Childs and Hurlstone of Melbury Osmond

[Kells]

I am posting a new thread about this topic as more has come to light since I first began looking at the Childs family.

I have two Childs ancestral lines but no idea if the earliest known ancestors, Samuel born c1748, and David, are related.

Samuel Childs married Mary Elford in 1775. Their eldest son Samuel Elford Childs (b1774 before parent's marriage) married Elizabeth Childs (born 1779), daughter of David Childs and Mary nee Wellman (no trace of Mary anywhere, perhaps another parish?).

I have found a baptism for a David Childs 15 June 1729 in Axmouth Devon to Joseph and Mary Childs. Joseph Childs married Mary Hurlstone 1 June 1728 in Axmouth. Mary Hurlstone was baptised 5 Oct 1707 to Christopher Hurlstone. This all seems to fit nicely so I assume I am on the right track, and Axmouth is not a great distance from Melbury Osmond. It appears that Joseph and Mary moved to Melbury shortly after David's baptism, as other children, Joanna, Maria, Joseph, Catherine and William, were baptised  there. The difficult part is that I have found Joseph Childs' will, where he mentions all of these children in addition to a son Christopher and daughter Martha, but no David. David died in 1787, the will was made in 1770.

I am also interested in the Hurlstone origins. I found a will for Lawrence Hurlstone dated 1677 which mentions a brother Christopher (father of the Mary baptised 1707?).

Can anyone help with the earlier Childs and Hurlstone ancestry? Most online records (i.e. Dorset OPC) don't go back before the 1730's and I cannot access anything without paying the Dorset County Council a huge amount of money to search the parish records they have.

Any help gratefully received.

[Paul Caswell]

Hi Kells,

I guess the Joseph Childs will you have is the one dated 1770. Are you aware that there are also two other Childs wills? Both are for William Childs, both in Witcombe (sic.). They are dated 1704 and 1713. There is an "A" against their entries so they may just be letters of administration. There is also a will dated 1661 for a Benjamin Childs from Hale (24, 1661).

Good luck.

Paul

[Kells]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your message. I'm not sure as yet if William or Benjamin fit into my tree but I will keep those in mind for the future if I am able to get more information about my earlier Childs ancestry.

Thanks,

Kells.

[Grahame]

Hi Kelly,

I was wondering whether you have resolved your query.

I am also interested in Christopher Hurlstone and his connections to Melbury Osmond. If you have any further information I'd be very grateful, but as I am in the UK and a member of SOG, I can probably search the PRs easier and cheaper than you can. So if I can help, please let me know.

Regards,

Grahame.

[Kells]

Hello Grahame,

Thank you for your message. I haven't progressed all that much with regards to Hurlstone and the likelihood of David being the son of Joseph Childs and Mary Hurlstone. There are several Hurlstones in the Melbury records but I haven't as yet mapped them all and worked out relationships. I think I may have located the Samuel Childs I was seeking, it seems to be a separate line to David's.
I have accessed records through Ancestry which has taken me back a bit further with the Childs but it is still a bit unclear how they all tie in.
If you have anything on Christopher Hurlstone, and the Melbury and Childs family connections, I would be most grateful for anything. If you would like to see what I have gathered, I'd be happy to share. I can send my email in a private message.

Thanks,

Kelly.

[Grahame]

Hi Kelly,

There is a transcript (in book form) of the Melbury Osmond Register at the Dorset Record Office. I have hand-written copies from this for Marriages from about 1530 to 1730 (when the online transcripts become available) and births from 1660 to 1730. I need to do some more next time I visit. Like you, the idea was to use this information to map out all the major families in the village, but I haven't gotten very far. However I can do lookups for the information that I have.

My tree is a public tree on Ancestry, if you want to take a look. It should be fairly easy to find. if you have any information that I haven't, I'd be grateful if you could share.

Regards,

Grahame.

[gail steel]

Hi Kelly,
My 5 times great grandmother was Lydia Childs of Melbury Osmond. Her parents were David Childs and Mary Wellman. David's parents were Joseph Childs and Mary Hurlestone. Mary's father is Christopher Hurlestone. I can't find her mother. David and Mary were married in St Osmond's Church in Melbury Osmond on 5th July 1763. From every bit of information that I find on Mary, it looks as though she was a widow when she married David Childs.
Her birth and death dates match those of a Mary Wellman who was married to a William Wellman. They married in 1755 and had 2 sons. William Wellman died in early 1763. Mary Wellman was born in Melbury Sampford.
For more detailed information on David and Mary Childs, look up a site called "The Old Parramattans". It gives a detailed account of their daughter Lydia Childs. Another site that may give you more information is the "familysearch.org/family-trees" site. It has been helpful to me when looking for my ancestors. I hope this information has been helpful.
Regards,
Gail

[gail steel]

Hi Kelly,
My 5 times great grandmother was Lydia Childs of Melbury Osmond. Her parents were David Childs and Mary Wellman. David's parents were Joseph Childs and Mary Hurlestone. Mary's father is Christopher Hurlestone. I can't find her mother. David and Mary were married in St Osmond's Church in Melbury Osmond on 5th July 1763. From every bit of information that I find on Mary, it looks as though she was a widow when she married David Childs.
Her birth and death dates match those of a Mary Wellman who was married to a William Wellman. They married in 1755 and had 2 sons. William Wellman died in early 1763. Mary Wellman was born in Melbury Sampford.
For more detailed information on David and Mary Childs, look up a site called "The Old Parramattans". It gives a detailed account of their daughter Lydia Childs. Another site that may give you more information is the "familysearch.org/family-trees" site. It has been helpful to me when looking for my ancestors. I hope this information has been helpful.
Regards,
Gail

[Kells]

Hi Gail,

Thanks for your message. I have since made a breakthrough with this research. I was never happy with the parentage that others had been publishing for David Childs, a tenuous link which I too had accepted in the absence of anything else, until recently. I did some extensive trawling through digitised images of Dorset parish registers and have found him, erroneously named as Edward Childs in the Ancestry indexes. He was baptised Dec 1735 in Yetminster, a son of Samuel Childs and his wife Elizabeth Mose (Mose - spelling unclear). The images are very hard to read but there are other factors which have helped to confirm this. Samuel Childs's marriage in Yetminster names his parish as Melbury Osmond. His and Elizabeth's other children also turn up back in Melbury Osmond later, along with David and his brother Samuel (born 1748 and baptised 1752 in Chetnole). What was also troubling, the supposed father of David, Joseph Childs, makes no mention of a son David in his will but includes all of his children who were baptised in Dorset. I think the baptism record for David Childs in Axmouth which once appeared on Family Search (and now doesn't appear to exist) was in error.

I haven't yet seen anything which confirms Mary Wellman being a widow, apart from some dubious records on Family Search. Though there are several Wellman families in the area I haven't yet placed her in one. I had discounted her as the spouse of William Wellman of Melbury Sampford (married 1744) mainly because they were having children between 1746 and 1757 which means that to have still borne children in 1787 (her youngest) she would have been about 57-60 years old.

I have heard about Lydia's story from Michaela, the author of that site, who I have discussed my early Childs research with. She writes it up very well though obviously reluctant to add the Childs ancestry I have as the proof, while sound, is subjective due to the poor quality of the records.

In any case we are definitely related through your Lydia. I am a descendant of her sister Elizabeth, who married her own cousin Samuel.

Thanks again and if you'd like to get in touch I'd be happy to share info with you.

Kind regards,

Kelly.