Fearless Females: Hannah Duckworth

March 2 — Post a photo of one of your female ancestors. Who is in the photo? When was it taken? Why did you select this photo?

Hannah Duckworth was the mother of Esther Letitia Brown, which would make her my Great-great-grandmother.  She was married to John Brown, an army veteran who was blinded in the Crimean War.  Hannah had four children before she died on 26 July, 1871 at the age of forty.


I chose this picture because it is oldest photograph in my possession, probably taken about 1870.  The family lived in Weston, near Runcorn, Cheshire, England and Warrington was across the Mersey River from Runcorn. 

Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month

March 1 — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

She was known as Nana to the family, my great-grandmother was born in Manchester, England.  I have her registration of birth where she is named Sarah Esther Letitia Brown, daughter of John Brown and Hannah Brown formerly Duckworth.  The name Sarah only appeared on her birth and death certificates, she was always known as Esther Letitia on all other documents including her marriage to John Davies at age seventeen on 16 February 1879.  John was an illiterate widower who had fathered fourteen children with his first wife. John was forty-three when he married Esther and three living children were older than his new bride.


Why did Nana marry a man old enough to be her father?


Why am I drawn to Nana as my favourite ancestor?  Esther Letitia Brown is the only great-grandparent who was still alive when I was born and I do have some memories of her.  I was only seven years old when she passed away on 5 November 1952.  I remember being told to be quiet when we visited my grandparents' house on Oak Bay Avenue in Victoria because we couldn't disturb Nana, who lived with Granny and Grandpa.


Another reason I chose Nana as my favourite ancestor is because she was brave enough to move on and venture forth from England to Toronto to Edmonton and finally to Victoria.


I have many facts and stories about Esther but there are many questions still to be answered, including her trip back to England from November 1910 to June 1911 with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren.  Why? During that time the rest of the family moved from Toronto to Edmonton.  At some time Nana had a double mastectomy, was this done while she was back in England and was she an early cancer survivor?  She has been referred to as a nurse and a midwife, did she have any training or was it just life experiences that prepared her for those roles?


I hope to answer some of the un-answered questions about my great-grandmother before too long and finish writing her story.

Freemasons and the Davies Connection

The picture above is my grandfather's brother, Wilfrid Davies, in the full regalia of his Masonic Lodge.  Grandpa, William Duckworth Davies, was also a mason and was active in his lodge until his death.

While researching the shoemakers in the family for a previous post, I discovered the following cemetery transcription for Wilfrid and William's great-great-grandfather, William Duckworth:

 I have sent for the death registration for William Duckworth who died in the Halifax district in 1854 to verify that my ancestor is the one described in the above transcription, but there probably were not too many William Duckworths to live to the ripe age of eighty-six back in the 1850s.

There is mention of William Duckworth in a book on the history of the Masonic Lodge of Probity No 61, written in 1888.  Copies of the pages follow:

My Dad was from a long line of Cobblers

Cordwainer, cobbler, shoemaker, shoe repairer, and currier were all occupations involving leather and many of my father's ancestors worked in these trades.

The picture on the left is my Dad, Herbert William Davies, in his shop on Johnson Street in Victoria.

William Duckworth, Dad's third great-grandfather, was born about 1767 in Halifax, Yorkshire.  William's occupation was described as a shoemaker at the trial of his son, George Duckworth, in 1812.  George, another, shoemaker, was tried and sentenced to transportation for an incident related to the Luddite movement in Yorkshire.  William was listed as a cordwainer in the 1841 and 1851 census.

William Duckworth, Dad's second great-grandfather, was born in 1795 in Halifax.  This William moved to Manchester about 1825, where he was listed as a labourer in 1841, a warehouseman in 1851, a shopkeeper in 1857, and finally a currier in 1861.  A currier works with leather in the tanning process.

Dad's father, my grandfather, lost a leg in the first world war and was unable to take up his former occupation of electrician after the war, and after a failed attempt at farming, Grandpa learned the trade of shoe repairing from an army friend.  William Duckworth Davies, born 1891 in Runcorn, Cheshire to John Davies and Hannah Duckworth, owned his own shoe repair shops in Edmonton and Victoria.  Grandpa is pictured on the right in his shop in Edmonton, Alberta.  My Dad, Bert Davies, left school after grade eight to join his father in the business and is pictured in the archway.

William Duckworth Davies and his wife, Lucy Crockett, moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 1934 and after failing at farming once more, he opened a shoe repair shop.  His first shop was on Johnson Street, but he had moved to Fort Street before enticing my father to join him in the business in 1941.  I remember Grandpa's shop on Fort Street with its black and white tile front.  The building does not look much different today but the store is occupied by a Sushi restaurant.  The picture was taken about 1950 with Jim Gillespie, an employee, on the left; Dad, Herbert William Davies in the middle; and Grandpa, William Duckworth Davies on the right.

Grandpa continued to operate his shop until her retired in 1961 at age 70.  Dad left Davies and Son Shoe Repair and was employed at other shoe repair shops until he bought out his last employer, Geroge Inrig.  Dad operated Arcadia Shoe Repair at various locations from the mid 50s until he retired in 1979.  His first shop was on Broad Street, near Trounce Alley in Victoria where he had Roy Blevins as a partner.  They moved to a larger shop on Yates Street before Dad had to buy his partner's interest in the business because the lacquers and other chemicals used in the shop were affecting Roy's health.  The picture is of the Broad Street shop with Dad on the left, two employees, Marcel and Tony, in the middle, Dad's sister, Evelyn, behind Roy Blevins on the right.

I remember the Yates Street store because I used to spend time there on Saturdays before and after my piano lessons.  I love the smell of the adhesives and dyes when I enter a shoe shop today because it reminds me of my youth.  Dad became an expert at dying shoes to match any colour and he also covered shoes with fabric.  My bridesmaids wore shoes to match their dresses at my wedding.  He also took a course through Dr. Scholls to learn the anatomy of a foot and he was able to fit arch supports, bunion pads, and other foot-care products.

Dad moved to a one-man shop on Johnson Street about 1970 and moved again to Cook Street in the Fairfield district of Victoria in the mid 1970s.  These small shops were more profitable because he did not have the payroll expenses.

I had the advantage, or disadvantage of having a shoe expert for a father.  Dad always had a say on which shoes I could wear.  They always fitted properly and they had to have leather uppers and insoles.  My shoes were always well soled and well heeled and there is no truth to the saying that "a cobbler's daughter goes barefoot".