Edward and Susan Blyth

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Blyth, edward, family-history, genealogy, history

My great grandfather was Edward Blyth – a real old English name rediscovered in our family in my grandson Edward (or Ted as he’s known in the family) Sullivan. [I have to admit his name was chosen in honour of my daughter-in-law’s maiden surname, Edwards, however].

It’s one of the few surviving and popular names known to have been in England before the Normans – think of Edward the Confessor – in fact, his great great grandfather was King Edward the Elder – and they were surrounded by Aethelreds, Aethelwolds, Cenwulfs and other names no longer used.

Our own Edward the Elder was born on 16^th March 1841 in Gressenhall, Norfolk, the seventh child and fourth son of Thomas and Elizabeth – see ‘Thomas Blyth’. Parish records show he was baptised at Gressenhall on 25^th April, his father recorded as ‘husbandman’, while the 1841 census, taken when Edward was 2 months old, merely describe Thomas as ‘ag.lab.’ – agricultural labourer. My guess is that Thomas himself provided the information for the baptism record and was proud of the fact that he had progressed from general labour to being responsible for the farm animals – horses perhaps? He would, as noted elsewhere, go on to become a farmer of his own lands.

1841 census showing Edward at 2 months: note, Elizabeth Susanna had died in 1839 and the eldest son William does not appear – he seems to have been in school in Norwich, as there is a William Blyth recorded there of the correct age.

At the age of ten Edward appears on the 1851 census – the family have by now moved to their own farm (probably as tenants) on Badley Moor just outside Yaxham, Norfolk. Although his younger brother Robert is recorded as a ‘scholar’ and his elder brother John as working on the farm, there is no indication on the census of Edward’s occupation – was he still at school or had he begun his apprenticeship in the farming life he would later lead?

On 22^nd May 1866 Edward married Susan Sarah Ann Allen in Thuxton, where her family lived. Edward seems to have started married life working on his father-in-law’s farm: the 1871 census shows him living next door to the elderly John and Susan Allen with his wife Susan who is recorded as a dressmaker, and their eldest two sons, Frederick (my grandfather) and Charles.

However, by the following year the family had moved: daughter Mary Elizabeth was baptised at Thuxton Church but the record shows the Blyth family now living in Wacton near Long Stratton, and this is confirmed by the baptisms of the next two children, Charlotte and Christiana (who sadly died very young) and the 1881 census which shows Edward as an agricultural labourer living beside Wacton Common.

As the post on Thomas Blyth notes, it is likely that Edward and his brother Robert inherited their father’s estate on his death in 1886: certainly there was an upturn in his fortunes as the 1891 census finds Edward a farmer in his own right on Cargate Common Road in Tibenham. By this time the youngest child had appeared: Jesse, then aged 8. Frederick and Charles, aged 23 and 21 respectively, were working on the farm while Charlotte was a domestic servant. Mary Elizabeth – usually known as Bessie – does not appear with the family on this census and I am assuming she was in service somewhere but so far have not traced her.

In 1901 she had returned to her birth family however, and Edward was still farming in Tibenham, supported by Frederick, with Bessie and Charlotte living and presumably helping their mother at home along with Jesse who was working as a carpenter.  

Charles had married in 1896 and was farming on his own account in Winfarthing by this time, with his wife Annie and their two small daughters Florence and Ethel. Bessie married Bertie Smith in 1903 and they had two sons, Allan and Kenneth: the latter followed his father into the butchering trade while Allan trained as a motor engineer. It took a few years of research to piece together the positioning in the family of two people, one of whom I knew well and the other heard many tales about: ‘Auntie’ Florrie Everett lived in Dickleburgh just down the road from us when I was a little girl with her husband, son and daughter (both older than me) and I called her aunt in the same way most adult friends of the family were given such titles from respect. At some point I remember hearing references to Florrie being related to us in some way – it was not until I looked at Charles Blyth’s family that I realised Auntie Florrie was his eldest daughter Florence, and thus my father’s first cousin.

Dad did however talk a lot about his cousin Allan with whom he took many holidays before marrying. Allan had a car before most people, and the two men took road trips around England, fashioning a tent arrangement by draping a tarpaulin over poles which they attached to the side of the car. Dad also remembered his ‘Aunt Bessie’ and ‘Aunt Charlotte’ with evident affection – it is only since Dad’s death that I have really appreciated not only the reason why Allan as a trained mechanic was trusted to drive his car across the country, but the comfort Dad must have drawn from the maternal care of his aunts having lost his own mother when he was eleven.

The other family member Dad talked about often was Jesse, who sadly died aged only 30, eleven years before Dad was born: after his father’s death Jesse is recorded in 1911 as a butcher in Tibenham: I wonder whether symptoms of the TB that killed him had manifested themselves and the change of place and job reflected the hope that a less dusty environment might help his condition? His probate record indicates his money was divided between his two sisters Bessie and Charlotte, but my grandfather Frederick must have been given or acquired the tools of Jesse’s trade as a carpenter, for the collection was passed on to my dad, who treasured them. I believe they have now passed to my brother.

Edward died, aged 65, on 19^th June 1907 and was buried at St Mary’s Church Gissing, where the family had moved to, on 25^th June. His death certificate records him as a farmer in Gissing, without specifying the address. However, my grandfather has helpfully recorded his own address on the 1911 census form as Marler’s Farm, Gissing, so it is more than likely he took over this farm from Edward after the latter’s death.

Edward’s wife Susan – or Susannah – died on 30^th September 1908 and was buried next to her husband in Gissing churchyard on 5^th October.

