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Friday 5 April 2013

Hugh Burke, cousin of Jane Orr, née Stewart


William A.Stewart, the brother of Joseph Stewart Jr. who was our great-great grandfather, married Margaret Burke in Downpatrick Registry Office in 1851.   William and Margaret Stewart's daughter, Jane Stewart, married the watchmaker James Malcom Orr in Belfast in 1875.

https://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-stewart-family-of-crossnacreevy.html

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/08/james-m-orr-watchmaker-and-jane-stewart.html

Jane Orr, née Stewart,  was known to have a cousin named Hugh Burke.


Hugh Burke was actually Hugh Geddes Burke, born 12th July 1862 in Belfast to a Robert Burke.

He emigrated to the US/Canada aboard the 'Niagara', and arrived at Niagara Falls, New York, on 18th July 1882.  However, he must have returned to Ireland at some stage since, on 25th December 1885, he married his first wife, Agnes Girvan, in Railway Street Church in Lisburn.  At the time of the wedding, Hugh, a bookkeeper, was resident in Ballylesson, Co. Down.  He named his father as a labourer, Robert Burke.  Agnes was the daughter of a pensioner, Richard Girvan, and she was living at Milltown;  the witnesses were John Hyland and Eliza Hyland.

(A Richard Girvan and his wife, Margaret Jamieson, were living in Ballylesson in the 1860s and 1870s;  their children were born there.  Margaret Girvan was born 29th July 1865; William Girvan was born 29th July 1866; Jane Girvan was born 27th April 1869; Richard Girvan Junior was born on 26th November 1872 but died the same year;  an unnamed child was born on 22nd June 1875. These births were published online on the Family Search website, but the Girvan trail goes cold for me at this stage.  Two of the children of Agnes Girvan and Hugh Geddis Burke were sent to live with a grandmother in England, but were sent alone to the US in 1900 following her death.)

The 1891 Canadian Census shows the family of Hugh and Agnes living in Hamilton, Ontario - Hugh Burke, aged 32, was Presbyterian and the manager of a mill.  His wife was Agnes, who had been born in Ireland in about 1865;  she gave her religion as Church of England.
They had three children - Athel/Ethel Burke, who had been born in York, Toronto on 7th August 1887, and who would die aged 9 on 5th October 1896 in Wentworth of tubercular meningitis, William John Burke, born in Wentworth on 27th December 1888, and five-month-old Olive Irene who had been born on 7th December 1890 in Hamilton, Wentworth, to Hugh Burke and Agnes Girvan.

A son, Hugh Courtney Burke was born to the couple in Wentworth, Ontario. on 9th December 1892 - his later military records gives his date of birth erroneously as 10th December 1894.

Son William John Burke, who had been born to Hugh and Agnes in Wentworth on 27th December 1888 in Canada,  died in childhood aged only 9 years and two months of meningitis on 17th February 1898 at 61 Northumberland Street, Belfast.  The child was buried in the family grave in Drumbo and was noted on the headstone as being the nephew of John Burke of Drumbo.

The Canadian records note the death of a Burke infant in Wentworth on 16th August 1897.  The childrens' mother, Agnes Girvan Burke, had died on 13th June 1897, st 33 Reginald Street, Wentworth, Ontario, of pulmonary consumption. She had been a box-maker, and was noted as a Presbyterian.

The family must have been coming and going between North America and Ireland at this time.
From the Pennsylvania Immigration Records, Board of Special Inquiry', dated December 8th 1900:  'State:  Hugh is 7 years and Olive is 9 years old. Their father is Hugh G. Burke and is in Virginia, near Norfolk, working in a saw-mill.   Their mother is dead, and they were born in Hamilton, Canada, then went to live with their grandmother in England, who is now dead and they are on their way to their father.  Are to be met here by their uncle, James Orr.  Jas. Orr calls and states: resides at 2057 Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, is an uncle of above-named children.  Is in the United States 16 years and is an American citizen.  Is in business at the above address.  Says the father of the children wrote him that he should meet them on arrival and send them to him.  Passed by Assistant Inspector Ehilick.'
The corresponding passenger list shows the two young children travelling unaccompanied aboard the 'SS Pennland' from Liverpool to Philadelphia in December 1900.  The manifest states that they had been born in Canada, but that their last place of residence was Belfast, not England.  Their final destination was their father in Norfolk, Virginia, via their Uncle James Orr at Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia.  James Orr was actually married to their father's first cousin, Jane Stewart Orr, but maybe it was just easier to describe him as an uncle.

Hugh Burke moved himself and his family to Knoxville, Tennessee on 1st October 1896, according to his application for citizenship later;  however, in 1900 he was living at Norfolk, Virginia, according to the ship's manifest of the 'SS Pennland'.

