John Kay

At this stage the information for John Kay and his wife Mary is gleaned mainly from the Will of his uncle John Fretwell with some reference to census returns.

To my great nieces and great nephew Elizabeth Dixon wife of John Dixon of Leeds Woolstapler Ann Kay and John Kay children of my said late nephew John Kay...

To my great niece Sarah Dark daughter of my said late nephew John Kay deceased…

From this we know that by 1848 Elizabeth and Sarah Kay had married. There is no reference to a wife of son John, and the Will suggests that Ann Kay was still single in 1848. I have traced the accounts of Elizabeth Dixon and Sarah Dark but the children John and Ann (if any) are proving to be most elusive.

Based on the assumption that John and Ann had not married (but refer below for more on Ann Kay), a possible citing for them and their mother has been found in the 1841 census at Woodhouse Lane(?), Leeds. According to this census return, all were born in Yorkshire and, if it has correctly identified Mary as the widow of John Kay, it undermines a theory of a marriage between John and Mary (nee Ashworth) on 6th January 1801 at Bolton Le Moors, Lancashire.

Mary Kay                60            (Independent)

John Kay                25            Watchman

Ann Kay                  25

Ten years later, an 1851 census record may be that for Mary and John but no mention is made of an Ann (for details refer to the Generation 3 section below for John Kay Jnr).

Until much of the above information is confirmed or refuted, it must be treated as speculative.

Edward Kay

As far as is known, Edward was the second child of Richard and Mary (née Fretwell) Kay. Some information about the couple and their children is gleaned from the will of John Fretwell of Leeds, Gentleman, which was drawn up on 2nd December 1848.

To my great nephew James Kay the son of my nephew Edward Kay £45 to be paid out of the sum of £635 owing to me by Charles Todd.

And as concerning “the [Railway] Foundry Estate” and the moneys to arise therefrom out of one fourth part thereof I give

To James Kay one of the sons of my said nephew Edward Kay £50.

To Mary Amelia Kay, Charles Kay, Edward Kay the younger, and John Fretwell Kay the other children of my said nephew Edward Kay £25.

And the remainder of such fourth part I give to the maintenance and support of my Nephew Edward Kay now of unsound mind and Mary his wife and their children James, Mary Amelia, Charles, Edward and John Fretwell Kay.

According to a notation in the family records, Edward Kay earned his living at some stage as a painter, and an 1822 Yorkshire directory lists an Edward Kay, House Painter, of 45 Duke Street and this is also borne out in the 1861 census return (see below).

However, we find Edward Kay listed as a time keeper for the 1841 census, living with his family in Pearsons Street, Hunslet, Leeds. All except Mary are recorded as being born in Yorkshire (but later records would suggest that daughter Mary Amelia was not Yorkshire born). Their youngest child, John Fretwell Kay, was not born until 2 years later.

Edward Kay     46      Time Keeper
Mary Kay          40
James Kay      13
Mary Kay          4
Charles Kay     2
Edward Kay     6 mo

I am following up on the possibility that Mary may have been Edward’s second wife. This is based on an IGI record for the christening of a James Robert Kay, son of Edward and Sarah Kay, on 15th October 1828 at St Peter’s, Leeds and the gap in ages between James Robert and the other Kay children.

In 1848 John Fretwell referred to Edward Kay as being of unsound mind, and he would have died sometime between then and the 1851 census at Mary is a widow by that time. In fact, Edward died on 17th April 1849 at 5 Camp Street, Leeds. His profession was given as Painter and the cause of death (with no reference to any unsound mind) as Asthma. His son James Kay, of Silver Street, Hunslet, was in attendance.

The 1851 census return sheds a little more light on Mary Kay and her children. They were living in the Little London district of Leeds, at 5 Alfred Street. Mary’s place of birth is given as Prescot, Lancashire, and Mary Amelia Kay is given as having been born at Salford, Lancashire, while the other children were born in Hunslet. The eldest child, James, is no longer at home having married Ellen Hodgson and set up home at Brighton (refer to notes for Isabella Kay and Charles Todd).

