The Ives Family - History
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History

It is probably true to say that this family history would not have been written had it not been for the initial foresight and work of cousin Thomas Sparks (son of aunt Mabel and uncle Tom). In the early 1980's he devoted a lot of time and effort in seeking and accumulating Birth, Baptism and Marriage Certificates. According to the dates of issue, with the exception of the William/Clara marriage certificate that Tom obtained from the London General Register office in Nov., 1981, all the original copies had been held in the family for many years, the earliest being William's copy baptism certificate issued 18th July 1874. The copies passed on to me are all photocopies and this process was only available from the late 50's/early 60's, so who did the photocopying (can only presume cousin Tom) and what happened to the original copies remains a mystery.

Tom visited Norfolk in search of information and at one time even engaged the services of a private investigator. For some reason they did not, apparently, recourse to census returns, a source from which they could have gained useful in details, although at that time, the 1891 census was not available and 1881 may only just have been released. However, Tom did make an interesting discovery which, at the time, he was unable to verify. He visited a Fred Ives whilst travelling through Burnham Thorpe, who subsequently gave him some details of his family history. Fred's grandfather, Frederick (1842) had two daughters - one he named Mabel and the other Ethel (not common names). Because his mother was called Mabel and his aunt (her sister) was called Ethel, Tom reasoned that there may have been some relationship. We are now pleased to learn that he was correct- see the 1851 census listing. Frederick was William's brother; Thomas Edward (son of William) and Mabel and Ethel were cousins! In 1895 (Mabel) and 1897 (Ethel) Thomas Edward named two of his own daughters after his cousins.

I am sure that cousin Tom would have been pleased to know that his efforts have not been wasted and we are very much indebted to him. Before he died, he gave me all the relevant documents and notes and, I am ashamed to admit, I put them away in a drawer and forgot all about them for the next 15 years.

His findings may well have remained hidden for many more years but, quite by chance, in Sep., 1998 I saw a photograph of a cricket team in Rawtenstall library (a local history event). There was a request for information regarding the players and I was amazed to see my father (Clarence) in the picture; I then recalled that a similar photograph was in my family collection. Also, I had his medal relating to the event and was able to give more details. Acre Mill Baptist cricket team had won the Bacup and District Sunday School cricket league 3rd Divison championship - the year was 1923. That photograph marked the beginning of what was to become a most interesting, sometimes frustrating, but nevertheless worthwhile 'jigsaw-with-no-sides' undertaking; it has now been on-going for eighteen months.

For the history research of the Ives family up to and including 1851, the credit goes to Frank Ives jnr. He joined the Norfolk Family History Society, researched the Parish registers at Norwich Records office and he obtained the 1851 census details in a most remarkable way via his E-mail facility - they came from a George Sykes of Winnipeg, Canada! He also visited the family of Fred Ives in Burnham Thorpe just as cousin Tom had done many years before.

Frank jnr's., work takes us back to the earliest date of the Ives line found so far, when, on the 11th Aug., 1734, Elizabeth Frankling was baptised at Wighton; she would marry Jonathan Ives on Xmas Eve 1764, also at Wighton. Edward & Celia Ives MI It is interesting to note that their grandson Edward Ives married a Celia Ives, the daughter of John and Margaret Ives, at Burnham Westgate on 30th Oct., 1827.Then, during May 1999 when Frank jnr., and his family were on holiday in Norfolk, there was another remarkable occurrence. After visiting the windmill at Great Bircham, they went to see the Parish Church. Whilst in the churchyard, son Daniel (10) discovered the grave of Edward and Celia - his 4x gt. grandparents! The photocopies of the photographs give some idea of the 'find' - nearby were other family graves. The inscription on the weatherbeaten old gravestone is still faintly discernible (I have 'touched-up' the photograph a little bit).

Between 1851 and 1880, very little is known and only the bits of information can be pieced together to give some sort of a picture. Clearly, the menfolk were Brickmakers. In December 1998, Richard (son of the Frederick Ives that cousin Tom had met in the 1980's) mentions in a letter to Frank jnr., that his father recalled the finding of brick with the name 'Robert Ives' scratched on it; this was during the reconstruction of 'The Forge' in Burnham Thorpe in the 1960's - the brick was built into the garden wall. Frederick Ives had, at one time, worked on a brickyard in Leicester.

