Family History

Keith's bit:     our Jaggers Family

     My father's family line originated in Germany, probably in the Rheinland region of Prussia around 15 miles west of the city of Duisberg, where the name was spelled "Jagers".  We think that a Wilhelm and Elisabeth Jagers came to London from there in around 1818 with their young son Johann (John) and settled in the Whitechapel area, where Wilhelm (William) carried on his trade, one of many started by Germans in the district at that time. To try to "fit in" the local community better they would have anglicised their surname also, to Jaggers.   

   John Jaggers became a sugar refiner, initially in Whitechapel, then during 1840 in Ipswich, Suffolk, and 1841 at Norwich. He eloped with Elizabeth Wilson from Ipswich to Dublin and married her there in early 1842. He set up two refineries in Dublin, in association with Caleb Fereday and James Worts respectively, both of whom he knew in east London, but appeared to be something of a swindler, taking his partners' money and investing it for his own ends, but died in somewhat mysterious circumstances in 1849, aged just 31.

   Elizabeth had 3 children with John in Dublin, of which the middle one William (my great-grandfather) was born in 1846. Things then get complicated! After John's demise, she took up with a seaman, John Fletcher and had a child Charles with him in 1851 before he too disappeared. She then returned to Ipswich with a William (or John) Hammond and had two more children with him, Frederick in Dublin in 1856 and Hannah in 1860 either there or in Ipswich. All of the six children were called Hammond at this stage.

   Elizabeth died in Ipswich in 1868 and Hammond senior disappears; the 5 surviving children then went to London apparently under the benevolence of the wealthy Waterlow family (see separate page of this website for their story). William at 22 became butler to the Critchett family at Harley Street, and Charles (later "Hammond-Fletcher") was butler to Sir Sydney Hedley Waterlow for over 30 years.

    William married Louisa Cockram, a servant girl from Bridgwater, Somerset, at All Souls, Marylebone in 1869 and changed his name back to Jaggers later that year. My grandfather, William Charles was born at Paddington in 1870. Meanwhile, Rachel Kezia Maskell from West Drayton, Middlesex, also worked as a servant for the Critchetts, became pregnant by one of the Waterlow sons, and William arranged for her to be married off to Frederick Hammond, his stepbrother. The illegitimate daugther, brought up as Ethel Margaret Hammond married William Charles Jaggers in 1903!  William Charles and Ethel lived happily in Kilburn then Walthamstow from 1907, where my father Leslie was one their 6 children, born in 1913.     

   Here is our full story of this Jaggers family, including also much detail on all the female lines and business partners mentioned above, together with a database of BMD and census etc references, and the family trees .....( last updated June 2022)       

       Dad compiled some notes on his childhood at Walthamstow, and early working years; 1913 - 1932......  

and we also put together our memories of the house itself.......... 

    My father also wrote about his pre-war years working for the City of London Insurance brokers Norman Frizzell and Partners (nowadays part of the Liverpool Victoria group). Their offices were evacuated to Staines, Middlesex for the period of the second World War, and this part of the story is continued on the "Staines" page of this website.......

 Here is the story of his war service with the RAF in India, as told through his letters home........ 

       My mother's male line, the Powleys, originated in Flegg, Norfolk, to the north and west of Great Yarmouth, where they were farm labourers before 1857. In that year they moved to Yarmouth town, and in 1865 to the Bermondsey area of South London. From there they migrated to West Ham then Tottenham by 1905. In summary, the various generations and marriages were as follows:

 Richard Pouly of Scratby to Maria Philips at Great Ormesby in 1688

their son Robert Powley to Rose Ames (Amis) at Caistor in 1724

son John Powle to Mary Stanford at Upton St Margaret in 1763

Jonathan Powley to Berry Cudden at Stokesby St Andrew in 1790

Matthew Powley to Ellen Hollis at Burgh St Margaret in 1826

John Hollis Powley to Eliza Durrant at Great Yarmouth in 1859

John Alonzo Powley to Amy Ade at Holborn, London in 1883

John Francis Powley to Constance Julia Green at Tottenham in 1911

 (my grandfather)

 Here is the Powley family story, including detail on all the female lines shown above, together with the reference database......       

       Elizabeth's bit:

   My paternal family, the Masons, were yeoman farmers and landowners at Kirkby-in-Furness (Kirkby Ireleth parish) in the English western Lake District from at least 1695. My direct line farmed at Mosshouses and Headgate, Soutergate for many years. Later, family members diversified into shopkeeping at Ulverston, senior railwaymen at Barrow-in-Furness and latterly bank employees. Their generations and marriages were as follows: 

John Mason married Sarah Garner circa 1719 probably at Kirkby Ireleth

William Mason married Anne Watters in 1769 at Kirkby Ireleth

John Mason married Betty Hartley in 1804 at Dalton in Furness

Thomas Mason married Jane Dodgson in 1836 at Kirkby Ireleth

John Mason married Dinah Parker in 1874 at Kirkby Ireleth

Thomas Dodgson Mason married Nina Violet Hill Robertson in 1908 at Barrow  (my grandparents; my father John Robertson Mason was born 1911 at Barrow)

   In addition, we looked in detail at the two other Mason families of Kirkby Ireleth, descendants of John and Sarah's other son John, who married Isobel Troughton at Muncaster in 1751. Their son John married Agnes Atkinson at Kirkby in 1793 and their youngest child George Mason was the squire of Ashlack Hall for almost 50 years from 1828, succeeded by his son Thomas James. George and his wife Maria Doveton Atkinson had 13 children in all, and several later emigrated to the USA and Canada from 1850 onwards to farm there. They also built Crossbeck farmhouse in Kirkby and worked its land. Their other son William married Jane Wayles at Kirkby in 1800 and they farmed at Bell Hall for many years from around 1806. Another branch of the Masons were at Marsh Grange, Dalton-in-Furness likewise. Over the generations, Mason family members married into most of the other Kirkby farming familes.

   We were privileged to work with Charles Rowntree and other members of the History of Kirkby Group on this project, also to stay at Ashlack Hall, parts of which are now let as holiday apartments; here are their excellent websites:

 http://www.history-of-kirkby.org/

 http://www.ashlackcottages.co.uk/

   Here is our Mason family story, including detail on all the female lines, together with the reference database and "conventional" tree charts for quick reference......(Last updated 8 August 2022)

      Because so many local families come into our story, we also surveyed the parish of Kirkby Ireleth in the censuses, 1841 to 1901, and used the old OS maps to trace extant residences and photograph them. Here is the census summary........ 

       My mother's family were Helliwells, originally handloom weavers from Heptonstall in the West Riding of Yorkshire. This was a very common surname in these parts. The known generations of our family are:

John Helliwell baptized his son Jimmy in 1782 at Heptonstall

Jimmy married Sally Stansfield in 1801 at Heptonstall

He was widowed about 1815, then married Ann Barker in 1822 at Halifax 

However, he had a child Richard in around 1819, probably with Ann

This Richard Helliwell married Sarah Uttley in 1846 at Heptonstall

William Helliwell married Frances Ellen Meadowcroft in 1883 at Falinge, Rochdale, Lancs

Hubert Helliwell married Clarissa Jane Lawson in 1910 at Hampstead, London;

My mother Maureen Helliwell born 1913 at Birkenhead, Wirral 

   Here is the Helliwell story, and the reference database......