INTRODUCTION TO THE S SERIES
Smart Family
Mike Young and Sheena nee Keith started researching their family histories in the mid 1970s. So much material resulted, they decided to divide it into four groups, one for each of their parents’ surnames. The S series covers Sheena’s maternal line of descent.
Smart Family Lineage Chart
All surnames in the Smart story
See here for an alphabetical list of all surnames in the Smart pages with links to the relevant text.
Smart Family Places of Birth
For a map showing all known places of birth for all the direct Smart ancestors click below and select the Smart layer.
THE SMART FAMILY
Sheena’s mother, Kathleen Smart’s family go back some 200 years in Wooler and the surrounding area of North Northumberland. Hence she was a mine of information of interest to a family historian. The family life of Kathleen and Jim Keith is referred to in Ref. K1 of the Keith series. She died on Christmas Eve 1990 at Wooler, aged 91, having, as she observed, spent a third of her life as a spinster, a third married and a third widowed.
Smart-Tait Family
Kathleen Smart was born 23.7.1899 in Wooler, Northumberland, the daughter of George Anthony Smart and his second cousin Mary Ellen Tait (See Ref. S5). They married at All Saints Church, Gosforth, 16.11.1896. He carried forward his father’s slatering and plastering business, centred on High Street, Wooler, with his brother Thomas.
George Anthony was born in the cottage on Tenterhill that had belonged to the Dalziels, the wood engravers, who were contemporaries of Thomas Bewick. He and Mary Ellen started their married life in a cottage at the top of the Peth and Kathleen Smart was born there. Both cottages have since been demolished. Later, George Anthony and Mary Ellen took over a house, on the left hand side of Wooler High Street as one goes up from the Market Place, next to what was later Walter Wilson’s grocery shop (previously Youngs the butchers). This had belonged to Diamonds the painters and decorators and had a high rear hall to accommodate ladders, as well as a small front shop. The roof slates still show a diamond pattern. In contemporary times, Arthur and Katie Smart lived there.
George Anthony and Mary Ellen had three daughters and a son, details of whom are given at Appendix 1. George Anthony died at Wooler 14.8.1946, aged 77 and Mary Ellen died there 1.8.1959, aged 89.
Smart-Cosser Family
George Anthony Smart was born 28.4.1869, the second son of Thomas Smart and Isabella nee Cosser.
Thomas Smart was only 15 when his father died and he became apprenticed to his uncle John Rule, a master slater in Wooler, as did his next younger brother John and they inherited the Rule business when John Rule died in January 1870. At some point in the 1880s John Smart retired from the business, which then became Thomas Smart and Sons, Slaters & Plasterers, the said sons being George and Thomas, as mentioned previously. Thomas Smart married Isabella Cosser (see Ref. S3) 25.4.1867 at Berwick on Tweed. They had three sons and four daughters, details of whom are given at Appendix 2. Thomas was a loyal member of the Church of England. A Sunday School teacher in his early days, he was said to have been almost continually over a period of 45 years a Churchwarden of Wooler Parish Church, sometimes “People’s Warden”, at other times “Vicar’s Warden”. A lifelong teetotaller, he was a founder of the Mechanics Institute and for many years its treasurer. Famed for his robust health, on the day of his death (27.3.1919) he had gone to look at some lambs in a field adjacent to the town when he had a seizure and, although soon discovered and able to regain consciousness at home, he died the same evening, aged 82. We have a full description of the funeral which itemises the principal mourners. Isabella had died at Wooler 13.11.1913, said to be aged 73.
It is said that Thomas and Isabella first lived in a cottage on Tenterhill but later followed a Rule uncle [presumably John] into the right hand house of two adjoining properties that were in the family on the right hand side of the High Street going up from the Market Place.
Smart-Rule Family
Sheena’s great-grandfather, Thomas Smart, was baptised at Wooler 7.8.1836 as the third child and second son of John Smart and Jane Rule (See Ref. S2).
John Smart was a miller and he and Jane married 13.4.1832 in Wooler. She was of the well-established Rule slating and plastering family in Wooler. He was then 33 and she was 24. As Appendix 3 recounts, they had nine children, of which we have seen the baptisms of the first seven in the Wooler Parish Register, albeit the eldest, Robert, being actually baptised at Lowick. Throughout, John was described as a miller and he and Jane lived at High Street, Wooler. We believe that he worked at Humbleton Mill with his only surviving brother George. There is evidence that the children were almost all very long lived, i.e. a large framed photograph of eight of them, taken in 1910, when they were in their fifties and sixties. The four sons eventually averaged 83.5 years, with one of them, John, who was born in 1840 only dying in 1931.
