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Saturday 16 July 2011

Robert Stewart and Jane Madine

Elizabeth Madine was the wife of Joseph Stewart, ironmonger of Co. Down and Dublin. Joseph and Elizabeth were our paternal great-great grandparents who moved south to Dublin in the 1880s.

Elizabeth's younger sister, Jane Madine, married Robert (McKitterick) Stewart (1838 - 18th November 1880), the brother of Joseph Stewart, in Killinchy Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church (Unitarian) on July 9th 1860.  Both bride and groom were living in the Madine's hometown of Killyleagh at the time of the marriage and Robert Stewart gave his profession as a mechanic.   I've included Robert's middle name of 'McKitterick' here, although the only place I've seen it is on his 1880 death certificate.  In Scots-Irish naming practice, the mother's maiden name was generally used as a middle name for one of the children.   Robert Stewart was the son of Joseph and Agnes Stewart of Crossnacreevy, Moneyreagh, Co. Down, so I'm guessing that his mother was Agnes McKitterick.  A McKitterick family lived in the neighbouring townland of Lisleen, but I have found nothing further to prove a link.  As an aside, on 26th October 1833, Rev. Fletcher Blakely, the Unitarian minister of Moneyrea, married Gawn Orr and Jane McKittrick, both of Moneyrea.

https://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-stewart-family-of-crossnacreevy.html

Robert McKitterick Stewart - photo courtesy of James May



It is interesting that Robert Stewart and Jane Madine chose to marry in the Unitarian church. The Madine family was Church of Ireland and usually the wedding took place in the bride's home church which would have been Killyleagh Church of Ireland.
However Robert Stewart and Jane Madine married in Killinchy Non-Subscribing (Unitarian) Church where the presiding minister was Rev. John M'Caw - he was a close personal friend of Rev. Fletcher Blakely of Moneyreagh near Crossnacreevy.  Robert's brother, John Stewart, chose to marry in York Street Unitarian Church, as did the brothers' sister, Mary Stewart, where both were married by Rev. John Jellie who had previously ministered in Moneyreagh Non-Subscribing Church and who had replaced Rev. Fletcher Blakely when he had retired from Moneyreagh in the early 1860s.

There are two Killyleagh Street Directories - for 1877 and for 1880 - and a Robert Stewart appears in both of them as a grocer/engineer on Front Street, the same street where Robert's father-in-law, Robert Madine, worked as a butcher.

The Griffiths Valuation revision books for Killyleagh 1879 - 1884 show Robert Stewart of 41 Front Street crossed out and replaced by Thomas Calvert.

There was also a Robert Stewart mentioned in the lists of Past Masters for the Killyeagh Masonic Lodge.   The membership registers of the Irish Masonic Lodges have been published online on the Ancestry.com website, and these record a Robert Stewart joining Lodge 113, Killyleagh, on 17th March 1862.
In 1873 he appears alongside another Killyleagh mechanic, Arthur Gordon of Back Street. In 1874, Robert Stewart appears beside John Davidson who was a teacher in the Killyleagh Second Presbyterian school.

The Northern Ireland Family History Society's index of mourning cards lists the death in Killyleagh of Robert McKitterick Stewart who died in Killyleagh and who was subsequently buried by his wife, Jane, in Moneyreagh burying-ground.  
I got a copy of Robert McKitterick Stewart's death certificate in the General Register's Office in Werburgh Street.  Robert McKitterick Stewart, mechanic of Killyleagh, died of heart disease in Killyleagh on 18th November 1880.  A Margaret Stewart was present at his death in Killyleagh - this might be anyone - an unmarried daughter, a sister, or his sister-in-law, the wife of his older brother, William A. Stewart of New Lodge Road, Belfast.  


'The Belfast Telegraph' of 9th November 1880 published the death notice of Robert M'Kitterick Stewart of Killyleagh, the son of the late Joseph Stewart of Crossnacreevy, aged 42.

