Week 1: I'd like to meet #52Ancestors2023

More often to answer this question I would choose a brick wall ancestor, closer in time, but since I am still waiting for that wall to fall, I have looked further afield this time.

Who would I like to meet? This guy.

Thomas Davys, the elder, the younger, the even younger

Thomas Davys the elder of Milverton in the county of Somerset and his son Thomas Davys the younger are parties to an indenture dated “the second day of March in the fifth year of the reign of the Sovereign Lord George…” So when was that? And what is the indenture for or about?

George I ascended the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 August 1714. If he is the Sovereign Lord George named in the indenture, then the fifth year of his reign would have been 1719.

This date ties in with the date of the marriage (about 1719) of Thomas the younger to Jane Helling/Hellings, the daughter of John Helling/Hellings of Raddington which is also referred to in the indenture. The indenture pertains to land, messuages and buildings in four parts making up the lease of the Hagleigh Tenement and to me is being divided as a marriage settlement with Thomas the elder retaining one quarter along with stipulated barley fields and use of the cider wring and mill.

At this time a Thomas Davys also owned the manor of Raddington, in a parish adjacent to Milverton where Hagleigh is. At British History Online digitised copies of “A History of the County of Somerset” and other counties are available to read free. There is a wealth of information about each parish including, geography, church history, local government as well as the history of any manors. For Raddington the history of the manor dates from 891 A.D. In their commentary it states that in 1718 James Waldegrave (later the 1^st Earl Waldegrave) sold the manor to Thomas Davys the younger. The Waldegraves had held the manor, or had interests, in it since the mid-1500s. James Waldegrave seems to have disposed of a number of land holdings around this time. 

Here is where it gets trickier, British History Online (BHO) also states that in 1719 Thomas the younger settled the manor of Raddington on his father – Thomas the elder. That has always seemed a bit out of order to me, why would a son be buying an estate and then gifting it to his father? Surely if he had the financial backing to be entering these sorts of transactions then his father would also have means? BHO cite a source but I can’t work out whether it is the indenture I have “read” and we have partially deciphered or a separate one. I am thinking there may be a separate document that has either been lost to time – or is lost to me at this point. I also think that they could be citing the Hagleigh Indenture and misattributing the intention. 

The descriptor for the indenture at The National Archives states that it IS for the settlement of three quarter parts of the Hagleigh Tenement in the parish of Milverton on Thomas Davys the younger and his wife to be Jane Hellings prior to their marriage. The length of the lease was three lives (99 years) determinable from the deaths of Thomas the elder his wife Judith (nee Burchell) and Thomas the younger. A note on the outer wrapping of the indenture claims that the leasehold was granted by Lord Lymington to the first Thomas Davys who came from Wales. Another Thomas? But when? The family seem well settled in Somerset in the mid-1600s, if not before. 

I would really like to talk to Thomas to determine just what the indenture is telling us 300 years later. The thing is, I’m not sure just WHICH Thomas I need to speak with, and I’m not sure if there might be more than one indenture I need to ask about.

Thomas the elder; husband of Judith Burchell and leaseholder of the Hagleigh Tenement since when? Thomas died in 1724, but his wife Judith lived to be 100 and died at Hagleigh Bridge in December 1770.

Thomas the younger; husband of Jane Hellings styled himself as “Lord of the Manor”. Pretty flash we all thought when we discovered him in our tree, then we discovered that when he died in 1783 he left no will and left a debt-ridden estate.

Thomas the grandson. As the eldest son Thomas inherited the manor and its debt from his father. This Thomas had studied at Balliol Oxford and was ordained in the Church of England. He had the Advowson of Raddington from 1749-1784 and two of his younger brothers also lived on the farms that made up the estate. Sadly Thomas died in March 1784 and the debt-ridden estate passed to his brothers James, George and Benjamin.

Here also BHO has conflicting information compared to the Clergy of the Church of England Database, with the order of clergy at Raddington. It would appear the brothers separated the Advowson from the rest of the estate after Thomas' death.

I have got a list of questions for the three Thomas’, and I am sure they would all have extremely interesting stories to tell. Maybe one of them would know about that "first" Thomas Davys from Wales as well.

B - Betty

Betty Yeandle was my 4 x great grandmother. We have had her name in our tree for many years. Dad had begun researching but had been unable (in those pre-internet days of the 1970’s) to get back further than the immigrant couple. After writing to a selection of people in the right area of England with the right surname a collaboration with his 5^th and 4^th once removed cousins began. For them, we were the missing branch.

