Henry Culbert/Cuthbert and Anne Allen were our paternal great-great grandparents - their daughter, Rebecca Culbert/Cuthbert married Robert Stewart, and Rebecca and Robert Stewart were the parents of our grandfather, Bertie Stewart.
Henry Culbert, a carpenter like his father Henry before him, had a sister, Maria Culbert, and this post concerns her and her husband, John Thomas Gale.
Maria Culbert, was born to Henry, a carpenter, and what seems to be Roberta or Rebecca- the handwriting in the register was very difficult to decipher. She was born in Corraclevin, a townland near Monegall, Co. Offaly, in 1840, but the baptism seems to have been entered into the register at a later date, possibly 1848. Maria had a younger sister, Elizabeth Culbert, also born in Corraclevin two years after Maria in 1842, but about whom I've yet to discover more.
Henry Culbert Senior, a carpenter, seemed to move around the Offaly/Tipperary area, bringing the family with him.
Maria Culbert married John Thomas Gale in the parish church of Donohill, Tipperary, close to the town of Cashel, on May 21st 1861 where, I presume, John, a teacher, was working. His father, William Gale, was also a schoolmaster. The witnesses to the wedding were Henry and William Culbert, who could be anyone but were most likely Maria Culbert's brothers.
John Thomas Gale had been born in about 1839 in Queen's County/Laois, but the family had moved into the neighbouring county of Carlow at some stage. Although John's father, William Gale, was a teacher by the time of his son's marriage in 1861, he seems to have been a farmer at one stage, before becoming a scripture reader, which was a type of Protestant missionary as far as I know.
Maria and John Thomas Gale spent the first few years of their marriage in Tipperary, before moving to the Kenmare/Cahirciveen area of Co. Kerry, and then finally settling in Limerick city.
In 1879, a John Gale and his wife, Alice Gale, ran a 'Ragged School' in Bowdey's Lane near Roches Street. This was one of a number of schools in Limerick which catered to the education of orphaned Protestant children, and which also took in Catholic orphans in the hope of converting them.
This caught my attention, merely because our John Thomas Gale was noted in the 1885 Limerick register of electors as living in Glenworth Street, the premises in question being a ragged school. Roches Street and Glentworth Street are adjacent to each other. (John and Alice Gale may well be my John Thomas Gale and Maria, but wrongly noted.)
The Gale family lived on either Musgrave Street, or adjacent streets, for much of their married life. John, a teacher, was working in 1911 for Hassetts Ironmongers, the business owned by his brother-in-law, Thomas Hassett.
John Thomas Gale died in Limerick in 1913. His obituary appeared in The Limerick Chronicle of 11th September 1913.
'Death of Mr. T.J. Gale - We regret to record the death, which took place at his residence, 2 Grattan Villas, on Tuesday night, of Mr. John Thomas Gale, an old and highly-respected citizen. He had attained the ripe old age of 78 years, and having been in failing health for some twelve months back, his demise was not unexpected. Mr. Gale, by his kindly and courteous manner, won the esteem of very many friends in Limerick, who have heard with regret of his passing away. Sincere sympathy is tendered to his sons, who are well known and esteemed in postal and commercial life in the city, and the other members of his family. The funeral took place this afternoon for St. Munchin's and was widely attended.'
Maria Gale, née Culbert, died in 1911 and her obituary appeared in the Limerick Chronicle on december 2nd 1911.
'Funeral of Mrs. Gale: The funeral of the late Mrs. Maria Gale, wife of Mr. John Gale, who passed away on the 30th ult., at her residence, Grattan Villas, in the 68th year of her age, took place on Sunday last, when at two o'clock the remains were removed for interment at St. Munchin's Cemetery. The funeral was very large and representative, and was ample evidence of sympathy and respect.
The chief mourners were : - Messrs. William, Thomas, Harry Gale (sons), T. Hassett, brother-in-law, W. Ormston, J. Burrowes, H.Eakins, (sons-in-law), George Hill, Norman Gale, Harry Gale, C. Burrowes, F. Ormston, R. Hill (grandchildren), H. Hasset, J. Hasset (nephews).
Amongst the general public were : - Rev. J. T. Waller M.A., A.J. Eakins, George Wilson, J. Tuite, J. Leddan, K. O'Brien, P.R. Malone, H. Powell, T. O'Dwyer (Bansha)...Mr. Norman Gale, grandson of the deceased, presided at the organ.'
(The list of mourners was too extensive to transcribe, so the above is merely a taster. None of her own family, ie the Cuthberts of Offaly and Dublin, attended. Her older brother, our great-great grandfather, Henry Cuthbert, had died in Dublin in 1903.
The Children of John Thomas Gale and Maria Culbert:
According to the 1911 Census, the couple had nine children, of whom only eight survived.
