Genealogy & Family History

Ward of Throapham Letwell and Firbeck

Throapham the early Ward family

Marriages and births are registered in Throapham area unless otherwise stated.

The earliest Samuel Ward born about 1685 had a son Samuel b.1710 who is possibly the brother of Anne who married at St.Johns on November 28th 1751 and her sister Phebe who married on April 4th 1748, two sisters marrying the Taylor brothers.

Samuel of 1710 had five children, Anne b.1733 who married Robert Pinder January 1st 1856. Mary b.1737 who married Robert Kelk on November 9th 1760. Mathew b.1742 who married, no wife’s name and only one son is recorded Samuel b.1776. Samuel b.1748 who married Mary Hides December 22nd 1763. William b.1750 who married an Elizabeth, they had four recorded children: William b.1783 who married Mary and had a daughter Harriet in 1814. The other children were Ann b.1785, Jane b.1787 and Mary b.1795; but no records.

The found line through Samuel b.1748 and Mary Hides is Samuel b.1740 who married Mary, but no children found, he died July 16th 1835. Thomas b.1763 who married Mary and had a son George b. November 14th 1798 and Hannah b.1794 who married Joseph Pogmore on 19th February 1816. Elizabeth b.13th January 1774 no detail found.

There is a son Mathew b. September 8th 1776 and he is the best recorded. There would have been many more births that are at present not found. As girls were put into servitude from the age of twelve they could well have departed and married in the surrounding area. There appears to have been enough work for agricultural labourers from the local farms. As by 1790 in rural areas ninety percent of males were still connected to the land.

Mathew b. 1776 who was an agricultural labourer married Mary and lived in 1841 with his sons Samuel and Mathew in Letwell. He may have died in 1848. Of his children Hannah b. 1805 moved to London after she married John Walburn b.1788 of Letwell ,they had children and lived at Smithfield Tower Hamlet in 1851. Her sister Mary b.1807 married John Kenyon in 1829 and raised a family at Kiveton. Elizabeth b.1811 never married and died 1879 at the George Inn, Handsworth,Sheffield.

This is where her sister Rosamond lived with her husband Charles Hague who she married in Sheffield in 1853. Another sister Jane B. married Thomas Bowskill in Nottingham in 1857. This is the first evidence of movement in the Ward family away from the local area. The final sister Rosamond b.1818 had an illegitimate son Henry Samuel Ward b.1846 and registered in Lambeth, London. My assumption is that Rosamond went to her sister Hannah to have the child then returned to Worksop. She married Charles Hague in Sheffield 1853 and had another two children by him. Henry Samuel Ward was in Sheffield in 1871 and remained in the grocery trade till his death in 1906.

The life of the eldest son Samuel b. 1809 is illustrated with photographs.

Mathew his brother b.1815 is married to Mary Ann Oakes and they have a large family of ten children. Mathew was a carpenter then later a pattern maker in Derby where he died in 1893. This family has now moved away from the Letwell area and succeeding generations are found in Derby, Chesterfield and Worksop.

Mathew the last of the 18th century males with his poorly paid work as a labourer and large family sends his sons and daughters out to work from the age of twelve and is the last Ward to adhere to the 18th century practice.

So for a century the Ward family lived through three generations and then continued into the 19th century in a very local community.

R.H.Tingle February 2010

Samuel and Fanny Ward at Letwell

Samuel Ward (1809-1889), was born in Letwell and christened at St. John the Baptist Throapham. A Tailor and letter receiver (1851), he married Francis (Fanny) (Nee Mellows) (1813-1890) who was from Harworth, Notts. In 1881 living at Letwell with Samuel and Fanny were their unmarried daughter Elizabeth, born 1852, and her son John born 1868.

The photographs below were taken in April 1884 and annotated 'Father and Mother', by their youngest daughter Fanny Ward (1857-1944)
Samuel Ward
(1809-1889)

William Ward

William Ward 1841-1912 is the eldest son, although another earlier son died before the age of one in 1840. He married Martha Turton in 1865 at Doncaster. They had ten children and were the last to have this size of family, sending the children out to work from the age of twelve. William a tailor for all of his life stayed in Firbeck until 1877 then went to Oldcotes, Nottingham. Quite a few of the sons and daughters have been hard to pursue , one Joseph went to New Brunswick, Canada, he had been a coal miner at Oldcotes so as New Brunswick developing mineral mining area in 1908 it made sense. John his second son is well recorded possibly as he stayed with his grandparents in Letwell. He married Margaret Ann Greaves at Laughton en le Morthen in 1886 and they had three children. It is ironic that he should die there in 1933 at his wife’s brothers farm having just retired from being in charge of the horses at the LNER Railway Station, Rotherham.

There couldn’t have been any family support for William as he died at the Union Workhouse, Blaby, Doncaster.

His wife had predeceased him by twenty years.

Mary Ward

Mary Ward (1842-1925) the eldest daughter married John West a carpenter in Hulme, Manchester on the 11th of May 1865.

In 1901 two of her daughters Annie and Ida opened a confectionary shop at 289 Upper Brook Street, Manchester.