In about 1898 he married his second wife, Susan Gray, who had been born in Ireland in about 1866, and who had emigrated to the US in 1879.
By 1910 he was living at 913 North Fifth Avenue, Knoxville, with his wife, Susan Gray Burke, and his three children - Olive Irene, Hugh, and Virginia M. Burke.
By 1912, he'd moved to his permanent address of 1338 North Broadway, Knoxville, Tennessee, where he applied for citizenship - this application was witnessed by his boss, George B. Townsend, the director of the Holston Box and Lumber Company.

His three surviving children in 1912 were named as:
Olive Irene Burke, born December 10th 1892 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Hugh Burke, born 17th December 1894 (according to earlier Canadian records this should be  9th December 1892) in Hamilton, Ontario.

Marian Virginia/aka Virginia M. Burke, was born on 31st July 1900 in Norfolk, Virginia.   She married the lawyer, Charles Aurin Russell, in Loudon, Tennessee, on 30th September 1918.  In 1920 they were living with his widowed mother, Amelia Russell, in Knoxville.  His sister, Madeline Russell, was living there also and would go on to marry Marcus Armstrong.  In April 1921, Virginia Marian Burke and Charles Aurin Russell had a son, Burke Aurin Russell, who would die in Tennessee on 17th May 1984.
Virginia Russell later married a George T. Fenton on 4th September 1924 - she died in April 1979.

The 1920 Census reveals Olive Irene Burke's husband living with the family at North Broadway, James P. Mitchell,  a salesman for a drugs company who'd been born in Tennessee in 1892. James died at some stage before the next census in 1930.

In June 1917, Hugh's son, named as Hugh Courtney Burke, a bookkeeper at the Holston Box Company,  was drafted into the army in Knoxville.  He survived, and went back to the Holston Box and Lumber Company,  working alongside his father.   The two lived together at 1338 North Broadway.  Hugh Courtney Burke later joined the Air Service during WWII.

Passenger lists record Hugh G.Burke travelling back and forth from Europe to North America in the 1920s.  In 1927 he sailed from Southampton to NYC aboard the 'Lancastria', and gave his home address as 1338, Knoxville, Tennessee.   In July 1929 he travelled from Belfast to Montreal on the 'Minnedosa', having stayed in the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast.  He travelled from Belfast to NYC in 1935 aboard the 'California'.

Hugh Geddis Burke died on 13th November 1949 in Miami, Florida, and was buried at home in Knoxville, Tennessess.  He had been living in Miama with his son, Hugh Courtney Burke, died in May 1978 at 37919 Knoxville.
.................................................................................................................................................

On April 9th 1932, the above Hugh Geddis Burke departed Glasgow aboard the 'Anchor', heading for New York following a visit home to Belfast. He was a manufacturer aged 69, and his last address in the UK was given as 56, Rainey Street, Belfast,  which was the home of William John Burke and his family;  William John Burke was a close relation of Hugh Burke, although it's unclear as yet exactly how they relate accurately.  Perhaps they were cousins?  Hugh was the son of Robert Burke, while William John was the son of James Burke.

William John Burke had been born in Co. Down in 1863 to James Burke and Eliza Stewart and was therefore a contemporary of Hugh Geddis Burke. (This James Burke was the son of John Burke, as was Margaret Stewart, the wife of William Stewart.)

John Burke (1796 - 1867) of Leveroge, Drumbo, Co. Down:
Circumstantial evidence points to John Burke  (1796 - 1867) of Leveroge, Drumbo as being the father of Margaret Burke who married our William A. Stewart in Downpatrick in 1851.   Margaret Burke Stewart was known to be a cousin of Hugh Geddis Burke, who was the son of a Robert Burke of Drumbo, Ballylesson, Co. Down.
Leverogue/Leveroge is one of the Drumbo townlands, immediately south of Lisburn, and connecting with the townlands of Mealough, Ballycowan etc.     Griffiths Valuation shows John Bourke/Burke leasing a house in Leveroge from Hugh Geddes who is most likely a relation, given the use of this name by the Burke family. (Also present in the same townland of Leveroge were John and Josias Geddes.  A James Geddes of Leverogue, Drumbo, made his will in 1870, and confirmed that he was the father of Hugh and Josias Geddes.)
John Burke of Leveroge was married to a woman named Jane whose family name is as yet unknown. They were both buried in Drumbo Parish churchyard - John Burke died aged 71 on 9th June 1867;  his wife Jane died aged 70 on 10th August 1868.  (The burial records for the Burkes of Drumbo have been published online via the excellent Ros Davies.)


The (possible) children of the above John and Jane Burke of Leveroge, Drumbo, Ballylesson, were:

a)  A William Burke, born 1827, the son of John Burke, married Ann Jane McClave/McCleave/McCleve in Drumbo on 26th May 1849.  Ann Jane was the daughter of a Robert McClave or McCleve.  I can find no further online information on this couple.

b)  Margaret Burke, born circa 1831, who married William A. Stewart, the brother of our great-great grandfather Joseph Stewart of Crossnacreevy and of Dublin, on 27th December 1851.  The wedding certificate of Margaret Burke and William A. Stewart names her father as John Burke. Her daughters were Jane Orr and Margaret Stewart who emigrated to Philadelphia and who named Hugh G. Burke of Ballylesson as their cousin.

 c)  James Burke, born circa 1834, married Eliza Stewart in Ballycairn Presbyterian Church in Drumbo, Co. Down, on 19th January 1861 - James was a 27-yr-old weaver living at Leverogue, son of John Burke, while Eliza Stewart, the daughter of a shoemaker named William Stewart, lived at Tullyard, a townland east of Lisburn town. The witnesses to the wedding of James Burke and Eliza Stewart were Hugh Willis and John Russell.  Hugh Willis lived in the neighbouring townland of Hill Hall and would marry the bride's sister in 1867.