1) Lizzie Gale was born in Tipperary in 1863 and was the first-born child of John Thomas Gale and Maria Culbert. She married George Hill, a builder who'd been born in Dundalk, in Limerick in 1885.
Lizzie and George Hill were living in Ballinacurra, Limerick city, on the 1901 census. Their first child, Annie Maude, had been born in Limerick in 1886. Three years later their second child, Lizzie, was born in Belfast, as was Edith in 1891 and George in 1893. Evelyn was born in 1896 in Dublin, and the youngest, Alice, was born in Limerick city in 1900. Robert Hill was born two years later in about 1902.
By the time of the next Irish census, Lizzie had been widowed and had moved with her unmarried children to St. John's Avenue, Limerick, which runs adjacent to Mulgrave Street and Grattan Villas where her parents and siblings were all resident. The older children were all working - Annie Maude was a bookkeeper, Lillie/Lizzie was a milliner, Edith was a typist, George a carpenter like his uncle Henry Cuthbert and his grandfather, and Eve/Evelyn was a typist.
2) The following year, in Limerick, John and Maria Gale had Alice Maria Gale on 26th May 1864.
Alice Maria married an English blacksmith, Edward Cooke, in Limerick in 1883. He had been born in Leiston, Suffolk in about 1856.
The couple had a daughter, Alice Maria Cooke, in Limerick in 1884, before moving to 13 Gaywood St, Southwark, London, where a daughter, Vida Adelaide Cooke, was baptised on July 8th 1888, in St. Jude's, Southwark.
A son, Newton Edward William Cooke, was born on April 30th 1894, and baptised in the Jesus Chapel in Enfield, Middlesex. The parents' address was given as 81 George's Rd., Forty Hill.
Evan George Maxwell Cooke was born at the same address on June 21st 1896.
Harold John Wink Cooke was born at Baker St., Enfield, on July 21st 1901 - his father, George Cooke, was an 'engineer R.S.A. Fr.'
Their daughter, Vida Adelaide Cooke, worked as a school teacher prior to her marriage in 1919 (in Edmonton, Middlesex) to a William N. Gale. This was William Norman Gale, her cousin, the son of her uncle, William Schomberg Gale.
From the records:
Edward Cooke, born 1856, died at Edmonton, Middlesex, in March 1933.
Alice M. Cooke, born 1864, died at Edmonton, Middlesex, in either 1935 or 1941. (There were two entries
with the same name.)
Newton Edward William Cooke died on 13th August 1948, at 120 Plymouth Rd., Penarth, Glamorganshire, Wales. His widow was Hilda Laurie Cooke.
3) Rebecca Gale was born in Limerick to John and Maria Gale on 25th May 1866.
Rebecca Adelaide Gale married, in late 1896 in Limerick, James Francis Burrowes, who had been born in 1868 in Limerick to Charles Burrowes and Mary Anne Caffrey. The couple lived at 21 Mulgrave Street in 1901 with their two young children, Charles Edward and Mary Adelaide.
In common with other members of the Gale family, by 1911 they had moved around the corner to St. John's Avenue. Rebecca and James Francis lived at No. 10. James Francis Burrowes was a postal worker.
By 1911 they had another four children - Kathleen Francis aged 9, James Fitzgerald Burrowes aged 8, Rebecca Olive/Olave Burrowes aged 6 and John Francis Burrowes aged 3. The 1911 Census return states that they had 7 children, however, which means two were missing from the home in 1911. The eldest, Charles Edward Burrows/Burrowes was visiting his two aunts at 5.1 Mallow St., Limerick - they were Mary R. Burrows, a maternal nurse, and Margaret D. Burrows. The parents of Mary, Margaret and James Francis Burrowes were Mary Burrowes and Charles Burrowes - this Charles Burrowes had been born in Burrenure, Co. Clare. Present at James Francis Burrowes' funeral in Limerick in 1927 were other siblings - Moses Burrowes, and two sisters, Mary and Gretta.
Charles Edward Burrowes later emigrated to New York 1925 and worked as a chauffeur in Queens. He was naturalised on May 25th 1944, and gave an address at 161-03 29th Avenue, Flushing, New York.
He married a woman named Nora (possibly Nora Fitzgerald - there's a record of a Charles E. Burrowes marrying a woman named Fitzgerald in Birmingham, UK, in September 1924), and they had three children in the States. Charles was born in NYC in 1926, David in Connecticut in 1927, James in NYC in 1928 and Mary in New York in 1930.
4) William Schomberg Gale was born in Limerick on 20th July 1868. (William Schomberg was William of Orange's right-hand man at the Battle of the Boyne.) William S. Gale married a Dublin woman, Mary Charlotte Thomas, in 1893 in Limerick.
