Joseph Hartill

Joseph Hartill was baptized on 11 Oct 1772 in St Thomas Dudley. His father John Hartill would appear to be a relatively wealthy and active citizen of the burgeoning industrial town of Dudley. It is reasonable to think that the John Hartill who leaves a will in 1812 is indeed his father. Here John Hartill appoints his son Joseph as executor and leaves money to his daughter Anne Cooke, wife of James Cooke. John Hartill’s profession is recorded as broker. Joseph Hartill’s mother was Margery Cartwright, possibly a relation of the Vicar of Dudley Joseph Cartwright (1743-1812). Continue reading →
Last updated on 2 October 2017 by JJ Morgan

George Marten

George Marten was born on 4 Nov 1801 the third and youngest son of Robert Humphrey Marten, a wealthy businessman and dissenter. Whilst the two eldest sons went into the family ship broking business, largely established by their father, George Marten became a lawyer. Continue reading →
Last updated on 28 September 2017 by JJ Morgan

Emma Maria Martin

Emma Maria Martin, the third wife of Robert Humphrey Marten, was born in 1768 in the East of the City of London, the daughter of Samuel Martin, an upholsterer by trade. She was baptized on 4 Apr 1768 in Hand Alley Dissenters Church and probably had a strong non-conformist upbringing. The members of Hand Alley Church and the closely associated New Broad Street Independent Church were on the whole wealthy and practical city people. Continue reading →
Last updated on 9 October 2017 by JJ Morgan

Downing Sisters 1920s Photos

These pictures of Pamela, Hazel and Jill Downing, daughters of Noel and Molly, were taken by a professional photographer A. Clara Cooper, 203, Hagley Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham roughly at annual intervals in 1920s. Continue reading →
Last updated on 1 January 2021 by E Morgan

Pamela Morgan née Downing Memorial Page

This page is a summary of documents associated with Pamela Morgan’s funeral held on 8 Jan 2013. These were originally put up on this web site for those who were not able to attend on the day itself and now left as her Memorial Page. Continue reading →
Last updated on 4 September 2020 by JJ Morgan

William Lloyd

William Lloyd was born in Bristol between 1608 and 1611. His father was probably Thomas Lloyd, an important brewer who had married Elizabeth Gibbes in Christ Church Bristol on 14 Apr 1605. Continue reading →
Last updated on 30 September 2017 by JJ Morgan

Mary Anne Willington

Mary Anne Willington was the youngest daughter of Edward Willington and Sarah Baddeley. She was baptized on 21 Mar 1811 in Tettenhall Parish Church, although she may have already been two or three years old (according to some of the census records). Continue reading →
Last updated on 9 October 2017 by JJ Morgan

Edward Bagnall

Edward Bagnall was baptized at St Leonard’s, Broseley in Shropshire on 22 Mar 1761. He was the third of four sons of John Bagnall and Margaret Dixon. John Bagnall is described as a mining engineer , significant because Broseley was at the very heart of the Industrial Revolution, just a mile or so from Coalbrookdale and the famous Ironbridge, built in 1779. The Bagnall family were to embrace the new technology of the revolution and by the time Edward and his older brother John had reached adulthood their father had established important coal and iron interests in the West Midlands, notably the Golds Hill Iron works and in and around  Darlaston and Wednesbury where the pace of industrialization was ever increasing. Continue reading →
Last updated on 12 October 2018 by JJ Morgan

Isaac Thompson

Isaac Thompson was born in about 1772 to a non-conformist family in Sedgley, Staffordshire. He went into business as a Japanner and owned a Japan Factory in Oxford Street in Bilston. Records of some of his property dealings are available in the Wolverhampton Archives (Ref DX-510 from 1807-1828). His father Richard Thompson came from a line of Locksmiths in Sedgley and it is probably he who first ventured into this specialism of the metal trade.  Continue reading →
Last updated on 1 January 2018 by JJ Morgan

Eliza Ann Breakspear

Eliza Ann Breakspear was born in 1811 in Chipping Norton, the daughter of John Breakspear and Emma (nee) Salmon. Her father seemed to have moved around as her younger sister Emma was born in 1813 in Brill in Buckinghamshire and older siblings appear to have been born in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire. This could be because John Breakspear was a licensee of different pubs – we know that he was brought up in the Blue Boar in Chipping Norton. Continue reading →
Last updated on 27 October 2018 by JJ Morgan

Noel Downing Welsh Guards

Originally William Noel Downing joined the 21st Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers (4th Public School) as a private. This was one of the many so-called ‘pals’ battalions set up in the massive wave of recruitment in Sep 1914. After more than a year, the battalion was deployed to France in Nov 1915, but only saw limited action. The battalion, drawn from English Public schools and universities, was disbanded in April 1916 as many of the men took up commissions. Continue reading →
Last updated on 17 January 2019 by JJ Morgan

Thomas Owen Evans

Thomas Owen Evans was the eldest son of Major General Thomas Evans (CB). He was born on 2 Aug 1819, probably in Canada, but possibly in Cork, Ireland. He followed his father into 41st Foot and had obtained the rank of Lieutenant when he was killed by a sniper in Istalif, north of Kabul in Afghanistan. Continue reading →
Last updated on 17 December 2020 by JJ Morgan

Wilmot Edwardes

Wilmot Llewellyn Edwardes was born in Codsall in Dec 1845, the only son of George Edwardes, a local doctor and surgeon and his wife Anne, nee Evans. Continue reading →
Last updated on 18 July 2020 by JJ Morgan

Nelly Marten

Ellen Louisa Marten, known as Nelly, was born in Penn Hall, nr Wolverhampton, on 25 Jul 1859. She was the fifth child of Henry Marten, the Wolverhampton water engineer. We have a number of photos of her kept by her elder sister Florence Eliza Marten, most of which involve her in amateur theatricals.  Continue reading →
Last updated on 11 January 2021 by JJ Morgan