Ref. M5
See here for an alphabetical list of all surnames in the Turner pages with links to the relevant text.
Our interest in this family springs from Mike’s maternal grandmother, Rosa Turner, who married Adam Mason (See Ref. M1) 19.4.1889 at Hanover Street Chapel, Halifax, Yorkshire. Rosa was born 4.1.1866 at 2, Pleasant Place, Holderness Road, Hull, the youngest of four daughters of George Turner and his wife Sarah Elizabeth nee Chambers (The Chambers Family story is at Ref. M7). While a good deal of what we have found in the records simply confirms what older family members told us, it has sometimes been a challenge to weave in the considerable anecdotal detail so as to be in harmony with what the records say.
Turner Chambers family
The certificate for George Turner’s marriage to Sarah Elizabeth Chambers 6.4.1856 at St Mary Bishophill Parish Church, Yorkshire, has George as a gardener, with both parties resident at Middlethorpe, which is in that parish, about three miles south of York city centre. George is stated to be a widower aged 23 with Michael Turner, butcher, as his father. This is hardly consistent with George’s age of 29 at the 1851 Census. We suspect the original marriage record said age 33. No profession was given for the bride.
The said 1851 Census had George Turner, gardener, with Ann, his first wife, and son Henry (aged 2) occupying one of two gardeners’ cottages adjacent to a girls boarding school at Middlethorpe Hall.*
*Middlethorpe Hall was built 1799-1801 in Queen Anne style for Thomas Barlow, a prosperous Master Cutler, overlooking the Knavesmire, which, although at that time still a rather rough open space, had for centuries been the local racecourse and for some decades had a spectators stand which had been erected by subscription. The Hall was leased out as a girls school 1851 to 1881. In fact on the 1851 Census date the residents comprised two school mistresses (sisters), 21 boarders and six “servants”, all but one being female. In 1861 the school seems to have changed hands but expanded to four teachers and 127 boarders. Staff numbers had only risen to seven, with one of these a male (a stable boy). Rather significantly from our point of view Middleton Hall stands in 26 acres of parkland, which would justify a number of gardeners Today it is a luxury hotel and spa, actually leased from the National Trust.
Young Henry Turner’s had been born 9.6.1848 at Bishopthorpe, which, like Middlethorpe, is downstream of York on the Ouse and is the site of the Archbishop’s Palace, the latter being less than a mile from Middlethorpe Hall. George Turner may well have been employed at the Palace before getting a job at the School when it opened. Henry’s baptism, at Bishopthorpe, only took place the next year (18.7.1849). His mother Ann’s maiden name is given as Scott and we duly found her on the 1841 Census at nearby Copmanthorpe (which was in the parish of St Mary Bishophill) aged 13, the daughter of James Scott, shoemaker and Frances, his wife. Ann’s baptism had been 18.5.1828 at Copmanthorpe. In fact George Turner married Ann Scott 21.9.1847 at Copemathorpe Chuch, Parish of Bishophill, by licence (presumably because Ann was a minor). He was said to be resident at Middlethorpe with Ann resident at Copemanthorpe.
Later in 1851 the family ceased to live at the School, perhaps because the cottage was too small for a growing family. Although a son Edward was born at Middlethorpe 24.6.1851, when reporting his birth to the Registrar at Micklegate District, York, 4.8.1851, his father gave his address as 6, Batty’s Buildings, Cemetery Road, York. Then a daughter Frances, was born 27.4.1853, at 6 Eshelby’s Close, Micklegate, York. Sadly, Edward died of fever at 2 Goodramgate, York, 3.9.1854. While, admittedly, Micklegate, which ran from the Ouse Bridge to walls of York at Micklegate Bar, was the exit from the city that led ultimately to the School at Middlethorpe, it was some distance from all the above addresses and it would have taken George Turner a bit of time to get to and from the School, assuming he was still employed there. It is possible that there was a horse bus service by that time – they existed prior to 1841. The Turners were still resident at 2 Goodramgate, when, very sadly, Ann died 15.4.1855, aged 26, the cause of death being influenza and malignant bronchitis.
With son Henry six years old and daughter Frances just two, George possibly got his in-laws to look after them at Copmanthorpe, where James and Frances Scott continued to live (per 1851 and 1861 Censuses), as this was only four miles or so from Middlethorpe. In that case George might have sought accommodation for himself again at the School. This would allow us to accept family folklore that George Turner and Sarah Elizabeth Chambers were both working at the School when they met and, by implication, resident there (as their marriage certificate implies). (To be fair, George and Sarah, for that matter, could have been in digs in Middlethorpe village, but it was a very small place.) Sarah Elizabeth’s granddaughter, Mary Woodhead, thought that she may have been an under-cook (and, therefore a resident, surely). We do not know how long the 22 year old Sarah Elizabeth had been at Middlethorpe by the time of George’s bereavement and, in particular, how long they had been acquainted, but it seems that courtship ensued very rapidly, because by the time of her marriage Sarah was nine months pregnant and the couple’s first child, Jane, was born just 12 days after the wedding and only one year and three days after Annie’s death.
