ACKLAM
Ackelum, Aclum, Laclum (xi cent.); Ackelom,
Aclum on Tese (xiv cent.); Acclom, Aklome (xv
cent.); West Acklam (xix cent.).
The parish of Acklam, which formerly included
the township of Linthorpe and chapelry of Middlesbrough, (fn. 1) now covers an area of only 1,170 acres.
The soil is sand and clay on a subsoil of Keuper
marls. Turnips and potatoes are the chief crops
grown, but more than half the land is pasture, and
there are 12 acres of woodland. (fn. 2)
The land lies low, being but 50 ft. above ordnance
datum in the south of the parish, though rising in
places to 75 ft.
The village is situated on the main road from
Stockton to Guisborough. Acklam Hall, for many
years the seat of the Hustler family, (fn. 3) stands about half
a mile to the east in a large park and is approached by
a fine avenue of ancient firs and lime trees. It was
built by Sir William Hustler in the reign of Charles II,
but was entirely refronted and otherwise altered and
restored about 1845. Additions were made to the
house in 1911. As originally built, it was a plain
two-story brick building with square-headed windows
and a middle doorway, all with architraves and pediments, and a straight roof broken in the middle by a
turret. There were extensive formal gardens on the
north side. (fn. 4) The reconstructed elevations are of
brick with curved gables, the later additions being of
more pronounced Renaissance type.
A short distance north of the hall is the church of
St. Mary, with a large moat beyond, whilst the
vicarage stands near the village and highway.
Acklam is separated from Stainsby on the west by
a little stream flowing into Stainsby Beck at Fleet
Bridge, where were presumably 'the lane and bridges
called Fleete Bridges,' which the inhabitants of
Marton and Acklam were summoned for neglecting
in 1650. (fn. 5) Reference to a little bridge called Stone
Bridge (fn. 6) occurs some fifty years later; it probably
stood in the north-east of Acklam where Marton
West Beck divides it from Marton.
Manor
A 'manor' of 11 geldable carucates in
ACKLAM and Ingleby Barwick, formerly
of Earl Siward, belonged to Hugh Earl
of Chester in 1086 (fn. 7) ; its soke extended over 24 carucates in Coulby, Hemlington, Stainton, Thornton
in Stainton, Maltby, Cold Ingleby, Thornaby and
Stainsby. The king also had 3 carucates in his hands
and Robert Malet 1 carucate. (fn. 8) The royal lands were
included in the fee of Robert de Brus at the conclusion
of the survey, (fn. 9) and the history of the church on Earl
Hugh's manor points to the conclusion that this also
passed into the same hands, probably after 1120,
when his son and heir-apparent perished in the White
Ship. (fn. 10) An agreement between Whitby Abbey and
Guisborough Priory, not later
in date than 1138, mentions
4 carucates in Acklam held of
Robert de Brus, (fn. 11) and in 1279
it was found that one knight's
fee and half a carucate of land
here were held of the heirs of
the last Peter de Brus, as were
three parts of a knight's fee
in 1284–5. (fn. 12)
Brus. Argent a lion azure.
Darcy. Azure crusilly argent with three cinqfoils argent.
Strangways. Sable two lions passant paly argent and gules.
