually 92!).  For obvious reasons known as Old Jack Rule of Ford.  Mentioned on reverse of his tombstone is Eleanor Rule who died at Ford 10.12.1836 aged 76.  National Burial Index has a 13.12.1836 date with age 77.  This is no doubt Old Jack’s wife, albeit she would have been some eight years older than him.  We have not seen the marriage entry, nor any children.  Wondering why he ended up at Spittal, we looked there at the 1861 Census.  This revealed that a considerable group of families who ten years previously had been living at Ford.  We believe that they were working for Thomas Black and Sons, spade and shovel makers, who in 1855 built the Sea View Works at Spittal, at the mouth of the Tweed and moved the business there.  The 1851 Census at Ford had the proprietor Thomas Black employing 33 men making spades and shovels.  Thomas Black died 1856 Q1.  In 1861 Sea View Works was under the management of one John Rea and the workers lived close to the factory.  We ascertained that John was baptised as the eldest son of Alexander Rea, a blacksmith at Ford Forge and Barbara nee Rule (1802-1870).   Widowed in 1852, Barbara was the daughter of George Rule, younger brother of Old Jack (See next section).  Thus, until around 1855, the latter had the benefit of his niece living relatively nearby and when Barbara moved with her family to Spittal, she doubtless took the then 88 year old Jack with her.  This was confirmed when we obtained the death certificate where the informant “present at the death” was Thomas Richardson, who at the 1861 Census was next door to John Rea, with his wife Margaret who was John’s sister, and therefore Old Jack’s great-niece.  Incidentally, Thomas seemed to think that Jack was 93 when he died!

As an aside, it seems that George Black, Thomas Black’s son, set up similar factory at Norham, employing 62 men, according to the 1861 Census.  Given the number of Ag. Labs and “Navies” needing spades and shovels in those days we should not be surprised at this proliferation.  Sea View Works survives to this day, hosting a printing company.

George Rule (1771-1844 )

Born 11.7. 1771, baptised 11.8.1771.  Slater.  Settled at Wooler.  Married (date uncertain) Isabella, the third daughter of Richard Frater, husbandman of Lilburn, Eglingham, who was baptised as Elizabeth 11.8.1771.  She died 19.11.1804, aged 33 at Wooler, leaving five children aged between 11 and seven months.  George was the author of one of the daybooks, covering the period May 1800 to September 1805.  He was on Vicar Haigh’s census of 1826 as C of E.

George Rule had five children with Isabella Frater:

Son John born 10.9.1794 at Wooler.  The George Rule daybook contained a note stating “27 Oct 1800  John Rule entered the School at James Carr in Wooler.”  John became a slater but died 18.12.1821, aged 27 but not before meeting Mary Tait, daughter of William Tait of Wooler and fathering Mary Ann Rule, born 19.1.1822 and baptised 17.2.1822, i.e. after her father’s death.  (Presumably illegitimate – we have not seen a John Rule-Mary Tait wedding.)  The mother had been baptised as “Marey” Tait at Wooler 5.12.1795 and in 1841, calling herself Mary Rule  and styling herself FS, i.e. femme sole, was housekeeper to Revd Henry Grey at Wooler Vicarage, Mary Ann being there as a 19 year old dressmaker.  We have seen nothing of Mary Ann in 1851 but at that Census there was, at West Learmouth, Carham, a Mary Rule, born in Wooler and aged 53 (implying a birth 1797-98).  She was a housekeeper apparently to Thomas Brown, 36, a farmer of 935 acres.  The Brown entry was immediately above Mary’s and although he had five children there were no servants listed with him.  This at least encouraged to look at the 1861 Census and we were duly rewarded!  There was Mary Rule –  at Primrose Place, Leith (Edinburgh) as the mother-in-law of Andrew Richardson, 34, an outdoor customs officer, born Aberlady, East Lothian, whose wife, Mary A, 36, was born in Wooler!    There was a son John, born 1855.  We found that Andrew and Mary had married at St Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh, 30.8.1852, she declaring herself to be the only daughter of John Rule, plasterer, of Wooler.  We do not know how the couple met but quite possibly when they were in service, since in 1851 Andrew had been a butler at Learmouth House to the Sheriff of Midlothian and his English wife.  At the time of his marriage Andrew was a commercial traveller.  The only child we have seen was John, who remained at home, “without employment” in all the Censuses through to 1901.  For many years home was 28 Woodville Terrace, South Leith, but on April 5th 1891 they were at Duns Road, Yester, East Lothian, Andrew described as a retired customs officer, with Mary Ann and 36 year old John.  We wonder if he was handicapped.  They must have been  “just visiting” because in 1901 Mary Ann was a widow, aged 77, with John 46, back Woodville Terrace, Andrew having died in 1898.  We do not know when Mary Ann and John Richardson died.

