William Frith

1771 – 1838

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-03

The Frith line enters the record with William — born about 1771, on the reckoning of his burial entry, his parents and birthplace unrecorded: the family's wall, mapped in the research note below. He first appears on Christmas Eve 1795, at Brocklesby under the Wolds, marrying Mary Dobbs — a Brocklesby girl, daughter of William Dobbs and Elizabeth Quickfall; a Quickfall, her mother's people, stood witness. The register carries a detail worth pausing on: both bride and groom signed their names, in confident hands, at a date when most working couples made their mark. Francis was baptised at Brocklesby in 1797, and by 1800 the family had moved the eight miles to Great Grimsby, where Elizabeth, William, Edward and David followed at St James'.

He was a stonemason, and he had chosen his moment and his towns well. Brocklesby in the early 1790s had just seen the grandest stone-work in Lincolnshire — the Pelhams' great domed mausoleum — and Grimsby, as William arrived, was rebuilding itself around the new dock its Haven Company opened in 1800. By Pigot's directory of 1828–9 there are two William Friths in George Street: a stonemason, and the keeper of the Coach and Horses tavern — the father and his namesake son of twenty-seven, or one man with two trades; the record has not yet said which, though the coroner's report of 1833 calls him "Mr. William Frith, Senior", so there was certainly a Junior in the town.

That report is the page's saddest record: on the 20th of November 1833 Mary died suddenly, in the forenoon, "during her husband's absence from home"; the coroner's jury returned the old verdict for a death no one could explain — "died by the visitation of God". She was sixty. William outlived her five years and was buried at St James' on the 21st of August 1838, aged about sixty-seven; the following spring the Stamford Mercury carried a notice inviting all claims against "the estate of William Frith, late of Great Grimsby, stonemason" — a man whose affairs took a public notice and an administrator to settle.

Below William, every rung of this line is anchored to registers, certificates and newspapers — the mason of Grimsby, the bricklayer of Hull, the dockers' president of Chapel Lane, the serjeant of Oppy Wood, and the daughter of the Ceylon Street shop who married into the Brocks. Above him stands the open question his page keeps honestly: whose son was he?

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-03

Birth: 1771
Marriage: December 24th 1795 Brocklesby, Lincolnshire to Mary Dobbs
Burial: August 21st 1838, St. James Church, Grimsby
Children: Francis Frith baptised August 6th 1797, Brocklesby, died 1850 Elizabeth Frith baptised February 3rd 1800, St James, Grimsby, died 1847 William Frith, baptised June 2nd 1801 St. James, Grimsby died 1858 Edward Frith baptised July 22nd 1804, St. James, Grimsby David Frith baptised February 28th 1809, St. James, Grimsby
1795: Marries Mary Dobbs in Brocklesby 'William Frilh and Mary Dobbs both of this parish were married by banns in this church this 24th day of December in the year of our Lord, 1795, in the presence of J Quickfall and E Happle' Both William and Mary signed their names well
1828: Pigot and Co. Trade Directory 1828-9 William Frith, Stonemason, George Street, Grimsby William Frith, Coach and Horses, Tavern, George Street, Grimsby
1833: Death of wife Mary on the 20th of November On Wednesday evening the 20th inst. an inquest was held at Grimsby by Q. Veal, gentleman coroner on the body of Mrs. Mary Frith wife of Mr. William Frith, Senior who died suddenly in the forenoon of the same day during her husband's absence from home. Verdict - died by the visitation of God. She was 60 years of age. Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette, 29th November 1833
1838: Burial of William aged about 67 years WILLIAM FRITH'S AFFAIRS All persons having any claim or demand against the estate of WILLIAM FRITH, late of Great Grimsby, stonemason, deceased are requested to send the particulars thereof with the nature of their securities to MATTHEW DANN of Great Grimsby……….. Stamford Mercury, 19th April 1839

In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook

Family

Marriage

MDSpouseMary Dobbs1772–1833

Children

DFChild · the line continuesDavid Frithmain line1809–1847

Historical context

Brocklesby and the new Grimsby

The two places that frame William's life were both, in their different ways, building sites. Brocklesby was the Pelham family's estate village, and in the years just before William married there the Pelhams had raised the grandest piece of stone-work in Lincolnshire — the great domed mausoleum on the hill above the park, built to James Wyatt's design between 1787 and 1794. A stonemason at Brocklesby in the early 1790s was in the right place at the right time; whether William's hands touched that stone the record cannot say, but the trade could not have found a better school. Grimsby, eight miles east, was remaking itself as he arrived: the old borough had decayed with its silted haven, and under the Haven Act of 1796 a company was cut a new dock — opened in 1800 — around which the town began slowly to rebuild in brick and stone. It was not yet the fishing port it would become (the Devon smacksmen and the railway were a generation away, and would carry his grandchildren to Hull); it was a town of building work, freemen's privileges and small trade — the Grimsby of William's directory entries, his son's freedom of the borough, and the Coach and Horses in George Street.

Composed for this site from published local history — the family’s world, not one of Mum’s records.

