22. Mary Rogers married Sir William Creagh

About William Creagh, Sir Roman Catholic Mayor of Newcastle during the reign of James

He married Mary (Margaret) Rogers in England, Extracted Parish and Court Records about William Creagh Mrs Mary Rogers or did he?

 According to the following there was a marriage between William Creagh and a Mrs Mary Rogers

Text: 29 Jun 1681 William Creagh, of St Martin's in the Fields, Midd., Esq., Bachr, abt 35, & Mrs Mary Rogers, of the same, Spr, abt 26, with consent of her mother; at St Martin's aforesd. Book: 1681. Collection: England: Canterbury - Marriage Licences Issued By The Archbishop of Canterbury, 1679-1694

In finding that they married in London, there are some questions which don't seem to be able to be answered.

Was he in the Court of King James?

Why was Mary in London?

He was Catholic not Anglican I don't think he would have been married by the Archbishop of Canterbury


Did they live in London until 1684 when he was knighted by King James II no because the children were born in Newcastle.

So perhaps the record belongs to someone completely different.

Lady Margaret and Sir William had 3 daughters and 1 son

Francis      B  1680    Linen Draper in London did not marry prior to his mother's death
Margaret   B  1682      d 1732    in Newcastle  married Anthony Isaacson
Sarah        B   1684     d  1747                      
Mary        B   1689     d  1732   in Newcastle   married  Dominic Archdeacon

From the National Archives

Short title: Creagh v Creagh.

Document type: Answer only.

Plaintiffs: Mary Creagh, spinster.

Defendants: Francis Creagh Linen Draper London and Sarah Creagh, spinster. St Gillies

Date of bill (or first document): 1714

This is probably to do with a will.

He built a mansion in West Gate in Newcastle in 1680, presumably at the time of his marriage.

Illustration of  Creagh's mansion later known as' the Assembly House' on the Corbridge map of 1721 showing the building prior to modernisation in the 1770's

Sir William held meetings in his house hence the name Assembly House.

It is now the home of the Newcastle Arts Centre, and has undergone a lot of renovation.

This drawing shows the proposed restoration of the 1770's south elevation that was hidden when Walkers Factory was built in the Courtyard . Originally the view from the splendid Venetian window would have been across a large courtyard and garden to the City walls and the rural Tyne valley. This Georgian elevation will be restored with the interior.

The site of the present 55/57 Westgate Road has seen a wide range of occupants, and this stretch of Westgate Street was certainly occupied from the 15th Century. The building has been rebuilt at least once and 'recased' twice. The early cellars are built from stone and provided the foundations for a timber framed building with brick infill. The house was recased in brick in the late 17th Century and recased in stone in the 1770's. The front wall is 3 walls thick faced with a grey millstone grit that is much harder than the local dune sandstone. By contrast the delicate doorway is made from a very fine sandstone which suggests that it may have been a special commission or salvaged from another building.

In the 1680's it was the home of an Irish Roman Catholic, Sir William Creagh. He was made Mayor and Freeman of the City by Royal Mandate, this being part of James II's efforts to assert the power of the Crown - at the expense of Newcastle's privileges and independence. The King removed the incumbent Mayor and officials, ordering the electors to choose Creagh and other Royal nominees. 

The electors refused, on the grounds that they were "papists and persons not qualified". This action had no effect, Creagh and his cronies simply assumed office. However, his period of power was short lived. Resentment at royal interference in the city's politics, Creagh's religious sympathies and factional rivalry among the ruling elite combined to remove him. Thus, when William of Orange landed in England in October 1688, Creagh was removed from office and his political career came to an end.

With the Revolution Sir William Creagh's municipal career came to an end. His freedom of the Corporation was declared void, and, excepting entries of the baptism of two daughters at St. John's in 1689 and 1690, no further mention of him occurs for some time in Newcastle history. 




From a letter contributed by Mr. Horatio A. Adamson to the " Proceedings of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries," that he received, from the first Earl of Derwentwater, a share in "Old Brigleburne " mine, and we learn from the MS. previously quoted that he continued to be a lessee of Gateshead Colliery down to the year 1700. 

