30 March 2020

50.4 Siblings of Mary Ann Lambert (née Barnard)

Richard and Elizabeth Barnard had two children:
  • 50.2.1 - Mary Ann Barnard (1844-1891)
  • 50.2.2 - Betsy Barnard (1845-1929)
    • Married James Smart (1846-1921) in St John's Wood, Middlesex in 1869
    • James was a professor, and teacher of music. A well-known conductor of choral societies, choirs and orchestras in Shropshire.
    • In 1871, they lived in Chetwynd nr Newport, Shropshire
    • 1881: Wellington Road, Newport
    • My photos of Newport are here (spot their house)
    • 1891/1901: 12 High St, Newport. The Grade II star listed Old Guildhall (a rare example of a former open hall with cusped arch-braced and wind-braced roof, especially considering its easterly position) was directly opposite. My old MG ZT probably wasn't.
Newport, Old Guildhall (my photo)
    • 1911: Beethoven House, 93 High St, Newport. He was also an organist now. The church is on an island immediately in front of his house.

Newport church (my photo)
    • Children:
      • Clarence Arthur Smart (1869)
      • James Barnard Smart (1871)
      • Henry Percy Smart (1872)
      • Ernest William Smart (1874)
      • Constance Betsy Smart (1875)
      • John Archibald Smart (1881)
More information on these individuals in Chapter 57.

Next (Mary Ann's paternal cousins)

50.3b Captain Matthew Webb

Matthew Webb married Madeleine Kate Chaddock (1850) at the Church of St Andrew, West Kensington in 1880. 

They had two children:
  • Matthew Webb (1881)
  • Helen Webb (1882)
(More on these individuals in Chapter 57)

1851: Home at High Street, Madeley

1861: On board the Conway off Cheshire
1871: No record
1881: With his new wife, at 51 Tavistock Crescent, Kensington (now redeveloped). Retired mariner. An architect and a lady from Amsterdam were lodgers, and he kept a servant, Annie Oakley.

That is what the record shows, at first search. But it masks the story of a true A-list celebrity of our tree.
Matthew Webb - Vanity Fair print (my collection)
There are family stories about the man, certain that we are related - indeed his closest living relatives - but not sure how (see Chapter 50.1.1 for the answer to that one). We apparently inherited an important medal and a mysterious 'kissing cup'. It was known that he was born in Dawley, one of the key settlements in our story. Dawley is less than 40 miles, almost due west, from Sutton Coldfield, where the family coalesced. A visit to Dawley reveals an unpretentious market square, with an active market, and a memorial to Webb at its centre. I took some photos - on purpose this time - it was quite difficult to get close due to beetroot and such! "NOTHING GREAT IS EASY" it says, and headlines his exploits.



Postcard of the Webb Memorial (my collection)
So what was the Conway, and what was the medal?

First, the SS Russia, a Cunard sailing liner, with auxiliary steam power, built in 1867. In 1868, after rounding off a reading tour to America with a trip to Niagara and a big dinner in New York, a relieved and appreciative Charles Dickens returned home onboard the ship. In 1873, a seaman onboard came to public notice for the first time. In an attempt to rescue a 'man overboard', he dived off the ship mid-Atlantic, and remained in the Ocean for 37 minutes. For his bravery, he was awarded the inaugural annual Stanhope Gold Medal by the Royal Humane Society. So that will be the important medal then.

SS Russia (credit)
It probably also explains why there is no 1871 census record for him. The 1861 entry refers to the Conway, a training vessel at Liverpool. He recalls that he had always been fascinated with water, learning to swim in the Severn from the age of eight. He'd always dreamt of going to see. Nevertheless, the Conway was a shock - a hammock with no sheets instead of his comfortable little bed, and the mixed quality of his contemporaries.
From the Illustrated London News (my collection)
After two years on the Conway, Matthew must have had home leave, during which, in the summer of 1863, he rescued his 12-year-old brother Thomas from drowning in the Severn near Ironbridge. Shortly afterwards, he sailed to Calcutta in the Cavour, and then to Hong Kong where we had to fight off muggers. Sailing on to Singapore, back to Calcutta and back to England took 17 months. Soon he was off again in the Cavour, visiting Aden and Bombay.

In 1866, he completed his apprenticeship, and qualified as a Second Mate. Later ships were the Hampden and the Castleton, in which he visited Japan. He transferred to Brilliant as Second Mate in 1869. It looks like Brilliant was wrecked on Long Sand in the Thames Estuary in 1872 (I don't know if Webb was onboard - but he doesn't mention it in his resumé!).

While stationed for a while at Port Natal, he was paid £1 a day to make a difficult swim back from the nightly anchorage of a boat being used to recover cargo from a wreck. He qualified as a first mate in 1870, and joined the Russia on 28 April 1873 as an Able Seaman: the passengers collected £100 for him after his brave exploit. In January 1875, Matthew joined the Emerald, as Captain. This may have been the steam coastal cargo ship built in 1889. After six months, and having read about a failed attempt to swim the English Channel in a newspaper, he resigned his commission, and returned home.

He trained in Lambeth pool, close to Westminster Bridge (and the stomping ground of the Larard, Little and Knight families). In July 1875, he set a record by swimming 20 miles from Blackwall to Gravesend.

On 24 August, Webb dived into the water from Admiralty Pier, Dover. Twenty-one hours and 45 minutes later he waded ashore at Calais, after an exhausting zig-zagging swim against the tides and currents of the Channel. "I was terribly exhausted at the time... I can only say that the moment when I touched the Calais sands, and felt the French soil beneath my feet, is one which I will never forget, were I to live for a hundred years." And he thanked the editor of Land and Water, who had sent him £50 and the pot of porpoise oil, with which he greased himself for the swim. There is a very good account of the swim and Webb's life, including a picture of the Conway, here.

