Before I started doing family history, I never suspected that my ancestors had any connection with Berkshire. I now know, though, that three different branches (or should that be roots?) of my ancestral tree came from Berkshire. All three branches came from towns close together, within a radius of 3 miles, but I have no reason to think they knew about each other. The branches only came together after the following descendants of those branches came to London:
- Charles Clark (1831-1916), my 2 x great grandfather, who came from Binfield;
- William Povey (1806-1895), my 3 x great grandfather, who came from Wokingham. His granddaughter, Elizabeth Povey (1870-1947) married Charles Clark’s son, Charles James Clark (1869-1946) in Kensal Green in 1890. My father was their grandson;
- Emma Elizabeth Cummings (1862-1944), my 2x great grandmother, who came from Hurst. My mother was her great granddaughter.
Charles Clark from Binfield
Charles Clark (1831-1916) was a son of John Clark (or Clarke) of Binfield and Elizabeth Blay of Bray. Charles had moved from Binfield to London by 1855.
John Clarke was baptised in 1785 in Binfield and his parents were George Clarke (1756-1810) and Hannah Norman (1749?-1841). George Clarke’s parents were William Clarke and Elizabeth Draycott, who married in Binfield in 1756.
Luckily, a census for Binfield in 1801 has survived and the Eureka partnership provide a transcript. It lists George and Hannah Clarke with John (age 16, ‘out’), and Elizabeth (8). A note calls Elizabeth the ‘baseborn daughter of George’s sister, Hannah, now living with Jackman’ – though this information seems to contradict a record of the baptism of an Elizabeth to George and Hannah Clarke in 1792.
The 1801 Binfield census includes caustic comments on some residents, for example:
- Robert Silver’s wife: ‘Her husband married again and absconded and she herself bears no very reputable character.’
- Andrew Varndell: ‘Baker. Brought black beetles to the Rectory when he came over a week to bake.’
- Richard Yeats: ‘He has burdened the parish by a number of illegitimates and at length is himself obliged to seek relief from it.’
John Clark and Elizabeth Blay of Bray
John Clark married Elizabeth Blay (of Bray) in 1809 in Dorney, a small village at the southern tip of Buckinghamshire. Fortunately, the parish register says that John was from Binfield. Perhaps Elizabeth was in service at Dorney Court, a Tudor manor house. This could explain why John and Elizabeth chose to marry there, across the Thames from both Elizabeth’s birthplace (Bray 2 miles away) and John’s home (Binfield 9 miles away). Dorney Court is now often used as a location for films and TV shows. Nearby Dorney Lake hosted the rowing events for the 2012 Olympics.
In 1841, John and Elizabeth were in Binfield and in 1851 she was still married but alone. The 1851 census says she was born in Bray (8 miles from Binfield) and the census suggests a birth date around 1784-1791. She was perhaps a daughter of Thomas Blay and Anne Ayres, born and baptised in Bray in 1792. Elizabeth was buried in Binfield in 1855.
The Binfield parish registers list 14 baptisms of children of John and Elizabeth Clark(e), over 25 years and apparently all children of the same couple. Five of them stayed in the Binfield area, five moved to London, two ended up in Australia and, surprisingly, only two died in childhood.
Transported to Tasmania
In 1842, John Clark’s life took a sudden turn for the worse. He was transported to Tasmania with two of his sons, George and Henry. The sons had stolen two sheep from a local clergyman on Good Friday and the father had received one of the carcasses.
John’s wife Elizabeth was also accused of receiving, but acquitted because she ‘appeared to be acting only under the control of her husband’. Another son, Thomas, had been taken into custody but was released without charge.
The men were sentenced to transportation of 15 years (George and Henry) and 14 years (John). They were among 389 males transported in SS Moffat to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), leaving on August 10th 1842, ending up in Oatlands, Tasmania.
Descriptions
Prison records describe the three men:
- George Clark – height 5 ft 6 in, religion [illegible abbreviation]
- Henry Clark – height 5 ft 8 3/4 in, religion: P
- John Clark 5 ft 4 1/2 in, religion: P. John’s marital status is M/12 (presumably meaning 12 children, which is about right)
All were described as being unable to read or write. Their trades are given as (perfect) ploughmen.
A ‘conduct sheet’ paints a fuller picture of John: ruddy complexion; large head; black whiskers; broad visage; high, broad forehead; brown [?] to grey hair; black eyebrows; black eyes; large nose, mouth and chin; stout made; little fingers crippled, scar on right side of neck.
A large part of Oatlands was built by transported convicts. In February 1852, they were shipped to Melbourne after receiving a conditional pardon. It appears though, that they returned to Oatlands, where the following events feature what seem to be the same three men:
- John Clarke farmer, 78, died in 1859 of old age and infirmity;
- George Clarke, 50, farmer married Martha Scallan, shoemaker’s widow, in 1862. They had a daughter Harriett Clarke in 1864 and an unnamed son in 1866. George Clarke, 84, died in 1894;
- Henry Clarke married Sarah Pegg on February 17th 1853 but died of an inflammation of the stomach on 7 October of the same year.
Meanwhile, back in England, George’s wife, Frances Elisabeth Fletcher, was listed as a widow in the censuses of 1851 and 1881; with no marital status in 1861; and as married in 1871. The census shows she had two more sons, in 1851 and 1862.
