The following text is reproduced from an annotated photo album put together by Mark Pattern following his research into the family tree during retirement. We don’t know when dad wrote the text, but it appears to have been something he wrote to share with his siblings and undoubtedly they all contributed their own memories to it.
Although we knew that dad had carried out research, no-one in the family knew about the album which, along with a folder of old photographs, lay undisturbed in a bedroom wardrobe until we found it several months after he passed away in July 2023. With hindsight, it seems odd that dad didn’t tell anyone but it does make me wonder if it was intended to be a surprise!
I’ve corrected some obvious typos in the text and will add additional footnotes to reflect any corrections or extra information from my own subsequent research into the family tree. Some slight differences in dates have been silently corrected.
Dave Pattern
September 2024
The Pattern Story
Our great, great, great, great grandparents were Michael Pattern and Mary Cowley who married on 22nd November 1767 at St. Withberg, Holkham, Norfolk and they had a son, Michael, baptised on 31st December, 1769 at All Saint’s Church, Thornham, Norfolk.1
It was this Michael, our great, great, great grandfather, who met and married Mary Payne, who was born in January 1780 at Brundall, Norfolk, her parents being Thomas and Susanna Payne.2 Their son was Robert — our great, great grandfather — born on 4th January 1802 and christened later at St. Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch on 13th August 1802, their address being Hollywell Lane, Hackney, Shoreditch. A sister followed, Susanna (the same Christian name as her grandmother) Pattern but she was baptised at Tilney All Saints on 17th March 1804. She married in 1828 a George Killingworth at Clenchwarton Parish Church.
Robert and Mary had another son, Michael Pattern, born 18083 at Walpole St. Peter. This Michael married Eliza and their family consisted of a daughter Eliza born 1842 and a son Robert William born 1845. Michael like many of the family was an agricultural worker but ended his life as a “pauper” living for some years at the Holbeach Union Workhouse where he died in 1896 and laid to rest in Holbeach All Saint’s churchyard. The Lincolnshire Chronicle dated 21st August 1896 reported his sudden death at the age of 88 years at the Holbeach Union Workhouse “the deceased had breakfast with the other inmates, and was apparently in his usual health, but afterwards he was found at the back of some buildings dead”!
We return to our own family line with our great, great grandfather Robert. Now living in Cambridgeshire he met and married Mary Addlesey, who was born in 1803 at Walpole St. Peter, at St. Peter’s Church (the “Cathedral of the Fens”) at Walpole St. Peter on 16th November 1825. They set up their home at Tydd St. Giles, then moved on to Sutton St. James and in 1851 are resident in the nearby village of Newton. The census of 1851 gives their address and that of their children as being the “Woodman’s Arms” pub at Newton.
There is a news item in the Lincolnshire Chronicle 12th October 1849 about Robert Pattern of Newton was on his way home when he was stopped by two men and a woman near Dowgate Bridge of the Sutton Road, near Wisbech and robbed of 17 shillings. “Two men held him and covered his face while the woman ransacked his pocket and took the money from his trousers pocket”.
Their family consisted of eight children, our great grandfather, Michael, being the youngest member. Mary Payne (grandmother’s surname taken as a Christian name) born 1828 at Tydd St. Giles; Jane born 1831 at Tydd St. Giles; Sarah born 1833 at Tydd St. Giles; John born 1835 at Tydd St. Giles; Edward born 1837 also at Tydd St. Giles; Robert born 1838 at Sutton St. James; Ann born 1841 at Sutton St. James and finally Michael born 1843 at Sutton St. James. I have the dates of all their baptisms these being held at the same Parish Church at Tydd St. Giles. I have since discovered that two more sons were born, William April 1845, but who died, his death registered in June of that year and then again a William born in January 1847 who also died a few months old in the same year. Our great, great grandfather Robert died in 1856 at the age of 55 years and was buried at St. James Church, Newton, after which his wife, Mary, served as a “housekeeper” for an elderly gentleman in Tydd St. Giles before her death at the age of 87 years in February 1891. She was interred in the churchyard at Tydd St. Giles thus confirming the Pattern’s long connection with the Parish Church in that village.
We turn to the family of Robert and Mary. Their eldest child, Mary Payne, at the age of 12 was a pupil at St. Margaret’s School, King’s Lynn, where girls from poor families were trained for “service”. St. Margaret’s was a “Workhouse” but provided accommodation for 46 boys and girls to board there for their schooling. It was in contact with Canadian Pattern families that I was told Mary was placed for service at a royal establishment in Norfolk! If Mary did work at Sandringham House it was before it became a royal residence in 1871! The owner of Sandringham in the mid-19th century was Charles Spencer Cowper, the step-son of the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston. Perhaps Mary in relating the story of her earlier life some years later said it was Sandringham House and referred to it at that time as a royal residence? What we do know Mary Payne Pattern had a baby born out of wedlock and given the name William. The birth certificate for William shows that he was born on 7th September 1849 at Newton and also that Mary is the single parent. It was not until May 1852 before the child was baptised at Newton Parish Church and given the names Joseph William Eliff Pattern. The 1851 census records that William is being cared for by his grandparents, Robert and Mary Pattern at their home in Newton, and that in 1861 is still with his grandmother, Mary who now is a widow. So Robert and Mary having lost two boys both given the name William, cared for their grandson, a “William”! Our relatives in Canada added that when Mary became pregnant “her child would be kept well and would not have any worries for the rest of his or her life!” Who was the father of William, was he connected with Sandringham House — who gave Mary that kind of a secure future provision?
