Willoughby Family's Migrant Children

The Willoughby family’s migrant children

Charles Morris, born in Tickhill, and Hannah Parkin, born in Rossington, shown left, married on 17 August 1840 at Rossington then moved briefly to Conisbrough and Misson before settling in Tickhill. In 1851 with their two sons and two daughters they lived in a terrace house on Church Lane. Charles worked as a farm labourer. They are buried in St Mary’s churchyard close to the path to Pinfold Lane. Charles died in 1897 aged 77 and Hannah in 1902 aged 87. However, they are not buried together. Hannah has a grave to herself while Charles is with their elder daughter Martha who died in 1895 as a result of carcinoma of the liver aged 49. Her mother was with her when she died and registered her death using an X mark. Martha’s married surname is not given on the gravestone. She married Joseph Willoughby on 15 October 1865.

Martha and Joseph had seven children. Three of them died in infancy. The eldest, Mary, married in 1890 then moved to Hampshire then Essex. The three remaining children, Fred, Fanny and John migrated to Pennsylvania and this is something of a mystery as they did not travel with their parents. First, Joseph Willoughby a farm worker was living with his family at the time of the 1871 and 1881 censuses but was not listed on the 1891 census when Martha and one child, John aged 9, were living with her parents. Joseph reappears in 1901 in Westgate living on his own by which time his wife and her father had died and the three children were in the USA where they remained for the rest of their lives.

An account of a case in Doncaster West Riding Police Court in the Sheffield Independent, Monday 15 August 1887, page 2, gives an indication of a crisis faced by Martha. Joseph Willoughby was fined 10/- with 34/- costs for an aggravated assault on his wife. An order of separation was also made requiring Joseph to allow his wife 5/- per week. The account explained that this assault was committed on 6 August (a Saturday) but it was said ‘the defendant’s ill-usage was frequent’. The police certainly acted swiftly to bring the case to court after the last attack on Martha. Little wonder that Martha moved in with her parents, that her married surname was not recorded on her grave, that she and her parents would not have wished her husband to be buried with her and that provision was made to give three of her children a new opportunity abroad. Joseph spent the last 2 years of his life at the South Yorkshire pauper lunatic asylum in Sheffield where his death had several causes including meningitis, arteriosclerosis and senile dementia. His body was brought back to Tickhill for burial on 18 April 1910. There is no gravestone on his grave.

How did the family afford to pay for the children’s passage? Who accompanied them on the journey? How did they fare in the USA? According to the US census of 1900, Fred Willoughby, born in Tickhill in 1873, lived in Clearfield County in the centre of Pennsylvania, had been married for 5 years (to Lillian May Burkey), had 4 surviving children and worked as a miner. He died in 1906 aged 33 and was buried at Hawk Run in Clearfield County. Fanny (shown right) was born in Tickhill in 1880, married John Hickson (born in 1876 and also working as a miner) in 1899 and raised their four children also in Clearfield County. She died in 1947 and her husband three years later. They are buried together in Hawk Run, Clearfield County. (A large coal mine was opened in Hawk Run in 1885.)

In contrast to his siblings’ settled families, John Morris Willoughby, born in Tickhill in 1882, fell foul of the law in Pennsylvania by committing bigamy and perjury as a result of a second marriage on 10 December 1911 (11 years to the day after his first marriage). Through the Ancestry website it is possible to read the records of the Eastern State Penitentiary. John was sentenced to a minimum of 3 years and maximum of 7 years imprisonment on 30 January 1912 a few days after his 30^th birthday. He was also fined $10. He was described as resident in the USA for 19 years and naturalised. He was of medium build, fair complexion, blue eyes, light brown hair, 5 feet 7⅞ inches tall, his foot measured 9¾ inches and he weighed 164 lbs. He had a brown mole on each cheek and his right forearm. His heart and lungs were normal and he had no hereditary disease. His father was unknown, his mother dead and he had left home age 11 after 4 years in school. His habits were moderate, religion Protestant, his crime attributed to drink, he smoked, chewed (tobacco) and used profane language. He was married with one child. His possessions consisted of 15 cents, 1 ring and 4 shirt buttons. He had not been imprisoned before. After 3 years he was released on parole.

A clue as to why the three children went to Pennsylvania comes in the US marriage record for Fanny. Because she was only 19 she needed her parent’s or guardian’s permission to marry. This permission was given by Sarah Sanderson. Sarah’s death certificate showed that she was the daughter of Charles Morris and Annie Parkin, in other words Martha Willoughby’s sister and aunt of the three children. She and her husband Ephraim, lived in Tickhill in 1871 then Wombwell in 1881, where Ephraim had changed his occupation from farm labourer to coal miner, before emigrating with their daughter Ann to Hawk Run, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania. According to the 1900 and 1910 US censuses Ephraim worked as a coal miner; he and Sarah had migrated in 1888 probably taking Fred Willoughby with them. Their daughter Ann lived next door with her 12 children. Before emigrating Ephraim had all his household furniture auctioned on 12 March 1888. Sarah made a return visit to England in 1893 by which time her sister’s health was probably deteriorating. It is most likely that she returned to the USA with Fanny and John. She sailed from Liverpool on the SS ‘Ohio’ leaving on 21 June and reaching Philadelphia on 2 July. It looks as though Sarah and her husband helped the children to settle in Hawk Run.