On 7th September 1861 in Malone Church in Belfast, Sarah Stewart, the daughter of shoemaker William Stewart of Tullyard, married Samuel Little of Drumbo, the son of William Little - James and Eliza Burke witnessed the wedding.

On 12th February 1867 in Lisburn parish,  Hugh Willis (who stood as witness to the marriage of James Burke and Eliza Stewart in 1861) married Mary Anne Stewart, the daughter of shoemaker William Stewart of Tullyard.  The bride's sister and brother-in-law,  James and Eliza Burke were the witnesses. Hugh Willis was the son of Phillip Willis and Isabella McClean of Hill Hall.  Phillip and Isabella Willis also had David Willis in 1827,  John Willis in 1829, Daniel Willis in 1831, Mary Ann Willis in 1833 and Charles Willis in 1833.   

(Were William, Eliza, Sarah and Mary Anne Stewart related to William Stewart, son of Joseph and Ann Stewart of Crossnacreevy, who married Margaret Burke, daughter of John Burke, in 1851?)

William Stewart, shoemaker of Tullyard, Drumbo, married twice.  The first marriage hasn't been uncovered yet but a William Stewart and Mary Anne Simpson lived in Hill Hall, Drumbo in the 1830s. Hill Hall is adjacent to Tullyard where our William Stewart was noted as living later.   William Stewart and Mary Anne Simpson had two sons, whose baptisms were recorded in the Presbyterian records of the area - these were Charles Stewart who was born on 7th April 1835, and Joseph Stewart born in Hill Hall on 14th July 1838.    If Mary Anne Simpson were indeed the first wife of shoemaker William Stewart of Tullyard, then daughter Mary Anne Stewart, who married Hugh Willis in 1867, must have been named after her mother.

On 10th June 1854 in Ballycairn, Drumbo, William Stewart, the father of Eliza Burke, Sarah Little and Mary Anne Willis,  married a second time.  He was noted as a widowed shoemaker of Tullyard, and the certificate names his father as gardener John Stewart.  His bride was Ann Cannon of Drumbo who was the daughter of the tailor William Cannon.  This wedding was witnessed by Samuel McBride and George Limond (not very legible). The tailor William Cannon, who was the father of Ann Cannon, is of interest, since later on 3rd May 1885 in Drumbo Presbyterian Church, the Scottish-born Emily Canning married William John Burke, oldest son of James Burke and Eliza Stewart and grandson of William Stewart of Tullyard.  Emily Canning or Cannon was the daughter of Alexander Canning who was also a tailor and might therefore be a relation of the tailor William Cannon. 

James Burke (1834 - 11th May 1899) and his wife, Eliza Stewart (1833 - 10th December 1915) were buried together in Drumbo Churchyard.  The headstone confirms James Burke as the son of John and Jane Burke.  When Eliza Stewart Burke died in December 1915 in Ballylesson, her daughter, Eliza J. McDonaldson of 27 Ballyclare Street, Belfast, was there.

The children of James Burke and Eliza Stewart were:
  • William John Burke, later of 56 Rainey Street, born 1863, with whom Hugh Geddis Burke stayed on one of his many visits home from Tennessee to Ireland. See further info below...
  • Mary Margaret Burke, 1864 - 1940, who married a millworker James McDowell, son of a fireman Samuel McDowell,  in Drumbo Presbyterian Church on 13th November 1885; the witnesses were her older brother William John Burke and his soon-to-be wife, Emily Canning.
  • Sarah Jane, born 1866.
  • Eliza Jane, born 5th May 1870. She married a blacksmith, Thomas Gray, son of Alexander Gray, blacksmith of  Ballylesson, in Drumbo on 26th July 1888; this was witnessed by Charley Beers and Minnie Wilgar.  Thomas Gray died young and she then married George Donaldson on 2nd March 1895 in St. Luke's, Belfast.  He was a weaver of Ballylesson, the son of William Donaldson;  this wedding was witnessed by Mary and James McDowell. This young family were living at 134 Snugville, Belfast in 1901, although their 6-yr-old daughter, Jamesina Donaldson, was staying with Eliza Jane's widowed mother, Eliza Burke, née Stewart,in Ballylesson.  A son, William John Donaldson, died of meningitis at 14 Ballyclare Street, on 14th August 1914. By 1911, the family included 10-year-old Mary Donaldson and 2-year-old George Donaldson.
  • Sara Annie, aka Annie, born 6th November 1877 in Ballylesson, she married Matthew Jackson, a weaver of Ballylesson, the son of James Jackson, in Lisburn on 14th November 1896.  Her sister, Eliza Jane Donaldson, and brother-in-law, George Donaldson, were the witnesses.  Annie Burke and Matthew Jackson settled in Ballylesson where they had Elizabeth, James, Emily, William John and George. 
  • Emily Cannon/Canning Burke, born 1883 - in 1901 she was living in Ballylesson with her widowed mother, Eliza Burke;  on rd October 1912 she married James Moreland, son of William Moreland, in Drumbo Church, Ballylesson. The witnesses were William J. McDowell and Lizzie Johnston.  Emily Moreland died young three years later on 5th July 1918 and was buried in Drumbo Churchyard alongside her uncle John Burke of Ballynahatty, Ballylesson.  
The oldest son of James Burke and Eliza Stewart, William John Burke, married the Scottish-born Emily Canning, the daughter of a tailor, Alexander Canning, in Drumbo Presbyterian Church on 3rd May 1885;  the witnesses were James McAvoy and Margaret Crothers.  (Of interest - the 1851 wedding of William Stewart and Margaret Burke in Downpatrick in 1851 was witnessed by an Agnes Crothers. This may just be coincidence....)