Mary Kay   (W)   45   School Mistress    Prescot, Lancashire

Mary A Kay        14                                     Salford, Lancashire

Charles Kay      12    Scholar                   Hunslet

Edward Kay      10    Scholar                   Hunslet

John Kay             7    Scholar                    Hunslet

From Mary’s age given in the 1851 census an approximate year of birth would be 1806. However, for the 1861 census her estimated birth year is given as 1801. She has moved since the 1851 census and is found at home with 3 of her children at Bentley, Chapel Allerton, Headingley.

Mary Kay   (W)           60  Painter’s Widow                                 Prescot, Lancashire

Mary Amelia Kay      24                                                                 Salford, Lancashire

Edward Kay               20   School Master                                   Hunslet

John Fretwell* Kay  17   Bookkeeper at a Plumber’s Works Hunslet

* Transcribed at Stetwell.

It is not clear whether Mary Kay is still working as a school mistress, and if so, whether son Edward was working with her. On the other hand, Edward may have taken over from her as she had now reached an age when she would have no doubt enjoyed a rest! Younger son John has also found work at this stage.

Son Charles Kay, whose birth was registered at Leeds in the Jul-Sep quarter of 1838, was not at home and has not been located in the 1861 census. The reason for this is that on the 15th December 1852, at the age of 14, Charles died of typhus fever at home at 5 Camp Street, West Leeds. His mother was with him and his father is given as Edward Kay, a painter (deceased).

If Mary’s year of birth was 1801 there is a likely Kirkstall district registration of her death at age 66 in the 1867 Jul-Sep quarter. This has been followed up with success. At the age of 66, Mary Kay, widow of Edward Kay, a Painter (Master) died at home in Far Headingley, of phthisis, on 8th August 1867. Present and her death, and the informant, was her youngest son John Fretwell Kay.

Ann Kay

Ann Newton (nee Kay) was the oldest daughter of Richard and Mary Kay (nee Fretwell). According to an IGI record she was baptised at St Peter’s, Leeds, on 22nd February 1778. Her husband was John Newton, who was probably born in Leeds, when is not known, but judging by the 1841 census and his death certificate Ann and John were about the same age. However, an IGI Family Group Record suggests that John may have been born about 1775 in Leeds. Ann and John married at St. Peters, Leeds, on 6th January 1799.

In 1826 they, or more likely Ann, are recorded as running a shop at 32 Park Lane, Leeds. (In 1891, 32 Park Lane is still recorded as one of a small group of shops). Family records also show that John was a Letter Carrier at the Leeds Post Office, Call Lane. He would still have been in service 1840 when the postal system witnessed a radical change with the introduction of Rowland Hill’s Penny Post. John is still working as a letter carrier when the 1841 census was conducted. He and Ann, together with some of their children, are living at 23 St. Paul’s Street, just next door to Ann’s bachelor uncle, John Fretwell.

John Newton           60   Letter Carrier
Ann Newton             60
Elizabeth Newton   35
Francis Newton      20    Cloth Warehouseman, Journeyman
Mary Newton          15

Not listed as being at home for the census are sons George, John and Edward and daughter Ann who had married and left home. James may have moved to the West Ham area. Also not listed, and yet to be verified were 2 sons, referred to in the IGI Family Group Record referred to above. According to this source, a son William was born to John and Ann on 25th October 1800, and another son, of the same name was born to them on 9th September 1801. This suggests strongly that the first William would have died as a baby. The question then arises – did the second William survive to adulthood. I have not been able to find any close match in the 1841 census, or the 1851 census. Adding weight to the supposition of him dying young is the fact that there is not mention of him in John Fretwell’s will, and the Talbot Estate document of 1899, which lists the known children of Ann and John Newton, makes no reference to a William. So, at this stage, assuming the IGI source is correct, and it does list all the other children, we can speculate that the first two children born to Ann and John did survive infancy/early childhood. There are a number of references to the Newton family, and specifically to Ann and John, in the will of John Fretwell.

