The Vaughan family, into whom Mary Ann Alsop married, were – at least in 1841 – jobbing-smiths living – presumably fairly humbly – in Rounds Green and my presumption has been that they were employed making edge tools at the Brades Works.
I have mentioned earlier Joseph Vaughan (1795-1851) and his wives Amelia Page and Lucy Nixon.
Joseph’s children were: William James (3rd son of Joseph) had:
Charles Vaughan (1816-1892) Joseph Edward (1845-1909)
Sampson Vaughan (1818-1837) William James (1846-1928)
William James Vaughan (1820-1869) Charles (1849-1912)
Betsy Vaughan (1825-1859) Richard Henry (1851-1928)
Emma Vaughan (1826-1908) Thomas (1853-1886)
Richard Vaughan (1827-1885) Amelia Page (1855-1939)
Mary Anne Vaughan (1828- Mary Anne (1856-1928)
Selina Vaughan (1830-1882) Emma Eugenie (1858-1932)
Joseph Vaughan (1832-1882) Lewis Ralph (1861-1931)
John Vaughan (1833-1896) Septimus (1863-1938)
Septimus Vaughan (1836-1907)
Octavius Vaughan (1837-1838)
As you can see, there is a large crossover of family names with the children of William James, who we have already looked at in great detail, so that has led to ample opportunities for confusion, in researching the family, especially as most of them moved to the Aston area, including their father Joseph. But I suspect, from his second marriage to Lucy Nixon, in 1843, that the family already had links, in the business community at least, there. Also there is a considerable overlap in dates so extra care has been required to check which generation any given piece of information relates to. And I won’t go into all the other brothers in both generations and what they named their children…
Of these brothers, Dix’s General and Commercial Directory of Birmingham dated 1858, lists a generic ‘Vaughan Brothers’ as manufacturers of hoes, rakes, forks, ladies’ fancy garden tools in sets, ship scrapers etc, at the Garden Tool Works, Dartmouth Street which was in the Duddeston/Aston area. But below that, there are entries for the various brothers which appears to show that – in various combinations – they ran factories specialising in various tools – hoes and rakes, etc.
A list in the Birmingham Daily Gazette dated 13 February 1868, shows Charles, of Victoria Road, Acocks Green, as an Edge Tool maker; Septimus, of Birchfields, also an Edge Tool maker. Was that the Birchfields at Oldbury? I suspect it was.
Did they all leave the Black Country?
But, as I worked through the sons of Joseph and the businesses that some of the brothers set up in Birmingham, which tended to result in their children, brought up mostly in Aston and Duddeston eventually settling in the greener suburbs around Sutton Coldfield, there were clues that some of the family had stayed in the Oldbury and West Bromwich area.
There was a newspaper report of an insolvency hearing in March 1846 for a ‘Sampson Vaughan, late of Dudley, Worcestershire, journeyman smith’. My first thought was that this was the Sampson, son of Joseph but he had died in Birmingham in June 1837, buried at St Martin’s, Birmingham and described in the burial entry as ‘son of Joseph and Amelia’, aged 20, although his abode was shown as Oldbury. So there was another Sampson Vaughan not far away, also in the smithing trade!
The Vaughans were certainly active in the local community in Oldbury in 1835 when Joseph Vaughan was listed as the Treasurer of the Oldbury Co-operative Society and Charles Vaughan as the Secretary, so they must have had some public spirited intentions.
And there was a most interesting report of a party for the coming of age of Alfred Vaughan, son of Septimus, in 1896 when ‘Mr Septimus’ hosted a dinner at the Waggon and Horses at Great Bridge for employees of the Staffordshire Edge Tool Works, where 140 employees and family sat down to dinner. The article gives an account of the entertainments and the speeches and shows a family deeply embedded in their company and their employees. So clearly there was still at least one substantial Vaughan edge too-making company in the area, not all of the Vaughan interests were in Aston.
Copyright: Uncertain but gladly acknowledged if known.
Some random searches and what they revealed
Much of my research for this study is done via the usual family history sources with which most family historians are familiar, with plenty of cross checking across sources, plus newspaper articles which often reveal small items of interest. But sometimes I will just type the name I am interested in into a general search engine with a date or a profession to narrow the results and often this brings up some matter of interest.
So when I searched google for Vaughan tool makers 1800s UK, I was fascinated to see that the first result was for Vaughan Brothers (Drop Forgings) Limited at Willenhall, founded in 1874. willenhallhistory.co.uk lists H&T Vaughan amongst the most important lockmaking firms in the town by the end of the 19th century. I had not previously known of any connection with the family and Willenhall and indeed this may not have been the same branch. But they were in a similar metal based industry.
Another article revealed that the firm of Vaughan & Bushnell was founded in Chicago, USA in 1869 by an Alexander Vaughan, who patented an improved auger and who made various hand tools. More edge tool makers, more innovations, more patents! I know this because there is a Vaughan & Bushnell All Metal Hay Hook for sale on ebay!
A Philip Vaughan, I learned, who was an ironmaster in Carmarthen, Wales, invented the Ball Bearing and obtained a patent for it in 1794, to improve ‘axle trees, axle arms and boxes for light and heavy wheel carriages’ Obtaining such a patent in 1794 was a laborious and expensive process costing around £100-120 with no guarantee of success and only covered England and Wales. But this decision to protect and innovative process was repeated by several later Vaughans. There is also a note in the article I found which says that in 1800, Vaughan formalised his business interests through a co-partnership deed with four partners including John Morgan and William Morgan. Morgan is, of course, a common name in Wales but I do wonder whether this is the origin of the Vaughan Morgans I note below.
Septimus Vaughan (1836-1907)
A search for Septimus Vaughan brings up a huge number of results, including information about the company of Septimus Vaughan Limited of Henry Street, West Bromwich which, during the Great War, made trenching tools, pickaxes, Stokes’ bomb heads and horseshoes. There are any number of trenching tools made by this company for WW1 on eBay, too!
There are numerous other Septimus Vaughans popping up in America and in other places – were they all related? Very possibly!