William Ives married Clara Saunders at Holy Trinity Church, Ely, Cambs., on the 6th Feb., 1864. Apart from the information on her birth certificate (her father was called William, he was a Harness maker, and her mother's maiden name was Sarah Thompson) nothing more was known about them until a recent meeting with Mr. Peter Chattle (his mother was James Ives' daughter, Gladys Mary). Extensive research carried out by him on the Saunders family goes back to a John Diver, circa 1596; but for our purpose, the period to the 6th generation on the chart (Joseph Saunders: 1761-1843), will have to suffice. At one time, the Saunders had a flourishing Saddlery and Harness business in Ely.

Edward and Celia seem to have been settled in Norfolk but evidently William and Clara had other ideas. Their first son, Arthur W., was born in Ely the same year that his parents were married; presumably they lived for a while with Clara's parents. By 1866 they had moved some 70-80 miles to Gt.Yarmouth where, at North Quay, grandfather Thomas Edward was born on Aug., 20th of that year. Jane H. was born at Runham in 1869 and by 1875 they were in Leicester where James was born on May 12th; they lived at 28, Spittlehouse St. On the move again, perhaps in the hope of better things, they arrived in Stacksteads, Bacup at sometime between 1876-1878. Their infant daughter, Amelia Ann, died on 18th June 1878, aged 11 months, at Higher Tunstead (Bacup Times, 22.6.1878) and was interred in a public grave in Bacup cemetery. But had the move from Norfolk been a good one? The census of 1881 shows that they were living at Middle Tunstead; William and sons Arthur W. and Thomas E. (only 15) were coal miners. Their last daughter, Clara, was born in Stacksteads during qtr 3 of 1883.

After starting work as a Brick-makers boy, great-grandfather William had a variety of occupations. His marriage certificate shows that he was a Lime-burner as does T.E's., birth certificate. However, Jane's birth certificate (1869) gives his occupation as being a Tallow Chandler and, by 1875 when in Leicester, he is a Shoe Press-man (James' b.c.). During his seven short years in Bacup, he was a coal miner and he finally worked as a 'scutcher' in a cotton mill (sorting raw cotton). Working in the dust-filled room probably contributed to his early death on 14th Oct., 1884: he too was placed to rest in a public grave in Bacup cemetery.

In the 1891 census listing we find that Clara had remarried to Abraham Hacking, (subsequently discovered to be her third husband), of 5, Greens (still in Stacksteads), - Jane Hannah was married in 1889. Arthur W. is now a Stoker on a quarry engine, James is a Stone quarryman and Thomas Edward is a cotton Mule-spinner. When he married Elizabeth Ann Lord of 36, Tong Lane, Bacup, on 16th Feb. 1895 at Christ Church, he was living at 225, Newchurch road, Stacksteads. They lived in Brunswick Terrace, Stacksteads for the remainder of their lives, first at No: 2 and finally at No: 26. They had six children: Mabel (1895) and Ethel (1897) were, seemingly, named after their father's cousins in Norfolk (cousin Tom's correct assumption). Unfortunately, Harold (1900) and Doris (1903) died in infancy. My father Clarence (1904) and Edith (1913) completed the family.

Eventually, Thomas Edward changed his occupation and worked in the Press Room (cutting leather soles and heels) at the Kilnholme mill of Maden and Ireland Ltd. (shoe and slipper mfrs.) right up to his retirement which was, I think, way past the age of 65! Although living in a terraced house without a garden, he was in fact, a keen gardener and much of his spare time was spent tending to the gardens and allotment of Rockliffe House, assisted by son Clarence - this also provided extra income. Southport was their favourite resort for the annual wakes week holiday (they always stayed at 'Goslings' on King St.) With the exception of one year in the 1930's, when they went to Colwyn Bay, they went to Southport continuously for many, many years. I can still recall my visits to the house in Brunswick terrace both in my childhood and afterwards, right up to the time of grandfather's death in 1952 - aunt Mabel, uncle Tom and cousin Tom lived next door but one at No: 22. I remember a large rosewood piano on which I used to finger the keys and a huge sideboard; there was also an English concertina which, I was told, T.E., used to play in his small dance band. And now we learn from Peter Chattle that there had been a Double Bass (string) in the family that had been played by brother James, which seems to support the dance band story.

