I have succumbed to the temptation to repeat the analysis of local residents in the 1841 Census with the other hamlets, including those of Perry’s Lake, Tippity Green and Turner’s Hill. As before, some of these will already have been looked at in previous family studies or pub studies and I will not go into great detail on the children here but will try to identify how these families related to each other.
So Turner’s Hill. Was it once owned by someone called Turner? Or does the name come from another source? I do not claim to know the definitive answer to this but I have heard a suggestion that back in the mists of time, the Devil was on Romsley or Clent, trying to defeat the God Thor who was on this hill, by hurling spears (or some sort of weapons) so this hill became known as Thor’s Hill. Difficult to prove that one way or another…
Another theory I read a few weeks ago was that the hill was named for the painter Turner who was supposed to have painted scenes from it. However, J M W Turner was born in 1775 and there is a parish register entry for the burial at St Giles of “John Woodhouse Snr of Turner’s Hill” in December 1727 so the name was in use at least 50 years before he was born and probably longer. Certainly there are parish register entries for the name Turner in Rowley Regis as early as 1614, so it is entirely possible that the name relates to one of that family. And the earliest entry for the name of the Hill spells the name with an apostrophe, implying that it was possessed by someone.
So, who lived on Turner’s Hill in 1841? The names of families in nearby Finger i’the-Hole are familiar to anyone who follows this blog and many of those surnames also appear in Perry’s Lake and Tippity Green so it will be interesting to see whether there are any unfamiliar names on the Hill.
Copyright: Alan Godfrey Maps.
This map was first surveyed in 1881 and again in 1902 so is considerably later than the 1841 Census. However, it is the only detailed map I have been able to find which shows individual buildings and it does show the separation between Gadds Green, the Hill enclave and the heights of Turner’s Hill, referred to on some maps, including this one, as Cloudland! At this time, the toll road between Halesowen and Dudley went over the hill from Perry’s Lake, the new road down to Portway did not exist so this would have had quite a lot of traffic on it. Some of the houses shown in this map may not have existed in 1841, I believe that Turner’s HIll Farm was occupied by Joseph Downing as he is the only farmer listed on the Hill without the name of the farm.
The route taken by the enumerator notes that he went from “Windmill Farm, through the Tippity Green Toll Bar to Perry’s Lake, thence to Finger Hole and William Bridge’s house, taking the whole of Turnershill, back by Samuel Round and Josiah Parkes houses (more accurately, named farmhouses), back by the Bull’s Head, (so back to Hawes Lane, but not mentioning Tippity Green) to Cock Green”. So, as far as I can work out, he treated ‘Fingerhole’ as one unit, ignored for the time being the Stone Farm and what he called Freebury Farm and went on to Turner’s Hill where the listings do indeed have William Bridge as the second entry for Turner’s Hill. The first entry is that of Mary Cooper and two other women.
Having worked his way round the houses on Turner’s Hill, the enumerator then appears to have gone back past Fingerhole to the two farms partway up the hill to the left of that community on local maps. I think that the ‘Stone Farm’ he mentions must be what was otherwise known as Hailstone Farm – and which was indeed the nearest building to the Hailstone itself so this would be a logical name for it – and that what he called Freebury Farm was the farm a few yards from Hailstone Farm and which was noted in other records, including a Parish Register entry in 1744, as Freebodies Farm. But clearly in his mind these two farms were quite separate from Finger i’the-Hole which may reinforce the local perception at this time that this was a self-contained entity.
So, in 1841, the first household listed on Turner’s Hill is this:
| Christian Name | Surname | Age | Occupation | Whether born in County | Whether born in Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts |
| Mary | Cooper | 75 | Wash for hire | No | Yes |
| Hannah | Cooper | 45 | Yes | ||
| Pheby | Brinton | 25 | Yes |
Alas, this 1841 census gives us no helpful information as to relationships or occupations for anyone other than the head of the household but it is possible, indeed likely, that this is a family group of some sort. There is a tick in the column for this entry for Mary which appears to indicate that she was born in “Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts” but it does not tell us which. From other entries in this batch of entries however, where this box is ticked, I have developed a theory that the enumerator treated anywhere other than Staffordshire as ‘Foreign Parts’!
