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The Wilkin's of Haddenham, Isle of Ely,Cambs, from the 1600's to the present day by Martin John Wilkin 2009 Updated from original "Ancestry of the Wilkin's" in 1999 Table of Contents Text Item ...................................................................................2 Register Report of Martin Wilkin................................................8 Outline Descendant Tree of Martin Wilkin ...............................59 Index .......................................................................................75 1 The Wilkin's of Haddenham Introduction In 1999, I distributed three volumes of ancestral material to about thirty people relative to the ancestors of the Sharpe, Crosley, Taylor and Wilkin families .Over the last couple of years I have realized that I did not give my eight grandchildren any substantial information relative to their background and now hope it is included . In this production I am indicating some of the major details of their Ancestry. Doreen Margaret Sharpe, my wife, is a descendent of King Henry 111rd and has been noted in the "Royalty" records for many years In DEBRETT'S Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companion age dated about 1900 there is a page entitled " The Descent of WILLIAM CLOUGH ESQ of Clifton House and New bald Hall , Yorkshire J.P. from the Blood Royal of England" From it one can conclude that royalty descendent William Cumberland married Elizabeth Pym Burt. Their daughter Rosina Cumberland married John Clough and they had a daughter Emma Clough who married William Gordon Lynch Cotton. One of the children of Emma Clough and William Gordon Lynch Cotton was named Ella Blanch Cotton and she married Herbert Charles Crosley ( Grandson of Sir Henry Crosley ) and they were the Grandparents of Doreen Margaret Sharpe. As the result of this substantiated information all of our eight grandchildren can legitimately indicate that they are descendents of English Royalty back to at least King Henry 111rd in the year 1200. Doreen, my wife, has written some of her own History and it is being included as follows :- "I had always known that my Mother, Hester Margaret Crosley, was born in India but have recently found from further research that my Grandmother, Ella Blanche Cotton, was also born in India. Her Father was William Gordon Lynch Cotton. He was a Water Engineer with the Public Works Department in India It appears that my Grandmother was sent to England to get her education My Grandfather, Herbert Charles Crosley, was born in England and attended Dulwich College, London . He went to India in about 1885. He opened up the Okayti Tea Estate in 1889, the same year he married my Grandmother, Ella Blanche Cotton. They started off married life living in a tent but photographs show that they later had a very nice bungalow with a very pleasant dining room . As manager of the Tea Estate my Grandfather was able to provide his family a very good life. My Mother, Hester Margaret, and her two sisters, Ivy and Eileen, and two brothers, were all born at Okayti, Darjeeling, India My Grandfather Herbert died in 1905 and my Grandmother and the three daughters returned to England and lived for a short time at Sandhurst Villas, Ampthill, Bedfordshire. I understand that after the death of my Grandfather, finances were just not available for my grandmother. My Mother was, I think, given secretarial training in London. My Aunt Ivy was quite an accomplished pianist and was encouraged in her music studies by Uncle Jack who provided a piano for her at some stage. She went to a 2 The Wilkin's of Haddenham convent school in Belgium, possibly because of her musical interest. She came back from Belgium by a somewhat adventurous route at the beginning of World War I and rejoined her family who were then living in Ealing. She worked at the Bank of England sorting out and dealing with 'dud' bank notes. Aunt Eileen went to a boarding school, St. Annes near Redhill, on the strength of a nomination by the Duchess of Bedford (the "Flying Duchess") who was an old friend of her Mother. Later she went to a domestic training college near Birmingham and then worked as a governess. A tape made in 1976 by Aunt Eileen for her grandsons, Stephen and Robin, is especially interesting and worth listening to as it gives a great insight to the lives of the three sisters in India, especially at Christmastime. The family tree shows that my Mother, Hester Margaret, also had 2 brothers but little is mentioned of them - we believe one died as a baby and the other at the age of two. Most of the photographs of the family in India were probably taken by my Grandmother's brother, Hugh Gordon Cotton, who was the Manager of the Ghatia Tea Estate, Jalpaiguri, Bengal. My Mother must have returned to Ampthill because she met and married my Father, Clement Richard Sharpe, in 1915. My Father was the son of William Thomas Sharpe, a building contractor inAmpthill. He served during World War I in the Royal flying Corps. My Mother and Father lived in Ampthill in a house named Chota-Koti (meaning small house in Hindustani). They played tennis and had a good social life. After 13 years of marriage I was born (1924) the same year that my Grandfather Sharpe died, so I never knew him but spent a lot of time in my growing up years with my Grandmother Sharpe who lived close to us. My sister, Pauline Patricia, was born in 1927 and that completed the family.We had some good times in our childhood, spending hours in make believe games,playing house, dressing up and most of it was between the two of us, sometimes joined by our older cousin, Mavis - as long as it wasn’t on a Sunday because she had a stricter upbringing than we did and games weren’t allowed on Sundays! To go back to 1924, and my Grandfather’s death; the business continued with my Uncle Norman (Norrie) handling the business side and my Father the supervision of the building side, labour, contracts etc. My sister and I often accompanied my Father as he supervised the building work on The Duke of Bedford’s Estate and for renovations on the Brewery’s public houses. I came to know the local area by where a public house or farm was rather than by street and village addresses. Something I was teased about later in life! I can remember having to visit a farm where work was being done by W.T. Sharpe Company and a case of foot and mouth disease in some of the nearby farms made it necessary for us to walk through a container of disinfectant to prevent the spread of the disease. This was very impressive to a young child Things changed a lot when my Father died of peritonitis at the age of 50. He had suffered from stomach ulcers for some time and as was the custom at that time spent many evenings in the local public houses where because of his medical condition - a little too late - they kept a glass of milk for him instead of the beer. Despite my Father’s equity in the family business, his interest in greyhound racing and other unfruitful pastimes had frittered away any part of that equity. There 3 The Wilkin's of Haddenham was only a Widow’s pension for my Mother and this was only enough to pay the rent on Chota Koti. My Mother started taking in boarders as a means of income. I left school at the age of 15 and worked in the cashier’s office of the local Department Store, taking private shorthand lessons in the evening. My Sister, Pauline, attendedLuton Technical College and by the mid 40s we were still living at home and able to contribute to the household expenses. Despite rather unusual and perhaps demanding circumstances due to my Mother’s aversion to going outside her home, I led a full life. I joined a Tennis Club (cycling three miles to and from), liked dancing, and was a member of the Youth Club. World War Two brought servicemen to our little town and I worked with the Women’s Voluntary Service in the canteen. Later I joined the Young Conservatives and the Amateur Dramatic Society. The Dramatic Society gave me some of the best times in my life up to that point. The War was now over and the opportunity to take annual vacations with girl friends occurred - I went to Wales, Torquay and the Isle of Man But people still weren’t going abroad. About 1949 my Grandmother, Lila Blanche, was unable to look after herself and came to live with us. This exposed me to the needs of the elderly and I was involved in much of her day -to -day care. She died in hospital in1950. After my maternal Grandmother’s death we began to persuade my Mother to go away to the seaside for two weeks in the summer. We stayed at cottages on the East Coast with my Aunt and Cousins. We had lovely holidays this way and it was great to see the change in my Mother once she was away from Ampthill. She was a straight forward lady in every sense of the word, with a sense of humour and a love of life. My fraternal Grandmother, the widow of W.T. Sharpe, Building Contractor, lived nearby and my sister and I often visited her. She was a very proper lady and would serve us glasses of homemade gingerette whilst we looked at her picture postcards through a bioscope. She died at the great age of 99 After two years I left the Department Store and went to work as a secretary at the Ampthill Rural District Council office and remained there for 13 years.

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