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Thursday 4 August 2011

Richard Williams and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton, 17 Eden Quay

Richard Williams (1812 - 1885) and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton (1811 - 1888) were our maternal great-great grandparents.  The father of Richard Williams was a gentleman, John Williams, who had died by the time of his son's marriage to Geraldine in 1847.  

Who was this John Williams, father to Richard?  I am still researching this, and have so far failed to uncover any definite relations for Richard Williams of Eden Quay from who we descend.  DNA results have been similarly disappointing.

I had originally speculated that Richard's father was John Jeffery Williams of Grays Inn, London, but I now believe this not to be the case.  John Jeffery Williams and his second wife, Mary Oliver, did have a son, Richard Williams, in 1812;  their older sons moved to Dublin and had close links to the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company which our Richard Williams worked for at their Eden Quay headquarters.  In research into the family of John Jeffery's son, Hutchins Thomas Williams, commissioned by Hutchins' daughter in the 1880's, no information was given for either Richard or his brother Henry Jeffery Williams.  The following link gives the details of John Jeffery Williams nonetheless:

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.com/2011/11/john-jeffery-williams-father-of-richard.html


A handwritten note at the bottom of a parchment, listing the proprietors of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company,  mentions 'John Williams, dec'd' and this may be a reference to our elusive great-great-great grandfather.

The elusive father of Richard Williams might also be the John Williams who was in partnership with merchant Thomas Williams of 50 Lower Sackville Street.  The pair worked together at 1 Grafton Street up until about 1811 or 1812; following this, Thomas Williams (1779 - 1858) continued alone at 50 Lower Sackville Street.  Thomas Williams also had links to the Dublin Steam Packet Company, contributing £200 capital to the fledgling company.  Our Richard Williams' father-in-law, Rev. David Hill Creighton and his young daughters ran a school for young ladies from 50 Lower Sackville Street in the 1830s and it might have been here that Richard Williams met his future wife, Geraldine O'Moore Creighton.   The referees on behalf of Rev. David Hill Creighton also had close associations with the Dublin Steam Packet Company, Mrs. Ferrier of Willow Park and Mrs. Roe of Sans Souci, their husbands being shareholds and directors of the company.

http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2015/10/john-and-thomas-williams-of-grafton.html

In the 1820's, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company acquired the premises of 15, 16 and 17 Eden Quay, Dublin and it was at No. 15 Eden Quay that our great-great grandfather, Richard Williams, made his first documented appearance in 1837 when he bought £50 worth of shares in the Great Central Irish Railway.
(There were two Richard Williams - our ancestor who was the book-keeper for the CDSPCo and the older Richard Williams who was the co-founder of the company and who lived at Drumcondra Castle with business premises at 38 Dame Street. I'm assuming, given the paltry value of the shares bought, that the Richard Williams who bought into the Railway was our ancestor who lived at Eden Quay.)


The Street Directories record 'Williams & Co., merchants and cornfactors' at 1, Marlborough Street, in both 1836 and 1837.  I believe this to be our Richard Williams - there are no similar entries in the Dublin directories prior to 1836 and after 1837.
He appeared in the Dublin Street Directories, sometimes as a merchant, sometimes as an esquire, at the neighbouring address of 17 Eden Quay until 1854;  from 1854 until 1857, he wasn't listed in the directories/almanacs at all, but, between 1858 until 1860, Richard Williams Esq, was listed at 2 Upper Mayor Street, the street where the CDSPCo had their stores; this could well be a business address, rather than a family residence.  A child was born in 1853 at Mountpleasant in Rathmines.  From 1861 onwards, the family lived at Privot House, Dundrum in the southern Dublin suburbs, and from 1873 they lived at 8 Sydenham Road.

An 1839 meeting of the CDSPCo proposed that Richard Williams be employed as a clerk to the company - although he had already been living for at least two years in their Eden Quay property - on trial at a rate of £60 a year for 6 months.  Later on 5th May 1841, Richard Williams was paid £9-9-0 for attending nine sittings of the CDSPCo committee.  On 12th June 1847, the company ordered '...that £20 per annum be added to the salary of the book-keeper, Mr. Richard Williams, to commence from the 1st November 1846.'

In 1842, 17 Eden Quay was the offices of the Dublin and Liverpool Steam Ship Building Company, the Transatlantic Steam Ship Company and Williams & Co., Merchants & Cornfactors who had a timber and slate yard at 22 Sir John Rogerson's Quay.  Thomas Harvey Todhunter, a Quaker merchant, also had an office there in 1842.

