2013 Rework

Re-worked 30/01/13

Benjamin Whitehouse c1750

My 4 times Great Grandfather, Benjamin Whitehouse. At the time of writing little is known of Benjamin, save that he was an engineer and married Sarah Saunders at Harborne on the 9th. October, 1774. This would probably fix his birth around 1750: his is the earliest record known for this family. Harborne today is within the city of Birmingham; although 2.8 miles from the centre. In Benjamin’s time it must have been just a village on the outskirts. Benjamin and Sarah had eleven children, five sons and six daughters. Their son Henry, the next on my line, was born in Tipton about 1784. This probably fixes the family’s location at that time as Henry was by no means their first child and may well have been born at home.

Henry Whitehouse c1784 - c1851+

My 3 times Great Grandfather,Henry Whitehouse was born in Tipton, Staffordshire and like his father before him he was an engineer. His wife’s name was Elizabeth Biggs who was born in Stretton on Fosse, Warwickshire and of their seven children Thomas is the next on my family line.

At the time of the 1841 census, Henry was living in Willenhall Street, Darlaston, having by then lost his wife Elizabeth. By 1851 he was living at the same address but the head of the house was his son Samuel. Henry passed away before the 1861 census.

Jesse Whitehouse c1774-75 - c1852

Jesse Whitehouse, unrelated to our family, was born in Darlaston, as was his wife to be, Sarah Essex.

Their daughter Sarah was to marry Thomas Whitehouse of our family.

By the 1881 Census, Sarah, by then a widow, was living at 41, Cook Street, Darlaston accompanied by her daughter Sarah, then 23 years old and her son Samuel Whitehouse, 26, Engineer (E & M). 

Thomas Whitehouse c1815 - c1879

My Great-Great Grandfather, Thomas was the second son of Henry and Elizabeth Whitehouse. Much is known of Thomas, beginning with his birthplace, Sedgley, in Staffordshire. Sedgley is well documented and was in the heart of the South Staffordshire coalfields which came to be known as the “Black Country”. Thomas married Sarah Whitehouse, the daughter of Jesse and Sarah Whitehouse of Darlaston on 18th. February, 1838 at Dudley, probably St. Thomas’s. Early in their married life they lived in Bradley, a district of Darlaston and later at Hobbs Hole, Wednesbury, which was situated midway between those two towns. Of their ten children, Henry is next on my direct line.

Mention of Hobbs Hole brings us to Thomas’s distinguished career. A coal mine was opened at Hobbs Hole by Lloyds, Fosters & Co., heirs of Richard Parkes. Samuel Lloyd, a Quaker and part of the family who later became the banking Lloyds, also owned Old Park Iron Works, close to Hobbs Hole. Deposits of iron and clay were found and the company exploited this and produced a huge variety of cast iron work, including parts for steam engines and even whole locomotives. In 1849, the company was the first to employ a hot blast in their furnaces, created from waste gases and saving about 10,000 tons of coal a year.  Census records show that in 1851 Thomas was an “Engineer at the mine”, in 1861 the same and in 1871 was Chief Engineer at the colliery. During all this time his address at Hobbs Hole was Lloyd’s Buildings. Clearly, Thomas and Sarah and all the children lived in a building owned by, or named after, the  Lloyd family. From other family information it seems possible that there may have been a family relationship between the two men. In any event, their business relationship continued for many years and when Thomas passed away in Halesowen Street, Oldbury, on the 11th. May 1879, his Death Certificate gave his occupation as Ironmaster. This means that Thomas was an employer of many men in the Ironworks owned by Lloyd.

The Scott Arms, Darlaston Rd. Wednesbury

Thomas Millington 1822 - c??

Thomas Millington, born in Shropshire, and his wife Mary, born in Dudley, were the proprietors of the Scott Arms, a Public House on Darlaston Road, Wednesbury.

Their daughter Elizabeth married our Henry Whitehouse. There were quite a number of Millingtons, some perhaps related to “ours”, connected to the brewing and licensed trade in the general area.

