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My Pious Family
Elizabeth Stokes1 (1853 – 1930) and Henry Roberts (1856 – 1930)
Elizabeth and Henry might well have been the original ‘Odd Couple’ from all accounts. Henry was a tall, thin man of about six feet, while Elizabeth was a dumpy, four feet eight inches. He was a coal miner who had worked in most of the local collieries around Chirk, a village on the Denbighshire/Shropshire borders. His early life had been unsettled. His mother had died when he was only three years old and he and his brother had been brought from the predominantly Welsh-speaking village of Llansilin, six miles away, to the more anglicised Chirk, where his father had settled with a new wife. Elizabeth was the third daughter of a large, close-knit family of nine children. Both of her parents also came from large families. Her father was a coal miner, as were her mother’s family.
Between them, Henry and Elizabeth had ten surviving children and they, with one exception, had children in their turn. It is not surprising, then, that most of the relatives that I knew as a child in Chirk were descended from this couple. Indeed, many who I did not know at the time were my kin have been subsequently found to be so.
I first became aware of Henry and Elizabeth as my ancestors in the late 1950s when I saw a photograph of them with their ten children taken in 1903. I remember doing charcoal portraits of the twelve of them. The photograph was very badly damaged with scratch marks and had been sellotaped together after having been broken at some stage. It came to haunt me over the years. It was a link with a past that I knew nothing about. I developed the ambition to have a photograph of their descendants 100 years later. In the summer of 2005, after six months of hard research and many phone calls and e-mails, over 90 descendants met up in Chirk. I now have a new photograph, more stories and know many more second cousins. Whether Henry and Lizzie would have approved of this is questionable because the venue was a local hostelry and the gathering took place on a Sunday!
By all accounts, these two great grandparents were extremely strict and very religious. Elizabeth Stokes came from a long-standing Methodist family whose connections to religious non-conformity date back to the late 1820s. Henry’s conversion came much later in 1889. He first became a Sunday School teacher and then a lay preacher, and held various administrative positions in his local Methodist chapel. Their grandchildren have described how the bible was read every evening, and no work allowed on Sundays. This was a day for attendance at chapel at least twice, with bible readings at home in between. When his eldest son married, the younger sons would call around to his house every Sunday to read the newspaper; no Sunday newspapers were ever allowed in Henry and Elizabeth’s home.
One surviving grandson told me of family teas on Sundays during the 1920s. The grown-ups would sit down to eat first, followed by a second sitting for the grandchildren. During the second sitting Henry would sit at the head of the table with a heavy leather belt clearly visible by his side. The grandchildren were expected to eat in silence and leave nothing on their plates. Any deviation from this would bring down the wrath (and strap) of ‘Taid’ (Welsh for grandfather). Another story tells of their youngest son finding a three penny bit and not owning up. His punishment was to be tied to the bedstead with straps and left there all day.
Until I was able to read Henry’s diary of 1900, I had little sympathy with what I felt to be such a harsh and bigoted couple. Even allowing for the difficult conditions under which they had grown up and their Victorian attitudes, I didn’t really like them. However, the diary reveals a gentler person. Here, references to work and religion are mixed with reports of the Boer War, the development of the local Co-op (e.g. buying in clothing, cleaning the bread ovens), family affairs, the weather and his many walks.
Elizabeth Stokes1 was born on 14th February 1853 at King Street, Willenhall, Staffordshire, the third surviving daughter of John Stokes and Caroline Par(r)ish. John was a coal miner and had moved with his wife to Willenhall, in the West Midlands coalfield, sometime after their marriage in the late 1840s. John and Caroline were from adjacent villages on the Denbighshire/Shropshire borders. John had moved there with his sister and brother-in-law before 1841 but had obviously returned to the borders before their marriage in Chirk in December 1848. They remained in Willenhall for about ten years. By 1861 the family had moved back to Chirk Bank in the parish of St Martins, Shropshire, living at a house on the Holyhead Road (A5).
