William McCleery Jr (1820 - 1903)

Born 7 Mar 1820 in Green Castle, Shankill Parish, Antrim, Ireland

Husband of Ellen (Bellion) McCleery — married 22 Aug 1842 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England

Descendants

Died 24 Feb 1903 at age 82 in Murray, Salt Lake, Utah

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Hans Nielsen [send private message]

Biography

History of William Jr. and Ellen Bellion Mc Cleery · 26 October 2014 · William Mc Cleery Jr. was born in Derry, Derry, Ireland on March 7, 1820 to William Mc Cleery and Hannah Derry Mc Cleery. He grew up with four brothers and five sisters. His father was an officer in the Customs Office. His Grandfather, Andrew Mc Cleery had come to Ireland from Scotland to join the Coast Guard.

He had very little schooling and at the age of thirteen, went to sea and became a cabin boy. They were not allowed to take boys that young but he was well developed and extra bright for his age. He often recalled many of the little happenings that occurred when he first took his training.

The Captain had a bottle on the shelf which he told the boys not to touch. Of course when he was alone, curiosity was too much for William and he longed to see what was in the bottle. He took out the cork and out came the quick silver pouring over the kettles and coffee pots.

Sometime later the Captain and his friend were looking about and of course the friend would ask why the pans were so shiny on some sides and so dull on other sides. The Captain not knowing what had happened replied, "Oh, this boy, he scours one side and forgets the other." Young William smiled as he was listening to the explanation.

Some years later, his ship, the "Red Cap", sailed into Liverpool, England. While in port, he met a girl by the name of Elenor Bellion. Her Aunt Ann kept a boarding house and this is where the introduction took place. William fell in love with Elenor and when he came in from the next voyage, the two ran away and were married. After a lapse of four days, an old lady went to see Elenor's mother. She said, "I want to tell you something. This is something necessary, something a mother ought to know. Your daughter has married Bill Mc Cleery."

When the mother (Alice Charnock Bellion) asked the daughter if that were so, she said, "Yes" and hung her head.

The old lady was trying to help protect the girl, but the mother was a big, strong woman. The mother took off her slipper and gave the girl a thrashing. The mother was very religious and couldn't stand the sea faring man. Elenor was sent upstairs and kept there without anything to eat. The old lady found a ladder, climbed up to the window and gave Elenor a cup of tea, a boiled egg and a slice of bread and butter. This was the first food that she had for a couple of days.

By this time Bill Mc Cleery came by and the mother asked, "What have you come for?" He replied, " I have come to claim my own." The mother wouldn't let him see her so he bid the mother good-bye and started to leave. But as he was leaving, he bumped against the cupboard and broke a good dish. "What's done can't be undone," Bill told the mother but the mother was angry and reprimanded him. This is when he said good-bye and left.

Months passed and he finally wrote and asked if he should send money or come home. "Come home" was the reply. Bill came home and brought bags of coconuts, fruits and plenty of money. He even brought a monkey called Ginny.

And such a monkey it was. When the family wasn't looking, Ginny would jump on the table and take all of the meat from the plates. If Ginny was spanked or corrected, it would go hide and get sulky.

After Bill was home, he found a house where he and his wife settled down. The first three children died. The next four, Jackie, Billy, Alice and Nephi were born and living when the father came home with a serious broken leg. It was so serious that the doctors said the leg should come off and if it did get better it would shorten his life ten years. He had to sit with his leg straight out because it pained dreadfully when it was bent. Leeches were put on it to help the healing.

The father then made little ships like the one he sailed on called the "Red Cap."

The leg still remained serious so he was advised to learn a trade where he could sit as he worked. He took a slipper, picked it to pieces and decided to take up the trade of shoe making. It was supposed to be learned in six months at the particular school he attended but he accomplished the work in three. Then he did the work at home and his wife took it back and forth for him.

About this time, his brother-in-law came in and told him if he wanted a good laugh to come with him to a Mormon Meeting. Bill was interested and went a number of times. Finally he asked to be administered to. He was told that if he would be faithful his leg would never bother him again. He threw away his crutches and came walking home. His wife looked out and couldn't imagine what had happened.

