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.

How many cousins do YOU have?

 

It’s been a different sort of year this year. You would be forgiven for thinking I had fallen off the face of the planet. But no, life just sort of took over and work pressures increased.

Covid is still here, wreaking havoc on people lives, but for the most part is just a nuisance. Gone are most of the restrictions, mask wearing, limited crowd numbers, no events, no travel etc., for the most part the world is getting back to where we were in early 2020. Albeit with hefty changes to the cost of living and chronic shortages in healthcare staffing globally.

Anyway, this week Dad asked me if I could update something for him. A spreadsheet where he keeps track of all his cousins and specifically whether the now quite small group has decreased further. It’s been a tricky year for Dad healthwise – but the family historian gene is strong in his DNA! (it's the same gene I've got) I was telling someone about this task and they asked how many cousins he had. I couldn’t think straight off, but then I remembered I had counted them all at one time and been astounded at the numbers- not just for Dad’s generation but for his parents as well.

So, just for interest’s sake here are the numbers of FIRST cousins:

Paternal grandmother: 100 (46 on her father’s side and 54 on her mother’s (these are just the legitimate ones, DNA has increased that number by 3-4 in the past six or so years)

Paternal grandfather: 30+ (10 on his father’s side and at least 20 (I haven’t had a lot of luck with my Irish research) on his mother’s side.

Dad: 36 (17 on his father’s side and 19 on his mother’s) Quite the change in one generation.

Maternal grandmother: 20 (17 on her father’s side and 3 on her mother’s)

Maternal grandfather: 30 (7 on his father’s side and 23 on his mother’s)

Mum: 13 (8 on her father’s side and 5 on her mother’s)

You can see why my mother often says that it doesn’t matter where they go in the country, there is always a cousin of Dad’s who lives there, or close by.

So anyway, I have done some searching and can update the list for Dad. His 36 cousins have become a group of 8, sadly losing three members in 2022, they range in age from 76 to 95 and are split evenly between both sides of his family.

 

 

Christmas Past

 

It’s Christmas Eve in most places in the world right now. In New Zealand the clocks will have ticked over into Christmas Day.

It got me thinking about Christmases past. Are there things you do at Christmas that your parents or grandparents also did? Or are you starting new traditions?

I still make a Christmas fruit cake, usually in October. I remember my grandmother making hers and my mother too. In fact the recipe I use is one of Nana’s. We would get to take turns (if we happened to be visiting on the right day) and stand on the kitchen stool beside her and stir the cake to make a wish. “Stir” is not quite what we did when were small, it was more like rocking the spoon back and forth - have you ever tried stirring 2 cups of flour, 6 eggs and 1 kilo of dried fruit? Even as an adult you need a bit of muscle!

I have been rubbish since covid about sending Christmas cards (plus the cost of postage is through the roof) but my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and friends all did this diligently every year. Posting early to ensure they arrived in time, with notes or letters enclosed full of the news for the past year for each family. We would display them hung on string, like streamers, across the windows or along the walls. We would have a Christmas list and tick everyone off when we received their card. No card? Maybe next year they wouldn’t get sent one either.

We made our own decorations, using our pocket money to buy crepe paper and then weaving strips together, or twisting strips to stretch across our bedrooms. Simple times. Presents weren’t extravagant either. A new dress, a beach towel maybe a game.

One year we got a small turntable to share and I got a 45s of The Seekers “Morning Town Ride” and Sandie Shaw “Puppet on a String”. Another year I got roller skates – the strap on type which a few years later were replaced by boot skates. It may have been the roller skate year that my brother got a scooter. There were strict rules about how early we were allowed to get up, but that all went out the window at 4 or 5am when on the way back from the toilet he spotted the scooter leaning up against his bed. Doing circuits of the house, up the hallway, through the lounge and dining room and back down the hallway did not go down very well with Mum and Dad.

Christmas Days were often just us four, sometimes with cousins and grandparents. It was summer, so sometimes we would go to the beach and stay with our neighbours who owned a bach at the Mount.

In 1965 we went to South Island. I remember it wasn’t as summery down south that year. We left either straight after I got home from school, or when Dad got home from work and went to stay with my grandparents at Whakamaru. We left there early in the morning and had a breakfast picnic along the shore of Lake Taupo and headed for Wellington and the ferry. I remember going past fields of flax drying in the Manawatu and Dad or Mum explaining how it would become rope.

