An Abingdon mystery - ideas please

[DebbieG]

My 6 x great grandmother Sarah Hales was baptised in St Helens Church in Abingdon in 1719 the daughter of Stephen & Elizabeth Hale (boatman),  going back in the registers for St Helens I found a marriage 1st March 1698 for Stephen Hale to Elizabeth Holloway,  they had 4 other children baptised at St Helens and Stephen is given each time as boatman or bargeman.

I started to look if there were other children and tried the registers for the other church in Abingdon St Nicholas and there I found this marriage

1698 1st March
Steven Hale bargeman to Elizabeth Cowdon
both of St Helens Abingdon, by Anthony Addison vicar of St Helens,  William Symons, Edwd Jennings churchwardens.

 I really feel this is the same marriage - but why two different surnames for Elizabeth?  and which one is the correct one?

Any ideas?   

DebbieG

[behindthefrogs]

If she was a widow when married one surname could be her maiden name and the other the surname of her previous husband.

Alternatively her mother could have married or remarried after her birth and one of the names is that of her father in law (or as we would now call him step father)

David

[Redroger]

If the registers go back far enough I would try to go back a generation to try and eliminate the possiblity of two Stephen's both bargemen and probably cousins of some degree. If registers for both churches survive you may be able to determine this.

[DebbieG]

Hi

Thanks for the suggestions both.  Yes I have transcripts of both churches registers and they do go back before this,  though the St Helens ones (the biggest of the two churches) are patchy before 1688,  with some years missing          I have studied all the Hale entries and there aren't that many around that time although I haven't manged to put them into one family due to the missing bits,  I do feel that it is the same person,  I can't find even one baptism for a Stephen Hale(s) of the right time let alone two and there are only 5 baptisms to a Stephen/Elizabeth couple and then one death for Stephen (1735).

I had thought about the possibility of Elizabeths mother remarrying,  but I am struggleing with the COWDON surname there are no other instances of it in the registers at all at this time,  the closest Cowdon (or Cowden) family I can find are in Thame in Oxfordshire which is not that close.

 

DebbieG

[Redroger]

If you have the Bishops' transcripts too it might be helpful in piecing things together.I think that you might have to widen your area of search, to other parishes along the waterway(s) involved as they were boatmen. From the research point of view, it's rather like researching a traveller family, I found one yesterday staying at a farm where my ancestors were tenants, listed in one of the fields in trailers etc. a family of 17, parents and 15 children, all of whom had been born in different parishes. You might find your boatmen follow a similar pattern.

[Sloe Gin]

I wondered about the river link.  I don't think the River Thame is navigable between the Thames and Thame (blimey, that's confusing!) but perhaps it was back then?

[ribbo39]

Hi Debbie

I too have the Abingdon register transcripts from OFHS and like  you cannot find an Elizabeth Cowdon nor does the IGI come up with anything that I can see.     I can see on the IGI some Elizabeth Holloway's  and the nearest ones would be either  Basildon 1670 or Tilehurst 1663( both extracted entries).    Both places are on the River Thames and perhaps  that is where Stephen Hale met his wife to be.

In case you haven't got it, Stephen Hale, bargeman buried 1-11-1737  Abingdon St.Helens.

I have'nt been able to find a baptism for a Stephen Hale anywhere locally but the IGI does have an extracted one

for 14-2-1662 Bourton-on-Water, Glos.

The other possibility is that the name could have been "Hall" and in this respect there is an entry

in the Abingdon St.H. baptisms index for a Stephen Hall in 1672- but for the life of me I can't see the
 
entry in the registers - perhaps its missing.

Alan

[Redroger]

Was it a submitted entry? If so, you can almost certainly ignore it. Personally I would establish where the bargemen worked on the local waterways, and then thoroughly search the relevant registers.

[DebbieG]

Hi - thanks all for the suggestions

No Redroger this is not IGI (family search) these are transcripts of the actual registers from OFHS - Abingdon St helens is not in the IGI.

I don't think Thame is or ever has been on the Thames - though the name certainly implies it - I am trying to research into the barge trade in Abingdon at the time,  as you look through the registers there are a very high proportion of the working men mentioned as being boatmen or bargemen,  this goes on for about 50 years (1700 - 1750) then the predominent occupation changes to weaving and hempdressing.  The question remains why were so many men working in the trade at that time and what happend to change it - it's too early for the railways?

thanks all for your input

DebbieG