MORGAN AND ADAMS ANCESTORS 

The Morgans of Shareshill

My grandmother Mary Elizabeth Morgan was born in 1899 in the village of Shareshill, Staffordshire, a few miles from Cannock. Her father Joseph Morgan was a coal miner. Her mother Eliza died of tuberculosis at the age of only forty two.

Abel Morgan (senior) (c.1801 - 1851)

The Morgan family history can be traced back to Abel Morgan who was born around 1801 probably in Cheslyn Hay according to the 1851 census. I can't trace the family any earlier than this as Abel's baptism has not been found, nor can I find any evidence of his parentage. Possible reasons are that it was a nonconformist baptism, that his baptism is not available on line, that he was baptised but the record has not survived, or that he was simply not baptised.

Abel married Mary Lyons in Cannock on Christmas Day 1825. Both made marks on the marriage register rather than signing. 

Criminal registers held by Ancestry have an Abel Morgan age 31 being tried for larceny in 1835 at Staffordshire County Sessions, for which he received two months imprisonment. His age is several years too young, although this might be him. 

They had ten children. In 1841 Abel and Mary lived in Back Lane, Cheslyn Hay, he was a brickmaker. There is another Morgan family in Back Lane, headed by Thomas Morgan who might be his brother. Abel remained as a brickmaker in Cheslyn Hay in 1851, but he died of TB shortly after the census aged fifty. 

His widow Mary Morgan probably married a widower William Lawson three years later but she probably died in 1860. 

Abel Morgan (junior) (1833-1919)

Abel was baptised in 1833 in Cannock. By 1851 he was a brickmaker like his father, although the census gave his forename as Abraham. Two years later he married Fanny Poynor in Cannock. Sadly she died a few years later. In 1861 23 year old Abel was living in Pinfold Lane, Cheslyn Hay. He was a brickyard labourer, living with siblings. 

Abel remarried in 1862 to Eliza Butler, who already had am illegitimate son, Thomas. It is possible Abel was the father as they married five months later. By 1871 Abel had moved to Shareshill. He was now a coal miner. The 1881, 1891 and 1901 census shows that the family remained in Shareshill and that Abel continued to work as a coal miner. In 1901 Abel was an agricultural labourer.

Eliza died in 1907 at the age of sixty six in Back Lane, Shareshill.  In 1911 Abel lived in Loney Green, the census described him as an Old Age Pensioner - Old Age Pensions were first introduced in 1908. Abel was living with a daughter, son in law, nieces and nephews. Abel died of senile decay at the age of 86 in 1919.

Abel and Eliza had five children. One son - Abel James born 1868 - married a lady called Alice. They had a son who was killed in France in 1917 while serving in the army.  Another son, Joseph Henry Morgan, was my great grandfather.

Joseph Henry Morgan (1870-1945) 

Joseph was born in 1870 in Shareshill where he seems to have lived his whole life. In 1881 at the age of just eleven he was a farm worker. By 1891 he had become a coal miner. 

Joseph married Eliza Adams, a domestic servant, in Shareshill in 1897. She was the 22 year old daughter of George Adams, another miner. She already had a three year old daughter.

In 1901  Joseph  and  Eliza Morgan were living in School Lane, Shareshill. He was a "coal miner below driver". They had eight children : Benjamin (who died as an infant shorty after the census), Mary Elizabeth - my grandmother - (1899), Alice (1900), Joseph Henry (1904), Annie Elizabeth (1907),  Walter John (1911), Frank Ernest (1913) and Phyllis Mary (1915). 

In 1911 the family lived at 5 Swan Terrace, Shareshill. Joseph remained a  coal miner working underground. Eliza's brother Frederick Adams, a horse driver in the mine was living with them. Joseph's elder brother Morgan and family were living next door. 

Four years later both Frank and Phyllis died of marasmus which means a generalised failure to thrive. Frank was twenty one months old, Phyllis only three months old. Eliza Morgan sadly died of TB in 1916, she was only forty two years old. My grandmother once commented to my mother that Eliza had had too many children. 

