CHAPTER 8
The families of Cross and Carlton
Bertha Clarke was the youngest of the eight children of John Kynaston Cross of Fernclough,
Bolton-le-Moors and Emily Carlton of Irwell House, Manchester. Her forebears were:
William Cross of Nantwich 1752-1831 Robert Carlton 1739-1821
= Catherine Fenna = Mary Lamb
A. John Cross = Hannah Kynaston
A. James Carlton = Mary Watson
1794-1868 1796-1851 1797-1877
1. John Kynaston Cross 1832-1887 = 7. Emily Carlton 1838-1911
Bertha Cross 1874-1942
I. The Cross family
The Crosses from Scotland, the Carltons and Watsons from Yorkshire and the Kynastons
from Shropshire all collected in Lancashire in the boom period of the cotton trade.
The Cross story starts with William Cross of Paisley who walked south to Nantwich in about
1785, with a pack on his back. There he married in 1887 Catherine, daughter of Joseph Fenna
a well-to-do farmer of Baddeley, Cheshire, who gave him the necessary funds to start up an
ironmonger’s shop in Nantwich. William and Catherine had one son, John.
John Cross married in 1830 Hannah Kynaston, only daughter of Richard Kynaston, cotton
spinner. He went into partnership with his father-in-law in a cotton mill and it was from this
partnership that the firm John Cross and Company developed.
Richard Kynaston was the great grandson of Edward Kynaston of Wycherley who was
seventh in line of descent from Philip of Walford and Shotton, Shropshire, the eldest son of
Griffith Kynaston Armiger of Stocks and Seneschal of Ellesmere 1430-1444
(check and
correct). (See Burkes Landed Gentry Kynaston of Hardwick.) Younger sons of this interesting
family had moved away and done various things: Wild Humphrey Kynaston was something
of a highwayman; when rounded up by soldiers he spurred his horse, jumped over his
would-be arresters and escaped. Edward of Wycherley’s grandson Thomas (1754-1787)
moved to Durham and the latter’s elder son, Thomas, sold the family estate Pen-y-lan to buy
the Red Lion, Shoe Lane, Holborn, London. His younger son Richard (1782-1844) married
Ann Cook and set up in Bolton as a cabinet maker later developing a cotton spinning
business. Richard’s daughter Hannah and John Cross had thirteen children but five died
young including the eldest Jane, aged 13, and a son Richard who was drowned sailing at the
age of 12 with two of his brothers. The surviving children were:
A. John Cross (1794-1868) = Hannah Kynaston (1807-1898)
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
John Edward Thomas Joseph Katherine Anne Jane Ellen
Kynaston b. 1834 = b. 1836 = b. 1838 = b. 1842 = b. 1845 = b. 1846 = b. 1849 =
b. 1832 = Carlton Wood Ashworth Mellor Watts Knowles Potter
Carlton Jones
John Kynaston, Edward and Joseph went into cotton. John (of Fernclough) 1832-1887 married
in 1858 Emily Carlton, and his brother Edward (of Gartside House) married in 1863 her sister
Hannah Carlton. Emily b. 1838 and Hannah b. 1840 were the youngest of the eight children of
James Carlton (1796-1851) and Mary Watson (1797-1877) (see below).
The original Cross mill was Rose Hill in Bolton. John Cross and Co. were then amalgamated
with Crewdson and Worthington to make the firm ‘Crewdsons, Crosses and Co. and
Horrocks, Miller and Co. Later the Crosses owned the spinning concern ‘Crosses and
Winkworth’ and the weaving concern ‘Horrockses’; Horrockses being the greater money
earner of the two. When the next generation grew up, Carlton b. 1859 (John Kynastons’s
eldest son) went into Horrockses and James b. 1864 and Frank b. 1865 (Edward’s sons) went
into Crosses and Winkworth.
1. John Kynaston Cross (JKC)
In 1874, when he was 42, John Kynaston became a magistrate and went into politics. He was
magistrate from 1874 and County Magistrate from 1881. He was Liberal MP for Bolton from
1874 until 1885 when he lost his seat to a Conservative. He was also Under-Secretary of State
for India, under Lord Kimberley in Gladstone’s administration 1883-5. In March 1887 he
tragically took his own life through depression brought on by diabetes for which a cure had
not yet been found. He was then 57 and his widow Emily was 55. When her children had
married, she sold Fernclough to Edward Peel Potter (see below) and moved to 5 Pembridge
Square, Bayswater, where she died in 1911.
The Crosses were great collectors of furniture and pieces of the J K Cross ‘Fernclough
Collection’ are today to be seen in at least ten different houses. Fernclough, which JKC built,
was described in 1901 as ‘the beautiful house with a tower which you see above you on the
left hand of the railway line as you are going into Bolton from Liverpool by the L and Y
route’. To 1975 eyes it was, as the Edmund Potter Hospital, a stark Victorian Gothic building
of dark stone surrounded by a beautifully kept garden and hemmed in by trees. The garden
won the Hospital Small Garden Cup for ten years.
