Introduction

Lucy Craxford was born in the village of Gretton and baptised at the parish church of St James the Great on January 15th 1826. She was the oldest of the daughters of William Craxford and his first wife, Sarah Smith. Sarah died, presumably of complications after childbirth, when Lucy was five years old leaving the little girl and her two siblings to be brought up by their stepmother, Elizabeth Hull. This article follows the story of her many children and grandchildren.

Rockingham

The Welland Valley lies to the north of the county of Northamptonshire adjacent to the borders of Leicestershire and Rutland. A wide 'U' shape in contour with a steep southern escarpment, the River Welland cuts an easterly path through the soft marshy clay of its floor on its way to the sea. Dense forests teeming with game and iron-bearing sandstone beds provided the raw materials for building and toolmaking for Iron-Age man. A rocky outcrop on the southern slope called Rockingham Hill was used as a natural fortress. Both the Romans and Saxon tribes used the old hill fort for defence. (1).

After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror confiscated the lands and estates of the Saxon noblemen and built a series of castles around the country to impose his rule. Rockingham Castle became a firm favourite as a meeting centre and place of retreat for the court outside of London. He declared Rockingham Forest (which, as well as woodland, provided areas of grass and parkland vital for grazing deer) to be a Royal Hunting Forest. Gradually over the centuries the building fell into disrepair and in 1540 the derelict Castle was leased and subsequently sold to Edward Watson who had been secretary to the bishop at Lyddington.

A chapel was situated within the Castle walls from about 1095. A thirteenth century church was destroyed during the Civil War. This was replaced by the present building dedicated to St Leonard. A small bell tower with an octagonal roof was added in 1845. Until the early seventeenth century houses stood between it and the Castle gatehouse. In 1618 a new road to Corby was laid to the east of the Castle and a new village sprang up along its sides. Many of the houses date from the eighteenth century. [Further Reading A.]

A brief Liquorish archive

The earliest bearer of any form of the name found in the Northamptonshire Parish Records was John Lickorish, baptised in Arthingworth, about 6 miles south of Market Harborough, in 1696. The earliest Liquorish was Elizabeth, baptised in Weston by Welland, about 4.5 miles north east of Market Harborough, in 1727, the daughter of Thomas Liquorice and Joan Raisin who had married the previous year.

The earliest occurrence of the spelling Liquorish in Rockingham is that of the baptism of William on January 30th 1763. He was the son of Thomas Lickrish and Ann Sharman who were married in the village the previous year. The earliest burial was that of Eleanor in 1774. The record gives no indication of age but presumably she was an infant daughter of Thomas and Ann. The earliest marriage was of John Liquorish to Sarah Redshaw in 1788. They had moved to the neighbouring village of Cottingham in the 1790s where their son Thomas married Elizabeth Sarrington in August 1811. A direct link between Thomas Lickrish and John Liquorish has not yet been established.

William Liquorish was born in Rockingham in 1823 and was baptised in the Parish Church of St Leonard on May 4th the same year. He was the second son of Robert Liquorish and Charlotte Lenton who were married on November 13th 1817. Robert, the third known son of Thomas Liquorish and Ann Sharman, spent his working life as an agricultural labourer. He died in April 1844. Charlotte survived him by nearly four years and was buried in the churchyard on January 30th 1848.

William's older brother, Edward, left the village as a young man. He became an apprentice tailor, for a time living in Stamford, Lincolnshire. He was married twice. His first bride was 21 year old Ann Elizabeth Charity. The union was shortlived as she died on April 1st 1846 in the hamlet of Wakerley on the Lincolnshire border. (2). After her death he moved to Braunston near Oakham in Rutland where he lived for a time in the household of master tailor John Price. Edward married Jane Killingsley in Oakham at All Saint's Church in 1851. The couple lived in John Street in the town. Edward died in 1889. There were no children.

William's younger brother, Thomas, was born in 1826. He married Elizabeth Ann Trigg in Uppingham in 1845 and settled in the town working as a farm labourer. The couple were to have 13 children. Of particular interest is their sixth son, Charles Henry Liquorish who was born in 1864. He spent most of his adult life living at the family home in Stockerston Road, Uppingham. In 1888, November 1888 he married Mary Brewster, the 19 year old daughter of John Brewster and Elizabeth Wignell from Lyddington. She was also the first cousin (once removed) of Fanny Brewster whose story is told in the article Auntie Nellie's story - Nellie Youle Swann (1894 - 1970). Mary died on October 25th 1890 of 'puerperal convulsions', probably from eclampsia in the later stages of pregnancy. There is no record of a birth or death of an infant which was presumably stillborn.

William and Lucy

The circumstances of William and Lucy's meeting are not known. William spent his teenage and early adult years in Rockingham in his parents home. His father, Robert, died in 1844. He and Lucy were married at St James the Great Parish Church in Gretton on January 15th 1847. Her younger sister Edith was one of the witnesses. The couple settled in Rockingham. Very soon, Lucy was pregnant with the first of her 12 children. In January 1848, William's mother, Charlotte, died, just a few weeks after Lucy gave birth to daughter Sarah Ann. The baby was baptised at St Leonard's Church, Rockingham on February 27th that year.

During the 1850s Lucy was pregnant eight times. Her second daughter, Edith, was baptised at St Leonard's Church on March 9th 1851. She contracted tuberculosis in her late teens from which she died on March 4th 1871. She was 21 years old. Lucy's third daughter, Charlotte, died within three months of birth on October 3rd 1852. The cause of death entered on the death certificate was "atrophy". This indicates a general wasting disease, probably due to a relative starvation through inadequte breast feeding or lack of satisfactory alternatives (3). A son, John, was six months old when he died on October 21st 1855. "Atrophy" was again given as the cause of death. Three more children followed in the 1860s, although her seventh daughter, Lucy Jane who was born in 1861, died aged 2 on May 29th during the 1863 measles epidemic.

For most of their married life, the family lived in a cottage on the road out of the village south close to Rockingham Castle. It stood next door to a public house named The Horse Shoe (or The Three Horseshoes) which had been built in 1792. The inn was under the proprietorship of the Sharp family who were also blacksmiths (4). In the latter half of the 1870s, William and Lucy moved the one and a half miles north out of Rockingham and over the border into the village of Caldecott in Rutland.

As William grew older his health slowly deteriorate. In the mid 1880s, he and Lucy returned to the Craxford ancestral home of Gretton close by the Hatton Arms. Two doors away lived Susannah, the widow of Joseph Craxford, Lucy's first cousin. William died on July 8th 1886. No formal diagnosis was entered on the death certificate, merely the generic term "gradual decay". He was buried in the churchyard of St James the Great Church in Gretton. Now a widow, Lucy moved to Rothwell near Kettering be with her married daughter Julia. She died of a stroke on March 31st 1898.

Sarah Ann (1847 - 1903)

William and Lucy's firstborn daughter arrived in the later stages of 1847 and was baptised Sarah Ann on February 27th 1848. Having spent her early years in the family home, she made her way to Northampton where she met salesman Richard O'Connell from Ireland. They were married at the Chapel of St Felix in the town on November 6th 1870. The first Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton, William Wareing, had commissioned Augustus Pugin (5) to build a collegiate chapel dedicated to St Felix which was opened in 1844. It was later extended in stages and became the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Thomas. On the marriage certificate, Richard declared his father, Lawrence O'Connell to be a butcher. Sarah Ann's surname was initially entered as Lickorish which was then crossed through and revised to Licquorish. They set up home in Well Street, Wellingborough. Their first child, a daughter they named Julia Ann, was born in the town in 1872.

Shortly after this, Richard moved his wife and young daughter to Boston, Lincolnshire where he set up a business making soda water. Their first house was in Norfolk Place, a quiet street between the River Witham and Central Park in the town. It was there that their second child, Lawrence James, born was in 1875. The little boy died near his fourth birthday. Two daughters, Katheen in 1877 and Mary in 1880, arrived before the turn of the decade. During the 1880s, Sarah Ann presented Richard with four more children: two boys, Richard (born in 1882) and Charles (born in 1889) and two girls, Annie Theresa (born in 1884) and Frances Agnes (born in 1886). Although the case was dismissed, Richard was summoned to appear before the Police Court in April 1882 for failing to have his children vaccinated (7).

