Hill Notes

Hill

Ann Caroline Hill, born on 28/12/1866, married George Smith at the age of 22 in December 1889, living at 63 Rathbone St, Canning Town, West Ham, near her parents at 82 Rathbone Street. The Hill family had previously moved through various addresses in Bromley and Poplar. By the time of the 1901 census Ann Caroline and George had moved to 20 Malmesbury Terrace, Canning Town.

Her father was William Samuel Hill, a Boiler Maker, born in Poplar, Middlesex in 1844. Her mother was also Ann Caroline, formerly Smale, born in Bromley, Middlesex about 1846. She had seven sisters and four brothers. I thought I should have to accept defeat over earlier details. All the censuses show Ann and her siblings as the family of John and Catherine. Ann Caroline`s 1846 birth certificate, however, names the parents as John and Caroline (formerly apparently Stanes); that of her sister Elizabeth, born 16 years later with the same address, 8 Henry Street, which matches all the censuses from 1851 to 1881, names the parents as John and Catherine (formerly Staines). Since the 1862 birth certificate gives the signature and description of the informant as "The mark of John Smale, Mother" it is clear that the reliability of the details cannot be 100%.

The major difficulty arose over the marriage. The only marriages in the London area before 1845 in the BMD index for a John Smale are in 1838 and 1844. Search for a Stanes or Staines marriage similarly show no appropriate spouses. Fortunately I risked getting an unmatched certificate for Catherine, and my troubles were ended.

The Smale family are in the Smale Brief Chart, and in the table chart for the Smales

William Samuel was the son of James and Caroline, previously Chambers. According to the census records, James was born in Ecclestone, Lancashire about 1818; and Caroline in Whitechapel, Middlesex in 1821. Over the years, census takers or transcribers have had difficulty with William`s second initial; J and F have been used as well as S; but Samuel seems a strong identification through all the varieties. In 1851 they lived in Bromley. James was a dock labourer. The 1861 census shows the James and Caroline family still in Bromley, but the father was now an engine driver. By 1871 they had moved to Bartlett Street in Poplar; and ten years later they were living in Dyer Street. In that 1881 census, only the two youngest children remained at home; but they had been joined by James`s sister-in-law, a widow, Ellen Lane, whom I have not been able to identify.

There is a splendid genealogy website for the parish of Eccleston near Chorley in Lancashire. Disappointingly and rather surprisingly, Hill is not a surname known to the parish. But another Eccleston, in Merseyside, in the parish of Prescot, shows a James Hill aged about 20 in the 1841 census (in which ages were often rounded down to the nearest 5) living with his parents Samuel and Mary. It seems highly probable that these are the Samuel and Mary who married at Farnworth near Prescot on 17/12/1815. This Samuel was born in Farnworth about 1790. Mary was previously a Pickvonts, born in Farnworth about 1794. I have shown these in the Hill chart.

Caroline Chambers was christened at Saint Mary in St Marylebone Road on 19/8/1821. Her parents, Charles and Mary, formerly Pearson, had been married at the same church on 2/2/1812. It is fairly certain that she had a sister Martha, born in 1817, and one or two sisters called Mary, one born in 1816, the other in 1819. I have found no record of the death of the first.

There are several oddities in all the census records for James. In 1851 his household includes an entry for a son-in-law, John Neal Hill. John Neal was 11, and James was only 33. The term son-in-law was often used instead of stepson; and that is probably the case here. John Neal and William Samuel both have their birthplace given as Bromley. Martha, two years younger than William Samuel, has her place of birth attributed to Staffordshire, and Ellen, two years younger still, was born in Lancashire. The youngest children, twins, were born in Poplar, quite possiby at the `Bromley` home. Ten years later, Ellen the 3 year old of 1851, had disappeared, to be replaced by a 2 month old Ellen. I could find no trace of an obvious death record for the first Ellen. At the 1871 census, Ellen, now aged 10, consistent with 1861, is recorded as a nursemaid. Ellen is also the name of the sister-in-law of 1881; but I have been unable to track down a birth for an elder sister of Caroline with that name, nor a marriage between a Lane and a Chambers. Since I have also not traced the marriage between James and Caroline, the tree depends on the birth certificate for William Samuel.

Return to List of Names that have Notes or Open Hill Brief Chart or Open Hill Chart 1 or Open the list of the Hill family.