John Wouldhave (JO104) Violin Maker
John was born on 16th November 1805 and
christened at Christchurch on 26th January 1806. He was the fifth
son of Richard (RI051) and the third son of Richard’s second wife Eleanor
Whately.
At 19 years of age he married Isabella Heslop (aged 18yrs) on September 19th
1824 in St Hilda’s, South Shields. Isabella’s
parents were William Heslop and Elizabeth (nee Scurfield). Presumably the Heslop family were living in South Shields at the time. The witnesses for the
marriage were John’s sister, Jane, and Thomas Heslop, Isabella’s brother (born
1805).
John and Isabella had three children who survived beyond childhood,
Elizabeth 1825, Richard 1826 and Eleanor 1830.
The family were living in Church Way, North Shields (just opposite the church) in 1833 and 1835 according
to the burial information of two of their children who died in infancy. While they were living in Church Way, John and Isabella, together with their children Elizabeth,
Richard and Ellen (Eleanor?), were listed in North Shields’ outdoor poor who were examined at Tynemouth Workhouse on 15th October 1834 (from the Correspondence
of Tynemouth Poor Law Union National Archives MH/12/9156/3-5). John is listed
under the column for totally disabled, having a long illness. There is no indication of what the illness was. Tynemouth
Workhouse was described by a directory of 1827 as an extensive building,
pleasantly situated at a short distance north of the church (Christchurch). It was situated on Preston Lane and later
became Preston Hospital. Many of my family were treated at this
hospital and I was born there. The site is now housing and known as Haswell Gardens.
From the census information in 1841 John was living in
Church Street and his occupation was Common Tiler. Sometime after this he
became a violin maker since that is his occupation in later census information.
In 1851 and 1861 John was living in 64 Clive Street, which is near the docks, his occupation was Violin Maker and he was reported as being deaf (in 1851 census only). Isabella’s occupation was Straw Bonnet maker.The photographs below show a violin made by John Wouldhave with his signature on the back. Many thanks to Trudi for providing these photos of the violin that she still uses today. She thinks the violin dates from around 1870.
In 1871 John and Isabella were living in 115 Bedford Street with William Oliver, their grandson, aged 15, occupation labourer. (William's father, a joiner, was a widower in 1871 and probably unable to look after his children easily, but we haven’t found the connection between William Oliver and the Wouldhaves at this point.) In later years William was a member of the Merchant Navy and he was decorated in the first world war. (National Archives BT351/107016)
John is still listed as a violin maker and Isabella as a straw bonnet maker.
John's death, at the age of 72, was recorded in 1877 in Bedford Lane, Tynemouth District, and he was buried on 21st May. Isabella is in the 1881 census, she is an inmate of the Tynemouth Workhouse with her occupation given as Charwoman. Her death was recorded in Tynemouth district in 1888 aged 78 years (although calculations would indicate she was nearer 82 years).
Children of John and Isabella
- Elizabeth married Joseph Brand, a mason, in 1844 in Tynemouth and they can be found in both the 1861 and 1871 census in Willington. They had several children including Isabella, Margaret, Elizabeth, Roger, John Wouldhave (who emigrated to Canada in 1910), Ellenor, Edward and Joseph.
- Richard married Isabella Jobes in 1847. Isabella was the daughter of John Jobes and Mary Ann (nee Clennet) and was christened in July 1827 in Tynemouth. John was a coal miner living in Percy Main in the 1841 census. Percy Main Pit, also known as Howdon Pans colliery, was about one and a half miles from North Shields. They did not have any children and Richard died aged 23 in 1849. The Tyne Examiner and Mercury described him as a Mariner of Chirton. Isabella later married William Nixon in 1851, he was also a mariner.
- Eleanor was a straw bonnet maker in the 1851 census. She married William Watt in 1853. William may have died in 1864 - there is a death recorded in the registers for Tynemouth. We have not been able to find any further information about Eleanor at this stage.
