This work is the result of much research to trace the roots of the DENT background of the wife of James Reay of Scotforth Smithy, to the south of Lancaster, Lancashire.
James Reay and his wife Annie Mary DENT moved to Lancaster in about 1910 from their original home in Keswick, Cumberland, where they had married in January 1904. (Marr Cert, DAR.) James worked as a blacksmith, firstly as an apprentice to Joseph Birkett of Portinscale, and after some time there, saw an opportunity to improve himself, and moved his family to Scotforth, Lancaster.
Annie Mary, (always referred to as Annie-Mary in the family) and James’s family is described in the Reay family history pages, elsewhere on this site.
Annie Mary’s parents were James DENT and Elizabeth MAWSON.
Researches reveal that (5) James DENT was born 8th February 1851 at Kendal, Westmorland, (Birth Cert, DAR) and baptised there on 9th March the same year. The 1851 census show James’s family living in Stramongate, Kendal. By the time of the 1861 census, James’s family had moved to Millbeck, near Keswick, and that 10 yr old James was working as a ‘wool sorter’; no doubt at the mill there. Millbeck is a small hamlet to the north-west of Keswick, under the shadow of Skiddaw / Blencathra. At the time of their Marriage at Crosthwaite Church, Keswick, on the 12th October 1872,(Marr Cert, DAR.) James was described as a Cart Driver of Millbeck. Witnesses to the marriage were a John Dent and a Sarah Martyn.
At that time there was a small water powered woollen mill at Millbeck, and James’s father, also called James, was a foreman at the mill.
James and Elizabeth’s children all appear to have been born in the Keswick area, but at different addresses.
At the time of Annie Mary’s birth, James, Elizabeth and family were living at the corner of Station Street and Bank Court, (the address varied between 14 Station Street, and 1 Banks Court), with Elizabeth running a small grocery shop there. James was still recorded as a ‘cart driver’.
Several relatives recalled visiting and occasionally staying at the shop in the 1930’s, saying that Elizabeth was a hard worker into old age, but James just sat back and let her get on with it!
The shop still exists, much enlarged and modernised and now a butchers shop, and fronting on to Station Street.
See here for all of James and Elizabeth’s children.
(C) James DENT, born in 1811 at Keswick, father of the above James, apparently worked at the mill at Millbeck. In the 1870’s, the woollen mill is run by the young, unmarried sisters, Agnes and Elizabeth Nicholson; shown in the 1871 census as employing 15 men, 3 boys and 9 women. Sixty year old Arthur Dover of Skiddaw Bank is a Retired Woollen Manufacturer.
This James, records reveal, was christened at Crosthwaite Church on 3 November 1811. (FHL 0926148) . The census of June 1841 shows that James was a labourer, living with his parents and siblings in John St, Birkenhead, Cheshire. (see later) However, in July 1841, he married Ellen Higgin at St Mary’s Church, Ulverston. James’s marriage certificate indicates that at this time he is living across the Mersey, in Seel St, Liverpool. Ellen’s parents were of a farming family at Osmotherly, near Ulverston, in the Furness district of Lancashire.
James and Ellen spent the first few years of their married live together in Keswick but by the time of the 1851 census, were living in Stramongate, Kendal, Westmorland where James worked as a Handloom Weaver. (HO 107/2442 F275 P36)
By this time, their family consisted of:-
- (1) Mark, born December 1843 at Keswick, Cumberland. In 1873, he married Maria Barton at Penrith, Cumberland. Mark, a gardener, and Maria appear to have had seven children, and continued to live in the Penrith area. Mark died there in 1904.
- (2) Ann, born late 1845 at Keswick. In 1867, Ann married John Stanley son of a Woollen Weaver at Millbeck. John became a Tailor, and after the birth of their earlier children, moved east across the country, eventually settling in Mirfield, Yorkshire. Their children, twelve in all, all became involved in the Woollen trade. John died in 1915 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, and Ann followed in 1918.
- (3) Jane, born 1847 at Keswick. In 1874, Jane married Wilson MacKintosh a widower, at Whitehaven, Cumberland, becoming his second wife. Wilson was an Iron Ore and Lead miner. He appears to have had five children by his first wife Mary Morley, who had died in 1872, and he and Jane appear to have added a further eight children to the family, living in the Frizington area, amongst the many coal and mineral mines in the area at that time. Wilson died in 1900, but Jane survived him until 1935.
- (4) Thomas, born April 1849 at Kendal, Westmorland. In 1871, Thomas was working as a Farm Servant at High Harrington, near Whitehaven. In 1877 he married Margaret Robinson of Little Clifton, Workington. They settled in Little Clifton; Thomas working in the mines, at one stage, looking after pit ponies. They had 10 children who survived through infancy. Thomas appears to have died in 1933.
- (5) James, born February 1851 at Kendal. As above.
The family continued to grow as follows:
- (6) John, born 1853 at Kendal.
