Nat Gould

Joseph Phillips 1846-1924

Joseph Phillips was born in 1846 at Warslow in Staffordshire, the son of William Phillips 1815-1873 and his wife née Hannah Phillips 1823-1888 of Clough Head in Warslow.

When the 1861 Census was taken he was aged fifteen living with his parents and working as a lead miner, but by 1871 he had moved to 85 Rose Street at Hanley in Staffordshire where he was employed as a coal miner.

On 18 May 1868 he had married Ellen Landon (born 1848) the daughter of William and Caroline Landon of Shelton near Hanley in Staffordshire (1). They had the following children, both baptised there on 22 September 1872:

Mary Ellen Phillips. She was born in 1870 at Hanley.

John William Phillips. He was born in 1872 at Warslow.

Their mother Ellen Phillips nee Landon died in 1879 aged only 28 years.

By 1881 their widowed father was living with his children in the household of James Phillips at 4 Baskerville Road in Hanley. Both men were coal miners (2).

Signature on 1911 Census Return

His later life is uncertain, but Joseph Phillips probably remarried in about 1892. A man of that name and age, born in Warslow, was recorded in the 1911 Census Return as a widower living in Warslow with a daughter Ann Phillips aged 24 years and working as a labourer. He had been married nineteen years then and had thirteen children, of whom nine were then living and four had died.

Joseph Phillips died in 1924 aged 78 years.

(1) The marriage has been stated as having taken place at Hope in Staffordshire, but that location is unknown. It was not Hope in Derbyshire not Hartington in the same county. There was no church at Hope near Alstonefield in Staffordshire.
(2) In the 1881 Census Return Joseph Phillips was recorded as living in the household of his brother James Phillips, who was there stated as being 55 years of age and born at Bottom House in Staffordshire. That is a few miles over the moors from Warslow on the Ashbourne-Leek road. But if that age is correct he would have been born in about 1826, and so could not have been the brother of Joseph Phillips 1846-1924. However as both the children of Joseph Phillips were also living with them it would seem that the age of James Phillips is wrongly recorded in the 1881 Census Return.