Whatmore Family History

My great great grandmother Sarah Whatmore married Benjamin Vale on 27 April 1845 at the parish Church, Kinver, Staffordshire.

Kinver church, which stands high above the town on Kinver Edge   Photograph Copyright: Alex Cameron  Source: the Geograph website and reproduced here under the terms of the site licence  which can be viewed at this link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Sarah was baptised on 29 April 1826 at Quatt Malvern on the east bank of the river Severn, just south of Bridgnorth. Her parents were James and Ann Whatmore who lived from  at least 1841 onwards at Hampton in the parish of Chelmarsh on the west side of the river Severn. 

Sarah was away from home at the time of the 1841 census and she is probably the Sarah aged 15 who was working as a farm servant for Thomas Griffin at Chalton in the parish of Hartlebury, Worcestershire. In 1843, Sarah gave birth to an illegitimate child who was baptised as Joseph Whatmore on 25 June 1843 at Chelmarsh.

If Sarah’s later husband Benjamin Vale had been the father, one would have expected the child to be named after him. In fact Sarah’s first legitimate son was given the name Benjamin. If Benjamin Vale was not Joseph’s father, whom might his father have been? Looking at the 1841 census for the parish of Hartlebury there are several Josephs who were of an appropriate age to take advantage of a servant living away from home. If we look for someone who was a little older than Sarah we find 4 young men who might have been Joseph’s father: 

Joseph Barber aged 25, a labourer, living with his parents 

Joseph Bowcutt aged 20, an agricultural labourer working for a Robert Hartland

Joseph Pearce aged 20, a sawyer living with his parents

Joseph Powell aged 20, no occupation shown, living with two other Powells – possibly a brother and a sister 

We have no real means of telling whether one of these young men was Joseph Whatmore’s father – but with apologies to these individuals’ descendants, it is fun to speculate on the possible identity of my great great grandfather.

 Turning now to the subject of this post – Benjamin Vale was born in 1820 at Laysters in Herefordshire but was baptised at Bromyard on 22 October 1820. His parents were William Vale and Mary – almost certainly the William Vale who married Mary Tyler on 23 March 1809 at Puddlestone , Herefordshire.

William Vale Senior would appear to have been born in 1778 at Middleton on the Hill, Herefordshire, the son of William Vale who married Hannah Jay on 13 May 1777 at Eye in Herefordshire.

This William was born in 1750 at Eye, the son of Edward Vale who married Elizabeth Jones on 5 February 1743 at Eye. 

Edward Vale was born in 1719 at Eye, the son of John Vale who married Mary Coates on 20 January 1700 at  Leominster. 

John Vale was born in 1674 at Eye, the son of Edward Vale who married Mary Morrice on 14 April 1672 at Eye. 

Returning to William and Mary Vale, the parents of Benjamin Vale who married Sarah Whatmore, they had six known children – John 1809, Anne 1812, William 1817, Benjamin 1820, Edward 1827 and Milborough (female) 1830.  

Benjamin Vale born 1820 has not been traced in the 1841 census, however, at the time of his marriage in 1843 he was living at Halfcot Farm, Prestwood, just north of Kinver, and working as an labourer. Benjamin and Sarah lived at Kinver for many years and all but one of their children were born there: Ann 1845, Emily 1848, Benjamin 1850, Harriet 1853, Eliza 1854 (died as a child), Ellen 1858, Mary 1861 (died 1861), Lizzie 1862 and George William 1864. Benjamin and Sarah’s last child – John (Jack) was born  in 1868 at Bobbington.

 

Benjamin Vale  Copyright: Rhys Whatmore 

By  1871, Benjamin and Sarah had moved to Swancote near Worfield, just east of Bridgnorth.

 Sometime between the 1881 and the 1891 censuses they made a further move to Binnal Cottages, Nordley, just north of Bridgnorth. The cottages have now gone and a bungalow has been built on the site by the main road.  It was at Binnal Cottages that Sarah died aged 66 on 21 July 1892. She had been suffering from cancer of the uteris and had not eaten for three weeks.  Sarah is buried in the churchyard at nearby Astley Abbots.

Benjamin went to live with his married daughter Emily a few miles up the road  at Bulls Close, Linley and it was there that he died aged 83 in 1903. Benjamin is buried with Sarah at Astley Abbots.

 

 

Sarah’s illegitimate son Joseph Whatmore joined the army and later migrated to Sheffield and his story has already been told in earlier post.  

 Ann Vale born 1845 married William Wassall in 1870  and went to live at Wolverley where William was the blacksmith. By 1891 they had moved to Darleston where William was a blacksmith. They were still there at the time of the 1901 census. William died in 1917 in the Walsall Registration District. Ann’s death has not yet been identified.  The children of Ann and William Wassall were George Henry  1872, John William 1874 who married Harriet Ann Duley in 1899, Ann 1877, Samuel 1879, Alice 1883 and Nellie 1886 who married William Jones in 1914. 

Emily Vale born 1848  gave birth to an illegitimate child on 2 September 1865 at Bobbington. The child was baptised as William Aldridge Vale. His father was William Aldridge, a groom who lived in Brettel Lane, Bobbington. The child was brought up by Emily and lived with her and her first husband, but died in 1885 at the age of 19. 

On 7 Aug 1870 at Claverley, Emily married William Barratt, a waggoner and labourer from Claverley. They had two children – Benjamin Barratt 1870 who married Elizabeth Bradford  in 1898 and Joseph Barratt 1872 who married Annie Maria Haycox in 1898.  Tragedy struck the family in November 1873 when  William Barratt died suddenly and an coroner’s inquest was held on his unexpected death.  