It would appear that Mary was never able to provide a home for her son. Mary in the 1851 and 1861 Census is in “service” with two families at Fleet before she marries in 1864 a Ezekiel Hotchkin, a shepherd, born at Parson Drove. Ezekiel was a widower with a family, and neighbour of Mary’s brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Sarah Pattern. However this marriage was short-lived for as a widow she marries again in 1875 a widower, William Harwood Bacon. He was a farmer/grazier at Moulton (26 acres) and with his first wife, Elizabeth had the following children — John born 1859, Sarah Ann born 1861, Charles born 1862 and Elizabeth born 1870. So at the age of 47 years Mary becomes step-mother to this young family. It was this Charles Bacon who in 1898 married the niece of his step-mother, Mary Payne Bacon, his bride being Annie Pattern, the daughter of Mary’s brother, Robert and his wife Sarah, who lived at Holbeach St. John (details of Robert Pattern and Sarah follow later!) The 1901 Census tells us that Charles and Annie are living with mother-in-law and mother, Sarah Pattern, who is now a widow, helping her with the village shop and sub-post office at Holbeach St. John. Mary Payne Bacon, while living with her step-daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, John Cherrington, died at the age of 80 years in the summer of 1907 — her husband William Bacon predeceased her dying in 1898. I wonder if Mary ever had the opportunity to see her son, William, in Hull, seeing that she married twice and cared for her four stepchildren while living in south Lincolnshire.
What happened to Mary’s son, William? He eventually moved to Yorkshire and in 1875 married a Miss Charity Baker, born at Birkenhead in 1852. They set up their home at 5, St. Luke’s Terrace in Hull. It would appear that William did become a beneficiary of his mystery “father” because he had the capital to become the owner of a Rullycart Carrier business employing horsemen to drive the carts to Hull Station and transport cattle to nearby farms. Later on he had a private house built at 46, Goodwin Street in Hull. One of his employees, Hewson Tuxworth, features later in the Pattern story!
William and Charity Pattern had eleven children, but two died in infancy. One of his sons, William, with his wife Ethel and two children, Eric and Eva, emigrated to Canada. They sailed on a ship call the “Mongolia” in 1912 and Eva remembered how she saw debris floating on the sea and being told it was “stuff” from the Titanic that had just sunk! This William Pattern became the owner of a log mill and camp having fathered four more children resulting in several Pattern families still in the Winnipeg area of Canada. Their daughter, Eva, married Gordon Johnston and they raised nine children and they too had a mill and the place where they lived was named Johnston’s Mill Lake in Saskatchewan. John Baker Pattern was another son of William and Charity and like his brother decided to make his future in Canada. He stowed away on a ship heading for Canada and as they were nearing the end of the voyage, he jumped overboard and swam to the shore. He then travelled on to Winnipeg to join his brother William and his family. All the above information was given to me by Marilyn Heraty, who lives on Gabriola Island, West Canada. She is the grand-daughter of John Baker Pattern and Olive and I had the pleasure of entertaining her at our home on her visit to the UK in 2008. William Pattern died 14th November 1927 and his wife, Charity 18th May 1930.
We must now consider the lives of the other seven children of our great, great grandparents, Robert and Mary Pattern. Jane Pattern married a William Hawes who was born in 1832 at East Carlton, Norfolk, at the St. Mary and St. Nicholas Church in Spalding on 30th July 1855. They lived at Whaplode Drove and then Moulton where William was an agricultural worker. Later while resident at 70, Commercial Road, Spalding, William is recorded as being a Market Gardener.
John Pattern married in 1862 Elizabeth Perkins, born in 1817, at Holbeach St. John. Elizabeth was 45 years old when she married. John inherited from his father-in-law a farm of 50 acres at Holbeach St. John, but sadly died at the early age of 41 years, while Elizabeth went on to the ripe age of 85 years dying in 1901.
Edward Pattern was baptised at Tydd St. Giles Church on 11th January 1837 but died at the age of 32 years in 1869.
Sarah Pattern married William Martin, born 1832 at Sutton St. Edmunds. Their first child Mary was born in Seconderabad, East Indies, but Annie, William and Ada were born at Whaplode Drove and Sutton St. Edmunds.
