11
Jan
2012

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
29
Nov
2011

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. Continue reading →
Last updated on 17 November 2024 by JJ Morgan
24
Nov
2011

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 2 December 2024 by JJ Morgan
09
Nov
2011

Eliza Ann Breakspear

Eliza Ann Breakspear was born in 1811 in Chipping Norton, the daughter of John Breakspear and Emma (née) 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 was probably because John Breakspear was for a time working as an Excise Officer, although he soon reverted to being licensee of a string of pubs. He had been brought up in the Blue Boar in Chipping Norton. By 1820 the whole family had moved to Birmingham. Continue reading →
Last updated on 24 August 2025 by JJ Morgan
06
Oct
2011

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
16
Aug
2011

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
10
Mar
2011

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
13
Feb
2011

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
01
Feb
2011

Frank Marten

Francis Alfred Marten was the youngest son of Henry Marten and his wife Frances, born on 14 Mar 1862 at Penn Hall, Staffordshire. His mother died twelve days after his birth. He never married and died aged 29 on 1 May 1891 in Pakkoka in Northern Burma. This date of death is recorded in Sir Alfred George Marten’s family tree. Continue reading →
Last updated on 9 October 2017 by JJ Morgan
25
Oct
2010

Samuel Chiswick

Samuel Chiswick was baptized on 27 May 1740 at St Dunstan’s Stepney, the eldest son of Samuel Chiswick, a miller from Poplar. The parish records give a fair amount of details of his life. He was the first of a long line of the Chiswick family who became coopers in the East End of London. Continue reading →
Last updated on 17 October 2017 by JJ Morgan
01
Sep
2010

Alice Harford

Alice Harford was the youngest daughter of Thomas Harford, a Quaker, and was born in about 1708. Thomas Harford had married Martha Butler, Alice’s mother, on !8 Mar 1688 in the Society of Friends meeting house in Bristol. The Harford family owned estates in Marshfield in Gloucestershire and either for economic reasons or religious reasons a number of the branches of the family moved to Bristol and took a prominent role in the city’s affairs and in particular with the trade to Virginia and Pennsylvania. Alice had at least five elder siblings. Continue reading →
Last updated on 1 October 2017 by JJ Morgan
29
Jun
2010

Evans Daguerreotypes

We have a collection of nine daguerreotypes of the Evans family – mostly of youngish men. It has long been presumed that they are the sons of Richard Evans (b 1797) and Mary Evans (nee Shaw-Hellier). They were in the possession of Mary at her death in 1878 and passed to her children Sarah and Henry. However, there are major problems with identification and the precise identity of each is difficult to determine. The issues are as follows. Continue reading →
Last updated on 9 March 2018 by JJ Morgan
15
Jun
2010

Mulgrave Castle School

Noel Downing attended the small private prep school called Mulgrave Castle School from 1899 to 1902. It was based in Mulgrave Castle near Whitby, the seat of the Phipps family. We have about thirty photographs of his time there – some official school photographs as well as his own snaps. Continue reading →
Last updated on 1 November 2018 by JJ Morgan