This week’s theme for #52Ancestors is Road Trip and I am taking a road trip to a more distant part of my ancestry, the Rhoads family from Lincolnshire. Smith Rhoades was my great x3 grandfather and he was born 1833 in Orby, Lincolnshire. His parents were William and Elizabeth Rhoades and he had 4 brothers; John born 1821, William born 1823, Charles born 1824 and Joseph born 1831 and 4 sisters; Betsey born 1826, Emma born 1829, Susannah born 1835 and Mary Ann born 1840. His father William was a farmer on land in Orby that he owned. If we follow Smith through the census returns it shows the following: 1841 living with his parents on the farm in the village of Orby 1851 Groom at Boothby in the parish of Welton Le Marsh, a tiny hamlet between Orby and Welton Le Marsh 1861 by this time he had married and moved to Hurstpierpoint in Sussex where he was a Farm Bailiff 1871 Farm Bailiff in Eastbourne, Sussex 1881 Farm Labourer in Eastbourne 1891 Farm Labourer in Eastbourne 1901 Foreman on a Farm at Upper Dicker, Sussex 1911 retired Farm Bailiff living in Hove He died in 1919 on 6 June in Aldrington, Hove, described as a Market Gardener and died of Senile Decay. I don’t know why he left Lincolnshire for Sussex although I can speculate he was following work. But how would I find any clues as to why he left; find out where he was working at the time he left Lincolnshire and were there any links with Sussex, look at wages and conditions for farming in Lincolnshire and compare with Sussex in the 1850s. I’m guessing this all because it may not have been work at all. He married Maria Lee whose ancestry, as far as I have traced it was in Lincolnshire. In fact they don’t seem to have moved very far and back to the early part of the 1600s were all that Wolds part of Lincolnshire. The Civil War seems to have caused a problem in going back further on all 4 lines of her grandparents. I keep searching! One of the biggest problems I have found with searching for the Rhoads family is the amount of different spellings, Rhoads, Rhoades Rhodes, Roads, Roades and Rodes have all been found so far and I am sure there are more to be found. Smith and Maria had 10 children including Alice who was my Great x 2 Grandmother who married James Cruse and brought her family to Hailsham.
One of my few families that didn’t originate from East Sussex and take me to a part of the country I know very little about, at the moment.
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The theme for this week’s #52Ancestors is High and Low and I thought I would look at some of the Highs and Lows of researching my family. Starting with the lows, one part of my research that always makes me really sad is the death of young children, and I have a couple of really sad families on my family tree: firstly my great x3 grandfather Thomas Cruse and his wife Ann Lander who lived in Chailey in Sussex. They married on 12 November 1843 at the Zion Baptist Chapel in Chailey. They had 12 children: Mary Ann CRUSE (1845-1859) William CRUSE (1848-1917) Elizabeth CRUSE (1849-1859) Samuel CRUSE (1851-1911) George CRUSE (1852-1852) Henry CRUSE (1852-1852) Richard CRUSE (1854- ) Alice CRUSE (1856-1856) James CRUSE (1857-1908) Charles CRUSE (1860-1860) Emily CRUSE (1862- ) Anne CRUSE (1867- ) As you can see at least 6 of these children died young. I researched the deaths of these children and discovered the following: Elizabeth died of diphtheria on 2 April 1859 followed exactly a month later on 2 May by Mary Ann. The other four children all died within the first year of life. George died 9 days after he was born and Henry who was his twin brother died 5 days after birth. Alice died aged 2 months old. Charles died about 8 months old. Thomas was an Agricultural Labourer and the most likely reasons for the early deaths of these children are poverty and the poor standard of hygiene that was general to the poor then. Diphtheria is a highly contagious bacterial infection affecting the nose and throat and it is likely that it in the middle of the 19th century without the knowledge we have today of how infections are spread that some of the other children also died of it. Death certificates will confirm or otherwise that when I can afford to buy them all. The second sad family is that of Sarah Baldwin and her husband Michael Madigan. Sarah and Michael married on 24 December 1843 in St Giles in the Field, Middlesex. They had 5 children in Middlesex. There is the possibility they moved to Ireland before 1861 when the census return for them in London is missing and had more children but that needs to be confirmed. Frances MADIGAN (1845-1845) Mary MADIGAN (1846- ) Edward MADIGAN (1848-1853) Sarah MADIGAN (1851-1851) Esther MADIGAN (1853-1853) Frances died aged 1 week old of convulsions, Edward aged 5 of Scarlet Fever, Sarah at 4 months of 16 days of diarrhoea and Esther at 8 months of Pneumonia. This probably suggests a family again living in poverty and squalid conditions. Michael was a Carpenter. I have not found his birth yet but the 1851 census suggests he was born in Ireland. However it suggests Sarah was also born in Ireland but if this is the correct Sarah and I believe it is, she was born in Middlesex in 1824 as Sarah Baldwin which the children’s birth certificates and the marriage certificate seem to point to. I need to look further at this family and prove if they really did move to Ireland and if things got any better for them there. So that is some of the lows, what about the highs of my research?
