C2 The Smith Family:   Robert Willetts Smith III   Home Page  Family History  Smith Family Start  16 April 2007 

2.         Robert Willetts Smith (III) (Nan’s father)

Robert Willetts Smith (III) Nan’s, Lillian Smith’s, father was born on January 16th 1866 at Cherry Street Stafford:

Figure 10        Birth of Robert Willetts Smith in 1866

St.Cath.Index Birth.:  1866, 1st Quarter, Stafford. 6b  5 (Robert W. Smith)

Sadly, his father was ill for the three years before he died of TB in 1869, thus he is unlikely to have been able to play exhuberantly with his young son.  Annoyingly Jane and her son Robert were not found in the 1871 census.   With money almost certainly in short supply, it is probable that Jane’s subsequent marriage to Benjamin Peake, a widower, in 1872 was a marriage of mutual convenience.

Figure 11        Marriage of Jane Smith and Benjamin Peake in 1872

An aside:

Interestingly, Benjamin Peake was found when the 1851 census was re- checked.  Benjamin was, at that time, unmarried and the brother in law of William Smith (born c.1808).  There is no evidence to indicate that William Smith is related to the R.W.S families:  With shoe-making being so prevalent in Stafford, the fact that William was a cordwainer, born in Stafford and had a brother named John (born c.1821) is only suggestive.  If William was related then he would have to be Robert Willetts Smith (I)’s brother or nephew.

William Smith has a daughter, named Mary (22 yrs old) and, a wife named Jane (aged only 33) .  The presence of a Mary Smith is interesting because Benjamin Peake married a Mary Smith on the  6th of July 1851 @ St.Mary’s Stafford.  (1851 census: ED9i, F203, P34, S131 3 Snow Hill)

Nan’s grandmother Jane (Smith) and Benjamin Pierce had two children before the 1881 census.  Jane’s age and place of birth confirm that she was RWS (II)’s wife.  The name of Robert’s (III) step brother Edgar, though not the relationship, was given to me in advance by Uncle Bill (William Robert Nichols).

Figure 12        Albert Smith’s Shop in Leicester

The family also has a photograph of a shop belonging to an Albert Smith in Leicester.  The surprise, was the age of Albert Smith.  The apparantly logical assumption that Albert and Robert W. Smith (III) were full brothers is very unlikely.  When Albert was born Jane would have been at most 15 yrs old and anyway, she didn’t marry Robert W. Smith (II) until 1858.  Whilst Albert could be an illegitimate son of Robert Willetts Smith (II) and Jane, the 9 year old boy was not living with the couple in the 1861 census.  The most likely conclusion is that Mary, Benjamin’s first wife, had an illegitimate child named Albert.  Albert may be Benjamin’s stepson, he is certainly un-related to Robert (III).  For the dates to fit, Albert would have been born only a month or two before Benjamin and Mary’s marriage. 

Census Year: 1881     Archive Reel Description  1341644, Red:7993

William Peake married, left home and had a daughter c.1884 (1891 census, William aged 31 worked as a fitter & lived at Marston Rd., F22, P42, S262, wife (aged 32 a machinist) & daughter (aged 7) were named Susan E.).

As is evident, from the 1881 census Robert W.S. (III) worked making shoes.  In 1884 he married Sarah Ann Johnson (See Johnson family, below) at St Mary’s Church, Stafford on June 2nd.  Both were aged 18 though they claimed to be 19.

Figure 13        Marriage of Robert Willett Smith and Sarah Ann Johnson in 1884

(Staffordshire, archive information) St.Cath.Index Marr: 1884, 2nd Quarter, Stafford. 6b 40.

The couple’s daughter Lillian Smith (Nan) was born shortly afterwards on 15 August 1884.

Figure 14        Baptismal Entry of Lillian Smith  1884

Information supplied by D.A.Stoker, Archivist, 19 March 1991. Their ref 7/2.

