18.5 4xgreat grand uncle John Sporne: Carrier from Burnham to Lynn, later Grocer

My 5xgreat grandparents Thomas Sporne and his wife Mary Beck had eight children, including my 4xgreat grandmother Margaret Sporne. They married in January 1796 in Burnham Westgate, Norfolk. Thomas Sporne died in 1827; when his widow died in 1860, she was described as ‘Widow of Thomas Sporne, Carrier from Burnham to Lynn and Norwich’ on her death certificate.

Their third child was John Sporne, born and baptised on 23 March 1802. Nothing else is heard of him until his marriage, aged about 23, on 10 November 1825, at nearby Stanhoe with Barwick. He married Susan Payne and their first child, Lucy, was baptised in October the following year. Her father is described as a ‘Carrier’ on her baptism record, so he presumably was in business with his own father. Sadly, Lucy died a month later, being buried at Burnham on 23 November 1826. 

His father, Thomas Sporne, was buried at Burnham on 14 November 1827. John had baptised his second child, a son, Henry, on 4 November that year, once again described as a Carrier. Although his older brother Thomas Sporne, a farmer, Church Warden and National School Master of Wormegay, was granted administration of their father’s estate at probate in 1828, perhaps John continued the business he had worked with his father previously. I hope to access a copy of the will at the Norfolk Record Office at some point.

Pigot’s Directory of 1830, at Ancestry, confirms that John Sporne continued to operate as a Carrier, both to Lynn Regis (Kings Lynn) and Norwich:

A similar notice appears in 1839, but by the time of the 1841 census, his occupation has changed to Grocer. He is living at Front Street, Burnham Westgate, with wife Susan and five children. They are still there ten years later, when John is described as ‘Shopkeeper’. By the time of the 1861 census, John and his family have moved to Shoreditch in London, where he is described as ‘General shopkeeper, unemployed’. Only their youngest son, Thomas, is living with them.

John Sporne died and was buried in Shoreditch in 1866. He and his wife Susan Payne had eight children in all, several of whom have interesting stories to follow, including Henry Sporne and George Sporne:

Henry Sporne: 1^st cousin x 5 removed: Stationer accused of embezzlement

My 4xgreat granduncle John Sporne and his wife had eight children. After their first child, Lucy, died aged just one month, their second child was son Henry, born in 1827. By 1851, he has moved to London and is working as a tin plate maker in Shoreditch. He married later that year, and had five children with wife Susan by 1861, when he is described as a Gas Meter Maker. They had two further children. Until the 1881 census, he is described as a Gas Engineer, but by the time his 18 year old daughter is baptised in 1883, he is working as a stationer.

On 1 May 1882, a Henry Sporne, aged 53 (b1829) was convicted at the Old Bailey of embezzlement of several sums of money ‘received on account of the justices of the peace of the city of London, and also unlawfully falsifying ‘certain books and accounts’. Ancestry has a record of him being sentenced at the Central Criminal Court to six months imprisonment without hard labour. This may or may not be the same Henry Sporne. On his daughter Henrietta’s baptism in 1883, his address is shown as 270 Fulham Road. The family is still there, and he is still working as a stationer, by the time of the 1891 census. Perhaps his work offered too great a temptation for embezzlement. In 1911, he has moved back to Norfolk, now a widower, living with his nephew Edward (Publican and Farmer) and family in Fincham. He died there in 1913, aged 86.

George Sporne, Miller. Married his uncle’s widow, ran away to NZ?

My 4xgreat granduncle John Sporne and his wife had eight children (my first cousins 5xremoved), nieces and nephews to my 4xgreat grandmother Margaret Sporne. Their third child was a son, George, born in 1831. Ten years later, he is living with his uncle Thomas Sporne, a Farmer of Wormegay, who later ran the local National School. At the time of the 1851 census, he is living with his parents and siblings in Burnham, apprenticed to what looks like ‘Miller’ on the census form. In 1854, he married Ann Addison in Fincham, Norfolk, and had four children with her between 1854 and 1860. In the 1861 census, now aged 30, he is a Miller in his own right, working out of Norfolk Mills - Shouldham Thorpe Fodderstone tower windmill. This page has a lengthy history of the mill and its occupiers, although it seems that George Sporne was only there a few short years between about 1858 and 1863. The property has been extensively restored and was up for sale as a four bedroom converted mill for £700k in August 2021. One of his descendants was in touch with me several years ago, and has made a number of helpful notes on the Norfolk Mills webpages.

In 1869, the post office directory lists him as ‘Miller’, Fincham, Downham. In the 1871 census, he is living at Mill Cottage, Fincham, working as a Miller and Baker, employing one man. He is now 39 years old and a widower with four children. His wife Ann died aged just 37, a few days before the census was taken. The ‘disability’ column includes a note that he is deaf – perhaps from the noise of the mills he’d been working since the age of 19 or so. On 13 March 1872, George married his Uncle Thomas’ widow, Martha née Wix/Wicks at St James, Shoreditch. Both are widowed, of full age (he was about 40, she a few years younger), and resident in Shoreditch at the time. He is a Miller, son of John Sporne, Grocer. Their witnesses are Maria Louisa Sporne and Charles Sporne; these are his younger brother and his wife. He and Martha returned to Norfolk and settled in Fincham, where they had two children, George Frederick (1873) and Albert Charles (1876).

