In 2022, the 1921 census was released. At this time (March 2022) I have not got access to it, but I was browsing BBC articles about it. I was staggered to see an article which referred to great Uncle Henry, (though not by its contents) was headed by a partial copy of Henry Forrest's census entry.
I was not surprised at all, as it confirmed my mother's opinion that he held extremely rigid views.
Interior of the Church of the English Martyrs, Alexandra Road South, Whalley Range, Manchester in 2016 on the occasion of Elizabeth Blackwell's (née Jolliffe) funeral
It was only later that I realised that none of us could be
direct descendants of Blessed John Forrest, as the martyred John Forest never married. Nonetheless, it was a family dogma which my mother also believed.
I have seen nothing to show that there is linkage of our grandmother's Forrest family to the family of John Forest, the martyr. Paul Blackwell, my cousin, has also failed to find any links so far and I believe he remains sceptical.
Above, I commented that I never fully realised the rootedness of the Blackwell family in the local community. There were at least three weddings from my parents' generation at the English Martyrs Church in the 1940's. That of my mother and father, Ray Jolliffe and Cyrilla Blackwell, their respective brother and sister who also married, that is Betty Jolliffe and Laurence "Jack" Blackwell and Rita Blackwell and James Wilson.
The following picture of Betty's and Jack Blackwell's wedding proved very useful in identifying some members of the family. The gathered family members stand on the steps of the English Martyrs Church in August 1948.
Missing Ancestors - Alfred Blackwell 1872 - ?
Some members of the family were exceptionally knowledgeable about the family's history, such as my mother's sister, Rita Wilson (nee Blackwell) (1913-2011). I remember receiving a family tree from my cousin Gillian in the days long before online well resourced websites such as Ancestry, etc, existed. Similarly, my mother Cyrilla Jolliffe (née Blackwell) had in her later years sketched out for me what she knew and remembered about her own family and drew out a family tree. It is the little anecdotes that can be so important, such as that one of her uncles, Alfred, "Stole from a safe in a family business, disappeared and was never heard from again." She knew no more than that. From research (I think my wife found this one), it is possible that Alfred went to Australia, but the trail peters out except for a possible report in 1895 in The New South Wales Police Gazette under "Missing Friends",
We do not know who tried to contact Alfred through this entry, or if indeed he was the family member, but it is possible that his Uncle, Richard Henry Blackwell, who went to Australia in 1878, was involved. On the other hand, it is filed under "Missing Friends". There are so many "ifs and maybes" in the unremembered world of the past. The story of Alfred remains to be discovered, like so much of the family history.
After I published this, I received a note from my cousin Gillian (04.05.17) as follows
"Regarding Alfie, his mother spent a fortune advertising for news of him, rumoured to have last been seen at the docks after massive family row."
Another example of the importance of the memories of the living comes from my Aunt Betty. I had been researching the Parker family, which was her mother's side of the Jolliffe family. Part of the Parker family had gone to the United States at the start of the 20th century and one, Cecilia Parker had become a Hollywood movie star. I had come across a name "Naudy Reichlemeier", a Swiss born woman, for Cecilia's mother whose forename seemed pretty improbable to me. However, a few years before Aunt Betty's death I phoned her and she immediately said, "Yes, that's Aunty Naudy. I met her when they came to England".
The memories of the living are vitally important and we should record them as much as possible.
The "Blackwell Crypt" and Southport
Another of my mother's sisters, Margaret "Pearl" Blackwell (1917-1981), was very interested in the family history. I recollect stories and statements from Auntie Pearl about a Blackwell family crypt at Southport and tales that Marsden Blackwell (1840-1906), her grandfather, an architect, or Matthew Blackwell her great grandfather had designed parts of Southport, even its main street. I have found some evidence which may be the basis of these ideas. I did find evidence that a cemetery building was designed by a company, Blackwell and Booth, in which the Blackwell family was involved in the 1860's. We also know that both Matthew Blackwell, who died in 1859 and then lived at Southport, and his wife, Ann, who died in 1889, were both buried at Christ's Church, Southport. But no records exist of the whereabouts of their tombs. There is little doubt that significant monuments would have been bought on their deaths as the family was wealthy at that time. Perhaps Aunt Pearl was right and their bodies lay or lie in a crypt. But the church was rebuilt in the later 19th century so the original church no longer exists. It is just possible that these tombs remain to be discovered.
