Anne Roberts of Penrith, Cumbria has submitted the following:
Cumberland News WWI Index states that he was missing and is now presumed dead. Ref. 10/11/1917 Column 1A
Cumberland and Westmorland Herald 10/11/1917 col. 2c. has “Mitton, Harry C., Private 29 Durham Light Infantry. Ainstable, killed 29/6/1916.
He was posted as missing 29th September 1917 and presumed dead in November 1917.
His war service records have not been found but he received the Victory and British Medals.
Family information from father’s side:
Collingwood
Thomas Collingwood, aged 28, was a physician. His wife Eliza, nee Smith, was aged 22 and their son William was aged 1 year when they sailed on the “Camillus” in 1840 from Liverpool to New Orleans.
Thomas died at Lasell, Massachusetts, on 25th Aug. 1853 aged 31. (Newcastle Journal 11/11/1853)
Their daughter Agnes Phoebe Collingwood was born 3rd October 1852 at Ainstable, Cumbria, when her father was described as being a surgeon.
Agnes, aged 20, married Welbery Mitton aged 23, a farmer at Horton in Ribblesdale, on 20th February 1873.
Census 1881 for Horton, Settle, Page 16 Schedule 78, New Houses, gives: Welbury, H.M., aged 31, farmer of 75 acres, married to Agnes Eliza Phoebe, aged 28; with two daughters, Eliza aged 7 and Sarah Ann, aged 2.
Census 1891, Sch 43, Southerfell, Mungrisdale, gives Welbury Mitton, aged 41, born Ribblesdale, Agnes Eliza. Aged 38; with Elizabeth, his mother aged 74, and Eliza, his daughter, aged 17. His son Henry Collingwood Mitton was aged 2, born Mungrisdale. (18th June 1888).
Census 1901 for Ainstable, gives grandson Henry C. Mitton, aged 12, with Eliza Collingwood, postmistress, aged 73 and her daughter Mary aged 34.
1908: Henry Mitton married Mary Elizabeth Ruddick on 3rd September 1908 at Brampton Registry office. Both came from Talkin, Hayton, near Brampton.
Census 1911 at Broomfield Farm, Chopwell, Ebchester gives Henry Collingwood Mitton, horseman aged 22, Mary Elizabeth his wife, aged 27, and Leslie Collingwood Mitton, aged 1.
Their children were:
1. Leslie C., 1909-1954; At the time of his death he was living at 2 Burnopfield Row, Rowlands Gill, married to Annie. His estate amounted to £354 2s 10d.
2. Sarah Agnes 1912-1945. (She married and had a son named Edmund 1936-1983.
3. John L., 1913-1977.
Family information from Mother’s side:
Smith
Source: Cumberland Family History Society, Published 2001.
There are a lot of Smiths buried in Ainstable churchyard.
Agnes Eliza Mitton, granddaughter, died 18th May 1891 aged 38.
Eliza Collingwood, daughter, died 12th April 1917 aged 89. She died at the Post Office at Ainstable. Probate was granted to Mary Collingwood, spinster, her estate was valued at £125 10s.Mary Collingwood, daughter of Eliza died 11th April 1949 aged 83.
Cumberland and Westmorland Herald 10/11/17 col.2c. has “Mitton, Harry C., Private 29 Durham Light Infantry. Killed 29/6/1916. Harry was living in Chopwell when he enlisted, not Ainstable.
He was posted as missing 29/9/1917 and presumed dead in November 1917.
His war service records have not been found but he received the Victory and British Medals.
Harry was born 18th June 1888 at Southerfell Farm, near Mungrisdale, Cumbria in the Lake District. He was initially registered as simply "Collingwood Mitton" but later had "Harry" added to his name, after his maternal uncle Harry Collingwood who died aged 20 in a quarry accident in 1888 in Toledo, Ohio, USA.
