Children of Thomas and Anne
Benjamin (1834-) Baptised St Martins Church, Birmingham
Jane (1836-) Baptised Witney Wesleyan church
Charlotte (1839-
Robert (1841-
Children of John and Harriet
John (1832-1908) baptised at Dursley Methodist chapel
Charles (1836-1910) baptised at St Mary’s, Wotton under Edge
Joseph (1839-1843)
James (1840-1843) baptised at North Nibley Tabernacle
Ann (1834-1914) baptised as Sarah Ann at St Mary’s, Wotton under Edge
Benjamin and John were the sons of John and Rachel, nee Summers, and both were baptised at St Martins, North Nibley.
John, their father, a dealer in cloth, was judged to be an insolvent debtor in 1828, in Gloucestershire. He moved to Birmingham, and married his second wife, Maria Shenton. Both appear on the ’41 Census in Birmingham, but died in the next decade.
The children of John and Harriet
The family of John and Harriet were living in Forthay at the time of the Census in 1841, but there is no record of them in the parish outside of that time. However, when their last child, Samuel, was born in 1843, his record of baptism in St Mary’s, Wotton under Edge, states that his parents lived at Burlingham, on the border between Wotton and Nibley. In the Land Tax records of 1832, however, John was shown as owning and occupying a property in the parish taxed at 1/9.
John was a woollen weaver, and was declared by the Overseers of Dursley parish to be chargeable to the parish on 9/9/1841. The order of removal was suspended due to John’s sickness. The variety, or lack of records, of baptism, indicate that the family moved around a fair deal, perhaps looking for employment. Their two young sons died young, aged 3 and 4, one of them in the Workhouse.
In 1851, the family had moved to Birmingham, in the Aston area. John was working as a railway labourer, as was his eldest son John. Charles was employed as a whip maker and Sarah Ann as a french polisher. In the same household were Ann Saunders, Harriet’s sister, who was also a french polisher, and a lodger – Henry Nash, a wire worker.
Harriet died in 1859 and four years later, John married Mary Grayland, a widow. In 1881, John and Mary were living in 2 in Number 1 Court, on Sandy Lane, recorded as an unemployed railway labourer. At 74. He died 3 years later.
In 1861, the widowed John was living in the household of his son John. John had married Mary Gear in 1855, in St Michaels, Gloucester. His address was Barton St, Gloucester. The couple had seven children. Also in the household was Samuel, John’s younger brother, who was employed as a bone turner.
Interestingly, John the younger was illiterate, and could only make his mark on his wedding certificate, but his father had rather a fine signature. (see below). His grandfather, Daniel could also sign his will, as could his uncle Enoch. Sarah Anne was also illiterate, but their brother Charles could sign his wedding register.
In 1871, John and his family were living in a Court off Warwick Street, Deritend, employed as a wire drawer. They had moved out of a court and were living in Lowden road, Deritend, ten years later. Their children, aged from 8 to 24, were living with them. Their occupations were – warehouse woman, coffin furniture, and ivory and bone turner, a steel pen maker, and a wood sawyer. In 1891, the family were living at Willis Street in Deritend.
In 1901, John was ‘living on his own means’ (rather a different old age from his father) and living with his wife and some of his children in Deritend. He died in 1908, aged 86. He was buried at Witton cemetery.
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Charles was a whip maker as early as the time of the 1851 Census, when he was living with his family in Birmingham.
In 1862, he married Emma Fossey at St Giles, Cripplegate, London. The family Charles (now a whip and thong maker), Emma, their three children, and a lodger. lived in Lambeth, London. In 1881 and the following 3 census, Charles, Emma, and one daughter, lived with a lodger in the same area.
Charles died in 1910, aged 74.
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Sarah Anne married Samuel Bell Matthews, a porter, in 1855, at the church of St Thomas, in Birmingham. In ’61 the couple were living with their two daughters in Skinner Street, Birmingham. Also in the household were Samuel’s mother, and Sarah Ann’s cousin, Mary Ann Ayland. Ten years later, they were living in Coventry, with one of their daughters. Samuel was now a railway inspector.
Samuel died in 1873, aged only 39.
Lucy, one of their daughters, had married Frederick Kerridge and, in 1881, Sarah was living with them in Aston, Birmingham.
In 1885, Sarah married John Kelly at St Clements church, Nechells. By the time of the next Census, Sarah had been widowed, so was now recorded with the surname Kelly. She was still living with Lucy’s family in Aston.
In 1901 and 1911 Frederick, Lucy and Sarah were living in Erdington, Birmingham.
Sarah died in 1914, aged 80, and was buried at the church of St Barnabas, Erdington.
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The Children of Thomas and Ann
In 1841, Thomas and Ann (nee Voas) were living in Gazards Row, near Nibley mill. Thomas was a woollen spinner. They had four children, Benjamin, Jane and Charlotte. Benjamin had been baptised at St Martins, Birmingham, Jane in Witney, Oxfordshire, where Thomas’ brother, Enoch, lived, and Charlotte and Robert had been baptised in North Nibley Methodist church.
The couple had a third daughter, Rachel, who died aged 15 months old in 1833 and was buried in Birmingham.
The family emigrated sometime in the early ’50s and Thomas, Ann, Benjamin, Charlotte, and Robert were recorded on the 1850 and 1855 Census’ for Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Thomas was naturalised in 1860. Thomas was still employed as a wool spinner, and started the first woollen mill in Palmyra, Iowa. Four more children were born to the couple. The eldest, Martha, had been baptised in Great Barrington in 1854.
In 1853, Charlotte married Charles Noble (born in Frome, Somerset). They had 3 children. Before her death in 1882, aged 46, the family lived variously in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
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In 1859, Benjamin married Martha Anne Garner, from Suffolk, in Connecticut. His sister, Martha, married Joseph Garner, Martha’s brother. The couple had 11 children. He was naturalised in 1862.Benjamin became a farmer. The family lived in Iowa, in Palmyra, with Benjamin dying in Silver City in 1926, aged 92.
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Charlotte married Senesa Nodine in 1856 in Great Barrington. The couple had 5 children, and Charlotte died in 1918, aged 80, in Great Barrington.
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Robert Voas died in Rome, Georgia, aged 23, in 1864. He had been fighting in the Civil War when he died, and is buried at Marietta and Atlanta National Cemetery.
North Nibley One-Place-Study 