History of a family - the Baines Collection

Hull University Archives, one of the History Centre partners, has recently been able to purchase the papers of the Baines family of Bell Hall, Naburn, which have been on deposit with us since 1974. We’re very grateful for the support from the Friends of the National Libraries and a private donor which has allowed us to buy it and ensure we can make it permanently available for researchers.

The Baines collection (catalogued as U DDBH) is not one of our larger collections, but nonetheless it’s an interesting one. It includes a record of the family’s estates between 1421 and 1918, including records relating to many villages and towns in Yorkshire, especially in the area around York, including Wistow, Cawood and Sherburn in Elmet in the West Riding; Hemingbrough, Escrick and Naburn in the East Riding; and Heworth and Wigginton in the North Riding.

It’s the personal records, though, which are the really fascinating part of this collection. They give an insight into the lives of the Baines family from the middle of the 18th century until the First World War. There are letters between children and parents, siblings, spouses, and friends, containing news and gossip about school, society, and the family. There are diaries and miscellanea, such as the cuff of a baby’s dress. There is even a box containing locks of hair, collected over decades, carefully cut from the family’s heads and kept in individual envelopes.

In this letter from Charles Mortimer to his niece Mary Baines, dated 27 September 1783, he doesn’t mince words when sharing his opinion about his sister’s romantic entanglement with a Mr Wren:

U DDBH/26/2 Extract from letter from Charles Mortimer, 27 September 1783

I was pleased with a Letter which I rec’d from my Sister some Time ago, wherein she [assured] me that she had entirely discarded Mr Wren. But she has written me two Letters, in the first of which she desired my approbation of her Marriage. I sent her my absolute Refusal, & indeed shou’d never give my Consent to any such Frolick of hers without my Brother’s Advise & Good Liking. She returned me a Reply; & such a Reply, that either Love or Enthusiasm seems to have made her Crazy.

Clearly the family weren’t going to make things easy for Miss Mortimer and Mr Wren!

Elsewhere there are documents created by children in the family. One of them is a “Journal of an excursion to Hambleton, Coxwold, Byland Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey, Duncombe Park, Ampleforth College and Helmsley, by Hewley John Baines, a pupil at Haxby School near York,” created in August 1837. Hewley seems to have been quite a talented artist, judging by the sketches included in his journal. This one shows the west front of the ruined Byland Abbey:

U DDBH/27/3 Sketch of Byland Abbey

There seems to have been plenty of laughter on the excursion, too:

U DDBH/27/3 Sketch of Master Smith's donkey

When we got near Gilling, Master Smith’s Donkey took it into his head to sit down upon its hind legs, like a dog, when his rider found it most convenient to slip off at the tail, which occasioned loud and long continued laughter.

The personalities of members of the Baines family shine through in these documents. 

If you’re interested in finding out more about the Baines family and their estates, you can view the catalogue online or download the full catalogue as a PDF.