Son Richard born 1.6.1797 at Wooler.  Married at Eglingham 16.2.1827 Jane McKenzie of that place, at which time he was a slater.  They settled at Belford and had four children, including one boy, the ancestor of family historian R.H. Rule.  Jane died 18.4.1837 at Belford and evidently Richard lost no time in finding a new partner, as we find him in 1841 at High Street, Belford, as an innkeeper, with wife Beatrix (or Beautrix), born Scotland.  We have not seen this marriage.  They had with them their son John, aged one, as well as Mary 12, George 10 and Jane 6.  (Isabella, aged 8, was staying with John and Elizabeth Wood, both Scottish, at Craig Hall, Belford.)  The  8.9.1841 birth certificate for William Youngston Rule reveals that his mother was Beautrix Rule, formerly Wood, his father Richard being an innkeeper, but by the 1851 Census entry at West Street, Belford, Richard is described as a “master slater”.  A further son, Richard was born in Morpeth 1844 Q4, bringing the number of Richard and Beatrix’s offspring to three.   Of these, John (born 16 May 1840) became a miller, moved to Wooler about 1868 and 1873 Q3 married Ellen Isabella Shield, the daughter of George Shield, tailor and artist, and the niece of Elizabeth Short who, in 1871, was running Wooler Mill with John and Ellen.  John took over as manager in due course but was retired by 1891.  He was a leading light in the Wooler West Presbyterian Church.  The 1932 bicentenary history devotes a whole chapter to him, the then oldest inhabitant of Wooler.  He eventually died 1938 Q4, aged 98.  Beatrix died at Belford 13.12.1853, aged 46, due to a heart condition.  At the 1861 Census Richard was living on his own at Chatton and ten years later, likewise alone, at Wooler Bricksheds, near Selby Morton.  He died at Newcastle 1878 Q2, aged 80.

Daughter Mary born 12.6.1799 at Wooler.  Married George Young, publican, at Wooler 10.12.1819 (witness George Rule).  The groom was born at Humbleton, his parents being Richard Young and Christian Rogers.  George and Mary had eight children, all born in Wooler.  We have not confirmed George’s death (there were GRO Glendale deaths in 1852 and 1860 while other researchers say January 1861 at Morpeth).  We are more certain of Mary’s death, which was 3.4.1890 at Pendleton, Salford (aged 90) where her unmarried son George Henry was retired (as an umbrella maker).

Daughter Barbara born 22.1.1802 at Wooler.  Married 23.2.1827 at Ford Alexander Rea, blacksmith, of that parish but born in Lowick.  This was indexed as “Rae” but the 1841 and 1851 Censuses pointed us in the right direction.  They had seven children at Ford but Alexander died there 1852 Q2 aged less than 50, leaving the youngest daughter only two years old.  In 1861 Barbara was at Spittal with her three youngest children and in 1871 at Tweedmouth, with just Barbara Ann, aged 20, dressmaker.  Barbara died there 1878 Q2, aged 77.  She was the last of the Rule family to live at Ford, along with her uncle Jack – see the account of his latter years above.

Daughter Jane born 6.4.1804 at Wooler.  Her mother died when she was only seven months old.  She herself died 1826 at Wooler, aged 22, apparently giving birth to an illegitimate son Thomas who died after 10 weeks.

