In which we continue to explore the descendants of Thomas Meriton (1710-1765) and his wife Sarah nee Wilkinson ( – 1786). We meet their son Thomas Wilkinson Meriton (1752-1812), his wife Bridget Armitage (1772-1850), and their only son, also G W Meriton (1786-1837), his wife Ann Underwood (1791-1867) and their four children. Interestingly, for those of us who can remember Ann Backler and her husband John Freeman and their tangle of Northamptonshire-based families (see posts 6A – 6H), we find this Meriton branch also in Northamptonshire, though with perhaps only tenuous connection to the Freemans.
Born in about 1752, George Wilkinson Meriton (1752 – 1812) was apprenticed to John Hewitt, Upholder, in 1767, the year in which John Hewitt had married George W’s sister, Elizabeth, and some two years after George W’s father Thomas Meriton (1710-1765) had died. It is not clear whether he ever completed this apprenticeship, and the next record we find about him is in the London Gazette in 1776, saying that the co-partnership (unspecified as to its nature) between him and his older brother Henry Meriton (1747-1826) was being dissolved by mutual consent. Henry had been the main recipient of Thomas Meriton’s property and ironmongery business in 1765, but later on, by an advert in The Times of London, 12 October 1793, it appears that George W was the holder of ‘two very old Leases’ of a ‘most desirable Freehold Estate of Wharf and Warehouses being ‘peremptorily sold’. These included a ‘CAPITAL DWELLING HOUSE, Offices, Premises, adjoining to Mill-street, an extensive Wharf, two Capital Cranes, and a spacious brick-built Warehouse, adjoining the River Thames…next St. Saviour’s Dock…’ All this would become the property of the purchaser when the leases expired in around 1810 or 1820 [the figures are difficult to read].
It seems, then, that George W Meriton was in charge of a very thriving business at this time. . Indeed, the Surrey Land Tax records of 1791 show that he was valued at £180 for his premises on Mill Street West Side, massively more than any of his neighbours in properties owned by someone called Timothy Fox.
Sometime before 1786, George W married Bridget Armitage (1772-1850), daughter of Thomas (a Woolstapler) and Mary Armitage. The birth of their son, also George Wilkinson Meriton, was registered on 10 March 1786 at Dr Williams’s [dissenters] Library. The Armitage link is interesting. Thomas Armitage’s 1795 will, proved in 1796, makes provision for two children of his daughter Bridget – George Wilkinson Meriton (Jr), and Sarah Meriton. Yet I find no other evidence in any form of Sarah. Thomas Armitage also makes provision for his daughter Ann Armitage (1772-1819), married to the Rev. Earle Gillbee (1764-1813), brother of Deborah Gillbee (1749-1786), who married G W Meriton’s brother Henry Meriton (1747-1826).
We have no more documentary evidence of this little family until George W. Senior’s death in Exmouth, Devon, on 19 October1812, his burial recorded in the records of Glenarchy Chapel (Independent) there. His Will was brief, noting that he was formerly of Peckham (presumably having moved there from Bermondsey), and leaving household goods etc to his wife for her natural life, as well as an annuity, while properties etc were to go to his son, along with a Bond for about £1,800 from his son, currently held by Thomas Pellatt at Ironmongers Hall in Fenchurch.St. No mention of a daughter Sarah.
George Wilkinson Meriton (Junior) (1786-1837) married Ann Underwood (1791-1867) in Guilsborough Northamptonshire on 26 April 1810.
Having explored the movement of John Freeman from Northants to London, and his links with the Ironmongers, in Post 6C, I speculate that the Meriton/Pellatt links and the Ironmongers/Freeman links may possibly have led to connections in Northants which preceded this marriage.
Their children were as follows:
- Thomas Armitage Meriton (1813-1847), baptised rather inexplicably in West Thurrock, Essex (St Clement), and found in the 1841 Census in Great Creaton, Northamptonshire with his mother Ann [nee Underwood] and sister Sarah. His Will, probated after his death in 1847, left provision for his mother and three siblings, with his brother Afred and brother in law Beeson as Executors. One witness was a Clerk to the firm of Edwards and Freeman in Long Buckby, midway between Flore and Weedon, of Freeman/Pack connections, and Guilsborough,Ravensthorpe, Spratton and Creaton, from whence Ann Underwood had come and where the Jessops (see below) would be based.
- Ann Meriton (1815-1848) married Austin Jessop (1809-1881) at St Giles Camberwell on 30 June 1836, she a minor, by consent of her father (very shortly before his death), and very shortly after Austin Jessop had taken over a soap and chandlery business in the town of Creaton. The Jesssops have a long line of descendants, and I don’t propose to summarise them all, tempting though that might be. Here, in looking at Ann and Austin and their children and many grandchildren and more, I am exercising rather arbitrary discretion in selecting some for further mention. I am happy to be in touch with anyone who might want to know more. Ann and Austin faced considerable misfortune. On 10 August 1844 the Northampton Mercury advertised the sale of a Messuage, large Chandle House in Great Creaton, and the good will of the business of Mr Austin Jessop, who was in poor health. Alas, Austin’s wife Ann [nee Meriton] was to die aged 38 on 4 February 1848 and a large advert appeared on 19 February 1848 in the Northampton Mercury, announcing the sale of all bedroom and dining room furniture and books etc, and a cart, gig and tackle, etc, property of Mr Austin Jessop, ‘under an assignment for the benefit of creditors’. By the time of the 1871 Census, Austin Jessop was an inmate in the Union Workhouse, Sparkenhoe Street, Leicester, although in 1881 he was living with his nephew George Austin Jessop and family in Kettering. His burial in Rothwell Northants was in November 1881. Austin and Ann had 5 children, four of whom were very long-lived.
