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

10.2 4x great grandparents Aaron Wales & Margaret Sporne: early lives, births, children, and deaths

Aaron Wales’ parents were Aaron Wales and Elizabeth Burgess. His baptism took place on 12^th December 1794, the day after his birth, at Holt, in Norfolk (image from FindMyPast):

The entry reads: Dec 11^th Aaron son of Aaron Wales and Eliz^th his wife late Eliz^th Burgess, privately baptised 12^th. Babies were often baptised ‘privately’ by midwives at or shortly after birth, and the act recorded in the parish register. The child might later – if it survived – be formally received into the church, and this would also be noted in the register.

According to two other descendants of Aaron Wales (2^nd cousin once removed, and the husband of a third cousin once removed!) who undertook research in the local archives many years ago, the young Aaron Wales was apprenticed on the 15^th April 1808 to Charles Hewitt, Gentleman of Holt. He is described as the son of Elizabeth Wales, ‘father absconded’. Two years later, he was apprenticed to Francis Mann of Holt. Presumably both Hewitt and Mann were Smiths, as that is the trade Aaron Wales followed, although his occupation was also at various times recorded as joiner and grocer. 

Margaret Sporne’s 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, daughter of Thomas Sporne and Mary his wife, late Beck (see second line below):

Aaron Wales and Margaret Sporne had four children, including Aaron Wales b1827.

On 8 April 1840, their first child Mary Ann Wales married William Rust Smith at Burnham Sutton. Both were of full age. Oddly, Mary Ann gives her father’s occupation as Grocer. One of the witnesses was James Gant, one of the Wales family’s cousins. In 1841, she and ‘Willi Smith’ are living at Foundry Yard with her parents. She died, aged 40, in 1858.

Their first son, Thomas Wales, was born 1821 and died in infancy, aged 4, in 1825.

Daughter Susan Wales was baptised on the same day as her brother Aaron Wales on 11 March 1827. She married Benjamin Henry Habberton in Burnham in the October quarter of 1847. Their son Benjamin was born and died at Fakenham, Norfolk, in 1848. By the 1851 census, she and her husband are living with his parents, a Saddler, in Market Place, Burnham Market. Benjamin is also a Saddler. She died young, aged only 28, in January 1854.

Of their four children, only Aaron Wales b1827 appears to have had a relatively long life. 

Aaron Wales and Margaret Sporne also lived long lives (compared to most of their children, and to the general population of the time). Aaron Wales died on 10^th June 1876 at Burnham Sutton. The cause of death was ‘decay of nature’ [old age]. He was 81 (although the death certificate and burial record both say 83). The informant, present at the death, was Louisa Waller (formerly Gant, daughter of Margaret Sporne's sister Mary, who married horse breaker James Gant). So his niece by marriage.

It seems that, after the death of her husband, Margaret Wales made the long journey from Norfolk to London to live with her only surviving child Aaron Wales and daughter-in-law Catherine Alice Stoney. 

She outlived her husband by two years, dying on 25^th April 1878 at Bermondsey New Road, her son’s address. Her death certificate records that she was aged 78, and the cause of death was ‘climacteric decay’ – another way of saying old age. She is described as the Widow of Aaron Wales, Blacksmith. Her daughter-in-law C.Wales (Catherine Alice Stoney) is the informant on registration of the death.

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