George is believed to have remarried (or, at least, acquired another partner) because in 1841 he is recorded as being at High Street, Wooler, aged 70+, with “Mary Rule”, aged 40+, and three children, Margaret 5, George 3 and William aged 9 months.  Also present was Elenor Kinghorn, aged 12, and this led us to ascertaining that Mary was the daughter of John Kinghorn and Mary nee Swan, baptised 10.5.1801 and living at Middleton, Belford.  George Rule died 28.2.1844 and GRO has 1844 Q1 Glendale.  This would be age 72.  Thereafter, Mary always said she was widowed, although we have not seen any marriage involving her and George.   In 1851 Mary and the children were still in the house, with a young couple, Michael Boyle, 23, a shoemaker, born in Ireland, and his wife, Mary, aged 21, and the four-month-old Hugh.  We believe that Mary was Mary Kinghorn’s daughter by a man called Shell and born in Wooler.   Hugh Boyle was eventually President of the Northumberland Miners Association.  A fellow-researcher has letters which Hugh Boyle wrote to George Rule (1838-1916) who is mentioned below, in 1907, the year that he died.  By 1861 Mary was there on her own, a 59 year old shoemaker, possibly working with her next door neighbour, William Short, shoemaker.  She died 1868 Q1,aged 66.

George Rule and Mary Kinghorn had three children:

Daughter Margaret born 1836 Q2.  She married at Doddington 17.1.1859 Joseph Wilkinson, ag. lab.  They had four children in various Northumberland locations, with the youngest registered 1867 Q3, the same quarter in which Joseph’s death was recorded.  In 1871 Margaret was a charwoman at Dogger Bank, Morpeth.

Son George born 1838 Q2.  Plumber.  1861 Census lodging with Mary Dary (really? – not Davy?) aged 39 born Wooler.  George married 14.6.1863 Wooler R.C. Church Mary Ann Watson, daughter of Thomas Watson, plumber.  They had at least seven children and remained in Wooler.  In Kelly’s Directory 1897.  George was the great-grandfather of the researcher mentioned above.

Son William born 1840 Q3.  Thought to have died 1858 Q2 Glendale.

Robert Rule (1773-1846)

Born 15.2.1773, baptised 24.2.1773.  Slater.  Settled at Wooler.  Sheena’s g-g-great grandfather.  See main text and Appendix 1.

Joseph Rule (1775-1852)

Born 11.2.1775 baptised 21.3.1775.  Slater.  Married 9.11.1796 (irregularly) at Coldstream Bridge, then 4.12.1796 at Wooler after banns Ann Harbertson (various spellings) of Doddington, the 17 year old daughter of Andrew and Thomasina Harbertson of Kirknewton.  Andrew was an army quartermaster who died 1805 in Exeter leaving Thomasina to claim a pension.  [JL: Kirknewton pre 1775 records lost in fire.]  Ann, wife of Joseph Rule, died 1805 at Wooler aged 26, having produced four children. Joseph was on Vicar Haigh’s census of 1826 as C of E.  He was the only Wooler slater to feature in the Northumberland Directory of 1834.  The 1841 Census shows Joseph Rule aged 65, living alone but in 1851, aged 76, he had his 17 year old grandson, Andrew Morton, living with him.  They were next door but one to Joseph’s nephew John Rule, who was running the slating business.  Joseph made his Will 5.12.1851 and in it he said that his freehold cottages and gardens at Norham were to be sold, £100 be given to his son-in-law Selby Morton with the residue passing equally to his three daughters “Susan, wife of the above Selby Morton, Mary, wife of Thomas Eadington of Roddham, Teacher, and Thomason, wife of George Young of Norham, mason”.  His executors were his nephews John Rule (son of Robert) and Robert Thompson (son of Mary nee Rule) who witnessed the Will along with Andrew Morton, his grandson.   As declared to the Registrar, Joseph Rule died of heart disease 26.10.1852, aged 77, at Selby and Susan’s home, Wooler Tilesheds.  Curiously, his Will was not proved (at Durham) until 19.12.1853 and the document is endorsed “Testator died 26th October 1853”, which looks a bit like covering up a year’s delay!  George Rule and Ann Harbertson had four children:

Daughter Susannah, born 1.6.1798 at Wooler, married there 24.10.1819 Selby Morton (baptised 14.10.1798 Tweedmouth, son of Selby Morton and Jane Bell), brick and tilemaker of Wooler Bricksheds.  11 children.   Susannah death recorded 1853 Q1, whereafter Selby Morton married Sarah Moffitt per Newcastle 1856 Q1 and they were at the Bricksheds at the 1861 Census. Selby died 1853 Q1 aged 60 and Sarah 1867 Q4, both at Newcastle.  Selby Morton name has continued in the Wooler area ever since.