John Kynaston’s family were:
John Kynaston Cross (1852-1887) = Emily Carlton (1838-1911)
a. Carlton b. Edward c. Marion d. Herbert e. Emily f. John g. Hugh h. Bertha
b. 1859 = Fenna (May) b. 1870 = (Jack) b. 1874 =
Briscoe (Ted) b. 1862 = Timins b. 1871 = Clarke
b. 1860 Greg Wykes
When young, the family would go off on holiday in one of the railways’ ‘family coaches’
which would be hired for the journey from home to the holiday station, being shunted from
train to train at junctions. When older, they would go abroad and Bertha used to reminisce
about journeys over Alpine passes by diligence, as well as about her finishing school at
Hanover where she learned to play the piano well – to balance her brother Jack’s singing, and
her brother Ted’s and sister May’s painting.
a. Carlton (1859-1930) was a director of Horrockses and lived for some years at Crooke Hall,
Whittle-le-Woods near Chorley. He left Lancashire in 1905 and let Crooke Hall to his first
cousin James Cross (Edward Cross’s eldest son). Both Carlton and James were masters of the
Aspull Harriers; James is remembered as being irascible when people got in the way.
Carlton married Emily Briscoe and when they left Lancashire they lived at Wyke Hall,
Gillingham, Dorset, where he had some excellent trout fishing. He was a keen fisherman and
a superb raconteur and is remembered for the wonderful stories he used to tell.
Their family were:
i. Major John Kynaston Carlton Cross (1889-1966) served in the Lancashire Fusiliers between
the ages of 20 and 37 (despatches) and was in his later years a lay reader. He married
Constance May, daughter of Colonel C P Lynden Bell whose family first went to Ireland in
the reign of Charles I. They lived at Letcombe Regis and all their children were given Carlton
as a third name.
(A)
Michael (1920-1942) was killed in the war.
(B)
David b. 1925 married Elizabeth Gifford with two sons and one daughter, and is a
director of Barclays Bank in Southampton, living at Middle Wallop.
(C)
Marigold b. 1928 spends much of her time as a courier for coach tours.
(D)
Gillian b. 1929 married Lieut Col Patrick Dawson with one son and two daughters
and lives at Godalming.
(E)
Angela b. 1936 runs a flower shop in Lee-on-Solent.
ii. Reginald Carlton (1881-1918) was killed in action in June 1918.
iii. Revd Wilfred Randal Carlton (1893-1930) while a curate at Great Yarmouth married the
mayor’s daughter, Sybil Bayfield.
b. Edward Fenna c. 1860-1899 was delicate and spent much of his time abroad and had a flat
at Lausanne. An accomplished artist, he painted numerous watercolours of Italy. Catherine
Fenna was suspected of having gypsy blood and the dark gypsy complexion has come out in
one male member of each generation. Ted was the dark-complexioned member of his
generation.
c. Marion (1862-1931) married Ernest Gregg whose family had been connected with cotton
since his great grandfather Samuel Greg started up the Quarry Bank Mill at Styal in 1784.
Samuel Greg b. 1750 was the ninth child of Thomas Greg, a Belfast merchant of Scottish
descent and his mother was Elizabeth Hyde of a Lancashire family, members of whom had
settled in Belfast for business reasons. Ernest Greg was also involved with the James
Chadwick Bros Mill at Eagley, Bolton, which became a subsidiary of the Paisley firm J and P
Coates shortly before World War I. He was a director of Chadwick’s as his uncle Arthur Greg
had been earlier. His son-in-law Guy Lloyd became a director in about 1925.
Ernest and Marion (May) lived at Norcliffe Hall, Styal, Cheshire, some 14 miles from the
centre of Manchester and a short walk through the Bullin Valley woods and across the fields
from the Quarry Bank Mill (which Ernest’s son Alec gave to the National Trust in 1939).
Their family were:
i. Margaret (Madge) b. 1892 studied painting in Paris, was a VAD in World War I and, after
the war, qualified as a doctor and became an orthopaedic surgeon. She married the surgeon
John Morley d. 1974 who shortly afterwards became Professor of Surgery at Manchester
University. She helped him with his private cases. John was a keen fisherman and they
retired to Langwathby where their house overlooked the Eden. Of the four children by John’s
first marriage, the three sons became surgeons and the daughter married a surgeon.
ii. Helen b. 1893 married Major Sir Guy Lloyd and lives at Carrick Castle, Loch Goil, Argyll.
Guy was in cotton (C and P Coates) first in Bolton and then in Paisley and Glasgow from 1920
until 1938 when he retired to go into politics and was MP for East Renfrew 1940-58. He
became D.L. Dunbartonshire and was knighted in 1953 and became 1st baronet in 1960. He
had issue:
(A)
Irene 1919-1955 married John Green-Price of Gwernaffel, Knighton, Radnorshire
(1908-1964 – later 4th Bt). Their son (1) Robert b. 1940 is now 5th Bt with two children.
