tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56224841516149686622024-03-13T00:26:13.311-07:00Susan's Family TalesSusan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-50004401734167890272024-02-10T08:32:00.000-08:002024-02-10T08:32:41.719-08:00Travelling Brothers<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This post is inspired by the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks prompt
“immigration”. In addition, I have been
investigating the Shephard family recently after finding some DNA Matches with some
distance cousins.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My ancestor George Shephard was born in Charleton, Devon,
England on 4 September 1835.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the fifth
child of John Camp Shephard and Priscilla Goodyear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have previously written about <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2015/03/priscillas-choices.html" target="_blank">Priscilla</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John and Priscilla’s other children were
Jane, Susan, George (who died age 2 in 1829, so the name was reused), Mary Ann
and Samuel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prior to marrying Priscilla,
John was married to her sister Susanna.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Marrying a dead spouses sibling was a forbidden degree of affinity at
the time but it happened, anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John
had 5 children with Susanna, John, Maria (died age 2 in 1817), Maria (born shortly
after her sister of the same name died), William and Phillip.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">Charleton is a parish in an isolated corner of Devon, near
Kingsbridge and about 20 miles from Plymouth. It is a rural community on a
river estuary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the mid-1800s, small farms
were being taken over by larger farms and people were leaving the area,
including George and his three of his brothers.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>George</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">George Shephard was the first of the brothers to migrate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a 21-year-old carpenter, perhaps
having just completed his apprenticeship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He could read but not write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
left England on 24 February 1857 on board the Herefordshire, along with 410
other passengers. 159 of the passengers were single man (over the age of 12) and
many of them from Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. George travelled as an assisted
immigrant, so his passage was paid for by someone else but I don’t know who, I
don’t have those details.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do know that
he was in good health on the voyage and had no relatives in the colony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The journey lasted 92 days, the ship arriving
in Sydney, New South Wales on 27 May 1857.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Three years after his arrival in New South Wales, in 1860,
George married Rebecca Jane Wells, the 16-year-old daughter of an Irish soldier,
Ezekiel Wells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George and Rebecca had 10
children, including my ancestor Mary Priscilla Shephard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family settle at Brucedale, a farming area
near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family
is memorialised by a dot on the map called Shephard’s Siding, consisting of
some wheat silos by a train track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George
died in 1896, aged 61.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Phillip</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Only a month after George departed England, his half-brother
Phillip Shephard, age 36, was in Plymouth boarding a ship, the Tudor, with his
family: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>his wife Elizabeth, age 31;
daughter Sohpia, age 6; and Samuel, a baby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Tudor left Plymouth on 28 March 1857 and arrived in Melbourne on 30
June 1857. Phillip was also a carpenter who could read and write; I wonder if
he apprenticed his much younger brother.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Phillip and Elizabeth had daughter Rhoda Shephard, born 1860
in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Sadly, Phillip died two years later in 1862, in
Bacchus Marsh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His wife and children returned
to Devon, England, after Phillip’s death.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>John</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Perhaps George and Phillip send word about life being better
in Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, late in 1858,
George’s half brother John set of for Australia with his family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John was 43 years old at the time and working
as a labourer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He travelled with his wife Mary, age 40; sons
James, age 9; William, age 6; Phillip, age 3; and daughters Joanna, age 11;
Sarah, age 21; and Mary, age 15 (this is the order they are listed in the
shipping record).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They sailed on the British
Empire from Plymouth, arriving at Moreton Bay, Queensland, on 4 Feb 1859.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">About a year after their arrival in Queensland, John and
Mary had twin daughters Elizabeth Jane Shephard and Emma Sophia Shephard, born
in March 1860.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family stayed in
Australia and have numerous descendants, some of whom I have found DNA
connections with.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>Samuel</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The final brother to migrate was, the youngest, Samuel
Shephard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Samuel, a 33-year-old farmer, boarded
the Clyde with his family in Plymouth on 15 September 1876.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His 7-year-old daughter Helena died in 1875
and I wonder if that might have prompted the family to make a change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With Samuel on the ship were his wife, Mary
Weymouth, age 26; son George Henry, age 9; daughter Fanny Louisa, age 5; and
son Samuel Ernest, age 1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They arrived
in Adelaide, South Australia, in December 1876.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There were 413 passengers on the ship.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mary Weymouth Shephard died in 1899 at Hindmarsh, Adelaide,
South Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Samuel remarried a
short time later to Jane Read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died
in 1913, in Prospect, Adelaide, South Australia.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>William</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The final bother who lived to adulthood, William Shephard,
did not migrate to Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He married
twice and lived to be over 80, in Devon.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">None of the sisters left England.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Susan Shephard had an illegitimate child who
was passed off as Priscilla’s child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
then married twice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary Ann worked as a
tailoress and was unmarried as of 1881. I don’t know what happened to Maria, I
don’t have any record of her after her baptism. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One thing that particularly caught my attention in this story
is that each brother migrated to a different Australian colony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do wonder if they kept in touch and visited
each other after they left England.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="font-family: verdana;">Notes on lineage:</b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Me > Mum > John Macdonald Charley
> Walter George Charley > Mary Priscilla Shephard > George Shephard</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-29884780612564014662023-11-06T12:35:00.001-08:002023-11-06T12:35:50.520-08:00A DNA Connection<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is a while since I have posted a story and this ones
comes with thanks to close relatives who have done DNA tests.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mary Head’s origins were unknown to me until I solved the
puzzle using DNA*.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">May Head was born about 1768 in Willingdon, Sussex, a
village just north of Eastbourne. Willingdon is thought to be the setting of
George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mary was the daughter, and oldest child, of Edward Head and Elizabeth
Balcomb**.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her siblings, also born in
Willingdon, were Edward, James, William, Henry (or Harry), John and Elizabeth.
My uncle and I share DNA with descendants of Edward and John.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Curiously, Edward and his family lived very
close to where I now live.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1788, Mary Head was in London where she married Thomas
Bisgood in St Martin-in-the-Field Church, London, England, on 4 June.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2019/01/thomas-bisgood-times-three.html" target="_blank">Thomas Bisgood</a> was one subject of a previous post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church is now well known for being next
to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Both Thomas and Mary signed the marriage register with confident looking
signatures, so they must have had some education.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06hbmblckdqr_PghY53Y6k4t7l0FnR5TG5PrIjR-ImDtPSMNbMH2R5uzOROU1rJWEPu13q3xZmd8G_tVCdBbbfz9y5-nK8XoMmVSE2-lpqEZgYIBhAHNMZKS4VGneNqQ2FIQG9O2mTs2AHPUpyzlUeEtegrgndZych5tkt9KlbgsTEKIRnrkqVgsLN6M/s1106/St%20Martin%20in%20the%20Fields.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="834" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06hbmblckdqr_PghY53Y6k4t7l0FnR5TG5PrIjR-ImDtPSMNbMH2R5uzOROU1rJWEPu13q3xZmd8G_tVCdBbbfz9y5-nK8XoMmVSE2-lpqEZgYIBhAHNMZKS4VGneNqQ2FIQG9O2mTs2AHPUpyzlUeEtegrgndZych5tkt9KlbgsTEKIRnrkqVgsLN6M/w301-h400/St%20Martin%20in%20the%20Fields.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">St Martin-in-the-Field Church,<br /></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> photo taken by me</span>.</div></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mary and Thomas Bisgood had 8 Children that I know of, they
were: Elizabeth, Charlotte, Mary Ann, John, Harriet (my ancestor), Henry,
Thomas and Nelson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, Mary and
Nelson died in infancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other
children all survived childhood and outlived their parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I share DNA with descendants of Elizabeth and
Thomas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am not sure what Thomas Bisgood senior’s occupation
was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family appear to have been
middle class rather than working class, the children all signed marriage
registers rather than putting their mark.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thomas Bisgood junior was a solicitor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Daughter Elizabeth married a confectioner, Thomas Adolphus Kienlen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harriet married Thomas Elliston, an
Accountant and Surveyor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 1841 Census,
Charlotte was listed as a widow of independent means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, son Henry was a servant in
his teens and got into some trouble with the law aged about 17, when he
apparently stole a pair of shoes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Bisgood family lived in the East End of London, with significant
events such as baptisms and weddings taking place in Holborn, Shoreditch and
Whitechapel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Daughters Elizabeth and Charlotte
had a double wedding on 26 June 1817 at St Mary’s Whitechapel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mary lost her husband Thomas in December 1816, he was aged
about 59.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary passed away only a few
years later in May 1822, aged 54.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both
were buried at St Leonard’s, Shoreditch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The East End of London was not a healthy place to live in the early
1800s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Both of Mary’s parents outlived her, Edward died in 1823 and
Elizabeth died in 1827, aged 87.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
wonder if the country air and living not far from the sea was much healthier
that livening in early 1800s London.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Without the help of DNA matches and their family trees, I
could not have connected the Mary Head born in Willingdon, Sussex, with the
Mary Head who lived in 60 miles away in central London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary Head is a reasonably common name and
people moved from all over England to London, so there were a lot of possibilities
and no records to confirm where my Mary Head came from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know why she went to London or, alternatively,
if Thomas travelled and met her in Sussex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am thankful that DNA has helped reveal some of Mary’s story, even if
there are still a few mysteries to solve.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">*I used techniques such as a modified version of the Leeds Method
and DNA painting to confirm my conclusions, as well as studying the trees of
DNA Matches.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">**Also Balkam and other spellings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="font-family: verdana;">Notes on Lineage: </b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Me > Dad > John Edward Blake >
Alice Mary Elliston > George Elliston > </span><a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2022/02/neighbours.html" style="font-family: verdana;" target="_blank">Samuel Joseph George Elliston</a><span style="font-family: verdana;"> > Harriet
Bisgood > Mary Head</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-72215164335563853022023-03-09T13:18:00.000-08:002023-03-09T13:18:07.799-08:0014 Children<p> As it is Women’s History Month and was International Women’s
Day this week, I thought I would share stories about a couple of my more
prolific female ancestors. My first
subject is Caroline Rideout, another will follow in a week or so.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Caroline was the eighth of nine know children of James
Rideout and Caroline Bennett. Caroline was born 4 April 1844 in Menangle near
Camden, New South Wales, Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her
parents had arrived in Australia six years earlier and <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2021/01/bounty-immigrants.html" target="_blank">I have written about them previously</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her oldest surviving
sister, Martha, married when Caroline was just 2 years old.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>Caroline’s siblings were: Martha, who died in England in infancy;
William; Jasper John Bennet, I don’t know why he got all the middle names; Martha,
who married in 1846; Mary, who died in infancy; John; Charlotte, who died in
infancy; James and Henry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I share DNA
with descendants of Martha, James and Henry.<o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Caroline would have grown up in a big extended migrant family
with lots of older siblings and cousins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She was fortunate that she did not know the extreme poverty her family lived
in prior to leaving England.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Caroline Rideout married young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She married William Jenkins on 7 August 1860,
age 16.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William was 21.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They married in Camden, NSW and they lived at
Spring Creek, near Camden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caroline gave
birth to her first child 10 months later, my ancestor Louisa Jane Jenkins, born
13 May 1861. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">William Jenkins worked as a farmer, following in his father’s
footsteps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Jenkins senior had
taken up farming after receiving his ticket of leave and marrying a young Irish
convict. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">William and Caroline’s next child was unnamed and sadly died
shortly after birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She then went on to
have another 12 children over the next 24 years, taking the total to 14. Her
last child was born in 1886 when she was 42.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Caroline and William’s children were Louisa Jane; the unnamed
child; William James; John Bennett, who died in a riding accident leaving four young
children; Caroline Eliza who died in childhood; Minnie Emily, who died the same
year as Caroline Eliza; Arthur Daniel; Sylvester Reuben; Minnie Emily, named
after her dead sister; Thomas Edwin; Charles Hercules; Ada Maude; Leslie
Rockland; and Ralph Rudolph, who died as a baby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I share DNA with descendants of Arthur,
Sylvester, Ada and Leslie.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Caroline became a grandmother at 46 when my great
grandfather was born in 1890.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">William Jenkins died in 1908 at Werombi, NSW, leaving Caroline a widow.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Caroline died on 12 May 1915, age 71, at her brother’s house
at The Oaks, not far from where she was born. </p><p class="MsoNormal">I found an 1890 picture of the Post Office at The Oaks on <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Oaks_Post_Office.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>. Perhaps some of the people are members of the Jenkins and Rideout families.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3LGdpVrrsj-a2T1XMlnlDyjV88kOiQU0vmcgRmFmRhE73FGD9QlHEa41v4Ve6Z70znd_qr2zA2yBKCvKU0t363gJbKOFlqdXEqRjRu3POKvd801c4Y93zelS7zxzHn9PhjPDcudP0LrwFSYcRqwFesl-Xpi75tHsyJpcj_YsBK4cilYPEnEFzktO/s425/The_Oaks_Post_Office.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="425" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3LGdpVrrsj-a2T1XMlnlDyjV88kOiQU0vmcgRmFmRhE73FGD9QlHEa41v4Ve6Z70znd_qr2zA2yBKCvKU0t363gJbKOFlqdXEqRjRu3POKvd801c4Y93zelS7zxzHn9PhjPDcudP0LrwFSYcRqwFesl-Xpi75tHsyJpcj_YsBK4cilYPEnEFzktO/w400-h250/The_Oaks_Post_Office.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Caroline’s life might not seem adventurous, she lived her whole
life in the same small area that looks like it might not have changed much
since she lived there. However, she
would have had a full and busy life, giving birth to and raising 14 children,
as well as helping out on the family farm. <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is often a challenge to find out much about the women whose
role was primarily domestic: raising children and running a household. I hope that by sharing this story it sheds a
bit of light on a woman whose main role in life was to be a mother and wife.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Notes on lineage: </b>Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith > John Henry Smith > Louisa Jane Jenkins > Caroline Rideout</p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-44283978930748557252022-08-22T10:35:00.000-07:002022-08-22T10:35:00.754-07:00The Bowie Family<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">My ancestor William Bowie was born about 1761 in New
Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">He
was the ninth of ten known children of James Bowie, originally of Denny,
Stirlingshire, and his wife, Margaret Tyre.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">
</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">William Bowie’s siblings were John, Margaret, Janet, Agnes, Christian,
James, Elizabeth, William (born c. 1757, died as an infant) and Robert.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Brothers John and James Bowie both migrated to the
Americas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Bowie was an officer, a
Major, in the US Revolutionary Army.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
married Rosa Reid, the daughter of another officer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Bowie settled in Abbeville, South
Carolina, where he owned land and other property, including an enslaved Negro
woman named Cate, who was left along with any issue she had to his daughter
Rosa in his will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is uncomfortable to
think of a not-so-distant relative being a slave owner, however I felt that it
was right to share what little I know of Cate’s story. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">James Bowie ended up in Louisiana, reportedly living with a
creole woman, and appears to have lost touch with his family.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 15 February 1785, William Bowie and his wife Elizabeth
Neilson had their first child, also William.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This brought them to the attention of the strict Scottish church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pair appeared at the Old Kilpatrick Kirk
Session on 27 February 1785 and acknowledged that they were married in an
irregular way in Glasgow, without the proclamation of banns, and they produced
marriage lines to confirm this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
marriage date is not recorded in the Kirk Session minutes, there is a gap where
it should have been written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William and
Elizabeth paid 6 shillings and 4 pence to the poor in the weekly offering as a
