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Francis Pears 1840-1904

Francis PEARS was born on the 5th April 1840 in the tiny lead-mining settlement of Shildon, on the outskirts of Blanchland, Northumberland. He was the second of four children of lead miner, Francis PEARS and his wife Hannah, formerly ARMSTRONG.

By the time Francis was five, the family were living at Blackhill, near Shotley Bridge, Co Durham where his father was working as an Iron Stone Miner - one of the many ancillary industries which had grown around the recently established Consett Iron Works. It was here that the first tragedy struck, Francis' father, Francis PEARS Snr, contracted pneumonia - and eleven days later, on 2nd March 1846, he died aged only 35 years. Poor Hannah was pregnant, penniless, miles from home and she had three youngsters to support ranging in age from 2 to 7 years. Three days later Francis was taken back to Hunstanworth, his family home, for burial, and Hannah then returned to Blackhill. She gave birth on 8th June 1846 to Joseph PEARS and the family then returned to Shildon, where Hannah felt more at home among friends and family.

Thanks to hard work and generous friends, Hannah managed to support the family until the lads were bringing in wages - and things were just beginning to be reasonably comfortable for the family when the second tragedy struck - Hannah became seriously ill with obstruction of the bowels and she died in agony nine days later on 15th November 1856 aged 39 years. Next day she was laid to rest just over the river in Hunstanworth churchyard next to her beloved husband, Francis.

So the lads - William, aged 18, Francis, aged 16, John, aged 13 and Joseph, aged 10, were on their own. With three wage earners - William was a lead ore miner and Francis and Joseph were Lead Ore Washers - they could manage financially, but they needed a woman's touch, so they engaged Mrs Jane DINSDALE, who was separated from her husband, as housekeeper. This arrangement worked well for a while, but Francis was a rebellious teenager who was unwilling to accept his elder brother's discipline, so Francis left his brothers and went into lodgings at Baybridge, a little west of Blanchland, with Blacksmith, Thomas PARKER, and family.

Broaddale House - Home of Jane Ann Brown

Francis, by then a lead miner, continued working at Shildon Mine, Blanchland for a few years, but in 1862 he took a job at Lintzgarth Mine near the village of Rookhope, Co Durham. And there 22 year-old Francis met and fell head over heels in love with a girl he described as the "Belle of Ball - the prettiest masher in the dales", 20 year-old Jane Ann BROWN who lived with her grandparents at Broaddale House way up on the fells overlooking Rookhope. From then on they were inseparable.

Annie Pears 1864-1943

The inevitable happened and Jane Ann gave birth to a daughter, Ann, on 11th June 1864. Convention demanded that they marry, but they didn't - some say Francis wouldn't make the commitment, others maintain that Jane Ann wouldn't marry such a heavy drinker. But they did stay together, and on 13th August 1867, their second child, Thomas, was born. Then, for some reason, they had a change of heart and on 19th December 1868, Francis PEARS and Jane Ann BROWN married at Durham Register Office. Next day, 20th December 1868, they baptised their two children, 4 year-old Ann, known as Annie, and 1 year-old Thomas, known as Tom, at Rookhope Parish Church.

Tom Pears 1867-1934

They were then living at Medomsley, where Francis was working as a coal miner, but by 1869 they had moved up the road to Leadgate. And there, on 23rd November 1869, their third child, Hannah, was born. Things couldn't get any better, but fate was soon to strike the cruellest of blows - Jane Ann fell victim to the smallpox epidemic then sweeping the village.

Always an horrendous disease, the particular form of smallpox she suffered was by far the worst - "variola confluens", confluent smallpox where, instead of the usual isolated "pocks", there are large patches of blistered and deeply scarred skin. Even worse, these patches are entirely confined to the face, and extend into the mucous membranes of the mouth, throat and eyes. The disfigurement is appalling, but that is not the full extent of the disease's horrors - both the primary and secondary fevers are extremely severe - indeed, right from the outset, all the symptoms are much more severe than in the usual form of the disease, variola major, and not surprisingly, mortality is very high. Poor Jane Ann succumbed on 22nd March 1870 after suffering terribly for 10 days - first she lost her beauty, then her will to live, and finally, her life.

