On This Day In October - Our Ancestral BMDs

[LizzieW]

On 5th October
Thomas Lank and Mary Kind my 6 x grandparents married at St Michaels Church, Uffington, Stamford, Lincolnshire in 1708

Mary Jane Mumby my g.g.aunt was baptised at St Botolph’s Church, Boston, Lincolnshire in 1842.  She had 13 children and died at the time of the 13th one’s birth from partus peritonitis.  Her husband was a schoolmaster – perhaps he was trying to fill his own classrooms.

Jonathan Benson my 5 x g.grandfather was baptised at Holme Cultram Abbey Church, Holme Cultram, Cumberland in 1734. 

James William Mumby my g.g.uncle (twice, he married my 2 x g.grandmother’s sister and he was the brother of my2 x  g.grandfather ) died at 15 Ruth Terrace, Campbell Street, Hull in 1886.  The cause of his death was Phtithis gravis (TB).  It was a sad end to an unhappy few years.  First of all his baby daughter died in March 1881 aged 2 months, then his wife died 3 months later, then 2 months after that his 4 year old son died.  James re-married 3 years later, but he was only married for 2 years before he, too, died.

Phebey Lowndes (formerly Pemberton, nee Hall ) my 5 x g.grandmother died in Manchester in 1791 from Weakness!  She was 66 years of age.  I can’t find a death for my 5 x g.grandfather Jeremy Pemberton, but I assume he must have died as Phebey re-married in 1779 and there was an announcement of an intended marriage on 11 April 1779.  As at the time, she lived in a small Cheshire village, I doubt she would have been able to re-marry unless her husband had died.  I don’t know if she was living in Manchester when she died, or just visiting, but I do know she is buried in a Cheshire graveyard.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Pemberton (nee Woodward) my 2 x g.grandmother (and wife of the g.grandson of Phebey above) was buried at Kingsley Parish Church, Kingsley, Cheshire in 1869.  Prior to her death, she was a widowed butcher and farmer living with 8 of her 11 children and 2 visiting children.  Two of her own children were married and had left home and a third, although he had left home, died a year before his mother.  I have a copy of her will which gives the value of her effects as under £100 (worth about £52,000 today) even though she owned her own property a house in Kingsley which is still standing and her will mentions “all those of my cottages or dwelling houses with gardens and appurtenances ....in Kingsley”.  I guess the £100 didn’t take into account her properties which she stated should be sold and the proceeds divided between her 10 living children.  The family home remained in the family for some time, but has now been sold and modernised.  I have photos of before and afterwards which a distant ancestor sent me, having visited the property and invited herself in 

[nanny jan]

A lst cousin 2R, Margareta Mary Eva Lance born in Camberwell in 1882;  only child of Harry and Alice Agnes (nee Pain). She married Arthur Flack in Mildenhall, Suffolk in 1901.  They had 7 children and Margareta died in 1924.

[groom]

My great x 3 grandmother Ann Bates died on this day in 1852. She was born on the 1st August 1802 in Spalding Lincolnshire. She married Samuel Bills, who came from Grantham, on 29 Feb 1824 in London at St Giles without Cripplegate. They had 7 children. Samuel became the licensee at The White Lion 17 Upper Thames Street and then The White Hart PH at 96 Pennington St, Tower Hamlets, which is where Ann died.

I recently discovered that Samuel was fined 20 shillings in 1850 for selling spirits at a Fair without a licence.

