Arthur Stopford Jarvis MC (1885-1967) - Middle Name Query

[JasonB]

This may be a longshot. I am trying to find out where Arthur got his middle name of Stopford from. Normally, middle names like this come from the mothers' maiden name or another family member. However, I cannot find any one with the name Stopford in the Jarvis family thru the paternal or maternal sides.

Arthur was born on 31st August 1885 in Masbrough, Yorkshire and died on 4th June 1967 in Worthing, Sussex. His parents were George Jarvis (1859-1930) and Louisa Jane Loader (1863-1931). His paternal grandparents were John Jarvis (1813-1893) and Mary Ann Heppenstall (1815-1867) and his maternal grandparents were Henry Loader (1867-?) and Emily Charlotte Plume (1837-1892).

Any help would be most appreciated.

[Mick Loney]

It could be a ‘benefactor’ that the parents wanted to acknowledge

[Jimbo50]

This census 1881 for Halifax gives it as a christian name. I wonder if there are any more.

Stopford
Bairstow
1813
Yorkshire
Halifax
Halifax
Yorkshire, Yorkshire (West Riding)

[Hardwork]

Have you checked to see if there were any notable people bearing the surname locally or nationally during the time Arthur was born or just before? I had a similar problem years ago with middle name Knibb appearing in my close family in the 1830s. It wasn't a family name. Then, as serendipity had it, I noticed a building in Kettering on my travels called the William Knibb Centre (or some such) and later, in Northants. Record Office I discovered a book about William Knibb who was a Baptist missionary in the West Indies and born in Kettering, who came to the UK in the 1830s to hold a lecture tour denouncing slavery and generate funds for his fight. Turns out a few people seemed to have the same idea to name their children after Knibb at that time, probably mainly Baptists.

In recent years I discovered one of my DNA matches had an ancestor also with Knibb as a middle name and he too was a Baptist missionary in the West Indies for a time and looks very likely to be quite a close cousin though I can't join up the dots. A lot of lateral thinking is needed in genealogy - and a good dose of luck.

[Amazinggrace]

Hope you are able to solve the query. One of my relations had a very odd middle name. It turned out to be the name of the hotel his parents stayed on their honeymoon.
Grace

[VALLMO9]

This may be a longshot. I am trying to find out where Arthur got his middle name of Stopford from. His parents were George Jarvis (1859-1930) and Louisa Jane Loader (1863-1931).

It appears the name "Stopford" has a connection via the mother, Louisa Jane Loader. At the time of her marriage (in 1883) she was a governess at Penninghame House near Wigtown, Scotland. Penninghame House was built for the Stopford-Blair family in 1869, her employer.

Added note: James Blair's Penningham[e] estate in Wigtownshire went to his wife's brother, Col. William Henry Stopford, who changed his name to Stopford-Blair. His son Edward James Stopford-Blair died in 1885. His daughter Elizabeth Ellen Stopford-Blair married Edward Heron-Maxwell, who in turn added Blair to his name.

James Blair was a slave-owner in British Guiana and MP for a series of boroughs 1818-1830 and 1837-1841. Blair was born and raised in Ulster, but had family ties and interests in Wigtownshire, Scotland and estates in Berbice, Demerara and Surinam. At death left in estates in Scotland, England and Ireland and plantations in Berbice, India and South America.

[Artognou]

I have only just recently solved a similar conundrum in my family tree.
My 3rd great grandfather had a sister who was named Ann Brissenden Smith, and someone with this name was a witness to the marriage of my 4th great grandparents.
I have just discovered in the past two weeks that this woman was a sister of my 4th great grandfather's mother, Catherine Longstaff and her sister, Ann Longstaff by birth and Brissenden by marriage.