The Reverend Frith

Also some Coleman Family History

We have seen this photo before – or rather this composite photo which shows the Market Lavington Vicar with a wonderful name (The Reverend William Blackstone Cockayne Frith) hovering over St Mary’s church in the village.

The Reverend Frith and Market Lavington Church on a card posted in 1905

It’s a lovely image and we rather expect Alf Burgess enjoyed putting it together.

What makes this card different is the family history contained in the message.

The back of the card

The card was sent to Miss A Coleman and was posted in Chippenham at 10.45 pm on May 27^th 1905. Although posted in Chippenham the writer has given his address as Chapel Gardens, Easterton and he has sent this card to ‘Dear Sister’.

‘Just a line wishing you many happy returns of the Day’

With the speed of postcards in 1905 it’s a fair bet that Miss A Coleman’s birthday was the next day – 28^th May.

After a quick ‘hope you are well’ the card is signed by ‘your loving brother Charlie’

What is effectively a PS then goes on to say that ‘Stephen and Alice had a son this morning.’

 

Alice, Charlie and Stephen are three of the children of William Coleman, a shoe maker and one time Town Crier for Market Lavington. Alice was in service in Kensington, working as a cook. Charlie, as we saw, lived in Easterton where he was a Baker. Stephen was living in Market Lavington where he worked as a groom and gardener. The son born that day was also Stephen – the father of the person who has let us copy the card but understandably, with so much information he wishes to retain the original for the family.

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Reverend Jack Collins

John Brenton Collins, known as Jack, was the Vicar of Market Lavington between 1953 and 1958. The London Gazette reported that in 1954 he also held the job at Easterton.

Extract from the London Gazette

The only photo we have is of him and his wife receiving a presentation in 1958.

Mr and Reverend Jack Collins in 1958

The following piece about Jack came from Oliver Clutton Brock.

My interest in the Rev John (“Jack”) Brenton Collins comes because I’m writing a book on a particular POW camp in WW2, namely Stalag Luft VII (Bankau). Collins was captured at Tobruk in June 1942 when he was attached as chaplain to a Royal Artillery regiment. He spent many months in Italian POW camps, and then ones in Germany & Austria before being sent to Stalag Luft VII in November 1944.

When the Germans evacuated the camp on 19 January 1945, in the face of the advancing Soviet armies, they did so in one of the coldest periods of weather that it’s possible to imagine. The long column of some 1,600 prisoners were marched on foot, in a more or less westerly direction, through extreme icy weather with little food and barely any shelter, usually no more than a leaky barn with a dirt floor. This lasted for the best part of a fortnight. All the while the Rev Collins walked up and down the line of tired, hungry, frost-bitten men giving them encouragement, and they thought that he was one of the finest men they had ever known, particularly because he must have walked twice the distance that they did. And they walked around 150 kilometres.

I’m told that he was born on 26th May 1906 and that he died in or near Leominster in October 1992.

He studied at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and rowed in three successive victorious Boat Race crews in 1928-30. At 6′ 4″ and over 14 stone he was the heaviest man in either boat in each of the 3 years. Do people remember him being that large?

The book mentioned was published in 2013. It is called The Long Road.

Reverend Allsopp’s children

The Reverend Allsopp was the first Vicar of Easterton. He was appointed in 1876, arriving with wife and the first of what grew to be a large family. We have a photo of Richard Allsopp’s youngsters.

Children of Reverend Richard Allsopp, first Vicar of Easterton

This picture was taken outside the Vicarage which was on Vicarage Lane and is now called Easterton House. The children are (in age order and with years of birth), Frederick George (1874), Richard (1876), Marian was born in about 1877, Margaret in 1878 and Jerome in 1880. Next came Dorothy in 1881, Robert in 1883, Francis in 1885, Agnes in 1886 and Joan in 1887.

The picture dates from about 1889.

We think Jerome is the lad in light clothes in front of the cart. Jerome, sadly, was killed in World War One. In 1901 his dad had become Vicar at West Lavington so he is recorded there, rather than in Easterton where he spent his childhood.

The following comes from Richard Broadhead’s book, ‘The Great War – Devizes and District Soldiers’.

Regular soldier Jerome was the third son of the Rev. Richard Winstanley Allsopp the vicar of West Lavington and Harrietta Baker Boileau Allsopp. He was educated at Stubbington House School where he was a keen cricketer. He was training in engineering at the outbreak of the South African War when Jerome joined the Imperial Yeomanry where he was given a commission and was severely wounded at Philippolis and received two medals with five clasps.

In May 1902 he was posted to the 1st Battalion South Lancashire Regiment and served with them in India until November 1916. While in India he married Gertrude Hilderbrand at Bombay and served as Adjutant of the South Lancashires from 1912 to 1915. He was given command of a company in March 1914 and promoted to Major and was sent to the Western Front in January 1917. In April 1917 he was given command of the 8th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment and led them at the Battle of Messines in June 1917 and the Third Battle of Ypres in August 1917 where he was mentioned in dispatches three times.

