Sarah Gye of the IOGT

Sarah Sophia Gye Was born in the spring of 1864. We can find her on the 1871 census when she lived on Stobbarts Road in Market Lavington with her parents, James and Mary Ann and her three sisters. James was a carpenter.

On 25^th February 1874, Sarah became a member of the Lavington Juvenile Temple of the Independent Order of Good Templars. You can read more about this organisation here.

Sarah Gye of Market Lavington is initiated into the Independent Order of Good Templars in 1874

By 1881, Sarah had left Wiltshire. The 17 year old lass was a kitchen maid at a house in Westminster in London.

Our next record is ten years on. Sarah was, by then, a servant in Hove, Sussex.

Sarah married in 1899. Her husband was James Weston. At the time of the 1901 census, James was a Hackney Carriage driver and the couple, with baby son Francis, lived in Kennington in Surrey.

By 1911 another son and a daughter had been added to the family. A fourth child is recorded on the census as having died.

After that date, with the family not in Market Lavington, we have no records. Maybe someone can help.

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The Wiltshire Friendly Society

The Wiltshire Friendly Society was (and still is) a mutual assurance company. These days it is based in Trowbridge but from the time it was founded, in 1828, there were members from across Wiltshire including Market Lavington and Easterton.

Market Lavington Museum was recently given a medallion from the early days of the society.

Wiltshire Friendly Society Medallion at Market Lavington Museum

The Friendly Society logo on the other side of the medallion

We are not sure what this item was for, but the hole, to make it into a medallion looks like an afterthought and it was not well done.

The good thing about this organisation is that they kept records of quite a meticulous kind and, as many members of the society were born before National Registration began in 1837, the details about members can be very useful to family history researchers.

The Wiltshire Family History Society is the place to go for actual records. They hold the database and make it available to members and non-members of their society.

The table below is just a small part of what is a huge database. Wiltshire Family History Society has much more information than this.

HISCOCK,Frederick George	Market Lavington	1865
HISCOCK,William Henry	Market Lavington	1864
HOBBS,Charles	Market Lavington	1846
HOBBS,Charles Benjamin	Market Lavington	1867
HOBBS,George William	Market Lavington	1871
HOBBS,James	Market Lavington	1868
HOBBS,William	Market Lavington	1846
HOLLEY,Charles	Market Lavington	1850
HOPKINS,James	Market Lavington	1853
HOPKINS,John	Market Lavington	1846
HOPKINS,Joseph	Market Lavington	1859

Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes

In times past, the society oddly known as the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes was active in Market Lavington. The name is odd, because the society has, and never has had royal patronage. Neither is it antediluvian in the sense of Noah’s flood. The first branch was formed in 1822. It is also hard to know what it had to do with buffaloes. It is one of those vaguely closed societies who look after the interests of members – but also do all sorts of charitable work.

Today we look at a medal – one of a number we have in Market Lavington Museum.

Medal belonging to a Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes member. It can be seen at Market Lavington Museum

On this medal and ribbon we see a monogram – RAOB and also the letters GLE – Grand Lodge of England. There are clearly some buffalo horns.

For us, it is the back of the medal which provides more interest, for this names the recipient.

The medal belonged to T Gye of Cemetery Lane, Market Lavington

We can se this medal was awarded to Brother T Gye by the Enterprise Lodge number 3599, for attendance.

We think this medal dates from about 1930.

So who was T Gye? Clearly, he was not ‘our’ Tom Gye, widower of our founder curator Peggy, for he’d have been only a lad at the time. We know that the medal was given to us by a daughter in law of ‘T Gye’ and her name and relationship proved enough to identify the medal owner. T Gye was actually William Thomas Gye. He was a market gardener who lived at Homestead Farm, Cemetery Lane – now called Drove Lane. You can click here to learn more about the farm and the family.