Our Carr Forebears 1710-1913

Emma’s Forebears

Her parents: Deodatus Carr Jr. 1813-1890 and Ann Robinson 1825-1913

Ann Robinson was baptized on 14 February 1825 in Birmingham, where she married Deodatus Carr on 8 December 1847.  Deodatus was baptized in the Church of England but was probably raised in the Congregational Church on Carr’s Lane where his younger siblings were baptized.  His siblings were Edward 1807; Ann 1809, Emma 1815, Jane 1815; and Mary 1823. Son of a pharmacist and grocer, he lived in the commercial center of Birmingham, but the family had moved to Edgbaston, and his father became ‘gentry’ before he died, when Deodatus jr was 26.

Deodatus began work as a gilder, but for most of his life he followed in his father’s footsteps as a grocer, though he was also an agent for such items as sugar, once described as a commercial traveler, and elsewhere a general provisions merchant.  His final census entry in 1881 records him as a grocer still at 68, and Ann as grocer’s wife.

After their marriage in 1847 Deodatus and Ann lived initially on St. Mark Street, about two and a half miles from the Bull Ring.  In 1851 they were recorded there with their first child, William, aged 2.  Their first three children, the boys, were all born in Birmingham, but when Ada, the first of their three girls, was born in 1858 the family lived in Handsworth, probably Hunters’ Lane (now Hunters’ Vale).  They remained there through 1861 but by the 1871 census Deodatus and Ann had moved into the family home at 88 Gough Road, Edgbaston, with two sons – William, also a grocer, and Datus, a clerk – and their three daughters.

Deodatus died on 10 September 1890, at home in Gough Road.  He left an estate of £6,223.12.8, sufficient that Ann was able to live “on independent means”. Her parents were William and Ann, but I know nothing more of them.  Ann died in December 1913.

Her paternal grandparents: Deodatus Carr 1783-1840 and Elizabeth Vise 1783-?

Deodatus, senior, was one of eight children of Thomas Carr and Ann Wisdom, of Beckley, a few miles north of Oxford.  Deodatus born 13 February 1736, had one sister, the first-born child, and six brothers.  He was the fourth of the seven boys.  Several of the brothers became farmers with their own property, but Deodatus moved to Birmingham at the age of sixteen, where he was apprenticed to become a druggist, with Richard and William Allen, in 1799.

Six years later he married Elizabeth Vise. Elizabeth was baptized on 6 February 1783 at St. Matthew’s, Walsall, the daughter of Michael and Ann Vise, of Walsall.  Deodatus and Elizabeth had six children.  The first two, Edwin and Deodatus jr.,  were baptized at St. Martin’s in 1807 and 1813, but in 1809 Ann Julia was baptized in St. John the Baptist Church in nearby Deritend. Then, it seems, Deodatus and Elizabeth joined the non-conformists, a movement that was sweeping the country at that time.  In 1815 Emma was baptized at Carr’s Lane Independent Church, as were Jane (1829) and Mary Elizabeth (1823). The Carr’s Lane Church was just a short distance from the Bull Ring where the family lived.  Deodatus and Elizabeth lived in or near the Bull Ring, where Deodatus established his business as a druggist and a grocer, with shops both in the Bull Ring and on nearby New Street.  The Bull Ring address is given as #11 and #33 in 1825, and on New Street both #5 and #11 appear.   There are entries for both Deodatus Carr and for D. Carr and Co.   The first entry I have found in city directories was for 1815, and the last in 1823.

He was a man of some status, apparently, for he was a bailiff (1815), and a juror from at least 1818-1820.  He was a juror in the Hemlingford Hundred, a court held every three weeks that dealt with ‘small matters’.

Some of Deodatus’ business dealings involved transfers of real estate in Birmingham.  The first set, dated from September through December 1807, concern property in the Bull Ring.  A second set, dated September 1820, concern dwellings and a malt house in Snow Hill. When the city decided to build a market hall, to replace the open market, they began buying properties around the ring and by 1832 had all those they needed to proceed.  Deo’s 1807 dealings may have put him in a good position here.  Yet in May 1826 Deodatus, grocer, dealer and chapman (merchant), was declared bankrupt, and maybe again, in 1841.

Despite the bankruptcies, Deodatus had moved the family to 88 Gough Road, Edgbaston, and he was considered gentry by the time Deodatus died, on 10 September 1840.  Ann and the daughters remained in the house, which remained in the family through (at least) 1911.

Her paternal great-grandparents: Thomas Carr 1736-1786 and Ann Wisdom 1749-1820

Thomas was born 13 February 1736 in Beckley, Oxfordshire, the child of Robert and Mary Carr. Ann’s parents were William Wisdom (1710-?) and Jane Stone (1718-?), of Cumnor, Berkshire.

Thomas and Ann were married 19 December 1771, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. But Thomas had been married previously, his first wife, Elizabeth, having died in 1768, possibly in childbirth. They had eight children, one daughter and seven sons, one of whom died in infancy.

They were Ann (1773-1837), Edward (1774-1848), Henry (1776-1849), John (born and died in 1777), Charles (1778-1849), James (1782-?), and the one younger sibling, Daniel (1785-1855).

When Thomas died in 1786, aged 50 in Beckley.    He bequeathed the bulk of his estate to his second son by his first marriage, William, and his second wife Ann, “as long as she keeps herself a widow”, while two other sons, Richard and Thomas were left one and ten guineas respectively. 

Her great great grandparents were Robert Carr and Mary, no dates; William Wisdom 1710-? and Jane Stone 1718-?

I have no more information on them at this time.

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1861-1935 Finding Emma Jane Carr Macnee