Devon Burials, Scottish indexes and #ANZAncestryTime

Picture by Enrique Mesequer from Pixabay

I don't know about you, but sometimes I forget to take my own advice.  I am now looking after my family history society's Facebook page and lots of interesting information gets passed on to me to share with our members.  I'm so busy posting, I forget to follow up some of the leads myself!

This week Find My Past released more records, one of which leapt out at me; namely Devon Burials.  My husband's ancestors come from Devon: the Daws, the Ansteys, the Ellises and the Chambers. That's the surnames.  What about the Christian names and places?

ANSTEY

• Elizabeth - Bradninch, mother of Mary Anstey (1796-?) - nothing leaping out in terms of results
• Mary - Bradninch  (1822-1868) married Thomas DAW Snr (113 results for Mary DAW none in Bradninch) - can't find any results that look like her.
• Thomas - Hockworthy (1787-?) 

CHAMBERS

Mary - mother of Mary Bray Ellis - here is where I went off the track.....I find a Mary Ellis who was buried in Collumpton (not far from Butterleigh - 5.6miles and her husband was born in Collumpton so maybe there was a family grave there)  in 1891.  She died 18 Dec 1891. I think could be the mother of Mary Bray Ellis.  She's aged 77 which means she was born in 1814. This matches the age quoted in other census records.  

Right below her entry in the register is a Joseph Bray buried at Butterleigh, aged 52.  Right, I think to self, there were Brays at Butterleigh. Refer to the previous post where I wonder where the name Bray came from as Mary Bray Ellis' middle name.

East Butterleigh by Alison Day on Flickr 

So the rest of the afternoon is spent looking at census records for Brays at Buttlerleigh and I find...

1851 Census

John Bray - aged 44 - Mason

Emma - his wife aged 44

John his son aged 17

William his son aged 13

Joseph Quick - aged 11

Henry aged 7

and Mary Ann aged 6

Note the middle name for Joseph.

I try to find a marriage for John and Emma but all I can find is one for John and Amy Quick marrying in 1833. So I think they are one and the same person because the timing is right and they give Joseph the middle name of Quick.

I find them in the 1841 Census too.  And guess what?  They are living at Fillbrook Farm.  Remember we found Mary Bray Ellis as a servant at Fillbrook Farm in the 1861 Census.

There are a couple of other Bray families

1851 Census

James Bray aged 36 Ag Lab at Bradninch

Mary - his wife aged 35

Rachel aged 5

William aged 2

1841 Census 

Thomas Bray Dairyman aged 30 at Winham Dairy, Bradninch

Jane - his wife aged 25

Thomas aged 6mths 

So I didn't even look at burials for the following individuals.  I'll have to come back to that another day.

DAW

John

William - Upottery

ELLIS

Elizabeth-Butterleigh

Mary Snr - Butterleigh

Mary Bray - Butterleigh, Goodrington, Paignton

Rebecca - Butterleigh

Robert Snr - Butterleigh

Robert Jnr - Butterleigh

Sarah - Butterleigh

But I did do lots of searching and found that there is a will of William Bray dated 1848 at the Devon Heritage Centre and one for a Robert Ellis of Butterleigh dated 1846 and a record of a Robert Ellis aged 11, apprenticed to Thomas Distin, a farmer in 1828.  Remember that name?  Mary Ann was listed as a servant to Gilbert Distin and his wife Sarah Elizabeth and Gilbert's brother Alfred in 1871 at Goodrington.  Another connection!

So now, madwoman that I am, I want to construct a "map" as it were of all the people in Butterleigh.  It would be silly to do a one-place study from Australia wouldn't it but it's tempting!

