Wouldhaves in North Shields Part 1

North Shields was originally a small fishing village.  Christchurch served people from Whitley Bay to Wallsend and was known as the parish church of Tynemouth.  It is situated in the centre of North Shields. The first recordings of Wouldhaves in the church registers of Christchurch are for the period 1642-1680.  They include Nicholas Wouldhave, James Wouldhave (who married Mary Bell) and Mr Robert Wouldhave of Shields.  So far we have not been able to bring them into one of the family trees.

From the late eighteenth century onwards, North Shields grew from a few houses, farms and cottages to a manufacturing town, port and retail centre.  It is probably for this reason that Thomas Wouldhave (TH041) moved from Newcastle to this area.

Thomas Wouldhave (TH041) married Elizabeth Heart (EL052) in South Shields in 1746.  They were living in North Shields from at least April 1751 when his son, William (the inventor WI050, see blog April 2015), was christened at Christchurch.  The photograph below shows a commemorative window in the church, which was designed for the anniversary of the RNLI; it shows the first boat designed by William.  (Christchurch is currently raising funds to preserve its historic windows and information about donations can be found on their website.)

Thomas’s other children were also christened at Christchurch; Luke John, Mary and Charlotte.  Thomas was a Freeman of Newcastle and a Ropemaker.  His occupation in North Shields was later given as Painter.  His son Luke John (LU050) was also a Freeman of Newcastle,  a Ropemaker and he was also a Painter.  Thomas, William and Luke John are listed in the Newcastle Poll books.

With the exception of William who moved to South Shields after his marriage to Hannah Crow in 1775, we have not been able to find that any of the other members of this part of the family had descendants called Wouldhave.

Richard Wouldhave (RI051), Thomas’ nephew settled in North Shields and married Anne and then Eleanor Whately (see blog October 2015). Richard, a mariner,  was living in the Bull Ring at the time of his death in 1838. The Bull Ring, said to be the home of bull-baiting in the seventeenth century, was the nineteenth century coach terminus.

He had the following children who survived into childhood

Richard b 1794 from the first marriage

John b 1805, Jane b 1808 and Mary b 1810 from the second marriage.

Further generations of this family lived in North Shields and will be detailed in subsequent blogs.