Son John born Wooler 2.4.1800.  JL had him as John Harbertson Rule not marrying but emigrating to Jamaica, after being taken to be brought up by his Harbertson grandparents in Dorchester (while his three sisters remained in Wooler).  NB: He had a cousin of the same name born twelve months later also at Wooler, so care is needed!

Daughter Mary born Wooler 24.4.1802.  Married 1.6.1824 at Wooler John Morton, Government (or gentleman’s?) servant  [Check.]  Only child Ann*, baptised 25.9.1825 Kirknewton (Wooler).  JL, Mary’s gr-granddaughter and family historian, had John Morton as a gentleman’s servant, dying in 1826 aged 38, i.e. after a very short-lived marriage.  Her portrait of him showed him to be very splendidly dressed. Widow Mary and the daughter Ann, 15, were living in High Street, Wooler in 1841 not far from her father Joseph.  JL also had Mary marrying (2) Thomas Eadington in Dublin in 1845.  Certainly by the 1851 Census he is a schoolmaster (and Chelsea Pensioner!) at Wooler and in 1861 in a similar role at Middletown, Wickham, Gateshead, in each case with (his) three children, the eldest born in Ireland, the middle one in Leeds and the youngest one again in Ireland, at Ballingcollig. Apparently Mary and her sister Susannah fell out somewhat.  *14.1.1847 Mary’s daughter Ann Morton married her second cousin, George Rule, the “Effendi” Rule of the Norham clan.  See Appendix 6.

Daughter Thomasin born Wooler 9.8.1804.  Married, at Norham 7.12.1828, George Young of that parish, mason.  They were there in 1841 and at Berwick-on-Tweed ten years later.  Not seen after that.  JL says Thomasin went to Australia.  Brian Rule said her death was 14.6.1859 at Newcastle.  There is a relevant  GRO reference but we have not pursued it.

November 2021

Appendix 3 to Ref. S2

 Thomas Rule and Jane Turner Family

 Thomas Rule married Jane Turner at Rothbury 4.6.1726

They had children as follows

Ann Rule.  Born “Hollinhill nigh Rothbury”.  Baptised 24.5.1728.  We have searched in vain for a marriage or burial thereafter.

Thomas Ruel.  Born “Hollinhill nigh Rothbury”.  Baptised 9.8.1730.  Married 11.6.1750 at Alnwick Mary Hall, daughter of William Hall and Dorothy nee Taylor and having at least six children in Alnwick, described as a mason resident in Clayport.  Buried Alnwick 26.5.1776, Mary having been buried there 27.7.1769.

Between 1750 and 1786 Hugh, 1st Duke of Northumberland employed local masons in a major development of the park around Alnwick Castle, including converting Hulne Priory into a gamekeeper’s residence as well as installing a menagerie of gold and silver pheasants etc.  However, for us, the clinching piece of evidence of this early Rule example of geographical mobility is an entry in a daybook kept by John Rule (see next section) “Novn ye 20th 1763.  Lent Thos Rule, mason in Alnwick £2.2s.0d.” This sum, equivalent to over £200 today, would typically have been what a well regarded tradesman was expected to subscribe to an appeal for, say, a church restoration or the renewal of a bridge.  Possibly Thomas was owed money for work done but did not have enough cash in hand when the appeal was closing.

