04
Oct
2017
William Henry Morgan
William Henry Morgan was born on 17 Aug 1880 in 52a Swaton Road, Bow. Continue reading →
04
Oct
2017
Noel Downing to Mother Letter, Mar 1915
This is the only war letter that has survived written by Noel Downing to his mother Hannah Pitt Downing. It has no date but it seems to recount his early experiences at Ashtead as a private with the Royal Fusiliers and that would make it most probably around Mar 1915. It would seem to post date the other letter address-headed Ashtead to his sister Mary as the Public School boys are being moved from billets (like Mrs Drew) into the new camp. Continue reading →
30
Sep
2017
Florence Marten’s Photo Album
Florence Eliza Marten collected a large photo album of her relatives in the late 1870’s and 1880’s. Some descriptions are annotated by her but most appear to be done at a later date by her daughter, Molly Evans. Here is a list of the individual photos a number of which can be found posted on this web site. Continue reading →
03
Sep
2017
Donald Morgan India Letters
Here are 9 letters exchanged between father and son towards the end of Donald Morgan’s time in India in 1946 as a Warrant Officer in the Intelligence Corps, British Army. Continue reading →
31
Aug
2017
Donald Morgan in India 1946
Donald Cecil Morgan a Warrant Officer in the British Intelligence Corps set sail from England for India on 29 Dec 1945, aged 23. He had been called up and spent an initial period at Bletchley Park from Oct 1943 to Oct 1945 and was to spend the next ten months in India where tensions were high as it embarked on the road to Independence and eventual Partition. Continue reading →
01
Jul
2017
William Chambers alias Ireland
A document in the Dudley Archives shows that there was a Deed Poll in about 1550 by a William Chambers Alias Ireland assigning ancient ecclesiastical land of the Priory of St John’s at Halesowen. A number of his descendants for the next 150 years appear in the local records of Rowley Regis and Dudley, using the names ‘Chambers alias Ireland’ These include intermarriages with the Darby family discussed on the website. The name Ireland is sometimes spelled ‘Ierland’ or ‘Yearland’. The same document demonstrates that they owned ex-monastic lands at Rowley called Freebodies, and this reference recurs in a number of later Darby wills. Continue reading →
28
Jun
2017
Edmonde Darby
Edmonde Darby of Oldbury in the Parish of Halesowen died and was buried on 5 Sep 1598 in St John the Evangelist Halesowen. He left a will dated 21 Jun 1598 naming his three children and the numbers of his grandchildren. Continue reading →
21
Jun
2017
John Cartwright of Rowley Regis, died 1587
John Cartwright of Rowley in Staffordshire left a will dated 25 Nov 1587. He seems to have been a man of moderate wealth and the will gives a whole list of fellow inhabitants of Rowley Regis who owe him money. This list is fascinating as a background to many of the families featured on this web site. Continue reading →
21
Mar
2017
Thomas Darby
When Thomas Darby of “the Portway in the parish of Rowley Regis” died in 1611 it is clear from his will dated 28 Mar 1611, probate 22 July 1611, that he was an old man. He was probably born in the 1530’s. He requests to be buried in the churchyard of Rowley, “near unto my wife”. He identifies his surviving sister as Elizabeth Whitmore, who is recorded in the Parish Register as marrying Thomas Whitmore in St Giles, Rowley Regis on 5 Feb 1555. Continue reading →
01
Mar
2017
Maurice Goldman
Maurice Goldman was born in Stamford Hill on 30 Jul 1908, eldest son to Benjamin Goldman and his wife Rachel Festenstein. In the 1880’s, Benjamin Goldman, as a young child had fled Russia with his parents as Jewish emigres. He went on to found a successful Timber Business in London called B Goldman and Sons. Continue reading →
12
Feb
2017
John Turton of Rowley Regis
John Turton, yeoman of Rowley Regis left a will probate 7 May 1635. He names his three sons William, John and Thomas and three daughters Eleanor, Elizabeth and Mary. William, Eleanor and Elizabeth are all married. Continue reading →
09
Jan
2017
Humphrey Coleborne
