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The Smail family continued: A business is born ... Isabella’s residence address in 1871 is given as ”Grocers shop” ”Front Street” and Isabella’s occupation is given as ”Grocer & Provision Dealer”. Isabella is now a businesswoman and the family is clearly living over the shop where they even have room enough to accomodate a boarder. Even his occupation is given as ”Grocer” and he may be employed by Isabella. I notice that even the 17 year old son of the next door neighbour is working as a ”grocer’s apprentice” and could also be employed by her, in which case things seem to be going well for Isabella whose social ranking has now progressed from employee to employer. Ten years later in April 1881 only Isabella and John Robert are recorded at the address. Isabella is now 52 years old and her son John Robert is 23 and still single. He has followed his mother into the grocery and provisions business but no mention is made of his sister Dorothy Ann. I can’t find her either working- or visiting away from home in the census. However, she does reappear at the address in 1891. Prior to this however, on 10 APR 1888, Isabella dies,aged 59 years and it is her headstone on the photo which Maggie posted above. It’s quite an elegant stone, with a lot of detail in the design which is in strong contrast to that of her parents, reflecting perhaps the progress made from her humble beginnings as a nursery maid to successful Bedlington businesswoman. In 1891, following Isabella’s death, John Robert 33 yo is still living at the same adress. He is still running the grocer’s shop and is now head of the household. His sister, Dorothy Ann 30 yo, has returned but appears not to have any occupation. However, they now have a resident domestic servant, 17 year old, Bedlington born, Lily Whitfield a further sign of the family’s increasing social status. In 1901 Dorothy Ann, 40 years old and as yet unmarried, and John Robert, now 43 and still in the grocery business continue to reside above the shop. Only John Robert is working and they no longer have a servant. However, there is a new family member because John Robert has finally married. I can see from his marriage record that he married at the age of 41 to Jane Isabella Grey, 14 years his younger, in the first half of 1899 in the village of Rothbury, Northumberland. They do not appear to have any children at this time. First in 1911 can we see Dorothy Ann working. She is still living with her brother and she appears to have joined him working in the business and the family once again has a servant – 20 year old Mary Ann Elizabeth Dixon of Sleekburn. That, however, is not the only change in circumstances. John Robert and Jane Isabella now have a family of four children ranging in age from 1 to 8: Isabella Smail born abt. 1903. Died 26 SEP 1994 aged 92. Isabella died as Smail and seemingly never married. Edwin Smail born abt. 1904. Died 20 JAN 1982 aged 78 years. I can find no record of any marriage. He is buried in Bedlington together with his sister Isabella. It is their headstone we see above, posted by James. Catherine Dorothy Smail born abt- 1910. Died 1990. She also died as Smail and appears not to have married. The above three children all appear to have joined their father in the grocery business. James tells us that all three were working in the shop in the 1950s. The fourth child, George Grey Smail born 17SEP 1905 died 2 MAR 1969, was a well educated man and was admitted 1930 as graduate B.Sc. to the List of Electrical Engineers in Hebburn on Tyne. In 1939 he was living and working in Guildford as ”Assistant engineer (Technical) and the following year married Adeline Beethem in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. He appears to have later moved to Scotland, where he died, and is remembered on his grandmother’s headstone in Bedlington. With no available census records after 1911 it is impossible to say if the unmarried children of John Robert and Jane Isabell Smail continued to live together above the business started by their grandmother. The house was certainly big enough. The 1911 census describes it as having 7 rooms all, or at least most, of them would have been above the shop. Could it be possible that the Smail family now owned both parts of the building? I wonder if Isabella Smail was the first businesswomanof any rank in Bedlington? She was certainly a tough woman. I'm impressed.

Answers to last week's Halloween Special: 1.Count Wampyr (Stoker's initial plans for Dracula markedly differ from the final novel. Had Stoker completed his original plans, a German professor called Max Windshoeffel "would have confronted Count Wampyr from Styria") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula. 2. The Puritan Pilgrims 3. Wet sheets 4. Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve, The Feast of the Dead 5. Monster Mash 6. A coven 7. All Hallow’s Eve 8. Red eyes 9. Rumania 10. Mary Shelley 11. Samana or Herne the Hunter 12. Saint 13. Vines 14. Any thing from the first four lines of verse: ”Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.” 15. Long-legged beasties 16. Scream 17. The fairies might steal you away. 18. Ghost Town 19. A witch 20. Celts New quiz tomorrow.

The archives at Woodhorn have a list of pre 1852 monumental inscriptions of St Cuthbert's Church by J. Jewitt in 1977. It contains all gravestones and plaques bearing an inscription dated 1851 or earlier. No photographs unfortunately.