EDGOOSE:
In search of Ancestry
MORRIS, John Robson
1836 - 1912 (76 years) Has 2 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
1806 - 1883 (78 years)-
Name MORRIS, John Robson Birth 1836 Bamburgh, Northumberland, England 
Gender Male Death 1912 Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland Person ID I340 Edgoose Last Modified 4 Feb 2026
Father MORRIS, Thomas, b. Abt 1801, Hexham, Northumberland, England d. 1879, Sunderland Registration District, County Durham (Age 78 years) Mother ROBSON, Dorothy, b. Between 1805 and 1806, Hareholm, County Durham, England d. 1883, Sunderland Registration District, County Durham (Age 78 years) Family ID F229 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family EDGOOSE, Patience, b. 28 May 1838, West Walton, Norfolk d. 21 Feb 1915, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Northumberland (Age 76 years) Marriage 6 Jan 1883 Walpole St. Peter, Norfolk Family ID F222 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
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Notes
JOHN ROBSON MORRIS 1836-1912
John Robson MORRIS, son of Thomas MORRIS and his wife Dorothy MORRIS formerly ROBSON of Bamburgh, Northumberland, was baptised at Bamburgh on 10 January 1836. His father was Master of the Castle School.
(FreeReg)
The 1871 census of Huntley Place, Monkwearmouth, County Durham:
Thomas MORRIS, head, aged 69, retired schoolmaster, born at Hexham, Northumberland;
Henry R. MORRIS, son, aged 38, commercial traveller, born at Easington, County Durham;
Thomas MORRIS, son, aged 37, clerk (draper), born at Easington;
*John R. MORRIS, son, aged 35, butcher, born at Bambro (sic), Northumberland;
Dorothy B. MORRIS, daughter, aged 33, unmarried, born at Bambro;
Margaret E. DOXFORD, granddaughter, aged 5, born at Pallion, Durham.
(RG10/5020/76/89)
The 1881 census returns for 5 Huntley Place, Monkwearmouth, County Durham:
Dorothy MORRIS, head, aged 75, widow, born at Hareholm, County Durham;
Henry MORRIS, son, aged 48, draper's assistant, born at Easington, County Durham;
*John MORRIS, son, aged 42, unemployed butcher, born at Bambro, Northumberland;
Dorothy GRAHAM, daughter, aged 42, born at Bambro, Northumberland.
(RG11/5005/109/91)
John Robson MORRIS and Patience EDGOOSE (1838-1915) were married at Walpole St. Peter, Norfolk, on 6 January 1883. John Robson MORRIS was 46 years old, a bachelor, a butcher from Sunderland, County Durham, and son of schoolmaster Thomas MORRIS. Witnesses were her brother Stanton John EDGOOSE (1844-1927) and Catherine CASH, future wife of his half-brother Benjamin.
(GRO March Q 1883 Wisbeach 3b 835)
In 1891 they were living at 33 Bell Terrace, Elswick, Newcastle-on-Tyne. John R. MORRIS was 55 years old and employed as a butcher. Patience said she was just 48 years old!
(RG12/4196/61/55)
At the time of the 1901 census she and her husband were living in two rooms at 33 Bell Terrace, Elswick, Newcastle. John R. MORRIS was a 65 year old general factory labourer born at Bamburgh in Northumberland. Patience MORRIS was said to be 59 years old and born at West Walton, Norfolk.
(RG13/4770/66/10)
From the 1911 census of 33 Bell Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland:
*John Robson MORRIS, head, aged 75, labourer in brass foundry, born at Bamburgh, Northumberland;
Patience MORRIS, wife, aged 72, married 25 years, no children, born at West Walton, Norfolk.
(RG14PN30587/RG78PN1753/RG558/SD3/ED9/SN124)
The death aged 76 of John R. MORRIS was registered in 1912.
(GRO September Q 1912 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 10b 67)
Deborah DOXFORD, wife of shipbuilder Alfred DOXFORD, was his sister.
The Edgoose and Morris families may have had genealogical encounters on two occasions, one absolutely certain, the other more of a mystery.
John Robson Morris (1836-1912), born at Bamburgh, Northumberland, in 1836, married a much travelled Patience Edgoose (1838-1915) on 6 January 1883. Deborah Doxford, wife of Alfred Doxford the shipbuilder, was his sister.
John Robson Morris died aged 76 in 1912. Patience died at 33 Bell Terrace, Elswick, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on 21 February 1915 - also at the age of 76. Her niece Beatrice A. Doxford (1872-1959) of the shipbuilding family "caused the body touried".
In her will dated 2 September 1913 Patience left "all of which I am possessed" to the aforesaid niece Beatrice Adelaide Doxford, spinster. Her brother Charles Henry Doxford (1876-1947), engineer, was a surety to the will. All of which shs possessed amounted to £8 7s. 6d.
A sad little tale of poverty and riches before the First World War.
The second encounter stems from a Sympathy Card sent to his widow, my grandmother, following the death of Walter Leeder Edgoose (1871-1957) on 28 October 1957. The card was folded into two layers, joined by the fold at the top and by a blibbon in the centre of the folded card. Lifting one corner revealed a note: "From Mr Mr [sic] Morris & Carl. West Walton". When the card came into my possession, I asked who Mr. and Mrs. Morris were. Nobody knew.
Ten years ago, I wrote to an address I had for Mrs. Rachel Morris of West Walton in Norfolk. I received two replies from Mrs. Lynn Watts on behalf of her mother Rachel and Lynn's late father Carl. Her grandparents Harry and Annie and sonl moved to the cottage in River Road, West Walton, where her mother now lives, in 1953. Her mother was fairly sure that it was rented from a Mr. and Mrs. Edgoose and had been occupied by the Morris family possibly from the very early 1900s. Mrs. Edgoose died sometime after 1953 and the person looking after her affairs, believed to be a niece, offered Harry and Annie Morris the opportunity to buy the cottage for £200. They became the freeholders.
I replied that my grandfather Walter Leeder Edgoose (1871-1957) might have inherited the cottage from his father James Edgoose (1847-1892). Patience Edgoose née Hudson (1817-1906) was known to have lived near Garden House, River Road, Weston, when she first married Stanton Edgoose (1810-1845) and later gave birth to six more children after his death. Mrs. Lyn Watts had mentioned in her letter of 13 July 2006 that Garden House was two doors away from her mother's cottage. A painting exists of the cottage where Patience lived and it may be possible to identify its exact position and that of the Garden House on the tithe maps now being reprinted by a genealogical publisher.
(revised 05.05.2024)