Robert's wife, Jane, née Madine, was still alive at the time of his death in 1880.

The rest of this post digresses somewhat....

The witnesses to the 1860 marriage of Robert Stewart and Jane Madine were Richard Woofenden and Louisa Matilda Frew.  Louisa Matilda was a teacher in the local National School and may well have been a relation of Jane Madine - Jane Madine's mother had been Margaret Frew before her marriage to Robert Madine in 1826.  Irish marriages of that era tended to take place in the bride's home parish, so I would have to presume that Margaret Frew came from Killyleagh.
Jane and Elizabeth Madine's sister, Margaret Madine, married a John Frew of the Irish Coast Guard, the son of a Daniel Frew. Are these Frews all members of the same family, I wonder, or mere coincidence?

I give further information on the Frew family here:
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2013/03/the-frew-family-of-killyleagh-co-down.html

A further coincidence - in 1829 a James Frew, 1804 - 1882, also an officer in the Irish Coast Guards, married Anne Madine who had been born in 1811 in Downpatrick to Edward and Ann Madine. James Frew must have been stationed in Drogheda since his daughter, Mary McCloskie,  née Frew, was born there in 1842;  she died in New South Wales in 1939.  Interesting. Anne Madine, who married James Frew, had siblings, all baptised in Downpatrick parish church - James Madine, born in 1802, Edward Madine born in 1805, and Jane Madine, born in 1807.

Re: Richard Woofenden who witnessed the wedding of Robert Stewart and Jane Madine in 1860:  There was only one Woofenden family living in Killyleagh, in the small adjacent village of Shrigley, the site of a major flax-spinning mill.  An Isabella Woofenden - Richard's sister? - was married to Robert Thompson, the second school teacher in the local national school.

From Killyleagh Churchyard:
  'I know that my Redeemer liveth. Sacred to the memory of Richard Woofenden, Cuckney, Nottingham, who died March 1843 aged 72 years. Ellen, daughter of Jonathon Woofenden, born 14th February 1837, died 24th April 1862. Isabella Woofenden, wife of Robert Thompson, Killyleagh, born 2nd January 1843, died 4th November 1870. Also her infant child Jonathan.'

Update on the Frew family:  Matilda Louisa Frew, who had witnessed the marriage of Robert Stewart and Jane Madine,  had been born circa 1839 to John Frew and Euphemia Thistlethwaite.   John Frew married Euphemia Thistlewaite in Killyleagh parish church on April 29th 1826;  John Frew was noted in the parish register as being a member of the Royal North Down Militia at the time of his marriage to Euphemia.
 John Frew became the gamekeeper at Killyleagh Castle and, immediately prior to his death in 1892, had appeared in the police census of Killyleagh as a bailiff of 48 Corporation, Killyleagh, living with a granddaughter, Mary Denby. Earlier, in 1870 and 1877, he had been noted as living at 'The Cottage' in Killyleagh.
John Frew died in Killyleagh in January 1892 aged 89;  his wife Euphemia had died aged 81 in 1888.
    John Frew:  1803 - 1892
    Euphemia Thistlethwaite Frew:  1807 - 1888

There seems to be only the one Thistlethwaite family in Ireland, and they lived in Killyleagh. Alexander Thistlethwaite married Ann Calvert there on 9th May 1845.
A later Alexander Thistlethwaite, son of Alexander and Ann Calvert, married Margaret Perry in Killyleagh on 26th August 1873 - they appear on the 1901 and 1911 censuses  with a large family, all workers in the flax mill.
 I went through the register of Killyleagh parish church, hunting unsuccessfully for information on my Stewart/Madine line, and noted the births of the Thistlethwaite children.  Although it's unclear whether we are related to the family of John Frew and his wife, Euphemia Thistlethwaite, I'll list the Thistlethwaite baptisms here for the benefit of their descendants....
Sarah Thistlethwaite, of Corporation, born April 22nd 1876, to Alexander and Margaret Thistlethwaite/Perry.
James Thistlethwaite, of Shore, born August 14th 1877, to Alex. and Margaret.
Mary Thistlethwaite, born June 26th 1879 at Shore, to Alexander, a millworker, and Margaret.
Anna, born February 24th 1881, to the above; Anna was buried, aged 17, in Killyleagh, on September 4th 1898.
Elizabeth, born April 16th 1883, to the above.
Grace Ella, born February 28th 1886 to the above.
Margaret, born September 17th 1888 to the above.
Robert Perry Thistlethwaite, born October 15th 1892 to the above.
Helen, born June 9th 1895 to the above.

