5th Gen - Andrews / Isaac

Fifth Generation (Great Great Grandparents)

John Andrews & Elizabeth Isaac

John Andrews (1883 – 1942)

John Henry Andrews (1907 – 1971)

Dudley John Andrews (1929 – 2010)

Stephen Michael Andrews (1959 – )

Victoria (1837 – 1901)

Edward VII (1901 – 1910)

George V (1910 – 1936)

John Andrews

John is the son of William Andrews and Jane Woodhoust and was born about 1843 in Exeter, St Davids, Devon. He died on the 15th of October, 1922 at 51 Albert Street, Hucknall in Nottinghamshire. He was buried on the 19th of October, 1922 in grave No. 690, South Class A, Hucknall. His burial record states that he was 78 at the time of his burial.

In 1851 John was living in Stoke Canon, Devon, but by 1861 he is at the Porters Arms in Plymouth as a lodger and is working as a mason and journeyman. A journeyman is an individual who has completed an apprenticeship and fully educated in his trade, but is not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman has to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and then be admitted to the guild as a master. Sometimes, a journeyman is required to accomplish a three-year working trip, which may be called the journeyman years.

On Christmas Day 1864 John married Elizabeth Isaac in St Thomas, Devon. The marriage was witnessed by William Andrews and Emma Bennett, William is either John’s brother or father. The marriage certificate gives John’s age as 21 which makes his date of birth as about 1843. Elizabeth was pregnant at the time of the wedding as within five months on the 7th of May 1865 they baptised their first child, William in Hillfarrance in Somerset.

In 1868 whilst in Knebworth, Hertfordshire the couple had a daughter, Elizabeth A.

On the 27th of February 1870 John and Elizabeth baptised their second son George also in Knebworth.

On the night of 1871 census within the household there is Harry Isaacs listed as a nine year old, and as a stepson. Harry is the illegitimate son of Elizabeth. The family are living at the Great Northern Railway station at Welwyn, Hertfordshire, and John is now a signalman.

The Station was opened in 1850 as part of the Great Northern Railway. It was called Welwyn Station until 1926 when it was renamed following the opening of Welwyn Garden City, the second garden city founded in England.

It isn’t known when John became the signalman at Welwyn but is possible that he was involved in the Welwyn tunnel rail crash which occurred in the tunnels to the north of the station on the 9th of June 1866. From the point of view of damage to engines and rolling stock it was one of the most destructive in railway history.

There are two tunnels between Welwyn station and Knebworth on the East Coast Main Line, known as Welwyn South Tunnel and Welwyn North Tunnel. In 1866, traffic through the tunnels was operated using a form of block working – the signalmen at Welwyn and Knebworth communicated with each other via a telegraph system, and were not permitted to signal a train into the tunnels until they had received confirmation that the previous train had cleared the section. The instrument was a “speaking” telegraph, which was used for general communication between the signal boxes.

The first train involved in the accident consisted of 38 empty coal wagons, drawn by a tender locomotive. The second train was a Midland Railway goods train from London, with 26 wagons. The third train was a Great Northern express freight train, carrying meat from Scotland for Smithfield Market.

The train of coal empties was signaled away from Welwyn at 23:20. When passing through the North tunnel, the engine failed and the train came to a halt. The guard at first recommended that the train be allowed to roll back on the falling gradient to Welwyn, but the driver refused, as such a move would be dangerous in itself and contrary to the railway regulations. The guard should, according to the regulations, have placed detonators on the line to protect the rear of his train, but he failed to do so - he also failed to communicate with either signal box.

At 23:36, the second train stopped at Welwyn signal box. The signalman at Welwyn, who had not received the “out of section” signal for the train of coal empties, sent a telegraph message to Knebworth asking if it had cleared the tunnel. The Knebworth signalman stated to the official enquiry that he had replied with the code for “No”, but the Welwyn signalman claimed that he had received a “Yes”. The code for “No” differed from the code for “Out” only by the number of beats on the telegraph needle, and the enquiry ruled that the Welwyn signalman had misinterpreted the signal as being “Out”, which would have the same meaning as “Yes” in answer to his question. He therefore lowered his signals and allowed the second train into the tunnel.

The second train ran into the stationary first train at a speed estimated between 20 and 25 mph, the driver not having any warning of its presence. Wray, the guard of the first train, was killed in the collision. Rawlins, an employee of the Metropolitan Railway, was travelling in the guard's van contrary to the regulations of the Great Northern Railway. He was severely injured and died on the morning of the 12th. The driver and fireman of the second train were not seriously injured, but it took them some time to extricate themselves from the debris of the accident.

Before any of the railway men could communicate with either signal box, the up meat train was allowed into the tunnel, where it struck the wreckage from the first collision and caught fire. Due to the difficulty of accessing the tunnel after the accident, and because the fire was immediately beneath one of the tunnel’s ventilation shafts, it was not extinguished until the 11th of June, according to witnesses, “all that night and all through the next day the ventilation shaft belched flames, smoke and the smell of roasting meat over the surrounding countryside.”

