Jane Austen - No NOT that one!

It is always amusing to discover an ancestor that shares a famous name. This one is even sweeter as she has been very elusive for a long time. Jane Austen is my 9 x great grandmother and it was only through a series of fortuitous wills and the appearance of the name Austen as a first name that I have been able to definitely identify her. 

Jane was born in Tadmarton in Oxfordshire in about 1605 to John Austen and Susannah. I have her as the eldest of six children. In about 1625 she married a chap called John Goodwin who had been born in the nearby village of either Epwell or Alkerton. I have not yet found a marriage record but it is quite clear from the wills of her father, mother and brother that this is indeed what happened. 

Jane and her husband John had their first two children, Susannah and William, while they were still living in Oxfordshire. They were baptised at Tadmarton in 1628 and 1629 respectively. Some time in the early 1630s the young family moved to Combe, a hamlet close to the market town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, where John was eventually employed as a steward on the estates of Sir Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden. Between 1633 and 1642 the Chipping Campden parish registers show baptisms for another seven of John and Jane's children - Elizabeth, Mary, Hopestil, Constance, Nathaniel, Martha and James. I have also identified another three children from wills, burials and marriages - Hannah, John and Thomas - but have not yet discovered baptism records for them. Our ancestor is Martha, who married Thomas Bridges in 1664.

The Goodwin family were peripherally involved in an intriguing incident in English history, an enigma which has remained unsolved for nearly 350 years. Known as "The Campden Wonder", it is considered one of the most baffling "murder" cases of all time.

The steward of the Noel estates, William Harrison, disappeared and was feared murdered for the rent money he was collecting. His servant confessed to having robbed and killed his master and also implicated his own mother and brother in the crime. Despite the fact that no body was found, the three were tried, convicted and hanged and John Goodwin was employed to manage the Noel estates. Two years later the supposed victim returned home, safe and well. He claimed he was kidnapped by three unknown horsemen and, aged 70, sold into slavery in Turkey, where he eventually escaped and made his way home. For a more thorough account of The Campden Wonder and the people and places involved I can recommend some time spent browsing here.

There is a much smaller mystery of when did Jane Austen die. Clearly it was on or after about 1642 and the last recorded baptism of her children. John Goodwin, her husband, died in April 1669 and was buried at Chipping Campden. 

High Street, Chipping Campden 2017. Elizabeth Viney.

#16 Mary Temperance Sheaf & Elizabeth Sheaf - The nature of nurture.

I have been trying to round out the family of my 3 x great grandparents William Harbidge Sheaf and Mary Tomes Holland but have for a long time been unable to track down one of their younger daughters, Elizabeth. I have already written about her brothers Charles Holland Sheaf  and Jamaica George and of course the youngest family member Great Aunt Lou. I find this family particularly interesting as I am descended from two of the siblings, Jamaica George and Thomas Holland Sheaf. In the last week I have discovered the whereabouts of Elizabeth and found that her story is inextricably entwined with that of her slightly older sister Mary Temperance Sheaf.

Mary Temperance was born in 1819 and christened at Bidford on Avon. Elizabeth was born about 1825 but I have not been able to find any baptism records for her. At the time of the 1841 census both girls were still living at home, on the family farm at Bickmarsh, no doubt helping out in the house and looking after their younger siblings. By this stage their father had tragically drowned so their mother was managing quite a substantial farming enterprise.

In October 1841 Mary married a young fellow called James Price who hailed from Bushley about 20 miles away. For the first few years of their married life they were in the Welford on Avon district where they had 4 children; William Henry, Emily Martha, Timothy and Mary Jane. Some time between 1846 and 1851 they moved to Birmingham where James worked as a Corn Factor - a trader in grains. In about October 1852 another daughter was born, Fanny Elizabeth however Mary died shortly afterwards. Fanny's birth was registered in 1852 but she wasn't christened until 1854.

During this time, Elizabeth seems to have been working away from home in Cold Overton, Leicestershire as a matron in a girls orphanage. Certainly this is the most likely entry in the 1851 census.

What happened in the next couple of years is unsure, but in 1858 Elizabeth and James Price registered their marriage in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. Elizabeth's next younger sibling Samuel was also in Wales working as a banker, so he may have been the reason they ended up there. I can only assume that at some stage Elizabeth had been called upon to help James with his young family of five following the death of their mother.

In 1861 the family are still in Wales, at Llanfoist also in Monmouthshire. James is a farm agent and has a farm of about 148 acres. Young Timothy and Fanny Elizabeth are still living with them. Sometime during the next 10 years James dies as he does not appear to be in the 1871 census and Elizabeth has moved back to her home territory and is living in Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire. Emily and Fanny are living with her and they are running a small Governess School with at least 5 children boarding with them. Elizabeth describes herself as widowed.

Elizabeth and Fanny are still living there in 1881 but Elizabeth appears to have retired and calls herself a "superannuated governess." The entry for Fanny is not so easy to read but it appears to be "invalided governess" so presumably her health was not good. They are the only househoulders - there are no boarding children and no other staff.

I am sure that Elizabeth died sometime between the 1881 and 1891 census although I have not yet confirmed this through the records other than by her absence in the census. By 1891 Fanny has moved back to Wales and was living in Blaenevon with her older sister Mary Jane and her husband Edward Saunders.

