Meshach Williams / Margaret Hussey Burgh

[Rol]

Part  8


FRANCIS JONES

By reason of age (b. 1828-30) he too is at best a very long-shot candidate to be MHB's parent.  His appearance at Ruthin as a groom (of the non-marital kind) in 1851 has already been mentioned in connection with Sarah Jones.  He may be the unmarried 51 year old general labourer,  b. Pentrevoelas,  who was still living at a lodging house in Ruthin in 1881.


HENRY JONES

In contrast,  Henry was mature enough in 1843-44 to join the theoretical candidate list to be father of 1851's seven year old "Margaret the Niece".  But as we all know,  if this Margaret was indeed the child we are seeking,  the fact that MHB adopted the name she later did makes it very unlikely that the Jones family provided her father rather than her mother.  At any rate,  there seems to be nothing in Henry's likely subsequent career to provoke our suspicions.

Although this requires substantiation,  it looks probable that in 1851 he was the newly-arrived blacksmith, 27 (b. Pentrefoelas),  who was living at Rhydganol,  Tre-llech,  Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch,  with wife Jane, 26 (b. Llanfor), and children John, 3 (b. Cerrigydrudion) and Margaret, 1 (b. Pentrefoelas):  ref. HO 107 / 2504 fo.468r p.6.

By 1871 the same household is to be found at Bryn Llwyd,  in the northern part of Cerrigydrudion parish.  Henry's wife has become "Prysila Jane" and three more children have arrived.  Henry usefully narrowed his place of birth to "Tir Abot".  (Ref.  is RG 10 / 5680 fo.71r p.1.)

By 1891 they had all gone off to Wrexham and two of the sons were working in the collieries;  I have not sought to pursue them further.   


Next:  Miss Prime Suspect . . .

[Rol]

Part  9


ELIZA JONES

As already observed,  the 1841 census for the Feathers Inn at Cernioge lists Eliza's age as 20 (so actually 20-24),  implying a birth year range of 1816-21.  What next?

Well,  if indeed she had once misbehaved with a smart guest at the big inn,  she must have overcome (or suppressed) any resulting "reputational damage" remarkably effectively,  and/or been especially attractive to men -- because the evidence of the 1851 census suggests that she soon made a very promising marriage.  A woman closely matching what we know of Eliza appears that year in the parish of Llansantffraid Glan Conwy as the wife of a 28 year old woollen stuff manufacturer named John Anwyl,  a native of the town of Denbigh.  She gave 29 as her own age (so born 1819-20 and right in the middle of the range needed to match the 1841 census entry at the Feathers).

The positive identification looks reasonably safe,  because she stuck with the rarer form "Eliza" (rather than Elizabeth) and her place of birth was listed as "Cirnioge Maur Denbigh".  The couple were living at a place described as "Factory",  along with a three year old daughter called Mary Ann (b. Eglwys Fach),  a 20 year old yarn spinner,  and a 13 year old "Yarn Garding Boy" (not too much trouble from child labour legislation yet then -- but ought he really to have been a Carding Boy?).  There was also one general servant.  Eliza too was evidently expected to make herself useful:  her occupation was shown as "Dress maker".  (See HO 107 / 2519 fo.321v p.1.)

Confirmation that the pieces fit together comes courtesy of N. Wales BMD,  which shows a John Anwyl marrying an Eliza Jones at Pentrefoelas in the year 1846 (ref. CW20/01/17).  FreeBMD's version of the central GRO index narrows the date of the wedding to April-May-June (Llanrwst RD, vol.27, p.357).

The daughter's birth place is explained by John Anwyl's own pre-marital census entry in 1841,  which shows his place of residence as "Village of Eglwysfach" and lists him as 18 years of age and apparently the eldest child of Abel Anwyl, "Wool M." (with the M doubtless signifying Manufacturer):  HO 107 / 1403 / 8  fo.32r p.3.

The couple's whereabouts in 1861 and 1871 have so far eluded me.  But thankfully for this narrative (as will shortly become clear),  they re-appear on the radar screen in 1881.  Things do not seem to have gone quite as well during the intervening years as the 1851 census seemed to promise.  They were living alone at 10, Tanygrisau Terrace in Ffestiniog,  with John -- now 58 -- reporting his occupation as Engine Driver,  and Eliza still a dressmaker.  (See RG 11 / 5551 fo.105r p.67.)  Perhaps his health was already failing.  At any rate,  four years later he was dead:  Q1 1885,  John Anwyl,  62,  Festiniog RD,  vol. 11b p.336 (per FreeBMD).  Eliza did not long outlast him;  and when she made her last curtsey and exit in Q3 1888,  aged 66,  Festiniog's registrar of BMDs finally converted her from Eliza into Elizabeth Anwyl:  vol. 11b p.240.

