The Two Families of John Cunningham Bellshaw (1)

John Cunningham Bellshaw, second son of John Bellshaw and Elizabeth Cunningham, married Jane Moodie on 31st December 1879 when he was twenty three and she was seventeen. They were neighbours, living at 10 and 12 Norfolk Lane, Glasgow and went on to have five children.

John Bellshaw junior was born in November 1880, Andrew Moodie Bellshaw (named for his maternal grandfather) three years later. Annie Hislop Bellshaw (named for her maternal grandmother) was born in December 1885, Jane Hislop Bellshaw in February 1888 and Agnes Moodie Bellshaw in June 1891.

Although all the children were born in Glasgow their births were registered at different addresses. Their father is listed as a journeyman baker on his marriage certificates, and on the birth certificates of all his children There is no evidence of unemployment, but other records give the impression of an impoverished family, often on the move.

John Bellshaw junior died of bronchitis in 1885. He was just under five years old. In the 1891 census his siblings Andrew, Annie and Jane were boarding with Margaret Simpson, a laundress, and her two teenage children. Their father, John Bellshaw, was boarding with the family of Alexander Workman, also a baker. Their mother Jane, then pregnant with Agnes, was an inmate at the City Poorhouse on Parliamentary Road.

Glasgow had three poorhouses; Barnhill Poorhouse in Barony, The City Poorhouse, and Govan Poorhouse on Dale Street. All must have been deeply unpleasant but the City Poorhouse seems to have been the most terrible. According to The Workhouse;

The Glasgow City Poorhouse stood on the north side of Parliamentary Road, to the west of its junction with St James Road. The building was originally erected in 1809 as a lunatic asylum. With 1,500 beds, the poorhouse was one of the largest institutions in Britain.

The poor conditions in the City Poorhouse were a recurring subject of concern with both the City Council and the Parochial Board. In 1882, separate reports by the Board's Secretary and Medical Officer condemned the building. In 1887, after press reports of overcrowding, Dr Littlejohn and the Council's Medical Officer Dr Russell were appointed to conduct an enquiry. Their report highlighted a long list of deficiencies including:

Inadequate separation of sick and able-bodied.

Very poor sanitary arrangements such as badly sited and separated water closets.

The use of water closets as sculleries and pantries.

Poor bathing facilities — in one instance, 290 male inmates took their weekly bath in two baths, a process which took from 7am to 7pm.

Inadequate open-air exercise facilities.

Badly lit and ventilated day rooms.

Many of the buildings problems were aggravated by its location on a very busy main road near to the North British Goods Station.

It was in these conditions that Agnes was born on the 23rd of June.

Annie Hislop Bellshaw, then aged seven, died in September 1893, after suffering pulmonary congestion for a week. John Bellshaw had been present at his daughter’s death as he had his son John’s. She died at 10 Norfolk Road, the address of her aunts Jane and Helen.

On the 5th June 1900 Jane Moodie Bellshaw, John Cunningham Bellshaw’s first wife, died. Her cause of death was Phthisis Pulmonalis and Abdominalis, which is an archaic medical term for tuberculosis, a condition characterized by emaciation, debility, cough, hectic fever, and purulent expectoration. Her death certificate indicates that she had been suffering from TB for at least two years. She died at Gartloch Asylum, having been moved there from the City Poorhouse. Gartloch was built as a lunatic asylum in 1896, but operated as a 50 bed Tuberculosis sanatorium from 1902. Jane Moodie Bellshaw’s death certificate specifically gives Gartloch ‘Asylum’ as her place of death in 1900, so it is probable that TB patients were treated there informally before this date.
There would be sense to this. TB is highly infectious and lunatic asylums were traditionally located in isolated locations.

John married Mary Jane Handley, a confectionary worker, at 36 Kelvingrove Street 'under the form' of the United Free Church on December 11th 1900. This was only six months after his first wife, had died and she was over twenty years younger than he was. They appear together on the 1901 census with Jane and Agnes, John’s daughters from his marriage with Jane Moodie.

Next: The Second Family of John Cunningham Bellshaw.

10 Norfolk Court

John and Elizabeth Cunningham moved into 10 Norfolk Court sometime during the short life of their son Johnstone. The family was to live at that address for the next sixty years until the death of Johnstone’s elder sister Jane, aged 77 in 1927. Because the family lived there so long the address turns up on birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates and census returns. So what do we know about it?

