R ICHARD DAVIS was 80 years old when he was buried at the parish church at Hanbury, Worcestershire, England, 15 July 1829. His birthplace and parentage have not been ascertained. There are a number of Davises scattered through the 18th century records at Hanbury, but the first most discernable family is that of Richard Davis beginning with the baptism of his son John in 1779.
     Richard's first wife Sarah ----- was buried 23 July 1783 at Hanbury. It is not known at the present writing whether the first three of the children shown in the records were the only issue from this union.
     Richard Davis, widower, married secondly, SARAH APPLEBY, spinster, by license, 18 April 1786, at Hanbury, Worcestershire. Sarah was the daughter of Thomas Appleby and Sarah Sheward of Hanbury, and was baptised 29 April 1764. Sarah was buried at Hanbury 26 October 1839, aged 75 years.
Children of Richard Davis and Sarah ------ :
  1. JOHN DAVIS, baptised 18 November 1779 and buried 21 November 1779 at Hanbury.
     
  2. ELEANOR DAVIS, baptised 18 November 1779 and buried 21 November 1779 at Hanbury.
     
  3. JOHN DAVIS, baptised 16 April 1781 at Hanbury.
Children of Richard Davis and Sarah Appleby :
  1. MARY ANN DAVIS, born 14 October 1787, baptised 22 March 1789 and buried 8 January 1801 at Hanbury.
     
  2. ANN MARIA DAVIS, born 14 October 1787, baptised 22 March 1789 and buried 18 September 1789 at Hanbury.
     
  3. RICHARD DAVIS, born 4 October 1789, baptised 24 October 1789 at Hanbury, married ANN SPITTLE 24 November 1817 at Aston, Juxta Birmingham. He died 17 May 1872 at West Bromwich, Staffordshire.
     
  4. KITTY DAVIS, baptised 9 June 1794 at Hanbury.
     
  5. CHARLES DAVIS, buried 26 April 1801 at Hanbury.
     
  6. CHARLES DAVIS, baptised 11 October 1801. The Hanbury records show a Charles Davis, age 13, from Wedgbury (a frequent colloquialism of Wednesbury, Staffordshire), buried 18 January 1815.
     
  7. DIANA DAVIS, born 30 October 1803 and baptised 22 December 1805 at Hanbury.
     
  8. THOMAS DAVIS, baptised 22 December 1805 at Hanbury.
 





 R ICHARD DAVIS, eldest son of Richard Davis and his wife, Sarah Appleby, was born 4 October 1789 at Hanbury, Worcestershire, and was baptised 24 October 1789. He was married 24 November 1817 at St Peter and St Paul's, Aston, Juxta Birmingham, England to ANN SPITTLE, otherwise known as Nancy, the daughter of Edward Spittle and Mary Attwood of Wednesbury, Staffordshire. Richard began his career as a Tailor and was listed as such on the baptismal records of his children from September 1818 to January 1842 except on son Henry's in 1832 where he was instead a Victualler. He was again listed the same on the 1841 Wednesbury census and the directory of 1839 shows a Richard Davis as proprietor of the Red Lion Commercial Inn and Coach Office, Bridge Street, Wednesbury. By the mid 1840s, Richard became involved in the coal trade for he was occupied as a Coal Master at the time son Richard was married in 1846; as a Proprietor of Coal Mines at the time of the 1851 census and again as a Coal Master later that year when his wife died - found drowned in the Birmingham Canal. The story in the family is that she became entangled in the tow ropes of two canal boats as they passed in opposite directions. It seems possible that she was working a coal barge when the accident occured. Richard spent the remainder of his days as proprietor of the Junction Hotel, at Carter's Green, Swan Village, West Bromwich, being listed as a Victualler (1861), Publican (1871) and then as an Inn Keeper on his death certificate the following year.

Wednesbury Coaches



Left)  An English stage coach preparing for departure from Coach Office.    Right)  Schedule of coaches stopping at the Red Lion as found in the 1839 directory for Wednesbury.

Coaches to

  1. Birmingham, DARLASTON OMNIBUSES, call at the Red Lion, Tues. Thurs. & Sat. 9 morn.; & returns 1/2 p. 6 even. same days.
     
