Wroughton Family Tales I
Peabee’s latest piece of research had been into the relationships
between four families who lived in adjacent houses in Priors Hill, Wroughton,
Wiltshire, at the time of the 1841 census. But as the information kept coming, it
was necessary to go back nearly half a century before the 1841 census and
spread the net wider to a handful of other North Wiltshire villages in order to
make sense of it all. So…
1. Morris Speck (1803-1881)
Morris Speck was, according to
the baptismal records, the base-born son of Ann Speck, born on 1 July 1803 in
Wroughton, and baptised some 10 years later, on 18 May 1813, on the same day as
Thomas Tibbolds, the son of John and Ann Tibbolds[i].
This was no coincidence: Ann Speck had married John Tibbolds at Ogbourne St
George in 1808.
The details in
the marriage register are fascinating and worth quoting in full:
“Banns of Marriage between John Theobalds
& Anne Speck both resident in this Parish were publish’d in this Church on
the 2d, 9th & 16 Days of October. John Theobald (alias Tibbles) resident in
this Parish Widower and Anne Speck of this parish (Her first Husband being
beyond the seas (or deceased) being absent Ten Years) Married in this Church by
Banns this seventeenth Day of October in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred
and Eight by me Robt Hardy Tucker curate
“This Marriage was solemnized between Us The
Mark X of John Tibbles The Mark X of Anne Speck In the Presence of John Cockell
[and] William Thomas”
Who was Ann’s
absent first husband? If he had been absent since at least 1798, he certainly could
not have been the father of Morris, as the curate of Wroughton noted at his
baptism. One candidate stands out: he was Henry Speck and the following history
explains at least part of the mystery.
On 24 April
1797, Henry Speck of Wroughton married Ann Bowsher (or Boucher)[ii]
at Ogbourne St George and on the same day, an Order was made under the Poor Law
for the removal of Henry Speck and his wife Ann from Ogbourne St George to
Wroughton. This was because the Overseers of the Poor at Ogbourne St George
deemed Henry and his new family would become chargeable on the rates – Ann was,
after all, already pregnant at the time – and that as Henry’s place of legal
settlement was Wroughton, any liability should be shouldered by Wroughton
parish.
A few months
later, Rosanna Speck, daughter of Henry and Ann, was born. She was baptised in
Wroughton on 17 September 1797, but Rosanna died in infancy and was buried at
Wroughton on 9 October 1799.
A year before
the baby’s death, on 2 October 1798, at Wiltshire Quarter Sessions at New Sarum
(Salisbury), Henry Speck was convicted of a felony – stealing a foul-weather
great-coat and a rat-trap – and sentenced to seven years’ transportation. He
didn’t get further than Portsmouth, where he was held aboard Capitivity¸ one of the prison hulks
moored there, until he was pardoned on 21 December 1803. His pardon came because
he had “volunteered” to serve overseas in the army.
Who the real
father of Morris Speck was is not known, but when he had grown up, Morris went
to live in Chisledon where, as “Maurice Bowsher” (using his mother’s maiden
name), he married Hannah Looker, on 27 November 1826[iii].
In the Chisledon baptismal register, there are records of two girls born to
“Maurice and Hannah (or Anna) Boucher” – Emma, born 18 February and baptised 25
March 1827, and Ann, born 14 November 1828 and baptised 8 March the following
year.
However, on 29 October 1829 an Order under the
Poor Law was made for his removal from Chisledon to Wroughton under the name
Morris Speck. The order included “his wife Hannah and two children, Emma (3
years) and Ann (1 year)”.
After the
family’s move to Wroughton, another child was born, but when he was baptised,
he was given the surname Speck.
The Wroughton
Overseers of the Poor were obliged to pay Morris various sums as outdoor
relief. In 1831, for example, he received, as “constant pay”, 3 shillings at
the end of May and 4s 4d in June. After the summer harvest period, he received
1 shilling for the four weeks ending 2 October, 3s 4d in the period to 4
November, and then 4s 4d for each of the next two four-week periods. He also
received in February and March four payments of 1 shilling as “extra pay”, and
on two occasions he also received extra payment because his wife was ill: one
of these payments (in May) was while Hannah was carrying her child, and the
second, in December, more than a month after the child was born.
The child
concerned was baptised Enoch[iv]
Speck on 6 November 1831 at Wroughton.
Enoch’s mother
died when he was very young – Hannah was buried at Wroughton on 14 May 1833.
In 1841,
Morris and his three children occupied a house in Priors Hill, Wroughton, which
was shared by Alice Page and two of her children.
It is not
clear what the relationship was between Morris Speck and Alice Page. They were
to live in the same house at least until 1871 and Morris may well have been the
father of those of Alice’s children born in the 1840s.
Morris died at
the beginning of 1881 and was buried at Wroughton on 31 January.
2. Morris Speck’s children
Emma (1827-1888), Ann (1828-1894), Enoch (1831-1888)
Although the three children of
Morris and Hannah Speck were living with their widowed father in 1841, at the
time of the 1851 census, the three siblings were lodging with their aunt, Binah
Stone, (listed a Abinah) while their father, Binah’s half-brother, was still
with Alice Page and her family. Also in the Binah’s house was Ann’s
illegitimate son, Philip Speck, who had been baptised in Chisledon on 3 October
1847.
2a. Ann Speck (1828-1894)
On 4 September 1852, Ann Speck
married James Andrews Bathe of Wroughton. The marriage was witnessed by James’s
brother Thomas Bathe[v]
and his wife Caroline (nee Vines). James became a carter, and moved the family
around, living in Wroughton (1861), Avebury (1871), Pershute (1881) and finally
Winterbourne Monkton (1891), where Ann was to die, aged 65, on 22 February
1894. James died shortly afterwards on 21 June 1894, aged 67.
Ann and James
had three children of their own, all baptised in Wroughton:
Sarah Ann
Bathe, baptised 7 August 1853
Twins Jesse
and Tom Bathe, baptised 13 July 1856. Tom died when he was 7 and was buried at
Wroughton on 6 December 1863.
Philip Speck
continued to live with Ann and James until at least 1891 and then he moved in
with his half-brother Jesse and his family in Winterbourne Monkton – he was
with them in 1901, after which he disappears from the records.
2b. Enoch Speck (1831-1888)
In 1861, Enoch and his sister
Emma formed a separate household but in the mid-1860s, both got married and
started their own homes.
On 17
September 1864, Enoch married the girl-next-door, Jane Butler (see below), with
his sister Emma was one witness.
Jane had
already had three children (fathers not known), although Tom, the youngest, was
baptised privately on 14 March and received into the church on 5 June 1864, the
same year as her marriage. Whether or not Enoch was his father, Tom appears in
later records sometimes as Tom Butler and sometimes as Tom Speck.
Jane’s other
two children were Lucy Butler, who was baptised on 7 August 1853, and Mary
Butler, baptised on 10 March 1861. Both were with their mother in the 1861
census but Mary died at the beginning of 1862, and was buried (under the name
Mary Ann Butler) on 20 January.
Enoch and Jane
had two other children – Charles Speck, baptised in Wroughton on 7 January
1866, and Mary Ann Speck, baptised on 1 September 1867.
Jane died in
1868 and was buried on 19 August.
In the 1871
census, Enoch was head of the household, a widower of 39, with three children,
listed as Tom Speck (7) Charles Speck (5) and Mary Ann Speck (3), and also Lucy
Butler (17), listed as “daughter-in-law”, a term sometimes used to mean a
step-daughter.
Over the next
few years, Lucy fell pregnant at least five times – and it must be presumed
that Enoch was the father on each occasion. In the 1881 census, Lucy was
described as Enoch’s wife – although they did not, in fact, get married until
the end of 1883, just before the birth of a sixth child.
The children
were:
Emily Augusta
Butler, said to be the daughter of Enoch and Lucy Butler, who was baptised on
12 July 1873 at Wroughton. In both the 1881 census (when she was living with
Enoch and Lucy) and in the 1891 census (when she was a servant in Wandsworth)
her name was given as Emily Speck. However, when she got married, in 1901, she
used the name Butler and said that her father was Enoch Butler.
Agnes Annie
Butler was baptised on 27 January 1875 with only her mother, Lucy Butler,
mentioned. Agnes died aged 7 weeks and was buried on 13 February.
Annie Augusta
Butler was baptised on 25 December 1876, again with only her mother mentioned.
