How many ways can you spell Titcombe?

 

Different spellings of a surname can cause problems with genealogical research – but when a solution is found, what a great boost that can be to the researcher.

A case in point: Anne Titcombe, who was receiving poor relief in Wroughton at the start of the 19^th century, and her family.

Born Anne Beasant in Wiltshire in about 1766, she married John Titcombe in Wroughton on Christmas Eve 1789. The clerk who entered the marriage in the parish register spelt the name TITCOMBE, and while Anne could only make her mark, John signed, but he spelt the name TITCOMB, without the final E.

The couple continued to live in Wroughton until at least 1792 and during that period had two children baptised in the parish church: Sophia on 3 October 1790 and James on 4 October 1792. On both occasions, the clerk spelt the name as TITCOMBE.

The next record of Anne in Wroughton was a Removal Order, dated 23 December 1803: “Anne Titcombe, widow, and her children: James aged 11 yrs, Elizabeth 9 yrs, Elias 7 yrs, Laban 5 yrs, Edward 2 yrs and 9 mnths, and William 11 mnths. From Chapelry of St James, Southbroom to Wroughton.”

So where were the other children born? And when and where did John die, making Anne a widow?

The answer to when John died could be calculated to from the age of the youngest child. If William was 11 months old at the time the Removal Order was made, he must have been conceived in about July 1802 so John must have died sometime in the following 20 months presumably in Southbroom, as that was where Anne and her children had become a charge on the parish.

So the Southbroom parish records were search, but with no Titcombes – with or without an E – recorded. However, on 13 February 1803, a William TICKTON, son of John and Anne Tickton,  was baptised in Southbroom, and then, on 30 September 1803, John TICKTOM was buried there. Both perfect fits date-wise with the information in the Removal Order, apart from the spelling of the surname.

Both entries were made by the curate, J Bond: had he misheard the name or was he just a bad speller? Alternatively, were John and Anne using a different name? The fact that the Removal Order, made out in Southbroom, used the correct spelling would appear to indicate that someone in the parish new the true name.

But where were all the other children born? A search of the surviving Wiltshire parish records for any child of John and Ann(e) with a surname beginning Ti… failed to come up with anything, so a wider search was needed, starting with the neighbouring county of Gloucestershire and immediately four records were uncovered from the parish of Boxwell. These were, in chronological order:

·       baptism of Elizabeth Batt Ticktum, daughter of John and Ann Ticktum, on 25 January 1795

·       baptism of Elias Tictum, son of John and Ann Tictum, on 27 November 1796

·       burial of Sophia Tictum, daughter of John Tictum and his wife Ann, on 4 August 1798

·       baptism of Edward Tictum, son of John and Ann Tictum, on 5 April 1801

The dates the three children were baptised in Boxwell match with the ages given in the Removal Order, although there is no record anywhere of Laban.

The final clincher was the discovery of the burial of Elizabeth Batt Titcombe aged 34, in Wroughton on 31 May 1829. Again, a match age-wise with both the baptism and the Removal Order.

It is unfortunate that none of the records show what John did for a living, although he was probably a farm worker. However it was unusual at this time for agricultural workers to move such large distances: Wroughton to Boxwell is about 30 miles, and Boxwell to Southbroom is about the same. Perhaps John had a skill that was in demand in such distant places.

Once back in Wroughton, Anne was paid poor relief of £1 every four weeks, at  least while her children were under 14. The fact that she and her children were chargeable to Wroughton was because that parish was her place of legal settlement, presumably going back to at least the time of her marriage. Coincidently the overseer who did the books in 1805/6 spelt her name Tictomb on several occasions, but he seemed to have problems with his writing and may have had a form of dyslexia.

Anne remained in Wroughton until her death in 1846. She was buried on 31 December.

The fates of James, Laban and Edward after their arrival in Wroughton is unknown.

Elias went to live in New Windsor. He married Ann Cook, the daughter of John and Phoebe Cook of Overton, Wiltshire, across the river in Eton on 7 August 1824. The couple had five children, all of whom died relatively young:

·       Elizabeth, baptised on 17 July 1825 when they family lived in Peascod Street. She married George Anderson on 22 November 1847 but died a little over a year later, aged 25, and was buried on 13 February 1850.

·       James, baptised on 11 March 1827, when the family was at George Street, and was buried aged 21 on 31 July 1848

·       Henry Elias, baptised on 9 July 1829, when the family was at Goswell Court, and buried aged 18 on 24 June 1847

·       William, baptised on 28 August 1831, when the family was at Goswell Court, and buried on 14 January 1832 aged 11 months

·       Anne Rhoda, baptised on 15 August 1835, when the family were at Datchet Lane, and buried aged 4 on 30 March 1839

Elias was always described as a labourer on his children’s baptismal records, but in 1851, when he and Ann were living in Eton, he was a brewer’s assistant. He died at the beginning of 1860 and the following year, his widow Ann, described as a retired servant, was lodging in a house in Russell Street, New Windsor. She died in the autumn of 1863.

As before, the spelling of the surname in the records varied, but only between Titcomb and Titcombe – except for the baptismal record for William which has been transcribed at Titscombe.

On 3 December 1826, John and Anne’s youngest child, William, married Rhoda Bushell in Wroughton. William signed his name TITCOMB, although the clerk spelt the name with the final E.

Rhoda was the illegitimate daughter of Amy Bushell and had been baptised in Shalbourne on 13 July 1799.

The couple had one child – Sophia, baptised in Wroughton on 1 September 1828 – before William died in 1830 aged 27. He was buried in Wroughton on 8 April.

Although William was described as a labourer when Sophia was baptised, Rhoda became a grocer in Wroughton and in June 1841, she was running her business from a building in the village which also housed her daughter, Sophia, mother Amy Bushell, mother-in-law Anne Titcombe, and niece Elizabeth Titcombe, the daughter of Elias.

Later that year, on 5 August 1841, Rhoda married George Tarrant and the couple continued to run the grocery store in Wroughton. When George died in 1850, he left his estate to his wife – less a few bequests to various Tarrant relations – and after Rhoda’s death, the estate was to pass to Sophia, and then to her children.

Sophia had by then married John Wallis Hawkins on 25 March 1847 an the couple were to have seven children. 

So the answer to the question posed in the heading is eight (so far): Titcombe, Titcombe, Tickton, Ticktom, Ticktum, Tictum, Tictomb, and Titscombe. Hence the joy at having been about to solve some of the puzzle – even if Pea-bee hasn’t found what happened to James, Laban and Edward after the came to Wroughton in 1803.