Hare and Hounds TO LET notice Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post 22 April 1858
This notice was found on a visit to the Exeter Library a few years ago. It relates to the letting of the Hare and Hounds Inn of Witheridge in 1858 – only a few years before my WREFORDs inhabited it in 1861. Perhaps the WREFORDs took over this letting in 1858?
The text is very difficult to read but I have uploaded it here (with a transcription of what I could make out) in case anyone has any suggestions.
Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post
Exeter, Thursday, April 22,1858 (p1)
WITHERIDGE – DEVON
TO LET by Tender, for a Term of …… [years] from Midsummer next, all ……[establish]ment called the HARE AND [HOUNDS] [encompassing?] a dwelling-house, malt- …… and also a garden and two fields? … the occupation of Mr. William …
… [business is now?] being carried …
… be sent on or before the 1?th …. to Mr I M?H C?mins?, Solictor, …
Front page the above notice was ‘clipped’ from
UPDATE – I have found evidence that the family actually kept the Commercial Inn – see post here
Obituary Notice for Drusilla WILLS (nee WREFORD) (Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 140, 15 June 1934, p3)
This obituary for Drusilla WILLS (nee WREFORD) featured in my previous post stated that:
Mrs. Wills is survived by two children. Mr James Wills and Mrs. D. Evans, and 15 grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren.
My searches of the NZ BDM showed me that Thomas & Drusilla had 3 children:
Richard Henry, Drusilla Howard and James Howard WILLS birth registrations
So you may presume (as I did) that:
a) their son Richard Henry died prior to 1934; and
b) the Mrs D Evans referred to is their daughter, Drusilla Howard.
However a search of Wills/Evans marriages from 1865 only came up with 2:
WILLS/EVANS marriage registration
This means that one of the surviving children was actually ANOTHER daughter called Charlotte (and the D being her husband’s initial). However, there was no birth record of a Charlotte WILLS. So, IS this Charlotte a daughter of Thomas & Drusilla?
I was able to find the marriage of Drusilla Howard WILLS (spelt Drucilla – one of the 3 births listed) to a William SHORT in 1899.
I checked the WREFORD pedigree compiled in 1908 (more on that another time) which notes Drusilla and Thomas had SIX children. With only 3 of those listed in the online BDMs – is it possible to find these other children OR was the compiler mistaken?
Wreford Pedigree
Next Steps:
Check birth notices in newspapers (Papers Past)
Check BDM for WILLS deaths prior to 1934
Scour newspapers for any other references to the family
After receiving an email asking whether Drusilla WREFORD (the 14 year old innkeeper originally mentioned in my post Pub Crawl) met her husband, Thomas WILLS on the voyage to NZ, I delved further into this family. It was a good question and one I hadn’t really thought of since she was not my direct ancestor and I have so much to research on my genealogical plate. However, my curiosity was piqued and I donned my detective cap to find out more.
After some apparent hard times, George & Harriet WREFORD, who had apparently run the Hare & Hounds Inn run the Commercial Inn in Witheridge, Devonshire (c1861), emigrated with their 8 surviving children to New Zealand aboard the Bombay on the 26 Nov 1864. Sadly, their youngest daughter, Mary Ann died on the voyage, aged 2.
My first step was to consult the 1864-5 passenger list for the Bombay voyage these WREFORDS took and funnily enough there was a Thomas WILLS on board aged 23. Drusilla was 17 at the time so quite possible they could meet and take a fancy to one another. Or perhaps they were already betrothed before leaving England? I diverted course to search for Thomas on the UK censuses but without having any more information about him abandoned that search and turned instead to the fabulous NZ Papers Past website.
Sisters Augusta, Drusilla and Sarah Grace nee WREFORD
Although I was initially searching for marriage notices, most of my day has since been spent reading the articles and snippets which mention my ancestors and their neighbours, revisiting old avenues of research and getting to know the other members of this family. My search also led me to the NZ Births, Deaths & Marriages online where I was able to locate the WREFORD sisters’ marriages (or at least their registration numbers).
WREFORD sister marriages including Drusilla’s to Thomas WILLS
So proof that 14 year old innkeep, Drusilla married somebody called Thomas WILLS. The 1865 marriage made it seem likely but there was still no real evidence to suggest it was the same Tom on the Bombay with the family.
Drusilla’s Death Notice (also mentions sister Sarah Grace)
Until… serendipity stepped in. Tweaking the newspaper search words to ‘bombay’ and ‘wreford’ led me to the obituary notice for Drusilla in the Auckland Star (Volume LXV, Issue 140, 15 June 1934, p3).
Obituary Notice for Drusilla WILLS (nee WREFORD)
The death occurred on June 13 at Onehunga of Mrs. Drucilla Wills, aged 89 years. She was a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. George Wreford, and came to New Zealand with them when a child in the ship Bombay. Her late husband, Mr. Thos. Wills, was a passenger on the same vessel. They were married at St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Onehunga, by the late Rev. Dr. Purchas, and settled at Awhitu, where Mr. Wills engaged in the gum trade for many years. When he retired from business Mr. and Mrs. Wills went to reside at Onehunga. Mrs. Wills is survived by two children. Mr James Wills and Mrs. D. Evans, and 15 grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren.