Francis Radclyffe, 1st Earl of Derwentwater (1625 – April 1697), of Dilston Castle was an English peer and member of the House of Lords. His wife was Catherine Fenwick.

He was the 3rd Baronet, succeeding Sir Edward Radclyffe, 2nd Baronet. He was then created Earl of Derwentwater, Viscount Radclyffe, and Baron Tyndale on 7 March 1688. He was succeeded by Edward Radclyffe, 2nd Earl of Derwentwater

The Riddell family seemed to own a lot of land and collieries in Gateshead, Margaret Riddell married into the Shafto family.


From A historical and descriptive account of All Saints church in Newcastle. Written 1826

In 1696 the five old bells in the steeple were taken down and six new bells cast and hung in the new frames by Christopher Hodson of London for which he received over One Hundred and Eighty Two pounds.

The old bells weighed 58 cwt 1 qr 21 lbs and the new ones 58 cwt 3 qrs 18.5 lbs.

 On the petition of the Churchwardens, the Corporation granted them “The metal that was left of the Horse part” of the Statue of King James the Second, which formerly stood on the Sandhill, but “in the conclusion of the year 1688 was by Some officers and soldiers pulled down and defaced.  (Thrown into the river)  William Creagh organised this statue of King James II.

He was Mayor of Newcastle when a statue to King James II was erected.  It cost the Council 800 pounds, and the townsfolk pulled it down when they accepted Lord Lumley.  It was dumped in the river,  Later the metal was used to make bells!  The date on the inscription may be incorrect.

Sir William Creagh wrote a series of papers on

The Present State of the Foreign Coal Trade, offered to the consideration of His Majesties Commissioners of the Customs, by William Creagh of Newcastle upon Tyne, Merchant  (London 1684/7)

This interesting collection of documents was sent by Sir William Creagh to the Lords of the Treasury with a covering letter.  They deal with the diversion of the foreign trade in coal from Newcastle to Scotland owing to the higher rates of export duty payable at the English port.  The documents are printed as follows:-

1. His covering letter to the Treasury, dated 1687
2. His memorandum with the title iven above, explaining how he had lost an order for coals from France owing to the difference in the scale of duties to the Commissioners of Customs in 1684.
3. A Certificate from Rouen affirming the purchase of the coals from Scotland
4. A Memoradum from Mr George Robinson oposing Creagh's proposed reductin in the English duties, dated 1684
5. A reply from Creagh to Robinson's memorandum
6. A further memorandum from Creagh present to the King in 1685/6
7. A Certificate from Scotland affirming the sale of the coals to France, as assered by Creagh
8. A copy of the preamble to the Scotch Book of Rates, showing that an equalisation of customs rates between England and Scotland was considered desirable in 1670

This is from the Trade, Commerce and Colonial Development: Birrell and Garnett's Catalogue and is available as an ebook.

Perhaps the King had sent him to Newcastle?  He appears to have been heavily involved with coal mining in these times prior to being Mayor.

A google search and reading of old History of Newcastle unearths a great deal about Sir William Creagh.  

On 19 Feb. 1685 the Duke of Newcastle (Henry Cavendish), who had been nominated recorder, wrote to Sunderland that he had told the corporation to elect Brabant, ‘and I am confident Sir Nathaniel Johnson will be chosen at Newcastle’. His confidence in Johnson was well justified, but the second Member in James II’s Parliament was not Brabant, but Blackett’s son, recently created a baronet. Brabant apparently believed that a vacancy would be created by the appointment of Johnson as governor of the Leeward Islands, and when he became mayor in October he proceeded to purge the common council in order to facilitate his own return at a by-election. 

Blackett, however, carried too many guns for him, and together with Johnson procured an order for fresh elections ‘according to the custom and charter of the town’.

 Brabant was so humiliated that he accepted the royal mandate to admit to the freedom Sir William Creagh, a zealous Roman Catholic merchant residing in the town; but when two scions of the local Roman Catholic gentry presented their mandates a fortnight later he did venture to report ‘general dissatisfaction’. On 24 Dec. 1687 the mayor, the sheriff, six aldermen, the deputy recorder, and 15 of the common council were removed. 

