Marsh Grange, Margaret Fell's birthplace

Off Tippins Lane, near Kirby Ireleth. The front portion is late 17th century: the back early 17th. This was a monastic grange belonging to Furness Abbey before the Dissolution. Before 1551 it was inhabited by Richard Askew (Ayscough) and his wife Jennet. John Askew, father of Margaret who married Judge Thomas Fell in 1632, and later George Fox, was described as 'of Marsh Grange' when he was fined in 1631 for refusing a knighthood, though he may have only owned a share of it. She appears to have acquired a third of his part of the estate after her father's death, and it is assumed that Judge Fell bought out the other co-heirs, though there seems to have been a considerable ongoing dispute as to who had the tenantright, the Askews or the (Catholic) Rawlinsons. Whether Fox visited Marsh Grange or used it as a posting place on his expeditions 'into Cumberland' is at the moment unproveable. From 1676, Dr Thomas Lower, the transcriber of the Long Journal, and his wife Mary née Fell, Margaret's fifth daughter, lived there for a time.

The house is a Grade II* Listed Building.

Image © Meg Twycross, 13 September 2009

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