Lancelot Smith and his wife Elizabeth Westgarth had ten children, all of whom were born in Gamblesby and baptized in Addingham Parish Church in Glassonby.
Unfortunately, there is no family group photograph to show the children and their parents together. We do have a few photographs of two of the children, Mary and William. Those will appear in later posts about them.
The eldest child in this family was Ann Smith, who was born on 22 December 1817. I know very little about Ann. In June 1841 when the first English census was taken, Ann was working as a servant in the household of John Westgarth, a yeoman in Gamblesby. Ann would have been 23 years old at the time and expected to earn her own living. John Westgarth was probably a cousin of Ann’s mother.
The only other piece of information I have about Ann is that she married Jonathan Bell, a farmer, in Addingham Parish Church on 20 Nov 1841. Jonathan was living in Gamblesby in June 1841 with his mother Elizabeth and his brother Thomas. Jonathan Bell and his wife Ann are not to be found in the 1851 census. They may have emigrated to America. (My great-uncle Thomas thought one of his Smith aunts emigrated to America and Ann would be the only possible one.)
Hannah Smith was the second child. She was born on 13 January 1820. She was living with her parents in June 1841 in Gamblesby, with six of her brothers and sisters. In March 1851, in the second census, Hannah was living in Gamblesby and working as the housekeeper for her brothers Lancelot and William, and for her cousin Benjamin Salkeld, aged 17.
I assume that Hannah moved to County Tipperary in Ireland in 1852 or 1853 with most of her family. By 1859, Hannah was definitely living in Ireland; she married Joseph Backhouse in Cashel Cathedral Church on 26 February 1859. The witnesses at the marriage were Sarah Smith, Thomas Smith and Thomas Brindley. Her place of residence when she married was Rathcoun, Cashel, Parish of St. Patrick’s Rock. Her husband Joseph Backhouse was from Lancashire and was probably born in 1826. At the time of his marriage he was working as a farm steward in Lanespark, Killenaule, Tipperary. Later, Joseph was a farmer in County Tipperary, living in Grange near Cashel. And later still he was a farmer in Corduff, County Dublin, not far from the Smiths of Corballis and Beaverstown.
Hannah and Joseph had no children. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, they looked after their nephew William Smith (my grandfather) while he attended school in Swords.
Hannah died at Corduff on 21 October 1890, aged 70, and was buried at Donabate Parish Church. Her husband Joseph Backhouse continued to live in Ireland for at least another 11 years; he was listed in the 1901 Irish census as living in Lusk as a retired farmer with his niece Elizabeth Birkett, a widow from Lancashire. He was still alive in April 1905 and living near Warrington, Lancashire, when he was visited by the newly-married William Smith and his wife (this information comes from a postcard). Joseph Backhouse died in December 1908 in Penketh near Warrington. He left a will for which probate was granted to John Backhouse and Lancelot Smith, farmers. I assume the latter was Lancelot Smith of Beaverstown.
John Smith was the third child and eldest son in the family. He was born on 29 April 1822. He was living with his parents and six brothers and sisters in Gamblesby in June 1841. He died in Gamblesby on or around 13 February 1848, aged 25. He was buried at the Addingham Parish Church in Glassonby.
Lancelot Smith was the fourth child and second son. He was born on 28 July 1824 and he died on 10 August 1899. When his brother John died, Lancelot became the eldest surviving son. His story is told in a separate page in the “Family Stories” section of this blog.
Mary Smith came next; she was born on 7 December 1826 and was the third daughter and fifth child in the family. Mary was not living with her parents at the time of the June 1841 census nor of the March 1851 census. She had such a common name that I have not been able to identify where she was on those dates. I do know she was living somewhere because she appeared later on in Ireland.
The first information I have since her birth is from the parish records for the Church of St. Keiran in the Parish of Ballymaglasson, County Meath, where Mary married Thomas Bouskill on 24 July 1866. Her residence at the time was Blackhall, County Meath. Witnesses at her marriage were Thomas Smith and Sarah Smith.
