Dear Nozzy, I am so delighted to hear from you. I realise there are a lot of different Richard Higginsons and Samuel Jones living not far one from the other. Would you like access to my family tree on ancestry.com ? I have done years of research since I first posted this notes here, and have been assisted by genealogical historians in Chester (notably by Anna Price). Do you think your husbands Richard Higginson and Samuel Higginson fit into this scenario somehow ?
The elderly Ann Higginson one sees on the 1841 and later censii at Hopes Place, was born Ann Leyfield (1776-1861), and is the widow of Joseph Higginson (farmer from Eaton, born abt 1750). Their daughter Elizabeth Higginson, married Samuel Jones (b. 1804) and their family occupies Hopes Place, while their youngest son, Richard Higginson (railway engineer) 1818-1860 married a first cousin, Mary Price (1818-1868). (Mary is the daughter of Thomas Price and Catherine Leyfield). To make things more incestuous, after a terrible train accident caused the untimely death of engineer Richard Higginson (in 1860), leaving Mary Price widowed and caring for a large family, Mary remarried her husband's own nephew who had been living with them in Liverpool : Samuel Jones (born in Saltney, 1834), -- son of Elizabeth Higginson and Samuel Jones. At Hopes Place in 1870 and 1880, one sees the widowed Samuel Jones, has returned to the farm, and has a young son in tow - William (S?) Jones, born 1863 in Liverpool. I cannot find trace of this child, whom I assume is the son of Mary Price and Samuel Jones after the 1880 census. I think the 1890 census for that part of Wales was lost ?
The Richard Higginson (1797-1898) one sees living nearby to Hopes Place, married to Hannah Mitchell, is the youngest brother of Joseph Higginson (farmer from Eaton).
I have all sorts of documents ... as me for more if your husband is interested. Very best wishes,
Paula