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

Local Group Programmes

Forthcoming meetings in the Meeting House unless stated otherwise:

September 20th Send in the Gunboat Kevin Patience The true story of the Royal Navy skirmishes on the East African coast against the slave trade in the late 1800s. When Britannia ruled the waves and kept the peace, culminating in the 45 minute bombardment of the Sultans palace at Zanzibar in 1896 that became known as the shortest war in history and a curious Dorset connection. October 18th My Seafaring Ancestors Kay Lovell - via Zoom November 15th Agricultural Labourers Ian Waller - via Zoom December 20th Christmas Festivities In the afternoon

Contact: Phil Brown (interim) Email: romsey@hgs-online.org.uk

Romsey The group is now discontinued. The following Group reports will be the last.

Reports by Ros Boon: (May) Members’ Q&A Session

Our acting group coordinator Phil kicked off proceedings with an update about the parlous state of our HGS and he stated there was an urgent need for volunteers to replace long serving members of the Executive Committee who, for various reasons, were stepping down. He also told us that our Romsey group ‘was on the endangered list’ as currently no-one has come forward to take over from him or form a new committee to run the group. We then moved on to our Q&A session which touched on a South African 1820 settler family and then the very interesting story of one member who is seeking the early life and parents of his great grandfather, as the paper trail goes cold. Members had many opinions about possible avenues of exploration, but it seems that most had already been followed. We also heard about Phil’s family story of Royal Naval Admirals in his paternal line but all he can find are Lieutenants, so the evening ended on a humorous note, but there is much to concern us in terms of the longevity of our Society. (June) Timsbury Triangle – Richard Backhouse Phil Brown again kicked off the evening for us and then introduced Richard, who subtitled his talk ‘An 18th century tale of scandal and intrigue over twenty years’ and so it proved; it was a tale of the two grandfathers of one Elizabeth Jewell, Thomas Rogers born c1724 and Peter Jewell senior, baptised 1725. When Thomas Rogers died in 1783, he left his wife a small inheritance, but he then mentions a single woman, Elizabeth Pearce, and their son Benjamin Pearce Rogers who received

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