One recent high has to be getting an email out of the blue from Judie Ellis who had her DNA tested and asked if Reuben Baldwin appeared in my tree and when I told her that he had been my Great Grandfather she told me he had been her grandfather and she was an unknown cousin of my dad. There was me thinking I had researched everything and knew all I could about the tree. It turned out my dad’s Uncle Len had a long term relationship with Judie's mum and Judie had been born. Dad thinks he vaguely remembers it all being talked about but he was 15 at the time and not that interested in family gossip. Anyway we have a new cousin to get to know and another member of part of my family which I have not researched that much as there are so few members left to talk to. Mum and Dad and I met with Judie and her husband, Tony recently and are looking forward to getting to know them more. The moral of that story is Never think you know it all and finished researching, you never know what’s round the corner! And I have even more research to do! Roll on winter! This week’s theme for #52Ancestors is Free Space and I thought I would continue the story of John Thorp, my ancestor whose story I first blogged in March 2020. This blog is about their residency of Hedgecourt, and a number of documents that I transcribed on a visit to The Keep where East Sussex hold their historical archive which involved John and his son, Thomas. Records from The Keep show that in 1562 there was no iron works in the manor of Hedgecourt at Felbridge where John was the farmer, and he repaired a building and the mill and bank at a cost of £64 which is a high cost so this must have been work on a large scale. The manor of Hedgecourt was leased by Sir Edward Gage to John Thorpe, yeoman of Horne, for 21 years at £40. I read a number of documents that described this land and included the demesne lands of the manor of Hedgecourt in Sussex and Surrey and lands called the park of Hedgecourt; Coddinglighe Park, Sharnowrs, Gages Meades, Cowpers Hill, Tanners, Smythforde Courte, The Tylt, Honneys, Warnars Crofts and the Myllwood, with all barns, stables, stalls and other buildings in the park, mills and mill dams in Godstone, Horne, Tandridge, Grinstead and Worth. The lease specifically excluded the furnace or iron works, houses and buildings lately built upon lands called Myllwood and Coddingligh Park by John Fawkener & John Frenche which were granted in a separate lease. John Thorpe was living at Hedgecourt Farm, just north of Hedgecourt Lake on the west side of Stubpond Lane. He was born in the 1530s or thereabouts and had been living in the parish of Newdigate. He married Alice Bowett about 1560 and had seven children, his third son Thomas baptised 1567 in East Grinstead, becoming his heir. In 1568, Sir Edward Gage died and his heir was his son John Gage. In 1578 John Thorpe extended his existing lease of Hedgecourt, which ended in 1589, by a further 40 years which was after John Thorpe’s death. Thomas took on the lease after his father’s death. The lease was the same as that of 1567 still excluding the Myllwood furnace, however it included a clause allowing John Thorpe to occupy the furnace should the iron works close during the term of the lease. In 1594 John Gage sold timber to John Thorpe from trees on land occupied by Thomas Humfrey, living in one tenement in the park of Hedgecourt adjoining Newe Chappell; a parcel of trees adjoining the last sale made in Thorne Park and divided by an old bank of old trees lying northwards from the bank to the pale, through which piece of ground the mill way goes to Burstow; 1000 decaying stubs in various places in the manor of Hedgecourt, already marked out by John Gage’s servant Henry Collins, to be cut down, coaled and carried away within ten