11.1 4xgreat grandfather William Moorhouse Stoney: A man of many occupations.

I am reasonably confident that my 3xgreat grandmother Catherine Alice Stoney was born around 1829 in Newington, London, daughter of William Moorhouse Stoney. On her marriage certificate of 1849, her father’s occupation is shown as ‘Gentleman’, a rather intriguing description for the father of a bride marrying Aaron Wales, a Saddler in Walworth. This should have been a warning of the further ‘intriguing’ story to emerge about William Moorhouse Stoney’s life, as more records became available online.

From the 1851 census, his birthplace is given as ‘Shipton [or Skipton], Yorkshire’; his age is 70 (b1771) in 1841 and 86 (b1765) in 1851. His wife is Mary Ann, at least 20 years younger, and their only other child appears to be William, b1828. His occupation varies from ‘Agent’ to ‘Retired Grocer’. Could ‘Agent’ be what they told the vicar at his daughter’s marriage, and he interpreted it as ‘A gent[leman]’?!

A search at Ancestry for the marriage of William Moorhouse Stoney to a Mary Ann a few years before 1827-8 revealed a wedding on Boxing Day 1825. Both groom and bride (Mary Ann Rowney) had previously been widowed. The record (extract below) shows that they married after banns at St Giles Camberwell, were both ‘of this parish’, and were able to sign their names on the register. The witnesses were Amy Pearce and William Pearce.

Their son, also William Moorhouse Stoney, was born on 9 January 1828 and baptised at St Mary Newington on 27 April that year, son of William Moorhouse and Mary Ann Stoney of Sion Place, East Street. The father’s occupation is Coal Merchant. On his marriage certificate of 1849, William Moorhouse Stoney junior gives his father’s full name, with occupation Commercial Traveller.

William (Moorhouse) Stoney Senior, born sometime in the last quarter of the 18^th century, in Yorkshire, sometimes Coal Merchant, Agent, Retired Grocer and Commercial Traveller, remained a puzzle for some time; I couldn’t find a baptism with that middle name, nor an earlier marriage. I’d regularly search for him on Ancestry, FindMyPast and The Genealogist, and eventually found his name amongst the criminalrecords at The Old Bailey online.

For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view