We note that this birth was at 100 Goodramgate, York, which implies that George and Sarah Elizabeth had moved from Middlethorpe into York itself in the short time between applying to be married and Jane’s birth. If the cottage at the School was, indeed, too small for a family, George and Sarah Elizabeth would have had little option. What’s more, we can imagine that the rather rapid sequence of events would have persuaded the maiden lady owners of the girls’ School not to keep George on. At any rate, it seems that George and Sarah Elizabeth decided quite soon to get away from York, as they certainly did not stay long enough to have Jane baptised there – that only happened after their second child, Mary (“Polly” in the family) was born 5.11.1857 at George’s mother’s place in Pontefract. As an experienced gardener, George could no doubt find work wherever he lived and by 25.8.1860, when son Thomas was born, they were living at Old Town, Southcoates, on the eastern edge of Hull, George being described as a nursery gardener. The 1861 Census shows them nearby at Southcoates Lane, with Henry, Frances and their own three children, Jane, Mary and Thomas. Details of George Turner’s families are at Appendix 1 hereto. Information about the Southcoates area is at Appendix 5.
Mike’s uncle Walter, Rosa Turner’s son, is recorded as follows:
“I remember Mother telling us that her father, who was a gardener, opened the nurseries on Holderness Road which have now gone under the name of Darlings for many years. Mother lived with her parents in a little cottage in Southcoates Lane. Their next door neighbours were the Ranks of which Joseph* turned out to be the biggest flour miller in the world. He had a windmill near the top of Southcoates Ave. I believe it is still there.”
* According to Alan Whitworth, author of Tyke Towers (2002), in 1825 Joseph Rank’s grandfather, John Rank, then 24, and from a farming family, rented the windmill at Sproatley (East Riding), built five years earlier. Three years later he bought the mill. In 1841 he left his son-in-law running the Sproatley Mill and moved the family to Hull, occupying Eyre’s Mill on Holderness Road until 1846 when he relinquished it for a more suitable windmill in Southcoates Avenue. After John’s son James married in 1861 the father handed over the Hull mill to him to run with another son William, with John himself moving to a mill at Skirlaugh, where his famous grandson, Joseph, was born. We note that at the 1861 Census James Rank, a miller employing two men and one boy, was living at 77 Southcoates Lane with his family, including the said Joseph aged 7. George and Sarah Turner and family were at number 87, so not next door but “neighbours” perhaps.
Mary Woodhead commented:
“George Turner looked after the window boxes in Sykes Street, Mason Street and Albion Street. Without gardens, people enjoyed the window boxes. Albion Street is still attractive, with its large houses. Each one had a hole in the pavement in front of it through which coal was poked through.”
George Turner is said to have suffered from dropsy and he died of a heart attack 25.8.1868, aged 45 at Hull Infirmary. At that time Mike’s grandmother, Rosa, was only two and the widow Sarah Elizabeth about 34. They were then living at 7 Pleasant Place, off Holderness Road, Hull, Rosa having been born at 2 Pleasant Place.
An old map of Hull that we have indicates a windmill near the corner of Southcoates Avenue and Holderness Road, opposite East Park and the 1871 Census (at RG10/4780/67) has a steam flour mill* on Holderness Road and, sure enough, the next record in Southcoates Lane shows widow Sarah Elizabeth Turner as a laundress with the four girls (Rosa being then five years old). There is no sign of half-brother Henry** and half-sister Frances. However, there was, as a visitor, a three year old boy Henry Chambers, born in Hull, who turns out to be Sarah Elizabeth’s nephew, i.e. her brother Thomas Chambers’ boy. They also had with them Thomas Chambers, aged 78, a joiner. Although he was labelled “Boarder”, he was in fact Sarah Elizabeth’s widowed father.
*The Rank family were living elsewhere in 1871, i.e. on Beverley Road, Sculcoates, Hull.
**Family folklore did not seem to know about Frances but it was said of Henry that he eventually developing religious mania and committed suicide in Halifax
The eldest daughter, Jane, married Lewis Henry Hildyard of Hull, the son of Henry Hildyard, Greengrocer, on Christmas Day 1874 when she was 18. She gave her address as 34 New George Street but what the significance of that was we do not know. See the Appendix 4 for the Hildyard story.
The 1881 Census shows Sarah Turner, now as a charwoman, still at Southcoates Lane, Southcoates, Hull, with just Rosa left at home but also still with father Thomas. Sarah’s second and third daughters, Mary (“Polly”) and Kate had migrated to Southowram, Halifax where there was work in a silk factory and we see them there at the Census. At that time Polly would be 23 and Kate 18.
The grandfather, Thomas Chambers, died 23.1.1885, at the remarkable age, for those days, of 92, the death certificate recording that he (with Sarah Elizabeth) was living at 56 Oxford Street, Sculcoates. Oxford Street was in a section of the city between the Beverley and Barmston Drain (on the West) and the River Hull (on the East), quite a distance from the family’s previous haunts up the Holderness Road. It was, however, more accessible to the area where Sarah Elizabeth’s eldest daughter, Jane Hildyard, was living, so that may have been a motive for living there.
Family tradition says that “Sarah Elizabeth and her family moved to Halifax after George’s death, because there was more work there” but in practice the move was piecemeal, with Polly and Kate going first and their mother and Rosa going later. In the nature of the event we lack documentary evidence when, precisely, the moves took place but Mary Woodhead, Sarah Elizabeth’s grand-daughter, believed that the widow Sarah finally moved there when Rosa was 17, which would be 1883. It is much more likely to be two years after that, when Thomas Chambers no longer needed looking after.