Well we know it must have been a fairly grim place, even by the low standards of the time. All three children born to John and Christine born after the move died within the first year of life, without medical attendance of respiratory infection. we also know that four of John’s surviving children married spouses who lived within Norfolk Court. In 1879 Mary Ann Bellshaw married Thomas Reid of 8 Norfolk Court and John Cunningham Bellshaw married Jane Moodie of 12 Norfolk Court. William Bellshaw, their elder brother, married Catherine Osborn, of 2 Norfolk Court in 1885 and Elizabeth Bellshaw married James Crandles, also of 8 Norfolk Court, in 1890.

Some of the most interesting information on Norfolk Court comes from census returns, which were collected every ten years. These reveal that in 1881 John and Elizabeth, aged 61 and 50 respectively, were living with three adult daughters and two adult sons in the dwelling, which only only two rooms with windows. By 1891 the parents had passed away, and three of their children had married and moved away. However three of the children were still living there; Jane and Helen who were both to remain unmarried and would live there for many years, and also their sister Mary Ann, now widowed and her son Archie, aged 10. By the time of the next census in 1901 Jane and Helen were living there alone. Jane was still living at 10 Norfolk Court when she died in 1927, sixty years after her parents moved there. Her death certificate was witnessed by her nephew Archie who had lived there as a child.

The Death of Captain Patrick Robertson-Ross

Captain Patrick Maitland Robertson-Ross was the eldest son of Patrick Robertson-Ross, and the grandson of Major General Patrick Robertson-Ross. On the outbreak of the First World War he joined the British Army and the following month was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment. He was posted to the 8th battalion, a newly raised service battalion made up of volunteers who had responded to Kitchener’s call in August 1914. The 8th QORWK were part of the 72nd Brigade, attached to the 24th Division.

Over the next year the men of the 8th QORWK trained for war. Like the other service battalions the battalion had almost no experienced soldiers within its ranks and was commanded by a Colonel who had retired several years before. In November 1914 Patrick was promoted to lieutenant and in January 1915 to captain. By August 1915 he was second in command of D company.

In August 1915 the Division was posted to France and attached to XI Corps. Planning was already underway for a campaign around the French mining town of Loos and XI Corps was allocated to the reserves; troops who would be put into battle after the initial assault to exploit the gains made by the forward units. As was so often the case in war; the plan did not survive contact with the enemy. On the 26th September 1915, in their first action, the 8th QORWK suffered enormous casualties. Of its twenty five officers fourteen were killed, five seriously injured and taken prisoner and five wounded. Only one was unscathed. Patrick was one of only three whose deaths were witnessed by survivors. Consequently he was listed as killed in action rather than missing. His mother, Sophy Robertson-Ross, did not receive notification until six days later

.Telegram received by Sophy Robertson-Ross Oct 2nd

I deeply regret to inform you that 2nd Lt. Robertson-Ross R West Kent Regt. was killed in action Sept 25/27. Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy.

Of course, by now Patrick was a Captain and one wonders if his mother’s first, brief, hope was that he had been confused with somebody else. Clearly this was not the case; the name ‘Robertson-Ross’ was too uncommon and the regiment and battalion correct. The telegram had simply got the details wrong. The next day she wrote to the War office.

From Sophy Robertson-Ross to the Military Secretary at the War Office

Oct 3rd 1915

Dear Sir,

I last night received the official telegram notifying to me that my son captain P.M. Robertson-Ross had been killed in action 25/27. I note in the telegram they misstated him as second lieutenant. He was gazetted captain last January. Will you kindly see this error is corrected at once in the official report, and that it is put in correctly in the Roll of Honour list as Captain P M Robertson-Ross.

I would also be so very grateful if you could give me any details as to his death. I have had no news at all except from telegrams. I am most anxious for any information I can get.

Yours very truly

Mrs. Sophy Robertson-Ross

Four days later she received a reply.

From the Military Secretary (War Office) to Sophy Robertson-Ross

8th Oct 1915

The Military Secretary presents his compliments to Mrs. Robertson-Ross and in reply to her letter of October 3rd, begs to inform her that there are no details yet concerning the death of her son, Captain P M Robertson-Ross, and any information that is received will at once be communicated to her.

On the same day she wrote to the war office, Sophy wrote to a Mr. Tennant, who appears from the letter to have assisted Sophy in arranging for Patrick to have been commissioned into the Royal West Kent Regiment the previous September.

From Sophy Robertson-Ross to Mr. Tennant

3rd Oct 1915

I had an official telegram stating that my son Captain P M Robertson-Ross had been killed in action 25/27. Do you think it is possible for you to get for me any further details of his death? I would be so grateful if you could. You will remember you kindly arranged his appointment to his Regiment, the 8th Royal West Kent Regiment for me.

