Hannah Cullwick - Early Life

Early Life

Hannah was born on 26 May 1833 and raised in Shifnal, Shropshire. Her surname is pronounced as Cullwick, not Cullick. Hannah came from solid Salopian yeoman stock, not the working class origins sometimes claimed. Her father was Charles Fox Cullwick (1803–1847), a Master Saddler of Shifnal and a Burgess (Parliamentary voter) of Bridgnorth. The Cullwicks had been voters in Bridgnorth since 1630, usually voting in the Whitmore interest. And the Cullwick family had been Master Saddlers in Shropshire since the great great grandfather of Charles - Richard Cullwick of Newport (1648-c1720)- set up his saddlery business in about 1670.

Hannah's mother was Martha Owen (1800–1847), who had been a Lady's Maid to the aristocratic Mrs Eyton, the wife of Rev John Eyton, Rector of Wellington, Salop. Martha's elder brother was Richard Owen (1791–1864), a schoolmaster in Shifnal who was also parish clerk. Her two sisters - Sarah Smallman (1805-aft 1881) and Eleanor Morris (1803–1863) - were both married to farmers, Charles Skelton Smallman(1799–1877)and John Morris (1796–1885) of The Firs, Flashbrook, Adbaston.

Hannah had more than a dozen uncles and aunts and over 50 first cousins. All of them were literate and most of them were in business - as farmers, publicans and saddlers.

Charles, Hannah's father, appears to have suffered business losses and the family were subsequently very poor. There were 5 children, James (1830–1915), Hannah, Dick (1836–1887), Ellen (1839–1919) and Polly (1844–1924). James was a master wheelwright and owned houses latterly. Dick was a master saddler and became a harness maker in London. Ellen married William Cook, the Registrar for Poplar in London. And Polly owned a large haberdashery store in the Ipswich Buttermarket.

All 5 children received a rudimentary schooling. Hannah was fortunate to be sent for a couple of years to the Bluecoat Charity school in Shifnal. However, money was so short that Hannah had to contribute to the family purse from the age of 8. Firstly, in the home of solicitor's wife Mrs Andrew Phillips, a friend and neighbour of the Cullwicks. Then Hannah worked in the inn next door before embarking on her long career in service.

When she was fourteen, she became sole nursemaid to the large family of Rev Robert Eyton (son of Rev John Eyton) at Ryton Rectory. That year her mother died suddenly of an infection aged 47, and her employer in the Eyton household refused to let her travel the three miles to visit her family for fear that the fever would spread to Ryton. A fortnight later her father Charles died, aged 44, leaving the 5 children (aged 16 down to 3) as orphans. James was already in a wheelwright apprenticeship with Richard Pointon in Shifnal, and Hannah was in service at Ryton Rectory. But the three youngest children needed to be housed. Dick was placed in a saddlery apprenticeship in Horsely Fields, Wolverhampton with his Uncle William Cullwick (1781–1853); Ellen lived with Aunt Small(née Sarah Owen)on their large farm in Westbury near Albrighton; and Polly went to live with her spinster Aunt Elizabeth Cullwick (1789–1866) in Haughton, Shifnal.