There were two Irish McCabe families in 19th century Stafford. William McCabe had been born in Dublin in 1816 and worked as an engine driver on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the 1830s. He and his wife Margaret, also Dublin-born, moved to Stafford around 1838 and they had six children. William was run down and killed by an engine in 1857 and the bereaved family seem to have left Stafford shortly afterwards. Peter McCabe was a police sergeant in Stafford from the late 1880s and was still living in the town in 1914. He and his Irish-born wife Catherine had at least five children. The two McCabe families do not seem to have been related.
Hugh McCann was born in Dublin in 1820 and had probably served in the army. He and his Manchester-born wife Margaret came to Stafford when the railway was opened in 1837. He worked in the railway police and by 1861 was a police superintendant. In the following year he committed suicide at Marston Green near Birmingham. The McCanns had six children, five girls and one boy. Their daughter Margaret was living in Wolstanton in 1881 whilst Jane still lived in Stafford. Their son was in the Royal Artillery at Dover the same year.
Patrick McCann (or possibly McGann) was a farm labourer, possibly from Co. Roscommon, who lived in Stafford with his wife Bridget from the 1850s to the 1870s. A number of other McCanns, probably related, also lived in Stafford during the same period but the McCanns put down no deep roots and no children were born to them in the town.
Many McDermott individuals and at least five McDermott families lived in the Stafford area in the 19th century. They probably came from Co. Roscommon and were interrelated, although it has proved impossible to make positive links. The main families were Martin & Elizabeth McDermott (arrived 1850s; son Michael and granddaughter Elizabeth still present 1901); Patrick McDermott and Ann McDermott (arrived 1840s, four children, left 1860s, most probably emigrated); Patrick & Bridget McDermott (arrived late1850s; five children, most probably emigrated); Thomas and Mary McDermott (arrived 1840s; four children, left 1860s, possibly emigrated) and William & Ann McDermott (arrived 1840s, one child, probably emigrated). Few of the McDermotts put down deep roots in Stafford and by the 1900s there were few left.
There were two unrelated Irish McDonald families in Stafford in the 19th century. Thomas McDonald, a shoemaker from Co. Wicklow, came to Stafford in the 1830s, married a Seighford woman, Sarah, and they remained in the town until their probable deaths in the 1860s. They had no children. James McDonald and his wife Flora arrived in Stafford in the late 1870s. He had been in the Royal Artillery in India, then deputy governor of the military prison in Singapore and a warder at Stafford gaol. For most of his time in Stafford he was manager of the County Conservative Club. He and his wife were active in St Austin's Catholic Church. They had three children, Evelyn, Bernard and James, but only Evelyn seems to have survived to adulthood. McDonald died in 1908.
Robert McKein was a coachmaker
who came to Stafford alone around 1881, probably directly from Ireland. His wife
Catherine and daughter Mary followed him in the 1880s and for about ten years
the women were active in the social life of the Catholic church. The family seem
to have left Stafford between 1897 and 1901.
There were two unrelated McMahon families in 19th century Stafford. The first arrivals were Bernard and Bridget McMahon from Co. Down who were already there in the 1830s. They had at least four children, Bridget, James, Peter and Hannah, but only James, who married Susanna Shyne in 1853, remained in the town. They had five children, but all seem to have left Stafford in the 1870s and they probably emigrated.
In the 1860s Thomas McMahon, born in Kinevad, Co. Galway, arrived in Stafford with his wife Ann, born in Foughil, Co. Roscommon. Their daughters Ellen, Bridget and Mary were with them. Bridget married John Mitchell in 1869 and Ellen married Daniel Shiel in 1874. Thomas and Ann McMahon died in 1886 and the McMahon family name was extinct in the town by the 1880s.
Thomas and Bridget McNeirney probably arrived in Stafford in the late 1850s. Their first child, Mary Frances, was born in Stafford in 1860. The McNeirneys originated in Co. Clare and Thomas made a living as a hawker and latterly as a labourer. They had at least eight children, Mary, James, Ann, Thomas, John, Ellen, Bridget and William. Mary married Thomas Kelly in 1889 and John was married to Agnes (surname unknown) in 1901. The family seems to have led a quiet existence in Stafford. Thomas and Bridget probably died (or returned to Ireland) in the 1890s and most of the children seem to have left the town; they possibly emigrated. By 1901 only John McNeirney still lived in Stafford, working in a shoe factory.
The McTighes, probably from Knock, Co. Mayo were an extensive family in Stafford in the late 19th century. Mary McTighe seems to have arrived in the 1850s and married William Harvey, a sawyer from Cheadle, Staffs, in 1860. They had six children, Mary, John, William, Sarah, Joseph and Agnes. John and Agnes still lived at home in 1901 but the others seem to have left the town. Mary McTighe's probable uncle, Richard McTighe, a farm labourer, came to Stafford in the 1860s with his wife Mary and their seven children, Michael, John, Patrick, Martin, Richard, Thomas and Mary. Mary McTighe married James Roche in 1881 and they left Stafford. John McTighe married Ann Arrowsmith in 1872. Following his death in 1879 Ann married John's brother Martin. Seven children resulted from her two marriages. There were numerous descendants both in and beyond Stafford in the 20th century.
William Mellsop was born around 1809 and came to Stafford as a single man in the 1830s. He was a schoolteacher and around 1844 he married Maria, a dressmaker who was born in Penkridge. They had at least three children, Caroline, John and Selina, and they may have had others, including a Jemima. Mellsop was chairman of the Total Abstinence Society in the early 1840s. They seem to have left Stafford in the 1850s and possibly moved to the Potteries. Thereafter the trail runs cold.
