Hodder-Widdecombe, Devon, late 1700s early 1800s - connecting the relatives.

[goldie61]

all other three children
Elizabeth (7 OCT 1823)
John (17 MAY 1827)
Catherine (no date of bap given "1 Jan 1834")
were baptised in Buckland Monachorum, and apart from John, their father is listed as Yeoman (for the two girls). This info is on the transcripts on findmypast. The originals are not available for the Buckland Monachorum baptisms on FindMyPast.

familysearch.org has films for the Bishop's Transcripts for Buckland Monachorum, which are a step better than just transcriptions if that's all there is on findmypast.
Seemingly not the actual register which is a bit odd - you might like to check again.(I was looking at this late last night, and am now trying to remember this morning!).
Also in the Buckland Monachorum films listing, under 'church records' there are some films of the church wardens accounts. The one that includes the years your John was having his children baptised there has a little magnifying glass by it, which means you can search it without having to plough through every frame, as you do with some films.
If you enter 'Hodder' a 'hit' comes up. If you go to the page, you will see John Hodder must have been a church warden or overseer, as there is a written item to which he signs his name. If that was my ancestor, I would be very excited to see his signature, especially if you haven't already found any document with it on.
The signature on his will in 1850, and that of Servington in 1833, will be copies made by the person who copied the will. As I said, the originals were destroyed in WWII.
Have you got copies of these 2 wills?

[NZfamily]

familysearch.org has films for the Bishop's Transcripts for Buckland Monachorum, which are a step better than just transcriptions if that's all there is on findmypast.
Seemingly not the actual register which is a bit odd - you might like to check again.(I was looking at this late last night, and am now trying to remember this morning!).
Also in the Buckland Monachorum films listing, under 'church records' there are some films of the church wardens accounts. The one that includes the years your John was having his children baptised there has a little magnifying glass by it, which means you can search it without having to plough through every frame, as you do with some films.
If you enter 'Hodder' a 'hit' comes up. If you go to the page, you will see John Hodder must have been a church warden or overseer, as there is a written item to which he signs his name. If that was my ancestor, I would be very excited to see his signature, especially if you haven't already found any document with it on.
The signature on his will in 1850, and that of Servington in 1833, will be copies made by the person who copied the will. As I said, the originals were destroyed in WWII.
Have you got copies of these 2 wills?

Thanks once again Goldie

It's great that these are available via familysearch

Yes, I now have copies of the 2 wills. I started reading Servington's will and it confirms the names of the children. On the first page he gives what was a considerable amount of money, I assume, in those days to each of his children, typically £400 to each child. That's a far as I got so far. I scanned through the other pages very quickly and it talks about property that he held and on the first page he refers to himself as a "gentleman" not a "Yeoman". Being an antipodean I am not really sure of the intricacies of the titles given to various social classes of the period. I have a friend who studied English History at University, i'll ask him.

I think I found the Buckland Monachorum parish records you refer to:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G93K-LN19?i=121&cat=1832046
I tried looking up my great-great Grandmother Catherine Hodder (who migrated to NZ) baptised in 1834 Buckland Monachorum (image 122), but the records are in such a bad state, you can barely read half of them. It looks like the rain got to them. findmypast gives her date of baptism as 1 Jan 1834, which means FindMyPast didn't know which day it was in my experience.

Where do I find the church warden's accounts you refer to, please?

There is someone on ancestry.com who has built Servington Hodder snr's family tree back to the 1600s, but I'll have to check of course if it is all correct.

Haven't yet had time to follow up on info in reply #4

thanks again

[goldie61]

The Buckland Monachorum film of the BTs is terrible, as you say.
I see the transcript of the baptism for Catherine on findmypast was done by the Devon Family History Society, so hopefully they did them from the actual parish register and were able to read that more easily.