There was a Septimus Vaughan Morgan (1832-1913), the son of a hostel keeper of Abergavenny, who was one of four brothers (including Walter, William and Octavius Vaughan Morgan) who founded the Morgan Crucible Company (more hot metal working!) – and also –lest he be thought single minded, he joined his brothers in a drug and hardware factors business in London (he had qualified as a medical doctor) and also published newspapers ‘The Chemist and Druggist’ and ‘The Ironmonger’. One of his brothers was Lord Mayor of London in 1905-06, his brother Octavius sat as a Member of Parliament for Battersea for some years. A family of many talents and high achievers. Were they related to the Vaughans of the Black Country and Birmingham? I don’t know but there is a certain cross-over of names and of interests so it seems possible and I have mentioned previously my theory that the family had links with Wales.
Black Country Vaughans
But the Black Country Vaughans were no slouches either. An article on the website The Annals of Tipton refers to the Company of Revo. A man called Frederick Reeves went into partnership with one Septimus Vaughan whose father Ernest Vaughan (son of Septimus) had founded Vono, a manufacturer of mattresses and bed fittings.
Revo produced a vast range of products, most designed in-house. Early products included lighting, radios, loudspeakers, cookers, switchgear and fans. By the 1930s the firm became a household name and their electric street lighting was widely introduced thoughout the country, and their traffic lights in the late 1920s and 1930s.
Revo became one of the largest local employers with over 3,000 employed by the late 1950s. The Britannia Works at Dudley Port was alongside the Birmingham Canal and expanded to cover over sixty acres, extending into the boroughs of Dudley and Rowley Regis. I gather that the Company was later taken over and subsequently disappeared, as so often seems to happen.
An industrial accident
A newspaper report on the inquest into the death of an employee at the works of Septimus VaughanLimited appeared in February 1909, after a grinder was caught in machinery. It appeared that the employees, probably unknown to the company, used to put the belt round the drum at night, while the machinery was in motion to save time in the morning. He had been wearing his overcoat, ready to go home which may have got caught. Mr Arnold Vaughan, a director of the company, told the inquest that this was the first accident of the kind in fifty five years, (which seems to be to me to be quite an impressive record, given the nature of the machinery in use) and it was thought that he had gone inside the fence around the machinery intended to protect him. The company representative also expressed willingness to carry out suggestions to prevent such accidents in future.
I was interested also to note that there was a further report at the end of March that year that compensation of £205 5s.9d. had been awarded to the widow and the judge directed that £20 should be paid to the widow forthwith and that the residue should be invested in the Court , to be paid out at the rate of £1 per week for the maintenance of the widow and her five young children. It is not absolutely clear whether the payment came from the company or an insurance company but it is good to know that she was not left completely destitute.
Civic duties
And, like the Vaughan Morgan family, at least some of this part of the Vaughan family also had a sense of civic responsibility. A newspaper article in the Birmingham Gazette in 1914, is about Mr Alfred Vaughan, he of the coming of age dinner mentioned earlier. He was standing as an independent Candidate for the West Bromwich Town Council and was described as a familiar and popular figure in the borough. He had received his training at Messrs Tangye’s works in Smethwick before joining his father in the management of Septimus Vaughan Limited, edge tool manufacturers which he subsequently managed and expanded. Another article in the Evening Despatch in 1917 notes that Mr Alfred Vaughan JP, had been admitted to the Freedom and Livery of the City of London in the Felt-maker’s Company. The article recounts that his father Septimus Vaughan had founded the well-known firm of Septimus Vaughan Limited, makers of plantation and railway tools at West Bromwich.
In addition to his work there, Alfred was also a director of ‘four other important manufacturing establishments in South Staffordshire and Worcestershire’, and Chairman of three sections of trade associations connected with the edge-tool and other industries. His companies had clearly been involved in manufacturing for the war effort but in this ceremony he spoke of the need for the relationship between capital and labour to be put on a better footing after the war, with joint organisations and labour must have a larger share of the results and also of the responsibilities. He was also a member of West Bromwich Town Council and other local committees. A hard-working and industrious but also able man, clearly, and deeply involved in his community.
Final note on the Vaughans
It has been interesting to observe how many and varied companies emerged from this branch of the Vaughan family over a period of 100 years or so, providing many jobs and companies quick to develop new products or innovations as new technologies emerged. From the patents for improving the manufacture of edge tools in the mid-1800s to the developments of radios, street lighting and a vast range of other goods a century later. From jobbing smiths to major industrialists, still in the same area, the Vaughan family were, it seems to me, a dynasty to be reckoned with.
All of this information (which, believe me, has only scratched the surface of the information out there) has emerged during my research into William James Vaughan who married Mary Ann Alsop. While it has proved to be a fairly lengthy side-track into this large and successful local family, I hope my readers have found it of interest, albeit with only the tenuous link to the Lost Hamlets through Mary Ann Alsop.
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.
DonaldVaughan 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 AnnAlsop 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…
This piece looks at the next four children of MaryAnn Alsop and William Vaughan, the remaining four will be in the next piece.
Charles Vaughan 1849-1912
The birth of Charles was registered in 1849 in West Bromwich Registration District, and later in life he gives his place of birth as Oldbury or Rounds Green. But he does not appear in the 1851 Census with the rest of the family and nor does Joseph Edward, the eldest child.
By 1851 the rest of the family were living at Handley Street, in Aston, Birmingham. With William aged 31 (shown as a garden tool maker, employing 11 men) and Mary Ann, in addition to their two younger sons William and Richard, is Richard Vaughan, aged 24, listed as Partner and brother of William. Only William James, aged 3 and Richard Henry, aged 3 weeks were with their parents who must recently have moved to Birmingham. I think that the two older children must have been staying with other family members to help Mary Ann, certainly JosephEdward was staying in Tipton in 1851 with two of his Vaughan aunts but Charles is not listed with them.
But Charles who would only have been two in 1851 is nowhere to be found, either in 1851 or 1861. He is not with his family in those censuses. I cannot find him with any of his numerous aunts and uncles nor on a general search of the censuses. I cannot find a death for him in those early years, the rest of his siblings grow up in the family home but it seems not Charles.
I have gone through all the Charles Vaughans who were born within two years of 1851 in England and all the Charles Vaughans of that age who appear in the censuses and accounted for all the others, except him. Very frustrating and puzzling because the Vaughans at least were a pretty close family and I would have expected a baby and child of that age to be looked after within the family.
