Annie Hocking Newton b. 26 sept 1895 married A. Shakerley 1918

[Brightonian41]

I am seeking information on an enigmatic and tragic British branch of my family that centrers around one woman: Annie Hocking Newton dob. 26 Sept 1895

She was born to cornish parents in Johannesburg South Africa.
Her parents were James Newton (b. 1862) and Bessie Hocking (b.1865) they were tin/lead/gold miners from the St Just area in Cornwall UK.

It appears that her father James travelled a lot as a miner because her brother Albert Newton was born in South Dakota USA in 1892
However they are all resident in Cornwall again by the 1901 census, and seem to be wealthy enough to run a couple of hotels in St Ives and Plymouth.

The tragic aspect is that Annie Married my Great uncle in 1915 a few months before he was killed aboard HMS Princes Royal at the battle of Jutland in 1916 - she went on to marry Thomas Arthur Shakerley at the end of the war and had 2 children. she survived until 1970.

It seems that the Hocking and newton families were very intermixed, often moving together around cornwall and across to the USA (and perhaps South Africa).
While living in Plymouth two separate branches of her relatives on the Hocking side, some that lived just around the corner from Annie, departed in a large group on a voyage across to america aboard the Titanic.

I wonder if anyone can shed any light on the Hocking Newton activities in South Dakota or Johannesburg between 1890 and 1900 - the births of Annie in 1895 Jo'burg, and Albert in 1892 Dakotas? or if any records of mining exist for these periods - I would love to find out why they travelled so much.

[CaroleW]

Also posted on the USA and SA boards

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=617488.new

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,617487.msg4661781.html#msg4661781

[JaneyCanuck]

Thank you Carole. Glad I refreshed. The thread on the US board might be the best place since there is now a reply there.

The possibility of duplicated/wasted effort might have been apparent ... (for example, I regularly read the Cornwall board and never read the US board, so would have had no idea if I was trying to find something already found ...)

[David E-N]

Hi Brightonian41

I am David, youngest grandson of Annie Hocking Shakerley, nee Newton. I was born in Annie's bed on 08 May 1948 at the then Shakerley family home of 4 Morshead Terrace, Crownhill, Plymouth Devon. My mother was Elizabeth (Betty), Annie and Tom Shakerley's 3rd child. Annie and Tom's children were Phyllis Joan 1919, Arthur Harry 1921 and Elizabeth 1927.

I always understood that Annie was born in Kimberley and had never heard of an elder brother Albert. I always believed that Annie had an elder sister Bessie who had been born in the US (Alaska?) and later married a British Army officer Major Budd, though perhaps Bessie was a cousin from the greater Hocking/Newton family.

Tom Shakerley was also at Jutland, serving on the battleship HMS Warspite.

As regards Annie and Tom's children, Joan married Edward Arnold Dingle and they had one son, David John, Harry never married and I am the only son of Betty and Dennis Bertram Beswick Naylor. The Beswick family lived directly opposite across the road from the Shakerleys, after the Shakerleys moved from their pub in Stonehouse, near Devonport Dockyard where my mother was born, to open a family grocers in Crownhill. Tom died there in 1944-ish. During the blitz of Plymouth in the early 1940's, he used to stand on top of the family air-raid shelter and shout at the German bombers - 'You didn't get me in 1916 and you won't get me now' -  complete with a few more earthy Naval comments.

Sorry I don't know more about the times in South Africa and the States, but I really don't remember them ever being spoken about, and only John and I are left as everyone else has long gone.

[JaneyCanuck]

Hello David and welcome to the forum. Unfortunately, Brightonian41 posted only these three identical messages on the boards and never returned (although the profile shows activity at the site a few days later, but no acknowledgement at all of the replies was ever given if they were seen, at least in the threads).

You might try sending Brightonian41 a private message by clicking on the username. You can do that after you have posted 2 more messages (no one can send you a private message until you do that, too). Just post them here - 'Hello' and 'Thank you' would do the trick. Brightonian41 should get notification by email of both your reply here and a private message, but if the email address in the account here isn't current, the notification won't be received.

Interesting story! (I went the DNA route looking for some facts among the tales in a branch of my family and found just what I expected: a close match with someone living in the US whose people were from the same corner of Cornwall my people are from, who had done well in the mining areas of Michigan and Arizona. A mine is a hole anywhere in the world with a Cornishman at the bottom!)

[Brightonian41]

Hello David E-N
Thank you for filling in a bit more of the story for me, I suppose that if it weren't for the Battle of Jutland and that one rogue shell that passed through the canteen of HMS Princess Royal and Killed my great uncle Arthur Weller, the canteen assistant - then Annie wouldn't have married Tom, and you and I would never have exchanged messages.
I have a photo of Arthur just before the battle (Arthur is standing in the image), and a letter of sympathy from Annies brother and sister. which I will try to attach to this message.

edit:
the attachments seem to have worked. thats good.
I should add that the letter was sent to Arthur's mother and father. who it is from took me a while to decipher, as I had no Richards surnames to go on - but the address and the reference to sister Annie (being devoted) make it clear that they are related.

[David E-N]

Hi B41

If the letter that you have attached is addressed to Arthur Weller's parents, then the signatories may have been Arthur's sister and his brother-in-law (rather than actual brother, hence different surname) but you probably knew that already. The only Richards that was part of the Hocking/Newton/Shakerley clan in Plymouth was my 'Uncle' Leslie Richards, who was the same generation as Annie's children i.e born c1920, which would tie in with Arthur's sister being married about the same him as Arthur.
Leslie's only son was Richard (Dick) Richards - very original.
There is a lot of history on the Hocking and Richards families on the Titanic survivors website -the females of the family plus 2 youngsters were travelling to Akron where 2 Hocking brothers were based. One of the sisters m1891rried name is Richards  There is also an allusion to William Hocking deserting the family some time after 1891 and emigrating to South Africa never to be seen again.

There are just too many Hockings and Richards to keep track of - esp as all of this is completely news to me.

David E-N