[LizzieW]

On 6 October 
Samuel Collett and Susan Martha Nichols my 5 x g.grandparents married at St Peter & St Paul, Eye, Suffolk in 1724.  Samuel was a tanner by trade

Walter Benson my grandfather died on South Deeside Road, opposite the junction with Accommodation Road, leading to the farm of East Tilbouries, Aberdeen, Scotland in 1926.  The cause of his death was a comminuted fracture of the skull, with resulting laceration and destruction of the brain substance. following a motor cycle accident.  You can tell from the full description of where and how he died, that his death was on a Scottish record on Scotland’s People.  However, I have a report from The Scotsman dated 8 October 1926 (thanks to a kind Rootschatter) which reads:  “Mr Walter Benson, musical director of the Aberdeen Broadcasting Station (2 BD.), was killed instantaneously as the result of a motor cycle accident on the South Deeside Road, at Durris on Wednesday afternoon, while returning to Aberdeen from a trip up Deeside.  How the accident occurred has not yet been definitely ascertained, but something had gone wrong with the machine, which swerved and crashed into a fence at the side of the road.  Mr Benson was thrown from the saddle, and his forehead came in contact with a post so forcibly that, from the nature of the injuries, it is conjectured death must have been instantaneous.  When the body was found life was extinct”.

My grandfather had worked for the BBC (which was a private company until 1927) in Aberdeen as a Musical Director, the BBC kindly sending me a copy of the Staff Duties.  At the top of the command was the Station Director, then below his duties were the names and duties of the other directors.  My grandfather was listed under Musical Director and it gave a description of his many duties, including conducting the radio orchestra, which were many and varied.  He also played the oboe. The BBC also sent me a list of all the employees employed in Aberdeen and the dates they were employed between 1923 and 1932 and the reasons they left.  Next to my grandfather's name it states Deceased. 

He was buried in Allenvale Cemetery, Aberdeen and although the BBC paid for his funeral, there is no gravestone.  I do have a photograph of the grassy plot in the cemetery though.  He left a widow and 6 children, who lived in Manchester, so there’s no way they could have afforded to buy a gravestone.

[LizzieW]

And here's a photograph of my grandfather on his motorbike.  He was 41 when he died.

[nanny jan]

Born today in 1845 in London, my gt. grandfather George William Barham; son of Francis and Isabella (nee Bailey). George was baptised in April 1852 (along with several siblings) at St. Bartholomew, Moor Lane.  He married Elizabeth Mary Ann Burgess in 1865 at St. James, Shoreditch. They had eight children.  George worked as a labourer in a brass foundry and died aged 55 in 1901 in Shoreditch Infirmary.  Cause of death was dementia and facial erysipelas. He is buried in Manor Park Cemetery, Newham.

[LizzieW]

On 7 Oct 
Ernest Wright my g.uncle, known as Uncle Ernie was born at 4 Liverpool Street, Newington, Hull in 1893.  His mother was 50 years old, although at the time she was pretending to be 44.  Ernie was definitely her son and not the child of one of her daughters, as they were either pregnant themselves or too young to have a child.  Family legend has it that she was interviewed on the local radio at the time as being one of the oldest mothers – and this was well before IVF.

Philip Martin Benson my younger brother died in 1991 aged 38.  The cause of his death was a malignant astrocytoma (brain tumour).  He managed to live over 4 years with his illness, even going back to work at one point following chemotherapy and radiotherapy, before the tumour starting growing again.  I miss him every day, especially as I was 12 when he was born and used to help mum a lot with him as she was 42 when he was born and didn’t seem to be coping with him very well. His death shattered my parents, especially my dad who didn't believe his son would die from his illness.

Phebey Hall my 5 x g.grandmother was buried in the North Side of the churchyard of the Parochial Chapel of Witton-cum-Twambrooks, Cheshire, in 1791

[genjen]

Yesterday, 6th October was my great-niece, Bea's fourth birthday. She had a splendid new green party dress which she wore all day - little short of a miracle for a child whose preference is to be entirely unclad most of the time!


7th October 1917, my great uncle, James Shaw Howe, died from wounds sustained a few days earlier whilst serving with the Australian army in the Third Battle of Ieper. He was treated at a casualty clearing station and is buried in Lijssenthoek Cemetery, near Poperinge. I went to see him earlier this year and took his "death penny" with me for photographic purposes.

[quest40]

One I missed yesterday -
On 6 October 1840 my great grandfather, Frederic Sewell Wilson, was born in St George in the East, London.  He was the son of Robert Wilson and Harriet Sewell.