Part 1 “Quite a mix up is it not…”
When I first started to research my family history, I was given copies of three typed letters which had been written in 1979 by one of my great-grandfather’s half-brothers, Arthur Hayter MASON.
Arthur’s father, John Thomas MASON had died just 7 months after Arthur was born so Arthur would have had no memory of him and must have relied on the recollections of his mother, Dorothy, and his siblings.
In the months and years after his father’s death, Arthur seems to have been in and out of the workhouse, ending up at the Chase Farm Schools in Enfield before going to Canada in 1926, aged 15. He eventually settled in the USA in Denver, Colorado. At the time that he wrote the letters he was presumably spending some of his leisure time in retirement trying to unravel the complexities of his family history.
Arthur’s rather poignant letters contain a great deal of information about his family and the father he never knew. My ongoing research has proved much of his information to be incorrect, but there’s also plenty that does touch on elements of the truth, providing me with lots of research opportunities over the years.
An extract from one of the letters
I have retyped part of one of the letters here, adding some punctuation for clarity but retaining Arthur’s distinctive style and his capitalisation.
“I am endeavouring to trace some of our relatives when I get information regarding them. This particular Lady I did not know even existed so I am highly elated at hearing from her. You may recall that the said Mrs Davies that married my Father John Thomas Mason had 5 children by Mr Davis. Also before that she had a previous marriage to a Mr Wakerley, and had two children from that union, & my Mother and Aunt Florence were the Children. Now it is known that when Mrs Davis married My Father, that two of the daughters of Mrs Davis went to Australia and as a result they also married over there and Cecilia was born to one and Lucy to the other. You and your brothers are from the residue of that union, your Father was one of 5 children that came of that union between Mrs Davis & My Father. After the last of the five children were born Mrs Davis died, and my Father then married the daughter of Mrs Davis’ previous marriage, a Miss Dorothy Elizabeth Hodgson Wakerly. Actually my Father married his step-daughter, and strange as it may seem My Father also married three times also, quite a mix up is it not.”
My great great grandmother, Mary Ann Mason (1852-1894)
The person that is referred to in the letter as “the said Mrs Davies” was my 2x great grandmother, Mary Ann MASON, who married John Thomas MASON in 1883. Mary Ann had 11 children from three relationships and died when she was just 42.
Mary Ann’s marriage to her first husband, John Blenchall WAKERLEY, produced two daughters, Dorothy Elizabeth Hodgson (b 1871) and Florence (b 1874). John died of typhoid fever in 1873.
Mary Ann then had a relationship with a William DAVIS. At the time of the 1881 census they were living together as husband and wife in Kilburn, Middlesex. They had 3 children: Esther (b 1875) Mary Ann (b 1877) and William J (b 1879).
Another child, Henry Lapworth, was baptised in 1882.
No marriage record has yet been found for Mary Ann and William.
In February 1883, seven months after Henry Lapworth DAVIS was baptised, Mary Ann married her cousin, my 2x great grandfather John Thomas MASON, in St James’ Church in Clerkenwell, stating that she was a widow and giving her surname as THOMAS. They married again in the same church in September 1883. This time, Mary Ann used the surname WAKERLEY which was correct if she hadn’t ever married William Job DAVIS. I haven’t yet discovered what happened to Mr DAVIS – did he die, marry someone else, change his name or move to a different part of the country?
By 1891 Mary Ann and John Thomas MASON had moved to Battersea in south London. At the time of the census they had had four children from their marriage but the youngest had died in early 1891, aged just 1 month. John Thomas’ daughter from his first marriage, and all six of Mary Ann’s other children were recorded on this census; the four DAVIS children were now using the surname MASON and are described as the daughters and sons of John Thomas MASON.
In 1897 John Thomas MASON married his step-daughter, Dorothy E H WAKERLEY, and by the time of the 1901 census none of the DAVIS children were living with the family.
Recently I began my search to find out what had happened to the DAVIS children. According to Arthur’s letter, “two of the daughters of Mrs Davis went to Australia and as a result they also married over there and Cecilia was born to one and Lucy to the other”.
