Men and Carts

During 2020-21 a small group of volunteers worked on the Men and Carts documents (Q/S/B/90/3 to Q/S/B/90/12) that can be found in the Quarter Sessions’ records. In 1798, fear of invasion by the French led to the drawing up of lists of names of men between the ages of 15 and 60 who were eligible to serve in the militia [army reserves]. The lists also recorded the number of waggons, carts and cart horses available “for the removal of Dead Stock, and conveying Soldiers and their Baggage …” Over 280 lists for towns and villages across Northumberland survive.

The volunteers indexed these documents, making lists of the names of men (and a small handful of women). The indexes are now being added to the main Northumberland Archives catalogue and staff have worked behind the scenes to attach scans of the documents. So, you can now search for a name in the catalogue and see a copy of the document that it appears in. They could be really useful for family and local historians.

This work was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of their Cultural Recovery Scheme. During the lockdown, we thought a lot about how we could keep contact with volunteers. We know that volunteering is important to a lot of people and offers a whole range well-being benefits. The work was done remotely; none of the volunteers came into the office, but we did have regular Zoom chats for a bit of social contact!

Having run this pilot project, we see the potential of developing online volunteering. Our volunteers told us that they enjoyed being able to work at their own pace, from their own homes. Remote volunteering also means that people who can’t make it to our Woodhorn or Berwick offices can still do something that engages the mind and helps the archives.

Some of our volunteers were inspired to dig a little deeper by the information that they found in the documents. The following was written by Irwin, one of our volunteers:

Gentlemen and Carts

While indexing Chirton township I came across the name A.M.Lawson de Cardonnol Esqr. with 1 cart and 1 horse. I was Intrigued with the ‘de’ in the name and the ‘Esqr’ [esquire] – obviously a Gentleman, not just a lowly worker.

A little research on the internet revealed the name Adam Mansfeldt de Cardonnel-Lawson. He was born Adam Cardonnel in 1746/7 to Mansfeldt Cardonnel (1696/7-1780) of Musselburgh and his wife Anne (daughter and heir of Thomas Hilton, County Durham). He was also a great-nephew of Adam de Cardonnel (secretary to the Duke of Marlborough). The family were Huguenots who had fled France after the St Bartholomew Massacre in 1572.

Although Adam had a medical education and practised for some time as a surgeon in Edinburgh, his circumstances allowed him to spend a lot of time in the study of antiquities and numismatics [coins]. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the author of several books.

In 1791 he succeeded to the estates of his second cousin Hilton Lawson at Chirton and Cramlington. He reverted to the Huguenot name “de Cardonnel” and eventually added Lawson.

In 1796 (not 1798 as stated in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) he served as High Sheriff of Northumberland – the person who would, when necessary, command the raising of the Posse Comitatus – as stated in the heading of the pages which we have been indexing!