She was 10 years old when she died at Ogbourne St Andrew and was buried under
the name Annie Augusta Speck Butler in Wroughton on 19 January 1887.
William James
Butler was baptised on 13 July 1879, once again with only his mother listed.
However, in each census between 1881 and 1911, he was listed with the surname
Speck – although in 1901 and 1911 he had dropped his first name and was known
as James Speck.
Edith Hannah
Butler, daughter of Lucy Butler, single woman, was baptised in Wroughton on 28
August 1881, but died within days of her sister Annie at Ogbourne St Andrew.
She was buried under the name Edith Anna Speck in Wroughton on 5 February 1887.
Enoch and Lucy
had two children after their marriage:
Ernest Jesse
Speck, baptised 6 January 1884 at Ogbourne St Andrew
Elizabeth
Looker Speck, baptised 24 April 1887 at Wroughton, Elizabeth’s second name
being Enoch’s mother’s maiden name.
Enoch died on
3 May 1888 and was buried five days later. He left a personal estate of £18 1s
10d.
On 29
September 1889, Susie Augusta Speck, daughter of Lucy Speck, single woman, was
baptised at Wroughton. The rector had entered the father as David Jefferies,
but that name was deleted and Speck inserted as the surname.
Lucy later
married David Jefferies, who was 12 years her junior, at the beginning of 1892.
They were to have two more children:
David John
Jefferies, baptised 10 July 1892.
Charles
Frederick Jefferies, baptised 30 September 1894.
At the time of
the 1911 census, the household consisted of David Jefferies and his wife Lucy;
two of the three children he acknowledged, Susie and Fred; one of the children
Lucy had had with Enoch, called James Speck (= William James Butler); and two
of Lucy’s brothers/stepsons, Tom Speck (= Tom Butler) and Charles Speck. All
these last three were listed as boarders.
Lucy died in
1912 and was buried in Wroughton on 18 May.
2c. Emma Speck (1827-1888)
Enoch’s sister Emma married
Shadrach Vines[vi]
on 4 December 1865 but he died nine years later and was buried at Wroughton on
22 March 1874. They had had no children. Emma died on 11 May 1888 and probate
on her estate, valued at £80, was granted to her sister, Ann Bathe.
3. The Tibbolds Family:
When John Tibbolds died in 1833,
he age was given as 67, putting his date of birth about 1766, although no
record of a baptism in Wiltshire has been found. Ann Bowsher, the mother of
Morris Speck, was baptised at Ogbourne St George on 8 April 1770, and was the
illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Bowsher. After they married in Ogbourne St
George in 1808, the couple moved to Wroughton where they had two child
baptised: Binah (also referred to as Abina or Sabina, although the baptismal
record actually says Dinah) on 19 May 1811, and Thomas, who was baptised on 18
May 1813 at the same time as his half-brother, Morris Speck.
John Tibbolds
died in 1833 and was buried in Wroughton on 6 October, aged 67. Ann died at the
beginning of 1851 and was buried in Wroughton on 25 February that year.
3a Thomas Tibbolds (1813-1886)
Thomas married Sarah Maysey (or
Maisey)[vii]
on 4 February 1833. Thomas and Sarah Tibbolds had some seven children before
Sarah died in 1877. Thomas had entered the Union Workhouse at Stratton St
Margaret by 1881 and died there in 1886. He was buried at Wroughton on 25
March.
3b Binah Tibbolds (1811-1880)
Binah married George Stone in
Wroughton on 19 August 1833, witnessed by her bother Thomas and his new wife
Sarah.
George Stone
remains something of a mystery. On 10 October 1833, the Wroughton Overseers
obtained a Removal Order to Great Bedwin for George Stone alias Stanton, his
wife Sabina and a male infant one day old. However, there was a note added: “The
within named pauper Sabina Tibbles is unable to be removed by reason of being
delivered of a child.”
The Removal
Order was suspended until 7 November 1833, but, on 10 November, William Stone,
son of George and Binah, was baptised at Wroughton.
There are no
other records for George in Wiltshire, under either the name of Stone or that
of Stanton, but Binah appears in the 1841 census, living with her widowed
mother in the house next door to Morris Speck and his family in Wroughton. With
Binah were her son William and another child called Mary Ann Stone, apparently
born in 1840. There is no record of Mary Ann’s birth being registered or of her
being baptised and when she married Joseph Withers on 29 January 1870[viii],
her father’s name was left blank.