Infant Charles did not live to see the census of 1891. The family were now living in Angel Court. This was a block of inbuilt houses in the lee of St Botolph's Church (commonly known as Boston Stump) which was approached by a narrow entrance off the Market Place between the Angel Hotel and the Rum Puncheon public house. One final son, Edmund John, was born in 1893. Sometime during the decade, the family had moved into more spacioius accommodation in Haven Villas, Irby Street on the opposite bank of the river directly facing the church. Richard's mineral water manufacturing premises was now well established a few hundred yards to the south at 25-27 Lawrence Lane (8). Richard also faced the court in 1894 when an employee sued him for wrongful dismissal. The magistrates gave judgement for the plaintiff and awarded damages of 18s. and costs (9). By the turn of the century, son Richard had joined his father as an assistant in the factory. Daughter Julia was working as a manageress and daughter Annie was employed as a dressmaker.

Sarah Ann started to complain of abdominal symptoms at the beginning of the new decade. In the autumn of 1902 she was diagnosed with carcinoma of the uterus. Her condition deteriorated rapidly as she lost strength and weight over a period of six months. She died at home in Haven Villas on April 24th 1904. Her daughter, Kathleen, was with her when she died. By 1911, Richard had retired from his business and had moved to Portland Terrace off Hospital Lane near the Pilgrim Hospital, taking his two sons with him. Son Richard was working as a hotel waiter and Edward was employed as an engine cleaner for the Great Northern Railway Company. Both remained unmarried. It is believed that Kathleen died in 1922 and was buried at Middle Rasen near Market Rasen on May 9th 1922. Son Richard died in Grimsby in 1931. Edward continued to work for the railways, living in Hessle Drive, Boston. He died on August 21st 1960 in Wyborton West Hospital, Boston. His affairs were published in the National Probate Calendar in October 1963 with administration passing to H.M. Treasury Solicitor. This suggests he died intestate and there were no surviving relatives. Nothing is currently known of the fate of the remainder of the family.

Robert Edward (1851 - 1932)

William and Lucy Liquorish's third child was a son who was baptised Robert Edward on June 8th 1851. He spent his teenage years in the family home in Rockingham, becoming an agricultural worker. In his early twenties he met a young woman who had been recently widowed. They were married in 1875.

The tale of three marriages

Emmaretta Shatford was born in Weekley, a hamlet on the north east edge of Kettering, in 1849. Her father, William, was an agricultural labourer. She had eight known siblings: four brothers and four sisters. She moved to London in the middle years of the 1860s where she met and married Irish miner William Ferris. They were married in Stepney in the spring of 1868. They lived in Dalgleish Street in the Limehouse district and had four children over the next five years: William John born in 1869; twins Joseph and Sarah in 1871 and Edward in 1873.

William was killed in a tragic accident in the Gray's Inn Road near the Royal Free Hospital on December 30th 1873 when an 'improperly fixed skip' fell, fracturing his skull. He had been working for the firm of Nowell and Robson who were one of the main contractors for the Metropolitan Board of Works involved in major extension and diversion projects of the London sewer system (10, 11). An inquest was held on January 2nd 1874 at the Silver Cup Inn, Cromer Street St Pancras under the jurisdiction of Edwin Lankester, Coroner for the County of Middlesex. Evidence was heard from several workers that William was found dead in a trench which was being excavated for sewage works. A skip filled with ballast had been hoisted up by a steam driven engine and was waiting for a cart to be put underneath it to take it away. The engine had been insecurely restrained by passing an iron bar through the driving wheel. This had given way allowing the skip to fall. William, who was in the trench shifting wood, was hit on the back of the head by the falling skip. He was dead by the time his mates reached him. The inquest returned a verdict of misadventure.

After William's funeral, Emmaretta returned to her parents home in Kettering where she took up work as a washerwoman. Robert and Emmaretta's wedding took place on July 9th 1875 at Fuller Baptist Church in Kettering. They set up home a few yards away in Gold Street. Their first born child, daughter Edith Emma, was born there on May 16th 1877. Later that year, the family moved back to London, taking a house in Augustus Street, Poplar. This street lies to the north of present day Canary Wharf and adjacent to Bartlett Park which was laid out to replace the bomb damage of World War II. It was also less than a mile east of where Emmaretta had lived with William Ferris. Robert found work for a coke contractor as a carman (the driver of a horse-drawn vehicle for transporting goods and making local collections and deliveries (13)). At home, Edith Emma became unwell and her condition deteriorated rapidly. She died on April 24th 1878, the cause of death being certified as tuberculosis of the mesenteric glands (tabes mesenterica). This condition is generally considered to be caused by drinking infected milk (14).

Emmaretta became pregnant again and a second daughter, Agnes, was born in the autumn of 1878. By 1881, Robert had moved the family, which included his four stepchildren, a couple of hundred yards north to a new house on Goodliffe Street. Two more children were to follow: Florence born in 1883 and Herbert John born in 1886. The little boy did not survive long and died on March 25th 1886 of "sudden spasm of the glottis" (presumably due to an acute upper respiratory tract infection such as whooping cough or diphtheria). Within months, Emmaretta became ill too. She was admitted to the London Hospital, Whitechapel where she died on July 1st 1886. Her death certificate reads "Morbus Cordis", a Latin term for nonspecific heart disease.

Robert married again at All Saints Church, Poplar on August 17th 1890. His new bride was 33 year old Maria Mary, the daughter of shipwright George Rogers. They continued to live in Goodliffe Street. The couple had one son, Charles William, who was born on June 22nd 1895. After 1911, they moved to 61 Kerbey Street and continued to live in the Poplar area until the 1930s. Robert died in the winter of 1932; Maria Mary two years later.

Children and step children

Little is known of the four children of William and Emmaretta Ferris. Joseph Ferris married Alice Hunneybell on August 3rd 1896 in Poplar. The remaining three disappear from the records after 1881.

Robert and Emmaretta's daughter Agnes had a troubled childhood. Before her tenth birthday she was admitted to the Asylum and School for Imbecile Children at Darenth near Dartford, Kent. This institution had been founded by the Metropolitan Asylums Board for children with learning disabilities in 1878 and by 1890 it housed over 1000 children and adults. Agnes died there on August 13th 1893, the cause of death being registered as epilepsy. There is no indication as to the origin of the condition which may have been associated with a birth injury. Treatment was often rudimentary consisting of sedation with chloral and restraint and incarceration in an asylum. Their daughter, Florence, was admitted as an infant pupil at Ricardo Street School in Tower Hamlets in 1887. By 1901 she had entered domestic service at the home of master builder Robert Hamlett in West Ham.

Robert and Maria's son Charles William was enrolled as a pupil at the Ricardo Street School on August 18th 1899. In his mid teens he became as stable lad employed by a local dental surgeon. He enlisted with the 2nd/13th Princess Louise's Kensington Battalion of the London Regiment in 1916. After training the Battalion embarked at Southampton bound for Le Havre on June 21st 1916. By mid July they were stationed north of Arras in the trench system between Neuville St Vaast and Roclincourt. On the night of August 6th, the Battalion staged a raid on the German trench positions, the objectives being to capture prisoners "to obtain identifications". The attack consisted of 2 officers, 8 non commissioned officers and 32 men. At the end of the operation 2 officers and 12 men including Charles was reported as missing in action. His body was never found. (17). He is commemorated on Bay 10 of the Arras Memorial in Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery in the west of the town of Arras.