It was a bit of a stormy crossing and I remember we stayed in Kaikoura the first night, I think at South Bay and it was a cold, wet and windy time. I remember being very concerned about the road/rail bridges and tunnels – what if we met a train? I don’t remember the order we visited places; Christchurch, Reefton, Tekapo, Waitaki, Invercargill, Bluff and Milford Sound but I do remember there was a fair amount of precipitation going on.

The day we drove to Milford Sound was lovely and sunny and I remember we stopped for a picnic at Cascade Creek and it was the loveliest place, stony riverbank, babbling brook and hundreds of lupins.

We spent Christmas at Milford and on Christmas morning were excited to hear that it had snowed! We had never seen snow until then so it was quite a novelty. We were rugged up and bundled into the car and drove back up the road in a winter wonderland. We drove through the Homer Tunnel and found a spot to stop so we could play for a bit before going back for breakfast.

It always seemed odd having a white Christmas when it was supposed to be midsummer!

There is another Santa related story from that trip to South Island, but maybe I will keep it for another day.

Merry Christmas 2022.

Z - Zoomer

 Well Z looks like it is going to go the same way as X, but in a much more decisive fashion.

There just aren't many occupations starting with Z, and there is no-one I am aware of who is or was a zookeeper, zoetrope maker or zincographer.

Maybe Zoom can help here. We have all become pretty proficient at zooming over the past 20 or so months. A platform most of us hadn't heard of before COVID has replaced one we all knew. Skype seems to have faded into the depths of oblivion as we all embrace Messenger, Teams, WhatsApp, FaceTime and of course Zoom.

I have been going to regular meetings since April 2020 on Zoom since COVID stopped us all attending in person. I have become part of an amazing online community born out of lockdown, COVID, a shared interest (or three) and Zoom. It started as weekly catch ups and social connection during lockdown and morphed into a fortnightly subscription get together and regularly has participants from 3 - 4 continents. During New Zealand's 2020 lockdown, I raced home on Tuesday nights and joined in the Southern Cross Electric Quiz - on Zoom. Some of us have had interviews with Zoom, attended virtual conferences, workshops and bake-a-long catch ups or shared pizza and wine with friends all from our own isolated homes.

Being a Zoomer isn't an occupation option yet, but maybe it might contribute to something in the future. None of us were Work from Homers before April 2020 either and we've all become pretty adept at that.

There you go, thought I was going to have just two sentences. But Zoom to the rescue !

Y - Yeoman

Yeoman /ˈjoʊmən/ 

First documented in mid-14th-century England, referring to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. Yeomanry was the name applied to groups of freeborn commoners engaged as household guards, or raised as an army during times of war. 

Over time it came to mean a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; a freeholder, ergo a yeoman farmer, farmed his own land. When it came to classes in English society yeoman were intermediate between gentry and labourers. 

There is quite an abundance of Yeomen in the families connected to my Davys family in Somerset and Devon. Some documents record them as Gentlemen, Farmers or Living on their own means.

Families include: Davys,Palfrey, Norman, Vickery, Yeandle, Stone, Williams, Surrage, Burge, Brewer, Hancock, Manning, Venn.

Farms include: Kingston, Upcott, Hurstone, Tripp, Chapmans, More, Hagley Bridge, Severidges, Chubworthy, Ashway, Giffords, Trowell, Shapwick, Cridlands, Shute, Little Knowle, Little Wilscombe, Washers, Gupworthy, Quartley, Bovey, Withey, Little Withey, Catford, Notwell, Monkham, Hellings.

Parishes include: Raddington, Milverton, Chipstable, Clatworthy, Luxborough, Treborough, Huish Champflower, Taunton, Ashbrittle, Brompton Ralph, Cutcombe, Dulverton, Withiel Florey, Upton, Skilgate, Morebath, Bampton, Tiverton, Clayhanger, East Anstey.

So how did these families find themselves in this position socially? The Davys' at least, were definitely in this class by 1719 at the start of the Georgian era when the document transferring entitlement to land at Hagley was drawn up between father and son. Had they played their cards right in a recent of historic event such as the Monmouth Uprising in 1685? Were they established in Somerset and Devon earlier than that? Did it date back as far as the Norman invasion in 1066 for some families?

We may never know.

X - Xcellent - not

 Well X has drawn a blank.

There aren't even a lot of occupations to choose from, let alone finding one which belonged to a family member. Most revolve around 20th century technology, X-ray and Xerox. I even read the X pages of the dictionary and the E pages too, specifically for words starting with Ex, hoping for inspiration. 

No Xaminers, Xcisemen, Xecutioners or Xcavators that I am yet aware of in the family.

