Starks of Ireland, Manchester, Castleford and Leeds

Jack and Alexander are linked to the Starks via their maternal grandmother (b1936). Her father (the boys' gt grandfather) was WILFRED HERBERT ALBROW; his mother (the boys' gt gt grandmother) was NELLIE STARKS.

Starks is a fairly unusual surname, and tracing this branch of the family was comparatively easy, even though the name changes several times from Stark to Starks to Starkes. We knew Jack and Alex's 2x gt grandmother was Nellie Starks, born in the late 1800s. There are ten Nellie Starkses in the 1901 census but only one in Leeds - and it was a case of chasing back through the censuses.

For other Starks researchers, there are 116 Starkes and 417 Starks on the 1901 census, and there is a wide spread, including Lancashire, Hampshire, Cumberland, London and Suffolk.

According to the website www.starkeffect.com, the Stark surname arrived from Germany in the late 1400s when German soldiers were sent to support either the pretender Perkin Warbeck or a Scottish challenge to Henry VII. Their army was defeated but they fled to Scotland and were given shelter by the Scottish royals.

Our Starks family originated in Ireland and appear to have arrived in England between 1828 and 1841, although it could have been earlier (William Starks gives his birthplace as Liverpool in the 1851 census, and Thomas Starks says in the 1861 census that he was born in Manchester).

The oldest reference to the family is in the 1841 census when they are living in Richmond Street, Salford, with THOMAS and ELIZA STARKS, both aged 40. They and four other Starkses are all listed as having been born in Ireland.

At this stage, I am as sure as can be that the 1841 family is the right one - a William and a Thomas are there, and no other variants come near! Our line continues via William, but check the 1861 census ... Thomas reappears as a cousin.

Thanks to research by another Starks descendant, David Smith of Yorkshire, we know that William's mother and father were not Thomas and Eliza but ANTHONY STARKES and ELIZABETH BOOTH. David's research has turned up an IGI record of their marriage at St Paul's, St Paul's Square, Liverpool, on Jan 12, 1823. David has also found the May 1831 birth date of William's sister, Esther, who was baptised at St Peter's, Liverpool, in May 1831.

In the census returns below, red shows the current head of the family when they are a direct ancestor; blue denotes the ancestor who carries our line forward

1841 Census - Richmond Street, Salford

Thomas Starks b 1801 cotton weaver
Eliza Starks b 1801
Eliza b 1821 cotton worker
Esther b 1821 cotton worker
Wm b 1821 Bookbinder (Jack andAlex's 4 x gt grandfather)
Thos b 1828

William soon left Lancashire and moved to Castleford, near Leeds, Yorkshire. It would appear that the family emigrated across the Pennines together, as a Thomas Starks's death is recorded in Pontefract in 1847. William married Harriet Thompson in 1844 in Castleford. Harriet was baptised in Castleford on the April 16, 1826, her parents' names were John and Maria.

The 1851 census, below, shows that William has changed his trade to glassblower, a skill that is set to stand the family in good stead. It appears there were two major glass companies, one of which, the Black Bottle works, was owned by the ancestors of TV celebrity Jeremy Clarkson and which featured in the BBC's Who Do You Think You Are programme. See photographs of the area and the glassworks.

1851 Census - Wellbeck Street, Castleford

William Starks 26 glass blower, b Liverpool (Jack andAlex's 4 x gt grandfather)
Harriet 25 b Castleford, (Jack andAlex's 4 x gt grandmother)
Thomas 3 b Castleford

Between their marriage and Harriet's death in 1859, William and Harriet had nine children, It is likely that Harriet died following childbirth as there is a burial of a William Starks aged 8 days on the same day as Harriet.. So far, neither David nor I can find a reference to Hannah's death in the indexes but David does, however, have her Castleford Cemetery burial record - March 19, 1859, aged 33.  

William married HANNAH TAYLOR on JAN 21, 1860 at St Mary's, Castlegate, York. Hannah's parents were WILLIAM TAYLOR and MARY ANN LONG. Between 1860 and William's death in 1898, the couple had ten children, the last being Louisa, born 1881.  

David points to the naming pattern used by William for his children as giving further evidence of the link with Anthony. William used both his wife's maiden names in their first names. There was Robert Thompson Starks (Thompson was Harriet's maiden name), James Booth Starks (from his mother's maiden name) and William Taylor Starks (Taylor was second wife Hannah's maiden name) maiden name.

1861 Census - Wellbeck Street, Castleford

Wm Starkes, head, 34, Glass bottle maker, b Liverpool, Lancs (Jack andAlex's 4 x gt grandfather)
Hannah 25, glass bottle maker, Rawcliffe, Yorks
James 13, glass bottle maker b C'ford
John T 6 b C'ford (Jack and Alex's 3 x gt grandfather)
Harriet 4 b C'ford
Thomas (cousin) 22 b Manchester

The 1871 census is a big help as it confirms that John, Albert and William are brothers, and you can follow their families through later censuses. By this time, William has forgotten his roots and claims to have been born in Castleford.

1871 Census

William Starks, 45, Glass maker
Hannah Starks, 37
Jno T Starks, 16, Glass blower (Jack and Alex's 3 x gt grandfather)
Harriet Starks, 14
William Starks, 8
Albert Starks, 6
James, 7mo

Our line continues via John Thompson Starks.

1881 Census - 74 Oxford Street, Castleford

John Thompson Starkes, 26, Glass bottle maker (Jack and Alex's 3 x gt grandfather)
Mary Ann, 25 (Jack and Alex's 3 x gt grandmother)
Harriett Ann 1
William Wilson, 1 month

John Thompson's father William dies on October 6, 1898, at 34 West Street Castleford, aged 74. His son Albert was present at the death. Hannah dies on Feb 1, 1905, at the same address, aged 67. Present at her death was her son A Starks, whose address is given as Dock Street, Hull.

The 1891 census has three branches of the Starks family in Castleford. Our line continues via Nellie, who is a three-year-old in 1891.

1891 census - Smiths Row, Castleford, all born in Castleford

John T Starkes, 36, Glass Bottle Maker (Jack andAlex's 3 x gt grandfather)
Mary A Starkes, 32 (Jack and Alex's 3 x gt grandmother)
Harriet Starkes, 11, Imbecile
William Starkes, 10, Scholar
Edith A, 6, Scholar
Nellie, 3 (Jack and Alex's gt gt grandmother)

1891 census - Starkes at West Street, Castleford

Albert, 26, Glass Bottle Blower
Alice, 20
Hannah 6
Anthony 1

They shared their house with lodger Alfred Grainger, 20, and John and Mary Ann Hickingbottom and their four children. (NB: An A.Starks was a Castleford county player for Castleford RUFC 1895-96. Was it Albert?)

1891 census - Next door to Albert and Alice in West Street, Castleford.
 

William J Starks, 28, b C'ford
Frances Starks 28 b Kippax
William Starks, b C'ford
Fred, b C'ford (Fred later won the Military Medal in France in the 1914-18 War)
Thomas A, b C'ford