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LINKS TO PAGES RELATED TO ALDOUSES, STEWARTS, SEWARDS, HAWS, WAUGHS, HENDERSONS,

Aldous-Whiting-Seward-Haw-Stewart-Waugh ancestor chart          Recent Ancestors (with portraits)          all census page links     all bmd links

ON THIS PAGE

WHITINGS       POOLES       ALDOUSES         AROUND THE RIVER WAVENEY IN NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK

links to Simon Knott's wonderful websites about       Suffolk Churches       Norfolk Churches

STEVENSONS (CHARING CROSS & GODALMING)        HAWS (WESTMINSTER, OXFORD STREET & ST PANCRAS)

SEWARDS, LIDBETTERS, PAYS, + STEVENSONS, HAWS & AN ALDOUS (HAMPSHIRE & SUSSEX)

and, something completely different,

STEWARTS & WAUGHS (BRECHIN, BELFAST & MELBOURNE)

Ancestors of George and Isabella Aldous

Aldous-Whiting-Seward-Haw-Stewart-Waugh ancestor chart

THE WHITINGS OF SUFFOLK AND NORFOLK

Adrian stumbled across the Whiting line whilst searching Starston St Margaret churchyard for the James Aldous / Martha Whiting vault grave.  He discovered i) what a vault grave was and ii) that there were no less than 5 Whiting gravestones near the James & Martha Aldous vault.  Later, with the help of the Norwich Records Office and Aldous historian Peter Richardson, a series of original Whiting wills going back to William Whiting of Homersfield ( ? - 1683) and his wife Elizabeth ( ? - 1698) were uncovered and photographed. 

 

ch		bu	m	ch		bu	Comments
We have photographed most of the churches and graves - just scroll down to look							*Identified by rogerlwh on Ancestry.    Arthur and Elizabeth are also mentioned in son William’s will.
	Thomas Whiting*
8 Oct 1572 Bungay*	Nicholas Whiting* / Whytinge   Adrian's 10xgrt grandparents	1634*	1 June 1609 S-Elmham St Nicholas (no longer there)		Mary Keble* or Reble
	Arthur Whiting	1678 W? *			Elizabeth*
c1630	William Whiting, Yeoman of Alburgh later of Homersfield	1683 W&I   Likely buried in the same area of Homersfield as his son and grandson.	Banns at Alburgh, then wedding 26 Sep 1654 St Mary, Diss (see photo below)	? 29 Nov 1632 Wymondham ?	Elizabeth Wiseman* of Pulham St Mary, later of Homersfield	20 Apr 1698 W&I   South Elmham St James	The fullest set of oldie Whiting records - Parish register marriage pages, 2 wills and 2 inventories, and Elizabeth's burial.     Elizabeth's father was Richard Wiseman of Pulham St Mary (Virgin or Magdalene not stated but we really like the handwriting in the Virgin P-Register ! )
	All Saints, Alburgh - September 1654 banns for marriage of William Whiting, yeoman, and Elizabeth Wiseman at St Mary, Diss
c1656	James Whiting, Yeoman of Homersfield (bu & will)   Adrian's 7xgrt grandparents	9 Feb 1728 W   Homersfield   Aged 72	7 Feb 1686/87   Tivetshall St Mary	23 January 1666-67   Pulham St Mary the Virgin	Ann Neech of Pulham St Mary, later of Homersfield	2 Jun 1729 W   Homersfield   Aged 63	James and Ann were buried in adjacent graves in Homersfield, close to the south east corner of the church.  Their gravestones (now worn and mostly wordless) are still there - our oldest gravestones.  He got a slab vault, she got an upright about a year later - why was she not in the vault?   Robert Neech and Ann Poole (?), Ann's presumptive parents, both came from the Pulhams when they were married in Diss St Mary on 13 October 1656.  A Robert Neech (Ann's g-father?) signed the c1643 Pulham St Mary the Virgin parish register as a church warden. There are several Neeches buried near the Pooles in Weybread.
	7xgrt grandmother Ann(a) Neech (to be Whiting) was christened in Pulham St Mary (a picture of this most photogenic of Norfolk churches is lower in the page) - in Latin - on 23 Jan 1666–67 (bottom entry on page).
18 June 1688 Tivetshall St Mary (ignore 1694 on marriage licence)	John Whiting, Yeoman of Homersfield when married of Starston (will) / Homersfield (bu)	29 May 1729 W   Homersfield   Aged 41	1723 - Horham or Wingfield, Suffolk   Marriage Licence	1698 from marriage licence	Abigail Musk (or Mush) of Horham when married later of Harleston (will) / Starston (grave)	7 April 1752 W   Starston   Aged 54	This row based on JW age in his birth record.  We suspect he took off a few years for the marriage licence to get closer to Abigail !   John Whiting was buried in Homersfield, and his gravestone is still there (see below).   Abigail's sunken gravestone is in St Margaret, Starston
b 1724 ch 1730 Starston	John Whiting, Gentleman of Starston   Adrian's 5xgrt grandparents	16 May 1771 W Starston	31 October 1749   Redgrave with Botesdale, Suffolk	ch 1719 Fressingfield, Suffolk	m1:  Mary Hart (Munns), widow   m2:  Ann	7 June 1758Admin Starston	Mary's maiden name (Munns) was found in papers relating to the administration of her estate.  We think she firstly married Robert Hart of Botesdale (photo below) in 1741, then as a widow married John Whiting in 1749.   Inscriptions, Notes and Photos from Whiting and Aldous Family graves at Starston   Whilst Mary has a gravestone in Starston, there is no burial recorded in the parish records - maybe the tombstone is a memorial and her body lies elsewhere ....
23 July 1754 Starston	Martha Whiting	24 May 1824 Starston	6 Aug 1782   Redenhall	29 April 1757 Starston	James Aldous Snr Wealthy Merchant	10 May 1810 W Starston
b 7 Feb ch 6 Mar 1785 Redenhall	James Aldous Jnr Brewer, farmer, churchman & community stalwart.	6 May 1859W Redenhall	10 Jul 1809   Mendham	18 Apr 1783 Harleston	Harriette Poole   Lots more about Poole ancestors below	13 Oct 1866 Redenhall	Aldous Family Bible Register   James and Harriette's tomb in St Mary, Redenhall
b 21 Jan 1815 Harleston	Alex James Aldous Wealthy supplier of grog to the Royal Navy, Portsmouth   Adrian's 2xgrt grandparents	28 May 1879 Redenhall	24 May 1855   Buriton, Sussex	26 May 1824 Buriton	Elizabeth Haw Seward Weston (Buriton) Yeoman miller's daughter	28 Dec 1862 Buriton
Alex James Aldous stone coffin grave in St Mary, Redenhall							Elizabeth Aldous (Seward) memorial etc in St Mary, Buriton.
ch		bu	m	ch		bu	Comments
W & I  We have images of mostly original wills and a couple of late 1600s inventories.                 bu - bold type = there is a grave

Whiting Generations - from 10xGrt GFather Nicholas Whiting ch c1572 to 4xGrt GMother Martha who married James Aldous in 1782

St Margaret, Starston

Link to Starston Whiting / Aldous grave photos and transcripts of their inscriptions

LINK

St Margaret, Starston (Nr Harleston) Whiting and Aldous graves.

THE POOLES OF FINCHAM & HARLESTON (NORFOLK) THEN MENDHAM (SUFFOLK)

The Bonds from Bramford.

The Strutts from Diss & Gissing

Unrelated to the Whiting dynasty, we have 4xGrt Grandfather John Poole, successful Harleston draper and father of numerous children, one of whom was 3xGrt Grandmother Harriette Aldous.

John Poole was recorded as aged 70 at his January 1812 Weybread burial, implying a birth year of 1741 or 1742.

After searching several data sources we have come across only one possible candidate:

John Poole, son of Robert & Martha Poole, ch 10 May 1741 in St Martin, Fincham

Whilst Fincham is not next door to Harleston, it's not hugely distant either.  So we have adopted Robert and Martha Poole (Wright) as (presumptive) 5x Great Grandparents.