years. John Gage died on 10th October 1598 and in Sussex was holding an Iron Mill (Furnace Mill) and windmill (on Crawley Down) and two parcels of wood and land called Millwood and Cuddingly in Worth. In Surrey he was holding the manors of Burstow and Hedgecourt. He had married twice but had no issue and so his estate passed to his nephew John Gage who was the son of Thomas Gage. Following the death of the first John Gage, John Thorpe and his son Thomas entered into the lands of Millwood and Cuddinglye and cut down and uprooted most of the woods. They were fined £3000 and a further £1000 for the decayed stubs remaining from 2000 great and sound trees. This was at a time of competing demands for wood, a growing population needed wood for houses, the Navy needed wood for shipbuilding and much of the Weald was being destroyed by the demands on timber. In 1573, a Royal commission reported of the Wealden area: ‘Besides these furnaces aforesaid, there are not so few as a hundred furnaces and Iron Mylles in Sussex, Surrey and Kent, which is greatly to the decaie, spoile and overthrowe of woods and principle tymber, with a great decaye also of tillage for that they are continuallie employed in carrying furniture for the said workes, and likewise a great decaie of the highways because they carrie all the wyntertyme’. As a result of this, regulations were passed prohibiting the making of charcoal from mature wood, allowing only coppice to be used, this superseded previous regulations that had been introduced earlier in the 1500’s that ensured a dozen standard trees were left to an acre of clear felling so that regeneration through seed might follow. In 1581 and 1585, Queen Elizabeth I passed two Acts of Parliament to control the activities of ironmasters in the Southeast area, the objective being to preserve the larger timber, whilst permitting the production of charcoal from coppice or underwood (small trees and shrubs). Fines were high, as John Thorpe and his son Thomas found out. Charcoal production became problematic in the Wealden area and eventually the industry was moved to other parts of the country where a new fuel had been discovered – coke. This fuel did not depend on timber with all its other needs. Timber became more expensive and the production of charcoal was expensive and time consuming compared to using coke. John Thorp died in 1607 and was followed swiftly by his heir, Thomas in 1608. Thomas left Hedgecourt to his eldest son Richard. The lease was renewed in 1629 by Richard Thorp, gent. The lease was eventually sold in 1651 by Richard’s son, Richard to pay off a debt and so ended the long association between the Thorp family and Hedgecourt. I would like to acknowledge the Felbridge & District History Group for the map above and for a really useful website when it came to my research into Hedgecourt. Check out their website Week 34 of #52 Ancestors already and the theme is Timeline. Individual timelines are something I am starting to look at for my ancestors. I have lots of newspaper reports, probate records and other documents that have been downloaded for many of them and it was only recently whilst I was wondering how to note them so I remember their existence, that I realised I could add them to my family tree on Family Historian 7 as Facts and then they would appear in the timeline for that person. Another item for the To do list! I recently did this for a client report and it added more interesting information over and above the usual BMD dates and census returns. An example timeline which does not include any extra facts and highlights some of which might be sought is as follows: Phillis FUNNELL (1849-1947)
It includes timeline for close relatives, ie parents, spouse and children or I can choose to not include them.
I can see many uses of this timeline in the pursuit of my family tree: What bits of information are missing from a person’s timeline? What other useful information might be available for an ancestor? It will also highlight areas an ancestor might have lived when dealing with gaps in census records for example or when trying to find where somebody was married when there is as so often, more than one choice. If producing reports for family members it just makes it more interesting reading too. Back in May I wrote a blog about Cotton Weavers in the Salford area and one of these was John Thelwell. This week’s theme is Service and John Thelwell took part in the Napoleonic War. John Thelwell was born in Gorton, Lancashire and enlisted in the Royal Horse Artillery in 1813 aged 20. He joined the most famous troop of horse artillery in the British army: “A” Troop, otherwise known as “The Chestnut Troop”, raised in 1793 and named after its chestnut-coloured horses with which it had served with distinction through the Peninsula War. In the year that John Thelwell joined the Troop it was in its fourth year of fighting its way from Portugal, through Spain, to southern France. On 21st June 1813 it fought at the key battle of Vitoria, which effectively won the war in Spain for Wellington. The ensuing pursuit of the French army back to and over the Pyrenees saw the Troop in action at engagements at San Marcos, La Rhune, Nivelle, Nive, St Pierre de Grube, Gave d’Oleron, Orthez, and La Reole. An end to the relentless fighting finally came in April 1814 with Napoleon’s abdication and exile to Elba. But with Napoleon’s escape, “A” Troop found itself back with Wellington’s army in Flanders and was in the thick of the fighting at Waterloo. On the morning of the 18th June this Troop was posted with two guns on the Brussels road looking down towards an abatis (a pile of wood blocking the road) next to the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte, a key position in the battle of Waterloo. The other four guns were placed to the right of the Brussels road, on the ridge, with a deep hollow way to their rear. This sunken lane was clogged with the limbers and horses of the Troop. At Waterloo the Troop had a nominal strength of 167 men: Captain Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross and four other officers 2 Staff Serjeants 3 Serjeants 3 Corporals 5 Bombardiers (the artillery equivalent to a Lance Corporal in the infantry) 81 Gunners – these men loaded and fired the guns 57 Drivers – these men rode and held the horses which pulled the guns and limbers. 6 Artificers (farriers, saddlesmiths, etc.) 1 Trumpeter The Drivers did not fire the guns but waited with the limbers which pulled the guns, this would
have been Driver Thelwell’s job. They needed to be ready to withdraw the guns at a moment’s notice and to also bring up more ammunition when needed. Each limber was pulled by 3 pairs of horses, each pair having one driver. John Thelwell would have worn the distinctive Tarleton helmet of the Royal Horse Artillery, carried a light cavalry sword slung from a belt, carried a short whip to control the horses, and worn a special boot reinforced with iron rods to stop his leg being crushed should his pair of horses come together. The Troop had 6 guns and as well as the 36 horses needed to pull these, there would also have been at least another 36 for the ammunition wagons, plus numerous other horses as spares and for various other wagons for the artificers’ equipment etc. As noted above, at Waterloo the Troop’s limbers and carts were tightly crammed into the sunken lane at the rear of the guns. This, then, is probably where John Thelwell was stationed for the battle. Upon La Haye Sainte falling to the French, the Troop came under musket fire from the farm and the four gun section was moved further along the ridge to the right. These guns were then charged by French Cuirassiers and the gun crews ran to the hollow way to escape or threw themselves under the guns for shelter. Around this time both the guns on the Brussels road were disabled. Of the four remaining guns three were also disabled later by artillery fire, leaving the Troop with just one serviceable gun. The Troop lost 8 men killed (plus an unknown number wounded), and 27 horses killed or lost. In 1816 all soldiers of the British Army at Waterloo were awarded the Waterloo Medal, the first of its kind in that it was awarded to all ranks. “Waterloo Men” were also rewarded by being credited with an extra 2 years of service (which was beneficial in terms of pay and pension). This information was provided to me by Martin Aaron of Waterloomen.com John was based in Ringmer