01/02/2012
Today I have opened the world's first eBook gift shop at oldlondonbooks.co.uk
where you can send eBooks as a gift, to anyone, anywhere in the world, for any eReader.
This has slightly overshadowed the new news of the discovery of the fate of Charlotte HUNT,
baptised in Broome in 1797, who married William MORTON in 1823.
If you are related to any of the HUNTs or ISAACS' who worked in Spitalfields Market
in the late 19th and early 20th c have a look at this fabulous website.
There are some B&W photographs giving an impression of how it must have been.
19/10/2011
There were two George DILLEY's born in Clifton in 1884/5.
One is the son of Frederick & Ann Eliza (née BERRY ) DILLEY
the other is the son of William & Lucy (née ALLISON) DILLEY.
A visitor has pointed out that I had mixed them up, and the second one is not part of this tree.
The upside of this is that he very kindly found out for me why
Frances (Fanny) TOMPKINS (née LOCKLEY) was in Bedford County Gaol in 1871,
her husband, Thomas TOMPKINS, having been there almost 40 years before,
when he was sentenced to six weeks hard labour for stealing a Hen.
Fanny Tompkins, age 62, widow, 4 foot 11 inches, fresh complexion and dark hair,
debt 14s 4d, 14 days imprisonment, released 05/04/1871, Biggleswade County Court.
24/06/2011
After two years of hair-pulling frustration I have finally re-gained control of thehunthouse.net
which I first owned in 1998 and has now been in this form for over 10 years.
The site will stay with a dot com address but all the old links and emails now work again.
02/06/2011
After six months of planning, building, checking and more checking
I have opened my eBook Shop
with books about London, Epping Forest, the English countryside, Victorian recipes etc. etc.
for genealogists, anyone interested in English social history and fans of the obscure.
More titles will be added every month
This can also be reached via Old London Books.co.uk
08/04/2011
All of thehunthouse has moved to a Linux server because I need a MySQL database
and phpMyAdmin (don't ask) and this is not possible under Windows.
The site was down for a couple of days and so was my email.
If I did not reply to anyone please re-send.
12/01/2011
More information from the Buckinghamshire FHS about
William BURCH (1776-1857) who married Mary BULLOCK (1779-1823) in 1801
Death certificates and more decendants of
Richard SURRIDGE (1780-1876) who married Judith HOLLANDS (1782-1858) in 1804
Last year a huge amount of new information became available online.
This year I will be trying to cut down on the time I spend on the tree
because the bigger it gets the longer it takes to update and there are other things to do.
In particular, I have learned how to make eBooks to put on my new Kindle
and hope to make more.
Happy New Year
24/12/2010
Thomas Burton KNOW married Dinah SIDNEY on 7th December 1818
Their daughter, Dinah KNOW, married Joseph Leopold STEVENS on 13th February 1839
When their daughter, Ann Sophia STEVENS, married William SURRIDGE in 1862 her sister, Amelia, was a witness.
When Amelia married Henry Edward BLAND in 1865, William was a witness.
Amelia died aged 45 in 1892, presumably of exhaustion, having given birth to 17 children.
The KNOWs and STEVENS lived in Highgate, in the vicinity of the Flask, (the highest Pub in London)
where I have spent more than one New Year's Day recovering from the night before.
There was no running water in Highgate and the origins of the Pub are thought to be as a place where you
could buy a flask of water or ale and was not, apparently, well renowned for high quality.
On 28 August 1849 Dinah KNOW née SIDNEY died in Swains Lane of Cholera, as reported by husband Thomas.
A week later he also died of Cholera and daughter Dinah STEVENS followed a fortnight afterwards.
They are all buried in the Cemetery of St. James, Highgate.
Dinah's husband Joseph is never heard of again and may also have been a victim of the same foul water.
09/12/2010
I purchased a transcription of the Thames Watermen & Lightermen Apprenticeship Bindings from Trueflare because
Alsey HOWs father, her second husband, James GAYWOOD, and possibly her first husband, were all Watermen.
