Too Many People Call

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.