Their daughter (2) Rosanne married Major R Lowe and has three children.
(B)
Margaret b. 1920 married Dr Bruce Fowler, senior consultant physician, Charing
Cross Hospital and has two sons and two daughters (one married to Dr R Savage).
(C)
Pamela b. 1924 married Robert Hall, Manager ICI Plastics Division, lives at
Knebworth and has one son and one daughter.
(D)
Elizabeth b.1924 married Alastair Denny (later 3rd Bt) of the William Denny and Bros
shipbuilding firm. They have three sons and live in Dumbartonshire.
(E)
Richard b. 1929 married Jennifer Cardiff and they have three sons. He is Chief
Executive of Williams and Glynn (Bankers) and is a director of the National Council
of the Bank of Scotland and of the Legal and General Insurance Company.
iii. Arthur b. 1896 and iv. Robert (Bobby) b. 1900 were both killed in World War I.
v. Alexander (Alec) b. 1901 has a farm near Northwich in Cheshire and an estate at Kishorn
in Wester Ross. He married Kathleen Greig, daughter of Lewis Borthwick Greig of Woodhill,
Aberdeen, and Kendrew, Cape Province, South Africa, and they brought up the three
children of Kathleen’s elder sister Mary; Peter, Naomi (= Wray) and Mark Pattison.
d. Herbert Kynaston died young.
e. Emily (1870-1942) married the Revd Frank Timins (a family thought to have been
Huguenots called de Termine, who emigrated to Ireland where the name became altered),
latterly Rector of Westonbirt in Gloucestershire. She was killed with Charles and Bertha
Clarke in the Bath air raid of April 1942. Their family were:
i. Marion b. 1894 was a VAD in World War I and married John Durand when he was in the
US Army. When she divorced him and married Joseph Felzman, her son (A) Jack b. 1917,
changed his name from Durand to Felzman and had two children. His daughter Charmain,
by her second marriage, had a daughter in 1975. Marion lives in Washington State, USA.
ii. Joan b. 1899 drove an ambulance in France in World War I and was in charge of the
Kenilworth ambulance unit in World War II. She married Daniel Wray (1899-1949), whose
father was Rector of Long Newnton, and had two children. (A) Robert b. 1926 a civil engineer
who married Jenny McCullum and has four children. (B) Janet b. 1930 who married John
Carew-Jones b. 1910, a solicitor in Monmouth,
and has four children.
iii. Revd John b. 1903 married first Angela Gardener and was incumbent at Glemham (1936-
48) although he was away during the war, Long Newnton (1948-52), Martlesham (1952-57),
Horringer (1959-65) and retired to Beyton near Bury St Edmunds. After Angela died, he
married Dolly Grose Hodge, whom he had known well when he was a young man and when
she was Dolly Hayden, and they now live at Worthing. A keen skier and a member of the
Kandahar Club, John visited Switzerland annually for many years.
iv. Margaret b. 1905 drove an ambulance in World War II in England during the blitz in the
course of which she met and married Peter Harman; they lived at Barnt Green near
Birmingham. When Peter died in 1948, she trained as a laboratory technician at the Royal Free
Hospital. She then went to the USA to stay with her sister Marion and has remained there
ever since. She worked as a laboratory technician first of all in Kellog, Idaho, and then with a
group of doctors at Eugene, Oregan. She ultimately became head of the laboratory of
Eugene’s main hospital and retired in about 1973. She has for some years been a theosophist
and runs a theosophical library in her home at 1471 Patterson Street, Eugene.
f. John Neville (Jack) (1871-1950) was a gay spark with the Gaiety Girls in the naughty
nineties. He used to like visiting Monte Carlo; he used to take his vintage port with him when
he knew that his host’s port would not be up to his standards. But he was constantly living
beyond his means and had periodically to be bailed out by the rest of the family. He
eventually settled down and married a parson’s daughter, Gertrude Wykes, sister-in-law of
the journalist and dramatic writer George R Sims (1847-1922); his sister Florence had met GRS
while she was acting in one of his plays. Jack was a connoisseur of good food and drink and
had excellent taste in furniture and pictures. There are pleasant memories of delicious
lunches in the elegant dining rooms at Postford House near Gomshall in Surrey, and at
Fennels Lodge at Loudwater, Buckinghamshire.
g. Hugh Watson died young.
h. Bertha (1874-1942) married Charles Neville Clarke q.v.
2. Edward (1834-1890) was a partner of John Kynaston in the family cotton undertakings and
he lived for much of his time at Bradford House, Bolton, so that he might be near the Moss
Gate Weaving sheds in which he was particularly interested. He was, to quote from James
Carlton Stitt’s book ‘Stitt of Liverpool’ (see below) “a tall and particularly handsome man, a
great sportsman and a magnificent shot who for many years rented the shooting of Inverlair,
which lies between Kingussie and Spean Bridge, and also the contiguous deer forest”.
