Too Many People Called Mary
A recent visitor to the area around Grasby was Jane POTTER from Grantham who was looking for evidence of her ancestors. The family it is said have come from ‘who knows where’ and in the main at the end of their lives came to be buried in the parish of Searby. Jane’s problem at the moment is the lack of data on the parents of the Searby family, Joseph & Mary SMALL. By 1881 only two of the offspring are in evidence, neither of whom live in Searby and Joseph & Mary have been dead for some time. Going back a further 20 years to 1861 we have a more successful search. Living in Howsham Lane we find Joseph & Mary. Joseph the Grocer is born in Northampton and Mary comes from Barrow in Lincolnshire. Mary is the younger of the two by 15 years and is listed as being born in 1808 and so one must assume that she would not get married until she was at least 15 years old in 1823. However the first baptism for the family is found to be in the Searby register that of son William in 1820 when, according to the dates in the 1861 census, Mary is only 12 years old. I suggest that the register is correct with the year as they are unlikely to get the date wrong when filling it in. therefore it must be the census. The burial register has two entries for persons with the name Mary SMALL. The first is for Mary aged 40 buried in 1829 and the second in 1870 aged 65 so it is conceivable that either could be the wife of Joseph. A search through the 1851 census or the marriage might give a pointer to which of these is the right one, it is possible that one might be the sister of Joseph. The origin of SMALL could be from the diminutive size of its original holder. The Old English word smael meant someone that was small slender or thin.
Carol BATTY has written to me. Her father comes from Yorkshire and wants to know the background of her maiden name JESSOP. The Jessop name can be found dotted throughout the county but there is now doubt that this is a Yorkshire name through and through. The reason that this surname is JESSOP is entirely due to the fact that it is a Yorkshire name, and that the Yorkshire accent has altered the name JOSEPH to the spelling JESSOP. Simple isn’t it. Oddly enough there is a similar origin for Carol’s surname. Not many of the surnames that have a present day derogatory meaning started life as such. One only has to think of the present day use of the word that has been hijacked to point out sexual orientation – gay. BATTY comes from the pet form of the Christian name Bartholomew and its short version Batt.
Bits and Bobs
Extracts relating to the operation of the Poor-laws. - Printed in the year 1833. - HOLBEACH, LINCOLNSHIRE. Informants, the Overseer and Master of the Workhouse. Many illegitimate children; ten or twelve every year; bastards increasing; order from 1s. to 2s. 6d. and above,—depends on the circumstances of the father. An unmarried girl, upon leaving the workhouse after her fourth .confinement, said "Well, if I have another child, 1 shall draw a good sum from the parish. and with what I can earn myself, shall be better off than any married woman in the parish;" and the master added, that she had met with the good luck she hoped for, as she told him, a short time before I was at Holbeach, that she was with child I asked him what she had for each child ? He answered 2s; And that women in that neighbourhood could easily earn 5s a week all the year through. Thus she will have 15s a week.
This book can be accessed in the Google books section on line along with thousands of other that mention Lincolnshire.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Distant Research
Long Distance Research
Francis PAYNE from New Zealand is rather stating the obvious when he says that he finds it rather difficult to carry out research prior to the 1841 census and the 1837 cut-off point for registration of BMD from a position 12,000 miles away.
WROOT is well known to the people of Lincolnshire being a place name in the Epworth area. It is rather a nice touch that the family story is that it came over with the Dutch and drainage and I must admit it does look rather Dutch in nature but the answer is much earlier than this. The name originates by the village being in the marshes and the Dutch did carry out a lot of work in this area. The Old English word wrot was a trunk or resembling a pig’s snout and was a spit of land, a headland in the marsh.
A second placename in the family is that of WADSLEY. This is a parish in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The -LEY in this instance is a clearing in the woods belonging to Wadda.
A member of the WROOT families in Long Sutton married a BETTINSON from Flintham, Notts but the BETTINSON name originates much further south. In Essex around 1285 could be found an entry in the Feet of Fines of Adam le fit BETUN. It might have been this Adam the son of BETUN that regularised the name to BETUNSON which eventually became BETTINSON.
