JACKY the monkey was once laid to rest by his master in the stately grounds of a County Durham castle, but his master had taken a mistress and had locked his wife in a castle attic.
The latest in our stories of monkeys is set in the marvellously-named Hoppyland, on the cusp of Teesdale and Weardale, and it requires a real leap of the imagination to keep up with all the bounds of the plotline…
HOPPYLAND
HOPPYLAND has nothing to do with rabbits. It gets its name because in Saxon times, a chap called Oppa had his lands there.
It is near the hamlet of Bedburn, close to Hamsterley, on the edge of the forest.
Over the centuries, it was owned by many of Durham’s finest families. From 1618, it was the home of the Blacketts, a family of Newcastle merchants. William Blackett was Charles II’s emissary to Sweden, and was said to be "mad or something like it”. He married Christiana, the daughter of the Duc de Bois, and because she was Catholic, when she died around 1690 she did not wish to be buried in Hamsterley church and so was laid to rest in the orchard at Hoppyland.
THE LEATONS
IN 1768, Anthony Leaton, the estate manager at Gibside, bought Hoppyland. He was far from popular locally. In 1792, William Stephenson appeared before Durham Assizes charged with setting fire to trees and heathland at Hoppyland – he was handed in to the authorities by his father in return for a reward.
In 1793, Hoppyland Hall “was maliciously set on fire and burned down”. It is said that “a fine oak tree was also bored into and blasted into shivers with gunpowder”.
Despite someone having a grudge against him, Anthony rebuilt his hall as a mock castle, in the style of nearby Witton Castle, and when he died, he passed it to his son, George.
Hoppyland Castle, near Hamsterley, was built in 1793 and destroyed in 1952. Picture courtesy of Jonathan Peacock
JACKY AND THE MISTRESS IN THE ATTIC
IN 1807, George married Harriet Collingwood, of Lilburn Tower in Northumberland, and in 1827 he took the surname of Blenkinsopp, his mother’s maiden name, so he could inherit her family’s Whickham House estate in Gateshead.
But after 20 years of marriage, George was known to be cavorting with his mistress, Jane Longstaff, of Rose Cottage, Howlea Lane – a lonely lane than runs around the eastern edge of the Hoppyland estate.
Harriet must have objected and so George locked her in an attic in the castle, without food or heating. Somehow she escaped from her garret, and staggered in to Hamsterley, where she was found, half-starved and half-frozen, and determined to end her marriage.
In March 1841, in the Consistorial Court in Durham, Harriet sued for divorce on the grounds of George’s cruelty and adultery. George denied the claims, but didn’t contest them.
Realising he was going to lose, on September 2, 1842, George placed all of his possessions, including the castle but “except his wearing apparel”, into a trust that was administered by his solicitors, Messers Fenwick and Trotter, and fled to Edinburgh, taking his favourite pet monkey, Jacky, with him. They took up residence in the grounds of Holyrood Palace.
On April 22, 1843, the court granted Harriet her divorce and ordered that George pay her £160-a-year and her £270 legal fees.
But George, himself one of the most senior magistrates in County Durham and a Deputy Lieutenant, refused to pay. He said he had no assets because he had placed everything except his wearing apparel and Jacky the monkey in a trust controlled by his solicitors. Plus, he said, because Jacky and I now live in Scotland, we are beyond the arm of the English law.
On December 7, 1843, the court in Durham pronounced him “contumacious and in contempt”, but still he refused to pay, and so the case – Blenkinsopp versus Blenkinsopp – went to the Chancery Court in London, the highest court in the land for such matters.
But on October 6, 1846, disaster struck. Up in Holyrood Palace, Jacky the monkey died.
George clearly treasured his monkey pal because for two years he kept his body and then, when the coast was clear, he returned to Hoppyland Castle and buried him in the gardens in a little monkey-sized tomb with an inscribed stone on it: “Here lies poor little Jacky who died in Holyrood 6th of October 1846 and buried here 9th of October 1848”.
Hoppyland Castle, with the tomb of Jacky the monkey on the right hand side
The divorce appears to have been settled on March 19, 1850, when Lord Langdale, the Master of the Rolls, delivered his judgement. He condemned George’s “deplorable perversity”, and he found that the transfer of assets “had been executed with the view and intention of defrauding” Harriet.
He ordered that Harriet should be paid in full – whether George did or not is unknown.
He spent his last years at Hoppyland, and when he died, aged 80, in December 16, 1864, his will apparently said that he wished be buried in the grounds of Hoppyland inside three coffins, which should be made of oak, ash and lead. His pet monkey, he said, should be killed and buried with him, and room should be left for his beloved farm lass Jane to be laid alongside them when the time came for her.
George was in fact buried in the churchyard at Hamsterley. Whether a monkey, or Jane, was laid beside him is unknown.
The castle at Hoppyland survived until 1952 when it was gutted. Now only a few ivy-covered walls remain.
The grave of Jacky the monkey was also lost, but the stone from its top was incorporated into a field wall at the foot of Knitsley Fell, about a mile away.
The stone in the wall near Hamsterley
On the back of the stone is another inscription: “Charley, who died March 19th 1856”.
Jacky, it would seem, was not the only monkey of Hoppyland.
- We are hugely indebted to Jonathan Peacock, of Hamsterley, for pointing us in the direction of this fantastic story
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