The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.1 | June 2023

Hampshire Family Historian The

Volume 50 No.1 June 2023

Journal of the Hampshire Genealogical Society

Page 20

Also inside this Issue A Faithful Servant • My DNA journey • The Hampshire Chronicle’s Associations

PLUS: Around the groups • Members’ Surname Interest • Research Room

Hampshire Genealogical Society HGS OFFICE , Hampshire Genealogical Society, Hampshire Record Office, Sussex Street, Winchester. SO23 8TH Office only open Tuesday and Thursday 10am to 4pm Registered Charity 284744

Telephone: 07769 405195 Email: society@hgs-online.org.uk Website: http://www.hgs-familyhistory.com

PRESIDENT Dr Nick Barratt

PROJECTS Position vacant

CHAIRMAN Position Vacant

BOOKSTALL Tony Sinclair Email: bookstall@hgs-online.org.uk

RESEARCH CENTRE MANAGER Chris Pavey Email: researchmanager@hgs-online.org.uk

SECRETARY Position Vacant

MEMBERS’ INTERESTS Keith Turner Email: membersinterests@hgs-online.org.uk

TREASURER Ann-Marie Shearer at address at top of page Email: treasurer@hgs-online.org.uk

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND TRUSTEES: John Bowman Margaret Bowman

Fiona Ranger Ann-Marie Shearer Keith Turner Angela Winteridge

Phil Brown Kay Lovell Gwen Newland Chris Pavey Paul Pinhorne

Tony Sinclair Sue Stannard (Co-opted)

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Margaret Bowman 10 Gracemere Crescent, Kempshott, Basingstoke, RG22 5JN Email: membership@hgs-online.org.uk

GROUP ORGANISERS – See Group Reports Pages

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: ALL MEMBERS £15

EDITOR Stephen Pomeroy at address at top of page Email: editor@hgs-online.org.uk

This journal is designed and laid out by Grey Cell Studios Southampton Telephone 023 8023 5780 Email: info@greycellstudios.co.uk

Hampshire Family Historian The

Contents

Editorial

2

by Stephen Pomeroy HGS News

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June 2023

HGS Bookstall’s visit to Dorset by Tony Sinclair Surnames Featured in this Issue

Vol 50 No.1 • ISSN 0306-6843

10 10 11 12 14 20

Page 20

Farewell

Comforter or Goldigger

by Roy Montgomery Book Reviews

Searchers

A Faithful Servant

Deadline Material for possible inclusion in the June 2023 Family Historian should be received strictly by 22 July 2023 . All contributions are, however, appreciated as early as possible. The deadline applies to regular features only. Disclaimer The Hampshire Family Historian is the official publication of the Hampshire Genealogical Society. Material is copyright of the Society and may not be reproduced without written permission. The Hampshire Genealogical Society does not accept responsibility for personal views expressed in this publication, or in any articles. Submission of material The editor welcomes articles, feedback, letters or searchers requests for the journal. Text should be typed in black, with illustrations if appropriate. Send to the HGS Office at the address on the inside front cover marked for the attention of the editor. Please enclose a SAE for return of any photos or other items. Items can also be sent by e-mail to editor@hgs-online.org.uk as Word documents. In this case please send any photos or illustrations as separate image files rather than embedded in the document. You can have them in the document to indicate where they should appear or use placeholders. Images degrade when they are imported and resized when embedded. HGS reserves the right to reproduce submissions in publicity materials and on the society website. Please ALWAYS include a telephone contact — and if a member your membership number. To comply with data protection requirements please state what contact details you want printed in the journal or website, e.g telephone number and/or e-mail and/or address.

by Marion Gilmour News from the Hampshire Archives

24 30

My DNA journey by Judy Kimber

Page 30

The Hampshire Chronicle’s Associations 32 by Barry Shurlock and Margaret Bowman Members’ Surname Interests 35 Local Group Programmes 40 Membership IBC

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Editorial

Message from the editor Hopefully we will catch up and this issue of the journal will be delivered to you on time. You will see from other reports and a letter in the journal there have been some obstacles to overcome which needed to be detailed in this issue of the journal. A little housekeeping, when you submit your article, please ensure to put you name and any other details at the end of the article and/or a hint in the email subject. Sometime I do remember to check, after extracting the article from the email, if necessary, adding your details. I have one article in hand about the Eastleigh Carnival which if the author could remind me who it was written by would help. In this journal: Barry Shurlock and Margaret Bowman have written about the Johson family and their connection with the Hampshire Chronicle newspaper. Members may have referred to this over the years. You can read more in a booklet produced in 1972 by the owners of the paper – The Hampshire Chronicle 1772-1972. HRO are giving away the remaining copies at present, Apr 2023.

Marion Gilmour writes about using newspapers, in this case the rival Hampshire Telegraph to research her ancestor, Jane Beard. (Newspapers can be found on

Find My Past by subscription or at the British Newspaper Archive by subscription at home or many libraries will have a subscription that you can use for free.) Judy Kimber writes of a more modern technique, the use of DNA. This has enabled her to add a little more to the family of her mother. Although it may mean extensive changes to your tree if great grandmother or father turns out to be not who you thought! The DNA theme continues in the searchers section with Ronnie Munday and his DNA dilemmas in his search for ancestors. Stephen Pomeroy Editor

Membership Renewal If your subscription is due for renewal please see the inside of the back cover and the insert in the centre of the journal.

