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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Couple unearth Mick Jagger’s local links
Published on 16/03/2006
Whitehaven News
By Margaret Crosby
If you're a fan of ageing rocker Sir Mick Jagger then get some satisfaction reading about his family links to Whitehaven.
It was already known his grandfather was born here but now amateur genealogists David and Hilary Wilson have discovered the grave of Sir Mick’s great-grandfather in Whitehaven cemetery.
And Sir Mick’s love of music is obviously genetic – one of his Whitehaven ancestors, Charles, was an organist, piano teacher and composer in the town and another relative went by the name of Johann Sebastian Jagger.
The tombstone for David Jagger, in Whitehaven cemetery, was stumbled upon by accident by keen genealogists David and Hilary Wilson.
The Wilsons live at Cockermouth but David hails from Whitehaven and Hilary from the Cleator area.
Since she retired as committee clerk for Allerdale Council, Hilary has got the genealogy bug big time and has been successful in tracking her own family tree, with some interesting discoveries, including one ancestor charged with murder at Cleator Moor and a possible link to Robert the Bruce!
And it was while on the family trail, visiting the gravestone of one of his own ancestors at Whitehaven that David spotted the Jagger headstone. Noting down the inscription, Hilary set-to exploring the Jagger family tree and subsequently discovered the connection.
The Whitehaven links with Mick Jagger, 62, who was knighted in the Queen’s 2002 birthday honours for his services to pop music, first came to light six years ago, but further digging has revealed an interesting story of a David Jagger (Mick’s great grandfather) who was born in Morley, Yorkshire in 1846 and arrived in Whitehaven, in 1860s, to work as a printer / compositor.
He was married three times in Whitehaven and his tombstone tells the sad story of his first wife, Emma Dobson, dying young, aged 24 and their daughter, Emma Lavinia, aged 3. Also, his second wife, Margaret Kitchin who came from Cleator, met the same fate three years later in 1871, age just 22. As there was a son, John, also born about that time it is thought Margaret may have died in childbirth. Though she is remembered on the headstone, she is actually interred at Cleator.
Almost 10 years passed before David tried marriage again, this time to Sidwell Elizabeth Hodge (nee Ingram), who was a widow with a young daughter (Mary) and was Cornish-born, having arrived in Whitehaven when her father, a tin mining engineer, came to the town to work in the coal mines.
David and Sidwell were married in 1879 and just a year later produced baby David Ernest, Mick’s grandfather.
The couple were at the time living at Woodville Terrace, the row of houses just below the Castle View pub (The Stump), now known as High Road, together with children from past unions, John and Mary.
The family later moved to Eckington in Derbyshire and though David died there (in 1906) his body was brought back to Whitehaven to be buried. The cemetery records show David had died aged 59 and his occupation was given as journalist. His home address showed as 33 High Street, Eckington. The Jagger family were thought to be Wesleyan Methodists and David’s sandstone tombstone inscription reads I have set the Lord always before me.
His son David Ernest was to become a schoolmaster and he married a local Derbyshire girl Harriett Fanshawe Jagger in 1908. The couple later moved to Wickham Bishops, near Maldon in Essex, where David taught at a Church of England school.
David Ernest and Harriett eventually retired to Blackpool where David died in 1954. There son, Basil Fanshawe Jagger (Joe) also became a teacher and in 1940 married Eva Scutts, who had been born in Australia but whose family came from Kent. Three years later their son Mick, the famous Rolling Stone, was born.
Another branch of the family was descended from Charles Jagger, who also moved up country from Dewsbury to Whitehaven about the same time as David Jagger. It is thought they may have been cousins.
Charles’ father Edward Jagger was a woollen draper in Dewsbury and Charles had been lodging with the Kettlewell family in Thoralby, Yorkshire and working as “a professor of music, composer and organist of Aysgarth Parish Church’’ before coming to Whitehaven and setting up as a music teacher. He played at the town’s Theatre Royal and taught piano and organ. He even composed a musical score for the marriage of the Duke and Duches of Kent.
In 1888 he married a local girl Edith Wilson and the couple had four children: Carl, Hugh Cecil Musgrave, Johann Sebastian and Iris. Census records show Charles having lived at various addresses in town, 47 Roper Street, 51 Roper Street (the Indian King ) and at Scotch Street. There are currently descendants of Charles Jagger living in the area.
*One of the more intriguing of Mick’s relatives is Joseph Hobson Jagger, a distant cousin, who was The man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo. His job as a spindle-maker at a West Yorkshire mill gave him the idea that roulette wheels were sure to be biased if they spun on wooden spindles. He won so much a casino had to close.
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quote:
Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
*One of the more intriguing of Mick’s relatives is Joseph Hobson Jagger, a distant cousin, who was The man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo. His job as a spindle-maker at a West Yorkshire mill gave him the idea that roulette wheels were sure to be biased if they spun on wooden spindles. He won so much a casino had to close.
That is so interesting. So the guy Peter Otoole was singing about in Lawrence of Arabia was a distant relative of Mick's? Amazing.
"I'm the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo"!!!! |
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| corgi37 |
Best part is Mick is 1/2 Aussie. But, we all knew that didnt we. |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
corgi37 wrote:
Best part is Mick is 1/2 Aussie. But, we all knew that didnt we.
Yep. I think you posted that fact once or twice. |
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| Honky Tonk Man |
quote:
corgi37 wrote:
Best part is Mick is 1/2 Aussie. But, we all knew that didnt we.
No he's not. Eva Jagger wasn't Australian. Her father emigrated there from England for a while, but I don't think she was born there. |
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| glencar |
"The Wilsons live at Cockermouth but David hails from Whitehaven and Hilary from the Cleator area."
It's like driving through Intercourse & Blue Ball in Pennsylvania! |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
If David Ernest died in 1954, then Mick must remember him....somewhat. I'm sure old Basil does...lol. |
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| Zanck*Zanck*Zanck |
COCKERMOUTH !!!?
What a name for a town!!!!
Cockermouth Blues!!!! |
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