The Essex Family Historian Edition – December 2020 No

Edition No172 FAMILY HISTORIAN Journal ofTheEssexSocietyforFamilyHistory THE ESSEX December 2020 www.esfh.org.uk Essex Society for Family History For full information about the Society, please visit our website - www.esfh.org.uk At this time all our branch meetings are held online and open to all members. (see pages 7&8). We are still operating a Research Service (see page 48) however our Research Library at the Essex Record Office is closed until further notice.

Membership Rates Annual membership of the Society runs from 1st April until 31st March. For rates see table below or our website. For membership payment details please see our website or page 48:-

Membership Category Fees Payable Fees Payable (Paper Magazine) (Electronic Magazine) Single Member living in UK £16.00 £8.00

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Benefits of membership include:- l The Society has a Research Centre located at the Essex Record Office with an extensive collection of material that is useful to family historians. l Access to the ESFH Members only area of the website where members can find valuable data including in excess of 1.9 million genealogical records which are increased regularly. l Receipt of the H�� publication 3 times per year in March, August and December. l Capability to view or download from our website the latest issue of the H�� and copies of publications issued by other family history societies. l Access to an archive with a selection of back numbers of the H��. l Member Surname Interests - All members are able to update and advertise their own Surnames Interests online. l Concessionary Subscription Rates for www.findmypast.co.uk l Essex Gazetteer - members have access to a database which includes place names in "old Essex". The Essex Family Historian Edition – December 2020 No. 172 International Standard Serial Number: 0140 7503

Member of the Federation of Family History Societies • Registered Charity No. 290552

Regular features: FOR YOUR INFORMATION...... 4 FROM THE CHAIRMAN ...... 46 EDITORIAL ...... 5 SUMMARIES OF ONLINE NOTICEBOARD...... 6 PRESENTATIONS ...... 65 FORTHCOMING ONLINE MEETINGS...... 7 USEFUL WEBSITES ...... 81 THE SOCIETY’S BOOKCASE...... 25 SOCIETY INFORMATION...... 48 & 92

Index of Main Articles:

THE GREAT MIGRATION TO NEW ENGLAND by Robert Charles Anderson ...... 9 ESSEX AND SOMERSET LINKS by Peter Wynn ...... 13 NO! HE HAS NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN by Fred Feather...... 19 RECOLLECTIONS OF JOAN MARY YOUNG by Colleen Editor...... 21 CENSUS 1921 by Heather Feather ...... 24 A MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE by Tony Hunt ...... 33 PIRACY ON THE HIGH SEAS - IN TOLLESBURY! by Helen Matten ...... 36 THE BOY WHO RAN THE WRONG WAY by Tony Crompton...... 39 WHAT HAPPENED TO WITHAM’S FORGOTTEN ORPHANS? by Allison Gale BA...... 41 MINUTES OF THE SOCIETY AGM ...... 47 TRUSTEES’ REPORT ...... 49 JAMES COTTEE by Jean Roberts ...... 52 FINDING MONA by Heather Feather...... 56 EDUCATION IN LITTLE BADDOW by Alison Harker...... 59 CAMPBELL CLOSE - A CHELMSFORD STREET AT WAR by Rita Harris ...... 67 MERSEA MUSEUM - A SOURCE FOR FAMILY HISTORIANS by Tony Millatt ...... 71 SEARCHING FOR MY EAST ANGLIAN PLEDGER FAMILY by Eileen Blythe ...... 73 VASSALLS WITH NEW WORLD CONNECTIONS by Carole Mulroney...... 85 CHRISTENING RECORDS ADDED TO OUR GENEALOGY DATABASE...... 88 THE HASLER SURNAME - A ONE NAME STUDY by Norman Grove...... 90

The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Committee and Officers of the Society.

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Essex Family Historian No.172 3 December 2020 For Your Information PUBLICATION DEADLINES Copy deadline Thursday 31st December 2020 for material for consideration in the March or subsequent issues. The editions of the H�� each year come out at the beginning of March, August and December Editor: Colleen Devenish Ladybrook Main Road Woodham Ferrers Essex CM3 8RW Tel: 01245 429112 Email: [email protected] Advertisers offering professional or commercial services to members are accepted. Advertising costs for Black and White insertions are whole page £45, half page £35, quarter page £25. Colour costs available on request. All advertising subject to availability of space. The Society undertakes no responsibility for quality of services offered and members respond to these advertisements at their own risk.

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CONTRIBUTORS PLEASE NOTE Contributors are requested to limit their articles to 2000 words, other than by prior agreement with the Editor. Contributions should be sent in Microsoft Word format or plain text files (Microsoft Notepad) Graphics/photos preferably as separate JPEG files. Alternatively written or typed articles with photographs can be sent directly to the Editor at the address above. Photographs will be returned. Contributors should make every effort to trace and acknowledge ownership of all copyright material and secure permissions. The Editor needs to be aware of any problems with contributors acquiring copyright. Contributors should include their ESFH membership number. The use of material is at the discretion of the Editorial team and may be used in any print and electronic media relevant to ESFH.

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The Geographical Area covered by ESFH The area covered by ESFH is that of the old Essex county with the exception of ‘London Boroughs’ which are considered to be in the area of East of London FHS and Waltham Forest which is in the area of Waltham Forest FHS

Essex Family Historian No.172 4 December 2020 From the Editor So here we are nearly at the end of 2020 and festive cheer is sent to you via the two Edwardian postcards on the front cover! Following the commemoration of the 400 years since the Mayflower ship set sail I am delighted to be publishing an article by leading American genealogist, Charles Robert Anderson FASG. It highlights just how important Essex people were in the founding settlements of New England. The C�� D�� name Thomas Hooker appears in Charles’s article and the same person is referred to in the article by Alison Harker entitled Education in Little Baddow. It results in a puzzle about an Essex “fact” i.e. as to where Thomas Hooker lived and taught. More New World connections are highlighted in Carole Mulroney’s article about the Vassall family. Closer to home members Peter Wynn, Eileen Blyth and Tony Hasler quote medieval dates in their research giving rise to my thoughts of just how much dedication, time and effort people can give to tracing their ancestors. In other articles Allison Gale and Tony Hunt write about my favourite period of history, Victorian England. I hope readers enjoy the essays regarding WW2 stories from Rita Harris, Heather Feather and Tony Crompton, and yet another Tony (this time Tony Millatt) writes about the family history archive at the Mersea Island Museum. Even if your name is not Allison, Alison or Tony I thank all contributors on behalf of the members. David Eniffer, our incoming Chairman, gives his thoughts on page 51 and reminds us during these unusual times we can help each other with family history queries. One of the ways of letting other members know the surnames you are researching is by using the Surname Interest section on our website. Both members and non- members can check to see if other people are researching the same or similar surnames. Members have the advantage of being able to update and advertise their surname interests online which appear immediately under the Latest Surname Interest on the right hand side of the Home page on our website. All of us on the Executive Committee welcome your feedback and comments about any aspect of the Society. It is easy to get in touch with any of us by using the ‘Contact us’ tab on our website, or write to ESFH Research Library c/o Essex Record Office Wharf Road Chelmsford Essex CM2 6YT enclosing an SAE. Readers can also email me direct on [email protected]. Make 2021 the year you make the most of ESFH facilities. Happy Researching!

Essex Family Historian No.172 5 December 2020 Notice Board

COVID 19 As a result of the health emergency and subsequent government guide lines the Society is unable to advise when our normal activities will resume. Please keep in touch with your Society by one or all of the following facilities:-

n Our website – where news is put up on the front page n “Like” our Facebook page for regular announcements n Send us an email using the ‘Contact us’ tab on our website n Telephone or write to key members of the Executive Committee whose details are shown on the inside back cover Any member is welcome to join our regular presentations via Zoom, the cloud based conferencing tool. Details of the forthcoming presentations are on page 7.

The Importance of Proof by Kate Sansom (ESFH 31368) You may have spotted on page 10 and page 59 of this issue that there are slightly conflicting claims for the precise location of Thomas Hooker and John Elliot’s grammar school in Essex. This has a very clear bearing on our field of Family History. The pursuit and importance of evidence is one of the first things we are taught on the Postgraduate Certificate in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies at the University of Strathclyde – one of the leading genealogical education providers in the UK. We all know there is a lot of genealogical nonsense on the internet (the ancestor who lived to 150 years old anyone?!). Unfortunately many assume what they are seeing is true and do not check if any evidence was provided. This information is then accepted and reposted on another public family tree and so the myth is perpetuated, believed and becomes “fact”. The Genealogical Proof Standard is a system developed by the American Board for Certification of Genealogists which provides an extremely robust and accessible framework for the evaluation of evidence for everyone – hobbyists and professionals alike. The standard outlines how to really assess whether you have the facts straight, both the analysis of evidence AND the evidence of absence - both of which can be equally important. If you are interested in reading more about this, Elizabeth Shown Mills is a renowned expert on the subject and has videos on the topic available on You Tube, as well as her many articles and books.

Essex Family Historian No.172 6 December 2020 Forthcoming Online Meetings

Any member can attend any of the online meetings using the Zoom video conferencing tool however we must have details of your email address (see page 8). At the time of going to press details of future online meetings were yet to be confirmed and the talks may be subject to change so please always check our website under the Local Branches section for the latest information.

Headquarters Chelmsford 12th December 2020 10.30am - Pantomime and Music Hall through the Centuries - by Alan Ruston 12th December 2020 2.30pm - ‘Please Sir, I Want Some More’- the life and diet in the workhouses of Essex - by Helen Matten 16th January 2021 10.30am - My Ancestor Was a Liar by David Annal 16th January 2021 2.30pm - The Great Flood of Canvey Island by Janet Waldon 20th February 2021 10.30am - How to waste time searching the National Archives website by Ian Boreham 20th February 2021 2.30pm - How our Ancestors Died by Mark Carroll 27th March 2021 10.30am Workshop - TBA 27th March 2021 2.30pm - The Joys of Transcribing Church Records: A journey back to Saffron Walden by Mike Furlong West Essex 5th December 2020 2.30pm - Getting the best from the new Family Search website by John Hanson 2nd January 2021 2.30pm - Sold, Separated or Divorced by Ian Waller Throughout history marriages have always broken down having a significant effect on the family. Not everyone divorced but there are records recording desertion, wife sale, separation and divorce some of which needed an Act of Parliament. 6th February 2021 2.30pm - The Lloyd George Domesday (Valuation Survey) 1910-1915 and the National Farm Survey 1941-1943 by Gill Blanchard Discover why they were introduced, what records exist, where to find them and how to use them in family, house and local history research. North East Essex 19 December 2020 2.30pm - Christmas Food through the Ages by Simon Fowler 9th January 2021 2.30pm TBA 13th February 2021 2.30pm TBA 13th March 2021 - More Discoveries from Roman Colchester by Patrick Denney

Essex Family Historian No.172 7 December 2020 The Society needs your email address for you to be able to join online meetings We all yearn for a return to normality and the chance to meet again. Meanwhile, like many other organisations, we have to make the best of the current situation and make meetings, talks and the many resources on our website available for our members to participate from the safety of their own homes. Whilst it is appreciated that not everyone is able to access the internet, it may be that you simply need a helping hand to make that step. Please read the following guidance or let us know if you need further help and advice. When it is safe and practical to do so, we can resume normal meetings with the added value of broadcasting to those who cannot attend physically. As a start, please make sure that if you wish to participate in online meetings, as well as needing suitable equipment, the Society must be able to communicate with you by email in order for you to receive the link you will need to join the online meetings. This means that we must have a record of your current email address, and you must have given us permission to use it. If you have not previously given us an email address, please do so now, by emailing to [email protected] and asking for your email address to be added to our database. Your message should include your permission for us to use it to communicate with you. It will not be used for any other purpose by the Society. You will be able to use it yourself, however, to log into the Members’ Area of our website. If you have not previously used our Members Area, it is very straightforward. On your computer or handheld device, just go to www.esfh.org.uk then click on ‘MEMBERS LOGIN’ on the red panel at the top right of the homepage. The login screen will open where you can enter your email address and password. You will either have been allocated a password or chosen one when you joined. If you do not know your password, click on ‘Forgotten Password’. On the ‘Forgotten Password’ screen enter your email address and click ‘Send Password’. If the email address you entered matches the one on your membership record your password will be emailed to you. When you are successfully logged in, the red panel will expand to reveal a menu. Click on ‘Member Profile’ near the bottom. You will then see the information that we have about you. You may edit this at any time when anything changes. To receive emails from the Society, you must check the small box at the bottom that gives us permission to communicate with you by email. It should be blue with a white tick. Click on it to switch to this state. At the bottom of the page is where you may change your password. If you have received a password by email, you should change it when you first log in. Everyone is advised to change their password regularly. When you do make a change, remember that you will need to use your new e-mail or password next time you log in.

Essex Family Historian No.172 8 December 2020 The Importance Of Essex To The Great Migration To New England In The Early 1630’s

by Robert Charles Anderson FASG

The Great Migration to New England lasted from 1620 (the sailing of the Mayflower) until 1640 (when the calling of the Short Parliament signalled to some puritans that they might at last achieve their religious goals in old England). During those twenty years about twenty thousand English men, women and children crossed the Atlantic. During the first half of these twenty years, the pace of migration was relatively slow, with only a few dozen to a hundred or so individuals making the voyage each year. This all changed in 1630 with the sailing of the Winthrop Fleet. In early 1629 King Charles had issued a charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company, a group of West Country, London and East Anglian ministers and merchants who had long had an interest in overseas settlement. Under this charter, an advance party was sent in 1629 to the small settlement of Salem, Massachusetts, to be followed in 1630 by a much larger group, nearly a thousand emigrants led by John Winthrop, until that date lord of the manor at Groton, Suffolk.

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In the years immediately after the sailing of the Winthrop Fleet, the rate of migration slowed again, with only a few dozen to a few hundred new settlers coming to New England in each of the years 1631, 1632 and 1633. The situation changed again in 1634, with the number of immigrants arriving at Boston jumping to about 2500 in that one year and staying at that level for the remainder of the decade. In other words, about three-quarters of the participants in the Great Migration arrived in the last seven years of the twenty year period. We want to focus here on the three years between the arrival of the Winthrop Fleet in 1630 and the spike in the rate of the migration which began in 1634. During this interval of three years, the nature of the Great Migration changed, largely due to events which took place in Essex and to the people who participated in those events. For decades before 1628, Essex had been one of the hottest centers of puritan activity in England, but for much of that period, those who engaged in nonconform- ist activities had not been much bothered by the successive Bishops of London and their various ecclesiastical bureaucratic subordinates. But in 1628 William Laud, a longtime opponent of the puritans, was elevated to the post of Bishop of London and immediately began using the machinery of the various church courts in an attempt to root out and suppress puritan activities in his diocese. When William Laud took over as Bishop of London, the most influential (and to Laud the most dangerous) puritan in his diocese was Thomas Hooker, who had come to Chelmsford in 1625 and for the next four years served as schoolmaster at Great Baddow (where he rented a house) and town lecturer at Chelmsford. Within months of his elevation to Bishop of London, Laud began calling Hooker and several other neighbouring puritan ministers before the sittings of the church courts in various Essex parishes. Hooker soon went into a sort of internal exile at various Essex locations near Chelmsford, but by 1631 his position had become so precarious that he crossed the English Channel to the Netherlands where he became, for the next two years, minister to the English congregations at Amsterdam and then Delft.1 In 1625 or 1626, John Eliot of Nazeing, Essex, a recent graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge, joined Hooker as usher at the grammar school run by the latter at Great Baddow. By 1628 Eliot had been replaced as usher at that school by another recent Cambridge graduate. Although we do not have any contemporaneous records of Eliot’s movements, he had apparently returned to Nazeing and became the leader of private puritan religious activities in that part of Essex and in adjoining parts of Hertfordshire. The anti-puritan pressure from Bishop Laud must have reached John Eliot also, for in late 1631 he sailed for New England on the Lyon, along with his brother Jacob. (This vessel carried only a few dozen passengers. Along with the Eliot brothers were Governor John Winthop’s wife, Margaret, along with some of the Winthrop children and servants). John and Jacob Eliot first settled at Boston, Mas- sachusetts, where John was minister, but in 1632 they moved to the nearby town of

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Roxbury and were joined by such other Nazeing families as those headed by William Curtis, William Heath, Thomas Ufford and Edward Riggs. Many more families from Nazeing and vicinity would follow in later years, also settling at Roxbury.2 In 1632 several families from Braintree, Essex, sailed for New England and upon their arrival were referred to as “Mr. Hooker’s company.” These families were headed by John Talcott, William Goodwin, William Wadsworth and William Lewis. Thomas Hooker was still in the Netherlands at this time, but there must have been commu- nication between him and the Braintree migrants, for in 1633 Hooker left his post at Delft, made a brief stop in England and then sailed for New England, where he and his company settled at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Also crossing the Atlantic in 1633 were several families from Fairstead, Essex, including William Cornwall, James Olmstead, George Steele and John Steele. John Steele had married the sister of John Talcott of Braintree, and so most of these families also joined Thomas Hooker at Cambridge. The minister at Terling, immediately adjacent to Fairstead, was Thomas Weld, also an ardent puritan. He had sailed for New England in 1632 and settled at Roxbury, where he shared the pulpit with John Eliot. All of these families were part of a much larger network of Great Migration immigrants from Essex and Hertfordshire, many of whom came to New England in the years after 1633.3 One of these was Walter Desborough of Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, who had settled in Roxbury by 1634. He had been born at Saffron Walden, Essex, where his father, John Desborough, had for decades been the schoolmaster, a man of strong puritan beliefs who indoctrinated many of his students with his religious fervor. Another group of migrants to New England in 1633 were five Saffron Walden families: Samuel Bass, Cotton Flack, George Minot, Nicholas Parker and Thomas Pidge. Upon arrival in the New World, Flack settled at Boston, Minot at Dorchester, and the other three at Roxbury. In sum, about twenty families from Braintree, Fairstead, Nazeing and Saffron Walden, associated with ministers Thomas Hooker, John Eliot and Thomas Weld and schoolmaster John Desborough, came to New England in 1631, 1632 and 1633, forming a major portion of all the immigrants to Massachusetts Bay during those years. In 1633 William Laud was elevated from his post as Bishop of London to become Archbishop of Canterbury, from whence he could pursue and prosecute his puritan enemies throughout England. This change in venue for Laud was part of the reason that in 1634 and for the rest of the decade the number of immigrants from many English counties beyond Essex increased so dramatically, as shown in the chart above. And during this same period the number of migrants from almost every corner of Essex increased during those years as well.

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The importance of Essex to the critical period of the Great Migration in the years immediately after the sailing of the Winthrop Fleet in 1630 was not, however, limited to this transitional period before Laud gained control of the Church of England at all levels. In the 1620s and in the Winthrop Fleet in 1630, the migration was organized in a top-down manner. A few affluent laymen arranged for all the preparations for migration. A John Winthrop or a similar leader would arrange to purchase or lease a ship for the voyage, would subsidise the purchase and loading of all necessary provisions, and would recruit the passengers, making sure that there was a minister or two, along with a number of individuals with useful skills, such as soldiers, blacksmiths, housewrights and millwrights. But that began to change with the Essex immigrants of the early 1630s. For these groups, the migration was a bottom-up process. A charismatic puritan minister or a wealthy puritan layman would gather around him a few local families who would then proceed to the docks in London or one of the outports, where they would join other similar groups from other parts of England. They would pay for their passage on the ship and for their provisions, and would not worry much if the critical artisans mentioned above were available. The migration of Essex ministers and laymen to New England in 1631, 1632 and 1633 was important in keeping the fledgling Massachusetts Bay Colony alive in these early critical years. These immigrants also laid the groundwork for the much larger migrations of the years from 1634 to 1640, which could not have happened under the earlier top-down arrangement and were dependent on the more spontaneous bottom- up organization developed by these Essex men, women and children.

1. Robert Charles Anderson, “Thomas Hooker at Chelmsford, Essex, 1625-1631,” The Essex Journal 51 (2016):62-71. For a broader discussion of Laud’s activities in Essex from 1628 to 1633, see Tom Webster, Godly Clergy in Early Stuart England: The Caroline Puritan Movement, c.1620-1643 (Cambridge 1997), Part III, “‘These uncomfortable times’: conformity and the godly ministers 1628-1638.”

2. Robert Charles Anderson, Puritan Pedigrees: The Deep Roots of the Great Migration to New England (Boston, Massachusetts, 2018), Chapter Nine, “Arthur Hildersham and Walter Desborough.”