By 1846, Williams & Co. was known as Williams, Todhunter & Co, signifying a business partnership between the two families but this was shortlived - by 1854, Thomas Todhunter is operating alone at his premises on Sir John Rogerson's Quay.    (Williams and Todhunter dealt in timber, slate and corn.  The Todhunter family of Rogerson's Quay were always considered to be timber dealers.)
In 1846, Phineas Howell, the secretary of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Co., was recorded as living at 17 Eden Quay although later he moved next door to Number 16.  Phineas Howell was one of the pallbearers at Charles Wye Williams' funeral in Liverpool in 1866.

It was during this era that our ancestor, Richard Williams, the son of the late John Williams, married his first wife Mary. 
The family must have been living in Glasnevin in North Dublin at this time, since two of the children of Richard and Mary, Sophia and Emily Williams, stated on later documents that this has been their place of birth. 
Richard William's first wife, Mary, died young at 35 years old - her burial is recorded in the Mount Jerome archives for 1846.  She died of consumption at 17 Eden Quay on 10th December 1846.  This was signed by the Registrar and Alexander Fry.  Alexander Fry was a doctor and was possibly related to William Fry, an Athlone-born solicitor who was a founding member of the Plymouth Brethren community in Dublin along with Henry Bewley and J. Denham Smith.  Alternatively, he may merely have been the doctor attendant at her death.

Earlier the deaths of several children had been recorded at 17 Eden Quay:

  • Charlotte Williams died of consumption aged 7 weeks on August 25th 1842. Signed by the Registrar and Richard Williams. 
  • On 3rd July 1845,  Albert Williams, aged 6 years and 9 months, died of inflammation of the lungs. Signed by the Registrar and Richard Williams.

There were three surviving children of the marriage of Richard and Mary Williams:

  • Sophie or Sophia Williams was born about 1836 in Glasnevin and left Dublin to work in one of Thomas Barnardo's childrens' homes where she was a housemaster in charge of 25 girls.  In 1881, the UK census records Sophie Williams, who had been born in Dublin in 1846, working as a governess in Edgbaston, England.  By 1891 she was working in Illford, Essex at the 'District Girls' Village Home For Orphan Neglected and Destitute Girls'.  1901 shows her, aged 55, and still working at Dr.Barnardo's Girls' Home in Ilford.   The 1911 census shows her living in the House of Rest for Christian Workers at 10 Finchley Road - this confirmed that she had been born in about 1840 in Glasnevin, Dublin. She died in London on August 1st 1933 at 10 Finchley Road, North Marylebone, of congestion of the lungs and ovarian cancer. She was 93, and had been working at the Girls' Village Home as a superintendant at the time of her death.

Thomas Barnardo was a family friend and a member of the evangelical Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, as were the Williams.  Thomas was the son of a German immigrant, John Michaelis Barnardo, who had moved his furriers business from Hamburg to Dublin at the beginning of the 19th century.  Thomas had been born in 1845;  the family lived at 82 Dame Street.  Thomas was converted to the Plymouth Brethren religion in 1862 by William Fry, a family friend of the Williams, and a founder member of their Merrion Hall headquarters.
Apparently Thomas Barnardo would seek out the company of Richard Williams, who was a pious man and an ardent reader of the Bible. Richard attended Merrion Hall, which from 1863 was the meeting hall of the Dublin Plymouth Brethren, and would preach the Bible there. It is said that he was invited to take part in the production of the Revised Version of the Bible in 1881 but he declined.

  • Emily Williams was born to Richard and Mary Williams in Glasnevin in either 1836 or 1837 and remained unmarried all her life. She worked as a teacher and lived at 8 Charlemont Place, Dublin.  In 1901, the Irish census records her as the sole occupant of flat 735.1, Killeen Road, Rathmines; she was a 'visiting governess', aged 54 and, in common with other members of this family, was Plymouth Brethren. Emily spent 4 days in Mountjoy Jail for drunkenness in November 1909 at the age of 72 - she confirmed that she had been born in Glasnevin and that her next-of-kin was her sister Sophia Williams, a teacher of Londo.   In 1911 Emily was a retired teacher, living at 8.6 Charlemont Place.  Emily Williams died in Dublin on 8th October 1914 and was buried in the family plot in Mount Jerome, along with her younger half-brothers, Willis Creighton Williams and John Williams.

     'Family Burial Place of Willis Creighton Williams
    Jessie Muriel Williams (Junr)  died 20th May 1886
    Willis Creighton Williams (Junr)  died 26th September 1901
    Emily Williams     died 8th October 1914
    Kate Williams      died 17th February 1920
    Willis Creighton Williams  died 22nd October 1932
    John Williams     Killed in France   October 1918'


  • Richard Williams II, the son of Richard and Mary Williams of Eden Quay, emigrated to Australia at some stage and little seems to be known about him.






