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MATTHEW LEWTAS OF HAMBLETON
Matthew was the blacksmith in Hambleton and would have been in important figure in the community. As the heir of his father George he inherited the tools of the blacksmithing trade and in his will dated 1719 - he died the following year - he left these to his eldest son George and made financial provision for his younger children, John, William, Thomas and Ester, who were minors. His wife was Alice - it appears he must have married twice, Ann Fox being his first wife married 1697. He left property in Stalmine and in Out Rawcliffe and a house with outbuildings in Hambleton.
His grandson, another Matthew, was baptised at Hambleton on September 12th 1736 the son of Thomas and Grace Cowell. This Matthew moved to Liverpool where married Mary West at St Nicholas on June 19th 1766. Matthew moved from Over Wyre to live in Poulton sometime between 1788 and his death in 1797 Matthew Lewtas was elected as churchwarden for Poulton in 1788 and again in 1792 and in the jurors’ lists for Amounderness in 1792 he is recorded as living in Poulton with his estate in Hambleton.
When he died in 1797 Matthew was described in his will as ‘of Poulton' As was the fashion at the time Matthew left his goods to a wide variety of family members and others in Liverpool and the Fylde including Thomas Duxbury of Bispham who was left £5. (Thomas was the son of John Duxbury and Mary Lewtas of Poulton the daughter of Thomas Lewtas who owned the Lane Ends Hotel in Blackpool).
Mathew's wife Mary inherited her husband's share in the partnership in the sugar house in Liverpool - Slater Richardson & Co., etc on the north side of Coopers Row extending to King Street; his house etc on the south side of Bridgewater Street and pew number 7 in St James church Stalmine. He had also owned the property in Hambleton known as Boggery Gate, unfortunately destroyed by fire in the 1980s. Matthew also left money for the school master at Hambleton As he requested both Matthew and later his wife Mary were buried 'within the chapel or chapel yard' of Hambleton.
MATTHEW'S DESCENDANTS IN HAMBLETON
Martthew's descendants can be followed through the census returns. The 1871 census records Matthew's descendant James Lewtas born 1819 in Rawcliffe, a timber merchant and farmer of 81 acres living at Boggery Gate with Elisa Sophia his wife nee Robinson born 1839 in Pilling. In the same census Benjamin Lewtas is recorded as living in Watson Lane, unmarried, aged 40, also a timber merchant born in Out Rawcliffe. By 1881 Matthew & Eliza Sophia had two sons Matthew aged 7 and Robert aged 6 both born in Hambleton.
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