Dennis Edeson/Eidson (our 8th great grandfather) was probably the youngest child of Edward and Elizabeth Smith Edeson and born about 1635/1636 before his father died in 1637. On September 12, 1659, Dennis, of Millhill, married (by Mr. Wales) Hannah Boyes (later Boyce) of Lydgate, the daughter of Matthew Boyes. Lydgate was located in the northwest corner of the town of Leeds. Interestingly, Hannah had been born 16 April 1642 in Rowley, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony of America. Dennis and Hannah lived on Millhill, in Briggate, and on Borelaine. Dennis and Hannah Edeson are our 8th great grandparents.
The number of people living in Leeds in the late seventeenth century was between seven and nine thousand, of whom about two-thirds lived in the central area (or in-township) and the remainder in the out-townships. The Hearth Tax returns of 1664 and 1672 provide some evidence of the distribution of wealth in the township. Leeds, unlike York, seems to have had few complete paupers, but about two-fifths of the householders, taxed on only one hearth, lived close to the level of bare subsistence; these were probably the humbler craftsman and dependent laborers. A further two-fifths of the householders, taxed on two or three hearths, enjoyed greater comfort and no doubt comprised the wealthier craftsmen and shopkeepers. Dennis was taxed on two hearths. Only the remaining fifth–substantial clothiers, retailers, merchants, resident gentry and professional men—were assessed at a higher rate and had attained a range of wealth rising to considerable affluence.
The Hearth Tax, voted to the Crown by Parliament in 1663 and commonly known as “chimney money”, was in the amount of two shillings on every hearth or stove in houses paying to the church and the poor, and from the survey it appears that there were 1,431 inhabitants (households) and 2,845 hearths or stoves in the borough. The 14th of July 1663, “Dennis Edeson, by the writing under his own hand, is taxed under two hearths.” This entry is entered under Leeds Briggate. By 1662 Dennis and Hannah had begun attending St. John’s church where the last record of them is found in 1666. His name was not found on the tax rolls of 1672.
Weaving was introduced into West Yorkshire in the reign of Edward III and Cistercian Monks were certainly engaged in sheep farming. Records show the organized trading of cloth on the bridge over the Aire, at the foot of Briggate, at specified times and under set conditions. The traded woolen cloth was predominantly of home manufacture, produced in the villages and settlements surrounding Leeds. There was, however, a fulling mill at Leeds by 1400, and cloth dying may also have been an early centralized activity. By the early 1720’s, cloth trading outstripped the capacity of the bridge, and moved instead to trestle tables in up to two rows on each side of Briggate. At this time Leeds traders went all over the country, selling cloth on credit terms. An export trade existed.
From Wanda Carroll Eidson:
During the Reformation, the city of Dublin, Ireland became Protestant and, in the English Civil War, its Royalist defenders surrendered the city to Oliver Cromwell’s English parliamentary army in 1649. By the end of the Cromwell era (1658) Dublin was a town of only 9,000 inhabitants. The turreted city wall with its eight gates was a shambles, the two cathedrals tottered, and the dilapidated castle was, as Cromwell himself put it, “the worst in Christendom.
When Charles II was restored to the throne in England in 1660, Protestants in Ireland rendered him every possible assistance and made it impossible for him to upset the protestant hold established by Cromwell. The cloth industry was establishing itself in Ireland and Englishmen were urged to take up residence there. The cloth industry made this especially appealing to those workmen in the Leeds area who were weary of various troubles and willing to look for greener pastures. Exactly when Dennis moved his family to Dublin, Ireland, is unknown, presumably after 1666, but the baptism of Edward in 1680 is the only Dennis Edeson-Eidson record found in Ireland.
The growth of Dublin, situated on the Liffey River, began toward the end of the 1600’s when thousands of French Hugenot weavers from Europe settled in Protestant Dublin after the Edict of Nantes in 1685 curtailed their privileges. Flemish weavers followed, and soon the cloth trades, spearheaded earlier by weavers from England, were flourishing. Row houses, with high-gables, predominantly of red brick and with corner fireplaces, surrounded Weavers’ Square.
Dennis Edeson, also a weaver, moved his family from England to Ireland prior to 1680. Why? We’ll never know for sure but there are some clues. First, Edward’s mother, Hannah Boyce, had a brother, Joseph Boyce, who was the Presbyterian Minister of the influential and affluent Wood Street Congregation in Dublin, Ireland. (He became an important figure in the history of the Church of Ireland during a very turbulent time). The Eidson’s may have simply gone to Dublin to visit Hannah’s famous brother when Edward was born.
Another possible reason Dennis Edeson left England for Ireland was to escape the historical events of the time. In 1665 there was plague in Leeds which killed a great number of people. Thus, it could be that Dennis Eidson, seeking a better life, had moved his family to Dublin where he could follow his trade.
From Wanda Carroll Eidson:
“Other than the records found in the correspondence of Joseph Boyce, the only record of the Dennis Eidson family found in Dublin was the baptism of the son Edward Eidson on October 17, 1680 at St. Catherine’s Church. It is quite possible the Dennis Eidson family later returned to England.
Of interest, St. Catherine’s was and is located on the corner of streets now called James and Eckland east down the street from the “old gate” toward the Guinness Brewery. On John Speed’s original map, surveyed in 1610, this location, on St. James St., was facing St. Thomas Court and was a part of the Liberty of St. Thomas Court, otherwise called the Earl of Meath’s Liberty, a “liberty” being a self-governing, independent barony or manor, sometimes raised from an Abby territory, which was exempt from the jurisdiction of the city. St. Catherine’s, originally built as a parish church by the monks of St. Thomas’ Abbey about 1180, was so named and dedicated to St. Catherine who was apparently the patron saint of successful voyages. The medieval church was demolished in 1765 and the present church, designed by John Smith, was completed in 1769. St. Catherine’s barely survived a sad fate in 1971 when the Dublin Corporation widened Thomas Street.