The Finsthwaite Princess - Page 2

William Fell 1st was in his mid twenties when Clementina Douglas died and if anyone began to pass down stories of the strange woman with the mysterious names it must have been he.¹³ And he had a connection with Jolliver Tree, where he was living when his first child was bourn in 1772. Only hearsay connects the Princess with Jolliver Tree, but the local tradition is very persistent. One writer to the "Barrow News" in 1968 recalled that a friend of his "who only died in the last few years at the age of 104, told me of her great grandfather being given charge of the young princess when he was at Jolliver Tree farm".¹⁴ This could well have been William Fell 1st, some of whose great grandchildren were born in the 1860's. William Fell's two sons would have been familiar with what their father said and were perhaps not above enlarging upon it.
 
The identity of Miss Backhouse in whose grave Clementina Douglas was said to have been reburied presents a problem. The Backhouses lived at Jolliver tree between 1728, when James Backhouse (1695-1762) married its widowed owner Mary Gurnell, and 1762 when he died. Richard Pedder was not specific as to which of them knew the Princess but others maintain that she was at Jolliver Tree until the death of James.¹⁵ And who was Miss Backhouse? Her title implies some kind of gentility. James backhouse had tow daughters but they both died in infancy. His nephew and heir John had three, Mary bourn in 1756 who died a year later, and two others who both married, one of whom was born well after the Princess died. Richard Pedder seems to imply that Clementina was reburied in Miss Backhouse's grave for some sentimental reason.
 
Only two unmarried Backhouse daughters were buried in the period after Ned Fell grew up, Ann in 1842 and Agnes in 1844. Both were twenty, both either in service or living at home. Neither could have known Clementina Douglas. And why rebury her anywhere? The latest twist in the burial saga comes in a note dated 18th March 1959 by the Revd R W Pedder of Finsthwaite House, then the vicar of Finsthwaite: "Eleanor Hunter (Plum Green) (told me that) Joseph Charles Hunter dug up the grave of the Princess when the old church was being demolished to make room for the new one. That his father also Joseph Charles pointed out to him where the Princess's grave was traditionally supposed to be. It was Joseph Charles Hunter junior who actually found the fair golden hair & reburied it with the other remains (but no blue ribbon) under the present cross set up by Canon C G Townley at a much later date but when Joseph Charles Hunter was still living".¹⁶ The "fair golden hair" had appeared earlier.

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