Elizabeth (1854 - 1917)

William and Lucy's fifth child (and fourth daughter) Elizabeth was born in the spring and baptised at St Leonard's Church on June 4th 1854. She entered domestic service in her middle teens and by 1871 she was working for the household of farmer and grazier Henry Corby in Belton, Rutland. Sometime during that decade she met Joseph Wymant who was four years younger than her. They married at the church of St John the Evangelist in Caldecott, Rutland, on Christmas Day 1878. The two named witnesses confirm some interesting family connections. Ruth Stretton was Elizabeth's (half) aunt; the youngest daughter of Elizabeth's grandfather William Craxford and his second wife Elizabeth Hull. William Ingram was Elizabeth's (half) first cousin; William being the son of Alfred Ingram and Elizabeth Craxford, Ruth's older sister.

Joseph was born in Gretton in 1858, the youngest of seven known children of Richard Wymant and Elizabeth Smith. Like his father before him, he started his working life as an agricultural labourer. Richard's sight had deteriorated over the years and he had gone blind by 1871. He died in the village about six months before Joseph and Elizabeth were married.

The Wymant family had been prolific throughout the Welland Valley and into Rutland since the dawn of the eighteenth century. A variety of spellings of the surname surface repeatedly in the records making the tracing of lines somewhat difficult. A resume of the main branches in Gretton and Cottingham appears in the section Gretton Family 1: Wymant in the article Craxford Lane: A Genealogy. Was it coincidence or by design that two of Joseph's older brothers, Owen (born in 1842 who married Eliza Whiley) and Enoch (born in 1848 who married Elizabeth Nightingale) were both living within four hundred yards of where Richard O'Connell and Sarah Ann Liquorish had their house in Angel Place in Boston in 1891?

Away to Yorkshire

Joseph and Elizabeth's first home was in Old Chapel Yard, Gretton which was on the corner of Craxford Lane and the High Street. It was two doors away from Elizabeth's grandfather, William Craxford. Their first born child William Richard was born in the summer of 1879. Whilst Elizabeth remained temporarily in the village, Joseph moved away to South Cave, a village in East Yorkshire about 14 miles west of Hull. In 1881 he was working as a groom and living at the Bear Inn in the Market Place. Elizabeth and William Richard soon joined him and the family moved two miles north up the road to the hamlet of Drewton. It is believed that Richard worked both as a groom and a coachman on the Drewton Manor Estate. Four more children were born there over the next six years (John Joseph, 1882; Robert Edward, 1883; Martha 1885; Joseph 1888).

By 1891, the family had moved to a cottage on one of the farms outside of Goole, a town about 30 miles inland from Hull. Second daughter Ellen was born there in 1892. The following year, the family crossed over the border into West Yorkshire and settled in Southowram, a village in the Calder Valley between Brighouse and Halifax. Two more sons, Leonard (1893) and William (1897) completed the family. A daughter, May, was born in the summer of 1898, but died the same year.

In the first decade of the new century, the family moved again to Elland Road in Brookfoot on the outskirts of Brighouse. Joseph took on work as a domestic gardener. During the war years, Elizabeth became ill with progressively increasing abdominal pains. She died in September 4th 1917. A diagnosis of gall stones was made. Joseph lived on in the Brighouse area for nearly 20 years. He died in the winter of 1938.

Most of Joseph and Elizabeth's children became involved in the wool and clothing trade. William Richard became a labourer for a firm of dyers and finishers. He lived in Elland Road until his death in the summer of 1932. Second son, John Joseph, also joined a dyers and finishers firm as a store keeper. He married Annie Gough on July 18th 1903. He died In Brighouse on August 12th 1928. Robert Edward married Edith Lever on November 21st 1908. He became a dyer in the woollen industry. He died in Brighouse in 1938. As a teenager Martha Wymant went to work as a silk room spinner and cotton winder. She married Willie Holdsworth in 1920. At the outbreak of the second world war they were living at 23 Elland Road and Martha was employed as a caretaker at a day school. She died in 1968.

Fourth son Joseph initially started working in a dye workshop but by 1910 had become a labourer at an ironworks. He married Gertrude Rowley on May 30th 1914 at St Martin's Church, Brighouse. He enlisted with the Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment in 1916 and saw service in France. He was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and was promoted to Corporal. He suffered some minor gunshot wounds to the face and legs in September 1918 and was finally demobilised in 1919. The couple had five children. By the outbreak of the next war he and Gertrude were living in John Street, Brighouse. Joseph was working as a nightwatchman. He died on January 3rd 1942.

Daughter Ellen Wymant became a cotton cardroom operative. She married James Firth in 1916 and moved to Halifax. She died there in 1976. Fifth son Leonard became a silk dresser. He married Gladys Stead in Halifax in 1917 where the couple lived until his death in March 1959. Youngest son William followed Leonard into the business as a silk dresser. No further records have been found to date.

Charles William (1858 - 1941)

After the death of her infant son John in 1855, Lucy was soon pregnant again. She gave birth to another boy on August 14th 1856. Charles William Liquorish was baptised at St Leonard's Church on September 12th 1858. As the middle child he grew up surrounded by four older and four younger siblings.

At the age of 20 years he married Ellen, the daughter of John Joyce and Ann Faulks on August 24th 1876 at the parish church of St John The Baptist, Harringworth. After the ceremony, they returned to her parents' village where Charles worked on the building of the Harringworth/Seaton Viaduct. In the 1870s work started on a railway line from Manton just south of Oakham to Kettering which would connect the Midland Main Line with the Birmingham to Peterborough line. Over 3000 people from near and far toiled on the project. In the short space of thirteen miles the line traversed cuttings, tunnels, embankment and the 82 arch Viaduct which crossed the Welland Valley. One of its four stations was at Gretton [Further Reading B.]. Ellen became pregnant that autumn and gave birth to a daughter, baptised as Ellen Elizabeth at St Leonard's Church, Rockingham on July 25th 1877.

Within a year, they had moved to Brickfield Cottages which stood on the Rockingham Road about a mile to the north east of Cottingham. This was one of a group of five cottages owned by master brickmaker and local worthy, John Neville Chamberlain, whose story is told in the article: Elizabeth Tilley and the Grocery Connection. This was where their first son, John William, was born on June 17th 1879. There were members of another of the Liquorish lines living nearby. Mary (daughter of Thomas Liquorish and Elizabeth Sarrington) who had been born in Cottingham in 1814 and her husband William Ward lived in Dag (or School) Lane. Nearby, Lewis Liquorish (grandson of Thomas Liquorish and Elizabeth Saddington) lived in Blind Lane with his wife Emma West and family. Blind Lane was the site of the brutal and inexplicable murder of 6 year old Thomas Christopher Claypole by Henry Crane on May 1st 1875 (Death for Threeha'p'orth of Suckers). John Craxford, who had married Thomas Christopher's mother, Sarah Ann Claypole, was Charles William's second cousin (twice removed).

Four children, two boys and two girls were born during the 1880s. A further four boys arrived in the 1890s. Charles' occupation changed as the years went by: sometimes a gardener's labourer, sometimes a house painter and latterly an estate carpenter at Rockingham Castle. The family had remained together in Brickfield Cottages for several decades: indeed there were five of the children resident with their parents at the time of the census of 1911.

Charles and Ellen celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary in August 1936. The event was reported in the local newspaper (24) and noted that although there had been times when life was hard and money was short they had never argued or quarrelled. They were life-long Methodists and attended the church on Corby Road. Ellen had been in poor health for many years. She died aged 80 years in Cottingham on July 28th 1937. Charles continued living in Brickfield Cottages on his own until his death just over three years later on February 23rd 1941. They were both interred in Section G 5 plot 74 of the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene Church, Cottingham.

The children of Charles William and Ellen Liquorish

Ellen Elizabeth (1877 - 1931)

Eldest daughter Ellen Elizabeth was born in Harringworth in the Spring of 1877 immediately prior to the move to Cottingham. By her fourteenth birthday she had entered domestic service at Shire Lodge, Corby, the family home of farmer Thomas Chapman. Ellen moved south to London in the early 1890s where she met Herbert West, a 23 year old stoker for the Great Western Railway. They were married on August 21st 1898 at the Trinity Wesleyan Chapel in Fernhead Road, Paddington. Herbert was the son of George West, a hackney carriage driver who witnessed their marriage. Also present was Herbert's half sister, Flora. At the time of the marriage they were staying together at 61 Saltram Crescent, but moved to a house in Fernhead Road at the turn of the century.

