5 Jan 2025
Over the past couple of days I’ve been straightening out the Learmouths. They appear to have resided in Hartley and were fishermen for several generations. I’ve taken it back as far as Stephen Learmouth (1675-1731) where things start to get very fuzzy. There are several overlapping families of Learmouths active at that time and some people have Stephen marrying three times: (1) Jane, (2) Alice Mitchell in 1699 and (3) Margaret Stuard or Stuart in 1724. I’m fairly confident in four of his children: John in 1700, William in 1703, Peter in 1707 and Joseph in 1710 (my ancestor). All of these men were probably fishermen and all appear to have been lost at sea in two separate incidents: Stephen, John and William in 1731 and Peter and Joseph in 1743. I have no details on these deaths at all, but am going off of other people’s unsourced research.
I’m now moving back down the tree to the Richardsons. I’m looking for the birth and death of my 5x great grandfather John Richardson. He married Ann Learmouth in Earsdon in 1798 where they were both recorded as being of that parish.
However on the baptism of his son Joseph in 1799, his daughter Margaret in 1801 and is son William in 1806 he was recorded as being a native of Allendale. In 1804 at the baptism of his son John he was recorded as being a native of West Allen Chapelry.
West Allen Chapelry is in the far west of Northumberland, enclosed by the parish of Allendale. It’s close to the borders of Cumberland and Durham, 36 miles west of Earsdon.
I presume he died some time between 1806 and 1812 when Ann Learmouth married Christopher Simpson.
Looking through the Bishop’s Transcripts for Earsdon around that time I found the following in 1806:
John Richardson of Billy Mill, Tynemouth par, pitman, found dead Nov 16th, bur 18th, age 33 years1
I wonder what “found dead”, instead of died, implies.
I’m not fully convinced this is him, mainly because he was recorded as living in Tynemouth. However my John was a pitman and this date fits with what I expect. None of his children’s baptisms state his abode, so perhaps he lived in Tynemouth and they baptised their children in Earsdon? Also, why would a resident of Tynemouth be buried in Earsdon unless they had ties with the parish? He could have been working in Tynemouth parish while his family lived with relatives in Earsdon parosh.
Billy Mill (map) is only 2.5 miles south of Earsdon and 4 miles south of Hartley where Ann was baptised and later died. Earsdon village is quite close to the south border of the parish however Christ Church, the parish church of Tynemouth is only a mile away from Billy Mill.
There are no other matches for John Richardson in Earsdon between 1806 and 1812
There were some other Richardsons in the records, which I am briefly noting here:
- 24 Apr 1809, Burial of William, son of William Richardson and Eliz Wilson, of Cowpen Colliery, 6 months
- 1 Jun 1809, Burial of Mary Boyd, late Richardson, from parish of Bothal, wife of James Boyd, age 56
- 9 Aug 1812. Burial of Isabella Richardson of Earsdon Grange, relict of John Richardson, Miller, age 75 years
