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Dead Man's Slack, Kirkoswald
Dead Man's Slack
civil parish:-   Kirkoswald (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   locality
coordinates:-   NY56234033 (etc) 
1Km square:-   NY5640
10Km square:-   NY54

evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Cmd 40 10) 
placename:-  Dead Man's Slack
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.

evidence:-   old text:- Pennant 1773
placename:-  Deadman's Stack
item:-  Rising of the Northern Earls (?)
source data:-   Book, A Tour from Downing to Alston Moor, 1773, by Thomas Pennant, published by Edward Harding, 98 Pall Mall, London, 1801.
image PEN6p166, button  goto source
Pennant's Tour 1773, page 166  "... I passed by a wooded glen called Deadman's Stack, remarkable for being the spot on which Leonard Dacre was defeated in 1569, by Lord Hunsdon, who put an end to his rebellion. This gentleman was of the great house of Dacre, and second son of William lord Dacre, who left four sons - Thomas, Leonard, Edward and Francis. Thomas left one son and three daughters. George, the son, was killed in his childhood in 1569, by a fall from a wooden horse; and the three sisters became co-heiresses, two of whom were matched by Thomas duke of Norfolk, (who married their mother,) to two boys of his own sons by former wives - Anne, the eldest, to Philip earl of Arundel; and Elizabeth, the youngest, to his second brother Lord William. It is probable that he intended to bestow the second daughter on his second son; but she was taken away by death. Thus this vast northern property was conveyed to the house of Howard. Leonard contested, by law, the right of his niece to the estate, and lost his cause. For a time he concealed his discontent; insidiously offered his service to Elizabeth to quell some insurrections then in the north, and was intrusted with this business. He entered into a conspiracy"
image PEN6p167, button  goto source
Pennant's Tour 1773, page 167  "with Northumberland and other malecontents; raised forces in the Queen's name, consisting chiefly of the banditti of the Borders; and seized on Graystock, Naworth-castle, and other places belonging to the Dacres, under pretence of securing his own property and resisting the rebels. His designs were discovered, and Lord Hunsdon marched against him from Berwick. They met at this place, and the field was warmly contested. Leonard performed all that could be expected from the most gallant commander. At length, after great loss of men, he was obliged to retire into Scotland; from thence fled to Louvain, where he died in great poverty, under a slender pension from the King of Spain."

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