The Garveys and the Burns

The Garveys

 

One of the few Irish in Derwentside on the 1841 census was James Garvey, 20, an agricultural labourer living at Baxton Burn Cottages, Benfieldside West. Another of the Irish people in Derwentside in 1841 was a Mr Smith also an agricultural labourer in Benfieldside West; but there is no evidence to connect these people to our Garvey and Smith ancestors.

According to McLysaght, Garvey (meaning rough) is a name from Kerry, Donegal, Armagh, Down, or Mayo. Smith; whilst occurring throughout Ireland is the most common name in Armagh. I hope at some stage to check the Armagh records to see if the family can be found.

The Garveys first appear in England in Newcastle. The first record of the Garveys was the birth of their son Henry in Newcastle on 20 March 1843; they were living at Park Place, just north of the original Eldon Sq. James was a labourer, Elizabeth registered the birth: she could not sign her name, so made her mark.

St Andrew’s Church Newcastle.

At Henry’s baptism, by Father James Riddell at St Andrew’s Worswick St, the sponsors were Thomas Kennedy and Isabella McLoughlin. We know from a later census that Mary Smith was born about 1821 in Ireland and her husband James, also in Ireland about 1808. There is no record of James Garvey and Elizabeth Smith’s marriage in England, so I assume they were married in Ireland; however the following report appeared in the Newcastle Courant of January 10 1840.

 

On 11 June 1848 an Owen Garvey of Blackhill, Consett Co Durham married Rose Cunningham. The 1861 census reveals that Rose was from Louth, and Owen from Down. They appear on the 1881 census at Darlington; this couple were married at Brooms 11/6/1848. Later at the baptism of John Henry Burns, my gt grandfather at St Mary’s Cathedral on 18 December 1870 Newcastle the sponsors were Peter Coyle and Mary C… Peter Coyle appears on the 1881 census in a household made up of Coyles, Cunninghams, and Carrolls, including a Patrick Carroll, born in Consett, and a Catherine Cunningham, born in Newcastle. Both Owen Garvey and our ancestor James Garvey had sons named Henry. All these names appear in the TAB in Newtown Hamilton Armagh.  Was there a link between the Newcastle and Blackhill Garveys?

In 1852 a Mary Garvey (there were two in Newcastle at the time of the 1851 census) and John Mackel were sponsors at a baptism. A later census saw grandchildren, whose name appears to be Garvey, as lodgers with the Mackel family in Pudding Chare, Newcastle, and a subsequent census revealed that the Mackels came from Co Tyrone.

Mary Garvey was born on New Year’s Day 1846, but surprisingly in those days of high infant mortality, was not baptised until 25 Jan, at St Andrew’s almost a month later, when her sponsors were John and Mary Conway, and the priest Fr L Cullen. The civil registration of Mary Garvey’s birth has not yet been found#.

 

 

A view of Grey St in the city centre from an advertisement (N.C. 13 Feb. 1846)

 

The 1851 census found the Garvey family in Pipewellgate, a very poor area of Gateshead on the banks of the Tyne, and the centre of Gateshead’s Irish community. In 1843 there were just 3 privies (ash closets) for the 2,000 inhabitants. The street which gave its name to the area was 330 yards long and only 8 feet wide.

The superintendant of the Gateshead Police reported in 1850 that he had seen filthy rooms, but no more so, than the 20 square feet occupied by 15 to 20 people in a Pipewellgate lodging house*. The Garveys were lodging with Mary Thompson (born Newcastle) and family. James Garvey (37) was a Cooper, born in Ireland; Elizabeth (36) born Ireland Henry (7) born Newcastle, Mary (5) born Newcastle, and John (2) born Newcastle, the record of John’s birth has not yet been found.

 *Northumberland and Durham, the Sinister Side Steve Jones.

Pipewellgate was originally a separate township to Gateshead. It was called after the ‘pipe well’ from which wooden pipes carried Gateshead’s water supply. An account for 1631 states ‘paid ye mason for hewing and laying stones at the pipewell’. - The suffix gate is used in the sense of street or lane. The street was of medieval origin although it was largely rebuilt in the 18^th century. Pipewellgate ran parallel to the river and consisted of small factories, workshops and tenemented houses. It was generally regarded as one of the worst residential areas in Gateshead. Reports of local doctors and inspectors frequently condemned the area. In 1850 Inspector R. Rawlinson wrote of Pipewellgate, 'Neither plan nor written description can adequately convey … the true state and condition of the room-tenements and of the inhabitants occupying them. The subsoil on the sloping side of the hill is damp and most foul, the brickwork of the buildings is ruinous, the timber rotten; and an appearance of general decay pervades the whole district … Single rooms are let off as tenements which are crowded with men, women and children; the walls are discoloured with age, damp and rot; the windows are broken, old rags, straw and boards occupying the place of glass, so that means of light and ventilation alike are absent'. (Manders, 1973 quoted on http://isee.gateshead.gov.uk/detail.)

 

On 21 August 1853, a James Garvey died of an aneurysm of the aorta at St John’s Infirmary, Newcastle. This man was a catholic, as his name appears in the record of requiem masses said at St Mary’s Cathedral Newcastle, he was buried at the Ballast Hills Cemetery on 23 August, described as a labourer whose abode was Byker Bar he was very likely James, the husband of Mary, who was widowed by 1871.

I have been unable to find Elizabeth Garvey or any of her family on the 1861 census of Gateshead, or Newcastle.

 

The electoral role for 1868-9 shows Henry Garvey as an elector at 26 Byron St Westgate. As12 months residence was a requirement it seems that Henry, and I assume, the Burns family, moved from Gateshead to Byron St immediately after his sister Elizabeth married William Burns in December 1867.

