Where do I begin..........
James Prophet (1828 - 1900)was my great grandfather. It has taken me absolutely ages to sort his ancestry out, but I am confident I have now got him spot on, apart from his son Robert Prophet, who is still a bit of a conundrum.
James married 4 times.
7/6/1846 to Elizabeth Dougherty who died at the age of 23 on 28/2/1850.
16/6/1850 (less than 4 months later) to Elizabeth Shaw who at the time was 17 years old. She died on 10/12/1878 aged 45.
27/2/1879 (less than 3 months later) to Jane Hazelhurst (my great grandmother) who was 21 years old. She died 27/4/1886 aged 28 years old.
5/9/1886 (4 months later) to a widow Mary Jane Atkin who was 43 years old. She died aged 54 on 2/7/1897.
He died on 17/8/1900 and is buried in St Michaels. He was born in Witton cum Twinbrooks, near Northwich and moved to Garston with his father Allen (1798-1881). Originally he did work at the saltworks with his father before taking over the Victoria.
Funnily enough Mary Jane left her money to St Michaels and not him.
James mother was disowned by her family for being an alcoholic and committed suicide in 1858 at the home of Joseph Keefe of 7 Alfred Street (now demolished)
Garstonite kindly found James Prophet's gravestone and sent me a photo. I also have a photo of James outside the Victoria in the early 1880's. He was a big chap.
He had an eventful life.
