These four are the last of the children of Mary Ann Alsop and William James Vaughan.
Mary Ann Vaughan 1856-1928
Mary Ann was born in Birmingham on 11 October 1856 and was baptised at St Matthew Duddeston on 25 October that year. She was at home with her family in Poole Street, Aston in 1861 and with her widowed mother and siblings in 1871. In 1881, the family had moved to 117 Albert Road, Aston, no occupation was shown at that time for Mary Ann.
I cannot find Mary Ann in the 1891 Census. Her father had died in 1869, her mother had died in 1882, and her older brother Thomas in 1886. Her brother Richard had emigrated to Denver in 1888, her younger brother Lewis had followed him at some point and her sister Amelia was acting as housekeeper for their widowed brother William. But Mary Ann is elusive. There is a possible M A Vaughan in Edgbaston as a boarder and a sewing machinist but the age is a few years out. However, ages are not always accurately recorded by householders for their boarders and it may be her as she continued to live in Edgbaston after that time.
By 1901, Mary Ann was living at 42 Pershore Road, Edgbaston (also described as Stirchley) where she was shown as a general domestic servant to Miss Blanche Suckling who was aged 22 and living on her own means, ie had no need to work. Mary Ann was still at that address in 1911, shown as a ‘domestic help’ but by this time the Head of the household was Sophia Hambridge who was 68 and also as of independent means. Blanche Suckling was also in the household but as a visitor. And in 1921 the same three women were at the same address, with Blanche this time shown as Sophia’s daughter and Mary Ann as Housekeeper.
Mary Ann Vaughan died on 12 July 1928, aged 71 at 5 Cannon Hill Road, Balsall Heath, of cardiac and bronchial issues. Her death was registered by her sister Amelia Page Vaughan who had been present at her death and who gave her own address as 6 Twyning Road where Amelia was living with her niece Adelaide and her family. Amelia described Mary Ann, in the registration, as a spinster and ‘formerly a Housekeeper/Companion, daughter of William James Vaughan, edge tool manufacturer’. She was buried in the family plot at Witton Cemetery.
Another spinster daughter but not an idle one, like so many of the Vaughans, she remained in employment and looking after other people for most of her life.
Emma Eugenie Vaughan 1858-1932
Emma Eugenie was born in 1858 in Birmingham. She was at home with her family in Poole Street in 1861 and 1871. By 1881 her mother the widowed Mary Ann had moved to Albert Road and Emma, by then aged 21 was listed as a Milliner (maker of hats). Mary Ann died in 1882 and on 3 October 1885, Emma was married by Licence at St Stephen’s Church, Birmingham with her abode shown as Perry Barr. Her groom was Arthur Price, a butcher, living in Newtown Row, Aston. It is not clear why the couple chose to marry by licence, rather than Banns and it was a greater cost but, perhaps for this reason, was apparently sometimes chosen by families who could afford this as a demonstration of their financial status!
Copyright unknown. Apologies for the poor quality!
In 1891, Arthur and Emma were living in Victor Street, Walsall where Arthur was again listed as a butcher and with their first child Mabel who had been born in 1886. Although Mabel was later to give her place of birth as Perry Barr, her birth was registered in the West Bromwich RD. In 1901, the family were living in Tanworth village, Arthur a butcher again. Tanworth, more properly Tanworth in Arden, is South of Birmingham, in a rural area, which must have been quite a change from Aston and Walsall. By this time Mabel was 14 and a son George who was 7 and had been born in Kings Norton so the family did seem to move around. Both children had Vaughan as their second names.
After that, things changed a lot as Arthur died in the last quarter of 1906. There were a lot of men called Arthur Price at that time but it seems probable that this Arthur was the Arthur Price whose death was registered in the Solihull RD in that quarter, aged 44 and that he was buried in November 1906 at Lodge Hill Cemetery which is in the Kings Norton/Selly Oak area.
It appears that Emma moved to Alberta, Canada in about 1910, with both her children and she appears in the 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, in the 1921 Census of Canada, in the 1926 Prairie Census of Canada and the 1930 Census of Canada. In each of these she was living with her married daughter, but George was not present in the latter two. Emma died on 6 September 1932 at Sundance, Alberta, Canada, she was buried at the Sundance Little Volga Cemetery, Seba Beach, Edmonton.
I have mentioned previously about this Vaughan family that I suspected that they had connections to a family of Welsh Vaughans who used very similar Christian names. So I was very interested to see that the Canadian censuses ask about the Racial or Tribal Origin/Ethnicity and that in two of these censuses – the 1916 and the 1926, Emma gave this as Welsh and in the 1921 and 1931 as English, as did her children although all of them gave their nationality, in all the censuses as Canadian, so they clearly took Canadian citizenship quite early. So the family clearly viewed themselves as Welsh by ethnicity, even though they and their parents had been in the Birmingham or Black Country area for at least four generations.
