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The Gateshead Blakeley's

The Jim Blakeley Story

Part I - The Irish Connection.

Matthew and Catherine | Thomas and Annies Family| William's Story|Sally's Family|Robert's Family|Matthew's Story|John and Mary (Coynes)Family|John and Annie Jane Hannah|Biography of John William Blakeley

MATTHEW AND CATHERINE

  My Great Grandfather Matthew Blakeley was born some time between  1828 and 1830 in County Armagh and is thought to have lived in a rural Cottage at Cavengrow, in the Parish of Damoily, a small settlement about a mile north-west of  the village of Markethill, off the main road to Armagh City, in the ancient Kingdom of Ulster (Northern  Ireland). My Great Grandmother was Catherine, born in Armagh around 1829.

    Life in Ireland (No North and South division in those days) was pretty basic - no electicity and no gas except in the large cities. There were no inside toilets, only 'netty's'. These were wooden out-houses with a midden behind them. Matthew's name may have been spelled 'Blakely', the standard Irish spelling of the name. It is possible that he lived in Armagh city at some time, and may well have been born at Eglish, Co. Armagh, where there were other Blakely's. His parents could well have been Agricultural labourers or 'ag. labs.' as they were known. There was a James Blakeley (born circa 1680) mentioned in Griffith's Valuation of Ireland. He is shown to have "lived in the Barony of Fews Lower in the Parish of Kilclooney, Poor Law Electoral division of Clady in Townland Armagh".  His address was "William Lyster House, 4 houses, 1 garden. Property of Wm. Lyster (Lessor). 4 Houses occupied by James Blakeley, Eliza Black & Another, George McGarrity and Joseph Summerville.
Ref: National Library, Kildare St., Dublin. Ordnance Sheet 5A b
16-17 CAVENGROW
17 - 16 DAMOILY (643 acres) Townland Armagh.

    The mystery of Matthew's birth date arises from the fact that the date arrived at from his death certificate which shows him as 70 at the time of death, does not agree with the date when his first son, William was born, this time arrived at  from William's age on his marriage and death certificates! From his death certificate, Matthew would have been born in 1833, but have only been 14 when William was born! This is most unlikely though admittedly not impossible. He could have been 18 at marriage in 1846 if born in 1828, so I have taken this year as his approximate date of birth.

    Matthew and Catherine had several children, amongst whom were:-

William born 1848;
Sarah Olivier, born 1852;
Henry born 1855;
Thomas James born  1855/6; 
Robert born 1863/4;
Mary born circa 1864 and John born 1865.

Thomas was a staunch Protestant and was Secretary of the Orange Order. Matthew and Thomas were both Chemical workers and worked in various chemical factories around the country.  One of their fellow workers, and friend, was Henry Corr from County Cork, a Roman Catholic. It appears that Henry was quite "well-to-do". Henry had a daughter, a school teacher named Annie.

     Because of their association at work and probably some association at home, Thomas met Annie Corr (right) and they fell in love. Now, in Ireland it was unthinkable that a Catholic should marry a Protestant! When Annie told her father, he threatened to disown her if she married Thomas.  Annie, being a school teacher, was 'made of sterner stuff' and not to be thwarted. Thomas and Annie eloped to England in August 1876. They used the excuse that they were visiting Gateshead to attend Thomas' elder brother William's wedding to Harriette Fisk on the 22nd of August 1876. After the wedding they remained in Gateshead, probably at William and Harriett's home while Thomas looked for work. Thomas obtained work at Allhusen's Chemical Works. The job carried a rented flat with it. They married in St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Walker Terrace, Gateshead on the 29th of January 1877. They lied about their ages on the Marriage Certificate as Annie was only 20 at the time and the age of consent was 21. Thomas was 21 but they added two years to both of their ages becoming 23 and 22. This was only discovered in the 1881 Census when they were able to give their true ages of 25 and 24. Their first address was at 52 Park Road Gateshead. 

     Thomas' job was  at Allhusen's Chemical Works in Park Road, Gateshead.     At that time this new factory was the largest Chemical Factory in the world, employing some 1400 workers, a lot of them from Ireland, so Thomas and Annie would feel quite at home. Allhusen's  also owned most of Park Road and so all of their workers were housed there. At the 1881 Census, Thomas, Annie and their children Sarah aged 2 years and Margaret aged 6 months  were living at 164 Park Road which was probably a larger flat than number 52. All of the children were brought up in the Catholic Faith (a condition of the mixed marriage). 

