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Dorothy ROBINSON
1870 - 1963 (92 years)
Has 73 ancestors and 66 descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
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Name Dorothy ROBINSON Relationship 
with Teresa Ann GOATHAM Born 14 Mar 1870 68, Washington New Row, Usworth, Co. Durham, England 
- GRO ref: ROBINSON, Dorothy q1 1870 Chester le S. RD 10a 494; GRO online index shows mother's maiden name as Emmerson
(have birth cert.)
Birth certificate for Dorothy Robinson Gender Female Education 1881 Scholar Residence 71, Lawns, Deneside, Co. Durham, England Residence 1, Marsden Avenue, Whitburn Colliery, Co. Durham, England Residence 4, Lily Crescent, Whitburn Colliery, Co. Durham, England - Where she was living when she died.
Died 23 Jan 1963 Whitburn, Co. Durham, England Buried (probably), The Crematorium, Sunderland, Co. Durham, England - Funeral Service & Cremation At Sunderland Crematorium
Siblings4 brothers and 3 sisters Half-siblings1 half brother (family of [ - ? - ] and Margaret EMMERSON) Patriarch & Matriarch 
Ralph ROBINSON, b. Est 1705, d. Jan 1774, Old Buckenham, Norfolk, England (Age ~ 69 years) (3 x Great Grandfather) 
Barbara HUTCHINSON, b. Abt 1782, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England, d. 12 Feb 1858, Smith’s Court, Prudhoe Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England (Age ~ 76 years) (Great Grandmother) Notes - Described as having 14 children & 1 gt grandchild at time of Golden Wedd. (1938), other newspaper articles suggest she had 12 or 13 children. She clearly had 9 children who reached adulthood, and at least 3 children who died in infancy. Whether there was another 1 or 2 was unclear.
Person ID I162 All | Teresa's direct ancestors Last Modified 11 Jan 2023
Father James ROBINSON, b. 31 Mar 1829, Old Buckenham, Norfolk, England , d. 23 Nov 1899, 4, James Street, Marsden, Whitburn, Co. Durham, England (Age 70 years) Mother Margaret EMMERSON, b. Abt 1837, Benwell, Northumberland, England , d. 1 Feb 1922, 6, Hedworth Terrace, Whitburn, Co. Durham, England (Age ~ 85 years)
Other Partners: [ - ? - ]Married Between 1857 and 1861 Research notes
I have looked hard for the marriage in the index on FreeBMD. TO DO: look at the local indexes in case mistranscribed to the central ones (or to FreeBMD)
Either,
* they may have married but an error in the register or failure to send a copy of the PR entry to the local registration office and GRO means it cannot be found indexes;
* as above but the entry was sent but lost (index-wise) at the GRO (the GRO created slips of paper to make the index - inevitably some will have been lost)
* they married but an error in the PR entry and / or index means the entry cannot be found
* they married but Margaret wasn't an Emmerson at marriage (see consideration of this below - summary: unlikley explanation)
* they did not bother to marry - seems unlikely unless there was a good reason
* they did not marry as one of them was not free to marry. It is worth noting that the likely date of marriage, c. 1859, James would have been aged 30, so there had been plenty of time for him to marry and for the couple to part company. With divorce effectively unavailable some chose to marry bigamously but others to live as though married.
Living in a highly populated area, with many moving in from elsewhere and themselves moving around it would probably have been easy for James and Margaret to live without any but close relations of Margaret knowing they weren't married.
Could Margaret have married and been widowed and then married James?
3 Margaret Em(m)ersons married in the period 1857 - 1860,
one in Southwark RD, very unlikely, one in Guisbro RD, not very likely, one in Sunderland - quite possible (q2 1859).
Latter was to a Joseph Walker or George Baker.
What's more, I haven't found Joseph or George with a wife Margaret in the 1861 census suggesting one of the couple had died (though of course, esp given that the marr was in Sunderland, they could have been at sea, and I haven't searched thoroghly for mis-transcriptions etc.)
