Henry Womersley - father of 13, grandfather to dozens!

Henry Womersley 1847 - 1902 

Henry Womersley, circa 1900

I think it's fair to say that Henry Womersley, my gt gt gt uncle, made a pretty good contribution to the population of Yorkshire!  With just one exception, he has the largest family so far in my family tree, and definitely the largest number of children who lived to be adults.  And although I am still researching his descendants - there are a lot of them to research! - it seems he and his wife Eliza would have been grandparents to at least a couple of dozen children.  He also has the distinction of being the earliest relative to leave a will.

Henry was born in 1847 in Kirkburton, Yorkshire, to Ephraim and Ann Womersley, and was baptised at All Hallows Church, Kirkburton, on 3 October.

He was little more than a toddler when the census was taken in 1851, with an older sister Eliza, aged 9, and a younger one, Martha, aged 1.  The family were living in Newmill, home to Newmill brewery where his father Ephraim was working as a labourer.

Ten years on and his father has a more impressive title of brewer's agent, which was probably just as well given that his family had grown much larger!  Eliza seems to have left home, and I'm not sure where Martha was, but Henry is still there, together with Ann, 9; Ellen, 6; Ada, 4; Ephraim Jr, 3; and Sarah (my great great grandmother), aged just 1.  Henry was 13, and has not yet started work - no doubt he would have been starting within the next 12 months.

Six years later, in 1867, Henry married Eliza Stones, daughter of a fellmonger, at All Halllows Church in Kirkburton, and by 1871 the couple were living in Houghton Glass and had two children - George, 2, and Mary, 1.  Henry was working as a sinker in the coal mining business - this is a skilled position that involved excavating new shafts down to the coal seams. 

Twenty years later, Henry is working as a cutler and grinder.  I'm not sure if this is meant to read cutter and grinder, and relate to running cutting machines in the mines, or if he made a switch to the cutlery business.  I suspect the former, as he and his children all have strong links to the mines.  His eldest children have left home, but it is still a very full house - Henry, Eliza, and eight children!  These are Thomas, 18, a miner; Henry, 16, also a miner; Eliza, 14, not listed as doing anything but no doubt helping her mother and quite possibly working from home too; William, 11; Annie, 9; and David, 7, all scholars; plus three-year-old Albert and baby James.  

Believe it or not, there were still more additions to the family by the time the 1901 census rolled around!  In all Henry and Eliza had 13 children, all of whom, with the exception of one son who died in infancy, lived to be adults. By 1901 Henry was 53, and still working down the mines, as a hewer, as was his son Henry, 25 and David, 17.  Eliza was 50.  The other siblings still living at home were Ann, 19; Albert, 14; James, 10; Edward, 9; and Sophia, 6.

Henry died a year later on 15 January 1902, at Featherstone main colliery, Featherstone, Pontefract.  There is no record of any accident there then, so I assume that Henry probably just collapsed and died while at work.  

As well as having one of the largest families to date on my family tree, Henry also has the distinction of being my earliest ancestor, as far as I know, to leave a will - his effects were worth £34 (about £2000 in today's money), and were left to his widow.

52 Ancestors - Hannah Maria Spivey

Hannah Maria Spivey 1827 -  ?

Poor Hannah - she wasn't exactly what you might call lucky.  She never knew her father, she had an illegitimate boy who died young, and at least one of her other children led a troubled life too.

Hannah, my 4 x great aunt, was born to Amos and Sarah Spivey in Kirkburton, Yorkshire, in 1827.  Her father was buried in the village's parish church, All Hallows, exactly one month to the day before she was born.  Every time I come face to face with this fact, I can't help but feel desperately sorry for her mother, Sarah - eight months pregnant, with an eight year old daughter, and no way of supporting them.  She must have been worried sick.

By the time she was 14, Hannah was working in service as a domestic servant for shoemaker James Vouse of Howden in Yorkshire.  This must have been extremely hard work.  There were 12 people in that household, only three of whom were servants - and one of those was 70 years old and presumably the nanny for the four under-five year olds in the house.  It must have been non-stop drudgery from dawn to dusk, and quite possibly beyond.

Eight years later, aged just 22, she gave birth to Henry, an illegitimate son.  (He went on to become a coal miner and died of lung disease aged 23 - click here for his story.

In 1851, aged 24 and two respectively, Hannah and Henry were living back in Kirkburton with Hannha's mother Sarah, and Sarah's second husband John Eastwood.  Hannah doesn't appear to be working, although there is a good chance that like many women she was working from home to supplement the family income.

Hannah evidently married between 1851 and 1861, although I have been unable to find a record of it, as the 1861 census shows her as lodging in the Dives Inn in Huddersfield, with her husband Lochart Muir, a publican (but not the head publican, that was a Thomas W Newson). Little Henry is still in Kirkburton with his grandmother, as are Hannah and Lochart's two young daughters Sarah and Ella.

I get the impression that Hannah's husband was a bit of a rogue, and unable to settle in a job for long, and that the two of them probably had to travel around a fair bit as a result of this.  He'll get his own blog post sooner or later, but I mention it here as it can't have been easy on Hannah, traipsing around after him and not being able to be with her children.

In 1871 Hannah and Lochart are still living in Huddersfield, Lochart is apparently a draper now.  Their two daughters Sarah and Ella are living with them, as is Lochart's elder sister.

Two years later, Hannah's first-born, Henry, died.  He was followed four years later by Hannah's husband. 

Hannah re-married in 1882, to a James Sanderson, back in Kirkburton - and then seems to vanish from the records.  Maybe one day I will find out what happened to her.

52 Ancestors - medals, liquorice and shop-keeping

George Smart - 1887-1964

George Smart is one of my great great uncles, this time by marriage rather than by blood, although that never really matters that much to me. Family is family as much by what they do as how they are related, in my opinion.

Sadly I never knew him, he died ten months before I was born, but having learned more about him, and seen this wonderful photo below, I wish I had.  The photo shows him pushing my Mum, Maureen, and her younger brother, Michael, in a wheelbarrow.  To me, this shows he definitely had a sense of fun.

George was born in Netherton, Worcestershire, to John and Abigail Smart, in 1887.  He and his family had moved to Yorkshire by the 1891 census, presumably going where the work was to be found.  I think George must have been lucky to avoid working in the mines, as his father and both of his elder brothers were miners.

Instead, he began his working life as a shop assistant, and clearly the retail trade suited him well as he was still working in a grocery when he married my Great Great Aunt Elsie in 1911, and by 1916 he was the manager of a Co-operative store.

He joined the army reserve in 1916, and on 27 March 1918 he left England for France, where he was a driver for the Royal Field Artillery for almost a year.  His service records give nothing away about his time in France, but no doubt he saw and experienced plenty of the horrors of war during his relatively short time there.  He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.

After returning to England, he went back to retail.  My Mum believes that he and Elsie used to run a small general purpose shop.  On his retirement from the shop, he worked in the gardens at the Wilkinsons sweet factory in Pontefract, where they grew liquorice for their Pontefract cakes.  (As a brief aside, Pontefract is one of the few places in the UK where liquorice can successfully be grown, and was renowned as a worldwide centre for liquorice!  Apparently Wilkinsons is now known as Monkhill Confectionary and they continue to preserve a small garden of liquorice plants.)

George, who is pictured here at my Mum and Dad's wedding in 1963, died in Ackton Hospital near Pontefract on 11 March 1964, aged 77.