(Mary Charlotte Thomas was born on 10th June 1869 to Mary Jane Rankin and Alfred John Thomas, a bootmaker of Donnybrook, Co. Dublin. Mary Charlotte had siblings galore - William John Gideon Thomas, born 1867; Alfred Charles Thomas born 1871; Susan Georgina Thomas born 1873.; Willilam Thomas born 1872. Another sister, Jeannie/Jennie Thomas was living with William S. Gale and Mary Charlotte in Limerick in 1911. She had been born as Jane Delamere/Delamore Thomas at 50 Geraldine street, Dublin in 1878. Eleanor was born in 1880 at Dominick St., Richard George Thomas was born in 1877, Agnes Maude in 1875.)
William Schomberg Gale worked for the Post Office, like his brothers-in-law, William Thomas Ormston and James Frances Burrowes, and like his own brothers, John Thomas Gale and Henry Fitzgerald Gale.
In 1901 he and his wife, Mary Charlotte, were living at 26 Mulgrave Street with their four young children - Lilian Alice aged 6, William Norman aged 5, Mary Adelaide aged 3, and Henry Schomberg aged 1.
Two of Mary Charlotte's sisters were either living with them or visiting - Agnes Maude Thomas, a re-toucher, and Jeaney Delamore Thomas.
They had moved along the street to No. 33 by 1911 and one of their children, Lilian Alice Gale, has died. She died, aged 10, in 1905.
Jennie Thomas, Mary Charlotte's sister, is still there with them, single and working as a chemist's assistant. She was 23, although ten years earlier, the census return had her at 19.
William Schomberg Gale's son, William N. Gale, may well have married his first cousin, Vida Adelaide Cooke (the daughter of Alice Maria Gale) , in Edmonton, Middlesex, in 1919.
5) Annabella Gale was born in Limerick on 22nd February 1871, but she died the same year.
6) The family spent a number of years in Kerry where a son, John Thomas Gale, named after his father, was born in the Cahirciveen area on 25th August 1873.
John Thomas Gale married Margaret Dwyer in Roscrea, Tipperary in 1906, and he converted to Catholicism accordingly.
He worked for the Post Office, and by 1911, the couple had two children, 4-year-old John Joseph Gale, and 2-year-old Henry Norman Gale. The Limerick Chronicle records a third child - 'Birth 9th April 1916 - 'Gale - On the 9th inst., at 5 Crescent-avenue, the wife of J. T. Gale, of a son.'
'Death of Mr. J.T. Gale: We deeply regret to announce the death of Mr. John T. Gale which took place at the residence of his father-in-law, Mr. T. O'Dwyer, Bansha, on Tuesday morning. The deceased had been ailing for some months past, and his demise at an early age has occasioned keen regret in the city, and much sympathy is extended to his wife and young family in their affliction. He was connected with the clerical staff of the General Post Office for a period of twenty-nine years, and in that capacity was held in the highest esteem by the authorities and his colleagues. For a number of years he was president of the Limerick Branch of the Irish Association of Postal Clerks, a position in which he displayed an intimate knowledge of the working of the service, and in which his counsel was always accepted by his confreres. Mr. Gale was brother-in-law of Mr. Thomas O'Dwyer, Chairman of Tipperary Boards of Guardians, and manager of Bansha Creamery. The funeral took place today, for internment in the family burying-place, Tipperary, and was largely attended.'
(Note: Bansha, where the younger John Thomas Gale died in 1918, is only a few kilometers away from Kilshane where Henry Culbert, who was John's maternal uncle, was living when he married Anne Allen in 1869.)
7) Harriet Annabella Gale was born in Cahirciveen on 22nd October 1875. She married William Thomas Ormston, a post office worker from Clare. He had been born on 25th November 1867 to John Ormston and Frances Taylor of Corrofin.
Harriet/Harriat and William Thomas Ormston must have married in about 1898, but I can find no record of this.
By the time of the 1901 Census they are living at 25 Mulgrave Street with two young Limerick-born children, Frederick William Ormston and Ethel Victoria.
By 1911, they were living at 14 St. John's Avenue with 4 extra children for the collection, although Ethel Victoria seems to have died. By 1911 the children were William Thomas aged 12, Vida Annabella aged 8, Mary Francis aged 7, Hilda Alice aged 4, John Henry aged 2 and Arthur Cecil aged 1.
Harriet's sister, Rebecca Adelaide Burrowes, lived at No. 10, while her other sister, the widowed Lizzie Hill, lived at No. 12. The sisters' parents, John Thomas Gale and Maria Culbert, lived around the corner at 27 Mulgrave Street. Yet another of the Gale sisters, Francis Eakins and her family, were living at 29 Mulgrave Street, while their brother, William Schomberg Gale and his family, were at 33 Mulgrave Street.