Nancy Nichols believed that Sarah left Robert within three years.   Strong supportive evidence of the marriage breakdown of Lillian (Nan’s) parents was found in the 1891 census, where the following two entries were found:

Census Year: 1891     Archive Reel Description  91/55

*          Living on her own means                    **        Working:Iron trade/Mechanic

Lillian Smith, Nan, is living with her paternal grandmother who has been widowed again.  Sarah A. Smith, Lillian’s mother, is staying with her mother Elizabeth Johnson.  With Elizabeth’s birth given as Stafford, her maiden name Read,  William must be her brother. 

Whilst Robert Willets Smith (III) was not found in the 1891 census, he is believed to have continued to live at Stafford for some years.  In the 1901 census at Kettering the following family was found:

My mother, Nancy, thought that Robert (III) and Lillian had moved to Kettering circa 1903 where he became foreman of a shoe factory closing room; Lillian was responsible for the samples (William Nichols’ recollection). The fact that Robert’s job and place of birth are correct and that there is a link to Leicester suggests that this is Lillian’s father.  However, since Robert was christened in Jan 1866 his age is a couple of years out; with his wife’s name being Ellen rather than Frances, see below, this suggests that identity is uncertain and further checks are required (Electoral rolls, 1891 Leicester Census, Marriage/birth certificate).

Lillian married Frank Nichols on November 9th 1912  (See Nichols Family Tree).  Lillian and her father Robert (III) were living @ 207 Bath Rd., Kettering and he was a ‘Foreman, Shoe Closer’.  Between 1916 and 1922 Robert opened a boot & shoe shop at 249 Saffron Lane, Leicester.  According to the ‘Directory’ of Leics & Rutland, the business changed premises twice.  In 1932 he had two shops open in, and maintained one until at least 1936:

Figure 15        Directory Information on Robert Willetts Smith, Boot and Shoe Dealer

In 1936, the last year his name was in the directory, Robert would have been circa 73 years old.

According to Uncle Bill, an Aunt Nelly had a sweet shop in Roseberry Street (husband named Edgar Peake?) Leicester.  Roseberry street is near Spinney Hill Park, from B6416, into Nottingham Rd, first left Roseberry Street.  Edgar Peake was Robert’s half brother.  The Peake’s are thought to have returned to Stafford, and it is probably Edgar Peake’s wife on the balcony at Park Str.

The electoral list below proves that Robert moved house from Cavendish Rd. to Lansdowne Rd. in 1936 and names Robert’s new wife.  According to my mother, Nancy Nichols, Robert never divorced his first wife.  When he remarried he apparently claimed, , that he ‘believed his first wife was dead’.  His second wife, Frances, became an alcoholic, ‘drinking 3 or 4 bottles of Gin a day’.  The couple are believed to have had a son named James.

Figure 17        Electoral List of Voters in Leicester

Key:  Qualifications:     R: Residential                                                    O: Occupational 

                                    D_w: disqualified by husbands occupation  O_w: wife’s residential

Note:  No electors named at 12 Cavendish Rd.,

Whilst the above evidence suggests that it is likely that Robert died in 1937/1938, this has not been proved.  No entry was found in the obituary columns of the Leicester Mercury between May 1936 and Dec 1937; nor in the Walford Rd. cemetery index between 1935 and 1942 (though they were for a number of Frances/Fanny Smith’s: Jun 11 1937, City Mental Hospital; Jan 31 1940, 72 Mount Rd.; Dec 13 1941, Mountsorrel Nursing Home.).  Even more surprising, a search of St Catherine’s Index suggests that the only Robert Smith who died at Leicester between 1934 and 1940 was aged 86 (Q1, 7a 645) - RWS would have been 74.  (A search of Willetts-Smith between 1936 & 1939 was equally unsuccessful).  (For RWS’s grave, try Saffron Hill Cemetry, this is near, but South South East of map drawn above)

According to Uncle Bill, Robert’s death was linked to misfortune - a gust of wind caused him to lose £100 of the cash he was taking to the bank; he died soon after. 

The only other memory that we have about Robert (III) and his family, is that his brother William  (presumably William Peake) was nicknamed ‘Billy Kill Donkey’.  Apparently, Billy drank so much that he had a donkey to ride home.  When, one day the donkey refused to move Billy, in a fit of temper, hit it so hard with his fist that it fell down dead (tale by Uncle Bill - William Nichols).

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