I see in his official wire they put 2nd Lt. P M Robertson-Ross. He was gazetted Captain last January. Would you kindly see that his name and rank is put correctly in his official announcement in the papers.

Always yours truly

Sophy Robertson-Ross

Tennant replied, although it is not clear when, as the filed duplicate is neither addressed nor dated.

Copy of letter presumably from Mr. Tennant to Sophy Robertson-Ross

Dear Mr. Robertson-Ross (sic) I am deeply grieved to hear that your poor son has been killed in action, and I offer to you my sincere sympathy. I am afraid we may never get any particulars of his death, and I would suggest that you write to some of his brother officers. I will see that his name and rank are put correctly in the official announcement in the papers.

In fact most of Patrick's brother officer's had been either killed in action alongside him, captured by the Germans or invalided back to Britain as casualties

Several months later the following letter was sent by the Red Cross with information which was clearly meant to be passed on to the family.

18th March 1916. (On Red Cross note paper)

We beg to send you a report which we think you would wish to see, as though it offers no fresh information, it has a very good tribute to the memory of Captain Robertson-Ross.

Pte. G Gibbons, 3428, 8th R W Kents, in hospital abroad states:-

"Captain Robertson-Ross was next in command to Major Chillingworth and a very brave man.
My intimate friend, Davis, D Coy, 8th Battn, who is a Welshman like myself, and who is now attached to the signaling section, told me that Captain Robertson-Ross led them to the barbed wire and they lay down while he tried to scramble through and was killed by what he thought was an explosive bullet.

Davis was most emphatic about the glorious leading of Captain Robertson-Ross. He said it was an honour to be led by such a man."

Yours faithfully

For Sir Louis Mallet

Some of those initially reported as killed in action turned out to have survived (including the commanding officer, Colonel Vansittart), raising hopes that Patrick may have been among them. Sophy appears to have pinned some hope in this being the case. At the time the Americans were still neutral and Sophy appears to have lobbied for the US ambassador to make enquiries as to whether Patrick might still be alive.

Oct 31st 1916 (On Foreign Office notepaper, the recipient is unknown) Dear Sir With reference to your letter to Mr. Drummond respecting Capt. Robertson-Ross, I have written to Sir Francis Blake and informed him that you had no reason whatever to believe that Captain Ross (sic) was not killed, and that enquiries therefore through the American Ambassador could serve no useful purpose. In the circumstances it does not appear necessary for you to write to Mrs. Ross Yours very truly C.F.Dormer

and

From the Hon. Eric Drummond 29th Oct 1916 Dear Sir, I am writing you a private line regarding the case of Captain Robertson-Ross, as I see that Lord Grey has endorsed the enclosed letter. We hardly think it would be right to begin the practice of putting the names of killed officers on the missing list. For one reason the German authorities might rightly complain of the list being unduly swelled in this manner: for another it is a questionable kindness to give encouragement in such a manner to groundless hopes. It is quite true that Col. Vansittart was reported killed and afterwards turned up as a Prisoner of War, but we feel absolutely certain that if Captain Robertson-Ross had been a prisoner, he would long since have written to his relations. Would you like us to write direct to Mrs. Robertson-Ross on the matter, giving our reasons in official form, or would you like to tell Sir Francis Blake yourself? Yours faithfully, (unsigned)

The body of Patrick Robertson-Ross was never recovered. Around half the British soldiers killed on the Western Front have no known grave and Patrick is among them. He is remembered on panel 95-97 at the Loos Memorial.


From the service file of Patrick Maitland Robertson-Ross, held at the National Archives, reference WO 339/25450

The Aden Emergency

The subject of the Aden Emergency came up at work yesterday. It turned out that one of my colleagues had been in the Argylls. He wasn't in Aden himself of course. He's about my age and I was three, but when he'd first joined up a lot of the older men had served there, and still talked about the retaking of the Crater.

My colleague wanted to know if we'd been there the same time of the Argylls. I told him I didn't think we had; the families had been withdrawn the previous June, but Mum would know. It was a reminder I should record her memories before it's too late.

John Bellshaw 1820-1890

John Bellshaw is my wife's great great grandfather, and currently the earliest traceable member of her family.

John Bellshaw was born between 1820 and 1823 and married Elizabeth Cunningham on the 5th October 1849. At the time John was a police constable. Together they had ten children; Jane, William, John, Helen, Samuel, Elizabeth, Johnstone, Christina, Joseph and Mary.

There is a strange asymmetry to the survival of John Bellshaw’s children. His first six children survived into old age; his three youngest died before their first birthdays. Is there anything in the available evidence which might account for this?