Now to Robert Pattern who married Sarah born 1832, the daughter of John Hill of Parson Drove. Sarah had previously married a Matthew Martin, the brother of the above William Martin, but soon later became a widow before her marriage to Robert in 1865. Robert and Sarah set up their home at Fleet where they had two daughters, Mary born 1866 and Annie born 1870. Sadly Mary died at the age of 6 years. In the 1891 Census we find that our grandfather Albert Pattern was a lodger living at the home of his uncle Robert and his wife Sarah. It was their daughter Annie who married the Charles Bacon previously mentioned!
Robert died in 1896 and was buried in the churchyard at Holbeach Parish Church.
Sarah as a widow continued to be the shopkeeper and sub post-mistress at Holbeach St. John with the 1901 Census returning her age as 80 years! Helping her and living with her at that time were her son-in-law and daughter, Charles and Annie Bacon, and their child, Charles Robert, aged 11 years.
Ann Pattern born in 1841 at Sutton St. James provides little information. At the age of 9 years she is recorded in the 1851 Census as living with her family at their home in Sutton St. James. It may be that she died for there is a female “Pattern” death registered at Wisbech in March 1863. No Christian name is given but Wisbech would be correct for the registration of such a death as the Pattern family would then be living at Newton in Cambridgeshire in 1863.
So to our great grandfather Michael. He married Rosanna Delahoy, aged 18 years, at the Parish Church, Long Sutton, on October 21st 1863. Rosanna was born in 1846 at Lutton, the daughter of John and Sarah Delahoy. John Delahoy was born in 17984 and his first marriage5 was to Sarah Godbolt with whom he had ten children the youngest being Rosanna. Rosanna was four years old when her mother Sarah died and her father re-married the following year 1850 a Eleanor Wilkinson. A further four children followed, so John fathered 14 children6 between the years 1826 and 1865! John Delahoy died aged 89 years in 1889 and Eleanor in 1897 at the age of 75 years.
The marriage certificate for the wedding of Michael and Rosanna reveals that the bride and groom and the two witnesses, Michael (uncle) and Mary (sister) all entered an X for their signature. Our great-grandparents established their home at Tilney All Saints, and when the 1871 Census is taken, they have four children — Annie (6 years old) born at Long Sutton, Sarah Jane (4 years) born also at Long Sutton, John (two years old) and Mary (year old) both born at Terrington St. John. The 1871 Census is the last record we have of our great grandfather Michael. We will see that he fathered four more children, Robert, Albert Edward, Agnes and Matthew, but by 1879 he has disappeared from the scene. Did he emigrate to America in order to avoid deportation following the charge of the theft of a sheep?7 Interestingly I did have just one email from an American who was enquiring about “Rosanna, the English wife of Michael Pattern?” I immediately replied and asked for any information about Michael Pattern — “was there an American wife of Michael?” — but with that the communication went dead!
It is clear that Rosanna was left to care for their family of eight children and we believe that around 1879 the family were residents in the Holbeach Union Workhouse. But by 1881 in the census Rosanna is listed as a “char woman” and living at 66, Hargate, Fleet. The two oldest children have left home and are in service — Annie 16 years old is a servant for the Burtons, Gainsborough and Sarah Jane (15 years) a servant laundress for the Kidman’s at Cobgate, Whaplode. Still being cared for by Rosanna were John (12 years), Mary (11), Robert (9) born at Terrington St. Johns, Albert Edward (7) our grandfather, born at Sutton Bridge, Agnes (5) born at Tydd St. Mary and Matthew Charles (2) born Fleet, Holbeach (could this be the workhouse on Fleet Road, Holbeach?)
The story of Rosanna continues with her marriage in December 1886 at the Independent Congregational Chapel, Long Sutton to Mr. James Liney, a widower who was born in 1840 at Long Sutton. The marriage certificate states that Rosanna is a “widow”. As far as we know, this was not true but we need to remember at this time divorce was the privilege of the wealthy which was beyond the reach of most people who decided to take the risk of a charge of committing “bigamy” by stating they were a “widow” or a “widower” in order to re-marry! I have discovered quite recently that a second marriage like this of Rosanna and James might be considered “invalid” without being bigamous if for example a spouse re-marries after the other had been absent for seven years. This would then be applicable as Rosanna married in 1886 seven years after being deserted by Michael Pattern!
Rosanna and James Liney lived in their cottage at Little London, Long Sutton, and as I will suggest later this was possibly the house we would visit to see our grandfather in our earlier years. By this time all the family of Rosanna have left home with the exception of the youngest, Matthew Charles, who is living with mother and stepfather, Rosanna and James. James Liney died at the age of 78 years his death registered in December 1918. Rosanna (“Granny Liney”) continued to live at this address being cared for by our grandfather, Albert, until her death at the age of 91 years in 1936.