Harry’s father Welbury was running the farm which had been in Mark Cockbaine’s family for generations. Mark’s wife Eliza was aunt to Harry’s mother Agnes, who married Welbury, and he took on the farm after none of the Cockbaine children showed any interest. After Harry's mother Agnes died of pneumonia aged 38 in 1891, Welbury was remarried the following year to Agnes Cockbaine, his wife's first cousin who was also living at Southerfell.
Burnt out from raising her siblings after her own mother passed away, Agnes sent Harry and his sister Annie to live with their grandmother (her aunt) Eliza Collingwood in Ainstable, Cumbria. But she and Welbury had four children themselves, who were Harry's half-siblings - Alice Cockbaine, Frank Wilkinson, Howard and Doris. Welbury died in 1901 at Leeds Infirmary, and a few years later Agnes left England with her four children for Vancouver, Canada, where some of her siblings had already established homesteads. Harry moved from Ainstable to Chopwell, Co Durham, where he enlisted in the Durham Light Infantry. After his death in the Battle of the Somme, his widow Mary remarried twice, firstly to Edward Whitfield in 1920, and secondly to Edward Nicholson Doyle in 1948.
Early Life and Family
Census 1891, Sch 43, Southerfell, Mungrisdale, gives Welbury Mitton, aged 41, born Ribblesdale, Agnes Eliza. Aged 38; with Elizabeth, his mother aged 74, and Eliza, his daughter, aged 17. His son [Harry] Collingwood Mitton was aged 2, born Mungrisdaleon18th June 1888.
Census 1901 for Ainstable, gives grandson Henry C. Mitton, aged 12, with Eliza Collingwood, postmistress, aged 73 and her daughter Mary aged 34.
1908: Harry Mitton married Mary Elizabeth Ruddick on 3rd September 1908 at Brampton Registry office. Mary came from Farlam near Hayton, near Brampton. Harry was living with his grandmother Eliza Collingwood (nee Smith) in Ainstable when he met Elizabeth.
Census 1911 at Broomfield Farm, Chopwell, Ebchester gives Henry Collingwood Mitton. (This was the only time he referred to himself as Henry, not Harry) He was a horseman aged 22, Mary Elizabeth his wife, aged 27, and Leslie Collingwood Mitton, aged 1.
Their children were:
1. Leslie Collingwood, 1909-1954. At the time of his death he was living at 2 Burnopfield Row, Rowlands Gill, married to Annie Forbes, known as Nancy, in 1930. He died in an automobile accident in Otterburn. His estate amounted to £354 2s 10d. He had four 4 children: Henry Collingwood "Colin" Mitton, died aged 17 from meningitis in 1949; William Collingwood "Bill" Mitton died 2015 aged 82; and two daughters who are still living (2017). In February 2017 there were 7 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
2. Sarah Agnes 1912-1945. (She married Morton Hodgson in 1933 and had a two sons named Edmund 1936-1983, and one son still living, along with 2 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.
3. John Lawrence, 1913-1997 married Joan Bradford in 1945, and have 4 living daughters, 7 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren. Family information from father’s side:
MittonCensus 1881 for Horton in Ribblesdale, Settle, Page 16 Schedule 78, New Houses, gives:
Welbury Mitton, aged 31, farmer of 75 acres, married to Agnes Eliza Phoebe, aged 28; with two daughters, Eliza aged 7 and Sarah Ann, aged 2. ‘New Houses’ was the farm of Welbury's great-grandfather Joseph Mitton, known as Squire Joseph, who farmed in and around Horton in Ribblesdale in the mid to late 18th century.
Additional information... Welbury was one of 7 children born to Joseph Mitton and Elizabeth "Betty" Armitstead, consisting of 2 daughters who both died in infancy, and 5 sons. Joseph Mitton was the church warden in Horton in Ribblesdale. After his death in 1872, Betty sent her 4 eldest sons down to Lancashire to set up cotton mills. There are still many Mittons in the area around Burnley to this day. Betty continued to live at New Houses with Welbury until he moved the family to Southerfell. After Welbury's death in 1901, Betty returned to Yorkshire, and ended up in the Giggleswick Workhouse where she died in 1905 aged 93.
