James METCALF, father of Phebe (born 1784, London)

Phebe METCALF, my 4x great grandmother, was born in London on 30 Aug 1784, and baptised at Holy Trinity in the Minories on 19 Sep 1784. She married Richard BILTON, a tobacco pipe maker, in Leeds, WRY in 1802, and died in 1855. This article concerns her parents, James and Elizabeth METCALF.

There were two couples of that name in London at more or less the same time, so it took me some time to work out which was the right one. (This article explains some of my thought processes.) I eventually worked out that my ancestors were the ones who married at St Luke Old Street, MDX on 27 Jul 1783. Elizabeth was a widow, and I subsequently found that her first husband was John KEEN, whom she had married (as Elizabeth ASKEW) at St Luke Old Street in 1773. I know of two children, Elizabeth Mary (1774) and James (1776), and it was Elizabeth who helped me to work out which was my family.

When Elizabeth and James were baptised, their father John was described as a cooper. However, he must have joined the Royal Navy, for the next record I have found for him is the probate of his will (PCC) in 1782, where he is described as a mariner on board the "Richmond". This vessel was involved in actions off the east coast of North America, so presumably John died during the American War of Independence.

I believe James METCALF and Elizabeth had a daughter Sarah a few weeks before they married, and then Phebe was born in 1784. At some stage they moved from London to Leeds, WRY, though the date is uncertain. There were five children born to a James and Elizabeth Metcalf (with some spelling variants) and baptised at Leeds Parish Church between 1785 and 1792, who could have been theirs, but the first definite evidence of their time in Leeds comes from the Leeds marriage registers.

When Phebe Metcalf married Richard BILTON in Leeds Parish Church in 1802, one of the witnesses was an Isaac AKEROYD (also spelt ACKROYD). Further research revealed a marriage in Leeds in 1794 between Isaac Akeroyd and Elizabeth Keen. Not only that, Elizabeth, wife of Isaac Ackroyd, died in 1813, aged 38 - a very good match for Phebe's half-sister. Since Keen is not a common name in Yorkshire, this seemed more than just coincidence. Meanwhile evidence was growing that the other possible James had followed an entirely different career path, with no mention of a daughter Phebe, and so I concluded that the 1783 marriage of James Metcalf and Elizabeth Keen (née Askew) was the right one.

At some stage I'd like to know more about Elizabeth Askew, but for now, I'm still puzzling over James Metcalf, since the only definite references I have to him are at his marriage and the baptisms of Sarah and Phebe. Was he born in Yorkshire and only temporarily living in London, or had his family been there longer? What was his occupation? When did the family go to Leeds, and why? And when did James die?

If you can tell me any more about this Metcalf family, please get in touch.

And see the article on the other James Metcalf, who isn't my ancestor.