3. See Anderson, Puritan Pedigrees, 282-83 for a concise chart of this network.

Essex Family Historian No.172 12 December 2020 Essex & Somerset Links by Peter Wynn (ESFH 8940)

My mother’s family were Essex based. I almost feel they were attached by elastic bands that pulled them back if they moved too far away from Chelmsford! My father’s family were from Somerset and he met my mother when he was stationed in the army at Willingale shortly after the Second World War. I now suspect, but do not yet have proof, that there were links between my Somerset and Essex lines back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I have been able to trace some of my father’s family back to Richard and Silvester Bourne at Wiveliscombe in Somerset. The 1623 Visitation of Somerset showed that Richard was a son of Philip Bourne of Worcestershire. Richard’s brother, Gilbert, was the Bishop of Bath and Wells and before his appointment as Bishop had been the Archdeacon of Bedford and had the living of High Ongar. Silvester’s maiden name was Tybolde, but the pedigree in the visitation did not indicate anything about her ancestry. Fortunately the unusual spelling of her Christian name has allowed me with some confidence to trace her back to Seal in Kent. I am given further confidence in identifying the Seal origin of Silvester. The Kent Silvester’s sister, Dorothy, had married John Croke, MP. In 1548 it was recorded that a bill for the union of the parishes of Ongar and Greensted had been committed after its Second Reading to “Mr Croke”. Both John Croke and Gilbert Bourne had close associations with Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London: Croke as his Vicar-General and Bourne as his Chaplain. Again, aided by the unusual spelling of Silvester as a female Christian name, I have been able to establish a link between Richard Bourne and his wife Silvester and William Jones and his wife, Elizabeth (née Strachey) of Stowey in Somerset as shown in Figure 1. This link is of significance to me, as a Fellow of the Geological Society, because Elizabeth was sister to John Strachey II who presented a paper to the Royal Society on the geological structure of the Somerset coalfield. Data collected by Strachey is believed to have been subsequently used by William Smith “the father of English geology”, who carried out surveys of the Jones’ Stowey estate. I have found that both the Strachey and Jones families have links to Essex. Sir William Jones had married Elizabeth Alleyn, daughter of Edmund Alleyn of Hatfield Peveril, whose wife was descended from Richard Glascock of Chignall Smealey and Sir Thomas Josselyn of High Roding as illustrated in Figure 2. Elizabeth Strachey’s male ancestry can be traced back to Saffron Waldon as shown in Figure 3. Although he was by then living in London her grandfather, William Strachey III’s second wife Anne was daughter of William Bourne II of Greensted. Is it a coincidence that my research has found this network that links the Bournes of Worcestershire and Essex? Several on-line trees have concatenated the two families but detailed analysis shows these contain relationships that can be ruled out because of incompatible dates. However I believe that the marriages I have investigated do

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Figure 1

Figure 2

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Figure 3

Figure 4

Essex Family Historian No.172 14 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 15 December 2020 E�� S�� L�� demonstrate fairly extensive and continuing contacts between Essex and Somerset. For example Anne Strachey (née Bourne) was buried at Greensted in 1630 and a codicil to the will of William Strachey III referred to land in that parish. After the death of William Strachey III, his widow Elizabeth married Edward Baber. A descendant of this Edward’s brother married Florence Bourne, herself descended from the Richard Bourne and Silvester Tybolde of Figure 1. This further relationship is shown in Figure 4. A further point to note is that Elizabeth, the daughter of William Bourne I married Richard Glascock of Hatfield Broad Oak. The Glascock family were also strongly represented in Bobbingworth including the roles of Rector being held by Thomas Glascock from 1528 and Bartholomew Glascock from 1582. The transcripts of the Herald’s Visitations published by the Harleian Society unfortunately do not show a link with the Glascocks of Chignall shown in Figure 2 or the Glascocks of Good Easter and Great Dunmow, but I am sure such links exist. Neither have I been able to definitely link my mother’s ancestor, Anne Glascock, who married John Embleton at Sandon in 1748, but I’m working on it! Main Published Sources Used Anon. (1894-5) “The Stracheys of Sutton Court” William & Mary Quarterly Vol. 4 pp 192-194 & Vol. 5 pp. 6-10. Betham, W. (1805) The Baronetage of England Vol. 5 pp. 431-434 (Strachey). Colby, F.T. (1876) The Visitation of the County of Somerset for the Year 1623, Harleian Society p. 13 (Bourne), 53 (Hodges). Crisp, F.A. (1888) Sepulchral Monuments of Bobbingworth, Essex. Crisp, F.A. (1889) Abstracts of Somersetshire Wills (6 volumes) Dunning, R.W., Baggs, A.P. & Siraut, M. (1992) A History of the County of Somerset [Victoria County History] Vol. 6, The History Press. Fox, J. (2016) The History of Sevenoaks up to 1650 2nd edition on-line Chapter on Tebolds [Tyboldes or Theobalds] of Seal available at https://vulpeculox.net/history/wkw2016/pdf/XTTOZ.PDF French, E. (1917) “Genealogical Research in England: Josselyn” New England Historical & Genealogi- cal Register Vol. 71 pp. 19-33, 227-257. Hembry, P. (1967) The Bishops of Bath & Wells, Athlone Press pp. 88-91. History of Parliament Trust: Member biographies for John Croke (b. 1508/9), Sir William Jones (1630- 1682) available at https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/research/members Howard. J.J. (1888) A Visitation of Essex 1664-1668 pp. 38-39 (Glascock) Metcalfe, W.C. (1878) Visitations of Essex 1552, 1558, 1570, 1612, 1634, Miscellaneous Essex Pedigrees & Berry’s Essex Pedigrees Harleian Society pp. 4 (Bourne, 1552), 54 (Glascock, 1558), 65 (Josselyn, 1558), 129-130 (Wiseman, 1558), 133-134 (Alleyn, 1612), 156 (Bourne, 1612), 223- 225 (Josselyn, 1612),354-355 (Bourne, 1634), 406 (Glascock, 1634), 575-579 (Glascock, misc,), 604 (Strachey, misc.). Sanders, C.R. (1951) “The Strachey Family, Sutton Court and John Locke” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 59 pp. 275-296. Torrens, H.S. (2001) “Timeless Order: William Smith and the Search for Raw Materials 1800-1820” in Lewis, C.L. & Knell, S.J. (eds.) The Age of the Earth: from 4004 BC to AD 2002 Geological Society of London.

Essex Family Historian No.172 16 December 2020 Suffragette Planners and Plotters The Pethick-Lawrence Story by Kathryn Atherton Reviewed by Helen Matten (ESFH 31242)

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence’s obituary in The Times newspaper in 1954 noted that she had been; ‘A true orator with a great power of inducing sacrifice.’…‘all the colour and pageantry of the militant suffragette movement were due to her efforts’. She was ‘in the mainstream of Victorian philanthropy, but she brought… a sense of mission to her work which gave it permanence and something of greatness.’ So who was Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, and why was she so hailed? Surely it was Emmeline Pankhurst who should have been regaled as such! Emmeline Pethick was THE woman behind the whole Suffrage movement, who put her own money into a disorganised and penniless breakaway group of women under the auspices of Mrs Pankhurst, working from Manchester and unable to launch her campaign due to lack of funds, little business or organisational sense, and the shackles of her job in Manchester. Emmeline Pethick already ran her own business and set up holiday homes for young working girls in London, teaching them sewing, cookery, singing and dancing in order that they could improve their own lives. (She was credited with the advent of the ‘holiday camp’, later pioneered commercially by Billy Butlin). The ‘Esperance Girls’ as the girls became known, grew into a national troupe of singers and dancers, performing all over England. When Emmeline met and married Frederick Lawrence, he hyphenated their names in respect of his wife’s independence, and they both continued with their careers – he owned ‘The Echo’ a Left wing evening newspaper. Once Mrs Pankhurst heard of them, she immediately invited Emmeline to become the treasurer of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU); however, on hearing that there was no money, Emmeline at first declined. She was later persuaded by Mary Kenney to join. This book is the story of Emmeline and Frederick’s involvement in, and separation from, the WSPU which broke away from the Suffrage movement formed by Millicent Garret Fawcett. Within the first year they had raised over £20,000 in funds for the WSPU. They both went to prison for their involvement, and for ‘conspiracy’, but throughout their time they were adamantly against violence and the more militant actions. It was their objections to this which led to them being expelled from the movement by Mrs Pankhurst in 1912. Their relationship never recovered fully

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although the Pethick-Lawrence’s maintained a close relationship with Sylvia Pankhurst, who was more in tune with their way of thinking than with her mother’s views. Emmeline kept up the campaign for the vote throughout WW1 even though Mrs Pankhurst abandoned the campaign at the start of the War, but afterwards there was no money left, and she increasingly lost her supporters following the Representation of the People’s Act of 1918. The Pethick-Lawrence’s kept up the campaign for universal suffrage, a task that took them the rest of their lives. Emmeline campaigned all over the world and became the first Vice-President of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom born out of the International Women’s Congress for Peace in 1915, which included women delegates from USA, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Denmark and Belgium among others. She was a renowned international orator, invited to speak in India, South Africa and Ireland, as well as the USA and all over Europe. Fred Lawrence tried for many years to enter Parliament, only succeeding in gaining his seat in 1923 after winning the election in West Leicester against Winston Churchill! He became the Leader of the Opposition in January 1942 and was one of three Labour politicians who took the role in the Coalition Government of 1940-5. At the age of 75 he was made 1st Baron Lawrence of Peaslake (their Surrey home) before travelling to India for discussions about their Independence. This couple were inspiring, tireless and unfailing in their support of the Women’s Suffrage movement despite having been imprisoned, force-fed, bankrupted by the government and expelled from the WSPU (which Fred never actually belonged to!). They continued their work into old age, maintaining good working relationships with many of their former suffragette campaigners, who worked with them and for them, being embraced into the Pethick-Lawrence ‘family’. The book is a detailed study of their lives throughout the first half of the twentieth century, and one I found it hard to put down. Millicent Garrett-Fawcett was made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1926, and Christabel Pankhurst was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 1936 despite spending her life post-war in California. Emmeline Pankhurst was commemorated with a Bronze statue in Manchester (and recently in Parliament Square), but Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence has not been recognised at all. Maybe this book will redress this miscarriage of justice and put her where she undoubtedly deserves to be. Published by Pen and Sword Books, www.pen-and-sword.co.uk at £19.99

Essex Family Historian No.172 18 December 2020 No! He Has Not Been Forgotten By Fred Feather (ESFH 27-366)

A policeman who died on duty 106 years ago is honoured The Essex Police Memorial Trust is a group of serving and retired Essex policemen and women who seek to preserve the memories, memorials and sometimes the graves of their colleagues who died violently whilst on duty. Formed in 1974 it meets quarterly under the Presidency of the Chief Constable and the chairmanship of his deputy. Usually we only look after graves where the deceased has no living relatives. Local police registers show officers from 1840, sometimes with just a brief comment on how they died. From 1840 until 1965 Romford was policed by the County Constabulary and since then by the Metropolitan Police. Two entries refer C�� W�� to colleagues who qualify for investigation �� . by the Trust. One was Inspector Tom Simmons, murdered in 1885, who is surviving. His wife had the maiden name buried in Crow Lane Cemetery and who Cullam and this name was not unknown the Trust has commemorated with a in Southend, his first posting. A retired fine memorial adjacent to the road from Southend Constabulary policewoman Rainham and close by the scene of his was known to have that maiden name. death. The other was Constable Joseph She knew of a Southend officer who had Watt, who died, aged 32, gallantly trying married a girl called Iris from Romford. to stop a runaway horse and cart in He was called Henry Hemson, had joined 1913, close to the Market Place. He too after the Great War, had three daughters is buried in Crow Lane Cemetery, but in and retired with the rank of Detective an unmarked grave. Once it is known Chief Inspector with an O.B.E. medal. that an officer has surviving relatives the Our policewoman recalled that one of his Trust defers to their right to supervise a daughters had married a policeman from grave. Because it was thought that Mr South Benfleet. We, of course, were Watt’s grave was that of his wife, it has unable to use police resources in our not been part of the annual inspection search, but the enquiry ultimately led us carried out of all the Essex graves under to Joseph Watt’s granddaughter Valerie the Trust’s attention. White in Pickering, North Yorkshire. Once we had investigated his grave we From her we obtained a photograph of sought to find if he had any descendants Watt.

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Now that the occupant of the Crow up by the famous philanthropist Andrew Lane grave was identified and surviving Carnegie. The museum in his birthplace, relatives traced, the Trust’s interest Dunfermline, has a beautifully illustrated moved to the place of his demise: High “Roll of Honour” in which Watt’s name Street, Romford, close by the Market appears and the fund had contributed to Place and the fine Museum of Havering. his daughter’s education. With the help of the staff an agreement So it is that on Friday 13th September was made for the Trust to purchase a 2019, 106 years after his death, a suitable plaque and for it to be fitted memorial to him was installed in the outside the museum and close to the town in which he served. This ceremony scene of the 1913 incident. was attended by the Mayor of Havering It was then discovered that Constable and the local Member of Parliament, Watt’s gallantry had attracted the senior officers of Essex Police and attention of the Carnegie Hero Fund, set the Metropolitan Police, members of the Essex Police Memorial Trust, the national Police Roll of Honour Trust and more importantly three descendants. His granddaughter travelled from North Yorkshire. The plaque was unveiled by B.J. Harrington, the Chief Constable of Essex and President of the Essex Police Memorial Trust. The Trust members are proud to be associated with the Museum of Havering, which may in time display the full details of Joseph Watt’s gallantry.

Fred Feather, Treasurer, Essex Police Memorial O�� M�� H�� Trust

Essex Family Historian No.172 20 December 2020 Recollections of Joan Mary Young (née Osborn) 1907-1988

Introduction by Colleen, Editor Readers may recall that in Part 1 of Joan Mary Young’s story we left her having just started work in 1926 in the office of the Medical Officer of Health in Chelmsford and there she met her future husband William Young, but hang on, I am getting ahead of her story – now back to Joan.

Part 2 Marriage and Family I started work with the Public Health Department in Prudential Buildings, Chelmsford on 1st October 1926. At first my duties lay in the General Office, besides this office which dealt with Public Health matters, there were three sections – School Medical Service, Maternity and Child Welfare and Treatment of Tuberculosis. As I came from Kelvedon by a train arriving at 8.30am I used to fetch the letters from the post box and carry them upstairs and get on with the task of slitting them all open. They were then opened and sorted into piles – routine and special for each section – and personal ones put aside – and the chief of each section had to sort out those which required instructions from Dr Bullough, Dr Puddicombe, his Chief Assistant, or other members of the medical staff. Most of the clerical staff came from round about Chelmsford, though Mr Allsupp of the TB department came in from Westcliff and Mr Guymer from Maldon. As my work included delivering letters and messages to the other County Offices, I gradually got to know a good many of the County staff. After a few months I was promoted to a place in the Tuberculosis section but I was not there long as after a very short time I was moved to the Child Welfare section where I stayed until I left in 1934. The Public Health department moved in 1931 to the new County Hall, but I was never so happy or comfortable. The building was so vast, and the department grew and new appointments were constantly being made. Our Child Welfare room was on the inner side looking into the well – an L shaped room. We were on the third floor, with the Architect’s Department on the floor below and two floors of Accountants below that. I now travelled F�� O�� J�� by bus, as the Moore’s buses began going direct M�� O�� between Chelmsford and Colchester.

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In addition to Maternity and Child Welfare our section dealt with the treatment of Orthopaedics, Minor Ailments in children under five, and adminis- tered the Combined Medical and Nursing Services in the County – also the County Council was the local Authority under the Midwives Acts. I found the work absorbing and was sorry to leave in July 1934 when I married William in Feering Church that month. We made our first home at 43 North Road, Brentwood. I undertook voluntary work at the Women’s Welfare and Ante-natal clinics in Queen’s Road until Ann was born at Oldchurch Hospital in June 1938. By then the threat of war was over-shadowing Europe and, on our return from a holiday in Somerset when Ann was three months old, we saw as we came through W�� Y�� M�� J�� London Mr Neville Chamberlain in a car with Lord M�� Y�� Simon waving the prized bit of paper on his return from Berchtesgaden. War broke out the next year and towards the end of September my husband took me and Ann (and Terry the dog) to his cousin’s farmhouse in Somerset – Church Farm, Walton in Gordano near Clevedon. Here with Ted and Mabel and Charles Henry (“our Char”) I was very comfortable at first. There were other organised evacuees in the village but as the phoney war went on these gradually drifted back to London and I began to long for my home. At last at the end of November I managed to persuade William to fetch us and was very thankful to be home, come what may! He was an Air Raid Warden and was out a great deal on duty and on courses of training for Instructor and our house became a Wardens’ Post. When the air raids began in August 1940, we all tended to sleep either in shelters or at least downstairs. I took Ann J�� M�� Y�� A�� down to our garden shelter for some time, and on �� 21 October 1940 North Road received a direct hit, several houses were destroyed, and all our front windows were broken, and a ceiling came down. My husband was now on duty every night coping with the many alerts and incidents and the results! He snatched a short nap after his evening meal and then about 7pm the sirens went again and off he had to go. There were a number of paid whole-time wardens, but he carried on his job and acted as a Group Warden at the Post which was now at Park Road. By the latter part of 1942 things seemed a Essex Family Historian No.172 22 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 23 December 2020 R�� J�� M�� Y��

little better and we were beginning to sleep upstairs again, and my husband had every other night at home. Mary was born in July 1943 and the siren went on her first night and she stopped crying to listen. However then came the era of the Doodlebug rocket V1 and V2 missile. These came at all times of the day or night and there was no warning. Somehow we carried on a more or less normal life. Ann went to school and we managed as best we could with the rations. The children had whooping cough early in 1944 and William caught it too, and I had to take both children twice weekly to the local hospital A�� M�� Y�� for sun-ray treatment. Then in 1945 came the peace – VE Day in May and VJ Day in August. The raids ceased – there were street parties – but the rationing stayed and indeed became even stricter. In 1946 William obtained a post as Senior Inspector of Weights and Measures at the Colchester location and in February 1947 we moved to 42 Layer Road, Colchester. We moved to our new home on a bitterly cold day, we had a long spell of very cold weather that spring of 1947, but we had got used to it and at least it was dry! We soon settled in – registered for rations at Mr Wootton’s in Butt Road, joined the library, then in West Stockwell Street, and Ann started school at St. John’s Green. We lived right opposite the Colchester United Football Ground and liked seeing the crowds at the matches – then mainly on Saturday afternoons. Living seemed more expensive than at Brentwood, but we thought the food was better and thoroughly enjoyed it. Rationing was very tight and got even worse – even bread and potatoes being restricted. My father-in-law died suddenly soon after we moved and my mother-in-law sold White House, Boyton Cross, Roxwell, and came to live with us, having the back room downstairs as her bed- sitting room. What with all the various rationing procedures, points, bread units, clothing coupons, etc., life was rather complicated but we were young and we liked Colchester. My husband cycled to his office at 145 Shrub End Road or used a County Council car, and I got to Kelvedon to see my mother or to the seaside with the children by bus. �� Y�� Part 3 of Joan’s diary, Family Life is to follow in the March 2021 issue.

Essex Family Historian No.172 22 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 23 December 2020 Census 1921 by Heather Feather (ESFH 366)

On Tuesday August 11th 2020 The Daily industries, education, further education, Telegraph reproduced an item from transport, housing and old age pensions. their issue of Wednesday August 11th It was considered that the knowledge of 1920 entitled “NEXT YEAR’S CENSUS” the extent of the traffic between the place “What the forms will ask”. The article is of work and the residence would be very too long to be reproduced here so I have important in assessing housing, over- picked some salient points to give you an crowding and transport. “Continuation idea of what sort of information you may schools” for further education would be find when the 1921 census is released. set up and the census information would help with the decision of where they A press conference had taken place would be. The number of dependants in the previous afternoon at the Ministry of a family would assist in the provision of Health and was presided over by Mr S.P. pensions rather than a lump sum being Vivian, Deputy Registrar–General. provided under possible modifications to The census was to be taken on the the Workmen’s Compensation Act. last Sunday of April, slightly later in the No questions would be asked about year than previous censuses, to allow religion, military service or illegitimacy. the enumerators to take advantage of The question of divorce was raised and the additional daylight, particularly in Mr. Vivian stated that that was uncertain. industrial areas. A saving of £8,000 on The heading would be “Whether married, previous years would be made owing widowed or single” and it was felt that to a reduction in the size of the census some divorced people would say they schedule so using less paper, but the were married and some that they were provisional cost would be about £500,000 widowed. The penalty for supplying false due to higher wages and the depreciation information was doubled from £5 to £10. of money value. By using “mechanical tabulating The forthcoming bill which dealt with the machinery” it was hoped to have a census included the possibility of holding provisional return available by June. I a census every five years, though the wonder how long it will take in 2021! information gathered would be limited. It was felt that a ten year gap was too Findmypast has been awarded the long for an accurate basis on which to contract to digitise the 1921 census. Its estimate the population and the rate of website says that the census was taken mortality. on June 19th 1921 and will be published online in January 2022. No decision has Under the bill it was proposed to leave been made yet as to the cost of viewing out the “fertility” inquiry – the number of the records of your ancestors but let’s children born and living in the case of hope that they all told the truth! existing marriages. No inquiries would be made about infirmities but there would probably be questions as to occupation,

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The Society’s Bookcase

A Review of Books for the Family Historian

The following book reviews are written by Eric Probert one of our experienced long time members. They are not all recent publications but books he has found interesting and useful. He has included the Recommended Retail Price (RRP) however many of the publications are available at reduced prices using web based book sellers or second-hand bookshops. In most cases a copy of the book is available at our Research Centre based at the Essex Record Office (ERO) Chelmsford or in the ERO library. Alternatively they may be obtained through your local public library. Contact details for the publishers can be found on page 32.