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HGS News

Letter to members and AGM Update Those of you who use e-mail, will have received at the end of April a letter about the society. For those without e-mail it is reproduced here. Following is an update about the AGM. Letter Dear Member, Hampshire Genealogical Society rarely contacts all members via email but we have a serious situation which we urgently need

offered to become Chairman. Jane Painter, Fareham Group Organiser and a former Executive Committee member, has offered to take on the role of Secretary. Does anyone else wish to put themselves forward for either role? If there are other nominations then we will hold an election at the Society’s AGM on Saturday 17 June (details of which were included in the March Journal and are available on the website). In the meantime, Tony and Jane will be co-opted to these positions so that we have enough people to deal with the day-to-day running of HGS and prepare for the AGM. If Tony becomes Chairman, Fiona Ranger, currently Co organiser of the National and International Groups, has offered to take over as Bookstall Manager. We’re very grateful to them all. The Society is due to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. In order for it to continue to that point, we are still in need of further volunteers. Our Vice-Chairman, Chris Pavey, is due to stand down at the AGM, and this is another essential role, in support of the Chairman. Do you want HGS to continue? Can you offer to help in any way? The Executive Committee identified that the workload of the Society was spread among too few people, and we have been through a difficult period of transition and change. All the volunteer roles are currently being reviewed by the Exec, and further posts are being created to make sure that the work is more evenly distributed and to ensure

members’ help to resolve. This will be a long email but please read to the end as it’s an important matter. The Society is entirely run by volunteers, including an ‘Executive Committee’ which should contain 13 Trustees, including four Principal Officers (Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer). Most of you will be aware from reading the last few editions of the Journal that the Society has been without a Secretary for some time. Unfortunately, our Chairman, Paul Pinhorne, has now had to stand down too, for health reasons. This is a major blow as Paul safely steered us through the pandemic, and oversaw the successful move from the office in Cosham to the Society’s new home within Hampshire Record Office (HRO). You will read more about his achievements in the next Journal. HGS cannot continue without a Chairman or Secretary, but we are pleased to say that volunteers have come forward for these two roles. Tony Sinclair, currently Bookstall Manager and Winchester Group Organiser, has

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HGS News

the smooth running of the Society going forward. With the addition of these new posts, the following vacancies exist: Vice-Chairman Assistant (Minutes) Secretary Research Manager Office Manager Sales Manager/Assistant Stock Controller Romsey Group Organiser Trustee* *We require an additional Trustee. The successful applicant would be co-opted onto the Executive Committee, then voted in at the AGM. This person does not have to hold a named post but equally could be one of the other above post-holders. Trustees will need to understand the requirements of managing and running HGS, a Charitable Trust. A Trustee is expected to attend usually six Executive Committee meetings a year (mostly via Zoom) and participate in decision-making and voting on operational matters which may require expenditure. If you would like further information on the role of a charity trustee, the following link to the Government website may be helpful: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/t he-essential-trustee-what-you-need-to-know cc3/the-essential-trustee-what-you-need-to-kn ow-what-you-need-to-do Vice-Chairman: You don’t need to have previous experience of the running of HGS but

it may help if you are familiar with the running of organisations staffed by volunteers, office life, hosting meetings, etc. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are two of the Principal Officers of the Society responsible for leading the Executive Team, and chairing meetings in line with our Constitution to ensure the aims of the Society are met. The Vice-Chairman essentially backs up the Chairman, but the two roles can be split and shared. Anyone coming forward will not be on their own – other members will be able to offer guidance/training, as with all the roles. Assistant (Minutes) Secretary: There is a job description on the HGS website for the role of Minutes Secretary but this is likely to be adapted for the new role of Assistant (Minutes) Secretary: https://www.hgs-familyhistory.com/hgs vacancies/ Other new roles: Exact details of these are still being discussed – volunteers could well have an input if recruited quickly. Some of these post-holders may need to visit the HGS Office at Hampshire Record Office, Winchester or elsewhere from time to time. Executive Meetings are mainly carried out over Zoom, with occasional face to face meetings. Many responsibilities can be managed from home. The Society is entirely run by volunteers but has for some time been operating with far too small a number of them, and this needs to change in order to be sustainable. Several of

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HGS News

AGM Update Since this year’s AGM was announced in the yellow AGM pages of the March edition of this Journal there have been changes within the society which mean that the details given on Page 4 are now incorrect. An updated version of this announcement can be found in the members are of the website together with other documentation relating to the AGM 2023. Our HGS constitution states that – the Society shall be managed by an Executive Committee consisting of not more than thirteen members of the Society. The principal officers shall be a Chairman, Vice Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. In April our Chairman, Paul Pinhorn resigned due to ill health, and last year our Secretary, Gwen Newland, also resigned due to ill health. Recently our Vice-Chairman, Chris Pavey, has announced that she will not be standing for re-election at the AGM. Therefore, we will be electing a new Chairman, Secretary and Vice- Chairman. There are 9 members of the current executive committee standing for re election and 2 members who have been co-opted to the committee during the year have been nominated for election. We are currently requesting nominations to fill the remaining 2 trustee positions. Please see the members area of the website for details of these nominations under the AGM 2023 tab. If you will be attending the AGM on 17th June 2023, please remember that all the

the area groups have had to close because no one volunteered to help keep them going, and others, particularly Romsey, could follow in the near future. Surely in a society of around 1,800 members, a large proportion of whom live in Hampshire, we can muster enough volunteers to keep it going? Please give very serious consideration to whether you could offer some help, whether it be a couple of hours a week at HRO, helping to run one of the area groups or, especially, as one of the post-holders named above. You don’t need to be an ultra-experienced family historian, as interest and enthusiasm will be far more important. The Society is financially very sound and our move to Hampshire Record Office is an ongoing success. Recruitment of additional members to our volunteer team will enable us to continue to our 50th anniversary and beyond. To paraphrase John F Kennedy, ask not what your Society can do for you, but what you can do for your Society. If you feel you can offer some time, in these roles or any other capacity, or would like to discuss them further, please contact John Bowman by phone on 07880 591051 or by email: bowman92@btinternet.com We very much look forward to hearing from some of you. The Executive Committee Hampshire Genealogical Society

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HGS News

documents for the 49th AGM are on our website in the members area.at https://www.hgs-familyhistory.com/agm 2023/. We will not be providing hard copies at the meeting.