From the Illustrated London News (my collection)
"News of Matthew Webb's amazing feat filtered back to his home community here in Shropshire, he returned in triumph and arriving at Wellington railway station was met by large crowds of locals, eager to share in the glory and heap deserved praise on their own Local Hero. It is known that he was escorted back to Dawley amid a carnival atmosphere boosted by the able ability of the Shifnal Brass Band. [Ed. There were apparently Chinese lanterns all down the Severn by Ironbridge, and the Tontine Hotel was decorated in celebration.] The journey itself was to spawn endless tales of folklore. Arriving as we have into the new Millennium and the year 2000, locals to this day, 125 years on, still refer to The Pig On The Wall. Legend has it that as the Band led Webb's procession into Dawley, a pig placed its front trotters onto the wall of its sty, to watch the band pass by." Shropshire Mining. See also: Dawley Heritage
Webb's Calling Card (my collection)
But he wasn't just a local hero. After his record swim, Captain Webb basked in national and international adulation, and followed a career as a professional swimmer.

Famous 'Pig on the Wall' Postcard (my collection)
He wrote a book called 'The Art of Swimming' and licensed his name for merchandising such as commemorative pottery.
The Art of Swimming (my collection)
A brand of matches was named after him.
Commemorative Match Boxes (my collection)
He participated in exhibition swimming matches and stunts such as floating in a tank of water for 128 hours, for which we won £1000. In a quiet wedding, Matthew married the young ("small and refined") Madeleine who seems to have doted on him, and called him 'Mat'. Webb had grown used to the high life and wanted to provide for his new family. He toyed with various schemes, and then came up with the big one.
Webb Memorial, Dover (my photo)
He wasn't to live for a hundred years. His final stunt, at age was to be a dangerous swim through the Whirlpool Rapids on the Niagara River below Niagara Falls (nearly 100 m high), a feat many observers considered suicidal. Although Webb failed in an attempt at raising interest in funding the event, on 24 July 1883, he jumped into the river from a small boat located near the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge and began his swim. Accounts of the time indicate that in all likelihood Webb successfully survived the first part of the swim, but died in the section of the river located near the entrance to the whirlpool. He had expected to make a fortune but in the end just wanted to save his name.

The Scene of Webb's Death (Illustrated London News, my collection)
Webb was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Niagara Falls, New York.

John Betjeman summoned up his ghost in A Shropshire Lad, performed live here.

Next (Mary Ann's siblings)

50.3a Third Cousins of Daniel Lambert

Matthew Webb and Sarah Cartwright Garbitt had twelve children in the Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge area of Shropshire. Most of this large family did not have children, and there are no known descendants of this family alive today. One of the family became well-known. The third cousin relationship is shown in the chart below.


Relationship between Matthew Webb and Daniel Lambert


Next (Matthew Webb)

29 March 2020

50.3 Maternal Cousins of Daniel Lambert

John and Margaret Cartwright had three children. Their children were Daniel's siblings and first cousins:
  • 35.2.1 - Margaret Cartwright (1810-1894) m Edward Hodgkiss (1809-1891)
    • Mary Hodgkiss (1837-1848)
      • Died in childhood
    • Benjamin Hodgkiss (1839-1916)
      • 1861: At home in Tettenhall. Carpenter (21)
      • Married Jane Wilkes (1842) in Tettenhall in 1864
      • He was a journeyman carpenter, and they lived in Tettenhall Wood
      • Children:
        • Edward Hodgkiss (1865)
        • Mary Jane Hodgkiss (1867)
        • William Hodgkiss (1869)
        • George Hodgkiss (1871)
      • 1881/1891: Long Lake Cottage, Tettenhall Wood. Carpenter.
    • Ann Hodgkiss (1842-1917)
      • Married George Tonkinson (1837-1877) in Tettenhall in 1863
      • He was a tinplate worker, and they lived in Tettenhall Wood
      • Children:
        • Edward John Tonkinson (1864)
        • Lucy Margaret Tonkinson (1866)
        • Ernest Tonkinson (1868)
        • Charlotte Tonkinson (1871)
      • Married Edward Jones  (1836-1929)
      • He was a sawyer and machinist in a timber yard, and they lived at Long Lake, Tettenhall Wood.
      • Tettenhall Wood is now a Conservation Area and Tettenhall Ridge has vestiges of Ancient Woodland, surviving from Kinver Forest, once a Royal forest, used by the King and the aristocracy for deer hunting. A petition for the enclosure of the Tettenhall Wood common c. 1805 mentioned extensive encroachment and also described it as the haunt of gypsies and thieves.
      • Children:
        • Horace Jones (1879)
        • Alfred Jones (1882)
  • 35.2.2 - Sarah Cartwright (1811-1901)

More on these families in Chapter 57.

Next (Daniel's third cousins)

50.2 Paternal Cousins of Daniel Lambert

John and Ann Lambert had nine children, mostly born in Dawley, Salop. Their children were Daniel's siblings and first cousins.
  • 35.1.1 - Lucy Lambert (1781-1814)
    • Remember that there is some doubt about Lucy's relationship
    • Children:
      • Thomas Penzer (1813-1868)
        • Another researcher suggests that Thomas died in Bridgnorth after 1868.
        • No known children
      • Ann Penzer (1814-1814)
        • Died as an infant
  • 35.1.2 - Elizabeth Lambert (1787)
    • No known children
  • 35.1.3 - Mary Lambert (1794)
    • No known children
  • 35.1.4 - Philip Lambert (1795)
    • No known children
  • 35.1.5 - Fanny Lambert (1796)
    • No known children
  • 35.1.6 - Benjamin Lambert (1798)
    • No known children
  • 35.1.7 - Jane Lambert (1800)
    • No known children
  • 35.1.8 - Juliot Lambert (1802)
    • No known children
  • 35.1.9 - Jesse Lambert (1804-1875)

More on these families in Chapter 57.