On the partition of the
Brus inheritance (fn. 13) the overlordship of Acklam fell to the
share of Lucy wife of Marmaduke de Thweng, and descended to her granddaughter Lucy, (fn. 14) who with her husband Bartholomew
de Fanacourt settled it in 1346 on John Darcy, her
granddaughter's husband. (fn. 15) Sir Richard Strangways,
son of John's great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth, (fn. 16)
was overlord at his death in 1488. (fn. 17)
Hugh son of Norman, Earl Hugh's tenant in
1086, (fn. 18) was perhaps succeeded by Alvered, or Alfred,
lord in about 1120. (fn. 19) Roger, son of Alvered's grandson William de Acklam, (fn. 20) had two daughters, one of
whom, Joan, was sole heir to her father's lands after
her sister's death without issue. She was the wife of
Ingram de Boynton. (fn. 21) William the son and heir
of this marriage, who was living in 1256 (fn. 22) and lord
of Acklam in 1284–5, (fn. 23) had been succeeded by
his son Ingram before 1303. (fn. 24) From Ingram de
Boynton Acklam descended to his eldest son Walter, (fn. 25)
who died not later than 1340, when the manor was
settled on his son Thomas with his wife Katherine. (fn. 26)
From Thomas, lord in 1365, (fn. 27) Acklam descended to
his son the second Sir Thomas Boynton, (fn. 28) who was
succeeded in 1402 by his son Henry, (fn. 29) executed
three years later for joining the rebellion of the
Percys. (fn. 30) The manor of Acklam was granted with
Kirk Leavington (q.v.) to Roger Thornton and was
in his possession in 1428, (fn. 31) but afterwards reverted to
Henry Boynton's heirs. William, his second son, is
said to have held it after the death of his brother
Thomas, (fn. 32) and in 1460 or 1461 Thomas son and
heir of William died lord of Acklam. (fn. 33) From his
son Henry, who was dead in 1495, (fn. 34) the manor came
in direct line to Henry's grandson Matthew, seised at
his death in 1540, when he left a son Thomas, aged
three. (fn. 35) Thomas was succeeded in January 1581–2
by his son and heir Francis, (fn. 36) lord in 1613, and, it
is said, until 1617. (fn. 37) Twenty years later Acklam
was sold by his son Sir Matthew Boynton, bart., (fn. 38) to
William Hustler. (fn. 39)
Boynton. Or a fesse between three crescents gules with a lion passant or upon the fesse.
Hustler. Argent a fesse azure between two martlets sable with three fleurs de lis or upon the fesse.
In January 1637–8 a moiety, and in 1644 the
whole, of the manor was settled by William Hustler
on trustees for the use of himself and of his wife
Ellen after his death. William died in the latter year,
his son William being then a minor. (fn. 40) Ellen with
her second husband Edward Beaucock, M.D., made
a settlement of a moiety of Acklam in 1653, (fn. 41) and
of the whole manor in 1657, (fn. 42) probably on the
marriage with Grace Savile of her son the younger
William Hustler. (fn. 43) Sir William Hustler, their eldest
son, lord in 1678, (fn. 44) settled his estates in tail on
his sons Robert and James with remainder to his
daughters. (fn. 45) In 1731 Robert had been succeeded by
James, (fn. 46) on whose death, also without issue, in 1768,
Acklam descended to his sisters. (fn. 47) Evereld, the
youngest and last survivor, died unmarried in 1784,
leaving three-fourths of the manor to her greatnephew Thomas son of Thomas Peirse and grandson
of her sister Anne, who took the name of Hustler
and received the whole manor by an act of partition
in 1791. (fn. 48) On the death without issue of his elder
son Thomas, lord in 1808, (fn. 49) Acklam descended in
1819 to Thomas Hustler, son of his younger son
William, (fn. 50) who was succeeded in 1874 by his eldest
son William Thomas Hustler. (fn. 51) He died in 1909;
his nephew William Hustler Hustler, second son of his
only sister Evereld Catherine Eliza wife of William
Randolph Innes Hopkins, took the name of Hustler
on his uncle's death and is now lord of the manor. (fn. 52)
In 1347 it was claimed that wreck of sea had been
a liberty of the overlords of Acklam from time
immemorial. (fn. 53) Free warren here was granted to
Thomas Boynton about 1365. (fn. 54) The mill, which
belonged to the manor in January 1581–2, (fn. 55) is
probably the windmill reckoned amongst its appurtenances, with view of frankpledge, court leet and
fishery in the Tees, in the next century. (fn. 56)
The history of a carucate in Acklam, once of
Edmund and held by Robert Malet in 1086, (fn. 57) is not
