The Hornigolds come to Middlesbrough.
In 1861 Goddard Hornigold was living in West Lynn. Like most of his extended family he was a fisherman. He and his wife Emma had a large family and at this time Henry, a fisherman, Maria, a dressmaker, Kerenhappuch, Sarah Jane, Frederick, John James, Thomas William and Elijah were all at home. Also living with them was Goddard’s grandson Robert. Four of Goddard’s children would later move to North Ormesby, which is now part of Middlesbrough, although his daughter only spent a short time there.
Goddard’s son Frederick Juell was born in 1851. Twenty years later he was a lodger with John Lee and his wife at 7 Wear Street, Middlesbrough. Frederick was a navvie. On 4th September 1872 he married Elizabeth Seers at Stockton. Elizabeth was originally from Islington in London.
Meanwhile Frederick’s sister Sarah was in their home town of West Lynn. She had married Robert William Trundle in West Ham in March 1866, but in 1871 was back in West Lynn with their 3 year old son Robert and 9 month old daughter Emma. Her “occupation” was listed on the census as “wife of a labourer working in the north of England”! Her husband Robert was a lodger with brickmaker William Laycock and his family in Lazonby, Wilton, Yorkshire, just a few miles away from North Ormesby. By 1881 Sarah and Robert were re-united and were living with their family in West Ham where Robert had found work as a dock labourer. The family had also spent time in North Ormesby though as their two youngest children Mary and Amy Ellen had been born there.
One of Frederick and Sarah’s younger siblings was John James Hornigold, who was known as James. Whilst still living with his parents he was a fisherman. Like his older brother Fredrick he married a London girl, but unlike his brother his marriage took place in London. He married Mary Emily Harper on 24th December 1877 at St Johns church in Lambeth. William Hornigold, another sibling, and Elizabeth Hilden, his future wife, were witnesses. James soon followed his older brother to North Ormesby. By 1881 he was living at 52 Telford Street with his wife and two young children, James and Lucy, who had both been born in North Ormesby. James was a labourer.
Not far away was his brother Frederick. He was nicely settled in North Ormesby and living at 92 Smeaton Street. At home was an expanding family; wife Elizabeth and children Kerenhappuch, Robert, Henry and John. According to the census they were born in North Ormesby in 1874, 1875, 1877, and 1879 respectively. However a Kerenhappuch Sophia was born in Kings Lynn in 1873 and it is possible that Frederick and Elizabeth returned to Norfolk to have their first child. This was not uncommon at that time. There were also three working men who were boarders in the house. Whether they were there as a way of making ends meet or as a business decision is unknown, but Frederick certainly developed a head for business. However at this time he was a keelman on a barge. Keels were the shallow, but wide, boats which transported coal downriver from the mines to the ports where their cargo could be loaded onto larger ships. Ironically for the Hornigolds many of these ships would deliver coal to ports along the East coast, including Kings Lynn. The keels were built of wood and were approximately forty feet long and twenty feet wide. They had a single mast and two large oars, but no rudder. A large sweep was used for steering. The keels were loaded from a riverside chute, with the coal being piled high and boards placed in it to stop the pile from sliding down. Using the ebb tide, and if the wind was up their sails, the keels would head downstream to the waiting colliers. The keelmen, usually a skipper, a two man crew and a boy, would then shovel the coal, in excess of twenty tons of it, into the collier. This would have been extremely hard work, not helped by the fact that they were shovelling upwards onto the larger collier. With the keelmen Frederick would have found the same close knit camaraderie that he would have previously experienced within the fishing community back in Kings Lynn.
North Ormesby lies to the south of the River Tees in the middle of Middlesbrough. The town was built to house an influx of workers who arrived in the area to work in the ironstone business when a large seam was discovered there. This saw a boom in work at the mines, blast furnaces and foundries as well as on the river and at the port. The old town was built with grid like streets around a market square. It was into this environment that the Hornigold’s moved. Despite the growth of industry, they all found themselves working around the rivers and docks, rather than in the mines or foundries.
The next of the Hornigold’s to head to Middlesbrough was Thomas William, who was known as William. He married Elizabeth Hilden in 1885 in Middlesbrough. Like the Hornigold’s Elizabeth was from West Lynn. Unlike most of their extended family William and Elizabeth never had any children.
By 1888 Frederick and his family had moved to 13 Esk Street and it was here that Elizabeth was the victim of a drunken assault. Whilst walking along Esk Street, a man came out of number 7 and said that he knew her. He swore at her and said that she should be put away for six months for selling pigs that had swine fever. [Some time previously she had indeed had some pigs that had to be destroyed as they had swine fever]. The man, who was drunk, continued to follow Elizabeth and was continually abusive to her. She told him to go away, but he followed her all the way to her own home and on her doorstep he pushed her and thrust his stick at her. The man was Frederick Prybus, an assistant to Dr Cook. When Elizabeth later went to Dr Cook to ask for her assailant’s name he refused to give it and the matter went to court, although Elizabeth would initially have been satisfied with an apology. Despite Mr Prybus claiming that Elizabeth had insulted him he was found guilty and fined 45 shillings with the court making reference to Elizabeth as being a respectable woman.