Birth, death and census records show occupation and residence. From 1857, when John Cunningham Bellshaw was born, to 1864 when Elizabeth Bellshaw was born, John’s occupation was listed variously as lamplighter, police lamplighter, Clyde police lamplighter, or quay lamplighter.

This can't have been skilled work, but it would have been regular. Glasgow had been very forward thinking in its provision of policing. There had been a Glasgow police force since the 18th century and as Glasgow grew it incorporated the police forces of the burghs it absorbed. In 1858, the Clyde Police was formed to police the growing dock areas of the Clyde, and this was merged into the Glasgow Police in 1866.

At some point between 1864 and 1867 however, John’s employment, changed to 'day labourer'. Labourers had nothing to sell but their physical strength, and day labourers were the least fortunate of all. They worked for a day’s wage at a time and no work meant no wage.

Quite what caused this change in employment isn’t clear, but by now John was in his forties and that must have made the job of bringing in a family income harder still. It must surely have reflected a significant downturn in the family's fortune. By 1872 John was recorded as being a shipping company porter on his son Joseph's death certificate. This may have provided a little more security but probably not much.

Another change in the Bellshaw's fortunes around this time was their residence. Before the birth of Johnstone Sanderson Bellshaw in 1867, John and his family had moved house frequently within Glasgow. Shortly after Johnstone’s birth the family moved to 10 Norfolk Court. John and Elizabeth never moved house again. John was to live there twenty four years until his death in 1890 from chronic bronchitis.

It would be nice to think this provided some stability to the Bellshaws, and to some extent this may have been true, but it must have been a bleak kind of stability. All John and Elizabeth's children born after the move died of chest complaints within months. The dwelling, presumably a tenement, would have been tiny. We know it only had two rooms with windows because that information is recorded on the censuses, and at times it must have been packed. In 1881 John and Elizabeth were living there with two adult sons and three adult daughters. I suspect they did not move because they couldn’t afford to move up, and they were at the bottom of the housing ladder.

However, two points stand out. The first is the longevity of the Bellshaw's residence at 10 Norfolk Court; they never descended, at any point, into homelessness. The second is that none of the birth, death or marriage certificates, or census records, on which John Bellshaw's name appears, is John ever recorded as being unemployed. Even on Elizabeth’s death certificate, recorded when he was sixty three, John is employed as a bonded store labourer. The Bellshaws may have been at the bottom of the ladder, but John Bellshaw seems to have ensured that his family did not drop off that ladder altogether.

Next: 10 Norfolk Court

Why the Bellshaws?

The original plan was to do a bit of family history research into Bill and Lettie's families. (Bill and Lettie are my parents-in-law.) Both have had interesting lives and had interesting tales to tell their children; tales that Kathryn is now sharing with our children. Quite apart from the fact that I'm very fond of Bill and Lettie, I thought it would give me some good practice at tracing a family history from scratch and developing my skills as an historian and genealogist.

As it turned out I quickly got into the Bellshaw side of the family. It's a lot easier to find people on ScotlandsPeople than any of the English sites. It's partly because Scotland has a lot smaller population than England, but I think it's mainly because ScotlandsPeople is simply a better, more user friendly, site. The main reason that I got stuck into the Bellshaws, however, was because I struck genealogical gold.

The Bellshaws are a very small Scottish family. Between 1855 and 1890 only seventeen Bellshaws were born in Scotland. (In the same period over seventeen thousand Hamiltons were born.) As a result,it quickly became apparent that the Bellshaws were all related; they were all descended from one man, John Bellshaw, who had moved to Scotland at some point in the first twenty years of his life.

His timing was fantastic. He arrived in time for Britain's first national census in 1841. This recorded where he was living, who he was living there with, and what his relationship with them was. It also recorded his place of birth (which is how we know he wasn't born in Scotland). He appears, every ten years, on every subsequent census until his death, along with his growing family.

Although his eldest two children were born before the existence of birth certificates, his subsequent children were born after their introduction in 1855. Their birth certificates give their names, their parents names and occupations, their place and date of birth and even the signature or mark of the parent registering them.

So it was extraordinarily good timing on John's part. If he'd moved to Scotland twenty years earlier, or censuses and BDM certificates had been introduced twenty years later, it would have been a much harder task to find the links between the different Bellshaw families. As it is a very interesting family saga was revealed.

Tomorrow: So what did I find out?

The Bellshaws

The idea was I'd keep a blog of the family history research I was doing, as I was doing it. I'd then have a contemporaneous record of my research. Good methodology, eh.

In practice of course it didn't work out. I've spent six months researching the Bellshaws and I've made precisely no entries during that time. My back up plan is now a series of retrospective records.

Let's see if I have more success this time.