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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Warwickshire => Topic started by: Forfarian on Tuesday 05 June 18 11:37 BST (UK)
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Thomas Adair first appears in the 1891 census as a 17-year-old draper's apprentice, born Birmingham, in the household of Riley Fortune, silk mercer, in Harrogate. I believe that his father was also Thomas Adair, but of him I have found no trace at all.
The 1939 Register gives his DoB as 6 May 1874.
I have failed, so far, to find a birth record in the GRO index or at FreeBMD. Nor can I find him in the 1881, 1901 or 1911 censuses. The latter two are not surprising because he became an East India merchant and travelled regularly to Hong Kong and Japan.
In 1903 he married Sarah Ellen Liddiard in Basford. She and their first two sons were living with her mother in Quorn, Leicestershire in 1911. A third son was born in 1912, all three births registered in Barrow-on-Soar.
Can anyone suggest anywhere else to try?
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First suggestion would be to get his marriage certificate and see if a father is named to see if it opens any doors.
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The 1939 register would give his exact date of birth to know which quarter to search for a Thomas birth. Appreciate there are a lot of Thomas names.
Could be the name Adair was written differently. Could even be A apostrophe something.
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This birth has me wondering:
HOWSON, THOMAS ADAIR BOURNE - no mmn
1874 J Quarter in BIRMINGHAM Volume 06D Page 109
Maureen
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The information about his father's name came from the marriage certificate, though I have not seen it myself.
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Could be the name Adair was written differently. Could even be A apostrophe something.
I tried searching with just Thomas, no surname.
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This birth has me wondering
HOWSON, THOMAS ADAIR BOURNE - no mmn
1874 J Quarter in BIRMINGHAM Volume 06D Page 109
Now that does look interesting, thank you, Maureen. I'll see if my friend on whose behalf I am looking for him wants to invest £6 for a copy.
No matching Thomas Howson in the 1881 census, however.
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Yes good find Maureen. Bourne and Howson gives a couple more names to investigate.
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Possibly the Tom A Bourne in 1881, 6 born Birmingham, lodging with a Green family in Knaresborough?
RG11/4324/102/3.
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Yes --- and Knaresborough is very near to Harrogate where he was to be found later.
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Don't know if you are interested in this information fits or if you already know - but there is an entry for what I think is his gravestone on the Gravestone Photographic Resource site;
https://www.gravestonephotos.com/public/gravedetails.php?grave=171888
If you tab down you can see the gravestone image and can request them larger. This is completely free and all the site owner wants when he enlarges them for you is a letter of thanks. The other people mentioned on the gravestone are given, including his wife.
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Possibly the Tom A Bourne in 1881, 6 born Birmingham, lodging with a Green family in Knaresborough?
Good find, thank you, avm228.
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there is an entry for what I think is his gravestone on the Gravestone Photographic Resource site
Thank you, yes, that is the right family. Lydia and Sarah Ellen were sisters.
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If you look at the 1881 in Cumberland (Carlisle)
You will find a Thomas, son of a Thomas and Maria born in the East Indies.
Don
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If you look at the 1881 in Cumberland (Carlisle)
You will find a Thomas, son of a Thomas and Maria born in the East Indies.
Yes, but the one I am looking for was born in Birmingham, and the one in Cumberland in 1881 is still there in 1891.
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The birth found by Maureen and the census by AVM look really promising --- interesting that he dropped one of his names -- then another one!
I do hope your friend requests the birth cert.
If you have time would you please let us know the outcome if the certificate is obtained. I am sure we would all be interested in this unusual case.
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I have e-mailed the Birmingham registrars and asked them to help us decide by telling us whether or not the DoB of Thomas Adair Bourne Howson is 6 May. If it is, it has to be him. The only extra details on the certificate will be the address where he was born, and who registered the birth. The latter could potentially be useful.
I'll keep you posted.
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--- and his mother's name I hope!
Thank you Forfarian for keeping us posted.
Regards
Nosey!
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Update.
I finally bit the bullet and got a copy of the birth certificate of Thomas Adair Bourne Howson.
He was born in Birmingham on 6 May 1874 (which matches exactly the date in the 1939 Register) and his mother was Sarah Ann Howson, domestic servant, no father's name.
I think he has to be the 6-year-old Tom A Bourne in Knaresborough in 1881.
So in the time-honoured fashion I have one answer and at least two new questions. A cursory look at the census has not revealed any obvious answers.
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Of the two counties Thomas is so far connected with, Howson seems to be more a Yorkshire name than a Warwickshire one.