Now,  with little preparatory fanfare,  here comes the coup de théâtre.  Unlike her husband,  she left a will.

Next post . . .

[Rol]

Part  10


This is what appears under Eliza's name in the PPR's Calendar of Wills and Administrations for 1888:

ANWYL Eliza.
3 October.               The Will of Eliza Anwyl late of 3 Glanypwll Rhiwbryfdir in the Parish of Festiniog in the County of Merioneth Widow who died 27 August 1888 at 3 Glanypwll was proved at the Principal Registry by Margaret Williams (Wife of Messach Williams) of 4 Garden-square Bangor in the County of Carnarvon the Daughter one of the Executrixes.
Personal Estate  £81  10s.

Q.E.D.!  (Seeing that entry for the first time was quite a good moment . . . )

Despite the small quantity of her worldly goods,  Eliza had clearly been warned that MHB's illegitimate status would stop her being entitled to a brass farthing -- unless a will was written to overturn the law's "default settings".  So despite the expense for someone relatively poor,  a will is what she proceeded to write.

The text of the document itself does not really tell us any more than the calendar entry about MHB and her parentage.  To want more does seem a bit greedy . . .  But the perfect coda to this whole investigation,  after all,  would have been if Eliza had actually used her last testament to point an identifying finger at our leading candidate to be MHB's progenitor:  Walter Hussey de Burgh of Caernarfon's eldest son and heir,  John Hamilton Hussey de Burgh* of Dromkeen Co. Limerick and Kinfinnan Castle Co. Cork (1822-87 -- per Burke's IFR 1976, ed. Massingberd).   Never mind,  I am too pleased about the fish just pulled into the boat to be much downcast about the one that -- for now -- is still at large!

The will does at least prove that MHB's half-sister,  the Mary Ann Anwyl who was aged three at the time of the 1851 census,  managed to beat the infant mortality statistics and reach adulthood.  By the time of their mother's death she had married a man called John Andrew Rosier (who was named as part of his wife's description in the grant,  rather than in the will itself).  No other children -- or indeed people of any sort -- are mentioned.  The two daughters were appointed equal universal legatees and co-executrixes,  although only MHB took out the 1888 grant of probate;  power was reserved in the usual way to make a like grant to Mary Ann.  The document was dated 25 May 1888 and witnessed by David Jones (Wesleyan Minister Blaenau Festiniog) and David Jones [yes, another one] (Quarryman Trefeini Blaenau Festiniog).

Incidentally,  Rosier could be an interesting fellow to pursue:  in 1871 he was a 19 year old actor ("comedian"),  b. London Middlesex, staying at a boarding house in Bolton with two others similarly engaged:  RG 10 / 3937 fo.7r p.7.  But a quick online check suggests that he and Mary Ann may not prove to be the easiest of quarry.


Rol



* (not John Hammond Hussey de Burgh,  as inexplicably first typed) -- Corrected 11.xii.10

[Rol]

Part  11


WEAVER EPILOGUE -- I

As already noted,  the 1851 census suggested that Job Weaver ("Weaver") was born at Clutton in Cheshire,  ca. 1768-69.  GENUKI states that Clutton was a township within the ancient parish of Farndon,  and was only elevated to (civil) parish status in 1866.  (PRs not currently accessible via the IGI or the Cheshire PR project.)

His daughter Anna Maria's census entries suggested a search for the Weavers at Ruthin ca. 1800.  They do appear there,  albeit briefly and rather uninformatively,  per the CFHS PR transcripts.  The following baptisms are shown for Weaver's children by Anne his wife:

                             Mary & Sara  --  4 Apr 1798
                             John  --  13 Mar 1800
                             Anna  --  1 Dec 1802

Father's occupations and abodes were not recorded.

I have already mentioned the 17 year lease of Cernioge Mawr granted to Weaver in 1811 and the traveller's diary entry that confirms his presence there as innkeeper in 1816.  (For both see Reply 31.)