In the 1921 census, Joseph Morgan lived in Elm Road, Shareshill. He was fifty one year old widower, a mine timberer but out of work. His workplace was Old Coppice Colliery. Timberers made and installed timber supports to support the walls and ceiling in underground mines. Cannock Old Coppice Colliery was in Cheslyn Hay. It was owned by Joseph Hawkins and Sons in 1921. In 1923 it employed 742 miners below ground and 191 surface miners. Living with Joe was his seventeen year old son Harry, a surface labourer at Hilton Main Holly Bank Colliery Company,  his daughter Annie and son Walter.

In 1939 Joe Morgan was living at Laney Green, Shareshill. He was a retired coal hewer. He was living with his sister Mary Allen. He died the following year aged seventy. 

My Visit to Shareshill in 2008 

When I visited Shareshill, I tried to trace the roads in which the Morgans lived. I couldn’t find Back Lane where Abel lived, or Swan Terrace where Joseph lived in the 1900s. I did find Church Road, a long winding road which starts from the dual carriageway which leads to Cannock and goes through the village to the church. Unfortunately there was a big gap between number 1 and number 5-6, so number 3 where Abel Morgan lived in 1881 must have been knocked down.  School Lane was still there.  I read somewhere about a road in Shareshill called Tarts Row - no known connection to our family !!

Joseph and Eliza's Children

Elsie Adams was born in 1894. She was actually only Eliza's daughter. By 1911 she had left home and was working as a domestic servant in Birchills, near Walsall for a married clerk who had  five young children. Elsie married Percy Evans in Shareshill in 1918. He was a locomotive cleaner and fireman. They lived in Wolverhampton. The 1921 census shows that Percy worked for the Great Western Railway as a railway engine fireman based in Wolverhampton). In 1939 they remained in Wolverhampton, Percy was now an engine driver. Sadly he died in 1952 at Stourbridge Motive Power Depot, having sustained multiple injuries sustained when crushed between two locomotives. Elsie died in 1979. I remember meeting her in the 1970s. Elsie and Percy had two daughters, Olive and Joyce. 

Mary Elizabeth Morgan, my grandmother was born in 1899. She was usually known as Molly. She attended Havergal School, Shareshill. Following her mother's death she helped to look after her younger siblings. My mother told me that when  she moved to Macclesfield she worked as a companion to an elderly lady. The 1921 census shows her living at Mount Pleasant, Macclesfield, where she was a domestic servant. The head of household was George Ellinger, branch manager at a silk merchants in Macclesfield. According to the census Mount Pleasant was a house with eight rooms.   

Molly Morgan married my Grandpa Charles Edward Leatherland in 1922 in Macclesfield. I never asked them how they met, but census records show that Robert Brown, who was proprietor of the Macclesfield Courier, the newspaper where Charles Leatherland was a journalist also lived in Mount Pleasant.  

Alice Morgan  was born in 1900. In 1920 she had an illegitimate son, Harry. His birth certificate said that Alice was a domestic servant. He was born at 202 Wolverhampton Road, Cannock which was was Cannock Union Workhouse. 

In the 1921 census Alice was an inmate of the Workhouse, which later became Chase Hospital. Just below Alice’s entry was an entry for her nine month old son Harry Morgan. Four years later Harry died of whooping cough and bronchopneumonia. His death certificate says that Alice was still a domestic servant although Harry died at the workhouse, so perhaps Alice was still living there.

When my Nana died, my mother told me that Alice, was mentally handicapped or had learning difficulties, and that she lived in an institution or care home. I have not traced a marriage for Alice, nor can I find her in the 1939 Register, although there are a couple of possible matches, the most promising of which is  Alice Morgan at Great Barr Colony, Aldridge where residents were all "certified mental defective", although her date of birth differs. I have also not found her death registration, although I gather that she had already died by 1987 when my mother told me about her. 

Joseph Henry Morgan (known as Harry) was born in 1904. By 1921 he worked at Hilton Main Holly Bank Colliery Company in Wolverhampton Road as a surface labourer. In 1930 he married Eileen Moreton in Wednesfield. In 1939 Harry was living in Wednesfield and working as a colliery hewer. They later lived in Wolverhampton. Eileen possible died in 1957. Harry died in 1971. They had a daughter Dorothy. 

Annie Morgan was born in 1907. In 1927 she married Joseph Gaskin a miner in Shareshill. In 1939 they were living in Elms Road, Shareshill.  Joseph Gaskin was a colliery hewer below ground. He died in 1975. Annie died in 1985. They had three sons and three daughters. 

