Friday, 13 July 2018

Robert Bathe: what was stolen?


Robert Bathe: what was stolen?

This is the story of a young man, Robert Bathe, who, in a little over three years, had left his rural home in Wiltshire, joined the army, got married, was involved in the Great Exhibition of 1851, and was posted to Australia with his wife. There he died within a few months of his arrival, when still not quite 30 years old.
While at the Crystal Palace, he was accused of theft and had to spend 42 days in prison. The question is: What did he steal?

Acknowledgements
Before Pea-Bee starts this tale, he must thank Diane Oldman and her excellent www.sappers-minerswa.com website, and Christine Garvin, a descendent of George and Mary Ann Bartlett. Both Diane and Christine have been very generous with information and scans of documents. My thanks also go to Rob Clark, who undertook a search of the Muster Rolls at the National Archives for me


Family
Robert Bathe was the youngest of the six children born to William and Patience Bathe, farm labourers of Elcombe tithing in the parish of Wroughton, Wiltshire. He was baptised in the parish church on 22 June 1823[1].
His father died when Robert was between six and seven years old[2], after an illness that had lasted for over a year[3], while his mother died almost 10 years later, at the end of 1840[4].
In June 1841, Robert, then aged about 18, was working as an agricultural labourer in Uffcott[5], a neighbouring hamlet, just over 2 miles south of Elcombe.
Although there were Bathe aunts, uncles and cousins still living in Wroughton parish, Robert’s immediate family were widely scattered by this time.
His eldest sister, Mary, had married a Swindon stone mason, George Bizley, in 1834[6], but his other siblings were still unmarried in 1841: two sisters were in service together in the house of a brewer in Marlborough, Wiltshire[7]; another sister was in service in the household of the vicar of Cotgrave, Nottinghamshire[8]; Robert’s only brother, William, had been recruited as a constable in the Metropolitan Police’s R Division when it was expanded to include Woolwich and Plumstead in January 1840[9].
Over the next decade, London, and in particular the Woolwich area, attracted other members of the family. William was quite settled there: he had married Mary Barber at St Luke, Charlton, on 4 November 1844[10], had started a family, and lived in Plumstead[11]; his youngest sister Sarah came to Plumstead and met James Sorrell, a coachman, whom she married at St Nicholas, Plumstead, on 28 September 1850[12] with one of William’s police sergeant colleagues acting as a witness. William, too, was a sergeant by this time: he had been promoted in 1848[13]. Robert also came to Woolwich, but as a private in the Corps of Royal Sappers & Miners.

Military
Robert Bathe enlisted in the Corps of Royal Sappers & Miners at Portsmouth on 9 May 1849[14] and two days later was one of five new recruits transferred from Portsmouth to the Corps’ main depot in Woolwich where he remained until 1 August. He was then transferred to Chatham and there posted to the recently-formed 22nd Company on 1 November[15].
He remained with 22nd Company for the rest of 1849, throughout 1850 and into 1851[16], although in September 1850 he was recorded as being in hospital. The Company remained in Chatham until February 1851 when it was posted to Kensington to assist at the Great Exhibition. The unit moved from Chatham on 8 February as reported in The Kentish Independent that day:
“Captain Gibb’s Company, (the 22nd,) will proceed this day from Chatham to the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park. They will be conveyed from Chatham to Woolwich by the Railway, and thence to Hungerford[*] per steam packet.”
However, six days before the posting, on 2 February, Robert Bathe had married Mary Ann Coleman Pearce, at St Mary Magdalene, the parish church of Gillingham, a neighbouring parish to Chatham[17].
On their marriage certificate it was stated that both Robert and his father William were stone masons, but William’s profession on the marriage certificates of three of Robert’s siblings was either that of gardener (2) or simply labourer (1)[18]. Being only six years old when his father died, Robert may not have known his father’s trade and may have learnt his craft from his brother-in-law, George Bizley.
Little is known about Mary Ann’s early life: the 1851 census puts her birth in Portsea in about 1828[19], but there are discrepancies in other documents concerning her father’s name – Lewis or Joseph – and the spelling of the surname – Pearce or Pierce[20].
Once transferred to Kensington, most of the company were in Kensington Palace barracks but Robert was one of a handful of married men who had lodgings in the local area and did not live in the barracks. On census night 30 March 1851, Robert and Mary Ann were at 2 Charles Place, Kensington[21].
The sappers performed engineering duties during construction and throughout the course of the Exhibition. They were responsible for security at the gates and crowd control, examining goods at customs, receiving and arranging entries, guarding the fire engines, monitoring ventilation, cleaning, maintenance of structures as required, and were to take everything down again after closure.
The men who took part in the Great Exhibition were granted an award (which varied according to their contribution) and a medal.  However, Robert’s name does not appear in the list of awards made at the end of the Exhibition.
According to T W J Connolly’s ‘History of The Corps of Royal Sappers & Miners’: “The number of men sent to the Exhibition from September 1850 to December 1851, reached a total of 274 of all ranks. Sixty-eight of the number reaped no advantage from the grant [ie the medal and associated award]. Of these, twenty-four had been removed to head-quarters for slight irregularity, two deserted, two did not participate on account of indolence, thirty-three were only three weeks at the exhibition before it closed, and the remainder, seven men, were removed after short periods of employment, in consequence of illness.”[22]
Robert had to forego any award himself because, on 1 August 1851, he was found guilty of theft from the Exhibition at a court martial held at Woolwich[23].

