Search This Blog

Thursday 14 July 2011

Mary Stewart and Hugh Morrow

Mary Stewart (1824 - 10th January 1900) was the sister of Joseph Stewart Jr., ironmonger, who was our great-great grandfather.
Both were the children of Joseph Stewart Snr., farmer of Crossnacreevy, Co. Down - an 1821 record exists which mention a Joseph and ANN Stewart of Crossnacreevy. However, the widow of Joseph Stewart died in Crossnacreevy on 31st August 1878, and was named as Agnes Stewart.

Other children of Joseph and Ann, or Agnes,  Stewart of Crossnacreevy were William A. Stewart,  John Stewart and Robert Stewart, Lucinda Stewart ad Agnes Stewart.

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

Mary Stewart married Hugh Morrow, a labourer, the son of a sailor John Morrow, deceased, on 13th Sept. 1865 in York Street Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church (Unitarian) in the centre of Belfast.

The marriage certificate states that both bride and groom were resident in Crossnacreevy at the time of the wedding. Why did they therefore travel all the way to Belfast city to marry when there were numerous churches closer to home?  Her brother, John Stewart of Crossnacreevy, also chose to marry his second wife, Elizabeth McGowan, here in the York Street Non-Subscribing Church, in 1871.  It appears that they followed their Moneyreagh pastor, Rev. John Jellie,  to York Street Church when he moved there from Moneyreagh.
The witnesses to the wedding were Joseph Stewart and Margaret McCullough.  This Joseph was either her father or her brother:  Joseph Stewart, Mary's brother, and his wife, Elizabeth Madine, were living at the time around the corner from York Street Church at 11 Arnon Street, but their father, also Joseph Stewart, may well have travelled north from the Crossnacreevy/Moneyreagh area into the city for the wedding.

(The second witness, Margaret McCullough, might have been a Moneyreagh neighbour. A Margaret McCullough was the daughter of John Connery who owned land in Ballykeel where Mary's father, Joseph, was farming at the time. She married Samuel McCullough, the son of Matthew McCullough in 1850.  In 1901 she was living in Moneyreagh town next door to David Stewart, the grandson of Joseph Stewart of Gransha. (Joseph Stewart of Gransha was most likely a cousin of Joseph Stewart Senior of Crossnacreevy; both Josephs were almost the same age.) This same David Stewart was the executor of the will of Margaret' husband Samuel McCullough in 1899.  On Griffiths Valuation of 1863, we see David Stewart's father, William Stewart, leasing a house from Hugh McCullough, the brother of Margaret's husband Samuel.  In 1901 the landlord of both David Stewart and Margaret McCullough in Moneyreagh town was James McCullough of Gransha.  An Isabella McCullough was married to Robert Matier, the tenant of John Stewart of Crossnacreevy.  Wheels within wheels!)

Mary Stewart's husband, Hugh Morrow, was the son of the late John Morrow, about whom I know very little.
Mary Stewart and Hugh Morrow had two recorded sons:  Joseph John Morrow was born on 25th Oct. 1866 in Lisleen, one of the Moneyreagh townlands adjacent to Crossnacreevy.

Their second son, Hugh, was born 20th Feb. 1868 at High Street in Comber.

Hugh Morrow, the husband of Mary Stewart, died of pnemonia aged 33 on 5th April 1876 at 58 Seaforde Street.  His brother-in-law, James Cornwall of 14 New Bond Street, was the informant.  James Cornwall had married Mary Stewart's sister, Agnes Stewart, in 1847.

I had originally thought that Hugh Morrow, the second son of Hugh Morrow and Mary Stewart, had settled in Bangor and was working there as a postman, but it appears that this was a red herring.  Although this Hugh Morrow of Bangor was the correct age, and despite the fact that he worked as a postman like Joseph John Morrow, the eldest son of Hugh Morrow and Mary Stewart, it seems to be pure coincidence.
The 'Belfast Newsletter' of 9th February 1888 carried a death notice for  19-year-old Hugh Morrow who died at his mother's residence of 4 Keegan Street, Belfast, and who was to be buried in Comber Churchyard.  Hugh had died of TB on 8th February 1888, and his death was registered by his brother J.J. Morrow of Keegan Street.

Joseph John Morrow:
Mary and Hugh Morrow's other son, Joseph John Morrow, crops up on the 1901 Census at 26 Churchill Street, Belfast, with his Tyrone-born wife, Minnie, but no children. In 1911 the childless couple were living at Stranmillis Street, South Belfast, working as a postman.

On 23rd April 1891 Joseph John Morrow married Minnie Jane Allen, the daughter of a carpenter James Allen.  Both bride and groom were living in Belfast, and Joseph named his father as the labourer Hugh Morrow.  The witnesses were a David Graham and Charlotte Allen who was the bride's sister.

