Esther Whitehouse Trease was born during 1830, probably in Devonport and baptised at Stoke Damerel, Devon, the daughter of
John and Esther Whitehouse
and the granddaughter of
William and Martha Uglow.
In the 1851 census she is recorded as living at home with her parents in Burton-on-Trent.
During 1861, when she was 30 years old, she married Elkanah Robert Healey in Burton-on-Trent. His
exact date and place of birth are unknown but he was about six years older and the son of John Healey, a Liverpool businessman.
In 1849 he had married his first wife, Eliza Dorothea Lloyd in Carnavon who died in Liverpool in 1857. He had one survivng child from
that marriage, John Lloyd Healey, who appears to have been born about 1850.
After their marriage, Elkanah and Esther lived in Liverpool with son John. Elkanah continued his work with the Trustees of the
Albert Dock where he was to become a Principal of the Dock Establishment. Esther gave birth to two children who survived infancy, a boy
and a girl.
In January 1867, Esther died from pneumonia, aged 36. Elkanah, widowed for a second time, suffered from stomach ulcers which are attributed to have caused his death in 1868 exactly one
year to the day after Esther's death. He was 42.
At the weekly meeting of the Dock Board following his death, a special tribute was paid by the Board to Elkanah for his 22 years service -
'No man could better discharge the various duties of his office than did Mr. Healey (hear! hear!)'.
With the death of their father Elkanah, the three children were left orphans. Grandfather John Trease, who was then 71, declined the
guardianship of the three children. Instead, their Uncle John Healey, who was then 63 and who, like John Trease, also lived in Burton-on-Trent,
became their official guardian. In practice, the work of looking after the children was shared.
- stepson, John Lloyd Healey, was born about 1851 to Elkanah and his first wife, Eliza Dorothea Lloyd, but the precise
date and location of his birth are not known. After his father's death, it seems that he went to stay with his Uncle's son, James Healey,
and his family in Fairfield, Liverpool. He became a merchant seaman and went missing at sea - the last record of him having
been seen alive was in September 1871.
- son, Robert Trease Healey, was born in Liverpool about 1861/1862. He was 6 years old when he was orphaned and went to live in
Burton-on-Trent. By 1885 he was working as a draper in Ashby de la Zouch.
It is highly probable that his uncle William Trease, who came to live in Burton on Trent before 1881, had a hand in the choice of his
career. William was a commercial traveller in the clothing trade, and seems to have used his business contacts to find employment for
many of the young men and women in the family.
In 1885, at the age of 23, Robert married Elizabeth Philips Frankish in Ashby de la Zouch. Elizabeth was a widow aged 35 years and worked as
a fancy draper in Ashby de la Zouch. Her late husband, Elvin Frankish, had been an ironmonger at Alford in Lincolnshire but had died 5
years earlier in July 1880 when he was 36. This first marriage appears to have been childless and after her first husband's death, Elizabeth
returned to Ashby to live with her father, John Elgen, who was a farmer there.
After they married, Robert and Elizabeth lived for a few years in High Street, Burton-on-Trent, where Robert carried on the trade of
haberdasher. In 1887 at Burton-on-Trent, Elizabeth gave birth to their first and apparently only child, Ernest Robert Healey.
After Ernest was born, they moved to Derby where Robert abandoned his career as a draper and worked for a time as a coal merchant's clerk.
Probate records indicate that Robert died in Derby in 1935. No record of his death has been found at the Public Records Office, but this may be due to a
possible clerical error. It is not known when his wife Elizabeth died but she almost certainly pre-deceased him.
Their son Ernest became, like his late cousin John Spencer Trease who lived in Ashby, a railway official. In 1913 he got married. His wife, Gertrude,
did not want to have children but eventually after 7 years of marriage, they produced a son followed three years later by a daughter.
Ernest died in Derby in 1939.
- daughter, Mary Esther Healey, was born about 1863/1864 in Liverpool. She was 4 years old when she was orphaned. After her father's
death, she came to stay with her grandparents and aunts in Burton-on-Trent where she is recorded as living in 1871 and 1881.
It is surmised that while living there she would have been educated by and received much attention from her aunts, Ann and Mary, who were
schoolmistresses.
In 1884, when she was 20, she was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis. She battled with the disease for 2 years before dying in
Burton in 1886. A poignant verse on her funeral card reflects the sad end to her short life - 'Weep not for the beloved dead, Our loss
is her greatest gain; She to a better home has fled; Where there is no more pain.'