Edward Alsop’s children:
Of Edward’s children, I will look in this piece at Hannah, the eldest daughter and her family, many of whom were – at least initially – involved in milling and associated trades. The other children will be the subject of later posts.
Hannah Alsop (1801-1870)
Hannah was baptised at St Giles on 11 October 1801. On 21 June 1824 she married Isaac Mallin at Clent and they moved to Dudley Port where Isaac ran a grocer’s shop and also worked as a Corn Factor for the rest of his life. At the time of the marriage they were both described as ‘of Rowley Regis’.
Apologies for the poor quality of this picture. This image, uploaded by D Bickley (to whom copyright presumably belongs) is believed to show the grocer and corn factor’s premises at 8 Dudley Port, home of Isaac and Hannah Mallin. The middle building with the red roof is the premises in question and this also shows numerous outbuildings at the rear where presumably Isaac stored the corn and other materials he dealt with.
The Mallin family
Isaac Mallin, son of William Mallin and Ann nee Woodhouse, was born in 1800 at Portway where several Mallin families were farming in the 1841 Census.
The Mallin/Mallen family had many connections on the Oldbury/Portway/Tividale side of Rowley, and in the Brades area. They first appear in the Rowley Parish Registers in 1718 when Elizabeth, daughter of William Mallin was baptised at St Giles and recur frequently after that, using the names Abraham, William and Isaac repeatedly in all branches of the family which adds considerably to the task of sorting out who was who! They were business people, like the Alsops, mainly farmers, with at least three Mallin families listed separately in Portway in the 1841 Census but they also worked in associated trades and generally married into families in associated trades. Isaac and at least one of his sons became grocers and Corn Factors who would have many dealings with Millers. Others became Millers or worked in jobs associated with milling in some way.
I was also interested to note that Hannah’s maternal grandparents were Mallins, so she may have been related to her husband although I have not pursued further research on this line yet. It appears from baptismal records that Hannah’s maternal grandparents lived in Cakemore, so came under the parish of Halesowen, which at this time included Oldbury and certainly there were numerous Mallins still in this area in the 1800s so again there is this association with the Cakemore/Brades area.
The Mallin family – or at least some them – were, by the standards of most local families I have studied so far, well-to-do. A report of the death in 1838 of Mr Abraham Mallin of Tividale, aged 81, notes that he was formerly of Brades Hall and a report of a burglary in 1871 at the home of another Abraham Mallin of Oldbury lists some of the items stole on Christmas Day 1870. These included “six silver teaspoons, two silver table spoons and a pair of silver sugar tongs; two old Guineas; three gold dress rings; a silver pin; two pairs of gold ear-rings; a gold locket and a brooch.” This implies a level of living standards and prosperity quite outside the experience of most ordinary Hamlet folk, I suspect!
Isaac and Hannah had nine children – John (1824-1880), Ann Eliza (1831-1904), Joseph (1833-1912), Elizabeth Emma (1833-1897), Isaac (1835-1852), Abraham (1836-1902), Edward James (1838-1922), Hannah Alsop (1841-1918) and Mary Jane (1844-1910). The ties with Rowley Regis and the Mill remained close. The first seven children were baptised at Rowley, the last two at Tipton. Several of the boys learned milling skills, presumably from their grandfather so must have worked with him at the windmill.
Hannah died in 1870, aged 68 and was buried at St Giles, Rowley. Isaac died in 1885, aged 84, of Dudley Port and was also buried at St Giles, on 24 March 1885. His Will was proved in June of that year and his son Joseph and two of his sons in law were executors. His estate seems relatively modest, after his long business life – £286. 6s. 8d – but perhaps he had distributed some of his assets before he died.
Isaac and Hannah (nee Alsop) Mallin’s children
John Mallin (1824-1880)
John was baptised at Rowley Regis on 21 November 1824, the family abode was shown as ‘Windmill’ and he later gave his place of birth as Rowley Regis, later children of the couple gave their place of birth as Dudley Port or Tipton. In the 1841 Census John was listed at Portway, living with his paternal grandparents William and Ann Mallin, his occupation was shown as Male Servant. Also listed is an Elizabeth Mallin, aged 18, who I suspect was the Elizabeth Mallin, illegitimate daughter of Rebekah Mallin of Portway who had been baptised on 25 December 1822 so another grandchild. So he was effectively an agricultural labourer for his grandfather, not an uncommon situation in those days which gave occupation and training, though possibly not much pay!
