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FOWLER family (Bilston)
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WHHS: Henry Fowler of Bilston
Members of the Fowler family c1955 - my mother Gwen (front left), her cousin Joyce (front 2nd left) and her aunts Marie (front 2nd right) and Lizzie (front right).
To date I cannot definitely trace my Fowler ancestry further back than my great-great-great-grandfather, Thomas Fowler, born about 1790, whose occupation was japanner and licensed victualler in Bilston, Staffordshire. He was most likely the son of Zachariah Fowler and Elizabeth Blakemore, baptised at St Peter’s Wolverhampton on 2 January 1790. Zachariah died in December 1790 and his widow Elizabeth subsequently married Stephen Palin, a japanner, at Sedgley on 28 May 1793 - all their children were baptised at St Leonard's Bilston, and Elizabeth herself was buried there on 31 August 1815, aged 47.
Thomas Fowler’s wife was Ann Shale (see SHALE family) whom he married at All Saints Sedgley on 1 August 1815. Their witnesses were Catherine Hardy and John Newton. Thomas himself was a witness to the marriage of his brother-in-law William Shale to Elizabeth Hodson at All Saints West Bromwich on 15 August 1822.
The children of Thomas and Ann were:
Emma, bp 14 July 1816, buried 1 Sept 1816 aged 10 weeks; Henry, 16 November 1820; Jane Maria, 28 July 1823; Thomas, 18 July 1826; Ann, buried 18 July 1828 aged seven weeks; William, 1830; Esther Betsy, 7 December 1831; John, 20 July 1834; Ann, 1838; and Sarah, 1840 (see end notes). All were baptised/buried at St Leonard’s parish church, Bilston.
In the 1828, 1830 and 1834 Bilston trade directories, Thomas Fowler was publican of The Old Crown, Bridge Street. He died on 10 May 1841 at Bridge Street, aged 51. On the death certificate his occupation is shown as publican, cause of death ‘general debility’. Present at the death was his neighbour James Roberts, a 30 year-old bricklayer.
A directory of 1841 shows his widow, Ann Fowler, as publican of The Roebuck in Bridge Street. The census for that year (Sunday, June 7) gives the family as:
Ann Fowler, aged 45; victualler
Henry, aged 20
Maria, aged 15
Thomas, aged 15
William, aged 11
Ann, aged 3
(John, aged 7, was recorded with neighbours James & Elizabeth Roberts. Esther Betsy, aged 9, was with her uncle William Shale and his wife Elizabeth (née Hodson) in Middle Field Lane; and baby Sarah was with a relation by marriage of Ann Fowler’s, Mary Bill.)
There were also two domestic servants, Phoebe Williams 25, and Harriett Steele 15.
Maria gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, Emma, in December 1842. The baby died aged 5 months at Hare Street, Bilston, on 10 May 1843 of ‘teething diarrhoea’ lasting three weeks, and was buried at St Leonard’s.
On the 1851 census the family were at Church Street:
Ann Fowler, head, widow, aged (?) licensed victualler
Henry, son, aged 30, timber merchant’s clerk
William, son, aged 21, butcher
John, son, aged 16, scholar } all born at Bilston
Ann, daughter, aged 13, servant
Sarah, daughter, aged 11, scholar
Sarah Parker, granddaughter, aged 4
Serena Wiers, servant, aged 20, born Sedgley.
On the 1861 census Ann Fowler and her family were at 79 Church Street:
Ann Fowler, widow, aged 66, licensed victualler
John, son, aged 26, sheet metal worker
Sarah, daughter, aged 21
Betsy Parker, granddaughter, aged 12, scholar } all born at Bilston
William Parker, grandson, aged 5
Thomas Goodman, servant, aged 27; brewer
Sarah Palin, general servant, aged 18.
Ann Fowler was a beneficiary in the Will of her brother Joseph Shale (died 1864). On the 1871 census she was living at 53 Willenhall Road (next to the Cock Inn), an annuitant aged 74, with a house keeper, Betsy Fellows, aged 34. She died at Cold Lanes, Bilston, on 19 April 1874, aged 76. Her death certificate describes her as the widow of Thomas Fowler, japanner, and gives cause of death as ‘old age’. Betsy Fellows was present at the death.
Thomas and Ann Fowler’s second son, my great-great-grandfather Thomas, married Rebecca Ferrington at All Saints Sedgley on 9 January 1848. The church record shows him to be full age, a metal heater, of Bilston, son of Thomas Fowler, japanner; and Rebecca also full age, of Bilston, daughter of Richard Ferrington, miner. The witnesses were John Davis and Jane Davis.