Should you wish to refamiliarize yourself with details of the HGS Constitution this can be found in the Members Handbook on the website. Sue Stannard Interim Secretary

B3420

B3047

WE ARE HERE

Stockbridge Road

HGS Hampshire Record Office Sussex Street Winchester Hampshire SO23 8TH

Station

B3049

P

A272

Sussex Street

North Walls

Jewry Street

B3420

B3049

Durngate

B3330

B3040

Wales Sreet

Romsey Road

St Georges Street

P

The Westgate

Friarsgate

B3040

River Itchen

High Street

Railway

Bus Station

King Al fred’s Statue

Southgate Street

St Cross Road

Town Hall

Winchester Cathedral

B3335

P

B3330

THE HGS NEEDS YOU!

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HGS News

Research Report

Our HGS office at HRO continues to be busy and we deal with both UK and worldwide queries These are answered in the office and by our volunteers on the research desk, who also help enquirers face to face. Many are also answered remotely by our researcher, Roy Montgomery, working from home. Our CDs and booklet sales are either sent from the office by the office team, or via email with a pdf attachment. Email sales are handled by another of our volunteers, Trevor Bumstead, also working from home. HGS finances are also managed in the office by our Treasurer and assistants. HGS projects are progressing well; the new Reference Library is now on our website, please do make use of it to identify books that might be useful for your research. Transcribers for our BDO project continue to work from their homes and you will see some additional information from this on our website. Volunteers are also working on indexing our journals as well as bringing our collection of unwanted birth, marriage and death certificates up to date. This updated index will shortly be available on the website.

We have various other indexes ‘in the pipeline’ awaiting transcription etc. Most of you will have read our ‘all-member’ letter which was initially sent by email and is now in this journal. You will read that I am standing down as Vice-Chairman at our AGM and then leaving shortly afterwards as Research and Office Manager. Please read the letter and consider whether you can offer us some time as an office volunteer. We have many tasks to do, they are not individually onerous or difficult, but we do need some additional regular help to manage them. We work in close partnership with HRO staff, the work is interesting and we are a friendly, sociable and welcoming team. Help just a few regular hours a week would make a huge difference to our current volunteers and also allow us to provide not only additional cover in our office, but also continue our service to all our HGS members who cannot visit us here in Winchester. Please give this some serious thought and we look forward to hearing from you. Chris Pavey HGS Research and Office Manager

For all the latest news visit… www.hgs-familyhistory.com

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HGS News

HGS Bookstall’s visit to Dorset Under a rather grey sky on a cool spring Saturday morning, the 23rd April, six stalwart HGS Volunteers made their

various ways to St George’s Church Hall in Poole for the Dorset Family History Society’s Family History Day. The HGS Exhibitor’s stall takes some putting together using two long tables on which we lay our various items for sale. These include

CDs of our Baptism/Marriage/Burial Indexes and our unique Monumental Inscriptions records, plus our ever

popular Village Booklets! We also sell the many Alan Godfrey Maps of Hampshire Towns, the Eve McLoughlin books on family history-orientated topics, plus WEA books on various aspects of Portsmouth life and localities. We also offer an eclectic mix of second-hand books on various family history/Hampshire/history subjects that we have managed to accumulate from various sources over the years. Our stand is now completed by having two 2m banners, one at each end of our tables, advertising our Society and website, plus three 2m high by 1m wide display stands on which are attached various information boards relating to HGS and which form the back of our ‘pitch’. We were warmly welcomed by several Dorset FHS Volunteers who, firstly, showed us where to set up our stand then, secondly, where to go to have our complimentary tea or coffee! The day started officially at 10.00am. There were at least twelve other Societies and companies in the Hall; some being other

L-R, HGS Volunteers Fiona, Chris & Jane

County History Societies alongside companies selling Family History-related items. These included stalls offering to renovate and/or colourise old photographs, binders and clear pockets, etc., and a stall offering family history-orientated mugs/place mats/mouse pads/cushions (cushions?!) The Show was well attended, with the room full for most of the day. The Dorset FHS said that attendance was up 32% on last year and we reaped the benefit by having many people stopping by to ask general questions on their family’s history, or, with specific enquiries re Hampshire ancestors. We also managed to sell quite a bit of stock! The Show ended at 3.00pm, after which we all took everything down again, loaded it into the car and then drove wearily (but happily!) home. The Bookstall will be set up complete for your

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HGS News

Geoff assisting a researcher

HGS Bookstall Manager Tony Sinclair

perusal all day at our Annual Conference Day at Littleton Hall, Winchester, on Saturday June 17th. Our next planned ‘Away Day’ will be on Saturday June 24th, when we are taking the

HGS Bookstall to York for a larger-scale Family History Show with www.FamilyHistoryShow.com Tony Sinclair, HGS Executive Committee member and Bookstall Manager.