"To my niece Ann Newton £150 to be paid out of the sum of £350 owing to me from her son George Newton."

“To the said John Newton and Ann his wife during their joint lives my dwellinghouse No 23 St Paul's St Leeds and on the decease of the survivor to the use of Charles Todd and George Newton and my friend John Eyres of Leeds Grocer upon trust for the issue of the said John Newton and Ann his Wife".

"To my niece Ann Newton an annuity of £20".

It must have been some comfort to the Newtons to know that they could remain in their St. Paul’s Street home for the rest of their lives and that their children would also have a roof over their heads if they chose to stay there.

The Fretwell will is dated 2nd December 1948, so we know that John Newton was alive at that time. However by the 1851 census Ann Newton was a widow. In fact John died on 17th July 1849, at home, aged 70. The cause of death was "Paralysis 9 days" which suggests perhaps that he had a stroke or a heart attack. The informant was son Edward Newton who was living at East Retford, Nottinghamshire, and who had presumably come to assist his mother in the days before his father died. It was Edward who registered the death on 28th July 1849.

The 1851 census finds Ann Newton still living at 23 St. Paul’s Street, with 2 of her children and a niece. Ann is now running a lodging house, which would probably have brought in some income. Mary Newton was very much the "baby" of the family, being some 22 years younger than her sister Elizabeth. Ann E May is Ann Eliza May, daughter of Ann's sister Mary May (née Kay) and her husband William May.

Ann Newton                73    Lodging House Keeper   Leeds
Elizabeth Newton      48    At Home                              Leeds
Mary Newton             27    At Home                               Leeds
Ann E May (Niece)   26    Teacher of Drawing          Pickering

Also in the house are 2 servants, Jane and Mary Ann Goldthwaite (17 and 12) and 2 lodgers - Robert S Sandau (Middlesex) and Hermas Waring (Royston, Yorks). Still living next, at 22 St. Paul’s Street, was Uncle John Fretwell (mistranscribed as John Dretwell) aged 88 and two servants Mary Taylor and Sarah Webster.

For her last census record, Ann is with son Francis and his family in 1861 at 42 Elmwood Street, Leeds.

Francis Newton              41  National Schoolmaster   Leeds
Jane Newton                   39                                               Barnsley
Alfred Seaton Newton   12  Scholar                               Leeds
Walter Joseph Newton 10  Scholar                               Leeds
Ann Newton (Mother)    83                                               Leeds

She is now an elderly lady of 83 and Francis and his wife Jane are caring for her. Just one year after the 1861 census Ann died, aged 84 on 27th May 1862 at Elmwood Street and Francis registered the death on that same day. Ann is described as widow of John Newton, a postman and the cause of death was Old Age and Bed Sores, suggesting that she would have spent most of her last months bedridden.

Mary Kay

As with others of this generation (and their parents) the information on their earlier lives is, at best, sketchy. From the census returns we can see that Mary, the fourth child and second of three daughters of Mary (née Fretwell) and Richard Kay was born in Leeds about 1801, somewhat later than her 3 older siblings. She married William May at St. Peter’s Church, Leeds, on 13th June 1822.

The Leeds Directories of 1800 and 1809 list a William May, Gardener of Duke Street, and a William May, Gardener and Seedsman of Duke Street, is listed in the 1817 edition. Given that the 1841 census (see below) has Mary’s and William’s ages at 40, and even given that the rounding of ages for this census, William would not have been more than 45 in 1841. So it is more than likely that the William May referred to in the Leeds Directories would have been the father of the William who married Mary Kay.

