Isabel (Swinburne) Crathorne

British, born 1731

BiographyThomas Crathorne was born in 1721, the only son of Margaret (Trapps) and George Crathorne. He descended from a Roman Catholic family in the North Riding of Yorkshire with an ancient history of piety and a strong tradition of recusancy. The Crathornes were unusual in the region for sustaining both faith and fortune well into the late eighteenth century. On his uncle Ralph's death in April 1755, Thomas succeeded to the estates of East Ness and Crathorne Hall in the North Riding, which had been in the family's possession since the fourteenth century. Four months later, on August 13, 1755, in Hovingham, Yorkshire, he married Isabel Swinburne, who also descended from a venerable northern Catholic family. She was born on November 8, 1731, the eighth of eleven children of Sir John Swinburne (1698-1745), 3rd Bart., of Chapeaton, Northumberland, and his wife, Mary (d. 1761), only daughter and heir of Edward Bedingfeld. Among her four brothers were Henry Swinburne (1743-1803), the cosmopolitan antiquarian and travel writer, and Sir Edward Swinburne (1733-1786), 5th Bart., great grandfather of the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909). Thomas and Isabel resided at Crathorne Hall and had five children. Little more is known of their lives. Thomas died at home on February 21, 1764 at the age of forty-three. His wife became sole administrator of his estate, which she held in trust for his heir, seven-year-old Henry Ralph (1757-1797). Thirty-three years old at the time of her husband's death, Isabel Crathorne never remarried. The date of her death is unknown.

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