Report of death of Mr John Welch

MANUFACTURER DEAD.

Mr John Welch, head of John Welch and Co, Whitehall Bleachworks, Chinley, died last night at his Llandudno residence, aged 62.
     He built the big works at Chinley several years ago, and thus was the industrial pioneer of this growing district. Recently he purchased Whitehall and adjoining estates. He employed several hundred workpeople. He was a prominent Conservative and a charitable man. Councillor Tom Welch and Lieutenant Harry Welch are sons.

(Newspaper cutting of c. 1900)

PAST AND PRESENT - SOME FAMILY LINKS - VI (continued)

The Thomas Paget, of Forton Lodge, who died in 1843, had also three daughters, all of whom are now dead. The first of the three to pass away was the youngest, Letitia Paget, at the age of forty-two. Like her young nephew Thomas, of Lancaster, she met with a tragic death. On September 24th, 1857, she started out from Forton Lodge, accompanied by a Lancaster relative, on a journey to London. From Manchester they travelled by a Great Northern express train. A little south of Tuxford station the train ran off the rails on the viaduct which crosses the Newark and Tuxford road, and the carriages were completely wrecked. Five of the passengers were killed, among them Miss Paget and her companion, Mrs Mary Heaton, of 18, Queen-square, Lancaster.Mrs Heaton was Miss L. Paget's cousin, and a widow. Her husband, John Heaton, died at his residence in Queen-square, about the end of 1828; he was a member of the firm of Heaton and Whewell, ironmongers, Market-street, and served as a member of the Town Council. His partner was a kinsman of the famous Dr. William Whewell. Thomas Paget's second daughter, Mary, was the wife of John Herdman Sherson. She was married at Cockerham Church on June 1st, 1847. Her husband was elected Mayor of Lancaster in 1851, being the aforenamed John Hall's immediate predecessor in that office. John Herdman Sherson died at Greenfield on February 29th, 1864, aged sixty-two, and was interred in Lancaster cemetery. The remains of his parents rest in the St. Nicholas-street burial ground. He was a descendant of an old Ellel family. One of his ancestors, Thomas Sherson, a barrister, who resided at Ellel Crag, and died in 1725, was thrice Mayor of Lancaster, and Thomas' son, Alexander, was a solicitor and Town Clerk. Either Thomas or Alexander Sherson held the office of Constable of the Castle. Thomas Sherson's father, Richard, died at Barrow about 1680, and his great-grandfather, John, a yeoman, died at Ellel about 1621. Of the marriage of John Herdman Sherson and Mary Paget there was issue two daughters, the Misses Sherson, one of whom once reminded me that she had been greatly interested in a "mothers' meeting" of which my own mother "was for many years the senior, and very much respected, member." Leaving Greenfield, these estimable ladies lived for a while at Morecambe Lodge, Yealand Conyers, and from there they removed to the Lake District. Thomas Paget's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, left Forton Lodge after the sad death of her sister Letitia, and settled in Lancaster - at Greenfield - and here she died in 1893, aged ninety. She was buried at Shireshead Church, by the side of her sister she had mourned so long.

PAST AND PRESENT - SOME FAMILY LINKS - VI (continued)

Edward Edmondson, of Middleton, had a son Henry - born on the Trumley homestead, and baptised at Overton Church on January 5th, 1788 - who settled at Rossall. He was skilled in agricultural pursuits, and his services as an adjudicator were requisitioned at various shows. On several occasions he acted as a judge of horses, &c., at the annual shows of the Lancaster Agricultural Society. His sister Jenny, or Jane, who was baptised at Overton Church on March 31st, 1782, married a Mr. Davis, of Cockerham, and they had a daughter who married a Mr. Banks, solicitor, of Preston. Another sister, Isabel, baptised at Overton on March 9th, 1794, married Edward Atkinson, who went to reside at Morecambe. The other children of Edward Edmondson have already been referred to.

