Richard Johnson, Lord Mayor of Bradford 1926-1927

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today’s photo is one I’ve had for many years and had put into the too hard basket because Richard Johnson is such a common name. This morning I was looking through my photos and for some reason this one caught my eye and on examining the back of it in minute detail noticed some words had been cut through on the edge:-

This was the clue I needed and it all started coming together after I did a bit of searching in Google and the online English newspapers. First I came across the fact that there was a Richard Johnson who was a J.P. and an Alderman on the Bradford City Council from 1896. This is part of the information about the ‘Memorial Institute Building in Esholt’ from the British Listed Buildings website:-

INTERIOR: The main entrance leads into a small porch area with doors to the main hall and the kitchen area to the left. The main room occupies the whole of the main block and has a wooden floor, half height tongue and groove panelling and a suspended ceiling. Above the suspended ceiling is the original roof structure with 4 trusses supporting a boarded roof and lit by the dormer windows. In the wing is a kitchen area, with modern fittings, divided from the main hall by a folding wooden and glazed screen, original. To the right of the kitchen is a cupboard housing the boiler, the original of which is in a display cabinet in the kitchen. At the far end of the hall is a door to the toilet block, rebuilt from a smaller original. On the rear wall is a framed stone inscribed THIS STONE WAS LAID BY/ THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SEWAGE COMMITTEE/ CITY OF BRADFORD./(ALDERMAN RICHARD JOHNSON J P)/ 30th JUNE 1920. Also on the rear wall is a metal plaque reading PARISH OF ESHOLT/ ROLL OF HONOUR/ EUROPEAN WAR/ 1914 1918, with a list of 53 names in 3 columns.

I even found a photo of it but no they weren’t the same steps that Richard Johnson was standing on so I turned to the newspapers and found the following:-

The date was a surprise to me as I had thought the date of 1925 written on the photo was his death date and presumably the 13 Sep 1855 his birthdate. But then I found his obituary in 1931 and realised the photo had most probably been taken by the newspaper when he first announced he was going to stand for office before the elections, well that’s what I’m presuming. This is the closest I can get to the steps at the Bradford Town Hall in Google, but to my eye they look hardly any different to those in the photo:-

 

His obituary finally put me on the path to tracking down the right Richard Johnson in the various census.

It mentioned that he was a shop assistant in Bingley then he moved to Bradford where he was connected with a millinery business. First I searched for a marriage in FreeBMD in either 1876 or 1877 (50 years before his two years in office), there was only one in Bradford but that Richard Johnson had the middle name of Frank and in all the sources for this Richard so far there is no mention of a middle name. So then I tried familysearch.org and found this marriage that looked promising, why I thought it might be the one is that I had found a Richard Johnson in the 1861 census who had been born in Bingley and his father’s name was John. In the 1871 census this Richard was boarding away from home aged 15 and a draper’s assistant, so far so good.

Marriage:
Name: Richard Johnson
Birth Date:1856
Age: 21
Spouse's Name: Sarah Ainsbury
Spouse's Birth Date: 1856
Spouse's Age: 21
Event Date: 04 Apr 1877
Event Place: Dudley, Worcester, England
Father's Name: John Johnson
Spouse's Father's Name: George Ainsbury
Marital Status: Single
Spouse's Marital Status: Single
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M01465-6
System Origin: England-EASy
GS Film number: 1470600
Reference ID: 89 p 45

By 1881 they had settled in Dudley, Worcester and Richard was an Inn Keeper with one daughter Edith Ainsbury Johnson. In 1891 they were back in Yorkshire and settled in Bradford and Richard was now a Draper and they had five children. In 1891 they have six children and Richard is still a Draper, visiting them is Edith Leaf who was a ‘milliner’s saleswoman’ so perhaps it was Edith that Richard later went into business with, maybe she ran the business while he was working for the council. In the 1911 census he was a Milliner with one of his daughters also in the business. So in all the census nothing is ever mentioned about him being an alderman, if it wasn’t for this photograph we might never have known!

There is one little niggle I have about all of the above, according to Richard’s obituary the ex-Mayor only had one daughter and one son when he died but in the 1911 census it tells us that Sarah had given birth to 8 children with 6 of them still living, surely 4 more of them hadn’t died before Richard? Possible I suppose.

 

    © Crown Copyright Images reproduced by courtesy of The National Archives, London, England. 1911 Census.

The obituary also says his son is Mr H. G. Johnson but none of this Richard’s children have those initials although one of his sons was a town clerk (before he became a solicitor) & lived in Reading.

What do you think? Am I right in thinking this Richard is the one in the photograph or is there a mistake in the obituary? Unless I can find some descendants for this family I guess I’ll never know.

