Richard is my two times Great Grandfather on my mother’s side of the family. Although I cannot confirm his exact date of birth I have located his christening at St Thomas Church in Dudley on 15th May 1814. Their record notes his parents as Thomas and Mary Corbitt. After them all the following generations have spelt their name with an e rather than an i. Thomas’s occupation is recorded as Limeman and we will return to that occupation when we look further at Richard.

The next thing we know about Richard is that he marries Maria Hollies, although the date of the marriage is shortly before 1837, the beginning of Births Marriages and Deaths records in the UK, and I have not been able to locate the actual marriage. They had two children Thomas, who was born in late 1836 or early 1837 and Richard who was born on 3 February 1839. Sadly Maria died in the second quarter of 1839, leaving Richard to bring up two very young children.

Richard married for a second time on 21 February 1841, this time to Mary Hodgetts. They were married in Kingswinford which at that time was in Staffordshire. Richard was 27 and Mary was 22. By the time we see the 1851 census record Richard and Mary are living in Dudley Port, Tipton with six children, two from Richard’s earlier marriage and four children from the marriage to Mary. Their children are James aged 8, George aged 6, Joseph aged 3 and David aged 1. You will notice that Richard now has six children from his two marriages, all boys. Later in the year of that census Richard’s second wife Mary also died.

Richard went on to marry for a third time, in the Spring of 1856, and this time he married Louisa Whitehouse in Dudley. Louisa was eighteen years younger than Richard and only a few years younger than Richard’s oldest son, Thomas. By the time of the 1861 census Richard’s two sons from his first marriage have moved out, as has one of his sons from his second marriage. However Richard and Louisa have four children of their own Jabez, Eliza, Mary and William. The youngest being just a month old and that takes the number of his children to ten, eight boys and two girls. The census record shows Richard as a shopkeeper at this time.

Ten years later Richard, whose occupation is now as a Lime Burner, is living with Louisa and ten children. However it is not the same ten children previously referred to as only David remains as a child from his second marriage. Louisa has had another five children, Robert, Abraham, Samuel, Sarah and Arthur, who is my Great Grand Father. Richard has now had fifteen children and Louisa and Richard have had nine children of their own. Richard now has enough boys for his own football team however the oldest is thirty four and the youngest is just five months old.

You may remember earlier that we noted that Richard’s father was a Limeman and he is recorded as a Lime Burner. This was quite a dangerous occupation.

I am afraid I don’t know if the above is an accurate image but it is about the right period as the etching is from 1871. The occupation involved burning Lime to a heat of 1,100 degrees centigrade to produce Lime Powder. The kiln had to be maintained at this heat for 48 hours and the powder fumes were often fatal for someone not taking great care.

By the time of the 1881 census we see that two more children were born to Richard and Louisa, Josiah and John. This means that Richard now has a total of seventeen children and Richard and Louisa had eleven of their own. At this time Richard and Louisa are living with eight of their own children and one grandchild in Gilbert Street, Tipton.

Ten years later Richard and Louisa are living with five of their children and a grandson, the same one as in 1881. They are still in Tipton but now living in Gate Street.

Richard died in 1896, aged 82, and his wife lived on until 1908 when she died aged 76. I don’t have any pictures of my 2xGreat Grandfather and the only picture I have of any of his children is of Arthur.