Carol asked (Apr 7th 2016) …
I am hoping you may be able to give me a clue as to where to look for two missing members of the same family.
I am unable to find births for the following people both children of John Morley, schoolmaster and Mary Henshaw :
Solomon Morley born about 1811, he marries Mary Eaton and then Elizabeth Richards and Mary Morley born about 1826 according to the 1841 Census ( this is the Mary who had two illegitimate children with George Wright the landlord of the Spring Cottage Inn).
Would you also have any idea which school John Morley would have been a schoolmaster.?
Dave replied (Apr 8th 2016) …
I have found nine children belonging to John and Mary Morley and unfortunately Solomon is the only one I have no baptism details for. Most of them were baptised at the Ilkeston Circuit of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel after it was formed out of the Nottingham Circuit in 1809. I have found Samuel baptised at Halifax Place in Nottingham in 1806 … Solomon’s birth was about 1808 (his recorded age at death in 1874 was 66) which should mean a baptism possibly at the same place but I haven’t found him yet. Sorry.
As I said, most of the others were baptised at the Wesleyan Chapel, except for Mary … I have a baptism for her at Mansfield Woodhouse on June 8th 1826 which I believe I got at the County Archive in Nottingham. (And no, I have no clear idea why she would be baptised there !!)
While Mary married locally and died at 8 Vicarage St in 1901, Solomon left to work in the Barnsley area after his second marriage. I believe his wife Elizabeth died in 1858 and he married again to a widow (?) Elizabeth Atkinson in 1859 … but you will probably know more than me about this.
Their father John is described as a framework knitter up to about 1837 but then on the 1841 as a ‘scoolmaster’ in Cotmanhay…. as he is on the 1851 census. Quite often the census would indicate which school a master/mistress would work for …. for example if you look on the 1851 Ilkeston census you will see that Thomas Walton is a schoolmaster at the British School (Non-Conformist) in Bath Street whereas John Ryder is a master at the National School (Church of England). These were the two established schools in Ilkeston. This would lead me to suspect (and it is only a suspicion) that John Morley might have had his own Day School in Cotmanhay, and there were several of those, kept by both ‘schoolmasters’ and ‘mistresses’ in Ilkeston (see Dame schools)
I believe that John died in January 1853 (if this is he) at the Sun Inn in Eastwood when the Derby Mercury described him as the clerk at Christ Church, Cotmanhay … maybe his ‘school’ was associated with that? …. although in 1841 that church had not yet been built.
The Wesleyan Methodists had a chapel and Sunday School at Cotmanhay and maybe he was a teacher there. In 1851 there was a national religious census and it might be worth looking at the entries in it for Ilkeston but especially Cotmanhay, to see if John is mentioned? There is a copy at Ilkeston Reference Library and if you can’t get there I could easily have a look for you the next time I visit there.
Sorry I have still left you with ‘gaps’ but if there is anything else I might help with, please ask.
Carol replied (Apr 12th 2016) …
I didn’t have Samuel Morley listed as he never came up on a census but could be related as his parents John and Elizabeth married in October 1805 and the first child with documented evidence that I have is Solomon born abt 1808.
I have another query which you may be able to solve:
I have four generations of Rowland Hill Morley starting with the son of John Morley (schoolmaster) and Elizabeth Henshaw the name continues through each generation and finally dies out in 1968 as my husbands uncle remained a bachelor. My problem is I cannot find a link to the name Hill. Some descendants are not baptised with the name Hill Morley but it is entered on their death certificates and in the family Bible. Have you come across the surname Hill in Ilkeston or Nottingham?
Dave replied (Apr 13th 2016) …
The baptism of Samuel can be found in the records of the Halifax Place Wesleyan Chapel in Nottingham, on Oct 13th 1806, son of John and Mary of Cotmanhay.
I believe that he had a short life, being buried at St Mary’s Church on Sep 6th 1809, aged 3 years.
I was unaware of the line of ‘Rowland Hill Morleys’ which you are puzzled by. The only Rowland Hill I am aware of is the reformer who had a hand in the establishment of the so-called ‘Penny Post’.
The name Roland/Rowland seems to come from the Henshaw side of the family but I have no information on the name ‘Hill’ intruding into this line, as yet. Sorry.
Carol replied (Apr 16th 2016) …
You gave me the possible death of John Morley Schoolmaster as being at the Sun Inn Eastwood, further research using Ancestry has confirmed John Morley was a Freemason and he attended the Mundy Grove Lodge at the Bat (Boat?) Inn, Kennington, Shipley Gate, Derbyshire however his sons Rowland & Solomon Morley attended the Marquis of Granby Lodge who held their meetings at the Sun Inn, Market Place, Eastwood which is where you said he may have died. It is possible he transferred to this Lodge hence his demise at this location.
Dave replied (Apr 18th 2016) …
Your research fills in a few more gaps.
John Morley was buried at Christ Church, Cotmanhay on Jan 11th 1853.
The cause of his death was initially described as’choking by meat lodged in his throat’. However his ‘friends’ later indicated that this was incorrect … death was due to ‘paralysis’. (All this was covered in the local press.. the Derby Mercury and Nottinghamshire Guardian)
