My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather was a Publican

Thomas Pearson was born and raised in Sheldon parish, Warwickshire. He married Mary Smith in nearby Solihull parish in 1823. Their only child, son Charles, was born in Tile Cross, Sheldon, in 1828. Charles’ baptism entry says his father was a victualler, living in Tile Cross. A victualler was also known as someone who operated a pub.

There are documents in the Warwickshire County Council record office that show the names of victuallers in the early part of the 19^th century. Thomas’ name appears on the list from 1824 through 1828. The 1826 entry specifically shows the pub name was the White Hart. The Tithe Apportionment list shows Thomas occupying a place called White House Public House, also in Sheldon, which may have been the same place. On the 1841 census for Sheldon, only Mary and Charles are shown, and she is listed as a Publican.

Thomas, Mary and Charles moved to Leamington Prior around 1845 where, according to the 1851 census, he ran another pub called Railway Tavern on Leam Terrace East. By 1861 it appears Thomas had got out of running a pub and was now a full-time baker. Charles eventually took over the business following his father’s death.

The White Hart Inn is still in operation on Gressel Land, in Tile Cross, now part of greater Birmingham. It was originally a timber-framed building erected in the 1600s.

 

Street view of While Hart public house (from Google street-view) – looking north across East Meadway

Street view of While Hart public house (from Google street-view) – looking west across Gressel Lane

I am still looking for the building that housed the Railway Tavern. It appears the whole block may have been redeveloped into residential housing in the 1900s so the original unit is gone. It may have been near the one that was occupied by the bakery, at 58 Leam Terrace East, later and pictured below.

 

Former Pearson home and bakery at 58 Leam Terrace East, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

I had another great-great-great grandfather, Samuel Davis, who was also a publican/victualler, in a village called Radford Semele, just a few minutes down the road to the east from Leam Terrace in Leamington. His daughter, Susannah, married Charles Pearson in 1851. I wonder if they met through the common business interests of their fathers – something to ponder. The pub in Radford Semele did not survive into the modern era. I am still looking for where exactly it was located, which might form the basis of a future blog post here.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated

Mothers’ Day

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day which, for genealogists should perhaps more properly be called Mothers’ Day because we have all found so many mothers in our families.

I am very lucky because I have photos of many mothers going back several generations. So what a treat it is today to share them.

This is my mother, for whom – for me at least – Mother’s Day was invented. She has not been with us for a very long time but she lives still in my heart and in my memories.

 

Norma Mable (Miller) Shepheard 1917-1974.

I knew both of my grandmothers though did not appreciate who they were and what they had accomplished in their lives until they were gone and I was researching my ancestors. Both were born in the US but chose to come to Canada – fortunately for me as my parents got to meet each other.

 

Grandmothers: left – Martha Alwilda Jane (McDaniel) Miller 1875-1956; right – Carrie Jane (Thompson) Shepheard 1889-1959

This photo of my two grandmothers was actually taken on Mother’s Day, 1940. It is a very unique and special remembrance of them.

A lady who became a mother to me, especially after the loss of my own mother, was the mother of my wife, Linda. She was someone very special to our whole family.

 

Jessie Walker (Cooper) McKay 1908-1998

I never met any of my great-grandmothers. They were all gone by the time I was born. But I do have photos of three of the ladies, so I can see, at least, what they looked like.

 

Great-grandmothers, left to right: Mary Elizabeth (Pearson) Shepheard 1866-1891, my paternal grandfather’s mother; Margaret Mary (Anderson) Thompson 1857-1919, my paternal grandmother’s mother; Alice Jane (Keith) Miller 1846-1914, my maternal grandfather’s mother

Learning about the families of my 2^nd great-grandmothers has been fascinating. I am lucky to have photos of some of them that have survived the years.

 

Great-Great-Grandmothers, left to right: Mary Crispin (Carpenter) Shepheard 1830-1890, a great-grandfather’s mother; Hannah Tunsal (Mayfield) Miller 1815-1909, another great-grandfather’s mother; Susan (Phillipo) Anderson 1836-1905, a great-grandmother’s mother; Sarah Jane (Baker) Keith 1823-1919, another great-grandmother’s mother

And then, of course there is the mother of my children. My mother loved her almost as much as I do. She has been there for me, in thick and thin, truly! She is my partner, my love and my best friend.

 

Linda (with Keltie)

Last, but not least are the mothers of my grandchildren. They are very important people in my life and in the family as they continue the roles of “Mother”.

 

Alice and Tamara

Among my family memorabilia are a number of cards and letters that go back several years. This one was sent to my grandmother, Carrie Jane Shepheard, by her daughter, Ethel Mae, in 1952, just a year before she, herself, became a mother.

To all the mothers, past and present, HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY!