fine to absolve themselves of the scandal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The priest exhorted them to “live as husband and wife in all time
coming”, which they appear to have done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By 28 April 1810, when their daughter Janet was baptised,
William Bowie and Elizabeth Neilson had had 13 children and they had another,
Agnes, born a few years after Janet, taking the total to at least 14.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am yet to identify all of them, but the
ones I know of are the three already mentioned, William, Janet and Agnes, plus:
Elizabeth (born 10 Mar 1787, died young), James (born 24 May 1789, died young),
another Elizabeth (born around 1800), James (born about 1802), Anne (born
around 1808) and Margaret (my ancestor, born before 1810).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">James Bowie, born around 1802, trained as a doctor, joined
the army and moved to Quebec, Canada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While he lived in Canada, he was able to visit his Uncle John in
Abbeville.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Anne Bowie married William Robertson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of their daughters married a missionary
and died in Constantinople.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Once of the son’s had a son named David Bowie, who was the
witness on his Aunt Agnes’s death certificate in 1877.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Anne, Agnes and the younger Elizabeth were all letter
writers. I have copies of some of their letters to their niece, <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-lady-of-letters.html">ElizabethHarvey Macdonald</a>, who I have written about previously.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Going back to William Bowie, in 1785, the parish register
and kirk session minutes record that he was a nailer from Dalnottar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dalnottar was a small and settlement on the
Clyde River at what is now the northern tip of Glasgow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A nailer was an iron smith who made
nails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was reportedly very physical
work, with each nail needing at least 25 hammer blows to be formed and around
200 nails made a week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William worked as
a nail smith until at least 1810 when Janet was born.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At some point, the physicality of being a nail smith must
have become to much for William and he changed careers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 1841 Census, he is described as a grocer’s
shopman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1846, he was described as
proprietor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On daughter Elizabeth
Bowie’s 1861 death certificate, he was described by daughter Agnes as a Salt
and Barley merchant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William Bowie did not stay in Old Kilpatrick, although he
did not venture as far as his brothers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
1787, the small Bowie family had moved across the Clyde to Port Glasgow before
moving back to Old Kilpatrick by the time James was born in 1789.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were back in Port Glasgow around 1800
when the younger Elizabeth was born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Finally, by 1810 they were in Barony, Lanarkshire, now southern Glasgow,
where they settled in St Andrew Square, living at no. 49 by 1841.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Bowie lived there for the remainder
of his life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the 1841 census, daughters Elizabeth and Agnes were
living with William and Elizabeth Bowie, along with Agnes’s son, James Gordon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth and Agnes remained living together
until Elizabeth died in 1861.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In May 1846, William’s wife, Elizabeth, died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only a few months later, in September 1846,
William died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His cause of death was
given as “aged” and as he was 85 years old, that seems fair enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was buried in the Glasgow Southern
Necropolis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">“The Bowies and Their Kindred: A Genealogical And
Biographical History” by Walter Worthington Bowie published in 1899 has been a
useful source for some of William Bowie’s story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Mum > John Macdonald Charley
> Constance Mary Macdonald > James Gordon Macdonald > <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-lady-of-letters.html">Elizabeth HarveyMacdonald</a> > Margaret Bowie > William Bowie</span><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-72001351793252296392022-04-20T13:49:00.004-07:002022-04-20T13:57:04.078-07:00Too Many Too Young<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This post is prompted by the <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52ancestors52weeks/" target="_blank">#52ancestors</a> prompt “Negatives”. One of the negatives of researching family
history or, indeed, any history, is high infant and childhood mortality. I
thought I would write about one family who suffered more than their fair share
of such loss.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Robert Charley was born around 1734 in Combe Martin, Devon,
a picturesque town on the north Devon coast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was baptised in the parish church on 11 September 1734. Robert was a
younger child on Richard Charley and his wife Joan Willis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the baptism registers have a
gap from 1725 to 1731, so I don’t know about any children born in that
period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Robert’s known siblings were Elizabeth,
Richard, William, Mary and another Mary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The first Mary died in infancy and it was common practice to reuse the
names of dead children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brother Richard
also appears to have died young in 1737, aged about 20; I don’t know about Elizabeth
and the second Mary.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Father Richard was a yeoman and freeholder, so an independent
farmer. I have found records of him as a yeoman in Combe Martin over a period
from 1714 to 1751.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wife Joan died in May
1758 and was buried at Combe Martin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
next record I have of Richard Charley is his burial in West Buckland, Devon, in
1765.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His probate records were dated
1768, but I haven’t seen them because they were lost to a World War Two air
raid on Exeter, Devon, in 1942.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Son Robert Charley followed in his father’s footsteps. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have found records of him as a freeholder
and husbandman (farmer) in West Buckland from 1762 to 1799.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On 23 April 1765, Robert Charley married Mary
Locke, of Chittlehampton, in West Buckland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Robert and Mary had 10 children that I know of: Joan, Mary, William,
Ann, Elizabeth, John, Thomas, James and twins Richard and Henry, all born and
baptised in West Buckland.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Joan Charley was born early 1766, baptised 2 March
1766.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She died as a young woman, on 12
November 1791, aged only 25.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was
buried in West Buckland churchyard and I found her gravestone when I visited
the area in 1995.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mary Charley was born in 1767 and was baptised on 1 January
1768.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was the longest lived of the
children, as far as I know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1794, she
married Thomas Peters and had two children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sadly, Thomas did not survive long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In 1803, Mary married Thomas Brayley, a shoemaker, and had at least one child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1851, Thomas and Mary, along with Mary’s
son, John Peters, were living in South Molton, Devon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas Brayley died in 1855, I haven’t found
a death record for Mary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William Charley was born around 1769, that baptism register
for that year are nearly illegible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
died young and was buried in West Buckland on 22 December 1789.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ann Charley was born around 1771 and baptised on 18 August
1771.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know any more about her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Elizabeth Charley was born around 1773 and baptised on 21 November
1773.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She died in September 1799, age
about 25, and was buried on 22 September 1799 in West Buckland near her sister
Joan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also found her gravestone on my 1995
visit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">John Charley was born around 1775 and baptised 12 November
1775.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died young in February 1792 and
was buried on 16 February 1792, West Buckland.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thomas Charley was born around 1778 and was baptised 5 July
1778.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was one of the more fortunate
children of Robert and Mary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On 7 December
1803, Thomas Charley married Rachel Blake in Barnstaple, Devon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had four children, that I know of, between
1803 and 1819, one died in infancy and another died as a young adult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas died in April 1847 and was buried in
Pilton, Devon on 27 April 1847, age about 69.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzYYvnhb3AS7qlJIirFj47kYbfX3MTywvM5Jmw3-0r-eUsccoQRuFzsj5Z40ILKEU3XQLmczDOcm_xdihQBP9hWEHezg9he-6ZxKRRY_1yIAljPmLiqTMPq9YP1FHeBYM3B9kWkjDWIduQ0ocBdtJ8gOJIreUhLXsdZ7wWsC0EMGmxC12VthXk9sx/s4031/North%20Molton%201.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2483" data-original-width="4031" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzYYvnhb3AS7qlJIirFj47kYbfX3MTywvM5Jmw3-0r-eUsccoQRuFzsj5Z40ILKEU3XQLmczDOcm_xdihQBP9hWEHezg9he-6ZxKRRY_1yIAljPmLiqTMPq9YP1FHeBYM3B9kWkjDWIduQ0ocBdtJ8gOJIreUhLXsdZ7wWsC0EMGmxC12VthXk9sx/s320/North%20Molton%201.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">An old street in North Molton<br />Photo of photo taken by me (not public domain)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">James Charley, my ancestor, was born around 1781 and was
baptised on 20 Jan 1781.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was a tallow
chandler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On 18 June 1803, he married
Mary Cockings in North Molton, Devon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James
and Mary had four children that I know of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All four survived to adulthood and outlived their parents. I visited North Molton in 1995 and took some photos.</span></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9S-Ji1tPLtMNXWzYEcunWR-YLqHFtYf8IPpXuL39EN9rXMnqvv80Tdg1nd5aoPJGx4S5QYDZmqrIeyJ20QJbue0Moz-jgqBkIx1k0AaQmiGuKNzdmCsxW9dOr2La4rb2BFwJGqbUWcO7HkoapBDMSXLu3f-FqBzD-NbwFe6cA2crfmsy4G8kPnJo4/s4032/North%20Molton%202.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9S-Ji1tPLtMNXWzYEcunWR-YLqHFtYf8IPpXuL39EN9rXMnqvv80Tdg1nd5aoPJGx4S5QYDZmqrIeyJ20QJbue0Moz-jgqBkIx1k0AaQmiGuKNzdmCsxW9dOr2La4rb2BFwJGqbUWcO7HkoapBDMSXLu3f-FqBzD-NbwFe6cA2crfmsy4G8kPnJo4/s320/North%20Molton%202.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">North Molton parish church<br />Photo of photo taken by me (not public domain)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">Twins Richard and Henry Charley were probably born shortly before
they were baptised on 4 November 1785.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sadly,
both boys only survived a few weeks and both were buried on 16 November 1785 in
West Buckland.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mary Charley nee Locke died in August 1803 and Robert
Charley died in 1812.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both were buried in
West Buckland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least six of their ten
children pre-deceased them. Finding such tragedy is one of the negatives of
researching family history, as I mentioned when starting this story; I would
prefer to find long happy and successful lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Robert Charley left a Will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like his father’s will, it was destroyed during World War 2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lost records are a less tragic but more
frustrating negative of researching family history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on Lineage:</b> Me > Mum > John Macdonald Charley
> Walter George Charley > <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-first-philip-charley.html" target="_blank">Philip Charley</a> > James Charley > Robert
Charley</span><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-90879133226223913742022-02-23T10:10:00.002-08:002022-02-23T10:10:55.989-08:00Neighbours<w:sdt contentlocked="t" id="89512093" sdtgroup="t"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 1pt;"><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr><w:sdt docpart="E95111DFEA7943839D9748F3F46A98AB" id="89512082" storeitemid="X_5F329CAD-B019-4FA6-9FEF-74898909AD20" text="t" title="Post Title" xpath="/ns0:BlogPostInfo/ns0:PostTitle"></w:sdt></span>
<p class="Publishwithline">This post is inspired by the <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52ancestors52weeks/" target="_blank">52 Ancestors</a> prompt
“Courting”. It is the story of a couple
who were neighbours in London before they married, Samuel Joseph George
Elliston and Elfrida Mary Buss. Yes,
they both had names that are a bit of a mouthful, but appear to have been more
commonly known as George and Ella or Ellen.</p></span></w:sdt><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">Samuel Joseph George Elliston was born around 1821 in
Shoreditch, London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the only
known child of Thomas Abbot Elliston and Harriet Bisgood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas was an accountant and surveyor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Samuel Joseph George Elliston was baptised at
St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, on 22 April 1821, with the spelling “Alliston”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time, the family lived in Union Walk,
which is now mostly a railway underpass.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Elfrida Mary Buss was born about ten years later, around
1832 in the Bishopsgate or Shoreditch area in East London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elfrida’s parents, <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2015/01/an-unusual-name.html">Ethelbert John Buss</a>, a
bookbinder, and Elizabeth Austin Bell did not have most of their children
baptised in infancy, so records are lacking. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As far as I know, Elfrida was the fifth child
and fourth daughter of Elizabeth and Ethelbert, their other children were:
Elizabeth Austin Buss, Letitia Buss, Ann Sarah Buss (or Sarah Ann…) Ethelbert
John Buss, Charlotte Mathilda Buss and Clara Julia Buss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elizabeth also had a son, William James Hart,
from a previous marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the 1841 Census, the Buss family were living in Halfmoon
Street, Bishopsgate, which is now under the platforms of Liverpool Street
Station. The Elliston family had moved across Kingsland Road from Union Walk to
Wellington Street, a bit further out of central London to the Buss family,
possibly a sign that they were better off.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sadly, “George” lost his mother in 1841 and his father four
years later in 1845, leaving him on his own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He did have Aunts, Uncles and cousins on his mother’s side, but no close
relatives that I know of on his father’s side.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the 1851 Census, taken on Sunday 30 March, John (father
Ethelbert), Elizabeth, Elfrida and Clara Buss, and grandson/nephew Thomas West,
were living in rooms at 27 Skinner Street, also now under Liverpool Street
station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I counted ten households in the
building, including one consisting of John Buss (son Ethelbert) and George
Elliston, both described as lodgers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>George Buss’s occupation was a labourer, while John was a Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, George and Elfrida were neighbours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps George was a friend of Elfrida’s
brother John.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If young bachelors from
the Victorian era were anything like modern young men, I am sure that George
and John regularly visited John’s family for meals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, they all lived in close
proximity, which would have helped with George and Elfrida’s courting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 20 April 1851, only weeks after the census was taken,
Samuel Joseph George Elliston and Elfrida Mary Buss were married at St John the
Baptist Church, Hoxton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The witness
included Clara Buss and Ethelbert John Buss (not sure whether the father or the
son). George signed the register with his full name, so was literate to at
least some extent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elfrida and her
sister Clara marked rather than signed the register, so may not have been
literate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ethelbert John Buss signed the
register.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As far as I know, George and Elfrida had nine children:
George (my ancestor), Harriet, Clara, Charlotte, James, Thomas Alfred, Letitia,
Elizabeth and Richard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometime between
Harriet’s birth in 1854 and Charlotte’s birth around 1857, the family moved out
of the East End of London to Canning Town, near West Ham, which at the time was
in Essex but is now Greater London.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the 1861 census, George, Elfrida and their children were
living in New Road, West Ham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George was
working as a Dock Labourer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the 1871 Census, the Elliston family were still living in
the Canning Twon/West Ham area, with George still working as a Dock
Labourer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elfrida’s widowed mother,
Elizabeth, was also living in the household.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By 1881, not much had changed for George and Elfrida, other
than that only their two youngest sons were still at home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 1 January 1884, Samuel Joseph George Elliston died from a
lung haemorrhage, leaving Elfrida a widow after nearly 34 years of marriage. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Elifrida Mary Buss lived for over twenty years more, dying
on 5 January 1908 from “Seneclus Syncope”, which was apparently a fancy term
for old age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was in the Leytonstone
workhouse, so may have been unwell for a while.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Often it is difficult to find any clues about how an ancestral
couple might have met and gotten to know each other, so it is nice to find some
kind of prior connection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Dad > John Edward Blake > Alice
Mary Elliston > George Elliston > Samuel Joseph George Elliston and Elfrida
Mary Buss</span><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-40177731529690722482021-10-27T10:03:00.001-07:002021-10-27T10:03:16.053-07:00A Painter and Decorator<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is a while since I have written about one of my male
paternal ancestors, so I picked Thomas Tomlinson.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thomas Tomlinson was born around 1819 at Bracken Hill, in
Ackworth, Yorkshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the eighth
child of John Tomlinson and Mary Brownbridge. His siblings were William,
Elizabeth, John, George, Ann, Joseph, Jane, Charles, Sarah and Maria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was baptised on 7 November 1819 at
Ackworth Parish Church.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ackworth was and is a rural area. Record show that father
John Tomlinson mostly worked as a farmer or farmer labourer, apart from a brief
stint as a labourer just before Thomas was born.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I don’t know much about Thomas Tomlinson’s childhood but he
signed his marriage certificates with a fluent signature, so at some point he
got an education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He may also have had
the opportunity to learn some music as later in life he played violin well
enough to play in public.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In his teens, Thomas must have learned his trade as a
painter, gilder and decorator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t
found an apprenticeship record yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 3 December 1840, Thomas Tomlinson married Martha
Denton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas and Martha had at least four
children: Sarah, Jane, Henry and Eliza Ann, before Martha died in February
1853.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a seven-year gap between
Henry and Eliza Ann, so there may have been other children who I haven’t found
yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sometime between 1844 and 1851, Thomas and his family moved
to Batley, where his brother John was already living.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Batley was a bustling industrial town so may
have offered more opportunities for a young house painter.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the 1851 Census, Thomas and family were living in
Commercial Street in Batley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
household included Stephen Briggs, an apprentice painter, who I think was
Thomas’s nephew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this time, Thomas
employed one man in his painting business.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Somehow, not long after his first wife died, Thomas met Jane
Pearson, who was from Kirkland near Penrith, Cumberland, and in 1851 was a
servant in Cheshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas and Jane
married in Dacre, Cumberland on 21 November 1853.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas and Jane had five children in quick
succession: Hannah Maria, John, Ann, Mary Brownbridge and Frances Elizabeth (my
ancestor).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frances was born on 11 March
1860 and Jane died on 27 March 1860 from haemorrhaging following her daughter’s
birth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thomas Tomlinson’s spinster sister Maria was evidently
available to help look after her nieces and nephews when needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 1861 census, she was part of the
household, along with her and Thomas’s nephew George who was an apprentice
learning the painter trade from his uncle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By this time, Thomas employed two men and two boys, so was doing well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the time of the 1871, Thomas ruled over a household of 11
people, including his niece Sarah Ann Dunn who was a servant and sister Maria
still providing child care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He now
employed 10 men and one boy, so business was booming.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1879, Thomas acquired a third wife, Mary Ineson nee
Brook, who brought four more children into the family from her first marriage: William,
Frederick, Julian and Gertrude.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By 1881, Thomas was employing 8 men and 5 boys, so still
doing well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In addition to him playing the violin, I have found further information
about Thomas Tomlinson from Newspapers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas
was actively involved with Zion Methodist Church in Batley musically, socially
and financially. One of his close friends, also a member of the church for some
time, was Reuben Blakeley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reuben
migrated to New Zealand where he was a notable musician and composer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He composed a hymn for Thomas’ funeral.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 18 Dec 1898, Thomas Tomlinson died, age nearly 70.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From humble circumstances, he became a very successful
painter and decorator in Batley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
probate was granted, his effects were valued at £17809 8s 1d.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am sure that one penny was important.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thomas was buried at Batley Cemetery.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Dad > Helen Akeroyd > Percy Tomlinson Akeroyd > Frances Elizabeth Tomlinson > Thomas Tomlinson</span></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-35100048924196350252021-07-19T12:29:00.002-07:002021-08-26T10:00:55.947-07:00A Tailor of Wicken<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This story is inspired by the 52 Ancestors prompt “Fashion”,
which made me think of clothes and those who make them. William Henshaw was a tailor the village of
Wicken in Northamptonshire, England.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William was born on 2 March 1713* the fourth child and first
son of Jonathan Henshaw, a carpenter, and his wife Amy Bloncke**.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was baptised in the local parish church
six days later on 8 March.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His siblings
were: Anne, Mary, Alice, Amy and Elizabeth (twins who died in infancy), Judeth
(died in infancy), Elizabeth (died in infancy), Sarah (died in infancy),
Martha, Charity (died in infancy), Major, Keziah and John.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William’s early life was filled with the
tragic deaths of 6 of his fourteen siblings, followed by the death of his
father, Jonathan, in Mar 1729*.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mother
Amy was left a young widow with eight children to look after.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The older daughters may have helped out and
there may be been support from Amy’s siblings and Jonathan’s brother Thomas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Children Anne and Major Henshaw both died
young, in 1746, before their mother who died in 1749. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anne from small pox.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHMcGwZhxcqXzcbEydF7XYCYbXJypfWkp6aU2oJVg9J4PsS5UdeS9m4PWPcicEHPpFrarxoPhCgByJGyWgyzUT96ec3U_K4jNBPuLIoejXcvb-N0CiYohy_J0BV8aeqDF1k-XbKPoTc0/s2048/ma-150634.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1534" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHMcGwZhxcqXzcbEydF7XYCYbXJypfWkp6aU2oJVg9J4PsS5UdeS9m4PWPcicEHPpFrarxoPhCgByJGyWgyzUT96ec3U_K4jNBPuLIoejXcvb-N0CiYohy_J0BV8aeqDF1k-XbKPoTc0/s320/ma-150634.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo thanks to <a href="http://www.lacma.org">www.lacma.org</a><br /> (<a href="https://collections.lacma.org/node/233631">https://collections.lacma.org/node/233631</a>)<br />Public Domain as far as I am aware</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the time that so many of William’s siblings died in
infancy, infant mortality was high at every level of society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even then Queen, Anne, lost all but one of
her children under the age of four; that one child only survived to the age of eleven.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Around the time of his father’s death, William would have
been old enough to be apprenticed, so presumably that is when he started
working as a tailor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t found a
record of an apprenticeship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William
worked as a tailor at a time of extravagant fashions, the Georgian era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The owner of the Wicken Manor, Charles
Hosier, had made his fortune from making gold thread, which was used to embroider
elaborate designs on clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wicken
also had a lace making industry, which provided employment for some of the
women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is unlikely that William made
elaborate clothes with gold thread or lace, like in the photo, for the
villagers but maybe he got fancier commissions from the nearby towns of
Towcester and Buckingham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 18<sup>th</sup>
century, all clothes were made for measure, there were no clothes shops stocked
with ready to wear clothes, so William would likely have had plenty of work to
keep him busy, even if the clothes he made were not the height of fashion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In January 1735, William Henshaw married Anne Betts in
Adstock, Buckinghamshire.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">They had one
daughter, Sarah, who was born in 1740.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
think Anne died in 1750, although the burial record gives her name as Sarah.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The following year, in October 1751, William married Sarah
Horseley, in Wolverton, Buckinghamshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>William and Sarah also had just the one child, Ursula Henshaw (my
ancestor), born on 31 January 1753.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sadly, Ursula would never really have known her father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William died in Jul 1754 and was buried at
Wicken.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">His widow, Sarah, had two more “Henshaw” children, Job and
Mary, before she was re-married in 1765 to Alman Bone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My appreciation goes to the vicars of Wicken who kept very
informative parish registers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on lineage: </b>Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith
> John Henry Smith > Harry Smith > Eliza Roberts > George Roberts > Richard Roberts
> Ursula Henshaw > William Henshaw<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">*I have used the Gregorian Calendar dates, which for January
to 24 March were the prior year earlier according to the Julian Calendar until
it was replaced in 1752 in England.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">**I am not really sure of the conventional spelling.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-23509390871866239722021-06-11T09:16:00.004-07:002021-06-11T09:16:57.966-07:00Finding William Jenkins<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">William Jenkins life story was my first big discovery after
getting my DNA results a couple of months ago.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William Jenkins was born on 9 December 1783 in Tanworth-in-Arden,
Warwickshire, not far from Birmingham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was the oldest known child (at the time of writing) of William
Jenkins, a sawyer, and his wife Sarah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have yet to find a marriage for William (senior) and Sarah; they may have
married in nearby Worcestershire, which is not well covered online and not so
easy to research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William and Sarah’s
other children were Thomas, Jacob, Sarah and John.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William Jenkins was baptised on 25 July 1784 in the Tanworth-in-Arden
parish church.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I don’t have any information about his childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, William was educated enough to be
able to sign his name and his signature looks well practiced.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William, along with his brothers Thomas and John, followed
in their father’s footsteps, becoming sawyers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A sawyer is someone who cuts wood with a saw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tanworth-in-Arden is a rural area that still
has some forests, which presumably provided the wood that they cut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brother Jacob was a builder, so may have used
the wood that the rest of his family sawed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 31 December 1804, William Jenkins married Mary Spicer in
St Martin’s church in Birmingham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William’s
address on the marriage record is given as living in the parish but he may have
only been living in the area temporarily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thomas Spicer and Martha Spicer were witness on the marriage record.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William and Mary Jenkins went to live in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire,
where the Spicer family lived, more than 15 miles south of Tanworth-in-Arden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There they had four children: Sarah, William
(my Ancestor), Ann and Maria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mary died in January 1811, likely a few weeks after Maria
was born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mother’s dying from
complications or infection soon after birth was all too common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, Maria died only a few years later in
February 1814.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know what
happened to the other daughter’s, Sarah and Ann.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Also in 1811, William’s brother Thomas Jenkins married Mary’s
sister Elizabeth Spicer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas and
Elizabeth lived in Birmingham after their marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It seems that soon after the death of his wife, William moved
to Aston in Birmingham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He appears to
have left at least one child behind in Wellesbourne, as Maria died there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Birmingham, William met Charlotte Hough and
they married on 4 October 1813 in Handsworth Parish Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William’s signature in the Handsworth Parish
Register is a close match to his 1804 marriage signature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah Jenkins was a witness on the marriage
record but I am not sure if it was William’s mother or sister.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William and Charlotte had six children, taking William’s
total to ten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their children were: Eliza,
Maria*, Lucy, John, Jacob and Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Life may not have been easy for the Jenkins family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William’s son William was a juvenile delinquent
who was caught stealing a couple of times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He was transported to New South Wales, Australia, for his crimes in 1827,
where he became a farmer and had 14 children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William’s parents, William and Sarah, were long lived, both
dying in the 1830s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His father lived to
93.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the 1841 Census, William, Charlotte and their younger children
were still living in Aston, in Moseley Street.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William worked at Crowley’s Timber Yard, Cheapside, Aston.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On 2 November 1846, William had apoplexy (possibly
a stroke) while at the timber yard and died instantly, aged 62.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The coroner found that he died by a visitation
from God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William was buried on 8
November at St Philip’s Church, Birmingham.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">His wife Charlotte only survived him by a few weeks and was
buried at the same church on 28 November 1746, leaving behind a young family.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have a DNA match who is a descendant of William’s daughter Maria
Jenkins (the younger one), and this was my big breakthrough for finding out
about William Jenkins life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Previously,
I only knew about his marriage to Mary Spicer. I also have a possible DNA match
with a descendant of William’s sister Sarah that needs further investigation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am impressed with how much DNA has helped
to reveal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">*Re-using the names of dead children was a common practice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith >
John Henry Smith > Louisa Jane Jenkins > William Jenkins (b. 1839) >
William Jenkins (b. abt 1807) > William Jenkins (b. 1783)</span><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-71559774667087950672021-05-11T09:53:00.001-07:002021-05-11T09:53:29.771-07:00One Mother’s Story<p class="MsoNormal">This story is inspired by the <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/">52 Ancestors</a>
prompt “Mother’s Day” in honour of Mother’s Day on 9 May in some parts of the
world, including Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I picked
Mary Brownbridge because she had eleven children and she has an unusual
surname.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mary Brownbridge was born about 1783, in Pollington, a rural
village in the parish of Snaith in Yorkshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She was baptised on 28 November 1783 in Snaith parish church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her parents were John Brownbridge and Mary
Eastgate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary was the sixth of their
ten children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her siblings were John,
Charlotte, Elizabeth, Bathia, Ephraim, Manassah, Anne, Isaac and Frances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The unusual biblical names came from the
Eastgate side of the family.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Father John Brownbridge was a wheel wright, so a tradesman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think life was not always easy for the Brownbridge
family as three of the children died in early childhood: Ephrain, Manassah and
Isaac.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I don’t know if Mary Brownbridge was educated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She did not sign the marriage register on her
wedding day.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mary Brownbridge married John Tomlinson, a farmer or farm labourer
from nearby Ackworth on 2 January 1803 in Snaith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary was likely only 20, so a minor and her
father appears to have signed the register to give his consent.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For Mary, becoming a mother may not have been straight
forward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first child I have found
for Mary and John was William, who was born on 24 February 1805, more than two
years after the wedding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if
Mary miscarried or just failed to get pregnant in her first year of
marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway, once she started
having children, she had no problems with one successful pregnancy every two or
three years for the next 21 years. John and Mary’s children were: Willam,
Elizabeth, John, George, Ann, Joseph, Jane, Thomas (my ancestor), Charles,
Sarah and Maria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through all her years
of childbirth, she likely had support from her own mother, Mary Brownbridge nee
Eastgate, who died in 1827.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mary lost one child, Jane, in infancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure about two of her other
daughters, Elizabeth and Ann.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her other
children lived to good ages, with Sarah dying 1912, so almost within living
memory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I share DNA with one of her son Joseph’s
descendants.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 1841, Mary and John were still living in Ackworth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the census, their household included Mary
aged about 35, Ann age about 25, Martha aged 3, George aged 5 months and
William aged 35.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The relationships are
not listed but my guess is that William is their oldest son and I think Mary
was his wife and possibly the mother of Martha and George.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ann may have been John and Mary’s daughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John and William were listed as agricultural
workers, so likely doing unskilled seasonal work on a farm, which was long
hours and poorly paid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At about 65, John
must have been struggling.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Many of Mary’s children moved from Ackworth to Batley during
the 1830s and 1840s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if they
were drawn by the better opportunities in an industrial town compared to the
more rural are where they grew up.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mary Brownbridge died in 1845 and was buried on 2 Jul
somewhere in the churchyard of St Cuthbert’s, Ackworth, aged 62.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By this time, several of her children had
married and she was a grandmother to at least seven children, as well as a
mother.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While I don’t know much about Mary’s life, I do know that
she brought up her children to be respectable and successful people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her son Thomas, my ancestor died with a
fortune of nearly £18000, earned as a house painter and gilder, a long way from
being an agricultural labourer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I carry a little of Mary’s children’s DNA so her legacy
lives on.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Notes on lineage</b>: Me > Dad > Helen Francis Ruth
Akeroyd > Percy Tomlinson Akeroyd > Frances Tomlinson > Thomas
Tomlinson > Mary Brownbridge<o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-49203367389348671762021-03-10T10:36:00.000-08:002021-03-10T10:36:07.001-08:00A Cousin Reveals All<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have known of William Thompson almost since I started my
family tree over thirty years, however until recent weeks he wasn’t much more
than a name and an occupation. Searching
for the name William Thompson in London is a challenge. However, not long ago, I found a clue that
led to some interesting discoveries.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William Thompson was born around 1793 in Southwark, Surrey,
just south of the River Thames in what is now inner London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was baptised as St Saviour’s church on 9
Jun 1793.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His parents were Thomas and
Esther Thompson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William was the third
of their six known children, although I suspect there could be others I haven’t
found yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His siblings were John
Thomas, Thomas (possibly died young), Esther, Thomas Henry and Sarah Elizabeth.