I have had little success in finding out much more about these ladies or their relationships to each other. It appears that Mary Cooper died in February 1851 and was buried at St Giles on 9 February, her abode shown as Turner’s Hill, aged 86, the cause of death shown in the burial register entry as ‘old age’.
Being a washerwoman/wash for hire/laundress was no easy career choice in those days. Washer women had very difficult jobs. They had to haul water for long distances, (especially true at the top of Turner’s Hill, as there were few springs up there, they had to make their own soap, and scrub clothes endlessly on top of maintaining their own households. And for all of their intense labour, wages for washerwomen were low. Washerwomen, while not high-status persons, performed an essential job given the lack of laundry facilities in most smaller houses.
This 19th century painting of a washerwoman by H. Valkenburg is in the Netherlands Art Collection so unlikely to be set in England but probably still gives some idea of a washerwoman’s working conditions. Although I suspect that – as when in our times when tv cameras go into people’s homes, the background may have been somewhat sanitised, I would have expected there to be rather more laundry around.
Perhaps Mary and Hannah went to the houses of better-off folk to do laundry in their houses, perhaps local farmers or landowners, this way they might have several clients and such more prosperous people might have more room for the laundry work.
Hannah and Pheby also appear in Turner’s Hill in the 1851 Census where Hannah, born in Rowley, is shown as a laundress and Phebe/y, born in Dudley, as a needlewoman. By 1861 the two women had moved to Cock Green, Hannah still working as a laundress and Phebe as a Sempstress. Both were shown as unmarried in both of these latter censuses, Phebe was shown as an inmate or boarder with Hannah.
Since the 1851 and 1861 Censuses both show that Hannah was unmarried and was born in 1794 in Rowley Regis, I looked for a baptism for her at St Giles. There were two possible Hannah Coopers baptised in that period – Hannah, the daughter of Richard and Mary Cooper (no abode shown) on 29 September 1793 and Hannah, daughter of James and Jane Cooper (also no abode shown) on 22 November 1795. Since Hannah was living with a Mary Cooper in 1841, it seems likely that she was the first of these.
Again, there is only one marriage of a Richard Cooper and a Mary in the area and the right period to be the parents of this Hannah and that took place at Dudley St Thomas on 12 February 1782, when widower Richard Cooper married Mary Brown. Catherine, the wife of Richard Cooper had been buried at St Giles a year earlier in January 1781, so that may well have been the same man. The 1841 Census shows that Mary was not born in Staffordshire but if she was a Dudley girl, that would fit, she would have been born in Worcestershire. I can find no other trace of this Richard alive, although there was a Richard Cooper, aged 80 who was buried at St Giles in 1794 who may have been the husband.
There is a death of a Hannah Cooper, aged 73 in the Dudley Registration District in the December quarter of 1866 which may well be this Hannah as she does not appear to be in the 1871 Census. And there is a burial of a Hannah Cooper at St John (Kates Hill) on 30th December 1866 which is likely to be the same person. It is possible that residents on Turner’s Hill regarded this newer church (opened in 1840) as serving that community so that our Hannah was buried there.
Pheby Brinton, I thought, might have been Hannah’s daughter but since she was apparently single in later censuses, that would not explain why she had a different surname. But Pheby is a mystery in all ways. Censuses indicate that Pheby was born in about 1816 in Dudley but I cannot find a baptism for a Pheby Brinton in a ten year period from 1810-1820 in Dudley or anywhere within 7.6 miles of Dudley. Neither Ancestry nor FindMyPast can find much about her other than the three censuses that I have already found. There are other Phoebe Brintons in earlier generations in the surrounding area and the Brinton name was not unknown in Blackheath when I was growing up. There were also Brintons in Oldbury and Halesowen. But I can find nothing about Pheby/Phebe after the 1861 Census, not even a death or a marriage.
What a contrast then, this little household presents to their neighbours just down the road in Finger i’the-Hole where everyone was related or connected to each other whereas the three members of this household, who may or may not have been related, appear to have been self-contained and leaving little trace of their lives behind them.
