From the West Midlands to Yorkshire: the Tew Family of Sheffield

[Richard Axe]

A new life in Sheffield

The Tew family discussed below appears to have come to Sheffield via Cherington in the West Midlands[1]. Cutlery apprenticeship records reveal that Joseph Tew, son of Simms, a wool comber of Cherington, was apprenticed to Isaac Brown, knifemaker, in 1792[2]. That entry is of additional interest because it mentions that £15 (presumably of the indenture fee) was paid by the Quakers after agreement at a quarterly meeting at Warwick.

Simms (also Sims or Simmes), is an unusual forename, of course, and so distinctly helpful for the discovery of family and antecedents. His first wife was named Susannah. Several children of the pair are known, all registered in Quaker documentation.

·         Mary, born 1/3/1769, of Cherington

·         Ann, born 4/2/1772, of Cherington

·         Susannah, born 28/9/1774, of Cherington. She died 24th October of the same year.

·         William, born 18/11/1775, of Cherington

·         Joseph, born 6/11/1778, Cherington parish

·         Thomas, born 30/8/1781, Little Cherington

Simms’ wife Susannah died on 4th March 1785 and was buried at or near Long Compton. She was stated to have been about thirty-seven. He remarried soon afterwards, to Mary Jarret. Mary a spinster, and Simms (as Sims) were married by licence at St Nicholas’, Cherington on 5th June 1786.

The marriage of Sims’ son William (23/12/1807) shows that he was still classed as a wool comber but now living at Epwell, Oxfordshire; that place is relatively close to Cherington. The record for his daughter Mary’s marriage in 1815 gives him an address at Moreton in the Marsh, Gloucestershire. Simms died 5th April 1825 and was buried at or near the Quaker New Meeting House, Sansom Fields, Worcestershire, in which county he was then living. His age was given as about seventy-seven and his residence as Claines; he was not classed as a practicing Quaker. The likely date for the death of his second wife is discussed below.

It is only the reference to Cherington in the cutlery apprenticeship records that permits an identification with this Tew branch in Sheffield. It is probably this Joseph Tew, described as of Long Compton, that was a pupil at Ackworth School in Yorkshire between 1787 and 1792. Joseph married at St Peter’s, Sheffield, on 21st August 1804. His wife was Catherine Hoult, a spinster, who made her mark (Joseph seems to have been literate). One might surmise that either Catherine was Catholic or that one or both converted to that version of Christianity because several children were baptised as such. Children baptised as Catholic at Norfolk Row Chapel are attested as follows.

·         Ann, born 9/7/1808 and baptised 10th August, Sheffield

·         Susanna, born 16/8/1811 and baptised 29th of the same, Sheffield

·         Joseph, born 15/12/1815 and baptised 6th January 1816, Sheffield

·         Catherine, born 9/5/1818 and baptised 21st of the same, Sheffield

·         John, born 30/9/1822 and baptised 7th October, Sheffield

·         Henry, born 30/4/1825 and baptised 12th May, Sheffield

The reason for a likely gap between the births of Susanna and Joseph junior can be identified through Anglican parish records. An homonymous son of Joseph was buried at St Peter’s on 26th July 1814; he was aged only two weeks.

A precise date for Joseph’s burial evades detection at present. His aunt’s will of 1829 pronounced him as deceased when it made his widow a beneficiary. Joseph’s wife Catherine died in 1845 aged sixty.

Joseph’s family

Joseph junior was married at St Peter’s, Sheffield, on 1st February 1841. A cutler like his father, he lived at Furnace Hill when he married Mary Hepworth, a spinster also of Furnace Hill and the daughter of George. At twenty-five, Joseph was stated to have been five years older than his spouse. Joseph was buried at City Road Cemetery on 7th September 1882.

Two children were baptised as Catholic at Sheffield on 7th April 1858: Emma and Walter; two more, Helen and Joseph were baptised there on 11th May 1858. Others can be identified from the GRO records. In total, Ann was born in 1842; Emma in 1844 (died in 1845); William Henry in 1846; Ellen in 1848; Joseph in 1850; Walter in 1853 and another Emma in 1855.

