Granny Anthony and the Norfolk Connection
by Elaine Robertson
I want to start this account by saying that a doubt has arisen over who our mother was referring to when she mentioned “Granny Anthony”. I have always assumed, because of her name, that she was Mary Ann ANTHONY, our great great grandmother and our mother’s great grandmother.
But recently I have come to wonder whether in fact she was what our mother said, her grandmother, using her maiden name despite two and possibly three marriages. I mention this at the outset so that anyone who reads this and who notes the various points as I mention them, will be able to decide for himself what view to take.
For the present, I will set out what we know about the woman whom I have always thought of as "Granny Anthony".
Our mother’'s autobiography contains some information about her. She was living near where our mother was born, in Shieldfield, which is a district of Newcastle upon Tyne, lying between Heaton on the east, Jesmond on the north and the City itself on the west.
She was "a big woman” and she worked with the nuns at St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church on Newbridge Street, Newcastle, helping with nursing, laying out the dead etc. There is unfortunately very little else: we hear nothing more of her once the Masterman family moved away from Shieldfield to Byker. Not even her death is mentioned.
My own research has indicated that Granny Anthony was born on 15 February 1843 at Blakeney, Norfolk. She was the sixth child of William TOMLIN, (sometimes TOMBLIN, or TOMBLING) a labourer, and his wife Elizabeth TOMLIN formerly SHORTEN, and was given the name Mary Ann.
She was baptised in the Parish Church at Blakeney, as were all her brothers and sisters. It has been fairly easy to trace the TOMLIN side of her family, since they are all in the Parish Registers of Blakeney, and I attach a family tree giving their details. Apart from the dates of their birth, marriage and death, we know very little of these forebears. They were working people: agricultural labourers, with sometimes a seaman, a sailor, a grocer or a tailoress among them.
Click to see enlarged version of full family tree
The ANTHONY side of the family has been more difficult to trace. I am preparing a separate family tree for them.
Mary Ann TOMBLIN or TOMBLING, who was in fact our great great grandmother was baptised on 1 August 1847, when she was about two and a half years old. The 1851 Census shows her aged 8 living with her parents and six of her siblings at Pig Street East, Blakeney.
By 1861 she was living at 2 High Street, Blakeney as a lodger with the ANTHONY family. The Census was taken on 7/8 April 1861 and the entry is as follows:-
| ANTHONY William | Head | 57 | Ag. Labourer | b. Langham |
| ANTHONY Margaret | Wife | 53 | b. Burnham Overy | |
| ANTHONY John | Son | 22 | Ag.Lab. | b. Blakeney |
| ANTHONY Sarah Maria | Dau | 10 | Ag.Lab. | b. Blakeney |
| TOMBLING Mary Ann | Lodger | 19 | Ag.Lab. | b. Blakeney |
Mary Ann must have been about six months pregnant at that time. She married John ANTHONY on 19 May 1861 and their first child, Mary Elizabeth was born on 1 July of that year. This child unfortunately died about six weeks later, and she was buried at Blakeney on 22 August 1861.
Their next child was our ancestor Sarah Anthony. She was born less than a year after her deceased elder sister, on 21 May 1862, and was baptised on 15 June of that year. I may mention here that Sarah’s birth was never entered in the General Register. The details I have are taken from the Parish Records.
Next twins were born on 28 November 1863 John and Mary Ann ANTHONY: they were baptised but died a few weeks later in January 1864. Next came William James, born 1866, Ann born 1867, John Thomas born in 1869 and Marion born in 1872. All these were born in Blakeney and baptised there. The 1871 Census shows them all living at High Street, Blakeney.
Other members of the TOMLIN family lived nearby. Next door to this growing ANTHONY family lived Mary Ann’'s sister Martha Ann (said to be married despite the use of her maiden name), living with a George MOOR and her son James J. TOMBLING aged 18 months.
On the other side lived two more TOMBLING sisters, Caroline (married name WALL) a widow, and Sarah Ann and a nephew called William aged 8. Further along High Street lived John ANTHONY’'s mother Margaret nee CHASTNEY (or CHESNEY), a widow aged 65 with one of her relatives, Thomas CHASTNEY and his wife. John’'s father, William ANTHONY had died aged 63 on 10 June 1866.
