Happy Birthday Granny - Annie Prudence Butcher (1879 - 1972)

Today would have been my Great Grandmother's, Annie Prudence Butcher (nee Harris) 116th birthday. I knew her as Granny, and later as I began my research I affectionately called her APH. My cousins knew her as Big Gran, because their Grandma looked after APH in her elderly years and I guess to a child having two Grandma's in the same house was confusing!

This picture is taken from the Christmas card Granny sent to family and friends in 1955. I have inherited the one she sent to my Grandfather, Grandmother and Mum.

The first official document I saw when I began researching my family history in earnest was the 1881 Census, which in 1988 was the last official Census available to those of us in the United Kingdom.

Image courtesy of Ancestry - RG11/780/6 Puttenham Surrey
Crown Copyright

The Census shows, Annie aged one year old.  I recall the moment I spotted that entry line as I muttered the words wow! complete with that tingly feeling of excitement.

That very same Great Grandmother who cuddled up to me as an elderly lady. Smelling of talcum powder and lavender. Who had the firmest, yet gentlest cuddle of all. She would wrap me in her arms and tickle me and I would wriggle with excitement. I can almost feel that cuddle as I write this and all of a sudden I miss this elderly lady, who loved her family passionately and yet despite her frailness, always gave me one of those lovely safe and reassuring cuddles.

Here is a picture of how I remember her, surrounded by flowers and the love of her family.

Annie Prudence Butcher nee Harris
1879 - 1972

Happy Birthday Granny!

Remembrance Day Photo Collage - Day Seven

This photograph was taken on a really grey and miserable autumn day about 20 years ago.

It is the War Memorial at Elstead in Surrey, about 2 miles from Puttenham where the majority of my Great Grandmother's family hailed from.

My Great Great Grandmother was called Caroline Ellis. Born in Puttenham in 1844 the daughter of George and Prudence Budd.

My Grandfather's cousin always maintained the Elstead got it's name from the multiple Ellis families in the area, Ellis-Stead. How much of that is true I don't know, except there were multiple Ellis families and unravelling them is a genealogist nightmare. The same names keep appearing; so I have three George and Sarah Ellis' giving birth to children, with the same names around the same time. Nightmare to research!

The Ellis' on this memorial are in fact cousins of Caroline Ellis. I do have photographs of those named, but have elected to share them a little later on a project I have planned for 2014. However, this memorial is in fact incomplete. There was at least one more Ellis that gave his life and he is not named on the memorial.

I became aware of Amos Ellis a few weeks ago when I received an email from someone. I had up until this point not been aware of Amos, because he was not a direct ancestor. I felt so sad that someone can contribute so much and yet simply slip through the cracks.

So today, as I post late on Sunday and we roll across into Armistice Day it seems fitting to mention Amos and be aware that there are instances like this across the Country. Do we not owe it to these men and their descendants to put the matter right?

Remembrance Day Photo Collage - Day Six

This post is about my 4th Great Grandfather George Ellis. He has lead me on quite a journey!

George Ellis was baptised on 12 June 1774 at Holy Trinity Church in Guildford Surrey, the son of James Ellis and Elizabeth Bridger.

George is located as an apprentice, which confirms that George at the age of 17 years, was apprenticed to Richard Fludder, a blacksmith of Puttenham for a period of 4 years, to learn the trade for his keep and a wage of 2/- weekly for the first year, 2/6 for second year, 3/- for third year and 3/6 for the remainder, but he was turned away without notice after 3 and a half years. 

We can therefore estimate the time he was apprenticed was from 1791 - 1794 or 1795. We know he joined the military in 1797, and that he was married to an unknown wife pre 1805 because when he marries Sarah Beagel in 1805, he is classed as a widower. 

Marriage to George's second wife -
Sarah Beagel 1805. St Mary's Guildford

Marriage to George's third wife  -
Sarah Virgo in 1824 at Holy Trinity Guildford,

who signed her name as Mary Virgo!

George Ellis left the employ of the 10th Hussars having served 20 years and 48 days and was discharged at Brighton Sussex.

Statement of Service  - 10th Royal Hussars,  March 1797 - May 1817

The National Archives WO97/45/38

Discharged in 1817 after serving 20 years and three months, injuries of

Stricture of Urethra, subject to fits and severe injury of the shoulder

The National Archives WO97/45/38

George is named on the Peninsular Medal Roll as receiving 4 clasps with the following particulars:

S & B = Sahagan & Benevente

V = Vittoria

O = Orthes

T= Toulouse

This looks like where George sustained the injuries that lead to his discharge three years later.