Funeral Report for William Thomas Ormston, 28th February 1918, Limerick Chronicle:
'Funeral of W.T. Ormston. The funeral of the late Mr. W.T. Ormston, GPO, whose premature demise is so deeply regretted by a wide circle of friends in the city, took place on Tuesday afternoon from his residence, 2 Grattan Villas, to St. Mary's Cathedral. It was very large and representative, and testified to the deep sympathy felt with the widow and family of the deceased in the great loss they have sustained. The Post Master, Chief Clerk, Superintendent of Telegraphs, and the general staffs were represented, and the wreaths of which there were many, included those from the Post Office, with which the deceased was connected for over thirty years, and where he was held in the hightest esteem and regard.
The chief mourners were - Fred, Cecil and Jack Ormston, sons; Charlie Ormston, brother; James and William Ormston, uncles; William, Thomas and Henry Gale, James Burrowes, and John Galbraith, V. Moorehead, brothers-in-law; Fanny, Mollie and Suzie Ormston, sisters; Vida, Ethel, May and Hilda, daughters of the deceased; Mrs. Hill, Mrs. Gale, Mrs. Burrowes, and Mrs. Eakins, sisters-in-law.
Canon Waller was the officiating clergyman.'
Notes on the chief mourners mentioned above - William Thomas Ormston's sister, Deborah Ormston, married John Newton Galbraith in Limerick in 1895; Deborah died on 18th Noember 1905 at Claighmore Cottage, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. Her husband, John Newton Galbraith, had been born here in 1870 and died there in 1932, although there is no sign of them on the Irish censuses of 1901 and 1911.
The parents of William Thomas and Deborah Ormston were John Ormston and Fanny Taylor who lived at Sand Mall, Limerick City. John Ormston had been born in Co. Meath in about 1839, and was a police sergeant. His wife, Fanny Taylor, had been born in 1841 in Roscommon. The census shows three daughters living at home in Sand Mall with John and Fanny Ormston, and names them as Sophie, Fanny and Mary. Their brother, Charles Ormston, a clerk in a milk factory, was also present in the household. There is no sign of the sister named Suzie but she was present at her sister's funeral in August 1911.
By 1911, John and Fanny are still alive in Sand Mall, Limerick, living with their three daughters, and two granddaughters are visiting - 12-year-old Edith Mabel Gelbraith of Galway (the daughter of Deborah Ormston and John Newton Galbraith/Gelbraith) and 10-year-old Ethel Victoria Ormston of Limerick City (the daughter of William Thomas Ormston and Harriet Annabella Gale.)
The sister of William Thomas Ormston, Sophie Ormston, was killed in a cycling accident in Limerick in August 1911. Amongst the mourners in St. Mary's Cathedral were her uncle, William Ormston of Newmarket-on-Fergus near Shannon, V. Moorhead and John Galbraith of Ballinasloe (brothers-in-law). There was a huge list of mourners amongst whom were the following who could be family members - J.W. Hill, J. Burrows, J.E. Galbraith, C. Hill, C.W. Baldwin, W.J. Moorhead, A.H. Baldwin.
8) By 1878 John and Maria Gale had returned from Kerry to Limerick and have settled there permanently. Their daughter, Fanny/Frances Gale, was born here on 19th April 1878.
Frances married Henry Albert Eakins, a neighbour on Mulgrave Street, in Limerick in early 1904.
From The Limerick Chronicle: Marriages (May 1904) - 'Eakins and Gale - On the 24th instant, at Trinity Church, Limerick, by Rev. J.T. Waller M.A., Henry Albert, youngest son of the late George Eakins of 4 Grattan Villas to Frances (Fanny), youngest daughter of J.T.Gale, 2 Grattan Villas.'
Three years earlier Henry Albert Eakins had been living with his widowed mother, the Cork-born Agnes Eakins, at 22 Mulgrave Street. Frances Gale was living with her family at No. 20, which was possibly right next door, if all the even numbers ran along one side of the street, with the odd numbers on the opposite side of the street. Henry Albert Eakins had been born in Caherconlish, Co. Limerick, on 11th December 1868 to George Eakins and Agnes White. In 1901 he was working as a bacon merchants' clerk. A 16-year-old granddaughter, Agnes Smith, was also living with the widowed Agnes Eakins.
By 1911 Henry Albert Eakins and Frances Gale had moved to 29 Mulgrave Street along with Henry's widowed mother. Their children were Eric George Eakins aged 5, Jessie Irene aged 3 and Violet Whyte Eakins aged 1.'At her residence, 4 Grattan Villas, Limerick, July 14th, 1917, Agnes, widow of the late George Eakins, aged 84 years. Funeral for St. Munchin's.'
9) Finally, the couple's youngest son, Henry Fitzgerald Gale, was born in Limerick in about 1881.
He worked as a sorting clerk and telegraphist in the Post Office. I don't think he ever married.
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