RUSHWORTH and WEBSTER - what's the connection?

'Curious' is this week's theme for '52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks'. I'm curious to know more about the connection between my WEBSTERs and the RUSHWORTH family.

1. In 1793, Joseph RUSHWORTH was a witness at the marriage of William WEBSTER and Elizabeth Harley PORTER in Middlesex, England. [Source: Parish register of marriages, St.James, Clerkenwell, Middlesex. London Metropolitan Archives ref. p76/js1/034.]


2. In 1813, Thomas RUSHWORTH was chosen as the guardian of Thomas WEBSTER aged 19, 'child of William WEBSTER late of the Borough in Southwark London deceased and the nephew sole executor and residuary legatee named in the will of Henry WEBSTER' of Leeds, Yorkshire. [Source: Curation, Henry WEBSTER, 20 Oct 1813. Borthwick Institute for Archives, Yorkshire, England. Copy ordered via Prerogative and Exchequer Courts of York Probate Index.]


3. In 1841, Cecelia RUSHWORTH, 99 Waterloo Bridge Road, Lambeth, Surrey, was present at the death of Elizabeth Harley WEBSTER. [Source: General Register Office (England/Wales); death certificate of Elizabeth Harley WEBSTER. Cecelia was the informant.]

RUSHWORTH is not a very common name, and at the time of the 1841 census, most of them were in Yorkshire.

So the burning question is... when did the connection between the RUSHWORTH and WEBSTER families start? Are they related somehow (see Webster Family Origins: Yorkshire or Scotland?) or were they just friends, associates or neighbours? If you have any information, please leave a comment here, or email me at the address shown in the sidebar.

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This is my Week 4 post for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us to do something with the family history information that we've gathered. Even if I don't always stick to the suggested themes, I'll try to post something here each week. It may just be an 'On This Day' biographical snippet, or an extract from an interesting document, but anything is better than nothing!

(This post first appeared on https://judy-webster.blogspot.com/2022/01/rushworth-and-webster-whats-connection.html)

Photo of Col WEBSTER with Bert and Flossie

Col Webster playing with Bert and Flossie, 2005
(photo by Judy Webster)

Favourite Photo is this week's theme for '52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks'. I chose this photo because it brings back many happy memories of my Dad (Col WEBSTER) and our beloved dogs Flossie (a Border Collie) and Bert (a Smithfield). They were both 'rescue dogs', and hugely important in our lives.

Dad was aged 86 when I took this photo at 'Taminga' (the 32-acre property near Fernvale, Queensland, to which Mum and Dad retired after they left Cunnamulla).

Flossie came to live there in 1998. Bertie joined us for Christmas 2002, when my sister Robyn was "just fostering him from the pound until New Year". (Haha - a likely story!) To nobody's surprise, they fell in love with each other and Bert became the newest member of our family.

That Christmas was rather entertaining. In three days, Bertie ate a chair, an outdoor sofa, two foam boxes, a mat, a dog bed, assorted garden tools, and several toys belonging to Flossie. He was only ten months old, so the chewing phase was in full swing, but thankfully it didn't last too long. And in his entire life, he never chewed a shoe!

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This is my Week 3 post for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us to do something with the family history information that we've gathered. Even if I don't always stick to the suggested themes, I'll try to post something here each week. It may just be an 'On This Day' biographical snippet, or an extract from an interesting document, but anything is better than nothing!

(This post first appeared on https://judy-webster.blogspot.com/2022/01/photo-of-col-webster-with-bert-and.html)

Children of William WEBSTER and Elizabeth PORTER

In a previous post I wrote about the origins of William WEBSTER, who married Elizabeth Harley PORTER. William and Elizabeth had eight children - Thomas, James (my ancestor), Elizabeth, Ann, William, Henry, George and Ebenezer. They were all baptised at either Stockwell Chapel or St.Saviour's Church in Southwark, Surrey, England. All eight were still alive in early 1813, when they were named in the will of their uncle, Henry WEBSTER.

Brothers James and George WEBSTER married sisters Mary and Sarah GIBLETT, and I know a lot about their descendants.

Thomas and Ebenezer WEBSTER (the eldest and youngest of the siblings) died in Leeds, Yorkshire (unmarried).

Ann WEBSTER was born circa 1800, and her brother William WEBSTER was born 21 Dec 1802 (the baptism register shows his birth date). When Michael FLYNN (historian, author, and my 6th cousin) was researching the PORTER descendants, he found the 1851 census entry, in Tottenham (Middlesex), for William WEBSTER (aged 47, born Southwark Surrey, unmarried), Anne WEBSTER (aged 49, sister, born Stockwell Surrey, unmarried), and Mariamne PORTER (aged 14). Other sources confirm that her name was Mariamne, not Marianne. For her relationship, it looks as though the enumerator couldn't decide whether to put 'Niece' or something starting with C. Mariamne was in fact a daughter of William and Anne's cousin.

Although Ancestry's index showed the wrong year, I found an image of an 1857 burial register entry that, based on the address (Tottenham) and age, fits this William WEBSTER. To check whether it was the same person, I bought the 1857 death certificate. William WEBSTER's occupation shown there fits with the 1851 census entry ('agent for iron works'). Although I'd have liked to find a will, I'm still confident that this William and Anne are the children of William WEBSTER and Elizabeth Harley PORTER.

I have yet to research the other WEBSTER siblings - Elizabeth (baptised 1797), Ann (baptised 1800) and Henry (born and baptised 1805). If you'd like to exchange information about the family, or if you have questions about the sources that I used, please email me at the address shown in the sidebar.

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This is my Week 2 post for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us to do something with the family history information that we've gathered. Even if I don't always stick to the suggested themes, I'll try to post something here each week. It may just be an 'On This Day' biographical snippet, or an extract from an interesting document, but anything is better than nothing!

(This post first appeared on https://judy-webster.blogspot.com/2022/01/children-of-william-webster-and.html)

Webster Family Origins: Yorkshire and Scotland?

Pedigree chart showing our earliest known Websters
(ignore the numbers generated by my genealogy software)

My WEBSTER family allegedly left Aberdeen (Scotland) in 1745 ('because of the political troubles of the time') and settled in Yorkshire (England).

My 4xgreat-grandfather William WEBSTER (who married Elizabeth Harley PORTER) died in 1810 aged 44. He was in Southwark, Surrey, but as yet I don't know where he was born. William was a dyer.

His brother Henry WEBSTER, a drysalter, died in Leeds, Yorkshire, in or before 1813. One of the wills that I bought *proves* that William and Henry were brothers. It also proves that umpteen trees on Ancestry have the wrong birth/death years for William!

If you'd like to exchange information about this family, please email me at the address shown in the sidebar.

Sources include... (contact me for more detailed citations)

* Exchequer Court of York probate records.
* Freedom of the City admission papers, London, England.
* Non-conformist parish records, Leeds, Yorkshire (two versions of a burial register, plus a third volume that appears to be a register of graves).
* Newspaper death notices, Leeds, Yorkshire, England, 1823 and 1826.
* Birth, death and marriage certificates.
* Parish registers of baptism, marriage and burial.
* Private family papers, including letters written by a relative in England before 1903.

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This is my Week 1 post for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Amy Johnson Crow has challenged us to do something with the family history information that we've gathered. Even if I don't always stick to the suggested themes, I'll try to post something here each week. It may just be an 'On This Day' biographical snippet, or an extract from an interesting document, but anything is better than nothing!

(This post first appeared on https://judy-webster.blogspot.com/2022/01/webster-family-origins-yorkshire-and.html)