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Writer's pictureJessica Feinstein

John Edgar Pearson Wheeldon

Updated: Apr 7, 2023

Ari’s 3x great-grandfather, John Edgar Pearson Wheeldon, was born on 27 July 1878 in Holloway, Belper, Derbyshire. His parents were Samuel Wheeldon and Mary Ann Bunting.

geograph-2549079-by-Dave-Bevis

Primitive Methodist Chapel, Holloway


John was not christened until 1896, and this event took place in Wirksworth.

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Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1916


The 1881 census had shown John as a two-year-old, living with his parents and three siblings in Holloway. His father was a hosiery dresser.

In 1891, John was still at school.

On 12 March 1898, he married Elizabeth Ann Murfin at All Saints Church in Mugginton, her parish.

geograph-3039509-by-Rob-Howl

The leaning porch at Mugginton church


The marriage certificate tells us that John was now working as a blacksmith.

In 1901, John and his wife are living at Little Hays in the parish of Alderwasley, Wirksworth, and John is a blacksmith’s striker. Two children have been born: Lawrence Edgar and John Henry Francis (Frank).

In 1907, John appeared as a witness in the newspaper account of a fatal injury (read left to right):

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Belper News, 20 September 1907


Four more children would be born before the next census in 1911: Winifred Ethel, Arnold George, Edward Oliver, and Mary Elizabeth Ellen (Ari’s great-great grandmother). By then the family had moved to Nottingham Road in Belper. John is described in the census as “Journey blacksmith, wheelwright & general smith”. Another son, Lewis Mervyn, was born the following year but died at only a few months’ old.

John lived to see the marriage of two of his children, but sadly died at the age of only forty-five, on 4 February 1924, at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary. The cause of death was given as broncho-pneumonia, bronchitis and asthma.

Ari, this is how you are related to John:

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