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Catherine Seymour
The above photograph was taken in Liverpool so I have to assume its date at anywhere between 1880 ~ 1890 or possibly before.
Unfortunately there is very little known about Catherine at the present time as our family lost touch with the Seymour family after Catherine's death in 1916. However, the release of the 1901 census may give us some more clues.
Catherine's immediate family consisted of:-
Descendants of Thomas Seymour
Generation No. 1
1. THOMAS1 SEYMOUR born Shefford 1824. He married CATHERINE COOK on the 12th October 1844.
Children of THOMAS SEYMOUR and CATHERINE COOK are:
i. ELEONOR SEYMOUR, b. 1845, Shefford, Bedfordshire; m. 1. SAMUEL TYSOE 1874. 2. FRANK SHUTE 1884.
ii. SAMUEL2 SEYMOUR, b. 1847, Shefford, Bedfordshire; m. LUCY ELIZABETH HUMPHRIES (?), 25 June 1888, St Mary's Church, Bedford.
iii. ELIZA SEYMOUR, b. 1849, Shefford, Bedfordshire.
iv. CHARLES SEYMOUR, b. 1856, Shefford, Bedfordshire.
v. CATHERINE SEYMOUR, b. 9 July 1862, Shefford, Bedfordshire; d. 2 August 1916, 37 Cranworth Street, Bootle, Liverpool; m. BERTHEL MARTINIUS EVENSEN, 18 December 1888, St Nicholas Church, Liverpool; b. 5 March 1850, Østraadt Øvre farm, Høilands Parish, Rogaland County, Norway; d. 5 June 1908, 55 Chestnut Grove, Bootle, Liverpool.
vi. ANN SEYMOUR, b. Bef. 1864, Shefford, Bedfordshire; m. JOHN WHITE.
vii. FREDERICK SEYMOUR, b. Bef. 1864, Shefford, Bedfordshire; m. MARY WINNIFRED HARDY, 5 May 1890, Shefford, Bedfordshire.
viii.GEORGE SEYMOUR, b. Bef. 1864, Shefford, Bedfordshire.
ix. JOSEPH SEYMOUR, b. 1866, Shefford, Bedfordshire.
I am not absolutely sure of the marriage details of Samuel or Frederick. These are, for the time being, merely supposition based on names and dates.
Catherine was born on the 9th July 1862, in Shefford, Bedfordshire. She was the daughter of Catherine Cook and Thomas Seymour. Catherine registered the birth and made her mark 'X' as she was illiterate. The birth was registered on the 2nd August 1862 in the Sub-district of Biggleswade, County of Bedford. The registrar's name was Alfred Jelf.
IGI shows 8 Seymours, parents Thomas and Catherine, all baptised at Campton (adjoining village to Shefford) between 1856 and 1869, of which 5, including Catherine, were baptised on 23 March 1864.
Her father, Thomas, was a skilled (known as 'journeyman') bricklayer and is thus noted on her marriage certificate. Samuel is also noted as a bricklayer in the 1881 census (see census pages). They were obviously a family who relied on agriculture or the country estates to provide a living. It would appear that the daughters went into some form of 'service' to various wealthy landowners or other 'well-to-do' folk of the time. Catherine eventually found a position at Knowsley Hall in Prescot, Lancashire, not far from Liverpool. This was one of the homes of the Earl of Derby. It is almost certainly where she met her future husband, Berthel Evensen.
All Saints Church, Campton, Bedfordshire
Campton, adjoining Shefford's western boundary, stands on a tributary of the Ivel. The 13th century Church contains an early screen, a pulpit made from a 14th century screen, an 18th century pulpit and interesting brasses and monuments. The Manor House, built in 1591, is attractively timbered while across the road is the 18th century Old Rectory, with its hipped roof, which is also of interest. Campton and Chicksands combined to form a single perish in 1985.
Modern-day Shefford High Street
The Stable Yard at Knowsley Hall, 1850.
