Clarke family Fishtoft (and Spalding) COMPLETED

[LHurrey]

Hello everyone,

I've been tracing my 3x great grandmother Harriet CLARKE. After purchasing Harriet's last child's birth certificate (Agnes HURREY, born 2 Dec 1868) I found that Harriet is listed as Harriet HURREY formerly CLARKE, 40, Fishtoft, Lincolnshire. Her husband, John Steadman HURREY, was born in Spalding.

A number of lovely RootsChatters have been helping me with this in this thread http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,582404.0.html and it was suggested to try my luck on the Lincolnshire board as the county keeps popping up.

What we know so far:

Harriet CLARKE, my 3x great grandmother, was the third wife of my 3x great grandfather John Steadman HURREY (born Spalding, 1808). John was quite the ladies man, he'd previously been married to Caroline LEEDEN and Elizabeth GRINDELL. He had 4 and 7 children with them respectively. Each wife died young and was quickly replaced by another. After immigrating to Victoria, Australia (on the Duke of Portland, Aug 1850) with wife two (Elizabeth) and 5 remaining children, Elizabeth dies and he marries Harriet in 1852. His marriage record provides no info on Harriet except that she was a spinster.

He had 6 children with Harriet.
Ellen Clara HURREY 1852 – 1941
Alfred Clarke HURREY 1855 – 1931
Frederick William HURREY 1858 – 1907
Gertrude HURREY 1862 – 1906
William Henry HURREY 1865 – 1944
Agnes HURREY 1869 – 1950

The passenger list for the Duke of Portland which John sailed to Port Phillip via Adelaide (August 23rd 1850) lists a 'John HURRY, wife and 5 children'. It also lists a Miss H. Hurry. It has always puzzled me as to who this is. Now my  theory is that this is Harriet CLARKE being brought out from Lincolnshire as a servant with the family. Theories as to why she is listed as Hurry instead of Clarke have been discussed in the other thread.

No female H. HURREY married in Victoria or died in Victoria in the 50 years following the arival of the MISS H HURR(E)Y above.

Her obit on Trove (Argus, 13 Dec 1919) states she died 11 Dec 1919 in her 93rd year and that she was 'a resident of Victoria since 1849, and Burwood since 1862'. I assume this means she immigrated to Victoria that year from outside Australia but it could mean from a different state.

Her (slightly confusing) death reg:

HURREY Harriet
Father Unknown
Mother Harriet CLARKE
Age 93
Death Place Burwood
Year 1919
Reg. Number 16216

I haven't bought the certificate yet.

Potential Harriet's in Lincolnshire have been suggested in the other thread:

1841 Harriet CLARKE in 'Upgate' Louth, a servant in the household of Mary Orme?, 60, a person of independent means, with two other ladies of independent means, Fanny Alington, 70, and Emilia? Robinson, 35 and two other servants, born in Lincolnshire abt 1826.

1841 Census
Fishtoft, Licolnshire (no other details for address)

Will'm CLARKE, 40, ag lab,
Mary, 35
Hariet, 12
George 10
Isabella, 4

This family reappears the next two decades without Harriet.

I hope this isn't too confusing!   I would like to determine if any of these are my Harriet and confirm who her parents might be so I can continue back. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Lucy

[judb]

FamilySearch has some baptisms from Fishtoft, including some from the other CLARKE families who appear on the 1841 census in Fishtoft but not the 3 children belonging to this family.

Would anyone have access to records, plaese?

Judith

[Geoff-E]

FamilySearch has some baptisms from Fishtoft, including some from the other CLARKE families who appear on the 1841 census in Fishtoft but not the 3 children belonging to this family.

The baptism of Harriet CLARKE in Fishtoft is here http://www.lincstothepast.com/Records/RecordDisplayTranscript.aspx?oid=555851&iid=227123

I can't find a burial anywhere that matches this death 
Deaths Jun 1843 
CLARK    Harriet        Boston    14   191

[pamthomas]

I can't find a burial anywhere that matches this death 
Deaths Jun 1843 
CLARK    Harriet        Boston    14   191

Do you think that might have a connection to the birth registration of a Harriett Clark, March quarter 1843, Boston registration district?

