Isabella Pattison

**Isabella "Bella" Pattison** was a Victorian woman born in Middlesbrough in 1885 to parents Ralph and Margaret Pattison.

## Early Years

Isabella *(nicknamed Bella)* was born into a working class family in Middlesbrough in 1885. Her father Ralph was completely blind from childhood. She was two years younger than her brother Henry who was born in 1883.

By 1891, her family had moved into lodgings at No.33 Olive Street, over the railway border, sharing a small house with multiple families. Throughout the next few years Ralph and Margaret took over the property and rented out the rooms to lodgers themselves which provided them all with a passive income so Ralph did not have to strain himself working anymore, due to his disability. This was probably a very good financial decision for Ralph and Margaret but proved to come with its own disadvantages with constant changeover of visitors in the house and rowdy, unkept, argumentative guests constantly involved in their domestic life must of been challenging for Margaret to deal with and as Henry and Bella got older, she would have helped out with the running of the household.

In 1906, Bella would have been turning 21 and around May, she would have been witness or certainly aware of the murder that took place in the bedroom by Thomas Moulder.

By 1907, their son and Bella's brother Henry dies, aged just 23 years old.

## Marriage, Loss of Parents & Children

In 1907, Bella married **Francis "Frank" Duffield** at St Hilda's Parish Church. Frank was from North Ormesby and worked at the blast furnaces as a firemen.

After the wedding, Ralph and Margaret let Bella and Frank lodge in one of the rooms. They began their own family and **Francis Henry** was born in 1908 and **Arthur** was born 1909 and **Ralph** (b.1911). Ralph would have spent a lot of time with Francis Henry, Arthur and Ralph, this was probably the most happiest he had been since the loss of his son Henry and even though he was blind, he got to meet his grandchildren. He died on 14th October 1912 after being struck on the head with basin after attempting to break up a quarrel with some lodgers in their living room. He was 56 years old. Margaret was obviously distraught and struggled on for a few more years and she died in 1914, aged 49 years old.

Bella named her next child **Margaret** (b.1914) after her. Then followed children - **Andrew** (b.1916), **Thomas** (b.1918) and **Elizabeth** (b.1920) - although Elizabeth died as a baby.

## New Homes and Grandchildren

In 1934, her eldest child **Francis Henry Duffield** married **Mary Lydon** at St Hilda's Parish Church, 27 years after she had walked down the same aisle. They moved to 29 Elm Street, in the town and Francis is listed as a Petrol Locomotive Driver. Children follow **Edward** (b.1935), **Thomas H** (b.1936), **Marlene** (b.1938) **John** (b.1939) and **Anthony** (b.1941) - Francis died in 1985.

By 1939, Bella was now 54 years old. They had moved and were living at 16 Lavender Road, a semi detached house away from the centre of town which still stands today. A far cry from the lodging house she grew up in.

Frank was still working as a locomotive firemen at the steelworks. Arthur and Andrew are a steelworks labourers, Ralph works at the bridge yard and Thomas is a general dealer working in a shop.

After the war, **Andrew** married **Veronica Durkin** in 1945 and had children **Leonard** (b,1946), **Andrew J** (b.1955) and **Francis Henry** (b.1958)

Thomas married Olive Adamson in 1950. However Arthur and Ralph never married and never had any children.

## Final Years

Frank finally died in 1958. However in 1959 she would of been present at the marriage of granddaughter Marlene Duffield to John Meek. Their daughter was born Jane Meek (b.1963) so this made Bella a great-grandmother.

**Arthur** died in 1960.

**Isabella Duffield** herself finally passed in 1971, aged 86 years old.

**Andrew** died in 1977

**Ralph** died in 1994. *He was the last living member of the family to die that met his grandparents Ralph and Margaret.*

**Thomas** died in 1997, he was the last child of Isabella's to pass.

**Edward Duffield**, Francis Henry's son died in 2011, in Middlesbrough.