Yes, they did like the name “Thomas”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKX8xOhTtLQQPSNIOMRE8LCS74l3EqwTH4Fiw3nn4xKfNpQMT9-dW4m-t1UL4J7ZoTStqQm8gCkXJGBETuM9LzAdaNV6M40rXgdmjiRE-Ji1t90jwtJldJkgutGs3ed0ztkC2ZznqAlc/s655/St+Saviours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="655" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKX8xOhTtLQQPSNIOMRE8LCS74l3EqwTH4Fiw3nn4xKfNpQMT9-dW4m-t1UL4J7ZoTStqQm8gCkXJGBETuM9LzAdaNV6M40rXgdmjiRE-Ji1t90jwtJldJkgutGs3ed0ztkC2ZznqAlc/w400-h281/St+Saviours.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">"St. Saviour's Church, Southwark, Surrey" <br />Copper engraved print published in <i style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">The Beauties of England and Wales</i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">, 1815. Recent hand colouring. Size 15 x 11.5 cms including title, plus margins. Ref F1639 </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">(obtained from</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;"> </span><a href="https://www.ancestryimages.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">Ancestry Images</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">)</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 5 Jul 1809, when William Thompson was about 16 years old,
he was apprenticed to John Eldridge, a Citizen (freeman of the city) and member
of the Haberdasher’s Guild, one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies in London.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the 1800s, there was not necessarily a
link between actual occupation and the guild a person was a member of.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">In William’s case, he trained as a chair
maker.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The apprenticeship indenture says that William was the son
of Thomas Thompson of the Catherine Wheel, Kent Street, Southwark,
Victualler.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Thomas had started
off as a Dyer, he changed careers a few times, working as a labourer, a
victualler (licenced to sell alcohol), a carman (carrying goods) and a
coachman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Catherine Wheel was a
coaching inn and yard on Borough High Street, which ran into Kent Street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was not far from the famous and still
standing George Inn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If my map reading
is correct, I think it is now a KFC.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsDWy-Gg3JDF3LnhhXVvRwf42SMvi42u9HK81dxnSNN_gR0kDO-2ZxPBVZ32JOcUN6pHUSFyIQt9_epTmMqiG_dQblqA_2DcGb0tPkOvDR0mLvXP6AU1j9FKLrfk-LbVx4WJsGH5l33v0/s906/Catherine+Wheel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="906" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsDWy-Gg3JDF3LnhhXVvRwf42SMvi42u9HK81dxnSNN_gR0kDO-2ZxPBVZ32JOcUN6pHUSFyIQt9_epTmMqiG_dQblqA_2DcGb0tPkOvDR0mLvXP6AU1j9FKLrfk-LbVx4WJsGH5l33v0/w400-h259/Catherine+Wheel.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">"Catherine Wheel, Southwark" <br />lithograph after J.C.Maggs, published in </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">Old English Coaching Inns</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, 1910. Slight foxing, otherwis</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">e good condition. Overall size 43 x 27.5 cms, no margins. Ref H6393 (obtained from <a href="https://www.ancestryimages.com/">Ancestry Images</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the terms of William’s apprenticeship was that he was
not supposed to “contract matrimony” during the seven years it lasted for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William did not comply with this
condition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was also not allowed to
“play at Cards, Dice, Tables or any other unlawful Games” and “He shall not
haunt Taverns nor Play houses”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
no evidence either way regarding his compliance, but he did live in an area
full of coaching inns and there must have been many temptations for a young man
living in Regency London.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 30 May 1815, William Thompson married Catherine Foskett
as St Mary’s Lambeth, also south of the River in London. Their first child,
Harriet Sarah Thompson was born on 12 February 1816, barely 9 months
later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harriet went on to marry an
Irishman named Thomas Archbold. Thomas Archbold seems to have been the family
patriarch for a time as he was witness on several family marriage certificates.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCP8Jrjw_T3ICCaD2i7nGvRKWbsn6kLnqTFkH7HQBJVNr-2mjCNhiF2pxIH6FFft1hUXIqjVjMA5DZ5Bt-1gqP8J7_7xS6gmllEQbkIECvCXRI5wOIlyqMiwMPHZhiVJU9ycjXXskq6qA/s528/St+Mary%2527s+Lambeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="528" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCP8Jrjw_T3ICCaD2i7nGvRKWbsn6kLnqTFkH7HQBJVNr-2mjCNhiF2pxIH6FFft1hUXIqjVjMA5DZ5Bt-1gqP8J7_7xS6gmllEQbkIECvCXRI5wOIlyqMiwMPHZhiVJU9ycjXXskq6qA/w400-h289/St+Mary%2527s+Lambeth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">"St.Mary, Lambeth" <br />engraved by T.Higham after a picture by T.H.Shepherd, published in <i style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">London in the Nineteenth Century</i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">, 1831. Steel engraved antique print with recent hand colouring. Good condition. Size 14.5 x 10.5 cms including title, plus margins. Ref G9297 </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;">(obtained from</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;"> </span><a href="https://www.ancestryimages.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">Ancestry Images</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: start;">)</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William and Catherine had at least 10 more children between
1817 and 1837: Catherine (presumably died young), William, Thomas, Joseph,
John, James, Catherine (my ancestor), Frederick, Alfred and George.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1818, William’s sister Esther married Thomas Lodge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had several children, including Esther
Jane and Sarah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two girls are key to
revealing this story.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By around 1820, the Thompson family had moved north of the
River.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Son William was reportedly born
in Bishopsgate and the subsequent children were born in or near
Shoreditch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While William Thompson’s
family lived in Southwark, wife Catherine’s family lived in the East End.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1826, William Thompson, chair maker and son of Thomas,
was made free of the Haberdashers Company by oath, so because a Citizen and Freeman
of the City of London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was sponsored
by John Eldridge, his master, so there must not have been any hard feelings
regarding the marriage before his apprenticeship was completed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this time, the Thompson’s lived at 57
Curtain Road, Shoreditch.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By 1840, a London Directory gives the family’s address as 3
Raven Road, which is next to The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were still at this address at the time
of the 1841 Census.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Many of the family were involved in the chair making trade alongside
William.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His wife Catherine was a caner,
weaving seats for the chairs. Sons James and Alfred were chair makers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George was a caner in 1851.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Son William was a cabinet maker.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1839, son William Thompson married Esther Jane Lodge, his
first cousin, the daughter of Esther Thompson, mentioned previously.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The last record I have for William Thompson is the 1841
census.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the time of the 1851 census,
Catherine is listed as a widow, living in Mulberry Cottage. She lived there
until her death in 1856.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a
number of possible death and burial records in the area for William Thompson
but it is difficult working out which, if any, is the correct one.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1851, daughter Catherine Thompson was living with her
sister Harriet Archbold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also in the
household was thier 16-year-old cousin, Sarah Lodge, working as a caner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I saw this, I remembered that son
William Thompson married a “Lodge”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once
I discovered that Esther Jane Lodge was the daughter of Esther Thompson and
sister of Sarah, the rest of the puzzle pieces quickly fell into place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Researching Esther Jane Lodge and Esther
Thompson was much easier than researching a popular name like William
Thompson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally, last weekend I found
William Thompson’s baptism, indexed as Wm and Thos Thompson to make it extra
difficult.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Several of William Thompson’s children left London and
migrated to the other side of the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My ancestor, Catherine, moved to Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, in 1855
soon after she married Philip Charley. Her brother William with wife Esther
also went to Ballarat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alfred migrated
to Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harriet and Thomas
Archbold ended up in New Zealand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thanks to a clue in the 1851 census, I have been able to
build quite a story of William Thompson’s life and there is still more to
discover.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on Lineage:</b> Me > Mum > John Macdonald Charley
> Walter George Charley > John Joseph Charley > Catherine Thompson
> William Thompson</span><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-69803332468636355472021-02-06T08:14:00.002-08:002021-02-06T08:14:49.315-08:00A Master Cook<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This shorter post is inspired by the <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/">52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks</a>
prompt “In the Kitchen”. My ancestor, Gabriel Cracknell, was a successful master cook at University Colleague, Oxford. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">University College is the oldest college in Oxford or Cambridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time Gabriel worked there, it was all still
medieval buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t “modernised”
until the 1630s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I don’t know anything about Gabriel’s early life, where he
was born or how he trained as a cook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the early 1600s and possibly before that, he was employed as a Master Cook at
University College Oxford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Account
Rolls of University College list Gabriel as a cook in 1608 and 1614.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some details about the life of an Oxford University Cook can
be found in the article “Oxford College Cooks, 1400-1800” by Helen Clifford in
“<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lpOqTUucwhUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">Cooks
& Other People: Proceeding of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1995</a>”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As well as cooking, the cook was responsible
for purchasing the food and arranging feasts for the academic staff and
students.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As well as being a cook, Gabriel Cracknell was a man of
property.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was known to have owned at
least four houses in Oxford, two in the High street.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also appears to have had a pub called The
Queen’s Arms, in Oxford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he died in
1620, Gabriel had £350 in cash and his estate was valued at over £1210, which
was a vast sum of money for that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He can’t have earned all of this money with his job as a cook, as the
annual salary was likely around £20.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
wonder if he came from a wealthy family but I can’t find any trace of him prior
to 1604, in spite of his unusual name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By 1604, Gabriel Cracknell was married to Katherine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have not yet found a record of their
marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In September 1604, their
daughter Anne was baptised at St Peter’s in the East, Oxford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As far as I know, she was their only child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family evidently had close ties to St
Peter’s in the East, as Anne left a bequest to the church in her 1671 will.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gabriel Cracknell died in October 1620 and was buried at St
Peter’s in the East, Oxford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His widow,
Katherine, remained connected to University College, as she appears in the
Account Rolls of University College as a widow in 1629.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She died in 1637 and was also buried at St
Peter’s in the East.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Only months after Gabriel died, his daughter Anne married
the Reverend William Hastings, a former Oxford University student and grandson
of the Earl of Huntingdon. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anne
inherited at least two of her father’s four houses, as William Hastings very
kindly left them to her in his will in 1635.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At that time, a woman’s property became her husband’s property when she
married.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The origin of the name Cracknell may be a person who made
cracknels, which were crisp breads, so it is an occupational name associated with
cooking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps Gabriel was descended
from cooks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I would like to find out more about Gabriel and the source
of his fortune as I am sure it didn’t all come from his work in the kitchen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lineage: <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Me</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mum</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Daphne Smith</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Esther Ilma Lees</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Fanny Sarah Eliza Briggs</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Frederick Henderson Briggs</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-bird-and-b.html">Henry Sparrow Briggs</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2017/02/two-many-names.html">Jehu Briggs</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lettice Preston</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2015/11/this-is-likely-to-be-my-lastpost-for.html">Mary Hastings</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Henry Hastings</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Anne Cracknell</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Gabriel Cracknell</span></li></ol><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-23177595382825394042021-01-10T07:42:00.002-08:002021-01-10T07:42:45.863-08:00Bounty Immigrants<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This story is inspired by the <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/" target="_blank">prompt </a>“beginnings”. James Rideout made a new beginning when he
and his family migrated to Australia.</span></p><p><span style="color: #b45f06; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">In England</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">James Rideout was the third son of Ambrose Rideout and his
wife, Charlotte Bennett.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James was born
around 1801 and was baptised in the parish church of Tollard Royal, Wiltshire
on 13 May 1801. His brothers were Ambrose, John Bennet and Philip.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Mother Charlotte died in January 1803 following the birth of
son Philip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ambrose appears to have left
his four sons with family or friends in Tollard Royal and moved away. I have
previously written <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-charming-scoundrel.html" target="_blank">Ambrose’s story</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1820, James, his brother Philip, and a John Derrick, were
caught poaching and sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the prison records, I know that James
was about 5 foot 5 inches tall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had
dark hazel eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion. He also had a cut on his head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Philip was a little shorter and darker and
had a burn on his thumb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two
brothers are listed as of Ashmore, Dorset, which is very close to Tollard
Royal. John Derrick appears to have
been a repeat offender so perhaps he led the two brothers astray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alternatively, it might have been a bad
winter and they were all desperate for food.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A year later, on 1 February 1821, James Rideout married his
cousin Caroline Bennett, daughter of mother Charlotte’s brother Jasper, in
Tollard Royal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caroline was already
pregnant when they married.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Martha,
their first child, was baptised on 8 August 1821.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, Martha only survived a couple of
years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James and Caroline had four more
children born in Tollard Royal: William, Jasper John, Martha and Mary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1835, the New South Wales government set up the Bounty immigration
scheme, where Bounty immigrants were selected by colonists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The colonists paid for the immigrants passage,
employed them on arrival and then would be reimbursed by the government for some
or all of the cost of passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Between
1836 and 1838, Edward McArthur, son of the notable James and Elizabeth
McArthur, with the help of the Reverand John West, recruited a number of
families from the Cranborne Chase area in Wiltshire and Dorset to go and work
on his brother William’s properties in New South Wales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cranbourne Chase, the area where the Rideout
and Bennett families lived, was known as a lawless area, with high unemployment
and low wages, so when given the opportunity to escape to a new life, I am sure
that there were many volunteers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
addition, convicts had written to back to families telling of the opportunities
in New South Wales and word had spread that life was better there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rev John West interviewed many desperate young
men to identify suitable candidates of good character for the scheme.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He noted that many of them were dressed in
rags.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">To New South Wales</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Seven of the recruited families, including James Rideout’s
family, travelled together to New South Wales on the “John Mclellan”, which
departed London on 31 May 1838 and arrived in Sydney on 3 October 1838; a four
month voyage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caroline was heavily
pregnant when they left England; son John was born on 23 July 1838, during the
voyage, which must have been a challenge. However, they were not alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also on board the ship were Caroline’s
brother William Paine Bennett with wife Mary Ann (nee Budden) and his children;
their sister Charlotte with her husband William Budden and children; and George
Budden (brother of William and Mary Ann) with his wife and children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The shipping records are uncertain whether James Rideout
could read and write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was described
as being of good character, so the crimes of his teen years must have been