Next (Daniel's maternal cousins)

50.1 Siblings of Daniel Lambert

Jesse and Sarah Lambert had ten children:
  • 50.1.1 - Benjamin Lambert (1832-1907)
    • Married Mary Ann Davies (1837-1905) in Malinslee (now in Telford) in 1855
    • Children:
      • Sarah Jane Lambert (1857). Sarah died in 1862.
      • Rebecca Lambert (1860). Rebecca died in 1877.
    • 1861: A puddler, like his father; they lived in Horsehay
    • 1871: Still a puddler but now over 200 miles away, in Jarrow co Durham
    • Jarrow was founded around an ancient monastery, important in the development of Christianity. 2000 cattle were killed to make the first ever bible in 692. My photos of the monastery are here.
    • In Benjamin's time it was a shipbuilding town - this continued until the Great Depression, provoking the famous Jarrow March of 1936.
    • In 1881, puddler at an iron works in Stockton; his wife is absent
    • Stockton had grown rapidly and blast furnaces lined the Tees from town to sea. Steam trams started running in town from 1881. Less than 60 years earlier the world's first passenger railway journey had taken place here. Around the same time, friction matches were invented here, revolutionising fire starting. My photos of the town are here.
Stockton (my photo)
    • 1991: widower, labourer in an iron works; lodger in the Stranton district of West Hartlepool. Hartlepool was also then an industrial town, and the third biggest port in England.
  • 50.1.2 - Joseph Lambert (1834-1914)
    • 1851: Forgeman (age 17); at home
    • Married Elizabeth (1839-1917) in 1859
    • Children:
      • Thomas Lambert (1857)
      • Margaret Catharine Lambert (1860)
      • Herbert Edward Lambert (1863)
      • Joseph Rowland Lambert (1866)
      • Laura Jane Lambert (1870)
      • Arthur Edward Lambert (1872)
      • Sarah Elizabeth Lambert (1874)
    • 1861: Puddler. Living on Pool Hill, Dawley.
    • 1871: Forgeman, Old Row, Horsehay
    • The Old Row is now a listed building. Description and photo here.
    • 1881: Night manager at forge. Horsehay.
    • 1891: Forge superintendent. Wolstanton nr Newcastle, Staffordshire (40 miles away)
    • 1901: Forge manager. Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent (adjacent to Wolstanton). More on this in Chapter 57.2b.
    • Etruria was home to Wedgwood pottery from 1769 to 1950. It is now home to the Etruria Industrial Museum, which has a working forge, and the only remaining operational steam-driven potter's mill in the world, amongst other attractions.
    • My photos of Stoke-on-Trent are here.
    • The forges in Hanley were closed down in 1978 after more than 100 years of continuous operation. The 'Man of Steel' sculpture was unveiled in 1976, as a symbol of the struggle of the workers to keep their jobs.
Man of Steel by Colin Melbourne (my photo)
  • 50.1.3 - Sarah Lambert (1837-1903)
    • Sarah never left home. After her father died, and her mother became an office cleaner, she also became a servant but stayed living with her mother. In 1901, after her mother had died, she was an office caretaker herself, and her sister Mary Anne lived with her in Dawley. She died two years later and was buried in Little Dawley
  • 50.1.4 - Elizabeth Lambert (1838)
    • 1881: Domestic servant in Coalbrookdale. I'm glad I looked at this one twice. She was one of six servants at Dale House, Coalbrookdale where the master was William G Norris, a managing partner of Coalbrookdale Works, employing 1800 men.
    • "In the latter part of the C19 the day-to-day direction of affairs at the Shropshire ironworks of the Coalbrookdale Company was left in the hands of managers, of whom Charles Crookes, from 1850 to 1866, and William Gregory Norris from 1866 to 1897, were the most prominent." (Trinder). There is more information, and a picture here.
Dale House (my photo)
    • Dale House is sometimes open to the public. It is the home of Abraham Darby III's original desk, and other family memorabilia. It almost overlooks the Coalbrookdale works, claimed to be the world's biggest foundry in 1851, when they exhibited at the Great Exhibition. Their work included the great gates to the exhibition - still (almost) in situ at Hyde Park - and the 'Boy and Swan' fountain which stood in the north transept.
    'Boy and Swan' by Coalbrookdale Co for Great Exhibition (my photo
Andromeda, cast for the Great Exhibition (my photo)
    • The Coalbrookdale Company built the Horsehay foundries where Elizabeth's father worked - they were closed in 1886, less than ten years after Jesse died. They were amongst the first companies to make iron railways. Later they focused on decorative ironwork.
Coalbrookdale ironworks warehouse (my photo)
    • 1901: Elizabeth was a servant to a merchant in Weaverham (ancient home of the Wheaver family), a village near Northwich in Cheshire. My photos are here.
    • 1911: back in Horsehay. Living with her sister Mary Ann at 26 Frame Lane, not far from Horsehay Pool.
A note on The Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in 1851 was a key point in Victorian history. It was organised as a celebration the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce as a celebration of modern industrial technology and design. Henry Cole, the driving force behind the project, was amongst many other things, instrumental in founding the National Archives (Henry's rat was key...)
Map of Hyde Park, showing approximate site of the Great Exhibition
Hyde Park was agreed as a site but only for a temporary structure. Of the many designs submitted, none was deemed suitable, until Joseph Paxton published a design, inspired by his work on giant greenhouses.

Paxton's Design (Illustrated London News via Science Museum)
Paxton also had experience in large scale parks, such as the Birkenhead Park, laid out in 1847, which would also turn out to be important.

Joseph Paxton (my photo)

Birkenhead Park Grand Entrance, 1841 for Paxton (my photo)
This could, and would, be fabricated from iron and wood on site, using concrete footings and a vast number of identical panes of glass. There is more on Paxton, and his Crystal Palace in Chapter 51.8g
Great Exhibition Building Under Construction
(Print from Illustrated London News, For Sale)
The Exhibition took place in from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and featured 13,000 exhibits of every conceivable kind, including huge industrial textile and printing machines.
The Great Exhibition (Dickinson's)
Six million people—equivalent to a third of the entire population of Britain at the time—visited the Great Exhibition. The average daily attendance was 42,831 with a peak attendance of 109,915 on 7 October. Schweppes sold a million bottles of soft drinks, a relatively new innovation - it included the ginger beer and mineral water mentioned elsewhere. Charles Dickens found it exhausting and apparently dispiriting. Charlotte Brontë has a way with words:
Yesterday I went for the second time to the Crystal Palace. We remained in it about three hours, and I must say I was more struck with it on this occasion than at my first visit. It is a wonderful place – vast, strange, new and impossible to describe. Its grandeur does not consist in one thing, but in the unique assemblage of all things. Whatever human industry has created you find there, from the great compartments filled with railway engines and boilers, with mill machinery in full work, with splendid carriages of all kinds, with harness of every description, to the glass-covered and velvet-spread stands loaded with the most gorgeous work of the goldsmith and silversmith, and the carefully guarded caskets full of real diamonds and pearls worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. It may be called a bazaar or a fair, but it is such a bazaar or fair as Eastern genii might have created. It seems as if only magic could have gathered this mass of wealth from all the ends of the earth – as if none but supernatural hands could have arranged it this, with such a blaze and contrast of colours and marvellous power of effect. The multitude filling the great aisles seems ruled and subdued by some invisible influence. Amongst the thirty thousand souls that peopled it the day I was there not one loud noise was to be heard, not one irregular movement seen; the living tide rolls on quietly, with a deep hum like the sea heard from the distance. 

