Wilkinson, George Hutton (1791 -1859)

George Hutton Wilkinson, Esq., of Harperley Park, Co. Durham, was the son of John Wilkinson, of Stockton on Tees. George married firstly, on 16 September 1817 Elizabeth Jane Pearson, daughter of George Pearson, Esq. of Harperley Park, co. Durham, and Betty Chaytor. Elizabeth died in 1842, having borne six children. In 1843 he married secondly, Catherine Heyden, the widow of Richard Smith, of Grattan’s Hill, Co. Cork. This marriage brought seven children.
He attended Trinity College, Cambridge, before entering Lincoln’s Inn where he became a barrister-at law. He became Deputy Lieutenant of the Count of Durham, Recorder of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and one of H.M. Commissioners for Inquiring into Municipal Corporations in England and Wales. In 1847, when the Wear Valley railway opened, a private station was built at Harperley Hall for Wilkinson, who was chairman of the company.
He was also an author, and wrote The Old Inmates of Harperley Park (1859), which contains 19 engravings, four of them chromolithographs by Vincent Brooks and H.J. Wilkinson.