14 October 1723

Robert Poole (b c1692) of Fincham marries Martha Wright in the church of St George, Saham Toney

Over the next 20 years the Pooles christened at least 8 children

Sarah Poole I 1725–1742 (17)  Buried St Martin, Fincham

Martha Poole 1726 Nov - pre 1737

Robert Poole 1730–1757 (27) Vault slab in St Martin, Fincham

William Poole 1734-1742

John Poole I 1736-1737

Martha Poole II 1738 (m Charles Copland 1758)

John Poole II 1741

Sarah Poole II 1742

It was not uncommon in those days of large families and more early deaths to reuse Christian names from children who had died.

St Michael, Fincham

Just inside the priest's door there is a vault slab with the Memorial Inscription shown on the right.

We know from the burial record in the Parish Register that Robert Poole was a farmer.  His mode of burial also indicates that he was well off, so it has been a disappointment not to be able to locate a will in the Norfolk archives, as this might have established a definite link with our John.

The parish register shows that Mrs Martha Poole, Widow, was buried on 13 October 1788, but she did not make it into the vault - or at any rate onto the vault cover MI.

In Memory

of Robert Poole Senior

who Departed this life the 2nd Day

of November 1749 Aged 57 years

here also lieth Interred the

body of Robert Poole his son

by Martha his wife

who departed this life the 22nd day

September 1757 Aged 27 years

24 January 1769 - John Poole marries Elizabeth Bond in St Mary, Bramford (Suffolk).

LINK

John Poole's first wife was Elizabeth Bond.  Not sure where she was born, but they were married in St Mary, Bramford (Suffolk - near Ipswich) on 24 January 1769 and she then moved up to John's Harleston home.  3 children followed, christened in Harleston - John ch 17 Jan 1770, Elizabeth (to be Whincopp) ch 9 Apr 1771, and Sarah ch 11 Aug 1773 (died 1788, buried in Weybread).

13 August 1773 - Elizabeth Poole (Bond) is buried in St Mary, Weybread.

LINK

On 13 August 1773, just two days after her daughter Sarah's christening, Elizabeth Poole (Bond) was buried under a slab just on the West of the priest's door in Weybread.  Which of course explains why John Poole later (1812) choose to be buried under the same slab.  Meantime, one of their daughters, Sarah, was also buried somewhere in Weybread on 20 December 1788.

9 October 1758 - Mary Strutt Christened in St Mary, Diss

Rescued medieval stained glass - Diss

John Poole's second wife was Sarah Strutt (1758 - 1836 (78)), christened on 9 October 1758 in Diss. 

St Mary, Diss

24 April 1777 - Widower John Poole (35) marries Sarah Strutt (19)

LINK

in Redenhall St Mary on 24 April 1777, when she was 19 and John was 35.  They had about 12 children - earlier ones were christened in the St John the Baptist Chapel in Harleston (part of the Redenhall Parish for record purposes) and later ones in Mendham.

Sarah Strutt had a younger sister Mary, who married Corry Cavell in St Mary, Redenhall in November 1786 (John Poole was bondsman).  Corry and Mary both lived to around their 80s, and inter alia became the great grandparents of the nurse Edith Cavell.

St Mary, Gissing

On 17 April 1779 John and Sarah Poole's first child, Zechariah (sic) was born.  He was baptized in Redenhall (or Harleston) on 8 July 1779.  There were three other Poole entries for 8 July:

It seems that John and Sarah used the occasion of the baptism of their first child Zac, to blend together the three earlier children (John ch 17 Jan 1770, Elizabeth ch 9 Apr 1771, and Sarah ch 11 Aug 1773) of John's first marriage to Elizabeth. 

Sadly, little Zac died in 1785 aged 5.

The parents used the name Sarah again in 1789, and Zac got a second run in 1799.  Zac II later got to be a bag carrier on his brother-in-law Dr Clarke Abel's 1816-17 expedition to central China with Lord Amherst.  He died at the end of March 1819 and a MI is included on the Redenhall tomb slab of his mother Sarah Poole who died in 1836.

Children of John & Sarah Poole baptized in Redenhall / Harleston were: Zechariah (8 Jul 1779), Robert (3 Aug 1780), William (7 Oct 1782), Harriette (to be Mrs James Aldous) (8 April 1783), Thomas (1 August 1784) who sort of takes over the house and drapers' business in Harleston, Martha (4 Dec 1785) (to marry Dr Clarke Abel FRS and travel with him and her sister Jane to Calcutta), and Edward (9 June 1786 - died in 1788).

Children of John & Sarah Poole baptized in Mendham were Sarah (13 April 1789), Mary (3 April 1791),  Catherine (27 November 1793), Jane (20 January 1797) (to marry first cousin Asst Surgeon Henry Cavell in Calcutta in November 1823 - see below), and Zachariah (17 April 1799).

Dates refer to christenings.  This is the original record of Jane's Calcutta marriage to Henry Cavell.

In February 1768 John Poole was 26 and a Master Mercer - apprenticing Jonathon Watson to help him for 7 years in his Harleston shop.  We have looked unsuccessfully so far for information on John's own apprenticeship, which must have commenced around 1756, and when he set up in Harleston.

Records of Apprenticeships between 1710 and 1811 are available because the government taxed indenture payments during this period.  As well as Jonathon Watson (1768) John Pool(e) apprenticed James Cole (1777), Samuel Howlett (1780), Peter Piggs (1783) and Robert Brown (1788).

John Poole - his wives, children and original will

From 1787 John Poole was paying poor rates on "The Old House", still there in May 2014 (and for sale) on half an acre plus (then plus plus) near the Magpie Hotel and the old Harleston chapel / market area.  The recessed windows on the right were probably the shopfront for the (Poole) drapers shop.

It seems that the Drapers business kept going here though John P moved house across the river to Mendham at some stage, and he and son Thomas had a bit of an on again off again ownership tussle.

May 1803 - Have I got a Draper's Deal for you ...

John Poole was buried in 1812 in the peaceful rural graveyard of the round tower church of St Andrew, Weybread (Suffolk), where his first wife Elizabeth had been laid to rest nearly 40 years earlier on 1 August 1773, and their daughter Sarah had been buried in 1788.  Elizabeth and John are buried under a slab next to the priests' door.

The Harleston chapel did not have its own graveyard and would have used the one at St Mary, Redenhall - not as easy to access as Weybread, and at that time none of the family were buried in Redenhall. 

"Mr John Poole, a married man from Mendham, in his 71st year.  January 27 1812." - from the St Andrew, Weybread, parish register

St Andrew, Weybread (Suffolk)

John's second wife - Sarah Strutt (1758-1836 (78)) - Adrian's 4x Grt Grandmother, later chose to be buried in St Mary, Redenhall, becoming a founder member of the group of Aldous and Poole graves there (see below).  She was maybe influenced by her son-in-law James Aldous who was a Redenhall church warden.

After our brief 2014 visit we learned through research done by Peter Richardson that the Poole's slab grave was alongside the south chancel wall immediately to the west of the priest's door, about as close to getting inside as possible. Datewise the Poole slab was the last to be squeezed in to the row of slabs on the west side of the path to the door ! 

The occupants of the other graves in the row are shown below - the table is arranged in date order - not location order.  Elizabeth was a Bond and there were two other Bond slabs in the row.

Maybe some of the slabs have survived in whole or part ??

Photo / Map of the Aldous / Poole Families Group of Graves at Redenhall

Inscriptions, Photos and Notes from the Aldous & Poole Family Graves at Redenhall

John's second wife Sarah Poole (Strutt), 16 years his junior, died in Kentish Town (just north of St Pancras) in 1836, aged 68, and was buried in Redenhall.  Hers was the second of around 10 Poole / Aldous burials in St Mary, Redenhall, between 1836 the end of the 1800s.  In 1838 son Thomas  joined in (his wife Elizabeth had pioneered the patch in 1830), daughters Martha Abel (Poole) in 1860 and Harriette Aldous (Poole) in 1866, plus of course several Aldouses.

