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The Brooks-Dewhurst family tree

This is the continuation of the story of John Brooks and his parents, Ann Hall and John Brooks from the BROOKS-CARTMELL PAGE.

After tracing the family, now I had another problem, which was that I had come to a dead end. I assumed that Ann Hall's four children were all illegitimate and with different fathers for all I knew. When she married John Brooks, her sons, John and Richard took the name of Brooks some time between 1871** and the 1881 Censi. So I had no way of knowing who John Hall's real father had been. But then, about a year or so later, in one of the twists that makes genealogy so fascinating, Ancestry.co.uk brought out the 1861 Census and shortly after, the 1851 Census. In 1861, Ann Hall and her children were living as boarders with John Brooks, who is listed as being a widower in Coates, an area of Barnoldswick, Yorkshire.

There are two other Brooks' families on the same page, those of James, aged 36, and Robert, aged 26, who I assume are John Brooks' sons from his first marriage. John Hall is just a year old.

John Hall (Brooks) 1861 Census**

Ten years previously, in the 1851 Census**, Ann Hall was living as a boarder with John Brooks and his two daughters, Isabella and Alice from his first marriage. Ann Hall is recorded as being unmarried, and her 2-year-old daughter, Sarah Ann was living there too (of course, her other three children had not yet been born). They were all living at High Utley, Keighley, Yorkshire at this time. Esther or Easter was born there a year later. I think her name was actually Esther, because that it the name on her marriage certificate, but it did seem to be written as Easter on more than one Census. The other person in the household at this time was Thomas Hall, aged 23, who probably was Ann's brother. Thomas and Ann were both working as Power Loom Weavers.

At this point I began to change my mind about the paternity of Ann Hall's children. If Ann Hall had been living with John Brooks from before 1851, had four children by 1862, and then married John Brooks some time between 1862 and 1871, those children must have been his. So it then seemed perfectly normal that the children would have taken the name of Brooks by 1881.

John Brooks Senior and Ann Hall - 1851 Census**

Then I found the marriage records for John Brooks and Ann Hall on the Yorkshire BMD site. Until then I had had my doubts that they had married at all. They married on May 16th 1864 in the ancient church of St. Mary-le-Gill in Barnoldswick. John Brooks was then 70 years old and Ann Hall only 44. I just don't know what to make of these two. Why did it take so long for them to marry if they had children together? Was John Brooks really the father of Ann's children? Although they married in 1864, the children were still calling themselves Hall in the 1871 Census** - it wasn't until 1881 that John and Richard changed their name to Brooks. Esther had married John Hodson of Burnley in 1873 at Holy Trinity Church, Habergham Eaves, and her name was Esther Hall at the time of her marriage.

The more I've thought about this the more confusing it seems. Although Ann Hall and her children are recorded as Lodgers with John Brooks on the Censi from 1851 and 1861, they moved with him from Keighley to Coates and then to Burnley, where John and Ann married. However, the only birth certificate I can find of Ann's four children is Richard's. Ann Hall is listed as the mother and the column for the father is blank.



 

 

 

St. Mary le Gill Church, Barnoldswick, Yorkshire

Why would she not acknowledge John Brooks as the father? Did he want it kept secret? It's all a bit mysterious, but I do think that on balance, John Brooks was the likely father of Ann Hall's children.

From John  and Ann's marriage certificate I did find out that Ann Hall's father was Thomas Hall and that he was a hand loom weaver, which was apparently a common profession in this area in the early 1800s. It didn't say he was deceased, but I suppose he may have been by then. It also told me that John Brooks father was another John Brooks, and that he was a cotton spinner. I am now searching for these two men - unsuccessfully so far.

I must confess a fascination with Ann Hall. When you are researching a family line, some people just seem to stand out as characters. I am looking for Ann in the 1841 Census, which is very painstaking because it is not searchable by name, and so must be searched page by page. I did find her brother, Thomas Hall who, in 1851, was lodging with Ann when he was aged 23. In the 1841 Census, he was aged 13, working as a worsted weaver, and lodging with the Sheppard family at Higher Green Hill in Salterforth. This suggests that his parents were no longer alive and the family had split up.

Ann Hall seems like a real survivor. She worked at a man's job and brought up her four children living in a common law relationship. She also seems to have kept her children close to her.

John Brooks Senior died in Burnley in late 1871 aged 76** when Ann would have been 51. In 1878, Ann remarried a widower, Henry Foulds, in the Holy Trinity Church, Habergham Eaves, Burnley. Henry's previous wife, Susannah (nee Smith) had also died in 1871, just after the Census. The mystery of where Ann's husband was in the 1881 Census was solved (see BROOKS-CARTMELL PAGE) - he was living with his nephew, James Thornton in Thomas Street, Great and Little Marsden (this is the old name for Brierfield, which is contiguous to Burnley), Lancashire. Was he just visiting that evening, or had the couple separated? Ann died in Burnley early in 1883, aged 62**. In 1891, Henry Foulds was living as a lodger at 19 Cornwall Terrace in Habergham Eaves, Burnley, so it's not clear if he and Ann stayed together until Ann's death.

Another interesting fact cropped up when I started to check if Ann's daughter, Esther, had married. As noted previously, she had married John Hodson in 1873, but by 1881 Esther was widowed at age 30 and living right next door to her mother at 9 Varley Street, Burnley. With her were her children, John, aged 8, Margaret, aged 6, Edward, aged 4 and baby James, aged one. I can't find any records that Esther ever remarried, nor, more worryingly, can I find her or her children in the 1891 or 1901 Census.

That's as far back as I can find so far with the Brooks and Hall lines.

** Used with permission of Ancestry.com.