Doyle, Jones, Stubbs and Stirrit

The last blog (16th Jan) sketched a vignette which is part of the history of 'the Ballycloughan Family'. Thomas senior was the second son of Crawford and Elise McIlhagga. I must now complete the references I have to this immediate family. I have mentioned that Thomas's daughter Agnes Barbour was born on 19th August 1890 at 35 Ashfield Cottages, Ashfield Street. Clearly she was called after Agnes Barbour who signed as a witness at their wedding. Her mother Margaret (nee Galbraith) reported her birth. After her mother's death in 1908 when she was 18 she went to live with another local family (see blog 13 Jan 09). She was a Bag Mender (possibly for a Jute firm) when she married 25 year old Michael Doyle on 27th August 1916. Agnes was brought up a Protestant but married at St. Sylvester's Roman Catholic Church, Sylvester Street, Liverpool, so we must assume this was Michael's Church. Michael's father Peter, a former Watchman, was deceased. Thomas is recorded as a Shipping Clerk. I have no record of whether Michael and Agnes had a family. On 16th September 1917 Thomas senior remarried a widow Agnes Baker, nee McArthur. She lived next door to him and they moved into her house at 25 Severn Street. He died on 28th December 1926 aged 58 of Carcinoma of the Larynx. She died just two months later, on 20th February 1927, aged 48, of Chronic Bronchitis and Broncho-Pneumonia.

After Elizabeth, William and Thomas, Crawford and Elise had three more children, Crawford, Agnes and John. Agnes we have met already (see blogs 28th Jan 09 and 12th Jan 10). Crawford was born on 20th July 1870. His birth record wrongly spells his surname McIlhagger. On 6th March 1905 aged 34 he married Margaret Abiah Jones, aged 29, daughter of Richard William Jones, a Cooper. Both gave their address as 63 Summer Seat. They married at St. Alban's Church of England in the Parish of Bevington, Liverpool. Crawford gave his occupation as a Clerk. In fact he was a Railway Clerk, a job he held for over twenty years, at a time when the Railways were employing an increasing proportion of the population. They were to have two children, Mary on 29th April 1906 and William Crawford on 1st June 1909 who lived only a few weeks, to 22nd July. he had been born prematurely. Their father died on 10th May 1926 at 2 Mould Street, exchange, Liverpool, of Acute Pleurisy, aged 55 years. Margaret lived for another 31 years. She died on 23rd March 1957 at 3 Kinross Road, Waterloo, Crosby, aged 81 years. A descendant of the Jones family told me that the Joneses recall visiting the McIlhaggas on a regular basis (in the 1890s?) when they lived in Mould Street. Daughter Mary was eventually to marry C.W. Stubbs. Unfortunately I have no details of this marriage or whether they had a family.

Crawford and Elise's last child was John who was born 13th August 1879 at 76 St. Martin's Cottages. John never married. He was living at 6 Archer Street when he gave notice of his father's death, though some years later he had moved into Bevington House Hotel when he died in somewhat mysterious circumstances on 12th April 1922. Strangely he had assumed a middle name, Stirrit, though where this name came from is not known. A Coroner's Inquest was held but no record remains of the proceedings and to date no newspaper report has been found of what happened. He was a General Labourer aged 43 years. His death record simply says 'Valvular Disease. Natural Causes'. He was 'pronounced dead' at Stanley Hospital.