Binah Stone
had two more children during the 1840s. For the baptism of the first,
Elizabeth, on 8 October 1843, the entry said she was the daughter of George and
Abina Stone, but in the record of her burial a little over three years later
(10 March 1848), the name "Tibbolds" was written, but crossed out and
"Stone" inserted. This alteration appears to have been contemporary
with the initial entry.
John Stone was
baptised on 2 July 1846, the son of Binah Stone, single woman. When John
married Sarah Ann Grey on 24 December 1870, again his father’s name was left
blank.
In later
records, Binah was usually given the surname Stone, but in the 1861 census,
both she and her son John were given her maiden name, although spelt
“Tibboulds”. Finally, when she died, her death was registered as Sabina Stanton,
but she was buried under the name Sabina Stone.
Binah’s
household in 1851 comprised herself (her mother Ann Tibbolds having died not
long before the census), her three surviving children, (William, Mary Anne and
John), the three Speck children, described as her nephew and nieces, and the
base-born son of Ann Speck (see above).
In 1861, Binah
was with her son John and in 1871, with her son William. She died in 1880 and,
as has already been mentioned, her death was registered as Sabina Stanton (an
alias of her husband’s), although she was buried under the name Sabina Stone, on
4 August.
3c Binah’s children
William Stone (1833-1883)
William Stone married a widow,
Martha Whale, at the beginning of 1874. They never had children of their own,
but Martha had a base-born son, William James Whale, baptised on 5 November
1871, who took the name James Stone.
Martha was
born Martha Rogers, the daughter of John Rogers and Sarah (nee Collier). In
1851, she had married William Whale and bore him three children before he died
in 1863. William Stone died in 1883 and Martha in 1902, when she was buried
under the name Martha Collier Stone.
Mary Ann Stone (1840-1908)
As mentioned above, Mary Ann
Stone married Joseph Withers on 29 January 1870, with her brother John as one
witness. They were to have at least five children and Mary Ann died towards the
end of 1908. She was buried in Wroughton on 14 December.
John Stone (1846-1925)
John Stone married Sarah Ann Grey
on 24 December 1870. They were to have nine children but only six were alive at
the time of the 1911 census. Sarah Ann died in 1921 and John in 1925.
4. Alice Page (nee Moulden) (1802-1878)
Born Alice Moulden on 2 January
1802 at Highworth, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Moulden, and baptised three
weeks later on 24 January, the woman who shared the house with the Speck family
in 1841 had married Richard Page at Highworth on 24 November 1824 and they had
had six children:
Sarah Page,
baptised three months after the marriage on 11 February 1825 at Highworth
Mary Page,
baptised at Swindon on 29 April 1827
Thomas Page,
baptised at Swindon on 17 May 1829
Ann Page,
baptised at Swindon on 9 October 1831
Richard Page,
born about 1835, but with no baptismal record found
Alice Page,
baptised at Swindon on 8 February 1836
While it is
difficult to prove what happened to their father Richard (it is possible he
died in 1838[ix]),
certainly by 1840 Alice was living in Wroughton as a single woman. The fact
that she never remarried might indicate that Richard was believed to be still alive.
Part of the
problem is determining who Richard’s parents were. Most likely they were
Richard and Sarah Page of Westrop, a hamlet in the parish of Highworth.
Richard and
Sarah had a number of children baptised at Highworth between 1797 and 1819 –
including John, baptised 17 May 1812, and James, baptised 16 Feb 1814, but the
only child to be christened Richard died in infancy. This does not mean that
they didn’t use the name for another child (there had been earlier John,
baptised in 1810, buried in 1811), just that the second Richard was never
baptised.
On 4 April
1837, five men – Richard, John and James Page, William Wheeler, and William
Painter – were indicted at Salisbury County Sessions for stealing a copper
furnace, which belonged to Richard Strange of Lydiard Tregoze.
William
Miller, a ragman and dealer in old metal, bought 45lb (or 48lb, the newspaper
reports vary) of the copper from Richard Page at 5d per lb, and said that John
Page had offered to sell him some as well. Wheeler, who had received some of
the money from Richard Page, turned King’s evidence and Richard and John were
found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation, while James Page and
William Painter were acquitted.
