Higginsons of Hopes Place, Bretton, Hawarden

[paulawilder1]

paulawilder1 get in touch with me, i know quite a bit about Hopes Place, Bretton

Hi Ricko - are you still on the boards ?

[Nozzy]

Hi, I have just happened upon this thread whilst looking for Hopes Farm. I am in the UK and my husband has Richard Higginson as a great great great grandfather and Samuel Jones as a great great grandfather. I have a copy of the 1851 census and your research makes things fall into place. We will have to call in and look at the farm on the way to see rellies in Denbighshire. I am very grateful to see this as I do not get much time to do family research. It is late here so I will come back and have a more detailed look at the thread. Thanks

[paulawilder1]

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

[Nozzy]

Very pleased to get your reply. I am now sure, after seeing your evidence in the thread, Samuel Jones and both Richard Higginsons are the same as in our tree. It confirmed what I'd thought. I am the researcher in the family, my husband Stephen is interested, but he is not in the best of health and is not the best researcher! So it goes through me. I like doing it, but it's the time I lack. We have latterly focussed, when we've had the time, on his surname which is from Germany and Denmark. I was looking back at the contents of the family research box files as my daughter wanted ideas of family names (she's expecting another baby), so that set me off! Hope the following ancestor 'list' helps: Samuel Jones> Richard > William Alexander>Olive (Steve's mother)>Stephen Arthur (my husband). Our Richard Jones (horsekeeper) married Kitty/Kate Higginson (father Richard Higginson). So how do you fit in and whereabouts are you - in the US I presume (we have been to the US and Canada a number of times)? Steve was born in St Asaph, Wales and brought up in Liverpool from age 3. We live in Yorkshire. Steve has cousins from his father's side around the St Asaph area, we visit them and we will now be able to go to see them via the farm, now we know for sure where the Higginson/Jones were!
I firstly need to read all the threads properly and collate our evidence and attach copies to you (if helpful), however my grandson is staying so no time really and should really be doing my tax return this week I will also be busy tomorrow, so don't hold your breath! I would love access to your tree, that would be great, but at the moment I don't have the paid membership, I stopped when I wasn't getting time to use it. So I may pay a couple months if I need to?
Thanks and TTFN

[paulawilder1]

Oh that is so cool ! Your Kate Higginson who married Richard Jones, horsekeeper, is the older sister of Samuel Higginson who married Rachel Boote. They had Rachel Boote-Higginson who married Edward Cowdell and left for British Columbia in 1911 from Liverpool. Their daughter, my maternal grandmother, Lillian Cowdell was born in Toxteth Park in 1901, spent some of her childhood in Vancouver, attended the University of British Columbia, then moved east to do a graduate degree at Harvard Radcliff, she married my grandfather at Harvard (Paul W Gates) they lived out their long lives in Ithaca, NY.  I was born and raised mostly in California, but am now living in central western France (have lived in France for seven years). Your husband and I would be something like 3rd cousins once removed. How fun ! Have you seen the inscriptions for the Jones family in the Toxteth Park Cemetery ?

[par50]

Hi Paula. I received your message last night regarding the Headstones at Broughton Churchyard. Gee!!! It must be ages ago since I sent that to you. I hadn't been on here for a long time until the recent messages have come up, You asked if I still have the same e mail address. Yes. I do. Going back to the beginning of the post.s I did find my Thomas Bostock wasn't Baptised in Hawarden at all. He was Baptised at Doddleston. Regards Pam

[Nozzy]

Paula, you know so much more than me! S has a lot of rellies that were born and/or lived in Toxteth Park. I have not had time to collate anything regarding what I know yet. So where are you in France (and why?)? We've been to France a lot over the years. We have only seen S's immediate family's headstone (I have a photo) we shall have to get over to Liverpool! I must tell him I've found a cousin (he's just gone to bed - he'll be reading). How fascinating to know how we all connect. Lillian sounds quite something! We have a photo of Kitty/Kate Higginson - there's also some other photos, which I could find. I just thought, we have cousins in Vancouver, descended from Richard Jones. He had a daughter called Louisa who emigrated to Canada in the 30s, she married a Thomas Bamber from Lancashire, they had Irene and she had Neil who's now 60 something and a retired vet in BC. Must go to bed!

[paulawilder1]

I knew about Louisa Bamber ! I traced her to Vancouver through documents. There are also descendants of Rachel-Boote Higginson still living in Vancouver - I had asked them if they had been aware of Louisa and her family - and did not get a straight answer. I would love to see a picture of Kate if you have it. I have no pictures of Samuel Higginson. I have found newspaper articles described the horrible death of Richard Higginson - November 1860.

[paulawilder1]

PS I am living in France because I married a Frenchman ! Seven years of wedded bliss