By J. Cooper Harding Jan 2015
The connection of the PECKITT family with Husthwaite can be traced to the end of the seventeenth century when they were running a prosperous business there trading in leather, more particularly as glove-makers. At some point in the first half of the eighteenth century William PECKITT moved to York where he had a house in Davygate, dying there in 1776. A memorial stone in his name and that of his wife Ann can still be found just off the street.
There were six children from this marriage, all born in Husthwaite before the move to York. The two eldest sons, Thomas and George went to sea, but both died young and unmarried in foreign parts. Their elder sister Elizabeth made a good though decidedly late marriage at the age of fifty to a wealthy London grocer. The most famous of this PECKITT family was William, the third son. He became a glass painter and stainer, making a name for himself and receiving the Freedom of the City of York while still in his twenties. He is seen today as one of the chief revivers of the art of stained glass, being largely responsible for the 18thcentury restoration of the glass in York Minster.
The youngest member of this family was Henry, born at Husthwaite on 14th July 1734 and brought up, like his brothers and sisters, in the home in Davygate. At some point, however, possibly to serve his apprenticeship as an apothecary, he moved to London where he was certainly resident by the 1760s.
The Society of Apothecaries was founded as early as 1617 but for long had a bitter struggle with the Physicians who disputed their right to prescribe drugs. Finally the battle was won by the Apothecaries who in 1722 were granted the right to inspect druggists’ shops and control the quality of drugs offered for sale. By the time Henry had established himself in London the apothecary, though ranking below the physician and the surgeon, was an important member of the medical profession, offering consultation and prescribing medical treatment without necessarily referring cases to the physician or surgeon. Apothecaries who served the rich and influential had every chance of rising in both wealth and social standing, and whether Henry Peckitt started his career in London or in York, it was in London that he made a name for himself.
By 1767 he was living in Soho which had not yet acquired the seedy reputation it was to have in later years. Close to the City with its business interests, to Westminster and the Court at St. James’s, to the fashionable quarter of Mayfair and the London homes of some of the great families, this was where Henry Peckitt set up his business as an apothecary and he obviously prospered.
His success was helped along by a judicious marriage to a lady of property, Mary Watkins, possessed in her own right of an estate in Gloucestershire and of considerable invested funds. The couple were married on 28th March 1767 in the parish church of Soho, St. Anne’s, and made their home round the corner at 50 Old Compton Street.
Peckitt himself says little about his professional career, but he seems to have served as an apothecary to George III, though whether this “By Appointment” claim means that he attended on the King in person or simply supplied the royal household is not clear.
In addition to his professional skills, Henry Peckitt was well versed in classical studies. He knew Latin, Greek and Hebrew, while his studies included history, philosophy and theology. The death of his wife Mary marks a turning point in his life. There had been no children and while Henry had a life interest in her substantial estate, there was no inheritance. His thoughts seem to have turned more and more to the nature of the personality and the immortality of the soul. In this he was much influenced by the teachings of the Swedish visionary Emmanuel Swedenborg concerning the spiritual universe in which the survival of any physical nature was irrelevant. In 1787 there was founded the Church of New Jerusalem with a congregation which held to Swedenborgian doctrines and Henry is found among its congregation.
In 1796, aged 62, Henry married for a second time. His new wife Sarah was much younger than her husband and bore him three children, Sarah in 1797, Sophia in 1799 and finally a son Henry in August 1801. All three children were baptised into the New Jerusalemite Church which flourished under its remarkable first Pastor, Manoah Sibly by name, a man whose life and career merit a separate study for which there is no space here. Both of Henry’s daughters died in early childhood, leaving only his son to carry his name forward.
Henry himself died on 17th January 1808. His will was read the following day and contained a remarkable clause –
“As to my mortal body, my Will is my Wife must please to admit a few of my religious Acquaintances to say any Service that they think proper in our Honor, and after the third Day deceased my Will is that it [his body] be delivered in a coffin, lapped in a Sheet or Blanket in a plain Hearse to the Anatomical Theatre in Windmill Street for the use of the younger Surgeons and Physicians and I hope it will be of use to living Generations and an example to medical Men that their Mortal parts may be of service to the living Generation”
This is the earliest example that I know of one’s body being left for medical research; this pre-Victorian “Donor Card” dates from the time of the dreaded “Resurrection Men” – the infamous case of Burke & Hare still twenty years away.
Henry left the bulk of his estate to his wife, in trust for his son. There are, though, certain items bequeathed outside the family. There is an old clock “Made by Jacob Zeck at Prague in 1525” which is to be presented to the Society of Antiquaries. This is a famous clock which marks an important stage in the development of movements, being the first known example of a fusee movement. Among those present at the meeting of the Society at which Henry’s gift was officially received were Sir Joseph Banks, companion of Captain Cook on his voyage, and the celebrated astronomer Herschel. Henry’s letter to the Society concludes with his signature in Latin: Henricus PECKETT ex agro boreali Eboracensis Natus. – Henry PECKITT – North Yorkshireman!
A second bequest was of a book, the Liber Sancte Marie Rivall, a 12th century collection of manuscripts which was to be presented to “the Dean & Chapter of Saint Peter’s Cathedral, commonly called York Minster, to be deposited in their Library”
After some further notes on his bequest, Henry mentions his brother William’s work in stained glass in York Minster and elsewhere and notes that the arms of the PECKITTS are “Azure two bars Or and three bezants in Chief” – this coat of arms appears at the foot of the East window in Carlton Husthwaite church, presented there by the PECKITT family in the 1880s
At this point Henry’s will branches off into reminiscence of Rievaulx Abbey ruins and Squire Duncombe’s terrace and banqueting house, the Hambleton race-course and a rhinoceros on show in the yard of a York inn. Picking up his testamentary duties, Henry sets up trusts in favour of his seven-year-old son, hoping “that he will be a good Boy and obedient to his mother”. With investments then valued at about £6000 and worth ten times that today, the young Henry was certainly assured of a very comfortable inheritance.
Henry Peckitt’s widow Sarah married again to a Charles Jenkins. She died in 1816 and Charles died five years later, leaving the young Henry Peckitt junior still a minor, his funds managed by Guardians. He had been put to school in Greenwich and went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, from which he emerged as a B.A. in 1824, and an M.A. in 1827.
In 1832 he married Sophia Abigail Turner who brought him further wealth and property and he returned to the land of his forebears, setting up home in Carlton Husthwaite in the house which he later extended and named Carlton Hall. He was a leading figure in the district and with a large family – five sons and three daughters – he seems to have led a happy, mid-Victorian life. One son had a distinguished Army career, a grandson became a notable railway engineer and built railways in Egypt and the Sudan.
Henry died in 1884 at the age of 83. His widow died some eight years later. They both lie buried in the churchyard at Birdforth, but there is nothing to mark their grave. This seems to reflect Henry’s early Swedenborgian upbringing and his father’s belief that the body once cast off was of no further significance to the spiritual personality. I am sure, though, that like his father before him he could sign himself “Henry Peckitt – North Yorkshireman"!