John Damrel mystery solved?

I've found another John Damrel mystery. As we've seen, in 1861 John was living in Poltimore, Devonshire County, 122 miles southwest of where his future wife, Emily Burton was living (see map). He's working as a stable groom.


Seven years later, in 1868, he married Emily, but she continued to live in Tisbury, Wiltshire County, with her father. The question is, in an age when travel outside of your local village was rare, how did these two young people meet? John worked as a horse groom, Emily kept house for her father. It seems unlikely they would have ever crossed paths.

But I found a description of a modern "horse groom" on the web which may be instructive. It says, "Horse Grooms work in a barn or stable and will be outdoors a good deal of the time, in hot, cold or rainy weather when necessary. Although most Horse Grooms work full time, they may not work regular hours as they travel with horses to shows and races on evenings, weekends and holidays."

So if John Damrel's employer raced horses, just 15 miles away from Tisbury where Emily lived is the Salisbury Racecourse, one of England's oldest. Racing has taken place at the picturesque course since the 16th century and certainly must have been operating in the 19th century. Maybe Emily had just traveled from Tisbury to the nearby big city for a day of shopping and ran into the handsome groom at the local tea shop. It could happen.

Perhaps the reason John is missing from the 1871 census is because John's employer does race horses. In 1871, the census was taken on April 2nd. If that date conincided with the opening of the racing season, or even pre-season practicing, John might be on the road, caring for horses at various racetracks, and be missed by the census takers. This would also explain why Emily was living with her father in 1871. In their three years of marriage, she and John simply had not yet established a permanent home yet.

More on John Damrel

John Damrel, Emily Burton's future husband, can be found living in the village of Poltimore in 1861. His address is listed simply as, "Poltimore Stables." After some reaserch, I decided that John was probably working at Poltimore Manor since I was unable to find any other historic reference to stables in the village. Keep in mind that the poplulation of Poltimore was only 250 persons in 1801 and had only increased to 298 by 1901. Ten of those persons, according to the 1861 census, were stud grooms like John. That's probably 4% of the population! Here's the history of Poltimore manor from the Poltimore.org web site:

Poltimore has a long history, starting with the Domesday Book (1086). The manor of Poltimore was gifted to an officer in William the Conqueror's army, one Haimerius de Arcis. It soon passed to the Poltimores who sold it in about 1280 to Simon Lord Montacute. Then on to William Pointington, a canon of Exeter, who gave the property to his pupil John Bampfylde in 1306.

In 1550, Richard Bampfylde started building his Tudor mansion. Part of the original remains. Successive generations built, rebuilt and added to the house. Large changes took place from 1720-1750, in the 1830's and again in 1908 when the ballroom was added.

John was created a baronet in 1641 by Charles I and George was raised to the peerage as the 1st Baron Poltimore in 1831.

In 1646 the Treaty of Exeter was negotiated and signed at Poltimore, so ending the Civil War in the southwest.

George was the fourth Bampfylde to sit as an MP for Exeter, going back to his great grandfather. As a new Whig peer he helped put the great Reform Bill through Parliament in 1832.

The estate was sold in 1921, ending 600 years of ownership by the Bampfyldes. It became a girls school - Poltimore College; then a home for the evacuated Dover College; in 1945 a change to a private hospital and then it became part of the National Health Service until 1975.

Post 1975, subsequent owners were not so careful. For the last 20 years the House has been allowed to decay. It has been vandalised, set alight, looted and pillaged.

The present grounds and many of the standing trees were probably laid out and planted by the famous Veitch nursery in the 1830s. The great Lime avenue may be earlier, planted to celebrate the accession of George I in 1714.

The Poltimore House Trust, formed in 2000, has taken over the ravaged estate and, with help from East Devon District Council and English Heritage, is now seeking end uses and grants to achieve the restoration of Poltimore to its former eminence.

The Friends of Poltimore House were formed in 2004. They help financially, actively and practically in the affairs of the House to achieve the objectives of the Trust.

The Groom

I've run across another mystery in the Burton family. My great, great, great grandfather, Joseph Burton had a son named John who was a mason. John's only child, Emily, married John Damrel (Damerel) in 1868, a man who lists his occupation, at least in 1881, as a "Groom."

Here's the strange part: when the census is taken in 1871, we find Emily and her two-year-old daughter, Tabitha, living with her father John Burton. No sign of Emily's husband. In fact, there's no sign of John Damrel anywhere in the census record for 1871. We see him living with his family in the 1881 census, but he's gone again in 1891. Emily by that time has a house-full of children aged 13 to 22.

