James and Elizabeth - The Vayro Ancestry

GREAT GRANDFATHER of John Rennison Vayro

(G2) JAMES VAYRO  1853 / 1893 and ELIZABETH POUNDER 1854 / 1892

Great Grandfather James Vayro was born in 1853 at Tranmire Farm, East Witton, Wensleydale, near Jervaulx Abbey on the river Ure, North Yorkshire. His birth was registered in Leyburn as June 1853 (9d 433), his parents were William Vayro and Elizabeth Berry (see JRVayro Family 5) and he was the third child of their twelve children.

James was baptized on 17 th June 1853 in East Witton St John the Evangelist Church (Mif 829). Born into a farming community perhaps it was inevitable that he became a farm hind who moved several times rather than staying in Wensleydale.  James was shown on the 1861 Census (mif GM 3667) living at Tranmire farm with his parents and siblings, but moved elsewhere and to date I haven’t been able to trace him on the 1871 Census.

James was married on 11 th October 1873 in Catterick to Elizabeth Pounder daughter of James Pounder and Mary Walker (M Cert), and was possibly working on her parent’s farm in Tunstall south of Catterick at the time of his marriage.

James and Elizabeth had 9 children, born at various villages in North Yorkshire:-

William        
born 1 st January 1874  Tunstall   (Reg Off)
Edwin         
born 5 th October 1875  Tunstall   (m879)
bapt 26 th April 1876     Tunstall
Martha         
born 9 th September 1876    Gilling   (m879)
bapt 24 th October 1876    Gilling
James         
born 7 th July   1878      Hartforth   (m879)
bap 27 th August 1878      Hartforth
Alfred        
born 8 th April 1881      Forcett   (m37)
bapt 21 st August 1881      Forcett
Thomas  ( GRANDFATHER )
born 24 th August 1883   Aldbrough   (B Cert)
bapt 21 st October 1883   Aldbrough
George         
born 8 th August 1885         Aldbrough   (Reg Off)
Elizabeth Mary      
Born 6 th August 1887         Aldbrough   (Reg Off)
Harry        
born 31 st July 1889      Skeeby   (B Cert)

On the 1881 Census James and Elizabeth were living at Forcett, Yorkshire (PRO Ref RG11 Folio 4883/32 page 16) with their children William, Edwin, Martha, James and Alfred. Grandfather Thomas had not been born at this time.

On the 1891 Census (ENOCH program Area 4036) James and Elizabeth had moved yet again and were living in Low Coalsgarth farm, in Aske, near Easby, North Yorkshire with most of their children, including Grandfather Thomas.  William and Edwin were working elsewhere as farm labourers in Moulton and Snape.

Rather tragically James’s wife Elizabeth died on 7 th May 1892 at Coatham House, Coatham Mundeville near Darlington, County Durham. The following year James also died on 8 th April 1893 also at Coatham House. Both are buried in Haughton Le Skerne Churchyard, in Darlington. (mif M16/2) on May 11 th 1892 and April 13 th 1893 respectively.

At this point in time it is thought that their children William, Edwin, Martha and James would all have been old enough to be working or “in-service”. It is understood that the younger children Alfred, Thomas, George, Elizabeth Mary (May), and Harry were placed in a workhouse in Darlington for a short while.  It is also rumoured that Martha (17 years old in 1893) took the youngest four children to live with an aunt Louie Vayro at Angram Cote Farm in East Witton but this has never been proved.

On the 1901 Census James and Elizabeth’s son William was living in Stanley near Crook and his wife Harriet (nee Sherrington) and two young children of their own, were living at number 1 Wesley Street, Willington County Durham, together with brothers George and Thomas as their lodgers.  They had all moved there to find work in the Coal mining industry. Thomas stayed in Willington all his life, William settled in Newfield, and George emigrated to Canada.

Also on the 1901 Census Edwin was already married to Mary Hannah (nee Rennison) and was living in East Thickley near Shildon, Bishop Auckland. Martha was also married to John George Tallentyre and living at Eppleby near Richmond and both James and Edwin were both lodgers with them, Alfred was at Hackforth in Bedale and Mary Elizabeth (May) was a servant with the Fenwick family in Aldbrough St John.