Recent Posts

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1
Slade / Re: Henry Slade of Hilperton c 1707 - 1783
« Last post by Michael Caswell on September 27, 2023, 01:58:11 am »
One of Henry Slade's daughters was Lydia Slade. She married one William Hawkins. Nothing too surprising about that, except when you look at William's ancestors, someone most interesting pops up.
 
William = b 1748
Richard = b 1714
John  = b 1687
Thomas = b 1649
Captain John Sidney Hawkins = b 1604

And who was he, you may ask!

Born sometime between 1540 and 1544 in Devonshire, England, Francis Drake was the son of a tenant farmer on the estate of Lord Francis Russell, earl of Bedford. He was brought up in Plymouth by the Hawkins family, relatives who worked as merchants and privateers (often referred to as pirates).
Drake went to sea for the first time around the age of 18 with the Hawkins family fleet, and by the 1560s had earned command of his own ship.

Hawkins set sail from Plymouth on 18 October 1564 with four vessels, Jesus of Lübeck, and 3 ships of his own. He took over 400 enslaved people from Africa, some he bought from the Portuguese, others he kidnapped directly by raiding the coast, he left Africa on 29 January 1565.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkins_(naval_commander)



2
Trowbridge / BOWYERS
« Last post by Michael Caswell on September 09, 2023, 07:44:19 am »
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4
Washbourn / Re: Washbourn
« Last post by Michael Caswell on March 11, 2023, 08:27:06 am »
[quote ]Richard Washbourn and his un-named wife/partner or who ever she was the mother of my ancester William Everley Washbourn
[/quote]

She was  Emma Everley  1780 - 1819  died =Pitchford/ Beddlestead Farms, North Downs, Surrey
5
Washbourn / Re: Washbourn
« Last post by Michael Caswell on March 10, 2023, 01:41:52 pm »
Do you have a tree of this line please? I am working on some updates and a potential murder mystery.  Lots of fun!  :-)
6
Trowbridge / The Bells of St James Church
« Last post by Michael Caswell on August 09, 2022, 04:51:15 am »
TROWBRIDGE,  St James

Ring of 12 bells, and sanctus bell, in west tower with spire.     
                                                                                                                                                 
Bell           Inscription                                                                                           
                                                                                     Diam.     Cwt. qr. lb.
Treble    GLORY  BE  TO  GOD  ON  HIGH  (bell and               25”        4   1  22     

              A pomegranate border)  /  THE  SALVATION  ARMY
              BELL  //  (Taylor mark in rectangle)  /  1934

2nd        (Bell and pomegranate border)  /  THE  ST.                   26”        4   2    0      G
              STEPHEN’S  BELL  /  CHIEF  DONORS:  FRED  &
              CLARE  MARSLAND  //  (Taylor mark in rectangle) 
              /  1934

3rd         (“Birmingham” border)  /  THE  THOMAS                  261/2”    4   2  10       F
              HERBERT  CLARK  BELL  /  RECAST  1934  /
              (Taylor mark in rectangle)  //  LEST  WE  FORGET  /
              HAROLD  BUTCHER,  A  PARISH  CHURCH  RINGER,  /
                   KILLED  IN  THE  GREAT  WAR.  /  P. A. NASH,  M.A.,
                   R.D.,  RECTOR.  /  W. H. STANLEY,  F. W. SAXTY;
                   CHURCHWARDENS  /  S. J. HECTOR;  RINGING
                   MASTER.  /  C. M. LANSDOWN,  F. H. WHITE,
                   F. P. GARLICK  /  H. LEDBURY  AND  J. A. COOPER;
                   COMMITTEE.  /  EASTER  1923

4th         (“Birmingham” border)  /  IN  GRATITUDE  1914–     28         5   0  11       E
              1918,  /  LUCY  MACKAY.  //  CAST  1923  /
              RECAST  1934  /  (Taylor mark in rectangle)