So, where does John go? Into the military? On the road with race horses? If he's working as a groom, maybe he has to live on the estate where he works. That, of course, still wouldn't explain his absence in the census record.

The census actually lists John's employment as "Stud Groom, N.D." The "Studd" part was in incorrect transcription of the census data. The initials mean non-domestic. On the web I found that N.D. meant: "private stable yards and facilities where horses or ponies are regularly bought and sold, broken in, schooled, trained, for reward or profit, and/or are used in the course of a business by a professional/competitive rider."

Deciding I'd look further for John Damrel, I searched the census records for the County of Devon, village of Buckland Filleigh where he is recorded as having been born in 1842. To my surprise, in the 1841 census I found a family there, spelling their name "Damerel," who simply must be his family. I found one-month-old John, who seems to have been born in 1841 not 1842, four-year-old Lewis, a grandfather named Christopher, and John's mother Sarah.

Searching further, I pulled up the 1851 census for Buckland Filleigh and found that John's father, Lewis Sr. had appeared as well as his grandmother, Elizabeth (Betty). They'd been absent in 1841, which seems to be a stardard trait for the Damerel family.

In 1861, Both grandparents are present, but Lewis Sr. is missing again. John by now has moved out on his own and is living in Poltimore, Devon, and working as a stud groom.

Back in Buckland Filleigh in the 1871 census we find that the grandparents have passed away and John's younger brother, William, has also taken work as a groom.

I'm really sorry the Damerels are only distantly related to me as they appear to be a pretty interesting family. I still don't know where the various family members disappear to, but it will probably be fun trying to find out.

A great philosophy of life

For many years I have displayed a set of life resolutions on my desk at work. People often ask me for copies, so I know it's a good one. It says every day you should resolve to:

Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace
Make all of your friends feel there is something special about them
Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true
Think only the best, work for the best, and expect only the best
Be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own
Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future
Wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile
Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others
Be too large for worry, to noble for anger, too strong for fear, and to happy to permit the presence of trouble
Now, as I approach retirement, I think it's a good time to renew my resolve to adhere to these ideals.

The Burtons of Tisbury, Wiltshire, England

Here's something interesting. The earliest Burton patriarch I know about, Joseph, had several sons -- John, James, Henry, William, and Thomas. Thomas was my great, great grandfather and the youngest. In the 1851 census, father Joseph claims to be "farming 28 acres" in the village of Tisbury, Wiltshire. Joseph passed away in 1859, at which time the farm was taken over by son William.

Normally, a farm is passed down to the oldest son. Not so in this case. John, the oldest son, became a mason. James, the next son became a carpenter. Next came Henry, who worked as a innkeeper for a time, then moved to the southern coast of England and worked the remainder of his life as a vegetable gardener and general laborer. It's not until we get to William Burton that we find a son willing to take on the family farm. In 1851 we find him working as a hired hand on a nearby farm. Then, in 1861, he we find him farming his father's 28 acres. Oddly, in 1871 he claims to be farming only six acres. No clue as to what happened to the remaining property.

By the time of the 1881 census, William had passed away, possibly without having any children. At that time the farm doesn't seem to have passed to the other sons as Henry and Thomas had moved away by then and James had died. And I found no evidence that John ever left his work as a mason and took up farming before his death in 1893.

Oddly enough, my great, great grandfather, Thomas Burton, continued to work in agriculture, but not in Tisbury where the family farm was located. By 1851 he had moved 30 miles to the north to the village of Monkton Farleigh where he found work first as an agricultural laborer, then a sheppard, and, by 1881, a farm baliff.

So, I wonder what became of the family farm on Hindon Lane after William died?

Great, great grandfather, Thomas Burton

My great, great grandfather, Thomas Burton, was living in the community of Rowde in the county of Wiltshire, England, in 1901. In the 3rd quarter of 1902 he died, reportedly in the Devizes district. I searched the web to see how far the actual town of Devizes was from Rowde and discovered it was less than two miles away. Since I couldn't find a cemetery listed for Rowde, I assumed that he was probably buried in the Devizes cemetery. I found a web site for the cemetery on the web (you can see it here) and sent the cemetery clerk an email asking if Thomas Burton was buried there. The cemetery was opened in 1878, so it definitely was available in 1902. Here's a photo of the cemetery today.


