58.5 Maternal Cousins of Ernest Larard

Thomas and Rebecca Mousley had eight children in Ellesmere, Shropshire. Their children are Ernest's siblings and first cousins.

• 51.2.1 - William Thomas Mousley (1838-1919) m Sarah Anne Whittle (1845-1927) 

• (William) Henry Mousley (1865-1949)

W Henry Mousley

• Married Alice Maude Mary Lake (1866-1938) at St Catherine, Sandal nr Wakefield in 1885.
• William was a civil engineer, and they lived at 8 Avenue Road, Grantham. My photos of Grantham are here. 
• Curiously, there is a blue plaque on the house next door, dedicated to Augusta Montanari (née Dalton) who gave her name to a particularly fine type of (spooky) poured wax dolls. She died the year before Henry was born.

Montanari Doll (Victoria & Albert Museum)

• Like his father, Henry was engaged in railway building. He was in Grantham because as 'contractor "William Mousley of Eccleshall, Staffordshire, Henry was working on a challenging section of the Eastern & Midlands Railway Co, e.g. Toft Tunnel nr Bourne".
• Children:
• Ethel Maude Mousley (1886)
• Lilian Mousley (1887)
• Gerald Mousley (1889)
• Harry Mousley (1890)
• Georgianna [Gina] Mousley (1891)
• Dorothy Mousley (1893)
• Ida Mousley (1894)
• Dora Mousley (1895)
• Vera Mary Mousley (1897)
• Annie Gwendoline Mousley (1898)
• Neville Mousley (1904)
• Eric Mousley (1905)
• 1901: 10 Selbourne Villas, Bradford. Henry had worked on the Skipton to Ilkley Railway from 1885-88.
• Emigrated to Canada - it is alleged that the UK business had collapsed and the family had to sell their London home
• Visited England in 1921 (on the Metagama) and 1938 (on the Duchess of Bedford)
• Died in Montréal, Québec.

Metagama (postcard)

Duchess of Bedford (National Maritime Museum)

• Henry had another string to his bow. One expert (Dwane Wilkin) says "Mousley gained a reputation as the best all-around naturalist-ornithologist of 20th century Canada." He has a Wikipedia entry in Spanish, which Google translates as follows:

William Henry Mousley (1865 - 1949) was an English civil engineer, zoologist, and amateur botanist, who actively worked in Canada.

"Passionate about the nature of his adopted country; He settled in Hatley in the Eastern Cantons, Mousley, while serving the Ottawa-Toronto Railroad, he devoted much of his time to observing nature, especially birds. In fragile health, during the war, he became a full-time naturalist. In a 1919 discovery, in a territory of only 6.5 km², he identified thirty orchids among species, varieties and hybrids.

"At Fairlee, Vermont, he found 33 species of orchids, resuming his botanical excursions in 1920 with enthusiasm; expanding its range to about 25 km from Hatley to Beebe and the Waterville swamp, discovering three other species: Amerorchis rotundifolia, Platanthera hookeri, Pogonia ophioglossoides.

Amerorchis Rotundifolia

"Two years after moving to Montreal, he obtained a position at McGill University's "Emma Shearer Wood Library" in 1926, specializing in ornithology and zoology, and he has worked there for twelve years.

"His passion for orchids was not limited to discovering and identifying as many of them as possible; also studied the underground development and vegetative multiplication of Calypso bulbosa, Epipactis helleborine, Malaxis unifolia, Spiranthes casei, Spiranthes cernua, Spiranthes romanzoffiana. He was also interested in pollination by the Chlorhalictus smilacini bee from Spiranthes romanzoffiana and color variations in Corallorhiza maculata.

"At his death in 1949, Henry Mousley had published 131 scientific articles in Canada, the United States, and England, including 32 on the orchids. As a naturalist, his contribution to knowledge of the flora of Quebec is especially remarkable when it comes to orchids in southern Quebec, where he studied their morphology, ecology, and distribution."

His photographic enlargements and plant and bird specimens are to be found at the Provincial Museum, Québec; the National Museum, Ottawa; and the Wood Library of Ornithology and the Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montréal. Many of his articles - and his obituary are to be found in The Canadian Field Naturalist.

