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Ancestors of Frank Edward Fletcher (1864 - 1946 (82)) and Elizabeth Stringer Fletcher (Procter) (1866 - 1953 (87))
Fletcher chronology, photos and document links to 1900 and after 1900 (with WW I photos taken by Frank Rex Fletcher)
Procter chronology, photos and document links
Recent Ancestors (with Portraits) Photos of the Frank Edward Fletcher family 1895-1930 all bmd document links
Photos and Procter church records from Barnard Castle Robert Procter's Descendants Obituary for Dr F R Fletcher
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All the basic Fletcher information outside of the name of Frank Edward on this page came from detective work with UK census returns, BMD certificates, cemetery and church records (including non-conformist), and, on the Procter side, valuable and gratefully received help from Bill Harrison and Martin Wolfgang. In my youth (and later) nobody ever talked to me about the (West) Yorkshire or Scarborough Fletchers and Procters even though their story is just as interesting as other family branches! You can work out easily what drove John to work his way out of a family of crofter woolcombers, supported by an obviously competent wife, but what led Joseph Procter to drapering and Scarborough (and where was he in 1851?), why did the Fletchers go to Scarborough, and what is the story of Frank Edward Fletcher's move from iron-mongering in Scarborough to become a music professor in Folkestone ??
Link to photos of the wedding of Frank Edward's eldest son Frank Rex to Ethel Burton in 1915 Photos of the Frank Edward Fletcher family Map of West Yorkshire
A Welsh biased view of the medieval Fletchers
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Frank Edward Fletcher
b 28 February 1864 in Lowertown, Oxenhope, West Yorkshire.
Later relocated with the rest of his family to Scarborough where he somehow found a seriously good music teacher. Then made the big break. Sometime between 1881 and 1890 he became a music teacher ("professor") and moved to Folkestone to practice his chosen profession. Where did he train ???
Undated Glasgow (?!) studio portrait of Frank Edward Fletcher 1864-1946 (82)
Married Scarborough girl Elizabeth Procter in April 1889 in the Wesleyan Centenary Chapel (built 1839, capacity 1,800) in Queen Street, Scarborough, and she came down to join him in Folkestone and very quickly start a family - Frank Rex was born in January 1890.
Organist and choirmaster at Christchurch, Folkestone (C of E, though he was brought up as a Wesleyan Methodist), which was destroyed by a German bomb on Sunday 17 May 1942, mercifully between services.
The tower of Christchurch, Folkestone was repaired and the site dedicated as a war memorial garden.
d 1946 (82), Folkestone, Kent
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John Fletcher
b 13 February 1824 Oxenhope, West Yorkshire
Broke out of the bottom of the food chain woolcomber mode to become a self employed tradesman - Tin & Iron Plate Worker & Gas Fitter, then a "Master Ironmonger" after he moved his large family to Scarborough at some stage between the 1871 and 1881 censuses, and later set up shop at 20 North Street. (now demolished)
14 North Marine Drive - the Fletcher residence and ironmonger shop when they first moved to Scarborough in the 1870s.
Several census entries
d Scarborough 25 January 1894 aged 69 (buried Manor Rd Cemetery, grave P18 - 25) - probate
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Thomas Fletcher
b 1801 Yorkshire - woolcomber.
m? (non-comformist?) record still to appear
1841 Census - Living at Cold Well (now Oxenhope) (next house to Thomas Snr) - aged 40 - with 5 children aged 6 to 19, including John (17) - no wife.
1851 Census 1861 Census - still at Cold Well with daughter Sally then granddaughter Mary (aged 9 and a spinner in a worsted factory).
d? After 1861
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Thomas Fletcher (assumed to be Thomas' father because of next door residence)
b 1768 Yorkshire (probably Cold-Well)
Woolcomber.
1841 Census 1851 Census (described as "A Proprietor of Houses") - Living with wife Grace at Cold Well (now Oxenhope) (both aged 82 in 1851) alongside Thomas jnr.