In any case, at some time before 1823 William and Mary moved away from Leeds to North Yorkshire, first to Pickhill where their 6 older children were born, followed by a move to Burneston before 1834 where there 3 younger children were born. Following their father’s and grandfather’s calling, the next generations were involved with the seedsman/nurseryman industry, and it may be that the land around the Burneston area was more conducive for horticulture.

From the 1841 census return we can see that Mary and William have been very busy as 8 (of their 9 living) children are listed with them at home at Hope Nursery, Pickhill.  With the rounding of ages, the order of birth and actual ages (apart from Edwin) are unclear – but this problem is largely overcome in later census returns. All members of the household were shown in the ‘Yes’ column for having been born in the county of Yorkshire.

William May        40  Nurseryman
Mary May             40
Rowland May     15
Ann May              15
John May            15
Henry May          10
Charles May      10
Mary May           10
Emma May          5
Edwin May           1
Jane Lambton  15  Female Servant

Daughter Sophia May is not listed with her family for the 1841 census. Also not mentioned is Flora Elizabeth May, who was born in July 1838, and was baptised at Burneston on 17th September 1838 but who survived only 7 months. She died on 17th January 1839 at home at the Hope Nursery, Burneston, of Inflammation of the Chest. William May, her father, recorded as occupier of house, Leeming Lane, registered her death on 3rd February. By the time of the 1851 census Mary May was a widow. William was only 50 years old when he died at the Hope Nursery on the 14th December 1850 of Phthisis. The person present at the death was one Thomas Simpson of Hope Town in the township of Burneston. Mary, as head of the household, is now running the Hope Nursery business which, judging by the number of employees, is doing rather well.

Mary May           51 Nursery and Florist employing 8 men, 4 boys, 3 women   Leeds
John May           25 Assistant Nurseryman                                                               Pickhill
Henry May         23 Assistant Nurseryman                                                               Pickhill
Charles May     21 Assistant Nurseryman                                                               Pickhill
Sophie May      17                                                                                                       Burneston
Emma May      15                                                                                                        Burneston
Ann Johnson    7 House Servant                                                                              Newton le Willows

Not at home on 30th March were sons Rowland William May and Edwin Fretwell May, and daughters Ann Eliza May and Mary May. By this time Rowland had married and left home and Edwin (masquerading as Edward) was at a boarding school. Ann Eliza, a Teacher of Drawing, was in fact staying with her aunt Ann Newton at 23 St Paul’s Street, Leeds.

Mary, on the other hand, had died, at the age of 19, very shortly after her father. Baptised on 12th June 1831, at Pickhill with Roxby, the death certificate records her death as occurring on 1st February 1851 and caused by Hysteria, and exclusively female condition. Again Thomas Simpson was in attendance.

Between 1851 and the census conducted in 1861, two more May children died - son John May, baptised on 9th August 1826 at Pickhill with Roxby, and daughter Emma Isabella. John died on 8th August 1852 and, as with his father, the cause was Phthisis which according to the certificate had afflicted him for 11 months. John was 26 years old, and his mother Mary would have keenly felt the loss both emotionally and from the point of view of the business. Another neighbour, William Pearson, took the responsibility of informing the registrar of the death. From the census records Emma Isabella was born about 1836 in Burneston, the eighth child of William and Mary May. I have not located an IGI record of her baptism. As noted above, she was a 5 year old with her parents for the 1841 census and was again with them as a 15 year old for the 1851 census. Emma Isabella May died at the age of 21 from Epilepsy from which she had apparently been suffering for some nine years before her death. Another neighbour, Elizabeth Jackson, was the person recorded as being present when Emma died at New Inn, Leeming Lane, Burneston.

The 1861 census finds Mary at home with only one child. She has moved to Masham, not far and to the west of Burneston, and was living at 107 Park Street.

Mary May    61  House Proprietor      Leeds
Edwin May  21  Grocer's Assistant    Burneston

Ten years later, for the 1871 census, Mary is found as a boarder with the Cordukes family at Kirklington, a village not far from Bedale. I do not know what the connection with the Cordukes may have been, but Mary was probably known to them.