In the 1851 Census John was living at Dudley Road, Tividale as Head of his household and was a provision dealer. His sisters Elizabeth Emma aged 23 and Ann Eliza aged 20 plus his brother Edward James aged 11 were also living with him. His younger siblings were still in Dudley Port with their parents and it seems reasonable to assume that his sisters kept house for him and probably helped in the business. This seems to be a recurring pattern in the family, there are several instances of groups of the children living together away from the family home but working in businesses which may well have been satellites of the main business in Dudley Port.
John married Rebecca Wright , by Licence, at Dudley St Thomas on 19 October 1854. Rebecca’s father was a wine merchant in Dudley so this is another example of business families inter-marrying with other business families. Their son Isaac Henry Mallin was born in the September quarter of 1855 although he was not baptised until 26 December 1858 at Dudley St Thomas. Rebecca Mallin died in the September quarter of 1856, the death notice for her which appeared in the Worcestershire Chronicle describes her as “the beloved wife of John Mallin and the only daughter of Mr H Wright of Dudley”. So Henry’s baptism is well after this date but he is still described in the baptism record as the son of John and Rebecca Mallin, of Dudley Port with no mention of her being deceased. John’s occupation was given in the baptism record as a Miller.
In late 1855/early 1856 a John Mallin, presumably this John Mallin, as Miller of Rowley Regis, was declared bankrupt. There is just one newspaper notice that I can find which names Joseph Mallin of Rowley Regis, a Miller as bankrupt, on exactly the same date as John, but no mention of John in that notice. Had they been partners in business I would have expected both of their names to appear. But this is the only one of numerous notices appearing in the press about this bankruptcy to name Joseph, all of the others only name John. Also, by 1861 Joseph was employed by the New Union Mill in Ladywood Birmingham, as Company Secretary, a position he held for several decades. I do not think that the company could have employed a bankrupt in this position of trust, so I am inclined to think that this one notice was an error.
There was also one Press advertisement in November 1860 for the Rowley Flour Mill to be let at a low rent. It included outbuildings and two dwelling houses. This states that ‘the Mill consists of 18-horse condensing engine, driving three pairs of French Stones, with Dressing, Bolting and Smutting machines, Bean Mill, etc all in excellent repair’. So it sounds as though someone had invested money in equipment, perhaps this debt had led to the bankruptcy. Enquiries were directed to Isaac Mallin, Corn Factor at Dudley or Joseph Mallin at the New Union Mill, Birmingham. This was just a couple of months after the death of Edward Alsop who had perhaps continued milling until his death and it may already have been known that John would not be returning from the USA.
It appears that John Mallin moved soon after his bankruptcy to the USA, as he appears in a Street Directory in Chicago in 1867 as a Miller and in the 1870 Census in Chicago, as a Miller. Trees on Ancestry also suggest that a John Mallin in New York in the 1860 census was also him but that John Mallin gave his place of birth as Canada so would not seem to be the same person. Living with him in Chicago in 1870 is a lady who appears to be his wife Mary and four children, Louisa aged 21, Andrew, aged 16, Jane aged 14 and Ada aged 12 who were presumably Mary’s children from a previous marriage as John was in England at the time of their births, although they appear to have adopted his surname. It is unclear when John died.
John’s son Isaac Henry remained in England for a period. He was living with his Mallin grandfather and two of his aunts at Dudley Port in 1871 but he then also moved to the USA. A Voter registration form dated 1892, shows him living in Mill Avenue, having been in the Precinct for one year, the County for 12 years and the state for 16 years. Isaac became a naturalised citizen and later married and remained in the USA until his death in Chicago in 1921.
I have found John’s parents Isaac and Hannah Mallin in every census during their lives apart from 1861 when I cannot find either of them anywhere. They were at 8 Dudley Port at the shop in censuses before and after that but in 1861 their son Edward James was there with his two younger sisters, with Hannah described as a grocer. They do not appear to be with any of their other children so far as I can see or anywhere else in the country. Then in the next census they are back in Dudley Port so they had not retired. I wonder whether they had gone to visit their eldest son John the USA. I don’t suppose I shall never know! I cannot find them on any passenger lists but those are not exhaustive so it seems possible that they had gone to visit their eldest son.
So it appears that John and his descendants settled in the USA and they appear not to have returned to the UK.
Ann Eliza Mallin (1831-1904)
Ann Eliza was born in about 1831 in Dudley Port. I have not found her baptism. She was living in Dudley Port with her parents in 1841 and in Tividale with her brother John in 1851. By 1861 she was living with her brother Joseph at the Union Flour Mill in Ladywood, Birmingham where he was the Company Secretary for many years. After Joseph’s marriage Annie Eliza moved back to Dudley Port and was living with her father in the 1871 and 1881 Censuses. By 1891 she was back in Aston, housekeeping for her brother Joseph again, he was a widower by this time but had his seven children living with him, ranging in age from 24 to 10. By 1901, Joseph, by now aged 68, had taken up a new occupation of Cycle Fitter and Annie was still living with him in Bolton Road, Aston, sharing housekeeping duties with her niece Lucy.