On the 1851 census the family were living at 39 Bridge Street, Bilston:
Thomas Fowler, head, aged 25, furnace man
Rebecca, wife, aged 29
John, son, aged 1 year } all born at Bilston
Maria Parker, sister, married, aged 29
Elizabeth (Maria’s daughter) aged 8, scholar
Alfred (Maria’s son) aged 1
Thomas and Rebecca had four children: William, bp at St Mary’s Bilston on 29 June 1848; my great-grandfather John born 13 September 1849 at Bridge Street; a daughter Ann bp at St Mary’s, 24 April 1851; and a second daughter Sarah, born at Bridge Street 1 January 1853. William and (possibly) Ann died in infancy (William, Sept Q 1848).
Thomas Fowler died at the age of 30 on 15 October 1856 at Bridge Street. Cause of death was given as spinal disease (not certified), and his brother Henry, then living at Broad Street, attended his death. Occupation was shown as publican, so he had quitted working as a furnaceman sometime in the five years before his death.
His widow Rebecca remarried, to Peter Nixon, at St Mark’s Wolverhampton on 6 October 1859. The marriage certificate gives the bridegroom as a bachelor of 25, a carpenter, son of James Nixon, woodcutter, and the bride as a widow of 34, daughter of Richard Ferrington, deceased. Both were residing at Newbridge, Tettenhall, as the time of marriage. The witnesses were Martha and Philip Bate, the bride’s sister and brother-in-law.
Peter Nixon subsequently became publican of The Horse & Jockey, Bilston, and died 2 February 1880.
On the 1861 census the family were living at Bridge Street with Rebecca’s two children, who were using their stepfather’s name:
Peter Nixon, head, aged 25, publican; born Cheshire
Rebecca Nixon, wife, aged 37; born Bilston
John Nixon, son, aged 11; born Bilston
Sarah Nixon, daughter, aged 8; born Bilston
On the 1881 census Rebecca is listed as the manageress of a liquor shop at 79 Church Street, Bilston (the Horse & Jockey), widowed, aged 56. At the same address were Eliza Bate, 18, general servant, and Thomas Goodman, 50, a brewer. On the 1891 census Rebecca is recorded as 67, and living alone 'on her means' at Thompson Street, Bilston. She died there on 31 January 1896.
My great-grandfather John Fowler married Ann Mariah Johnson on 22 July 1873 at St Thomas’s Church, Granville Street, Birmingham. On their wedding certificate he is shown as a bachelor, occupation engineer, living at Varna Road, son of Thomas Fowler, iron worker. Mariah is shown as a spinster, living at Great Colmore Street, daughter of Joseph Johnson, brass founder. (She seems to have been known by her second name, not her first one. She signed my grandfather’s birth certificate as Ann Mariah née Johnson, although her marriage certificate shows her as just Mariah; and her death registration is in the name of Ann Maria.)
John Fowler’s sister, Sarah, married Ann Mariah’s brother, Joseph, at Moxley, Willenhall, on 2 February 1873.
The 1881 Bilston census shows John Fowler’s family living in Hartshorn Street:
John Fowler, engineer and brass founder, born Bilston, aged 31 Maria Fowler, wife, born Bilston, aged 31
Maria, daughter, born Bilston, aged 7
Thomas, son, born Bilston, aged 5 - my grandfather
Elizabeth, daughter, born Bilston, aged 2
Henry H., son, born Bilston, aged 5 months.
Thomas Nixon Fowler, my grandfather, was born on 19 December 1875 at Hartshorn Street, Bilston. He took his second name from his step-grandfather, Peter Nixon, sometime landlord of the Horse & Jockey, 79 Church Street.
His brother Henry Howard was born Dec 1880.
The two daughters listed on the 1881 census were Aunts Marie baptised as Maria on 15 January 1874, and Lizzie who had been baptised Elizabeth Shale Fowler on 6 June 1878. A third sister, born in 1883, was Florence Annie, known as Florrie.
Sometime after 1881 the family left Bilston to live in Gateshead (Lizzie remembered them moving ‘up north’ for a time). My great-grandmother Ann Mariah died there aged 40 on 28 June 1890. Her death certificate gives the address as 22 Prospect Street, and the cause of death as phthisis (wasting of the lungs, similar to TB).
When the 1891 census was taken the family was still living at 22 Prospect Street, Gateshead:
John Fowler, head, widower, aged 41, engine fitter, born Bilston
Maria, daughter, aged 17
Thomas, son, aged 15, apprentice brass founder
Elizabeth, daughter, aged 12, scholar
Henry, son, aged 10, scholar
Florence, daughter, aged 8, scholar.
