A Peppered Past

MOTHS AND MOTHERS

Like Margaret Drabble who recently published an assessment of the matrilineal genes and memes that she inherited from the family of her mother, Kathleen Marie Bloor, I have come to feel an affinity with a moth.

Ms Drabble has titled her semi-fictional exploration of family history and the cascading intergenerational quirks of its female members, ‘The Peppered Moth’ – presumably because a moth is a moth and a Bloor is a Bloor, even though both may seek to change their spots to fit in.

The novel deals with difficult relationships - between parents and offspring, and between family and a sense of place. Away from the grime and gloom of South Yorkshire, the youngest in the line of ‘Cudworth’ women, Chrissie (Margaret’s self representation), comes to life in a perverse, wicked, rebellious streak, drawn to "lust, adultery and alcohol".

But fighting off the family curse of depression which has darkened the lives of her womenfolk, the fourth generation narrator finds it difficult to avoid a harsh, dismissive, censorious tone in assessing her forbears. In fact, she finds it hard to avoid sounding like her mother. And left to settle in Sheffield once more, no doubt the darkness would come to predominate in adjusting to nature.

So moths and mothers make an interesting counterpoint.

Let’s start by talking about the moths. The Peppered Moth (Biston betularia) is a dowdy, night-flying moth that used to haunt woodland trees in a greyish-white that blended well with lichen-covered bark.

When the early 19th century collectors first identified it, it was a predominantly light-winged with black speckles. But in 1848, a black variant was identified in Manchester that blended in much more effectively with the increasingly soot-stained trees of industrial Northern England.

By 1895, 95% of the Lancashire peppered moths were black – and this dark form then spread across Britain until the lighter form began a resurgence following the 1956 Clean Air Act.

The shift in hues in response to camouflaging and predation was seen by evolutionists as a clear vindication of the theory of natural selection, though disputes arose on the validity of the science and creationists seized the opportunity to argue that, as their had always been lighter and darker forms, proportionality was the only issue.

But Mike Majerus, Professor of Evolution at Cambridge University recently spent seven years repeating the earlier studies on the predation of the peppered moth. He compiled enough visual sightings of birds eating peppered moths to show that, in rural Cambridgeshire, the black form was significantly more likely to be eaten than the peppered now that air pollution had declined.

“The peppered moth story is easy to understand,” he explained, “because it involves things that we are familiar with: vision and predation and birds and moths and pollution and camouflage and lunch and death. That is why the anti-evolution lobby attacks the peppered moth story. They are frightened that too many people will be able to understand.”

Adding: “If the rise and fall of the peppered moth is one of the most visually impacting and easily understood examples of Darwinian evolution in action, it should be taught. After all, it provides the proof of evolution.”

And more recent research by Ilik Saccheri, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Liverpool, UK, and his colleagues has shown that show one mutation from a single ancestor causes increased dark pigment, called melanism, in the typically light-coloured moth.

Saccheri's team used a genetic technique called linkage mapping to search for the gene responsible. A linkage map puts traits in groups according to how often they are passed on to the next generation together, which indicates how close together they sit on a chromosome. The closer the traits are in the genetic sequence, the less likely it is that they will be separated during sex-cell division, and the more likely it is that they will be passed on together.

To make the map, Saccheri and his colleagues twice crossed a dark male moth with a light-coloured female; the result was 132 offspring with varying traits. The traits most often inherited alongside dark coloration were matched up with genes of the silkworm (Bombyx mori) — a closely related moth species with a sequenced genome.

The locations of the genes for the traits pointed to a narrow region on chromosome 17, where the scientists say that a single gene variant is probably responsible for the peppered moth's melanism, although they don't yet know exactly which one it is.

Once the chromosome region was identified, the researchers examined moth samples collected all over Britain between 1925 and 2009. The same group of gene variants huddled in the chromosome region closest to the mutation in the dark moths, providing strong evidence that natural selection had acted recently on an advantageous mutation from one individual. If a mutation had been in the population for a longer time, or had come from multiple individuals, the selection of traits that were inherited together would vary more widely.

"It's not just the one mutation that has been swept through the population, it's that whole chunk of chromosome that has hitch-hiked," says Saccheri.

"It's a big breakthrough as far as peppered moths' industrial melanism is concerned," says Laurence Cook, a retired population geneticist from the University of Manchester, UK. He has been studying the peppered moth since the 1960s. "We've been going on for an awfully long time knowing just the classical Mendelian genetics."

DISAPPEARANCE OF THE SHORROCKS

Like Margaret Drabble, I have Northern English ancestors and a somewhat quarrelsome relationship with my family’s matriarchy. As my mother used to say ‘You can’t kill squitch’ (i.e. invasive couch grass). As if anyone would dare try?

But in my case it is the male-line ydna rather than the female-line mitochondrial dna that is of most interest from a genetic and behavioural point of view. I never knew my father as he was killed in the RAF in 1943 before I was born and, as my mother pretty much turned her back on his family, I grew up knowing very little about the ‘Johnsons’.

But as with the Peppered Moth, genetic techniques have uncovered a story about evolution – the evolution of my Johnsons from the Shorrocks family of Salford. In a similar effort to avoid being conspicuous – my grandfather changed his name when he left the North around 1905 (though oral history confirms that he could not divest himself of his cloth cap and pipe). Regardless, he could not change the genetic signature that he passed on to succeeding generations.

So we can match the darkening of the moth over the 19th century with the history of my family – though in our case, the change of hue and spots was much more abrupt.

As recounted by Derek Antrobus, pre-industrial Salford was ‘a pretty town with orchards, market gardens and homes of quite prosperous people arranged around a street called Greengate where the market square was to be found’. In 1773, its population was less than 5,000 – but this modest, historic town was already growing and my paternal ancestors who moved there from Blackburn were among the early immigrants.

In 1764 William ‘Sharrock’ married Sarah Rix at Prestwich, and a 1797 Trade Directory record William as a Calico-glazier, living Wood Street, Salford. William and Sarah had two sons, Richard (b 1788) and James (b 1793).

By 1801 the population of Salford had reached 29,495 and it was over 40,000 when James married Elizabeth Butterworth in 1815 (as James Shorrocks). The marriage certificate records James as a Brushmanufacturer, and Pigot’s 1821 Trade Directory shows that James and his brother Richard were joint owners of a workshop at 22 New Bailey Street, Salford.

By this time, Salford had become one of the first sparks off the anvil of the Industrial Revolution. Following the opening of the Bridgewater Canal in 1761, which halved the price of coal, and the development of the steam engine and textile machinery, urban growth caught fire, engulfing the old town. As described by a contemporary of James:

‘Houses have now displaced the verdure in all directions, and the pellucid character of the river has been destroyed by chemical refuse, and although the old localities still retain their favourite names – names suggestive of ‘Flora and the countrie green’ – they form so odd an amalgamation with the new streets to which they are wedded that the contrast raises our mirth along with our melancholy.

Wheat Hill has not an ear of corn to bless itself withal; Springfield has lost every trace of the vernal season; Garden Lane, Posy Street, Blossom Street and the Old Orchard lead to anything rather than fruit and flowers. Even Paradise [Vale] and Paradise Hill are shorn of their primeval attractions; and as to the Green Gate that once guarded Salford’s pastures – where shall we look for that?’

Later, by the time my great, great grandfather Walter Shorrocks was recorded as a 15 year old in the 1841 Census, the population of Salford had reached 91,361. And when my great grandfather Robert Edwin Shorrocks was recorded as a 7 year old in the 1861 Census, the population was 148,740 – with Walter living with his wife Ann (nee Collinge) and their three sons at 21 Islington Street, Salford, employing 2 workmen in the brush manufacturing workshop attached to the dwelling.

As contemporary photographs and the comments of Friedrich Engels make it all too clear, by the mid-1800s, the pleasant town known to William and James had become overcrowded and squalid in many areas. New rail connections in 1841 and 1881 and the opening of Salford Quays on the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894 accentuated the process.

By the time my grandfather Harry Shorrocks was recorded a 2 year old in the 1881 Census, (living with his father Robert who managed the brush stocks as a warehouseman and mother Fanny Eliza [nee Mallinson]) the population of Salford had reached 228,822.

It was over 300,000 in the Dirty Old Town when, as a young man Harry turned his back on Salford forever, settling in South London under his new alias Harry ‘Johnson’.

MOTHS AND FATHERS

There are many young people who run away and start afresh. But going further and changing one’s surname is an act that has repercussions beyond the immediate and personal. It affects all those who come later.

It raises possible limitations to our rights of reinvention.

Coming to the end of his life, Harry must have mused that no harm had been done. His three sons had produced what looked like a final total of four grand-daughters and it would have looked as though the Shorrocks name and ancestry were safely moribund. Then I popped up as a posthumous child, just a year before he died in June 1945.

But as the grandson who was cut free from his family history, I take exception to the fact that my father and his brothers and I were forced to fly, so to speak, under false colours.

Then there are the many, many hours of family history research that I spent dredging through the Johnsons in the Censuses looking for brush manufacturers. And the subsequent loss of my adopted brush manufacturing Johnson family of West Ham – and the embarrassing illegitimacy of my relationship with some of their lovely descendants the Bosleys.

So what drove Harry to turn his back on all that he knew and seek anonymity in London? We’ll never know – but we do know that he died as overweight and probably alcohol dependent. And that he had a reputation within my mother’s family as someone who became animated and inappropriate at any Bit of a Do, trying too hard to impress the ladies.

Or another way of putting it is that, like Chrissie the Margaret Drabble self-insert, he had a ‘wicked, rebellious streak, and was drawn to lust, adultery and alcohol’. Come to think of it, that covers some episodes in my own life.

So an independent streak to the caterpillar can be seen later as selfishness and self-indulgence in the post-pupated moth.

Getting back to my mother, on bad days she saw my grandfather rather than my father born again in me – particularly if I was going through a stouter or more exuberant spell. ‘You are just like your grandfather Johnson’ was sure to bring me to heel.