The FamilyTreeDNA site asks “Are all TOYNBEES related?” This site is using DNA to find the origins of families. This rare surname originated in the county of Lincolnshire, but many TOYNBEES emigrated from the 18th century onward and there are now TOYNBEES all over the world. The most famous of this family is the historian Arnold J. TOYNBEE (1889-1975). The variations of the name also turn up as TOINBY and TENBY and there might even be a link in to TUMBY. This is most likely a place name from the same area as one of the TOYNTON parishes. The parishes get their name from the fact that the TUN belonged to someone with a name that became TOYN and no doubt it was the same forename that owned the homestead in TOYN-BY.
Last but not least is VERDEN. Another continental sounding name and another placename. The English Channel, is also known as La Manche and the district in France with this name is the home of the parish of Verdun. The surname can be found in Buckinghamshire soon after the Norman Conquest with Bertrannus de VERDUNO being listed as owning land.
Bits and Bobs
While looking for a bit for Bits & Bobs for this week I found the site www.victorianweb.org and if you are interested in how some of your ancestors lived then take a look. It may be American spelling but it’s well researched for all that. The Speenhamland allowance scale enacted in 1795 effectively set a floor on the income of laborers according to the price of bread. When the gallon loaf cost 1s, the laborer was to have a weekly income of 3s for himself. The per pound cost of bread at 1s/gallon is 12d / 8.6875 pounds. Weekly wages of 3s are equal to 36p / 7 days or 5.14 /day. Dividing wages by the cost of bread gives 5.14 /day / 1.38 d/pound = 3.72 pounds of bread per day for a single laborer. This is the Speenhamland allowance. As a pound of bread provides about 1100 calories, the allowance gave the laborer a total of 4100 calories per day. An agricultural laborer doing 8-10 hours of vigorous work can easily require 3000 calories/day. It is evident that the Speenhamland allowance provided just above the bare means of subsistence. The Speenhamland scale also provided an allowance for family members. For a laborer, his wife, and two children, the weekly allowance was set at 7s 6d. Performing the above calculation for the family gives 90d/week / 7 days/week / 1.38 d/pound / 4 persons = 2.33 pounds of bread per day per person for the family of four.
Francis PAYNE from New Zealand is rather stating the obvious when he says that he finds it rather difficult to carry out research prior to the 1841 census and the 1837 cut-off point for registration of BMD from a position 12,000 miles away.
WROOT is well known to the people of Lincolnshire being a place name in the Epworth area. It is rather a nice touch that the family story is that it came over with the Dutch and drainage and I must admit it does look rather Dutch in nature but the answer is much earlier than this. The name originates by the village being in the marshes and the Dutch did carry out a lot of work in this area. The Old English word wrot was a trunk or resembling a pig’s snout and was a spit of land, a headland in the marsh.
A second placename in the family is that of WADSLEY. This is a parish in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The -LEY in this instance is a clearing in the woods belonging to Wadda.
A member of the WROOT families in Long Sutton married a BETTINSON from Flintham, Notts but the BETTINSON name originates much further south. In Essex around 1285 could be found an entry in the Feet of Fines of Adam le fit BETUN. It might have been this Adam the son of BETUN that regularised the name to BETUNSON which eventually became BETTINSON.
The FamilyTreeDNA site asks “Are all TOYNBEES related?” This site is using DNA to find the origins of families. This rare surname originated in the county of Lincolnshire, but many TOYNBEES emigrated from the 18th century onward and there are now TOYNBEES all over the world. The most famous of this family is the historian Arnold J. TOYNBEE (1889-1975). The variations of the name also turn up as TOINBY and TENBY and there might even be a link in to TUMBY. This is most likely a place name from the same area as one of the TOYNTON parishes. The parishes get their name from the fact that the TUN belonged to someone with a name that became TOYN and no doubt it was the same forename that owned the homestead in TOYN-BY.
Last but not least is VERDEN. Another continental sounding name and another placename. The English Channel, is also known as La Manche and the district in France with this name is the home of the parish of Verdun. The surname can be found in Buckinghamshire soon after the Norman Conquest with Bertrannus de VERDUNO being listed as owning land.