By the time of the 1841 Census, nine years after marrying, John and Jane with five children were living in a house in High Street, Wooler, next door but one to Jane’s parents and near Joseph Rule, Jane’s uncle. By 1851, all nine children had been born (just) and they were still at High Street. Robert, the eldest, had become a miller, either with his father at Humbleton Mill or, possibly, at Wooler Mill, as an employee of the Short family. However the next year (8.9.1852) John Smart died, aged only 53, leaving his widow Jane, then aged 44, with five teenage children and four younger ones.
Nine years later, at the 1861 Census, Jane was a general shopkeeper, still in High Street, her sons Thomas and John having become slaters in their uncle John Rule’s business – he lived next door. They inherited the Rule business when John Rule died in January 1870. At some point in the 1880s John Smart retired from the business, which then became Thomas Smart and Sons, Slaters & Plasterers. For a full account of the Rule-Smart slatering and plastering business see Appendix 5 hereto.
The mother Jane (nee Rule) died 20.8.1876 at the age of 68 and on her death her estate was apportioned, with the four daughters each receiving £50. (The receipt, dated 4.1.1877, still exists. Today’s equivalent is £5,500.)
Smart-Landles Family
John Smart, born 7.8.1799 and baptised at Norham as a dissenter (per Norham Parish Dissenters Register) was the third child and eldest son of Robert Smart, a miller, and his wife Margaret nee Landles (see Ref. S11).
Thanks to a published tribute to one of their sons published in 1916 we learned that it was in 1815 that Robert Smart took over the water mill at Humbleton, just outside Wooler, where he also farmed, thus commencing over a century of Smarts being at Humbleton. The year before that, the youngest of their nine children had been born at Shipley, a mile or two north east of Alnwick. Robert and Margaret being dissenters, we have seen few register entries. However, we know the precise dates of birth of the children, thanks to a slip of paper that was found tucked into an old account book that was used c.1800 by George Rule, a brother of Robert and Margaret’s daughter-in-law, Jane. See Appendix 4 hereto for the details of the family. It seems that millers tended to move from one mill to another, particularly early in their careers. The eldest child was born at Crag Mill, Belford, where Margaret Landles family lived but the third and fourth children were recorded at Norham. A cousin and fellow researcher reports a family rumour that Robert was the miller “at Felkington”. This is in Norham Parish and it is known that there was Shoreswood Mill at Shoresdean nearby, so that is quite credible. However, from 1802 to 1814 we do not know where they were.
Pigott’s Northumberland Directory 1834 has, as millers, Robert Smart of Humbleton Mill, Leonard Short of Wooler Mill and Robert Burrell of Doddington Mill.
While seeking the date and place of Robert and Margaret’s marriage, we noticed in Internet indexes a marriage at Cornhill 8.5.1794 between Robert Smart and Mary Landless – i.e. just nine months before the birth of Robert and Margaret’s first child – and we wondered if “Margt” have been mistaken for “Mary”, something we were inclined to believe. However a search of the Cornhill marriage register (the book itself – not a film!!!) established that this marriage was not there. Instead, immediately on the other side of the bridge over the Tweed at Cornhill was a toll house in Coldstream where irregular marriages took place and perusal of a list compiled by George Bell from a Victorian transcription of the original register for the period 1793-1797 (and which has since been lost) confirmed that theirs was indeed an irregular marriage at the said toll house. Both parties were said to be from Belford parish, which is where our couple’s eldest child was baptised, as already mentioned, so we are quite confident about this.
Robert Smart died at Wooler 16.5.1838, aged 77. His widow Margaret stayed on at Humbleton Mill with her second (unmarried) son, George, and with the youngest (imbecile) daughter Hannah. Margaret died at Humbleton Mill 11.12.1848 aged 78 (of dyspepsia of old age), leaving George to continue at there until 1863 (we think), after which time he was succeeded by his brother John’s eldest son Robert. The latter is the miller at Humbleton on the 1871 Census. The late James Smart of Belford suggested that the succession at Humbleton continued with Robert’s youngest son James and he had this to say in 1966:
“The Wooler Smarts were flour millers at Humbleton Mill and Wooler Mill* and supplied the whole area of North Northumberland. The flour was carted by means of horse and cart as far as Ross, Belford, Glanton, Yetholm and into the Cheviot Hills. The Smarts at this time were now in the slatering business.”