William John Burke was a carpenter/packing case maker, just as Hugh G. Burke's first wife, Agnes Girvan, had been earlier.
 In 1901 he was living at 56 Rainey Street, Belfast, with his Scottish-born wife, Emily Canning.
Their children were:
  • James born 4th February 1890 in 56 Rainey Street; Eliza Burke of Ballylesson was present at the birth according to the civil registration. James married Jane Ellen McCarthy on 8th November 1911 in St. Anne's Church of Ireland, Shankill, Belfast - the witnesses were David A. Gilmour and Mary Ann Hartin. James Burke died 4th November 1965.  Jane Ellen had been born on 21st June 1893 in Co. Down to Moses McCarthy and Margaret Brown.   James Burke and Jane Ellen McCarthy had William John Burke (1912 - 1994) and Emily Burke (1915 - 1973).
  • Elizabeth Burke was born at 56 Rainey Street on 3rd April 1892;  on 14th December 1908, she died aged 16 of TB, a handkerchief cutter of 56 Rainey Street.
  • Jane Burke born 21st November 1893 at 56 Rainey Street.
  • Ellen Canning/Cannon Burke was born on 28th May 1896,  but she died of TB aged 10 on 1st June 1906 at 56 Rainey Street - she was buried alongside her grandparents, John and Jane Burke of Leverogue.
  • Hugh Geddis Burke was born at 55 Rainey Street on 6th September 1899 - this last child was clearly named after Hugh Geddis Burke of Knoxville.  The younger Hugh died at 54 Silvergrove Street, Belfast, on 17th March 1945, leaving a widow Martha Burke.
  • William John Burke Junior, born 1902.
Street Directories:
1892:  William JAMES Burke, carpenter, 56 Rainey Street. (Typo?)
1900: William J. Burke, carpenter, 56 Rainey St.

d) Josias Burke, a resident of Drumbo and son of John Burke, married Jane Shields on 4th February 1860 in Annahilt, Co. Down.  Jane was the daughter of John Johnston Shields or Shiels  This couple had Ann Kennedy Burke in Belfast on 24th March 1865, Agnes Burke in Ballycowan/Ballycoan on 28th March 1868,  Eliza Burke and Sarah Burke on 12th December 1870, and William James Burke on 20th September 1874.  
   Josias or Josiah Burke may have married again following the death of his wife, Jane Shields. A Josiah Burke of Ballynahatty, son of John Burke, married on 12th January 1884 in Drumbo, Mary McKee of Ballynahatty, the daughter of servant David McKee. The witnesses were John and Eliza Heyland. These were probably the same couple, ie, John and Eliza Hyland, who would witness the marriage of Hugh Geddis Burke and Agnes Girvan the following year.  (In Lisburn on 8th November 1872, John Hayland of Ballylesson, son of the weaver Joseph Hayland, had married Eliza Jane Burke, a millworker of Ballylesson, who was the daughter of farmer William Burke.  This was witnessed by Jane Burke and David Moreland.)
  The family moved a few miles north to Newtownbreda, where Josiah Burke died aged 69 on 12th August 1908.
   The daughter of Josiah Burke and Jane Sheils, Agnes Burke, married Samuel Browne, the son of factory worker William John Browne, on 23rd December 1892 in Drumbo Church.  At the time of this wedding, Agnes Burke was living in Ballydolaghan.  The witnesses were James McAvoy and Sarah Burke, Agnes's sister.  A James McAvoy also witnessed the wedding of William John Burke and Emily Canning in 1885. (William John Burke was Agnes Burke's cousin.)

e)  John Burke Junior, who had been born circa 1831, and who was buried in Drumbo Church of Ireland churchyard when he died on 2nd July 1903.    On 7th May 1853, John Burke, the son of John Burke of Leveroge, married Sarah Fisher, the daughter of William Fisher of Hill Hall, Drumbeg; the witnesses were Adam Foreman and Ellen Mackey.

