Amble and Hauxley. By J, C. Hodgson. 271 



On the 29th June 1651, Nicholas Lewin (probably the eldest son 

 and heir of Thomas) and Thomas Lewin made an enfeoffment to 

 Eobert Widdrington of Hauxley of two house-steads in Amble.^^ 

 In 1663 Nicholas Lewia held two-sevenths of the township, and 

 more than one-sixth of Hauxley. In April 1683, T. Lewin of 

 Amble, gent., was foreman of the grand jury at the sessions at 

 Morpeth.'^ 



A pedigree of this family by Mr Hamerton Crump of 

 Somerset House, a d (ascendant, is printed in Miscellanea 

 Genealogica et Heraldica, Yol. ii., p. 527. 



Their estates, both in Hauxley and at Amble Hope House 

 and Amble Low Hall, came — by fore-closure, it is alleged — 

 into the hands of the RadclifiPe family, the lords of the 

 manor, with whose descent they are identified. 



But at two different periods attempts have been made, by 

 persons claiming to represent the Lewin family, to recover 

 their lands. 



In 1775 Mrs Ellinor Minshull advanced her claim, which 

 was as follows. Thomas Lewin of Amble died leaving two 

 sons Nicholas and Thomas, and one daughter, Lilly ; the 

 latter married Wm. Oresswell. The eldest son, Nicholas, 

 married a daughter of Sir John Rutherford of Hunthill, in 

 Scotland, and had a son, Nicholas, and three daughters, Ann, 

 Ellinor, and Lilly, all four of whom died unmarried save 

 Lilly, who became wife of Mr Bell of Bothal Barns, and 

 died s.p. The second Thomas Lewin married Ann, daughter of 

 Francis Eadcliffe of Meld on, and had issue three sons Francis, 

 Thomas, and William, and two daughters Mary and Elizabeth. 

 Francis, the eldest son, died unmarried ; Tliomas, the second 

 but eldest surviving son, married Catherine Scott, by whom 

 he had an only child, Ellinor Lewin, who married John 

 Minshull of Great Driffield Hall, and claimed the estate of 

 her alleged paternal ancestors. The claim was unsuccessful. 



In 1825 another pretender came forward in a man of 

 humble position, in the parish of Warkworth, named John 

 Readhead, known by the by-name of ' Rasher Cap.'-° He 

 advanced a pedigree from a John Lewin, who, in 1697, 



^^ Hauxley Deeds. 



'^ Sessions Records Soc. of Antiq. of Newcastle. 



*° Rakhercap is the name of a cottac^e or steading in the parish of Felton 

 near the great north road, and a little to the north of Old Felton. 



