❤️My Valentines Blog this year tells the story of Clive and Kay who were married for 67 years, a true love story❤️

Of course, we’ll also find out about their Ancestors too👢👞

We had a wander over to Yetminster a few weeks ago, it’s not too far from us. They have two small Antique shops there and I found this wonderful small collection of old photos in one, all in frames and all relating to one family. There were more, but they were more modern and some colour photos too, so I decided on the oldest ones I wanted. We took some out of the frames in the shop so they can sell them separately.

As you might guess it didn’t take me long to start a small family tree on Ancestry for the couple.

This beautiful photo above is definitely my favourite out of all the ones I bought, taken by Photographer ROWLEY, 28 Market Street, Watford.

I remember back when I was growing up our Doctor’s also had a large house he lived in that also had part of the building as his surgery and many were like that in the 1950s and 1960s with the Doctor doing blood tests and anything else that was needed. So different today.

The Antique shop also had lots more details about the family, a lovely read, written by Kay Jackman herself (Kathleen Alice Simmons) This was among all the photos that had found it’s way to the Antique shop from the house clearance, a glass framed account by Kay giving us a brief history of the couple’s working life as a Doctor with his right hand lady. What a treasure this is telling the story better than anyone. I took several photos trying to eliminate the reflections of the lighting.

I left this framed account (below) at the shop to go with the few other photos that were left from the family, they were more recent photos. Because I thought then if someone did buy them they would have a family history to go with them.

💕Clive died on Christmas Day 2013 in Sherborne, Dorset he was 92. Kay died on 12 January 2022 also in Sherborne, Dorset almost making it to her 102 birthday but not quite💕

Now for the Ancestors story👢👞

Above are Clive and Kathleen’s Parents, Grandparents and a few Great Grandparents too. As with most families, little mysteries pop up while you are researching. The first one is concerning the Great Grandfather, top-row John (Jackman) Philpot. John was born about 1807 and he married Susanna/Susan Simmons on 21 Jun 1843 at St Alphege, Greenwich, Kent. At this time John was a Shoemaker as was his father John, so it says on the marriage certificate. I haven’t been able to confirm his mother at all. John and his father John were both called PHILLPOT at the time of this marriage (image below) As you can see Susannah Simmons was living at Greenwich Hospital, could she have been a nurse? No, I managed to track her down on the 1841 census while working at the Greenwich Royal Hospital for Seamen, and she was a Servant. John was living in Union Street, not Drury Lane yet, more on this later.

At their marriage in 1843 and the registration of their two children PHILPOT was used as the surname but at the Baptism of Frances Charlotte is the first mention in the family of the name of JACKMAN on this Baptism entry. Frances Charlotte Jackman Philpot. Something occurred between June when Frances was born and 11 August 1844 the date of her Baptism at St Alphage Church, Greenwich, Kent.

1. PHILPOTT, FRANCES CHARLOTTE SIMONS GRO Reference: 1844 J Quarter in ST GILES IN THE FIELDS & ST GEORGE BLOOMSBURY Volume 01 Page 77

As you can see below their second child John has Jackman in his name but still also retained Phillpot as his surname.

2. PHILLPOT, JOHN JACKMAN SIMMONS GRO Reference: 1846 S Quarter in ST GILES IN THE FIELDS & ST GEORGE BLOOMSBURY Volume 01 Page 81.

Then by 1851, all the family are known as JACKMAN not PHILPOT.

The most interesting thing for me apart from the change of name on this census above is that John has his Birthplace ‘N K’ Not Known. Another mystery! It may explain the Surname changes too? So now I’m thinking was John an orphan? As I only found one likely John for his father, John William Phillpot born in 1780 to parents Edward, a Weaver and his wife Mary, but no other actual positive link to John (Jackman) Phillpot, and no Baptism for John Jnr which would mention parents.

DRURY LANE. John Jackman and his family plus (Image above and below) many others who were living at 187 Drury Lane in 1851, the Oats family were also there in the 1841 census.

1841. As you can see below there was no Jackman family living at 187 Drury Lane because I did wonder if they had taken over an existing business for their Shoemaker/Footwear company when they moved here. Then that would have explained the surname change. Although there is a Shoemaker there in 1841. It is William Shadbolt and his family.

But I did find a John Jackman a Shoemaker living just a mile away from Drury lane in the 1841 census. So now that has me wondering, was this John’s real surname and is this him, then for some reason, he changed it after 1841 and before his marriage in 1843, then changed it back again from Phillpot to Jackman? Or had he just chosen a surname because he didn’t know what it was or where he came from? All speculation of course.