Humphrey Coleborne, yeoman of Rowley Regis, left a will Probate 15 Sep 1660. It is clear though that his interests and roots came firmly from the nearby town of Dudley, also at the time in Worcestershire. Continue reading →
07
Jan
2017
Edmund Darby
There were three successive, fathers and eldest sons, called Edmund Darby of Rowley Regis, near Dudley in Staffordshire. Firstly Edmund Darby buried in St Giles Rowley Regis on 22 Feb 1687/8. Secondly Edmund Darby 1670-1746 Thirdly Edmund Darby 1695-1768. All were literate and left wills, held at Worcester. Continue reading →
19
Dec
2016
John Bagnall
John Bagnall, the elder, was baptized in St Leonard’s Broseley on 4 Nov 1730. In his will of 1800 he describes himself as a yeoman of Darlaston, some 40 miles to the east. This description though, is a little misleading as it might imply that he earned his living largely through agriculture. We can be pretty sure that the reason he moved to the area was because of the Coal mines that existed or were even opened by him on his land in Darlaston (probably behind Pinfold Street). His sons and grandsons helped build a number of significant Iron Works, first at Gold’s Hill, just west of Walsall, that became a major force across West Bromwich, Walsall and Tipton best known and named after the second generation, John Bagnall the younger, as “John Bagnall and Sons”. Continue reading →
27
Nov
2016
William Barnesley
William Barnesley was born in Trysull, near Wolverhampton, in about 1568. His parents were Thomas Barnesley and Katherine Cooke, who had married in All Saints, Trysull in 1565. Continue reading →
26
Nov
2016
John Bradney
John Bradney was probably born about 1590 in Penn, near Wolverhampton. When he died, he left a will written on 30 Apr 1667 (but probate 9 Sep 1675), in which he is described as a yeoman of Nether Penn. He was buried in St Bartholomew’s Penn on 15 Jul 1675. The executors of his will were William Bendy and William Barnesley. Continue reading →
22
Nov
2016
Thomas Pudsey
Thomas Pudsey was baptized on 24 Mar 1607/08 in Sutton Coldfield but lived most of his life in Seisdon, near Wolverhampton. He was the son of Nicholas Pudsey of Harborne and Catherine, daughter of Raphael Norman, vicar of Harborne. This was a cadet branch of the gentry Pudsey family of Langley Hall in Warwickshire. Continue reading →
17
Nov
2016
William Hayward of Little Wenlock, died 1708
William Hayward was born in 1642 and was buried on 14 Sep 1708 in St Lawrence, Little Wenlock. He is the father of Mary Hayward, the second wife of William Bendy (1653-1724). In the marriage bonds of February 1697 it states that she comes from Little Wenlock in Shropshire. The Hayward family were prominent landowners in that area of Shropshire since the middle ages. Continue reading →
06
Nov
2016
Samuel Hellier
Samuel Hellier, grandfather to Sir Samuel Hellier, lived from 1672 to 1727. He was the son of Samuel Hellier, a London Merchant and his wife Lydia. There were to be four generations of Samuel Helliers in a row, and each of the first three had a single surviving son, called Samuel to continue the family name. This is significant because when the fourth and last, Sir Samuel Hellier came to write his will in 1784 he was a bachelor and had no first or even second Hellier cousins to whom to leave his vast accumulated estate and also considerable debts. Continue reading →
27
Oct
2016
Sir Samuel Hellier
Samuel Hellier was baptized in St Clement Danes, London on 18 Nov 1736, the son of Samuel Hellier, a Staffordshire landowner, barrister and antiquary. He was knighted in 1762, after serving as High Sheriff of Worcestershire in 1760 and making a well received speech on the birth of the Prince of Wales, the future George IV. His father, who died in 1751, had accumulated estates across Staffordshire and Worcestershire, including the new family seat of the Wodehouse, Wombourne. Sir Samuel was also the heir, through his mother, of the Huntbach’s family estates at Featherstone, but did not inherit until his dowager grandmother died in 1782. He himself died two years later bequeathing everything to Rev Thomas Shaw. Continue reading →