But then, just when I had concluded that he might have died in infancy, in the 1871 Census, a Charles Vaughan of the correct age appears, living at 1 Shut Lane which was near Moor Street, Birmingham. He was living with a widow Jemima Cooper, aged 52 who was head of the household but described herself as a House Keeper, and her daughter Sarah H Cooper, aged 22 who was apparently a Professor of Music. There was also a female general servant aged 25. And Charles and two other young men of a similar age (20, 23 and 23) all described as Assistants, though it is not clear to whom they were assistants. The House Keeper? The Professor of Music? Why would such a youthful Professor of Music require three young male assistants? I confess my mind boggles slightly… but nonetheless, it does appear that this might be the missing Charles.
And only three years later, this Charles married Emmeline Mary Lucinda Jeyes at St. Philip’s – Birmingham Cathedral now – but the parish church for part of the city – on 10 June 1874, giving his occupation as a hosier, (a dealer in knitted goods particularly stockings), his address as Aston Street and his father’s name as William James Vaughan, a Garden Tool Maker. No doubt then, this is the right Charles and what is more, William James Vaughan was one of the witnesses, so this implies at the very least that there was some positive contact between them. On 23 March 1875, a first daughter Adelaide Amelia was born to Charles and Emmeline, followed by Clara Emmeline in 1877.
By 1881 Charles and his family were living in Upper Sutton Street, Aston where he was described again as a hosier but out of business and Emmeline was still a milliner. With them also was his brother Lewis, aged 19, a clerk, a Caroline Radenhurst, 56, described as an aunt (perhaps Emmeline’s aunt as the name is unfamiliar), Esther J Vaughan, a cousin and domestic servant and a Henry Strange, a commercial traveller who was a Boarder. Again, the presence of a brother and a cousin in Charles’s household, seems to imply a familiarity and goodwill within the family.
By 1891, Charles, now 42 and his family were living at 123 Bloomsbury Street, Aston and he was still giving his occupation as a hosier, and Caroline Radenhurst (now 66 and identified as ‘wife’s aunt’, living on her own means) and Esther J Vaughan, cousin, aged 43 and a domestic servant – it is not clear whether Esther is a domestic servant to Charles’s family – are still living with the family. Emmeline is still a milliner, Adelaide at 16 has become a School Teacher’s Assistant while Clara, 14, is still at school.
But by 1901, things have changed. Now aged 52, Charles’s occupation is shown as Iron Caster (malleable). The parents, daughters and Esther Vaughan are now living in Pritchett Street, Aston and both daughters are now teachers, although there is no mention of any occupation for Emmeline nor Esther. So at last Charles appears to have moved into the metal working industry, like so many of his family. Caroline Radenhurst had died in Aston in 1899, aged 75 so it seems likely that she had stayed with Charles and his family until she died.
The 1911 Census finds Charles, Emmeline, Clara and Esther living in Legge Street, Birmingham . Charles now describes himself as a Malleable Iron Founder, Clara is teaching in a Council School and Esther is a General Servant.
Copyright unknown. However this 1957 photograph shows that some parts of Legge Street survived in good condition for some time. The 1911 census shows that the house that Charles and his family were living in had eight rooms which was an unusually large house for that area, so it seems he had room for various relatives to live with the family.
Charles died on 22 Nov 1912, aged 63, his probate record shows, and he was buried in Witton Cemetery, as was Emmeline when she died in 1922. The 1921 Census shows Emmeline and Clara living in Rotton Park with Adelaide and her husband Alfred Loach who was a manufacturer of Gold Gem Rings, and their three children.
Esther Jane Vaughan, who lived with Charles and his family for upwards of fifty years, died in Rotton Park in December 1929, leaving her estate to Adelaide and Clara, and was buried – like so many of the Vaughans – in Witton Cemetery.
Esther was indeed a cousin to Charles Vaughan, a cousin once removed – her parents were James Vaughan and Rebecca (nee Barnsley).
James was the considerably younger brother of Joseph Vaughan, the grandfather of Charles. He had not followed Joseph and his family to Aston but had stayed in Rounds Green where he and his wife Rebecca had seven daughters and two sons, including a Charles Vaughan who had been born and died in August 1845. Charles, the son of William and Mary Ann, and Esther, daughter of James and Rebecca, were born only a year apart, both in Oldbury and it seems slightly unusual for there to be this close relationship over a long period. Although he does not appear in any censuses with James and his family, I wonder whether Charles did spend time with this part of the family as he was growing up, which might account for a closer connection. But there is no way to know for sure.
But the decade or more that Charles is missing from the censuses continues to irritate me! I suspect that he was staying with a married female of the family somewhere and that possibly his surname may have been wrongly transcribed or entered in error as that of her husband. For now, I can only keep an eye out for a Charles of the right age with some part of the (very prolific!) family, as my research continues.
Richard Henry Vaughan 1851-1928
Richard Henry Vaughan had been born on 13 March 1851 – the census was taken on 30th March so he was quite a new baby. He was with the family in 1851 and 1861 but by 1871, he was living at 78 Bull Street, Birmingham, where he was a Draper’s Clerk.
Bull Street, Birmingham, for those who are not familiar with it, is an old street in the centre of the town, only a few yards from the cathedral. It runs from the old Snow Hill Station down to the High Street, crossing where Corporation Street was later built. In my days living in Birmingham in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was home to Grey’s Department Store and Lewis’s was on the other side of the road. I have been able to ascertain that 78 Bull Street was on the corner of Temple Row and Bull Street, not far from the Cathedral.
Copyright: Paul M Hayes
The census, unfortunately, does not give the name of his employer but it was clearly no small establishment as there were thirty seven members of staff, living on site, which was not unusual for larger or department type stores then. There were seven porters, five clerks and twenty-seven draper’s salesmen, almost all of them in their early twenties or younger. Although a few were local others came from a very wide area, as far away as Hackney, Cambridge and Devon. What an interesting place it must have been to work, for a lad from a family of metal workers in Aston, how much he must have learned from those strangers from other parts of the country.
Whilst I was checking out 78 Bull Street, I was able to find some old photographs of that corner and was interested to see that in later years it was occupied by Rackhams, before they built their large new store. I wondered when they opened and an enquiry on the Midland Memories and More page on Facebook brought me almost instantly the information that Rackhams had opened on that site in 1881, so ten years after Richard Vaughan was there. How interesting! And yet, the two shops must have been in a very similar trade – I wonder whether they changed their name?