We were so lucky to happen upon this scene just after it had been cleared and the gravestones cleaned and recorded in the Autumn of 2011, and most grateful to the small team doing this daunting task!  Sadly, nature has now reasserted itself (May 2014).

Inscriptions & Photos of the grave of James and Harriette Aldous at Redenhall

Inscriptions & Photos of the grave of Alex Aldous at Redenhall

Photo / Map of the Aldous / Poole Families Group of Graves at Redenhall

Inscriptions, Photos and Notes from the Aldous & Poole Family Graves at Redenhall

Inscriptions, Notes and Photos from earlier Whiting and Aldous Family graves at Starston

Aldous-Stewart ancestor chart

THE ALDOUSES OF LOWER NORFOLK AND UPPER SUFFOLK - THE WAVENEY VALLEY

from 1627

There are several Parish Register entries from Starston, Denton, Earsham, Alburg etc in the Aldous-Stewart ancestor chart , most of this information also being in the extensive research work of family historians Peter Richardson and the late Doug Aldous.  In fact the data we have goes back to the year 1400.  Close to the south of Harleston is the River Waveney which marks the Norfolk / Suffolk border and the need to access a much less internet user friendly County Records Centre!

Aldous Generations - from 12xGrt GFather William Aldous ch c1450 to Grt GFather Dr George Frederick Aldous bu 1937

Nicholas Warner 1400 - 1477 (77) (14xGrt Grandfather) was a carpenter in Fressingfield.

His son Thomas Warner 1430 - 1503 (73) also lived in Fressingfield.

The Parish Church of SS Peter & Paul, Fressingfield, Suffolk.

On the south side of the churchyard is the old Elizabethan Guildhall - now "The Fox & Goose restaurant"

William Aldous c1450-1531 (81), Adrian's 12xgrt grandfather and the earliest Aldous we know about, was buried in Fressingfield in January 1531 (when Will Wyght was Vicar and six years before parish registers started), having earlier been a church warden in the 1490s, and there may even be a will.

1477 - William Aldous married Johane Warner (1456 - ? ) in Fressingfield in 1477.  She was Thomas Warner's daughter and Nicholas Warner's grand-daughter..

Timeline perspective - William was 41 when King Henry VIII (1491-1509-1547 (56)) was born.

William Aldous Memorial in Fressingfield

There are said to be several Aldous graves in Fressingfield, but our lot are too old to have survived!

LINK

In 2015 we discovered a website: "Ancestors of Tim Farr and The Descendants of Stephen Farr" which contained a lot of information about William Aldous, taken in part from a memorial plaque that was /is? placed in Fressingfield church by descendant Robert Aldous in 1876.  Our thanks to whoever provided this unattributed pic on the web:

We were actually here in 2014, but did not know to look for this!!  And now ??  That's the downside of living in Sydney, Australia!

Johane Warner, we think, 

was actually christened in c1456 in St Andrew, Wingfield - the "de la Pole church" - during the lifetime of John de la Pole and his wife Elizabeth Plantagenet, whose large tomb now sits in the north chancel.

Next to the altar are the Duke of Suffolk (John de la Pole, bu 1491) and his wife Elizabeth Plantagenet (1444 - c1503 (59)) sister of Edward IV and Richard III.  Both figures were originally painted.

We think that this was also where Abigail Musk married John Whiting in 1723, and several earlier Aldous ceremonies took place here.

William Aldous had 3 sons - Robert, 

Richard and Thomas.  Richard Aldous snr (c1485 - c1559 (74)), a weaver, was married to Agnes Owles and their descendants form our Aldous line.  Robert and Thomas also started impressive lines which have been documented by Doug Aldous and others.  This link relates to the Robert Aldous branch.

Richard was buried on 23 August 1559 in Fressingfield.

1550 - Richard Aldous jnr (1530-1589 (59)) 

was christened in Fressingfield and married there - firstly (Nov 1554) to Margaret Goddertt, and after her death to Margaret Rows on 12 November 1550.  He died in 1589 and there is an unconvincing record of his burial in St Mary, Rushall on 3 June.

9xGrt Gfather George Aldous (1562 - ?)

was one of 2 known children of Richard's second marriage.  He was christened in Wingfield, and married Grace Matchet (1571 - 1651 (80)).  They had 9 children.

Grace, by then a widow (vidua), was buried in Latin in St Mary, Pulham, on 15 July 1651.

We have tried unsuccessfully to locate a Pulham christening or marriage record for her.

Pulham St Mary - one of Norfolk's very best lookers

5 November 1627 - 8xGrt Gfather George Aldous (1592 - ? ) marries

LINK

Ann Saier in St Mary, Rushall - the third entry on the old register - we think!

They had 7 children.

14 October 1672 - 7th child Robert Aldous

LINK

marries Jane Meen in All Saints, Alburgh and they go on to have 5 children.

Eldest son Robert (Aldous but aka Aldys & Aldhowse) is christened in Alburgh on 8 Jan 1673.

LINK

On 24 October 1711 he marries Elizabeth Nudd, at All Saints, Earsham.  They (6xGrts) had just 2 children before Elizabeth died in May 1720. 

Robert went on to marry Elizabeth Ellis in Denton in 1722 and a further three children resulted.

St Mary, Denton - a church that lost its village

30 September 1746 - James Aldhowse /

LINK

Aldis / Aldous (5xGrt) marries Catherine Boar in St Margaret Starston.  Their 6 children are also christened in Starston.

James is buried in Starston on 14 Feb 1775, but his gravestone has not survived.

Catherine lived on for 22 more years, and was buried in Starston, aged 81, on 19 Feb 1797,

6 August 1782 - James Aldous, grocer & 4xGrtG, 

LINK

marries Martha Whiting in the great Priory Church of St Mary, Redenhall.  The only marriage on this register page not conducted by the Rector (Thomas Warburton MA).

St Mary Redenhall from the South

St Mary Redenhall tower from the East

7 February 1785 - James Aldous, son of

LINK

Martha and James Snr, is christened in St Mary, Redenhall, where he is later to be Church Warden for 35 years from 1819 to 1854.  He had 8 brothers & sisters, but only 3 (Mary Leatherdale, John Aldous and Martha Moxon) made it past infancy.

18 April 1783 - Harriette Poole (later to be Mrs James Aldous)

LINK

is christened in Redenhall, as recorded in the Archdeacon's transcript, but the actual physical location was probably the Church (chapel of ease) of St John the Baptist in the market place in Harleston - pictured here c1820.

Most of the records spell Harriette's name Harriet.  However, we have the family bible register maintained by her (see below), and she was definitely Harriette!

1809 - James Aldous marries Harriett Poole by licence

All Saints, Mendham

LINK

Harvest Festival time in All Saints, Mendham- September 2009

on 10 July 1809 in the delightful All Saints Church, Mendham (Suffolk).

The witnesses are Martha Poole (Hariett's sister) and Clarke Abel, who themselves are shortly to marry here.  Clarke Abel, FRS, has his very own Wikipedia entry.  He died in Cawnpore, India, on 24 November 1826, aged just 37.  Martha, who had been living with him in the Government House in Calcutta, returned to England and eventually died in 1860 in Great Yarmouth.  She is buried between her mother Sarah Poole and her brother Thomas in St Mary, Redenhall.

Harleston / Redenhall, just on the other side of the River Waveney and where the Aldouses are to live, is in Norfolk.

10 May 1810 - James Aldous Snr,

LINK

LINK

wealthy merchant, is buried in Starston aged 53.  We have an image of his original will.

Martha his wife lives to the age of 70 and is buried with James in the big brick vault tomb in the graveyard of St Margaret Starston on 24 May 1824.

Inscriptions, Notes and Photos from the Whiting and Aldous Family graves at Starston

Inscriptions, Photos and Notes from the Aldous & Poole Family Graves at Redenhall

21 January 1815 - Alexander James Aldous

is born in Harleston, Norfolk - the third of James and Harriette's seven children.

c 1825 - James or more likely Harriette Aldous list their family on a large piece of heavy paper (23.5cm x 30.5 cm) - probably kept folded in half inside their (disappeared) Georgian family bible.

