Jane BEDLINGTON was born in Robin Hood’s Bay. She was pregnant with her first child John James Edward when she married John DOWNEY in Hartlepool in 1867. The couple had a daughter in 1870 but neither infant made it to their first birthday and their father died early in 1871. Jane married Edward Joseph LITTLEFAIR in Stockton before that year was out. Annie, the fifth of their seven children, had eight children with Thomas HOPE of Stockton and their firstborn married Filonian Thomas “Dasher” HOLMES (AP 1692 · death · 4 October).

Edward Littlefair [L111-D2D] waits patiently for Jane at the Shared Tree altar.

Leah HOOK was baptised at Filey St Oswald’s. Her parents are not yet fully realised on the Shared Tree. Leah’s father was a waiter and I didn’t expect he would stay long in Filey. Five years later the family was living in Leeds, but Jane (née HILL) had stopped on the way to give birth to Robert in Bradford. In 1891 all four were enumerated in Knaresborough, the parents now bath attendants and Robert, 22, a tailor’s cutter. Leah did not declare an occupation. Both children were single and Leah remained so to the end of her days, though she may have had a long-term relationship with John Thomas HOLDSWORTH. In her mid-forties she kept a lodging house on Coltsgate Hill in Ripon and on census night 1911 John was her only boarder. He was about the same age, a widower working as a general labourer. Ten years later the enumerator found the pair at the same address. John was now a general dealer working on his own account and Leah engaged in “home duties”. I hope the two were happy together but the relationship, if it was one, was soon to end.

John Robert BARTON was born in Cloughton near Scarborough, as was his older stepsister, Rachel SELLERS. Their mother, Maria Elizabeth BUTTERY, was a widow when she married George Barton, a general labourer from Suffolk.

John Robert married Ann Elizabeth JENKINSON at St Oswald’s. A daughter had been baptised at the beginning of the year. Lilian Barton Jenkinson may have been an only child.

66 Willis B28  

In affectionate remembrance of WILLIAM WILLIS, who died November 14th 1823, aged 29 years.

‘Them also which sleep in Jesus will God

Bring with Him’

Also of MARY his beloved wife, who died June 28th 1864, aged 70 years.

(The remainder of the inscription is unreadable.)

Crimlisk Survey 1977

In 1861, Ann WHITTLES was keeping house for octogenarian Chelsea pensioner Donald MUNRO, the father of William who had died twenty years earlier (AP 1294 · burial · 31 July). Less than two months after the census, Ann had to seek other employment. For most of her remaining years, she was either a laundress or a charwoman and seems to have lived alone.