Showler, Shouler Family History & Genealogy

Shouler Family History

Shouler / Showler Family - Continued

William and Phoebe Shouler had four sons and two daughters, the three elder sons were: John Battams born on November 1st. 1820 in Wavendon (from whom my branch of the family descends), William born in 1822 and Frederick born in 1823. Of the other children, one daughter died tragically almost immediately, and Alfred (born in 1835) died at the age of 16 and was buried in 1851.

Phoebe died on July 30th. 1846 aged 53 and the Northampton Mercury reports her death as follows:

“At Wavendon Cottage, Phoebe, wife of Mr. William Shouler in her 53rd. Year. Much Lamented.”

Soon after her death William left his farm and went to London, where he met and married Emma Thompson, they then went to live at Hoxton, where Emma’s parents lived. They had three sons: Sidney William (born 1852), Horace (born 1854) and Harry (born 1855). In 1853 William is described as a Land Steward in a local directory and he was said to have regularly hunted at Stoke Hammond.

William died on the 8th. June 1856 in Stoke Hammond at the age of 56, of ‘Palsy 6 months certified’ and was buried at Wavendon. His widow Emma was left very poor with three small children on her hands and she re-married to a Mr. West, but was widowed again soon afterwards and eventually kept house for her eldest son Sidney and his wife, until she died on the 21st. April 1894 at the age of 72. All three boys worked on the railways, based at Wolverton and many of their descendents followed suit. However there are no male descendents from these three.

The three sons of William by Phoebe all left the area at around the time of their mother’s death, the Northampton Mercury records all their marriages as follows:

1. "1843 6th May. On the 3rd instant at Melton Mowbray by Rev. J. Oakley, Mr. William Shouler of Woburn Sands to Sarah Brown only daughter of George Brown, gent, and niece of late Rev. Jarvis Brown, Rector of Fenny Bentley, Derbyshire".

2. "1848 16th September. On Monday last the 11th instant at Gretna Green, Mr. John Battams Shouler of Leicester to Edith Margaret Millican estranged daughter of Thomas Millican, gent, of same place."

John Battams Shouler was described as a Draper in Kelly’s 1846 directory and as a coal merchant in White’s 1862 directory. He and Edith had 13 children, several dying in infancy. Although based in Leicester, the various branches of his family spread as far a field as Australia and America.

3. "1853 1st January. On the 30th instant at St. Giles, Northampton Mr. Frederick Shouler of Notting Hill to Miss S.H. Andrews of Northampton."

William Shouler, then aged about 21, placed the following announcement in the Northampton Mercury on 13th May 1843 a week after his wedding:

"Mr. William Shouler Junior respectfully announces to the Nobility, Gentry and Public generally that he has, in compliance with the kind suggestions of numerous friends, commenced business as an Auctioneer and Land Agent, etc.. Woburn Sands May 9th 1843"

White's Leicester and Rutland Directory for 1877 has the following entry:

‘Shouler William, auctioneer, and agent for Provincial Fire Office, Burton street’

Frederick Shouler, the third son of William and Phoebe, was described as an Accountant or Appraiser and married Sarah Andrews in 1852, they went to live in London and in 1871 their address was given as 4 Rillington Place, Notting Hill. Coincidentally this road was later to become infamous through the exploits of the mass murderer John Reginald Christie, who lived at 10 Rillington Place in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Christie murdered at least eight women, burying them in the garden or under the floor-boards etc., the road was re-named Ruston Close soon afterwards, to deter sightseers, and then was demolished completely in the late 1970’s. Christie was hanged in 1953, but only after the husband of one of his victims, Beryl Evans, was tried and hanged for the crime, but later posthumously pardoned.

To continue the story of John Battams Shouler and Edith Margaret Millican, from which our branch of the family descends, they were married at Gretna Green in Scotland, on September 16th, 1848. Edith was born on March 2nd. 1828, possibly in Leicester, and was the ‘estranged’ daughter of Colonel Thomas Millican and a minor at the time of the marriage. The fact that they were married in Gretna Green, that she is described as an ‘estranged daughter’, and was also a minor (under 21), suggests that they may have eloped together.

Gretna Green’s main claim to fame is the Old Blacksmith's Shop where many runaway marriages were performed. These began in 1753 when an Act of Parliament, Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act, was passed in England, which stated that if both parties to a marriage were not at least 21 years old, then consent to the marriage had to be given by the parents. This Act did not apply in Scotland where it was possible for boys to get married at 14 and girls at 12 years old with or without parental consent. Since 1929 both parties have had to be at least 16 years old, but there is still no consent needed. In England and Wales the ages are now 16 with consent and 18 without.

This act led to many ’elopers’ fleeing England and making for the first Scottish village they came to - Gretna Green. The blacksmith’s shop, built around 1712, became the focal point for the marriage trade, it was opened to the public as a visitor attraction as early as 1887.

John Battams and Edith set up as drapers in Hotel Street Leicester, but it is possible that the Draper’s was already being run by John Shouler, before his marriage, because the entry below implies that the shop would have been in existence by about 1846/47.

“The first full-time professional church organist in Leicester was George Augustus Löhr. Born in Norwich in 1824, Löhr received his early music training, as a chorister, at Magdalen College, Oxford before attending the universities of Leipzig and Munich. Assistant to Dr Zachariah Buck of Norwich Cathedral, Löhr came to Leicester in 1845 to take up the appointment of organist at St Margaret's Church, a post he held for forty years. By the beginning of 1846, from his home at 34 Granby Street, he was teaching music, with fees ranging from one guinea a quarter. A few months later, with an ever-increasing number of pupils, Löhr was giving piano and singing lessons from a room in John Shouler's Draper's shop in Hotel Street. One of Löhr's pupils was the daughter of Henry Martin Mills Hanford, the headmaster of the Alderman Newton School and choirmaster of St Mark's. Miss Hanford, who married E. C. Elton, was organist of the church of St Nicholas, from 1868 to 1879, for which she received a salary of £20 a year.”

John and Edith went on to have thirteen children, during their relatively short lives, amongst whom was Percy Smith Millican Shouler (born March 6th.1858), my great grandfather. By 1862, John Battams Shouler had become a coal merchant, owning barges on the Midlands canals, with a base at the Public Wharf, Sydney Street, Leicester. He died on 22nd. July 1869 at the age of 48 and was buried at Welford Road Cemetery, Leicester. His wife, Edith Margaret, survived him until 1874, and she was also buried at Welford Road Cemetery.

Of their thirteen children, Ernest Millican went to Denver Colorado, is said to have married, had three children and died in 1915 at the age of 58. George Henry remained a batchelor, ran a ‘Loan Office’ in Leicester, known as ‘Lockton and Shouler’ at 42 St. James Road Leicester and died in 1932 at the age of 67. Thomas Sidney, a draughtsman in Leicester, married Sarah Elizabeth Hanson Garthwaite, had four children (whose offspring are still extant) and died in 1944 aged 81.