Updated January 17, 2020 with new information about Alfred’s second wife. Updated August 18, 2026 to include several children discovered buried in Ince in Makerfield Cemetery.
When Alfred Thomas (Thomas) Webb was born in January 1861 in Great Boughton, Cheshire, England, his mother, Sarah Webb(1842-1915), was unmarried and only 19. He’s found as a “nurse child” in the home of Thomas and Ann Povey on the 1861 census as his mother is working as a nurse (possibly a wet nurse) in a nearby home. Thomas had two brothers and four sisters (plus one adopted sister).
In 1871, Thomas is back with his mother and several years after the death of his stepfather.
In 1881, the census finds Thomasboarding with Elizabeth Houghton and her daughter Elizabeth. At the age of twenty, he is listed at 1 Peter Street in Ince in Makerfield. His occupation is listed as “Railway Locomotive Engine Stoker or Feeder” – also known as a Fireman. His occupation likely results from his stepfather, James Squires, who also worked for the railroad.
Finding the address proved surprisingly difficult: Peter Street has disappeared from the modern map. Other nineteenth- and early twentieth-century records, however, confirm that it was a real street in Higher Ince. Like many of the small streets built around Lancashire’s rapidly expanding industrial communities, it was later lost to redevelopment. He is 20 years old.
The civil registration marriage index suggests that Thomas married Emma Alice Dodd early in 1882 (the Banns and certificate have not been located online).
Emma Alice Dodd was born in 1862 in Chester, Cheshire, England, the daughter of Charles Dodd(1833-?) and Sarah (1832-?). She had two brothers.
In 1869, Emma and her parents were living at 2 Francis Street, Cheshire (just up the street from Alfred’s family) and Emma was attending the Victoria Road School (which is the same school that one of Alfred’s siblings attended).
The couple had eight children, but only two survived to adulthood:
- Alfred Thomas Webb(1882-1882)
- Henry Charles Thomas Webb(1885-1889)
- Alfred James Webb (1887-1887)
- Alfred James Webb (1888-1897)
- Gertrude Webb (1891-1970) m. George Povey (1899-1950)
- Nellie Webb(1893-1893)
- Charles Henry Webb (1895-1983) m. Alice Cooper (1894-1971)
- Edith Webb(1897-1898)
The couple’s first child, Alfred Thomas Webb (named after his father), is born around August 1882, likely less than nine months after his parents’ marriage. I have not located a baptismal record.
The child dies on October 11, 1882. He is buried in Ince in Makerfield Cemetery in a public grave without a marker. The burial notes that the family was living on Spring View, which is just off Warrington Road.
Henry Charles Thomas Webb is born in 1884 or 1885. The family is still living on Spring View. I have not located a baptismal record.
When Alfred James is born on January 9, 1887, the baptismal register records the family as living at 4 Francis (this may have been Emma’s parents’ address, as other records indicate the family was living off Warrington Road at the time). The child’s middle name is from his father’s stepfather. The child is baptized on February 2nd at St. John the Baptist in Cheshire, but died on May 18, 1887. The record suggests that he was only 4 months old (but his birthdate suggests it was actually five months). The burial record notes that his father was a Fireman.
The couple has another son, who they also name Alfred James. The child was born on August 15, 1888, and baptized at the Church of St. Mary’s, Ince-in-Makerfield on February 10, 1889. The baptismal record suggests the family is living at 497 Warrington Road and Thomas’s occupation is Engine Driver.
On June 25, 1889, son Henry Charles Thomasdies at age 4. The burial record suggests the family’s address is Spring View.
Daughter Gertrude Webb is born on March 20, 1891. She’s baptized at St. John the Baptist in Cheshire (as was her father) on August 23, 1891.
The family is noted as living on Warrington Road at the time of the 1891 Census, and Gertrude is one month old. Thomas’ occupation is still an Engine Driver.
Nellie Webbis born in October, 1893. I have not located a baptismal record, but there was barely time. She dies on November 8, 1893 and is buried in the same plot as Henry Charles Thomas. Burial records suggest the family were living on Ince Green Lane.
Charles Henry is born on March 17, 1895. Charles is baptized at St. Mary’s, Ince-in-Makerfield on December 1, 1895. The family is living at 38 Manley Street.
On September 17, 1897, Alfred James dies at age 9. The burial record notes that the family is still living at 38 Manley Street. He is buried in the same plot as his brother Henry Charles Thomas and sister Nelliein Ince in Makerfield Cemetery.
Edith Webb is born around December of 1897. She dies nine months later on August 11, 1898 and buried in the plot next to Henry, Alfred and Nellie.
In 1901, Thomas and Emma are living with Charles and a servant, Nellie Jones (b. 1874), at 214 Central Drive in Blackpool. Thomas’ job is a Railway Engine Driver.
At the time of this census, daughter Gertrude was boarding at the Institute for Blind Welfare and School for the Partially Sighted on Watling Street West in Fulwood, Preston, Lancashire (the census suggests that she was blind). Information about the school is documented in the book, “Those Derby Days: A History of the Derby School for the Partially Sighted
In 1911, the family is living at 32 Hornby Road in Blackpool—Thomas, Emma, Gertrude, Charles Henry and the same servant, Nellie Jones. Thomas (Alfred Thomas in the census) is still a railway engine driver. (You’ll note that the census suggests that Gertrude is “totally blind.”)
The National Probate Calendar suggests that Emma died on January 23, 1932. Her effects were left to her husband and daughter Gertrude (presumably because she was disabled and Charles Henrywas able to care for himself.)
Remarriage
Alfred remarried to a widow, Harriet Slater on January 31, 1933, in the parish church in Blackpool. Alfred was 72 at the time of the marriage is a “retired engine driver.” His blushing bride is 64 years old.
Harriet’s address at the time of the marriage is a few doors up from Alfred at 26 Mere Road. Her father was a hotel keeper. When Harriet Slater was born in 1869 in Ardwick, Lancashire, England, her father, William Slater (1842-?), was 27, and her mother, Harriet (née Ardern) (1841-?), was 28. Harriet had three brothers and two sisters.
Harriet was married and widowed twice prior to her marriage to Alfred Thomas. She had one daughter with her first husband.
Alfred Thomas Webb died on June 13, 1937, in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, at the age of 76, and was buried with his first wife at the Marton Cemetery in Blackpool.
I have not confirmed a death date for Harriet, but there is an entry that matches in the spring quarter of 1942 in Fylde, Lancashire.
Main image: Two trams near North Shore Promenade Gardens, Blackpool, ca. 1935 (image via Wikimedia)