He stood for Parliament as a Liberal in 1885 but lost to Frank Hardcastle, a Conservative, in
the same year that his brother John lost his seat. He defeated Frank Hardcastle in the County
Council election of 1889 and was appointed alderman. He died twenty months later, on 20th
November 1890. His widow, Hannah, then moved to Clevelands, a comfortable detached
house in the Chorley Old Road, Bolton, and lived there until her death. In 1975, Clevelands
was a school.
Edward and Hannah’s family were:
Edward Cross (1834-1890) = Hannah Carlton (1834-1896)
a. James b. Francis c. Roger d. Arthur e. Gertrude f. Mabel
b. 1864 = b. 1865 = b. 1867 = b. 1868 = b. 1870 = b. 1873
Hibbert Phillimore Shiffnel Kessler Jacques
a. James Carlton Cross (1864-1959) became Managing Director of Crosses and Winkworth
and lived in his cousin Carlton’s house Crooke Hall from 1905 until 1917. He married Marian
Gertrude (d. 1952) daughter of Colonel Francis Gordon Hibbert (see Burkes Landed Gentry,
Hibbert, formerly of Birtles and Chalfont) and they eventually moved to London.
Their family were:
i. The Rt Hon Sir Ronald Hibbert Cross b. 1896 1st and only Baronet (created 15 August 1941),
PC, KCMG, KCVO, after being a merchant banker entered Parliament in 1931 and was
Conservative member for Rossendale 1931-45 and for Ormskirk 1950-51. He became
Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Ministry of Labour in 1932 after which he held a
succession of important posts the most notable of which were Vice-Chamberlain of HM
Household 1937-38, Minister of Shipping 1940-41, British High Commissioner in Australia
1941-45 and Governor of Tasmania 1951-58.
He was born in 1896, married in 1925 Louise Marion, elder daughter of Walter Egerton John
Emmott of Emmott Hall, Colne, Lancashire (see Burkes Landed Gentry, Green-Emmott of
Emmott Hall) and died in 1968.
Their family are:
(A)
Angela b. 1925 m. Campbell, four children.
(B)
Diana b. 1927 m. Taylor, four children.
(C)
John (1933-1936).
(D)
Susanna b. 1938 m. Sitwell, three children.
(E)
Karina b. 1942 m. Barton, two children.
ii. The Revd Eric Kynaston b. 1897 is unmarried and lives in Wimbledon.
iii. Doreen O’Hara b. 1898 married Edward (Teddy) Macintosh (d. 1970) of the Sudan
Political Service. After he retired they settled at Rebeg, Kirkhill, Inverness-shire There family
are:
(A)
Alexander b. 1931 m. Richardson, with two sons, and is concerned with container
transport.
(B)
Pansy b. 1933 m. Cooper a stock broker, two sons and two daughters.
(C)
Alan b. 1934 m. Belden of USA, two sons, and works for the London branch of
American brokers.
(D)
Marion b. 1936 m. Gore a stockbroker, four daughters.
iv. Brenda Carlton b. 1907 married in 1950 Revd Anthony Legh Toller who was a
schoolmaster. He died in 1966. She lives at 10 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, and is a keen
archaeologist and goes every year on a ‘dig’. She was digging in Cyprus when the troubles
started in 1974 and had to be evacuated by the RAF. She has also been on ‘digs’ in the
Lebanon and Israel.
b. Francis John Kynaston (1865-1950) JP was educated at Harrow and New College, Oxford.
He was President of the Oxford University Athletics Club 1886-88 and held the Oxford
Record for the half-mile for 20 years and the World Record for 10. He was called to the Bar,
but never practised. He started in cotton (Crosses and Winkworth) but after marrying Eleanor
Mary Phillimore (d. 1949) daughter of first Baron Phillimore PC, GBE, went south and took
up farming at Aston Tirrold Manor, Didcot, Berkshire. He was Chairman of the Wallingford
District Council for 27 years and Alderman of the Berkshire County Council. The five
children of the marriage were:
i. Philip (1898-1949) who married Margaret Steed and had four children:
(A)
Timothy b. 1923.
(B)
John b. 1925.
(C)
Rachel b. 1928.
(D)
David b. 1931 (one son, one daughter). He served in the forces in both wars and
professionally was a solicitor.
ii. Michael (1899-1969) married Alison Hobart Hampden and had three children:
(A)
Phyllida b. 1923 = Kent (three children).
(B)
Jennifer 1926-34.
(C)
Nicolette = Macintoch (three children).
Michael also was in both wars and apart from these periods was in business.
iii. Christopher (b. 1902) married Audrey Wilson and had two children:
(A)
Michael 1934 (one son and one daughter).
(B)
Susan b. 1936. He took Holy Orders and one of his parishes was Aston Tirrold.
iv. Hannah (b. 1908) married Edmund Wright (d. 1971) and had two children:
(A)
Giles b. 1945.