In the early years of the new century, Herbert transferred his employment to the Central London railways becoming a driver. Ellen was visiting her parents in Northamptonshire on the day of the 1911 census. During the 1920s, she and Herbert made their home at 81 Thurlby Road, Wembley London. There were no children. She died in the Spring of 1931.

Herbert retired from the railways in October 1934. The following month he married widow Nellie (Barton) Searle at the Methodist Chapel, Coalville, Leicestershire. The ceremony was witnessed by Robert Edward Liquorish and his wife Flora. Herbert and his new wife moved to Cardiff, South Wales, where he died in 1942.

John William (1879 - 1941)

Charles and Ellen's second son, John William Liquorish, was born in Cottingham on June 17th 1879. As a teenager he joined his siblings in the fields. By 1901 he had left the village to take up work as a carriage washer in Kettering. He found lodgings in Lower Alfred Street with the family of tin plate worker and ironmonger Charles Thomas Beadsworth (no relationship to the Beadsworth family of Cottingham has so far been found). He married Fanny Harrison, the daughter of William and Mary Ann Harrison. Fanny was born in Belmesthorpe, a tiny hamlet on the edge of Rutland a few miles from Stamford, on June 1st 1879. Her father died in the early months of 1887 barely before his thirtieth birthday. Her mother married again, to James Bull, the following year. Before the turn of the century, Fanny left the family home. It is not clear how or where she met John William.

Their marriage took place at the Church of St John the Evangelist, Ryhall on August 3rd 1903. Her sister Sarah Elizabeth was one of the witnesses, the other was James Bull. John took the post of keeper of the Kettering Cattle Market, a role which included residence in Market House, London Road in the town. The market had been built on ground originally laid out by Benjamin Mitton (1811 - 1897) as a bowling green. It opened in 1907. Benjamin was married to Emily Tansley who was the great aunt of John William's brother, Charles Herbert's wife Edith Rosina. The couple had two daughters: Daisy Gertrude, born in 1905 and Dora Christine born in 1921. John enlisted with the Royal Army Medical Corps in August 1915. By the end of the war he had been promoted to 26248 Acting Sergeant and received the British War and Victory Medals. He was demobilisaed in June 1919. He maintained an involvement with the St John Ambulance Brigade in the Kettering area for 35 years, reaching the rank of sergeant.

At the outbreak of the second World War, their two daughters were still living at home. John died on September 15th 1941 two years before he was due to retire (26). The following year Dora married Sidney, the son of Frank A Smeathers and Florence Hodby. Frank was a Sunday School teacher at Rockingham Road Baptist Church, Kettering during the 1960s. Fanny survived her husband by twenty five years and died in Kettering at the beginning of 1965.

Robert Edward (1882 - 1957)

The second son of Charles William Liquorish and Ellen Joyce was born in the spring of 1882 in Cottingham but was baptised at St Leonard's Church, Rockingham on January 21st 1883. By the time he was 20 years old he had become a gardener but after the turn of the century he moved to Coalville, Leicestershire to become a railway guard. On May 14th 1906 he married Sarah Elizabeth Harrison, the younger sister of his brother's wife, Fanny. They had one son they named Charles Percy, who was born in 1907. Charles Percy married Norah Northcott in 1929. They remained in Coalville where he became a tailor and outfitter's assistant.

After the war, Robert continued to work for the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company, living at 46 James Street, Coalville. Sarah had become progressively ill with weight loss and a fever. A diagnosis of Hodgkin's Disease (a malignant cancer of lymphatic tissue) was made and she died at home on September 15th 1921. Robert did not remain alone for long. He was joined at James Street by Flora West, now aged 40 years, the sister of Ellen Elizabeth's husband Herbert West. They were married at the Register Office in Ashby-de-la-Zouch on December 23rd 1923. By 1939, the couple had moved to Francis Street, Derby, where Robert was employed as a railway shunter foreman. Upon his retirement, they moved to St Austell, Cornwall, where Robert died in 1957 and Flora ten years later.

George Alfred (1884 - 1961)

Third son, George Alfred, was born in Cottingham in 1884. He started his working life as a farm labourer but after the turn of the century he went to work at one of the blast furnaces in nearby Corby. He married Annie Jarvis, the daughter of William Alfred Jarvis and Sarah Ann Foster in 1908. The Jarvis family lived in Barrack Yard, a close running off Blind Lane beyond the Royal George public house. Connections between the families living in the close are recounted in The Barrack Yard Preservation Society. Some examples include William Alfred's grandparents who were Thomas Coles and Susannah Claypole. William Alfred's brother John married Fanny Claypole and William Alfred's sister Elizabeth married Joseph Claypole (Fanny and Joseph were Susannah's niece and nephew). William Alfred himself, was first cousin (once removed) of Jessie Claypole, the first husband of Caroline Craxford, first cousin of Lucy Craxford. William's sister, Clara Jarvis married Vincent Alfred Tilley and their granddaughter was the writer of the letter Murder most foul?? In Cottingham??? which initiated the whole research project on which this website is based.

George Alfred and Annie moved into Barrack Yard prior to the 1911 census. Over the next ten years, they had two daughters (Elsie Ellen and Grace) and two sons (Alfred Charles and Cyril). In August 1934, a cousin from the Cottingham line, 56 year old Emily Liquorish, was found dead in bed in a nearby house in Barrack Yard. She had been visiting her married sister Mary Ann Maydwell (27). At the outbreak of the second World War, the family, apart from Elsie Ellen, were living in one of the newly built council houses at 3 Approach Road (more recently renamed Ripley Road) just beyond Blind Lane on Rockingham Road). George was now working as a slag tipper at the iron and steel works. Annie died on July 24th 1959, George just over two years later on September 18th 1961. They were buried in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene in plot G11 178.

Elsie Ellen Liquorish was born on March 11th 1910. She married Ernest Edward Beadsworth (eleven years her senior) in the spring of 1933. Ernest worked for the Council as a road man. In 1939 they were living in Church Street, Cottingham. They had two sons, one born before and one after the war. Edward died on Janury 24th 1959 and was buried in St Mary Magdalene churchyard in the plot next to his parents in law. Elsie Ellen died on August 1st 1992.

Grace Liquorish was born October 17th 1913. She became a machinist at the local clothing factory. She married Reginald Henry Claypole in the village in the summer of 1941. Prior to the war, Reginald, a farm worker, was living with his elderly parents and twin brother Ronald, in Church Street opposite Grace's married sister, Elsie Ellen. A daughter was born in 1944. Reginald died on February 5th 1987; Grace on March 17th 2009. Alfred Liquorish, who had been born on June 6th 1915, was a also a roadman with the Urban District Council in 1939. He never married and died in March 1990. Cyril Liquorish was born in 1921 and married Viola Langley in 1943. They lived in Berryfield Road and had one daughter in 1950. Cyril died in January 2016.

Continued in column 2...

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The children of Charles William and Ellen Liquorish (Continued)

Edith Julia (1887 - 1961)

Second daughter Edith Julia Liquorish was born on February 8th 1887 in Cottingham. In her late teens she went into domestic service. She married John Albert Binley Townsin in the autumn of 1912. John was the eldest son of John Lewis Binley and Carrie Townsin who had lived together in Barrack Yard and then School Lane but had never married. John Albert was baptised at the Church of St John the Baptist in Tiffield, a hamlet in south Northamptonshire near Towcester on February 4th 1906. He became an iron foundry worker.

After they were married John Albert and Edith Julia set up home in Water Lane. Over the course of the next sixteen years they had nine children (four boys and five girls) although three died in infancy. Before the outbrteak of the second world war, they had moved to a house in Blind Lane, four doors away from the Royal George. Edith Julia died on June 24th 1961; her husband John Albert in 1970.