It is at this point we confess to failing, these 40+ years, to look at this migration story critically enough, although it is always easy to speak more assuredly from hindsight. The obvious question was, would Sarah willingly have dispatched her (comparatively) young daughters into the unknown like that. Well, she did not. At the 1881 Census we see them lodged at Coal Street, Southowram, Halifax, with a married couple, i.e. Robert Ulrick, 26, a railway drayman and his wife Fanny, also 26, who have one child, Mary Jane, aged 4. If we had been sufficiently curious we might have decided to look at this couple. They had married at Brighouse 26.6.1875, the bride stating that she was the 22 year old daughter of George Turner, gardener, and making her mark, rather than signing the register. Alright, we were probably put off by the said Census saying that Fanny was born in Halifax whereas on subsequent occasions it was given as York. She was none other than Polly and Kate’s elder half-sister. Even if Sarah and her girls were not at Brighouse for the wedding, surely the birth of granddaughter Mary Jane in 1876 must have meant Halifax was not strange territory whenever it was that Polly and Kate moved there.
We are certainly most grateful for being tipped off about all this by Mike’s cousin, assiduous researcher that she is!
At any rate, we have a studio portrait of Sarah Elizabeth with the three younger daughters taken at Halifax, probably in 1885, marking either the uniting of the family or a few months later in 1885, Kate’s imminent departure for Australia (and marriage). Walter Mason, Rosa’s son, spoke of hearing of a time when the family were at Halifax and apparently inherited £100. Rosa was instructed, “now that they were in the money”, to go and buy a pair of step-ladders. However, she was told off for spending 3s 6d – it was too much! However, they turned out to be a bargain, since Walter used them as a painter and decorator up until 1971!
The family group did not last long because by 1891 Rosa had (in 1889) married Adam Mason and moved back to Hull and Kate had emigrated to Australia so that at that Census, in Halifax, Sarah just had Mary (Polly) with her, at Alma Street, both of them being seamstresses. Polly never married. It is clear, from enquiries made in Halifax, that the Hanover Street Chapel, where Rosa was married, was, at that time, a very flourishing entity. See Appendix 3 for more about it.
At the 1901 Census, Sarah Elizabeth and Polly were back in Hull, living in the St Giles area of Sculcoates and earning a living washing laundry at home.
With Polly having died in 1908, Sarah Elizabeth Turner ended her days occupying the front room of her daughter Rosa Mason’s house at 5 Egginton Street, Hull, where the family had moved from Crystal Street. The 1911 Census confirms this. Mike’s aunts, of course, clearly remembered Sarah Elizabeth’s death, which was 19.1.1917, when she was 84 and had been widowed 48 years. We have the cemetery bill, amounting to £1.1.3, including “Minister’s Fee” of 2s 6d. It appears that Rosa Mason was out when a policeman called to verify the death and eleven year old granddaughter Jessie Mason offered to “show him Gran”, to which he replied, “Yes dear, yes dear, that’s alright!”. His daughters remember their father Adam Mason getting leave from the army. The Hedon Road Cemetery records confirm the above.
* * * *
Turner Robinson family
Looking for George Turner’s origins, he said he was born in Pontefract, the son of Michael Turner, a butcher, but we were a little uncertain as to his year of birth, as there was some inconsistency between his age on the Censuses and those given at his second marriage and a his death. These two suggested a birth 1822/23 and we found a baptism at Pontefract 26.3.1823 for George Turner son of Michael Turner and his wife Mary. However Michael was stated to be a labourer. We searched all Yorkshire baptisms 1817-1833 for children of Michael and Mary Turner. There were only five and all but one were at Pontefract the other one being in the same general area, so we accepted this family as our George’s. In fact Michael was described as a butcher in 1827 when the daughter Jane was baptised, so we were reassured.
We next sought the parents’ marriage. For the whole of Yorkshire 1816-26 there was only one possible candidate, i.e. Michael Turner, butcher, who married Mary Robinson at Leeds St Peter’s on 13.2.1817, after banns. Appendix 2 hereto gives details of Michael and Mary’s family. For the Robinson family see Ref. M6.
In 1841 Michael Turner was at Burton Salmon (Monk Fryston), in the same general area as Pontefract, a labourer, with three surviving children, Henry, John and Charles. Burton Salmon was where (per the 1851 Census) Mary Turner came from but we do not know where Mary was in 1841. George, “aged 15” was at an inn in Pontefract, presumably on a short term basis.
John we have lost track of after 1841. Henry died 3.4.1842, aged 21, of apoplectic fits, said to be a horse breaker. The place of death was given as “Pool” and, looking at a six inch to the mile map available on the internet, we think that this refers to Byram cum Poole, which was close to Burton Salmon. The father Michael died at the same location 19.8.1843 of cancer of the throat, aged 49, he also being a horse breaker. With George having gone off to get married in 1847, at the 1851 Census, we find Mary Turner, still at Burton Salmon as a widow aged 60 with just her son Charles, 21, a gardener.
We think that Charles Turner, like his older brother George, was a gardener at large establishments. On Christmas Day 1851 he married and (per the 1861 Census) his first two children were born at Byram cum Poole. By 1861, married with four children, he and his wife were at Sutton under Whitestonecliffe, near Thirsk, described as a head gardener, while at Micklegate, Pontefract, Mary Turner was a 68 year old cook – we know she was already there by November 1857 when her grand-daughter Mary Turner, (George’s daughter) was born there. In 1871, still at Micklegate she describes herself as a “professional cook” born at Coatem, a place we have not identified.