Copyright: Paul M Hayes. Looking down Bull Street, towards High Street, with Temple Row coming in on the right. The Rackhams shop on the corner was at 78 Bull Street, where Richard worked and lived in 1871. I think this would be in the 1950s or thereabouts.
In the 1881 Census, Richard was in Hulme, Lancashire where he was still a clerk to some sort of trader. In 1886, Richard was the executor to the Will of his younger brother Thomas so was in the country then. Perhaps the death of Thomas, at such a young age, unsettled him. Whatever motivated him, Richard was to be one of the few Vaughans who ventured abroad. In 1888 he arrived in New York, USA and it appears that he married Anne Maria Wray in Colorado in 1889. They settled in Denver and he was a bookkeeper there, becoming a naturalised citizen in 1921. Although he and Anne Maria were married in Colorado, Anne was a Birmingham girl, born in 1858 in Aston. Their son Harry Wray Vaughan was born in Denver, Colorado in February 1890, their daughter Doris was born in West Bromwich, England in February 1893 and was baptised at St John, Perry Barr in March of that year. Both Harry and Doris were still in Denver in 1940, both unmarried and living together.
Richard died in Denver, Colorado in 1928 and Anne Maria in 1938, also in Colorado. Doris died in 1967 and Harry in 1969, both in Colorado.
So Richard and his family appear to have made a complete break with the metal-working traditions of the Vaughans and with the Midlands and England.
Thomas Vaughan 1853-1886
Thomas Vaughan was born in 1853 in Birmingham and was with his family in the 1861 and 1871 censuses, in the latter he was a Jeweller’s Assistant, another slight variation in the metal working tradition! By 1881, however, he was in Newhall Hill, Birmingham as a visitor in the household of Sarah Howling, a confectioner as was her daughter Emily, 26. His occupation was a toolmaker but I note that one neighbour was a Jeweller’s Toolmaker and this area was in or adjoining the Jewellery Quarter so it is possible that Thomas was still associated with the jewellery trade.
Thomas died young, however, in Rhyl, Flintshire, Wales, on 19 August 1886, aged 33 and his Will states that he was a bachelor, of Newhall Hill, Birmingham. His death certificate shows that he was a fitter and that he died at 11 Queen Street, Rhyl and that he died of ‘Diarrhoea Syncope’ His brother William James registered the death and was present when his brother died, although his own address was given as Victoria Road, Aston so he must have travelled to Rhyl, for holiday or because of Thomas’s illness, unless he was also on holiday there. I cannot find a definition now which quite matches this cause of death but it was certified by a doctor so it was clearly an acceptable cause of death to the Registrar and it may be that dehydration led to physical collapse.
It is possible that Rhyl was a favoured holiday destination for the family, many Midlanders holidayed there and along that coast and it was the height of the holiday season. There were also a considerable number of Vaughans living in Wales, too who may have had family connections in the past.
Thomas was buried in the family grave at Witton Cemetery.
Amelia Page Vaughan 1855-1939
Amelia Page Vaughan was born on 15 February 1856 in Aston and was with her family in 1861, 1871 and 1881. She never married and her Will refers to her as a spinster. In 1891, she was living, described as Housekeeper, with her widowed eldest brother William James in Victoria Road, Aston. After that she seemed to move around the family.
I cannot find Amelia in the 1901 census but in 1911 she was a visitor in Clifton, Bristol with her niece Mary Catherine Fleming, nee Vaughan, (the daughter of Amelia’s oldest brother Joseph Edward and Marian), and her husband John Fleming and their four children.
By 1921, Amelia was living in 6 Twyning Road, Birmingham with her married niece Adelaide Amelia Loach, daughter of Amelia’s brother Charles who had died in 1912. Also living with Adelaide, in addition to her husband Alfred and their three children, were her mother Emmeline and sister Clara. From google street view, it appears that 6 Twyning Road is a Victorian Terraced house of no great size so it must have been fairly crowded!
It appears that Amelia continued to live with or near her two nieces as she appears in the 1936-1937 Electoral Roll at the same address in Rotton Park, Birmingham as Adelaide and Clara, although alas, Amelia died on 28 June 1939 at her niece Clara’s house, just a few months before the 1939 Register was taken. As with her cousin once removed Esther Jane Vaughan, her nieces Adelaide and Clara were named as executors in her Will. She was buried at Witton Cemetery.
Summary
So these were the next four children of William Vaughan and Mary Ann Alsop, all with something of interest about them and most of them showing a close association with the Vaughan family and their businesses, although some were further afield, in Bristol or the USA. Spinster daughters seem to have remained mostly with their brothers or with nephews and nieces, looking after or being looked after and still clearly cherished members of the family. But again, few links lead back to Rowley Regis and the Alsops, although the Vaughan links to Rounds Green and Oldbury seem to have persisted for some years.
The next piece will look at the remaining Vaughan children – Mary Ann, Emma Eugenie, Lewis Ralph and Septimus and should follow shortly.
Mary Ann Alsop was born in 1820, fourth and youngest but one of the daughters of Edward Alsop and Betty nee Hodgetts, she was baptised at St Giles, Rowley Regis on 21 May 1820. The next time there is any record of her is in the 1841 Census when she is living at the Windmill Farm, with her siblings Sarah, Thomas and Rhoda.
But she was not there for very much longer. On 6 May 1844Mary Ann married William James Vaughan at Tipton, St Martin. William was baptised in Oldbury and it seems very likely that his family were living in Rounds Green. His occupation at the marriage was shown as a ‘jobbing smith’ and his father Joseph Vaughan was also a jobbing smith. The witnesses were Mary Ann’s brother-in-law Isaac Mallin and her sister Rhoda.
The Vaughan family
The Vaughan family into which Mary Ann married were a large and industrious family, this particular branch living in Rounds Green, Oldbury but with Birmingham connections. I suspect also that they were connected with a large family of Vaughans in Wales as many of the distinctive Vaughan Christian names also appear in that family and they were also very extensively involved in the iron and metal working industries.
Mary’s new husband William James (1820-1869) was the third son of Joseph Vaughan (1795-1851) and Amelia (nee Page) Vaughan (1797-1843) of Rounds Green, Langley. Joseph, at least some of his brothers and several of his sons were originally described as ‘smiths’ but they had an early association with edged and garden tools, an occupation which was very common in that area, particularly in Brades village.