On 11th July 1890 in Drumbo, John Burke of Ballynahatty, widower and son of John Burke, married Eliza Cunningham of Ballylesson. This was witnessed by James and Eliza Burke.

When John Burke died in Ballynavally or Ballynahatty, Ballylesson, in 1903, his wife, Eliza, was present.
Buried alongside John Burke (1831 -  2nd July 1903) in Drumbo was his nephew, William John Burke, who had died aged 9 years and two months of meningitis on 17th February 1898 at 61 Northumberland Street and who was the Canadian-born son of Hugh Geddis Burke and Agnes Girvan. John and Jane Burke's unmarried daughter, Lizzie Burke  (1865 - 12th July 1886), was buried there too, as was his niece, Emily Moreland who had died on 5th July 1918.  Emily was the daughter of John Burke's brother, James Burke - she had married James Moreland.

Photo supplied by Desmond McDowell


f) Robert Burke, son of John and Jane Burke of Leverogue?  Robert Burke was the father of Hugh Geddis Burke and circumstantial evidence links Hugh's family to the above Burkes of Ballylesson.  I can no further details about a Robert Burke, however, but will include him here as a son of John Burke Senior.  Robert Burke's son, Hugh Geddis Burke, had a son, William John Burke, who died aged 9 on 17th February 1898 and who was buried in the Burke family plot - the headstone named the boy as the nephew of John Burke of Ballynavally/Ballynahatty, Ballylesson. I presume the child was actually the grand-nephew.

g) Jane Burke,  born circa 1835 to John Burke of Ballylesson.  This information is recorded on her civil marriage certificate of 21st February 1880, when she married widower William Magill of  14 Beresford Street in Belfast.  He was the son of James Magill.  The witnesses to the wedding were John and Eliza Hayland/Hyland, who witnessed other Burke family weddings at this time.  Eliza Hyland was the daughter of William Burke, so must be another relation of the family.
William Magill died on 15th November 1885 at 61 Northumberland Street, the address where 9-yr-old William John Burke, the son of Hugh Geddis Burke, died of meningitis on 17th February 1898.
Jane Magill, née Burke, died aged 76 on 23rd July 1900 at the Ballylesson home of her sister-in-law, Eliza Burke, née Stewart.


Many thanks to the Orr family, especially Astrid Booth, the granddaughter of William Stewart Orr, for sending me the photographs of their Orr/Stewart/Burke ancestors.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

More Willis/Woolsey Connections...


This post expands on a few Willis/Woolsey connections, primarily through the marriage of Rev. Henry de Laval Willis and Mary Anne Woolsey in 1841.  Henry de Laval Willis was the cousin of our great-great grandmother, Geraldine O'Moore Creighton,  who married our great-great grandfather,  Richard Williams of Eden Quay in 1846.  Geraldine OMoore Creighton's mother was Eliza Willis, the sister of Henry's father, Thomas Gilbert Willis.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/01/children-of-thomas-willis-schoolmaster.html


Captain John Woolsey was the High Sheriff of Louth in 1826, and was the founder of the brewery in Castlebellingham which employed about 70 people there. He was an early shareholder in the Dublin Steam Packet Company which had been co-founded by Richard and Charles Wye Williams.  He married Janet Jameson, whose father, John, had founded the Jameson Distillery in Dublin.  Captain John Woolsey and Janet Jameson lived at Milesdown/Milestone, Co. Louth.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/05/woolsey-family-of-castlebellingham.html