On 15th June 1846, six months after the death of his first wife, Mary, Richard Williams married Geraldine O'Moore Creighton, the daughter of an English Presbyterian minister, David Hill Creighton. Her mother was Eliza Willis, the daughter of Thomas Willis who ran a school in the Huguenot settlement of Portarlington. Following the marriage of Richard and Geraldine, the names 'Willis' ,'Creighton' and 'O'Moore' would repeat through the generations as family names; names associated with Richard's first invisible wife would not recur which is disappointing.  (The names 'Geraldine' and 'O'Moore' are both very interesting and I wonder was there some connection to the O'Moore family who orginally came from Portarlington?)
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/09/revdavid-hill-creighton-1737-1855.html

In 1846, the year of Geraldine and Richard's marriage, her father, Rev. David Hill Creighton, was living in Dublin city at 30 Summer Street;  from 1847 to 1849 he was noted at 43 Summer Hill. The family had settled in Dublin in about 1829, although he had spent a few years south of the city, working in Bray, Co. Wicklow.


The above photograph was kindly sent on to me by Judy Geddes, the great-great granddaughter of Richard and Geraldine Williams - this is believed to be a photo of Geraldine O'Moore Creighton taken at the time of her marriage to Richard Williams in 1846.

(Geraldine O'Moore Creighton's cousin, Rev. Henry de Laval Willis, who was the son of her maternal uncle,  Thomas Gilbert Willis, had links to the Woolsey family of Castlebellingham, Louth, as did Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle, co-founder of the Dublin Steam Packet Company.
Explanation:  Geraldine's first cousin, Rev.Henry de Laval Willis, was born in Limerick to Rev. Thomas Gilbert Willis - Thomas Gilbert Willis being the brother of Geraldine's mother, Eliza Willis - on 1st April 1814.
He married Mary Anne Woolsey of Castlebellingham, the daughter of Thomas Woolsey (1784 - 1834) of the Admiralty and Elizabeth Gibson. Thomas  Woolsey was the son of Rev. William Woolsey and Mary Anne Bellingham of Kilsaran parish, County Louth.

The children of Thomas Woolsey and Elizabeth Gibson were all born in London, where Thomas was working in the Admiralty, and baptised in the Old Church, St. Pancras -
William Woolsey, baptised 16th November 1814.
Mary Anne Woolsey, later wife of Henry de Laval Willis, born 4th August 1817.
Elizabeth Lucy Woolsey, born 26 August 1821.
Thomas Frederic Woolsey, born 2nd Dec 1823.
Sophia Woolsey, born 21st Feb.1828.

Henry de Laval Willis and Mary Anne Woolsey married in Kilsaran. Co. Louth, on October 16th 1841.

The children of Rev. Henry de Laval Willis and Mary Anne Woolsey were:
Frances Hester Bellingham Willis, born Limerick, 17th December 1842. She would later marry, in 1861,  John Walker of Bolling Hall, Yorkshire.
Elizabeth Lucy Willis, born 1844, named after her maternal aunt.
Henry Thomas Gilbert Willis, born St. Mary's, Lancaster, in 1849.
Francis William Willis, born in Bradford, York, England, on 23rd February 1851.

The daughter of Rev. Henry de Laval Willis and Mary Anne Woolsey, Elizabeth Lucy Willis (1844 - 1870), married another member of the Woolsey family, John Woolsey. John Woolsey lived at Castle Cosey in Castlebellingham:
 'In memory of William Woolsey of Milestone, died 11th May 1887, aged 68 years, and his brother, John Woolsey, of Castle Cosey, Castlebellingham, who died 23rd May 1887 aged 56 years. This tablet has been erected in loving remembrance by their employees.'
      
John and William Woolsey, named above, were both the sons of Captain John Woolsey, the son of William Woolsey and Mary Anne Bellingham. Captain John Woolsey was the brother of Thomas Woolsey of the Admiralty;  he was married to Janet Jameson, the sister of James Jameson of the Dublin distillery and of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company.  
A variety of genealogical threads interweave at this point - Rev. William Woolsey's mother was Lucy Palmer;  his daughter, Frances Woolsey, married Richard Palmer of the same Kenmare family, whose sister, Anne Palmer, married Richard Williams of Drumcondra Castle, who co-founded the CDSPCo with his brother, Charles Wye Williams.  Many of these people invested in the CDSPCo.)

Richard and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton Williams had four surviving children together - David Creighton Williams, John Williams, Jessie Creighton Williams (named after her mother's sister, the schoolteacher Jessie Creighton) and our geat-grandfather Willis Creighton Williams.