*Wooler Mill was at the bottom of the town, near the river and was one of five watermills on the Wooler Water, the others being (according to an article in the Gazette of 27.8.1976) Coldgate, Earle, the Carding Mill and the Dye Mill. In 1976 the three storey Wooler Mill, bereft of any machinery was used as a builder’s store. It was the last mill in the line fed by a leat from a weir and pond above Earle Mill. Wooler Mill goes back to the 13th Century. Directories show Leonard Short as the miller in 1827 and 1834 and Margaret Short in 1855. John Rule is listed in 1887 as a cornmiller’s manager. The mill was still in operation in 1925 when John Bolam and Sons were millers. We have seen no evidence, as yet, that a Smart was ever the miller at Wooler Mill, although they might well have had employment there.
Robert Smart’s origins are not known. Given his age at death, he must have been born around 1761. No suitable index entries have been seen in North England. There is at least one Scottish baptism that would fit and we have heard it said in the family that the Smarts originally came from north of the border.
September 2021
George Anthony Smart and Mary Ellen Tait Family
George Anthony Smart and Mary Ellen Tait married at All Saints Church, Gosforth, 16.11.1896. They had children:
Mildred (Millie) Smart (1897-1986)
Born 30.9.1897. Met a Canadian, Albert Henry Bridges, who was over here during the First World War working as a lumberman, and married him 26.12.1918. The Bridges were pioneering farmers and woodmen near Comox, Vancouver Island. At least at first, life was very hard but in between times Millie and Albert had six daughters, one dying as an infant. Several of these had large families, so that their descendants are too numerous to list here. Albert was later a telephone engineer. After being widowed in October 1963, Millie lived at Nanaimo, Vancouver Island and died there 4.11.1986, aged 89.
One of Millie’s daughters recalled her mother and the four girls who had been born by then coming to England in 1931 and staying with Grannie (Mary Ellen) Smart in Wooler for some six months. At one point during their stay the children received presents from “the cousins from India”, through their mother Millie, who must have met the said cousins, although the children did not. The only connection with the sub-continent that we have heard of relates to Thomas Cosser (b. ? 1835), the (only) brother of Isabella Cosser and, therefore, Millie’s uncle. Two of his children were born in India and another child, George William Hunter Cosser (born 1874), could have been the architect practising in India who was said to be present at George V’s Durbar 12.12.1912). He would be 57 in 1931 and, if he had any, his children would be second cousins to Millie and therefore fit the “cousins from India” description perfectly well. They might well have been in their twenties at the relevant time – a good stage, perhaps, for the family to make trip back to the Motherland.
Kathleen Smart (1899-1990)
Born 23.7.1899. Married James (Jim) Keith, a butcher from Bonnyrigg, Midlothian (see separate series Ref. K1) in 15.7.1928 in Wooler. They had two daughters, Sheena and Eileen. Kathleen died on Christmas Eve 1990 at Wooler, aged 91, having, as she observed, spent a third of her life as a spinster, a third married and a third widowed.
Rhoda Smart (1904-1908)
Born ? ? 1904. Died of diphtheria 19.1.1908 [Mar 1908 Glendale 10b 333]
Thomas Arthur Smart (1908-1989)
Born 18.8.1908. Married (at Berwick) Katherine (Katie) Tuckwood (born 16.10.1906) in November 1938. He was in the slating and plastering business of his father, George Anthony Smart, his uncle Thomas Smart and his cousin Cosser Smart, but, when he and Cosser both returned from WW II service to take over the business, they decided to divide it and work separately. Neither business survived its last owner. Arthur and Katie had a son Anthony (born 26.12.1945, died 17.10.1991) who was a policeman in Edinburgh. He was married and had two sons. Katie died 27.10.1987, aged 81, and Arthur died 20.8.1989, also aged 81.
Thomas Smart and Isabella Cosser Family
Thomas Smart of Wooler married Isabella Cosser 25.4.1867 at Berwick on Tweed
They had children:
John (Jack) Smart (1868- 1952)
Born Wooler 12.2.1868. Towards the turn of the century he established the Tweedmouth part of the family slatering and plastering business. He bred and judged border terriers. Married 1896 Q1 at Berwick Margaret Jenkison, who was born 1864 Q3 at Lowick. Jack died 1952 Q4 at Berwick, aged 89. They had children:
Thomas, born Berwick 1897 Q1, who married Chris Hoonam. They had son, details of whom we have.
Annie (Nan), born Berwick 1900 Q3, who married 1927 Q2 at Berwick Joseph C. Edminson. Lived at Monkseaton, Whitley Bay, and had two boys, details of whom we have.
George Anthony Smart (1869-1946)
Born Wooler 28.4.1869. See main text and Appendix 1.