Sex and Sexuality in Victorian Britain Published by Pen and Sword Books Violet Fenn is a Shropshire lass and the author of this illustrated 120 page hardback. Violet is a writer who has specialised in frank and straightforward investi- gations into sexual practices and changing attitudes towards sex and morality. In the book she sets out to demonstrate how attitudes to male and female sexual behaviour were often determined by those in authority wielding power. Violet also explores the ingenious, surprising, sometimes bizarre and often entertaining ways in which the Victorians faced the challenges of maintaining healthy sex in an era of sin and censure.

Initially the author considers the unwritten rules of fashion and courtship before exploring virginity, pre-marital sex and the curse of illegitimacy. Next she draws our attention to the situation concerning marriage, divorce and adultery and then describes the rise in commercial pornography. Sexual health and contraception are discussed next followed by an exploration of prostitution, murder and homosexuality. The final chapter examines the sexual connotations in the art and literature of that time and there is a section entitled “What have the Victorians ever done for us” in which the author highlights the positives of the legacy in improved contraception and sexual health, progress towards equality between the sexes and easier divorce for women.

At £19.99, this book is an informative, warm hearted and fascinating insight into this intriguing topic during the reign of Queen Victoria, when there were huge social

Essex Family Historian No.172 25 December 2020 T�� S��’� B�� and economic changes. It is in parts an amusing publication that will assist readers towards understanding the large families of our Victorian ancestors.

Tracing Your Ancestors in Lunatic Asylums Published by Pen and Sword Books Michelle Higgs, a social historian and writer of several books including some in the “Tracing Your Ancestors” series and articles in the popular genealogical magazines, is the author of this 195 page illustrated paperback. It offers a practical guide to the history of lunatic asylums and their inmates for family historians. Michelle focuses on the Victorian era but continues the story up to the establishment of the NHS and covers many types of mental illness and their treatment in Great Britain and Ireland. The book commences with a chapter on care of the mentally ill prior to 1800 before considering institutions of the 19th and 20th centuries. The differing mental illnesses are then considered in detail before we take a look at life inside asylums and then examine the mentally ill supported within workhouses. Further chapters explore criminal lunatics, idiots, imbeciles and mental illnesses in the armed forces, as now, is not overlooked. Throughout the book the author presents case studies to reinforce the learning and the final chapter provides details of a wide range of both archival and online sources with examples to carry out research. There are also appendices of glossary of terms found in lunatic asylum records, a brief list of useful websites and a few suggestions on museums to visit plus a bibliography of relevant publications and an extensive index.

At £14.99 this book is a useful in depth account of the nature and work of British mental institutions for those considered insane. If, like me, you have a relative who was incarcerated in an asylum (Friern Barnet in Hertfordshire, see www.friern- barnet.com for pictures of the former asylum included in this site of over 10,000 images of the area) you will better understand how the stigma and shame of mental illness and the resultant treatment that shaped their lives.

All Things Georgian Published by Pen and Sword Books

This hardback publication, richly illustrated with over 100 pictures in colour, including portraits and caricatures, is written by Lincolnshire historical biographers and genealogists, Joanne Major and Sarah Murden. The book was triggered by the accidental discovery of an 18th century courtesan during research. It is sub-titled “Tales from the Long Eighteenth Century” and so, 25 true stories, mainly from around England are revealed in near chronological order within the 170 pages. You will encounter

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mistresses, whores, high-born ladies, politicians, inventors, royalty and criminals. Following an introduction in which the authors explain why this era is so special and introduce a timeline of 18th century events, we embark on a journey throughout the land and learn about the exploits of these colourful characters and incredible events. Included is the Venus of Luxembourg and Louis XIV of France, the Velvet Coffee Woman - Polly Peachum, the female bone setter – Crazy Sally, the ass (actually a zebra) of Queen Charlotte, the infamous and abandoned Emily Warren and astronomer William Hershel and his sister Caroline. Also featured is actress Anna Maria Crouch, mistress of George, Prince of Wales, and the Norwich Nymph (a female jockey), William Millard Superintendent of Anatomy at St Thomas’s Hospital and Caroline Crachami, the Sicilian Fairy. The book is complete with notes and source references for each of the stories.

The authors have brought the Georgian era of change to life with these amazing happenings and entertaining characters. As many family historians are able to trace their ancestry back to the middle of the 18th century, as well as an entertaining read this book will go a long way towards providing an informed historic background in which their ancestors lived. The book is priced at £25.

Women’s Lives and Clothes in WW2 Published by Pen and Sword Books This 290 page illustrated hardback is a worldwide combination of historical fashion and memoirs of veterans and holocaust survivors. The author is Lucy Adlington, an experienced dress historian and collector owner of the History Wardrobe Company and the illustrations in the book include previously unpublished images from her collection. The author explores in particular clothes, fashion, accessories and uniforms as worn by housewives, service personnel and even spies. She has interviewed a wide variety of women who lived during the war and immediately afterwards and also drawn on sources from her own archives and collections. On the passage through the book you will encounter luxury fashion, bridal wear, enticing lingerie, thrifty repaired clothes plus essential air raid wear and sparse garments in concentration camps. You will meet a variety of women from those piloting an open cockpit

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Russian bomber, models on a catwalk in occupied Paris, songsters in New York’s Harlem district and firewatchers in Tokyo Japan. The nineteen chapters are themed and include an examination of volunteers and service women, dressmaking, the industrial and agricultural workplaces, aviation, high street fashion, underwear and the black market. In addition there are chapters on travel on the high seas, leisure activities, cosmetics and grooming, matrimony, maternity and childcare, air raids, medical staff, internment prisons and concentration camps and life in the aftermath of war which explore these topics in depth. There are a multitude of illustrations, many in colour, which include photographs of civilians and service women, posters, advertisements, patterns and throughout the book quotations are highlighted. There are extensive chapter by chapter notes to the text, a bibliography which extends to 10 pages and a comprehensive index.

At £30, a well-researched and presented book which provides a colourful insight into the life, exploits and heroism of the British and other women in diverse roles during WW2.

A New World in Essex Published by Campanula Books. This 187 page illustrated paperback is subtitled “The Rise and Fall of the Purleigh Brotherhood Colony, 1896-1903”. The author is Victor Gray former Essex County Archivist and Director of the Rothschild Archive. This is the story at the end of the reign of Queen Victoria of a Group of Christian Socialists from Croydon who, inspired by the writings of Tolstoy, decided to revert to living off the land and create a Utopian rural colony. The study traces the history of this experiment in community living and documents the struggle to survive and the reasons for the ultimate failure. The author initially describes the beginning of the movement under John Coleman Kenworthy and the links to the Brotherhood Church and its publications, the move to Croydon in the 1890s, and the search for an affordable colony site which ultimately was located on the Essex Dengie Peninsular in the hamlet of Cock Clarks in the parish of Purleigh. Victor Gray then details the distractions experienced by the Colonists who were joined by Tchertkoff and the Maudes before the Settlement became disrupted by outside influences which led to a decline in the enterprise with colonists drifting away and its ultimate demise. The reasons for the collapse are then examined before finally the considerable legacy of the Brotherhood members is explored. Appendices reproduce the 14 articles of the Purleigh Colony Constitution of 1899, the approximate funds of the Colony in the same year, and an extensive bibliography, comprehensive notes to the text and a useful index containing many personal names.

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This is a well-researched detailed study of this social undertaking which will appeal to those with an interest in rural social history at the end of the 19th century and especially those with Essex ancestors on the Dengie Peninsular.

Introducing Family History Published by Family History Books The prolific and experienced writer and genealogist, Stuart Raymond has produced this 2020 second edition of a book first published by the Family History Partnership in 2006. The softback is fully illustrated in colour and black & white and comprises 101 A5 sized pages.

As you would expect from the title the book is aimed at beginners and the author sets out to provide the basic guidance for starting family history research whilst bestowing an understanding of the nature of the sources. The book is in 6 parts. Following a page on “How to get started”, Part 1 offers advice on note taking and filing documents. In Part 2 the places and sources of information to pursue family research including the internet, books, libraries, archives, and family history societies is detailed. Part 3 covers the main primary sources, which include civil registration indexes and certificates, census indexes and returns, parish registers, memorial inscriptions and non-conformist and Catholic records, are fully explored. Having constructed a basic family tree (ancestral chart), Part 4 examines the sources that enable life histories of ancestors to be determined. These secondary sources include military, poor law, education and occupation records, newspapers and trade directories. In Part 5 the author briefly highlights pitfalls that may be encountered in connection with surnames and locations. The book is focused on the records of England and Wales so in Part 6 the author very briefly considers the records available for Ireland and Scotland.

Throughout the text there are useful coloured background panels highlighting salient points, false assumptions, further reading, and relevant websites. There are many examples of records to be searched. The book is complete with appendices listing abbreviations and acronyms and the Chapman County codes plus a subject index.

The book is useful for those beginning their family history research in England and Wales and also those who wish to embellish their basic family tree with life histories of their ancestors. It is priced at a modest £8.95.

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Reading Early Handwriting, 1500-1700 Published by the British Association for Local History This is a significantly expanded third edition of a book published originally in 1988. It is an 87 page illustrated A5 sized paperback published in 2019 by the British Association for Local History (BALH) written by Mark Forrest. Mark is a specialist in Medieval and later English taxation records and manorial documents and a former county record office archivist. The author has set out to provide a guide to the handwriting of the 16th to 18th centuries as well as a compendium of the potential pitfalls within the documents such as dates, numbers, names and measurements.

In the introduction Mark Forrest points out that it is essential to read what is actually written and highlights 6 actions to assist in this process. Initially model alphabets are reproduced and the two main styles of writing, Secretary Hand and Italic are examined as well as more traditional Court Hands. The use of abbreviations, ligatures and contractions are explained and then Christian names explored. Next, two, now obsolete letters, are highlighted before the author turns his attention to transcribing and the rules and conventions to be followed. Fifty pages of the book are then devoted to a variety of twenty five example documents and associated transcriptions together with a brief commentary.

At a cost of only £10 a concise but really useful reference book and practical guide for family, local or social historians researching documents created in the 18th century and earlier encompassing the Stuart and Tudor periods. It will assist users to develop their palaeography skills to accurately transcribe documents of the past.

Essex in Photographs Published by Amberley Books Here is a collection of 126 iconic photographs of Essex buildings, landmarks, structures and scenes. The photographer is Justin Minns an East Anglian professional photographer, author and workshop leader, who specialises in atmospheric images which capture the natural beauty of the landscape (www.justinminns.co.uk). He is a winner of the prestigious “Landscape Photographer of the Year” award. The photographs are arranged in four themes – Sand and Sea, Town and Country, Salt Marsh and Estuary and Landmark and Legend. You will discover vibrant seaside towns, crumbling cliffs, lonely salt marshes, secret islands, gentle rivers, inspirational countryside in addition to ancient forests, picturesque villages with quaint cottages and historic market towns. Selecting a few photograph titles at random illustrates the wide variety of subjects. Featured is Thaxted Guildhall, Grayson Perry’s house at Wrabness, a misty morning at

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Sandford Mill, Beeleigh Abbey, Mistley Towers, Greenstead Church, Mountness- ing Windmill, Bulmer Brickworks, Anti- submarine booms at Shoeburyness, and Sunrise at Audley End House. However my favourites are Dedham Church in the mist and Tollesbury Old Granary. A collection of stunning pictures by a really gifted photographer which encapsulates the history, heritage, beauty and rich character of Essex. Every reader proud of our county should have this book on their bookshelf to remind them of the natural beauty surrounding them and to highlight to visitors the delights they can enjoy. But don’t just take my word for it. Visit the author’s website to take a sneak preview of 60 wonderful images of Essex. A paperback priced at £17.99.

Churchyards Published by Amberley Books In the Britain’s Heritage Series this 64 page paperback, abundantly illustrated mostly with colour photographs, has been written by Roger Bowdler. Roger studied the History of Art at Cambridge University before completing a PhD in 17th century Church Monuments and becoming a Research Associate at the University of London, Institute of Historical Research. He commences the book with a basic introduction to all aspects of churchyards from monuments to trees and other vegetation before recounting the history of churchyards up to the year 1700 taking in boundary walls, monuments, grave markers, crosses, lytch gates and stocks. In the next chapter the author explains the history since 1700, describing the elaborate tombs, monuments and ornate entrances to be found. The next chapter concentrates on detailing all the variations of tombs, gravestones and monuments to be found. Subse- quently the author focuses on monumental inscriptions and explains the epitaphs and symbolism involved. The next chapter considers the care and maintenance of churchyards whilst in the final chapter there is advice on the publications and websites

Essex Family Historian No.172 30 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 31 December 2020 T�� S��’� B�� from which you can learn more. Throughout the text significant facts are highlighted in “Did you know” panels. As an example Painswick in Gloucestershire has the highest number (over 80) of listed, and thus protected by regulations, monuments in any churchyard in England. Examples of a wide variety of monuments from all over Britain are presented.

Priced at £8.99 this is a precise introduction to Britain’s churchyards, which will enable you to fully exploit the churchyard as a source of family history information and unlock the stories of past generations. After all for many of our ancestors this was their last resting place. Contact details of the publishers in this review are:- Pen and Sword Books Ltd British Association for Local History Tel: 01226 734222 Tel: 01625 664524 www.pen-and-sword.co.uk www.balh.org.uk Campanula Books Amberley Publishing [email protected] Tel: 01453 847800 www.campanulabooks.uk www.amberley-books.com Family History Books Tel: 01263 824951 www.familyhistorybooksonline.co.uk I I I

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Essex Family Historian No.172 32 December 2020 A Melancholy Occurrence by Tony Hunt (ESFH 2968)

When the General Register Office began experimentally to supply uncertified PDF copies of entries in their registers for little over half the price of birth, marriage or death certificates, I checked and found that I knew nothing about the death of my great-great-grandfather, James Last of Kelvedon, even though he died after the registration of births, deaths and marriages began in 1837. The £7 paid to the GRO was excellent Last, a journeyman miller, who has value. James Last had been no more worked for many years for Mr Docwra, than a name on my tree but now, tragic of Kelvedon, left his home, as his family as it was, I had a glimpse of the man and supposed, to take a walk in the Witham his times. Road, not being able to work, owing to ill-health. Dinner-time came, and, as James was the son of John Last and he did not make his appearance, they his wife Sarah (Spurgeon) and at his thought he might have gone for a ride christening on 11 August 1805 a note was with a neighbour, who was known to made in the Baptism Register of St Mary be out, but who returned later in the the Virgin, Kelvedon that he had been day without having seen him. They born on 27 June 1805. James had three then became alarmed, and search was brothers including Henry, the youngest, made in different directions. The brother, and a sister. At Kelvedon on 19 July accompanied by police constable William 1827 James married Lucy Spooner from Martin, proceeded along the river, and Tolleshunt Knights. Census entries show at eight o’clock in the evening, in a him to have been a journeyman miller. meadow about three-quarters of a mile The GRO register entry told me he from Kelvedon, they found his hat, and was 47 when he died on 29 June 1853 a few yards off they saw the deceased though, by my calculation, it was actually in the river, where he appeared to have two days after his 48th birthday. To my been for some hours. The body was surprise the cause of his death was conveyed back to Kelvedon, to await the “Suicide by Drowning, Temporary Mental Coroner’s inquest; and the melancholy Derangement”. event, as may be readily supposed, created the greatest sensation among I turned to Findmypast for the Essex the inhabitants. Little doubt exists but newspapers from around that date with that the act was one of self-destruction.” instant success. Two papers reported the Inquest and another had a report On 5 July The Essex Herald reported the the previous week about the search for Inquest as follows: James. “INQUEST AT KELVEDON - On Saturday, The Essex Standard for Friday 2 July an inquest was held in the above town, 1853 reported: before W. Codd, Esq., coroner, on the body of James Last, a journeyman miller, “KELVEDON - MELANCHOLY aged 47. The deceased who, previous OCCURRENCE – On Wednesday to his death, was in the employ of Mr. forenoon, about eleven o’clock, James Geo. Docwra, miller, of Kelvedon, left

Essex Family Historian No.172 33 December 2020 A M�� O�� his home in the morning, after breakfast, addicted to drinking, in the course of the stating it to be his intention to take a walk forenoon, unsuccessfully applied to a and return by eleven o’clock: he did not labourer, named George Evis, for the do so, and the last time he was seen immediate loan of £5, but William Finch, alive was between 11 and 12 o’clock on a dealer, agreed to advance him at night Wednesday morning, when his brother, £4.10s. which deceased promised to Henry Last, also a miller, saw him at return on the following Saturday. Mr. the Angel Inn. Henry then spoke to him Varenne deposed he had been attending about some difficulties his (deceased’s) the deceased for an affection of the master had found in the book concerning brain; some time since he had delirium a customer, and gave him the particulars, tremens and symptoms of congestion of upon hearing which he appeared to be the brain and kidneys; he (Mr. V.) was much confounded, and leaned against not at all surprised to hear the circum- a wall apparently in a dejected state of stance of his death. The above facts mind. He had been unwell for some having been proved in evidence, the jury weeks, and after his brother left him he returned a verdict of “Temporary mental proceeded along the Witham road. The derangement.” brother, having called at deceased’s The Chelmsford Chronicle, three days house that same evening, and found that later, also reported the inquest but with he had not been home since the morning, less detail. went with W. Martin p.c. in search, and between seven and eight o’clock in the Initially I wondered if the coroner evening they found his lifeless body face had overlooked the possibility of an downwards in the river, at a part between accidental death given that the court had four and five feet in depth, at the bottom been told James had been drinking and of Mr. Dennis’s field, in which there is no he might have tripped and fallen in the footpath, and three-quarters of a mile water. On the other hand he appeared from Kelvedon. About 25 years ago, to have sought out a very private spot the unfortunate man received a heavy where there would be little chance of blow in the mill, which cut his head open, anyone intervening and, if he had fallen of the effects of which he had often, in accidentally, he would surely still have and within the last fortnight particu- had his hat on his head. I am sure the larly, complained; in addition to this, he jurors reached the right conclusion and some years since exhibited symptoms probably some of them had known of derangement. By the evidence of James. Mr. Docwra, it appears that deceased Though the newspaper reports contained had been employed in his (Mr. D.’s) mill so much about James Last’s life and from childhood; and during the last six death, there was one omission that months, it had been repeatedly intimated worried me. Long ago I went through the that suspicions were entertained that Kelvedon parish registers noting events there was something incorrect in the involving members of the Last and Cutts books, which deceased did not deny, but families and neither in my notes nor in appeared mortified. For several months any indexes now (Ancestry, Findmypast) past he seemed to be incapacitated was there a reference to James’s burial. for business, and left Mr. D’s employ He had a pretty rough life and I felt that on Tuesday week, on account, it was for his family’s sake he deserved a alleged, of illness. Last, who was greatly

Essex Family Historian No.172 34 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 35 December 2020 A M�� O�� decent funeral. But what happened to 1844 and 1837 respectively. James’s suicides in 1853? widow, Sarah, stayed in Kelvedon sharing a house with her son and his A Google search produced an item family until her death in 1879 when she in the BBC History Magazine (2012) was buried in the parish churchyard. saying that burying the body of a suicide James’s three eldest daughters were at a convenient crossroads had been probably not at Kelvedon when their made illegal 30 years before by an Act father died - the eldest, Sophia, had of Parliament of 1823, prompted by married Edward Hampton in Bristol in the death the previous year of the then 1852 and the same year her sister Eliza Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh married Herbert Stammers and went to who had cut his own throat. My next live in Cavendish, Suffolk. Though the thought was the distress for James’s third daughter Matilda had been at home family if suicide counted as (self) murder at the 1851 census she was described – would this mean his body being sent for as a servant so was probably working dissection? I wanted him to have been elsewhere. That left the son, Joseph properly buried. Griggs Last, a baker’s lad living at home As it happened the next issue of the Essex in 1851 (he later took over his employer’s Family H�� (No.169, December shop to become Kelvedon’s leading 2019) contained an article, Jack Baxter’s baker) and Lucy Last, the youngest child Indexes by Rita Harris, demonstrating and my great-grandmother, who was 15 how valuable these Indexes can be in when her father died. Four years later finding lost marriages and burials within she married George Cutts who was certain dates. Rita is the guardian of the becoming established as a seed-grower Indexes and for a nominal fee she made in Kelvedon. They married two days after a search for James Last’s burial. Though her 20th birthday. He was 44 and his first it wasn’t in the Index, Rita very helpfully two wives had given him eight children drew my attention to another burial (six still living). His second wife had died ground, not covered by Baxter. This is in 1855. Lucy bore George twelve more attached to the Congregational Church children. at Kelvedon which was built in 1852 just Evidence suggests that George was a a year before James’s death. When I cantankerous man somewhat at odds was next at the Essex Record Office with most of Kelvedon as well as with his where the church’s burial register is kept own children. Nevertheless, he thrived I found that James’s was the eleventh well enough that when he died in 1900 burial there. I have learned since that he owned Crabbs Farm with 32 acres independent congregations were often growing seeds, a villa he had built in prepared to bury suicides, heretics and Church Road for his own occupation and others who might have been denied two investment properties (Fabia and St burial at their parish church. Mary’s) in the village centre. Lucy died in You can’t help wondering about the 1918. Two of her daughters married my effects of such circumstances on a grandfather – but that is another story. family, including your direct ancestors

in generations immediately before and I I I after. In this case, James’s father and mother had died some time before in