Annie died on 5 March 1904 at 18 Dawson Street, Small Heath, Birmingham, still living with her brother Joseph and was buried at Yardley Cemetery. She had never married but appears to have spent her whole life housekeeping for members of her family.
Joseph Mallin (1832-1912)
Joseph was born in 1832 and baptised at Rowley Regis on 23 September 1832, his parent’s abode given as Dudley Port and his father’s occupation as a grocer. In 1841 he was with his parents and siblings at the grocer’s shop in Dudley Port, aged 8. In 1851, he was living at Wombourne with the miller there and his occupation was also given as a Miller, so clearly more than one of the Mallin boys had learned the family trade from their grandfather Alsop. By 1861, Joseph was living in a company house in Ladywood, Birmingham where he was Company Secretary and Clerk to the Union Flour Mill. His sister Annie Eliza was also with him, as mentioned above, keeping house for him and they had one female servant, aged 15.
The New Union Mill, Birmingham where Joseph worked as Company Secretary for many years. Copyright unknown.
On 14 April 1865, Joseph married Mary Ann Morgan at St Barnabas church, Edgbaston, she was a Birmingham girl, born in Great Barr. They had eight children: Lucy Beatrice Rose (1867), Francis Joseph Edward (1868), Arthur William (1871), Charles Isaac (1872), Walter Herbert (1873), Albert Howard (1874), Charlotte Florence (1879-1879) and Harriet Lilian (1880). Mary Ann died in 1883, aged 41 and was buried at Witton Cemetery, Birmingham. That left him with several young children under ten so it is perhaps not surprising that his sister Annie Eliza moved back to keep house for him, apparently staying for the remainder of her life. Joseph never re-married.
By 1891, at the age of 58, Joseph was living in Stratford Place. Aston, with Annie and all of his surviving children and was described as ‘living on his own means’. All the children aged 16 or more were working, Lucy as a barmaid, Francis as a Warehouseman, Arthur, Charles, Walter and Albert as Clerks and the youngest two – Frederick and Harriet were still scholars.
In 1901, Joseph and Annie were at 120 Bolton Road, Small Heath, Birmingham, and six of the children were still at home, aged from 34 down to 20. Joseph had perhaps seen a business opportunity and had become a Cycle Fitter. Perhaps rotating things still appealed to him, mill wheels, bicycle wheels…
These were not very large houses but some of the houses in Bolton Road were three storeys so this may have been one of those.
In 1911, Joseph, now 77 and a pensioner, was living at 18 Dawson Street, Aston, with his son Frederick who was still unmarried and worked as a traveller in hardware. His sister Annie had also been living there with him until her death in 1904.
Joseph died in March 1912 and, like his sister, was buried at Yardley Cemetery. Most of Joseph’s working life had been involved with mills but that link seems to have been broken after him and none of his offspring seem to have gone into the mill business.
Joseph’s children appear to have remained settled in Birmingham, where they were all born, and not come back to the Tividale/Dudley Port/Rowley Regis area.
Elizabeth Emma Mallin (1833-1897)
Elizabeth Emma was baptised on 27 April 1828 at St Giles, Rowley Regis. Her parents were said to be of Dudley Port and Isaac’s occupation was given as a Huckster, which means someone who sells or offers goods, sometimes with implications of inferior goods or questionable sales techniques.
Elizabeth is not living in Dudley Port with her family in the 1841Census so must have been visiting elsewhere, possibly with family. Elizabeth’s sister Hannah was born in the first quarter of 1841 so it is possible that a member of the family took Elizabeth to stay with them, to help their mother.
Searching the 1841 census for Elizabeth, I found an Elizabeth Mallin, living in Church Vale in West Bromwich but she was shown aged eleven and there were twenty three children of various ages at this address, almost all of whom were described as pupils, although there was only one adult who might be in charge who was described as a governess, plus a couple of servants. The enumerator’s route described Church Vale and the Parsonage but there was no mention of the Parsonage in the listed people nor a clergyman of any sort. Living with the Governess Mary Hartland, (who was only 25) the Head of the Household Timothy Hartland appeared to be a bricklayer with the same surname and a baby aged one, also with that surname, followed by the children aged from 3-17. It seems very strange. So, if this was a somewhat chaotic establishment, I suppose the age might be wrong. But I then noted that in the 1851 Census, Elizabeth’s sisters Hannah and Mary Jane were also shown as boarders at this same address so it obviously was a boarding school and it seems that this was the correct Elizabeth Mallin. So it appears that the Mallin family were sufficiently prosperous to send their daughters to boarding school.