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated

Finding Uncle Will in 1881

For some time, I could not locate the whereabouts of my Great-granduncle William John SHEPHEARD in 1881. He did not appear to be on any census list for that period, at least in the areas he grew up. He did surface in August of that year when he married Jane PAWLEY in London. It was just a small hole in my family history but one that proved to be quite illuminating when I finally filled it.

Why was he important? Well, he and his wife basically raised my grandfather, James Pearson SHEPHEARD, after his mother died seven months after his birth. Grandpa SHEPHEARD’s father, James SHEPHEARD, spent much of his time away, as a ship’s steward and was not around to take care of his son. It kind of fell, I think, to “Uncle Will”, as Grandpa called him, to step in and help out. He and Jane had no children and they had a stable life owning and operating a dairy business in Torquay, Devon where my grandfather had been born. So I wanted to learn a bit more about this man.

 

Left to right: brothers, John, William John and James SHEPHEARD’ photo taken in Taunton, Somerset about 1900

In 1871, at age 15, he was still living at home with his parents, on New Road, Ivybridge, Devon.  On Plymouth Road nearby lived Jane PAWLEY, a servant to Agness LIDDELL. By 1891, Will and Jane were married and living at 8a Cromwell Mews, Kensington in London. That address was the one he gave when he married. Jane lived at 14 Wyndham Place, Marylebone, London, some 2.3 miles away, across Kensington Gardens. It is not likely they were able to visit each other very often, so they must have kept in contact in other ways from the time they both left Devon – sometime in the 1870s.

 

1871 England Census – Family of John and Mary SHEPHEARD, living at New Road in Ivybridge, Devon

1891 England Census – William J. & Jane SHEPHEARD, living at 8a Cromwell Mews in Kensington, London

1881 marriage record for William John SHEPHEARD, of 8a Cromwell Mews, Kensington, & Jane PAWLEY, of 14 Wyndham Place, Marylebone (certificate obtained from General Record Office)

I searched for Uncle Will on both Ancestry and FamilySearch, under several different spellings. A William SHEPHARD, age 25, was shown on the 1881 census index, apparently living with an Eli CROSS at Brook House in Westbury in Wiltshire with a number of other people. When I opened that particular census page image, however, it showed only Eli and four other people by the name of BENNETT. The household list, though, had a number of other people including many members of a LOPES family. That did not make any sense and every link to a Lopes family member, or separate search on the Ancestry website ended up at the same Eli CROSS page. (That was five years ago. The links and searches still take you to that page now in 2015!)

So I did what was logical and went directly to the 1881 Wiltshire District 9 census and began browsing through the census pages. On the very first page I found the Lopes' family, with their servants, including one William SHEPHEARD, a groom. On the Ancestry transcription, William's surname was spelled SHEPHARD, an obvious error from what was actually recorded by the enumerator. On this page, only the LOPES children were recorded at the top of the page, with no parents listed. I thought, with the mix-up in sources that there might also be a missing preceding page with the parents’ names, but everything seemed to be in order when I went backward in browsing. I decided to try to find the family in other census records of 1891, 1871 and 1861.

I did find them all at last.To my surprise, in 1881 the parents, Henry and Cordelia LOPES, appeared to be living at their London city home in Cromwell Place while the children were at home in Wiltshire. Henry was at that time “One of HM’s Judges”. The family was also split in 1871, with the mother (shown as Lucy LOPES) and children at Cromwell Place, and the father staying in a hotel in Bristol with several other lawyers. Henry must have been on business at the time. In 1891 they were all back in Wiltshire and he was by then a "Lord Justice of Appeal". Henry Charles LOPES, later the first Baron Ludlow, was quite an interesting and influential individual. I’ll have more to say about him and his family is a subsequent blog post.

1881 England Census – William Shepheard living at Heywood House in Westbury, Wiltshire with LOPES family members

It appears that William John SHEPHEARD moved to Wiltshire prior to 1881 to be the LOPES' groom and then likely was assigned to the London House in 1881 as a coachman. He may well have been working for the family when he and Jane got married as they continued to live at Cromwell Mews. If you go to a Google Map and look at the aerial photos you will see that the Mews is in back of (stables area?) of the large homes on Cromwell Place. The Street View gives you a great look at the actual buildings, now converted, of course, to private residences.

1881 England Census – Henry and Cordelia LOPES living in at 8 Cromwell Place in Kensington, London

By 1901, of course, William John and Jane were back in Torquay, running the Shepheard family dairy for Uncle Will’s ailing father, John SHEPHEARD.

1901 England Census – William J. & Jane SHEPHEARD living at 42 Princes Road in Torquay, Devon

Judge Henry C. LOPES was actually born in Devonport and his wife, Cordelia in Egg Buckland parish, both in Devon. I am now curious about whether they had any connection with the SHEPHEARDs in Devon and will check that out if I can.

 

Did Uncle Will drive Judge LOPES around London in a carriage such as this one, a Town Coach, or closed carriage (photo downloaded from La Deetda Reads)

All census images downloaded from Ancestry; copyright held by The Nationals Archives. Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated