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Pywells in Leicestershire

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Edward Pywell

Born 1850 in Leicester. Died 1936 in Leicester.

Eliza Cowell

Born 1852 in Leicester. Died 1922 in Leicester.


















Great Grandparents

When Edward was born in 1850 his parents lived in Burgess Street Leicester, his father Matthew was a baker and the household had two servants.  Edward was the youngest of four children, and would have had little time to know his father, as Matthew died in November of 1852.

His mother Mary Ann remained a widow until her death in 1895 at the age of 79.

By 1861 Mary Ann and her family had moved to 14 St Peter's Lane, where 11 year old Edward was described as an errand boy, an illustration of how short childhood was then.

In 1871 they were still in residence in St Peter's Lane, with Mary Ann's occupation shown as coffee roaster, and Edward was a warehouse counterman.  His future wife Eliza Cowell was a shirt maker.

Eliza was born in 1852 to Thomas and Eliza Cowell who at the previous year’s census lived in Victoria Street in the Parish of St Marys in Leicester. Thomas was described as “Master Hosier, employer of 13 men and boys”.  It seems Eliza was the fifth of their ultimately fifteen children, not all of whom survived to adulthood.























Great Grandparents - Coleman & Hillman


William Henry Coleman Born c1870. Died April 1899 Devonport

Jessie Hillman Born  27 January 1868 Launceston. Died 17 July 1907 Stonehouse, Devon

Their marriage was registered in Launceston in the third quarter of 1891

Children:


William Henry Coleman died in the second quarter of 1899 aged 28.

Jessie (Coleman) then married Thomas John Jackson (born Launceston in 1871 or 1872) in Devonport in 1901

Children:


Jessie then died in July 1907 and Thomas John Jackson remarried, to Margaret Alexandra Dimmick (born c1867 Londonderry) in Plymouth in 1908.


Great Grandparents - Myring & Casey


John Myring  Born 1871  Leicester. Died 1922 Leicester

Ellen Casey   Born 10 June 1870 Leicester. Died 1937 Leicester

Their marriage was registered in Leicester 16 April 1892

Children:



The family then looked like this


As can be seen above, Eliza’s surname Cowell was given as a middle name to a number of the children.

In 1937 my grandfather George too named his youngest son Lander Cowell Pywell, he was my uncle and was always known simply as “Bud”.


Eliza’s death was registered in the first quarter of 1922, and I had assumed that Edward lived as a widower until he died in 1936.  Recent information from a family member tells otherwise - Edward it seems remarried at the age of 71 or 72 (possibly with indecent haste), to a lady called Ada (the name Ada keeps cropping up). However, records suggest she was in fact called Mary Ann.  Electoral Registers for 36 Noble Street show that in 1921 Edward lived with Eliza, in 1922 he lived alone, but in 1923 Mary Ann Pywell (who I had previously noted but not identified) was in residence with him. George R C  Pywell and his (by then) widowed sister Elsie Dagley lived next door at 34.  

There is certainly a record of an Edward Pywell marrying a Mary Ann Henton in quarter 2 of 1922, less than 6 months after Eliza’s death.  So far I have been able to identify two possible candidates for this Mary Ann, one 1853 -1928, one 1851-1929.  Also I found a Mary Ann Henton who appears on the electoral register for 1911 at a shop in Victoria Street in the parish of Narborough, about six miles away.  However if she was married before she will be difficult to pinpoint without a maiden name.



Edward’s Parents


Eliza’s Parents


On the back of this photo is written: “Grandma Pywell, Geo & Elsie’s mum.  Lander, Tom, Jack, Nell, Bella, Ada her other children”. So this is Eliza.  The note sent me off looking for the “missing” children

A note on the back of this photo says it shows George, Lander, Tom and Jack. I recognise George (top) and Lander (next one down) and it does look rather like a family photo of four brothers.

Originally I believed Edward and Eliza had just six children; Ellen, Elsie, Clara, Thomas, George and Lander.  But, notes on a family photo named three others; Jack, Bella and Ada (but missing out Clara), making eight in total. Also, in the census of 1911 is further evidence of not just eight, but nine children.  That year the census form had columns labelled “Total Children Born Alive”, “Children still Living”, and “Children who have Died”.  Some of those records offer an insight into the high infant and child mortality rate of those times.  The numbers for Edward and Eliza were 9, 7 and 2.

Bella I believe must have been Clara, possibly a diminutive of Clarabella or similar (indeed I have discovered it was certainly common for many Elizas to be recorded on various official forms as either Elizabeth or Eliza).  So that was six.

As described above, I found John Edward Matthew (who I think must be Jack) for some reason living with his grandmother for at least most of the first 12 or 13 years of his life.

Frank, not mentioned on the photo, was born in 1882, and died very young, never having appeared on a census.  

In a note from my father there is reference to Ada going out to Australia to join her sister Nell (Ellen). But I can find no record of her anywhere. However, thanks to a fellow Ancestry.co.uk user, I did discover Constance Mary Pywell, born 1889, died 1890. Any initial doubts about her were dispelled when I found her burial record for 15 October 1890 in Barrow-upon Soar (where the family were to be found on the Census of 1891). In addition, in 1907 Thomas Henry Pywell named his daughter Constance Mary, probably after his young sister.