William Povey from Wokingham
My second Berkshire branch features William Povey (abt 1806-1895). He was from Wokingham but moved to London by 1833, first to Lambeth and then to Kensal New Town. He had 6 children with his first wife, Mary Ann Johncey (abt 1810-1864, from Hereford), and 2 more children with his second wife, Caroline Appleby (a widow, nee Brazier, 1830-1906). William was baptised in Wokingham in 1810, son of John Povey and Ann Parker, who had married there in 1801. I have found no further trace of John and Ann’s other two children: Rebecca (baptised in Wokingham in 1803) and Sarah (baptised there in 1806).
Among William and Mary’s grandchildren was my great grandmother Elizabeth Povey (1870-1947). Her husband was my great grandfather, Charles James Clark (1869-1946), grandson of John Clark and Elizabeth Blay.
William Povey’s occupation was variously given as whitster (1841 and 1851) – someone who bleaches or whitens clothes, laundry man (April 1861, 1862, 1881), carpenter (Christmas day 1861), labourer (1865), gentleman (1866, 1867), retired dyer (1871), and living on own means (1881).
Look who was living in the King’s house
One grandson of William Povey and Mary Ann Johncey was Sidney Ernest Povey (1879-1966). The 1939 register of England and Wales gave me a surprise. It gives Sidney’s occupation as Engineering Superintendent Of Work Heating Lighting Ventilating. He is listed as the 5th person in the second household on the page. Looking to the top of the page, I discovered that his address is Buckingham Palace SW1. Looking down a little, I saw that the first two people in the first household listed on the page are His Majesty THE KING and Her Majesty THE QUEEN. No occupation is given for either monarch! Four other people are listed in the royal household: two assistant private secretaries, an equerry and a lady-in-waiting.
Emma Elizabeth Cummings from Hurst
My third Berkshire branch features Emma Elizabeth Cummings and her parents Amy Hawkins and Henry Cummins (or Cummings). Amy Hawkins (1821-1912), daughter of James Hawkins and Amy Hawkins (1785-1821), was baptised in Hurst in 1821. Amy’s father was perhaps a James Hawkins who was born in Thorpe (Surrey) in 1796, remarried in 1828, had 7 children with his second wife and stayed in Hurst until his death in 1875. Thorpe is 16 miles east of Hurst.
During or just after a short stay in London in the late 1840’s, Amy had two children as a single mother, then married Thomas Giles (abt 1825-1858) and had three more children. In 1862 in Hurst, she married Henry Cummins (1831-1919), an agricultural labourer from Kingsclere (Hampshire). Kingsclere is 21 miles southwest of Hurst. Amy had two children with Henry: my 2 x great grandmother Emma Elizabeth Cummings (1863-1946) and another short-lived daughter. Amy and Henry remained in the Hurst area.
At home and far away
A young boy seems to have been in two places at the time of the 1911 census. James Butters (aged 5, born Paddington) was in Paddington with his parents Henry David and Eleanor Butters and also in Wokingham with the half-sister of his great aunt. Henry Butters’ uncle was my 2 x great grandfather, William John Butters and Emma Elizabeth Cummings.
At the same time James Butters (4, born in Kilburn) was in East Heath, Wokingham with George Cousins (a sewerage farm labourer), his wife Hannah (1859-1933, nee Giles) and their children. Hannah’s parents were Amy Hawkins and her first husband, Thomas Giles. Thus, Hannah was half-sister to my 2 x great grandmother, Emma Elizabeth Cummings. Emma was the little boy’s great aunt. The relationship between the young James and Hannah seems surprisingly distant for him to be visiting her so far from London, by himself, at the tender age of 5.
Emma was living in Kilburn at the time of the 1911 census. Maybe that’s why the Wokingham census form gives James’s birthplace as Kilburn.
Emma married William John Butters (1843-1906), an omnibus driver (and, by 1899, coffee house keeper) from Paddington in 1881 in Paddington. William was also a volunteer fireman, and so were some of his descendants.
William John Butters and Emma Elizabeth Cummings were my 2 x great grandparents. They lived at various addresses, mainly in Kilburn, and had 13 children. Curiously, William and Emma’s first 5 children were all girls, but the last 8 were 7 boys plus one short-lived baby girl.
In 1939, Emma was at 31 Charnham Street, Hungerford (Berkshire) with son William John Butters (tobacconist, antique dealer, newsagent, confectioner) and his wife Ada. Presumably this was a temporary stay, as the 1939 and 1946 electoral registers show her still at 15 West End Lane, Kilburn. William and Ada were already in Charnham Street by 1930.
Away with Tate and Lyle in Berkshire
One granddaughter of Emma Elizabeth Cummings and William John Butters was my grandmother Violetta Ryan (nee Bird). She worked for many years in the share registration department of Tate & Lyle. In 1939, she was living temporarily in Bradfield, Berkshire, with 17 colleagues from Tate & Lyle, not with her parents, brother and daughter at her usual address in Neasden. Her occupation is given as typist. The other people there included a 59 year old ‘secretary Tate & Lyle Ltd’ (presumably the Company Secretary) and his wife. The other 15 people listed at the address are ‘registor’ (presumably a share registrar), someone ‘assisting register Tate & Lyle’, nine sugar refiners clerks, a commissionaire, two shorthand typists and a sugar refiner representative.
Conclusion: my big Berkshire family
From not even knowing I had any Berkshire ancestors, I’ve come a long way. To find out more about them, please have a look at my family history blog at https://birdsofcressingham.wordpress.com
