Oakwell Hall ;- Birstall

admin xxxmadmart · Oakwell Hall ;- Birstall

William Batt

In December 1684 its reported that the family of a William Batt had saw him enter Oakwell hall on Christmas Eve (or New Years Eve, according to other accounts); they were surprised to see him as they thought he was in London at the time. However, William suddenly disappeared and could not be found any where with in the hall.

The following day his family discovered he had been killed in London around the time of his mysterious appearance at the hall. Therefore had it been his ghost they had seen the day before
entering the hall ?

weirdspirit

There is a lot of sightngs in Birstall. Keep up with the stories cos they are really good.

san4uzel · THE BATTS OF OAKWELL

THE BATTS OF OAKWELL
The Batts of Oakwell remain, in many ways, an elusive family. Although
they dominated Oakwell for over a hundred years, surviving
documentary evidence relating to their activities and domestic
arrangements is sketchy; even establishing the exact number of
children in each generation is sometimes impossible. Nor do we know
what the Batts look like - no known portraits exist of any of them.
Despite this, we do know a little about their interests and aspirations
from clues in the few historical documents that do survive which
enable us to chart the progress of this family.
The most obvious testimony to the
success of the family in the late
16th Century is Oakwell Hall
itself.

When John Batt built it, in
1583, he used the most up-to-date
architectural features and created a home typical of most
well-off middling gentry; it dominated the landscape and
firmly established the Batts as one of the leading gentry families
in the area. Indeed, the acquisition of the manor of
Oakwell and lands in Heckmondwike, Gomersal and Heaton by John’s father, Henry, and the
building of Oakwell Hall must have marked a significant rise in status
for this entrepreneurial family whose fortune had been acquired
through business interests in Halifax throughout the 15th and 16th
Centuries.
Nevertheless, a certain notoriety characterised the earlier Batts.
Within a few years of their arrival at Oakwell, Henry and John were
implicated in a plot which resulted in the parish church bell being
stolen and melted down and the rectory being demolished for its
stones! Money to build a school was also diverted. This opportunist
streak seems to been hereditary - it also motivated the actions of
some of their descendants.
What was life like at Oakwell? Three key documents survive to tell us
something about life and work in the household and on the estate in
the early 17th Century. The Court Baron Orders of John Batt, written
in 1603, were a code of conduct for tenants on the estate. The
tenants were liable to fines if these rules were broken. Thus no man
was to ‘break any mans hedge or sell, cut, burn or carry away any
wood’; no-one was to hunt or kill any of the lord’s rabbits upon pain of
a fine of 3s 4d; tenants were to maintain hedges dividing their land
from the next man’s and keep their ditches well scoured so that the
land could be kept well drained. Many of these rules were simply good
husbandry, there was little chance that lawbreakers would get away
with their misdemeanours as the court was held several times a year.
The Account Book, kept by the steward John Matteson, also records
details of expenditure when he went on various trips for provisions or
to buy livestock or get the plough mended. On these occasions, he had
to account for every penny spent. It was rare that he did overspend
but, on one occasion, when an opportunity arose for him to visit an
alehouse, he found that he had ‘spent more time than I had allow’d
(drinking) wyne and beere with Mr Lister and Mr Mydgley’s man...11d.’
Also recorded was a journey to Wakefield ‘to fetch the midwife in
haste’, which cost 6d, and another to take her back two days later.
Several of the Batt sons attended university. Of the surviving
correspondence relating to the Batts, a letter of 1595 written by
Robert Batt at university to his father, John, contains some
interesting snippets of information about life as a scholar and about
national newsworthy events. He wrote that ‘the small pokes (smallpox)
doe still continue amongst us and doe endainger many, whereupon most
of our scholars are sent home unto their friends’. He also mentioned
Captain Hawkins, the famous Elizabethan seafarer who brought
treasure captured from Spanish ships home to Queen Elizabeth. News
had just reached England that he ‘hath met with the Spanish revenues
out of the Indies and hath sent aide to bring him homewards safely
The Account Book of 1609-12 also gives us
some idea of the type of work performed on
the estate and the wages paid. The average wage for a male labourer was 7d a day, while a woman was paid about 4d. This did not
mean that women’s tasks were less strenuous; although they occasionally helped out in the house - cleaning, washing the
milkhouse and buttery or collecting herbs for distilling, they also did heavy outdoor tasks alongside the men, such as spreading
manure, hedging, sowing and harvesting,

The Batt Coat of Arms

with it’. It is a very chatty letter but gives some indication of
scholars’ circumstances at this time; they were responsible for finding
their own food and for whom ‘the excessive dearnesse of corne with us
and all other vitails’ brought hardship to some and made them more reliant on their fathers for their keep.

