Job Clifton was baptised on 23 Dec 1734 at Christ Church Oldbury. His father was also called Job Clifton. Continue reading →

Edmund Clifton was baptised on 24 Mar 1776 in St Giles, Rowley Regis. His father was Job Clifton and his mother Alice Darby. The parish register of Rowley Regis records that when his parents died in 1815 and 1819 respectively they lived in Park House in Rowley. This then was probably the house that Edmund and his brothers Job and Samuel were brought up in. The Cliftons were essentially farmers of a middling status, but this economic activity was undergoing substantial change spurred by the rapid urbanisation of the area. Continue reading →

Daniel Chiswick was born in about 1827 in Poplar. He was the youngest son of Samuel Jervis Chiswick (1777-1839). He came from a long line of coopers and was to take up the same trade. His grandfather was Samuel Chiswick (1740-1790). Although he lived to a good age of 76 Daniel continued to live in the East End of London and circumstances seem to have got increasingly tough. Continue reading →