As with all smallpox victims, Jane Ann was buried very quickly - next day in fact, 23rd March 1870, in the churchyard of St Ive's, Leadgate. In the same church, on the same day, 4 month old Hannah, was baptized - a precaution in case she too fell victim to the disease which killed her mother.

To say that Francis went to pieces would be an understatement - he descended into a mire of booze and self pity. He gave up work and sold his meagre possessions to buy drink. His wife's relations had been unable to attend the hurriedly arranged funeral, and they were reluctant to visit Francis while smallpox was still about, but they did send money for a headstone for Jane Ann's grave. But incredibly that money too went on more booze. And when the money was gone and he sobered up, he went to the churchyard and lay on his wife's grave wanting to die - feeling that there was nothing worth living for.

Baby Hannah had been put in the care of Lanchester Workhouse very soon after her mother's death, but the two older children were still with Francis at Leadgate. And when their mother's relatives from Rookhope visited, they found the youngsters in a dreadfully neglected state - so much so that they took the youngsters back to Rookhope with them. Three year old Thomas went to live with his mother's uncle John and his wife Elizabeth who farmed at Bolts Walls, Rookhope. Six year old Annie went to live first with her great-grandparents at Broaddale House and later with her mother's uncle Joseph, a lead miner, and his wife Margaret, who lived at Chapel Row, Rookhope.

Francis spent the next 10 years drifting from job to job and from place to place - still feeling sorry for himself whenever he was sober enough to feel anything. He couldn't have gone on like that much longer and thankfully he was saved from this downward spiral by his elder brother, William.

William, you will remember, had taken on the responsibility of raising his two youngest brothers when their mother died in 1856 - but they were married and long gone from the fold. Jane DINSDALE, however, who had joined them as housekeeper in 1858, was still with William and was living with him as his wife. She and her baby daughter, Elizabeth, joined the PEARS household after having left her husband, James DINSDALE. And magically, over the next few years, despite the absence of James, Jane gave birth to more children. They were registered as James' kids, but were, in reality, William's. Then William and Jane moved to Consett, and Jane DINSDALE became Jane PEARS overnight, without any formality such as marriage, and the DINSDALE children became PEARS too - and subsequent children were registered as William's.

But this cohabitation and somewhat unconventional background was a family secret, and William, Jane and family had become the epitome of respectability. Moreover they had become stalwarts of the Salvation Army in Consett and somehow they managed to steer the lost soul, Francis, to its doors. Amazingly Francis publicly renounced drink, confessed his sins (ie boozing), and recounted his experiences to the congregation - and these were printed in the "War Cry", the source of parts of this account.

Now Francis was lodging with a widow and Salvationist, Elizabeth "Bessie" Whitfield, and her sons, Wesley and Thomas William, at Consett, and he was working and keeping away from drink. Moreover he had re-established contact with his daughter Annie who was then in service at Edmundbyers. Many of his letters to Annie have survived and make fascinating reading, but space considerations prevent a detailed look. However, they make clear that Francis and Bessie were soon living as man and wife, though they were not actually married - in 1886 he wrote "And my dear wife, she is oftimes saying 'I wonder how Annie is getting on'". It is also clear that Annie referred to Bessie as "mother" and Francis regarded Bessie and her sons as his own family - he signed off one letter to Annie with "Mother and all the family send kind love to you". So the next tragedy would have hit Francis really hard - in January 1888 the younger lad, Thomas William WHITFIELD, aged only 14, suffered an awful accident at Consett Iron Works and lost both arms. A dreadful handicap, but he was lucky not to have lost his life - and he did manage to earn a living in later life as a Post Office Messenger.

A recurring theme of Francis' letters was his son Tom, who was still at Rookhope living with his great uncle and aunt, John and Elizabeth BROWN. Tom was in touch with Annie, but he had had no contact with his father. In 1887 Francis wrote "Oh I would be so glad to see Tom once more, I do not think I would know him it is so long since I saw him." Likewise Tom wrote "I hope that father and the family is well as I would like to hear from them." and he was clearly keeping up with the news - just after Thomas William's accident he wrote to Annie - "I saw an accident in the papers at Consett and I heard last night it was one of father's lads". And the tragedy is that they never did meet - Francis was worried about how he would be received, and Tom never really forgave his father for neglecting them when their mother died - indeed he called himself Thomas BROWN for many years to come. But Francis and Tom did keep in touch - albeit through an intermediary, Annie.

