This week’s theme for #52Ancestors is Fun Facts. A few years ago there was a brilliant website online for genealogists with some useful apps called Twile. You uploaded your family tree and the app created the below graphic with lots of fun facts about your family history. Mine is slightly out of date and unfortunately I can’t renew it as the website sadly does not exist anymore. Shame! I was surprised to see that it is almost balanced between men and women although not surprised that I have slightly more women on the tree. Some of the other figures left me feeling very surprised, 2 5/7 average number of children? That seems quite low when you think about how many families in the 18th and 19th centuries had lots of children. But it takes into consideration that many families on my tree have not had their children searched for yet. Research to follow! In fact I had a look at my family tree and discovered I have one family that had 16 children. Imagine that, 16 children?! There are 27 families with between 12 and 16 children. Of course not all those children survived to adulthood. What about 25 being the average age for marriage. That’s seems a little old to me but apparently the perception that people married a lot younger in those days is not generally true. I was once told by another genealogist that it was not unusual for girls under 16 to marry and to marry much older man. Again the only girls under 16 marrying on my tree are obviously errors from trees I picked up in the early days and because they are side branches, I’ve not checked them yet. I found one couple this morning on my tree who apparently married at 112 and 115, I found the marriage, the date was wrong they were in their early 20s when they married. Date corrected. Another stat which I find odd and is probably down to the amount of people on my tree where I need to search for and add the death date, is the average age of death being 49. Many of my ancestors lived to a ripe old age. The oldest was my great great grandmother Phillis Funnell who died at the age of 98. I have 36 ancestors who died over the age of 90, not bad for a bunch of agricultural labourers. I am sure there are more to add to that number once their deaths are found and added to the tree.
Here’s an interesting fact, nobody on my tree was born on Christmas Day, 6 were born on New Year’s Day and 4 on Valentine’s Day. There was also two others born on my birthday 17 February, strangely they were siblings, born 9 years apart. I also had two forebears who were born on 29 February. I’ve just found out by visiting my tree on Ancestry and by using their Anniversaries that 133 years ago today, my great great grandparents James Cruse and Alice Rhoades were married. What other fun facts would you be interested in finding out about your own family tree?
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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…. This week’s theme for #52Ancestors is Mistake and I thought I would write about my latest research into the family of David Smith. He married Emily Smith Harmer, my paternal grandmother’s aunt and they brought my grandmother up when her mother and stepfather emigrated to America in 1920. I have been looking at David’s ancestors and his mother’s family were the Sturt family from East Hoathly. Samuel Sturt was born around 1815 in East Hoathly, no baptism found as yet. His sister Sarah was baptised in 1811 and their parents were Samuel Sturt and Sophia Ford who married in Burwash in 1810. The 1841 census had Samuel living on Teelings Common, which now appears on the map as a housing estate Teelings Drive and Old Common Road at Ridgewood, at the northern end of Uckfield. Samuel was a 25 year old shoemaker, the same profession as his father and he was living with Ann, and Henry aged 3 and Mary aged 1. A marriage was not found before 1841, however in 1841 banns were called for a Samuel Sturt and an Ann Terry in Lewes and then in 1842 a Samuel Sturt and Ann Terry were married in St Nicholas Church, Brighton. It appears that Henry was in fact Jacob Henry Sturt, mother’s maiden name Terry on his certificate and he was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1838 in Hailsham Union. A registration has not been found for Mary ‘s birth as yet. The family was split up by the 1851 census, Ann, Turnpike Gate Keeper at Hailsham with the children and Samuel was a Turnpike Toll Gatekeeper but was lodging at the Kings Head Inn in East Hoathly. This may be due to the circumstances reported in the local newspaper The Sussex Advertiser, Surrey Gazette on the 29 April 1851. This leads to a number of unanswered questions such as why did Ann pay his fine after such an allegation. My feeling is that maybe she knew there was no truth in the allegation, but we shall never know or maybe he was threatening her to come up with the fine but the rest of the story of his life shows no repeat of such behaviour. There was one further newspaper report in 1854 of Samuel Sturt, Toll Gate Keeper bringing Thomas Sinnock, Farmer to court for evasion of the toll. The case was thrown out. By the 1861 census, Ann was alone with the children, described as a widow. However no death for Samuel Sturt could be found. In fact a number of family trees on Ancestry all put Samuel Sturt in New York, USA married again with another family by the 1860 census. He was described as a Shoemaker from England and aged 39 which was not quite correct but plausible. I searched for a marriage certificate for Samuel and his second wife Sabra Ploss but none has been found so far. The first child, was born about 1857 so Samuel must have moved to US between 1854 and 1857. Again no birth certificate for Ruth or the second child Mary were found. Neither were census records for Sabra before 1860 but I continue to look. A naturalisation record dated 1869 stated he was formerly of Sussex, England. There was one record that helped to prove that this was the same Samuel Sturt and that was the death certificate for Samuel’s son Samuel who died in 1945. He had been born in 1867 in New York. He stated that his father Samuel Sturt was born in East Hohley, Sussex, England. No doubt other death records or even birth records for his children would add further proof.