Census records offer further evidence. That for 1851 shows Joseph and his family living on Hollis Croft, Sheffield. He was described as a cutler. A decade later the family still resided there, at number 79, with five children. In 1871 the family was living at 83 Hollis Croft and remained there a decade later with the last census recording his wife, a daughter, three grand-children and a sister, Sarah Pawson, in residence.

William Henry, Joseph and Walter all followed in their father’s footsteps as table knife cutlers. William Henry married Rose Ann Hoyland on 26th June 1865 at St Luke’s, Hollis Croft. William’s age was given as twenty-one and that of his spouse, daughter of George, as eighteen. Rose died in 1908 and her husband the year afterwards.

Joseph married Martha Easthope in 1870. A son, Walter, was four months old at the time of the 1871 census; the family was living on Hollis Croft near to his parents. He died in 1921 and Martha in 1924; both were buried at City Road Cemetery. Joseph and Martha had several other children: Harry B (c1873), Willie (1875), Lily (c1878), Leonard (c1880), Mary (c1883), George (c1885), Alfred (c1888) and Joseph (c1892).

Martha is known from items in the Sheffield newspapers from 1905 and 1911. The circumstances were unfortunate and suggest that she must have been suffering some mental stress. On 23rd May 1905 Martha was seen lying in the middle of a pool of water at the Endcliffe Top Dam. She was pulled out and her condition was determined to be not too serious as she had not been in the water for many minutes. The circumstances were seen as a suicide attempt and Martha was taken to the Royal Hospital and thence to Water Lane Police Station. Martha gave her address as Lydgate Lane, Crookes, and her age was reported as fifty[3]. She was charged with attempted suicide on the 24th with her husband deposing that she had not been right since a bout of influenza at Christmas 1904, and worry about a son who had enlisted. At the Sheffield City Police Court, held on 29th May, she was remanded at large having expressed sorrow and promised not to repeat the offence. The 29th August 1911 saw a repeat attempt, this time in Endcliffe Park. The Tews were living at 104 Pearl Street when Martha was pulled out of the water on this occasion. “I put myself in the water: I didn’t care whether I died or not,” was her response. Police Constable Ellis deposed that she had been drunk and kicked and screamed all the way to the police station. At her court appearance once more she promised not to attempt suicide again and was put into the charge of her husband[4].

How much credence can be placed upon the reasons provided for Martha’s actions is unknown, but in respect of one son, Leonard, Martha clearly had much to be concerned about. Leonard first appeared in the local newspapers in October 1896 in connection with the theft of a jacket from T. and J. Roberts, drapers of Moorhead, on 17th of that month[5]. His companion in the act, David Kane, was a person with multiple convictions and Leonard was stated to have been under his influence; Kane was two years older. Leonard, a labourer, was of previously good character and was released upon providing sureties for his good behaviour.

Leonard was in court again in January 1897 as one of four boys charged with stealing three plush mantles from a trader at Sheaf Market. The youngest boy (aged thirteen) was proven to have stolen the items with the other three regarded as having not having taken “such a prominent part in the theft.” Accordingly, Leonard was discharged[6]. In July of the same year Leonard signed up in Sheffield for military service with the York and Lancaster Regiment. The records show him to have been aged seventeen and seven months, resident at 29 Devonshire Lane, and a cutler by trade. His physical characteristics were as follows.

Height:                        5’ 2¾”

Weight:                       108 lbs

Chest measurement:  31½” minimum, 33½” maximum

Complexion:                Fresh

Eyes:                            Blue

Other:                          Two tattoos, one on each forearm

Leonard was posted to the Regiment in February 1898 after a period of drill. It was not long before he deserted from his battalion (May 1898) and then repeated the offence in December of the same year and subsequently in May 1899. Presumably, his military service continued beyond that date but he is next mentioned as a hawker when prison records from Wakefield show him there for a brief spell in 1908. He appears to have gone on to marry twice, produce three children and live out his later life in Maltby before dying in 1937.

