Background
John"s father, a traveller, met his spouse in Eskdale and they both returned to Ireland where John was born in 1792 near the small village of Rathfarnham, close to Dublin, today a suburb of the city.
John"s father, a traveller, met his spouse in Eskdale and they both returned to Ireland where John was born in 1792 near the small village of Rathfarnham, close to Dublin, today a suburb of the city.
Castillo"s work is treasured as having recorded the ancient language of the dales from oblivion. At the age of two, the family decided to return to Lealholm and moved to the site that now bears the name Poets" Corner. At the age of 12 he moved to Lincolnshire and began work as a servant on a country estate and soon became note for his talent as a poet, singer / song-writer
Later returning to Eskdale, he began work as a farm hand, and soon turned his skills to stonemasonry.
Following thoughts of suicide he became a lay preacher, but continued his stone work and poetry. He often wrote using local dialect and is most well known for the poems "Aud Isaac" and "The Steeplechase" although he also used standard English.
He died in the town of Pickering aged 53, and is buried at the Methodist Chapel in Hungate. His gravestone reads an epitaph of his own creation
SACRED
TO THE MEMORY
OF
JOHN CASTILO
Author of
Auld Isaac, The Steeplechase,
and other Poems
In the Yorkshire Dialect.
HE LIVED FOR OTHERS
He was an original and successful local preacher
among the Wesleyan Methodists for many years.
"Bud noo his eean"s geean dim i" deeath
Nee mare a pilgrim here on earch;
His soul flits fra" her shell beneeath
Tee reealms o" day
Whoor carpin" care an" pain, an" deeath
Are deean away.".