Stanton Lacy is a small village in south Shropshire about three miles north of Ludlow. The River Corve flows just to the West of the village on its way to join the River Teme. The church of St Peter was originally built around 1050, while the parish hall lies in nearby Hayton’s Bent. Originally in 1066 the large manor of Stanton was granted to Roger de Lacy and the Domesday Book lists the parish as having the fourth greatest number of households in the county possibly due to Ludlow and it’s castle having just been established inside what was then its southern boundary. In 1679 Robert Foulkes the Vicar at Stanton church was convicted of murdering his illegitimate daughter in London, for which he was hanged at Tyburn.
It was in November 1794 that Sarah Jones married Richard Cobbin in St Peter’s. Sarah states in the 1851 census that she was born around 1766 in Lingen some ten miles to the west on the edge of Wales, close to Wigmore castle left in ruins after the Civil War. Her parents have not yet been identified. Additionally on her death certificate in 1856 she is identified as the widow of Richard Cobbin – Musician, a profession also included on the wedding certificate of a John Cobbin, presumably their son, who married in Old Swinford, Stourbridge in 1853. Richard, who we assume to have been born around the same time, was not alive at the 1841 Census so we have no indication of where his origins lie. Cobbin is an unusual name with a minor concentration around London and East Anglia.
We have found seven children born to Richard and Sarah five boys and two girls, and it was the eldest daughter Sarah, baptised in March 1795 only 4 months into the marriage who entered into a marriage contract with John Hardman. John came from a Hereford family, but early indications are that he was a teacher in his younger days, so perhaps was working in Stanton Lacy or Ludlow at the time.
Meanwhile Symonds was a powerful Hereford name, and although not yet proven to be related, Thomas Powell Symonds had inherited Pengethley Manor in 1793 and was High Sheriff of Herefordshire between 1798 and 1799, becoming the MP for Hereford between 1801 and 1819. Hardman is a name more common in Lancashire but evidence suggests that by this time the Hardmans had already been in Hereford for at least a generation or more. So it was in Hereford on 10th April 1783 that James Hardman married Mary Symonds by Licence in the Church of All Saints in the presence of John Eckley and Ann Symonds. James was likely born in Hereford around 1755, while Mary was baptised there in 1758, the daughter of Thomas Symonds and Charity (nee Preece). Although both parties were residents in the parish of St Martin, the Church of St Martin had been destroyed by Scottish forces during the Civil War and was not to be rebuilt for another 70 years so marriages instead took place “by Licence” in All Saints.
Following this marriage the Symonds (sometimes Simmonds) name lived on in the Hardman family for a number of generations through the five sons of James and Mary who are known to have survived childhood until at least the 1841 census.
The first son, Thomas Hardman was born in 1784. He married Phoebe Caswell from Bristol in Hereford Cathedral in 1806. By 1841 he was a bottler living with his wife and their eldest daughter Mary (by now Mary Bonnor, a widow who had previously married Charles Bonnor a coachman on the Shrewsbury Mail) and their two youngest children William and Elizabeth. By 1851 Thomas is described as a wine cooper and the pair can be found in the Price’s Hospital Almshouses. Their son James became a travelling Victualler eventually settling at the Saracens Head in Eastgate St, Gloucester where his daughter Catherine, born in 1850 still held the Simmonds name. Son Thomas became a Wine Cooper in Mill Lane Hereford, whereas William spent many years as a Brazier and Tin Plate Maker.
The second son was William Hardman was born in 1792 – but is a tale with a tragic ending following his marriage to Elizabeth Willis on 15 March 1813.
A baptism of a boy William showing in April 1814 at St John the Baptist, Hereford is probably their eldest son. The family then he moved south initially presumably following his trade. There follow three baptisms of their children at St Mary the Virgin, Bathwick near Bath, Somerset. In each case, the address is Grove Street, and William’s occupation is Tailor. Before 1821 the family moved to Frome, Somerset, where there are three more baptisms at St John the Baptist. In all three baptisms their address is given as Cheap Street. In the first two, William is still a tailor; in the third he is a fruiterer, indicating a change of occupation. In April 1826 the burial of Elizabeth age 8, is recorded at the same church. Shortly after this, the family moved again, this time to Worcester, where William and Elizabeth had four more children baptized at St Swithin. But Elizabeth died in 1836 leaving William heartbroken. Of their ten surviving children – an eleventh had died young – seven still lived at home, ranging in age from eight to nineteen. On the morning of Saturday, February 26th, 1842, William now a fifty-year-old widower and father of ten, respectable cheesemonger and bacon seller and resident of Worcester, went for a walk a couple of miles out of the city towards a public house (it is still there) called the Virgin’s Tavern on what is now Tolladine Road. Before reaching the tavern, he stopped, put a gun to his head and shot himself. His children were subsequently looked after by relatives as best they could.
