1841 Census Lokup - Rhoda Hotston

[RobHam]

I have yet another difficult research line,  difficult because surname spellings keep changing.   It involves Rhoda Hotston who married my direct Ancestor Edward Hammond.  There traceable family is

Edward Hammond b. 1816 Angmering
Rhoda Hotston b. 1819 Ford
George b. 1849 Angmering
Edward b. 1851 Angmering
Fanny b. 1854 Angmering
James b. 1858 Angmering (not proven).   

Rhoda keeps changing her Surname (no doubt because she could not read or write).    She has used various spellings
Huttsone at her m. in 1844 to Edward -  father recorded as William.
Hudson, Hudston, Hotstone at the c. of her children

All of these spellings are not common in the area but Hotston is very common around Lyminster and the villages west of the River Arun such as Climping, Yapton etc.

Census records indicate her birth in Ford but I have a fiche of parish records for ford and she is not listed.  Not too surprised at this,  the Church at ford is very small,  there is a better chance of a christening at one of the larger parishes such as climping or Lyminster or another close by.

I do have possible parents for Rhoda who are William Hotston b. 1779 Lyminster and another Rhoda perhaps b. 1787 Ford

Is there any chance of an 1841 census lookup for Rhoda and her Parents,  not too sure where to start looking but probably Ford followed by Lyminster.    In 1841 she may well have left home and living in Angmering or surrounding district. 

[Chris in 1066Land]

hi there Robham

had a look in the 1841 census for ford for your Rhoda - sorry, she is not there.

Its the strangest census I have ever seen - consists of 14 double pages with just 1 family on each page - very weird

So had a look in Leominster (could not find a Lyminster) and I spotted this, but may be a bit young even allowing for the rounding down to the nearest 5

HI107/ 1093/ 8 - Leominster, Sussex

HUDSTON Rhoda, 15, Female Servant, born in county of sussex

she is living with William Elliott and Family, Farmer.

Also spotted a Susanna Hudston aged 67, born in Sussex

and I spotted William Hodston (60) with his wife Rodah (54) and children Mary 17 and Hannah 13 at Wick Lodge

Put them on the back burner for possible future use

Chris in 1066

[Dimps]

The birth of a Rhoda Hotstone on 5th January 1819 in Lyminster (parents William and Rhoda)  is recorded in the IGI:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp&clear_form=true

Here is Edward Hammond in 1841

Angmering HO107/1903/1/ED6

Folio 15, Page 6

Edward Hammond, 58 Bricklayer
Amy do, 57
Edward do, 20, Ag Lab
Thomas do, 16
Ann do, 9
Francis, 5

All born in the county

I had a look for Rhoda in Angmering, in case that was where she and Edward met, but I could not see her.  There are a couple of other Hammond families if you are interested.

As Chris in 1066 said, the Census for Ford is weird and no Rhoda, but Hotston/e is the dominant name there.  There is a Hotstone family headed by Thomas (43) and Jane (39), another headed by Mary (69), a publican and a William Hotston (20) lodging with another family, if you are interested.  Pubs seemed to have been the Hotston thing - they also ran a pub in Slindon and another in Binsted.

I've had a look at various villages and hamlets in the Lyminster area, but came across no Rhoda Hotstons (or her possible parents, as per the IGI).

Deborah 

[RobHam]

Thanks for all of your efforts here.  Does seem to be quite a complex family to trace.  I knew of the Binsted Hotston line and have had many pints and country wines in that pub over the years.
Interestingly there is a recorded marriage for a William Hotston from Binsted to a Rhoda Roberts from Bury in 1806.  Unfortunately this conflicts with other sources as mentioned below.