Harry's Mitton ancestors had been in Horton in Ribblesdale since his great-grandfather Joseph "Squire" Mitton settled there in the 1790s. Historically, the Mitton family were descended from an illegimate son of Robert de Lacy, a 12th century Norman lord whose seat was Great Mitton Hall in Lancashire.
Family information from Mother’s side:
Collingwood
Thomas Collingwood, aged 28, a physician, and wife Eliza, nee Smith, aged 22, who were Harry's grandparents, and their son William Dixon Collingwood aged 1 year, sailed on the “Camillus” in 1850 from Liverpool to New Orleans. Dr Thomas Collingwood settled in St Charles, Missouri in 1850 where he worked as a physician. In 1852, Eliza returned to her parents' home in Ainstable in England with their son William so she could give birth to their daughter Agnes. Thomas died the following year in Lasell, Massachusetts. Their son William Dixon Collingwood would later emigrate to New York. Eliza would go on to have two illegimate children, Mary and Harry.
Thomas died at Lasell, Massachusetts, on 25th Aug. 1853 aged 31. (Newcastle Journal 11/11/1853)
Their daughter Agnes [Eliza] Phoebe Collingwood was born 3rd October 1852 at Ainstable, Cumbria, when her father was described as being a surgeon.
Agnes, aged 20, married [Welbury] Mitton aged 23, a farmer at Horton in Ribblesdale, on 20th February 1873.
Additional information... Dr Thomas Collingwood was born in 1821 in Plymouth, Devon, the son of William Dixon Collingwood (1786-1851) - a Lieutenant in the British Army, who fought in the Battle of Salamanca during the Napoleonic Wars in 1812 - and Phoebe Boyles (1790-1856). William Dixon's father was Dr Thomas Collingwood (1751-1822) and Elizabeth Forster (1765-1834). Both the Collingwood and Forster families were prominent Northumbrian landed gentry families.
Smith
Source: Cumberland Family History Society, Published 2001. There are a lot of Smiths buried in Ainstable churchyard.
[The gravestone of Henry Rochat Smith (1805-1861) and Agnes Atkinson (1803-1882), Harry's great-grandparents also lists...]Agnes Eliza Mitton, granddaughter, died 18th May 1891 aged 38.
Eliza Collingwood, daughter, died 12th April 1917 aged 89. She died at the Post Office at Ainstable. Probate was granted to Mary Collingwood, spinster, her estate was valued at £125 10s.
Mary Collingwood, daughter of Eliza died 11th April 1949 aged 83.
Pte. Mitton is remembered locally in Chopwell C92.02 and also on the lychgate at St.Michael’s Church [Ainstable]. Harry's aunt Mary Collingwood commissioned the lychgate engraving, but the stonemason carved "Henry Collingwood Mitton", instead of "Harry" and Mary refused to pay for it.
Additional information... Eliza Collingwood (nee Smith) lived at Beckside, Ainstable, a house that had been in her family for generations. It was here that Harry lived from the age of 13 until he married. Eliza was the Postmistress and used the front of the house as the Post Office. After she died in 1917, her youngest daughter Mary continued as the postmistress and lived in the house until she died, unmarried, in 1949. Eliza's father Henry Rochat Smith was an auctioneer and yeoman in Ainstable, and his ancestors had been in the village since the late 1600s; his great-great-grandfather Rowland Smith (Harry's 5x-great-grandfather) built the family home Beckside, in 1706. Beckside still stands today but is no longer in the family. Henry Rochat Smith was born in London as his father worked there for the Bank of England. It was here he married Henry's mother. Elizabeth Ann Rochat, was the son of Swiss watchmaker, and a mother born in England to French Huguenot parents.
Harry C. Mitton is remembered locally in Chopwell C92.02 and also on the lychgate at St.Michael’s Church Aislaby