Mary died of bronchitis at Pontefract 6.1.1872, aged 78 and is buried there in a grave with no headstone.
* * * * *
Turner Atherton family
Michael Turner was said to be 49 when he died in 1843 which prompted us to scan the published parish baptisms for Yorkshire 1791 to 1795. There was only one, i.e. at Brotherton 7.9.1794 for a Michael, son of Robert Turner and Mary. Given the fact that Michael’s eldest child Henry was born at Brotherton we thought it very reasonable to assume that this couple were Henry’s grandparents. (We did check for Michael Turner deaths 1794 to 1817 and found none in Yorkshire.) We found a marriage (after banns) at Brotherton 29.6.1791 between Robert Turner and Mary Atherton, both of the Parish with five children baptised there in due course, as set out in Appendix 6 hereto. There was a burial at Brotherton 21.12.1831 of a Mary Turner, wife of Robert resident at Poole, aged 63. This seems very likely to be “ours”. With a birth in 1768 it would mean she was 23 when she married and 39 when the youngest child was born. We are not so sure about Robert Turner. There was a Brotherton burial 24.3.1835 for 80 year old Robert Turner “of Knottingley, late of Skipton”. The implication of this is that he would have been 36 or so when he married, bit old, unless it was a second marriage. Just for the record, we have only seen one Mary Atherton baptism in Yorkshire in the decade 1763-73 and that was 1.1.1769 at Sheffield St Peter & St John (the Cathedral now), daughter of John Atherton a tobacconist. Unfortunately there was a like burial entry 23.6.1769. Athertons seemed to be most numerous at Sheffield.
February 2023
THE FAMILIES OF GEORGE TURNER
Turner-Scott family
George Turner married Ann Scott 21.9.1847 at Copemanthorpe Church, Parish of Bishophill. They had three children:
Henry Born at Bishopthorpe, near York, 9.6.1848 and baptised 18.7.1849. Not seen after 1861. Family folklore said of Henry that he eventually developing religious mania and committed suicide in Halifax (to where family members had moved, in due course).
Edward Born at Middlethorpe 27.4.1853 and baptised at St Mary Bishophill, near York, 12.10.1851. Died of fever at 2 Goodramgate, York, 3.9.1854, aged 3.
Frances Born 27.4.1853 in St Martin’s Parish, York. With the family until 1861, after which she seems to have gone to the West Riding on her own, since we believe that in 1871 she was the unmarried 20 year old Frances Ann Turner, worsted weaver, born in York who was lodging with John Ingham, joiner, at Sandbeds, Clayton, Bradford. As we have found no other York births that would fit, we think this is her, particularly as in 1901 she is recorded as “Francis A.”. We assume she adopted the second name in her mother’s memory. At any rate, she styled herself as Fanny Turner when she married at Brighouse, West Riding, 26.6.1875 Robert Ulrick, perhaps more correctly Ulrich, a cart driver. N.B. She made her mark. Robert was the son of Garrard Ulrich and his wife Selina, nee Burnham. His birth had been registered in Hackney, London, 1853 Q4. Fanny ad Robert had two children, Mary Jane in 1876 and George Henry in 1884. Both children married but George Henry fell in the Great War.
At the 1901 Census she is described as Francis A Ulrich and the other noticeable thing is the presence of “adopted daughter” Edith Robinson, 9. She was Robert Ulrich’s niece, her mother being his eldest sister, Selina Harriet who had been widowed in 1880 and who had then married one Irwin Robinson 1890 Q2 at Halifax. A child Edith Eveline was born there 1891 Q3, when Selina was 44, it seems. Irwin Robinson turned out to be a jailbird, by all accounts, and when Selina died (said to be buried 24.1.1898) it seems that Robert and Fanny took her daughter under their wing. Irwin Robinson himself is said to have died in 1903 and for the 1911 Census “Edith Evelyn Robinson” actually completed the form on behalf of Robert Ulrich, describing her step-mother as Fanny Ulrich.
Fanny Ulrich died of cirrhosis of the liver in the Poor Law Hospital, Halifax 13.12.1912*, her residence said to be 7 Stone Street, Halifax, aged 59 (although Robert told the Registrar 61). Robert died at Halifax 25.6.1913, aged 59. Edith Evelyn was still living in Stone Street, Southowram, when she married 17.4.1918 Herbert Edward Marshall, a cobbler. She had been a Red Cross volunteer in the War.
*Mike’s youngest maternal aunt, Mary Woodhead, nee Mason, born 12.10.1908, wrote to him 30.3.1999 as follows; “I have visited Halifax [only] once and can only think that my mother [nee Rosa Turner] possibly attended a funeral there. I was so small I still had to be carried and she must have had to take me with her. I remember being carried back to the train by a man.” Presumably this would be Rosa saying goodbye to her half-sister.
Turner-Chambers family
George Turner married, as his second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Chambers 6.4.1856 at St Mary Bishophill Parish Church, York.
