Category: Family History - Meandering Through Time

The Black Death

20/6/2018

The Black Death, from the October of 1347 to around 1352, it has been said, did not eradicate a third of Europe’s population.

Open almost any textbook on western civilization says historian Sam Cohn and it will claim that the Black Death wiped out one-third of Europe’s population. In fact, in some places such as a village on an estate in Cambridgeshire manorial rolls attest that 70 per cent of its tenants died in a matter of months in 1349. Yet, the plague skipped over or barely touched other villages, even within Cambridgeshire, and may not have infected at all vast regions such as ones in northern German-speaking lands.

I wonder why certain villages suffered when others didn't?

In 1767, just over two hundred years before the birth of my ancestor James Toon in the village of Thringstone in Leicestershire, there were only twenty-six families in his village and only forty-two in the two neighbouring villages of Whitwick and Swannington, according to records it was the Black Death that devastated the village seeing off nearly all the population and after that population growth in this village and the surrounding area was slow.

My family, it seems, were one of the lucky ones.

You can read about my Toon ancestors here:

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/john-toon-1799.html

The English Civil War

23/9/2017

In the book 1066 and All That, a humorous and satirical look at history, it states that the English Civil Wars were fought between the Cavaliers (Wrong but Wromantic) and the Roundheads (Right but Repulsive) and that Charles I thought that

"He was king and that was right, kings were divine and that was right, kings were right,
and that was right, and therefore everything was alright"

We may find the ideas of Divine Right ludicrous and amusing today, but what must be remembered is the cost of it to our ancestors.

The English Civil Wars put family against family and father against son and no better example of this is William Frederick Yeames's painting where a little boy in a royalist household is being spoken to by parliamentarians who ask the question "And When Did You Last See Your Father" which quite naturally puts the child in a difficult position and his family in a dangerous one.
While researching my 17th century Cornish ancestors I wondered if any of them found themselves in this position, for many were loyal to their king - however a few were not, I have discovered it certainly placed friend against friend. Sir Bevill Grenville of Stowe in Cornwall was a Royalist whose allegiances were torn when his friend St John Eliot of St Germans was incarcerated, on more than one occasion, in the Tower of London for his views on parliamentary rights. Eliot eventually died in the Tower and King Charles refused his son permission to bury his father in his homeland cruelly stating

"Let Sir John Eliot be buried in the church of that parish where he died."

These men were dealing directly with the fall out of King Charles I's ideas of the Divine Right of Kings and his attempt to enforce it in the wars that raged between 1642 and 1651. These wars resulted in the loss of over eighty thousand lives plus the hundreds of thousands who died from war related diseases, ultimately though King Charles I would be held responsible and he would pay with his life.

My research into this period is presently focusing on my family in the years 1636 to 1646, this family lived in the Cornish village of St Columb Major. You can see some of the architecture from that period in two of the images below.

In 1641 the marriage of my ancestor took place just five days before parliament passed the Triennial Act, an Act that was drawn up to prevent kings from ruling without Parliament, and in 1645 Royalist troops, under Sir Thomas Fairfax, camped just outside St Columb Major.

George Orwell

25/6/2017

George Orwell, author of such books as Animal Farm, 1984 and The Road to Wigan Pier was born this day in 1903.

Orwell's book, Wigan Pier, his vision of a fractured society that funnily enough is as relevant today as it was when he wrote it in 1937, is a book that is close to my heart.

When researching his book, Orwell visited the Yorkshire town of Barnsley, watching and talking with the men whose lives were solely dependent on a living made from the coal mines, he used what he learnt there as reference for this book.

Coal was many thing to many people, some became rich because of it, many died because of it but it was the mainstay of my Taylor family's whole existence. Reading Wigan Pier, listening to my grandparent's stories of their life in the mines and writing their story, I know exactly what Orwell meant when he wrote:

"If there is one type of man to whom I do feel myself inferior, it is the coal miner."

My paternal ancestors story, a Life in the Dark, can be read on my website at:

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/taylor-of-yorkshire.html

Robert and Elizabeth Carey: My Last Link With Nobility

10/1/2017

Everyone has their favourite era within history and mine, of course, is the Medieval period. Part of this is due to the fact that I have a keen interest in Richard III and the Wars of the Roses, but I think its also due to the fact, that whilst researching my family history, I have found that I have family connections that place me in this period, right in the middle of a time of change within the monarchy and society itself. Being able to look at an important event from a personal point of view, of how it affected a particular family member, makes these events much easier to understand, and consequently makes the wider time frame so much more interesting.