– William married Susan Mitchell in Worcester in 1844 and became a painter and glazier.
– Mary (b.1816) had already married into a fruit and fishmonger business in Worcester.
– Eliza (b.1820) had similarly married Stephen Wilkes, a carpenter in Droitwich in 1840.
Tracking the seven still living at home at the time of their Father’s death presents more of a challenge.
– Jane (b.1821) married James Leicester and is shown as living with him and her sister Ann in Southwark, London in 1851. The two of them accompanied James when he was transported to Australia. Their daughter Jane born in Australia in 1854 bears the Simmonds name.
– Ann Symons Hardman (b.1824) appears to have gone to Australia with her sister. She married Thomas Smith (Master Mariner) in Port Adelaide in 1877 making a declaration of identity confirming her parentage.
– Matilda (b.1826) has left no details of her fate.
– James (b. 1827) moved to Bristol and was a general labourer eventually in the shipyards, living in the Hotwells district.
– Thomas (b.1829) became a tailor with his uncle James back in Hereford. He never married.
– John (b. 1831) went to sea. During his career in the Royal Navy (1848-1875) he witnessed the transition from sail propulsion to steam-powered screw-driven ships, from wooden hulls to ironclads, and an increasing professionalization of the lower deck. This was an era of technological innovation and changes in naval tactics. He enlisted as a Boy 2nd Class, rose to the rank of Petty Officer, rated as Captain of the Mizzen Top, and ended his career as a Commissioned Boatman in the Coastguard, retiring with a pension. The 1841 census shows him as a boy still with his father in the Shambles in Worcester. By the 1851 census he was 19 and a Seaman Royal Navy (Apprentice) on leave visiting his aunt’s sister in Weobley. In 1861 he is on board HMS Encounter in Yokohama, Japan as Captain of the Mizzen Top. Between this and the next census he has come ashore as Coastguard at Milton near Gravesend where he married Amelia Hatt. By 1881 still in Gravesend he was a pensioner and by 1891 he was supplementing his income by labouring in a soap works. By 1901 Amelia is living as a Widow in Limehouse, London. Their daughter Edith Simmonds Hardman married George Parks – a Lighterman who was killed in his tug by a V1 in 1944.
– Elizabeth (the youngest, b.1833) first married John Winter, a Draper initially in London before they moved to Glasgow. After John’s death in 1871 she married Alexander McDougall in 1887.
Missing out the third son John Symonds Hardman and his wife Sarah (nee Cobbin) for a moment (see later) the fourth son Richard Hardman and wife Katherine (Guy) are found in 1851 eight houses away from John and Sarah, where Richard is the landlord at the Wellington Arms in Widemarsh Street. They have three sons and three daughters. All the daughters appear to have been given the middle initial S of his daughters, presumably Symonds. Katherine Symonds Hardman married Henry Holloway an entertainer who she perhaps met while he was performing in Hereford or whilst staying at the Wellington Arms. She then spent her short life with Henry, a Musician and Comedian, travelling the fairgrounds and the seaside piers of the country as she raised her family. The 1871 census found her in a caravan of travelling theatricals on Market Hill in Royston Hertfordshire. In the short time available to her she had three sons – Henry born in Studley, Warwickshire, Edward in Abersychan, South Wales and Horace in Hamstead, London – and three daughters. But tragedy struck in October 1878 when all three daughters – Rosa and Leah (born in Leighton Buzzard) and Katherine (born in Warwick) died in a fire at the Newtown Fairground in Powys, all aged under 10. Katherine herself died two years later in 1880, in Gorton in Lancashire aged only 36 perhaps unable to go on with her life or perhaps from injuries from the fire.
