William’s Early Life

Introduction

We learn remarkably little about WILLIAM English’s early life or his immediate family from the Journal. This is a disappointing omission for the reader. Although we get glimpses of his private and personal life, they are mostly by chance, as in the entry concerning the birth of his second son where his wife Marie intervenes by speaking directly to the reader, or the Journal entries recording his whereabouts in particular years, which incidentally refer to Aunts Meggie and Jane.

Why is he so reticent? He is more than forthcoming on details of his work and what he earns, insurance policies and travel details. Money is extremely important in the Journal; this is why he exchanged his life as an itinerant pitman in the North East to that of a mining engineer in South Africa. Why else but to better himself? After a cycle accident he bemoans the state of his silk jacket. His transformation from little trapper boy (JOURNAL PAGE 6) to toff in a silk suit is extraordinary, but reported with little self awareness.

The few words he does write about family, suggest deep devotion. ‘My best friend, my mother’, speaks volumes, whilst his poems about Marie, although stumbling in their attempt to express his feelings, convey real emotion.

It is interesting, however that although he knows where his father was born (Tow Law), he is uncertain of his mother’s birthplace (Durham Greenside) or the place and date of their marriage. (Ovingham 27th February 1875).

N.B. It is unusual for mining families in the North East to marry before the age of twenty one, Henry, his father however, is only twenty.

On Pages 7-10 of the Journal, WILLIAM writes with authority for example about mining, his early attempts at rowing and his cycling exploits, but rarely mentions other people, unless, as in the cycle trip to the North East later in the Journal, they are travelling with him, or are characters in childhood stories he’s been told.

Most surprising is the omission of his first and subsequent meetings with his future wife. We are simply informed he has married her!

I have tried to put WILLIAM in the context of his family but he has very few immediate contemporaries within the family and notably two of them die young. It is more than likely that WILLIAM spent most of his formative years in the company of adults.

His two youngest aunts and uncles, ELIZABETH b Q1 1870, and RALPH LAWSON b 21/6/73, both living at 23 Emmaville, Ryton (1871 & 1881 census) were only respectively five and three years older than WILLIAM, so it seems likely he would have spent a good deal of time with them as children. (Bar Moor, the location of Emmaville, was only a little over a mile by footpaths and lanes from Wylam.)

It is possible that Elizabeth died in her teens (2 deaths were recorded in 1884 and 1887, either could be her) and Ralph died in 1888 aged 15. WILLIAM would have been about nine at the time of Elizabeth’s death and thirteen at Ralph’s, but he makes no mention of them in the Journal perhaps because these deaths in Wylam were after the family moved to the East Coast so he was removed from the sadness.

The high incidence of childhood deaths in England in the 19th century leads one to the conclusion that it was simply considered part of life and not to be commented upon; both families however are surprisingly healthy and long-lived compared with most families at that time so one would have expected these unusual family deaths to have been mentioned.

Wylam 1874 – 1881

After his marriage in Ovingham in 1874, Henry English, Margaret his wife, WILLIAM and his sister Sarah Ann settled in WYLAM. There were several pits in the area but it is most likely that Henry worked at the Wylam Colliery.

This is where WILLIAM spent his formative years. His earliest memories are of the village, its surrounding countryside (JOURNAL PAGE 1) and the stories told by his father. Although only seven when they left, the images, sights and sounds of the area had an impact on him which lasted for the rest of his life.

The history of the Industrial Revolution, the birth of the railways and the dominance of King Coal in the north–east, are all here, in this small village on the banks of the Tyne. Henry must have relished enthusing his young son in stories of notable characters and events and William was an avid listener. It is clear from the journal that he was very close to his father who encouraged his interests and continued to do so throughout his life.

The newspaper article Condition Of The Working Classes In Northumberland & Durham in the Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury on 22nd June 1850 (Page: 3, Column: 1) provides a detailed description of Wylam in 1850.

It is unlikely to have changed much in the intervening twenty five years. A walk around Wylam describes many of the features from the 19th century which can still be seen in the village. Canny Wylam is a song about some of the historical characters associated with Wylam.

It is likely that WILLIAM began his Journal during the Boer War, nearly twenty years after leaving Wylam, yet he has almost complete recall of some incidents and the stories he was told. They obviously made a deep and lasting impression on the boy.

Of his other Wylam relatives, William (Bill) Lawson was old enough at 16 to be called Uncle Bill and Jane as Aunt Jane Lawson, although only twelve when William was born. Both appear in the Journal.

The remaining Lawson aunt, Isabella, was likely married or in service by this time. She was twenty at WILLIAM’S birth and is not found on the 1881 census for 23 Emmaville. Her children, if she had any, would also be WILLIAM’S contemporaries. There are several Isabella Lawsons of marriageable age in the area, so WILLIAM may have had other cousins.