Fall from grace
Full details of Robert Bathe’s crime have not been discovered but, besides forfeiting any award for his services at the Crystal Place, he also had to serve a term of imprisonment.
The muster rolls of the Royal Sappers & Miners reveal some details and are shown in Appendix I.
He spent three days in the guard room at Kensington Palace towards the end of July and then another five days in the guard room in Woolwich before his trial. Originally sentenced to 112 days with hard labour, 70 days were remitted by order of the commandant. This was because, in the opinion of the judge advocate general, the first charge was illegally drawn up, and the finding and awarding of the sentence should have been only on the second charge. Robert was held in the guard room at Woolwich after his trial until 12 August, presumably while the judge advocate general considered the case, and then spent the rest of his sentence – until 11 September – in a garrison cell at Woolwich[24].
Apart from Robert, the names and the offences of the 24 Sappers who, according to Connolly, “had been removed to head-quarters for slight irregularity” are not known. No report of Robert’s offence came be found, but there is a brief mention as an aside in a newspaper report which concentrated on an officer accused of embezzlement. This appeared in The Durham Chronicle on 22 August and was described as “From our Special Correspondent” who gave his address as “ – Club” St James’s Street, London:
Wednesday Night, 20th August 1851
It was yesterday determined that the Exhibition should close on 11th October, without any ceremonial taking place. Its success has been complete, and the only officials who have disgraced themselves by ill conduct since its opening have been, strange to say, the military, the petted of the Commissioners. The only officials arrested for robbery have been two sappers and miners, and the only case of embezzlement which has occurred is that of one who calls himself an officer and a gentleman; who at all events holds her Majesty’s commission, and who was placed over the civilians in the money taking department, and who was perpetually preaching up the necessity of the observance of the strictest integrity. This worthy was caught by the detective police last week in the act of transferring a handful of silver from the counter to his own coat pocket…
Nothing more is said about the two sappers.

