Lancashire ‘calling’
years of age.
John Henry was born but died in May 1866 at St. Barnabus Hospital.
Ada Marie Ridgway (1867-1923) married William Edmund Wright in Sydney, Australia, in August 1908, her husband being born (and where they both eventually died) in Newcastle, New South Wales, a coastal resort just north of Sydney.
In his Will, Edmund Wright left specific legacies and bequeathed the remainder of his large estate to be divided equally between the Rev. Bulpit’s four grandchildren – Lois and John Biddle and Pat and Bob Purden – and all the sons and daughters of his brothers.
Emily Florence (1869-1957) married Leonard Frederick Biddle and they had two children, Lois (18941978) and John (1895-1988) – two of the Rev. Bulpit’s four grandchildren.
Beatrice Jane (1871-1896), who was living in Southport, certainly in 1891, was working as a nurse in a Birmingham hospital when, at the age of just 25, contracted smallpox off a patient and sadly died.
Edith Anna Hesketh (1876-1947), was the only one born here (in Banks). She married Birmingham-born Herbert Edward Purden, a manager for a metal merchant.
The 1911 Census shows 70 year-old retired William (and 68 year-old wife Ann – having been married for 47 years) visiting King’s Norton to see his 34 year-old daughter Edith and 37 year-old son-in-law, Herbert, and his two other grandchildren, Pat (6) and Bob (7).
These were Edith and Herbert’s two children, Patrick and Robert – Robert
Hesketh Purden became an engineer and invented electric horns and wipers for windscreens (and other windows) for the Lucas engineering company, and died in South Africa aged 67.
Patrick Herbert Bulpit Purden became a chartered accountant and limited company secretary for a copper works, and later moved to Toronto, Canada, where he died aged 68.
Business dissolved
Meanwhile, the Bulpits – William, his mother Sarah and his son Frederick – were all part of a business in the mid-1860s, as tin plate and Britannia metal workers, but the firm obviously turned sour because on December 14 1869 Birmingham’s Commercial Listings reveals the ‘dissolution of the partnership in Newhall Street’ so she, or they, went her separate ways.
By 1871 Sarah was a 59-year old widow now living with her 30-year old son William (now a acience teacher) and his family, but she was in fact recorded as a tin plate worker, employing nine men, nine boys, eight women and 20 girls – with a total workforce of 46.
William and Ann were now at 88 Shadwell Street, in the Eccles district of Birmingham, with their four children – Frederick (4); Ada (3); Emily (1); and two-month old Beatrice.
Also there is William’s brother, Walter (19), and one general servant, 15-year old Sarah Laughton.
The Bulpits didn’t hang around much longer, as they then decided to move to Lancashire – which is where we will pick up the story NEXT WEEK.
Bulpit manuscript
This feature has been specially extracted from the manuscript ‘The Life & Times of the Rev. W.T. Bulpit,’ researched, written and compiled by local historian Geoff Wright and genealogist Susan K. Stacey.