Lacey family

Andrew Winfield commented (Feb 5th 2019)

Uncle Bill Lacey, ‘Mayor of Cotmanhay’

This may be a bit recent for your site’s Victorian remit but do you have any information about a man my father knew as “Uncle Bill”? Dad says his surname was Lacey (exact spelling not verified) and he held the title “Mayor of Cotmanhay” around the 1930s.
Dad recalls visiting Uncle Bill in the mid to late 30s and having to sit quietly under the table with the other children while the adults had afternoon tea above!
We have a formal photo of Uncle Bill in a mayoral chain but nothing written on it. The internet and genealogy sites have drawn a blank so we may have some wrong data – maybe Bill or William was a middle name for example, or perhaps my search technique needs sharpening!
He was not Dad’s direct uncle but we think is a real relative – my best guess from your census information is there may be a connection to Lacey via the surname Sisson (we think Dad’s great-grandmother’s maiden name, married to one Edwin Elliot) but that seems too far back and William Lacey is a very common name in history.
If you have any additional Lacey family member names or dates I can use to narrow the search and make the link to our family tree, if indeed there is a link, that would be appreciated.
Thanks
Andrew Winfield

Dave replied ..

Andrew,
Thankfully the clues you gave seem to have been very useful.
There was a marriage of Jemima Sisson to Edwin Elliott in 1866 at Sheffield. I believe that Jemima was the daughter of John and Sarah (Fretwell) married in 1837 at Eastwood. The family were living in Ilkeston on the 1851 census before moving up to Yorkshire.
Edwin (or Edward) Elliott was born in Dodworth, Barnsley about 1840. After the marriage the Elliotts lived in the Rotherham area for a while before moving (in the mid 1870’s) back to live in the West Hallam/Stanley Common area.
They had several children — one of them was Emma Elliott, born about 1873 in the Barnsley area.
Now in 1893, while the family was living in Stanley Common, Emma married William Lacey junior (born Mar 24 1872), a coalminer of Cotmanhay, the son of William senior (and Ruth nee Straw).
William and Emma went to live at 13 Wesley St in Cotmanhay and were there on the 1901/1911 censuses.
They had many children — Mabel Ruth, William Harold, Mary, Ernest, Hilda, Clarence, Evelyn, Alvin, Aubrey, Lawrence, Irene (and possibly others I’ve missed out).
By 1939 Emma had died (possibly in 1939) but William Lacey was living at 12 Wesley St. Next door to him, at number 13, was his son, William Harold, who had married Sarah Ann Quinn (born in Feb 1896) — with them was Sarah’s father Patrick, (born May 7th 1868)
As you can see there were several William Laceys here — oerhaps we are on the right track and one of them is the ‘Mayor of Cotmanhay.
I hope something here rings a bell with you.
Dave

Andrew replied ….
Excellent thanks Dave, much appreciated. That fits perfectly – most of my great-grandparents (which include Mary Elliott) ended their days in Stanley Common.