Our story continues with the family of Michael and Rosanna. Annie, in service with a family at Gainsborough, journeyed by train to Hull to visit her cousin, William Pattern and his wife Charity. It was there that she met their lodger, a young man called Hewson Tuxworth. He was born in 1856 being the seventh child of William and Elizabeth Tuxworth who lived all their lives at North Somercotes, North Lincolnshire. Hewson was employed by William Pattern as a railway rullyman.
It was sometime after 1881 that Hewson Tuxworth left the employ of William Pattern and decided to emigrate to Tasmania. In 1885 he made application for Annie to join him and she sailed on SS Liguria from London port on 16th September 1885 arriving at Launceston, Tasmania on 3th November 1885. Seven days later, on the 10th November, Annie and Hewson were married at Chalmer’s Manse, Launceston.8
Annie and Hewson were to have eleven children — George, John, Jesse, a stillborn baby, Agnes, Rose, Annie, Ruth, William, Harry and Robert. Hewson and Annie both died in 1941. Their daughter Ruth married a Addison Hills, and we know that both Ruth like her mother Annie kept in touch with our grand-father and indeed with his two brothers, Robert and Matthew at Worthing. The daughter of Addison and Ruth Hills, Beryl, recently came over to the U.K. to meet members of the Tuxworth and Pattern family, including Pat at Heath and Reach. The grand-daughter of Addison and Ruth, Lynn provided me with information of relatives “down under” and said she possessed a cutting from the Lincolnshire Free Press sent by our grandfather to her grandmother, Ruth, with text and photograph of me at my farewell presentation before leaving for theological college in 1955. I had forgotten that my farewell present from the staff of the Spalding Guardian was an electric razor! From a photograph Pat had passed on to me, I was able to let Lynn have a photograph copy of herself at the age of 16 years alongside her grandparents, Ruth and Addison Hills.
Sarah Jane Pattern was also to emigrate. While in “service” at Whaplode she met and fell in love with William Atkinson, born at Gedney in 1864. William at that time was working in Whaplode, an agricultural worker and horseman at Cundy’s farm. Sarah and William decided in 1881 to emigrate to America and were married in Washtenaw, Michigan, in 1884. William and “Jennie” as she was known in America lived at Chelsea Village, Washtenaw, and there they had three daughters, Nellie, Florence and Mildred followed by a son George in 1908.
The 1920 American Census records William as a Marshall and Deputy Sheriff! Can one imagine the feelings of both Annie and Sarah Jane emigrating from this country to Tasmania and America knowing that they would never see their family again? The 1930 Census reveals that when it was taken Jennie was still alive at the age of 63 years still living at 333 Chelsea Village with husband William (aged 65 years) and son George (aged 22 years) who is a machinist working in a Screw Plant. However she dies later in that year 1930. The 1940 American Census reveals that George is married to Ruth with a baby daughter, Nancy, still at Chelsea, Washtenaw.
John Pattern married in 1897 Sarah Ann Cobb who was born in 1871 at Murrow, Combs. Living at Jarvis Gate, Sutton St. James, they had the following family, Ethel born 1899, Laura born 1900, John Roland born 1903, Gladys born 1905 and Stanley born 1907. John was an agricultural worker and later moved to Broad Drove, North Tydd Farm. Ethel married William Wesley Garner in 1917 and they had the following children: Edward, Iris and Jessie. Laura married in July 1922 a Herbert Diggle at Holy Trinity Church, Gedney Hill.
Mary (Polly) Pattern is found in “service” in 1881 at Friday Bridge but later married Joseph Brumble, born at Holbeach in 1869, in December 1893. They adopted two children, Rose Hannah Chilvers, born 1890 at Heacham and Hilda Mary Chilvers born in Holbeach in 1908. Rose Hannah married a John Simpson at Spilsby in December 1912. Hilda Mary was a bridesmaid at our parents’ wedding at Doncaster in 1925 and she married Leslie Yates at Spilsby five years later in 1930. In 1911 it is recorded in the Census that Joseph is now the Farm Foreman with the oversight of 12 farm workers at Wainfleet, Spilsby. Joseph aged 88 years old died in 1945 and Mary three years later in 1948 aged 77.
Robert Oliver Pattern married in 1893 Alice Harriet Taylor born 1872 at 14, King Street, Milton-next-to-Gravesend. He had set up his hair dressing business in 1892 in Worthing — haircut 3d and shave one and a halfpenny! The shop’s ceiling was decorated eventually with 25,000 postage stamps. In 1901 the family are living at 50, North Street, Worthing with their three children — Robert Oliver (7 years old), George Herbert (1 year old) and baby Albert John (one month).
