The Hampshire Family Historian | Volume 50 No.2 | Sept 2023

Local Group Programmes

Many artefacts are displayed in the Andover Museum and a 15-foot mural exists upstairs in the Weyhill Fair pub. Tony showed a number of wonderful photographs he has collected and

restored that gave an atmospheric impression of events. (July) My Forward family in Mere – Richard Backhouse

In a late change of speaker, Richard stepped in with a lively presentation about his own ‘Forward’ family who originated in Mere in Wiltshire (c1650-1850). His talk had previously been given to the Mere Historical Society last October. The population of Mere and surrounding areas was often very poor and the talk provided an insight into the lives of a few notable characters using a number of interesting resources for general family history. These included: handwriting issues with signatures; disproving information found in other people’s trees; the 1798 land tax records; voting registers; poor records / overseers and juror lists. Richard also showed a number of detailed newspaper cuttings detailing thefts, property, business notices, violent assaults and a court case, in 1861, which the family lost to a wealthy local farmer. We heard about the published results of voting for a local election held in August 1818. Only male landowners could vote and this included some Forward members. The election saw the Duke of Wellington’s father elected as a local MP – and whose later obituary painted him as a complete scoundrel. It was the Forward family that prompted an article about a person called 'Brought Forward' in a recent HGS magazine article which came about as a result of over-zealous indexing on land tax records in Ancestry. (Incredibly, there is also a ‘Carried Forward’ to be found in the immigration records!). The real family had a striking ‘Forward family chin’ and several photos provided evidence. Frederick Forward was an interesting and worthy ancestor. Helpfully, his name was unique and so any information found was for the right person. Frederick ran a farm, was an overseer of poor payments, payer of the poor rate, a jury member and all round good chap. He supported his family well but was sadly widowed for over 30 years. His daughter, Mary Ann, who turned out to be Richard’s GG Grandmother, was a feisty woman who helped fight off three men who had attacked her father. She also later won a court case for unpaid monies and testified in support of her husband, George Davis, in the lost court case. In the local paper, it was reported, in 1880, that Mary Ann and her husband, George Davis, both sadly died of bronchitis within a week of one another. Forthcoming Meetings:

The Real Downton Abbey

September 14th October 12th November 9th December 14th

Ian Porter

TBA

My Ancestor was a Pirate

Sue Paul - via Zoom

Christmas Festivities

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