Roots of the British – Inskip DNA Study

A wonderful opportunity has arisen to include the Inskip One-Name Study in the University of Leicester’s ground breaking project Roots of the British. We are therefore looking for men to take part in the study, whose ‘natural’ father had the surname Inskip, Inskeep, or Inskipp.  We need 90 volunteers who are no closer than second cousins to each other ie not father and son , brothers,  first cousins or first nephews.

Professor Mark Jobling, and Dr Turi King at Leicester University, have set out to use genetics as a basis for establishing the population history of the British Isles.  To date they have worked on questions such as the Viking ancestry in the North West England, and the link between surnames and a common ancestor: their work is published on the Roots of the British website.

The objective of the Inskip One-Name project will be to feed into the Roots of the British study, and to see if men with the surname Inskip share a common paternal ancestor or not.  Also to see what links might show up between the different geographical clusters eg are the Bedfordshire Inskips the same family as the Staffordshire Inskips?  Do the Leicester Inskips share a common ancestor with any other groups?

Taking part in the study will mean the University of Leicester sending you the simple equipment and instructions to take a brushing from the inside of the cheek – in layman’s terms it is the quick wipe of a cotton wool bud and takes no more than 10 minuites.  This is then put in a sealed test tube and returned to Leicester in a pre-paid envelope.  The tests are then carried out in the much respected  Departments of Genetics at Leicester.  We will keep everyone who takes part notified of when the results can be expected.  The purpose of this study is historical academic research and there will be no charges made for tests to participants.

The final analysis will be given in papers by the Roots of the British team, and will help in the overall understanding of the ancestry of the British.

If you would like to take part  or discuss taking part then please contact me at inskip@one-name.org.

Campaigning Inskips from Leicester

I love getting enquiries for help with our Inskip ancestors,  as it always opens up a treasure trove of interesting history.  This month I have been approached by Mr Ken Bowden who is researching the Bacup Inskip League of Friendship [for disabled persons].  Did I know anything of Leonard Inskip the inspiration for this charity?

All I knew of Leonard was that he was Editor of The Cripples Journal in the 1920’s. This later became the National Cripples Journal, which changed its name in 1969 to ‘The Voice of the Disabled’.   The aim of the journal was given as “Only when public interest is awakened and the ordinary man sees that there is a large preventive as well as a curative side of orthopaedics will the need for proper aftercare facilities be realized. Then the laity will demand these facilities-and they will be provide.”

Leonard was possibly a cripple from birth.  He was born in Leicester in 1885, married Alice Lovely in the summer of 1911 and in 1925, he had a daughter, Betty Alison Inskip, who obtained a Geography Degree from Liverpool University and jointly translated “This Restless Earth: geology for everyman”.

Leonard it seems was a private man, and details about his life are hard to come by.  However,  I was fascinated to establish that another notable Leicester Inskip,  William Inskip, General Secretary of the  Boot and Shoe Workers Union, was Leonard’s father.

William was born in Leicester in 1852, the 8th child of Thomas Inskip, a poor bricklayer,  and his wife Martha Taylor.  William became a shoemaker, at a time “when hand sown boots were changing to pegged or sprigged work” and at the age of 17 married Jane Smith – Leonard was their 7th child.  William’s obituary states* that he “played a very remarkable part in the development of trade unionism in the shoe trade”.

His first role was to assist in the formation of the first Cordwainers Union;  he then went on to become General Secretary of the Boot and Shoe Workers Union in 1886, increasing membership from 10,000 to 45,000 during his time with them. He was very popular with the members and was nominated for Parliament – at that time it was the aim of the ‘young’ Labour Party to support the nomination of candidates popular with working men.  However, William opposed the Boot and Shoe Union’s aim to nationalise ‘the means of production’, and withdrew his candidacy, becoming a member of the Liberal rather than the Labour Party.

He was, however, elected to the parliamentary committee of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) as Treasurer, and also became a member of Leicester Town Council and later an Alderman.  He died in May 1899 at the age of 46.

When I told Mr Bowman of the link from Leonard to William he said it all made perfect sense,  specialist shoes where, or course, very important to cripples!!

* Obituary in the Leeds Mercury, 12 May 1899 – British Library Newspapers Catalogue

Thomas Inskip and the Pastoral Poets

Thomas Inskip, a watchmaker and clockmaker from Shefford in Bedfordshire was an interesting man.  He was responsible for the clock at Greenwich Observatory, left his archaeological collection to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and was a friend to labouring-class poets, Robert Bloomfield (who Thomas is buried next too in Campton Churchyard), and later John Clare.

