Frederick William Penington

Frederick William Penington was born on the 28th of May 1850 in Liverpool, Lancashire.

He would live an eventful life over two continents and two centuries. He would be estranged from close family members over two generations.

The first records we find are of his christening on the 8th of August 1850 at St Peter's Church in Liverpool. He was the first child born to William Frederick Penington and his wife Ann.

The family were following Tradition as William had also been baptised at St Peter;s, Liverpool in 1825. The records here give William's father as John Penington, born in Liverpool in 1786, his mother was Arabella also born in 1870

John and Arabella had a large family of six children. We find William aged 15 living

with them in the 1841 English Census. The family are living at Stafford Street in Liverpool. John Penington is listed as being 45 years old. His occupation is listed as, ‘Atty' this could be an abbreviation of Attorney.

We next find Frederick William Penington in the 1861 English census. Frederick is 10 years old, he has two younger sisters Elizabeth and Litchi .The three children are living with their father William in Everton, Liverpool. William is listed as being 36 years old and a boarder at that address in Everton. There is no mention of a wife for William or a mother for the children. The census records William as being a widower. The Occupation for William here was a Pilot In those days it was a Pilot of the waters and not the sky.

The trail from here goes a little cold on Frederick for a while.

The story that had been passed on to Frederick's granddaughter was that William married a young girl only a few years older than his son Frederick. Frederick had found this news hard to accept. He had a falling out with his father. He left Liverpool vowing never to return to his father's house again.

We were able to find William Penington in the 1871 English census. The story is backed up here. William is now 47 and has a young wife, Elizabeth who is 26 years old. They have a daughter called Minnie G Penington who was 11 months old at the time of the census. The young family are living in Everton and the Occupation for William was Pilot number 5.

So what happened to Frederick? His grand daughter believed that after leaving Liverpool, he went to Manchester. He became friendly with Henry Gregson and his family. The Gregsons lived in Hulme, Manchester. Frederick married Mary, Henry's daughter. Mary Gregson, had been 20 years younger than Frederick ‘Had history been repeating itself'.

The last records of Frederick that we have for the moment were taken from the 1900 United States Federal census. He was with Mary, their son Frederick Jr, 5 years old and a daughter Anita, 4 years old. They were in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The record stated that Mary, Frederick and Frederick Jr had arrived in America in 1896. Their daughter Anita had been born in Pennsylvania in May 1896.

Here we go back to the history that has been passed down through the family. It is believed that Frederick Williams never returned to English waters. He had his own Livery company and was successful on the work front. Happiness on the family side was short lived. Mary and their children would return to England, leaving Frederick Williams back in America.