Henry Whitehouse 1852 - 1930

My Great Grandfather, Henry Whitehouse was one of ten children and in his early life lived at Hobbs Hole with his parents Thomas and Sarah Whitehouse.

In June 1863, at the age of eleven, Henry was a good scholar as he received a certificate from The Iron and Coal Masters Association for his success in  “Geography, Grammer, (sic) Scripture and Arithmetic”.

By the 1871 Census Henry was living at home and his occupation was shown as “Lock Filer”. It is most likely that he was working for a gunsmith, a very prevalent trade in the area, where lock refers to the firing mechanism.

On 7th. June, 1878, Henry married Elizabeth Millington, the daughter of Thomas Millington, landlord of the Scott Arms, a public house on Darlaston Road, Wednesbury.

At the 1881 Census they were living at 146 Darlaston Road and Henry’s occupation was Colliery Engineer Out of Employ (Dr). Also present were their son Horace, aged nine months and Elizabeth Evans, Niece, Unmarried, Aged 17. Occupation (D) Servant

By 1885 they were living at 250, Pleck Road, Walsall. Nearby was Hednesford, where their son Harry Thomas was born in 1885. Hednesford is also a mining town to this day and is situated in part of the Cannock Coalfield.

At some stage but before the 1901 Census, the family moved to 16, Erskine St. Nechells (now Vauxhall) and Henry worked for Stewart and Lloyds Steel Company, probably at their Saltley works as they had several around Birmingham. Their three children, Horace, Harry Thomas and Beatrice completed the household. By 1911, the couple were living in Washwood Heath, a district only a short distance from their previous home. Henry passed away on 17th January 1930, at Wollaston, Stourbridge in Staffordshire. Great Uncle Horace continued to live in the Stourbridge area, perhaps in his parent’s house. He ran a clothing business and at a late age took a wife, Edith, much younger than himself.

My Great Aunt Beatrice, always known as Sissie, married Alfred Miles, a professional footballer who played for Aston Villa and was a member of the team when they won the F.A.Cup in the 1920’s and later a much respected trainer for the team. They retired to Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield. Aunt Sissie passed away in 1963. Their daughter, Rene lived very close to my parents in Penns Lane, Sutton Coldfield.

Samuel Aylott

Samuel Aylott. b 1827

Described as a Leather Seller in the 1881 Census, Samuel and his wife Mary Ann lived at Ratcliffe, Middlesex (part of Stepney) and had two children that I am aware of. Their son Robert worked as a warehouseman in his father’s business and their daughter Fanny Susannah b 1861 went on to marry Benjamin Wanstall in 1882. The Aylott family were all born in Stepney. Fanny Susannah followed her husband to China. When she tried to obtain life insurance prior to going, she was at first, refused due to a rheumatic heart – she survived until she was 74!

                                                                 Mary Anne Aylott       

                                

 Benjamin Wanstall c1858 - c1915

My Great-Grandfather, Benjamin Wanstall was born in Poplar, London, in 1858. His Wanstall ancestors are known right back to Gabriel Wanstall who was born at Challock in Kent in 1510.At the 1861 census, Benjamin’s parents, Isaac and Mary (nee Aylott), having married in 1848, lived at Kings Bridge Place, West Freey Rd, All Saints, Poplar. There appears at present to be no connection between Mary and Fanny Susannah, below. At the 1841 census Isaac was only 15 and living at Clarence Place, off East India Dock Rd. with his parents Jekin and Sarah Wanstall. Jekin, a carpenter in the Thames shipyards, who was born in 1794 in Sandwich, Kent, passed away in 1872, in Poplar: his death certificate states he was an Independent Minister at Zion Chapel, Limehouse. Isaac’s second name was Jeken or Jokin. Jokin as a name is a Finnish version of the Hebrew name Joachim, although the family say that Benjamin was of Danish descent. Although formerly a ship’s joiner, by 1871 Isaac was in business selling oil for the lamps which lit everybody’s houses at that time. This business was on the north side of High Street, Poplar. Benjamin was still living at this same address when he met and married Fanny (Frances) Susannah Aylott, the daughter of a leather merchant. Their first child was named Benjamin Aylott Wanstall; he was born in June, 1883 and passed away in infancy, in England.    

