The Dufton families with links to the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland and Durham can trace their family tree back to a William Dufton at the start of the 1500s.  William was a yeoman farmer living in Melkinthorpe a hamlet in the parish of Lowther, just a few miles, and within sight of the village of Dufton. He was a tenant farmer on the Lowther Estate.  It seems probable that his family had farmed the same piece of land for generations, his descendants were to remain there until the 1800s, there were Duftons appearing on the 1841 census of Melkinthorpe.  The manorial records of the Lowther estate list the various Duftons, their dwellings and the land that they held at such places as Bees Bound, Mawsons and Grahams.


Melkinthorpe village, home of William Dufton in the 1500s

Hesket in the Forest parish church

Hesket churchyard, burial place of many Duftons

Richard's son John farmed at Plumpton Wall farm, part of which is still standing.  John's youngest son Thomas returned to Lowther to farm at nearby Askham.  Although his descendants remain farming there and at Heltondale and Bampton until the 1950s, various branches of the family moved away to locations such as Lancaster, Liverpool, Kentucky, New York state and Wabash county in Indiana. 

Scale Farm at Heltondale

Dale Head farm at Heltondale

Mill Craggs at Bampton

John's oldest son Richard stayed on Sceugh Hill at Morton Sceugh, a lovely old farm house that is still standing and occupied today. Morton Sceugh was the Dufton family home for almost 200 years.  The deeds and copyholds for the farm during that period are still held by Cumbria Record Office as they are of some importance.  It appears that the Duke of Buckingham was pressured in to selling his home Buckingham House in London so that King George could convert the building into his new home, Buckingham Palace.  The money the Duke received from the sale was used to buy land and farms on an estate he created at Hesket.  Morton Sceugh was one of these farms, and was in fact next to the Duke's residence at Broadfield House.

Morton Sceugh farm and farmyard.

Richard had three sons, the eldest John, born 1733, remained at Morton Sceugh, his gravestone and that of his family can be seen in the churchyard at High Hesket.  His family were to gradually move to nearby farms at  Sceugh Mire, Sceugh Hill and Sceugh. Also to Middlesceugh where Dufton House still stands, to Thomas Close where Dufton Farm still stands, and to the corn mill and adjoining farm at Low Braithwaite.  The Carlisle Journal on the 23 August 1823 had an article about the Dufton farm at Thomas Close. It explains that 'Richard Dufton of Thomas Close wants to let his farm, it consists of two good modern dwelling houses. Barns, cow house, stables and sheds with 100 acres of rich arable land, meadow and pasture land. Coal and Lime are within five mile'. There are members of the Dufton family still living in the area.  The accounts for Dalemain House, a manor house near Ullswater, give several references to the Duftons at Braithwaite Mill and the supplies of their grain taken to Dalemain.

Dufton Farm at Thomas Close.

Dufton farm and farmyard

Dufton House at Middlesceugh. The date ..92 is carved above the door. Possibly 1692.

The site at Low Braithwaite of Dufton corn mill and adjoining dwellings

 

The gate and lane to Sceugh Mire Farm

Sceugh Mire home of Richard and Isabella Dufton

Richard's middle son Richard lived on Sceugh Hill at Hilltop farm, and was to move to Carlisle around 1790, and then by way of Haltwhistle, Haydon Bridge and Hexham his family found their way into the coalfields of Durham.

Richard's youngest son Thomas moved a few miles east to the village of Croglin, and his family were to settle in the beautiful fell side villages of Renwick, Gamblesby, Melmersby and Kirkoswald, before moving north to Farlam and on to Brampton.  The family remain at Brampton until the 1960s, and were involved in running several of the public houses, including the Bush Hotel. 

A dramatic article in the 15th September 1899 edition of the Carlisle Journal describes a serious fire at the Bush hotel early on the previous Sunday morning.
'Mrs Dufton was awoken by shouting from the top of the hotel, on investigating she found that the upper section of the hotel was covered in smoke.  Mr Dufton rushed outside to get help, and the bugle was sounded as an alarm. Mrs Dufton gallantly rescued several of her hotel guests, dragging some of them to safety from their beds which were on fire. The cause of the fire was a lightened pipe that had not been fully extinguished, and had been placed in a waistcoat'.

The Bush Hotel, home of the Brampton Duftons

There was another branch of the Dufton family living near Brigham in Cumberland, it would seem that they arrived about 1580 possibly from Melkingthorpe, and they were to remain there until around 1850.  During her reign Queen Elizabeth I, ordered the mining of lead to be increased in Cumbria.  One of the reasons was to supply cannonballs and musket shot for her army and navy. This saw the development of the region near Brigham as a lead smelting district, and the new workers coming into the area needed feeding which caused more farms to be set up.  This is at the time when the farming Dufton family move to Brigham to farm the land,  The churchyard at Brigham holds the family graves, upon one of the gravestones the family history has been engraved.  Two notable Duftons from this family are brothers John and William Dufton.  William became an eminent surgeon and specialised in the treatment of deafness, while John became a vicar of some note.  His portrait still hangs in the church at Warehorn in Kent, where he was the local priest.  John also preached at Bredfield church in Suffolk, where inside the church on either side of the altar are two large splendid marble plaques, that commemorate his family, and refers to the Duftons as 'an ancient Cumbrian family'.

Dufton House home of the Brigham Duftons

Various records show that the Reverend John Dufton was in correspondence with the Reverend John Wordsworth, who was the vicar of Brigham for over 40 years. John Wordsworth was the son of the poet William Wordworth. It seems that John Dufton senior, the father of Reverend John Dufton attended the Cockermouth Free School with William Wordsworth. In school at this time was Fletcher Christain, the infamous mutineer of HMS Bounty.