In the early part of 2010 I was searching The National Archives site and came across a reference to George Ellis, late of the 10th Light Dragoons in relation to a pension. When the document arrived I looked and for whatever reason didn't spot that although this document relates to someone else there is an insert in relation to George. Here is the full document.

Full document from the National Archives
with the insert relating to George Ellis 1819

The National Archives WO121/182/42

Insert relating to George Ellis.
Who still had not received monies from

the war pension in 1819.

The National Archives WO121/182/42

A further search at the National Archives revealed another reference

1. WO121/182/42 (see film 134) - Records of Royal Hospital Chelsea - Certificates of service and related correspondence - with a mention of 11th Royal Veteran Battalion (see above)
2. WO97/1184B/320 - Records of Royal Hospital Chelsea  - Miscellaneous - Served 11th Royal Veteran Battalion

An example of the dress worn by those in the 10th Royal Hussars

After George's discharge he returned to Puttenham, and I have a hunch that there is more unraveling and unearthing of documents to do; I have no proof that I can find anything more about him, other than a hunch, which I plan to explore.

Whatever he did, to fall out of favour with Richard Fludder before he joined the military is a mystery. On his death certificate he is recorded as being a blacksmith and the cause of death is "Exhausted Nature"

Death Certificate for George Ellis 1850.

Where it all started....

This morning, whilst working on something else, I had cause to pull out this Census image. It was this very image that made me really pursue my interest in my maternal family history. 

Image courtesy of Ancestry - RG11/780/6 Puttenham Surrey

When I started researching in the late 1980's the latest Census for the United Kingdom was the one from 1881. 

This particular record shows the family of my Great Grandmother as a little girl, aged just one. That very same Great Grandmother who cuddled up to me as an elderly lady. Smelling of talcum powder and lavender. Who had the firmest, yet gentlest cuddle of all. She would wrap me in her arms and tickle me and I would wriggle with excitement. I can almost feel that cuddle as I write this and all of a sudden I miss this elderly lady, who loved her family passionately and yet despite her frailness, always gave me one of those lovely safe and reassuring cuddles.

Annie Prudence Butcher nee Harris
1879 - 1972

Those Places Thursday - Puttenham Surrey

Puttenham Church - Copyright Julie Goucher July 2004

As a result of extensive research in the rural Surrey parish of Puttenham, the One Place Study was born.

Almost a decade ago; (where did the time go?) I placed some of the information on line. Over the course of that decade I have received a steady trickle of emails and letters from people whose ancestry lies within the parish. For a small parish and enormous amount of people have a connection to Puttenham!

To be honest, I simply became overwhelmed at the amount of correspondence I was receiving, each one requiring a more comprehensive response that had been anticipated. 

In 2003 I had acquired the domain name of www.Puttenham.org.uk which currently points to space on my website, and to about 1/8th of the material. I have exhausted the space available with such a small proportion of the data that I have currently, and of course the study is a continual work in progress.

Something had to be done.

About a year ago, I created a blog with the intention of using that platform to host the Puttenham material. I published a few bits - namely an introduction to the project and a list of material contained within the study currently. I did not advertise the site, but merely wanted some time to reflect and prepare my posts. Was I even happy with the set up?

I am very process driven and wanted to put the material on the blog in order. Now that is simply not an option, especially as the blog always records the latest post as the first item you see. Research of course is not always done in a logical order, because the researcher follows the path of information.  

Over the course of 2013 I am going to be placing the information I have on line, at the blog and then move the domain pointers to that address. The material will be placed in the order I get to it. Not scientific, but I am OK with that! I shall use the labels function as a way of identifying an individual, document, picture etc

The Puttenham (and Wanborough) One Place Study commenced in August 1986 and is a work in progress as well as an obsession!

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Week 13 - Local Societies

• Week 13. Local Societies: Local genealogical and historical societies are the lifeblood of genealogy. Members and volunteers give their time and money to preserve local history and promote family history. Tell us about a local society for which you are thankful.  

This week's prompt runs from Sunday 25th March until Saturday 31st March 2012

I think it is fair to say that one of the reasons I was so inspired to undertake a one place study was because I had received such a welcome to my interest in my ancestral parish.

On the day I chose to visit Puttenham it was a beautiful sunny day, not a cloud in the sky.I hadn't specifically planned to visit; it was one of those get up and draw the curtains back and then make a decision based on the weather kind of days.

Having arrived in Puttenham, which is only 5 miles from my home town and where I lived at the time I went first the Church. I had a wander round and then sat at one of the pews simply enjoying the tranquillity of it all. There was a visitor's book just inside the door so I decided to leave a comment. I then flicked back through the pages in case anyone else had left a message. I noticed other people had, but no one obviously researching the names I was. Either they had not said or my names of interest were not listed.

Inside the porch was a list of the contact details and addresses of the various church members, church warden and vicar and the person who ran several of the village groups - mother and toddler and knitting circle. I jotted down the name of the church warden and wondered if it would be okay to knock at their door? I left the church and wandered down the street to the address. Yes, I did say Street, because essentially that is the main road in Puttenham, although a spread out rural parish.

Having arrived at the door, I knocked with some hesitation and momentarily hoped that the church warden had gone shopping, but she answered the door. I explained that I had been to the church and called on her really on a whim. She invited me in and said she would ring the chap who ran the local history group. In a few minutes she was back and walking me down the road to his address.

The welcome and hospitality that I subsequently received, not just on that visit, but on other visits was tremendous. The local history group was twinned with the neighbouring parish of Wanborough which was where my Grandfather was born in 1908. I spent the new few years, whenever introduced to someone by this chap as "This is Julie, she's related to the Budd's", at which point, everyone present would nod. The Budd's were not wealthy landowners, but humble people who appeared at fairly rapid rates in the Poor Law bastardy records!

Puttenham is not unique. I have received very similar responses in other areas of research and not just those in my native Surrey. Now, as soon as my research establishes a link to a new parish I always do a quick Google search and see if there is a local history society, or group.  Even large towns have Societies. I have been a member of the Guildford Society for quite a few years, and even though they are more about preserving the town than the genealogical aspects of it, it is a good way to keep in touch and read the journals.

Fearless Females 2012 - Day 4

March 4 — Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.


I do have the marriage record of my Grandparents, but though that I would share this one.

This is the marriage that links together the families of my Grandparents who married each other in 1939 and were completely unaware that they were related!

My Grandfather, George Butcher, descends through his maternal line, back through the surnames of Harris, Ellis and Budd. All the families deeply rooted in the parish of Puttenham. 

The common ancestor was the marriage of Richard Budd to Sarah Collins in Puttenham in 1742. Richard and Sarah raised a family of 5 children, comprising of 4 daughters and one son. Their third daughter, Mary Budd was born in Puttenham in 1779 and married in Puttenham to Richard Bridger in 1797. Richard and Mary Bridger then proceeded to have a large family of 14 children, all born in Bramshott Hampshire.

My Grandmother, Lilian Edith Matthews descends through her maternal line, back through the surname of Elstone. In this particular case, Eliza Bridger, named in the marriage certificate above was the 8th child from the family of 14 born to Richard Bridger and Mary (nee Budd).

Eliza Bridger married William Elstone in the parish of Bramshott in 1828. The Elstone's had been in the parish since the 1730s, and were eventual owners of Bramshott paper mill, through the marriage of William's parents, John Elstone and Ann Pim in 1786.

Beyond the Internet Week 1: Church interiors

On the very first visit I made to Puttenham in Surrey I just knew I belonged. There was a feeling of completeness.

I walked up the main isle of the church towards the alter and stopped and sat down at one of the pews. Had my ancestors sat in that very spot?

I walked along towards the windows and looked at the stained glass. So vibrant with the sunlight bursting through.

I then looked at the various plaques littered indiscriminately on the walls.

Upon the plaques were the names of people that I had seen in the Parish Records and upon the Census. I remember being so excited I could have burst!

I then walked up to the font. How many ancestors had been Baptised at this very font? I could, time and fingers allowing have worked it out. My earliest known ancestor was Baptised at this font in 1724. This photograph was taken in 2004 - 280 years after that first Baptism.

What struck me as I stood at that font was the powerfulness of it. In years gone by parents would have struggled from their meagre earnings to have the money to pay for their child to be Baptised. There would have been no hesitation. The money would have been found.