His sister Sarah Ann was born 29 September 1878, but his Lawson cousins, Sarah Jane Laybourn (Sally, 1883) and Thomas W Laybourn (1884), Aunt Jane’s children, would have been too young to be his companions.

The return to Northumberland

By 1881, Henry’s father Thomas English had moved with his wife Ann and younger children , Mary Jane, Ridley, and Dorothy Elizabeth from Double Row, Horton to TOGSTON (Alnwick, St Lawrwence, Warkworth,) where he was the manager of a coal mine.

In the same census for Wylam, Henry, Margaret, WILLIAM and Sarah are living next to the Ship Inn; we have no idea why he and his family were living there. Had he been evicted from a colliery house? If so this might explain why the following year, 1882 when WILLIAM was seven, Henry also moved back from Wylam to the East Coast, a little further south than his father.

William, his elder brother, had also moved away on marriage and now lived at Metal Bridge, Ferry Hill, SEDGEFIELD, whilst George, the next oldest, remained in Wylam until moving to ELSWICK some time later in the 1880s.

It is surprising that WILLIAM does not mention his paternal grandparents in the Journal although we know Thomas and Ann were living at Togston near Amble in 1881, at the time of Henry’s move east. WILLIAM’S Uncle Ridley and Aunts Mary Jane and Dorothy Elizabeth were also still living at home.

Henry and family initially lived at Victoria Road South Shields, where he was on the electoral roll in 1885. Victoria Road was convenient by train for Whitburn, (also known as Marsden and part of the Harton Coal Company).

The Tokens, tickets and passes of the Harton Coal Company provides a detailed description of Whitburn.

On Page 6 (1885/6) of the Journal, WILLIAM refers to staying at Chevington Abbas, a farm, while his father worked at Stobswood. Perhaps, since Togston where his grandfather was living was only a mile or so from Chevington, (a small village, since totally obliterated by pit closures), they were temporarily living with him. There were collieries at Togston and Chevington but we know from the 1891 census that Thomas was also working at STOBSWOOD, Ulgham, so it is possible that Henry had transferred there to work with his father (see diary entry for 1885-7).

Many local pits were on or very near to the railway line so travel was comparatively easy. For example, Togston, Chevington and Stobswood collieries were respectively 8½ , 10½ and 12 miles south of south east from Alnwick and all in the Chevington area.

Unfortunately the farm Chevington Abbas has yet to be located. Even if William and family did not stay with the grandparents it is too much of a coincidence to ignore, yet no mention is made of any family members in the Journal.

We are given little information about the next few years while his father continued to work at Stobswood, although the journal entry gives the impression they may have lived in the colliery village for a year after leaving Chevington.

We know there was a school at Stobswood, so perhaps WILLIAM attended it for the two years from 1885 -7 until the family moved to Pegswood. Henry’s address, 87 Spencer Place, Pegswood, Morpeth is confirmed by the 1891 census on 5th April.

Pegswood 1887 – 1892

In 1801 the number of Pegswood residents noted in the census was 158, less in 1821, but by 1891 the village had grown to 1,400 people. The Duke of Portland was the sole owner of the village and Lord of the Manor until the end of the 19th century.

Although Henry and his family were living in the village of Pegswood, the Colliery had been closed since the year Henry arrived there. This may have been bad luck on his part, to have taken a house there then suddenly have no job, or he may have been happy to travel further to work in order to get cheaper housing while the local colliery was closed. However it came about, Henry found work at ASHINGTON and was there from 1887 until Pegswood re-opened in 1890, while William went to school.

WILLIAM tells us he too started work at Ashington in 1889 and we know he found the work himself when he left school at thirteen.

In April 1891, when William was 16 and living at 87 Spencer Place, Pegswood, with his immediate family, his grandparents were still living at Stobswood, Ulgham, Morpeth, only a mile or so away but yet again there is no mention of them in the Journal.

Here on the East Coast, Ridley English (b 1866) and Dorothy (b 1870) (WILLIAM’S uncle and aunt) were respectively 9 and 5 years older than him. Ridley in particular is referred to in the Journal so it seems likely that WILLIAM grew up with these relatives around him on the Northumberland coast.

His immediate cousins however were not born until he was in his teens. As we have seen, apart from his sister he had few contemporaries in the family.

