A-Z Challenge 2003: Family Traits - L for LONG-LiVING

 My Theme for the A-Z  Challenge 2023

Family Traits, Quirks and Characteristics 

L for LONG- LIVING 

My GG Grandfather Thomas Weston & MY GGGG Grandfather John Danson 

 

 

 

 

 

I am lucky - I come from a LONG- LIVING  line of ancestors,  In 1900 the age expectancy was only 50,  partly so low, because of the high incidence of infant mortality and the death of women in childbirth.  

But my great, great, great great grandfather  John Danson (1736-1821) lived to the age of  85.   

 

 

Poulton Parish Register recorded the baptism of John Danson at St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde,  Lancashire, on 19th September 1736, son of Peter Danson, husbandman of Poulton. 

John's marriage was traced to 20th May 1757 where he was described as "of Thornton in the  parish of Poulton".  His wife was Margaret Fayle - father Henry.

John and Margaret both proved to be LONG- LIVING with Margaret buried at Poulton on 26th December 1815 aged 85 and John dying six years later, also aged 85, buried at Poulton on 30th May 1821. 

John  made his will on 29th December 1813 and this document was traced in Lancashire Record Office and there are little touches which make fascinating reading.   It conveys something about John's standing in the community, his level of education, confirmed the names of grandchildren, and  gives us a picture on important possessions at the time.

 

“This is the last Will and Testament of me, John Danson of the Holme Nook within Great Carleton, yeoman. …….. 

 

I give and bequeath to my son Henry my desk and all my books…….to my daughter Jennet, wife of John Bryning, my corner cupboard now standing in the parlour of my house and my meal chest in the room above the same. ……..

 

To my dear wife Margaret……my household goods, furniture, plate, china and implements as she may think necessary to keep house with and to be enjoyed by her during her life ……..and all the rest residue of my household goods…..to my son Henry and Jennet equally to be divided……

 

And as to for and concerning  all my messuages (?), lands, tenements and heriditaments……my personal estate and effect, I give devise and bequeath  to my said Henry his heirs executors.

And from and after the death of my said daughter Jennet or after the death of my said wife, I give and bequeath the said sum of £800 equally unto and amongst all and every one of my grandchildren Richard, Thomas, Jennet, Margaret, Betty and John, sons and daughters of my said daughter Jennet.

And lastly I nominate and appoint my said son Henry and my grandsons, John Danson and Richard Bryning, Trustees and Executors”

A search in the Death Duty Records held at the National Archives confirmed the death on 27^th May 1821 of John Danson, late of Holmenook.   The statement also confirms the legatees of Margaret Danson (wife),  Henry Danson (son), Jennet Bryning (daughter), and grandchildren Richard Bryning, Jenny Chadwick, Thomas Bryning, Margaret Bryning, Betty Bryning and John Bryning.

Only two children Henry and Jennet are named in John's will.  However Poulton Parish Register,  transcribed on http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/,  confirmed the baptism of an earlier Henry in 1757 - buried in 1762,  Ellen baptised 28th May 1763, and also the burial  of Margaret aged 7 months in 1772.  What happened to Ellen remains a puzzle - more research needed here! 

But with the birth of John in 1736, I hit the proverbial brick wall with my Danson research and have been unable so far to get back any further.  A fellow researcher has given me some possibilities for John's father, Peter that he found on Ancestry and Find my Past, but I am not convinced and need to follow these up more closely. 

 

 

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A Life Spanning Ten Decades - My GG Grandfather Thomas Weston

My great great grandfather Thomas Weston was born in 1821 – just 6 years after the Battle of Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleon, with George IV on the throne.  He died in 1917 amid the apocalypse of the First World War.  His life spanned the accession of Queen Victoria  in 1837 and her death in 1901;  the Crimean War and the Boer War;  the introduction of the railways, the telephone, bicycles, the motor car and early radio and air flights.

My Weston ancestors have been shadowy, bland  figures in my family history, with few photographs and anecdotes being passed down.   but Thomas emerged as the most interesting character.  His first wife died soon after the birth of their seventh child.  Within the  year Thomas had married again – his second wife a young widow 18 years his junior and with two young children.    At the age of 54 Thomas fathered his namesake son.  

 The River Severn, flowing through Shropshire -

image courtesy of Pixabay.com

Early LIfe

Thomas Weston was baptised at Worfield, near Bridgenorth, Shropshire on 20th August 1826, 15 months after his elder sister Elizabeth. The Worfield Parish Register showed that both children were named after their parents and paternal grandparents.  Thomas and Elizabeth Weston.  Unfortunately the family, with young Thomas aged 14,  could not be identified in the 1841 – the first census to be published with names.

