Posted on: DEWHURST - DEWHIRST Biographical Information Reply Here: http://genconnect.rootsweb.com/gc/surnames/dew/DewhurstBios/10035 Surname: DEWHURST, PEARSON, REEVES, MCPHERSON ------------------------- William Henry was B. Abt 1816, Hackney, Middlesex, England. He was both a London Police Constable and an Artist (listed as print colourer and illustrator in various census records). His father's name is listed as John (Occupation: Sawyer) on William Henry's Marriage Certificate, December 10, 1840, Old Church, St. Pancras, Middlesex, London, England when he married Mary Pearson. Known children are: Caroline Jane (M. Frederick Robert Huskinson), Mary Elizabeth (spinster nurse matron at Guys Hospital, London), James (supposedly James "was a Scotland Yard detective, spending most of his life in Algiers and Tangiers, in service to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. He died in London. Did not marry." We have not found evidence of this man, however, he could be the reason our great grandfather used his middle name William commonly by the time he married rather than the name James. I have been told it is not unusual to re-use the same first name for many children and to call them by a middle name), Madeline (m. Frederick William McDonald, an English Teacher at a private school), James William (my g grandfather) and perhapos another female (supposedly m. Dr. Richard Irwin Lynch??, the Chief Botanist at Cambridge University. He also worked in Kew Gardens where today one of the Glass Houses is named for him. Family stories say he was married to a Dewhurst daughter of our line, but I have yet to find the proof. The story passed down to us is that he grew and ate (without dying) the first hot house tomato in England - tomatoes were considered to be poisonous. Conversation with the Cambridge Librarian and the current Head of the Dept. of Botany tell me that IF this was the case, he did many more things that superceded it as accomplishments. He is especially known for developing certain strains of daisies). This line begins and ends in London, as far as we have been able to research it. Family stories say the line began in the Bavarian Alps, then went to Austria (surname d'Hurst or duHurst) as courtiers to the Von Hapsburg family. Supposedly, they went to France abt. 1770 in attendance to the court of Marie Louise Antoinette von Hapsburg (b. 1755) when she went to marry Louis XVIII, and became Queen of France. As the French Revolution began and the political climate became dangerous, our oral history says the family fled to Normandy then by boat for Hull, Yorkshire, England about 1793, jewels sewn into the hems of their coats, when Marie suggested the people eat cake. We can't prove a word of it! ...YET! Only known information for Mary PEARSON is that her father shows as "Thomas, shoemaker" on the wedding certificate of William and Mary and that her birthdate was approximately 1821 based upon information found in the 1841 Census, Camden Villas, Kentish Town, London. One relative says there were 9-11 children in this family, but we have only found what we show. Charts for this family can be seen at the link below: Link: Climbing the Branches - Dewhurst URL: <http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~jmbhome/dewhurstwmhmary.html>