There were two unrelated Mitchell families in 19th century Stafford. Samuel Mitchell, a rag dealer, came in the 1830s and lived in Queensville with his locally-born wife, Jane. They had three children, Samuel, Robert and George. The Mitchell parents probably died in the 1860s and their children almost certainly emigrated.
John Mitchell, a bricklayer, was born in Dunmore, Co. Galway and came to Stafford in the 1860s. In 1869 he married Bridget McMahon and they had six children, Mary Ellen, Martin, Agnes, Bridget, Catherine and Julia. Agnes married Alex Strachan in 1900, Catherine married Francis William Hussey in 1903 and Julia married Edgar Stopher in 1908. Martin Mitchell never married and died in 1914 but he had a remarkable career. He developed a cycle business, was a noted musician and entertainer, was active in Catholic Church affairs and in 1900 was elected a councillor as a Liberal. He became a dynamic and well-liked political figure in both the borough and county and took up many progressive issues before his untimely death.
It is uncertain where the Monaghans came from - possibly Co. Galway or Co. Sligo - but people of this name came to Stafford from the time of the Famine. A Mary Monaghan married Martin Riley in 1851 but nothing is known of this family. Patrick Monaghan, a farm labourer, arrived in the early 1850s and in 1854 he married Bridget Shaughnessy. She died in 1858 and he then married Bridget Naughton in 1862. Within a year she was dead and in 1863 he married Elizabeth or Cecily Hannan. They had four children, Bridget (married Joseph Rothwell, 1883), Mary (m. James Bagnall 1896), Ellen and Patrick (m. Elizabeth Middleton 1907). There were numerous descendants and the extended family continued into the 20th century.
At least three unrelated Irish people with this surname lived in Stafford in the 19th century. Michael Morris was a Famine immigrant with his wife Catherine; they finally settled in Stafford around 1855. They had three children, Michael, Catherine and James who may have left Stafford. Michael Morris married Catherine Paton. Thomas Morris was a shoemaker who came in the 1860s and left as a widower in the 1880s, having married a local woman, Rose, and having two children, Martha and Thomas. John Morris kept Deepmoor Lock on the canal with his wife from the 1870s to the 1890s. They were childless. A number of other Irish people with this surname also passed through the town and there was a marriage between Margaret Morris and Thomas Mahon in 1851..
Samuel Morrison was a cabinetmaker from Co. Wicklow who came to Stafford between 1841 and 1843, probably from the Manchester area. His wife Mary had been born there in 1821. The couple had seven children in Stafford, Christopher, Ann, Mary, Elizabeth, Thomas, Sarah and Kate. The whole family left in the 1860s and probably went back to Lancashire; Thomas and Kate were living at Worsley in 1881. Some of the other children may have emigrated.
Robert Moyers came to Stafford after the opening of the railway in 1837 and worked as a railway porter. In 1841 he married Susannah Follows from a local Catholic family and they had at least four children - Susannah, Elizabeth, Benjamin Leo and Mary A. Susannah became a nun and may have then been called Winifred, whilst Benjamin moved to Lancashire in the 1860s and worked as a house painter near Rawtenstall. He and his wife Elizabeth had five children by 1881. Elizabeth Moyers became the second wife of John Cronin in 1867. They had three children, of whom Charles Cronin become a senior Roman Catholic cleric. The Moyers name died out in Stafford in 1874.
There were two unrelated Mullins families in 19th century Stafford. The Catholic Michael and Bridget Mullins arrived in the 1850s and they led a poor existence in Clarke's Court until the 1880s. There were three children, Mary (married John Walders in 1864), Bridget (m. Thomas Neenan 1875) and Michael who seems to have married in Lancashire in the 1860s. His son Thomas died in 1885. The Protestant James Mullins had been in the army and came to the militia barracks with his Irish wife Mary in the 1860s. He then worked as Stafford's first school attendance officer between 1872 and 1877 but the family moved to London in the late 1870s. There were five children, Catherine, Ellen, Mary, John and Sarah.
John Mulrooney was a shoemaker born in Limerick in 1851. He came to Stafford around 1870 and in that year married Mary Bowen. They had four children, Florence (married John Geoghegan in 1898), Beatrice, James (m. Joanna Harvey 1910) and Alice May (m. Bernard Read 1913). There were links to the Coleman and Finnigan families. The family was active in the affairs of St Patrick's Catholic Church and descendants continued in Stafford in the 20th century.
A number of Murphy families and individuals lived in Stafford during the 19th century. Some were Famine immigrants, probably from Cos. Galway and Mayo, but their relationships are difficult to discern. Widows Mary and Bridget Murphy ran lodging houses in Abercrombie Yard in 1861 and 1871, and Bridget's daughter Bridget married James Mahon in 1858. Mary's daughter Mary married James Egan in 1871. Sons Michael and Martin seem to have left and possibly emigrated. There were two ex-army Murphy families in Stafford in the late 19th century. James Murphy was a prison warder in the 1880s whilst Jeremiah Murphy and his wife Joanna retired in Stafford in the 1880s. Their son Andrew was a policeman in the town in the 1900s.
John Murray, a farm labourer,
and his wife Ellen (née Hoban) arrived in Stafford between 1858 and 1861.
They had lived previously in Eccleshall from at least 1853. Ellen was born in
Tuam, Co. Galway, but John's place of origin is not known. They had at least six
surviving children, James, Mary, Peter, William, Elizabeth and Patrick. In 1881
Patrick (b. 1864) was still in Stafford working as a shoemaker whilst Elizabeth
(b. 1861) was a servant in Hampshire. Their older brothers James, Peter and William
probably emigrated in the 1870s.