at the Barracks during 1818 when he met Phillis Funnell my Great x 4 Grandmother and her son John was born 6 November 1818. By 1821 he had left the Army and married his first wife Nancy Potts back in Lancashire. I am now researching his life back in Lancashire. The theme this week for #52Ancestors is Characters. Another theme I have struggled with, I don’t have any actors in my tree or any one story that speaks louder to me than anyone else’s. I thought therefore I would write about my Great x2 Grandfather, William Pilbeam. He is the ancestor I use when I want to shock someone! Tee hee, he was a Chicken Crammer! William Pilbeam was born on 4 April 1849 to James and Sarah Pilbeam and he was born in Warbleton. The 1851 census had them living at Rushlake Green and James was a Dairyman. Farming was in the blood. By 1871 William and his widowed mother had moved to Little Rigford Farm, now known as Rushford Farm at Three Cups near Punnetts Town. Sarah was described as a Farmer of 20 acres and William was a gardener. I presume he was helping his mother with the farm. Also living with Sarah was her unmarried daughter, Emily, 23 and her daughter Harriet and her husband James Martin. They went on to farm Ebenezer Farm in Punnetts Town. By the 1881 census William was farming at Little Rigford Farm. At 20 acres it was a small farm and as we saw from the later MAF document in the blog post about George Pilbeam, it was a mixed farm and imagine was subsistence farming. George was one of William’s sons. In 1891 the farm has now become Rushford Farm and William is described on the census return as a Chicken Fattener. Poultry farming was especially suited to small farms because of the level of skill and supervision required. The farmers organised themselves into two groups, rearing and fattening. Chickens reared on one farm were sent to a fattener who force fed them using a locally invented machine - the crammer, and after killing and preparation sent to London markets by train from Heathfield. In 1893 two years after the census an estimated 1 million birds were sent to London by train from Heathfield. For a short period of time the chicken cramming would have added to the income of failing Wealden farms in place where the landscape leant itself to subsistence farming. The topography meant that fields were small and hilly which gives the Weald its character. Chicken cramming was quite lucrative in the Warbleton area and for a time gave substantial employment, for instance the 1891 census shows 19 employees within a 3 mile radius of Rushford Farm were involved in the business. I have looked at the census returns from 1851 to 1911 and charted the industry in terms of people involved and there is a definite peak around 1891. The 1901 census described William as just a farmer but my feeling is that as the cramming was going on all around him he was still involved and then the 1911 census he has written Farmer and Poultry Fattener. Poultry Fattener is crossed out. Someone didn’t want to advertise the fact he was involved maybe although I do recognise that attitudes to what is seen, today, as a barbaric practice was not seen in the same light at that time, or was it?
William died in 1919 and George, son described himself on the 1921 census as a Farmer with his widowed mother. Again the MAF form only mentions 17 fowl, so hardly a chicken cramming business by the beginning of WW2. The industry had largely died out by the 1950s although I know people today have memories of chicken sheds around Punnetts Town. There was a number of them across the road from my grandparents house where Granny would take us to buy eggs from Mrs Lower, while on childhood holidays. Apparently if you know what to look for there are relics and signs of the industry everywhere! This week’s theme for #52Ancesors is Extended Family and I’m going to write about David Smith. He married Emily Smith Harmer, the oldest sister of my great grandmother Dorothy Harmer (see last week’s blog re the passport). David and Emily became foster parents to my grandmother Ivy and I have recently been looking at his family. For the first time in 20 years of family history I have at last found a family with roots in Hailsham, my home town. We’ve only been here since the early 1900s when my great grandfather Reuben Baldwin came here. But at least one of David Smith’s grandparent lines were in Hailsham in the early 1800s and possibly further back than that. David Smith was born in 1877 to Samson and Ruth Priscilla Sturt. Samson was a Carpenter and they were living in Vines Road. He was one of seven children all born in Hailsham. David joined the 3rd Royal Sussex Regiment in 1893 in