Walter married Sarah Ann Fearn at St Peter’s on 31st March 1872. Both were given an address of West Bar Green and both were twenty. Sarah Ann was the daughter of Samuel Fearn, another cutler. He died in 1910 and his widow in 1923; both were buried at City Road Cemetery. Their children were as follows: William Henry (1872), Mary Ann (1875), Walter (1877), Florence (1879), Albert (1882), Joseph (1884), Herbert (1887), Clara (1890) and Mabel (1894).

Other branches in Sheffield

John Tew became a cutler like his father Joseph. He married Sarah Newton at St Peter’s on 20th April 1845. Sarah was the daughter of Abraham Newton, a scissorsmith, and resided on Lambert Street at the time of the marriage. John, living on Furnace Hill, was aged twenty-two and his wife was nineteen. Both were illiterate.

The family was living at 38 Trinity Street at the time of the 1851 census. Two children, Mary Ann and Joseph, were in residence and Sarah was noted as working as a scissor finisher in addition to her duties as a housewife. A decade later the family was living at 20 Trinity Street with a slightly larger family.

John and Sarah produced several children.

·         John William, born 1845 and died in 1848

·         Mary Ann, born 1847

·         Joseph, born around 1850 and died in 1854

·         Sarah, born 8/9/1852, baptised 19/10 of the same year at St Marie’s, Sheffield

·         Arthur, born 1855 and died in 1869

·         Elizabeth, born 1858, baptised 9/5/1858, Sheffield

·         Ann, born 1860, baptised 13/1/1861, Sheffield, and died in 1861

·         George, born 1862

·         Jane, born 1865

·         Ann Eliza, born 1868, baptised 1/6/1869, Sheffield, and died in 1869

A mixture of denominations was used to record these events. John William and Joseph were buried at St George’s, Brookhill, on 21st November 1848 (Hollis Croft address) and 26th April 1854 respectively; Ann at St Philip’s on 24th March 1861 (with an address of Tenter Street) and Arthur and Ann Eliza at Burngreave Cemetery on 7th and 9th November 1869 respectively.

Simms’ other children

Mary Tew married Henry Stone, a labourer of Salford Mill, Chipping Norton, on 17th March 1815. They married in a Quaker ceremony at Chipping Norton. She was a beneficiary of her aunt Ann’s will in 1829 when they were both resident in Cookley, Worcestershire.

Ann Tew of Cherington was a pupil at Ackworth from 1783 to 1785. She married John Maybury (Mayberry) at Whittington on 25th August 1793. She was a beneficiary of her aunt Ann’s will in 1829 when they were both resident in Cookley, Worcestershire.

It is probably this William Tew, described as of Long Compton, that was a pupil at Ackworth between 1787 and 1789. He is known to have been a cotton spinner of Rochdale from his marriage record. He married Ann Wetherald in a Quaker ceremony at Turf Lane End near Oldham on 23rd December 1807. William was from Rochdale and his spouse was the daughter of Joseph and Mary, of Silver Hill near Rochdale.

William and Ann produced children as follows, all recorded in Quaker documents.

·         Susanna, born 25/9/1808, Rochdale; died 22/11/1808, buried 24th at Rochdale

·         Mary Ann, born 28/12/1809, Rochdale

·         Susanna, born 28/4/1811, Rochdale

·         Joseph, born 28/1/1814, Rochdale

·         Sophia, born 2/10/1815, Field Head near Rochdale

·         William, born 27/1/1820, Rochdale; died 10/9/1821, buried 13th at Rochdale

·         Maria, born 17/3/1822, Rochdale

William, Ann and their family are to be seen next in Halifax, Yorkshire, where William was working as a corn and flour dealer. The family was in Halifax as early as 1827 because a rate book shows Mr Tew on King Cross Street in that year. William’s daughter Mary Ann was married there in 1829 and his address is given for that place[7]. Sophia married in turn: in Halifax on 29th December 1836 to John Taylor, again as a Quaker ceremony. Maria married William Mewburn at Halifax in 1844.

Mary Ann, Susannah and Sophia were pupils at Ackworth; the first between 1821-2 and 1823, the second between 1822 and 1823 and the last from 1827 to 1829[8]. Their brother Joseph was educated there between 1823 and 1826.