However,  there is also some evidence,  so far unposted,  that shows how and why Weaver's reign at the inn ended -- and it suggests that this was a very unhappy time for all concerned.  A back light is shone on the matter by the revelation of why he could not be found in Denbighshire at the time of the 1841 census:  he was in a Staffordshire lunatic asylum.  (See HO 107 / 995 / 10 fo.39r p.2 -- Job Weaver,  70,  Innkeeper,  b. out-of-county;  in list of patients at Oulton Retreat for the Reception of Lunatics,  Stone,  Staffs.)

A number of documents relating to Weaver's mental state and its consequences came to rest in the archives of a firm of solicitors called Henry Rumsey Williams (HRW),  now held at the NLW.  The matter was evidently already serious by 1833 -- this is the NLW's combined description of items 2184-94 in vol. 2 of the its HRW schedule:

1833-34
PAPERS in a dispute concerning the estate and person of Job Weaver of Cernioge, co. Denb., innkeeper, a lunatic. Contains details of J.W.'s profits from his inn, his farm, and from the London - Holyhead Mail Coach (no. 2189) and a list of jurors summoned re the lunacy, including Thomas Gee, printer (no. 2187).

A separate and undated document in HRW vol. 2,  No. 1281,  very probably relates to the same matter and confirms that the Weavers were obliged to sell their leasehold and other property:

[? early 19c.]
ACCOUNT of sale of the lease of Cernioge and Dinas [p. Pentrefoelas, co. Denb.] and of the household goods and farming stock [not specified] of the two farms.

To make matters even worse,  it seems that some of the third parties involved in dealing with the disposal of the assets then went to court against each other.  This is the schedule's description of item 2286:

1837, July 31
(i)   CLOSE COPY DECLARATION AND PARTICULARS in an action on promises between Rowland Williams and John Pemberton.
(ii)  CLOSE COPY REPORT as to the claim of Thomas Overton in appraising and selling the goods, chattels and stock of Job Weaver; with covering letter. [cf. nos. 2184-94]

If anyone with an interest in MHB and her Pentrefoelas connections can invest some time at the NLW,  these documents would be well worth a check.  Witness statements could reveal much (about the witnesses as well as the subject matter of their testimony),  and the papers could also reveal whether Weaver was made a Chancery Lunatic -- which would have generated a whole additional set of records about him at Kew.

However dire the personal and financial consequences of Job Weaver's insanity,  it is at least some comfort to know that it did become possible for him to return to Pentrefoelas and end his days at home with his family (as revealed by the 1851 census).

[Rol]

Part  12


WEAVER EPILOGUE -- II


I have not attempted to trace the fate of Anna Maria Weaver's siblings as disclosed by the above entries in Ruthin PR.  But it seems that Mary survived to marry one William Denman of Bangor (Caerns.) at Pentrefoelas on 6 Jan. 1826,  with her father and "Anne" Weaver (?her mother or sister) present as witnesses.  And there may also be something about the family in the newly published vol. 2 of Pentrefoelas PRs -- to judge by Jill Rose's valuable PR indexing website Names from Clwyd,  which lists references to Weaver baptisms or burials in that volume with the forenames Anne,  Charles,  Edward,  Job,  Martha and Sarah.  I would guess that the mentions of Job and Sarah are likely to be the burials of family-members known to us already;  the others,  for now,  are terra incognita.

Jill Rose's eye was obviously attracted by one particular entry as she indexed Pentrefoelas vol. 2,  and it prompted her to include fuller details (as she sometimes does):

6 Jan 1852 bur/o Job Weaver JONES (illegitimate) aged 17 weeks, Llwynon

Phew!  Nobody likes to learn of a death so young.  But think of it -- if he had survived and bred,  a new RootsChat enquiry could have arrived any day -- and we might all have been launched straight back into a second edition of the MHB merry-go-round.  Near the start of this thread,  Cajondy and Heywood were worried that MHB was going to drive them both "bonkers";  well, it actually happened to poor Job Weaver.  And an MHB-2 might have put us all in the madhouse!

I don't know about you,  but I still cannot help wondering who the parents were this time . . . 


Rol

[Rol]

In Part 11 of my bulk posting ten days ago (Reply 39),  I wrote this:

... Witness statements could reveal much (about the witnesses as well as the subject matter of their testimony),  and the papers could also reveal whether Weaver was made a Chancery Lunatic -- which would have generated a whole additional set of records about him at Kew.

A couple of days ago I came upon the answer to the Chancery point,  courtesy of two legal notices in the press,  captured via the Gale Newspaper database.  They also serve to confirm 1835 as the year when Weaver lost his tenancy of the inn.