On 12 October 1878, aged about 47, G Sporne, Miller & Baker, Fincham announces in the local newspaper that he has passed his business of 16 years to his two sons [by his first wife Ann] Thomas and John. The announcement was published a day after his daughter Harriet Eliza's death aged 17. A few months later, on 8 February 1879, according to the Norfolk Mills website, the Lynn Advertiser carried a notice to the effect that “I, George Sporne of Fincham do hereby give notice that I will not be answerable for any debts my wife Martha Sporne may contract after this date. George Sporne Witness William James Harris”. The website also suggests that George left Martha and their two young sons to emigrate to New Zealand in around 1879/80, which might tie in with the notice about her debts. He is still listed on the 1880 electoral roll at Fincham, occupying ‘freehold house and buildings, Downham Road’.

In the 1881 census, Martha Sporne is living at Fincham with her sons aged 7 and 4, described as married and head of household. At the time of the 1891 census, she is living next door to the National School from which she had been ejected after her first husband’s death in 1868. She is described as married and living on own means. Her two sons are still living with her (The Genealogist), the eldest, George Frederick, is a Pupil Teacher and the youngest, Albert Charles, a ‘monitor at school’ – so their mother’s previous contentious association (or, perhaps, her first husband’s) with the school does not seem to have done them any harm. She died at Fincham in 1899, aged 65.

I have not found any passenger list information for her miller husband online, but there is certainly a George Sporne listed at Eden, Auckland, New Zealand in electoral rolls and city directories from around 1887 onwards. In 1900, a year after his first wife died, he married Hannah Burton. They may, of course, have been together for some time but only married once he was free to do so. He died in 1903 and was buried at Waikamute Cemetery, Auckland, New Zealand, aged 72. He is described on the gravestone (BillionGraves) as ‘beloved husband of Hannah Sporne’. The stone is engraved with a touching verse:

“I saw him suffering day by day it caused me bitter grief to see him slowly pine away and could not give relief Not dead to me I loved him dear not lost but gone before He lives with me in memory dear and will for ever more”.

But what of the children George left behind in England?

His two eldest sons by his first wife, Thomas and John, took over the mill and bakery on their father’s retirement in 1878. The Norfolk Mills website suggests that they dissolved their partnership in 1891, but Thomas is still listed as a Baker at Fincham in a directory of 1896, and at the time of the 1901 census, is shown at ‘Steam Mills’ on Fincham Common, working as a Miller and Baker on his own account, which it seems he continued to do until the mid 1910s. By the 1911 census he is described as a Miller out of engagement. He died in 1921. His brother John moved to Bedfordshire, where he became a ‘furnace man at foundry (milling engineers), and died in 1928. Their youngest brother Edward also worked as a baker and miller, but in later life took up running his father-in-law’s pub, The Swan Inn, Fincham, alongside farming. He died in 1926.

His two sons from his second marriage to Martha Wix/Wicks were still very young when he (reportedly) left for a new life in New Zealand. Although Frederick George Sporne started work as a Pupil Teacher at the National School in Wormegay, by 1902 he has found his way to London, where he married Emmie Durham at Tooting on 26 July. On the marriage register he is described as a Clerk, son of George Sporne, deceased, of independent means. It seems that he was a Clerk in the Criminal Justice system, as he is described as such on his initiation to freemasonry (Putney Lodge), in 1902 (Ancestry). In fact, records at TNA show that he joined the police force in 1894 (MEPO 4/346/135):

George Frederick Sporne, warrant number 79777. Joined on 9 July 1894, and left on 19 April 1921. Last posted to CO (C4) Division as a PS.

His uncle Henry Sporne had worked as a ‘Stationer attached to the justice system’ and was found guilty of embezzlement in 1882, just over ten years before George joined the police.

By the time of the 1911 census, George and Emmie are still living in London, having been married for eight years and having had no children. He has risen from the post of Clerk to become a Detective in the Metropolitan Police. He resigned ten years later, having reached the rank of Serjeant First Class and was entitled to a healthy pension (Ancestry):

Perhaps his work was mainly behind a desk, as in the 1939 Register, having returned to Norfolk (Sheringham), he is described as ‘Police Officer Criminal Record Office New Scotland Yard, Retired’. He died in Sheringham in 1954.

His brother Alfred Charles Sporne was born in 1876 in Fincham, Norfolk. By the time of the 1891 census, he is living with his mother and brother in Wormegay, next door to the National School where his mother’s first husband was schoolmaster for many years. He is described as ‘monitor at school’. It seems that he spent his whole career as a school master. In the 1901 census he is single, aged 25, living at College Place, St Pancras/Camden Town, described as Certificated teacher. College Place was just a block away from boys, girls and infants schools on Camden Street – perhaps that is where he was working. Ten years later, he is still a bachelor, now working for London County Council as an Assistant Schoolmaster and living at 60 Paddington Street, London; once again, his address is a block or two away from a school complex behind St Marylebone Workhouse.

He stayed in Paddington until at least the mid-1920s according to city directories and phone books. By the 1939 Register, he has retired and is living – still single, now aged 63 – at 6 Upper Park Road, Hampstead. His occupation is given as ‘Schoolmaster Retired’. He died on 19 January 1965 at 11 Lyndhurst Gardens, London NW3. This is now the site of a Marie Curie hospice; Ordance Survey maps of the time show that there was a hospital there. His home address is shown as Flat B, 4 Upper Park Road, Hampstead. Probate on his estate of £1694 was granted to William David Sanders, Journalist. I don’t know how the two were connected, unless it was through education. There is a 2010 obituary for a David Sanders which could refer to the same man.