But like so many of the participants in the ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ series, I have found a sense of resolution and affinity in re-establishing my more distant family links. Looking back, something always seemed to be calling me from the past.

And what of my younger boys – are they, like the Peppered Moth, in the process of returning to ancestral type?

This is a hard question. As with any empirical work in the social sciences, it is difficult to avoid the observer intruding on the experiment.

In fact my own role in the story is now centre stage. Looking back over the last 200 years or so from the marriage of James and Elizabeth Shorrocks in 1815 to the present, you have a neat division between a Shorrocks century and a Johnson century – and I have been around for a third of the overall total.

I would like to think that my boys have inherited Shorrocks virtues and avoided Shorrocks vices but the likelihood is that they will see their lives much more in terms of the present day – focussing on reinvention in the light of the genes that I exhibit and the memes that I have spun.

But the family home is now called ‘Shorrocks Hey’ and my younger boys and I sometimes sing a little song going to school in the car based on a Bob Marley classic - ‘I shot the Shorrocks - but I did not shoot the deputy’. And Sam my eight year old has expressed dissatisfaction at being given his mother’s surname and flagged some interest in renaming himself Sam Shorrocks when he gets older.

As for the thirty and twenty-eight year old sons, they have, for the time being, rejected their father’s mutation into a Kiwi and dissolved back into the life of London - perfectly camouflaged.

North and South - Cat and Mouse

MADFERIT ARR KID

One of the ways in which I have reconciled the different strands of my background over the years is through geography. As the limited oral history of my father’s family suggested that he had been brought up in Salford as Harry Johnson - and my stepfather’s family were long-established in not so distant Cheshire, there was a link there.

As for my mother’s family, although her maternal grandparents were immigrants to Nantwich in Cheshire in the late 19th Century, strong roots had developed such that their offspring regarded themselves as true locals or ‘Dabbers’. And, on the other side, grand-mother Clarke was a Kenyon from Oldham – you can’t get much more North Western than that.

Cheshire of course is a bit dodgy if you want to be a Northern Nationalist. It is on the edge and can equally be counted as part of the Mercian Midlands – it is somewhere between Maryland and Virginia in its standing.

Anyhow, if a prominent Irish Republican who started life as John Edward Drayton Stephenson (born Leytonstone, London, 1928) can reinvent himself as Seán Mac Stíofáin, I don’t think that you can argue too much about the rights and wrongs of my case.

Years back, when I was a lecturer at the University of Bradford, I had a firebrand spell in the Liberal Democrats and gave a wildly implausible speech to the Annual Conference on regionalism and the need for the South to give greater respect to the North – I sat down to resounding whistles and yells of support.

I guess the main reason for the acclamation was that, unlike most of the other speeches, mine was not that boring. And I think that people were genuinely amazed to be told that the Yorkshire and Humberside Region had a GDP that was larger than that of New Zealand.

[Incidentally, modern New Zealand has a population that is larger than that of the free population of the core states of the Southern Confederacy at the onset of the US Civil War – something I’ll pick up in another article].

Anyhow, having spent more than half of my life now in exile, I have largely given up on the possibility of being invited back to the Independence Celebrations in Harrogate.

But I still follow the subject and have been amused at the row that has broken out about the artistic merits and cultural standing of L.S. Lowry. To me, it is really rather simple. He probably wasn’t all that good an artist but he is ours’ – and, chuck, as they say in Cheshire, ‘a cock fights best on his own bank’.

So I’ll let Gandalf lead the charge.

IAN MCKELLEN LEADS CHALLENGE TO TATE OVER L.S. LOWRY ‘EXCLUSION’

[by Mark Wainwright, The Guardian, 17 April 2011]

The Tate has been challenged to put its collection of paintings by LS Lowry up for sale if it intends to continue to exclude them from its London galleries.

The actor Sir Ian McKellen threw down the challenge in a joint attack by leading figures from the art world which questioned whether the "matchstick men painter" has been sidelined as too northern and provincial.

Although many artists from the north of England enjoy metropolitan critical acclaim, including David Hockney and Damien Hirst, none assert the character of northern people and landscape with Lowry's dogged persistence.

"Over the years, silly lies have been thrown around that he was only a Sunday painter, an amateur, untrained and naive," said McKellen, who narrates a highly critical television programme about Lowry's "exclusion" to be screened by ITV1 on Easter Day.

"His popularity needs no official endorsement from the Tate, but it is a shame verging on the iniquitous that foreign visitors to London shouldn't have access to the painter English people like more than most others."

The film sees others line up to condemn the fact that the Tate has shown only one of its 23 Lowrys – Industrial Landscape, painted in 1955 and owned by the gallery for 50 years – and then only briefly.

Noel Gallagher, of the Manchester band Oasis, said: "They're not considered Tateworthy. Or is it just because he is a northerner?"

The controversy reached a crunch point when the Tate was refused permission to copy Industrial Landscape to form part of a temporary mural on the work of landscape artists. Lowry's estate, which has donated much of his unsold work to the Lowry centre at Salford Quays, has made no secret of its irritation at the continued storage of his work.

The Tate denied any deprecation of "northern-ness" in Lowry's work, pointing to its record of establishing Tate Liverpool and supporting new Hepworth Wakefield gallery, which opens next month. Henry Moore, the Yorkshire sculptor and contemporary of Barbara Hepworth, has also been much feted by the gallery, whose founder Sir Henry Tate, the sugar mogul, was one of Lowry's fellow-Lancastrians.

The Tate said it planned to give Lowry space when its galleries are extended in 2013, but Tate Britain's head of displays, Chris Stephens, said in the television programme:

"What makes Lowry so popular is the same thing which stops him being the subject of serious critical attention. What attracts so many is a sort of sentimentality about him. He's a victim of his own fan base."

McKellen said: "If the Tate feels no responsibility to give the art-viewing public their favourite painters to view, perhaps they could let their stash go elsewhere. They could pass them on to a gallery like the Lowry, which shares its visitors' tastes. Or perhaps a touring retrospective, with a twist – the exhibits would be for sale."

NOT MUCH SENTIMENTALITY AT THE TATE



SENTIMENTALITY, SENSIBILITY AND MICKY MOUSE

Of course, Chris Stevens is just the sort of poncey Southerner who we of the flat vowels love to hate.

I looked him up and found his comments on Tate Britain’s 20th Century Memorial by Michael Sandle:

"As you walk into the gallery, the skeleton-ness and the Mickey Mouse-ness and the machine gun are all immediately apparent, and I think the aggressive tone of the piece is obvious even before you properly discern what it is and what it’s about. It packs a visual punch first of all, and then it’s compelling because there’s enough to it that you stop to think, 'what’s going on here?’

It’s a very confrontational sculpture – it really does stop people in their tracks. Well, apart from children, who seem to have an urge to walk straight across it.

I've met Michael Sandle, and he’s very passionate about this piece. He conceived it in response to the Vietnam War, and was originally going to call it ‘Mickey Mouse Machine Gun Monument For Amerika’, but he changed the title to make it more general after learning the extent of British culpability in that conflict. He sees that as a sort of precedent for what happened with Bush and Blair in Iraq.

Changing the title to ‘Twentieth Century Memorial’ makes it much more about a century of conflict. A century of conflict nevertheless dominated by the US – the mouse is unavoidably a symbol of a rotten and decayed America.

I like how Sandle uses the contrast between the materials – the beautiful polish on the gun, the black skeleton and the head. It all works particularly well in a huge space like the Duveen Gallery, with its shifting daylight. He worked on the sculpture over the best part of a decade, casting each part himself. The gun is not simply cast from a gun, because it’s larger than life-size, so he’s cast the individual components in bronze from moulds.

I’m not sure whether we should call Michael a traditionalist or not, but certainly he believes in painting and sculpture as a craft. He’s very hands-on and proud of the fact that this sculpture is hand-cast”.

Well that’s all very well – but how about the Tate commissioning a new work called a ‘Memorial to the Nineteenth Century North of England’?

It could be built up from shuttles shone by underage mill girls and old coal pit machinery plus a Blackpool Pantomime Cat.

Or, heaven knows, it could draw upon some locally painted images of homely stick people dwarfed by a ghastly, ghostly heimat.

Mary and Lizzie Burns

DID FREDERICK ENGELS LEAVE 2 SONS?

While researching Frederick Engels' life in England, I was touched by the references to his relationships first with Mary Burns, and later with her sister Lizzie Burns (photo opposite).

These warm and formidable Irish women obviously contributed vastly to both his personal life and to his understanding of the deprivations of working class people.

I tried then to pick them up in the 1851 to 1891 Census records - with no luck.

Perhaps this is not altogether surprising given the pressure to hide scandalous, out-of-wedlock relationships, the interests of the authorities in the possible Fenian connections of the sisters, and a possible desire on the part of Engels to safeguard them from the attentions of British and Continental secret police surveillance.

But as shown at the end of this article, there is a tantalising possibility that Mary was picked up in the 1861 Census - and that she gave birth to two sons, William (b 1843) and Thomas (b 1854).

Do any families own legends about their descent from Frederick Engels?

COMPILATION ON ENGELS AND THE BURNS SISTERS (various sources)

Friedrich (Frederick) Engels is assumed to have met Mary Burns when he first visited Manchester in the early 1840s, and she certainly accompanied him to continental Europe in 1845.

In the private part of his life Engels lived with Mary Burns who, together with her sister Lizzie, ran boarding houses, moving from time to time to different parts of Manchester. Engels was often registered as a lodger at these houses but used different names, presumably for the purpose of concealing his identity from the prurient.

This did not always work. In April 1854 he wrote to Marx “the philistines have got to know that I am living with Mary”, forcing him to take private lodgings once more.

In April 1862 he wrote to Marx, “I am living with Mary nearly all the time now so as to spend as little money as possible. I can’t dispense with my lodgings, otherwise I should move in with her altogether.”