The next household listed was:
| Christian Name | Surname | Age | Occupation | Whether born in County | Whether born in Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts |
| William | Bridge | 60 | Farmer | Yes | |
| Elizabeth | Bridge | 50 | Yes | ||
| James | Bridge | 15 | Yes | ||
| Sarah | Bridge | 2 | No | Yes | |
| Maria | Harrould | 25 | Yes | ||
| William | Bradshaw | 40 | No | Yes | |
William Bridge (1780-1845)
William Bridge was not to appear in any later Censuses. He died in 1845, aged 63, of ‘numerous complaints’ according to a note in the Burial Register and he was buried at St Giles on 13th January 1845. So, although we know that he was born in Staffordshire, we do not know whether he was born in Rowley itself.
William, like Edward Alsop, was one of the signatories to the advertisement in 1829, requesting sporting gentlemen from trespassing on their land so presumably he was farming in the Rowley area for some decades.
When I searched FreeREG for a baptism for William Bridge over a ten year period from 1775 and within an eight mile distance from Rowley there was only one result. I believe that this William was the William, son of James and Elizabeth Bridge whose baptism on 5 January 1780 is in the Halesowen Registers which would fit with the age shown in the census and at his burial; William’s third and fourth children were also named Elizabeth and James which is another helpful indicator. Halesowen Parish, at this time, included Oldbury and the priest or clerk did not always keep the records separate so he could have come from that area and the Rowley Registers include references to other members of the Bridge family from Oldbury and also in the parish of Rowley. By 1781 children were being baptised at Rowley to a James and Elizabeth Bridge so it seems possible that William’s parents moved into the Rowley parish at about that time. There were at least four Bridge couples baptising children at Rowley in the early 1800s, likely to have been related in some way but I have not investigated this yet.
William Bridge, a bachelor, had married Elizabeth Siviter, a spinster, on 15 January 1815 at St Giles, both presumably of the parish as no mention is made of any other parish. William and Elizabeth appear to have farmed at Plant’s Green, down in the valley near Old Hill for some years and where they had Joseph (1816), William (1818), Elizabeth (1820), James (1822) – probably the James shown in the census above, and John (1824), all while they were living in Plants Green. By 1841, most of these had presumably moved away to be married or work elsewhere. Plant’s Green was located between Old Hill, Cradley Heath and Saltwells Colliery and is shown on the 1881 OS Map but by the next edition in 1901 it had been built over. Surrounded by iron works, foundries and collieries, Plant’s Green was also a centre for back yard chain and nail making shops and was apparently later deeply tied to the 1910 Cradley Heath Chain Makers’ Strike. However, while William and Elizabeth’s children were born there in the 1810s and 1820s while he was farming, one can imagine that as the area became much more polluted and unsuited to farming as the heavy industries developed around it. Turner’s Hill must have seemed rather different than this area down in the valley.
Elizabeth Bridge (1787-1860)
Elizabeth Bridge, nee Siviter was born in about 1790 from her age in the 1841 census, 1788 is indicated by her age of 63 in the 1851 Census. This makes it likely that she was the Elizabeth, daughter of Richard and Hannah Siviter who was baptised on 10 June 1787 at St Giles. In April 1789 the same couple had a daughter Hannah, of which more anon.
By the 1851 Census, Elizabeth, Sarah and Maria Harrold had moved to Old Hill. Elizabeth was shown as a retired farmer. I think that Elizabeth died in 1860 as an Elizabeth Bridge, aged 73, of Old Hill was buried at St Giles on 17 August 1860.
James Bridge (1822-1860)
The James Bridge shown in the 1841 household, whose age was rounded down for this census to 15 was probably the James who was baptised on 4 August 1822 at St Giles. James was still farming on Turner’s Hill in the 1851 Census, apparently on the same farm as his neighbours in that census were still Hannah Cooper and Phoebe Brinton, just as they had been in 1841. By 1851 James was 28 and married. James Bridge and Anne Eliza Hodgetts had married by licence at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 22 May 1849 when he was listed as a farmer of Turner’s Hill and she a spinster of the village. His father was listed as William Bridge, farmer and her father John Hodgetts, also a farmer. The wedding was witnessed by William Whitehouse and Maria Harrold who also appears in the census in 1841. Marrying by Licence involved a fee and was sometimes seen as a status thing so perhaps the farm was prospering. Certainly by 1851 there was a female servant at the farm, Sarah Preston, aged 24 who was a Shropshire girl and an agricultural labourer, the young Reuben Ingram who was 18 in 1851 and born in Sambourne,Warwickshire, he has cropped up in various other family studies.