 

The Burns in Newcastle.

William and Elizabeth’s first child Charles was born on 27 Dec 1868 at 26 Byron Crescent (right on the edge of the river Tyne) Elswick Newcastle, the first Burns to be born in England.

Two years later, my great granda John Henry Burns was born (3 Dec 1870) at 3 Milton St Westgate, he was baptised on 18 December at St Mary’s, sponsors Peter Coyle and Maria Carroll. *Carroll Coyle Cunningham?1881?

The Burns were still at Milton St 4 months later on 2 April 1871 when the census took place. The family’s name was recorded as Barnes, due no doubt, to William’s Scots accent. William (23) was described as an iron founder (the Morning Chronicle article on the South Wales iron Industry reveals that founder was the term for a worker at the bottom of a blast furnace) Mary was (24), Charles (2) and John Henry (4 months) Also in the household were Mary’s mother Elizabeth Garvey (50) and Mary’s brother Henry Garvey (25) also an Iron Founder. I wonder if John Henry was named Henry after his uncle who would have been 10 when his father died and who likely played a major role in keeping the Garvey family together, or whether he and his uncle were named after an earlier ancestor.

William Burns (junior) was born at 492 Scotswood Rd on 6 April 1873, and his sister Elizabeth Aunty Lizzie to my dad and aunty Winnie) at the same address on 3 March 1875. By the time James Burns was born on 16 May 1878 at 40 Noble St, a street which was home to the Burns family at various stages after 1878.

 

The census of 1881 found the Burns family at 281 and 283 Scotswood Rd Elswick, occupation of two houses might suggest the family were more comfortable than before, but in fact there were four family groups sharing the two houses, and this was also the case with the other houses in the locality. Perhaps the landlords of the properties found it more profitable to knock two houses together before letting out rooms. Charles 12, John Henry 10, and William were at school, the two youngest children (Elizabeth and James) at home. As at the previous census their Grandmother Elizabeth Garvey (56) was included in the household.

In 1882 Grace Burns was born (9 Jan) at Bowman Terrace, between Scotswood Road and the river. Sadly, Grace died at the age of 14 weeks. An inquest was held, and found that Grace has been accidentally suffocated in bed (it was common, due to overcrowding for children to sleep in the same bed as their parents, and this may have been the cause of death in Grace’s case). The coroner was John T Hoyle, a solicitor of 4 Leazes terrace, it is no criticism of JT Hoyle to point out that in his, no doubt, spacious house, where he lived with his daughter and grandson, there were five servants.

Deaths Mar 1884   (>99%)
Burns	Grace	0	Newcastle T.	10b	7

?

Henry Garvey died at 3 Back Gun Terrace, Westgate on 24 March 1884. Henry, 36, was a foundry labourer, he died of acute bronchitis, his brother in law William Burns of 4 Bowman Terrace reported his death.

A feature of life in the years between 1883 and 1886 was that at dawn and at sunset the sky would appear red, because of the dust thrown into the atmosphere by the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa.

 

 The last of William and Mary’s children Matthew, was born at 30 Ramshaw St Elswick in 1887(21 May). William was by then working at the Elswick works, and he registered the birth.

William Burns appears on the voters list at 30 Ramshaw St on the 1886-7 and 1889 registers, but on the 1890 register a different family appears on the role, and it seems the family had moved again. At some point over the next 3 years William died, so far I have been unable to find when or where. Mary (Garvey) Burns appears as a voter on the municipal voters’ role for 1891-2, from Edgeware Rd, the first of our female ancestors to have the vote (in local elections). This means the family were at this address from 15 July 1890.

 In 1891 the census recorded Mary as a widow. The Burns were now at 13 Edgeware Rd Elswick; Charles (21) was a general labourer, John Henry (19) was an apprentice riveter – boiler (a boiler maker), William jnr (17) was a putter (a coal tub pusher) in a coal mine. Elizabeth (15) was a news girl-hawker, and Matthew was four. This census asked how many rooms were at the family’s disposal (if less than 5); the Burns family had 2 rooms.

For 1893-4 Mary Burns’ qualification was for ‘successive properties, 13 Edgeware Rd and 10 Rendel St’. This means that Mary Burns moved from the first address to the second, and qualified for the vote as a result of the aggregate time (minimum 12 months) she had held tenancies at first at Edgeware Rd, then at Rendel St.

Elizabeth Garvey did not appear with the Burns family on the census returns for 1891 and so far has not been found elsewhere on the census but she was still alive. She died (of pulmonary congestion and senile exhaustion, - meaning old age) in the Newcastle workhouse on 10 July 1893. Mary Burns her daughter was in attendance. Mary’s address was 10 Rendel St Elswick.

The death of Matthew Burns aged 8, in 1896, of ‘inflammation of the lungs and bowel, and exhaustion’ must have been a terrible blow to Mary. By then the family were living at 51 Alexander St. Elswick. Four years later, on 4 March 1897, Mary Burns (43) died of cirrhosis of the liver and kidneys. Rosannah Nugent of 40 Noble St reported Mary’s death.

 

John Henry Burns a boilersmith of 16 Noble St. married Susan McLaughlin (23) of the same address, at St Michael’s Church Clumber St Elswick, on 18 June 1898. Patrick Duffy, a neighbour of John Henry from Noble St was the best man. The Duffys were an Irish family from Co Down who, like the Burns, came to Newcastle after some time in Scotland.

 

*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918

The inhabitant occupier as owner or tenant for 12 months preceding the 15th July in any year of any dwelling-house within the county.

The infirmary at Forth Banks, between the site of what is now the Central Station and the river.