Alsey's sister, Caroline Sarah HOW, married Joseph CORPE in 1827
Joseph's apprenticeship had been reassigned in 1821 to James HOW, Caroline's father, and a dynasty was started.
At least four generations of CORPEs were Lightermen, later Stevedores and Dock Labourers
and for over 100 years they lived in and around Clarence Street, Rotherhithe, reproducing prodigiously.
Grandson Joseph William CORPE with his wife, Eliza Margaret REED, had 17 children over 25 years.
03/12/2010
Thank goodness for people with unusual names.
Daniel Cristall FOX (1803 - 1869) married Ann GAYWOOD (1809 - 1844) in 1829 at St. Mary, Rotherhithe
In 1851 and 1861 their daughter, Emma FOX, was living with Ann's brother, uncle John GAYWOOD
John, like his brother James, had been apprenticed as a Lighterman to his father, Richard GAYWOOD (1778 - 1852)
In 1844 Richard's second wife died (as did daughter Ann) and 3 months later he married Amelia BONE at St. Mary, Rotherhithe
Daniel Cristall FOX was a witness at the wedding and without his presence I would never have connected these GAYWOODs
27/10/2010
Two of the daughters of William BATCHELER (1774-1849) and Hannah CURD (1775-1861)
appear to have married William BOOTH, a Shepherd from Iden, Sussex.
Sarah Curd BATCHELER married him in 1835 but died in 1852.
Younger sister Elizabeth, already pregnant, then married him the following year.
Devon Family History Society Parish register transcriptions are now available on findmypast.
I have been able to find the parents of Ann HOLE (1809-1862) who married James HENLEY (1804-1895).
Their son, William Henry HENLEY, married Ellen WINGETT, whose mother is Ann WIDDICOMBE.
Buckinghamshire Family History Society have also been busy.
Although not yet available for publication, the Baptism and Marriage registers for Cuddington
are now included in their database and can be searched for a modest fee by their stalwart volunteers.
This has given me the first wife of Thomas BURCH (1803-1880) as Christiana HOW
plus his parents and paternal grandparents.
Serendipity then led me to look again at Alsey HOW (1805-1850)
- no relation to Christiana -
and I found her parents and six siblings in Rotherhithe.
All three of her brothers, named James after their father, died in infancy.
James HOW senior (1781-1825), like Alsey's husband, James GAYWOOD (1803-1852), was a Waterman at Greenwich.
During the Napoleonic Wars he might well have ferried Naval Officers to their ships moored in the Thames
and must have witnessed Lord Nelson's funeral procession to Westminster in 1806.
and I received this birthday card
01/10/2010
Ancestry have released an index to the National Probate Calendar for 1861 - 1941.
Full details of appointed Trustees or Administrators are given
but you need to apply to HM Courts service for copies of Wills.
Due to (quelle surprise) "an unexpected increase in demand" the waiting time is now over six weeks.
The first one I have received is James GAYWOOD (1836 - 1914) and it reveals,
in a rambling sort of a way, his
concern for the future of his family, some kind of rift with his son, William,
and the astonishing amount of money he made, considering his unfortunate childhood circumstances.
This led me to his great grandson, Flt. Lt. Richard James GAYWOOD (1926 - 1953)
who was killed in a Flying accident during an R.A.F. show in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia.
Also grandson George Albert GAYWOOD (1888 - 1916) Killed in Action during the Battle of the Somme.
The second, less exciting, Will is from 1880 by Susannah THIRTLE née HUNT widow of John THIRTLE.
Made three days before she died it leaves her entire estate to her unmarried sister, Charlotte HUNT,
who ran the grocery store in Broome, Norfolk and was the last remaining HUNT in the village.
23/08/2010
If you have ancestors from Broome, here are some old pictures.
13/08/2010
In order to prove a connection or follow an interesting story I sometimes stray off my "bloodline".
Fred TOMPKINS b 09/04/1875 in Leicester, son of William TOMPKINS and Sarah HARRIS,
is he Frederick John TOMPKINS who married Sarah Elizabeth FROST from Henlow in 1895?