Samuel died in 1880 and I found a copy of his will, it did not mention any family in England, as you would expect. He left his land and appurtenances to his wife Sabra to be divided between his 7 heirs on her death. A curious story and usually, and I blame this on the years I spent working for a Child Protection Team in Social Services back in the 1990s, I have no sympathy for paedophiles but somehow this story does not resonate with me as being of a paedophile. Of course we shall never know what went on that night in the privy but to me Samuel made a mistake and then he ‘came good’. An interesting family that I continue to research. I wonder what I shall uncover next? Week 22 of #52Ancestors already, and this week’s theme is Conflict. Time to reflect on the research I have carried out so far on one of my two WW1 forebears and the records I have gathered that give a snap shot of his life. Henry James Baldwin, the eldest son of my great x2 grandparents William James Baldwin and Jane Elizabeth Turner. Henry was born on 30 September 1885 in 4a Bristowe Street, Hoxton New Town. This was the home of his maternal grandparents James Turner and Emma Traies. James Turner had recently died on 12 September 1885. James and Emma had lived at 4a Bristowe Street since at least 1871. Henry enlisted at Stratford in 1903 for the regular army. His attestation papers tells us that he was residing at 40 Dock Street, his father’s address and was single. He was 18 years and 9 months old and was Clerk for a Messrs Goldsmith Myers. He was to serve in the Royal Artillery Regiment as a gunner. He was 5ft 7 ¾ inches tall, had grey eyes and brown hair and a number of tattoos. His parents were both still alive and his brother Frederick Charles was at Devonport on HMS Lion. His two younger brothers, Bertie and Reuben were still at home with their parents. No mention of Sydney, Alfred or Victoria though. At the time of the 1911 census he was stationed at Honeybutton Island, Hong Kong with the 87th Company Royal Garrison Artillery. He was a 22 year old Gunner and still single. On 17 September 1914 at the age of 29 he joined the 4th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery in France. The Siege Batteries were deployed behind the front line, tasked with destroying enemy artillery, supply routes, railways and stores. The Batteries were equipped with heavy Howitzer guns firing large calibre 6, 8 or 9.2 inch shells in a high trajectory. He was killed in action on 16 June 1915 nearly 30 years old, and is buried at Ypres Reservoir North British Cemetery, Ypres, France. From the CWCG website I have gathered a number of papers about Henry that tell me he was buried at Ypres Reservoir Graveyard, his body was exhumed and buried in a CWCG graveyard presumably meaning he was originally buried where he fell during battle.
I have a copy of his will found in pay book after death which states he left all his personal belongings to his mother Jane Baldwin who was living in Peckham. I also have a copy of his personal effects which states that 21s and 9d were sent to his mother, Jane as the sole legate plus another 5s again to Jane Baldwin. Sadly it is not stated where he died and that is where my research will take me next, I want to find out a bit more about the role he would have played and the role the 4th Siege Battery would have played in the war and presumably one of the battles in Ypres. It would be great to find a regimental diary which might give an idea of where they were during June 1915 and what they were involved in as a regiment. This week’s #52Ancestors theme is Yearbook but being British we don’t really do Yearbooks. Thinking about a conversation I was having yesterday evening I decided I would write about some of the coincidences I have found in my family tree. Coincidentally they all have something to do with the Sussex Trug. The first coincidence I found when I started researching my other half’s family tree. He was born and grew up in Hammer, near Haslemere on the Sussex/Surrey border where his family had lived for a couple of generations before him and I have not found any link with East Sussex at all. Except for one in 1861. His great x2 grandfather, Charles Marden, born in Wateringbury, Kent in 1827 and died in Camberwell, Middlesex in 1891 was a blacksmith. I could not find him around the Wateringbury area and couldn’t find him in Middlesex on the 1861 census, and he eventually turned up in Burwash, East Sussex for no apparent reason and wasn’t there for any other census return. The coincidence is that a number of the families on my tree came from Burwash including the Pilbeams, Eastwoods and Westons and would probably have gone to Charles to shoe their horses. Talking of my other half he has been a Sussex Trugmaker now for nearly 30 years, since he moved to East Sussex when we first got together. That leads to my second coincidence, my grandmother told us that my grandfather, Alf Baldwin had made Sussex Trugs when he was employed at Green Brother’s in Hailsham. Recently I have been researching David Smith who informally adopted my grandmother with his wife Emily, (my grandmother’s aunt) and on the 1921 census he was taking part in a Government backed employment scheme at Green Brother’s making Sussex Trugs. I wonder if he met Alf there and introduced him to my grandmother.
