PLIMMER great grandparents

James PLIMMER

(1854 - 1893)

He was the 10th off-spring out of 12 to James PLIMMER and Martha PLIMMER (nee LEIGH); born at Bonny Well, where his LEIGH grandparents (market gardeners/farmers) had a small holding in Pennington near Leigh in Lancashire. (That site now appears to be a waste water treatment works and was down the lane from where I stayed with my friend Michael, for a brief spell.)

James was one of four siblings who survived beyond 22 and one of two to survive beyond 30, most died before their first birthday.

By 1857 the family appear to have moved away from the small holding, to reside in the Tyldesley area where James senior returned to work as a coal miner. 

In the 1861 census James appears aged 6 with his family; sadly he lost his mother in the previous year and by 1865 he and the surviving siblings have been orphaned.

In 1866 his sister Jane married Joseph Allan GORNALL in West Derby and I pressume, from consulting the 1871 census, that he must have moved there with Jane and her new husband. He is aged 16 and listed as a collier. His other surviving sibling at this time, appears to have moved towards the Salford area.

Sadness reigned again for James in 1873, as he witnessed the death of his sister Jane GORNALL aged only 27 years, in Old Swan, Liverpool. She appears to have suffered for 6 months with TB.

The GORNALL family appear to have been established bakers and I guess he may have worked for them. With his brother-in-law Joseph GORNALL remarrying and relocating, I suspect he may have needed to change direction with his career by the time of the 1881 census.

His first marriage to Alice Margaret LUCAS took place in 1876 and his occupation is a shopman. He is a book-keeper on the birth certificate of his first child, later in that same year. 

Showing Mount Vernon Street and Lennox Street

In 1881 he is living in Pringle Street (Tuebrook) West Derby, with his wife and children.

Sadly for James, his first wife Alice died 8 years later, in 1889. I have yet to locate her burial plot.

I offer my thanks to him for marrying again in 1890, to Ellen (Nellie) SWIFT (born in Halsall) at St Mary's, Edge Hill, Liverpool; witnesses: Thomas GRIFFITHS and Mary METCALFE.

In 1891 I find James with his new wife Ellen and three off-spring from his first marriage in Edge Lane, West Derby. The short marriage between James and Ellen produced Lily Gertrude and Harold Edward PLIMMER before the early death of James in 1893, aged 39. 

Showing Pringle Street by Sutton Street

I have yet to locate his burial plot.

Ellen (Nellie) PLIMMER (nee SWIFT)

(1864 - 1950)

She was born in New Street, Halsall to James SWIFT, a blacksmith master and Ellen SWIFT (nee BLUNDELL). 

Sadly she and her fellow siblings were orphaned in 1870. Luckily I found her in 1871 with her grandfather, William SWIFT (also a blacksmith, employing two men) and aunt, Elizabeth PARK still in New Street.

By 1881 Ellen is living at Clock House Farm, Bickerstaffe with her uncle, Robert SWIFT and aunt, Mary SWIFT. Her occupation is listed as a domestic, general servant.

I do not know much of Ellen's early life or when she moved into West Derby. The only other link to West Derby is in 1881; here we find her grandfather mentioned above, residing in Chalmers Street, West Derby and his occupation is recorded as a gentleman.

She married the widower, James PLIMMER in 1890 and is residing with him in 1891 in Edge Lane, West Derby where she later had two off spring. By 1893 she is a widow herself and had the two infants to bring up on her own; she does not remarry. 

 I wonder if she was so heart broken that she decided not to marry again and dedicated her life to her children. 

I do wonder how she coped, for in 1901 her occupation is listed as a cook in the post office while resident in the Kensington area of Liverpool.

The Post Office, Kensington, Liverpool (now demolished)

Via a post on the rootschat.com message boards, I have been informed that, "Gore's Liverpool Directory for 1911 has: Plimmer, Mrs Ellen, Shopkeeper, 34 Fairview place"
and
"There was a Mrs Ellen Plimmer at 45 Nickleby Street in 1914." 

I understand she lived for a spell with her son and his first family but later lived with her daughter and her family. This later period of her life is a bit of a mystery. She died at the ripe old age of 85 in a Sefton Park hospital, her residence indicated as that of her son-in-law, Thomas Arthur SPRATT.

 I have yet to locate her burial plot.