5th         JAS.  WELLS  FECIT  1800.  S. WATTON  AND         297/8”    5   2  25      D
              R. CASSWELL  CHURCHWARDENS.  /  THE
              JAMES  WAREHAM  BELL  /  RECAST  1934  BY
              THE  /  TROWBRIDGE  CO-OPERATIVE  SOCIETY
              /  (Emblem)  //  RECAST  1912  /  P. A. NASH,
              RECTOR  /  F. HOBSON  )  CHURCHWARDENS
                                 H. MUNDY   )

6th         JAS.  WELLS  FECIT  1800.  S. WATTON  AND         311/4”    6   2    3      C
              R. CASSWELL  CHURCHWARDENS.  /  THE
              SAMUEL  SALTER  BELL  /  RECAST  1934  /
              (Emblem)  //  RECAST  1912  /  P. A. NASH,
              RECTOR  /  F. HOBSON  )  CHURCHWARDENS
                                 H. MUNDY   )

7th         JAMES  WELLS  FECIT  1800.  SL. WATTON  /         33”        7   0  26      B           
              RD. CASSWELL  CHURCHWARDENS.  /  THE
              HADEN  BELL  /  RECAST  1934  /  (Emblem)

8th         JAMES  WELLS  FECIT  1800.  SL. WATTON  /         351/2”    8   1    7      A
              RD.  CASSWELL  CHURCHWARDENS.  /  THE
              STANCOMB  BELL  /  RECAST  1934  /  (Emblem)

9th         JAMES  WELLS,  ALDBOURN,  WILTS,  FECIT        381/2”  10   0  17      G
              1800.  /  SAML.  WATTON  AND  RICHD. 
              CASSWELL  CHURCHWARDENS.  /  THE  JOHN
              &  EDITH  KEMP  BELL  /  RECAST  1934  /
              (Emblem)

10th       JAMES  WELLS,  ALDBOURN,  WILTS,  FECIT        41”      12   2  18       F
              1800.  /  SAMUEL  WATTON  AND  RICHARD
              CASSWELL  CHURCHWARDENS.  /  THE  JOHN
              HERITAGE  BLAKE  BELL  /  RECAST  1934  /
              (Emblem)

11th       JAMES  WELLS  FECIT  1800.  SL. WATTON  /         457/8”  17   2    6       E
              RD.  CASSWELL  CHURCHWARDENS.  / 
              RECAST  IN  1934  /  IN  MEMORY  OF  / 
              GEORGE  PERKINS  STANCOMB  / 
              CHURCHWARDEN  1854–1858  /  (Emblem)

Tenor     JAMES  WELLS,  ALDBOURN,  WILTS,  FECIT        511/2”  24   2  18      D
              1800.  /  MAY  ALL  I  SUMMON  TO  THE  GRAVE  /
                   THE  BLESSING  OF  A  WELL–SPENT  LIFE  RECEIVE.
                   /  THE  THOMAS  CHARLES  USHER  BELL  /
              RECAST  1934  /  (Emblem)  /  RECAST  1870  &
              1912  //  THE  PEAL  OF  10  BELLS  WAS  RECAST
              /  AND  TWO  BELLS  ADDED  IN  THE  YEAR  /
              1934  /  RECTOR;  REV. S. J. NISBET  WALLACE  /
              CHURCHWARDENS  (  M. F. V. CLARK, J. P.
                                                 (  S. L. HARDING.  /
              COMMITTEE  /  C. ANDREWS   C. T. LYDDIETH  /
              H. V. CASE   F. C. PITT  /  A. A. FENSOM   C. RAISON  /
                   F. P. GARLICK   I. SAXTY  (MISS)  /  H. H. GARLICK
                   W. SHAW  /  S. J. HECTOR   P. M. SNAILUM 
                   (SECRETARY)  /  J. S. JAMES  /  C. M. LANSDOWN 
                   (CHAIRMAN)  /  A. J. G. STANCOMB, J. P.
                   (TREASURER)  /  H. LEDBURY   P. L. TAYLER  (MRS.)  /
                   M. S. LEDBURY  (MRS.)   W. C. THOMAS  /  A. LESTER
                   T. C. USHER,  J. P.  /  W. H. LONG, J. P.   F. H. WHITE
––––––––––––––––
Sanctus  Jas.  Wells  Aldbourn  1800                                           17”        1   0  12