Their eldest son Bertram Cecil Townsin was born on March 1st 1914. Prior to the outbreak of the second world war he had moved to Leicester, working in a Gentleman's Outfitters. He enlisted with the Royal Air Force and was assigned to the 29 Squadron at RAF Ford, Sussex, reaching the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He married Eileen Margaret Hutchinson who lived at 43 Roker Park Road, Sunderland towards the close of 1943. On the night of February 23rd 1944 he was the navigator of a de Havilland Mosquito aircraft piloted by Wing Commander Robert Ewart Xavier Mack DFC on an interception mission over the English Channel (28). The flight did not return. He was 30 years of age. He is commemorated on Panel 203 of the Runneymede Memorial, Englefield Green near Windsor in Berkshire. He was also commemorated on the grave of his Liquorish grandparents.

Charles Herbert (1891 - 1968)

Charles and Ellen's fourth son, Charles Herbert Liquorish was born in Cottingham in 1891. By the age of 20 years he had become a waggoner on a local farm. In the spring of 1914 he married Edith Rosina Townsin, the sister of John Albert Townsin, his sister Edith's husband. Their family consisted of two sons and two daughters. The first little girl, Marjorie, was born in 1917 but died at the age of two years. Second daughter, Vera Ellen, was born in 1922. A son Leslie arrived in the early months of 1930. In the 1930s Charles moved the family to Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire.

It was in Whittlesey that oldest son Charles Herbert William Liquorish met Rose May Fuller, the daughter of Carla Fuller, born on December 23rd 1917. Carla Martin had separated from her husband George Fuller about 1910 and had gone to live with George Tysome. Over the years she had delivered ten babies although four had died in infancy or early childhood. Charles and Rose May were married in the town in the autumn of 1939. After the war, Charles and Edith moved to Peterborough which is where he died in 1968 and she died in 1973. Vera married Gordon Lee at the beginning of 1953. Leslie married Daphne Woods a few months later.

Charles and Rose had two sons, one born in the early years of the war, the second after the war had finished. The family too moved from Whittlesey and set up home in Windsor Drive in the Stanground suburb of Peterborough. Charles died on June 13th 1990. Rose lived another seven years, until the summer of 1997.

Thomas Albert (1894 - 1958)

Thomas Albert Liquorish was born on May 18th 1894. As he approached manhood he took up gardening, presumably alongside his father Charles. He became attracted to Violet, the eldest daughter of ironstone labourer Alfred Beadsworth and Mary Mayes. She was also the sister of Ernest Beadsworth who had married Elsie Ellen Liquorish, Thomas' niece. Violet had been born on October 13th 1897 and lived with the family in Rockingham Road. In 1911 she was working as a nurse maid. They were married in the spring of 1918. In commmon with many of the liaisons in the village, the couple were distantly related. Violet was niece of Louisa Craxford (half sister of the murdered Thomas Christopher Claypole, mentioned above). Louisa was the second cousin once removed of Lucy Craxford, Thomas Albert's grandmother. They had two children, a daughter and a son. By 1939 the family were living in Church Street, four doors away from Ernest and Elsie Beadsworth. Thomas died in the village in 1958. Violet lived another 22 years, finally dying in Corby in 1981.

Thomas and Violet's daughter Evelyn married Bernard Crane in 1941. He was living with his parents Frederick Crane and Florence Minns in the High Street and was a partner in the family's coal merchants business. Bernard's great grandfather was the Henry Crane mentioned above. When the Barrack Yard area was demolished in the early 1960s, the Crane family built a single detached property on the land. Bernard died in September 1991.

William Sydney (1896 - 1942)

William Sydney was their sixth son, born on September 27th 1896. He started work as a presser for a tailor in the village. He married Agnes Rodgers from Rotherham, South Yorkshire in 1921. She was the daughter of Charles Rodgers (who had been born in the hamlet of Teigh near Market Overton in Rutland) and Cottingham-born Charlotte Minns. Charlotte was the niece of Florence Minns who married Frederick Crane, another of the grandsons of Henry Crane, in the village in 1913.

William and Agnes had one daughter, Agnes, born in 1922, and one son, Desmond, born in 1940. By 1939 they had moved into a house next door but one to Thomas and Violet in Church Street. Agnes' widowed mother had moved in with them. William was working as a blast furnace keeper at the ironworks. One day, William collapsed with severe head pain due to a subarachnoid haemorrhage (an acute stroke caused by bleeding on the surface of the brain). He was taken to the Kettering General Hospital where he died on June 7th 1942. He was 45 years old. His death was registered by his brother Richard Henry.

For many years, Agnes was the infant teacher at Cottingham School which stood in School Lane. There are still fond memories in the village of her classroom which smelled of chalk and which, in winter, was heated by a roaring open fire. Twice a year, the children would be lined up and dosed with a teaspoon of cod liver oil (one spoon used for the whole class!) washed down with a beaker of orange juice. She would have to clamber onto a rickety stool to take the bottles (issued by the Health Department) down from a large cupboard.

Gertrude Emily (1889 - 1977); Richard Henry (1897 - 1956)

There is little in the records relating to the remaining two children of Charles William and Ellen Liquorish. Third daughter Gertrude Emily was born on July 31st 1889. She married Caleb Hammond from Midhurst, Sussex in 1922. Before the second world war he worked as a building construction foreman in Enfield. The couple moved to Banbury, Oxfordshire where Caleb died in 1972 and Gertrude died in 1977. Richard Henry was the ultimate son of Charles William and Ellen, born on October 28th 1897. He served with the 1st Battalioin the Surrey Yeomanry for three years during the first World War, achieving the rank of corporal. He married Gladys Beeby in 1928 and settled in Clifton Grove, Kettering before the second World War. He died in the town in 1956.

Mary (1858 - 1920)

Mary, the eighth of William and Lucy's offspring, was born in the winter of 1857 and was baptised with her older brother Charles at St Leonard's Church on September 12th 1858. In her early twenties she entered domestic service. At the time of the census of 1881 she was working for the family of Elijah Jennings in Hinckley Road, Leicester. His factory at 74 Church Gate, which employed 150 workers, manufactured boots and shoes for women, children, boys and girls (31).

In the autumn of 1881, Mary married Thomas Tapley who worked as a shoe finisher. They moved into number 2 Conduit Field Cottages on Framland Street which stood opposite the Leicester Union Workhouse in Sparkenhoe Street. Mary took on work as a library caretaker. They had two children: Nellie, born 1882 and Thomas William born 1886. The opening years of the new century brought both grief and happiness. Firstly their daughter Nellie married John Tom Wingell at Holy Trinity Church, Regent Street, Leicester in the spring of 1903. Then, six months later Mary's husband Thomas died suddenly aged 52 years. He was buried in plot O2395 of Welford Road Cemetery on December 13th 1903. The following year Thomas William contracted pulmonary tuberculosis from which he died. He was buried alongside his father on December 15th 1904. By 1911, Mary had moved a few hundred yards across Granby Street to one of the two room Portland cottages in Dover Street.

John Tom Wingell was born in Leicester on June 9th 1873, the son of Thomas Wingell and Elizabeth Tapley. Elizabeth was Nellie's aunt (the older sister by about 5 years of Thomas Tapley). John Tom Wingell had a long and varied exposure to the Army. In 1881, the family were living in Elm Street in the North Evington district of Leicester. For a short time, their near neighbours were William Readyhoff Pridmore and Sarah Craxford (Mary's second cousin) whose story is recounted in the section Mrs Pridmore: Sarah of the article The Gretton Craxfords: Chronicles I - The Tangled Trees.

