The Last Bartlett website

James Dossor and Edith Allen and their ancestors

James Dossor 1873 - 1938 and Edith Allen 1875 - 1947

James Dossor, my great-grandfather, was born on 21st May 1873 in Swaby Yard, Walkergate, Beverley, East Yorkshire and died in Hull in 1938.

Edith Allen, my great-grandmother, was born on 26th February 1875 at 3 Nelson's Square, New George Street, Hull. She died in Hull in 1947.

James and Edith were married on 28th February 1895 in the Sculcoates Registry Office in Kingston-upon-Hull. James was a Grocer's Assistant at the time of the marriage.

They had four children:

  • Stanley, born in 1896. He married Emma Wilkinson (born c1889) in 1914. He was killed in the First World War at the Battle of the Ancre (one of the twelve Battles of the Somme) on 13th November 1916. He was a Lance Corporal in the 13th Batallion in the East Yorkshire Regiment. His name appears on the Thiepval Memorial.
    Emma died in Hull in 1918.
    Stanley and Emma had one son, Stanley, who was born in Hull in 1915. He married Joan Dunstan in Hull on 10th January 1942 and died in Hull in September 1996.
  • Elsie, my grandmother, born on 13th October 1898 in Hull.
  • Wilfred, born on 20th June 1906 in Hull. He married Annie Mawson in Wigton, Lancashire in 1938. He died in December 1988 in Bath, Somerset.
  • Lilian, born 1913 in Hull. She married Edward L. Lonsdale in Hull in 1934.

In the 1911 Census James (37, a Grocer's Assistant) and Edith (36) were living at 6 Albert Terrace, Beverley with their children Stanley (14, a Clerk), Elsie (12) and Wilfred (4).

James' Parents: James Dosser and Rosanna Lawton

James' father, James Dosser (as spelt on the birth certificate), was a Farm Labourer who was born on 18th January 1850 and died in Beverley in 1898.

James' mother was Rosanna Lawton, born on 4th January 1852 at 12 Fourth Line, Sutton Bank, Hull. (Note that "Lawton" is spelt as " Laughton" on James' birth certificate.) I do not know when or where she died.

James and Rosanna married on 20th July 1872 in St. Mary's Parish Church in Beverley.

At the time of the 1881 census James Dosser and his brother William (born about 1854) were lodging with John and Matilda Freebury in Walkers Gate, Beverley, while Rosanna was living with her son James, and Mary Whiting (aged 74), at 2 Handley's Place, Sculcoates, Hull.

Edith's Parents: Young Albert Allen and Hannah Brown

Edith's father, Young Albert Allen, was a Dockside Labourer, born in Spalding about 1836, who died in Hull in 1913. Her mother was Hannah Allen (née Brown), born about 1835 in Hull, who died in Sculcoates, Hull in 1892.

At the time of the 1881 census Young Albert Allen and his wife Hannah were living in William Square, Sculcoates, Hull, with sons Frederick D. (a pupil teacher) and Alfred and daughters Clara and Edith, plus Walter Crane, who was boarding with the family.

Young Albert Allen remarried in Sculcoates, Hull in 1893 after Hannah died.

James' Grandparents: James Lawton and Mary Grantham

Rosanna Lawton's father was James Lawton, a Labourer.

Rosanna Lawton's mother was Mary Grantham.

Edith's Grandparents: Denzel Allen and Susannah Hackett

Young Albert Allen's father was a Labourer, Denzel Allen, baptised at St. John's Church in Peterborough on 28th February 1808. His father was Joseph Allen and his mother's name was Susanna.

Young Albert Allen's mother was Susannah Hackett, who was baptised at St. Peter's Church in Wisbech on 6th May 1804. Her father was Robert Hackett and her mother's name was Elizabeth (surname possibly Wittaker).

Coincidentally, the Serjeants also worshipped at St. John's Church in Peterborough and would have been there at the time of Denzel's baptism. It's a small world!