They had children as follows:
Jane Born 18.4.1856 in York and baptised at Pontefract 29.11.1857. Married at Hull 25.12.1874 Lewis Henry Hildyard of Hull, the son of Henry Hildyard, Greengrocer. Died 1923 Q1. See Appendix 4.
Mary (“Polly”) Born 5.11.1857 at Pontefract and baptised there 29.11.1857. Never married. In 1861 and 1871 with the family in Hull but by 1881 had moved to Halifax with sister Kate, working as a silk picker and lodging with her half-sister, Fanny. In 1891 with her mother in Halifax as a seamstress and in 1901 back in Hull with her mother as a laundress. Died of cancer 4.11.1908 at 21 Crystal Street, Hull (where her sister, Rosa Mason lived) and buried in Hedon Road Cemetery.
Thomas Born 25.8.1860 at Old Town, Southcoates, Hull. His father described as a foreman nursery gardener. At 1861 Census 7 months old. Buried at Sutton, which covered Southcoates, 10.10.1861, aged 13 months.
Kate She later said “Emily Kate”. Born 6.5.1863 Holderness Road, Southcoates. In 1871 with the family but by 1881 had moved to Halifax with sister Mary, working as a silk picker and lodging with her half-sister, Fanny. Family tradition had Kate emigrating to Australia and marrying a schoolteacher. Following the lead of a couple of published family trees, we found a wedding in Queensland 11.1.1886 between William Kaye Parker and Kate Turner. He was born in Halifax (1864 Q1, actually) the son of William Parker and Martha Kaye. We found the Parker family at Ovenden, Halifax in 1881, the father being a sub-postmaster and the son aged 17, a pupil teacher. No doubt Kate got to know William in Halifax and they jointly planned the move to Queensland. He is said to have arrived in Brisbane 8.4.1885. William and Kate had three sons and six daughters, the last two of whom lived only a matter of days. William died rather prematurely 20.1.1905, aged 41, leaving Kate with seven children ranging from17 to 4 years of age. As yet, we do not know when she died.
Rosa Born 4.1.1866 at 2 Pleasant Place, Southcoates, Hull, and baptised Holderness Road Chapel 4.2.1866. With her mother in Hull then Halifax until she married Adam Mason 19.4.1889 at Hanover Street Chapel, Halifax. See main text.
George Turner died of a heart attack 25.8.1868 in Hull Infirmary, aged 45. Sarah Elizabeth Turner nee Chambers died 19.1.1917 in Hull of senile decay, aged 84, and was buried in the same grave as her daughter Mary in Hedon Road Cemetery.
February 2023
Appendix 1 to Ref. M7
THE FAMILIES OF GEORGE TURNER
Turner-Scott family
George Turner married Ann Scott 21.9.1847 at Copemanthorpe Church, Parish of Bishophill. They had three children:
Henry Born at Bishopthorpe, near York, 9.6.1848 and baptised 18.7.1849. Not seen after 1861. Family folklore said of Henry that he eventually developing religious mania and committed suicide in Halifax (to where family members had moved, in due course).
Edward Baptised York 12.10.1851. Died of fever at 2 Goodramgate, York, 3.9.1854, aged 3.
Frances Born 27.4.1853 in St Martin’s Parish, York. With the family until 1861, after which she seems to have gone to the West Riding on her own, since we believe that in 1871 she was the unmarried 20 year old Frances Ann Turner, worsted weaver, born in York who was lodging with John Ingham, joiner, at Sandbeds, Clayton, Bradford. As we have found no other York births that would fit, we think this is her, particularly as in 1901 she is recorded as “Francis A.”. We assume she adopted the second name in her mother’s memory. At any rate, she styled herself as Fanny Turner when she married at Brighouse, West Riding, 26.6.1875 Robert Ulrick, perhaps more correctly Ulrich, a cart driver. N.B. She made her mark. Robert was the son of Garrard Ulrich and his wife Selina, nee Burnham. His birth had been registered in Hackney, London, 1853 Q4. Fanny ad Robert had two children, Mary Jane in 1876 and George Henry in 1884. Both children married but George Henry fell in the Great War.
At the 1901 Census she is described as Francis A Ulrich and the other noticeable thing is the presence of “adopted daughter” Edith Robinson, 9. She was Robert Ulrich’s niece, her mother being his eldest sister, Selina Harriet who had been widowed in 1880 and who had then married one Irwin Robinson 1890 Q2 at Halifax. A child Edith Eveline was born there 1891 Q3, when Selina was 44, it seems. Irwin Robinson turned out to be a jailbird, by all accounts, and when Selina died (said to be buried 24.1.1898) it seems that Robert and Fanny took her daughter under their wing. Irwin Robinson himself is said to have died in 1903 and for the 1911 Census “Edith Evelyn Robinson” actually completed the form on behalf of Robert Ulrich, describing her step-mother as Fanny Ulrich.
Fanny Ulrich died of cirrhosis of the liver in the Poor Law Hospital, Halifax 13.12.1912*, her residence said to be 7 Stone Street, Halifax, aged 59 (although Robert told the Registrar 61). Robert died at Halifax 25.6.1913, aged 59. Edith Evelyn was still living in Stone Street, Southowram, when she married 17.4.1918 Herbert Edward Marshall, a cobbler. She had been a Red Cross volunteer in the War.