William’s wife Ann died there on 7th October 1832. Aged about fifty, she was buried at the Friends’ burial ground in Halifax on the 10th. Their son Joseph died early aged only twenty-six. He died in Halifax in 1839. The 1841 census shows the family living on Union Street but hardship struck in 1846 when William was declared a bankrupt[9]. He was living with his daughter Maria and her husband at the time of the 1851 census and died in 1858.

Thomas Tew can be presumed to be alive in 1829 since he was a beneficiary of his aunt Ann’s will in 1829. Unlike a sister and his two brothers he is not recorded as a pupil at Ackworth School. He might be the man who married Hannah Gardner in 1809 at St Mary’s, Newington, Southwark. Two pieces of circumstantial evidence suggest a link; firstly, the death record from Bermondsey in 1832 gives his age as about fifty, hence in the right area for the birth date; secondly, this Thomas’ death was a Quaker burial. Bermondsey links these two items through birth and burial records for children of Thomas and Hannah. A likely first child, Susannah, was born on 10th October 1810; the family was based on Pitt Street, Kent Road. Thomas is listed as a hatter. Three children are known from the Quaker records to be associated with Bermondsey. Mary was born on 20th August 1813 (Bermondsey Street) and died 15th October 1816 (Long Lane) and was buried on the 20th; Ann was born on 7th February 1816 (Grange Walk); Thomas was born on 18th June 1819 (Grange Walk) but died 15th January 1820 (Long Lane) aged seven months and was buried on the 25th.

Will abstract (The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Series PROB 11; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1759)

Ann Tew, spinster of Chipping Norton         Dated 27/3/1828        Proved 25/7/1829

Ann Mayberry, wife of John Mayberry of Cookley, Worcestershire, niece

Mary Stone, wife of Henry Stone of Cookley, niece

William Tew, nephew

Thomas Tew, nephew

Catherine Tew, widow of Joseph Tew of Sheffield, niece

Esther and Ann Atkins, witnesses

 

[1] Another Tew family also came to Sheffield in the nineteenth century and established itself there. The 1871 census record from Sheffield for William Tew gives him a birth place of Deddington, Oxfordshire, around 1828. His wife and a daughter were born in Banbury with other children being born in Sheffield. The 1861 census record gives Barford, near to Deddington, as the place of birth. William’s wife is listed variously as either Catherine or Caroline. William’s homonymous father’s birth place was given as Shalstone, Buckinghamshire. No connection between the two branches is known at present.

[2] The History of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire: R E Leader, p369

[3] Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 24/5/1905; Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 25/5/1905 and 30/5/1905.

[4] Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 31/8/1911

[5] Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 23/10/1896

[6] Sheffield Independent, 27/1/1897

[7] She married James Thwaite on 23rd September at a Quaker ceremony.

[8] Ackworth School Catalogue: London 1831

[9] London Gazette 1846, p3045. He was declared bankrupt on 17th August of that year.

[Roy on Tyne]

Joseph Tew's early life

Joseph Tew  was my  3x g/grandfather. He was born into a Quaker family in 1778 at Cherington, Warwickshire. His father Sims Tew   worked there as a woolcomber and attended the Friends' Meetings at nearby Long Compton.  Unfortunately in 1781 Sims was reprimanded for poor attendance and "intemperate conduct" (possibly drunkenness).  This may have been due to  economic  factors. The traditional rural craft of woolcombing was being superseded by carding machines and this would also have affected Sims’ earning capacity and  he was  given some financial help by the Friends.  Things became worse in 1785 when his wife, Susannah, died. With a young family to care for the  following year he married Mary Jarett at St John's Church, Cherington.  Mary was a local woman whom he would have known all his life.  Unfortunately as she was not a Quaker his behaviour was again investigated by the local Friends . They reported that his conduct "appears to be really unsteady and scandalous" and removed him from their fellowship. This must have been something very serious indeed as the Quakers, unlike other puritan sects, were normally relatively tolerant of human frailty.  They showed compassion, generosity and forgiveness to Friends who displayed personal weaknesses.  To have expelled Sims publicly from their fellowship knowing  all the domestic problems he was facing after his wife’s death suggests a fundamental doctrinal transgression  (such as marrying in a CoE Church) rather than a moral lapse on his part.   