forgotten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like his father, he was a
gamekeeper in England but was migrating as an agricultural labourer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caroline could apparently read a little.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On arrival in New South Wales, James and his family went to
live in the vicinity of <a href="https://www.camdenparkhouse.com.au/" target="_blank">Camden Park</a>, the Macarthur’s property, where they
stayed for the remainder of their lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The families recruited by the McArthur family were well looked after
during their voyage and on arrived in Australia they were provided with
accommodation, food and clothes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
return, they were bound to work for William McArthur for three years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Macarthur reported that all of the
families chose to stay working for him after the three-year period ended. Life was indeed better in New South Wales,
with home comforts and steady job.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">James and Caroline had four more children born in Australia,
Charlotte, James, Caroline (my ancestor) and Henry, taking the total to
ten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their daughter Mary died in 1841,
not long after they arrived in Australia, and Charlotte died a year later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other children survived to adulthood, married
and had children of their own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caroline died
in 1872, leaving James a widower. He died six years later in 1878.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">What Might have been</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Back in 1818, James’s brother John Bennett Rideout was working
in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, as a groom and jockey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was convicted of burglary and sentenced to
death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His sentence was commuted to 14
years transportation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He went to Australia
on the “General Stuart” in 1818.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly,
his criminal career continued in Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1846, he was convicted of highway robbery by the Maitland Circuit Court
and sentenced to 15 years transportation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In spite of having two motherless daughters, the judge refused to reduce
his sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was again transported,
this time to Tasmania, where he died in January 1849.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, Brother Philip also continued to
live a life of crime, with convictions in 1823, 1828, 1829 and 1843.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also led his son Anthony astray, as
Anthony was convicted of poaching in 1843 along with Philip. I don’t know
whether James knew what happened to his brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">James could so easily been caught up in a life of crime to
survive in England but he got lucky and was able to escape to a new beginning
in Australia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith > John Henry Smith > Louisa Jane Jenkins > Caroline Rideout > James Rideout</span></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-65898701754698322772020-11-12T11:57:00.001-08:002020-11-12T11:57:50.137-08:00A Puritan Character<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">This story is inspired by the prompt “Quite a Character”,
which was a <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52ancestors52weeks/">52 Ancestors in 52 weeks</a> prompt a few weeks ago. I am a bit slow getting around to sharing the
story.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">George Elye* was probably born in Lincolnshire around
1544.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know who his parents
were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are some published family
histories that suggest various parents but these can easily be shown to be based
on dubious research.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">According to Oxford University Alumni records, George Elye
matriculated (enrolled) at Magdalen Hall age 19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is described as a plebeian (commoner) from
Lincolnshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This suggests his origins
were relatively humble.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He graduated
with a Bachelor of Arts on 25 June 1566.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>George then continued his studies, completing his Masters degree on 3
July 1569.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the way, Magdalen Hall was
a separate institution to the well-known Magdalen College, Oxford.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A fire in 1820 destroyed most of Magdalen
Hall’s records, so I can't find out more about George's university days. Magdalen Hall more recently merged with Hertford College.<span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">George was ordained in the Church of England on 8 Jul 1566
at the Chapel of Palace, Lincoln.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Six
months later, on 1 December 1569, he became Curate of St Mary Magdalene Church,
Canterbury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church has since been
demolished apart from the tower.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another
six months later, on 3 Jul 1570, George because a Sub Preceptor (an assistant
teacher or tutor) at Canterbury King’s School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The school is thought to have been founded by St Augustine in 597 AD and
is still in operation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 16 April 1571, George Elye became Perpetual Vicar of St
Mildred’s Tenterden in Kent, only a few miles from where I live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George remained Vicar of Tenterden for the
rest of his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This copy of his
signature is from the parish registers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NNJQZ_SUEXtYc6bkH6Hqy1AnN8_Jpi6pBQzxjXDSOxgM1scRI2nWCdQVt2SFXb5CFQ0_yzdf3nuKVP1uTziFo9y1qBnKk4c_2LExrvCoIN6pk9q5z6tUvoAhYBHgnD7XIdYv1bkRNOU/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="" data-original-height="115" data-original-width="276" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8NNJQZ_SUEXtYc6bkH6Hqy1AnN8_Jpi6pBQzxjXDSOxgM1scRI2nWCdQVt2SFXb5CFQ0_yzdf3nuKVP1uTziFo9y1qBnKk4c_2LExrvCoIN6pk9q5z6tUvoAhYBHgnD7XIdYv1bkRNOU/" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />George Elye was known to have been a puritan and “non-conformist”
in that he didn’t conform to the mainstream practices of the Church of England
at the time although he was part of the church. In 1573, it was recorded
that he used common bread rather than unleavened bread for communion, which was
apparently a sign of puritanism at the time.
He reportedly did not subscribe to Whitgift’s articles in 1584, however
remained Vicar. Whitgift was the
Archbishop of Canterbury who came up with 3 articles that clergy had to subscribe to in order to stay in their roles. The three
articles were intentionally objectionable to puritans and non-conformists. Also in 1584, George was recorded as having
caused unquietness in his parish, although the nature of the unquietness is
unclear.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">St Mildred’s Tenterden parish had a Chapel in Smallhythe that
caused George some problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William
Raynoldes was a reader in the chapel in 1590 but was excommunicated by George
Elye on 5 April 1590 for not being properly licenced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Raynoldes successor, William Randall als
Boydell, was also excommunicated on 25 Feb 1593 (new style**) by George, this
time it appears it was for not holding services since the Summer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What really caught my attention, was a story about George
and a door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1599, he had a dispute
with parishioner Martha Whitefield over her use of the north chancel door.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The case ended up being heard by the
Archdeacon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George’s claim was that,
amongst other things, the north chancel door was for the use for the Vicar and
Mrs Whitefield had acquired a key by “sinister and indirect means”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The result of the case was the Mrs Whitefield
had to pay a gratuity for use of the key to the door and ensure that the door
was locked. Also during service the parish clerk was instructed to bolt the door closed so
that people couldn’t use the door and disturb the congregation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some years later, Martha Whitefield got in
trouble for brawling with another woman in the church.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">George Elye’s personal life also reflected his puritan views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sometime before 1572, when their first son was baptised,
George married Florence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the
previously mentioned family histories give her surname as Tylden but I can’t
find any evidence for this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have found
a marriage for George Elie and Florence Crase on 15 July 1598 in Corton Denham,
Somerset, that is a possibility in need of more investigation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">George and Florence had 9 children and gave them biblical names rather than more traditional English names, a puritan tradition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were: Nathaniel,
Andrew (my ancestor), Zachariah, Samuel, Obadiah, Lydia (died in infancy),
Daniel, Lydia (died as a child) and Abigale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was common to reuse the names of deceased children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Nathaniel Elye followed in his father’s footsteps and became
Curate of Biddenden parish, not far from Tenterden, after attending St Johns,
Cambridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, Nathaniel died
relatively young in May 1615, aged about 43.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He had a posthumous son, also named Nathaniel, who died in infancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is noteworthy because a number of histories
claim that the Nathaniel Ely, an early settler in Connecticut, is the son of
George’s son Nathaniel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is possible
that Nathaniel of Connecticut was the son of another of George’s sons. I
haven’t found out enough about their families to rule this in or out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Andrew Elye also died young, about 1602, age 27.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He left two young children, Lydia and Daniel.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">George Elye wrote his will on 13 August 1615.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within days, both he and his wife, Florence
were dead. Florence was buried on 18 August 1615 and George was buried on 21
August 1615.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">George’s will is a very useful document as it lists his
children, grandchildren, daughters-in-law and son-in-law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He does not appear to have been a wealthy man
as all of the bequests are for amounts in shillings or a few pounds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One final intriguing thing of note, a Raphe (or Ralph) Elye
lived in Tenterden at the same time as George.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I wonder if they were brothers or otherwise related. Raphe didn’t appear
to be a puritan as he gave his children conventional English names.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">*Also: Ely, Helie, Elie<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">**Until 1752, the year in England started on 25 March, which
can make dates a bit confusing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“New
Style” indicates that the year is as it would be now and not as written in the
records.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on lineage (13 Generations):</b> Me > Mum >
Daphne Madge Smith > Esther Ilma Lees > Fanny Sarah Eliza Briggs >
Sarah Elizabeth Playford > Henry Playford > Catherine Newman > Daniel
Newman > John Newman > Lydia Elye > Andrew Elye > George Elye<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bibliography<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/Vol.055%20-%201942/05/29.htm">Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 55 - 1942 page 29</a> (Accessed 12 Nov 2020)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1317526/1/244303.pdf">The Episcopal Administration of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1559-1575, John I. Daeley, Thesis submitted in the Faculty of Arts of the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 1967</a> <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Accessed 12 Nov 2020)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/sites/default/files/archcant/1915%2031%20The%20Rectors%20and%20Vicars%20of%20St%20Mildred%27s%20Tenterden.%20With%20an%20Appendix%20Taylor_1.pdf">The Records and Vicars of St Mildred Tenterden, Kent Arch Soc 2017</a> (Accessed 12 Nov 2020)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-5863150490365429502020-09-16T14:35:00.000-07:002020-09-16T14:35:06.170-07:00From a Beautiful Village<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sarah Smith was born in Bibury parish, Gloucester, in the
first half on 1817, rather less than 9 months after her parents, James Smith
and Elizabeth Hatt were married on 17 December 1816.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have previously written <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2015/03/if-hatt-fits.html">Elizabeth Hatt’s story</a>.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Bibury is considered by some to be one of the most beautiful
villages in England.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is full of stone
cottages by a river in nestled in the hills of the Cotswolds and has been a
popular stopping place for tourist coaches. Sarah was baptised in Bibury parish
church on 6 June 1817.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her family’s
residence was given as Arlington, which is across the River Coln from the main
village of Bibury and is famous for Arlington Row, a particularly picturesque
row of cottages. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><br /></span></o:p></p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9f41rMjo-afBJQiy2GzcIM_CVFZZ1-k2wVriz5BwZyFb2OYoxalscJFAueesQ3tV5Jj6ylR5mM2JFbT-UUKbSO0bZ7OQloOrrHJLTRNqSI3uR2JzUZCUtS13icHRNZJnQYWwXo0VAyNc/w400-h266/bibury-1022089_1280.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-small;">Arlington Row (Public domain photo from Needpix)</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sarah Smith was the oldest of at least ten children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her siblings were Joseph, Elizabeth, James,
Charles, William, Mary, Martha (died young), Susannah and her twin Martha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the children were born and baptised in
Bibury, the twins in 1839 by which time Sarah was an adult.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1841, Sarah was not living with her family in
Bibury.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With a surname like “Smith”,
there are several possible candidates in the 1841 census.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is likely that she went into service in
her teens and was working as a servant somewhere not far from her family.</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZfu5HIEy9uQXrLU5uWlrDaMzAM5nqfiNmy0TsOTN8pwEc9cIwHlIJcUdPeU7KRJHZOxkqQiqg1v2IvSphhiB-oBkjmft3eyo4HB761PDYQI2kvEhrSrMPLcQ-5lZHgkag_a4qmi6WArg/w400-h300/cottages-1526010_1280.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Arlington row (Public domain photo from Needpix)</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">time in the </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">early 1</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">8</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">40s,</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> the whole Smith family moved to
Hammersmith in London.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1844, Sarah
Smith had an illegitimate son, William Smith, born there.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Over the next few years, Sarah’s brothers all
married in the Hammersmith area.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have
had less success with researching her sisters.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">While the rest of her family stayed in London, Sarah moved
back to Gloucestershire with her son, William.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is possible that she had another illegitimate son, Thomas born around
1845, although he could have been the son of a different Sarah Smith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That Thomas tragically died in 1848 in Bibury,
when his clothes accidentally caught fire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1850, Sarah was working as a servant in the village of
Winstone in Gloucestershire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She met
Thomas Partridge, a widowed carpenter from nearby Duntisbourne Abbots, who was
about 20 years older than Sarah. Sarah Smith married Thomas Partridge on 21
March 1850 in Winstone. Sarah appears to have left William with the Merchant
family in Winstone for a time after her marriage as William was living with
them in the 1851 census.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">According to the census, in 1851, Sarah Smith was living in Duntisbourne
Abbots, in a household with husband Thomas; two of his adult children, Anne and
Walter; and two of his younger children or grandchildren, Louisa and Cecily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walter married in 1860.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ann stayed living with Sarah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah was only four years older than Ann.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t been able to find out what happened
to Louisa or Cecily.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">On 6 April 1852, Sarah and Thomas had a daughter, Harriet
Partridge, their only child that I know of.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sadly for Sarah, Thomas Partridge died in August 1853,
ending a brief marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would have
been a difficult time for Sarah, as her mother died around the same time in
London and her father-in-law Nathaniel Partridge had died earlier in the year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1861, the widowed Sarah Partridge was living in a full
household, still in Duntisbourne Abbots, with her children Harriet and William,
step daughter Ann, some cousins on her mother’s side Sarah and Henry George
Kibblewhite, and border William Fern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah
was described as a proprietor of houses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the time of the next census, 10 years later in 1871, the
Duntisbourne Abbots household had shrunk to Sarah, Ann and Harriet Partridge,
William Smith, and Henry Kibblewhite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sarah was working as a laundress, possibly a sign she was a bit short of
funds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William was working as a slater
and plasterer, a trade he may have learned from former border William Fern.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">William Smith and Harriet Partridge both married in the
1870s and they both married Partridge cousins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>William Smith married Julia Partridge, the daughter of Thomas Partridge’s
brother William.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harriet Partridge married
Oscar Kirby, son of Margaret Partridge, sister of William and Thomas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the time of the 1881 Census, Sarah Partridge’s household had
shrunk further to step daughter Ann and cousin Sarah Kibblewhite, still in
Duntisbourne Abbots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah was described
as living on an annuity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In 1891, Sarah and Ann Partridge were still living together
in Duntisbourne Abbots, along with a nurse, Elizabeth Scriven.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Ann Partridge died in 1894, aged about 70, having lived with
Sarah for over 40 years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">A new century brought change to Sarah Partridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the 1901 census, 83 year old Sarah was visiting
