IMPORTANT NOTICE

In view of the many cases of identity theft and fraud throughout the world I have decided not to show any person who was born after 1921 and is still alive in any of the Family Trees on this website. These persons will be shown anonymously and denoted as "Living" in the indexes with no other information about them. In this way, the chances of identity theft involving these persons arising from information on this website will be considerably reduced.

Latest News

Amended entries from 18th & 19th century British newspapers from Find My Past - Newspapers and Periodicals

15 July 2022 - I have checked the above newspapers from 1722 to 1930 for all Hulley, Hully, Ulley, Ully and Hooley entries. They cover 311 A4 pages.
The following list covers all the entries found and their Family tree:

In addition to the above entries there were a further 340 entries which could not be linked to any Family Tree because of the lack of supporting evidence.

The History and Hulley Families of the One House, Rainow near Macclesfield, Cheshire

The revised and expanded edition of the above book is now available. This 86 page book describes the story of an ancient Cheshire country house from 1166 up to its demolition in 1939, a period of over 770 years. It includes over 50 illustrations and line drawings, many in colour, together with full details of the Hulley family who owned the house from 1488 to 1912, together with the family tree containing 107 family members. You may purchase it online by completing the Order Form. The book's Contents and the Coat of Arms of Holland Hulley are available to view online. More information about the book is available here.

John Hulley statue unveiled by the Princess Royal

14 June 2019 - In the website at www.johnhulley-olympics.co.uk I have listed the work of the Liverpool Heartbeat charity headed by Robin Baynes MBE in publicising the efforts of John Hulley in encouraging physical education and activities throughout the nation.  A further demonstration of Liverpool Heartbeat’s promotion of the John Hulley story was the intention to have a statue of John Hulley erected in a suitable location in Liverpool.  After a few false starts, Robin Baynes was successful in agreeing with the Canal and River Trust to have the statue placed on a plinth on Liverpool waterfront.
Planning permission was granted and a local sculptor Tom Murphy was commissioned to  produce  an appropriate figure.  The statue was sponsored by Liverpool Heartbeat and was unveiled by the Princess Royal on 14 June 2019, exactly 10 years after the re-dedication of his grave. Princess Anne spoke to several people associated with the John Hulley story, including myself. 

Cheshire Marriage Licence Bonds And Allegations 1606-1905

19 October 2018 - I have researched these listed on Find My Past and have found 168 entries for Hooley, Howley and Hulley.
66 of these have been added to their Notes in the respective Family Trees, full details of which are shown in the Introduction of each. I retain full details of the other 102 entries but have not been able to allocate them to a published Family Tree.

New Family Tree in Yorkshire

11 February 2017 - Yorks12 - Descendants of Joseph Hullay who married Anne Moores in 1703 at Fenton parish church Yorkshire has been added to the Yorkshire list and includes 94 persons who lived in the Copmanthorpe, Tadcaster, Acklam and York areas of Yorkshire. If anyone has additional information about this FT please contact me.

Hulley and variant marriages - 1837 - 1911 England and Wales

31 August 2016 - My index of England and Wales' marriages 1837 - 1911 has been updated and now contains over 1,120 Hulley and variant marriages. All new and amended entries have been added to their appropriate Family Trees. I still have to track down 10% of them where the information required is not currently online.

United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751-1921

17 February 2016 - These registers have been searched for Hulley, Hully and Hooley entries and 26 persons have been found. Although the above title implies that only Lodges in England are listed, there are 9 South Africa entries in the registers..

The Family Trees which have listed members are as follows: Ches03; Ches07; Ches13; Derby01; Derby02; Lancs01; London 02; Westmorland 01; South Africa 01; South Africa 02. Details are shown in the introduction to each FT.

National Archives of South Africa (NASA)

9 February 2016 - The on-line records of the National Archives of South Africa (NASA) have been searched for entries associated with members the two South Africa Family Trees and 293 entries have been added to the Notes of the persons listed - 248 to SA01, and 45 to SA02. More details are shown in the introduction to each FT.

These entries consist of a general description of the contents, not the full details. If these are required then an application for copies has to be made to the appropriate NASA department. See their website at www.national.archives.gov.za.

Find My Past - 2 more sources of information.

17 January 2016 - I have checked the following sources for Hulley and variant entries and have found over 170 entries.

1. Yorkshire Births, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths - 168 entries from Derbyshire 01 and 02, Lancashire 01, Norfolk/Glamorgan 01, and Yorkshire 01, 06, and 09.

2. Marriage Allegations - Lichfield and Coventry - 5 entries from Derbyshire 01 and 02.

More details are shown in the introduction to each FT.

