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DABBS family (Wellington, Shropshire)
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My great-great-great-great-grandparents were John Dabbs and Elizabeth Thompson, who married at Wellington, Shropshire, on 17 April 1779. Their children, all baptised at All Saints church, Wellington, included:
Rosehannah, 23 Mar 1780; Moses, 11 Jan 1782; Frances, 30 Dec 1785; William, 12 Apr 1789; Elizabeth, 15 May 1791; John, 3 May 1795; Robitha, 16 Mar 1796; Joseph, 15 Oct 1797 - my direct forebear; and Benjamin, 21 July 1799.
My great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Dabbs married Elizabeth Taylor at Buildwas, Shropshire, on 31 May 1819.
Elizabeth had been baptized at Acton Scott on 15 Jan 1796, daughter of Richard & Elizabeth. She died on Friday, 28 Sept 1866, aged 70, at *Street Lane, Wellington. The death certificate describes her as the widow of Joseph Dabbs (he died 1859), a lime stone miner, and cause of death as ‘decay of nature’. Present at the death was her daughter Elizabeth Howells, of nearby Steeraway.
* Street Lane was part of the old Holyhead Road, now A5, and the Dabbs family lived just a few doors from the Wickets Inn, which is still there.
On the 1821 Wellington census (see below) Joseph and Elizabeth Dabbs are shown living at Street Lane with 70-year-old Richard Dabbs and an unnamed infant (probably Jane) aged one year old.
Their children all baptised at Wellington, included:
Jane, 19 Sept 1819
Tabitha, 31 Oct 1821 - my great-great-grandmother
William, 12 Nov 1823
Elizabeth, 1 Mar 1829
Sarah, 29 May 1833
Joseph, 27 Jan 1836
(see notes below).
On the 1841 census the family were still at Street Lane:
Joseph Dabbs, 42, agricultural labourer
Elizabeth, 44
William, 18, lime miner
Richard, 15, lime miner
Elizabeth, 12
Sarah, 8
Joseph, 4
*Samuel, 3 (a grandson)
Thomas, 2
Next door was the family of Joseph’s deceased brother Moses – Mary, 50; Catherine, 23; Mary, 21; Moses, 17; Sarah, 14; and Henry, 11.
* Samuel’s parentage is unknown. In 1861 he was a private with the Royal Horse Guard at barracks in Upper Albany Street, London. He married an Irish girl, Mary Ann Marsh, in Dec Q 1867, and settled in the St Pancras area of Marylebone, where he worked as a labourer in the telegraph stores. By 1881 the couple had two sons, Samuel aged 11 and James aged 8. Samuel Dabbs died at St Pancras in 1907, aged 69.
On the 1841 census, my great-great-grandmother Tabitha Dabbs was living away from home, working as a domestic servant for a family named Birch, living at Upper Green Fields, in St Julian’s parish, Shrewsbury.
Tabitha’s illegitimate son was Robert Dabbs, born at Street Lane, Wellington, on Sunday, 6 July 1845 and christened on 27 July 1845. On the birth certificate her name is spelled Boitha, suggesting that she was known familiarly as 'Bitha. Her whereabouts in 1851 are not known.
The 1851 census records her parents and family at Street Lane:
Joseph Dabbs, head, aged 57, ag. labourer, born Wellington
Elizabeth, wife, aged 59, born Church Stretton
Richard, son, aged 25, ag. labourer
Elizabeth, daughter, aged 22
Joseph, son, aged 14, ag. labourer } all born at Wellington
Thomas, son aged 12
Samuel, grandson, aged 13
Robert, grandson, aged 6.
On the 1861 census Robert was still living with his grandmother at Street Lane:
Elizabeth Dabbs, head, widow, aged 69; born Church Stretton
Joseph, son, aged 24, labourer; born Wellington
Thomas, son, aged 22, labourer; born Wellington
Robert, son (sic) aged 16, labourer; born Wellington.
Sometime before 1857 Tabitha left Shropshire and began a relationship with William Anderton (see ANDERTON family). Their daughter Alice was born at Hall Green, Yardley, Birmingham, on 7 October 1857.
On Alice’s birth certificate Tabitha gives her name as Anderton, formerly Dabbs; but she and William didn’t actually wed until 1874 – their marriage certificate shows them marrying at Birmingham Registry Office on 20 April 1874.
Alice’s half-brother, Robert Dabbs, was one of the two witnesses to the marriage of my great-grandparents, William Eyre and Alice Anderton, at Sparkbrook, Birmingham, on Monday, 30 June 1879. The other witness was Annie Rose, Alice’s half-sister by her father’s first marriage. On the 1891 census Robert Dabbs was shown as a labourer, single, aged 45, born Wellington, living with the family, and described as brother-in-law.