    Thomas sent over to Markethill for his younger brother John, who was only 12. Thomas had arranged an apprenticeship for him, once more lying about ages as 14 was the age to start indentures! John was to work for Allhusen's for 57 years from 1877 to 1934  and was presented with a beautiful Chiming 8-day clock in 1927, to mark his 50 years with Allhusens. The clock, which has been handed down to me  by John's son, John  William, in order to keep it in the Blakeley family, is still in running order. 
The clock is engraved with the following inscription :-

 

Note that they appear to have mis-spelt his name - even after 50 years faithful service!! Probably that had been how he had spelled it when he came over here from Ireland............

   That would mean that the family in Ireland had their documents written with the Irish spelling of Blakely - as they were at that time illiterate they would be unable to correct this. John on his retirement from the firm, in 1934, when they were about to move to the I.C.I. Works at Billingham, had worked for Allhusen's for 57 years. He, and the other Blakeley men who worked there were offered jobs at Billingham, but they didn't want to leave their family and friends behind. It is interesting to note that John, his brothers and sisters, and his parents also had their surnames spelled Blakely on the 1881 Census but by 1891 they were all spelled Blakeley. However on the 1901 Census, half the family were spelled Blakely and the rest Blakeley!

Tyne Bridge 1887 - as it would have appeared to Thomas and Annie
  

  Because John would have been brought up by Thomas and Annie it was only natural that he should marry a Catholic girl,  Mary Coyne, in about  1886.  Mary died at the young age of 34, on the 13th of April 1900, while living at 8 Park Road, Gateshead, having been ill with  chronic Phthisis Pulmonary (TB) for two years; John and Mary had four children.

     After Mary died, John married again. He married Annie Jane Hannah   on the 28th of December 1907.  They had six children. Thomas' father, Matthew died on the 10th of January 1904, in The Union Workhouse, although Thomas, who was with him when he died, gave Matthew's  address as 263 Sunderland Road, Gateshead. Matthew's age was  was given as 70 on his death certificate, although it may have been 76 or 77!   Catherine died at 78 Park Road Gateshead on the 19th of November 1892 of Bronchitis exhaustion. She was  aged 63; they both must have left Ireland and moved to Gateshead once Thomas had established his dynasty there. They must have come to Gateshead between 1881 and 1884 as Matthew was present at his son Henry's death in January 1885.

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THOMAS AND ANNIE'S FAMILY.


    Thomas and Annie had twelve children. Annie was the Matriarch of the family and all the men of the family went in fear of her! She used to sit on her chair on a Friday night while they all put their unopened wage packets on her lap. She then gave them their pocket money. All of the boys did what Annie said; on one occasion when her son Robert had got a girl pregnant, she told him "If she's good enough to take down, then she's good enough to take on as your wife." They got married and had a son, William the following month! . Although she was very strict, being a school teacher, Annie was always very charming to Ellen ( my mother) and they got on very well. The first time that Jack Blakeley brought Ellen Frances Andrews home to meet his parents, she was treated like a queen. She was even allowed to sit near the fire and put her feet on the fender (something that no-one else was allowed to do!). It was because of Annie that the family could all read and write. Thomas's parents could not. This also had a very unfortunate side effect, as Thomas no longer felt that he had to pass the oral family history on to his eldest son and so our Irish family history, allegedly going back to Brian Boru, was lost forever.

    Annie's first child was my Aunt Sarah who was born in the March Quarter of 1879, she never married, though she had a "young man" who was a sailor. Unfortunately he was drowned at sea before they could get married.  Sarah may have mourned his loss so much that she never wanted to find another boy-friend as she never married. In any case, Sarah probably acted as a 'second mother' to the rest of her brothers and sisters. I  (James Blakeley) remember my Aunt Sarah well. Her upstairs terraced flat was impeccable when my father, John, and I went to tea on most Sundays, travelling from Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne to Sunderland Road in the double-decker Tramcar - it was the HEWORTH tram, No.46. we paid a penny to the conductor for the fare to the middle of the New Tyne Bridge and then had to pay another threeha'pence for the Gateshead side. Two tramways were involved, The Newcastle Tramway and the Gateshead Tramway.  Sarah  was only about 63 but was very small, with a hunch back and looked more like she was in her late 70's. 

