In 1848, George Wright PALMER married Mary Ann ALLEN in the parish church of Gillingham, Kent (St Mary Magdalene). George was a gunner in the Royal Navy and Mary was a carpenter’s daughter. Here is the certified copy of their marriage entry ordered from the GRO (click on the images to see a larger version):
George Wright PALMER and Mary Ann ALLEN marriage certificate – 1848
The next image is of the marriage entry from the Gillingham Parish Church records:
George Wright PALMER and Mary Ann ALLEN marriage entry -1848
I am lucky enough to be able to view the parish records on the Medway Council’s City Ark website. These images have been published as part of the ‘Medway Ancestors’ project, thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. If you have ancestors in the Medway district – it’s well worth a look.
Again, I now have my ancestor’s signatures, as well as that of Mary Ann’s father, William Henry ALLEN. Fortunately in this case, the certificate was an accurate copy of the actual marriage entry. You may however find otherwise. If family historians ever have the opportunity to check parish records, they should. One small transcription error can lead to years of frustration. The information gleaned from these have been known to break down ‘brick walls’ in the past.
And hey, even if the information is the same, at least you’ll have your ancestors’ signatures or marks.
I have returned from my holiday/family history mission in Devon. While there, I located the homes and farms of my ancestors, visited their churches and in some cases burial grounds and generally got a feel for the layout of the places they lived.
I also got to spend some time in the West Country Studies Library in Exeter – 4 and a half hours worth of time to be precise! I looked through parish records to firm up some sources and dates and browsed through some microfiche of the Exeter Flying Post to get a bit more detail.
I’ll be posting my findings over the next few days to help me collect all my information and thoughts. To start, I think I’ll flesh out the story of my bankrupt ancestor George WREFORD.
Exeter Prison (August 2009) – George may have been an inmate here in 1861
Last month, I discovered my 3rd great grandfather, George, was not found in the 1861 census partly because he was in jail for bankruptcy. You can read the story so far in my post Ancestor Found (almost).
Unfortunately, I have still not been able to locate him on the 1861 census. After eventually finding Exeter Gaol in the census records, I also found the prisoners were listed by initials only. ‘A-ha!’ I thought, ‘That explains why I couldn’t find him through a name search’ – but I couldn’t find any prisoner with the initials G.W. Not to be deterred, I then combed the entire list of prisoners by their age and birthplace looking for suitable or even approximate matches but I have still not found George WREFORD.
I am aware there was a debtor’s prison in Cowick Street but I learned on the Exeter Memories site that “the last prisoners were moved to the County Gaol in January 1855 and the facility was closed” – 5 years before George was held.
But I did find some nuggets of information in the Exeter Flying Post.
Exeter Flying Post – 10 April 1861
Another reference to his upcoming hearing at the county court at first seemed identical to the notice in the London Gazette EXCEPT, it claims he was a journeyman baker in Chulmleigh – this may be another lead or a Victorian typo. (The London Gazette referred to him as ‘Journey-man Butcher’, which is more likely).
More importantly, upon rereading, I noticed that it mentioned George was “to be holden at the Castle of Exeter”. This could explain why he was not in the County Gaol on the 1861 census! Census night was 7 April 1861 – this excerpt was from the 10 April 1861 edition of the newspaper.
The next ‘clipping’ concluded what must have been a very difficult time in my ancestor’s life.
The insolvent was supported by Mr. Laidman, and, being unopposed, he was declared entitled to the benefit of the act, and ordered to be discharged.
I am aware that the laws surrounding bankruptcy changed in 1861 but if anyone can explain simply to me what the change was, I would love to know. I would also like to know what being supported by someone meant. I have a feeling, old George was quite lucky to have his case heard in this particular year.
Exeter Flying Post – 24 April 1861
Next steps:
Search the 1861 census for ‘the Castle’ and its inmates
For a long time, I’d been searching for one of my WREFORD ancestors on the 1861 census without luck.
On the night of the 1861 census, in the Devonshire village of Witheridge, 14 year old Drusilla was recorded as head of the household and her occupation as ‘Innkeeper ?’ (note the question mark). Also in the household were 4 siblings aged 7 and under (including my direct ancestor, Augusta Harriet), and a 17 year old servant, Emily Cheriton. Their parents, George and Harriet, were nowhere to be seen.
