The CLOSE/CLOSS Blog is moving! The Guild of One-Name Studies has established a blog programme, and this blog will be transferred there very shortly. All posts from this site will be copied over, and future posts can be accessed at https://close.one-name.blog .
Posts
Discovered – the truth about John CLOSE (1847-1922)
Early years In the course of my CLOSE one-name study I came across the family of Robert Richard CLOSE (1819-1892), from Hexham, Northumberland, a schoolmaster who married Sarah FRENCH (1818-1886) in Allendale, Northumberland on 11 October 1841. Their first three children – John (1842-1846), Thomasin Ann (1844-1889) and another John (1847-1922) – were all born in Allendale. This second John CLOSE is the central character of the story. It would appear from the 1851 census that around that time Robert moved to a new teaching job just a few miles away in Hunstanworth, Durham. He was enumerated there boarding with a farmer’s family, whereas Sarah and the two surviving children were still living in Allendale. However, by the early part of 1852 the family were evidently reunited and settled in Hunstanworth, since three more children – Mary Elizabeth (1852-), William Backhouse (1855-1934) and Dorothy Hannah (1855-) were all born there. No doubt the family would have been proud of their