Charles Allen Du Val

Julia Du Val

Julia Du Val was born on 11 April 1837 in Cork, Ireland. She was the second child and eldest daughter of Charles Allen Du Val and his wife formerly Elizabeth Renney. She was baptised in Manchester Collegiate Church on 31 July 1837.

Higher Broughton

Julia Kipping

In 1860 she was married to James Stanley Kipping, a senior official in the Manchester Branch of the Bank of England of which his father was head. James Stanley Kipping senior was a member of the Manchester Chess Club and a close friend of Charles Allen Du Val. They were partners at the meeting of the Association in Leeds in 1839, when, after a valiant fight, the two were defeated by the great player Staunton.

The Kippings lived at Higher Broughton, then a rural place on the outskirts of Manchester where James Stanley Kipping owned a small farm.

Kipping Family 1875

Their children were:

Emily Victoria Julia Kipping. She was born in 1862. In 1884 she was married to Dr. Ralph George Heathcote, and had three children. She died in 1934 aged 70 years.

Frederic Stanley Kipping. He was born on 16 August 1863 and baptised in November 1863.

Rosa Mary Louise Kipping. She was baptised on 7 December 1864. She was married to Ernest Henry Norbury 1857-1935 at Chorlton and they had three children. She died in 1950 at Southport.

Helena Maud Kipping. Born in 1866, she was married to Allan Frederick Norbury 1857-1930 at Chorlton, and they had five children. She died in 1949 at Crosby, Lancashire.

William Cecil Kipping. He was born in 1867 and baptised on 21 December 1867. He died at Lancaster in 1908 aged 41 years.

Anita Fanny Kipping. She was born in 1868 and was baptised on 3 December 1868. In 1893 she was married to Dr. James Stuart Orchard 1851-1915. They had a son, Stuart Orchard 1896-1977.

George Herbert Kipping. He was born in 1871 and baptised on 28 December 1871. He died in 1935 aged 63 years.

In the 1875 family group photograph are (from left to right) the childrens' nurse, William Cecil, Emily, Rosa Mary, George with his mother nee Julia Du Val, Anita, Helena, and father James Stanley Kipping.

Julia Kipping nee Du Val died in 1888 aged 51 in Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire.

James Stanley Kipping died aged 77 in 1899.

Frederic Stanley Kipping

George Kipping

Of the children of Julia and James Kipping, Frederic Stanley Kipping in 1888 married his first cousin Lily Holland, daughter of Florence Du Val. He became a very well-known academic chemist, who trained in Germany and spent most of his working life in Nottingham.

He is regarded as the "father" of silicone polymers, publishing over fifty papers between 1899 and 1937, and is credited with inventing the word "silicone" . He retired to North Wales in 1936.

In 1881 William Cecil Kipping and George Kipping were staying with a vicar and his family in Staffordshire, presumably receiving education there as boarders. Ten years later, Cecil aged 23 was living with his widowed father James Stanley Kipping (then described as a chemical manufacturer) in Manchester. George Kipping aged 19 was then a buyer at a shipping warehouse, staying with his uncle Gerald Du Val and family, and in 1896 he married his cousin Bessie Du Val.

Of Julia’s daughters, Emily Kipping and Anita Kipping married doctors (Ralph George Heathcote and James Stuart Orchard respectively), while Rosa Kipping and Helena Kipping married two brothers, Ernest Henry Norbury and Allan Frederick Norbury, sons of James Craig Norbury, a master printer. All the daughters had children, and remained in Lancashire until at least 1911.

The painting of Higher Broughton in the 1830s is by William Wyld, and is in the Manchester City Art Gallery.