Photographs of the cemetery buildings, etc, can be found in another Part of this Chronicle.
My Parents, their home and the box of Blackwell family Documents
In Section 1 of Part 1, I described the family gatherings at Christmas in Manchester up to the late 1960s, when the family used to pore over the ancient family photo album. My father, Ray Jolliffe, had little or no interest in his family's history, unlike my mother. Decades passed after those gatherings at Wellington Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, a house which no longer exists. However, here is a photograph of it and my parents, from the 1980s. The house was rented from the Salford Catholic Diocese. My mother told me that they wished to buy the house but were told that the Church would outbid them. As they did not have any money at that time, they rented it from the Church. My parents lived there from their marriage in the 1940s until the late 1980s and it is where I and my brother and sister grew up until we left home in the 1960s.
Ray and Cyrilla Jolliffe, 7 Wellington Road, Whalley Range, Manchester, early 1980s
My cousins in the UK, who were numerous, took their pathways in life, had families, etc, and got on with their lives. For me, studying family ancestry was not something in which I took much interest until older members of the preceding generation started to die.
When I wrote much of this chapter in 2016, some of the chronology related to old family documents fell into place. I remembered that around 1964/1965, a great uncle, who was deeply eccentric, Richard Anselm Forrest (1894-1977), a man who was a kind of recluse and a confirmed bachelor, gave a cardboard box full of family papers to my mother, as the papers were related to the Blackwell family.
Richard Anselm Forrest 1894-1977. Photo in the garden at 7 Wellington Road about 1969. In the background, the tower and building of the Cenacle Convent, Whalley Range now demolished
I cannot remember why "Uncle Dick" possessed these documents, but they were probably acquired after the death of Ernest Blackwell (1876-1941) (my grandfather) as Richard Forrest also possessed a dining table from Ernest's home and possibly a piano. There may have been reasons for the documents being retained by the Forrest family, but it might just have been an accident of time and circumstances.
Copies of many documents were in the box, including wills and agreements. There were copies on vellum, all from the 19th century, which had their own fascination, with sealing wax impressions and written out in perfect longhand. The following is just an example (too small to read at this size), but it gives an idea of the type of records that were stored.
Will of Matthew Blackwell who died in 1859
However, one document which caught my attention at the time (I was 14 or 15 years old), related to the church of the English Martyrs, mentioned above. This was a kind of bill of quantities for the church's construction and I was amazed to see that the whole building cost only just over £4,000 at the end of the 19th century. This was a business project of Marsden Blackwell, my great grandfather, an architect like his father Matthew and his brother Isaac. At the time, to me there seemed to be a kind of magic about these ancient papers, as if they had some mysterious value. Many of them I could not understand. My mother knew that some of them referred to some sort of family dispute amongst the Blackwells, but she did not know the details and as far as I know, she never investigated it as she was always too busy! As I found decades later, only in the last few years, they are far from transparent. My mother would have been delighted to see that interest in the family history did not die out after her death and the mystery of the family dispute became a lot clearer.
Sometime in the early 1990s, I visited my elder brother Paul Jolliffe who lived in Leeds where he taught law at a College of Further Education, (Park Lane College). He handed to me one or two of the old wills written on vellum which he had used as teaching aids for some of his law classes (possibly Matthew Blackwell's will illustrated above was one of them). These were from either the box which Richard Forrest gave to my mother or from her legacy of effects from Mabel Holmes. I had forgotten all about them by that time.
I also recollect from earlier in my childhood another Victorian/Edwardian photo album with a music box inside it, which must have belonged to another member of the Blackwell family. After decades, the album reached Paul Blackwell. Recently, at Betty Blackwell's funeral I borrowed this battered album from Paul, who had spent time copying many of the photographs and putting them on his Blackwell family tree. On my way home from the funeral, the album caused me a delay at airport security and was taken away for screening to check that it did not contain explosives, drugs, etc. This photo album, though in a poor condition overall, contains photographs in good condition and more importantly, includes many identifications, in two sets of handwriting identifying the names of the family members in the album. There is always a possibility of error and so of doubt. But this is not an official history, nor am I a historian, so it's all based, ultimately, on my subjective judgement. The albums have enabled us to put pictures with many of the Blackwell ancestors. Even in our world of thousands of instant colour images, a single sepia photograph from the past illuminates a person's identity. From our own family's perspectives, we may see resemblances in the living.
