The sad case of a founding members and player of Wrexham Football Club (Massive history thread!)

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Edward Ephraim Knibbs was born in Cheshire 1837, the son of John and Susanah.
Records suggest that he was a waiter in Wrexham from a very early age, but later became a general dealer and auctioneer, located at 12 High Street Wrexham.
Edward married Emma Price from Birkenhead in 1863, and the Wrexham Advertiser reported that his wife gave birth to a daughter (Emma) on 12th March 1864, but his wife was to die, due to complications after giving birth to their 2nd daughter, who also died shortly afterwards, in 1865.
Edward was a regular player in the Denbighshire County Cricket Club and was a steward for several events at The Racecourse. WREXHAM AUTUMN SPORTS. )|1867-10-26|Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register - Welsh Newspapers Online
He also played in our first ever game on 22nd October 1864
[No title]|1864-10-29|Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register - Welsh Newspapers Online

Edward died 23rd August 1875 and was buried at The Ruthin Road Cemetery

Edward Ephraim Knibbs 1837-1875

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Just noticed that in the opening post (sergeant William Tootell), I had recorded the date of our first ever game as 15th October 1864. This was a typo. Our first ever game was Saturday 22 October 1864.

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Charles Edward Kershaw was elected to serve on the Wrexham Board of Guardians (a union to aid the poor) for the district of Broughton in 1863, and there are many other newspaper references of the day regarding his community and civic endeavours
In addition, the following link states that he served as a steward and secretary for various events at the racecourse- WREXHAM AUTUMN SPORTS. )|1867-10-26|Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register - Welsh Newspapers Online although there are many other online newspaper references relating to his involvement in the activities at The Racecourse during the 1860’s, including winning a pewter cup in the first athletics event after the founding of the football club. He also played cricket for The Denbighshire County Cricket Club.
Charles was also a volunteer in The Prince of Wales Fire Brigade, but he would play for the newly formed Wrexham Athletic Football club, when a team of his colleagues from the Fire Brigade visited the Racecourse for the football clubs fist ever game in October 1864.
There are a number of references to suggest that Charles was an accountant and he is recorded as living at 2 Derby Road, Hightown, but later moved to Salisbury Park.
His wife’s name was Anna Maria, although there are no surving records of her birth/death or marriage; however, there is a baptism entry in the Clwyd names registry which states “KERSHAW; 8 Aug 1872 bap/o Alfred Ollivant Hyde s/o Charles Edward (acct) & Anna Maria, High Town”.
The family are believed to have moved to Merseyside as Allfred Ollivant Hyde Kershaw was later recorded as living in Aintree, Liverpool, and on the 2nd January 1885, The Obituaries in The Wrexham Advertiser reported that Charles Edward Kershaw had died in Southport aged 45 years on 27th December 1884

Charles Edward Kershaw 1799-1884

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Charles Edward Kershaw 1839-1884

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The Prince of Wales Volunteer Fire Brigade (formed 1863)

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The person most associated with the founding of Wrexham football club, was not a native of the area.
Edward Manners was born, the son of John Manners and Ann (Mathewson) in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, in 1830, although he would later move to Truro in Cornwall where he married Eliza Rolles Williams in 1854.
While in Truro, his wife gave birth to three children; - Edward John (1855) Charles William (1857) and Frederick James (1858).
During this period, Edward was employed by W Brunton& Co, a fuse manufacturer who supplied safety fuses for blasting to the mining industries, and his role in this company would lead to him being transferred to another of the companies’ fuse works at Brymbo in 1860, where he would become a manager.
Records of the time show that he was living at 26 Regent Street, Wrexham.
Shortly after arriving in Wrexham, Edward had become an influential member of Wrexham Cricket Club (later to be named Denbighshire County Cricket Club) a club at which, he would later be elected as the honourable secretary.
HE was highly regarded by his peers, and in particular for his efforts associated with the Cricket Club, but also as a co-ordinator and clerk of the course for pony race meetings, as well as establishing and organising athletics and other sporting events at the Racecourse. However, it was his role in founding a Football Club that would be his greatest legacy to the Town of Wrexham.
An article in The Wrexham Advertiser 8th October 1864 recorded that club secretary Edward Manners had announced his intentions, during a speech at the end of season Dinner, at The Turf Hotel, following Denbighshire County Cricket Clubs last match of the season on 4th October 1864.
“There is one thing, gentlemen. I wish to name the great want of amusement in this town in winter time. It is my intention to purchase a football in the course of this week, and I shall expect a good many down to the field next Saturday. There are other games I should like to introduce, especially a Yorkshire one called knur and spell, a very nice game. It was only yesterday I called upon the Mayor and he said he should like to see an athletic club established in Wrexham. If we have athletic sports and cannot obtain a room suitable for holding them in we can have them on the green”
DENBIGHSHIRE COUNTY CRICKET CLUB.|1864-10-08|Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register - Welsh Newspapers Online
Ann Manners gave birth to a daughter- Annie Eliza, at Regent Street in 1867, but their eldest son Edward John Manners died aged 18, in October 1873: Ann would die, just 5 years later in the summer of 1878. Soon after, Edward moved to 17 Hill Street, Wrexham
In 1880 Edward became Hon Secretary for the Football Association of Wales; a role he would keep for around two years, until his resignation due to work commitments as a commercial traveller for the recently formed Wrexham Lager Beer Company.
England 0 Wales 1
International Friendly Match
26 February 1881
Thomas HindleDarwen (Hon. secretary Lancashire FA) &
Edward Manners Wales (Hon. secretary Welsh FA).
Referee - Segar R. Bastard

Edward died at the age 81, in July 1911

Edward Manners 1830-1911

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17 Town Hill is Honky Tonks. Unless some re numbering or building has taken place. It used to be a classy building.