John trained as a Tailor. After a period in Hulme, Manchester, he travelled down to London. In 1888 he married Mary or Marie Francis, from Llangefelach, Glamorgan, Wales, working as a Servant in Brondesbury Road, Willesden, CR 1881 and they set up home in Paddington.Marr Cert, DAR They do not appear to have had children. John died in August 1894 in the London County Asylum at Ilford, apparently of a ‘General Paralysis’. Death Cert, DAR
Marie lived on in Sutherland Avenue, in the Maida Vale area of London until at least 1903. Ancestry: London Registry of Occupiers. The death of a Marie Dent is recorded in Wokingham, Berkshire in early 1904. This Marie appears to have been in service with the Leadham family, and may have indicated she was a few years younger than ‘our’ Marie; but is the only record of a Marie Dent in the south east of the country at the time. Q1 1904 Wokingham 2c 273
And there must have been a return to Birkenhead as,
- (7) Mary Ellen was born 1885 on the Wirral.
She returned with the family to Millbeck, and by 1871 is working as a farm servant near Ulverston, Lancashire. In 1873 she married Benson Shepherd from Hawkshead. Benson worked at several labouring jobs, including in a Brewery at Ulverston. They appear to have had 10 children. Benson died in 1899 at Ulverston. Mary apparently in 1926.
A last known child,
Robert appears to have lived a solitary existence, working as a farm labourer near Ulverston, then on another farm near Egremont, then, in his 50’s, as a railway fence man at Harrington near Whitehaven. He does not appear to have married. In retirement, Robert moved back to Ulverston, where he died in 1934. Death cert, DAR.
As can be seen, at the time of Robert’s birth, the family moved to Millbeck near Keswick, and the census of 1861 shows the family living there with James working in the Mill there.
(C) James died on the 24th December 1864 at Millbeck, of peritonitis. His wife Ellen pre-deceased him, having died in 1861 at Millbeck of a cancer of the throat.
“Death. At Millbeck near Keswick, on the 24 inst after a few days illness, James Dent, in the 54 year of his age. He was foreman to Arthur Dover Esq, Woollen Manufacturer, Mill Beck. He has left numerous family to mourn his loss.” [FMP: The Carlisle Journal. Friday December 30th 1864.]
Previous generation,
From census returns, the father of James was found to be:
(I) Thomas Dent, born 1789 in Keswick. He was baptized 5 Apr 1789 at Crosthwaite. Thomas appears to have wanted to expand his horizons. The census’s of 1841 and 1851 show he and Ann living in John St, Birkenhead, Cheshire, with Thomas’s occupation given as ‘Collecter’, HO107/126/11 F28 P40. and more clearly, HO 107/2175 F196 P33 as ‘Ferry Collecter’, and born at ‘Keswick’. His wife Ann died in September 1856 in Chester Street, Birkenhead. Death Cert, DAR
The census of 1861 shows Thomas back in his home town of Keswick, boarding in Main Street, with his occupation given as ‘Proprietor of houses’. Is he just checking up on his assets? Thomas died in September 1866, back in Birkenhead. Death Cert, DAR His will of 1866 indicates Probate being granted to William Arnold, his son-in-law, (see later) cabinet maker of Paddington, Liverpool.
Thomas and Ann had ten children, not all survived to adulthood. They were:-
(A) Mary Dent, baptised 25th December 1807 at Crosthwaite. She died and was buried 19th August 1813 at Crosthwaite.
(B) Margaret Dent, baptised 3rd November 1811 at Crosthwaite. She appears to have died and been buried shortly before Mary, in June 1813 at Crosthwaite.
(C) James Dent, 1811 – 1864 as shown above.
(D) Eliza Dent, baptised 3rd December 1813 at Crosthwaite. In 1837, Eliza married William Arnold at the ‘lost’ church of St Philip’s in Hardman Street, Liverpool. William, born in 1812 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, was a cabinet maker. By the time of the 1851 census, William, Eliza and four children were living in Kensington, Liverpool.
(E) Thomas Dent, baptised 1st November 1815 at Crosthwaite. Thomas appears to have died in May 1817 at Crosthwaite.
(F) Ann Dent, baptised 15th January 1818 at Crosthwaite. I have been unable to trace Ann further, and must assume she died in infancy.
(G) Joseph Dent, baptised 7th September 1821 at Crosthwaite. Joseph appears with other members of the family in the census of 1841 at John Street, Birkenhead, recorded as a ‘Tailor’, but so far, I have not been able to trace him further.
(H) Sarah Ann Dent, baptised 17th August 1823 at Crosthwaite. Sarah Ann, listed in the 1841 census at John Street, Birkenhead as a Dressmaker, married in October 1843 at Huyton, Lancashire, Joseph Austin Greene, a book keeper, born in 1822 at Liverpool. In the 1841 census, Joseph had been living at Canning Street, Birkenhead, with his parents John Howe Greene (the elder) and Eliza (Kilshaw) who proved to have been married in Massachusetts, USA. Ancestry: Newspaper Extractions from the North East USA, Columbia Central, Mass
Sarah and Joseph and their (eventually) ten children settled in Victoria, Australia. Joseph died in Stawell in January 1898. Ancestry: Probate Index, VIC 069/648 Sarah briefly survived him until her death in Inglewood in July 1900. Ancestry: VIC 676/240
(I) Thomas Dent; a further Thomas after the death of (e), baptised in January 1826 at Crosthwaite. This Thomas appears in the 1841 census at John Street, Birkenhead, listed as ‘engineer’. Further information is sought on this Thomas.
(J) William Dent. Baptised in January 1827 at Crosthwaite. I have not found further information on William.