Mary Jane Allen had been born in Glenhoy, Clogher, Co. Tyrone on 8th May 1868 to  James Allen and  Eliza Pauley or Pawley.
Her parents, James Allen and Miss Jane Pawley of Eskermore had married on 27th August 1866 in Glenboy Presbyterian Church. ('Belfast Morning News', 3rd September 1866.)
A second daughter was Eliza Allen who had been born to carpenter James Allen and Jane Pauley on 26th September 1872.
There was also Charlotte Allen born circa 1874 in Tyrone - the only other daughter I can source on the civil registrations, courtesy of Irishgenealogy.ie is Martha Allen, born to farmer James Allen and Jane Pauley at Longridge, Clogher, Co.. Tyrone.  Perhaps the parents changed the baby's name to Charlotte following the registration?

Charlotte Allen, daughter of the Tyrone carpenter James Allen and of Jane Pawley, married David Gamble, a bricklayer of Belfast, son of James Gamble, also a bricklayer, in St. Enoch's, Shankill, Belfast on 5th April 1893. The witnesses were the groom's brother, Joseph Wilson Gamble, and what looks like Maggie Brunty.
In 1901 David Gamble and Charlotte Allen were living at 196 Hillman Street, Belfast. David Gamble had been born in Derry.  They had three children, Ruth Gamble aged 7, Tillie Gamble aged 6, and Winnie aged 2.

Charlotte Gamble, née Allen, died young on 13th April 1906 at 15 Fernwood Street, and was buried in grave E1 490 in Belfast City Cemetery, alongside her sister, Miss Eliza Allen, who had died aged 16 on 29th January 1889 at 72 Spamount Street.

The sisters' mother, Jane Allen, died aged 72 on 3rd July 1910 at the home of her son-in-law, Joseph John Morrow of 40 Stranmillis Street.  Her civil registration of death notes her as the 60 year old wife of carpenter James Allen;  son-in-law David Gamble of 15 Fernwood Street was present whe she died.
Charlotte and David Gamble's son, David Allen Gamble of 15 Elmwood Street, aged 1 year and 4  months, died on 18th February 1904 of meningitis and is also buried in plot E1 490.  This from Belfast City Cemetery burial records, viewable for free online.
David Gamble married again in 1907 to a Susan Hanna, and a son was named as Herbert Washington Gamble.  Later a chemist, he would be one of the executors of the will of his uncle, Joseph John Morrow, when he died 12th April 1944.  In the 1950's, Herbert Washington Gamble was a member of the Northern Ireland Health Services Board, and was living at 52 Orangefield Crescent;  by 1955 he was still a member of the health board and had been awarded the O.B.E.

David Gamble's brother, the blacksmith Joseph Wilson Gamble of 23 Earl Street, also the son of the mason James Gamble, married Sarah Ann McIlveen, the daughter of policeman Samuel McIlveen of the Albertbridge Road. They married in Holywood, Co. Down, on 24th December 1893; the witnesses were almost illegible but seem to be something along the lines of Allan and Minnie Dilworth.

Joseph John Morrow's name crops up regularly in the Belfast Street Directories:
1892:  J.J. Morrow, Postman, 161 Spamount St.
1895: J.J. Morrow, Postman, Lower Corporation Street.
1900:  26 Churchill Street.

The 'Northern Whig' of 29th June 1922 reported the robbery by two men in Berry Street of postman Joseph John Morrow.

In December 1926 Joseph John Morrow received the Imperial Service Medal as an officer of the Home Civil Service. The 'Northern Whig' of 23rd November 1926 reported on the retirement of Joseph John Morrow who had served 45 years with the Belfast GPO.  He had started in December 1881 as a telegraph messenger before being appointed as a postman in October 1887.  During the visit of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, to Belfast, Joseph John had acted as ships' postman, delivering despatches to the royal visitor.  In 1926, at the time of his retirment, he was living with his wife at 21 Riverview Street, Belfast.

The Morrows were buried in Plot K1-419 in the Belfast City Cemetery whose records have been freely published online.  Mary Morrow, née Stewart, died at her son's home, 26 Churchill Street. aged 76 on 10th January 1900 - the informant of death was an Eliza Pauley, a member of her daughter-in-law's family.
Joseph John Morrow died aged 77 at 38 Malone Avenue on 12th April 1944, while his wife, Minnie Morrow, died at 20 Riverview Street, aged 68 on 21st November 1937.

Herbert Gamble, chemist, and Robert Baillie, carpenter, probated the will of Joseph John Morrow, retired of postman of 38 Malone Avenue, Belfast.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.