John Stoliday (1817-1896) and Catherine Smith (1822-1910).
My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt.
John Stoliday was born on 25 April 1817 and baptised on 8 June that year at All Saints’ Church in Rackheath, Norfolk, to parents James Stoliday and Mary Gay.
John grew up with his parents and siblings in and around Rackheath and his father, like most men in the area, worked in the fields as a husbandman and labourer.
In March 1848, a John Stolady aged 33 was convicted of larceny at the Swaffham Sessions in Norfolk having stolen a quantity of iron in the village of Denver belonging to Charles Peach of Downham Market. He was sentenced to 14 days in prison. As our John married in Downham a few years later, and there were no other men in the area by this name at the time, it’s likely that they were one and the same people, even though his age was out by a couple of years. The case was reported in the 1 April 1848 edition of the Norfolk Chronicle.
On 28 April 1851, labourer John married Catherine Smith at St Edmund’s Church in Downham, Norfolk. She came from Crimplesham in Norfolk, where she was baptised on 15 December 1822 to labourer Ambrose Smith and his wife Sarah. Catherine had already had an illegitimate child, who was baptised in the village on 17 October 1847 and named after her father Ambrose.
The Norfolk Chronicle of 22 May 1858 reported that John had been charged with assaulting Catherine while they were living at Felthorpe, north-east of Norwich. A hearing at Norwich Shire Hall heard Catherine say that she’d quarrelled with her husband and that, because she’d thrown water over one of their parents, John knocked her down and kicked her. However, he claimed that Catherine had struck his father with a stick. The case against John was dismissed but Catherine ended up being convicted of throwing a pail of dirty water over someone and was fined 14s 6d.
Census reports from 1861 onwards showed John and Catherine living at Salhouse and Rackheath, where he worked as an agricultural labourer. The Norwich Mercury of 19 June 1867 reported that he’d been committed for a month for deserting his work – an example of the state using the courts to support landowners against the labouring poor.
Catherine was dragged before the courts again, this time with her son Ambrose, as reported in the Norfolk Chronicle of 12 February 1870. Farmer Frederic King told justices at Norwich Shire Hall that mother and son had assaulted him after he chastised Ambrose for not having come to work on the Sunday. Catherine, hearing her son’s shrieks, came up and abused King, throwing stones at him that she’d taken from her apron. One struck the complainant on the leg. Catherine and Ambrose said they had been provoked by King striking Ambrose. The magistrates dismissed the case against Ambrose but fined Catherine 6d with costs of 16s, even though they agreed she’d been greatly provoked. They also told King that he could not take the law into his own hands.
Ambrose went on to live with the Stolidays, as shown in the 1871 census, before getting married and having children and died in 1922. John died in Norwich on 14 November 1896 and was buried in Rackheath on 19 November 1896. The Norwich Mercury of 21 November reported that he died at the Jolly Skinners pub in the city’s parish of St Martin at Oak. Catherine featured in the 1901 Census living at the same pub – her daughter Sarah Ann’s husband was the landlord. Catherine died in 1910.
The couple had at least five children:
- Job Stoliday (1851-????) was baptised in Downham Market, Norfolk, in 1851 but I’ve not been able to locate him after the 1861 Census, when the family were living in Salhouse.
- William Smith Stoliday (1853-????) was born in Wimbotsham, near Downham Market, Norfolk, in 1853 according to the 1861 Census. Ten years later he was boarding with a family in Rackheath and working as a labourer (the name badly transcribed on the return as Holiday), but I’ve not found him subsequently.
- Henry Smith Stoliday (1856-1881). Henry’s birth was registered in 1857 but his baptism record recorded his birthday as 24 November 1856. He wasn’t baptised until 26 April 1874, in Rackheath. The Norwich Mercury of 6 December 1876 reported that Henry and James Stoliday of Rackheath had both been fined 10s for trespassing after being found by a gamekeeper, perhaps fearing they were poaching. Then, a register of Military Deserters dated 23 April 1878 reported that a Henry Stoladay, aged about 20 and born in Salhouse, had deserted on 18 March that year from the 1st West Norfolk. This must be our Henry as no others by the name were born around the same time as him. Henry drowned when the Yarmouth-based fishing smack Edmund & Charlotte sank in the early hours of 29 June 1881. The Dundee Courier of 2 July 1881 noted that the sinking happened after the vessel was hit by the American emigrant steamer Therden of Hamburg off the Dutch coast. Five men survived and were brought ashore at Yarmouth.
- James John Stoliday (1859-????). James’ birth was recorded as 5 June 1859 on his baptism record from 26 April 1874 in Rackheath. He had a few brushes with the law, as noted under his brother Henry above for example. It’s likely he was the James Stoladay of Rackheath who, just like his brother Henry, was reported deserting from the army – in his case the 9th Brigade Depot – at Maidstone in Kent on 19 April 1879. What happened to him after this is not known.
- George Stoliday (1862-1939). Born on the 20 February 1862, George married Mary Ann Neale in Rackheath in 1892. They had a large family, while George worked as an agricultural labourer. They lived in Frettenham and then in Norwich in Norfolk over the years. Mary Ann died in 1930, George in 1939.
- Sarah Ann Stoliday (1864-1950) was born on 25 August 1864. She married labourer George Joseph Forder in Rackheath in 1892. They had a family and moved to Norwich, where George was the landlord of the Jolly Skinners pub from about 1895 to 1901. He later worked as a labourer for the local electricity board while the family remained in Norwich. George died in 1951, a year after his wife.
Sources: Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns, military deserters and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
Rackheath Parish Registers published in 1984 by Norfolk and Norwich Genealogical Society.
British Newspaper Archive (titles in text).
Norfolk pubs information.