Robert Graham and Elizabeth Dixon

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Parents John Graham and Elizabeth Reay                Robert Dixon

Robert Graham (b 1819 Newcastle-on-Tyne, m Elizabeth Dixon 1838 Newcastle-on-Tyne, d 1868 Newcastle-on-Tyne)
Elizabeth Dixon (b 1819, d 1878)
      John Downs Graham (b 1838 Newcastle-on-Tyne, m Margaret Jane Grovenlock 1859 Newcastle-on-Tyne, d 1888 Newcastle-on-Tyne)
      Elizabeth Graham (b 1839 Newcastle-on-Tyne, d 1842 Newcastle-on-Tyne)
   Ann Graham (b 1841 Newcastle-on-Tyne, d 1844 Newcastle-on-Tyne
     Mary Ann Graham (b 1843 St Andrews, Newcastle-on-Tyne, m John Thompson 1861 All Saints, Newcastle-on-Tyne, d after 1900)
      John Thompson (b 1865 Newcastle-on-Tyne, m Mary Louisa Turner 1887 Newcastle-on-Tyne, d 1893 Newcastle-on-Tyne)
    Norman Thompson (b 1888 Newcastle-on-Tyne, m Winifred Emma Farr 1918 Northcote Vic, d 1932 Thornbury Vic)
    Thomas Henry Graham (b 1846 Newcastle-on-Tyne)
    Robert Graham (b 1849 Newcastle-on-Tyne, d 1863 Newcastle-on-Tyne)
    Elizabeth Ann Graham (b 1850 Newcastle-on-Tyne, d 1855)
    George William Graham (b 1852)
    William Graham (b 1856 Newcastle-on-Tyne, d 1918)

        "Elizabeth’s father was Robert Dixon, glass maker. At the time glassmaking was not an industrialised process and was an important trade in Newcastle. There were fine glassmakers as well as makers of pane glass. Many workers came from the continent and I do wonder whether this may be the source for the skills such as John Thompson’s art and drawing skills? Speculative but a possibility. Of Mary Ann Grahams brothers one started as a coach man but became a pianist/music teacher, another was a leather cutter, I presume a trained craft and I am curious where these traits came from. The eldest brother John Downs Graham seems to have carried on his grandfather’s business of being a commercial traveller dealing in wines and spirits, quite possibly because he seems to have been living with and helping his grandmother in her provisions dealing business."
Gillian

    "Looking again at the marriage certificate of Robert and Elizabeth and the census records I have been wondering. A witness to their marriage was a J. Thompson. In the 1841 census Robert and Elizabeth lived on Prudhoe Street. So too did Mary Thompson and her family, by which time she was a widow and so too did James Thompson, a tailor, Mary Thompson’s brother-in-law and uncle to John Thompson who married Mary Ann Graham. James Thompson and his wife married the week after Robert and Elizabeth but at a different church. I just wonder if Robert and James were friends - they were certainly neighbours and reasonably close in age. Perhaps he was the J Thompson on their marriage certificate, alternatively if could be entirely coincidental."
Gillian

1841 Census

Prudhoe St (Q), St Andrews, Newcastle on Tyne
Robert Graham        22   Printer
Elizabeth Graham     22
Elizabeth Graham     18 months

1851 Census

Percy St, St Andrews, Newcastle - all born Newcastle
Robert Graham 32 Printer/Compositor
Elizabeth Graham 32
Mary Graham 5
Thomas Graham 4
Robert Graham 2
Elizabeth Graham under 7 months

"Percy Street was a main thoroughfare leading out of Newcastle and was previously Sidgate. Newcastle used to have fortified walls and the thoroughfare known as Westgate was the road leading from the West Gate in the walls out of the town. As the town expanded Westgate became a district of the town, rather than a suburb. Benwell and Elswick by contrast were villages that became subsumed into Newcastle and so originally would have been suburbs. Prudhoe Street and Prudhoe Place both joined Percy Street. Prudhoe Street was built in 1822."
Gillian

1861 Census

Spring Garden Terrace, Westgate Newcastle on Tyne
Robert Graham 42 Printer/Compositor
Elizabeth Graham 42
Mary Graham 18 Domestic Servant
Thomas H Graham 14 Scholar
Robert Graham 12 Scholar
Elizabeth 10 Scholar
George Graham 8 Scholar
Margaret (Q) Willis 19 Visitor Domestic Servant
"Spring Garden Terrace was a tenement block that incorporated a public house and engine works and overlooked Leases Park, pretty much opposite what is now the stadium in which Newcastle United play."
Gillian

At the time of her death in 1878 the widowed Elizabeth was living at 20 Moor St westgate MNewcastle on Tyne

Research Notes

Acknowledgements

The page is from Gillian Wild via Ancestry. She gave us access to her Ancestry tree (Graham and Govenlock Tree).
Many thanks

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