There is a genealogical link between the Pagets and a brilliant "old boy" of Lancaster Grammar School - Dr. John Edward Marr, University Lecturer in Geology at Cambridge, who was born three months before the railway disaster in which Miss Letitia Paget lost her life. The learned professor's ancestors were settled at Oversands, in the parishes of Cartmel, Aldingham and Ulverston, several centuries ago. There are testamentary records of some who would be living at Scales, in the parish of Aldingham, at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Captain Robert Marr, son of John and Elizabeth Marr, was born at Aldingham in 1756, and settled in Lancaster residing on Castle-hill. In 1800 I find him described as a merchant here. In 1791 he married Elizabeth, the third child of Peter Paget, father of the aforementioned Thomas Paget, of Forton. Peter Paget had an older daughter, Mary, born on November 19th, 1762, who was the wife of W. Hardyman, but of this marriage there was no issue. Of the marriage of Robert Marr and Elizabeth Paget there was born Mary - on of the victims of the Great Northern Railway disaster in 1857 - who married John Heaton, of this town; Thomas and Elizabeth, who died unmarried; and John Marr, born at Lancaster in 1800, who in 1837 married Mary, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Simpson, of Lancaster. The Cambridge professor, Dr. J. E. Marr, is the son of John and Mary Marr. In  February, 1829, John Marr was elected a member of Lancaster Town Council in the room of his brother-in-law, John Heaton, then recently deceased. After his marriage, John Marr lived successively at Wray (where he took a prominent part in the founding of Holy Trinity Church, of which he was an original trustee), at Poulton-le-Sands, and at Carnarvon. He died at Carnarvon in February, 1875, and was buried in Lancaster cemetery. Dr. Marr's maternal grandfather, Francis Simpson, gentleman, died on December 10th, 1816, aged 57, and his wife on May 15th, 1828. There is a tablet to their memory in High-street chapel, of which chapel Francis Simpson was appointed a trustee in August, 1814. In passing, it may be noted that Dr. Marr, the author of several important works, has contributed a valuable geological chapter - described by one of the leading reviewers as "very thorough" - to the Rev. Joseph Whiteside's newly-issued book on "Shappe in By-gone Days."

PAST AND PRESENT - SOME FAMILY LINKS - VI

Several of the children of Edward Edmondson, of Trumley, Middleton (brother of Thomas, of Grassyard Hall) have been dealt with in the preceding chapters. Reference may now be made to Edward's daughter Margaret, who was baptised at Overton Church, on July 10, 1775. This Margaret Edmondson married John Paget, woollen or worsted merchant, of Lancaster and Forton, who, at the beginning of the last century, had become a partner in the firm of Thomas Edmondson and Co. worsted spinners, Mytholmroyd, near Halifax. A list of "Seats of the nobility and gentry in the county Palatine of Lancaster," published in 1825, shows that Thomas Paget then resided at Forton lodge - built nearly a hunderd years ago by William Brade, a Liverpool merchant, of the same stock, I believe, as the Forton yeoman, William Brade, whose sister Jennet married Timothy Welch, of Ellel (1714-1791). Thomas Paget died at Forton Lodge on December 18, 1843. He was born on November 12, 1764, so that he attained a ripe age. He was the son of Peter Paget by his wife Elizabeth Hankinson, who were married in 1761, the former, probably, belonging to a Scotforth and the latter to a Fylde family. Mrs. Peter Paget had a brother, Thomas Hankinson, who married Peter Paget's sister Mary, and of tis marriage there was issue the Rev. Robert Hankinson, rector of Walpole St. Andrew, near Wisbech, who died in 1862 at the great age of 92. Another brother of Mrs. Paget, John Hankinson, practised as an attorney at Lancaster, and died here about the beginning of last century. There was also a kinswoman, Ann Hankinson, who carried on business in this town as a milliner, and died in 1779. In February, 1776, John Hankinson was nominated by Lord Ducie as Deputy-Clerk of the Crown in the County Palatine.