Blyths in the USA

Tags

Blyth, family-history, family-tree, genealogy, henry-blyth, joseph-blyth, ohio, usa, William Blyth

William Blyth was the eldest son of Thomas Blyth and Elizabeth Bates Baxter: he was baptised at Scarning Church on 19^th October 1828, indicating his birth a few days or weeks previously. On the first census in 1841, most of the family appear in Gressenhall but William’s name is noticeably absent. There is however a 13 year old William Blyth recorded as a pupil at what appears to be a boys’ boarding school kept by a Charles Twiner in St Lawrence, Norwich.  This seems to have been a district within the city of Norwich around the present St Giles Street. So was William sent away to school as his father began to rise in fortunes? Whether this is so or not, William was the first of the Blyth sons to leave Norfolk for the USA. This was somewhere between 1849-1851 when William was in his early twenties. Why he left and why he chose Ohio as his new home is not recorded, but he clearly chose well and prospered as a farmer in the New World.

The 1860 census finds William working as a farm labourer for William Marsden, a 29 year old Englishman, in Milton Township, Wood County, Ohio. This was where William would make his home: on 27^th September 1863 he married Susan Kieffer who was born in Ohio of Pennsylvanian parents, and by 1870 he was farming in his own right. That year his real estate was valued at $1000 and his personal estate at $200. He was farming 60 acres of ‘improved’ land and owned another 150 acres unimproved. He also owned 5 horses, 7 milch cows and 1 other (the bull, presumably), 6 sheep and 8 pigs, and had produced 260 bushels of wheat – clearly a mixed farm!

By the time William died on 19^th December 1895 he had a substantial estate to leave to his ‘beloved wife’ Susan: he had made his will on 25^th October 1895 and it was proved on 7^th January 1896. There were no children of the marriage, and in 1900 Susan was living with her sister. She died in 1903 and was buried like her husband in Custar, Wood County, Ohio.

Joseph Blyth was Thomas and Elizabeth Blyth’s tenth child and appears to have decided early in life that his best course of action was to follow his elder brother to the New World – according to a later census return he arrived in Ohio in 1865 at the age of 17, and in 1870 was a farmhand for Englishman James Blake in Jackson Township, the neighbouring settlement to Milton where Henry settled.

He married Rebecca Morrison on 24 March 1872 and by 1880 he was farming in his own right in Jackson and supporting his young family: there is a birth record for Frankey Blyth on 5 February 1873 but he does not appear on the 1880 census, suggesting he may have died – interestingly he is also not included in the birth totals recorded on the 1900 census. The next two children, Adella and Edith are there however, and they were followed by Bertha Alice and Nora Laverne. By 1900 he was clearly doing well and in 1910 he was described as an employer. Joseph died in 1915 and like his brother, has a substantial memorial stone in Custar Cemetery.

Edith’s great grandson Jamey Booth is active in family research and has turned up as a DNA match – I have written to his mother Loretta, and I am in touch with Kathleen Lance, granddaughter of Nora Laverne.

Henry Blyth was the youngest of the family and also decided to try his luck in the USA: he arrived aged 19 in 1873. In 1880 he was not in Ohio however, but working as a farm labourer in Seneca, Ontario County in New York State, just south of Lake Ontario. On 22 December 1885 he married Marcia Ellen Davis (known as Marchie or Ella) and at some point joined his brothers in Ohio – by 1900 he is listed as a farmer owning his own land in Jackson Township and bringing up his own family: Phoebe was born in 1886 and Kenneth in 1902. The 1910 census records that sadly two more children died at an early age. Phoebe’s grandson Richard Sidle has also appeared as a DNA match.  Henry died in 1927, Ella in 1933 and they were both again buried in Custar, Ohio.

The Blyths (usually spelt Blythe in American documentation) seem to have done well for themselves in the USA and it’s great that I can keep in touch with some of my American relatives too!

Thomas Blyth 1803-1886

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Thomas Blyth, family-history, Blyth, genealogy, social-history, scarniing, gressenhall, yaxham

My 2^nd great grandfather Thomas Blyth married Elizabeth Bates Baxter in Scarning Church, near East Dereham in Norfolk, on 24^th June 1828, just a couple of months after the death of his father William Blyth (he was buried on 6^th April that year). Their first son, William, was born just a few months later and baptised on 19 October: the baptism register gives Thomas’s profession as labourer.

By the time the second son, John, was born in 1831, the family had moved to Gressenhall where Thomas was listed as a husbandman, suggesting that he was now promoted to caring for the animals on the farm rather than general labouring duties. Thomas was clearly a man with ambitions: fifteen years and five children later, their son George’s baptism is recorded in Yaxham and Thomas is now a farmer in his own right. Probably a tenant farmer, but several steps up from a common labourer – some of whom he would now have employed.

Their remaining children – they had twelve in all, only losing one, Elizabeth Susanna, young – were born in Yaxham, Thomas was a ‘farmer of 6 or 9 acres’. Depending whether you believe the 1851 or 1861 census….The 1871 census however, unequivocally states that he was the ‘owner’ of 6 acres, so it is fair to assume he began as tenant of 9 acres and purchased 6 acres of this land later. Although registered as Yaxham (which is where the children were baptised), Thomas and his family actually lived on Badley Moor, a few miles out of Yaxham. He was still farming there after being widowed in 1881, helped on the farm by sons George and John who is described in the terminology of the day as an ‘imbecile’, while his unmarried daughter Sarah kept house for them. Thomas died in 1886: both he and Elizabeth are buried in Yaxham churchyard.