Although they had disowned their father, the Long Compton Quakers took on the responsibility for the welfare of Sims' children. They found his eldest daughter, Mary, a post in domestic service with a Quaker family.  They paid for the education of his younger children - Ann, William, Joseph and Thomas - at  Ackworth Quaker School near Pontefract. This has previously been a branch of the London Foundling Hospital where orphans who had been abandoned on the streets of London were brought up and then placed in service or apprenticeships locally.  When the Foundling Hospital could no longer afford to run Ackworth,  a Quaker benefactor had bought the premises and established a school for the children of poorer Quaker families.

At the age of eight Joseph Tew had to cope with a series of very traumatic events which almost certainly would have affected him for the rest of his life.  Within the space of not much more than a year his mother died, his father was expelled from the Quakers, his father then remarried and then he was sent away to Ackworth School, never to see his home village of Cherington again.  Joseph was enrolled at Ackworth on the same day as his older brother William, 18 May 1787.  He spent five years at the school during which time he would rarely, if at all, have left the premises.  However he did have company of William until 1789 and from 1790 his younger brother Thomas joined him there. 

The school register shows that on 11 April 1792 Joseph left Ackworth “on a Fish Cart” bound for Sheffield.  In the days before the railways and refrigeration the only method of conveying sea fish from the coast to the markets of inland towns was by fish cart.  It was necessary to move their perishable cargo as speedily as possible and they were often run by coach proprietors who had the expertise to do so.  Ackworth was probably an overnight stop where the horses were changed on a fish cart route between the east coast and Sheffield.  Joseph seems to have been able travel as a passenger on the cart – possibly in the space left by fish which had been offloaded at Ackworth.  His first experience of life outside school – a 30 mile journey amongst a load of wet, smelly fish - cannot have been comfortable or pleasant.

Joseph does not seem to have been accompanied on his trip to Sheffield, but it would almost certainly have been pre-arranged and he would have been met at his destination by the master to whom he was to be apprenticed.  Ackworth Quaker School carried on the tradition set by the Foundling Hospital of placing its pupils as apprentices with local masters.  The records of the Cutlers’ Company in Sheffield show that in July 1792, three months after he left Ackworth, Joseph was formally indentured as a cutler’s apprentice to Isaac Brown.. Although his father, Simms Tew, is listed, Joseph’s apprenticeship premium of £15 was paid by the Quakers in Warwick, who were still taking in interest in his welfare.  This suggests that Sims was either unwilling or unable to pay to ensure that his son could acquire the skills of a trade which would secure his future.

When William Tew left Ackworth in 1789 he was apprenticed to Wm Holme, a cotton spinner, of New Mills in Derbyshire. His brother Thomas became a hat maker in Bermondsey, South London.  Like their brother Joseph they all worked for Quaker families.

The arrival of the Joseph  and hence the establishment of the Tew family Sheffield was thus entirely fortuitous. He could have been fixed up by Ackworth Sshool with an apprenticeship virtually anywhere.

[Richard Axe]

Many thanks for the additional information, Roy. Very helpful indeed.

I have a few photos of members of the Tew family in Sheffield - attached. The uploaded images give names (and dates where I have them). If anyone can add further information or context to the family's life in Sheffield, please feel free.

free.

[Richard Axe]

Ah!

The descriptions of the photos (top to bottom) are as follows:

1. Pvt. Ernest Tew - Strensall Wood

2. 1911 Elizabeth, Rosie & Beatrice Tew at Nicholson Road

3. Arthur Tew (tenor) at Nicholson Road

4. 1917 8th April Winnie, Willie & Frank Tew

5. Polly & George Tew

6. Ronald Tew

7. Austin Tew

8. 1933 24th April Edie Tew as Elsie Maynard in Yeoman of the Guard

9. 1932 8th March Edna Tew (daughter of Austin and Maud)

10. Charles Tew

[Ponytail]

There was a butcher by the name of Tew on Bellhouse Road, Shiregreen in the 1950/60's.Think he'd taken over from Sedgewick whose widow and daughter lived in the residential part of the property. Don't know whether they were related or if he was a member of your extended family tree.