Two for the price of one

A double wedding celebration today . . . for the same person.

Elizabeth Essex, my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother (that's five greats), was born in the Cambridgeshire village of Cottenham in 1737, the daughter of John & Judith (nee Norman), and married her first husband on 14th May 1762. Francis Deacons, said husband, was already a widower, according to the Parish Register, and died six years later. However, they managed to pass the time by producing a couple of children (Ann & Judah).

Then, with remarkable slowness for the time, Elizabeth married William Webb (this one's my relative) today in 1770 in the nearby (-ish) village of Landbeach. This marriage produced four children (two girls then two boys) prior to Elizabeth's death in 1782.

Alas, I know very little else about her, mainly because this was before the advent of the ten-yearly census which gives us to much information. So we rely on the parish registers and other snippets. I need to get back to the records office to look for some more snippets!

I have followed three of Elizabeth's children; Martha Webb goes on to marry Thomas Flavel and some of her children went off to the antipodes . . . . voluntarily. Thomas Webb married Mary Gunn and continued the family line downwards towards me. James Webb married Anne Cowling and died in 1861 in Landbeach, "without issue" as they say.

More soon.

Mc Culpin . . . ?

In all the excitement of finding another ancestor in court I missed the birthday of Charles O'Connell Culpin, my great-great-grandfather's brother.

He was born yesterday in 1836 in the village of Hemingford Grey, the son of Charles & Sophia (nee Kington) and grew up in St Ives. By the age of 14 (the 1851 census) he was already a member of the family profession - a blacksmith, and in 1859 he married Ellen Berridge in nearby Brampton (next door to Huntingdon, now got a race course). Between 1864 and 1867 local trade directories show him as an agricultural implement maker, in Darwood Terrace in St Ives.

Sadly he died young, at the age of 31, on 23rd September 1867, leaving his widow, Ellen, and four surviving children. He's buried in Broadleas cemetery, together with two of the children.

His eldest daughter Ellen (Nellie), born in St Ives in 1860, went on to marry George Dellar in 1887. They produced four children and stayed in St Ives until Nellie's death in May 1916. Fortunately she died just before her eldest son George, who died in December that year of wounds received in the Great War.

Rumour has it that George Dellar senior married again but I haven't found any confirmation of that yet.

The "McCulpin . . ." of the title? Well, Charles was Charles O'Connell and his brother was Millice Campbell. Both these middle names have Scots implications and don't appear anywhere else in the family; besides, I always understood the the origins of the Culpin name came from the Huguenots . . . . . although I'm open to other ideas!

More soon.

Crime & Sweet Shops

Never mind birthdays, today I made a most interesting find . . . .

I was on this website Victorian Crime and Punishment from E2BN idling entering surnames from my main file when I found an Isaac Langford.

Exactly the same age as my great-grandfather, the place of committal (Ely) was in the right area and this chap was up before the beak for deserting his children (isn't that what the CSA is for now?). Funnily enough, great-gramps also did a runner after his wife died and that's why the youngest children are in Ely.

So, I've scheduled a trip to the local library to look in the Ely Standard for the time to see if I can find anything. I'm pretty sure that it's my Isaac so maybe his sister, who was looking after the littlests, was able to get him charged.

He was found guilty and sentenced to 2 months hard labour. Stay tuned for more information!

That got me looking at his family and I focused on the two daughters who went/were sent to Nottingham. Ellen married Ernest Webster in 1900 and I found them on the 1911 census in the town, with five of their children; they had already lost their eldest at the age of two and had another couple before 1916. Ernest was a baker who was to die in 1921 and Ellen was listed as a Lace Hand. Although I could be accused of leaping to conclusions, I checked for the births of their offspring and was able to identify them by their middle names - the first three I found had their great-grandfather, grandfather & grandmother's names respectively. I wonder if that counts as one of the genealogist's proofs?

And then there's Ellen's younger sister Lilian, also in Nottingham, who went on to marry William Brittle, a lace maker, in 1905 and together they produced twelve (yep, twelve) children over the next 17 years. Their eldest was born . . . . er, a little early but, hey, who's counting? And their youngest, Thomas, in 1922.

All I really knew about Lilian was that she lived in Little John street in Nottingham and ran a sweet shop - and there she is in Little John street in 1911. Good to have a family story confirmed, eh?

More soon.

More Bultitafts . . . .

Memo to self . . . . remember to turn the piece of paper over!

