Millom Castle sketch reveals life of teenager from 200 years ago

The sketch was drawn in 1795 by John Wilson, an artist from Whitehaven, who copied an earlier engraving of the castle drawn by Samuel and Nathanial Buck 56 years before. 

Millom and District Local History Society volunteer Jonathan Brind discovered the drawing during a trip to Cumbria Archive Centre as part of a research trip on the castle. On the back of the sketch he found a eulogy to 16-year-old Thomas Senhouse, the son of Colonel Humphrey Senhouse who represented Cockermouth and later the county of Cumberland in Parliament. 

It states: "This drawing, along with two others namely Rose Castlet (and) St Bees Priory were done for the amusement of Mr Thomas Senhouse a little before his death. He was a youth of great abilities, of a ready witt and refinement rich, quick conceptions; there was a very great deal of probability that he would have made a shining figure in life had it pleased God to have spared him; he was taken of (afer lingering two years) in that slow hectic complaint occasioned by a decay in some of the Vital Parts, particularly the Lungs."

The engraving (left) compared to the sketch (right) (Image: Millom and District Local History Society)  

The text states that he died on June 8, 1795. It describes him as "rather smallish but of remarkable great activity, running and leaping with the greatest agility in the most dangerous places." 

Colonel Senhouse married Catherine Wood of Northumberland and had six children, but only one survived - their eldest son also called Humphrey. Thomas was their youngest son. 

Millom Castle is now a Grade-I listed building, although it is now part of a working farm and much of it lies in ruin. It was badly damaged in a canon attack during the English Civil War in 1648. 

In the centre of the ruins is a 16th century farm house which was built from the great tower.