Was Anne related to Betty Hodgetts who was married to Edward Alsop the farmer at Mill Farm in Hawes Lane? Very possibly. When time permits, I will explore the Hodgetts family more. Alas, James Bridge was not to make old bones, he died in 1860, aged only 37 and was buried at St Giles on 29 Mar 1860, his abode given as Turner’s Hill.
Sarah Bridge (1838-1861)
The Sarah Bridge shown in the census was apparently not born in the County, according to the census here. There is a tick in the column for this entry for Sarah which indicates that she was born in “Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts” but my other research indicates that this was not so and all future records refer to her being born in Oldbury which appears, for this enumerator to count as Foreign Parts. There was a baptism of a Sarah Bridge at St Giles on 9 December 1838, which would fit with the age of this child, and her parents were shown in the baptismal register as Joseph and Ann Bridge of Turner’s Hill and that he was a labourer. So perhaps Sarah was William’s granddaughter?
It seems likely as Joseph, eldest son of William Bridge, Farmer, was married in May 1838 at West Bromwich to Ann Davis, whose father Benjamin Davis was also a farmer. Once more, families marrying into other families with the same occupation, so that the new spouse already knew the ropes of the job. Later Joseph Bridge and his family were living in West Bromwich where he was a corn factor. I had never heard of corn factors until I started researching the Alsop family where Isaac Mallin was also a corn factor – perhaps this was a profession that the sons of farmers went into when they were either not needed or wished to work on the family farm, or perhaps it was simply an ancillary trade to farming and milling or just simply more profitable.
Sarah Bridge was still living with her grandmother Elizabeth Bridge in Old Hill in the 1851 Census, by now aged 12 and a scholar, though now her place of birth was shown as Rowley Regis. In the 1861 Census, taken on 7 April, following the death of her grandmother, she was living in High Street, West Bromwich with her Corn Factor father Joseph and younger brother William, aged 20. However, Sarah died of tuberculosis in September of that year and was buried at Holy Trinity, West Bromwich on 20 September.
Maria Harrold (1815-1885)
Also still in the household with Elizabeth Bridge in 1851 was Maria Harrold, now described as the niece of Elizabeth Bridge and a servant though whether she was a servant to her aunt is not stated. Maria’s place of birth was now given as Oldbury, Worcestershire so perhaps the places of birth for her and Sarah had been transposed in the 1841 Census.
The Harrolds were another family who seemed to live in the Turner’s Hill/Portway/Birchfield Road/Titford area. They first appear in the parish registers for St Giles in about 1769.
Maria’s baptism at St Giles had taken place on 6 August 1815, daughter of Joseph (which has a ? after it in the Transcript so it is possible that this was John or even James) and Hannah Harrold of Birchfield Lane, so not a great distance from Turner’s Hill and I have noted that Elizabeth Bridge, nee Siviter had a sister Hannah so it is possible that this was Maria’s mother, although I have not been able to find a marriage for either Hannah Siviter or Joseph Harrold. In 1817 a William, son of Joseph, a farmer and Ann Harrold, of Birchfield Lane was baptised but in March 1818, Joseph Harrold, aged 27 of Birchfield Lane was buried. There were several other burials in the following years of young Harrold children from the Portway area being buried at St Giles, so it seems that there were several branches of the Harrold family living there in the early 1800s. But it appears that Maria’s mother had been widowed at a young age and that may have been why Elizabeth Bridge took in her niece. Or it is possible that Hannah remarried (there was certainly a marriage of a widowed Hannah Harrold in West Bromwich in 1836) and a new husband might not welcome step-children. Whatever the cause, it seems that Maria lived with her aunt for a number of years.