(B)
Juliet b. 1947 = Essen.
Hannah and her husband were both barristers; Hannah was the first woman member of the
Bar Council.
v. Geoffrey (b. 1910) is unmarried. A schoolmaster, he started teaching at Manchester
Grammar School and later became headmaster of Bishop Veseys School.
c. Roger (1867-1935) a quick-tempered rentier, was an expert gardener and an excellent shot.
He had a wonderful garden at Fleet and had a succession of shooting lodges in Scotland. He
also used to go frequently to Switzerland to shoot chamois. He married firstly, Eva Harrison,
and secondly, Mollie Shiffnel. Mollie had four children:
i. Roger (Bob) b. 1918, married twice (three daughters by second marriage).
ii. Margaret (1920-1963).
iii. John b. 1921, married twice (one son, Richard).
iv. Patrick (1923-1967).
d. Arthur (1868-1938), another quick-tempered rentier, spent much of his time shooting but
he was not as good a shot as his brother. He married Ella Kessler, remembered for her
jewelry, and they lived in style at Radwell House near Baldock where they had their own 9-
hole golf course. Arthur’s bad temper in due course became too much for the family and it
broke up, the elder daughter, i. Marjorie, going off to live with her mother, and the younger
daughter, ii. Gladys, staying with her father. They did reunite, however, for their annual
holiday in Switzerland where Arthur used to excel at curling. Marjorie married in 1926
Geoffrey Martin and had four daughters and one son. The son-in-law, Philip Crosfield b.
1939, while chaplain at Gordonstoun prepared the Prince of Wales for confirmation. Gladys
married Lieut Col William Colhoun of the Indian Army, brother of Mrs Colclough Watson of
Bromptons, Colne Engaine. They had two sons and two daughters. The youngest daughter,
Greenia b. 1942, was for a time in the VSO London office with Brian Clarke.
e. Gertrude (1870-1951) married Revd William Baldwin Jacques (1863-1913) when he was
Vicar of Whittle-le-Woods, Lancashire. His father, the Revd Kinton Jacques, had, while curate
at Leyland, married Caroline Baldwin. Baldwins were vicars of Leyland from 1748 until 1912
and the succeeding vicar, who was there until 1920, was a cousin.
William and Gertrude Jacques later moved to Northamptonshire, first to Burton-Latimer and
then to Orlingbury. Their family were:
i. Dorothy b. 1893 widow of G F Whistler, a farmer, had four children, 13 grandchildren and
two great grandchildren and lived at Great Holland, Essex.
ii. Edward b. 1895 was killed in World War I.
iii. John (1897-1928) was a farmer.
iv. Kathleen b. 1899 widow of G W Hill RN had four children and lived at Ham Street,
Romney Marsh.
v. Roger b. 1901, a schoolmaster, married Ruth Mertens and had three children.
(A)
Hannah b. 1942 m. Andrew John Peacock of Morgan Guaranty Trust Company, New
York.
(B)
Christopher b. 1945 employed by the British Oxygen Company.
(C)
Elizabeth b. 1947 m. Henry Somerset Hanning with one son born 1975, stationed with
the army in Berlin.
vi. Philip (1906-1941) a farmer, married twice and had two sons:
(A)
David b. 1930 and (B) Christopher b. 1932 (two sons) by the first marriage, and one
daughter, (C) Jeanette (two sons, two daughters) by the second marriage.
vii. Revd Humphrey b. 1912, Vicar of Portesham, married Verity Reade and they had two
children:
(A)
Christabel b. 1940 (one son).
(B)
Anthony b. 1949.
f. Mabel (1873-1900) did not marry. She died of typhoid fever contracted on a visit to Egypt.
3. Thomas b. 1836 of Ottawa, Canada, married Mary Ann Wood and had issue. He was
known in the family as ‘Naught Tom’ and was always broke but he did obtain a grant of arms
for the Cross family.
4. Joseph (1838-1910) was head Boy at Rugby and a scholar of Balliol and then became curate
at Hatfield where he preached his first sermon before Archbishop Tait and the then Prime
Minister, Lord Salisbury. He later allowed his clerical duties to lapse and joined Crosses and
Winkworth of whom he was Chairman in 1891. He married Frances Ashworth, niece of John
Bright and they had two sons:
a. Charles.
b. Guy (1884-1969) a soldier, served in the 7th Hussars in India and spent a leave travelling in
Australia. Twice married, with no children, he made his heir Mrs Dalgety, his step daughter
by his second marriage. He was a frequent visitor to Graiguenoe. He at one time owned the
Galway Fisheries and did a profitable trade in salmon and eels. Tons of eels were sold to the
Savoy Hotel in London which served them up as ‘paupiettes de sole’.
