The Smith family have some interesting quirks. We will start with Philip Smith, my mother's grandfather. The first event of note is that he and his first wife, Ann Todd, were married in the Registry Office at Whitby in Yorkshire in spite of residing with their families before then in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, some 130 miles south of Whitby. It turns out that this wedding was witnessed by the wife of Philip Palmer an uncle on his mother's side from Market Deeping but who had moved to the North Yorkshire coalfields. So why go that far; a family feud over the relationship?
Ann Todd, Philips wife died at age 31 after having 8 children in 11 years and so leaving Philip with them, the youngest aged 2. Sometime after that he became involved with the Baptists of Deeping St James at the 'Cave Abdullam' Chapel led by the Reverend Frederick John Tryon. This Chapel and its Pastor is of some note in local history and there are articles on line about its influence. An overview of the Deepings is at the Deepings Heritage site.
In May 1892 Philip married Ann Harvey, spinster, age 50; the Cook and housekeeper for the Rev. F Tryon but she died in June 19897. My mother said she had a 'nasty stepmother' reputation and it is of note that several of the children moved elsewhere to live and work around this time. After Ann died Philip became more involved with the Chapel and was baptized in it in 1899 while one of his daughters did the housekeeping. In May 1904, after The Rev. Tryon died he married Clara Hack; a spinster from Leicester, aged 43, and who my mother knew and liked as Grandma. Clara appears in many family photos of the 1920's.
My mother recalls visits to Market Deeping before Philip's death. 'We used to go for holidays to Market Deeping and they came to Poole. Grandpa (Philip Smith) was a big man with white hair & beard, very religious, a strict Baptist, we used to go to church with him, a little place, there was no organ or piano. He started the hymns and everyone joined in.'
Before discussing some of the Smiths, children of Philip we go back one generation to Philip's father Joseph Smith. He comes into view on his marriage to Harriet Palmer, they married in Deeping St James on the 13th December 1842. Before that his origins are obscure though his census records suggest he was born in Spitalfields and there is a possible father in the tree from Thurlby 6 miles north of Market Deeping. There is no DNA matches to Smiths earlier that this so far.
However Joseph was a chimney sweep and, after his marriage he, his wife Harriet and their growing family moved around the country. First to Gloucester where their 3rd child Sophia, was born, then Dudley, Staffordshire where Sarah Jane, Philip and Harriet were born before returning to Deeping St James by the census of 1861.
July 2026.