Absent Voters' Lists

6 December 2015 - The absent voters’ lists are registers of eligible voters who were absent from their homes. The lists are of particular importance for those whose ancestors fought during the First World War. After Parliament passed the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which radically reformed the electorate in Great Britain and Ireland, men between the ages of 19 and 20 who were serving in the armed forces were given the right to vote and could register as absent voters for the first time. Absent voters lists also contain the names of anyone whose work was recognised by the Admiralty, Army Council or Air Council, such as merchant seamen, fisherman and those working for the Red Cross.

Applications for an absent vote were to be submitted by August 1918 for the autumn and by February 1919 for the spring. The registers were printed twice a year. The names of absent voters were sent to the Adjutant General’s Department of the War Office. The War Office then arranged to send voting cards to men in the UK and ballot papers to those in France. Some were left out because of the hurried process and some details given may be inaccurate.

Lists were completed by August 1918 and then published that October. Subsequently, the lists may include names of men who were killed, missing or taken prisoner in the period of time between the compiling of lists and the publication of the register. After an election, the counting of votes was delayed by up to eight days to ensure the receipt of the absent votes. This practice occurred during the First World War and for twelve months after.

I have searched the above list on Find My Past and have identified 12 Hulley entries from the following Family Trees:

Cheshire04 (8 entries); Derbyshire01 (3 entries); and Yorkshire06 (1 entry)

Details are shown in the introduction to each FT.

Hulley/Hully/Hooley newspaper entries 1745 to 1901

20 October 2015 - I have completed a search of Hulley/Hully/Hooley newspaper entries from 1745 to 1901 that are on Find My Past. There are 327 identifiable persons shown plus a further 203 that I cannot allocate to a particular Family Tree because of the lack of information about them, e.g. age, location etc. The entries fill 95 A4 pages of text and I have added all the known ones to the Notes on their FT. The persons with the most entries are as follows:

West Yorkshire Prisoners 1801-1914

17 March 2015 - I have found several persons in the above lists and have allocated the information shown to the individuals' Notes. Some of them have served more than one prison sentence - usually in Wakefield Prison.They include members of the following FTs: Cheshire04; Derbyshire02; Yorkshire01, 06 and 08. Names of each person are shown on the Home Page of each FT.

Lancashire and Manchester Non-conformist Births, Marriages and Deaths 1758 - 1912

21 June 2014 - A search of the recently published Lancashire and Manchester Non-conformist Births, Marriages and Deaths 1758- 1912 on Ancestry has revealed 142 Hulley entries. These are spread amongst several Family Trees, the main ones being Lancashire01 (51 entries) and Yorkshire04 (45 entries). Others listed are Cheshire11 (27); Derbyshire02 (2); Lancashire05 (4); Lancashire06 (1); Yorkshire02 (8); Yorkshire03 (4).

Full details of each entry are shown in the Notes of each person listed in the registers.

John Hulley - Olympic co-founder 1866 - Memorial Plaque unveiled in Liverpool

03 June 2014 - I have added a section to the www.johnhulley-olympics.co.uk website to cover the Unveiling ceremony of his Memorial Plaque by the Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside and the Lord Mayor of Liverpool. By clicking on the"Memorial Plaque Unveiling" link on the left hand side of the home page you can read the full story and pictures of the occasion.

1611 Macclesfield Survey

Information about the 1611 Survey of Macclesfield Manor and Forest has been collated and indexed for family and local historians who are interested in tracing their ancestors amongst the inhabitants of the Manor and Forest of Macclesfield around 1611. The Survey was, in broad terms, the first census-type survey made in the district, and is invaluable to researchers who have not been able go back to this period in history and beyond.

Click here to visit the pages - 1611 Macclesfield Survey (opens in a new tab).

The John Hulley story - a successful conclusion

15 August 2012 - It has been almost 6 years since I came across a reference to "The Mystery of John Hulley" and this has occupied me for long periods in solving the mystery. After I had discovered he was a member of the Ches03 Family Tree whose ancestry goes back to 1488, I decided to raise his profile from "the forgotten man of the Olympic movement" to someone that was known and respected for what he did for physical education and Olympism.  What he had achieved in his short life of 42 years and the legacy he had left for the future Olympic movement needed to be made known.  The discovery of his grave - in a terrible condition - was the spark that ignited my determination to bring his story to a successful conclusion by spreading his message to the public generally.

The John Hulley Fund was established to raise money for the renovation of his grave and the work was carried out in 2009.  After the rededication ceremony of his grave, the website at www.johnhulley-olympics.co.uk devoted to John Hulley's life and work caught the attention of a charity called Liverpool Heartbeat founded by Robin Baynes MBE, a local business man. For the past 2 years he has taken a keen interest in publicising all what John Hulley stood for and has related this to modern-day life.