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Grace Fletcher ( )
b 1768, Heptonstall
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Wife of Thomas Fletcher
Shaw Lane winds past Brooksmeeting Mill (centre of photo) and & Coldwell (next right).
Wife not recorded in 1841 census - probably deceased.
They had at least 5 children.
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Maria Fletcher (Dixon)
b 18 June 1837 Stansfield (nr Ovenden, West Yorkshiire) ch July 21 Wesleyean Methodist Chapel
In 1841 census, then a young teen cotton power loom weaver in 1851 census (birth place as above which validates the birth record as the correct one even though dad was not known as a miller!), living in the (still there) cottage at
Cottage at Brooksmeeting Mill - the Dixon home?
Brooksmeeting Mill (Shaw Lane, Oxenhope), before she became 14 year old Mrs John Fletcher at the end of the year (John was 27 - twice her age!), and then mother of 14 children.
They were married on Sunday 29 December 1851 in the new 1,600 seat Wesleyan Methodist “Chapel” in Temple Row, Keighley, on the site of the original Keighley preaching house built in the wake of the first visit of John Wesley to the town in the mid 1700s.
The building is now a mosque. The journey to Keighley would have been a long one for all involved in 1851 "pre Worth Valley railway" miles!
Several census entries with John and their family in Lowertown (Oxenhope) then N Marine Rd, Scarborough. Then after John dies a 1901 census entry as a widow living with two daughters in Scarborough, and then with just one daughter in 1911.
d Scarborough 30 May 1911 aged 73 (buried Manor Rd Cemetery, grave P18 - 25)
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William Dixon
A man of several talents (including writing).
b 1810 Shitlington (now Overton), just south of Thornhill by Dewsbury where he was baptised alongside brother John on 1 July 1810
m on 27 Jun 1831 at same church - St Michael and all Angels (we think), Thornhill by Dewsbury (in 2009 a locked church - why crow about the fact that you are one of England's top 1000 churches and then lock the doors?).
1841 Census - Living at Lower Mill, Wadsworth with wife Susan and 4 young children including Maria (b1837).
Then moved with family west (1851 census) to live and work as manager at Brooksmeeting Mill (W Shaw Lane, Oxenhope), some of which is still there building wise (photo left).
Still in the cotton industry in Heywood (Lancashire - near Rochdale) in 1861. Later opened a clothing (?) shop in Heywood, and was there for the censuses of 1871 and 1881.
d 14 February 1887 (77)
probate: worth £605 19s 10d
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William Dixon
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Mary Dixon ( )
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Susan Dixon (Sutcliffe)
m on 27 Jun 1831 at St Michael and all Angels (we think), Thornhill (above - SW of Dewsbury, Yorkshire and locked).
At 1861 census visiting dad whilst William and the "kids" are at "new" home in Heywood. Susan is in Heywood for the censuses of 1871 and 1881 and living with daughter Sarah and family in 1891 after William's death.
d 23 December 1893 (82)
probate: worth £270 11s 0d
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John Sutcliffe
b c1786 Heptonstall, West Yorkshire.
Cotton Spinner Midge Hole, latterly employing c80 people 1841 Census 1851 Census
Then Proprietor, Prospect (Cotton Spinning) Mill, Ovendon (N of Halifax). At 1861 census living there as widower (aged 75) with son and two daughters. Daughter Susan (Dixon) is visiting.
d 22 December 1863 aged 77 in Ovenden.
probate: worth around £1000
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Elizabeth Sutcliffe ( )
b c1791, Stansfield (?Hansfield) Yorkshire
At 1841 Census - Living with husband & 6 children (Susan already married) in Midge Hole.
d between 1851 and 1861.
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► Marriage Certificate, April 1889 |
Links to the stories of great great grand-parents
and
JOSEPH AND ELIZABETH PROCTER
We think that the lady on the right is either Maria Fletcher or Elizabeth Procter .....
