So what happened to Margery Rigby – the girl who added the family cat to the Census? - (spoiler I couldn’t find too much)

[Another2Cats]

This post was prompted by the comment from @CaptainMyCaptain

"Love it! I wonder what that child went on to do in life."

A quick recap:

In the 1911 Census, the Rigby family of Birkenhead had two children and a maid. Mr Rigby ran a decorating and plumbing business. The family cat was then added by another person (I suspect it was the daughter):

Name: Tobit Crackitt

Relation to head: Tom Cat

Marital Status: Married

No of children: 16

Occupation: Mouse Catcher Soloist & Thief

Birthplace: Birkenhead

Nationality: Cheshire Cat [I think that somebody may have been reading Alice in Wonderland]

Infirmity: Speechless.

Now, of course, no one can say for sure who actually wrote that. I think it unlikely that the live-in maid would have written that or, at least, not on her own initiative.

I think that it was very likely the daughter, Margery, rather than her brother Harold who was then an apprentice wireman (a Post Office employee maintaining the telegraph wires).

I also believe it was her who added “sufferagette” as the occupation for her aunt and the maid. I think it must have been quite an interesting household to live in at that time.

So, what became of Margery?

Margery was born in April 1899 and by the time of the 1901 census her mother was still alive and they were living in the same house.

It is a three storey end of terrace. Just have a look at the house (google street map image below), that had two adults and two children as a family, a brother in law and a domestic servant all living there in that one house.

When people hear the term “domestic service” they often think of something like “Downton Abbey”. But, for most girls and young women, this was much more the reality of being a domestic servant; a single woman working in a relatively modest household.

Her mother died in Q1 (Jan to March) 1909 at the age of 40 a short time before Margery was 10. Then, a few months later, she is reported as having received a First-Class Pass in the primary section of a music exam.

It was reported by The Birkenhead News on 11 Aug 1909:

College of Music
Higher and Local Examination Results

The list has been issued of candidates who were successful in gaining professional diplomas and local certificates at the examinations recently held at the Philharmonic Hall in connection with the London College of Music (Liverpool Centre)

[…]

The following are amongst the results, teachers names being given in parenthesis:

and then under the Primary Section it says:

First Class Pass – Margery Rigby (Miss S Cole, ALCM, Birkenhead)

[ALCM stands for Associate of the London College of Music]

So, in a house that was quite full of people anyway, Margery practising the piano must have added quite a bit to the noise levels.

To be able to employ a domestic servant and to provide his daughter with piano lessons to a suitably high standard, suggests that the father, William, had a business that was doing quite well.

That brings us up to 1911. So what happened afterwards?

Well, by the time of the 1921 Census (see image below), things had changed quite a bit. William has remarried and Margery has moved out – but the story seems rather odd.

William married a woman named Margaret Gall in 1913 near Dundee, Scotland (I’m sure that this is the correct William Rigby as the Dundee Courier of 4 Sept 1913 reported that a “William Rigby of Birkenhead” married a Margaret Webster Gall)

At the time of the 1901 Census Margaret was working as a domestic servant near Dundee but I can find no record of her anywhere in the 1911 census. Did she move down from Dundee to Birkenhead in search of work and there met William?

Or did William spend some time up in Dundee and happen to meet her up there? And if so, where was Margery?

Eight months after the wedding, Margaret gave birth to their first child, still up near Dundee (Monifieth).

So it appears that William just upped sticks and moved to near Dundee for at least a year. What happened to Margery? Did he drag her along with him up to Scotland to live with her new, pregnant, stepmother? Or did he leave her behind with her aunt in the Birkenhead house?

Neither of those two options seem particularly appealing. You’re 14 and your dad drags you off to Scotland to live with his new wife. She gives birth just after your 15th birthday and your stepmother is perhaps a lot more concerned about her new daughter rather than a stepdaughter from a previous relationship.

(Of course, nobody will ever really know how things were – she may well have been an absolutely fantastic step mother who adored her step daughter, we’ll never know)

On the other hand, William may have gone off to Scotland to be with his new wife and left Margery behind in the Birkenhead house with her aunt. Being abandoned like that isn’t great either.

So we get to 1921. William and Margaret have returned to the Birkenhead house and also have a second daughter together by now.

Margery has moved out. It was not common at all for young unmarried women to move out of home at this time unless maybe they were working in domestic service or perhaps had a job a very long way from home.

Neither of these situations applied to Margery, she was living as a boarder in a house that was literally less than 5 mins walk away from the family home, just around the corner.

It seems as though maybe there was a push for her to leave the family home.

Anyway, by 1921 Margery was working as a Clerk at the Inland Revenue (HMRC nowadays) at 35 Hamilton Sq, Birkenhead. About a mile from her home.