An old family pedigree mentioned that my ancestor, William WREFORD “settled in Tiverton and was well known in the last century as a noted wrestler“. I had searched for more information a few years back and was discovered a book which mentions him in this role – Devonshire Characters and Strange Events by S. Baring Gould.
I am very pleased that I am now able to read the entire book online (or download as various files) at the Internet Archive. The section on William reads:
William Wreford, at the age of eighteen, achieved reputation by throwing Jordan over his head with such force that Jordan came down with a “crash similar to that produced by felling an oak tree.” But Wreford met his match in a wrestle with “the little Elephant,” James Stone. Simultaneously the men grappled each other; and although Wreford had the advantage at the outset, he was hurled into the air, and fell with such violence on his back that for a time he was incapacitated from taking part in a similar contest. Eventually the return match came off at Southmolton, and Stone was again victorious. Nevertheless Wreford remained a prominent figure in the ring, and threw Francis Olver, a Cornishman, although he came out of the contest with several of his ribs crushed by the deadly “hug.” But a greater than Wreford and Jordan arose in the person of Abraham Cann…(p519)
Hoping to find more mention of William, I searched for James Stone – the ‘little elephant’. This lead me to a page bursting with information about wrestling – in particular, the Abraham Cann mentioned above. The Heard Family History site records:
In his history of Crediton, Venn (Venn, T.W., History of Crediton. Typescript. 1972) tells us that the activities of the Devonshire wrestlers in London were reported enthusiastically in the Society gossip columns. Dressed in the latest fashions they would promenade in the famous Vauxhall pleasure gardens, where much curiousity was shown to catch a sight of “these extraordinary Devonshire wrestlers”. Along with the bare-knuckle fighters, the wrestlers must have had the popular appeal of football stars of old, if not quite the overblown celebrity status accorded them in today’s tabloids. Certainly local papers reported their comings and goings, and we read of a triumphant return to Devon on the express coach Celerity in 1827, when the wrestlers were greeted by cheering crowds in Exeter (Heard Family History).
It’s funny to think of William, who is listed simply as ‘farmer’ and ‘labourer’ in the 1841 and 1851 censuses, as a celebrity. Also found on the Heard Family History site was this image of the wrestlers’ vital statistics at a fair in Tavistock,1827:
Wrestler Vital Statistics – Tavistock Fair 1827
William is listed as 34 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 190 pounds. It is not often we get to know this much physical detail about our ancestors and I’m excited to have found this information.
Next Steps:
Continue to research Devonshire Wrestling in and around the 1820s
I’ve certainly been very busy with genealogy the last week or so.
The most significant discovery is that I am now quite sure that the Broadhembury STILINGs are not directly linked to me. (Click the link to see my previous Stiling posts, or click Stiling in the right sidebar). The John STILING farming at Lane End Farm is not Harriet STILING’s father. I discovered this by making contact with other people researching the Broadhembury John STILING on Ancestry.co.uk.
Devon has not allowed the LDS to film their parish records and so most baptisms from Devon are not available on the IGI. This has meant that I have not yet seen Harriet’s baptismal entry but instead have accepted information given to me by a relative over 10 years ago (until I can check the records for myself) which states her mother was Grace FREED. When I first searched the 1841 census (via microfilm) all those years ago, the Broadhembury John STILING was the closest match I found. I then decided it was possible Grace had died and this wife, Mary could have been a second wife. However, the other (very helpful) people researching this family had no knowledge of a first wife (Grace) or of a daughter called Harriet.
John STILING on Harriet’s marriage record
I decided to recheck all my sources. Harriet’s marriage certificate lists her father as John STILING, a farmer, so I searched the census again with Ancestry.co.uk, including spelling variants. Still no joy. The Broadhembury STILINGS were still the only likely option. I then went through my digital folders and came across a file called ‘Stilings on the 1841 census’. I had another look and this time saw a John and Grace STILING in the Tiverton area (how I’d not noticed that before is beyond me). I searched for them in this area and sure enough John and Grace topped the list! They had been transcribed as Steling. Someone seems to have originally recorded the name as Styling and someone’s attempt to correct it allowed it to be misread as Steling.
Another John STILING farmer – this time at West Barton Farm near Tiverton
I am more confident that these are my STILINGS – not only because of the wife, Grace but also because they reside in the Tiverton area which is where I found Harriet working as a servant on the 1841 census and her location at the time of her marriage. However, until I see the birth records, I have no hard evidence that Grace is, in fact, Harriet’s mother and that this is MY family, as she never appears with her parents on a census.
Next Steps:
Visit Devon library to locate Harriet’s baptism entry in the parish records.