In 1851 Elizabeth Emma aged 23 was living at Dudley Road, Tividale with her oldest brother John who was then a provision dealer. Her sister Ann Eliza aged 20 plus her brother Edward James aged 11 were also living there.
On 5 June 1855 Emma Elizabeth married Jabez Baker, a Land Surveyor, at St Giles. They had four children: Joseph Edward was born in 1859 in Wolverhampton; Walter Jabez in 1862 in West Bromwich; Elizabeth Emma in 1866 also in in West Bromwich and Agnes Louise in 1869 in Lenton, Nottinghamshire.
In 1861 Elizabeth and Jabez were living at Railway Street, West Bromwich with their son Joseph Edward and also Mary Baker, Jabez’s widowed mother and a servant girl. Jabez was shown as a Land & Mine Agent.
By 1871, the family, now including all four children (but not Jabez’s mother) were living in Lenton Sands in Nottinghamshire where Jabez was employed as an Engineer. Their neighbours here included an Estate Agent, an Insurance Superintendent, a Photographer, a Police Constable and a shop keeper – and several lace makers, so it seems to have been a reasonably comfortable area. In 1881, the whole family were at 233 Derby Road, Lenton and Jabez’s occupation is shown as a Mining Engineer. By 1891, the family had moved to Loughborough Road, West Bridgford , Jabez still a mining engineer with their two daughters in the household, daughter Elizabeth Emma under her married name of Beardsley and Agnes Louise, still unmarried.
Jabez Baker, died on 18 Jun 1897, aged 70 and Elizabeth Emma nee Mallin died two months later in August 1897 and was buried on the 14 August 1897 in Nottingham. All four of their children remained settled in the Nottingham area for the rest of their lives.
Isaac Mallin (1835-1852)
Isaac was born in Dudley Port and baptised at Rowley Regis on 20 April 1834. In 1841 and in 1851 he was living at home with his family in Dudley Port. He died on Typhus Fever, aged 18 on 4 February 1852 and was buried at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 10 February 1852.
Abraham Mallin (1836-1902)
Abraham was born in Tipton (almost certainly in Dudley Port) and was baptised at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 17 July 1836. In 1841 and 1851 he was living at home with his family at 8 Dudley Port. No occupation is shown for him in 1851 but he was 15, a working age for boys in those days, so was probably working in the family business in some way.
On 3 April 1861 Abraham married Ann Hargrave Blewitt, daughter of Joseph Blewitt, Butcher (another Mallin marriage into another business family) and just four days later on 7th April the 1861 Census shows the happy couple living in their own household in Dudley Port with Abraham’s occupation shown as a Corn Factor, (an occupation which his father also followed in conjunction with his grocery business). Again, note the connection to the Milling trade, corn had to be milled, this was the family area of expertise.
Abraham and Ann had six children: Mary Louisa (1862); Isaac (1864); Jessie Blewitt (1868); Samuel (1870); Ada Sarah (1873) and Emma Gertrude (1876).
By 1871, the family were living at 37 Halesowen Street, Oldbury where Abraham was still following his trade of Corn Factor. He was two doors away from the ‘Hope and Anchor’ pub and next to the Canal side which may have been the means by which much of the corn was moved around. But perhaps he had business problems as by 1881 the family was living in Danks Street, Tipton and Abraham was listed as a labourer.
In 1891, the family had moved again – back to 8 Dudley Port, Isaac and Hannah’s home where Abraham was once more working as a corn factor, his father having died in 1885. The 1901 Census has the family still in Dudley Port, apparently now at 123 Dudley Port, rather than Number 8, where the family business had been for decades, but Abraham was still a Corn Factor so the number may just have changed.
Abraham died in February 1902, aged 65 and was buried on 7 February 1902 at Tipton Cemetery. It appears that their daughter Jessie and her husband then took over the business as Ann was living with them there at 123 Dudley Port, in 1911. She died in 1919 and was buried on 19 March 1919, like Abraham, at Tipton Cemetery.
Abraham and Ann’s children mostly stayed in the Dudley/Walsall area and lived no further away than Birmingham so closer than many of their cousins. None of them, however, returned to Rowley Regis.
