M*CH*MORE One Name Study

The M*CH*MOREs of Wales

Several M*CH*MOREs immigrated into Wales from Devon and Cornwall in the 19th century. Generally, they made their homes at or near the place where they first arrived and most of their descendants stayed in the same area. A few other M*CH*MOREs merely spent some time in Wales without really settling. A total of ten lines has been identified. Not surprisingly, most of these lines were to be found in South Wales (Carmarthenshire, Glamorganshire, Monmouthshire, Breconshire) and only one in North Wales (Merionethshire). The ten lines, in order of immigration, are as follows:

• Samuel MITCHELMORE (Tree 09) moved to near Aberdare, Glamorganshire, about 1835 and became a miner.
• William MITCHELMORE (Tree 09) was already an experienced carpenter when he moved to Cardiff, Monmouthshire, about 1838.
• William Henry MITCHELMORE (Tree 09) moved to near Barmouth, Merionethshire, about 1870 and became a gardener and later a farmer and innkeeper.
• George MITCHELMORE (Tree 02) moved to Llandilo, Carmarthenshire, about 1873 to become a police constable, reaching the rank of inspector.
• William Henry MUCHMORE (Tree 20), a Cornish wheelwright, moved to Cardiff in 1888.
• Stone mason Peter MITCHELMORE (Tree 13) moved to Tredegar, Monmouthshire, about 1893.
• Frederick George Manning MITCHELMORE (Tree 02) moved to Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, about 1893 and became a policeman.
• An unidentified William MITCHELMORE 1558 (Tree 760) spent a night in Abergavenney Workhouse in 1899.
• Mason William Henry MUCHMORE (Tree 20) moved to Llanwrthwl, Breconshire, about 1900, but left within 10 years for Yorkshire.
• Bank manager Charles Stuart MICHELMORE 2483 (Tree 17) was transferred to Blaenavon, Breconshire, in 1902.

The following sections outline the family lines founded by each of these M*CH*MOREs. For the sake of brevity, little is said about the female children and the charts only indicate those who carried the surname. Further details can be found by following the links provided.

Underlining (if any) indicates changes made at the latest update.

Samuel MITCHELMORE, immigrated 1835

Samuel was born in Stokenham. It is not known when he moved to live near Aberdare, but the purpose was presumably to find work—which he did as a coal miner. In fact, he founded a long line of miners living in the Aberdare area and most of the daughters became wives of miners.

About 1838, Samuel married Welsh woman Gwenllian RICHARDS. They had two sons and two daughters. Samuel died at the early age of 51 and Gwenllian twenty years later.

Second generation

Samuel’s first son David Stone spent 50 years in the coal mines but never married. His younger brother William married Mary MORGAN in 1868. They had five sons and six or seven daughters, but four of their children died in infancy.

Third generation

William’s oldest son, Samuel, married Rebecca WILLIAMS in 1908. Samuel was the first M*CH*MORE to move away from Aberdare, finding work—again as a miner—in Bridgend and later Neath. He had one daughter. After Rebecca died, Samuel married widow Florence Elizabeth JAMES in 1943; they had no children.

William’s second son, David John, became a miner and married Sarah Ann PHILLIPS in 1915. They had two daughters, both of whom died in infancy, and one son.

The youngest son, Lewis Watkin, also became a miner and married Mary JAMES in 1913; they had two sons and a daughter. After Mary died, Lewis married Catherine REES in 1957 but they had no children.

Fourth generation

We do not know if David John's son David William was a miner. He married Margaret Prestwood MORRIS in 1950 and had one son (data confidential).

Of Lewis Watkin's sons, William John became a miner. He married Dilys Ann POWELL in 1938 but they had no children. His brother Brynwyn at some stage moved to London, where he became a builder’s labourer. He married Brenda Kathleen CUTTER in 1945 but they also had no children. Some time before 1983 the couple moved back to Aberdare, where they both died.

William MITCHELMORE, immigrated 1838

William was born in Sherford, but as a young man he moved to Dartmouth and became a shipwright. There he made the acquaintance of a sea captain of Watchet, Somerset, and in 1808 married the captain’s daughter Rachel QUIRCK. They settled in his wife’s home town, where they had three sons and a daughter. Probably about 1838, apparently after Rachel had died, William and his children moved to Cardiff—no doubt influenced by another (unidentified) seafaring acquaintance. William spent the rest of his life in Cardiff and founded one of the most extensive lines of Welsh M*CH*MOREs.