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Surnames Featured/Farewell

Some of the surnames featured in this issue (with page number) ANGOVILLE . . . . . . . .11 BARNS . . . . . . . . .21/22 BEARD . . . . . . . . .20-22 BISHOP . . . . . . . . . . .20 BLACKHALL . . . . . . .15 BROWN . . . . . . . . . . .16 BRYCE . . . . . . . . . . . .21 BURNS . . . . . . . . .21/22 COLLINS . . . . . . . . . .21 COMPTON . . . . . . .14-16 COX . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 CRUICKSHANK . . . . .32 DEALLER . . . . . . . . . .21 DIBBELL . . . . . . . . . .21 DICKER . . . . . . . . . . .21 DOBBS . . . . . . . . . . . .33 DURRELL . . . . . . . . . .19 ELEY . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 ELLIS . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 FRENCH . . . . . . . . . . .20 GIBBS . . . . . . . . . . . .20 GODWIN . . . . . . . . . . .32 HALL . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 HEATH . . . . . . . . . . . .21 JACOB . . . . . . . . . . . .32 JOHNSON . . . . . . .20/32 JONES . . . . . . . . . . . .20 LAMBERT . . . . . . .21/22 LAURENCE . . . . . . . . .33 LAWFORD . . . . . . . . .19 LEWIS . . . . . . . . .21/22 LONSDALE . . . . . . . . .20 LOOSEMORE . . . . . . .17 MARTIN . . . . . . . . . . .21 MASSEY . . . . . . . . . . .23 MATTHEWS . . . . . . . .21 MACFADDEN . . . . . . .11 MCPHEE . . . . . . . . . .16 MILLER . . . . . . . . . . .19 MYERS . . . . . . . . . . . .19 NEWLAND . . . . . . . . .21 PAUL . . . . . . . . . .15/17 PERRYN . . . . . . . . . .23 PILGRIM . . . . . . . . . .20 ROBBINS . . . . . . . . . .32 ROODS . . . . . . . . .16/17 SIMPSON . . . . . . . . . .20 STAMP . . . . . . . . . . . .21 STARES . . . . . . . . . . .33 THOMPSON . . . . . .21/22 TYRREL . . . . . . . . . . .19 WALLIS . . . . . . . . .20-23 WATTS . . . . . . . . . . . .32 WHITE . . . . . . . . . . . .21 WILMSHURST . . . . . .21 WILSON . . . . . . . .21/23 WORDIN . . . . . . . . . . .21 YEATMAN . . . . . . . . .11

FAREWELL Norman Hart

With the deepest regret we wish to inform readers of the death of the following HGS members:-

Portchester Waterlooville

Member #7483 Member #2076

Michael J Hill

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Member’s article

Comforter or Goldigger A lines in the Wednesday 1 October 1873 edition of the Hampshire Telegraph said that 77 years old M. ANGOVILLE, Frenchman, married his 25 years old housekeeper in Winchester. To see a marriage with a gap of so many years was unusual so after a bit of research the marriage was confirmed by the entry in the GRO Index when an Omer Casimer ANGOVILLE married Ann YEATMAN in Winchester in the 3rd quarter of 1873. The index actually had two marriages in Winchester in that quarter so the challenge was to confirm which of the two brides was married to Omer Casimer ANGOVILLE . The 1871 census was only a couple of years earlier so it was possible that they were living in Winchester at that time, and a search proved that to be. The family were living in St James’s Terrace where the head of the house was Omer and his domestic servant was 21 years old Anne YEATMAN . More interesting though was that he also had his wife Mary, aged 70, living

with him. The census details revealed that Omer was a retired Professor of French and was born in Ireland while his wife was born in some unreadable place that looks like Inrenexmunster. In 1841 they were living in Bedford Terrace in Southampton with Omer said he was born in France and Mary was born in Ireland. Omer’s first marriage was to Mary MACFADDEN on 16 May 1833 in Walcot SOM. The GRO confirms that her death was registered in the 4th quarter of 1871 with Omer’s being registered in 2nd quarter 1874, both in Winchester. Omer’s second marriage was somewhat short lived. In 1871 Anne claimed she was born in East Stratton although it appears that there was no baptism entry for her there. Roy Montgomery (Member #3759) Sources :- Hampshire Telegraph 1871 Census GRO

Are you looking for that elusive family history book? Or one on local history? Perhaps we can help – contact Tony at bookstall@hgs-online.org.uk

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Book reviews

The Foundlings – a Genealogical Crime Mystery

by Nathan Dylan Goodwin ISBN 9798481041421

This is the ninth book in a series (including the Novella) with the forensic genealogist Morton Ferrier, who uses the usual tools like BMD’s, Census, Newspapers, etc. but also Directories, Passenger Lists, DNA and American records, for example. Morton is investigating his Aunt Margaret’s half-sister found in a cardboard box in a distinctive bag shortly after her birth, with possibly two similar (linked?) cases developing into "The Foundlings" case, and also investigating a shocking piece of news about his grandfather. The story stems from the loose ends from the previous book “The Stirling Affair”. Starting off in Rye, Morton is going to Aunty Margaret’s in Cornwall for Christmas soon and will have to tell her of a family secret. All this is going on while his wife is heavily pregnant and with his young daughter’s antics! Along the way we are introduced to a new character, a woman Detective Sergeant from Sussex Police, which gives us an insight into how they worked such cases. And Morton’s own adoption brings an element to the story too. The story is centred round Sussex/Kent with excursions to Cornwall and the USA. The structure of the book alternates between the present day and the 1970’s. The pace picks up

as the trip to Cornwall draws near and finishes with a happy ending! Nathan has once again demonstrated his skill in excellent creative writing, but also included some new elements for us. The book was an easy read which draws one into the story such that, towards the end, one can't put it down. David Broomfield (#9363)