The fifth and youngest son of James and Mary was also called James. He became a Tailor in Hereford, and married Mary Wilson in 1822. Mary was the daughter of William Wilson who had been the Sergeant at Mace for Hereford Council, working alongside James’ brother John. Indeed many of the stories of the Hardman family involve the Wilsons at some point. These two remained childless for 28 years and in 1842 had taken on the now fatherless 13-year-old Thomas, their nephew, son of James’ brother William and his wife Elizabeth now both dead. He followed in the line of being a Tailor. In 1850 probably to everyone’s surprise finally a son of their own was born who they also named Thomas.
Returning now to the third son of James and Mary Hardman, we find John Simmonds Hardman. He and his wife Sarah (nee Cobbin) appear the 1841 Census in Hereford in Bowsey Lane/Portfields. where John Simmonds Hardman is described as a school master living in Bye Street and Bewell Street. Subsequently John is described in all cases as an Accountant probably for Hereford Council, a fact confirmed by entries in the Hereford Times and Hereford Journal. For many years he also acted as Secretary and Collector of the Hereford Art Union and for the Literary and Philosophical Institution of the City. In many fund-raising situations, he was the man trusted with looking after the money. He was also a witness (with Sarah Wilson) on the marriage certificate of his daughter Eliza Hardman at All Saints Hereford in 1855 to John Ingram from Bromsgrove. This marriage, like his Grandfather James, was by Licence but this range of licences appears lost from the records. Local registers suggest two sons and six daughters to this marriage but only 4 of these daughters show in the 1841 census.
Of the two sons James is assumed to have died young because in 1841 John junior is described as his father’s only son in his obituary, age 21 in Prince of Wales Island, East Indies. This obituary appears not only in the Penang Gazette of 12 June 1841, but also in the Hereford Times and Journal some 4 months later, in October. John Symonds Hardman, only son of John Symonds Hardman of this City died:
“On Saturday last, the 5th instant, at the residence of Mr J Hogan, in Province Wellesley, of bilious fever, John Symonds Hardman esq. Professor of Music, aged 21 years.”
Subsequently in March 1842, some poetry appeared in the Hereford newspapers dedicated to the said John Symonds Hardman. John Hogan was Senior Collector of Land Revenue, assistant to Stamford Raffles and great friend of the similarly powerful Leicester family. Perhaps here lie some of the reasons for his being so far from home – perhaps he was on his way to Australia to join his cousins Jane and Ann (his cousins, daughters of his uncle, the tragic William Hardman) who had married – coincidentally or not – into the Leicester name.
Before John Symonds Hardman (junior) left these shores he had gained some fame
– On 30 July 1836 it was reported that “young men from the City had lately amused themselves by employing their leisure hours in the manly and healthful exercise of rowing on the River Wye”. The £5 prize for winning 2 mile course from the bridge, up the pool, round a boat moored off Handerton and back again was won by the boat Paul Pry crewed by J Hardman, J Pitt, P Dallow and J Reid (J Powell Coxswain).
– then on 30 November 1836 a Kington Grand Concert was advertised where “JS Hardman Jun. invited the nobility, gentry and inhabitants of Kington and its vicinity where he would stage a concert of vocal and instrumental music at the Assembly Rooms on 5th December. Tickets of 5s each to be had at The Swan Inn and at Mr J Wilson, Kington”. Maybe not so much a “Professor of Music” as reported on his death, but maybe emigrating as a practitioner and teacher and maybe taking after his grandfather, Richard Cobbin?
Of the other children of John Hardman and Sarah (nee Cobbin) it is only Eliza that has so far shown up much detail. Eliza Hardman was born in Hereford in 1829 or 1830 as confirmed by the 1841 census. In the 1851 census she shows up still living with her parents as an assistant Schoolmistress in Hereford alongside her elder sister Sarah. Yet four years later, in All Saints Church in Hereford she marries, by licence, John Ingram, a Soap Maker from Stoke Prior outside Bromsgrove. It is hard to imagine how they may have met, but meet they did and they went to live in Stoke Prior, on the Hanbury Road near to Dodderhill Common. Their first four children were all born in or around there, but with the financial troubles of the Soap Works, Eliza and John upped sticks and moved the whole family in 1862 to Saltley in Birmingham, probably to Garrison Street, likely working for what later became IMI in Witton. The 1881 Census finds them in Adderley Road, Saltley, where both John and Sarah and three of their children are all described as Soap makers.
Both John Ingram and Eliza died age 60 whilst living in Havelock Road in Saltley. Eliza (nee Hardman) died in 1889 and John in 1891. All of their children were by this stage married and raising their own families.
But Came They All to Birmingham 