Sadly, George and John died, in 1881 and 1882 respectively, while the 1891 census records a Sarah Blyth born in Gressenhall as a cook in St Leonards, Sussex, suggesting she had had to find work to support herself after her father’s death. Indeed, it seems the middle sons Robert and Edward benefited most from Thomas’s hard work: Robert was a labourer in Yaxham (presumably on his father’s farm) in 1871; by 1881 he was a gardener in Northwold but in  the 1891 census he appears as a farmer in his own right on Norwich Road in Yaxham. While in 1881 Edward was an agricultural labourer in Wacton yet by 1891 he had managed to purchase his own farm in Tibenham.

So what of the others? By 1886 John, Elizabeth Susanna and George were dead; Charlotte had married and died in 1871; Elizabeth was married and as we have seen, Sarah was fending for herself. That left four brothers: William, Thomas, Joseph and Henry. Thomas had moved to Cambridgeshire as a blacksmith – more about him when we come to our Antipodean cousins – and the other three emigrated to the USA….

William and Mary

Tags

Blyth, family-history, mays, scarning

No – not the Stuart royal couple, but our very own William and Mary Blyth (or Bly, or Blye; sometimes even Blythe or Bligh – they weren’t fussy about spelling back then) who were born about 50y ears after the Stuart monarchs died. They are my 3^rd great grandparents, and a few years ago I visited the small village of Scarning and delightedly stood in the little church where they were married on 24^th October 1786. The churchwarden told me that apart from the pews, little had changed in the church over the years, and the font was the one in which their children would have been baptised, and they would have knelt at those very altar steps on their wedding day.

William’s ancestry posed a problem for many years – Percy Garrod had traced us back thus far and no further, and my cousin Philip Blyth had posited a connection with the Blyth family of Easton, just a few miles from Scarning. But the fact remained that while the apparent birth date of William Blyth of Easton matched our Scarning William, and we couldn’t find any trace of a William Blyth (or Bly etc) baptised in Scarning, nor a marriage, burial or any other record of what happened to William Blyth of Easton, the theory that he was born in Easton and moved to Scarning was just that – a theory. Until DNA! I found a match to someone who was descended from Robert Blyth of Easton, and have since found several matches descended from the Vout or Vought family (Robert’s wife was Ann Vought). And Robert and Ann were the parents of the William Blyth we had long suspected of being ‘our William’. SO now we had proof in the form of DNA. Interestingly, Robert’s mother was Elizabeth Burcham (or Birtcham) and I am just noticing at least one Burcham family living in Scarning in the late 1700s – William’s cousins possibly? That could indicate a family link to the village and a reason for moving there – more research needed…

However and whyever he got there, William was settled in Scarning for the rest of his life. Records of the time do not include profession but I assume he was a farm labourer as that is how his sons began working life. William and Mary had nine children, all of whom they faithfully (and thankfully for family researchers) had baptised in Scarning Church, where many of them also married. Most of this generation seemed happy to remain in the village: I have not found records for Robert, William,

John died aged 5 in 1799;  Mary, Elizabeth and Ann married shoemaker Charles Barker, Robert Kenney and bricklayer Benjamin Spilman respectively: they all lived in nearby East Dereham. Sarah married Christopher Cordy in Scarning, Thomas, from whom I am descended, moved to Greesenhall and Yaxham and the youngest son Edmund died in Scarning aged 23, around the same time as his father.

While we have the burial records for both Edmund and his father William, I found no trace of their graves in Scarning churchyard when I was there. Mary died in 1831 and was also buried in Scarning churchyard, but her burial record gives her ‘abode’ as Gressenhall, suggesting that after William died, she was living with her son Thomas, who had moved to Gressenhall as a husbandman. Given that Thomas married just a few months after William’s death, it is therefore more than likely that he and his new wife Elizabeth lived in the family home with Mary and she moved with them to Gressenhall.

….Play On!

Tags

banjolele, guitar, music, piano

As well as a lifetime of listening to music, I am lucky enough to have been able to learn to play a few musical instruments too…

My musical education began at primary school where we listened to ‘Singing Together’ on the radio sitting cross-legged on the floor of the ‘middle room’ in the school, and sang along with the termly songbooks provided. I still have a few dog-eared copies. From ‘Singing Together’ we progressed to ‘Music Workshop’, again on the radio, but this time we got to play a few simple melodies and rhythms on glockenspiel, triangles and shakers.

When I was ten, my birthday present was an upright piano, piano stool, music case and piano lessons. My mum explained that when she was little she had wanted to learn to play the piano and her parents had not had the money, so as soon as I showed an interest in learning she was determined I would have the advantage she had missed. Typically for those times, we all assumed that she was far too old and busy to actually learn to play the piano herself….

So each week I went a few hundred yards down Harvey Lane in Dickleburgh to Miss Kerridge who gave piano lessons. I worked my way through Grades 1 to 4 before giving up lessons on the pretext of needing to concentrate on my exams – more like I’d discovered better ways to spend my time than daily piano exercises playing music I wasn’t interested in…

However, those lessons stood me in good stead as I learned to read music, sight read and understand the basic mechanics of scales, keys and chords. I still played the piano at home, just for my own entertainment, but I binned those scale practice books in favour of volumes of ‘Songs of the 70s’ and such.

When I went to college of course I couldn’t take my piano with me, and I missed the relaxation of playing, so when a friend told me he had a guitar for sale, I decided to swap instruments. I remember buying ‘Ermintrude’ (a basic acoustic guitar) from Steve Dommett – think I paid about £10 – and then plaguing anyone I knew who played guitar to teach me a few chords. There was a weekly folk club which I went along to and watched – and even copied the words and chords to a song written by one of my college mates – but I never performed in public.

