Great Great Grandparents
I am gradually researching the lives of my eight great-great-grandfathers. Here’s a summary of who they were, with links to further information for those that I have it. If you have more details or an interest in any of these men, I’d be very pleased to hear from you.
Thomas Phillips
1825-1899
Born in Highworth, Wiltshire, Tom Phillips was a successful brewer who established Phillips Brothers as a beer brand ‘familiar throughout the country’. In 1874 he moved to Newport, South Wales and established Phillips & Sons as a major brewery that operated as a family-run business for the next 70 years. Tom Phillips was also a founder member of Newport Rugby Football Club and Newport Cricket Club and five of his sons played in the rugby and cricket teams during the 1880-90s.
Tom Phillips married his cousin Elizabeth Phillips in 1850. They had seven sons and three daughters. Their son Cliff married Gertrude Laybourne in 1888.
See my book Thomas Phillips and Richard Laybourne for a full biography.
Richard Laybourne
1825-1909
The son of a Yorkshire farmer, Richard Laybourne’s career followed the path of the second industrial revolution. He started as a railway engineer, then moved to Newport, South Wales to be locomotive superintendent of the Monmouthshire Railway. After he this he was a director of the Rhymney Iron Company, and finished his career as owner and manager of the Isca Foundry in Newport.
Richard Laybourne married Emily Harrison in 1857. They had two sons and two daughters who lived into adulthood, and two daughters who died young. Their daughter Gertrude married Cliff Phillips in 1888.
See my book Thomas Phillips and Richard Laybourne for a full biography.
William Henry Colborne
1822-1869
William Colborne was a doctor who joined his father’s long-established practice in Chippenham, Wiltshire.
William Colborne married Mary Bailey in 1852. They had four sons and four daughters, but unfortunately William died at the age of just 47, after which Mary lived as a widow until 1904. Their son George married Louise Parnall in 1894.
Robert Parnall
1826-1896
Born in Cornwall, Robert Parnall was a corn merchant and farmer who lived most of his life in Monmouthshire and Herefordshire.
Robert Parnall married Eliza Mary Jones in 1861. They had three sons and three daughters. Their daughter Louise married George Colborne in 1894.
Philip Pennant Pennant
1834-1910
Philip Pennant was born in Cambridgeshire as Philip Pennant Pearson, but he changed his surname to Pennant when he inherited the estate of his godfather David Pennant at the age of 18. After he married he moved to Clwyd, North Wales and lived the rest of his life as a gentleman on the estate that he’d inherited. In 1870 he built Nantlys, a Victorian gothic mansion that became home to four successive generations of his descendants.
Philip Pennant married Mary Bankes in 1862. They had one son and three daughters. Their son David married Lilla Rogers in 1902.
See a collection of Pennant family paintings and photos from Stephen Pennant:
– Pennant line to 1850s
– Pennants 1850 – 1945
John Thornton Rogers
1834-1900
John Rogers lived most of his life at Riverhill House near Sevenoaks, Kent, which was the home of the Rogers family for over 150 years. He was a soldier when he was a young man and served in the Crimea War.
John Rogers married Margaret Bagwell in 1862. The Bagwell family lived at Marlfield House in Clonmel, Ireland. They had two sons and three daughters. Their daughter Lilla married David Pennant in 1902.
Sir John Stainer
1840-1901
Sir John Stainer was a composer and organist. He was organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London for sixteen years, and subsequently Professor of Music at Oxford University. He composed a range of works, and is most remembered today for his choral oratorio Crucifixion.
John Stainer married Eliza Randall in 1865. They had five sons and two daughters. Their son John (known as Jack) married Ruth Mallam in 1906.
More information here from David Pennant, and here from Wikipedia.
Henry Parr Mallam
1838-1906
Henry Mallam lived in Oxford, but I know very little else about him (yet!).
Henry Mallam married Mary Ann Margetson in 1866. They had three sons and four daughters. Their daughter Ruth married John Stainer in 1906.
See a collection of Mallam family photographs from David Pennant.