Thomas Paget left a widow, one son, and three daughters. The son, also named Thomas, married Anne, the youngest daughter of Henry Smith, gentleman, Hole of Ellel, by his wife Ellen, daughter of George Yeats, to which families further reference will be made in the next article. Thomas Paget the younger went to reside at Ratcliffe Cottage, Forton, he being connected with John Welch, then of Cabus and afterwards of Burrow House, Scotforth, in carrying on an extensive business at Ratcliffe Wharf. The partners were cousins, their fathers having married two sisters. The business at Ratcliffe Wharf was previously carried on by John Welch's father, Thomas. Eight months after Thomas Paget's death, one of his sons met with his death under very sad circumstances. This son was likewise named Thomas, and it was intended that he should adopt the legal profession. He was articled to a Lancaster solicitor, John Herdman Sherson, and at the time of his death was only 17 years old, being then described as of Castle Hill. On Wednesday afternoon, July 20th, 1853, young Paget was drowned while bathing in the Lune between the Pothouses and the New Quay. A gallant attempt was made to save him by another bather, Robert Hall - son of the then Mayor, John Hall, solicitor, Saleyard-street - who still survives, residing at Slyne Lodge, Slyne. Thomas Paget (who died on November 21st, 1852) had another son, William Smith Paget, born in 1848. This son is Dr. Paget-Tomlinson, of The Biggins, near Kirkby Lonsdale. Thirty years ago he married the second daughter of John L. Price, of Standish, near Wigan. In 1889 he succeeded his relative, Miss E. Tomlinson, in The Biggins estate, and took the name by which he is now known. Dr. Paget-Tomlinson is J.P. and D.L. for Westmorland, and was High Sheriff of that county in 1897.


A sister of Mrs. Thomas (Margaret) Paget, Hannah Edmondson, who was baptised at Overton Church on March 26th 1780, married a Mr. Caton, who lived sometime at Bolton-le-Sands, and also at Fenton-Cawthorne House, Market-street, Lancaster. A story is told that while residing at the latter place he was so much displeased about a certain marriage engagement that he had the blinds of all his windows put down during the time the bridal party were going to and from the Old Church. Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Caton, then described as of Lancaster, was married at Cockerham Church in 1830 to Charles Bower, gentleman, of Bolton-le-Sands. They were living at Sunderand in the middle of last century. At Bolton-le-Sands they ranked among the landowners. Charles Bower built the house across the railway, opposite the station. Land belonging to the family was ultimately purchased on behalf of the Roman Catholics, for the erection of a new church, &c. A son (Thomas) of Mr. Caton, who removed to London, was a legatee of his cousins, William Bradshaw, Queen-square, Lancaster (Mayor in 1870), and Miss Betsy Jane Bradshaw. There was some relationship between the Bradshaws and the Welch and Paget families. William Bradshaw's father - Bartholomew Bradshaw, woollen draper or mercer, Market-street, Lancaster, who died at Burrow House, Scotforth (afterwards the residence of John Welch from Cabus), on January 6th, 1857 - was an executor under the will of Thomas Paget who died at Forton Lodge in 1843. And there was also a relationship with the Bradshaws of Burton. Bartholomew Bradshaw the elder was brother-in-law of John Cumpsty, mercer, of Lancaster and Lune Villa, Skerton, who died in 1815. 

Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh (part 3)

The hardship of their case consisted in nothing but this: each was now possessed of a formed and fixed character, and that now had to adapt itself to a new set of conditions, requiring compromise and “give and take.” What wonder the experience was neither pleasant nor merry! Is the common lot so different?...

The wife who had so hesitatingly flung in her lot with his proved the truest and staunchest of allies. She too had all to lose. Carlyle was her all in all. His defeat meant proof of her own folly in uniting her fortunes to his, and that was too bitter a pill to swallow. One must confess it was well the case was so, for the coming conflict was to be very bitter and very prolonged.

Ten years after marriage Carlyle had his foot firmly on the ladder, but not sooner, although he had then already written and published the very cream of his intellect, works of genius as original, as brilliant, massy essays of solid gold, and had already expounded almost to its last detail his own peculiar message and creed.

Twenty years later he stands at the head of British literature, unequalled, almost unchallenged, admitted into any and every society, the valued friend and guest of peers, the acknowledged master of many of the finest spirits of the time. “My ambition has been gratified,” wrote Mrs Carlyle to John Forster, “beyond my wildest dreams, and I am miserable." Miss Welsh little knew the greatness of the man she married when she married him. That she did love him with more than usual intensity is made evident by a hundred letters. Carlyle loved her very tenderly and very deeply. Her death broke his power at one blow, and the man lingered pitifully, a lonely, sorrowful old man, whose triumph, like Johnson's had come too late. What was amiss? “No talent for the market, thought I – none; the reverse rather.” So Carlyle sorrowfully noted in his journal at this time. The entry may explain why he has always been the god of the literary young man's idolatry. Carlyle tried so hard to swim with the times consistently with his conscience, and failed so lamentably. He would have liked so well to have pleased editors, but could not. So he defied them. With a wife to support he was prepared to stretch conscience as far as ever it could honourably be stretched. There can be little doubt of that. We do not need to accept Carlyle as a fanatic on the matter of the rights of contributors. He was ready enough to please, but he could, and would, write to no man's order. Too great and original himself to be an editor, far less could he trim his sails to suit editors, study the journalistic signs of the times, and satisfy “public requirements.” He tried and failed, and young men are consoled when they learn that Carlyle suffered as they suffer, was told “his style was at fault,” and his matter literally of no importance and unadulterated rubbish! Carlyle's style was not at fault. It was a very good style, but not nearly so brilliant and picturesque as it became later. Still less was there any lack of quality in the matter.