I think he is, because in 1881 he is living with his parents in Leicester,
in 1891 he is living with, and apprenticed to, Master Bricklayer Joseph COBURN in Sandy, Beds.
Joseph is widowed, having been married to Sarah HARRIS's younger sister, Ann HARRIS.
Sarah and Ann's even younger sister, Emma, also widowed, is now Joseph's "Housekeeper".
By 1911 Joseph and Emma are "Married, for 20 years" and living next door to Frederick and Sarah TOMPKINS in Henlow.
From 1835 until 1907, when the Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Act was passed, it had been illegal to marry your sister in Law.
Frederick's brother, Albert b 1882 in Leicester, is another member of the lost generation.
As a Pioneer in the Royal Engineers he Died of Wounds during WW1 in France.
This investigation was prompted by an email from Alison whose hand written tree, found in the loft,
gives the marriage date of James Conquest TOMPKINS and Rebecca THOMPSON as 24th August 1826.
The transcription of Southill Parish Register that I have ends in 1812 so this is very welcome information.
Over 40 new TOMPKINS have been added, making it the most numerous surname in the tree.
15/07/2010
Eagle-eyed or technically minded readers may have noticed that thehunthouse.net has become thehunthouse.com
Similarly, maps.thehunthouse.net has become maps.thehunthouse.com
Nothing has changed except the name
You should have been automatically redirected to the right place
but at some point in the future the dot net site may disappear completely
12/07/2010
Emily Rebecca TOMPKINS, married Thomas William DISBREY in 1910.
He was lost at sea when HMS Derwent was mined and sunk off Le Havre on 2nd May 1917.
Emily then married James Thomas WILLISON in 1920, losing another two children in infancy.
26/06/2010
Descendants of William Henry HUNT (b1881) and Blanche Elizabeth CATMORE (b1876)
Finally found in the 1911 census where both were misspelled in the index.
Three of their six children had died in infancy.
The last known child was Thomas James HUNT (b1915) who married Evelyn May WERE (b1918) in 1936.
23/06/2010
According to Issue 18783 of The London Gazette, dated 11th March 1831,
"At the Court-House, at Winchester, in and for the County of Southampton,
on the 2nd day of April 1831, at Ten o'Clock in the Forenoon precisely."
John Gregory COTTELL, late of West Cowes in the Isle of Wight, Hants,
Plumber, Glazier and Painter, would be sued for bankruptcy.
20/06/2010
In February 1871 Sarah TOMPKINS (b1849) gave birth to illegitimate Harry Stanbridge TOMPKINS in Clifton.
Three months later local Bricklayer Henry STANBRIDGE stepped up to the Altar and married her.
Therein must lie a tale.
Meanwhile her Uncle, William TOMPKINS (b1848), had moved to Leicester where he married Comfort TILLEY in 1872.
Comfort died a year later giving birth to their first child, James Ernest Conquest TOMPKINS.
William returned briefly to Clifton and married Sarah HARRIS in Henlow in 1874.
William's brother, Daniel TOMPKINS (b1834), moved from Clifton to Morton in Lincolnshire and married local girl Harriet WILDBORE
She died in 1869 and their son James returned to live with Grandparents, James Conquest and Rebecca TOMPKINS in Clifton.
Daniel then married Elizabeth THORNTON in Morton in 1873.
In 1881 they are living three doors away from Daniel's nephew, Charles LINCOLN (b1860) who is married to Maria THORNTON.
Widowed again, 67 year old Daniel married 27 year old Ada SIMPSON in 1901.
28/04/2010
I have added a list and brief history of London Atlases
and a timeline to aid dating London Maps 1857 - 1965
to the London Miscellany section of my map site.
26/04/2010
I have been receiving some odd error messages from my webhost to the effect that
a few of the surname maps and the
surname links on this page are not working.
Some newer browsers seem to be less tolerant of cAPitaL letter errors
in links or spaces in filenames.
The problem is now solved unless you are trying to get here from a search engine
This will correct itself when their spiders next get here. If anyone finds a broken link please let me know.
19/03/2010
If you ever need to know the difference between an Urban District Council and a Rural District Council
or between a Metropolitan Borough and a Metropolitan Corporation - look no further.