Benjamin and Fanny Susannah Wanstall

Before their marriage, Benjamin had sailed “before the mast” to China where he eventually became a Master Mariner, sailing the China Sea for Jardine, Matheson, prominent merchants who helped raise Britain’s hopes for China and Hong Kong. “Before the Mast” meant that a man sailed as an ordinary seaman and was quartered on board forward or “before” the mast. Officers were always quartered aft or in the stern of the vessel. During his career, Benjamin would have sailed the considerable length of the China coast between the various Treaty Ports. From Macao in the south to Tientsin in the north is well over 1200 miles. He may even have sailed between Shanghai and Calcutta, a distance of nearly 4000 miles and sailed by the company regularly. He was attacked by pirates on several occasions.

Further children were born to the couple in China, two sons called Jack, both of whom died in infancy and four daughters, Winifred, Frances, Katherine and Cecily Gertrude. Winifred died as a child and her father only a short time later, of Scarlet Fever in 1902 at the age of 44. They were buried together in Bubbling Well Cemetery, Shanghai, as was Fanny at a much later date. Regrettably, the family’s remains were scattered when the cemetery was destroyed for a building project by the Chinese. As a widow, Fanny continued to run their home in Nanking Road, Shanghai, as a boarding house. She did not do this alone as there was a staff of Chinese. Fanny made a number of journeys to London together with the three surviving girls. Records show them returning to Shanghai in 1906 but Frances Mary stayed over until 1907. Passenger records show Fanny and daughter Cecily, now married, and her children Harry and Leslie returning to Shanghai in January 1922.

My Great Aunt Katherine Wanstall met her husband Jim Harding by the same means as Cecily. They had one child, Winifred, known as Bunty. Katherine was imprisoned by the Japanese in Lungwha Prison, Shanghai during the Second World War and eventually released by the Americans, when she went to Hong Kong to live for a time and eventually Sydney, Australia. Ironically, Bunty worked for the Japanese during the war for a time and eventually set up home with her husband Philip Blown, an airline pilot. Philip was shot down over the China Sea whilst flying in a non-combat zone for the airline Cathay Pacific with passengers. The Chinese nationals should never have attacked such a flight and the affair caused an international event! Fortunately, there were no casualties. Bunty and Philip eventually settled in the Baulkham Hills area of Sydney, Australia. Their children, Mark and Philippa continue to live with their families there.

Great Aunt Frances’ husband William Hawkins worked in the cotton business in Calcutta but it is unknown how or where they came to meet. Frances and William (known as Will) returned to England and settled in Berrylands, Surrey near to Kingston on Thames.

Cecily, Fanny, Kathleen, Frances

Harry Thomas Whitehouse 1885-1957

My Grandfather, Harry Thomas Whitehouse, was born in Hednesford, Staffordshire on 2nd. January, 1885. I currently have no information on Harry’s education except that by the time he was of age to work, he was a qualified mechanical engineer and accountant.

He first worked as a Clerk in a Timber business in Nechells, Birmingham then in Worcester, for Messrs. Heenan & Froude, Engineers. After a time, and, still a young man, he moved to Bristol and worked for the tobacco and cigarette makers, W.D.& H.O.Wills. They and some other British companies later formed a trading alliance with some
 American manufacturers and became known as the British-American Tobacco Company, or B.A.T. He travelled to New York, sailing from Liverpool on the 25th of November 1916 on the ship “St. Louis” of the New York Steamship Company. He soon continued to Shanghai, where he lodged on Nanking Road at the Wanstall house and by December of the following year he had married my Grandmother Cecily Gertrude Wanstall. Their first child, Harry Milton Whitehouse, my father, was born at Peak Hospital, Hong Kong where Grandpa worked for a time. He continued to work for B.A.T. as Chief Accountant, overseeing the set-up of cigarette manufacturing plants in China. He worked mostly in Shanghai, but also in Hong Kong and Tientsin in Northern China where my uncle Leslie Gordon was born in 1920. The family came to Britain for a holiday in 1921 and my father was left at a college at Shenstone in Staffordshire for his education when they left for Shanghai on 14th of May by the Japanese ship “Kleist”. Some years later, my uncle Leslie was put on a ship in Shanghai, at six years old and travelled to Tilbury, London accompanied only by an amah, (a European nurse) whom he claimed never to have seen during the six-week journey. On arrival, he was picked up by car and taken to the school attended by my father.

 My grandparents returned to Britain in the early thirties when work was very difficult to find. Grandfather at first worked as a commercial traveler for Ardath, a cigarette manufacturer. Later he made a disastrous move, buying a speedway track at Monmore Green, Wolverhampton, which soon failed; due partly to his inexperience in the business and partly to the general slump of the Thirties. With his remaining capital Harry bought into an engineering business, S.G.Nicholson Ltd of Whitehouse Street, Aston, which was a general machining works making parts and compressors for paint sprayers etc. In the late 1940’s the business was sold and the house at Streetly and Harry and Cecily retired to Powick, a small village near to Worcester. There, Grandad reared pigs, geese, ducks and hens at various times in their huge garden. At one time, he had a small caravan in the garden and went there to draw and paint. The caravan had a view over the meadows to Worcester, about three miles distant where the cathedral could be seen, looking out over the river Severn. I have a printed copy of a close up of the cathedral done by him in ink. On Grandad’s death in 1957, Grandma moved to a small flat in Solihull, near to Leslie.

Grandad, Grandma and myself c1949.

Harry Milton Whitehouse 1916-1990

My father, Harry Milton Whitehouse, was always known as Milton as he shared his Christian name with his father. His name was not due to any literary association as it was a contraction of his paternal grandmother’s maiden name, Millington. It is said that he left Manley Hall College in Shenstone, Staffs., against his parent’s wishes and joined the Royal Navy. In 1940 he and my mother, Elsie Thursa Ellison were married at the Registry Office in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire.

 He was involved in World War 2 and spent much of the war on shore station in Mombasa, in East Africa where he was a wireless telegraph operator, intercepting enemy messages in the Indian Ocean. Soon after the war, Dad retired from the navy, and worked for the GPO, again in telecommunications, until his retirement at the age of fifty. He passed away in Birmingham at the age of 74 as a result of bowel cancer. 

John Ellison1768 – 1860

My 4x Great Grandfather John Ellison was born on 18th. December 1768 in Whittington, Staffordshire. His parents appear to be Henry and Eleanor Elson. This was the nearest match to the birth of John. “Interchangeability” of names was common at this time as literacy was very poor and even people well educated for the time were prone to miss-spell names, particularly as there were many Elson’s and Ellisons in the area. For this reason it will be difficult to find any further ancestors on this line with any surety of accuracy. John married Elizabeth Tomlinson in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire on 23rd November, 1795. Their firstborn was John Ellison, born in Bromsgrove on 28th August 1796 and he is next on my line. John had a brother Joseph and sister Mary. No other siblings are known at the time of writing.

John Ellison1796-1864

In the 1841 Census for Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, my 3x Great Grandfather John and his wife Mary were living in Mere Green and were the tenants of a farm, probably owned by the local Lord of the Manor. The address was given as “Farm” and the next address was Moor Hall. John’s father John was also present, as were the children, William, the firstborn and Ann, John and Edward. John’s younger brother Joseph was married (to another Mary) and farming a short distance away in Little Sutton Lane. Looking through the enumeration I guess their farm was at the very beginning of the lane.

 By the 1851 Census, John had moved all of the family to Carding Mill Valley near the Welsh border in Shropshire and settled near the village of Ratlinghope. The farm they occupied, known as Coates Farm, stands to this day but as far as can be determined, is no longer owned by descendants of the Ellison family.

The Lord of the Manor which included Four Oaks was James Robert Scott Esquire of Great Barr who purchased the manor in 1845 and also Ratlinghope in 1851.

As the Ellison families were tenants at Sutton Coldfield, they may have been moved by the Lord to Ratlinghope. Alternatively, they may have requested such a move; perhaps the holding had more acreage or better farming.

John married again on April 26th 1852 to Hannah Potts at Aston Juxta, Birmingham.

John’s father, also John, had passed away by the 1861 Census, and John himself by 1864.

Edward Ellison 1837-1907

Edward, brother of John above, accompanied the family to Ratlinghope, and on John’s passing became Head of the family. He married Emma Griffiths, a local girl, at Clun in December 1872. They had seven children between 1873 and 1875. John Ellison b 1873, Harriett Ellison b 1875, Emily Ellison b 1876, Edward Ellison b 1878, Thomas Ellison b 1879, Alice Ellison b 1881, George Henry Ellison b December 1885.

Coates Farm finally passed to Edward’s daughter Alice who married a George Rowson so the Ellison family name disappeared from Ratlinghope. I did try a letter to the address but received no reply. If the family ever purchased the freehold of their tenancy I don’t know. Strictly speaking, under feudal law this was forbidden but with the connivance of the Lord, could be achieved.

William Ellison 1826-c1870

My 2x Great Grandfather William did not go to Ratlinghope with the rest of his family. On 28th March 1849 William had married Ellen Loyns, the daughter of Thomas Loyns of Hill Village, Sutton Coldfield. By the 1851 census he and Ellen were farming at Enville, Staffordshire, well known at the time for its annual crop of black cherries which were highly prized for wine making. There, they farmed 100 acres and employed two labourers. Their first three children, Henry b 26 September1852, William Henry b 1853 and Thomas Edward b 26 March 1854 were born at Enville, but their other children, Charles b 1855, John b 24 Sepetmber 1861, Sarah b 1863, and  Emma b 1865, were all born after the family’s return to Mere Green. The 1861 Census tells us that they were living at 17 Mere Green Road and that  William was an Agricultural Labourer. However, by the 1871 Census Ellen was a widow and living with the five children at the Alms houses in Mere Green Road. The 1881 census has Ellen, a widow  living at Church Cottages, Mere Green Rd. with her son John. My grandfather John Ellison was later born at this cottage.

John Ellison b 1835

John, the brother of William, above was born in 1835 in Mere Green. He is found in the 1861 Census at Mappleton, Yorkshire, the son-in-law of  Francis Glenn who was born in Snareston, Derbyshire and his wife Jane, who was born at Shustoke, Warwickshire. Not long married to their daughter Sarah A. also born in Shustoke. John’s daughter Agnes was one year old.

By the 1871 Census, the family consisted of John and Sarah and their children Francis G. and Agnes. Also present was Sarah’s mother Jane Glenn. They lived at this time at The Warwick Arms, Moor St. Burton on Trent.

In 1881, John was listed as Innkeeper at 14 Moor St and in 1891 John lived at Shobnall Rd., Horninglow, Burton and was a widower. His son Francis and his wife Katurah also lived there together with their children, Olive A and Sarah A.

John  Ellison 1861

My Gt. Grandfather John Ellison was born in Mere Green, Sutton Coldfield on 24th. September 1861. John, the son of William and Ellen married Eliza Scott, the daughter of Charles Scott and Matilda nee Tebbs who lived on the Lichfield Road at Shenstone Woodend, Staffs. Prior to her marriage, Eliza, who was born at Butlers Lane, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, had been “in service” to a family living in Kidderminster. 

John and Eliza’s children were William Albert Percival Ellison and my maternal grandfather John Arthur Ellison, known as Arthur. John senior and Eliza ended their days in alms houses in Mere Green Rd. from where John still conducted his shoe repair business until retirement.