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Thanks to Roger Kingdon for this photo
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Elizabeth Stringer Fletcher (Procter)
b 1866, 54 Newborough, Scarborough, East Yorkshire
Mother of 6 (one dying in early childhood).
Frank Rex, Frank Edward Fletcher, Jack, Doris, Elizabeth (Procter), Hugh, Gwen
Census entry as Procter in 1871
Census entry as Procter 1881 page 2
Census entries as Fletcher from 1891
Farewelling Frank Rex in September 1917 with his wife Ethel and sister Gwen.
She looks to us like a really likeable person in these photos.
3 generations at Folkestone Beach c1928 Elizabeth (Procter) Ethel (Burton) Frank Edward Frank Rex and young Michael
Elizabeth & great grandson Adrian Fletcher late 1940s
d 1953 (87), Folkestone, Kent
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Joseph Procter
b 7 July 1831 ch 14 August 1831, St Denys, York
Church of St Denys, Walmgate, York
1841 census - with parents at George St, Walmgate, York.
Living in Walmgate and was just 10 when his dad died suddenly in 1842.
No 1851 (aged 20) census entry found yet.
m March 1859, in the Wesleyan Centenary Chapel (built 1839, capacity 1,800 - not the rebuilt ugliness that's there now) in Queen Street, Scarborough.
► Marriage Certificate (March 1859)
A master draper - living in and running a large drapers shop (left rear of photo below and building still there today but not a draper) at 108 Westborough - Scarborough's "post-railway main drag". The only building in the otherwise very ordinary precinct not to have changed.
c1900 (above) and 2011 (below)
Business Directory and Census entries from Scarborough in 1861 1871 1881 1891 and 1901
Procter full page ad on page 80 of the 1892 Hagyard Scarborough Directory.
d 17 Nov 1902 (71) in Scarborough (buried Manor Rd Cemetery grave O 0 - 4).
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Robert Procter
Druggist (as per son Joseph's 1859 marriage certificate) / Chemyst - but more the backstreet variety - not in any of your York commercial directories.
m in All Saints Church, North Street, York on 24 January 1819.
Hammerbeam roof with painted angels All Saints Church, North Street, York
Not to be found in 1820 -30s business directories for York or Barnard Castle. 1841 census - described as Chemyst, in George St, Walmgate, York (at the Fishergate end), living with Elizabeth, 3 daughters and son Joseph. Walmgate was one of the poorest urban areas in Britain at the time with "women sitting on the kerbs smoking pipes."
d suddenly "of apoplexy" on 2 August 1842 (48), which would have plunged his already fairly marginal family into a financial catastrophe. Robert was buried in a public grave in York Cemetery along with 9 other unrelated people (cost 4s 6d each) (grave 8068 coord U20). At some stage post 1873 a "family headstone" was erected (probably by Joseph, who was his only son and had "made it" by then) commemorating Robert, Elizabeth and three of their daughters. Of those mentioned on the headstone only Robert is actually buried in this grave, whilst one of the daughters is buried elsewhere in the cemetery (Elizabeth Lazenby, d1865, grave 6733) and wife Elizabeth lies in St Mary, Haxby.
Robert's wife Elizabeth was 40 when he died suddenly in 1842. Nearly 20 years later (in October 1861) she married George Kettlewell, a widower from Haxby, in St Marys Parish Church, Birkenhead. Both were described in the marriage record as being of "full age", though we learned later that technically this just meant they were over 21. George died at their home in Haxby in June 1876, aged 78, and was buried alongside Elizabeth in a grave in the Parish Church of St Mary, Haxby, just north of York, where George had been a long term church warden.
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Joseph Procter
Chemyst etc in Barnard Castle - the shop is still there (now an opticians - the white shop below).
b c1764 probably in Rokeby
Parish Church of St Mary, Barnard Castle
m1 12 March 1792 Barnard Castle (St Marys)
Procter Chemyst Shop - Barnard Castle
Pigots Directory 1828 - Chemyst Druggist and Grocer in Barnard Castle - the directory gives a fascinating insight into the trades that existed in an early 1800s market town.
