My 3xgreat grandfather David Windebank was baptised in Basildon, Berkshire, in 1827, son of Jeremiah Windebank and his wife Eleanor (transcript only available, no image found). The name of his father is confirmed on his marriage certificate (Baptist Meeting House, Reading) of 1849: Jeremiah Windebank, Labourer.
A Jeremiah Windebank, with wife Eleanor, appears at Basildon Park, Berkshire, in the 1841 census. Son David Windebank was living elsewhere in Basildon, aged 14, apprenticed to Edward Parsons, Smith.
Jeremiah is aged 55 (b1786). He states that he wasn’t
born in the county [of Berkshire]. Rather than a Labourer, he is working as a
Publican, although the address in the census doesn’t indicate which pub he ran.
His wife Eleanor is 45, also born out of the county. They have four presumed
children living at home with them at the time: James, 20; Sarah, 15; Georgiana,
12 and ten year old Benjamin.
The family also appear in the 1851 census, this time
at the more precise address of Green Road, Basildon. Jeremiah Windebank,
now aged 69 (b1782?), is still working as a Licensed Victualler. His birthplace
is given as Empshott, Hants. Visiting him and his wife on census night is son
William, aged 29, a Game Keeper, his wife Lavinia, and their children Jeremiah,
Eleanor and Caroline. Their younger daughter Georgiana is also in the household
on census night, aged 21, with her husband Thomas Hands, a Veterinary Surgeon
from Worcestershire. If son William was born around 1819, this suggests that Jeremiah
Windebank married his wife Eleanor before then.
A search at The Genealogist, FindMyPast and FamilySearch
for a marriage of a Jeremiah Windebank between 1800 and 1819 reveals two
results:
15
August 1810, Basildon, Berkshire: Jeremiah Windebank, widower, to Ellanor
Wilson, spinster
12
June 1806, Hambledon, Hampshire: Jeremiah Windebank, to Lydia Bowser (or
Bonse).
It seems that Jeremiah’s marriage to Ellanor
Wilson was his second. His first marriage probably took place when his
bride, Lydia Bowser – also transcribed as Bonse - was around three months
pregnant. There is a baptism record for Jeremiah Windowbank (sic), son of
Jeremiah and Lydia, on 17 January 1808, in Petersfield, Hampshire. His date of
birth on the transcript at FindMyPast is shown as 23 December 1806, six
months after his parents married; his mother, Lydia Windebank, was buried on 15
December 1806 in East Worldham, Hants, so this is likely to be a transcription
error or, when his father had his son by his first wife baptised at the age of
two years, he didn’t remember precisely the date his son had been born.
Sadly, we know nothing about the young Jeremiah Windebank’s
life; he died before the 1841 census was taken, his burial record on 24 August
1832 found at Ancestry, born 1806 (aged 26). He would have been about
four years old when his father married for a second time.
The BT transcript for the marriage of Jeremiah Windebank and
Eleanor Wilson at Basildon in Berkshire clearly shows that he was a
widower:
How or why Jeremiah Windebank travelled from Empshott, Hants, where he was born, to Hambledon, where he married for the first time, then East Worldham, where his wife died, Petersfield, where his son was baptised, and then five years later to Basildon in Berkshire, is not known, although presumably he was looking for work. Whether he took his young son with him is also not known, although he was clearly in Petersfield with him at the time of his baptism in 1808. Empshott to Hambledon is a distance of 25 miles; Petersfield is mid-way between the two. From there it is some 45 miles to Basildon in Berkshire.
A trawl through the baptism records on the various family
history sites suggest that Jeremiah Windebank and his wife Eleanor
Wilson had at least 13 children between 1811, the year after their
marriage, and 1833. Unfortunately there do not appear to be any images of their
baptisms available online, only transcripts, so we do not know any more about
their parents’ place of residence or their father’s occupation during that
time.
We do know, however, that he was a publican at the time of the
1841-1851 censuses. Although the name of the licensed premises is not
given in the censuses, it appears from other records that he ran the Red Lion
in Upper Basildon for some years.
The Reading Mercury at The British Newspaper Archive
has a short advertisement for a Pigeon Shoot at the inn in 1832:
The prize of a ‘Fat Hog’ would no doubt have attracted many potential sharp-shooters.
In 1838, he is shown as paying tithes for the Red Lion Inn
at Upper Basildon, in tithe records at The Genealogist:
As well as the Inn, he is also occupying other property and
land owned by Sir Francis Sykes, including Arable land and two Pightles, and a
homestead including garden and stable yard. Sykes was the owner of Basildon Park, the
country mansion built for his grandfather the first baronet. By the 1830s, the family’s
fortunes were seriously compromised, and the house and estate was sold in the
same year as this tithe record, to James Morrison, a Hampshire-born self-made millionaire
(Wikipedia).
Whether this is the same as the Red Lion, renamed, is not clear, although another directory listing in 1854 shows Jeremiah Windebank back at the helm of the latter, so perhaps they were two different establishments.
There is still a Red Lion pub at Aldworth
Road, Upper Basildon, described as a ‘typical countryside pub’. Google
street view shows it as a pleasant-looking roadside inn.
The Morrisons Arms – if it was indeed a separate
establishment – seems to have made no mark on the Internet.
As well as organising the pigeon shoot at the Red Lion in
1832, it seems that Jeremiah Windebank may also have fulfilled the
position of gamekeeper, as FindMyPast’s collection from the British
Newspaper Archive has several notices from 1826 to 1834 confirming the
appointment of Jeremiah Windebank as licensed gamekeeper at Basildon, by
Sir Francis Sykes. The first, in 1826, is from the Berkshire Chronicle and
headed ‘Game Duty List III – List of persons who have obtained Gamekeepers’
certificates (A and B) at the rate of one pound five shillings each’. His name
and the same sponsor feature under the same heading in subsequent years, including
this from the Reading Mercury of 1834:
Jeremiah Windebank died aged 74 on 1 March 1856, at Basildon, of ‘Age and Debility, four months certified’ according to his deathcertificate.
He was still described as an Innkeeper. The informant was Martha Colman. It is not known who she was. He was buried at St Bartholomew’s, Basildon, on 6 March 1856.
In the 1841-1851 censuses, his year of birth varies
from 1782 to 1786; his death certificate suggests a birth year of 1782. There
is a baptism transcript for a ‘J son of Jno and Ann Windebank’ in Empshott on
16 August 1780, at FindMyPast; the same record transcribed at FreeREG
has the first name as Jeremiah. Assuming that he was born in the same
year, this would fit with his age at death of 74 years (actually closer to 75).
There is a slight anomaly in the occupation(s) of Jeremiah
Windebank recorded in different records. On his son David Windebank’s
marriage certificate of 1849, he is described as a Labourer. By then, other
records show that he was licensee of The Red Lion and/or The Morrison’s Arms, and
was also a licensed gamekeeper. Several of Jeremiah Windebank’s sons
became Blacksmiths (like David) or gamekeepers, like their father. Perhaps
his son wished to keep his father’s occupation quiet (he married away from
Basildon, in Reading, at the Baptist Meeting house, so perhaps his bride’s family
were temperance supporters?). I have not found another likely Jeremiah Windebank (including name variants), so far.
For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view
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