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Thank you all for searching for me.  I think I've researched every Wilberforce family possible so far.

As much as I'd like Francis Evelyn Agnes Wilberforce to be mine, she's part of the well-to-do William Wilberforce descendants, and well out of my league.

I'm the poverty, catholic, down-the-docks, illegitimate babies, Liverpudlian Wilberforce, who either by cunning or lack of education seem to have missed out on the paperwork of life.

I looked in depth at Charles & Jane Wilberforce (piano tuner/professor of music), especially their daughter Martha Young Wilberforce (born 1853) as she was a barmaid in one census, and although they may be related, it's not obvious and I've accounted for all of their children in 1891.

Agnes seems to be the only Wilberforce I've come across who disappears at the same time as Grace arrives.  I'd love to find Agnes with her family in the early years and ultimately her birth certificate.

I have this story in my head of a distraught Agnes, embarrassed, homeless, unemployed and grieving for the loss of her baby son, fleeing Liverpool to join her sister Ida in Manchester to work in the family laundry.  A few years later she returns to Toxteth Park, with a second baby (Mary Ida), her sister and a new identity (Grace born in Hammersmith) to open a laundry in Warwick Street.

In later censuses, when she's put her past behind her, the information becomes more understandable and in the 1911 census, which she completes herself, she gives her place of birth as West Derby.

I have a good feeling about these ladies ....... unless it's wishful thinking.

Best wishes

Wilbs

Thank you all - especially Heywood for confirming the sad end to a very brief life.

Does the death certificate give any clues to his mother?  Presumably, she gave birth in the workhouse, but as her surname, age, location & religion match direct members of my family, I'm hoping that by tracing her, I can move forward in my own tree.

Thank you

Wilbs

Wilberfoss - of course I should have known.

Thank you.

Just a quick update …

Finding out that we’re Catholic and the excellent suggestions from you all have opened doors.  From the 1911 census, we knew that John &Grace had a second child, but without further clues we had no idea of the sex, name or date.  We found baby John William Burns III born late 1892 and baptized at OL Lourdes in the following year. (They have transcribed Burns as Byrne which didn’t help matters.)  Little chap only lived to 16 months and is buried in Ford Cemetery in grave 1168, which appears to be a pauper/mass grave.

However, knowing the John was around in early 1892 to father the child has helped eliminate some of the major crimes listed for John Burns.  Unless he had very favourable visiting rights, the John Burns sentenced to 5 years in 1889 for passing counterfeit coins couldn’t be mine.  So, maybe his wild ways did revolve around beer!

Grace’s spinster sister Ida was also buried in the same cemetery some 17 years later (again name mis-scribed as Ada Wilberforce) on 12 February 1911 aged 70, in plot 360, so if anyone is walking in that area, I’d love a photograph of her grave.

It looks like Mary Ida (born 1881) was the last Catholic in the family.  All her children appear to have married in Church of England or Methodist churches.

Once again, thank you all for your help.  I still haven’t found out which of the dozens of John Burns’ in Liverpool is mine, but I’m managed to eliminate most of the major crimes and for this, I’m truly grateful.