So on that day in 2004 I remember telling Stuart exactly how I felt on that very first visit. The feelings of excitement, wonder, completeness. He didn't exactly say I was obsessed, but he did show me a particular look just before his eyes glazed over.

My fascination of the Village has not gone away. I host a One Place Study for the Village and during 2012 the Puttenham Archives that I hold will be placed upon their very own blog. I also need to up date the photographs including taking some of the stained glass windows.

Inspired from Family History Across the Seas.

Carnival Of Genealogy 109 - Our Ancestors' Place of Worship!

St Nicholas Church in Guildford Surrey was the venue of my Christening in the late 1960s, that of my Mum in the mid 1940s and my Grandmother in 1913. It was also the venue where my Grandfather's sisters married during the 1930s.

This is the photograph of my late Great Aunt, Dorothy Lilian Butcher upon her wedding to Richard Dick in 1936.

I have a Christening Certificate which was presented to my Mum at my Christening, alas it has the wrong middle name for me and is written as Julie Joyce. Joyce was in fact my Mum's middle name! So either the vicar looked at the register or it was the same vicar!

My Grandfather was Christened at the parish Church in Wanborough in 1908 and prior to that we have almost 250 years of ancestry on my Grandfather's maternal line connected to the beautiful rural Surrey parish of Puttenham, which is the subject of the two photographs below and that of my One Place Study

This is a great photograph, showing the font at Puttenham. How many of my ancestors have been baptised here?  There is rather an amusing story which concerns one of my Ellis ancestors at Puttenham and features this very church.

George Ellis was a blacksmith in Puttenham. He was busy working and a spark caught and set alight a building next door and suddenly Puttenham was in the midst of a fire. The locals rushed to form a human chain between the fire and one of the village wells which was situated in the front ground of the church. The fire was put out and over time the well was covered. It remained covered until Easter Sunday 1972 when during the service a huge noise was heard. Upon leaving the church, it was visible that  a tree that had previously taken root over the spot of the well had completely disappeared into the spot thus locating the hidden well. The well is now visible for all to see and the spot marked with a plaque celebrating its rediscovery after 222 years.

Now, having read the information in the archives for the village I was curious as to how the well had been covered and why no one remembered the spot where it had been situated? So many questions..... and this little story demonstrates how the church was interwoven into the lives of our ancestors.

The Carnival of Genealogy is hosted by CreativeGene

Blogging A-Z - April Challenge - C is for.....

C is for.....Clocks

I like clocks. There is quite a skill to making a timepiece. This clock is a real favourite of mine and has quite a story. We bought the clock new about 9 years ago from the department store Debenhams. We saw the clock in the Guildford store and I was smitten. We drove home, 200 miles and more than 3 hours of travelling. All I could think of was the clock and how wonderful it would look in our lounge, with the deep green marble surrounding the dial.

We rang our local store in Exeter. They did not have any stock and could not source any. Nor could they transfer it from Guildford. We rang Guildford. Did they still have it? They did and a week later we were making familiar drive up the A303 to Guildford to purchase the clock.

Frequent visitors to this blog, will possibly remember that I have a particular interest in the rural Surrey village of Puttenham where my ancestors have lived since 1724. As my interest steadily turned into an obsession, albeit, a healthy one! I came across a reference to a rather helpful 18th Century Curate called Charles Kerry. Kerry kept a series of papers called the Kerry Manuscripts and detailed the trivial information of the village. It is really fascinating to see the life of such a small village come alive on the pages.

Volume 4 of the manuscripts refers to a clock maker called Philip Avenell. A pedigree of the Avenell family which can trace back to the mid 1500s in Puttenham is HERE

Incidentally, the Mr Budd referred to on the above page is an ancestor of mine and alas the clock has not passed down through the family nor have I managed to locate one, but one would be a lovely acquisition to our home.

Fearless Females - Day 4

March 4 — Do you have marriage records for your grandparents or great-grandparents? Write a post about where they were married and when. Any family stories about the wedding day? Post a photo too if you have one.

I do have the marriage certificate of my Grandparents, but sadly there are no photographs.

Instead I thought I would post a copy of the marriage certificate for my Great x 4 Grandparents Richard Budd to Sarah Kemp. The marriage took place in Stoke next Guildford parish which is about 6 miles from Puttenham, which is the parish that Richard Budd came from. The marriage date was 21st July 1796.