MINE	HENRY	WILLIAM
Whitburn	1882	–
Stobswood	1885-87	–
Ashington	1887 *	1889
Pegswood	1890-92	1890-92

*Henry at Ashington, ‘Pegswood being closed’ (from 1877 – 1890) the Journal

By 1889 when WILLIAM started work aged 13 as a trapper at Ashington Colliery, (opened 1867), conditions had improved. Children under 10, and sometimes as young as 5 or 6 were no longer employed underground thanks to the Act of 1842. Trapping was work done by the youngest workers and although the horrors associated with this job and the exploitation of young children had been somewhat ameliorated, it was still a dark, boring and therefore dangerous job.

The job was simple; to open and close the wooden doors (trap doors) that allowed fresh air to flow through the mine. They would usually sit in complete darkness for up to twelve hours at a time, waiting to let the coal tub through the door.

Starting an early shift at 5am often meant tiredness. If they fell asleep the safety of the whole workings could be affected.

By 1895 Ashington employed 3,031 workers of whom 2,505 like WILLIAM, worked underground

The Little Trapper describes the kind of life WILLIAM would have had as a trapper.

Although WILLIAM doesn’t tell us which job he did next, it would most likely have been a putter, an adolescent boy who pushed or pulled full tubs from the board (unit of excavation into the coal cut by the hewers) or a driver, usually a boy who led horse drawn full tubs along the main underground roads out-bye (underground towards the shaft).

‘…normal progression of a coal miner who would begin as a trapper, then rise to driver and putter and finally leading to hewer or engine-wright. In his early twenties a coal miner might be attracted to sinking work either through family connections or by the lure of a larger pay packet. He would have to be physically capable of the work involved in sinking shafts and of a mental disposition to cope with the greater dangers. Sinkers were respected by other miners as the elite of miners. Often coal miners would work as sinkers at one colliery and after sinking was complete, would then remain working at that colliery in some other capacity. However, if sinking was ‘in the blood’, and they could not go back to ordinary pit work, then as sinkers they would have to move on to the next new pit to be sunk.

Peter Ford Mason, The Pit Sinkers of Northumberland & Durham, The History Press 2012, page 113/114

Neither Henry nor WILLIAM ever referred to themselves as sinkers to census enumerators for example, although it is clear in the Journal that they were both involved in sinking eg at Ravensworth.

Ford Mason makes the distinction between miners who did sinking, most likely Henry and WILLIAM, and those with sinking in the blood, but he also differentiates between Master Sinkers and mining engineers.

The Master Sinker required a number of skills extending beyond those of mining. Master Sinkers tended to come from a less privileged background than mining engineers but in the working situation both had equal authority.

WILLIAM’S achievement, in becoming a mining engineer, is all the more remarkable having had only rudimentary education and a less than privileged background.

As a small child in Wylam his world had been dominated by his father; as an older child and teenager in Pegswood, he claims his best friend was his mother; he was clearly devastated by her death in January 1892 when he was sixteen, which broke the family up.

We can only imagine the effect on both Henry and the teenage children. Sarah Ann went to live with her maternal grandparents, perhaps precipitated by the ill health of her grandmother, and for the next five years or so Henry and WILLIAM are on the move until they are reunited in South Africa.

After Margaret English’s Death 1892 – 1897

After his mother’s death WILLIAM lived with relatives, Aunt Meggie Wright at Gateshead and Aunt Jane Laybourn at The Spen.

On 3 December 1892 a Mr English visits Teneriffe en route for South Africa from Northumberland, on the SS Arab. This could easily be Henry.

We know from the Journal, however that both Henry and WILLIAM worked at Seghill for a year, another pit associated with strikes and notorious for extreme retaliation by the pitmen against blacklegs in the 1830s and 40s.

Blackleg Miner is a traditional 19th century English folk song recorded by Steeleye Span, Richard Thompson and others. It’s originally from Northumberland as can be deduced from the dialect in the song and the references in it to the villages of Seghill and Seaton Delaval.

Back to Durham

In 1893 WILLIAM at Ravensworth. On Page 7 of the Journal he said ‘where we did rising and sinking in stone. We lived at Gateshead with my aunt Meggie and travelled by train to and from work.’

This was Margaret Wright, (1858-1906), Henry’s sister. She has not been found on the 1891 census but in 1901 her address is 47 Derwentwater Road, Gateshead. This would have been convenient for Ravensworth, as the main line from Newcastle crossed Derwentwater Road on its way south to Lamesley, the nearest stop for the colliery.

Also at the address were her children, George Sidney, Jane-Ann, Ellen and John L (aka Tilbury), WILLIAM’S cousins.

It is important to note WILLIAM says we meaning Henry was there too.

Since mining homes were very small and Meggie Wright already had four children by 1886 and another on the way in 1893, there must have been serious overcrowding, especially if Henry was also there. By the time WILLIAM moved in with Jane Laybourne in 1894, she too already had three children. A fourth was born in 1895.

