Yorkshire to Sydney by Clipper

This story is inspired by the 52 Ancestors prompt “Migration”, and it also covers the recent prompt “Surprise”.

Yorkshire

Joseph Lees was born 23 August 1830 in the village of Gomersal, in Yorkshire, England.  Baptised on 10 October 1830, in Birstall Parish Church, he was the son of William Lees, a clothier, and his wife Rachel nee Gomersal.  A clothier was someone who made and sold cloth and it was a common occupation in West Yorkshire; I have several clothier ancestors.  With the growth of mechanised mills, William eventually moved to working in a mill as a billy spinner.

Joseph Lees was the youngest of six known children of William and Rachel.  His older siblings were Mary, William, Samuel, Rachel Gomersal and Sarah.  Joseph would not have known any of his grandparents, three died before he was born and the fourth died when he was less than a year old.

The Lees children all appear to have been educated, those who married signed the marriage register with a confident signature.

In 1841, Joseph and his brother Samuel were living in the household of a Thomas Sigston, a retired Cloth Manufacture. Next door was their uncle, Edward Gomersal, Rachel’s only known surviving sibling.  The rest of the Lees family, except for brother William, lived on the other side of Uncle Edward.  Brother William was newly married to Martha Firth.

How do you spell that?

 

This post is inspired by the 52 Ancestors prompt “Challenge”.

Early life

Martha Guntrip and her family have been a challenge to research because of an uncommon difficult to spell surname.  I have come across quite a few variations including Gunthrip, Gunttripp, Gunthorpe, Gantrip and others.  Also complicating matters, the family lived near the border of two English counties, Oxford and Buckinghamshire, so record in both locations need to be searched.

Martha Guntrip was born around the end of 1772 or early 1773 in Bicester, Oxford, England.  She was baptised on 27 January 1773 in Bicester Parish Church.  Her baptismal record was indexed under the name “Cundiff”, although I think it is fairly clear that it is indeed “Guntrip” in the original record.

Martha was the daughter of Thomas Guntrip and Elizabeth Rhodes (or Roads), one of four known children.  The other three were Thomas, Elizabeth and Richard.  I have not yet found Elizabeth’s baptismal record and I wonder if the spelling or indexing is problematic.

Bicester was and is a busy market town and it was developed extensively during Martha’s lifetime, including the building of the New Buildings where she lived. The town was also important for horse racing and hunting, so would likely have had the rich and famous of the time passing through.

Marriage and Family

On 1 May 1797, Martha Guntrip married Joseph Elston in Bicester.  Martha signed the marriage register with a confident signature, so she must have had some education and was used to writing.  I have previously written about the evolution of the Elston surname.

Joseph Elston was either a sawyer (according to the 1851 Census and his newspaper death notice) or a surveyor (Martha’s newspaper death notice).  I can see that the two occupations would look similar in cursive writing, I am not sure which is correct – another challenge.

Martha and Joseph had at least 4 children, Joseph, Elizabeth (my ancestor), Ann and Harriet.  All four survived infancy, married and had children.

In the 1841 Census, Martha and her husband Joseph appear to be living apart.  Whether that was because they were separated, or for family, health or financial reasons, I don’t know.  It is challenging and frustrating to find records that give a hint of an intriguing story but no more than that.

Martha was living with her 4-year-old granddaughter Theresa East, daughter of Harriet, in New Buildings, Bicester Market End.  They were part of a larger household that included her daughter Elizabeth and her husband glazier John Smith, along with their children Charles, John (my ancestor), Thomas, Elizabeth, and baby Emma.  So, Martha may not have been living with her husband, but she was surrounded by family.

Joseph Elston was also living with a granddaughter, Harriet Smith, aged 13, and was surrounded by family in 1841.  They lived in Launton, a village near Bicester, next door to his and Martha’s daughter Harriet, her husband butcher Henry East, son Caleb and baby daughter Rhoda.

Marth Elston nee Guntrip died on 22 Dec 1844, age 71 and was buried a Bicester.

Joseph Elston outlived his wife by nearly 10 years, dying 22 June 1852, age 80.

In spite of the challenges, I have been able to piece together some highlights from Martha’s life.

 

Notes on linage: Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith > John Henry Smith > Harry Smith > John Smith > Elizabeth Elston > Marth Guntrip

Travelling Brothers

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.

My ancestor George Shephard was born in Charleton, Devon, England on 4 September 1835.  He was the fifth child of John Camp Shephard and Priscilla Goodyear.  I have previously written about Priscilla.  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.  Prior to marrying Priscilla, John was married to her sister Susanna.  Marrying a dead spouses sibling was a forbidden degree of affinity at the time but it happened, anyway.  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.

A DNA Connection

It is a while since I have posted a story and this ones comes with thanks to close relatives who have done DNA tests.

Mary Head’s origins were unknown to me until I solved the puzzle using DNA*.

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”.  Mary was the daughter, and oldest child, of Edward Head and Elizabeth Balcomb**.  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.  Curiously, Edward and his family lived very close to where I now live.

14 Children

 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.

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.  Her parents had arrived in Australia six years earlier and I have written about them previously.  Her oldest surviving sister, Martha, married when Caroline was just 2 years old.

The Bowie Family

My ancestor William Bowie was born about 1761 in New Kilpatrick, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.  He was the ninth of ten known children of James Bowie, originally of Denny, Stirlingshire, and his wife, Margaret Tyre.  William Bowie’s siblings were John, Margaret, Janet, Agnes, Christian, James, Elizabeth, William (born c. 1757, died as an infant) and Robert.

Brothers John and James Bowie both migrated to the Americas.  John Bowie was an officer, a Major, in the US Revolutionary Army.  He married Rosa Reid, the daughter of another officer.  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.  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.

Too Many Too Young

This post is prompted by the #52ancestors 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.

Robert Charley was born around 1734 in Combe Martin, Devon, a picturesque town on the north Devon coast.  He was baptised in the parish church on 11 September 1734. Robert was a younger child on Richard Charley and his wife Joan Willis.  Unfortunately, the baptism registers have a gap from 1725 to 1731, so I don’t know about any children born in that period.  Robert’s known siblings were Elizabeth, Richard, William, Mary and another Mary.  The first Mary died in infancy and it was common practice to reuse the names of dead children.  Brother Richard also appears to have died young in 1737, aged about 20; I don’t know about Elizabeth and the second Mary.