Fearless Females - Day 1

March 1 — Do you have a favourite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

I have a few favourite female ancestors, who for one reason or another I am drawn too. One I have researched quite extensively is Esther Bellasis nee King. Esther was my chosen subject for the Australia Day Challenge. The reason I am selecting her today is because Esther left behind a real contribution to very early Australian history.

This picture is titled " The Carrajan by Mrs Bellasis, Sydney and was painted circa 1803." Esther's story can be read by clicking the link above, but she left this painting in Australia when she left in circa 1802-1803. One question that I doubt I shall be able to answer is why she left it behind? Did she get on the boat and think Drat I forgot the painting?, or was it because she didn't care about it and it was a means to an end, created to fill the hours? Nonetheless, it believed to be earliest known piece of artwork in Australian by a woman.

Which made me think. Esther, although born in the village of Puttenham Surrey in 1770 lived much of her life in India, having married there in 1796. She did spend some time in Australia due to her husband, and Esther died in 1805 in England. So the question is did she paint in England, will there be painting lefts and sitting in the sitting room of a descendant of the King family? or perhaps in the archives at Surrey or maybe even something in India?

Family History Writing Challenge - Day 24

Even though I am not sure what the catalyst was for my starting to research my family history, the catalyst for my undertaking a One Place Study was seeing my Great Grandmother's name on the 1881 Census. I remember being so overwhelmed with emotion, here she was, just aged 2. I simply had to know all I could about the village which was embedded into my ancestry.

In the early stages I did like many of us, work back from known to unknown with fairly rapid speed. By the time I was back another two generations from Annie Harris I was firmly addicted and attached to both the parish of Puttenham and to the name of Budd, which I just love! There was even a Rose Budd in the family!

The Budd family were poor, the family featured consistently in the Poor Law Records for their illegitimate children! but regardless, they were part of my family and I felt something for their plight when I read it in the various documents. I wonder what they would make of the world now? These were women who were ridiculed for their "morals" and illegitimacy, yet look at the world today, where it is quite common for women to raise a family whilst unmarried or perhaps have offspring with more than one father. It is a complete turnaround, in what is a relative short space of time, given the history of mankind!

The village itself is a rural one; steeped in history and part of that history was the world occupied by the Curate Charles Kerry. Kerry originated from Derbyshire, yet he spent considerable time in the parish and kept a series of manuscript on the inhabitants of the village. These manuscripts were written at the time and often contained snippets of local history, hearsay & incidentals of village life, there are some parish records details for not just Puttenham but also neighbouring Compton parish and there are a series of pedigrees written at the time by Kerry with the help of those in the relevant family.

Here is the pedigree for the Budd & Strudwick family:



The pedigree contains such incidentals of life for example. There is a reference to William Budd putting his hand down a rabbit hole and being bitten by an Adder snake. The note also says that William put his finger in his mouth and then became a cripple for the rest of his life. I would not have known that from official records - William was born in 1731 in Puttenham, and is not recorded on the census records. There is also a note that Richard Budd who married Sarah Collins and is my direct line of descent had a fine tenor voice and sung in the choir. Another fact that I would have not know. These manuscripts have enabled me to see behind the dates that our ancestors create, and it is these facts that bring them alive and make them people rather than the written word. It is remarkable that the manuscripts survived. The originals were returned the Derbyshire Records Office where Kerry lived. How many more of these manuscripts are in the various parishes across the land, not just here in the UK, but also overseas? These documents were written when there was surely more important things to worry about, perhaps the next meal or the health of a parishioner, yet they were written and I am forever grateful for Charles Kerry.

Word count 576

Family History Writing Challenge - Day 14

When the majority of our ancestors married did they do so for love? Divorce was time consuming and expensive and restricted to those who could afford it. We all like to think that our ancestors married for love.Think all the hardships they endured to raise their families, those families who, if they had not existed, then neither would we.

I was given this picture by one of my Grandfather's first cousin's and I recall showing it to my Great Aunt. Her sight wasn't particularly good, but I wondered if she had ever seen the photo, so I asked her.

I was surprised and delighted with the answer, which was, I don't just recall the photograph she said, I took the photograph she said really proudly. Well that was two of us who were proud.