In 1861, Maria was back on Turner’s Hill, staying with Anne Bridge, the widow of James Bridge who was still farming at Turner’s Hill Farm, with two labourers. Maria was noted as a cousin to Anne. However, after her aunt’s death in 1860, and soon after the census Maria was married. On 15 October 1861, only a few weeks after the death of Sarah Bridge, Maria, aged 46, a spinster, of Rowley, daughter of Joseph Harrold, was married by licence at St Giles to none other than Joseph Bridge, aged 45, a widower and corn factor of West Bromwich, son of William Bridge, a farmer. The witnesses to this marriage were William Woodall and Sarah Whitehouse. So this was Maria’s cousin and father to Sarah Bridge. ( Joseph’s wife Ann Bridge had died in 1858 in West Bromwich where they were living and he was trading as a corn factor.
Not even three months later, sadly, it seems, however, that this short marriage ended. Joseph Bridge died in January 1862, aged 46 and was buried in West Bromwich on 8 January 1862. Joseph died of heart valve disease, gout and asthma. With such ailments, it seems that Joseph cannot have been a well man even at the time of his marriage, perhaps he wished to make provision for Maria in view of her long association with the family.
In 1871 Maria was visiting in Moseley Road, Birmingham, staying with Maria Nichols, aged 84 who had also been born in Rowley Regis. Both women were described as ‘living on income derived from house & Property’. In 1881, Maria was living as a boarder in New Road, Kings Norton and was described as an annuitant.
Maria died in 1885 and was buried at St Giles on 5 June 1885, aged 69. Her address was given in the Burial entry as Fox Cote, Hagley.
William Bradshaw (1800-?)
William Bradshaw was listed as a Male Servant but was probably what was more usually described as an agricultural labourer. He was apparently born in about 1800 but not in the County of Staffordshire and was no longer at the farm in the 1851 Census. There is a tick in the column for this entry for William which indicates that she was born in “Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts” but That leaves a fairly broad range of possibilities! It seems likely that he was a casual labourer and could have gone anywhere from there. A search of local parish registers, per FreeREG, does not show any likely marriages or burials in the immediate area up to 1880. There are 62 possible William Bradshaws in the 1851 Census born in about 1800, scattered far and wide across the country without any means of deciding which if any of them was this William Bradshaw so I have not attempted to pursue this any further!
The Hipkiss family
| Christian name | Surname | Age | Occupation | Whether born in County | Whether born in Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts |
| James | Hipkiss | 55 | Nailmaker | Yes | |
| Pheby | Hipkiss | 45 | Yes | ||
| James | Hipkiss | 10 | Yes | ||
| Ezekier | Hipkiss | 5 | Yes | ||
| Thomas | Morton | 15 | Coal Miner | Yes |
The Hipkisses are one of the core families of the Lost Hamlets, families who lived there over many generations and intermarried with the other core families frequently.
James Hipkiss (1781-1851)
It seems very likely that James Hipkiss is the son of Thomas and Esther Hipkiss (nee Whitehall) who was baptised at St Giles on 16 September 1781.
I think that he may have had an earlier marriage to Jane Hackett at Tipton in 1808 and had five children with her. I am still exploring this possibility.
However he married Phebe Moreton on 27 November 1826 at Tipton which ties this family firmly into the Hill family living just down the road. Phoebe (or Pheby as it is spelled here) Moreton was the sister of Ralph Thomas Moreton who had married Elizabeth Hill. The widowed Elizabeth Hill was still living in Finger I’ the Hole in 1841.
James and Phoebe, together with their younger son Hezekiah had moved to Spring Row by 1851 where they were living with Thomas Moreton, probably the same Thomas Moreton who had been living with them in 1841 and his wife Mary. They are described as his parents-in-law in this census but I think that this is Phoebe’s illegitimate son Thomas Moreton, born in 1822, as –in-laws was also used to describe step-relationships and James was his step-father. James was described as a Pauper/Nailer and Phoebe as a nailer. My blog pieces on the Hill family, specifically Elizabeth Hill, deal with the Moreton family in some detail.
James died in 1851 and was buried at St Giles on 14 December 1851. The burial entry gives his cause of death as ‘old age’, he was about 70. However, his son James had been killed in a pit accident a few weeks earlier which may have caused or accelerated his decline.
