James Cook was born in Marton on October 27, 1728, and brought up in Great Ayton, where he attended the local school.  his fees were paid by Thomas Skottowe.  From here he moved, at the age of sixteen, to work in Wiiliam Sanderson’s haberdashers and grocers shop in Staithes.  

After being convinced that the shop trade was not to be his chosen career after all, and seeing the comings and goings of Sea Captains visiting the shop, and hearing the Staithes Fishermen’s tales, he moved on to Whitby to join the Freelove, owned by John Walker and operating in the coal trade, and thus, hopefully, seeing a more adventurous life.  This was possiby all we could hope to hear or see in history books of Cook’s early life in Staithes.  

But what of the shop and the Sanderson family, and of what they sold and possessed?  This was, up to now, an unknown quantity.  

This is about to change due to nearly 200 pages of documents relating to John and Elizabeth Sanderson’s bankruptcy, now on display in the Captain Cook and Staithes Heritage Centre in the High Street in Staithes. [See Cook’s Log page 1212, vol. 18, no. 4 (1995).]   Also, the will of William and what he left to his wife Elizabeth (née Gill),  John, his eldest surviving son, and his 13 other children, the warehouses he owned, the shop where he lived, the 290 acre estate he owned at Handale Abbey, formally Grindale, the houses at Lofthouse (Loftus).  Also a farm and land in Hinderwell.  What happened to it after the bankruptcy?  And after the sale of their effects and to the moneys owed to the people of Staithes (widows, fishermen, publicans and labourers and how it affected traders up and down the width and breath of the country, Irish linen factors, capers and vinegar merchants, hatters, habberdashers, silk merchants and grocers?  

From these documents we see what they bought and sold, and of a three page statement by William Peacock, who worked as shopman to the Sandersons.  The business being in a deranged state when Mr Peirson called from London asking for his £2302 15s 7d owed to him (a tidy sum in those days, and still is).  To be told they were not in, but were actually hiding in the back room.  

Also to be seen is George Dodds’ will, the Alum Factor at Boulby Grange, and his relationship with Ann Sanderson Williams daughter who bought the houses in Lofthouse (Loftus).  Thomas Richardson, who started a mill on the site of Handale Abbey after buying the estate following the bankruptcy, and his relationship with Elizabeth Sanderson, daughter of Eliz. and William.  And in this mill manufactured cotton cloth and corduroy.  

And what of Mrs Skottowe, who bought the estate at Hinderwell?  Her father-in-law, Thomas Skottowe, employed Cook’s father, also James, and paid for Cook’s education in Great Ayton.  Ann is the sister of Elizabeth Sanderson (née Gill), the wife of William.  Samuel Gill, being the Customs Officer in Staithes.  

All this and more is now on display. Along with John Sanderson’s will and a list of Whitby and Staithes shipping, including John Sanderson’s boats the Lark, joined owned by him and George Jefferson and the Dove owned during the bankruptcy and the Midsummer owned by Anthony Jefferson, son-in-law to Samuel Gill, Customs Officer, but salvaged and run by the Sandersons, illegally, at a loss to Anthony Jefferson of £300, after it was sunk in the river at Wisbeach.  

John Harrison, attorney-at-law, of Guisborough, is mentioned in the bankruptcy as relinquishing his right to a third part of Handale Estate, as left to him by William Sanderson.  John Harrison, being the person who wrote to Cook on behalf of James Fleck, Cook’s brother-in-law, trying to get them off a smuggling charge.  Cook’s reply is now deposited in the National Library of Australia, Canberra.  Thomas and James Fleck were the masters of the brigantine Prior, owner Richard Forster, attorney-at-law, Guisborough.  

Thanks are due to Timothy Waters of the Captain Cook Study Unit and Julia Hunt of the Stepney Historical Trust for bringing the bankruptcy to Staithes Heritage Centre’s notice.  

William Sanderson died in 1773.  Elizabeth his wife and son ran the business until bankruptcy in 1788.  

R.P. Firth 

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 1227, volume 19, number 1 (1996).