Esther Elizabeth DAVIS (1875 – 1960)
All I knew at this point was that Mary Ann MASON and William DAVIS’ first daughter, Esther Elizabeth, was born in about 1875 and baptised at St Augustine’s church Paddington in December of that year. I haven’t been able to find a birth certificate for her.
In 1896, at Christ Church, Battersea, Esther Elizabeth DAVIS married William (or Allan) Alfred Pierce using the surname MASON. Her sister, Annie Rosa MASON (see below) was one of the witnesses and her father was stated to be John Thomas MASON, Laundry Proprietor.
In 1901 the couple were living in Wandsworth and with them was Esther’s half-sister, Pollie MASON. By 1911 Esther and Allan had 3 children: Cecilia, Rosaline and Gwendoline. Later that year, on 25th November, Esther, Allan and their three daughters arrived in Brisbane, Australia aboard the ship “Marathon”. By 1919 they were living in Ascot Vale, Maribyrnong, Victoria.
Mary Ann DAVIS (1877 – 1955)
The birth of the second DAVIS daughter, Mary Ann, on 26th October 1877 was registered in December of that year.
I had been unable to find a baptism for Mary Ann DAVIS until by chance I found an adult baptism of an Annie Rosa Mason, daughter of John and Mary Ann WAKERLEY. This took place in Battersea in 1893 and the parents’ address was given as 21 Cairns Road – the same address that the MASON family lived at in 1891 – and John’s occupation was “laundryman”. Annie Rosa’s date of birth was given as 26th October 1877 – exactly the same date as Mary Ann DAVIS! Had Mary Ann DAVIS become Annie Rosa WAKERLEY for some reason?
If her mother Mary Ann had never married William Job DAVIS, then WAKERLEY was Mary Ann / Annie Rosa’s correct surname, but the motive for using this name for her baptism is unclear.
In 1899 Mary Ann / Annie Rosa married, using the surname MASON, and giving her father’s name as John William Mason, a laundryman. Her husband was Frank Henry Axten HIAM who had been born in Ballarat, Australia in about 1870. The witnesses were Polly Isobel MASON (Annie’s half-sister) and John T Mason (possibly her half brother ….)
In 1900 Annie Rosa and Frank had a daughter,Lucy Laura AXTEN HIAM, and by 1903 they were living at Norwood Street, Flemington, Melbourne, New South Wales. I believe that Lucy HIAM might be the person with whom Arthur Hayter MASON had been corresponding in the 1970s – a Lucy SUMMERSCALES of Norfolk Island.
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At the moment I have done no further research into the lives of the two “DAVIS” daughters of my great great grandmother Mary Ann MASON. For years I have been intrigued by the information in Arthur Hayter Mason’s letter and so it’s been very satisfying to be able to confirm that the two DAVIS daughters did move to Australia having married in England before emigrating.
I have an Ancestry DNA match to a member of the SUMMERSCALES family in Australia and would love to hear from any of these distant cousins!
Arthur’s letters make no mention of the two boys, William J and Henry Lapworth, so that’s the next mystery to investigate.
If you have any more information about any of the people mentioned in the blog post, or can correct anything I’ve written, please get in touch!
“Quite a mix-up, is it not?”
All Roads Led to London 
My father Laurence Howard Mason visited his brother Arther Hater Mason in his home in Denver and later Arther made a return visit to my paarents in Bexley Heath. Arthur seamed to have some confused views about the family history. My parents had goodmemories of Leonard Eric Mason who is in REICHSWALD FOREST WAR CEMETERY
Germany
Lets face it the Mason/Wakerley/Davis family is a nightmare. ONce ever so often My oldest son and I go to Highgate cemetary to clean up John Thomas Masons grave.
Hello Jill, good to hear from you again, I hope you’re well.
Yes, Arthur certainly had some odd ideas about the family history – I think my great grandfather Herbert was probably responsible for creating some of the stories. I may have met Arthur at some point when I was very young ( about 6 or 7) as I definitely remember an American relative at my grandma’s house. He had a hand written family tree which went back to a baron in the 1600s…………..
I’m glad you get to Highgate to JTM’s grave occasionally – I really must get there sometime.