William Jenkins life story was my first big discovery after getting my DNA results a couple of months ago.
William Jenkins was born on 9 December 1783 in Tanworth-in-Arden,
Warwickshire, not far from Birmingham.
He was the oldest known child (at the time of writing) of William
Jenkins, a sawyer, and his wife Sarah. 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. William and Sarah’s
other children were Thomas, Jacob, Sarah and John.
William Jenkins was baptised on 25 July 1784 in the Tanworth-in-Arden
parish church.
I don’t have any information about his childhood. However, William was educated enough to be
able to sign his name and his signature looks well practiced.
William, along with his brothers Thomas and John, followed
in their father’s footsteps, becoming sawyers.
A sawyer is someone who cuts wood with a saw. Tanworth-in-Arden is a rural area that still
has some forests, which presumably provided the wood that they cut. Brother Jacob was a builder, so may have used
the wood that the rest of his family sawed.
On 31 December 1804, William Jenkins married Mary Spicer in
St Martin’s church in Birmingham. 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.
Thomas Spicer and Martha Spicer were witness on the marriage record.
William and Mary Jenkins went to live in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire,
where the Spicer family lived, more than 15 miles south of Tanworth-in-Arden. There they had four children: Sarah, William
(my Ancestor), Ann and Maria.
Mary died in January 1811, likely a few weeks after Maria
was born. Mother’s dying from
complications or infection soon after birth was all too common. Sadly, Maria died only a few years later in
February 1814. I don’t know what
happened to the other daughter’s, Sarah and Ann.
Also in 1811, William’s brother Thomas Jenkins married Mary’s
sister Elizabeth Spicer. Thomas and
Elizabeth lived in Birmingham after their marriage.
It seems that soon after the death of his wife, William moved
to Aston in Birmingham. He appears to
have left at least one child behind in Wellesbourne, as Maria died there. In Birmingham, William met Charlotte Hough and
they married on 4 October 1813 in Handsworth Parish Church. William’s signature in the Handsworth Parish
Register is a close match to his 1804 marriage signature. Sarah Jenkins was a witness on the marriage
record but I am not sure if it was William’s mother or sister.
William and Charlotte had six children, taking William’s
total to ten. Their children were: Eliza,
Maria*, Lucy, John, Jacob and Jane.
Life may not have been easy for the Jenkins family. William’s son William was a juvenile delinquent
who was caught stealing a couple of times.
He was transported to New South Wales, Australia, for his crimes in 1827,
where he became a farmer and had 14 children.
William’s parents, William and Sarah, were long lived, both
dying in the 1830s. His father lived to
93.
In the 1841 Census, William, Charlotte and their younger children
were still living in Aston, in Moseley Street.
William worked at Crowley’s Timber Yard, Cheapside, Aston. On 2 November 1846, William had apoplexy (possibly
a stroke) while at the timber yard and died instantly, aged 62. The coroner found that he died by a visitation
from God. William was buried on 8
November at St Philip’s Church, Birmingham.
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.
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. 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. I am impressed with how much DNA has helped
to reveal.
*Re-using the names of dead children was a common practice.
Notes on lineage: Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith >
John Henry Smith > Louisa Jane Jenkins > William Jenkins (b. 1839) >
William Jenkins (b. abt 1807) > William Jenkins (b. 1783)