In the same register I noted down the Killyleagh burial, on June 24th 1901, of a Lizzie Frew of Belfast; she was 53 at the time of her death. She'd been born, therefore, in 1848.  She appeared on the 1901 census living with her widowed sister, Mary Kirk, at 13 Essex Street in Belfast; both sisters had been born in England.  Mary Frew had married James Kirk, a blacksmith, the son of a farmer William Kirk, in Killyleagh parish church on December 23rd 1878.  The father of Mary Frew and Elizabeth/Lizzie Frew was Thomas Frew, a hotelkeeper of Killyleagh.  William Frew witnessed the wedding of Mary Frew and James Kirk.  The Kirk family were living at 2 High St., Killyleagh in the late 1890s.

I also noted the burial in Killyleagh, on 25th September 1907, of Sarah Jane Frew, aged 77. (ie: 1830 - 1907.)

The children of John Frew, bailiff, and of Margaret Thistlethwaite emigrated to Australia - Matilda Frew was recorded on the passenger list of The Colonial Empire arriving in Melbourne on 24th September 1872, although she must have returned to Killyleagh before emigrating permanently since the schoolmistress, Matilda Louisa Frew, appeared in the street directories in both 1877 and 1880. She had been born circa 1839.  She had a sister, Euphemia Alice Frew, who also emigrated and who died in Kew, Australia, aged 83 in 1926.  There were also two brothers - Alexander and William, and a sister, Mary, who stayed in Ireland.
I wonder was there also a son, John Frew, who married Susan Gilmore?  This couple named their daughter 'Euphemia', possibly after John's mother - the baby was born in Downpatrick on 6th June 1877. John and Susan also had a Helen and a Rebecca in the same area.

John Frew, the gamekeeper/bailiff of Killyleagh Castle, was noted on the Killyleagh police census of the early 1890s as sharing a house with his granddaughter, Mary Denby, who was most likely visiting her grandfather.  Her mother was John's daughter, Mary Frew, who married George Walter Denby on May 7th 1857 - the couple had been married in the Killyleagh Church of Ireland by Rev. Dr. Hinks who had earlier married Margaret Frew and Robert Madine (the parents of Jane Madine who married Robert Stewart in 1860).  George Walter Denby's father was Thomas Denby, a butler.  At the time of the wedding, George Walter Denby, a pianoforte maker, was resident at Conduit Terrace, Greenwich, while Mary Frew, a milliner, was living at home in Corporation, Killyleagh.  The witnesses were James Wright Bell and Patrick Dougherty.

George Walter Denby (1829 - 1905) , the husband of Mary Frew of Killyleagh, was a pianoforte maker of Belfast and is easy to trace through the Belfast Street Directories, as is another relation (brother?), John Denby, who was also a piano maker.  They appear from 1863 - earlier, in Holywood Church of Ireland, on 8th July 1846, a Mary Denby married William Marshall;  in the same church, on 7th December 1848, an Elizabeth Denby married Hugh Tilley. I wonder, therefore, did the Denby family settle first in the Holywood/Bangor area of Co. Down, before setting up in business in Belfast?
 