Second generation

William Quirke started his adult life as a carpenter. He married Jane STOATE in Chelsea in 1838 but then moved back to Cardiff, where the couple made a home not far from his father and his siblings. This William ran the Fountain Inn in Cardiff for almost 20 years but also became a well known builder.

Jane bore him five children between 1840 and 1850, but three of them died as infants—including her last one, at whose birth she herself died. Seven years later, William married Melora Sarah Toundy MILLS of Reading. She bore him a further four children between 1858 and 1865, but only one son survived.

His brother John William also became a carpenter. He married Rebecca PRING in 1836 but she died two years later. Her death may in fact have been the stimulus for William Senior to take his family away from Somerset. Soon after moving to Cardiff and starting to build up his carpenter business there, John married Deborah COOPER. The couple had five children between 1842 and 1852. However, John died three months before his youngest child was born and both Deborah and her child died five months later.

The youngest brother, Henry Andrew, started life as a cabinet maker in Cardiff. He married Charlotte STOATE in 1842 and had four sons. About 1853 he moved to London and became the landlord of the Phoenix public house in Westminster, a position he held until his death.

Third generation

William Quirke’s son Andrew also became a carpenter and lived in Cardiff all of his life. He married Elizabeth Jane WILLIAMS in 1874. They had twelve children, but only four survived into adulthood. Andrew died soon after the youngest child was born.

William Quirke’s other son, Ernest Cecil, trained as an architect but in 1889 moved to Goring-on-Thames to become the proprietor of the Miller of Mansfield hotel. There he established himself as a respected businessman, becoming at one time vice-chairman of the Rural District Council. Ernest married Millicent Emily JACQUES, one of his barmaids, in 1885 and they had three children.

John William’s only son, John, was only 3 years of age when his father died. In 1861 he was being taken care of by his uncle Phillip COOPER in Kent, but nothing else is known about him.

Henry Andrew’s four sons all lived in London and died relatively young and unmarried: William Henry and Edwin both became law clerks, with William dying aged 23 and Edwin aged 28. Alfred started out as an accountant but died aged 21, and Frederick trained as a watchmaker and died aged 34.

Fourth generation

Andrew’s oldest son, William Quirck, married Julia WATKINS in 1899. They had only one child, who died shortly after her birth. Apart from a spell of military service before he married, a time as a pork butcher in Merthyr Tydfil and service in the army during World War I, William Quirck lived all his life in Cardiff working as a horse driver.

Andrew’s second son, Henry Alfred, never married. Apart from service in the army during World War I, he lived his whole life in Cardiff running a small grocery shop and a building business.

Andrew’s youngest son Edwin Herbert started out as a pianoforte salesman. In 1912 he married Laura THOMAS and emigrated to Winnipeg MB in Canada, where he had two daughters. In 1926 he moved to the United States and spent many years working as a woodworker in an aircraft factory in Venice CA. The couple spent the last few years of their lives together in Santa Monica CA.

Ernest Cecil’s first son Ernest Lionel Quirke spent the first twenty years of his working life as an international businessman, spending time in Canada, Japan, China and Singapore. He married Marie Densille Nora Josephine CREAGH-BARRY in 1932 and lived the rest of his life in Brighton and Bournemouth. They had no children.

Ernest’s other son William Norman became an accountant, working in Reading and Hove. He married Dorothy JOHNSON in 1927, but they also had no children.

There being no sons born in the fourth generation, this M*CH*MORE line has now died out.

William MITCHELMORE, immigrated 1870

William Henry was born in Dartmouth. He married Mary Ann MUGFORD in 1858 and spent 10 years as a sailor based at Blackawton. The couple had three sons before they moved to the Barmouth area of Merionethshire about 1870. He initially worked as a gardener at Bontddu and then Llanddwywe Is Y Graig, eventually purchasing a small farm. In 1893 he became the licensee of the Llanddwyew Inn in Dyffryn, a position he held until shortly before his death. He founded the most extensive line of Welsh M*CH*MOREs, almost all of whom remained within 5 km of Barmouth.