Ermintrude came with me when I moved into my first flat, and was still there when I met Chris – he picked up my right-hand-strung guitar, turned it upside down (he’s left-handed) and played it better than I ever could! Yet at the time he didn’t even own a guitar. We put that right on a trip to Norfolk when we spotted a guitar for £18 in an antique shop – and he’s not looked back since. Well, he did start playing as a teenager in the 1960s when everyone wanted to be in a band. Which of course he was.

One another visit to my parents Chris casually remarked that the piano looked like a good instrument, whereupon my mum informed me that it belonged to me, she’d quite like to get it out of her front room and I could take it away any time I liked….so Chris immediately borrowed a van with a tail lift (intended for wheelchairs) and drove it up to Norfolk, where we carried the extremely heavy instrument (Dad wasn’t allowed to touch it due to his blood pressure!) and took it all the way to our flat in Borehamwood – I played it as we drove down the A1.

By the time we moved to the Isle of Wight, the piano had seen better days and was almost unplayable – it wouldn’t stay in tune. But our neighbours (who had annoyed Chris with their loud music – but that’s another story…) said they’d like the piano for their son, so we happily took it next door – so much easier than taking it all the way to the Island. However, once moved, I really wanted another piano – and we found just what we wanted….in Norfolk!! That piano also had to be replaced after the toilet leaked one night and almost brought down the dining room ceiling – most of the water ended up in the piano.

Meanwhile, Ermintrude and I happily entertained our children until Joe fell and broke Ermintrude’s neck. Chris repaired her but she was never the same. One Mothers’ Day all three children appeared in our bedroom trying in vain to hide a bulky package behind them.

‘This is your Mothers’ Day present’, they announced, placing it carefully on the bed: a brand new, beautiful acoustic guitar, which allowed Ermintrude to be respectfully pensioned off.

I still have that guitar and was quite happy with just that, as Chris built up his collection of Fenders and tried to persuade me to ‘go electric’. After all, I only wanted to play at home, for myself.

For years I’d also fought shy of singing in public, especially as the family told me I was useless…but my enjoyment of theatrical pursuits led me to become involved in musicals and as  I was encouraged to sing on stage, so Chris encouraged me to sing alongside him at Open Mic Nights held by Ventnor Guitar Club of which he is a member. I sang – but never played.

Then came 2020 and Covid: the Guitar Club decided to hold weekly open mics on Zoom: each participant could perform a song in turn – lovely idea which enabled this really friendly group to continue sharing its love of music during lockdown. And Chris used the situation to persuade me to play guitar alongside him – after all, it was in the privacy of our own home and to a friendly supportive audience. So I did, and my confidence grew to the point where a few times I actually performed solo when Chris wasn’t at home.

This made it easy to continue to play guitar and sing with Chris at the open mics once they started up again, and we have now formed our own duo called Elsinore. But this meant I needed a guitar I could plug into the PA system at the open mic – so Chris insisted we bought an electro-acoustic guitar for me. But I still didn’t go fully electric…until last Christmas when Ronan arrived home for the festive season carrying a guitar case. I knew he had acquired a Fender Stratocaster from a friend who thought it was broken, and Ronan, with Chris’s advice, was bringing it back to life. So I wasn’t surprised when he opened the case and produced a beautiful blond Stratocaster. I was surprised however when he handed it to me and told me he had renovated it for me! And I love playing it!

In the meantime, another instrument almost became a victim of Covid…

In 2020 the Island Savoyards were rehearsing Kipps The Musical (the show on which Half a Sixpence is based) and the main character plays the banjo. The Musical Director announced one evening that he wanted a banjolele orchestra in the finale – the idea was to have several actors miming playing but he wanted about eight volunteers to learn to play a simple turn on the banjolele. My dear friend Libby pointed to me: ‘Maureen plays the guitar!’ – so when I got home I told Chris that it looked like I was playing banjolele on stage.

So we had to go to Denmark Street in London of course! Never mind that the Savoyards were getting some fairly cheap instruments – he wanted me to have a ‘proper’ banjolele. I barely knew what one looked like, but when in the first shop I saw some modern instruments in bright pink and green, I knew enough to say no…

In the next shop, hanging on the wall was a beautiful 1920’s banjolele. The only problem was, when it was handed to me I had no idea how to play it, and was quite disconcerted when instead of notes running upwards when you strum, they seemed to be all over the place. I didn’t question whether it was tuned – I liked the look and sound and we bought it, complete with 1920’s original leather case. Down the road we stopped for coffee and I took the opportunity of googling ‘banjolele tuning’. When I discovered it was tuned GCEA it explained why it had sounded so wrong to my untutored ears!

We duly practised the piece to be played as part of the show – only for lockdown to be called three weeks before opening night! Although I never got to play banjolele in the show, I did continue to play at home.

One open mic Chris introduced me to Karin who had recently joined the Guitar Club and we discovered we both play banjolele – and now we are the Banjolele Babes!

Throughout my life, playing music has been as relaxing and enjoyable as listening to it – and I don’t think I could live without either. I’m just delighted that our love of making music has passed to our children, and now our grandchildren – at three, Etta loves strumming her little guitar and singing – and taking a bow!

If Music Be The Food of Love….

Tags

music, vinyl

Music has always been a big part of my life. Early memories include Beatles 45rpm vinyls, Dad’s Mantovani LPs, records of Irish and Scottish songs and Music Hall ‘favourites’, and Mum’s Max Bygraves records.