She and Engels never married but he lived much of the time at the house he provided for her and her sister Lizzie in Ardwick (although he maintained separate lodgings). Engels was distraught at her death at the age of 41 in 1863. As he wrote to Marx, 'I felt as though with her I was burying the last vestige of my youth'.

Mary Burns's death was the occasion of almost the only sharp interchange between the two friends. Marx received a letter from Engels telling him of the death and Engels, not unnaturally, expected his old friend to extend great sympathy. Instead, Marx's reply mostly dwelt on the problems of finance and health which were yet again besetting his family.

Engels did not reply for a week and then wrote a fairly reproachful letter, to which Marx then wrote a deeply apologetic reply. Engels finally came round, although obviously still hurt:

“I tell you, your letter stuck in my head for a whole week, I couldn't forget it. Never mind, your last letter made it quits: and I am glad that when I lost Mary I did not also lose my oldest and best friend”.

When Engels eventually started a relationship with Mary's sister Lydia, known as Lizzie, Marx and Jenny appear to have been careful not to make the same mistake again. They became friendly with Lizzie (she and Jenny Marx would holiday together in later years) and Eleanor visited Manchester to stay at the Engels-Burns household. She also accompanied them on a trip to Ireland.

When Engels met the young Mary Burns in 1840s Manchester, she was almost certainly involved in the Chartist politics of the time, as were so many Irish textile workers. There is no sign that the Engel’s relationships with the Burns sisters were ever regarded by any of the participants as one sided or oppressive. There is, however, some evidence that Engels gained a great deal from living with these women, and that their personalities were at one with his own.

Eleanor Marx was a frequent visitor to the household and was friends with Lizzie.

She later write to Karl Kautsky that Lizzie “was illiterate and could not read or write but she was true, honest and in some ways as fine-souled a woman as you could meet”.

According to Marx’s son-in-law, Lizzie was “in continual touch with the many Irishmen in Manchester and always well informed of their conspiracies.”

He even suggested that “more than one Fenian found hospitality in Engels’ house” and that they were involved in the dramatic rescue of the Fenian leaders Kelly and Deasy in September 1867. There is no evidence for this, although their house at 252 Hyde Road was close to the rescue site.

Engels wrote to the German socialist August Bebel's wife in 1878 after Lizzie's death, 'She was of genuine Irish proletarian stock and her passionate, innate feeling for her class was of far greater value to me and stood me in better stead at moments of crisis than all the refinement and culture of your educated and aesthetic young ladies.

The 14 year old Eleanor Marx wrote home in 1869 with a description of the Burns household:

“On Saturday it was so warm that we, that is Auntie [Lizzie] and myself and Sarah, lay down on the floor the whole day drinking beer, claret, etc... In the evening when Uncle [Engels] came home he found Auntie, me and Ellen [Lizzie's niece], who was telling us Irish tales, all lying our full length on the floor, with no stays, no hoots, and one petticoat and a cotton dress on, and that was all”.

1861 CENSUS

Mary Burns

Age 38
Estimated Year of Birth 1823
Relationship to Head of Household Head
Occupation
Address 107, Birch Street

District Chorlton, Ardwick
Parish Ardwick
Administrative County Lancashire
Birth Place Ireland

[With sons William 18 and Thomas 7].

Brushing Up on the Family Trade

As my great grandfather Robert Edwin Shorrocks, my great great grandfather Walter Shorrocks and my great, great, great grandfather James Shorrocks (bca 1794) were all members of a dynasty of craft Brush Manufacturers in Salford, Lancashire, I have developed an interest in their trade.

And in the possibility of actually seeing how the brushes were made by viewing the film made by Sam Hanna in 1968 of the operations of a small company (similar one assumes to that of my family) - Baldwin's of Burnley in this case, rather than Shorrocks' of Salford.

One day, I hope to get to see the film or even buy a copy - in the meantime, I'll just provide the background and the sequence notes.

BACKGROUND

Sam Hanna was a Burnley born amateur film maker whose collection of 587 reels of mostly 16mm film was acquired by the North West Film Archive at the Manchester Metropolitan University in November 2005.

Sam, who has been dubbed 'the Lowry of film making', had a lifelong passion for cinematography. Born in 1903, he became a teacher of handicrafts and, against strong opposition from the education authorities, pioneered the use of film in the classroom.

Self taught Hanna had a film-making spanning six decades, from the 1930s to the 1980s. He is perhaps best known for the Old Crafts Series which forms a unique record of such long-forgotten crafts as brush-making, coopering, clog-making, and charcoal burning.

Also of great interest are his films of local events and customs, notably colour footage of the 'Busby Babes' in 1957, records of children's street games from the 1950s and footage of training exercises performed by his local Home Guard battalion during World War Two.

In 2009/10, the legacy of Sam Hanna will be brought to life again through online access, exhibitions, screenings and workshops. This new project links the North West Film Archive with partners in Lancashire Museums, Libraries and Record Offices, Towneley Hall Museum, and the MMU History Department.

Film No. 5100
OLD ENGLISH CRAFTS; BALDWINS BRUSH MAKERS ESTABLISHED 1854
Producer: Sam Hanna
1968
colour , sound (sep), 12 min. 21 sec:

Depicts the dying craft of making yard and paint brushes by hand at Baldwin's Brush Makers, (established 1854) at Cog Lane, Burnley. It includes footage of a yard brush head being created by a stock knife, holes being bored using a treadle machine and bristles inserted skilfully using pitch and twine, before the brush is trimmed.

Also features the different process of applying bristles to a paintbrush, as they are strapped, levelled up, tacked and sealed to the handle. Other brush-making skills such as combing fibres, cutting bristles and wiring brushes are also shown.

SEQUENCES:

Shot of a man inserting bristles into a red hand brush. "Mr Baldwin is the last of a family that have made brushes for over a century in this workshop".

Cut to shot of second man doing the same job in the same location. The man is shown dipping the ends of bristles into tar-like substance (pitch), winding twine around the dipped area, re-dipping the ends and inserting the bristles into the brush.

Cut to shot of a worker operating a stock knife (that is associated with clog-making) to cut and shape the heads of hand-made yard brushes. The knife is held on the workbench by a hook on the knife and an eye that is fixed to the bench.

Cut to shot of a worker inspecting wooden cones that are topped with curved drill bits. "The holes to receive the bristles in the brush head are made by means of a spoon bit, fixed into a wooden cone, which screws onto the head of a treadle boring machine."

Close up shot of one of the drill bits on a cone. Spoon bits vary in size from small to large diameters depending on the bristles to be received. A treadle machine (operated by a pedal) is shown. The operator stands on one leg, operating machine with other foot, as holes are drilled into the brush head. The drilling process is shown and a yard brush head with the requisite number of drilled holes is shown to the camera.

Cut to whitewashed walls, the brush maker's workshop. A vat of boiling pitch (tar-like substance) is in the middle of the workspace, the brush maker works with the brush head and bristles next to him. He judges the correct clump of bristles, dips the ends in the pitch and wraps some twine (or "thrum") around the end of the bristles. The twine is pulled tight on a steel rod that is fixed to the bench. He dips the ends in the pitch once more before inserting the bristles into one of the holes in the brush head.

In a different location, the brush is then shown to be trimmed by hand-operated bench shears to ensure that the bristles are the same length.

Fibres are then shown being cut by guillotine. A length gauge is set so that bristles are cut to required length.

New close up shot from a different angle showing bristles being inserted into a yard brush.

Good view of the bench-fixed steel rod that has become worn down from twine being pulled tight against it.

Explanation of the different types of materials used to make bristles and which countries they come from.

The inspection of the brush head after shearing is the final operation, the worker is seen passing his hand over the bristles to check for irregularities.

Cut to shot of a 'comb' device that is fixed to a bench. This is used if a mixture of fibres is required, for example animal hair and bristle. The mixture is drawn through the teeth of the comb to produce "hackled" or "combed" bristle. This action cleans the materials before dividing or multiplying the rows of differing components, until uniformity is obtained. The device also helps to remove small or extraneous lengths of bristle as the sample is "dragged" through the comb by hand.

New shot showing bristles laid out on a bench, narrator explains that the bristle materials are naturally bent and the craftsman ensures that the bends lie in the same direction.

Cut to bristles being put onto a paintbrush. The bristles are spread out on the brush handle - a narrow thong of leather is nailed on to hold them in place.

From a different angle, the same process begins. Once the thong has been nailed down once, the bristles are levelled up with a knife. The centre of the brush is marked with a knife which helps to stagger the placing of tacks on both sides of the brush and avoid them meeting in the middle.

Cut to the finishing process, where the ends of the bristles are welded and sealed on to the brush handle using a hot iron powered by a gas-fired heater.

The final scene shows the skill of a female worker wiring bristles on to a brush head, to produce a brush that will be used to groom horses. The narrator claims the action had to be "filmed in slow motion" as the woman was working so quickly. Once the bristles are wired, the woman is shown trimming the brush with shears that are attached to her work bench.

Beware the Wrath to Come - Salford in the 1880s (YouTube Clip from the film Hobson's Choice)

Sir John Mills 'Hobson's Choice'

Harry Shorrocks' Choices

My Shorrocks' family's Brush Manufacturing business in Salford in the 19th Century puts me in mind of the British film 'Hobson's Choice'.

I suspect that some of the family feuding, bullying and class conflict that it portrays lies at the heart of my grandfather Harry's decision to throw off his Shorrocks surname and start a new life in London around 1905.

SYNOPSIS

Hobson's Choice is a 1954 film directed by David Lean, based on the play of the same name by Harold Brighouse. It stars Charles Laughton in the title role of Victorian bootmaker Henry Hobson, Brenda De Banzie as his eldest daughter Maggie and John Mills as a timid employee. The film also features Prunella Scales, in one of her first roles, as daughter Vicky Hobson.

Hobson's Choice won the British Academy Film Award for Best British Film 1954. Willie Mossop (John Mills) is a gifted, but unappreciated shoemaker employed by the tyrannical Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) in his moderately upscale shop in 1880s Salford. Widower Hobson has three daughters.