  2. Birmingham & Wolverhampton Omnibuses, from Red Lion, every hour.
     
  3. Bridgnorth, THE SHROPSHIRE HERO, from Red Lion, daily, 5 even.; returns 12 morn.
     
  4. Chester, THE BRILLIANT, from Red Lion, daily, 1/2 p. 10 morn. through Wolverhampton, Newport, &c.; & returns 7 even.
     
  5. Holyhead, MAIL, calls at the Red Lion, 1/4 p. 4 morn.; & returns 10 night.
     
  6. London, THE SWALLOW, from Red Lion, daily, 6 even.; & returns 12 morn.
     
  7. Salisbury, PRINCE OF WALES, from Red Lion, 9 morn.; & returns 1/2 p. 2 aft.
     
  8. Shrewsbury, THE SALOPIAN, from Red Lion, daily, 1/2 p. 2 aft.; & returns 2 aft.
     
  9. Shrewsbury, THE SWALLOW, from Red Lion, daily, 12 morn.; returns 6 even. on its way to London.
     
  10. Shrewsbury, THE WONDER, Red Lion, daily, 6 even.; & returns 11 morn.

    Richard died of "Natural Decay" 17 May 1872, aged 82 years, at Claypit Lane, Swan Village, West Bromwich. His daughter Nancy was present at his death suggesting he may have been living with her at the time, after the death of his eldest daughter Sarah, but the 1871 census showed the Leppards living on Great Bridge Road. Family lore says that Richard did indeed go to live with Nancy after Sarah's death. He is buried with Sarah at Heath Lane Cemetery, West Bromwich.
Children of Richard Davis and Ann Spittle :
  1. SARAH DAVIS, was born 22 August 1818 and baptized 1 September 1818 at the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew, Wednesbury. She never married, but lived with her father until she died, of "Natural Decay", 20 November 1871, aged 53 years.
     
  2. NANCY DAVIS, born 24 November 1819 and baptized 24 January 1820 at the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew, Wednesbury. She married William Leppard, a Time Keeper in 1871 and born in Stanmore Park, Sussex. A Nancy Sheppard (sic) was present at the death of Richard Davis in 1872, but is most likely Nancy Leppard.
     
      Children:   PHILIP WILLIAM, born about 1847 and is said to have deserted from the British Army. There was much family "hush-hush" when he appeared on his secret visits home;   BENJAMIN R., born in Wednesbury about 1849;   CLARA ALICE, born about 1851 in Wednesbury and married to ----- Thurstins by about 1870. She and a son were living with her parents in 1871;   JOSEPHINE EMILY, born about 1856 in Wednesbury;   ALICE MARY, born about 1858;   PHILADELPHIA born in Tipton about 1861.
     
  3. HARRIET DAVIS, born 13 April 1821 and was married to John Kendrick by about 1843. John was a farmer from Darlaston, but had moved the family to Norton Canes (or Norton under Cannock) a few years later. It was there that their younger children were born and it was there they remained until about 1860 when it seems that John was out of work and the family went to live with Harriet's father in West Bromwich.
     
      Children:   JOHN, born about 1844 at Darlaston and occupied as a Gas Fitter by 1871;   RICHARD, born about 1846 at Norton Canes;   HARRIET, born about 1857 at Norton Canes;   HENRY, born about 1859 at Norton Canes;   EDWARD, born about 1860 at Norton Canes and may have died before 1871.
     
  4. MARY DAVIS, born 29 June 1822 and baptized 18 July 1822 at the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew, Wednesbury. She married Edwin Rodgers, Seed Merchant of Walsall, by license 20 August 1851 at the Parish Church in West Bromwich. Witnesses were Richard Davis and Harriet Kendrick. Edwin was a Methodist lay preacher and said to have been a fine looking man. The family settled in Walsall, at New Street by 1854, around the corner to Fieldgate House by 1871 and a few streets away to Mount Street by 1881. Edwin died in 1868 at age 48 and Mary eventually moved back to West Bromwich, where she died in early 1901, aged 78 years.
     
      Children:   FLORA EDITH A. was born in 1852, and "by 1912, Flora had left the Methodism of childhood and was giving her time to the spread of the newer 'Russel-ism' (Jehovah's Witnesses) and had fully expected the world would end in 1914";   EVERARD AUBREY, born 21 March 1854 at Walsall and married Ellen Adams, by license, 17 October 1883 at St. John's, Walsall. He was occupied as a Leather Currier in Walsall.;   JOHN F., born about 1856 and probably named after his uncle John Frost Rodgers, is said to have run away to sea;   SPENCER H. E. was born about 1860.
     