*Mike’s youngest maternal aunt, Mary Woodhead, nee Mason, born 12.10.1908, wrote to him 30.3.1999 as follows; “I have visited Halifax [only] once and can only think that my mother [nee Rosa Turner] possibly attended a funeral there. I was so small I still had to be carried and she must have had to take me with her. I remember being carried back to the train by a man.” Presumably this would be Rosa saying goodbye to her half-sister.
Turner-Chambers family
George Turner married, as his second wife, Sarah Elizabeth Chambers 6.4.1856 at St Mary Bishophill Parish Church, York.
They had children as follows:
Jane Born 18.4.1856 in York and baptised at Pontefract 29.11.1857. Married at Hull 25.12.1874 Lewis Henry Hildyard of Hull, the son of Henry Hildyard, Greengrocer. Died 1923 Q1. See Appendix 4.
Mary (“Polly”) Born 5.11.1857 at Pontefract and baptised there 29.11.1857. Never married. In 1861 and 1871 with the family in Hull but by 1881 had moved to Halifax with sister Kate, working as a silk picker and lodging with her half-sister, Fanny. In 1891 with her mother in Halifax as a seamstress and in 1901 back in Hull with her mother as a laundress. Died of cancer 4.11.1908 at 21 Crystal Street, Hull (where her sister, Rosa Mason lived) and buried in Hedon Road Cemetery.
Thomas Born 25.8.1860 at Old Town, Southcoates, Hull. His father described as a foreman nursery gardener. At 1861 Census 7 months old. Buried at Sutton, which covered Southcoates, 10.10.1861, aged 13 months.
Kate She later said “Emily Kate”. Born 6.5.1863 Holderness Road, Southcoates. In 1871 with the family but by 1881 had moved to Halifax with sister Mary, working as a silk picker and lodging with her half-sister, Fanny. Family tradition had Kate emigrating to Australia and marrying a schoolteacher. Following the lead of a couple of published family trees, we found a wedding in Queensland 11.1.1886 between William Kaye Parker and Kate Turner. He was born in Halifax (1864 Q1, actually) the son of William Parker and Martha Kaye. We found the Parker family at Ovenden, Halifax in 1881, the father being a sub-postmaster and the son aged 17, a pupil teacher. No doubt Kate got to know William in Halifax and they jointly planned the move to Queensland. He is said to have arrived in Brisbane 8.4.1885. William and Kate had three sons and six daughters, the last two of whom lived only a matter of days. William died rather prematurely 20.1.1905, aged 41, leaving Kate with seven children ranging from17 to 4 years of age. As yet, we do not know when she died.
Rosa Born 4.1.1866 at 2 Pleasant Place, Southcoates, Hull, and baptised Holderness Road Chapel 4.2.1866. With her mother in Hull then Halifax until she married Adam Mason 19.4.1889 at Hanover Street Chapel, Halifax. See main text.
George Turner died of a heart attack 25.8.1868 in Hull Infirmary, aged 45. Sarah Elizabeth Turner nee Chambers died 19.1.1917 in Hull of senile decay, aged 84, and was buried in the same grave as her daughter Mary in Hedon Road Cemetery.
February 2023
Appendix 2 to Ref. M5
FAMILY OF MICHAEL & MARY TURNER
Michael Turner and Mary Robinson married at Leeds St Peter’s 13.2.1817 and had children as follows, baptisms after the first one being at Pontefract:
Henry
Born 10.11.1820 at Brotherton (between Pontefract and Burton Salmon, his mother’s birthplace) and baptised there 24.12.1820. 1841 at Burton Salmon with his father. Died 3.4.1842 at Byram cum Poole near Burton Salmon of apoplectic fits, aged 21, his profession a horse breaker.
George
Baptised 26.3.1823. 1841 staying at an inn in the Cornmarket, Pontefract. Married (1) 21.9.1847 Ann Scott at Copemanthorpe, near York, and (2) 6.4.1856 at St Mary Bishophill, near York, Sarah Elizabeth Chambers. See main text.
Jane Baptised 7.3.1827. Buried at Pontefract 22.8.1827.
John
Baptised 28.9.1828 . 1841 at Burton Salmon with his father. Not seen after that.
Charles
Baptised 29.9.1830. 1841 and 1851 at Burton Salmon with his father. Gardener. Married 25.12.1851 at Monk Fryston Ann Terry, daughter of William Terry. They had two children born at Byrom cum Poole (near Byrom Park) and two children born at Clifton, York. By 1861 at Sutton Place, near Thirsk as head gardener, with the four children. 1871 at Blyth, Notts, as a gardener (possibly at nearby Blyth House?) with Ann and their youngest son. Died Blyth 1877 Q2 aged 47. The widow Ann, aged 48, was at Attercliffe, Sheffield in 1881 with two gardener sons.
Michael Turner died at Byram cum Poole near Burton Salmon 19.8.1843 of throat cancer, aged 49, his profession said to be horse breaker. His widow Mary died of bronchitis at Pontefract 6.1.1872, aged 78 and is buried at there in a grave with no headstone.
HANOVER STREET CHAPEL
Extract from a long article “Hanover Church Centenary” in the Halifax Courier and Guardian Historical Almanack, 1935 Issue, price 6d:
This New Connexion Methodist Church was opened 1 January 1836. It was not the first New Connexion church, a breakaway movement from the Wesleyans, with the principle of lay representation to Conference, which was instigated in 1897 [actually 9.8.1797, says the internet!] by Alexander Kilham. Halifax was a strong centre for the New Connexionists, a local leader, William Thom being a friend of Kilham. Salem Church, North Parade, Halifax, dated from 1798 and Hanover Street was a daughter church of Salem, but outgrew it.
