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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Essex Lookup Requests => Essex => England => Essex Completed Lookup Requests => Topic started by: Claxon on Friday 12 December 08 18:16 GMT (UK)
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my ancestor was born 1787 in Basildon Hall, Chelmsford Thomas Claxon's parents, Thomas and Rebeccah, seem to have arrived from elsewhere, as they listed they were "lodging at Basildon Hall" at that time. For research on DNA issues, I am trying to help those doing that research, to go back as far as possible. I have been through the Essex Records office.. no further help there, and have checked probably all available records. I am trying to find a marriage for Thomas and Rebeccah, probably around 1780, or a birth about 1760.
Names used were Clarkson, Claxon, Claxson and Claxton ( later would be Clerken and Clackson). Family lived in most surroun ding towns thereafter, Runwell, Hanningfield, Thundersley Romford etc. I THINK the family seat may be the Hanningfields.
Two people so far carry my DNA type, which is an ancestral ( same as clan founder), and finding a geographical origin of a major migration into Britain is important. I appear to be of Saxon or Swiss Lake Dweller descent.
Any help appreciated.
Rich
New Jersey
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A little word of warning - Dont assume anything !!!
You say Thomas was born 1787 at Chelmsford to Thomas and Rebecca - hopefully you have a christening record to back that up.
But are you just "assuming " a marriage around 1780? Did Thomas have siblings? Was he the eldest, youngest or in the middle?
And births of parents around 1760? is that assumed or do you have evidence?
His parents could have been 17 or 47 when he was born - therefore have births from 1730 - 1770! or even wider.
If you have been through the Essex Records office and checked all available, then it looks a non starter! If there aint records, then we wont find 'em!
But could it be that there arent records for a marriage of that date or births of that date, because that isnt when they married/were born!
Do you have Thomas on later censsues? Any clues there?
Do you have a death for his parents? Did they leave Wills? I guess so if there was family seat involved!
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The ancestral seat may be wishful thinking - this could be him in 1841
HO107 325 16
East Hanningfield
Thomas Claxon 55 Ag LAb bn in county
May (or Mary?)45 bn in county
Sarah 8 bn in county
also on same page
thomas Claxon 30 Ag lab bn in c
Mahalah 20 bn in c
Charles 2 mths bn in c
remember ages are rounded in 1841 and no relationships shown
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A possible for 1851 (if so, your Thomas has died)
HO107 1775 847
East Hanningfield
Mary Ann Clackson 58 widow laundress bn Suffolk
Sarah Ann 18 granddaughter bn Hanningfield
Thomas Green 19 lodger
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Hi there. Yes, they are all mine that you have found. The only thing I have for my earliest is a birth certificate for Thomas Claxon, born 1787 at Basildon Hall. Parents thomas and Rebeccah. The records office has done an extensive search, and again... thats it.
AS this is a more public forum, at least my question is here for posterity :-)
One never knows.
One hint I do have, is from the Mormons in Utah, is that there is a record of a Thomas and Rebeccah Claxon being married in York. It is a possibility, as the year, whatever it was... works... but I have no tie to them other than name.
I think they ( Thomas and Rebeccah)are buried in Gravesend... We all seem to live quite a long time... most in their 80's, with children born to parents intheir high 40's.
My grandfather yes, GRANDFATHER, served in India in 1890. So, we have quite a timespan with not many generations. ANyway, thanks for the reply.
Richard
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Do you actually have documentary evidence of Thomas Claxons birth, i.e. a print out from baptismal register or some other source? If you can tell us what that source is.
You say you have a birth certificate, this would be impossible ,as these didn't come in until civil registration started in 1837.
The only reference I can find to a Basildon Hall is actually in Basildon Essex.
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Hello Sue
You are right, it is not a birth certificate, but something like a registration, which I DO have somewhere, which is a copy of something that would be available online, similar to the census. I have just moved ( things packed) and I am a certified amnesiac, plus over 60 with advancing white matter in the brain, so thats 3 strikes :-) But, the place date and person/ people are accurate.
Basildon Hall was a Saxon castle 1000 years old in 1960 when it was torn down. I have been in touch with historians in present day Basildon. The Castle was called Beortels Hill in ancient times, and is becoming a source of local pride ( origins) today.
It appears that my oldest known family was living in the ruins of the castle as agricultural labourors/ farmers ( from newspaper account of the recollections of a reporters grandfather printed in perhaps 1958) I only mention this as a point of interest.
