Will the Real John and Johanna Lee Please Stand Up?

Burgeoning Bristol was a British Isles melting pot in the mid-1800s. The industrial revolution stoked manufacturing, which pulled workers from Southwest England, nearby Wales, and Ireland. Yes, migration is both a pull and push matter, and the Irish potato famine did some pushing. Bartholomew Lee, born about 1836 in Ireland, found work in Bristol as a railroad porter. The Lees first appear in Bristol in the 1851 Census of England. Bartholomew, already a porter at age 14, was living with his parents, John and Hannah in the St. Augustine The Less district of Bristol (see 2 September 2016 post). In 1857, he married Eleanor Price, daughter of a "dairyman" from Wales. They had a daughter and four sons before Bartholomew disappeared around 1870.

Bartholomew's final fate is unknown. Tracking his parents in Bristol also proved problematic. In 1851, John was 46 and Hannah was 43.

A search of the 1861 census found two candidates for John and Hannah:

St. Augustine, Bristol

John Lee, 54, born Ireland

Johanna, 46, born Ireland

St. Paul’s, Bristol

John Lee, 50, born Ireland

Johanna, 44, born Ireland

The first John Lee was close to the right age for Bartholomew’s father, but the first wife Johanna was too young. Based on age, the second couple was an even poorer match. Yet, as the table below illustrates, the second couple, living in St. Paul’s, probably were the parents of Bartholomew for two reasons:

- They had a son John, age 17, who was a good match for Bartholomew’s 7-year-old brother from 1851.

- The Lees in St. Augustine had children Margaret, 14, and James, 11, who did not appear as siblings of Bartholomew in 1851.

Looking back, the St. Augustine’s family was clearly the same family living on Waterloo Court in St. Augustine the Lessor in 1851. This John and Johanna Lee probably lived in the Bristol City Workhouse at Stapleton in 1871 and 1881.

The 1861 ages of Bartholomew’s parents were probably incorrectly reported or recorded. John and Johanna Lee lived on Earl Street in the St. James district in 1871, with recorded ages appropriate for the couple in 1851. They are clearly the correct Lees because their 7 year-old grandson John, born Trowbridge, was very likely the son born to Bartholomew Lee and Eleanor Price at Melksham in 1867. Trowbridge is about 5 miles from Melksham and on the same rail line.

The two families could be easily confused because both John Lees were mason’s labourers in 1851, both had wives named Johanna, both had daughters named Margaret, and both ended up living in public workhouses. As the table shows, the St. Augustine Lees, with their sons Edward and Maurice, were living in the workhouse at Stapleton in 1871. They were from Limerick. Bartholomew Lee’s parents were from Cork. His mother probably died before 1881, when widower John Lee was living in the Barton Regis Union Workhouse.

Bartholomew’s apparent London-born brother Stephen has not been located after 1861. His sister Margaret likely married, but is also unaccounted for after 1861. A London birthplace for Stephen is a bit of a mystery.

Two John Lee Families in Bristol

1851	1861	1871	1881	1891
33 Host St. St. Augustine the Less Bristol [1]	8 Penn St. St. Paul’s Bristol [2]	3 Earl St. St. James Bristol [3]	Barton Regis Union Workhouse Bristol [4]
John Lee, 46 Mason’s laborer, b. Ireland-Cork	John Lee, 50 laborer b. Ireland	John Lee, 66 Mason’s laborer b. Middleton	John Lee, 66, widr Mason’s laborer b. Ireland
Hannah Lee, 43 b. Ireland-Cork	Johanna, 44 laundress b. Ireland	Joanna Lee, 65 b. Castle Martyr
Margaret, 19 b. Ireland-Cork
Bartholomew Lee, 14 Porter b. Ireland-Cork	[married, living in Weymouth, Dorset]
John Lee, 7 b. Ireland-Cork	John, 17 b. Ireland
	Stephen, 3 b. London
		John, 7 Grandson b.Trowbridge, Wilts
3 Waterlooo Court St. Augustine the Less Bristol [5]	3 Lower Lamb St. St. Augustine Bristol [6]	Bristol City Workhouse Stapleton Bristol [7]	Bristol City Workhouse Stapleton Bristol [8]	Bristol City Workhouse Stapleton Bristol [9]
John Lee, 43 Laborer (mason’s) b. Ireland	John Lee, 54 laborer b. Ireland	John Lee, 66 Laborer b. Limerick, Ire.	John Lee, 76 Laborer b. Ireland
Johanna Lee, 35 b. Ireland	Johanna Lee, 46 b. Ireland	Johanna Lee, 56 Charwoman b. Limerick, Ire.	Johanna, Lee, 69 b. Limerick, Ire.	Joanne Lee, 76, wid Charwoman b. Ireland

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[1]1851 Census of England, John Lee household.

[2] 1861 Census of England, Gloucestershire, Bristol St. Paul’s, John Lee household.

[3] 1871 Census of England, Civil Parish of St. Philip and Jacob, Clifton Registration District, Gloucestershire, p. 6, Eleanor Lee household, Record Group 10, Piece: 2556, Folio: 39, GSU microfilm roll 835264, digital image viewed online at Ancestry.com, January 2008.

[4] 1881 Census of England, Civil Parish of St. Philip and Jacob, Clifton Registration District, Gloucestershire, p. 28,Eleanor Lea household, Record Group 11, Piece 2498, Folio 115, GSU micrrofilm roll 1341602, digital image viewed online at Ancestry.com, January 2008.

[5] 1851 Census of England, Gloucestershire, Bristol St. Augustine the Less, p. 43, schedule 199, John Lee household, HO 107, Piece 1,951, GSU film 87,351.

[6] 1861 Census of England, Gloucestershire, Bristol St. Augustine, p. 6, schedule 28, John Lee household, RG 9, Piece 1,24, GSU film 543,857.

[7] 1871 Census of England, Gloucestershire, Stapleton, Bristol City Workhouse, p. 33. no. 19, John Lee, RG 10, Piece 2,575, GSU film 835,271; Johanna Lee is enumerated separately on p. 24.

[8] 1881 Census of England, Gloucestershire, Stapleton, Bristol City Workhouse, p. 26, no. 22, John Lee, RG 11, Piece 2,508, GSU film1,341,605.

[9] 1891 Census of England, Gloucestershire, Stapleton, Bristol City Workhouse, p. 21 (stamped 121), no. 12, Joanne Lee, RG 12, Piece 1,993, GSU film 6,097,103.

 Note: It has not been my intention to present these blog posts as research reports. My intent has been two-fold: as an exercise in organizing my what I think I know and as a way to share information with family members. My practice has been to loosely identify sources in my narrative. However, I am now realizing that researchers who encounter these blog posts deserve more complete citations, and I am experimenting with ways to include footnotes. So far, this has been problematic, especially when pasting and copying from Word documents. I will keep experimenting, but it may slow my publication schedule. I have anticipated that everything I post in this blog will in due time appear in a fully documented research report; that make take some time.