    I now know that the deformity was caused by calcium deficiency and my mother Ellen, went that way in her 80's. Sarah always did a nice spread for us; the beautiful Rose bone china, passed to Sarah by her mother Annie, came out from the magnificent, highly polished rosewood sideboard with the ornate mirror on it. Sarah always said that it had been made for her by my father, John, as a test piece when he was an apprentice carpenter and that I was to have it, and Joyce (Liz) was to have the teaset and the harmonium, when she died. (In the event, Sadie Tripp's parents did a 'moonlight flit' with all of Sarah's furniture - as soon as the funeral was over - the same night, she and her husband called with a removal van and absconded with everything!).
   Sarah would put a towel or a newspaper in her back window to alert Aunt Annie and Uncle William Arthur across the back lane, that we were there and would be calling on them soon! We used to visit all of my aunts and uncles as they all lived in neighboring streets.
    I really liked my Aunt Sarah - she would let me play the harmonium in the front room! Her flat was extremely well furnished compared with my other aunts and uncles homes at that time. Sarah died on the 14th of September 1953 of bronchitis and a heart attack, at 38 Beech Street, Gateshead. Her brother, Thomas Joseph, of 2 Derby Street, was present at her death.  My mother and I, then aged 20, were at her funeral.
           
Margaret was born on the 13th of September 1880, at 84 Railway Terrace, Gateshead. she married Charles Walter Cook, b.c.1884. They were married at Gateshead Registry Office on the 15th of June 1916; Charles was a Private in the Sherwood Foresters, employed as a groom, so worked with horses. Margaret was a Railway Porter! They probably met locally as he was staying at Beech Street Mission Hall and Margaret at 389 Sunderland Road, which was on the top corner of Beech Street, at the time of their wedding. Charles' father was a Station Master so this may have facilitated their meeting.

Edward was born on the 11th of April 1882 at 13 Pensher Street Gateshead. He volunteered for war service during the First World War, along with his brothers. He was in the 2nd/4th Battalion of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and saw war service in France. He died on Saturday, the 28th of September 1918, in Pas De Calais, France. Vis-en-Artois and Harcourt are villages on the straight main road from Arras to Cambrai about 10 kilometres south-east of Arras. His memorial stands in the grounds of the Vis-en-Artois Cemetery, which is west of Harcourt on the north side of the main road. The memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men who fell in the period from the 8th of August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, beteen the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave. His memorial reads as following:

Edward was born on the 18th of April 1882, so would have actually  been 36 when he died.

Annie Jane was born in 1883, probably at 13 Pensher Street. She marrried James Elliot Moffitt, the son of a bricklayer,  of 14 Camperdown Street Gateshead, born 1883. They were  married  on the 5th of December 1905 when she was 22. at St Wilfrid's Roman Catholic Church, Gateshead. Annie died in 1965, aged 82;
Ellen was born on the 5th May 1886. She married George Hardy McDonald, who was aged 22 and the son of a police constable, on the 5th of August 1905 when she was 19. George was a 'Machine Man' at a local engineering works. He lived at 2 High Level Road, Gateshead, and was born in 1883,  They were married at  at St Joseph's R.C. Church, Hexham Road, Gateshead. Ellen was living at 389 Sunderland Road at the time of her marriage.
Thomas Joseph (figure on the left) was born on the 14th of March 1888 at 93 St James Road, Gateshead.  He was living at 389 Sunderland Road at the time of his marriage. He married Irene Ridley, born circa 1891, in (JUN) 1919 at Newcastle Upon Tyne. He died in March Quarter 1977 in Gateshead. Tommie was living at 2 Derby Street in September 1953 when he was present at Sarah's death and appeard as informant on the death certificate. It is of interest that Thomas Henry also used this address at times!
          
