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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Warwickshire => Topic started by: familydar on Sunday 12 February 17 15:55 GMT (UK)
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I am intrigued by a newspaper article I came across by chance on FindMyPast. The newspaper is the Warwick & Warwickshire Advertiser and Leamington Gazette and the article appeared in October 1840. The surname is my family name. The forenames given are family names. But I have never come across any family link to Kettering or Warwick or anywhere in that vicinity. Is the mystery family group connected in some way with mine? What's the story behind the childhood separation? If I'm really lucky it will have been passed down as family folklore and a descendant will be reading this post.
"A person of the name of Joseph DARLING, son of Ambrose and Sarah Darling, and brother of Mary, William and George Darling, then living at Ridge, near Mims, is now about 74, 75 or 76 years of age, if living. He was in early childhood parted from his brother William and sister Mary, and after many years' absence all four met again in London. At that time Joseph was driving the Kettering Fly Waggon. It was about 50 years ago; and from that time they have lost sight of each other. Joseph may find his sister Mary by applying at the Advertiser office, Warwick, and all reasonable expenses will be paid. He must give and remember their first parting. An early inquiry must be made, as she is in a very ill state of health, and in the 80th year of her age."
My first question has to be where is Ridge, near Mims? It would presumably have meant something to readers of the Warwickshire newspaper the article appeared in.
Now my genealogy questions:
From the newspaper appeal we know that Mary was born around 1760 or 1761 and the missing Joseph about 5 years later. Ambrose DARLING married Sarah BISSELL in 1761 at Warwick (IGI) - likely parents. There is an A*y image of this marriage but I've not seen it. If the siblings were listed in birth order (and they may not have been), then William was born after Mary, and George after William, but it's not clear where Joseph fits in. On the IGI I've found a pair of 1770 baps, same day, of J&G to Amb & Sarah at Stamford Baron in NTH. User-submitted. There are images on A*y but again I've not seen them. Stamford Baron is now part of Stamford in modern-day LIN. A Kettering Road leaves the town - coincidence?
The appeal implies that as children, Mary stayed with William and Joseph with George. The two younger ones kept together as were the two older ones? The 1770 baps might have been around the time the family was separated. I wonder what happened and who brought the children up. Although plenty of Williams and Marys, some with father Ambrose and some with mother Sarah, I've not been able to find baps with parents Ambrose AND Sarah Darling anywhere online. I have an Ambrose having children in the 1750s and 1760s but his wife was Mary. His father was William and his paternal grandfather John and they lived and died in BRK/OXF.
If the London meeting was for a marriage, then it presumably wasn't Mary's, as she would likely have been able to give an exact year of the meeting. A Joseph Darling (and it may not have been this one) married Betty Wilby at Marylebone in 1792, again the image is on A*y but I've not seen it so don't know who the witnesses were. There are other potential London matches for both George and William.
It's a reasonable assumption (I think) that Mary probably didn't survive long after the newspaper appeal and that she probably died in the Warwick area (since that's where replies were to be sent) but as we don't know her surname it makes tracking down her burial a bit of a challenge.
So to all you armchair detectives out there - suggestions please!
Jane :-)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge,_Hertfordshire
Ridge is surrounded by countryside with numerous public footpaths. In 1926, the parish boundary between Ridge, Hertfordshire, and South Mimms, Middlesex, was subject to a minor adjustment
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There's is a death Reg in Huntingtonshire st.Ives Union Dec qtr 1840 Joseph Darling aged 81.
Jennifer
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There is a Simon Darling 77 and wife Mary probably nee East on 1841 census St Ives marriage 1806 Milton Earnest Bedford.
Jennifer
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Is this your Joseph :-\
Joseph Darling
Father Ambross Darling mother Sarah
Baptised 20 Feb 1770 - Stamford Baron, Northamptonshire
ADDED also a George baptised 20 Mar 1769
Sorry I hadn't read that far down your post ;D
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Ambrose Darling, of the parish of Tarbigg married Sarah Bissell [transcribed as Bipell as the old style double s has been used] of this parish [Warwick St Mary] 6 Jan 1761. Witnesses John Sabin and ? Asplin
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The 1792 marriage doesn't help much. Both are listed as of this parish. Both apparently sign. witnesses Thos Bin and John Nicholls [made mark]
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Thank you Rosie99. I'd wondered about South Mimms but hadn't heard of Ridge, given their close proximity I think you've identified the place the siblings spent their early years. There are bap records for Ridge on the IGI but no sign of this family.
The Joseph & George baps you've noted are the same ones I've found, but I presume you've looked at A*y and seen the image(s). On the IGI they were both bap same day. Is the 1769 date George's birth date or is there a transcription error on the IGI?
This family certainly moved around a bit, can anyone think of anything that might link the various places they've popped up?
Jane :-)
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Thank you Mabel Bagshawe. Next question has to be where is Tarbigg?