The official report, by Captain F.H. Rich of the Royal Engineers, blamed the crash mainly on Guard Wray of the first train, for failing to protect the rear of his train after the engine failure and for relying on the signals for protection in this situation. A secondary cause was the misreading of the telegraph message by the Welwyn signalman. Rich recommended two changes to the signalling method, which were subsequently adopted in the system of absolute block working - before a train is allowed into a section, the signalman must positively request clearance from the next box ahead, rather than relying on the ‘out of section’ message for the previous train, and a separate block telegraph that permanently displays the state of the section is used, in addition to the general-purpose ‘speaking’ telegraph.

Welwyn tunnel rail crash

In 1874 in Welling, possibly Welwyn, the couple had another daughter, Lilly Maud who they baptised on the 19th of April in Welwyn. She was soon followed by another sister Fanny, who was born in 1875 in Sandy in Bedfordshire.

Another daughter, Edith was born around 1877 in London, however she does not appear on the 1881 census but does appear on the 1891 census, though by the 1901 census like the rest of the children, except Fanny and the youngest child John, she is no longer living with her parents.

About six months after the birth of their daughter, Florence Susan on the 15th of July 1878 they baptised her on the 12th of January 1879 in Pinxton near Mansfield in Nottinghamshire.

Though it is possible that he was involved in the train crash, it is perhaps unlikely since by 1881 John was still employed as a signalman, and the family at this time were at Mount Pleasant in Pinxton. With the family are two boarders, Harry G Isaac, Elizabeth’s illegitimate son and Ellen Rulimout who is a three year child, who was born in the City of London.

John and Elizabeth baptised their daughter, Ellen Matilda who was born in the fourth quarter of 1880, on the 27th of February 1881 in Pinxton, sadly she was to die just a year later and she was buried on the 11th of February 1882 in Pinxton.

Late 1882 or January 1883 their last child, John was born in Pinxton and baptised on the 25th of January 1883 in Pinxton.

In the second quarter of 1886 saw the marriage of their son William to Rebecca Burgoyne, the marriage is recorded in the records in Basford, Nottingham.

The 28th of October 1890 saw the wedding of their 16 year old daughter Lilly Maud to Simeon John Inder Goss, who was 32 years old, in Pontypool in Monmouthshire. Simeon was her mother’s half-brother, so Lilly married her half-uncle. By this time John was now a railway station master for the Great Northern Railway, this is possibly in Nuthall, Nottinghamshire since by the 1891 census the family are living at the G. N. Station House at Nuthall and his occupation is Station Master (Rail).

Sadly in late 1895 their first child William died at the age of just 30. His death is recorded in the Basford records.

In 1897 their daughter Fanny married Frederick Evans who was from Macclesfield in Cheshire. Frederick worked on the railways as a slate layer and so it possible that they met through her father’s work.

With the start of the new century their daughter Florence married Alfred Chamberlain on the 4th of July 1900 at the Anglican church of St. Michael in Linby, Nottinghamshire. Alfred was a railway signalman on the Great Northern Railway and similarly to her sister Fanny they met through her father’s work. By the time of this wedding it is likely that John was now the railway station master at Linby. He certainly was by the 1901 census.

The census shows that John and Elizabeth were at Linby and that John was certainly now the railway station master at Linby. Living with them were their youngest child, John now aged 18 who was working as a railway porter, presumably at Linby station. Also with them are Fanny and her husband Frederick and Florence H, their two year old granddaughter.

There were once three railway lines that passed through Linby, with stations on two of them. The first was the Midland Railway line from Nottingham to Mansfield and Worksop, it closed to passengers on the 12th of October 1964 although part of it was retained as a freight route serving collieries’ at nearby Annesley. In the 1990s this line was reopened to passengers as the Robin Hood Line in stages, the section through Linby in 1993, but Linby station did not reopen with it.

The second line was the Great Northern Railway, which later became part of the London and North Eastern Railway, the LNER, the line serving many of the same places as the Midland. It closed to passengers on the 14th of September 1931 but remained in use for freight until the 25th of March 1968. However GNR’s Linby station on this line had closed long before, on the 1st of July 1916, just over ten years after John retired.

The third line was the Great Central Railway which also later became part of the LNER, the last main line ever built from the north of England to London, opened on the 15th of March 1899. The stretch through Linby (which crossed over both the other lines), closed completely on the 5th of September 1966, but there had never been a Linby station on this line.

By the time of the marriage of his son John to Florence Louisa Winterbotham Peet on the 4th of June 1906 he had retired. John married Florence at the Wesleyan Chapel in Barnby Gate, Newark in Nottinghamshire.

The 1911 census is more detailed than previous ones and it shows that John and Elizabeth were living at 6A Albert Street, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire and he was a retired railway station master. The house had four rooms and shortly after the census Elizabeth died in July at this address. Albert Street is only a couple of miles from where they were living in Linby.

This census states that John and Elizabeth had 9 children born alive and 7 were still alive.