Eastbourne at the age of 17 and on his Attestation was described as 5 ft 3 1/4 ins tall, he had dark grey eyes and dark brown hair. His mother Ruth lived at 1 Garfield Road, Hailsham. His father had died in 1892. From then on, his life can be pieced together by a number of newspaper reports I have found either with him mentioned or written about him. By 1913 his involvement with Hailsham Fire Service had started. There is a report in the Sussex Express, Sussex Standard and Kent Mail dated Friday 27 June 1913 stating David Smith and another young fireman were both presented with a handsome clock and a set of spoons as an expression of appreciation on the occasion of their recent marriages. Both firemen spoke in reply and thanked the Brigade members on behalf of themselves and their respective wives. On Friday 6 November 1914, in the Sussex Express a Roll of Honour was published of all the young men of Hailsham who had gone to fight for Old England and David Smith of the Royal Sussex was amongst them. In 1915 he was wounded, the Hastings and St Leonards Observer on the 16 January 1915 have a report from Dallington that Private David Smith of the 2nd Royal Sussex, who was seriously wounded in the fighting around Ypres, had been visiting his father in law, James Harmer of Battle Road. Smith said he was close enough to identify the man who had shot him. My dad says that the story was he received shrapnel in the cheek. The next mention of him is again in the Sussex Express in July 1918 when he appeared at the Coroners Court to corroborate the story of his mother Ruth in the sad tale of her second husband, George Fox’s suicide. It appears that Ruth of 17 Garfield Road had been at Stone Cross, looking after her dying stepson for two days. Her husband who was 80 was described as very childish lately and upset at his son’s health. The son died that night and when Ruth returned home and told George, he took himself outside, it was the middle of the night. The next morning his body was found in the Common Pond. It appeared that David had searched for him and presumably had found him and he informed the Police. It looked like he had attempted to cut his throat before drowning in the pond. The jury returned the verdict of Suicide whilst of unsound mind due to changes of old age. The next mention of David is a photo that was taken of four firemen in the aftermath of a shop fire in the High Street, Hailsham in 1928. David was the second on the left. Mention of this fire ended up in the Daily Mirror and was headed ‘Fire Fighting from a Graveyard – shop destroyed’. Eastbourne Fire Brigade had apparently dashed through the fog to help. Goods were removed from adjoining shops and beer from a nearby Public House. The photo appeared in a book of old photos of Hailsham and David was unnamed, but my granny had recognised him and I wrote his name on my copy of the book. David died in 1930 at the age of 53 and his death was reported in the local paper, Eastbourne Chronicle dated 28 August. It reads ‘Death of a Hailsham Worthy, an Honourable War Record’.
‘Hailsham has lost a worthy and much respected citizen by the death, after a brief illness, of Mr David Smith, aged 53 of 19 Garfield Road, whose funeral on Saturday excited considerable interest.’ It reports how he had 13 years of Army service in India, and he gained a Military Medal in 1918 for bravery in the field. A medal which my dad has along with the Indian Frontier Medal. Twice wounded he was discharged in 1917 and he underwent an operation to remove a large piece of shrapnel from his tongue. So the rumour dad had been told was true. His many useful activities in Hailsham included being an auxiliary Postman, he was a member of the Hailsham Fire Brigade, Scoutmaster, and many of the bodies he was involved with were represented at the funeral. His body was borne in a coffin draped with the Union Jack and carried on the town fire engine to be buried at the Cemetery in Ersham Road. I am amazed at just how much information and clues have been gained by searching newspapers for the story of his life. It gives me lots of clues to records that I should now search for to find out more about his life. The theme for #52Ancestors is Identity. Recently I found on Ancestry the Passport Application for my great grandmother Dorothy Gladys Harmer, or as she was when she applied for her passport, Dorothy Gladys Marini. She married John Marini on 11 September 1918 at Dallington Church, across the road from the cottage (Yew Tree Cottage now Staces) her place of residence was with her parents, James and Helena (Lorraine) Harmer and no doubt some of her many siblings. The family had not lived there long, for