William Wilkinson (abt. 1841 - aft. 1901)

Born about 1841 in Belfast, Ireland

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Biography

Birth and Origins

William Wilkenson was born c. 1841, Belfast, Ireland, son of John Wilkinson and Annabella Shaw.

Marriage

He married Elizabeth Hoey on 11 March 1869 at Strabane, Ireland.

William Wilkinson (?Collector, Belfast, son of John Wilkinson, Commission Agent) married Elizabeth Hoey (daughter of William Hoey, Wesleyan Minister) on 11 March 1869 at Strabane, Ireland. Witnesses included John H Hoey and John Wilkinson.^[1]

His wife died before 1901

in 1901 he lived with his widowed sister, Matilda (Wilkinson) Shaw.

In the 1901 Ireland Census, Matilda Scott (65, head, widow, retried draper, Presbyterian, b. county Down) lived at house 25 in Knock Church Road (Pottinger, Down) with her brother, William Wilkinson (59, widower, secretary of the Irish Temperance league, Presbyterian, b. Belfast), boarders, Eveleene V Harper (55, single, income from property, Presbyterian, b. Belfast) and Elizabeth Harper (53, single, income from property, Presbyterian, b. Belfast) and servant, Annie White (23, single, Church of Ireland, b. co Armagh)^[2]

In 1911 he ran a hotel in Belfast

In the 1911 Ireland Census, William Wilkinson (69, head, Presbyterian, Proprietor of Hotel and Secretary of Irish Temperance league, b. Belfast) lived at 7 in College Square, East (part of) (St. Anne's Ward, Antrim) with his nephew, William Wilkinson Hoey (22. electrical light fitter, Methodist, b. Belfast) and the staff of the hotel (including hotel manageress, cook, waitress, house maid, laundress, porter) and four guests^[3]

Occupation

He was Secretary of the Irish Temperance League and ran a Temperance hotel in Belfast.

In 1891, at the opening event of Irish Temperance League's ‘Saturday Night Evening Concerts for the People’, Mr William Wilkinson, the secretary of the League stated:

"It must be admitted that in a large industrial centre like Belfast, with such a teeming population of working people, the necessity for innocent and edifying amusement is very great…Saturday evening is a workingman’s evening and he looks for something to break the monotony of the week’s labours."^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Irish Civil Records, Group Registration ID 3084088, SR District/Reg Area Strabane, https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1869/11409/8190142.pdf
2. ↑ Census Years, 1901, Down, Pottinger, Knock Church Road, Residents of a house, http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Down/Pottinger/Knock_Church_Road/1220797/ Household return form http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000720556/
3. ↑ Irish Census Years 1911 Antrim St. Anne's Ward College Square, East (part of)Residents of a house, Irish archives, http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/St__Anne_s_Ward/College_Square__East__part_of_/133446/ and Form
4. ↑ Orfhlaith Campbell, ‘A Platform Upon Which All Could Unite?: Temperance in Ulster and the Irish Temperance League, 1858-1914', Ph D Thesis, 2016, citing BNL, 2 February 1891., https://oro.open.ac.uk/48914/7/Orfhlaith%20Campbell%20-%20Full%20Thesis%20%28inc%20abstract%29.pdf