Henry Thorp was born in Hull on 30th May 1801 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church four months later on 10th September 1801. Fourtyfive years later when Henry married Frances Roebuck at St Michael’s Church, Headingley, Leeds Henry’s father’s profession is given as “Sailor”. Whether this is true or an off the cuff remark from someone who never knew his father is still open to question. An oft heard remark from my paternal Grandmother, Alice, about the whereabouts of someone, would elicit the response: so-n-so has “gone off to join t’ West Yorks”, or “they’ve run off with a sailor/soldier. I suspect our forebears were capable of sarcasm or family creating stories to explain away unfortunate circumstances. If Robert was a sailor in the early 19thC, during the Napoleonic Wars, especially if Royal Navy, this was a hazardous profession and it is entirely possible Ann Thorp and Henry were left to fend for themselves.
Missing Years 1801-1824
Nothing more is known about Henry’s childhood and move in to the adult world, whether he had siblings, or the origins of his parents, when or where they were married. Searches of Holy Trinity Church and surrounding parishes have not to date provided any evidence of further family connections. There’s no shortage of Thorps in Hull, East Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk but none with any verifiable links. (see Robert Thorp and Ann Hurd, Shipton By Thorp).
Kirkburton 1822-1827
The next verifiable record are the Banns for Henry’s marriage to Ann Senior at St Peter’s, Huddersfield Parish Church on 14th November 1824. Henry signed his name and Ann made her mark. Then on 4th August 1826 the birth of their first daughter Sarah Ann Thorp in Kirkburton, the home village of the Seniors. How and when precisely Henry came to be in Kirkburton is still a mystery. It is possible he moved for work once an adult, or he moved with his mother Ann in the early 1800s, to family, if Robert had gone back to sea and possibly perished. What we do know is he’d become a Plumber and Glazier.
Apprenticeship
1841 Census shows Henry living in Headingley, Leeds and gives his profession as Plumber and Glazier. Later records of Henry’s profession, that he was at this time now a Plumber and Glazer. From the middle ages plumbing or lead work was consider a craft and was established as guild in the City of London as early as 1365.
Boys could be apprenticed from the age of 7 in some circumstances but more usually it would be from age 10. Whether Henry was apprenticed in Hull or Huddersfield we do not know. Neither do we know if he finished his full term at the age of 21, it seems likely, although by this period the apprentice system was breaking down under the pressures of the emerging industrial economy; in 1814 Parliament formally abolished the system. The next step for Henry in 1822 when he completed his training at 21, would be to leave his master and become a journeyman plumber, essentially an employee or someone selling their skills for a “day rate”.
Home to Hull 1827-1834
For reasons unknown somewhere between the birth of Sarah Ann, and Henry and Ann’s next child, Marshall (b.1827 d. 1829), the family upped sticks and move back to Hull. The birth records for two more children, Ellen (b.1828 d.) and Mary Jane (Mary is shown as Mary Jane in the family bible but sometimes appears as Mary Ann (in some subsequent census records) (b.1830 d.) show the family in Hull in 1830, and unfortunately the death of Marshall at the age of 2(?). Nothing is know as yet about this period in Hull or why he returned. It is possible he moved from Hull to the Huddersfield area in the early 1820s for employment, picked up a wife and daughter and was back in Hull by 1827, perhaps to his parents or relatives or to pick up other family or business connections. It didn’t last and either lack of work in Hull or new opportunities in Leeds saw him relocated by 1834 and the birth of William Henry (1834) my 3rd Great Grandfarther. William Henry was Baptised at Leeds St Peters, along with Ellen and Mary Jane.
Leeds 1834-1860s
The Leeds years saw Henry lift the family’s prospects and make the transition from Journeyman to what would have been a Master Plumber, running his own business and possibly becoming an employer himself. Improving fortunes were by no means guaranteed Henry would have to work hard in the six years it took to move from the low rent industrial area of Bank (East Street – to the east of Crown Point Bridge, below) to the more genteel and upwardly mobile suburb of Headingley by 1841 census.
North Lane
It is difficult to identify 36 North Lane (1851 Census) but it seems probable it was situated at the southern end opposite the institute. St Michael’s church, burial place of Ann and Sarah Ann is located at the bottom right of image. Headingley is the setting for some key events in Henry and Ann’s life. The 1841 census shows that Sarah Ann (now 15) was no longer living in the family home but was most likely in service (see census entry for Sarah Ann). Three other children are shown: Ellen, Mary Jane and William Henry. The following year Ann, at the age of 41, gave birth to the last of her six children Elizabeth, on 7th February. Sadly three years later at the age of 45 in July 1845, Ann died of “heart disease”, and was buried at St Michael’s.
Business
Family legend has it, a legend I suspect invented by my father, James B Thorp, that Henry worked on the plumbing in Leeds Town Hall. It is certainly not beyond the realms of the possible given that Cuthbert Broderick’s creation was built between 1853 and 1858 and Henry was working in the city. However, there would have been no shortage of plumbing and glazing work in Headingley itself as it became a popular suburb with many fine houses, civic and commercial buildings. It is difficult to guage the scale of Henry’s business undertakings in Leeds but he appears to have separate business premises, “Grove Place” and a listing in White’s Directory. It is also entirely possible that the property at Grove Place and North Lane were one and the same as addresses and accuracy developed.