To Australia
After his release, Robert remained at Woolwich, although nominally on the strength of 22nd Company which was still in Kensington[25]. On 1 October, he was transferred to 20th Company, then preparing to sail for the Swan River Settlement in Western Australia, where they were to be employed in various infrastructure projects. A large detachment of 20th Company had sailed on 10 September aboard Anna Robertson, a troop and migrant carrier. That ship arrived on 18 December and the 65 Sappers aboard joined five others who had been in the colony since the previous year[26].
A second detachment, under command of Lt William Crossman RE, comprising two sergeants, two corporals and a 2nd corporal, 24 privates (including Robert Bathe, mason) and a bugler, were to follow aboard Marion[27]. This ship was contracted to carry 280 convicts from the prison hulks moored at Woolwich, Portsmouth, and elsewhere, and the sappers were to act as guards on the passage to Swan River, “where they will serve out their full period of military service with the view ultimately of becoming settlers.” With this in mind, 15 wives of the Sappers (including Mary Ann) and 17 children were also aboard Marion when she set sail.
Contemporary newspaper reports give a rather confused account of the ship’s movements and who was to be on board. One even suggested that she would “land the greater part of her convicts at Gibraltar, and will take on board an equivalent number there, who will obtain tickets of leave on arriving at the Swan River settlement. The Marion will, on leaving Gibraltar, proceed to Bermuda, and after leaving a number of the home convicts there, will take on board an equivalent number to receive tickets of leave on landing at the Swan River settlement”. This seems a rather garbled statement and there is no evidence that Marion ever went to Bermuda.
Basically, Marion was fitting out at Deptford from early October and then sailed down river to Woolwich where, first, the detachment of 20th Company boarded, followed by the convicts from the Thames hulks, Warrior and Justitia. She then sailed to Portsmouth, where she took on aboard prisoners from the York and Stirling Castle hulks. At Portland Roads, more convicts came aboard and the ship waited for dispatches before eventually departing for Australia on 2 November.
The various newspaper reports are shown in Appendix II, while the most accurate account is probably that given by the Surgeon-Superintendent of the vessel, Frederick W Le Grand, in his report after the ship had arrived in Australia[28].
The Marion, Male Convict Ship, arrived at Woolwich from Deptford on 21 October 1851, and received on board the Guard, consisting of the Lieutenant of Engineers, 30 Sappers, 15 women and 17 children also a Convict Warden, for Swan River Establishment, his wife and 7 children, making a total of 72 Persons[†]. On the following day 159 Males Convicts were embarked and on 23 October the ship sailed, and on 25 October arrived at Spithead, when 71 Prisoners were received. From thence she proceeded to Portland and having taken on board 50 Convicts, making the Total number 280, she finally sailed on 2 November for Swan River. The whole of the Guard with their families, the Convicts, and other Persons on board, were in excellent health, and with a few exceptions were either young or in the prime of life…[‡]
The Ship arrived at Swan River on 30 January, and by 7 February all were discharged in good health, with the exception of One Convict…sent with Chronic Bronchitis to the Hospital.
FW Le Grand
Surgeon Superintendent
A Perth newspaper, Inquirer, published the following announcement on 4 February 1852:
The “Marion” from London
On Friday last, the Marion, 684 tons, Alexander Bissett, Commander, arrived at Fremantle, having on board 279 convicts (the original number was 280, one died on the passage,) of which 161 are entitled to received tickets-of-leave. She also conveyed 30 Sappers and Miners, with their wives (15), and children (19, two of whom were born during the voyage). The following are the officers:- Surgeon Superintendent, Assistant Surgeon LeGrande, Lieut Crossman (in charge of Sappers and Miners) Mr Crawley (religious instructor,) and a convict warder, wife and seven children. Total number of souls exclusive of crew, 355.

Illness
Within two months of his arrival in Australia, Robert Bathe reported sick. He was recorded as sick in both the March and April muster rolls for his unit and then, by May, he had been admitted to the military hospital in Fremantle where he stayed until October[29].
Just eight months after arriving in Australia, on 3 October 1852, Robert died and was buried in Fremantle. He was 29 years old.
Two different causes of death are given in the records – his army record talks of fever, his burial record of consumption. Given the length of stay in hospital, it is likely he was suffering a chronic illness such as consumption, although it is possible that he also contracted a fever that hastened the end[30].

