Howard Howells Davenport was the husband of Charlotte and James Monfries’ eldest daughter Jessie Thomson Monfries (b. 1854 in Alderney); Howard was b. 1847 in Coventry.
census 1851
| Household | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Davenport | Head | M | 45 | Ashby De La Zouch, Leicestershire |
| Eliza Davenport | Wife | F | 42 | Kidderminster, Worcestershire |
| George Davenport | Son | M | 17 | Darliston, Staffordshire |
| Eliza Davenport | Daughter | F | 15 | Wolverhampton, Staffordshire |
| Frances Davenport | Daughter | F | 11 | Wolverhampton, Staffordshire |
| James H Davenport | Son | M | 8 | Wolverhampton, Staffordshire |
| James P Davenport | Daughter | F | 6 | Wolverhampton, Staffordshire |
| Howard H Davenport | Son | M | 3 | Coventry, Warwickshire |
| Edith Vyse Davenport | Daughter | F | 0 | Birmingham, Warwickshire |
| Ann Harcourt | Servant | F | 25 | Berwick, Shropshire |
| Marria Stobey | Servant | F | 21 | Dinas, Kent |
and they were married at St Andrew’s Church in Cardiff on 17 September 1879. We know of at least four children:
census 1881
Name: Howard H Davenport
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1881
Event Place: Roath, Glamorganshire, Wales
Registration District: Cardiff
Residence Note: Wordsworth Place
Gender: Male
Age: 33
Marital Status: Married
Marital Status (Original): Married
Occupation: Railway Wagon Builder
Birth Year (Estimated): 1848
Birthplace: Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
Muriel ?J[essie] ?C[hamberlain] (b. 1881), Robert ?H[oward] (b. 1883), Daniel Benjamin (b. 1886) and Howard Howells (b. 1887), who was the youngest and probably final child as Jessie was by then 33, although there is an Evan (b. 1891), who is not in the 1901 census.
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1881
Event Place: Roath, Glamorganshire, Wales
Registration District: Cardiff
Residence Note: Wordsworth Place
Gender: Male
Age: 33
Marital Status: Married
Marital Status (Original): Married
Occupation: Railway Wagon Builder
Birth Year (Estimated): 1848
Birthplace: Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
| Household | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Howard H Davenport | Head | M | 33 | Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England |
| Jessie T Davenport | Wife | F | 28 | Channel I Aldernay, England |
| Muriel I C Davenport | Daughter | F | 0 | Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales |
| Alice Meeds | Servant | F | 18 | Pandy, Herefordshire, England |
Muriel ?J[essie] ?C[hamberlain] (b. 1881), Robert ?H[oward] (b. 1883), Daniel Benjamin (b. 1886) and Howard Howells (b. 1887), who was the youngest and probably final child as Jessie was by then 33, although there is an Evan (b. 1891), who is not in the 1901 census.
census 1901
Muriel Devonport
Daughter
Female
20
Cardiff, Glamorganshire
Howard, Jr. was a highly decorated 2nd Lieutenant in the 10th South Wales Borderers in the First World War, gaining the Military Cross at Lys in November 1917 during the 3rd battle of Ypres, as well as five other decorations.
Name: Howard James Davenport
Event Type: Baptism
Event Date: 1887
Event Place: Roath, Glamorgan, Wales
Address: 238 Newport Rd
Occupation: Manager
Father's Name: Howard Howells
Mother's Name: Jessie Thompson
Event Type: Baptism
Event Date: 1887
Event Place: Roath, Glamorgan, Wales
Address: 238 Newport Rd
Occupation: Manager
Father's Name: Howard Howells
Mother's Name: Jessie Thompson
The Davenport family of Coventry, from whom Howard must be descended even if distantly, has an illustrious history. Margaret and Nicholas Davenport were among the sureties at the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, pledging that the barons in rebellion against the king would fulfill their obligations under the Charter of rights. Edward was Mayor of Coventry under Queen Elizabeth in 1550, Henry in 1555; another Henry was Sheriff of the town in 1602, and John was a Puritan minister who was one of the founders of the colony of New Haven in Boston in 1637.