The photograph is of my Maternal Great Great Grandparents, Henry Harris (1843 - 1929) and Caroline Harris nee Ellis (1844 -1935). The couple had married on 3rd December 1864 at Puttenham Surrey. This photograph was taken on the occasion of their 60th Wedding Anniversary in 1924 and was taken at Manor Farm at Wanborough Surrey.

I am delighted that:

1. I had a relative that recalled taking the photo
2. The photograph had survived
3. My Great Great Grandparents had lived long enough to have celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary. At the point of the celebration Henry was aged 81 and Caroline aged 80 years.

Henry and Caroline raised a family of 10 children born between 1864 and 1885, their eldest child, born just a few weeks after their wedding.

Was this true love? I do hope so.

Word count 273

Family History Writing Challenge - Day 8

My Grandmother's family has always been tricky to research. This has been due to a number of factors, but mainly down to the fact that she knew fairly little about her relatives, and geography; as her father's family originated from Warwickshire.

In complete contrast, my Grandfather's family hadn't moved more than 40 miles in 300 years, although they did drift across the borders of Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex. Whilst these are three neighbouring Counties it does need to be remembered that you can cross the border from one County to another in this patch in perhaps a mile or so.

I recall visiting the Bramshott and Liphook Preservation Society offices in Liphook one summers day during the early 1990s. I was on the trail of a connection from the Budd family of Puttenham and Richard Bridger, which appears on my Grandfather's line of descent. Richard Bridger from Headley Hampshire in 1777 and married Mary Budd in Puttenham Surrey in 1797. I knew from researching another family line, the Harris' that the movement between Frensham Surrey, Headley & Bramshott in Hampshire and Lurgershall in Sussex, was common and within a mile or two the boundary had changed.

So, I was sitting writing out various entries from the births, marriage and deaths for the names that I was researching when I spotted the following Eliza Bridger daughter of Richard Bridger marrying William Elstone in Bramshott in 1828. I recall that I had written the entry and turned the page before the slow recognition that I knew those details already. Didn't I? I turned back through my note book and saw that yes I indeed knew the name of William Elstone, as it appeared on my Grandmother's line of descent.

I stopped a moment to reflect. My Grandmother, Lilian Matthews descended from the marriage of William Elstone to Eliza Bridger. My Grandfather, George Butcher who married Lilian Matthews descended from Eliza Bridger who married William Elstone. I still have the scribbled tree that I drew out to see if I could establish just how many times removed my Grandparents were from each other. I recall being so excited. When I got home, I inserted the details into my family history programme then clicked on the relationship calculator button which revealed that my Grandparents were 4th Cousins, sharing the common ancestor of Richard Budd & 4th Cousin sharing the common ancestor of Sarah Collins.

I know that my Grandparents would not have known that fact and I wonder just what they would have made of it. For me, that is just the wonder and fascination of researching my ancestry.

Word count 435

Ancestor of the week - John King

I have mentioned in other posts, here and here about the King family of Puttenham Surrey. Of the family there was only one boy, John born in 1788 in the parish of Puttenham Surrey and died in 1812 in the Gulf of Persia. That small amount of details doesn't seem much to show for 24 years of life does it?

A search of the India Office Records revealed that John had died 29 October 1812 whilst on board the ship Duncan in the Gulf of Persia. At the time of his death he was a Lieutenant in the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) of 21 Madras MI.

A quick search for more details of the ship revealed a website featuring the ships of the East India Company. From glancing at the page it would appear that the ship that John King died upon was the Lord Duncan which remained in service until 1813. Was this a coincidence? Had the vessel not been sea worthy? or was it perhaps disease stricken?

A further Google search revealed a really fascinating view of the Duncan via this web page. Page 134 item 717, which reads

"717 RARE SUNDERLAND CREAMWARE BLACK TRANSFERPRINTED, ENAMEL-DECORATED AND PINK LUSTRE PRESENTATION JUG, GARRISON POTTERY, PROBABLY DIXON & CO. PARTNERSHIP, CIRCA 1813-19. Printed on one side with a rare view of the Wear iron bridge, faintly signed “W. Cockburn,” the other with a view of the “NORTHUMBERLAND 74,” marked “Dixon & Co. Sunderland Pottery,” and inscribed in black enamel beneath the spout “G. J. Sanders” above the verse “Forget me not” within a floral wreath, all within pink lustre squiggles. Height 7 ½ inches.

