Willmott Family

[Keith FB]

I am looking for information about the Willmott family who came to Nottingham sometime in the 19th century and worked in the Lace trade.  The head of the family was John Willmott who married a Maria Burrows from the Nottingham area.  Whilst I have quite a lot of information about him and subsequent generations, I would like to go back to the previous generation.  He came from Chard in Somerset and was one of a family of 9 children.  His father was also called John Willmott and his mother was called Lydia Elliot (possibly Elliott).  Does anyone know if any of the other children came to Nottingham. Does anyone know anything about the father and mother's background.  (I think their marriage was April 24th 1827.)   If anyone has suggestions as to where best to look for their births, deaths, other marriage details, etc I would appreciate any advice, as I am just starting to work on the family tree.    I believe the parish records in Somerset may be sparse.   I also cannot find the birth date of Maria Burrows (probably c 1840 in Sneinton, Nottingham) or her death which was sometime between 1881 and 1891, also in Nottingham.

[Jane Eden]

Hi Keith

Welcome to Rootschat. The following may be yours from Nottm Fam Hist Soc CDs:

Marriage: Basford 9.4.1860 John Wilmott & Maria Burrows

Baptism: Nott St Mary 28.5.1837 Maria to David & Maria Burrows, Abode Barker Gate, Occ FWK

As you may notice from my profile the Burrows family are one of my 4 main lines but Maria is not one of them yet!

Jane

[Heather D]

Hi Keith - or should that be cousin Keith?   

I can answer one question for you - several of John's siblings settled in Notts, including his brother William born c.1835 Chard. William is my gg grandfather and if you check out my web pages via my profile, there is a picture of him there.

I have a possible baptism recorded for Maria Burrows ....

Nottingham St Mary 28/05/1837 to David and Maria

and the death as Sep 1884 Nottingham 7b 182 aged 46

Like you. I've struggled to get past the parents John and Lydia. A very nice lady on here has looked through Chard parish records for me, but we are fast coming to the conclusion that the Willmotts and Elliotts were non-conformist.

I have a lot more stuff - so I will send you my email via a personal message in case you'd like to compare notes.

Heather

[Keith FB]

Hi Jane
Thanks for the information.  I think it is probable that you have the correct persons there.  I did not have the marriage date for John and Maria.    The only thing which has confused me is that the census for 1861 quotes her age as 21 which means she would be born in 1840 or possibly 1839.  I suppose there is often some unreliability in census ages.   Certainly your information fits in with the area information I have and is the best I have so far.    John was my great grandfather on my mother's side of the family
Keith

[Jane Eden]

Hi

Great going Heather and Keith. I have a family that went to Somerset from Nottm for 8 years then came back to Nottm. It's a long way to go. Do you know why yours came from Somerset to Nottm?

Jane

[Keith FB]

No idea Jane.  I have just emailed Heather some information about the Willmotts to see if our data coincides.  I guess it was probably the attraction of work in the lace trade in Nottingham, but I cannot be sure.  I have just asked Heather if she knows why.  I cannot go any further back than about 1827 in the Willmott family.

[cire]

There seem to have been quite a few people moved from Chard to Nottingham. I have a Sarah Hill born in Chard c. 1848 who married my Joseph Towle in Beeston in 1869. He was a blacksmith but she worked in the lace industry.

I also have a note taken from the Nottinghamshire Family History Soc. journal for July 1990 which mentions a Daniel Trott who moved from Chard in 1850 and was employed as a lace maker in one of Beeston's factory.

Presumably there was or had been a lace industry in the Chard area in the first half of the 19th C.
CIRE

[Heather D]

Hi Jane and Keith!

Keith I will reply to your mail very soon, but just picking up the point about the lace trade.

Certainly, the 3 Willmott brothers John, William and Samuel moved to the Nottingham area and all worked in the lace trade (as did their father John in Chard). It's not something I know a great deal about but I did find a report on the web - an urban survey of Chard by English Heritage that suggested local industry was pretty much boom and bust around the mid 1800's. So yes, maybe they simply moved so they could continue the trade they knew? There were definitely links between the 2 counties but I'm no expert!

The 4th brother James moved to Glamorganshire and was a labourer in the steel works.

I didn't realise you didn't have the marriage details Keith. From parish records :-

Marriage John Willmott 25 bachelor and Maria Burrows 21 spinster of Carrington
Fathers John Willmott warper and David Burrows FWK
Basford St Leodegarius 09 April 1860
Witnesses Henry and Ellen Seymour

This is what makes me think the 1837 Maria is the right one. Her age definitely fluctuates in the censuses!

Heather

[Heather D]

Presumably there was or had been a lace industry in the Chard area in the first half of the 19th C.
CIRE

Yes definitely- that was the boom time for Chard, and before that Tiverton in Devon was a major centre. So you can often trace families back from Notts, to Somerset and into Devon!