By John Slaughter
By John SlaughterI am delighted to welcome a host of new members, so a warm welcome to Liz Greenhow, Andrew Saul, Richard Saul and Alan Saul. I am also pleased to welcome back Sarah Saul who has rejoined.
I am waiting to hear from Liz Greenhow as to her Saul connection and hope to hear from her shortly.
Andrew Saul had been meaning for many years to find more about his family history, but it was his daughter taking out a membership subscription for him that sparked this into life. His grandfather is believed to be Fred Ingham Saul who we already knew quite a lot about. Fred was born in Burnley in 1879, his parents being Robert Saul and Mary Ann (nee Harker). We believe that he married four times. Firstly in 1902 to Elizabeth Waterworth with whom he had five children. Elizabeth is believed to have died in the Blackburn Workhouse in 1914 aged 35 years and in the same year Fred then married Mary Ellen Caldwell. It is assumed that Mary must have died as in 1924 Fred was married for a third time to Addie H Rimmington in Leeds. Addie died in 1939 and his fourth marriage was to Alice Burrow in Preston in 1940. When Fred Ingham Saul died in 1956 in Blackpool a newspaper announcement says he was of 12 Thames Road, Blackpool (husband of Alice). We have found no evidence that there were any children of marriages two, three and four.
Richard Saul is the father of one time member Clive Saul. Richard has been consolidating the work that Clive had done previously and in particular has been concentrating on links between the Cumbrian Sauls and the Holm Cultram
Abbey and has a theory that the Saul surname may have been derived from an occupational name of lay brothers of the Abbey that managed the barns. Richard also referred me to an article that suggests strong links between the Solway Sauls and County Down in Ireland. He is intending to prepare an article on this once he has assembled more data.
A family friend has been helping Alan Saul with his research and has made the connection back to his great grandfather Philip Saul who was born in 1849 in Paddington, London. He married Harriet Elizabeth Norris in 1872 and they appear to have had three children. However he then sailed off to New Zealand leaving his family behind and started a new family there. He married Elizabeth Doherty in 1882 in Sydenham, New Zealand and fathered 11 children. At his marriage he describes himself as a bachelor so hiding from the family his previous history.
Sarah Saul has continued to research her husband Gavin’s ancestry and has provided some very interesting new information concerning Herbert George Saul. He had married Agnetta Ramsay Henderson in 1908 in the Chorlton Register Office, Lancashire, though he had been born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk in 1885. We know of only one child of the marriage Percy Sydney Saul (known as Sydney) born in 1909 in the Leeds area. What happened after that is unclear as the family cannot be found on the 1911 census and at the age of four Percy Sydney was found wandering in Scarborough. Herbert George appears to have became a con artist as he appears in several newspaper articles in September 1922. He had a history of obtaining monies by false pretenses from shopkeepers claiming that he was an agent of various companies including an ink company and a tobacconists. He pleaded guilty at the Hull Police Court in September 1922 where it was stated that he had seven previous convictions. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment.
Unfortunately his misdemeanors don’t end there as I found a further newspaper article about him from May 1927 when he had been up to his old tricks. He appeared before the Doncaster Court on three charges of obtaining monies by false pretenses from local shopkeepers and was sentenced to four months imprisonment. He claimed that he had tried to make an honest living at Manchester since his last offence in 1923 and that the goods he had disposed of were not valueless. He also finally appears in the newspapers in December 1932 with a record about his death. He had died suddenly in an outhouse of a property where he was lodging in Gloucester, though he was of no fixed abode. What happened to his wife Agnetta after 1909 we have no idea.
Finally I was contacted by a dealer in old documents etc. who has in his possession a postcard sent to a
Mr Saull on 23 September 1914. It was sent by R S Illing, a wine and spirit merchant of 93 Queens Road, Bayswater and reads.
Dear Mr Saull
We are all delighted to hear you are among the saved, from the unfortunate disaster. I have just seen your wife she is anxious for more news. All our friends were all enquiring of you. Hope you are in no way injured and soon be convalescent. Mrs Illing and family join in every good wish and may we have better luck in the near future”.
Given the date and contents of the message I wonder if the ‘unfortunate disaster’ referred to is the naval battle that took place on the previous day which resulted in the loss of three British Cruisers Aboukir, Hogue and Cressy. They were sunk by German U boats and this was the first major sea battle of WW1. I have found a list of casualties and survivors of the three cruisers but the name of Saull does not appear, so perhaps he was on one of the other ships involved. It is interesting how quickly news seems to have got back to Bayswater, though news of the disaster was widely reported in the newspapers on 23rd September. If anyone is interested the postcard can be purchased from the dealer for £3 including postage. I can provide contact details