WILLIAM’S presence must have put a considerable strain on the families, although no doubt he paid his way.

Pages 7-9 of the Journal deals with WILLIAM’S life living at Gateshead whilst working at Ravensworth. He was eighteen years old; strong, healthy and cock-a hoop at his own achievements but also ready to laugh at himself. The rowing incidents are good examples of this.

Whereas WILLIAM’S late Journal entry said ‘At eighteen years of age I went to work at Victoria Garesfield (coalmine) Co. Durham, and lived with my aunt Jane Leyburn (sic) at The Spen,’ suggests he is there without Henry; later he informs us his father signed to go to South Africa in 1895.

Aunt Jane Laybourne née Lawson, is his dead mother’s younger sister. In the 1891 census she is living at 42 Ramsey’s Cottages, Chopwell, Gateshead with her husband James, a coal miner, and children Sarah (Sally) & Thomas.

High Spen and District by Thomas William Pears, (edited and revised by Brian Pears in 2010) provides a good view of the village that WILLIAM might well have recognised.

There had been a colliery library in High Spen since 1858.

Both the following websites, although relating to a period later than when WILLIAM was in the area, provide an excellent picture of a north east village with elements WILLIAM would have recognised.

High Spen – A Hundred Years

Barlow 1925-1935

His cousins are not mentioned at this time and perhaps more surprisingly, nor are his maternal grandparents.

His Grandmother, (Margaret’s mother, Sarah Lawson) dies the following year. We can only speculate but the fact that Sarah Ann, WILLIAM’S sister is living with her grandfather Lawson by 1901, might suggest she had moved there after the death of her mother and stayed to nurse her grandmother until her death the following year. If that is the case it must have been exceptionally hard on Sarah Ann as a girl of 15. Perhaps this is another contributing factor to explain WILLIAM’S apparent reluctance to mention family members. Was the memory of his grandmother’s death so near that of his mother too painful to recall?

In the 1901 census Sarah Ann is living with her grandfather William Lawson and her Uncle Bill at Miners Cottages Homes, Ryton. This was modern accommodation for retired miners; both William and Bill record that they are retired although Bill is only 41 and ten years later is registered as a miner in the 1911 census. Perhaps he had been injured. William is in his seventies and Sarah Ann is recorded as housekeeper. The Lawsons had lived and worked in the area of EMMAVILLE since the 1850s.

See Emmaville Colliery for details of the mine sunk in 1843.

Victoria Garesfield provide an excellent overview of the village covering the beginning of coal mining in the area, the village community 1878-1962, inhabitants, Primitive Methodism, housing and amenities. It’s an essential read illustrated with photos and maps and is particularly good on housing.

Sarah Ann continued to live with both her grandfather William Lawson who eventually died in 1903 and her Uncle Bill Lawson. There is no mention of Sarah Ann apart from her name and date of birth in the Early Years section of the Journal.

We don’t know how long he spent with the family at the Spen, but from 1894-7 WILLIAM’S sporting activities all take place in and around Victoria Garesfield, Rowland’s Gill and the Derwent Valley. Whether he was cycling or road walking, he was the fastest, and he crows about his physical attributes.

Cock of the walk would be a good description of WILLIAM at this time, which makes his later illness and decline all the more potent. It must have been very difficult for a man used to physical success to accept he could no longer compete, especially when in the prime of his life.

Although not mentioned in the Journal it appears that WILLIAM took lodgings in the village of Victoria Garesfield some time between 1894 and 95. He records, ‘Whilst at Garesfield I bought a fiddle and started to learn that’. William English, Victoria Garesfield 1895, is written inside the lining of the fiddle case.

He mentions few friends; Kit Graham, Wilf Smith and Tom Smith in Victoria Garesfield in his late teens early twenties are mentioned, but these surnames do not appear on the 1891 or 1901 census for the village so probably came from further afield, perhaps The Spen or Rowland’s Gill. They only appear as adjuncts to his activities, in this case cycling, not in their own right, so we are given no information about them.

Perhaps after all it is not so much reticence on WILLIAM’S part but a sense of self-importance which makes other people redundant in his own story. As the only son and treated almost as an only child in a family of adults, he was always going to be the centre of attention. The Journal certainly points to his father treating him this way. Perhaps his marriage to Marie survived only because they spent so much time apart. He can’t have been easy to live with.

At last in 1895 Henry signed to go to South Africa, ‘to the mines in Rhodesia,’ but before he could leave news came of the Jameson Raid, which delayed his departure until early the following year.

WILLIAM had another year to wait before his father ‘sent for’ him

He finally set sail from Southampton on the Athenium on 22 February 1897.