Carlyle failed because he could not persuade editors to accept the articles he wrote. The editors were good judges, so good that they probably interpreted the time correctly in fearing it could not appreciate Carlyle. Carlyle was original, but he was consumately great; so great that these editors could not recognise he was a greater man than themselves.

Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh (part 2)

Very evidently from the first there was friction and disagreement which required length of time to disappear. There need be little doubt that this important little matter of the wife's signature was easily the most objectionable feature from Carlyle's point of view, and on every ground is indefensible. Froude apparently drew his own conclusions, but however honestly and firmly believed by himself, these can scarcely be accepted. It would be grossly unfair to Carlyle to admit them. One is bound to say this strange action of Mrs Carlyle is better explained by the overweening “social mesalliance” theory, which she stoutly believed. Had Froude's deduction been the correct one, there would surely have been at least more or less public knowledge of it at the time, and apparently there was no such thing.

The point is of importance if only as proof that from the first Mrs Carlyle possessed little consideration for anyone's feelings, and literally none for those of the man she had married. Whatever excuses were available for her act, she had none for thus inviting the attention of her correspondents to the fact that she had passed with marriage under no husband domination, and had forfeited no whit of status. She, at least, was no Carlyle, marriage or no.

But if Jane Welsh had been reluctant to engage in the matrimonial adventure, she was ready and eager to do her part in the struggle. Home was made attractive for Carlyle. Circumstances soon revealed to the newly-made wife - not to her liking either – what life with a literary man was to mean. Her husband required solitude, as do all highly-strung individuals who have never passed under the stern discipline of necessity. In his mother's house solitude was not an easy thing to obtain, but everyone had been eager to assist him to attain it. His wife recognised a certain necessity, but had not bargained for Carlyle withdrawing himself from her society for the entire day, or well into the evening. She, too, for the first time, was passing under discipline – she who had been encouraged in every childish whim. Both husband and and wife had been in abnormal situations all their lives, subject to no wholesome, imperative control, acknowledging none as master or employer, or even as guardian.


(To be continued)

On Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh

Considering its sub-title “An Experiment in Biographical Explication,” Mr R S Craig's “The Making of Carlyle” (Eveleigh Nash, 10s 6d net) demanded a preface. However, the main title is clear enough. Mr Craig has brought much research and intelligence to bear on the Scottish upbringing, early friendships, courtship, and marriage of Carlyle. In a word, this book is a study of Carlyle's environment in his formative years, and it is of fascinating interest. I quote this week some detached passages on Carlyle's first years of married life, in which Mr Craig's independent views are exhibited.

The honeymoon began with an instantaneous flight to their own house in Comely Bank, Edinburgh. They were married probably quite early in the morning, to admit of the long day journey by coach thither. Wedding-feast there was none, since no attempt was ever made by either party to “put a face” on things. Appearances deceived, and the Carlyles avoided whatever might deceive! In Scots law marriage is a contract. Carlyle believed the ceremony could represent nothing else, and it did represent nothing else. Yet his marriage was a true marriage from the highest as from the lowest point of view, as lofty, as spiritual, and eternal as ever human marriage was, in whatever form or by whatever ceremony celebrated...

From a passage in the “Reminiscences of Jane Welsh Carlyle,” it would appear that for some years after her marriage Mrs Carlyle persisted in signing herself by her maiden name. The passage in question may be found on page 128 of Froude's edition, and is as follows: “From her my Jeannie was called 'Jane Baillie Welsh' at the time of our marriage, but after a good few years, 'when she took to singing 'Jane Welsh Carlyle,' in which I never hindered her, she dropped the 'Baillie,' I suppose as too long.”


(To be continued)