He was wounded during the latter and returned to the Front in November 1917 and in February 1918 he was transferred as commanding officer to the 2nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment with whom he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in April 1918.

Jerome was killed in action on Monday 27 May 1918 near Bouvancourt, northwest of Reims, France, during the Third German Offensive.

He is remembered on the Soissons Memorial and has no known grave.

 

The Reverend Mayow Wynell Mayow

We met this gentleman yesterday in connection with a letter he wrote regarding a family emigrating from Market Lavington to Australia. With the name drawn to our attention, let’s find out some more starting with the list of vicars just inside the church.

The most recent Vicars at Market Lavington. The list is in the church.

We can see he was vicar between 1836 and 1860 – a run of 24 years.

In seeking information we come up with that regular snag. The 1841 census for Market Lavington has not survived. However, we have a copy of the tithe apportionment which was drawn up in 1840 and we can find Mayow listed on that.

A section of the 1840 tithe apportionment document

From this we see that our Mayow occupied the church and yard himself, along with the Vicarage house and garden, a barn and yard and the Vicarage meadow as well as an area called The Brow. Other parts of his glebe lands had tenants in occupation.

Now the numbers refer to an area shown on a map. We do not have a map at the museum, but we have photographed the one at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham.

The centre of Market Lavington on the 1840 tithe map

This part of what is a huge map shows the centre of Market Lavington. Plot 76, the church and yard is easily found for the church is a large building shaded in grey. The Vicarage shown (number 123) is now a part of the Nursing Home and is near the right hand end of this piece of map. It has plot 124, the barn and yard next to it and the Vicarage meadow (126) behind it stretching away to the Northbrook Stream. The Brow is an area behind that, rising up onto the sandstone slope above the Northbrook.

So from the 1840s we know where Mayow Wynell Mayow lived but we know nothing about him or his family.

Fortunately, there is an 1851 census. This shows Mayow as Vicar of Market (or East) Lavington. He had been born in London in about 1811 and had married, locally, Caroline Kate Smith who had been born around 1825 in Oxfordshire. The couple married in 1846. By 1851 they had three children, Elizabeth Ursula was three, Philip Stafford was two and the young Mayow Wynell was one.

The Reverend Mayow left Market Lavington. In 1861 there were three more children, all born in Market Lavington, but the family were in Kensington. In 1871 four children were at home, which was now Brighton, although Mayow was rector of South Heighton and Tarring Neville – both near Newhaven in Sussex.

In 1881 the family had moved to Halstead in Kent. Mayow, now about 70 was still the rector in that Kent village.

In 1891 Mayow seems to be alone, living in the Southampton area. He died in that area in 1894.

Interestingly, Caroline who seemed to drop off the radar can be found in Rowde near Devizes in 1911. The actual address is Braeside, Devizes. Her widowed daughter, Market Lavington born Elizabeth Ursula is with her.

Caroline died in 1912.

A letter to the Bishop of Melbourne, Australia

We are truly lucky at our museum in Market Lavington. Items arrive with us from all over the world. A recent visitor was Julie from Australia who brought with her a letter taken out by her ancestor when he emigrated with his family in 1852. The letter was written by the oddly named Mayow Wynell Mayow who was the vicar of Market Lavington at the time.

The first part of the letter is based around a form so no doubt such communications were not unusual.

Form letter from Mayow Winell mayow, Vicar of Market Lavington in 1852

Here we see that the Reverend Mayow was commending John and Lucy Sainsbury and 6 children to the care of the Church of England in Melbourne. Interesting to note he refers to Market or East Lavington.

He then writes about the members of the family.

More details about John Sainsbury and family who were emigrating to Australia in 1852

Here we are told that John Sainsbury has not been confirmed and does not take communion. Lucy (née Head) has been confirmed but did not take communion for many a year and has recently started to take communion again. He expresses a wish and hope that this will continue in Australia.

He goes on to say a word about the six children (getting his numbering in a muddle).

Information about the six children (a seventh was born in Australia)

Basically, we have Henry aged about 15, Charles – age not given but about 13, Clara Anne, aged 9, Elizabeth Thirza aged 6, Thomas William aged 3 and Matthew George Frances aged 1.

What a fascinating letter, and how useful to a genealogist.

By the way, we can confirm that this branch of the Sainsbury family is on our huge Sainsbury tree and now, thanks to our donor, Julie, we can correct an error on that tree and extend down through to the 39 grandchildren of John and Lucy.

Reverend Sturton

John Anthony Sturton was Vicar of Market Lavington for more than thirty years at the start of the twentieth century. It seems amazing that we know so little of this man.