Creagh, the newly nominated mayor, and his backwoodsmen set up a statue of James II in the market place with an inscription to ‘the first Catholic king, erected by the first Catholic mayor’; but the court interest was now effectively in the hands of the dissenters, led by Ambrose Barnes, a Presbyterian, who described himself as ‘the first mover in the alterations made in those parts’. 

After a fulsome address proposed by Creagh had been defeated in the council chamber, quo warranto proceedings were commenced, and the charter was surrendered on 8 Mar. 1688 after just over three years in force. When Newcastle proposed Serjeant Jefferson, a loyal Anglican, as deputy recorder, he was told that the King had fixed on Barnes’s son.

 A warrant for a new charter was issued on 20 July, reducing the electorate to the corporation and 39 electors to be chosen by the ‘mysteries and by-trades’, though in fact Barnes ‘drew up a list with his own hand ... to make sure that the elections went right’. This select body dutifully elected Barnes’s brother-in-law Hutchinson as mayor

 A preliminary sounding of candidates for Parliament had revealed that ‘in all probability Sir William Blackett stands the fairest and can make the greatest interest in the corporation if he pleases to appear’. Sunderland however nominated Nicholas Cole, son of Sir Ralph Cole and the only Anglican alderman left on the corporation, and ‘William Barnes, senior’, an unfortunate lapse, which necessitated, as the candidate proudly related,

Occupation

   1687 abt Age: 37 

   Newcastle on Tyne, Northumberland, England

   Politics - Mayor; Sir William was the Roman Catholic Mayor of Newcastle during the reign of James II 

Occupation

   1688 aft Age: 38 

   Collier - partnered with Sir Francis Radclyffe (also a RC) in coal mining; see the Proceedings by the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, 1885:123 

Short title: Creagh v Milbanke. Plaintiffs: Sir William Creagh kt, of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland ...

...Creagh v Milbanke. Plaintiffs: Sir William Creagh kt, of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland , Sir Henry Liddell baronet, of Ravensworth Castle, Durham , Thomas Liddell esq, of Newton, Durham , Lionel Vane esq, of Long Newton, Durham ...

   Collection: Records created, acquired, and inherited by Chancery, and also of the Wardrobe, Royal Household, Exchequer and various commissions

   Date range: 01 January 1699 - 31 December 1700

   Reference:C 6/394/28

   Subjects:Litigation, Coal, Mining and quarrying

Short title: Creagh v Wilkinson. Plaintiffs: Sir William Creagh kt. Defendants: Francis Wilkinson esq. Subject: ...
...Creagh v Wilkinson. Plaintiffs: Sir William Creagh kt. Defendants: Francis Wilkinson esq. Subject: Suit concerning leases and conveyances of coal mines and collieries: mentions Ralph Clavering , Sir Mark Milbanke baronet, of Halnaby, Yorkshire , deceased and William ...

   Collection: Records created, acquired, and inherited by Chancery, and also of the Wardrobe, Royal Household, Exchequer and various commissions

   Date range: 01 January 1700 - 31 December 1700

   Reference:C 6/394/32

   Subjects:Litigation, Coal, Mining and quarrying

   Browse by hierarchy | Browse by reference

Short title: Wall v Creagh. Plaintiffs: Henry Wall. Defendants: Sir William Creagh kt and others. ...
Court of Chancery: Six Clerks Office: Pleadings before 1714, Bridges. Short title: Wall v Creagh. Plaintiffs: Henry Wall. Defendants: Sir William Creagh kt and others. Subject: property in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland. Document type: bill only.

