My ancestor Samuel Jones was a Liverpool whitesmith, also described as a coachsmith and a coach spring maker.
This is him with his family in the 1851 census at No. 3 Court, Upper Dalton Street:
HO107/2192 f 278 p 42
Samuel Jones – Head - 51 – Whitesmith – Liverpool
Sarah – wife - 44 (she was born Sarah Ann Pate in 1805) - do
John – son – 22 – labourer – do
Samuel – son – 16 – errand boy – do (he was baptised Samuel Pate Jones)
Sarah – daur - 10 – do
Thomas – son – 9 – do (he was baptised Thomas Pate Jones)
Peter – son – 6 – Monks Coppenhall, Cheshire
Two other children are missing from this list. They are Robert William Jones (my great-great-grandfather) who is listed as a visitor down the street at Gothic Terrace, and Margaret Jones (born 1836/7).
By 1861 this family had broken up.
- Robert William Jones married Lucy Parkes in 1853, joined the Royal Navy and became a Chief Engineer.
- Samuel Pate Jones also became a ship’s engineer (we think in the merchant navy) and settled in Sydney NSW around 1865, where he had 13 children with his second wife Susan Cochran. Nothing is known of his first marriage.
- Peter Jones is listed in the 1861 census living with his sister-in-law Lucy in Duke Street, Everton. He is a watch jeweller, probably working for Lucy’s brother John Parkes (founder of John Parkes & Sons, opticians and nautical instrument makers). I can’t see Peter in subsequent censuses. What became of him after 1861?
As for the others, nothing definite is known. What happened to them after 1851?
These names are so common that fishing in the censuses and GRO indices produces a multitude of possibilities. Does anyone have any bright ideas ?