William and Sarah Bayford

The final couple who make up the great-great-grandparents of Lena Parry are William Bayford and Sarah Whisby, who lived in Anstey, a village in Hertfordshire, England.

Sarah Wisby was born at Nuthamstead, Hertfordshire in 1783. Her parents were Thomas Wisby and Sarah Chapman.   She was baptised at Barkway in January 1783, along with her twin brother William. William did not survive and was buried at Barkway a month after their baptism.

William Bayford was born in Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire in 1784.  He was baptised in February 1784. His parents were Ralph Bayford and Rachel Wooton.

William and Sarah were married in Anstey, Hertfordshire in June 1803.  They had five children born between 1803 and 1811, all baptised in Barkway or Anstey.

William and Sarah lived out their whole married life in Anstey. William worked as an agricultural labourer. Sarah would also have worked when possible, and the family would have supplemented their meagre income by growing some of their own vegetables and foraging from the fields and hedgerows. 

It is likely that William and Sarah had a minimal education, and they probably could not read or write. They had at least five children born between 1803 and 1811, but two died in childhood, including Thomas, their only son. That must have been a traumatic time for the family. Thomas, who was about 13 months old, was buried at Anstey on 22 May 1808. Seven days later, on 29 May, his sister, Sarah Jr was baptised at the same church. 

The remaining three daughters , Mary, Sarah Jr and Hannah, all married and lived in Anstey or Barkway. Sarah is the direct line on our family tree and will be subject of a future post.

Sarah died in 1861 aged 78.  William died the following year, also aged 78. 

Like the last three couples, William and Sarah lived out their lives very close to their birthplace. In fact the ancestry of all four couples can be traced to this one small area at the northern end of the Essex-Hertfordshire border. Their families would have lived in the same area for hundreds of years. I doubt they were descended from the indigenous people of the area, who would have been Celtic nomads. There were many waves of invasions from continental Europe, starting with the Roman invasion in 54 BC. This area of Hertfordshire and Essex was mostly settled in the Anglo-Saxon era.

This branch of the family are almost certainly Anglo-Saxon in origin, with possible Danish (Viking) and French (Norman) influences.

Thomas and Mary Rumbold

Thomas and Mary Rumbold were probably my 4 x great-grandparents. I say probably, because it will probably never be proved or disproved conclusively. There are quite a few interesting points about this couple, and they are a good illustration of some of the likely pitfalls in family history research.

I found Thomas and Mary while searching for the origins of their son Joseph. By Joseph's time, the family name had morphed into Rumble. The evidence connecting our family to Joseph Rumble is very strong. There are multiple points of collaboration for the connection, In particular, he is named on the marriage certificate of his daughter, Susan Rumble when she married in Australia. The connection is also confirmed by the 1841 England Census when Susan is listed with her parents and siblings at Barkway in Hertfordshire. She is still with her father and brother in the 1851 Census, but they were then living a few miles away at  Little Chishall in Essex.

We can follow Joseph Rumble through the 1861 and 1871 Census as well. The Census records reveal that he was born in Little Chishall around 1803–1805. That is where the trail seemingly disappears. There is no Joseph Rumble baptised in Little Chishall or the surrounding parishes around that time and it was before the datime when civil registration of births was required. I finally discovered Thomas and Mary by a process of elimination.

The name 'Rumble' often appears in the old records as 'Rumbold', 'Rumbald', 'Rumpole', 'Rumball' and quite a few other variations. In those times, spelling was not an exact science. Very few people could write and the spelling of a name would depend on how the vicar interpreted what he heard people say. Most would probably look back at the older entries in the register, but sometimes the name was new to a parish, and sometimes the vicar was probably lazy, or could not read the old vicar's writing.

Thomas and Mary Rumbold were married at Great Chishall in January 1803. There are no children baptised until their son Thomas was baptised at Little Chishall in October 1805. Then in 1816, Rebekah  (aged 9), James (7), Mary (4), Lucy (2) and John (presumably newborn) were all baptised at Great Chishall on the same day. Thomas and Mary were the only couple with a name like 'Rumble' who were having children in the area around Great Chishall at the time that Joseph was born. By deduction, Thomas and Mary were probably his parents. Based on the later regular births, Thomas and Mary were clearly a fertile couple, and there is room for another child before Thomas Jr was baptised. In fact, you would normally expect the first child to be born in the first year of marriage. It is possible that Joseph was not baptised, or that his baptism was not recorded. He would have been of working age by the time of the mass baptism in 1816, so that might explain why he was not included in the mass family baptism.

