Where Did You Get The Name of Dempsey?

 

 

The Dempsey name, which is also found spelt as Dempsie, Dimpsay or Dimpsey, is of Irish origin from the Irish Gaelic o'dimpsaigh meaning "estimable" or "son of the Proud". The Dempsey name emerged in King's county where they had been seated from early times. The Dempseys were descended from the O'Dempsey family, Clan Maliere. The O'Dempsey family was reputedly founded by Rossa Failghe, the son of Cathoir Mor, King of Ireland in 144 AD and were of the same descent as the O'Connors Failghe, being lords of Offaly (a county in central Ireland) and sometimes styled Barons of Phillipstown (Daingean, Co Offaly, the former seat of the O'Connors). The O'Dempseys were for a long time one of the powerful families in the Province of Leinster. Their estates in Clan Maliere extended on both sides of the River Barrow in Queen's County [now County Laois or Laoghis] and King's County [now County Offaly]. The lands comprised the baronies of Portnalinch in Laois and Upper Phillipstown in Offaly.

In the 1850s, Sligo was devastated by the Great Famine with large areas depopulated as emigrants fled to America. Landlords in Sligo evicted thousands of their tenants during the height of the catastrophe. The famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1850, killed or forced out more than 52,000 people from Sligo. Prior to this the population of County Sligo was 187,000 people, making it one of the densest populated areas in Ireland. Sligo was a major transit port for emigration, during An Gorta Mor (The Great Famine), indeed in 1846 11,000 emigrated through the port and some of the worst 'coffin ships' on record left from there. One resident of Sligo at the time was Michael Dempsey who left for Liverpool with his wife Ellen, born there in 1813, and their 4 children, Michael (born 1836), Andrew (born 1841), Thomas (born 1843) and John (born 1846). Michael obtained a job as a labourer and the family lived in Hood Street, Whitechapel near St. John's Fruit and Vegetable Market. The 1851 census shows that a quarter of Liverpool’s Victorian poor population had been born in Ireland. During the first main wave of famine emigration from January to June 1847, about 300,000 Irish refugees had sailed into the city and 130,000 emigrated. Those who stayed crowded in cellars and houses in the Vauxhall and Scotland Road area in particular unsanitary conditions, contributing to aggravate Liverpool's problem of poverty and misery. Most of the Irish who remained in Liverpool after the famine carried on integrating with the local life and were ready to accept any job, especially in the newly expanding seaport, working as dockers and seamen. However later they were not restricted to unskilled labour anymore, rising to the rank of artisans, shopkeepers, merchants and professional classes.

Holly Street

Their son Michael became an Iron Moulder in the Vauxhall Foundry and married Elizabeth Crabb on the 17th of June 1856 at St Anne's Church on the corner of Great Richmond Street & Cazneau Street. Their address is shown as Holly Street and both did not sign their Marriage Certificate, leaving only their mark 'X', which is probably the reason why the surname is incorrectly spelt as 'Demcey' on their Marriage Certificate. Their first son Joseph was born the following year in 1857 and they went on to have 5 more children, James (born 1859), Mary J (born (1861), William (born 1864), Margaret Ann (born 1868) and Elizabeth Ellen (born 1870). The 1881 census states that Michael was now widowed and was a general labourer with Joseph now a ship's carpenter, James a general labourer, Mary a housekeeper, William a general labourer and Margaret and Ellen both scholars. The family were then living at 124 Robsart Street, off Great Homer Street but moved a short distance to 2 Buckingham Square, Arkwright Street from where, on the 4th of February 1883, 26 year old Joseph Dempsey was living when he married 25 year old Alice Royle, who lived at 70 Arkwright Street. Joseph was now a shipwright, his father still a labourer, whilst Alice's father John was a Railway Guard. They were married in St. Peter's Church, located on Sackville Street in Everton, which was in the Walton-on-the-Hill parish. The couple went on to have 5 children, James (born 1883), John (born 1887), Michael (born 1891), Joseph (born 1893) and William George (1897). John became a shipwright and lived in Garibaldi Street, Everton working for Crighton Shipbuilders in Boundary Street. He married Sarah Miller in 1911 and they lived at 50 Buchanan Road, Walton before they both emigrated to Australia. The 1911 census also shows Joseph, now a widower, as the head of a 5 bedroom household at 39 Hankin Street, Liverpool with Michael an apprentice shipwright, Joseph an apprentice ship's painter and William an errand boy for a newspaper office.

William, a Mill-hand, married Sarah Tedford on the 21st of March 1915 at St Mary, Kirkdale, both living in Poynty Street before they went to live at 21 Ambrose Place, Latimer Street, Liverpool. He had signed up to serve in the 12th Batallion of the Manchester Regiment in WW1, but was killed on the 25th of April 1917. It would appear he lied about his age to serve, as on the Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France his age at death is noted as 22 and not 19 as it would have been. His widow Sarah went on to look after his father and his brother Joe, a ship painter, whom she later married on the 22nd of September 1922 with Joe residing at 21 Ambrose Place and Sarah at 44 Nursery Street. They went on to have 6 children, Chris, Joe, John, Sal, Lil and Mary who they eventually lived with on East Prescott Road, Dovecot. John was a Union official on Liverpool Docks. On the 22nd of November 1903, James, also a shipwright in the ship repair industry, married Clara Emery at St Nicholas Church, Liverpool with their address noted on the marriage certificate as 153 Athol Street, Liverpool.