Thomas Henry was born between the 5th of July 1887 and the 3rd of July 1888, in Gateshead. I have not been able to find his birth certificate! At the time of his marriage he was living with his parents at  389 Sunderland Road, Gateshead. He married Alice Elizabeth Bradley, born 1889, of 2 Derby Street, Gateshead, on the 4th July 1914 at Gateshead Register Office.  Thomas worked as a 'metal moulder' at a local factory. He died in (SEP) 1980;

William Arthur  was  born born on the 7th of August 1890 at 21 Penman Street, Gateshead. He served in the 1914-18 War. He married Caroline Kennedy  in (DEC) 1928, and they lived at 49 John Street, Gateshead. His backyard backed onto Sarah's backyard so they were in regular contact. William Arthur  died in (JUN) 1964 aged 73; They had two sons, my cousins, Kenneth Joseph born 1929, and Wilfrid born March 1933. Kenneth never married, Wilfrid married Marina McDonald on the 1st April 1978. Wilfrid and Marina  have three children, Sean born 1980, Michael born 1981 and Nicholas born 1987.

Matthew (Uncle Matty), was born (MAR) 1893; When he was aged 30, he married Jane Ann Pickering (aged 21) on the 20th of October 1923 at the Gateshead Register Office. They were both living at 389 Sunderland Road at that time. Matthew's trade was 'Amalgamated Moulder'. His sister Catherine (Kathleen) Tripp was a witness at his wedding. Matthew was an expert carpenter and when he lived, with his sister Sarah, at 99 Woodbine Street, Gateshead, around 1938, I used to be enthralled by a visit to his carpentry workshop in the attic. He died at 38 Beech Street, Gateshead on the 30th of May 1951 of heart trouble, aged 58. Jane Anne must have died some time before 1938 as he was living with his sister Sarah in Woodbine Street then.

Catherine, was also known as Kitty and appeared  as Kathleen on her marriage certificate! She was born in (DEC) 1896. She married Sydney Gibbons Tripp (b. 1892) at St Wilfrid's Roman Catholic Church on 24th July 1920. Both of their fathers were deceased at the time of their wedding. They had (at least) two children,
Nancy Tripp born 1921 and Sadie born  about 1922.

Elizabeth Jane, was born 2nd February 1897: Lizzie, as she was known, married John Batey in  (JUN) 1918.  She died on the 21st of August 1970.

Finally,  my father John was always thought to be the youngest of the family (but see Harriet below!) and was Annies favourite as he looked so much like his father, Thomas James, when he was a lad. On one occasion, when John was still young, Annie took something out of a drawer as though she was going to give it to him, then she put it back. It appeared that it was a rosary that had been given to Thomas when he saved an old woman's life, and carried her out from a burning building. John  was born on the 29th of May 1898 at 19 Penman Street, Gateshead.  He attended the Roman Catholic Infants school at St Wilfrid's R.C. Church. As a young man, Jack was a bit of a rebel as far as going to church was concerned. He never liked the way that Catholics behaved and going to Confession was an anathema to him. He used to go into hiding whenever the Catholic priest came to call! No wonder that he married a Protestant girl!

Jack as he was known, (he always said that 'John' was his 'Sunday name!) married Ellen Frances Andrews (born on 29th of November 1902), at St Gabriel's Parish Church, Heaton Road on 27th of February 1932.

John and Ellen's Wedding 27th Feb 1932

On their wedding photo on the Blakeley Pics page, reading left to right, were: James William Andrews, Ellen's father; a friend of Ellen;  John & Ellen; Isobelle Andrews and Matthew Blakeley (Uncle Mattie). The photo was actually taken inside St. Gabriel's church. Their first address was 36 King John Street, Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne 6. He worked at Allhusen's Chemical works in his youth and told the tale of how he had lost his hair when chemicals had spilled on it while  reaching for a jar from a high shelf, while working there.

John was only sixteen when the Great War started but he lied about his age, (He was not 18 until May 1916!).  He  got lost from his Regiment (as many did) and  was behind enemy lines in France, and told how he and  another soldier wandered into a village which the French had vacated on hearing that the Germans would be there by the next afternoon. John and his friend had hidden from the German soldiers, and taken refuge in a partly demolished house. They were searching for food when they heard a noise upstairs, then a Canadian voice called down and told them to come up! The Canadians gave them some silk underwear they had found and they were able to have a wash and change their lice-ridden underwear for the first time for weeks. John went into another house and found a bed-ridden old lady in the house. He managed to find out where the villagers had gone and carried her to them. The old lady put a rosary around his neck in grateful thanks. They had a good meal before leaving their new-found friends. John and his mate eventually managed to make their way back to British lines without being captured. He was gassed in the War and this effected his health permanently.

