The White Family of Nantwich

Carole Cockshott

The story of the White family starts with Benjamin who came to live in Nantwich about 1802.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, Benjamin was born in 1782. He only appears on one census, that of Nantwich in 1841, which shows that he was not born in that county of Cheshire. A search of the surrounding counties found a baptism in 1782 for a Benjamin White, son of George White and his wife Ann in Neen Savage, Shropshire. George, of the parish of Neen Savage had married Ann Farmer in Sidbury, Shropshire on 26th November 1881 by licence and I suspect that she was the daughter of Benjamin Farmer and had been baptised at Burford in 1757.

George and Ann had four children baptised in Neen Savage, Robert and Benjamin in 1782, Hannah in 1784 and Thomas in 1786.

On 23 Feb. 1802 Benjamin married Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of Thomas and Anne in the Parish Church of Acton. Their ten children were then all born in Nantwich, starting in 1803 with Ann, followed by George 1806, John 1808, Mary 1810, Eliza 1812, William 1815, Henry 1817, James 1819, Sarah 1821 and Joseph 1823.

In 1824 Elizabeth died, followed by her son Henry in 1825. Elizabeth and Henry share the same grave in the churchyard of St. Mary's with their headstone resting flat near the wall of the church. This stone is still in extremely good condition, as is evident from photographs sent to me by Phil Coops.

In 1826 Benjamin was married for a second time, this time in Over to Mary Percival, daughter of John and Mary Percival. They had three sons. Henry born 1827, Benjamin born 1829 and Edward born 1830. Edward died in 1840 and his mother Mary in 1842.

Benjamin was a cordwainer and must have been an educated man, who believed that all his children must also be able to read and write, as is evident from the occupations they took up. Each one has signed the parish register at either their own marriage or as a witness at the marriage of a brother or sister.

James Hall mentions Benjamin in his book "The History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich", as a member of the Bible Society and as a founding member of the Hospital Street Wesleyan Church. His name appears in the trade directories of Nantwich as a shoe manufacturer and he is listed as a person entitled to vote for the "Knights of the Shire of the Southern Division of the County of Cheshire." from 1837 to 1841.

The last three children he had with Elizabeth, were all baptised in the Hospital Street Wesleyan Chapel, as were the three he had with his second wife, Mary. It is these baptismal records that named the parents of his two wives.

From this and the epitaph on his tombstone, it seems that he was a man of substance, educated, God-fearing and well thought of in the community.

His children all went on to good careers and did well for themselves in their own way. Ann, the eldest daughter, married Richard Lythgoe in St. Mary's in 1826. Richard was born in Lowton, Lancs. about 1800 but had settled in Nantwich where he was a Tea Dealer. They had four children, William born 1828, Sarah Ann born 1830, Ann Eliza born 1833 and Richard born 1835. Unfortunately Ann died following the birth of Richard who also died in December of that year. Husband Richard stayed in Nantwich, married again and had more children. He died a widower in 1872.

George, the eldest son, died unmarried in 1829.

John married rather late in life being 34 to his wife Martha Boughey's 20, in 1842. John was a Currier and, with Martha, proceeded to have a large family, starting with William in 1844, Eliza Ann in 1846, George Henry in 1848, Benjamin in 1851, John 1855, James 1858 and last, Sarah Ellen in 1861. William died aged 5 in 1850 and Benjamin in 1851. Sarah Ellen married Henry Smith, a tailor, in 1889 in Nantwich.