clear. It must have escheated to the Crown in
1106, (fn. 58) and was perhaps the carucate held in 1138
by Roger Sturmy (Esturmi), to whom no overlord
was then assigned. (fn. 59) The Sturmys were sub-tenants
of the Brus lords in the neighbouring parish of
Marton (q.v.), and it is possible that their Acklam
land is that part of the Brus inheritance in Faceby,
Marton, Acklam and other townships which came to
Margaret de Roos, (fn. 60) and from her before 1303 to
Marmaduke de Thweng. (fn. 61) Sir John Lumley, his
heir, had some rights in Acklam in 1431. (fn. 62)
In 1428 the Prior of Guisborough held land in
Acklam and other townships which had formed part
of the fee of Ingram de Boynton. (fn. 63)
Hilary daughter of Thomas de Joneby obtained
licence to alienate rent here to the Prioress of Nun
Monkton in 1311, (fn. 64) and in 1337 John de Fauconberg
devoted land in Acklam and elsewhere to the
maintenance of a chaplain in Skelton chapel. (fn. 65)
Church
The church of ST. MARY was
entirely rebuilt in 1876 in the style of
the 15th century and consists of chancel
19 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft. 6 in. with north vestry, aisleless nave 50 ft. by 17 ft. 3 in., and south chapel
23 ft. 9 in. by 10 ft., these measurements being
internal. There is over the west gable an octagonal
turret, surmounted by a short stone spire, containing
one bell. The church is at least the third on the
site, having replaced an 18th-century building described
by Graves as a 'small modern structure,' consisting of
chancel and nave, which about 1776 took the place
of a mediaeval structure of uncertain date, the only
record of which seems to be in Knyff's drawing
(c. 1708), which shows it to have consisted of chancel,
nave, south chapel and west bell-turret, the present
building thus following the plan of its earlier predecessor. The external appearance, however, was
not closely followed, the old building having had a
lead-covered roof to the nave of considerably lower
pitch than that of the chancel. The new design also
differs in many other particulars from the old. The
old building had probably been altered and repaired
from time to time, Knyff's drawing giving little indication of its original date.
The present building is of stone with straight
parapets and blue slated roofs and has a three-light
pointed east window. The chapel opens to the nave
by two pointed arches. The font, pulpit and all
the fittings are modern. On the north side of the
chancel in a modern recess is a recumbent female
effigy supposed to represent Margaret Conyers
(d. 1402), wife of Sir Thomas Boynton (fn. 66) ; the head
rests on two cushions, the upper one of which has
three shields, one with the arms of Conyers and the
others with those of Boynton. The lower cushion
has four shields: (i) a star of six points, (2) three
roundels between two bends, (3) a saltire, (4) Boynton
with a label of three points. The hands are clasped
and the feet rest upon a dog. In the wall above is
a fragment of a hood mould with a shield at each end
bearing the Conyers and Boynton arms respectively.
On the floor opposite, on the south side of the chancel,
is another recumbent female figure, the head resting on
a single plain cushion. The south chapel contains
several mural monuments to members of the Hustler
family, mostly of 18th and early 19th-century date.
The plate consists of a cup and cover paten made
by Francis Crump of London in 1765 and a flagon
of 1877. There are also a pewter paten and flagon. (fn. 67)
The registers begin in 1732.
Advowson
The church at Acklam mentioned
in the Domesday Survey (fn. 68) was given
by Alvered to Guisborough Priory
at its foundation. (fn. 69) At the beginning of the 14th century it was described as a chapel and was held with
the parish church of Stainton (fn. 70) (q.v.), the descent of
which it followed (fn. 71) until 1860, when the patronage
of the perpetual curacy of West Acklam, declared a
vicarage in 1866, was transferred from the Archbishop
of York to Thomas Hustler. (fn. 72) It has descended with
the manor from that time. The dedication, unknown
in 1808 (fn. 73) and 1842, (fn. 74) and said to be in the honour
of St. John in 1872, is now in the honour of
St. Mary. (fn. 75) In the 15th century there were in the
church the lights of the Blessed Mary, Holy Cross
and Saint Citha (Osith). (fn. 76)
There do not appear to be any endowed charities
in this parish.