At some point before 1871 (1867, according to Elizabeth’s obituary report), the family moved to Wood House, Gledrid, a short distance away. By then Elizabeth was a domestic servant. The following year, on 5th August, she gave birth to an illegitimate son, Thomas Stokes, at her parents’ home in Halton, Chirk. No father’s name is on the birth certificate. The family had obviously moved there from Gledrid at some time after April 1871 and before the birth. Thomas remained with his grandparents until the death of Caroline in 1889.
The account of Elizabeth’s ancestors continues on the Stokes of St Martins page.
Henry Roberts was the son of Robert Roberts, an agricultural labourer and Margaret Ellis. He was born on 6th January 1856 at Glanyrafon Cottage, Tynant, Moelfre, Llansilin, Denbighshire. Information about the first 14 years of his life is difficult to find. His mother died suddenly at Tynant on 21st October 1859. The local newspaper, The Oswestry Advertizer, reported that Henry and his younger brother. Evan, were with her at the time. Henry and Evan have not been found on the 1861 Census, although they were likely to be in the Halton, Chirk area. His father married for a second time one month after this census and, by 1871, Henry was living with his father, stepmother, brother Evan and two stepsisters in Halton. Henry, aged 15 and Evan, aged 12, were by this time coal labourers.
The story of Henry’s ancestors continues on the Roberts-Ellis page.
Elizabeth and Henry married on 25th December 1873 at the Parish Church, Oswestry, Shropshire. Their residence at the time of their marriage is given as Gales Street, Oswestry. Henry’s occupation is shown as Miner but no details are given for Elizabeth. The witnesses were James Stokes, Elizabeth’s brother, and Maria Edwards. Although only two weeks before his 18th birthday, Henry had given his age as 22. Possibly Henry either did not have his father’s consent or some estrangement had occurred. His 1900 diary shows that he kept in touch with his mother’s family and his stepsisters.
Henry and Elizabeth had the following known children:
Joseph, 1875-1949
Mary Louisa, 1880 – 1917
William Henry, 1879 – 1957
Evan, 1880 – 1882
Eva, 1883 – 1838
Robert – 1885 – 1947
John Oliver, 1887 – 1959
Abednego, 1890 – 1958
Laura, 1892 – 1961
Ira Hayden, 1895 – 1971
By 1881, Henry, aged 25, and Elizabeth, 28, were living in New Buildings, Halton, Chirk with their four eldest children: Joseph, 6, Mary, 4, William, 3 and Evan, 5 months. Henry was a coal miner, probably working at the nearby Black Park Colliery. Immediately next door was Elizabeth’s brother, James Stokes, also a coal miner and his wife, Catherine. On the other side were Jesse and Mary Davies. Jesse was a Blacksmith, born in Guilsfield, Montgomeryshire. Sometime in the 1880s, the Roberts family moved to a straw-thatched cottage in Green Lane, Halton, very close to the old Black Park Colliery pit head. The family and their descendants where from then on referred to as ‘the Straws’. Until recently I thought it was something to do with the very thick, wavy hair of most of the children! By 1889, Henry had converted to Methodism, possibly through his Elizabeth’s influence. He would go on to become prominent in local Methodism and the CWS movement.
The 1891 Census shows the couple and their expanding family at 7, Green Lane, Halton. Son Joseph, 16, was a colliery labourer. Also with them for the first time was Elizabeth’s son, Thomas Parrish Stokes, aged 18, a colliery labourer. Sadly, and again a reflection on Henry’s character, he has been listed at the end as a ‘boarder’ rather than being acknowledged by Henry as his ‘step-son’. Two doors away, at 5, Green Lane, was Mary Louisa, 14, a general servant (domestic) in the home of John and Mary Jane Edwards. Their immediate neighbours were both widows: Margaret Golding and her daughter, Mary Ann, and Mary Jones at Pen y Parc Farm, a farmer’s widow, born Bangor, Caernarfonshire.
