Page 305 - Just another English family (Sep 2019)

Not unexpectedly, the picture for females is les clear. Only two (Louisa (c. 1844); Mary Ann (c.1850) were also in the 1851 Census; a further three (Elizabeth (c. 1812/3); Elizabeth (c.1831); Ellen (c.1805)) had been in the 1851, but not the 1841 Census. There were five others (Harriet (c.1836); Mary (c.1844); Mary (c.1822); Mary (c.1823); Sarah Ann (c.1851)) who appeared in the 1861 Census and might have appeared as a Soothill in the earlier censuses, but did not do so.
In the 1861 Census, Soothills appeared in nine households – this is similar to the 1851 Census where Soothills were distributed among 10 households. There were three persons who were in households not headed by a Soothill – Anne (c. 1844) who was in a household headed by Joseph Holt (step-father) and Harriet (c. 1855) who was in her grandparents’ household headed by William Riley and Hannah (c.TO ADD). Ellen (c.TO ADD) is an inmate in [TO ADD]. Ellen is presumably the widow of Thomas who together had two sons – David (c.1833) and William (c.1836). This sounds a sad end to Ellen’s life and the evidence is that she died in [TO ADD]. There was, in fact, one other household headed by a non-Soothill, but this seemed more complicated. John Whiteley, aged 31, was the Head, while Elizabeth Soothill, aged 30, was the housekeeper and described in the census as ‘mother’ of Sarah Ann (c.1850), Mary Ann (c.1853), Martha Ann (c.1855), Emily Ann (c.1857), and Elizabeth Ann (c.1860). Whether John Whiteley is the father of this brood of females aged from 10 years to one year has still to be probed.
All the remaining households were headed by a Soothill. All but one can be latched on to the family trees which began to be developed from evidence in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. Edward (c.1809) and Elizabeth (nee Bayes) (c.1813?) have six more children – Elizabeth (c. 1841), Mary (c. 1843), Richard Bays (b. 1850), Sarah Jane Hamerton Walker (c.1852), Maria (c.1856) and Sabina Thompson (c. 1856) who married as “Sovina”. Their third child, Joseph Bays, died in 1838, aged just one year. What has happened to the other three children – Daniel David (b. 1832), Judith Hartley (c.1836) and Edward (c.1839) – who were evident in the 1841 Census is certainly not clear. James (1816 or 1819) and Mary (c.1822) now have Alice, Sarah and John to add to Mary Ann (c.1850) who was in the 1851 Census,
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