By John Slaughter
By John SlaughterIn the last journal Maureen (Sole Research Co-ordinator) mentioned that the updated GRO indexes now include the mother’s maiden name on pre 1911 births and the age at death on pre 1865 deaths. I have made a start on reviewing this new information. At the time of writing I have reached the 1854 births. This new information, when allied to wider research, has already proved very useful and has enabled me to add two new charts to our collection.
The first of the new charts is headed by a Joseph Saul and his wife Rachel. Joseph was a Quaker and the baptisms of his five children are recorded in the Holme Quaker Meeting (West Yorkshire) records. Though I have the records for this Quaker Meeting back much further, and there were many earlier Sauls recorded therein, how or if Joseph connects with these is unclear. What I can establish is that his son Joseph married a Jane Dalton in 1837 and they had three children, sadly only one of whom survived infancy. He was named Joseph Latimer Saul and was born in 1841 in Carlisle, Cumberland. He married Margaret Ann Chambers in 1875 in Whitehaven but they appear to have had no issue. I found a newspaper article referring to him in the Whitehaven news dated 25 April 1867 which reads Notice – The Public are respectfully informed that Mr Joseph L Saul has ceased to be Secretary of the Whitehaven Working Men’s Reading Room, and all parties are hereby requested NOT TO PAY ANY MONEY TO HIM upon account of that Institution. Read into that what you will! He died in Whitehaven in 1906.
The second new chart is headed by George Saul and his wife Mary Dawson who married in 1843 in the Penrith Registration District. George was born in 1819 in Armathwaite, Cumberland and appears to have been an illegitimate child of George Saul and Mary Pletts and was brought up with his mother’s family. The younger George clearly seems to have taken his father’s surname rather than that of his mother. He and Mary had six children, three of each sex, and all of the boys were given Pletts as a middle name. The family had moved to Houghton le Spring, Durham by 1851 where George was employed as a joiner. One of the boys died as an infant but I have yet to follow up of what became of the other two.
I am also researching the family of an Amaziah Saul who was in Filleigh, Devon on the 1851 census, where his birth place is given as Appleby, Lincolnshire. This ties him in with the family of John Saul and Susannah Miller of Appleby who had eight children baptised there between 1800 and 1813. Susannah died on 5 July 1841 and a gravestone in the Appleby churchyard records that she was the wife of John, mother of Amaziah and that the stone was placed there as a tribute of affection by her son Amaziah. I have discovered that a document exists in the Lincolnshire Record Office that appears to be a Settlement Examination for a John Saul of Appleby, late of Cherry Burton, East Riding of Yorkshire and dated 4 January 1817. I am in the process of obtaining a copy and am hoping that this will give some history of John’s origins. So hopefully more next time.
We receive information from time to time from the GOONS. They have a project underway of photographing gravestones and sending on the images to the member researching the respective name. One I received recently, via Maureen, was completely unknown to me and was of a gravestone at Mautby, Norfolk for an Edward Saul. The inscription reads ‘In Loving Memory of Edward the Beloved Son of John and Charlotte Saul who was accidentally drowned in Lowestoft Harbour September 1st 1908 aged 47 years’. This lead me to a newspaper report of the inquest.
The inquest was held at the Lowestoft police-court enquiring into the circumstances surrounding the death of Edward Saul, whose body was recovered from the Hamilton Dock, Lowestoft. Identification was given by Caroline Benns, sister of the deceased, who lived at Mautby Hall, Filby, Norfolk. She said that she had last seen her brother on the Monday morning when he had left the house to travel to Lowestoft where he told her he had a berth on the steam drifter Glencona. He had arrived at her house on the previous Saturday afternoon, 29th August and had stayed until the Monday. He was pleased to have obtained a berth and was in good health. She had given him £2 but she did not know if he had any other monies.
James Stephenson, engine driver on board the Glencona, said that he went on board about 6pm on the Monday, and together with the deceased and other crew members had visited two public houses. They had a pint of beer in the first and a glass of ale in the second. Edward Saul, together with another crew member, then went to the Hippodrome but at about 9.30pm he left the performance and did not return. He had been perfectly sober at that time.
The body of Edward Saul had been found in the water at about 7.30am on the Tuesday morning by a fisherman. The fisherman did not think that the body had been in the water long. A policeman gave evidence that when he searched the body he found a purse containing £1 in gold and 17s 6d in silver. A verdict of ‘Accidentally drowned’ was recorded.
Steam drifters were fishing boats and at that time of the year and location would have been fishing for herring
The last remaining steam drifter the Lydia Eva moored at Great Yarrmouth. Edward Saul had a berth on a steam drifter but drowned in the harbour before it sailed. Photo Chris Allen, licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license