As a seventeen year old, he completed his attestation for a short service enlistment with the Sherwood Foresters on November 10th 1890 under the name of John Smith. He served in India for 5 years for which he received the India Medal with Punjab Frontier and Tirah clasps. He was decommissioned on November 9th 1902 but recalled again on February 28th 1903. This lasted until February 1907. After this, John and Nellie set up home in Holland Street Crewe and John took on work as a steel planer at a railway works. He re-enlisted into the Cheshire Regiment at the beginning of the first World War when he was more than 40 years of age. By March 1915 he had been promoted to the rank of sergeant. His unit was part of the British Expeditionary Force which was sent to France on September 25th 1915 where he spent one year and 31 days. In September 1918 he was confirmed as Company Sergeant and was transferred to the 37th P.O.W. (Prisoner of War) Company of the Labour Corps [Footnote 2]. He was finally demobilised on March 10th 1919. The records show that he was returning to civilian life to work as a bricklayer and that he had been given a temporary disability pension for chronic dyspepsia. He received the 14-15 Star, the British War and Victory Medals to add to his collection.

After the war, the couple lived at Monks Coppenhall, on the northern edge of Crewe. They had no children. Nellie's general and mental health progressively deteriorated during the 1920s and she was admitted to the Cheshire County Mental Hospital at Upton by Chester, a northern suburb of the city of Chester. A diagnosis of General Paralysis was made and after receiving care for about two years she died on June 23rd 1929. John Tom did not stay single for long. He married Emily Catherine Chambers, the daughter of Thomas Chambers and Emily Maria Liquorish (see below) in Caldecott on January 18th 1930. Emily Chambers and Nellie Tapley were first cousins. Emily bore John Tom a son they named Thomas Herbert Wingell on October 7th 1931. Emily became ill with weight loss, jaundice and vomiting. She was admitted from her home in Westminster Street, Crewe, to the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary, Stoke on Trent where she died on July 22nd 1937. A post mortem examination revealed acute yellow atrophy of the liver, a poorly understood condition which may be associated with a virulent infection or the ingestion of a toxic substance. John Tom lived on in Crewe for a time but then was admitted to the Nantwich Union Workhouse (addressed as 200 Alveston). He died there on March 10th 1947 of congestive cardiac failure. He left his effects in his will to his sixteen year old son, administration being granted to his widowed sister Annie Millard.

Emily Maria (1860 - 1942)

William and Lucy Liquorish's ninth child (and sixth daughter) was born in Rockingham on February 15th 1860 and was baptised two months later. In her late teens she had entered domestic service. She also had two children: Alfred William on November 6th 1877 and Ernest Charles in the spring of 1879. By 1881 Emily was living with the family of Benjamin Freer, a veterinary surgeon who was also the licensed victualler of the White Hart public house (32) in the High Street, Uppingham, Rutland. The two little boys had been sent to live with their grandparents.

During that time she met Thomas Chambers, a farm hand from Caldecott. Thomas was the son of William Chambers and Sarah Anne Wignell (a surname not to be confused with Wingell). The couple were married at the church of St John the Evangelist in Caldecott on February 15th 1883. They set up home in the village. They had five children. Their first son, Herbert William was born on May 4th 1884. He followed his father onto the land. He did not marry and continued to live in the family home.

Thomas spent his working life on the land. Around 1930, they moved to Clipsham, a hamlet to the east of Rutland near the border with Lincolnshire. He died there on May 3rd 1935. After his death, Emily moved into one of the 10 Independent Forester's Cottages in Caldecott. These had been built in 1877 on Main Street opposite Caldecott School. She died there in 1942. Herbert William died in Uppingham 20 years later in 1962.

Ernest Charles Liquorish (1879 - 1949)

Emily's second child Ernest Charles had joined his mother in Caldecott by 1891 and had adopted the surname Chambers. He moved to the Cottesbrooke area near Peterborough where he met and married Mary Ann Taylor. By 1910 they had moved north to Swillington just outside Leeds where he worked as a groom. They had two children. After the was the family moved back to Peterborough. Mary Ann died in the winter of 1924. Ernest married again to Edith Hodson. By 1939 he was working as a farm horseman in Orton Waterville. Ernest died in 1949.

Edith Eleanor (1886 - 1946)

Thomas and Emily Maria Chambers first daughter was born on June 15th 1886 in Caldecott and baptised there just over two years later. In her late teens she entered domestic service. By 1901 she was living with the family of draper William Baines in the High Street, Uppingham. Later that decade she became a cook. In the summer of 1910 she became pregnant. She returned home to Caldecott where she gave birth to a son, Herbert Ernest, on February 25th 1911.

Edith married George Joseph Kenny at the Register Office in Uppingham on June 17th 1916. It is unclear of George's origin. It is understood he was born on June 15th 1870 and that as a youth he worked as a groom in Brompton and Epsom and also trained as a jockey for the Rotheschildes estate in France. Before the first world war he worked in both Gretton and Caldecott. After their marriage, they moved to Normanton on Soar in south Nottinghamshire where George became a coachman. By 1923 they had moved back to Caldecott where he took up work as an ironstone labourer. Further moves were to follow: to Thorpe-by-Water in Rutland by 1930 and finally to Shotley in Harringworth where he died in 1938. Edith died on January 14th 1946. They had seven children: four sons and three daughters.

Edith's son, Herbert Ernest married Florence M Ward in 1937. They remained in the village living in a house on Main Street adjacent to The Mill. Herbert became a traffic foreman at a blast furnace.

George Robert (1888 - 1918)

Middle son George Robert Chambers was born on July 10th 1888. He was baptised in a joint service at St John the Evangelist Church with his brother Herbert and his sister Edith on September 1888. As a four year old, he was admitted to Caldecott Primary School which he attended until November 1900. He started his working life as a labourer for a carpenter but by 1911 had moved on to be a labourer at a blast furnace. In 1909, George married Emily Elizabeth Freeman in Oakham. She had been born in Market Overton, a village mid way between Melton Mowbray and Stamford in 1891. By 1901, the 12 year old Emily was working as a domestic servant at The Lodge, Market Overton. After they were married the couple moved back to Caldecott. They had four children. The first three (George William on April 11th 1910; Alfred Ernest on May 14th 1911 and Charles in the spring of 1912) were all born in Caldecott. Prior to the outbreak of the war, the family moved back to Kettering which is where daughter Kathleen Nellie was born on April 24th 1914.

George enlisted with the 7th Battalion, the Northamptonshire Regiment and embarked for France in September 1915. He was wounded on Sunday September 26th 1915, four days into the Battle of Loos, just north of Lens in the Pas de Calais. He was repatriated to England for his recuperation enjoying a week's furlough at the end of November in Middleton near Cottingham. He had also been promoted to lance corporal. After his recovery he was transferred to the 8th Battalion, the Northamptonshire Regiment and was shipped back to France in February 1916. He served there until August 1917 when he was transferred to the Labour Corps for service in England for the remainder of the war.

Double tragedy struck the family in 1918. Emily had been suffering from increasingly poor health for several months over the previous year. With rapid weight loss and severe pain, she was admitted to the Union Workhouse in London Road, Kettering where she died in the Workhouse Infirmary on January 30th 1918. The cause of death was certified as exhaustion and "necrosis of the pelvis - probably tubercular". Then, towards the end of November George was taken acutely ill with chest pain, headache and a high fever.He was admitted to the Dunstan War Hospital, Northamptonshire (the Northamptonshire County Asylum, St Crispin Hospital which had been requisitioned by the War Department to receive sick and injured soldiers (33)). His condition deteriorated rapidly over three or four days with purulent sputum, congested lungs and cyanosis. He died on November 30th 1918. The cause of death was given as bronchopneumonia. Although not documented at the time, he may have been one of the casualties of the Spanish Influenza epidemic. He was buried in the churchyard of St John the Evangelist, Caldecott.

Concern was now raised regarding the four orphaned children. Army Orders record that George's sister Emily Catherine Chambers was noted to be their guardian. She was awarded two War Gratuities in respect of the children totalling £ 16 18s 10d (these were single payments of £ 4 8s 10d. on July 9th 1919 and £ 12 10s on December 10th 1919, respectively) (34). The fate of the three boys after the war is not currently known. Kathleen (popularly known now as Nellie) had gone to live with her grandmother Emily and uncle Herbert Chambers at Foresters Cottages in Caldecott in 1939.