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

18.4 4xgreat granduncle Thomas Sporne: Contentious National School master of Norfolk

My 5xgreat grandparents Thomas Sporne and his wife MaryBeck had eight children, including my 4xgreat grandmother MargaretSporne. They married in January 1796 in Burnham Westgate, Norfolk, and their first child, a son named after his father, was baptised that December.

After Thomas Sporne was baptised on 11 December 1796, little is heard of him until the death of his father Thomas Sporne in 1827; he is the ‘Thomas Sporne, Farmer, Wormegay’ who was granted administration of the will in probate records of 1828.

He is found in the 1841 census, aged 45 (rounded down), at Wormegay Priory, occupation Farmer. Living with him is a George Sporne, aged 10 (who later turns out to be the son of his younger brother John), and a female servant, 45 year old Sarah Thomas. It seems that he was also the Church Warden at Wormegay, and taught at the National School. On 14 March 1844, he wrote a supportive letter to the Vicar with reference to an incident whereby the incumbent had refused to bury a child:

 (Source: Google books. Facts and tracts in evidence of the apathy, dereliction, and degradation of ... - William Henry Henslowe - Google Books)

Later in this tract, there is a letter – also from Thomas Sporne – defending his integrity and responding to the question in another letter of ‘Who is Tom Sporne?’

In 1847, he appears listed in the poll book for Wormegay. Google Books also has a pamphlet Reasons for not preaching in aid of “The National Society for the Education... - Google Books reproducing a sermon penned by ‘the Perpetual Curate’ of Wormegay and Tottenhill, William Henry Henslowe, published in 1850. This is deeply critical of Sporne’s conduct of the National School, and in particular its departure from teaching the scriptures. It seems that Thomas Sporne – amongst others – interrupted the delivery of the sermon at Tottenhill Church on Whitsunday May 19^th 1850, with a ‘violent brawl’. The preacher is fervently against both the concept of the National School and the person of the Schoolmaster (and School Mistress).

A year later, at the time of the 1851 census, he is still described as Schoolmaster at the National School in Wormegay. He is 57, single, and gives his birthplace as Burnham Westgate. Sarah Thomas, who was his servant ten years earlier, is now described as School Mistress. Living with them is his ‘housekeeper’, his widowed mother Mary Beck, born Burnham Overy. They have a ten-year old Boarder and schoolboy, Thomas Butter.

However, by 1856, Craven & Co’s Commercial Directory of Norfolk at Ancestry shows Thomas Sporne in Wormegay, working as a Tax Collector. By the 1861 census, he is listed at ‘Severalls’, aged 64, single and still a Tax Collector. Whether this means he had given up (or been sacked from) his role as National School Master is not clear. His housekeeper is now 26 year old Martha Wicks from Tottenhill.

The Norwich Mercury of 21 September 1861 carried a notice of sale of a ‘valuable and compact farm, in Wormegay … the property of Mr Thomas Sporne’. Perhaps his other roles kept him from farming the land himself, as it is in the occupation of ‘Mr Charles Edwards’. At the time of the 1861 census, a Charles Edwards was at Priory Cottage, ‘farmer of 40 acres’, with a large family.

Three years later, Thomas Sporne and his housekeeper Martha Wicks travelled to London, where they were married on 22 July 1864. Both are described as ‘of full age’ (Thomas would have been 68, his bride 29 years old). Perhaps they married in London to avoid wagging tongues and prying eyes in their home parish, not only because of the age difference, but also the local clergy’s opinion of Thomas in the matter of the National School.

On the marriage register of St James, Shoreditch, Thomas is described as a ‘Yeoman’ of Wormegay, son of Thomas Sporne (deceased), a Carrier. His bride’s father was Noah Wicks, a Farmer. Thomas signs the register with something of a flourish. Their witnesses are William Dudley and Esther ? – who also witnessed other weddings in the Church, so were perhaps not known to Thomas and Martha, but witnesses associated with the Church.

They were married by banns, so had presumably resided in London for a while before the marriage. Thomas’ brother John Sporne was living in Shoreditch at the time, so perhaps they stayed with him and his family prior to the wedding.

It seems that Thomas may have failed to sell his farm, as in September 1864, a few months after his marriage, he is declared bankrupt, still described as a Farmer (notice in The Suffolk Chronicle, 10 September 1864, at FindMyPast). The Lynn Advertiser of 13 August 1864 provides some detail:

At the time of the bankruptcy hearing, Thomas was a ‘prisoner for debt in Whitecross street’.

Whitecross street was actually a debtors’ prison in Islington, London. Thomas’ level of debt was high at £3000 (the equivalent today of around £390,000!). TNA has a record from Norfolk Record Office detailing the amount Thomas owed to a Mr Hoff for the mortgage on a property at Wormegay – possibly the farm (MC 73/28, 521 x 7).

The Chancery Suit mentioned is also at TNA. The catalogue record notes that it was prosecuted by William and Ann Groom against Thomas and John Sporne, and that additional defendants Aaron Wales and ‘Margaret his wife’ (née Margaret Sporne, Thomas’ sister), and a number of people with the surname Gant (cousins of the Wales’), were added in 1863 (C 16/139/G4). Thomas, John and Margaret Sporne’s sister Ann married a William Groom in 1826, so these are presumably the prosecutors in the case against her siblings.