Goodness knows whether Elizabeth found happiness in her marriage to James but I like to believe she found happiness and satisfaction in raising her sister's children. In every census during the time they are together she is described as their mother, not their step-mother and their relationships continued long into their adult lives. From a very young age she had responsibility for nurturing children who were not her own - her younger siblings, the orphanage girls, her sister's children and finally her young pupils. She accepted these challenges and ended up molding an independent life for herself.

#3 Louisa Sheaf - Great Aunt by name, great Aunt by nature.

Great Aunt Lou was something of a legend in the Sheaf family, both at Honeybourne in England and in Australia. Although having no husband or children of her own, she was firmly enmeshed in the daily lives of those around her and a personage of some importance!

Louisa Sheaf was the youngest child of William Harbidge Sheaf and Mary Tomes Holland, my 3 x great grandparents. She was born in 1835 and had 10 older siblings. Her father was a farmer at Bickmarsh in the parish of Welford on Avon. When Louisa was only 2 her father died suddenly. According to a distant family connection Ian Tomes in England, who has a large collection of Tomes family documents and memorabilia, he drowned at Weston Lock in the Avon river. I have not yet been able to confirm this from documentary sources, but he certainly died intestate, which does rather suggest a sudden death.

Louisa's mother Mary must have been an amazing woman as she carried on the family farming business until her death in 1846; as well as providing for her large family.

After her baptism at Welford on Avon in 1835, the next record I have for Louisa is in the 1841 census. At only 6 years of age, she was living with a cousin's family in Badsey. John Sheaf, his wife Sarah and their grown up daughter Margaret had three little children living with them, and it appears from the 1840 Bentley's History and Directory of the Borough of Evesham that Sarah and Margaret ran a small preparatory school for infant children.

In 1851, Louisa was living and working in Northampton as an apprentice to a distributor of religious tracts! Apparently, Northampton was considered fertile ground for the Baptist movement and prodigious amounts of tracts were distributed weekly in a well organized and systematic mission.

 I don't know how long Louisa remained with the Cooper family in Northampton, but by 1861 she had moved again and was working for a Jewish family, the Myers, in Edgbaston, Warwickshire. This was to be a long lasting relationship for Louisa who remained with the Myers family for at least 20 years as a domestic servant and then a nurse domestic. Maurice Myers, his wife Mathilda and their children must have come to greatly love Louisa, as in the 1901 census she is visiting Mathilda at the home of her daughter Lella Samuels in Hampstead and is described as "friend". Another Myers child, Leopold, was eventually the executor of Louisa's will after her death in 1932 at the age of 98.

Interestingly, Louisa's impact on the Myers family possibly had far reaching consequences for many people in the broader community. In 1913, Leopold Myers gifted a country house at Cleeve Prior for use as a convalescent home for women. The home was known as The Gertrude Myers Convalescent Home, in memory of his own wife. Both Gertrude and Leopold had been directors of the Birmingham Hospital for Women and realized that a convalescent home providing fresh air, good food and rest could make a huge difference to the recovery of patients, especially for working women who might otherwise not get an opportunity to recuperate in peace and quiet. I can only imagine that Leopold's many years of association with Louisa, a perfect example of a hard working women, were instrumental in his choice of Cleeve Prior as the site for his charitable project.

As an unmarried woman of limited means, it appears that Louisa didn't ever have a home of her own. Once she had finished working for the Myers family, she lived with various relatives. In 1891 she was living with her much older brother Thomas Holland Sheaf, my 2 x great-grandfather and then in the 1911 census, she was recorded as living with her niece by marriage Kate Sheaf (Careless) at Sunnyside, Cleeve Prior. She also featured in stories of life at Honeybourne as told to my father by his mother and grandmother, as she was an aunt to both my great grandfather George Cornelius Sheaf and my great grandmother Louisa Sheaf. It is in fact quite likely that great grandmother Louisa was named for her.

Once great grandma Louisa emigrated to Australia leaving her husband and step-children behind, she kept in touch with her dear Aunt Lou.
I have a very short letter from Great-Aunt Lou to her niece Louisa in which she says:

"Just a line to wish you may have a Happy Bday and that you may spend many others and under much more happy circumstances. I am giving you a purse with initials which was given to me but which I have never used and which I hope you will accept with my love and best wishes for the coming season. A very Happy Xmas and a much brighter New Year when it comes. Aunt Lou."

I think this photo, taken at Honeybourne in 1921 on the occasion of a family wedding encapsulates what was probably a delicate position for Great Aunt Lou: biological aunt to both Louisa Sheaf on her right and Louisa's husband George Cornelius Sheaf on her left - caught in the middle of a difficult marriage with family loyalty going both ways.

To my mind, Louisa was the ultimate great Aunt. She supported herself from a very young age through hard work; she had the ability to build positive relationships with those around her and she lived to a great old age, becoming something of a legend in the process. Her headstone in the churchyard of Cleeve Prior simply reads "Oh Rest in the Lord". And rest is what I think she deserved after such a long and busy life. Here's to Great Aunt Lou!

Carter Correspondence.

This week I have been engaged in a very interesting email correspondence with William, who is researching the Carter family and connections in Gloucestershire. Rather than repeat it all here, here is a link to the relevent part of his blog. Giles Carter I enjoyed reading William's speculative essay and I hope you do too.