And if all that sounds like a jumble of old-fashioned gobbledegook – yeah, well, music was different in those days….

It was vinyls of course – 45’s and LP (Long Playing Records) which were played at 33rpm (revolutions per minute). Ironically they are now making a comeback and my wonderful grandchildren are experiencing the delights of placing the record carefully on the turntable, lifting the needle and placing it on the outer edge in the groove. Before vinyls were the 78 records of my parents’ era – we still have a few that belonged to Chris’s mum – but during my lifetime records were replaced by cassettes, 8-tracks (never quite worked out what they were) and then CDs (compact discs) which we were told would render vinyl completely obsolete (yeah, right..) which then gave way to downloading and streaming music via various platforms. I have a Spotify app and do use it but refuse to pay for a streamed music app that simply removes your music as soon as you stop paying them every month for the privilege of listening to something you’ve effectively bought. At least with records and CDs you keep what you’ve paid for and can play it again 20 years later if you want – providing you can still buy the turntable/CD player to play it on….

Rant over.

Our first family record player was a Fidelity player a bit like the one below, only being my Dad’s it was a nondescript shade of two-tone beige rather than red and white. The great thing about this record player was you could stack up to 12 singles (45rpm) on the central spindle and each one would drop down as the previous song finished playing; the needle would automatically move out of the way of the dropping record and then move in to take up the next piece of music. Magic!

The less magical thing was it was mono – all the sound came from the one speaker at the front. Not that we ever questioned that. It was quite good enough to play Mantovani and The Beatles. I remember Mum buying some Beatles records for me to listen to (her taste was more Max Bygraves, Perry Como – or Comb-Over – and Matt Monro) and I think the first I actually chose was ‘I’m A Believer’ by The Monkees – I idolised Davy Jones. Even back then, music was as much about the singer as the song. I’ve already documented my early interest in Mark Wynter – and yes, we had all his records too.

By the early 1970’s Dad had moved on and bought a…wait for it….music centre! It was all the rage then – a turntable, two speakers and if you were really posh a cassette player too! (My cassette recorder deserves a blog post of its own!!). And yes – it was stereo! Not that I knew what that meant at first – not until I heard ‘The Prophet’s Song’ on ‘A Night At The Opera’….then I knew its value!

But I’m getting ahead of myself in terms of musical taste. Before I discovered Queen I delighted in the musical (and visual) talents of The Osmonds – especially Donny – as well as David Cassidy and David Essex. Yes – I was a teenager! Yes, I listened to ‘Puppy Love’ and ‘Long Haired Lover From Liverpool’; I loved ‘Rock On’ and ‘Crazy Horses’ (look them up!) and yes, my absolute best ever Christmas was 1973, ruled by Slade and Wizzard. I was a child of the early 1970s – David Bowie, Sweet, Suzie Quatro, early Rod Stewart and Elton John and T Rex. What can I say??

I know Dad had his music centre by 1974 as this saw the release of Queen’s ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ which I played over and over again on the old record player which by this time was in my bedroom to make way for the newfangled contraption in the front room. After the perhaps twentieth continuous play of the LP I clearly remember my Dad yelling up the stairs to turn that rubbish off! He also predicted they would last about 6 months…..I took great delight in pointing out this error of judgement in the late 1980s.  From then on Queen were – and still are – my favourite ever band. They were rivalled only by my discovery of Bob Dylan – of which more in another post.

A mention must be made here of Auntie Winnie. As documented elsewhere, she came over on Saturday afternoons and took me and my brother and sister out for the afternoon – mainly to get us out of our parents’ hair. She also had a keen eye for what a teenage niece may want for her birthday or Christmas gift, and she would pre-order each Queen album as it came out to make sure I got it. I still remember the thrill of being dropped in Diss town centre – my sister and brother were then taken to the Station to watch the trains – and picking up the latest Queen album ordered for me by Auntie Winnie. A bag of sweets (and possibly a book) from Diss Publishing Company and I was ready to go home and huddle in my bedroom for enjoy the delights of Freddie Mercury’s voice and Brian May’s guitar…

By the time I got to college my musical tastes had developed to include a lot of prog rock – early Genesis and Rick Wakeman for instance. But it was when I met Chris in 1984 that I was introduced to a huge amount of new music – new to me that is. We would have record nights wnen we sat up till the early hours drinking wine or lager, and he would play DJ, choosing song after song, some I knew, most I didn’t – all great. Through him I discovered a lot of American music such as Steve Wariner and most important, Fleetwood Mac – How had I never really listened to their music before??

However much I enjoyed music, my knowledge couldn’t hold a candle to Chris’s, espcially when it came to the 1960’s. Again, pirate radio stations played a huge part in this and deserve their own blog post, but he knew music from the 1960s that very few people had ever heard of. At one point early in our marriage we got into the habit of listening to morning radio and about 7am they used to run a quiz called ‘Hook Line and Sinker’ – the idea was they played a ‘hook’ – the opening riff – of a song and you had to ring up and say what the song was. If you were right, there were two more questions, one based on a line from another song by the same band, and a question loosely related to the song or band – correct answers to all three won you a prize. We never rang up, but without opening his eyes, practically every morning Chris not only identified the song, but predicted what the next two questions would be and he was rarely wrong!

Whether through age or being taken up with the responsibilities of home, family and jobs, we sort of lost track of current music as we moved through the 1990s and still don’t really follow new music. We still prefer the 60s, 70s and 80s stuff we’ve listened to for years – and Chris is still introducing me to songs I’ve never heard of, even now. He now hosts a weekly radio show on Sunshine Radio and uses it as a way of playing little-known artists and songs, such as Duncan Browne….