Literature: This particular Wear bridge view is not recorded in Baker. The central ship depicted in this unusual print is named across the stern “L. DUNCAN.” Launched in 1798, the ship “Lord Duncan” was named after Admiral Duncan, hero of Camperdown, 1797. The print also varies from more common examples with the inclusion of buildings with tall chimneys in the background, and by the ship in dry dock on the right side."

Now, this is a fascinating find as it does give a vague idea of what the ship where my ancestor died upon looked like. I do need to do further research on John King and on the ship.

(note this is the missing post from January 29, 2011)

Those Places Thursday - Puttenham Surrey

(Photo taken July 2004)

Like the majority of Genealogists I started my research by working from the known to the unknown. My major known fact was that my grandfather was born in the Parish of Wanborough, which is the neighboring parish. As I worked back to my great grandmother and beyond, my links with the village of Puttenham were firmly bought home.

By the time I was back four generations I reached the surname of BUDD and on looking through the vast amount of material I established that the Budd family was, in one way or another related to most of the inhabitants of the village. I decided to study the Census material for the village more fully and the day I saw my great grandmothers name listed on an official record was a very special one.

This was the great grandmother who I had sat with as a child and suddenly I realized that I was part of this village and I simply wanted to know all that I could about it. I visited the parish of Puttenham, I had heard stories from my grandfather's sisters about who lived where, who married who and so forth, and in the summer of 1986 decided to visit the village. It was beautiful summer's day, not a rain cloud in sight! and as I wandered through the village I tried imagining the atmosphere of the village at a time, several generations before my grandfather was born.

Someone greeted me from the Puttenham and Wanborough History Society and I was welcomed and introduced to the legend of the Curate Charles Kerry, who produced such a wealth of information, in manuscripts form; it is truly a Genealogical and local History treasure and the Puttenham One Place Study was born.

The Puttenham (and Wanborough) One Place Study commenced in August 1986 and is a work in progress as well as an obsession.

Ancestor of the week - George Bridges Bellasis & Ester King

Inspired by the post on Twigs of Yore in commemoration of Australia Day - 26 January, and doubling up as my Ancestor of the Week post.

Find the earliest piece of documentation you have about an ancestor in Australia. If you don't have an Australian ancestor, then choose the earliest piece of documentation you have for a relative in Australia.

1. What is the document?
2. Do you remember the research process that lead you to it? How and where did you find it?
3. Tell us the story(ies) of the document. You may like to consider the nature of the document, the people mentioned, the place and the time. Be as long or short, broad or narrow in your story telling as you like!"

The document I am going to use for this is the picture on the left of a pink Hibiscus and is titled "The Carrajan by Mrs Bellasis, Sydney and was painted circa 1803.

I first became aware of the Bellasis connection to my ancestry back in the late 1980s. I then did little research into that line beyond the records that existed in the rural Surrey parish of Puttenham and created what is online as the Puttenham One Place Study

Esther was born Ester King in 1770, the daughter of John King and Mary nee Budd. The whole story resembles that of Pride and Prejudice as John and Mary had a family of 10 children, 9 of whom were girls. I can almost here the cries of Mary King as she worries about her daughters finding good husbands. Just how the King daughters became connected to the Bellasis family is intriguing, but all but two of the girls (one married in England and the other died in 1795 aged 17 years) married men connected to the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) and their son also spent time in India before dying in the Gulf of Persia in 1812. The link to how I established this is rather wonderful. The Curate of the parish of Puttenham was a man called Charles Kerry. During his time in the village he kept a series of manuscripts and as part of those there is a reference or two to the Bellasis connection. It was this fact that acted as my springboard.

Ester married George Bridges Bellasis in 1796 in Calcutta India. George was known as the most "Handsome man in India" a fact gleaned from the book written about the Bellasis family called "An Honourable Company" by Margaret Bellasis published in 1952. What has been established is that the girls went out to India in installments, as they became of age and they were dispatched to parts of the "Empire" in the care of the elder sisters. The story is that one of Esther's sisters was proposed to. The proposal was later retracted and a dual between the proposer and George Bridges Bellasis ensued. As a result George Bridges Bellasis was sent to Botany Bay for life for killing the proposer, having been transported on board the ship called "The Fly" in 1802. When he arrived in Sydney, George was immediately given a conditional pardon by Governor King and on 24 June 1803 received a Royal pardon as an "act of commiseration towards a gallant, but unfortunate officer and an afflicted dying wife".