 

 

Richard Johnson died on 23 Jan 1931 at 17 Salisbury Gardens, Jesmond, Newcastle on Tyne and on the 26 Jan was buried in the Jesmond Cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

References: FreeBMD; ancestry.com.au; familysearch.org; British Listed Buildings; Google; FindMyPast

 

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to this JOHNSON family please do contact me, I would love to pass the photo onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

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Annie Catlow 1885-1957

Annie Catlow, the eldest child of Thomas Watson & Millicent Catlow, was born on the 23 Aug 1885 in Bacup, Lancashire, her birth was registered in the 3qtr of 1885, in the Haslingden RD, no baptism found.

This looks like the earliest photo I have of her, her sister Lizzie looks to be about 10 to 12 so probably taken around 1905 or so, Annie would be about 20. Above is what is written on the back but comparing it with the other photos I think Annie is the one on the left although the other sister looks to be older, it’s hard to say for sure. They are standing outside 38 Temple St, Nelson, Lancashire where they were living in 1901 & 1911 before the family moved to ‘Braeside’ in Nelson. Here is what the house looks like today, it hasn’t changed that much, the top of the fence has gone, the front door & windows have been replaced but the downpipe is still there in the same spot and the brick work on the fence is exactly the same!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Annie on the right, which one in the first photo do you think she is?

Annie married Edward Dean Moore, better known as Teddy, in 1919 and they had two sons, Harry Dean 1920-1994 & Thomas Norman 1924-2003, both births registered in the Burnley RD.

Here we have two photos of Edward Moore, one in his cricket gear and another in army uniform, the visible word on his epaulette looks like ‘Rings’, but is most probably ‘Kings’. Interesting to note that the first one was sent as a Christmas card to Annie’s sister Connie, perhaps a little bit of intrigue there?

Finally we have one of Annie taken from a group photograph of her with her friends, I will post about them later.

 

 

Teddy Moore died in 1930 at the young age of 44, his death  was registered in the 4qtr at Burnley RD. Annie died on the 17 Dec 1957, aged 72.

Next time it’s Martha Ann Catlow’s turn, better known as Cissie.

Thomas Watson Catlow 1865 - 1924

Thomas Watson Catlow, son of William & Mary Catlow, was born in 1865 in Trawden, Lancashire. Trawden is a medium sized village in the Trawden Forest parish of Pendle, at the foot of Boulsworth Hill, in Lancashire, England. Agriculture was the main industry of the village and surrounding area, although it did have several mills, most of which have now been demolished for, or converted to, housing.

So far no baptism has been found but his birth was registered in the 2qtr of 1865, in the 1871 census Thomas Watson was aged 5, living with his parents and siblings Richard 14, Martha Ann 11 and baby James 11 mths at 80 Todmorden Rd, Newchurch in Pendle, Lancashire. They were still there in 1881 then in the 2qtr of 1885 Thomas Watson Catlow married Millicent Dobson. Over the next 30 years they lived variously in Bacup, Newchurch in Pendle and finally settling at 39 Moore St, Nelson in a house named ‘Braeside’. Here they are in the 1911 census living at 38 Temple St, Nelson:-

Thomas Watson followed in his father’s footsteps working in the cotton weaving industry, first as a weaver gradually working his way up to a cotton loom overlooker. During this time he & Millicent had ten daughters, Annie, Cissie, Connie, Lizzie, Millie, Nellie & Winnie who all survived to adulthood. Triplets Rose, Lily & Violet were born in August 1900 but tragically Lily & Violet died before their first birthday in the 2qtr of 1901 and Rose soon after in the 4qtr. There were no sons.

Moore St, Nelson as it was in 2009 thanks to Google. I’ve been up and down it but there doesn’t seem to be a #39, it certainly doesn’t look anything like the house in the above photo with Thomas sitting in the garden but I expect that was the garden at the back of the house.

Thomas died at the Swinton Grove Nursing Home, Upper Brook St, Manchester on 20 Sep 1924, aged 59, and probate of his will went to his widow Millicent. Millicent died on the 22 Mar 1931, aged 67, at their Braeside home and the probate of her will went to her son-in-law James Wilkinson, overlooker.

Addendum 2-6-14: My thanks to Julie, a descendant of Thomas & Millicent, who tells me that due to subsidence, ‘Braeside’ was demolished and re-built half a mile away, she doesn’t know when but probably more than 50 years ago, it was originally more or less at the end of Moore St about where the blue arch is in the above photo. The address is now 50-52 Whitwick Rd, Nelson, and this is what it looked like in July 2011. Julie also sent me a copy of Thomas Watson Catlow’s obituary:-

Both Thomas Watson & Millicent were buried in the Nelson Cemetery, plot 4 grave 189, the same grave that daughter Cissie  Hartley was buried in.

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Tomorrow we continue with Thomas & Millicent’s eldest daughter Annie Catlow.

The CATLOW Family

It all started with Mary Hartley, the daughter of Bernard & Martha Hartley of Trawden & Colne in Lancashire.

Mary was born at Trawden in 1833 and baptised at Colne on the 7 April that year. About 20 years later she met William Catlow and on the 12 Nov 1859 she married him in the St Mary the Virgin Church in Trawden, neither had been married before.