He was born in Little Bedwyn  in 1874 so he was a Wiltshire man.  His Father was Vicar of Little Bedwyn. In fact church service seems to have been a norm in the Sturton family. Certainly John Anthony followed in his father’s footsteps and on the 1901 census we find him as a clergyman in Lyme Regis, living in lodgings, so probably a curate. He became Vicar of Market Lavington in 1906.

By 1911 he was in Market Lavington with his mother and a brother who was also a member of the clergy.

John Sturton married in 1916. He and his wife, Iva, had no children.

We have a couple of photos of Reverend Sturton and this is one of them.

Reverend John Sturton, Vicar of Market Lavington, on his motorbike at Salisbury.

This is said to be a charabanc trip from Market Lavington in the 1920s. The picture was taken in Salisbury. It looks as though Reverend Sturton has joined the party on his motorbike. He has a youngster in his sidecar.  The bike, by the way, is a BSA. The lamp on the sidecar looks as though it might be an acetylene one. We have a lamp like it in the museum.

We have not positively identified any of the people on the charabanc but we wonder if the large man sat next to the driver might be Fred Sayer who owned the bus company.

After he retired in 1940, John lived in Easterton. He died in 1945. He is buried in Market Lavington churchyard. Iva joined him there in 1958 and his brother, Thomas, followed in 1960.

That Robin Burgess Wedding again

Not forgetting Elizabeth Burgess

It is probably not surprising that the village photographer’s wedding was well photographed. Here we have what may have been the full set of guests

The groom and bride we have met before. Robin (whose name was actually Robert) Burgess was the son of Alf and he took over the photography business, with brother George in 1918. Elizabeth (known as Nellie or Queenie) was a Burnett from Easterton.

The wedding of Robin Burgess and Nellie Burnett took place at Easterton Church

The wedding, in 1921, took place in Easterton. The Reverend King officiated and is one of the guests shown in this photo taken in a cottage garden in Easterton.

Reverend King of Easterton was one of the guests

This is the only picture that we have of Reverend King. His name lives on in ‘Kings Road’ for it was this good chap who managed to get the road surfaced. It was important to him as it linked his vicarage with his church, in one direction and Devizes in the other.

It isn’t a wonderful picture. Has anyone out there got a better one?

A Market Lavington Wedding in 1900

A few days ago we looked at Wilsons at the Vicarage and in particular the life of Violet Wilson who spent virtually her entire childhood under the guardianship of her uncle and aunt, The Reverend Edward Blackston Cokaybe Frith and his wife, Maria. They lived at the Vicarage in Market Lavington which is now incorporated into the nursing home.

Since writing that a picture has arrived for us, at the museum, showing some of the wedding party when Violet married Harry Jones.

Wedding party at the marriage of Violet Wilson and Harold Jones in 1900. The photo was taken at The Vicarage, Market Lavington.

This picture was taken at Market Lavington Vicarage. The happy couple sit in the middle on a garden bench which appears in other photos we have of the building.

The man at top left is the Reverend Frith, vicar of Market Lavington and Uncle of the bride. We guess that the lady standing behind the couple is Maria Frith, the bride’s aunt. They were the blood relatives. The bride’s mother, who died giving birth to her, was Maria’s sister.

We can guess that the two bridesmaids are the sisters of the bride, Renee and Fanny Wilson who were also brought up by their aunt and uncle. We have no name for the other man.

Of course, if anybody can add anything, we’d be delighted to hear from them.

Mrs Allsopp – a Vicar’s Wife

Harriett Baker Boileau Dawson was born in about 1846 in Jubbulpore, India.

In 1851 she appears to be in the Bath area under the care of a governess.

We have not located Harriett in records until she married Richard Winstanley Allsopp in the third quarter of 1873. The marriage ceremony took place in the Farringdon district of Berkshire/Oxfordshire.

A first child, Frederick George was born in Buscot, Berkshire in 1874 or 5.

In 1876 Richard was appointed vicar of Easterton and the family moved to a house on Easterton Sands. Easterton was a new parish and Richard was the first vicar. His house became known as The Vicarage and is still there on what we now call Vicarage Lane, although the dwelling is now called Easterton House.

The second child, Richard must have been born soon after the family arrived in Easterton.

Further children followed. Marian was born in about 1877, Margaret in 1888 and Jerome in 1890. Next came Dorothy in 1881, Robert in 1883, Francis in 1885, Agnes in 1886 and Joan in 1887.

Robert, Harriett and the youngest 8 children can be found living at The Vicarage, Easterton at the time of the 1891 census. This photo of Harriett dates from around that time.

Mrs Harriett Allsopp, wife of the first Vicar of Easterton in about 1890

By 1901 the family had moved to West Lavington. Richard was now 68 and Harriett weas 55. There were still eight children at home, the youngest  being 14. Home was now The Vicarage in West Lavington.

Richard died in 1907.

In 1911 Harriett was boarding, along with a couple of her daughters, at a house in the Marylebone area of London.

Harriett died in 1918 with the death being recorded in the Devizes district.