Ethel Rose Morgan was born in 1909 but died four months later. 

Walter John Morgan was born in 1911. In 1934 he married Violet Onions in Cannock. He was a coal miner (loader). In 1939 they lived in Cannock, he was a compound labourer. He died in 1976.

Frank Ernest Morgan was born in 1913 but died in 1915. 

Phyllis Mary Morgan was born and died in 1915. 

THE ADAMS FAMILY           

                                         

            Eliza Morgan and her children in the mid 1900s 

Nana's mother was Eliza Adams (1875-1916). She was born at the Red White and Blue, Featherstone, which was (and apparently still is) a pub. Her parents were George and Hannah Adams. In 1881 they were living at 'Cottage' in Featherstone, a small village just south of Shareshill, which had population of just thirty five in 1851.

In the 1891 census there are two possible Eliza Adams. The most likely one was in Great Barr, Walsall : Eliza Adams age 16 general servant born Shareshill, in the household of Joseph Bagnall a retired saddler. The other possibloity is a 15 year old Eliza Adams also born in Shareshill in  Zoar Street, Wolverhampton, head of household William Matthews a grocer. The Walsall one is more likely as Thomas Winter (19 year old groom born Shareshill was also living there and  Winter was her mother's maiden name so he might be a cousin). 

In 1894 Eliza had a daughter Elsie but with no father named on the birth certificate.  Eliza was still a domestic servant. The daughter grew up with the family after Eliza married in 1897. This marriage took place at St Mary's Shareshill where Elkiza married Joseph Henry Morgan, a miner. In 1901 they lived in School Lane, Shareshill with four children. School Lane was two doors away from School House. 

In 1911 the family lived in Swan Terrace, Shareshill. Eliza Morgan was thirty five, Joseph was forty and a  coal miner (underground). Fanny's  brother Frederick Adams, a horse driver mine, was living with them. Horses were still used in coal lines. 

 Eliza Morgan 

In 1915 two of Fanny's infant children died : Frank who was nearly two and Phyllis who was less than six months old. The following year Eliza herself died. She was only forty two, the death certificate gave the cause as phthisis (TB) and exhaustion. Her widower never remarried. 

George Adams (1851-1931) was Fanny's father. He was born in Brewood in 185, His father was a farm labourer. By 1871 the Adams family had moved to Shareshill, George was now twenty and like his a father a farm labourer. He married there in 1874. The marriage certificate shows that he was now a miner. His bride was Hannah Winter. 

In 1881 they lived in Brewood but the 1891 census shows them in Saredon Lane, Shareshill. George was still a coal miner. In 1901 they were at Paradise Cottage, Stafford Road, Coven, Brewood. George was now a cowman on a farm. 

The 1911 census entry is rather odd. There is a census record with Hannah Adams as head of household at Coven Village near Wolverhampton. The first named entry is for George Adams but all his information has been crossed out. Some of this information is therefore hard to read,  but it seems to say George Adams, head, age hard to read but looks like 48, married, cowman on farm. The census form was signed by Hannah. It is not clear why George's information has been crossed through. In 1921 he is still alive, his wife's 1925 death certificate described her as his wife not widow, and I have his death certificate from 1931. Perhaps his entry was crossed through because he was not there on census day ? But if so where was he ? 

In 1921 George and Hannah lived at Laney Green, Saredon, which is a mile and a half west of  Shareshill. George remained a farm labourer, employed by R. Arblaster of Sareson, Shareshill. A grandson Rex Adams lived with them, he was a miner for J. A. Hawkins at Cannock  Old Coppice Colliery near Walsall. 

George died aged eighty of senile decay in 1931. He died at 202 Wolverhampton Road, Cannock, which was Cannock Union Workhouse. 

Hannah Winter / Winfer 

Eliza's mother was Hannah Winter. Born in 1853 her parents were in Shareshill in 1861, her father William Winter a farm labourer. Hannah married George Adams in Shareshill in 1874. In 1881 they were in Brewood, in 1891 Shareshill. 

Hannah's subsequent history has been traced under George Adams above. She predeceased him, dying of diabetes & gangrene in 1925 aged seventy three. 

The Winter family has been traced back to Henry Winter who was born in Shareshill 1784 and died there in 1869.