John Onions died on 22 Jan 1814 and left a will, Probate Worcester 15 Jun 1814. In the All Saints, West Bromwich Register, his burial, ‘John Onions of Oldbury’, is recorded on 26 Jan 1814, aged 50.
He would therefore have been aged 21 or so when he married Maria Bacon on 12 Jul 1785 in Kingswinford. She was a year younger than her husband, but also the mother of a three year old daughter, Priscilla.
Priscilla had been baptised on 12 May 1782 in St Mary’s Kingswinford under the name of Priscilla Croft Bacon. It seems very unlikely that John Onions was the father, yet his will shows that Priscilla, his stepdaughter, together with her husband John Cheshire, came to be the focus of his bequests and inheritance.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that John Onions’ decision to marry Maria, with her seemingly illegitimate child, transformed their lives. Priscilla’s life chances undoubtedly were boosted. Her education and literacy allowed her to marry John Cheshire on 1 May 1797, someone who was to become a ‘good friend’ and cherished son-in-law of John Onions
John Onions was clearly relatively well off and probably related to the large Onions family of Broseley, Shropshire, who were iron founders there. His baptism could just be that of John Onions, dated 21 Jul 1765 again at St Mary’s Kingswinford. With further research this, however, seems unlikely. John Onions, like his wife, may well have had his life tainted by illegitimacy and this may be perhaps why his immediate ancestors are obscured
The descendants of Peter Onions and the Guest family, with whom they intermarried, had iron making interests not only in Broseley, but also in Staffordshire at Brierley Hill – but no obvious direct descendant connexions can be found.
Whatever his origins, John Onions was a literate and educated man. Unlike his wife, he was able to sign his Marriage Registration and his original will is in a neat flowing script, matching his signature.
Nonetheless, the sense is, that he is an outsider and does not have local family. This was reinforced by the fact that he had no children with his wife.
All this coincides with someone who probably held non-conformist views, which were prevalent in Oldbury and Smethwick, as with other families discussed on this site. All of the children of his stepdaughter were baptised in Oldbury by Halesowen Presbyterian church.
Neither is the nature of his career as an ironfounder at all clear. On his will it is his given occupation, but tracing him further back is difficult because there are several John Onions involved in the iron trade, most notably John Onions, ironmaster of Broseley who died in 1819.
Aris’s Birmingham Gazette on 7 Feb 1814 announced briefly in the deaths column : “Lately, aged 50 Mr John Onions of Oldbury”. The very fact of this announcement indicates a certain status, one not accorded to his namesake John Onions, Potter, of Kingswinford in 1816.
His estate was finally wound up with the following newspaper announcement in Aris’s Birmingham Gazette on 23 Oct 1815:
Notice to Creditors of John Onions, Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 23 Oct 1815
Sources and Notes
- Will of John Onions of Oldbury, Halesowen, Probate 15 Jun 1814 (Worcester).
- Date of death written in Cheshire Bible.
- The will of another John Onions, Potter, of the Thorns, Brierley Hill (Probate 9 May 1816, Lichfield) is interesting. It would seem more likely that he is the John Onions who marries Elizabeth Dancer on 11 Oct 1757. The parish register records his age at death as 83. His second wife Ann Onions left a will in 1811. She would be Ann Wilkes, widow who married John Onions in 1797. This John Onions’s son, also John Onions was still alive in 1816.
- The will of John Onions, Ironmaster of Broseley (Probate 15 Dec 1820, PCC) represents the main line of the Broseley Iron founders. He bought out the interest of William Bancks on the latter’s death in 1803. This included ironworks and blast furnaces in Brierley Hill (Kingswinford) Staffordshire. There is no substantive evidence that he is related to John Onions of the Thorns (linked by location) let alone to our John Onions (linked by occupation and location of marriage).
- June 2017 PhD Theses by Stephen Charles Hudson: INDUSTRIALISATION AND AN EARLY MODERN TOWN: BROSELEY IN SHROPSHIRE 1600-1820 – this gives a detailed analysis of the Broseley Iron industry with multiple references to the Onions and Guest families.