Howard Davenport, Sr. must have come to Cardiff in the early 1870s, working for the Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Waggon Company (MRCWC) at East Moors, near the docks. The MRCWC was founded in 1863 by Joseph Wright and based at Saltley in Birmingham, and Howard may have worked there before relocating to Cardiff. Its advertisements in the South Wales Daily News after July 1875 ask prospective goods’ purchasers to apply to an unnamed ‘manager’ at the Moors Works, and this is almost certainly Howard; he is listed as such in Slater’s Commercial Directory for 1880 under ‘railway waggon builders’ and by November 1886 he is the named contact in all the company’s advertisements.
In 1891, Grace’s Guide lists a Howard Davenport & Co., ‘Railway Waggon Contractors and Colliery Stores Merchants’, with Howard a partner in the firm. Their advertisements in late 1891 and early 1892 in the South Wales Daily News boast that, at 135 Bute Street, Docks, they are ‘Builders of railway waggons of all descriptions for cash or deferred purchase. Agents for South Wales. A large quantity of second-hand waggons always on hand’ and that they ‘beg to announce that they have been appointed SOLE AGENTS in South Wales for the Mint’ (transporting coin around the country for the government). They also make ‘Vertical Cornish and Vertical Steam Engine’ boilers, producing steam to power engines in colliery locomotives and industries such as sugar, textiles and paper, to the design pioneered by Richard Trevithick in the Dolcoath mine in Cornwall in 1812.
A further arm of the business was as contractors, stocking other firms’ boiler covers, metal preservatives and lubricating oils, and acting as agents for companies such as the wheel and axle makers H & S Barker & Co. of Mexborough in Yorkshire and the United Asbestos Co. of London. Around 1887 the company moved its offices into the newly refurbished Victoria Buildings at 64–67 Bute Street, where Thomas Harper & Son (chandlers, steamship owners and ships’ stores suppliers to the Navy in the First World War), and James Evans & Co. (colliery proprietors), also traded, with shop premises at the front, offices on the first floor and warehouse space in the basement. Davenports was still active in 1897, when Howard was 49, and both Howard and Jessie appear in the 1911 census, aged 63 and 57, respectively, by which time Howard is a Commission Agent, his 24-year-old son Howard Howells is a clerk, and his grandson, William Howard (b. 1904) is a 7-year-old child. The business is not in the 1914 Grace’s Guide, so he may have retired or died by then.
By the early 1890s Howard and his family were living at 102 Llandaff Road, a newly developed tree-lined street of substantial ‘villas for merchants’ in the Canton suburb of the city. Like the estate built after 1885 by William Corbett in neighbouring Cathedral Road, the houses in Llandaff Road were built of blue Pennant sandstone with Bath stone lintels and window sills, and had a prescribed architecture, layout and grid of roads and sewers, and Howard would certainly by then have been classed as one of the ‘wealthy merchants’ for whom Llandaff Road was intended. The 1887 Owen & Co.’s Cardiff Directory lists Howard and a Henry (b. 1851, with a batchelor of engineering degree and possibly Howard’s younger brother) as living at the Customs House Hotel at 285 Bute Street, so one wonders if the Llandaff Road house was then still being built. By the 1891 census, Henry is listed as a Marine Engineer, involved in ship construction and maintenance, almost certainly for the Cory coal company. The Directory also lists a Benjamin Davenport living at 11 Pontcanna Place, which may be Daniel, but he doesn’t appear to be in the 1901 census.
Howard Davenport, Sr. must have come to Cardiff in the early 1870s, working for the Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Waggon Company (MRCWC) at East Moors, near the docks. The MRCWC was founded in 1863 by Joseph Wright and based at Saltley in Birmingham, and Howard may have worked there before relocating to Cardiff. Its advertisements in the South Wales Daily News after July 1875 ask prospective goods’ purchasers to apply to an unnamed ‘manager’ at the Moors Works, and this is almost certainly Howard; he is listed as such in Slater’s Commercial Directory for 1880 under ‘railway waggon builders’ and by November 1886 he is the named contact in all the company’s advertisements.
