Category Archives: Religion

Ronald Ragsdale Sargison 1910 to 1987

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Ronald (a member of the Sargison South Cave and beyond tree) was born on 10 November 1910 in Nottingham, England to parents Percy John Sargison (1876-1952) and Lucy Ann Ragsdale (1878-1951). At the time of the 1911 census Percy was described as a draper and outfitter and the family were living at 95 Sherwood Street, Nottingham. By 1939 Percy and Lucy had moved to 29 Ribblesdale Road and Percy was a credit draper and outfitter. In contrast their son Ronald was a Clerk in Holy Orders, single and living with Clarence and Elizabeth Beardall at Woodlands, Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire.

The following timeline for Ronald’s career has been constructed using a combination of primary sources (education, newspaper articles, passenger lists, probate records and electoral registers) and secondary sources. I was only able to access online resources which I subscribe to so have not been able to utilise clergy related occupational sources like Crockfords Clerical directory.

Table 1: Timeline for Ronald 1930-1951

Ronald married Olive Thompson (1910-1979), a widow, in Q4 1951, in Nottingham. Olive’s first husband, Frederick Thomas Thompson (1907-1951), had died on 28 June 1951. Olive had three children with her first husband, two of whom accompanied them when they went to Guyana in 1956. After their marriage the following table shows what happened next to Ronald’s career and his new family.

Table 2: Timeline for Ronald and Olive 1962-1964

The ship Ronald, Olive and family travelled to Guyana was called the Arakaka. It had been built in Teeside and was launched in 1946 as a cargo steamer. On its voyage in 1956 it carried 12 passengers and was operated by the Booker Line.

Secondary sources suggest that after his return to England, Ronald was the vicar of churches in Balham, and Hawthorn and Trimdon, both in County Durham. Ronald and his wife Olive moved at some point to Dulverton Hall in Scarborough, a home for retired clergy, which was replaced by a new property in 2002. Olive died in Q3 1979 and Ronald on 18 October 1987. Both their deaths were registered in Scarborough.  

I am interested in knowing more about all the people mentioned in this blog post. Do contact me if you have any further information which you are willing to share.

Bibliography

Carrington nr Basford. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/NTT/Basford : accessed January 2021.

Dulverton Hall, Scarborough. https://dioceseofyork.org.uk/news-events/news/dulverton-hall-one-of-the-cofe-pension-boards-best-kept-secrets : accessed January 2021.

England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed January 2021.

FindmyPast British Newspaper Collection. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed January 2021.

Goodrich, Revd Derek, H. (1994) A Short History of St George’s, Georgetown, Guyana. Georgetown: Revd Derek H. Goodrich.

Kneesall. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/NTT/Kneesall/ : accessed January 2021.

London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed January 2021.

Passenger Lists Leaving UK, 1890-1960. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed January 2021.

Ronald Ragsdale Sargison. https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/11014151 : accessed January 2021.

Tees Built Ships. http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/ : accessed January 2021.

UK, British Army Records and Lists, 1882-1962. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed January 2021.

UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed January 2021.

UK, University of London Student Records, 1836-1945. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : January 2021.

West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed January 2021.

Hallgate Zion Independent chapel in Cottingham, Yorkshire

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Whilst I was working on the Sargison tree which, includes people in the parishes of Eastrington, South Cave and Cottingham, I came across a couple who had had three children baptised in the Hallgate Zion Independent chapel. The children of Thomas Sargison (1773-1839) and Mary Kitchin (1774-1857) were as follows:

  • Jane (1803-1834) baptised on 10 Oct 1803.
  • Sarah (1806-1871) baptised on 3 Sept 1806.
  • Thomas (1811-1846) baptised on 18 March 1811.

At the time of their baptisms the congregation worshipped in a pre-1800 Presbyterian chapel located in Hallgate, Cottingham. The Presbyterian congregation had become Independent after the death of the Arian Minister, Edward Dewhirst, in 1784.   The chape was replaced in 1819 by a new building (Zion United Reform Church) which is now listed on the Historic England website.

Cottingham in the early 1800s was considered a large village with upwards of 2000 inhabitants. Although Thomas was a labourer, he was listed in the Poll Books of 1830 and 1832. Certainly in 1831 the largest occupational group in the census were agricultural labourers and it is likely that Thomas worked on the land until his death in 1839.

By 1841 the population of Cottingham had grown to more than 2500 people. Two new streets had been built near the Hallgate chapel: George Street and Crescent Street. In the 1841 census Mary and two of her children, Sarah and Thomas, were living in George Street with another possible member of the extended family, Mary Sarginson aged 45. All three ladies were described as laundresses. Mary’s son Thomas was aged 30 but had no occupation recorded against his entry. The following extract from the 1855 OS map shows the position of the two new streets and the Hallgate chapel.

Extract from OS Map (1855) Yorkshire 225

By the 1851 census Mary’s son Thomas had died and it was just Mary and her daughter Sarah who lived Crescent Street. Mary’s occupation was laundress and Sarah “at home”. Mary died in 1857 and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s, Cottingham. Her daughter Sarah was then left without immediate family and she was admitted to the North and East Riding of Yorkshire Lunatic Asylum in Clifton (near York), Yorkshire on 10 November 1860. A series of records from the Sculcoates Poor Law Union, catalogued at the East Riding Archives, show that she was regularly recorded in their returns of pauper lunatics from 1861-1871. The asylum census recorded Sarah as a charwoman from Cottingham in both 1861 and 1871. She died in the asylum on 5 May 1871 with her age given as 66. She was the last member of her immediate family.

I am interested in knowing more about the people mentioned in this blog post. Do contact me if you have any further information which you are willing to share.

Note: the map used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.

Bibliography:

Cottingham. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ERY/Cottingham : accessed December 2020.

Cottingham. https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/979 : accessed December 2020.

Elrington, C. R. ed. (1979) Victoria County History: A History of Yorkshire, East Riding Volume IV. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 61-84.

OS (1855) Yorkshire 225 Map. https://maps.nls.uk/ : accessed December 2020.

Zion United Reform Church. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103393 : accessed December 2020.