Henry Cartwright
of West Ayton, co. York, England; Canada; Warren co., IA, d. 1887.

Henry and Dorothy Cartwright came from England to Canada about 1839 [obituaries of daughters Hannah and Jane, cited below], to Keokuk, Lee county, Iowa in 1851 [obituaries of daughter Jane], and before 1860 to Allen township, Warren county, Iowa [1860 census, Warren co., IA, 781r].

Date of birth: 30×31 May 1801×3?
Place of birth or baptism: Unknown.
Calculating from the age(s) at death given below give 30 or 31 May, 1801 or 1802, but it is difficult to be confident, especially about the year. Henry Cartwright was listed as 53 in the 1856 state cesus [1856 state census, Lee co., IA, 720], 57 in the 1860 census [1860 census, Warren co., IA, 781r], 67 in the 1870 census [1870 census, Warren co., IA, 326r],and 77 in the 1880 census [1880 census, Dallas co., IA, ED 52, p. 39], so the censuses consistently give a birthdate of late 1802 or early 1803 (1803 if the May date of birth is correct).

Date of death: 6 October 1887.
Place of death: Polk co., IA.
Place of burial: Scotch Ridge cemetery, Allen tp., Warren co., IA.
["Henry Cartwright died Oct 6 1887 aged 86 ys. 4 ms. 6 ds." Scotch Ridge cem. (checked on site by compiler)] The death register of Polk co., IA gives his burial date as 7 October 1887 and his age at death as 85 years, 4 months, 6 days. A newspaper obituary on 6 October 1887 gives his date of death as 6 September, stating that his funeral was to occur the next day [The Daily Iowa Capital, 6 October 1887]. However, this is probably a misprint.

Father: William Cartwright?
Mother: Mary Warcup?
See the comments below on Henry Cartwright's parentage.

Spouse:
m. Market Weighton, 2 December 1827, Dorothy Ann Consitt, b. ca. 1800?, d. 25 February 1862, bur. Scotch Ridge cem., Warren co., IA.

Children:
The probate records of the estate of Henry Cartwright show that his estate was paid out in seven equal shares, to Mary Ann Monroe (NY), Hanna Edmonston, Jane Schooler (Warren co.), Thomas Cartwright (Montana), Rebecca Cartwright, Henry Cartwright, and Betsey or Lizzie Jones [Polk co., IA probate records, #1812]. Proof that Henry and Dorothy (Consitt) Cartwright of Yorkshire were the same couple as the people of those names appearing later in Iowa is given partly by the good fit of the data, partly by the fact that both Hannah (Cartwright) Edmundson and Jane (Cartwright) Schooler were stated to have been born in Yorkshire by their newspaper obituaries [see citations below]. and partly by the record of the younger Henry Cartwright's second marriage, in which his mother's name is given as Dorothy "Consort", too close a match to Dorothy Consitt to be a coincidence [Polk co., IA, Marriage Register 2: 24]. The baptisms of the older children appear in the English parish registers [Hutton Bushel BT; Hutton Bushel PRT; Market Weighton PR].

Mary Ann Consitt/Cartwright, bp. Market Weighton, 27 May 1827, d. Dunkirk, Chatauqua co., NY, 16 May 1899;
m. Orrin Monroe, b. Thornhill, Ontario, 11 July 1825, d. Dunkirk, Chatauqua co., NY, 18 April 1900.
[death dates & places: Chatauqua co., NY Order for Admin., 9: 471 (Orrin Monroe), 487 (Mary Ann Monroe), FHL film #588,095; birth date and place of Orrin Monroe: Evening Observer, Dunkirk, NY, 18 Apr. 1900, as reported in Lois Barris, Genealogical Information reported in the Evening Observer, Dunkirk, New York, January 1, 1900 thru December 31 1905 (Fredonia, NY, 1994), 101] Mary Ann was baptized before the marriage of Henry Cartwright and Dorothy Consitt, and her father is not stated in the baptism record [Market Weighton PR]. Thus even though the probate record of Henry Cartwright shows that Mary Ann was regarded as a his daughter, their biological relationship is open to doubt.

Grace Cartwright, bp. Hutton Bushel, 28 December 1828.
See the next child.

Grace Cartwright, bp. Market Weighton, 16 May 1830?
[Market Weighton PR] Since there is no further record of either Grace Cartwright, it is tempting to conclude that the Market Weighton entry was a burial record that was accidently recorded as a baptism. The parish registers of Hutton Bushel show the burial of an infant named Rebecca Cartwright (parentage unstated) on 13 July 1831 [Hutton Bushel PRT]. Could it be that the infant baptized in 1830 had her name misstated?

Hannah (Ann) Cartwright, b. 1 or 5 May (prob. 1832), bp. Hutton Bushel, 27 May 1832, d. 17 January 1910, bur. Violet Hill cem.;
m. ca. 1850, James E. Edmundson, b. 8 March 1831, d. 29 July 1902, bur. Violet Hill cem., Perry co., IA.
[Obituary of Hannah Edmundson in The Perry Advertiser (Perry, Dallas co., IA), 17 Jan. 1910 (gives birthdate 1 May 1831); Perry co., IA cemetery records (gives birthdate 5 May 1831)] Hannah appears as Ann in her baptism record [Hutton Bushel BT] Although it is possible that Hannah was slightly more than a year old at baptism, it is much more likely that the year of birth given in American records is off by one, and that she was born in 1832.

