Author Topic: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham  (Read 2205 times)

Offline Jenny (Suffolk)

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William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« on: Monday 09 November 15 14:53 GMT (UK) »
Hi - I'm looking for confirmation of parentage of my G x3 father William Benson, fairly certainly born in 1828 in Bootle, Cumbria to a John and Jane Benson.  Via a teaching post in West Bromwich he ended up as the schoolmaster at Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham in Suffolk (where several RootsChat members have links I see). There are zillions of Bensons in that part of Cumbria and although we've inherited the journal of an Isaac Benson born 1800, who seems to have been an unmarried schoolmaster, I can't connect him definitely to William or William to which mother Jane by maiden name.

As I'm planning a trip to Wortham/Diss soon I'd love some advice about where I could look for background information about William and his wife Martha Annie.  Also are there likely to be records anywhere at all about employees of Hartismere Union in the mid 1800's?
 
Thanks!

Offline Bookbox

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Re: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« Reply #1 on: Monday 09 November 15 16:40 GMT (UK) »
Hi, and welcome to RootsChat  :)

To answer the second part of your question ...
Also are there likely to be records anywhere at all about employees of Hartismere Union in the mid 1800's?
The standard place to look would be the Board of Guardians' Minute Books for the Hartismere Union. These are at the Suffolk Record Office in Ipswich, but the Workhouses website suggests that few records survive, and no minute books at all before 1907.
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Hartismere/#Records
Nevertheless, you might want to email the record office and ask?
ipswich.ro AT suffolk.gov.uk

Staff records for the poor law unions are also held at the National Archives, Kew. They are not online, so you would have to visit, or have someone go on your behalf.

First, look up your man in the staff registers in MH 9/8
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1845711

Once you have the date of his appointment, go to the relevant volume of Poor Law Correspondence for Hartismere, in MH 12.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_srt=3&_st=adv&_aq=hartismere+436&_cr1=MH12&_dss=range&_ro=any&search=r

If you are lucky, you may find his application letter, references, etc. There is little if any indexing in these volumes, so be prepared for a fair amount of reading.

There's a description of the school at Wortham + illustration here ...
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/education/workhouse.shtml (near foot of page)


Online Kay99

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Re: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« Reply #2 on: Monday 09 November 15 16:45 GMT (UK) »
Hello Jenny - Welcome to RootsChat :)

Do you have the marriage certificate for William and Martha Annie which should list his father's name and occupation? There is a possible marriage listed on the FreeBMD index in Sept Qtr 1867 West  Bromwich Vol 6b Page 847 which includes a William Benson and Martha Annie Tyler

Have you found William pre 1861?  There is a William Benson age 22 working as a schoolmaster in the Union Workhouse at Whitehaven in 1851 - His birth place is listed as Cleator, Cumberland

Kay

Edit - If his parents names are from Family Search https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N546-QQ5  the same baptism is on FreeReg and lists the father John as a farmer living at New Town

Offline keyboard86

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Re: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« Reply #3 on: Monday 09 November 15 18:47 GMT (UK) »
Hi in addition to above post in 1861 he is aged 32 occ Schoolmaster of Workhouse b Bootle
Residing West Bromwich
Census ref RG09/2031/103/1
Keyboard86
Pelly/Pelley/Kingsbury/Challis/Nalder/Rochester/Raydenbow

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Offline keyboard86

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Re: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« Reply #4 on: Monday 09 November 15 19:15 GMT (UK) »
Hi again, that Staffordshire marriage looks good for William & Martha Annie, as in 1871 William Benson 41 occ Workhouse Master b Bootle Martha A 26 b Newport Isle of Wight with son William J aged 2 b Wortham have a visitor a Keziah Tyler 32? Wifes sister b Newport Isle of Wight
Residing Wortham, Suffolk
Census ref RG10/1736/133/13
Keyboard86
Pelly/Pelley/Kingsbury/Challis/Nalder/Rochester/Raydenbow

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Online Kay99

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Re: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« Reply #5 on: Monday 09 November 15 19:30 GMT (UK) »
If his parents are John and Jane this family in 1851 might be worth looking into - living in Preston with their daughters and son-in-law and family.  One daughter Jane was born in Whitebeck a few miles from Bootle.   Daughter Jane is living with George and Mary Troughton in 1841 in Preston.

George Troughton 35
May Troughton    34 b Ravenglass
Jane Troughton    11
Margaret Troughton 8
William Troughton 6
George Troughton 3
May Troughton    1
John Benson 63 Whitehaven Father in Law - Late Famer
Jane Benson 63 Mother in Law  Urswick, Lancashire
Jane Benson 24  Whitebeck. Cumberland

Edit - John and wife Jane still living in Preston in 1861 and his birthplace is listed as Whicham, Cumberland which is the same birthplace as the Isaac you mention who was a schoolteacher

Offline middlesbrough

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Re: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« Reply #6 on: Monday 09 November 15 19:37 GMT (UK) »
Hi,
The 1867 (3rd September) marriage in West Bromwich was by License. The occupation of William is schoolmaster residing at Hallam Street parish and Martha Annie Tyler residing at Hallam Street parish.

Offline Jenny (Suffolk)

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Re: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« Reply #7 on: Monday 09 November 15 20:35 GMT (UK) »
Thank you all for so many helpful replies and so quick off the mark! 

Yes, I have now found the 1851 Preston Quarter census reference and I'm sure that's my William so that's one step further back than the 1861 reference I already had.  I trawled across the Troughton family a couple of weeks' ago but that was before I knew about the Isaac Benson journal (in my mother's possession), so I will look at that again.

Thanks for the tip about the Marriage Certificate.  I had already found the basic record on Ancestry but it might be worth the £22 odd to know once and for all what William's father's name was even if mothers were not considered important enough to record back then! And I shall look in to the Workhouse record sources suggested too.

It's all incredibly addictive isn't it?! And I might eventually be able to put names to the photos I have of various Bensons dressed up for the cameras of Whitehaven and St Bees!

BW

Offline keyboard86

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Re: William Benson, Schoolmaster Hartismere Union Workhouse, Wortham
« Reply #8 on: Monday 09 November 15 20:44 GMT (UK) »
Hi do not purchase the marriage certificate from Anc*** use the GRO site, www.gro.gov.uk
Keyboard86
Pelly/Pelley/Kingsbury/Challis/Nalder/Rochester/Raydenbow

UK Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk