Part 3 of 5

Friday, September 23, 1904.

PAST AND PRESENT

SOME FAMILY LINKS. – III

      When William Alexander, at that time a lay preacher, started the first Sunday school in Lancaster – a work which was recently very appropriately recognized by a memorial window being placed in high-street Chapel at the cost of Mr. Thomas Gill, chairman of the Lay Preachers’  Association connected with the Lancashire Congregational Union (of which Union the Rev. W. Alexander was “father”) – Thomas Edmondson, who afterwards settled at Grassyard Hall, was taking an interest in similar work elsewhere. At the time referred to he was a member of the firm of Thomas Edmondson and Company, worsted spinners, Lancaster, and also of a firm under the same title and in the same trade at Mytholmroyd, between Halifax and Hebden Bridge. One of his partners in the Yorkshire concern was Thomas Paget, senr., in later years well known as of Forton Lodge. In the preceding chapter it should have been stated, not that Thomas Paget’s wife was Thomas Edmondson’s sister, but his niece – Margaret, daughter of Thomas’ brother Edward of Middleton, and sister of Mary, the wife of Thomas Welch of Cabus; she was also sister of Elizabeth, who was accidentally blinded and died at Forton Lodge in 1817, as previously mentioned. Some time ago I learnt from the late Mr. Robert Suthers, of Hawksclough, who had investigated the birth and growth of Non-conformity at Mytholmroyd that Thomas Edmondson was a generous promoter of Sunday school work in that locality, where he resided, and that among others who helped was Jonathan Morley,   grandfather of the Right Hon. John Morley. With them in the work was a notable Baptist theologian, John Fawcett, D.D., who was regarded as “the first man of his denomination in that part of the country.” Recently a memorial tablet to Dr. Fawcett (author of the hymn beginning with the line “Blest is the tie that binds”)  was unveiled in Wainsgate Baptist Chapel, near Hebden Bridge, where he was pastor for over fifty years.

The Jenny Edmondson and “Johnny,” her brother, mentioned as being at Mytholmroyd, were two of the nine children of Thomas Edmondson’s brother Edward, all of whom were christened at Overton Church. The nine, baptized on the dates given hereunder after their names, were as follows:-  Margaret, July 10, 1775, married Thomas Paget. John, January 5, 1778: married Margaret Taylor, at Overton, October 20, 1810. Hannah, March 26, 1780; married – Caton. Jenny, March 31, 1782. Mary, June 24, 1784; married   Thomas Welch, at Overton, September 24, 1811. Henry, January 5, 1788. Betty (afterwards known as Elizabeth), October 2, 1792. Isabel, March 9, 1794; married Edward Atkinson. Lydia, August 1, 1796; died in infancy. “Jenny” appears to have been identical with “Jane,” who married one Davis, of Cockerham. Earlier Edmondsons than those hitherto mentioned were Richard Edmondson, of Overton, and his son Thomas.The son went up from Sedbergh Grammar School to St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1663, at the age of seventeen.

Thomas Welch, of Cabus (third son of John Welch,  Hang Yeat,  Ellel, and uncle of the late William Welch,  stockbroker, Lancaster) to whose brothers Timothy and John reference has already been made, had eight sons and one daughter by his marriage with the aforementioned Mary, daughter of Edward Edmondson. Trumley Farm, Middleton. He had property at Pilling, a small estate at Halton, and an extensive lime and timber business at Radcliffe Wharf, on the canal, near Forton Bank; he also had the Forton tithe, and was one of the original shareholders in the Lancaster Banking Company, Limited, the 78th anniversary of whose opening business day – on premises in Penny-street, occupied in later years by Messrs. Knipe and Jones, ironmongers – falls on 23rd October. Thomas Welch was a member of the 5th (Lancaster) Battalion Company of the Lonsdale Local Militia, and was Captain of the company at the training in 1811, when Charles Seward was his lieutenant and Elijah Barde? his ensign. Lieutenant Seward took over the captaincy of the company in June, 1813. The colonelcy was held by William Housman, a first cousin of whom was ancestress of the late Mrs. W. G. Welch. A neighbour of Thomas Welch, at Cabus, was a representative of an old yeoman family named Smalley, with two sons, Thomas and Richard, whose ancestors had probably come over the fells from North-east Lancashire, where numbers bearing their name were of substantial position. The sons were of good natural abilities, as was proved by their careers in Lancaster. Thomas, the elder son, was appointed to a coal agency here, on behalf of a son-in-law of Thomas Welch; and the younger son, who was some-time in the service of Thomas Welch, at Cabus, will be remembered by many Lancaster people when I mention that he was Richard Smalley, of Lune Villa, who died a very wealthy man on November 17, 1901, aged 71. A son (Edward) of Thomas Smalley is carrying on business in North-road, Lancaster, as successor to one of Thomas Welch’s grandsons. Thomas Welch died at Cabus on April 6, 1832, in his 52nd year; his wife died on May 31, 1829, aged 45. They were buried at Cockerham Church.

We come now to descendants of Thomas Welch, of Cabus, and his wife, Mary Edmondson. Their eldest son, John, succeeded to the farming business at Cabus, and was afterwards at Barrow House, Scotforth.    He died at Bay Cottage, Forton, on June 23rd, 1879, aged 66. His brother, Edward Welch, married Alice Salthouse, of Churchtown; they went out to California in 1870, to take over the estate of Mrs. Welch’s brother, John Saltouse, a pioneer emigrant; their son, John Welch, is now county treasurer at Hollister, Benito County, California, and owns the estate left by his uncle. Timothy – the third Timothy in the course of three or four generations – was the name given to another son, and like his namesake of the Scriptures he was distinguished by his piety. Timothy Welch entered holy orders; he held curacies at Eggington and Repton, Burton-on-Trent, and acted as private chaplain to Sir Tonman Mosley, Rolleston Hall, Staffordshire, and as travelling tutor to his son, now fourth baronet (Sir Oswald Mosley). On November 29th, 1861, the Rev. Timothy Welch was appointed first Vicar of  Anslow Church,  Burton-on-Trent.  Anslow Church (the patronage of which belongs to the Anslow family) was opened under the Bishop’s licence on September 7th, 1851; it was consecrated on May 31st, 1860, and a district was assigned to it on October 11th, 1861. The Rev. Timothy Welch acted as curate-in-charge from January 1st, 1857, until his appointment as vicar. He finished his work there, and on the monument over his grave in the churchyard these words are inscribed:  “In affectionate remembrance of the Rev. Timothy Welch, who was for fourteen years incumbent of this parish, and died at Rolleston Park, January 28th, 1871.
‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.’ – Revelation, xiv., 13.”

Fifty-three years ago the Rev. Timothy Welch officiated at the marriage of one of his brothers, Henry. The ceremony took place at Ulverston Parish Church on September 14th, 1851. The bride was Mary, daughter of Thomas Blackburne, sailmaker, Ulverston (then deceased), by his wife Jane, who was the daughter of William Barben by his wife Mary Shaw. Thomas Blackburne was the son of John Blackburne, Custom House (formerly a saddler in New-street), Lancaster, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Turner, Grange, whose wife was a Denny; and John Blackburne was the son of John, a farmer, of Wardhouses, Ellel. Of the same family presumably would be Richard Blackburne, who eighty years ago was comptroller at the Custom House, St. George’s Quay. Mrs. Henry Welch was a niece of Mrs. John Tunstall, whose daughter married Mr. J. Sanderson, of the Lancaster bank. About four months before his marriage, Henry Welch succeeded to the wholesale grocery business at 7, Cheapside, which had been carried on for some time by Mrs. Tunstall after the death of her husband, and where he was manager at the time of the transfer; he also acquired a tallow chandlery business in North-road. In his time no man was better known in the public life of Lancaster. For many years he was a member of the Town Council, an alderman, and Mayor in 1876. Among other positions he filled were those of deputy-chairman of the directors of Lancaster Wagon Company, chairman (the first) of Lancaster Coffee Tavern Company, Port Commissioner, and Charity Trustee. He bought the Shefferlands estate, and died at his residence there, on August 25th, 1891, aged 74. His wife died on March 26th in the same year. They were interred at Silverdale. Of their five children - four sons and one daughter – none survives, the last of them to pass away being Dr. Henry Welch, first medical office of health for the borough of Blackpool.

Other sons of Thomas and Mary Welch, of Cabus, were, Thomas, a chemist at Newcastle-on-Tyne (he served his apprenticeship with Jardynes, Liverpool), who died on March 1st, 1889, aged 67; George, a draper in London, who died on April 20th, 1852, aged 29; James, who died on July 10th, 1826, an infant; and William. The last-named, who had previously been in the drapery trade, joined his brother Henry, and  they had their hands pretty full with the Cheapside and North-road businesses, the tallow chandlery of the Balderstones at the junction of North-road and Nile-street having then been transferred to Henry. William Welch married Hannah Elizabeth Huggins, of Thetford, Norfolk; he died on June 3rd, 1877, aged 52, and she died on June 14th , 1883, aged 54. They had issue three sons and two daughters, namely Thomas Welch, who married Sarah, daughter of John Harrison, of Cockerham, and died at Tarnbeck, Brrokhouse, Caton, on May 17th, 1884, aged 29, survived by his wife and two daughters; William, who (with a good example before him in the case of his grandsire Thomas) is a captain in the 5th Lancashire (Lancaster) Artillery Volunteers, and from whom the business in North-road passed to Edward Smalley; and Samuel, Mary, and Elizabeth – the surviving four now residing at Harrogate.

Elizabeth, the only daughter of Thomas and Mary Welch, married John Rawcliffe, wholesale coal agent for the Earl of Balcarres. After managing the Lancaster agency for awhile, John Rawcliffe removed to Preston, where he became a member of the Town Council, an alderman, and Mayor in 1869. He initiated the great scheme for the improvement of the Ribble navigation. Eventually he became shipping agent at Liverpool for what is now the Wigan Coal and Iron Company, into whose hands the Balcarres business passed. He died on July 29th, 1874, aged 61. His eldest son, Henry, who succeeded to and still carried on the shipping agency, resides at West Kirby, in the Wirral peninsula; he is an alderman of Birkenhead, and has been Mayor of that borough.


Some further items relating to various families already mentioned, and also to one or two others, remain to be dealt with in another chapter. W.H.

[With regard to the brothers Robert and Joshua Lawson, who were prominent merchants at Lancaster and Sunderland in the early part of the eighteenth century, and to whom reference was made in the previous chapter, I understand that Colonel J. Lawson Whalley and Mr. J. Rawlinson Ford trace their descent on the distaff side from the first-named.]