FREER
Although this family held the tenancy of one farm longer than any other in Old Byland, record of their baptisms are noticeable by their absence and this is because they were Quakers though it is interesting to note that Elizabeth Freer married Benjamin Cole at 1718 at Old Byland church where he later became a churchwarden, so she seems likely to have joined the Anglican community and there is a further mystery that cannot be explained as the mother of the twins Robert and Thomas Cole who were born in 1753 was said to be a Quaker.
In 1698 John Freer was paying annual rent for Ashberry Farm which had passed to his son Robert by 1772 and to Robert’s son Thomas by 1846 when he was living at the farm with his sister Ann and their three nieces Jane, Elizabeth and Dorothy Agar. Jane remained a spinster and was the last member of the family to live at the farm which she left in 1881. Dorothy Agar Freer married John Ash in 1851, Elizabeth married George Buckden in the same year and as their son Robert was working with his aunt Jane in 1881 the Freer family were tenants at Ashberry Farm for 183 years.
OTHER FARMING FAMILIES
The following table shows the names of other families whose tenure in Old Byland lasted between 50 and 100 years.