Transept from the Grand Entrance (V&A)

Foreign Department from the Transept (V&A)
There is a new virtual tour available from the Royal Parks. Nothing else is left: Paxton met his remit, and the building was removed entirely. Three great elm trees which had been enclosed by the building lasted until around the end of the century.

Coalbrookdale Gates to Kensington Gardens,
formerly to Great Exhibition
(my photo, taken at night, 
on the way back from the Albert Hall!)

Hyde Park, site of Great Exhibition (my photo)
However, the event's surplus was used to found the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Albert Hall all of which are located close to the site of the Exhibition. The remaining surplus was used to set up an educational trust to provide grants and scholarships for industrial research; it continues to do so today. 

Natural History Museum (my photo)

Royal Albert Hall
with Memorial to the Great Exhibition (my photo)
  • 50.1.6 - Jane Lambert (1843-1931)
    • 1861/1871: still at home, aged 17, and a schoolmistress
    • I had thought that this would have been at the Dawley National School (which is still going, and still proud of its Christian ethos). However, as a lay preacher, she would have gravitated to the same British School at which her brother Daniel taught.
    • Married Joshua Biggs (1849-1927) in Madeley (now in Telford) in 1876.
    • Joshua was a Primitive Methodist minister, which probably meant hellfire and damnation, and certainly a lower church than Wesleyan Methodism of the time. 
    • Update: there is a brief biography and photo here: "As a preacher, Joshua belonged to the evangelical school, preaching a full, free, and present salvation; his sermons were carefully prepared and forcefully delivered."
    • Children:
      • Lilian Lambert Biggs (1879)
    • In 1881, they lived in Back Road, Pool ('Welshpool' to avoid confusion with Poole!), Montgomeryshire, Wales. This was close to the Primitive Methodist Chapel, which had been open since 1870, and was closed before 1940. More here. Their niece Julia Lambert was with them. The bio tells us that Joshua had been posted to Oswestry (chapel; my photos of the town here), Ramsor (Ramshorn) and Crewe before Welshpool. Ramsor was the site of the Primitive Methodists' first camp meetings.
Oswestry Chapel (my photo)
Former Primitive Methodist Chapel, Buckingham (my photo)
    • 1911: Burgh Road, Aylsham, Norfolk. More info on the chapel here.
    • Jane died in 1931 in Smallburgh nr North Walsham, Norfolk. The bio tells us that this was Joshua's final posting.
  • 50.1.7 - Jesse Lambert (1846-1917)
    • Married Julia Ann Hodnett (1847-1908) in Liverpool in 1867
    • Jesse was a cashier and accountant with the Great Western Railway in 1871, and recorded as a railway clerk in 1881. The GWR and LNWR had taken over the Birkenhead Railway in 1860. More here.
    • They lived at 34 Holt Hill, Tranmere, and then at 146 Market Street (view opposite), in Birkenhead proper.
    • Birkenhead had stayed agricultural until the advent of steam ferries from Liverpool in 1817; shipbuilding had started at what became Cammell Laird had started in 1829; the street plan had started to be laid out in 2816 and general paving and streetlights had been introduced from 1833. The Mersey Tunnel was opened in 1886, and the Town Hall in 1887. My photos are here.
Birkenhead Town Hall (my photo)
    • 1891: Jesse must have got a job closer to home. They were at Spring Bank, Church Stretton, Salop.
    • 1901: 98 Station Road, Kings Norton, Worcs (Birmingham). Accountant for a metal works. The address is marked on the census as the telephone exchange. His daughter's Ada and Florence are employed as telephone operators, and his son Stanley as a telephone inspector!
    • 1911: 77 Cartland Road, Hazelwell (now Stirchley), Birmingham (widowed, three adult children at home). The house has been demolished.
    • Children:
      • William John Baker Lambert (1870)
      • Percy Lambert (1872)
      • Ada Lambert (1877)
      • Florence Lambert (1880)
      • Stanley Lambert (1881)
      • Jesse Lambert (1884)
      • Beatrice Lilian Lambert (1886)
      • Leonard Lambert (1888)
  • 50.1.8 - John Lambert (1848-1925)
    • In 1871, lived with his brother, Jesse in Tranmere: he was an unemployed clerk
    • Married Eliza Maiden (1848) in Little Dawley in 1872; no known children
    • 1881: 5 Gothic St, Tranmere, with his wife. Clerk
    • 1891: 11 Gilroy Rd, West Derby, Liverpool. Jesse's son Jesse was staying with them
    • 1901: 158 Boaler St, West Derby. Shipping foreman. Jesse is still there, joined by niece Eliza Barker.
    • 1911: 128 Boaler St. Dock board pensioner. Eliza is still there.
  • 50.1.9 - Mary Ann Lambert (1850)
    • 1871: Housemaid, living at home
    • 1881: Living with brother John in Tranmere
    • 1891: Back with widowed mother, and sister Sarah in Horsehay
    • 1901/1911: Still with sister, now in Wellington; then back in Horsehay
  • 50.1.10 - Hannah Lambert (1852)
    • 1871/1881: Dressmaker, living at home
    • 1891: Domestic servant (upstairs maid) at 64 Wheeleys Rd, Edgbaston with widow of a corn merchant, two daughters and two other servants
    • Married Jabez Stead Wilson (1836-1923) in Birmingham in 1893; no known children
    • Jabez was an insurance clerk; they lived at 27 Inglewood Rd, Yardley, Birmingham
    • 1911: 213 Sweetman St, Wolverhampton. This is 5 miles from where Thomas Merry Barnes was living at the time, and a mile or two from the town centre. 
    • Wolverhampton was still the bicycle marking capital of Britain at the time. In 1911, Sunbeam spun off from its car and aero engine interests from its cycle marking, into a new listed company. Their factory was on Upper Villiers St, about two miles from Hannah. More here. My photos of the town (now city) are here.
Former Sunbeam factory (my photo)





Gratuitous car pic (1914 Sunbeam, my photo)
More on these individuals in Chapter 57.

