The family of the Revd Thomas Todd, Rector of Kildale

In February 2013 I mentioned the family of the Revd Thomas Todd, Rector of Kildale, and his wife Elizabeth Jackson.  She was born in Wilton, the eldest daughter of George Jackson of Lackenby and his wife Margaret Rowland.

Widowed at the age of 52, Elizabeth left Cleveland to join her married daughter Margaret on the Isle of Man.  She was accompanied by her two unmarried daughters, Isabella and Rhoda, and the infant motherless children of her eldest son, Edward.

Isabella and her nephew Richard Ord Todd both emigrated to Australia, and it's from there that I have been very glad to receive a selection of Todd family photographs taken in Yorkshire, the Isle of Man and Australia.  They came to my correspondent via her mother from the last survivor of the Todds there.

Here is Mrs Elizabeth Todd, in her new life on the Isle of Man:

Mrs Elizabeth Todd 1808-79

And here is her daughter Isabella.  She went out to Australia as a governess in 1880, a few years after this photo was taken:

Isabella Mary Todd 1837-1907

Here is her younger sister Rhoda.  She was the principal of the Cleveland Private School at Douglas, IoM, and this photograph shows her looking appropriately scholarly:

Rhoda Anne Todd 1839-1927

I think that these two girls, photographed at the studio of G. Wallis, Union Place, Whitby, look very like Isabella and Rhoda, but I leave it to readers to judge for themselves:

My Australian contact points out that they can't be - the photo must date from after 1860 and they would be older than that.  But they certainly look like Todds!

Their eldest brother Edward Todd was a chemist & druggist.  On 17 October 1861 he married Elizabeth Mary Poynter (1841-66) in Guisborough.  She died on 2 July 1866 leaving Edward with a two-year-old daughter and a three-month-old boy, Annie and Richard.

Here are Edward and Elizabeth in happier days:

Edward Todd and his wife Elizabeth Poynter

Edward must have found himself unable to manage with his little children and so entrusted them to the care of his widowed mother and spinster sisters.

I think the photograph below must have been taken after Elizabeth's death.  Certainly Edward looks more careworn here, and he is accompanied not by his young wife, but by his dog.  Perhaps his mother wanted a photograph of him to take with her when she left for the Isle of Man with his little children:

Edward Todd 1834-1916

Ten years after Elizabeth's death, Edward remarried in Wolverhampton.  He and his wife Margaret Griffiths had two children, Frederick John Todd (1878-1939)and Elizabeth Margaret Todd (1881-1950).

His first son, Richard Ord Todd, became a bank clerk.  Here he is, photographed as a young man on the Isle of Man:

Richard Ord Todd 1866-1953

Alfred Edwin Sadler of Sadler & Co, Middlesbrough and Ulverston

Here, with very many thanks to Ian Stubbs, who contacted me to offer the use of the photographs on his flickr stream, are pictures of the Sadler family memorial in the churchyard at St Cuthbert's, Ormesby.

This side of the obelisk commemorates Alfred:

Also

Alfred Edwin Sadler J.P.

of Sandhall, Ulverston

brother of 

Sir S.A. Sadler J.P. D.L.

born 28th August 1857

died 24th April 1922

Ian's flickr stream is a must!  Especially if you are researching family from the North East and you can't easily get here, look and see if he has a picture for you.
 
For example: if you missed the WWI exhibition at the Dorman Museum, don't panic - you can read the beautifully-done information panels here from Ian's photos.

Alfred Edwin Sadler, manufacturing chemist of Ulverston

John Lamb of Ulverston has asked me if I have any information on Alfred Sadler, son of Samuel Sadler.  Alfred, who once owned John's house in Ulverston, Cumbria, ran a tar works in Ulverston.

I will set down below the details about Alfred that I have found in a quick search, but John is particularly interested in the history of the Ulverston works.

Anyone who has any information – and particularly pictures – of the Ulverston works of Sadler & Co, please contact John!

