In the last post I shared some new discoveries about Edward Porter (d. 1799), the first husband of Sarah Holdsworth, and in an earlier post I reported what I’d learned from the will and burial wishes of Sarah’s mother Elizabeth (1733 – 1809). All of this new information helps us to build up a picture of the life of the Holdsworths at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Joseph and Elizabeth Holdsworth had seven children, and of these we know that at least five – Sarah, John, Joseph, William and Godfrey – survived into adulthood. Both John and William were my 4 x great grandfathers (Mary Ann Blanch, daughter of John’s daughter Keziah, married Daniel Roe, son of William’s daughter Eliza: their son Joseph Priestley Roe was my great grandfather).
In the timeline below, I’ve plotted what we know about the movements of the Holdsworth siblings over a twenty-year period. Two things immediately became clear to me as I was doing this. Firstly, it looks as though the Holdsworth family as a whole might have been living in the Bishopsgate area at some point, and that the move eastward to Stepney only happened after this generation grew up and got married. Secondly, William and Joseph were both living in Marmaduke Street (just to the north of Cable Street) and both working as cordwainers at around the same time: could they have been working together, and did their families share a house? The situation appears to have changed around 1800, when William moved to Mile End Road and Joseph to William Street (not far from Marmaduke Street), around the time he switched occupations to become a chandler.
Section of Fairburn's 1801 map of London, stretching from Mile End in the east to Aldgate and Bishopsgate in the west (William Street visible to north of Cable Street and west of New Road). Click on the image to open in a new window, then click again to enlarge.
1786 Sarah H marries Edward Porter, St Botolph Without Bishopsgate
1792 William H marries Lydia Evans, St Botolph Without Bishopsgate
1792 Joseph H jnr marries Margaret Miller, Christ Church, Spitalfields
1793 Joseph H jnr living in St George in the East – working as cordwainer
1793 Godfrey H marries Diana Cam, St Paul, Covent Garden
1794 Edward and Sarah Porter living in Mile End Old Town
1794 William H living in Marmaduke Street – working as cordwainer
1795 Death of Joseph H snr (father)
1796 Joseph H jnr living in Marmaduke Street – working as cordwainer
1796 Godfrey H living in Mile End Old Town – working as plumber
1796 William H living in Marmaduke Street – working as cordwainer
1797 John H marries Mary Webb, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
1799 Death of Edward Porter, Mile End Old Town
1801 William H living in Mile End Road, Mile End Old Town
1802 Joseph H jnr living in William Street – working as chandler
1802 Godfrey H living in Mile End Old Town – working as plumber
1803 Sarah H marries William Parker, Bethnal Green
1803 William H living in Mile End Old Town
1809 Joseph H jnr living in William Street
1809 Death of Elizabeth H (mother)
My Name Is Ron Holdsworth My Great Great Grandfather was John Gustolvus Adolphus Holdsworth who married Sarah Louisa Cook Daughter of James and Eliza Cook nee Pepper in 1886 they also lived in miles end old town at 43 Rosemary Rd. Possibly one of the other Holdsworth Family’s you Mentioned.
Interesting Reading
Ta Ron
Hello Ron. Do you know anything else about your ancestor – the names of his parents, for example? And do you know how he came to be given two German names?
Best wishes
Martin
Hello Martin. From what I can gather Gustolvus Adolphus was the King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632. From what I have been able to find out James Holdsworth was John’s father. He came from Scotland & was shipwrecked off Trinidad in the early 1800’s. James fell in love with a Tribal Chief’s daughter, Isabella Vell ( my great, great grandmother). They moved to Jamaica and had 16 children ( John being one of them). He was born in 1859 and was a Mulatto ( white father, black mother). James was ship’s captain & I have him on the Sloop ” Jane” a small Bermuda Sloop which travelled with cargo around the West Indies in 1875. At some stage they returned to England where John meet Sarah Louisa Cook. They married in Miles End Old Town in 1886. John came to Sydney, Australia on the Iberia on the 13th January,1887. Travelling around from Sydney to Melbourne before settling in Brisbane, Sarah Louisa and their daughter, Isabel Beatrice (1 Year old) came out on the ” Taroba” on the 16th October, 1889. They Lived in Hendra, a suburb in Brisbane.
He was a Fish-Hawker and owned a fish shop in Nundah in early 1900’s. He died in Nundah in 1909. I am trying to find out more about Isabella Vell and the English side of the story.
Thanking You
Ron