   Collection: Records created, acquired, and inherited by Chancery, and also of the Wardrobe, Royal Household, Exchequer and various commissions

   Date range: 01 January 1687 - 31 December 1687

   Reference:C 5/95/98

   Subjects:Litigation

   Browse by hierarchy | Browse by reference

Short title: Creagh v Milbanke. Plaintiffs: Sir William Creagh . Defendants: Sir Mark Milbanke by ...
...Creagh v Milbanke. Plaintiffs: Sir William Creagh . Defendants: Sir Mark Milbanke by Francis Wilkinson , John Milbanke and Henry Lambton . Subject: personal estate of the deceased Sir Mark Milbanke , of Yorkshire . Document type: answer only. ...

   Collection: Records created, acquired, and inherited by Chancery, and also of the Wardrobe, Royal Household, Exchequer and various commissions

   Date range: 01 January 1700 - 31 December 1700

   Reference:C 6/318/58

   Subjects:Litigation

MAYOR OF NEWCASTLE BY MANDAMUS

Towards the close of Charles the Second's reign, a goodly number of the people of Newcastle, seeing the course which the king was pursuing, entertained doubts respecting the advantages of the Restoration. Even the authorities, or, at least, some of them, were not so courtly and complaisant in 1684 as they had been in 1661. In- deed, fed by the continual infusion of Puritan blood from beyond the Border, the town was becoming refractory

Charles and his advisers found it necessary to strengthen the power of the Crown in some direction or other, and they hit upon the expedient of remodeling the Royal Charters. Thereupon the surrender of the charter of Newcastle was demanded and given, and just before the king died a new charter was prepared, in which accept- able aldermen were appointed, and power was reserved to the Crown to displace the Mayor, Sheriff, Recorder, Town Clerk, and even the Common Council at its pleasure

Upon the accession of James II. (Feb. 6th, 1684-5) the amended charter was formally sent down to the town. The new monarch was not slow to avail himself of its provisions. Within a year of his coronation he had removed the whole of the Common Council, and made a beginning with other alarming interferences with the liberties of the townspeople. 

The medium through which he sent his mandates was Sir William Creagh, an ardent loyalist, and a devoted member of the Church of Rome.

Local historians have not favoured us with much personal detail about this royal emissary. It is assumed that he was sent down to Newcastle for the special purpose of carrying out the king's behests, and that he was a stranger. John Bell, in a paper contributed to the " Archaeologia jEliana" in 1826, labours to prove that he came hither for the express purpose of securing the erection of a statue of James II. upon the Sandhill, " and was followed by sign manual letters to introduce him still further into the company of the leading families, the more closely to watch over the political interests of his Majesty."

But Sir William Creagh was not such a stranger to Tyneside as Mr. Bell imagined. He was in the neighbourhood for three or four years before Charles II. died, and must have been already acquainted with some at least of the " leading families," for in a MS. relating to the estate of the Riddells of Gateshead, under date March 24th, 1681-82, is a copy of an indenture by which the mansion house of the family and the colliery belonging to them were let to Sir William Creagh, who covenanted that for seven years he would work the colliery, sell the coals, and after deducting the expense of management, interest for his money, and 2s. 6d. per tenn for his trouble, hand over the balance to the trustees of the Riddell property.

The first Royal message to Newcastle with which Sir William Creagh's name is associated bears date March, 1685-86. It was addressed to the Merchants' and the Hostmen's Companies, and commanded both these worshipful fraternities to admit Sir William into their ranks as a free brother. A similar mandate to the Corporation, dated May 31, 1687, ordered his admission to the freedom of the town.

All three of these imperious orders were dutifully obeyed, in the letter if not in the spirit. With the mere letter of his freedom, however, Sir William Creagh was not satisfied. From the books of the Merchants' Company we find that on the 19th July, 1687 :

Sir Win. Creagh, Knt., presented a letter from the king, directed and signed and undersigned nearly as the former dated 31 May, 1687, reciting the letter of the 17th March, 1685-86, and, also, that he had been admitted, but not in so ample manner as his Majesty intended ; therefore, requiring his freedoms to be recorded by order of the Common Council, and the Company of Hostmen and Merchants, so as he and his posterity may be enabled to take apprentices, and enjoy all other franchises which any Freeman of the Corporation enjoys, either by descent or servitude. 