Maggie (Brenda De Banzie) and her younger sisters Alice (Daphne Anderson) and Vicky (Prunella Scales) have worked in their father's establishment without wages and are eager to be married and free of the shop. Alice has been seeing Albert Prosser (Richard Wattis), a young up-and-coming solicitor, while Vicky prefers Freddy Beenstock (Derek Blomfield), the son of a respectable corn merchant.

Hobson doesn't object to losing Alice and Vickey, but Maggie is far too useful to part with. To his friends, he mocks her as a spinster "a bit on the ripe side" at 30 years of age. Her pride injured, she bullies the contented, unambitious Will Mossop into an engagement.

When Hobson objects to her choice of husband and refuses to start paying her, Maggie decides that she and Willie will set up in a shop of their own. For capital, they turn to a very satisfied customer for a loan. With money in hand, they get married and, between her business sense and his shoemaking genius, the enterprise is very successful.

Within a year, they have taken away nearly all of Hobson's clientele. Finally, at Maggie's urging, Mossop goes into partnership with Hobson, now an almost-bankrupt alcoholic, on condition that Hobson take no further part in the business.

Hobson's Choice (1954 film) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In wrath and ill-feeling they parted, Not knowing when they'd meet again

THREE HA'PENCE A FOOT
by Marriott Edgar (1932)




I'll tell you an old-fashioned story
That Grandfather used to relate,
Of a joiner and building contractor;
'Is name, it were Sam Oglethwaite.

In a shop on the banks of the Irwell,
Old Sam used to follow 'is trade,
In a place you'll have 'eard of, called Bury;
You know, where black puddings is made.

One day, Sam were filling a knot 'ole
Wi' putty, when in thro' the door
Came an old feller fair wreathed i' whiskers;
T'ould chap said 'Good morning, I'm Noah.'

Sam asked Noah what was 'is business,
And t'ould chap went on to remark,
That not liking the look of the weather,
'E were thinking of building an Ark.

'E'd gotten the wood for the bulwarks,
And all t'other shipbuilding junk,
And wanted some nice Bird's Eye Maple
To panel the side of 'is bunk.

Now Maple were Sam's Mon-o-po-ly;
That means it were all 'is to cut,
And nobody else 'adn't got none;
So 'e asked Noah three ha'pence a foot.

'A ha'pence too much,' replied Noah,
'Penny a foot's more the mark;
A penny a foot, and when rain comes,
I'll give you a ride in me Ark.'

But neither would budge in the bargain;
The whole daft thing were kind of a jam,
So Sam put 'is tongue out at Noah,
And Noah made 'long Bacon' at Sam.

In wrath and ill-feeling they parted,
Not knowing when they'd meet again,
And Sam had forgot all about it,
'Til one day it started to rain.

It rained and it rained for a fortni't,
And flooded the 'ole countryside.
It rained and it kep' on raining,
'Til the Irwell were fifty miles wide.

The 'ouses were soon under water,
And folks to the roof 'ad to climb.
They said 'twas the rottonest summer
That Bury 'ad 'ad for some time.

The rain showed no sign of abating,
And water rose hour by hour,
'Til the only dry land were at Blackpool,
And that were on top of the Tower.

So Sam started swimming to Blackpool;
It took 'im best part of a week.
'Is clothes were wet through when 'e got there,
And 'is boots were beginning to leak.

'E stood to 'is watch-chain in water,
On Tower top, just before dark,
When who should come sailing towards 'im
But old Noah, steering 'is Ark.

They stared at each other in silence,
'Til Ark were alongside, all but,
Then Noah said: 'What price yer Maple?'
Sam answered: 'Three ha'pence a foot.'

Noah said 'Nay; I'll make thee an offer,
The same as I did t'other day.
A penny a foot and a free ride.
Now, come on, lad, what does tha' say?'

'Three ha'pence a foot,' came the answer.
So Noah 'is sail 'ad to hoist,
And sailed off again in a dudgeon,
While Sam stood determined, but moist.

Noah cruised around, flying 'is pigeons,
'Til fortieth day of the wet,
And on 'is way back, passing Blackpool,
'E saw old Sam standing there yet.

'Is chin just stuck out of the water;
A comical figure 'e cut.
Noah said: 'Now what's the price of yer Maple?'
Sam answered: 'Three ha'pence a foot.'

Said Noah: 'Ye'd best take my offer;
It's last time I'll be hereabout;
And if water comes half an inch higher,
I'll happen get Maple for nowt.'

'Three ha'pence a foot it'll cost yer,
And as fer me,' Sam said, 'don't fret.
The sky's took a turn since this morning;
I think it'll brighten up yet.'

----------------

Well, I am finally in touch with the descendants of my grandfather's brother. The bad news though is that while they have been puzzled by Harry Shorrocks (i.e. Johnson’s) presence in the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses, there is no oral history that explains his disappearance from 28 Nadine Street, Salford around 1905 - or the lack of any subsequent contacts with the family of his brother Robert Mallinson Shorrocks.

We have then to take the charitable view that, as with Sam Oglethwaite the joiner and building contractor whose saga is recounted above, sheer Northern cussedness or ‘okkardness’ may have played no small part in the family rupture.

Shorrocks Family in 1881 (photos Islington Mill & Islington Road, Salford)

1881 Census:

THE SHORROCKS FAMILY

Salford, Lancashire, England - extract: 1881 British Census


KEITH’S GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER

Dwelling: 23 Islington St

Walter SHORROCKS

Marr Age Sex Birthplace
M 57 Male Salford
Rel: Head Occupation: Brush Manufacturer

Ann SHORROCKS
M 57 Female Salford
Rel: Wife

William W. SHORROCKS
U 22 Male Salford
Rel: Son Occupation: Brush Maker

Louisa SHORROCKS
U 19 Female Salford
Rel: Daughter

Florence SHORROCKS
U 14 Female Salford
Rel: Daughter

KEITH’S GREAT GRANDFATHER

Dwelling: 309 Eccles New Rd
Census Place: Pendlebury, Lancashire, England
Household:

Robert. E. SHORROCKS
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
M 27 Male Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Head Occupation: Warehouseman

Fanny E. SHORROCKS
M 25 Female Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Wife

Harry SHORROCKS
2 Male Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Son

Louisa SHORROCKS
5 m Female Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Daughter

My. Ann BORROWDALE
U 16 Female Newcastle On Tyne, Northumberland, England
Rel: Servant Occupation: General Domestic Servant


BACKGROUD

1881 - As Recalled by Eric Midwinter

Just a few months before the start of the year, Captain Boycott was 'isolated from his kind as if he were a leper of old'. This was the Irish land agent, Captain Boycott and, in January 1881, Charles Parnell (his is the 'leper' quote) was acquitted of conspiracy, in respect of the 'boycott' - of those taking over the land of an evicted tenant - campaign in Ireland.

The Irish Coercion Act of 1881 followed and there were many outrages and correspondingly harsh responses. On the mainland a Fenian bomb in Salford injured three, whilst another bomb was found in London's Mansion House. In October, Parnell, the Irish political leader, was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail, something he welcomed, for, allegedly, he wished to be out of circulation whilst his mistress, Kitty O'Shea (disclosure of their togetherness was to lead to his political disgrace in 1890), had his child.

Sleaze in parliament and troubles in Ireland: yes, it really is 1881 and not today. Just to underline the point that it was ye oldyne dayes, Lancashire won the non-official county championship. 'Monkey' Hornby's side, which included the likes of Richard Barlow, A.G.Steel, Richard Pilling, Johnny Briggs and Alec Watson, won ten and drew three of its thirteen games. This was one of the first teams to concentrate on strong, collective fielding. Other cricket news: C.J.Logan became the first bowler to take a hundred wickets in Canada and cricket was played for the first time in what is now Lesotho.

Football now: in the FA Cup Final the Old Carthusians beat the Old Etonians 3-0, the last time two southern amateur clubs were in the final - Blackburn Rovers were to be beaten by Old Etonians in 1882, and then Blackburn Olympic won the cup in 1883. Captain E.G.Wynyard led the winners' forwards. Indian born, he was the forcing Hampshire bat who played three times for England. The final was played at the Oval before a crowd of 4,000. There were 7,000 at Old Trafford for the opening day of the Lancashire/Middlesex match.

Gladstone - the People's William' - was Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer and his cabinet included such names as Joseph Chamberlain and John Bright. Abroad there were problems with the Boers in South Africa, where British troops were worsted at the battle of Majuba Hill, which led, at the Pretoria Convention, to some recognition of the rights of the Transvaal. In the Sudan the Mahdi led his revolt against Egyptian rule, the prelude to the incidents leading to the death of General Gordon in Khartoum in 1885.

But what was life like at home? Here are some statistics for the statisticians. In 1881 the British population was 35m, of whom 22m lived in towns and 13m in the country, and of whom only 3m had the vote. During 1881 884,000 were born; 492,000 died; 256,000 emigrated, the great majority - 172,000 - to the United States; and about this time the term (if more rarely the methods of) 'contraception' began timidly to be used.

The number of the labour force working in agriculture and allied crafts was down to 12%, while those in the manufacturing and mining industries was up to 44%, with 21% in transport and trading and 7% in public and professional careers. The remaining 16%, including 1.3m women, were in domestic service. In 1881, according to Mrs Beeton's revised 'Book of Household Management', a man on £1,000 a year could afford five servants. Mind you, it was possible to hire a cook for as little as £15 and a maid for as little as £9 a year. The 'General Report' of the 1881 Census commented on 'the increasing difficulty of finding suitable servants'. You can't get the staff, you know.

Agricultural labourers, in 1881, earned on average 13s 9d a week, while there were 180,000 'indoor' (i.e. in the workhouse) and 627,000 'outdoor' (i.e. in receipt of cash relief) paupers, which rather nails the myth that all impoverished people ended up in the workhouse. It is of interest to glance at the median family's weekly budget in 1881. It was 26s 6d (£1 32.5p for the younger brethren), of which 16s went on food - 5s of which was for bread and 2s 4d for meat - 3s 6d for rent and the same for fuel and clothing.

