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Wordsworth
Genealogy
THE OLD GENEALOGICAL OAK PRESS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE POET
WORDSWORTH.
(IN illustration of the following very acceptable
communication from the historian of Hallamshire, we may
remind our readers, that in our biography of the poet
Wordsworth, contained in our last number (p.668), allusion
is made to an old press or armoire made in the year
1525 at the expense of an ancestor of the poet, one William
Wordsworth of Peniston. Carved upon that same oak press is
an inscription which furnishes a pedigree of the family for
several generations anterior to the William of 1525. This
singular relic of family history was formerly in the
possession of the late Mr. Beaumont, but as we stated, upon
the authority of a recent Yorkshire newspaper, it was
restored by him to the Wordsworth family about ten years
ago.)
June 10.
MR. URBAN,
THE old oak press or armoire, with the genealogical
inscription of the family of Wordsworth, of which you speak
at p.668, is a very singular and perhaps unique work of its
kind. The inscription may be rendered thus:
"This work was made in the year 1525, at the expense of
William Wordesworth, son of William, son of John, son of
William, son of Nicholas, husband of Elizabeth, daughter and
heir of William Proctor (or the proctor), of Peniston, on
whose soul may God have mercy."
It seems to shew what brought the Wordsworths to Peniston,
in Yorkshire, where the family existed for several centuries
in different branches, where this singular work was
executed, and where it remained till towards the close of
the eighteenth century. They were in all their generations,
and in all their branches, leading people in the parish
affairs; and those of the family who removed from Peniston
and were settled in neighbouring parishes, or in towns at no
great distance, as at Sheffield and Doncaster, maintained a
highly respectable social position. Their descendants
attained a distinction far in advance of those who remained
at Peniston, who seem, indeed, not to have been so fortunate
as their ancestors and more distant relatives.
Of the branches of the family which had become planted in
the neighbourhood of the parish of Peniston, the Wordsworths
of Sheffield became ultimately represented by the families
of two ladies who married Sir Charles Kent, Bart. and Mr.
Verelst, the governor of Bengal. The Wordsworths of
Falthwaite, in the adjoining parish of Silkston, produced
the late Master of Trinity, and his brother William
Wordsworth, whose name would give a distinction and lustre
to any family however otherwise illustrious it might be.
The information which you have gathered from a recent
Yorkshire paper respecting the possession of the oak press
by the late Mr. Wordsworth is perfectly correct, and perhaps
you may think a short account of the manner in which he
became possessed of it not unworthy a place in your
Miscellany. I am able to give it, having myself had
something to do in the transaction.
In the autumn of 1831, when spending week or ten days in the
lake-country, I had an introduction to Mr. Wordsworth, which
was the first opportunity I enjoyed of conversing with this
remarkable man. In the course of one of our conversations I
happened
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