William was the son of John & Nanny Catlow of Trawden, baptised on 1 Jul 1832 at St Bartholomew’s Church in Colne. In 1841 William was living with his father & siblings at Whitelee Head so it seems his mother had died by then, by 1851 his father had also passed away & William & his brother James were both living with another brother Thomas.

William & Mary had four children and what follows is the story of their second son, Thomas Watson Catlow, and his ten daughters, over 30 photographs of whom I recently found on eBay, all with lots of fascinating information written on the back of them.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting the photos and information on each daughter in separate articles, starting tomorrow with Thomas Watson & his wife Millicent Dobson.

I hope you will enjoy reading the story as much as I have in researching them.

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Thomas Lee 1839 - 1902

Today’s photo came with two letters written in 1902 by Ellen Major in Wigan, Lancashire and sent to her brother Thomas Lee in Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand. Tantalisingly I still don’t know who the people in the photograph are, so let’s start at the beginning.

These two letters plus the photograph were purchased from a stamp dealer in Wellington (NZ) recently, not by me, I was very generously sent them by fellow genealogy enthusiast Deborah Shuker.

Transcription as written:

No 8 Kendal St
Wigan Sep 1st 1902
Dear Brother I have been to Manchester on august monday as it is a great holiday in wigan I went to our moses widow first as the tram stops close by they looked very comfortable her two sons are in grogers shops they told me our John was dead twelve months ago I was not sorry to hear we know the last of him I then went to emmo salisbury John as not worked for twelve months he told emna he had worked long enough for her I told emma I should want him to keep on working her daughter is a dressmaker she gets a deal of money we had a ramble through the park and cemetery emma is going in 71 John is 68 he is fine strong man You might have a letter from them I sent you two newspapers about your premier visiting st helens and Wigan they made a great deal of him I hope you are quite well as it leaves me at present the rogues are on there Journey to H
so no more at present
from your sister
ellen Major lee

Transcription as written:

Sep 11th
Dear Brother I received your letter on the 7th of September I hope this will find you all wright I was bad myself I tried a little wiskey in my tea it did me more good than all the medince  in Wigan and a lot cheaper hoping you will do the same you musent let me see you all out I had my Son Thomas hear from Yorkshire but hesas gone back there hours is a deal lees he looks sush a little old man
So no more at present from your Loving Sister
Mrs Ellen Wagor Lee
I sent you a letter a week before I received yours
Mrs Ellen Wagor No 8
Kendal St off frog Lane
Wigan
this is Mrs Lee right adress Come from Manchester

The first letter arrived in Auckland on the 13 Oct 1902 and the second one on the 14 Oct 1902, yet written 10 days apart. Included with the second letter is the address mentioned of Mrs Lee in Manchester.

Perhaps the photograph was sent with the address from Manchester as the writing on the above address seems to be in a much neater hand as does the writing on the back of the photograph than the writing in the two letters (were they each written by a different hand?). I can see various differences in some of the letters, the N in New on both the envelope and the address for instance.

If the photo did come from Manchester it would have been from Moses’ widow and therefore would she have written ‘sister’? Possibly. But I get ahead of myself.

I was to later find out that Thomas Lee had died just five days before the two letters arrived in Auckland, so he would never have read them, what a shame, the ‘wiskey’ might have done him the world of good! Perhaps in his letter to Ellen he had mentioned he wasn’t well and that’s why she said ‘you musent let me see you all out’. Here is the photo that came with the letters, it’s a small snapshot and has been hand cut along one edge as if to fit inside a small envelope, the envelopes measure 12cm x 9.5cm, so it may very well have been sent with one of the letters although I would have thought September to be a little bit early for a Christmas card, but I guess in those days they had to post early because of how long it would take to arrive by sea on the other side of the world.

A nice little family but who are they? The word ‘Jim’ written on the back might be a clue, so we’re looking for a man named James in the family, let’s see what we can find.

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The address the letters were sent from was – 8 Kendal St, Wigan – and that’s where I found a widowed Ellen Major living in the 1901 census, along with her son George, a nephew & a niece James & Jane Jones - Source Citation: Class: RG13; Piece: 3556; Folio: 138; Page: 22:-

Ellen & George were born in Manchester & James & Jane in Wigan, Lancashire. So we’re onto the right family but the woman in the photo is a lot younger than Ellen who was 65 in 1901. I’ve had the photo dated and the consensus is it was taken soon after the turn of the century and maybe upto about 1920 so if it was sent with one of the letters then it would have been taken about 1901 or 1902. If it was sent later than that then it wouldn’t have been with the letters because Thomas Lee never received them. The woman looks to be in her 30s or maybe 40s with the young girl about 10 perhaps 12.