• Thomas Edwin Mousley (1866-1949)
• Married Margaret Amy Horsfall (1862-1924) in St Albans in 1903
• He was a farmer, and they lived at Brocton House, Eccleshall
• Children:
• Gladys Hollis (1888)
• Betty Mousley (1904)
• Patty Mousley (1909)

Alton (my photo)

• 1911: Farm manager, living at The New Copse, Bentworth, Alton. My photos of Alton are here. In the same year, he took two of his daughters, and a maid, to visit his brother in Canada.  They travelled from Bristol on the RMS Royal Edward. 
• On 13 August 1915, Royal Edward was hit by a torpedo fired by German submarine UB-14. She sank by the stern within six minutes, with the loss of 864 men. These were reinforcements for the British 29th Infantry Division, and members of the Royal Army Medical Corps, destined for Gallipoli.

RMS Royal Edward (credit)

• Arthur Mousley (1868-1949) 
• Married Elizabeth Crouch (1863-1916) in Pancras in 1899
• He was cashier for the family railway business. They lived at 3 Cumberland Villas, Cirencester. My photos of Cirencester are here. It is not known whether the Mousleys had work on the Cirencester branch line (1841-1965).

Cirencester Old Railway Station (my photo)

• After the collapse of the business, Arthur became a commercial traveller for the London Brick Company, 'makers of Fletton bricks'. You can still buy them, in 23 styles. 

"When excavation of the surface clay at Fletton began, a much harder clay was found deeper down. This was the unique Lower Oxford Clay, a rich seam that ran from Dorset to Yorkshire and as a bonus, this clay possessed a unique quality, it burned! This was due to the amount of carbonaceous material in the clay itself and in order to help this natural process in the firing ovens, a section was scooped out on top of the brick, effectively making the heat travel through it more quickly and evenly. This ‘scoop’ was known as the ‘frog’, a term recognised throughout the trade as a key characteristic of London Brick. The term frog itself originally came from the name given to the indentation of the horses’ hooves left in the soft clay when they were transporting the raw material from pit to oven."

• They lived at 3 Nelson Road, Wanstead.
• After Elizabeth died, Arthur remarried Violet Elizabeth Wilshin (1889-1977) at St Botolph without Bishopsgate, City of London, in 1917.

St Botolph Bishopsgate (my photo)

Sir Simon Jenkins at St Botolph, 2019 (my photo)

• Arthur Neville Mousley (1918)
• 51.2.2 - Clara Mousley (1838-1925) m Joshua Ponton (1840) in West Derby district (which included Everton), Liverpool in 1867

• Joshua Hubert Ponton (1868-1929). 
• At home in Everton in 1891, a book-keeper. No later record found.

• Edith Mary Rebecca Ponton (1872-1954)
• 1901: At home in West Derby (27). No occupation. 1911: they're moved to Liscard, and she is something at school.

• William Warman Ponton (1873)
• 1901: At home in West Derby. A commercial clerk.
• No later record found but another researcher reports that he died in Shanghai, China. The golden age of Shanghai began with its elevation to municipality on 7 July 1927. The plan included a public museum, library, sports stadium, and city hall, which were partially constructed before being interrupted by the Japanese invasion. The city flourished, becoming a primary commercial and financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. During the ensuing decades, citizens of many countries and all continents came to Shanghai to live and work; those who stayed for long periods⁠⁠—some for generations⁠—called themselves "Shanghailanders". On 28 January 1932, Japanese forces invaded Shanghai. More than 10,000 shops and hundreds of factories were destroyed, leaving Zhabei district ruined. About 18,000 civilians were either killed, injured, or declared missing.

• (James) Alfred Ponton (1875-1936)
• 1901/1911: At home in West Derby, then Liscard. A painter (artist)
• Married Elizabeth Douglas in Birkenhead in 1916

• 51.2.3 - Henry Knight Mousley (1838-1910) m Alice Beaksall (1845)
• No known children

• 51.2.4 - Marion Mousley (1838-1937) m Thomas Atkinson (1829-1884)

• Thomas Mousley Atkinson (1872-1950)
• 1891/1901/1911: At home in West Derby. A shipping engineer's clerk, later marine engineer's book keeper.