Bits and Bobs
While looking for a bit for Bits & Bobs for this week I found the site www.victorianweb.org and if you are interested in how some of your ancestors lived then take a look. It may be American spelling but it’s well researched for all that. The Speenhamland allowance scale enacted in 1795 effectively set a floor on the income of laborers according to the price of bread. When the gallon loaf cost 1s, the laborer was to have a weekly income of 3s for himself. The per pound cost of bread at 1s/gallon is 12d / 8.6875 pounds. Weekly wages of 3s are equal to 36p / 7 days or 5.14 /day. Dividing wages by the cost of bread gives 5.14 /day / 1.38 d/pound = 3.72 pounds of bread per day for a single laborer. This is the Speenhamland allowance. As a pound of bread provides about 1100 calories, the allowance gave the laborer a total of 4100 calories per day. An agricultural laborer doing 8-10 hours of vigorous work can easily require 3000 calories/day. It is evident that the Speenhamland allowance provided just above the bare means of subsistence. The Speenhamland scale also provided an allowance for family members. For a laborer, his wife, and two children, the weekly allowance was set at 7s 6d. Performing the above calculation for the family gives 90d/week / 7 days/week / 1.38 d/pound / 4 persons = 2.33 pounds of bread per day per person for the family of four.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Our Eleven Days
Still Waiting for Our Eleven Days
Have you ever wondered why the tax year starts on April 6th? The answer was posted on the internet the other day. The reason is primarily historical and has its origin in the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. During the 16th century is was calculated that the Julian calendar had lost nine days since its introduction in 46 BC. Most of Europe changed to the new, more accurate, Gregorian calendar in 1582, but England continued with the old one until September 1752 by which time the error had increased to 11 days. These 11 days were removed from the calendar altogether - September 2nd was then followed by September 14th which did not go down very well with the populace. There was rioting in the street to demand the return of the missing days. The government did not wish to lose 11 days tax revenue in that tax year, so the authorities tacked the missing days on at the end, which meant moving the beginning of the tax year from the 25 March, Lady Day, (which you will remember from a previous column was the year ending in the parish registers) to the 6 April.
Do you have a famous ancestor? Well the first place to find out if he/she is in the top echelons of ancestry the place to look is in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Due to a recent agreement with the library service it is now possible to use the ODNB www.oxforddnb.com from your home computer. The only requirement is that you have a library card. Enter the number with LIN in front of it and you then have access to 55000 biographies. The sort of thing you will find is LAMBERT, Daniel (1770–1809), the most corpulent man of his time in England, was the elder of two sons of a Daniel LAMBERT who had been huntsman to the earl of Stamford. He was born in Blue Boar Lane, Leicester, on 13 March 1770 and was apprenticed to Benjamin PATRICK of Messrs TAYLOR & Co., an engraving and die-sinking firm in Birmingham; but in 1788 he returned to live with his father, who was keeper of the bridewell in Leicester and Daniel succeeded to his fathers post in 1791. It was at this time that LAMBERT began to amass the bulk for which he was later to achieve fame. By 1793 he weighed 32 stone, despite his athletic enthusiasm for activities such as walking, swimming, and hunting. Moreover, he drank only water, and slept less than eight hours a day. He was at Cambridge in June 1809, and proceeded to Huntingdon and Stamford, where, according to a newspaper, he ‘attained the acme of mortal hugeness’. He died at the Waggon and Horses inn, 47 High Street, Stamford, on 21 June 1809. His coffin was built on two axles and four wheels and required 112 square feet of elm wood for its construction. His body was rolled down a gradual incline from the inn to the burial-ground of St Martin's, Stamford Baron. At his death he was 5 feet 11 inches in height, and weighed 52¾ stone (336 kg). If you can’t be bother to use the library access you can always buy your own copy and fill up 12 foot of shelving! A snip at £6500. The name LAMBERT was popularised during the 12th century and was likely to have been introduced from Flanders with the veneration of St Lambert. Its most probable origin is from the Old German word Lambert meaning land bright
Bits and Bobs
April 29th 1808 - If John PALIAN of Helpringham still intends to persist in calling himself a Quaker, he is desired to produce the Minute of the Monthly Meeting by which he was admitted into the Society, as without such a Minute of Admission, no person who was not born in the Society, can become a Member of it. By producing, or failing to produce this proof of his assertion, it may be known whether or not he is in reality such ´A Lover of Truth´ as he professes himself to be. The advertiser repeats that John PALIAN never is, nor never was a Member of the Society of Quakers.