While these mandates were flying about, the king suddenly proclaimed liberty of conscience to all his subjects, suspended and dispensed with the penal laws and tests, and even with the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. The biographer of Ambrose Barnes makes it appear that this change in the king's tactics was largely due to the influence of Mr. Barnes.

 Howsoever that may have been, the Corporation of Newcastle were sadly perplexed by the king's rapid change of front. They were an intensely loyal body, devotedly attached to the Established Church, and sympathised as little with the views of Ambrose Barnes as they did with those of Sir William Creagh.

At Michaelmas, 1687, they elected men of their own party to be Mayor and Sheriff, Deputy-Recorder, and Aldermen. With this arrangement the king and Ambrose Barnes were not satisfied. At Christmas there came down from London another Royal mandate, displacing the Mayor, Sheriff, Deputy-Recorder, six Aldermen, and fifteen of the Common Council, and commanding the electors to appoint in their places Sir William Creatrh (Catholic), Mayor; Samuel Gill (Dissenter), Sheriff Edward Widdrington and John Errington (Catholics), Ambrose Barnes, William Johnson, William Hutchinson, and Thomas Partis (Dissenters) Aldermen, and Joseph Barnes (son of Ambrose), Recorder, leaving four Aldermen and nine of the Common Council to represent the Church party.

 The electors refused to obey this imperious demand ; they declined, loyal as they were, to surrender their rights and privileges; they stood aside, and allowed the Royal nominees to take possession of place and power upon the strength of the Royal order.

A deed of the period shows us the autographs of four of the principal men in this mixed assembly Sir William Creagh (the Mayor), Ambrose Barnes, William Hutchin- son (Barnes's brother-in-law), and Samuel Gill (the Sheriff) :

But widely separated as were the members of this heterogeneous Corporation in thought and feeling, they appear to have hung together fairly well, Sir William Creagh and Ambrose Barnes, the two leaders, managed to sink their religious differences while engaged in municipal work.

Ambrose Barnes attended his own place of worship in freedom, while Sir William Creagh went to mass without hindrance, and on the day of thanksgiving for the Queen's conception, January 29, he listened to a sermon "at the Catholick Chappel, by Phil. Metcalfe, P. of the Society of Jesus," which was afterwards published. Thus these two men, each working for his own hand, managed to carry on the government of the town. On the 10th of February a quo warranto against their charter was served upon the Corporation ; in return a similar process was taken out against the electors for refusing to appoint Creagh and his colleagues

.And while both matters were being considered (the charter was sent up to London on the 8th March) the equestrian statue of the king, to which reference is made in a preceding paragraph a noble effigy of brass bestriding a rearing charger of the same metal, as may be seen in vol. ii. of the Monthly Chronicle, pace 162 was set upon its marble pedestal in front of the Town's Chamber on the Sandhill.

The charter, altered for the second time in less than five years, was ready for delivery a few days after the statue had been erected. Sir William Creagh went to London to receive it, and his return was celebrated, ac- cording to the London Gazette of the 13th August, with much ceremony.

Sir William Creagh and his friends began now to prepare for the ensuing Michaelmas mayor choosing. It was their intention to elect two men of their own party for Mayor and Sheriff, but Ambrose Barnes and his friends were on the alert, and when the day arrived (Monday, the 1st of October), they rose early in the morning, and elected two dissenters William Hutchinson, Mayor, and Matthias Partis, Sheriff.

Within a fortnight it was discovered that Royal interference with borough charters was a mistake. On the day (October 17) when it became known that William Prince of Orane was preparing to invade England, a Royal Proclamation was issued ordering corporations whose deeds of surrender had not been recorded or enrolled, to be restored " into the same state and condition they were in our late dear brother's reign."

Newcastle was one of the towns in which the surrender had not been enrolled; all, therefore, that Sir William Creagh had done was illegal ; the election of the 1st October was void. On the 5th of November the Prince of Orange landed in England; on that day William Hutchinson and Matthias Partis were put out of office ;

Nicholas Ridley was elected Mayor and Matthew White Sheriff ; and all the displaced aldermen resumed their gowns. A month after the coronation of William and Mary, on Saturday, May 11, 1689, the statue of James II. was torn down and thrown into the river Tyne.