The children of Captain John Woolsey (son of Rev. William Woolsey and Mary Anne Bellingham) and Janet Jameson were:
  a)  Mary Anne Woolsey (1813 - 1881) who married Major John W. Simmons Smith, of the 14th Light Dragoons, on 25th October 1836.
  b) John Woolsey (1815 - 1819).
  c)  Margaret Woolsey (1816 - 1877), married to Rev. Charles Thornhill.
  d)  William Woolsey (1818 - 1887) married twice. His first wife was Frances Rose Vesey who drowned in the River Clyde following a suspected epilectic seizure in July 1868. William Woolsey married, secondly, Mary Elizabeth Heath Jary, the daughter of the late William Heath Jary of Blofield Lodge, Norfolk.  This second wedding occurred on 11th July 1868 in Blofield Church. William Woolsey ran the family brewery in Castlebellingham with his younger brother John.
  e)  Helen Jameson Woolsey (1819 - 1908).
  f)  Robert Jameson Woolsey (1821 - 1838). Jameson Woolsey died in Rouen, France, of scarlet fever, aged 16 on 6th March 1838.
  g) Frances Hester Bellingham Woolsey (16th August 1823 - 28th September 1838).
  h)  Major General O'Brien Bellingham Woolsey (1827 - 1910).  He married Anna, the daughter of Sir John Walsham of Knill Court, Hereford, in Dinnington, Northumberland, on April12th 1855.  In 1841 he was visiting the family of Robert Jameson of Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland;  here are the details of the census, with notes...
         Head of household:  Robert Jameson, born Alloa, 1772.
         Wife of above:  Helen Jameson, born Alloa, 1776.
         Rev. William Jameson, born Ireland in about 1811. This was the grandson of John Jameson and Isabella Stein;  John Jameson was the founder of Dublin's Jameson Distillery.  Rev. William Jameson married the daughter of Arthur Guinness, Elizabeth.  He died on 20th November 1886 and was noted as being formerly of Biarritz, France, of Hollybrook, Drumcondra and of Roebuck Grove, Donnybrook.
         George Jameson, born Ireland in 1826;  brother of Rev. William Jameson.
         Mrs. Janet Woolsey - O'Brien Bellingham Woolsey's mother, who had been born in Alloa in 1791, and who had married John Woolsey of Castlebellingham in 1812. 
         Helen Jameson Woolsey, born 1821 in Castlebellingham, Ireland, to John and Janet Woolsey;  she later married Rev. William Thornhill, rector of Offord Darcey;  she died in Eastgate, Castlebellingham, on 10th May 1898.  Amongst her children were William Blundell Thornhill born 1858, Eveline Maude Thornhill born 1861, and John Thornhill born 1863.
          O'Brien Woolsey, son of John and Janet Woolsey, born Ireland 1828.
           John Woolsey, born Ireland 1830, see below.
  i)  John Woolsey (1830 - 1887).  He ran the family brewing business along with his older brother, William, and married his cousin,  Elizabeth Lucy Willis.  They were married by the bride's father, Rev. Henry de Laval Willis of St. John's, Bradford, on 5th June 1866. They lived at Castle Cosey, Castlebellingham.
    'In memory of William Woolsey of Milestone, died 11th May 1887, aged 68 years, and his brother, John Woolsey, of Castle Cosey, Castlebellingham, who died 23rd May 1887 aged 56 years. This tablet has been erected in loving remembrance by their employees.'

Thomas Woolsey  (b. 1784 to Rev. William Woolsey and Mary Anne Bellingham in Louth, died Sep 1834)  married Elizabeth Gibson, the daughter of William Gibson, on 2nd August 1813 in St. James's, Clerkenwell, Middlesex.  The witnesses were W. Gibson and Mary Anne Gibson.  The children of Thomas Woolsey and Elizabeth Gibson were all born in London, where Thomas was working in the Admiralty, and baptised in the Old Church, St. Pancras -

  • William Woolsey, baptised 16th November 1814.  He worked in the Admiralty at Somerset House, and never married.
  • O'Bryen Woolsey, born circa 1816.  He also worked as a clerk in the Admiralty, Somerset House.  He had a cousin, O'Bryen Bellingham Woolsey, born to Captain John Woolsey and Janet Jameson in Castlebellingham, Louth.    An 1845 Directory notes two O'Brien Woolseys of the Admiralty, Somerset House, one of them 'O'Brien Woolsey, Junr.'    O'Brien Woolsey's will was proved on 18th September 1857 - his address at the time of his death was 4 Marsden Row, Chiswick. The will named an unmarried maternal aunt, Catherine Gibson, and his younger sister Sophia Frances Woolsey.  The executors were named as his uncle, O'Bryan Bellingham Woolsey and his brother-in-law Rev. Henry de Laval Willis.
  • Mary Anne Woolsey, later wife of Henry de Laval Willis,  born 4th August 1817, baptised 27th August, St. Pancras.
  • Elizabeth Lucy Woolsey, born 26 August 1821 in St. Pancras, London.  On 15th July 1856 in St. Pancras, Middlesex,  Elizabeth Lucy married her first cousin, Theophilus Moon of HM's Customs.  Theophilus' father, also Theophilus Moon, was dead by this time, as was Elizabeth Lucy's father, Thomas Woolsey. The witnesses were Elizabeth's siblings, O'Bryan Bellingham Woolsey and Sophia Frances Woolsey.  (Theophilus Moon Senior had married Isabella Gibson in St Pancras on 29th March 1813. In 1843, a Theophilus Moon was working in the office of the Registrar General of Trading Ships of Britain and Ireland.)
(A potted history of the Moon family, sent to me by a direct descendant of the family, Frank McGuire:  The father of Theophilus Moon, Theophilus Moon Senior, had been born in Liskeard, Cornwall, in 1787, to Robert and Ann Moon;  the Moon family had long had influence in Cornwall,  Robert Moon being the High Constable of the Cornish administrative district named the West Hundred, a post which had also been held by Robert's father, Theophilus Moon.   Theophilus Moon, born 1787, married Isabella Gibson on 29th March 1813 in Clerkenwell, London, and  Theophilus Moon Junior was born on 24th August 1814.  Theophilus Moon Senior seems to have had a falling out with his own father, Robert, and moved permanently to London where he worked as a clerk in the Audit Office in Somerset House;  his health failed, and, when he died in 1834, he left his wife, Isabella, and their ten children destitute - a fund was established to provide for his family, and there was an enthousiatic response to this;  subscribers included Lady Bellingham and T. Woolsey of the Navy Office, who organised several collection on behalf of the Moon family.  Theophilus Moon Junior entered the Customs Office two weeks after the death of his father, and spent his working life there.  He married his cousin, Elizabeth Lucy Willis,  whose mother, Elizabeth Gibson, was the sister of Thoeohilus' mother, Isabella Gibson.  Theophilus Moon and Elizabeth Lucy Woolsey had no children, other than a  stillborn baby born 2nd March 1863.  Theophilus Moon died on 24th October 1885.)


