Info. for Peter Davies from Mr. Ken Don. (via auntiec).
Firstly I've got the date 28/04/1831 for the marriage of Thomas and Elizabeth.
John Gates his wife Jane Knight both buried in Holybourne-john died 17/04/1914 aged 80, jane died 21/06/1927 aged 92.
Their children were- Hanna,Mary,William,Jane,Sarah and Charles.
A couple of Baptisms; 21 oct 1787-Anne dau of Sarah Gates.
20 dec 1801-James son of Charles/Sarah
20 may 1804 Anne dau of John/Anne
26 Aug 1804-William son of Charles/Sarah
7 feb 1808-Elizabeth dau of John/Sarah
Marriages;
8th june 1839- Harry Clement=Mary Gates dau of Charles Gates.
7th Aug 1841-Thomas Arlett=Eliza Gates dau of John Gates.(buried 14th dec 1817, Sarah aged 37).
That John Gates was a Husbandsman/Smallholder it seems. My Gran, Edith Florence Chant (nee Gates), was the daughter of George Gates and Charlotte Ham. George was the son of Thomas and Martha Gates. (Thomas found the head of Fanny Adams).
We lived in Orchard Lane which was Alton Eastbrook or Neatham as it was sometimes called, less than a mile from Holybourne.
Alot of Gates' worked for the Spicer Paper Mill just at the bottom of the lane the Mills closed down and re-located to kent at the beginning of the 20th Century. In fact, when I was stationed at Dover in 1958, Gran asked me to look up some relatives who lived there.
Gates' were known in Alton a long way back, during the English Civil War, the Crown Hotel was owned by a William Gates, it was captured by Cromwell's forces under General Waller and used as a base for the seige of St. Lawrences Church just a few hundred yards away, where Colonel Boles made his last stand.
The hotel also housed French Prisoners of War during the Napoleonic Wars and is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a large black dog. In fact, in the 1960's during renovation, the skeleton of a dog was found bricked up behind a fireplace, it was about 200 years old!
There was also a lot of Gates who were Quakers, round about the 17th Century. One Nicholas Gates, a Master Builder, built the Friends Meeting House.
A Gates is supposed to have charged with the Light Brigade in the Crimean War. So far I know a William Gates who was a Trumpeter in the 8th Hussars, later the Kings Royal Irish Hussars, but didn't embark for the Crimean with the Light Brigade. He could of course have gone out in another capacity or as a reinforcement. We did have Crimean War Medals in my Gran's possessions, and she used a Russian Triangular bayonet as a poker for the fire!
A John Gates also built a couple of cottages called Alma and Inkerman, after the war.
The Military connection, the badge of the Royal Irish Fusiliers Reserve Regt. from what I know, it was a sort of Home Guard Unit, so hardly likely to be stationed in our area. Although I think it could have been an Officers badge or senior N.C.O., so possibly the owner could have gone to Aldershot or something. All the badges that Gran had were connected to the Gates family, a custom she carried on when I and my brothers joined the Army. I can put a tentative name to the English and Scottish ones but the Irish ones are a mystery. When I 'passed ot' in 1957, I went home in uniform and I went to The Barley Mow, another pub once owned by the Gates family,and an old couple in the bar started to chat , and they remembered the Gates family at the start of the first war. They said that there were 11 of them in uniform but only one came back.
There are only two Gates on the War Memorial, but if the rest weren't Altonians they probably wouldn't be. A lot of them they said, had come back from India, which fits as a division was being formed in Aldershot.Amongst them was Adolphus Daniel (Jack) Gates of the 13th Hussars, later in the 11th The Kings Royal Irish Hussars was another of these returning Regts. whose badges were in our family collection. Gates, Chants, Woods and Chandlers are the names I associate with the badges.
I have got more on Gates, some parisH registers etc. if you could write to me, I could get some photocopied and send them to you.
all the best.
Ken Don.
13 Tywyn Isaf
Prestatyn
Denbighshire
North Wales
LL19 7RJ.