In Church Row, Blakeney, James TOMBLIN aged 23 lived with his wife and three children, and another entry reads:
| Susannah ANTHONY | W | 41 | Tailoress | b. Holt |
| Francis M. Henry | Dtr/Widow | 21 | b. Blakeney | |
| Robert J. Anthony | Son | 16 | Groom | b. Blakeney |
| Susannah Henry | G/dghtr | 4mths | South Shields Co. Durham |
This is interesting in showing a connection with the north-east before our ancestors moved to Hebburn. This Susannah could be Granny Anthony'’s elder sister who also married into the ANTHONY family. Her daughter Francis apparently married a man surnamed HENRY and must have moveJ to South Shields where her child Susannah was born. Upon the death of young Mr. HENRY, it seems that his widow moved back to Norfolk with her baby, to be with her mother.
Some SHORTEN or SHORTING relatives also lived nearby. It will be noted from the family tree annexed to this document that two EMERSON sisters married into the SHORTEN family. I have also the record of another TOMBLIN brother marrying a girl called SHORTEN, and at least two of the TOMBLIN sisters married into the ANTHONY family. It is probably a good thing that the family moved away from such a small, closely inter-related society, and received an injection of fresh blood in the north-east of England.
Blakeney is a small sea-port, about a mile north-west of Clay and one hundred and twenty five miles north-east of London. Its first mention was in the Domesday Book, where it appears as Snitterley. It assumed its present name in the thirteenth century, and throughout the middle ages was an important place which attracted merchants from all over Europe. Wool, grain and fishing made it prosperous.
So valuable was the fishing that the fishermen of Blakeney and other ports nearby were exempt from pressing for the Navy. Over the centuries, as the harbour silted up, trade declined. Nowadays, Blakeney is a small holiday resort where boating is a leisure pursuit, and it is a very attractive place.
The Parish Church of Blakeney in particular is worth a visit. It is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and is unusual in having two towers. A Carmelite Friary was founded on the site in 1296, and the chancel of the present Church dates from that period. The east window, with seven stepped lancets is described in the guide book as “an absolute gem of Early English architecture”. In 1435 the nave of the present church was built, along with a massive tower, 104 feet high, at the west end. The little eastern tower was built much later than the chancel, perhaps as a navigational aid.
THE MOVE NORTH
Sometime between 1872 and 1874, our ANTHONY ancestors moved to the north of England. They settled in Hebburn on the south bank of the River Tyne, where three more children were born: Frances (1874), Margaret (1876) and George (1881) . The 1881 Census shows all of them except the two eldest daughters, Sarah and Ann, living at 14 Charles Street, Hebburn.
John ANTHONY died on 10 November 1890. The death certificate shows him to be aged 54 (he would in fact be only 52), a “"chemical labourer"”, living at 191 Cuthbert Street, Hebburn. The family continued to live at that address, the eldest son obviously having married, and the 1891 census is as follows:—
| James W. Anthony | Head | 25 | Blast Furnace Labourer | Blakeney, Norfolk |
| Elizabeth Anthony | Wife | 27 | Westoe,Co. Durham | |
| John T. Anthony | Son | 11mths | Hebburn | |
| Mary Ann Anthony | Head | 49 | Widow | Norfolk |
| John Anthony | Son | 22 | Labourer in Shipyard | Norfolk |
| Margaret Anthony | Son(sic) | 12 | Hebburn | |
| George Anthony | Son | 10 | Scholar | Co.Durh |
| Mary E. Casey | Neice (sic) | 8 | Scholar | Hebburn |
The Mary Elizabeth CASEY mentioned here was our grandmother, my mother’s mother, who married Henry MASTERMAN in 1907.
By 1901 Granny Anthony was living in Walker, apparently keeping a boarding house at 182 Byker Street. The Census shows her aged 56 with four boarders - a man called Creighton and his three sons.
According to our mother'’s autobiography, by the time she was born in 1913, Granny Anthony was living in Shieldfield, near her grand-daughter. We do not have her address, but when the 1911 Census is released no doubt we will find her.
