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Hello Ron,
If you have a look at https://sites.google.com/site/mellanbyhistory and follow the link to Mellanby Archives  and then find "Wire workers", you may find your family there.

John Mellanby

According to the 1841 census one of my ancestors was a pupil at a boarding school in Paradise Row, Darlington at that time. I would be grateful if anyone can give me the name of the school, tell me anything about it or give me a reference.

Many thanks.

John

Hi Mercian,

Thanks for your interest in my post. I have to disappoint you though as I can't help with you directly with your Benjamin Wallis query. You may be well aware of these sources but in researching my name, Mellanby, I have found Bishop's Transcripts and early wills to be very useful. I am fortunate since in County Durham a lot of this material is in the care of Durham University and is being made available to amateur researchers in various ways - just wondered if your local universities might be any use in this regard?

 My interest in Wallis arose from a DNA project I got involved in. As you may know in some such projects it is customary for participants to give the name of their earliest known ancestor (males in this case), the idea being that some indication of geographic origins may result. However I think a better indication might be found if surname origins are taken into account. The names I was looking at included Mellanby (my own name, probably from Cumbria), Livingstone, Lockhart, Stewart, Wallace and Wallis. There is clearly a "North British" look about this group but I wondered what the connection was between Wallace and Wallis given that Wallis has a Southern English origin; could it be that both names arose when Germanic-speaking tribes came over to Britain and called the people who were already here "Wal-something"? If this were the case then it might be expected that the Wal-somethings had similar DNA to one another and hence modern Wallace and Wallis's  appear in the same project.

I believe this is a reasonable proposition but I have come to realise that it will have to remain mere speculation as it would require a huge amount of research to test it properly. The main reason for this is that, although the name experts can fairly confidently tell us about the origins of many surnames, we can never be sure that the modern bearers of a name are directly descended from the original bearer.

You mention Francis Pryor. I must say that I have enjoyed his books. He seems to be asking some difficult questions of his fellow archaeologists although I have no idea what they think of him!.

I hope all this makes some sort of sense.

John   

Hi Victoria,

Here are the Haw references:

The first is the record of a property transaction which reads:
"28 May 1771     Robert Smith of Hartburn yeoman took of the Lord one fourth part of a messuage situated in Hartburn - 20 April 1761 from Robert Thompson and Augustin Parkin to John Harrow of Hourston (Hartburn?) in the parish of Stockton yeoman
- and the other surrender bearing date 19 April 1763 from the said Robert Thompson to Robert Oakes and Thomas Haw In which Henry Mellanby of Stockton and his wife Mary - one of the four daughters of Robert Thompson late of Hartburn aforesaid deceased therein having right  ( she the said Mary being examined alone and not compelled by force or through fear of her said husband but of her own voluntary free will)"
This quotation is from the Natioanl Archives but the original is in Teesside Archives in Middlesbrough.

Next is a reference to shipbuilding in Stockton referring to the owner-operators of the shipyards:
"Mr. Humphrey was succeeded by one Stephenson, who continued the business till 1782, when it fell into the hands of Mr. Thomas Haw, Sen., who, from that time to 1800, built sixty-one vessels; the largest, the " Experiment," being 750 register tons.
Mr. Mellanby, Sen., next occupied the yard, and Mr.Thomas Haw, Jun., for some time carried on the ship-building"
I haven't looked into Haw genealogy but it is a fair guess that Thomas Haw Senior is the one involved in the property deal.
The Mellanby quoted above is William Mellanby. HIs son William Iley Mellanby also managed the yard at some stage.
I can't recall where I got this shipbuilding item from but there are some online historys of shipbuilding on the Tees if you wanted to pursue it.

I have a copy of the will of William Iley Mellanby, described as shipbuilder, who died in 1841. He quotes his daughter Mary Haw as one of the beneficiaries.
Mary Mellanby married Thomas Haw in 1808. Another assumption: this must be Thomas Junior?

By the way I have obtained a number of wills from the University of Durham and I notice that they have one for a Thomas Haw (amongst others) that you may wish to look into. I can give you a some more detail on getting wills if you wish.

Hope this is of interest.

John