- The only information I knew before I started any research was that my great grandmother, Emily Tatlock, was born in Bolton, Lancashire on 18th February 1880 but she had been placed in a children's home in Edgworth when she was young. She knew her mother was a music hall singer but I didn't know any details such as the names of her parents. The only other things Emily remembered from her childhood were that her mother hit the inspector over the head with an umbrella when they took Emily away to the home, also her mother used to practice her stage hairstyles on Emily's hair. Emily did have a photo of her brother and three sisters (the family as it was in 1892) but it has been lost over the years unfortunately.
After researching I found that she was the daughter of Thomas Tatlock and Elizabeth Tatlock formerly Brockbank. The couple had married in November 1879 when Elizabeth was about six months pregnant and aged only sixteen. After Emily's birth in 1880 they also had a stillborn child buried in 1882 in Bolton. The next child was called Annie Tatlock, and according to her baptism she was born 21st August 1884 and from census returns her place of birth was given as Ulverstone, however I have been unable to locate a birth certificate for her. The next child born was called Lily Tatlock, her birth certificate gives her birth date as 6th June 1887 but her baptism states her date of birth as 6th May 1887 which is probably more accurate as her birth wasn't registered until 2nd July 1887 so the mother would have been fined for registering the birth late if she'd stated the birth as 6th May (births had to be registered within 42 days otherwise they were fined for late registration).
It seems the couple split up at some point in the 1880's, and it is possible that only the first child, Emily, is Thomas' child and the others were fathered by someone else. Emily was born in 1880 but by the time of the 1881 census the parents weren't living together, Elizabeth was living with her parents in Bolton and Thomas was living in his married sister's household in Bolton.
Both Thomas and Elizabeth had music hall acts and appeared on stage, this is possibly how they first met in 1879. A relative told me that Elizabeth claimed to have appeared on stage at Madison Square Garden in New York. I think it might be possible that Thomas and Elizabeth travelled to New York together in the early 1880's, possibly their daughter Annie was born there (which would explain why her birth can't be found in the UK) and then Elizabeth came home to Bolton before 1887 leaving Thomas Tatlock to make a new life for himself.
Thomas Tatlock started a new life for himself in Montreal, Canada, according to the 1911 Montreal census he immigrated into Canada in 1884. He remarried 21st May 1888 in Montreal (bigamously) to a Mary McArthur and they had three children. In 1891, 1901 and 1911 he was working as a bar tender/waiter in Montreal. He then went on to marry again to a Mary O'Donnell (also known as Helen) and they had five more children, the youngest being born in 1921 when Thomas Tatlock was aged sixty one. Thomas Tatlock had a part time stage act as a dancer and a comedian and appeared on stage in Montreal and New York. He died in Montreal in 1929.
After Thomas and Elizabeth had split up she went on to have a son called Percy in 1890. His birth was registered as Percy Tatlock but he always used the name Percy Brockbank. His birth certificate states he was born 16th July 1890 and states his father was Thomas Tatlock. On his death certificate in 1970 it stated his date of birth to be 15th June 1890, so again it looks like the mother lied about his birth date to avoid a fine for late registration, his birth was registered 4th September 1890.
The next child was registered as Margaret Brockbank with no father's name stated. Her birth date was stated to be 28th April 1892 (registered 8th June 1892). This is the first time that the mother Elizabeth states her name as "Lucy Elizabeth". This child Margaret was known as Maggie.
In November 1892 a Detective with the Borough Police reported the family to the NSPCC to try and get the eldest child, Emily, into a home to be trained as a domestic servant "as the home surroundings have a tendency to make the child a thief". The report stated that the mother Elizabeth Tatlock had been getting her living as a comic singer at Music Halls and that there were five children, Emily, Annie, Lily (stated as illegitimate), Percy, and Maggie (also stated to be illegitimate). The report states that Elizabeth was separated from her husband when Lily was born but they lived together again when Percy was born, afterwards the husband left and had not been heard of since. Elizabeth was living with her parents and her mother (Sarah Brockbank formerly Longworth) was undergoing a prison term of one month for theft, the report also states that Elizabeth had been before the courts for being in consort with her mother. It states that Elizabeth was willing that her daughter, Emily, should be sent to a home. The report states that the children were well nourished and the house fairly well furnished. However, further in the report it also states that the reasons Emily should be considered to be placed in a home were as follows: 'Continuous neglect, mother and grandmother charged with theft, latter convicted' It also stated that Emily was 'in great moral danger, an attractive girl, used by grandmother, an oft convicted thief, for felonious purposes. Now in wretchedness and filth. Grandmother in prison, mother living away in sin'. Elizabeth stated that her husband Thomas had "died away" in June 1891, but this was untrue, perhaps she just said that he was dead so that the authorities could not ask her for any money towards Emily's keep. Her weekly income was just 10 shillings as a dressmaker, it must have been very hard for her to live on that amount with five children to care for. Emily was sent to Edgworth Children's Home which wasn't very far from Bolton but she had no more contact with her family and they would not have known where she was sent to.