Two possibilities re no burial found. (a) Was she buried in St John's churchyard at the top of Skirbeck Road? I don't know if there are any extant records for burials there, though there used to be a list of the gravestones in Boston library at one time.
(b) There is also a little-known non-conformist burial ground down South Parade (believe it or not, I was told about that while I was in Canada! Even more strangely, is that it wasn't the person who used to live in South Parade that told me!). Again, possibly there are no extant records for it.

[LHurrey]

Thanks everyone for your input! 

Great find on the Fishtoft Harriet baptism!

Now, thinking aloud...

I feel like there's a Fishtoft Harriet CLARKE, born late 1828/early1829 to a William and Mary Clarke (with children - George, Isabella, Eliza, Rebecka and William). Harriet is with her parents in the 1841 census, then no longer living with them in '51 or '61.

Then there's a Harriet Clarke born around 1826 in Linc. Co. She's a servant in Louth in '41. Potentially she's a nursemaid in 1861 as there's a Harriet Clarke (listed as nurse, born Swineshead) living with a family with a 1 week old baby in Skirbeck in the Boston in the '61 census.

The 1843 death (and birth) is another Harriet but we can discount her if it is as it appears and she dies in infancy.

This suggests that the Fishtoft Harriet might be my Harriet. She wouldn't be on the '51 census as she'd be sailing to Victoria (either with John or not), if we're to believe she had been in Victoria since 1849/50.

But maybe I'm clutching at straws here...

[LHurrey]

Two possibilities re no burial found. (a) Was she buried in St John's churchyard at the top of Skirbeck Road? I don't know if there are any extant records for burials there, though there used to be a list of the gravestones in Boston library at one time.
(b) There is also a little-known non-conformist burial ground down South Parade (believe it or not, I was told about that while I was in Canada! Even more strangely, is that it wasn't the person who used to live in South Parade that told me!). Again, possibly there are no extant records for it.

It's funny the info you find in the strangest of places!

Of course, keeping the above in mind, Fishtoft Harriet may have died and the record doesn't remain...

[pamthomas]

This suggests that the Fishtoft Harriet might be my Harriet. She wouldn't be on the '51 census as she'd be sailing to Victoria (either with John or not), if we're to believe she had been in Victoria since 1849/50.

But maybe I'm clutching at straws here...

I would say you're clutching at all the right straws. 
Too many things match, in my opinion.

Do you know if the original passenger list exists? It would be interesting to know if 'Miss H Hurry' is listed immediately under John and his family.

Mention was made in the other thread about a marriage of a Harriet Clarke in 1850 in Boston registration district.
That Harriet married George Brown at Holland Fen on 1 Jan 1850.
http://mi.lincolnshiremarriages.org.uk/
According to the index both fathers were called William. Truth? Index error? Inattention by the vicar so he's entered a name incorrectly?
By coincidence the father of the groom is also called William, and it wouldn't be the first time that a vicar has given both fathers the same name by mistake. It would need a lot more investigating, but that Harriet might be the one, baptised in Swineshead in 1828, the daughter of John and Elizabeth. Swineshead is very close to Kirton and Holland Fen.
There's a Harriet Clark who in 1841 is aged 13, and living in Kirton in Holland. Might be something or nothing, but the tip of Kirton parish almost touches the tip of Holland Fen parish.
http://maps.familysearch.org/

[Neil Todd]

1841 census...... There is also another Harriet Clark?e Living in the Parish of Backthon? (could it be Barkston?) In Cliffson? Street. She is the Daughter of Thomas and Sarah?

The worst thing is in the 1851 census it does not include any of the Lincs born Harriet's.

So she married, died, or left the country???

Neil

[LHurrey]

Yes Neil, 1851 is driving me mad! If we have Fishtoft Harriet sailing (she's not living with her parents), where did the other Harriet (nurse/servant b 1826) go?

I hadn't seen that one Neil. If you take both spellings of Clark(e), there's an inordinate amount of Harriet's born in Lincolnshire around 1829...it worries me! I'm just hoping that my Harriet is a proud Fishtoft girl and she's telling all the census (well, at least 1841) and birth registry people about it.

Might be time to buy the death cert in case it was mis-transcribed too.