A Boundary Stone on Great Ayton Moor

The weather has finally turned, quite refreshing from the stifling heat we have suffered over the past week. I found myself traversing Great Ayton Moor again, a route so familiar I could walk it blindfolded, past the same early 19th-century boundary stone I have already photographed more times than sense would justify¹NYMNPA HER Record No: 2147. Round cairn on Newton Moor with a boundary stone on top.

The gamekeepers, in a rare display of restraint, have resisted their usual urge to torch every last inch of heather right up to the stone. The stone conveniently sits on a Bronze Age round cairn, because apparently nothing says “respect for history” like plonking a monument to landed entitlement atop a prehistoric grave. But then this was the 18th century. The inscription reads “TKS 1815”, a touching tribute to Thomas Kitchingman Staveley, who inherited everything that year while Europe was preoccupied with Napoleon getting flattened at Waterloo²Bart, G.L.T. (1860) ‘Obituary of Eminent Perons’, Illustrated London News, 17 Mar, 1860, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/HN3100053530/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=292e11cb [accessed 30 Jan 2022]..

Staveley, originally Thomas Hutchinson joined the Royal Engineers at 17, dabbled in the noble art of military model-making, and participated in various overseas escapades, none of which changed the course of history in any measurable way³‘Local Intelligence’ (1860) Yorkshire Gazette, 03 Mar, 9, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/JE3230895461/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=2fb4eaac [accessed 30 Jan 2022].. After cashing in on the inheritance, he wasted no time abandoning his military career, adopting his new name, coat of arms, and sense of importance, and proceeded to live the idle life expected of someone who had stumbled into wealth.

He popped up in the Reformed Parliament for a few years—more decoration than contributor—sat as Justice of the Peace for areas he likely never visited, and clung to the boards of various institutions to fill the empty hours. Though he claimed lordship over Newton-under-Roseberry, he sensibly chose not to live there, instead staying comfortably ensconced among his real seat at Old Sleningford near Ripon.

He married twice, fathered some children, and eventually expired in 1860 at the unremarkable age of 69, leaving behind a legacy best described as perfectly forgettable, were it not for the stone desperately trying to keep his name from being completely lost to time⁴‘Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries’ (1860) Sheffield Independent, 03 Mar, 5, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/R3214715140/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=a8c803ef [accessed 30 Jan 2022]..

• 1
  NYMNPA HER Record No: 2147. Round cairn on Newton Moor with a boundary stone on top
• 2
  Bart, G.L.T. (1860) ‘Obituary of Eminent Perons’, Illustrated London News, 17 Mar, 1860, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/HN3100053530/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=292e11cb [accessed 30 Jan 2022].
• 3
  ‘Local Intelligence’ (1860) Yorkshire Gazette, 03 Mar, 9, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/JE3230895461/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=2fb4eaac [accessed 30 Jan 2022].
• 4
  ‘Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries’ (1860) Sheffield Independent, 03 Mar, 5, available: https://link-gale-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/apps/doc/R3214715140/GDCS?u=ed_itw&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=a8c803ef [accessed 30 Jan 2022].