John James MARGRETT
Ancestral line identified to date:- John James 1840, James born about 1811.................Family Tree number 16
Born: 21MAY1840 in Newnham, Gloucestershire, England
Fourth of seven children of
Father: James MARGRETT
Mother: Ann Aubrey
John Married: 1868 in Hereford, Herefordshire, England
John's Spouse: Mary Ann Johnson
Five Children: Emma Elizabeth 1870
John James 1871
Ann Laurie Esther 1874
Edward Herbert 1876
Fanny Mabel Pember 1879
Death: not traced yet.
Here is an amazing account of how families can stand together.
Down in the countryside, townies would say that we have funny accents, yet in the countryside we think we understand each other better than the townies understand each other. And in Gloucestershire, we like to clip the words with an exaggerated accent. So, when asked the family name of your new baby (which name the Registrar might never have previously heard) we might say “Margreet”. That might be why John James' birth certificate has just that spelling as his surname. Naturally, the Registrar used that spelling in the rest of the certificate for the mother and father.
James, John's father, was an ostler says the 1840 birth certificate, and he was still employed that way eleven years later. Ostlers, entrusted with the care of horses especially at inns, were in greater numbers than are car mechanics today. But it was his mother, Ann, who made her mark “X” to register their fourth child, James, as being born in Newnham, Gloucestershire. All seven children except one of this family were born in Newnham. Their first child was born in 1832, three years after they married by licence in Abenhall, Gloucestershire where James is recorded as being of that parish. But they moved to Newnham before having children..
By 1851 we see the snapshot of this family at a cottage in Back lane, Newnham, Gloucestershire with John James now aged 11 and at school. Apart from his father aged 40 who is still working as an ostler, also employed are his sisters Jane, 16 and Sarah 14, working as a house servants. That would be nearby since they are living at home with their parents, and not as residential staff in a big house. So, these three are having to support two adults and six children, including themselves. The eldest sister of John James is living elsewhere aged about 20 and is more likely to be one of residential staff than elsewhere married.
The Census details above were collected by the enumerator on 30th March 1851, and, within a few weeks James the ostler had died. We find his burial recorded on 25th April in the register at the parish church of St Peter in Newnham and it claims he was aged 42. Suddenly the family is reliant in 1851 on the two daughters, with perhaps the eldest contributing in the circumstances as well, to support them.
Great years of difficulty obviously followed. It will have been another year before John James was 12 in 1852 and could leave school to get a boys job to help. That may be why another 16 years pass before he gets married in Hereford, Herefordshire at the age of 28 to Mary.
We have not traced the Census returns of our John James between 1851 and 1891. But in that 1891 Census he is living at 32 Tallam Hill, Worcester, having married in 1868 in Hereford, Herefordshire to Mary. They are now both in their early 50's and look so much more secure as a family with all five children at home. The eldest is Emma Elizabeth, 21 who has a job as a barmaid at a local inn. John James and Mary have called their first son by his father's names, and so we get the frequent confusion in family history of more than one “John James”. This lad is 19 in 1891 and working as a blacksmiths labourer. Since John James senior is a wheelwright, perhaps this lad is dad's apprentice? You could of course rightly argue that wheelwright and blacksmith are not the same. The third child in the family is also very grown up. Ann Laura Esther is aged 17 and is working as a drapers assistant locally. The other two, Edward Herbert 14, and Fanny Mabel Pember 12, are both still at school.
But, there is one more in this household. She is Norah Ethel Margrett aged 1 year, born in Long Eaton, Derbyshire and is a granddaughter. She is the child of the 19 year-old blacksmiths labourer (John James son of John James) who is recorded in the Census as “unmarried”. Her mother is Mary Fowler and perhaps this couple managed to get married soon after. They went on to have four more children. Are you surprised that their second child, a boy, was called “John James”? Our head of this family is John James born 1840, and his son John James was born 1871 and his son John James was born in 1893.
This 'middle' John James emigrates in about 1910 to Canada. We know this because we have on 1st June 1935 a tourist class Passenger List of Canadian Pacific ship M.V. Duchess of York arriving Liverpool from Montreal, via St John, New Brunswick, Halifax. It records John James Margrett and Mary Ann Margrett ages 63 and 61 respectively having an occupation of "retired" (John James) and “housewife”; country of last permanent residence = Canada; country of future permanent residence = "British Possession" (i.e. not England, Scotland, Ireland etc) address in the UK = 67 Farrier Street, Worcester. Some 27 years later, in about 1962, he died in Montreal, Canada aged 91 whilst the rest of his family continued to live there.
But what of our original John James? Well, we have the 1901 Census telling us that he is living at 54 Foregate Street, back of Worcester and he is aged 60 working as a wheelwright foreman. Sadly he is a widower. His eldest daughter, Emma Elizabeth, aged 31 is not married and obviously 'keeps house'. Edward the fourth child is a coach builder aged 24 and the youngest daughter Fanny is still a dressmaker. But who else? Yes, Nora Ethel aged 10 is still living with her favourite grandfather. She may or may not have gone to Canada with her father in 1910.
What have we seen? You may agree that it is an amazing account of how families can stand together.
None of the life of these John James' appears to have been published previously before the above record was created.
None of the Margrett Magazines from 1986 to 2012 included any of his experiences and therefore those experiences were not previously recorded in the public domain through the magazines deposited at the British Library under the I.S.S.N. 0269-0284 in those years.