The Fabled Manchester City Share
Another family tale that was often told in my childhood was about a single share in Manchester City Football Club, my family's favourite and only football team. I think the original share issue in the 1890's had been of 2000 shares. This single share had been bought by my grandfather, Ernest Blackwell (1876-1941), when he lived in Moss Side in Manchester with his large family. After his death, his widow, my grandmother, apparently stated on many occasions that the share should pass to my father, Ray Jolliffe, who was a Manchester City supporter. He was also, by all accounts, an exceptional sportsman, at both football and cricket. He was seriously injured in World War II when his glider, which he had piloted to the fields of Arnhem in 1944 was machine gunned and caught fire, killing the crew. He was very lucky to escape with his life, but was captured and was kept prisoner until the end of the war. After the war, he was unable to resume his sporting career, though he tried to do so. I do not know if my grandmother had this in mind when she thought of the Manchester City share.
This version of events about the share was confirmed by Eddie Blackwell, Ernest's eldest son, and every so often, there would be talk of the share and how it might be transferred to my father. When my grandmother died and there was, to my knowledge, no mention of it in her will (if there was a will), the problem was insoluble. I remember seeing a list of the original 2000 shares with their holders' names sometime in the 1960s, which my father obtained, and Ernest Blackwell's name and address was listed. As a child, and fervent Manchester City supporter, how I wished that my father could be in possession of the share, in order, as my mother used to say, "To attend meetings of the shareholders".
Moss Side an area of constant change
As a youngster, I was puzzled by the address of Ernest Blackwell, which was in Moss Side. Moss Side, in my youth, was an area in decline which had a bad reputation, perhaps ill deserved. There were rows and rows of terraced housing with back alleys and back yards. The poorer sections of society lived there. Even where I lived, just across the border on the other side of Alexandra Park in Whalley Range, the area attracted prostitutes at night and later became worse. My mother's second cousin, Mabel Holmes, who left her the Blackwell photo album used to say to me that Moss Side was once a very respectable area. Not surprisingly, as her mother, Julia Blackwell, lived there with her mother Ann in Bristol Street. Not too long before Julia's birth, there were fields and streams in Moss Side before the new houses were built. Ann Blackwell, wealthy widow of Matthew Blackwell, lived in Bristol Street, Moss Side until her death in 1889. I shall refer to the development of Moss Side in a later part of this Chronicle.
Much later in the 20th century, Moss Side became a notorious area of teenage drug gangs, where murders were perpetrated. By that time, all the old 19th century brick built houses had been compulsorily purchased and demolished. I remember one family who had kept up their home learning that the Manchester Council intended to pay them £50 for it under the compulsory purchase order. This was probably in 1969. The grandmother of the family was in tears.
The relatively well integrated communities of West Indian, Irish and Polish immigrants were dispersed in some cases to distant places such as Skelmersdale, some 30 miles away. In their place, tower blocks and prefabricated concrete four storey blocks and "squares" had been built. These inhospitable constructions almost guaranteed social dysfunction. Lifts were vandalised, "walkways in the sky" became dangerous and noise was guaranteed. In a few decades, the flawed planning showed its effects and terraces of small terraced houses with gardens were being built once again. The new world of tower blocks and concrete squares had to be demolished. I suppose the lesson here is that a small geographical area can change beyond recognition in one or two generations. Planners make terrible mistakes.
The Manchester City Share continued
Eddie Blackwell, my uncle, did try to carry out his mother's wishes, but to no avail. I imagine that some legal document proving title to the share and then the agreement of all my grandmother's legatees would have been necessary for the share to be given to my father. During the extremely lengthy process which must have stretched over decades, (the Blackwells were never renowned for doing anything quickly) there was reportedly a fire at a solicitor's office and the whole enterprise had to be dropped. Given that the share had nothing but notional value, in truth, it was of little consequence. The fabled share was left to remain in Ernest Blackwell's name forever. However, such things, talked about in families develop a status of their own and grow in importance in the family imagination, quite disconnected to their real value and impervious to the real world.
