Shrewsbury

A few years ago, we were contacted by Jessie Bishop Lewis and Val Holley. At the time, we didn’t have a lot of information about Greg’s ancestor William Evans Bishop. (Jessie is a granddaughter, and Val a 2nd great grandson of William). We were also extremely busy and our response reflected that. It was something like, “That’s all the information we have on William and the Bishop line. We simply haven’t gotten around to doing any primary research on that line.”

Over the course of last year, we reacquainted ourselves with Jessie and Val. Both have been a tremendous resource. For example, we were given additional details about William’s marriage to Mary Pocock. Jessie gave us a certified copy of the marriage entry for William and Mary. This entry states that they were married on 8 Feb 1852 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. (Shrewsbury is a medieval town that was founded c. 800. It lies approximately 9 miles east of Wales and the name Shrewsbury comes from the Anglo-Saxon Scrobbesburh which means “fort in the scrub-land region” or “Scrobb’s fort.” Its Welsh name Amwythig means “fortified place“.

We were also given additional information about William and Mary’s child Elizabeth. Elizabeth Bishop was born 12 Feb 1853 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The family emigrated from England to Utah Territory in 1855. According to one account, William and Mary settled in Draper, Utah at the southeast end of the Salt Lake Valley.

In 1857, William was called to serve in the Nauvoo Legion, the Utah militia under the command of Daniel H. Wells. That year 2,500 U.S. troops were sent to quell a so-called “rebellion” in the territory and to ensure a change in the territorial government. (Newly elected U.S. President James Buchanan had appointed Alfred Cumming the new governor of the territory, without notifying the current governor Brigham Young).

At that time, tensions ran high on both sides. The majority of the residents of the territory had fled the confines of the United States in order to practice their religion. They were largely members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and over the course of the last twenty plus years had been forced to leave their settlements in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. On the other hand, Buchanan was misled by outgoing Utah Territorial supreme court associate justice William W. Drummond, who accused the Mormons of treachery in dealing with federal law and authorities.

William Evans Bishop served under the command of Captain Rawlins in the Nauvoo Legion. The Legion was given specific orders to harass and annoy the enemy, but to “Shed no blood.” Ultimately, no blood was shed and despite reinforcements being sent to both sides, the end result was a peaceful transition of power as Governor Cumming took office in 1858. (For additional information on this conflict, see Curtis Allen’s blog at Utah War and Johnston’s Army).

Echo Canyon, Utah

William reports that he spent the fall and winter of 1857-1858 in the mountains of Echo Canyon on his post. After being given leave of his post, and according to granddaughter Mary McMurdie, William traveled home to Draper only to find that his wife Mary had taken their daughter Elizabeth and “gone away with one of the soldiers” of Johnston’s army. After extensive research, Val has not been able to find any record of Mary, Elizabeth, or the soldier and their whereabouts. At present, they are “lost”. If you have any additional information, please contact us. Jessie reports that according to her father Richard Morris Bishop, William and his second wife Harriet Morris always “spoke highly” of Mary.

On the left is the only known picture of William and Mary. According to Jessie, this photograph was “found among [William Evan Bishop's] possessions in his original homestead” in Paradise. Jessie feels strongly that this is their wedding photograph taken in 1852. She “spent considerable time researching the clothing worn by the bride, and it is consistent with what was being worn by brides in England at the time.”

A copy of this photograph was given to Jessie by Lafaun Floyd of Hyrum, Utah. He and his wife LaRee have offered to scan their collection of Bishop photographs and make them available to us. We look forward to getting copies and posting them on our web site to share with other family members.

In January of this year (2007), we were contacted by Carole E. Clarke of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. She wrote us a letter and informed us that she had in her possession a number of letters that were written by some of the children of John Bishop and Catherine Evans. Since we hadn’t done any primary research on the Bishop line, we were excited to obtain copies of these letters and Carole sent us copies of the transcriptions shortly thereafter. They are fascinating to read and give insight into their lives at that time. The letters were transcribed by Evelyn Spencer (nee Burgess) on 13 Feb 2004.

There are a total of 12 letters, all written between 1866 and 1876 to John and Catherine’s eldest child John Bishop who was living in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England at the time. (Note: Carole is a descendant of John and Elizabeth Clay). Four of these letters were written by James Bishop, who had previously immigrated to Utah Territory in the United States in 1853. Seven of them were written by Richard Bishop, who had immigrated to France to work in the flax mills business, while a single letter exists from Mary Jane Bishop, who had also immigrated to Utah Territory.

At the time these letters were written, Mary Jane and James lived near their brother William Evans in Paradise, Cache, Utah. Paradise is a small town situated in the south end of Cache Valley in northern Utah. It was first settled in 1860 at Avon (from Stratford-upon-Avon), and then a few years later (1867-1868) the town site was moved a few miles north in order to accommodate the Indians that frequented the area. It was given its name by Ezra Taft Benson who reportedly said, “This is like Paradise”.

Over the course of the last year, we have met quite a few of our Bishop relatives. In addition to Carole, we’ve met or renewed contacts with Jessie Bishop Lewis, Mary Jean Garrison, Alan Bishop, Delmar Price, Val Holley, and Virginia Talbot, to name just a few. Each has provided additional information on the Bishop line including copies of old photographs and documents. They have greatly added to our knowledge of the Bishop line and we appreciate their willingness to share these things.

In addition to William Evans Bishop, we have other relatives who settled in Paradise. These include Robert Mackmurdie, Samuel McMurdie and Sarah Ann Kay, Harriet Morris, Winslow Farr, Jr., and perhaps others not yet identified. Although we have not posted all the information we have been given on these families, over the course of the coming months we hope to add to the collection on our web site.