In and Out of the News

My obsession with the British Newspaper Archive continues, particularly as I've found one bloke, my 3xgreat uncle, who was mentioned a number of times.

Frederick Staden, for t'was he, was born in Sundridge, in Kent, in 1815, the eighth and youngest child of Thomas and Sarah (nee Dodd), and was christened on Christmas Eve that year.  He joined the Army and in the 1841 census he's at the Infantry Barracks in Walmer, an acting serjeant.  

Note:  the spelling of "serjeant" shall, from hereon in, be interchangeable with "sergeant" ....

To continue: Between 1841 and 1851 he married Margaret and the pair of them are to be found in barracks in Winchester in the next census.  Then he's posted to Gibraltar and it's a moot point whether wife Margaret went with him; I suspect not, because he marries again whilst on the rock, this time to Martha Milner, the daughter of another sergeant, and then his life gets ever so slightly complicated.....

Back home in Berkshire, Frederick joined the Royal Berks Militia and, in 1860, is awarded "an emblem of honour" for his service.  The 1861 census shows him and Martha living in Reading.  

Later that year, an inkling of disharmony appears and he takes out an advert in the Reading Mercury to tell the locals that he will not be held responsible for his wife's debts.  A few more mentions of him in the Militia, by now a Drill Instructor, and then trouble.

Charged in 1865 with assaulting a young lady, the paper now goes into salacious detail about how he "behaved in an indecent manner" towards her.  Except that he didn't.  It was very quickly proved that Frederick wasn't even in town on the date given!  Verdict: Not Guilty.  Cue loud applause from the assembled throng.

Honour restored, he doesn't appear in the newspaper again for five years.  This time, a series of reports from different newspapers, all giving the same detail about the divorce between Frederick and Martha.  She comes out as quite a "character", being described as having "dirty, drunken habits" and eventually running away to Southsea (as you do) to be with her co-respondent.  Case proved.  Decree Nisi.

As far as I can tell, Frederick goes on to live a quiet life from then on.  By 1881 he was a publican/beer seller in South Stoke, Oxfordshire.  When he died there, at the "Eight Bells", in 1884, the newspaper reported that he had been in the Royal Berks Militia for 21 years.

Somehow, I feel there's more to be found about Martha, but I'll leave that for another day.

Happy New Year.

More soon.

More Sinned Against ......

There are some newspaper entries which make you go "aaaah":

"On the 6th inst., at the Free Church, St Ives, Hunts, by the Rev. T R Jones, Charles Culpin, of Reading, to Maria Broadway, of St Ives"

And those which make you go "oh":

"4th inst., at Southgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, Stanley Frederick, third son of JC Staden jun., aged 1 year and 7 months."

And then there are those which make you go "what the ......?":

"William Fuller, a truculent looking fellow as ever held a hand up at a bar of justice, was indicted for destroying on the 18^th of July, in a most barbarous manner, an ass, the property of Charles Culpin.

Charles Culpin is a blacksmith, living at St Ives.  On the 18^th of July he saw the ass, which he kept in a hovel in a close: she was then quite well; the next morning his son fetched her up in a dying state – went to the hovel where he found a fork, the handle of which, for about a foot and a half, was smeared with blood.  The ass died in consequence of a wound, given in the most revolting manner.  Mr Culpin, on being asked on what terms he had been with the prisoner, said, that some time ago, while he was swearing among Mr Culpin’s children, he had sent for a constable, who took him into custody; since which he frequently insulted witness.  Mr Swallow was present on the 19^th of July, when the prisoner was apprehended – on being charged with an atrocious act on Mr Culpin’s donkey, he said I never did it, but Joesph Harrop did.  On Harrop being sent for, his father came with him, who swore that his son was in bed at half-past seven.  Mr Swallow then asked him what further he had to say, when he fell a-crying, and said, if Mr Culpin will forgive me, I will never do it again.  On being asked what he had done, he said, I ran the shaft of the fork a foot, or half a foot, up the donkey.  Verdict Guilty. Sentence, 14 years transportation."

Copyright (in order): Reading Mercury, 15th July 1871; Bury & Norwich Post, 15th May 1877; Cambridge Chronicle & Journal, 20th October 1826.  All via the British Newspaper Archive.

Ah, happy times (chronicle/journal/post &c)

More soon.

Newspapers, newspapers everywhere .....

Yep, I have been immersing myself in the glorious www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.  Just online in the last couple of weeks I am gentling paddling around in the shallow end, searching for Stadens and Culpins.  Thank 'eavens for some unusual names!

And what did I find? A couple of divorce cases, both on the grounds of adultery; both adulterers being the spouses of my relatives. See, pure as the driven snow, my lot!

Well, not quite......  There's Thomas Culpin, found guilty in 1800, of sheep-stealing (sentenced to death, but reprieved), and William Flavell sentenced to 6 months in 1823 for stealing ten pigeons, not to mention William Culpin who went on the run in 1835 after stealing from, and attempting to kill, his aunt.  Arthur Ernest Culpin distinguished himself by stealing in Kings Cliffe and earned himself nine strokes of the birch.

By sheer coincidence, I found two rellies (one Staden, one Freeman) in the same edition of the Bury & Norwich Post in 1861. And, for a change, neither had done anything wrong!

Did I mention the young Culpin who was found guilty by a coroner's court of 'Murder of a bastard child' but acquitted by the magistrate? Or another horribly young Culpin who attempted to take her own life? 

Fortunately, I have also found some marriage and deaths dates, none of which will cause a scandal.  Even better, one of the marriages showed that the spouse was a widow, and I was able to dig around on FreeBMD and find her maiden name.

Anyway, I'm going back to the archive now and will attempt to publish more little snippets, both here and on the website.

More soon.