By the time of the early eighteenth century my family had moved from being members of the royal family, through the nobility into the life of the ordinary man. My last real association with monarchy is with Elizabeth Trevanion, wife of Robert Carey who was grandson of Mary Boleyn. Elizabeth, seen here with her three children, was responsible for the care of King Charles I as a small boy. After this, my family are classed as gentry/very minor land owners and later agricultural labourers, merchant seamen and miners. Don't get me wrong, these people are very important too, they have their own story to tell.

One of the men I admire most is my great great grandfather, whose hard life brings a tear to my eye every time I think of him, and as it turns out not to be my blood ancestor at all.

With the above in mind, I think one of the reasons my least favourite group of monarchs are the Hanoverian's, I have no point of reference, no one to link to the main events in the lives these monarchs.

My great great grandfathers story can be read here:

meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/taylor-of-yorkshire.html

Studying YOUR Family Tree

7/1/2017

The writer of the letter below points out the amount of people who have the Norman king, William the Conqueror, as their ancestor, I am one of them. I find it really annoying when people pooh pooh this connection by pointing out that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the same position.... as if I didn't realise that.

The point of genealogy is the study of YOUR family tree, not the 33,554,29 others, and along the way finding out about the lives your ancestors lived, the events of their lives and their experiences, all of which made you who you are today.

If you've ever watched Who Do You Think You Are, then you will have seen how all of the celebrities featured become very attached to the ancestor they are studying, many brought to tears. I know the feeling. It doesn't matter that your lace maker, mine worker, sailor, noble or king also belongs to others, a tiny bit of him or her belongs to you, so cherish it.

You can read about my family connections on my website at
meanderingthroughtime.weebly.com/about.html

My family illustrations are by my daughter Alice.
alicepovey.myportfolio.com/the-family-tree

Family History: The Mohun and de Tracy Families.

29/12/2016

While researching my medieval family history I have found numerous examples of the loss of reputation, land and
wealth - all that has taken one generation to accumulate, taken away by the next. The de Tracy and the Mohun family are
just one example. During the reign of King Stephen, the ancestors of William de Tracy, one of the murderers of Thomas Becket, feature in my family history, they benefited from the downfall of my ancestors, the Mohuns.

The de Tracy's held at least two baronies in Devon, that of Barnstaple and Bradninch. The Mohuns held the barony of Dunster
in Somerset.

For his part in an uprising in 1139, William Mohun has gone down in history as a man both hated and feared by the
population of the West Country, most of Williams ‘bad press’ appears in the ‘Gesta Stephani’ or ‘The Acts of Stephen’ a
12th century study of English history. According to this work, Mohun and other West Country rebels, ravaged the country
in order to obstruct the king.

He (King Stephen) also gave orders to Henry de Tracy, a skilled soldier, oft approved in the hazards of war, that acting
n his stead, because he was called away to other business, he should with all promptitude and diligence bestir himself
against the enemy. Henry therefore, in the Kings absence, set forth from Barnstaple, a town belonging to him and
enjoying privileges granted to him by the king, and made vigorous and determined attacks on his foes, so that he not
only restrained their wonted sallies and the unbridled, marauding raids in the neighbourhood, but also captured a hundred
and four horsemen in on cavalry encounter. At length, he so reduced and humbled William (Mohun) that he was able
to abandon further hostilities against him and to leave the country more peaceful and free from such disturbance"

My ancestor died in obscurity, and his family suffered as a direct result of the loss of 104 of his knights to Henry de Tracy.
As Mohun’s disgrace left the next generation to suffer the consequences of his actions, the De Tracy family were, for
a generation at least, rising stars, but like the Mohuns, the de Tracys too fell out of royal favour, William de Tracy, as we
have seen in a previous post, was one of the four men who had heard Henry II’s outburst "Will no one rid me of this t
urbulent priest?’ and then had gone on to murder Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, as a result the De Tracy lands in Devon
were forfeited to the crown.

In the image you can see Dunster Castle, that fell into disrepair, and its surrounding land during the time of the Anarchy.