Copyright – Library and Archives Canada . Part of the 1926 Prairie Census of Canada, showing the nationality of Emma and her children as Canadian but their ethnicity as Welsh. Two other members of the household describe their ethnicity as English.
Lewis Ralph Vaughan (1861-1931)
Lewis was born in Aston on the 31 July 1861, although his birth registration has his name as Eli Ralph Vaughan (unless that is a transcription error which is possible). However, he was baptised as Lewis Ralph at St Stephens, Birmingham in September that year and used the name Lewis Ralph all his life. He was born just a few weeks after the 1861 census so his first appearance in the census was in 1871 when he was listed as a scholar and his widowed mother was living in Poole Street, Aston. By 1881, he was living with his brother Charles and his family in Upper Sutton Street and working as a Clerk.
In 1889, Lewis followed his brother Richard, ten years his senior, to Colorado. He became naturalised in 1904. Whilst visiting relatives in Birmingham in 1919, he applied for a USA Passport at the American Consulate in Birmingham, to enable him to return to the USA. His temporary address then was 83 Legge Street, Birmingham which was where his sister-in-law Emmeline, widow of his brother Charles (d.1912) was living. Lewis had lived with Charles and his family at one point so was presumably still close to them.
By the time of the 1930 USA Census, Lewis was living as a Lodger in Cripple Creek, Colorado and divorced, but no occupation was shown so presumably at 70 he had retired. Curiously in the USA censuses from 1900 to 1920, he was in Denver and listed as a Teller, or Clerk and single. So any marriage must have been very late in life and very brief. I have not been able to find any marriage or divorce for him.
Lewis died in September 1931 and was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery, Wheat Ridge, Jefferson County, Colorado, USA.
Copyright unknown. Lewis’s gravestone is decidedly scant with information!
Septimus Vaughan 1863-1938
Yes, Septimus was the seventh son and last child of William James Vaughan and Mary Ann Alsop. He was born in mid-1863, probably late June or July as his birth was registered in the third quarter (Jul-Sep) and he was baptised at St Stephen’s on 2 August of that year. But he was not the first Septimus Vaughan, his father William James had brothers Septimus and Octavius who were – yes, the seventh and eighth sons of that family.
It was perhaps his uncle Septimus Vaughan who was listed as living in Castle Bromwich in Birmingham in Kelly’s Directory for 1868, since our Septimus was living in Poole Street, Aston in the 1871 Census with his mother, his father having died in November 1869. By 1881, now aged 18, he was still living with his family, by now in Albert Road, Aston and was a toolmaker. His mother died in 1882 and his brother Thomas in 1886 so it is not obvious where Septimus was in 1891. Certainly I cannot find him anywhere in the census for that year. Perhaps he was visiting one of his brothers who had emigrated. But wherever he was, he was back in West Bromwich when he married Amy Halladay on 22 September 1899 at Handsworth St Mary, aged 36 and still a bachelor with his occupation given as a manufacturer and his abode as New Hall Hill.
As we have noted so often, the Vaughans and Alsops usually married into other families in business and this was the case here. Amy’s father Henry Halladay was a manufacturer of buckles, in the 1881 Census he and his family were living in Burbury Street, Lozells and he employed 17 hands.
In 1901 Septimus and Amy were living at St George’s Crescent, Brearly Street, Birmingham where Septimus gave his occupation as ‘manufacturer of small stamped goods in metal’ – including such small things as buckles, perhaps? Their first child Clifford Ernest was born on 15 April 1902 and was baptised on 7 September at Birchfield Holy Trinity but sadly died aged only 5 months and was buried on 4 October 1902 at Handsworth .
Their next son Howard Hallaway Vaughan was born in September 1903, followed by his sister Ida Kathleen in 1906, both in Handsworth and Constance Amy in 1909 in Aston. In 1911, the family were living in Sutton Coldfield where Septimus again gave his occupation as Stamper and Piercer of sheet metal’. Another son Donald was born and died in the first quarter of 1918 in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Finally their last child Bryan James was born in 1920, also in Aston. Which I thought was slightly odd, as the family were at Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield in the 1921 Census and the place of birth of both Constance and Bryan is shown in that census as Sutton Coldfield. But Familysearch tells me that Sutton Coldfield came at that time under the Aston Poor Law Union and was in the Aston Registration District which I found slightly surprising but looking at the map, it is North of Aston and Erdington and Wylde Green where several of the Vaughan family settled is between Erdington and Sutton Coldfield.
Septimus, in a death notice published in the Evening Despatch in April 1938, was described as ‘late of Vaughan and Williams’ and a notice in the London Gazette of the dissolution on 31 July 1931 of the business partnership of ‘Septimus Vaughan and Frederick James Williams, carrying on business as Stampers and Piercers at Brearley Street, Birmingham’, by mutual consent. Frederick Williams then continued the business under the name of Vaughan and Williams.