The evidence
that this is the right Richard Page comes from the details given in the Prison
Hulk Register for Leviathan, moored
at Portsmouth, in 1837 which lists Richard and John, stating that Richard was
married with six children, and John was married with two.
John Page had
married Edith Newman in Swindon on 8 July 1833, with Richard as one witness,
and the couple had had two children: Phoebe, baptised 25 December 1833, and
Thomas, baptised 29 May 1836.
After Richard
and John were transported to New South Wales, leaving England on 2 November
1837 aboard Emma Eugenia and arriving
on 9 February 1838, John and Edith’s children first lived with their mother, their
grandmother Sarah Newman, and 97-year-old greatgrandfather John Newman in
Swindon. Edith remarried at the end of 1841, and in 1851 Phoebe and Thomas
lived with her and her new husband, Thomas Morse, plus several more children.
In Australia,
Richard Page got his ticket-of-leave on 19 April 1842 and his certificate of
freedom on 7 September 1844, while John Page got his ticket-of-leave on 8
September 1843 and his certificate of freedom on 20 April 1844. What happened
to either man after that is not known.
At the time of
the 1841 census, Alice Page was living in the house with just two of her
children – Mary and Alice. The rest of the family was scattered: Sarah was
living in Highworth with George Moulden (her mother’s brother) and his family,
while Thomas, Ann and Richard were in Highworth Workhouse.
Alice was to
have three children baptised in Wroughton with no mention of who the father
was:
The first was
Eliza Page, who was baptised on 6 September 1840 but died in infancy. When she
was buried, on 6 December that year, she was said to be 11 months old.
Next was
Harriet Page, who was baptised on 26 February 1843.
The third was
born on 29 May 1845 and registered as Susanna Page, but was then baptised as
Anna Page on 7 December 1845. In the 1851 census, the child was known as
Hannah, and in 1861, when she was working as a servant in Latton, she was again
called Anna. However, from at least 1866, she was called Susanna or Susan.
The second two
children were born while Morris was “lodging” with Alice – and most probably so
was the first. This lends weight to the idea that Morris was the father.
Also during
the 1840s, one of Alice’s children by Richard Page, also called Alice, died.
She was 5 years old when she was buried on 21 July 1841.
Besides the
three children Alice Page was to have baptised in Wroughton with no mention of
who the father was, her two older daughters each had two illegitimate children
– Mary’s born in 1846 and 1848, and Sarah’s in 1847 and 1850.
In 1851, Alice
Page’s household consisted of herself, her daughters Sarah, Hannah (Susannah)
and Harriet, her son Thomas, two grandchildren (Sarah’s offspring Henry and
Mary Ann), plus Morris Speck.
In 1861, the
household was just Alice and the two grandchildren, plus Morris Speck, who was
still there in 1871, when Alice had another grandchild with her – her daughter
Harriet’s son Charles Williams.
Alice Page was
77 when she died. She was buried at Wroughton on 12 December 1878.
4a Alice’s children:
Sarah Page (1825-1911)
Sarah did not marry until 21
November 1864 when she was 39. Her husband was Thomas Hancock, who was 46. The
witnesses to their marriage were Sarah’s youngest step-sister, Susannah Page,
and Thomas Williams, who two year later was to marry another step-sister,
Harriet Page.
Sarah and
Thomas Hancock did not have any children of their own, but the two born to
Sarah in the 1840s were:
Henry Page,
born at Stratton St Margaret (probably in the Union Workhouse), who was
baptised at Wroughton on 5 September 1847; and Mary Ann Page, baptised at
Wroughton on 3 November 1850.
Sarah and
Thomas lived in Highworth in 1871 and 1881 but by 1891 the couple had moved to
Thomas’s native village of Blunsdon St Andrew. Sarah was buried there on 10
January 1911 and Thomas on 8 February 1913.
Mary Page (1827-1891)
Mary married James Jerome on 10
July 1848. Her children before she was married were:
Sarah Page,
baptised 7 February 1846. Although the Wroughton register of baptisms records
her name as Mary, she was referred to as Sarah Page Jerome in the 1851 census
after her mother married.
Jane Page,
baptised 5 March 1848, died when not two years old and was buried on 29
September 1849.
