William Docker, Reverend

WILLIAM DOCKER, of Newby Head, farmer. He is said to have been educated at Appleby Grammar School since "he went to school by coach"..

The Dockers of Newby Head congratulate themselves on their alliance with the Betham family. This family certainly had distinguished ancestry, if tradition is to be trusted. A Docker correspondent tells us that "my cousin has a valuable pedigree of the Bethams dating back to Gorm, King of Denmark. (Merilyn has a copy). We inherit Royal Blood from that source. Sweyne and Alfred the Great are both mentioned as scions. Sir William Betham wrote the family history about 1830". This noble connexion, however, does not seem to have greatly affected the fortunes of the Dockers except, maybe, as regards prestige. Matthew Betham, Mrs William Docker's father, was land steward to Lord Nevison, of Newby Hall. When Mr Betham died his son-in-law, William Docker, succeeded to the office. When William died his widow (nee Jane Betham) removed, with her two youngest children, William and Joseph, to Appleby and took a house in the town. Thus, being a resident, she gained free tuition for the two future parson sons at Appleby Grammar School. Their father dying intestate, Matthew, the eldest son, succeeded to the estate and the mother was left with only her widow right of £28 a year. Her daughters had to fend for themselves but three of them happily found husbands. Sarah, the unmarried one, was sheltered by her sister, Jane Workman. Mrs Docker eventually lost her subsistence allowance having stood security for the debt of one of her sons-in-law, and was supported in her later years by her sons William and Joseph.[1]

Sources

From: "Notes on the Docker Family of Westmorland" by George Lissant:.