info from UK Fairground Ancestors - Showmen, Circus & Fairground Travellers ***************************************************** Williams (1846-1913): son of Martha and Henry: Married Alice Williams, daughter of Sarah and Thomas in 1869. Children: Alice, Reuben (b 1873), Victoria (b 1874), Ada (b 1877) and Rufus (b 1879). Joseph and Alice travelled various shows, including a waworks exhibition and a mechanical exhibition. The Reverend Thomas Horne is said to have worked as a doorman for "Mrs. Williams Waxworks". 1868: Liverpool: commercial traveller (marriage certificate) 1871: Lancashire: “A Bargain to Showmen. To be Sold, a Mechanical Exhibition with Waggon. New Booth, tilt, etc. Music complete. Apply to Joseph Williams, Waxwork Exhibition. Route – Monday, Holborn-hill; Tuesday, Ulverston; Thursday, Broughton-in-Furness; Saturday week, Barrow-in-Furness (The Era, July 2, 1871) 1872: Market Square, Bolton, Lancashire: Williams' mechanical exhibition (The Guardian, May 29, 1872) 1873: Colne, Lancashire: travelling show residing Snowden's Yard (birth of son Reuben) 1878: Preston, Lancashire: Whitsuntide: “At the corner of the Orchard nearest the police station was once more stationed a sufficiently respectable exhibition of waxworks known as “Williams’s” (The Orchard and Market Place, The Preston Guardian, 15 June 1878) 1891: St. Helens, Lancashire: waxwork’s exhibition (census) 1899: Oldham, Lancashire: Mechanical exhibition (marriage of Reuben and Annie Williams) 1901: Wakefield, Yorkshire: travelling showman (census) 1901: Wakefield: travelling show proprietor (marriage of Victoria Williams and Ralph Layland). 1906: Bramley, Leeds: caravan at roundabout on fairground (death of Alice Williams) 1911: Caravan, Harpers Yard, Leeds, showman (census) 1913: Hunslet: death of Joseph Williams, 65, travelling showman (certificate) Note: 'Williams Mechanical Exhibition' attended the 'World's Fair', London, 1874, 1879 and 1881. Victoria Williams born 1874: daughter Alice and Joseph. Married Ralph Layland, son of showman Ralph Layland in 1901 at Wakefield, Yorkshire. Travelled Laylands Electric Bioscope. Ada Williams (1877-1937): daughter of Alice and Joseph. Married showman Thomas Turner whose father Thomas travelled a skating rink. Ada and Thomas travelled a photographic booth. Rufus Williams married Fanny Towers, daughter of traveller Samuel Towers. 1911: Caravan, Harpers Yard, Leeds, showman (census) 1921: Fairground, Doncaster: travelling show (birth of son James Towers Williams) Reuben Williams (1873-1945): son of Alice and Joseph. Married Annie Williams (Randall and Polly's daughter). In the summer of 1897, Randall Williams (Reuben's uncle) began travelling a second bioscope (likely due to his involvement with the Victorian Era Exhibition). It appears that Reuben was the manager of this second show and that it travelled mainly the Yorkshire fairs. This was the same show that Reuben and Annie took possession of when Randall died and they continued to travel the show as a cinema for a number of years before turning to a marionette show. They continued to travel local fairs before abandoning their show about 1903 when they settled in Hunslet, Yorkshire. 1898: Brighouse Feast (The Era, Aug 20, 1898) 1898: Pudsey (The Era, Sept 3, 1898) 1898: Armley Feast, Leeds (The Era, Sept 10, 1898) 1898: Woodhouse Feast and Woodhouse Carr Feast (The Era, Oct 8, 1898) 1898: Christmas: Ordsall-lane fair: “the chief show attractions being one of the well-known concerns of the late Randall Williams’s “Living Pictures” (The Era, Dec 31, 1898) 1899: Oldham (marriage) occupation "cinematograph proprietor" 1899: Oldham: January: Reuben married Annie Williams (daughter of Randall Williams) at Oldham Register Office. Two weeks later, Annie met her sister Carrie in