Thomas’ role as Tax Collector was either a secondary one, or short-lived, as it is not mentioned in the notice of his death in the Bury and Norwich Post of 4 February 1868. 

He died at the National School, so may still have had a role in teaching, or managing the school. His previous roles as Farmer and Churchwarden are also mentioned. He was buried in Wormegay churchyard on 24 January 1868.

It seems that his widow, Martha Sporne, stayed on at the School, acting as School Mistress, until 1869. The Norfolk News at FindMyPast carried a report on 5 June that year that she had been given ten days’ notice to quit the premises by the School trustees as she held the position against their wishes.

A postscript to Thomas’ intriguing and contentious life is the marriage of his widow, Martha Wix/Wicks to his nephew George Sporne, a widower (son of his brother John Sporne), in London in 1872. But that’s anotherstory.

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

18.3 6xgreat grandparents: William Sporne & Anne Greaves, and Mary Beck

Thomas Sporne, my 5xgreat grandfather, was baptised on 13 May 1770, at Stanhoe with Barwick, Norfolk, son of William & Ann Sporne.

Stanhoe with Barwick is about four miles from Burnham Westgate, where he married Mary Beck of Burnham Overy in 1796, and ran a business as ‘Carrier from Burnham to Norwich and Lynn’, according to his widow’s death certificate.

William Sporne married Anne Greaves after banns on 20 January 1766 at Stanhoe with Barwick. Both were single; William Sporne was of the Parish of Docking, his bride from Stanhoe. Neither could sign their names. Their witnesses were John Belting? and James Kendall. The latter was witness to several other marriages recorded in the Register in the previous and subsequent years, so was probably a parish clerk or similar officer. Rather than make a X as his mark, he ‘signs’ with the letter K. William Sporne's own mark appears to be a W.

FindMyPast has a Boyd’s marriage index entry for the ‘banns only’ for the same marriage which shows William Sporne as from Southmere, Norfolk, rather than Docking, although according to Norfolk Heritage, the village of Southmere had ceased to exist by the late middle ages. British History Online has it located two miles from Docking, but subsumed within that parish.

On the next page of the Register, there is a marriage record for Francis Greaves and Susan Nortley. It is likely that this is the brother of Anne Greaves or some other relative, as William Sporne is one of the witnesses, again making his mark. This marriage took place at Stanhoe on 12 October 1767.

Unfortunately, there are no other records relating to William Sporne so far found online, apart from being named as father of the eleven children he and wife Anne Greaves baptised at Docking between 1767 and 1787, and his burial – as Willm Sporn, married man, aged 83 years, on 26 January 1817. So we do not know his occupation – was he a ‘Carrier’ like his son and grandsons?

If his age at burial is correct, he was born around 1734. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a likely baptism record for him anywhere in Norfolk within 10 years of 1730, even with multiple name variations (Spoorne, Sporen, Spoarn, Spurn, Spurne, Spoarne etc). So another brick wall.

His wife Anne Greaves made a similarly scant mark on the records but there is, at least, what looks like a baptism for her at Stanhoe with Barwick on 29 September 1742. Helpfully, the entry in the parish register shows that she was born on 22 September that year, daughter of Richard and Margaret Greaves:

She would therefore have been about 23 years old when she married William Sporne. There is a burial record for an Ann Sporne, widow, aged 83, at Docking on 22 February 1820. This may not be the same person, as she would have been 77. However, the person informing the vicar of her age may not have known it exactly.

A search for her parents’ marriage finds only one likely one online: Richard Greaves married Margaret Clarke at Syderstone, Norfolk, on 13 October 1741, just over a year before she was born. They were married by banns, and were both single. Syderstone is about four miles from Stanhoe with Barwick, where Anne Greaves was baptised.

It’s likely that Margaret Clarke’s family were from Syderstone, and Richard Greaves was from Stanhoe, where they brought up their family.

Another descendent of the Spornes was in touch and suggested that Margaret Clarke died the same year that daughter Anne Greaves was born. However, Richard Greaves and his wife Margaret continued to baptise children at Stanhoe with Barwick through the 1740s and 1750s, and I have not found a likely burial for Margaret Greaves in 1742. One of the couple’s sons was Francis Greaves, born in 1745; it seems that when William Sporne witnessed the wedding of Francis Greaves and Sara Nortley the year after his own marriage, the groom was his brother-in-law.

My 6xgreat grandparents William Sporne and Anne Greaves baptised eleven children at Docking in Norfolk between 1767-1787, so my 5xgreat grandfather Thomas Sporne had at least ten siblings. He was 17 when his youngest sister, Martha, was born and, sadly, buried, in 1787. Of his other brothers and sisters, at least three others besides Martha died in their first few months of life.

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Mary Beck married Thomas Sporne in 1796 and they went on to have eight children, including my 4xgreat grandmother Margaret Sporne. If the baptism I found for her is correct, Mary Beck was born in Burnham Overy in 1774, the illegitimate daughter of another Mary Beck. There do not appear to be any surviving bastardy bonds indexed online to indicate what happened to Mary Beck senior, and I have not found any firm evidence for her baptism or subsequent marriage or burial. So another brick wall.

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

18.2 5xgreat grandmother Mary Beck (1774-1860): Base born, long lived

Mary Beck was the mother of my 4xgreat grandmother Margaret Sporne, and wife of Thomas Sporne, ‘Carrier from Burnham to Norwich and Lynn’. Her husband died in 1827 and was buried in Burnham Sutton, Norfolk, that November, aged 59. They had baptised at least eight children between their marriage in 1796 and his death, with seven surviving to adulthood.