Elizabeth Smart (1871-1963)
Born Wooler 19.4.1871. Married Alex Miller, a timber yard manager. Elizabeth died 9.3.1963, aged 91. They had four children at Tweedmouth, a girl and three boys. One of the sons married and all four were farmers. We have some details.
Jane Smart (1872-1886)
Born Wooler 9.8.1872. Died 4.12.1886, aged 14. Buried in Wooler Churchyard .
Isabella Smart (1874-1909)
Born Wooler 26.5.1874. Married Rev Davison Totten and they had twin sons Reginald and Frederick and then a daughter Isabel. Isabella died 25.2.1909, aged 34, when the daughter was born.
Mary Ellen, wife of George Anthony Smart, looked after the baby at first, rather than Mary Smart (see next item). Reginald is said to have been a sickly boy who died young. Fred finished up in the North West Mounted Police at White Horse, Canada. We know a bit about his subsequent history and family, including a connection with Millicent (Smart) Bridges (See Appendix 1).
Mary Smart (1876-?1969)
Born Wooler 29.3.1876. Kept house for Rev Totten at Simonburn Vicarage, after her sister died. She herself died 1954 Q3 aged 78.
Thomas Smart (1877-1957)
Born Wooler 30.8.1877. In the slatering etc business with elder brother George Anthony Smart. Married 1905 Q4 at Newcastle Catherine (“Kate”) Allan (born 16.10.1881). She died 21.2.1946 aged 65 and Thomas died in May 1957, aged 80, both being buried in Wooler Cemetery. They had two sons:
Allan Smart, born 27.7.1906, schoolmaster, who married Muriel Annie Morgan (born 20.7.1903) from Lauder, daughter of Samuel Morgan, huntsman (born 16.5.1877) and his wife Emma (born 20.4.1870). Allan died 1980 Q4 and Muriel died 2.8.1983. They a son, i.e. Thomas Allan Morgan Smart, born 1935 Q4, who married 1959 Q2 Sheila Thornton.
Thomas Cosser Smart, born 12.1.1910, a slater and plasterer in Wooler, who married Nancy Harrison of Houghton-le-Spring. Born 6.3.1912 she was the daughter of Thomas M.C. Harrison and Dorothy Forsyth of Auckland. Nancy originally came to Wooler as housekeeper to Thomas Smart after he was widowed. She died in 1990 Q4, aged 78, and Cosser died 1993 Q2 aged 83. They had a daughter.
John Smart and Jane Rule Family
John Smart and Jane Rule were married 13.4.1832 in Wooler.
They had children as follows:
Robert Smart (1832-1916)
Bap. Lowick. Entered at Wooler 6.1.1833. Miller and farmer. Married 1859 Q3 (Glendale) Ruth Matthewson born Scotland 1835/36. [Not found in Scotlandspeople.] In 1861 with Ruth in her widowed mother Charlotte’s house in High Street, Wooler, she being born in Exeter 1798/99. Judged by children’s places of birth, moved to Humbleton Mill c.1863. We assume that, prior to that, Robert worked with his father (who died when he was 19) and his uncle George at Humbleton, then c.1863, took over from George. From 1880 he also farmed the neighbouring Vicarage Farm as well as the holding of High Burn House – the latter until 1914 when his son-in-law James Redpath acquired it at the time of the sale of the Chillingham Estate. Robert Smart was for nearly 40 years up to the date of his death a member of the Glendale Board of Guardians and also sat on the Rural District Council. Ruth died 26.9.1894, aged 57 ? and was buried in Wooler Cemetery. In 1901 and 1911 Robert still at Humbleton Mill with four and then three unmarried children. Kathleen (Smart) Keith (1899-1990) remembered the elderly Robert eventually living at the Burn House. He died 23.12.1916, aged 84, and was buried in Wooler Cemetery. Robert and Ruth had five sons and seven daughters:
John (Jock) Smart. Born Wooler 1860/61. Farmer at Vicarage Farm, Wooler, married to Susanna Frances ???, three years his junior, with seven children. As both his wife and first child were born at Slaley, he must have been living there for a time. Kathleen (Smart) Keith (1899-1990) remembered John as living at Glebe Cottage near the Vicarage. Susanna Frances Smart died October 1920, aged 57, and John died December 1939, aged 79. Thomas, their fourth son, was killed in action October 1915, aged 24.
Robert Smart. Born Wooler 1861/62. Lived at Horsden. Died 22.3.1933, aged 71 and buried in Wooler Cemetery. He married Isabella Tully who died 22.10.1931 aged 72 and buried likewise. They are believed to have had four children. Of these, Mary, born 1897/98, who died 9.2.1971 aged 73 and Robert, born 1900/01 who died 26.1.1963 aged 62, are both buried in Wooler Cemetery.
