Whatmore Family History

A great many families seem to have a ‘we wus robbed’ story. This is the one from my own great  grandfather. His daughter Mary Ann Dyson married my grandfather Noah Whatmore in 1906 in Sheffield.

Dominating the main room of the tiny cottage in Dunkirk Square, Darnall, Sheffield where my great grandparents, George and Rebecca Dyson, lived in the nineteen twenties  was a massive oil lamp.  Each of the large glass sides of the lamp was finely cut with the design of a star.  At Christmas, after the lamp had been lit, the family would gather round it and sing carols. Strangely out of place in its setting, visitors would inevitably ask how George had acquired the lamp and he was only too willing to tell its story. 

 The panes and burners of the Dyson oil lamp  Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

When George was small, his family had lived in a ‘fine’ house and had had a carriage in which to go to church. Both his parents had then died suddenly and ‘relatives’ had cheated him out of his inheritance and placed him in an orphanage.  The only things he had managed to salvage were an old chest, the oil lamp and an indenture certificate. My grandmother Mary Ann (Polly) Dyson, knew the location of the house and pointed it out in the 1930s to my father. He recalled that it was a large property in London Road, just out of the city centre with gardens in front. At the time of his visit it had been turned into a laundry.

George’s wife Rebecca died in 1931 and he went to live with a married daughter, giving the oil lamp and indenture certificate to his grandson Eric Whatmore (my father). Over the years, the oil lamp got damaged and eventually the framework was thrown away, but the panes of glass and burner  together with the indenture certificate passed to me when my father died in 2003. I decided to try to investigate the story.

Looking at the indenture certificate, which we had always assumed was that of my great grandfather, I was surprised to note the date – 1833 – well before his time. On 15 March 1833, a George Dyson had been apprenticed as a Saw Handle Maker for a period of seven years to a James Millington of Sheffield. George was described as a minor and had put ‘his mark’ to the agreement. Who was this George?

 The Indentures of George Dyson the Saw handle maker  1833  Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

The birth certificate of my great grandfather supplied the answer. It showed that my great grandfather had been born on 15 February 1850 at 7 Weigh Lane, Sheffield Park, the son of a George Dyson (a Saw handle maker) and his wife Mary Ann (nee Whittaker). The 1851 census showed the family at this address and gave the father’s age as 36 and his birth place as Eckington, Derbyshire ( a village a few miles south of Sheffield). Next I sent for the birth certificate of the youngest child James. This showed he had been born on 15 March 1840 at Pond Gardens, Sheffield – on the very day when his father’s apprenticeship would have finished. I then managed to find the family in the 1841 census at Spring Street. The father’s age was shown as 25. A check on the IGI gave the baptism of a George Dyson in Eckington on 27 November 1814. This was confirmed by the parish register entry which shown that the parents were a Joseph Dyson, Scythe maker, and his wife Elizabeth. Finally at Sheffield Archives I located photographs of Spring Street and Weigh Lane taken shortly before they were demolished in the 1930s. The pictures showed small labourers’ cottages.

Instead of a solution, I now had more questions than before. Why had the Saw handle maker been apprenticed at such a late age? He would have been about 19 at the time. Why was he allowed to marry during his apprenticeship? (His marriage is not in the GRO so presumably it was before the September Quarter of 1837). How did he manage in later life to acquire a ‘fine’ house when as late as 1851 he was occupying a cottage?

I decided to check out the story of the sudden death of my great grandfather’s parents.  George the Saw handle maker had died in April 1860  aged 47 at Wright’s Hill, London Road, when my great grandfather was about 10. Mary Ann, the Saw handle maker’s wife had died in September of the same year at Gleadless, Sheffield (at the home of her married brother). Of their children, James and Joseph were both shown as ‘boarders’ in different parts of the city in the 1861 census, their daughter Mary Ann was with her uncle and aunt at Gleadless – but there was no sign of their son George. If he was in an orphanage he may not have been included in the enumeration.  This all tallied with my great grandfather’s story.

As I now had a precise location for the ‘fine’ house I decided to visit Wright’s Hill when I was next in Sheffield. After some searching it proved to be a narrow lane off London Road. Unfortunately only one of the earlier buildings remained, but a map of 1851 showed that there had been large houses with gardens fronting onto London Road on both the corners of Wright’s Hill. This location also fitted that which my grandmother had pointed out to my father. In the meantime I had managed to locate and contact many of my great grandfather’s descendants and the older generation all knew the story of the ‘fine’ house and the oil lamp, but were unable to shred any light on the mystery.

 The only remaining house on Wrights Hill    Copyright: Rhys Whatmore 

It was time to reassess  my great grandfather’s story. From about 1853 onwards, his parents had lived in a substantial house in Wright’s Hill. Both his parents had died when he was about ten. He does seem to have been placed in an orphanage after their deaths. This all seems to substantiate his story but there are several facts which suggest that he may have misinterpreted what took place. As the third son, there was no reason why he should have inherited the property and its contents. His brother James would have been the heir and his mother would presumably have been entitled to something. But in 1861 James, the  natural heir was aged 21 and a ‘boarder’ at the Corporation Arms’ in Sheffield and an apprentice Saw handle maker’. Why was he not living in the ‘fine’ house? Why did the widow need to seek refuge with her infant daughter in the house of her married brother? Why was she not able to take her son George with her as well? Why did her son Joseph die in the Eccleshall Bierlow Union Workhouse in 1869?

George Dyson the Miner ( my great grandfather) who told the story of the lost inheritance, with his wife Rebecca  Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

Pending further information, my conclusion is that George, the Saw Handle Maker was living well beyond his means at the time of his death. In 1851 he had been living in a small cottage. In 1853 he was living in a substantial house. It seems unlikely that he could have inherited money from his father – a scythe maker – nor from his wife’s family. Any money from the Whittaker family would surely have gone to Mary Ann’s brother. The Saw handle making business may suddenly have become quite lucrative but surely not to the extent of permitting the purchase of a ‘fine’ house. As most families in Victorian times rented rather than owned the properties in which they lived, it seems probable that the ‘fine’ house was not owned by the Dyson family. The Saw handle maker could well have splashed out on  furnishings including the oil lamp and the family may even had have a carriage, but it seems unlikely he had much in the bank. Perhaps the  early deaths of the Saw handle maker  from ‘ an abscess on the back’ and that of his wife from ‘pulmonary disease’  were hastened by money worries. When the Saw handle maker died it thus seems likely that the bailiffs stepped and seized the furnishings of the house and other assets.

 Perhaps we shall never know the true story. The eldest son James died only three years later and  the next brother Joseph disappears from the censuses. Only George, who was eventually adopted, and his sister Mary Ann  survived to provide later generations with their understanding of the misfortune which had befallen their family.