Next (Daniel's paternal cousins)

50. Daniel and Mary Ann Lambert of England

Daniel Lambert was born in 1840 in Horsehay, Dawley, Shropshire. His parents were Jesse and Sarah Lambert.

Mary Ann Lambert was born in 1844 in Guernsey. Her parents were Richard and Elizabeth Barnard.

(This was page updated in Mar 2021 with new information and photos from cousin Joan Allum, and further research.)

Mary Ann's family had moved from London to Stirchley to run the Rose & Crown pub. Her mother had died in 1851, at age 47, so Mary Ann had kept house for her father, and presumably helped run the pub. Her father died in died in 1868.

Daniel's father Jesse was employed by the Coalbrookdale Company as an ironworker in Horsehay, and the family lived there in 1841 and probably in 1851 (somewhere in Dawley for sure). Horsehay is about three miles from the Rose & Crown, across Dawley and the area that is now Telford Town Park, and was then a heavily industrialising area. The Company, under the Darby family was a relatively enlightened employer and provided free schooling for employees' male children in the stable loft at Horsehay farm. 

In 1846, at just about the time Daniel was old enough to go to school, Darby built a new school with a girls department being added in 1849. The school was at Pool Hill - named after Horsehay Pool - and built from local brick in a very Gothic style. Dawley Heritage tell us that the school was built to accommodate more than 700 children but only had 270 pupils on roll in 1855, and 297 in 1903. Pupils would stay until the age of at least twelve, when they would usually join the Works.

Pool Hill School (Ironbridge Gorge Museum via Dawley Heritage)
 

Pool Hill was a British School, that is, one set up by the 'British and Foreign School Society for the Education of the Labouring and Manufacturing Classes of Society of Every Religious Persuasion'. In many places these maintained an active rivalry with the 'National Schools' of the Established Church. Later in the C19, government assumed responsibility for elementary education following the Elementary Education Act 1870, the British schools became locally administered board schools. In the case of Pool Hill, running of the School was taken over by Dawley School Board in 1887 when the Company could no longer afford to maintain the school because of the trade depression at that time. There is a pamphlet online, authored by the last headmaster, Rev C. M. Haynes, which gives a fuller account of the school, following its destruction by arson in 1977.

It seems likely that Daniel attended the school, and - instead of going into the Works - he stayed on as a member of staff, as a photograph survives of him as headmaster.

Daniel Lambert, Headmaster with Staff at Pool Hill School

I've just found - in Brunel University's records - that he left in 1869. It was in that year that Daniel and Mary Ann were married at All Saints Church, St John's Wood in Middlesex. There is a story and picture of the church here. Mary Ann's father had died in the previous August (and had moved to Dawley before he died). He left up to £800 (perhaps £50k now). 

Getting married in London seems like a big step: perhaps it suggests ongoing connexion with the Barnard family, who had historically been better off than the Lamberts. It was a double wedding - Mary Ann's sister Betsy married Shropshire professor of music, James Smart. Daniel was ambitious, I'm told. The family story is that he liked to hob nob with opera stars (allegedly including Caruso, but I note that his first London season was in 1902).

The photos below were taken in the studios of Samuel Ellis, Wellington (4 miles from Horsehay) - Ellis' first recorded photos were taken in 1870 - he was a watchmaker from c1863.

Daniel Lambert and Mary Ann Lambert née Barnard

In 1871, Daniel was a 'British schoolmaster' in Dorking. (Remember, his mother was illiterate.) They lived on Station Road - the school was on the adjoining Back Lane (now Church St). I will visit Dorking as soon as it is sensible! Coincidentally, Dorking is where the Little family were from.The first Dorking British School site is now the town museum. Ironically, the second site is now a Catholic School - you can still see the 'British School' lettering high on the front, albeit painted over. The British School itself moved, changed to a state school, and changed its name - but is still proud of its heritage. The Brunel records show that Daniel left in 1872. 
 
The births of his middle children indicate that the family returned to Dawley. Perhaps he returned to Pool Hill to be headmaster. There is a family story that Daniel was fired from one job for being asleep in the school house when the inspector called! We know that there was a school house at Pool Hill.

Before the records were computerised, it took a while to locate the family in 1881. It turns out that Daniel was an assurance agent in Lancaster; they lived at 75 Windermere Rd. My photos of Lancaster are here. The couple's youngest child was born in Barrow-in-Furness two years earlier (equally hard to find!) I remember Barrow as an extraordinary place from when I visited in the 1980s. Rows of terraces, loomed over by the huge new Devonshire Dock Hall, then a little bridge to Walney Island with its family beach.

In all, Daniel and Mary Ann had five children:

  • 57.1.1 Florence Elizabeth Lambert (1870, Dorking)
  • 57.1.2 Jesse James Richard Lambert (1873, Dawley)
  • 57.1.3 Gertrude Mary Lambert (1874, Dawley)
  • 57.1.4 William Barnard Lambert (1876, Dawley)
  • 57.1.5 Alice Elena Lambert (1879, Barrow-in-Furness)
More on these individuals in Chapter 57.

By 1891, Daniel had returned to teaching, and was a schoolmaster in Sutton Coldfield; the family lived in Rectory Road. Mary Ann died later that year, aged about 47. 

Daniel Lambert

In 1911, Daniel was retired and living at 1 Wood Lane, Erdington, with his middle daughter, Gertrude, her farm labourer husband, William Wallis, and their son James. 

Daniel Lambert
 

Daniel is recorded as having died in Meriden nr Solihull in 1927. On some measure, Meriden is the centre of the universe, or at least of England, which may not be the same thing. There is a roundabout there to commemorate this fact, and a cross. However, the registration area is much wider than the village, and I've now learned that, after Erdington, the Wallis family lived at Hurst Green Farm, Minworth. This is within the Meriden district, and a highly likely final berth for Daniel, especially given that there is a Wheaver family recollection of visits 'to the farm'.