her daughter Harriet’s family in Batley, Yorkshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Batley was a mill town, so very different to
the quiet Cotswold villages where Sarah had spent most of her life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Sarah appears to have stayed with her daughter in Batley for
the last few years of her life as she died there on 6 January 1909, aged about 91.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have been fortunate enough to have visited Bibury and Duntisbourne
Abbots and see the villages where Sarah Partridge nee Smith spent much of her
life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Dad > Helen Francis Ruth
Akeroyd > Florence Ruth Kirby > Harriet Partridge > Sarah Smith</span><o:p></o:p></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-68795963823309828582020-07-09T12:10:00.000-07:002020-07-09T12:10:45.199-07:00A Middle Name<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">This story is inspired by the prompt “middle”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Discovering my ancestor Elizabeth Harvie
explained the unusual (for a girl) middle name of my more recent ancestor
<a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-lady-of-letters.html">Elizabeth Harvie McDonald</a>, the subject of a previous post.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">I think Elizabeth Harvie was baptised 10 August 1735 in the
parish of Killearn, Stirlingshire, Scotland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Elizabeth Harvie was the youngest child, that I know of, of Andrew
Harvey and Agnes Neilson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Andrew and
Agnes had at least six other children baptised in Killearn: Elizabeth (who
presumably died before 1735*), Janet, Jean, John, Andrew and Agnes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Father, Andrew, had a farm at <a href="https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=e51feac3-50ee-4e2b-a22d-d1c91c379a0f&cp=56.066188~-4.276996&lvl=15&style=s&v=2&sV=2&form=S00027">Ballinkinrain</a> just outside of Balfron in Stirlingshire, only a few miles from the Highlands.<span></span></font></p><a name='more'></a><font face="verdana"><o:p></o:p></font><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">Thanks to a book published in 1899, “<a href="https://archive.org/details/bowiestheirkindr00bowi/page/598/mode/2up?q=carolina">The Bowie’s and their kindred</a>”, I have a couple of notable anecdotes from Elizabeth’s childhood that
either she told he grandchildren or that were passed down through the family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect the source for the book was a great
grandson who lived in Canada and must have heard the stories from his father,
Dr John Bowie.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">When Elizabeth Harvie was about 10 years old in early 1746,
Bonnie Prince Charlie and his army were retreating through Scotland towards
Culloden when they apparently passed the family farm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Harvie family, concerned about being
pillaged, hid in the bushes near their house with their cows and a big loaf of bread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t been able to find a detailed route map
of the army’s march to confirm the truth of this story, but the army certainly
marched from Glasgow to Stirling and following the valleys, via the area where
the Harvie’s lived, would make more sense than a direct route over the
mountains.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">Nearly ten years later, Robert Macgregor (son of the famous
Rob Roy), and his friends, invited themselves to the Harvie house for a meal
before crossing the river (Endrick Water) to Edinbellie. Robert Macgregor
proceeded to kidnap a young woman, Jean Kay, from Edinbellie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was later captured, tried and hanged for
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story as told by Elizabeth Harvie
was that the kidnapped woman was the young wife of an old man and the woman
supported Robert Macgregor at his trial, so may not have been an unwilling
victim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been able to verify the
story of Robert Macgregor kidnapping a young widow heiress and he was hanged in
Edinburgh in 1754 for his crime. Edinbellie and Ballinkinrain are about a
kilometre apart and there is a bridge across the river between the two farms,
so the story seems feasible and it helped me locate Elizabeth Harvie’s baptism
and family.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">At some point, possibly not long after the Robert Macgregor
episode, Elizabeth Harvie seems to have moved to Glasgow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps she went into service or maybe her
family fell on hard times and relocated from the country to the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The period following the Jacobite uprising
lead by Bonnie Prince Charlie was a difficult time in Scotland.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">In May 1759, Elizabeth Harvie of the City of Glasgow and
Andrew Neilson of Killearn “listed their names for proclamation in order to
marriage and being proclaimed and nothing objected were married” in the parish
of Killearn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like the wording in the
Scottish parish registers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know
yet if Andrew was related to Elizabeth’s mother, Agnes Neilson, but I think it
is plausible. Andrew Harvie was about 5 years younger than Elizabeth, a groom
at 19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was from a place called Head
of Balglass, which is about a kilometre from Ballinkinrain, with little between
the two farms, so Elizabeth and Andrew were neighbours growing up as well as
possibly cousins of some degree.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">Elizabeth Harvie and Andrew Neilson had six children that I
know of: John (who died young?), Andrew, John, William, Elizabeth (my ancestor)
and Agnes. The children were all baptised in Balfron.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">I don’t know what happened to Andrew Neilson.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scottish burial records are sparse.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">Elizabeth Harvie was said to have been over 100 years old
when she died, so that would most likely be sometime in the late 1830s, when
her great granddaughter who inherited her name, Elizabeth Harvie McDonald,
would have been in her early teens and old enough to remember the stories.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana">*In historical times, it was common to re-use the names of
older siblings who died young.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="verdana"> </font></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana"><b>Note on Lineage:</b> Me > Mum > John Macdonald Charley
> Constance Mary Macdonald > James Gordon Macdonald > <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-lady-of-letters.html">Elizabeth Harvie Macdonald</a> > Margaret Bowie > Elizabeth Neilson > Elizabeth Harvie</font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-46027459564985404042020-06-02T11:52:00.001-07:002020-06-02T11:52:47.096-07:00Macro Mystery<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">This story is inspired by the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
prompt “Uncertain”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am uncertain who
Charles Macro’s parents were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
a few possibilities but I have no definite evidence.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">Charles Macro was born around 1780, probably somewhere in
the vicinity of Barrow, Suffolk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
were members of the Macro family living in and near Barrow at the time and some
of them were named Charles but none were close to the right age to be my
ancestor.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2"><span></span></font></p><a name='more'></a><font face="verdana" size="2">The first record I have of Charles Macro is of his marriage
to Sarah Levett on 26 May 1807 in Denham, Suffolk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Charles and Sarah had a daughter, Maria, born
on 9 September 1809.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, Sarah died a
few weeks later, I guess it is likely that she got an infection after giving
birth.<o:p></o:p></font><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">Charles did not stay single for long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On 22 October 1810, he married Ann Ashman in
Ousden, not far from Denham or Barrow in Suffolk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ann Ashman had recently had and lost an
illegitimate child, Abraham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the
witnesses of the marriage was Margaret Macro.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Could she be Charles sister?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Margaret was born 1784, in Dalham, the daughter or George and
Elizabeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have investigated George
and Elizabeth Macro’s family and after marrying in 1779, the had several
children with typical two year ago gap.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>None of the children were called Charles. So, maybe she is a cousin
instead?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, Margaret is the
best clue I have regarding Charles’ parentage.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">Charles Macro and Ann had 5 children, George, Charles,
Sally, Elizabeth (also known as Betsy and my ancestor) and Joseph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The children were all born in Denham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George died in 1844, leaving a wife and
several young children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maria, Charles
(jnr) and Betsy all married and had children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Joseph did not marry and I am not sure what happened to Sally.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">I know from the children’s baptism records that Charles was
a labourer, most likely an agricultural labourer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He would have been one of the many people who
worked someone else’s land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He likely
lived in a cottage owned by the farmer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His wife and children may have worked as labourers as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was as difficult time to be a labourer on
a farm as wages were low due to changes in how they were calculated and due to
the impact of the Napoleonic wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
the 1820s and 1830s, there were riots with people protesting against hardship.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">At the time of the 1841 Census, Charles was living in the
hamlet of Dunstall Green near Denham, with his wife Ann, daughter Betsy, son
Joseph and Betsy’s illegitimate daughter Emma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ann’s (presumed) mother was living nearby and a bit further along was
James Todd, Betsy’s future husband (he was not Emma’s father).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few houses in the in the other direction
was the local pub, “Denham’s Plough”.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">Charles Macro’s wife, Ann, died of dropsy (oedema) on 11
March 1845, aged 67.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">Sadly for my research, the 1851 census for Dunstall Green is
missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This would have had a place of
birth for Charles Macro, which might have helped me to locate his parents.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">Charles Macro died in July 1853 in the Workhouse at Bury St
Edmunds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t whether he had been a
resident for a while due to not being able to work because of an infirmity or
if he was admitted just before he died due to ill health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was buried in Denham on 3 Jul 1853.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2">I am still searching for his parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of Suffolk records are not available online,
so maybe I need to go on another trip to Bury St Edmunds to visit the record
office.<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="verdana" size="2"> </font></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="verdana" size="2"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Dad > John Edward Blake >
James William Blake > Eliza Todd > Betsy Macro > Charles Macro<o:p></o:p></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="verdana" size="2"> </font></o:p></p><br />Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-38708448864233197862020-04-23T12:27:00.002-07:002020-04-23T12:27:45.921-07:00A Yeoman’s Will<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This post is inspired by the <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/" target="_blank">52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks</a> topic “Land”*.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought I’d write about one of my many
yeoman ancestors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> English y</span>eoman were farmers
who owned the land they worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
were not quite landed gentry but were still prominent members of their local
community and relatively wealthy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Timothy Briggs was born about 1649 in Thurnham, in the
parish of Cockerham, Lancashire, England.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The Briggs family had lived in the Thurnham area for at least two
generations before Timothy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was the
youngest child, as far as I know, of Edmund Briggs and Margaret Wilkins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His older siblings were Anna, Elizabeth,
Rebecca, John (who died in infancy), Mary (who died in infancy) and Joshua.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Margaret Briggs nee Wilkins died in 1667 and Edmund Briggs
died in 1671.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brother Joshua only survived
his father by a year, dying in 1672.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On 9 October 1672, Timothy married Agnes Deane at St Mary’s
church in Lancaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the Briggs
family were baptised and buried in Cockerham, they seemed to prefer nearby
Lancaster for weddings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe this was because
it is a <a href="https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Lancaster/stmary/index.html" target="_blank">more impressive church</a> for a big wedding?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Timothy and Agnes had at least three
children: Edmund (my ancestor), Abigail and Hannah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On 7th December 1697, Timothy wrote his will (which I have a
copy of).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He claimed to be in sound and
perfect health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, within weeks he
was dead aged only 49.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure of
the exact date of death as the Cockerham burial registers for that period are
water damaged and haven’t been scanned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
inventory of his goods and chattels was taken on 18 January 1698 (it says 1697 because
at that time the year started on 25 March). Probate was granted on 20 July 1698.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Timothy left most of his estate to his son Edmund, however
he also left bequests to his wife and daughters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wife Agnes got £20 plus £4 a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His will is not long but does have a few
points of interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both his sons-in-law
are mentioned: Abigail was the wife of Henry Langton, and they had a son,
Timothy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hannah was married to Thomas
Hodgkinson, to recently to have children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What makes interesting reading is the inventory that
accompanies the will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The inventory list
all of Timothy’s possessions at the time of his death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His most valuable possessions were 3 cows
valued at £11 and Oats and Barley, also valued at £11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As well as the cows, livestock included 2
oxen, possibly for ploughing his fields, 4 young steers (castrated males), 1
young heifer (female who hasn’t had a calf), 3 calves and 2 horses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The horses were valued at £10.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The inventory also gives an indication of the size of house
that Timothy and his family lived in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
buttery, kitchen, parlour, a house chamber, east chamber and a bed room are
mentioned, so it sounds like a reasonably sizable residence for the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The kitchen furniture, including a table and
chairs, was valued at £5.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As he had cows and a buttery, I guess he may have partly
been a dairy farmer but it seems that he might also have farmed oats and
barley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thurham is near the sea (Morecombe
bay) and some of the area nearby is tidal estuary with dangerous quick sands,
so may not have been good arable land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There are also now canals through Thurnham, so it was likely very damp
back in Timothy’s time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Timothy had books valued at £2. I am not sure if that means
he had a lot of books or if books were very valuable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I particularly like that bacon gets a mention in the
inventory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had beef and bacon valued
at £1 10s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would guess that this was a
lot of meat as some of the live animals were not worth much more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, Timothy had £7 in money and apparel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His total goods and chattles were valued at £116 7s. In
addition to this, he had title to the land he farmed. It doesn’t seem like much
at all, but he would have been wealthy compared to many of his contemporaries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is nice to be able to get an idea of how one of my
ancestors lived off the land that he owned.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*I am not managing to write about 52 ancestors in 52 weeks.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Notes on Lineage: </b>Me > Mum > Daphne Smith > Esther Lees > Fanny Sarah Eliza Briggs > Frederick Henderson Briggs > <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-bird-and-b.html" target="_blank">Henry Sparrow Briggs</a> > <a href="https://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2017/02/two-many-names.html" target="_blank">Jehu Briggs</a> > Timothy Briggs > Edmund Briggs > Timothy Briggs</span></div>
<br />Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-52113885710918038352020-02-29T08:51:00.000-08:002020-02-29T08:51:24.233-08:00Contagion<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the time of writing, the world is on the
verge of a Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
As it is dominating the news and many discussions, I have been thinking
about how my ancestors and their families might have been affected by epidemic
diseases. It is rare to find historical information
about those who survived infections, although I would guess that many of my
ancestors suffered from infectious illness during their lifetimes. It is easier to find out about those who didn’t
survive where their cause of death is recorded on death certificates or,
occasionally, in parish registers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My ancestor James Jesse Blake wrote his life
story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometime in the 1880’s, he caught
small pox and was lucky to survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here
his experience is documented in his own words:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A vessel came into the London Docks from Jamaica, W.I., some work
had to be done hurriedly, so Mr Buchan sent me to get measurements, as the ship
had to get away to sea again. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt
quite ill when I got home that night, but went to work again the next day, but
I soon became worse. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I went home, and
sent for Dr Bowkett of Poplar. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said I
had got smallpox and must be isolated. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
being a very respectable neighbourhood, the authorities came making enquiries.