Eventually, the New Connexion merged with the United Methodist Free Church and the Bible Christians (1907) and then the United, Wesleyan and Primitive came together in 1932.
The Nonconformist Marriage Act of 1836 made it possible for Hanover Church to be the first Nonconformist place of worship in Halifax to be licensed for marriages (4 July 1837), Salem not being licensed until 19 June 1857. From 1856 Hanover was the lead church of the Halifax South Circuit.
On the occasion of the visit to Halifax of the Prince of Wales on 4 August 1863, when Halifax Town Hall was opened, the Hanover trustees arranged to erect a platform in the churchyard with a view to letting the seats to persons wishing to view the procession, as it passed along King Cross Lane. The platform was erected at a cost of £32.18.8d but the sum reached only amounted to £4.13.6d, due to the poor weather on the day of the Royal visit.
In 1885 the Sunday School had 333 scholars and 38 officers, there were 233 members of the Band of Hope and 980 depositors in the Penny Bank.
Halifax Local Studies Library has the voluminous printed Official Guide and Handbook for a Grand Bazaar and Winter Garden Fete held on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, 8th to 12th December 1896 in the School Room, Hopwood Lane, which, it boasts, has ample accommodation for 700 scholars. This was to clear outstanding debt amounting to £600, in celebration of the centenary of the Methodist New Connexion. Entrance tickets varied from day to day and by time of day but ranged from 1/6d to 3d, children under 12 years half price. Patrons were informed:
The School-Room will be transformed into a beautiful Winter Garden. An Efficient Band will give Selections of Music, during the Bazaar, from 6-30 to 10-30 every day. The School-Room will be lighted by Electricity by Messrs Ullathorpe and Hartley, Broad Street, Halifax.
The organisers of the various stalls etc were listed and they were predominantly men, although the ladies got involved with the refreshments. Amongst the entertainments were:
A musical sketch in one act “The Gipsie’s Life or Nellie’s Difficulties”.
The Hanoverian Operatic Choir: Selections (in Costume) from “HMS Pinafore” (by Special Permission of D’Oyly Carte, Esq.).
In the Infants Vestry – a Special Engagement of Herr Letzumtauke and Mons. Mersutemelle with their unique collection of popular Waxwork Figures. A refined and up-to-date Exhibition comprising the following well-known personages:
Li Hung Chang Mary Queen of Scots Florence Nightingale
Queen Elizabeth Uncle Sam Bill Adams+
Rt. Hon Jos Chamberlain Bonnie Prince Charlie Grace Darling
HRH the Duchess of York Lady Jane Gray The Guardian of the Peace++
The New Woman John Bull
+Bill Adams was a hero of the Charge of the Light Brigade. ++ The Guardian of the Peace was a “Bobby” and the New Woman appeared in bloomers, with a bicycle!
Further amusement consisted of:
“Little Dots” Concert (including Ten Little Nigger Boys!).
In the Back Vestry – an exhibition of Phonographs, Kinetoscopes etc.
As well as a cloakroom charge of 1d per article, there was a parcel delivery service on offer within one mile radius for 3d per parcel, but not after 8 p.m. Goods had obviously been solicited from far and near, the acknowledgements including Bovril of Leeds, Cadbury of London, Mackintosh J. of Halifax (for toffees) and Rowntrees of York.
Also given was a list of church services and activities:
Sunday: Preaching Services at 10.30 am and 6.30 pm.
School Services at 9.30 am and 2.30 pm.
Monday: Christian Endeavour Meeting at 8 pm
Tuesday (Third of the Month, Winter only): Band of Hope 7.30 pm.
Wednesday: 3 pm Bible Reading etc. 7.30 Preaching Service
Thursday (Winter months): Literary and Social Guild 8 pm.
Friday: 8 pm Choir Practice.
The Official Guide and Handbook included a page summarising the history of the Church and another that of the School-Room. Every page carried a bon mot and on the blank page at the back headed “Mems” it read, “To remember to forget to ask my mother-in-law to tea.”
[The actual records of the Chapel are held elsewhere and need to be followed up as they might yield something, e.g. class lists or communion rolls. This Chapel did not appear on the West Riding Archive Service lists when we asked once but local enquiries may yield something. Incidentally, Bethel Chapel, Hull, where Mike was baptised, was (per Banyan Tree 20) was also New Connexion, being founded in 1799.]
THE HILDYARD CONNECTION
Jane, the eldest daughter of George Turner and Sarah Chambers, married Louis (or Lewis) Henry Hildyard of Hull, the son of Henry Hildyard, Greengrocer, on Christmas Day 1874 when she was 18. She gave her address as 34 New George Street but what the significance of that was we do not know. The 1871 Census at that address does not suggest anything. By 1881, she was resident with Lewis and their first three children at 12 Howe Street, Sutton, where (under the Census name of Hilyard, by the way) he was an oil mill presser, as were a lot of his neighbours. Later they were in St Mark’s Street and May Grove, Egton Street, all in East Hull.
