Nat Gould

Mary Elizabeth Waterhouse 1837-1915

Mary Elizabeth Waterhouse was born on 8 June 1837 at Mottram-in-Longdendale in Cheshire, the daughter of William Bradley Waterhouse and his wife nee Mary Fletcher. She was baptised on 15 August 1837 at Mottram-in-Longdendale.

On 25 January 1860 she was married at Manchester Cathedral to Ralph Beardmore 1833-1910 (1). He was born in 1833, the son of Ralph Beardmore 1806-1880 who had bought Stanshope Hall and its estate by 1851, which he inherited. By 1871 he was farming 166 acres there, employing three farm hands (3).

Then came a move. When the 1881 Census was taken, Ralph and Mary Elizabeth Beardmore and their family were at Perry Foot in Peak Forest in Derbyshire, where he was farming 762 acres and employing six men. By then they had a daughter (born in 1861 when they were at Stanshope), and a son was born at Perry Foot in 1880 (4). By 1891 however the family had returned to Stanshope, where Ralph Beardmore stayed for the rest of his life.

Ralph and Mary Elizabeth Beardmore had the following children:

Harriet Ann Beardmore. She was born on 8 May 1861. She died unmarried on 21 December 1946, and was buried at Alstonefield.

Mary Beardmore. She was born in 1863. In 1888 she was married to Thomas Wooddisse, who was an ironmonger in Ashbourne in Derbyshire. She died in 1949.

Ellinor Jane Beardmore. She was born in 1867. On 19 February 1889 she was married at Alstonefield to Arthur William Atkinson of St Neots in Huntingdonshire. He was born in 1853, and was a coal and timer merchant in St Neots. They had two children, Dorothy Ellinor Atkinson (born 1885) and Hugh Douglas Atkinson (born 1893). Ellinor Atkinson died at St Neots in 1958 aged 91 years.

Elizabeth Waterhouse Beardmore 1869-1932. She became a teacher. In 1893 she was married to Gilbert Gould of Pilsbury Grange. He was the son of Gilbert Gould 1821-1891.

Ralph Beardmore. He was born on 20 March 1870 at Stanshope, and baptised on 1 May 1870 at Alstonefield. He died at Mayfield in Staffordshire on 21 February 1917, and was buried at Alstonefield where there is a memorial inscription. His wife died on 19 October 1959 aged 80 years and was buried with her husband at Alstonefield.

John Philip Beardmore. He was born in 1879 at Perry Foot, Peak Forest in Derbyshire. he married Florence Mottershead in 1910, and died in 1960.

Emily Annie Beardmore. She was born in 1875. On 24 August 1904 she was married at Alstonefield to Samuel Cooper Stephens, born in 1876 the son of Henry Stephens.

Their father Ralph Beardmore died in 1910.

As a widow, Mary Elizabeth Beardmore went to live with her married daughter Mary Wooddisse in Ashbourne, where she died in 1915 aged 77 years.

(1) The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review volume 208 (1860) page 291 gives a report of the marriage, but incorrectly records the bride's father as W. Bradley Warburton. His correct name was William Bradley Waterhouse. The bride was there said to be his only child, her sister Harriot Waterhouse having died in infancy in 1840. The mistake in the surname was probably carried over from a similar notice which had appeared in the Derby Mercury dated 25 January 1860 as follows: "On the 25th ult., at the Cathedral, Manchester, by the Rev. W.W. Johnson, M.A., Ralph Beardmore, Esq. of Stanshope Hall, Staffordshire, to Mary Elizabeth, only child of Wm. Bradley Warburton, Esq. of Bedlwyn, North Wales."