William Marlow 1830 to 1895

William Marlow
Courtesy of Deb and Larry S.

William Marlow, my great great grandfather, was born about 1830 in Eskdaleside, North Yorkshire, England. He was baptised there on March 6, 1830. His parents were George Marlow, who was an agricultural labourer, and Jane Fewster. He appears to have been the eldest of a family of seven children, the others being Mary Ann, George, Thomas, Rachel, Rebecca, and Margret. He married Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of Joseph Long Johnson and Elizabeth Watson, in the third quarter of 1853 in the district of Whitby, Yorkshire. Elizabeth was born in 1831 in Whitby, and baptised there on October 30, 1831. Elizabeth was apparently the fourth child in a family of six, including Sarah, Mary Ann, Joseph, Benjamin, and Thomas Henry. Elizabeth’s mother, of whom she was the namesake, died when Elizabeth was twelve. In the 1861 U.K. Census, her widowed father, age sixty-nine, is living with her and her husband William in Hawsker and Stainsacre, Yorkshire. He does not appear in the 1871 Census, so it is assumed that he died in the decade after the 1861 Census.

William and Elizabeth apparently had five children, the eldest of which was my great grandfather, Joseph H. Marlow. (If anyone knows what the “H” stands for, please enlighten me). The others were Mary Jane, Elizabeth, Benjamin and Maria. Joseph emigrated to America, but it does not appear that any of the others did. There is, however, a family story which tells of a man named “Haviland Marlow” from Ontario coming to Alberta, and bearing a more than striking resemblance to the Marlow family, to the point of being mistaken for one of them. Joseph’s only brother that we know of, Benjamin, lived and died in England. William Marlow may have had two brothers, George and Thomas, of whom we know very little. It is possible that they or their descendants came to North America, too. So far, I haven’t been able to find much, but we will see.

William’s occupation was mainly that of an agricultural labourer, but in the 1881 he is a “cartman (railway contractor)” and living in Newholme Cum Dunsley, Yorkshire. Elizabeth died in Whitby in 1893 at the age of sixty-two, and William passed away, also in the district of Whitby, at the age of sixty-five. They had been living in Lythe, Yorkshire in 1891.