  5. RICHARD DAVIS, born 16 November 1823 and baptized 7 December at the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew, Wednesbury. He married ELIZABETH LEES 2 May 1846 at St. Philip's, Birmingham, and died 17 May 1875.
     
  6. CHARLES DAVIS, born 13 August 1825 and baptized 18 September 1825 at the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew, Wednesbury. He married about 1860 to Eliza -----, born in Birmingham about 1839. On the 1851 census, Charles was listed as a Licensed Victualler and the head of a household that included his parents, three sisters, two servants and one visitor. In 1861 he was a Coal & Coke Dealer but by 1871 he was occupied as a Gas Tube Merchant, perhaps working with his brother Richard.
     
      Children:   DIANA, born about 1862 at West Bromwich;   BLANCHE, born about 1865 at West Bromwich;   CHARLES, born about 1868 at West Bromwich;   RICHARD, born about 1860 at West Bromwich;   THOMAS, born at the beginning of 1861 at West Bromwich.
     
  7. CATHERINE DAVIS, born 9 February 1830 and baptized the 21st of the same month at the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew, Wednesbury. She was buried the 4th of April 1833 in the parish churchyard at Wednesbury.
     
  8. HENRY DAVIS, born 26 May 1832 and baptized 11 July 1832 at Wednesbury.
     
  9. DIANA DAVIS, born 15 May 1836 and baptized the same day at Wednesbury. The marriage index of the Public Records Office (PRO) in England lists a marriage between Diana Davis and William Henry Hughes during the 4th Quarter of 1851 in the district of West Bromwich. The PRO death index lists the death of Diana Hughes during the 2nd Quarter 1857 in Wolverhampton.
     
  10. JOSEPHINE DAVIS, born 25 January 1842 and baptized the same day at the Parish Church of St. Bartholomew, Wednesbury and married William Henry Hughes, Mine Agent from Wilenhall, on 23 November 1857 at St Peter and St Paul's, Aston, Juxta Birmingham, nearly 40 years to the day after her parents were married there. Witnesses were Charles Davis and Sarah Davis. Josephine, age 18 (sic), was recorded as living in Duddeston. William Henry is said to have been the widower of Diana.
 





R ICHARD DAVIS, the eldest son of Richard Davis and Ann Spittle, was born 16 November 1823, and baptised 7 December at St. Bartholomew's parish church, Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England. Richard was variously occupied as a commercial traveller, clerk, gas tube manufacturer and commission agent. He married, ELIZABETH LEES, the daughter of David Lees and Elizabeth Beddow of Wednesbury, the 2nd of May 1846 at St. Philip's in Birmingham, Warwickshire. The marriage record gives his occupation as Commercial Traveller and shows them both as residents of Birmingham; Richard living on New Street, Elizabeth on Spring Street.
    In March of 1851 the young family was living on Potters Lane in Wednesbury and Richard was a Clerk in a Coach Spring & Axel Works, apparently he had been working for his father-in-law, David Lees, who unfortunately had just died 8 days before these facts were recorded by the census. By 1861 Richard was again occupied as a Commercial Traveller and was absent from the family home at Spinner's End, Rowley Regis when the census was taken. He became a Tube Manufacturer (possibly working for the Wellington Tube Co.) and had prospered over the next decade to where the family was living at Cordley House, at the corner of Dudley Road and Jervoise Street, Swan Village, West Bromwich by early 1871. William Care bought Cordley House, as well as 1, 3 and 5 Jervoise Street, 12 October 1900. Title abstracts, in the posession of Norman Care, show no ownership by Richard Davis. The house was owned by an A. Brooks at the time the Davises lived there. Cordley House was demolished in the Summer of 1983.
    The families fortunes soon changed, however, when Elizabeth died in December 1871 and then Richard died 17 May 1875. They are buried together at Heath Lane Cemetery, West Bromwich, though there is no inscription for Richard on their monument.
Children of Richard Davis and Elizabeth Lees :
  1. ELIZABETH DAVIS, known to her sister Mary's family as Aunt Lizzie Brooks, was born about 1847 and married John Brooks in 1872 at West Bromwich, Holy Trinity. John was perhaps the son of A. Brooks, the owner of Cordley House. John was born in 1840 and died 30 January 1903 at Jervoise Street, West Bromwich.
     
