John Weaver was born on the 18th March 1780.
He married Elizabeth NOKES in 1806 in Birmingham, and they had five sons and five daughters, although at least three died in their youth. Their eldest son was named William after his grandfather.
In the 1811 census of Bromsgrove, John is described as a 'higgler' - i.e. a dealer and carter who travelled around the district buying and selling. His wife's father was also a carrier which either provides a means for John and Elizabeth to meet or alternatively may have provided John with a new career.
In 1811 he is living in the "Square" with 1 male and 3 females, probably Elizabeth and his first three children, William, Susannah and Sarah.
In indentures dated 20 July 1813 in which he buys buildings in the Strand, Bromsgrove with Jonathon BROMFIELD (who had married his sister Ann) he is described as a 'higlar', i.e. a carrier. Later in 31 July 1853, long deceased, he is still referred to as a higlar.
Both the 1821 and 1841 censuses have John listed as a carrier living in the Strand.
John is described as a clock maker in an Indenture dated 17th April 1823. This Indenture, which was for the apprenticeship of his son William, was signed with a cross with the words 'The Mark of John Weaver'. That John Weaver was unable to sign his own name makes it less likely that he was a clockmaker. One theory is that the words should have read 'clog maker', i.e. his father William's profession. Perhaps he was apprenticed himself as a clogmaker and later became a carrier when he married the daughter of a carrier. Alternatively, the clerk misread "carrier" as "clockmaker"......
In the 1835 Pigot's Directory he is listed as a carrier running to Birmingham from the Strand every Monday & Thursday, and to Worcester on Saturdays.
In the 1842 Pigot's Directory listed:
- To BIRMINGHAM (from whence goods are forwarded to all parts of the kingdom) William Ashmore, from his warehouse, every day; John Atkins, from his house, Hanover Street, every Monday, Thursday and Saturday-Thomas Allbutt, from Worcester street, & John Weaver from the Strand, every Monday and Thursday
- To WORCESTER, John & Wm. Ashmore, every day – Thomas Allbutt, from Worcester Street, every Wednesday & Sat – John Weaver, from the Strand, and John Holmes and John Atkins, from their houses, Hanover St, every Wed.
In the late years of his life John was the inn keeper of the Sampson of which his son Joseph was publican in 1851.
He died of consumption on 14 Feb 1844 and left his estate to his widow Elizabeth and upon her death equally to his four surviving children William, Mary Ann DALTON, Joseph and Richard. (Two Catshill properties in his estate 'in the occupation of William Wilson and William Wilkes' were possibly on Stourbridge Road and Woodrow Lane, both in Catshill, and where William Wilson and William Wilkes were living in 1861. )