Mary married Thomas Pierpoint a draper of Warrington and went to live there, the first of Benjamin's children to move away from Nantwich. Little more is known of Mary apart from the fact that she had four children, Benjamin baptised in Warrington 1833 and then the 1851 census shows Thomas as a baker, a widower wih three other children, employing two men and an apprentice. The children were Emily Ann, Mary Ellen and Sarah Evans. A copy of Emily's birth certificate proves that her mother is Mary White but no record of Mary's death has been found in St. Catherine's and no record of the births of Mary Ellen or Sarah have been found either. Thomas continues to be listed in trade directories of Warrington as a baker and later, son Benjamin is shown as a seed merchant but they are not on the census for 1861

Eliza, the next child, must have had one of the saddest lives of all Benjamin's children. Her husband was Edward Carven, an Attorney at Law and the only child of Edward Carven, a bookbinder, and Margaret Davies. Edward was baptised in St. Mary's in 1804 and married Eliza in 1832. They had seven children, the last, Esther Emma being born after her father's death at the age of 42. Esther died aged three years. Of the seven there were four boys and three girls. Three of the boys died in infancy, leaving Eliza with only one boy and the three remaining girls to bring up. To support herself she became a schoolmistress. Eliza died in 1889.

William, I came across quite by accident and until last year I had no knowledge of his existence. The Bishop's transcripts of the Parish Registers of St. Mary's became available on film through the Mormons and I spent weeks going though them looking for all my Nantwich ancestors. I found William's baptism, and then later, a baptism for a Benjamin White, son of William, surgeon of Manchester and Esther. On looking back in the register, I found another baptism for a William Henry, son of William, a medical student and Esther and realised that this was Benjamin's son, William, who was now a doctor. He had married Esther Latham in Manchester Cathedral in 1836 and by 1839 had three children, all born and baptised in Nantwich, William Henry in 1838 and Elizabeth Ann in 1839. So far I have been unable to find anything further on William, but have my fingers crossed for the 1881 census index.

Henry, born 1817 and died 1821, is next, then James and Sarah both of whom seem to disappear, and Joseph died in 1848 unmarried.

Now to the two surviving children of Benjamin and Mary, Henry and Benjamin. By 1851 with both Benjamin and Mary dead, these two seem to have left Nantwich as neither appears on the census for that year.

Henry married Harriet Jones in Liverpool in October 1851 and had at least three children, William Edward born 1857, John Percival in 1865 and Alfred who died in 1901 aged 42. At the time of his marriage Henry was a Currier but later is shown as a timekeeper and clerk. Despite a long search of the West Derby / Liverpool area in 1861, no trace of Henry and Harriet has been found. They had John Percival baptised at St. Peter's, Liverpool, but don't seem to have lived in the immediate area. In 1891 they appeared in Church Coppenhull with their widowed son William Edward and his two boys Alfred Percival and Richard Henry. John Percival is known to have left England in 1882 and by 1885 was in Jamaica.

Benjamin married Mary Ann Wheatley, daughter of Benjamin Wheatley in St. Mary's, Edge Hill, West Derby in 1854 and had two children baptised at St. Peter's, Liverpool, Edward Percival in 1855 and Sidney in 1856. They then lived in the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester, as Benjamin Percival White is in the Manchester trade directories as a commission agent. Again I have been unable to find them on the census at either the address on the children's birth certificates or in the enumeration district.

Benjamin died of cholera during the 1849 epidemic and is buried in the Barony Road cemetery. I have a wonderful set of photos sent to me by Phil Coops with help from his wife Betty, showing the Dysart Buildings where Benjamin lived, St. Mary's Church and Benjamin's magnificent headstone, which unfortunately has now fallen face down.

On his headstone he is described as a man devoted to God, of high moral character, with a love of the Bible and its teachings and a local preacher as well as someone who paid attention to helping others 'with unwearied zeal and perseverance...' He was 67 when he died.

Unfortunately the poor condition of the 1841 census leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I think it was by sheer luck that I found Benjamin on it as most pages were either partially or totally blank.

This story has been pieced together from the Bishop's transcripts of St. Mary's Nantwich, Neen Savage, Sidbury, Burford, Acton and Over, the Hospital Street Weslayan Chapel baptism register, Trade directories of Manchester and Warrington, the IGI birth, death and marriage certificates and the census from 1841 to 1891. I have also had a great deal of help from Phil and Betty Coops and Eric Nichols, all of whom have provided me with books, maps and photos of key places.