I had thought about writing about John Davys (Davis) the Xplorer who tried several times to find the North West Passage between Canada and the Arctic, and for whom Davis Strait is named. In 1592 he discovered the Falkland Islands. He was one of the chief navigators in Elizabethan times, a contemporary of Raleigh, Cavendish & Frobisher. He was born in Devon about 1550 and there is a tenuous, as yet unproven connection to the Davys family. He also commanded a ship (for England) against the Spanish Armada and was Pilot-Major on the first voyage of the East India Company to the East Indies. He was killed by Japanese pirates on 29 December 1605 off Bintan Island near Singapore.

My other option, though more a hobby than an occupation was to find out more about my grandfather's xylophone playing musical pastime. But I didn't really consider it in time and now need to ask lots of questions to find out more.

So for this letter instead of a tick for an xcellent post, I think I will be getting an x mark.

W - Weavers

I have known for quite a while about the Weavers in my mother's family who left Belgium as Huguenots and settled in Spitalfields in London in the late 16th century.

What I hadn't fully realised is that the silk industry was operating in other centres outside London. Some of these centres of industry were due to the arrival of the Huguenot refugees. Others came later, in the late 18th century as employers in London looked for ways to evade the regulations of the Spitalfields Acts. Silk mills could be found in a number of counties,  Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire to name a few.

The silk industry comprised many parts including the import of the raw threads, creation of dyes, designs and the cloth itself, then there were also mercers and exporters of the finished article. There were several mills in Hampshire including at Overton and Whitchurch. The Whitchurch Mill has been restored and is a working mill today, open to visitors and tourists. William Maddick took over the Whitchurch Mill and converted it to weave silk in the early 19th century. He was a successful silk manufacturer from Spitalfields. He may have known other people in the industry in Hampshire before he arrived.

There are streets in existence today in Andover named Spindle, Silkweavers which provide clues to past industry there. The family of my great great great grandmother Mary Hammond were silk workers in Andover. In the 1841 census both Mary and her mother are listed as Silk Weavers. The work was hard, unhealthy and poorly paid and they mostly worked from home, the loom taking up a large portion of space there.

Andover had grown with the wool trade and was one of the smaller towns where a thriving community of silkweavers became established. Mary's father John, was recorded as a weaver on the marriage certificates for some of her siblings. Mary had nine brothers and sisters and at least seven of them are recorded at some stage as weavers. England at this time, early 19th century, was facing some unrest. Age old methods were changing on the land and through industralisation. The early years of the century and the war with Napolean made imports difficult and pushed up the prices of food. New machinery meant less men were required to work the land, and for the weavers the larger mechanised looms were too large to have in their homes and could produce silk more quickly than those working at home.

On 20 November 1830 about 300 labourers marched into Andover demanding better pay and conditions for farm workers. They destroyed a large amount of property at an iron foundry which was manufacturing some of the new agricultural machinery. These riots took place in a wave across southern England and became known as "Swing Riots". Several of the ringleaders were arrested and tranported to New South Wales. Despite this unrest, seven of Mary's siblings chose to take their families from Andover and move to the overcrowding, disease and pollution of Spitalfields. Maybe they hoped there might still be the chance of employment in the historic centre of the silk trade in England.

Between 1823 and 1856 two mills operated near New Street in Andover employing up to 90 women. It is possible that Mary, her sister Ann and their mother worked at one of them. 

Henry VIII had hoped to be able to produce silk in England and had many Mulberry trees planted, however the variety which was suitable for silk worms was not suitable to the English climate. Raw silk was imported from India and parts of Europe. The cocoons needed to be unravelled and wound into skeins. Children were often employed to do this as they had smaller, more agile fingers to unknot the thread if required or to re-tie broken filaments. 

The skeins were then placed into bales and taken to the mill to be processed. Here the silk would be cleaned, twisted and wound on to bobbins. Silk throwing is the process where the filament from the bobbins is given its full twist, doubling is when the filaments or threads from three or more bobbins are wound together.  These last two steps can occur more than once. Often the process as a whole was referred to as silk throwing, or as twisting and spinning. 

Some of Mary's brothers were recorded as Silk Throwers, sometimes this referred to the Master, and sometimes to a child.  The role was originally a hand process relying on a turning wheel that twisted four threads while a helper (who would be a child) ran the length of a shade, hooked the threads on stationary pins and ran back to start the process again. The shade, similar to a rope walk, would be between 23 and 32 metres long. Supposing that twelve rolls were made in a day, the child would run about fourteen miles barefoot. 

By Uploaded by User:ClemRutter. 04/2012 - THE PENNY MAGAZINE, VOL XII No. 711. 1843., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18941167