‘The Brades Works’
I confess that despite growing up barely a mile from Rounds Green, until recently I knew nothing about Brades village or the Brades works. But it is not difficult to find out. Not least, there is a most interesting website called https://madeinoldbury.co.uk/articles/brades-works/ which has a wide range of articles and information likely to be of interest to anyone who has lived locally.
Copyright: Alan Godfrey Maps.
As can be seen from this 1902 map, Rounds Green was immediately adjacent to the Brades works (Brades village is top right on the other side of the canal) and I think it is highly likely that the jobbing smiths in the Vaughan family, living in Rounds Green, worked there.
A William Hunt, the Oldbury website tells me, set up a series of small forges and furnaces alongside the Birmingham to Wolverhampton canal in 1782 to manufacture edge tools, and there are accounts for as early as 1796, which list several different departments at work. By 1805 they were also manufacturing steel on site, digging the coal required around the site. Other materials could be brought in and taken out on the canal, a huge advantage at a time when roads were generally very poor. On the site a large number of knives, trowels, spades, hoes and edging knives, axeheads, hatchets, garden shears, wood chisels and scythes were made, as well as supplying the steel for ramrods used during the Napoleonic wars. There was also a ‘jobbing forge’ which is probably where the Vaughan men worked until they set up their own company. Tools from the Brades factory were sent all over the world and also supplied to the military, including bayonets. One particular design of Brades trowel, apparently, became highly prized amongst archaeologists as being the best trowel for excavating.
Elihu Burritt, the American diplomat based in Birmingham, wrote about a visit to the site in his book ‘Walks in the Black Country’, published in 1869, extracts from which are on the Oldbury website and worth reading, he called these works ‘one of the chief lions of The Black Country’.
Copyright unknown.
After various amalgamations with other companies, Brades Tools has gone now but it is fascinating to look on ebay and see how many vintage Brades tools still fetch good prices! One axe was listed at £285, another at £350!
Back to the Vaughan family and William James’s parents:
Between 1816 and 1840, Joseph, the jobbing smith and AmeliaVaughan had eight sons and five daughters.
Connections to the Page family
After Amelia’s death on 6 August 1843 (buried at St Giles, Rowley Regis) Joseph was left with several young children and he married again very quickly in October 1843 in Birmingham to Lucy Page. I was interested to see the name Page as that was Amelia’s maiden name, so I wondered whether they were sisters. No, they weren’t, I found. But they were sisters-in-law! Lucy’s previous husband was the wonderfully named Fairbrother Page, one of Amelia’s brothers. And the Page family were all in the metal working trades, too in one way or another. And Page was not exactly an unknown name in Rowley Regis, either. Fairbrother and Lucy Page had nine children and he had died, aged only 40 in 1840, and his family were all in the Aston/Duddeston area of Birmingham. Some of the Page family were quite well off, too. Fairbrother was a steel toy maker and his brother William, who was his executor and trustee under his Will, was a spoon manufacturer employing 6 men and 2 boys in 1851. After William’s death in 1857, his widow Rebecca, nee Mucklow, married a Joseph Needham , who was also a spoon maker, in 1860, continuing to live in the Duddeston area during his lifetime. At the time of his death in 1880, he left an estate valued at under £5,000. But when Rebecca, who had moved from industrial Aston to rural Sutton Coldfield, died in 1889, she left an estate worth £35,290/12/9d! Serious money and so much more than her husband had left less than ten years earlier. Perhaps she was a good investor.
The Vaughans were also apparently a successful family. A trade directory dated 1858 shows brothers Charles, John, William, Richard, Septimus and Joseph Vaughan as ‘edge tool makers’ as individuals and as companies in Dartmouth Street, Summer Lane and Milton Street, Aston. By 1861 Charles, the eldest brother is shown in the census as a ‘garden tool manufacturer’ in partnership with his brothers. An 1858 Trade Directory lists the brothers as manufacturers of ‘garden trowels, hoes, rakes, forks, ladies’ garden tools in sets, ship scrapers, connecting links, flat and convex washers, etc, etc. It appears from other entries in the same page that each of the brothers in the partnership was managing a separate factory producing particular items from the list. Their Dartmouth Street works backed onto the canal and had a canal basin alongside, with a glass works on the other side of the basin and a coal wharf over the canal, the whole area was heavily industrialised.
Copyright: Alan Godfrey maps.
On this extract from the 1902 OS Map, a garden tools works can be seen which has the canal on one side and Dartmouth Street on the other, very likely to have been the Vaughan Brother’s works. Note the number of other industrial premise around them, interspersed with housing and back-to-back courtyards.
Looking at the 1902 OS Map of the area, I couldn’t see any industrial premises in Milton Street but there was a ‘Hatchet and Hoe Works’ and a ‘sheep shears works’, both in the Milton Street/Summer Lane area which may well have been connected with the Vaughans.
Copyright: Alan Godfrey maps. Alma Street, Aston showing the sheep shears works and, just below it the Hatchet and Hoe works – these are the sort of products the Vaughan Brothers would have been making. Again, surrounded by poor quality and crammed housing and no green space.
In 1871 the company was employing 57 men, 9 women and 27 boys. The 1881 census shows that this had increased to 72 men, 12 women and 21 boys. When Charles died in 1892, his estate alone was valued at £15,022/3s/9d, equivalent to between £2.4-£2.6million today.
Mary Ann andWilliam James’s family
On 15 May 1845, the first child of Mary and William – Joseph Edward Vaughan – was born at Wall Heath, Kingswinford. It is not clear why the couple were at Wall Heath but their second son was also born there. It seems likely that they were there for William’s work in some way. Wall Heath was not a big place but there was a windmill there at this time and there is still a Foundry Road, either of which may be a clue. Joseph was followed by his brother William James, born on 11 October 1846, also at Kingswinford. (Well, that takes care of the paternal Christian names of both grandfathers – the Vaughans were a great family for repeating the same names through the generations, makes for interesting and at times frustrating research).
