A blog by Angela Leighton-Jones
A blog by Angela Leighton-Jones
ANGELA LEIGHTON-JONES | 5th September 2022
John Danagher/Danaher/Danher was born in Limerick, Ireland c.1842 and was baptised at St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church Limerick City. In another recurring pattern on the McCartney family tree, it seems his surname changed from Danagher, its Irish original spelling, and in his early days in Liverpool dropped the “g” spelling, Danaher, later to become Danher. During the Irish famine between the years 1845-1852, John’s parents, John and Ellen Danagher, moved to the Greenock area of Scotland and then on to Middlesborough, England.
John Danher met Jane Baines in her father's tailors' shop on Durham Street the year before they were married in 1865. They married on 25th September 1865 at St Mary’s RC Chapel in Stockton, Middlesbrough, Co Durham. Jane Baines, a Protestant girl from Dudley, was daughter to John (tailor) and Elizabeth Baines, née Bowater (dressmaker tailoress). From Middlesbrough they moved to North Ormesby Yorkshire, and soon began their large family with their first child John Walter Danher born c.1866. In 1871, John and Jane were living at 31 Cavalier Street Bradford with their first four children:
John Walter Danaher born 1866, Middlesbrough
Ambrose Mark Danaher born 1868, Middlesbrough
Thomas Luke Danaher born 1869, Limerick, Ireland
Elizabeth Ellen Danaher born 1871, Bradford, Yorkshire
Before we move on to Liverpool, it is interesting to note that the men of the Danher family were miners and ironmongers that dabbled with iron-ore and steel and eventually builders in Liverpool and they had a good business running Chandler shops in the city. Tallow chandlers were makers and sellers of candles and tallow was rendered fat from sheep and cattle which was used to make candles and soap but also a lubricant in engineering.
By the year 1875 John had moved his family to Liverpool and they were living at 13 Minto Street in the Kensington area. It was at this address that our Beatle Paul McCartney’s grandmother Mary Theresa Danher was born on 1st April 1877, baptised on 22nd April at Sacred Heart, Liverpool. However, two more children were born before Mary, and they were:
Jane Cicely Danher, born 1875
Henry Edward Danher, born 1876
On the 1881 census, the Danher’s were living at 23 Holt Road, which was situated opposite Minto Street which is now renamed as Minto Close - the original street having been demolished - and by now there are two more children:
Sarah Rebecca Danher, born 1879
Florence Louisa Danher, born 1880
At the time of the 1881 census, John Danher Sr. was a gas meter maker and his eldest son John Walter was an apprentice gas meter maker with Ambrose having left school to become an errand boy. The family later moved down the road to 43 Holt Road and on the 1891 census John’s occupation was a Tallow Chandler with Ambrose, Jane and Henry following in their father’s footsteps as Tallow Chandler’s Assistants. John and Jane had five more children, making fourteen in total:
Gertrude Mabel Danaher, born 1882
Frances Joseph Danher, born 1885
Agnes Baines Grace Danher, born 1887
Caleb Michael Danher, born 1888
Winifred Ruth Danher, born 1890.
John and Jane moved to 98 Aigburth Road where they operated as Tallow Chandlers with seven of their children living there including Paul’s grandmother Mary. Sadly, Sarah Rebecca died at the age of twenty-eight and was buried on the 26th of November 1907 at Yew Tree Cemetery, plot number 4a176, and her sister Winifred Ruth was buried a year later the 8th of March 1908 aged eighteen years old, their addresses were listed as 1 Errol Street, which in fact was adjoined to 98 Aigburth Road.
The address 43 Holt Road remained in the Danher family for many more years to come and Ambrose Mark ran the chandlery business at the premises. We know his other son, Thomas Luke Danher, ran a chandler shop at 193 Picton Road, Wavertree, which has now been demolished and is a garage forecourt space, only a few hundred yards from George Harrison’s birthplace at 12 Arnold Grove. Ambrose Mark also ran a shop at 428 Longmoor Lane, Fazakerley, which is now the Ocean Chip Bar, and this shop was yards away from 2 Third Avenue where his sister lived, and where his niece Mary Patricia McCartney (née Mohin) was born.