The main listing in black ink seems to have been written in one go - which must have been some time after Christmas 1823.

Some deaths have been added in a different hand.  The last recorded death date is January 1866. Harriette was buried at Redenhall on 13 October 1866.

Our thanks to Christian Mayne ("The Cuckoo's Nest") who took the trouble to locate and get in touch with us after finding this list in a box of papers.

Aldous Family Bible insert, full size 23.5cm x 30.5cm

Between 1819 - 1854 (35 years) James Aldous is

People's Warden then Rector's Warden of St Mary Redenhall - the "daddy church" of the area.  The tower is at the west end of this great priory church.

"By the time  I reached the church, one of the steeple jacks, who had seen me taking photographs, had come all the way down to meet me and ask if I would like to climb up and enjoy the view - sadly, worried about an already very sore back, I wimped out - but this act of friendly kindness left a really nice feeling inside for this neck of the woods."

Adrian Fletcher, September 2009

Harleston Market Square c 1820 when James Aldous jnr was 35.  The tower belongs to the old Chapel of Ease, aka church of St John the Baptist - a graveless satellite (along with Wortwell) of St Mary Redenhall - the "daddy church".  The Poole family worshipped here (and owned a box pew) before moving residence to Mendham across the river.  James Aldous snr, a contemporary of John Poole, and the Whitings seem to have preferred St Margaret Starston.  By contrast James jnr and family walked / rode the 1 to 2 miles to Redenhall.

Later in the 1800s the tumble down chapel of ease was demolished, and a brand new Victorian model built further back from the market place.  The photo below shows the scene in 2009 - the tower is not the same as the one on the old church.

Down the road on the left is the Swan Coach and Royal Mail Inn.  James jnr's son William Poole Aldous (1816-1861 (44)) was licensee of the Swan Inn between 1851 and 1861, helped by his wife Frederica (who married William Edwards a year after William's early death).

18 September 2012 - road trip starter - the Swan Coach and Royal Mail Inn, Thorowfare, Harleston.  Apart from the cars and sealed road, this friendly streetscape is essentially the same as it was in the 1850s when James Aldous' son William Poole Aldous was the licensee for 10 years, other members of the Aldous, Whiting and Poole families lived and made their livings here in the first half of the 1800s, and like today there was not a chain store in sight!  Churchwise the Pooles owned a box pew at the St John the Baptist Chapel in the Harleston market place before they moved to Mendham All Saints.  The earlier Whitings were around Homersfield St Mary and Alburg All Saints.   Later in the 1700s Starston St Margaret became the church of choice for both Aldouses and Whitings, whilst in the 1800s they all beat or rode a track to Redenhall St Mary - one to two miles away.

Minutes of Harleston town meetings and meetings of the "management committee" from 1820-1850

LINK

James Aldous was a leading light of the town committee which ran Harleston's civil affairs and was a forerunner of today's town council.  Duties included setting, collecting and using the poor rate, and appointing town officials such as constables and overseers.  The link leads to minutes of a meeting on

7 September 1829 where poor children aged 13/14 were allotted to local jobs - the community looking after its own. We have photographed several dozen pages of this fascinating book - one day we will ....

Trade Directories for Harleston and Redenhall

LINK

1830 & 1839 - Pigot & Co Directories of Harleston with Redenhall include James Aldous (then aged 45) with his brother John as Brewers & Porter Merchants, Maltsters and Wine Merchants.  Our man is into vertical integration as he and John are also the licensees of "The Grape Tap".  His name reappears in the 1845 and the 1854 Whites, and the 1850 Hunt's Trade Directories - latterly at age 65 as farmer and bank trustee as well.  The 1830 directory also lists Harriette Aldous' brother Thomas Poole as a linen and woollen draper.

Census records start in 1841

1841 - James Aldous, wine merchant and

LINK

Adrian's 3xgrt grandfather, is living with his wife Harriette and four grown up children in Narrow Street, Redenhall (a mile or so to the east of  Harleston).  The stately priory church of Saint Mary in Redenhall was the real church for Harleston, which, despite being a prosperous medium sized market town, only had a graveyardless chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist (since demolished and replaced by a "proper Victorian church").  James Aldous was church warden (people's then rector's) of St Mary's Redenhall for 35 years from 1819 to 1854.  His wife Harriette Poole came from Harleston (she had lived in "the Old House" which is still there) then later Mendham (see above), equally close but on the other side of the Norfolk / Suffolk county border defined by the River Waveney.  The area was (/is) rich farmland, with several mills on the river.

1841 - Alexander Aldous, the

oldest son of James, is lodging with Edmund Stokes, wine merchant, at Portsea - "learning the trade" - the first "Portsea link" (see below).

Very grateful thanks to Peter Richardson for all the help he has provided in relation to Aldous family history and how to produce reliable family research results,

and to Theresa Palfrey of the Norfolk Records Office for finding wills, parish records and even an early 1800s Harleston citizens' committee minute book.

1851 - James Aldous

at Thow-fare (now Thoroughfare Street), Harleston - 2 daughters left at home.  The Grape Tap pub, which James had run with his brother John, was around here somewhere.  Down the road (the large red brick building) was (and still is) the Swan Hotel, which in 1851 was run by James' son William Poole Aldous.

1851 - Alex Aldous is a visitor / lodger

at Boarhunt (pron Borunt) Farm, in South Hampshire.  He will marry Elizabeth Seward of Buriton (Hampshire) in 1855.

28 March 1853 (Easter Monday)

Minutes of a Vestry Meeting at St Mary, Redenhall, chaired by the Rector - the Venerable Archdeacon T J Ormerod MA - where James Aldous is (re)elected Church Warden.

1 May 1859 - James Aldous dies aged 74

and is buried in Saint Mary, Redenhall, where he has been church warden from 1819 - 1854.

13 October 1866 - Harriette Aldous (83)

buried in St Mary, Redenhall. 

Inscriptions & Photos of the grave of James and Harriette Aldous at Redenhall

Photo / Map of the Aldous / Poole Families Group of Graves at Redenhall

Inscriptions, Photos and Notes from the Aldous & Poole Family Graves at Redenhall

Inscriptions, Notes and Photos from earlier Whiting and Aldous Family graves at Starston

Aldous-Stewart ancestor chart

EARLIER IN LONDON and GODALMING (Surrey), meet the Stevensons

10 October 1776 - Elizabeth Stevenson marries

LINK

Thomas Seward from Wisborough (called Westbury in the record) Green, Sussex, in the relatively recently rebuilt (1724) church of St Martin in the Fields, Charing Cross - before Trafalgar Square and the railways were invented and when an Eleanor Cross was still there.  Elizabeth (and presumably her parents) were parishioners of St Martins.

St Martin in the Fields - 2014

The 1813 will of Thomas Seward included this clause  - "whatsoever other tenure situate lying and being at Godalming in the County of Surrey which became the Estate of my said wife as heir at Law or as only Child and next of kin of her father Thomas Stevenson deceased". 

Which gave us  "Thomas" and "Godalming" clues in addition to the fact that in October 1776 Elizabeth (and presumably her dad Thomas) were parishioners / residents of the parish of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster, though at present nothing else related to London has been uncovered. 

We originally thought the Elizabeth's parents were:

Thomas and Henrietta Stevenson (  ).

BUT WE WAS WRONG

LINK

As well as their daughter Elizabeth, Thomas and Henrietta had 7 boys - all of whom were christened in St James, Piccadilly (aka St James, Westminster) between 1740 and 1751 - we have copies of most of the parish records of the christenings.  St James was a 1684 Wren church, sadly flattened in WW II by German bombs, then rebuilt.  It's the church you can do a shortcut through to get from your Jermyn Street shirt shop to your Piccadilly Arcade jeweller. 