Second generation

William Henry’s oldest son was also called William Henry. He seems to have worked on his father’s farm until he was 50 years old, when he returned to the South Hams and in 1910 married Charlotte MUGFORD—a first cousin (once removed) of his mother. The couple settled in Paignton and had one child, a daughter.

William Henry’s second son, Albert, was a butcher and lived in the Barmouth area. He married Sarah ELLIS in 1885 and for some reason changed his surname from MITCHELMORE to MICHELMORE. (Family lore speaks of a rift with the rest of the family.) The couple had 5 children.

The youngest son, Edward John, may also have helped on his father’s farm. He married Mary WILLIAMS in 1888 and they had nine children, one of whom died in infancy.

Third generation

Albert’s only son, William John, was a railway porter before he enlisted in the army in 1910. But he was discharged medically unfit in 1914 and became a bricklayer and worked in the Barmouth area. He married Elizabeth Jane WILLIAMS in 1921 and they had six children.

Albert’s daughter Catherine Alice is included in the chart because she gave birth to a male M*CH*MORE before she married (see below).

Edward John’s first son, William Henry, was a farm hand before he enlisted in the army in 1915, only to be discharged the following year due to heart disease. He went to live with his uncle William in Paignton and lived a long life despite his heart condition but did not marry.

Of the remaining sons, David worked on his father’s farm before marrying Margaret Alice ROWLANDS in 1928 and moving to Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire, where he became a bus driver. They had four children. Thomas also started on his father’s farm and eventually became a farm bailiff. He married Nellie HUGHES in 1921, continued to live near Barmouth, and had two children. Robert married Elizabeth Ellen RIDLEY in 1931. They lived in Merionethshire for a time, where they had seven sons, but died in Denbighshire.

Fourth generation

William John’s older son John Bennett became a butcher and did not marry. His younger son Albert became a squadron leader in the RAF and later a teacher of handicapped children in the Barmouth area. He married Phoebe PUGH in 1920, but they did not have any children.

Catherine Alice’s son William Edward moved from Merionethshire to Leicester some time between 1956, when he married Dorothy Irene SAMPSON, and 1984, when he married Pauline Mavis AHEARN.

David’s son Wynne married Glenys Olwen DAVIES in 1954 and the couple lived all their lives in Llanidloes, Powys. Data on David’s other children are confidential.

Thomas’s son William Henry spent some time in the Birmingham area. He married Dora KEYS there in 1951 but soon afterwards the couple returned to Barmouth, where they had five children.

Of Robert’s children, Maldwyn was a ship’s cook. He married Edith Margaret Elaine EVANS in 1956 and lived in Anglesey. Edgar John married Joanna Muriel EVANS in 1952 and settled in the Bangor area. Richard Elwyn married Catherine Jane OWEN in 1954 and remained in the Barmouth area. Robert’s other four sons lived in the Bangor area; only Robert Ieuan married.

Subsequent generations

There are several more members of this line still alive, but most of their data are confidential. The only exception is William Henry’s son David, who remained in Merionethshire all his life.

George MITCHELMORE, immigrated 1873

George was born in Slapton and lived there until soon after 1871, when he moved to South Wales. He obtained work as a police constable at Llandilo, Carmarthenshire, in 1874 and the following year married Elizabeth Jane COLE, daughter of a Cornish lead miner. Whether he knew Elizabeth before moving to South Wales, we shall probably never know. George served for more than 32 years in the Carmarthenshire police force, having been promoted to inspector shortly before he died in 1907.

George had only one child: Ernest Vernon, known as Vernon. The British India department store Whiteway, Laidlaw & Co opened a new branch in Singapore in 1900 and Vernon succesfully applied for a position as salesman there. In 1903, he married Lillian Maud GAYDON; they had four children in Singapore and Hong Kong before they returned to England in 1919. Vernon made frequent visits to the Far East in his capacity as manager of Whiteway, Laidlaw & Co’s drapery department until 1931, when he retired to Fremington, near Barnstaple.