the 1911 census they were in Woods Corner. John Marini was 31 and Dorothy was 26. His place of residence at the time of the marriage was 16th Canadian General Hospital, Orpington, Kent and he was a Bandsman, 211th Battalion, American Legion of Canada. Presumably John had been sent back from Northern France. John’s father was Caesar Antonio Marini, a Shoemaker. He had emigrated from Italy to Canada in the 1880s. Dorothy’s father was a Tree Feller. John and Dorothy both signed the register and James was one of the witnesses and left his mark. The next part of the story is an application in the US for a passport from John Marini in 1919. It gives a lot of information about him. He lived in Pennsylvania and he had been born in Firli Del Sannio, Italy on 23 November 1886. I think that should actually be Forli Del Sannio, the form typist mistranscribed. It is described as ‘the small centre is located in the heart of the Apennines, in a mountainous area crossed by the Vandrella river, that originates in the north-west at the "Bocche di Forlì" and further on flows into the Vandra, a tributary of the Volturno.’ His family emigrated in 1886 and he was naturalised in 1895. He lived for 32 uninterrupted years in the US until 1915 when presumably he headed for France. He stated that his wife was in England and he wanted to bring her to the US after seeing that her mother was properly cared for and his wife’s affairs settled. One of those affairs was presumably my grandmother who had been born in 1913 and was left behind with Dorothy’s older sister Emily. Then a year later on 30 August 1920 there is an application for passport from Dorothy applied for at the American embassy in London. It is an emergency passport for a person claiming citizenship through naturalisation of husband. It says she was born in Dallington, Sussex on 21 May 1894 and her husband John Marini emigrated from Italy to the US in 1887. He was naturalised in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1895 and was currently in London awaiting embarkation. They were going to live in New Kensington, Pennsylvania and she wanted to join him.
Dorothy appeared with John on the list of United States Citizens on the SS Olympic which sailed from Southampton on 29 September 1920 arriving New York in October 1920. They returned to England on a number of occasions over the years including the 1970s when I met them as a child. Dad ferried them around in his car and I think we took them to see Jack Fuller’s Follies. It is amazing how much information can be gleaned from just three documents, if only we read them carefully enough. Sometimes we download a document for a specific bit of information, ie a date of birth or place of birth and miss all the other bits of useful information. From John’s passport application I now have enough information to try and search for his birth; his father’s name, place of birth and even his birth date. More research then….. This week’s #52Ancestors theme is Broken Branch. Another subject I have struggled with, something with enough story to tell in a blog post. Of course the obvious answer is Thomas Sinden alias Winchester. When I started researching my family tree back 20 years ago, I was sent research and family trees that had Thomas Winchester, the son of John Winchester of Ashburnham and his wife Mary. There were promises of the Winchester going right back to at least the 1500s in Sussex and I was really excited. But then I was brought right back down to earth. Apparently John Winchester was not Thomas’s father or was he? There is disagreement between genealogists and this little bit of the family is extremely murky. Mary Locke married Thomas Sinden in Ninfield in January 1785. In July 1785 in Catsfield, the couple had a son James. It looks likely that Thomas died in Ninfield in 1788 but is recorded as Sedden. No other burial has been found either in Ninfield or Catsfield. Mary then had two children, Fanny in 1790 and Thomas in 1791, both baptised to her alone as Mary Sinden. No idea who the father was! Then in 1793 she has another child, Elizabeth and the baptism entry reads Elizabeth Winchester, Daughter of Mary Sinden. The two marriage records confuse matters even further! As already noted above Mary Locke married Thomas Sinden in January 1785 in Ninfield. She was noted of Ninfield. They were married by Licence and she left her mark. She married John Winchester on 23 February 1794 in Catsfield. Again by licence and she is noted as Mary Lock, a single woman. So is it not the same woman? But then the children point to it being the same woman. She left her mark and one of the witnesses was Thomas Locke who could be her father.