Mary Beck outlived her husband by some 30 years, dying in 1860. She therefore appears in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. In the former (found on FindMyPast) she is living with her son William Sporne, a ‘Conv.& Carrier’, in Burnham Sutton and is working as a Laundress, presumably to help the family finances.

Their ages are rounded down to the nearest five years. William was her youngest son, actually born in 1816, so he would have been about 25 years old.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1851 census, she is living with another son, Thomas Sporne, Schoolmaster at the National School, Wormegay. He is 57, unmarried, and gives his birthplace as Burnham Westgate. His mother is widowed, aged 78, born in Burnham Overy. She is described as ‘housekeeper’.

She died on 3 May 1860 at Wormegay, Norfolk. Her death certificate shows that she was 91 years old, the widow of Thomas Sporne, and that the cause of death was ‘Old age, certified’. The informant was William Chesson, ‘in attendance’. Wormegay is about 25 miles from the Burnhams, so Mary Beck had quite a journey to move there to live with her son Thomas when in her eighties.

The birth years for Mary Sporne (née Beck) in the censuses and on her death certificate vary: in 1841 she is said to be 65 (b1776); in 1851, she is 78 (b1773) and in May 1860, at death, her age was 91 (b1769). A search for a baptism between 1769-1776 within ten miles of Burnham Overy finds a likely record at Ancestry:

·       Mary, base born daughter of Mary Beck, Nov. 6 1774, Burnham Overy

There is another possible baptism for Mary Beck, at King’s Lynn, on 31 August 1774, base born daughter of Sarah Beck, which is less likely. The place (Burnham Overy) and rough timescale of the record extracted above match other information, and there does not appear to be a burial for this child or other marriage, so on balance I believe it likely to be my Mary Beck.

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

Sporne Mary (Beck) 1774-1860: Death certificate

 

Superintendent Registrar's District: Downham Union
Registrar's District: Wiggenhall
1860 DEATHS in the District of Wiggenhall in the County of Norfolk
When died: Third May 1860 Wormegay
Name and Surname: Mary Sporne
Sex: Female
Age: 91 years
Rank or profession: Widow of Thomas Sporne Carrier from Burnham to Norwich and Lynn
Cause of death: Old age certified
Informant: X the mark of William Chessom in attendance Wormegay
When registered: Eighth May 1860

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

18.1 5xgreat grandfather Thomas Sporne (1770-1827): Norfolk Carrier

My 4xgreat grandmother was Margaret Sporne. She married Aaron Wales on 8 January 1818 in Burnham Sutton, Norfolk. Her baptism record, with image, is available at Ancestry; she was born and baptised (privately) on the same day – 21^st May 1799 at Burnham Westgate, Norfolk, daughter of Thomas Sporne and Mary his wife, late Beck (see second line below):

Her parents had married three years earlier, after banns, at Burnham Norton, on 8 January 1796. Both are shown as single on the parish register entry:

The witnesses appear to be two women, Susanna Pal?ver and Ann A?. Bride and groom make their marks.

Their first son, Thomas, named after his father, was baptised in December of the same year. Margaret Sporne appears to have been their second child, born nearly three years later. They baptised at least eight children in all at Burnham Westgate between 1796 and 1816. Only one, William, born in 1804, died in infancy (aged 9 months, in 1805).

Only the two youngest children’s baptisms give an indication of their father’s occupation: in January 1815, when daughter Susan Sporne was baptised, her father is a Livery Servant. Their youngest son William (named after his brother who died some ten years earlier) was baptised on 15 December 1816; at that time, his father Thomas Sporne is shown as ‘Carrier’. 

On 14 November 1827, Thomas Sporne, ‘married man’ was buried, aged 59, at Burnham Sutton. Administration of his estate was granted to his son Thomas Sporne, Farmer of Wormegay, Norfolk, in 1828. A copy is held at Norfolk Record Office, which I hope to be able to access.

If 59 years old in 1827, he would have been born around 1768. There is a baptism for a Thomas Sporne, son of William Sporne and his wife Anne, at Stanhoe, Norfolk, on 5 May 1769, but this child was buried four days later, on 9 May 1769. The following year, on 13 May 1770, another Thomas Sporne, son of William Sporne and his wife Anne, was also baptised at Stanhoe, and this child appears to have survived and grown up to be my 5xgreat grandfather.

Stanhoe with Barwick is about four miles from the Burnhams where Thomas Sporne married Mary Beck in 1796, both in the Docking district of Norfolk.

Little else would be known about Thomas Sporne apart from his occupation on two of his youngest children’s baptisms, and had his widow not survived him by over 30 years. When she died in 1860, she is described on her death certificate as ‘Widow of Thomas Sporne’, Carrier from Burnham to Norwich and Lynn’.