His email address is martinhd581@gmail.com

Yorkshire Evening Post & Leeds Intelligencer 

16 April 1922

News was received at Ulverston yesterday of the death in a nursing home at Stokesley, Yorkshire, of Mr Alfred Edwin Sadler, principal of the firm of Sadler & Co Ltd., chemical manufacturers, of Ulverston and Middlesbrough.  For 45 years Mr Sadler had been prominently identified with the industrial, social, and political life of Ulverston.  He was a well-known Freemason, and was Assistant Prov. G.M. of the province of West Lancaster, and was keenly interested in Masonic charities.  Mr Sadler was also a staunch Unionist, was unmarried, and was 65 years of age. 

28 April 1922

The presence of upwards of a hundred workmen who had walked in drenching rain from Middlesbrough to Ormesby Churchyard yesterday to attend the funeral of the late Mr Alfred Edwin Sadler, was evidence of the esteem in which that gentleman was held on Teesside and in Cleveland.  The service was conducted by the Rev. J C C Kemm.  The coffin was borne to the graveside by foremen from the works of Messrs Sadler and Co. Ltd, Middlesbrough, etc.  The principal mourners were Mr C J Sadler (chairman of Messrs Sadler and Co), Mr S A Sadler (managing director), Mrs S A Sadler, Mr Basil Sadler, Col H Sadler, Mr C N Sadler, Mr Alex. Sadler, Mr and Mrs A W Field, Mr Frank Cooper (representing Mrs Gloag), Mr Douglas Cooper, Mrs Gjers, Mr John Gjers, and Sister Jefferies. Sir John Fry, Bart. and Mr R H Wilson, directors of the company, as well as the chief officials, were present, as well as a large and representative gathering of Freemasons. 

19 July 1922

Mr Alfred Edwin Sadler, of Sand Hall, Ulverston, principal of the firm of Messrs Sadler and Co (Ltd), chemical manufacturers, of Ulverston and Middlesbroiugh (net personalty £7,253) - £7,963 

Days of plenty in Redcar: a middle class household before the First World War

In old age, Mrs Katharine Isobel Ellis Hill (1905-2005) looked back to the golden times before the First World War broke out ... when she lived with her parents and her brothers in the little hamlet then called Nunthorpe Station, and they went to visit her father's parents in Coatham ...

Her memory of the end of those happy times was very vivid and painful:

King's Head, Newton-under-Roseberry

On Aug 4th 1914 my godmother had a picnic for the young people staying with her & about 12 of us walked 3 miles across the fields, climbed Roseberry, had tea at the King's Head & walked 3 miles back.  

As I ran across the last field & the others went away I crossed the road & saw my father in his Territorial Uniform (khaki) vanish round a bend on his motor bike – I called after him but he did not hear – 

I rushed into the house & asked why? & someone said, 

"There's a war with Germany, so be a good girl."   

I never see that corner of the road without seeing my father on his way to Ypres & the Somme.  7 weeks later Duncan was dead; our house was closed for the duration & I was parted from all my little friends, pets, the garden (& all sense of security forever) & the servants who were old friends.

Katharine's brother, Duncan Stubbs

(Her father's account of the day is here and an account of the death of her brother Duncan is here.)

But to return to life before the War ... 

Katharine looked back across the decades to meals at her grandparents' house, 7 Trafalgar Terrace, Coatham.

7 Trafalgar Terrace, Coatham, in 1904

Her grandfather John Richard Stubbs, had grown up with the open hospitality of his mother and her neighbours in Boroughbridge.

Her grandmother Ellis Macfarlane grew up on the west coast of Scotland, in Helensburgh.  Her father Duncan Macfarlane was a Canada merchant; her mother Mary (also a Macfarlane) was the "lovely little girl" mentioned in Three Nights in Perthshire; with the description of the Festival of a 'Scotch Hairst Kirn' (1821).

This little book, several times reprinted, recounts the author's visit to Mary's childhood home – Ledard, "a large, beautiful farm-house" near the head of Loch Ard.

Mary's father, Donald Macfarlane, had himself taken the great Sir Walter Scott to inspect the nearby waterfall, which Scott described to great dramatic effect in Waverley and Rob Roy.

(Sir Walter hasn't been in fashion in England for many years – this post on Louis Stott's literary blog will put you in the picture).

The book describes the harvest festivities, with plentiful accounts of the food and drink:

sweet and ewe milk cheese, some of the delicious trout for which the neighbouring lochs are famous, basons of curds, with bowls of sour and sweet cream, and piles of crispy oatcakes, together with rolls and butter. 

