Johnson family of Carlton Scroop
Thomas Johnson (1814-1893) from Honington married Sarah Weston (born Waddington) in Ewerby in 1837. Their 11 children included:
- Henry 1842
- Harriet 1848
In the 1850s the family moved to Subrooke, then to Honington Heath. By 1881 they’d moved to Carlton Scroop.
Their son Henry Johnson (1842-1909) married Ann Mapletoft in 1863. They had 4 children, including:
- Emma 1865
- Thomas 1868
- Betsey 1870
In 1871 he was charged with deserting his family, leaving them chargeable to the Union (they seem to have been in the Grantham Workhouse earlier that year). He was caught at Grassmore Colleries, Clay Cross, Derbyshire, where he was calling himself Green. He was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment with hard labour.
He got back together with Ann and in 1873 they had twin daughters. But Ann and one of the twins (Mary Jane) died on 26th May. Their daughter Betsey and the other baby twin died around the same time.
The following year Henry married Edith Beck, who was deaf and dumb. In 1881 they were still living in Carlton Scroop with his son Thomas and their daughters Edith and Florence. He worked at the Caythorpe Ironstone works.
He seems to have been somewhat accident prone. In 1888 he was moving the railway track when a rail fell on his foot.
In 1894 he was walking home from work when he got a foot entangled in a sheep net and twisted his ankle.
In 1899 the front of wall of house collapsed. The Vicar started an appeal to raise money to replace the furniture he’d lost.
In 1900 he was wheeling a barrow along a plank at the ironstone mines when he slipped and fell 12ft, fracturing two ribs.
A year later he was summoned for being drunk and disorderly in Carlton Scroop.
In 1908 Henry had another fall and suffered dizzy spells thereafter.
In December 1909, on the Saturday before Christmas, he walked to Caythorpe in the evening with a friend. His son (Thomas) who lived locally, last saw him in the Eight Bells at 8pm. An employee from Caythorpe Hall saw him outside the Red Lion half an hour later, where he seemed to have slipped over on the ice. Its thought he left for home around 9pm but didn’t arrive. A search the following afternoon found his body in ditch between Frieston and Normanton. He’d apparently tripped, hit his head, and drowned. Edith died the following year.
Harriet Johnson (1848- ) had an illegitimate son, Robert Henry Johnson, in 1867. Two years later she married Thomas Chantry, a mason’s labourer from Grantham. On the 1871 census the three of them were living in William Street, Spitalgate.
In 1884 Robert Johnson (1867-1941) enlisted with the 3rd Dragoon Guards. At the time he was living at 3 Springfield Terrace, Ilkeston, Derbyshire and had been away from his parents’ home for 3 years. He was working as a labourer and listed his next of kin as his grandfather Thomas Johnson. He had previously served in 4th (militia) Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment but had been rejected by the Royal Marines due to bad teeth.
He only served 39 days with the Dragoons before deserting in Jul 1884. Eight days later he signed up for the Army again, this time at Stamford for the Cameron Highlanders, calling himself Robert Chantry, a collier aged 19. On 5 Aug he joined 3/4 Cameron Highlanders at Fort George, near Inverness. Later that year his unit moved to Egypt where it stayed until1887. He took part in the expedition to relieve General Gordon 1884-85 and operations on the Upper Nile 1884-86. In Dec 1885 he confessed to fraudulent enlistment, stating that his true name was Robert Henry Johnson, as per his birth certificate. He was jailed for 8 weeks. He served another 3 years before buying himself out of the Army in Nov 1891.