Sooo, continuing the Bultitaft story - not only did Rhoda and Henry have a Henry, they also had two Ellens.  Young Henry appears to have stayed at Bedwell Hey Farm, having married Mary Jane Cross and producing three more Bultitafts (can't you tell that I just love the name!).  His younger sister Ellen married John Mitchell and was last seen in Cawthorpe in Lincs in 1891.

That's it; there's no more paper to turn over today.

Bullard & Bultitaft

Today's birthday girl had a brief mention in this blog back in February, so let me re-introduce Rebecca Bullard, my great-great-great-aunt.  Born today in Earith (Hunts) in 1823, she was the daughter of James and Sarah (nee Silk); she married Ephraim Thoday in 1847 in nearby Willingham and lived in the village until her death in 1864.  Having produced one son in 1845, she went on to have a further three children with Ephraim but sadly did not live to see them produce her thirteen grandchildren.

Marriage of the day is that of Rhoda Langford and Edward Bultitaft in 1824 at St James, Stretham.  Rhoda is another one of my ancestors who is related to me twice; in this case, she's my first cousin four times removed AND my sixth cousin five times removed.  Bit of inter-marrying there, methinks.  They went on to produce three children, of whom only the youngest, named after his father, survived to adulthood.

Anyway, she and Edward weren't together terribly long as, according to the Parish Register, Edward was "accidentally killed" in November 1828.  I wonder if there was an inquest?  Must look in the papers.

Rhoda, though, wasn't deterred from keeping that awesome surname - I mean, how many Bultitafts do you know?  So, she married Henry at St Martin's Ludgate in 1835.  And, in a bit of symmetry, they too had a son who they named after his father.

Rhoda lived in Stretham, with her various Bultitafts, until 1871 when I found her, as a 71 years old widow, living at Bedwell Hey Farm, near Ely, with her youngest son Henry.  She died in Stretham in 1876.

It's a cracking surname, though; I've found no indication of where her husband Edward was born but records suggest that Henry senior came from Stow Bardolph in Norfolk.  That said, there was quite a colony of Bulititafts in Stretham so maybe it's an East Anglian name.  Maybe I'll do some research into it.

More soon.

Near & Far

Today's most prominent anniversary is the marriage of Millice Campbell Culpin & Naomi Fordham at St James', Hemingford Grey, in 1864.  However, I notice that this pair, my great-great-grandparents, have had a fair bit of exposure in this blog already so I'll say no more about them today and move on, instead, to a newbie.

John Cherry was my g-g-g-uncle and was born today in Biggleswade, Beds, in 1797.  The second of six children of Thomas and Sarah (nee Bennington), he was christened at St Andrew's Church later the same year, returning to the said church in 1819 to marry Ann Pair.  In the course of the next 20 years, they begat a mere 13 (thirteen) children, all of whom appeared to have survived into adulthood.  The last appearance, so far, of John & Ann was in the 1851 census when they lived in Palace Street in Biggleswade.  I must look at them afresh.

And finally for today . . . the "far" of the title is Elizabeth Bullard, my second cousin four times removed, who was married today in Godmanchester, Hunts, to Joseph Allen.  Alas, I don't know a lot about this couple, other than that Joseph was a shoemaker and they had a son called Harry.  Another name of the "look again" list.

More soon.

May Day!

No, not a cry for help, but an emphatic statement of the day.

Moving on . . . today I'd like to introduce my first cousin five times removed's husband.  Or, to put it another way, my great-great-aunt's husband.  There, that made it clearer, didn't it.  Don't blame me, blame this confusing state of affairs on a bit of cross-breeding in the county.

Henry James Lowton, the birthday boy, was born in Grantchester in 1835, the son of William and Elizabeth (nee Stittle) and all was relatively (no pun intended) simple until he went and married into the family.  To be fair to him, he may not have known that his wife, Elizabeth Layton, had a sister (Ellen) whose second husband (my great-great-grandfather) was also her first cousin once removed.  Also, Ellen's first husband was a Lowton, who probably came from this branch, and their son was also Henry James.

Paying attention?  I'll be asking questions later.

So, back at today's main man - Henry James and Elizabeth, together with their first child, moved down to Greenford in Middlesex before 1861, staying long enough to produce two more children in the borough.  Elizabeth died in 1867, presumably in childbirth and Henry, with three young children to look after, wasted no time . . . he married Sarah Rolph the following year.  The family then moved on the Newington and soon after the 1871 census Henry died in Southwark at the age of 36.

Phew!  That was complicated.

So, a brief mention only of William Wright, born today in 1706 in Stretham, the son of Thomas and Rebecka (nee Langford).  He was my third cousin eight times removed - that's what I call a distant relative!!

More soon.