Only two of Vernon’s children lived until adulthood. Vernon Boyne, who had been educated at a Yorkshire boarding school, became a successful chartered accountant. He settled in Kent, where he married Joan BOND in 1939 and fathered two daughters. Vernon's other son, Henry George suffered some handicap and died young without marrying.

William Henry MUCHMORE, immigrated 1888

William Henry was born in Polbathick, Cornwall, where he became a wheelwright. In 1887 he married Elizabeth Mary BASTOW; by 1889 they had moved to Cardiff, where they lived for the rest of their lives. They had five sons before Elizabeth died in 1933, one of whom died as an infant.

The eldest son Henry John enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1911 and had risen to the rank of Chief Engine Room Artificer by the time he was discharged in 1920. He married Dorothy Hawthorn IRVING in 1917 in Cardiff. It is not known how long he remained in Cardiff after his discharge, but by 1939 he was a locomotive fitter in Durham; he died in Portsmouth.

The second son Alfred Ernest never married. He lived all his life in Cardiff, becoming a master mariner well before he died in 1976.

The third son William Percy started life as a miner in Abercynon. But after his World War I army service, during which he married Alice Maud DENMAN, he settled in Cardiff. They had one child, a daughter.

William Henry’s youngest son Wilfred Ewart followed in his father’s footsteps as a wheelwright. He married Florence Annie PASCOE in 1921 and they had one child before she died in 1954. Two years later, Wilfred married her younger sister Gladys PASCOE.

Wilfred Ewart’s son Norman William Wilfred also lived his entire life in Cardiff. He married Josephine Daisy CONNOLLY in 1949; it was her second marriage.

Peter MITCHELMORE, immigrated 1893

Born in Stoke Fleming, Peter became a stone mason and moved to Dartmouth. Then, sometime after 1891, he moved to Tredegar, near Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire. In 1895 he married Beatrice Mary MORGAN but died seven years later after fathering two sons.

His older son William Daniel Gwyn was a carpenter. After serving in World War I as a sapper, he returned to Tredegar where he married Phyllis PARKER in 1932 but died five years later.

His econd son Clifford Alexander also became a carpenter. He married Doris Anne THOMAS in 1941 but died the same year.

Neither son had any sons themselves.

Frederick George Manning MITCHELMORE, immigrated 1893

Frederick George Manning (1874-1966), a nephew of George mentioned above, was born in Rattery. He followed George to Carmarthenshire between 1891 and 1894 and became a police constable at Llanelly. In 1896 he married Edith Mary REES, daughter of a police inspector, but he himself never rose above the rank of sergeant. The couple did not have any children. and Frederick died in 1966 in Haverford West.

William MITCHELMORE, resident in 1899

William was admitted to Abergavenney Workhouse in 1899 for one night, after which he proceeded to Cardiff. He stated that he was a seaman aged 46, but it has not been possible to find any other details about him or his family.

William Henry MUCHMORE, resident in 1903-1905

William Henry (1869-1938) was born in Falmouth, Cornwall, where he became a mason. However, he left the area after he was ordered to make child-support payments to a local woman in 1898. By 1903 he was married to a Welsh woman Elizabeth Ann LLOYD and living in Llanwrthwl, Breconshire, where they had two of their four children. However, by 1909 they had moved to Derbyshire. In 1911, Henry may have been engaged in building the Derwent Reservoir in Sheffield, while his family was living back in his wife’s home town of Aberdare. By 1916, they had settled in Greasborough, near Sheffield, where William died.

William Henry’s only son, also called William Henry (1905-1973), worked in the same area of Yorkshire. He married Marion Bradley STEEL in 1937 and they had two sons before moving to the South coast of England, where they both died. Data on their children are confidential.

Charles Stuart MICHELMORE, appointed 1902

Charles Stuart was born in Dartmouth in 1867. By 1891 he was employed by the Bank of Wales in Bath, where he soon became the manager. He married Lucy PEARSON in 1896 and in 1902 was appointed manager of the Metropolitan Bank of England & Wales in Blaenavon, Breconshire. Shortly thereafter, he also took over responsibility for the bank’s branch in nearby Brynmawr. He died in 1928 in Bleanavon, by which time his bank had become first the London City & Midland Bank and then simply the Midland Bank. He had no children.