William FOSTER’s middle name in the records comes in several varieties. He revealed his preference when signing the register on his wedding day.

William farmed at Muston Grange and may have been quite prosperous, judging by the extravagance of his memorial in St Oswald’s churchyard. Sadly, the headstone has fallen onto the red granite “coffin”.

The highly polished stone is difficult to read (and photograph) but it remembers his short life, one of his children and his wife. The FamilySearch Shared Tree gives him an extra child (perhaps two), and his wife Mary Ann RALEY is waiting for someone to find her ancestors.

Wharton SMITH is a brother to yesterday’s quartet of Church Cliff Farm girls. He avoided the contagion that killed his sisters, emigrated to South Africa, and came fairly close to reaching a century. He was forty years old when his first child was born.

(The wee girl is mistranscribed as “Lillah” on the Shared Tree, from a record that shows Wharton divorced his first wife.)

Path 170 · Cleveland Way