I recently researched and wrote a history of the Truggery at Herstmonceux for Sarah Page, the owner. As part of that research, I looked at the family of Reuben Reed who turned what had been a Carpenters workshop into the Truggery in 1899. Reuben’s mother was Sarah Winchester who appeared very distantly related to my Winchesters, from the Warbleton area. A part of the family that I hadn’t until now researched but can now be added to the tree. The common ancestors being Thomas Winchester and Elizabeth Wenham who were married in Folkington in 1708. I also have Reed/Read in my family but at the moment I’m not going to go there! I am beginning to think I have the Sussex Trug in my DNA. Have you found any coincidences like this in your own tree. Please share. This week’s #52Ancestors theme is Textile and gives me chance to write about my only bit of the family from up north. The story started down south of course. In 1818 or thereabouts Phillis Funnell, my great x4 grandmother met a young soldier who was stationed at the barracks in Ringmer, John Thelwell. On 6 November 1818, my great x3 grandfather, John Funnell was born. For a number of years the only clue to John’s father that I had was a warrant for the arrest of his putative father, John Thelwell, late of Ringmer now a gunner driver in the Corps of Royal Horse Artillery stationed at Ringmer for the child to be born of Phyllis Funnell of Chiddingly – ref. P292/15/12 – date: 6 November 1818. It wasn’t until I started searching the Royal Horse Artillery that I discovered who John Thelwell was. Probably born in 1793 in Gorton, Lancashire to John Thelwell and Martha Marsh, he had 11 siblings, 3 of whom died as small children. Despite a lot of searching this John seems the most likely but his second marriage certificate in 1855 names his father as Thomas strangely. John was married to two different Nancy’s, the first one died young in an asylum. He had 10 children, 5 of whom died under the age of 5. He died in 1870, a Chelsea Pensioner, having fought at Waterloo. Looking through the census returns held for him, marriage records, burial of first wife and his children’s baptisms and burials they all have his occupation as Weaver or Dresser. Both occupations involved in the Cotton Industry. Specifically his burial record in 1870 was Cotton Warp Dresser. He was living in Brimmington, Stockport and further research should be carried out possibly find out who were the main cotton factories in Stockport. According to a very useful website that has a list of old occupations Old Occupations - C2 (rmhh.co.uk) a Cotton Dresser was an Operator who assembled the yarns or threads prior to the weaving of cloth. In the early days of power weaving, looms had to be periodically stopped every few minutes to adjust the cloth and dress the warp with a flour paste to strengthen the threads as they unrolled from the beam. In 1803 William Radcliffe invented the dressing machine operated by a dresser who prepared the yarns for weaving. This was found in a book I purchased ‘My ancestors worked in Textile Mills’ by Adele Emm and published by The Society of Genealogists 2019. During the 1851 census two of John’s sons, aged 19 and 17 were also involved in the cotton industry as a Power Loom Weaver and a Silk Plush Weaver (part of the Top Hat industry). In 1861 the household has a Cotton Twister and a Cotton Winder. All the neighbours were involved in various parts of the industry in the three census returns I have for John, 1841 to 1861. In 1851, agricultural labourers formed the biggest occupation group in England and Wales, servants next and third was those working in textile industries. The industry was concentrated particularly around the north west and Manchester became known as Cottonopolis.
Currently that is as far as I have got with my research into John Thelwell’s cotton past. It’s all completely new to me, with most of my family hailing from Sussex I am much more used to Agricultural Labourers and the odd brickmaker. But I look forward to finding out more about Lancashire and its cotton industry as well as more about John’s heritage. |
AuthorKerry Baldwin Archives
June 2023
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