My searches have revealed that Granny Anthony died in 1924, at Wallsend, where she was living in a "“nursery"”. This could be perhaps old-peoples'’ home, or even a place where she was still working, looking after children or the sick. The following notice appeared in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle on Monday January 14, 1924:-
| ANTHONY - Rosehill, at Willington Nursery, Churchill Road, 12th inst., aged 81 years. Mary, beloved wife of the late John Anthony, of Hebburn and late of Walker. Interment. Wallsend Cemetery Tuesday, lift 2.45. All friends kindly invited. |
And here is where the first doubt arises that I have been wrong and our mother correct: In 1901 the woman I call “Granny Anthony” lived in Walker, and the death notice mentions Walker and Hebburn, but makes no mention of Shieldfield.
I find it curious that neither our mother (Bette Masterman Emmett) nor Aunty Effie ever mentioned the death of their “Granny Anthony”. Aunty Effie must have been about 17 when she died, and our mother about 11.
If there are any descendants who know anything about her, I hope they will get in touch. It would be marvellous to see a photograph of her: we have many old photographs of the family, and it may be there are photos of Granny Anthony among them, but we cannot identify her until we see a photograph which is known to be her.
The brief details set out above are all we know of “Granny Anthony”. She must have seen enormous changes in the course of her life: from her childhood and early married life in rural Norfolk, to the industrial north where she lived for fifty years until she died. She bore eleven children, of whom eight survived.
She must have been a strong woman to survive all these pregnancies while for the first three or four I have no doubt she was herself engaged in agricultural work. And then to remove the family of five children, the eldest only 10 or 11 years old, the youngest still a baby in arms must have been a daunting task.
I have lived with her in my mind for several years now, and she has assumed for me a matriarchal quality. 
Even if I find that my mother’s Granny Anthony was in fact Sarah CLARKE/CASEY/ ANTHONY, I will still think of Mary Ann ANTHONY as “Granny Anthony”.
The move north was probably made by sea, since as indicated above there was movement between the fishing communities of Blakeney and South Shields. In any event, according to my researches the railway did not reach the eastern parts of Norfolk until 1874, when the line from Norwich was extended, and a sea passage would certainly have been easier.
I like to think of the ANTHONY forebears making the entry into the Tyne. I recently came across the North Sea in a ferry from Amsterdam, and as we approached the entrance to the Tyne, the Captain advised passengers to go on deck if we wanted to “see that beautiful
sight”. We went up and his description was accurate: it was a beautiful sight.
The piers would have been in place by the time the ANTHONYs arrived, although the lighthouses were added later. In the account of the construction of the piers which I have read it tells us that the south pier “started from the shore opposite the workhouse and taking an east-northeasterly direction for about 4,200 feet” - see below for Sarah’s sojourn in the workhouse at South Shields.
It may be that the ANTHONY family came north to join relatives who had moved earlier. I noticed the following entry in the Blakeney Parish Registers:-
| Sept.18 1822. Thomas Anthony of Blakeney, 29 Robert Surtees of Monkwearmouth, Co. Durham aged 40 Lost in a violent gale of wind on Sunday Night October 13 1822. (see note below**) |
The connection here was probably fishing.
[**Note: This entry is copied exactly - showing that these men were buried a month before their deaths. I have checked the calendar, and October 13 1822 was a Sunday, so these two men must have been buried OCTOBER 18 (not September). ER]
I have tried to find out what the conditions were in Norfolk which might have led their removal to the north-east. It seems that there was a large influx of people into Norfolk in the 1820s and 30s, when trade and agriculture were booming. Then, when the first agricultural machines began to be introduced, there was great unrest among farmworkers, and there were Luddite outbreaks.
Two or three people were in fact executed in Norwich after these riots. Then in the 1870s a noticeable drift began out of Norfolk to the midlands and north of England, with emigration to North and South America and Australia. The website foxearth.org.uk gives details of emigration from Norfolk in the 19th century.
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(Quoted from British Genealogy Forums) "The main reason for migration to the towns and the demise of the ag lab was the disastrous harvests of the 1870s: |
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1875
1876 1878 1879 1883 |
An exceptionally wet summer. Another exceptionally wet summer and in addition an outbreak of rinderpest an acute contagious disease in cattle. Another wet summer. The worst and wettest summer that most farmers could remember. This was accompanied by an outbreak of liver-rot in sheep A widespread and violent outbreak of foot and mouth disease. With the increased growth of the railways in the US, the spread of farm machinery etc the price of English wheat plummeted and soon almost all was being imported. Almost 100,000 men left the land to find work in towns." BSE See also: Rural Life in Victorian England by G E Mingay |
The ANTHONYs moved with other members of the extended families: John’s widowed mother, Margaret moved with them and died at Lyon Lane, Hebburn on 18 March 1876, and two TOMLIN brothers Robert and James came too, along with Mary Ann’s sister Martha Ann, who married a man called Samuel DACK.