Blended Family
Whatever was going on in Henry’s business life, family life was becoming a little complicated. On May 23rd 1847 Henry with Frances (nee Roebuck) his second wife baptised Martha Thorp, their first daughter. Barely six months after Ann’s death, Frances and Henry were married on 24th February 1846 but not at St Michael’s. Perhaps it was just too painful or just not done to marry in the church where less than a year before he had laid his wife to rest. Frances and Henry’s marriage was consecrated at Leeds Parish Church: St Peter’s. However, Martha was not the only child associated with Henry’s household to be baptised on May 23rd. The baptism entry immediately after Martha’s is for John Roebuck, son of John Roebuck (deceased) and Frances Roebuck (abode given as Hull). John was in fact born in 1843.
We can only speculate about why Henry and Frances married. It seems entirely possible given John’s trade, bricklayer and Henry’s, with a once common hometown of Hull, that John may have been a friend or employee of Henry. Although, Frances was 15 years Henry’s junior the marriage must have made sense to both parties: Henry found someone to run his home and Frances found some security for herself and son John. There may even have been fondness, there was certainly communion. In the 1851 census Henry was happy to list John as his “son”. By this stage John also had a step sister, Martha followed by Robert in 1848.
Tragedy, sadly was never far from the door though, the 1850s were difficult years. On 5th March 1850 Frances contracted “Hepatitis – acute” and died within 5 days. What caused Frances’ liver failure we shall never know. What we can probably say for certain is that the loss of Frances would see the rapid promotion of Mary Jane at the age of 18 to mistress of the house with domestic and caring duties for William Henry (15), Elizabeth (9), John Roebuck (7), Martha (6) and Robert (2). It is to be hoped that the following few years provided some security and happiness for this now blended family. If they were settled years it was not to last. On 17th March 1854 Sarah Ann, Henry’s eldest daughter, died in childbirth in Huddersfield. Sarah Ann’s son, James Bolton Thorp survived and must have been some consolation. But again tragedy struck when a few months later on 8th August 1854 John Roebuck his adopted son died aged 11.
The Fall
Mary Jane was now 23 and carrying the heavy burden of household duties at Grove Place. In the spring of 1855, however, it would have become apparent that Mary Jane was “with child”. We will never know the pattern of events nor Mary Jane’s relationship with the father of her child, nor indeed, who the father was. Mary Jane’s pregnancy was, it seems, a condition beyond the physical and moral capacity of the Thorp household to bear and at some point that year she took up residence and began her confinement in Windhill Crag with her brother William Henry, near Shipley. On 12th September she gave birth to a boy, William Thorp.
Scattered to the winds
How long Henry held the family together at 36 North Lane beyond 1855 is another unknown, although, he still appears at Grove Place Headingley in Whites 1857 Director. By the 1861 census Henry has moved on and is now a lodger at 38 Grove Street, West Ward and his family truly scattered to the winds.
The 1861 census provides further details of their various situations:
- Ellen (33) works as a servant and lives in at the Old Chapelry, Horsforth, Leeds.
- William Henry (27) is found in Stocksbridge near Sheffield. He probably moved out around 1854/55 and appears to have gone west to the Shipley area. He was married in 1856 in Calverley before living in Bradford until around 1858.
- Mary Jane (31) gave up the care of William to a the Hutchinsons in Horsforth where he appears as a scholar in the 1861 census. Mary Jane become a “cook and domestic” at the Parsonage, Otley Road Headingley.
- Elizabeth (22) has not been found in 1861 census.
- Martha (14) is a servant to a “landowner” Brunswick Street, Headingley.
- Robert (13) is in lodgings at Gomersal and working as a “Hurrier in coal mine”.
Stocksbridge, Bolsterstone
At some point Henry makes the final move of his career and life to Stocksbridge. He probably went to work with his eldest son William Henry who registered the birth of a son there in 1860. It’s likely they had found work associated with Fox’s expanding steel works. How much contact Henry had with his dispersed family, what thoughts or feelings he had about their various fates and whether or not he was able to help them on their way is lost to history. Mary Jane moved with Rev Williamson’s family to Bath. His Grandson William became a plumbers apprentice with Henry’s sister in law’s son (James Shaw Thewlis) in Wooldale. Martha sailed to a new life in Australia in 1868, Robert stayed in mining and moved to Castleford with a growing family of his own. James Thorp Bolton, Henry’s eldest grandchild died January 1869 less than a month before Henry himself.
On his death certificate in 1869 Henry is described as a Gas Fitter and Plumber. The cause of death, 25th February 1869, at the age 67 was given as Phthisis (tuberculosis or consumption) “after 2 years”. Whether Henry continued working after he began suffering from TB (866/67) or whether he was tended by William Henry’s family we don’t know. A curious final puzzle for the family historian was the presence of a previously unknown Catherine Thorpe at the time of Henry’s death. Henry was laid to rest in Bolsterstone Parish Church.
Hypotheses
- Robert was a Sailor and died in service
- Robert was a Sailor but left the service to stay with his wife Ann and henry in Hull?
- Robert died in 1804 (Holy Trinity records) leaving Ann and henry to fend for themselves.
To do List
- Find Henry’s marriage record to Ann Senior from Huddersfield PC – might give more information about his father.
- Check register of Apprentices in Hull History Centre and Huddersfield?
- Find the birth and baptism records for Marshall, Ellen, and Mary Jane in Hull
- John Roebuck death certificate?
- Who was Catherine Thorp in 1869 present when Henry died?
Genealogical Jigsaw 