Dr Bowkett opposed them, giving all directions what to do. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I became blind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My poor wife wore herself out. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mother also came and sat up with me many
nights. 3 months elapsed after getting my sight before the doctor would let me
go out. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My sister Catherine, the mother
of many children, often came to see me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
brother in Law and I went for a four days trip to the Isle of Wight. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After that I went to work again, at the same
shop, under Mr Buchan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my mates
suggested I should belong to the Royal Standard Sick Benefit Society, which I
did do, I am thankful to say.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is interesting to see that at the time, he
was put in isolation and the authorities investigated the case; not so
different to the stories dominating the news at the moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>James Jesse Blake would have known all too
well how bad small pox could be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
sister-in-law, Emma Ginn nee Macro (aka Todd)* was widowed when her husband, George,
died of the disease in 1871, leaving behind two young sons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My ancestor Mary Ann Elliston nee Simmonds (aka
Hardy)*, mother of three, died of small pox in 1885. She lived in West Ham, not that far away from
Limehouse where James Jesse Blake lived, so maybe they were infected during the same
epidemic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Several of my ancestors lost children to small
pox:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Malcolm Macdonald and Agnes Donaldson’s
son Angus died of the disease aged 4, in 1837 in Glasgow, Scotland.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Maybe other family members caught the disease and survived.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two of Jonathan Henshaw and Amy Blonk’s
adult children, Major and Anne, died of the disease in 1746 in Wicken,
Northamptonshire. I do not know why they called one of their sons “Major”. They were the only two recorded as having the disease so I wonder if Major brought it from elsewhere and his spinster sister nursed him, catching the disease.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thankfully, vaccination finally eradicated
small pox in 1977, nearly two hundred years after the vaccine was developed in
1796.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">James Jesse Blake lost one son to dysentery, a
highly infectious disease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Henry Earnest
Blake was a merchant seaman who got caught up in the Boar War and died at Ladysmith, in 1900, of the disease, rather than from battle wounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The flu pandemic of 1918-1919 killed two of my
ancestors, husband and wife Oscar John Kirby and Harriet Kirby nee Partridge. While my great grandmother, Constance Mary
Charley nee Macdonald died of flu and pneumonia shortly after arriving in New
York from Australia, in January 1929. She
left her husband Walter George Charley a widower with four sons to look after. He had been in Cuba when she fell ill. Seasonal flu still kills many people but
vaccination has reduced the number of fatalities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course, the most famous pandemic is the
Black Death or Bubonic Plague.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
know if any of my ancestors or their families died during the original pandemic
of 1347-1351, records from that period are scarce, but I guess it is likely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do have ancestors (on my Briggs line) who
died of the Black Death in later epidemics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, died of the disease in 1369 and Peter
of Luxembourg, Count of St Pol, died of Black Death in 1433.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For so many of my ancestors and their children,
I have no idea of their cause of death, but I am sure many died of infectious
diseases that I haven’t had to worry about because of vaccines, good hygiene and modern medicine. My direct ancestors
were, of course, survivors who grew up to have children. Many lived long enough to die of age related causes rather than infection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*The two women with multiple surnames listed
were illegitimate and used their step-father’s surname after their mothers
married.<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-33514273785487262582020-02-01T09:20:00.000-08:002020-02-01T09:20:44.672-08:00Gaining a T<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John Elson was born around 1734 in Rugby, Warwickshire, the
oldest son of John Elson and Mary Fawks. He was baptised at St Andrews church in
Rugby on 6 May 1734.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had two brothers:
Marmaduke and Arthur, and two sisters, Mary and Ann.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marmaduke and Arthur were Fawks family names.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Elson senior was a cordwainer (shoe maker),
as was brother Marmaduke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As it was the
family trade, it is possible that John Elson junior was also a cordwainer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John’s parents may have had an unequal marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Fawks family were landed gentry from Dunchurch,
a village near Rugby, compared with the Elson tradesmen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coincidently,
Dunchurch is also linked to Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder plot, although he does
not appear to be related to the Dunchurch family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Whatever his occupation, as a young man, John Elson (b.
1734) moved from Rugby to the then nearby village of Hillmorton (now a Rugby
suburb).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His family appears to have remained
in Rugby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John was resident in Hillmorton
when he obtained a marriage licence to marry Ann Heritage in 1758.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Elson and Ann Heritage were married in
Bicester, Oxfordshire, on 8 September 1758.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Both signed with a mark rather than their names, so may not have been
literate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John’s surname was written as
Ellson in the register and he is described as a sojourner in the parish, so he
was a visitor or recent resident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don’t
know how John and Ann met, Rugby and Bicester are market towns about 60kms (38
miles) apart – a 12 to 13 hours walk, according to Google.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bicester did have a popular and well attended
horse race, and in 1758, Bicester was required to undertake some major
roadworks, so either could have brought John to town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ann’s family were long time Bicester
residents.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John and Ann Elson had nine children: Humphrey, Mary,
Martha, William, John, Ann, Joseph (my ancestor), Thomas and Elizabeth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure where Humphrey and Mary were
born, but the other children were all baptised in Bicester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humphrey was an Elson family name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Thomas was baptised in 1774, the new
vicar, Rev. George Bray, wrote the surname as “Elston” and from that point
onwards the T was part of the surname.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Several of the children signed their marriage records, or witnessed their
siblings’ marriages, as “Elston” or “Elstone”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All of the children, with the possible exception of John,
survived to adulthood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John Elson died in Jun 1790, aged only 56 years old but a
grandfather of at least 3 children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
parents were both still alive and living in Rugby at the time; I don’t know if
they were in contact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Bicester
burial register records John Elstone being buried on 10 Jun 1790.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">John has been interesting to research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It took a long time for me to discover that
he came from Rugby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find it curious that
thanks to an apparent whim on the part of a vicar, the surname changed, gaining
the T.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Notes on Lineage:</b>
Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith > John Henry Smith > Harry Smith >
John Smith > Elizabeth Elston > Joseph Elston > John Elson</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-85886366559111600022019-07-03T13:04:00.000-07:002019-07-03T13:04:03.198-07:00A Whitechapel Butcher<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Continuing on my stories about tradesmen ancestors, this is
the tale of Nicholas Foskett*, ten generations back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
addition to being a butcher, he had an uncommon (but difficult to spell and
transcribe) name, which has helped with uncovering the story of his life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nicholas Foskett was born in Whitechapel, London, England,
around 1716.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his baptism record, his
family’s address was given as “Over against the church”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not quite sure what this means but it
doesn’t sound very salubrious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The mentioned
church must have been St Mary’s Whitechapel, where he was baptised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nicholas was the eighth of nine children of
John Foskett, a Throwster (silk weaver) and Isabel Mallard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two oldest children, Samuel and Sarah
both died infancy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure what
happened to most of his other brothers and sisters: Elizabeth, John, Richard,
Thomas, Mary and George.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In spite of their
unusual surname, the only one I can find record of as an adult is John, who
married Elizabeth Christian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if
Foskett might be an anglicised version of a French name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many East End silk weavers were of French Huguenot
background. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mother Isabel died when Nicholas was only six years old and
his father, John, remarried to Alice Cornwell with indecent haste (the likely
subject of a future story).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems
likely that Nicholas’s childhood was not easy with his parents perhaps not
having a happy marriage and his mother being replaced when she was barely cold
in the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He may not have had much
education as he does not appear to have been literate; he marked rather than
signed his name on his marriage records.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Probably around the age of 14, Nicholas would have been
apprenticed as a butcher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t
found a record of this, so it seems likely that he worked for a relative,
although not his father, as more formal apprenticeships at the time were
recorded and taxed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I need to track down
a Foskett or Mallard butcher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Apprenticeships typically lasted seven years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At about the age of 21, presumably having just completed his
apprenticeship, Nicholas Foskett married Margaret.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t found their marriage, so don’t know
Margaret’s surname.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The marriage St Mary
Whitechapel registers for several years around 1737 are missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, there are some gaps in this story and I
have avenues for further research about Nicholas’s early life. Nicholas and
Margaret had four children: Samuel (my ancestor), John (who died in infancy),
Mary and Henry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Margaret then died in
1745.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unlike his father, Nicholas didn’t rush into his second
marriage, although his third was another matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He married Sarah Bennett in Jul 1769 by
licence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As marriage licences were
expensive, he must have been doing reasonably well in his butchery trade by then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sarah died in August 1787, and Nicholas married
Mary Pether at the end of September the same year, weeks later, by banns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary outlived Nicholas by several years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t found any record of Nicholas having
children by his second or third wives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have found Land tax records showing that Nicholas lived in
Whitechapel for most of his adult life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He lived in good enough circumstances to be able to pay Land tax (this
was before the days of income tax), which not everyone could manage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nicholas plied his trade via a butcher’s cart rather than selling
from a shop. He cart features in his grandson <a href="http://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2017/11/disinherited.html" target="_blank">James’s story</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Butchers took meat around to streets to
prospective customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Butchery was (and
is) a messy business but meat was to some extent a luxury item, so while<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>butchery was consigned to the East end and
other not so nice parts of London, a butcher could do well taking his product
to nicer parts of town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, in
1759, I have a record of Nicholas working as a coal dealer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe there was a downturn in the meat trade
so he put his cart to other uses or perhaps the work was seasonal. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The butchers trade was also closely associated
with leather, for obvious reasons, and Nicholas’s son Samuel was a leather
worker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems likely that Nicholas
took on his grandson James as an apprentice, or at least played a role in his
career choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, as per <a href="http://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2017/11/disinherited.html" target="_blank">James’s story</a>, that didn’t work out so well and he disinherited James.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DMB7liP52QhCOrxtqc0APyQGMU0k4-_mlbsT6gsFEUiquAHbdJCpk-WlFKwRYPllGzr1BppTCgBXR0dy4l7Z4wuKY9d3RctbG1NbIy-mvARe_4XHrJVlSz0fUnySGoJ3pqYSjNbLD3E/s1600/Butcher%2527s_cart%252C_c_1907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="293" data-original-width="428" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DMB7liP52QhCOrxtqc0APyQGMU0k4-_mlbsT6gsFEUiquAHbdJCpk-WlFKwRYPllGzr1BppTCgBXR0dy4l7Z4wuKY9d3RctbG1NbIy-mvARe_4XHrJVlSz0fUnySGoJ3pqYSjNbLD3E/s320/Butcher%2527s_cart%252C_c_1907.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A butcher's cart (<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Butcher%27s_cart%2C_c_1907.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a> via Wikipedia)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although a long time Whitechapel resident, when he died in
February 1792, Nicholas Foskett was living in nearby Stepney. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">His cause of death was given as “decline” and
he was buried at Whitechapel.</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nicholas left a detailed will written after his marriage to
Mary Pether with a codicil added after his son Henry died around 1788.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that short time, James had caused his grandfather
enough offence to be cut out of the will.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think knowing even a little about an ancestor’s work makes
them fell much more real than just a few dates and places can do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Notes on lineage:</b>
Me > Mum > John Macdonald Charley > Walter George Charley > John
Joseph Charley > Catherine Thompson > Catherine Foskett > James
Foskett > Samuel Foskett > Nicholas Foskett<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*Also Fosket, Faskett, Fosset, Fosgate, plus other spellings
and poor transcriptions, including Sosket.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-57659207939388084132019-05-18T09:03:00.000-07:002019-05-18T09:03:13.499-07:00What is a cordwainer?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I thought it would be
interesting to investigate some of the trades my ancestors had. I will start one that sounds exotic but isn’t
– a cordwainer (which Microsoft Word doesn’t have in its dictionary). I have several forebears who were cordwainers
and will share the story of one of them, William Ayers*. The word cordwainer is derived from the
Spanish word “cordovan”, a type of leather, and people who worked with cordovan
to make shoes were known as cordwainers or shoemakers. A cordwainer is different to a cobbler, a
cobbler repairs shoes, whereas a cordwainer made them. Shoemaking was a very traditional trade with
the process changing very little from the Middle Ages until the mid-1800s when
it became industrialised. Here is a picture of a shoemaker at work.</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhLqpGqCoCkFPkcWLjcMJJMvIpWAQdpAS5GQlpiLJMGDr8xUZD_zEhecBbIJBQxzywAG3xS3zr6G7YRCDD1qlWwN-mBw552Jz5UTuU5GkU2f4Q76cWnEdJ_5WvI8UJkMf6eQKIWAiRVI/s1600/Shoemaker+-+public+domain.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="300" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinhLqpGqCoCkFPkcWLjcMJJMvIpWAQdpAS5GQlpiLJMGDr8xUZD_zEhecBbIJBQxzywAG3xS3zr6G7YRCDD1qlWwN-mBw552Jz5UTuU5GkU2f4Q76cWnEdJ_5WvI8UJkMf6eQKIWAiRVI/s400/Shoemaker+-+public+domain.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Public domain photo found via Google images.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">William Ayers was born around
1755 in Fairford, Gloucestershire, the seventh of eight children of Richard
Ayers and Mary Hughes, although at least three of the children had died before
William was born. The other children
were: John (died young), Elizabeth, John, James, David, Temperance and Richard. With a Temperance in the family, I wonder if
the Ayers family had puritan tendencies.