As far as I can make out Ellen had only two daughters, the eldest child was Eliza born 1854 and the youngest was Mary Ellen born 1872, in between them were six sons:- Thomas 1856, Alfred 1858, Moses 1860, John 1863, George 1866 and Edward 1869. Ellen had previously married Stephen Major in 1852:-

Ellen Lee was the daughter of John Lee and Ellen Dinaley, born on the 8 Jun 1831 & baptised 2 Feb 1834 at Manchester Cathedral, her father was a shopkeeper:-

I’m not 100% sure that her mother was Ellen Dinaley as there were a few John Lee marriages to an Ellen someone, however, this marriage said that he was a shopkeeper of Manchester Town so it seems likely the right marriage:-

John & Ellen Lee had the following children:-

Eliza bap 16 May 1830, father a shopkeeper of Chorlton Row, at home in 1841, nothing more known;
Ellen bn 8 Jun 1831 bap 2 Feb 1834, father a shopkeeper of Manchester, married 11 Jan 1852 to Stephen Major, died 9 Jan 1910 at 8 Kendal St, Wigan, her will probate went to William Major book-keeper, however Ellen doesn't seem to have had a son named William so he may be a b-i-l;
William bap 27 Jul 1831, father a shopkeeper of Chorlton Row, not at home in 1841, nothing more known, strange that Ellen wasn't baptised on the same day as she had been born the month before;
John bap 2 Feb 1834, father a shopkeeper of Manchester, possible black sheep of the family as Ellen wasn't sorry to hear he'd died, baptised the same day as each other;
Elizabeth bap 9 Jul 1837, father a shopkeeper of Manchester, not at home in 1841, nothing more known;
Moses bap 9 Jul 1837, father a shopkeeper of Manchester, married Mary Ann Medley in 1865, had three sons William (possibly died before 1901), Thomas & Edward (noted on Manchester address page), admitted to County Asylum 10 Aug 1885, died there in Jun 1891, was buried 4 Jun at Prestwich;
Thomas bap 13 Mar 1839, father a provision dealer of Manchester; emigrated to NZ, married there 12 Jul 1873 to Frances Tweedale, died 8 Oct 1902, buried next day at St Peter's Churchyard, Onehunga, Auckland, no known children.

In Loving Memory

of

FRANCES

the beloved wife of

THOMAS LEE

who died July 29th 1899

aged 67 years

and

of the above named

THOMAS LEE

who died 8th Oct 1902

 

So far we don’t have a James! But wait, Ellen & Stephen Major’s eldest daughter, Eliza, married a James Jones (a widower), could that be them?

Married 1876, their first two children were – Elizabeth born 1877 and James born 1880 – they would have been too old to be the children in the photo if it was taken around 1901.

Eliza & James did have more children – Hugh 1882, Jane 1884, Moses 1886-88, Mary Ellen 1890 & Leah 1895 - but they don’t seem to have had another son younger than any of the daughters.

So onto the other children of Ellen & Stephen Major, after Eliza they had six sons, none of them named James, and then one more daughter, Mary Ellen. She married Thomas Jolley in 1894 and they had six children, none of them named James. In 1910 Mary Ellen Jolley along with four of her children emigrated to Fayette, Pennsylvania, USA where she died in 1942. On the passenger list of the ‘Campania’ her next of kin is listed as her brother John Major in Wigan. One of Mary Ellen’s other brothers, Moses, had also emigrated to Fayette about 1887. (There’s one small error in Mary Ellen’s obituary, she was born Mary Ellen Major not Lee.)

Now back to Eliza & James Jones’ children – daughter Elizabeth married William Dawber in 1897 and in the 1911 census they are living at 8 Kendal St, Wigan, the same address the two letters were sent from. Also living in the house were six Dawber children as well as three of Elizabeth’s Jones siblings – James, Jane & Mary Ellen/Nellie, none of them married. Elizabeth’s other two siblings had both married, Hugh to Amy Catherine Scholes and Leah to James Scanlan in America. Leah had emigrated to the US, she’s found travelling with her Uncle Moses Major on the ‘Campania’ in 1910 and her next of kin is listed as ‘Lizzie Dobie (Dawber) of 8 Kendal St, Wigan’.

As far as I can see no-one seems to fit the people in the photograph although I’m sure I’ve missed a clue somewhere along the way! The only possibility I can see is that if the photo was taken about 1890 they could then be James Jones, wife Eliza and daughter Elizabeth who would have been about 14, but if the boy is son James he doesn’t look to be aged 10 so maybe he’s the younger son Hugh who would have been 8. But then why would you be sending a photo that was ten years old that included only two of the six children you had by 1902? I’m afraid it’s beaten me!

One anomaly re the 1901 census - Ellen Major is listed as living with her son George 35, nephew James Jones 21 & niece Jane Jones 18 – but James & Jane Jones were Ellen’s grandchildren. I suspect that son George had filled out the census form & had absent mindedly filled in the relationship to himself instead of the head of the house, Ellen.

One last note: on the baptisms of William & Edward Lee, two of the sons of Ellen’s brother Moses & his wife Mary Ann, was the address of 3 Purslow St, Ashton New Rd, Moses was listed as a carver & gilder.