The history of Devizes is quite interesting. I obtained the following information from the Devizes and District Twinning Association website:

The origins of Devizes are lost in time. It is traditionally believed to have been founded by Dunwallo, a pre-Roman British king. It would be surprising, in view of its commanding position on a hill and surrounding prehistoric sites, if it was not the site of fortified earthworks in prehistoric British times.

Excavations for Pans lane railway cutting in 1861 revealed plenty of Roman and Romano-British brica-brac. Roman finds have been recorded in the Southbroom area since 1699. Twenty bronze statuettes and Roman coins were found on the Green in 1714 and when Southbroom Junior School was built in 1960 a Romano-British cemetery was found with burials in lead and stone coffins. This leaves little doubt that a settlement existed to the east of the town in Roman times. After the Romans came the Saxons and Wiltshire became part of Wessex. Then came the Normans and firmer historic ground.

Click here for more information on Devizes.

The Happy Wanderers

Some of you may recognize our Blog's Happy Wanderer theme from the TV show of the same name. Back in the mid sixties, The Happy Wanderers was a weekly travel log sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. The show focused on the backroad-ramblings of a jovial character named Slim Barnard. Each week, Slim and his wife Henrietta motored throughout the southwestern United States in search of adventure and beautiful scenery. And each week they produced a wonderfully artistic map of their travels which was available only at your local Ford dealership. The idea was for families to visit the dealer to pick up their personal copy of the map and get acquainted with all the new Fords. Though I was just a kid, I never missed Slim's adventures and would always prevail upon my mother to drive me to the local Ford dealer to get my maps. I was too young to drive, of course, but was simply planning for the future when I, too, would hit the road in search of adventure. The show employed a very distictive them song which I sing to this very day, usually as I wander the mountain tracks of California's San Gabriel Mountains. The music follows. Click on it once to make it larger. Click on your brower's back button to return to blog.


Here's the rest of the lyrics:

Words by Antonia Ridge
and music by Friedrich W. Moller,
copyright © 1954 by Bosworth & Co., Ltd.

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.

CHORUS:
Val-de-ri, val-de-ra,
Val-de-ri, val-de-ra, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
Val-de-ri, val-de-ra
My knapsack on my back (repeat last line of each verse).


I love to wander by the stream,
That dances in the sun,
So joyfully it calls to me,
Come join my happy song.

I wave my hand to all I meet,
And they wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From every green wood tree.

High overhead the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home
But just like me they laugh and sing,
As o'er the world we roam.

Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die,
Oh, may I always laugh and sing,
Beneath God's clear blue sky.

Click here to listen to the Happy Wanderer theme. User your browser's back button to return to this blog. Be patient, sometimes it takes a moment to start.

Slim was born in 1903 and has been gone from the scene since 1975, but he certainly touched my life way back then. He was the first one to really awaken the travel bug in me and I'll always be grateful. Here's a copy of one of his wonderful maps from his TV series, The Happy Wanderers. All these years later, I still have a large collection them.

Great, great grandmother, Martha Burton

My great, great grandmother, Martha Burton seems to have died in Chippenham in 1913. At first I couldn't understand why she would move away from Rowde where her husband, Thomas was probably buried. But then I noticed that on the 1861 census, Martha mentions that she was born in Allington. Now there are five towns named Allington in England, but I was intrigued to see that there was one just 1.8 miles from Chippenham. See photo below.


So, the question is, did Martha move back to her home town at the close of her life to be buried with her own family? The only cemetery I've come across is called the "London Road Cemetery." I don't know Martha's maiden name, but I'll certainly have to pay London Road a visit and see if I can find my great, great grandmother's final resting place.

Thomas Burton moves to Sandy Lane

By 1891, my great, great grandfather, Thomas Burton was in his sixties and had moved 14 miles away from Monkton Farleigh to the village of Sandy Lane, Wiltshire, which has at various times been voted the prettiest village in Wiltshire. Its rows of stone-built, thatched cottages are the finest in the county. Click on the map below to see Sandy Lane's proximity to Monkton Farleigh



Here's a typical house in Sandy Lane


By 1901, Thomas and his wife Martha were in their seventies and had moved to the villiage of Rowde, some four miles southeast of Sandy Lane. Here, Thomas tells the census worker that year that he was a "retired farmer." I suspect that Thomas and Martha moved to Rowde because their son Albin was living there and farming. Here's a piece I found on the web about Rowde:

"Rowde seems to be one of those communities that have existed for over a thousand years but in many ways do not have a great deal of recorded history. Its name comes from a Saxon word meaning a reedy place and there was certainly a village here in late Saxon times. In fact there was a settlement to the north-east of the village, near Rowde Farm in Iron Age and Romano-British times and, although it is pure speculation to suggest it, there could have been continuous occupation from then through to the recorded settlement in the early 11th century."