According to family stories, the straw-thatched cottage burnt down in 1895/6 and Henry and Elizabeth moved about one and a half miles away to 124 Chirk Green. This house, as far as I can remember, was on the end of the top row of colliery houses. They were there in 1901. Henry, aged 45, is a ‘coal miner (below) – hewer’. With them were William, 22, a coal miner (below), Eva, 18, a dressmaker, Robert, 16, and John Oliver, 14, both coal labourers (below). Abednego, 11, Laura, 9, and Ira Hayden, 6, would have been scholars. Mary Louisa was working as a parlour maid at Black Park Lodge, the home of the local coal mine owner. Their neighbours were Elizabeth’s widowed brother, William Stokes, at No.125, who had moved back to the area from the Lancashire coalfield with his five daughters and a housekeeper, Annie Brooks, after the death of his wife. Annie Brooks was to remain with the family until her death in the 1940s. I remember her being referred to fondly. Further along the row at No.127 was Elizabeth’s son, Thomas Stokes, with his wife and brother-in-law. Close by were the Parrish family, probably cousins of Elizabeth, and the Kelshaws, whose son would marry daughter Eva in 1902. Also in the same street was James Wilson, aged 34, whose yet to be born child would marry one of Henry and Elizabeth’s grandchildren. Eldest son, Joseph and his new wife and son, were also living close by, lodging with cousin George Williams. This close work-kinship community of Chirk Green is discussed in more detail in the Places page.
Henry and Elizabeth were to live at No. 124 for nearly 30 years more. Their lives would have been taken up with coal mining, Co-operative Society meetings, politics, Methodism and their family (see Henry’s diary). Elizabeth died at home on 23rd September 1930, aged 77, after a long illness. Her death certificate records three causes of death: cardiac failure, uterine haemorrhage and uterine cancer. Her three daughters were also to die from this form of cancer. Elizabeth’s obituary published in the Oswestry Advertizer on October 1st 1930, states:
…by her death a period of 57 years of extremely happy married life is severed. They resided for many years after their marriage in the long since demolished cottage near to the Halton Mission Church, where the majority of their large family were born; and afterwards came to reside at 124 Chirk Green, where they lived for 34 years. Deceased came from a very old Primitive Methodist family, who can trace their connection with Primitive Methodism for 100 years. Her uncle, Mr William Stokes, who died in 1866, and to whom a glowing testimony is paid in the P.M. Connectional Biography published in 1869, was a noted stalwart.
Deceased attended the Chirk Green U.M. Church (of which Church her husband has been a local preacher since coming to reside in Chirk) of which she was a member.
The funeral took place on Thursday, and was started from the the house by Mr. J. E. Butler, Ingleby, Chirk, who conducted a short service at which the hymn “Jesu Lover of my Soul” was sung, and where Mr Butler paid a moving tribute to the life of the deceased, and the great influence which she exerted in the immediate neighbourhood...
Henry died seven weeks later on 10th November 1930, aged 74, also at 124 Chirk Green. The cause of death was given as cerebral haemorrhage and arteriosclerosis. The family said it was of a broken heart. His obituary, also in The Oswestry Advertizer, 19th November 1930 states:
…As a boy he commenced work at the local colliery where, with the exception of two years in Yorkshire[probably in the Normanton area], he worked for about 55 years as a coal miner, and for many years as a colliery official, for the long period, and finally giving up work altogether some eight years, or so, ago. Deceased was best known for his long and worthy connection with Methodism in the neighbourhood. He became a Sunday School teacher after his conversion in 1889, in the Black Park P.M. Church and some months later was granted permission to preach in the Rhosymedre P.M. Circuit by the Quarterly Meeting … Deceased was a local preacher for forty years, during which time his services in the surrounding churches were always well received. Deceased’s last appointment at the Black Park P.M. Church prior to leaving the district and going to reside at 124 Chirk Green, was Church Treasurer. On coming to reside in Chirk Green, he became connected with the Chirk Green U.M. Church. This was in 1902, when he occupied every important position in the Church and Sunday School; also serving in the capacity of local preacher in the Chirk U.M. Circuit until owing to ill health he was compelled to give up active work some few years ago.
The funeral took place on Thursday, and was started from the house by Mr. J. E. Butler, Ingleby, Chirk, who conducted a brief service and paid an eloquent tribute to the life of the deceased. The hymn “Jesu Lover of my Soul” was sung…
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