 There is evidence of a Thomas Rule as a builder in the Wooler area in 1770, since we read in “Wooler and Glendale – a Brief History” at page 72 of Volume II about the contract for building the west wing of Roddam Hall in January 1770: “It is this day agreed between Edward Roddam to the said Thomas Rule that the following prices shall be allowed by the said Edward Roddam to the said Thomas Rule for the building of the west wing on to the mansion house at Roddam after the manner of the stable (east) wing already built.  And it is further agreed that the said buildings shall be finished to one course or two above the first window head before the first day of Oct. 1770 and the outside stones to be all won at Glanton.”  Various prices were quoted.

John Rule.  Born “Hollinhill nigh Rothbury”.  Baptised 15.8.1732.  Sheena’s g-g-g-great grandfather.  See main text.

We actually have a baptismal certificate provided by the Curate of Rothbury in May 1778 confirming the baptism 15.8.1732 of John son of Thomas Rule nigh Rothbury.  It was one of the documents tucked into one of the day books.

Robert Rowel.  Born Ravenshaugh. Baptised 24.4.1734 Rothbury.  Married Rothbury 10.6.1756 Eleanor Bolam.  Probably the Robert Rowel who fathered illegitimate William Rowel or Scott, son of Ann Scott baptised Rothbury 30.11.1757 (buried Rothbury 17.4.1760).  Nothing more found.

William Rowel.  Born Ravenshaugh. Baptised 2.5.1736 Rothbury.  Buried 7.1.1737

November 2021

Appendix 4 to Ref. S2

THOMAS RUELL’S INDENTURE

 The document is written in what today would be termed landscape format. Only the upper two-thirds has survived.  As was (is still?) customary in legal documents there is no punctuation or formatting.  For ease of reading we have inserted spaces between “sentences”.

 ThisIndenture Witmesseth that Thomas Ruell son of John Ruell Late of Wooler Deceased in the County of Northumberland Yeoman of his free and voluntary will hath putt himself an Apprentice to James Lighten in the Raw in the County of Northumberland Yeoman Mason The Science or Trade of a Mason which hee now useth to be Taught and with him after the manner of an Apprentice to dwell and serve from the twelth Day of June Beginning in the Year of our Lord God one Thousand seven hundred and sixteen During the term and from Thence of seven Years next ensuing fully To be Compleat and Ended at or upon Whitsunday in the Year of our Lord God one Thousand seven hundred and Twenty and Three   by all which Term of seven Years the said Apprentice the said James Lighten well and truly shall serve      his secrets shall keep Close     his Commandments Lawfully and honestly Obey      ????          ????   hee shall not Doo or suffer to be Done to the value of Twelfpence or more by the year but shall lett it if he may or els Immediately Admonish his said Master Thereof        The Goods of his said Master he shall not Inordinatly wast nor them to any body lend       att Cards or Dice or any other unlawful Game he shall not play Whereby his said Master may Incurre any Hurt       Fornication in the House of his said Master or Els where he shall not commit        Matrimony he shall not contract             Taverns Alehouses he shall not frequent         with his own and per Goods or any others During the said Terme without the speciall Licence of his Master hee shall not Merchandize         from the service of his Master Day nor Night he shall not Absent or prolong himselfe but in all things as a Good and faithfull Apprentice shall bear and behave himself  Towards his Master and all his During the said Term       and the said James Lighten to his said Apprentice the Science or Trade which he now useth shall Teach or Instruct or Cause to be Taught or Instructed the best way that he may or cann        and shall also finde his said Apprentice yearly during the term of five years Twenty shillings of good and Lawfull British Money of Yearly wages and one pair of shoes and one Aprone Yearly for the Tearm of five Years        and shall find him sufficient meat drink and Bedding and Washing and all other Necessaries Convenient and meet for and Apprentice for and During the ….

THE LIGHTEN FAMILY

Rothbury Parish Register has baptisms for Eleanor (November 1710) and Mary (February 1715) daughters of James Lighton/Leighton of West Raw, with, apparently, the burial of Eleanor in December 1712. At about that time there are rather more children listed as belonging to Robert Lighton of The Raw/West Raw.  In fact, one of the churchwardens in 1701 was Robert Lighten of Wolf Raw.