The widow’s tale
Robert and Mary Ann had never had any children, but on 22 July 1854 Mary Ann Bathe married another Sapper, Private George Bartlett[31], who had also arrived on Marion in January 1852, and they were to have five children before George died in 1867.
The oldest two Bartlett children – George and Emily – were both born in Western Australia (on 4 July 1855 and 7 May 1858 respectively)[32] but when they were still very young, the family returned to England on the Lord Raglan in January 1860[33], and a year later, both children were to die within a few days of each other. They were both buried in Gillingham, Kent – George on 20 January, Emily on 1 February 1861[34].
Mary Ann was pregnant when she arrived back in the UK and twins Charles and Thomas were born on 29 June 1860 in Camberwell, George’s own place of birth[35]. Later that year, George Bartlett received his Army discharge (after serving for almost 12 years) and in October 1860 took up a position as Assistant Warder at Chatham Prison[36].
Clearly not happy back in England, the Bartletts decided to return to Western Australia and George applied for a position with the Convict Establishment: he was appointed Assistant Warder, on a salary of £54 a year, from 1 November 1862. George, Mary Ann and the twins travelled to Gravesend where they embarked on the Palestine for the voyage to Fremantle, arriving on 14 January 1863[37].
Once again, Mary Ann was pregnant during the voyage and had another child, James, who was born in Western Australia on 31 July 1863[38].
As a warder, George was in charge of various convict working parties. At Fremantle Prison in August 1866 he was seriously assaulted by a prisoner and on 27 July 1867 he died of heart disease; the surgeon’s opinion being that it had been caused by internal injuries sustained in the attack by the prisoner[39]. Widowed for a second time and with little more than George’s outstanding wages and a sum of £15 from a compassionate fund, Mary Ann ultimately moved to Collingwood, one the inner suburbs of Melbourne, with her sons in December 1871 after failing to qualify for a land grant[40].
Both the twins married – Thomas in 1883[41] and Charles in 1888[42] – but their younger brother James died unmarried, aged 21, in 1884[43]. Both the twins had four children, but all four of Thomas’s died in infancy (and his wife when she was only 27)[44], while Charles’s family flourished, living into their 60s or 70s. Thomas did marry a second time – in 1903[45] – but died two years later[46].
Mary Ann died on 10 January 1909 in Bendigo, Victoria[47].


Appendix I
Muster Roll details of Robert Bathe’s detention

WO 11/130: 1851-52: 19th to 22nd Companies and Detachments July muster roll
Prisoner in Guard room awaiting trial.
Prisoner awaiting trial in Guard room at Kensington Palace from 23 to 26 July Subsisted at 6d a day – In Guard room at Woolwich 27 to 31 July 1851 & Subsisted @ 4¾d a day

WO 11/130: 1851-52: 19th to 22nd Companies and Detachments August muster roll
Tried by a Garrison Ct Martial 1 August 1851 & sentenced to 112 days imprisonment, 70 days of which were remitted by order of the Commandant. Imprisonment began 1 August & will end 10 September 1851. Prisoner in Guard room after trial 1 to 12 August & Subsisted @ 4¾d a day – In Garrison cells 13 to 31 August Subsisted for which period will be charged next month

Note in the August muster roll
It appearing that the 1st charge, according to the opinion of the Judge Advocate is illegally drawn up, and the finding and awarding of the sentence, should be only on the 2nd charge, the Commandant remits seventy days of imprisonment with lard labor, and the Prisoner Private R Bathe Royal Sappers & Miners to undergo the remainder of the sentence in one of the Garrison cells.
Sigd J Downman, Lt General, Commandant
a true copy, J Walpole, Brigade Major

WO 11/130: 1851-52: 19th to 22nd Companies and Detachments September muster roll
Tried by a Garrison Ct Martial 1 August 1851 & sentenced to 112 days imprisonment, 70 days of which were remitted by order of the Commandant, a copy of which remission appeared in last month’s MR & Pay List. Imprisonment began 1 August and ended 10 September 1851. Subsisted in Garrison cells from 13 August to 10 September @ 5½d a day as per Provost Sergeants’ statement with pay list

WO 86/6 Judge Advocate General's Office: district courts martial registers, home and abroad 1848-1851
Recorded 19 August 1851
Pte Robt Bathe RS&M, court martial held at Woolwich, date held 1 August, charged with Theft at Great Exhibition. Sentence: 112 days HL 70 days remitted

Appendix II
Newspaper References to the Start of Marion’s Voyage to Swan River 1851