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Thomas Henry Sykes was born in Kirkheaton, Huddersfield in 1841.
There are no records to show who his father was, but the 1851 census names his mother as Mary Anne Sykes (widow). He had 1 brother- George William, and 2 sisters- Emmeline and Elenora. The 1861 census lists him as still living in Kirkheaton, but soon after his name appears on the team sheet of Denbighshire County Cricket Club.
He established a regular place on the cricket team throughout the 1860’s and 70’s and was an elected member of the clubs committee. He was present at the after dinner event in which Edward Manners announced his intention to start a football team, and he also played in our first ever football game against The Prince of Wales Fire Brigade, in October 1864.

Aside from his activity at the Racecourse, Thomas Henry was also a volunteer in the Denbighshire rifle militia I "RATTLER'S" STRAIGHT TIP FOR THE MAYOR'S CUP.|1869-09-25|Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register - Welsh Newspapers Online and was later promoted to the rank of Corporal.
There are a number of references to Thomas paying subscriptions to aid the sick and needy, and an advertisement in The Wrexham Advertiser suggests that in August 1868 he may have been living in Fairfield and had an association with The White Bear Tavern in Yorke Street.

Thomas married Maria Jones at St Oswald, Chester on 19th April 1870 and his occupation is recorded as a gilder, although his address is shown as The Rainbow Vaults, Hope Street, where he also worked as an Inn Keeper.
His wife gave birth to a daughter, Maria, at the Rainbow vaults on the 19th December 1870, although it must be presumed that his wife died shortly after giving birth, as the 1871 census listed Thomas Henry Sykes (born Kirkheaton, Huddersfield) being the landlord of The Rainbow Vaults, aged 29 and widowed. His daughter and his sister-Emmeline are also registered as living with him at Hope Street, as well as his late wife’s sister and two children, the youngest of which (aged 3) is listed as his stepdaughter.
Four years later an article in the Wrexham Advertiser reported that on the 8th March 1875, Thomas appeared in court, charged with serving alcohol to a policeman on duty at The Rainbow Vaults in Hope Street, although the charge was dismissed.

BOROUGH MAGISTRATES' COURT.|1875-03-13|Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register - Welsh Newspapers Online

Things would appear to have again taken a turn for the worse for Thomas, as he left The Rainbow Vaults later that same year and on 18th September 1875 a claim was made in court by a doctor for an unpaid bill, relating to treatment he gave to Thomas’s late wife’s sister, while she stayed with him at The Rainbow Vaults.
Thomas was ordered to pay the amount outstanding and costs.

Then, in early 1877, Thomas placed an article in the Wrexham Advertiser informing that he had succeeded to the business of the late George Warburton of Queen Street (an established carver and Gilder) for whom he had been a manager for the last 15 years, and that he would be continuing his business from 9 Lambpitt Street. However, his new venture would seem to have been short-lived, because in December of the same year, he posted another advertisement for an auction, in which he was selling all of his tools, equipment and stock, as well as furniture and his household items.
Then, on March 11th 1878, the courts granted a distress warrant against Thomas for non payment of water rates, and having not paid the amount due, The Advertiser (20 April 1878) reported that a committal order for 5 weeks imprisonment had been issued against Thomas Henry Sykes for non compliance with a court order to pay arrears of rates.
BOROUGH MAGISTRATES' COURT. I|1878-04-20|Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register - Welsh Newspapers Online
It is not known if he served his sentence in a debtor’s prison, but he disappeared from the records in Wrexham in 1878.
He then reappeared in the 1881 census as a lodger in a house, which he shared with 5 other people in Wollaton Street, Nottingham, but by the time of the next census in 1891, Thomas had remarried and was living with his new wife, Fanny, in Pelican Street, Nottingham.
His occupation was listed as a Gilder.
Fanny Sykes died in 1899, and her husband, Thomas Henry Sykes died in Nottingham at the age of 70, in 1910.

Thomas Henry Sykes 1841-1910

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Originally Posted by ABd

I believe the second ever game of the new Wrexham Football Club was against Braintree in December 1864. However the game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, despite the Great Braintree Drought of 1863/64.

Very, very funny!, but somewhat ironic for me as I travelled to Braintree for the game before Christmas, ( I live about 30 miles away). The weather had been so stable, that it never struck me to check before leaving that the game may not be on, my garden was certainly playable!. Anyway I got there and parked up near the Orange Tree pub (Wrexham fans usual haunt), and thinking back, yes I parked unusually close to the pub, and went in for a swift one with about 40 mins to kick off, only to find I was the only one who had bothered to attend!!. Gradually with the assistance of Sky sports the ugly realisation gripped me!!, Waterlogged My Arse!!.

[WasanActonlad]

At the time of his death Edward Manners resided with his daughter in Wellington Road.