Emily Catherine (1892 - 1937)

Emily Catherine was the younger daughter of Thomas and Emily Maria Chambers, born in Caldecott on July 26th 1892. In common with her siblings she was enrolled in Caldecott Primary School at the age of 4 years and attended until April 1905. In her late teens she was sent into domestic service. She also became pregnant in 1909 and gave birth to a son she named George William on April 11th 1910. The baby then stayed with his grandparents whilst Emily returned to her work. At the time of the census of 1911 she was living with the family of merchant Thomas Fountain in Evelyn Street, Stamford.

It has already been noted above that Emily was recognised by the Army authorities as guardian of the four children after the deaths of their parents George Robert Chambers and Emily Elizabeth Freeman. Emily received the War Gratuity paymenst on behalf of the children. It is not known for how long Emily took an active part in their welfare and development.

Emily married John Tom Wingell in Caldecott on January 18th 1930. He was 20 years older than her and was the widower of her first cousin, Nellie Tapley, who had died the previous year. After the ceremony, John took his new bride back to his residence in Westminster Street, Crewe, Cheshire. A son, Thomas H Wingell, was born on October 7th 1931. Over several weeks in the early summer of 1937, Emily was taken ill with abdominal pain, weight loss, vomitting and jaundice. She was admitted to the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary in Stoke on Trent where she died on July 22nd 1937. The diagnosis confirmed at post mortem was recorded as acute yellow atrophy of the liver. Although the cause of the condition is still not fully understood it is believed to be due to a virulent infection or ingestion of a toxic material. John Tom and his son continued to live in Crewe. John died there in 1947.

Thomas William (1894 - 1939)

Last born child and third son of Thomas and Emily Chambers, Thomas William, arrived on December 27th 1894. He was baptised with his sister, Emily Catherine, in a combined service at St John the Evangelist Church on June 29th 1897. He attended Caldecott Primary School between January 8th 1900 and June 28th 1907.

Nothing is known of his activities during the war years. He married 26 year old nurse Lillian Kathleen Lawrence in Durrington, a village in Wiltshire about 6 miles north east of Stonehenge on March 28th 1932. They set up home in Mill Lane, Caldecott. Over the next four years they had three sons. Thomas became an auxilliary postman. In early October 1939 he complained of acute stomach pains. He was taken into Rutland Memorial Hospital in Oakham where an operation was carried out to repair a perforated gastric ulcer. He failed to respond post operatively, developing bronchitis and heart failure. He died on October 14th 1939. Lillian moved back to Wiltshire, dying there in the winter of 1978.

Julia (1864 - 1924)

Eleventh child of William Liquorish and Lucy Craxford was born in Rockingham and baptised on June 23rd 1864. As a teenager she went into service. By 1881 she was resident with the family of stone quarry worker James Mankin in Halstead, a hamlet on the edge of Tilton on the Hill, Leicestershire. At the beginning of 1886, Julia became pregnant. After her father, William, died during that summer Julia joined her mother in Gretton.

She delivered a daughter, Edith Lucy in the November of that year. The child did not survive long. She had not been well from birth and in late February she developed a chest infection. Having difficulty breathing, Julia took the little girl into her bed. Early the next morning, February 26th 1887, she could not be wakened. Edith Lucy was pronounced dead and a post mortem was carried out by surgeon Harry Towlson. This showed evidence of pleurisy and congestion of the lungs but there were no marks of foul play. An inquest was held under the auspices of Mr J.T. Parker, the divisional coroner, at the Talbot Inn, Gretton. It was considered that she had died by being pressed upon in sleep by her mother or by lying under the bedclothes. A verdict of "suffocation whilst in bed" was returned. (35)

In 1889, Julia married John Martin at Caldecott on December 24th 1889. Julia's elder sister Emily Chambers acted as witness. Born in 1857 on the other side of the Welland Valley in Morcott, Rutland, John was the second son of Thomas Martin and Maria Britain. This couple had eleven children, many whose marriages linked into families of interest. Their second daughter, Charlotte Maria born in 1850, married shoemaker George Claypole (first cousin to Sarah Anne Claypole mentioned above) from Great Easton. Their granddaughter, Maria Lavinia Evans, by their first daughter, Caroline Martin born 1847, married John Thomas Claypole. John was one of the sons of George Claypole and Charlotte Martin. One of their daughters, Hannah Maria Claypole married her first cousin Alfred Ernest Claypole. Thomas and Maria's second youngest son, Benjamin William (born 1864) married Martha Louise Tilley who was the aunt of Francis Omar and Mary Elizabeth Tilley. Their tragic story is told told in the article The Sorrows of Mary Atkins .

John Martin had enlisted with the Army having signed his Attestation papers in Grantham on July 15th 1879. He became 8131 Gunner, Royal Artillery. He was a man of medium height (5 feet 8 inches tall) with blue eyes, dark brown hair and a fresh complexion. He embarked for India on December 24th 1879 and remained in the subcontinent until January 28th 1887. During that time he took part in the Afghanistan Campaign between March 7th and October 20th 1880 for which he was awarded the Afghan Medal. Upon his return home he was transferred to the Army Reserve List and was granted an Army pension. During this time he and Julia married. He was discharged from the Army as medically unfit for further service on July 14th 1891.

After their marriage John and Julia set up home in Caldecott next door to George Claypole and his young family. The marriage did not last long for John died on October 3rd 1891 of profound anaemia and "Indian Fever". Although the meaning of this archaic term is obscure it probably signified chronic malaria. They had no children. Sometime during that decade Julia moved away from the village and by the census of 1901 she was living with John's youngest brother, Britton William Martin born in 1868 at Hospital Hill, Rothwell. He was working as a carter for a builder. Also with them was Britton's 15 year old niece Martha Sarah, the daughter of Benjamin William Martin and Thomas Folwell, the son of Julia's sister Lucy Ann. Ten years later the couple were still together, having moved to Church Lane, Rothwell. They declared that they had been married for ten years although no documentary confirmation of this has been discovered. Britton was now working as an ironstone labourer. Also living with them were his nieces Alice and Maria Martin, the daughters of Samuel and Ada Martin. Ada had died in the village in 1901. After being ill for some time with an abdominal condition, Julia died at home in the village on May 3rd 1924. The cause of her death was registered as malignant disease of the gall bladder. Britton survived Julia by 25 years. In old age he developed congestive heart failure. He was admitted to the hospital wing of Oundle Union Workhouse at 1 Glapthorn Road, Oundle. He died there on June 13th 1949.

Lucy Ann (1867 - 1923)

Last born of William Liquorish and Lucy Craxford's children, a daughter they named Lucy Ann, arrived in 1867 and was baptised in June 23rd of that year. After the death of her father William in 1886, she moved with her mother to a house in West End, Gretton. By 1891, they had been joined by 14 year old Alfred William, the illegitimate son of her older sister Emily Maria. Lucy obtained a job as a tailoress at the local clothing factory.

Lucy married ironstone labourer Thomas Folwell at St James the Great church, Gretton on August 10th 1891. Thomas was born in 1860, the son of Phillip and Silvia Folwell, in Grimscote, a village about ten miles south est of Northampton. During the following decade, Lucy was pregnant five times. John Thomas William was born in 1891, Edith Charlotte in 1894 and John Robert in 1895. The three were baptised in a single ceremony on September 1st 1895. Daughter Emma was born in 1896 followed by Sophia in 1897. Sadly her third and fourth babies (John Robert in 1895 and Emma in 1896) died shortly after birth.

Their son, John Thomas Folwell, now an ironstone labourer like his father, married Mabel Lilian Warren on February 28th 1911. She was the daughter of Thomas Warren and Betsy Ann Barwell mentioned in the article Craxford Lane: A Genealogy. They made their home mid way between Craxford Lane and The Talbot Inn. By that year too, daughter Edith had left home to enter domestic service. She lived with the family of Wilfred Mudd, a fishmonger, in Kettering. At the time of the census, Thomas and Lucy Ann and their daughter Sophia were living in Stoney Lane (which was ultimateoy renamed Station Road). Continuing to board with them was Alfred William Liquorish, now a plate layer for the Midland Railway Company.

