HENRY HODGSON, who was born during the reign of George III (Mad King George) married MARY SHIMMENS on October 1, 1795 in Whitby, Yorkshire.
Mary was the daughter of JOHN SHIMMENS and ELIZABETH RIGG. Shimmens is a name of Scottish origins though Mary was christened in Lythe, Yorkshire.
HENRY and MARY’s eight children were born between 1795 and 1806.
ANN HODGSON, b. August 6, 1795, WILLIAM HODGSON, b. February 21, 1798, JOHN HODGSON, b. December 19, 1799, JANE HODGSON, b. May 28, 1802., HENRY HODGSON, b. January 22, 1804 in Scarborough,THOMAS HODGSON b. October 22, 1806 in Scarborough., OLIVER b 1811 and RICHARD b 1814.
Nothing further is known of Oliver and Richard.
Their eldest child JOHN, born December 19, 1799, married a girl called SARA and they had five children, three girls ( Sophia, Susannah and Mary) and two boys, Thomas and Zebulon, all born between 1818 and 1829.
John's youngest son RICHARD, born January 28, 1814 married a MARY BLENKHORN 1833 in Whitby, Yorkshire.
RICHARD and MARY produced eleven children for the Hodgson name, between 1833 and 1850, though not all survived.
There were two Richards born and dying within years of their birth at the Cragg in Whitby. There were also four girls (Mary, Susan, Elizabeth and Martha) and five surviving sons.
HENRY HODGSON, (b. 1837, Whitby) emigrated to Australia sometime before 1869. One can only wonder what adventuring spirit had him moving so far away by the time he was thirty. Perhaps he too was a sailor and visited Australia and fell in love with the place. He settled in Geelong where he married and produced his own family. Henry died in 1888 in Kew Lunatic Asylum, Victoria, Australia and his descendants still live on that continent.
Nothing further is known of their other sons THOMAS HODGSON, b. 1847., CHARLES HODGSON, b. 1849, JAMES HODGSON, b. 1850 & RICHARD CHARLES HODGSON, b. 1854.
Of Henry and Mary Shimmens other sons,Henry and Thomas
HENRY HODGSON baptised January 22, 1804 in Scarborough, married MARTHA THOMPSON on January 1, 1825 at St Marys, Whitby, Yorkshire. Witness to his wedding was Irvine Anderson.
They lived at 70 Cragg in Whitby.
Henry took to the sea and became a pilot, working in Whitby alongside his brother Thomas.
He and Martha had seven children, five of them being daughters,MARTHA, ELEANOR, ANN, MARY & MARGARET born between 1827 and 1837.
Eleanor became a milliner, Ann became a house servant and Margaret married twice. Her first husband was surnamed Nightingale and her second was named DAVID HUGHES who was a shipwright.
In addition to the girls, there were also two sons, HENRY HODGSON & WILLIAM HODGSON born in 1844 & 1847 respectively. Nothing more is known of these two boys.
Henry’s younger brother wasTHOMAS HODGSON baptized in Scarborough, on the 22nd October 1806. Thomas had a varied career, starting out as a carpenter in 1824, at the age of 18 and progressing through raiserman at 38, to mastermariner and Captain of the SS Streonshall by aged 42. He is also known to have sailed on the whalers that went out of Newcastle and Whitby until the late 1800s.
Thomas was born in Scarborough but his parents were Whitby folk and by the time he married JANE PEARSON in 1824, the family were back in Whitby. The couple were married in St Mary’s Church, set up on the top of the hill overlooking the steep sided, picturesque fishing town.
Jane Pearson's date of birth is uncertain but the 1851 census shows her age as being 44 which would put her birth at around 1807.