Other recurring themes in Francis' letters were religion - "Look to God and he will direct thy path", finances - "I have four shillings a day, if Wesley was only at work we could do well", and health - "hoping to find you in good health and spirits as this leaves me not very well at present and I cannot crack over well of your mother's health". And indeed Bessie's deteriorating health may have been what prompted Francis and Bessie to marry at Lanchester Register Office on 16th May 1891 - because she died not long afterwards.

This tragedy was too much for Francis and he reached for his old crutch - booze. And this was the beginning of the final tragic chapter in Francis' troubled life. Disowned first by his adopted family, then by elder brother William and even by daughter Annie, Francis spent his last eight years in and out of Lanchester Workhouse. The admissions register attests to the hopeless and helpless state he was in - admitted 26th May 1896 and discharged 20th June 1896, ...... admitted 18th July 1899 and discharged 14th April 1900 - admitted 2nd May 1900 and discharged 16th July 1900. And so it went on until finally, after a fairly lengthy spell on the outside, he was admitted to the workhouse for the last time on 6th September 1903 and went into a slow but inexorable decline until he died of bronchitis on 2nd October 1904 aged 64. He was laid to rest in Lanchester churchyard two days later, mourned only by workhouse officials.

Francis' tragic life had consequences long after his death. Daughter Hannah who had been taken off to Lanchester Workhouse soon after her mother's death, was taken in around 1880 by distant relative (2nd cousin once removed), Elizabeth SCOTT, formerly PEARS, who ran the Robin Hood Inn at Hexham with her husband, James. Hannah worked at the pub as a domestic servant. It was quite some time before she had any contact with her siblings, Annie and Tom - as late as 1888, Tom wrote to Annie "I've thought many a time about our other sister, how I would rejoice to see her. If we never see her down here, I hope we will all meet in heaven." They did eventually make contact and Annie met with Hannah at Hexham, but it was a stormy meeting - Hannah was bitter about being abandoned by her father, while Annie had forgiven him. They had little in common and were never close, and after a short exchange of letters, contact virtually stopped.

Hannah took up a job at the Six Mile Bridge Inn at Seaton Burn, and in 1900 she met and married local Colliery Engineer, William BROWN. They had one daughter, Esther, in 1904, and in 1930 Esther married Thomas Edward GIBSON. Esther and Thomas had one son who, in later life, became a senior official with Gosforth Urban District Council. After his mother died in 1959 he thought he had no living blood relatives, so he was quite moved when I located him and told him of his many relatives. He told me that his grandmother had been haunted all her life by her childhood, but would never explain why to either him or his mother - nor did she ever mention having siblings. Clearly Hannah's life had been badly affected by her father's reaction to her mother's early death.

Thomas left Rookhope in the late 1880s and moved to Throckley where he took up a job at Throckley Colliery. While there, in 1891, he married Allendale girl, Margaret PHILIPSON at Hexham Register Office. Several house moves followed - Blaydon - Birkshaw, near Bardon Mill - Haydon Bridge - Chesterwood - Styford Barns - Barlow - Low Spen - Highfield. Job changes too. coal miner - labourer at whinstone quarry - barytes miner - coal miner. And he and Margaret had five children - Nicholas - Jane Ann - Elizabeth - Florence - Thomas Henry. A seemingly normal family, and so it was until Margaret died in 1924 at the age of only 53 - and, like his father, Thomas went to pieces. But for Thomas it was not just the loss of his wife which preyed on his mind - it was guilt at having avoided and then disowned his father. Now he knew what it was like to lose a partner and he could better appreciate why his father had turned to drink. Thankfully Thomas didn't follow in his father's footsteps, instead he turned to religion. But most who knew him though he took it took it to extremes and was actually suffering from "religious mania" - and he became a peddler, selling matches and everyday items from door to door. A sad ending - and another tragic consequence of Jane Ann's awful death all those years earlier.