They didn’t stay many years in Gateshead, apparently going to Gloucester for a while: a deed of conveyance dated 22 April 1896 records John Fowler, engineer, living at 112 New Street, Gloucester. The deed relates to houses in Thompson Street, Bilston, his mother’s property, which he inherited together with his sister, Sarah Johnson, wife of Joseph Johnson of Bilston, brassfounder, Mariah’s brother. (On the 1881 census Sarah, 26, and Joseph, 28, a coal miner, were living at Lunt Gardens, Bilston, with their children Moses, 7, James, 6, and Louisa, 1.) The probate of his mother’s Will, dated 1896, shows him at the Gloucester address.
The 1901 census shows that the family were now back in Bilston, living at 9 Stafford Street, in the parish of St Luke’s:
John Fowler, aged 51, widower, engine fitter, born Bilston
Maria, daughter, aged 27, single, born Bilston
Thomas, son, aged 25, single, iron moulder, born Bilston
Lizzie, daughter, aged 23, single, born Bilston
Florence, daughter, aged 18, single, born Bilston
*Mary, daughter, aged 6, born Bilston
*Mary, known as May, was the illegitimate daughter of Marie Fowler (see below).
The 1901 census also shows the younger son, Henry Howard Fowler, lodging in Gloucester at 81 Seymour Road:
James Clark, head, aged 48, born Wolverhampton; iron moulder
Mary Clark, wife, aged 46, born Bilston
Henry Fowler, boarder, aged 20, born Bilston; iron moulder
(On the 1881 census, James L. Clark, 28, and his wife Mary, 26, were living at Green Lanes, Bilston, with their 8 year old daughter Alice.)
Henry married Edith Gwendoline Thomas at Bilston on 12 May 1907. The marriage certificate describes him as a moulder, aged 26, living at Short Street; father John Fowler, fitter. His bride was 20, living at Wellington Road, daughter of Harry Wallace Thomas, steel works manager. Their witnesses were Thomas Edward Johnson and Henry’s sister, Florence Anne Fowler (see below for their family). Henry died of bowel cancer at Bilston in June Q 1953, aged 72.
At the time of his marriage to my maternal grandmother, May Tufft, at St Leonard's on 13 October 1918, my grandfather Thomas Nixon Fowler was living at 4 Fletcher Street, Bilston. He is shown on his marriage certificate as a bachelor, aged 43, occupation moulder. One of the witnesses to the wedding was his sister-in-law Edith Gwendoline Fowler.
My mother, Gwendoline Fowler (named after her), was born at Fletcher Street on 21 March 1919. By the following year the family had moved to 6 Vine Street in Bilston, where my grandfather died from cancer of the stomach on 2 June 1920. He was buried in the Fowler family vault at St Leonard’s church three days later.
Some time before 1916 my great-grandfather John Fowler left Bilston to live at nearby Woodsetton. In a codicil to a Will dated 24 November 1916, his cousin William Henry Fowler left £1,000 (£32,470 at today’s value) to ‘my cousin John Fowler, now or late of Hockley, Woodsetton, in the parish of Sedgley, colliery proprietor, a son of the late Thomas Fowler deceased’.
By 1921 John Fowler was living at 98 All Saints Road, Wolverhampton, where he died on 28 January 1922. In his own Will, dated four days earlier, he bequeathed ‘all I die possessed of’ to his spinster daughter Marie: the gross value of the estate was £925.1.0 (£24,129 at today’s value). The witnesses were his son-in-law, William Poulton, of 11 Cooper Street, Bilston, married to Lizzie, and a neighbour, Annie Louisa Jones, of 97 All Saints Road.
My grandfather’s sisters:
• Florence (Florrie) married Thomas Alfred (Alf) Cox in 1917.
• Maria (Marie) had a daughter out of wedlock, named May, brought up as her sister. (This is probably the six-year-old Mary shown on the 1901 census. My mother told me that Marie had been engaged to a soldier who was killed on active service, probably during the Boer War.) May married William Arrowsmith in 1923 and they had a son, William, and a daughter, Marie, who in 1945 married an American GI, Clyde Kennedy, and settled with him in Colorado, where they are still living.
• Elizabeth (Lizzie) married William Poulton in 1904: she died in 1959 and was the last Fowler to be buried in the family vault at St Leonard’s. Her son John Poulton married Jane Bowdler in 1933.
My mother, Gwendoline Fowler, married John Thomas Glover at Wolverhampton Register Office on 12 April 1941. I am their only child, born at the Elspeth Nursing Home, Birches Barn Avenue, Bradmore, where I was delivered by Lady Hilary Mander of the Mander family of Wightwick Manor. I was christened at Christ Church, Tettenhall Wood - my parents were living close by in a cottage (since demolished) in Ormes Lane, at the top of The Holloway.