Thomas Smart. Born Doddington (assumed Humbleton) 1863/64. Another shoemaker. He married Jane Ann Nesbit (1866-1944) and they had nine children, of whom one was James Smart a shoemaker, the father of Mr J.A. Smart of Belford. These two did some Smart family history work.
George Smart. Born Humbleton 1864/65. Up to 1911 with his father at Humbleton Mill, as a farmer. Said to have became involved in the slatering business of his cousins, George Anthony and Thomas. Died 13.6.1936, aged 71 and was buried in Wooler Cemetery.
Charlotte Smart. Born Humbleton 1867 Q3. Married James Redpath, a joiner, lived in High Street, Wooler, where the Co-op now is, and had sons Robert (father of Hazel and Mavis – who married a vet, Gerald David Curry (born 13.1.1925, died 1999 Q1) and lived at Alnwick. Charlotte died August 1916, aged 49.
Jane Smart. Born Humbleton 1869 Q1, baptised Wooler 14.2.1869. Remained at home. Died 14.4. 1943, aged 74 and buried in Wooler Cemetery.
Isabella Smart. Born July/August 1870 Humbleton. Died 17.11.1870 aged 3 months and buried Wooler Churchyard.
Ruth Smart. Baptised Wooler 12.2.1871. Married Luke Atkinson. They are believed to have had three sons.
Mary Smart. Born 1872/73. Teacher in Gateshead. Had Rule family connections. Died 6.11.1961 aged ? 88. Tombstone in Wooler Cemetery says 78.
Infant daughter. Born 1875. Died 30.5.1875 and buried in Wooler Churchyard.
Margaret (Maggie) Smart. Born 1876/77. Remained at home. Died 20.2.1956 aged 79 and buried in Wooler Cemetery.
James Smart, farmer. Born 1878/79. Married Margaret Ann Robertson 1907 Q4 Glendale. Believed to have had three daughters. At home at Humbleton Mill 1901. In 1911 at Dovecote Lane Wooler with two young daughters and believed to have had another daughter after that. Said to have taken over from his father at Humbleton Mill. Family folklore had him marrying Chrissie May of Kirkcaldy. Actually, the eldest daughter was named Elizabeth May.
Mary Smart (1834-1927)
Bap. 5.10.1834 Wooler. Married JohnYoung, blacksmith, of Yetholm. 1871 at a private house at Chillingham Castle, with 11 month daughter Jane (born at Chillingham) and John’s 15 year old nephew, John Young, apprentice blacksmith. The husband emigrated to Australia without his wife and daughter. The 1881 to 1911 Censuses have Mary Young in Wooler (as “married”) acting as housekeeper to her brother John and (until her marriage) her sister Barbara, with daughter Jane Young (aged 50 in 1911). She died 1927 Q2 aged 92.
Thomas Smart (1836-1919)
Bap. 7.8.1836. See main text and Appendix 2
Margaret Smart (1838- ?? )
Bap. 10.1.1838 Wooler. Married Glendale 1858 Q3 John Elliott, slater. Embarked 6.7.1860 at Portsmouth and landed in Brisbane 29.10.1860. We have seen several more similar journeys over the years up to 1960 for Margaret, including one with an infant, but we have not seen anything similar for John. In the 1886 will of her aunt Barbara Rule (1810-1886) she was said to live in Sydney.
John Smart (1840-1931)
Bap. 5.4.1840 Wooler. Remained unmarried. Apprenticed as a slater to his uncle John Rule and, with his brother Thomas, inherited the Rule business when John Rule died in January 1870. At some point in the 1880s John Smart retired from the business, which then became Thomas Smart and Sons, Slaters & Plasterers. Censuses at Wooler bear this out – in 1881 he is listed as a slater and in 1891 as a retired slater. His sister Mary (Young) was his housekeeper for very many years. Died 20.3.1931, aged 91, buried in Wooler Cemetery.