Notes on the Administration of England and Wales will enlighten you.
Taken from the 1929 edition of a Philips' Atlas it contains a wealth of information
about the history and structure of the way that England and Wales are Governed and Administered.
12/01//2010
More new SURRIDGEs than you could shake a stick at,
taking the line back two more generations and forward via families in Eltham, Sydenham and Pimlico.
03/01//2010
John TOMPKINS born in Clifton, Beds in 1840, son of Thomas TOMPKINS and Frances LOCKLEY
(both parents had seen the inside of Bedford Gaol)
married Rebecca BARKER in 1864 and about 5 years later moved to Hendon, Middlesex.
amongst the first of many Cliftonians to migrate to North London in search of work.
One of his sons, Thomas, married Alice Bertha HUGHES in 1895. The rest of the HUGHES family then moved in.
Alice's widowed father, Alfred HUGHES, married sister Emma TOMPKINS in 1898.
Emma was 14 years his junior and had been paralysed since childhood.
This did not stop her having several children, including one illegitimately, Emily Rebecca TOMPKINS,
who married Thomas William DISBREY, a Stoker on the River Class Destroyer HMS Welland, in 1910.
In the meantime brother Joseph TOMPKINS had married Alice's sister, Rosetta HUGHES, in 1906.
01/12//2009
The Holy Grail, 6,000 London Street name changes
made between 1857-1929
12/11/2009
All living at 20 Gillespie Road, Islington in 1901 were:-
Alfred DILLEY and his wife Sarah Jane neé GODFREY, brother John DILLEY, nephew Frederick GODFREY
and half brother George Henry DILLEY with his wife Ellen neé GODFREY, who is Sarah Jane's sister.
The girls parents were both GODFREYs and their maternal grandmother is the delightfully named Lucy RAINBOW.
11/11/2009
From the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website
In Memory of
Private DANIEL DILLEY
9288, 2nd Bn., Northamptonshire Regiment
who died age 27
on 14 March 1915
Son of Fred and Ann E. Dilley, of Clifton, Beds.
Remembered with honour
I have not been able to find out what happened to his twin brother, Decimus DILLEY,
who was a soldier in 1911, stationed at Aldershot Barracks.
Their older brother, Albert, signed up in 1916. He was gassed in France and discharged as "unfit" with "50% capacity".
08/11/2009
On Christmas Day 1863, Elizabeth Rebecca Charlotte HUNT married James OLIVER at St. James, Shoreditch
35 other couples were also married in the Church that day.
Their granddaughter, Amelia Ethel OLIVER was baptised on 20th September 1896 at St. Jude, Bethnal Green
at the same time as her second cousin, Frederick John ISAACS, who died less than two years later.
Both are the great grandchildren of Jonathan HUNT and Mary Ann FISHER. Both families were living in Canrobert Street at the time.
03/11/2009
On Friday 12th November 1875 in Clifton, Bedfordshire, 66 children appear to have been Christened in the Village Church.
If anyone has an explanation for this outbreak of evangelicalism, I would be pleased to hear from them.
This discovery led me to find that Eliza WOOTTON (previously recorded as WOOTON) who married James DILLEY
is the sister of Jane WOOTTON who married Charles COPPERWAITE.
25/10/2009
I do not believe in conspiracy theories,
except of course that it cannot be coincidence that Grace Archer burned to death on 22 September 1955.
Just before findmypast announced that the 1911 Census would be available on subscription,
rather than ruinous pay-per-view,
Ancestry released the London records described below on 6th October.
So I had to have both.
All the 1911 records that I found in January and since are now included.
23/10/2009
Dozens of my ancestors from Clifton, Beds., were employed as "Straw Plaiters",
making 22 yard long plaits which were sewn into Hats in factories in Luton.
The straw was first split into uniform widths using Brass cutters.
I have several examples of these, found in local fields using metal detectors, presumably lost or discarded as broken.
In about 1840, John Austin of Tring, Hertfordshire, invented/manufactured a better splitter.
I have searched for years to find one, here it is.