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Hello Richard

It's been many years since you sent me the results of your research on my man of mystery Samuel Feecham - 10 years to be exact! I do apologise for my lack of response over such a long period. I'm afraid life intervened and I've only very sporadically been able to get back to the family tree. However even though it's been such a long time, I still want to thank you so much for the time you spent looking up those details for me. i did have a breakthrough with Samuel's parents, Ambrose and Elizabeth Penny and their two marriages, 10 years apart at the Fleet. I haven't quite been able to work that one out yet. I have the grandfather Ambrose on my tree from Romsey and a possible father, John for him. I did get back a long way from Elizabeth Penny via Martha Smedmore and John Penny who came from East Lulworth in Dorset and that family traces back to the Turbervilles who were apparently the family that Tess of the D'Urbervilles was based on.

I hope you're keeping well and survived the pandemic. I've been back to the UK since our last correspondence - I spent a year over there with my daughter and left to come home to New Zealand just a couple of months before the pandemic struck.

Thank you once again Richard, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help.

Jenny

I have a 3 x gr grandfather called George Croscombe born about 1772. His daughter Sarah born 1793 in Swansea Wales was my 3 x gr grandmother. George was born in Bideford, or Chittlehampton Devon and was a merchant sea captain. He married Mary Lepper (1767) and they had Sarah, William George 1794 and another William George born 1796 (mariner), Jane 1803, Robert 1808 and Mary 1810.

According to other family trees I have seen, George's father/grandfather may have been John Croscombe of Braunton, Devon and his mother/grandmother Mary Bushon of Chittlehampton, Devon. I believe John Croscombe was the son of Edward Croscombe and Mary Berry. I need a link between George and John Croscombe.

Sarah married James Thomas on 28 November 1814 in Swansea, Wales. James Thomas was also a mariner (coastguard).

There was a George christened in Bideford in 1762, the son of Thomas and Sarah Croscombe, but I have it on good authority that this is not my George.

There is a George Croscombe born in Bideford showing up in the 1861 Census as a pensioner at the Royal Hospital Greenwich, aged 89. He could have been my George or George the son of Thomas and Sarah, but being a mariner, it is perhaps not surprising that he would be a pensioner in the Royal Hospital Greenwich. 

Please could someone help here - there were a lot of Croscombes in Devon in those days, not helped by the fact that Croscombe is also a place in Devon, so the name can also show up in any general searches as a place.

Hi Val

Nice to hear from you. I have Gilbert on my tree and I have one extra wife besides Elizabeth (Mary Rising - married 15 May 1814 at St Giles without Cripplegate) and another lady (Hannah Leech) with whom he had banns read on 10 April 1814 at St George the Matyr, Southwark. Unless there were two Gilbert Goullees around that area at the beginning of 1814, he sure was a busy boy! Elizabeth's death date is January 1814!! He was listed as a widower for both ladies and they were listed as widows. You may well know about those, or I may have it wrong and he may not be the only Gilbert Goullee of that age around at that time. I have realised that his probable father was Gilbert as well, so it could well have been him that was connected to one or other of these women. I'll try and do a bit more detective work.

I haven't been able to find anything else for him, but I didn't know his parents' names or grandparent. I doubt I will be able to find anything if you can't, but will keep looking and certainly let you know if I come across anything.

I sorted out the Esther Saumon/Marianne Gaucheron plus the two Pauls problems with the help of someone I came across from the same family. It certainly makes sense that that is where Marianne fits in. I have the two Pauls and Maria as the children of Esther - the rest are Marianne's. The first Paul (1709) is thought to have died about 1710. That leaves Paul 1711, who married Mary Finet.
That all makes sense as well and has set to rest a troublesome mystery with regards all those Pauls and what to do about the two wives. All I have to resolve now is the ongoing problem of Judith Bachelier's parentage (mentioned before here) and man of mystery Samuel Feecham - my grandmother wrote that the French family name was FeChamp - which ties in with Feecham, but I can't find any FeChamps around at that time (Samuel was a weaver so it probably follows he was Huguenot as he was connected with them and married one of the Deverduns). My grandmother went to the French Brothers School, 233 Shaftsbury Avenue when she was 10 until she was 16. If you come across anything that may be connected I would be grateful for your input.


Best wishes to you also
Jenny Young

Hello Valda

I just wanted to write and thank you very much for your help in tracing my ggg grandparents on both sides. A while ago you sent me a census entry for a Charles and Sarah Hunt and their family (above) - he was a Superintendant of the Victoria Park Cemetery in Bethnal Green in 1851 (I now have reason to believe that he may have helped in the design of that park). I have made big strides thanks to your information. James Thomas, Charles's father-in-law was a Chief boatman and then Coastguard and he was transferred to St Lawrence in the Isle of Wight - while he was there he and another man were in instrumental in rescuing 19 people off the foundering 430 ton ship Bainbridge, which was driven onto rocks near Atherfield.  James (and presumably Stubbs) won silver medals RNLI for Lifeboat Gallantry.

Jame's eldest daughter Sarah married Charles Hunt (he was a gardener) and moved to London. Apparently James and his wife Sarah (nee Croscombe) moved to London first and that was the incentive for the family to move there. I have discovered that Charles had a sister called Elizabeth and therefore think that Elizabeth Hunt was probably the wife of James Brown and therefore my ggg grandmother.  So the links to Wales and the Isle of Wight, as you can see has been a very important one. 

They seemed to move about a great deal in those days, as James and Sarah's two eldest children were born in Swansea, Wales, but the other children were born in the IOW. I have the names of the Hunts further back, but am having difficulty linking William Hunt (1776) and Jane Devenish (1778), his wife to Thomas Hunt (born 1770, St Lawrence, IOW) and Hannah Dyer (nee Tutchell), his wife and beyond them, Thomas Hunt and Mary Coleman. Hannah Dyer was first married to Richard Dyer. I presume that William was Thomas's brother. William and Jane Devenish were married in St Lawrence, IOW in 1797.

I am also having problems finding a birth for James Thomas (may be in Wales, but not sure - 1800) and his wife Sarah Croscombe who supposedly married him in Devon where her family came from.

I have this information (below) from a private book about the Hunt family (just a couple of pages of which I found online):

Noted events in his life were:-
Charles was born at Steephill Farm, in the parish of Godshill and grew up in neighbouring St Lawrence where his father, William was born. It was here that he met his future wife, Sarah Thomas, daughter of St Lawrence coastguard and chief boatman, James Thomas and his wife Sarah nee Croscombe. Sarah was born in Swansea, Wales and christened in Northam, Devon - close to Bideford, the birthplace of her grandfather, merchant navy captain, George Croscombe. The Thomas family settled in St Lawrence circa 1826 when James was transferred from Clovelly, Devon, before moving along the coast to Atherfield Preventive Station. On 24 October, 1832, James received a silver medal for his part in risking his life to rescue passengers from the stricken brig, Bainbridge, that foundered on rocks off Atherfield.

I have not even touched on James Brown yet (Sophia Thomas's father-in-law), so more scavenging to come, but once again I really appreciate your help - a big thank you!

Kind regards
Jenny

Yes I have already considered that and they have got a son called Thomas of the correct age.

Jenny