On 21st June 1893 Elizabeth and her mother Sarah were in court accused of stealing seven yards of dress material and six yards of flannellette the property of John Bond. Elizabeth gave her name as Elizabeth Alice Tatlock and she pleaded guilty. She was sentenced to fourteen days in Strangeways prison. Her mother Sarah pleaded not guilty but was found guilty and sentenced to six months hard labour in Strangeways prison. Elizabeth would have been about four months pregnant when she went in prison as there was also another illegitimate son called Robert Brockbank born 28th November 1893 in Bolton. He was known as Bob Brockbank in later life. Bob Brockbank married a Bertha Greenhalgh and when she died he went on to marry Elsie Mason. He died in 1959.
Within a couple of years Elizabeth met a man called Corney Windsor in Bolton. They lived together as man and wife but I don't believe they ever married, probably Elizabeth, or 'Lucy Elizabeth' as she then liked to be known as, didn't want to remarry bigamously as she did not know if Thomas Tatlock was still alive. They had five more children together, namely, Arline born 13th August 1896 in Bradford, Clara born 25th September 1898 in Blackpool, Bertha born 14th April 1900 in Bolton, Fred born 2nd May 1902 in Bolton, and George born 1st July 1904 in Bolton - they all had the surname Windsor.
As Arline was born in 1896 in Bradford I would imagine it was about this time when they were resident in that area that her two daughters, Annie and Lily Tatlock, were taken from her in the same manner as Emily was. I do not have any evidence for this but by the time of the 1901 census Lily was aged thirteen and resident in an industrial school in Leeds and Annie was aged seventeen and working as a domestic servant in a household in Headingley near Leeds. Industrial Schools were for children who were either found begging, found wandering or homeless or frequenting with thieves, who had commited an offence or whose parents could not control them. It's possible that the two girls were being used as pickpockets and were caught or their mother got into trouble with the law again and the girls were seen to be in danger of being turned into thieves. The Industrial School would have trained the girls as domestic servants and found them places to work when it was time for them to leave. I do not know what happened to Lily after the 1901 census and I also have no record of what happened to Maggie after she was six months old. It seems like all four girls, Emily, Annie, Lily, and Maggie, were removed from their mother but the two boys, Percy and Bob, stayed with her. Her five later children with Corney Windsor were brought up by her so it seems he was a stabilising influence in her life.
In 1904 the son, Percy Brockbank, aged thirteen, was up before the court in Bolton for stealing a purse. The prosecutor said the lad's mother and grandmother were known by the police. Percy, who was living with his grandmother, had been attending a school for 'defective children'. The Inspector stated he had watched Percy trying to get into more than four pockets of different women before he was successful in stealing the purse. He was committed to a Reformatory until he was seventeen years of age. It's interesting that he was attending a school for 'defective children' as he was described as blind at the time of the 1911 census but it also states that he was afflicted at the age of fifteen, perhaps his eyesight was 'defective' when he was thirteen but deteriorated by the time he was fifteen. I believe the term 'defective' relates to children who were either blind, deaf or who had epilepsy. Percy went on to marry Janet (known as Jenny) Carslow and he died in 1970.
I was in touch with a relative who said that Fred Windsor was a student at Manchester Art School due to the generosity of some local lady who spotted his talent, but he gave it up because his mother needed money, although he would never say anything bad about his mother. He said his childhood was constantly flitting, usually to avoid paying rent. One day they forgot to tell him they were flitting, so he came home from school to find them gone. Fred said his father Corney had left his mother, Lucy Elizabeth, and took to drink and went to live with two sisters in Manchester. Fred married Jean O'Hara and she described Lucy Elizabeth as having a hot temper and that she once threw her out of the house as "an irish bitch". Fred Windsor designed and drew the Fairy liquid 'baby' and was paid £100 for it. He also made the decorative scrolls presented to the Bolton athletes who represented England in the 1948 Olympics. Fred Windsor died in 1979.
George Windsor was younger than Fred by two years and Fred looked after him. George had a weak arm, either despite which he worked at a timber yard, or he may have had an accident at the yard. He married Alice Turner and he died in 1976. The eldest Windsor daughter, Arline, married Fred True, and she died in 1975. Clara Windsor married Fred Davies but they split up when Fred Davies left Clara, she died in 1979.
Bertha Windsor had been a pretty and active girl till about twenty years of age when suddenly she was struck with a paralysis which took about six months to come on. It seems likely she suffered from either MS or Polio. Bertha did retain some movement early on, but not enough to walk. She used to be carried by her brother Fred and she always had to be propped in a chair with cushions. She never married and died in 1985.
Emily Tatlock was nothing like her mother, being very kind and quiet. She also had some artistic tendencies like her half-brother Fred Windsor. Emily Tatlock stayed at the children's home in Edgworth out on the moors near Bolton, working there after she had officially left. In the early 1900's she moved to the city of Leicester to set up a cake shop with a friend. In Leicester she met and married her husband in 1911. He was called Frank Smith, an engineer, and then they moved down to Harrow in Middlesex for his work. She knew her father's name was Thomas Tatlock but she stated his occupation as Hotel Proprietor at the time of her marriage which was incorrect. Emily Smith died in 1947 in South Harrow.
I located Annie Tatlock on the 1911 census, living with Daniel Walsh, who she later married.
The mother, Lucy Elizabeth Windsor, died in 1934 in Bolton.
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1898 - 1979 (81 years)