Early Drysdale families in Yorkshire

[Ronald Drysdale]

As previously mentioned there were a contingent of Drysdale families in Yorkshire (Kirkleatham, Stokesley & Scarborough) from the mid 1500s onwards:

https://douglashistory.ning.com/group/drysdale-a-douglas-sept/forum...

I was recently given a copy of the 1562 Will (+ transcription) of William Drusdaill in Cloughton, Scarborough by a fellow researcher called Shawn (who had Yorkshire Drysdale relatives) & who had obtained it from the Borthwick Institute. Many thanks Shawn!

Due to copyright restrictions I can't post the full image for this document, however the index record, partial image and AI transcription are copied below for information.

Initial indications are that William was a descendant of the Douglas/Drysdale line in Dollar.

Best regards

[William Douglas]

Were the Yorkshire Drysdales 'leftovers' from the cross border raids?

Were they migrants fleeing persecution?

Were they in the train of James Vi and I when he went to London, liked what they saw and stayed?

[Ronald Drysdale]

Hi William,

Difficult questions to answer when there are virtually no official records from those times, more so when you don't have any links to ancestral nobility.

In previous posts I had speculated that these outpost scatterings of Drysdale families throughout England in medieval times had possibly been Vassal leftovers from the time the Bruce family held lands in England. That of course is still possible, but for the Yorkshire Drysdales, I think that migration of a few individuals from Scotland was probably the beginning of those family lines.

Taking William Drusdaill (b.circa 1505 & d.1562) as an example:

Origins of William Drusdale?

There are no records to indicate where William was born, however, he died in the Scarborough area in 1562 and, as there are no other records for a Drysdale family in that area at that time, it is reasonable to assume that he was originally from Clackmannanshire/Fife in Scotland, or, less likely, Dumfriesshire, and then migrated and settled there.

Scarborough was one of the major sea ports in Yorkshire so we can speculate that William was a mariner and that he sailed there from one of the Scottish Forth ports - Bo'ness, Rosyth or Leith in the 1530s and then, liking what he saw, decided to stay.

In the very early 1500s the Drysdale name was very rare, less than 25 families all told, however there was a William Drysdale in the Dollar, Clackmannanshire area at that time, of the right age to be his father.

Another Drysdale family appeared around the mid 1500s in Kirkleatham with a Robert Drydaile baptism in 1561 and a Thomas Drydaill burial 1567, later there was a Leonard Dridell baptised 29-3-1593 with Father Xpofer Dridell at Stokesley Yorkshire

Best regards

[Ronald Drysdale]

Extending the legend of the 1503 Douglas/Drysdale story to William Drusdale in Cloughton, Yorkshire and introducing yet another name change (to Halywell)

Ref: Regality of Dunfermline court book, 1531-1538

https://archive.org/details/regalityofdunfer0000dunf/

William Drisdaill & his deceased son Robert Drisdaill were recorded in the Dunfermline Court book concerning a dispute with the church over land on the bank of Dolor - in 1534 & 15-1-1537

It appears from these court records that the disputed Dollar land was illegally occupied by William Drisdaill together with Margaret Kyrk (his spouse?).

These Church lands were supposed to revert to the Church after the death of a tenant/end of the tenancy. In this case, the tenancy of a sixth portion of these Dollar lands had been transferred by William Drysdale to his son, the late Robert Drysdale and, thereafter, father William and Margaret Kyrk took possession of the land.

The court ruled against William and Margaret and the license for the land reverted to the Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews, Administrator of the tenacies of Dunfermline.

Note both the Kirk and Drysdale families were feuars of lands in Dollar, other than the land that was disputed in this case.

Using some dubious (but imaginative) extrapolation methods, it is postulated, in the spirit of the 1503, that:

The William Drysdale mentioned in the Court record above is one of the three Douglas Brothers that are mentioned in the 1503 document.

This William Drysdale (Douglas) and Margaret Kyrk are the parents of William Drysdale (later in Cloughton) and Robert Drysdale of Dollar (who is not actually deceased, but by 1537 had left the Dollar area & changed his name to Robert Halywell to live alongside his brother William in Cloughton, Yorkshire)

Thereafter, William Drysdale (Douglas) dies and his wife Margaret Kyrk joins her sons in Cloughton, Yorkshire (also changing her name to Halywell)

This results in the 1562 Will of William Drusdaill mentioning that his mother is called Margaret Halywell and his brother is called Robert Halywell

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Of course another more likely scenario is merely that the Drysdale family lived in Yorkshire, William was the first son & then his Drysdale father died. His mother Margaret re-married someone called Hallywell & then they had another son called Robert Halywell who was William's (half) brother.

Other permutations exist that would also fit these records

A final word from Google AI:

The phrase "genealogy without sources is mythology" is a core principle in historical research, meaning family trees built on hearsay, assumptions, or unsourced online trees are stories, not facts, and must be backed by evidence (like vital records, census data) to be considered legitimate genealogy. It highlights the need for citing primary/secondary sources to separate verifiable family history from unsupported tales or "geneathology," emphasizing that unproven data is essentially fiction.

https://www.tamurajones.net/GenealogyWithoutDocumentationIsMytholog...

Best regards

Note for William D. - The name 'William Bwrn [Burns]'  in Sheardale, Dollar,  is also mentioned in the Dunfermline Court book source above.

[Russell Lynn Drysdale]

Well done Ronald !

[William Douglas]

Drysdale - that is very interesting, particularly the possible link back to 1503.

Burns - Wow!  That was well spotted, given the spelling.  That too is particularly interesting as it links my mother's Bwrn [Burns] ancestors to my wife's ancestors at Sheardale/Schyirdaill

Thank you