• John Henry Atkinson (1874-1938)
• 1901/1911: At home in West Derby, a law stationer. Then a manager and secretary of a mineral (water) bottler

• Charles Inman Atkinson (1876-1943)
• 1891: With his uncle, Henry Knight Mousley, in Whitchurch. 1901: A bank clerk, staying at a hotel at 14-16 Euston Square
• Private residences disappeared from Euston Square long ago and the vicinity is now dominated by the stone facades of commercial and institutional premises, notably the Wellcome Trust and, on Euston Square itself, the Royal College of General Practitioners. Most of Euston Grove was erased when Euston station was extended in the 1960s. The part that bisects Euston Square is now all that remains. [The Euston Arch was demolished at the same time, despite a preservation protest in which Woodrow Wyatt, John Betjeman and Nikolaus Pevsner were prominent figures.] The west side of Euston Square Gardens has been sacrificed to the HS2 construction project, which is having a major impact on the Euston area. Despite protests – including non-violent direct action – most of the west garden’s lovely London planes were felled so that the station’s taxi rank could be relocated above ground. (Hidden London)

Euston Arch (credit)

• Served in the Imperial Yeomanry, South Africa (with previous service with the 2nd Battalion Shropshire Light Infantry). Enlisted in March 1900; first posting February 1901 (so 1901 census may have been a visit); served in the Rhenoster Kop campaign of the Boer War; discharged 'at his own request from further services in connection with the war in South Africa' in April 1907. Returned to England in 1938.

Rhenosterkop (credit)

• Arthur William Atkinson (1876-1941) 
• In 1891, Arthur was fatherless, and therefore qualified as a priority for admission to Ripley Hospital, actually a school: 

"The school buildings and grounds are most attractive, occupying an elevated site giving open views to the City of Lancaster and the Lake District hills beyond. It was opened on the 3 November, 1864 “amid great public rejoicing”. Originally endowed for the education of an equal number of boys and girls – altogether 300 in number – the parents of whom had to have lived for at least 2 years immediately preceding the death of the father either within 15 miles of Lancaster Priory, or 7 miles of Liverpool Cathedral... A farm of some 40 acres kept the school supplied with home produced meat, milk and poultry, and a vast kitchen garden gave a constant supply of fresh vegetables. [which they still have!]" Ripley St Thomas Church of England Academy.

Ripley School (credit)

• Married Florence Arrowsmith (1878) in Everton, Liverpool in 1898
• He was a cast chair maker

Cast iron chair, 1859 (my photo)

• They lived at 21 Dobson Street, Everton. This is now redeveloped, but Everton Water Tower is still there, and a listed building. It was designed by the Liverpool's first water engineer, Thomas Duncan, and hides a 1.5-acre service reservoir underground and a cast iron tank 90 feet above ground level.

Everton Water Tower, 1857 (

• Children:
• Annie Atkinson (1898)
• Marion Atkinson (1900-1954)
• Florence Atkinson (1904-2004)
• Arthur Mousley Atkinson (1908-1953)
• In WWI, he served with the Royal Army Medical Corps.

RAMC Cap Badge (credit)

• Alice Marian Atkinson (1878-1969)
• 1901: At home in West Derby, a governess, then head teacher

• Francis James Atkinson (1880)
• 1901: At home in West Derby, a manager at a fruit merchants
• Married Katherine Bateman Beesley (1881) in Prescot, Liverpool in 1907
• He was a manager at a fruit merchants in the 'dry and green' fruit trade. They lived at The Nook, Hurst Park, Prescot, Knowsley, Lancashire [now Merseyside and redeveloped]
• Children:
• Arthur Mousley Atkinson (1908) d 1908
• Elizabeth Marian Atkinson (1910)
• Catherine Frances Atkinson (1911)
• Phyllis M Atkinson (1916)
• There are candidates for WWI Service, but none with verifying next of kin. One Francis Atkinson of Everton was killed in 1916, but I've found his wife to be Ada. 

• 51.2.5 - Frances [Fanny] Mousley (1838-1922)
• See Chapter 58

• 51.2.6 - James Alfred Mousley (1838-1937) m Ada Churton (1856-1931)

• John Harold Mousley (1885-1959) 
• Electrical engineer. 1906, matriculated from University College, London and 'Now Pupil in British Westinghouse Works, Manchester'. He was admitted to the Institute of Electrical Engineers as an Associate Member in 1912, then living at Feulan House, Leamington Spa.
• In 1911, boarding at Oak Bank, Old Trafford (redeveloped, and further from Manchester Utd FC than it sounds)
• He volunteered for WWI, and served with the Royal Engineers. He became a Lieutenant-Colonel, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (in the 1916 Birthday Honours) and Territorial Decoration. According to his medal index card, he was Director of Military and Public Works in Baghdad.