Several events under the banner of the John Hulley Olympic Festival have already taken place and more are scheduled by Liverpool Heartbeat.  These have been a means of bringing the John Hulley name and his unique achievements back into the public arena where they belong.  Liverpool can now be justly proud of having a person who was a leader in the cause of physical education, an Olympic innovator and a disciple of a “Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body”, leading to the establishment of the British Olympic movement in 1865.

A John Hulley entry is now in Wikipedia, and his entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has been added recently.

The crowning achievement of this story as far as publicity is concerned, is a report televised on BBC North West Tonight on 31 July 2012.  A link to this report is at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9pfLwNiKlk&feature=plcp

Finally, the John Hulley story continues to gather public interest and support, this time in the USA. 12 members of a charity called Tri-4-Life are currently cycling across the US spreading a message of friendship from Merseyside to all the cities and communities en route.  Tri-4-Life also presents the John Hulley Olympic message, honouring the Liverpool man who was instrumental in the formation of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.  A link to this event is at:

http://www.liverpoolheartbeat.com/index.php/2011-09-16-10-38-46/tri4life

MASSIVE DNA BREAKTHROUGH!

7 - YES SEVEN! FAMILY TREES IN 3 COUNTRIES NOW LINKED TOGETHER - THANKS TO JUST ONE DNA TEST!

24 April 2012 - I never thought it would be possible but the impossible has happened. Jeffrey Hulley Dayne is the latest member of my DNA project and recently submitted his 37-marker results to me. Jeff's ancestors are shown on the Norfolk/Glamorgan Family Tree and Frederick Adolphus Hulley born 1858 was his great grandfather. His grandfather Frederick (George) Hulley born 1884 and brother Archibold emigrated to the USA in 1916 and changed their surname to Dayne for professional purposes - they were both talented musicians. A new FT at USA03 - has been created to include these members.

The results for Jeff are an exact copy of my own in 35 out of 37 markers making us from the same line several hundred years ago. But how are we related? The head of the Norfolk/Glamorgan FT was Thomas Spencer Hulley born 1796 at Stockport, Cheshire who was a son of James Hulley born 1768 at Stockport, who was a member of the Ches11 FT.

For several years I have searched for a link between my own FT at Lancs01 and the Ches11 FT, both with Hulley members. The only possibility was Robert Hulley born c1710 who was the grandfather of James Hulley born 1768 at Stockport and I had entered this comment in his Notes several years ago:

Note: A person by this name is shown on the Lancs-01 Family Tree baptised at St Michael's church Ashton under Lyne on 29 July 1705/06 as son of James Hulley and Anna Kershaw. No evidence has been found to date to prove that these two persons are the same.

The DNA result for Jeff Dayne is the missing link and proves conclusively that the Robert Hulley shown in Ches11 is the same Robert in Lancs01.

I already know that Lancs01 is the source of the USA01 and USA02 FTs, whilst Ches11 is the source of Aust02 and NorfGlam01 FTs. Now that Jeff has joined the DNA project as a member of USA03, which is a spin-off from NorfGlam01, these 7 Family Trees can be linked together into one Tree with almost 2,000 members.

That's the advantage of using DNA in Family History!

NEW WEBSITE FOR JOHN HULLEY, LIVERPOOL GYMNASIARCH AND BRITISH OLYMPIC MOVEMENT FOUNDER

10 January 2010 - I have now finished creating a website to the memory of John Hulley, who was
instrumental in the formation of the National Olympian Association at his Liverpool Gymnasium on 6th November 1865. The website can be found at www.johnhulley-olympics.co.uk and contains all the information collected about him from his birth in 1832 to his death in 1875. It also lists the acknowledgments and tributes to him during and after his lifetime. These may be summed up by Don Anthony, a former Olympic athlete who wrote in 2001 :-

"Hulley was certainly a tour de force. He began to define Olympism long before the formation of the International Olympic Committee. Like Brookes and Ravenstein he influenced the thinking of the young Coubertin."

The 2012 London Olympics will be the perfect occasion on which Hulley's work in the British Olympic arena is finally recognised and I would be grateful if you would give the widest publicity to the site in your sphere
of influence, so that John Hulley's memory is enshrined in British Olympic sporting history.

11 August 2009 - more information has been received from contacts in Australia, South Africa which have helped to fill in many gaps in the family trees in those countries.

I have traced a distant descendant of John Hulley the Olympic co-founder. He is a Michael Hulley born in the September quarter of 1960 at Barton (on Irwell) Registration District in Lancashire. He was the son of Ronald Jasper and Jean (nee Staniforth) Hulley who married in 1954 at Macclesfield. If there is anyone who has knowledge of the current whereabouts of Michael or his descendants, please contact me.

14 June 2009 - The rededication ceremony for the grave of John Hulley, the Biritish Olympic movement co-founder, has been held at Smithdown Road cemetery, Liverpool.

