Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

I am new to the forum and society and am researching from New Zealand, so hope someone may be able to help.

I believe I have traced my New Zealand MORROWS back to Thomas MORROW born c1764 in Liverpool. He married Lydia BLACKBURN on 15 Jun 1788 at St James Toxteth. They had 10 children.
Thomas is described as a jeweller and I think his death is reported in the Liverpool Mercury in 1824 (but have no definite proof as I have not found a will as yet, probable burial at St John's, but age doesn't quite fit). Lydia died in the 1849 cholera epidemic at the stated age of 90 (but more likely to have been in her 80's)

It would appear that Thomas had an older brother Richard MORROW born c1754, also described as a jeweller in parish records, and that they may both be children of John MORROW shoemaker.
Richard appears to have died at the age of 58 in the asylum (burial record St John's from bishops transcripts).

My queries are;
Is anyone researching this family?
Can anyone suggest where else I might look for information on this family. Only Richard appears in Gores Directory 1796. I had thought with some sort of trade there might be more information somewhere.
Do any records exist for the asylum?
Do any records exist for jewellers/ watchmakers/ silversmiths?
Richard MORROW appears in the apprenticeship records as a master to two apprentices in 1788 and 1793 respectively but I have not been able to find a record of his or Thomas's own apprenticeship. Can anyone suggest where else I might be able to look for other leads?
At least two of Thomas's children went on to become watchmakers and I can find no record of apprenticeships for them either. (These two both left Liverpool for London)

Thank you in advance
Jane

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I have checked Gibsons Epitaphs for any Morrows but without success, this just means that there wasn't a headstone in the Graveyards that Gibson transcribed.

I'm thinking that the children were taught their trade by the father, probably without official apprenticeships.

It's possible they may be named in Freemen's Registers however these would need to be booked in the Archives.

Some entries from Directories
1790 Lewis's Liverpool Directory (same entries in Gores 1790)
Morrow, Joseph, Carpenter 13 Riley's Gardens
Morrow, Richard, Silversmith, 27 Lord Street

1772 Gore's, same entry in 1769, 1767
Morrow John, Merchant's Porter, North Side Old Dock

No entry in 1766.

Liverpool Museum has an online database of clock/watchmakers here:

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/ ... abase.aspx

Karen

Hi Mary Ann and Karen and thank you for your suggestions.

The Richard MORROW in the Lewis's directory is certainly the one I am interested in. At present I haven't found a link between Joseph and Richard but am recording information about them in case in the future something turns up. The John MORROW merchant's porter is also a long shot as the children I have found all seem to have gone into trade.

I will have to wait until I can get to Liverpool to look at the Freemen registers, which at this stage is an unlikely prospect in the foreseeable future.

Thank you too for the link to the museum's database. From that I have identified other children of my direct ancestor John MORROW, son of Thomas & Lydia, and his wife Ann BELL, before they moved to London.

Does anyone know if any records exisit for the asylum?

That's a little difficult to answer, I think there may have been more than one but perhaps at that date maybe not.

The best thing to do is to email the Record Office about that http://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/archi ... y-history/ giving them the address where you believe the family would have been living and the date, they may be able to identify the particular place in question. There is a search button on that page, but just putting in "asylum" brings up a couple of hundred entries, it's not the brightest of search engines. If I try a combination of Asylum and Admissions, it gives details for Rainhill, which is probably not right.

You may also like to look at some links we have collected together, obviously many of them too recent for your research, but there is in particular a site called Old Mersey Times, that has so many huge pages it will take you a long time to work your way through them but you may find mention of your family. The lady who has created this site has put a tremendous amount of information together - I find the way to do it is do an Alt E, F(ind) and search down the page for your family name.

http://forum.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk ... =14&t=5739

The old asylum was located with the hospital on the site now occupied by St George's Hall:-

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report ... mpid=41378


Blue

Thank you Blue,

That is a useful bit of information. I will e-mail the records office to see what they have too.
Jane