Great uncle Robert died at the age of 90 years in 1961 — two years before his brother our grandfather Albert Edward, and 10 years after the death of his wife Alice Harriet aged 81 years. His eldest son Robert Oliver followed in his father’s footsteps becoming a hairdresser. This son married in 1917 a Kathleen Patching at Worthing and they had two children, Robert W. Pattern born 1921 and a daughter, Brenda Pattern born 1927. George Herbert Pattern married in 1921 a Marjorie Patching (sister to Kathleen) at Cuckfield and they had two daughters, Phyllis Pattern born 1922 and Sylvia born 1924. Sylvia corresponded with Annie (Grandfather’s sister) and her daughter Ruth in Tasmania through the years. Albert John Pattern married in 1926 Edith Maskell in Worthing.
It would seem that Agnes Pattern was somewhat close to our grandfather! She was a witness and bridesmaid at his wedding to Mary Eudale in 1899 and in 1901 is staying at the home of our grandfather and his wife Mary in the village of Threekingham giving a helping hand with their baby, our father, Albert Leonard. Later that year she married in June, George Edward Barrett, who was then 26 years of age having been born in Sutton Bridge in 1875. George was the son of John Barrett and Jane (nee Amos), one of eight children, with a younger brother Ernie born in 1888 also at Sutton Bridge. George was a farm labourer. The 1911 Census records that George and Agnes Barrett, are living at 11, Lime Street, Sutton Bridge and that he is now a general labourer in the Timber Yard. Their family consisted of two daughters, Lilian born 1902, and Ivy born 1906 and a son, named George, born 1904 (the father of Audrey Barrett) living next door to them in 1911 at 13, Lime Street are the parents of George, John and Jane Barrett, with their son, Ernie (“Oxo”) who is 23 years old and unmarried. This Ernie Barrett and his wife had a daughter, Phyllis, born in 1916. Grandfather’s sister, Agnes, died in 1919 aged 42 years.
Matthew Charles Pattern is in 1901 living in Bromley, unmarried, his trade being like his brother, a hair-dresser. He is living with the family of John and Rachel Doyle at 34 Market Square, Bromley — John being his employer. The following year he married Caroline Hawes at Worthing. Caroline was born in 1873 at Long Sutton, the family home being Seadyke Gate. Her father was Charles born 1829 and mother Fanny born in 1838. The 1891 Census reveals that Caroline is in service at Bromley with another girl, Louisa Bowman, who was born at Fleet in 1868. Was it because of Caroline working down in Bromley, Kent, that led to Matthew finding work there? Uncle Matt and his wife Carrie had a daughter, Florence (known by the nickname “Billy”) born 1903 and she married Walter Rowe at Worthing in 1927. Two other daughters followed — Elsie born 1905 but who died aged 1 year old in 1906, and Hilda born 1911.
Uncle Matt and his wife Carrie lived to celebrate their Golden Wedding in 1952. It was later in the same year 1952 that Matthew died (75 years old) and Caroline in 1962 at the age of 89 years.
So we come to the life of our grandfather, Albert Edward Pattern. An agricultural worker and horseman, he was to meet his future wife, Mary Jane Eudale born at Tydd St. Mary in 1872. The grandparents of Mary were William and Sarah Gash and they had three children, Robert born Holbeach in 1840, Sarah born 1846 at Holbeach who was to marry Samuel Eudale (born 1836 at Gedney) in 1865, and Elizabeth born 1854 at Holbeach Marsh who married Richard Beecroft (born 1857 at Castle Bytham) and they set up their home at Thurlby near Bourne.
Samuel and Sarah Eudale had five children, Samuel (b.1867), Sarah (1868), David (1870), Mary Jane, our grandmother (1872), and William (1874).
Our grandmother, Mary, lost her mother, Sarah, just 34 years of age, when Mary was four years old and who was then cared for with her father, brothers and sisters by their grandmother, Sarah Gash.
Grandmother Mary became a school mistress living at Thurlby, near Bourne.
Was she living there with aunt and her husband, Elizabeth and Richard Beecroft and teaching at the local Thurlby or a nearby school? The Beecroft family — parents and three daughters, Ethel, Ann and Winifred, lived at the Green, Thurlby.
Sister Pat sent me a photo of Mary, surrounded by schoolchildren and on the back of this photo said it was taken at a school in Keighley, West Yorkshire. So was Mary teaching in Yorkshire up to the time of her marriage until taking up residence at Thurlby so that banns could be called at the local church while grandfather Albert arranged for banns to be declared at Threekingham?