Have you ever wondered why the tax year starts on April 6th? The answer was posted on the internet the other day. The reason is primarily historical and has its origin in the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. During the 16th century is was calculated that the Julian calendar had lost nine days since its introduction in 46 BC. Most of Europe changed to the new, more accurate, Gregorian calendar in 1582, but England continued with the old one until September 1752 by which time the error had increased to 11 days. These 11 days were removed from the calendar altogether - September 2nd was then followed by September 14th which did not go down very well with the populace. There was rioting in the street to demand the return of the missing days. The government did not wish to lose 11 days tax revenue in that tax year, so the authorities tacked the missing days on at the end, which meant moving the beginning of the tax year from the 25 March, Lady Day, (which you will remember from a previous column was the year ending in the parish registers) to the 6 April.
Do you have a famous ancestor? Well the first place to find out if he/she is in the top echelons of ancestry the place to look is in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Due to a recent agreement with the library service it is now possible to use the ODNB www.oxforddnb.com from your home computer. The only requirement is that you have a library card. Enter the number with LIN in front of it and you then have access to 55000 biographies. The sort of thing you will find is LAMBERT, Daniel (1770–1809), the most corpulent man of his time in England, was the elder of two sons of a Daniel LAMBERT who had been huntsman to the earl of Stamford. He was born in Blue Boar Lane, Leicester, on 13 March 1770 and was apprenticed to Benjamin PATRICK of Messrs TAYLOR & Co., an engraving and die-sinking firm in Birmingham; but in 1788 he returned to live with his father, who was keeper of the bridewell in Leicester and Daniel succeeded to his fathers post in 1791. It was at this time that LAMBERT began to amass the bulk for which he was later to achieve fame. By 1793 he weighed 32 stone, despite his athletic enthusiasm for activities such as walking, swimming, and hunting. Moreover, he drank only water, and slept less than eight hours a day. He was at Cambridge in June 1809, and proceeded to Huntingdon and Stamford, where, according to a newspaper, he ‘attained the acme of mortal hugeness’. He died at the Waggon and Horses inn, 47 High Street, Stamford, on 21 June 1809. His coffin was built on two axles and four wheels and required 112 square feet of elm wood for its construction. His body was rolled down a gradual incline from the inn to the burial-ground of St Martin's, Stamford Baron. At his death he was 5 feet 11 inches in height, and weighed 52¾ stone (336 kg). If you can’t be bother to use the library access you can always buy your own copy and fill up 12 foot of shelving! A snip at £6500. The name LAMBERT was popularised during the 12th century and was likely to have been introduced from Flanders with the veneration of St Lambert. Its most probable origin is from the Old German word Lambert meaning land bright
Bits and Bobs
April 29th 1808 - If John PALIAN of Helpringham still intends to persist in calling himself a Quaker, he is desired to produce the Minute of the Monthly Meeting by which he was admitted into the Society, as without such a Minute of Admission, no person who was not born in the Society, can become a Member of it. By producing, or failing to produce this proof of his assertion, it may be known whether or not he is in reality such ´A Lover of Truth´ as he professes himself to be. The advertiser repeats that John PALIAN never is, nor never was a Member of the Society of Quakers.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Its News
It’s News
Maddy TICKNER has found a relative amongst the reams of newspaper reports on the area surrounding Grasby that I have put onto my website. She would like to know if there are any more items out there on the DANBY family. The DANBY family came from Middle Rasen and it was of Elizabeth DANBYS suicide that the newspaper spoke of. Further information given was that her sister lived in Grasby and that she was staying there after leaving her employment at Audleby. The paper gives the verdict of insanity but today the condition would be seen as medical and appropriate drugs given. Newspapers have always been a good resource for family information and a second question Maddy asks is would they appear in any 17th century newspapers. Sadly the answer to this is no. The earliest continuous coverage begins in 1714 and is with the Stamford Mercury. This is listed as being historical and political observations of the transactions of Europe, together with remarks on trade 1714-1732, which later became the Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury. There were many others that had a short history and these can all be found listed via the GENUKI website. There is a link here to the newspaper library at Colindale and it is at Colindale that the details can be found. it is worth reading the different editions of old newspapers as the same incident is presented differently in accordance with the newspapers political affiliation. Much the same as today really.