Essex Family Historian No.172 34 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 35 December 2020 Piracy on the High Seas – in Tollesbury! By Helen Matten (ESFH 31242)

Tollesbury is a village on the marshes at the estuary of the River Blackwater, a mile from the island of Mersea – if you swim! It is known as the village of the Plough and Sail after its historic connections with both the farming and the fishing industries that have abounded there since Roman times. It is not however, a place one would generally associate with Piracy on the High Seas! But there it is. The fishermen were mainly honest men who had a fierce pride in their work, and their river. They worked hard throughout the year, preparing the oyster beds by dredging the river, cleaning the old shells and re-laying them as ‘culch’ for the oyster spawn and brood to grow on. They caught sprat, dredged winkles and in the winter, they caught ‘five-fingers’ (Starfish) for fertiliser – a good example of ‘plough and sail’ working together! The catches of oysters, winkles and sprats were cleaned and processed in the oyster shed at Tollesbury Hard, and then rowed out to the smacks to be taken to Maldon for transfer onto the Thames barges bound for London. Some of the oystermen of Tollesbury, who may or may not be featured in this picture, were certainly involved in the case of ‘Piracy on the High Seas’ in 1894. We do not normally associate the word ‘pirate’ with a bunch of ordinary oystermen such as these! Yet they were taken to court accused of practising ‘Piracy on the High Seas’!!! Tollesbury was important in the oyster trade, and Blackwater oysters were renowned countrywide. Spat is the spawn of the oyster. After 2 years spat becomes ‘brood’, and both were dredged in the free part of the river or sold to private companies. There was great rivalry between Tollesbury and Burnham, who were in the habit of taking the Tollesbury culch from its beds at Brightlingsea. This caused much anger

Essex Family Historian No.172 36 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 37 December 2020 P�� H�� S�� – �� T��!

as it destroyed the ‘spat’ which gave the oystermen their living. Many threats to stop them had been issued, but one day in 1894 things came to a head and this instance of ‘Piracy on the High Seas’ was reported; “In the assizes in Witham on Tuesday twelve fishermen of Tollesbury were charged with acts of Piracy, and with assaulting two Burnham mariners, putting them in fear of their lives, and of stealing their ‘ships’ cargo’ of culch, ‘the goods and chattels of our Lady the Queen’. Two hundred men from Tollesbury turned up at the court, along with 100 from Mersea and ‘several’ from Burnham. The prosecution admitted that the Tollesbury ‘pirates’ were not of the general idea of pirates seeking ships to plunder, but nonetheless who, disputing the right of the Burnhamites to plunder their culch, had boarded the boats armed with sticks and shovels, thrown the ‘cargo’ back into the river and threatened the men to go in after it if they did it again”. The fourth Burnham boat was captained by a man named Ambrose, who had shouldered a gun and swore he would shoot the first man who came on board. They did not board that boat! The Tollesbury men replied that they were trying to prevent the removal of culch and preserve the ‘most valuable oyster fishery in the world’. They said that the fishery is open to anyone to take spat and brood (young oysters), but they would not allow the removal of culch. Five Tollesbury men, James Layzell, Charles Potter, William Crabb, (from Ongar) John Taylor (pictured) and Stephen Appleton, were committed for trial at Chelmsford Assize in June of 1894. The Judge opened the trial by stating ‘….a charge of piracy on the high seas….one might suppose it was a charge of a very serious character…. and I was very surprised to find in this County of Essex five persons committed for trial on such a charge.’ He went on to say ‘…it seems to me a very great waste of time.’ Evidence was given and at the end of the trial the J�� T�� judge summed up. The Essex County Standard report stated; “He could remember no prosecution which such a scandal or abuse of the Criminal Law as this was. These men could not be said to have stolen the culch for they merely went on board [to] restore it to the riverbed for the benefit of all concerned. He had never known an English jury to be asked to find a man guilty of felony on such evidence as this.” The jury found the men Not Guilty and they were all acquitted. The result was received by applause in court.

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An interesting addendum to this story is that on July 21st 1894 ‘The Shell Fish Bill’ was passed in Parliament to prevent the removal of culch from oyster fisheries. The Bill had been passed by the House of Lords in a speedy campaign instigated by Mr J Round, MP for Wivenhoe. The Bill gave ‘security…thus confirmed on many important fisheries of the Kingdom against a species of degradations which was hitherto without legal remedy.’ In commemoration of their victory a song was composed, the last four lines of which are; The Tollesbury men and Mersea men Know how to stand together; The Burnhamites will not hurt them For they are tough as leather”

From the 1891 census it can be seen that James Layzell, 26, lived in North Road with his wife Mahala. John Taylor, 38, lived in East Street with his wife and family of 4 children. Stephen Appleton, 38, lived in Hunts Road with his wife, 6 children and his mother-in-law. He still has descendants living in the village today. Charles Potter also lived in Hunts Road, and was the oldest of the pirates at 56, living with his wife and 2 sons, both dredgermen. T�� S��, �� H�� S��, �� P�� S�� .1890 Sources: Plough and Sail publication by Rev. David Thornton, Vicar of Tollesbury www.findmypast.co.uk I I I Parish Chest We now have a presence on Parish Chest. This is a website run by the Family History Federation where you can buy a range of products from many of their Member Societies. To see what is on offer visit the site at https://www.parishchest.com/

Private Essex Indexes Indexes of Essex Baptisms, Marriages etc are available at http://sturnidae.com/ Essex/index.htm - this site provides links to independent researchers offering paid look-ups from Essex Indexes.

Essex Family Historian No.172 38 December 2020 The Boy Who Ran the Wrong Way

By Tony Crompton (ESFH 6279)

The morning of Friday, June 16th 1944, was warm and sunny. In Little Thurrock, children had gathered in the local playing field – a still large area in spite of the untidy chestnut fencing that marked the boundary of that part set aside for allotments. For almost half their young lives these children had known nothing but a country at war. Mercifully this small corner of Essex had been untouched by the conflict save for the occasional bombing attacks on the nearby Tilbury Docks. Just over three weeks previously Allied troops had fought their way ashore on the Normandy coast and had con- solidated their hold on a now secure �� V1 W�� D�� bridgehead. Although the children were not fully France, the V1 flew until it reached a pre- aware of the significance of this event, set distance at which point it fell to earth they knew that the war must end and exploded. It was not a precision soon and that their country would be weapon. Rather, the intention was to victorious. Among those engaged in launch an overwhelming number of innocent play that day was 12-year missiles at a large target – the sprawling old Reginald Frederick – Reggie to his city of London. The Allied leadership had friends. He was the second of two sons been aware of plans to develop the V1 born to Leonard and Florence Bourne. since 1942 and the building of launch The family lived at 11 Rookery View, a sites in France was reported to London road which backed onto the playing field by the French Resistance. However, it at its southern side. Number 11 was a was thought prudent not to make the terraced house, one of a number that lay general public aware of this new threat. on that side of the road. On June 13th seven V1s were launched Despite the heartening news, the against England, the first falling in the German enemy remained a threat and small hours at Swanscombe, Kent. The had devised a new means of delivering most significant damage in this initial death and destruction to southern salvo of V1s was done by one that fell England. This was the V1 Vengeance on a railway viaduct at Bethnal Green, Weapon, the first cruise missile. It was a blocking all lines out of Liverpool Street pilotless aircraft powered by a ram jet and Station. The public were, at first, kept in carrying a 2,000 lb explosive warhead. the dark; they were told that a German Initially launched from sites in northern aircraft had been shot down onto a

Essex Family Historian No.172 39 December 2020 T�� B�� W�� R�� W�� W��

railway bridge. More V1s followed and, on June 16th, the British authorities finally admitted that the country was under attack from these new weapons, soon to be dubbed ‘Doodlebugs’ by the public. But this announcement came after a V1 had claimed the life of Reggie Bourne. The children’s first warning of danger was a brisk buzzing sound, the source of which was not visible, coming from the south-east. Suddenly, the V1 came into view, low over the Rookery – an elm- covered hill which overlooked the playing field. This strange flying machine was clearly a threat and the youngsters took to their heels seeking shelter. Reggie, however, decided, instinctively, to run towards the haven of his home. The engine of the ominous craft cut suddenly and it commenced a steep dive. The ten or twelve seconds that the final plunge lasted was too short a time for Reggie to reach safety. He was killed when the V1 exploded in the centre of the playing field. The houses on the northern side of Rookery View took the worst of the blast but the dwellings opposite did not escape damage. In the front room of 22 Rookery View a mother pushed her three-year old son to the floor and lay over him, shielding him from harm. The room’s windows blew in, showering that mother with glass. The piano opposite was peppered and bore the marks for years afterwards – a grim reminder of that day! Fortunately, the mother was not badly harmed and her son was spared physical harm. And that was how I used up the first of my nine lives!

T�� G�� 23�� J�� 1944 I I I I�� C�� F��

Essex Family Historian No.172 40 December 2020 What Happened to Witham’s Forgotten Orphans? by Allison Gale BA, MSc Strathclyde (Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies) QG (Qualified Genealogist) (ESFH 31225)

In 1882 a Poor Law district school opened in Witham in the building which had been vacated by the Workhouse when it had closed in 1880. Although the school was only open until 1900, just eighteen years, by the time it closed over 900 pauper children had been sent from London workhouses to pass through its doors. Sadly, however, only some 120 years later, those children are all but forgotten in the town. Perhaps even sadder is the fact that seven of them are buried close by in All Saint’s churchyard, Witham which was a chapel at ease T�� A�� C�� A�� S��, �� for St Nicholas’s Church Chipping 1969. I� �� C�� E�� P�� C�� Hill Witham. �� S� N�� C�� H��, W��. T�� I first came across a Baptism �� C�� C�� Register for 563 of the children �� C�� “T�� H�� F��” �� C�� R�� A�� when I was searching the records R��, W�� of Essex Record Office (ERO) for �� C�� . a possible dissertation subject for my MSc in Genealogical, Palaeographic and Heraldic Studies with the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. My interest piqued by my discovery, I started searching for any other information about the school. All I could find, however, was some detail on the websites of workhouse expert Peter Higginbotham (www.workhouses.org) and Witham local historian Janet Gyford (www.janetgyford.com). Even though these websites provided valuable data about the school, I wanted to know more. The Baptism Register gave little information other than names. I was determined to use my dissertation research to find out more about these forgotten children. Edward CarletonTufnell (1806-1886) and James Kay (1804-1877) were the driving forces behind the establishment of District Schools. In 1839 Kay published a long proposal which was taken into account when the 1844 Poor Law Amendment Act was drawn up. This, in turn, gave permission to Unions within a fifteen mile radius (later raised to twenty) to combine into a School District to establish a joint residential school for workhouse children. In London fifteen Unions joined to form Districts with a range of district schools. This included the South Metropolitan Schools District (SMSD) comprising of schools at Brighton Road, Sutton, Banstead Road, Sutton, Herne Bay, Kent and Witham, Essex. Witham School was designated as being

Essex Family Historian No.172 41 December 2020 W�� H�� W��’� F�� O��? specifically for children who were orphaned or deserted. Being “orphaned” did not necessarily mean both a child’s parents were dead. It was frequently used to denote a child from a family where there was no breadwinner, for example a family where the father had died, leaving the mother and her children destitute. The mother might well have remained in the London workhouse while her children were sent to one or more of the SMSD schools. I was keen to investigate the children’s stories. What happened to them after they left the school? The very nature of the background of these pupils often meant they had little paper trail before their admission into a Poor Law workhouse or school. This made it problematic when attempting to discover their life outcome as the available Poor Law data itself was limited. In addition, if a child had a common surname, following them beyond their first position after leaving the Poor Law establishment could be extremely difficult to ascertain with certainty of accuracy. Nevertheless, my persistence paid off and I was able to discover far more than I had dared hope about these forgotten children. The children received a basic education at Witham either full-time or part-time, depending on their age. Not surprisingly, there were complaints from some sectors of society that this was better than that available to the child of a poor farm labourer! The part-timers were trained for future employment when they were not in school and those old enough to have left school spent their time undergoing full-time job training. The majority of boys were trained for a military career. It was also believed that military training would give boys a sense of discipline and a good level of physical fitness. In addition, many boys were given band training with the intention of offering them to naval or army bands as boy-bandsmen after as little as nine months training. Indeed, over the 18 years it was open, Witham School sent proportionally double the number of boys to military bands than were sent by other Poor Law establishments. Moreover, newspaper reports of the time made frequent mention of the band playing at local events, praising the skill of the boy musicians. The two examples of Witham School boys which follow appear to confirm that musical training in their Poor Law establishments could lead to successful military careers for a boy. Henry James GROUNSELL was born 1878 in Woolwich. He entered the Poor Law system in 1887 and was discharged from Witham to join the band of the Suffolk Regiment 1892. He served 18 years, 14 of them in East India, receiving both good conduct and long service medals. After leaving the army he married and became a skilled labourer at the Woolwich ordnance depot. Nelson Hardy COOPER was born 1888. He entered the Poor Law system 1897 and joined the army from Witham as a musician in the 1st Battalion, Cornwall Light Infantry. In 1924 he sailed to Canada to join the Royal Canadian Regiment as a musician. He was still serving as a musician when he died in 1947. Another route to the military for boys was Training Ship Exmouth which was moored off Grays in Essex. Boys could join from the age of 11 or 12 with the express intention of training them to enter the Royal or Merchant Navy.

Essex Family Historian No.172 42 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 43 December 2020 W�� H�� W��’� F�� O��?

William Henry THWAITES was discharged from Witham to TS Exmouth from where, after 4 months, he joined the Royal Navy 22 July 1886 as a boy. He remained in the Navy, ultimately achieving the rank of Chief Petty Officer. He was killed in World War 1 off Orkney. Deserted as a child, Arthur ELDON entered the Poor Law system aged 8 and T�� S�� E�� 1905 in due course was sent to Witham School as one of the first pupils when it opened in 1882. Discharged to TS Exmouth after 4 months, he became a band boy in the army. Posted to India, he rose to the rank of Sergeant Drummer. The examples given above indicate that it was possible for boys to make a career in the military branch into which they had been placed by TS Exmouth after Witham School. It should be noted, however, that attending TS Exmouth did not necessarily lead to a successful or illustrious military career. Frederick Charles TAYLOR was apparently a good student at Exmouth with consistently “very good” remarks for his conduct. Joining the Royal Navy 29 August 1899 he initially received “Good” marks for his character but this started to reduce to “Fair” to “Indifferent” to “Bad” as he was initially sentenced to 14 days in the cells then 42 days hard labour then 18 months hard labour and finally 5 years penal servitude for attempting to use violence to a superior officer and striking a senior officer. His naval record ends 8 April 1906 when he was transferred to “Wormwood Scrubs Civil Prison”. Not all boys entered the military as the following information published in an advertise- ment in the Essex Newsman dated 5th April 1890 shows.

SOUTH METROPOLITAN DISTRICT SCHOOL, WITHAM TO TRADESMEN AND OTHERS. The Managers of the School have several good strong BOYS between the ages of 14 and 15 ELIGIBLE for APPRENTICESHIP. They are either orphans or deserted by their parents, of good character and have been taught SHOEMAKING, TAILORING &c., by competent Trade Instructors, besides being generally useful. For further particulars apply to Mr Humphreys, Superintendent of the School.

E�� N�� 5�� A�� 1890

Essex Family Historian No.172 42 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 43 December 2020 W�� H�� W��’� F�� O��?

These boys would very likely have been unsuitable for military service and would probably have been in the school for much longer than the nine months allotted for training a band boy. Furthermore, jobs requiring artisanal skills became particularly harder to obtain in the latter part of the nineteenth century. This is unlike the demand for girls required for domestic service from Witham where several applications were said to be received for each girl available. For girls there was indeed just one career opportunity: to go into service. In fact, during the 18 years the school was open, 99.5% of girl’s first destination on discharge from the school was into domestic service. Moreover, a report by the Metro- politan Association for Befriending Young Servants (MABYS) suggested girls from Witham School apparently tended to stay in domestic service longer than girls from elsewhere. The reason for this was the training they had received at Witham School. The MABYS report on the School itself suggests that the girls were well-trained to be the lowest grade of servant: scullery maid, kitchen maid and laundry maid. If the girls were therefore not only reasonably skilled but also did not have high expectations, they may have enjoyed being away from the confines of an, albeit one of the smaller, district schools, especially if they had a sympathetic mistress. Louisa GAY was put into the Poor Law system when her impoverished mother had to go into the workhouse when Louisa was 4 years old. She was moved several times between SMSD Schools until she arrived at Witham on 11th February 1893. She was discharged from Witham on 10th August 1896 when she was sent to service with Mrs BEST in Orpington. By the time she was visited by the MABYS volunteer Louisa had moved to her second position after one and a half years in her first. Her work was said to be satisfactory (the highest ranking) and she was doing well in her second position as a housemaid. A housemaid had a very full list of duties but was not the scullery or laundry maid for which she would have been trained at the Witham School. Louisa was no longer on “the bottom rung of the ladder”. By the 1911 census she had risen even further in status. Now 30, she was a cook in a small private household with a 17-year-old housemaid in Hampstead. Mention must be made of emigration which is often regarded as having been a tool used to despatch pauper children to relieve Unions of the cost of keeping them. The evidence from Witham School, however, suggests that it was not used as a long-term solution at Witham. During the time the school was open, only 22 boys and 3 girls were sent to Canada, most of them in the first decade. For seven children, there was no career path from the school. Two died in August 1883, both from bowel conditions. There was probably an outbreak of infection in the school. Of the five other deaths, four were lung-related (tubercular and phthisis). As this was many years before the discovery of penicillin, such conditions would have been very difficult to treat. Saddest of all is perhaps the case of Frank Peckham ROAD. Although no length of illness is given on his death certificate, it seems likely that the rheumatic fever and pericarditis which were given as his cause of death would have lasted for some time

Essex Family Historian No.172 44 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 45 December 2020 W�� H�� W��’� F�� O��? I�� L�� M�� A�� (C�� L��) A�� (C�� L�� M�� I�� R�� D�� W�� D�� S�� 1898-1899 S�� W�� D�� R�� D��

with little pain relief of any type available. A ‘foundling’ very possibly abandoned in Peckham Road, Camberwell, (hence his name) his short life (14 years) would almost certainly have contained a lot of pain, both physical and mental. It would appear that children, particularly boys, admitted into a district school from Victorian workhouses may have subsequently had an education leading to life oppor- tunities better than that of the child of a labourer. Conversely, life as a member of a huge group of children where discipline was fiercely enforced and contact with any family members was denied may have made for a lonely, loveless existence.