In 1881 the glittering Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera, 'Patience', which laughed at aesthetes in particular and affected posers in general, and which smirked sideways at Oscar Wilde ('As I walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in my medieval hand...') opened to all-round approbation. Thomas Hardy wrote his little known novel 'A Laodicean' and Anthony Trollope wrote his little known novel 'Ayala's Angel'. The 'Daily Telegraph' was only a penny, but, at least, it was a Liberal newspaper. 'The Times' was threepence. Among the 884,000 new arrivals were P.G.Wodehouse and Ernie Bevin.

What about Test cricket, did you ask? Compared with the wall-to-wall Test cricket of 2002, there was exactly ONE DAY of Test cricket in 1881, and that only just made it. 31 December 1881 marked the first day of the First Test against Australia in Melbourne. It was drawn, with our old friend, Tom Horan, making the only century of the match. W.E.Midwinter, having played the first two Tests ever in Australian colours, made his English debut. It's a wonder they didn't boycott him.

AND IN THE OLD WEST:

April 28 – Billy the Kid escapes from his 2 jailers at the Lincoln County Jail in Mesilla, New Mexico, killing James Bell and Robert Ollinger before stealing a horse and riding out of town

July 14 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner

July 20 – Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana

October 26 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurs in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA

December 28 – Virgil Earp is ambushed in Tombstone and loses the use of his left arm.

AND

Butch Cassidy (April 13, 1866 – November 7, 1908) was 15 years old in 1881. He was born Robert LeRoy Parker and became a notorious American train robber, bank robber and leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang.

‘Butch’ was born in Beaver, Utah in Beaver County, to Maximillian Parker and Ann Campbell Gillies. His parents were English and Scottish Mormon immigrants, respectively, who came to the Utah Territory in the late 1850s. They had formerly been residents of Victoria Road, Preston, Lancashire.

AND

Five years before 1881 (in 1876), the Oglala Sioux had overwhelmed General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Later they were defeated - and subsequently recruited into circus depictions of their battles. In the winter of 1887-88 hundreds of these Oglala Sioux Indians (depicted in the 1990 film 'Dances with Wolves') settled in Salford for six months, in their teepees on the cold and damp banks of the River Irwell!

They were all members of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Circus, within which they recreated classic gun-slinging scenes from the Old West with their ‘cowboy' counterparts. The show was so popular in Salford that it took a break from its world tour to stay longer in the city (or reputedly was grounded there when bankrupted).

One small Sioux girl was baptised at St Clement's Church before slipping out of the history books - and descendants of the Salford Sioux still live in Greater Manchester.

Old Salford

Modern Salford

Nadine Street, Salford / Coronation Street, Wetherfield

As the Coronation Street TV Serial is reputedly based on everyday life in Salford, its treatment of the family is of interest.

So far, it has done us reasonably well - in the form of a reference to Detective Sergeant Shorrocks (1963). I'm not completely sure though whether grandfather Harry Shorrocks was on the same side of the law!

Incidentally, the Nadine Street house with the purple door is the one that Harry left around 1905!

Coronation Street: Mon 29 Apr, 1963 - EPISODE SYNOPSIS

Det. Sgt. Shorrocks of the CID interviews Emily and Doreen. They are reluctant to give a description of the good looking robber. Ken suspects Frank of being up to something. Mavis calls at No.11 to visit Dennis' grandmother. Elsie plays along as the cleaner. Papagopolous is pleased that the stock was stolen as it was old stock that couldn't sell and was insured. Elsie demands that Dennis tells Mavis the truth. Frank tells Ken he plans to leave the GPO and buy a DIY shop. Dennis can't bring himself to tell Mavis.

Tracking down the Family History of the 'Johnsons' (or should that be the Shorrocks')?

From Islington Street, Salford to South Cheshire, via South London, three generations, and a change of name









THIS IS WHAT I STARTED WITH:

"My grandfather Harold [‘Harry’] Johnson migrated from Salford, Lancashire to London at the turn of the 19th century. Harry must have been born around 1885. Although he spent most of his life in London, he continued to speak with a pronounced northern accent. Harry’s father was a publican who kept a pub in Salford – his name was probably Robert.

More information on the family could possibly be obtained by consulting UK Census material for the occupants of the address of the pub (comparatively easily located, as presumably, there were a limited number of Johnson families who had this occupation - and publicans always lived on the premises). Another alternative would be to research the licensing records for Salford pubs. [This information may be wrong and is under review]

We know almost nothing else about the family in the North, though there are many Johnson farming families in Cheshire (and it was very common for the younger sons of farmers to operate small businesses like pubs). One example of a local Johnson family is provided by Bunbury Church – a special place for the family as my mother worshipped there regularly and we often took Midnight Christmas Communion there as a family – this contains a rather grand 18th century memorial to a Mrs. Johnson[1]. It is not totally implausible that we are related to her, or rather to her husband.

AFTER 7 YEARS TRYING TO TIE THINGS DOWN:

Introduction

In the early part of my life, I was brought up in an entirely female household consisting of my mother Mabel Kenyon Johnson, my sister Susan Davina Johnson (who is over seven years older than I am), and my grandmother Gladys Clarke. We lived in a semi-detached suburban house named ‘Linwood’ on the Crewe Road in Willaston, Cheshire (between the old country town of Nantwich and the industrial and rail centre of Crewe).

It was not until I was five years old when Meg (i.e. Mabel) remarried and we moved to a farm at Wettenhall near Winsford, Cheshire that men really came into my life – in the form of my step-father Horace Darlington and the workers on the farm that Horace managed.

When, over the years I found myself the father of four boys, I decided that our Family History should provide a balanced treatment of both the men and women in the family – and that it should start in proper patriarchal style with our male forbears. The problem with that decision was that meant starting from the point at which information was in shortest supply.

My father had died in October 1943 in an air accident flying with the Royal Airforce – I was born some 7-8 months later in June 1944. As for my grandfather Harry Johnson, he died in 1945 – and by the time I came to start researching the family, both of my father’s brothers Robert Lubbock Johnson and Eric Harry Johnson were also dead.

So what started as a simple challenge became a serious hobby that in turn yielded a significant set of engaging problems – one of which, identifying the origins of my grandfather Harry Johnson became a longstanding challenge (2002-2009) to both my research abilities and patience. This then starts our story.

SEARCHING FOR MY 'JOHNSON FAMILY'

For starters, Johnson is a very common name – it is the second most common name in the USA (with 2.2 million holders) and the tenth most common name in England. It also has alternative spellings (principally Johnston and Johnstone but also rarer name variants like Joynson). And Harry is not a highly distinctive name as it can stand by itself - and act as a nickname form of Henry, Harold and even Hereward.

The scraps of oral information that I could remember were meager. My mother had told me that the Johnsons originated in Salford, Lancashire and that there was a tradition of giving the eldest sons the name of Robert. There was also mention of a family pub (as yet to be validated or identified). Subsequent contact with my three Johnson cousins (Janice, Robert’s daughter) and Judy and Gillian (the daughters of Eric Johnson) added nothing substantial that could be used in pinning down the family’s origins.

Surprisingly, Robert (or Uncle Bob as he was always known to me) referred to his father as ‘Harold’ Johnson when he submitted details to the War office for the commemoration of my father’s death. In contrast, my father recorded his father as ‘Henry’ Johnson when provided details for his own marriage certificate.

However, when I was able to obtain Harry’s own marriage certificates (recording his marriage to my grandmother Constance Maud Mary Lubbock in 1907 and his re-marriage as a widower to Florence Wood in 1944) he clearly recorded himself as ‘Harry’ Johnson.

It started to seem that the facts about Harry Johnson were not entirely straightforward – not the least of which was the conundrum that two of his sons differed markedly in their interpretations of his name. Of course, people who wish to gain anonymity may be cautious in their disclosure of facts - and indeed adopt more common names that allow them to dissolve into the general populace.

One ‘fact’ did emerge from the early rounds of research. In both of Harry’s marriage certificates he refers to his father (my great grandfather) as ‘Robert Edwin Johnson’ and cites his occupation as ‘Brushmanufacturer’.

This then became the focus of the research – to identify a Brushmanufacturer / Brushmaker with the name of Robert or Robert Edwin Johnson, who had a son with a name that could be related to ‘Harry’ and who was born in or around 1879 (the various certificates supported a birthday in the early part of 1879).

As the research evolved, the internet information sources became steadily more diverse and complete between 2002 and 2009. Initially, the search began with the 1881 Census which was the first to be computerized (FamilySearch.com) and which has a useful search engine that allows search links between an individual (e.g. Harry Johnson) and the head of household containing the individual (e.g. Robert Edwin Johnson).

The obvious starting point was Salford, Lancashire. The search did not yield any plausible results. The search was then widened to the whole of England and Wales without result – except for the discovery of a Brushmanufacturer named Robert Johnson who was born, lived and worked in West Ham, London in the right era.

Subsequently, it has become possible to access all of the decennial censuses for England from 1841 to 1911. Combing them became a very long-term and necessarily tedious task. None of them provides any link to a Brushmanufacturer named Robert / Robert Edwin Johnson who had a son who could reasonably have been called ‘Harry’. In my disenchantment with the available data though, I more or less adopted the West Ham family and conducted a good deal of interesting but superfluous research on its family members (see box below).

---------------------------------------------------------------------

MY FALSE START UP TO JANUARY 2009

Actually, almost everything that I have written above may be wrong. It has taken a good deal of effort and persistence to try to track down my Johnson ancestors, partly due to the commonness of the name, partly due to the fact that links were lost with the Johnson side of the family, and not least because the little oral history that I had was erroneous. I am not sure where the Salford reference arose - it is clearly wrong. However, it would have allowed a reprise of D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, with my grandfather leaving t' Grim North for work in an office in London, like Paul Morel's older brother - and my father Cyril coming back north to rural Cheshire to claim his birthright.