Thomas Burton died in 1902, presumably in Rowde, so I hope to be able to find his headstone in a churchyard there. His wife Martha didn't die until 1913, but the district is listed as Chippenham, not Devizes as was true with Thomas. It will take more research to determine where my great, great grandmother Burton was buried.

Great, great grandfather, Thomas Burton

My great, great grandfather, Thomas Burton, lived in the village of Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire, England for many years. On the 1881 census he lists his address as the Monkton Farleigh Church Farm where he was working as a "Farm Baliff." Recently, I found this picture of the Church Farm that is now functioning as a Bed and Breakfast. The converted barn is pictured.


Here's a bit of information on Monkton Farleigh from a Wiltshire government site:

The community was made up predominantly of farm labourers (like my great, great grandfather, Thomas Burton), although there were also clothiers, weavers, maltsters, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, grocers, thatchers etc. There are no registers of occupations until 1700. By the 19th century there was a very rapid growth of the industry of stone quarrying and by 1881 Hobhouse stated that nearly half of the labourers were quarrymen. Bath Stone was sent by rail all over the country. The population in 1801 was 264, and in 1851 was 359 (Thomas Burton moved to Monkton Farleigh some time before 1851).

The buildings of Monkton Farleigh are principally two storey buildings, constructed of rubble or of coursed stone (some maybe constructed by Thomas Burton's son, Joseph the mason). They generally display tall, Victorian type chimneys, with stone slate or tiled roofs. Other points of architectural interest include stone mullioned windows and gables. The King’s Arms retains an early 16th century doorway with a 17th century two storey porch, with original windows and a corresponding projection at the back with a circular stair. The Fox and Hounds Inn at Farleigh Wick has curious courtyard and entrance pillars.

The parish of Monkton Farleigh is situated in the extreme north western bend of an isolated chain of hills, at one end of which is Bradford on Avon and another Chippenham. The ground on which the village stands is from 6 to 700 feet in height (733 feet at the Tower on the Down). There is woodland in the south west corner of the parish, as well as small clumps of trees in other places. There is a park and avenue of elms adjoining the Manor House. The village is situated on high ground in the centre of the parish (four miles north west of Bradford on Avon and five and a half miles east of Bath). The village still commands some fine views, especially eastwards. There is sand and clay in the parish, but the soil is generally known as the stone brash. The quarries of freestone are a peculiar feature of the upper or west end of the parish. The A363 from Bradford on Avon to Bath passes through Farleigh Wick, a hamlet at the southern end of the parish. Sir Charles Hobhouse, in his history of the parish in 1881, stated that “probably in all Wiltshire there is no place where the combination of scenery – hill and valley, wood and stream, distance and home views is more varied and beautiful.”

Joseph W Burton & Eliza Jane (Jefferies) Peacock

I'm always interested to find out how my various ancestors managed to be in the right place at the right time to meet. As I researched Eliza Jane Peacock, I noticed that in 1871 she was working as a servant to the Williams family in Bathwick, Somerset. Then I looked up Joesph Burton and found that he was living in Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire. Here's the map (compliments of MapQuest) that shows where they were each living. (Note, you can click on the map to see it bigger. Use your back button to return to this page).

As you can see, the two were living on either side of the town of Bathampton, just over five miles apart. Maybe they met in one of the local pubs or dance halls in Bathampton. Certainly they could have met on a local train or at the seashore. But Joseph Burton was a mason. He made things out of brick and stone. So, what if the family who employed Eliza Jane as a domestic also hired Joseph to do construction on their property in Bathwick. If so, was it love at first sight?

The Electronic Age

Even though I've made my living off the electronic age for most of my career in Nevada State goverenment, I have still continued to cling to many of the tried and true ways of doing things. This includes, at least until last night, the monthly paying of bills. Last night, for the first time ever, I paid most of my bills via my bank's electronic bill-paying site. Wow, what a revelation!

This is, of course, important because I plan to spend more of my life traveling once I retire. Not being at home to receive and pay bills the old fashioned way could prove a problem. Ergo, pay via the web. Yup, I suspect that things will never be the same.