Edward James Mallin(1838-1922)
Edward was born in 1838 in Tipton and was baptised on 3 July 1838 at Rowley Regis. In 1841, he was with his family in Dudley Port; in 1851 he and his two sisters Elizabeth and Ann Eliza were living with his oldest brother John in Tividale; in 1861 he was listed as a machinist in Dudley Road, Tividale with his younger sisters Hannah, listed as a grocer, and Mary Jane. Perhaps this was the same shop that his brother John had been living in in 1851, a second family grocery, in addition to the one in Dudley Port, to serve the growing community of Tividale.
On 28 March 1865 Edward married Sarah Whitehouse at Harborne. His occupation was shown as a Licensed Victualler and his father as Isaac Mallin, Corn Factor. Sarah’s father, also an Isaac, was also a publican, at the Cottage of Content in Harborne. Alas, Sarah died in September 1866, and was buried at Holy Trinity, Smethwick, aged 26 of Canal Bank, Harborne/Smethwick which appears to be where her father’s pub was also situated. Canal Bank was also where Edward’s brother Abraham was living at about this time so perhaps this was how Edward and Sarah met or perhaps they lived with Abraham, as we know that it was very much the Mallin family practice for siblings to live together.
On 4th December 1866 at Edgbaston Parish church, Edward married widow Ann Ralph (nee Butler), Joseph Mallin was one of the witnesses. The 1871 Census shows Edward (although he is, for some reason, shown as Edward Isaac in this census) as a Licensed Victualler at the Britannia Inn Tipton, where Annie and her two children Lizzy Ralph (Eliza Ann 1862) and Susanna Ralph (1864) were living with them. Edward was licensee from 1868-1873. Annie and Edward had six children: Georgina Gertrude Ann (1867), Edward James (1869), Edith May (1871), John Henry Butler (1873), Albert Victor (1876-1889) and Walter William (1879).
Edward was a publican for much of his life, around Tipton, Willenhall and Dudley, although he was declared bankrupt in 1873 when he was the landlord of the Saracen’s Head which was in Stone Street, Dudley. Nevertheless, he continued to hold a license in later years and was licensee of the Three Crowns Inn, Willenhall from 1891-1904. Edward’s son, Albert Victor Mallin b 1877, died there in 1889.
In 1881 he and Annie were living in Cobden Street, Walsall and he was working as a Goods Guard.
The 1891 Census shows Edward is living at the Saracen’s Head with his wife, Ann (previously Ralph, nee Butler), children, Eliza (Lizzie Ralph), Edward James (b1869), May (Edith May b. 1871), John (John Henry Butler Mallin b. 1873) & Walter William Mallin b 1879). In 1896, his wife Annie died there. In the first quarter of 1897, while still living at the Three Crowns, Edward married widow Louisa Jane Flude (nee Lloyd b. 1849) but she died in 1899, aged 48, also while living at the Three Crowns Inn.
Hitchmough tells us that Edward James Mallin was the Licensee at the Gough Arms from about 1908- 1911.
In the 1911 Census Edward James Mallin (b1838) was living there with wife number four, Rose Hannah Mallin (formerly Griffiths, nee Booth, b. 1843) who he had married in 1902. Also living there was his son, John Henry Butler Mallin (b. 1873).
In 1921, Edward and Rose were living at 33 Fisher Street with John. Edward, at 85, was finally described as retired! Rose Hannah died in the first quarter of 1922 and, after his long and eventful life, Edward died a few months later in the third quarter of 1922, though I have not been able to find their burials.
Of Edward and Ann Butler’s six children, Georgina and Albert died in childhood.
Edward James (1869-1949) stayed in the Willenhall area, marrying Fanny Hoggins there and having six children. He worked as a gas lamp lighter and later a gas stoker and died in 1949 in Bilston.
Edith May (1871-1957) married William Allen in July 1891 and had four children with him before his death in 1898 (he thus misses appearing with Edith in either the 1891 or the 1901 censuses so I have limited information on him or his occupation), she then married Harley Chamberlain in November 1898 in Wednesfield with whom she had another son, also named Harley. Harley Chamberlain Snr died in 1937 and in October 1942 Edith appears to have married for the final time, to William T Mason in Wolverhampton. It appears that, like her father, Edith worked in the licensed and hotel trade much of her life and in 1921 she was Manageress of the Angel Hotel in Queen Street, Wolverhampton and in 1939 she was managing an off-licence in Bushbury Lane, Wolverhampton. In the 1921 Census Edith described herself as a widow, whereas in fact Harley Chamberlain was alive and living in Smethwick then, working as a Stable Man at Guest Keen and Nettlefolds; he described himself as married but perhaps they were separated. Harley died in 1937 in West Bromwich. Edith died in October 1957 in the Wolverhampton area, aged 86.