So we can imagine that, with that sort of family background, food played a significant part in John and Ellis Stubbs' daily life.

Counting sheep in dialect

Further to my last, I've just had my attention drawn (thanks John!) to the article on wikipedia on the subject.

(An appropriate photograph follows ...)

Counting Sheep in the Bilsdale dialect

A note made in 1972 by Katharine Isobel Ellis Hill (1905-2005) of the old words for counting sheep.

It was dictated to her some time in the 1940s by Robin Megginson (1928-2022).  She said he learned it from his maternal grandfather Joseph Featherstone, who was born & bred & farmed in Bilsdale.  Joseph and his wife Elizabeth retired to live at Woodbine Cottage, Easby and Robin grew up there with them after his mother's death when he was very small.  Joseph Featherstone was born in 1866.

Katharine Hill noted that she has used "the best phonetic spelling I can devise".

It is similar to the counting used in the Lake District.

Yan (or Yëan)
Tan
Tethera
Methera
Mimps
Orvers
Dorvers
Slëaters
Yanaboove
Tetheraboove

The Noddings family of Hawnby, Hutton Rudby and Hartlepool

I've been contacted by Scott and Keith Noddings with this appeal for information.  They would be very glad to hear from anyone who can help.   

Appeal for information on the Nodding(s) family from Hawnby, Hutton Rudby and Hartlepool

A quick introduction, I’m Scott Noddings, I was born in Burnley, Lancashire in 1973 and my dad is Keith Noddings who was born in West Hartlepool in 1949 and we both have a keen interest with regards to our family history.

 My father and I are particularly interested in the journey our grandfathers took from Hawnby in the 1600s to Hutton Rudby in the 1700s, to Welbury, Appleton Wiske and finally to Hartlepool around the 1820s.  We are trying to figure out what took them from the green fields of Hawnby and the Yorkshire Dales to the coast line of Hartlepool and Seaton Carew, was it simply work and the need to feed the family or was it something else, like their religion…??

Already from this blog we have discovered that our family were connected to All Saints Church in Hutton Rudby.  A Michael Nodding was the churchwarden in 1773,1778 and 1779, furthermore his brother Thomas Nodding was the churchwarden in 1777, 1781, 1798, and 1799.  We know that both Michael and Thomas along with their father James had connections with All Saints' Church in Hawnby, St Leonard's church in Welbury and later at All Saints' Church in Stranton (Hartlepool); what we are keen to know is, was it the church that took them on this journey…..??

Also we are interested in Michael’s grandson Ralph Spencer Noddings who we think was born at Windyhill farm, Seamer in 1786.  The reason for this interest is that he is the first of the Noddings to have a middle name (Spencer) and the only one to have godparents mentioned on his birth register. The godparents were Ralph Spencer Esq, Mr John Middleton and a Mrs Hutton.  We would love to find out who these people were and if they would have played a role in shaping Ralph Spencer Nodding's future.

Finally we are looking for information regarding Ralph Spencer Noddings' marriage to his wife Jane.  We know the marriage must have taken place between 1804 and 1812 (before the birth of their first child), the census of 1871 tells us that Ralph and Jane lived together with their children in Seaton Carew. We have searched high and low for this marriage, can anyone help us…??

If anybody could shine a light or point us in the right direction with regards to the questions above it would be well appreciated, our contact details are as follows……

Scott Noddings - 07748 968 175

Keith Noddings

soundtecuk@hotmail.co.uk

Note 

Below is a list of their names, with date and place of birth and date of death
 James Nodding           (1889 - 1778)  Hawnby
Michael Nodding        (1726 - 1799)  Hawnby
Michael Nodding        (1755 - 1792)  Hawnby
Ralph S Noddings      (1786 - 1872)  Seamer
 Their wives were:
 Ann Gibson                 (1690 - 1782)  Hawnby
Mary Chapman           (1734 - 1789)  Hawnby
Susannah Sayer           (1755 - 1812)  Great Ayton
Jane (Nodding) ?        (1786 - 1868)  Stokesley
 Many Thanks
 Scott & Keith Noddings