A great many of the menfolk of Whitby were sailors of one sort or another and Thomas, like most of them, was an experienced mariner who had journeyed on the whalers as well as the local fishing smacks. He was a qualified pilot, along with his older brother Henry and his name is logged down as master of various ships that sailed from the North East coast. He was also the master of the SS Steonshalh, a paddle steamer that was Whitby's first pleasure steamer. It had a dual purpose however, as it was also used by the harbour authorities as a tug. In summer it would carry passengers between Whitby and Hartlepool or between Whitby and Scarborough. The vessel itself was built in Whitby at the H&G Barrick shipyards, on a site now covered by the marina development. Registered in Whitby and launched in 1836, she became grounded on rocks at Redcar in August 1852. Whether Thomas was master of her at this time I have no idea but I hope not! The shop was refloated and continued in service until she ended her days at Newcastle being used as a collier.
Along with the portrait of Capt Thomas Hodgson, shown at the beginning of this page, my father also inherited an oil painting of a paddle steamer, which was said to be the Streonshalh itself. Sadly that painting was damaged beyond repair many years ago.
Both Henry and Thomas Hodgson lived on The Cragg, Whitby. The Cragg stood just behind where the RNLI lifeboat museum now stands at Whitby harbour. Judging by old accounts and photographs, the area was one mass of tenements and yards, where families lived in tiny rundown properties, all on top of each other. In this day and age they would be considered slums and even then they were not the type of housing that many aspired to. It seems a strange address for a skilled seaman and someone who was in possession of a portrait of himself, ( shown above). There are, in the wider family, copies of a book that was written about sailing and which the author dedicated to Thomas Hodgson. All documents indicate that Thomas was literate but none of his children were, with their various marriage certificates marked with an “X”. HOwever, it might not be too surprising that an educated man was not ensuring his children were also literate as often, in those days, the education of the female of the species was considered not of any great importance.
Thomas and Jane had five children, all born in Whitby - MARY, HARRIET, JANE, THOMAS & HENRY. Thomas is believed to have died before 1851 and nothing further is known of Henry. The daughters, however, all married, producing descendants who are still in contact today.
MARY HODGSON was born February 9, 1825 in Whitby. She married ANDREW READMAN, a shipwright, on June 2, 1845 in the Parish Church , Whitby, son of WILLIAM REDMOND. Their address in 1846 was the Wesleyan Church House, Church St, Whitby.
The marriage was witnessed by Thomas Hodgson (her father ?) and Ralph Greenbury and shows both the witnesses as being literate. Mary, however, made her mark whilst Andrew was able to provide a signature.
What I find curious about this is that whilst Thomas was literate, none of his children were and I am surprised that someone with those skills would deem it unnecessary for his children to learn.
Mary and Andrew themselves had seven children
THOMAS READMAN, b. March 29, 1846, Whitby, married a JANE WICKING and had three boys, Thomas, Andrew and Stanley. .
ELIZABETH READMAN, b. November 5, 1848. She married HENRY GEORGE WICKINGS a tailor.
MARY JANE READMAN, b. April 21, 1850.
MATILDA READMAN, b. April 20, 1852. Matilda married an EDWARD ENOCH ANDERSON and produced eleven children
HARRIET READMAN, b. October 26, 1855
ANDREW READMAN, b. May 30, 1858 He married a SARAH JANE HEAD in 1875 and produced three sons. Finally there was
EMILY READMAN, b. June 17, 1860.
Thomas Hodgson's second daughter was HARRIET HODGSON and was born October 10, 1827. She married someone surnamed BENNISON and they had one child MARGARET BENNISON who, in later years, was found living with her grandfather on the Cragg.
The third daughter was JANE HODGSON who was born 1831 in Whitby. She married twice, first to ISAAC DOBSON, a sailor and fisherman, on February 10, 1848 at St Marys Whitby. They lived on the Cragg and after Jane, her mother, died Thomas Hodgson came to live with them.
ISAAC DOBSON was killed in 1866 and a few years later Jane married another Isaac, ISAAC JACKSON, a bricklayer from Warwickshire, (probably before 1869) and they do not appear to have had any children.
At some stage after the death of her first husband the family left Whitby and moved to Stockton.
Nothing further is known of Jane though the fate of her nine children can be seen on the Dobson pages.
