In my search for George Hodgson’s roots in northern England, this 1773 map of the Quaker Meetings in the northern six counties (shires) would have helped greatly.
As I explain in earlier posts here, I believe his ancestry comes down through Pardshaw in Cumbria, shown in the left portion of this map. Once you insert Lamplaugh from other sources, a much different sense of relationships to other locations emerges than you would glean from today’s highway maps or similar images.
In today’s maps, of course, so much more recent development makes the earlier sites often hard to find. Dent, for example, is sometimes suggested for some of the Hodgson genealogy, and finding it here makes connections appear more likely, especially when you can add up the milage between points.
Another big surprise for me is seeing how close Lamplaugh is to Swarthmore, the Fell manor that served as the headquarters of the Quaker movement during George Fox’s lifetime.
As I found in researching my book Quaking Dover, today’s online resources bring some rare documents to our fingertips, not that trips to the archives are eliminated.
Still, I hope knowing of this historic document by James Backhouse will aid others continuing the research at hand.
Orphan George 