London and the two signed an agreement that Annie would take over their father's caravan and other effects (the smaller bioscope) at Pendlebury and that Carrie would take over the caravan and other effects (the main show) at the Agricultural Hall. Two months later at probate, Reuben and Dick Monte (Carrie's husband) became the co-administrators of Randall’s estate (as Annie and Carrie’s legal guardians). Both couples continued to travel their show under the name “Randall Williams” and this no doubt lead to some rivalry (Dick and Carrie began referring to their show either as Randall Williams’ No. 1 concern or as the “original” show). 1899: Hunslett, Leeds: April: Reuben and Annie appear to have been selling off portions of the show inherited from Randall: “To Showmen, van dwellers and others. Randall Kay Williams, Deceased. The administrators of the above Deceased are prepared to receive Tenders for a Van, now lying at the Store Rooms of Messrs. Nunn, situate on Anchor-road, Hunslet, Leeds, who will show the van upon application. Tenders to reach the undersigned not later than the 15 th inst. The Administrators do not bind themselves to accept the highest or any Tender. Rowcliffe & Co., 30, Cross-street, Manchester. Solicitors. (The Era, Apr 8, 1899) 1899: May: Holbeck Spring Feast: Randall Williams II’s Vitascope (The Era, May 6, 1899) (Dick and Carrie Monte were at Lincoln May Fair with the Randall Williams No. 1 show) 1899: August: Bowling Feast: “Young Randall Williams’s living pictures” (The Era, Aug 26, 1899) 1899: August: “Maltram Wakes (old wakes ground) Reuben Williams’ Cinematograph (The Era, 26 Aug 1899) 1899: September: Trafford-road, Manchester: "Randall Williams cinematograph" (The Era, Sept 16, 1899) 1900: July: Skipton, Millfield Feast: "R. Williams’s Cinematograph (The Era, July 14, 1900) 1901: April: Bruntcliffe, West Riding Yorks: cinematograph proprietor (census) 1901: Sowerby Bridge Rush Bearing Festival (Movie Makers and Picture Palaces). 1903: Normanton Feast Ground (Wakefield) : travelling showman (birth of son Reuben) 1904: Camp Road, Leeds: showman (birth of son Richard) Other: “Reuben was the operator of the 'Electro-Scope' projector, both at Islington and on the fairgrounds. Randall's other daughter Carrie married a Londoner named Richard Monte. After grandfather's death in 1898, Reuben carried on the fairground cinema show under the name 'Randall Williams', while Richard Monte acquired another one, which he toured as 'Williams' Bioscope Show’.. . Reuben's show [made] its last appearance at Hunslet Feast, where father acquired a Punch and Judy show.” (Paul Williams in an interview with Geoff Mellors in 1984) "This show was travelled by Reuben Williams in Yorkshire. Reuben was married to his cousin, Annie Williams, eldest daughter of Randall Williams, and they inherited his No. 2 Show when he died in 1898. This travelled as their “American Marionette Show and Cinematograph Exhibition” for a few years around the turn of the century, being reported open at the Rush Bearing at Sowerby Bridge. Later they settled at Hunslet, although they still attended local feasts with a Punch and Judy show, using puppets made by Testos. The Punch & Judy Show was sold to Professor Codman, a bioscope operator and proprietor of the “New Empire American pictures” in Llandudno. The show still exists in Llandudno". (Scrivens & Smith, The Travelling Cinematograph Show) "My father showed the pictures in the Hall in London [Agricultural Hall] with my grandfather, but what I have been told they had to be wound on a spool after they left the projector . . ” (Letter from Paul Williams: in The Beginning of Cinema in England: Vol. 2: pp 241-242). Reuben also ran a cinema in Wigan for a short while (Hornsey, Brian: Ninety Years of Cinema in Wigan).