John Henry Butler Mallin (1873-1946)
John never married and lived most of his life with his father and then his brother Edward James. In 1891 he is listed as a ‘plater’, in 1901 as a mechanical engineer, in 1911 as a fitter and turner, in 1921 as a tool maker. In the 1939 Register he is noted as a ‘heavy worker’. John stayed in Willenhall and Bilston for his whole life. He died in 1946 and his Will named his niece Alice Maud Withington as his executor (along with Gordon James Smart, solicitor’s managing clerk.).
Walter William Mallin (1878-1909)
Walter William did not marry either and also lived with his father until his death in 1909, aged 31. Like his brother John, in 1891 he is listed as a ‘plater’, and in 1901 as a mechanical engineer. Walter was buried at the Bentley Cemetery, Willenhall on 11Jun 1909, his address given as High Street, Portobello, Willenhall and his age as 31.
So this branch of the Mallin family, although starting out in Tipton, mostly ended up in the Willenhall/Wolverhampton area and had no apparent further association with Rowley Regis.
Hannah Alsop Mallin(1841-1918)
Hannah was baptised on 21 January 1841 at St Martin’s Church, Tipton. She was, apparently, baptised again at St Giles, Rowley Regis two years later on 23 April 1842. This is unusual! But I have checked birth and death registrations for that time and it is not the case that the baby Hannah who was baptised at Tipton died and a later baby given the same name. Hannah Alsop Mallin really was baptised twice in different churches.
In the 1841 Census, Hannah, aged 4 months, was living at home in Dudley Port with her parents. In 1851, she, with her younger sister Mary Jane, was at the same Church Vale School which her older sister Elizabeth had been at in 1841. In 1861, Hannah was living in Dudley Road, Tividale with her brother Edward and sister Mary Jane. Hannah was shown as a grocer.
On 21 June 1864 Hannah married Frederick Duesbury, a Clerk, at St Giles, Rowley Regis. Frederick’s family were quite middle class, his father was listed, amongst other occupations, as an appraiser, an auctioneer, and a solicitor’s managing clerk. Other members of the Duesbury family were in the medical profession and Frederick also appears to have had various occupations.
Frederick and Hannah had eight children: Frederick William Ambrose (1865-1907), Arthur Edward (1867), Alexander Clifford (1869), William Herbert (1872), Ada Alice Jane (1875), Georgina Louisa (1877), Alfred Ernest (1879) and Harry Roland (1882).
In 1871 the family were living at St John’s Road, Kates Hill when Frederick was listed as a Varnish Manufacturer (the factory was apparently the Faraday Works at Monmore Green, Wolverhampton). By 1881 the family had moved to Cromwell House, Hill Road, Kates Hill where the family were still living in 1911, the last time Hannah appears in a census. Also living with them was Catherine, sister of Frederick Duesberry and Frederick had specified in his Will that a home should be provided for his sister or an annuity paid to her.
This 1928 image shows Dixons Green and Kates Hill which clearly had some superior dwellings! Copyright unknown but will be acknowledged on receipt of information.
Frederick died in September 1905, leaving a gross sum of £14,000, equivalent to over a million pounds today. Hannah died in September 1918, aged 77.
Of Frederick and Hannah’s children:
Their eldest son Frederick committed suicide in 1907, with reports at the inquest of financial and other problems, leaving a widow Mary Amelia nee Butler with two small children.
Arthur, who continued to run the varnish factory, married Myra Jordan in 1901 in Dudley and had one son John Frederick in 1904, Arthur died in 1934, having remained in the Dudley/Willenhall/Wolverhampton area all his life.
Alexander married Catherine Williams in 1902 and they had two children. He died in 1952 in the Walsall Registration District.
William disappears without trace from records after the 1891 Census when he was living at home, aged 19 and described as a Woollen Draper’s assistant. I can find no trace of him after that, no death registered, no census entries, no marriage. It is possible that he emigrated. There is a H W Duesbury listed on a ship from Australia in 1943 by which time he would have been 71 but that man was described as belonging to the Australian navy so unlikely to be our man, although possibly a descendant.
Ada Jane and Georgina both remained unmarried and appear to have shared a house in Stourbridge Road, Dudley after the death of their parents. Ada died in 1951 and Georgina in 1962.
Alfred was also a director of the family varnish manufacturing company, he married Florence Eley Dando in 1905 in Dudley and they had two sons. They continued to live in the Dudley area, Florence dying in 1934. It appears that Alfred may have re-married in 1935 but this is not certain and I am unable to find Alfred in the 1939 Register. However, he died in Dudley in 1949 so may have been out of the country in 1939.