The family lived in Joy Street, Belfast:
   1863 - 1864:  John Denby, Piano Maker, 42 Joy Street.  ('John' may well be a typo for George Denby...)
                         Mrs. Denby, Milliner and Straw Bonnet Maker, 42 Joy Street.
   1865 + 1870: George Denby,  Pictureframe Maker, 46 Joy Street.
                         Mrs. Denby,  Milliner and Straw Bonnet Maker, 42 Joy Street.
   1880:  George Denby, Pianoforte Maker,  105 Joy Street.
              Mary Denby,  Milliner, 105 Joy Street.

George Walter Denby had a brother, William Denby, who was a coachmaker of Belfast, and who named a son after his brother, George Walter Denby.
William Denby, coachmaker, married Lily McClarnon in Ballymena Third Presbyterian on 13th October 1857.  William's son, William Denby Junior, married Harriette Skelly in Fortwilliam Park Presbyterian on 9th June 1891 - both of these William Denbys lived on the Cavehill Road.

George's brother, William Denby, who died 11th November 1903 at 11 Cavehill Road, Belfast, left a 7-page will which can be read online on the PRONI website.  One of the executors was James William Linden, who was married to William's niece, Martha Denby.  William's children, named in his will, were daughters, Alice Maud, and Mary Louisa who was married to George Gageby. The sons were named as Hugh McLarnon Denby, William Henry Denby, Thomas Ernest Denby and George Walter Denby.

George Denby and Mary Frew had several children:
(George Walter Denby and Mary Frew married in the Downpatrick area in 1857.)

Euphemia Elizabeth Denby, who had been born in Glasgow in about 1860, married a shipbroker, Thomas Wilson, in Christchurch Church of Ireland, Shankill, Belfast, on 17th August 1889.  In 1901 they were living at 29 Dufferin Avenue, Bangor, with their daughters. In 1911 they were at 3 Downshire Road, Bangor. Three of their daughters had been born in Scotland - Mary Gwendoline in about 1893, Ruby in about 1897, and Yvonne in 1900;  the youngest daughter, Dorothy Wilson, had been born in about 1903 in Co. Down.

Ann Ingles/Ingle Denby was born in Belfast on 6th June 1866 and married John McMullan on 7th September 1894 in All Saints Church of Ireland, Shankill.

Martha Denby was born on 29th July 1868 and married a bookkeeper James William Linden on 2nd October 1899 in Holywood Church of Ireland.   In 1911 this family were living at 41 Dufferin Avenue, Bangor, with two children, Emily May who'd been born in Belfast in 1902-ish, and Thomas Wilson Linden, born 1909 in Belfast, and named after his mother's brother-in-law, Thomas Wilson.

George Alexander Denby, was born to George and Mary Denby on 8th July 1874 but died the following year.

Another relation of the Denby/Frews would be Louisa Matilda Denby who married a builder, John McKnight, in Christchurch Church of Ireland, Shankill, Belfast, on 11th February 1889, and who were living in Killyleagh with their children in 1901. In 1911 a Denby relation was visiting, the coachbuilder Hugh McClernon Denby, who was the son of the coachbuilder, William Denby and his wife Lily McLarnon. The name Louisa Matilda is associated primarily with the Killyleagh Frew family.


 In 1901 and 1911,  George and Mary Denby were living in Holywood, North County Down, along with their unmarried daughter, Alice Georgina Denby, and with a boarder named Edward Jones, who was aged 4 in 1901 and 14 in 1911.  He had been born in Dublin to an Edith Jones but was reared by the Denbys from birth.

There seems to have been only the one Denby family in Belfast at this time which makes tracing them quite easy - earlier, on 11th September 1853, a second Martha Denby married Archibald Shaw in St. Anne's Church of Ireland, Belfast;  she was probably a sister of George and William Denby.
Another possible relation would be Charles Denby who married Agnes McMullan on 6th November 1885 in St. John's Laganbank Church of Ireland, Knockbreda.


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