• Lady Hilary was doing wartime nursing. My mother told me that she didn’t know how to light a fire, having always had servants to do so, with the result that when my mother, during her confinement, asked for a fire to warm the room, she had to get out of bed herself to show her Ladyship how it was done.
The children of Thomas and Anne (Shale) Fowler:
• Henry became a millionaire coal master and iron master (see my biography on the Wolverhampton History & Heritage Society website). He married his cousin, Eliza Holloway, at Bilston 29 April 1852. His son William Henry (born 1853) married Jessie Margaret Macdonald at Cheltenham on 11 April 1893, and died at Cheltenham on 15 December 1920. His widow Jessie died there in 1952, aged 87.
• William became a master butcher with a shop at 36 Church Street. On the 1881 census he is recorded with his second wife, Elizabeth, and eight children, aged from 1 to 21 years old. By his first wife, Rachel Thompson (who died in 1866 aged 37) he had Ann, 1854; Betsy, 1855; Sarah Jane, 1857; Henry, 1858 (died?); William, 1860 (died?); Alice, 1862 (died?); Rachel, 1864; and Alfred, 1866. By his second wife, Elizabeth Griffiths, whom he married in 1867, he had Emma, 1868; William, 1870; Henry, 1872; Alice and Sarah Ann, 1874; Frederick, 1876; and Stephen, 1879. Curiously, there is an entry in the register of Monmore Green Primitive Methodist chapel, Wolverhampton, for a Henry Fowler, baptised on 9 January 1873, son of William Fowler of Bilston, butcher, and Sarah Jane - possibly an illegitimate birth.
• John was a publican, first at The Leopard at 53 Church Street (1872) then at The Castle at 77 Church Street (1896). He married his first wife, Sarah Ann Hartill, in 1865. After her death in 1876 aged 31, he married in 1877 Clara Maria Cooper, who died in 1881 aged 24. His third wife was Phoebe Ann Moore, whom he married in 1887 when he was 53 and she was 20. A trade directory of 1901 records him as a beer retailer at 76 Broad Street; but on the census for that year he was listed as retired and living in Hartshorn Street with his third wife, Phoebe Ann, and their 11 year old daughter, Annie (another daughter, Elizabeth, born 1891, may have died in infancy).
• Esther Betsy (recorded simply as Betsy on the 1841 census) married Stephen Cole at Bilston 14 June 1853. Their children included William Augustus (1854), Alfred Ernest (1857), Alice Annie (1859), Elizabeth Evelyn (1861), Clara Gertrude (1863) and Edith Helena (1865). By 1881 Esther Betsy was widowed and living with three of her daughters at 9 Ettingshall Road, Sedgley. The census gives her occupation as colliery proprietor. She died on 7 Nov 1907 at 72 Talford Road, Streatham Hill, Surrey.
• Ann married Richard Thompson, a Bilston butcher, at Sedgley, 8 Mar 1857. Their children, baptised at St Mary's, Bilston, were: David (19 Dec 1858), Sarah Ann (18 Mar 1860), William (6 Jan 1861), Annie (26 Jan 1862), Clara (born 31 Jan 1864), Sarah Elizabeth (8 Apr 1866) and Catherine (1868). The family seem to have emigrated to New York, USA, sometime before 1872, the year in which the youngest child, John Henry, was born.
• Jane Maria married Thomas Parker, an Irish-born cordwainer, at St Peter’s Wolverhampton on 2 October 1843. Their children included Sarah (1845), Emma (1847), Elizabeth known as Betsy (1848), Alfred (1850), Thomas (bp St Mary’s 23 Mar 1854), William (1856) and Henry (bp 13 Apr 1858). Jane Maria (who appeared on the 1841 & 1851 censuses simply as Maria and was probably the Maria who had an illegitimate daughter, Emma, in 1842) died towards the end of 1858. On the 1861 census her widowed husband Thomas was a publican in Wolverhampton Street, Bilston, living with his children Sarah (15), Alfred (11) and Thomas (7).
• Sarah was born at the beginning of 1840. On the 1841 census she was recorded at the house of Mary Bill (née Hodson) relation by marriage of her mother, Ann Fowler. She was unmarried in 1868.
Children of Henry Howard Fowler & Edith Gwendoline Thomas:
Joseph Johnson born at 24 Willenhall Road, Bilston, on 27 April 1908. He married Brenda ?
Harry Thomas born 1910, married Edith Maud Johnson
Jack born 1912
Lilian born 1915, married Cyril Taylor
Edith married Eric Mason
Marie married Trevor Biggs.
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