Back in those days, civil service appointments were announced in The Gazette (this is the official newspaper to place announcements in eg probate or bankruptcy etc). Margery was first appointed as a typist and then was appointed “after open competition” to the position of “Clerical Class (Women)” for the Inland Revenue.

After 1921 she seems to disappear. I can find no record of her death or emigration. Neither can I find any record of a marriage.

Also, I can find no record of her in the 1939 Register.

There is a record of a Margery Rigby marrying in 1942 in Liverpool North but I have no idea if that is her or not. I would need to purchase a copy of the marriage certificate to confirm if it was her or not.

So, rather disappointingly, the trail dies out. But I do hope that she lived happily whatever she did.

ps With the two women described as suffragettes, I could find no record of them on Ancestry or FindMyPast in connection with suffragette activities so it looks like they were never arrested or reported on in connection with this.

How absolutely fascinating! Thank you so much for this!

Thank you so much for doing this. I like to imagine her as a bright, imaginative girl and doing well. I'm sure the Civil Service appointment was a good step up as it would give her some financial independence although she would have to have given it up on marriage.

I often wonder about people like this. In the school where I used to invigilate there is an honours board with the name of the Head Girl in 1915. She won a university scholarship and I often wondered who she was and what happened to her. I was unable to find anything out and now I've forgotten her name unfortunately.

Something I can add is that the location of William's marriage to Margaret and the birth of their first child together don't necessarily indicate William was resident in Dundee.

It was very common for weddings to take place from (or in Scotland, at) the bride's parents house.

It was also very common for women to return to their mothers for the birth of their first child. I suppose it was helpful and also comforting to have their own mother and close female relatives around during the birth and to provide a period of care afterwards.

Some women also returned for subsequent births, but I think childcare considerations probably cut in and it was more likely a female relative would travel to the growing family, rather than the other way round.

This is brilliant!!! I live in monifieth now, originally from dundee

I have Scottish family who relocated to Birkenhead for the shipbuilding at exactly this period. They'd come from Dundee by way of Glasgow – also major shipbuilding towns.

As with the Rigbys, many of my family members worked in trades other than shipbuilding – there was an easy flow back and forth between the cities because youngsters could stay with family while they established themselves.

Perhaps Margaret relocated to Birkenhead in this way, and met William Rigby there?

@Another2Cats are you sure you have the right marriage for William? Because there is a William Rigby who married an Elizabeth Hetherington in 1914 in Birkenhead. Big coincidence, since that was his sister-in-law Ethel's surname on the census.

She was still in the Civil Service in 1923 according to the London Gazette.
Reported on 8 Sept 1925 in ‘The Edinburgh Gazette”:
AFTER LIMITED COMPETITION
Customs and Excise: .Women Pension Officers - Margery Rigby.

Lovely thread, @Another2Cats. Funnily enough, one of my great-great grandmothers was called Margery Rigby - same spelling - and came from roughly the same part of the country (it wasn’t her, though, mine was a century or so earlier).

This is fascinating, thank you for posting.

There is a Margery Rigby mentioned in The Photographic Journal for 1931 and 1932 (via Google books) - that person had work in photography exhibitions. "Margery Rigby, who is responsible for one of the most pictorial studies in this section, a simple and effective composition entitled "Water Lilies."" (1931). No idea if that is her of course - looks from birth records as if there are at least another 7 it could be, plus assorted Marjories and one Marjory.

Thank you so much, everything you say makes so much more sense than the idea of William just moving to Scotland for a year. I really should have stepped back and thought about it a bit more.

"It was very common for weddings to take place from (or in Scotland, at) the bride's parents house."

Yes, when I first found the wedding I thought that they had just returned to her home town for the wedding, which makes perfect sense (even today, I know couples that have returned to the bride's home town to get married rather than where they were currently living).

But what really confused me was that she also gave birth there as well.

"It was also very common for women to return to their mothers for the birth of their first child."

Thank you for this, it makes so much more sense. I do wonder if William and Margery went with her or she was just there with her parents?

Just as an update, my DH did a bit more digging last night and found Margery after 1921. It appears that, at some point, she was transferred or promoted to the head office of the Inland Revenue in London. She then married a colleague who was also a clerical officer in the Inland Revenue in 1935. By the time of the 1939 Register there were no children.

I hope she was happy. I like her style.

Just a small update. After I gave up, my DH did a bit more digging and found out what happened to Margery after 1921.

It appears that at some point between 1921 and 1935 Margery was transferred or promoted to the Inland Revenue head office in London.

There is then a record of her marrying a James Henry Mitchell in Ilford, Essex. He was also a Clerical Officer with the Inland Revenue.

