The history of Clerkenwell / by William J. Pinks ; with additions by the editor, Edward J. Wood.

Pinks, William J. (William John), 1829-1860

Date:: 1881

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of Clerkenwell / by William J. Pinks ; with additions by the editor, Edward J. Wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

800/886 (page 762)

“ Fourthly. 'Vce, as bound in duety by the bond of neighbourhoode, doe hereby bynde ourselves mutually to °aoh other, to the utmost of our power, and as God shall inable us, to defend and save harmelesse each other from ail opposers or opposisions which herein shall bee. Witness our hands, at Knottingley, the 26th July, 1652. William Sykes.” lie sent his servant with this to the common crier of the village, who proclaimed it ore rotundo. The consequence was, much mischief ensued, the penalty to the delinquent being imprisonment in York Castle. The term of his incarceration cannot be ascertained ; but, that he did not survive it long, is evident from his will being dated 15th October ol the same year, and proved in London 5th July following. One item of it is:—“ I give to ye poorest sorte of prisoners, within ye Castle of Yorke, two fat beeves, which shall be put into ye hands of Joseph Ellis, now livinge within yo said Castle, and hce to dispose of ye same accordinge to his discretion.” 'William Sykes appears to have held religious opinions little in accordance with those of his brother, Richard ; and to have given thereby offence to Royalist and Roundhead alike ; and, certainly, at the hands of the latter party he received practical illustration of their intolerance and power. In political opinions he may be said to have been two centuries in advance of the age in which he lived. Witness his “Remonstrance,” dated March 20th, 1645. In this document, presented to Parliament, and called “The Humble Remonstrance of William Sykes, Merchant, for Free Trade in transportinge and importingo of lawfull and necdfull commodities,” he declares free trade to be the “ Commonwealth’s Birthright,” and “all men’s privilege, as well as our own.” An original of this rare “Remonstrance” is in the possession of John Sykes, M.H., of Doncaster, and shows that the remonstrant would have been no mere accessary of the Anti Corn Law League, had his lot been cast in the nineteenth instead of the seventeenth century. The place of his interment is uncertain ; but he was not buried with his ancestors in St. Peter’s, Leeds ; and there is presumptive evidence of his last resting-place being St. Helen’s, Stonegate, lork —his brother, Henry Sykes, of Hunslet Hall, Leeds, desiring by will, dated 19th September, 1654, to be buried there ; but the records of St. Helen s are defective at this period. He left five sons:—1. Richard, of Lcdsham Hall, Leeds; of whom presently. 2. Johu, of Whitton Hall, Durham. 3. William, of Leeds. 4. Daniel, of Knottingley ; ancestor of branches of this family at Sledmere, AYest Ella, &c., in the East Riding. 5. Joseph, of Leeds. Richard Sykes, Esq., the eldest son, was among those who promoted the erection of Mill-Ilill Chapel, Leeds, thus spoken of by Thoresby :—“ Adjoining the Alms-house Garth (Jenkinson’s aforesaid), is the Meeting-house, commonly called the hew Chapel, erected by the chief 1 resbj tciians, upon the first Indulgence, 1672. It’s said to be the first, and is certainly one of the stateliest fabricks built upon that occasion, in the North of England.” Mr. Sykes remained a member of this community until his decease, 24th March, 1693 ; but was not interred in the cemetery attached to the Chapel— his son-in-law, Thoresby (then almost alienated from nonconformity), thus noting the burial in his diary . << March 26th . . . solemnized this afternoon, about five, when he (father-in-law1) was interred in the grave of my great-grandfather, the old Aldciman Sjkcs. Early in the ensuing century, George and Samuel Sykes, from Driglington, in the neighbouring parish of Birstal, and collateral descendants of the Alderman, settled at Leeds, and became members of the Mill-Hill Society. They, and many of this branch, are interred in the cemetery belonging to the Chapel; and in that venerable edifice, associated with the past in so many religious, historical, and family traditions, Samuel Sykes, Esq., father of Colonel AVilliam Henry Sykes, M.P., received the rites of baptism. Others of this branch were baptised by Joseph Priestley,2 LL.D., F.R.S., during his pastorate of this community, A.D. 1767-73. > Note by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A. Of his father-in-law, Thoresby says ‘lie was a good man and a pious, and of admirable natural parts ; was a good justice in bad times, and favourable to the Royalists, that were then under a cloud, as 1 have heard some of them acknowledge.’ ” (Nevertheless it was deemed necessary to commit him prisoner to the Citadel of Hull, during Monmouth s Rebellion.) . . , ,J Arthur Ashley Sykes and Joseph Rriestley held similar religious dogmas. Dr. Sykes wrote a Tract entitled u r|']ic Eternal Peace of tlie Church only attainable by Mutual Charity, and not by a Pretence ol Uniformity of Opinion and a “Treatise on Redemption,” in which, said l)r. Priestley, “a great number of texts are admirably explained.” Dr. A. A. Sykes’s Branch included many clergy, and is traceable to Huddersfield, a.d. 14‘J6.