Telford Family of Ellinbank
The Docker Family of Southport
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Matthew Betham Docker was born at Southport, Lancashire, England on 3rd August 1829, the son of Rev. William Docker who was instrumental in the building of the first church at Southport – Christ Church C of E in 1820, and was its first incumbent.
Matthew's mother was Charlotte Henderson from Soulby, Westmorland.
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Matthew grew up at Southport and emigrated to Australia in 1849 , aged 20, to live and work at Bontharambo, his uncle Joseph Docker's property at Wangaratta, Victoria. He married firstly his cousin Jane Workman and later Helen Wemyss McArthur with whom he had 3 children - Charlotte, William and Gordon. Charlotte ( Lottie) is the grandmother of the Telfords of Ellinbank.
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William Docker ( Matthew's father) was from Newby Head, Westmorland in 1790. The story of the Newby family can be found on the "Westmorland Families" page.
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Matthew's life in Australia is found at this link:
William Docker was educated at Appleby Grammar School and then in preparation for his vocation he received further tuition from the rector of Sulhampstead, Berkshire; in 1814 aged 24 he was ordained deacon and subsequently priest at Bassenthwaite, Cumberland where the first of his children was born in 1816. In September 1817 he was licensed to the curacy of North Meols until formally taking up the incumbency at Southport when the new church was consecrated in 1821.
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The Southport Directory of 1825 describes Christ's Church as a "Chapel of Ease" being part of the Parish of North Meols, "a neat unostentatious structure" but then goes on to say that it will accommodate from six to seven hundred persons ! As the congregation outgrew the church, additions were made and the west front end, tower and spire completed in 1862. The spire was dismantled in 1953 for safety reasons but the tower remained and still forms part of the present church ( pictured below) . The nave of the church has been recently replaced. The original church is pictured above together with Rev. William Docker.
There is a plaque on the inner wall of the tower which honours Rev. William Docker as first incumbent; when the writer visited in 2012 the area was being used as a storeroom and the plaque inaccessible - our guide explained that much as they gave thanks for the pioneering efforts of those that came before, their primary focus of the church congregation is on ministering to the community around them. No doubt William Docker would be delighted to know that there is a thriving congregation 190 years after he started at Southport.
In part the unseen plaque says:
In all the Relative obligations of Life He was emphatically a Friend of the Poor. He died on the 10th day of July 1849. Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble
His death was reported in the September 1849 edition of Gentlemen's Magazine.
from Frank Robinson's "A Descriptive History ..." :
CHRIST CHURCH DAY AND SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
On the 27th of April, 1825, a meeting was held in the town, the late Ralph Peters, Esq., in the chair, "for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of converting the Sunday School then established into a National School for the education of the children of the poor in the principles of the Established Church." It was intimated to the meeting that in the township of Birkdale, and the district of South Hawes, in which the church was situated, there were more than two hundred children who stood in need of cheap or gratuitous instruction, there being no school for the poorer classes in Southport or the immediate neighbourhood.
Resolutions in favour of the undertaking were unanimously passed, a committee formed, and a subscription made, which was liberally supported by Sir Hesketh Fleetwood, Bart., and Sir H. Bold Hoghton, Bart., then lords of the manor, who heartily approved of the views of the meeting. In 1826 there were 73 boys, and 68 girls receiving daily instruction; and 34 boys and 40 girls who attended on Sundays. The report for 1846 showed that the total receipts for the support of the schools for that year were upwards of £70. There were then upon the roll, in the daily schools, 83 boys and 117 girls in the Sunday school, 80 boys and 86 girls; and in the infants' schools, 67 boys and girls.
One hundred children, an equal number of both sexes, are instructed gratuitously, and supplied with books; the other scholars are also supplied with books gratis, but a trifling charge per week is made for those scholars whose patients are in tolerable circumstances. Mr. John Nixon was for many years the master of the boys' school, but he has been for some time succeeded by Mr. W. Ball; Mrs. Todd is the mistress of the girls' school, and Mr. T. Rimmer is the master of the infants' school. Mr. Richard Wright, land agent, is the treasurer, and the Rev. W. Docker, the secretary.
The Lancashire On-line Parish Clerk Project websitewww.lan-opc.org.uk has the following record:
Burial: 14 Jun 1839 Christ Church, Southport, Lancs.
Charlotte Docker -
Age: 42 Years
Abode: Southport
Buried by: Charles Hesketh Pastor of North Meols
This of course refers to Matthew Docker's mother, nee Charlotte Henderson.
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William Docker married Charlotte Henderson in January 1816 at Asby, (presumably at St Cuthberts, Little Asby ) Westmorland, which is close to Soulby. Note that her name is given in the death record as Charlotte, not Charlotte Jane as has been suggested in other published sources. She is likewise just "Charlotte Henderson" in the 1816 marriage record and in the birth records of her children.
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More on the Hendersons on the Westmorland page - see above link.
Matthew Betham Docker was the youngest of 6 children and at the time of his birth in 1829 his siblings living in the vicarage in Southport were Charlotte Jane 12, William 9, Sarah 7 and Louisa 4. Eliza Betham Docker was born May 1818 but died aged 15 months in 1819.