5. Kate b. 1842 married Joseph Mellor and had six children:
a. Cecil d. 1897.
b. Ursula married James P Pattison. They lived at Mobberley Hall, Cheshire, and had three
children:
i. Catherine, who was married twice. First to Charles Kessler (three children), and second to
Hugh Mais d. 1974 (one child).
ii. Jack, who was in BP (two sons).
iii. Geoffrey who married Mary Greg, elder sister of Alec Greg’s wife Kathleen (three
children, Peter, Naomi and Mark, brought up by Alec Greg
– see earlier p.xx).
6. Anne (1843-1939) married William Watt-Jones, farmer of Glyn, Dwygyfylchi, North Wales,
who had earlier been in the Merchant Navy and had farmed in British Columbia. They had
three children.
a. Alan (1870-1900) who had his head cut off in the Boxer riots having had four children:
i. Alan who had three wives.
ii. Hector Lloyd.
iii. Ivor.
iv. Robin.
b. Hector (1872-1933) who married his first cousin Mary Potter and had two daughters:
i. Pamela.
ii. Nan.
c. Ivor (1874-1930) who had a son and a daughter.
i. Kynaston.
ii. Vivienne.
7. Anne Jane (1846-1876) married in 1868 Andrew Knowles. The Knowles, colliery owners,
were a hunting family and Andrew was master of the Ledbury at the age of 25. Jane and
Andrew lived at Swinton Old Hall and had three children: a. Hester, b. James, c. Harry.
a. Hester married Augustus (Gus) Orlebar. They lived at Tetworth Hall, Sandy, Bedfordshire,
and had four children of whom Augustus Henry (Harry) 1896-1943 was the eldest. Harry
was the holder of the world air speed record when he flew a supermarine RR 36 seaplane at
357.7 mph in the Schneifer Trophy in 1929.
8. Ellen b. 1849 married Edmund Peel Potter of Manchester who owned a chemical works
and had links with the Calico Printers Association. He was the second son of Edward Potter
b. 1802 Liberal MP for Carlisle and first cousin of Rupert, Beatrix Potter’s father. They lived
first at Hollingshurst, Bolton, and then about 1895 bought Fernclough from the widow of
John Kynaston Cross. In 1919 he gave Fernclough to Bolton and it has since been known as
the Edmund Potter Hospital.
It is a continuation hospital for surgical cases.
Edmund and Ellen had five children:
a. Basil b. 1875.
b. Colin b. 1877, who carried on the Chemical Works.
c. Mary b. 1879 (called Dot because she was so small) was a member of the Fine Arts Society;
she painted miniatures and sculpted. She married her first cousin Hector Watts-Jones (see 6.
above) and they had two children:
i. Pamela married George Kinmont (1899-1973) a Colonel in the Scots Guards. After retiring
from the army he became Commissioner of the St John Ambulance Brigade as well as TA
Secretary for Cumberland and Westmorland. He became DL Cumberland and he and Pamela
lived at Penrith. Of their four daughters, three are married.
ii. Nan married Donald McCullough, the advertising and PR consultant, writer and
broadcaster. He is perhaps best remembered for his books written in conjunction with
‘Fougasse’, particularly ‘You have been warned’. Nan and Donald live at Overy Staithe in
Norfolk and have three sons and two daughters who include an actress, a musician and a
sculptor.
d. Gerald b. 1881 farmed in Tasmania.
e. Mark was a barrister in London.
II. The Carlton family
Both Carltons and Watsons had been yeoman farmers in North Yorkshire near Stockton-on-
Tees; the Carltons at Yarm and the Watsons at Easington, near Loftus, on the low road from
Saltburn to Whitby. James Carlton moved to Manchester about 1815 to work in a warehouse.
Ten years later, at the age of 29, he started up on his own account as a muslin manufacturer
and was prosperous. He was a deeply religious man and was a deacon of the Congregational
Church. He had a great repugnance to card playing and upon his marriage requested his
bride never to allow cards to be introduced to their house.
James Carlton’s grandfather Robert had actually come from Scotland but as Carlton is a
Yorkshire name, not Scottish, it is probable that he was returning to the district in which his
forebears had previously lived. The Carlton’s crest appears to be that of the Barons of
Dorchester (Barony extinct since 1963) whose surname was Carleton and who lived in
Cumberland. The family was there in the 16th century and then a branch migrated to Ireland
and lived for several generations in County Fermanagh.
James bought Irwell House and had the following issue of whom 7. Emily and 8. Hannah
have been detailed above.