Still in Australia .....

Last time out, I wrote about Maria Flavell (nee Phillips) and now I'm going to continue with the same family.  Yep, I'm mildly obsessed with Australian records at the moment - their BMDs, on ancestry.com, are subject to the same bizarre transcriptions as some of ours, but their indexes generally give more detail.

So, having told you of "43 grandchildren, 68 great grandchildren and 36 great great grandchildren", my mission now is to find them.  Not all at once, obviously, but I am slowly working my way through them.  I'd like to give the impression that I'm being very organised in this task but ...... I do tend to jump about a bit.  Part of this I can blame on ancestry, who now try to be helpful and put "these records may be relevant" to the right of the page, thereby enticing the easily distracted (me).

Still'n'all, I've found a few Flavells and Frees, some of them with wonderful names: there's Mary Madeline Emelia, Gertrude Henrietta Isabella and, my favourite, Thomas Merlin Olave Elnathan.  That's one set of siblings with something to thank their parents for!

Inevitably, though, I have also found a couple of lads who volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force in the Great War; brothers Samuel John and Albert Ernest Free, born 1893 & 1894 respectively, joined up on the same day in 1916.  Both were drafted to the 3rd Machine Gun Corps.  Albert died on 12th October 1917 and has no known grave, being commemorated on the Menin Gate.  Samuel died of wounds to the abdomen on 26th May 1918 and is buried in Crouy.  The National Archives of Australia has digitised their soldiers' records and I was able to read a lot of detail about these two.

More soon.

Nearly made the century ....

I fully intended to do so serious searching for people called Bellingham and Tong today but, unsurprisingly, I allowed myself to be sidetracked again.

What I actually did was knock over the pile of paper on the corner of my desk and there, in the midst of the scatterings, was a complete gem.

Distant rellies William and Maria Flavell (he's my first cousin five times removed) were Landbeach people who emigrated to Australia in 1855 and I have been in touch, a number of times, with one of their descendants in Oz.  Today, when I found the "gem", I did a bit more googling and found a website (homepage.mac.com) with even more gems!  A heartfelt "thank you" to the Cheeseman family researchers, the owners of that website.

So let's ignore William (1805-1863) and skip straight to Maria (nee Phillips) who merited half a dozen newspaper reports upon her death in 1907.  The following, from "The Donald Times" on 29 November 1907, is a fairly good representation of all of them.  Prepare to be awed at Maria's stamina.....

Another old colonist in the person of Mrs Flavell passed away at Watchem on Wednesday evening of last week, at the ripe age of 99 years and six months.  She enjoyed remarkable health throughout her long life until the 11th of the present month when she had to take to her bed through an attack of influenza which turned to pneumonia.  Dr Calhoun was called in but from the first could not hold out any hope of her recovery.  She gradually sank and passed peacefully away at about 7 o'clock on Wednesday evening.  The funeral took place at Watchem on Thursday afternoon when her remains were followed to their last resting place by a large number of old friends and relations, the Rev. G. Brodie (Presbyterian) of Birchip officiating at the home and the graveside.

Deceased was born at Cambridge (England) on 28 May 1808, her maiden name being Maria Phillips.  At the age of 28 she was married to Mr Wm Flavell. In 1855 they emigrated to Australia in the vessel known as the "Thames".  Her husband and she landed at Geelong where Mr Flavell engaged in pastural pursuits on Mr Swanston's station at Inverleigh.  In 1861 her husband died, leaving her with seven children.  She remained in Inverleigh until 1879 and then went to Wickliffe, where she lived with one of her sons until 1897.  The remaining ten years of her life were spent with her daughter, Mrs (Eliza) Bruce, at Watchem.  Her family consisted of 14 children, seven of whom survive her, and her descendants are: 43 grandchildren, 68 great grandchildren and 36 great great grandchildren.

Phew!

More soon.

Village pride...

So there I was, searching for information about a chap called Laban Thoday.  I know that he was serving with the South African Infantry Brigade when he died so I was hoping to find out when he emigrated.  I haven't, yet.

But I did find a photograph of him (which is on my website).

And some wonderful village pride, courtesy of www.oldwillingham.com:

Willingham:  The late Lce-Cpl L. Thoday - A Willingham correspondent writes:  I noticed in your last issue the photo of Lce-Cpl Laban Thoday, South African Infantry, who was killed in action on July 15th 1916.  He is described as of Harston.  We know he had acquired property there, a house and fruit garden, but Lce-Cpl Laban Thoday is a Willingham boy, being the youngest son of the late Mr Ephraim Thoday.  His widowed mother, to whom he had been a great stay, still lives in Willingham.  We know how unselfishly patriotic he was in leaving a lucrative position in South Africa to fight for his country.  Many brave men perished in Delville Wood, but none more brave or true that Lce-Cpl Laban Thoday, of whom Willingham is justly proud.

More soon.

References, References, References

Thought I'd use the Calendar feature on my website to select today's subject and I settled on Alice Burrows, my gt-gt-aunt, who married John Hopkins today in 1819.  The daughter of Robert & Elizabeth, nee Jallen, Alice was born in Manea in 1798 and she & John were married in the parish church there.

Over the next twenty three years they produced eleven children (seven daughters, four sons) and, according to my records, begat 86 descendants.  That is, 86 descendants that I know of so far.  The majority of them appear to have stayed in the county but one or two broke out and went as far as Lancashire!

What I noticed most of all though was the difference between my early research and the info that I logged more recently.  References.

The early stuff is seriously lacking in the things.  And one reference, memorably, simply says "Christening Records".  Hey, nothing much got past me in those days.

So, I shall leave you contemplating 86 descendants and I'm going to start finding some of those references. Let's just hope that I agree with the information.....

More soon.