In 1851  Thomas, described as a mason,  was a visitor at the home of his future wife's family at Worfield - John Walker, a farm labourer, aged 60, his wife Elizabeth aged 59 and two daughters Fanny, 19 and Jane 15.

Thomas's fiancée Ann was away from home, a 22 year old housemaid on a large farm at Badger.  Farmer William Bate farmed  444 acres with 6 labourers, 3 boys and 5 women, with other servants in the household a cook, dairymaid,  groom, cowman and under waggoner.

Married Life

A few months after this March census, Thomas and Ann married on 5^th June 1851,  at the Parish Church of Badger, Shropshire.   Thomas,   who signed his name with his mark,  was described on the certificate as a bricklayer of Pattingham, Staffordshire (across the border from Shropshire)  with his namesake father a labourer. Ann was described as a servant from Badger, with her father John also a labourer.  Witnesses to the wedding were Joseph Humphries and Emily Lee.

A year later their son was born at Pattingham on 7th June 1851, named John Thomas after both his grandfathers. 

By the time of the 1861 census, the family had grown to four children, with son John Thomas 9 and three daughters Caroline Emily 8, Evangeline Lucy 5 and Clara Jane 20 months. all born at Pattingham.  The Christian names seemed rather grand for a very ordinary family.  Later research showed that the names of Lucy and Jane echoed those of Ann's sisters and perhaps Emily was named after the witness to Ann and Thomas’s wedding.  The background to Evangeline’s name  remains  a mystery.

Ten years on in 1871 the family were still at the Village of Pattingham, with two more children - both sons – Alfred and Richard.  Eldest son John Thomas (my great grandfather)  was working away from home as a farm labourer.

But by the time of the 1881 census,    father Thomas was described as a 54 year old widower, still at the Village, Pattingham, with his three youngest children Alfred 15,  Richard 13 and the latest addition to the family  - Annie, aged 7, and an 18 year old  domestic servant Laura Louisa Jones.  Annie’s mother must have been 48 years old when her youngest daughter and namesake was born in 1874.

Remarriage

Thomas’s first wife died in January 1881. Yet by the autumn of the same year 1881,   Thomas had married again - his new wife  a young  widow, Harriet Edwards,  born in a neighbouring  Shropshire village.  Harriet was eighteen  years his junior with a young son  John Edwards joining the Weston household.   At the age of 54, Thomas became a father again with a new namesake son,  Thomas.

Onto the 1891 census, where Thomas was listed with his wife Harriet,  12 year old stepson John Edwards joined  the family, that comprised Richard aged 22, now a garden labourer, Annie aged 17, and their half brother 9 year old Thomas, plus a 6 year old boarder William Rogers. 

Later Life

1901 saw the Weston family still in the Village, Pattingham , with Thomas senior 74, still described as a bricklayer,  Harriet 57, Annie 27, a schoolteacher, and William Rodger, aged 16, a gardener and  a boarder still with the family, and 2 year old granddaughter Elsie May Adam (a new name in the family tree).

Ten years on in 1911   the family consisted of Thomas aged 84, Harriet 67, William Rogers 26, now described as “adopted son”, (another story to unravel here)  and  grandson Cecil Davies 6.   A Wolverhampton death record of 1913, was traced of a  Harriet Weston aged 69, believed to be Thomas  Weston’s second wife.   

One of the very few anecdotes that has come down on the Weston family was told by  my uncle Fred Weston (born 1905),  who remembered his great grandfather Thomas climbing trees to pick apples and plums, whilst in his 90s.    

Thomas Weston died 26^th December 1917  at  Mill Green, Aldridge  aged 91 from bronchitis and senile decay - the informant his son-in law, Thomas Davies, husband of his daughter Annie – a very long life at a time when in 1900 the average aged expectancy was only    50. 

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     ONTO M for MYSTERIOUS

IN CASE YOU MISSED

A for ADVENTUROUS, B for BIGAMOUS, C for CRIMINAL,  D for DEVOUT

E for ENTERPRISING  & ESTEEMED,   F for FEISTY

  

G for GENIAL & GOOD LOOKING,  H for HEROIC    I  for INSOLVENT  

 J for "JOINER", K for KEEPER OF THE FAMILY ARCHIVES