Milburn and Wilcox Family Tree

The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Darlington, in the Bishoprick By William Hylton Dyer Longstaffe Dr. Robert Hylton, an eminent surgeon (died 1746) took unto himself a third spouse in Mary, daughter and co heiress of Robert Weemes (gent), the heiress of the Manor at Stranton and other lands formerly belonging to her ancestors, the Gibsons of Stranton, doled out at Christmas time at the Manor House at Stranton where her husband resided after the marriage. She died in 1766. The only child of this marriage, Mary Hylton, or as she afterwards spelt it Hilton, the co-heiress of her father, and whose family became sole heirs of her mother, married the Reverend William Longstaffe, curate of Sedgefield under the learned Bishop Louth where he resided some years after he was made Vicar of Kelloe. He was appointed a deputy Lieutenant of the County of Durham in 1875 and Chaplain to the Earl of Aboyne in 1796. He was a tolerable poet possessing a keen perception of the beauties of nature, and his sketches of a rural and topographical excursions in which he much delighted are drawn with a true and graphic hand. He was a remarkably short man and very plain withal. It is added that his talents must have been the only reason for Miss Hylton's preference. He occasionally resided at the Hylton Manor House at Stranton , and after his wife's death had a cross old housekeeper there who made her puddings so heavy that they would, my father always said, roll down Roseberry Topping without breaking, under the pretext that, "It's nae use making things that warn't substantial." He died in 1806 aged 73 having survived all his children, save his daughter Mary Hilton (Longstaffe) who married Mr William Lynn and whose descendants still preserve a portion of the Stranton Estate.

Notes for REVEREND WILLIAM LONGSTAFFE: B.A. Cantab; Vicar of Kelloe; J.P. D.L Educated under Yates of Appleby; admitted to Magd. College, 1754; Curate of Sedgefield and Elmdon, under Bishop Lowth, 1758, where he resided until he became the Vicar of Kelloe in 1771; Deputy Lieutenant of the Militia, 1785; Chaplain to the Earl of Aboyne, 1796. He was a tolerable poet, who partly resided at Stranton Manor. . Age at death, 73 years. He wrote in 1785, "My father was buried at Kirkby Stephen, about 35 years ago." He wrote in the family bible, " March the 9th 1778. At 8 o'clock in the morning of this dismal day, died my dear wife, Mary Longstaff, in the Rectory house at Sedgefield, after we had lived happily together in the married state, Eleven years and Eleven days; and after she had borne to me, nine children - two of whom, now survive her, (viz )William Longstaff and Mary Hilton Longstaff. May it please God, to preserve and keep them!"