In a message dated 01/06/2007 09:23:16 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: In a message dated 31/05/2007 23:11:41 GMT Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: Does anyone know where or what Sister Wham Tanfield could be, from this baptism entry? Baptisms, Lanchester District Parish/Church: Tanfield (St. Margaret) 7 Aug 1825 Robert Forster, of Sister Wham, son of Thomas Forster (labourer) by his wife Mary Regards Stan Mapstone Stan: Further to my earlier reply, the only reference I have found so far is from Surtees' "History of the County Palatine of Durham", in the Tanfield Chapter of the "Gateshead Section" (p112 of my edition). It says "30 Jul 1611, James Shafto, Gent, and Thomas his son and heir, took by fine of Anthony Shafto, Gent, and Susanna his wife, half of 120 acres in Beamish called Sisterwham; 15 Jul 1612, James and Thomas Shafto took by fine of Williiam and Ann Porter and Jane their daughter and heir, half the meadow called Sisterwham. I interpret this as the Shaftos buying up all of Sisterwham, half of it from Anthony Shafto in 1611 and the other half a year later from the Porters. That would give them the whole of the 120 acres of meadow. Surtees mentions this under "Beamish" - ie Beamish township/manor itself, immediately after a paragraph about Foulbrigg, the modern Foulbridge, where Beamish museum have their workshops, just up the road from Beamish Hall. Presumably Sisterwham was fairly close to there. Surtees gives a pedigree of Shafto of Tanfield but it does not mention any Anthony. Also, it would appear from it that while James was indeed the head of that family at that time, Thomas his son "and heir" was only one year old, and was not the eldest son as he had a four-year-old brother. Perhaps these are different Shaftos: Anthony at least could have been the Anthony Shafto of the Whickham and Swalwell family who was living in 1590 (and later: had had a child baptised in 1593/94) but their pedigree in Surtees does not include any suitable James and Thomas. Maybe we have to go right back to the Shaftos of Shafto in Northumberland to find who they were - though it is rather off-topic for Sisterwham. Geoff Nicholson