A Forgotten G.G. Grandmother - "Through Her Eyes" Thursday"

Sometimes we are so intent on researching the  key family names  in our family tree, that we can often ignore the wives of our direct ancestors, beyond the obvious name and dates.  

The new prompt from Diane of "Through Her Eyes" Thursday encouraged me to review my research on  Elizabeth (Calvert) Danson (1811-1879), my great, great grandmother.  It proved to be a story of early marriage, a large family, several moves, and at the age of 36, the  loss of father, mother and brother in the  space of 15 months.

Who was Elizabeth Calvert?
She was born in the village of  Out Rawcliffe,  near Poulton-le-Fylde,  Lancashire on 23rd October1811 and baptised 24th November 1811 at St. Michael's On Wyre Church, as the daughter of Nathanial Calvert and Grace Harrison. 

 

St.Michael's on Wyre Church 

At the age of 18,  in  April 1831 Elizabeth (often referred to as Betty)  married my great, great  grandfather Henry Danson, a yeoman farmer  of Trap Farm, Carleton. near Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.  Their eldest daughter, also Elizabeth was born a few months after the marriage - a frequent pattern of life in the period.  Eight more children followed over the next 18 years - five more daughters Grace (named after her maternal grandmother), Mary, Margaret, Ellen  and Jane  and three sons John, Henry and James , my great grandfather, born 1852 and  the youngest of the large family.

All the Danson children were baptised at St. Chad's Church, Poulton  apart from second daughter Grace who was born, according to census returns  in the picturesque village of Wrea Green. Unfortunately  I have been unable to trace a baptism to confirm this. The children's names reflected those of past family members - grandparents, aunts,  uncles etc.  

Yet Elizabeth's father Nathaniel did not feature at all.   Can I read anything into this omission in not following the traditional naming pattern in the north of England? 

In the 1841 census, the Danson family were at Trap Farm, Carleton, inherited from Elizabeth's father-in-law, with two servants and Henry's unmarried brother Peter.  But also living at Carleton at Whitholme were Nathaniel, aged 60 (no occupation given),  with his wife Grace, and only son Trelfall, aged 25.  

But that decade brought sad news for Elizabeth, when within a 16 months period, her father, mother and brother, all died: 

Nathaniel - 23rd April 1846, aged 67
Grace       - 10th February 1847, aged 69
Threlfall   - 17th July 1847 -  aged only 31, married with a young son.

It would be  interesting  to investigate whether there were  epidemics of illness at this time.  Certainly "The Manchester Times" of 4th July 1848 reported  on a debate in Parliament on a Public Health Bill, with concern expressed on the diseases caused by poor living conditions in many parts of Lancashire (principally the industrial towns). 

At the time of the deaths, Elizabeth would only have been 36 years old with seven children.  
 
Later Life

The Danson family were still at Trap Farm (below) 10 years later in 1851, with Henry described as a farmer of 31 acres,  in a household that had grown  to 13,  Grace had left home, but eldest daughter Elizabeth was there with her husband Thomas Bailey, and Peter was described as unmarried brother and annuitant. 

 

The farmhouse  was was in a dilapidated state when I took this photograph c.1998 - 

it has since been renovated.

With these details found so easily,  it was frustrating to "lose" the family from Trap Farm in 1861 (this was before census returns online).  What had happened to a seemingly prosperous farmer?  Had there been a downturn in agriculture?

Henry, Elizabeth and family were eventually traced to the parish of Layton with Warbreck, near Blackpool, where Henry was a carter.   There seemed to be a trend of married daughters returning to live at their family home with their husbands - this time living with her parents was third daughter  Mary, a laundress and her carrier husband William Henry Gaulter. 

1871 saw a another  change in 59  year old Elizabeth's life, for the family had moved to the village of Singleton,  where Henry, aged  64.  was toll keeper at the nearby Shard Bridg.  The household of nine  comprised  two unmarried sons,  Henry and James (my great grandfather) and two  daughters returning to the family home - Ellen with her young daughter May Danson  (illegitimate),  and Jane with her husband Thomas Cardwell,  a groom  and their baby  daughter, Ellen. 

Elizabeth died on 8th April 1879 aged 67, and her husband Henry 27th October 1881,   with Poulton Monumental Inscriptions recording their  burial in St. Chad's Churchyard.  

 
Notes:

• My review of research into Elizabeth (Betty) Danson, nee Calvert unfortunately revealed little beyond the obvious and I came away with no real sense of her as an individual. Searches of the British Newspapers Online proved negative in finding  anything on Elizabeth (Betty), her parents or her brother. 
  
  
  
• Threlfall's Christian name was intriguing, but,  as expected,  it came from the maiden name of his paternal grandmother Betty Threlfall who had married Thomas Calvert.  They had nine children -  Richard, William, Edward, Ann, Nathaniel, (my great great great grandfather),  Sally, Benjamin, Thomas and lastly Threlfall.
  
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• I was surprised in doing a search for Threlfall Calvert on Ancestry, the number of entries for that name in Lancashire.

Sources:

• Ancestry 
• British Newspapers on Find My Past  
• Lancashire Online Parish Clerks Project 
• Poulton Public Library 
• Blackpool Public Library