References: FreeBMD; ancestry.com.au; familysearch.org; NZBDM Online

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the LEE or MAJOR families (or any of them) please do contact me, I would love to pass the letters & photo onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Joseph Cripps 1883-1952

 

 

                                              Subject: Joe Cripps
                                              Photographer: Halma’s Studio, Ashburton, NZ
                                              Found: TradeMe

Today’s photo is a really nice one which has been well looked after, such a shame it ended up under the auctioneer’s gavel! Happily I have already found a descendant who I’m sure will be thrilled to receive it.

At first I wasn’t sure if the surname was Cripps as the P’s didn’t really look like P’s to me, however as there didn’t seem to be a lot of people with the name of ‘Cribbs’ in NZ (only one death & no births or marriages in the NZ BMDs) I went with Cripps.

Joseph Cripps was born in New Zealand on the 28 Mar 1883 to John & Sarah Cripps, he was the sixth of their thirteen children who were born in NZ from 1875 onwards.

John & Sarah had arrived in NZ from Oxfordshire as assisted immigrants on the maiden voyage of the ship Waimate, arriving 25 Jan 1875 in Canterbury after an 81 day voyage, departing Gravesend on 28 Oct 1874, John was a labourer and they were both aged 23, cost to the NZ Government £29.0s.0d.

 

They had been married in Bilton, Warwickshire just two months before they set sail:-

John was the son of Joshua Gregory Cripps [son of Patience Cripps] and Ann Gibbard, born in Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire & baptised in the St Giles Church there on the 16 Mar 1851. Sarah was the daughter of John and Martha Brain also from Bletchingdon & baptised there on the 29 Feb 1852.

John died in 1898 aged 46 and Sarah was still alive in 1915 when one of her sons died so I presume her death is the one registered in 1921:-

1898/5728 Cripps John 46Y
1921/5116 Cripps Sarah 68Y

After their deaths son John took over the family farm and from what I can gather in the various newspapers on Papers Past some of his brothers also worked with him.

Joseph married Agnes Isabella Lovett in 1909 and so far I’ve been able to identify at least four daughters for them although there may be more children born after the NZ BMD online cutoff date of 1914.

1909/6201 Agnes Isabella Lovett & Joseph Cripps

Joseph & Agnes were farming in the area of Anama in Mayfield, Ashburton. In 1914 Joseph ended up in the Ashburton hospital with a fractured thighbone after being knocked down by a team of horses. He survived and over the next 38 years Joseph & Agnes were living variously in Mayfield or Wanganui, in 1952 Joseph died and Agnes followed him in 1963:-

1952/19186 Cripps Joseph 69Y
1963/32617 Cripps Agnes Isabella 75Y

References: Papers Past; NZBDM Online; ancestry.com.au; FreeBMD; familysearch.org

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As mentioned before I have already found a grand-daughter of Joseph but if you are connected in some way to the CRIPPS family please feel free to either take a copy of the photo from here or contact me for a higher resolution copy. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

The Cunninghams of West Kilbride, Scotland

A few days ago I found this framed painting in my local Op-Shop and as usual I couldn’t pass it by, it cost the large sum of $3 so why not? I thought there must be a connection to a Cunningham Family in New Zealand somewhere!

More on these two photos later, adding them here to make them easier to compare with the original. The best I could do from Google Maps.

West Kilbride is a fairly small village in North Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland. Chapelton Farm is just below the red ‘B7047’ underneath West Kilbride on the map.

 

And so it was there in the first census available for the people living in West Kilbride that I first turned.

The oldest person with the surname of Cunningham (or any derivative thereof) was David aged 40, a farmer living at Chapelton Farm in West Kilbride:-

A fairly well off farmer I would imagine, with wife Janet & four children, plus four other females, two listed as servants and the other two as agricultural labourers, which was rather unusual for women in those days. As you can see from the photos above of Chapelton Farm, taken from the air, that it is a fairly large establishment these days, more than one house and what looks like a large farming area.

David Cunningham was born on 30 Jan 1800 at Stevenston, a village not too far from West Kilbride and is one of the 'Three Towns' along with Ardrossan and Saltcoats. His parents were David Cuninghame and Elizabeth Fleck who had been married in Stevenston on 3 Jul 1789, they had at least five other children baptised in Stevenston – Jane, William, Robert Baillie, William & James. Both father, David, and his son James were buried at Stevenston in 1922, their burial entries in the parish records state they were both from Mickle Dabs Farm.

On the 21 Dec 1835 David married Janet Duncan in West Kilbride and that is where they lived out the rest of their lives, in the process producing at least seven children, six daughters & one son. Janet was the daughter of John Duncan & Helen Dunn, she had been born in West Kilbride & baptised there on 22 Aug 1815. David & Janet’s children were:-

Helen Dunn 1836; Elizabeth Fleck 1838; Jean/Jane 1839-1881; David 1841-1902; Sarah Dunn 1843; Janet K 1846 & Mary F 1848.