Essex Family Historian No.172 44 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 45 December 2020

From the Chairman

From the Outgoing Chairman

Almost two decades ago I was brought in as Chairman of the Society and now I have stepped down at the October A.G.M. in the same position. You may have missed me in the last issue, but I thought it more fitting that F�� F�� you read the Thoughts from the Executive Committee in such uncertain times. I now look forward to enjoying my new role as a Vice President of the Society. What a strange year it has been! It started with several executive committee meetings, where we debated the style of membership. But then came the lockdown, where my style of chairmanship was no longer possible, perhaps due to my technical innocence. I therefore handed over to my deputy, John Young, who knew what he was doing “on line” and the executive under his direction was able to carry on with our affairs. Following the sad loss of Colin Smith we were lucky to have as webmaster Paul Stirland, who coped with complex matters in splendid fashion. I also thank all the members of the executive, who have done well by the Society, and hereby hand over to my successor David Eniffer with confidence after his previous spell in the chair. Cheers and keep well. Fred Feather

M�� M� �� 1945

Essex Family Historian No.172 46 December 2020 Minutes of the Annual General Meeting on Saturday 17th October 2020 Conducted online

Present: Eric Probert, Vice President; possibility of postal votes for absent Frederick Feather, Chairman, John members and of the quorum and Young, Vice Chairman; Meryl Rawlings, numbers needed to call an Extraordinary Secretary; Ron Knights, Treasurer; General Meeting. Executive Committee members and 72 The recommended revision includes a members. provision for absent members to appoint the Chairman as their proxy, and on the 1. Welcome: The Chairman welcomed numbers question, the Executive are all those present and then handed over empowered to adjust the quorum to to Eric Probert to conduct the meeting. reflect changes of membership size. 2. Apologies for Absence: Received The opportunity has been taken to from Lord Petre, Eric Jude and Linda make some other minor updates and Medcalf. corrections, including flexibility for the 3. Minutes of the AGM held on 21st date for the AGM. The revised version September 2019: These were approved was published, in full, in ‘The Historian’ by an online poll and signed as a correct August 2020, and on the website. record. Members accepted the recommendation 4. Matters Arising from the Minutes: and approved the revised Constitution by None. an online poll. 5. President and Vice-Presidents: The 8. Financial Report by the Treasurer: Ron Executive Committee had agreed that Knights said that the Annual Accounts to for the coming year Lord Petre should 31st March 2020 had been approved continue as President of the Society; that by the Executive Committee and were Ann Church, Eric Probert and Ann Turner available on the Society’s website. The should continue to be Vice Presidents usual, shortened version of the Accounts and Fred Feather should also become was displayed during the meeting and a Vice President. This was accepted by members were advised that a full copy, the meeting by an online poll. including Notes was obtainable from the Treasurer if requested. Following 6. Chairman’s Annual Report on behalf the Treasurer’s report, a few questions of the Trustees’. Fred Feather gave the were asked regarding the finances report, a full copy of which appears on and suggested expenditure and these pages 49-50 of this magazine and on the will be taken forward by the Executive Society’s website. Committee. Ron Knights then formally 7. Revision of the Constitution: Following proposed adoption of the accounts for questions raised on the Constitution, the the year ended 31st March 2020. This Executive Committee have conducted was agreed nem. con. a review. The questions were on the

Essex Family Historian No.172 47 December 2020 M�� A�� G�� M�� 9. Election of Officers/Holding Trustees: by Mary Rix and seconded by Trevor Rix. David Eniffer, Chairman. John Young, Ray Poole was nominated by Barbara Vice-Chairman, Ron Knights, Treasurer, Harpin and seconded by Gill Peregrine. and Meryl Rawlings, Secretary, had been They were both duly elected by an nominated and were elected en bloc by online poll. The following would serve an online poll. as ex-officio members of the Executive Committee 10. Election of Executive Committee: Pauline Adlem, Janice Sharpe and Eric The following had been nominated and Jude. Elizabeth Cox will represent the were elected en bloc by an online poll: West Essex Branch as they currently do Heather Feather, Colleen Devenish, not have a Chairman. David Cooper, Helen Matten, Elizabeth Cox, Mary Rix, Trevor Rix and Angela Eric Probert then declared the meeting Hillier. formally closed at 2.30 p.m. Further nominations were invited from Minutes taken by Meryl Rawlings the floor. Andrea Hewitt was nominated Secretary I I I Society Information Payment of Membership, Services and CD’s by post Facilities on our website allow for Membership, Services, CD’s published by the Society, Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates etc. to be ordered and paid for using a credit or debit card (payment taken via the PayPal website) or a PayPal account. New members wishing to pay their membership fees by cheque should send an email, or write to our membership secretary Miss A Turner to enable her to send them a membership application form. A payment by cheque must be in GBP, payable at a UK bank, in favour of the “Essex Society for Family History” and crossed. Membership applications and queries should be sent by email to [email protected] or by post to Miss Ann Turner 1 Robin Close Great Bentley Colchester C07 8QH Research Services Our research team offers a service to search indexes and databases where we hold the relevant data at our Research Centre. Searches of indexes include England and Wales GRO BMD Index (1837-2000) plus certificate ordering service, Essex Monumental Inscription Index, Essex Parish Registers, Essex Burial Database and miscellaneous indexes. There is a small charge for our services. For full details of the searchable indexes and how to order please see under the ‘Services’ tab on our website. Responses will be by email except when no email address has been supplied, please supply an SAE. At the present time all enquiries regarding our Search Services should be emailed to [email protected] or by post to The ESFH Research Team c/o The Essex Record Office Wharf Road Chelmsford Essex CM2 6YT please enclose an SAE.

Essex Family Historian No.172 48 December 2020 Trustees’ Report 2019 – 2020 Presented by Chairman Fred Feather This is the report for the year 2019 to 2020, although perhaps we should re-define it as 1 – 0 BC, Before COVID. This is the first time that our Annual General Meeting has ever been delayed and then conducted via the internet. During March, we were hit by the pandemic, causing us to suspend all live meetings and activities. We have responded by using Zoom software to make our meetings available over the internet. To date, Headquarters, the North East Essex, and West Essex Branches have arranged talks and workshops. These have been available to all our members, wherever they are in the world. Most now have an internet connected computer, tablet or smartphone, so that only a small number will be left out. Previously, only those who lived in or close to Essex, and had adequate transport, could attend meetings. We regret that a few have lost out, but vastly more members have gained. Feedback on these online talks has been overwhelm- ingly positive, and we intend to make the facility permanent. We want to run Zoom alongside live meetings as soon as we can get together again. The year had started normally, with a review of the constitution, prompted by questions asked at the 2019 AGM. Proxy voting for absent members is now proposed, together with the quorum for general meetings to be based on the typical attendance level. The Executive agreed changes that have been published in the magazine and on the website. The updated constitution will be presented to this meeting for approval. Our monthly meetings, at our five centres, continued for the first half of the year. Members and visitors enjoyed a variety of interesting talks on family and social history topics. Our Research Centre, in the Essex Record Office, has given the opportunity to members of the public to seek help and advice from members, who attend weekly sessions, when the ERO is open. I would like to thank those volunteers who have often had too little to do, but nevertheless have maintained the service. Society volunteers have, as well, attended libraries in the County, to give help and advice. We have twice held busy Drop-in Surgeries at the Southend Forum Library and two successful one-to-one sessions in Grays Library. Another, planned at Basildon, had to be cancelled due to the lockdown. We provided an information point for attendees at two ERO events. We were to attend the cancelled ‘Family Tree Live’ event at Alexandra Palace in April. We did, however, have a presence at the family history fair run by the Suffolk Society. In November, we joined the stand of the East Anglian Group of the Family History Federation at RootsTech London 2019. This was a conference, at London Excel, run for the first time outside of Salt Lake City, by FamilySearch International, the genealogical organisation sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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In our Constitution, one of our Objectives is ‘to preserve and transcribe or publish source material’. During the year, one of our members discovered a register belonging to the non-conformist Chapel at Great Totham. It was in the custody of an individual Chapel member. Realising the potential research value of this document, we arranged to borrow the document, commission the Essex Record Office to photograph it for the archive, and to add the transcription to the Society’s online database. Eventually, it will join the data that we make available to the world via the Findmypast website. Another set of data is a list of many of the people who stood for the office of councillor as a direct result of the Local Government Act of 1894. It has been donated by member Ted Woodgate to add to our online database. We have been given a collection of books on Essex from the estate of Lionel Devonish and a large collection of copies of historic photographs from John Everett. The Society made its usual contribution to support the Victoria County History and supported research by a post-graduate student at Essex University. As usual, we must thank all our volunteers, in all roles, who work to contribute to the well-being of the Society. Deserving special mention, is Ann Church, who has for many years represented the Society at the Family History Federation (formally FFHS), a role from which she is now standing down. During the year, we lost three long-serving members who had made significant contributions to the Society. We are most grateful to all of them for all the work they had done for us. Keith Tunstill, long time photographer for the Society, had recorded notable events for publication in our magazine. His contribution to the recording of memorial inscriptions over many years, was invaluable. Colin Smith had for many years, given constant service to the Society. He was a founder member of our Computer Group, which helped many to learn to use the technology that is now so vital, not only for family history research, but in all aspects of our lives. Colin established our website. He was our Webmaster and intimately involved in its development, almost until his passing in February. His contribution to the Society was huge. We were fortunate that he had had a capable Deputy Webmaster, Paul Stirland, who had already taken on Colin’s role. John Read, a former Chairman of the North West branch, had made many contributions to the family history world, including the Hearth Tax Project run by Roehampton University. He could always be relied on to translate Latin texts. From the past to the future, we look forward to a time when we can resume our live meetings, but will be able to use technology to share these gatherings with all our members, wherever they happen to be in the world.

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From the Chairman Message from the Incoming Chairman

Eight years ago, I was honoured to be voted in as Chairman of the Society. Unfortu- nately, due to my personal circumstances at the time I had to relinquish the post early. Now I am taking on the role again in the strangest of times, as we ride the storm of D�� E�� the Coronavirus epidemic. For those that did not know me the first time around I am proud to be Essex born and bred, although my birthplace, Wanstead is now in the London Borough of Redbridge. My family history research started in 1980 when my cousin was posted to Addis Ababa by the Foreign Office and she handed the family history baton to me. I never did hand it back! I have lived in Clacton-on-Sea since 1960 so I have a particular interest in the town and surrounding areas. I have discovered many of my roots in other areas of the county, particularly in the North West. I always thought the Eniffers were an East London family but they followed a common Victorian trail from mid Essex into London. My 7x great grandfather, Arthur Heron was rector at Moreton and my 3 x great grandfather, Charles Cowland was the parish clerk at nearby Bobbingworth (or Bovinger to the locals). Other research has lead me further afield to France, Cornwall and Jersey. I am looking forward to the challenges my role will bring in this age of virtual meetings. The recent online talks have been successful as we have opened our doors to members from far afield such as Canada and Australia. The Colchester branch even had a talk from the south of France. I have not lost sight, however, of our members who for various reasons are unable to participate online. As soon as it is safe and practical to do so the Society will reinstate the physical meetings although it is likely that they will be ‘hybrid’ meetings, broadcasting to the world and also enjoying each other’s company face to face. It is important that as members we continue to help each other and pool our knowledge. We must seek and find new ways to do this. Under lockdown, I have demolished quite a few “brick walls”, so we need to dust off our sledgehammers and remember, never give up!

Essex Family Historian No.172 51 December 2020 James Cottee by Jean Roberts (ESFH 10502)

Andrea’s article entitled ‘Finding my Grandfather’s Elusive 12th Sibling’ in the March 2020 edition of this magazine asked if anyone’s ancestors had worshipped at the Great Totham United Reform Church (which previously had been a chapel). My Cottee ancestors not only worshipped there but James Cottee who built the original chapel was my 5 x great uncle. James’s elder brother William (1780-1815) is my direct ancestor. James was born in 1790 at Great Braxted (to William Cottee and Rebecca Cottee née Fisher). His first wife Elizabeth Adams died in 1820 at the age of 23 years and he remarried a Rachel Doo who died in 1878. James had one son with Rachel, James who was born in 1826. James was a timber merchant as well as a joiner and carpenter who died in 1861 in Great Totham and as far as I am aware was buried in the churchyard of the chapel.

Follow up by Andrea Hewitt (ESFH 6398)

From the ESFH/ERO digitised project of the register I read:- ‘In the year 1830 Mr James Cottee, a large employer, residing in Gt. Totham, being much impressed with the spiritual wants of the neighbourhood, erected a chapel at his own cost’. Jean believed James was buried in the chapel grounds, so I set about trying to confirm this. At first it seemed odd that in a search of ESFH burial records his name did not appear. I was however able to confirm from the Essex Standard newspaper that ‘James Cottee of Brick Hall, Great Totham died after a severe illness on 4th June 1861’. I then searched the Monumental Inscription ESFH database and did find a James Cottee buried in 1861 in plot number 45, with his wife Rachel and several other relatives buried nearby. These include Jean’s direct ancestor William Cottee, elder brother to James. James’s headstone includes the words ‘Much respected and deeply lamented having been a zealous supporter of God’s cause and a sincere friend of the poor.’ The names in the Gt. Totham register book that is available to our members online consists of burials recorded from 1869, marriages from 1879, and baptisms from 1868. In the book there is a reference to the ‘Congregational Year Book 1865’ which implies that other records existed, so I am in the process of contacting the church elders to see if anyone has any knowledge of where they might be. The above highlighted the value of our Society’s Monumental Inscriptions database in family history research as without it I would not have been able to confirm his final resting place without visiting the site where it might have been hard to locate the grave.

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Essex Family Historian No.172 53 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 54 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 55 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 54 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 55 December 2020 Finding Mona by Heather Feather (ESFH 366)

The Battle of the Thames - The War Story of Southend Pier. A.P Herbert

“Last, but not least, we must remember the catering contractor on the Pier, who through all the war, kept the cafe and food stores going, supplied the Pier Head and, at need, the ships, and as one high officer said, “ made all things possible.” He was supported by the good lady affectionately known as “Mona” to Masters of the Merchant Navy all over the world, for her efficient handling of the feeding arrangements in the cafe. On one occasion there were fifty ships off the Pier for five days, held up by mining outside, and short of food. On this, and other occasions, as when the little ships were calling at Southend Pier en-route for Dunkirk, the catering staff worked night and day and rendered an indispensable service. N.A.A.F.I. of course, could not be employed as they cannot serve civilians.” A plea came from Beth Hooper, the Creative Director of Blade Education: “Heather, do you think you could find out who Mona was, please?” Which family historian could turn down a challenge like that? Some of the members of the South East Branch of the Society have been involved with projects organised by Blade Education. Most of these were to interest local people, particularly children, in the history of Southend-on-Sea and the characters behind that history. Our first project was in North Road Burial Ground and children from Westborough Primary School, Westcliff-on-Sea. (The index of the burial registers is available on the Society website.) With 2020 being the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day what better project than to tell the story of the part played by Southend’s pier in the Second World War when, with nearby properties, it was week in May was chosen to tell the story. known as H.M.S. Leigh? Further along Local schools would be involved for the the cliff top became H.M.S. Westcliff. first two days and then the general public With support from the National Heritage would be invited to visit, culminating in Lottery and Southend Council the first a thanksgiving service on the Sunday.

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But, alas, that was not to happen. a change of occupation as she was an Due to the pandemic and “lockdown” “usherette in a picture palace”? Perhaps the pier and schools were closed and not! Checking the occupations of other large gatherings were forbidden. But Monas one leapt out at me! Mona Budd this did not deter Blade Education and born in 1906 living with her parents and throughout the week “H.M.S. Leigh Make siblings in Hainault Avenue, Westcliff-on- do and mend” appeared on their website Sea – a café manageress and a sister with a large variety of items to view each who was a café assistant. The walk from day. Pleas went out for information home to the pier would take about half about people involved with H.M.S. Leigh an hour. and any surviving artefacts. A wealth of Wanting to find out more about her – just information and memories came in. in case – I looked for the family on the But back to Mona! How was I going 1911 census. Reading her father’s to find her? She was just a name in a comments on the schedule I did hope book! So, with my family historian hat that this was the one as he sounded on I started the search. Hopefully there quite a character. With her parents and wouldn’t be too many Monas around. sister, Mona was living in Limehouse, Wrong! My first port of call was the 1939 London in four rooms, plus a shop. register. Hoping that Mona was living in Her father gave his occupation as “Job Southend at the time I entered the first buyer. Buys anything from a sausage to name and a fairly wide range of birth a suite of furniture”. The nationality of dates which should cover someone old the family was “Good old Cockney” and enough to be running a canteen. One 18 in the column for “Infirmity” his comment year old lived within walking distance of was “None of us up the pole but we the pier and her father was a toll keeper don’t know what things come to”. Who on the pier. Had he managed to get her wouldn’t like to find someone like that in

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Essex Family Historian No.172 56 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 57 December 2020 F�� M�� their own family tree? Mona moved to called one afternoon and we had a long East Yorkshire at some time as in 1985 chat and exchanged information about she died at the home of her sister Sylvia the family. Apparently Mona had spent Thorpe in Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire. a large part of her working life at the Her will, written ten days before she Grosvenor Tea Rooms which is at the passed away, leaves bequests of over far end of Chalkwell Esplanade, near £4,000 to siblings and their offspring. Chalkwell Station, Southend so was well qualified for her wartime post. I So, was this “our” Mona? Yes!! also learned that she was buried with A photograph of the catering staff was other family members in Sutton Road added to the H.M.S. Leigh Facebook cemetery, Southend on Sea. page with a plea for someone to identify Since then Mona’s nephew has been in any of those in it. Yes, she was in the touch with Beth and someone else has photo and her niece identified her. Beth identified their aunt in the photo. asked me if I would see if I could find her and talk to her about her aunt. No For more information about next problem! Try 192.com. She lives in the year’s event check the website next road and I taught her daughter! I www.hmsleigh.org.uk

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T�� P�� 4�� S�� 1949 A search was being made last night for the body of Thomas Mutter aged twenty-one who fell overboard from the pleasure boat Britannia off Southend Pier.

Essex Family Historian No.172 58 December 2020 Education in Little Baddow by Alison Harker (EFHS 30811)

Education takes many forms, both formal and through life’s experiences and, in a rural community before it became mandatory, attendance at school was often influenced by the need for work on farms, financial considerations and minding siblings while adults were occupied. In Little Baddow we have evidence of a variety of educational settings. Some of the original records are held at Essex Record Office but others, more specific to our establishments and families, are held at our History Centre. As a small village, Little Baddow was remarkably well endowed with educational provision, albeit divided along sectarian lines.

In the 16th and 17th century, many L�� B�� N�� S�� villagers received no form of schooling, ��’� �� S�� 1893 except where the church offered minimal I�� V�� H�� instruction in reading and writing skills M��, L�� B�� W�� F�� to a few lucky children. The gentry and more affluent families could afford to send children to a private academy people to open a school in the village, but or employ a tutor at home. Secondary it has been suggested that this was only education was available in Maldon for select ‘Puritan children’.1 or Chelmsford with privileged pupils Little Baddow was chosen for this continuing education at Cambridge and because of religious intolerance and other universities. the 5-mile Act ‘placing limitations of any It is believed that Thomas Hooker and minister of religion from coming within John Eliot, Essex Puritans educated 5 miles of any corporate town for the at Cambridge, set up a non-conformist exercise of his ministry, except where school in the Hooker family’s temporary authorised by a non-resistance oath.’ residence, Cuckoos Farm, between Hooker was supported by the Barrington c1626-1631. They were probably the first family, who were generous benefactors

Essex Family Historian No.172 59 December 2020 E�� L�� B�� of the non-conformist community, and project was completed in 1794, and for were instrumental in founding the many years continued in the Hooker current Chapel, which opened in 1707, tradition of providing urgently needed by providing both the land and money education for the children of Dissenting required for the building.2 parents, who were often victimised by a predominantly Anglican school system, Influenced by Lord Barrington, Edmund and those from poorer families, who Butler of Baddow Hall Farm (not to be may otherwise have received no formal confused with R A Butler of the 1944 education at all. Education Act), included in his will a farm and land, to be held in trust and for its For many years, in the mid 19th century, income to provide clothing and education the school was run by Minister Stephen for not less than 40 children. So, when Morrell with 10 boys living at The Manse. Butler died in 1717, the Butler Charity Thomas, his eldest son, also ran a was established. This Trust still exists boarding school for boys of the families of today and continues to offer bursaries for leading Essex non-conformists in nearby Educational projects. Danbury. In 1861, Thomas took over the ministry from his father and continued William Parry, Minister at the chapel from The Manse school for a short time. The 1780-1799 experienced the devastating building itself still exists today. loss of his wife and two children within 3 months. Prompted by grief, he proposed In 1829 the Butler Trust bought 2 cottages the building of a large manse adjacent named Coldham End, and established a to the chapel, half to be the Pastor’s school there, stating that no denomina- residence, half a residential school. The tional conditions were to be laid down

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in the selection of pupils. However, all school with assistance from pupil teacher the trustees were non-conformists, and Frederick Clench. there were allegations of bias in those By 1895 the British School closed and selected by the charity. The houses were all pupils transferred to the National also used for teaching children from the School. British School which was set up by the Congregational Chapel. ‘British’ schools In 1903 this was taken over by the County were part of the national organization Education Authority and remained open from 1830-1899, with the purpose of until 1960, when pupils were relocated to providing non-sectarian education as Danbury schools. distinct from the ‘National ‘schools which Many memories are held at the History were Anglican. In 1831 John Hedgecock Centre, with family connections still active was the schoolmaster for both schools in the village. Quotes from the school and taught all the pupils together. Log Books make fascinating reading, In 1847 the school was taken over by often referring to children being punished the ‘National Society for Promoting the for being ‘imperfect in learning their Education of the Poor in the Principles lessons.’ Many had to stay after school of the established Church’ - known hours to make up for their neglect. as ‘Nationals’ – and in 1851 a new From 1875 … building was constructed on North Hill. It remained the village school for more “gives a good deal of trouble to his than a century and today the building teacher. He is sometimes put on a stool is known as St. Andrews Rooms and is in the corner” managed by St. Marys Church and is in “4 boys who make a habit of telling constant use. all sorts of untruths to hide their not Between 1874 and 1895 relationships knowing their lessons. They exhaust all between the National and the British my patience at times - their cool dogged School were cool with comments from determined obstinacy taxes extremely National School teacher, Mr. Horth, possible methods with dealing with recording poaching of pupils between them.” schools and suggesting the standard “W.C and A.B have wilfully disobeyed of teaching at the British school was orders forbidding button - playing while ‘wretched’. However, the only surviving returning from school…..Why I have records are those of the National school, punished them with the cane is because so we only have the views of one side in they set such a stubborn example of this dispute. breach of discipline and acquire such Records show a list of National School bad habits of story-telling, truant-playing teachers, with many members of the and want of attention to their work.” same family succeeding one another or and, in 1878 … sharing duties. So, for example, in 1836 Frederick Phillips was the teacher but his “(a boy) shouted out at the top of his wife, Caroline, taught Needlework. From voice some vulgar song and set all my 1850 the Horth family dominated the children laughing.” Corporal punishment was not deemed appropriate for this offence but suspension was initiated until

