The Withers family
No. 1 St John Street
No. 1A St John Street
No. 3 St John Street
No. 5 St John Street
No. 7 St John Street
No. 9 St John Street
No. 11 St John Street
No. 13 St John Street
No. 15 St John Street
No. 17 St John Street
No. 19 St John Street
No. 21 St John Street
No. 23 St John Street
No. 2 St John Street
No. 4 St John Street
No. 6 St John Street
No. 8 St John Street
The name of the Withers family is cropping up in relation to several houses in the area of St John Street and Crispin Lane.
It was James Withers who loaned money to Job Hodges at some time after 1824. This loan enabled Job pay off a loan previously arranged by James Hodges with Hester Bagnell and allowed him to acquire the house now known as 2 Crispin Lane. James's son, Luke Withers, later became the owner of that property when Job Hodges defaulted on the loan.
In 1827, James Withers also bought a property in St Mary Street from John Bevan together with three other properties in St John Street. We believe these properties are now known as 11, 13 and 15 St John Street.
We also found an abstract of the title of the house now known as 21 St John Street. This refers to the fact that the house was built by James Withers on land or garden purchased from Thomas Rolph.
We know that James Withers was a carpenter from Thornbury. His wife was Mary Nicholas. They had a son, Luke Nicholas Withers, born 12 May 1777 and baptised in St Marys on 5 November 1777.
Mary died on 29th March 1823 aged 77 years and James died on 15th March 1828 aged 80. They were both buried in St Mary's Churchyard.
Their son, Luke inherited their property. Luke was a beerhouse keeper. At the time of the 1840 Tithe Survey and the 1841 census, he was living at what we now know as 15 St John Street. Martha Cullimore was living with him. She was described as a female servant. Luke and Martha were also shown as living there in the 1851 census when she is described as a widowed housekeeper aged 73. Martha died on 12 October 1852 aged 74 years.
We have been told by local pub historian, George Ford, that the beerhouse was known as the Star.
Luke continued to live there until his death in 1868 when he was aged 90. It doesn't appear that he ever married and he left no children. His property (at least the property we know of) was passed on to the family of James Cullimore who was occupying the property at 2 Crispin Lane.
We have been unable to confirm the connection between the Withers and Cullimore families. We suspect that Martha Cullimore who had been sharing a house with Luke in 1841 and 1851 was the mother of James Cullimore who inherited Luke's property. Click here to read about this Cullimore family
This page was last updated: 23/06/2008