John Cordukes                              58   Farmer of 84 Acres    Sheriff Hutton, Yorks
Mary Cordukes                              53                                          Aldborough, Yorks
John(athon) George Cordukes  21  Farmer’s Son              Topcliffe, Yorks
John Cordukes                             19   Farmer’s Son              Topcliffe, Yorks
Mary Cordukes                            14    Farmer’s Daughter    Topcliffe, Yorks
Mary May (Boarder)                    71    Annuitant                      Leeds

And it was at Kirklington that Mary died, aged 72, on 23rd November 1871. Widowed at a relatively young age, taking on the family business, and the loss of a number of children must have all taken their toll. The cause of death was given as Exhaustion without Specific Disease. Her son Henry May was with her when she died.

Isabella Kay

The recorded birth dates for Isabella Kay, daughter of Richard and Mary (née Fretwell) Kay, are somewhat fluid. She married Charles Todd on 5th March, 1822, at Saint Peters in Leeds. From the 1851 census data, this would have made Isabella 14 at the time of her marriage. It is not until the likely date of her death, in 1880 at the age of 77, that a more realistic date is revealed – putting her birth year as about 1803 and also her age at marriage at 19. Charles and Isabella had 5 daughters, 4 of whom survived to adulthood. Charles died in 1852.

Isabella married rather well, as Charles was a well regarded civil engineer. The son of John and Mary Todd, he was born on 25th January, 1795, and baptised on 1st March of that year at St Olave, York. Charles Todd is listed in the 1835 Leeds Directory for Trades and Professions as “Todd Charles, engineer, 7 Greenmount Terrace”. At that time we was working at the famous ‘Round Foundry’, the Steam Engine Manufactory of Messrs. Fenton, Murray & Jackson. The firm, as Fenton, Murray & Wood, designed and built the world’s first commercially successful steam locomotives, for the Middleton Railway, Leeds. In the 1830s the firm built locomotives for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, the Great Western Railway, and some foreign railways, including for France, so Charles Todd would be well experienced in locomotive building. In 1837, there was a prolonged Machine-Makers Strike in Leeds, which affected most companies, and may have precipitated Todd into founding a new company. (The pre-1837 data has been provided by Sheila Bye, Historian of the Middleton Railway Trust).

In 1837 he was a partner in the Airedale foundry in Hunslet, founded in that year by James Kitson. The venture was a failure and the partnership was dissolved. While Kitson began afresh in 1839 and soon associated with Mr. Thompson, an iron merchant, and Mr. Hewitson, an apprentice and draughtsman of Messrs Stephenson, Charles Todd left to start the Railway Foundry, an enterprise in which his wife's uncle, John Fretwell, had a vested interest.. Charles left the firm in June 1844, which was taken over by James Fenton in 1846, becoming Fenton Craven & Company.

After leaving the Railway Foundry, Todd formed the Sun Foundry, and is listed in Slater’s 1847 as “Todd Charles, Sun Foundry, Dewsbury Road”. He is stated to have left the Sun in 1858, which was 6 years after his death. Perhaps the account referred to the date in which the Todd family relinquished interest in the Foundry.

The 1841 census transcript has the Todd family living at Cumberland Street, Hunslet, Leeds .

Todd Charles                 40  Engineer
Todd Isabella                 35
Todd Emma Isabella   15
Todd Laura                    15
Todd Julia                      11
Todd Mary Amelia          6

Under the ‘Where Born/Whether born in same County’ column, the transcript has ‘Yes’ (Yorkshire) for all, but the 1851 census has Emma, Julia and Mary Amelia as born in Lancashire. The IGI records for the girls’ christenings, if correct, confirm this.

We find Isabella at home with four children in 1851 now living at 1 Dewsbury Road, Hunslet which was no doubt convenient for Charles as the Sun Foundry was also located on Dewsbury Road.