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Book reviews

Alton Papers – No.26

At last – Alton Papers – No.26 has made its appearance! Published by the Friends of the Curtis Museum and Allen Gallery, it includes a selection of articles on the history of Alton and the local area. The Gold Family of Chawton lived in the village in the early 1800s and must have been known to Jane Austen. In March 1823, a letter was printed in the Hampshire Chronicle supporting William and Sarah Gold and not believing the ‘malicious and scandalous reports’ that they had ‘starved the poor’. William was a bricklayer who did work on Jane Austen’s Cottage and Chawton House. Eventually the family moved into Lenten Street in Alton before going to London. Alton’s Funeral Procession for King Edward VII and the Proclamation describes the events which took place 112 years before the death of his great-granddaughter Queen Elizabeth. Illustrated with pictures of the time, it is the report from the Alton Gazette’ which follows the procession to St Lawrence’s Church and then, after a service, to Crown Close. There is a list of all those who took part ending with the programme for the Proclamation of the new King. Did Victorian Altonians Move Around? poses a question which is often asked. The author has looked at the occupiers of dwellings along the main streets in Alton through the various census of Queen Victoria’s reign. Different areas of Alton are considered

and conclusions, which may surprise readers, drawn for each. 3 and 5 High Street, Alton looks at the history of these

buildings from the mid-1740s (when they were erected) through almost 250 years. They were home to a variety of people including tailors, shoemakers, Alton’s first commercial photographer, and the Stoodley family - watch and clock makers in the town for over 100 years. The Donkey Ladies were well known in Alton for many years. Marjorie and Dorothy came to the area in about 1915 and their mother was a became disabled and so she transformed a Victorian bath chair into a carriage that could be pulled by Jenny the donkey. After Ernest’s death, the sisters lived together and became known as ‘The Donkey Ladies’ as they were often seen with their beloved donkeys. ‘Alton Papers’ no.26 costs £3.00 and can be obtained from the Curtis Museum, Alton, (together with other books on local history) or from Jane Hurst, 82 The Butts, Alton, GU34 1RD, + £1.00 p&p. ‘wardrobe dealer’ in Normandy Street. Marjorie married Ernest Glasspool. He

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Searchers

Searche If you would like your request to be included in this section, please submit a brief, but specific, email or letter of enquiry or send a 'Word' based article with relevant names (and particularly your own name and address) detailed in BLOCK CAPITALS to Editor, Hampshire Genealogical Society, Hampshire Record Office, Sussex Street, Winchester. SO23 8TH. Please advise what contact details you want printed in the journal along with your query – email, telephone number, postal address, or via HGS Office, research@hgs-online.org.uk Please be patient as acknowledgement or reply

will not be made except through this journal. Photographs and illustrations are gladly accepted: – 300 dpi resolution jpegs by email attachment or on CD are welcome or laser colour photocopies (never ordinary ones) or black and white original pictures. All can be returned if you request it and supply an SAE. If sending original photographs through the post, please use a protective board envelope. EMAIL: searchers@hgs-online.org.uk and please always quote a full postal address for those without computers. If this is not done, your request may well be disregarded.

Abbreviations used: b = born, bap = baptised, bd = buried, c. = circa, C = Century, d. = died, mrd = married. Members are reminded that these pages are compiled from letters etc. that may have been written months beforehand, so postal addresses should always be checked for up to date changes.

Thomas COMPTON (1769 to 1841, Portsea) Robert LOOSEMORE (1798 to 1880, Southampton)

Avid readers of the HGS Journal may recall an article I wrote in March 2021 (Vol. 47 no. 4) for the Searchers Column, entitled Thomas Compton, Junior (1769 to 1841).

I have been researching my family roots for over 20 years and, after recently finding a DNA match on the Ancestry website, I am being forced to consider “divorcing”, one sixteenth of my ancestral forebears! Worse

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Searchers

still, that part of my family tree bore fruit to the most colourful stories. I will not go into details of his story again but a brief recap:- Thomas COMPTON , Junior, a gentlemen, who lived in Portsmouth and was buried in Bedhampton is supposed to be my 3 x Great Grandfather according to BMD records. His working life in Portsmouth is shrouded in mystery and, when I wrote the original article, I said I was not convinced he was the birth father of his four children from whom I am descended. Based on his father’s career as a Captain in the East India Company, I supposed he might have had something to do with Royal Navy or Merchant Navy and might have been away at sea for longish periods. His father’s, (Thomas Compton, Senior, London) will of 1808 made more than ample provision for all his children but the provision for Thomas COMPTON , Junior was odd because the provision for him of £1500 3% Consolidated Bank Annuities (rather less than that provided for his siblings) was left in trust for him with three of his brothers on the condition that if he was already married or subsequently married without his brothers’ consent then the bequest would fall to his

brothers instead. This rather implies that he did not know of the whereabouts or condition of Thomas COMPTON , Junior at that time and/or that he did not approve of his activities. Following a short career working for the East India Company as a Private Trade Clerk living in Hackney not far from his father’s home and then in 1801 in the service of John BLACKHALL Esq, late Sheriff of the city in Staines, for which he gained the Freedom of the City, he disappeared from all records until he married Merrender Roods PAUL (aged 13½!) in 1809 in Alverstoke. Merrender was the daughter of Mary PAUL and an unknown father. She was baptised on the 23rd January 1796 in Westham Sussex. Her mother subsequently married a widower, Foster ELLIS , a Sergeant in the Artillery, in Westham. The latter was possibly based at Forton Barracks at the time of Merrender’s marriage

and records show he retired in 1816. The next record pertaining to Thomas

COMPTON , Junior is a newspaper report from the Hampshire Chronicle of a court case in the Old George Inn , Buckland, Portsea on 11

