John Hull, printer, married Amy Smith in late 1843 in the historic church of St Mary’s Lambeth. Amy was heavily pregnant, and it seems that the young couple married without their parents approval, for Amy lied about her age and both stated that their fathers were dead, which was not true, at least in John’s case.
John had been born to John Hull, organ maker, and Caroline Ham, in Swan St, Aldgate in the City of London in 1825. Amy’s father was James Smith, a labourer.
Amy was born in the same year as John in Walham Green in Fulham, across the river from Lambeth, and now part of West London. Whether or not Amy was related to the owner of Smith & Barber floor cloth manufacturers of Kensington Rd, Knightsbridge, is speculation, but it might explain how John & Amy met.
John & Amy gave their address at the time of their marriage as Regent St, Lambeth, however when Amy gave birth three days later to their son John Robert, they were living at 2 John St, Walworth Common, now South London. They may have given an address in St Mary’s parish to enable them to marry in the church of their choice, or could it be that they were evading their parents?
John Robert was to have at least eight younger siblings over the next 25 years. The next four: Mary Ann, Amy, George, and Emma; were all born in the Walworth area.
Sometime between 1855 and 1859 the family relocated from Camberwell, near Walworth to Ardwick in Manchester. The fabric industries were in decline in the London area, but were booming in Lancashire. Presumably the employment opportunities were better for John in the North. Before heading north, John had been making oil cloths for use on tables. In Ardwick he found work as a leather and cloth japaner. Japanning is a varnishing process using several coats of coloured resin which are each heat dried and polished to achieve lustre and hardness which imitates the East Asian lacquerware known as Japan ware. Japanning works were notorious for their heat and smell. It’s not known what effects the smoke and fumes may have had on John’s health, but the risk of fire was always present.
A sixth child, William Henry, was born in 1863, followed by Alice and James, who both died as children. It is interesting that Emma was not baptised until she was seven years old. Born in 1855, she was baptised on the same day as her sister Alice, in 1863. Late baptism is an indication that the family may have been non-conformists.
By the time of my great-grandmother Eliza’s birth in 1868, the family had moved to Walkden Moor, Worsley, some six miles west of Manchester. The same year Eliza’s 20-yr-old sister Amy married. Before Eliza turned three the family were to move again, to12 Hargreaves St, Over Darwin, about 12 miles north of Worsley, whilst Amy and her family remained in Worsley. Father John had by now risen to be the manager of an oil cloth works.
Within the next ten years, the family moved yet again, this time to 298 Ordsal Lane, Salford, just to the north west of Manchester.
Mary Ann (Polly) and Emma never married, and both lived well into the 1920’s. In their younger life they were dressmakers, but after the death of their father in 1896, they ran a guest house with their mother in St Anne’s on the Sea (now Lytham St Anne’s), across the Ribble estuary to the north of Southport. My Aunty Kath remembers visiting them as a child. Emma worked in the background, preparing food etc, whilst Polly dealt with front-of-house. She found her Aunty Emma lovely, but Polly could be rather strict.
John Robert & George became a japaner & an oil cloth printer respectively, like their father. George moved back to the London area as an adult.
William Henry (Will) was a manchester (ie cloth) warehouseman. He married Ada Fish in the Autumn of 1898. By March 1901 Will had set sail for South Africa to serve in the Boer War. Will later became a cloth manufacturer, who, with Fred Uttley, traded as Hull & Uttley cloth merchants.
Will & Ada, like Will’s sisters Polly & Emma, lived in St Anne’s on the Sea. It’s not clear whether Will commuted to work in York St, Manchester, or whether Will & Ada moved to St Anne’s after Will retired in 1939.
After Will was widowed in 1943, for the last two years of his life, Will lived with my Grandma (his neice) and Mum at 3 Broughton Avenue, Southport. Being the man of the house, he set the rules, which weren’t always appropriate. “Where’s that girl?” he would say on a winter’s afternoon when it would be dark by 4pm, “It’s dark, lock the door, she should be home!” Grandma would explain that Mum was still at work. She’d lock the door, then secretly let Mum in later. When Jim, Aunty Kath’s husband, was due home on leave, he ordered the hot water heated, “He’ll need a bath,” he said, assuming that Jim would be filthy as men were when they came home from the trenches in WW1.
Link to John Hull's family tree: