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JOHNSON family (Wombourne and Bilston)
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My great-great-great grandfather was Joseph Johnson, who was baptised at Himley, south Staffordshire, on 27 Dec 1785. He was the youngest son of William and Sarah Johnson, whose other children were William (25 Feb 1780), Elizabeth (16 Sept 1781), John (6 Aug 1783) and Mary (3 July 1789).
Joseph Johnson married Nancy Downing at Wombourne, Staffordshire, on 21 Oct 1805.
Nancy’s parents were probably Francis and Mary Downing, whose children were baptised at Wombourne in the late 18th century.
On the 1841 census the family were living at Swindon, near Wombourne:
Joseph Johnson, aged 55, carpenter
Nancy, aged 52
Joseph,aged 22, nailor
Eliza, aged 19
John, aged 16, roller of iron (at Bradford on the 1881 census)
Frank, aged 14
Henry, aged 12
Samuel, aged 9
• A few of the older children, including William, had already left home. Dates for some of the children, all baptised at Wombourne, were Sarah (25 Dec 1806), Harriet (2 Apr 1809), John (31 May 1824), Francis Downing (18 Dec 1826) and Samuel (1 Apr 1832).
On the 1851 census Joseph and Nancy Johnson were recorded at Swindon, Wombourne: Joseph Johnson, carpenter, aged 66, born at Himley, and wife Nancy, aged 63, born at Swindon.
By the time of the 1861 census Nancy had died and Joseph was living at Bread Lane, Sedgley, with his son, William (for 1851 entry see below):
William Johnson, head, aged 45, carpenter, born Swindon hamlet
Harriett, wife, aged 43, born Halfpenny Green hamlet
Joseph, son, aged 21, carpenter, born Swindon
Ann, daughter, aged 18, born Wordsley
Harriett, daughter, aged 9, born Wordsley
Emma, daughter, aged 6, born Wordsley
Joseph Johnson, father, widowed, aged 76, carpenter, born Himley.
My great-great-grandfather, Joseph Johnson, was born at Swindon around 1820. He married Ann Jones on 18 November 1844 at St Peter’s church, Wolverhampton. On the marriage certificate his occupation is shown as joiner, and his father is given as J.Johnson, also a joiner. Ann Jones’s father is given as J.Jones, a puddler.
On the 1851 census the family are shown living at Wordsley, Kingswinford:
Joseph Johnson, head, aged 31, born Swindon; pattern maker
Ann, wife, aged 29, born Bilston
Thomas, son, aged 3, born Coseley
Ann M., daughter, aged 1, born Bilston.
• The same census records Joseph’s brothers Henry Johnson, 21, and Samuel Johnson, 19, both born at ‘Swinn’ (Swindon) working as puddlers at Bilston, and lodging together in Wolverhampton Street.
Also recorded on the 1851 census was Joseph's brother William, living not far from him at Bug Pool (Buckpool) Kingswinford:
William, head, aged 33, carpenter, born Wombourne
Harriett, wife, aged 33, born Claverley, Shropshire
Joseph, son, aged 11, born Wombourne
Ann, daughter, aged 8, born Wombourne
Sarah, daughter, aged 5, born Bobbington
Thomas, son, aged 2, born Kingswinford.
Around 1856 Joseph Johnson's family moved from Wordsley to Bilston, and on the 1861 census they were living at 14 Union Street:
Joseph Johnson, head, aged 40, brass caster; born Swindon
Ann, wife, aged 38, butcher’s shop; born Bilston
Thomas, son, aged 13; born Bilston
Ann Maria, daughter, aged 11; born Bilston
Joseph, son, aged 10; born Wordsley
Henry, son, aged 8; born Wordsley
Elizabeth, daughter, aged 7; born Wordsley
Sarah, daughter, aged 5; born Wordsley
Fanny, daughter, aged 3; born Bilston
Martha, daughter; aged 6mths; born Bilston
(See end notes).
Wolverhampton Archives & Local Studies has a number of deeds relating to Joseph Johnson, dating between 1864 and 1878, involving properties in Thompson Street and Hartshorn Street in Bilston. In these deeds he is variously referred to as brass caster, brass founder and publican.
A deed of conveyance dated 1864 relates to the Cross Guns Inn in Hartshorn Street, which had a brass-casting shop on site. This is where the Johnson family was probably living at the time of the next census (below) and where my grandfather, Thomas Nixon Fowler, was born.
The 1872 Kelly’s Directory for Bilston likewise records Joseph Johnson as a brass founder and beer retailer in Hartshorn Street, obviously at the Cross Guns Inn.