Essex Family Historian No.172 60 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 61 December 2020 E�� L�� B�� he learnt the meaning of his song and children’s club (clothing funds) is to be apologised. given out this week so that next week we may expect some irregularity in attending The school year was constantly affected as a good many go to Chelmsford to by weather and agricultural demands. make their club purchases.” “1874 March 20th. Weather not causes Use of the same building continued of poor attendance this week but Agricul- throughout the early 1900’s with records tural employments such as scaring birds. of improvement to the facilities and H.M.I Joseph Wager away on fieldwork. C. reports suggesting that infants ‘were Oliver, D.Wilsher and E.Wilsher scaring in kindly hands. Physical training was birds. W. Raven ill”. (Many of these taken daily and Needlework was practical surnames are still known in the area). and well done. Main fault with school “October 16th. Attendance not good was discipline not as good as should at day school as rains have made be and Children chatter during lessons.’ the ground workable and agricultural During this period there were 85 pupils operations are at their height.” on roll, spread across 2 classrooms and “So many children were absent every a Nursery. year in June pea picking that they were The Log books continue to show allowed to go and the school kept open evidence of the schools use throughout for the few who wished to attend. Finally, WW1, with the Gloucester Regiment it became an official holiday of usually using it for sleeping quarters, leaving one month.” For about 20 years from before school assembled in the morning, 1905 harvest holiday was called the and as a military hospital over Christmas Blackberry holiday. break in 1914. Standards of achievement were While the headmaster, Mr. Barker, was graphically recorded. away on military duties, his wife Jane “1876 March 24 Only 10 girls to pass Barker, a registered teacher, assumed examinations and of these two are idiotic duties until his return in 1921. The Butler and a few moderate capacity.” Trust lent tools and a shed was installed to enable pupils to create a garden “1883 Four children of one family where 12 boys were selected to ‘Grow admitted aged 10, 8, 7 and 6 - all unable their Own’. Records of attendance being to read.” affected by agricultural duties continue, 1890’s as described by Eva Vanstone including temporary closure in 1917 (née Enefer): due to a case of scarlet fever and again in 1918 for the ‘flu epidemic’. Medical “You used slates until you were in inspections were held regularly with 2nd class. You made ‘paddocks and pupils being sent home ‘with dirty or strokes.’ The teacher was ‘very stern; verminous heads’. used the cane a lot’ and spent his lunch at the Generals Arms and was very bad Between the wars there was more tempered in the afternoons.” concern for the physical health. Outdoor activities were encouraged and camping Evidence of the social role of schools trips were organised. District Sports was shown by an entry in 1874. “The Days, dancing displays and cricket

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Essex Family Historian No.172 62 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 63 December 2020 E�� L�� B�� matches were all important. Extra part to play, the watchwords I think are activities included Magic Lantern shows patience and personal effort and we can and visitors giving talks or entertainments look forward to the future with hope and on such topics as Ventriloquism. Rev. confidence”. Mrs Turner celebrated 25 Jesse Berridge was a popular weekly years in service in 1955, only retiring in visitor, giving religious education lessons 1959, due to her husbands’ ill health. In and illustrating his teaching with drawings that same year, the Memorial Hall – which on the blackboard. had been used as the school canteen – burnt down. Rather than appoint a Nutrition was considered a priority. A new Head Teacher the remaining pupils canteen was set up in the nearby Village were transferred to a newly built school Hall and children were escorted to and at Danbury, originally known as Danbury from the hall. In 1945 between 60 and Church of England School, now St. 70 children attended regularly, with 34 John’s, so ending public schooling in receiving free meals and milk. Little Baddow. During WW2, 135 Evacuees from Tottenham arrived in the village and were billeted with local families. This required a shift system for teaching, with local children receiving lessons in the morning and the evacuees attended in the afternoon with their own Headmistress. Handicraft lessons were relocated to the Scout hut. Knitting gloves, socks and helmets for the Forces was not a C�� T�� favourite activity of all the girls! Elm Green School was founded by Mary Gas masks were carried to school and Tubbs in 1944. Starting with only 5 pupils a concrete air raid shelter was in the and housed in a variety of places during playground, but it was rarely used, with its early years – including Elm Green children sitting under desks and tables Lane in Danbury, after which it is named during the many air raid warnings. Boys – the school moved to Parsonage Farm 12-14 attended Holybred Farm in the in 1952, and continues there, as a private evenings to make fire fighting brooms in school, to this day. case crops were fired by enemy action. Photographs of school groups, held in In 1943 American soldiers stationed at the History Centre, continue to be used Tofts entertained children in the village in family history research, with many hall and each received sweets. In March familiar village names spanning the a Standard 7 girl was seen meeting an generations, including: Ager, Enefer, Italian POW; her mother was contacted Kemp, Parmenter, Peacock, Puddephatt, and began meeting her from school. Rolfe, Sargeant, Shipman, Spooner, In 1945, in the Headmistress’s report, Stubbings and Wiggins. Mrs. Turner spoke of looking to the future 1 Ref Sheila Rowley (1975) and embracing changes as embodied in the New Education Act. “do not despise 2 Deryck Collingwood – father of American country schools (they) still have their Democracy Thomas Hooker -1586-1647

Essex Family Historian No.172 64 December 2020 Summaries of Online Presentations

possible for many including the Military at CHELMSFORD Headquarters the time. Postcode: CM2 8TR We were informed of how the disease spread from army camps via troop ships Online Presentation carrying soldiers, some of whom were August 2020 already infected, across the world. An Spanish Flu – The World’s First example being the USS Leviathan which Global Pandemic left New York for France in September by Mike Stringer 1918 carrying 2,000 crew and 9,000 troops. By the time she reached France Summarised by Meryl Rawlings (ESFH 2,000 were sick and 80 had died. 6639) Mike gave an interesting talk, using a Whilst the 2nd wave was stronger, later vast variety of slides, showing both the strains of the virus were weaker and it parallels and differences with today’s gradually burnt itself out. pandemic. Thank you, Mike, for giving us an Whilst today there have been songs on excellent talk. For a fuller account of the the subject, in 1918 there was a Nursery above please see The Spanish Flu article Rhyme: by Tim Wander in the December 2018 “I had a little bird, and its name was Edition no 166 of this magazine. Enza, I opened the window, and in flew Enza.” Online Presentation September 2020 As today there were many theories of where it started but there was no The Internet Archive evidence for any location. It was called (https://archive.org) Spanish Flu as whilst most countries suppressed the news as they were by Colleen, Editor fighting the Great War, Spain was neutral On the morning of 19th September and when their King was infected the I joined the online lecture given by news was widely reported. ESFH member Mike Turner regarding There were over 500 million infections the Internet Archive (also known as the but no accurate death records, it is Wayback Machine). estimated around 25 million died, the This is a website that shows snapshots death rate being highest amongst young of websites taken in a point of time adults and pregnant ladies. – taken in fact since 1996 following the There was not as much media coverage ideas of the founder Brewster Kahle. It as today, people were war weary and is a must for any type of researcher on there were other epidemics around such any subject matter as it is a library of as Yellow Fever and Typhoid. The moto free books, movies, software, music and at the time was “Keep Calm and Carry more. Information can be downloaded On”. Isolation was recommended but not and books, where not downloadable, Essex Family Historian No.172 65 December 2020 S�� O�� P�� can be borrowed. It is an ever changing is living now. He previously came from resource. the Colchester area. That is one of the advantages of using Zoom plus we can The main benefits for researchers with open our meetings to a larger audience. more than a passing interest in their ancestors is that it offers information on such topics as family pedigrees and SAFFRON WALDEN North West Essex histories on a grand scale, manorial records, land records, passenger lists Postcode: CB11 3HD and manifests and numerous other September 2020 Online Meeting records that might be of value. All free. Take a look and learn for yourself from by Janice Sharp (ESFH 5841) Mike’s presentation that is accessible A virtual AGM was held at which the by:- officers and committee were re-elected. 1. Logging onto the Members Area of our The Chairman commented on the loss website of two stalwarts of the Branch, Colin 2. Selecting Resource for Members from Francis and John Read. John had the top right red box transcribed all the St. Mary’s burials for 3. A page will open – scroll down to the the National Burial Index, together with section on ESFH Zoom meetings, click the Essex Hearth Tax. The St. Mary’s and choose the presentation you want to Elizabethan/Stuart baptisms project see – in this case the Internet Archive. is now completed and will shortly be uploaded to the Society database. COLCHESTER North East Essex

Postcode: CO1 2FG

quality genealogical research September 2020 Online Meeting Enthusiastic Research This meeting was our AGM which this year was held virtually using Zoom. Our for committee this year is as follows: Essex and London £16.00 per hour Chairman: Pauline Adlem Interesting sources beyond the internet Secretary: David Cooper Treasurer: Paul Stirland Baxter Essex Marriage Index 1754-1851 Registrar: Gill Peregrine Baxter Essex Burial Index 1813-1865 Committee members: Roger Stirland, David Eniffer, Christine 01245 346490 Chatfield [email protected] We have no library now because of lack of storage in our new venue. 71 Vicarage Road, Old Moulsham Chelmsford, Essex After the AGM Jess Jephcote gave us a CM2 9BT talk on ‘Colchester Ladies of the Night’. Jess was talking from France where he

Essex Family Historian No.172 66 December 2020 Campbell Close – a Chelmsford Street at War

by Rita Harris (ESFH 27150) In a narrow alleyway between two houses in Campbell Close, are to be found scribblings and drawings from 1942 which have survived on the brickwork for over 75 years.

A �� G�� , �� , �� H��’� �� ; “H�� B�� 19.7.42 �� 6.15��.”

A�� , �� ET �� JP �� , �� .

T�� , �� , �� HMS N��.

Campbell Close was newly built in the both crucial in engineering, and the mid-1930’s, and attracted as tenants, manufacture of guns and aircraft. During incomers, moving to the county town WW2, bullet cores were also produced. in search of work. The three foremost In wartime, the workforce rose to companies in Chelmsford at that time 10,000 workers, only made possible by were the Hoffmann Manufacturing introducing night shift work. Company, Crompton Arc Company, and The Crompton Arc Works specialized Marconi. in electrical equipment. The Marconi The Hoffmann Company manufac- Company spearheaded the development tured ball bearings and roller bearings, of wireless and radar, vital to wartime Essex Family Historian No.172 67 December 2020 C�� C�� – � C�� S�� W�� communications and air defence. A workforce of 6,000 worked shifts to ensure 24 hour production of radio equipment for the armed forces. The households living in Campbell Close in 1939 are a reflection of the principal industries of the town of Chelmsford. In a road of 32 houses, 8 men worked at Hoffmann’s ball bearing factory and also 8 women. The women employed at Hoffmann’s were mainly young and unmarried. The 1939 Register snapshot of Campbell Close includes two electrical engineers, an electrical instrument maker, an electrical motor coil winder, an electrical switchgear attendant and a radio transmitter maker, all of whom were probably employed at either Crompton’s or Marconi’s. Being only a stone’s throw from St. John’s Hospital, it is not surprising to also find hospital staff represented in Campbell Close; two nurses and a mortuary attendant. Several of the residents did their bit for the war effort during WW2, with two of the hospital staff, Derrick and William Powell, serving as ARP Wardens for St. John’s Hospital, professional chemist, John Cunningham, of No. 27, acting as wartime Hospital First Aid Post Dispenser, and Fred Hodgson, of No. 1, a builders foreman by trade, who served as an ARP Warden and member of the decontamination squad for the duration of the War. The German bomber, as depicted in Campbell Close, flying low over Chelmsford at 6.15am on the morning of 19 July 1942, dropped four High Explosive Bombs, which caused considerable damage to Hoffmann factory buildings and many houses on Rectory Lane. Five were killed (including 4 Hoffmann employees), and 26 were injured. A good deal of damage was caused to the lapping shop of Hoffmann’s, which limited production for a while. The havoc wreaked by that lone German bomber, early on the Sunday morning of 19th July, was described by E J Rudsdale in his diaries of life on the home front in Britain during the Second World War; on the 7th August 1942, he wrote of his visit to Writtle via Chelmsford a few weeks earlier; “Friday: Had to go to Writtle [Essex War Agricultural Executive office] today. Noticed sentries, in pairs, patrolling the railway near Chelmsford Station. Little damage to see at Hoffmann’s, only holes through the roofs where bombs were dropped early last Sunday morning. They say 7 men were killed and the works quite put out of action by damage to the power units”. The Hoffmann Company suffered several other strikes in the course of the war. A few months later, at 11am on 19 Oct 1942, a single bomber dropped two High Explosive Bombs. These fell within the factory area and bounced out into residential property in Rectory Lane and Henry Road, demolishing 21 houses and damaging 96 others. Eight people were killed (including 4 Hoffmann staff), and 54 injured. Particularly tragic loss of life occurred on the night of 19 Dec 1944, when a rocket fell on Hoffmann’s and caused extensive damage to a large workshop. Nineteen young ladies who were working on a night shift died that night. Nine male Hoffmann workers also died, and houses in the area were destroyed and damaged. A Luftwaffe aerial photograph of 1940’s Chelmsford shows the Hoffmann site clearly, and the Germans obviously targeted the factory.

Essex Family Historian No.172 68 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 69 December 2020 C�� C�� – � C�� S�� W��

Given the importance of Hoffmann’s as a local employer, there cannot have been many in Campbell Close whose families were not affected by these tragedies, and the disruption to work and local life. It is not surprising that the 1942 July bombing raid became the subject of drawing on an alleyway wall. To one side of the alleyway, in 1939, was living 74-year-old George Rosewell, with his wife, Jane and her middle-aged son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Edith Green. George Rosewell was a Londoner, who, for 42 years had been in the service of St. Giles Christian Mission, a charity in the densely populated and impoverished area around Covent Garden. His charity work led him to Maldon, where he married Jane Green, and the family arrived in Chelmsford in 1938, moving into the newly built Campbell Close. The air raid shelter which protected this family was uncovered during recent garden work. The most likely graffiti artists were the teenagers of the Thomas family on the other side of the alleyway. Mr. John Lewis Thomas was an engineer’s fitter, who came to Chelmsford in 1936 to take up a post at the Crompton Works. Only a year later, he contracted pleurisy and died in hospital of pneumonia shortly after admission. His widow, Mary, and their four children, John, Kenneth, Elsie, and Evelyn, remained in their Campbell Close home. Eldest son, John, followed in his father’s footsteps, and found work at Crompton’s. Kenneth Thomas joined the Navy in 1941, and his mine-laying operations were recognized by the awarding of the Distinguished Service Medal at Buckingham Palace in 1943. The three sketches of HMS Nelson may have some connection to his naval career. HMS Nelson was employed on convoy duties during 1941 and 1942. In August 1942, HMS Nelson was part of an escort of ships to Malta when the convoy was caught in heavy torpedo fire, resulting in great damage and loss of life. Later in 1942, HMS Nelson supported Operation Torch off the coast of Algeria, and, in 1943, the invasion of Sicily, and the Salerno operation. The Italian Armistice was signed between General Dwight Eisenhower and Marshal Pietro Badoglio aboard HMS Nelson on 29 September 1943. The initials of the doodler, ET, may have been Elsie Thomas or Evelyn Thomas, both young girls during the War. One could perhaps hazard a guess that the other initials, JP, could belong to Jack Paulger, the teenage son of the Lincolnshire family, living next door but one. Leading Seaman Kenneth Thomas survived the War, to return to his family T�� in Chelmsford. With peacetime, things �� H�� M�� C� gradually got back to normal. But, in one C�� small corner of Campbell Close, the bombs C�� C�� and strife are still remembered.

Essex Family Historian No.172 68 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 69 December 2020 A Year in the Life of a Watercress Grower 1926-1927 by Elizabeth Ashton (née Moule) (ESFH 30741) My grandfather, John Moule, b.1871, spent the last 20 years of his working life as a watercress grower in rural north Essex. For a few of those years he kept a diary of his daily family and working life. I have those diaries, originally written in pencil in small notebooks, and have transcribed them and produced a booklet charting one year in the life of a watercress grower. A copy of this booklet will be given to the ESFH library. John Moule was born in Homerton, Hackney, and although he started his working life as a postman/sorter in the Foreign Section of the London Postal Service, he was probably aware as a child of a watercress plantation which existed in Hackney. He married Rosa, my grandmother, had five of their six children in north London before retiring from the postal service and moving to Stansted Mount- fitchet in Essex. The couple initially became licensees of an Inn in Stansted, where my father was born, before, in 1923, taking over the tenancy of the local watercress beds situated close to the village. He was 52 years old at that time. Grandfather John worked the watercress beds with his second youngest son, aged 16, and eventually my father when he left school. They produced a crop of watercress for selling to the wholesale market, Spitalfields in London, and to local shops. The diaries give a sense of the relentless hard work, so much dependent upon the weather as well as having to deal with other hazards; ducks which like to feed on the cress, horses straying from nearby pastures, and of course, the ups and downs of the market place. As the diaries not only described the manual production of this important food crop, but also snippets of family life, reflections on the changing seasons and occasionally references to local, national and even world events in the 1920s, I felt the need to preserve and share this wonderful commentary of social history. Note from Colleen, Editor I was delighted to receive this study on behalf of our Research Library where it will be lodged for members to read. Readers might also like to know that in 1930 Elizabeth’s grandparents “were off in search of another opportunity” becoming shopkeepers, probably in Bishop’s Stortford and sometime later running a fruiterer and greengrocers, in what is now Old Harlow, where they lived “over the shop” in November 1931.

Essex Family Historian No.172 70 December 2020 Mersea Museum – A Source for Family Historians

by Tony Millatt

Mersea Museum is an independent The Peldon archives come from our museum opened in 1976 and run entirely links with the Peldon History Project – to by volunteers, of which I am one, in my help with their research and to make the role as Webmaster. results available online to a wider world. A moving force behind the establishment Tollesbury archives are mainly photo- of the museum was the builder Stanley graphic, but include many articles written Hills, who provided the land and built by Tollesbury historian Douglas Gurton. the museum on it. Since then it has had Tollesbury and Mersea history is steeped two major extensions, the last in 2010. in oyster fishing and sailing industries. The 2010 extension gave us a new Much of the photographic archive was Resource Centre and increased ‘behind very generously donated to Mersea the scenes’ storage. The Resource Museum by Cedric Gurton on condition Centre has computers, tables and that if Tollesbury ever gets a museum, seating, plus a shop. On the computers, then it will go back to Tollesbury. visitors can view the museum’s digital The Birch archive is here because the archives – 27,000 photographs, 20,000 donor, Patrick Adkins, was brought up images of document pages, 2,000 other in Birch. documents, 400 hours of audio and about 100 video files. Unfortunately since the With regard to Wigborough we have March 2020 pandemic lockdown we been working with “A Meeting Place have been closed so unable to welcome for the Community” project at Great any visitors. Wigborough Church to document the history of the church and the village. However all is not lost as the museum website is currently our mechanism for Mersea Archive Research Group answering queries so take a look at (MARG) is a group started at the www.merseamuseum.org.uk. museum by Sue Howlett in 2019 to transcribe old wills and documents and Over the years, the museum has built to put the transcriptions online. Many of up a great deal of local Family History the source documents can be found at information, particularly photographs that the Essex Record Office or the National have been generously donated or loaned Archives, but we also include the deeds by family members. The photographs of houses and other local papers. are mainly from Mersea Island and surrounding villages stretching out The museum website is user friendly to include significant collections from and contains a proportion of the digital Peldon, Tollesbury, Wigborough and archive held in the Resource Centre. from Birch. We have a database of By clicking the tabs on the menu on the 80,000 records of local people covering left hand side of the home page of our much the same area.

Essex Family Historian No.172 71 December 2020 M�� M�� – A S�� F�� H�� website, access is given to data of value to family historians. Under the IMAGES heading you will find photos of people with the following surnames: Bean, Cooke, Cornelius, Farthing, French, Green, Hewes, Hoy, Lord/Marriage, Mole, Mussett, Pullen, Rudlin, Smith, Stoker/Brown, Trim and White to name a few. Under the SEARCH tab there is a section entitled Family History – Parish Records where you will find references to over 37,000 names. We have articles on specific people and families of the area including The Bean Family of Peldon Hall, Memories of Mrs Isabella Rosa Dawson, Grace Edenborough, a Victorian orphan, S�� B�� C�� M�� the Martins of Moor Hall etc. Under the books are about the history of the island HISTORY tab is a developing set of and its inhabitants. A selection of titles pages trying to bring together some of include: - A Short History of Mersea by the local history. We have also strayed Elsie Karbacz, A Boyhood in Mersea by into the interests of some members Archie Smith, the Memories of a Mersea – Ships laid up in the River Blackwater Oysterman by Leslie French and my and lists of Thames Sailing Barges using favourite, Old Spiery – Mersea’s Fighting records from old registers. Parson by Mary Stevens about the life of the Reverend Charles Pierrepont Mersea Island Museum Trust has Edwards M.C. who was Vicar of Mersea published many books, all detailed under from 1898 to 1946. Maybe he baptised, the PUBLICATIONS heading. These married or buried one of your ancestors! Anyone can become a Museum Member and with a given ID they can log on to the website and see a set of records that is very close to those available in the museum. To get the rest in normal times you can visit the museum to see them all. Museum Membership is a modest £5 p.a. – details under CONTACT US on the website. In the present coronavirus disease environment we cannot predict when our museum will be open again however as mentioned earlier we are still active on the web so my colleagues and I look forward to helping you with your enquiries.