Deptford Dockyard 7 Oct
At the tier [?misprint for pier], the ship Marion, fitting for the conveyance of 280 convict to Perth, Western Australia
Kentish Mercury, Saturday October 11 1851

The Marion, hired convict ship, Surgeon Superintendent Le Grand, has arrived off the Royal Arsenal to take on board male convicts for the Swan River Settlement, and they will receive tickets of leave on their arrival in that colony. A detachment of the Royal Sappers & Miners, from headquarters, at Woolwich, will embark at the Royal Arsenal on Friday next to do the duties of a convict guard during their passage to Swan River, where they will serve out their full period of military service with the view ultimately of becoming settlers.
Morning Advertiser, Thursday October 16 1851

Convicts for Swan River – The Marion, hired transport, now off the Royal Arsenal, takes on board 300 male convicts for the Swan River settlement. On their arrival there, they receive a conditional pardon; a number of Sappers and Miners accompany them as a guard, and as soon as their period of military service expires, they become settlers in that colony. The vessel takes her departure this day (Saturday)
Kentish Mercury, Saturday October 18 1851

The Marion, hired convict ship, Surgeon-Superintendent Le Grand, has arrived off the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, to take on board male convicts for the Swan River settlement, and they will receive tickets of leave an their arrival in that colony. A detachment of the Royal Sappers and Miners from head-quarters at Woolwich embarked yesterday, to do the duties of a convict guard during their passage to Swan River, where they will serve out their full period of military service, with the view ultimately of becoming settlers.
Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, Saturday October 18 1851

Deptford Dockyard 21 Oct
Sailed: The Marion convict ship for Woolwich to receive convicts
Kentish Mercury, Saturday October 25 1851

Royal Sappers and Miners – The remaining portion of 20th Company of Royal Sappers and Miners left the garrison for Swan River on Tuesday last under the command of Lieutenant Crossman, Royal Engineers. They embarked on board the “Marion” convict ship, and are to act as a convict guard on board that vessel during the voyage.
The Kentish Independent, Saturday October 25 1851

The Marion, male convict ship, Surgeon-Superintendent Le Grand, Mr Bisset, master, had taken on board a number of convicts from the Warrior and Justitia convict-ships at Woolwich, and will take out to Gibraltar 250 convicts from the different places where they are kept in the country. The Marion will land the greater part of her convicts at Gibraltar, and will take on board an equivalent number there, who will obtain tickets of leave on arriving at the Swan River settlement. The Marion will, on leaving Gibraltar, proceed to Bermuda, and after leaving a number of the home convicts there, will take on board an equivalent number to receive tickets of leave on landing at the Swan River settlement. 1 Sergeant, 1 Corporal, 1 trumpeter, and 28 privates of the Royal Sappers and Miners, under the command of Lieut. Crossman, Royal Engineer who goes out in the Marion as a Convict guard.
Bell’s New Weekly Messenger, Sunday October 26 1851

Deal Oct 24
Arrived from the River and sailed, the Marion, for Swan River
Morning Chronicle, Saturday October 25 1851

The Marion, hired convict ship, arrived at Spithead this morning, from the Thames, to embark prisoners from this port, Cowes, and Portland, for Swan River
Portsmouth Times and Naval Gazette, Saturday, October 25 1851

Portsmouth Oct 26
The Marion convict-ship arrived yesterday from the river to embark prisoners from this port, Cowes, and Portland, for conveyance to Swan River
The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, Monday October 27 1851

Portsmouth Oct 28
The Marion convict ship embarked at Spithead on Monday from the Echo government tug the prisoners for transportation from the York and Stirling Castle hulks in this harbour.
The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, Wednesday October 29 1851

Portsmouth Oct 27
Sailed Marion for Portland and Swan River
Morning Chronicle, Wednesday October 29 1851

Portland Roads Oct 31
In the roads – The Marion convict ship, waiting for her despatches.
The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, Saturday November 1 1851

Portland Roads Nov 2
Sailed – The Marion (convict ship) for Swan River
The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, Monday November 3 1851










