In November 2023 I Posted about a Barometer presented to George Geoffrey Warburton of the Houghton clan. My informant was George Geoffrey’s great grandson Tom Gaskill whose mother Clare Warburton was the daughter of George Geoffrey’s second son David Jeremy.
I have also had contact with Jason Michael, son of George Geoffrey’s eldest son Michael Geoffrey. Thus Jason and Clare are cousins. Jason has sent me several tidbits about his line of the Houghton Warburtons.
The first was his father’s entry on the British South Africa Police Website. Fortunately I copied it into Michael Geoffrey’s entry on the Houghton tree as it is now replaced with an In Memoriam. Michael Geoffrey died in 2020, aged 88. The entry reads:
Warburton, Michael Geoffrey – Cape Town, South Africa
- Force Number: 4566 – Constable
- Joined: February 1950 – Squad: 2/1950; served until February 1953
- Married a Gwelo girl Rhoda Hadley (divorced after 10 years.) Worked in non life insurance for a short while. PA to Sec Gen Royal Automobile Club for 11years. Formed my own Company – Fibreglass/insulation/lightweight screeds and waterproofing (1978). Retired 1988. Remarried with family 46 years ago.
Jason also sent me two newspaper cuttings describing the weddings of George Geoffrey’s sister Joan, and cousin John Daine Warburton.
Joan’s father Frank and John’s father Albert were brother’s. John’s wedding report describes Albert as “an architect in Warrington who designed a great number of important buildings in the town”. Jason also sent me a picture of a building which was built by Frank.
The inscription reads: THE NEW WHITE HART HOTEL. This fine hotel on the corner of Sankey Street and Golborne Street is part of a new section in the widening of Sankey Street. As will be seen from the photo, it is an architectural acquisition to the new line of the street, which will remove a dangerous bottle-neck. The hotel will be opened on Monday.
A hand written addition says: Erected by F Warburton and Son. The White Hart was opened 1930. Frank Warburton’s son is Reginald Bonnell Warburton who is a builder in the 1939 Register; his brother George Geoffrey was medical practitioner. Though not stated it seems most likely that Frank’s brother Albert worked as an architect on the building.
Finally Jason has also sent me a couple of photos from a family bible that was presented to Frank and Albert’s great grandfather George by his godfather Thomas Wright. The bible included an inscription written by his godfather Thomas Wright. The inscription was dated June 24th 1764 and the bible was given in 1777 (exact date indistinct). In it George wrote the dates of his marriages, and the births of his children, plus some death dates. The entries seem to have been entered at the same time and not all dates match the parish registers.
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