There are other links to be found at the site. These are of work carried out be people of some of their local newspapers. This is the sort of thing you will find. 1896 - former Boston MP, Mr H.J. Farmer ATKINSON was now the owner of a 'Wicked Bible’, which was auctioned at Sotherbys, on March 3. Only 5 copies are known to exist. So called because the 'NOT' is left out of the 7th commandment. "You shall not commit adultery". In the main the focus is on all the articles with names in them that have been recorded.
The name TICKNER is supposed to come from a locational name. The Old English word twicen was a crossroads or fork in the road. Due to my lack of evidence I can’t ague with this but it does seem that there are a great many crossroads and forks in the road but very few TICKNER family members who were all concentrated in the Kent region in 1881.
DANBY on the other hand is very much of this area being from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. There are several parishes with Danby in the title. The Danby is listed in the Domesday Book as Danebi and is the BY or homestead belonging to the Dane. The others all have a river name attached to them as in Danby Wiske
Bits and Bobs
"Hull News" 23 April 1864 - ACCIDENTS. - On Wednesday, a man named CASS, in the employ of Mr DEBEER, Ropery Street, had his knee severely crushed by his rully passing over it, in Lister Street. - About the same time a youth named JOSEPH WHITE fell from a window in Dock Street, to the ground, a distance of twenty feet, and was most severely injured.
This is the first time that I have seen the word ‘rully’ used in a news item. It is still in use today with those of ancient Lincolnshire extraction carrying on the tradition of swapping constants around ie lorry to rully and signal to single.
Maddy TICKNER has found a relative amongst the reams of newspaper reports on the area surrounding Grasby that I have put onto my website. She would like to know if there are any more items out there on the DANBY family. The DANBY family came from Middle Rasen and it was of Elizabeth DANBYS suicide that the newspaper spoke of. Further information given was that her sister lived in Grasby and that she was staying there after leaving her employment at Audleby. The paper gives the verdict of insanity but today the condition would be seen as medical and appropriate drugs given. Newspapers have always been a good resource for family information and a second question Maddy asks is would they appear in any 17th century newspapers. Sadly the answer to this is no. The earliest continuous coverage begins in 1714 and is with the Stamford Mercury. This is listed as being historical and political observations of the transactions of Europe, together with remarks on trade 1714-1732, which later became the Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury. There were many others that had a short history and these can all be found listed via the GENUKI website. There is a link here to the newspaper library at Colindale and it is at Colindale that the details can be found. it is worth reading the different editions of old newspapers as the same incident is presented differently in accordance with the newspapers political affiliation. Much the same as today really.
There are other links to be found at the site. These are of work carried out be people of some of their local newspapers. This is the sort of thing you will find. 1896 - former Boston MP, Mr H.J. Farmer ATKINSON was now the owner of a 'Wicked Bible’, which was auctioned at Sotherbys, on March 3. Only 5 copies are known to exist. So called because the 'NOT' is left out of the 7th commandment. "You shall not commit adultery". In the main the focus is on all the articles with names in them that have been recorded.
The name TICKNER is supposed to come from a locational name. The Old English word twicen was a crossroads or fork in the road. Due to my lack of evidence I can’t ague with this but it does seem that there are a great many crossroads and forks in the road but very few TICKNER family members who were all concentrated in the Kent region in 1881.
DANBY on the other hand is very much of this area being from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. There are several parishes with Danby in the title. The Danby is listed in the Domesday Book as Danebi and is the BY or homestead belonging to the Dane. The others all have a river name attached to them as in Danby Wiske
Bits and Bobs
"Hull News" 23 April 1864 - ACCIDENTS. - On Wednesday, a man named CASS, in the employ of Mr DEBEER, Ropery Street, had his knee severely crushed by his rully passing over it, in Lister Street. - About the same time a youth named JOSEPH WHITE fell from a window in Dock Street, to the ground, a distance of twenty feet, and was most severely injured.
This is the first time that I have seen the word ‘rully’ used in a news item. It is still in use today with those of ancient Lincolnshire extraction carrying on the tradition of swapping constants around ie lorry to rully and signal to single.
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