[1] Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre Ref 551/13 Wiltshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms 1813-1916: Wroughton 1813-1844 p59 No 469 (via Ancestry.com)
[2] Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre Ref 551/14 Wiltshire, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials 1813-1916: Wroughton 1813-1867 p50 No 394 (via Ancestry.com)
[3] Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre Ref 551/81 Wroughton Overseers of the Poor Annual account books. 1817-1833 11 Sep 1829 et seq
[4] Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre Ref 551/14 Wiltshire, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials 1813-1916; Wroughton 1813-1867 p85 No 676 (via Ancestry.com)
[5] 1841 England Census Class: HO107; Piece: 1185; Folio 18; Page 5 (Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Wiltshire>Broad Hinton>District 5>image 4)
[6] Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre Ref 1354/14 Wiltshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1916: Swindon, Christchurch with St Mary 1813-1837 p80 No 239 (via Ancestry.com); 1841 England Census Class: HO107; Piece: 1179; Folio 30; Page 10 (Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Wiltshire>Swindon>District 8>image 6)
[7] 1841 England Census Class: HO107; Piece: 1189; Folio 15; Page 22 (Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Wiltshire>St Mary the Virgin>Marlborough>District 11>image 12)
[8] 1841 England Census Class: HO107; Piece: 853; Folio 6; Page 7 (Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Nottinghamshire>Cotgrave>District 11>image 5)
[9] 1841 England Census Class: HO107; Piece: 493; Folio 61; Page 3 (Ancestry.com 1841 England Census Kent>Woolwich Dockyard>District Convict Hulk>image 3)
[10] England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 Lewisham Q4 1844 Vol 5 p401 (via Ancestry.com)
[11] 1851 England Census Class: HO107; Piece 1590; Folio: 381; Page: 47 (Ancestry.com 1851 England Census Kent>Plumstead>District 2i image 48)
[12] London Metropolitan Archives p97/nic/025 London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1932 St Nicholas, Plumstead 1837-1861 p158 No 316 (via Ancestry.com)
[13] Latest reference as PC: Kentish Independent 1 July 1848. Earliest reference as sergeant: Kentish Independent 21 October 1848
[14] National Archives WO11/122: Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: Detachments: 1849-1850
[15] National Archives WO11/121: Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: 15th to 22nd Companies: 1849-1850
[16] National Archives WO11/126: Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: 19th to 22nd Companies: 1850-1851
[17] England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 Medway Q1 1851 Vol 5 p417 (via Ancestry.com); Medway Archives Gillingham, St Mary Magdalene Register of Marriages 1850-1856 P153/1/29 p17 No 33
[18] eg Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre Ref 1357/15 Wiltshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1916: Swindon, Christchurch with St Mary 1837-1863 p147 No 293 (via Ancestry.com); London Metropolitan Archives p97/nic/025 London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754-1932 St Nicholas, Plumstead 1837-1861 p158 No 316 (via Ancestry.com)
[19] 1851 England Census Class: HO107; Piece 1468; Folio: 130; Page: 57 (Ancestry.com 1851 England Census Middlesex>Kensington>Kensington Town>District 3 image 58)
[20] Medway Archives Gillingham, St Mary Magdalene Register of Marriages 1850-1856 P153/1/29 p17 No 33; Christine Garvin, private communication, copy of register of marriage
[21] 1851 England Census Class: HO107; Piece 1468; Folio: 130; Page: 57 (Ancestry.com 1851 England Census Middlesex>Kensington>Kensington Town>District 3 image 58)
[22] T W J Connolly, “History of The Corps of Royal Sappers & Miners”, Vol ii, Longman, Brown Green & Longmans, London, 1855, p 157
[23] National Archives WO 86/6 Judge Advocate General's Office: district courts martial registers, home and abroad 1848-1851
[24] National Archives WO 11/130: Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: 19th to 22nd Companies and Detachments: 1851-52