Meriden Cross (my photo)


Next (Daniel's siblings)

28 March 2020

49.4 Cousins of Caroline Wheaver (née Barnes)

Charles Barnes and Elizabeth Merry had seven children. Their children were Caroline's siblings and first cousins.
  • 34.1.1 Charles Barnes (1819-1906)
  • 34.1.2 Richard Aspley Barnes (1823-1893)
    • No children
  • 34.1.3 - Caroline Barnes (1825-1917)
    • Charles Smith (1852-1918)
      • Clicker (cutter out of shoe uppers); living in Stone with his mother
      • The market town of Stone had lost its status as a coaching town due to the coming of the railways. However, the railways brought prosperity to the shoe industry - at its height in 1851 there were 16 shoe works in the town. Much of the production went to Australia, and at the mercy of tariffs. My photos of Stone are here.
Possible former shoe factory in Stone (my photo)
      • Unemployed in 1881; back in work by 1891
      • A house agent in 1901, still living with his mother
    • Martha Smith (1855-1880)
      • Recorded as a clicker, living at home in 1871.
      • Died at age 25
    • Mary Smith (1860-1888)
      • Married Frank Lovelock (1860) at Christ Church, Stone in 1886
      • Children:
        • Katherine Mary Lovelock (1887)
      • Died at age 27
Stone (my photo)
  • 34.1.4 Martha Barnes (1826-1904)
    • John Charles McGerrow (1843-1848)
      • Died as a child
    • Mary Elizabeth McGerrow (1845-1922)
Mary McGerrow
      • Born Forebridge, Stafford. My photos of Stafford are here. Or in Manchester, according to later censuses!
      • Married Henry Slater (1848-1889) in Fulford, Stoke in 1871
      • Henry was a dairyman in Walton nr Stone
      • Martha was a widowed farmer in Milwich nr Stone in 1891/1901/1911
      • Children:
        • Alice Mary Slater (1871)
        • Harry A Slater (1872)
        • Henry Slater (1873)
        • John Steedman Astbury Slater (1876)
        • Andrew McGerrow Slater (1879)
        • William Wright Slater (1882)
        • Alfred Kilshaw Slater (1884)
        • Blanche Slater (1888)
    • Andrew Samuel McGerrow (1847-1848)
      • Died as an infant, in West Derby, Liverpool
    • Elizabeth Astbury (1854-1929)
      • My photos of Bridgwater are here
      • Living with her widowed aunt, Jane Astbury on the High St, Eccleshall, Staffs in 1871
      • Married George Forden (1859) in Ashcott nr Bridgwater, Somerset in 1890
      • My photos of Bridgwater are here
      • George was a General Practitioner in Ashcott
      • By 1901, he had moved his practice to the Old Estate Office (and The Leaze in 1911) in Berkeley, Gloucs. My photos of Berkeley are here.
Berkeley Arms, Berkeley (my photo)
      • Dr Edward Jenner had pioneered the science of vaccination here in the C18. His house is now a museum.
      • Children:
        • Leonard Astbury Forden (1891)
        • Marjorie Ursula Forden (1892)
    • John Steedman Astbury (1855-1946)
      • Farmer's son; stayed with his mother at Milwich after her widowhood
      • His mother gave up the farm and became the licensee at the Horseshoe Inn (here, I think), Hilderstone nr Stone
      • John was a farmer's bailiff, living at the inn
      • John was still alive, a retired farmer in Milwich at the outbreak of WWII, and appears in the 1939 Register
      • Married Frances Lowe (1815-1925)
      • No known children
    • Ann Astbury (1857-1902)
      • Born Milwich
      • Married James Collier (1845-1920) in Seighford (this could mean Milwich), Stafford in 1879
      • James was a farmer of 124 acres in Seighford, who kept a domestic servant, and three farm 'servants': a waggoner and wagon boy, and a cowman
      • Children:
        • William Collier (1880)
        • James Collier (1881)
        • Anne Collier (1882)
        • John Astbury Collier (1884)
        • Harry Collier (1885)
        • Francis Collier (1888)
        • Sarah Collier (1891)
        • Edward Collier (1893)
        • George Steadman Collier (1897)
    • Edward Astbury (1859-1921)
      • Stayed on family farm (Oulton House Farm). Died only a year after his stepfather. His memorial at Milwich church is recorded here.
Oulton House Farm (credit oultonhousefarm.co.uk)
    • Alice Mary Astbury (1861-1937)
      • Married James Collier (1845) in (or near) Stafford in 1906
      • James was her sister Ann's widower
      • In 1911, they were both farmers, living at Oulton House, Milwich
    • Blanche Martha Astbury (1864-1953)
Blanche Astbury
      • With her grandmother, Martha Astbury, at Oulton House in 1891
      • Married James William Hughes (1858-1927) in Uttoxeter in 1897
      • James was a land surveyor in Uttoxeter
      • Someone counted 79 different historical ways to spell Uttoxeter. It's a market town close to the Staffs/Derbys border. Back then it was dominated by the Bunting's Brewery, now replaced with a shopping centre. 
Uttoxeter (credit)
      • They had moved to Stafford by 1911
      • She married Samuel Leighton (d. 1945) in Stafford in 1928
      • No known children
  • 34.1.5 Mary Barnes (1826-1886)
    • Mary Elizabeth Heath (1853-1907)
      • Married William Bradbury (1855-1879)
      • Children:
        • Mary Rebecca Bradbury (1877)
        • Florence Bradbury (1879)
      • 1881: with her father, Samuel, and her children
      • Married John Brinson (1826-1894) in 1885
      • 1891: with her new husband, and his father at the Smithfield Hotel, Lichfield. She is a barmaid.
      • Children:
        • Arthur Brinson (1870)
        • Emily Mary Brinson (1886)
        • John Samuel Brinson (1890)
      • The hotel was built in 1848 to serve the new railway
Smithfield Hotel, Lichfield (credit)
      • 1901: widowed again. Licensed victualler of the Smithfield.
      • 2007: Planning permission granted to demolish the Hotel and the old Tesco to build a new Tesco
        • Married Frederick John Burton (1864-1946) in 1904
      • Martha Heath (1855-1926)
        • Stayed at the family farm until at least 25
        • 1891: a nurse in Stockwell, Lambeth; 1901: retired
      • William Heath (1856-1916) 
    Samuel Heath
        • 1881: Farm labourer in Milwich
        • Married Sarah Elizabeth Lane (1858) in Hereford in 1886
        • My photos of Hereford are here
        • Children:
          • William Stanley Heath (1889)
        • William was born in Gloucester
        • My photos of Gloucester are here
        • 1891: Farm manager / servant to an Elizabeth Wheavel(!) at Brewood (pron. brood) nr Stafford
        • 1901: Licensed victualler. Living at 65 Coventry Rd, Deritend. Kept a servant, Annie Green. 
        • The pub was the Bordesley Park Tavern, demolished before 1940
        • Strikingly, although the pub has gone, Street View shows a large ad for George Heath Motors. I wonder if he'll show up later. Apparently George Heath was a Rootes dealer next to the only Rootes factory (the Singer Factory) in Birmingham. It was less than 2 miles from where William was living. It closed before 2013.
        • 1911: Farmer again. Now at Madams Hill, Shirley, parish of Tanworth.
      • Samuel Heath (1859-1930)