John’s life changed in 1856 as his wife Susanna died in the September quarter. On 5 January 1860, he married a widow Ann Jones (Dadswell)

The interesting thing here on this marriage certificate below is that John names his father as John William JACKMAN, not Phillpot. But he has also added a middle name of William so maybe my hunch was right about who his father was, although the man I found was born about 1780 and died 1840, but it doesn’t always say deceased on a marriage certificate.

I have to say at this point, a huge thanks to my friend Simon who I roped in one Sunday afternoon to try to help me solve the mystery about this family’s name change! I still don’t know the reason why!

Ann was on the 1861 census with him and his 16-year-old daughter Frances and they were now living at 189 Drury Lane. Sadly in the summer of 1861, Ann died. John’s son John Jackman Phillpot born in 1846 was at the Boys only private Boarding School Dane Hill Academy in Margate, Kent. So John was obviously operating a good business by now and wanted his son to have a good education.

1871. After his son John left Boarding School, he also became a Shoemaker/Manufacturer like his father, he married Ann Bushell on 21 June 1870 at St John the Baptist, Kentish Town, Camden, England stating he was John Jackman. His father signed as a witness John Jackman Snr. On the 1871 census, he was living with his new wife Ann and widowed mother-in-law at 1 Malvern Cottage, Kentish Town describing himself as a Boot and Shoe Manufacturer. Father John on the 1871 census was still living at 189 Drury Lane and described himself as a Shoemaker. He had his daughter and a granddaughter called Ada living with him, was this 11-year-old girl Frances’s illegitimate daughter?

By 1881 the Boot and Shoe business was obviously going very well, John Jackman Snr had died on 11 December 1873 at 189 Drury Lane, and by this time John Jackman Jnr and all the family had moved to Drury Lane too. As in the 1881 census, John Jackman Jnr was now occupying no’s 189 and 190 Drury Lane where his now-deceased father John had started the business. John and his wife Ann had 5 children now plus his mother-in-law Sarah Rose and his unmarried sister Frances living with him. Plus an unmarried sister-in-law Sophia Rose and a general servant Agnes Thompson. That was a busy household!

1891. By this time John and Ann had had a total of 10 children, one boy sadly dying as an infant in 1875. At this census John Jackman Jnr with his wife Ann and eldest son John Stephen Jackman were in Margate, Kent, he is still a Boot and Shoe Manufacturer, was he on holiday? Meanwhile back at Drury Lane…

John Jackman Jnr’s sister Frances Charlotte, who never married, was the Bootmaker’s Forewoman, so she and Augusta Rose were single ladies in charge of the remaining children of the family, the youngest was just a year old. Alfred Charles even though only 15 is described as Head of the household as he was the eldest male.

1901. John Jnr and his wife Ann are living at 547 Caledonian Road, Kentish Town, London. A Boot Manufacturer. Their Son John Stephen and other family members are living with them, John Stephen is single and still a Clerk in the Civil Service. The second Son Alfred Charles is head of household at 189/190 Drury Lane, a Boot Manufacturer with his two younger brothers Harry 23 and Herbert 21 also in the Boot and Shoe business. Frances Charlotte has retired now but still living at Drury Lane.

1911. John Jnr and his wife Ann are living at 6 Redbourne Avenue, Church End, Finchley, he is still a Bootmaker/Dealer. They still have two sons and one daughter living with them. John Stephen and their daughter Edith Grace are Clerks in the Civil Service and younger son Cecil Austin is in the Bootmaking business now too. At Drury Lane. Alfred Charles is now married to Florence with two sons and living at 14 Hailsham Avenue, Streatham Hill, Brixton, his Occupation a Bootmaker Dealer. Harry is also married and living at 6 Redbourne Avenue, Church End, Finchley, Occupation a Boot Maker Dealer.

Later. In 1928 John Jnr died in Eastbourne, Sussex his wife Ann had died in 1917 in Middlesex. It looks like his daughter Edith Grace and son John Stephen had moved to Eastbourne with him a few years earlier, likely after Ann had died. John Stephen was one of the brothers that made trips to Genoa in Italy, still a Clerk. Herbert William also travelled to Genoa, Italy in 1927, still a Boot and Shoe manufacturer but in 1930 it looks like he was going to make France his permanent home, he travelled with no occupation to Genoa where he had visited several times.