The IGI contains a good amount of local Hotston records but most of these are not based on Parish records,  they seem to be based on data from an LDS member e.g the birth of Rhoda in 1819.  I am having major trouble trusting this stuff.   In many cases there seems to be a birth date recorded but no christening date.  I do find this strange,  perhaps the LDS member had access to a family bible.   I have put together the following Hotston family including Rhoda,   from various sources including the IGI and just by using Google.   I may try and get access to a fuller version of the parish records for Ford if they exist,  the version that I have is from the SFHG but is a very old transcription with restricted dates.


William Hotston b. 3 Dec 1779 Lyminster or Ford, d. 24/05/1850
Rhoda Unknown b. 26 Nov 1787 Ford,  d. 16 Jul 1849
George b. 8 Oct 1808 Lyminster,  d. 13 Feb 1857
Harriett b. 17 May 1810 Lyminster
Charlotte b. 20 Jul 1812 Lyminster
Amy b. 15 Aug 1814 Lyminster, c. 4 Sep 1814 Ford
William b. 20 Mar 1816 Lyminster, c. 7 Apr 1816 Ford, d. 7 Jul 1900 Lyminster
Robert b. 25 Oct 1817 Lyminster, c. 9 Nov 1817 Ford, d. 5 Sep 1880 Lyminster
Rhoda b. 5 Jan 1819 Ford, c. 31 Jan 1819 Ford, d. 1891 East Preston
Elizabeth c. 6 May 1821 Littlehampton
Mary c. 7 Sep 1823 Littlehampton
Anne c. 8 May 1825 Littlehampton
Hannah c. 30 Sep 1827 Littlehampton

[RobHam]

Regarding William and Rhoda reputed to be b. in Ford or perhaps Binsted in the late 1700's.   Probably William is related in some way to the Binsted Hotson families.
To sort this I think that I need access to parish records for Ford and Binsted for this time period so have decided to purchase the Fiches as offered by West Sussex County Council.   Have not used this service before,  I think that the fiches are photographs of the actual pages from a Parish Record book.  Will be interesting if I can actually decipher them.
This fiche reproduction service as offered by West Sussex County Council is now quite extensive,  seems to have been extended to cover many more Parishes.  I will post up the relevant Web URL's to the resources section later today.

[Dimps]

Do you have the 1841 Binsted Hotstons - and if not, do you want them?

A sister of my gggg grandmother married one of the Binsted Hotstons.

Best wishes
Deborah

[Jane Masri]

Hi Robham,
I've used the West Sussex Service to buy fiche and yes they are actual micro fiche of the registers, not transcripts, therefore not indexed, so you have to plough through them page by page.  There are disappointments as some are badly faded, damaged or in some cases non-existant.  Where this happens it's worth checking the Bisphop's Transcrips, which can be viewed at the West Sussex archives in Chichester.

Jane

[RobHam]

Hi Robham,
I've used the West Sussex Service to buy fiche and yes they are actual micro fiche of the registers, not transcripts, therefore not indexed, so you have to plough through them page by page.  There are disappointments as some are badly faded, damaged or in some cases non-existant.  Where this happens it's worth checking the Bisphop's Transcrips, which can be viewed at the West Sussex archives in Chichester.

Jane

I can now confirm that :-
1.  Fiches of these registers from about 1830 onwards are quite readable,  the clerks seem to have adopted the use of pre-printed forms to fill in.
2.  Before this date the records are virtuall unreadable,  they remind me of my own research scriblings. 

Even though the early records are difficult to read,  I found no Hoston's or any similar spellings in the Ford parish records.   There are many Hotson's in the Binsted records but would you belive that the christening page with dates about 1779 has completely faded and totaly unreadable,  probably the reason why these christenings are missing from the IGI.

I think that a trip to the records office is needed here to check out the Bishop's transcripts for Binsted.

[Jane Masri]

Hi Robham,
The West Sussex library is well worth a visit, the staff being very helpful.  Don't forget, the BT's are not always complete.  I was disapointed to find the BT's for Horsham 1640-1662 totally not there   Having said that, there's more than one way to skin a rabbit and I'm sure the staff will help you out!

Good Luck,

Jane