Biography
Robert Exley of High Royds, Rawdon. Farmer. Fourth generation from Robert Exley of Halifax (d.1647). Fifth child and fourth son of John and Sibyl Exley of Rawdon. Baptised 27th June 1686.
Robert was educated to be a clergyman but had considerable difficulty in taking his ordination exams. His parents then had him taught cloth-making instead.
On 21st March 1731 he married Dorothy Jewell, daughter of Samuel Jewell. After the marriage they became tenants of High Royds (also called High House), where they lived with their son Thomas and grandson Robert as tenants of the Walkers of the Dolton Estate. The Exleys carried on the cloth-making trade on a large scale at High House, using the top storey with an outside stone staircase. This matches the well-documented architectural type of the Yorkshire clothier’s house: long mullioned windows on the upper floor for loom-work light, external stone staircases giving separate workshop access, and local sandstone construction. The Chronicle notes “similar stone arches can still be seen in other parts of the village of Rawdon.” See The Yorkshire Wool and Worsted Trade (1650-1900).
An Indenture dated 23rd September 1760 records: “George Mounsey, citizen of London, in consideration of L750, do grant Robert Exley [land for] 1,000 years paying yearly a peppercorn.”
Dorothy’s sister Mary Jewell married Joseph Booth of 219 Main, Bingley; she was cousin to the first Jewell owners of the Clock House Estate in Bradford.
Robert died at Idle. Dorothy died just seven days later, in old Rawdon, aged 62 years.
Evidence
- The Exley Chronicle (Typed) devotes a full page (page 4) to Robert as the fourth generation in the direct line of descent
- The Chronicle establishes him as the link between John Exley of Rawdon (1651-1721) and Thomas Exley of High Royds (1732-1807)
Open Questions
- Exact death date unclear from the Chronicle scan
- Some children’s birth dates have chronological inconsistencies in the Chronicle (e.g. Hannah listed as b.1730 but Robert married in 1731); dates may need verification against parish registers
- The existing vault previously had Thomas’s father as “John Exley (1679-1763)” (from Meryll’s tree); the Chronicle clearly places Robert as the intervening generation