In 1861, Elizabeth and Theophilus Moon were visiting Theophilus's brother, Arthur Moon, who worked for the Inland Revenue, and his sister, Isabella Moon, in Hampstead.
  In 1881 the couple were living at 25 Adelaide Road, Hampstead, with a visitor, a member of the Willis family - a D. Mary Willis, who had been born in Ireland.  By 1891, Theophilus was dead, and Elizabeth Lucy Moon was living at 83 Portsdown Road, Paddington, with her sister-in-law, Isabella Moon, who had been born in Pentonville in about 1819.
Elizabeth Lucy Moon died on 11th February 1906 at 51 Carlton Mansions, Maida Vale;  probate was granted to her nephew, the dentist, William Willis, and to her nephew, the solicitor William Robert Moon.  William Robert Moon had been born in Paddington in 1869 to William and Sarah Augusta Moon.

  • Thomas Frederic Woolsey, born 2nd Dec 1823, baptised 31st December 1823.
  • Sophia Frances Woolsey, born 21st Feb.1828.

Rev. Henry de Laval Willis and Mary Anne Woolsey:
 Rev. Henry de Laval Willis had been born in 1814 to Thomas Gilbert Willis and Deborah Charlotte Newcombe of Portarlington, Co. Laois.  
Henry de Laval Willis was the cousin of our great-great grandmother, Geraldine O'Moore Creighton,  who married our great-great grandfather,  Richard Williams of Eden Quay in 1846.  Geraldine's mother was Eliza Willis, the sister of Henry's father, Thomas Gilbert Willis.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2012/01/children-of-thomas-willis-schoolmaster.html

On 16th Oct 1841, in Kilsaran, Co. Louth, Henry de Laval Willis married Mary Anne Woolsey of Castlebellingham, Louth.  Mary Anne's father was Thomas Woolsey of Castlebellingham.  (see above.)

Henry was educated in Trinity College, Dublin, taking a B.A. in 1837, and a D.D. in 1855.  He was noted as the perpetual curate of Portadown parish in 1845 and was appointed to the incumbency of St. John's, Bradford, Yorkshire, in 1850, dying at Crockenhill Parsonage, Kent, on March 31st 1867.
In 1851 the Rev. Henry de Laval Willis and his family were living at 2 Bellevue Avenue, Mannington, Yorkshire.    By 1861 they were resident at Little Horton Lane, Bradford.  Their married daughter, Hester Frances Bellingham, was living here with them when she had her first child, Alice Mary Walker, in 1864.

Rev. Henry de Laval Willis died in 1867, and the widowed Mary Anne Willis moved to Shipton, Christchurch, Yorkshire, where the census captured her with two of her children, Henry Thomas Gilbert, a manufacturer/wool merchant, and Mary D.C. Willis.  Also present in the household was Mary Anne's eight-year-old grandchild, Alice Mary Walker.   In 1891,  the widowed Mary Anne Willis was living in Chlesea with her grandson, Henry de Laval Walker, and his wife Edith.

The children of Rev. Henry de Laval Willis and Mary Anne Woolsey were:

  • Frances Hester Bellingham Willis, born Limerick, 17th November 1842;  baptised there on 17th December 1842 in St. Michael's, Limerick.  Frances was named after her mother's first cousin, Frances Hester Bellingham Woolsey, the daughter of Rev. William Woolsey and Mary Anne Bellingham of Castlebellingham, Louth. 