We know a little about what possessions
the Batts had in their home from the Inventory of 1611. This was made when John’s son Robert, who owned Oakwell
but lived in Wiltshire, leased the hall to his cousins, the Waterhouse family, and wanted to record which of his
possessions remained there. Of interest are the ten maps and 62 books owned by Robert Batt, indicating a studious mind as well as the means to afford to buy such luxury items.
The Ten maps included, ‘ye world: palestine:
france: spain: low countries: Greece: Italie: Africa: Asia: England,
Tables of both the Universities,’ suggesting that the Batt’s horizons
extended far beyond their native Yorkshire, a characteristic which
was born out, especially by the next generation of the family.
Robert Batt’s successor was his son John who, like his grandfather
and his great-grandfather, showed an entrepreneurial and
adventurous spirit and lived an even more colourful life. He was a
Justice of the Peace and a friend of Sir William Savile of Thornhill
Hall near Dewsbury where he made frequent visits, some of which
were recorded in the account books of that house. It was around this
time that John Batt may have made some of the alterations to the
interior structure of Oakwell Hall. The motivation for this was
probably to create a home that was in keeping with his family’s rising
status. John Batt pursued the life of a gentleman; he hunted, dined,
socialised and did business with other local and greater gentlemen
than himself; in keeping with this lifestyle he set about improving his
family home.

The Civil War may have marked a turn in the family’s fortunes.
John Batt was a Captain in Sir William Savile’s regiment and fought
on the side of the Royalists. When the war ended, his Royalist
sympathies resulted in a fine of one tenth of the value of his
estate, over three hundred and sixty pounds which, despite appeals
to Parliament, he had to pay.
Other members of the family, however, were successful in America.
Two of John’s brothers had earlier gone out to settle in Virginia, as
did his brother-in-law Phillip Mallory; these members of the family
clearly did well for themselves: the name of Batt occurs in lists of the
leading gentry in Virginia in the 17th Century. In 1654, the Charles
City Order Book notes the provision that William Batt, gentleman,
made for his younger brothers Thomas and Henry. He ordered that
they have certain livestock which was to remain upon his plantation
until the boys came of age. Also that they should have ‘two men
servants’ each: ‘...with good clothes and bedding for four years,...and
each of them a feather bed with curtains, blankets, rug and two pairs
of sheets to each bed’ and that when the plantation be sold it would
be ‘only for their proper use and benefit’.
John Batt’s death in 1652 marked the end of an era in the history of
the family. Sadly, the place of his death remains uncertain. An
administration of his will states that he died ‘in parts beyond the seas’
and no more. In all likelihood, he died in America but we will probably
never know for certain.
John was succeeded to Oakwell Hall by his son, William. Unlike his
father, who had spent so much time and money on the family home,
William chose to live elsewhere, at the seat of his wife’s family at
Howroyd Hall in Barkisland. When he died in 1673, his eldest son,
William, succeeded him.
In 1684 William was killed in as duel in London. He will be remembered
not for his influence on Oakwell and the estate he inherited, but for
It may have been financial difficulties which drove John Batt to seek his fortune in the New World, which presented attractive
opportunities to Englishmen at the time. John set sail sometime in the late 1640s, possibly 1648, to Virginia with three of his sons. He
entered a business venture with Sir Thomas Danby of Farnley, whereby the two men arranged the transportation of settlers. The
venture was not successful and there followed an acrimonious dispute over a payment of money which had not been
honoured. Moreover, John’s eldest son
drowned on the return voyage. The affair was one of personal tragedy and business failure for the Oakwell Batts.

signature scratched
on the window in the Great Hall

THE GHOST-
the story of his ghost coming home on the day he died, stalking
through the Great Hall, past his surprised family, up the staircase and
into his chamber. He then disappeared, leaving only a bloody footprint
in the doorway. This story has become a legend at Oakwell and is
firmly embedded into the history of the place.
William’s brother, Gledhill, inherited next but he died in 1686, just
two years after his brother, and a third brother - John - became the
next owner. John was a bachelor until 1695, when he married
Henrietta Catherine Metcalf in York Minster. We know very little
about their life together but it is probable that when Henrietta
moved in, she made changes to what had been a bachelor’s residence,
possibly changing the decoration and furniture. She probably also
changed the organisation of the household and the servants to suit
her own ideas.
As the 17th Century drew to a close several of John Batt’s brothers
and sisters were dead; he was probably left with the company of one
or two, the most likely being his sister Martha, who had married John
Murgatroyd of Crow Nest in Dewsbury. His other sister Elizabeth had
married the Reverend William Beevor of Thornhill and the couple
moved to a living in South Walsham in Norfolk at about the time of
John and Henrietta’s marriage. Most significantly for the family, John
and Henrietta had no children so, when John died in 1707, the family
name died with him. His wife was later remarried - to a John Smyth of
Heath, near Wakefield, and the ownership of the manor of Oakwell
went with her, although it was later divided between John’s remaining
sisters.
The final break up happened in 1747; various portions of the estate
were sold and a new era in Oakwell’s history began.
However, this was not the end of this remarkable family - a branch
thrived in America and, today, members of the family travel to visit
Oakwell and view their ancestral home, some occasionally providing us
with new bits of information.