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THE WEBSTER FAMILY
ANN WEBSTER
ANN WEBSTER married John Fryer in 1856 at Crakehall, in Yorkshire. Ann was born in Aberdeen in 1837. How Ann Webster made her way to Yorkshire remains a mystery. As do the whereabouts of her parents for most of their lives! Her father, WILLIAM WEBSTER, was a gardener. Her mother was JEAN BRANDER. JEAN BRANDER had three children: John McGregor and Alexander and Ann Webster. The father of John McGregor was John McGregor. The father of Alexander and Ann was William Webster. Parents and children were all born in Scotland. Although the baptisms of William Webster in 1807 at Logie Buchan, Aberdeen, and Jean Brander in 1810 at Speymouth were recorded, there was no sign of the three baptisms of Jean's children, nor of her two marriages! Alexander and Ann Webster were younger than John McGregor. There was also no sign of the tombstone of Jean Brander (McGregor/Webster) near those of her children - although she was said to be buried in the same cemetery!
INSCRIPTIONS ON TOMBSTONES:
JOHN McGREGOR
According to family tradition Jean Brander had followed her son, John McGregor, to S Africa and was buried in the Kokstad Cemetery (as yet unconfirmed). Jean Brander died in 1898, four years after John McGregor's death.
A news item written in the early 1900s about Mount Frere in the 1870s stated the following: Presumably "Grannie McGregor" was Jean Brander. Why, one wonders, did she abandon (or appear to abandon) her younger children and follow her eldest son to pastures unknown? In "The Story Of The Mackay Family" Georgina (McKay) Shaw mentions her parents (Donald and Jane McKay) and grandparents (John and Catherine McGregor) trekking to Mount Frere. She makes no specific mention of her great-grandmother, Jean Brander, being with them. Or Jean Brander being contacted by Ann (Webster) Fryer and her children in 1887 when they stayed with Donald and Jane McKay in Mount Frere. DONALD McKAY and JANE McGREGOR
It would appear that while JEAN BRANDER might have been born, married, and given birth in 1826 to JOHN McGREGOR in the Speymouth area; she possibly lived in Aberdeen when she married WILLIAM WEBSTER, as she later gave birth to ALEXANDER and ANN WEBSTER in the 1830s in Aberdeen.
Jean Brander was the daughter of John Brander and Jean Mitchell.
One question remains unanswered: Where was JEAN BRANDER from 1810 - 1898? How to unravel all these mysteries ... particularly the identity of William Webster was quite a challenge.
ALEXANDER WEBSTER
Eventually it was only by finding the whereabouts of ALEXANDER WEBSTER, brother of Ann Webster, that enabled the identifying of their father, William Webster. This was done by noting where the photograph of Alexander was taken - Jarrow - where he was said by the family to have lived. His sister, Ann (Webster) Fryer, and family had also lived at Jarrow at one time. His profession (that of Wood Turner) was known from his Death Certificate which enabled the identifying of the correct Alexander Webster (among many possibilities) because of his apprenticeship as a Turner in the 1851 Census. Only a researcher who has searched long and hard in the old-fashioned way ... looking house by house, street by street (before computer and Internet ease of search) ... can know the thrill of finding such entries as those below! First finding an 8 year old child in the 1841 Aberdeen Census named Alexander Webster (who may, or may not be the correct one); and then having to search for the marriage of Isabell Murray, who was in the household with him, in the hope that she may be a relative, and that her maiden name might be Webster! Then finding ten years later in the 1851 Aberdeen Census that the 18 year old Alexander had the correct apprenticeship - that of Turner's apprentice. Not only that, but what good fortune to find him in the household of his Webster grandparents! Finding Alexander in 1851 with his grandparents, Alexander and Ann Webster, and going on to discover that they did indeed have a son called William Webster seemed almost beyond belief! Isabell Murray proved to be the eldest daughter of Alexander and Ann Webster and the sister of Alexander's father, William Webster.
On 26.8.1807 William Webster was born to Alexander Webster, Gardener Mill of Auchmacoy, and wife Ann Rae at Logie Buchan, Aberdeen.
1841 CENSUS - Ann Street, Old Machar, Aberdeen
1851 CENSUS - Old Machar, Beryden Road, Curpit Square, Aberdeen
In 1796 ALEXANDER WEBSTER married ANNE RAE in the Parish of Newhills, Forglen, Banffshire.
Isabell Webster, widow of George Murray, linen weaver, died in 1874 at 51 Causewayend, Aberdeen.
In 1881 and 1891 Alexander Webster was living at Jarrow, Durham. Alexander Webster (who must have been born about 1833) never married. Sadly in 1901 he developed bronchitis and died in the Union Workhouse, Harton Road, South Shields, Durham. A grim end after what must have been a hard working life. Born in 1837 in Aberdeen, the whereabouts of ANN WEBSTER are unknown until 1856 when she married John Fryer at Crakehall, in Yorkshire. John Fryer, was the illegitimate son of HARRIET FRYER, herself illegitimate. Her mother MARY (FRYER) IVESON, lived in Ramsgill, Stonebeck Down, Yorkshire, where John was born. Mary was a Pauper. She died in 1848 at the age of 61. Harriet Fryer died of Typhus Fever at the age of 34 in 1847. Her sister, Jane Fryer, married Thomas Tattersall who was a farmer and innkeeper who lived at Crakehall. John Fryer became a Master Butcher employing staff in his business and home.
In 1861 John Fryer and Ann Webster lived in Staveley in Yorkshire. By 1871 they were living in Stockton-on-Tees. Ten years after the death of JOHN FRYER in 1878, Ann (Webster) Fryer and most of her children were living in S Africa in MOUNT FRERE - where the niece of Ann, Jane McGregor (who had married Donald McKay), was living. The eldest son of John Fryer and Ann Webster, John, remained in England. Their eldest daughter, Harriet (named after John Fryer's mother), married Rodger Stamp. He worked as a Foreman Shipwright. [Interesting to note that both Rodger Stamp and Alexander Webster would appear to have worked in shipyards.] By 1891 Harriet had several sons: John, Thomas A, Frank, Frederick, Alexander, Roger B and Sidney, they were living in Barrow-in-Furness. It was said they later emigrated to Canada. As it was not possible to locate them in the Census records after 1891, it is possible they did emigrate.
HARRIET (Fryer) STAMP and four of her children
In the latter years of her life, ANN (Webster) FRYER lived in Hope Street, Kokstad, where she died in 1921.
Marriage of the Granddaughter of Ann Webster and John Fryer
Charlotte Ann Fryer was the daughter of Thomas Tattersall Fryer, son of Ann (Webster) Fryer.
GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
"Mr and Mrs FT Shuttleworth of Main Street, Kokstad, celebrated their Golden Wedding on January 11. An impromptu supper party attended by their many friends was held that evening. Mr and Mrs Shuttleworth, who, before her marriage, was Miss Ann Fryer, were married at Matatiele on January 11, 1911. At first they farmed at "Weltevrede", now Bonnyridge, and later at "Oatlands", Kokstad, where Mr Shuttleworth was born. They then left East Griqualand for "Silver Creek", Oribi Flats, were they lived for 17 years. Both Mr and Mrs Shuttleworth were pleased to return to this District in 1936, when they took up residence at "Roodeberg", Franklin. After 14 years, Mr Shuttleworth retired to Kokstad where he has since lived. They have one daughter, Mrs Donald Brown, of "Con Amore", Cedarville, and three grandchildren. Their only son died after a tragic car accident 6 years ago."
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