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Manx Genealogy Archive 1

Re: Ratcliffe of Malew?
In Response To: Ratcliffe of Malew? ()

Martha Bennett buried Malew 28 Aug 1835 age 63 - she was the widow of Henry Le[a]y Bennett; it would appear from the Burial Register of St. Mary's, Walton, Liverpool, that Martha's father was Thomas Ratcliff[e]as recorded in the burials of two of her children but no obvious baptism has been found.

Following Henry's death, Martha and some of her family went to live in the Isle of Man - : Henry Le[a]y Bennett of Liverpool, was a tobacco and snuff manufacturer/merchant. and came from a long-established family of Cheshire landowners, Chester Wine Merchants and civic worthies. Henry was a 4th son. He died in January 1823. Shortly afterwards, their oldest child Eleanor married Thomas Roe in Liverpool and on the 3 May 1823 Thomas and Eleanor together with Eleanor's sister, Elizabeth, sailed for Bombay, where Thomas was an officer in the Regiment of the East India Company. On the same voyage was a Lieutenant Humphrey Lyons, also in the service of the E.I.C., whom Elizabeth married in 1824. After her widowhood, followed rapidly by the departure abroad of two of her surviving 5 children, Martha, her remaining daughter, Matilda, and two sons, Henry and John George removed to the Isle of Man.

Matilda married John Septimus Roe, the younger brother of her sister's husband Thomas, in 1829. Shortly afterwards, the couple departed on the "Parmelia" for the foundation of the Swan River Colony, the first on the west coast of Australia - where John Septimus was the first Surveyor-General. Sometime later, Martha and family settled at Ballasalla House, Malew. Following the death of their mother, Eleanor, in India in 1827, Martha's grand-daughters Eleanor and Matilda were sent home and came to live with her where they stayed until her death in 1835.As her son-in-law, Thomas Roe, was a witness to the will, he must by then have retired from service in India and from then on had care of his daughters - marrying in November the same year his cousin Lucy Roe as his second wife. Following Martha's death, her younger son John George (1809-1880) married 1839 Sarah Anne Woodward 1814-1886) in Liverpool (newspaper account had 24 Sept 1839 Married at Walton J C Bennett of Ramsey To Sarah Ann daughter of the late Thomas Woodward.. The family resided at Ballacosnahan, Patrick, c. 1842-47. In 1847 they appear to have built a substantial house called Willaston (The Old Hall, Willaston, Wirral, was the 'ancestral' home of the Bennett family) in Onchan. John George and Sarah had three daughters: Annie b. 1840 at Andreas, eventually married Thomas Poole 1887 following the death of her mother in 1886; Sarah Georgina (1842-1913), born Patrick, never married but left an informative Will, and Eleanor Matilda (1844-1892), born Patrick, who married David Fenwick Steavenson, a barrister and eventually County Court judge and left two daughters, Ella and Isoline, who married, respectively, Ernest Harvey and Wilfrid Lewis. John George Bennett was a member of the House of Keys from 1851. He died in 1880, his burial is recorded at Malew on 2 August that year.

There is recorded in the newspapers: 2nd June 1829 died at his house in Athol St George Bennett esq aged 53, followed 23 Feb 1830 to be sold on the premises the furniture and effects etc - Henry had a younger brother, George, who was, in business with him - and was also mentioned in father John's invaluable Will - thus it is possible that Martha moved in with him after Henry's death and then onto Ballasalla house when the Athol Street property was disposed on.

Ballasalla House was noted 2 July 1829 - to be let Ballasalla House, Malew, the property of Mr George Drinkwater - apply W Leece Douglas or Mrs Drinkwater Rodney St Liverpool

There was another Bennet Marriage noted - Manx Advertiser 17 Aug 1835 James Bennett of Broughton Lane (Liverpoool) to Mrs Shimmin widow of Ratcliffe Shimmin Esq but not clear who this was.