David & Janet & their children were all living on Chapelton Farm in the various census upto & including 1891, on the 28 Feb 1895 David succumbed to ‘old age’ aged 95 years, his son, David, was present at his death.

In all the census, son David had been listed as unmarried, and just a few years later he passed away in 1902 aged 60. This put me into a quandary as I thought this must be a dead end to this branch of the Cunningham family and I had not found a NZ connection. Either that or son David had married in the one year period between 1901 when he was single and 1902 when he died or there had been another male sibling that I didn’t know about (that could still be the case).

Just to make sure I looked at his siblings again and this time did some more research on his six sisters:-

1. Helen Dunn married William Robertson in 1862 in West Kilbride and they had two sons, William in 1865 and John in 1867, both of the sons were living with their Cunningham grandparents in the 1871 census, they had been born in Paisley, Renfrewshire. I can find nothing further on Helen, her husband or two sons, perhaps they are the ones who emigrated to NZ, nothing found so far though.
2. Elizabeth Fleck married William Gemmill from Fenwick, Ayrshire in West Kilbride in 1866 and they had eight children. Living at Greendykes Farm, Gladsmuir in East Lothian in 1901.
3. Sarah Dunn not married and living with her brother David in 1901 at Seamill Clyde View, West Kilbride.
4. Janet K, last sighted in the 1871 census aged 25 & living at home with her parents.
5. Mary F, ditto aged 23.

That leaves Jean/Jane, baptised as Jean but married as Jane, this is where I thought I’d hit the jackpot! Jane had married Andrew Cuninghame who turned out to be the son of Jane’s father’s brother Robert Baillie (so they were first cousins):-

Married at Chapelton Farm on 30 Dec 1874, Andrew was a bachelor Sea Captain aged 37, living in London, and Jane was a spinster aged 35 living in West Kilbride, one of the witnesses was Jane’s sister Sarah Dunn, their parents were listed as (groom’s) Robert deceased farmer & his wife Mary Smith and (bride’s) David farmer & his wife Janet Duncan.

Andrew Cuninghame had been born in Stevenston on 11 Jun 1837 and this is where the above photo of Mayfield Farm comes in, in 1841 he was living with his parents at Mayfield Farm in Stevenston. By 1851 his parents had moved to Campbeltown in Argyll and Andrew was living with his Uncle William Cunninghame at Eglinton Farm in Kilwinning, not far from Stevenston.

After 1851 Andrew becomes quite elusive as during the period of 1857 to 1870 he sat for and passed his second mate, first mate and master mariner examinations so I expect he was at sea at the time of the various census. After he & Jane were married I found Jane in 1881 living at Bradshaw St, Stevenston with their two sons, Robert W born 1876 and David Duncan born 1880. Soon after that census Jane died aged 41 in 1881. Andrew went on to marry Elizabeth Hannah Shove in Lewisham, London in 1884 and they were still living there in 1901 & 1911, Andrew died in 1924 aged 85 and Elizabeth also died in 1924 aged 86, they had no children together, Elizabeth was a spinster when she married and in 1911 she is listed as having had no children.

Andrew & Jane’s son, David Duncan, joined the Royal Navy, married Ada Decima Richards in 1911 in London, he died in 1917 during WWII, I don’t know if they had any children:-

So that leaves Andrew & Jane’s other son Robert W, I lost sight of him after the 1891 census, when he & his brother were both living with their step-mother Elizabeth in Portsea, Hampshire, apart from one passenger list where a Robert W Cunningham, a 50 year old unaccompanied engineer, was arriving at Southampton from New York on board the vessel ‘Majestic’ on 13 Jun 1924, about to be staying at the Savoy Hotel in London – which may or may not be him!

So I come to the end of this saga with no jackpot and no NZ connection! Of course it may very well be that one or more of the descendants of the female lines emigrated to NZ or this Cunningham/Cuninghame family may not even be the right one. Maybe one day I’ll find time to do a bit more research on the female lines but for now I think I’m done. In the meantime if anyone thinks they might be connected to the Cunninghams of West Kilbride I would certainly love to hear from you.

References: FreeBMD; ancestry.com.au; familysearch.org; ScotlandsPeople; NZBDM Online

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I can’t quite make up my mind if either of the two current photos of Chapelton Farm & Mayfield Farm are the same building(s) as the one in the painting. The overall design seems to be much the same in all three but the windows aren’t, possibly having been modernised at some stage. There are other differences though. Unfortunately the painting doesn’t have a date on it so I have no idea when it was done, another one of those little mysteries that probably won’t ever be solved! Please do contact me, I would love to pass the painting onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Mrs William Ellis Clough

 

Subject: Aunt Elinor
Date: 1860-1893
Photographer: Daniel Jones, 66a Bold St, Liverpool
Found: eBay

Today’s photo I have to admit has totally beaten me! Apart from dating the photo to about 1870 to 1880, (my best guess as Daniel Jones was in business from at least 1860 to 1893) I can find nothing further on Aunt Elinor. There is no marriage on FreeBMD for an Elinor/Eleanor/Ellen/Ellena to someone named William Ellis Clough, not even a William E Clough.