Septimus Vaughan died on 2 April 1938 and was buried at Sutton Coldfield Cemetery. His Probate record gives an address of Acacia Road, Bournville and his son Howard, a ‘stamper and piercer’, so clearly also in the family business, and his daughter Ida who was at that time unmarried were the executors. The remaining family were living at 1 Mayfield Road, Sutton Coldfield in the 1939 Register. His wife Amy died in 1953 and was also buried at Sutton Coldfield Cemetery.
Septimus and Amy’s children:
Clifford Ernest Vaughan 1902-1902
Born in Birmingham, and died in Handsworth, aged 5 months. Buried at Handsworth St. Mary.
Howard Halladay Vaughan 1903-1975
Howard was born in Handsworth on 2 September 1903. In 1911 he was living with his parents and two younger sisters in Sutton Coldfield, and in 1921 he was still with the family in Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield, when no occupation was given for him and he was described as undertaking home duties. Howard may have been an active young man as I found a newspaper report in the Derbyshire Times in June 1932 which reported that he had slipped and fallen some distance while climbing Cratcliff Rocks, near Youlgreave, Derbyshire and had fractured his wrist and had other minor injuries, but had been able to return home after treatment by a local doctor.
It appears that Howard married Claire Holloway in 1937 in Sutton Coldfield and she was living there in the 1939 Register, marked as married and with her parents in the same household. But of Howard there is no sign in the 1939 Register. He may have been travelling or with the armed forces but he was not with his wife or with his mother and siblings. A son Richard was born in the third quarter of 1942 but he appears to have been their only child.
As tends to happen with later 20th century records, there is very little to be found about him after that until his death on Christmas Day 1974 at his home in Troutbeck, Windermere, a death notice in the Birmingham Post referring to him as the ‘dearly loved husband of Claire and father of Richard. No flowers or letters please.’ I have been unable to find any details of his burial. His probate record showed that he left a relatively modest £11,404 at that time. His widow Claire died in 1992, also in Windermere.
Ida Kathleen Vaughan 1906-1984
Ida was born on 3 August 1906 in Handsworth but by the time of the 1911 Census, the family were living in Jockey Road, Sutton Coldfield. Another ten years on and they had moved to Highbridge Road, Wylde Green. The 1939 Register shows Ida living at 23 Mayfield Road, Sutton Coldfield with her mother and younger siblings, with no occupation given but ‘living on private means’.
In the early part of 1947 Ida married widower Charles Lightfoot in Sutton Coldfield, and they appear from Voters Lists to have moved to Erdington. Birmingham Voters Lists shows her living with her husband in Erdington until at least 1956. Charles died in 1973, Ida in 1984, both in Sutton Coldfield. They appear not to have had any children.
Constance Amy Vaughan 1909-1993
Constance was born in Aston in 1909 and in the 1911 Census, the family were living in Jockey Road, Sutton Coldfield. Another ten years on and they had moved to Highbridge Road, Wylde Green. The 1939 Register shows her living with her mother, older sister Ida and younger brother Bryan at 23 Mayfield Road, Sutton Coldfield. Like her sister Ida she was at that time ‘living on private means’. I have been unable to find Constance after that date, until her death in 1993 in Lichfield, Staffordshire. She never married. A Death notice in the Birmingham Daily Post notes that she was buried in Sutton Coldfield but there is no mention of any surviving family.
Donald Vaughan was born and died in the first quarter of 1918 in Tamworth Registration District, Staffordshire. At that time the Tamworth Registration District included Sutton Coldfield so it seems likely that he was born there.
Bryan James Vaughan 1920-2003
Bryan was born on 2 June 1920 in Sutton Coldfield, when his mother was 44. In 1921 and in the 1939 Register he was living with his family in Sutton Coldfield, in the latter listed as a student. In 1950 he married Betty McCormack in Sutton Coldfield. He died in Suttton Coldfield in 2003, aged 83 and I have been unable to find him anywhere in between! However, a Death Notice for his wife Betty in 1994 (published in the Birmingham Post) shows that she and Bryan were living in Lichfield, not even a mile from Bryan’s sister Constance and that they had two children Paddy and Jackie.
Summary
So these were the last children and grandchildren of Mary Ann Alsop and her husband William James Vaughan. The Vaughans were part of a vigorous, enterprising and ambitious family who developed numerous businesses and provided employment for many people. They began as jobbing smiths but took their expertise to found companies elsewhere. At the same time, they were a close family who often worked together, across generations and cared for each other’s children, their children also marrying into other business families and almost all ending their lives miles from sleepy Rowley Regis and in relative prosperity, sometimes in very real prosperity.
So, like her sister Hannah who had married into the Mallin family, Mary Ann Alsop had ended up as the matriarch of a large and successful family.
Mary Ann and William James had ten children, all of whom lived into adulthood, but the relatively modest number of twenty-five grandchildren, partly due to two unmarried daughters and one or possibly two unmarried sons. Three of their children emigrated to the USA and Canada.
But not all of the Vaughan family had moved away from the Black Country. Some remained and they were an interesting branch of the family so merit an short diversionary post of their own! Soon…
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