James Alfred Crane and Merintha Althera Willey
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Merintha Althera Willey |
Merintha in her later years |
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James Alfred Crane was born in Willoughby Waterless on 1 May 1846, the third son of Joseph Clifford Crane, a Framework Knitter, and his wife Catherine (Kitty) Pauley. He was christened on the 14 June 1846.
On 10 Jun 1867 he married Mary Ann Clarke in Dunton Bassett. Their daughter Martha was born in 1870, but tragedy struck and on the 12 December, Mary Ann died after childbirth. The cause of death was given as ‘plithisis pulmonadis’, a form of pneumonia. In the 1871 census, James is shown as living on his own in Dunton Bassett. He is described as a bachelor living on his own, occupation Worsted Weaver. His 1 year old daughter is with her grandparents. Merintha Althera Willey was born in Dunton Bassett on 16 Apr 1853, the daughter of Robert William Willey and Ann Hilson. James married her on 17 September 1872 at St Margaret's Leicester. He was living in George Street, Leicester at the time. The bride and groom both described themselves as ‘FWK’ (Framework Knitter). Their first daughter, Hephzibah, had already been born in Dunton Bassett on 23 June 1872. |
| By the time their son Alfred James came along in 1875, they had moved to Croft. Tracking the birth of their children, they were to be found in Buntingthorpe (1877-79), Station Road, Wigston Magna (1881-86), and Hamilton House, Bassett Street, South Wigston (1888-92).
In the 1881 census, James is described as a labourer in a brick factory. By 1889, he had progressed to Brick Burner, before reverting to labourer again in 1891. |
 Station Road, Wigston - present day |
| In the 1901 census, the family are living at 39 Bassett St, Wigston Magna. I am unsure whether this is the same address as Hamilton House. He is now described as a ‘Stoker at Brick Kilns’, so clearly he worked at the brick works for a long time. I have been unable to establish which works this was, although brick manufacturing in Wigston was common at the time, there being plentiful sources of clay locally.
A change of career path then ensues, as in 1911, James has become a fruiterer and then in 1918 as a greengrocer. He died in 1918 of ‘squanious carcinoma of the tongue and glands of the neck’. Squanious usually indicates the second commonest form of cancer which is caused by exposure to sunlight. His widow survived him by almost 20 years, passing away on 10 March 1937 of natural causes and old age. No photograph of James is known to exist – unless someone out there knows better…. |
The information on this site is prepared from public records and from verbatum evidence provided by third parties. I am placing it in the public domain in good faith and to the best of my belief all statements made are truthful. However, no warranty as to accuracy is either given or implied and interested parties should perform their own validations.
Copyright © 2003, Charles Crane