The younger Frances would later marry, on October 16th  1861,  John Walker, the second son of William Walker and Keziah Wesley Stamp,  of Bolling Hall, Yorkshire.
In 1871, Frances, who called herself Hester F.B. Walker, was visiting her brother-in-law, Arthur Walker, the Vicar of Easton, Somerset.
Hester and John Walker had two children.  Alice Mary Frances Bellingham Walker was born in Kilburn, Middlesex, on 28th October 1864, and baptised by Hester's father, Henry de Laval Willis, in St. John's, Bradford, on 25th December 1864.    In 1893 Alice married George Williamson Walker, a solicitor/assistant commissioner in the Charity Commission, who had been born in about 1863 in Greenock, Scotland, to George Wallace and Mary C. Williamson.  The couple had three children - Hester M.C. Wallace in 1895,  James Stuart Wallace on 6th July 1899, and George H.D. Wallace in 1900.   Alice Mary Frances Wallace died on 1st June 1924 at 6, Scarth Road, Barnes Common, Surrey;   following her death, her husband lived for a time in Egypt, but died on 28th November 1952 at Waterfall Cottage, Kearsney, Dover.
A son, Henry de Laval Walker, was born on 15th April 1867 to John Walker and Hester Frances Bellingham Willis and was baptised by his grandfather, Henry de Laval Willis, in St. John's on 25th May 1867.    Henry de Laval Walker worked later as a marine insurance clerk in London, and, in 1890, married Edith Lucy Verity, the daughter of Major Charles Felix Verity and Elizabeth Ann Godwin of Fulham.
 In 1891 the young couple were living in Chelsea - staying with them was Henry's widowed grandmother, Mary Anne Willis, née Woolsey, aged 71.  I see from the internet that Henry de Laval Walker was the founding editor of 'The Genealogical Quarterly'.
They were living in Willesden, London, in 1922, where Edith Lucy died the same year;  Henry de Laval Walker died in Lewisham in 1938.

  • Elizabeth Lucy Willis, born 1844,  Ireland - she married  John Woolsey of Castlebellingham and Castle Cosey, Co. Louth.  John Woolsey was her mother's first cousin - his father was Captain John Woolsey, her mother's father was Captain John Woolsey's brother, Thomas Woolsey. Elizabeth Lucy Willis and John Woolsey married in about 1865, but Elizabeth Lucy died on 10th November 1870;  John Woolsey died childless on 25th May 1887.
  • Mary Charlotte Deborah, born circa 1845, in Portadown, Ireland. She never married.
  • Henry Thomas Gilbert Willis, born St. Mary's, Lancaster, on 2nd May, 1849.   A wool merchant, on 6th July 1886 in the Parish Church, Marylebone, London, he married Ada Susan Robinson, the daughter of John Robinson, a commercial traveller. At the time, both bride and groom were living at 40 Blandford Square.   The witnesses were an M.H. Alcock and one of the Walker family. (Initials illegible.)  In 1891, Henry and Ada Susan were living in Manningham, Yorkshire. Henry Thomas Gilbert Willis died and was buried on 3rd June 1891, aged 42, at Burley, St. Mary's, West Yorkshire;  Henry's widow, Ada, subsequently married Henry's first cousin, Gilbert de Laval Willis, who was the son of the Rev. William Newcombe Willis and Emily Evans.   Ada and Gilbert de Laval Willis settled in Dublin.
  • Francis William Willis, born in Bradford, York, England, on 23rd February 1851. Known later as William Francis Willis, he practised as a dentist, and proved the 1906 will of his maternal aunt, Elizabeth Lucy Moon.   William Francis Willis married Clara Thomasine Quinn in August 1877.  She had been born in about 1855 in Camden to Thomas Quinn and Mary Anne Cooke, who had married in St. Pancras on May 13th 1843. (Both their fathers, Thomas Quin Senior and Peter Colloton Cooke, were dead.)    The 1911 Census showed the couple living in Hove, Kent, and mentioned they had one living child.   William Francis Willis died at 27 Worcester Villas, Portsdale, Sussex, on 24th August 1918, and his will was administered by his son, Henry de Laval Willis, a major in the RAF, who had been born in Kensington in 1883.  Henry de Laval Willis appeared with his Jersey-born wife, Nina, lodging in 1911 in Kent - he was then a lieutenant in the Royal Marines Light Infantry and had been born in Kensington in 1883.  His wife, Nina Renouf, had been born in 1890, and the couple had married in 1911 in Kensington.  Henry de Laval Willis died in 1948;  his wife, Nina Willis, died on 3rd August 1920 in Portslade, Brighton.
  • Charles Hope Willis, born 1860 in Offerd, Huntingdonshire.  His wife was Lilian Kate Anderson,  born circa 1865 to William and Julia E. Anderson.  The young couple married in Radipole Church, Dorset, on October 31st 1888.  Charles was a Captain and Adjutant in the Royal Marines, living at Walmer, Kent.   There were three witnesses - Julia and William Anderson, and Charles Hope Willis's brother-in-law, Harry Walker.    In 1891, Charles and Lilian were living at 19 Cavendish Road, Portsea, Hampshire, with a one-yr-old son, Charley S. M. Willis, and Charles's sister, Mary C.D. Willis.   By 1900, Charles was away, presumably at sea, and Lilian was living at 9 South Avenue, Rochester, Kent, with her two young sons, Charles, who'd been born in Walmer, and one-yr-old Arthur, who'd been born at Chesnut Road, Kent.   Lilian's parents, William and Julia A. Anderson, were also there. William Anderson had been born in about 1832 in High Wycombe;  his wife, Julia, had been born in about 1839 in Wareham, Dorset.    Lilian Kate Willis died in March 1949 in Bath.