Hi,
I'm trying to find living descendants of Rev. John Howson of Giggleswick.
It's alleged that my gr-gr-gr grandfather Thomas Howson is the son of Rev. John Howson. According to various documents and websites, Thomas Howson supposedly died in Jamaica. There are a few problems with this. Firstly, in 1836 he was at Trinity College and he emigrated to St Catherines, Jamaica on 19 Oct 1837. Yet, the headstone for Rev. John Howson states Thomas died in 1834?
Various stories in my family involve parents, grand parents and uncles who referred to our Thomas Howson as the "Yorkshire man". There's also a claim that a young Jamaican girl arrived in a Lanarkshire village (at my gr gr grandfathers land) in 1909, looking for her grandfather Thomas Howson. It's apparently documented in a local newspaper, although I haven't searched for that yet. The claims say he left Jamaica and sneaked back to stay with his uncle William Howson in New Monkland, Scotland to avoid some kind of crime in Yorkshire. This crime is allegedly the same reason he left Yorkshire and went to Jamaica. The William Howson (who married Ann Hamilton) was born in England according to a 1841 Census and these are the parents referred to on Thomas' Death Certificate. However, there doesn't appear to be a New Monkland birth record for Thomas, who was born around 1819/20.
I'm basically looking for any info I can get about Thomas, William (m. Ann Hamilton) and possibly a Richard Howson (lived next door to William in 1841 Census, also born England). Both William and Richard were Weavers. Anything to confirm Rev. John's son Thomas committed a crime, rumours of him not dying or anything similar.
There's also a story that after the death of Reverend John Saul Howson, one of his sons (also a Reverend) tracked down the family of Thomas to the Lanarkshire village and gave them money to build a house for their mother (wife of Thomas). Thomas died in a poorhouse hospital, so the family had no money at the time, and yet a few years later they bought a large piece of land and built houses on the land for the family.
Very tricky to prove or disprove, so I need all the help I can get!!
Thanks in advance,
Alan