Essex Family Historian No.172 72 December 2020 Searching for my East Anglian Pledger Family by Eileen Blythe (ESFH 31083)

I am descended from Mary Ann Frances Pledger 1834-93 from Walthamstow, North East London – was Essex, who was my paternal 3x great grandmother. I have managed to get her family back to Ashdon, Essex in the early 1500s. I have also found another branch of this family which came from Ashdon which Megan Ridgewell was researching and who had many contacts. Her branch of the family was later living in Great Sampford, Thaxted, Little Baddow, and Littlebury, Essex. I hope my research can put my family firmly in Cambridge- shire and Suffolk with the documents I have found. Another Pledger family was living in West Sussex in the early 1500s, but I have not found any connections with that branch yet. In previous years the surname Pledger has been spelt Pledgard, Plergerde, Pledgerd, plus other variants. Many other members of the Pledger clan also assisted me so it helps to find others researching the same surname. I have put in italics my sources and bolded non Pledger surnames. My research involved help from the County Archives of Essex, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. I spent a lot of time amongst the books in the library at Canterbury Cathedral, wherever you live in the country seek out your nearest Cathedral Archive for family history information. I do hope this article demonstrates the wide variety of sources that can be searched in pursuit of your family history.

Time line for the Pledgerd family A Thomas Pledgerd of Ashdon, Essex is mentioned in the 1501 Will of local Landowner Roger Bryght who left money to the Parish and nominated Thomas to act as a Trustee for the new St Mary’s Guildhall to be built in Ashdon. Ref. Annals of Ashdon by Robert Gibson, published 1988 by Essex Record Office. Mr. Pledger marries abt 1500. Thomas Pledger was born abt 1505 in Ashdon, Essex. 1525 Ashdon, Essex Subsidy Tax Roll, Thomas Pledger, and Thomas Pledger son of Thomas. Abt 1525 he married Joan Higham (per Pledger tree “Metcalf’s Suffolk Visitations” of 1561) the daughter of John and Martha Higham (née Yelverton) of Shudy Camps Cambridge, her cousin/sister Elizabeth Essex Family Historian No.172 73 December 2020 S�� E�� A�� P�� F�� married Robert Thorpe of Gestingthorpe, Essex, no date given, per Higham of Gifford’s tree. Children of Thomas & Joan, John abt 1526, William abt 1528-62, Thomas abt 1530- 99/1600, Richard abt 1533-91, and Joan abt 1542-1624. 1555 Thomas Pledger, senior died in Ashdon, Essex. October 1556 Will of Thomas Pledger, possessions to Joan, money to sons Thomas, John & Richard and his grandchildren. 1562 William Pledger of Sturmer, Essex dies, brother of Thomas. Thomas inherits and is given guardianship of William’s daughter Ann. Brother John and his brother-in- law Mylles Boultell (Bowtell) also inherit, as does his housekeeper “Mother Brytt”. 1564 June Thomas Pledger junior born abt 1530 married Margaret Coningsby in Withersfield, Suffolk, daughter of Sir William & Beatrice Coningsby of (King’s) Lynn Norfolk and widow of Sir Robert Allington. Thomas became stepfather to her 8 children and owner of large estates in Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. 1565 Thomas is granted a Coat of Arms in the 7th year of Elizabeth documented by William Harvey Clarenceuxon (CD.) Arms:Sable on a fesse engrailed between 3 bucks trippant or pellette of the first, many Oak leaves vert. Crest: Bucks head erased or pellette sable, holding in his mouth an Oak branch vert, fructed of the first. 1565 Agnes Pledger burial at Shudy Camps Cambridgeshire. 1575/1619 Cambridge Visitations for Pledger has Thomas married to Joan Higham of Shudy Camps Cambridgeshire and his 2 sons John and Thomas who married Margaret Allington widow of Sir Robert. No dates are given. Sir Robert died in 1552 age 31 and is buried in Horseheath Church Cambridgeshire. 1585 Ashdon burial register Mrs. Pledger. 1587 Essex Feet of Fines Thomas Pledger, Arthur and Giles Bream,(father and son), Edward Stonley, (Stonelye) John Coke, purchase 800 acres of Land at West and East Ham, Ilford and Barking Essex. This land was later left to Bottisham Parish in the 1621 Will of Giles Bream, for Parish Alms Houses. 1591 Richard Pledger Hadstock burial register. June 1595 The Lord Lieutenants requested from Thomas Pledger’s Estate a donation of money and men with supplies to be sent to fight in Ireland. See Cambridgeshire letter book. May 1598 Lady Margaret Pledger died in Bottisham age abt 77. She was buried inside the Parish Church of Bottisham with a Memorial. No children found from this marriage. March 1559 On the wall of the Family memorial is 3 Hatchments (shields) one is Thomas’s own one granted 1565, and one of the other two is his mother’s which includes the Higham and Frances family of Giffords of Suffolk, and his grandmother’s Yelverton family arms from Norfolk. See Cambridgeshire Visitations 1575/1619 for descriptions. Essex Family Historian No.172 74 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 75 December 2020 S�� E�� A�� P�� F��

March 1600, Thomas died in Bottisham Hall age abt 70 and is buried alongside his wife Margaret in a kneeling position wearing a “Greenwich Coat of Green” inside the local Church. On the wall both their Heraldic shields are on display enclosed behind a metal grill which is still there (illustrated below).

1600 Will of Thomas Pledger Gent.of Bottisham. Beneficiaries listed are: - The Church, Vicar, and Poor of Bottisham. The Allington step and grandchildren, Alington James and Giles, Elizabeth, and Thomas; Alice Allington and her children John and Jane Talkarne, and son Giles Sewster. Elizabeth Alington and husband Thomas Soames, children, Richard, James and Thomas. Killingworth grandchildren Margaret Allington, Giles, Beatrice and Thomas. Bream grandchildren Giles and Margaret and their daughter Elizabeth. His sister Joan Bowtell, half-sister Ellen Bailie. His Mother’s family Thomas Higham. His Pledger nephews and their children. Brother John’s children William, Thomas and Edward, plus Joan and husband Robert Thorpe. Grandchildren William’s sons John and Robert. Edward’s son Phillip Pledger. 2 children of John -- who lived in Norfolk. Farm shepherd Francis Burton, servants William Duffield, Margaret Wright, Thomas Gelby, Elizabeth Richardson, and Cecilia Pettit.

Essex Family Historian No.172 74 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 75 December 2020 S�� E�� A�� P�� F��

This leaves me with other beneficiaries who I have not yet identified as members of his extended family or farm workers or friends. Thomas Saunder, Elizabeth Webb, Millicent Cosin, Thomas Bridge, Thomas Bassett, Thomas Ketteridge, Thomas Comer, Thomas Knock, John Johnson, Richard Barnes, George Fable, and John Robinson. In Pigots Directory of 1839 for Essex a Ketteridge family is still living in Ashdon.

Time line for Higham family 1502 Ely Probate Thomas Higham of Shudy Camps. 1525 Subsidy Tax Roll, Robert Higham of Shudy Camps. 1546 Thomas Higham purchases JAKES estate in Shudy Camps. 1561 Metcalf’s Visitations of Suffolk, Elizabeth cousin/sister of Joan Higham is married to Robert Thorpe of Gestingthorpe, Essex, no dates given. 1565 Agnes Higham burial Shudy Camps Parish Records. 1568 Alice Higham widow of Thomas remarries in Shudy Camps Parish Records.

Back to the Pledger family. William Pledger born abt 1528 marries Alice Perry in November 1560 in Thaxted, Essex has 2 children Ann and John. 1562 He dies in Sturmer, Essex, his Will January 1563. William Pledger leaves money to his daughter Anne and his Housekeeper “Mother Brytt” his brothers John and Thomas Pledger and his brother in law Myles Boultell (Bowtell). John Pledger (my direct ancestor) John was born abt 1526 in Ashdon, Essex son of Thomas & Joan Pledger, daughter of John and Martha Higham of Shudy Camps, as listed in the Visitations of Cambridge- shire 1575 & 1619 p99. Abt 1545 He married Mary Purple of Little Bardfield, Essex. Children born in Essex: Joan abt 1546. William abt 1550, Thomas abt 1557, Marie abt 1558, Edward 1563, Philippa abt 1561 1563 Inherits from his brother William Pledger of Sturmer, Essex. John died, wife Mary dies. I believe that they were both dead before 1600 as only their children are included in the Will of Thomas, his brother. Thomas Pledger Thomas was born abt 1557 in Ashdon, Essex son of John & Mary Pledger of Ashdon. 21 June 1579 he married Jane Woolward (a twin) of Balsham Cambridgeshire at Ashdon. Essex Family Historian No.172 76 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 77 December 2020 S�� E�� A�� P�� F��

Children born in Balsham, Ann 1579/80, Robert 1581/2, Sarah 1582/3, Alice 1586/7, Alice 1589, Thomas 1592, John 1594. April 1600 inherits lands in Hundon, Suffolk from his uncle Thomas Pledger, Gent. June 1626 Thomas died in Hundon. 1626 Will, Thomas Pledger Yeoman, wife Jane son Robert. Thomas & John inherit their mother’s rights. June 1626 Jane died in Hundon before she could inherit from her husband’s will. Robert Pledger Robert was born Jan 1581/2 son of Thomas & Jane Pledger of Balsham Cambridgeshire. He married Thomasin Pake of Bassingbourn, 1 October 1610 at Gt. Abington, Cambridgeshire (BT’s). Children born in Gt. Abington: Katherine 1611, Thomas 1614, John 1615, William 1618, Robert 1620, Elizabeth 1622, Mary 1624, Elizabeth 1628. July 1626 Inherits property in Hundon from his father & mother. 1631 Witness to the Will of Edward Reeve, Miller of Hundon, Suffolk. 1640 Hundon, Suffolk Ship Money collection Robert is listed. Robert died? Thomasin his wife died? Lack of information due to the Civil War or Church registers were badly damaged Robert Pledger Robert was born Apr 1620 in Great Abington, Cambridgeshire son of Robert & Thomasin Pledger (BT’s). He married abt 1643 Jane, lack of information due to the Civil War. Children born in Lt. Abington: Jane 1644, Grace 1646, Robert 1652, Thomasine abt 1655, Ann abt 1660, Mary 1666/7. Robert died Apr 1682 in Great Abington age 62. June 1682 Will Ely Inventory. Widow Jane died Mar 1700 Gt. Abington. Age abt 80. Robert Pledger Robert Pledger was born Jun 1652 in Gt. Abington son of Robert and Jane Pledger.

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Apr 1682 Father Robert dies. 11 Nov 1683 he married Mary Sanders at Lt. Abington (BTs). Children born in Gt. & Lt. Abington: Robert 1685, John 1687, John 1689, Richard 1691, William 1693. 1686 Church Censes family listed in Gt. Abington. Sept 1709 Listed in Church collection. Jun 1727 Robert died, Burial register Robert Labourer, Age abt 75. Sept 1727 Mary his Widow died age abt 70. John Pledger John was born Jun 1689 in Lt. Abington to Robert & Mary Pledge (BT’s). 22 Nov 1709 he marries Mary Davie at Higham by Nayland, Suffolk. Children born in Gt. Abington Cambridgeshire: John 1706, Mary 1708, William 1711, Richard 1714, Thomas 1716, Robert 1719, Christopher 1723. Sept 1709 listed in Gt. Abington Church collection. June 1727 his father Robert died John inherited from him. May 1728 John died in Gt. Abington, age 39 July 1728 Will, Ely Probate. Estate to Mary his wife and surviving sons John, Thomas, and Robert. Mary his widow remarried to Thomas Fletcher of Cambridge, 17 Jan 1728/9 Licence (BT’s). Mary died Feb 1760 in Cambridge age abt 70. Robert Pledger Robert was born Sept 1719 in Gt. Abington to John & Mary Pledger. May 1728 his father died. Age 9 beneficiary in his father John Pledger’s Will. 13 July 1736 he married Frances Pettit at Gt. Bardfield, Essex, daughter of Richard & Ann Pettit of Essex. Children born in Haverhill & Stoke by Clare, Suffolk: Robert 1739, Frances 1740, Richard 1743, Joseph 1744, Frances 1747, Ann 1749, Daniel 1752, James 1753, Thomas abt 1755, Susannah 1756. Robert died July 1756 in Stoke by Clare, age 35. Frances his widow died Dec 1788 Stoke by Clare. Daniel Pledger Daniel was born Dec 1752 in Stoke by Clare, Suffolk to Robert & Frances Pledger. July 1756 age 4 his father dies.

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1773 Apprentice to Robert Alderton Carpenter of Bradfield Combust, Suffolk. 21 Oct 1783 Daniel of Bradfield married Margaret Long, widower of Joseph née Webb, at Long Melford, Suffolk. Children born in Long Melford, James 1784, Thomas 1786, Arthur 1790, Ursula 1790. Daniel 1792, Charles 1795 in Saffron Walden, Essex. Jun 1800 Margaret 50, died Saffron Walden, buried Gt. Welnetham, Suffolk. Daniel died 1817 in Sible Hedingham, Essex, age 65 trade Carpenter. Will of Daniel Pledger of Sible Hedingham says he was a Farmer, his younger siblings inherit from him, named as “Cousins”. James Pledger James was born Mar 1784 in Long Melford, Suffolk to Daniel & Margaret Pledger. 19 Aug 1805 he married Frances Morley at Gt. Abingdon, Cambridge, daughter, of William & Sarah Morley. Children born, Harriot Morley 1804 Gt. Abingdon, Children born in Walthamstow James 1810, Thomas 1813, Henry 1814, Mary Ann 1816, William 1818. 1817 his father Daniel died. 1841 Carpenter age 60, wife Frances 60, son William. Mar 1847 Wife Frances died age 66 Walthamstow. Jan 1848 Married to Sarah Morris St Leonard’s Shoreditch. 1851 census Wood Street Walthamstow, Master Carpenter, age 70, wife Sarah and stepson Ben Morris age 14. Jun 1857 James died Walthamstow age 73, trade Carpenter. Thomas Pledger Thomas born Jul 1813 in Walthamstow to James and Frances, baptised Jul 1818. 30 Mar 1834 he married Elizabeth Brown at Hackney St John, daughter of James & Mary Brown. Children born in Walthamstow Essex: Mary Ann Frances 1834, Charles George 1837, Emma 1839, Elizabeth 1841, James Henry 1842, Jane Louisa 1845, Caroline 1849, Alfred 1852. 1841 census age 25 Carpenter Wood Street Walthamstow, wife Elizabeth & 3 children. 1851 census age 38 Carpenter Wood Street Walthamstow, wife Elizabeth & 7 children. Sept 1854 wife Elizabeth died in Walthamstow. Jun 1855 Thomas married Mary Smart at Hackney St John.

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Jun 1857 his father James died. 1861 census age 48 Carpenter Wood Street Walthamstow, wife Mary & 3 children. Jun 1867 Thomas died Walthamstow age 54, trade Carpenter. Nov 1867 Will Estate to Mary his Widow. Mary Ann Frances Pledger Mary Ann Frances born Oct 1834 in Walthamstow, Essex daughter of Thomas & Elizabeth Pledger. 1841 census age 5 Wood Street Walthamstow, Essex with family. 1851 census age 16 Jeffery’s Square Wood Street Walthamstow, with family. 28 Mar 1852 she married James Thomas Keene at Hackney St John. Child born in Marylebone, Henry James Keene Aug 1853. Jan 1861 Husband James died. 1861 census age 24 wid. Grocer, 43 Gt. St. Andrews Street, St Giles in the Fields, London. Oct 1862, she married William Roberts at St Johns Westminster, from Winchester Terrace. Jun 1867 her father died. 1881 census age 42 husband William, Greengrocers wife, 56 York Road Battersea. 1891 census age 51 husband William, Cabmaster’s wife 56 York Road Battersea. 1895 abt Mary died. 1901 census William Roberts Coal Dealer 60, wife Sarah 36, 56 York Road Battersea.

Like most other families living in the Home Counties over the years the Pledgers came to live and work in London including the following people - Elias Pledger was a Presbyterian Minister from Essex living in London he died in 1667 after the Great Fire. Austin Pledger from Essex was living in Stepney in East London in 1670 and his brother Phillip had died in 1648 in the City of London. Other members of this family lived in West Ham; the Will of Ann Pledger of 1763 seems to be my line of ancestor’s from Burrough Green in Cambridgeshire.

Note from Colleen, Editor Readers may recall Eileen published her book Directory of Suffolk Millers (see our August 2017 edition No 162) and is now working on another guide to Sussex millers. She welcomes feedback about the Pledger family : [email protected]

Essex Family Historian No.172 80 December 2020 Search:

Eric would like to hear from any readers who come across websites that they find particulary useful. Please email him on [email protected]

25 Best Websites for Beginners https://www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/25-best-genealogy-websites- for-beginners/ Take inspiration from this article from the US publication Family Tree Magazine. Bulmer & District History Group https://www.bulmerhistory.co.uk/index.html Do you have ancestors from the parish of Bulmer or surrounding villages in the N.W. of Essex? If so you will find much information of use at these pages including biographies, memorial inscriptions, photographs and publications. There is also a downloadable listing in spreadsheet form of names by initial letter of the surname with extensive data of their lives. Finding Elusive Records in FamilySearch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn2VY-wSfkw&feature=youtu.be Fully exploit the free records available at FamilySearch with the assistance of this tutorial. London Lives, 1690 to 1820 https://www.londonlives.org/index.jsp This site is searchable by a number of criteria including surname, forename, individual document type, archive, years etc. A wide range of sources from eight archives of 240,000 documents and 15 datasets containing over 3 million names. A search on my Probert surname produced a significant 110 results including Richard Probert, bone ash manufacturer of Shoreditch St Leonards in 1819. Mount Bures www.mount-bures.co.uk Do you have an interest in this hamlet in the North of Essex on the Suffolk border? If so then these pages may be of interest to you. Using the Catalogues of Genealogy Sites https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/355995545543772379/ Learn how to use the catalogues of FamilySearch, Ancestry, Findmypast and MyHeritage. The British Agricultural History Society www.bahs.org.uk Read copies of their magazine for free from 1953-2016 to gain an insight into the background world of your farming ancestors.

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Lost Cousins Guides & Masterclasses https://www.lostcousins.com/pages/help/ Here you will find useful advice on various aspects of family history research including “Mastering the 1911 Census”, “Key Tips for Census Success” and “Using the National Archives”. A host of Masterclasses can be accessed by entering “Masterclass Family History” in the customised Google Search near the beginning of each Newsletter. Titles include “What to do with your DNA results” and “Tracking down Pre 1937 baptisms and marriages”. Rochford Community Archive http://www.rochforddistricthistory.org.uk/ Everything historical you want to know about this place in S. E. Essex and the surrounding villages including local folk, all searchable. Searching Parish Records on Findmypast (FMP) https://tinyurl.com/EDP-FMPparish-records Read this “How to” article on the FMP blog to maximise the chances of finding the record you seek. Birth date Calculator https://tinyurl.com/EDP-BirthDate An item in Eastman’s Genealogy Newsletter alerted us to this facility to calculate the date of birth when the date of death and age at death are known. Making the Most of Electoral Registers https://tinyurl.com/EDP-ElectoralRegisters Learn from this video by Alex Cox of Findmypast on the use of British Library Registers of Electors on the Findmypast subscription site. Historical Places in the Thurrock area https://www.thurrock.gov.uk/historical-places-in-thurrock/cashs-well-fobbing Learn about Cash’s Well in Thurrock, the Corringham Light Railway, Bata Shoes at East Tilbury, the Green Man of Mucking, the Grays Sturgeon Ram flock, Coalhouse Fort and many other places on these heritage pages of the Thurrock Authority. The Parish Chest https://www.parishchest.com/ In June the Family History Federation launched a new comprehensive online one-stop shop. Here you find an extensive range of family history sources for purchase. These include parish and non-conformist register transcriptions, census indexes and returns, wills, memorial inscriptions, military service records, Poor Law records, directories, leaflets and booklets. ESFH now has a presence on this site. The (British) Workhouse System https://tinyurl.com/EDP-Workhouses The British Home Children June 2020 Newsletter includes an informative article on this topic.

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visit

Reviews in History https://reviews.history.ac.uk/special-issues/great-war-home Reviews of the latest publications and digital resources across a wide range of historical topics. Understanding Catholic Records https://tinyurl.com/EDP-catholics Learn from this Findmypast Guide to the various sources for tracing Roman Catholic ancestors. Stories of the Mayflower https://www.mayflower400uk.org/ A wealth of information on this 400th anniversary including an illustrated “The Mayflower Story” an interactive list of the passengers. Victorian Myths https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/blog/guest-post-violet-fenn/ Five things you thought you knew about the Victorians in this Pen & Sword Books Blog by Violet Fenn, author of “Sex and Sexuality in Victorian Britain”. Service Personnel Awards in The London Gazette https://tinyurl.com/EDP-Ldn-Gazette On the Forces War Records subscription website an index, searchable by surname and forenames of soldier’s awards. The index, which includes service number, rank, year of award and unit is searchable for free and a modest monthly subscription will enable you to view the complete entry. Surprisingly there were 35 records from a search on my Probert surname. Lives and Letters of the 19th Century Poor https://intheirownwriteblog.com/page Learn of this project entitled “In Their Own Write”, a joint project between Leicester University and TNA, to transcribe volumes of Poor Law correspondence held in class MH12 at TNA. Welsh Parish Registers online www.thegenealogist.co.uk/welsh-parish-records/ or www.ancestry.co.uk/cs/recent-collections Find details for 14.5 million Welsh individuals in Welsh Parish Registers newly available on Ancestry and The Genealogist. Understanding the 1939 Register https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/inside1939.htm We are indebted to Peter Calver for this special issue of his Lost Cousins Newsletter “Inside the 1939 Register”. All you need to know about the search techniques and strategies to exploit this resource, which differs from the census returns.