James and Clara with baby Clara

The 1901 census shows 17 year old James Dempsey as a ship's carpenter and 17 year Clara Emery as a General domestic servant before the 1911 census shows them as a couple living with one child, Clara, in a 3 bedroom house at 1 Caradoc Square, Liverpool.

Clara Emery was born in Halton, Widnes in 1884, the daughter of George John Emery and Eliza Alice Openshaw who married on the 3rd of December 1881 at All Saints Church in the Parish of Elton, Bury. George was a labourer who originally came from Shelton, Stoke on Trent where his father was a farmer. They moved to Widnes where George became a bricksetter at a chemical manufacturer and they had 5 children, Albert (born 1882), Clara born (1884), Alice Lavinia (born 1887), later known as 'Aunt Viney', married to Peter Miller who worked for Tate & Lyle, Eliza (born 1893) who married Jimmy Ross who also worked for Tate & Lyle, and Robert (born 1889) who was sadly killed in WW1 on the 12th of October 1916. He was with the 17th Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment) and is remembered at Warlencourt British Cemetery. The family moved to Liverpool where they lived in Ambrose Place, off Latimer Street.

Following the birth of Clara in 1908, James and Clara had 4 more children, John Joseph (born on the 7th of November 1911), Alice (born 1914), Ellen 'Aunty Nellie' (born 1921) and Winifred 'Aunty Winnie' (born 1928). 

James and Clara circa 1952

Their eldest daughter Clara married James Brown in 1937 and they had two children, James 'Jimmy' Brown and John Brown. Jimmy married June and John married Betty. Clara died aged 96 on the 5th of May 2006 and was buried at West Derby Cemetery in the same grave as her husband James who had died on the 21st of May 1982 aged 72. Clara and Jimmy lived most of their lives in Athol Street, Liverpool. 

Clara and Jimmy at Pines Caravan Park

Alice married William Tedford, the younger brother of Sarah Tedford, in 1938 and they had four children, William 'Billy' who married Sheila, Irene who married Frank Reid and then John Jenkins before moving to Canada, Pat who married Billy Jenkins, the brother of John Jenkins, and Carol. Alice died on the 12th of July 1995 and her husband Billy died three days later on the 15th of July 1995. They were both buried in Anfield Cemetery in the grave of the Mum and Dad of Billy Jenkins. Alice and Billy lived most of their early married life in Hopwood Street, Liverpool before moving to Athol Street.

Alice and Billy

Ellen, 'Nelly', married William Brown, the cousin of James Brown, in 1942 and they had three children, William 'Billy', Marie and Terry. They lived in Burlington Street before moving to a pre-fab at 3 Fulford Street, a narrow street off Great Homer Street at the junction of Kirkdale Road/Scotland Road, virtually opposite the site of the demolished Rotunda. When James Dempsey died on the 11th of March 1954 his wife Clara went to live there also before the family moved to Hopwood Street, living in the next block of flats to Alice and Billy. It was here that Clara died on the 2nd of June 1962. Aunty Nellie died in 1993 and was buried alongside husband Billy in Anfield Cemetery.

Nellie and Billy

 

Winifred married Michael 'Mick' Hogan in 1952 and they had five children, Pauline, Michael, Susan, Shelagh and Angela. They also lived in Hopwood Street in the same block of flats as Alice and Billy before moving to Townsend Avenue. Winnie died in 1998 and Mick in 2017 with both being buried in Everton Cemetery.

Winnie and Mick

John Joseph Dempsey married Kathleen Whitlow on the 27th of March 1948 at St John the Evangelist, Foutains Road, Liverpool. John was born at 6 Crompton Street, off Latimer Street, Liverpool and was still at that address at the time of his marriage. He attended St Anthony's School until he was 14 and began employment as an apprentice Shipwright on 10 shillings a week but, unwilling to serve 7 years as an apprentice, he left after 6 months. After being employed as a van boy with Blackledge's, and then as a builder's labourer with Ruddock's House Builders on Scotland Road, he began work as a docker on the Huskisson and Canada Docks. Called up for service in 1939 he served as a corporal for the South Wales Borderers (SWABS) and for the Royal Army Service Core (RASC) and served in North Africa, France, Belgium, Holland and in Berlin, Germany, before being demobbed in Hanover.

They started their married life at 1A Tetlow Street, opposite Frosts Department Store on Walton Road, a one bedroomed terraced house, without electricity, on a landing with another family living above them, with their front door next door to theirs. Here they started their family with John Francis (born on the 7th of March 1949), Michael (born on the 7th of November 1950), Richard (born on the 27th of November 1952), and Kathleen (born on the 12th of March 1954). The family moved to 85 Calgarth Road, Huyton in 1956 and this is where 3 more children where born, James (born 1956), Margaret (born 1957) and Christine (born 1959).

1A Tetlow Street (2nd door on the left on the Landing 

John Dempsey was still working on the docks but later became a window cleaner. He then went to work for the B.I.C.C. in Prescott and in later life was a commissioner for the Granada Bingo Club on East Prescot Rd, Dovecot.