If you just put ‘Hodder’ in the search on findmypast, and I just had the 1834 date in, you’ll see the next entry is for John Hodder in 1838.
This is another entry from the Buckland Monachorum records for the Parish Chest Records.This will be from the same film in which I found his name on familysearch, but it’s even better than the one I found!
He was indeed a church warden, and along with another church warden Ambrose Willcock, was responsible that year for keeping records of what was paid out of the church funds - poor relief.
There are a couple of pages of beautiful wrtitng, plus his signature on the bottom, (not sure if it’s his writing or not).
Note although this says 1838 on the findmypast lisitng, it says 1843 at the bottom on the actual document.
My guess is he may well appear more times in these parish chest records.

As I said, you can find the film in the listings for Buckland Monachorum on familysearch where you found the  BTS.
It is the 6th listing ‘England, Devon, Plymouth, Eggbuckland Monachorum, church records, 1599 -1942.
I don’t know why it say ‘EggBuckland Monachorum’. There is a place called ‘Eggbuckland’, just north of Plymouth, about 8 miles south of Buckland Monachorum.
Perhaps the indexers got the places mixed up. These films are definitely for Buckland Monachorum
Interestingly, in the listings on famiysearch, the film icon for 1834 - 1932 is missing. There’s a film number, but no icon at all, which means you can’t search it.
However, the item from 1843 (listed as 1838), on findmypast, is from that same film - and findmypast have all the images.
You will find that if you explore the images on this film on findmypast, your John Hodder appears more than just this once, (they won't all be itemised on findmypast).
How exciting!

[NZfamily]

Thanks again Goldie,

I will have to check it all out when I have time, and thanks again for all the biographical info you've given me on the Hodder family. I was working all day yesterday building the family for Servington Hodder snr, and gathering all the docs from FindMyPast. It's a lot of work!
It's good that Devon is well documented
As I said someone on Ancestry has done Servington Hoddder's family tree, but it's good to be sceptical about family trees on ancestry, and check the info oneself. Some of the dates I found turned out to be incorrect.

This is the info I have

SERVINGTON HODDER, Bap 25 Jul 1761, Ugborough
m Elizabeth Payne 25 Mar 1791, Ugborough
d Aug 1833, Rawcombe House, Ugborough

ELIZABETH PAYNE Bap 22 May 1769, Ugborough
d 27 Sep 1846, Ugborough

CHILDREN

John HODDER
bap 11 Mar 1792, Ugborough
m Ann Widdecombe 15 May 1818, Ugborough
d Sep 1850 Edmeston Farm, Modbury

Eliza HODDER
bap 3 Dec 1793, Ugborough
m William Widdicombe 25 Jun 1818 (It appears this was Ann's brother - parents of the same names)
d Nov 1867 Ugborough

Sarah HODDER
bap 22 Jul 1795, Ugborough
d.Aug 1802, Ugborough

Mary HODDER
bap 18 Aug 1797, Ugborough
m Samuel Wroth, 17 Mar 1819, Ugborough
d Apr 1866, Bigbury

Catherine HODDER (died young)
bap 27 Sep 1801, Ugborough
d Jan 1842, Ugborough

Servington HODDER (never married)
bap 12 Feb 1804, Ugborough
d 9 Feb 1874 Ugborough

Jane HODDER (never married)
bap 12 Feb 1806, Ugborough
d 24 May 1887, Ugborough

William HODDER (never married)
bap 12 Oct 1808, Ugborough
d 4 Oct 1879 Ugborough

btw William Widdicombe (husband of Eliza Hodder) is the executor of both Servington and his son John's will. So the 2 families were close knit.

[goldie61]

As I said someone on Ancestry has done Servington Hoddder's family tree, but it's good to be sceptical about family trees on ancestry, and check the info oneself. Some of the dates I found turned out to be incorrect.

Yes, always be sceptical of the trees of other people.
Sure they can give you hints sometimes, especially if you're stuck, but it's always best to check it all out for yourself.

Have fun!

[NZfamily]

Thanks for your help Goldie. I may return if I need any further help, but have already got a lot to go on. Thanks again