Lucy Ann died in Gretton in 1923. Her husband survived her by another 25 years, finally dying in Kettering in 1950.

Liquorish Headstones at St Mary Magdalene

Some significant family trees

Footnote 1: A Lexicon of Liquorish

The family surname has shown a surfeit of different spellings over the centuries, even within the lilfetime of a single individual. To aid the flow of the narrative, we have standardised on "Liquorish" throughout this article. Other known variations include Licquorish, Licqurish, Licorish, Liquorice, Lickerice, Lickerish, Lickorish, Lickrish

Footnote 2: The Labour Corps

Although the army in France and Flanders was able to use some railways, steam engines and tracked vehicles for haulage, the immense effort of building and maintaining the huge network of roads, railways, canals, buildings, camps, stores, dumps, telegraph and telephone systems, etc, and also for moving stores, relied on horse, mule and human. In the Middle Eastern theatres, camels were also also used. Formed in January 1917, the Corps grew to some 389,900 men (more than 10% of the total size of the Army) by the Armistice. Of this total, around 175,000 were working in the United Kingdom and the rest in the theatres of war. The Corps was manned by officers and other ranks who had been medically rated below the "A1" condition needed for front line service. Many were returned wounded. Labour Corps units were often deployed for work within range of the enemy guns, sometimes for lengthy periods. Until mid 1916, German prisoners were sent to England. From this time onward, prisoners were initially sent to Abbeville. Men with useful skills, notably forestry and engineering, were drafted into companies of about 100 men each, for use in POW Forestry Companies and ASC and RE workshops, respectively. 47 such POW labour companies were attached to the Labour Corps when it was formed.

Extract from The Labour Corps of 1917-1918 The Long, Long Trail

Further Reading

Philip Lickorish maintains his own website (The Liquorish Family) featuring the much wider Liquorish family and its many spelling variations, including those from other parts of the country, and families who have become associated through marriage.

A. Rockingham Revisited by Dr Peter Hill, Orman Publishing, Great Oakley, Northamptonshire ISBN 095 1 8199 92. (1998) In this 173 page volume he has produced a veritable encyclopaedia of facts, lists and anecdotes about the history, people and places of the Rockingham Forest. It is illustrated with maps and many line drawings of significant buildings and features.
Peter is a director of Rockingham Forest Trust and has written many books of local and historical interest on Northamptonshire in general and the Rockingham Forest in particular. Other titles include "Corby & Rockingham Forest", "Folklore of Northamptonshire" and "A History of Death and Burial in Northamptonshire".

B. Life and Work Among the Navvies by D.W. Barrett, MA, Vicar of Nassington Published by Wells Gardnet, Darton & Co., London 1880. The author describes his volume as 'a little sketch' to record the building of the Manton to Kettering railway line and to take account of the manners and customs of the men carrying out the work. Barrett was also charged with a mission by the Bishop of Peterborough to service the pastoral needs of the navvies and their families along the line.

A vote of thanks

The authors would like to express their thanks for the help, comments and suggestions from the following in the construction of this article: Julie Hill; Reader Services at London Metropolitan Archives, City of London; Jon-Paul Carr, Northamptonshire Libraries and Information Service; Contributors to the Handwriting, Deciphering & Recognition Forum (including JenB, josey, rosie99, sugarbakers and Treetotal) and the Rutland Forum (including Annette7 and David (dcbnwh)) at RootsChat.Com; kenf48 and Stebie9173 at The Great War Forum.

References

1. Pre-Norman Rockingham in "Rockingham Castle: 1000 Years of History." by Basil Morgan and Peter Brears: Heritage House Group 2005
2. Died at Wakerley on Wednesday the 1st inst, the wife of Mr Edward Liquorish, tailor of Stamford. Death Notices, Stamford: Lincolnshire Chronicle: Friday April 10th 1846. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
3: Armstrong, David: Atrophy & Decay in Sociology of Health & Disease Volume 8 Issue 3 page 220 June 28th 2008
4: Transfer of licences: Mrs Sharp, from her deceased husband, to the Horse Shoe, Rockingham. Northampton Mercury. Saturday May 24th 1862. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
5. Augustus Pugin, English architect, designer, artist and critic. wikipedia
6. Photograph: Northampton: Catholic cathedral church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Thomas of Canterbury: © Chris Downer, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
7. Report from Boston Borough Police Court June 23rd: Stamford Mercury June 30th 1882. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
8. Mineral Water Manufacturers: Boston Lincolnshire: Eastern Counties of England Directory 1901: Special Collections online: University of Leicester
9. Wages Dispute: Boston Borough Police Court: Stamford Mercury October 12th 1894. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
10. Nowell & Robson: stone merchants, paviers and contractors. Page 477 1884 Business Directory of London 22nd Edition. Special Collections online: University of Leicester
11. Nowell and Robson Report of a Committee of the Whole Board Spring Gardens August 6th 1875. in Minutes of Proceedings of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Google Books
12. Steam engine and skip: Photograph Construction of the Metropolitan District Railway: Fifteen Amazing Victorian Photos of the London Underground being Built. The Vintage News
13. Carman: Old Occupation Names: C. in Hall Genealogy Website
14. Waddington, Keir, The Bovine Scourge, Meat, Tuberculosis and Public Health 1850 - 1914 Chapter 2 Diseased meat and public health 1850-1870 Boydell Press. at Google Books
15. Photograph: Fuller Baptist Church, Gold Street Kettering: © Burgess Von Thunen, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
16. Photograph: All Saint's Church, Poplar: © Malc McDonald, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
17. War Office: First World War and Army of Occupation War Diaries, Part 1: France, Belgium and Germany. 60 Division 179 Infantry Brigade Ref: WO 95/3030/3 The National Archives
18. Arras Memorial © CWGC Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Reproduced in accordance with information on their website.
19. Photograph: Caldecott, Rutland: St John the Evangelist: © Chris Allen, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
20. Photograph: Bear Inn, South Cave, East Yorkshire: © Ian S, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
21. Photograph: Drewton Manor, South Cave, East Yorkshire: © Paul Harrop, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
22. Photograph: Brighouse, W Yorkshire: St Martin's: © Humphrey Bolton, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
23. Harringworth Viaduct Walk The Wellingborough and Kettering Over 40's Social Group
24. No Quarrel in 60 years: Northants Diamond Wedding: Northampton Mercury August 28th 1935 The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
25. Photograph: Ryhall, Rutland: St John the Evangelist: © John Salmon, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
26. Death of Kettering Market Official: Northampton Mercury September 19th 1941. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
27. Gretton: Inquest: Northampton Mercury. Saturday March 5th 1887. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
28. Fatalities 2 23-FEB-1944 ASN Wikibase Occurrence #72922 Aviation Safety Network
29. de Havilland DH98 Mosquito wikiwand
30. Photograph: Commonwealth Air Forces memorial, Cooper's Hill Runnymede: © Andrew Mathewson, and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
31. Boot and Shoe Manufacturers, Wholesale and Export: Page 257. Wright's Directory of Leicestershire Eleventh Edition 1892. Special Collections online: University of Leicester
32. Freer, Benjamin MRCVS, White Hart, High Street: Publicans - Victuallers & Veterinary Surgeons: Uppingham. Page 534 Wright's Directory of Leicestershire and Rutland Fifth Edition 1880. Special Collections online: University of Leicester
33. Dunstan War Hospital Northamptonshire County Asylum, St Crispin Hospital The Time Chamber
34. Amount authorised to Emily C Chambers, Guardian of children. Entry 818769, Nottingham in UK, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901 - 1929. The National Army Museum.
35. Cottingham Death: Northampton Mercury. August 10th 1934. The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.

Added: August 23rd 2016
Last updated: March 21st 2019

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