AUDLEY & DISTRICT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

Feb 2005

REVIEW OF ‘CLOCK MAKERS OF NEWCASTLE’

Mr Treherne started with a brief history of chronology. In early years time had little meaning with the agricultural labourers of Audley working in the daylight hours. Sundials came into use and eventually by the 15^th century most churches had clocks that, while having few dials, struck the hours. By the 19^th century precision timing was essential to manage such activities as the railway network.

Although this talk had the nominal title Clock Makers of Newcastle, Alan Treherne spent the opening part of the evening talking about Gabriel Smith, an important clock maker, who was born in Audley and worked in Barthomley before moving to Nantwich. Unusually he was able to talk through the genealogy of the family. Gabriel Smith was the son of Humphrey Smith. He was born in 1656 and spent some time at Knowle End farm before moving to Barthomley. He was a very talented engineer, a millwright and made most of the clocks by himself. He also cast church bells. Betley Church clock, made by Grabriel Smith is in Nantwich Museum.

Other Audley clock makers mentioned by Mr Treherne were:

·         Thomas Wareham, who worked on Betley Church clock between 1727 and 1773,

·         George Wareham, his son,

·         Randall Bagnall who signed clocks at Talke in 1722

Finally Mr Treherne moved onto the development of the Newcastle clock making industry and was able to state that at certain times the number of clock movements made in Newcastle was greater than anywhere else in the country.

A range of superb photographs of clocks and their movements illustrated the talk. Altogether this was a fascinating talk, well presented by a man clearly in complete control of his topic and enjoyed by an audience of some 40 members and guests.  

SNIPPETS

·         Key dates for Parish Registers

1538     Thomas Cromwell, Vicar-General to Henry VIII, issued an injunction ordering every parson, vicar or curate to keep a record of all the baptisms, marriages and burials he officiated at in his parish. Not all ministers complied with the order and those that did made the entries on loose sheets of paper. Consequently few entries have survived from this date.

1597     Provincial Constitution of Canterbury ordered registers to be kept on parchment and all earlier registers to be transcribed. Unfortunately due to the wording of the act many clergymen only copied entries from 1558, when Elizabeth I had enforced the earlier injunction, so many more registers begin from this date. The act also provided for transcripts to be sent annually to the Bishop of the Diocese, subsequently known as Bishops' Transcripts. These are kept at Lichfield Joint Record Office.

1648-1660 During the Commonwealth many clergymen were forced to leave their parishes, including John Kelsall at Audley, and although some took their registers with them, many were damaged or destroyed when Cromwellian soldiers plundered the churches. Therefore many parish registers are defective during the 1650s. Under an act passed in 1653 Justices of the Peace were appointed to perform civil marriages, Edward Eardley is recorded at both Audley and Betley, with a parish clerk to record all births, marriages and deaths. Custody of the registers and solemnisation of marriage was taken away from the ministers of the church until the legislation was revoked in 1660.

1678     Burial in Woollen Act was passed. Designed to benefit the woollen industry, all dead were to be buried in woollen shrouds with a fine imposed for non-compliance. Repealed in 1814, it had long since fallen into disuse.

1752     The Gregorian calendar was introduced. Until 1752 the year began on 25 March and ended on 24 March following the Julian calendar. From 1752 the year began on 1 January and ended on 31 December as it still does today.

1754     Following Hardwicke's Marriage Act of 1753 more detailed marriage entries were written onto specially printed forms in separate bound volumes. Before then it was common for all entries to appear in the same register. The act was designed to prevent clandestine marriages occurring but only covered England and Wales. Not all churches were licensed.

1812     Under George Rose's Act the incumbent was required to keep two specially printed registers to record baptisms and burials in addition to the marriage registers introduced by Hardwicke's Act. Baptism entries were now to include names, addresses and occupations of parents, and the burial entries to include age, address and occupation of the deceased.

1837 On 1 July Civil Registration began which required all births, marriages and deaths to be registered but in the early years some events were not registered. Baptisms, marriages and burials were still recorded by the church.

• The 1841 Census.

 Don’t forget – adult ages (over 15) were rounded down! This means that a person recorded, as 44 in 1851 would have their age rounded down to 30 in 1841.

ANGELA’S CORNER No. 3

Audley Land Taxes.

If your ancestor was an owner or occupier of a house or land, you may find him or her in the Audley Land Taxes from 1782 to approximately 1832. They are on film at Stafford Record Office and listed under the following:

These are additional details of some of the people including my Audley relatives.

Audley

John Dean was a shopkeeper. He is an ancestor of Helen Waller a member of the Audley Family History Society who lives in Australia.

Eardleyend

Joseph Dean was a farmer and maltster, my fourth great grandfather. He was the tenant farmer at Cross Farm Eardley End and wrote his will there in 1827.

Knowlend

Joseph Dean was my fifth great grandfather. He farmed Knowlend farm from approximately 1770, until his death in 1788. He wrote his will there in 1788. Following his death, his wife Ellen Lindop continued to run the farm with the help of her two sons Joseph and George and her only daughter Mary until she died in 1824. Then her grandson whom I suspect was Mary’s son ran the farm until his death in 1837.

Halmarend

My seventh great grandfather was also a Joseph Dean. He lived to be a very old man but he had died before the beginning of the records of these Land Taxes. The farm on which he was a Tenant farmer was called Craddocks Moss. Joseph’s landlord was John Craddock of Betley Court. There is evidence that Joseph began farming at Craddocks Moss around 1724/1725. He did not leave a will but signed that of John Craddock. He was also asked by John Craddock to be an underbearer at his funeral in 1758. I suspect that the man who was at Craddocks Moss farm in 1796 was Thomas Hodkins. The Wilson family were there by 1841.