He was an Air Raid Precaution Warden (A.R.P.) during World War II. He died on the 27th of April 1948 from Addison's disease brought on by being gassed in World War I. John and Ellen (Nellie) had two children, James (Me) born on the 9th of December 1932 at 36 St John Street, Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne 6, and christened at St Gabriel's Church, Heaton Road; and Joyce Elizabeth (Liz) born on the 6th of October 1937 at 79 Chapman Street, Heaton. I also remember my Aunty Sarah bringing the new baby to my room at about eight o'clock at night, and waking me up to show me! I said "Take it away!"

James married Wendy Jane Robinson (born on the 5th of January 1936) on 24th October 1959 They had two children, Robert James born 31st December 1963 and Sylvia Anne born 28th February 1972. Neither are, as yet, married though Sylvia is engaged to Patrick Snape of Jesmond, Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Joyce Elizabeth married Denis Jackson 27th March 1963 - no issue.

Harriet Blakeley
Little is known about Harriet, who appeared in the 1891 Census as living in Matthew's household. She is shown as a scholar aged 12, born in Gateshead. her mother Catherine would have been 51 when she was born! Matthew and Catherine are shown as her parents on the census form! There is no other Harriet  who lived in this time so it wouldn't appear that she was looking after a relative's daughter. Harriet would have been born around 1878/9. If She was born between 6th April 1878 and 4th April 1879, then Matthew and Catherine must have come over here from Ireland earlier than I thought! (I later discovered that they were in Gateshead for the 1881 Census!) I can't find Harriet's birth in the St. Catherine's Index.

Thomas James Blakeley died on the 25th of December 1918, seven days after suffering  a cerebral haemorrhage

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WILLIAM'S STORY

    William Blakeley was born before the 7th of March 1848, in Cavengrow, near Markethill in Armagh, in the kingdom of Ulster, Northern Ireland. He was a chemical worker, like his father and his brothers. He had heard of an enormous new chemical works being built at Gateshead, on the banks of the River Tyne. He also heard that workers were much better off in England than they were in Ireland so off he went to Gateshead, County Durham.

    Allhusen's Chemical Works  was situated on Park Road, Gateshead and the firm also owned all the new terraced flats built on Park Road. They used the flats to house their workers. William easily got a job there, together with a flat in Park Road.

    William married Harriet Fisk on the 22nd of August 1876 at St. James Parish Church Gateshead. William was 28, and Harriet was 22. Harriet's father, James Fisk was a labourer. Harriet also gave her address as Park Road, but no number.

    William died on the 7th of March 1886, when he was aged 38. On the 7th, it had been snowing heavily all day and the snow was several feet deep. So much snow had fallen that the weight of it had brought down 48 feet of coping stones from the roof of Gateshead Town Hall! William had been found lying in the snow by a policeman and was taken to Felling Police Station. He had an apopleptic fit brought on by his exposure to the cold. The Station Sergeant, Sergeant Tillet tried to resuscitate William but to no avail. In modern terms he had died due to a heart attack caused by hypothermia. It was a Friday evening, so perhaps William had left work and gone across the road to the Public House for a drink of beer and then set off for home, slipped and was unable to get up. If he had lain for several hours before being found, this would accont for his condition.
Thought for the day:
Could William's wife Harriett have died later, but before the 1891 Census and left a daughter called Harriett who was taken in and looked after by Matthew and Catherine as their own daughter? William was not in Gateshead for the 1881 Census - was he working in Scotland? Thomas' daughter Annie was born in Scotland in 1885 so work must have been available up there at the time.

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SALLY'S FAMILY
        Sarah Olivier Blakeley, usually called 'Sally', was Thomas and John's sister and born circa 1851 in Markethill, Armagh.   She married William Anderson on the 2nd of February 1885. They were married at the Presbyterian Church, Ellison Street, Gateshead. William's father and William, were labourers of 71 Hilton Street, Gateshead. Sarah and William lived in Nile Street, Gateshead  and they had three children. 
Jane lived in Howe Street and married a railway worker;
Sarah married a school teacher.
William never married. He worked for Clarke-Chapman's factory in Gateshead.

