Pateley Bridge

Butcher, Baker

John ROBINSON of 13 Kendal Lane, Leeds filled out the 1911 Census form. He was the eldest of four siblings, all of them single, ranging in age from 54 down to 39. They were born into the farming family of Timothy and Elizabeth née THORPE at Clough House near Pateley Bridge. The Robinsons moved to Easingwold, perhaps shortly before Timothy’s death in 1890. Widow Elizabeth gave her occupation as “farmer” at Plump House the following year but in 1901 was living at Kendal Lane with the four children who occupied the same house ten years later.

Robert, a butcher in 1911 must have been preparing for his marriage to Florence WRIGHT, just a few days or weeks after the census was taken. He was 39 and his bride was about three years younger.

Free BMD Marriages Jun 1911: ROBINSON Robert E & WRIGHT Florence, Leeds 9b 643.         

Ten years earlier and just a mile away in Burley Road, Florence was living in a similar household to Robert’s, with her widowed mother Hannah, younger sister Maggie and a brother-in-the-middle Harold, 25, a foreman in the timber trade. The three women were all confectioners.

I don’t know where or when Robert and Florence met but in 1921, they lived in Filey on the corner of Hope and Mitford Streets.

Robert had undergone a career change and was making the most of his wife’s confectionary skills. He was now a baker, with Florence as his “assistant”. The dwelling also sheltered their daughter Kathleen, aged six. She was an only child and had three years to live. Not long before her ninth birthday, she dressed up fancily for a notable Filey event.

Extract

Row 1 | 1737 Robinson E11 | Cross

In loving remembrance of KATHLEEN, dearly loved and only child of R. E. and F. ROBINSON, born 11th March 1915, died 23rd Dec 1924.

Also, ROBERT EDWARD, dear husband and father, re-united 20th October 1961, aged 90.

FLORENCE, mother of KATHLEEN, died 17th March 1951 aged 76 years.

Crimlisk Survey 1977

Shared Tree.

Timothy and Robert Edward ROBINSON not found

Elizabeth THORPE not found

Frederick Wright [LW1V-68G]

Hannah BARMBY [LW1V-68P]

Florence WRIGHT [LW1V-68L]

Fishing for Thomas Mackrill

I have cast my net into the sea of sources in the hope of catching Thomas, husband of Margaret, the second daughter of Barnet MURPHY and Susanna nee CHAMBERS (see A Childhood Memory).

The marriage of Thomas MACKRALL (sic) and Margaret was registered in Tadcaster in 1857. The 1861 Census places them at the same address as Margaret’s widowed mother but separates the two households. Thomas is 32 years-old, working as a flax dresser and his birthplace is given as “Holden” in the Findmypast transcription. In the page image it looks like “Hebden” to me – a small settlement near Pateley Bridge. Margaret is nine years younger than her husband and a winder in the flax mill. The couple have two children already, Mary Ellen and Francesca.

By 1871 they have moved to Selby. Margaret has enough work at home with six children aged between one and thirteen. Thomas is still a flax dresser. The transcription does not give birthplaces but the page image clearly shows Thomas entering the world in “Beverly”. In 1881 this becomes “Bewerley”, half a mile south of Pateley Bridge. The family has returned to Clifford, just outside Tadcaster, and four children have been added to the roster.

Something happens in the 1880s. It isn’t possible to determine how long Thomas lives apart from Margaret but on census night 1891 he is in Clifford with two of his youngest children and with Margaret’s elder sister Ann, 56 years old, a seamstress and unmarried. Thirty miles to the west, at Northowram near Halifax, Margaret, 53, shares  her home with four of the older children.

Thomas dies before the next census. His young sons move to Halifax to live with their mother. Ann lives alone in Clifford and her death is registered soon after the census, in the June Quarter of 1901.

I had yet to find a record of the birth or death of Thomas. Then, this christening in Pateley Bridge appeared.

Thomas MACKRILL: son of James of Wath in the Parish of Kirby Malzard (sic), Miner, & wife Elizabeth, daughter of Humphrey & Hannah HANNAM. Born 21 December 1830; baptized 7 April 1831.

A shock awaited me on the FamilySearch Shared Tree.

I didn’t doubt for a moment that this fragment of pedigree was correct. Two children with middle names honouring maternal grandparents were clinchers. I had come within a whisker of making the kind of mistake on FamilySearch that I have previously spent hours correcting.

Somewhat ironically, I then found the death registration of “not my Thomas”, in Halifax in 1887, aged 56.

I have lost hope of catching Margaret’s husband but will add his children to the Shared Tree when I find the time.

Found Object 50 · Memory Stone

Royal Parade