francis aylmer frost + ann stubs
Francis was baptised at Castle Rising in Norfolk on on 22 Mar 1792, the son of Meadows Frost and his second wife Anne Willis. His father was a physician but Francis apprenticed as a Miller in Suffolk before moving to Warrington, Lancashire to take up the position of Manager of the Mersey Mills in 1812. Two years later, he resigned and started his own milling business with his older brother Thomas Gibbons. In 1818, they moved the business to Chester and took over the Dee Bridge Mills and when their youngest brother, James Garratt, joined the firm, it was renamed T. A. & J. Frost. However one year later, the mill was destroyed by fire and the brothers were forced to move to a disused cotton mill on Steam Mill Street.
Francis married Ann Stubs at St Elphin in Warrington on 25 May 1818. Ann was born in Warrington on 20 November 1795 and christened at St James in Latchford on 29 January 1796. She was the daughter of Peter Stubs and his wife Mary Sutton.
Their first child, Meadows, was born in Cripplegate, London on 13 May 1819 and baptised one month later at the Anglican church of St Mary on the Hill in Chester. It is not known why the family was in London but it appears to have been a temporary situation as their remaining children were all born in Chester — Thomas Gibbons on 20 September 1820, Jane in 1823, Francis Aylmer on 25 May 1824 and Robert on 3 March 1826. Their two youngest sons were both baptised at the Crooke Street Presbyterian church in Chester.
In 1841, Francis and Ann were living on Egerton Street in Chester along with their son Meadows and daughter Jane. Their son Thomas hasn’t been located in the census and it is likely the two youngest sons were away at school. Francis was employed as a Miller and the family were wealthy enough to employ two female servants.
One year later, their eldest son Meadows married Matilda Berend and moved to Liverpool where he worked as a Corn Merchant. In 1851, Francis and Ann were still on Egerton Street and he was still working as a Master Miller along with two of his sons, Thomas and Robert. Ann was away visiting her sister-in-law Mary Stubs at Paddington Cottage on Manchester Road in Warrington but there is no sign of daughter Jane or son Francis Aylmer.
Over the next four years, the family celebrated three more weddings as their younger sons all married. Robert married Jane Frost at Crooke Street Presbyterian Church on 17 August 1853 and despite the name, it does not appear she was any relation. Francis Aylmer married Mary Stubs in nearby Frodsham in 1854 and one year later, Thomas Gibbons married Mary Ann Wood in Birkenhead.
On 19 June 1860, sixty eight year old Francis died in St Asaph, a small seaside town in northern Wales near the popular holiday towns of Rhyl and Colwyn Bay. The family often spent summers in north Wales and son Robert had a holiday home further down the coast at Dwygyfylchi so it is possible that Francis died while the family was on holiday. He was buried at Chester Cemetery.
Ann Stubs died in Wallasey, Wirral on 29 October 1861 but was buried in the Overleigh Cemetery in Chester on 2 November 1861.