The witness names don't ring any bells and I can find nothing to suggest that BIN or NICHOLLS might have been Mary's husband. If you're enjoying the challenge, could you check on A*y if George Darling's 1790 Paddington marriage to Mary Pollard has any promising witnesses? Likewise William Darling's 1795 marriage to Eleanor Peck?
Jane :-)
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Eleanor was a widow.
Jennifer
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Is this your Joseph :-\
Joseph Darling
Father Ambross Darling mother Sarah
Baptised 20 Feb 1770 - Stamford Baron, Northamptonshire
ADDED also a George baptised 20 Mar 1769
Sorry I hadn't read that far down your post ;D
Sorry just looked again but the original this time ::) Both baptised March 20 1770
When I looked before I did not see the 2nd entry for George and assumed there had been a death of between the 2 Joseph baptisms though I could not see one.
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Hi Jennifer c
I suspect Simon is the one bap Thurleigh 1780 to J (decd) & Elizabeth. J was probably John, they also had an Elizabeth (1767). Father John had been buried the month before Simon was bap. Another Simon was buried 1766 but whether adult or child I've no idea. As of yet I've not managed to link the BDF/BKM cluster in with mine but made a point of extracting as many PRs as I could when I lived in the area.
Thanks for the info on Eleanor. If she was widowed then William might have been older. I was thinking that William would have been in his 30s by 1795, quite late to be marrying for the first time, but if he was marrying a widow than it's very possible he was a bit older. I take it you'd have said if William was noted as a widower. Are there any witnesses or is the image of the banns?
Jane :-)
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Just butting in.
Tarbigg = Tardebigge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardebigge
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Hi Jim1
Butt in all you like with that sort of useful info.
So now we have Worcestershire added in to the mix, albeit on the Warwickshire side of the county. There was another cluster of DARLINGs in Worcester, but again not (so far) linked to my lot.
The IGI has an 1810 marriage of Joseph Darling and Ann Kimberley at Tardebigg (sic), it might have been the missing Joseph I suppose. He would have been in his 40s by that time but if he'd spent his life moving around (as is suggestive so far) it would have been pretty difficult to meet someone and settle down.
It almost looks as if Mary settled in her mother's home parish, and Joseph in his father's. If so, then I'd expect to find William somewhere in Warwick and George in Tardebigge. Short straw on Tardebigge but there is an 1840 burial in Warwick of a 77 year old William. There's an image on A*y. Obit in Coventry Herald gives his address but no account of funeral - shame.
Jane :-)
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Removal and Settlement orders
If poverty was the reason the family were split up, removal/settlement orders might exist. And if Ambrose and Sarah were unable to prove that they were indeed married, then might Sarah have been sent back to her father's parish (Warwick St Mary) and Ambrose to his father's (Tardebigge)? Their children might have been farmed out to relatives in those parishes.
Is this too far-fetched?
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So I believe Ambrose Darling was my 5 x Great Grandfather though my fathers maternal line.
The records on A*y seem to show the joint baptism of George and Joseph Darling on 20th March 1770. Interestingly there is a reference from one of the other members (no citation) to Joseph being born in 1756 in Glinton Northamptonshire about 8 miles from Fotheringhay, which in turn crops up repeatedly throughout successive generations. The marriage of Ambrose and Sarah is 1761. I'm wondering whether this earlier birth date for Joseph is spurious or whether Ambrose and Sarah waited until long after they were married before he was baptised i.e. 1770. I can't find a birth date for either of Joseph or George and whilst it is commonplace for baptism to be close to birth, I've found plenty of cases where this isn't the case.
Either way, thank you for the lead on Tardebigge.
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Hi Neithrop_Boy and welcome to Rootschat.
I'd just about forgotten about this post and had to revisit the research I'd done on it.
I think I've found the A*y tree to which you refer. I suspect the Glinton birthplace comes from Joseph giving that as his abode when he married in 1792. Freereg has three children born to the couple, the last in 1796. The 1799 burial doesn't give an age so I can only guess at how the tree owner arrived at a 1756 YoB. Perhaps it's an estimate based on the age of wife Rebecca.
I don't think you and I are talking about the same Ambrose. I'm not aware that mine was ever married to a Sarah. Mine had six children by his first wife Mary in BRK around the time the NTH Ambrose fathered Joseph. I presume your descent is through the Fotheringhay lines. Are you saying that your paternal grandmother was a Darling or did your lineage branch off further back?
It's always very gratifying to have contact with anyone researching Darlings pre civil registration. Repetition of some less than common names suggests that at least some of the disparate clusters may be connected. If enough of us work our own trees back PROPERLY (as in not just picking the first individual with the right name) and do DNA tests we may eventually be able to piece some of these groups together. The Joseph in the newspaper article was apparently a coachman. I wonder if we should be looking at coaching routes.
best wishes
Jane :-)
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Hi Jane,
In my case, a couple of generations down the line from Ambrose, Rebecca Darling marries Joseph Coulson. My father's maternal line decends directly from Rebecca and Joseph.
You're right in that it all gets very difficult to track but yes I believe its the Fotheringhay line in my case.
regards,
Stuart