Clayton Family living around the Warwickshire area (maybe travelers)

[debbiebozkurt]

I have gone around in circles with this family and have met myself in the middle! I wonder if anyone can help me pulling out hair.
I am looking the ancestry of a Joseph Clayton born @ 1851 Yardley Wood (1871 census), or Loasom Ford (1881 census), in 1891 wrong age and says born Warwick. In 1871 he was living with a Joseph and Sarah Clayton described as parents. I think he died in 1900 and states he was born 1853!
I think Joseph Clayton snr was originally a tinker but settled down in later life, he appeared not to know his place of birth but in 1861 he was living with his younger brother Thomas Clayton in Yardley and Thomas can be traced to parents James and Rebecca Clayton (tinker, among other jobs). There is a George Clayton son with Joseph and Sarah born @ 1850 but no Joseph but in 1871 both George and Joseph are shown together on the census at Cofton Hackett so there appears to be no mix up with the names. In 1851 there is a Joseph Clayton single Tinker with a 1 year old George Clayton visiting the Davis family in Aston. On the IGI there is a baptism shown for a Joseph Clayton Oct 1850 Packwood father Joseph mother Sarah but no George baptism. There is a baptism for a Betsy Clayton 1853 Lapwood father Joseph mother Sarah and I have managed to look at the original and I think it states father vagrant of no fixed abode, age of Betsy on 1861 census states 10…… but could be out.
If Joseph ch. In Oct 1850 is the Joseph I am looking for where was he in 1851 and 1861. I can find no marriage for a Joseph and Sarah (Sarah states regularly she comes from Bedlam End in Warwickshire.
Does anyone have access to Packwood parish records to see if I can see what the father’s occupation was and can anyone see if they can find Joseph Clayton jnr on the 1851 or 1861 census, or Sarah Clayton on the 1851 or who Sarah was!
Mind you I have yet to prove that Joseph Clayton is the father of my cousins Great Grandmother yet. Joseph Clayton was living next door to a widow Clara Smith and he married her in 1874 Bromsgrove (OCT Nov DEC) but the year before there is a daughter born Mary Jane Clayton as per census (always used the surname Clayton on  census and states father Joseph) but she married under the name Jane Smith but I have assumed that the father is likely to have been Joseph but as I have found on many occasions if the child was registered with the mothers name as parents had yet to marry they insisted that they use that name on marriage certificate regardless of the real fathers name. I have not got the marriage certificate of either Clara Smith or Jane Smith (who married Arthur Elliott) to see the details of the parentage.

Any help would be gratefully received

Debbie

[..claire..]

Hi

Joseph's baptism record is actually squeezed in between entries and is quite difficult to read, am hoping someone will come and help out, its in Packwood records on Anc* 27 Oct. 1850

" Joseph Clayton son of Joseph and Sarah the infant having been baptized in Walsall Church and presented here , being brought by Henry? Clayton and Joseph Levin ? and Henry's wife Elizabeth. "

claire

[debbiebozkurt]

Thanks Claire

Didn't notice that one! Had a look myself and it is difficult to read - not sure it is my Joseph Clayton as Harry/Henry doesn't feature I don't think. I have since I posted this spent all evening yesterday on it and I found Joseph Clayton snr  living with his daughter Eliza Horton and it states born Dunchurch, Warwickshire and I found previously a Joseph Clayton (from Sandford Oxon) baptised Dunchurch, father Robert, mother Sarah Clayton. I then looked up other Robert and Sarah combinations and helpfully one parish clerk in Hampton (I think from memory) recorded that there were 3 families all related being travellers from Oxfordshire and precedes to point out which ones.

I also found out that the family Joseph jnr was visiting in 1851 was the family his sister married into aged on 15/16.

Still have no idea who Sarah, Joseph jnr mother was or where he was in 1861 but I had thought perhaps Sarah was too young to give birth to Joseph jnr or the eldest George but looking at the records of this Clayton family the females were nearly always in their teens when they either married or started having babies.

Thanks Regards

Debs

[Serge]

Hi there.Have you tried the web site "RomanyJib"there are a lot of Clayton's on there.My own G.Grandmother Beechannie Clayton was a traveller around the midlands,mainly Derbys,Notts,Lincs.
Her family originate from Northamptonshire and her siblings born in numerous places.I believe there is a famous family of Clayton's that worked the canal boats around Birmingham.Good Luck. Serge.

[jim1]

Mind you I have yet to prove that Joseph Clayton is the father of my cousins Great Grandmother yet

It appears Mary Jane was registered as Smith: Sept. 1873/Bromsgrove/6c/414.
You can only say that on the basis of probability Joseph is the father unless the PR indicates he is, which is where you need to look.

jim

[debbiebozkurt]

Thanks Jim you are right, if she was baptised, I was also going to try for the marriage records. From family members memories the off spring of Mary Jane Clayton/Smith were unusually dark skinned and even up to recently there were stories that there was Gypsy blood in the family (that specific line). Mary Jane was in her eighties when she died so the stories were around in the last generation. 

There is also other queries against this line as Clara Smith who married Joseph Clayton was living with a William Smith by 1861 but I could never find a local marriage for them (even though there were a number of children born) and although Smith is a very common name Clara is not and Clara remained where she was born Cofton Hackett, Worcestershire.

Some lines just need more hard work!

Regards

Debs

[jvb]

The Clayton surname seems very common in the Birmingham area.
I have Birmingham Claytons on my family tree - though as they are not direct ancestors of mine, I haven't done much research on them as yet. They don't match any of the names already mentioned.
There were two canal carrying companies with the name Clayton -
-Fellows, Morton and Clayton, who specialised in long distance canal traffic, particularly between London and Birmingham, and between the Midlands and the North West. They had a yard in Fazeley Street, Birmingham, but I think the company's head office may have been in London.
This company was nationalised in the 1940's and was incorporated into British Waterways.
- Thomas Clayton, of Oldbury, a much smaller company, which stayed independent and traded until approximately 1970, latterly specialising in the transport of oil and gas tar mainly between the Midlands and the North West.
Note that the Clayton name in both instances was the name of one of the principle directors of the company, and not one of the boatmen.

[bb51618]

Hi,
I am also in the same position, although only for the last few days. I have never seen so many tinkers with so many different birthplaces or who don't know where their children were born! I started off trying to find out who was Sarah Ann Clayton, the second wife of Henry Clayton in Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire. She would be my STEP Gt. Grandmother. I know she was a cousin, or that is what my grandfather told me. Since then, I am surrounded by tinkers and itinerants, not to mention those living on The Black Patch in Handsworth - a place I had never heard of and I live in Birmingham. What a nightmare. Are you on Ancestry?
Gill