Phoebe Hipkiss nee Moreton (1894-1876)
Phoebe was the daughter of Francis Moreton and Ann Milles who were possibly from the Bromsgrove area and, like several siblings, Phoebe was baptised at Harborne Parish Church, in her case on 18 May 1794. It is possible that at this time, the parish of Harborne extended almost as far as Whiteheath so the connection to Rowley may not have been as distant as it appears at first sight.
Phoebe had an illegitimate son Thomas Moreton in 1822 in Rowley Regis and married James Hipkiss four years later so it seems unlikely that James was his father. She and James were living with Thomas Moreton and his family in 1851 in Spring Row so had moved down from Turner’s Hill by then.
In 1861, Phoebe was living in Blackheath as a lodger in the household of Thomas Butcher, a labourer, I do not know of any other relationship between them. In 1871, at the grand age of 81, she was living in Causeway, Blackheath and Henry Hadley, her grandson, was living with her, plus a lodger Thomas Willetts. I have no details of a Henry Hadley so cannot tell which of Phoebe’s children he belonged to. I shall continue to research this as it is possible that there were other children of hers that I am not aware of.
Phoebe died in November 1876 and was buried at St Paul’s, Blackheath, on 5 November 1875, aged 86. Her abode was shown as ‘The Hill’ which seems to have covered the whole area between Blackheath and Quinton and Gorsty Hill so an exact location is unclear. There was another Phoebe Hipkiss, aged 78 and of Perry’s Lake who was buried at St Giles on 20 January 1868 but the 1871 census shows that the Blackheath Phoebe was born in Harborne which is correct for James’s wife so clearly this was not the Phoebe who was buried in 1868. I suspect that this Phoebe may have been a sister of James Hipkiss but this is unclear as I am unable to find any census entries at all for this Phoebe Hipkiss. It is possible that she was married to a Hipkiss.
James Hipkiss (1828-1851)
James was about ten at the time of the 1841 Census and the only baptism of a James Hipkiss in this period was on 6 April 1828, at Dudley St Thomas, when James, the son of James (a nailer) and Phebe Hipkiss of Dixon’s Green was baptised. Although there is a three year difference here, in the 1851 Census James gave his age as 22 which is closer to the correct age.
James married Phoebe Ruston on 25 December 1850, at Dudley St Thomas. They were living with the Ruston family in Club Buildings in the 1851 Census, along with their five month old son Joseph. Another son James was born on 26 November 1851. This was less than a week after the burial of his father James at St Giles, aged 23, after he was killed in a coal pit, as noted in the Burial Register.
Phoebe Hipkiss subsequently remarried, to Philip Whittall in 1858 with whom she had three children Ebenezer( 1859-1864) , Sarah Jane (1861-), and Ann Maria (1862-1863) , before Philip died in 1864, aged 37. In 1870, when Phoebe was 42, she married William Taylor, a nailer aged 33, at Dudley St Thomas and she was living with him in the 1871 and 1881 Censuses in Blackheath. In 1891, Phoebe was living in Long Lane as a boarder with Thomas and Elizabeth Hill, presumably the same couple who had acted as witnesses to her marriage to William Taylor in 1870. Elizabeth Hill was Phoebe’s sister and according to this census Thomas was born in Gadd’s Green so he is certainly one of the Hill tribe. In 1901, Phoebe was living in Hackett Street, Blackheath, aged 72, as a Boarder with John Blakeway, a widower aged 78. I think that it was this Phoebe Taylor who was buried at St Pauls, Blackheath on 19 January 1905, her age given as 73 which is a couple of years out but such discrepancies are not unusual for people of this age at this time, when there would have been few people alive who actually knew her correct age.
Hezekiah Hipkiss (1836-1888)
(probably Hezekiah, but sometimes recorded as Issachar or Ezekiel any of which may be attributed to whatever name the writer at the time thought they heard!)