John and Jane’s eldest son, John Walter Danher, was born in Middlesbrough in January 1866 and when John Jr. was a youth at 13 Minto Street, his father was a gas fitter/meter maker and his son John Walter followed in his footsteps patenting in later years a gas meter in Canada, although I am struggling at present to clarify this a hundred percent. John’s younger brother, Thomas Luke, departed from Liverpool on 14th August 1890 for Canada and information has it that he worked for the Electric & Gas Meter Company in Quebec and Montreal, but returned home to Liverpool in 1892. Thomas married Julie Ann Eaves on the 18th September 1892 at the Liverpool Parish Church and by 1901 they were living at 70 Kempton Road with Thomas running the chandlery business at 193 Picton Road. His nephew, Ambrose John Danher, continued to run the business for many years after. His wife Julie died young and was buried on 15th February 1908 at Yew Tree Cemetery only three weeks before her husband Thomas would have to bury his younger sister, Winifred Ruth, on 8th March 1908 at the same place. Jane and Thomas were living at 35 Olton Street at the time. After Jane’s death, Thomas married Mary Alice Martin at St Mary’s on 28th June 1909 and moved to 28 Oriel Road, Tranmere, where his occupation was now that of a soap canvasser, which was presumably a person that promoted the sale of soap.
Apparently, Thomas invited his brother, John Walter, to take his position at the company in Canada and so he went over. In 1890 he married Sarah Ann Doherty at St Patrick’s RC Church Montreal. Sarah Ann Doherty’s birthplace was Quebec in 1863 and she was in fact baptised at St Patrick’s. Her nationality was Irish as was that of her husband John. I am led to believe that Sarah was killed in a train crash and John W Danaher apparently remarried in 1890 to a Mary Considine, whose birth is given as c.1878. This is highly unlikely (given her age) but John definitely did marry a Mary Considine and lived in Canada. There are several passenger lists I have found that trace John Walter returning to Liverpool on several occasions. He travelled in May 1920 on the SS Metagama returning in June 1920 on the SS Saint Paul and then again sailing to Liverpool in July 1929 on the SS Laurentic. The addresses given for residences in England on visiting were 58 Leasowe Rd, Wallasey (his fathers house) and 360 Longmoor Lane Fazakerley which was close to his brothers shop at 428 Longmoor Lane. The 1921 Canada census has him and family living at 75 Geoffrey Street, Parkdale, Ontario.
SS Metagama was a transatlantic ocean liner owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and the SS Saint Paul was another transatlantic ocean liner launched in 1895 but by the time John travelled on the SS Saint Paul it has been returned to its owner and was scrapped not long after. SS Laurentic was built in 1927 by Harland & Wolf at Belfast and she was a British liner. Her route was from Liverpool to Quebec City and Montreal.
John Walter Danaher, born 8th January 1866, died at the age of sixty-four on 18th June 1930 and is buried in the Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery, Ontario, with his son John Baines Danaher and wife Mary Ann, John’s middle name was taken from his paternal grandmother.
John Danaher Snr retired from his chandlery business and by 1911 was living at 58 Leasowe Road, Wallasey, with his wife Jane and two children Gertrude and Agnes. The home was less than a mile from the McCartney’s second family home at 92 Broadway Avenue. John Danher died on 13th February 1917 and was buried on 16th February with his two daughters at Yew Tree plot 4a176. His wife died on 28th November 1920 and was buried on 1st December. The grave number now appears to have changed. Jane left in probate her effects to her daughters, Agnes Baines Danher and Jane Cicely Foster (née Danher). Ambrose Mark Danher and his wife Annie Danher nee Downie are also buried at Yew Tree Cemetery.