DSO (credit)

• Married Dorothy Laura Pease (1893-1971) in Richmond, Yorkshire in 1927. My photos of Richmond are here.

Richmond (my photo)

The Pease Family

Dorothy was daughter Arthur Pease of a well-known English Quaker family associated with Darlington, County Durham, and North Yorkshire, descended from Edward Pease of Darlington (1711–1785). They were 'one of the great Quaker industrialist families of the nineteenth century, who played a leading role in philanthropic and humanitarian interests'. They were heavily involved in woollen manufacturing, banking, railways, locomotives, mining, and politics.

Notable events in their history include; their support of abolitionism; the founding of the Peace Society in 1816; the establishment of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the 1820s and its later absorption into the North Eastern Railway ( for whom our Richard Rowland worked)); the establishment of Robert Stephenson and Company in 1823; the purchase and development of Middlesbrough from 1830; the abolition of bear-baiting and cockfighting through 'Pease's Act' (the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835); a bid to avert the Crimean War through personal interview with Czar Nicholas in 1854; the building of Hutton Hall in 1866; the establishment of The Northern Echo newspaper in 1870; the assembly of an important art collection, and the failure of the family bank in 1902. The latter forced several of them close to bankruptcy. Nine members of the family were Members of Parliament, including the first Quaker Member of Parliament. 

More fully, Dorothy's father was Sir Arthur Francis Pease, Justice of the Peace for County Durham, Second Lord of the Admiralty, High Sheriff of County Durham. He was created 1st Baronet Pease, of Hummersknott, Borough of Darlington, County Durham in the 1920 Birthday Honours, born in Hummersknott, a suburb of Darlington, the son of the coal owner and Member of Parliament Arthur Pease, and the brother of the politician Herbert Pike Pease, 1st Baron Daryngton. He became prominent as a representative of the employers in negotiations with the Miners' Federation of Great Britain and favoured hard responses to worker militancy (which doesn't seem to quite be playing the game...). Pease became chairman of Middlesbrough Estate Ltd, North-Eastern Improved Dwellings Company, William Whitwell & Co, and the Durham & North Yorkshire Public House Trust, and a director of the North Eastern Railway Company/London and North Eastern Railway Company, Lloyds Bank, Horden Collieries Ltd, the Forth Bridge Railway Company, the National Benzole Company, and a number of others. 

Finally, Alan G Freer has traced Dorothy's ancestry back via her mother Laura Matilda Ethelwyn Allix (1867), three generations of the Allix family, and two of the Hammond family to the Rev William Egerton (1682) (of the family who gave us Oulton Park Motor Racing Circuit), Prebendary of Canterbury. 

Egerton Monument, Oulton Park (my photo)

Via the Hon Thomas Egerton of Tatton Park (1651), two Earls of Bridgwater and an Earl of Derby, he gets to the 12th Lord Clifford (1517). His mother was Margaret Percy, via the Fifth, Fourth and Third Earls of Northumberland, he gets to Henry Percy, 2nd Earl who was killed at the Battle of Towton. His mother was Elizabeth Mortimer (1371), her mother Philippa Plantagenet, Countess of Ulster (1355), her father Lionel Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence and Earl of Ulster (1347 d. 1368, Alba), his father Edward III (1327), Edward II (1301), Edward I, Henry III (1216), John (1166), Henry II (1151), Henry I (1092), William I 'The Conqueror'. He stops there, but I'm sure you get the idea.

• Children:
• Laura Frances Mousley (1929)
• James Arthur Mousley (1931)
• Ethelwyn Ada Mousley (1933)
• John died in a car crash in Northallerton

• Janet Elsie Mousley (1890-1891)
• Died in infancy

• Ada Kathleen Mousley (1896-1981)
• Married Alfred H Stringer (1878-1953) in Warwick in 1937

• 51.2.7 - Thomas Solomon Mousley (1838-1936) m Marguerite Mercier (1855)

• Harry Stanley Mousley (1876-1961)
• From another researcher. Born in Florida. d. New York.

• Marion Louise Mousley (1879)
• From another researcher. Born in New Jersey.

• Frederick William Mousley 
• From another researcher. Probably born in the USA.

• 51.2.8 - Charles Edward Mousley (1838-1937)
• No known children

More on these individuals in Chapter 58

Next (Mousley summary tree)