William Cartwright, bp. Hutton Bushel, 21 September 1834, no further record.
The date is given as 2 September in the parish register transcript [Hutton Bushel PRT] and as 21 September in the BT [Hutton Bushel BT]. If the first name of his brother Thomas is correctly reported on the 1900 census, it is likely that William died young.

Jane Cartwright, b. 10 November 1836, bp. Hutton Bushel, 27 November 1836, d. 10 May 1916, bur. Scotch Ridge cemetery, Warren co., IA;
m. 1854, Thomas Schooler, b. 15 August 1827, d. 5 January 1907, bur. Scotch Ridge cemetery, Warren co., IA.
[Scotch Ridge cemetery inscriptions, Allen tp., Warren co., IA (checked on site); two obituaries of Jane Schooler from two unidentified newspapers, one probably the Des Moines Tribune]

William Thomas Cartwright, b. England, August 1838, living 1900, Whatcom co., WA;
m. ca. 1869, Jane _____, b. Canada, June 1843, living 1900.
Thomas Cartwright was living in Lee co., IA in 1860 [1860 census, 529r], in Union tp., Boone co., IA adjacent to his sister Hannah Edmundson in 1870 [1870 census, 159r], in Jefferson co., CO in 1880 [1880 census, ED 44, p. 42], in Montana at the time he received his share of his father's estate in 1888, and in Whatcom co., WA in 1900 [1900 census, ED 233, p. 21]. He is called William T. Cartwright in the 1900 census, but he is Thomas Cartwright in most sources.

Rebecca Cartwright, b. Canada, ca. 1841, living 29 March 1889.
Rebecca Cartwright was still living, and apparently unmarried, on 29 March 1889, when the final report of the estate of Henry Cartwright was filed.

Henry Cartwright, b. Canada, ca. 1843, living 1900, Walnut tp., Polk co., IA;
m. Polk co., IA, 26 August 1880, Rebecca C. Shaffer.
[Polk co., IA, Marriage Register 2: 24; 1900 census, Polk co., IA, ED 110, p. 22]

Elizabeth Cartwright, b. Canada, 3 March 1845, d. Polk co., IA, 24 May 1895;
m. Polk co., IA, 21 February 1867, Tarpley Taylor Jones, b. IN, 3 October 1839, d. Clarinda, IA, 24×5 February 1891.

The possible parentage of Henry Cartwright

No baptism has been found in the English records which certainly belongs to Henry Cartwright. The earliest known record which certainly concerns him is his marriage to Dorothy Consitt in the parish of Market Weighton on 2 December 1827, where he is called Henry Cartwright of the parish of Brompton, bachelor [Market Weighton PR]. Now, there are two Bromptons in Yorkshire, Brompton by Northallerton and Brompton by Sawdon, but it seems likely that it was the latter where Henry Cartwright resided, because in his next appearances he was residing in the parish of Hutton Bushel, which is very near Brompton by Sawdon. Neither Brompton appears to have any trace of Henry Cartwight in its parish registers. In his children's baptisms, Henry was of West Ayton (a township in the parish of Hutton Bushel) at the baptisms of his Grace and Ann (Hannah), and of Hutton Bushel at the baptisms of his children William and Jane. Now, there were other Cartwrights appearing in the parish registers of Hutton Bushel, all members of the family of William Cartwright, who married Mary Warcup of Skipsea by banns of 25 May and 1 and 8 June 1800 [Hutton Bushel PRT]. Betty, daughter of William and Mary Cartwright, was born 3 August 1801 and baptized at Seamer (a parish adjacent to Hutton Bushel) on 4 October 1801 [Seamer BT]. Children of William and Mary Cartwright of West Ayton baptized at Hutton Bushel were John on 6 September 1812, twins Mary and Jane on 2 November 1817 (of whom Mary was buried on 25 April 1824), and George on 27 December 1818 ("supposed to be above 3 years of age"). William, Elizabeth (Betty), John and Jane appear later in the census records of West Ayton, and George appears in the nearby towns of Ebberston and Staxton. Two additional baptisms which would appear to fit well in this family are children of a William and Mary Cartwright baptized at Great Driffield, namely Hannah baptized 3 July 1803 and Henry baptized 6 October 1805 [Great Driffield PR]. Could this be our Henry Cartwright, born on say 30 or 31 May 1805 and baptized at the age of about four months? It is possible. There is even a plausible marriage for this Hannah Cartwright, as a Hannah Cartwright married William Langdale at Allerston on 23 August 1823 [Allerston PR]. The main difficulty is that we would have to assume that the American censuses consistently overestimated Henry Cartwright's age by exactly two years. While it is common for census ages to be off by a couple of years, when they show this degree of consistency they are usually right. Thus, while we have reasonable candidates for the parents of Henry Cartwright, it is difficult to regard his parentage as proven in the absence of further evidence.

Reference abbreviations

Allerston PR = Parish registers of Allerston, co. York, FHL film #566,179.

Great Driffield PR = Parish registers of Great Driffield, co. York, FHL film #1,471,219.

Hutton Bushel BT = Bishop's transcripts of Hutton Bushel, co. York, FHL film #990,790.

Hutton Bushel PRT = Parish register transcripts of Hutton Bushel, co. York, FHL film #558,353.

Market Weighton PR = Parish registers of Market Weighton, co. York, FHL film #1,068,384.

Seamer BT = Bishop's transcripts of Seamer, co. York, FHL film #919,209.

Compiled by Stewart Baldwin

First uploaded 13 May 2011.