Going back further, there are seven Lighten baptisms in the Rothbury PR for addresses such as Raw, Forrest, and Crag End in the second half of the 17th Century, so the family looks to have been well established in the hills to the west of Rothbury, probably at the site of a quarry.

Appendix 5 to Ref. S1 and Appendix 5 to Ref. S2

 SLATERING: THE RULE AND SMART FAMILIES

 This appendix is an exception to our normal approach, in that it recites events in chronological order, rather than, as with the family stories, going back in time. This is because we know the start and end points of the story we wish to tell and industrial history is generally presented from the past to the present.

The start point is “Thomas Ruell” whose date of birth we have not established but who became an apprentice stone mason 12.6.1716, presumably when he was just a teenager. We actually possess most of the relevant document which reads, in part, “Thomas Ruell, son of John Ruell, late of Wooler, deceased, apprenticed to James Lighten, yeoman mason of the Raw [which is near Rothbury] for seven years at 20 shillings a year, all found…..” Thomas Rule married Jane Turner at Rothbury 4.6.1726 and it is thought that the family moved to Ford  around 1739.  At that time Thomas Rule would probably be approaching 40 and he died in 1761 (actually buried in Rothbury).  The move could well have turned out advantageous for the Rules because Ford Castle had, in 1723, passed into the hands of the Delavel family and in 1761 they had it rebuilt in the Gothic style, George Raffield being the architect.

We know the two sons of Thomas Rule became slaters. Thomas Rule (1730-1776) established himself in Alnwick where The Duke of Northumberland was employing local masons on projects at the Castle (see the Rule story at Appendix 3 to S2).  He may also have worked in and around Wooler.

Thomas’s brother John Rule (1732-1806) worked at Ford as a slater, no doubt inheriting his father’s business when he was 29 and was probably involved in the rebuilding of Ford Castle. He had no less than five sons who became slaters.  The eldest, William Youngson Rule (1763-1818) married a Norham girl when he was not quite 20, which suggests that he served his apprenticeship there.  At any rate that was where he worked for the rest of his life.  It may be relevant that from 1770 Sir Francis Blake had been re-creating Twizel Castle in a Gothic style.  The Castle  (now a ruin) is about three miles south west of Norham.  Despite forty years of work the project was never completed.  William Youngson’s descendants continued the family tradition by spreading the trade of slatering and plastering even further afield.  For instance, the 1881 Census has, at Bishop Wearmouth, Sunderland, County Durham, 37-year old John Rule (born at Norham) as a “plastering master” employing 22 men and (it says!) 75 boys.  Family folk-lore has Sheena’s grandfather, George Anthony Smart learning his plastering trade in Sunderland (see below).

John (“Old Jack”) Rule (1768-1860) remained at Ford as the sole Rule slater, while his three younger brothers, George Robert and Joseph all practised their trade at Wooler.

The father of the five sons, John Rule, was widowed in 1787 and quite soon after that appears to have moved the family home to Wooler, quite likely because the three youngest boys were serving their apprenticeships there. Of these three,  George Rule (1771-1844) did have a son who became a slater (and, for a time, an innkeeper) but who lived at Belford and Joseph (1775-1853) had a son who emigrated to Jamaica, so the succession to the Wooler business was through the Robert Rule (1773-1846) branch.

Robert Rule had only one son who survived childhood, i.e. John Rule (1801-1870), so he inherited the Wooler business from his father and his two uncles. However, he never married and when he died the question of succession arose.  The candidates were the two sets of nephews who we believe were employed by him, i.e. Robert and Thomas Thompson, the sons of John’s deceased eldest sister Mary and Thomas, John and George Smart, the sons of Jane, his younger sister.  (For the Smart family see Ref. S1.)  In fact the business passed to the Smarts, i.e. Thomas Smart (1836-1919) and John Smart (1840-1931), while we think George Smart (1843-1920) was an employee).  The 1871 Census has Thomas Smart with five employees, whereas ten years previously his uncle employed nine.  Given that the latter figure must have included Thomas himself it is reduction of three, which suggests that the Thompsons did not become Thomas Smart’s employees but worked on their own account.