[25] National Archives WO11/130: Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: 19th to 22nd Companies & Detachments: 1851-1852
[26] T W J Connolly, “History of The Corps of Royal Sappers & Miners”, Vol ii, Longman, Brown Green & Longmans, London, 1855, p 129; Diane Oldman, www.sappers-minerswa.com
[27] National Archives WO11/130: Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: 19th to 22nd Companies & Detachments: 1851-1852; Diane Oldman, www.sappers-minerswa.com
[28] National Archives ADM101/255/1G Medical Journal of the Marion, hired convict ship 21 Oct 1851 to 7 Feb 1852 by Mr Le Grand, surgeon superintendent (via Diane Oldman, private communication)
[29] National Archives WO11/134: Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: 19th to 22nd Companies & Detachments: 1851-1852
[30] Diane Oldman, private communication, copy of St John’s burial register; National Archives WO11/134: Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: 19th to 22nd Companies & Detachments: 1851-1852
[31] Christine Garvin, private communication, copy of register of marriage
[32] Ancestry.com Australia Birth Index 1788-1922 Fremantle, Western Australia 1855 reg no 2876; Ancestry.com Australia Birth Index 1788-1922 Fremantle, Western Australia 1858 reg no 4208; Christine Garvin, private communication, copies of baptismal certificates
[33] National Archives WO11/172 Engineers Muster Rolls & Pay Lists: 15th to 27th Companies: 1860; Diane Oldman, www.sappers-minerswa.com
[34] Medway Archives Gillingham, St Mary Magdalene Register of Burials 1842-1927 P153/1/52 p323 No 2577 and 2579
[35] England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 Camberwell Q2 1860 Vol 1d p469 (via Ancestry.com)
[36] David J Baker, “Warders and gaolers: a dictionary if Western Australian prisoner officers 1829-1879”, Western Australian Genealogical Society, Bayswater WA, 2000 (via Diane Oldman)
[37] David J Baker, “Warders and gaolers: a dictionary if Western Australian prisoner officers 1829-1879”, Western Australian Genealogical Society, Bayswater WA, 2000 (via Diane Oldman); Diane Oldman, www.sappers-minerswa.com
[38] Ancestry.com Australia Birth Index 1788-1922 Fremantle, Western Australia 1863 reg no 7204; Christine Garvin, private communication, copies of baptismal certificates
[39] Ancestry.com Australia Death Index 1787-1985 Western Australia 1867 reg no 3588; David J Baker, “Warders and gaolers: a dictionary if Western Australian prisoner officers 1829-1879”, Western Australian Genealogical Society, Bayswater WA, 2000 (via Diane Oldman); Diane Oldman, www.sappers-minerswa.com; Christine Garvin, private communication, copy of death certificate
[40] David J Baker, “Warders and gaolers: a dictionary if Western Australian prisoner officers 1829-1879”, Western Australian Genealogical Society, Bayswater WA, 2000 (via Diane Oldman); Diane Oldman, www.sappers-minerswa.com; Christine Garvin, private communication, copies of correspondence between Mary Ann Bartlett and Comptroller General’s Office, Perth, 1867
[41] Ancestry.com Australia Marriage Index 1788-1950 Victoria 1883 reg no 4840
[42] Ancestry.com Australia Marriage Index 1788-1950 Victoria 1888 reg no 3593
[43] Ancestry.com Australia Death Index 1787-1985 Victoria 1884 reg no 9749
[44] The Age, Melbourne, Victoria, 3 March 1893 (via Trove, National Library of Australia on-line newspaper archive)
[45] Ancestry.com Australia Marriage Index 1788-1950 Victoria 1903 reg no 3480R
[46] Ancestry.com Australia Death Index 1787-1985 Victoria 1905 reg no 9881; Christine Garvin, private communication, photo of gravestone
[47] Ancestry.com Australia Death Index 1787-1985 Bendigo, Victoria 1909 reg no 403; Christine Garvin, private communication, photo of gravestone


* Hungerford Pier, by present-day Charing Cross station
[†] Le Grand did not mention the religious instructor, Crawley, but included him in the total number of people
[‡] Le Grand neglected to mention in his summary the one convict who died during the passage although that person was included in the individual case notes

Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Wroughton Family Tales I

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