That then is all nine children identified and named.

By the early 1890s the family had moved to South End Cottages in Barrow upon Soar, not far from Leicester these days, but at around 10 miles it suggests Edward, who was described as a warehouseman, may not have been working in Leicester at that time, although the village did have a railway station.  It was there that my grandfather George was born two weeks before the census in April of that year, showing on the the form alongside four of his siblings as “Infant not named”.  John, age 12, was still living with his grandmother, now at 33 Fleet Street Leicester. I have since found that in 1889 they had a daughter, Constance Mary, who sadly died in October 1890 aged 18 months and who was buried in Barrow upon Soar

Lander was born in 1893, and he, Thomas and George were all baptised on 26th September 1894 at St George’s Church.  The family address was now back in Leicester at 56 Queen Street (the same street as the church) and literally a stone’s throw from their earlier home on Constitution Hill.  The part of Queen Street where they lived now seems to lead into the car park of a Mercedes dealership!

1901 saw the family living at 50 Cranmer Street with four of their children.  Ellen and Elsie were living with their grandmother Eliza Cowell at 52 Upper Kent Street. Edward’s occupation on that year’s census was “counterman, hosiery”.  John, who had been living with Edward’s mother, was married in June of that year. The Cranmer Street house is probably the only one of their homes still standing.

The 1911 Census found only Edward, Eliza (recorded as Elizabeth), George and Lander living a short distance away at 54 Noble Street. George was a waiter (out of work) and Lander was a spinner.  Ellen had married in 1901 and later she and her husband George Coles had emigrated to Australia.  Lander was to join her in October 1913. There is a separate page telling more of this.  By 1921 the family were a short distance away at 36 Noble Street.  The Census that year was 19 June, and shows my father as “Baby Pywell”, 2 days old.

Edward and Eliza certainly moved about.  In addition to the addresses above which were gleaned from census and baptism entries, Wright’s Directory shows them at 41 Arundel Street (1878), Stanley Villas Melbourne Road (1883), and 13 Grape Street (1906) - all in Leicester.  The period of residence in Barrow upon Soar remains something of an anomaly as the only time they lived outside Leicester.

There followed two more daughters, Elsie (b1883) and Clara (b1886), and a son Thomas (b1887).  Both Elsie and Clara were baptised at St George’s Church in Queen Street on 4th April 1887, at which time the family were living nearby at Constitution Hill, a few hundred yards away from their previous home in Waterloo Street, and close to the Leicester Campbell Street railway station (below) before it was rebuilt.

I have found a photo of numbers 20-24, the last surviving houses there in 1965 shortly before demolition (right).  The family may have lived at 28, but the entry isn’t absolutely clear.

The original Leicester Station was on on Campbell Street before it was rebuilt on London Road in 1892-94

Edward and Eliza were married on the 2nd October 1877 at St Andrews Church, the banns being read in September.  Their addresses at the time were 26 Oxford Street and 2 Gosling Street respectively - close together and by today’s standards very near the centre of Leicester City, but at that time towards the outskirts of the town conurbation.  Neither roads have houses now, with De Montfort University buildings occupying the site of their former homes.  The marriage register showed Edward's occupation as Hosier and he may well have worked for Eliza's father Thomas, possibly meeting Eliza through that connection.

In July 1878 they had their first child John Edward Matthew, and when he was baptised on 4th July 1879 at St Andrews Church in Jarrom Street, their address was given as Eliza's mother's home at nearby Gosling Street, her father Thomas having died age 59 in January of that same year (he is buried in Welford Road Cemetery along with his wife).

In 1880 Edward and Eliza had a second child, a daughter Ellen, also baptised at St Andrews Church on 12th December the same year, their address 4 West Bond Street (now the Highcross Shopping Centre).  Curiously at the census of 1881 although they were still at the same address, John was recorded as living with his grandmother Mary Ann Pywell (Edward’s mother) who still lived at St Peter’s Lane, quite close by.

During the 1880s Edward and Eliza had four more children.  A son, Frank, was born at 17 Waterloo Street in 1882 and survived only a short time, but long enough to be baptised on 6th May that year at St John the Divine in South Albion Street.  Waterloo Street is now Waterloo Way, with all the original houses demolished.

Great Grandparents - Marston & Deacon


James William Marston Born 10 August 1864 Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire. Died 8 July 1942 Leicester

Mary J Deacon Born c1872 Nuneaton. Died 29 January 1929 Leicester

Their marriage was registered in Leicester in the second quarter of 1891

Children:

The were three other unknown children - based on the original 1911 Census form which that year recorded the number of children the family had born alive, still living and died. It shows 8, 5 and 3 respectively.

Edith was born after the 1911 Census meaning there were 9 children in all

Early pictures of Waterloo Street (above). It would have looked much like this when Edward and Eliza lived there. Players Navy Cut (seen on the shop advertising) dated from 1893.