My forbears

My mother's mother's mother with her family

Both my parents belonged to Birmingham families, solid middle class civically minded citizens of the manufacturing classes. My mother’s family lived in Handsworth and my father’s in Edgbaston. My mother’s father was a master jeweller working for the family firm, as his father and grandfather had done before him. My mother’s mother’s father was a watchmaker, who was the son of a manufacturing jeweller.
There was glass manufacturing on both sides of the family, and also steel buckle makers, silk manufacturers, a cooper, a rope maker, a sword maker, and a ship insurance broker. (My husband was in engineering insurance and inspected many a ship’s boilers) Further back there were also merchants, clothiers, haberdashers, and grocers and still further there are yeomen, gentlemen and knights. Nothing very exceptional, but nothing to be ashamed of either - as far as we know.
Back in the early 18th century there was an “Unorthodox churchman” who was one of my 4th great grandparents, and about fifty years later one of my 3rd great grandparents is named as a “Minister of the New Church”, or to give it its full name “The Church of the New Jerusalem”. This was a religious body founded by the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg, who was a Swedish scientist, religious teacher and mystic. Both my parents’ families were still following a tradition of non-conformism when I was christened, my father’s as Unitarians, and my mother’s as members of the New Church, into which I was baptised.

My great grandfather on my mother's side, in addition to being a manufacturing goldsmith and jeweller, was an active politician in Birmingham and a Justice of the Peace, and also took a great interest in artistic and literary institutions. And I can tell from the books, ornaments and furniture that I have inherited, that my family on that side was much influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement – not surprisingly as they were craftsmen themselves. My maternal grandfather’s mother drew and painted, and passed on her talent to my mother’s sister. Unfortunately it bypassed myself and my brother. My father’s mother was active in the Women’s Suffrage movement.