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

Wales Elizabeth (Burgess) (1766-1852): Death certificate

 

Superintendent Registrar's District: The Docking Union
Registrar's District: Burnham
1852 DEATHS in the District of Burnham in the County of Norfolk
When died: Fifteenth January 1852, Burnham Sutton
Name and Surname: Elizabeth Wales
Sex: Female
Age: 86 years
Rank or profession: Widow of Aaron Wales, Patternmaker
Cause of death: Decay of nature - not certified
Informant: X the mark of Margaret Wales present at death Burnham Sutton
When registered: eighteenth January 1852

17.4 5xgreat grandmother Elizabeth Burgess (Wales line): (1766-1852)

Elizabeth Burgess is said to be ’21 years and upwards’ at the time of her marriage to Aaron Wales in 1791 at Holt. Both parties are shown to be ‘of Holt’ on the marriage license and parish register. We know from his ‘examination’ by the poor law guardians at Holt at the time of his marriage that Aaron Wales was originally from Redenhall with Harleston, and that his parents were from Carlton-Colville, Suffolk, resident at Redenhall at the time of his birth.

Elizabeth Burgess was abandoned by her husband by 1808 (and possibly around 1804, when their eldest son Jonathan died, aged 12). We hear nothing more about her until the 1841 census, when she is found, aged 70, living with her surviving son – my 4xgreat grandfather – Aaron Wales (b1794). He is working as a blacksmith at Burnham Westgate, Norfolk. This would give a birth year of around 1771, although adults’ ages were ‘rounded down to the nearest five years’ in accordance with instructions to enumerators, so she could have been born any time between 1765-1771.

Remarkably, she is still alive by the time of the 1851 census, still living with son Aaron Wales and his wife, their daughter and son-in-law, at Foundry Yard, Burnham Sutton. She is clearly identified as ‘mother’, a widow, aged 85 and born in Holt, Norfolk.

This would give a birth year of 1766. She died just under a year later, on 15 January 1852, at Burnham Sutton. 

Her death certificate shows that she died of ‘decay of nature’ (ie old age), at the age of 86, and that she was the widow of Aaron Wales, Patten-maker (a reasonable assumption by then, although we still don’t know when her husband died). The informant was her daughter-in-law Margaret Wales née Sporne, my 4xgreat grandmother. She was buried at Burnham on 19 January 1852.

A search for a baptism for Elizabeth Burgess (with name variations) in Holt around 1766 failed to find anything obvious. The closest possibility is a baptism for Elizabeth Burgess, daughter of Robert Burgess and his wife Elizabeth on 17 December 1766, at Horstead, Norfolk. Horstead is some 20 miles from Holt. I haven’t found any obvious burial or marriage records for an Elizabeth Burgess in Horstead to be able to eliminate this baptism. NROCat has a record of a will proved in 1802 of Robert Burgess, Farmer of Horstead; he was buried in Horstead on 9 April 1802. Did he and his family move to Holt, but he was buried in his home parish when he died? Or did they all stay in Horstead and this is a different family? Another brick wall.

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

17.3 7xgreat grandparents James Wales & Mary Turner; early death and bigamy

It is possible that my 6xgreat grandfather John Wales was baptised at Pakefield, Norfolk/Suffolk, in 1740, son of James Wales and his wife Mary Turner. This couple – both single and resident at Pakefield – were married there on 21 December 1731 and had baptised four children at Pakefield (including John Wales) between 1732 and 1740. Their last three children were all baptised at Carlton-Colville, Suffolk, which my 5xgreat grandfather Aaron Wales claimed in his examination at Holt in 1791 was the legal settlement of his parents.

James Wales ‘a married man’ was buried at Carlton Colville on 10 May 1751, leaving his widow with 4-5 surviving children of eleven years or younger. Mary Turner (Wales) married for a second time a couple of months later on 26 August 1751 at Carlton-Colville. Her groom was Thomas Stewart. The marriage record is annotated to show that rather than the ‘single man’ he posed as at the time of the wedding, it was ‘found afterwards that he had another wife living’ – so the marriage was bigamous.

They appear to have had one son, who was baptised as Robert, son of Mary Wales, on 28 April 1752 and was buried there aged just a few months on 18 July 1752. It is therefore likely that Thomas was the father of Mary’s son Robert, and that she was pregnant at the time of their bigamous marriage.

It seems that Mary Turner and Thomas Stewart stayed together regardless, as her burial record at St Mary, Redgrave with Botesdale, Suffolk, of 27 March 1790 gives her name as ‘Mary Turner Wales, wife of Thomas Stewart’ on the transcript at FamilySearch. She was 84 years old (b1706).

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

17.2 6xgreat grandparents John Wales & Mary Riches, widow

When my 5xgreat grandfather Aaron Wales was ‘examined’ by the poor law guardians of the Parish of Holt, Norfolk, on Boxing Day 1791, he claims that he was born at Harleston [Redenhall with Harleston] of lawful parents ‘under a certificate from Carlton’ (‘On the Parish’ by Jane Hales and edited by Susan Yaxley, 1994). His baptism did indeed take place in Harleston in 1769, where he is shown as son of John Wales and his wife Mary.

The ’certificate’ mentioned possibly relates to his or his parents’ settlement in Carlton [Carlton-Colville] at some point after his birth.

Carlton-Colville is “a parish in the hundred of Mutford and Lothingland, in the county of Suffolk, 3½ miles to the S.W. of Lowestoft, its post town, and 137 from London by rail, or 110 by road. It is pleasantly situated on a height near the sea-coast, on the S. side of the river Waveney, and is about 1½ miles from the Mutford station on the East Suffolk railway. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Norwich, value £345, in the patronage of W. Andrews, Esq. The church is dedicated to St. Peter, and is an ancient edifice with square embattled tower and south porch. …The old register was destroyed by fire, so that the earliest date is about 1715. The Wesleyans have a chapel in the village, and a National school was erected in 1843. Sir Samuel Morton Pete, Bart., is lord of the manor." Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868)

In his examination, Aaron Wales also says that he was apprenticed in 1784 to John Riches of Holt by ‘the director and acting Guardians of the poor for the Hundred of Mutford and Lothingland’, which would suggest that Aaron Wales’ family had settled at Carlton-Colville near Lowestoft by then.

