The Hoggarth family of the North York Moors
Tamar Hoggarth, nee Fletcher, 1860-1947 was probably the original Hannah Hauxwell. Whereas Hannah thrilled 1970s TV audiences with stories of her rural life, Tamar had done the same with BBC radio listeners in 1938
Click ‘play’ to hear Tamar speak about her life in North Yorkshire
The connection
Liz is descended from the Hoggarths via Ada (1898-1975) her paternal grandmother, who was born in Great Barugh, near Malton, Yorkshire.
The name
Hoggarth is probably a derivation of the Anglo Saxon hogg + hierd, meaning pigman or cowman, ie, someone who tended animals.
Danvers was born in Whitby, North Yorkshire. His family had connections with Bakehouse Yard, pictured here in 2015. He married Tamar Fletcher at the Cleveland Terrace Primitive Methodist Chapel, then moved south across the moors to join her family.
Among Danvers’s many jobs around the village was that of road mender.
Danvers Hoggarth started on the land as a boy, receiving meat and clothes in return for his labour. His obituary says: "Mr Hoggarth lived to see others engaged in agriculture enjoy what was by former standards advantages such as he and his contemporaries would never have though possible."
Odds and ends
John Hoggarth (1776-1856) of Newbiggin, Egton, is Liz’s 3x great grandfather. John was born in Lythe, a village on the coast that has a marvellous church that includes stones carved by the Vikings. His likely birthplace is Dun Bogs farm, about two miles inland, and his ancestors look likely to have been Catholic recusants.
• Liz and I met Bryan Hoggarth of Gloucester through our research. He is Liz’s distant cousin via John, above. Bryan's work has added hugely to our knowledge. He has been meticulous in tracing the family back to Dauntsey. See hoggarth.co.uk
Highlights
Because of Danvers and his brother Allin (note those first names) it is easy to trace the family back to the 1600s, when the Danvers and Allin families left Dauntsey, Wiltshire, to take care of land in North Yorkshire, which their lord had acquired by marriage. Each generation of the family used Danvers or Allin as first names. The tradition goes on: one of Danvers’s descendants in London named his son Danvers in the 2010s.
Read more
The full story of the Hoggarth family and its twigs is currently being written.