SAUL Co-ordinator's Report August 2012

by John Slaughter

In this report I am pleased to welcome new member Annette Mullen.

Annette's great grandmother was Agnes Ann Scott Saul who married Joseph Henry Sharpe in 1901 in the Lancaster area. The couple appear on the 1911 census living at 10 Albert Terrace, Saltaire, Yorkshire together with their two daughters Maggie and Annie. This census reveals that Agnes was 25 years of age and born in Sizebergh, Westmorland. I was able to establish from this and other information that Annette provided that Agnes parents were almost certainly Robert Saul and Mary Ann Jackson. On the 1881 census the family were residing at 4 Sizebergh Fellside Cottages, Levens, Westmorland, the household consisting of Robert and Mary, six of their children including an Agnes A. S. Saul, aged four years and Robert's widowed mother Ellenor. This census revealed that Robert was a coachman, aged 32 years  born in Kendal, Westmorland.

Further research suggested that Robert was the son of a William and Eleanor Saul who appear on the 1851 census at Beast Banks, Kendal. William is recorded as aged 36 years and born in Yealand, Westmorland. Yealand is in the parish of Warton and I had some Saul information extracted from the parish registers. Amongst this information was a baptism of a William Saul on 1st December 1814 to James and Elizabeth. This couple had eight children baptised at Warton between 1806 and 1818 but they appear to have moved away from the parish subsequently and it is not clear what became of them. They had married at Warton parish church on 29th August 1805 by licence. Though there are other Saul families recorded in the Warton registers I have not been able, to establish James's origin. All of the above links are subject to Annette obtaining certificates of confirmation.

Annette raised the intriguing possibility that William baptised in 1814 could be the William who was tried for larceny at Salford on the 9th April 1838 and was sentenced to seven years transportation. We know that this William was granted his freedom in July 1845 so could have returned to the UK to his wife and children. Whilst from the information held there are some points in favour of this theory there are also some discrepancies, so further research is needed.

I received an enquiry from Geoffrey White who was researching the forebears of his future son-in-law. These included a Margaret Saul who was born at Bamber Bridge, Lancashire in 1905. Working back Geoffrey found the connection with a Saul family at Preston, Lancashire who were of the Catholic faith. The information that Geoffrey provided largely matched the details that we already hold and were taken from the same source documentation. The patriarch of this particular family is a Daniel Saul who married Mary Rigby at Preston on 13th April 1789 and we believe had eight children, though several did not live beyond infancy. In the 1818 Preston Commercial Directory Daniel is listed as a hairdresser at 64 Friargate, Preston. There was a census taken in 1820 of the Catholic Congregation and listed therein at 64 Friargate was Mary Saul aged 56 years, Thomas Saul aged 16 years and Elizabeth Saul aged 14 years. Daniel is not listed which might indicate that he had died by 1820 or alternatively he was not Catholic. 

Return to The Sole Society Home Page