For me, the share also illustrates the scale of change over the passage of time. When Ernest Blackwell bought the share in Manchester City it is likely that the Maine Road football ground had not been built. Today, the original Maine Road stadium has been superseded by the Etihad Stadium and the club is owned and funded by a family from Abu Dhabi which is fabulously wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of club supporters like me who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. The football club now incorporates a gigantic local social project as well as being an international marque. I am not sure what Ernest Blackwell, my grandfather, might have thought of these developments as he bought his pint of beer in the Big Western Hotel in Moss Side. He was reputed to escape by the back door from his home when the Holmes sisters visited at the front door, then off to the public house.
Ernest Blackwell 1876-1941
Big Western Hotel, Manchester, Photo 1971
The Box of Blackwell Documents - Lost
As my mother Cyrilla passed into her 70's, she became a little forgetful. The house in Wellington Road where she lived with my father was too large to manage, there had been burglaries with nearby houses unoccupied and my parents were looking for their landlord, the Salford Diocese to find them alternative accommodation. During that time, for some reason, I recalled the box of papers that her Uncle Dick (Richard Forrest), had given to her in the 1960's (see above). I mentioned it to my mother and asked her if it was still in existence and to look after it so it did not get lost. I do not remember the outcome exactly, but not too long afterwards, in 1989, my parents moved to a flat above the pavilion at the playing field of the school of St Bede's College on Brantingham Road, Manchester, where they ended their days (though, to be exact, they both ended their days in the Manchester Royal Infirmary after short final illnesses).
Their house move was a chaotic event, by all accounts. Instead of contracting a removal company, my father carried out much of the move by taking items to the flat in a piecemeal fashion in bags in his car. My mother was not able to help as she was not in good health. They had accumulated a large quantity of furniture, etc, in the rented Victorian semi-detached house in their lifetime and could only take a few large items of large furniture to the flat. Consequently, many items were disposed of by my father before the move and many were left behind. To this day, I believe that my mother hid other items away in the house which she then forgot about. I think it was partly because there had been a burglary at the house. If the items were ever discovered when the house was demolished, we shall never know.
After my mother's death in 1992, there was no sign of the box of Blackwell records.
So the box of Blackwell documents was lost.
The Box of Blackwell Documents - Found again
However, at some point after this, my brother Paul from Leeds appeared with the missing box of documents. It turned out that my mother had given them to him before they moved to the flat in 1989, so my warnings to look after them had not been in vain, but had been heeded by her. The box of documents has provided some vital information, which later postings will cover. As I did not retire from my job in education until 2012, I never found the time to study the contents of the documents until after my retirement.
The Australian and Canadian Blackwells
Sometime in the early 21st century, my cousin Paul Blackwell, who had been gradually accumulating knowledge about the Blackwell family, put up a note on the web asking for anyone connected with the English Blackwell family to get in touch with him. After quite a long time, this produced an amazing result as a Gerry Blackwell contacted him from Canada. Gerry was a descendant from Richard Henry Blackwell (1838-1919), one of Matthew Blackwell's sons who went to Australia in the late 19th century (1878). Gerry and Paul shared information from two different perspectives. Gerry was living in Canada as his family had moved there.
Gerry Blackwell himself has carried out extensive research into his Blackwell family ancestors in Australia and indeed their English forbears. He has written an excellent, very well researched, witty and conversational blog about his side of the family, not just the Blackwells. You can find it here in many instalments,
http://blackwellfamilyhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/opening.html
Gerry Blackwell, through his blog about his travels and so on, is creating a piece of family history for current and future generations. As I have written elsewhere, it would be very illuminating to see some personal writing about daily life from some of our forbears in the 19th century, but so far, none has come to hand. We have to piece together their lives from some bare facts. This is all the more reason for the living to leave records for their descendants to read in the future.
Making the Records Accessible
I had been thinking for some time that the family documents were a resource that should be equally accessible to all members of the family. Being on paper, or vellum, held by a single family member, left them vulnerable to the worst possible outcome - disappearance and destruction. The story of the box of documents above, which nearly ended with their loss, proves this point. So I decided that I should copy them all and put it on the web if possible for family members. This plan is not yet fully completed (March 2017), but the documents are all copied.