Marriages of a James Robinson to a Margaret, 1857 - 1861 include one of a Margaret Baker (but q2 1858 so can't be Margaret widow of Geo as they weren't even marr by then!), one of a Margaret Walker; no surnames matching those in the Guisbro and Southwark marriages.
Marriage to Margaret Walker was q1 1861, Skipton. 2 snags - Skipton abt 90 miles from Washington and after the birth of Ruth, who was registered as a Robinson, not Walker. There were a no. of James and Margarets in or nr Yorkshire in 1861, incl one in Skipton, who could probably have been the couple who married in 1861 - I haven't checked them thoroughly (e.g. children), BUT I haven't found the Skipton couple in the 1851 census and they don't have any children, despite both being shown as aged 39 in the 1861 census, so I suspect it was them who married in Skipton RD, not my James and Margaret.
Family ID F213 Family Group Page | Family Chart
Family Henry BAILEY, b. 16 Apr 1866, Zoar, St. Budeaux, Devon, England , d. 3 Sep 1946, The Royal Infirmary, Sunderland, Co. Durham, England (Age 80 years) Married 5 May 1888 Whitburn Parish Church, Whitburn, Co. Durham, England - GRO ref: BAILEY, Henry to ROBINSON, Dorothy q2 1888 South Shields RD 10a 957
Certificate for the marriage of Henry Bailey to Dorothy Robinson Children How many did Henry and Dorothy have? - According to a newspaper cutting for Henry and Dorothy's Golden Wedding, they had had 7 sons and 6 daughters (4 and 3 then living) - the figures for those still living is right, but I only know of 6 sons.
Another newspaper cutting says they had 14 children, another only 12!
By the time of the 1911 census they had had 12 children born alive, of whom 3 had died. Edith was still living then, who would subsequently die in infancy, and William had not been born. I think this is more likely to be accurate than the much later newspaper reports, which would suggest they did have at least 13 children, and if there was a 14th he or she was born after 1911.
So who was the 13th? Granddad thought that a child named after each of them had died; whilst I can find the earlier Henry I have not found any evidence of a Dorothy. Possibly a child was born before they married and their birth registered as a Robinson. No likely Dorothy found - if there was a daughter Dorothy she would have made the total sons / daughters in the Golden Wedding report the wrong way around - far from impossible, in a local newspaper!
It seems strange to me that the number of children should be quoted variably. Two possible explanations, apart from errors by newspaper jounalists or typos, could be:
1. that they had had children still born or had miscarriages OR
2. that Dorothy had had one or 2 children before she married Henry. Especially given the good age she lived to, I find it hard to imagine she could have kept this a secret - especially when then counting them at times.
But a late miscarriage or especially a still-birth I think could quite likely be counted as having a child at times, and yet not at others. (The 1911 census, though, did clearly say they had had 12 children born alive, which suggests I may be missing one who was not a still-birth / late miscarriage).
With names as common as Bailey and Robinson it is not easy to be certain, without the expense of purchasing a lot of certificates.
Wedding Anniversary 5 May 1938 Garden Street, Houghall, Co. Durham, England Golden Children12 children Photos 
Bailey brothers and sisters
Taken at the wedding of Dorothy Simpson.
Six of the seven children of Henry Bailey (b 1866) and Dorothy nee Robinson (b 1870) still living in 1966, viz.
(back row) Will, Henry, John
(front row) Emily, Doris, Rob
(Flo is the one still living but not present)
Documents 
Newspaper notice of the death of Samuel Bailey Last Modified 11 Jan 2023 Family ID F98 Family Group Page | Family Chart
- GRO ref: ROBINSON, Dorothy q1 1870 Chester le S. RD 10a 494; GRO online index shows mother's maiden name as Emmerson
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Photos 
Documents 
Celebrating the birth of a great great grandson
The quality of the reporting is typical of local papers, i.e. with several inaccuracies. John Newman was Dorothy's great grandson, not his wife her great granddaughter. And I believe she had 13 not 12 children though I'm not certain about this.
Dorothy's age is correct - she was 89 in 1959, the year she became a gt gt grandmother, but her husband died in 1946, not as stated seven years before!