…who I first heard of several years ago when we were staying in Canterbury for a few days. We were sitting in the sunny hotel garden one evening with a glass of wine and got chatting about music Chris remembered…so I started looking up songs on Spotify, which he’d never got to grips with, and he was amazed at what it could do. I think the first song we found was ‘The Huge World of Emily Small’, and later he asked if I could find ‘Alfred Bell’ by Duncan Browne….and I loved it! A few days later, a CD dropped through the letterbox – he’d ordered the ‘Give Me Take You’ album for me.

I also love that although each having their own particular taste, my own children will listen to the same music as us (I certainly never wanted to listen to my parents’ music!). One Christmas I was gifted a 3-CD set of Queen’s Greatest Hits. By Boxing Day it had mysteriously disappeared…into Ross’s bedroom…. Ross also introduced me to some great music, and in turn I introduced him to King Crimson.

Musis is the background to life – even now a piece of music can transport me to another time and place, and taking up roles in musical theatre have extended my tastes and interests even more. Apparently some people never listen to music – I wonder how they live…..

The Hensons

Tags

family-history, henson, history, Sullivan

I have traced the Henson lineage back to Robert Henson or Hinson who was born in Silverstone, Northamptonshire in about 1725. The family lives in various villages along what is now the A5 between Towcester and Milton Keynes until William Arthur Henson, born in 1847 in Cosgrove, moved to London. He married Elizabeth Vaughan in Potterspury in December 1873 and the following year their son William Samuel was born in Stepney.

By 1881 the family were living at 9A Lefevre Road, Bow and William was working as a sawyer in the building trade. William Samuel was at this point living back in Stony Stratford with Elizabeth’s parents, but their second son Joseph Henry was with them in Bow. Another son, Walter Vaughan Henson, was born in 1882, and the family remained in Bow for the rest of William’s life.

It was the second son, Joseph Henry Henson, born in Bow in 1875, who married Mary Anne McComas (see McComas Family). Joseph was clearly brought up to follow his father’s trade, listed as a ‘sawyer’s errand boy’ on the 1891 census when he was 14. On 13^th September 1896 the wedding took place at St Mark’s Church, Victoria Park – possibly the nearest the McComas family got to the fabled Mitford Castle pub as both it and the church were in Cadogan Terrace. Maybe they had their wedding reception there?

Over the next few years their five children were born: Joseph Frederick in 1897, Annie Eliza in 1898, Robert James in 1900 (he lived less than a year), Edward in 1902 and Frederick in 1909. In 1901 Joseph Henry is still listed as working as a sawyer, but clearly the family then fell on hard times and according to a letter written by his youngest son Frederick, Mary Anne Henson nee McComas suffered greatly from the actions of her husband.

Frederick’s letter of 1980 written to his niece Pat Bridgeman (nee Sullivan) gives a detailed account of the Henson family troubles – their daughter Annie Eliza later married Thomas Sullivan, and probably never told her own children about her early life – something she would rather forget about, I imagine. I am attaching the letter itself to this blog, but a few quotations are enough to give a flavour of the subject matter.

Frederick says that the family’s life was ‘no better than Dickens’ ‘Hard Times’….Your mother was left in a house with no food at times and had to burn waste paper to keep warm….my father was a brute and given to violent temper….When I was born he wouldn’t let your mother get help and I was born on the floor.’ Finally the children called the naighbours when their father left the house and they were taken into care – which in those days meant the workhouse. Mary Anne was very ill following the birth and ‘lost her reason’, being admitted to Claybury Mental Institution where ‘she stayed but never recovered and mercifully passed away’.

In fact, records she she was admitted to Claybury on 13^th December 1906, and discharged, ‘recovered’ on 7^th February 1907, two years before Frederick was born. She was admitted to the Poplar Union Workhouse on 13^th December 1909 with 2-day old Frederick, and did die in the same month, presumably in the same workhouse. Meanwhile her son Edward was placed in a different workhouse and Annie Eliza is recorded as ‘at school’ -presumably fending for herself.

Frederick’s letter continues to explain that the eldest son Joseph (Joe) ran away from home aged 16 finding work in Wales in coal mines, while he (Frederick) and his brother Edward were sent to Hutton Training School in Essex. This residential school had been opened in 1905 in Hutton neat Brentwood to house destitute children of Poplar. Records show that on 7^th April 1914, Edward and Frederick were transferred from the registers of Stepney to Poplar under the Poor Law Removal and Settlement Act, as their father was a Poplar resident – he was recorded on this document as absent. Annie meanwhile was taken in a looked after by their aunt, Elizabeth Russell nee McComas.

His brother Edward was returned to the care of their uncle and a warrant was issued for the arrest of their father, who was found to have absconded to Wales where he apparently joined the same regiment as his eldest son Joe. He states they were both killed in France on the same day, 22^nd August 1914. Records however seem to indicate that Joseph senior died on 9^th July 1916 and his son Joseph Frederick died the following day at the Somme.

The siblings were reunited on 20^th September 1916, and Frederick clearly adored his sister Annie, or Dolly as they all called her as she was of small build. The family moved to Hardinge Street, Stepney just after World War I, while he says Edward stayed in the army and made his way up the ranks. The 1939 census however has an Edward Henson with what appears the correct birthdate working as a drill machinist for metal window fittings and living with his wife Nora in Witham, Essex….as so often, what families pass on to each other on the basis of verbal information is not always totally accurate – it was Frederick for instance who gave the McComas family the Mitford Castle pub. Sometimes we have to accept we are never going to know for certain what happened – nevertheless, the Henson family saga is worth recording as part of the family’s history.