        • 1881: Assistant to grocer ('servant') 98-99 Ladywood Rd, Birmingham (now apparently built over by either the Deaf Culture Centre or the Bethel Apostolic Church of Excellence)
        • 1891: Back at home with father in Milwich. Grocer's traveller.
        • Married Edith Mary Martin (1873) in Lichfield in 1899
        • Edith's father, George Martin, had been a founder of the Lichfield Brewing Company. He gave the house on Sandford St for conversion to the Lichfield Victoria Hospital and President of the Hospital for 20 years. A maternity wing was added in 1941. I was born there in 1966.
    Victoria Hospital, Lichfield
        • George Martin was Sheriff of Lichfield from 1891-1893. 
        • 1901: Baker and grocer; shopkeeper at 25 Sandford St, Lichfield. Kept a servant.
        • 1911: At Angorfa, Walsall Rd. Now demolished.
        • 1919: Appointed Sheriff of Lichfield. Also re-elected to the Board of Guardians.
        • Ann Heath (1861-1928)
    Annie Heath
        • 1881: Working as a domestic servant at her cousin Thomas Gilbert's house in Milwich
        • 1891: Back with her father in Milwich
      • Sally Heath (1864-1910)
        • Married Adam Haslam (1858-1925) in Radcliffe, Bury in 1885
        • Adam was an engine driver in a cotton mill, born locally
        • They lived at 9 Park St, Radcliffe; and then No. 10
        • In 1901, he was a mechanical engineer
        • Children:
          • Adam Haslem (1882). Stepchild.
          • Claudius Haslam (1886)
      • Beatrice Heath (1866-1953)
    Beatrice Heath
        • 1891: Nurse, living with her sister Martha in Stockwell
        • Married William Nevill Cheatle (1862-1920) at St Michael, Stockwell, Lambeth in 1892
        • William was an auctioneer. In 1901, they lived in Rugeley, Staffs.
        • William was absent in 1911; Beatrice was a housekeeper at Oakfield House, Selly Park. It's now a residential and day support centre for autistic people.
        • Children:
          • Harriet Beatrice Cheatle (1892)
          • Anne May (Maisie) Cheatle (1898)
          • Victoria Alexandra N Cheatle (1902)
        • 1939: Widowed. Unpaid domestic duties at the Chetwynd Arms, Brocton, Stafford, which is still open
      • Lydia Jane Heath (1868-1953)
    Lydia Heath
        • 1891: Barmaid at the Smithfield Hotel with sister Mary
        • Married James Acker (1856-1924) in Lichfield in 1891
        • Children:
        • 1901: James was an army pensioner; they lived at the District 38/64 Regimental Depot; 1911: 42 Bore St, Lichfield
        • 1939: Widowed, and living with her widowed sister Beatrice
      • Arthur Thomas Heath (1870-1931)
        • 1891: Grocer's apprentice, Hanley, Stoke
        • 1901: Farmer in Rugeley
        • Married Lizzie Toy (1880-1954) in 1906
        • Children:
          • Beatrice Mary Heath (1908)
          • Kathleen May Heath (1910)
        • 1911: Farmer and auctioneer; 31 Station Rd, Rugeley
    • 34.1.6 Edward Barnes (1828-1873)
      • Charles Aspley Barnes (1854-1930)
    Charles Ashley Barnes
        • 1871: Joiner. Living with mother, hotel keeper, Liverpool
        • Married Mary Elizabeth George (1851-1929) in Derby in 1877
        • 1881: Poultry breeder in Formby. Formby beach is now belongs to the National Trust 
        • Children:
          • Florence Mary Barnes (1878)
          • John Edward Barnes (1880)
          • Ethel Margaret Barnes (1882)
          • Alice Emery Barnes (1884)
          • George Aspley Barnes (1886)
          • Percy Ratcliffe Barnes (1888)
          • Lillian Harriet Barnes (1890)
          • Lucy Barnes (1893)
        • 1891: Electrician and model maker, Toxteth Park, Liverpool
        • Toxteth Library was built in 1902, and I like it. 1901: Electrical engineer.
    Toxteth Library (my photo)
        • 1911: Estate agent, living at 14 Brabant Rd, Aigburth, Liverpool
      • John Edward Lloyd Barnes (1862-1942) 
        • Married Annie Avis Astbury (1863) in Toxteth Park in 1883
        • He was a patent agent and consulting engineer, and they lived at 46 Poplar Road, [Oxton] Tranmere, Birkenhead; later No 56. My photos of Birkenhead are here.
        • He has a page on Grace's Guide, which has his obituary from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers:
    "JOHN EDWARD LLOYD BARNES, Wh.Sc., whose death occurred on 15th January 1942, was a Member of the Institution for more than half a century, having been elected in 1891 and for fully as long had practiced as a consulting engineer and chartered patent agent in partnership with Mr. R. A. Sloan in Liverpool, where he was from his early years prominent as a pioneer in the field of technical education. He was born in 1863 and received his technical education at the Liverpool School of Science, obtaining a Whitworth Scholarship and Royal Exhibition in 1883, and served his apprenticeship with the Victory Engineering Company of Edge Hill, in whose employment he continued as draughtsman in sole charge of the drawing office for a further three years.

