2 Jan 2025

I had a brief look for Dorothy Davidson’s birth/baptism. This is what I know about her:

• She married George Hall in Bedlington on 6 Sep 1795
• Dorothy was native to either Bowsden, Heaton or Cradham
• Dorothy’s father was James Davidson, a farmer

She probably had these children, at least:

• George, 1799 (1st son), Horton
• James, 1801 (4th son), Bothal
• Mary, 1804 (2nd daughter), Mitford
• Ann, 1811, Heddon on the Wall
• Dorothy, 1815, Heddon on the Wall

I found an entry for a Dorothy in the 1841 census which looks interesting. She was living in Coxlodge Village in the parish of Gosforth (map), about 6 miles east of Heddon on the Wall. Here are the details¹:

Just a few houses away is another Mary Hall aged 20, a dressmaker.

She is also present in the 1851 census, living in Bulman Village, near Coxlodge, with three grandchildren²:

On the previous page, in the same village, there is John Curry aged 46, a widower and husbandman. He is living with his four children and a servant.

Crookham is in the north of the county (map) in the parish of Bowsden which corresponds with what was recorded on the baptism of George Hall in 1799. On the baptism of James Hall in 1801 she was stated to be the daughter of James Davidson, native of the parish of Cradham, which I now think must have been Crookham.

Amazingly she appears to be alive in the 1861 census too, aged 91 living with her daughter Margaret³:

This entry adds some other tidbits of information. Dorothy’s place of birth is recorded as Heaton which was also given in the baptism of Mary Hall in 1804. Also here her daughter Margaret is 64, indicating she was born in 1797, two years after Dorothy married and two years before George Hall, my suspected ancestor. Finally, Bedlington is recorded here as being in Durham not Northumberland. I think this is a quirk by the enumerator. Up until 1844 Bedlington was nominally in an exclave of Durham called Bedlingtonshire

On Ancestry I found two trees for people descended from Dorothy Davidson:

• The Curry tree includes descendants of Dorothy’s daughter Dorothy born 1815 who married Ralph Curry. The Samuel Curry shown in the 1851 census above is this couple’s son and the ancestor of the tree owner.
• The Livingstone tree includes descendants of Dorothy’s daughter Margaret born in 1796 who married Matthew Brown. These are the people Dorothy is living with in 1861.

Neither tree owner show as a DNA match. I have messaged them to ask if they have taken a test. If they have and we are not matches then it’s more likely that I am not descended from George Hall and Dorothy Davidson.

I also obtained Dorothy’s death certificate:

Death in the Registration District of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, 1862, no. 267. Died 30 Oct 1862 at Chimney Mills; Dorothy Hall; Female; age 93; Widow of George Hall, Husbandman. Cause of death: Old Age, certified. Informant was Matthew Brown (signed name); relation: Not known; residing at Chimney Mills, Newcastle; present at death. The death was registered 31 Oct 1862.⁴