The Solution to a Twenty-Year Search

Before you start thinking I'm claiming that this was MY 20 year search I must tell you that I only started my research a few years ago, but have been in contact with two other members of the Lunt family who have been researching for many years. I can't even take credit for the results set out below, as a friend did a lot of digging in the Record Office and discovered all the evidence which is described below. We are all very grateful to him for what he found.

If you have started by reading The Search Goes On you will know a little of two branches of the Lunt family which descendants believed are connected but have been baffled as to how.

To give a little background, the parents of William John Lunt (1828-1892) were Samuel Lunt (1807-1858) and Mary Rothwell (b 1808). Samuel's parents were John Lunt (1783 - 1835) and Mary Coward, as mentioned in "The Search Goes On" and John's father was Richard Lunt.

A little was known about this Richard, who married Ann Taylor, a widow, at St Mary Walton On The Hill 16th Sept 1782 and they were known to have six children between 1783 and 1793.

Not so much was known about another Richard Lunt, the father of Henry (b 1746), Thomas (1750-1785), Luke (b 1752), a second Luke (who married Isabella Coward) (1754-1802), Mary (b 1757), John (b 1759) and Betty (b 1763), but we all believed that there was a connection to the two families somewhere, if it could only be found.

Witnesses to the marriage of Richard and Ann Taylor, were Luke and Isabella (Coward) Lunt, which confirms that the two branches of the tree at least knew each other. A descendant of Richard and Ann suggested that this could be the same Richard, Luke’s father could be marrying for the second time to Ann Taylor and this was considered as a possibility, but I questioned three points –

It would seem more likely that he would have chosen the older son Thomas to be his witness rather than Luke?
If Ann became his stepmother, I wondered if Thomas might have mentioned Ann in his Will, bearing in mind he didn’t die until 1785, three years after the marriage of Richard and Ann.
The children of the earlier Richard are accepted to be Henry born 1746 and ending with Betty born 1763. This would mean that he was born at least in the mid 1720’s. I wondered if it was really feasible to suppose that a man in his 60’s would remarry and start another family? It was certainly possible but I didn't feel it likely.

None of the above points could disprove the suggestion. We wondered if we would ever know the truth.

Luckily I had a friend who took an interest and he started to search for burials of some of the Lunts.

He found in the List of Gravestones which had been removed from St Mary's Walton on the Hill, the following transcription:

Grave No. 245

Alice, daughter of Rich'd and Ann Lunt, Died 7th January 1794 Aged 2 years.

Ann Lunt, Died 22nd January, 1806, Aged 52 Years.

Richard Lunt, Died 1st April, 1806, Aged 72 Years.

Hannah Lunt, Died 10th July, 1806, Aged 17 Years.

Flatstone

This entry fitted nicely with Richard Lunt and Ann Taylor and their two younger daughters - Hannah who was born 1789 and Alice who was born 1791.

More interesting were the entries in the Burial Register which listed

Alice Lunt - Low Hill - dau. of Richard Lunt by his wife Ann dau of (blank) - died 8.Jan.1794 - buried 9.Jan.1794 - churchyard - 2yrs.
Ann Lunt - Low Hill - wife of Richard Lunt and dau. of ..... Thomlinson - died 22.Jan.1806 - buried 26.Jan.1806 - 53yrs - churchyard - decline
Richard Lunt - Low Hill - son of Richard Lunt by his wife Mary dau. of ... Brown - died 1.Apr.1806 - buried 6.Apr.1806 - churchyard - apop.fit.
Hannah Lunt - Low Hill - dau. of Richard Lunt by his wife Ann - died 10.Jul.1806 - buried 13.Jul.1806 - churchyd - 17yrs - weakness.

What a bonus! Not only did we now have Richard's parents names, but also his mother's maiden name. An extra bonus was was Ann's maiden name - Thomlinson. Sure enough an extracted entry on the IGI showed a marriage for Ann Tomlinson to Thomas Taylor on 5 July 1773 - St Mary's Walton on the Hill, giving the proof that she was indeed the Ann Taylor who had married Richard Lunt nine years later on 16 September, 1782, also in St Mary's Walton on the Hill.

Then to find a marriage for Richard's parents, again the IGI provided an extracted entry for the marriage of Richard Lunt to Mary Brown on 24 September, 1744 in Huyton by Roby.

This effectively ruled out this Richard being the father of Luke and siblings.

The IGI didn't produce an entry for the birth of Richard to fit, so I went to Huyton Library to check the Bishop's Transcripts - as might be expected of documents of this age, these are not easy to read but I did manage to find an entry for his birth dated 20th June, 1744, Richard son of Richard Lunt of Roby.

Did this mean that Richard had been born before the marriage of his parents? I thought it strange since he was given his father's name rather than his mother's, so I searched for the entry for their marriage and after much peering at the screen and asking the opinion of others in the library, came to the conclusion that the IGI had misread the date and the year of the marriage was in fact 1743, so took place the year before the birth of Richard.

I felt that this had answered a number of questions that had been asked by descendants of this line.

My friend then produced another rabbit out of his hat - the burial of Luke Lunt -

25 Jan. 1802 - Luke Lunt - West Derby - son of Richard by his wife Mary, dau of Thomas Brown - died 22 Jan. 1802 - 47 years - Churchyd - Stroke

This was the clincher - Luke was ALSO the son of Richard Lunt and Mary Brown which meant that the first Richard, the husband of Ann Taylor - was the oldest brother of Luke and siblings.

Evidently Richard Lunt and Mary Brown had lived in Huyton by Roby for long enough to have had one child before moving in to Liverpool where they baptised their next child, Henry, in St Nicholas Church on 3 May, 1746. I wonder why ? The remaining children were baptised in St Peters Church.

The icing on the cake was the burial of the parents -

18.Feb.1789 - Mary widow of Richard Lunt of Low Hill - 66yrs.

Also

26.Jun.1786 - Richard Lunt - Innkeeper - Low Hill - 64yrs

His birth must be approximately 1722.

Innkeeper? we thought he was a tailor didn't we?

Well we know from trade directories that Luke had two occupations, from the Gore's Directory of 1800 that of mason and also from the 1794 directory, victualler of the Red Lion Hotel in Low Hill. Rent Book entries show that he had the "Red Lyon" between August, 1789 until May, 1799 with Isabella running it after Luke's death in 1802, as shown by the entry in Gores Directory of 1811 which states "Lunt, Isabella - Victualler - Low Hill".

Rent Books show entries for Richard Lunt between 1785 and 1789, with the name "Luke Lunt" written at the bottom of the page, and also entries for Luke which makes me think that these entries are for his father, Richard.

So it would seem that Richard had two occupations, as did his son after him.

There is more research which can be done for this family but at the moment I thought I'd share this with you. I hope it now helps you along with your own research.

Now please continue to read about My Mistake and how the research I'd always believed was accurate has suddenly been proved wrong and I discovered that I'm not descended from this family after all ...... but will there be a connection between the families even further back? Watch this space.

My enormous thanks go to Tony Swarbrick who has done so much to find most of the above for me and without him, this solution would never have been found. He has a great site with so much Liverpool information, pictures and maps, well worth checking out - Leverpoole.co.uk