1841 Census - retired & living in Barnard Castle
Buried December 1847 (83) in St Marys Barnard Castle - we think in the same grave as his three wives and various infant children.
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Joseph had 3 wives:
1. Mary Procter (Harrison) 1764 - 1797 (33) - Mother of Robert (left) and Harrison 2. Mary Procter (Monkhouse) 3. Alice Procter (Horne)
All buried in the same grave in St Marys, Barnard Castle, along with a few little children. We think that Joseph is probably there as well!
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Elizabeth Procter (then Kettlewell) (née Ashton)
ch 6 September 1801 in St Olave, York.
m in All Saints Church, North Street, York on 24 January 1819
Aged 40 when Robert died suddenly on 2 Aug 1842, nearly 20 years later (on 16 October 1861) Elizabeth married widower George Kettlewell of Haxby in St Marys Parish Church, Birkenhead.
d Sept 22 1873 (72) and buried in the Parish Church of St Mary, Haxby (grave 22/09), to be joined there three years' later by George.
Also in the Haxby churchyard is the grave of her daughter Martha Britton (d 1867 aged 32 after just 3 year's of marriage - grave 18 / 10)
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John Ashton
m 20 Oct 1783, Bubwith (All Saints Church), Yorkshire (NE of Selby on the River Derwent).
A coachman (as per the second marriage record of daughter Elizabeth).
All Saints Church, Bubwith
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Sarah Ashton (Stubbins)
b Sept 1760 - Bubwith (Yorkshire)
m 20 Oct 1783, Bubwith (All Saints Church)
Link to Bubwith - A One Place Study
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108 Westborough (distant right)
Elizabeth Procter (Dobson)
ch 11 Jul 1832, St Marys, Scarborough
Milliner
m March 1859, in the Wesleyan Centenary Chapel in Queen Street, Scarborough.
Pre Marriage Census entries in 1841 and 1851
m March 1859, in the Wesleyan Centenary Chapel (built 1839, capacity 1,800 - not the rebuilt ugliness that's there now) in Queen Street, Scarborough.
d 16 February 1911 (78) in Scarborough (buried Manor Rd Cemetery grave O 0 - 4).
Grave of Elizabeth & Joseph and sons Robert and Benjamin in manor Rd Cemetery, Scarborough. |
Matthew Dobson
b c1804 - no records yet
m 27 December 1827, St Mary's Parish Church, Scarborough (parish record).
Master Mariner (deceased) as per daughter's 1859 wedding certificate; Sailor (alive) as per daughter's 11 July 1832 baptism record.
d before 1851 census (wife a widow), though not around at 1841 census either, and lack of further children after Elizabeth indicates death or disappearance possibly as early as 1833 (ie before government records started). No grave in the records of the Scarborough cemeteries, church records not checked yet (no tombstone anyway).
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Matthew Dobson's parents presently unknown.
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Scarborough - St Mary's church on the ridge of the hill leading to the castle - artillery fire traded between the two in the civil war finished the castle and nearly did the same to the church. The church's records include Stringer marriages at least back to 1743-44.
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Elizabeth Dobson (Stringer)
Christened 19 Oct 1803 at St Marys Parish Church, Scarborough. We have traced her Stringer ancestors back three generations to the early 1700s in the Scarborough library held records of St Mary's church.
m 27 December 1827, St Mary's Parish Church, Scarborough (church record).
Seamstress / milliner listed in White's 1840 Directory under "Miscellany of Trades" at 6 Tanner Street.
Census entries in 1841 1851 1861 & 1871 Mostly living in Wilsons Almshouses (aka hospital).
d 1880 (77) Scarborough - Grave in Dean Road Cemetery - C 15-23 .
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William Stringer m 13 Aug 1797 - St Marys, Scarborough
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Mary Stringer (Short) m 13 Aug 1797 - St Marys, Scarborough
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Home Page Fletcher Links Page 1900s Fletcher links Procter Links Page Map of West Yorkshire
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