🔔’No Room at the Inn’ Joseph and Mary🎄

We have all heard “no room at the inn” as it’s played out in many Nativity scenes around the world during Christmas. It’s from the Bible verse, Luke 2:7, which states that Mary and Joseph had no room at an inn when they travelled to Bethlehem to give birth to Jesus on the first Christmas. But did I have any Joseph and Mary‘s living in Billinghay or Anwick on my family tree? Low and behold I found two.

Joseph and Mary Smith

Joseph SMITH was born in 1851 in Billinghay, Lincolnshire. His parents were William, born in 1804, and Mary, born in 1811. Joseph married Mary Jane WATSON my great aunt on 10 April 1879. In 1881, on the census, his occupation was that of a Cottager, very likely an agricultural labourer who lived in a tied cottage on the landowner’s land, his father had also been a Cottager.

My connection

Joseph SMITH 1851-1913 was the husband of my great-grandaunt,
Mary Jane WATSON 1853.

Harriett WATSON 1859-1906 was the Wife of Henry Holmes and the Sister of Mary Jane WATSON.

As a note of interest, I have also found that Harriett and Mary Jane Watson almost certainly had a double wedding, as they were married on the same day 10 April 1879 at South Kyme Parish Church, St Mary’s & All Saints.
Jane Watts HOLMES 1881-1952 was the Daughter of Harriett WATSON. Jane was my paternal grandmother,
Charles Maurice JACKSON 1927-2005 was the Son of Jane Watts HOLMES
Charles was my father.

Joseph and Mary had three children, their firstborn was George William, who was born in May 1881 about a month after the 1881 census and died on 3 July 1884, aged just three, sadly died from having Bronchitis for five days.

George William Smith’s digital death certificate from GRO.

The couple also had two daughters Jane Watson Smith 1883-1942 and Frances Annie Watson Smith 1885-1948.

By the time of the 1911 census below, Joseph was not only a Farmer but also the Landlord of the Coach and Horses on the North Kyme Road at Billinghay, and he did have rooms at the Inn for Boarders, as you can see from the census below.

The Smith family in 1911 living at the Coach & Horses.

Joseph died on 11 December 1913 at the age of 62. His cause of death was 1) Acute Nephritis, 3 months ( inflammation of the kidney) 2) Anasarca (generalized oedema, swelling) Hydro Pericardium(fluid builds up in the sac around the heart) 1 month. His son-in-law, John Wise, daughter Jane’s husband, was in attendance.

Locating Mary Jane‘s death was more challenging, as you would expect there are many options for Mary Jane Smith! However, by narrowing down all the deaths for Mary Jane Smith in the area and linking ages to years of births. It was established Mary died Q4 1916 reg district Lincoln.

So in Billinghay we did have a Joseph & Mary, and who ran the inn, but we haven’t yet located the donkey!

Joseph and Mary Jackson

Joseph JACKSON was born on 16 October 1824. His father, Jabez and his mother, Millicent, were my four great-grandparents. I am descended from Joseph’s brother Samuel.

Joseph married Mary Ann Motley on 1 April 1848 in Sleaford, Lincolnshire. They had six children.

Their eldest child was John Motley Jackson, born in the first quarter of 1849. In 1871 John was working as a Blacksmith in Spilsby. He married Mary Ann Godwin in the spring of 1872 and then I found his death on 23 February 1875, so tragic for a young man, his cause of death was a disease of the bones of his foot for 8 months and blood poisoning for 14 days.

John Motley Jackson digital death certificate.

Their second child was a daughter Louisa b1851, then Samuel 1856-1902, Mary Ann b1859, David b1863 and lastly Joseph b1866.

Joseph’s occupation for many years was as an Agricultural Labourer through the census records, but when we get to the 1881 census record, he is described as a Farmer/Cottager with eleven and a half acres.