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In the parish register, December 26th, 1702, is the following 

 entry of burial, " Dorothy Tickell, of Portenskell, Widow, Quaker, 

 was buried in Wooline, according to Act of Parliament." 



The Wrens of Castlerigg were an ancient and opulent 

 yeoman family. There was a Mr. Justice Wren, who was a magis- 

 trate, and who is mentioned in the Crosthwaite Parish Registers 

 as having celebrated marriages during the Commonwealth. There 

 was also a Gawen Wren, who was contemporary with Francis, first 

 Earl of Derwentwater. He took a lease of the Town Cass, which 

 led to a lawsuit in the time of his widow, when John Fisher of 

 Naddle and twenty-eight other tenants combined to claim the 

 property as common to the tenants of the manor, to cut grass 

 for their cattle when they came to market, and also to cut withes 

 to bind the thatch upon their houses. The tenants prevailed in 

 their contention, after eight or nine years' htigation. It was said 

 at the time that the land was only worth twenty pounds — and the 

 tenants had one hundred pounds to pay in costs, although they 

 won the suit. 



The enfranchisement of the manor of Castlerigg is dated the 

 1 8th August, 1623, and although Nicholson and Burn say, Vol. ii., 

 p. 80, that Gawen Wren's was the principal tenancy enfranchised, 

 I find on reference to the deed, that John Bankes, son of William 

 Bankes of Castlerigg, and John Bankes of Eskembeck, paid more 

 money for their lands than he did. But the family acquired other 

 estates subsequently, until it is recorded in the court rolls of the 

 manor that they held thirteen lands and tenements in Castlerigg 

 and Derwentwater. 



On the 23rd of January, 172 1, Grace Wren of Castlerigg, 

 spinster, made her will, and among other bequests she left the 

 following : — " First, I give and bequeath unto my brother Gawen 

 Wren, and my cousin John Wilson of Ashness, the sum of forty 

 pounds in trust for the use of the poor children born within the 

 parish of Crosthwaite aforesaid, that is to say, that my trustees 

 shall lay out the said sum of money, or purchase a piece of freehold 

 land with the same, and with the interest and profits of the said 

 money or land my said trustees shall yearly lay out in buying 



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