The following picture shows the state of the grave as found in February 2008. Note the headstone laid down alongside the main grave section.

The grave has been renovated by Messrs Welsbys (Memorials) Ltd of Liverpool and is now back to its original 1875 condition of white Italian marble.

28 April 2009 - further research to find previously unknown spouses using FreeBMD marriage indexes has been undertaken and the results shown in the introduction to each FT. Some entries have two possible candidates and so both are shown in the Notes for each spouse pending further research. If any researcher has information to identify the precise individual please contact me.

22 February 2009 - Over 650 new names have been added to the various FTs on this site, as a result of a check of FreeBMD marriages 1837 - 1901. These are mainly the male spouses of female Hulley/Hully/Ulleys and their families as shown in the census after their marriage. Details are shown in the Notes of each person involved.

06 January 2009 - Rosemary Edwards a descendant of Thomas William Hulley born 1872 (shown on the Derby02 FT) has kindly supplied the details of a further 50 persons this family who are also descendants of Thomas William. Most of them are from Sheffield.

30 December 2008 - I have added a further 65 persons to the Derby02 Family Tree. These are mainly the descendants of George Hulley baptised at Baslow in April 1805. He and his family moved to Sheffield before 1841 and his descendants (some of whom were chimney sweepers) lived there until at least 1911. They may be still living there.

17 December 2008 - The Yorkshire list has increased again, this time by the addition of Yorks07 - a tree showing 183 persons living in the Sheffield area in the 19th century commencing with Hannah, the mother of John Ulley who married in 1803. This tree was particularly difficult to assemble because the surname started as Ulley in 1803 then progressed to Hulley/Hully. By the time the century was over most of the descendants were called Hawley.

Another Family tree has been added to the Yorkshire list. This one contains the ancestry of 222 persons related to Jonathan Ulley of Mexbrough 1729-1820.

A website has been established to cover the gymnastic career, his co-founding of the British Olympic movement in 1865 and death of John Hulley, born in 1832. After the re-discovery of his gravestone in Smithdown Road cemetery, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, the LIverpool Daily Post ran a two page feature article about John Hulley and his fellow Liverpudlian Charles Melly on Friday 8 August, the opening day of the 2008 Olympics at Beijing. it was decided to set up a memorial fund for the renovation and re-instatement of John Hulley's grave and donations are invited from all Hulley and Hooley family historians to keep the memory of this exceptional person alive once again.

Full details are shown at www.johnhulleymemorialfund.co.uk

I have recently discovered some intriguing documents at The National Archives, Kew. These are in WO 344/154 and WO 344/383 and are answers to various questions given by returning Prisoners of War in 1945 and cover the European and South-East Asia campaigns . There is also one Hulley entry in the Japanese POW Index Cards. Full details of all persons shown on these documents are shown in the Military Section under 2nd World War Returning POWs.

I have also added several spouses to some of the Cheshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire family trees who married during the 1837 - 1901 period. These have been taken from the LancsBMD and ChesBMD websites. Full details are shown in the Notes for each person affected.

Please note that I now have a DNA website at www.familytreedna.com. My details are shown on my own Project Page. I welcome all male Hulley/Hully persons to join the project by completing the Application Form at the bottom of the page.

There is a discount on the cost of DNA testing if you join a project.

Please contact me if you have any queries.

Introduction

This web site covers all aspects of Hulley (and name variants such as Hully, Ulley and Ully) family history throughout the world. The information shown on the following pages has been collected over the past 30 years from a wide range of sources, mainly in the United Kingdom including the following:

1. Parish registers from a large number of places in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and other counties;
2. Census returns for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 for England, Wales and Scotland;
3. Census returns for 1820 and 1880 for States of North America;
4. Wills in the Prerogative Courts of Canterbury and York and in the Diocese of Chester up to 1858;
5. Wills in the indexes from 1858 to 1900;
6. Birth, Marriage and Death indexes from the start of General Registration in 1837 to 1900;
7. Trades Directories for many parts of England and Wales;
8. Records held at The National Archives London including the following:
   • Chancery records
   • Cheshire series records
   • Exchequer records
   • Land Registry records
   • Military records
   • Ministers’ Accounts
   • Special Collections esp. Macclesfield Court Rolls
9. Other miscellaneous sources.

I have had assistance and information from people with Hulley descendants and ancestors in many parts of the world including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States of America. I am most grateful to them all.

I have a special interest in the Hulley family of Rainow, near Macclesfield and have traced their family tree back to 1488 with many references found for Hulley in the same area back to 1285. The story of the family is told in my book which was first published in 2001. The book is now out-of-print but I hope to write a new expanded edition and publish online in the future.

Please use the link on the left to email me for enquiries or if you have any information about Hulley genealogy.

Last updated: 28 April 2012.

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