Francis Charles Bannister Allis and his mother Emma

Francis Charles Bannister Allis 

Francis was born at Wisbech, Cambs in 1872 (Qtr-Sep, Wisbeach, vol 3b page 615) and died during 1912 in Shropshire where he was a publican. He seemed a bit out on his own with no obvious links to other Allis families, so where did he come from?

The records

He has an army record as he joined the 4^th Hussars in 1889 and was discharged as a sergeant in 1902. His army record shows his mother to be Emma Johnson living in Bath Street, Abingdon, Berks. He is also shown to have a brother Robert.

Francis married Alice Gregory, a widow, nee Bevan at St Saviour’s, Manchester on 14 November 1905 giving his father’s name as Robert (deceased).

An Emma Allis married George Frederick Johnson in 1880 Qtr-Mar, vol 2c, 431 and in the 1881 census Emma Johnson’s birthplace is shown to be Wragby, Lincs in 1851 (actually she has taken a few years off her age). A link to the Lincolnshire Allis family was made!

Francis’ birth certificate and Emma’s marriage certificate were ordered and it was seen that no father was given for his birth, however his middle name of Bannister may be something to work with.

Emma’s marriage certificate shows her father as William Mawer, a farmer and she was a widow. William was shown as her father at the time of her first marriage to George Allis in 1865 at Hull, as reported in a newspaper announcement.

Conclusion

Emma Allis marrying George Johnson is clearly the Emma Mawer that married George Allis (1844- ) in 1865 at Hull, although both were from Wragby, Lincolnshire. They did not appear to have had a happy marriage. In 1871 she was alone, living and working at Langtoft, Lincolnshire and her first son, Robert Willie (1866-1940), was living with the in-laws back at Panton (near Wragby). 

In August 1872 she gave birth to Francis by an unknown father at Wisbech (Leverington).

In 1875 George Allis was charged by his father for breaking some windows at the family home at Panton and sentenced to 14 days hard labour, after which nothing more is known about him. By 1880 Emma has moved to Abingdon, Berkshire and was said to be a widow when marrying for a second time.

It is interesting that on his marriage to Alice, Francis gave his father's name as Robert Allis. When his brother Robert married he also gave his father's name as Robert which was actually his grandfather's name. Robert Willie Allis moved to Coventry, so he and Francis did not live that far apart.

Thus the origins of Francis Allis have been tied back into the Lincolnshire Allis family.

The Mansfield-Alliss family of London

The family of William Henry Mansfield and Harriette Bentley Austin

Yes, where does Alliss come into that?

 

Looking through the GRO birth index are seven children registered as Alliss all with the Mansfield middle name, and all with their mothers maiden name as Austin, between 1858 and 1875. These haven't been linked to any other Allis family so we made a start to see where they came from.

Harriet and Louisa were twins born in 1858 (who both died in 1860), Mary Ann in 1860, John 1862, Eliza 1868, George 1870 and Albert in 1875.

A quick look at the census returns showed them to be using only MANSFIELD but with children registered as ALLISS. Where, how or why did this family acquire the Alliss name?

Some records viewed:

The parents of the above children were Henry William Mansfield who married Harriette Bentley Austin on 24 December 1850 at St Giles, Cripplegate, Middlesex. His father was William Mansfield, a brush maker.

In the 1851 census at St Lukes (9 Clarence Road) in the household of William Mansfield are:

William age 50 a brushmaker, born Clerkenwell

Esther age 56, born New York but a British subject

Henry age 21 a gold cutter

Harriet age 21 his wife

William their son age 1 month

There are very few marriages of Mansfields to an Esther, but one at about the right time is Esther Ann Mumford in 1821. An Esther Mansfield died age 70 in 1861.

The family of Henry and Harriet Mansfield are seen in the 1881 census.  Walter age 16 is a son not shown in the GRO index as Alliss

Mary Ann Mansfield Alliss married William Samuel Storrar in 1877 and her father’s name is shown as William Henry Mansfield Alliss and one of the witnesses was Harriette Mansfield Alliss.

Walter married Selina Pickering in 1890 with his mother as a witness and just using the Mansfield surname.

In May 1898 George Mansfield Ellis married Elizabeth Cannings (?) nee Smale and he gives his father’s name as Harry Ellis, a jeweler. A George Mansfield Alliss born in 1900, as shown in the GRO index, has his mother’s maiden name as Smale.

George and Elizabeth are seen in the 1911 census with Alma aged 12 (registered as Alma Louisa Ellis in 1899), George age 10 (registered in 1900), and Albert William age 4 (as Mansfield-Alliss in 1907).

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Going back to the 1841 census for Holborn (HO107/670/3) we see

William Mansfield age 40, a toothbrush maker

Ether Mansfield age 45, his wife, born in foreign parts

Henry Allis age 10

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This would appear to be the start of the Mansfield-Allis line. Was a Henry Allis adopted by the Mansfields who did not seem to have any other children? There doesn't seem to be any candidates in parish baptisms for Henry (except one in Loughton, Essex but he is accounted for). Adding the Alliss name into the children's births was then a throwback to Henry's origins.

Thus it seems that this family were Mansfields except when it came to registering children's births (some of them anyway). The later generation sometimes included Alliss in marriages too.

An interesting tangle of a family line!

Update: Thanks to Mike, one of that family line for generously providing much more information, although Henry Alliss is still something of a mystery.

Handwriting course

After transcribing some old wills it occurred to me to recommend this free on-line course which I worked through some time back.
It is  "English Handwriting Online 1500-1700"

which can be found here
https://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/

I found it to be well structured, starting with relatively easy examples and getting progressively harder, and was suitable for reading documents found in family history research. It really helped my ability to read older documents. However as with all these things you do have put the time in and work through all the examples,  but it was well worth it.