Great Grandfathers Family |
3. The Smith family
The Smith family has been traced,with difficulty, back to about 1666, which marked the birth of William Smith. Nothing is known of his parents except they lived in Walsall, Staffordshire and he was christened at St Mathews Church, Records have been found of only one son but more may exist: James b1698 James was born in William b1720 James b1723 James married Mary Smith (b 1727 in Walsall), surnamed Smith (but this may be misleading as a maiden name) in Walsall in 1765.They had 5 children, all recorded as having been christened in Walsall, although no church is named and no specific dates can be found. George b1771 Francis b1773 Thomas b1775 Mary b1777 James b1779 Thomas married Ann Maria Hunt in Croxdon, Staffs. On 19/3/1791.They had only one discovered son Frederick Bentley b 1/9/1799 Walsall c 1/9/1799 St Mathews Joseph Howes b1829 Ann b1831 Thomas b1833 c 6/8/1833 John** b1835 c 2/8/1935 Jane Howes b1838 c 14/1/1838 Samuel Bentley b1840 c 5/8/1840 Bentley b1841 William*** b1842 Henry b1846 c 28/9/1846 All were christened at St Mathews Church, Frederick Bentley had died in December 1868 and, at the time of the 1881 Census, his widow Jane was living at 5, St Pauls Terrace, Walsall together with children Thomas (b1833) unmarried and a clerks factor, Jane Howes (b1838) unmarried, no occupation, and Henry (b1846) a brown saddler. She is recorded as an annuitant (a pre-pension provision made by her husband) and employed one live in servant. None of the other children, except where noted, have yet been traced. Mona Hildick-Smiths letter records the following: “Great-Grandfather Smith (Frederick Bentley b 1799), I didn’t know anything very much except he was a leather merchant and had a huge warehouse, where the leather was hung on racks ready to be made into goods-Great-Grandfather didn’t make the goods only sold the leather.” And with reference to her Great Grandmother Jane: “She was the dearest old lady and we used to go and see her every week (She died in 1908 aged 102). She was the mother of 12 childre, 8 boys and 4 girls” (My research shows she died in March 1908, her given age being 101.) I have records of only 10 children as above, 8 boys and 2 girls so this is a bit of a mystery. It is further confused by another extract from Monas letter: “Again I don’t know what they (the 12 children) did or anything about them except Edwin, he was supposed to be not much good and was sent to Australia- if he didn’t do anything in England, he did in Australia- he designed the city of Melbourne- for which he was knighted and I believe somewhere in Melborne there is a statue in his memory” This again causes a bit of a problem as I have discovered only one Edwin Thomas Smith and seemingly not related. He was indeed born in Walsall in 1830 and emigrated to However, I have recently had contact with Lindsay Brown, whose father, Herbert Smith OBE, JP was Mayor of Walsall in 1964/65. He was the grandson of Edwin Smith 1804-1887. He was the son of Thomas Smith who I suspect is the same Thomas who was father to Frederick Bentley. I had previuosly only identified one son (Frederick Bentley). Lindsay says she always thought Thomass wife was called Ann Bates so maybe Thomas was twice married. In any case Edwin had many children, his eldest being (later) Sir Edwin Thomas Smith. She has a photo album with pictures of all the family including Joseph Howes Smith and I hope to obtain coies of these. Other members of the family in from 1881 census records include: John** is recorded as married to Ann and living at 22, Winter Street, West Derby, Lancashire. They had 7 children (in 1881) and he was employed in his own right as a marine store dealer. William*** is recorded as married to Sarah (Lyon), has 4 children and is living at 39, Lyesway, Joseph Howes was married to Mary Jane Attwood on 18/8/1853 at The Parish Church, Handsworth,
Joseph and Mary had 3 children. Mary Jane Howard* b1855 Frederick Charles b21/5/1858 Place of birth given as 95, **Lizzie Attwood b1865 d 1891 Joseph Howes is recorded as living at “ Records held at the leather Museum in Walsall http://www.walsall.gov.uk/leathermuseum/ records Joseph Howes Smith having a tannery and leather curriers works at 2, In view of the fact that John Hildick was also a Mayor (in 1867 and 1868), both the Smiths and the Hildicks were obviously prominent business families of Joseph died in 1888 and Mary in 1902. *Mary Jane Howard Smith was a witness to the marriage of her brother Frederick to Sarah Hildick in 1883 and she later married Sarahs brother John. **Lizzie Attwood was also a witness to Mary Janes wedding. Monas letter records what happened to Lizzie: “I must tell you about Aunt Lizzie-she died of a broken heart- she was very much in love with a man who owned a chemists shop in Frederick Charles met Sarah Hildick and on 12/9/1883 they married in |