The wedding of our grandfather, Albert Edward to Mary Jane took place at the Thurlby Parish Church on 3rd April 1899. The witnesses at their marriage were uncle, Richard Beecroft and her bridesmaid, Agnes Pattern (granddad’s sister). Grandfather Albert and Mary set up their home at Stow Green, Threekingham, (about 12 miles from Thurlby) where he was a farm labourer and horseman. They were to have a son, Albert Edward, born in 1900 but sadly he died at the age of two months and was buried in the burial ground at Threekingham on 8th May 1900. Our father, Albert Leonard arrived on the scene in 1901 born in Threekingham. Soon after this, grandfather, Albert Edward returned with his wife, Mary and our father to Long Sutton where they moved in to live in the same house with his step-father James Liney and mother Rosanna, their address being London Road, long Sutton. It is there that the brother of our father, Horace Stanley, was born in 1903. Mary suffered deep depression after the birth of the third child and as a result was admitted to the Lincoln County Lunatic Asylum, Bracebridge Heath, Lincoln, where she remained for over 30 years until her death in 1938 at the age of 65 years. Our grandfather said at her funeral that his love for Mary had never ceased although denied her loving companionship for all those years.
The 1911 Census reveals that grandfather and our father are still living at the same house in London Road, with James and Rosanna Liney. So was this the same cottage we knew where grandfather lived? Did he remain there at this address following the deaths of James Liney (in 1918), his mother, Rosanna in 1936 and then housekeeper Aunt Min (Alice Pratt) in 1945?
If this was the case, our cousin Sylvia and husband Norman, when they once slept at grandfather’s cottage in long Sutton said they wondered whether Sylvia’s father, Horace Stanley, was born in that same bedroom!!
Our father’s brother, Horace Stanley, was given into the care of the Coote family, I guess as a small baby. The sister of our grandmother, Mary, was Sarah (Eudale) who married in 1894 Jonathan Coote, a coachman living at Halton Holegate, Lincolnshire. They had three children, Gertrude born 1895, Florence born in 1897, and then in 1909, a son named Cyril. It was this family that “adopted” Stanley so that his earlier years were spent around the Spilsby area of Lincolnshire. The 1911 Census records that Jonathan and Sarah with their son Cyril and nephew Stanley are still living at the same address while their two daughters, Gertrude and Florence are working in “service” in Spilsby. It is some years later that brother and sister, Florence and Cyril, went to live and work in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, and Stanley moved with them. It was here that Stanley met and married Annie Nelson, born 1903, at Thornhill, near Dewsbury. Annie was the daughter of Harriet (nee Rose) and Harry Nelson, who in 1911 was a colliery horse keeper (underground) at Denaby Main Colliery, near Rotherham.
Stanley and Annie married in 1928 at Dewsbury and they had eight children, but three sons died at birth or within three months of their birth. Sylvia born in 1928, Stanley born and died in 1930, Edward born in 1931, Harry born and died in 1933, Derek born in 1935, Malcolm born and died in 1941 (registered in Leeds), another Malcolm born in 1943 and David born 1945. With the exception of the first Malcolm, all births and deaths were registered in Dewsbury. Our cousin, Sylvia married Norman Hill at Dewsbury in 1953. The death of Horace Stanley Pattern is registered at Dewsbury in 1957.
So on to the story of our father, Albert Leonard Pattern. It was while working on the railway as a fireman and lodging at 21, New Street, Doncaster, that he meets Gladys Beatrice Overson. She is the daughter of Ellis Thomas Overson born 1879 at Holbeach and Bertha Beatrice (nee Hill) born in Oldham in 1880.
Tom Overson was the son of John and Catherine Overson, who were both natives of Holbeach, and he moved at the age of two years with his five brothers from Holbeach to 3, Albert Terrace, Pit Lane, Doncaster. Thomas and Bertha were married in March 1900 at Oldham and they setup their home at 10, Stewart Street, Doncaster, where Tom’s trade was a painter and paperhanger. Our mother was born later in the year being eight months old at the time of the 1901 Census. Two further children followed — Sybil Gwendoline born 1901 and Joseph Clifford in 1906. The 1911 Census records that grandfather Tom and Bertha his wife are living at 36, Oxford Street, Doncaster, with their three children, including of course our mother. The same Census informs us that Ellis John Overson is now a widower and is living with his three daughters, Mary, a dress maker born in 1882, Ethel, a brass finisher (b. 1888) and Mehetabel, a domestic servant (b. 1890) at 10, Union Street, Doncaster.
In 1925 our grandparents, Tom and Bertha, are living at 9, Wainwright Road, Doncaster, from where our mother went to be married to our father at Christ Church on 14th April 1925. On the marriage certificate our father is down as a locomotive fireman and the witnesses are Ellis Thomas Overson, bride’s father, Sybil Overson (bride’s sister), Bertha Overson (bride’s mother) and Hilda Brumble (cousin to our father). This would suggest that our grandfather was not able to be present as he would normally have signed as the bridegroom’s father. Grandmother Overson died in 1962 aged 82 years and Grandfather Thomas in 1965 (86 years) his death registered at Chorley, Lancashire. When he was bereaved Tom had moved to live with his daughter Sybil but he died when he was a patient in the hospital at Chorley.