MONTHLY CHRONICLE.
/March \ 1890.
With the Revolution Sir William Creagh's municipal career came to an end. His freedom of the Corporation was declared void, and, excepting entries of the baptism of two daughters at St. John's in 1689 and 1690, no further mention of him occurs for some time in Newcastle history. We know, from a letter contributed by Mr. Horatio A. Adamson to the " Proceedings of the Newcastle Society of Antiquaries," that he received, from the first Earl of Derwentwater, a share in "Old Brigleburne " mine, and we learn from the MS. previously quoted that he continued to be a lessee of Gateshead Colliery down to the year 1700.

From the Register of Burials at St. Nicholas' Church 

1696-7, January 30. Lady Margaret Creagh.
1702, December 27. Sir William Creagh, Knight, bur. at All Saints.

To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesties treasury [microform] / Sir William Creagh Bib ID 816768 Format MicroformMicroform, BookBook Author Creagh, William, Sir Description [S.l. : s.n., 1684] 22 p. Series
Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 23:25. Summary
Collection of documents sent by Creagh, along with his cover letter dated 1687, to the Lords of the Treasury. They deal with the diversion of the foreign trade in coal from Newcastle to Scotland owing to higher export duty in England. Notes
Caption title.
Date of publication from Wing.
Folded leaf inserted between p. 8 and 9 titled: The French certificate.
Folded leaf inserted between p. 20 and 21 titled: The Scotch certificate.
Reproduction of original in Columbia University Library. Cited In
Wing C6866 Reproduction Microfilm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms, 1961. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 23:25) Subjects Coal trade - Great Britain. Available From UMI University Microfilms International, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106

From the internet by William Newton a Newcastle based architect..

He is discussing Sir William Creagh‘s property in Newcastle.

The site of the present 55/57 Westgate Road has seen a wide range of occupants, and this stretch of Westgate Street was certainly occupied from the 15th Century. In the 1680's it was the home of an Irish Roman Catholic, Sir William Creagh. He was made Mayor and Freeman of the City by Royal Mandate, this being part of James I I’s efforts to assert the power of the Crown - at the expense of Newcastle's privileges and independence. The King removed the incumbent Mayor and officials, ordering the electors to choose Creagh and other Royal nominees.

The electors refused, on the grounds that they were "papists and persons not qualified". This action had no effect, Creagh and his cronies simply assumed office. However, his period of power was short lived.

Resentment at royal interference in the city's politics, Creagh‘s religious sympathies and factional rivalry among the ruling elite combined to remove him. Thus, when William of Orange landed in England in October 1688, Creagh was removed from office and his political career came to an end.

From 1716 to 1736 this was the home of one of the first Assembly Rooms in Newcastle (at the same time playing host to a school, for young ladies!). These public assemblies for dancing and card playing were a new feature of northern society and at first appear to have encountered considerable opposition - as objectionable on moral grounds.

The Newcastle Courant advertised "Plays, Masquerades and Assemblies - every night during the races" and "a raffle for 12 fine fans... at half a crown a ticket". These were, no doubt, occasions when the habitual peace and tranquillity of the street were somewhat disturbed..." a fit of dissipation seized it, and instead of the usual sleepy repose, there was a clattering of carriages, and flaring on links and sounds of music and revelry upon the midnight air" (Charlton).

By the mid eighteenth century, 55 had returned to a more conventional role. It is believed to have been the home of the eminent Newcastle architect William Newton, for a time. The house was considerably rebuilt in 1757. Much of this still remains above and behind the modern shop front and is reflected in the fact that it is a Grade II Star listed building. The interior in particular contains some rare and elaborate "Imperial" plasterwork in a Northern version of the Italian style.

It is believed that this house continued to be used occasionally as an assembly house up to the opening of the Assembly Rooms in 1776 that were designed by William Newton and stand opposite 55 & 57 Westgate Road. Newton was also responsible for Charlotte Square and later lived there.