I did find a William Ellis Clough who was born in 1901, too late to have been married to Elinor. I did look into him though as I thought it might have been a family name carried down the generations but it turned out his mother’s maiden name was Ellis.

Then I found a William Elliot Clough and thought perhaps the letter T had been left off the name Elliot, the last letter does look like an O. This William Elliot Clough had been born in 1829 in Liverpool:-

I found William & Sarah with son William aged 12 living in Kent St, Liverpool in the 1841 census. Father William was a clerk and born in Lancashire although wife Sarah wasn’t. There was a marriage between William Clough and Sarah Hobson at St Anne’s Church in Liverpool on the 6 Sep 1819, William was listed as an accountant, Sarah a spinster and a witness was John Hobson.

By 1851 father William had died and Sarah had married again to Hugh Flood on the 18 Nov 1845, on this marriage her father is listed as John Hobson. Sarah had been born in Wrexham, Wales, in 1851 she & Hugh are living with son William Clough aged 22 and a book-keeper.

That is the last sighting of William, although his mother & step-father are living in Toxteth Park in 1861 I can find no sign of William. He doesn’t seem to be in any further census in the UK, there is no marriage, no death or burial, no sign of him in the US census or anywhere else I can think of.

I can’t really tell how old Aunt Elinor might be but to me she looks to be at least 40 and perhaps even 50 or older, her clothes are quite matronly to my eyes.

Of course he may very well be one of the many William Clough deaths registered after 1851 and there are at least seven marriages between a William Clough and an Ellen someone which are in the right time frame but without any further clues it’s terribly hard to say if he is any of them.

Let’s hope someone connected to the family finds this one day, in the meantime if anyone has any other suggestions I’d love to hear from you.

References: FreeBMD; ancestry.com.au; familysearch.org

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Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Unclaimed Photographs

Although I’ve had great success finding descendants & homes for a lot of my old photographs I still have quite a few that haven’t been claimed yet. If you see a name on this list you are interested in just click on it to go to the page it was originally posted on.

ANDERSON, John William, 1862-1942
BANBURY, Mary, 1840-1915 (see Franklin)
BIRD, Mary Ann (see Hyde)
BRIGGS, Gerald Gordon, 1901-1964
BRITTAIN, Geraldine Feodora (nee Hyde)
BROWN, Agnes Paxton, 1895-?
CHRISTY, Emeline Mary, 1868-1945
DRAPER, Elsie *
DUGGLEBY Photograph Album
DYSON, William George Peacock, 1898-1986
DYSON, Ruth (nee Lawton)
EWINS, Walter William John, 1881-?
FISHER, Thomas Richard *
FRANKLIN, Mary, 1840-1915 (nee Banbury)
FRYER, Amy *
FRYER, Arthur *
FRYER, William *
GILMAN, Ada Violet, 1891-?
GOODFELLOW, Mrs M
GOULD, Nita *
HADFIELD, Charles Alfred *
HADFIELD, Claude *
HADFIELD, Cora Lillian *
HADFIELD, Edith Martha Ann *
HADFIELD, Frances Anne *
HADFIELD, Harold Bertram *
HADFIELD, John Harry *
HADFIELD, Ruby *
HADFIELD, Thomas *
HARDIE, Winifred Elizabeth (see Purdey)
HYDE, Geraldine Feodora, 1863-1935 (see Brittain)
HYDE, Mary Ann (nee Bird)
KNIGHT, Agatha (nee Perry), 1882-1927
LAWTON, Ruth (see Dyson)
LEANING, two children of Westport, (possibly Willis & Esther)
LEVERET, Lionel or Lionel Leverett OGIER
LOGAN, Annie Roberta *
MICKMAN/McMAHON, Charles Headlam, 1858-1908
MITTON, Arnold, 1856-1910
MORGAN, Charles Bamford *
NORTON, Henry, 1818-1893 (Mayor of Carmarthen)
PLEACE, Alice, 1869-1876
PURDEY, Winifred Elizabeth (nee Hardie)
PERRY, Agatha (see Knight)
REED, Bertie, Charles, Daisy, Eddie & Frank (children of Charles)
RYAN, Edward Michael, 1878-1969 
SMART, Austin Ernest Albert, 1884-1966
SNOWDEN, headstone for Mary (James, Alfred & Sarah Ann mentioned) 1888
THOMAS, Rex A, of Bridgwater, Somerset
THEOBALD, Frederick Richard, 1859-1903 
THEOBALD, Ilean Alice Louisa
THEOBALD, Sydney James
THEOBALD ?, Claude & Victor
TRIM, Amy Mary, 1870-1959 
WICKHAM, John, 1790-1875
WINFIELD, Amy Louisa, 1875-1953
WINFIELD, James Edward, 1879-?