George Smart (1843-1920)
Bap. 26.3.1843 Wooler. A slater, presumably in the family business. Married Agnes Robertson who was born in Scotland c. 1842 and who died 22.11.1911 and was buried in Wooler Cemetery. Seen at High Street, Wooler in 1871 and at West Street in 1881 and 1891 (next door to sister Jane Spence). George died 1.2.1920, aged 77, buried in Wooler Cemetery. George and Agnes had five daughters and two sons:
John Smart, born 16.4.1863, master bootmaker and poet of Wooler. In 1890, he married, firstly, Hannah J Cowens, who had been born at Chatton in 1868, and they had three daughters, Jane (1891), Agnes Davidson (1893) and Elizabeth Isabella Hunter (1896). In 1903 Hannah died and John married, secondly, Mary Jane Kinghorn (born 1869 at Millfield). They had two sons, George Hugh (born 1904), who worked with his father as a master bootmaker in Wooler, and John (born 1908) who finished up as a reporter in Newcastle. John Smart went on working until he died in 1952, aged 89, whereupon the business closed, with Hugh joining the NHS at Newcastle General Hospital. Agnes remained unmarred, keeping house for her father and brother until 1952. She died in 1983. John Smart’s granddaughter (and fellow researcher) comments, “John Smart made a special boot for shepherds and made shoes for many aristocrats. He exported to many countries – quite an achievement. He kept bees and won prizes for his honey. He was a successful runner. With his greyhounds he would walk six miles daily before work! He was famous as a poet and Newcastle University got him to make a record of the Northumbrian dialect.”
Catherine Smart born 1863/64. Married a butcher at Blyth. Seen in 1881 as a 16 year old nursery maid at Chatton Vicarage.
Jane Smart born 1864/65. Seen in 1881 as a 14 year old servant in the house of Elizabeth Short, a miller of Mill Vale, off Church Street. The Short family, according to 1827 and 1855 directories, were millers at Wooler Mill, where we think Jane’s grandfather and (possibly) uncle Robert were employed . However, what may be equally relevant, given Jane’s grandmother being a Rule, is that an 1887 directory lists John Rule as the millers’ manager at Wooler Mill! Married David Purves/Purvis and had 8 children, several in Widdrington. 1911 at Lowick Beal, Lowick where David Purves was a police constable. Kathleen Keith spoke of this daughter being called Bella and Dave Purves being a cousin of Mary Ellen (Tait), George Anthony Smart’s wife.
Margaret (Meg) Smart born 1871. Known as “Holy Meg”. In the 1930s, lived in Dalmeny Terrace, opposite the R.C. Church. Died 22.3.1959 aged 88 and was buried in Wooler Cemetery.
George Smart born 1873/74. Butcher.
Alice Dorothy Smart born Wooler 1875 Q3. At the 1891 Census in service in Wooler at “Strathmore”, Ryecroft Road.. Married Charles Alexander D. Anderson at Wooler 1909 Q4. He was born 1874 at Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, the son of Charles Anderson, farmer, and his wife Grace nee McGregor. Alice and Charles’ son Charles George was born 1910 Q2 and at the 1911 Census they were at Dolmeny Terrace, Wooler, Charles being a grocer’s book-keeper. A daughter, Grace Dorothy, was born 1914 Q2, but then father Charles died 1916 Q2, aged 41. Sadly, the two children were left orphaned when Alice Dorothy herself died 7.8.1919 aged 44 ? and was buried in Wooler Cemetery. Although, at first, the orphans were looked after at Wooler, their next-of-kin, grandmother Grace Anderson arranged for them to emigrate to Springstown, Pennsylvania, where their aunt Agnes McKinley, had settled. This information was kindly supplied by a fellow researcher who forwarded a copy of the passenger list of the Cunarder RMS Aquitania departing from Southampton 4.12.20, showing Charles George, 10, and Grace Dorothy, 6, as unaccompanied minors (belonging, it is said, to the Scotch race). The Aquitania had only resumed her acclaimed luxury transatlantic service in the July after a re-fit following her use as a troopship in the War.
Agnes M. Smart born 1877/78 – She kept house for her brother Jack (shoemaker and poet) and helped in the shop.
[Kathleen Keith also had one of the daughters married Lilico’s shop manager and had two children. Not clear where these fit in. ]
Isabella Smart (1845-1913)
Bap. 29.6.1845 Wooler. Married David Miller, shoemaker, born 1839/40, died 1900 Q2. The family lived in the left hand of the two Smart/Rule houses opposite the one which George Anthony Smart occupied in the twentieth Century. David died in Wooler 1900 Q2, aged 60 and Isabella died there 1913 Q3 aged 68. The Millers’ children who survived childhood were:
Jane Miller
John Smart (“Jack”) Miller, shoemaker
Dave Miller, who had daughters Aggie, Cathey (married ?? Suddes?) and Veda (who married Leslie Redpath who worked with Jim Keith in Youngs butchers), as well as daughters Jane and Isabella.