After some consultation with family members, I decided that Paul Blackwell should be the holder of the physical documents, not least as he had ploughed a lonely furrow of research for many years. Paul Blackwell was an invaluable correspondent when I was starting to piece everything together. Paul's work on the family tree and his discoveries of the Blackwells in Australia gave me a huge amount of help. Our discussions led to the discovery of the family grave of Isaac Blackwell (1828-1876) at a cemetery not too far from where Paul Blackwell lives with his family in Manchester. Gravestones often yield new information. It seemed, too, that there had been a rift in the family between Isaac and his descendants and the descendants of his brother Marsden. This had led, I think, to a gap in knowledge about the fate of that branch of the family which has only been filled in the last two years.
Paul Blackwell's Family Tree
I did send the box of paper-based family documents to Paul a few years ago, and he remains their custodian. He is also the custodian of the family photo album with the music box mentioned earlier and as stated above, he has published many photos from that on his family tree. The value of that album lies in the fact that a member of the family had written the identification of many of the relatives. Paul Blackwell's family tree is on Tribal Pages and Paul continues to add to it.
http://paulblackwell1946.tribalpages.com/
The Julia Holmes Photo Album
Paul Blackwell used the battered old photo album to match images to names in his family tree. This helped me to identify members of the family from the Julia Holmes photo album which my sister had in safe keeping from my mother. This, too, I have photographed and made available on the web.
https://goo.gl/photos/TRxoNPquB3sG77tA7
As far as the Holmes album referenced above, goes, I have made quite a number of guesses at the identities of various members of the family. In the album, I have explained for each photograph why I have made the identity judgement. Some of them might well be wrong. This is not a piece of academic research and readers must make their own judgements, too.
The Allen Family
Quite recently, I discovered the identities of several of the photographs in the Holmes album by following Google searches related to the Allen family, one of whom, John Allen, married one of Julia Blackwell's sisters (Emily).
A member of the Allen family in the United States had researched the Allen history in detail which they published online, I found photographs of members of their family which were also in the Holmes album. This was quite a big and unexpected surprise. Though this is really a separate tale, it shows that though it might appear to be impossible to identify old photographs, sometimes persistence and serendipity can provide an answer. Who knows what similar luck or perhaps image searches on Google might make possible in the future?
Reflections on the Purpose of the Blog
With all this material available, why do I think a further (rather rambling and anecdotal) account is worthwhile? I suppose it is to cover the story of the family as I see it. In trying to discover the past, I have found that the most important elements that are missing are contemporary accounts of life by members of the family in the form of diaries, letters, etc. If more of us make the effort to write down our thoughts and impressions about our daily lives, there will be a much fuller and richer resource available to future generations. This does not need a posting on the web or a blog, but anyone can keep a diary. For example, it would be fascinating to have a diary from Richard Henry Blackwell who emigrated to Australia. I would encourage all my relatives to write something down about their lives as some of their descendants in the future will be fascinated to read about them.
I shall do my best to fill in the empty spaces between birth and death in respect of some of our ancestors, but it will not amount to a great deal. I feel sure that there will be many others who can make their own invaluable contributions and I would really love to see those. However, for some family members, what I can put together may be of interest. I shall follow the trail and share my thoughts with my readers.
I am still discovering new identities in the further reaches of the related families as I edit this chapter in March 2017. I do not think that I have a full picture of the Australian branches of the Blackwell family, but Hugh, Rob and Sally Blackwell have helped to fill in parts of the picture. I mentioned Gerry's major online contribution earlier. It is to be hoped that the knowledge about the family will continue to expand.
It would be a great outcome if I could inspire any family members, particularly younger ones, to carry on the research.
If anyone would like to contribute material to this Blog, I would be delighted to accept it, or indeed to hear any questions, comments or disagreements. I intend to update it as time allows and as new material or thoughts come to hand.
I would be very pleased if anyone with interesting information about the Blackwell family lets me know. I can incorporate new information into these writings at any time. I can also correct any errors that might be identified. Please get in touch to let me know.
Finally, I have put together a very large family tree spreading way beyond the Blackwell family on Ancestry. I have invited family members to let me know if they wish to be invited to look at this. I shall be more than happy to receive requests from anyone I may have overlooked or whose email address I do not have, etc. Please get in touch.
tbjolliffe@gmail.com
