11.3 4xGreat grandfather William Moorhouse Stoney: Born a Yorkshire lad, a debtor in London?

Having found the trial and sentencing of William Moorhouse Stoney iin 1819 in the records at The Old Bailey Online, Ancestry and FindMyPast, further indications of his life before this particular crime (fraud) began to emerge in search results.

In 1828, when son William Moorhouse Stoney was baptised, the family address is given as Sion Place, East Street, and the father’s occupation is Coal Merchant. The London Gazette holds a number of references to William Moorhouse Stoney in its insolvency and debtors pages from 1829 through to 1843. FindMyPast also holds these and earlier records of debtors from The Marshalsea Prison.

On 4^th May 1829, “William Moorhouse Stoney (sued as William Stoney) formerly of Zion Place, Walworth, Surrey, General Commission Agent and Dealer in Coals …” was a prisoner petitioning “ in the Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors” at Lincoln’s Inn (Extract from The London Gazette, 1829, at FindMyPast).

His daughter Catherine Alice Stoney was born in 1829 – perhaps I have not found her baptism as her father was in debtor’s prison at the time?

A William Stoney also appears as a debtor in the Marshalsea Prison records at Ancestry, first in 1814, and again in July 1815. There is no other information – such as age, address or occupation – in these discharge records that can firmly link them to ‘my’ William Stoney, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were him.

Financial troubles seem to have dogged him for much of his working life – but what of his birth?

The Hulk Registers of 1819-1823 confirm his place of birth as Kettlewell, Yorkshire, his birth year as around 1778. Kettlewell is in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in Wharfdale, postal town Skipton (which William Moorhouse Stoney gives as his birthplace in the 1851 census). His birth year in the censuses ranges from 1765 (probably rounded down)-1771. I have not found a baptism for any William Moorhouse Stoney in online records between 1765-1778. I did find a baptism at Kettlewell in 1776:

The entry from FindMyPast reads (2^nd line in image, right): William, natural son of Mary Stoney, Bapt. Dec 31st

There are many other baptisms in West Yorkshire, particularly Pateley Bridge, Leeds and Huddersfield within a similar period. The baptism at Kettlewell (at FindMyPast) seems the most likely in terms of date and place and FindMyPast has records of Stoneys living at Kettlewell from the 1600s. However, the surname is widespread across Yorkshire.

I have undertaken some research into Mary Stoney of Kettlewell, potential mother of ‘my’ William Stoney – but that’s another story. 

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