At first I thought, that can't be her, what's she doing in Essex? But then, on the record it shows her father's name as William Rigby and his occupation as Builder. We know from earlier censuses that William ran a successful decorating and plumbing business so calling him a Builder seems right.

But why was she living on a random street in Ilford? At the time of the wedding she was living at 82 Balfour Road and he was just up the road at number 95.

Then I had a look on the map and Balfour Road is a 5 min walk to Ilford train station which is on the direct line into Liverpool St station. Now that makes sense.

"...although she would have to have given it up on marriage."

Thank you for pointing this out. I was vaguely aware of that but had totally not considered it at all.

That makes a lot more sense of what I found in the 1939 Register. By 1939 they had moved a little further away and were living at 139 Coventry Road.

James was still a Clerical Officer with the Inland Revenue but Margery was by now an "Invoice Typist". She clearly had left the Inland Revenue.

By 1939 they had not had any children and there is no record of any later on either.

Also another poster commented that the name she gave to the cat is almost exactly the same as the character Toby Crackit who is a thief and lock picker in Oliver Twist.

This, along with what I took to be a reference to Alice in Wonderland (the cat's nationality is "Cheshire Cat") suggests that this was a family for whom reading was important.

Thank you OP, I love things like this. She seemed an intelligent but sassy woman

I picture their household in Margery's childhood as one full of quirky, literary, scarily clever people - where if you were the schoolfriend asked round for tea you'd quickly find yourself playing intellectual games like verse-capping, and go home feeling like a complete dunce 😃

You raise a very valid point and this is why it's important to check as much as possible and not just grab onto the first name that seems to be right.

Rigby and Hetherington and not uncommon names in that part of the world. Neither is the first name William.

For example, around this time, in addition to the William Rigby that I was looking for there were three other William Rigbys that married in Birkenhead between 1912 and 1915.

The William Rigby that married Elizabeth Hetherington was living at 7 Florence Street in 1921, which was about a mile away, and he worked as a railway driver for the LNW Railway.

In contrast the William we are looking for ran a decorating & plumbing business.

Hetherington is quite a common name and it looks like Elizabeth Hetherington is maybe a 3rd or 4th cousin at closest.

So that's the information that rules out that William Rigby (and similar for the other two as well), but what positive information is there to say that I have the correct William Rigby.

Well, in 1921 they are still living at the same house, 109 Oxton Road and he is shown as having a plumbing & decorating business, the same as before.

His wife is shown as Margaret Webster Rigby (in the newspaper report of the wedding it gave her name as Margaret Webster Gall) and she was born in Broughty Ferry, which is just outside Dundee.

Their eldest daughter is shown as being born in Monifieth.

So there is evidence to discount the other William Rigbys and also positive evidence to say that it was this William Rigby.

Thanks for the question, it illustrates the sort of process you have to go through when there are several people with the same name that could be the person you're looking for.

@Another2Cats I just had a quick look on FreeBMD out of curiosity - I haven't got Ancestry or any of the others.

Many thanks for the updates. Solving mysteries. ❤️ it!
#teamMargery

Did anyone pinpoint exactly when Margery was born? On the problematic 1921 census her birth month was noted as the same as Minnie Wyatt’s. Minnie F Coe, like Margery, doesn’t appear to have been baptised (though Harold Rigby was).

She had an interesting though brief life.
Margery Mitchell, of 33 Courtland Avenue, Ilford, Essex, wife of James Henry Mitchell, civil servant, died on the 23rd of April 1954 in London Hospital.
I imagine she was wonderful to know.

Thank you so much for finding this.

Thank you for this thread. I’ve loved it, OP.

"On the problematic 1921 census..."

That's really interesting, why do you say that it's "problematic"?

The 1911 census was taken on 2nd April 1911 and Margery's age was given as 11. Implying that her birthday was after this date.

In the 1921 census on 19th June her age was given as 22 years and 2 months which suggests that her birthday was April. This is consistent with the 1911 census.

"Did anyone pinpoint exactly when Margery was born?"

After I gave up in defeat, my DH did a bit more digging and did find her in the 1939 Register living with James.

If you have a look at the actual record for James and Margery at 139 Coventry Road, Ilford, Enumeration district Ccsb then the original record says 21 Apr 90

But, written in above the day of birth is what appears to be: [tick] dot 4.

Then, for the year, 99 has been written in above the existing 90 and then there are initials that are Z.I.B.

It would appear that her year of birth was incorrectly recorded on the 1939 Register. If you just look at transcripts they show the incorrect 1890 date rather than the corrected year of birth.

I believe that her date of birth was 21 April 1899.

I love this! Does anyone have an image of the census with the cat on it?

It's on this thread here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/genealogy/5137431-adding-your-cat-to-the-census-form

Is it possible that second wife's child was in fact Margery's?