Another son Charles was born in 1849 in West Bromwich Registration District, probably the Oldbury or Rounds Green area but he does not appear in the 1851 Census with the rest of the family and nor does Joseph Edward, the eldest child. Only William James, aged 3 and Richard Henry, aged 3 weeks were with their parents who must recently have moved to Birmingham, are with their parents and also William’s brother Richard. I think that the two older children must have been staying with other family members to help Mary Ann, certainly Joseph was staying in Tipton in 1851 with two of his Vaughan aunts, although Charles is still proving elusive. So by 1851 most of the rest of the family were living at Handley Street, in Aston, Birmingham. With William aged 31 (shown as a garden tool maker, employing 11 men) and Mary Ann, in addition to their two young sons William and Richard, is Richard Vaughan, aged 24, listed as Partner and brother of William. Richard Henry Vaughan had been born on 13 March 1851 – the census was on 30th March so he was quite a new baby. He was followed in 1853 by Thomas, in 1855 by Amelia, in 1856 by Mary Ann, all born in Birmingham and in 1858 by Emma Eugenie. Two more sons followed – Lewis Ralph in 1861 and Septimus in 1863, these latter all born in Aston. And yes, Septimus was the seventh son! 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 the family. So by this time most of the Vaughan brothers were living in the Aston/Handsworth area where their factories were.
By 1861, the family had moved to Poole Street, Aston. William James Vaughan Snr died in June 1869, when his youngest child was only 5 and was buried at Witton Cemetery, Birmingham. His Probate record showed that his estate was valued at under £2,000 (less than his older brother twenty years later but still a substantial amount).
The widowed Mary Ann Vaughan was still in Poole Street in 1871 with her son Joseph (25) described as an ‘edge tool maker’ and next son Thomas as a Jeweller’s Assistant, the other children still being at school.
By 1881, when Mary Ann was 61 and an ‘annuitant’ the family were living in Albert Road, Aston, with four of her younger children and one granddaughter Clara, aged 4. The only son remaining at home by then was Septimus who was 13 and already a toolmaker, in the family tradition. His sister Emma who was 21 was shown as a milliner, another potentially profitable, like shoemaking, as every woman wore a bonnet and fashionable (and well-off) ladies would have numerous bonnets which would require replacements as fashions changed. Another example of the Alsop/Vaughan families identifying local needs and meeting them, using their dexterous skills – these families were not afraid of hard work or being ‘in trade’.
Mary Ann Vaughan, nee Alsop, died, aged 62, on the 4 March 1882 in Aston and was buried at Witton Cemetery with her late husband, there was a fine memorial for them, alas last seen laid flat.
MaryAnn and William James Vaughan’s children
Joseph Edward 1845-1909
Joseph was born on 15 May 1845 in Wall Heath and baptised on 24 Aug 1845 at Kingswinford. However, in the 1851 Census he is not listed with his family in Handley Street, Aston. Instead he is staying, aged 6, described as a lodger, in Church Street, Tipton, along with his aunt Selina Vaughan, then aged 21, They are with Cornelius and Mary Ann Guest, (nee Vaughan) – Mary Ann is Selina’s sister and therefore also Joseph’s paternal aunt. By 1861, Joseph is back with his family, in Poole Street, Aston, now aged 15 and, like his two next brothers William and Richard, they are all, like their father, Garden Tool Makers – in the family business, almost certainly.
In 1871, Joseph was living with his widowed mother and younger siblings in Poole Street, Aston but in 1873 he married Marian O’Donellan in Birmingham, it appears that this was a Roman Catholic ceremony as the details are in Latin. They had three children – Mary Catherine in 1875, George Edward in 1877 and Norman John Donellan in 1880.
In 1881, living in Albert Road, Aston, Joseph was described as a Manager, and in 1891, by now living in 40 Cromwell Street, Aston, he was once more an Edge Tool Maker. But in this census only George of their children is also listed. The other two children were staying with their O’Donellan grandparents in College Green, Bristol.
His wife Marian, however, also has an occupation in this 1891 census – she was a pawnbroker. Interestingly I have also found a trade directory reference to a pawnbroker called Michael O’Donnellan who was Marian’s father, in Sherlock Street, Birmingham in 1868 so perhaps this was a family trade. Later census entries for both Michael and Marian O’Donellan record them both as chiropodists but perhaps they were pawnbrokers first! And trade directories dated 1888, 1890 and 1892 show Joseph Edward Vaughan as a pawnbroker at 40, Cromwell Street, Duddeston, Birmingham. The Register of voters for 1885-86 1890 shows Joseph Edward Vaughan at 40 Cromwell Street, but still owning a house at 131 Albert Road, which was where they had been living in the 1881 Census. But the 1891 Census has Joseph, as an Edge Tool Maker, Marian and George living at 40 Cromwell Street, where Marian was a Pawnbroker. So perhaps Joseph continued his work as an edge tool maker but his wife ran the pawnbroking business. Cromwell Street was not by any means as affluent an area as where most of Joseph’s family ended up living but undoubtedly it would have been a good catchment area for a pawnbroker.
Copyright unknown. A view of Cromwell Street in the 1950s. Other than the cars, it would probably have looked much the same when Joseph and Marian had their pawnbroking business there.
Copyright Birmingham Libraries ‘Slum Collection’.
I cannot find either Joseph or Marian in the 1901 Census, so perhaps they were travelling. Joseph died, aged 63, on 17 February 1909 and was buried at Witton Cemetery as were most of his siblings and his parents. By 1911 Marian had moved to Bristol where her parents had lived for many years and was listed as a chiropodist, like her father. She died there in January 1920.
Joseph Edward and Marianne’s children
Mary Catherine married and settled in Bedminster, Bristol and it may be that she had lived in Bristol most of her life with her grandparents. Her husband John Fleming who was 20 years her senior, died in 1915, they had one son and three daughters. She died in Bristol in 1958, her Probate Record interestingly gives her name as Vaughan or Fleming so perhaps she had gone back to using her maiden name for some reason. In 1989 there was a George Edward Vaughan living in a tenement in Chancery Lane, London and in 1901 George Edward was in Poplar, London where he was shown as a Merchant Seaman, and he received his UK Second Mate’s Certificate also in 1901. He emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1914 and enlisted in the Australian Navy there in 1915, giving his mother Marianne’s name and address in Bristol as his next of kin. George travelled at least once to the USA, probably to visit his brother. He died in Australia in September 1970, aged 93. Norman John Donellan Vaughan also became a seaman and also emigrated, in 1905 he went to Vancouver and then San Francisco where he became a naturalised citizen in 1925, his address on the Registration card given as Golden Gate Bridge! He was an auto-mechanic and had married in England in Middlesborough where his only daughter Catherine had been born. A possible death is in Nevada in 1963.