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1771

Born

1771

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1795

Married Mary Dobbs

24 December 1795

W[illia]m Frith & Mary Dobbs, both of this Parish, were married by Banns in this Church this [24th] Day of December in the Year of our Lord [179]5 — by me, Tho[s]. Tyzer. This Marriage was solemnized between us: Wm Frith; Mary Dobbs — in the Presence of Us: Jo. Quickfall; E. Hepple.— Marriage — Brocklesby (1795)

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Marriage — Brocklesby (1795) — Brocklesby parish register, image read online (findmypast Lincolnshire Marriages; Lincolnshire Archives). Both signatures are confident, practised hands — Mum's note, "both William and Mary signed their names well", is exactly what the page shows. Her "E Happle" reads Hepple in the register's hand; the day sits in the gutter of the photograph and is hers. The Quickfalls witness several marriages on the same spread — the parish's fixture family, and Mary's own: her mother was Elizabeth Quickfall. read at the image

1828

Pigot's Directory — two William Friths in George Street

1828

Pigot and Co.'s Trade Directory, 1828–9, Great Grimsby: William Frith, stonemason, George Street. — William Frith, Coach and Horses, tavern, George Street.— Pigot & Co.'s Directory (1828–9)

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

Pigot & Co.'s Directory (1828–9) — Janet's abstract from Pigot's national commercial directory. Two William Friths, one street: the stonemason and the tavern-keeper of the Coach and Horses. His namesake son was then twenty-seven; the 1833 inquest report's "Mr. William Frith, Senior" proves the pair — which of them kept the tavern is on the research list. from Mum’s research

1833

Mary dies suddenly — “the visitation of God”

1833

On Wednesday evening the 20th inst. an inquest was held at Grimsby by G. Veal, gentleman coroner, on the body of Mrs. Mary Frith, wife of Mr. William Frith, Senior, who died suddenly in the forenoon of the same day during her husband's absence from home. Verdict — died by the visitation of God. She was 60 years of age.
— The inquest on Mary — Hull Advertiser (1833)

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

The inquest on Mary — Hull Advertiser (1833) — Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette, 29 November 1833, as Janet transcribed it; not yet re-checked against the digitised page. "Died by the visitation of God" was the age's verdict for a sudden natural death no one could explain. from Mum’s research

1838

“William Frith's affairs” — the Mercury's notice

1838

WILLIAM FRITH'S AFFAIRS. All persons having any claim or demand against the estate of WILLIAM FRITH, late of Great Grimsby, stonemason, deceased, are requested to send the particulars thereof, with the nature of their securities, to MATTHEW DANN of Great Grimsby…— “William Frith's affairs” — Stamford Mercury (1839)

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

“William Frith's affairs” — Stamford Mercury (1839) — Stamford Mercury, 19 April 1839, as Janet transcribed it; not yet re-checked against the digitised page. A public creditors' notice meant an estate with debts and assets worth formal settling; the administration papers under Matthew Dann's name are a pass-2 target at Lincolnshire Archives — and might name kin. from Mum’s research

1838

Buried

21 August 1838 at St James Church

William Frith — buried the 21st of August 1838, St James' church, Grimsby, aged about 67 years.— Burial — St James', Great Grimsby (1838)

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research, cited — not yet re-verified at the image:

Burial — St James', Great Grimsby (1838) — Janet's reading of the St James' register: buried 21 August 1838, aged about 67 — the source of the "born 1771" at the head of this page. The online index has a gap in the St James' registers for the 1830s, so her reading awaits its register image at North East Lincolnshire Archives. from Mum’s research

Our research

The top of the tree — whose son was William?

Open research · the Frith wall

The county index draws blank. Searched this pass (2026): no William Frith baptism anywhere in the Lincolnshire index for 1766–1776, under either spelling. The one near-candidate is a William Firth, baptised 1768 at Benniworth St Julian (father John, mother Mary) — twenty miles into the Wolds, three years loose against the burial's "about 67", and unproven. To do: the kill-test — does Benniworth's William stay, marry or die at Benniworth? And note the name also points across the Humber: Firth is a West Riding surname, and a Yorkshire origin is live if Lincolnshire dries.
The freemen's rolls are the sharpest documentary lever. His son David was enrolled a Freeman of Grimsby in 1830; if that freedom came by patrimony, William was a freeman before him — and freemen's admission entries habitually name fathers. To do: the Grimsby freemen's admissions at North East Lincolnshire Archives, for William, for his namesake son, and for David's qualifying right.
"William Frith's affairs." The Mercury's notice of April 1839 puts his estate in the hands of Matthew Dann of Great Grimsby. The administration papers — Lincolnshire probate is not online — could name kin on both sides of the wall. To do: Lincolnshire Archives.
His burial entry wants its image: the online index has a gap in the St James' registers for the 1830s (the same gap hides his grandson John Henry's 1834 baptism), so Mum's reading — 21 August 1838, aged about 67 — stands on her register work until the register itself is checked at North East Lincolnshire Archives, with the FamilySearch sweep queued behind it.
The Coach and Horses: which William kept it — the mason or his son (1801–1858)? Licensing records and the 1841 census of George Street would say; the son's own story, and those of Francis, Elizabeth and Edward, are unbuilt.
Mary Dobbs (1772–1833) is owed her page in the wives' pass: baptised at Brocklesby two days before Christmas 1772, daughter of William Dobbs and Elizabeth Quickfall — two more of Mum's twenty Frith-quarter families stand behind her — and her sudden death has its own inquest report to carry.
Newspaper re-checks (quick, online): the Hull Advertiser inquest report (29 November 1833) and the Stamford Mercury notice (19 April 1839) against the digitised pages.