And happily, Annie (or Dolly) appears to have been very happy in her marriage to Thomas Sullivan which produced nine children, the eldest of whom was Chris’s dad Joe.

The McComas Family

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biography, family-history, henson, history, mccomas, Sullivan

This line goes back on the Sullivan side: Thomas Sullivan (Chris’s grandad) married Annie Eliza Henson – remembered as one of a line of Nanny Sullivans – and her mother was Mary Anne McComas, who was born in Bow in 1879.
Mary Anne’s parents however, came over from Dublin. I was told by Stella Sullivan that they had a thriving business on what was then known as Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) in the centre  of Dublin, that they left because of the Troubles and settled in Cadogan Terrace by Victoria Park where they kept the Mitford Castle pub. The truth seems to be a little different….

Frederick McComas married Eliza Johnstone at St Paul’s Church, Dublin on 11^th January 1858 – even this doesn’t help too much as there were two St Paul’s churches in the centre of Dublin: a Catholic one on Arran Quay on the north side of the Liffey, and a Church of Ireland on on the south side of the river at Smithfield, on Ushers Quay – so which was it? Some more research to be done here. Their first child William was born in 1858 followed by a daughter Angelina in 1864. It’s more than possible there were other children, but only these two feature on UK census records and Irish records are notoriously difficult to find.

We do know the family came to England somewhere between 1864 and 1867 for in the latter year George was born in Portsmouth: in fact, they stayed in Portsmouth until at least 1872 by which time Frederick and Elizabeth had been born. The 1871 census lists them living at 4, High Road, Portsmouth with Frederick senior working as a cork cutter, a trade he seems to have pursued for the rest of his working life.

Their next daughter, Anne Marie, was born in Lambeth in 1874, suggesting the family had moved into the London area by then, and Mary Anne, the youngest, was born in Bow where they finally settled, though still moving around different lodgings and rented homes. Electoral rolls and census forms have them variously at 16 Ranwell Street (1879); 13 Willow Street (1891); 15 Ordell Road (1899); 32 Lefevre Street (1901 – living with their daughter Elizabeth) and finally in two unfurnished rooms back at 15 Ordell Road in 1902.

On 10^th July 1906 Frederick McComas and his wife applied for poor relief: he gave his address as 32 Lefevre Street while his wife Eliza was in Leavesden Asylum. He had fractured his right humerus and requested to be admitted to ‘SA’ (?). This was agreed and he was discharged but readmitted with ‘sclerosis’ (as in MS possibly?). He died in ‘SA’ on 20 October 1907 and was buried on 26^th at Newham. It would appear that his wife Eliza survived him and died in Watford in 1912, but this is the only record I have been able to find for an Elixa McComas, and it will require further research to establish whether this is the right Eliza and why she was in Watford….

Their eldest son William lived in Bethnal Green with his family and was a cork cutter like his father; Angelina and George are at present unresearched; Frederick with his wife and family remained in the Bow/Poplar area working as a house painter; and of the youngest three girls, two made good marriages and…the other didn’t. Elizabeth married James Russell, a farrier and later soldier: they moved to Devonport but were instrumental in helping out their Henson nephews and nieces. Annie’s husband John Smith was a locksmith and they remained in Bow. But Mary Anne married Joseph Henry Henson…..and judging from the records, supplemented by a very informative letter sent by their youngest son Frederick Henson to his niece Pat Bridgeman (nee Sullivan) this was the worst day’s work she ever did.

How Low Can You Go? The Aldous Connection…

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agincourt, aldous, Betts, england, henry-v, history

Not perhaps how low, but how far back?

Researching family history is more and more difficult the further back in time you go – within living memory it’s relatively easy – just ask your relatives! Though as I’ve found out, sometimes memories are less accurate than they seem, so documentary evidence is always good even here. Once you get past your grandparents, the census forms give you lots of information, albeit only once every ten years, so if your family moved frequently, there may still be gaps.

But once you hit 1845, the very first census, you have to rely on parish records and any other documents that may (or more likely may not) have been preserved. If your family were well to do or better still related to the nobility there are more likely to be records, but my family seem to be solidly agricultural labourers in East Anglia going way back…..chances are they couldn’t read or write, so not likely they wrote down their family history for me!

But one line of the family seems to have been traced back to the 14^th Century. I have borrowed some data from other Ancestry users (who are DNA linked to me so I have a good idea it’s the right family line) but also have looked for parish records where possible and I believe the Aldous line of the family tree to be as well evidenced as it can be.

So where does this line go from and to?

My mother Pamela Warnes; her mother Rose Betts; her mother Eliza Betts and her father Damiel Betts are all within living memory and clearly documented.

Daniel Betts’ father William is there on the census as are William’s parents John Betts and Elizabeth Aldous – hence the Aldous connection. From Elizabeth the paternal line goes back through Robert, Richard, William, Stephen, Stephen, Stephen, William, Robert, William, Peter, Roger and Peter Aldous who was born in 1362 in Fressingfield, Suffolk – about 3 miles from Mendham where my mother was born almost 600  years later….

Peter Aldous is therefore my 16^th great grandfather (and the 18^th great grandfather of Etta and Ted, my own beautiful grandchildren).  But it is his son Roger who fascinated me, and I sought advice from a good friend who is the fount of all knowledge about medieval warfare…

For Roger, who was born in 1400 in Fressingfield, is recorded as Roger de Aldous – yet not one of the other members of the family have a ‘de’ in them – his father was Pater Aldous; his own son is recorded as Peter Aldous. So why the ‘de’? Is there some sort of French connection? I have not traced his mother, but his wife’s name was Elizabeth and their children Peter and Frederick, neither of which sound French….