When I looked at the Bacup Cemetery grave register and saw who was interred in grave A568, consecrated ground, I was most surprised. I had forgotten all about the two infants, and I can only remember very vaguely being told of their existence; but who on earth was Clara Morris? Soon afterwards, and quite by chance, I saw the following item in the B.M.&D's column of the Bacup Times for 19th Nov. 1921: - "MORRIS. On 10th Nov., Clara Morris, 167, [Back] Tonge Moor road, Bolton, aged 76 years". This confirmed the story that my father used to tell, of how he would walk all the way to the Tonge Moor area of Bolton to visit his grandmother and that she would be sat by the fire smoking with her clay pipe! This, then, was Thomas Edward's mother (and our gt-grandmother) and he had arranged to have her brought to Bacup to be interred in the family grave. Grandmother Ives (Elizabeth Ann) was laid to rest in the same grave, but I seem to recall that at the time, there was some mention of it being much against her wishes - she had not wanted to go 'on top of that woman'.

And it turned out that she was quite a woman! It was when I decided to obtain the appropriate marriage certificates that I encountered several surprises and setbacks - all was not how it had seemed initially. In the first place I could not find her marriage to Abraham Hacking.

I eventually discovered that her second marriage was in fact, to a William Wood. The event had taken place at the register office on 13 Nov 1886; she had knocked a couple of years off her age and the registrar wrongly named her father as Sanderson. I checked the 1881 census listings and found that William Wood lived at 9 Random Row (which was off Blackwood Rd). He was a widower, a stone quarryman with three sons and the came from Yorkshire. Alas, it didn't last long - only 9 months; William Wood died on 13 Aug 1887.

After searching through the next 18 months, I eventually found that (as Clara Wood) she married Abraham Hacking on 7th March 1889; the ceremony was performed at the Holy Trinity Church, Tunstead. Again she was two years wrong with her age and she was 20 years his junior. This third marriage lasted 5 years; Abraham Hacking expired on 19th March 1894.

Clara would now be seeking a fourth husband and surely this would be to James Morris - or so I thought. I spent months searching through 24 years in the St. Catherine House Index but with no success. There had been several people with these names but none of the index numbers tallied and the Clara Hacking's I investigated with the appropriate register offices (one even with the GRO) drew blanks.

Almost at the point of giving up, my wife, after looking through my notes, came up with the idea that a Clara Ives, who married in Burnley during 1895, could possibly be the person that I was looking for. Sure enough, the Burnley register office subsequently produced the necessary information - it was indeed our elusive gt-grandmother! She had reverted to her first married name, had knocked 6 years off her age and had married a Robert Fielding, a bachelor some 8 years her junior. This event took place at the parish church of St. Andrew, Burnley, on 22 June 1895 and the marriage lasted about 5 years. I have yet to find when Robert Fielding died - the death of the nearest that I can find was registered in Stockport in 1900.

So at last, I was looking for her marriage to James Morris which I found took place in Bolton on 15th Aug 1901 (the day and month of my father's birthday), at the register office; again her age is wrong, this time by 5 years. The interesting thing about the copy certificate is that it is a photocopy of the original entry in the register and it shows Clara actual signature. The union lasted almost as long as her first one to gt-grandfather, William Ives. Her name appears in the Bolton Parochial Elector's registers for 1919, 1920 and spring 1921. Apparently the address mentioned in the Bacup Times obituary is not correct and should read: 176, Back Tonge Moor Road.

Notable dates in the life of Clara Saunders
Born 25.04.1846:St. Mary's Street, Ely, Cambridgeshire.
Married 06.02.1864:Holy Trinity Church, Ely. William Ives (d:14.10.1884)
Married 13.11.1886:Register Office, Haslingden. William Wood (d:13.08.1887)
Married 07.03.1889:Holy Trinity Church, Tunstead, Bacup. Abraham Hacking (d:19.03.1894)
Married 22.06.1895:St. Andrew's Parish Church, Burnley. Robert Fielding (d: t/f )
Married 15.08.1901:Register Office, Bolton. James Morris
Died 10.11.1921:176, Back Tonge Moor Rd., Bolton.
Interred 15.11.1921:Grave no: A568. Cons Gd., Bacup Cemetery.

This now concludes the first part of the Family Ives ancestry and it becomes the end of the line (Maternal) for:-

This Ives line continues with

The families of grandmother Ives are recorded on the pages which follow.


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Copyright © 2001 Frank Ives snr.
Last revised: March 2001