Uploader's Comments

Makin Durham was the second owner of Thorne Hall which he bought from the Ellison family. He was a well-known Yorkshire civil engineer and surveyor, entrepreneur, director and auditor of Yorkshire Bank, and farmer which included the breeding of Shire horses. According to census records Makin lived in The Hall from around 1851 until his death in 1882. Frederick Makin Durham, Makin’s son, brought the picture to Kerr County, Texas, USA, in 1883 when he immigrated with his wife, Jane Atkinson Durham, and daughter Margaret . The Hall was famous and mentioned in such well-known old books as History and Topography of the City of York: and A Portion of the West Riding; Embracing A General Review of the Early History of Great Britain, and a General History and Description of the County of York by JJ. Sheahan and T. Whellan, published in 1857. The authors reported: " The 'Hall', in Ellison Street, is the property and residence of Making Durham, Esq., who purchased it from the Ellison family. It is a fine modern mansion, having attached to it a large garden, with hot-houses, lawn, shrubberies, stabling, coach houses, etc. It is much the best house in Thorne." - page 778. (Note: this book is on-line.) The descendents of Makin Durham’s daughters, Hannah Maria Durham Vickers-Gatty and Emma Caroline Durham Foster, who were raised in The Hall, include many illustrious individuals, for example, Vincent Cartwright Vickers, the son of Albert Vickers and Edith Dorothy Foster, who was a well-known successful business man and major political figure in London politics before his death in 1939 and Colin Robert Vaughn Campbell, the current 7th Earl of Cawdor of Castlemartin