Pemberton family in Birmingham early 1830s

[JasonEllis]

I can help you with the Pemberton family of Birmingham. I have spent my time since Covid-19 lockdown in April updating my Pemberton and Smawley family history on www.familysearch.org. If you don't currently use it you will be pleased to know that it is free. After more than 30 years of research on this branch of my family I think I have now sorted out the Pembertons and Smawleys. A branch of the Pembertons has been in Birmingham since the 1500s. Abraham Pemberton was a big landowner in Digbeth at that time. But the family that displays the wealth (as mentioned by another respondent), were originally braziers of Leicester and despite being Freemen of the city of Leicester, a whole family influx occurred from Leicester to Birmingham in the mid 1700s (not unusual when cities became magnets). Thomas Pemberton (of that family) created the nationally important firm of Thomas Pemberton & Sons, brassfounders of Livery Street, Birmingham. The core family lived at Warstone House, Warstone Lane, St Paul Parish, Birmingham (the very heart of the Birmingham Jewelry Quarter, which was very fashionable in the late 1700s to early 1800s as its architecture displays to this day). Inevitably, marriages into other wealthy Birmingham families occurred (some involving the equally fashionable, nearby Edgbaston) and there is an almost endless amount of information on later Victorian decendents, such as Miss Louisa Ann Ryland (1814–89) a millionairess who gifted the 54 acre Canon Hill Park to the corporation of Birmingham. The core Pemberton family were non-conformists and you will find more information on their births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials if you consult the registers of St Mary Chapel, Whittall Street, Birmingham and the Old Meeting House, Birmingham. However, as I said, I hope that I have done a decent job of recording the entire family's genealogy on the free site www.familysearch.org. As you would expect, if you find anything new or contradictory to what I have recorded I would be delighted to hear from you.

Jason Ellis
 

[JasonEllis]

Hello again, I have done some more research, all of which I have documented in familyseach.org. I would say it is unquestionable that Hannah Maria (b1817), Sarah Louisa (1830-1885) and Rebecca (1824-1908) are sisters and the offspring of Sarah, maiden name unknown, who was born or baptised about 1792 either in the parish of Bolas, Shropshire or the nearby, but larger church of Newport, Shropshire. I will return to Sarah below.

Oldest sister Hannah Maria's decent is quite clear. She married Marmaduke William Osborne (b1809 Cork, Ireland) who established a successful business as bookbinders, stationers and printers in Birmingham in partnership with his brother Edward Corn Osborne. Both of their families are well documented because of their service as Aldermen, Justices of the Peace etc in Birmingham.

Second sister, Rebecca's decent is also clear. She made a good marriage for herself with William Johns Stubbs who matured from an ironmaster's clerk in the hell-fires of Wednesbury to the leafy suburbs of Sutton Coldfield. I pursued their family down to relatively recent times with great success, until I said to myself, "you have to stop, this in not your family, you have gone down a rabbit hole"

Oldest sister Sarah Louisa (1830-1885) never married. She lived for a while with Marmaduke and Hannah Maria and died a spinster in 1885.

I don't rule out other siblings. There are huge gaps between 1817, 1824 and 1830. Anybody who studies family history would know that gaps like this would be extraordinary in the early 19th century.

But like you, I am stuck with - who is the Sarah (born c1791/2 in Shropshire) who married an unkown Mr Pemberton some time before 1817, probably in Birmingham, but possibly in Shropshire? I have searched every avenue and can't find anything online. I do know to where to go next though! On the 1851 census Sarah Pemberton (by then her married name) was a "proprietor of houses". That must surely mean that she left a will, or failing that, letters of administration were granted. If this was my family I would be onto Birmingham library like a shot. But it's not my family, only of peripheral interest, so I suggest that should be your next step.
Good hunting.

It goes without saying that I would love to receive any feedback.

Jason Ellis