© 2017 David E. Spencer
Author's Note - When I first started my family history search I was told my a well meaning elderly relative that some of my ancestry was from Tow Law in Weardale. This proved not to be the case - a rare example of the need for some scepticism in talking to family members. In fact it is my wife who has the Durham ancestry.
Durham is a part of the country with which both I and my wife are familiar - we met here as stuents in the late 1960's and stayed in the North East for ten years after completing our studies. For most of this time we lived in the Wearside town of Chester-le-Street. During our time in the area one of the colleagues I was most friendly with had the surname of Maddison.
The Maddisons seem here to be very much a family who lived in Durham City for several generations.
Ellen Maddison was born in 1843 in North Road in Durham. By 1861 she had moved to Doncaster where she was a servant in the house in Leeds of William Blanchard, barrister and Recorder of Doncaster. In 1870 she married Thomas Trood at Heigh Harrogate Parish Church. After her marriage she and her husband lived in Batley in West Yorkshire. By 1881 they had moved back to Harrogate. Ellen died in Knaresborough registration district in 1890.
Ellen's parents were George Maddison, a Durham basket maker born in the city in 1816. He married Jane Wortley, born in Durham in 1819, the daughter of William and Elizabeth Wortley in 1840 at St. Margaret's church in Durham. George died young in 1851 but Jane died in 1894.
George was the son of Edward and Isabella Maddison. Edward was born in Durham in 1783 and died there in 1839. He and Isabella (born in Stanhope in 1777) were married at 1807 at St. Nicholas Church in the Market Place in Durham.
Edward was the son of William Maddison born about 1753 in Durham and his wife Ann Rooksby.They married in 1783 at St. Oswald, Durham. William was the son of John Maddison and his wife |Isable grey who were married at St. Oswald, Durham in 1753.