Wiltshire’s first – and at the time of writing only – ring of twelve bells was provided, along with a new frame and fittings, in 1934 by the Loughborough foundry and dedicated by the Bishop of Salisbury on 25th July (Ringing World, 3rd August 1934).  This was the outcome of a highly successful appeal to individuals, businesses and groups in the town, launched in the January of that year.  The bells are of course flat-topped and some of them are very copiously inscribed.  It goes without saying that this is one of Taylors’ multitude of excellent true-harmonic rings, even if the acoustics of the tower are not so good as they might be[?].  Whilst plenty of ringing has certainly taken place on at least eight of the bells, and a fair amount on all twelve, I think it is true to say that Trowbridge has never really yet become a centre of twelve-bell ringing locally.

The tower is not large on plan, necessitating for a ring of this size a two-tier frame with the lightest five bells, and the seventh and ninth, on the low-side upper tier and the remainder, including the sanctus, in the H-pattern lower tier.  The fittings are of Taylors’ standard pattern and include iron stocks, ball bearngs, independent clapper-staples and Hastings-type stays.

The tower is said to be of 13th-century origin but was given 15th-century dress at the time that the remainder of the church was rebuilt.  It has a tall stone spire.  The ringing chamber is upstairs.  The three-train clock, provided by Smith of Derby in 1934, has a twelve-bell quarter chime especially composed for it by Sir Walter Alcock, Salisbury Cathedral organist at that time.

The bells in use up to 1934 were based on the ring of eight cast in 1800 by James Wells of Aldbourne, whose sanctus bell of the same year survives.  The tenor had been replaced by William Blews of Birmingham in 1870;  in 1912 it was again replaced, along with the treble and second, by Llewellins & James of Bristol.  The bells were then hung with new fittings, including iron stocks, in a new iron frame, following which they were re-dedicated by the Bishop of Salisbury (Bell News, 22nd June 1912, p. 219).  Earlier, it had been reported in Bell News on 23rd March 1912 that the founders were ‘tuning the whole peal on the principles initiated by the late Canon Simpson’ which anyone familiar with the work of James Wells will realise is an impossibility.  However, the result was said to be ‘a magnificent peal of eight, which do [sic] great credit to the firm [Llewellins & James], on whose behalf the work was superintended by Mr. F. E. Taylor.’  Everyone was ‘agreed that the bells went beautifully, and were of a fine tone’ (Ringing World, 28th June 1912).  In 1923 Llewellins & James added two more bells as a First World War memorial, making a ring of ten which was opened on Easter Monday that year (Ringing World 1923, p. 267).

Taylors’ report in 1933, on the other hand, spoke of poor tonal quality with ‘wild and chaotic harmonics or overtones’ and criticised the gudgeons, bearings, clappers and pullies.  It seems likely, however, from other examples of their work in this period that Llewellins & James’s own bells had true-harmonic tuning, or an approximation to it, and one would particularly like to have heard their tenor.  James Wells’s original ring of eight would have been closely comparable with his surviving (but re-tuned) octave, of similar weight, cast some three years later for Newbury, Berkshire.

The bells were then as follows (the weights are the nett scrapping weights recorded by Taylors in 1934):
                                                                                                                                                     Bell           Founder and date                                                                                                           
                                                                                                        Cwt. qr. lb.
Treble    Llewellins & James of Bristol, 1923                                           5   3   6
2nd        [As treble]                                                                                 5   3   7
3rd         Llewellins & James of Bristol, 1912                                           5   3 18
4th         [As 3rd]                                                                                    5   0 20
5th         James Wells of Aldbourne, 1800                                                6   1 14
6th         [As 5th]                                                                                    7   3   1
7th         [As 5th]                                                                                    9   1 18
8th         [As 5th]                                                                                  12   1 11
9th         [As 5th]                                                                                  15   1   9
Tenor     [As 3rd]                                                                                  22   3 21

The inscriptions on these bells were very largely repeated on the present ones.  Blews’s tenor of 1870 had been inscribed in Gothic capitals.