Two 1740s legal documents at the National Archives refer to Thomas Stevenson, Draper of St James, and his wife Henrietta.  In November 1749, Thomas Stevenson, Draper, is living in King Street, St James when he casts his vote in the general election.

In the light of the Thomas Seward will, we realized that we had alighted on the WRONG STEVENSON FAMILY ....  such is the adventure of family research .....mother S was Mary, not Henrietta, and they had one or two daughters and no sons!

These are the deaths of "the right Mum & Dad Stevenson" (we are pretty sure)

Mary, wife of Thomas Stephenson (sic)

Thomas Stevenson (widower)

On 19 August 1806, Elizabeth Seward,

What their earlier London connections were remains to be unravelled.

LINK

LINK

LINK

was buried in SS Peter & Paul, Godalming, on November 3 1796 (no age shown)

was buried in SS Peter & Paul, Godalming, on April 5 1803 (no age shown).  He had 1803 assets of around £1,500 but it looks as though he had no will

daughter of Thomas Stevenson and wife of Thomas Seward of Buriton, was made Administratrix of the estate of Thomas Stevenson by the Commissary Court of Surrey.

SS Peter & Paul, Godalming

ALSO IN LONDON ..... the Haws

of Westminster, Oxford Street and St Pancras.

1763 - Elizabeth Shaw - William Haw's

future wife is born in London (date from her New Church St Pancras burial record).

1764 - William Haw, Samuel Seward's father-in-law, is

born in London (probably) (date deduced from information on Buriton memorials).  He becomes a successful carpenter then builder based in Petty's Court, Hanway Street, which still links Oxford St and Tottenham Court Road - then in the parish of (Old Church) St Pancras.  We have copies of the ledger entries for the insurance cover for his buildings in the early 1800s (see below).

1790 - William Haw marries Elizabeth Shaw in

LINK

St George's Church, Hanover Sq, Westminster, on 14 October 1790 - and they both signed the register.

1792 - William Haw pays Land Tax on a property in

Pettys Court, Hanway Street (at the junction of Tottenham Court road and Oxford Street).  Haw Land Tax payment records relating to Hanway Street go through to 1831.

26 August 1791 - Elizabeth Seward (Haw) -

LINK

Samuel Seward's wife to be - born in St Pancras, London (third from bottom of parish register page).

8 July 1819 - the opening paragraph of the insurance ledger entry for property owned by William Haw et al occupied by a bookseller, jeweller, a stay maker, a Chinaman, a victualler and a jeweller.

Sun Insurance Ledgers are kept in the London Metropolitan Archives

21 April 1818 Bill Haw gets the

LINK

Freedom of the City of London

1821 - Samuel Seward (34) marries

LINK

Elizabeth Haw (29) in the Old Church, St Pancras, London on 6 March 1821.  How did they meet, one wonders ?

The River Fleet, second largest London river after the Thames (and hence Fleet Street), still flowed past Old Church, St Pancras c1828.  The river is now completely undergrounded, the church has been rebuilt with the tower in a different place, and most of the Old Church's huge graveyard has been swallowed up by St Pancras Station.

1825-26 William Haw, builder, of

LINK

5 Hanway St (/ Oxford St), appears in the Pigot & Co 1825-26 London Directory.

1829 - Elizabeth Haw (  ) snr dies aged 63

LINK

in the Haw pad in Petty's Court, Hanway Place (/Oxford St) London on 18 December 1829, and is buried in the crypt of the new St Pancras Church on Euston Road (consecrated in 1822) after Bill Haw paid £17 10s 6d.  Looking at the rest of 1830 in this book,  £17 10s 6d was the going rate for a new church crypt slot, the only exception on this page being Jessie Farquhasson who was, after all, very little.

Maybe Bill Haw had been involved in the building of the new St Pancras church ?

The crypt of the St Pancras Church is now (2015) a gallery.  The church informed us that it does not know what happened to the coffins.

1831 - Last records of Haw Land Tax payments on

Pettys Court, Hanway Street (at the junction of Tottenham Court road and Oxford Street) property(s) where William has lived for 39 years. 

Widower William Haw then moves

out of London to live with or near the Seward in-laws in Weston (Buriton) or nearby Petersfield.  He dies aged 75 on 17 June 1839.

We have an image of the ledger copy of William Haw's October 1835 9 page will, which we have not yet had the stamina to transcribe.  No probate value yet.

Aldous-Stewart ancestor chart

FURTHER SOUTH, THE SEWARDS, LIDBETERS AND PAYS OF SUSSEX THEN HAMPSHIRE ARE JOINED BY A  STEVENSON, AN HAW AND AN ALDOUS FROM FURTHER NORTH

2 April 1711 - John Seward, draper, of Alton (Hampshire) 

marries Ann Pay in the Holy Rood Church, Empshott (Hampshire) - this from the Winchester marriage licence records, though we also have an unexpected competitor in a 1711 marriage licence record from Huntingdonshire.  The latter looks unlikely as there were several Pay siblings around Wisborough Green and Seward siblings around Alton.  Even though there were lots of Sewards around Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire, we think this transcription from a Boyds Index is a miss for some reason!

29 April 1714 - Thomas Lidbetter marries

Adrian's 6x Grt grandmother Elizabeth Evans in the little castle church of St Nicholas, Bramber (West Sussex).

St Nicholas, Bramber

11 February 1719, Hannah Lidbetter, Adrian's 

5x Grt Grandmother is christened in Bramber, St Nicholas.

1 July 1742 John Seward (the Elder),

LINK

Adrian's 5x Grt Grandfather and son of John the draper, marries Hannah Lidbetter in the Norman Abbey church of St Andrew, Steyning (Sussex) (which in those days consisted of just the old Abbey nave - no chancel)! 

St Andrew, Steyning

Brewhurst - N of Wisborough Green

Earlier 1700s - Yeoman John Seward the Elder

and his wife Hannah (a member of the extensive Lidbetter family of Bramber / Steyning) lived in West Sussex to the north of Wisborough Green, in a farm called Brewhurst, with an adjacent water mill.  They both still exist, just to the east of Loxwood, which then had a little old cemeteryless chapel of ease, and relied on a long and potentially dangerous cross woodlands trek to the Wisborough church for christening marriage and burial ceremonies - followed no doubt by a pint or two at the Cricketers' Arms.

We have the 1799 will of widow Hannah Seward (Lidbetter), by then living back in Steyning, but no will yet for hubbie John the Elder.  There are also several papers in the National Archives relating to land deals (including in Kirdford where John's son John lived) involving Sewards, Nappers, Pays, Lakers, Stevensons and others.

7 November 1750 - Thomas Seward, Samuel's father, christened

LINK

in St Peter ad Vincula, Wisborough Green, Sussex, which today has a restored stone altar and an uncovered fresco illustrating medieval pilgrims.  Yeoman Thomas was the third son of Yeoman Tenant Farmer John Seward the Elder and his wife Hannah.

10 October 1776 - Elizabeth Stevenson, daughter of

LINK

Thomas and Mary Stevenson, marries Thomas Seward (28) in the church of St Martin in the Fields, Charing Cross (before Trafalgar Square was invented).   Adrian's 4xgrt grandparents.

A CENTURY IN THE HAMPSHIRE SUN

the Hampshire (Buriton and Weston) Sewards and their century in the Hampshire sun gets under way.

25 January 1787 - Samuel Seward,

LINK

is christened in St Peter ad Vincula, Wisborough Green, Sussex.  At this stage dad Thomas was living in and managing a 225 acre Wisborough Green farm called Brewhurst and a one acre mill called the Mill Garden.  In 1804 Samuel (17) skips over the county border to the farming hamlet of Weston (near Buriton, Hampshire) with his dad Thomas and family, becomes a tenant yeoman farmer on 600+ acres thereabouts, builds a humungous windmill, burns lime, plants hops, runs sheep and does lots of other enterprising things, and eventually dies in Weston in 1867 aged 80 (see below).

1806 - Elizabeth Seward (Stevenson) buried

"Petersfield" but more likely Buriton.  No graves have been found for Elizabeth or Thomas.