Dolly Pentreath

28/12/2016

Dydh da, fatla genes?

Dolly Pentreath is said to be the last native Cornish speaker, she died on the 26th December in 1777.

By the nineteenth century, Cornish had died as a spoken community language, although records state that it was being spoken particularly at sea by Newlyn fishermen.

During this century there has been a revival of interest in Celtic culture which meant that Cornish attracted some academic attention. Plays of the middle Cornish period have been studied, and academics such as Edwin Norris and Whitley Stokes published them with commentaries and translations. It was not until early in the twentieth century that an attempt was made to revive the language.

My Cornish great great grandmother was Jane Pentreath, born in Paul, not too far from Newlyn, Dolly Pentreath was Jane's great aunt and, as already mentioned, the last person to speak fluent Cornish. However, the only sentence my grandfather could say was "Can you pass me that bag of nails" which was no use whatsoever unless you were in a hardware shop!

King Cnut

15/11/2016

At last I've sat down to continue working on my family history and have taken a virtual trip all the way back to 1031.
Travelling one thousand and seventy-one years in an afternoon is hard work, so I may have to stop after writing this as I
am a tad thirsty, King Cnut never once offered me a cup of tea, can you believe that?

King Cnut's Danish bottom sat on the throne of England from 1018 until 1035 and is famous for (the king not his bottom) his eccentricity of trying to order the tide around as he sat soaking his feet in the sea! Anyway, while researching England
during his reign I came across another interesting piece of information on this 11th century king in
The Comic History of England.

"Canute began by being a Bad King on the advice of his Courtiers who informed him (owing to a misunderstanding of the
Rule Britannia) that the King of England was entitled to sit on the sea without getting wet. But finding that they were wrong
he gave up this policy and decided to take his own advice in future - thus originating the memorable proverb,
"Paddle your own Canute" "

The Battlefield

11/11/2016

This blog is in memory of Edward James Cronin who died at just 19 in France, and all those
who died in the act of war.

51696, 2nd Bn. Wellington Regiment, N.Z.E.F.
who died on 03rd April 1918 Age 19
of 56 Malmesbury Terrace, Canning Town, London, England.

Remembered with Honour

The land on which the British cemeteries and official memorials are situated was given by the French government for those soldiers buried or named there to remain in perpetuity. My great great uncle, Edward James Cronin is one of them, he is
buried at the Sucrerie Military Cemetery.

A Soldier’s Cemetery by John William Streets
Behind that long and lonely trenched line
To which men come and go, where brave men die,
There is a yet unmarked and unknown shrine,
A broken plot, a soldier’s cemetery.

There lie the flower of youth, the men who scorn’d
To live (so died) when languished Liberty:
Across their graves flowerless and unadorned
Still scream the shells of each artillery.

When war shall cease this lonely unknown spot
Of many a pilgrimage will be the end,
And flowers will shine in this now barren plot
And fame upon it through the years descend:
But many a heart upon each simple cross
Will hang the grief, the memory of its loss.

Sir John Talbot

20/7/2016

The tomb of Sir John Talbot lies in the north aisle of St John the Baptist, in the Leicestershire village of Whitwick.
A giant of a man by all accounts, John Talbot's effigy measures 6 foot 5 inches.

In 1321, Talbot was at odds with Henry Beaumont over Whitwick Castle, both claimed that the castle was theirs by right.
The Talbot family held lands in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, John had received lands from his father Philip Talbot. Beaumont's claim to the castle was by right of his wife Alice Comyn.

In 1309, Beaumont had been granted vast sways of land in Lincolnshire by Edward II and in 1321 he had had also been granted a licence to crenellate Whitwick Castle.

Henricus de Bello Monte, Consanguineus Regis ... mansum ... Whitewyk, Leicestr.
(Licence for Henry de Bello Monte to crenellate his dwelling-place of Whitewyk, Co. Leicester.)

On hearing this, Talbot raised a small army and forced Beaumont out of the castle and then raised the castle to the ground. Whitwick Castle was in ruins by the mid 15th century, and by 1800 only the foundations and the north wall were still visible.
Of Sir John Talbot's life there is very little, he died in 1365.

Of Beaumont's life there more, he went on to fight in a number of battles and lead an army to invade Scotland with
Edward Balliol. He died in 1340.

Photograph Credit Aidan McRae Thomson