At the time of the 1553 inventory Trowbridge had five bells and a sanctus.  By 1800 there were six which were then replaced by a new ring of eight.  Of the frame and fittings, etc., in place before 1912 little seems to be recorded.  In typically dismissive tone the Ringing World article on 28th June 1912 reported  that ‘in carrying out the work of restoration it was found necessary to dismantle the belfry entirely.  All the old tangle of wooden beams was cleared away …’  The exercise was, of course, to be repeated only a little more than 20 years later.

Condition:  very good. 
Visited 9th August 1967.         
[Illustrations:  ?]           
[* Need to revisit. *]

7
Wiltshire Towns & Villages / STONEHENGE
« Last post by Michael Caswell on July 24, 2022, 02:29:27 pm »
I just read that all the Sarcen stones came from West Woods, Marlborough. If you follow the River Avon from there it gets very close to Stonehenge at West Amesbury, leaving only about 1 mile across country. In the time period the Sarcens were erected, the weather was quite a bit colder, apparently https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-400-to.../ Therefore the river was likely frozen during the winter, which is when all the 'visitors from all over England arrived for the winter Solstice celebrations. There was also likely a lot of snow on the ground. Ice on the river and snow on the ground would have made a sled pulling job much easier, especially if Aurochs were used. I think it's pretty obvious how they moved the huge stones, now it's proven where they came from.

These people were smart. They understood mathematics, geometry, metrology as can be seen in this video https://youtu.be/0L09dqpRD7s
I can't imagine them struggling to move these huge stones without looking at the least line of resistance, and ice and snow would make an enormous contribution to their efforts. They were already there in the winter, so it would make perfect sense to do this.
9
Wiltshire Towns & Villages / Lacock
« Last post by Michael Caswell on February 24, 2022, 10:10:14 am »
10
Flower / Some Flower notes from Jean Flower
« Last post by Michael Caswell on February 21, 2022, 05:46:15 pm »
SOME FLOWERS OF WILTSHIRE & THEIR HOMES

There have been FLOWERS in Wiltshire for more then seven centuries, with the first recorded names in Worton and Melksham. One of the earliest references We have found so far is an intriguing scrap of Latin amongst the coroners" inquests published in a volume of Collectanea, which describes how one Clive of Bromham attacked a certain Wilhelmus Flur of Melksham on the Bromham road. William defended himself with an axe, killed his attacker and fled. The outcome is unknown.
We have worked our way through scores of tax lists, wills, Chancery Proceedings, Court Rolls and feet of fines, culminating in the splendid book "The Flowers of Wiltshire" at Wiltshire Record Office. This embodies more than thirty years of specialised research by Mary Helen Flower, perhaps a distant relative. It is possible, using all these sources, to put together a list of names of some of the Flower family in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They were jurors, farmers and tax collectors: Radolphus de Flore of Potterne and West Lavington, Nicholas and William Flur of Melksham, John and Thomas Flour of Worton and Melksham, Stephen le Flore of Cheverell, Henry Flour of Marston, William and Robert Flower of Worton.

The family accumulated land and property by marrying heiresses of local families, notably the aristocratic landowning and clothier LONGS. From the fifteenth century it is possible to build up a tentative family tree. We have been travelling round Wiltshire villages with an ordnance survey map, trying to identify the houses where they lived. Flowers' Farm at Worton in Potterne, now demolished, caused numerous family lawsuits. It is mentioned in a Star Chamber Court case in 1494, when Edith Stalbrigge Flower, recently widowed, sued her stepson John Flower for non-payment of her annuity.. A later John Flower, a yeoman sheep-farmer, eventually inherited the farm and established a prosperous cloth factory there, with four broadcloth looms and numerous employees.

In 1536, in another Star Chamber case, he sued a Mr. BONFELD for allegedly robbing him in Windsor Great Park of over £59, a gelding, a mare and a gold ring,. This was probably the profit from the sale of his broadcloth, taken by pack pony to Blackwell Hall in London. Interesting points are that no fewer than 3 members of the family mentioned in the case were called John Flower, including two brothers, and that the constable refused to suspect Bonfeld of robbery "because he was a gentleman.