At the 1841 census the household consisted of: William Docker, occupation "clergy", Sarah, Louisa, and a 20 year old female servant Margaret Carr.
Address: Lord Street, North Meols. ( Lord St is the main street of Southport and where the church is located).
11 year old Matthew was away from home and is found at the residence of William Richardson, Schoolmaster, at Birkenhead.
His sister Charlotte Jane had married solicitor Edward Dakin Stanton at Leamington Priors, Warwick, in January 1841, and they had 2 sons John and Bernard before her early death aged 31 in 1848, apparently from tuberculosis. In a letter from Rev William Docker to his brother Joseph in Australia dated December 1847, he writes “Charlotte has been in the Red House since the middle of August, intends to remain there all winter should she be spared so long; I think she is some better than when she came, but I fear her case is a hopeless one; Edward goes to Chorley every morning returns at night.” Within 3 months she was buried at Southport.
Matthew Betham Docker
Subsequently Edward Stanton married Charlotte’s younger sister Louisa at Clerkenwell, London with Banns being read in December 1849 - record at right. There is an error on the document, giving the bridegroom's name as "Edmund" Dakin Stanton instead of "Edward" but there is little doubt this is the marriage in question. Their first child Louisa was baptised at Chorley in February 1852; they had a further 4 children.
A few months after this at the 1851 census they were living at Hartwood Green, Chorley together with Edward's son Bernard aged 5 and William Docker ( John aged 8 was recorded at a school in Southport).
Louisa continued to live at Chorley until her death in 1884 aged 60. Edward lived until 1892 aged 76, his obituary identifies his father as John Stanton, Deputy-Lieutenant of Lancashire and his brother as Father Stanton of the Brompton Oratory.
Louisa and Edward and their offspring would have been the main contact with home for Matthew B Docker later in life, all his other siblings having died relatively young. In fact Matthew stayed with the Stantons during his visit to England in 1872 shortly after the death of his first wife Jane. Matthew travelled to Liverpool on the SS Great Britain departing Melbourne 13 March and taking 11 weeks for the voyage. Matthew would have got to know his nieces and nephews over this 6 month period - John 29, Bernard 26, Louisa 20, Charlotte 18 and James 8.
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ss Great Britain restored and open for inspection at Bristol docks 2017
Charlotte and Louisa are pictured left and their father Edward at right. These photos are taken from Willie Docker's photo album and were presumably brought to Australia by Matt after his visit to England in 1872.
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Contact between the Stantons in England and the Docker family in Australia continued for many years with Matthew's grandson William Telford visiting in 1917 (as recorded in "Matt's Story" by Val Kammann).
At the 1841 census William junior is away from home and by 1851 is listed staying with his sister Louisa Stanton in Chorley with occupation "Member of the College of Surgeons England and Licentiate of the Apothecaries Company. General Practitioner".
Interestingly the neighbours on either side of the Docker household in Southport were both surgeons ( Charles Clough and James Longton) - maybe it was from these gentlemen that William Docker junior gained his interest in becoming a doctor. William Docker’s letters refer to the high prevalence of Typhus Fever that Dr. William was dealing with. He died in 1853 aged 33 and unmarried.
The remaining sister, Sarah Ann Francis also reportedly died of TB, aged 22 in 1845.
While Matthew was growing up Southport was undergoing rapid development as a result of its popularity as a beach resort.
The drawing above right is taken from the publication "A Descriptive History of the Popular Watering-Place of Southport, in the Parish of North Meols, on the Western Coast of Lancashire." by Frank Robinson, and published in 1848 - available online at southportworld.co.uk . The Victoria Baths seen at left of the scene were completed in 1839 at a cost of 6000 pounds. The tower of Christ Church can be just seen to the left of centre.
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In 1821 there were roughly 100 houses and cottages but by 1825 this had grown to 200 and to 5,000 by 1849, the year William Docker died and Matthew left for Australia. By 1895 it had reached 50,000.
Lord Street ( above left) is the principal street running parallel to the seashore and was built "perfectly straight, broad and airy (270 feet wide) and nearly a mile long". Southport’s reputation – and that of Lord Street - was enhanced when Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte chose to live there during his exile from France between 1846 and 1848 before he returned home in triumph to win the presidency as Napoleon III. Legend has it that his subsequent work with Baron Haussmann, creating wide Parisian boulevards where in the mid-19th century medieval streets still dominated, was inspired by Lord Street.
The railways came to Southport in 1848, when a line from Liverpool was completed.
The photo of Lord St is of unknown date but much of this development would have taken place by the mid 1800s.
The photo above of Matthew Betham Docker is clearly taken some time after he had settled in Australia.
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The photo at left is of Rev Joseph Docker, Matthew's uncle. The caption says "from a daguerreotype" , a very early kind of photograph used from 1839 onwards; this photo probably dates from shortly after that when he was in his '40s and settled at Bontharambo.
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Joseph worked for a while with his brother at Southport church before voyaging to Australia in 1838.
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Joseph Docker married Sarah Bristow at St Mary's church, Edge Hill, Lancashire, by licence, on 25 June 1825 while living at Leyland.
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Sarah was the daughter of Edward Bristow, cloth manufacturer of Liverpool, and Elizabeth Smith.
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