  2. SARAH DAVIS, born circa 1849 and died in infancy.
     
  3. RICHARD DAVIS, born circa 1850 and died in infancy.
     
  4. CHARLES DAVIS, was born about 1852 and died in December 1911 at West Bromwich. His wife' s name was Sarah, and together had at least three children.
     
      Children:   DOROTHY, born about 1891, traveled to the United States with her cousin Horace Whitehouse in September 1911 and stayed with her Aunt Mary's family until she left home. She married --- Klineman, late in life and had no children. Dorothy died 22 July 1994 near Columbus, Ohio;   RICHARD was in Lorain by the fall of 1913 when he got work at a steel plant where his Uncle Walter once worked.;   HORACE, who had not been well for a number of years (1939).
     
       A 1939 letter from Mary Lees Davis Whitehouse to her son Horace mentions Dorothy and husband doing well, and Dick having a travelling job with the Westinghouse Co., and living with him now were his mother and brother Horace.
     
  5. MARY LEES DAVIS born 27 November 1860 at Rowley Regis, Staffordshire. She married WALTER WILLIAM WHITEHOUSE 25 November 1878 at West Bromwich. Mary died 11 January 1953 in Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio and is buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Lorain, Ohio.
 














Mary L c 1876 Mary Lees Davis
c. 1876













M ARY LEES DAVIS was born to Richard Davis and Elizabeth Lees 27 November 1860 at Spinner's End, Rowley Regis and baptised 20 January 1861 at Cradley Heath, Staffordshire, England. She was most likely named after her mother's sister Mary Lees who died in 1853 at the age of 21. Her comfortable early life was dealt a blow by the death of her mother soon after Mary turned 11. It was soon arranged for Mary to attend a small select school for girls in Stourbridge, Greenhill House. In later years, she would often talk about her few pleasant years there, her young friends, her French and music lessons, the Misses Moorhouse who managed the school, the walk to church with the other girls and more.
     Phoenix Street, West Bromwich interstects Dudley Street little more than a block from Cordley House and it was in that neighborhood that Mary met, and later on 25 November 1878 married WALTER WILLIAM WHITEHOUSE at Carter's Green Methodist Chapel, West Bromwich. Their first residence was on Jervoise Street nearly adjacent to her old home.
     They were there but a few years before joining with the Edward Smith family to emigrated to America. The two families arrived in New York 28 May 1881, a time before the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, on board the White Star Line's Germanie. Inside Castle Clinton (in Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan Island) Mary waited with the two boys while Walter stood in line for processing, An officer approached her and asked who she was waiting for. "The man in the light suit" she said. Walter was taken to the head of the line and they were quickly through. Mary had her first taste of bologna and later at Dunkirk, New York, the coffee in a thick cup somewhat offended her taste in fine china.
     The move to Lorain was good for the family. Many opportunities were opened for the next generation. Mary was very active in the Methodist Church and at the age of 75, she fulfilled a childhood dream of selling things from behind a counter by opening a "yarn shop." There she made many friends among the younger folks who wanted to learn to knit. Even after closing the shop, she carried on at home, where people continued to come for their yarn.
     Mary did manage to visit Cordley House again on a trip to England in 1912, since it was occupied at the time by Walter's cousin Emma Betts Care and family. There was a flood of memories, good and bad, but she wrote in her diary about her mother's funeral and her last goodbyes. Years later she had become the matriarch of the Whitehouse clan and on 11 January 1953 in Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio she became the last of that immigrant generation to pass away. She is buried at Elmwood Cemetery, Lorain, Ohio.
Children of Mary Lees Davis and Walter William Whitehouse :










DESCENT FROM RICHARD DAVIS:

VII  
VI  
V  
IV  
III  
II  
I  
Richard Davis married Sarah Appleby.
Richard Davis married Ann Spittle.
Richard Davis married Elizabeth Lees.
Mary Lees Davis married Walter William Whitehouse.
Horace Whitehouse married Emma Rempfer.
Philip Krein Whitehouse married Barbara Anne Lightner.
Paul Lightner Whitehouse married Barbara Lynn Giles.




   
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