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ROBERT's FAMILY
    Robert Blakely was born 1863/4 in Markethill. He married Selina Bould (born 1871) on 19th April 1897 at St Mary's Church Gateshead. They were living at 25 East Street at that time.  He  died on the 29th of May 1908, at Scot's Yard, Felling aged 43. He would have been buried at Felling Cemetery, although I haven't been able to find a gravestone. Robert died of a lung disease, Phthisis, (TB) as did John's first wife, Mary;  as yet, there is no record of any children. The widowed Selina Blakeley later married William Robinson of 20 Bolivar Place at Gateshead Register Office on the 10th of June 1910. William Robinson was a 'retired fireman (stationary)' and aged 73 at the time of marriage! Selina was 40.

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MATTHEW''S STORY

    Matthew, Thomas' brother,  is thought to have been older than John, so born around 1864. Unfortunately we have no records of Matthew apart from a letter that he sent to his brother John in 1892. John William Blakeley, John's son, had discovered this letter under a carpet on returning to the family home after John had died. Matthew must have gone out to Australia seeking his fortune. The letter is dated April 17th 1892, from Corinda Station, Via Aramaly, Queensland Australia. He mentions that he thought he may have known Johns wife, Mary Coyne's, father, before leaving Gateshead. He said that, when he was a boy and worked at Allhusen's Laboratoty, he had many a long yarn with Morris Coyne, her dad. Morris worked at The Pans (Allhusen's?). Matthew must have been in Australia since before John's Wedding in September 1886. He mentioned that he was glad to hear that  Bob was working and hope that he would stick to it (sounds as though Robert moved from job to job!). Matthew had been employed to help build a stockyard and the job was almost completed.

Matthew goes on to lament on the state of Australia - work being more difficult to find than in England. He was working on a Sheep Shearing Station and said that the station next but one from him was taking on workers and giving them  their keep only!  He mentions that he might have to go home before he was ready and see if he could get better quarters there. (Where is 'home'? It doesn't sound as though he has a family awaiting him there.) He ends by giving his love to all his brothers and sisters.

    Did Matthew ever return to Gateshead? Did he marry and settle down in Australia? Alas we know nothing else about Matthew.

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JOHN AND MARY [COYNE]'S FAMILY

    John was born in 1865 in Markethill, Armagh, Ulster.  His brother Thomas sent for him to come to Gateshead in 1877 as he had arranged an apprenticeship for him. John was only twelve at the time but Thomas must have said that he was fourteen to secure him the indenture with Allhusen's. Thomas and Annie brought John up so he was brought up in the Catholic Faith as were all of Thomas's children. His first wife was an Irish Catholic, Mary Coyne born 1866,  she died of a chronic lung disease on the 13th of April 1900 aged 34 years. They were married (c.1887) and had four children: 
Harry (Henry)  born on the 4th of July 1888 at 90 St James Road, Gateshead. He married Sophia Cox of the Felling in about 1913.  They lived in Dorothy Street, Felling and Harry was buried in Heworth Cemetery when he died. Again, I have been unable to find trace of a gravestone there.
Edith Alice, born in (SEP) 1890.  Edith had a daughter, Sarah Ethel Blakeley on the 4th of July 1907 while single, and living at 62 Southey Street, Gateshead. This  was quite a stigma in those days, however, she married Robert McKee, born  around 1887, in (MAR) 1911 .  Edith  died in 1982, and by this time almost everyone was having children without the benefit of marriage - so was she really a 'trend-setter'?
Mary, born in (JUN) 1892, married Patrick Conniffy from Sunderland in (JUN) 1913. Mary died in Sunderland, in 1976.
Margaret was born in (JUN) 1894. She married Dave Cohen, a Jew, in (DEC) 1917 and lived in Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne.
They later changed their name to Cowan.

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JOHN AND ANNIE JANE HANNAH

    When Mary died in 1900, at 8 Park Road, Gateshead,  John would have been under great pressure to remarry so that there was someone to look after the home and the children while he was out at Allhusen's earning a living. Widow's and widowers rarely stayed that way for long in those days, if only for economic reasons. However John was to wait until the 28th of December 1907 before he married Annie Jane Hanna (born 1877).  Although aged 30, Annie was still a spinster, so would have thought she had 'been left on the shelf'. (The term used for elderly (in their late twenty's!!) unmarried ladies in those days!)  Annie was a Protestant and her father was a 'Labourer", so John and her father may have been workmates at Allhusen's, and met because of this. 