In 1891 Frederick and his family were still in North Ormesby and had two different lodgers from the previous census. Robert and Henry were still with their parents and were both carters. There were now several more children; George, Jane Ann, Ellen and Horace. All were born in North Ormesby. Staying true to his maritime heritage, Frederick was now a sailor. However his son’s occupations may indicate that he was also developing a carrier business. This would seem to be confirmed by adverts in the local press. On 15th May 1891 the North Eastern Daily Gazette included a small ad from Frederick for a young man to be a carter. It was a live in appointment. On July 28th a similar advert appeared and on August 10th 1892 yet another similar advert for rolley, presumably trolley, work was in the same paper.
Frederick’s daughter Kerenhappuch married Robert Adams in 1893. The Kellys Directory of the same year listed her father Frederick as a taxi proprietor at 13 Esk Street, North Ormesby, so over a period of ten to fifteen years he had developed a carrier business and then extended this to include a taxi service.
Things would not go so smoothly for his brother James. All seemed well at first and in 1891 James and Mary were at 61 Stovin Street, North Ormesby, with their children James, Lucy, Goddard, Janet, Robert and William. James was now working as a lighterman. His job would have been to move goods from the ships to the quays, by means of smaller boats, which were known as lighters. On April 18th 1896 the North Eastern Daily Gazette included a strange small ad from John. “I, John James Hornigold, of 61 Stovin Street, North Ormesby, do hereby give notice that I will not be responsible for any debts my wife, Mary Emily Hornigold, may contract after this date. Dated this 16th April 1896. JJ Hornigold. Witness Albert Borrie, solicitor, Middlesbrough”. The obvious conclusion is that his wife was running up debts, presumably unnecessary ones, but taking out such an advert seems extraordinary.
In 1896 Frederick and Elizabeth’s son George Albert was in trouble for stealing 2 shillings and 9 pence. George was just 13 but was sentenced to 21 days imprisonment followed by 5 years at a reformatory school. On 10th February George was sent to East Moor Home School at Adel, Leeds, having spent his 5 days at Northallerton prison. The school records describe George as being a slight figure, just four feet five and a half inches tall and weighing 5 stone. He had brown hair and blue eyes. Having previously attended North Ormesby Board School, George was working as a labourer for Cocherans Iron works in Ormesby. Interestingly George’s father is described as “respectable” on the school records, but his mother is described as being of “drunken habit”. George’s uncles James and William were listed as under “friends and relations”. Children who committed crimes had always been sent to adult prisons, but during the mid 1800’s a new act was introduced and the existing, privately run, reformatories were joined by new ones run by the state. The Reformatories, equivalent to the borstals of today, took in people who had committed crimes, whereas the similar Industrial Schools took in children who were destitute. East Moor Home School first opened in 1857 and The Adel Reformatory was founded in 1857 by the Leeds Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders. The school had a swimming pool which had a roof built over it at around the time George was sentenced. The pool was very popular, being used by groups from the wider community as well as the inmates. Swimming and life-saving lessons were given and in later years many of the young offenders worked for the Grimsby fishing fleet. Ironically other members of the extended Hornigold family worked in the Grimsby Fishing Fleet too. One way or another George inherited the Hornigold’s familiarity with the sea as he later joined the Royal Naval Reserve.
James died early in 1898, aged just 44. His fifteen year old son Goddard died later the same year. In August he and a friend were hanging onto the back of a tram. The conductor told them to get off and when Goddard did so he ran into the path of a tram coming from the other direction. The tram stopped on top of young Goddard and had to be lifted off in order to remove his body. Two years later widowed Mary married Irishman Patrick Magill.
Meanwhile William Hornigold was quietly getting on with his life. He and his wife were living at 34 Worsley Street, North Ormesby. This street backed onto Stovin Street where his brother James was living. For a while in 1891William’s deaf and dumb sister Maria stayed with him. William was a waterman working on a barge. On 13th November 1899 William’s name appeared in the North Eastern Daily Gazette. He was listed on the subscriptions list of the Red Cross fund for the sick and wounded in the South African war. His contribution was 2 shillings and six pence. Most of the fourteen people listed had donated a few pounds, but it is the thought that counts!
Frederick Hornigold continued to prosper. In 1901 the family were in the parish of Linthorpe, close to North Ormesby. Frederick was a bargeman. Robert, a bargeman, Henry, a cab driver and groom, George, a bargeman, Ellen, Horace and 6 year old Richard Stanley were all at home. Frederick must have led a busy life, because despite being a bargeman, his carrier and taxi business was still in operation. Another son, John James, was born in 1905.
William Hornigold’s quiet life continued. In 1901 he and his wife were living at 72 Worsley Street, North Ormesby. Elizabeth’s 7 year old niece Katie Hilden, was living with them. She was born in West Lynn. William was a slag hopperman. By 1911 William and Elizabeth had moved to 18 Moses Street and William was now working as a lighterman again.
The 1911 census shows Frederick and his family at 82 Boundary Road, Middlesbrough. For the first time Frederick was actually listed as a cab and taxi proprietor. Children Horace, a taxi driver, and Richard, a labourer/horseman were at home. Also at home were his married daughter Jane and her son Frederick K. The census reveals that Frederick and Elizabeth had 11 children, but that 3 had died. Two of these were William and James Stephen who were born in 1890 and 1892 and both died as infants. The other was John Edward who was born in 1881, but died in 1887.
By the outbreak of World War One the three brothers who moved to Middlesbrough had found very differing fortunes. One had died relatively young, but left a family to continue his name. One continued to live a happy, but quiet and childless life. The third had really prospered. When Frederick started his taxi business he had two sets of horses and cabs, which were based at his stables in Boundary Road. When he died in 1925 his sons took over the business which had grown into Hornigolds Station Taxis Ltd.