my 2x great grandfather

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The son of Pickering Rippon and Elizabeth Graystock, Richard Pickering Rippon (seated above centre) was born in Whitby in 1829, and as a small child moved with the family to Sculcoates in Hull. There he is in 1841, in Dock Street, where father Pickering was a ship's rigger. Together with his older sibling William, he entered a complementary trade making ship's masts and blocks, and the two brothers shared a house in Wellington Street, Sculcoates in 1851. Shortly thereafter he seems to have moved back to Whitby, following the footsteps of his younger brother Pickering. In Whitby he met Mary Elizabeth Tindale (seated left above), daughter of a local ship owner, and they were married in Sept 1860. Less than six months later they were resident in Fishburn's Road in one of the Whitby shipyards with their newly born son Tindale. Richard was by now a master rigger employing 3 men and 1 boy. Four further children followed over the next ten years, during which time the family moved to a larger house in Whitby's Shipyard, next to several other members of the Tindale family. This area was developed over the next few years, becoming Esk Place. Richard and Mary Elizabeth continued to live there for 20 or 30 years, and both survived to a fine old age. They died within a few weeks of each other in 1919 after almost 60 years of marriage.

Tindale Rippon (probably standing near right). The eldest of Richard and Mary Elizabeth's five children was born less than six months after his parents' wedding, in March 1861. Unlike his father's family, who had always worked in shipbuilding, he chose a very different trade, becoming a draper in his late teens. He was listed as such as 1881, when he was still living at home. He became a travelling salesman, and on one such trip to London met Sarah Poulton, who co-owned a drapery shop in London with her brother William. (The shop was originally established by their father Charles*). They married in 1890 (prompting Sarah to dissolve her partnership with her brother) and set up home in Leeds. In 1891 they were renting an apartment in Mount Preston that city; Tindale was described as an "upholsterer's traveller". By 1901, they had acquired a house in Brooklyn Villas, Barwick, in Leeds, and had been joined by a daughter, Margaret Lilian (b 1892). Tindale was now an upholsterer's warehouseman. A second daughter, Edith Mary, followed in 1902. (Two other children died at early ages). In 1911, the family were living in Halton in Leeds, by which time Tindale was a manufacturer's agent in silks and mohairs. Interestingly, daughter Margaret was described as a student of medicine. Sarah died in 1933, but Tindale lived to the ripe old age of 91, dying in 1953. Margaret later married Charles FJ Maury and had two children, John Tindale Maury and Jeanne M Maury. Edith never married.

Charles Rippon (probably standing near left) was born in 1863 in Whitby, and chose a rather more adventurous career than either his father or his older brother, becoming a mariner. He served his apprenticeship as a mariner between 1880 and 1885, but doesn't make another appearance in the available Census records. In 1893, he married Annie Elizabeth White, the daughter of a surveyor of highways from Lythe near Whitby, and they had three children, but the whole family seem to have spent much of the next few years at sea before settling in Hanover Terrace, Whitby (although Charles was still at sea). Charles and Annie finally retired to a house named Albaris in Mayfield Road, Whitby. Annie died in 1934, Charles in 1937. They were predeceased by eldest daught Mary Isabel (or Mabel) who never married and died in 1932 aged 38. The previous year, middle child Florence Emma Rippon married (late at 36) Sir Arthur Newton Hollely, a prosperous businessman in the retail trade, later managing director of Pophams department store in Plymouth. There were no children (although he had one from a previous marriage). Florence died in 1975. Youngest son Richard Charles Rippon married and had two children, and that line continues. He died in 1964.

Mary Elizabeth Rippon (seated right), known as Lily, my great grandmother, was born in 1865. She married my great grandfather John William Clark in 1886.

Arthur Pickering Rippon (probably standing far right) was born in 1868 in Whitby. Like older brother Charles he took to a seafaring existence, and spent many of his adult years away from home, or at least so far as the Census records go. He appears between 1881 and 1891 with the family in Shipyards and Esk Place. In the latter Census, he is described as a sailor. In 1896, he married Laura Beedle, herself a Whitby sailor's daughter. At least seven children followed over the next 20 or so years, in between voyages. In 1901, by which time Arthur was a master mariner, the family was settled in George Street in Whitby, although Arthur was away at sea. He was absent in 1911 as well, when the family had moved to Spring Hill Terrace. Laura died in 1927, aged just 52. Arthur lived for another 20 years. The children were Doris Rippon (1897-1990), Laura Beedle Rippon (1900-1972), William Arthur Rippon (1902-1984), Charles Tindale Rippon (1907-1991), Lilian Mary Rippon (1910-1996), Olive G Rippon (1911-??) and Richard Gordon Rippon (1914-1996).

Walter Rippon (probably far left) was born in Whitby in 1870. Just as Arthur had followed Charles into a seafaring life, Walter adopted the path of his eldest brother, and became a draper. He seems to have taken a job in Manchester, where he can be found in 1901, boarding with the Buchanan household, and described as a draper's assistant. Later he moved to Bradford, and married Ada Wilkinson, and they settled in Barkerend Road in that town. In the 1911 Census, Walter is described as a lace & trimming merchant. There don't appear to have been any children. Walter died in 1947, Ada three years later.

(* Thanks to Chris Hewitson for information about the Poulton family. Contact me if you are a Poulton descendant and want to get in touch with him)