John was born in Devonport,Plymouth, Devon during 1827 the son of
John and Esther Whitehouse
and the grandson of
William and Martha Uglow.
During 1856 when he was 28 years old he married Eliza Spencer who
appears to have been then 20 years old at Ashby (de la Zouch) about 8 miles South-East of Burton-on-Trent. She appears to have been the
youngest child of a John and Catherine Spencer and was born in Ashby de la Zouch. As yet her exact date of birth is unknown, probably
sometime during 1835.
After their marriage they lived at Burton-on-Trent where John is recorded as a Brewery Traveller or Agent. John and
Eliza had five children, two dying before christening plus two daughters and a son who survived to adulthood.
Sometime between 1871 and Eliza's early death, aged 41, in 1876, the family moved from Burton-on-Trent to Ashby de la Zouch possibly to be
closer to Eliza's family.
After the daughters finished their education they stayed at home helping with the housework until their father died in Ashby during 1882
aged 55.
- their first child, a son, was born in 1856 in Burton-on-Trent and died before christening
- their second child, another son, was born in 1857 in Burton-on-Trent and died before christening
- daughter Alice Eliza
was born in 1860 in Burton-on-Trent.
After her father's death she became governess to the family of Edward Freeland, a brewer living at Fazeley. In 1890, when she was 30,
she married Edward Freeland's son, Edward Fricker Freeland in Tamworth.
They had two sons.
Like her mother before her, Alice died young, aged 48, in 1909.
Her husband, Edward married three further times and died in 1959 in Solihull aged 89.
- daughter Mary
was born in 1862 in Burton-on-Trent. In 1892 she married John Daniel Whitehouse in Hackney London. Her husband was the son of
John Bullivant Whitehouse and Jane Reeve and was a farmer of Erdington, near Birmingham. John and Mary appear to have had two
children - a son and a daughter. It is known that Mary died young, but the date and place of her death have yet to be established.
Her husband died in Erdington in 1910.
- son John Spencer was born in 1866 in Burton-on-Trent. By the age of 16 he had lost both his parents and it appears he then stayed with his uncle
Joseph Spencer, a farmer at Ashby. By the age of 19 he was employed as a railway clerk. Nothing more is known about him before his death in Ashby in
1901, aged 35. It appears that he did not marry or have children.