Joseph Overson married in 1931 a Miss Vera Horner, while mother’s sister, Sybil took as her husband Percy Whitehead their wedding being held at Fylde, Lancashire, in June 1933. I doubt that our mum would be able to attend her sister’s wedding with month-old Marcus to look after! Joseph and Vera had a son, Melvin, born at Doncaster in 1931 while Percy and Sybil were also to have a boy, David, born in 1934 in Preston. Mother’s sister, Sybil, died at Preston at the age of 63 years in 1965, while her husband Percy lived another 20 years, his death registered at Preston in 1985 when he was 83 years old. Brother, Joseph (Joe) died in Doncaster at the age of 83 years in 1992, and his wife, Vera, the following year, in Leeds.
I think we should remember Aunt Min who was housekeeper for our grandfather. She was Alice Turner, the eldest daughter of John and Susan Turner, and was born at Lutton in 1867. She had two sisters, Mary born 1870 and Susan born 1874. Alice married in 1889 Ernest Edward Pratt, aged 28 years, a famer’s son from Wingland, Norfolk, and they adopted a son, Ernest Neep who was born at Pinchbeck in 1900. Ernest was a farm labourer and their home was on Roman Bank, Long Sutton. The 1911 Census reveals that Alice’s father, John now 77 years old is a widower and living with them at Roman Bank. It was six years later that Alice becomes a widow when her husband, Ernest, dies at the age of 52 years in 1917. Some time later Alice came to live with grandfather and our great grandmother Rosanna, who became a widow in 1918 on the death of her husband, James, at their cottage on London Road, Long Sutton. Aunt Min died in 1952 at the age of 84 years old. So it would appear that at the end of the day, grandfather finished up caring for both his mother, Rosanna and Aunt Min, until their deaths in 1936 (Rosanna) and 1952 (Alice).
This research has resulted in many contacts with relatives in the U.K. and further afield in Canada and Tasmania. The more I have looked into our family tree my admiration has grown for the life of faith and fortitude of grandfather, Albert Edward Pattern. To be deserted by his own father, Michael, to spend if only for a short time the harsh life of a workhouse, and then just for a matter of a few years, to experience the love of Mary his wife before her long illness, is a testimony to his inner strength and Christian faith. For his wife Mary I can glimpse reasons why she came to suffer deep depression. As a small child to be bereaved of her mother, then a few years later, her grandmother Sarah who had cared for her and her family, and then in 1900 to suffer the loss of her first-born son, Albert Edward, at the age of two months. If only the psychiatric help and understanding we know today had been available for Mary when having given birth to her third child, Horace Stanley, she suffered what was most likely acute post-natal depression.
In Long Sutton cemetery there are at least three members of our family interred. Our sister, Anne Marina, born 1st December 1934 and who died in King’s Lynn hospital on 4th October 1935. Our grandfather, Albert Edward Pattern, who died in his 90th year in 1963. I was so pleased to hear that on our behalf Roland places flowers on his grave every year. Sadly, on the 20th April, 2007, we laid to rest our brother, Thomas, who died after a short illness, also in King’s Lynn hospital, at the age of 70 years.
LATER ADDITIONAL NOTES
There is a John Roland Pattern born 1902 at Sutton St. James the son of John and Sarah Pattern (see previous John Pattern, older brother of our grandfather, Albert Edward) — is he the Roland Pattern of Woodhall Spa?
A correction Sarah Jane Atkinson (nee Pattern) died in June 1946 at Chelsea, aged 80 years.9
Albert Edward Pattern died on the 26th April 1963. His Will reveals he left Effects of £526 18s. To his ten grandchildren he left £40 each.
Mary Jane Eudale (our Grandmother) born 1872 became a primary school scholar at the age of 5 years attending the Holbeach St. Luke’s School in the village of Holbeach Hurn. The Church of England school is situated 3 miles north-east of the town of Holbeach.
Mary attended this school as a scholar until the age of 14 years in 1886. The following year at the age of 15 years she is at the same school with her role being a N.S. N.S. means “Natural Selection”, or “Next Step” or “New Student”. It would seem that Mary for the years 1887 and 1888 was doing her training as she became in 1889 a primary teacher at St. Luke’s school. The National School Registers reveal that in 1892 Mary is still teaching there when she was 20 years old.
I don’t know what happened after that — did she move to another school, perhaps even becoming a Head Teacher? What did she do for the seven years before her marriage to Grand-dad Pattern in 1899 when she would have to give up teaching.
The Brumble Saga (Two sisters adopted by them)
Dave: I’ve left this section in but it contains a number of errors and definitely needs re-researching! For example, it appears that Albeena was Rose Hannah’s elder sister (not mother). Rose Hannah’s mother possibly died soon after giving birth to her, which would help explain the adoption by Joseph and Mary.
Joseph Brumble born 1869 at Holbeach married Mary Pattern born 1871, at Tydd St. Giles in the autumn of 1883. The 1901 Census reveals Joseph is a farm labourer at Hurn Farm, Holbeach St. Luke living there with his wife and an adopted daughter. She was Rose Hannah Childers, born 1890, and the illegitimate daughter of Albeena Childers.