Isabella Todd                  43  Engineer's Wife   Leeds
Emma Isabella Todd    22  No business         Bolton, Lancashire
Julia Todd                       19  No business         Manchester, Lancashire
Mary Amelia Todd         16  No business         Manchester, Lancashire
Clara Fretwell Todd        9  No business         Leeds

Clara is a new edition to the family, having been born around 1842. Missing from home on census night is Charles Todd who is found as a lodger at the Axe Inn, in St May, Aldermanbury, London. Also not listed with Isabella is daughter Laura Todd who died at home in Dewsbury Road on the 10th September 1846 of typhus, aged 18.

It is likely that Charles was not a well man in 1851. He died on 30th September 1852 and the death certificate records the cause of death as “Rheumatic Gout - Diseased Heart and Anasarca”. He was 57 years of age and described, at the time of his death, as Gentleman, suggesting that he was no longer a practising engineer. Some time between the 1851 census and his death the family moved to 1 Blundell Street , which is where he died, but he may well have received treatment at the General Infirmary which ran off Blundell Street.

From the will of John Fretwell it is clear that he had interests in the Railway Foundry business and either or both assisted Charles Todd with his Sun Foundry engineering business or had a financial interest in the enterprise. When John drew up his will in December 1848, Charles was indebted to him to the tune of £635. Charles was appointed as one of the Executors but John Fretwell outlived him. Accordingly, by a codicil to his will, John appointed Isabella Todd as a replacement executor. John Fretwell died in died on 5th June 1855 and his will was proved on 17th November of that year.

Apart from any balance of the £635 referred to above, John bequeathed to Isabella and her daughters :

all his wines Liquors and consumable Household Stores in his dwellinghouse No 22 St Paul Street Leeds, all the residue of his silver plate and all his household goods and furniture during her life and on her decease to her four children Emma, Julia, Mary Amelia, and Clara, and the said messuage or dwellinghouse 22 St Paul’s Street Leeds for life and after her decease to her 4 children.

all the rest of his clothes (one suit was to be given to nephew John Kay).

(after some one-off small bequests to other family members) Isabella, during her life time, and thereafter her children, were to receive a part of the income from the “the Foundry Estate” capital account.

After Charles died Isabella moved house and in 1861 was found, with two of her daughters, at St Paul’s Street, Mill Hill, Leeds, presumably at No 22, the house she inherited. Once again we have a problem with Isabella’s age. In 1861 she would have been in her fifties. Neither Julia nor Mary Amelia are at home as they have by now married and moved away.

Isabella Todd                 50  House Proprietor  Leeds
Emma Isabella Todd   30                                   Bolton, Lancashire
Clara Fretwell Todd     20                                   Leeds
Eliza Bapty                     16                                    Servant Leeds

For the 1871 census we find Isabella, still at St Paul’s Street and living next door to John and Mary Beetham (née Newton and Isabella’s niece). Visiting are her married daughter Julia and granddaughter Amy Isabella. Clara is no longer living at home, having married James Kay, and on census night, daughter Emma was staying with Clara and James (see notes for Clara).

Isabella Todd                             65   Housekeeper         Yorkshire
Julia Woodhead (Daur)           38                                     Lancashire
Amy Isa Woodhead (GDaur)  12   Scholar                    Yorkshire
Sarah Scrivener                        21   Domestic Servant  Bedfordshire

This is the last census record we have for Isabella as she died one year before the 1881 census. According to the death certificate there was no one with Isabella Todd, widow of Charles Todd Engineer, when she died age 77 at  22 St Paul’s Street. An inquest was conducted by John G. Malcolm Coroner for Leeds, on 10th February which determined that Isabella was “Found Dead Syncopic [loss of consciousness] from Natural Causes”. The certificate was registered with John William Fourness, Deputy Registrar, on 13th February 1880.