- Mary Hannah Jessop (1838-1838)
- Mary (Elizabeth) Jessop (1839-1933), second wife of John Edwards Hey (1839-1890), of Halifax, Yorkshire, having three children:
- Charles Meriton Hey (1876-1877);
- Emily Louise Hey (1878-1957), who married Ernest Benn (1871-1935) in Halifax, Yorkshire on 9 August 1904. He was of the family who ran a well-known leather, sports and toy store in Burnley, Lancs (Arthur Benn Ltd.) for more than 100 years. Of their five children, John Meriton Benn (1908-1992) was a high ranking educationalist in Northern Ireland, made CB (Companion of the Order of the Bath) in 1969), whose obituary appeared, among any other places, in the Burnley Express on 18 September 1992.
- Arthur Edwards Hey (1881-1938), Clerk in Holy Orders – at his death, ‘of the Vicarage Womersley, Yorkshire’, his Executor was solicitor Robert Ernest Benn (1912 – ), son of his sister Emily Louise Hey and Ernest Benn.
- Sarah Ann Jessop (1841-1930) married solicitor Charles James Hunter (1843-1909) in Leicestershire in 1866.
- However, in 1864 the birth of Arthur H Jessop was registered in Leicester, mother’s maiden name being Jessop. In later years, this person was known as Arthur Hunter. Was he Charles James’ son? He married Rose Ann Holmes (1867-1951) in 1887 and they had 11 children. He was listed as a musician in Army Regimental Rolls of non-commissioned officers, 17th Foot 1st Battalion, and several of their children were born in the West Indies. He died in Edinburgh,in 1948, noted as a Sergeant in the Royal Army Service Corps. His and Rose’s children ended up in USA, Australia and UK – far too complicated to set out here.
- Charles Meriton Hunter (1872-1969), a Hosiery Warehouseman and then Manager, married Gertrude May Coppack (1872-1959). One son, Bernard Charles Hunter (1906-1999).
- George James Hunter (1874-1969), worked his way up to become Leicester City Treasurer’s Cashier, married Charlotte Elizabeth Smeeton, 2 children – Philip Reginald Hunter (1905-1960) and Violet Dorothy aka Dorothy Violet Hunter (1912-2004), married to Maurice W Wheelhouse. She died in Somerset.
- Frances (Fanny) Ellen Dorcas Jessop (1842-1924) married John William Loake (1848 – )
- George Edward Jessop (1845-1932) married widow Sarah Jane Evans (nee Clark) in Trimulgherry, India, 1878. He was a Lance Sergeant in 1/21st R.S.Fusiliers. In the 1911 census they reported that they had borne 8 children, six of whom then survived. In this same census he designated himself as Army and Prison Pensioner. Their son George Edward Jessop (1880-1911) married Ophelia VanZandt in Ohio, and he died in McKeesport, Pa, in 1911, a Mill Worker.
- Alfred Meriton (1819-1891), tea dealer, married Louisa Frewin (1817 – 1901) in 1843 in Lambeth, Surrey. They had two children, who were living together in Thornton Heath, Surrey, in the 1911 Census:
- Ellen Meriton (1852-1946)
- Frank Armitage Meriton (1856-1916). In some censuses he was designated as a Clerk [not cleric…].
- Sarah Meriton (1823-1876) married Richard Beeson (1814 – ) in 1844. They subsequently lived in Leicester, where he was a Currier. Two children:
- Sarah Ann Beeson (1846-1860)
- Mary Meriton Beeson (1853 – 1940), married to William Frederick Marvel (1858 – 1916), a Shipper of American Provision’ in Hastings, Sussex, in 1891, while in 1901 the family were in Liverpool. Two children:
- Hilda M Marvel (1883-1962) married Francis Horace Daniels (1888-1955), a bank cashier.
- Norah Irene Marvel (1889-1966). Her Probate record shows her estate valued at £37, 156 – this must have included the house at 54 Queens Drive, Mossley Hill Liverpool? This was a goodly sum of money…
Phew. There we will leave this very distant branch of the Meriton family. One item of note which makes research somewhat easier is the retention of family names in the naming of children; in particular, the Meriton and Armitage names persist through many generations. There’s just Esther Meriton (about 1755-1829) to go before we can at last get to the next generation of Pellatts, and meet the Maberly’s! Hopefully that won’t be too long in the doing.
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