Tabitha Anderton died at Aston Union workhouse on Tuesday, 24 April 1894, aged 73. The death certificate describes her as widow of William Anderton, gardener; a domestic of Leonard Road, Aston Manor. Cause of death was chronic wear of albuminoid (an old name for a protein), degeneration of kidneys and dropsy. Her daughter Alice Eyre, of 5 Leonard Road, Aston Manor, was present at the death – suggesting that Tabitha had gone into the workhouse because it was difficult to nurse her at home with a family of small children. Alice herself died just three years later. (The workhouse, at Gravelly Hill, Erdington, had a hospital wing. In 1881 it had had 854 residents, including nurses.)
Children of Joseph and Elizabeth Dabbs:
• Jane – in 1851 she was working as a servant in the parsonage at Longdon-upon-Tern, Shropshire.
• Tabitha – see above.
• William – by 1851 he had moved to Chapel Street, Dudley, with his wife Emma, aged 30, and had a month-old child, Elizabeth. In 1861 he was still working there as a limestone miner and his household comprised Emma, 40, Mary Ann (who was dumb) and Hannah, both 8, Joseph 6, and John ten months.
• Richard – married in 1860 to Sarah Ellis. In 1861 he was 35 and living next to his mother at Street Lane with wife Sarah, 26, and son Richard Ellis, aged one. In 1881 the family was still at Street Lane: Richard, a stone miner, aged 54, wife Sarah 47, sons Richard 21, Herbert 19, Henry Benjamin 16 and Alfred 14 (all general labourers), daughters Agnes 10 and Ada 7, and youngest son William, also 7.
• Elizabeth – married John Howells, a stone miner, in 1855. In 1861 John, 33, and Elizabeth, 31, were living at Wellington with their children Jane 5, Richard 2, and newborn Mary Ann. By 1866 they had moved a short distance to the hamlet of Steeraway, and were still there in 1881 with son Richard 23, and granddaughter Mary Ann E. Peake 5, daughter of Jane, who had married William Peake in 1874 and was living close by at New Works Lane with another two daughters, Jane 3 and Agnes, nine months.
• Sarah – married Robert Banks at Wellington in 1857.
• Joseph – a furnace labourer, married Jane Paine in 1867 and on the 1871 census was living with her and his unmarried brother Thomas at Wrekin Road, Wellington. They were still there in 1891 and appear to have had no children.
• Thomas – never married. In 1881 he was lodging close to his sister Elizabeth Howells at Steeraway; and by 1891 he was working as a labourer at Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire, on the farm owned by the son-in-law of his sister Tabitha Anderton’s husband. In 1901 he was back at Steeraway, lodging with his sister Elizabeth Howells, where he died in 1909.
Dabbs families living at Street Lane, Wellington, on 1821 census:
Andrew Dabbs 50
Elizabeth 15
Robe 13
William 12
Emma 9
Rosi 4
Andrew 1
Samuel Dabbs 45
Margaret 44
Richard 21
Samuel 20
Elizabeth 10
Susan 7
Ann 3
Moses Dabbs 40
Mary 30
Benjamin 10
Cate 5
Mary 2
Edward Dabbs 57
Isobella 41
Rachael 12
Michael 10
James 8
Martha 5
Eleanor 1
John Dabbs 42
Rebecca 40
Ester 21
William 16
Elizabeth 13
James 7
John 4
Ann Dabs 50
Francis 45
Reubin 16
Harriet 14
Frank 11
Joseph Dabbs 25
Elizabeth 23
Richard 70
(Jane) 1
(these are my forebears)
James Dabbs 50
Hannah 36
Hannah 14
William Dabbs 25
Mary 25
Harriat 14
James 4
Jane Dabbs 35
George 20
Samuel Dabbs 66
Sarah 62
Sarah Dabbs 84
William 81
Maria Dabbs 14
Dabbs families living at Street Lane, Wellington, on 1841 census:
Andrew Dabbs, 70, agricultural labourer
Rose, 60
Andrew, 21
John, 18
Joseph Dabbs, 42, agricultural labourer
Elizabeth, 44
William, 18, lime miner
Richard, 15, lime miner
Elizabeth, 12
Sarah, 8
Joseph, 4
Samuel, 3
Thomas, 2
Mary Dabbs, 50 (widow of Moses)
Catherine, 23
Mary, 21
Moses, 17
Sarah, 14
Henry 11
Rebecca Dabbs, 60, farmer
Esther, 20
Robert, 16
Rebecca, 15
Eleanor Dabbs, 20
William Dabbs, 40, agricultural labourer
Rebecca, 30
Mary, 7
Edward, 4
James, 2
Mary Dabbs, 40, female servant
Mary, 20, female servant
At neighbouring Red Lake:
Richard Dabbs, 30, miner
Esther, 25
Thomas, 2
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