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History of Army Rations https://tinyurl.com/EDP-ArmyRations Learn how the Army marches on its stomach in this article, illustrated in colour, from The National Army Museum describing the food metered out to the troops from the 18th century to the present day from bully beef and biscuits to vegetable curry. History of Epping in Photographs https://www.facebook.com/EPPING/photos/?ref=page_internal If you visit this Facebook page you find many interesting captioned photographs in bygone days of this Essex town. UK Genealogy Archives https://ukga.org/index.php It is worth exploring this site and searching on surnames of interest with its record collections, including nearly 250,000 Phillimore marriages and family history resource links. Medical Ancestors before the NHS https://tinyurl.com/EDP-medics Useful free information in this article from The Genealogist subscription website. Women in the Metropolitan Police https://www.metwpa.org.uk/ Learn of the history and search the database of policewomen from 1919 to 1992 on this website of the Metropolitan Women Police Association. The Royal and Imperial Calendars, 1767 - 1973 https://tinyurl.com/EDP-FMPCalendars Search this collection of records in Findmypast to find persons serving or featuring in the East India Company, Army, Royal Navy, Royal Household, the peerage; the Law, the clergy, city officers, educational establishments, dockyard officers, bankers, medical dispensaries and General Post and customs officials. HMS Beagle https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-52576727 In this bi centennial year of the launch of the HMS Beagle, the ship on which Charles Darwin sailed read about how an Essex site gets protection status. Families in China www.chinafamilies.net From our Editor comes this site which allows you to search across 60,000 names of men and woman who lived, worked or died in China between the 1850s and 1940s. For her ancestor surname Saunders she found 27 results.

Essex Family Historian No.172 84 December 2020 Vassalls with New World Connections by Carole Mulroney Every now and again in family history you come across something intriguing which gets you sidetracked. Well that happened to me about 25 years ago and it still has me searching.

We begin in Ratcliff, Stepney which in not always a pillar of the community in Tudor times was a country area, but Eastwood. There he upset the villagers things were changing and it was to by polluting the local brook when he built become one of the most important areas a ‘pryve house’ over it. John owned a for shipwrights and marine men. The Mayflower although not proven as THE Tudor Vassalls were a seafaring family one but there is a Mayflower connection. there. In 1625 John died of the plague and his son, Samuel, carried on the family John Vassall was of French extraction tradition, as well as being an MP. and a marine expert. In 1588 he supplied ships for Queen Elizabeth 1 against the Charles I owed a lot of money and Spanish Armada. She in turn gave Parliament refused to bail him out so he him a Coat of Arms and a Privy Seal. dissolved it and imposed forced loans on The family motto was ‘Serpe pro rege, his wealthier subjects. Samuel refused semper pro republica’ - ‘often for the king, to pay the loan and was imprisoned in the always for the state’. Marshalsea Prison, Southwark. Then Customs seized his goods and he was summoned to the Court of the Exchequer charged with refusing to pay tonnage and poundage on 232 tons of currants shipped into the Port of London. While he was in prison a servant had stolen the currants without paying the duty. Samuel was also involved in America and ended up in prison when a venture went wrong in 1633. His ships plied the seas from West Africa to the West Indies and back and he was involved in slavery. Amongst all his other entrepreneurial activities Samuel and his brother William were incorporators of the Massachusetts By 1604 John had moved to Cockethurst Bay Company and acquired 1/10th of Farm in Eastwood (which is still standing) all Massachusetts. William was living and became friends with the Vicar, in Prittlewell, Essex until 1629 when Samuel Purchas, a naval historian who he went to Massachusetts however he refers to his friend John Vassall travelling soon fell out with the church leaders and in Barbary, a coastal region of North came home, returning six years later with Africa. John was a merchant adventurer his family to become one of the richest and member of the Virginia Company, but settlers in Plymouth Colony. After more Essex Family Historian No.172 85 December 2020 V�� N�� W�� C�� quarrels he moved to Barbados and Elizabeth Vassall was heiress to the amassed a great fortune in money and great Jamaican estates. Born in property. London in 1771 and married at 15 to Sir Godfrey Webster, 34 years older but This is where the Mayflower connection rich, reasonably good looking, a Baronet, comes in. William’s eldest daughter, owner of Battle Abbey and Bodiam Judith, married Resolved White, one of Castle and MP for Seaford. Elizabeth the original Mayflower pilgrims. was a great beauty but her marriage was William’s son John later moved to hell. Godfrey lost his parliamentary seat Jamaica and owned large sugar and she was thought to be carrying the plantations. This side of the family had child of his sponsor, Lord Pelham. influence in Boston and several went to Travelling to Europe she met and fell Harvard University. in love with Lord Holland and became pregnant and fled to Italy with her daughter. Fearing she would lose the child she faked her daughter’s death and held a mock funeral. It didn’t work and she didn’t see her daughter again for years. Sir Godfrey divorced her on grounds of adultery, and she then married Lord Holland and settled down at Holland House. A divorce was scandalous and Elizabeth became a pariah, so she decided to do

V�� H��, B�� William’s grandson, John, extended his family holdings in Cambridge, Massa- chusetts and built a magnificent mansion, which was requisitioned by General George Washington for his headquarters. It was lived in by Longfellow and it is now a National Monument. Spencer Vassall was the son of John Vassall who built the House in Cambridge and served for 28 years at Gibraltar, Flanders and the Cape of Good Hope, as Governor. During unsuccessful British attempts to seize control of the Spanish colonies around the La Plata Basin in 1807, he led an attack on Montevideo, dying a hero’s death and coining the phrase ‘Every Bullet has its billet’. He is buried in Bristol. E�� V��

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the receiving herself and started one Priory churchyard opposite his study of the greatest salons of the Georgian window. Perhaps his best epitaph is and Victorian period, inviting the most from the boys, who in the best tradition of interesting people of the day who could the English public school referred to Old speak freely at Holland House. These Vassall as a ‘ripper’. gatherings became the basis of the Whig We have now arrived at a family member party. of the 20th century. In the August 2019 The Hollands admired Napoleon and edition of this magazine there was an were presented to him in 1802. When article regarding William John Vassall he died he left Elizabeth several items born 1924, who was a clerk for the including one of his socks, which he had Admiralty and who was eventually been wearing when he died. imprisoned by the British for spying. He died in 1996. The Holland’s eldest son, Charles, entered the navy and then the army, Family history knows no bounds! It really becoming a general. He was a famous is ironic that in a family where John, the coin collector. He married Mary Fit- founding father, served Queen Elizabeth zclarence an illegitimate child of the 1 and country, the last, and probably actress Mrs Dorothy Jordan and King only, name we remember, is a John who William IV. Charles later became MP for betrayed them both. Stepney where our story began. Carole can be contacted on: Now to our sporting Vassall, Henry, born [email protected] in 1860. He was a Captain of Rugby at Marlborough College, renowned for his muscular strength, but no scholar. References: He became one of the most celebrated St Dunstan’s Parish Registers sportsmen of his day, described thus by a friend ‘I sometimes think that his position Purchase his Pilgrimes by Samuel in the history of athletics must be unique; Purchas (ca 1575-1626) for there have been many better rugby Mayflower Society players, but no fame that approaches the fame of Vassall, the leader, the trainer, Various individual references in the teacher of the Great Oxford Fifteens, numerous books who in the early 1880s reached unprec- Descendants of John Vassall by one of edented heights of skill and success.’ his descendants In 1885 he became a master at Repton Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the School in Derbyshire. Repton was a American Revolution football school. It was accepted he was no academic, but he knew more than anyone about the ancient history of Repton and was the inspiration for the excavation of the Priory and its I I I restoration. Until his death in 1926 he was the Hon. Secretary of the Old Reptonian Society and is buried in the

Essex Family Historian No.172 86 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 87 December 2020 Christening Records recently added to our Genealogy Database

Parish Church Covering Dates Records Aveley St Michael 1813 1851 997 Berden St Nicholas 1813 1851 410 Blackmore St Lawrence 1813 1851 788 Boreham St Andrew 1813 1851 908 Broomfield St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 808 Buttsbury St Mary 1813 1851 64 Chignal Smealey St Nicholas 1813 1851 187 Chignal St James St James 1813 1851 313 Childerditch All Saints & St Faith 1813 1851 300 Clavering St Mary & St Clement 1813 1851 1219 Cold Norton St Stephen 1813 1851 276 Cranham All Saints 1813 1851 342 Danbury St John the Baptist 1813 1851 1277 Dengie St James 1813 1851 316 East Hanningfield All Saints 1813 1851 585 Epping Upland All Saints 1558 1919 10622 Farnham St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 668 Fryerning St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 691 Grays Thurrock St Peter & St Paul 1813 1851 1546 Great Baddow St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 2069 Great Hallingbury St Giles 1689 1738 621 Great Hallingbury St Giles 1736 1812 1080 Great Hallingbury St Giles 1813 1845 791 Great Hallingbury St Giles 1845 1885 805 Great Hallingbury St Giles 1885 1920 384 Great Ilford St Mary 1813 1851 2206 Great Leighs St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 759 Great Warley St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 521 Hatfield Heath St Mary the Virgin 1813 1859 1598 Hazeleigh St Nicholas 1813 1851 167 Ingatestone St Edmund & St Mary 1813 1851 892 Langley St John the Evangelist 1813 1851 452 Little Baddow St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 485 Little Hallingbury St Mary the Virgin 1711 1812 713 Little Hallingbury St Mary the Virgin 1813 1875 802 Little Hallingbury St Mary the Virgin 1875 1935 799 Little Leighs St John the Evangelist 1813 1851 203 Little Thurrock St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 352 Little Warley St Peter 1813 1851 257 Little Waltham St Martin 1813 1851 603 Maldon All Saints with St Peter 1813 1851 1980 Manuden St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 917 Margaretting St Margaret 1813 1851 552

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Parish Church Covering Dates Records Moulsham St John 1837 1851 838 Mountnessing St Giles 1813 1851 767 Mundon St Mary 1813 1851 328 Nazeing All Saints 1688 1739 666 Nazeing All Saints 1752 1810 1200 Nazeing All Saints 1806 1812 134 Nazeing All Saints 1813 1829 397 Nazeing All Saints 1829 1844 390 Nazeing All Saints 1845 1862 408 Nazeing All Saints 1862 1878 390 Nazeing All Saints 1879 1899 391 Nazeing All Saints 1899 1927 384 North Ockendon St Mary Magdalene 1813 1851 417 North Weald Bassett St Andrew 1737 1812 1297 North Weald Bassett St Andrew 1813 1843 790 North Weald Bassett St Andrew 1843 1899 1575 Purleigh All Saints 1813 1851 1359 Rainham St Helen & St Giles 1813 1851 1108 Rettendon All Saints 1813 1851 922 Roxwell St Michael & All Angels 1813 1851 960 Runwell St Mary 1813 1851 445 Saffron Walden St Mary the Virgin 1558 1629 6372 Sandon St Andrew 1813 1851 574 South Hanningfield St Peter 1813 1851 240 Southminster St Leonard 1813 1851 1823 South Ockendon St Nicholas 1813 1851 883 Springfield All Saints 1813 1851 1434 Stifford St Mary the Virgin & St Cedd 1813 1851 384 Stock All Saints 1813 1851 1089 Stow Maries St Mary & St Margaret 1813 1851 348 Theydon Bois St Mary 1717 1796 485 Theydon Bois St Mary 1796 1812 161 Theydon Bois St Mary 1813 1905 1575 Theydon Garnon All Saints 1779 1812 413 Theydon Garnon All Saints 1813 1860 799 Theydon Garnon All Saints 1860 1920 758 Tillingham St Nicholas 1813 1851 1339 Ugley St Peter 1813 1851 361 Upminister St Laurence 1813 1851 924 Wennington St Mary & St Peter 1813 1851 160 West Hanningfield St Mary 1813 1851 626 West Thurrock St Clement 1813 1851 973 Widford St Mary 1813 1851 284 Woodham Ferrers St Mary the Virgin 1813 1851 1068 Woodham Mortimer St Margaret 1813 1851 361 Woodham Walter St Michael 1813 1851 615 Writtle All Saints 1813 1851 2502

Essex Family Historian No.172 88 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 89 December 2020 The HASLER Surname - A One-Name Study

by Norman Grove (ESFH 1375)

Several years ago I started an in-depth research into the Hasler family with the intention of setting up a One-Name-Study. The first problem I encountered was the various spellings of the name in parish records and on the census returns. So far I have encountered the following variations. Hasler, Haseler, Haisler, Hastler, Haysler, Hazler, Hazeler, Heasler, Heslar, Hesolor, Hostler, and Hustler. I started my research by concentrating on those recorded in Essex and have gradually widened the search to adjacent counties. I have followed the male descendants but have noted the spouses of the female descendants where known. Apart from my records from parish registers, I have an Excel spreadsheet with over 6,000 entries showing information that I have gathered about where and when individuals were born, married and died. It includes their occupation and where they were living according to the census returns and the 1939 register. The first 2,319 entries relate to nine generations of the different branches of the family. The rest are entries that have yet to be linked together. I currently have 3,089 entries on my Hasler tree. With my direct line back from my mother Violet Elsie Hasler (1902–1987) I had traced back to James Hazler born c.1726 in Great Waltham. I am now filling in all of the branches coming forward. I have recently discovered whilst checking through my Family Tree on the computer, I use FTM 2019, that I had a Joseph Heasler born c.1707 place unknown that showed as paternal grandfather of 1st cousin 4x removed of myself. Subsequently by looking at a Cousin Calculator I realised that they must be brothers hence back a further generation. Where did they come from and where are their siblings? I currently have a further 8 lines of Hasler’s going back to the 1700’s but have not managed to link them together with each other or to my line. However a descendant of Thomas Hasler born c.1692 appears amongst my DNA matches with a shared DNA of 10cM across 1 segment. Is he related or is this a red herring? So far I have 65 DNA matches which relate to the Hasler name or similar of which 23 have been confirmed with my tree. Some of the matches show a connection with Germany and Switzerland going back to 1637 but without links to the present day. The lines that I am trying to link together are:- Thomas Hasler born c.1692 place unknown who married Anne Flack on 22 August 1717 in Furneaux Pelham, Hertfordshire.

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Daniel Hasler born c.1725 place unknown who married Mary Gout in 1747 in London and resided in Matching, Essex in 1750. John Hesler born c.1743 place unknown who married Ann Burder 10 May 1768 in Toppesfield, Essex. Edward Hasler born c.1752 place unknown who married Mary Hampton on 12 January 1773 in Sheering Essex. John Hasler born c.1752 place unknown who married Mary? Their first child was born in 1777 at Great Waltham, Essex. William Hasler born c.1766 in Leyton, Essex who married Sarah Barrett then resided in Harlow. Daniel Hasler born c.1778 in High Roding who married Lydia Clift then resided in High Roding, Essex. Robert George Hasler born c.1797 in Waltham Abbey, Essex who married Sarah Ann? Their children were baptized in the City of London. I am still researching and adding to my database and family tree when I am able to confirm the information found. If any member of the expanded Hasler family have any information they would like to share I would appreciate it. In the past I have placed a copy of my spreadsheet on a CD in the Society’s Research Centre. If anyone is interested in a copy of my latest version please contact me via my email address [email protected]

I I I

Bolding of email addresses in this issue is to ensure that they are easy to read; they are not hyperlinked, whereas web addresses are bolded so that electronic readers may click on the link and be taken directly to that web address.

Corrections from Issue No. 171 of the H�� A�� 2020 The archived version has been corrected

Page 33 Title should have read by Patrick Denney

Page 34 Website address should have read: www.middletonpress.co.uk Page 76 Performers and Workers in the Theatre the website should read: https://ellenterryarchive.essex.ac.uk/

Essex Family Historian No.172 90 December 2020 Essex Family Historian No.172 91 December 2020 Society Information Members with Additional Roles Archivist: Mr Ian Boreham Production Manager: Mr Ian Fulcher Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Communications Manager: Mrs Andrea Programme Secretary: Helen Matten Hewitt Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Publications Reviewer: Mr. Eric Probert Data Controller: Mr John Young Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Research Centre Committee Chairman: Editor: Ms Colleen Devenish Miss Elizabeth M Cox Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Librarian: Mr David Foster Research Centre Volunteers Co-ordi- Email: [email protected] nator: Mrs Gill Peregrine Membership Secretary: Miss Ann Turner Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Research Team Leader: Mrs Shirley MI Co-ordinator: Mr Ray Poole Harman Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] News and Events Co-ordinator: Mrs Strays Co-ordinator: Mrs Ann Church Pauline Adlem Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Webmaster/E-Commerce: Press Officer: Mrs Ann Wigmore Mr Paul Stirland Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

I I I Branch Committee Members Colchester Harlow Chairman: Pauline Adlem Chairman: Vacant Secretary: David Cooper Secretary: Sue Spiller Treasurer: Paul Stirland Treasurer: Val Jones Registrar: Gill Peregrine Programme Sec: Barbara Harpin Committee Members: Roger Stirland, Branch Rep: Elizabeth Cox Christine Chatfield and David Eniffer. Committee Members: Ann Jones and Mark Cracknell Saffron Walden Chairman: Janice Sharpe Southend Secretary: Michael Furlong Chairman: Eric Jude Treasurer: Alan Stalley Secretary: Heather Feather Committee Members: Treasurer: Maureen Angerstein Sandra Harris and Margaret Graves Committee members: Ron Bean, Melody Hurst, Bill Bayford, Linda Medcalf, Jack Gardner and Reg Wells Essex Family Historian No.172 92 December 2020 President: The Lord Petre K.C.V.O. Patron: To be Appointed Vice-Presidents: Miss A Turner Email: [email protected] Mrs A Church Email: [email protected] Mr E Probert Email: [email protected] Mr F Feather Email: [email protected]

The Trustees and Executive Officers of the Society (who hold bi-monthly meetings) – Chairman: Mr David Eniffer, 3 Raycliff Avenue Clacton on Sea Essex CO15 3TZ Email: [email protected] Vice-Chairman: Mr John Young, 46 Paddock Mead Harlow CM18 7RR Email: [email protected] Tel: 01279 416204 Secretary: Mrs Meryl Rawlings, 4 Barbrook Way Bicknacre Chelmsford CM3 4HP Email: [email protected] Tel: 01245 225200 Treasurer: Mr Ron Knights, 553 Galleywood Road Chelmsford CM2 8AA Email: [email protected] Tel: 01245 261600 Executive Members – all members can be contacted via the Contact Us section on our website. Mr David Cooper Ms Helen Matten Ms Colleen Devenish Mr Ray Poole Mrs Heather Feather Mrs Mary Rix Mrs Andrea Hewitt Mr Trevor Rix Mrs Angela Hillier Mr Paul Stirland The following Branch Chairmen or their Representatives have been elected by their branch members and serve as ex-officio members of the Executive Committee Chairman North-East Essex Branch (Colchester) Pauline Adlem Representative West Essex Branch (Harlow) Elizabeth Cox Chairman North-West Essex Branch (Saffron Walden) Janice Sharpe Chairman South-East Essex Branch (Southend) Eric Jude

SAFFRON WALDEN North West Essex COLCHESTER North East Essex Saffron Walden Baptist Church Hall (Audley Road Oyster Room Hythe Community Centre entrance) High Street Saffron Walden CB11 3HD 1 Ventura Drive Colchester CO1 2FG Chairman: Mrs Janice Sharpe Chairman: Mrs Pauline Adlem Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Secretary: Mr Mike Furlong Secretary: Mr David Cooper Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Saffron Walden

Colchester

Chelmsford Harlow

Southend-on-Sea

HARLOW West Essex SOUTHEND South East Essex St. John’s Arts and Recreation Centre Avenue Baptist Church Hall Milton Market Street Old Harlow CM17 0AJ Road Westcliff-on-Sea SS0 7JX Chairman: Position Vacant Chairman: Mr Eric Jude Secretary: Mrs Sue Spiller Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Secretary: Mrs Heather Feather Email: [email protected] HEADQUARTERS The Galleywood Centre The Common (off Margaretting Road) Galleywood Chelmsford CM2 8TR Chairman: Mr David Eniffer Email: [email protected] Secretary: Mrs Meryl Rawlings Email: [email protected]

ESSEX SOCIETY FOR FAMILY HISTORY

Member of the Federation of Family History Societies Registered Charity No. 290552 www.esfh.org.uk