November 1816. In this, a jury was summoned on a writ of inquiry to

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assess damages in an action of trespass wherein, Mr Thomas COMPTON , a gentleman residing in that neighbourhood (at Buckland House see map above), was plaintiff, and Foster Ellis (Merrender’s stepfather), Joseph BROWN and Robert MCPHEE were the defendants. It appeared in evidence that on the 6th day of February, 1816, the plaintiff was in his house alone as usual,.. when about 3 o’clock in the afternoon he observed it surrounded by the defendants and several other persons; soon after which defendants assisted a woman (I suspect this would have been Merrender Roods PAUL his wife?) to get over the plaintiff’s wall which surrounds his house, eight feet in height and glass bottled; after accomplishing which, plaintiff hearing some persons breaking into his house, he immediately left it, to seek legal redress. On the next day, he with the assistance of his neighbours, removed the whole of his furniture, and by which means he expelled the party who had continued possession until this period and also done plaintiff considerable injury. After a patient and full investigation, the Jury gave plaintiff £90. I can only assume the couple resolved their differences as they went on to have four children: Lucretia Compton born 1819; Sarah COMPTON born 1824, Thomas COMPTON born 1827 and William COMPTON born 1830. All the children appear to have been baptised in Portsea and the father was always described as a “Gentleman” on the baptism records. Indeed, all their subsequent marriage certificates announced their father as “Thomas COMPTON , Gentleman”. Thomas COMPTON Junior can be found in the Rate Books for Portsmouth pretty

continuously from 1816 up to his death on 23rd December 1841 at Buckland Place. His house was auctioned off on the 12 February 1842 as a residence, then known as “Buckland Cottage. In his will he left land in Penalt near Ross in Herefordshire as well as his house and possessions to his surviving siblings Samuel and Esther. In addition, he left a number of cash bequests to his servants and friends which totalled to some £430. However, the curious thing is that he only left “ Merrender ROODS COMPTON with “whom I some years unfortunately intermarried the sum of five pounds only and no more in consequence of her adulterous and abandoned conduct.” Neither did he mention any of his children in the will. Merrender can be found in the 1841 census (June?) living in a different household in Buckland Place and described as of “Independent” means alongside her daughters aged 21 and 19, similarly described, and Thomas, a “Bricklayer” and William aged 11. Thomas COMPTON Junior appears in the same census, two pages on, living with three servants. None of the Compton siblings mention Merrender or her children in their wills. Why did they separate and why is there such a long gap between the marriage and the birth of the first child? Could he have been involved in the Napoleonic wars and away from the country between 1809 and 1815. Why did he not mention the children in his will? That makes me suspect that he did not recognise them as his lawful offspring. Which brings me on to the DNA match which appeared on my Ancestry account recently (see image).

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Fortunately, the tree was publicly available and so I was able to scrutinise for possible matches with my family surnames. None of the names jumped out at me, but I thought, as LOOSEMORE , is an unusual name, I would have a look at the profile of Robert LOOSEMORE , (see image). This told me that Robert was a mariner born in Bosham, Sussex, in 1798. He married a Harriet Adams in 1817 in Westbourne, Sussex, who died and was buried in Portsea in February 1819. He then appears to have remained widowed until 1829 when he remarried in St Mary’s Church, Portsea in April 1829 to Sarah Green. If the DNA findings are to be relied upon he could be my 3 x Great Grandfather. My 2 x Great Grandmother was Sarah Ann Compton baptised in Portsea in 1824. Did Robert LOOSEMORE and Merrender ROODS PAUL have an affair during the period when he was widowed (1819 to 1929) resulting in one or more offspring. I have not been able to discover much about Robert’s seagoing career during the period before 1829 but he later on he seems to have

been the master of two vessels called the Titania and the Comet which appear in Newspaper records docking variously at Portsmouth, Southampton and Liverpool between 1829 and 1840. Then in 1846 he crops up in Southampton running an inn called the American Hotel for seafaring people in Chapel Road very close to the Itchen River (see map overleaf) and the Itchen Bridge and the American Wharf. The Hotel later became known as Loosemore’s Hotel . He also stood, unsuccessfully, to be a town councillor for the Southampton St Mary Ward in 1848. He died in an asylum in Haywards Heath in 1880 but he left a will in which he was described as a gentleman and according to another descendant he had built several houses and a locations and his occupation make it more than possible that Robert LOOSEMORE is the missing link. This match appeared on my maternal genetic side which means that there would only be 16 possible 3x GGFs for a match. Then on the maternal side, my Chandlers business in Southampton. I believe that the circumstances of his

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grandmother’s family all came from Suffolk and she did not move to Portsmouth until she married my grandfather in 1920 which narrows the likely 3 x GGFs to just 4 couples from my grandfather’s family all of whom lived in the vicinity of Portsmouth in 1800. Also, I discovered that in the 1851 census, Robert LOOSEMORE had, in addition to his seven children, a further “daughter” living with him and his wife. This individual, Caroline HAWKINS , was described as a servant, aged 19 and so born in 1832. Could this be another illegitimate child? In which

case he has form for extra-marital affairs? Clearly, if either or both Thomas and Robert were at sea or abroad for long periods of time, this could account for the gaps between the birth of each of the four “Compton” children and it is more than possible that Merrender could have concealed an extra-marital affair if her husband was away for substantial period. As usual, if any readers, have any ideas, I would love to hear them!