William White's gazetteer of 1851 describes Butterleigh as follows:

BUTTERLEIGH is a small village and parish , 3 miles S . S . E . of Tiverton , containing only 155 souls . and 2479 acres of land , rising boldly from a tributary stream of the river Exe . The manor was held for a long period by the Pulleyn and Courtenay families , the latter of whom sold it in 1600 to Sir Simon Leach . It was after wards dismembered , and now belongs to Wm . Hole , Esq . , George Barne , Esq . , Mr . John Pitt , and a few smaller freeholders . The Church is a plain antique fabric , with a tower and three bells . It was repaired about 1600 , by Dr . Peter Muden , a Hollander , who married one of the Courtenays , to whose memory there was a hand some marble monument in the church , but it fell from the wall some time ago , and was broken to pieces . The rectory , valued in K . B . at £10 . 8s . 8d . , and in 1831 at £180 , is in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor , and incumbency of the Rev . John Pike Jones , vicar of Alveton , Staffordshire , for whom the Rev . M . Thorne , B . A . , officiates . The Parsonago is a neat residence in a picturesque valley , and the glebe is 58A . 2R . 26P . The tithes were commuted in 1837 for £95 per annum . The poor have 28s . a year out of Butterleigh mills , left by Robert Winn , in 1800 . 

And then the following worthies are listed:

Berry John, mason and parish clerk

Bray Wm. & Quick Wm. shoemakers

Clist John, sexton

Ferris Wm. smith and wheelwright

Hodge Wm. corn miller

Manning Geo. butcher & vict. New Inn

Quick Edward, baker

Searle George, beerhouse

Thorne Rev Michl., BA.A. curate, Rectory

FARMERS

Carslake Emanuel, Coombe

Matthews Thomas, Cuttisbeer

Parkhouse Abraham, Fillbrook

Pitt John, (owner,) Weygate

Western Richard, Babbages

So that's a whole pile of work I have created for myself.  Stand by for more news on that front.

I wanted to spend a bucket load of money on local history books on the weekend. But I restrained myself and thought perhaps I had better go into the State Library first and see what they have.  What I really want is something like this which has pictures of the local area so I can get a sense of it.

Image by Kamyq from Pixabay - Stirling Castle Scotland

Scottish Indexes

And then, because I didn't have enough to do I thought I would follow up on Scottish Indexes which I've been meaning to look at.

I'm trying to remember how on earth I got there.  I started looking at the Scottish Indexes website I think and thought I would search the Mental Health Records.  I have lost an ancestor Robert Forfar and thought maybe he ended up there.  No joy.  I found some female Forfars but not in the area from which my Forfars came.  

So then I thought that I would just put Forfar into all of the indexes without a first name and see what came up.  Lo and behold I came up with a David Forfar manufacturer of Bannockburn in the Sherrif's court with Catherine Buchan in 1846 pursuing him for aliment.  I don't know who David Forfar is in relation to my family but he has to be related because my Forfars come from Bannockburn.  I order the digital copy ($9.46 Australian) and it arrived less than 24 hours later.  What great service!

Fascinating reading. Basically, David Forfar, the defendant, was ordered to pay Catherine Buchan daughter of Alexander Buchan, spinner of Bannockburn, the sum of two pounds for lying in charges of his illegitimate daughter born on 20 July.  Then two pounds sterling annually for aliment (there's a new word to me) until she reached the age of 12, payable quarterly.  And one pound 15 shillings and fourpence for costs. There's a bit right at the end which seems to indicate that he might have applied for custody of the child too.  Interesting.  

ANZ Ancestry Time

Last but not least, I participated in a Twitter chat with fellow genealogists/family historians on #ANZAncestryTime which takes place on a Tuesday night at 7pm AEST.  If you want to join in next week, check their website here for time zones depending on where you live in Australia, New Zealand or overseas.  Twitter chats are not for the faint-hearted.  I don't use Twitter very often and you have to do your best to keep up with the hashtag chat and respond to people's comments as much as you can either by liking or chatting back.  I commend the facilitators on keeping the discussion going with 5 questions.  The hour absolutely flew by and it was fun meeting and following others with the same passion for this hobby.  

How was your week?