The Genealogist and FindMyPast both have a transcription from Boyd’s marriage index for his presumed parents John Wales and widow Mary Riches. The wedding took place at Mendham, Suffolk, on 12 June 1763, around six years before their son Aaron Wales was baptised. John Wales is described as ‘of Redenhall’ in the record. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a digital copy of the register online, so we have only various printed transcriptions to rely on.

A search for births/baptisms of the children of a John Wales and his wife Mary in or around Mendham or Redenhall with Harleston at FindMyPast and Ancestry reveals:

·       Ann Wales, d. of John and Mary, Thornham, 17 Jun 1764 (this couple had a son baptised in 1761 in Thornham, so have discounted them as prior to the 1763 marriage, and wrong parish).

·       Mary Wales, d. of John and Mary, Redenhall with Harleston, 25 Dec 1764

·       Samuel Wales, son of John and Mary, Redenhall with Harleston, 8 May 1767-8, born 8 March

·       Aaron Wales, son of John and Mary, Redenhall with Harleston, 9 Jul 1769

·       John Wales, son of John and Mary, Redenhall with Harleston, 28 Dec 1771

·       Susanna Wales, d. of John and Mary, Redenhall with Harleston, 7 Jul 1775

·       Thomas Wales, s. of John and Mary, Lowestoft, 9 Feb 1779 (buried Oct 1779)

There are also children baptised in Redenhall over the same time period, children of Peter and Elizabeth Wales, and James and Elizabeth Wales, possibly relatives of Aaron’s father John Wales.

Although the widowed Mary Riches seems to have been living in Mendham at the time of the marriage, the couple appear to have set up home in John Wales’ home parish of Redenhall with Harleston, two miles away over the Norfolk border. A much later directory shows that the two areas had merged by late Victorian times:

HARLESTON, Norfolk “is a market town on the borders of Suffolk, head of a county court district and polling-place for the Southern division of the county, and station on the Waveney Valley branch of the Great Eastern railway, chiefly in the parish of Redenhall, that part of the parish of Mendham which is in the town is now added to Redenhall for parochial purposes, and on the north bank of the river Waveney, 19 miles south of Norwich, 10 north-east from Diss and 99 from London, in Depwade union, Earsham hundred, rural deanery of Redenhall, archdeaconry of Norfolk and diocese of Norwich. The church of St. Mary situated, in Redenhall, about a mile from the town, was rebuilt by Thomas of Brotherton, Duke of Norfolk, and is a very handsome gothic edifice . . . The register dates from the year 1558." [Kelly's Directory for Cambridgeshire, Norfolk & Suffolk (1883) - Transcription copyright © E.C. “Paddy” Apling]

After the births of five of their children in Redenhall with Harleston, they seem to have moved to Carlton-Colville near Lowestoft, where their last child, Thomas, was baptised on 9 February 1779, and buried there that October. Aaron Wales would have been about nine years old at the time. It is possible that their previous parish of settlement was Carlton-Colville and that they were removed back there from Redenhall with Harleston after daughter Susanna was baptised in 1775.

NROCat (Norfolk Record Office) has an index entry for the settlement of John Wales, his wife Mary and daughter Mary (PD 295/110/305). This is dated 3 December 1764 at Redenhall and Harleston, their parish of residence, and records that their ‘certifying parish’ was Carlton-Colville. Their daughter Mary was baptised on 25 December 1764, so it may be that her birth prompted this record in the poor law register to ensure that she didn’t become chargeable to the parish of Harleston if her parents were unable to support her.

Mary Riches was a widow (w.) when she married John Wales in 1763 in Mendham. A search for a Mary marrying a Mr Riches before 1763 produces no obvious results. Her son Aaron Wales, b1769, was apprenticed to a John Riches, Patten-maker of Holt, in 1784 and it is possible that he was a relative of her first husband. However, there are no likely marriages of a Mr Riches to a Mary in Holt either, so her maiden name and origins are likely to remain a mystery for now.

A Mary Wales was buried at Lowestoft in November 1779, one month after the burial of her presumed son Thomas. Her age at death is given as 47 (transcript), which would indicate a birth year of around 1732. It would seem quite late for her to have given birth to Thomas, and may be a mis-reading of '41' (b1738). I have not found any records other than baptisms for Aaron Wales’ siblings born in Redenhall with Harleston; they may have died young or married (in Suffolk or Norfolk) or been apprenticed like their brother.

As Aaron Wales was apprenticed in 1784 by the guardians of the poor of Mutford and Lothing, it is likely that his father John Wales had also died by then. Unfortunately I have not found a likely burial record for him, and have no idea what his occupation might have been. Without Aaron Wales’ examination, we would have had very little information about his early life and parents at all.

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

17.1 5xgreat grandfather Aaron Wales (1769-?): Norfolk patten maker

When my 4xgreat grandfather Aaron Wales was baptised on 12 December 1794, his parents are named as Aaron Wales and his wife Elizabeth (late Burgess). By the time Aaron Wales junior was apprenticed to blacksmith Charles Hewitt of Holt in 1808, he is described as ‘son of Elizabeth Wales - father absconded’ (notes provided by another family researcher who was in touch some time ago).

