Urwins in Holy Cross, Ryton

[glasgowlady]

On another thread I saw that "Ecneps" had posted the following:
...... baptism:  Holy Cross  Ryton (Gateshead)
1 Nov 1801 Jane Urwin, of Crawcrook, born 20-Aug 1801, 5th daughter of John Urwin (enginewright, native of Lanchester) by his wife Mary nee Cowans (native of Washington)

I would love more details on this family as their son John was my gt-gt grandfather and has been v. difficult to trace.  Can anyone help please?
Chris

[Ecneps]

Hello Chris,  welcome to Rootschat   

Would you like to say exactly what information you are looking for about John, where you have already looked, and what you already have in the way of census, certificates etc, to avoid duplication of searches.

Kind regards
Barbara
 

[Ecneps]

I think this is the post you were referring to

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,397511.0.html

I think Allan decided that this baptism was not the right one for him, but hopefully it was the correct one for your Jane
 


Barbara

[Ecneps]

Found this baptism, is this your gtgrandfather?

Houghton-le-Spring
St. Michael & All Angels

12 Jul 1789 John Urwin, of New Lambton, son of John Urwin & Mary

[glasgowlady]

My John Urwin was born approx 1796. 
He was married three times and fathered some children in 1848/50, before dying in 1857.
His first wife was Mary unknown, who died prior to 1841.
His second wife was Mary Nicholson who married him prior to 1841 and died in 1845.
His third wife was Elizabeth Rutherford (nee Henderson) who married him in 1846 and died in 1855.
It was reportedly a drunken argument at 2 a.m. over who was going to be the fourth Mrs Urwin that provoked his fatal apoplectic fit in 1857.  I have a sneaking admiration for him!

I recently found the last two of John's orphaned children living in 1861 with their aunt Sarah Richardson (nee Urwin) who gave her birthplace consistently as Crawcrook.  From this, and her age, I deduced from the IGI that she was part of the family of John Urwin and Mary Cowan(s) but have been unable to view the registers as they don't seem to be online (or at any rate not freely viewable!) and I live abroad.

The IGI only has Jane 1801, Sarah 1805 and George 1808, and so I was thrilled to see the comment in the other thread that the register gave Jane as their 5th daughter, implying that there had indeed been many earlier children.  My John always gave his father's name as John and his father's occupation as engineer, and that also seems to fit.

Of course, John Urwin and Mary Cowans may have lived elsewhere prior to 1801....

I hope this fills in the gaps.
Chris

[Ecneps]

Here are some other children's baptisms, oddly it says Sarah is the 5th daughter too 

Ryton Holy Cross
29 Dec 1805 Sarah Urwin, of Crawcrook, born 15-Oct 1805, 5th daughter of John Urwin (wagon wright, native of Lanchester) by his wife Mary nee Cowen (native of Washington)

Ryton Holy Cross
12 Jun 1808 George Urwin, of Crawcrook, born 24 Mar 1808, 3rd son of John Urwin (wright, native of Lanchester) by his wife Mary nee Cowans (native of Washington)

Gateshead  St. Mary
21 Mar 1819 Esther Urwin, of Gateshead, child of John Urwin (enginewright) & Mary

Gateshead  St. Mary
18 Mar 1821 Esther Urwin, of Gateshead, child of John Urwin (enginewright) & Mary


It does say that John was a native of Lanchester, and Mary a native of Washington, have you tried searching the Durham diocese Bishops' Transcripts, free to view on http://www.rootschat.com/links/076g/  just click on Durham, then Ryton, Lanchester,  etc.  These are not complete and not indexed, but as I said, free, and well worth trawling through

Barbara 

[glasgowlady]

Thanks for that - last night I tried imagining suitable names for children and did a search on the IGI, finding three children baptised in Washington (which also seemed a likely place as Mary was a native of there):
Elizabeth 1789, Thomas 1792 and Mary 1794, with parents John and Mary.  No luck on William, James, Margaret, Sarah or Ann though....!  I'll have to keep looking for John and at least one more girl in the missing years.  Maybe Jane died young and so Sarah became the 5th girl.

Will try the BT site again, though it is a bit cumbersome.  Anything free gets my vote.

I don't think I'll ever be able to tie in most of this info definitively, but it's starting to look like a few puzzles pieces are coming together

By the way, the Esther(s) born in Gateshead are definitely to my John junior and his first  wife, Mary unknown.  If I assume the first one died, they seem very keen to have a girl called Esther and so perhaps this was the name of Mary's mother...  Oops, speculating again.

Many thanks for everyone's help - and so quickly too!
Chris