Bloomfield and Clare are also known as ‘peasant or pastoral poets’ and are currently enjoying a revival: I recently met Jonathan Bate, author of a new biography on Clare which has used Thomas’ correspondence with Clare as a source.  (Unfortunately,  the correspondence of Clare to Inskip is lost.)

It seems Thomas befriended Robert Bloomfield when Robert, down on his luck, moved to Shefford in 1812. Thomas met Clare in London around 1820 “amongst the Cockneys, whom we both equally admire!”.  Clare related to Bloomfield as a kindred spirit, and Thomas tried to organize a meeting between them, as he regarded them as “the nation’s great poets of humble life”; but Bloomfield died “in pain and poverty” in 1821 before the wished for meeting could take place; much to John Clare’s regret.

Described in a poem by John Dalby as “kind Inskip”, Thomas  promoted John Clare’s work in the Northampton Mercury.  When Clare was  in the Northampton General Lunatic Asylum “the elderly” Thomas became his outside advisor and confident.  They shared discussions about poetry and sexual desire, “the days when we were young! And the arms-full of Petticoats we rumpled!”. Thomas was also instrumental in the publication of Clare’s poetry in the Bedford Times between 1847 and 1849.  “Inskip offered what Clare always craved from his editors: a mixture of practical advice and confidence-building encouragement.”

Thomas Inskip was born in Kimbolten, Northamptonshire in 1780, the son of Edward Inskip a Farmer from Old Warden, and Mary Handscombe from Clifton. He married twice, the last to Isabella Wright in 1815, and died in 1849 in Brighton of Cholera.  His watchmaking business was taken on by son Hampden Inskip, and eventually grandson Alfred Inskip.

Book – John Clare, A Biography by Jonathan Bate ISBN 978-0-330-37112-4

Correspondence from Inskip to Clare is in Northampton Central Library.

Henry V and Inskip Bowmen

I have always suspected that Inskip bowmen went to France with Henry V and that was a reason for their appearance in Sussex in the fifteenth century.  So,  Henry’s muster lists have always been on my list of documents to look at.

However, thanks to a collaboration between Dr Adrian Bell of the ICMA Centre and Professor Anne Curry of the University of Southampton, who have been building a database of medieval soldiers to challenge assumptions about the emergence of professional soldiery between 1369 and 1453, I now have confirmation that an Inskip archer did go to France with Henry V in 1415.

His name was Roger de Inskyp, and he served as an archer under a captain called Sir James Harrington, and commander Henry V.  In 1422 he is listed as a foot archer under captain John Harpeley at a garrison – where is not given.

In the Normandy garrison database for the years 1415 – 1453 there is listed two archers,  Roger and Richard Inskip,  both serving in 1429 and 1430 at the Rouen town plus bridge garrison,  under Lieutenant Richard Curson and Captain Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

So was Roger one of the bowmen at Agincourt who raised the two fingered salute?  That and the background to both men is still to be established

(Information on soldiers has been taken from from the AHRC-funded ‘The Soldier in Later Medieval England Online Database’, www.medievalsoldier.org, August 2009)

George Fredrick Inskip 1895-1916 says Hi!

Many people contact Terry and I by email to help with their Inskip research,  but spirits don’t have email access and find other ways to draw our attention.  Such was the case recently when on a visit to the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight on the Wirral, I decided to go and look at a rather splendid war memorial.

Port Sunlight was built by William Lever for his workers at the turn of the twentieth century, it’s a lovely garden village enhanced by the founder’s love of art.  Unfortunately Lever Brothers Ltd lost 4,000 of their staff during the First World War, and erected a beautiful memorial to their memory in the middle of a rose garden – underneath is a book with all their names in.  (The memorial for the Hillsborough Disaster victims is at the end of the garden.)  I started to read the names just out of interest and was most surprised to find an Inskip G. F.  I had not known we had Inskips on the Wirral.

I was even more fascinated when, on looking young George Fredrick Inskip up, I found out that he is related to Terry.  George was born in 1895 and was a private in the 13th Battalion Cheshire Regiment (No 282) – he died of wounds and is listed at the Bertrancourt Military Cemetery near the Somme.  His date of death was even more strange – 3rd August 1916 (my birthday,  which the trip to Port Sunlight was celebrating.)

George was the son of William Inskip from Seabridge, Staffordshire a joiners labourer in 1891, and Martha Baxter from Rock Ferry, Wirral,  he had siblings Annie, Jessie, William, Samuel and Gertrude Hannah.  The family had arrived on the Wirral in the 1860’s when William’s father, also William Inskip (born 1829 at Forsbrook), and mother Hannah had moved there.  Father William died in 1868 leaving Hannah, a Laundress, to bring up the three children.

Anyway, I know Terry has the rest of the family history,  so just to say Terry,  George says hi!!