One to look at perhaps is the Sarah A Howson who in 1901 is an unmarried housemaid in Otley Rd, Harrogate. Born abt 1848 Garforth, Leeds.
Added: this Sarah was in service in Campsall in 1871 - household of Jeremiah B Faviell - and then in both 1881 and 1891 in Potter Newton in the household of Fred(erick) Gill. Can’t see anything to rule her in or out at the moment.
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Good suggestion, avm, thank you. But I think I'll need some more evidence to prove it was her - and I haven't a clue about the identity of the father.
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Good suggestion, avm, thank you. But I think I'll need some more evidence to prove it was her - and I haven't a clue about the identity of the father.
Indeed :)
Well... her father was named Thomas! Can’t yet link her to Birmingham or the Adair & Bourne names though.
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BTW I looked into the possibility that Elizabeth Green, with whom Tom A Bourne was lodging in 1881, was a relative, but I don't think so.
She was Elizabeth Croft, married to Robert Green in Knaresborough in 1854. Two children: Maria Elizabeth, born 1855, and Joseph William, born 1859, both registered in Great Ouseburn. A Robert Green, 31, died in Great Ouseburn in 1860. A child named Leonard Edgar Green was born in Knaresborough in 1866, no mother's name in GRO index. I can't find the other boarder, George Lascelles, in the births indexes.
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Well.
Taking up avm's find in the 1901 census, I tracked Sarah Ann Howson back through 1891, 1881 and 1871 to 1861, where she is with her parents, Thomas Howson and .... wait for it .... Alice Audaer or Audair. Thomas and Alice were married in Tadcaster in 1846 and Sarah Ann was their eldest, born in 1847.
So it looks as if both Thomas and Adair came from Sarah's family, not from Thomas Adair Bourne Howson's father's name (it would surely be too much of a coincidence for him to have the same names as both of her parents?).
Must not overlook the fact that there is another servant named Sarah Ann Howson, and two more plain Sarah Howsons, servants, in the 1871 census, but this does look fairly promising.
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Oh that is promising :)
Yes I see: Sarah Ann Howson, mmn Audaer, Dec qtr 1847 Pontefract.
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I agree, Forfarian. Have just found the same information. So looking like an unnamed Mr. Bourne was probably the father of Thomas.
Annette
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Just looked a bit more at her 1871 boss, Jeremiah B Faviell.
Turns out the middle initial B was for Bourn(e)
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Jeremia Bourn Faviell was baptised at Kirkby Overblow on 24 Dec 1810. Parents Mark & Maria.
He and wife Elizabeth have no children in 1851/1871. If Thomas was his illegitimate child, I wonder whether he set him up financially to some extent? I see that Thomas Adair had quite a substantial estate by the time of his own probate, though of course that may have been entirely due to his own efforts.
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Jeremiah’s first wife was Mary Ann Dawson - married 25 Feb 1836 when Jeremiah was 25 and Mary Ann 17.
They had a daughter, Isabel Amelia, baptised 15 Apr 1841 at Horbury (when she married in 1868 the newspaper announcement described her as the “only child” of JBF).
Mary Ann died later that year - Dec qtr 1841 Wakefield.
There are several newspaper references to Jeremiah Bourne Faviell or J.B. Faviell, of Stockeld Park, Wetherby. He endowed a newly-built church at Amcotts nr Althorp, Lincs, and gave coal to the poor. It looks as though he made money early on in building railways (he was a railway contractor on Isabel’s 1841 baptism record) and later in coal mining. He also served as a magistrate.
Also references to his father, Mark Faviell, of Amcotts Lodge, (in Thorne, Lincs) who was the petitioner for the new church at Amcotts.
Mark died in 1861 aged 74, and his wife Maria in 1868, aged 77.
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Thank you, avm228. Very interesting.
I am hesitant to get deeply into Jeremiah Bourn Faviell's family unless and until I can find some sort of evidence that he really was the father of Thomas. If Sarah Ann had wanted to proclaim to the world that the baby was Jeremiah's, she could have named him Jeremiah Bourn Faviell Howson, for example. Maybe he was Jeremiah's and she was given some inducement not to name him too obviously after Jeremiah. Maybe he wasn't Jeremiah's, but Jeremiah dealt kindly with her, and she was grateful enough to use one of Jeremiah's names.
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I’d have thought it extremely unlikely there is any surviving documentary evidence of Thomas’ paternity, whoever the father was.
I suppose Y-DNA might be an option, if there’s a male-line descendant of Thomas and a traceable male-line descendant of a brother of Jeremiah?
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I'll speak to my friend about that, but I suspect that suggestion will prove to be a bridge too far! Thank you for all your help.