Ronnie Munday (Member #15386) ronjoan.munday@btinternet.com

Harold Fielding HALL

This year, I spent the night of 4th/5th May at the Bell Inn, Brook, in search of ghosts. Harold Fielding HALL died there on May 5th 1917. His death was announced in the Hampshire

Independent a week later in a short article which repeated almost word for word one which had appeared in The Times the day before. Both stated, wrongly, that he had been a coffee planter in Burma. Neither mentioned

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his most famous book, The Soul of a People, about the Burmese, their society and their faith, which is still in print today. Perhaps more surprisingly, his death certificate also contained errors, three of them - his age, name and date of death - which were corrected in August 1917. Amy Edith TYRREL , a nurse from Grosvenor House, Southampton was present at the death, so presumably his health had been poor for a while. But earlier that day Harold Fielding Hall had had another visitor, a London solicitor, Herbert Bowring LAWFORD . He’d been summoned to draw up a new will. Harold had been estranged from his wife for some years, though he maintained occasional contact with his two children, Margaret, ten and John who had just celebrated his ninth birthday. The new will made no mention of wife or children. Instead, everything was to go to Nancy, the four year old daughter of his cousin, Thomas Cyril MYERS , a dentist living in Eastbourne. Perhaps because Thomas Cyril was notoriously inept with money, Harold appointed the Public Trustee as executor to the will, and ‘to invest the residue and stand possessed of the same in trust’ for his heir, little Nancy MYERS . The money was significant because by the time she was 21, Nancy Myers, beneficiary of this death bed change of will, was a Bohemian art school drop out, living in Fitzrovia. She had been unable to finish her studies at the Slade through lack of funds - her parents had not told her about the money that would soon be hers. She was already involved with a young estate agent with ambitions to be a

poet: Lawrence DURRELL . The Harold Fielding Hall money helped pay for their years in Corfu - immortalised by him in Prospero’s Cell and by his younger brother Gerald in My Family and Other Animals. It also paid for publication of works by Henry MILLER and Anaïs Nin in Paris before the war. So that deathbed decision in the Bell Inn, Brook, was significant for more than just his immediate family. Nancy Myers was my mother and I wrote about her marriage to Lawrence Durrell in Amateurs in Eden, Portrait of a Bohemian Marriage which was published by Virago in 2012, the centenary of Durrell’s and her birth. Harold Fielding Hall and his legacy were mentioned there but the mystery of why he had changed his will hours before his death has never been solved. Now I am writing about him, and his extraordinarily complicated and vivid life, both in Burma and in England. I am getting closer to providing a plausible explanation for what happened. Some of the answers, I am sure, are to be found in his connection with the New Forest. For the last years of his life he seems to have had no permanent home. He usually gave his address as 4 Essex Court, which was a firm of barristers (now Essex Court) near the Middle Temple. Occasional letters are from a small hotel in Chagford, Devon and the Grand Hotel, Torquay. And of course, the Bell Inn. Had he been there for days, months, or even longer? Or, since the nurse was from Grosvenor House in Southampton, had he only just turned up there? Who were the owners of the Bell Inn and have any records of their business in 1917 survived? Continued at the bottom of page 25

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A Faithful Servant Newspapers can be a very useful source for finding out information about ancestors. It was a death notice published 12th May 1888 in both The Hampshire Telegraph and the Sussex Agricultural Express that gave me some extra information about Jane BEARD. The notice read ‘ BEARD – on the 2nd inst., at Funtington House, Jane Beard, for 42 years in the service of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Provo Wallis, G. C. B., aged 81 years.’ Jane BEARD was my 2 x Great Aunt and was the first child of William BEARD (1765-1835) and Sarah GIBBS (1775-1854), who had married at Alverstoke on 10th September 1805. Jane was baptised at St Mary, Portsea on 2nd March 1806 and she had two brothers, Joseph (1808-1876) and John (1810-1882) and a sister, Sarah (1816-1889). I imagine, like so many girls at that time, Jane must have started working as a servant at an early age. On the 1841 census a Jane BEARD aged 30 (rounded down from 35) was a female servant living at an address in Kings Terrace, Portsea. There were three households at this property. The first was occupied by Sarah SIMPSON (aged 35), lodging house keeper. The second was occupied by Jane LONSDALE (aged 60), ‘independent’, Alured LONSDALE (aged 35), ‘army’ and Harriett LONSDALE (aged 25) ‘independent’. The third was occupied by Jane JONES (aged 50) ‘female servant’ and Jane BEARD (aged 30) ‘female servant’. It is not clear if the two Janes

According to the notice of her death, Jane must have started working for Provo Wallis and his family around 1846 when he was married to his first wife, Juliana (who died in 1848). He married his second wife, Jemima, in 1849. Jane appears on the 1851 census at a property in Grove Road, Portsea as a maid servant in the household of Provo W P WALLIS , a Captain R N Half Pay, his wife, Jemima, and two adult unmarried daughters (Elizabeth and Julia). The family also had a butler (James JOHNSON ), a lady’s maid (Eliza COX ), a cook (Harriot F BISHOP ), a footman (George FRENCH ) and another maid servant (Mary PILGRIM ) at this address. Clearly Jane had no ambitions to further her position or to change employer as on the 1861 census and at the age of 55 she was still a house maid. By 1861 Jane had moved with the family to a property in Funtington Street, Funtington, West Sussex. According to the census return Provo WALLIS was now Sir Provo W P WALLIS ; Vice Admiral Royal Navy and his wife was Lady Wallis. One unmarried daughter (entered as Miss WALLIS , but would have been Julia, more correctly Juliana) still lived with them. Jane BEARD was recorded

worked for Sarah SIMPSON or the LONSDALEs or whether they worked elsewhere.