" Flowers' Farm was inherited by later generations, often after litigation, and is now said to be "encased" in a modern timbered mansion at Worton- Prince Hill, called after one of the original pasture fields. Another Flower home was at the nearby hamlet of Whistley, where sixteenth century ruins and an old mill stone mark the site of Whistley Mill. Perhaps it was used for fulling Flower broadcloth.

By the mid sixteenth century, the Flowers of Worton were "gentlemen" with a coat of arms granted by the Visitation of Heralds in 1565. Branches of the family spread to Chitterne, Devizes (where they became Mayors), West Ashton, Bradford, Chippenham, Corsham, Heytesbury, Salisbury and eventually London.

Another of their sixteenth century homes was near Rowde, where John Flower of Rowde, probably a cousin of John the clothier of Worton, did well for himself by marrying Johanna, heiress daughter of William FREEMAN of Foxhanger's Farm. Their son Edward later sold many properties and well over 2.000 acres of land, some of which must have been in the family for generations. The name 'Foxhanger's' (fox-haunted slopes) survives today near the long flight of locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal, near Devizes. However, though there are two Foxhangers Farms close by, neither seems old enough to be the original.

   A number of imposing farms and manor houses connected with the family still survive. A Thomas Flower of Littleton "lease the great tithes of Semington for ten years in 1410. Both the manor house and the farm, near Semington church, are occupied today.

A John Flower was the "Farmer of Westwood", farm manager of Westwood Manor, in 1401. This imposing manor hose, then owned by the Priory of St. Swithins of Winchester, is now in the care of the National Trust, yet another John Floure with his wife Marjorie occupied Hazelbury Manor and 140 acres of land near Box in 1493.

   We discovered Whitchurch farm, Malmesbury, by chance when we came across "John Flower of Whitchurch and John Flower of Seende", sons of Nicholas and Christian Flower of Melksham who made wills in the 1550s. It is now a renovated farm house on a site once owned by Malmesbury Abbey. An old guide book comments on this house, the only Whitchurch in Wiltshire: "Here hath been a church; it is now converted into a dwelling house, but the steeple remaynes still." Now, however, the steeple has vanished.

   We found John of Whitchurch in our search for the "missing link" which we are convinced exists between the Wiltshire and Somerset Flowers. Both families were substantial yeoman sheep-farmers with large farms, in the days when sheep were wealth. Both used the same names for their sons: John, Robert, Nicholas, William, Thomas, and had a habit of naming two Johns in each generation and each branch of the family, even when all survived. This has certainly compounded the problem for us.

   We know that in 1523 a John and Agnes Flower, probably middle-aged, and with two sons named, of course, John, leased a large house just over the Somerset border. This was The Grange, Norton St. Philip, then owned by the Priory of Hinton Charterhouse. John and Agnes had over 700 acres of land, outhouses and a large barn and dovecote, all of which still stand. The house, refaced and with all its front windows unblocked, is now an old people's home called Manor Farm.

Somewhere in West Wiltshire, we think, a John Flower perhaps as far back as 1470 took his share of the family fortune to set himself up as a yeoman farmer in Somerset. We have his family tree for fifteen generations, from 1523 to our own grandchildren. It is based on the dedicated work of another family historian, Norris L. Flower, who worked out the relationships of countless Somerset Flower, and published a detailed family tree. Some day we hope to find John Flower's origin, probably at Worton or Melksham, and link the farming families of Wiltshire and Somerset.

   1. "collectanea, Chippenham Veredictum. 2. The Flowers of Wiltshire,' by Mary Helen Flower. Copies at Wiltshire Record Office, Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society, Devizes, and Sociețty of Genealogists. 3. Star Chamber Proceedings, Henry 8, Bundle 19 354. 4. Star 'socie star Chamber Proceedings, Henry 8, 15, 127. Both extracts are published in Wiltshire Notes & Queries. . Somerset & Dorset Notes & Queries, Volume 29, September 1973.

Jean Flower


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