Within a couple of months of the census sadly Elizabeth died in July at Albert Street at the age of 70. John had the sad task of burying her on the 31st of July 1911 in Grave 690, South Class B in Hucknall. She was buried in consecrated land.

On the 26th of September 1912 their daughter Lilly Maud, her husband Simeon Goss and their nine children at that time emigrated to Australia from the port of London on board the ship Commonwealth, travelling 3rd class.

On the 5th of August 1916 one of their grandchildren Albert Inder Goss was killed at the battle of the Somme during the Great War. His death is recorded as being in the Department de la Somme, Picardie, France and he is buried in Beaumont-Hamal in the Department. Albert was just 19 at the time of his death.

Noted events in his life were:

* Living: 1851, Stoke Canon, Devon.

* He worked as a Mason - Journeyman in 1861.

* Living: 1861, Porters Arms, Plymouth.

* Living: 25th December 1864, Devon.

* He worked as a Labourer on 25th December 1864.

* He worked as a Railway Labourer on the 7th of May 1865.

* Living: 1871, G.N.R. Station, Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

* He worked as a Railway Signalman in 1871.

* Living: 1881, Mount Pleasant, Pinxton, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

* He worked as a Signalman in 1881.

* He worked as a Railway Station Master on 28th October 1890.

* Living: 1891, G. N. Station House, Nuthall, Nottinghamshire.

* He worked as a Station Master (Rail) in 1891.

* Living: 1901, Linby, Nottinghamshire.

* He worked as a Railway Station Master in 1901.

* He worked as a Retired Stationmaster on 4th June 1906.

* Living: 1911, 6A Albert Street, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

* He worked as a Retired Railway Station Master in 1911.

John married Elizabeth Isaac on Christmas Day 1864 in St Thomas, Devon.

Children from this marriage were:

i. William Andrews – (About 1865 – 1895)

ii. Elizabeth A Andrews – (About 1868 - )

iii. George Andrews – (About 1870 – )

iv. Lilly Maud Andrews – (1874 – 19/8/1954)

v. Fanny Andrews – (1875 - )

vi. Edith Andrews – (About 1878 - )

vii. Florence Susan Andrews – (15/7/1878 - )

viii. Ellen Matilda Andrews – (1880 – 1882)

ix. John Andrews – (1883 – 7/2/1942)

Elizabeth Isaac

Elizabeth is the daughter of Henry Isaac and Ann Inder and was born on the 27th of June 1841 in Martock, Somerset. She was baptised on the 29th of November 1841 in Martock. Elizabeth died in July 1911 at 6a Albert Street, Hucknall, Nottingham, at the age of 70.

From the register of burials Elizabeth was buried on the 31st of July 1911 in Grave 690, South Class B, Hucknall, Nottingham. She was buried in consecrated land. The register states that she was a Retired Stationmaster’s wife.

In 1851 Elizabeth was a scholar and living at 58 North Street, Martock, Somerset.

In 1861 there is an Elizabeth Isaac, together with a Jane Isaac at the home of William Watts and his wife.

William Watts – head – 48 – Cooper – born Martock
Elizabeth Watts – wife – 49 – Schoolmistress – born Martock
Elizabeth Isaac – niece – 19 – Glove maker – born Martock
Jane Isaac – niece – 18 – Servant – born Martock

At present it is unlikely that this is our Elizabeth since I don’t have a sibling of Jane and also no siblings for her father. Because her father died a year after Elizabeth was born it is possible for Jane to be born in that year since Jane is one year younger. However I do have a record of a brother, Henry, for Elizabeth who was born in November 1842, but not a Jane. Also a MyHeritage website tree states that Elizabeth had four brothers and that her father had three siblings, though I have been unable to confirm this.

After this census in 1864 Elizabeth had married John. Although she is a spinster at the time of the wedding it looks likely that she had an illegitimate son, since on the night of the 1871 census there is Harry Isaacs, a nine year old, and stepson to John, although he does eventually take the name Andrews.

Noted events in her life were:

* Living: 1851, 58 North Street, Martock, Somerset.

* She worked as a Scholar in 1851.

* Living: 1871, G.N.R. Station, Welwyn.

* Living: 1881, Mount Pleasant, Pinxton, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

* Living: 1891, G. N. Station House, Nuthall, Nottinghamshire.

* Living: 1901, Linby, Nottinghamshire.

* Living: 1911, 6A Albert Street, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Elizabeth had a son from a relationship before her marriage to John Andrews.

Children from this relationship were:

i. Harry G Isaacs – (About 1862 – 30/8/1934)

It is possible that a report in the Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette of the 15th of October 1870 refers to Harry.

George Wyatt, an able seaman, belonging to H.M.S Inconstant, pleaded guilty to being the father of the illegitimate child of Elizabeth Isaac, and was ordered to pay 2s. per week, 11s. 6d. the costs, and 10s for the midwife.

However this is eight years after Harry’s birth.

Harry was born before their marriage but was brought up by Elizabeth and John and is listed as stepson on the 1871 census.

Elizabeth married John Andrews on Christmas Day 1864 in St Thomas, Devon.