Jack and Alexander are related to the Lloyd family via their paternal grandfather William Frank Bramhill, whose maternal grandmother was Louisa Lavinia Lloyd (Feb 13 , 1849 - Nov 15, 1921).
Louisa was born in Lea, Staffordshire, although in later life she gave her birthplace as Bilston or Lea. It would appear her parents moved about a fair bit, possibly in search of work; Louisa and her older brother and sister also appear on IGI baptisms as living in Wrockwardine, near Telford.
Taking the Lloyd family through the censuses:
1851, New Village, Bilston. Thomas Lloyd, age 45, b Montgomeryshire, Labourer in Ironworks Martha Lloyd, age 39, b Oswestry Ann, age 7, b Lea Thomas, age 4, b Lea Eliza, age 1, b Lea. William Adams, unmarried, age 57, blacksmith, b not known Elizabeth Adams, widow, age 28, b not known John Hughes, widower, age 89, b Lea
We are sure that Eliza is a mishearing of Louisa. When the family is cross-referenced on the IGI, Ann, Thomas and Louisa show on the IGI baptism record for Wrockwardine. Also Louisa's birthplace in later life varies: she gives Lea, Bilston or Wrockwardine. John Hughes is almost certainly Martha Lloyd's father despite the 50 year age gap. A check with the IGI shows that a Martha was born to John Jones and Martha Hughes, and baptised on June 7, 1812, at Castle Caereinion, Montgomeryshire, Wales. The 1851 enumerator had already got Louisa's name wrong - could the mid Wales accent have confused him into thinking that "Jones" was "Hughes"?
Bilston in 1851 seems to have been a living hell, with an ironworks as well as a coal-mine and a limestone quarry. Ettingshall New Village, where the Lloyds lived, was "a large number of houses" rebuilt after previous homes on the site collapsed due to mine excavations. On June 9, 1852, the Wolverhampton Chronicle reported that medical officer Mr Cooper "had visited almost every street, court, alley, & c in the township, including Bradley and Ettingshall New Village, and with few exceptions had found them teeming with nuisances, unclean and unhealthy. In those areas there had been 53 cases of scarlatina, 87 of diarrhoea, 89 of influenza, 107 of remittent fever, and 104 of typhus. The number of deaths from these and other zymotic diseases had been 47, mostly in those localities that were worst-drained and ventilated, and in which sanitary precautions were most neglected. The cause of those diseaseswas affirmed to be poison generated from the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter."
By and large, the family appear to have survived these conditions, and by 1861 Thomas and Agnes have left home. NB: Thomas married a Mary Carter, and they had a son Thomas Derwent Carter Lloyd, known as Derwent, and a daughter, Annie, who married into the Parry family. Thomas senior lived at Ivy Cottage, Hope, and ran a taxi service; Derwent later joined the fledgling RFC as a mechanic in France during World War One, before returning to Ivy Cottage and taking over the taxi. Derwent is known to have three children, Wenda, Glenys and Norman; Norman died as a child.
1861, Hope, Shropshire Thomas Lloyd, age 49, born Buttington, farmworker Martha, wife, age 58, born Shropshire Louisa, age 11, born Wrockwardine, Telford Agnes, aged 4, born Buttington.
One of Louisa's sisters - Ann, Agnes, or maybe one who is missed on the censuses - married a miner and lived in Hartington Road, Lozells, Birmingham, in the 1910s. This sister is known to have visited my grandmother in Liverpool each year, when she gave the house a thorough spring clean! My father William Frank Bramhill also spent some time with them in Birmingham, enrolling in school there for a time.
Louisa Lavinia Lloyd married at least twice:
:: CERTAIN: William Richardson on March 6, 1870, at Buttington, Montgomeryshire. That marriage produced at least one daughter - Amelia, born 1871. Louisa also had another daughter before making a home with Henry - she was Gertrude, born in Liverpool in 1878. The 1870 marriage certificate gives Louisa's father as Thomas Lloyd, farmworker.
:: POSSIBLE: In 1875, a Louisa Lavinia Lloyd is in the marriage index for King's Norton: the likely groom is a William Floyd or George Brown.
:: CERTAIN: Henry Prossor some time before 1881, although it might have been a common law relationship. They had six children, Henry, Oct 14, 1879; Emily, Herbert 1881, Frank 1883, Charles Earnest, and Marie, 1892. Marie is Jack and Alexander's great grandmother.
It has proved impossible to find Louisa in the 1871 census, just a year after her marriage to William, and the year her daughter Amelia was born. See the link on the left for more on Amelia.
In 1878, Gertrude was born in Liverpool. We are not sure who her father was, but it is unlikely to be Henry Prossor. Please see link on left for more on Gertude.
1881, 1 Stockwell Court, Hulme, Lancashire, Henry Prossor, 37, jeweller, born Ireland Louisa Prossor age 30, born Welshpool Eva M Prossor, age 10 Henry L Prossor, age 2. Eva is Henry's child by his second marriage to Eve Worster, who died in a workhouse in London on Dec 28, 1877. Young Eva later emigrated to Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. We have made extensive searches for a record of Henry and Louisa's marriage, but with no luck. The fact that Gertrude is not with the couple (and young Henry is) would point to the fact that she is not Henry's child.
In 1891, 111 Albert Edward Street, West Derby Liverpool Henry Prossor, head, male, 49 years old, bookkeeper CC, born in Southampton, Hampshire Louisa Prossor, wife, married, 40 years old, born in Bilston, Staffordshire Henry L. Prossor, son, 12 years old, scholar, born in Manchester, Lancashire Herbert L. Prossor, son, 10 years old, scholar, born in Manchester, Lancashire Frank I. Prossor, son, 8 years old, scholar, born in Manchester, Lancashire Mary (Marie) Prossor, daughter, 10 months old, born in Liverpool, Lancashire Amelia Richardson, stepdaughter, single, 20 years old, dressmaker, employed, born in Exeter, Devonshire
