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Miscellaneous documents

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• Miscellaneous documents
  • Miscellaneous documents - Laycock family of Lanchester (Ref: D/X 571)
  • Correspondence of Charles Thomas Laycock, Hairdresser/Perfumer to Frederick James Laycock, Schoolmaster, his brother, 1825-1857 (Ref: D/X 571/1/1-41)
  • Thomas at Glasgow and Edinburgh to Frederick at Church Merrington (Ref: D/X 571/1/1-5)
  • Charles Thomas at Tunbridge Wells, to Frederick at Lanchester (Ref: D/X 571/1/6-8)
  • Charles Thomas at Brighton to Frederick at Lanchester (Ref: D/X 571/1/9-41)
  • Papers of Frederick James Laycock, 1826-1870 (Ref: D/X 571/2/1-44)
  • Diary and family papers (Ref: D/X 571/2/1 & 1/1-10)
  • Correspondence to Frederick James Laycock, 1841-1868 (Ref: D/X 571/2/2-8)
  • Miscellanea of Frederick James Laycock (Ref: D/X 571/2/9-11)
  • Correspondence of Frederick James Laycock, Lanchester to Thomas and Sarah Laycock, Manchester, 1865-1869 (Ref: D/X 571/2/12-39)
  • Correspondence from Frederick James Laycock, junior, Lanchester, to Thomas and Sarah Laycock, 1867 and 1869 (Ref: D/X 571/2/40-42)
  • Correspondence from Polly, Lanchester, to Thomas and Sarah, Manchester, 1869 (Ref: D/X 571/2/43-44)
  • Correspondence and related papers of Thomas Laycock of Manchester, 1856-1878 (Ref: D/X 571/3/1-48)
  • Genealogy Notes (Ref: D/X 571/4/1-8)
  • Newspapers and Periodicals (Ref: D/X 571/5/1-23)
  • Durham (Ref: D/X 571/5/1-9)
  • Manchester (Ref: D/X 571/5/10-15)
  • Scotland (Ref: D/X 571/5/16)
  • South Africa (Ref: D/X 571/5/17-20)
  • Freemason (Ref: D/X 571/5/21-23)
  • Miscellaneous (Ref: D/X 571/6/1-12)

Catalogue Description

Papers of the Laycock Family, 1825 - 1968

These papers relate primarily to Frederick James Laycock (1800-1870) who was a schoolmaster at the endowed school in Lanchester (1832-1870) and, prior to that, in Kirk Merrington (1826-1832). He was also postmaster in Lanchester from 1843. Many of the papers are correspondence between Frederick and his relatives, and also between other family members.

Background to the family.

Frederick Laycock was born in Glasgow in 1800, the second of five children to Thomas and Harriot Laycock. Harriot was Thomas' second wife, and they probably married in the 1790s. Their fifth child was born six weeks after Thomas died. It seems likely that Harriot died within the next two or three years and that the children were brought up in Falkirk by their grandmother. Exactly what happened next is unclear. In 1819, the family appear to have suddenly scattered (possibly the grandmother died). In the 1820s, Frederick ended up as a schoolmaster in County Durham, having previously been employed as a clerk. He lived first in Kirk Merrington, where he married Ann Hodgson in Bishop Middleham in 1826. In 1832 they moved to Lanchester where they lived for the rest of their lives.

Frederick, his parents and siblings, all of whom are referred to in the correspondence.

Thomas Laycock (1763-1810) = Harriot Laycock (?-c.1812?)
Harriot (1799-1837)
Frederick James (1800-1870)
George (c.1802-1835)
Mary Ann (c.1805-?)
Charles Thomas (1811-after 1861)

Harriot married Drum Major William Liddle in 1820, and at some stage they went to South Africa. She died in the Cape in 1837 aged 38.
George became a sailor, aged 15, and died at sea in 1835 after various voyages and battles.
Mary Ann went into service but later was married to a sailor.
Charles Thomas (known as Thomas) was apprenticed to become a hairdresser and lived in Edinburgh, Tunbridge Wells, and London, before settling in Brighton where he had a 'Hair Dressers and Perfumiers' shop. He married Elizabeth Linn in 1840, and possibly died in London in 1866.

D/X 571/1/1-41 are letters kept by Frederick that his brother Thomas wrote to him between 1825 and 1857

D/X 571/2/1-11 includes, amongst other papers, a diary that Frederick kept for a couple of years when living at Kirk Merrington.

Frederick, his wife and children

Frederick James Laycock (1800-1870) = Ann Hodgson (1803-1874)
Harriet (1827-1828)
Ann (1830-1830)
Thomas (1832-1879)
Harriot Ann (1834-1857)
Mary (Polly) (1838-1872)
William George (1841-1877)
Frederick James (1845-1914)

Frederick and Ann had two children who died in infancy. Then came Thomas, after which they moved to Lanchester where the remaining children were born.
In adulthood the eldest son, Thomas, worked in the cloth trade and settled happily in Manchester with a wife and family.
Daughter Mary (or Polly as she was known) had an illegitimate daughter, Annie, in 1866. Annie was born in Manchester, and lived with Frederick's eldest son Thomas until at least 1871. She must have come to Lanchester at some date after this as she died of T.B. in Lanchester Poor Law Union Infirmary in 1879.

D/X 571/2/12-39 are letters from Frederick to his son Thomas in Manchester between 1865 and 1869. As well as family and domestic concerns there are references to events and people in the Lanchester area.

After Frederick died, in 1870, Ann is recorded as schoolmistress, and son Frederick James junior as schoolmaster on the 1871 census, but they were given an ejectment summons to leave the schoolhouse in the couple of years that followed. [Perhaps related to the change of management from parish to school board around 1870.]

D/X 571/2/40-44 are letters from Frederick James junior and Polly to their brother Thomas before and after their father died.

After their mother died in 1874 things became acrimonious between the three brothers.

D/X 571/3/1-48 contains documents detailing action for repossession of the schoolhouse, and attempts by the sons to gain recompense for a kitchen and yard (for which they drew a ground plan) which their father had added to the schoolhouse. These files also contain letters sent between the three brothers in which they fall out over money.

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