A MISSING THREAD - BRYAN WALTER BATES

This is the story of a link I hadn't realised was missing.  However, re-reading the story of the Bryan and Smith Families that I put together a few years ago, I discovered that I hadn't found the missing child of Hester Bryan and William Bates. Walter Bryan Bates is the subject of this story. 

After my break from my family history, I decided to relook at the family of my mother. Her father's mother, Sarah McDowell, died when her children were small. Sarah was married to James Fraser. I've never been able to find a birth record for her.  Her four older siblings were born in Northumberland but at some time after that her family moved to Tipperary.  It is, I think, likely that she was born in Ireland and the birth records were destroyed in the big fire at the Four Courts, Dublin, during the Civil War. 

Sarah's younger sister, Agnes, was married to Alexander Fraser, James' older brother. The 1901 and 1911 Census records show that Agnes was born in Ireland. 

Sarah and Agnes had a younger sister named Sophie. She married Walter Bates. 

A few years ago, I discovered a connection to a Bates family that was related to my grandmother Victoria Alice Maud Smith, known as Alice. Alice's paternal grandmother, Frances Bryan, had a younger sister, Hester. Hester married William Bates. Frances and Hester grew up in Baltrasna, County Meath. 

For many years my mum knew that Frances and her husband James Smith who lived at Greenfields, Swords in County Dublin had four children.  John William was Alice Smith's father. Frances and Rachel were the two daughters of the family and Thomas, known as Uncle Tommy to mum, was the other boy.  However when I visited the graveyard at the Church of Ireland in Swords I found that on the headstone of Frances and James were the names of a couple of other of their boys; Walter Bryan Smith and Edward Hazlewood Smith who were young men when they died. It was through the death notice for Walter Bryan Smith, printed in several newspapers of the time, that I discovered the maiden name of Frances Smith and the name of her father; Walter Bryan of Baltrasna, Co Meath. 

Walter Bryan and his wife, Lydia (surname unknown as yet), had six girls. Frances was a middle child and her youngest sister was Hester. Hester married William Bates, who was born in Nottinghamshire. 

In 1871 William was listed in a newspaper as having attended a meeting of the Smithfield Market Defence Association.  He was named as William Bates, Esq, Baltrasna, Meath. 

At the end of my Bryan and Smith Family story I wrote:

A decade later, the 1911 Census shows William but not Hester listed, and three of their children living with their father; Catherine (“Kate”), Jane and John all still single.  

 

Hester and William’s son John appears to have spent some time with his grandparents in Granby, Nottinghamshire, as a John aged 7 appears in their 1871 Census form and later he is also there aged 17 in the 1881 Census.  In both he is listed as a grandson born in Ireland. However he is back in Ireland for the 1901 Census as detailed above. 

 

Lydia O Bates aged 10 born in Ireland appears in the 1871 English Census living with John Bates (who appears to be Williams brother, therefore Lydia’s uncle) and his wife Sophie. There were a number of servants also in the house so it would be unlikely she was working there.  Perhaps she was a companion to Sophie or going to school there. By the time of the 1881 Census, John Bates (“late farmer, widower”) is back with his parents along with two young children (probably his and Sophie’s).  Lydia is not shown with those English families.  A little more searching might find her in England or back in Ireland. 

 

No trace has yet been found of their other child.  Perhaps they went off to live with another family member. 

I have now found that missing child, Walter Bryan Bates, in a most unexpected place; married into the McDowell family.