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Heroines in Pinnies
by Val Atkinson
Article ID: 26, First Published: May 2005For those of you in need of education a ‘pinny’ is the NE England word for an apron. When I was young, all mothers wore ‘pinnies’ except on Sundays, Christmas, Easter and other high days and holidays.
Pinnies had multiple uses, and my own mother always threw hers over her head when there was a thunder storm.
We wiped our noses on it when she wasn’t looking, and if she took it off and rolled it up, we knew she meant serious and important business!
There were ordinary plain pinnies, best lace trimmed pinnies, huge pinnies and dainty pinnies, and altogether in every way, the pinny had it’s place in everyday English life.
We cannot explore the ‘World of the Pinny’ without discovering the women who wore them.
And so we come to Martha THOMPSON and Isobel (Bell) URWIN,
HEROINES IN PINNIES along with their servant Jane MARSHALL mentioned in a previous article.
Martha THOMPSON came into the world in 1835 at South Shields a small town on the coast of North East England, and in 1854 at the age of 19 she married 22 year old James ROBSON.
They set up home in Albermarle Street which is still there today, though the terrace of houses they lived in is long gone.
THAT DAY, MARTHA PUT HER PINNY ON.
Children were
George William Ellis Robson 22 May 1855
John Ellis Robson 26 July 1857
Robert Ellis Robson 24 Feb 1859 died 22 Nov 1862
James Robson 6 Jun 1861 died 22 Nov 1862
Margaret Ellis Robson 1 Jul 1863
Jane Robson 1 Jun 1865
Robert Ellis Robson 24 Mar 1867 died 3 Sept 1867
Martha Robson 25 Apr 1868
Ann Ellis Robson 3 Aug 1869
Isabella Robson 5 Jul 1871
Mary Frances Robson 27 Apr 1873 died 31 Mar 1874
Mary Frances Robson 7 Sept 1874 died 22 Aug 1875
James Thompson Robson 1 Sept 1877
MARTHA WAS AGED 42 WHEN SHE TOOK OFF HER PINNY FOR THE LAST TIME.
She died giving birth to James on 1st Sept 1877
She had buried five of her children, two of them on the same day. Often when she buried one she was pregnant with another. Always she had a young baby at her breast.
Most of us will find in our family research women who died in childbirth and husbands who married again very quickly. What else could they do?
James had eight living children of the thirteen Martha had borne him. There was no Social Services to jump into the gap, or counselling to help him cope with his loss. He had to get on with things, and get on he did.
Seven months after Martha's death, on 19 April 1878 James ROBSON married Isobel (Bell ) URWIN.
She was 27 and he was 46.
By this time he was a Life Assurance Agent and also a Methodist Lay Preacher.
Renowned for his stirring and zealous sermons, he was nicknamed Ranter Robson”
BELL PICKED UP THE PINNY LEFT BY MARTHA AND PUT IT ON.
Children Were:
Urwin Robson 13 May 1879
Mary Elliott Robson 6 Sep 1880 died 29 Mar 1883
Robert Bell Robson 16 Apr 1882
Alice Robson 19 Jun 1883 died 29 Jun 1884
Mary Urwin Robson 28 Jul 1884
Alice Bell Robson 18 Mar 1886 died 16 Jul 1887
Henry Albert Robson 12 Sep 1887
William Sutton Gover Robson 15 Feb 1889
Edward Elliot Robson 18 Dec 1892
As with Martha before her, she buried children, three in all.
She was expecting Mary when Alice died, and always she had a young child or baby to see to on the days of burial.
BELL TOOK OFF HER PINNY FOR THE LAST TIME IN 1918 AFTER BEING A WIDOW FOR 13 YEARS.
What more can we say about Martha and Bell who between them had 22 children?
ESPECIALLY BELL: THAT HEROINE PAR EXCELLANCE!
She took on a large family of eight, and at the age of 27, was only four years older than her eldest step son. Within a year she had the first of her own nine children.
James ROBSON was blessed with two wives who were remarkable women, and their story is the unfolding of a family, with joys and sorrows, the bitter with the sweet.
When you research the women in your family, think on these things:
THEIR HEARTS ARE BOUND TO YOU
THEIR HOPE IS IN YOUR HANDS
YOUR ANCESTORS WERE HEROINES IN PINNIES.