I believe the Basildon Heritage Trust ( Basildon Trail ? ) has some interest in finding descendants of the Hall residents ( which is now only perhaps a 20 foot section of moat, in which are Roman, Saxon and perhaps British tribal artifacts)
Sorry to go on :-)
anyway... I am back to Thomas and Rebeccah Claxon, lodging at Basildon Hall ( Chelmsford) in 1787. I do not expect anyone to find anything further than I already have. I have been on this for over 20 years... although from across the pond. I just thought I would post something in a more or less permanent record.
Thanks for everyones interest.
Richard
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Re Claxton's.
My grandparents had friend's by the name of Claxton who lived in
Canning Town , London E 16--prior to WW2, then moved to Kent in late
1939.
Canning Town until the 1970's was within the County Borough of West Ham,
now within the County Borough of Newham.
But would add, starting after WW2 ended a high percentage of East Enders
moved to Essex.
Mary-B
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Hi Mary
After about 1860, we went from Claxon to Clarkson, although Claxton was used also. My family was originally ( 1787 Essex), then my 1851 ancestor joined the Coldstream Guards, and was a Corporal at the Tower of London. He was a pallbearer at the Duke of Wellingtons funeral, and caught something. He and his wife were both dead in a year. His son and daughter was born 2 years earlier at Buckingham Palace ( per obituary) Probably Buckingham Palace guards infirmary.
So, from there we were in London. During WW2, our house was hit by a V1, and we moved to Tunbridge Wells ( where I was born)( Kent), so we appear to follow your Claxton's movements very well.
My mothers side is Guernsey, where my father ran a rescue launch for the RAF
apparently pulling Germans out of the Channel after being shot down. They fled as the Germans invaded, rescue launch packed to the brim with relatives I suppose.
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As the County of West Ham was so close to the County of Essex, many many
Essex and Suffolk folk made the journey to the East End of London to find work.
The majority of the above were Ag Lab's looking for a better life.
You also mention the last name of Clarkson, many many Clarksons in the
Borough of West Ham, indeed in the East End of London.
You mention your relative joined the Army ( The Guards) again many young
men from every area of the UK joined the army in those long ago times, it was
a pathway to something better than what thy had. what was the term, four
hots and a cot.
Cheers
Mary-B
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Just wondering if you tried Gt Baddow for your Claxon line.
My ancestors John Claxton & Elizabeth Barker married at Gt Baddow in 1684, they had (that I know of) 5 children baptised in Gt Baddow:
John Claxton 1685.
Abraham Claxson 1687.
Isaac Claxon 1689.
Elizabeth Claxon 1691, my ancestor.
Sarah Claxson 1695.
I haven't followed the family after 1695 although I did find marriages for three of the children.
I also found John of John & Sarah Claxtone born 11 Jul and bap 15 Jul 1716 at Gt Baddow.
In Chelmsford PRs, by chance, I found John Claxton of Gt Baddow married Ann Long of Chelmsford 29 Nov 1743.
In Gt Waltham:
John & Dorothy Claxton baptised 3 children 1667 to 1672, Sarah, William & Abraham.
William & Elizabeth Claxston baptised 4 Children 1700 to 1708, John, Elizabeth, William & John.
I hesitated to mention the above, there being currently no apparent relevance to your line but who knows what awaits down the track. Since I wasn't actually searching for Claxtons in Chelmsford and Gt Waltham PRs, there may be others to be found there.
Regards
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Yes, your point is well taken, especialy with the different spellings. Some say that CLAXON originated with CLAXTON, from the vicinity of Claxton castle... East Anglia or Sufflok I believe. I live in the US, so when someone mentions a town, I have very little knowledge of the possible tie ins. I thought we were Londoners, but when my father said we were from Hammersmith, and then Fulham, it threw me off for a while :-) HE assumed I would have known that they are parts of London.
So, I could tie in with a nearby town if we could find a Thomas and Rebeccah marriage certificate... but the York I have is a bit distant.
One relative I have on your side of the pond, on the female line, found my oldest Thomas born 1787 ( in this case in Wickford) was the child of aN Abraham Claxon... etc, probably on the line you have provided. But when I researched it, it turned out to be a coincidence. Both Thomas Claxon's were born on March 11 1787, one in Wickford, one in Basidon Hall/ Chelmsford. It was the notaion of the correct one on a census, stating he was born in Basildon Hall, clinched it. Unfortunately it terminated my line at that generation.
Strangely enough, I enetered my stuff into Gene tree, which today contacted me with 4 people that have matches on my tree, but all to a sister of my great grandparents maternal grandmother. So, in the last 24 hours, it appears I have a further 69 cousins :-) great stuff.
Actually, in my last post, I mentioned that my great grandfather and his sister were orphaned at the age of 2, when their parents died due to some infection from the Duke of Wellington funeral. Their maternal grandmother, Hannah Pierce, looked after them. This tie in is one of her FOURTEEN siblings.