INDUSTRIAL TYNESIDE:
In about 1850 the carriage of coal to London began to be a matter of concern for northern coal owners, and it became necessary to devise a regular and economical mode of transport. Mr. (later Sir) Charles Palmer built an iron screw steamer which proved to be a successful method of moving coal, and this started the rapid development of steam ship building.
The Palmer Shipbuilding Works were established in 1851 and spread over a river frontage of three-quarters of a mile, with blast and smelting furnaces, workshops, yards and wharves. The entire range of operations from smelting the ironstone to the complete equipment of the vessels was undertaken, and the first iron ship to be constructed on the Tyne for the Royal Navy (H.M.S. TERROR) was built here. This sort of industry would no doubt offer employment to migrants from all over the country.
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I am grateful to The Hebburn Website for the following information: "The second half of the nineteenth century was to be a time of tremendous change in Hebburn and by 1901 the population had grown to 21,000, swollen by immigrants, initially from Scotland and later from Ireland. Hebburn now developed into three areas: Colliery, Quay and New Town, each with their own schools, communities and identities. Among the new industries the following would play a major part in Hebburn's development Wailes Dove Bitumastic (1854), Sir Charles Tennant's United Alkali Works (1864), Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Company (1869), Bede Metal and Chemical Company and the rope and sail-cloth firm known as "Haggies". This picture of a rapidly expanding industrial town based on ship-building, mining and engineering, with a community from a wide variety of cultures, would herald its new status in 1894 as an Urban District." BSE |
OUR GREAT GRANDMOTHER
Granny Anthony’s eldest surviving daughter was Sarah, who as indicated above was born in Blakeney on 21 May 1862. She must have been 9 or 10 years old when the family moved north. On 12 September 1880, when she was 18 years old, she gave birth to a son in the Union Workhouse at South Shields. This child was baptised John Edward.
On 6 November 1880 Sarah married John CASEY, aged 30, a Labourer, at the Register Office at South Shields. Sarah signed the birth certificate of her son and the marriage certificate but John CASEY made his mark on the latter.
The 1881 Census shows John and Sarah living at 4 Lyon Lane, Jarrow, with the child John Edward Anthony, now given the surname CASEY, aged 5 months.
I have not been able to find out the circumstances which led to Sarah’s baby being born in the Workhouse, because the records are missing for 1880. They are available for later years, however, and I find that John CASEY was admitted on 10 July 1883, discharged two days later, admitted again 24 July of that year, and discharged on 3 August (ten days), then on 3 January 1884 he was admitted again and died there on 7 September 1884 (eight months).
John CASEY could have been admitted to the Workhouse on an earlier occasion, and perhaps met Sarah there in 1880. There is obviously a very sad story behind these brief details.
The Workhouse record shows that John CASEY was a Roman Catholic, and on 15 June 1881 Sarah CASEY was received into the Roman Catholic Church at St. Aloysius, Hebburn. Her sister Ann was baptised as a Catholic on the following day. And here is the second point which has made me think our mother’s account is more accurate than I had believed: we have no indication that “Granny Anthony” became a Catholic: we know that Sarah did, and her involvement with the nuns at St. Dominic’s in Shieldfield is explicable.
Our grandmother, Mary Elizabeth CASEY (later MASTERMAN) was born on 12 December 1883 at 73 Bon Accord Street, Hebburn Quay, so she was only ten months old when her father died. She was baptised at St. Aloysius, Hebburn too, and we have the certificate of her baptism. Curiously enough, it shows her mother’s name as Ann, not Sarah.
THE CASEYS
John CASEY was born at Mason Street, Manchester on 17 March 1853, the son of Michael CASEY, a labourer, and his wife Mary (nee DREW), who were married on 16 February 1852 in Manchester. The CASEYs and the DREWs came from Ireland, but so far I have been unable to trace what part of Ireland.
John CASEY was in fact 27 when he married (not 30), and 31 when he died (not 36 as the death certificate says). The cause of death was given as “Paralysis”. It has been suggested to me that this is a euphemism for “general paralysis of the insane” or “alcoholism”, but I do not know whether that is correct.
