WILLCOVE - Help please?

[Dale]

Kia Ora
Greeting from New Zealand.
 I am seeking help regarding the death of SAMUEL MEDDLETON  a 26 year old labourer who drowned at Stonehouse creek near the Govt Emigration Depot on/about 13 August 1865.

His death cert gives no clue as to the wife who he apparently farewelled at the train station. She was apparently going to Torquay to friends awaiting confinement.

James Dodd spotted him in the water and the body was recovered and taken to the Dead House at Stonehouse Workhouse by the County Constable PG Watts.  The WMN reports of the Inquest state Thomas Kevill was a witness who saw  Samuel earlier. He had been drinking but was not drunk.

I am wondering if :
he might have been given a pauper's burial perhaaps in Willcove? Probably Presbyterian or or  C of E?
he was buried with folk from the Workhouse  and if so where is he likely to be buried?
the wife's family variously  BOYLE, BOLE, BOAL  or Samuel himself might be recorded in any docs at the village? He worked at Keyham Steam factory.
a daughter Sarah might have been enrolled at a local school?

I have previously posted on the Devon site not realising the significance of WILLCOVE' s location.
 
i'd be very grateful for any guidance/assistane.
TIA
Dale

[Radcliff]

Another place he could have been buried was the Saint George East Stonehouse,
but I believe a lot of the records for the church were destroyed,

[Dale]

Hi Radcliff
St Georges was mentioned by the Plymouth library as a possibility but they just said it was closed. It would be just my luck that the records were actually destroyed!

As the family (if it is the right one) were sailing at the end of September I imagine they wouldn't have counted on the cost of a funeral and burial  and headstone!

Wonder if anyone could help with info about St Georges??
TIA
Dale

[JaneyCanuck]

Rather a trail of threads on this one ...

Are you looking also for the identity of his wife? But you say you know she sailed on 30 Sept of that year ... or at least a Margaret Boyle/Bole/Boal (or did she sail as Meddleton?) who you suspect was his wife did. Can you explain that suspicion, what there is that connects her with this Samuel?

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=669007.msg5190531

The birth of a Harriet Louisa Middleton was registered in Q4 1865 in Newton Abbot reg dist, which covered Torquay. Could this be the child expected at the time of his death? If she was indeed left behind by her mother, she might have been registered just after the mother sailed.

In the 1861 census there is a Samuel Middleton, 20, born Honiton, railway labourer, with wife Harriet, 21, born Topham, lacemaker, with son Richard, 1 mo., living in Topham in St Thomas reg dist. There doesn't seem to be a marriage for them. A Richard Daniel Middleton was reg in St Thomas in Q1 1861.

There is no death or marriage for the name of either of those children, and I don't see any of the family, or Harriet 1865, in the 1871 census, even searching w/o surname and birth details only, or in the 1911 census.

[Dale]

Kia Ora Janey
You have "hit" on many of my probelms!
I have a copy of the Baptism of Ssrah Bole Mettleton in 1860 in County Down Ireland. Parents listed as Samuel Mettleton (labourer) and Margaret Bole.

Margaret Bole sailed on 30 Sept 1865, with her father, sister and daughter Sarah to meet up with her sister & brother who had sailed earlier.
That much is very well documented as is the rest of her lives!

I then went looking for Samuel Mettleton. I cannot find a marriage in Ireland as it was possibly before Civil Registration. I assumed he was possibly close to Margaret's age that is born circa 1837 -1840 and when i found a Sanuel Meddleton drowning at Stonehouse Creek outside the ZGovt Emigration depot, a labourer approx 26 years of age I thought I had found him!

Unfortunately his death cert gave no clues as to his wife neither do the Inquest Reports in the local paper. No hint that he was Irish but he was a labourer! And he was in Plymouth possibly awaitng the sailing perhaps even buyiong the tickets at the Emigration Depot prior to his death?. So information both for and against my having found the right person. I know for sure he didn't arrive in NZ unless he used another name. I think that Margaret was either a common law wife or reverted for ease of the passage by ship, to her maiden name.

I have found a Samuel M in the 1911 census of Ireland aged 72 a widower in Comber so I willl have to try and eliminate him as well.  Just so many paths to follow!

So to answer your question - yes the identity of Samuel's wife would help!
I am very grateful to those who have replied to my queries azs I've tried to prove or disprove the various avenues!.

A Harriet Middleton aged 9 months died in 1868 here and a Richard Jeremiah Middleton aged 57 died in 1897 - I record this in case some else is looking for this family.

Thanks for your help. I shall continue to search!
Dale