Obviously more investigation is needed but my gut feeling is that it is the same Mary. The fact the first marriage was conducted in Ninfield where she grew up and the second in Catsfield away from the neighbours suggests her parents wanted to legitimise the three children by giving her a husband, but then if you know the geography of Sussex, Catsfield is only a couple of miles down the road and people talk! Finding the burial record for John Winchester’s first wife may put a different light on things as would an alternative for the likely burial of Thomas Sinden. This is another interesting story that rumbles on! So maybe Thomas really was a Winchester after all, or maybe he was something else entirely different. This week’s #52Ancestors theme is Popular name and I thought I would reflect on a name that appears a number of times on my family tree as it does on many based in Sussex particularly during the second half of the 1700s. Philadelphia. I have 19 Philadelphias on my tree, ranging from the mid 1700s to the early mid 1800s. I’m not sure why it was so suddenly popular in Sussex for naming daughters but it may have something to do with William Penn who founded Philadelphia in the US. William Penn spent a lot of his life in Sussex. The name was also apparently popular amongst early Quakers because it means ‘the loving people’. But whatever the reason there were a lot in Sussex and here I pick out just three of my small pile. Philadelphia Fletcher born 1787 Philadelphia Fletcher was born 1787 in Battle to John Fletcher and Mary Bishop. She was the second child of five and was my great x5 grandmother. She married Samuel Jenner in 1807 in Battle, they both left their mark on the register and her sister Jane was one of the witnesses. The couple had 9 children. Their 3rd daughter, Mary married my great x4 grandfather Robert Carey Harmer. Picture of Mary below. Samuel Jenner died in August 1832 and Philadelphia married again to Thomas Sinden of Battle in 1838. Thomas was an Agricultural Labourer. They lived ‘below Watch Oak’ in Battle and Philadelphia died in 1863 and was buried at Battle Cemetery on 28 April 1863. Philadelphia Pennifold born 1776 Philadelphia Pennifold was born November 1776 in Worth, Sussex to Thomas Pennifold and his wife Elizabeth Hall. They had 8 children that I have found in the records. There is a gap between 1778 and 1790 although some Ancestry trees have a couple of other children born in those years, but having looked at the parish records these baptisms cannot be confirmed so more research is needed. A quick look at a family tree on Ancestry gives the possibility of Quaker ancestry, that should be interesting and maybe explains her name. Philadelphia married Richard Vigar my great x5 grandfather on 3 November 1794 in Burstow, Surrey about 5 miles away from Worth. Richard signed the register and Philadelphia left her mark. They had 12 children, 4 of whom died as small children. Philadelphia and Richard both died in 1839, Philadelphia in January and Richard in October and they were both buried in Burstow Churchyard. It looks like her father, Thomas was also buried in Burstow in 1715. Philadelphia Seaman born 1732
Philadelphia Seaman was born 1732 in Chailey, Sussex to Richard Seaman and Elizabeth Grover. I’ve not managed to find Richard Seaman yet although he may have been born 1702 in Newick to John and Alice. Richard and Elizabeth had 10 children, 9 girls and 1 boy. The oldest child, Elizabeth and the youngest child, Catherine both died in March 1744 within days of each other. Sadly the parish register is very illegible at that point and I can barely read the record let alone wonder if the Vicar added a reason for two deaths within days of each other. Philadelphia married Thomas Cruse on the 19 July 1757 at Chailey and both left their mark on the register. She was his second wife. His first wife Frances had died in 1756. Philadelphia and Thomas had 8 children, 7 survived to adulthood. Their eldest son John born 1756 but baptised in 1759 was my great x5 grandfather. That needs more research because the baptism record clearly says Philadelphia mother but if he was born 1756, surely Frances was his mother. Hmmm. Three Philadelphias, with remarkably similar lives although they lived in different parts of Sussex and at different times. I imagine due to the geography of where they were living they were all from labouring families of some variety, probably agricultural labourers in Chailey and Burstow. It is hard to tell without Census records though, and that is where other records such as Apprentice record, land records or wills prove very useful. More research then…. |
AuthorKerry Baldwin Archives
June 2023
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