Knowsley Hall, Prescot, Lancashire
Estate Houses, Knowsley Hall
At the time of their wedding, both Berthel and Catherine were registered as living in Park Lane, Liverpool. This is denoted on their marriage certificate.
Berthel is noted as 'Widower', age 37 and Catherine as 'Spinster', age 26.
The certificate notes that Berthel's father is Evan (mis-spelt, should be Even) Evensen, occupation farmer.
Catherine's father is Thomas Seymour, occupation Journeyman Bricklayer.
The witnesses' signatures are not entirely legible and I have denoted the dubious letters with an asterisk.
They were George Edward *(h or k)arton (possibly Wharton) and Cecelia *ur*e (possibly Hurde) or Shut*
The officiator of the ceremony signed as C G S Bell, Curate.
21st April 2001.
The mystery of the first witness' name has now been cleared up. The name was (as I had thought) Wharton. George Edward Wharton. I discovered when I sent for the marriage certificate from his first marriage to Mary Jane that her maiden name was Wharton. Her father's name was George (although at the time of her marriage he was deceased). It would be reasonable to assume that this George Edward Wharton was therefore her brother.
The other witness could possibly be Cecelia Shutes but this is purely conjectural and based only on the fact that Berthel lived at 81 Beaufort Street with his first wife's mother and step-father. Also living at this house was a boarder called Richard Shutes from Bridgewater. He could have married a Cecelia. In 1891 however, Berthel and Catherine were now living in what would become the Evensen family home at 51 Rimrose Road, Bootle. Also present were Frank Shute and his wife Helen or Ellen. Frank had married Ellen who had brought five children from a previous marriage to someone by the name of Tysoe. This mystery was cleared up in March 2002 when I received an email from a member of the Tysoe family. It seems that the Ellen (or Helen as it was transcribed in the Census) was Catherine’s elder sister (and the oldest sibling) of whom I had no previous record of. Her first husband (originally from Shefford) died in Bootle where he was a transport policeman. She must have met Frank Shute through Berthel or Catherine. Frank was (at the time of the 1881 census) on board H.M.S. ‘Alert’, a survey ship. At the time of the census the Alert was surveying the Whitsunday Islands off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The captain of the ship often named places after crew members. To this day there is still a ‘Shute Harbour’.
Shute Harbour Major port for trips to the Whitsunday islands and the outer Great Barrier Reef. Located 8 km from Airlie Beach on a short winding journey through the Conway National Park, which has a camping and picnic area, the tiny settlement of Shute Harbour is effectively nothing more than a lot of parking spaces and a harbour where the cruises and the ferries leave for the Whitsunday Islands.
The publicity claims that Shute Harbour is the second busiest harbour in Australia after Circular Quay. This is somewhat misleading as (a) Circular Quay is not a harbour and (b) it doesn't really define what it means by busy. However the point probably is that there are a lot of boats and cruise vessels which depart from Shute Harbour for journeys to the Whitsunday Islands. One of the most appealing of all these journeys would have to be sailing in the original Gretel, Australia's first challenger for the America's Cup (it lost 4-1 to Weatherly in 1962), which now sails daily from Shute Harbour. Another claim made by Shute Harbour, which shows the scale of tourist operations in the area, is that it is now the largest seaplane airbase in the southern hemisphere.
Her death certificate notes the following:
Died 2nd August 1916 at 37 Cranworth Street, Catherine Evenson, Female, Age 49 years, Widow of Birtle (incorrectly spelt) Martin Evenson, Rigger.
Cause of death: 1) Mitral Regurgitation 2) Amasarea Certified by J C Mann MD
The Signature, description and residence of the informant was the mark 'X' of Ann White, Sister Present at death, 37 Cranworth Street.
The death was registered on the 3rd August 1916, the registrar was A Y Johnson, Deputy Registrar.
There seems to be a discrepancy in the age at time of death. The death certificate records that she was 49 years old. This should be 54 years old as she was born in July 1862 and this age is confirmed by her marriage certificate which records her age as 26 in 1888.
Berthel's name was probably mis-spelt as the witness (Catherine's sister Ann) was illiterate.