William Albert Percival Ellison 1887-1981

William, older brother of John Arthur, sometimes known as Percy, was born in the vicinity of Hill Village, Mere Green on 7th. Jan 1887. The 1901 census shows him as 14 yrs old and a railway Clerk. His first marriage was to Annie Astley who was born in Cannock on 8th. Sept. 1887, the daughter of James Astley and Annie nee Gwilliam. This marriage took place in Hednesford on 23 Oct 1911. They had two children, Albert Ralph and Phyllis Irene who was born at Harbourne, near Totnes, Devon  on 12 May 1913. Ralph worked for a time with his cousin Leslie, my uncle and later in engineering. Phyllis married an aircraft pilot Dudley Sherwood Brookes on 18 Jan 1941 but was widowed only weeks later. She later married Leslie Hodgetts 7 Sept 1946 and they had two

daughters, Margaret Anne and Pauline. Leslie worked for the railway all his life, and they retired to Horncastle, Lincolnshire. Phyllis passed away on 5 April 1994 and Leslie on 6 March 2000. Both were cremated at Boston, Lincs

I am indebted to Brian Snaith, Margaret’s  husband for the foregoing paragraph. Brian has helped to confirm much of my research into the Ellison family. Margaret sadly passed away on 15 June 2007.

John Arthur Ellison. 1892-1964

My Grandfather, John Arthur Ellison inherited his father John’s business and carried this on until his retirement. John Arthur was in the Irish guards at some stage as there are family photographs of him in uniform. He married Florence Whittaker on 17th. August 1913 and they lived at 34, Mere Green Road in a house called “Iscoed”, perhaps from the family’s time in the Welsh borders. Together they had nine children, John Reginald; Irene; Arthur Edward; Maud Ivy; Elsie Thursa; William Arthur; Dorothy May; Eric and Leslie. These children were born from  January 1914 to January 1933. With such a span of years it is not surprising that the youngest, Leslie, is only eight years senior to me! John Arthur was in the Irish guards at some stage as there are family photographs of him in uniform. Sadly he passed away on 25^th. March 1964 having lost Florence in December 1955.

John Reginald Ellison b 25 Jan 1914

My uncle Reg married Gwen  Johnson who once worked as a cook at a nursing-home or similar on Belwell Lane, Mere Green. I remember them from quite a young age and I stayed with them for a school summer holiday. I quickly learnt how to talk with a Black Country accent and even more quickly learnt how not to on my return to Mere Green! Reg was fascinated with Short Wave radio and had a powerful receiver at home on Mount Street, Hednesford where he was a coalminer. They had three sons, Derek, Desmond and John, all somewhat older than myself.

Irene Ellison b 23 Jan 1915

My aunt Rene married Frank Smith who was an Airman during the war and a tailor in civilian life. I first remember them at a very old cottage at the very top of Trinity Hill in Sutton Coldfield with a number of steps up to the front door. This was eventually knocked down to improve the corner and they moved to a more modern house next door.They had two sons, Norman and John.

Arthur Edward Ellison b 10 Jan 1916

Uncle Ted married Mabel H.Carter and they lived on Coles Lane Sutton Coldfield and had a daughter Jean who became a teacher and later headmistress. I do not know what his occupation was but he manned a searchlight in Sutton during the war.

Maud Ivy Ellison b 19 June 1919

Aunt Ivy lived in Princes Street in the Pleck district of Walsall with her husband Stanley Matthews and their children Carol and Norman.

William Arthur Ellison b 11 June 1922

Uncle Bill married Evelyn Mary Eaton in Sutton Coldfield, living at first at 34 Mere Green Road with his father John with whom he shared the shoe repair business. Here they raised their five children, Margaret, Maureen, Jean, Barry and Wendy.

Dorothy May Ellison b 15 Feb 1923

Aunt Dot married Frederick Streather who lived next door to the Ellison family in Mere Green Rd., himself descended from a family line going back to Brigstock, in Northamptonshire. I owe them both gratitude for looking after me when I left home as a teenager.

Together they raised four children, Mollie, Danny, David and James

Sadly, Fred passed away 22 May 1988 and Dot on 13 Oct 2012, both in Sutton Coldfield.

Eric Ellison b 16 Nov 1930

Uncle Eric was still living at home in Mere Green Rd. when I was small and worked in engineering in Mere Green. He married Pat who came from Acocks Green, Birmingham.

They had no children and Eric passed away 2July 2001.

Leslie Ellison b  14 Jan 1933