William Stoliday (1836-1930), Mary-Ann Carr (1827-1866) and Ann Dove (1845-1917).
My 2nd great-grand uncle and aunts.
Born in 1836 in Salhouse, Norfolk, and baptised on 4 December of that year at All Saints’ Church in the village, William Stoliday was the son of William Stoliday and Sarah Rose.
He became an agricultural labourer, like his father, and was married twice. His first bride was Mary Ann Carr, who was born on 13 February 1827 in Southwood, Norfolk, the daughter of agricultural labourer William and his wife Elizabeth. She was actually baptised Maria and recorded under this name in some subsequent census records. William and Maria (now Mary Ann) wed at Freethorpe on 22 October 1855 just a few months after she’d given birth to an illegitimate daughter, Martha. It’s unclear whether she was in fact William’s daughter.
William – or his father – was the subject of a report in the Norfolk News of 25 October 1856. He complained that Bartholomew Farman, of Salhouse, had stolen from him. Farman was his landlord and had given William notice to quit. William was removing his furniture when he alleged that Farman and three other men burst in, threw him downstairs and hurled him out of the house. Farman had apparently put his hand in William’s pocket, which contained the key and about £10, and William later claimed he couldn’t find his money.
Mr Fox appeared for the defence and called Robert Hainton and Francis Sewell, two of the three men who were with Farman at the time, to prove that Farman had pulled William’s money and the keys from his pocket. In doing so the purse dropped on the ground. Farman picked it up, counted the money – £2 17s – and gave it to Stoliday. The Bench found that the charge had failed and that Farman was perfectly innocent. The case was therefore dismissed. See the newspaper report
William had at least one child with Mary Ann – William Henry Stoliday in 1857 – and they are shown as living in Salhouse with her illegitimate daughter Martha in the 1861 census. However, Mary Ann died in 1866 and William went on to marry Ann Dove of Martham in the church of St Nicholas in Great Yarmouth on 24 December 1870. The marriage record lists him as a fisherman, which if true is the only time I can find reference to it. The couple are missing in the 1871 census but appear again in 1874 with the birth of their daughter Anne Elizabeth Stoliday in Northumberland. It’s possible this is where William had gone for work on the fishing vessels and it’s significant that his son William Henry continued to live there until his death.
In 1881 the family were living in Ormesby, Norfolk, William now working as an agricultural labourer and Ann as a laundress. Ten years later he was listed working for himself as a market gardener although the electoral registers described him as a farmer, living in the hamlet of Cess by the River Thurne, to the south-west of Martham.
The Yarmouth Independent of 19 June 1909 advertised the sale by auction of the market garden that William occupied but was giving up at the Old Manor House, Ormesby St Michael. Consisting of just over two acres, the advert noted that more than half was given over to fruit trees and bushes and raspberry canes. Included was a ‘quaint and commodious’ house of four bedrooms and two sitting rooms, piggeries, a barn, stables and coal house.
By 1911 nearby Hemsby was home for the couple, but Ann died in 1917 in Caister and was buried there on 27 November that year. By the 1921 census William was living alone and retired, giving his address at Widows’ Houses, Station Road, Caister.
He lived to a grand age, dying at Lingwood Hospital in Norfolk on 24 February 1930. He was buried in Caister Cemetery on 1 March, described as a retired gardener.
William and Mary Ann Carr had at least one child:
- William Henry Stoliday (1857-1920). William was born in Lingwood, Norfolk, but spent much of his adult life in and around Byker in Northumberland working as a bricklayer and labourer and raising a family.
William and Ann had at least one child:
- Ann Elizabeth Stoliday (1874-1884).
Sources: BMDs, directories and census info at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk, where I also accessed the British Newspaper Archive. Birth records at gro.gov.uk. Records at Norfolk Family History Society. 1896 Kelly’s Directory.