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And his first marriage

16 January 1861 Emmanuel Church Newton in Makerfield

T W Hilton bachelor 21 surveyor of Wigan. Father: Richard Worthington ~ Gentleman
Margaret Mather spinster 21 of Newton. Father: Horatio Mather ~ surgeon

Both signed
Witnesses: John Mather, John Hoggart and Adam Cartwright

RE the baptism of Thomas W Hilton, in the actual register it states Mary a spinster and the fathers name Richard Worthington has been circled.

claire

Thankyou. So a similar situation, a father who is described as "gentleman", and acknowledged on birth and marriage documents. I hadn't realised that people were so open in these circumstances at this date.

Please excuse the length of what follows:

I'm looking at my grandmother's family, the Hiltons in Lancashire. Many years ago my aunt did a lot of research. Unfortunately in her later years she seems to have given most of her finished material, long promised to me, to another relative,  - but, moving quickly on..  I'm picking through all her rough notes. Also she would have liked to find aristocratic, or at least gentrified, connections, so some of her work is rather speculative..

Anyway, my great great grandfather was James Hilton, b 1844. His mother was Mary Hilton. James had a brother, Thomas Worthington Hilton, born 1838.  It took me a while to realise that Hilton was Mary's maiden name. There were a couple of vague notes in my aunt's papers to the effect that she was "Mrs Cliff". After several false starts with my searches the penny finally dropped - this very upright, high-Anglican family had an illegitimacy lurking...

I've just obtained James's birth certificate and have discovered that his father is recorded -  James Cliff. Mary registered the birth (September 1844).

Several curiosities here:

James Cliff's occupation is turnkey at the New Bailey Prison, Salford. This fits, as my aunt's  notes say that Mary's mother, Sarah, was matron there for many years.

James Hilton's marriage certificate in 1880, on his marriage to Elizabeth Gerrard, shows his father as being William Cliffe Hilton, gentleman.

 I'm 99% certain that Mary never married. She's shown as unmarried on every census but one, the final one she appears on, that has widow. She's head of household on each census, living with her sons until near the end of her life, when she was with her sister's family. I can find no marriage to James/William Cliff(e) or anyone else.

So what was going on?!

Was James's father  William or James, Cliff or Cliffe? (Would the parish records of James's marraige give groom's father's name? If so, I must check those to see what they say).

 How did a turnkey end up as a gentleman?

 How did he get away with claiming to be called Hilton on the marriage certificate? (Maybe identity checks weren't very stringent in those days).

James married into an extremely respectable family, the Gerrards of Ince Hall, Lancashire. Did the Gerrards know that they were allowing their daughter to marry a bastard - would they have been at all likely to countenance that in 1880? (I don't think the marriage was for an obvious reason - the first child was born 10 months later), or could they have been deceived by the Hiltons? 

It's not entirely clear from my aunt's notes whether she realised that James was illegitimate, but I think she must have known or at least had strong suspicions that she left uninvestigated..

I might get Thomas Worthington Hilton's birth certificate to see whether his father is on there (I'm guessing it might be a Mr Worthington). The notes say that Thomas was sent to a posh school in the south of England, while James was educated locally, so maybe Thomas's father paid for his education.

I need to look more closely for William/James Cliff(e), but it's not an uncommon name in the area, and a first glance suggested that there might be several candidates. And which is likely to be correct anyway?

I'd be very interested to hear people's comments and suggestions!

Hm. Looks like a waiting game!
Kooky

But it's very educational - I had to revise my British Constitution from 'A' level 50 years ago, refreshing my memory of when people got the vote! And investigating the history of Parliamentary constituencies. If ever it becomes more complete, it'll also be interesting for researching the history of a house - which is what I hoped to do before discovering that my area isn't on there at all.

When FindMyPast sent an email saying that they now have electoral registers 1832-1932, I thought I was going to make great progress with the family beyond 1911, but they seem to be far from complete. I can't find Sheffield at all, for a start, and I'm also struggling with Salford, which seem to be indexed under Lancashire and split into several different sections It's going to take a while to get my head round Parliamentary constituencies, especially for areas I'm not very familiar with. I know that up to 1918, and 1928 for the women  a lot of my family would have been too poor to have a vote,  again, but they also seem to live in the wrong places!

I've now got William's death certificate, and it's all become more puzzling:

1881 and 1891 : William, Alice and children living at 60 Lissadell St, Pendleton, Salford

1901: Alice and children at 3 Strawberry Hill, in same enumeration district. Alice is shown as Head, I can't find William on the census at all - my original question. An unrelated family are at 60 Lissadell St

1903 : Alice dies

1904: William dies of "bronchitis enteritis" - his occupation is "sawyer (journeyman)", so possibly a work-related disease. His address is given as 64 Lissadell St. On the earlier censuses, no.64 either isn't listed or is shown as "office". His son Hugh registers the death. His address is given as 15 Chaney St.

So I've still no idea where William had disappeared to on census night in 1901, or why he ended up back on Lissadell St by 1904, but at a number that previously wasn't listed as a house! All I can think of now is to see if there are any street directories for Salford that might throw any further light. Any other thoughts?

1911 I ha