Mary and James
were to have at least seven more children. James was buried on 8 January 1880
and Mary 21 years later on 6 May 1891.
Thomas Page (1829-1874)
Thomas Page married Ann Watts at
Wroughton on 25 October 1855. The couple had at least 10 children of whom
several died in infancy. The last child, John Thomas Page, was born in the
summer following his father’s death, Thomas being buried on 5 December 1874.
His widow Ann remarried, a widower called John Daniels. She died in 1904 and
was buried on 19 March.
Ann Page (1831-?)
It has not been possible to trace
Ann after 1841.
Richard Page (1835-1892)
Richard Page junior married Eliza
Cook Daniels on 29 December 1855. They were to have at least nine children.
Richard died in 1892 and was buried on 16 April. Eliza died in 1904 and was
buried on 28 July.
Harriet Page (1843-?)
Harriet had a child before she
was married. He was baptised Charles Page on 5 June 1864. He took his new father’s
name when Harriet married Thomas Williams in Wroughton on 29 September 1866,
the marriage being witnessed by James Butler and Susannah Page, who were
themselves to marry two years later. Charles was with his grandmother Alice in
1871 and listed as Charles Williams (see above).
Harriet and
Thomas had at least seven other children. It is not known when Harriet died.
Susannah Page (1843-1909)
Harriet’s sister Susannah had a
child in 1866 – registered and baptised as Emma Page (baptised 8 July 1866),
however her name was changed to Elizabeth about the time Susannah married James
Butler.
Susannah and
James had at least nine other children (see below).
5. The Butler Family
Sarah Hart had been born in Great
Coxwell, Berkshire, on 7 May 1805, the daughter of Richard and Mary Hart. She
was baptised there 11 days later. She married James Butler at Faringdon,
Berkshire, on 18 September 1826. They were still living there when their first two
children were born, the younger one in 1832, but had moved to Wroughton by
1836, when their third child, Charles, arrived. James was described as a
maltster in the baptismal records for two of his children, but when the sixth
and final child was baptised, on 4 May 1841, James was listed as labourer.
That date, 4
May 1841, was significant for the family as not only was the youngest son
baptised on that day, but it was also the date of the burial of James, at the
age of 39.
James and
Sarah’s children were:
Jane Butler,
baptised 11 May 1827 in Faringdon
William
Butler, baptised 5 July 1832 in Faringdon
Charles
Butler, baptised 21 February 1836 in Wroughton
George Butler,
baptised 4 February 1838 in Wroughton, where he died when four months old. He
was buried on 17 May 1838
Sarah Butler,
whose birth was registered in the second quarter of 1839 (there is no record of
a baptism).
James Edwin
Butler, baptised 4 May 1841.
In 1841, Sarah
Butler was living in the house next door to Binah Stone in Priors Hill,
Wroughton. With her were her children, Jane, William, Charles, Sarah and James.
There was also a 21-year-old lodger called Elizabeth Bedford.
Although Sarah
had continued to live in Wroughton after her husband’s death, she returned to
her home county where she married again – a Wroughton man called John Cook. The
marriage took place in 1847, but there appears to have been at least two children
born before the marriage.
In 1851, the
Cook household was in High Street, Wroughton, next door to Thomas Tibbolds and
his family. There were six children in the house: Sarah Butler Cook (12), James
Butler Cook (10), John Cook (8), Mary Cook (5), Elizabeth Cook (2), and Emily
Cook (10 months).
The older two
were clearly children of Sarah with James Butler. Of her other children with
him, Jane was a visitor in the household of George Smith in Wroughton; William
had died the year before the census and had been buried on 17 February 1850;
and Charles was a servant in the household of John Washbourn in the Overtown
tithing of Wroughton.
There are
records for the baptisms of the younger two Cook children at Wroughton –
Elizabeth on 1 October 1848, Emily on 7 July 1850 – but no baptismal records
for either John or Mary. John was born in Wroughton and his birth was
registered as “John Cook Butler” and as “John Cook Cook” in the second quarter
of 1843. Mary, however, was born in Faringdon towards the end of 1845 and was
registered as Mary Butler.
Of Sarah’s
children, Jane’s history has been recounted as part of the Speck Family saga
above.
