Charles Thompson (1854 - 1923)

Born 1854 in Sutton, St Helens, Lancashire, England

Husband of Elizabeth (Makin) Thompson — married 13 Mar 1877 in St Nicholas, Sutton, St Helens, Lancashire, England

Descendants

Died 1923 at about age 69 in St Helens, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Corinne Morris [send private message]

Biography

Charles Thompson was born in 1854 in St Helens, the son of Charles Thompson & Eliza (Bailey) Thompson. His father was an agricultural labourer (1861) and a general labourer (1871), and he had two older sisters.

By 1871 at the age of 17, Charles himself was working as a brickmaker's labourer.

Charles' first child, Eliza, was born early in 1875 and christened 28 February 1875 at St Nicholas Church Sutton. It seems that, unusually, Charles and his partner Elizabeth managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the civil and church authorities - although they didn't marry until two years later, Eliza was given her father's surname when christened and in her birth registration; and his name was listed in her marriage record, which was not normally done for children of unmarried mothers.

Charles married Elizabeth Makin on March 13th 1877 at St Nicholas Church, Sutton, St Helens. The marriage witnesses were Richard Clayton & Margaret Makin - the latter could have been the bride's mother or her sister.

By 1891 the couple were living in 74 Normans Road, Sutton, and had two sons & two daughters. They had also lost twin daughters at 7 and 8 weeks old, and a son aged 18 months. Charles was now working as a copper furnaceman, presumably in the copper refinery. The older two children, at 16 and 13, were already doing paid work in a coal mine and a glass factory. In the summer of 1892, a son Joseph was born, and (as was not uncommon) given the name of the previous son who had died young. On 24 Dec 1892, the eldest daughter, Eliza, got married, and described her father's occupation in the marriage record as collier, which was also his occupation in the 1901 census.

The couple may have had a daughter Mary Elizabeth in 1893. However the records regarding this child are confusing. She was christened 12 December 1893, and said to have been born 15 Feb 1893. But there is no birth registration matching this with the correct mother's maiden name. Occasionally it happened that parents forgot to register one child or the record has been mis-transcribed, but it's odd that Mary Elizabeth was christened at St Anne's Roman Catholic church in Sutton, because the earlier children had been christened at St Nicholas Sutton, the parish church (Anglican). Of course the parents may have converted during the intervening time, and Elizabeth herself had been baptised a Catholic, but also the time between the births of Joseph and of Mary Elizabeth is rather short. She did die young, and might have been somewhat premature, but she did live to be a year old. Putting all these slightly odd facts together makes me wonder whether either there is a mistake in the records somewhere, or she was in fact someone's illegitimate child and the Makins either adopted her or pretended they were her parents for the christening. But she can't have been the illegitimate child of any of their daughters - the eldest was married, and the second eldest too young to have a child - and this is only idle speculation.

There was a gap before the couple's final child, Elizabeth, was born in 1897.

On April 1, 1899, Charles' eldest son, George, was married, at the parish church of St Nicholas.

In 1901 Charles' address is given as 74 Hoghton Road, Sutton; although the number is the same as 1891, this was not a renamed street, they had moved house.^[1] The second oldest daughter, Margaret, was also not at home for the census; it was normal for girls her age to be in service, working away from home as domestic servants. Thomas was still with his parents, working now as a collier; and the youngest children, Joseph & Elizabeth, were of course still with their parents & continued to thrive. Charles himself was working as a coal hewer.

Charles' second son, Thomas, married and left home in 1909. By 1911 Charles & Elizabeth were still living at 74 Hoghton Road, and Joseph & Elizabeth were still living at home, but Joseph was 18 and working as a collier. Elizabeth's brother George Makin was also living with them as a lodger.

Elizabeth probably died in 1919 at the age of 62; Charles probably died in 1923 at the age of 68.

Research Notes

Not buried at St Helens Cemetery.

Sources

1. ↑ Both streets are listed in the 1911 census according to https://www.suttonbeauty.org.uk/documents/a_to_z_sutton_streets_1911.pdf

• Birth registration listed on https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

• Marriage is listed on http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Search/indexp.html

• Death registration in FreeBMD GRO Index https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

• "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KD6X-DH2 : 11 December 2017), Charles Thompson in entry for Charles Thompson, 1871.

• "England and Wales Census, 1891," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:77D8-XZM : 10 December 2017), Elizabeth Thompson in household of Charles Thompson, Sutton, Lancashire, England; from "1891 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 12, Lancashire county, subdistrict, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

• "England and Wales Census, 1901," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9LV-GP8 : 8 April 2016), Elizth Thompson in household of Charles Thompson, St Helens, Lancashire, England; from "1901 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing St Helens subdistrict, PRO RG 13, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

• "England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWY9-XCL : 2 August 2017), Elizabeth Thompson in household of Charles Thompson, St Helens, Helens, Lancashire, England; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.

The civil registration index, and the England and Wales censuses, are Crown Copyright.