Milham Hartley

Mortgagee and owner of enslaved people in Jamaica, and banker and industrialist of Whitehaven, part of a family of merchants and ship-owners with some participation as slave-traders in the 1760s. Partner with his brother Thomas Hartley II and his nephew Thomas Hartley III. Milham Hartley inherited a 1/5th share in the bank then known as Hartleys Potter under the will of his father John Hartley, made in 1800 but proved in London only on 29/01/1816.

1. Born 1771 at Whitehaven, son of John Hartley and probably nephew of Thomas Hartley I. Milham Hartley, of Rose Hill, High Sheriff of Cumberland 1818, married Mary [Lewthwaite] of Broadgate, Millom, at Whitehaven 1799. The couple had several children, all baptised Whitehaven St Nicholas: John (1800-45); Mary Ann (b. 1802), married Anthony Benn 1842; Milham (b. 1805); Isabella (1806); George (1808); Gilfred William (1810-74), married Margaret Randleson, daughter of a banker in the Whitehaven Joint Stock Bank; Isabella is believed to have died by 1839 as she was not mentioned in her father's will.

2. Milham Hartley was reportedly one of the founders of the Joint Stock Bank of Whitehaven in 1818, originally Hartley’s Bank founded 1786 by his father and uncle John and Thomas Hartley [although the RBS Heritage site shows the conversion to a joint stock bank only in 1837]: he was certainly a partner in the bank. Milham's principal business was the Ropery at Corkickle/Coach Road, Whitehaven. The family had connections to the Armitsteads, a prominent local family. Richard Armitstead Jnr was a solicitor who operated in Jamaica at the beginning of his career.

3. Death of Milham Hartley registered Q2 1839 at Whitehaven and buried at Moresby.

4. The will of Milham Hartley of [Rosehill] Moresby Cumberland was proved 30/08/1839. In the will he left freehold land at Moresby to his son John Hartley, together with his half interest in real assets and business of the ropery at Corkickle/Coach Road, Whitehaven held by Thomas and Milham Hartley & Co.; he left further property in Whitehaven including the counting house and warehouse of Thomas and Milham Hartley to his daughter Mary Ann Hartley, together with £15,000 in consols.; he left his son Gilfrid Willam Hartley the Rosehill estate and £10,000 in consols. and his son George £8000 in consols.

PROB 11/1576/447.

1. John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland enjoying territorial possessions or high official rank, but uninvested with heritable honours (4 vols., London, Henry Colburn, 1835-1838), vol. 4, p. 95; YDLEW Collection: papers of Lewthwaite family of Broadgate, Thwaites, Millom, held at Whitehaven Records Office: http://www.archiveweb.cumbria.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=YDLEW; Parish Registers of Whitehaven St Nicholas and Moresby St Bridget, WRO; Cumberland Pacquet, 4/6/1839.

2. Whitehaven News, 3/9/1874; British Cheque Collector’s Society Journal November 2000, p.33. Fully sourced e-mail from Stuart Nicholson based on archival research carried out by himself and Tim Cockerill, 2/8/2015; http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/companies/list/hartleys-and-co.html [accessed 23/08/2017].

3. FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]; Will of Milham Hartley senior, WRO/DBH/24/32/3.

4. PROB 11/1915/111.

We are grateful to Stuart Nicholson for his help compiling this entry.