Red Lion, Walter Street, Jarrow and the man with two names mystery

[kathb]

I am hoping that someone will be able to help with this pub's location and whether it still exists today. On the 1871 census my gggrandfather (Edmund Calvert - wrongly transcribed as Edward) was the Inn Keeper of the Red Lion at ?16 or 14 Walter Street. Googling I have found a Golden Lion Inn in the same street, does anyone know if they are the same abode?
There is also a great mystery with Edmund and I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this? Please bear with me as you read this.

I always, as did my mother believed that her grandfather and my gggrandfather was named Robert Davies.  I could never find any record of him and his family until 1881 in Birkenhead - he appears on that census and the 1891 as Robert Davies with his family. Nowhere could I find his birth although on both census data he stated Spittle, Bowes Yorkshire.

Only recently when looking at a photo of his memorial stone did I note that he was inscribed as Robert Edmund Calvert Davies. When I looked for him in Bowes and for the registrations of his children with the surname Calvert did I realise that he had assumed the Robert Davies name.  He always registered the children as Calvert and I can only assume that he was wary of authority and used his correct name.

I am wondering if there was some 'wrong doing' or 'event' at this pub that made him 'run'.  He first went to Barrow - no joke here Jarrow to Barrow!  His eldest son being recorded as born in Barrow (Ulverston) in 1875 and on this birth cert Edmund is described as a Beer Seller.

I also feel that there is a mystery with the birth of the children.  Edmund and his wife had a child in 1863 and another in 1866.  There is then a nine year gap before three other children being born with a couple of years between them.  Given that there could have been a miscarriage, stillbirth this is very unusual.  Was Edmund residing in a local goal?
I really would appreciate any help with these mysteries.
Regards
Kathb

[stanmapstone]

I am hoping that someone will be able to help with this pub's location and whether it still exists today. On the 1871 census my gggrandfather (Edmund Calvert - wrongly transcribed as Edward) was the Inn Keeper of the Red Lion at ?16 or 14 Walter Street. Googling I have found a Golden Lion Inn in the same street, does anyone know if they are the same abode?

HI Kathb,
In the 1894 Directory there is the Golden Lion in Walter Street, but no Red Lion, so it could be the same place.

Stan

[kathb]

Thanks Stan this is a good start on the mystery trail.
Regards
Kathb

[stanmapstone]

The present day Golden Lion Inn is at 14 Walter Street, as was the Red Lion in 1871.. If you go to http://gis.durham.gov.uk/website/interMAP/viewer.htm and do a post code search on NE323PH it will centre the map on it.

Stan

[sillgen]

Is there likely to be a newspaper report of his death?   If he has a headstone then they must have been quite affluent.  Are you sure it is the same wife all the time?   That might explain the gap in children.
Andrea

[kathb]

Thanks Stan.  I now know it is the same pub. 
Andrea, it was the same wife all along.  He didn't die in the North East, it was Birkenhead.  He only started using the name Robert Davies when he got to Birkenhead.  I am hoping that someone will be able to find a record of an incident when he was at the Red Lion in Jarrow, or perhaps when he was the Beer Seller in Sunderland Street in Barrow.  I have posted on the Lancashire site as well hoping that someone there may be able to help.  There is a nine year gap from the birth of the second daughter in 1866 until the birth of the first son in 1875 in Barrow.  I am thinking that this nine year gap was in the Jarrow area. All supposition, but as his wife had two children close together, 1863 and 1866 and then a gap to 1875, 1877 and 1880 it seems odd.
I feel that he changed his identity because he was hiding from something and the nine year gap in the birth of the children seems to indicate that he was missing for a period.  He was in Jarrow in 1871 so this narrows it all down to 5 years with no children in this area and then a possible 4 years before the birth in 1877.  I know that his wife could have had stillbirths or miscarriages, but this is unusual when she then goes on to have another three children with no real problem.  I would appreciate any help I can get.  I have tried searching the North East Newspaper archive and nothing comes up on that.  I am hoping that there may be a kind soul who would look at the court records or know some other avenue.
Thank you both for your help
Regards
Kathb

[WolfieSmith]

Hello Kathb,

Its a puzzle, but a few census records, just to try to clear the mist (or maybe make it less clear) and for others who may be able to help you more.

1851 census, Crosby Garrett, Westmorland,
Edmund Calvert, head, 22, Ag. Labourer, b. Yorks Spittle,
Elizabeth Calvert, wife, 21, b. Westmorland Crosby Garrett.

1861 census, South Shore Gateshead :
Edmund Calvert, head, 32, Wine Rope Sticker (I think), b. Yorks Bowes,
Elizabeth Calvert, wife, 31,  b. Westmorland Crosby,
Ann Allenby, niece, 13, b. Durham.

1871 census, 16 Walton St. Jarrow, Red Lion Inn,
Edmund Calvert, head, 41, Inn Keeper, b. Yorkshire NR,
Fanny Calvert, wife, 32, b. Sussex Chairley,
Mary E. Calvert, dtr, 8, b. Cumberland Mansition (?),
Emily Calvert, dtr, 5, b. Cumberland Mansition (?),
Ellen Smith, niece, 5, orphan, b.Jarrow,
Thomas Hill, boarder, 32, shipbuilder, b. Scotland,
Ellen Hill, wife, 24, b. Sussex Chairley.

In 1881 and 1891 census Edmund, now called Robert Davies (b. Yorks Bowes in 1881, and Yorks Spittal in 1891), is living with Fanny (b. Suffolk Chairley in both) and children :
Edmund, 6 in 1881, b. Lancs Barrow,
Charles, 3 in 1881, b. Birkenhead,
Lydia, 6 months in 1881, b. Birkenhead.

There is a marriage on FreeBMD of an Edmund Calvert in Mar qtr 1851 in Askrigg North Yorks, could be his first marriage to Elizabeth.

From 1871 onwards he is living with Fanny Cottington (Ellen Hill, living with them in 1871 is her sister), but I can't see a death for Elizabeth, or a marriage to Fanny. In 1881 in Birkenhead, there is an Ellen Smith, aged 15, domestic servant, b. Jarrow, so it looks like she went with them (could be either Edmunds or Fannys niece). But were Mary E. and Emily in 1871 Edmund and Elizabeths children, or Edmund and Fannys children, or Fannys previous children?

More questions than answers sorry.

Alan.

[sillgen]

Well done Alan.  That does make it clearer - and there were two wives!  There is an Edmund Calvert, male servant, in 1841 in Kirkby Stephen.  Born c1826 but ages were rounded down above 15 usually.  Crosby Garrett is a small hamlet about 3 miles from there.  Calvert is a very common name in that area of Westmorland and N Yorks though.
Andrea

[CatOne]

Is this confusing things? 

Robert Davies March 1875 Birkenhead 8a 638
Bride - Fanny Smith

But its after they were together as husband and wife in 1871