The Yeandle and Davys families had many connections across the generations. But how did you know if they were all part of the same family or just part of another family with the same name.

Just recently, I was able to connect Betty to a set of parents I already had in my tree. As yet I haven’t found her baptism, maybe it hasn’t survived, or maybe the book has but the ink on the page has deteriorated and can no longer be read.

This revelation came from a will. I had been transcribing the will of her husband’s father James Davys, in which he had left instruction that his watch be given to his grandson James (my 2 x great grandfather). I knew as well that my 3 x great grandmother was Mary Yeandle and that her brother John had married a sister of her husband James.

The next will I began to transcribe was John Yeandle’s. It confirmed which of James’ sisters he had married and then set to leaving instructions for his estate including naming the same grandchildren that his brother-in-law James had named.

What ?

But there it was, John had only had two children, and his daughter Betty had married her first cousin James. Their son James was gifted a watch from one grandfather and some ££ from the other.

Betty is rumoured to have left HER grandson James £600 in her will, which I am yet to read because it isn’t available online. It has been suggested that James used that money in part to fund his family’s emigration to New Zealand.

I have just requested a quote for a copy of another document which I think will detail the inheritance of my 2 x great grandfather and his brother after their father predeceased their grandfather. Betty is mentioned in the yet to be seen document too.

Maybe I will get an answer and be able to share the news later in the month. Meanwhile I will try not to get all the Yeandles and the James’ tangled up in my head !

My roots run deep in Somerset

For the past week we've been staying with some distant relatives - 6th cousin distant ! That means having to go back to the mid 1700's to find the marriage of our common ancestors.

These cousins run a farm stay on their family farm. It is in a lovely little village on the levels of Somerset where they were fortunate to be just high enough that the flooding last winter/spring did not seep into their home or cottages. There isn't much going on here, as a visitor, but it would be a great place just to sit and relax, enjoy the pool and the sunshine if you didn't want to go exploring. We've been truly spoilt while we've stayed. Last Sunday we enjoyed lunch with some other cousins (5th once removed I think) who are in their 90's but full of life and with a great sense of humour. They chatted about all sorts of family, and it was hard to keep up with who was who all the time.

We've been out everyday as well, getting lost, driving down teeny laneways and discovering the teeny places our Davys family lived and farmed before they emigrated to New Zealand...and where some still are today. Clatwothy, Selworthy, Monksilver,Brompton Ralph, Chipstable, Wiveliscombe, Milverton, Wellington, Raddington, Waterrow and more that we haven't managed to get to this time. Some are larger than I imagined, many only have a few houses and a church.

Raddington Church built c1754

We met the gentleman who owns the farm where my great-great grandparents were tenant farmers before emigrating in 1862 with their children. He was a wonderful source of knowledge and had a collection of old photographs of the village at the bottom of the lane as well as some of the house. He also had copies of all the tything allotment information. We were able to have a tour as well since it was not being used. The house is available to book - wouldn't it be great to have a family reunion there ? How else would you fill nine bedrooms ? He told us how they had uncovered the enormous fireplaces, and altered other aspects to make it a little more modern inside. Walking up the 17th century staircase was awesome, to think that "our people" had walked those same steps each day.

Kingston Farm - farmed by Thomas Davys, brother of James Davys

Hurstone - farmed by James Davys before emigrating to NZ

The view from the front steps !

On other days we've been to Exeter, Watchet, Wells (though it poured with rain so we need to go back), through Glastonbury and had a good look at Taunton and Bridgwater. We also went to Montacute (where the Cooper family came from) and East Chinnock (where the Bartlett family was from). We've even joined the National Trust.

Montacute

Today we went to the beach at Lyme Regis. It rocked ! But was very pretty and a gorgeous day for a trip to the seaside. More on that next time. Tomorrow we are off again, back to Bristol for a show and then on to see another part of the country.

Great Grand Uncle Watty

My Dad's family were tenant farmers in Somerset. There were a number of farms which passed down through several generations. When he started researching our genealogy Dad spent hours at the British High Commission looking up addresses and wrote many letters in the hope someone would reply and be able to fill in the gaps and take us back further. It worked too - took a little longer than emailing mind you.