At the time of his marriage, Thomas Bouskill was a land agent living in Barnane, County Tipperary. He was born around 1825 in Arnside, Westmoreland, where his father John Bouskill was a farmer. Mary and Thomas had one daughter, Elizabeth (known as Lizzie), who was born on 3 June 1868 in Barnane.
Thomas Bouskill became a farmer in Barnane where he and Mary continued to live until their deaths. Thomas died on 30 June 1884 and Mary died early in the following year on 13 January 1885. Thomas had a will and probate was granted in Dublin to Lancelot Smith, farmer, and William Smith, esquire. I assume they were Mary’s brothers.
The next child in the Smith family was Sarah Smith, born on 31 May 1829. Sarah was living with her parents and six brothers and sisters in Gamblesby in June 1841. At the next census in March 1851, Sarah was still living with her parents but in Sowerby Row this time. Also in the same household were her younger brother Thomas and her youngest sister Agnes.
I believe Sarah was in the family group that moved to Ireland in early 1852 or 1853 and settled on a rented farm near Cashel, County Tipperary. She was certainly in Ireland in 1859 when her sister Hannah was married in Cashel and in 1866 when her sister Mary was married in Ballymaglasson, County Meath. We also know she was living at Blackhall, County Meath, in June 1871 when her father Lancelot died in Grange, County Tipperary. Sarah was appointed the sole executrix of her father’s will – an unusual situation in the 1870s when she had three brothers alive at the time.
Sarah was still living at Blackhall in 1875 when she married Joseph Cowen in the Parish Church of Ballymaglasson on 2 January. Witnesses at her marriage were her brother Lancelot Smith and Mary Jane Kingsbury (a Methodist friend). Joseph Cowen was from Caldbeck in Cumberland and does not seem to have lived in Ireland at all. By the 1881 English census, Sarah and her husband Joseph Cowen were living in Gamblesby and farming 35 acres. They both continued to live there until they died. They had no children. Joseph died in 1908 and Sarah died in 1913.
Next in the family was Elizabeth Smith. She was born on 6 September 1831 and died on 9 March 1832.
Thomas Smith followed Elizabeth. He was born on 9 April 1833, the eighth child and third son. Thomas was a young child at the time of the first census in June 1841 and living in Gamblesby with his parents and siblings. By March 1851, when he was nearly 18 years old, he was still living with his parents although in a different place: Sowerby Row. I assume he and his father Lancelot were trying to make a living on a rented farm in that district while the other Smiths remained in Gamblesby on their small freehold property. I think Thomas was part of the family that moved to Tipperary in 1852 or 1853 and settled on the farm in Rathcoun, Cashel. By April 1863, Thomas was renting the house and farm at Blackhall, County Meath. He lived there until he died in March 1873, not quite 40 years old.
William Smith was the ninth child and youngest son. He was born on 9 April 1836 and he was identified in the first two censuses in Gamblesby, Cumberland. By 1861, he was living in London and I don’t know if he ever lived in Ireland. By 1853, William would have been 16 years old and could have been established in his civil service job as a clerk in HM Customs. I think it is unlikely he lived in Ireland although he definitely visited his family there.
In September 1864, William married Caroline Brindley in Ballysheehan Parish Church, near Cashel, County Tipperary. Caroline was a daughter of Thomas Brindley, a farmer originally from Cheshire. William and Caroline had one son Hubert William, born in London on 7 February 1869. Sadly, Caroline died in late 1878, aged only 39. In 1881, William was living in lodgings in Stoke Newington (Hackney) while his son was in a boarding school in Sussex. Some time in or after 1885, William’s niece Lizzie Bouskill came to live with him in London as his housekeeper. William died in 1892, aged 56.
The youngest daughter Agnes Smith was born on 13 October 1838. She was living with her parents in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. I assume she accompanied them when they moved to Ireland. Agnes died in April 1854 and was buried in the graveyard at Cashel Cathedral Church.
William Smith Family History 