John and Annie had four children.
Elizabeth Jane was born in (JUN) 1908; she married George Urwin Swindon of Bensham in (JUN) 1935. George worked at Clarke Chapman's Factory, and later at Bowater's Paper Works as a labourer. They had three daughters and a son; Norma, Yvonne, and a daughter as yet un-identified, and Clive.

 Elizabeth and George were both still alive in November 1997.

John William born 16th December 1910 at 62 Southey Street, Gateshead. John William married Lily Fairbairn (born on the 29th of August 1911 at 56 Howe Street, Sunderland Road, Gateshead) on the 18th of October 1941 at St Edmund's Church, Gateshead, while he was home from the RAF. John's sister Agnes was a witness at the wedding. John came home expecting to stay in his home , but was taken to 9 Harle Street and told that his home at 62 Southey Street  had been bombed! Because of this John William lost almost all of his documents and certificates. John served in India during his stint with the R.A.F. John William and Lily  had a daughter :
Dorothy born  1943, she married Fred McGowan int 1971. Both are still living in Bensham. John William Joined our Blakeley One Name Study Group in 1995 and was always thrilled with our magazine. Below is a copy of the Obitary as it appeared there.

    John William's father, John Blakeley of Markethill, Armagh, and later of Gateshead, worked for Allhusen's Chemical Works on the banks of the Tyne for a full 57 years therefore it was no surprise when John followed in his father's footsteps and joined Allhusen's. Virtually all of the Gateshead Blakeley's worked there. He stayed there until the firm, by now called United Alkali Ltd., moved to Billingham in 1934 to become part of the I.C.I. After finding it difficult to obtain work, John decided to join the Royal Air Force as a mechanic. He was posted to India and remained there until 1939 when war was declared. He then transfered to war duties. John's home was destroyed in an air raid sometime in 1941. When he came home on leave in October 1941, he was surprised to be taken in the opposite direction to his home! He was then told that it had been bombed! Fortunately there had been no-one in the house at the time. He was married to Lily Fairbairn on the 18th of October 1941 at St. Edmunds Church Gateshead and then returned to the 'Front' to continue his duties in the R.A.F.


     When he was demobbed in 1945, he worked for a time in Germany, in the shipyards, and on industrial engines, before returning to England. He worked at various factories and in the shipyards until he was near retirement.  When he finished his last job at the age of 64, he was asked If he would go to Bowater's Paper Works and set up their new German engines. His niece was secretary to the managing director of Bowater's and recommended him for the job, in view of his past experience of German engines. He stayed there six months until he had the engines all set up and running smoothly and then he retired from work at the age of 65


    John then proceeded to enjoy his retirement, until the time came when Lily had a fall and had to go to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Gateshead. Unfortunately she also had diabetes and complications set in. Lily died on the 26th of October 1989. When I visited him he still mourned her loss.


    John regularly visited his club, where he met several old comrades from his time in the R.A.F. When he was contacted by myself in 1994 he was 84 but still healthy, and fit enough to go shopping once a week, and to visit his club. He related that he was so 'tickled pink' with the Blakeley Coat of Arms I gave him that he took it to show his friends at the club. "Will we have to call you 'Your Lordship' ?" they joked.


    John had good memories of his youth and knew almost all of the Blakeley's in Gateshead at that time. He helped me construct our family tree with all of his knowledge. He didn't have any birth, marriage or death certificates for his father and was pleased when I gave him copies of them. He had only known that his father had died while he was abroad, but never knew the date. He had never heard of our Gt-Grandfather Matthew from Markethill and was pleased to have information about him.  John was really keen to be kept up-to-date with our family tree and often phoned me with some further information or document that he had uncovered which might be of help in our research. He  was taken to hospital in the autumn of 1997 and was discharged after a few weeks . He died in November 1997 from the effect of silicosis caused by working with asbestos in the shipyards earlier in his life. John William will be greatly missed".


    John and Annie's third child was Sarah (Sally) O. born in (JUN) 1913. She died around 1986/7.  I don't know who she married but they had a daughter Joan.

John and Annie's fourth and last child was Agnes born SEP 1916.

John Blakeley died 28th September 1940 at 91 St James Road Gateshead, aged 75;  while his son John William was serving with the RAF in India. Until I obtained the death certificate, John William  had only a rough idea about when his father died and had no idea who his grandfather was!. John William was 86 years and 11 months old when he died in Felling, Gateshead in November 1997).

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