Below is the tree of James Hoodless, which contains a story of struggle, determination and sacrifice, for all that it is compact and ends so soon. His legacy and that of his wife and family are honoured and remembered here.
James-H-1860-1Timeline
- James Hoodless is born April 1859 at Dalston, near Carlisle to Thomas and Jane Hoodless. He is the first child of their marriage, although Jane has two son’s from her first marriage to William Graham.
- James grows up in the rural district of Hawkesdale. Only 6 miles south of Carlisle it was lush countryside dotted with farms and workers cottages. The area was also home to notables such as the Bishop of Carlisle, Harvey Goodwin residing at Rose castle, and rich landowners such as Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Salkeld at Holme Hill and William Graham At Hawkesdale Hall.
- 1881 James has struck out west to the small village of Ainstable where he is working as a servant at Common House Farm for Henry Bird a farmer of 171 acres.
- In 1891 James is still a farm servant. He works for Charles Armstrong a farmer and hotel proprietor at Currock, just south of Carlisle. His father has died the year before. His mother is not traceable in the 1891 Census but his younger brother Frederick, still in Three Crowns Lane where their parents lived, has moved next door and is boarding with a woman called Elspeth Livingston. James’s future wife. It’s a great feeling in researching genealogy when you come across a piece of documentation like this which offers a bonus insight into how the couple met. I imagine James was visiting his brother from time to time, talking about how their mother was coping and the aftermath of their father passing, and met Elspeth. She is a single woman in a Victorian society who has had a child at the age of 25 and has kept the child and found a means of supporting themselves on her own by taking in boarders. Ten years earlier Elspeth had been a servant at Netherby Hall the seat of the powerful Graham family. One could speculate about how she came to be with child while working there, not an uncommon situation for female servants to find themselves in.
- 1892 James and Elspeth have a son William Blaylock Livingston, who adopts the name Hoodless a wee bit later on.
- Three years later in January 1895 James and Elspeth marry at Carlisle. Brother Frederick goes on to marry Eleanor Livingston, Elspeth’s sister a couple of years later.
- 1897 they have a second son Thomas James Hoodless.
- October 1898 they have a daughter Elspeth Jane Hoodless.
- 1901 James is a Driver for a county trading company and Elspeth owns a grocers shop on the Kingstown Road north of the city of Carlisle.
- The census specifies that the grocers shop is a separate dwelling next door to where the family are living and that it is owned by Mrs Hoodless. The photo below is taken in Kingstown close to where the Hoodless family were living in 1901 and in the 1939 Census it is described as Kingstown Post Office, Main Road. So the grocers shop may have transformed into a Post Office over time and may be this actual building.
- 1911 James Hoodless is working as a labourer at nursery gardens. Elspeth and daughter Mary have made the shop a success and Thomas the younger son is 14 years old and working as their messenger boy. William is 19 and apprenticed to a painter. Elspeth is 12 years old and at school.
- World War I breaks out in 1914 and both sons enlist. William and Thomas lose their lives in France which must have been an unbearable tragedy to the family. Their stories are told in more detail here and here.
- In March 1939 James Hoodless passes away at the age of 79. Later that year the family appear on the Census still running the grocers and Elspeth is described as the sub-postmistress.
- On 24th April 1943 Elspeth Hoodless (nee Livingston) passes away leaving £2037 in her will to Elspeth Jane Taylor (nee Hoodless) her youngest daughter who is living with them at the time. A testament to the determination of this woman who started her life with such challenging and difficult circumstances.