I think that is two volleyball teams. That family name is THOROGOOD.
als, I have some Thorogoods diaries, which are copies of a diary of the Essex/ Wickford smallpox epidemic in about 1750, kept at an Essex museum.
Hmmm... the Wickford area is a possibility for my search...
Thanks for the great conversation and interest.
Very much appreciated
Richard Clarkson
New Jersey
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I noticed you discussing how it can sometimes be difficult to be aware how close places are to each other. Something I have found invaluable is a hardback UK atlas that shows little villages and hamlets. You can look on webites for maps etc but it's much easier with an atlas to quickly look how far apart places are. Maybe something to ask for for Christmas? :)
I also have Chelmsford ancestors, many of them, but no Claxons so far. Sometimes when trying to find a marraige that doesn't appear to be in the same parish as the baptism, make a list of the surrounding parishes and work thorugh them then work outwards and so on.
I might be wrong but I think that banns of marriage were read in both parishes and so even if the parent has married outside of their usual parish there could still be a record of it in their original parish. The banns would be read the 3 preceding Sundays before the cermeony but I don't think they list the subsequent place of the ceremony but you can logically work out thew date of the marriage from it. Someone more knowledgable about banns might correct me on this though. When the bride and groom were of differnt parishes it was usually the bride's parish where the marriage took place and then they often lived in the groom's home parish.
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Hazel17's mention of obtaining an atlas is an excellent idea but be warned that there are likely to be omissions of some villages in the index, the villages will show in the maps themselves but not in the index, I have two atlases both have different omissions in the index. An example in one is the Essex village of Pattiswick, although being born and lived in Chelmsford for forty years, when the name Pattiswick cropped up in the IGI I thought there was no such place and it certainly wasn't in the atlas index. I am ashamed to admit that Pattiswick is only approximately 17 miles from Chelmsford, mind you it is very small in size :-[
There is also a useful map put out by the Essex Records Office entitled Essex Hundreds and Parishes, no index attached but very useful for such exercises as determining which parishes abut any you are interested in. You would probably find details in the ERO's SEAX online system, which by the way has some online PRs such as Chelmsford and neighbouring parishes of Springfield and Moulsham, free to search.
Regards
PS We have another surname in common, Thorogood, mine are located in Stebbing, Essex, other spellings Thorowgood, Thurgood etc.
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Hello Hazel and Findem
Yes< I have learned to use Google Earth, which is excellent for doing these things ( free download) Another example of confusion is the "quaint" British reference using familiar terminology, such as " Hants" or " the Lake District", then we have Norfolk, Suffolk, then East Anglia, and we haven't even gotten to towns and villages yet ... foeigners could assume anyone of these to be a village, or the name of a village to be a "state".
On this side, including Canada, counties are NEVER used.. just town and state... in other words perhaps Chelmsford, Essex would work, but then it is one that works on your side also :-) Counties being the equivalent of our States or Provinces. But my fathers refference to Hammersmith really threw me off. Now, with google earth, just about anything can be entered.
I thought we lived in Corsham for a bit, but I entered my street add for Corsham, which was not on any map, ( the street) Google took me to Cheltenham (oops, Snailwell) and found the house, I was looking right at it from a satelite. Amazing. When I put in my last address, there i saw myself in the driveway, with my wife at the door !... can't do that anymore tho, for security. I also put in my add for Tunbridge Wells, and there was our house, along with the factory next to it, that the workers had given this 6 year old a sixpence to paint their fence pink. I think Tunbridge Wells is still talking about it. The owner boxed my ears a bit.
Anyway, tracing a CLARKSON is like tracing SMITH, bu then I have 5 different possible spellings. SMITH... how many ways can you spell Smith ? When I found my Grandfather under CLERKEN, and all my forenames were Thomas, I figured we started something new, rather than change the forename, we change the Surname.
There is a book I am looking at... The Thorogood Family, I think it was written in 1895.. it appears to be fiction so far... available free online.
I have searched ALL census records for ALL available years for ALL Thomas and Rebeccah birth , Death and Marriage I even found myself on there ( birth). It appears that Thomas and Rebeccah were in an area where records were not kept well. I think Hazel sugested that Parish records are the best bet. Perhaps at some point I can make a trip... but I think I would need some pointers for a possible direction to take on this. Any ideas ?
65 years old, time running out... I feel like Captain Hook with the crocodile chasing him, with a clock ticking away......tick tick...