More on Eliza Jane Jefferies

Since my great grandmother on my father's mother's side, Eliza Jane Jefferies, was adopted by the John Peacock family, I wondered how children came to be adopted in the 1840s. I found the following on the web:

Victorian Definition of “Orphan”
When we hear the word “orphan” we imagine a child whose parents have both died tragic deaths. Indeed, there were plenty of these pitiable creatures in Victorian society – the living and working conditions of the poor were so unsanitary and crowded that diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis often spread unchecked, sending many of their victims to the grave (Czarnik, “Living Conditions”). However, children were often considered “orphans” if they had one surviving parent, had been abandoned by their family, or were forced out into the world because of overcrowding at home (Cunningham, “Orphan Texts”). In 1861, it is estimated that 11% of children had lost a father by the age of 10, 11% a mother, and 1% had lost both parents (Czarnik).

Adoption
A very common fate of orphans was adoption. They were often taken in by relatives or neighbors, and even, on occasion, strangers wishing to raise them as their own children. In England, there were no laws concerning adoption until the 1920s, so most adoption was informal. Children who were adopted by their own social class were usually treated fairly and equally… however, if they were adopted by a family whose status was above and beyond their original class, they were frequently mistreated and neglected. Children of different social classes were not encouraged to fraternize, so if an orphan was taken into a household where higher class children lived, they could be forbidden to even speak to them (Czarnik).

see http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/agunn/teaching/enl3251_spring2005/omf/GREIG.htm for more information on Victorian-era adoption.

Great Grandmother, Eliza Jane Jeffries

My dad's mother's mother, Eliza Jane Jeffries (or Jefferis) was adopted in England by the Peacock family. She was only a Jeffries until she was less than four years old. The 1851 census finds Eliza living with John and Hannah Peacock in Kelston, Somerset, England. I haven't been able to find anything on Eliza's original family, however here's a little history on the name Jeffries:

Ancestry.com says that Jeffries is English, from a Norman personal name that appears in Middle English as Geffrey and in Old French as Je(u)froi. Some authorities regard this as no more than a palatalized form of Godfrey, but early forms such as Galfridus and Gaufridus point to a first element from Germanic gala ‘to sing’ or gawi ‘region’, ‘territory’. It is possible that several originally distinct names have fallen together in the same form.

Searchforancestors.com says that Jeffries is corrupted from Geoffrey or Godfrey, which is German for "from God" and fried for "God's peace", or from Gau and fried, "joyful peace." This name was borne by the chief of the royal house of Plantagenet.

From Jeffrey.com we learn that Rhodri Mawr, or Rodrick the Great was the first recorded monarch of all Wales, he died in 893. On his death, he gave Wales to his three sons, Anarawd became king of North Wales, Cadalh became king of South Wales and Mervyn became King of Powys, or mid-Wales. The history of the name Jeffrey also emerges from these same welsh chronicles. It was first found in Herefordshire where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 AD.

From some of the many early records researchers examined, manuscripts such as the Doomsday Book, the Pipe Rolls, the Black Book of the Exchequer, the Curia Regis Rolls, the family name, Jeffrey was traced in many different forms. Although our name was mentioned in the different records, it was spelled Jeffreys, Jeffereys, Jeffries, Jeffers, Jefferis, Jefferyes, Jefferys, Jeffry, jeffs, Jefries, Jefery.

Well, that's what I know so far. Unfortunately, what I don't know is just what family little Eliza Jane came from. Oddly enough, on the 1841 census the Peacocks were living right next door to the "Jeffry" family, Joseph and Ann, who had a little daughter named "Mary." Did the Jeffry family have another daughter in 1847 (Eliza's birthdate) and then all but Eliza die in some terrible tragedy before 1851? I know the family doesn't show up in the 1851 census. Did the neighboring Peacock family feel sorry for the lone newborn survivor and adopt her?

Or is there another explanation? For instance, my research has turned up a family of "Jefferies" living in the workhouse in Siston in the county of Somerset, only 6 miles from the Peacocks home in Kelston in 1851. Even more interesting, John Peacock claims to have been born in Siston. Could the family in the workhouse have been acquainted with the Peacocks? Might they even have been one-time neighbors? Perhaps the Peacocks offered to help the family out by adopting the new baby whom the Jefferies could ill afford to maintain in the workhouse. Only three adult women, one a grandmother, and six other children are listed in the workhouse. No adult male shows up. Intriguing!