John Clavering WOOD of Marsh Hall, Westbury

[Benjy]

Any details of John Clavering WOOD and family of "Marsh Hall" in or near the parish of Westbury would be much appreciated.

The family were there from at least 1826 until around 1890 when they left for New Zealand.

Anticipatory thanks from Benjy

[JClarke]

Hi Benjy

Details from 1861.

Ref: RG9/1864/27 Page 16
Marsh, Westbury (not recorded as Marsh Hall on this particular census)

John Wood – Head – Widr – 45 – Farmer – Shropshire, Westbury
Emily Wood – Daur – Un – 20 – Farmers Daur – Shropshire, Westbury
Jane James – Serv – Un – 28 – House Servant – Montgomershire, Ga?
Alice Howels – Serv – Un – 16 – House Servant – Shropshire, Westbury
Samuell Thomas – Serv – Un – 16 – House Servant – Shropshire, P? ?mary
Richard Habberly – Serv – Un – 14 – Carter – Shropshire, Westbury

All spellings are as per original record. A ‘?’ denotes unreadable letter, so I’ve no idea about some of the actual places of birth – perhaps someone else will have a better idea?

Samuell was originally noted to be a ‘House Servant’ but it would appear someone later crossed out the ‘House’ part.

A reminder that the 1881 census is freely available to all on: 
http://www.familysearch.org

Hope this helps.
John

[Benjy]

Dear John,

Bingo! This is the family we were after, and your substantial response is most appreciated. Gone are the days when you would have four servants!

There must have been an earlier generation in the house since in Bewick's British Birds, Vol. I: Preface to the 6th Edition (July 1826), acknowledgement is made to John Clavering Wood, Esq. of Marsh Hall, Salop, as per:

“For a perspicuous and discriminative elucidation of the difficult, amid hitherto disentangled, tribe of the Willow Wremis, as well as for specimens carefully and kindly sent from Shropshire, I am indebted to John Clavering Wood, Esq. of Marsh Hall, Salop.”

Legend has it that in 1775, William Wood received a letter of promotion to rank of Lieutenant, signed by Sir John Clavering, C-in-C British Army in Calcutta. As a result, the first son of each successive generation was named John Clavering Wood. We have counted four so far...

By the way, England sure reduced Australia to Ashes...

Any suggestions about how to find the location of "Marsh Hall"?

Warm regards, Benjy

[JClarke]

Hi again

On current Ordnance Survey maps you’ll find the so-called Marche Manor and Marche Hall about 1˝ miles northwest of Westbury.

A good place to look at it on the internet is using: www.multimap.com

In the search box on the left-hand side choose Great Britain and NI for the country and enter Vennington in the GB post code or place and click ‘Find’

I think it defaults to a small size map – you can increase it to cover a wider area by clicking on the ‘Bigger’ icon just above the map to the right-hand side. If it’s already on the bigger size the icon will naturally enough say ‘Smaller’!

Once you’ve clicked on the ‘Bigger’ icon (if needed) you can sort out the actual scale. It normally defaults to 1:100,000. Using the drop-down box above the map, select 1:25,000. This should then clearly show the area of Marche Manor and Marche Hall between Vennington and Halfway House.

Hope this makes sense. If I get time, I’ll try and do some more research for you.

John

PS. Now you mention the Ashes - 

[Benjy]

Dear John,

Thank you sincerely. The map site worked like magic, and we now even have an aerial photo of Marshe Hall, from which my great-great-grandfather left in 1860 to seek his fortune in New Zealand then Australia.

From http://www.castlewales.com/march.html, I've learned a little more about the history of the Welsh Marches, being a kind of twilight zone between England and Wales. In a fanciful way, this may have something to do with why my parents met. My mother is a gr-granddaughter of John Clavering Wood, and my father is a gr-grandson of a native of Merthyr Tydfil. It no doubt accounts for their frequent divergences of opinion as well!

I am grateful for your offer to do more research as your time permits.

By the way, did you hear about the expectant father who rang Guy's hospital to see how his wife was getting on. By mistake he dialled the number for Lord's. "How's it going?" said the expectant father,
"Fine," came the answer, "We've got two out already and hope to have the rest out before lunch. The last one was a duck!"

Warm regards and happy genealogising - from Benjy