I often have a look to see what else I can find out about the other family members, as sometimes I find that there are often extra snippets of useful information. In this case I was looking at the Census records Thomas and Mary's son James, and noticed that he had a lodger named 'Joseph Evennitt'. This name rang a bell. There was a family connection - Joesph Evennitt had married a Rebecca Rumble at Great Chishall in 1848, One of the witnesses at the marriage was William Rumble. This Rebecca was our Joseph's daughter (Susan Rubble's older sister).  Rebecca died soon after the marriage, but here hey widowed husband was lodging with his wife's uncle. This could be a coincidence, but in my mind added a small tick to the theory that James, William and Joseph Rumble were brothers, and that Thomas and Mary were their parents. This small tick raised the theory from 50:50 to likely in my view at least.

Thomas Rumbold was born in Great Chishall, Essex in July 1799 and baptised at St Swithins Church .  His parents were John Rumbold and Mary Pitty. Both Rumbold and Pitty families had been in the area for at leas 100 years.

Our only knowledge of Mary's origins come from the banns and marriage register at the church. Her family name, has variously been transcribed as ‘Dousehead’ or ‘Douchead’. In my mind that name does not have a pleasant sound - it almost sounds like an insult! My personal idea is that the vicar took a dislike to poor Mary and took a liberty in recording her name. Given that most people could not read, she may not heave realised what he had done, but perhaps someone told her and that is why she did not return to the church until well after that vicar had left! That would explain the mass baptism in 1816. There is no evidence that a surname like 'Dousehead' has ever been used in England and Mary's name was more likely something like ‘Dowsett'. The marriage register said she was from the Parish and based on her age when she died, she was born in about 1782. But Mary's ancestry is a dead end.

Mary died in 1836 and was buried at Barley, a village just a mile or so from Great Chishall. 

After Mary's death, Thomas lived with his daughter, also named Mary, who by that time married with a family of her own. Thomas was buried at Barley in Hertfordshire in 1844.

James and Jane Corby of Duddenhoe End

James and Jane Corby were working class people from rural Essex. They were my 4th great-grandparents and lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Like the couple I wrote about in my last post, they probably lived a life very similar to many generations of their ancestors who almost certainly lived in the same district. 

I was not able to track down the details of James' birth, but it was around 1770, probably in one of the parishes around Elmdon.  Jane Deane was born in Elmdon in 1773.

James and Jane were married in Elmdon in 1792. They had at least ten children born between 1792 and 1820. Some were baptised in Elmdon and some in Wendon Lofts, a village a few miles south of Elmdon. 

James and Jane's surnames are a good example of the variation that can occur with the spelling of names. Jane's family are variously recorded as Dean, Deane, and Dane.Three of James and Jane's children are baptised as ‘Corby’ and seven as ‘Corbey’. Very few working class people could write and their names in the records were a phonetic spelling of how the vicar heard their name. The spelling of names becomes much more standardised as more people learned to write their own name and by 1840, surnames become a lot more consistent.

Piecing together various records it looks like Jane and James lived in the hamlet of Duddenhoe End. The hamlet is about four kilometres south of Elmdon, close to the boundary of the parish. There was no church in the hamlet and family used several churches in the wider district, including St Nicolas in Elmdon, St Mary the Virgin in Arkesden and St Dunstan at Wendon Lofts (now a ruin).

Four of James and Jane's children died young. Hannah aged two and Daniel aged four died within a few weeks of each other in 1800. Fifteen-year-old Mary died in 1816 and their youngest child, Rebecca died in 1820, aged 18 months.

James died in 1825 aged 55 and is buried in Arkesden. Jane died in 1834, aged 61. She was also buried in Arkesden.