1813 - Will of Thomas Seward

ORIGINAL

TRANSCRIPT

Thomas died in 1817.  His will is how we knew about Thomas' father-in-law Thomas Stevenson.

1821 - Adrian's 3xgrt grandparents Samuel Seward (34)

LINK

and Elizabeth Haw (29) get married in the Old Church, St Pancras, London, on 6 March 1821.  The second  "London Liaison" for the Sewards.

Old Church, St Pancras c 1828 - now riverless, radically remodelled and overshadowed by St Pancras Station.

1824 - Elizabeth Haw Seward, the future Mrs Alex Aldous

LINK

and to be Adrian's 2xGrt Grandmother is christened in the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Buriton on 26 May 1824.

1839 - William Haw (Adrian's 4xgrt grandfather) dies

aged 75 in Buriton (Hants) on 17 June 1839 - and becomes the first occupant of his south door sarcophagus (unless he had Mrs H moved down from the crypt of New St Pancras - see above).  Buriton parish church of St Mary the Virgin

Over the years that followed, more bodies and inscriptions were added to the sarcophagus, and several expensive memorial tablets took over the south aisle of the church - then the Haw money must have run out!

Census records start in 1841

Link to photo page about the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Buriton,

and its Haw and Seward memorials and tombs

1841 Census - Samuel Seward, Yeoman (Farmer),

and Adrian's 3xgrt grandfather, his wife Elizabeth, and 8 children including Elizabeth jnr are farming, hopping, milling, burning lime etc at Weston (nr Buriton) Hampshire.

1841 Census - Adrian's 2xGrt Grandfather Alex Aldous, son of Harleston wine merchant

brewer and church warden James, is lodging with wine merchant Edmd. Stokes in Portsea and and learning how to get on with wine and the Royal Navy's drinking needs.

1851 Census - the Seward family still working the farm

at Weston nr Buriton.  Daughter Elizabeth Haw Seward is 26 and will become Mrs Alex Aldous before the next census.

1851 Census - Alex Aldous now a lodger at

Surgeon George Creed's 472 acre Boarhunt (pron Borunt) Farm.

1855 - Alex Aldous (39) marries

Elizabeth Haw Seward (31), in the Buriton Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin.

1858 - Elizabeth Seward (66), London born

LINK

mother of the new Mrs Aldous dies -  the Buriton parish church of St Mary the Virgin has a memorial wall plaque in the south aisle and her body was added to the great sarcophagus vault-tomb outside.

1861 - George Frederick Aldous born

in Portsea 24 August 1861.

1861 - Census time again - Samuel Seward,

now a widower, hosts recently married daughter Elizabeth, her husband Alex Aldous and young children at the Weston (Buriton) farm.  He is employing 38 men and 8 boys on his 685 acre farm.

1862 - Elizabeth Haw Aldous (38) dies from

LINK

scarlet fever on Christmas Day 1862, along with young son James William (2), leaving two little motherless children behind - Florrie (4) and George (1) - the Buriton parish church of St Mary has memorial wall plaque in the south aisle.

1866 - Alex Aldous remarries - Mary Gray

in March, Cambridgeshire - it does not work for Florrie and George or reportedly Alex's own happiness !

1867 March - Florrie (9) and George (5) in the earliest family photo we have.  They had been 4 and 1 when their mum died. 

1867 - 25 November - Samuel Seward

dies aged 80 - the Buriton parish church of St Mary the Virgin has a memorial wall plaque in the south aisle and his body was added to the great sarcophagus tomb outside the south door.  The Weston farm business is taken over by his eldest son "Colonel" Samuel William Seward.

1871 - Alex Aldous and Mary in Portsea

with three servants and kids off at boarding schools.  He is to die an unhappy 63 year old early 1879 after Mary gives birth to a son Hubert (Bertie) whom the family are "certain" was not fathered by him, and to whom they give the surname Banks - they say the real father.  Mary later remarries (not Mr Banks but RN Fleet Surgeon Henry Sedgewick) and they have a daughter Louise.  Bertie, a surgeon, dies a 78 year old bachelor in 1952 and leaves £20,000 in his will  to build statues of Nelson and teach sea scouts how to swim - but wait, he can't have as his estate was valued at under £16,000 - never believe those family stories!

1871 - Florrie (13) is at Matson House

School, Richmond. 

1871 - George (9) is also away

at Brent Bridge House boarding prep school in Hendon.  Thanks to Peter Richardson for discovering him lurking under the transcript (and handwritten) name "Aldhouse".  "Aldous" seems to attract transcription errors!

1879 - Alex Aldous dies (aged 63) worth "under £35,000"

BURIAL

PROBATE

in Portsea, a very wealthy but unhappy man.  He is buried beside his siblings and parents in St Mary Redenhall, near Harleston, where his father James had been church warden for 35 years, although Alex was living in the parish of St Kevin in Portsea (no longer any trace of that - Kevins seem to come and go, as they say in Oz).  His name is on some of the Buriton monuments to his wife and children.

1881 census - George Frederick (20) back in Portsea

as a (lonely?) lodger -  Mum and Dad have passed on, but it's maybe sad that he could not find a home with one of the nearby Sewards.  GFA (now transcribed as Aldons) is a medical student at St Barts, London, whilst his sister Florrie (23) is visiting a retired Rear Admiral's family in Croydon.

1881 - 1882 George Frederick just maybe

meets 17 year old Isabella Stewart whilst she is travelling in Europe with her parents.

1885 - George Frederick Aldous, aged 23, 

admitted to British Medical Register on 6 May 1885.  Qualifications (1885) are  Lic Soc Apoth Lond, Memb R Coll Surg Eng, Lic Coll Phys Lond.  He studied at Barts in London.

1885-7 - Dr G.F.Aldous working as

LINK

Resident Medical Officer, Middlesex County Asylum, then Surgeon, Orient Steam Navigation Co - maybe this was this how he met his future wife - "the family" sort of thought he could have been a ship's doctor - but "the family" track record for accuracy is not great!

1887 - George Frederick Aldous (26)

marries Isabella Henderson Stewart (22) of Melbourne at Saint Stephens Church, Gloucester Road (London) on 7 September 1887.  Isabella's father James Cooper Stewart and "Ma" (Amelia Henderson Stewart (Waugh)) came over from Melbourne for the wedding and signed the register - there would have been another Steward trip diary, but it has disappeared.  Their names will be on ship passenger lists somewhere - Isabella with a one-way ticket.  Don't think she ever went back to Australia after this!

1891 - 27 March - Clare (Ch Claribel) Stewart Aldous,

LINK

Adrian's Grandmother is born - the second of George and Isabella's four daughters, and the only one to marry.

1891 - 1901 - 1911 Censuses

LINK   LINK

LINK

Doctor George F Aldous, his Australian wife Isabella, and their 4 growing daughters (Isabel (1889), Claribel (Clare) (1891), Madeline (1894) and Geraldine (1897)) in Charlton House, Compton Gifford, Plymouth (see photo below).

1897 - Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

admits George as a Fellow.

1901 - Florrie (43) is now married (8 August 1885) to

a surgeon who rose to become a Surgeon General in the Indian Army and RAMC - William Budd (seriously, and he's not American, that's his mother's maiden name) Slaughter, the son of a doctor in Farningham, Kent. 

For the census she has been left with young children Cicely and Maurice in Portsea - where she was brought up and the recurring town name in the Aldous / Stewart pages - James Stewart (below) is to die in Southsea ( /Portsea) in 1919 on a visit to his daughter May Watson (who married a Navy Officer).  There were other little Slaughters, like Claude (b1889), a daughter named Eileen Mary mentioned in brother George Aldous' will, and possibly others.

Adrian's maternal grandparents Sproule marry

1915 - Clare Aldous marries Jimmy Sproule

in Emmanuel Church, Compton Gifford (Plymouth) - a Victorian church a couple of hundred yards down the road from the Aldous home ("Carlton House" - now a nursing home - photo above). 