Mary and her husband John moved there but by 1911 he is dead and she is with her eldest daughter a draper in Henrietta St. Old Trafford.

Mathew Ward

Mathew Ward b.1846, 3rd son of Samuel, he raised a family at The Yews, Maltby part of the Firbeck Hall Estate, where he was a gardener of seven and half acres.

Mathew brought up her child Ebenezer Phillips who settled in Ecclesall Bierlow and became a sexton then green grocer.

Elizabeth Jane Ward

John Ward and family

At the age of 13 is a farmers boy for Joseph Lincoln and then a indoor servant at Richard Nicholson's Farm, at Firbeck.

During this time he must have taken the occupation of shepherd as in 1881, he is a shepherd living next door to the Letwell Post Office the home of his brother George.

Then he moves to Worksop in 1883 and becomes a rural postman until his death in 1900.

In 1872 he marries Sarah Shelley, they have two children: Henry b.1874 and Arthur b.1876.

He marries for a second time in January 1881 to Mary Clewley and they have eight children.

In World War 1 seven of the men are in the Armed Forces and four die: Henry William, Samuel, Frederick and Herbert.

Tom Ward born in Firbeck in 1882 is the son of John Ward (1848-1900). He grew up in Worksop and was a baker. Although three of his brothers were killed in WW1 he was retained because of his profession. Tom married Edith Eliza Homer in Worksop in 1905 and they had one child. In 1948 he lives at 89 Colter Street,Worksop.

Rosamond Ward

Rosamond Ward daughter of Samuel Ward was born at Letwell Post Office November 24th 1849 and died at Bourke, New South Wales, Australia on November 14th 1901.

Rosamond was a domestic servant and cook , first at The Farm, Call Green, Stockport Cheshire and then in 1881 at Hooton Levitt, for William Fretwell Hoyle.

She married Wilson White a steel turner in Sheffield on April 6th 1883. They sailed from London on April 20th 1894 for Sydney, Australia.

By 1901 they are at Bourke NSW which was then the “head of steel” for the railway and possibly that is what Wilson worked on. The town of Bourke still is the last post before the Australian outback. Extract from the Western Herald November 16th 1901: There has been a deal of sickness in Bourke and deaths frequently occur. On Thursday last Mrs Rosamond White, who had been under the care of Dr.Keerterm succumbed to a severe attack of pneumonia. She was 52 years of age and we understand had only resided in the district for a short period.

George and family at Firbeck

George Ward (1844-1921), son of Samuel, was born in Letwell and married Mary Elizabeth (1851-1916) (Nee Traunter) on April 28th 1873. Mary was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire

George worked on the Firbeck Hall Estate for 53 years as a Woodman whilst Mary spent 28 years as Postmistress at Firbeck.

The satin wood chest of drawers was given to George and Mary for their wedding (1873) by Mrs. Francis Harriot Miles (Nee Jebb) of Firbeck Hall.

It has a hand written note on the bottom of a top drawer 'for the wedding of G Ward'. This would have been a very treasured gift which has been passed down through the family.

Martha (1874-1910) was a ladies maid to Rose Eleanor Jebb, wife of S. G. Jebb and she accompanied her on their honeymoon to Potsdam in 1899.

Lucy (1878-1954), was an Assistant Post Mistress in 1901, and Assistant Sub Post Mistress in 1911.

Her other claim to fame was that of a Concert Singer, mainly, it is thought, in Sheffield - there were programs with her name on.

In the picture the collar and cuffs are in Honiton lace and made by Lucy in 1900.

Below is an entry from a Bible given to George and Mary Elizabeth Ward on July 9th 1873 from Esther Singleton. The page appears to have been written in one session by Mary Elizabeth Ward in 1895

Hannah Ward

Hannah Ward (1853-1895) married Henry Webb in Marylebone, London in February 1880.

Hannah dies on March 21st at Worksop but both do not appear on the 1881 or 1891 census.

Fanny Ward

Fanny Ward (1857-1944) the youngest daughter of Samuel and named after her mother Frances, started her working life with the Lascelles family at Harewood House. As was the custom, Fanny had a number of pasteboard 'cartes de visit' of members of the staff.

Housemaids would often be the earliest to rise at 6am or earlier. Fanny's duties would include opening shutters, cleaning grates, sweeping rooms and dusting before breakfast.

Rooms were tidied and prepared, slops emptied, fires stoked and lit, and coal buckets filled. In the afternoon, it might be a quieter time with sewing and other chores being carried out in the Maids' hall.

Fanny and Osborne Tingle, Edwin, Bertram & Harry

After leaving Harewood House Fanny worked at a number of grand 19th century mansions: Hatfield House, Herts; 11 Carlton Terrace London; Croome Court, Worcs; Taplow Court, Berks; Tatton Park, Cheshire.

At her final place Croome Court, Worcester she met and married Osborne H. Tingle who was there from Cirencester, Gloucestershire repairing the leaded roof. A job that involved him leaving Cirencester for two months at a time and travelling the forty odd miles by cart with his tools and food.

Edwin was killed in WW1 and her other son Bertram had a son Robin who’s photos these are.