Anyhow, the ‘truth’ is interesting and challenging enough. Let us then start again.

My current ‘best assessment’ is as follows:

My great grandfather Robert Edwin Johnson was born at Plaistow, West Ham, London c1853. Hs wife Elizabeth was born in Gravesend, Kent c1854. According to the 1901 Census, Robert and Elizabeth were then living at 141 Queen's Road, Plaistow with younger children Amy V. (16); Daisy G., (14); Anne L. (12); Alice (10); and William H. (5). All of the younger children had been born in Plaistow. Robert's occupation is given as Brush Manufacturer and he was living 'at own account'. This suggests that he was running a small factory making brushes (probably fancy brushes for personal grooming).

It seems that my great grandmother was born Elizabeth Bossley in Gravesend and that she married Robert Edwin Johnson in the June Quarter of 1876. It has also proved possible to pick up the family in the 1881 Census, with the family consisting of Robert Johnson (28) Brush Maker (b Plaistow), with 27 year old wife Elizabeth (b Gravesend) and oldest son Robert J. Johnson aged 2 (b West Ham) and daughters Elizabeth C. aged 4, born Poplar, Middlesex, and Caroline aged 9 m, born Plaistow, Essex. The family was then living at 4 Chapman Road, West Ham, Essex. It is possible that my infant grandfather Harry was in the charge of a nurse Rose Ann Seager at 68 Cromer Street, Middlesex, presumably due to a postnatal illness.

Having obtained a copy of Robert [Edwin?] Johnson's Marriage Certificate, I can now confirm that he married Elizabeth Bossley on 4th July 1876 at the Parish Church of Bromley St Leonard, Middlesex. My great grandfather Robert Johnson is described as a Brushmaker and both he and Elizabeth were living in Bromley. Their ages are simply stated as 'full'. The Certificate also gives the names and occupations of the fathers of the bride and groom. My great great grandfather Robert William Lilystone Johnson is decribed as a Basketmaker. Elizabeth's father's name is given as John Bossley, Sawyer. The witnesses were Thomas William Bossley and Ann Elizabeth Bossley (presumably siblings). The Bossleys hail from Gravesend, where according to one of our relatives George Bennett, who has an impish sense of humour, 'they were the town drunks'[2].

I have been able to pick up R.W.L. Johnson (the elder Robert) in the 1881 Census and it seems that he was born in Plaistow in 1820, suggesting that the family has a very long history in that area. Again, the fact that the family had stayed in the same area for a long period, while Plaistow was enveloped by London, may help explain the lack of definition in the family history.

If families move substantial distances, they invariably carry a memory of that shift (e.g. most New Zealand families have a clear picture of when their ancestors arrived here).

In 1881, the elder Robert was living with wife Catherine (60), born Catherine Bowen in North Weald, Essex, at East Street, Barking, Essex, with son Alfred (25), harness maker born West Ham; son George (23) Basket Maker born West Ham, and daughter Caroline (19) born West Ham, no occupation given. The Lilystone component of his name is interesting and presumably this was his mother's maiden surname. It is an old Suffolk / Norfolk name suggesting or rather confirming our Johnson origins in eastern England.

We cannot be sure of the whereabouts of my grandfather Harry Johnson (22) in 1901. Most likely, he was the Harry Johnson who was boarding with Ms Rose Ann Prior at 8 Caledonian Road, Islington, having been born in St Pancras, Holborn. If so, he was working for a Manufacturing Chemist at that time. Given the apparent confirmation from my great grandfather's name that Robert was indeed a preferred Christian name for the elder boy, it is interesting that Harry did indeed have an elder brother of that name.

It is possible that he is the Robert Johnson recorded in the 1901 Census, aged 23, who had been born in West Ham and is recorded as a Gas Fitter. However, we currently have little chance of picking up links to him and his descendants. There may also be Johnson descendants from William H. Johnson but the fact that he was 5 years old in 1901, and therefore 18 years old in 1914, would have probably exposed him directly to World War I.

I have been able to trace my great grandfather ‘Robert Edwin Johnson’ (Edwin assumed) from Harry Johnson's marriage certificate. Harry married Constance Maud Mary Lubbock on 11th May 1907 at the Lambeth Registry Office. He gave his own occupation as Estate Agent's Clerk and his father's occupation as Brush Manufacturer.

At that time, Harry was living at 120 Stockwell Park, Clapham / Lambeth, SW London. Constance was living at 25 Lugard Road, Peckham, SE London. Her father Charles Daniel Lubbock is recorded as a Solicitor's Clerk and the marriage was witnessed by her brother Charles V.W. Lubbock and her mother Helen Rebecca Lubbock. In 1917, at the time of the death of Constance’s brother William in WW1, the Lubbocks were living at 26 Whorlton Road, Peckham Rye, London.

There is however an outstanding problem with the Johnsons in that I cannot find a direct association between Harry Johnson and the Robert Johnson of the 1881 and 1901 Censuses. I thought that when I was able to obtain electronic access to the 1891 Census I would find Harry there among his siblings.

In fact Robert Johnson the Brush maker is recorded as living at 29 St Mary's Road, West Ham. He was 38, his wife Elizabeth was 37 (born Gravesend) and the following children were living with them: Elizabeth C. (14) b Poplar; Robert J. (12); Caroline (10); Matilda J. (8); Amy J. (6); Daisy M. (4); Anne L. (1); and Alice (baby) - all the children from Robert down to Alice having been born in West Ham.

However, there are no other Robert Johnson Brush Makers / Manufacturers recorded anywhere else in England in the 1901 Census. Looking for Harry again separately, we probably (i.e. mistakenly) find him recorded as the adopted son (12) of Alfred Pryor, Printer, (53) and Rose Anne Pryor (53) of 40 Bidborough Street, St Pancras. It seems plausible then that Harry's former nurse Rose Ann(e) Seager asked to adopt Harry when she married Mr Prior/ Pryor as a woman well into her 40s. If so, this may also help explain why the family history is a bit hazy.

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PICKING UP THE PIECES FOR A THIRD TIME

The story then takes another turn here as a result of the re-establishment of links with the family of Harry’s wife (she was born Constance Maud Mary Lubbock). In particular, my father’s cousin ‘Bill’ Lubbock wrote to me providing a good deal of interesting family history relating mainly to his side of the family. However, in referring briefly to my grandfather Harry, he was unequivocal that Harry was ‘a Northerner’. So that was the end of any possible links to the West Ham Johnson family.

It is also worth noting that the history of brushmanufacturing / brushmaking (and its participating families) is remarkably well represented on the internet. There is a Society of Brushmakers’ Descendants – and there is no reference there to a northern Robert Johnson. Nor did any links surface on the numerous family history ‘blogs’ (including the excellent site GenesReunited).

At some point in 2004, I decided to take a complementary approach and commission a male line ydna test to identify relatives through their internal genetic ‘signature’. I joined the FamilyTreeDNA company’s Johnson – Johnston – Johnstone ‘One-Name’ ydna study which records and collates the results of tests on males who bear the name Johnson and its variants.

While the study focuses on US families (with special reference to the colonial settlements in Virginia), it is reasonable to assume that links could be established with originating families like mine that remained in the United Kingdom. Currently, there are over 500 test results on the site. There are no results that are at all close to mine (and this also holds true for the results posted on a much smaller UK-only website).

As an after-thought in the light of my growing interest in genetic signatures and pre-history, I posted my ydna results on the general research site ‘Ysearch’ (our signature code is y2hkm). The outcome was disappointing. Although my ydna belongs to the most common Western European type R1b1, its detailed sequence is quite unusual (the wider Oppenheimer Test characterizes it as R1b-13, with one ‘hot spot’ focused on the English Pennines and Cumbria).

For at least 18 months, there were no matches closer than 10:12. Then, a single 12:12 match appeared with a Canadian named Ken Grist. However, Ken made it clear that his grandfather had changed his name from Shorrock to Grist when his mother had remarried. The match was therefore with the name Shorrocks and its variants (Ken’s family hails originally from Blackburn-Darwen, Lancashire).

Some weeks later, in an idle moment, I punched the name Harry Shorrock into the 1891 Census search engine. The hair of the back of my neck rose when I read the results – there was a Harry Shorrocks born 1879 of Salford, Lancashire, whose father had the name Robert Edwin Shorrocks and whose occupation was that of a Foreman Brushmaker! It subsequently transpired that Robert, his father Walter and his grandfather James were the successive heads of a long-standing brushmanufacturing business in Salford.

I then agreed with Ken Grist that we would upgrade our ydna tests to 25 markers. The results came back 24:25. This equates roughly to an 80 percent probability that we shared a common male ancestor within the last 300 years (provided the surname link is genuine).

But there remained the possibility that Ken and I descended from a common ancestor who existed before surnames became established (say 1300). The upshot though was clear that any originating Johnson family stemmed from Lancashire – and that there was a likely association with the Ribble Valley and the city of Blackburn. (The name Shorrocks derives from the words ‘Scar’ (i.e. bank) or ‘Share’ (i.e. boundary) Oak that helped name a small hamlet called Shorrock Green that has now been enveloped by metropolitan Blackburn). And this neatly fitted the pattern of results for the ydna Oppenheimer Test which suggested that the signature that Ken and I share (R1b-13) focused on the Pennine region of Northern England.

However, I also began to seriously consider the possibility that Harry Johnson and Harry Shorrocks were indeed one and the same. To test this proposition, I commissioned a UK-based professional genealogist Antony Adolph (a contributor to the current BBC series ‘Who Do You Think You Are’) to review the evidence. At first, I made no mention of my ydna results and the link to Ken Grist. He therefore made an extensive independent search across the 1841 – 1901 censuses for likely Robert Edwin Johnsons. Again there were no likely candidates.