Wreford Family on 1861 Census – Witheridge
I knew they weren’t dead, as George Wreford and his family emigrated to New Zealand in 1864. So where were they? For years this question has been unanswered until only a few days ago, when I happened to do a random search on The London Gazette website.
London Gazette, April 9, 1861
COURT FOR RELIEF OF INSOLVENT DEBTORS.
…
Before the Judge of the County Court of Devonshire, holden at Exeter, on
Tuesday the 23rd day of April, 1861. George Wreford, late of Witheridge, in the county of Devon, Inkeeper, Butcher, and Farmer, also farming an estate at Tiverton, in the same county, previously of Withley Goodman Farm, in Tiverton aforesaid, Farmer and Butcher, formerly of Chulmleigh, Devon, Journey-man Butcher.
A deeper look at the search results yielded:
COURT FOR RELIEF OF INSOLVENT DEBTORS.
…
ORDERS have been made, vesting in the Provisional
Assignee the Estates and Effects of the following Persons: On their own Petitions.
… George Wreford, late of Witheridge, Devonshire, Innkeeper, Butcher, and Farmer.—In the Gaol
of Exeter.
(London Gazette, March 26, 1861)
So there he was – bankrupt and in jail.
The census was taken for the night of April 6th, 1861. This now explains where George was that night. I presume his wife, Harriet had travelled to Exeter with him for moral support.
I now know where to look for them. This is brilliant, except my searches of the census are still not bearing fruit. My next step is to find ‘Exeter Gaol’ on the census and browse from there.
My first post of this blog mentioned that there were gypsies in the family. The gypsies are part of my husband’s maternal side and there’s been a bit of a breakthrough.
Carnation LOVELL was the daughter of Maria ANSLOW and Matthew LOVELL. She can be found on the 1891 census as a baby in a gypsy tent under Porkus Bridge (probably Porkets or Portius Bridge), Darlaston. They appeared to be travelling with 3 other families, all with the surname, Smith.
By 1901, Maria had taken up with a new man, Eli FLETCHER (whom she eventually wed legally in 1908). It has been very difficult to find other records of Carnation’s father, Matthew.
Matthew died in Bloxwich, 1896 and the earliest record I have with him, is his son’s birth certificate in 1883. I have not been able to locate him on any other censuses. Part of the problem appears to be the interchangeability of gypsy names. However, a wall may about to be broken down. I received an email from a fellow researcher (my mother-in-law’s cousin) saying that an author has contacted her about a book he has written concerning Matthew’s great grandparents. I can’t wait!
I found out last year that I have convict blood coursing through these law-abiding veins.
Birmingham Quarter Session Records book
Alice Ann WHITE was born in Victoria, Australia in 1860. Her parents names on the birth certificate left no clues that both her parents were actually freed convicts. The only reference to their previous life was that both of their birthplaces were recorded as Birmingham. Now, Birmingham’s a big place – George Allen WHITE and Elizabeth ALLEN are not unusual names, so I was unable to confidently identify my George and Elizabeth from the many others in the IGI.
After a bit of digging about and requests for information online, a helpful person contacted me to say they had located George and Elizabeth’s marriage in 1845 but it was actually in Tasmania! That’s pretty much where my research into this family stayed for some time.
To cut a very, long story short, I discovered that both had been transported to Australia for various thefts – George was convicted in Bedford 1834 and Elizabeth in Birmingham 1842.
I went to the Birmingham Central Library archives last week to do a bit more research into this.
I looked in the Quarter Session Records and found the record of Elizabeth’s sentence of transportation. I was surprised to see it also mentioned that she had been previously convicted of felony.
‘Oh, well’, I thought, ‘yet another mystery I may never know the answer to’.
However, when I photographed the index page, I noticed Elizabeth Allen listed again.
The entry stated that Elizabeth had been sentenced to three months hard labour for stealing a brooch and some earrings from Ann Rock.
She obviously didn’t learn her lesson – it was less than three months after her release when she stole a shawl from Michael Kelly and was transported to the colonies for 10 years.
‘Twas a hard life in them days…
Edit: I’ve discovered that if the record image you want is not online, the Archives Office of Tasmania has a free record service – I’ve now requested a copy of the original page with George and Elizabeth’s Convict Application to Marry.