Isabella Miller
Jane (Jean) Smart (1848-1921)
Born 1848 Q3 at Wooler. In 1871 with brother Robert at Humbleton Mill, as 22 year old domestic servant. Married 1874 Q3 John Spence, slater & plasterer, and lived in Davy’s Yard, off West Street, Wooler. John died at Wooler 1917 Q1 and Jane died there 1921 Q1 aged 72. They had four daughters:
Jane Spence (married Cowans and had sons Spence Cowans and Cranston Cowans)
Isabella (“Bella”) Spence
Mary (or Mame) Spence who taught Kathleen Smart, Sheena’s mother, at Wooler C of E school and provided lodgings for James Keith, her father, when he moved to Wooler from Scotland.
Barbara Spence, dressmaker.
Barbara Smart (1850-1931)
Born at Wooler 1850 Q2. At 1881 and 1891 Censuses is still with Mary and John, her siblings, as an unmarried teacher. Married 1898 Q4 Henry Hall, joiner, and lived at the Dye Mill Cottage, Wooler. Henry died at Wooler 1926 Q2, aged 77 and Barbara died there 1931 Q2, aged 81.
Robert Smart and Margaret Landles Family
As the main text recounts, we believe that Robert and Margaret contracted an irregular marriage 8.5.1794 at Coldstream Bridge toll house. They had children as follows. The dates of birth are those shown on the slip of paper found with the Rule Day Books.
Margaret Landles Smart (1795-1857 )
Born 17.2.1795 at Crag Mill Belford. Married John Tate/Tait of Wooler and therefore features with him in the Tait Family story (Ref. S5). Died 18.4.1857 at Wooler.
Elizabeth Smart (1797 – ?? )
Born 3.9.1797 (where?)
John Smart (1799-1852)
Born 7.8.1799 at Norham. See main text and Appendix 3.
George Smart (1801-1871)
Born 28.11.1801 at Norham (but Norham PR for Dissenters searched in vain for baptism). Took over Humbleton Mill after his father died in 1838. Remained there, unmarried, at least until around 1863, from which time his nephew Robert and family were at Humbleton. Whether George stayed on there with them or retired to somewhere in Wooler* we are not sure because he died 20.3.1871, thus missing 1871 Census. He was buried in Wooler Churchyard.
*It should be recorded that, per page 67 of “Wooler and Glendale – A Brief History Vol I”, in the Wooler fire of February 1863, George Smart’s house was one of thirteen houses totally burnt out.
Ann Smart (1804- ??)
Born 29.1.1804. Married James Kerr of Wooler 6.3.1829. Brother John was a witness.
Eleanor Smart (1806- ?? )
Born 29.4.1806.
Thomas Smart (1808-1825)
Born 26.5.1808. Died 28.8.1825, buried in Wooler churchyard, although of the Parish of Doddington. The PR speaks of the mother being “Margaret, late Landells”.
Mary Smart (1811- ?? )
Born 23.8.1811.
Hannah Smart (1814-1863)
Born 4.2.1814 Shipley*, presumably the place a mile or two NE of Alnwick. In 1841 and 1851 she was at Humbleton Mill, latterly with her brother George, it being noted that she was an imbecile. In 1861 she had left George and was with her widowed sister-in-law, Jane Smart at High Street, Wooler. She died 21.12.1863, aged 49 and is buried in Wooler Churchyard.
*[Eglingham PRs searched in vain for baptism at Shipley. Not at Glanton Presbyterian either. Also looked at GRO’s RG4 2479, 2573, 2478. 2473 and 3212 for Non-Parochial Registers, inc. Alnwick Clayport and Alnwick Pottersgate.]
November 2017
Appendix 5 to Ref. S1 and Appendix 5 to Ref. S2
SLATERING: THE RULE AND SMART FAMILIES
This appendix is an exception to our normal approach, in that it recites events in chronological order, rather than, as with the family stories, going back in time. This is because we know the start and end points of the story we wish to tell and industrial history is generally presented from the past to the present.
The start point is “Thomas Ruell” whose date of birth we have not established but who became an apprentice stone mason 12.6.1716, presumably when he was just a teenager. (for the Rule family see Ref.S2.) We actually possess most of the relevant document which reads, in part, “Thomas Ruell, son of John Ruell, late of Wooler, deceased, apprenticed to James Lighten, yeoman mason of the Raw [which is near Rothbury] for seven years at 20 shillings a year, all found…..” Thomas Rule married Jane Turner at Rothbury 4.6.1726 and it is thought that the family moved to Ford around 1739. At that time Thomas Rule would probably be approaching 40 and he died in 1761 (actually buried in Rothbury). The move could well have turned out advantageous for the Rules because Ford Castle had, in 1723, passed into the hands of the Delavel family and in 1761 they had it rebuilt in the Gothic style, George Raffield being the architect.
