Phoebe Beatson had been just nineteen years old when she came to live with the Murgatroyds, in the new house built at Lingards for their retirement: ‘Phoebe Beatson came to my Srvc. ye 29th of May 1785 19 years since,’ noted Murgatroyd in May 1804; ‘as I began my 67th year she began her 20th yr’. A father, a mother, two brothers (one of them called Tommy) and a sister appear in the pages of the Murgatroyd diaries, and so does much communication between the Lingards house and Phoebe's Halifax home. Brothers visited Phoebe, the sister came to stay for days at a time, and the whole family knew and did service for Murgatroyd's Halifax sister Ann. The measure of the relationship between the two households is exemplified in two diary entries. In April 1786 ‘Phoebe's Father was this Morning at our House for 2 Hours. My sister is hearty, but wonders yt I do not go over.’ In December 1791 Murgatroyd walked over to Halifax (as he often did, after leaving Phoebe and her yarn at Holywell and later at Forrest) and visited Phoebe's father, giving him a divine poem he had composed and bringing back with him cotton yarn so that his daughter might knit Billy Beatson a pair of stockings. He also brought home some leather for mending Phoebe's stays.