Later the Queen said, "Any man who was hurt at his post should receive a pension," so he got one. He then made up his mind that he would gather his family together and come to Utah. In order to get the money, he sold his pension and put the money in a treasury for safe keeping.

Alice and Hannah (Annie) were sent to Utah first. Emigration records lists Hannah as Annie which is the English form for Hannah which is a Hebrew name. They sailed on the steamship Minnesota on September 4, 1872 from Liverpool to New York (FHL film #25,692). They traveled from New York to Salt Lake by rail.

When the girls reached Utah, the mother felt she couldn't rest until she could join them, but at the same time it was difficult for her to leave her homeland.

The family, William Mc Cleery, his wife Ellen, and their children, Nephi, Edward, David, Benjamin and Elenor, sailed on the ship "Wyoming" on September 15, 1875 (FHL film #25,686). The ship sprang a leak and had to return to Liverpool for repairs. They later completed their ocean voyage to New York. They came to Salt Lake by rail and settled in East Midvale. (See photo of brick home.) This area was included in the West Jordan Ward at that time.

In Nephi Mc Cleery's history he said that they left Liverpool on the ship "Nevada" for Queenstown, Ireland, where they were transferred to the ship "Manhattan" and sailed to America. This could have been the ship they took after the "Wyoming" had to return to port for repairs.

William and Ellen Bellion Mc Cleery had seventeen children with our Grandmother, Ellen Mc Cleery Spratling being number seventeen. Their family included two sets of twins with eight children who died as infants or children. All of the children were born in Liverpool, England except the second set of twins and Alice who were born in Derry, Ireland. All the children who died were buried in England except for the daughter (no name given) who was a twin and who would have been buried in Ireland.

William was twenty two and Ellen was nineteen years of age when they were married. Ellen had light hair and hazel eyes. She was beautiful and very well educated for her time. She loved books such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, etc. Ellen was a governess for a wealthy family before she was married. "Our Old Family Legend" which was told to Ruth Young by her Grandmother, Hannah Mc Cleery Spencer states that Ellen was of "Royal Blood." Her ancestors were said to belong to the ruling class of France. There was land and cattle and a castle. Many of their kinfolk died on the guillotine during the French Revolution. Ellen's direct line ancestor escaped safely to England. We are not certain who that ancestor was.

Our grandmother Ellen must have told her children about their French ancestor because Uncle Ron Spratling said that the family fortune was left in chancery in France for the rightful heirs. Also that we have not done anything about it because if they couldn't do anything about it then we wouldn't be able to do anything now. It is too far in the past.

Smallpox robbed Ellen of her beauty sometime after she was married. Smallpox left Ellen's beautiful face disfigured. The wife of Thomas Moore also contracted Smallpox and her face was disfigured. She didn't want Thomas to look upon her face so he wrote the beautiful song, "Believe me if all those endearing young charms." The message of the song was that to him his wife was just as beautiful and he loved her just as much today as he did when he first met her. I'm sure this was a trial for our Ellen too.

Ellen Bellion Mc Cleery passed away April 3, 1896 at the age of 73. William Mc Cleery Jr. passed away February 24, 1903 at the age of 82 at the home of a son.

Ellen and William are buried in the Murray City Cemetery.

(Compiled by Maurine Spratling Beardall)

Birth

Birth:

User ID: 1D5247B4-A079-42A0-B384-300B4F02A749

Record ID Number: MH:IF6129

Date: 7 MAR 1820

Place: Londonderry, Derry, Ireland

Death

Death:

User ID: E4D60E00-559B-4B6D-98A5-CEDDCDC277F9

Record ID Number: MH:IF6130

Date: 24 FEB 1903

Place: Murry, SL, UT

Record ID Number

Record ID Number: MH:I98

User ID

User ID: B7B7DBD5-083F-4A68-B87E-C51D97EB9CDA

UPD

UPD 27 OCT 2007 10:02:33 GMT-7

Sources

• WikiTree profile McCleery-8 created through the import of Newsom.ged on Nov 6, 2012 by Hans Nielsen. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Hans and others.

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=130207