So this little branch of the Vaughans uncharacteristically settled far from the place of their birth, as had their Irish O’Donellan grandparents, or perhaps raised mostly many miles from the larger Vaughan and Alsop families in the Midlands, they did not feel part of that larger clan nor to have been in the metal trades, both boys becoming seaman which would have been much easier, living in the Port City of Bristol.
William James Vaughan 1846-1928
William was born in 1847 in Wall Heath and baptised on 3 January 1847 at Kingswinford. He was with his family in Handley Street, Aston in the 1851Census, and in 1861, he was with them in Poole Street, with his three brothers and three sisters. The census in 1871 was taken on 2 Apr but William had been married just a few days earlier on 21 March to Elizabeth Prudence Sturges whose father Robert Sturges was a partner in an electro-plating company. William was listed, with Elizabeth at Penzance Place, Victoria Road, Aston where he gave his occupation as a metal worker.
By the time of the 1881 Census, their family had grown with the births of Robert Edward on 30 January 1872, William James in 1874, Ernest Charles in 1875, and Elizabeth Sturges Vaughan in 1877. In 1881 they were living in Yardley, Birmingham and their next children were Lawrence SturgesVaughan born in 1882 and Thomas Ralph born in 1886, (who died in 1887). Elizabeth Vaughan died in 1889 in Aston and was buried in the family plot at Witton Cemetery.
It seems likely that William had been working for his father-in-law’s company – Sturges, Bladon and Middleton since at least the time of his marriage if not before. Trade directories for the company which was originally founded by an Elizabeth Sturges, who had been active in the industry since 1829 at Suffolk Street, Birmingham, with her son Richard Ford Sturges between 1833 and 1841 as Sturges & Son, making Platina, British Plate and Britannia Metal wares. He continued the business on his own account from 1841 to about 1863 at 46 Broad Street, Birmingham. It was perhaps the next generation who were in partnership with Bladon and Middleton who made tea and coffee sets, trays, tankards, condiment sets, casserole dishes, Fruit and Cake Baskets and Old English Pewterware.
Copyright unknown. A silver plated teapot produced by Sturges, Bladon and Middleton
William was at 156 Victoria Road, Aston in 1891, along with his four sons and one daughter and his sister Amelia was also living there as his housekeeper. By now his occupation was shown as an Electro-plate Manufacturer, as were his sons Robert (19) and Ernest then 16, while William at 17 was a Clerk.
In the first quarter of 1893 William re-married to Mary Ann Pagett, and they continued to live at 156 Victoria Road where their children Madeline Lilian (1897), Edgar (1898), Horace (1903) and Frank (1905) were born. By the time of the 1911 Census, the family had moved out to Acocks Green, where Frank was born.
Mary Ann died on 28 February 1917, aged 52 and was buried in Yardley Cemetery where her son Edgar was also interred in 1918, aged 20, who had served with the Royal Marine Light Infantry and died on 13 June 1918 of wounds, at Whalley Military Hospital, Lancashire.
In the 1921 Census, William was at Lincoln Road, Olton, near Solihull with his son Horace who was now 18 and a Clerk at the Britannic Assurance Company. William died on 6 May 1828, aged 81 and was buried at Witton Cemetery with his first wife Elizabeth and their son Thomas who had died in infancy. His estate was valued at just over £3,000.
William and Elizabeth’s children
Robert Edward Vaughan was born on 30 January 1872 in Aston. He married May Pottle Chinn in December 1901 and they had two sons Edward Winston (1903) and Clifford Sturges (1907, followed by a daughter Kathleen in 1909. They lived for many years in Grove Road, Sparkhill and Robert worked for Sturges, Bladon and Middleton, as it appears his sons also did. Robert later moved to Stratford-on-Avon where he became a farmer – a greater contrast to the metal plating industry is hard to imagine – and he died in 1950 in Earlswood, another rural area. His widow May died in 1958.
William James Vaughan was born in 1874 in Aston and remained there, living with his family and working as a Clerk until his marriage in 1900 in Solihull when he married Annie Elizabeth Smith. Unlike most of his brothers, William did not go into the metal industry and became a Clerk for a Timber Merchant so that he and his family lived in Knowle, Solihull, rather than Aston. Although William gives his occupation as a Clerk up to 1911, by 1921 he had become Managing Director of the timber company, living in Marshall Lake Road, Shirley and his eldest son was also working for the same company as a Clerk to the Timber Merchant. William and Annie had two sons Charles Smith (1900) and William James (1906, and three daughters Dorothy Beatrice (1910), Mildred May (1912) and Olive Margaret (1916). William James died in August 1932 in Shirley, aged 58 but Annie lived on in Solihull until 1962, when she died aged 82.
Ernest Charles Vaughan was born on 18 February 1875 in Aston and was with his family until his marriage in 1903, when he married Florence Eugenie Salvey in Aston. They had two children Eric in 1906 and Dorothy in 1907, both born in Handsworth. At that time it seems that Ernest was working in the electro-plating business, probably in the family business. By 1911, although Ernest was still listing his occupation as an Electro Plate Manufacturer, the family had moved to Suttton Coldfield and in 1921 they had moved on to Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield where he had the same occupation. By 1939, however, they were living at ‘Garage House’, Kingsbury Road, Minworth, Sutton Coldfield where Ernest had become a garage owner. He died in Sutton Coldfield in 1948. His wife Florence died, still at Garage House, in 1963 and both Ernest and Florence were buried at Witton Cemetery, the resting place of so many members of the Vaughan family.
Elizabeth Sturges Vaughan was born on 22 December 1876 in Aston and was with her family until her marriage in 1906, when she married Thomas Henry Salvey in Solihull. Thomas was the younger brother of Florence Eugenie Salvey who had married Elizabeth’s older brother Ernest in 1903. Like his father Thomas was a dentist. Thomas and Elizabeth lived in Cheshire for a time. Their daughter Hilda was born in Nantwich in 1907, their son Vaughan was born in Crewe in 1911 and they were in Crewe in the 1911 Census. But by 1921, the family were back in Birmingham, living in Stratford Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham where Thomas and Elizabeth still lived when the 1939 Register was drawn up. Elizabeth died in 1953 and is buried in Yardley Cemetery, Thomas Selvey lived to the age of 90 and died at Arreton Manor on the Isle of Wight in 1968, his daughter Hilda also died in Newport, Isle of Wight, in 1994 so he had perhaps moved to be near her.