A. James Carlton (1796-1851) = Mary Watson (1797-1877)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Mary John Robert James Sarah Edward Emily Hannah
b. 1824 = b. 1825 = b. 1825 = b. 1830 = died Henry b. 1838 = b. 1840 =
Stitt 1. Watson Hooghton Watts young died J K Cross E Cross
2. Ball young
1. Mary (1824-1888) was when young called ‘Little Miss Mary’ because she was so small. She
married John Johnson Stitt (1826-1889), Iron and General Merchant of Liverpool. He was also
a member of Liverpool Town Council, ran a bible class at the Crescent Independent Chapel of
Mount Pleasant and was a director of the North British Railway. He father, James Stitt (1779-
1860) had left the family farm at New Abbey, near Dumfries, about 1810 and had worked in
Whitehaven (where he married Margaret Heslop, niece of the inventor of the Heslop
Winding and Pumping Engine) before moving to Liverpool in 1823. J J and Mary Stitt moved
in 1878 from Liverpool to the outskirts of Edinburgh where they lived until they died. Their
family were:
John Johnson Stitt (1826-1889) = 1. Mary Carlton (1824-1888)
a. James b. Fanny c. Ada Mary d. John e. Charles f. Francis g. John
Carlton Heslop b. 1854 = Cox Arthur Alfred Joseph Watson
b. 1851 = b. 1852 = b. 1856 b. 1859 = b. 1865 b. 1867
Brown Park died young Mack
a. James Carlton (1851-1934) was a marine consulting engineer, JP and a member of the
council of the University of Liverpool, of which he was an Hon. LL.D. He was a deacon of the
Presbyterian Church, was a keen collector of book plates and wrote in 1901, for private
circulation, a book about the family called ‘Stitt of Liverpool’. He married Ann Brown and
they had three children:
i. John Carlton.
ii. Dorothy Heslop = Gerard.
iii. Marjorie Napier = Sanders.
b. Fanny Heslop (1852-1952) married John Park and lived to within three weeks of her 101st
birthday. They once let one of the houses they lived in – Eastwood, near Dunkeld, which they
leased from the Duke of Atholl – to Beatrix Potter who wrote ‘Peter Rabbit’ there. The
gardener’s name was MacGregor.
c. Ada Mary (1854-1950) married Edward Cox (1850-1913) of Dundee and Cardean. The Cock
family came from Holland to Scotland in the 15th century and they started a mill near Dundee
about 1700. A. James Cock (1809-1885) changed the family name from Cock to Cox in 1840
and in the following year was joined by his three brothers in the firm ‘Cox Brothers’. He was,
with John Johnson Stitt, a director of the North British Railway (he happened to be Lord
Provost of Dundee at the time of the Tay Bridge disaster in 1879) and it was through this NBR
friendship that Edward Cox met Ada Stitt.
Edward, in addition to running the business, was director of a number of trust companies
and insurance companies. He was Also DL, President of the Dundee Chamber of Commerce,
a governor of University College, Dundee, and a director of the Caledonian Railway. (One of
CR’s most famous locomotives was named after his house ‘Cardean’ which was near Meigle
in Perthshire). Edward and Ada had five children:
i. Ernest (1876-1950) was Chairman of Cox Brothers and then of Jute Industries Ltd when
Cox Brothers amalgamated with six other jute firms. He succeeded his father in the trust
companies, the Chamber of Commerce and the University, was a JP and, for many years,
Treasurer of the Diocese of Brechin of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
He lived at Methven Castle some six miles west of Perth and married Jean Tod, whose father
had, like Edward Cox, been a director of the Caledonian Railway. Ernest and Jean had six
children:
(A)
Margot MBE, unmarried, lives at Nairn.
(B)
Edward d. 1925.
(C)
David, Commander RN, lived in Guernsey, married Mary Charlot and has two
children and two grandchildren.
(D)
Molly d. 1911.
(E)
Michael, formerly a farmer in Kent, married Heather Wilson nee Lyon (Heather
Jenner of the marriage bureau) and has two children. The marriage since dissolved.
Michael lives in Fuereventura, Canaries.
(F)
Dougal, formerly a stockbroker, lives in Jersey. He married Denyse Falck and has two
children.
ii. John (Jack) married Katharine Aitken and they had four children:
(A)
Elizabeth = Sir Peter Ogilvy-Wedderburn Bt. (four children and two grandsons).
(B)
Annette.
(C)
Jean = Neil Collier (three children).
(D)
John.
Annette and John are both unmarried and live near Coupar, Angus.
e. Charles Alfred (1859-1943) was a rentier who shot, fished and gardened and when too old
for the first, took to carpentry and made radio sets. He married Mary Beatrice Mack and they
had one child.
i. John Heslop b. 1898 Lieut Col. Gordon Highlanders, MC (retired) has since 1948 run a
plant nursery at Blairgowrie, Perthshire. He married Ida Katherine Martineau of Aberdeen
and they had two children:
(A)
Sheila b. 1925 = James Rutherford of the Malaysian Civil Service (three children).
(B)
John = Angela Lawford (three children), a solicitor practising in London.
2. John and 3. Robert were twins born on 29th December 1825. John trained in the warehouse
and married his cousin Mary Ann Watson. She died and he went to Australia taking with
him iron houses and an iron church with a view to establishing a settlement. This project fell
through and he started up in Melbourne as a merchant, his firm being called Carlton, Judd
and Hocknell. Robert followed his brother to Australia in 1849 and on the voyage he became
engaged to Eliza Ball who was emigrating from Ireland, but she on meeting John in Australia
decided to marry him instead. John and Eliza had one son: a. Crighton, who had several sons.