They had met when Clare had been detailed to do hospital visiting duty by her dad and was told to cheer up Jimmy Sproule - then a patient.  It was love at first sight - so much so that when Clare started feeding Jimmy a meal she absent-mindedly ate it herself whilst gazing into his eyes.  Or so they say!

c1921 - George Aldous retires at 60 and pretty much immediately leaves his "working life town" of Plymouth to live in Harrow-on-the-Hill.

The family moves from Plymouth to "Deanhurst" - 1 St Johns Road, Harrow (London) (now the site of a Best Western hotel).  Grandchildren Peggy and Brian Sproule stayed here during school holidays at times their parents were stationed overseas (often), but, certainly for Peggy, it was not much fun.  George is described in the telephone directory as "Major RAMC" (though he was never a regular soldier!).  He had a twinkle in his eye and (usually) a cigar or cigarette or pipe in hand or mouth!

Isabella and George Aldous and their Grandson Brian at "Deanhurst", Harrow c1932

1937 - George Frederick Aldous

1938 - Isabella Henderson Aldous (Stewart)

dies on 27 September 1937.

dies on 5 July 1938.

Aldous-Stewart ancestor chart

BACK IN TIME AGAIN - TO THE

STEWARTS, WAUGHS AND HENDERSONS .....

THE BELFAST, BRECHIN (SCOTLAND) AND MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA) CONNECTIONS

The Brechin, Belfast and Melbourne connections.

NOTE:  There are more early document links for James Stewart's wife, parents, parents-in-law and earlier ancestors in the  Aldous-Stewart ancestor chart.

and don't overlook the richly illustrated easy to read - James Cooper Stewart (his illustrated story) which includes material about Robert and Isabella Waugh.

c1800 - Robert Waugh

is born in Old Park, Co Antrim (now within the Belfast area).  His NSW entry papers say his father, also Robert, was a Miller, Farmer & Land Steward.  No luck so far with Belfast records or with finding a Victorian Death Certificate which would identify him, his marriage, or his parents.

1803 - Isabella Waugh (Henderson)

is born in the Belfast area, the daughter of James Henderson and Amelia Henderson (Shanks or McGill - both names appear in records, she could have been a widow when she married James).  The Hendersons are a leading Belfast Presbyterian family - churchmen, proprietors of newspapers (Newry Telegraph then in the mid 1800s the Belfast News Letter) and later knighted Belfast Civic Leaders.

c1827 Robert Waugh (baker) marries

Isabella Henderson in Belfast.  We have not yet found a record of the event yet.

1838-39 Robert Waugh, baker, and his wife

Garrow passengers:

LHS    RHS

NSW Entry Papers (1839) for Robert Waugh, Isabella Waugh & 3 sons, and baby Waugh

Isabella, both from Belfast (she was a Henderson), and 3 boys James, John and Robert join the 500 ton Barque Garrow to travel from Belfast to Sydney on 9 November 1838 as assisted immigrants.  Two young children, Mary Ann and Alexander, have died earlier.  Isabella has another son en voyage and he is 5 weeks old on arrival in NSW. The baby is named Henry Golding Waugh, after (almost) the Royal Navy surgeon who delivered him at sea - Harry Goldney.  They dock at the Sydney Quarantine Station on 2 March 1839 and shortly afterwards transfer to another ship, the John Barry, to travel on to Melbourne where they arrive on the 28 April 1839. 

Luckily for them a certain James Cameron and family were also on the John Barry, which means that there is now more information about Robert on the web site of all the "Barry People" put together by Cameron's 3xGrt-grandaughter Elizabeth Jansen.

The UK National Archives have (November 2010) released a fascinating series of copies of surgeons' log books - this one relates to the Juliana which arrived in Australia just after the Waughs - May 1839 - click on the image to download (around 20 mb).  

It is now possibly to access the Garrow logs as well but not on the web.

1804 James Cooper Stewart's

LINK

grandparents - James Stewart (House Painter) and Elizabeth Hamilton - marry in Edinburgh

1804 James Cooper Stewart's

LINK

father, also James Stewart (House Painter), is born in Dundee.

1811 May Falconer,

LINK

James Stewart's mother, is born in Montrose

Scottish census records start in 1841

Back in Scotland, if you want a masochistic hour or ten, try looking up James Stewart in the Scotland's People data base - and marvel at how many of them there are and of these how many were house painters!

1833 James Stewart Snr and May Falconer

LINK

marry in Brechin (Scotland)

1836 James Cooper Stewart

LINK

is born in Brechin (Scotland).

1841-1851 James Cooper Stewart

LINK   LINK

is living with his father James snr (master house painter) and family in High Street, Brechin (Scotland).

1861 - The Stewart family (minus James)

LINK

James snr (master house painter) and family in 62, High Street, Brechin (Scotland).

1867 - May Stewart (Falconer) (Adrian's 3xgrt

LINK

grandmother) dies in Brechin

1867 - James Stewart Snr (Adrian's 3xgrt grandfather) 

LINK

dies in Brechin

1838 - Robert Waugh establishes a bakery

in the newly (March 1837) named Melbourne.  He is recorded in a rare surviving page from the Port Phillip section of the 1841 NSW Census, with four other males and his wife in a wooden dwelling.  Also in 1841, Kerr's Almanac shows him baking in Queen Street.  He was assigned convict helpers - John Heaton (came 1832 on the Camden),  John Lloyd (came 1836 on the Moffat), and later Patrick Tierney (came 1840 on the Recovery).

1841 - Amelia Henderson Waugh (Adrian's Grt 

LINK

Grandmother) is born in Melbourne (which was part of NSW until Victoria was invented on 1 July 1851, which was happily for them the start of the 20 year Victorian Gold Rush).

By 1843 the Waugh family and bakery have moved to Bourke Lane (aka Little Bourke Street) in Melbourne .....

Their properties in Little Bourke Street were rented out by Isabella after Robert's death, and are listed in her probate valuation along with her house at 44 Lygon Street, Carlton.

"Robert Waugh, Shop Bourke Lane, a Burgess in Burke Ward".  Source - The Port Phillip Herald Fri 8 Sep 1843

"R Waugh, jury for Supreme Court Thur 15 Feb 1844". Source - Melbourne Weekly Courier 24 Feb 1844

"Robert Waugh did not answer when called upon for duty as Special Constable by His Worship the Mayor 21 Oct 1845.  72 were enrolled, with all publicans exempted".  Source - Port Phillip Herald 23 Oct 1845

1847 - Robert Waugh listed as a Baker

LINK

in Bourke Lane, Melbourne (1847 Port Phillip Almanac and Directory - link to full transcript).  Specifically he owned numbers 22, 22½ and 24 Little Bourke St East.

10 July 1856 - Robert Waugh (Adrian's 3xgrt grandfather) dies 

in Melbourne aged 56 - paperwork not discovered yet in the Victorian BMD records, but his burial is recorded in the books of Old Melbourne Cemetery where he was buried.  He signed his will in a weak hand in the nick of time.  He never met his future son-in-law ......

1857 - James Cooper Stewart emigrates

LINK

to Melbourne aboard the "fastest ship in the world" - the clipper Marco Polo, and records the experience in a lengthy diary.

19 June 1860 - 2xGrts James Stewart (24) and

LINK

Amelia Waugh (18) marry.  Scottish lowlands Presbyterian marries Belfast Presbyterian in the garden of her widowed mum Isabella Waugh in Collingwood, Melbourne.

1865 - Isabella Henderson Stewart (GrtGm) is born

LINK

at 2 Regent Terrace, Moor Street, Fitzroy (Melbourne).  Regent Terrace (20-26 Moor Street) was then owned by a John Michael from whom James was presumably renting.

1868 - James Cooper Stewart,

LINK

solicitor, partners up with Alfred Brooks Malleson in Melbourne.