Hartshorn Street, Bilston, 1871:
Joseph Johnson, head, aged 52, brass caster & publican, born Swindon
Anne, wife, aged 49, born Bilston
Thomas, son, aged 23, brass caster & publican, born Coseley
Ann M., daughter, aged 21, domestic servant, born Bilston
Joseph, son, aged 19, iron moulder, born Wordsley
Henry, son, aged 18, iron moulder, born Wordsley
Elizabeth, daughter, aged 16, domestic servant, born Wordsley
Sarah J, daughter, aged 14, domestic servant, born Wordsley
Fanny, daughter, aged 13, scholar, born Bilston
Martha, daughter, aged 10, scholar, born Bilston.
On the 1881 census the family were living at 7 Dudley Street, Bilston:
Joseph Johnson, head, aged 61, born Wombourne; brass caster
Ann, wife, aged 58, born Bilston
Sarah J., daughter, aged 24, born Kingswinford; milliner
Fanny, daughter, aged 23, born Bilston; pawnbroker’s assistant
Martha, daughter, aged 20, born Bilston.
• Fanny was baptised at High Street Primitive Methodist chapel on 7 March 1858. The register records her father as Joseph Johnson, of Union Street, pattern maker. Martha was baptised at the same chapel on 27 November 1860. This time her father’s occupation is given as cabinet maker.
My great-grandmother, Ann Mariah Johnson, was born on 29 October 1849 at Gibbet Lane, Bilston - on her birth certificate her father’s occupation is shown as pattern maker - and she was baptised at High Street Primitive Methodist chapel on 13 November 1849. She married John Fowler at St Thomas’s church, Birmingham, on 22 July 1873. On her marriage certificate her father is described as a brass founder and her place of residence given at Great Colmore Street, Birmingham.
Ann Mariah’s brother Joseph (born at Wordsley c.1852) married Sarah Fowler, sister of John Fowler, at Moxley, Willenhall, on 2 February 1873. Sarah had been born at Bridge Street, Bilston, on 1 January 1853.
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Children of Joseph and Ann Johnson:
• Thomas, a brass and iron moulder, was baptised at Coseley on 23 April 1848. In 1874 he married Mary Anne Skidmore, and on the 1881 census they were living at Alice Street, Bilston, with their children Amelia 5, and Thomas aged two. Another daughter, Florence, born in 1874, was visiting a farm at Fisherwick at the time of the census. On the 1891 census Thomas and Mary Anne Johnson were living at Coseley Village. His age is given as 36, his wife's as 34, and their children are Florence 16, born Priestfield, Amy (Amelia) 14, born Bilston, and Thomas 12, born Bilston. There was also a servant, Mary Dangerfield, aged 60.
• Ann Mariah - my great-great-grandmother (see above).
• Joseph, a coal miner, was born at Wordsley, south Staffordshire, about 1851. He married Sarah Fowler, sister of his brother-in-law John Fowler, at Moxley, Willenhall, on 2 February 1873. In 1881 the census records him and Sarah at Lunt Gardens, Bilston, with their children Moses 7, James 6, and Louisa aged one. By 1891 the family had moved to Short Heath and the census for that year records the children as Moses 17, James 15, Louisa 11, Joseph 6, Herbert 3, and John, aged one. By the time of the 1901 census, Joseph Johnson jnr had died (possibly Sept Q 1894), and his widow Sarah was at Wellington Terrace, Willenhall, with her children James 23, Joseph 16, and Bertie 14 (all coal miners), Louise 19, Lucy 10, and Eliza Alice aged six.
• Henry, an iron moulder, was born at Wordsley c1853 and was with his parents at Bilston in 1871.
• Elizabeth was born at Ashwood, near Wordsley, about 1864. She married Edwin John Jones in 1876 and on the 1881 census they were living at 21 High Street, Bilston, where Mr Jones had a grocery business (his father, Edwin Jones snr, had a wine and spirit store next door at no. 20). Their children included Ada Ethel (baptised at Bilston 22 Dec 1876), Harry Edwin (13 Dec 1877), Gertrude Annie (16 Apr 1879), Bernard Leslie (2 Dec 1880), Elizabeth Dora (15 Jun 1882, died that year) and Leonard Louis (born 1884). Sometime early in the 1880s their grocery business moved to the top of Dudley Street, Wolverhampton, where it was recorded in 1891; but by 1901 Edwin and Elizabeth Jones had gone to Llandudno, north Wales, where they were running the Alexandra Hotel, Clonmel Street. Three of their children, Ada, Gertrude and Leonard, were still with them, and Elizabeth’s sister Fanny was employed as bookkeeper.
• Sarah was born at Wordsley about 1866. In 1891 she was with her sister Fanny at 37 Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton, where they ran a small millinery business together.
• Fanny was baptised at Bilston’s High Street Primitive Methodist chapel on 7 March 1858. In 1881 she was a pawnbroker’s assistant; in 1891 she was working as a milliner and dressmaker in partnership with her sister Sarah; and in 1901 she was a bookkeeper at her sister Elizabeth’s hotel in Llandudno.
• Martha was baptised at the High Street Primitive Methodist chapel, Bilston, on 27 November 1860, and was still living at home in 1881.
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