My Ancestors

Sometime it can be frustrating as a family historian when we catch just a glimpse of what must have been a fascinating life, and yet it seems that no record remains (at least outside those tales that must surely echo amongst their immediate descendants). Hannah Elizabeth DURLEY (nee HORNSBY) (1870-1971) is surely a case in point.

Hannah’s eventful childhood

Her October 1971 obituary in the Hull Daily Mail reads:

Daughter of the Sea dies aged 101: A former Hull woman who made several voyages with her seafaring father has died at Bridlington at the age of 101. She was Mrs Hannah Elizabeth DURLEY who was born at Whitefriargate. Mrs DURLEY widow of the late Mr Clifford DURLEY a Hull civil engineer, was the daughter of Capt. Thomas C[LARK] HORNSBY, a master mariner in sail who ran away to sea at the age of nine. He was cabin boy on the whaler Diana and later piloted the ship down the Humber on her ill-fated voyage to the Arctic in 1866. Mrs DURLEY accompanied her father on many of his voyages visiting Russia, Baltic and Mediterranean ports including Constantinople, as it was then called, and Alexandria. As a child Mrs DURLEY was a boarder at Coverley House, Market Place, Bridlington, and thus had a long association with the town. She lived at 3 Belle Vue, Bridlington, and leaves six daughters, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Hannah was my second cousin twice removed, her great grandparents being by 3 x great grandparents William Taylor CLARK (1795-1869) and Ann OSBOURNE (c.1787-1877).

First there is the fact that she died at the age of 101. The Office for National Statistics estimate there are currently over 13,000 people living in England & Wales over the age of 100. That same data set estimates that in 1971 there were only 1,280 – in other words there has been a ten-fold increase. Then there is just that one sentence on her travelling with her father. What tales might she have been able to recount from those times?

The GRO indexes confirm she was born 4 October 1870. In 1891 she was living at home with her widowed mother and working as a music teacher. What instrument did she play? Most likely the piano.

Hannah’s remarkable energy

She married Clifford Hall DURLEY on 6 July 1896. The couple had the six daughters mentioned in the obituary and a son Tom (who died in 1964 at the age of 60) all within the space of less than ten years. She is mentioned in another newspaper article of 1904:

Crosby and Holdsworth Limited: This company has just been registered with a capital of £3,000 in £5 shares to acquire the business carried on at Hull, as ‘M J Holdsworth’ to adopt an agreement with Margaret J Holdsworth and Hannah E DURLEY to buy and sell in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Europe, America or elsewhere all kinds of fruit, vegetables, flowers, nuts etc. No initial public issue. The number of directors is not to be more than three: the first are C Houldsworth and C H DURLEY remuneration as fixed by the company. Registered office: 24 Humber Street, Hull.

In other words, with five children under the age of eight Hannah was seemingly getting involved in a fruiterer’s business.

A mystery

Hannah was born 4 October 1870. The GRO indexes, her birth and marriage certificates support this. But on the 1939 Register her date of birth is clearly written as 4 October 1873.

Meanwhile, her husband Clifford Hall DURLEY discloses his date of birth on the 1939 Register as 25 November 1872. In fact his birth certificate (which is consistent with the age given on his marriage certificate) shows he was born 25 November 1866.

What was the story here?

Closing thoughts

Clifford died ‘suddenly’ in 1947 just 6 months after their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Hannah, as we have seen, lived on for almost another quarter of a century.

So little of our ancestors’ lives get preserved. Sometimes the glimpses we can see scream out for more to have been recorded and preserved. These glimpses of Hannah leave us yearning to have had the opportunity to sit with her in her later years, to talk with her about her life, and to leave a more complete record.

Bibliography

1. 1939 Register, Yorkshire, Leeds. RG 101; Piece 3428e; Item 014; Line 20.
2. Hull Daily Mail, 16 October, 5f
3. Leeds and Yorkshire Mercury, 8 July, 7c