| Notes |
- He built, in conjunction with other freeholders, the chapel at Bramhope, under a deed dated 1649. [1]
- "Robert Dyneley, Esquire, lord of the manor of Bramhope," was noted as "a zealous Puritan," and was responsible for the erection of the Puritan chapel there. (Bryan Dale, M.A., "Bramhope Chapel," in "The Bradford Antiquary, The Journal of the Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society," New Series, Vol. I. (1900), p. 326.)
From Bryan Dale, loc. cit.:
"The old chapel, which stands near Bramhope Hall, three miles from Otley, was built about 250 years ago. It is noteworthy, not for its antiquity or beauty, but on account of its being one of the few religious edifices erected in England during the Puritan Revolution of the middle of the seventeenth century. There was at that time no lack of religious edifices; but there was a serious difference among Englishmen concerning their proper use, and still more concerning the proper limits of Royal and Episcopal authority, which plunged the nation into disastrous civil war. From the calling of the Long Parliament in 1640 to the Restoration in 1660, men had other matters to think about more important than even the building of churches.
"The year 1649, when the chapel was founded, was a notable one. The Parliamentary army had triumphed; on the 30th of January in that year the King was executed; and on the 19th of May England was proclaimed a Commonwealth. Already Episcopacy had been abolished, the Book of Common Prayer removed from the parish churches, and service conducted therein according to the Presbyterian manner. But the government of the National Church remained in an unsettled condition. It was at such a time that Robert Dyneley, Esquire, lord of the manor of Bramhope, being a zealous Puritan, and desirous of promoting the spiritual welfare of his neighbours, erected this chapel on his own ground, and with the co-operation of others endowed it was lands for the maintenance of its minister.
"He was "a branch of a considerable and worthy family," whose pedigree is given by Thoresby, and at greater length by Whitaker. The first of the name was Adam de Dyneley, of Clitheroe, living in the time of Edward II., and holding lands in Dyneley, Lancashire. After several generations William Dyneley, of Bramhope, purchased the manor from Henry, Earl of Cumberland, 38 Henry VIII. His grandson, Robert, was knighted by James I. on his coming from Scotland in 1603; and he married Olave, daughter of Sir Robert Stapleton, of Wighill, who was said to be in Queen Elizabeth's days "the finest gentleman in England next to Sir Philip Sydney." Three or four years after he received the honour of knighthood, his son, Robert Dyneley, with whom we are here more especially concerned, was born at Bramhope; and soon after attaining his majority he married Margaret, the eldest daughter of Sir John Stanhope, of Melford, Kent. Thoresby says: "She was one of the twenty-two children of Sir John and his lady had before either of them was forty years of age." She was herself the mother of three sons and eight daughters, and "lived about sixty years in the happy state of matrimony." Her husband seems to have been a man who loved peace and quietness, and took no active part in the civil strife of the time. He lived on good terms with his neighbours, and was well esteemed for his piety and sound judgment in practical matters. When Parliament granted Lord Fairfax the seigniory of the Isle of Man in 1651 he appointed Robert Dyneley as a commissioner, along with James Chaloner, M.P., and Joshua Witton, M.A. (the learned Puritan Rector of Thornhill) to settle the affairs of the island. His eldest daughter, Margaret, was married to Robert Leaver, of Bolham, in Northumberland, a minister of great sincerity and ability, and like Witton, a Non-conformist. One of Mr. Dyneley's sons died in infancy (1642). Another, William, died of consumption at Bramhope, in 1666. He himself attained a good old age; saw four generations of the neighbouring gentry; outlived the Stuart dynasty; and died the year in which William of Orange was proclaimed.
"Bramhope Hall occupies an elevated position, commanding extensive prospects of the surrounding country, and affording on a clear day a distant view of York Minster. But only the western portion of the old Hall in which Robert Dyneley resided now remains. Having made up his mind to build a chapel near the Hall he was desirous of providing an endowment for it by enclosing a part of the common or waste land of the manor, and sought the assistance of the freeholders for this purpose. Some of these were at first much opposed to the project, but "with pains and patience all consented at last." . . ." [There follow some details of Robert Dyneley's affairs in relation to the chapel and non-conformist preaching.]
- College of Arms MS. Norfolk 4 and Joseph Foster, Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire (1874), both state that Robert Dyneley and Margaret Stanhope had a daughter named Elizabeth, baptized 1669, and that she married William Pearson. William Pearson was in fact the husband of Margaret Dyneley (another daughter of Robert Dyneley and Margaret Stanhope). Elizabeth's putative baptism had been conflated with that of her niece, Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert Dyneley and Dorcas Mauleverer. There is no record of an Elizabeth having been baptized at Otley in the 1630s and 1640s. There is no primary evidence that Robert Dyneley and Margaret Stanhope had a daughter named Elizabeth, and she has accordingly been omitted from this genealogy.
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1607 - 1688 (~ 81 years)
[1, 2] 
