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Other Family Blacksmiths

The COWLEYs of Willoughby, Warwickshire

Other Family Blacksmiths

The COWLEYs of Willoughby, Warwickshire


Willoughby Smithy home of the COWLEYs.

Photograph by kind permission of Rootschat member MaryMc

John COWLEY [10721] is the earliest on his line who was definitely a blacksmith. He is recorded as such from 1814 in the baptism register of Willoughby, Warwickshire. In 1841 John was living on independent means. His son Capel, who was in the previous schedule, was then the blacksmith.

Capel [8197] was working in Willoughby in 1841 but moved to Aston between the births of son George in 1843 and daughter Mary in 1850. In 1851 they are living in Bordesley when he was still a blacksmith. He died in 1858 and his widow, Catherine née SAMMONS, married John AYRE whose son James was a blacksmith working on iron bedsteads in Aston in 1861.

Another son of John, Martin [10723] was a blacksmith in Willoughby in 1851. In 1861 he was lodging in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire where he was a blacksmith and by 1871 he was a blacksmith in a factory in Wolverton, Buckinghamshire. In 1881 he was out of employ in Wolverton.

Another son of John, Thomas [20356] who appears on the 1841 and 1851 censuses as a agricultural labourer is on the 1861 census as a blacksmith when his in the Rugby Union Workhouse.

Samuel COWLEY [20317] who was a blacksmith in Dunchurch, Warwickshire in 1841 was the son of William and Elizabeth. William was the brother of John [10721] and uncle of Capel and Martin.  Samuel was a blacksmith in Braunston, Northamptonshire in 1851 to 1871.

Gold is for the mistress - silver for the maid -
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
“But Iron - Cold Iron - is master of them all.”

Rudyard Kipling

Berkshire Blacksmiths

Samuel DUNSBY [8753] was from a family of shoe makers but he became a blacksmith, his brother Edward [8754] a wheelwright and brother Alfred a postman. Samuel was an apprentice to William Cox the blacksmith in West Henney in 1871. In 1881 and 1891 he was still in West Henny now as a blacksmith. Both he and his 16 year old son Bertie [11310] were in Garford working at home as shoe and jobbing smiths in 1901. He was listed in Kelly’s Berkshire Directories of 1903 and 1907 as a blacksmith in Garford which would indicate he was running his own business. This is confirmed on the 1911 census where he is a blacksmith working on his own account at home. Bert was with him, a blacksmith worker at home.

Frederick BELCHER [13096] was the son of a Bricklayer from Harwell and  is listed there in 1871 as an apprentice Blacksmith. He was probably apprenticed to James Griffin who was unrelated. He was still in Harwell in 1881 living with his father who was then listed as a mason. Having married he moved to Hagbourn and is working on his own in 1891. Still in Hagbourn in 1901 his 16 year old son Frederick Thomas was his assistant. 1911 Frederick was still a blacksmith in Hagbourn but his son was a horsekeeper for the GWR in Kensington, London.

Somerset Blacksmiths

Joseph BATTEN [17576] and James BATTEN [17579] were sons of George BATTEN [15862] and grand sons of Josias BATTEN [15860] on our direct line. The family, George, wife Ann BACON and their children including Joseph and James were living in Bitton, Gloucestershire in 1841

Joseph BATTEN had become an apprentice blacksmith in Publow with James HIGGINS [19471] by 1851. He married Louisa Ann WILCOX in 1858 in Bristol.  Joseph was a blacksmith in Pensfold in 1861 and 1871 living with his great aunt, Mary BUTTON née DENNING [17675], the Inn keeper of the King’s Arms. In 1881 Joseph was still a blacksmith in Pensfold but in 1891 he had become a grocer and in 1901 was a grocer and draper.

There are family connections between Joseph BATTEN, James HIGGINS and Mary DENNING: Mary DENNING [17675] was the widow of James BUTTON [17579], he had been previously married to Rhoda TURNER [17773], they had a daughter Hesther Elizabeth BUTTON [17878]  who married Thomas HIGGINS [19471], the son of James HIGGINS [19471]. Mary’s sister Rhoda was the grandmother of Louisa Ann WILCOX who married Joseph BATTEN.

Joseph’s son Charles [17683] was an apprentice blacksmith in Bristol in 1891. When he married Florence KING in 1894 in Publow his occupation was given as smith and his residence as Chorlton on Medlock, Manchester. His uncle George was living there at that time. In 1901 Charles was a blacksmith in Bristol and in 1911 he was a GWR blacksmith lodging in Bristol while his wife Florence and son were in Pensford with her mother-in-law and was the general shopkeeper. Another blacksmith who has moved into industry instead of the village smithy. In 1939 Charles had retired and was living in Bristol with his wife.

James BATTEN was an apprentice blacksmith with James HIGGINS in 1861. He married Sarah Emma WILCOX, the sister of Louisa Ann who married his brother Joseph in 1865 in Bristol. He was a blacksmith in Chew Stoke, Somerset and his record there on the 1871 to 1891 censuses. He died in 1900. Another brother of Joseph and James, George married another WILCOX sister Rhoda Elizabeth. George went into coal mining.

James HIGGINS [19471] was a blacksmith in 1841 in Publow, his son James [19473] was also a smith and he had an apprentice William BRANCH. The 1851 census records him in Pensfold as a master blacksmith with his two sons James and Thomas as blacksmiths and Joseph BATTEN as an apprentice. His two sons and Joseph had left by 1861 and he had two more apprentices James BATTEN, the brother of Joseph, and George ROOMS. James died in 1868.

James HIGGINS [19473] was a blacksmith in 1841 and 1851 with his father. He had married and was a blacksmith in Pensford in 1861. 1871 there was diversification in the family business. James was  a master blacksmith, his wife, Melinda, was a beer house keeper and they had lodgers, two railway labourers, one with a wife and a stone mason. Melinda died in 1872. The sons were working in 1881; he was an innkeeper at the Railway Inn, son Wallington was a blacksmith, Albert a butcher and Augustus a farrier. James had not turned his back on smithing because in 1891 he was a blacksmith and publican at the now Railway Tavern. He was employing his son, Augustus, as a blacksmith. James died in 1893.

Buckingham Blacksmiths

James DUNSBY [8640] was the son of Elias DUNSBY who appears to have married four times and second cousin to Samuel DUNSBY [8753] James was born in Stonesfieid, the home town of his mother Eliza. Sometime between 1861 and 1871 the family moved to Buckinghamshire and here James became a blacksmith. He was a blacksmith in Colnbrook in 1881 but in 1891 was a green grocer and in 1901 and 1911 he was a general dealer.

Northumberland

Unfortunately not a lot has been found about Thomas LIDDELL [6181] other than he was given as a blacksmith on his son’s marriage certificate in 1860 in Lamesly, County Durham and his son was born in Wylam, Northumberland about 1810.