Robert spent some years in Australia and on returning to England lived first near Chester and
then at Castlenove Villa, Barnes. He married Caroline Hooghton and they had two children:
a. Watson (Wappie) and b. Ada, both of whom married.
4. James b. 1930 took his father’s place in the firm Carlton, Walker and Watson and he
married Emma, daughter of Sir James Watts, owner of a large clothing firm and sometime
Mayor of Manchester. While mayor, he entertained at his house Abney Hall, Cheadle, the
Prince Consort when he came to Manchester to open the 1857 Arts Treasures Exhibition
which James Carlton had a hand in organising. James and Emma lived first of all in
Manchester, then at Booth Hall, Knutsford, and after that at Esher. His grandson Jack Carlton
(see later) wrote of him “Apparently grandfather Carlton was wealthy but blind and someone
whom he trusted gradually milked away his fortune”.
James and Emma had seven children and their family were:
4. James Carlton b. 1830 = Emma Watts
a. James b. Harry c. Beatrice d. Hubert e. Eric f. Margaret g. Noel
b. 1860 = b. 1863 = b. 1867 = b. 1870 = b. 1871 = b. 1872 b. 1874 =
Swale Winslow Russell Sillars Bennett F Watts
i. Nancy ii. Bob
ii. Jack
= Lintern = Clarke
(A) Tessa (A) Patricia (B) David
= Hunt b. 1940 = Grace b. 1943 = McKenna
(1) Andrew b. 1963 (1) Elizabeth b. 1972
(2) James Kynaston
b. 1974
a. James Edward Watts b. 1860 was in business (it is thought in Vesty’s) in London.
b. Harry Weston was an estate agent; he was very keen on shooting and wrote a book
‘Spaniels, their breaking for sport and field trials’.
d. Francis Hubert was a businessman; latterly he was running a very successful poultry
business near Salisbury.
e. Revd Frederick (Eric) William was incumbent at Hop-under-Dinmore in Herefordshire
and, from 1920 until 1934, at Bletsoe in Bedfordshire. He then retired to Felpham, Sussex, and
died there in 1949. While at Hope-under-Dinmore he ran a cramming establishment and
Vernon Clarke was sent there for a few weeks in 1916 to break him in for going to Cheam.
Regarding Eric’s children:
i. Nancy’s husband John Lintern was a turkey farmer; his father had been with the Eastern
Telegraph Company in Gibraltar.
ii. Eric James Watts (Bob) was an Administrative Assistant in Tanganyika and died there in
about 1940. His wife was a distant connection of his mother Lottie Bennett. His son David is a
chartered accountant.
iii. John Kynaston (Jack) is a schoolmaster and teaches at Bedford, where he was until
recently, Boarding House Master.
f. Margaret Winifred did not marry.
g. Edward Noel fought in the Boer War and later joined the Rhodesian Civil Service in which
he was a Secretary to the Governor. He was a fairly frequent visitor to Graiguenoe Park.
Appendix
Further details of James Carlton (1796-1851) from the book ‘Stitt of Liverpool’ by James
Carlton Stitt:
James was at an early age sent away from the family farm at Yarm to a boarding school in a
nearby village, and he then did an apprenticeship in Stockton-on-Tees.
When barely 19 he moved to Manchester on an invitation to fill a responsible position in a
warehouse there. Ten years later in 1825 he started up on his own as a muslin manufacturer.
His business was at one end of the High Street and Rylands was at the other. When they met
he decided it was time to move and he set up in Moseley Street. A Kellog’s directory of the
time contained this entry: ‘James Carlton (J Carlton, Walker and Lewis) General
Warehousemen and Manufacturers of Muslin, Dimities, Handkerchiefs, Shawls etc, business
premises 22 Moseley Street and 23 George Street’. The firm later became Carlton, Walker and
Watson. James first met his partner George Walker when the latter was an illiterate butcher’s
boy who asked him for help in reading an address to which he had to deliver meat. James
taught the boy to read and write and then took him on as an office boy. He became a partner
within ten years.
James Carlton and his wife Mary (nee Watson) lived first of all at Broughton Lane where the
first four children were born and then at Adelphi Terrace overlooking the river where the
next three were born, and finally at Irwell House, a country house by the river at Lower
Broughton where the eighth child Hannah was born in 1840. James Carlton died in 1851 and
his seventh child Emily married John Kynaston Cross in 1858; his widow Mary moved to
Whalley Range and from there to Elm Bank, Eccles Old Road, Pendleton from where the
youngest child Hannah was married on 11th August 1863 at the Eccles Congregational Church
to Edward Cross. Mary finally moved to Birkdale near Southport where she died in 1877. Her
father Edward Watson had lived at North Moele, Southport after moving from Easington; he
was buried at St Anne’s Church, Manchester.