Harry Rowland was working in the Varnish business in 1911. In 1920 he married Hilda Vincent in Sunderland, County Durham. In 1921 he was living in Sunderland and describing himself as a Master Confectioner. Harry and Hilda, a music teacher, had one son. Hilda’s full name was Hilda Whitehouse Vincent and I was interested to see the Whitehouse name which is also so common in Rowley Regis. Hilda was born in County Durham but her mother Hannah Whitehouse was born in West Bromwich! Hilda’s father was an organ builder so perhaps he built some organs in the flourishing non-conformist chapels in the Black Country and met Hannah there, perhaps it was he also who taught Hilda to play music so that she later became a music teacher.
Harry died in 1967, Hilda had died in 1959, both in Sunderland.
So Frederick and Hannah remained living close to Rowley Regis in the Kates Hill area of Dudley and their children and grandchildren mostly remained in the Dudley/Wolverhampton/Walsall area. They were perhaps the most prosperous of Isaac and Hannah’s children.
Mary Jane Mallin (1843-1910)
Mary Jane was born in the third quarter of 1843 in Dudley Port and baptised at Tipton on 5 August that year. In 1851 she was at the Church Vale School in West Bromwich with her older sister Hannah and in 1861 she and Hannah were living with their older brother Edward in Dudley Road, Tividale. In 1871, aged 27, she was at 8 Dudley Port, her father’s shop, with her widowed father, sister Annie and nephew Isaac Henry. Isaac Snr was still described as a Corn Factor whereas Mary Jane and her sister Annie were shown as having no occupation, so perhaps they were not working in their father’s business or perhaps, as in so many cases I have come across, the occupations of women were not considered worth recording.
On 23 June 1875, aged 31, Mary Jane married widower John French, aged 45, variously described as a farmer of Sandy Fields, Sedgley or a Licensed Victualler, whose first wife Eliza nee Butler had died in September 1874. Eliza was the sister of Annie Butler who had married Edward Mallin in 1866. John French had been the Licensee of the Earl Dudley’s Court House Inn, Gospel End, Bull Ring, Sedgley from 1860-1871, according to Hitchmough.
In the 1871 Census, when John and Sarah French were living at the Court House Inn, Susannah Ralph, Annie’s daughter by her first marriage and Georgina and Edward Mallin, children of Edward and Annie Mallin were visiting the Frenches, listed as nieces and nephew. This confused me as Mary Jane and John French did not marry until 1875 but when I looked further into the relationships I realised that Eliza and Annie Butler were sisters. There was also another niece visiting, Mary Berry, aged 16 who was the daughter of John French’s sister Sarah. So it seems John French was quite hospitable to members of the family.
An article in the Wolverhampton Chronicle in September 1861 relates, with reference to:
“Applications For New Licenses…..
Mr. John French, of the COURT HOUSE, Sedgley, was opposed in his application for a renewal of his license by Mr. Homer, on the grounds that a large organ or musical box had been introduced into the house, which played secular music on week-days and sacred music on Sundays. There was no other complaint against the house, and the license was therefore renewed.” So it seems that he kept quite a lively house there.
John and Mary Jane’s daughter Augusta was born in Sedgley in 1877 and John French was later the licensee of the Talbot Hotel at Belbroughton where their next two children were born: William Henry in 1879 and John Edgar in 1881.
John French died in February 1886, aged 56, at Belbroughton. His Will, which had been written on 5 July 1879, just a couple of weeks before the birth of his first son William on the 21st, (his daughter Augusta had been born in 1877) and was proved in May 1886, probate granted to his executor Frederick Duesbury, Mary’s brother-in-law, the other named executor Benjamin Smith having renounced the probate and execution of the Will. It is not a complicated Will but is not very helpful as it refers to his wife, unnamed and just his wife, not his beloved or dear wife as the majority of Wills seemed to in those days. Provision is also made for his children but again these are neither named nor numbered, perhaps wisely as he and Mary did have another two sons after William, John in 1881 and Frederick in 1883. A solicitor’s note is attached to the Will stating that John French was formerly of Sandy Fields Sedgley but late of Belbroughton, Licensed Victualler.
Of these children Augusta Mary French (1877-1910) died in 1910 in Wolverhampton, aged 32 and unmarried.