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ASIDE: JUST HOW DIFFICULT IS IT NORMALLY TO FIND AND TRACE 'JOHNSONS' NOW THAT THE CENSUSES AND BIRTH, MARRIAGES AND DEATH DATA IS READILY AVAILABLE ON LINE?

The answer to this question is ‘not at all difficult’.

As an example take a Johnson family that does actually enter our Family Tree. Using the Free Birth, Marriages and Death search engine, I became aware (as entries beyond about 1910 give the former surnames of birth mothers) that there were two further Johnson boys (in addition to Bob, Jay and Eric) who had a Lubbock mother.

At first, I suspected that these could have been additional brothers who were adopted out of my family but then I remembered that a distant relative ‘Lofty Grimshaw’ , with whom I had corresponded (son of another sister of my grandmother - Phyllis Grace Lubbock), had told me that another of my grandmother’s sisters Winifred Clara Lubbock had also married a Johnson.

The two boys were Stanley Derrick Johnson born 1913 and Reginald James Johnson born 1915, the sons of James Gilbert Johnson, Clothier’s Clerk and Winifred Clara Johnson (nee Lubbock).

James was my grandfather’s brother-in-law – so how easy was to identify his father (from the same generation as ‘Robert Edwin Johnson’)?

From the 1901 Census we find that James G. Johnson was born in 1889 in Norwood, Surrey. He was 12 in 1901 living with his father James Johnson, carpenter, born 1856 at Exning, Suffolk, his step-mother Mary A. Johnson, born 1853 in Norfolk, and siblings Elsie 11 and Ethel 10 (Mary Ann looks as though she was James’ second wife and that he had been previously widowed – James and Mary Ann appear to have married in 1897 in Camberwell).

It is only another half an hour’s work to go back another generation to find that James Gilbert Johnson’s grandfather was John Johnson, born Helions Bumpstead, Essex in 1810. He married Ellen Webb in 1838 in Newmarket (from FreeBMD) and in the 1861 Census the family consisted of John 51, Ellen his wife 45, Thomas 20, Mary A. 17, Emma 11, John 8, James 6, Charles 3 and Elizabeth 3 (the last two children presumably being twins).

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BACK TO THE SHORROCKS LINK

However, alerted to the possibility of a name switch to Shorrocks, Antony Adolph researched the possibility that the Harry Shorrocks born in 1879 (as recorded in the 1901 census) married at some point beyond 1901. He found no evidence of a marriage or of any subsequent reference to this Harry Shorrocks. He therefore concluded that it was likely that Harry did in fact change his name prior to marrying my grandmother in London.

Insofar as there was a problem that remained, it revolved around the fact that we had no established birthplace for ‘Harry Johnson’. However, the release of the results of the 1911 census in December 2008 – January 2009 provided the final lynchpin for the case when Harry stated that he had been born in 1879 in Salford, Lancashire.

Searching the 1901 and 1911 censuses we therefore find:

1901 Harry Shorrocks aged 22 born Salford, Lancashire
Harry Johnson aged 22 born Salford, Lancashire? No result

1911 Harry Shorrocks aged 32 born Salford, Lancashire? No result
Harry Johnson aged 32 born Salford, Lancashire

So the upshot is simply that Harry Johnson was most probably born Harry Shorrocks and that our family history on the male side beyond 1901 is of Shorrocks and not Johnsons. We are never likely to find out why Harry changed his name and it may well be better not to know[3].

But his male descendants may be forgiven for some irritation over the rather casual manner in which the link was broken with our ancestors[4]. As for me, the time spent wasted on searching for Johnsons has been finally recompensed by finally discovering something that was elusive and intriguing.

THE SHORROCKS FAMILY ANCESTORS

Let us start then by picking up on our Shorrocks ancestors in Salford. The entries for the 1881 Census are given below, showing grandfather Harry Shorrocks (i.e. Johnson) aged 2, living with his father, mother and baby sister Louisa (and with a girl helper named Ann Borrowdale supporting my great grandmother Fanny Elizabeth in looking after the new baby).

Salford, Lancashire, England: Extract: 1881 British Census

KEITH’S GREAT GRANDFATHER

Dwelling: 309 Eccles New Rd
Census Place: Pendlebury, Lancashire, England
Household:

Robert. E. SHORROCKS
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
M 27 Male Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Head Occupation: Warehouseman

Fanny E. SHORROCKS
M 25 Female Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Wife

Harry SHORROCKS
2 Male Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Son

Louisa SHORROCKS
5 m Female Salford, Lancashire, England
Rel: Daughter

My. Ann BORROWDALE
U 16 Female Newcastle On Tyne, Northumberland, England
Rel: Servant Occupation: General Domestic Servant

KEITH’S GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER

Dwelling: 23 Islington St

Walter SHORROCKS
Marr Age Sex Birthplace
M 57 Male Salford
Rel: Head Occupation: Brush Manufacturer

Ann SHORROCKS
M 57 Female Salford
Rel: Wife

William W. SHORROCKS
U 22 Male Salford
Rel: Son Occupation: Brush Maker

Louisa SHORROCKS
U 19 Female Salford
Rel: Daughter

Florence SHORROCKS
U 14 Female Salford
Rel: Daughter

Presumably, Robert Edwin was the Warehouseman for the Brushmanufacturing firm run by his father Walter who still had three children living at home – William, Louisa and Florence.

As for my great great grandfather Walter, we can actually catch a glance of where he lived (Islington Street) from the contemporary photograph. Clearly, 19th Century Salford was no paradise.

In 1861 Walter was living at 23 Islington Street. He was recorded as being 37 years old as was his wife Ann. Both were born in Salford. Their children were recorded as James Henry (13), Walter (11), Robert Edwin (7), Annie (5), Emily (4) and Clara (7 months old who appears to have died in infancy). Walter was recorded as employing 3 men and 1 boy in his brushmanufacturing workshop.

END NOTE

As previously suggested, taking a sentimental view, the emerging story would allow for a reprise of D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, with my grandfather leaving t' Grim North for work in an office in London, like Paul Morel's older brother - and my father Cyril coming back north to rural Cheshire to claim his birthright. However, the truth seems to be more complex.

Harry left Salford (the original ‘Dirty Old Town’), changed his name and appears not to have looked back. It is quite possible then that when my father was pursuing research for his PhD in History at the Rylands Library, Manchester University, he was not in contact with his Shorrocks relatives across the River Irwell[5].

So what do we actually know that is more personal about my grandfather Harry? By all accounts he was a talented and ambitious young man who was able to obtain employment at the London Stock Exchange (Jay’s cousin ‘Lofty’ Grimshaw comments in a letter that ‘Harry had a very good job on the Stock Exchange’). Apparently, if someone rattled off a series of numbers / stock quotes he could add them together in his head.

He was also a well-known cricket umpire and loved his ale. Further, we know that he was substantially overweight towards the end of his life and unable to tie his own shoe laces – the result no doubt of his drinking. However, I have no doubt that he was very good company – an accomplished raconteur and someone who loved a good tale (so, no doubt, he would have very much amused at us discovering and retelling his story).

FAMILY TREE INFORMATION

SHORROCKS / JOHNSON ANCESTORS

Ancestors of Fanny Eliza Mallinson (wife of Robert Edwin Shorrocks)

Generation No. 1

1. JOSEPH1 MALLINSON (must have been born c1780) married BETTY (surname not known).

Occupation: Manufacturer

Child of JOSEPH MALLINSON and BETTY:

2. i. DANIEL2 MALLINSON, born 25 Nov 1806, Rastrick, West Yorkshire; died 29 Apr 1861, 34 John Street, Pendleton, Salford.

Generation No. 2

2. DANIEL2 MALLINSON married (1) ELIZABETH WHEELHOUSE 19 Jun 1828 in St. Bartholomew's, Colne. He later married (2) MARGARET (LATE NEWTON) RIGG 18 Nov 1855 in St. Mary's, Eccles.

Notes for DANIEL MALLINSON:
1841 543/5 13 Bank Street, Pendleton, Eccles
1861 2902 76 34 John Street, Pendleton
Baptism: 04 Jan 1807, St. Matthew's, Rastrick
Occupation: Book Keeper

Children of DANIEL MALLINSON and ELIZABETH WHEELHOUSE are:

i. ELIZABETH ANN3 MALLINSON, born 15 Nov 1829, Brighouse.

More About ELIZABETH ANN MALLINSON:
Baptism: 27 Dec 1829, St. Matthew's, Rastrick

3. ii. WILLIAM WHEELHOUSE MALLINSON, born 1831, Rastrick; died 12 Jun 1864, 2 Cross Lane, Salford.

ii. JOHN WHEELHOUSE MALLINSON, born 20 Dec 1838, Bank Street, Pendleton; died 27 Feb 1839, Bank Street, Pendleton.

iv. MARY MALLINSON, born 1842, Pendleton.

Generation No. 3

3. WILLIAM WHEELHOUSE3 MALLINSON (DANIEL2, JOSEPH1) was born 1831 in Rastrick, and died 12 Jun 1864 in 2 Cross Lane, Salford. He married ELIZA JACKSON 06 Sep 1854 in St. Mary's, Eccles. She was born 1832 in Pendleton (Eliza’s father was William Francis Jackson, Stationer).

Occupation: Book Keeper

Child of WILLIAM MALLINSON and ELIZA JACKSON:

i. FANNY ELIZA4 MALLINSON, born 1856, Salford.