Charles Butler
married Elizabeth Jerrom (Jerome or Jerrome) on 6 September 1856 and they were
to have at least nine children.
Sarah Butler
was working as a servant to Thomas Hapgood, an innkeeper in Barnsley,
Gloucestershire, in March 1861 and it was later the same year, on 21 October,
that she married George Thomas in Barnsley, where they continued to live at
least until 1871, after which they and their three children disappear from UK
records (presumably they emigrated).
James Butler
married Susanna Page, the daughter of Alice Page (see above) on 21 September
1868. The witnesses were Shadrack and Emma Vines (nee Speck). They had at least
10 children. James died at the beginning of 1908 (he was buried at Swindon on
18 January) and Susanna died the following year.
Of Sarah’s
children with John Cook, the last record found so far for John Cook junior is
the 1851 census.
Mary Cook
married Jonas Harper, who was an engine driver with GWR, in Swansea in the
second quarter of 1867. Jonas had been born in Wroughton. The couple had at
least eight children, the first two born in Swansea but the rest in Swindon.
Jonas died in 1908, Mary in 1920.
Elizabeth Cook
married Charles Earthridge on 30 November 1867 (Emily Cook was a witness) and
they had at least eight children before Charles died in 1881, although three
did not survive infancy. Elizabeth died in 1915.
Emily Cook
married Mark Watts on 11 July 1870 and the couple went to live in Swansea,
initially with her half-sister Mary and her husband (Mark also worked for GWR).
They stayed in Wales for most of the 1870s – it was here that a number of their
children were born – before they moved back to the Swindon area. The couple had
14 children but only seven were still alive at the time of the 1911 census.
Mark died in 1916, Emily in 1940.
[i]
For consistency, Peabee is using the most common form of this family’s surname
– but sometimes it appeared as Tibbles, Theobalds or Tibboulds.
[ii]
Ann was the daughter of Elizabeth Bowsher, and was baptised in Ogbourne St
George on 8 April 1770. Elizabeth herself had been baptised in the same village
on 10 December 1752, the daughter of John and Jane Bowsher (or Bowshier). It
would appear that Elizabeth was unmarried when she had Ann, but she later
married John Vyse (on 10 May 1779) and they had a son, also called John,
baptised 22 April 1780. The family’s subsequent history is not known.
[iii] Hannah Looker had been born in Chisledon on 15 May
1807, the youngest child of Henry Looker and Honor (nee Major), and baptised in
the Methodist Chapel in Newbury, Berkshire, on 25 October that year. Henry had
been baptised at Chisledon on 28 February 1770 and was buried there on 26 May
1815. Honor was baptised at Christ Church, Swindon, the daughter of Thomas and
Elizabeth Major, on 12 September 1764. She married Henry Looker in Chisledon on
1 December 1794 and was buried, aged 92, on 12 May 1857. It should be noted
that the Looker name was sometimes spelt Leuker and that for the baptisms of
Hannah and her elder sister Sarah (in 1805), their mother’s name was recorded
as Hannah, but in all other records, her name was Honor (or Honour).
[iv]
Frequently spelt Enock
[v]
Thomas and James Andrews Bathe were two of the sons of James Bathe and Sarah
(nee Andrews) and were born in Elcombe tithing of Wroughton. Thomas was
baptised on 23 September 1821 and James Andrews Bathe on 1 April 1827. James
was given the second name Andrews (his mother’s maiden name) to distinguish him
from a brother James who had been born two years earlier but had lived only a
few days. Thomas and his wife Caroline did not have any children.
[vi]
Shadrach Vines was the younger brother of Caroline, who had married Thomas
Bathe, brother of James Bathe, Emma Speck’s brother-in-law. They were the
children of Charles Vines and Elizabeth (nee Gaze?) and were born in Westport
St Mary, just outside Malmesbury; Caroline was baptised on 25 December 1830 and
Shadrach on 25 August 1833
[vii]
Three years before her marriage, Sarah Maisey gave birth to twins Mary Anne and
John and a bastardy order was made against John Summers for their upkeep. Of
Sarah and Thomas’s seven child, one they called Abina after Thomas’s sister
[viii]
Her younger brother John was a witness
[ix]
The death of a Richard Page was registered in Highworth district in the first
quarter of 1838, but no record of a burial has so far been found