James and Jane lived through the beginnings of the industrial revolution but were perhaps the last generation to be spared the displacement of families as farm labourers were replaced by machines.  Their children and grandchildren were not so lucky and over the following two generations, several of their descendants were among those to seek a better life overseas when they emigrated to Australia in the 1850s.

Joseph and Sarah Miller, working class people from Essex

Joseph and Sarah Miller were working class people who lived in the village of Elmdon, in rural Essex. They may well have been among the last generation to live a traditional life as rural workers, before the industrial revolution completely disrupted the rural way of life.

Joseph was born in Elmdon in 1755. His future bride, Sarah Burgess was born on 1859, also in Elmdon. I have traced parts of Joseph and Sarah's family back to the mid 1500s, almost always within Elmdon or the surrounding parishes. This is not unusual, because working class people had little need to travel further than the nearest market town, which was usually within walking distance, 10 km or so.

None of the records I have been able to uncover tell us what Joseph and Sarah did for a living, but it most likely that they were agricultural labourers. They would have been on a small retainer to work for a local farmer, but they were able to supplement their meagre wages by growing their own vegetables and foraging the commons and laneways for game (rabbits), fruit and berries. The women were also allowed to 'glean' during the grain harvest. This involved picking up loose grain that had fallen to the earth during harvest. A diligent gleaner could get enough grain to last the family many months.

Agricultural workers were the most numerous class in rural England, just one step above the paupers who relied on the church for charity. Children would get little education and would start work by the age of 12. Some boys were expected to work from the age of 8! They would keep working while they were physically able, after which they could only hope they had children to care for them. It was a good day if the child of a rural worker was apprenticed into a trade, or even better, got a job as a servant.

Tradesmen were are step above the labourers in the social hierarchy. They included the blacksmith, carpenter, butcher and baker, but there were many trades that are lost today such as the wheelwright,  gamekeeper and woodwright (cared for the woodland). School teachers and doctors were also considered tradesmen and they learned their trade as apprentices.

Personal servants were a class above the trades, because they were trusted to live and work in the homes of the wealthier members of the society.

Next were the farmers. Some owned their own land, but many rented their land from the Squire, who often owned a large estate. The small area farmers were called Yeomen. While the farmers were not the top of the hierarchy, they had a tremendous influence on the operation of the local area. The farmers were the main members of the Parish Council that managed the administration and affairs of the village. The Parish council appointed the Church Wardens, the constable, the teacher and the road workers. The Church Wardens were responsible for charity to the very poor and often took responsibility for orphans and other homeless children. Many of these children were sold into so-called 'apprenticeships' which were little more than slave labour.

In most villages, the professional class was limited to the Clergy. The Vicar and possibly a Curate, were the only people likely to have had a good education.

The Squire usually lived in the big manor house overlooking the village. They were not always aristocrats, but had their own rigid social structure. The Squire would rarely, if ever, interact with the farm workers, and I assume that many spent a good part of their time enjoying the social life of the city.

Joseph and Sarah married in 1786. Sarah was 27 and Joseph 31.They had six children born between 1786 and 1799 and all seem to have lived to adulthood. There may have been more who did not survive, but we rely on baptism records for information. Births deaths and marriages would not be officially recorded until the mid 1830s, and the first census if England would be taken in 1841.

Joseph died in 1810, aged 54. he did not live to see his children marry and have children of their own. Sarah survived her husband and two of her daughters. Both of her sons married and had families in Elmdon, so Sarah would have known her grandchildren. The two surviving daughters married and moved away, one to Royston and the other to London.

Sarah died in in 1839 aged 79.

Joseph and Sarah's whole life can be read in the parish register f St Nicholas Church in Elmdon. They were baptised there, married there, baptised their children there and were buried in that church.

Joseph and Sarah were not the last of their family to live in the Elmdon area, but the storm clouds were gathering for the changes that would change rural England forever. The Miller and Burgess names and the names of their ancestral families such as Freeman, Pitty, Mead and Hagar appear regularly in the Parish Registers right back to the first Parish records were created in the reign of Henry VIII. The industrial revolution changed that and many of the working class were forced to leave their ancestral homes to seek work elsewhere. The change sflowed on to most of the population, so none of the old families remain in Elmdon today!