The Waterfall Brothers
I first came across John Gray Waterfall and his younger brother, Henry when I was researching the history of Totley Grove. We can be almost certain that John Waterfall built the house, but there is no conclusive evidence of a date for the building. The first mention I have found of the house (it has been called Totley Vale, Totley Dale and Totley Grove), is in August 1851 in the Sheffield Independent newspaper advertising Totley Vale Cottage for rent. We can, however, trace the ownership of the land to John and Henry Waterfall as early as 1838 when the Tithe Assessment for Totley (this document is in the Derbyshire Archives at Matlock library) names the Waterfall brothers as owners of a corn mill on the site and Joshua Hodgkinson as the tenant and millwright.
Together with other local landowners, the Waterfall brothers were involved in the negotiations and enforcement of the Totley Enclosure. The Enclosure Act allowed the transfer of ownership of Common Land from the community to a single owner who then had the right to enclose it for his own use. In 1839, the brothers were present at the first Totley Enclosure meeting held in the school house. The minutes of this meeting (safe in the Archives in Rotherham Central Library) give us the details of the brothers' property in Totley. They declared their interests as a right to use common land for their tenant William Dalton of Hall Field Farm and a corn mill and its homestead, which although it is not named in the document, we can reasonably assume is Totley Grove.
Both brothers were born in Sheffield; John in 1802 and Henry in 1804. Henry went into the law via an apprenticeship sponsored by his father and John was a confectioner in his early working life. For many years they shared a business premises at 1, Fargate; Henry running his legal practice and John his confectionary business from the same property.
The business interests of the brothers have been relatively straightforward to uncover. What has been more problematic is their family lives. The earliest census in Totley was taken in 1841 and every 10 years thereafter. This means of tracking family relationships, occupations and locations is invaluable but limited to a ten year snap shot. It often takes a lot of luck and detective work as well as information from the census to piece family lives together and so it has proved in the case of the Waterfall brothers.
The census records indicate that John Waterfall was a widower with no children. Between 1841 and 1861 he lived with Henry and his wife, Anne in Whirlow Cottage, Dore. Without the inscription on John Waterfall's grave in Dore churchyard we would not know that he had two sons who predeceased him and that his wife was called Ann. His eldest son, John Henry, served on HMS Arrogant and died in service in 1863, aged 31. His youngest, Charles Edward was in the 5th Royal Irish Lancers when he died in 1852, aged 19. We know nothing more about his wife Ann or about John Henry and Charles Edward other than this inscription.
But with this information the children could be found on the census and a third son, George Howard came to light. In 1841 (when their father was living in Whirlow Cottage with Henry and his wife, Anne) we find his children aged 7, 8 and 10 years at school in Handsworth. Piecing together lives lived beyond the reach of paper documentation is a tantalising and sometimes frustrating business. Imagination fills in the gaps in the records and in this case maybe we can speculate that Ann died between the birth of Charles in 1833 and the first census in 1841. This would explain the lack of records for her marriage and death why the children were sent off to school and did not live with their father.
Their surviving child, George Howard became a clergyman, married Harriet Knapp and had three children, Laura, George and Adeline who all survived into adulthood. He spent nearly 30 years as rector of St. Peter ad Vincula,Tollard Royal and died and was buried there in 1898.
In 1871, John Waterfall was living in Totley Grove with his sister-in-law, Anne. Henry Waterfall had died in 1868. Anne and John had shared Whirlow Cottage for many years and here they are again sharing a house. John died in the house on 12th September 1879, aged 76.
After John's death, Anne moved to Woodlands at the bottom of Dore Road. It is one of the houses that is having culvert work done in its front garden at the moment. She lived there with a niece and servants. In the same building, but in a separate household, lived another family of Waterfalls. Six siblings; all single and in their 20's and 30's. I have no idea yet what relation they might be to Anne Waterfall, but the search goes on.
I expect that much of the Waterfall brothers' early years and family lives will remain undiscovered and that these shadowy individuals will always be of another time and out of our reach. But what we do know gives us a glimpse into the local politics and social life of Totley in the 19th century.
Footnote
This information about 1, Fargate arrived from a local researcher.
The Caffe Nero building, formerly Barclays Bank, sometimes shows up in Google searches as 1 Fargate but there is no such address according to the Post Office PAF file. The correct address for this building is 2 High Street. There are at least two datestones clearly showing 1897. In 1824 the earlier building at this location was the Sheffield Auction Mart where land and properties were auctioned. The next door very narrow building, between Black Swan Walk and Chapel Walk, is now called 9 Fargate. I reckon you have the right location for number 1 Fargate but the property has been demolished. Sheffield indexers have 1 Fargate for the Waterfalls at least between 1825 and 1846.