12 August 1872 - Isabella Waugh (Henderson) (Adrian's 3xgrt grandmother) dies,

LINK

WILL (10MB)

VALUATIONS

"The Argus" (Melbourne) Tuesday 13 August 1872

on her 69th birthday, in  her house at 44 Lygon Street, Carlton (Melbourne).  They really knew how to have useful information on death records in those days in Victoria.  She was buried (presumably beside Robert) in the Old Cemetery, Melbourne.  The Waughs were not reinterred as the Old Cemetery was overbuilt, so their bones are still rattling around somewhere under today's Queen Victoria Market which steadily took over the cemetery site.

1881 - 1882  James Stewart, wife Amelia

and daughter Isabella make an extended Grand Tour + to France, Italy, England, Ireland and Scotland.  Somewhere it seems Bella (aged 16) may just have met medical student George Aldous (20).  We have the original dairies of the trip, which are being scanned / transcribed.

1885 - 1886 James Cooper Stewart is Mayor of Melbourne.

Mayors of Melbourne on Wikepedia

LINK

Image courtesy of the City of Melbourne Art and Heritage, photographer Louis Porter

7 September 1886 - Mayoress Amelia lays

LINK

the foundation stone for the new Princes Bridge in Melbourne.

photo: Emily Bradburn (Fletcher)

1887 - a year of marriages

LINK

15 June 1887 - Gordon Robson Stewart (1862 - 1906 (43)) marries Isabella (Belle) Galbraith (1860 - 1918 (57)) in the garden of her parents home in Kew (Melbourne).  RECORD  Gordon, a partner in James' legal practice, died aged just 43 in 1906.  James Stewart took over the financial support of Gordon's wife and four children, who now have many descendants in Australia.

12 July 1887 - George Alexander Waugh Stewart (1864 - 1938 (74)) marries Isabella Robina Rutherford (1866 - 1939 (73)) in the Scots' Church, Melbourne - Rev Joseph Hay officiates.  RECORD.  George was named after Amelia's younger brother who died of croup in 1845, aged 2.  George and Belle had just one child - Aimee, who did not marry (she died in 1958).  At the end of WW II I was living with my mother, sister and grandparents in Old Bell House, Somerton (Somerset), and I remember receiving food parcels from Aunty Aimee in Australia - including "fresh" eggs in felt lined wooden egg boxes - remembered because some of them were broken! (I being Adrian Fletcher)

1887 the Stewart trio (Dad, Ma and Isabella) returns

The mid 1800s Victorian church of St Stephen,

Gloucester Road, London

LINK

to England to marry Bella (now 22) to Dr George Aldous in Saint Stephens Church, Gloucester Road (London) on September 7th 1887 - there would have been a diary for this trip also but it has yet to emerge.  At this stage we have no idea how George and Isabella met - though in the 1888 (UK) Medical Register he is described as "Surgeon, Orient Steam Navigation Co" and may have journeyed to Melbourne in this capacity.  Neither do we know why the wedding was in London !

1892 - The Stewarts build then move in to

"Edzell" (2)  at 76 St Georges Road, Toorak (Melbourne, Australia) - and still there.  "Edzell" (1) had been in Barker's Rd, Kew (Melbourne).  The original Edzell is a picturesque castle-town near Brechin.

This must have been just about the last big house building project from the Melbourne mega-boom times of the 1870s and 80s. In 1890 everything started to fall over and by 1892  there was 20% unemployment and much of the commercial landscape (including banks) was no more.  It was over ten years before any weak signs of recovery emerged.

1900 - Isabella's two sisters marry - 

21 July 1900 - A six months' pregnant Ethel Amelia Stewart (1880 - 1950 (70)) marries stockbroker's clerk and cricketer Cyril Vernon Grey Staples (1876 - 1936 (59)) from Melbourne, in St Michael's Church, Burleigh St, Covent Garden (London - no longer there).  RECORD.  Belle Stewart was one of the witnesses.

18 December 1900 - May Falconer Stewart (1877 - 1957 (80)) marries Lt Cecil Francis Lacon Watson R.N. (1873 - 1940 (67)) from the Isle of Wight in St John's Church, Toorak (Melbourne).  RECORD.  James Cooper was a witness.

1903 - Amelia Stewart (62) dies in Barnes

on a visit to England, to see her 3 daughters (she was staying with daughter Ethel Staples).  All told she had given birth to 13 or 14 babies, of whom tragically at least 7 did not make it past the age of two.  After this a lonely James Cooper asks son George to give up his farm and move in to share Edzell with wife Belle and daughter Aimee.  Older son Gordon, who has followed his dad as a partner in Mallesons, dies in February 1906 aged just 43, leaving wife Belle and four children to be financially supported by JC in addition to the settlements he had made for his three married daughters.

26 August 1911 -  James Cooper Stewart (75)

"An Old Bowler" - Christmas 1909

He should have stuck with the bowling!

LINK

marries 31 year old Sydney divorcee Edith Rosa Francis Cowling (née Muston) in the Scots Church, Melbourne.  George - the only Stewart son now alive (except the absent Fred) is holidaying overseas, uninformed and apoplectic with rage when he finds out what the old man has done ....... In fact for several years father and son did not speak to each other.

"The family" later say Edith Rosa is a widow with 2 daughters, though the marriage record  reveals she is a divorcee and company director with no children.  In fact she is English - born in Portsmouth, Hampshire in 1880, then married in Queensland in 1900 - after which she and her pearler husband John Cowling became two of the 8 (white) voters living on Maubiag (now Mabuiag) Island - in the Torres Strait, half way between the top of Australia and PNG.  Hubbie No 1 gets the flick after she moves down to Sydney and sets up a hair and beauty clinic called Hygeia - helped by her formidable mother Louisa who at this stage has moved to Sydney leaving two dead husbands in England. 

Here's one of her ads (from a New Zealand newspaper) the second ad is just there for fun:

"Edie" later claims (probably accurately) that from the start of her second marriage she is snubbed by Stewart's surviving son George and Mrs (Belle) George, and in fact all the good burghers of Toorak, so to alleviate her loneliness she takes off, bankrolled by JC, and has a good time on the boat and in New York, London etc. - twice.

Eventually the Stewart v Stewart divorce case in front of the Chief Justice of Victoria provides Melburnians with lots of  titillating press reports in September 1916.

A sad contrast to the trauma his grandson-in-law is suffering on the Western Front in WWI.

No one in the Stewart / Aldous family was particularly interested in what then happened to Edith Rosa.  She died (still surnamed Stewart) in Forrest Hill, Melbourne on 6 August 1940, aged 60.

1919 - James Stewart (83) dies in Southsea

WILL

PROBATE 

(next to Portsea / Portsmouth, England) whilst staying with his daughter May Watson who has married a Royal Navy officer.  He is thought to be buried next to Amelia somewhere in Barnes.

The illustrated story of James Cooper Stewart

LINK

(1836 - 1919 (83)) and his parents-in-law Robert and Isabella Waugh from Belfast.

Stewart Family Portraits - 1886

LINK

the page also includes a photo of Mayor James and of Mayoress Amelia Stewart laying the foundation stone for the Prince's Bridge on 7 September 1886 (though it's only Mayor James who is clearly visible) and that is not all .......

"Edzell" the c1892 Stewart Palazzo

LINK

at number 76 St Georges Road, Toorak (Melbourne, Australia) - one of the very few grand houses remaining, earlier 2008 plans to restore it as a house seem to have evaporated ......... It was next sold in 2011 and the inevitable sub division plans followed in late 2012 ...

1919 Will / Probate for James Cooper Stewart

WILL

PROBATE

Descendants of James Cooper Stewart

LINK

Details of the marriages of the Stewart sons and daughters and a list of descendants from the data base compiled by Adrian Fletcher - afletch at paradoxplace dot com

1915 - Aldous-Sproule Marriage - Wednesday 28 July 1915.  Emmanuel Church Plymouth, Devon.

PHOTOLINK

Clare Aldous (24) marries Jimmy Sproule (27) as England moves into trench warfare in France, where doctor Jimmy was to spend much of the 1914 - 18 World War I running Field Ambulance units, latterly serving the trenches of the Welsh (38th) Division on the Western Front.  He was mentioned in despatches and decorated for bravery under fire by both England and France.