Rich
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aha.. here we go again :-) Great Baddow is (to me) right in Chelmsford, close to my recorded ancestors in Billericay, Wickford Basildon etc. I never thought of checking Great Baddow... different town, may as well be in Scotland. :-)
My father worked for Marconi after the war, and also with the Radar Establishment. There is a Thomas Clarkson who started the Clarkson Steam Omnibus company ( 180 steam buses) no relation... anothe Clarkson who was famous with bicycles, and, my favourite, Laurence Clarkson , The Ranter, who preached Astrology and communion with God through... oh, never mind , but his mistress( one of them) was a Mrs Star in Chelmsford. Strangely enough, he also used Clarkson, Claxon and Claxton.
It is VERY strange how my life has followed his, including printing pamphlets, astrology( my profession for a while) and starting churches on the matter ( 20 years ago)
I have just finished reading his last pamphlet " The Lost Sheep Found". I don't doubt that he left more than a few " Little Bits of England" around. However, that was 1640.
As my last latest known was born 1787, it is interesting that this is the year that the "American Refugees" returned to England.. So I checked the records for Claims to the Crown in New York, but if he was a Loyalist returning, he is not listed for claims paid. My ancestors were agricultural labourors,and there is a John Claxon who worked on Ann Boleyns farm in Battlebridge in 1640, and went to Virgina on the Bona Nova, so there is another possibility, but I can't follow through. He was the secretary to a Mr Treasuror on The Treasuror Plantation in Virginia. I am f the thought that this is a strong possibility.
Anyway, extensive work... I hope readers found this entertaining, and hope I haven't gone on toomuch, but thats about it on my research.
As I said, Thomas and Rebecah Claxon, lost in time somewhere.
Rich
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:-) Great Baddow is (to me) right in Chelmsford, close to my recorded ancestors in Billericay, Wickford Basildon etc. I never thought of checking Great Baddow... different town, may as well be in Scotland. :-)
Great Baddow is an old village, next to Chelmsford.
Basildon is a "new town" about 8, maybe 10 miles away!
Billericay, Wickford etc are all separate towns.
We still havent clarified if the Basildon Hall you first mention was actually in Chelmsford, or in Basildon. Or what the document about Thomas's birth actually is .... etc .
You mention in one of your posts (12th post on this thread) that someone mentions Basildon Hall on a census - have you got the reference for that? would be useful to look at.
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8 to 10 miles away... thats how far we go for a morning walk.... some people commute for hours, and are glad they live nearby :-) According to my maps, Great Baddow is almost in the center of Chelmsford proper... anyway. As you have said, Basildon is a fairly new town, incorporated in 1960 or so.... I will have to find my original documents... but I found them in the online version of the census
I am not sure of the year, but in this census it mentioned all family members in one residence, perhaps 1851, living together while the Grandfather ( Thomas) mentions he was born in 1787 in Basildon Hall. Thats good enough for me.
All I am doing is looking for a Thomas and Rebeccah Claxon ( parents) in perhaps a marriage certificate in the general area, around 1745- 1787. As far as proving the place of their sons birth, I don't get it. Something is either there, or it isn't, regarding any records regarding Thomas and Rebaccah. T o put it colloquially, there ain't any. I have searched all records within thousands of miles, including the Loyalist registers on both sides of the pond.
I just thought my query might trigger a bell somewhere.
Please, lets just leave it alone.
Thanks to all
Have a great Christmas and New Year !
Rich
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Hi Rich,
just thought you could add this to your records, my ggggrandmother was Louisa Steel born 1801 Buckingham (don't know where exactly) , she had a son Henry who always went by her husbands name of Steel, Louisa was about 15 years older than her husband Thomas Steel, but recently someone got in contact with me telling me that she was related to Henry George King (this is in fact as far as we know Henry Steel) on Henry Kings/Steel wedding cert his father was listed as John Claxton.
Why do we think that these 2 men are one and the same, in St Peters & St Pauls Church Yard Grays Parish, there is apparently a monument which states that Henry George King's mother was Louisa Steel. As far as i know Henry was a baker and lived his life in Grays Essex..
I don't live too far from Essex and the next time we are over there i will make a detour and try to find this monument, it will be nice for my own records...
Happy hunting...
This family tree lark is very time consuming isn't it....
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Thanks for the update :-)
Richard
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Hello Richard,
I was researching the Claxton, Stokes, Thaggard connection when I stumbled upon your post. I feel we may be related as the DNA project that I'm involved with names these three surnames as exact matches. When I read your post I immediately identified with our story of my 5x great grandfather George Thaggard born in 1760 arriving NC with the British and serving in the American Revolution. He was not able to return to England due to small pox. He survived and had numerous children.
I would love to hear form you about this possible connection. I wish I had known about this sooner.
Susan