Henry Dawson, silk glove maker from Duffield

Henry Dawson was one of Ari’s 5x great-grandfathers. He was born on 18 April 1810 in Duffield, Derbyshire, the son of a linen weaver, Francis Dawson, and Martha Dunn. His baptism took place on 12 May 1810 at Duffield’s Presbyterian Chapel.

England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567–1970, Ancestry.co.uk

(Notes from Derbyshire County Council’s online catalogue: “The Presbyterian Chapel in Wirksworth Road, Duffield, was built before 1790. In the early 19th century the congregation adopted the Unitarian faith. By 1860 the chapel had closed, but it was subsequently rented to the trustees of Duffield Reading Room. After the 1870 Education Act, Mrs Constance Smith of Duffield Hall encouraged the establishment of an infant school in the former chapel, which remained in use for this purpose until 1895. In the 20th century it became the meeting place for many local organisations including the local Temperance Society. In the 1960s and 1970s it was a china factory called Abbeydale China Co. Ltd., and in the 1980s was used as a light engineering workshop. Despite local protests, the building was demolished in June 2001 to make way for a housing development.”)

We don’t know anything else about Henry until his marriage at the age of twenty-five. He married Charlotte Parker on 27 December 1835 at St Alkmund’s church in the village.

Derbyshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754–1932, Ancestry.co.uk

The 1841 census shows us Henry, working as a silk framework knitter, his wife Charlotte, two-year-old Elizabeth, and two-month-old Philip. They were living on the Wirksworth Turnpike Road in Duffield.

The Derby to Duffield Turnpike was authorised in 1756 and operated until 1875. It is now the A6.

Henry and Martha’s first son, William (aged four), was staying with Henry’s parents.

By 1851, Henry had become a silk glove maker, sons William (14) and Philip (10) were silk winders and three more children had been born: Caroline in 1844, Martha in 1847, and Francis Henry in 1850. They were living at Upper Green, and Henry’s parents were living with them (his father Francis would die that December):

1851 census, Ancestry.co.uk

It was not a good time to be in the industry. The local papers were full of depressing news about the state of trade, and the family would all have had to work to earn enough to live on.

Derby Mercury, 18 December 1839, Findmypast

There had been a strike in 1845:

Derbyshire Courier, 2 August 1845, Findmypast

Derby Mercury, 2 July 1851, Findmypast

The family moved to Castle Orchard before the 1861 census.

Derby Mercury 02 June 1886, Findmypast

Francis Henry had died aged two, and one more child had been born: Charlotte Agnes in 1853. Henry’s widowed mother was living with them and working as a washerwoman.

Henry died at London Rd Infirmary in Derby when he was only fifty-three, on 31 October 1864. The record of his hospital admission is included in the collection called Derbyshire Hospital Admissions And Deaths 1855–1913 on Findmypast. The cause of death was given as “Disease of bladder, Asthenia” (asthenia is weakness or lack of energy).

He was buried at St Alkmund’s on 3 November:

Derbyshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813–1991, Ancestry.co.uk

Ari, this is how you are related to Henry:

Mary Bishop, provision dealer

Mary Bishop was Ari’s 5x great-grandmother, born in 1809 in Grafton Flyford in Worcestershire.

Mary was the seventh of eight children of John Bishop and Ann Willis, who had married in 1792. She was christened on 30 Dec 1809 at the church of St John the Baptist, and married at the same church at the age of 16. Her husband was a farmer, Joseph Sheppard (spelled Shepherd).

We can see Mary in the 1841 census living at Sale Green with her husband Joseph, an agricultural labourer, and a ten-month-old baby, also called Joseph. Living with them was 15-year-old Mary Allbut.

Mary and Joseph had two more children, William and Ann. Tragically, Joseph drowned in the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at the age of 42. In 1851, Mary (40) is living with her two sons Joseph (10) and William (8), and her occupation is given as pauper, gloveress (see my earlier post). I think Ann had died as a baby.

By 1861, Mary’s parents have both died and she has become a shopkeeper (we later see more evidence of this in a local directory for 1879). The small family are in Huddington, with both sons working and living at home. In 1871 she is listed as a provision dealer (61), the two sons have left home, and 19-year-old James Wells is sharing her home as a boarder (crossed out) / lodger. He is presumably the same person as the nephew James Wills (actually Willis) living with her in 1881.

1879 Littlebury’s Directory & Gazetteer of Worcester & District, Ancestry.co.uk

By 1891, Mary is 80. She is still living in Sale Green, but now with two teenage granddaughters (Mary and Sarah, children of her son William) sharing her home. Mary died in January of 1892, and was buried on 12 Jan at the church of St James in Huddington.

Ari, this shows how you are related to Mary:

 

Angelina Tyler, glove-maker

Angelina Tyler was Ari’s 4x great-grandmother, born in Crowle, Worcestershire and christened at the church of St John the Baptist on 18 August 1843. According to The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868), Crowle “formerly belonged to Worcester Abbey, and the moated building called Crowle House was once the abbot’s seat” (see http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/WOR/Crowle).

By the age of 17, Angelina’s occupation was making kid gloves with her mother. At 20, she married William Sheppard at the same church in Crowle. In the 1881 census she is still listed as a glove-maker, and the couple are living next door to Angelina’s parents in Sale Green. By this time Angelina had given birth to seven children.

According to the Victoria County History, “Worcester was one of the most important centres for gloves in England”.  “When apprentice glovers neared the end of their training, they were expected to make a pair of kid gloves so fine that they could be rolled up inside a walnut shell.” (https://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/explore/items/glove-making-ledbury)

There is a fascinating account by Amanda Wilkinson of life as a gloveress: http://victorianoccupations.co.uk/g/g-is-for-gloveress/

Angelina died on 29 March 1917 and was buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist on 1 April. This is a postcard of the church in about 1910.

Ari, this shows how you are related to Angelina: