Margaret Richardson (née Pallister) with her 7 Children
L-R: Ralph P. (1880-1945), Thomas (1868-1928), Margaret P. (1849-1908), Annie (1875-1944),
John R. (1882-1949), Isabella P. (1869-1944), William P. (1873-1930), Robert (1877-1930)
Ancestors
Two of my great-grandparents were Robert Richardson and Margaret Pallister. Robert, born the 6th October 1846, was the youngest son of Thomas and Mary. Strangely, though he was born well after 1837, there is no actual birth certificate and, as far as I know, the bible is the only source of his date of birth. By 1851, the family had shifted to Usworth and were still there in 1861 and they lived in Inkerman Terrace.
Also living in Usworth in 1861 was a Pallister family: William, his wife, Mary Ann (nee Welch) and two of their daughters, Margaret (aged 12) and Isabella (aged 8). Margaret was born in Thornley on 25th February 1849. Usworth was a mining village so Margaret and Robert must have known each other and also liked each
other.
Robert and Margaret got married the 1st January 1868 in the Parish Church in Jarrow. Their witnesses were Robert’s sister Ellen and her husband William H Saxton. Their first child, Thomas, was born the 6th June 1868 and the address is just given as Usworth Colliery. He was followed on the 12th December 1869 by Isabella. Next was a son William Pallister, 5th February 1872. Sadly, he died just three weeks later. The same name was given to their next baby who was born on the 25th February 1873. The 19th June 1875, Annie was born, followed the 13th November 1877 by Robert, then the 30th April 1880 Ralph Pallister, followed by John Robinson the 17th August 1882. The births were all in Little Usworth and nearly all their baptisms appear in a Register for the Jarrow Methodist Circuit.
Things go very wrong
On Monday 2nd March 1885, Robert headed off for what should have been a routine night shift. By this time he was a deputy overman and it would have been a normal farewell but there was a massive explosion and, in all, 42 miners lost their lives and many families lost their breadwinners. The result of this would
have meant that some widows and children would have been evicted and perhaps ended up in a workhouse. If there was any good news it was that because Thomas was already a miner, the family did not have to move. No doubt there were widows who remarried quite soon after the disaster. Margaret did not need to do so and would have managed the house and raised her children. But, on 1st January 1892 she married John Patterson who was a widower, aged 47. By then, Thomas had married but the other children were crammed into 11 Pensher View. On 28th March 1903, John died so Margaret was a widow for a second time.
By this time, her son WP had married Esther Howey, her daughter Bella had married Leinan Gaunt, her other daughter Annie had married Ralph Middleton, her son Robert had married Sarah Annie Purvis but the marriages of her two youngest sons were still to come. Margaret died on 19th October 1908. She was 59. She was buried in Usworth HT graveyard on 12th October 1908. There is no headstone.
My grandfather and his siblings
At the time of the Usworth Disaster, Robert and Margaret had 7 children, two who travelled and five who did not. The two who travelled were the eldest sons, Thomas and WP. Thomas was born in 1868. The 31st January 1888 he married Nellie Purvis and he worked in several pits in Durham and Northumberland. He was
passionately interested in politics and one way he showed this was in the names of his sons. The children and their dates were Robert (1889-1889); Annie (1892-1972); Margaret (1893-1923); Ada (1895-1896); Florence (1897-1994); John Morley (1900-1952); Thomas Keir Hardie (1903-1904); Mary (1907-1908) and Robert MacDonald (1910-1967).
As well as having a large family, he was very active within Durham. He was a county councillor and did a lot of good work. In 1911, he stood for Parliament and was elected MP for Whitehaven. He lost his seat in the post-war election. In 1919 the family moved to British Columbia for several years. When Tom and Nellie returned to England most of their family stayed in Canada. Only their youngest son came with them. (An aside: in 1965 I had a student trip to Canada and met several of the family and I am still in touch with some of them). After their return they lived in London. Thomas died on 22nd October 1928 and was cremated at Golder’s Green Crematorium. The eulogy was given by Ramsay MacDonald. Nellie outlived her husband by many years. She died on 22nd February 1947 in Surrey.
The other Richardson who travelled extensively was my grandfather. His full name was William Pallister Richardson (as was my father and as is mine). Grandfather was often referred to as WP. He was born in Usworth in 1873 and lived there until 1915. He was still at school at the time of the disaster. It seems striking that, for a working-class lad, he had a photo when he was just 12 when his father died. Inevitably, he would have left school and gone down the mine as soon as it reopened. He would have started as a ‘trapper’ and worked up until he was a hewer.
At 5 ft 7 ins, he was quite short. He soon took an interest in the Lodge and was elected Chair in 1901. He was also on the Parish Council and was Chair from 1900. He stood for election as a DMA Agent and, in 1915 was successful and the family moved to Redhills where they were the first occupants of 1 Redhill Villas! (The next were Will Lawther and family.) As a DMA Agent he had different roles and he appears on many photos in the Muniments Room. His travels began around 1921 when he was the DMA representative on the MFGB (Miner’s Federation of Great Britain). He was appointed MFGB Treasurer in 1921 and travelled many times to Europe in search of funds. I have his (second?) passport with perhaps 20 or 30 visa stamps. I always assumed he went by rail but there is a Daily Herald reference to him and AJ Cook flying to a meeting. He seems to have been a man in a hurry. He died late on Friday 8th August 1930 at home, the day before DMA men set off for the MFGB Conference in Weston-superMare. He was buried in St Margaret’s Churchyard in Durham.
He had a family! He married Esther Howey in 1895. They had 5 babies before 1901, all died within days. Then there was May (1902); Ena (1904); Ettie (1906); Peggy (1909) and my father in 1911. His wife died in 1927. So the travellers, Tom and WP, had five siblings. The eldest was Bella who, by all accounts, was a bit of a fireball. Her main claim to fame was that she was the female member of Usworth Parish Council. She died in 1944 and has a prominent headstone. Next was Annie, she lost her husband in 1909 and made her living as cake-maker. She also died in 1944 but there is no headstone.
Robert was the next, a noted pianist who accompanied silent movies. He died in 1930. There is a small vase in the graveyard. The next brother was Ralph P who seems to have worked for the Co-op. He died in 1945 has a very visible headstone. And the final brother John Robinson Richardson who worked as a ‘horse keeper below ground’. He died in 1949 and there is a memorial for him.
The Richardsons cared for their community.
Bill Richardson
wpr3145@gmail.com