Person:Frances Slingo (1)

Frances Elizabeth Slingo was born on August 10, 1846 at Wellow, Somerset, England the fourth of six children of stone mason John Slingo and his wife Mary White. What little evidence we have suggests that she spent her childhood in Wellow. In 1861 Frances’s mother died and deprived of her mothers influence she bore an illegitimate daughter, Anne Janet Slingo in 1868.

On December 25, 1869 at St. Julian’s, Wellow, Frances married the widower John Selway. John, a coal-miner was about twenty years older than Frances and had been previously married to Eliza Eaton for almost twenty years. Elizabeth had died on January 7, 1869 at Single Hill and the marriage appears to have been childless. Was John looking for a new wife with a proven child bearing ability and Frances a father for her daughter? We may never know.

John and Frances produced 7 children at approximately 2 year intervals, Thomas, Frances Elizabeth, Maria Eliza, John, Kate Louisa, Mabel and Mary Louisa. After 21 years of marriage John Selway died on March 21, 1891 at Single Hill, Wellow. Later the same year, eldest son Thomas married Rosa Biggs the daughter of Daniel Biggs and Harriet Stevens

In 1892 daughter Anne Janet Slingo married Ernest George Nock in Durham. Whilst Ernest was born at Tuckham, Middlesex his mother was Ellen Porch from Wellow and he had lived there for several years. In the same year they produced Frances first grandson, Victor Nock at Castleford, Yorkshire. In 1893 the couple had returned to Somerset and at Hemington produced grand daughter Ellen.

Daughter Maria Eliza married her cousin Frederick William Selway the son of William Henry Selway and Janetta Slingo in 1895.

On April 1 of the same year at Bedwelty Registrater Office, Bedwellty, Monmouthshire, Wales, Frances remarried. Her new husband was Frank Gait also from Wellow. Unlike her first husband, Frank was some 25 years her junior and a contempory of eldest son Thomas. Frank was the son of William Gait and Sarah Ann Durbin.

Son John Selway had moved to the Durham coal fields, where in 1899 he married a local girl, Emma Wilsherthe daughter of Charles Henry Wilsher and Frances Ann Douglas. Ason, Albert Selway, was born the following year at Helmington Row, Durham.

On February 13, 1900 at Wellow, Kate Louisa Selway married Ernest John Drewitt. The marriage was witnessed by her sister Mabel Selway.

Frank and Frances Gait moved north and can be found at Castleford, Yorkshire in 1901 but were later to move further north to County Durham where Frances died in 1922.

1. ↑ England. 1851 Census Returns for England and Wales. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.).

   Class HO107 Piece 1940 Folio 86 Page 5

   
2. ↑ England. 1861 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.).

   Class RG9 Piece 1683 Folio 70 Page 6

   
3. ↑ England. 1891 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.).

   Class RG12 Piece 1930 Folio 121 Page 14

   
4. ↑ General Register Office. England and Wales. Civil Registration Indexes. (London, United Kingdom: General Register Office).

   Bath Registration District, Quarter 3, 1846, Volume 9, Page 46.

5. ↑ General Register Office. England and Wales. Civil Registration Indexes. (London, United Kingdom: General Register Office).

   Sedgefield Registration District, Quarter 1, 1922, Volume 10a Page 279, Age 75.