The youngest brother/sibling Cecil Austin Jackman, who was Dr Clive Cecil Jackman’s father, was a beneficiary to his brother John Stephen Jackman’s will in 1952 above but not to his father’s in 1928 below. John Jnr left his money to three of his sons, not the two youngest, the three eldest surviving sons only. One of the brothers Percy Leonard Jackman was killed in WW1 (1886-1915).

There is such a lot more I could research and write about the Jackman side of the Family, but I must stop before I get carried away as usual!

For the second mystery I shall briefly go back to John Jackman Phillpot to introduce you to his wife Ann Bushell, whos own family strangely enough also had a name change. But at least I know where it comes from even if I don’t know why it was changed. Ann was the daughter of Stephen Bushell and Sarah Dear, Stephen Bushell’s parents were John Bushell and Virtue Rose. At various times during census records and others Stephen and Sarah used the surname ROSE instead of Bushell, especially from the 1860s onwards although Stephen died as Stephen Bushell in 1865 but his wife Sarah and unmarried daughters used Rose after his death.

The third little mystery is that I am unable to find out who the Ancestors are of Cecil Austin Jackman’s wife Lillian Mary Cousins. Lillian’s father was Frederick John Benjamin Cousins and her mother was Allison Bush there the mystery lies as I am unable to find a birth or any family details about Allison Bush

In July 1931 Frederick John Benjamin Cousins aged 73 went with his sons Frederick James and Frank Edward. Also Cecil Austin Jackman and Mr Charles Edward Cox to Genoa in Italy, Genoa was obviously a popular destination for the family.

On Kathleen Alice Simmons’s side of the family, there is only one mystery, who was her maternal Grandfather? Her mother’s name was Violet Evelyn Sydney and she was born on 6 Feb 1878, Violet had a sister Florence Grace Sydney born on 1 June 1881, also it seems by this mystery man Mr Sydney. The sister’s mother was Alice Elizabeth Eveyn Shilcock, she was unmarried when the girls were born. She did marry on 23 August 1883, described as a Spinster, to a chap called John Whitfield Harland, who was an Artist and a widower, his first wife Lucy had died in 1882, and they had had several children after their marriage in 1859. On different records, John is described as an Author, Journalist, Printer, Artist, and Engraver. The book below was by John, his father John Harland was also in the same business described as an Author, newspaper correspondent and reporter, poet, editor and part-owner of the Manchester Guardian Newspaper and Inventor of the short-hand system. More here: John Harland Obituary 1868

John Whitfield was 46 when he married 27-year-old Alice, they were together for 10 years with Violet and Florence, until Alice died in 1893, and John died in 1895. On the 1901 census Violet was living with relatives in Lewisham and her sister Florence was living also with relatives up in Manchester.

To add to this particular mystery I came across this record above while looking through Baptism records, it’s definitely the correct Florence Grace but the parents? Father is an Artist, surname of Sydney, a fictitious name? and the mother has the eldest daughter’s name Violet Evelyn (who was 3 years old), at this time John Whitfield Harland‘s wife was still living so was Henry Daniel Sydney his pseudonym. At the time of the 1881 census, there were no matching people living at 31 Dante Road, nor the Pub next door at 29. In the 1881 census, Alice Elizabeth Evelyn Shilcock lived at 37 Dante Road, so it was close to 31. Alice lived with her widowed mother and siblings and her first born daughter Violet.

I can’t find any other records for Henry William Sydney either (there was an Artist by this name but he was born in 1875!) and I’m unable to find a Baptism for Violet Evelyn despite browsing through many Baptism records. The mystery continues……

Undoubtedly a few of these mysteries would become clearer by ordering a few certificates so that you could confirm more details, so if this family were my own family I would be ordering a long list!

While researching it was lovely to come across some family photos on various Public family trees on Ancestry, left to right below is Violet Simmons, Stephen James Simmons, Winifred Mary Simmons and Sydney Simmons (1840-1924)

This is the link to the family tree I have compiled on Ancestry, I have added several notes here and there:

Dr & Mrs Jackman Family Tree

I will end with this splendid find on a public family tree on Ancestry, a newspaper clipping of John Jackman Phillpot who died on 4 June 1928 in Eastbourne, Sussex. Covering all his family as beneficiaries.

I’ll leave the last words of this Blog to Kay “This was a very important partnership”💕

Till next time then……….