The Dublin newspapers of the day show other children, however, born to Mr. Richard Williams at 17 Eden Quay;  given the inability of people at this time to know their correct age, the two surviving births which follow may well correspond to two of the surviving four children -

  • The 'Freeman's Journal' of 29th March 1848 announced the birth, on 27th March 1848, of a daughter.   On March 3rd 1851, Richard and Geraldine lost two of their children to whooping cough - Eliza Willis Williams, aged 3 years, and Geraldine O'Moore Williams, aged 8 months. (Their address was given as Harolds Cross - in 1853 they were living, or visiting, Mountpleasant in neighbouring Rathmines.)
  • The 'Dublin Evening Post' of 20th November 1851 reported that Mrs. Williams of Eden Quay had given birth to twin sons.  The 'Dublin Evening Mail' of 14th November 1851 confirmed that this was Mrs. Williams of 17 Eden Quay.   One of the twins must have been the Alexander Williams who follows.....
  • The 'Dublin Evening Mail'of 2nd July 1852 announced the death of Alexander Williams, the youngest son of Mr. Richard Williams, aged 7 months and 18 days.
  • The 'Dublin Evening Post'of 28th January 1853 announced the birth of a daughter, by the wife of Mr. Richard Williams of 17 Eden Quay, at Mountpleasant (Rathmines) on 23rd January 1853.  This was Jessie Creighton Williams.
  • The 'Dublin Evening Mail' also announced the birth of a son on 29th October 1854, probably our great-grandfather Willis Creighton Williams.

From 1861,  Richard William's address was Privot House in Dundrum, and from 1873, 8 Sydenham Road, Dundrum.  In 1866, The Times published Geraldine's mother's death notice:
    'On the 15th inst., at Privot House, Dundrum, near Dublin, Mrs. Creighton, relict of the late Rev. D.H.Creighton, aged 84.'

Geraldine O'Moore Williams, wife of Richard Williams of 8 Sydenham Road, Dundrum, proved the will of a widow, Jane Phillips, a Welsh housekeeper of 2 Stanley Crescent, Anglesey, Wales, who died on 16th September 1875, but I'm unsure if the two women were in any way related.  Jane Phillips had been born in 1807 and was buried in Anglesey on 20th September 1875. Perhaps Jane Phillips had worked for the Williams family as a housekeeper?

The Surviving Children of Richard Williams and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton:

a ) David Creighton Williams was born to the Richard Williams and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton circa 1849.   Perhaps he was the twin brother of Alexander Williams who had been born in November 1851 and who died 8 months later.
David Creighton Williams was a transfer clerk - the 'Dublin Evening Express' of 14th February 1894 noted that David C. Williams of 15 Eden Quay was one of the executors of the 1893 will of Stephen Mills who lived at 13 Upper Mountpleasant Avenue, Ranelagh.  In 1880, the street directories show D.C. Williams living at 40 Lower Mountpleasant Avenue, Ranelagh.   Earlier in 1859, Stephen Mills had an address at 15 Eden Quay where he was mentioned as one of the shareholders of the Galway railway.   It is interesting to see that David Creighton Williams had a business address in 1894 at 15 Eden Quay, one of the buildings owned by the Dublin Steam Packet Company which David's father had worked for.
For two years David Creighton Williams was slowly dying and was visited daily by his younger brother, Willis Creighton Williams. He was moved during his last illness to 23 Carysfort Avenue in Blackrock where his younger sister, Jessie, ran a school, and he died there on 4th October 1895. The cause of death was hip disease and Bright's disease, and his brother, Willis Creighton Williams of 50 Park Avenue, Sandymount, was the informant.

He had married Irene Reynolds in Bangor, Wales, and, following their move back to Dublin, had seven children with her -

1) Irene Geraldine, born 21st July 1881 to David Creighton Williams and Irene Reynolds, at 8 Sydenham Rd., Dundrum, the home of her grandparents Richard Williams and Geraldine O'Moore Creighton.   She married the Tyrone-born bank clerk Thomas John Lytle in Dublin in 1902 prior to leaving for Canada.  The US archives show up Thomas John Lytle entering the USA.  He was travelling to New Jersey without Irene Geraldine but with their five children - John S. Lytle, Robert M. Lytle, Creighton Reynolds Lytle, Irene H. Lytle and Dorothy W. Lytle.  The record states that Thomas John Lytle had emigrated first in 1906 to Lake Manitoba, Canada, and had previously visited America in 1916, 1923 and 1924.   The son of Irene and Thomas John Lytle, Creighton Reynolds Lytle, who had been born in Winnipeg on 29th May 1909, died in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, on 25th July 1980.  An insurance adjuster, he had married, then divorced, Margaret Graham.

2) Jessie Ida/Jumbo, born 10th July 1884 in Bray, Co. Wicklow, to David Creighton Williams and Irene Reynolds.  On 19th April 1906 in Rathgar, Jessie Ida Williams, the daughter of David Creighton Williams and of Irene Reynolds, married the printer, David Percy Robinson.  At the time of the marriage, the bride was living at 19 Leinster Square, her mother's home, and the groom at 16 Greenmount Road in Terenure. The witnesses to the wedding were the bride's brother-in-law, Charles B.Reinhardt, and Ephraim McDowell Cosgrave who was an eminent Irish physician of the time.

David Percy Robinson was the only son of the Westmeath-born printer, William Woods Robinson, and his first wife, Frances Moore, who had married in Westmeath in 1881.

The Robinson family:
The Robinson family hailed from Co. Westmeath.  

It seems that David Percy Robinson's great-grandfather was Edmund Robinson of Bloomfield, Co. Westmeath, whose eldest daughter, Catherine Robinson, married the Dublin coal merchant George Alexander Seton of Upper Dorset Street in St. Thomas's on 7th April 1831. George Alexander Seton would die aged 61 at 15 Aughrim Street, on 22nd October 1864.

Edmund Robinson of Bloomfield also had David Percy's grandfather Anthony Robinson (1807 - 1892) and Edmund Robinson (1809 - 1878).   The younger Edmund Robinson (or possibly his father) was noted in 1829, when he registered his property as a freehold, ie, Bullockfield, Co. Westmeath.  He was also noted there in 1838.  This property was later known as Bloomfield, and was located in the townland of Coolvuck Upper, or Coolwickoughter, just outside of Athlone.  The younger Edmund Robinson never married, and died in Strand Street, Athlone, on 2nd August 1878 aged 69.

The 'Athlone Sentinel' of 13th October 1837 reported that Anthony Robinson of Bullockfield, Westmeath, had changed horses at Haire's Hotel, Athlone, and was accompanied by his new bride, Caroline Donohue of Ballymacward, Co. Galway, the happy couple having married a few days previously.

Anthony Robinson left Westmeath for Dublin, where he set up as a coal merchant with an address at 9 Prussia Street, Grangegorman.  His brother, Edmund, was occasionally noted at this address also.

The Children of Anthony Robinson and Caroline Donohue were:

1) Rev. Edmund Wilfred Robinson who married Elizabeth Frances Moore, the daughter of the late John Moore of Dublin, in St. Thomas's on 11th September 1867.   The eldest son of Anthony Robinson and Caroline Donohue,  he died aged 47 in St. Kilda, Melbourne, on 14th September 1889.  The papers noted him as the Colonial Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society.   He had settled in Tooradin, Victoria, and left 6 children at his death - Anthony Ernest Oswald Robinson, Elizabeth Moore Robinson, John Moore Robinson, Caroline Robinson, Margaret Robinson and Linda Robinson.    His widow, Elizabeth Frances Moore Robinson, died aged 79 in Toora, Victoria, in 1921.   Son John Moore Robinson became a journalist and was known to have enlisted in 1917 with the Australian forces.

2) Arthur Donoghue Robinson was born on 27th February 1857 at 9 Prussia Street. On 1st October 1875 in the Registrar's Office, Arthur Robinson of 9 Prussia Street, married Emma Kymer of Abbey Street, the daughter of house painter Samuel Kymer.  A son, Samuel Robinson, was born on 25th June 1877 at 128 Upper Abbey Street.  This couple went to live in Glasgow from where Arthur Robinson  sent a letter of sympathy when his brother-in-law George Thomas Monson died in 1897.

3) Catherine Seton Robinson of 9 Prussia Street married the merchant/printer George Thomas Monson, son of George Monson, in Grangegorman on 17th September 1873.  The witnesses were her father, Anthony Robinson, and William Monson.   George Thomas Monson's nephew, David Percy Robinson, was working for the stationers 'Monson, Robinson and Co' when he disappeared in 1923.
Catherine Seton Robinson and George Thomas Monson had a son, Edmund Arthur Monson on 24th June 1879.  Son George Monson was born on 14th April 1875 but died of tonsillitis aged 8 in 1883;  a daughter, Caroline Margaret Monson, also died young aged only 3 at the residence of her grandfather, Anthony Robinson of 9 Prussia Street, on 8th September 1883; she died of scarletina. William Herbert Monson was born 25th September 1877.    Another son was John Frederick Monson/Frederick John Monson who was born in Raheny on 1st October and who went on to marry Agnes Eileen Esther Wells, the daughter of James Wells of Boyle, Co. Roscommon, on 14th May 1908.
George Thomas Monson died of cancer at Avondale, Terenure Road, on 11th October 1897;  his funeral was reported and named his brothers-in-law as William Woods Robinson (David Percy's father), Thomas Woods Robinson and Richard O'Neill, and nephews as Thomas Parker, George O'Neill, Edmund O'Neill and Percy Robinson.

4) Thomas Woods Robinson was born in Westmeath to Anthony Robinson and Caroline Donoghue.  On 12th December 1894 he married Georgina Gill, the daughter of a gamekeeper William Gill. The witnesses were Thomas Aloysius Mulvey and Thomas O'Neill.  He converted to Catholicism to marry Georgina Gill.  In 1901 he was working as a bewery clerk and was living in Royal Canal Bank with his wife and three young children, Godfrey Knight Robinson, Edie Mary Robinson and the newborn William Thomas Robinson.

5) Caroline Robinson never married and was living with her widowed sister, Catherine Seton Monson, in 1901 at 16 Greenmount Road, Terenure.

6) Susan Francis Robinson of 9 Prussia Street married the widowed Castlepollard merchant, Richard O'Neill, in Grangegorman on 18th April 1876.  Richard O'Neill was the son of a farmer George O'Neill and the witnesses to the Grangegorman marriage were Caroline Robinson and a Charles Nugent Fox.

7) Mary Jane Robinson of 9 Prussia Street married the farmer, William Parker of Ballymacward, Galway, son of Matthew Parker, in Grangegorman on 4th June 1867.  The witnesses were Anthony Robinson, the bride's father, and John Robert Parker.

8) David Percy's father, William Woods Robinson, was born in Westmeath in about 1842.  On 22nd June 1881 in Killucan, Co. Westmeath, he married Frances Moore, the daughter of David Moore, a merchant of Killucan.   At the time of the wedding, William Woods Robinson was working as a printer in Talbot Street, presumably in the family business of 'Monson, Robinson and Co.' which had its headquarters at 10 Talbot Street.  The witnesses to the cermeony were Bessie Lynch and the groom's brother Thomas Woods Robinson.

David Percy Robinson was born at 36 Leinster Road, Rathmines, on 24th May 1882 to the printer William Woods Robinson and his wife Frances Moore.  However, on the 1901 census he was living with his uncle and aunt, Richard O'Neill and Susan Francis Robinson, in Benison Lodge, Faughal, Westmeath - the census return states that David Percy (aka Percy) had been born in Westmeath.

Frances Moore Robinson died at 74 Grosvenor Road, Rathmines, on 30th May 1893 aged 48.  William Woods Robinson married again.  On 2nd February 1898 in Rathmines, William Woods Robinson, son of Anthony Robinson, married the widowed Elizabeth Stuart Simpson McClean of 2 Hargrove Terrace, the daughter of Tyrone merchant Stuart Simpson.   F. P McClean and Marianne Simpson were the witnesses.
They were living at 96 Grosvenor Road, Rathmines, in 1901, along with Elizabeth's daughter, Mary Elizabeth McClean, but William Woods Robinson died shortly after this on 4th November 1903 aged 62.   

Jessie Ida Williams and David Percy Robinson, the son of William Woods Robinson and Frances Moore, would have two sons - William David Edwin Robinson was born at 'Dalmar', Terenure Park, on 8th February 1907 and Richard Frank Robinson was born at 19 Terenure Park on 19th May 1911.
William David Edwin Robinson married Gladys Shorter - they were living at 29 Clareville Road in Terenure from about 1939 up until 1970 when Gladys Robinson was listed in the electoral lists as living there.
William D. Robinson and Gladys Shorter had Hillary Robinson in 1938, Carole Robinson in 1943 and Robert Lewis Robinson in 1946.

David Percy Robinson worked for the printing firm of 'Monson, Robinson and Co'. of Talbot Street.  In 1923, at a time of great civil unrest in Ireland,  the family were living in Terenure Park when  David Percy Robinson was called for jury service.  On one occasion, according to his wife, he came home pale and frightened, his life having been threatened.  Robinson was told to leave the country within a fortnight, which he duly did in March 1923, heading to Liverpool.   He wrote to his wife from the Seacomber Hotel and returned home briefly to Dublin.  David Percy Robinson sent his wife a telegram from the Regent Palace Hotel in Piccadilly in 1923, but was never heard from again.  He was eventually declared dead in 1951, and probate of his will of 9th July 1918 was granted to his wife, Jessie Ida Robinson of Adrian Park, Harold's Cross. 

Jessie Ida Robinson, née Williams, died in Dublin on 6th April 1954 and is buried in Mount Jerome.

3) Louisa Vivian, born 7th June 1886, at 26 Claremont Rd., Sandymount, South Co. Dublin, to David Creighton Williams and Irene Reynolds.  On 16th July 1907 in Rathgar, she married Charles Bradshaw Reinhardt, the only son of John Reinhardt of The Cottage, Monkstown.   Of Irish origin, but English-born, Charles' father, John Reinhardt, ran a paving business in Dublin.

Charles Bradshaw Reinhardt's grandparents were captured by the 1861 English census when they were living in Bedminster.  A railway guard, Joseph Reinhardt had been born in about 1807 in Co.Wexford, while his wife, Elizabeth, had been born in London.  Their children were Hannah, Joseph, Elizabeth, Thomas, William, Alice, Paul, and Charles Bradshaw Reinhardt's father, John, who had been born in Plymouth, Devon, on 15th February 1853.
John Reinhardt, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Reinhardt, married Eva (Bradshaw?) and in 1881 were living in Tottenham, Middlesex, along with their three-year-old son Charles, who had been born in Bristol.
By 1901, John and Eva Reinhardt had moved to Blackrock, Co. Dublin.  Charles' sister was Gertrude Eva Reinhardt who had been born in Bristol in April 1885, and who would marry John Luce Powell, son of John Powell, on 11th February 1922 in Bristol.

Charles Bradshaw Reinhardt and Louisa Vivian Williams emigrated to Manitoba - a passenger list for the 'Minneapolis' showed the couple leaving for New York on 15th august 1908.  They would have three children in Manitoba - John in 1908, Edwin in 1910 and Eva Jessie on 20th March 1913 who would die on 6th June 1934.

Private Charles Bradshaw Reinhardt died on 28th January 1940 and is buried in Edmonton.

4) Edwin Reynolds Williams was born 18th March 1888 in Dublin to David Creighton Williams and Irene Reynolds.and died in Vancouver on 4th December 1942.  He married Belgium-born Henrietta, who died a widow at 930 Glenacres Drive, Vancouver, on 2nd January 1988;  her death cert. named her father as a German-born man named Lionheart.

5) Florence Evangeline, known as Tookie, was born at 26 Claremont Road on 12th June 1889 to David Creighton Williams and Irene Reynolds, and died on 3rd March 1965 at 1330 Bute St., Vancouver.   On 1st November 1910, by special licence at the residence of her mother, 4 Haslemore Block, Winnipeg. she married Henry Ernest Douet, the eldest son of Ernest Henry Douet, retired Civil Servant List, of Little Sidcup, Chippingstone, Kent, England.   The Dublin papers noted Tookie as the youngest daughter of David Creighton Williams, late of Leoville, Blackrock, granddaughter of Richard Williams late of 8 Sydenham Road, Dundrum, and granddaughter of Frank Reynolds, late of London and Scarborough.
The groom, Henry Ernest Douet,  had been born on 1st July 1880 in Croyden, Surrey, England, and   died at White Rock, 17th St., Vancouver, on 11th March 1958.  He was noted on his death cert as a retired cashier with The Royal Trust Company - the infomant on his death cert was his son, J.P.Douet of 24th Avenue, Langley.
Henry Ernest Douet had been born in Croyden in 1880 to the Jamaican-born Ernest Henry Douet and Sophia Caroline Paterson who had married in Woolwich in 1869.

6) Frank Creighton Williams was born to David Creighton Williams and Irene Reynolds at Airfield, Claremont Road, Donnybrook, on 19th September 1890. The 1916 Manitoba Census shows him living with his mother, Irene Williams, and brother Edwin Reynolds Williams in Winnipeg.

7) A son, Willis Creighton Williams, named after David Creighton William's brother, was born on 13th October 1879 at Sydenham Rd., Dundrum to David Creighton Williams and Irene Reynolds, but this child died the following year on 26th October 1880 at 40 Lower Mount Pleasant Avenue.  The death certificate stated that he was the son of a gentleman and that he had died, aged 12 months, from acute bronchitis.

Irene Williams, the wife of David Creighton Williams, was the daughter of the English painter, Frank Reynolds (1828 - 1895), and of Jane Bailey, who had married in St. Pancras, London, on 10th February 1852.  Frank's parents were the painter/engraver, Samuel William Reynolds and Emma Humby who had married in January 1824 in Westminster. Samuel William Reynolds (1794 - 1872) had himself been born in Westminster on 6th May 1794 to the earlier painter/engraver, also Samuel William Reynolds who not only collaborated with Sir Joshua Reynolds, but also claimed kinship with him.

Irene Reynolds' mother, Jane Bailey, had been born in Bedford in about 1830;  in 1841 she was living with her parents in Biggleswade - Charles Bailey had been born in 1776 and was a steward.  His wife Ann Bailey had been born in about 1779.

Frank and Jane Reynolds settled in Dublin, and were living at Enderley, Sweetmount, Dundrum, from about 1860. The Irish dog licence records record the fact that the Reynolds family kept greyhounds and terriers.
The 'Freeman's Journal' of 23rd August 1879 carried an advertisement for Messrs. Cranfield and Co. who were currently showing a painting, 'Punchestown Winners 1879' by A. Jones and Frank Reynolds.

Frank Reynolds and Jane Bailey had children in Dublin, although Irene Reynolds had been born in England in about 1857 before the family moved to Ireland. Samuel William Charles Reynolds, named for both of his grandfathers (Samuel William Reynolds and Charles Bailey) was born at Sweetmount, Dundrum, on 1st August 1858,  Madeline Lucy Reynolds was born 16th July 1861, Hugh Reynolds was born on 18th October 1864,  Annie Rose Reynolds was born at Enderly, Dundrum, on 25th April 1866, and Arthur George Reynolds, later a photographer, was born on 18th May 1863.   Daughter Madeline would marry, in 1896 in Scarborough, a nurseryman named George William Walshaw, and had a son, Frank Walshaw, in 1897.
Frank Reynolds and Jane Bailey Reynolds returned to live in England where the 1891 census revealed them living at 3 Oak Road, Scarborough, along with two of their, as yet, unmarried children, Madeline and Arthur George.

Following the death of her husband, David Creighton Williams, in 1895, Irene Williams, née Reynolds, moved in with her sister-in-law, Jessie Williams, at 23 Carysfort Avenue, along with her 6 surviving children. It was the Canadian descendants of this family who were told that the family originated in Wales, and it is telling that they chose to marry there.
Irene Williams emigrated to Winnipeg along with five of her children in 1908 - one of her daughters, Jessie Ida, aka Jumbo, remained in Dublin.


b) John Williams was born to Richard and Geraldine Williams circa 1852. Family lore has it that he trained as a doctor and practised first in England and later in the Blackrock area of south County Dublin where his sister, Jessie, also lived. He was reknowned for his kindness and is said to have given away his own clothes to his poorer patients. I have not found any evidence of his medical training - when John died of pulmonary consumption on 28th June 1880 at 8 Sydenham Road, Dubdrum, the death certificate gives his profession as 'esquire';  his brother, Willis Creighton Williams was the informant.

c)  Jessie Creighton Williams, was born to Richard and Geraldine Williams on 23rd January 1853 and ran a school at 'Leoville', 23 Carysfort Avenue.
Extract from The Irish Times, January 15th 1898:   'Leoville, Girls' Collegiate Boarding School, Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin.  Principal - Miss Jessie Creighton Williams, Certificate, Dublin University. During 1897 Miss Williams's pupils have been successful in the following examinations:- Royal University Matriculation;  Intermediate, Passes and Honours; London, College of Music.
University classes and those for Pianoforte, Violin, Mandoline, Singing and Painting may be joined separately.
Boys under 11 received.  Special attention paid to backward or delicate pupils.  School re-opens (D.V.) Monday, January 10.  For prospectus, List of Masters etc., apply to PRINCIPAL.'

 Like most of the Williams family, Jessie was a member of the Plymouth Brethren. Later she moved the school to Leinster Square, Rathmines, before emigrating to Canada along with her widowed sister-in-law, Irene, who had been married to her brother, David, and Irene's children,
In 1901, she was still resident at Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, along with her widowed sister-in-law, Irene Williams, née Reynolds, and Irene's children - Irene Geraldine aged 19 (aka Igy), Jessie Ida aged 16, Louisa aged 14, Edwin aged 13, Florence Evangeline aged 11 (aka Tookie), and Frank aged 10.
By 1911, Jessie Creighton had moved to Leinster Square in Rathmines, but would soon follow her late brother's family over to Canada, where she died at East Kildonan, Winnipeg, Manitoba, on 4th February 1927.

I will do a separate post for her brother, our great-grandfather, Willis Creighton Williams, who seems to be the youngest son who had been born on 29th October 1854.
http://alison-stewart.blogspot.ie/2011/09/willis-creighton-williams-and-kate.html

Our great-great grandfather, Richard Williams, of 17 Eden Quay and 8 Sydenham Road, died of heart disease on 21st August 1885. The photo above must have been taken following the death of John Williams in 1880 and, obviously, before the death of Richard in 1885.

Richard's wife, our great-great grandmother,  Geraldine O'Moore Creighton Williams, died aged 77, of a tumour of the intestines and of peritonitis on 30th May 1888.  She died at 41 North Great Georges Street at a school owned by her three unmarried sisters, Jessie, Eliza and Louisa Adelaide Creighton.

Her will:  'Geraldine O'Moore Williams, 7 September 1888. Will of Geraldine O'Moore Williams, late of 41 North Great Georges Street, Widow died 30 May 1888 at the same place was proved at Principle Registry by Jessie Williams of Airfield, 26 Claremont-road, Sandymount, Dublin.'

Much of the above research into the Williams family was carried out by my second cousin, the late Jane Williams of Churchtown, and this has been plagiarised liberally by myself.



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