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Ancestors of Robert Edwin Shorrocks (father of Harry Shorrocks / Johnson)

Possible Prior Generations

THOMAS SHORROCKS born 1738, Salford [A marriage was celebrated on 14 June 1763 between Thomas Shorrocks 25, Malster of Salford (i.e. born 1738) and Agnes Taylor 26 – record in Archdeaconry of Richmond Marriage Bonds] - possibly the Thomas Shorrocks who served one year as the Borough Reeve (i.e. Mayor) of Salford in the 1780s

JAMES SHORROCKS (must have been born c1770) married Elizabeth Ackerley, 2 July 1792, Manchester Cathedral (James’ sister Susanna christened 25 March 1765, father Thomas, mother Agnes)

Generation No. 1

JAMES SHORROCKS born c1795 Lancashire (possible son of Thomas Shorrocks above)

Pigot & Slater's Directory 1841:James SHORROCKS & Co., brush makers, 30 New Bailey Street, Salford

Marriage 3 Feb 1815 Collegiate Church, Manchester- James Shorrocks (X) Brushmaker, Batchelor of this Parish and Town of Manchester- Elizabeth Butterworth (X) Spinster of this Parish and Town AforesaidWitnesses: Benj Ball, William Hadley

The baptisms at Manchester Collegiate Church/Cathedral for James & Elizabeth's younger children are on the IGI:
James 9 Dec 1821
Hannah 15 July 1827Rebecca 12 Mar 1829
George 13 Dec 1830
Edwin's baptism on IGI on 21 Feb 1836 at St Stephen's, Salford

1841 Census: New Bailey St HO107/586/257

James Shorrocks 45 Brushmaker Born in county (Lancashire)
Elizabeth " 45
"Walter " 15
"Elizabeth " 15
"Hannah " 14
"Rebeccca " 12
"George " 10
"Edwin " 5 "(Ages in 1841 rounded to nearest 5 years)

Generation No. 2

WALTER SHORROCKS born 1824 Salford, Lancashire
Death of Walter SHORROCKS aged 82yrs MAR qtr 1906 Salford

Slater's Directory 1853:Walter SHORROCKS, brush maker, 7 Bexley Street, SalfordSlater's 1876 and Slater's 1879 DirectoriesWalter SHORROCKS, brush manufacturer, 23 Islington Street, Salford

Marriage 2nd April 1847 Manchester Cathedral:
- Walter Shorrocks
- Ann Collinge (father James Collinge, ‘Traveller’ i.e. salesman)

Children born to parents Walter SHORROCKS & Ann and all baptised at Manchester Cathedral:

James Henry SHORROCKS baptised 6th Jan 1850 (FreeBMD birth reg Chorlton SEPqtr 1847)Walter SHORROCKS baptised 6th Jan 1850 ( FreeBMD birth reg Salford JUNqtr 1849)Alfred SHORROCKS baptised 18th Aug 1851 (FreeBMD birth Salford DEC qtr 1850 miss-spelling of SHORROKS)
Robert Edwin SHORROCKS baptised 4th Sept 1853 (FreeBMD birth Salford SEP qtr 1853)
Emily Jane SHORROCKS baptised 31st Jan 1858 (FreeBMD birth Salford MAR 1857)
William Whittle SHORROCKS baptised 26th Dec 1858 (FreeBMD birth Salford DECqtr 1858 -note, there was also a similarly named child reg in Chorlton 1858 )
Louisa SHORROCKS baptised 19th Feb 1862 (FreeBMD birth reg Salford DECqtr 1861)Elizabeth Ada SHORROCKS baptised 9th Sep 1863 (FreeBMD birth reg Salford SEP qtr 1863)

Possible marriages of Robert Edwin’s siblings:
James Henry SHORROCKS & Lucy A. HOOD JUN qtr 1871 at St Mary’s Eccles
Walter SHORROCKS & Mary Ann BUCKLEY DEC qtr 1870 M/c Cathedral
Emily Jane to Thomas GREGSON JUN qtr 1879 Salford St Philip’s
Louisa to Walter NEIL MAR qtr 1904 Salford St Ignatius

Two possible deaths of siblings:
Alfred SHORROCKS 1851 Salford
Elizabeth Ada SHORROCKS 1863 Salford

CENSUS DETAILS:

1851 is on the unfilmed census ie was damaged due to water logging –
7 Bexley St, ref: 3c/88/6
Walter Sharrocks
"Ann
"James
"Walter
"Alfred "1851 also on unfilmed ref 3A/123/11 at 6 Broughton St
Eliza Sharrocks
Rebecca
"George "Edwin "

1861 21 Islington St RG9/2920/20/2
Walter Sharrocks 37 Brush Manufacturer employing 2 Salford
Ann " 37
"James Henry " 13 Office Boy Manchester
"Walter " 11 Scholar Salford
"Robert E " 7
" "Annie L
" 5 "Emily J
" 4 "William Whittle
" 2 "Clara A " 7 mo "

1871 23 Islington St RG10/4021/127/8
Walter Shorrocks 47 Brush Manufacturer Salford
Ann " 47
"James H " Chemist Hulme
Robert E " 23 Warehouseman Salford
Ann Laura " 15 At home
"Emily Jane " 13 Scholar
"William W " 12 "
"Louisa " 9
"Florence " 4 "

1881 23 Islington St, Salford
Walter Shorrocks 57 Brush Manufacturer
Ann 57
William W. 22 Brush Maker
Louisa 19
Florence 14

1891 4 Crescent RG12/3220/34/1
Walter Shorrocks 67 Brush Manufacturer Salford
Ann " 67
"Walter " 42 Clerk CC (probably 'County Court')
"William W " 32 Brush maker
"Louisa " 24 "

Generation No. 3.

ROBERT EDWIN SHORROCKS
Baptised 4th Sept 1853
Died aged 54yrs Salford September qtr 1907

Marriage: Robert Edwin SHORROCKS marriage to Fanny Eliza MALLINSON at Salford St Philip's 1878

CHILDREN

Harry (took Johnson as his surname) 1879 (married Constance Maud Mary Lubbock)
Louisa 1880 (married Walter Neil)
Puuline 1884
Robert Mallinson 1886 (married Lily Mather and Florence E. Pearce)
Fanny 1890 (married George Davis)
Annie 1900

CENSUS DETAILS:

1881 309 Eccles New Rd, Salford (all born Salford)
Robert. Edwin. Shorrocks “27” Warehouseman
Fanny Eliza. “ 25”
Harry “2”
Louisa “5 m”
Ann BORROWDALE “16 “ born Newcastle On Tyne, Northumberland, England
General Domestic Servant

1891 42 West Wynford St, Salford
Robert Edwin. Shorrocks 37 Warehouseman & Clerk
Fanny Eliza. " 35
"Harry “12
"Louisa “10”
Pauline “6”
Robert Mallinson " 4”
Fanny “2 months” "

1901 28 Nadine St, Salford
Robert E. Shorrocks 47 Foreman Brush-maker
Fanny E. " 44
"Harry “22 " House Decorator’s Clerk
Louisa “20” Brush-maker
Pauline “16”
Robert M " 14” Book seller’s clerk
Fanny “10”
"Annie “5 months”

References to Robert Edwin’s siblings:

Reference to James H. SHORROCKS involved with the Liberal assoc of Stretford 1890s and also someone of that name advertising weekly for the Norbreck Hall Hotel in Blackpool.

Generation No. 4

6. HARRY SHORROCKS / HARRY JOHNSON born 28 March 1879 at 26 Zachariah St, Salford
CENSUS DETAILS

1911 32 Brailsford Rd, Tulse Hill, London, SE.
Harry Johnson 32 Stockbroker’s Clerk
Constance Maud Mary 27
Robert Lubbock 3
Cyril 1&1quarter

CHILDREN:

Robert Lubbock JOHNSON (born 29th May 1908, Fulham)
Cyril 'Jay' JOHNSON (born 24 December 1909, Peckham, Camberwell, London
Eric Harry JOHNSON (born 8 February 1912 Tulse Hill, Lambeth)

REFERENCES TO HARRY’S YOUNGER BROTHER ROBERT MALLINSON SHORROCKS

Robert Mallinson SHORROCKS marriage to Lily MATHER 1909 Salford
Birth of Amy ShORROCKS (mother MATHER), 1910
Birth of Edward SHORROCKS (mother MATHER) 1920 MAR qtr Salford
Death of Lily SHORROCKS (born MATHER) aged 37yrs JUNqtr 1922 Salford

Re-marriage SEP qtr 1923 Salford for Robert M. SHORROCKS to Florence E. PEARCE

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The Church also hosts a very interesting alabaster sarcophagus dating from the mid-12th century containing the remains of Sir Hugh de Calveley. He was as famous Crusader hero who campaigned with Richard the Lionheart in Palestine. The fine full-length recumbent alabaster statue of the knight has lost some of one leg – reputedly, as a result of local farmers grinding off the alabaster to use it in potions to cure sick cattle.

[3]To be fair, there may have been some ‘good' reasons why Harry changed his name like giving his mother the slip and leaving home to join the Army to fight in the Boer War. Or maybe, he just didn’t like the surname which does not appeal widely to those who do not identify it as ‘an old Lancashire name’ and who may regard it as ‘a classical albatross of a name’ (Australian comment on the Internet).

[4] Why Harry ‘Johnson’? Possibly because Harry Johnston was a famous African explorer and Empire Builder who was the first European to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in 1884 – when grandfather Harry was 5 years old – who knows, if he was a bit of a wanderer as a kid, he may even have been nicknamed ‘Harry Johnson’?

[5] Given the relative rareness of the name Shorrocks, it is quite easy to trace the links back further. It appears that my great, great, great grandfather James Shorrocks was also a Brushmanufacturer in Salford and that he may well have been the son / grandson of a Thomas Shorrocks who was the Borough Reeve (i.e. mayor) of Salford around 1776. The women in the family were Fanny Eliza Mallinson (wife of Robert Edwin Shorrocks), Ann Collinge (wife of Walter Shorrocks) and (in all probability) Elizabeth Butterworth (wife of James Shorrocks).

Posted by Keith Johnson at 10:41 PM
Labels: Keith Johnson or Joe Shorrocks

COMMENT

Yvonne Johnson at yvejohn30 said...

Hi again 2nd cousin .Just by chance found you .My name is Yvonne Johnson ,I along with my 3 brothers and 2 sisters are children of Reginald James Johnson ,whose mother was Winifred Clara Lubbock ! Will wait to hear from you ,as not sure how to use this blog !!

October 15, 2009 4:08 PM

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