I wondered about Ester. Just what had her life been like? Married to a well to do member of the HEIC, was she shamed because of the dual and subsequent outcome of that?, then transported like a common criminal? I wish I knew just what she thought and felt. I wondered just what research material had been left behind of the Bellasis time in Australia. George it is well documented as a military man in Australia and India, there is evidence that he was involved in the Freemason movement in the early days of the colony.

I did a search online for "Mrs Bellasis"+Australia and for variations of - Botany Bay, Ester Bellasis and was very surprised to find the painting above online. I sent off to the archive, The Mitchell Library, State Library for NSW, for a electronic copy and it is one of my genealogical treasures. What is especially wonderful is that the painting by Ester Bellasis is the earliest known piece of artwork by a woman in Australia, so it looks like Ester made her mark afterall.

George and Ester returned to England in the early 1800s and Ester is commemorated at Puttenham Church having died in 1805 in Berkshire, at the Bellasis home. George returned to India and later remarried, to his deceased wife's sister, Elizabeth Kent nee King, herself a widow. George died in India in 1825 and the sister Elizabeth in Kent in 1837.

Associated posts - Genealogical Wonder published November 2010 has more details on one of the King daughters.

All the posts submitted for this challenge are here

Ancestor of the week - Henry Budd

My Ancestor this week has always been a bit of a challenge. Just when I think I have "got" him something happens that changes any hypothesis that I might have.

I started researching my ancestry the way most of us do, researching from what is known to the unknown. My Great Great Great Grandmother was a lady called Prudience Budd and it was this fact that got me on the trail to Henry and my obsession with the rural village in Surrey the family lived in called Puttenham.

As I trawled through the Parish Records and archives I became aware of one of the Curates of the parish called Charles Kerry. Kerry kept during his time in Puttenham a series of manuscripts written at the time and it was this manuscripts that brought the Budd family to life.

This pedigree, which appears in Volume 8 of the Kerry Manuscripts confirms all the details that I had already established from the Parish Records and very faintly, just above the name of Henry it reads "First of the Budds". I can still remember, 20 years on, the fascination that I felt when I stumbled across this pedigree, also the "what do you mean?" response that I echoed to the papers in a room full of archives and fellow researchers, much to everyone's amusement!.

I went back to the parish records and retraced my steps. All the children of Henry and his wife Martha were baptised in Puttenham. Another look in the Marriage records did not reveal a marriage for Henry to Martha. I spent more than 10 years looking for their marriage, searching each parish methodically from Puttenham and then each village and parish within a 10 mile radius. Success happened with the Church of the Later Day Saints released the Vital Records on CD.

Bingo! I had located the marriage of Henry Budd to Martha Ottaway in 1723 in the parish of Chertsey. I should say that given the proximity of Puttenham to both the border with Sussex and Hampshire I checked the strays indexes held in those two Counties by the Family History Societies in addition to the one held in Surrey and there was no other marriage for a Henry to a Martha in the right time frame. What I did know was that Henry had certainly been in the neighbourhood as in 1720 he was witness to a marriage in the parish of Elstead, about a mile or so from Puttenham.

Next I set about trying to unravel the details of Henry's birth. I headed to the IGI first of all to see if that could give me a clue. The index revealed a Henry born in 1699 in Binstead Hampshire. Not all that far from Puttenham, certainly walking distance by 18th Century standards. I wasn't convinced I had the right man. I shelved the Henry Budd mystery for a while.

Then I was following a discussion on the Surrey Rootsweb list when someone suggested that perhaps my Henry came from Shackleford, a rural parish some 2 miles from Puttenham as there was a mention of a Henry Budd being a tenant of a house called Cobblers. Alas no parish records for Peperharrow, which would be the most likely parish for any births to be recorded in, have survived. I am now still looking in the neighbouring parishes for the birth of Henry.

What is a coincidence is that I had a Great Aunt and Uncle who lived in Shackleford for many years, the distance by road is about 2 miles and across the fields to Puttenham the distance is shorter and unachievable now or certainly in the 18th Century. My gut feeling tells me that this is the Henry I am seeking, I just need to have some proof and undertake some additional research on this elusive ancestor of mine.