    In 1884 he began his long association with technical education by accepting an appointment as lecturer on engineering at the Birkenhead School of Science and Art and in the following year he became lecturer on electrical engineering at the Liverpool School of Science and Technology; these classes were the first of their kind to be held in the provinces and he brought them by his efforts to a high pitch of efficiency.

    Mr. Barnes retired in 1936, having held the office of principal of the Birkenhead Technical College for twenty-five years. He was also a past-president of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents [1927-1928] and a past-president of the Liverpool Engineering Society."
        • In 1893, filed his own patent for Improvements in Safety Devices for Hitching Horses. There are probably more!
        • Children:
          • Mary Astbury Barnes (1885)
          • Daniel Edward Lloyd Barnes (1887)
          • Annie Dorothea Barnes (1890)
          • John Alexander Lloyd Barnes (1890)
    • 34.1.7 Thomas Merry Barnes (1830-1908)
      • James Adams Barnes (1855)
        • 1871: Apprentice draper in Stone with John and Alice Foden
        • 1881: Draper, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
        • My photos of Tunbridge Wells are here
        • Married Catherine Esther Tidy (1857) in Blean, Canterbury, Kent in 1882
        • My photos of Canterbury are here
        • Children:
          • Miney Cotton Barnes (1884)
          • James Olly Barnes (1886)
        • 1891: Assistant draper, 20 Prestonville Rd, Preston, Brighton, Sussex
        • My photos of Brighton are here
        • 1901: Linen buyer, draper at 8 Lewes Rd, Eastbourne
        • My photos of Eastbourne are here
        • 1911: Farmer! Inheritance?; Waldron, Sussex
      • Elizabeth Sarah Barnes (1856-1882)
        • 1881: Milliner, living with draper, Stone
      • Caroline Mary Barnes (1859-1943)
        • 1881: At home, age 21. No further record found.
      • Thomas Merry Barnes (1861-1937)
        • 1881: Shopman and grocer in Castle Church
        • Married Elizabeth Mary Maggs (nee Key) (1867) in Stafford in 1889
        • Children:
          • Elizabeth Mary Barnes (1890)
          • Thomas Merry Barnes (1891)
          • James Adams Barnes (1892)
          • Victor Robert Barnes (1896)
          • Herbert Frank Barnes (1899)
          • John Edward Barnes (1900)
        • 1891: Linesman for telegraph co in Stafford ; 1901: Foreman
        • 1911: 109 Cannock Road, Wolverhampton
    Telegraphy
    • Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. In addition to helping invent the telegraph, Samuel Morse developed a code (bearing his name) that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet and allowed for the simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines. In 1844, Morse sent his first telegraph message, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland; by 1866, a telegraph line had been laid across the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S. to Europe. Although the telegraph had fallen out of widespread use by the start of the 21st century, replaced by the telephone, fax machine and Internet, it laid the groundwork for the communications revolution that led to those later innovations. (History).
    • During WWI, electric telegraphs were used throughout the war, on both sides. They were used to communicate from the front line trenches to the officers, and from nation to nation via telegraph lines throughout Europe and across the Atlantic, telegraph machines allowed governments and their leaders to instantly receive information on troop movements, battle outcomes, and other crucial information. (USMC Museum) The Allied artillery and the infantry soon separately developed complex ‘closed-circuit’ wireline networks for both Morse telegraphy and voice telephony, with the two distinct sets of networks interconnected at headquarters and at ‘forward positions’. Some tens of thousands of miles of copper-core cables were laid behind the trenches as well as right up to the frontline itself, initially resulting in a chaos of interference and interruption which was only later overcome by the use of insulation. (E&T)
    • Historically, telegrams were sent across a network of interconnected telegraph offices. A person visiting a local telegraph office paid by the word to have a message telegraphed to another office and delivered to the addressee on a paper form. Messages sent by telegraph could be delivered faster than mail, and even in the telephone age, the telegram remained popular for social and business correspondence. At their peak in 1929, an estimated 200 million telegrams were sent.
    NTC Linesman (or Lineman) at Work, c 1900 (BT)
    Post Office Telegraphs Manhole Cover (my photo)
      • Edward Bartlane Barnes (1865-1903)
        • No record found after 1871
      • Arthur Barnes (1866-1892)
        • Born in Eccleshall, Staffs
        • 1881: Apprentice draper at brother James' shop in Tunbridge Wells
        • Died in 1892, Stone, Staffs
    • 34.1.8 Horatio Barnes (1837-1877)
      • William Charles Barnes (1868)
        • At home in Chebsey in 1881; no later record found
      • Horatio John Barnes (1869)
        • 1891: Miller, staying with cousin William Kelsall, drayman in Stone
        • Married Mary Elizabeth Devereux (1871) in Stone in 1892
        • Children:
          • Martha Louisa Barnes (1893)
          • William Horatio Barnes (1895)
          • Arthur John Barnes (1898)
        • 1901: Labourer at brewery, living at 11 Mount Rd, Stone
        • This would have been the former Montgomery & Co brewery, Mount St, which had been bought out, and enlarged, by Bent's Brewery of Liverpool
    Bent's Brewery (credit)
        • Married Annie
        • 1911: A dairy farmer! In Yarnfield nr Stone
      • Elizabeth Ward Barnes (1871-1875)
        • Died as a child
      • Caroline Mary Barnes (1873-1959)
        • Married Marshall Thomas Evans (1877-1967) in Stoke in 1904
        • He was an assistant to china & earthenware dealer
        • They lived at 89 Neville St, Oak Hill, Stoke-on-Trent in 1911...
        • ...and were still there in 1939, by when he was a bricklayer
        • Children:
          • John Asbury Evans (1911)
      • Martha Louisa Barnes (1875)
        • Married George Cooper in Stoke on 1903
        • No record found after then; no known children
      • Bertha Alice Barnes (1879)
        • Staying with cousin William Kelsall, and brother Horatio in Stone in 1891
        • No record found since

    Sarah had a half-sister in Bromsgrove, Worcs but Caroline had no cousins on her mother's side.
    • 34.2.1 Mary Ann Hedges (1803-1828)
      • Sarah's Stepdaughter
      • Died unmarried at age 25

    More information on these individuals in Chapter 57.

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