Lewis Hildyard was born 1854, the son of Henry Hildyard a cartman/fruiterer, who hailed from Croydon and his wife Mary, a native of Roos (East Riding). At the 1851 census the parents were at 6, Holy Trinity, i.e. next to the Market Place, with Mary Ann aged 4 and Louis aged 1. It seems both these children died because ten years later they are at 25 Spittle Street, Sutton, with Thomas, aged 9 and our Louis, aged 7. Fred, born 1851, completed the family.
Family folklore has it that Jane did not have an altogether happy marriage. Her sister Rosa Mason is said to have intervened on her behalf on at least one occasion, neighbours having told her that Jane had been sheltering in Rosa’s porch in the middle of the night, with a baby, having fled her home. Indeed Jane had a reputation in the family for never appearing to be happy.
When her youngest sister Rosa married Adam Mason in Halifax in April 1889 the witnesses were another sister, Mary (Polly) and L.H.Hildyard, from which we assume that Louis was Adam’s best man, albeit ten years older than him.
Lewis and Jane had eight children, one of whom must have died young, because the censuses only show seven. Family folklore, with census information gives the following:
George H. (Harry)
Born 1875-76, oil miller then dock labourer, married Margaret.
Edith Margaret (“Big Margaret”)
Born 1876-77, a cotton winder in 1891.
Alice E.
Born 1878-79, a dressmaker in 1901, married Charles, son of Alfred Murdon, aerated water manufacturer, who succeeded to the business. They lived in Hodgson Street, near the lemonade works. She was a notable singer in the Wesleyan Chapel in Jennings Street. Children: Mary (married Ashton, in bread and confectionery) and Kitty (married Towell, baker).
Tom Born 1882-83, a fruiterer in 1901
Gertrude C.
Born 1885-86, a black lead packer in 1901, married 1910 Alfred Whitaker, pipe lagger. She and Alfred living with her parents in 1911.
Lewis A.
Born 1886-87, presumably the “Albert” referred to in family folklore as being a grocer with Buists in Jenning St. Killed with the Lincolnshire Regiment.
Walter
Born 1890, an oil cake mill labourer in 1911, married Maggie with daughter Alys (Alice) and son Louis. Alys became RSM in ATS/WRAC and afterwards was in welfare services in Withernsea. She was present at a ceremony at Londesborough Barracks in 1983 in honour of Walter Mason, her great-uncle, he being Rosa Mason’s son.
Jane Hildyard died in 1923 Q1, aged 66 and Lewis died in 1925, aged 71, both in Hull.
Mary Woodhead remembered her Aunt Jane dying, on a Good Friday, at the home of one of her daughters:
My Mam started walking and I ran to a place called Winters in Charles Street and rode in the horse-drawn cab until we caught up with my mother and went to where Aunt Jane had died – just minutes before we arrived.
THE SOUTHCOATES AREA OF HULL
Kelly’s Post Office Directory of the North & East Ridings of Yorkshire (with the City of York) 1872 lists every household in Southcoates Lane. They are mostly farmers. The 7th name on the list is John Wm Salvage, market gardener, then Mrs Turner, then John Shameld Taylor, steam laundry. The commercial section lists, as market gardeners, not only the above but also David Salvage, Holderness Road, situated between Durham Street and Southcoates Lane, three doors from Holderness House, i.e. on the top or north side of Holderness Road.
In Mary Fowler’s picture book, “Portrait of East Hull”, p32, we read, “Taylor’s Laundry in Southcoates Lane provided work for both men and women for a long period and was then taken over by Bentley’s until the disastrous fire in September 1990. On the south side of the lane it stood opposite market gardens on which Savery Street and Watt Street were built. T.S. Taylor, the laundry’s founder, lived in the villa, “Cleveland”, next door to it and was an active Liberal. He was Mayor at the time of George V’s coronation in 1911.” [He is pictured in the book at that time.]
In the same book, it says (p.17), “Long ago, Southcoates was almost a hamlet in its own right, although part of Marfleet Parish. Southcoates Lane is an old thoroughfare and, until it was built up between the wars, had ditches or streams running beside it. As in other parts of East Hull, there were windmills, farms and market gardens in Southcoates.” Introducing a picture, the authoress goes on, “Here, in about 1894, Moses Salvidge stands with his family in front of their farmhouse which many years later was pulled down to allow Preston Road to be constructed.” The authoress notes a bricked up window and thereby dates the building to back into the 18th Century. She goes on, “Although a dairy farm, a fair amount of rhubarb was grown here, Mr Salvidge and a young son harvesting the crop very early in the morning and getting it to the docks by about 6.30 am for shipment to Germany. Rhubarb growing was quite common in East Hull, but why any of it should have been exported to Germany is a mystery.”
Appendix 6 to Ref M5
THE FAMILY OF ROBERT AND MARY TURNER
Robert Turner and Mary Atherton married at Brotherton, Yorkshire, 29.6.1791. They had children as follows, all baptised there:
Mary Baptised 11.3.1792.
Michael Baptised 7.9.1794. Married Mary Robinson at Leeds St Peter’s
13.2.1817. See main text and Appendix 2
William Baptised 8.7.1798.
Sarah Baptised 25.11.1800.
Robert Born 26.8.1807 and baptised 4.10.1807
Mary Turner was buried at Brotherton 21.12.1831, when resident at Poole, aged 63.
Young Family History 