Lawrence Sturges Vaughan was born in 1882 in the Solihull Registration District. His mother died in 1889 when he was only 7 and in 1891, when the remaining family were living in Victoria Road, Aston, his aunt Amelia Vaughan was living with the family, acting as her brother’s housekeeper. By 1901, his father had married again and a halfsister and half brother had been added to the family. Lawrence was listed as a Tool Maker, although whether this was with the Vaughan family and their numerous companies making garden and edge tools, it is not possible to know. Lawrence married Ada Williams, nee Bartlett, a widow and business woman, in September 1910 in St James’s, Aston Park and in 1911, they were living at 112 Ettington Road, Aston, along with his stepson Francis Williams who was 11.
By 1921, they were still living there but now Lawrence gave his occupation as collecting and delivering laundry and Ada gave her occupation as superintending the Laundry. Her son Francis, by now 21 was working in Electro-plating. Lawrence and Ada appear not to have had any children together. Lawrence died, aged only 47, in 1929 and was buried at Witton Cemetery. His wife Ada Vaughan is listed among those killed in ‘World War II Civilian Deaths’, she died at 112 Ettington Road, on 12 December 1941, aged 64, presumably in a bombing raid and was also buried at Witton Cemetery. Ada left an estate valued at £7,685, a substantial sum in those days. Her executor was her son by her first marriage Francis Williams who was described as a laundry manager, so presumably he had taken over the laundry business which had originally been owned by his father.
Thomas Ralph Vaughan was born in 1886 in Aston and died in 1887, aged 9 months, buried in Witton Cemetery, his parents were both interred in the same grave when they died in 11889 and 1928 respectively.
William and Mary Ann’s children
Madeline Lilian was the first of William’s children with his second wife Mary Ann Pagett. She was born on 24 May 1896 in Aston. She was baptised at St Mary Aston Brook, on 12 August 1896. Madeline was at home with the family in 1901 and 1911 but visiting friends in Cardiff in 1921. Her occupation was shown as a shorthand typist to Alldays & Onions, Sparkbrook, Birmingham . It appears that Madeline did not marry, she was living alone at 14 Hazelwood Road, Acocks Green in 1929, according to Voter’s records. She was at a Riding School in Brackley Northamptonshire in the 1939 Register and her occupation there was recorded as a shorthand typist to a Chartered Accountant. Madeline appears to have remained in Birmingham until at least 1955 but by 1960 she had moved to Laughton, near Eastbourne, West Sussex where she died in 1968. I have been unable to find any record of her burial.
Edgar was born in Aston on 11 June 1898, and was at home with his family in 1901 and in 1911, when he was still at school. However, on 12 February 1917, aged 18 years and 8 months, he was called up and enlisted into the Royal Marines Light Infantry , giving his occupation as a Polisher, presumably in the family business. He was posted to the 2nd Royal Marines Battalion on 18th March and wounded on the 27 March. Edgar was brought back to England and died in Whalley Military Hospital, Lancashire on 13 June 1918. He was buried with his late mother at Yardley Cemetery.
Horace was born in 1903 in Aston and was with his family in 1911 and in 1921 when his occupation was given as a Clerk. I cannot find him in the 1939 Register and it is possible that he was either in the services or that he was abroad for a time. It appears that Horace married Kathleen Waters in 1945 in Birmingham. Three children appear to have been born to this marriage in Birmingham but as they may well be living, I am not giving their names. There are some indications that he may have worked in aircraft production during WWII but nothing definite. Horace died in 1986, aged 83 and was buried at the church of St Laurence, Birmingham with his address given as 75 Woodland Road, Northfield. Kathleen died in 1988.
Frank was born in 1906 inAcocks Green, baptised on 26 October 1906 at Aston-juxta-Birmingham and appears with his family in the 1911 Census, aged 6. And then – nothing definite. It is rather odd – when his father died in 1928, his Will named two of his sons, – Robert Edward, from his first marriage- a farmer, Horace from his second marriage- an Insurance Clerk and his son-in-law Thomas Selvey, a dentist. But there is no mention of Frank, nor can I find a death registration nor a burial for Frank. Looking for a Frank Vaughan of the correct age and birthplace in the 1921 Census, there is only one. And he is an ‘Inmate’ in a ‘Home for Feeble-Minded Lads’ in Monkton, Jarrow, South Shields – a long way from home but his birthplace is shown as Birmingham, Warwickshire so it is possible that this is the correct Frank – there were about 50 boys in the home and they were from all over the country. Many of the inmates were in their twenties and thirties, this Frank would have been amongst the youngest there. Knowing of accepted practice around such institutions in those days it is entirely possible that most of the inmates remained there for many years.
And yet, there is a Frank Vaughan in Birmingham in the 1939 Register who was married and a storekeeper at the Austin Works in Longbridge. He was married in 1934 to an Olive Blake but I note that at their marriage he gave his father’s name as John Vaughan so perhaps this was not him. I can see that other researchers who have worked on this record have also been unable to find Frank after 1911 so he must remain a mystery. I have been unable to find out when Frank died.
So there we have the ten children of William James Vaughan II and his two wives, the grandchildren of William James Vaughan I and Mary Ann Alsop. Again, most of the family were involved in working in the metal industries, both through their own company and through the families they married into, such as the Sturges family. None moved very far from Birmingham, although they gradually migrated out from Aston to the leafier suburbs (though it’s difficult to criticise them for that!) but none of them either seem to have moved back towards the Vaughan home ground in Oldbury and Rounds Green. They did, mostly, appear to stick quite closely together, especially the Vaughans and there are numerous Vaughan burials over at least three generations in Witton cemetery.
Summary
So yet again, one of the the Alsop children – Mary Ann had married into another prosperous local business family and was associating, through them, with other families involved in the works and factories of the ‘City of a Thousand Trades’ and far removed, in material terms, from your average Rowley nail maker, as you can imagine. And again, the close association with Rowley village was lost within one or two generations, although the family members appear mostly to have remained close.
I have written in this piece about Mary Ann Alsop and William James Vaughan’s first two children and fourteen grandchildren. I begin to think that the Alsops may end up with as many grandchildren as the Hill family but spread further afield!
As this piece has got so lengthy and there are still eight more of the children of William James Vaughan I and Mary Ann Alsop to look at, I will finish this piece here and continue in another piece!
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