North Wales Chronicle,  14 April 1835:

To be Peremptorily Sold,
Pursuant to an Order of the Lord High Chancellor made in the matter of Job Weaver, a person of unsound mind, with the approbation of George Boone Roupell, Esq., one of the Masters of the High Court of Chancery,
ALL that LEASEHOLD MESSUAGE, FARM, LANDS, and PREMISES, the House now used as an Hotel, and called or known by the name of the CERNIOGE HOTEL, situate in the parish of Llanyfydd, in the county of Denbigh; together with the STOCK in TRADE, HOUSEHOLD GOODS and FURNITURE, LIVE and DEAD STOCK, IMPLEMENTS of HUSBANDRY, GROWING CROPS, and HAY and CORN, now in and upon the said Farm and Premises, which will be Sold, on the said Premises, on MONDAY, the 20th day of APRIL, 1835, and following days, subject to certain conditions which will then be ready.
   Printed particulars may be had, gratis, at the Chambers of the said Master, in Southampton-buildings, Chancery-lane, London; [ ... of specified solicitors in Bedford Row and Lincoln's Inn ... ]; of Mr. WILLIAM GRIFFITH, Pen-issa'r-dre, Llanrwst, in the county of Denbigh, Solicitor; of Mr. HENRY RUMSEY WILLIAMS, of Penrhos, near Carnarvon, Solicitor; at the place of Sale, and at all the principal Inns in North Wales; and also at the principal Inns at Shrewsbury and Chester.

Once the physical assets had been liquidated at auction,  William Griffith of Llanrwst was evidently deputed to collect in Weaver's remaining book and other debts and to settle up with his creditors:

North Wales Chronicle,  16 June 1835:

Notice to Debtors and Creditors.

ALL Persons to whom Mr. JOB WEAVER, late of Cernioge-Mawr in the county of Denbigh, Innkeeper, and now a Lunatic, stands indebted, are requested to furnish me, for the use of the Committees of his Estate, with an account of their respective demands.  And all Persons indebted to the Estate of the said Job Weaver, are forthwith requested to pay the amount of their respective Debts to me, for the use of the said Committees.
                                                                   WILLIAM GRIFFITH
   Penissar Dre, Llanrwst, 11th June, 1835.

In my most recent preceding post (Reply 40),  I made mention of several PR entries in the name Weaver indexed on the Names from Clwyd website.  Jill Rose has now been so kind as to put up full details of these entries,  and I hope she will not mind if I summarise them here.  The one for Job Weaver himself is no great surprise:

                 1853     Buried     Job Weaver,  Cerniogau,  aged 86,  10 Nov.

Not so with the other five names.  They turn out to concern a couple called Edward and Martha Weaver and the baptism of their three children:  Sarah (1818),  Anne (1821) and Charles (1823) -- the last of whom did not survive 1824.  The family are shown as living at Cernioge Bach,  and Edward's occupations are successively recorded as ostler,  coachman and horse keeper.  It transpires that these christenings are also extracted in the IGI,  perhaps via the BTs;  the same source shows that by 1827 the family were at Bangor (where a daughter Mary was baptised),  and also discloses a possible marriage for the parents in 1815,  at St Oswald's Chester,  with the bride's maiden name shown as Ackerley.

There must be a fair chance that Edward Weaver was a brother of Job's,  given fraternal employment in "the family business" -- when the going was still good.


Rol

[hiraeth]

Hi Rol

Thank you for this series of marvellous posts on the history of Cerniog Mawr and Cerniog Feathers.  I've just been looking on the OS map and the satellite view of both.  It looks like the extremely long barn is still standing

And many thanks also for the link to the most interest book regarding the Holyhead Road.

Heather

[Rol]

Thanks for that,  Heather -- your appreciation is always appreciated!

And good to have some company on stage;  this thread had turned into a bit of a soliloquy.  I was beginning to wonder whether confirmation that poor Margaret Hussey Burgh was a b**t**d (with an uncle married to the daughter of a loonie into the bargain) had driven away all her erstwhile friends and relations,  19th c. style!

I was thinking of giving it a fortnight and then posting some suitably Shakespearian farewell to the unfortunates who lived at Cernioge when everything went wrong.  First draft clichés might have been the one about all our yesterdays being

a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing

or perhaps more appropriately for this thread,  that plain old standby

the rest is silence

Your post has helpfully eliminated the pretext for such pseudo-Thespian temptations!


R

[hiraeth]

Perhaps there is a logistical cause for this lapse into silence and all will be acknowledged in due course      

H