AUDLEY & DISTRICT FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

Feb 2005

 

 

EDITORIAL

 

A new year and a new look for the newsletter.

2004 was an exceptional year for Family History with the BBC’s ‘Who do you think you are?’ raising unprecedented levels of interest and the society hopes to capitalize on this with new members and new the start of new projects.

2005 looks to be equally as good. The society is in very good position with:

·         over 150 members,

·         a comprehensive list of the records of the parish of Audley and it’s neighbours,

·         a very active committee, most of whom are generally on hand at meetings to assist with queries,

·         an extremely successful publication in the ‘Audley Historian’, which goes from strength to strength and,

·         a list of other, future publications, which is the envy of societies many times our size.

 

The Society recognizes that the newsletter is its principle form of communication with members, particularly those who cannot attend the research meetings or talks, and we are keen to make sure that it meets our member’s needs. To this end, suggestions, comments and observations with regards to the newsletter should be sent to the editor at MayerFam@aol.com and we will endeavour to accommodate them. To further help the society anyone who currently receives the newsletter by post and who has an e-mail address, please inform the editor and he will arrange to send the newsletter by email.

 

 

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 15th century most churches had clocks that, while having few dials, struck the hours. By the 19th 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.  

  

 

(POTENTIAL) NEW RECORDS AND TRANSCRIPTS

 

Parish Magazines

 

Parish magazines produce a wealth of information useful to family historians. Did your great-grandmother win prizes at Sunday school? Was she a teacher, or a member of the Girls Friendly Society? Did your great-grandfather play for the parish cricket team? Or did he win prizes in the parish flower show? Was he one of those who regularly sang in the village entertainments?  An entry about them in a parish magazine could give you an entirely new perspective on an ancestor, and open up potential new avenues of research. Alternatively, information in parish magazines about baptisms, marriages and burials might provide you with vital clues for your research.

The Society has access to an almost complete run of the Audley Parish Magazine from the 1920’s to the 1980’ s containing all sorts of snippets of information such as that detailed above.

The question is; would members be interested in buying a copy of these magazines in CD format?

 

 

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

 

Hello. My name is Angela Davies. I have been a member of the ‘Audley and District Family History Society’ for a number of years researching my Dean family who lived in this area from the 16th century. I hope that you will find some things of personnel interest in the topic below.

 

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:

Q 38 Audley Township

Q 39 Bignallend

Q 40 Eardleyend

Q 41 Halmarend

Q 42 Knowlend

Q 44 Parkend

Q 45 Talk.

 

Here are a few examples for the years 1796 and 1812 -

 

Property Owner

Occupier

Tax Paid

 

 

 

Q 38 Audley 1796

 

 

Rev. J Wright

Mr. White

£0:17s:2d

Mrs Rowley

John Dean

£1:10s:0d

Audley 1812

 

 

J F Boughey

John Lander

£1:15s:1d

Mr George Booth

Thomas Hilditch

£ 1:4s:8d

 

 

 

Q 39 Bignallend 1796

 

 

John Wedgewood Esq

John Turnock

£9:11s:5d

Mr. John Taylor

Samuel Riley

£0:4s:0d

Bignallend 1812

 

 

Trustees of Barthomley Poor House

James Madew

£3:8s:6d

John Wedgewood Esquire

W White

£1:6s:7d

 

 

 

Q 40 Eardleyend 1796

 

 

Smith Child Esq.

John Wolfe

£3:3s:6d

Samuel Wolfe

Samuel Wolfe

£3:17s:4d

Eardleyend 1812

 

 

Samuel Wolfe

Joseph Dean

£3:17s:4d

John Gray

William Cork

£0:10s:1d

 

 

 

Q 41 Halmarend 1796

 

 

Charles Tollett Hodkins

Thomas

£8:14s:4d

Sir Nigel Bower Greasley Bt.

George Parker

£0:14s:9d

Halmarend 1812

 

 

Owner Late William

Ralph Madew

£1:16s:0d

Burgess

 

 

Thomas Fletcher

William Hodkins

£16:14s:4d

 

 

 

Q42 Knowlend 1796

 

 

Thomas Fletcher

Joseph Dean

£6:19s:4d

Samuel White

Thomas Eaton

£2:13s:4d

TF Boughey

Joseph Dean

£6:19s:4d

Joseph Dean

Joseph Turner

£7:10s:0d

 

 

 

Q44 Parkend 1796

 

 

Thomas Fletcher Esq.

Richard Maddock

£4:6s:5d

W Gray

William Cork

£0:4s:6d

Parkend 1812

 

 

Mr. Samuel Wolfe

George Gray

£4:6s:6d

Thomas Fletcher

Richard Maddock

£5:5s:9d

 

 

 

Q45 Talk 1796

 

 

John E Heathcote

Richard Eardley

£6:7s:0d

Rev. Moreton

Moses Heath

£0:12s:0¼d

Talk 1812

 

 

Trustees of the late J Turnock

John T Turnock

£0:14s:3d

Rev. W R Hill

Moses Heath

£0:12s:11½d

 

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.