Three years later, in 1876, Emily remarried to Charles Wilson from Ombersley in Worcestershire. Charles was a blacksmith and he and Emily lived initially at the old smithy at Morville which today consists of two half-timbered cottages below the level of the road as it starts to rise on its way out of the village towards Bridgnorth. Charles was not in charge of the smithy – he was at this time an employee. By 1891 he had gone with Emily to run a smithy at Linley where they lived at Bulls Close. About 1907 Charles and Emily returned to Morville and either had built or moved into a newly erected house, still called Smythy Cottage, just a few yards down the lane which leads towards Ludlow. Here Charles established his own smithy and both he and his wife remained there for the rest of their lives. In his old age Charles acted as a grave digger – and he is still remembered as such by very elderly folk in the village.  

My father, Eric Whatmore outside Smythy Cottage Morville in 1970, some fifty-five years after his visit there during the First World War Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

 During the First World War, Emily’s nephew Noah Whatmore ( son of Emily’s half-brother Joseph) brought his family to live with Emily and Charles at Smythy Cottage. Noah was out of work and it seems that they stayed at Morville for some time. My father Eric Whatmore was a great favourite of the daughters of Emily and Charles and as late as 1970, he returned to visit one of them who was then living at Quatt. Charles died between 1935 – 1937 and Emily died in 1940. Charles and Emily’s children were: Clara 1878, Charles Henry 1879, Alice Emily  1880, George 1882, Ellen 1885, John Abel 1887, Frank Ernest 1889 and Edith Sarah 1890 who married Henry Edwin Jones in 1916 and lived at Quatt.  All four of the Wilson boys fought in the First World War, all apparently returning safely. They are commemorated in the Roll of Honour on the wall in Morville church. 

 

 Roll of Honour in Morville Church      Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

 Grave of Edith Sarah Jone (nee Wilson) at Quatt    Copyright: Rhys Whatmore

Benjamin Vale 1850 migrated to Wolverhampton where he worked as a Railway porter and where in 1893 he married Sarah Jane Hopkins. By 1901 they had one child – Gertrude Vale  born 1896.

 Harriet Vale 1853 married Samuel Cartwright on 31 March 1874 at Pattingham. They had one child – William Cartwright born in 1874 at Pattingham and who married Gertrude Rogers in 1897 at Much Wenlock. Samuel Cartwight died between 1874 and 1878 and in the latter year, Harriet remarried at Worfield to William Henry Humphries, a gardener.

 

Harriet Vale and her second husband William Henry Humphries     Copyright: Gary Humphries and reproduced here by his kind permission

Initially they lived at Broseley but by 1891 they were living at nearby Tickwood where William was a gardener at Tickwood Hall.  The children of Harriet and William were Margaret Ellen 1879, George Ernest 1881, Sarah Elizabeth 1883, Emily Annie 1885 who married Harry Skitt, Harriet 1888 and Edith 1890.

 Ellen Vale 1858 married William Thomason on 6 May 1879 at Worfield. William was from Astley Abbots and his parents had lived at Binnal Cottages, Nordley. It seems possible that when his parents died, their cottage at Nordley became available thus explaining why Sarah and Benjamin Vale went to live there.  William, who was an agricultural labourer and a waggoner,  lived  with Ellen at Chesterton near Worfield and they had one child – Ellen Thomason born 1880 at Worfield who married Richard Langford, a widower, in 1919, at Worfield. William Thomason died in 1929 at the Salop Mental Hospital (probably Shelton in Shrewsbury).  Ellen died at Worfield in 1933. 

Lizzie Vale 1862 married Ernest Richard Humphries on 11 February 1891 at Much Wenlock. Ernest was brother to William Henry Humphries who had married Lizzie’s sister Harriet. They too went to work at Tickwood and in 1901 both Humphries families were there – two brothers married to two sisters. Ernest was employed as a coachman and he and his family lived in Tickwood Lodge. Later they had a shop in Quarry Road, Broseley. Ernest died in 1934 but Lizzie survived until 1953 when she died aged 90 at Broseley. 

 

Lizzie Vale  Copyright:  Gary Humphries and reproduced here by his kind permission

George William Vale 1864 migrated to Wolverhampton where he worked as a Deck Foreman on the railway. He married Mary Abbots in 1893 in the Kings Norton Registration District. Their children born by 1901 were George Browning Vale 1895, John Vale 1896 and Charles Vale 1899.

 John Vale  born 1868 never married and never seems to have had a home of his own.  There are a lot of, as yet unproven, family traditions about him. It is said that he was in the army for some years and that he either owned or had shares in a tea plantation in Rhodesia but that he later lost all his money.  We do know for certain that he fought in the First World War as he is commemorated on the Roll of Honour in Morville church. We also known that he lived for time with his sister Emily at Morville and he also paid an extended visit to his nephew Noah Whatmore’s tiny house in Sheffield, where, according to my father, John Vale outstayed his welcome. He may also have lived for a time with his sister Lizzie. It is believed that he ended up in the workhouse at Broseley where he died in 1948 aged 79.

This has been a very long rambling account of the Vale family – but as they were half Whatmores and were warmly regarded by Joseph Whatmore and his descendants in Sheffield, they are important. Practically all contact between the Vales and the Whatmores was lost after the 1930s and it has been my privilege and pleasure recently to restore contact between at least one line of Vale descendants and my own Whatmore family.