The family name has various spellings including Ellsmere, Ellsmore and Elsmon. Most frequently it appears as Elsmore. Vouchers relating to the Elsmores survive for the period 1817–1834. The earliest, for the repair of shoes for Ann Gooding costing £0 1s 8d submitted by William Elsmore, is dated 2 July 1817.

The Elsmore name crops up frequently in the Colwich overseers’ vouchers, both as makers and repairers of footwear, and as recipients of parish relief. It was a very extended family so disentangling the precise relationship between one member of the family and another is not always straightforward. Nor is it always easy to determine precisely which member of the family was in receipt of poor relief. The first entry on the Elsmores looks at their visibility within the overseers’ vouchers for Colwich. The second is an attempt to establish the connections between the various branches of the family.

Some members of the family seem to have been prosperous; others relied more heavily on parish relief. Yet more dipped in and out of the parish system. Parson and Bradshaw’s, Staffordshire General and Commercial Directory, (1818) lists John Ellsmere and Thomas Ellsmore as shoemakers, whilst William Elsmore is listed as a shoemaker in White’s directory of 1834. Inclusion in a trade directory however, was no guarantee of business success.

The vouchers suggest that some of the Elsmores survived on the margins. Indeed, some rather poignant survivals indicate that whilst the Elsmores were shoemakers, they could not afford to provide shoes or even repair them for their own children without recourse to the parish. In 1821 John Elsmore was paid for repairing the shoes of four people including ‘William Elsmore’s Girl’. William and John Elsmore received work from Colwich’s overseers, usually in the form of carrying out shoe and boot repairs throughout the 1820s, if not always consistently. Perhaps, by providing work, it was in an attempt by the parish to reduce the number of occasions when the Elsmores sought parish relief. If so, it was not entirely successful. In 1828 Sarah, William and James Elsmore were the beneficiaries of two pairs of shoes and the repair of shoes. In the same year James Elsmore was paid for resoling and heeling Sarah Elsmore’s shoes and John Elsmore for shoe repairs for ‘Sarah Elmore’s girl’ and for Mary Elmore’s girl’.

In 1831 William was paid for repairing the shoes of ‘Francis’ and ‘Frederick’. Although many people had the names ‘Francis’ and ‘Frederick’, they were also the names of two of William’s children. One bill for the provision of clothes covers the period from 1823 until April 1832. Amongst the 34 names listed (some appear more than once) as beneficiaries, the Elsmore name occurs on four occasions: Widow Elsmore’s son; George Elsmore[‘s?] widow (it is not clear whether this refers to George himself or to his widow); Francis Elsmore; and Frederick Elsmore.

On one occasion a bill for repairs, dated 1830, was not settled until January 1832 when it was paid to a ‘Mrs Elsmore’.

Sources

William Parson and Thomas Bradshaw, Staffordshire General and Commercial Directory, (1818)

SRO, D874/1, St Michael’s and All Angels Parish Register, Colwich

SRO, D24/A/Po/1136b, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 2 Jul. 1817

SRO, D24/A/Po/1282, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 21 Jan. 1821

SRO, D24/A/Po/1561, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, Jul.–Aug. 1828

SRO, D24/A/Po/1519, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 28 Oct. 1827

SRO, D24/A/Po/1529, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 26 Feb. 1828

SRO, D24/A/Po/1567, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 21 Sep. 1827

SRO, D24/A/Po/1623, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 18 Oct. 1829

SRO, D24/A/Po/1641, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 9 Mar. 1830

SRO, D24/A/Po/1695, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 10 Mar. 1831

SRO, D24/A/Po/1748, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 6 Jan. 1832

SRO, D24/A/Po/1760, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 20 Mar. 1832

SRO, D24/A/Po/1761, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 20 Mar. 1832

SRO, D24/A/Po/1777, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 16 Apr. 1832

SRO, D24/A/Po/1778, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 21 Apr. 1832

SRO, D24/A/Po/1964, Colwich Overseers’ Vouchers, 7 Mar. 1834

William White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire (Sheffield: 1834)

This is a work in progress, subject to change as new research is conducted