Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

superior station” as a local history put it. 1 The family seat was Broomhead Hall, situated some two miles from the village of Bolsterstone on the edge of Broomhead Moor. A notable owner of Broomhead Hall and its estates in the eighteenth century was John Wilson, who was known as The Antiquarian in recognition of his historical interests and scholarship. A younger son of The Antiquarian, William Wilson, established a successful wine business in Sheffield. William’s own younger son, James, was born in 1789 and became a solicitor in Sheffield and took a prominent part in civic affairs and in the Cutlers’ Company. James and his wife Elizabeth had three sons. The third of these, William Reginald born in 1838, was to be Rockley Wilson’s father. Before we continue the story of Rockley Wilson’s immediate family, it will be helpful to trace something of the history of the main branch of the Wilson family, for in due course the owners of Broomhead Hall were to become neighbours as well as relatives of William Reginald Wilson and his own family. We need to revert to James Wilson, Rockley Wilson’s paternal grandfather. In 1814 he entered into partnership with another successful Sheffield lawyer John Rimington. In 1802, John Rimington had purchased the manor, freehold and tithe-free estate of Bolsterstone from Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s Prime Minister and the latest of a succession of nobles and notables who had been Lord of the Manor of Bolsterstone down the centuries. 2 The manor lands were then broken up, although the rights and duties that went with the position of Lord of the Manor, including the patron of the local church, and for a time at least the title, continued to be enjoyed by John Rimington and his successors. John Rimington was married to Mary Wilson who was the sister of Henry Wilson, a merchant living in London and a nephew of the Antiquarian’s eldest son, John, the owner of Broomhead Hall. When this John Wilson died without children his wife sold the Broomhead estate in 1810 to Henry Wilson. Henry Wilson never married and when he died in 1819 he bequeathed the estate to The Wilson Family 6 1 R.A.Leader , Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century , Sheffield Independent Press, 1901, p.6. 2 In the fourteenth century the Lord of the Manor had been Sir Robert de Rockley of Rockley near Barnsley: there is a corbel representing Sir Robert in the church at Bolsterstone. This historical connection more than likely explains his parents’ choice of Rockley as one of the Christian names of their youngest son.