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Hi, still on the trail of Newbury brewers I have come across a bunch of links to the SMITHs of Speen/Speenhamland.

In 1816 Sarah SMITH of Newbury d of Thomas SMITH married Robert ROWELL in London (St Mary le Bone)
Sarah was buried (aged 22) in Newbury in May 1818 after giving birth to Thomas Robert a month earlier.
Robert ROWELL remarried in Jan 1819 - to Elizabeth SMITH (London, St Dunstan's in the West).

Robert ROWELL became a partner (before 1818) in what would later become the Newbury Brewery Co - possibly through his SMITH connections.

Another partner John SATCHELL married Mary SMITH in 1824.

And William SMITH married Harriet TOWNSEND (co-heiress to the brewery) in 1898

Is anyone researching SMITHs in this area? Could all these SMITHs (Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, & William) be siblings?

Anyone in the Newbury area who is interested in the operation of the poor laws in Berkshire might be interested in a talk on the subject by county archivist, Dr Peter Durrant.
http://www.ndfc.org.uk/talks/1002E%20PoorLaw.html

Thought it could be useful if we posted information and or links about local or family history books that can be found online. So here goes:

IA = Internet Archive, Anc = Ancestry, GB = Google Books

The History of Newbury - Walter Money, 1887 (still the best history of the town available) - IA
The First & Second Battles of Newbury and the Siege of Donnington Castle - Walter Money (both editions) - IA
Thatcham, Berks, and its manors. - Barfield (both volumes) - IA
Transcripts from the Parish Registers of Thatcham: Made by Thomas Rawlinson - Walter Money (early registers only) - IA
Bucklebury - A Berkshire Parish - AL Humphries (outstanding village history) - Anc
Berkshire Archaeological Journal - many Vols -  IA and www.berksarch.co.uk/library.html - lots of early records in the 'Feet of Fines' transcripts in a number of issues pre-WWI. (Vols 16, 17 & 18)
Index to wills proved and administrations granted in the court of the archdeacon of Berks, 1508 to 1652 - IA
Berkshire parish registers. Marriages - Phillimore - parishes of Harwell, Bradfield, Sparsholt, West Hendred, Sulham, Kingston Lisle, Purley, Buscot & West Hanney
Parochial Topography of the Hundred of Wanting [Wantage Hundred] - WN Clarke - GB
An Account of the Charitable Donations to Places Within the County of Berks - F C Parry, 1818 - GB
Victoria County History of Berkshire - http://www.british-history.ac.uk/place.aspx?gid=2&region=2
The Hundred of Compton, Hewett, 1844 - IA

The following list of Newburians appears in the Newbury Weekly News of 8 Jan 1868. I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone could guess what they had in common. If any descendants want a copy of the article make yourselves known. I'm particularly interested in anyone who has researched the brewers (in bold).

T W Graham, H J Smith, G Poole, H Bailey, H B Scaird, H Meakin, C Lucas, R Panting, C Saunders, G Callis,
E Plummer, J Liddiard, H J Matthews, W Wheeler, C D Finch, E Higgs, W W King, E Salway, W O’Brien,
H J Matthews, W H Webster, Tom Newton, E Robinson, E Lack, T Willis, S Biddis, W J Pennington,
W Swann, R Smith, T Deller, S H Wilkinson, A Burns, S Freeman, E T Brooks, W Sumpster, F Comyns,
W Balding, J Slade, junr, W Dore, W Burgess, S Flint, H Attewell, T G King, R Basing, R Martin, W Knight,
J Copas, G Deane, junr, C Paris, H Cayzer, S Elliott, W Hickman, M Gray, J Basing, H Cullum, T Tranter,
J C Pinniger, R Cubbage, C Sangwell, G Jarrett, E Polhill, W Cook, J J Roake, E J Bance, G Mayo,
J Withers, J Packer, J Burgess, C W Marr, G Liddiard, J Cooper, J Absalom, G Crosswell, J B Stone,
S H Looker, B Sargent, E Windsor, J Fox, J Langton, J Philpot, G Boyer, F Stone, W H Jackson, W Griffin,
E Harrison, H Purdue, W Griffiths, E Willis, J Britten, S Thatcher, R Willis, A Elliott

Hi,

A chap called David Lloyd has started an e-petition to ask the Prime Minister to allow full access to the England and Wales BMD registers from 1837 to 1908. This would end the need for £7 certificates.

Given the seeming collapse of the DOVE project to digitise these records I think this petition is worthy of massive support from family historians. So far 500 people have signed up - it needs thousands before it will be taken seriously.

To support this go to http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/OpenBMDrecords/ and sign up.