William Henry French (1879-1949) was with his family in Belbroughton in 1881 but I was at first surprised to see that in 1891, aged 11, he was in the Orphan Asylum in Penn Road, Wolverhampton, while his widowed mother (living on her own means) was living in St Phillips Terrace, Penn nearby, with her other children. A little delving revealed that the Wolverhampton Orphanage had been founded in 1850 by a local lock manufacturer to provide a home for children left orphaned by a serious outbreak of cholera. It had later expanded and provided an education for the boys there and was located in handsome buildings, so may well have provided William with a good education. William went on to become a Director and Company Secretary to a local company ; he married Ellen Haydon in Aston in 1911 and they had two children. They lived in the Penn area of Wolverhampton, William died in Bilston in 1949, and Ellen in 1965.
John Edgar French (1881-1973)
John Edgar became the farmer of the family, following his father into the trade, although it appears that he moved farms several times and certainly John French’s Will had directed that the rents and profits from his real estate should be paid to his wife for the life or for the duration of her widowhood and on her death or remarriage that income should be used to maintain his children. Then that when his youngest child reached the age of twenty one, the real estate should be sold and the funds split equally between his children. So there did not appear to be a family farm for John to take over.
In 1901, John was living in Penn Road, Wolverhampton with his mother and siblings when all three brothers were working as Clerks for a hollowware manufacturer . Both his sister and mother died in 1910 and in 1911 John was a farmer at Manor Farm, Shareshill, Wolverhampton where his two brothers were also living with him, William a Despatch Clerk for the Holloware company and Frederic a Manufacturer’s Clerk at a Safe and lock Works. John was noted as an employer but the number of employees is not noted. By 1921 John had married Minnie Sortwell and his brother Frederick was still single and living with them at Old Fallings Lane, Bushbury. Although Minnie was born and grew up in Essex, they were married in 1920 in Hampshire. I found a newspaper article about Minnie stating that she had passed her third year nursing examinations at Wolverhampton General Hospital so perhaps they had met during her time there. In the 1939 Register John was farming at Seisdon in Staffordshire and Minnie was described as ‘incapacitated’ . He and Minnie do not appear to have had any children. I cannot find a definite death record for Minnie French but a woman of her age died in 1962 in Birmingham. If she had died in hospital, rather than at home in Wolverhampton, this might well be her. This Minnie was buried in Erdington so perhaps not, as John French died in 1973 in Penn, Wolverhampton, his home area. But it is also possible that they were separated.
Frederic Cecil French
Frederick’s birth was registered in 1883 with that spelling but in many later records, including his baptism at Clent in November 1883, his name appears as Frederic. The variation persisted throughout his life. His marriage and his death were registered as Frederick, his Will and Probate record him as Frederic. It seems likely to me that in his own and family circles he was Frederic but in cases where officials were keeping records, they may have assumed the more common spelling.
Following his father’s death in 1886 when Frederic was only three, his mother appears to have moved to the Penn area of Wolverhampton. It is possible that Frederic also went to the school at the nearby Asylum as certainly William had. All three brothers had become Clerks by 1901 so presumably had a reasonable standard of literacy. By 1921 Frederic was the Managing Director and Secretary of a Company of Lock Manufacturers.
In 1924 Frederic, by then 41, married Adelaide Cecila Jaffa who was 38, in Egremont, in Cumberland and they settled in Penn Road and then at 8 Merridale Lane, Wolverhampton where they were still living in 1939. It appears that they did not have any children.
At some later point Frederic and Adelaide moved North as they both died in West Kirby, Cheshire where Adelaide had been born and perhaps where she had family. She died in 1970 and Frederic in 1972.
So yet again, most of these descendants of Mary Jane settled away from Rowley Regis, mostly in the Wolverhampton area.
Summary:
So these were the descendants of Hannah Alsop, eldest daughter of Edward Alsop and Betty Hodgetts. She had been born in the Mill Farm at Rowley Regis in 1801, and her husband Isaac Mallin came from a business family that had many links with milling. They had nine children and seven of those had children, giving Hannah and Isaac at least forty-eight grandchildren.
Hannah kept her associations with Rowley Regis, although she lived at Dudley Port after her marriage and she was baptised and buried at St Giles. Her older children were also baptised there and there are indications that at least the older boys may have learned milling skills from their grandfather Alsop. Later children tended to base themselves around Dudley.
As noted previously these children and their own children tended to marry into families like themselves, business people, traders, publicans, shopkeepers, merchants. Some were clearly comfortably off, some became quite prosperous, few of them appeared to end up in the relative poverty of many residents of the Lost Hamlets.
But many of these descendants ended up away from Rowley Regis and the Lost Hamlets, living in an arc ranging from Kates Hill and Dudley, round to Walsall and Wolverhampton.
My next pieces will move on to Edward Alsop’s other children and we shall see whether they remained in Rowley or moved further afield.
rowleyregislosthamlets.co.uk 