14.1 4Xgreat grandfather Jeremiah Windebank (1780-1856): A publican and gamekeeper, twice married

 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).

Ten years later, Jeremiah Winderbank (sic) is listed as the licensee of the ‘Morrisons Arms’ in Basildon in Kelly’s Directory (at Ancestry).

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

Jeremiah Windebank b1780: Death certificate 1856

 

1856 DEATH in the sub-district of Bucklebury in the Counties of Bucks and Oxon

First March 1856 Basildon
Jeremiah Windebank
Male
74 Years
Innkeeper
Age and debility four months certified
X the mark of Martha Coleman Present at Death Basildon
Fourth March 1856

Elsted Church (photos from May 2021)

On our way back from a short break in Sussex and Hampshire in May 2021, we stopped off at the village of Elsted to get a feel for the place my Hill ancestors lived for at least 100 years. 

The Church is Saxon, and stands in a churchyard up a lane from today's main route through the Village. There are a handful of properties and a pub, but most of the buildings look to have been built in the past 100-150 years, with little remaining from the mid-1750s when my 5xgreat grandfather Nicholas Hill was baptised in the Church. 

The Sussex Parish Churches website has further information about the church's long history and architecture. The church was closed at the time of our visit (thanks to Covid-19), but the website has some images of the interior. The following are photos I took of the exterior and a few of the graves (none of which mention my Ag. Lab. Hill ancestors, unsurprisingly). 

Elsted Church, Sussex

Tomb, Elsted Church, Sussex

Elsted Church, Sussex

Elsted Church, Sussex.

Inside the porch, however, were framed lists of the Church's known clergymen, from 'Ralph The Priest' from 1086, through some sixty further incumbents to the current Vicar, Mark Morton, appointed in 2011.

List of priests of Elsted Church, Sussex - 1086-1672

Priests of Elsted Church, Sussex, 1718-2011

The images also show the changes in the Church's fortunes as it merged with neighbouring parishes, and then was restored in its own right. 

12.2 Tracing the children of John Hill & Mary Kemp

My 4xgreat grandparents John Hill and Mary Kemp married in Elsted, Sussex, on 16 February 1801. Six months later, they baptised their eldest daughter Mary Hill on 23 August 1801, in Elsted parish church. The image of the record at FamilySearch (extract below) gives no other information about the parents:

Mary Hill next appears in the records when she would have been about 21 years old, marrying William Knowles in Elsted on 19 May 1823.

The image at FamilySearch (extract above) shows that William Knowles was able to sign his name, whereas his bride made ‘her mark’. The witnesses are James Kemp and Jemima Kemp, relatives of her mother Mary. Although married in Elsted, the couple seem to have moved to Hampshire soon afterwards. At the time of the 1841 census, they are living at Empshott, Hampshire, with seven children aged 2-15. Ten years later, in the 1851 census, their address is given as Lampolds, Empshott; eldest daughter Hannah Knowles, aged 27 (b1824) is unmarried and still at home. Her birthplace is shown as Newton Valence, Hants, whereas her six younger siblings were all born in Empshott. In both censuses, William’s main occupation is Agricultural Labourer, but in the 1851 census he is also ‘Parish Church Clerk’. They are living next door to Empshott Vicarage, where Yorkshireman Robert Tyndall is the Vicar. Their address in the 1861 census is given as Lambolls, Empshott, the vicarage no longer enumerated next door. William and Mary have only their unmarried son James Knowles, aged 24, at home with them on census night.

William Knowles’ death was registered in the first quarter of 1866. His widow Mary is living with her son Charles and his family next door to the Vicarage at Empshott at the time of the 1871 census. She is now aged 72 and her occupation is initially written as ‘Pauper Out Doors’, which has been crossed through and ‘Labourer’s widow’ inserted. She was presumably receiving some form of poor relief from the parish. By the end of 1871 she has died, her death registered in the last quarter of that year. Their children largely remained in Hampshire, the males working as Agricultural Labourers, Gardeners and Shepherds, the females marrying men undertaking similar work, apart from the youngest, Jane Knowles, born 1842, who built a career as a servant and nurse in the households of professional men – a magistrate, solicitor, estate agent – around the country, before heading her own household in Woolwich with boarders in 1901. By the 1911 census, she is living with her brother James, a Gardener, described as of ‘private means’ – presumably she was able to save from her earnings and taking in boarders over the years. She died in 1927, in her 80s.

The youngest of the three children of John Hill and Mary Kemp was James Hill, baptised at Elsted Church on 14 December 1806, ‘son of John Hill and Mary his wife’, as shown in the extract from the parish register at FamilySearch:

By the 1841 census he is still living at home with his parents in Elsted, working as an Agricultural Labourer. FamilySearch also has an image courtesy of West Sussex Record Office from the parish register at Elsted (extract below) showing that he married a year later, on 30 July 1842. His bride was Mary Parr, a Servant from nearby Harting, Sussex. Neither could write their names in the Register; their witnesses were John Collins and Mary Marsh. His father is shown as John Hill, Shepherd.

James and wife Mary are living in Elsted with his parents at the time of the 1861 census. An 11 year old boy (first name unclear, surname Parr) is described as ‘nephew’, but is presumably a relative of Mary Parr. Ten years later, the couple are living in Elsted, next door to older brother John Hill and his family, and have two visitors with the surname Parr, both born in ‘Middlesex, London’. James is working as a Shepherd. He died a year later, in 1862, aged 56. His widow died in 1872, and they do not appear to have had any children.

For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view