In 1891, Grace’s Guide lists a Howard Davenport & Co., ‘Railway Waggon Contractors and Colliery Stores Merchants’, with Howard a partner in the firm. Their advertisements in late 1891 and early 1892 in the South Wales Daily News boast that, at 135 Bute Street, Docks, they are ‘Builders of railway waggons of all descriptions for cash or deferred purchase. Agents for South Wales. A large quantity of second-hand waggons always on hand’ and that they ‘beg to announce that they have been appointed SOLE AGENTS in South Wales for the Mint’ (transporting coin around the country for the government). They also make ‘Vertical Cornish and Vertical Steam Engine’ boilers, producing steam to power engines in colliery locomotives and industries such as sugar, textiles and paper, to the design pioneered by Richard Trevithick in the Dolcoath mine in Cornwall in 1812.
A further arm of the business was as contractors, stocking other firms’ boiler covers, metal preservatives and lubricating oils, and acting as agents for companies such as the wheel and axle makers H & S Barker & Co. of Mexborough in Yorkshire and the United Asbestos Co. of London. Around 1887 the company moved its offices into the newly refurbished Victoria Buildings at 64–67 Bute Street, where Thomas Harper & Son (chandlers, steamship owners and ships’ stores suppliers to the Navy in the First World War), and James Evans & Co. (colliery proprietors), also traded, with shop premises at the front, offices on the first floor and warehouse space in the basement. Davenports was still active in 1897, when Howard was 49, and both Howard and Jessie appear in the 1911 census, aged 63 and 57, respectively, by which time Howard is a Commission Agent, his 24-year-old son Howard Howells is a clerk, and his grandson, William Howard (b. 1904) is a 7-year-old child. The business is not in the 1914 Grace’s Guide, so he may have retired or died by then.
By the early 1890s Howard and his family were living at 102 Llandaff Road, a newly developed tree-lined street of substantial ‘villas for merchants’ in the Canton suburb of the city. Like the estate built after 1885 by William Corbett in neighbouring Cathedral Road, the houses in Llandaff Road were built of blue Pennant sandstone with Bath stone lintels and window sills, and had a prescribed architecture, layout and grid of roads and sewers, and Howard would certainly by then have been classed as one of the ‘wealthy merchants’ for whom Llandaff Road was intended. The 1887 Owen & Co.’s Cardiff Directory lists Howard and a Henry (b. 1851, with a batchelor of engineering degree and possibly Howard’s younger brother) as living at the Customs House Hotel at 285 Bute Street, so one wonders if the Llandaff Road house was then still being built. By the 1891 census, Henry is listed as a Marine Engineer, involved in ship construction and maintenance, almost certainly for the Cory coal company. The Directory also lists a Benjamin Davenport living at 11 Pontcanna Place, which may be Daniel, but he doesn’t appear to be in the 1901 census.
Howard must have had frequent business dealings with the Cory company in Corys Building at no. 57 Bute Street, the largest private wagon-owner in the UK in the late 1800s, whose wagons would have been built by Davenports. In 1885 Richard Morgan, Corys’ accountant and then company secretary, married Annie Monfries, Jessie Davenport’s younger sister
(b. 1863 and later Charles Archibald Vlieland’s mother-in-law).
Thanks very much Barbara for your information.
He referenced in a letter as his alter ego Archie Wheeland
"Dear Miss Davies
Thank you very much for your efforts over the Birmingham Mail. I am very glad to have the extra copies - one I shall now be able to send to my beloved mother in law, who is the Anne of the dedication (To Another Anne whose spirits as unquenchable as my love for her) and will be thrilled to bits!
I return your copy of the book endorsed on the title page.
Yours sincerely
Archie Wheeland"
Thank you very much for your efforts over the Birmingham Mail. I am very glad to have the extra copies - one I shall now be able to send to my beloved mother in law, who is the Anne of the dedication (To Another Anne whose spirits as unquenchable as my love for her) and will be thrilled to bits!
I return your copy of the book endorsed on the title page.
Yours sincerely
Archie Wheeland"
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