George Billinge Dutton   1854-1918 A Case Study in 19th Century Research in England The photograph shows my great-grandfather George Dutton and his wife Hannah Harriett Hammersley. Researching his origins has been a challenge. This is the story so far. I was lucky enough to be given an old press cutting describing his funeral. I knew that George Dutton died on April 29th, 1918, at the aged of 64. The local paper reported the funeral as follows;

The funeral of Mr George Billinge Dutton, of Clay Lake Farm, Endon, a resident in the parish for over 45 years, took place at Endon Church on Friday last week. The mourners were: Mrs T. H. Coleman, Mrs J. Walker (daughters), Mr G. H. Dutton (son), Miss Dutton, Mrs A. Barber, Mrs Stanway, Miss Jessie Dutton (daughters), Messrs T.H. Coleman, J. Walker, A. Barber (sons-in-law), Messrs J. Dutton, E. Dutton (brothers), Mrs Barlow (sister), Master H. D. Coleman, Miss Christine and Master Bertie Walker (grand-children), Mrs J. Dutton and Mrs Hammersley, Mrs Reade (sisters in law), Mrs Robinson (niece), Mrs A. Stubbs (niece), Messrs A. Dutton, J. Dutton, A. Dutton, T. Hammersley, F. Hammersley (nephews), Mr S. Baddeley (cousin). Among others present were: Messrs W. Jack, B. Birch, J. Fynney, A. Stubbs, J. Simcock, G. Birch, G. Mellor, F.A. Bailey, C. Williamson, C. Critchlow, Mr and Mrs Beswick, Messrs Stanway, C. Berrisford, W. Weaver, J. Grindley and J. Hall. There were many beautiful floral tributes from relatives and friends.

From the evidence available George would have been born in 1854. However, all attempts to find his birth in the General Register Office indexes at St Catherines House in London for the years around 1854 failed. [Since this research was done, the General Register Office indexes have been moved to the new Family Record Centre, London.]

The next step was to study the census returns at the Public Record Office. A census has been taken each ten years since 1841 and those over 100 years old can be viewed by the public. Finding a family is difficult, but does yield a lot of useful information. [The films of the census returns have now also been moved to the Family Record Centre, and teh old Public Record Office builing in Chancery Lane has been closed. A computerised index to the entire 1881 census has also been produced, making it a lot easier to find families for that year.]

The most recent census available for research is the one for 1891. As George was living at Clay Lake Farm at the time of his death, this was the starting point of the search. Fortunately I did not need to look very far to find the following three entries next to each other in Broad Lane, Brown Edge¹;

The first is the family of George's mother-in-law, Hannah Hammersley, the second of his brother John, and the last of George himself.

Going back ten years to the previous census in 1881, the following entry was found in Clay Lake, Endon²;

As there was still no clue to explain why his birth could not be found, it was necessary to search through the census for the whole of the parish of Norton for 1871, where it was expected to find him aged about 17.

Eventually, at the Bell Inn in Norton³, a reference was found to a George Billinge, the son of an Alice Dutton. Could this be George Billinge Dutton?

Searching the Norton census again, for ten years earlier, I found the following entry at Whitfield, Norton⁴ for 1861;

Despite the inconsistency in Alice Dutton's age, this is obviously the same family. It can be seen that Edwin and his first three children were born in Cheshire, and as Alice was more likely to be 28 than 38 years old, it is reasonable to assume that she was Edwin's second wife. Going back a further 10 years to 1851, the family of Edwin Dutton was at the same farm⁵;

In the Parish Register for Norton I discovered a Martha Ann Dutton, born in the second quarter of 1848⁶, who was baptised at Norton on 31st May 1848⁷, the daughter of Edwin and Eliza Dutton. This matched the census entry for Martha Dutton.

A further child, John Brindley Dutton, born in the fourth quarter of 1850⁸, was baptised there on 15th December 1850. Apparently, neither John Brindley Dutton, or his mother Eliza, survived until the census was taken on 30th March 1851. (Later searches at St Catherines House have revealed that Eliza's death was registered in the 4th Quarter of 1850⁹, presumably in childbirth, and that John Brindley Dutton died in the second quarter of 1851, in the Altrincham registration district in Cheshire¹⁰.)

Returning to the 1851 census entry, I also noticed that the next farm to the Dutton's at Whitfield was kept by Mary Bourne. In 1851 she had living with her, an uncle Hugh Billinge, who was a retired farmer. This lead me to believe that the Billinge in George Billinge Dutton could be a surname. It seemed possible that this was the maiden name of Alice, the mother of George, and that George may have been born before her marriage to Edwin Dutton. This would explain his appearance as George Billinge in the 1871 census.

A search at St Catherines House revealed the birth of a George Billinge in the first quarter of 1854¹¹. Having obtained a copy of the birth certificate, this showed that, on 3rd January 1854, Alice Billinge gave birth to a son George in Ball Green, Norton - the father's name was not filled in on the certificate.

So George was born out of wedlock, and Alice married Edwin Dutton between 1854 and 1855 (when John Dutton was born) when George Billinge became "adopted" into the Dutton family. A further search at St Catherines House revealed that Alice Billinge and Edwin Dutton where married in the 1st Quarter of 1854 somewhere in the Wolstanton registration district¹² (which includes Burslem and Tunstall).

It could have been Mary Bourne's uncle Hugh (presumably related to Alice in some way) who first introduced her to Edwin, who, struggling to bring up a family of six on his own, would be looking for a new wife.

Also working for Mary Bourne in 1851 (and also in 1861) was a farm labourer called Peter Hammersley. From his age, I'm sure that he was the brother of Richard Hammersley, and the uncle of Hannah Harriett Hammersley. This probably explains how George came to meet his future wife Hannah, perhaps when she was visiting her uncle.

Checking the 1851 census for Ball Green¹³ , I was able to find the entry for Alice Billinge, who was living at home with her father and mother;

From further research into the Billinge family, it seems that Samuel and Hugh were brothers, two of the eight children of George Billinge and Hannah.

References

1. Public Record Office RG12/2183 f15 p4
2. Public Record Office RG11/2736 f23 p38
3. Public Record Office RG10/2879 f62 p5
4. Public Record Office RG9/1945
5. Public Record Office HO107/2008 f8 p9
6. General Register Office Vol XVII p77 (June Quarter 1848) - Leek District
7. International Genalogical Index
8. General Register Office Vol XVII p70 (December Quarter 1850) - Leek District
9. General Register Office Vol 17 p44 (December Quarter 1850) - Leek District
10. General Register Office Vol XIX p15 (June Quarter 1851) - Altrincham District
11. General Register Office Vol 6b p187 (March Quarter 1854) - Leek District
12. General Register Office Vol 6b p151 (March Quarter 1854) - Wolstanton District
13. Public Record Office HO107/2008 f13 p18

©John Elkin 2000