Albeena Childers in 1901 is a domestic inmate resident at the Holbeach Union Workhouse. She then has another daughter out of wedlock, Hilda Mary Childers who is born in 1908.
In November 1909, Albeena marries a 61 year old William Stracey — she is listed as being 27 years old! They set up a home at 3, Willow Walk, Spalding and in the 1911 Census, William and Albeena are still living there with their daughter/step daughter Hilda. Their marriage is short lived for William Stracey dies in 1912. Is it at this time that Hilda is adopted by Joseph and Mary Brumble, although her mother Albeena marries again in 1915 a William Spinks at Spalding.
Both adopted daughters marry — Rosa Hannah to John Simpson in December 1912 at Spilsby which again is the venue for the marriage on Hilda Mary to Leslie Yates in 1930.
The Overson Family Tree
John Overson (born 1748) married Elizabeth Craske (born 1752) in 1773 at St. Andrews’s Parish Church, Congham, near King’s Lynn.
They had a son Matthew Overson born 1774, who married Rosina and he was a shoemaker living at Great Massingham, near Kings Lynn.
Their son was Thomas Overson born in 1811 at Great Massingham and he married Elizabeth born 1816 at Pinchbeck. Thomas was also a shoemaker but in the 1841 Census is found to be living at Holbeach Clough.
Thomas and Elizabeth Overson had a son born in 1845 and given the Christian names Ellis John. Ellis was to become a master shoemaker trading in the Holbeach area. He married Catherine Thompson and they were to have eleven children — John Thomas born 1868 at Holbeach; James Edward born 1870; William born 1873 at Saltburn-on-sea; Walter born 1874 also at Saltburn; Arthur born 1876 at Carlton, Nottinghamshire; Ellis Thomas (our grandfather) born 1878 at Holbeach; Alfred born 1880 at Holbeach; Mary born 1882 at Doncaster; Frederick born 1886 at Doncaster; Ethel born 1888 at Doncaster; and Mehetabel born 1890 at Doncaster. When grandfather Ellis Thomas was 2 years old, the Overson family moved from Holbeach to Doncaster in 1881.
Ellis Thomas Overson in 1900 married Bertha Beatrice Hill (born 1879) in Oldham, Lancashire, which was the home of her family. Their family was our mother, Gladys Beatrice (b. 1900), Sybil Gwendoline (b. 1901) and Joseph Clifford (b. 1906).
Grandfather Tom served in the Royal Engineers from 1914-1920. Bertha Overson died in 1962 her death registered in Doncaster, and then Tom died three years later in 1965, his death is registered at Chorley, Lancashire, where he died in hospital having lived for a short time with his daughter Sybil at Preston. What of our great grandfather, Ellis John Overson? In the 1901 Census, he is now a widower living with his three daughters, Mary, Ethel and Mehetabel. Ten years later the census reveals that his daughters are still living and caring for their father, all still unmarried. Mary is a dressmaker, Ethel a brass finisher, and Mehetabel a domestic servant. At least four of their brothers, like our grandfather, are living and working in Doncaster — Alfred a railway engine stoker; James a railway carriage painter; William a railway waggon painter, and Walter, a joiner working with the wooden parts in the construction of railway carriages. Tom Overson is listed as a paper hanger and decorator.
We turn to our grandmother, Bertha Beatrice Hill, born in 1879 at Oldham. Her father, Joseph born 1844 was a cotton spinner, and he married Sarah born 1845, a weaver by trade. They had three children, Sarah Ellen Hill, born 1865, Harry Hill born 1874 and our grandmother in 1880. This Oldham family by 1901 had moved to Doncaster living in St. John’s Road, Balby. Joseph is now a fish salesman but by the 1911 Census he has died with his wife, Sarah, a widow, aged 67 years, serving as the housekeeper for a Thomas Baker.
- See my own research notes for Michael, but I believe that it is more likely that he was the son of Thomas Pattern (c.1716-1776) who married Jane Twiddy (c.1744-1807) in 1766.
- Mary’s parents appear to have been Peter and Jane Payne.
- I believe Michael was born on 15 August 1811.
- 1798 was the year of birth of an earlier John who died in 1801 and was buried on 1 February at Holbeach All Saints. The parents reused the name for their child born on 3 May 1803.
- There was in fact a previous marriage to Rebecca Wanty who was the mother of the first nine children and who died 1843. Sarah was only the mother of Rosanna.
- John also gained a further 4 stepchildren from his second and third marriages.
- I wasn’t able to locate details for this alleged theft, however a different Michael Pattern (from Walpole St Peter) was charged with various offences around this time.
- Churches of Tasmania: Launceston
- This would be Chelsea, Michigan, USA. Sarah Jane’s death on 14 June was reported in the Detroit Free Press newspaper.