They were ecstatic about reconnecting as they had always wondered what had become of the family who emigrated. My great great grandfather and his brother were the only children from the marriage of their parents. Their mother went on to remarry, and I was to eventually discover, have several more children. It seems though, that the boys' paternal grandmother left them money in her will - 600 pounds. One brother remained in Somerset, but the other packed up his family and emigrated to New Zealand with the Albertlanders in 1862.

They don't seem to have ever taken up the land offer which was part of that scheme though and lived mostly in Auckland and Hamilton. When they emigrated James and Sarah bought with them their six eldest children. Later we would discover that they had lost their seventh  child  aged 6 months shortly before leaving their farm of 140 acres & servants & farm labourers, with a most amazing house which is still standing albeit partially rebuilt www.hurstone.com Surely I have a hereditary claim on it dont I ? Money shouldnt need to change hands at all.

Anyway some of the sons, and I think even James briefly, caught gold fever in the 1870's and 1880's and spent some time on the Coromandel and Thames goldfields. Dad had been able to account for all of his grand uncles (uncles of his father) except for one. Walter. He knew he had been mining near Waihi and I remember wandering around cemeteries with him, in the days before people began to transcribe headstones, in the hope we would find one with the right name. But no. Dad wasn't even entirely sure he had died in New Zealand. He recalled talk of him being in Australia as well, and most intriguingly he remembered that his grandparents had a gold nugget on their mantlepiece that had been bought back for them by Walter. But bought from where ?

Walter was 7 years old when the family emigrated to New Zealand, 18 months younger than my great grandfather. I wonder what it was that captivated him about mining, that led him to spend his life "chasing the weight". Was the excitement and adventure ? Or the monetary reward ? As a kid I remember my Dad being a rock collector with a view to polishing up the gems he discovered. There were holidays where he scrabbled around in the undergrowth being rewarded with bits of amethyst and quartz. Is that what it was like for Walter too ?

So my search began,  I tracked down a death index for a Walter James Davys with the correct age in Geraldton West Australia, so we ordered the certificate and it did seem we had found Uncle Walter. But we knew nothing else of his life - apart from that he had never married. So that was that, the certificate got filed away, and the date added onto his record on the family tree.

Then came the advent of digitised newspapers. Here in New Zealand Papers Past supported by the National Library, enabled me (and then Dad because he is so intrigued by it all) to search for Uncle Walter. We learnt he was quite a successful prospector in Thames and Coromandel. He had a number of claims, and popped up in the paper giving evidence in court over disputes with other prospectors and in a landmark case with the Kauri Timber Company who disputed the rights to the minerals being mined underground. Walter was also injured in a rockfall reported in the Thames Star 7 August 1885 (3rd column near the top) and his recovery in the Thames Advertiser 12 August 1885. In an article about Ohinemuri - History of the Goldfields in the Te Aroha News 3 October 1885 he was referred to as "the well known prospector". The ongoing enquiry investigating the dispute between the Kauri Timber Company and the propectors in 1897 gave me my next clue. It reported that Walter Davys had since left Tairua and New Zealand for Australia. And here is where my relationship with TROVE began.

Walter was known as Watty in Western Australia. He was a much respected prospector and it would seem something of a billiards player too. He spent his days on the Coolgardie and possibly in Queensland (though I cant find much about that yet). He gave great names to his mines, Westralia Waihi near Davyhurst (the town named after him) was one, it yielded 20000 pounds ! Thats a lot of gold, and a lot of money. How amazing to read this (amongst other articles) and  to see the photo in the Perth Sunday Times 25 April 1926 . Watty continued to prospect well into his 80's in the Dongarra. I keep going back to see if there are more digitised editions where I can learn more abou this pioneer ancestor of mine.

On www.ancestry.com.au I found some shipping information for Walter returning to Australia from Auckland - I wonder whether that was after he bought the gold to give his parents and/or siblings ? It has been so great to find all this information and share it with my Dad. Newpapers are a mine (excuse the pun) of information to help build a picture of our forebears. If it werent for Trove we'd have still been calling him Walter - Watty has much more character dont you think ?

He was 88 when he died in 1944, and it seemed as late as 1939 still chasing the weight at Dongarra. I wonder what ever happened to the gold nugget on the mantlepiece...


This post forms part of Trove Tuesday as suggested by Amy, from Branches, Leaves & Pollen.