We know the two sons of Thomas Rule became slaters. Thomas Rule (1730-1776) established himself in Alnwick where The Duke of Northumberland was employing local masons on projects at the Castle (see the Rule story at Appendix 3 to S2). He may also have worked in and around Wooler.
Thomas’s brother John Rule (1732-1806) worked at Ford as a slater, no doubt inheriting his father’s business when he was 29 and was probably involved in the rebuilding of Ford Castle. He had no less than five sons who became slaters. The eldest, William Youngson Rule (1763-1818) married a Norham girl when he was not quite 20, which suggests that he served his apprenticeship there. At any rate that was where he worked for the rest of his life. It may be relevant that from 1770 Sir Francis Blake had been re-creating Twizel Castle in a Gothic style. The Castle (now a ruin) is about three miles south west of Norham. Despite forty years of work the project was never completed. William Youngson’s descendants continued the family tradition by spreading the trade of slatering and plastering even further afield. For instance, the 1881 Census has, at Bishop Wearmouth, Sunderland, County Durham, 37-year old John Rule (born at Norham) as a “plastering master” employing 22 men and (it says!) 75 boys. Family folk-lore has Sheena’s grandfather, George Anthony Smart learning his plastering trade in Sunderland (see below).
John (“Old Jack”) Rule (1768-1860) remained at Ford as the sole Rule slater, while his three younger brothers, George Robert and Joseph all practised their trade at Wooler.
The father of the five sons, John Rule, was widowed in 1787 and quite soon after that appears to have moved the family home to Wooler, quite likely because the three youngest boys were serving their apprenticeships there. Of these three, George Rule (1771-1844) did have a son who became a slater (and, for a time, an innkeeper) but who lived at Belford and Joseph (1775-1853) had a son who emigrated to Jamaica, so the succession to the Wooler business was through the Robert Rule (1773-1846) branch.
Robert Rule had only one son who survived childhood, i.e. John Rule (1801-1870), so he inherited the Wooler business from his father and his two uncles. However, he never married and when he died the question of succession arose. The candidates were the two sets of nephews who we believe were employed by him, i.e. Robert and Thomas Thompson, the sons of John’s deceased eldest sister Mary and Thomas, John and George Smart, the sons of Jane, his younger sister. In fact the business passed to the Smarts, i.e. Thomas Smart (1836-1919) and John Smart (1840-1931), while we think George Smart (1843-1920) was an employee). The 1871 Census has Thomas Smart with five employees, whereas ten years previously his uncle employed nine. Given that the latter figure must have included Thomas himself it is reduction of three, which suggests that the Thompsons did not become Thomas Smart’s employees but worked on their own account.
John Smart retired from the business when his mother died in 1876 and it eventually became Thos Smart & Sons, Slaterers and Plasterers, Thomas bringing in his three sons, John (Jack) Smart (1868-1952), who established a branch in Tweedmouth, George Anthony Smart (1869-1946) and Thomas Smart (1877-1957) who continued the Wooler business. George Anthony Smart was particularly renowned as a plasterer, having served his time in that trade in Sunderland, no doubt under a cousin of his, John Rule (see above). In 1901,when Lutyens redeveloped Holy Island Castle in the Arts & Craft style for the publishing magnate Edward Hudson, George Anthony did the plastering.
In 1939, when war broke out, George Anthony and Thomas had with them their respective sons, Thomas Arthur Smart (1908-1989) and Thomas Cosser Smart (1910-1993) but when these two both went off into the forces a decision was made to dissolve the partnership, so that Thomas Smart and Sons ceased to exist on 31.7.1941. After the war both Arthur and Cosser Smart resumed their trade, but as sole traders and neither had a successor.
Thus ended a saga covering nearly a quarter of a millennium.
Footnote:
As the above account makes clear, from about 1800 there was a sufficient volume of work arising in and around Wooler to support a number of slaters. What the Rev Mr Hodgson had to say about Wooler in 1819 is relevant:
Burnt down in 1722 and “arose fairer out of its ashes”. At present, however, it is nearly all thatched and, though it begins to flourish, it has but a cold uncleanly appearance.” It is recorded that the Cheviot Street Presbyterian Church, built in 1778, was one of the first buildings in Wooler to have a slate roof. It is said that earlier, in 1693, there was a fire which destroyed 54 houses, so a switch to something less vulnerable was somewhat overdue.
March 2024
Young Family History 