The children were all baptised in Fairford parish church. Curiously, another line of my family also
lived in Fairford at this time but those two lines didn’t join until 1878.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 1767, age about 12,
William Ayers of Fairford was apprenticed to Thomas Bond for £8 bond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like all trades, an apprenticeship was the
first step in a career and typically lasted 7 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometime after completing his apprenticeship,
William moved to nearby Coln St Aldwyns, Gloucestershire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1788, he took on his own apprentice, John
Porter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is likely that William was
the only cordwainer in Coln St Aldwyns and he would have made everyone’s shoes,
so he would have been an important figure in the village (Coln St Aldwyns is
still a village).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In spite of this, shoemakers
often had to take on a second job to be able to afford to maintain their families,
perhaps something like farming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
mentioned further on, I have some reason to think that the Ayers family had
some money or another source of income.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In January 1782, William
Ayres married Mary Mihill by licence at Coln St Aldwyns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary was underage, 19 years old, and her
father Thomas was also named in the licence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The money for the licence may have come from the Mihill family, who were
Yeoman farmers, rather than from the Ayers family, although I haven’t found any
record of Richard Ayers prior to his marriage to Mary Hughes, to indicate
anything about the family background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
any case, William’s family appear to have been well off enough to afford
property and further marriage licences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
know from land tax records that William owned the property in Coln St Aldwyns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">William and Mary had seven
children: Thomas, Lydia, Mary (my ancestor), David, Lucy, Rose, Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the children were born in Coln St
Aldwyns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am curious about the children’s
names as Lydia, David, Lucy and Rose were not common names at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before 1811, the family moved
to Chedworth, Gloucestershire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chedworth’s
claim to fame is the ruins of a Roman Villa, which I have visited.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure what took them there but
several of the children, including my ancestor Mary, were married in the
village.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The children married by licence
rather than banns, suggesting that the family continued to have funds available
to them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am not sure what happened
to William’s wife Mary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She may have
been buried in Fairford in April 1792, although daughter Rose wasn’t baptised
until May the following year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">William lived to a good age
of 84 before he died and was buried in Chedworth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bibliography:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Waller, Ian 2015 “My Ancestor
was a Leather Worker” pub. Society of Genaologist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*Spelling variations include
Ayres, Eyers & Eyres.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Notes on lineage:</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Me > Dad > Helen Francis Ruth Akeroyd > Florence Ruth Kirby
> Oscar John Kirby > Henry Kirby > Mary Ayers > William Ayers</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-33894363080295929832019-01-27T08:55:00.001-08:002019-01-27T08:55:40.875-08:00An Ordinary Life<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My prompt for this week is “Would like to meet”; well I
would like to meet any and all of my ancestors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To be honest, the ancestors I would like to meet most are the stuff of
history books (and Wikipedia entries) rather than blogs posts, being royalty
and nobility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I met Henry Stafford, 2<sup>nd</sup>
Duke of Buckingham, I could ask him what happened to the Princes in the Tower
and maybe solve a 500 year old mystery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, in my blog I am revealing the lives of "ordinary" people from the
past who otherwise would remain unknown. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So for this post I am writing about Eliza Roberts.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would like to meet her to ask her who
her mother was because I am not sure; not quite as big a mystery as lost
princes but still something I would like to know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eliza Robert was born about 1831 in Hendon according to most
records, now part of London and not far from where I used to live, or Highgate,
London, according to her baptism record.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She was the daughter of George Roberts and Charlotte (maybe nee
Hollingsworth).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have found a possible
marriage record for Eliza’s parents but nothing further about her mother’s
past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George Roberts was a shoe maker
who belonged to a family of prominent blacksmiths and iron founders in
Deanshanger, Northamptonshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not
sure what brought him to London but perhaps it was an apprenticeship?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eliza Roberts was baptised on 22 January 1832
at Highgate Chapel in the parish of Hornsey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 1833, Eliza’s brother George was born in Hendon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was followed a couple of years later by
Frances Elizabeth Roberts, born around December 1834 in Hendon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, mother Charlotte died in December 1835,
aged just 24.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is buried at St John’s,
Hampstead; a picturesque grave yard that is the last resting place of a number
of famous people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sister Frances died in
a few months later in 1836, in Hendon, when she was only 16 months old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It must have been a very difficult time for George
Roberts (senior) who was left a widower aged only 25, with two young children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The young family returned to Deanshanger, where George married
Susannah Harding in 1838.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also seems
to have taken up work at the family iron foundry. Susannah had a son from a
previous relationship, Frederick, who was aged 7 in 1838.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This created a blended family and gave Eliza
an older brother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George and Susannah
had two more children that I know of, William, born 1839 and probably died
before 1851, and Elizabeth, born in 1841.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In August 1841, Eliza’s brother George died, leaving Eliza as the only
surviving child of Charlotte.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eliza’s
paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Robert nee Davies also died in 1841.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It must have been a traumatic year for the
family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ten years later, at the time of the 1851 census, Eliza was
living with her step-mother Susannah in Bicester, Oxfordshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure what took them there as George
was in Deansahnger at the time, although maybe he was just visiting his family
on the night of the census.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case,
this explains how Eliza Roberts met John Smith, her future husband and a carpenter
from Bicester, whose <a href="http://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2016/06/john-smith-generation-1.html" target="_blank">biography </a>I wrote a couple of years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eliza married John Smith on 17 April 1854, in
Oxfordshire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eliza signed the marriage
register with a very shaky signature, so it seems that she was educated but
perhaps wasn’t used to writing much. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The story of John and Eliza’s family together is recorded in
detail in <a href="http://susansfamilytales.blogspot.com/2016/06/john-smith-generation-1.html" target="_blank">his story</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In summary, Eliza
and John had four children: Emily, Harry (my great great Grandfather), Mary Ann
and Elizabeth Ann.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family travelled
and lived in various places around South East England before ending up in
Woolwich, Kent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eliza died in Woolwich in 1904, aged 72.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By this time she was grandmother of at least
14 children, four of whom lived in Australia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eliza had a turbulent childhood, as many have had throughout
history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She lived in London and around
South East England, moving frequently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
must have seen a lot of changes in the world between 1831 and 1904.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Eliza was born, Hendon was a little
village a day trip from London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1904,
it would have been a short train ride from the city centre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many ways, her life was nothing special
but with all she experienced and saw, I am sure Eliza Roberts would have been
an interesting person to meet with lots of stories to tell to fill in the bare
bones that I have discovered so far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith > John
Henry Smith > Harry Smith > Eliza Roberts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">See <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/" target="_blank">52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks </a>regarding the prompts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-80882949648298111622019-01-05T11:09:00.003-08:002019-01-05T11:09:42.349-08:00Thomas Bisgood Times Three<br />
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This story is inspired by the prompt “first” and actually
covers the lives of the first three Thomas Bisgood’s that I have uncovered so
far in my research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only the first
Thomas Bisgood is my direct ancestor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first Thomas Bisgood was born around 1757.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t found a record of his birth or
baptism yet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The name “Bisgood” (and its
variations) is rare in England.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As there
are similar names that occurred in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, I wonder if
Thomas was a migrant from Northern Europe or the descendant of recent migrants.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think Thomas Bisgood married Alice early in the 1780’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas and Alice Bisgood had a daughter,
Elizabeth, born 12 October 1782 and baptised 1 January 1783, in the parish
church of St John the Evangelist, Westminster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I have not found any other records relating to Alice or Elizabeth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFdxEGQN2E8uATSihQUK_Qx5R_Ius7u-fYY-rvN1Hmah9h5_rrWXezlsxIbzHVEXWkBStvBfITPfo62V8w2dTzbBRt5MQWdya7bpgCJ1iB8h230jbfowXcpV43kZynbBet5cSa-G6pCaY/s1600/256px-Saint_Martin_in_the_Fields-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="256" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFdxEGQN2E8uATSihQUK_Qx5R_Ius7u-fYY-rvN1Hmah9h5_rrWXezlsxIbzHVEXWkBStvBfITPfo62V8w2dTzbBRt5MQWdya7bpgCJ1iB8h230jbfowXcpV43kZynbBet5cSa-G6pCaY/s320/256px-Saint_Martin_in_the_Fields-1.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St Martin-in-the-Fields Church <br />(public domain photo from Wikipediea)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On 4 June 1788, Thomas Bisgood married Mary Head at St Martin-in-the-Fields,
the famous church now next to Trafalgar Square in London, by banns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both signed the register, so must have been
educated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thomas and Mary had at least eight children: Elizabeth, Charlotte,
Mary Ann, John, Harriet (my ancestor), Henry, Thomas (the second one) and
Nelson.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nelson and Mary died in infancy.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first two children were baptised at St
Dunstan in the West, the third child at St Andrews, Holborn, while the family
were living in Cursitor St, near Chancery Lane.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The remaining children were baptised at St Leonard’s Shoreditch, by
which time the family were living in Gray’s Inn Lane (now Gray’s Inn Road).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don’t know Thomas Bisgood’s occupation but I wonder if he
was something like an attorney’s clerk, or even an attorney, as he always lived
near the Inns of Court and his son and grandson, the other Thomas’s, were both lawyers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This first Thomas Bisgood died late in 1816 and was buried
on 29 December at St Leonard’s Shoreditch, age given as 59.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The second Thomas Bisgood, was born on 22 February 1805, in Shoreditch
(as mentioned above), so was not quite 12 when his father died.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His mother, Mary, died only 6 years later in
1822. By then, his surviving older sisters were all married, so one of them may
have looked after him until he came of age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By 1824, Thomas Bisgood was training as a legal clerk – I found
a newspaper mention of this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He became an
attorney 1834.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1842, according to various
newspaper articles, his partner, Samuel Richardson Gilbert, went insolvent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His name crops up in various newspaper
articles about court cases through the 1840s and 1850s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This Thomas Bisgood marries Maria Oakes on 11 January 1829
at St Mary-le-Bow, another famous London church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thomas and Maria had at least six children,
including Thomas Fallows Bisgood, born 11 December 1829 and baptised at Old
Church St Pancras the following year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometime before 1861, Thomas Bisgood migrated to New York,
USA, leaving his family in London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
assume that he was estranged from his wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At this time in England, divorce was not an option for most people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1864, he because a naturalised US citizen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lived in Brooklyn, New York and died there
in 1878.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, son Thomas Fallows Bisgood also trained as a
lawyer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to an obituary, he
practiced in Paris as well as in London.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The third Thomas married Annie Martha Yates in Kensington in
1849.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They had several children,
including another Thomas (who I will not write about).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, like his father, Thomas’s marriage appears
to have failed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He left his wife with
his brother, Henry, who was already living with them (in the 1861 census), and
joined his father in New York before 1870.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thomas became a naturalised USA citizen in in 1874.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His son Henry had joined him in New York by
1880.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within months of Annie’s death in
1886, Thomas Fallows Bisgood remarried to an Edith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He married a third time in 1889 to Alice
Maude Whitaker and had two more children, one of who died in the 1960s,
extending this story over 200 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg47hoDQ_UPDAaksOWX-bH_8WbCayh8hXeoMYrOGDGrQswbtNuTTKP7CtRM7Qnz5NnGgZwF7m0b97eGi5iLvyHEUPGNNGOh17h3xNv2HCDTj8uc07Ilh-yDjB21cUtECgMwZFZsOfUaPrk/s1600/George_Bradford_Brainerd._Street_Looking_south_from_Upper_End%252C_Sag_Harbor%252C_Long_Island%252C_ca._1872-1887.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="625" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg47hoDQ_UPDAaksOWX-bH_8WbCayh8hXeoMYrOGDGrQswbtNuTTKP7CtRM7Qnz5NnGgZwF7m0b97eGi5iLvyHEUPGNNGOh17h3xNv2HCDTj8uc07Ilh-yDjB21cUtECgMwZFZsOfUaPrk/s400/George_Bradford_Brainerd._Street_Looking_south_from_Upper_End%252C_Sag_Harbor%252C_Long_Island%252C_ca._1872-1887.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sag Harbour c. 1880s <br />(photo from Wikipedia, no known copyright restrictions)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thomas Fallows Bisgood lived in Sag Harbour, New York, where
he became a police justice.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He also
stood a Democratic candidate in a judicial election.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was certainly a prominent citizen of the
area.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 1895, Thomas Fallows Bisgood died of Bright’s disease (kidney
disease).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While I know a lot about the second and third Thomas
Bisgood, I am continuing to look for any records of the first Thomas Bisgood’s life
before he married Mary Head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps there
is an earlier Thomas Bisgood yet to find.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Dad > John Edward Blake > Alice
Mary Elliston > George Elliston > Samuel Joseph George Elliston (first cousin
of Thomas Fallows Bisgood) > Harriet Bisgood (sister of Thomas Bisgood) > Thomas
Bisgood (the first)</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The "First" prompt is part of <a href="https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks/" target="_blank">52 ancestors in 52 weeks</a>.</span></div>
<br /><br />
Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5622484151614968662.post-67383733465563311252018-10-18T13:46:00.000-07:002018-10-18T13:46:35.881-07:00Hannah and Her Sister<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hannah Blakeley was born on 29 April 1765 in Batley,
Yorkshire, the third of John Blakeley and Sarah Swallow’s nine children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her eight siblings were: William, Maria,
Sarah, Jane, Mary, John, Abraham and Elizabeth, all born between 1761 and
1780.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hannah was baptised just over a
week after she was born on 7 May 1765 in Batley Parish Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1765, her father, John, was working as a
labourer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He later became a clothier,
probably a cloth maker (clothier can also refer to selling clothes); a common
occupation in Batley at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It appears that Hannah may not have been educated; she did
not sign her marriage certificates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her
sisters also did not sign their marriage certificates, although her oldest
brother did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On 4 December 1786, 21 year old Hannah married Joseph Talbot
at Batley Parish church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hannah and
Joseph had five children over the next ten years: Letitia, John, Jane, Stephen
and Joseph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, Hannah lost her husband
Joseph in January 1797 and her baby son Joseph only 6 months later, leaving her
a 32 year old widow with 4 young children and probably dependent on her
extended family for support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two
Joseph’s were buried together and their monumental inscription says they were
of Havercroft, Batley.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, on 29 November 1790, Hannah’s younger sister,
Jane, married George Newsome, another Batley clothier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jane and George had four children: Sally,
John (died 1798), Mary and Abram, before Jane died on 5 July 1800, at only 30
years old, leaving George a widower with three young children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George seems to have what many men in his
position did and immediately looked around for another wife to take care of his
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have come across this a
number of times in my family tree…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On 20 September 1800, just a couple of months after Jane
died, Hannah Talbot nee Blakeley and George Newsome applied for a licence to
marry in Batley Parish church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
England prior to 1907, a marriage to a deceased wife’s sister (or deceased
husband’s brother) was not valid due to the relationship being within a
prohibited degree of affinity, so George and Hannah had a problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems that they were not able to marry in
Batley, so a couple of days later, on 23 September 1800, having tweaked a few
facts, such as their ages, they applied for a licence to marry in nearby Rothwell
Parish Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time, the wedding
went ahead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Sheard, one of the
witnesses, was Maria Blakeley’s husband (Hannah’s older sister), so presumably
the Blakeley family were happy enough with the marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In any case, Hannah and George must have been
determined as a marriage licence would have been a considerable expense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By a quirk of marriage law, their marriage
became legally valid in 1835, while they were both still alive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hannah and George, already having seven children between
them, had three more: William, Hannah (my ancestor) and Jane.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, Hannah’s children John and Jane died
in September 1802 – perhaps there was a bug of some sort doing the rounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, three more of the children died
as adults before Hannah and George, including my ancestor, the younger Hannah
(who also married a Talbot).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hannah Newsome (nee Talbot and Blakeley) died on 28
September 1838, age 73.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was buried
at Batley Parish Church on 2 October 1838 with memorial stone commemorating
her, her sister Jane, nephew John and husband George.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George died in 1845.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For some reason unknown to me, many years later in 1862, son
William applied for probate for both of his parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hannah’s estate was valued at less than £20,
as was George’s.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hannah’s life seems to have been typical of women of her
time and station.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even her questionable second marriage was not that unusual and certainly understandable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Notes on lineage:</b> Me > Dad > Helen Francis Ruth
Akeroyd > Percy Tomlinson Akeroyd > Frederick William Akeroyd > Sarah
Talbot > Hannah Newsome > Hannah Blakeley<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Susan Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08735073767526564259noreply@blogger.com0