I purchased a booklet on eBay called ‘On the Parish’ by Jane Hales and edited by Susan Yaxley (1994). It includes a transcription of the ‘examination’ of Aaron Wales of Holt by the guardians of the parish on 26 December 1791:

“Who saith on his oath that he is about 22 years of age and was born .... at Harleston, of lawful parents, under a certificate from the parish of Carlton in the County of Suffolk. That on or about the 30th day of March 1784, he was bound out an apprentice by indenture properly stampt and executed by the director and acting Guardians of the poor for the Hundred of Mutford and Lothingland to John Riches of Harleston, heel and patten-maker, for the term of five years and a quarter. That he ... served with John Riches at Harleston about 2 years when his master removed to Lynn Regis where this examinant served him ... about 11 months when his master came from Lynn to the parish of Holt ... when he (with the consent of his master) put himself apprentice to William Waller to serve him from the 25th March then last for the term of 6 years. That he served the said William Waller in the parish of Holt ... about three years and six weeks when he ran away from William Waller's service and worked in different places in the neighbourhood of London about 11 months, when he returned to Holt where he is now serving the said William Waller under the said indenture which is not yet expired, and he has heard his master say he was a certificated person to Holt. And this examinant further saith he was married by license in the parish church of Holt to Elizabeth Ringer [should be Burgess – the original license document is hard to read], singlewoman of the parish. Sworn before Z. Girdlestone. Signed Aaron Wales, his mark.”

The author makes a note below the above extract: ‘Aaron was a 'parish apprentice', that is he had fallen 'on the parish' as a child and, on reaching the age of 14, was bound apprentice by the poor law officers. In some parishes the master was chosen by ballot and had no choice but to take the lad, but in Norfolk this seems to have been achieved by negotiation’.

This account suggests that my 5xgreat grandfather Aaron Wales was born around 1769 in Redenhall with Harleston, Norfolk and that his parents had at some point been settled in Carlton (Carlton-Colville) in Suffolk. It also suggests that he was orphaned or otherwise ‘on the parish’ by his first apprenticeship in 1784, when he would have been about eight years old.

There is a baptism record at Ancestry for 9 July 1769 at Harleston with Redenhall, for Aaron son of John Wales and his wife Mary.

The Genealogist has a transcription of a marriage record for his presumed parents John Wales and widow Mary Riches. It took place at Mendham, Suffolk, on 12 June 1763, around six years before their son Aaron Wales was baptised. John Wales is described as ‘of Harleston’ in the record. There is more research to be done on this couple and their family, but it seems that they had moved from Harleston to Lowestoft by 1779, when Mary Wales died, shortly after their youngest son Thomas.

Redenhall with Harleston lies south of Norwich, on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. By the time of his marriage in 1791, Aaron Wales has travelled some distances for work. After starting his apprenticeship to John Riches (possibly a relative of his mother’s first husband?) in about 1784, in Harleston, he then moved with his master to ‘Lynn Regis’ (now Kings Lynn), 50 miles to the North West, and subsequently 35 miles North East to the town of Holt, Norfolk.

In around 1787, aged about 18, he was bound to a new master, with John Riches’ consent. William Waller was also a Patten and Heel Maker. Pattens were used from early times to protect peoples’ shoes from the mud and dirt of basic roads, either as overshoes or, more often, as a wooden platform attached to the wearers’ feet to raise them from the ground. Aaron Wales seems to have got itchy feet again (no pun intended), as after about three years’ service with William Waller, he then travelled over 100 miles to London, living and working there for nearly a year – presumably without his master’s consent - before returning to Holt.

He applied to marry Elizabeth Burgess by license there on 17 December 1791, aged 22. An extract from the marriage license shows that Aaron Wales was of the Parish of Holt and a Patten Maker. The other person providing security for the license was William Jeckel or Jeckell, a Cordwainer from the same place. Both parties to the marriage are declared as ‘of twenty one years and upwards’ (extract below).

The couple married at Holt by license on Boxing Day 1791, the same day on which the examination transcribed in ‘On the Parish’ is said to have taken place. The bondsman William Jeckell was also one of the witnesses to the marriage, a copy of the Register entry for which is available at The Genealogist. Neither bride nor groom could sign their names.

 

Five months later, on 13 May 1792, their son Jonathan was born, and baptised at three days old. His mother is described as ‘Elizabeth, late Burgess, sp[inster]’ on the baptism record. Their second son, my 4xgreat grandfather Aaron Wales, was born just over two years later, in December 1794.

Ancestry has an Archdeacon’s transcript of burials at Holt which for 10^th October 1804 includes ‘Jonathan son of Aron Wales and Elizabeth his wife, late Fox, sp. Aged 12 years, a pauper’. This may refer to Jonathan, son of Aaron Wales and his wife Elizabeth Burgess; Jonathan would have been 11-12 years old, so the mother’s maiden name may be a contemporary transcription error. If this is the correct child, it is possible that his father had already left the family (‘absconded’ as he is described on his youngest son’s apprenticeship record four years later), and the abandoned family has had to turn to parish relief.

I have found no further records of Aaron Wales born around 1769 in Norfolk in any online records – including using many variations of his names. He may have changed his name, or it may have been mistranscribed or perhaps even unknown, especially if he moved away from Norfolk. It seems he spent some of his own early life ‘on the parish’, and left his wife and young family to the same fate.

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