The clue came from where they lived – for Fressingfield is the next village along from Wingfield which in the 14^th Century was the seat of the Earls of Suffolk, the de la Pole family – they themselves have an interesting pedigree including a marriage to Chaucer’s daughter. So in 1400, Peter Aldous would have been living (and probably farming) on land owned by the Earl of Suffolk, who at that time was Michael de la Pole – we know he was continuing the building work at Wingfield started by his father who had married Elizabeth Wingfield.

In 1415, when my ancestor was 15 years old, we also know that Michael de la Pole, along with at least two of his sons, commanding 20 men-at-arms and 60 archers, accompanied King Henry V to France on the military campaign that peaked with the Battle of Agincourt. Michael de la Pole never got that far – he died of dysentery at Harfleur, to be succeeded by his eldest son, also Michael. Seven weeks later Michael, 3^rd Earl of Suffolk, was one of only two members of the English nobility to be killed at Agincourt, his body famously being repatriated and interred at Wingfield Church. He was succeeded to the Earldom by his younger brother William, upon whom the title Duke of Suffolk was conferred.

Back to Agincourt….and Roger de Aldous. Could the French connection have been that he was one of the retinue who followed the Earl? He must have been back in England by 1422 when his eldest son was born. My friend informed me that at 15 it was more than likely he would have been co-opted (or offered by his father) to go to war – he would have had no family or work responsibilities so could be spared, and it would have been a good opportunity to learn about cleaning weapons and even practice using them. That could have led to him proudly adding the ‘de’ to his name. He could even have been one of those who brought the Earl’s body back to Suffolk – and it was  then that I was brought face to face with the realities of war…..

First, while northern France seems just a hop and skip away, in 1415 the journey back to Suffolk would have taken months, not hours. Second, a dead body decomposes…and smells…. So the best way to transport a corpse back home would have been to burn it until the flesh fell off the bones, then put the bones in an ossuary and take them back for burial. Makes sense.

But, said my friend, not only was it a sensible way to transport the body, it also engendered lots of cooked flesh…meat. And the soldiers would have been very hungry and living on dried rations with very little fresh food of any kind…..

So it’s just possible that….my ancestor was a cannibal?

A Decade On…

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music, review, theatre

I’ve just scrolled back to find to my amazement that I started this blog over 10 years ago… and in that decade of very sporadic blog posts, while documenting the family history our own family has grown and developed: Chris and I have both retired, all three of our children have acquired their own homes, and we have gained a beautiful daughter-in-law and two incredible grandchildren. We are truly blessed, and as I sit here in the lovely in between time after Christmas I can reflect on a wonderful ten years full of love and laughter.

Ten years ago I was still teaching, mainly supply work but then having joined Sandown High School for a term, that became a year leading up to retirement after which I still spent more time in school than out of it for several years…however, retirement enabled me to give more time to my interests and hobbies, and I have embraced the world of local amateur theatre and been given opportunities to act, work backstage and front of house, sing, dance even – and direct. I directed Macbeth last November, leading to a one hour/four person version which we performed for Cowes Enterprise College in December and are taking to the IW Storytelling Festival in February; I took part in Iolanthe with GASP (Gilbert and Sullivan Productions) in September and their Carols and Mince Pies afternoon in December and am preparing to start rehearsals for The Savoyards’ Me and My Girl next month ready for an April production. I sang at a Christmas event at Monkton Arts and look forward to getting to know the people I met there better – life is good. I have met so many lovely people that I can call good friends.

Chris and I also perform as a musical duo, Elsinore, while he is still a member of the Ventnor Guitar group and performs with Sid and Rosa as Out of the Shadows. I have formed the Banjolele Babes duo with Karin who I met through the Guitar Club, and we have an open mic coming up next Sunday. And one of my Christmas presents this year was a Fender Stratocaster! I’m very much an acoustic guitar girl, but Chris has been encouraging me to go electric and a friend of Ronan’s offered him what they thought was a broken down old guitar – after he and Chris had worked on it, it’s brilliant!!

My writing has taken a back seat recently but I have started meeting up regularly with Bev and Erica as a small informal writing group so in the new year I iintend to go back to my historical novel and see if it deserves an edit and partial rewrite. Most of my writing has been for IW Theatre – I’ve been reviewing shows for them for several years but in 2022 Simon Dabell asked if I could put him in touch with Allan Gregory who runs IW Theatre as Simon wanted to revive a form of IW Theatre Awards and thought it would be a good ‘host brand’. I introduced them and somehow have been included on the steering group: we have just celebrated the first year of the Awards, and as Allan is up to his neck at work I’ve more or less taken over the day to day running of IW Theatre – finding reviewers, contacting theatre groups etc. I enjoy it and I end up writing quite a few reviews and previews myself.

Most of all I feel incredibly blessed that in retirement Chris and I at the moment enjoy good health, a lovely home, three incredible children – four including our lovely daughter-in-law – and our amazing grandchildren. Joe is the Director of the Cartoon Museum in London; Anne is Assistant Head in a large split site primary school; Ross is a Mental Health Practitioner in Manchester and Ronan works in the commercial department of First Bus in Cornwall. All in gainful employment with their own property and thankfully good health. Long may it continue. I am always aware that we cannot see into the future but as I sit here on the cusp of another year I feel very happy and very lucky.