THE THE HOWSON STORY

Our earliest census record of the Howson family is from the 1841 census where Great-Great-Grandparents William and Ann Howson (nee Dent) are shown as living in Wray near Lancaster with William a shoe-maker, born about 1781 and Ann born about 1783. Both William and Ann appear to have originated from Bentham in Yorkshire and that is where they were married in 1802.

In the 1841 census Great -Grandpa John Howson was a journeyman carpenter working for a cabinet maker and living in Poulton. The census shows his wife Mary Howson (nee Marshall) was still living with her parents, Great-Great-Grandparents John and Margaret Marshall, in China Lane, Lancaster.

John Marshall, born about 1776 in Lancaster, was a sawyer and the owner of 39 acres of land Margaret was born in Lancaster about 1780.

Great-Grandpa John Howson was born about 1816 in Wray and his wife Mary about 1817 in Lancaster, they were married in Lancaster Parish Church in 1840. John and Mary made their way to Blackburn via Mellor Brook and after working in his trade as a joiner they purchased a grocery business in Quarry St., Blackburn. They obviously flourished as over time they became the owners of a number of houses in Cleaver St., Blackburn.

Grandpa John Howson was born November 1854 in Mellor and he too became a joiner in Blackburn and it was here that he married Elizabeth Ann Stephenson, in 1877 in the Particular Baptist Chapel, Islington, Blackburn.

John Stephenson variously listed in census returns as engineer/mechanic/boilermaker, was born in Great Harwood in November 1832 the son of Great-Great-Grandparents Daniel and Betty Stephenson (nee Cooper).

Mary Leigh, born in Bolton about 1832, was the daughter of Great-Great-Grandparents Thomas and Ellen Lee. (note variation in spelling of surname)

When we looked at the 1891 census returns looking for Grandpa John Howson and family we discovered that sons Fred and Walter were listed but in the 1901 census only Walter was shown. Lillian had never heard of an Uncle Fred, in fact it had always been stressed that her father was the only boy in the family. We felt that this bit of information had to be followed up to satisfy our curiosity and after much searching of the death records we were able to get a copy of the death certificate which showed Fred had died from epilepsy at the age of 11. We can only assume that the stigma associated with such an illness in those days prompted this reaction by the family.

Mary Rennox, Lillian's mother, was born in Wigan to John & Catherine Rennox and with the Rennox line came the proverbial family search brick wall. Having obtained the marriage certificate of Grandparents John Rennox and Catherine Byrnes we noted that they had been married in Wigan on the 22 October 1881 and that John’s father George was listed as a soldier, Catherine’s father was shown as James Byrnes a collier. A search of the 1881 census soon located Catherine unmarried and still living with her family but no sign of John. After lots of searching we found John and Catherine with the start of their family in the 1891 census, still living in Wigan and John shown as having been born in Canada, what a surprise this was.

With John’s father having been a soldier we assumed that he must have been in the Canadian army. It was bad enough trying to research England but Canada seemed almost hopeless. Failing in my many attempts to get to Canadian military information in desperation I e-mailed the secretary of the Canadian Army Museum to ask how I might go about solving the problem. I was very surprised to get a return e-mail to tell me that a search had been made of the records and that there was no record of a George Rennox. He went on to explain that the British Army were there in the 1800s as the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment and the relevant service records for this regiment would be found at the Public Record Offices at Kew in London.

At this stage I was fortunate to be able to recruit the services of Lillian’s nephew Nick Tolson who was living in London and was prepared to do some searching for me. Nick did a splendid job getting me the service records which showed that in fact Private George Rennox had joined the army in Dec. 1842 in the 22nd Regiment of Foot. Other records showed that he and his wife Hannah (nee Burgess) had been out to India where two children were born, George at Ferosepore in 1849 and Henry at Rawal Pindi in 1852. At some stage between 1852 and 1858 they returned to England and George transferred from the 22nd Regiment to the Royal Canadian Rifles at Parkhurst in May 1858 and went to Canada that year with his wife and son Henry. At this stage the army records show that George died there in Quebec on the 10th February 1859.

This was turning into quite a story so I was keen to follow up as far as I could and to try to find out more of the death of George. I contacted the Canadian archives to see if they had information on an inquest into his death and was amazed when they contacted me to say that for the cost of copying and postage they would send me copies of the relevant documents. Transcripts of these documents are in Appendices.

The inquest verdict was accidental death from suffocation but no further details as to how the death occurred, this is one trail I would love to follow to establish just what happened but it would need a visit to Quebec to research newspaper reports of the period.

The army records show that Hannah and two young children Henry and John were shipped back to England on the SS Nova Scotian leaving Quebec on the 28th May 1859. Using the 1861 census I was able to locate John with his mother, she had gone back to her home village of Marshfield, Gloucestershire, the record showing she had remarried, in fact soon after Hannah arrived back from Canada her sister died and Hannah then married her brother-in-law.

The army records show George as born in Quorn, Leicestershire but as he was born before September 1837 the only records of his birth will be parish records and as yet I have not been able to follow this up.

During all these searches the surname of George has changed between Rennocks and Rennox with his army records and his marriage certificate gave his name as Rennix.

A search of the St Catherine’s Index and we were able to get the marriage certificate for George and Hannah. This showed they were married in Gillingham Parish Church, Kent in 1843 and that George’s father was Thomas while Hannah’s father was Michael Burgess.

The Burgess family I have been able to follow back to Hannah’s Great-Great- Grandparents all from the Gloucestershire and Wiltshire area.