John Smart retired from the business when his mother died in 1876 and it eventually became Thos Smart & Sons, Slaterers and Plasterers, Thomas bringing in his three sons, John (Jack) Smart (1868-1952), who established a branch in Tweedmouth, George Anthony Smart (1869-1946) and Thomas Smart (1877-1957) who continued the Wooler business. George Anthony Smart was particularly renowned as a plasterer, having served his time in that trade in Sunderland, no doubt under a cousin of his, John Rule (see above).  In 1901,when Lutyens redeveloped Holy Island Castle in the Arts & Craft style for the publishing magnate Edward Hudson, George Anthony did the plastering.

In 1939, when war broke out the brothers had with them their respective sons, Thomas Arthur Smart (1908-1989) and Thomas Cosser Smart (1910-1993) who both went off into the forces.  When the war was over Arthur and Cosser divided the business between them and in each case retirement led to closure.

Thus ends a saga covering nearly a quarter of a millennium.

Footnote:

As the above account makes clear, from about 1800 there was a sufficient volume of work arising in and around Wooler to support a number of slaters. What the Rev Mr Hodgson had to say about Wooler in 1819 is relevant:

Burnt down in 1722 and “arose fairer out of its ashes”. At present, however, it is nearly all thatched and, though it begins to flourish, it has but a cold uncleanly appearance.”  It is recorded that the Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, built in 1778, was one of the first buildings in Wooler to have a slate roof.  It is said that earlier, in 1693, there was a fire which destroyed 54 houses, so a switch to something less vulnerable was somewhat overdue.

Appendix 6 to Ref. S2

 

THE WILL OF BARBARA RULE 

Barbara Rule (1810-1886) was the sixth and last surviving child of Robert Rule (1773-1846), slater, of Wooler, Northumberland and Mary Davy (1772-1850). One brother and three sisters reached adulthood but only two of her sisters had children.

The will was made 9.1.1886 and she died 28.2.1886, leaving personal property valued at £2,276, about £258,000 in today’s purchasing terms. There is no mention of any land or buildings.  The will was witnessed by James Whightman, solicitor, and James Scott, baker, both of Wooler. It was registered for probate 30.4.1886 at Newcastle.

Her eldest sister Mary (1799-1866) married Thomas Thompson (?? – 1839). Details of their family are in Appendix 1 above and Rule Table 138. Barbara Rule bequeathed pecuniary legacies to nephews and nieces in that branch of the family as follows:

George Thompson, accountant, of Newcastle, £50 (modern equivalent                    £570).

Thomas Thompson, slater, of Newbiggin by the Sea, £50.

John Thompson, joiner, of Newcastle, £50.

James Thompson, commercial traveller, of Newcastle, £50.

Mary Chilton, wife of William Chilton, joiner, of Newcastle £50.

Catherine Storey, wife of George Storey, merchant, of Newcastle, £50

Isabella Maughan, wife of Thomas Maughan of Newcastle, £50.

Barbara’s sister Jane (1808-1876) married John Smart (1799-1852), slater, of Wooler.  Details of their family are in the Smart Family story Appendix 3. Barbara Rule bequeathed pecuniary legacies to nephews and nieces in that branch of the family as follows:

Robert Smart, miller, of Humbleton Mill, Wooler, £100.

George Smart, slater, of Wooler, £225.

Thomas Smart, slater, of Wooler,£150.

John Smart, slater, of Wooler, £150.

Margaret Elliott, wife of John Elliott, slater, of Sydney, Australia, £150.

The figures mentioned in the will amount £1,125.

She also bequeathed to Thomas Smart the contents of her upstairs sitting room. He was one of her executors along with John Smart and they were tasked with dividing the residue, after the legacies had been paid, of her personal estate in equal shares to her four Smart nieces, i.e.

Mary Young, wife of John Young, blacksmith, of Australia,

Isabella Miller, wife of David Miller, shoemaker, of Wooler,

Jane Spence, wife of John Spence, slater, of Wooler and

Barbara Smart, teacher, of Wooler.

Barbara Rule also left £50 to her friend Susan Rae, wife of George Rae of Wooler, collector of rates.

November 2025