I do not know why John CASEY moved to the north-east of England from Manchester, but his parents and two sisters remained in Manchester: the 1881 Census shows them living at 14 Silver Street, Manchester. Michael was a Chairmaker, his wife a Hawker, the elder daughter, Kate aged 26 a rag sorter, the younger Mary Ellen aged 12 at school.
SARAH’'S SECOND MARRIAGE
On 25 July 1886 Sarah CASEY nee ANTHONY married William CLARKE at the Parish Church at Hebburn. He was a widower, a Cartman aged 40, and we know from the 1891 Census that he was born in Essex. The 1881 Census shows him living as a boarder with a family called SMITH at 5 Thistle Street, Jarrow, and his place of birth is shown as Essex, Lindsell. In the census of 1891, however, when he was married to Sarah, the entry is as follows: —
| 2 Tennant Street, Jarrow | ||||
| William CLARKE | Head | 47 | Cartman | b. Essex ? Bush |
| Sarah CLARKE | Wife | 28 | b. Norfolk Blakeney | |
| John E. ANTHONY | S/son | 10 | Scholar | b. Durham S.Shields |
| Francis M. CLARKE | Dtr | 3 | b. Durham Hebburn | |
As indicated above Sarah’s daughter Mary Elizabeth CASEY (our grandmother) was living with her grandmother, “Granny Anthony”, at 191 Cuthbert Street, only a short walk from Tennant Street.
By 1901 Sarah, still surnamed CLARKE was living in Shieldfield, at 52 Rosedale Street, with her son John Edward ANTHONY and her two daughters Mary Elizabeth CASEY and Francis CLARKE. There is no mention of William CLARKE: maybe he had died or Sarah and he were separated. I have searched the General Pegister for any marriage of a Sarah CLARKE formerly CASEY nee ANTHONY from 1901 onwards, but so far have found nothing.
And now here is the third point to make about the identity of “Granny Anthony”: Sarah did live in Shieldfield, at least in 1901, and Rosedale Street was “not far from” Copeland Terrace, where our mother was born, which is how she described where her granny lived. So Sarah could have been a member of the congregation at St. Dominic’s Church in Newbridge Street. When the 1911 Census becomes available, I shall search for the residences of both Sarah and her mother and may be able to find out more then.
Sarah has been a puzzle from the beginning: I never could find her birth in the General Register, despite many searches. It was only when I went to Norwich to search the Blakeney Parish Records that I found her. I then wrote to the Norfolk Registrar to point out that the General Register was incomplete, and learned that at that period many people failed to register their children officially, apparently believing that the baptism entry was sufficient.
| Note by Barbara Scott-Emmett: I can remember my mother telling us about "Granny Anthony" coming up the street in her white nurse's pinny "like a ship in full sail". My mother also referred to Granny Anthony as "Auld Sally" and Sally is a diminutive of Sarah. She also talked about her having been married three times. This would add weight to the idea of "Granny Anthony" being Sarah Ann Casey/Clarke nee Anthony. |
One last point about who Granny Anthony actually was: our mother’s autobiography contains the story of a childhood friend Nellie Grey, who died in tragic circumstances. I have obtained the death certificate for this child: Eleanor (Nellie) Grey died at the age of 5 on 12 May 1918. Our mother was only 5 years old herself, and yet her account is full, detailed and, so far as I can judge at this distance of time, accurate. I think “Granny Anthony” was her Granny (Sarah Ann Casey nee Anthony), even though she should have been called Granny Casey or Granny Clarke. It seems likely that MY “Granny Anthony” is her great grandmother, and our great great grandmother (Mary Ann Anthony nee Tombling).
Notes:HO 107/1826 Folio 548
RG 09/1247 Folio 14
RG 09/2955 Folio 70
RG 10/1852 Folio 34
RG 10/1854 Folio 18
RG 10/1854 Folio 20
RG 10/1854 Folio 25
RG 11/4005 Folio 112
RG 11/5027 Folio 56
RG 11/5028 Folio 58
RG 12/4169 Folio 62
RG 12/4170 Folio 131
RG 13/1878 Folio 27
RG 13/4788 Folio 17
RG 13/4806 Folio 150
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