Poor Hezekiah, it appears that no-one knew how to spell his name as it appears as Hezekiah, Ezekier, Issachar and several other variations in various records. I have been unable to find a baptism for him and it may well be that the family were non-conformist and their children were baptised in a chapel for which no records have survived. I did check every Hipkiss baptism in the FreeREG database in the area for a period of several years around 1836 in case there was another spelling obscuring the entry and also for any children of James Hipkiss but, alas, still no joy.
In 1851, Hezekiah, now 15, was living in Spring Row, Springfield, with his mother and father in the household of his half-brother Thomas Moreton and his family. Both he and Thomas were coal miners.
On 25 December 1855, Hezekiah (with that spelling) married Mary Ann Willetts, daughter of Thomas Willetts, (a nailer) at Dudley St Thomas. The witnesses to this marriage were Joseph Redfern and Maria Taylor. This seems likely to be the Joseph Redfern living next door but one in 1941 on Turner’s Hill and his future wife, Ann Maria Taylor. At Joseph and Ann’s wedding in June 1856, Hezekiah and Ann Hipkiss returned the favour and acted as witnesses. Hezekiah and Joseph would have grown up together on Turner’s Hill and were obviously good friends. Joseph remained living on Turner’s Hill for the rest of his life, more about him later – Hezekiah moved on.
By 1861, Hezekiah (this time named as Isacher) had moved with Mary to Rowley Village, a few doors from the King’s Arms. In 1871, they were to be found in Causeway, Blackheath, this time as Issachar and he was still working as a miner. In 1881,now listed as Isaac (though the spelling is unclear and has been overwritten), by now 45 and still a coal miner, the couple had moved to 32 Hackett Street, Blackheath.
On 26 February 1888, Isachar Hipkiss, aged 52, of Blackheath, was buried at St Paul’s, Blackheath. Issachar or Hezekiah and Mary had no children, it seems.
Thomas Moreton (1822-1895)
Thomas was the son of Phoebe Moreton, baptised as the ‘base-born son of Phebe Moreton’ on 24 February 1822, at the Poorhouse – which was somewhere in the Brickfields/Cock Green area. There are no clues who his father was and, since he continued to use the Morton or Moreton name throughout his life, there is no reason to suppose that James Hipkiss, who married Phoebe four years after his birth, was his father, although he grew up in the Hipkiss household and members of the family lived with him later in life. His own Christian name might be a hint, but Phoebe had a brother Thomas and she may have named her son after him. And Thomas is not exactly an unusual name in the village. DNA might provide some clues if any descendants are really keen!
Thomas was a coal miner, and lived on Turner’s Hill at least until 1841, although at the time of his marriage to Mary Ruston at Dudley St Thomas on 17 Apr 1843, his abode was shown as Dudley Wood, as was Mary’s. Thomas and Mary had ten children – Emma (1843-1843), Ann Maria in 1844, Joseph in 1847, John (1848-1849), Mary Ann in 1850, Thomas in 1851, Caroline in 1856, Rebecca in 1857 and Alfred in 1860.
By 1851 Thomas and his family, including his mother, step-father and half-brother Hezekiah were living in Spring Row which was in Springfield. In 1861 they were to be found in Bell End, and in 1871 in Long Lane, Blackheath, Thomas always shown as a coal miner. In 1881, he and Mary were in Newtown Street, Cradley Heath , although they may simply have been staying temporarily with their son Thomas and by now, aged 60, Thomas had taken up rivet making, an occupation also followed by his son. 1891 finds Thomas and Mary lodging in Malt Mill Lane, Blackheath. Thomas died on 5 November 1895, of bronchitis, perhaps a legacy of his many decades working as a coal miner, perhaps simply from the heavily polluted air locally from all the foundries and chimneys. He was buried at St Paul’s, Blackheath on 10 November, his age shown as 74. His abode was shown as Long Lane, as it was for his widow Mary who died on 12 June 1908 and was buried at St Paul’s on 17 June, aged 86. So, like so many natives of Rowley Regis, Thomas and Mary lived out their lives within a mile or so of the village and quite possibly never travelled further afield than a couple of miles.
Conclusion
Although I have only looked at three households on Turner’s Hill so far, I think this is a good point to stop this piece and will begin another piece with the next household – The Robinsons.
rowleyregislosthamlets.co.uk 