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as a house maid, and the household also had a footman (James HEATH ), a groom (Thomas H DEALLER ), a page (Henry HALL ), a cook and housekeeper (Harriet DICKER ), a lady’s maid (Fanny MATTHEWS ) and a kitchen maid (Mary A NEWLAND ). Jane was obviously well settled with this family, whose address in Funtington was now ’32 Private’, Funtington, West Sussex on the 1871 census. Provo W P WALLIS was now an Admiral RN KCB and ‘on active service’. With his wife, Jemima WALLIS , the household comprised a butler (Robert ELEY ), a groom (John DIBBELL ), a footman (Henry HEATH ), a cook (Mary BARNS ), a lady’s maid (Ellen WILMSHURST ), two house maids (Jane BEARD and Agnes WHITE ) and a kitchen maid (Louisa MARTIN ). Robert B W WILSON , described as a 26-year-old nephew, born in Caracas Venezuela and a ‘gentleman living on private means’ was also in the household. Jane’s age was understated by 2 years. On 2nd December 1880 Jane, described as Mrs Jane BEARD of Funtington House, Funtington, made her will, in which she bequeathed all her monies and clothes to her two nieces (Rachel LAMBERT and Jane THOMPSON ) to be divided equally. Rachel and Jane were the daughters of Jane’s younger sister, Sarah, and her husband John LEWIS . The 1881 census for Funtington House, Funtington, shows the household reduced by one servant (the footman) and the groom had become a coachman. Provo WALLIS , Admiral

of the Fleet, GCB and is still entered as on ‘active list’ at the age of 89. He and his wife, Jemima, had 7 servants, including Jane. There was a butler (Robert WORDIN ), a coachman (Thomas BRYCE ), a cook (Mary BURNS ), a lady’s maid (Sarah HUNT ) a kitchen maid (Emma STAMP ) and two housemaids (Jane BEARD and Eliza COLLINS ). Again, Jane’s age was understated, this time by 3 years as by now she was aged 75. This is the last census on which Jane appears.

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It doesn’t appear that any other servant stayed with the family for as long as Jane. Only the BURNS ) is on more than one census return. Jane BEARD died at Funtington House on 2nd May 1888 and was buried in the cook (Mary BARNS or

Funtington Churchyard

lived at that address in 1891. Jane BEARD worked in the household of a man who had a very long and illustrious career in the Royal Navy. Both of his wives came from well-connected families as did his son-in-law. It seems to me that Jane must have been appreciated by him and the family to have stayed in service with them for so long. It also appears that they took the trouble to have her death notice published. Provo WALLIS died 13th February 1892, aged almost 101 and was buried in the churchyard at Funtington. I have seen his grave but did not find a stone marking any grave for Jane. Had I not checked the British Newspapers available on Find my Past I would never have found the information about my 2 x Great Aunt’s service. It has enabled me to put some ‘flesh on the bones’ so that I know a bit more about Jane BEARD , and her employer.

churchyard at Funtington on 5th May, aged 81 years according to the burial register. Her actual age was 82. Administration (with the Will) of Jane’s Personal Estate was granted on 17th July 1888 at Chichester to ‘Rachael LAMBERT (wife of Edward LAMBERT ) of 55 Delhi Street, Fratton, in the county of Southampton the Niece and one of the Next of Kin’ (the other assumed to be her sister, Jane THOMPSON ). The Gross Personal Estate was £291. 5s. 8d. Interestingly the Letters of Administration state that Jane BEARD , spinster, was ‘without parent, brother or sister’ when in fact her younger sister, Sarah (wife of John LEWIS ), the mother of Rachael LAMBERT and Jane THOMPSON , was still alive. 55 Delhi Street was the home of Rachael and Jane’s parents, Sarah and John LEWIS in 1881 and John still

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Some notes on Provo William Parry WALLIS (1791 to 1892) Born 12th April 1791 in Halifax, Nova Scotia the son of Provo Featherstone WALLIS , a clerk at the Royal Navy’s Halifax Naval Yard. His father managed to register him as an Able Seaman at the age of four by convincing the captain of HMS Oiseau to list him on the ship’s books. Hence his years of service are recorded as 1795 to 1892. From 1798 he served on several ships gradually earning promotions. While serving on HMS Shannon during the War of 1812 (conflict fought between United States and its Indigenous Allies against United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its Allies in British North America from June 1812 to February 1815) he served as the temporary captain for 6 days from 1st June 1813 following the wounding of the captain and the death of the first lieutenant. He was promoted to commander on 9th July 1813. While commanding officer of HMS Madagascar on the North America and West Indies Station Provo W P WALLIS earned the thanks of the people of Veracruz in Mexico when he protected them from French bombardment in winter 1838 during the Pastry War (the first Franco-Mexican War 1838-1839). More appointments and promotions followed. Promoted to Rear Admiral in August 1851; Commander-in-Chief, South East Coast of America Station from May to September 1857 when he was promoted to Vice Admiral; appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in May 1860; promoted to Admiral

in March 1863; appointed Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom in July 1869 and Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom in 1870. Provo WALLIS qualified to remain on the active list until he died due to the six days he was in command of HMS Shannon as the temporary captain in 1813. In 1873 he was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath and promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1875. It appears that when he reached his late nineties the Admiralty suggested that he retire, as being on the active list meant that he was liable for calling up for a seagoing command. Wallis replied that he was ready to accept one! Married (1) Juliana MASSEY (?1792-1848), the daughter of the Ven Roger Massey, at Heavitree, Devon,21st October 1817. They had two daughters, Elizabeth Massey (1819 1890) who married Gerrard PERRYN of Trafford Hall, Cheshire, and Juliana (1820 1908). Juliana WALLIS died 28th September 1848 at Southsea and was buried at Barrow in Cheshire. Married (2) Jemima Mary WILSON (1808 1894), daughter of Sir Robert WILSON and Jemima, at Bintry, Norfolk 21st July 1849. She died at Funtington House, Funtington, Sussex on 28th February 1894 and was buried at Funtington as Jemima Mary Gwyn WALLIS Admiral of the Fleet Sir Provo WALLIS , GCB died at Funtington House on 13th February 1892 and was buried in the churchyard at Funtington 18th February 1892. (Various sources including Wikipedia) Marion Gilmour (Member #70)

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