Plus a few that I haven’t been able to find any information on so far:-

CLOUGH, Elinor (Mrs William Ellis Clough, taken Liverpool, Lancs)
EYLES, Gwen Elaine, bn 1942 (taken in Nelson, NZ)
HEATHERSTONE, Mr (probably from West Bromich, Staffs)
WARD, Henry (sent 1897, taken Piccadilly, London)

Agatha Juliet PERRY 1882 - 1927

Subject: Agatha Perry
Date: Unknown
Photographer: J Rayner, Khyber House, Whitby
Found: eBay

Today’s photo is another one I’ve had since 2009 without finding any information, somewhat the worse for wear I’m afraid. A few days ago I was looking through all my unclaimed photographs and on looking at this one it hit me that her name might not have been Perry-Knight as I had first thought. Perhaps it had been written in the American way of naming married women ie given name then maiden name then married name.

I checked FreeBMD for a marriage between an Agatha PERRY and a KNIGHT and this is the ONLY hit I had:-

Marriages Mar 1904
Knight   Charles Voughton   Gloucester 6a    431
Perry     Agatha Juliet         Gloucester 6a    431

And so I uncovered yet another extremely interesting family, or two, to research, presuming I have the right person, nothing is guaranteed though. I say this mainly because the photograph was taken in Whitby which is not even close to where Agatha was born & grew up for at least the first 10 years of her life.

Strangely it turns out that Agatha is the first cousin of Emma Phyllis Bernand (their mothers were Harvey sisters), the wife of John Graham Weall, a photo of whom I purchased in the same lot this photo was in and which I posted about back in 2009 here. Possibly they were both from the same deceased estate.
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Agatha Juliet Perry was born in 1882 in Gloucestershire where her father was the Vicar of Mickleton, the second child of William Vincent Blencowe Perry and Sarah Catherine Harvey.

Births Jun 1882
Perry   Agatha Juliet   Shipston 6d 671

As far as I can ascertain Agatha had just two siblings, Cecily Catherine Perry 1880-1919 who married Frank Mowbray Luce (ICS) in India, he was in the Indian Civil Service & was a joint magistrate & deputy collector, in 1911 they had been married 8 years with no children. After Cecily died in 1919 Frank married again to Ina Marion Clarke (FRCSI) of Rathdown, Dublin, Ireland, they don’t seem to have had any children so no descendants there.

Agatha’s other sibling was Arthur Clyde Perry (DSO) 1873-1945, a captain in the Army, he married Margaret de Winton who was from a rather illustrious background, her parents being Thomas de Winton & Barbara Peel of Wallsworth Hall in Sandhurst. In 1911 Arthur & Margaret had been married for 7 years without any children so I suspect no descendants there either.

Agatha’s husband, Charles Voughton Knight, was an MD and son of Joseph Knight and Mary Ferrier Holt, born in 1872 in Newcastle under Lyme. When Agatha died in 1927 the probate of her will went to Charles Voughton Knight MD and Geoffrey Charles Voughton Knight, solicitor's articled clerk. In the 1911 census they had been married for 7 years and Agatha is listed as having had two children who were both still living. They were Geoffrey Charles Voughton bn 1906 and John Voughton bn 1910. Charles died in 1947 & the probate of his will went to son John Voughton Knight a gas company executive official & Sir Robert Rollo Gillespie O’Brien a baronet, Sir Robert turned out to be the husband of a daughter of Charles’ sister Annie Adelaide Emma Knight who had married Norman Alfred Coghill.

In 1946 Geoffrey Charles Voughton Knight was living in Ceylon with wife Mary Constance & their two daughters who had been born there, one in 1938 & the other in 1946. I found a passenger list in 1946 of the family arriving at Southampton from Ceylon, the address they were going to live at was ‘Falkland House, Painswick, Gloucester’ which was the home of Geoffrey’s father Charles when he died in 1947. Geoffrey was living at ‘Orchard Cottage, Beenham Hill, Reading’ when he died in 1963. Nothing more is known about wife Mary Constance and their two daughters.

Back to Agatha’s parents – her mother, Sarah Catherine Harvey, was the daughter of the Rev George Gayton Harvey (son of James Harvey & Dorcas Catherine Clyde) and Sarah Frances Sheppard, born 1846 in Hailsham, Sussex where her father was the vicar. Sarah Catherine died in 1899 aged 53 and in 1905 William V B Perry married again to Adelaide Anne Mackenzie N Stephenson, I don’t know if she had been married before, the 1911 census shows that she had no children to this marriage. All I know about William Vincent Blencowe Perry’s parents is that his father was John Perry born in 1802 in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire (the son of George & Susan Perry) and his mother was E.C, full & maiden name unknown, he also had a sister named Mary.

References: FreeBMD; ancestry.com.au; familysearch.org

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the PERRY/KNIGHT/HARVEY families (or any of them) please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz