February 2005 – Production of this issue sponsored by Bennetts (Irongate) Ltd
Extracts relating to Woodeaves
Eileen has gathered a range of information relating to this fascinating little community tucked away in the south east corner of Tissington Parish. It started life, as the name suggests as a farm (the current farmhouse is a sixteenth or seventeenth building) on the edge of Tissington woodland, but grew significantly because of the eighteenth century mill. Following our walk there last summer here are some extracts on Woodeaves.
Conveyance of Woodeaves Farm 20 November 1652
Abstract: Indenture between William Fitzherbert of Tissington, … Fitzherbert and Anthony Fitzherbert gent., younger brother of the said William Fitzherbert and Christopher Ball of Woodeaves and Nicholas Ball (to the effect that the Fitzherberts sold Woodeaves to Christopher Ball who was presumably the tenant).
Lease of Premises for building a Cotton Mill 24 June 1784
Abstract: Indenture between Samuel Haslam of Woodeaves of the first part and rev. John Griffith of Handsworth, York., mortgagee in possession of the closes and land of the 2nd part, John Cooper, Gentleman, of Derby, John Matchitt, Grocer of Derby and Philip Waterfield, cotton manufacturer of Derby, of the 3rd part.
Haslam, with Griffith’s consent, … let two closes or parcels of land situate lying and being at Woodeaves known as Bushy Lees and Ouler Carrnow in possession of Thomas Millward and containing together 7 acres being part of Woodeaves Farm with authority to cut a canal through the closes and through three other closes called the two Calf Meadows and the Brook Close in any direction they think most proper for conveying water through the same cut or canal not to exceed 12 ft in breadth for the purpose of conveying water to and working the cotton mill.
The indenture also allowed making of roads in Bushy Lees and Ouler Carr and to make a carriage and footway through certain closes called the Thorns, the Banks, the Cantrell Close, the Grosvenor Wood being part of the farm called Woodeaves into the close called Bushy Lees and to make a footway over certain other closes called Calf Meadow and the Brook Close into Ouler Carr and also to dig in Woodeaves Farm for any stone they may need for making and finishing the cotton mill.
Particulars and conditions of Sale of at Compact and Very Desirable Freehold Estate Situate at Woodeaves 22nd March 1790
Lot 1: A convenient farmhouse with suitable out-buildings, twelve closes of exceeding rich grazing land, lying in a ring fence round the house, called by several names of the Croft, the paddock, the Thorns, the New Piece, part of the Grosvenor Wood, the Brook Close, the Bank and the Barn Close; containing together by estimation 95 acres or thereabouts; and now in the occupation of Thos. Milward as tenant from year to year, at the clear annual rent of 127l 10s. (Ed £127 10s)
Lot 2: A large new erected cotton mill and two dwelling houses, with several other suitable buildings, and also two closes of rich meadow land, adjoining or contiguous to the above premises, called by the names of the Bushy Lees, and the Alder Carr; and containing together by estimation 7 acres or there abouts; now in the possession of Messrs. Cooper & Company, under a lease thereof, for the term of 42 years, commencing the 25th day of March, 1784, at the clear annual rent of 20 l. (Ed £20)
All the above closes, except the Grosvenor Wood, and the Bushy Lees, are exempt from the payment of tythe hay, and the whole of the estate is capable of very considerable improvement.
Wirksworth Hundred: Tissington Parish 1846
At Woodeaves, near the Bently Brook, is a cotton mill, worked by a steam engine of 16 horses power, and employing 100 persons.
Western Parliamentary Division: Tissington 1895
Woodeaves is a hamlet on the Ashbourne and Matlock road, three miles N from the former place. Here is a cotton mill, which gives employment to about 100 hands. It is fitted up with the best modern machinery, and contains 8,500 spindles. The special feature of the manufacture is cotton doubling for the lace and curtain thread manufactures of Nottingham and else where.
Ashbourne News 13 October 1899
Ashbourne Petty Sessions (held the previous Saturday). The Woodeaves Company, cotton spinners, were summoned for employing James Burton at night on 24th and 25th August contrary to the Factory and Workshops Acts. They were also charged with employing William Charter at night on 1st September. Burton, aged 14 and Collier aged 16 were employed from 5-30 pm to 6-00 am.
The company did not dispute the facts but said these boys did not have to work as hard at night as if they had been employed in the day time. They would rather be on night work and no coercion had been used. They had not been engaged in the mill during the day while they were doing night service. Mr Yates said there had been no complaints during the 20 years he had been manager.
The mill owners had kept 12 adult workers on all night regularly but at the time the new railway was … making it … difficult to find enough men to carry on night work. They would therefore have had to close the mill at nights or employ these boys and they had chosen the latter course.
The Bench did not think the boys had suffered very much as they had not been worked day and night too. They imposed a fine of £1 in each case.
The Industrial Archaeology of the Peak District p.113-114
Another cotton mill established at the end of the eighteenth century was Woodeaves Mill, in Tissington parish. It was built by hosier, John Cooper, in 1784, and was powered in its early days by water from the Bradbourne Brook, brought along a three quarter of a mile long mill leat, termed a ‘canal’, for it was also used for conveying limestone to the mill in small boats. Later, power was provided by a 16 hp steam engine. Cotton manufacture, which involved cotton doubling for the lace and curtain trades of Nottingham and else where, continued through the nineteenth century. A hundred people were employed, some of whom lived in cottages in the mill yard and others at nearby Fenny Bentley. In 1908 production ceased and within a few years the greater part of the buildings were demolished. Left standing were the warehouse and engine house which continued in use for various purposes, including that of a cheese factory. The small portion now remaining is incorporated in a poultry farm while the former manager’s house is a private residence, its surroundings transformed though still showing slight evidence of the former buildings.
Bygone Industries of the Peak: Cheese Making by Julie Bunting – Peak Advertiser, 29th July 1996 p.3
Weekly cheese markets were held at Derby, Ashbourne, Bakewell, Chesterfield, Uttoxeter, and Leek, with annual cheese fairs held in and around the Peak, as at Bakewell, Tideswell and Winster. Together with oatcake, Derbyshire cheese formed the staple diet of Peakland lead miners. This was also true of coal miners in neighbouring counties and great quantities of Derbyshire cheese used to be taken to Nottingham Goose Fair every year.
Derbyshire cheese was uncoloured and heavy in texture with a generally mild flavour. John Byng, later Viscount Torrington, having dined in Ashbourne in 1790, wrote: ‘the cheese of this country pleases me much; being a medium between the Cheshire and the Stilton’. When it went on sale in London it was often actually passed off as the more expensive Cheshire.
A 1794 report on Derbyshire farming stated that cheese was the ‘chief, if not the only article of provision which the natives can spare out of their own country’. The Dove Valley, with its good grazing, was particularly good dairying country …
England’s first purpose built cheese factory is thought to have been established in 1870 at Longford, near Derby. Within a few years Derby cheese was being produced in factories at Ecton, Reapsmoor, Gratton, Woodeaves, Grangemill, Glutton Bridge and Hartington …
Copyright © 2005 Eileen Simms
Changing Views on Genealogy
Sandra DeMaster joined the Society last summer whilst visiting the area as part of her research into her family history. Her starting pointed had been research commissioned by her great aunt Helen Martha Beecher (Mrs. Charles Frederick Messenger) in the 1930s. Sandra and her great aunt are descended from an Elizabeth Alsop of the Allsops of Alsop en le Dale who settled in Connecticut not long before 1642/3. Mrs. Messenger was an active member of a number of organisations including: the International Society of the Daughters of the Barons of Runnemede, the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Connecticut Daughters of 1812 and the Order of Americans Armorial Ancestry.
The genealogy prepared for Mrs. Messenger was aimed at demonstrating her descent from a signatory of the Magna Carta, presumably any one would do, so that she could become a member of the ‘Society for the Daughters of the Barons of Runnemede’. In order to achieve this it was necessary to make a number of switches between male and female lines. The origins of genealogy are in justifying privilege and power. Historically the genealogist was interested in the nobility and royalty, and this ironically is present in such groups as this aimed at establishing an elite of republicanism and egalitarianism. There is a further irony in that the Magna Carta, now seen as up holding the rights of the common man, was as much due to a small powerful elite (the Norman Barons) fighting for their personal interests. The research (see below) was aimed at demonstrating ancestors that settled in America prior to the American War of Independence and ancestors before that who were at least from English gentry. This approach is not necessarily wrong in itself, although politically it has the risks in that it can be used to justify things that are wrong, and intellectually it tends to focus only on lists of names and dates that tell us little about the lives of our ancestors as whole.
Sandra DeMaster lives within a farming community in Wisconsin and is asking very different questions. What was the everyday life of her distant ancestors like in Alsop en le Dale? What prompted Elizabeth Alsop as a young adult to leave Derbyshire in the 1630s with her two brothers? How did the life of her distant relatives that remained in the area in farming communities relate to the farming communities of her American ancestors? Although it is only possible to trace back family lines beyond the origin of parish registers if you can link into at least a gentry family, increasingly people’s interest in family history is not just the names and the dates. Rather it can be a way into understanding how our ancestors fitted into society as a whole.
The Allsops are likely to be of Saxon origin and held the manor of Alsop en le Dale from shortly after the Norman Conquest until the late seventeenth century. The last Allsop of Alsop, prior to Lord Hindlip in the late nineteenth century, is a fairly close relative of Elizabeth. The Allsops’ younger sons settled in the neighbouring villages from at least the thirteenth century onwards. We have a lot of information on their role in Parwich as yeomen farmers and husbandmen from the sixteenth century onwards (currently in preparation by the Society is “500+ years of Allsops in Parwich”). We need to devote as much energy as Mrs. Messenger did to her quest to answer her grand niece’s questions but her research provides us with a good starting point.
England in the 1630s was still ruled by Charles I. From 1629 for eleven years he tried to govern without Parliament. Although there were still occasional out breaks of plague (Eyam plague was in 1665/6), the economy was fairly stable. Farming was slowly changing, as the large medieval open fields were being divided up and some enclosure of common land was taking place, though not on the scale of the late eighteenth century. Various religious dissenting groups were beginning to emerge (the Pilgrim Fathers went to America in 1620, though Quakerism did not begin to take a hold in the North of England until the 1650s). The extremes of the Civil War did not begin until later (Charles I was executed in 1649). We know that Elizabeth’s great grandfather, John Alsop, sheltered the Protestant scholar Thomas Bacon during the reign of the Catholic monarch Mary Tudor (1553 to 1558). Elizabeth’s father, another John de Alsop, died in 1631.Sketch of Elizabeth Alsop(First American Ancestress in this line)
Elizabeth Alsop came to Connecticut early in the seventeenth century with her brothers Timothy and George Alsop. She was born in Derbyshire, England daughter of John and Temperance Alsop, descended from the ancient family of Alsop-in-the-Dale, in direct line from Hugo de Alsop who went with Richard I to the Holy Land and for his services received the Order of Knighthood.
Soon after her arrival in this country she joined the church in Milford and was there married, the 5th February 1642/3 to Richard Baldwin, Founder of Milford, Ensign of the Military Company for the Expedition Against the Dutch, a man of prominence in the Colony whose name is perpetuated with hers on one of the stones forming the memorial bridge at Milford.
It is through their son Barnabas Baldwin that we derive descent.
After the death of Richard Baldwin, July 22nd, 1655, Elizabeth married Capt. Wm. Fowler, Commissioner of the Colonies who was sent to England to treat with the King (presumably this was Charles II after the Restoration in 1660); who in his will dated October 1682, probate 15th June 1683, pays this affectionate and appreciative tribute to her: “In primis: concerning my deare and loving wife Elizabeth Fowler, my will concerning her and as a token of my tender affection to her (ye hath been a tender, dutiful and loving wife to me) I say, that my will is (if it should please her to live with my children to be a guide and help to them as a mother and head of a family, I doe much desire that it may be soe.) that she shall have the east end of my dwelling house …”
She only lived a few years to enjoy this bequest, dying in Milford, July 1688.
It is not immediately obvious why the young Elizabeth with her two brothers Timothy and George left Derbyshire, though they must have left relatively soon after the death of their father. Her older brother, John, remained in England, and though he died not long after Elizabeth’s first marriage, the family in Alsop en le Dale held on to the estate for at least another half century, though finally they were sold by the creditors of the last holder. When did the family fortunes go into decline, was it over several generations or just in the last few years before the estate was sold? It was not a time of particular upheaval either religiously or politically given what had gone before and what came after. She and her brothers chose one the relatively more established American colonies, though it was in relatively close proximity to the then Dutch colony. On settling in Milford she moved in establishment circles, both her husbands being prominent men, her first husband having founded the town of Milford. Presumably Elizabeth’s prospects in Derbyshire would have been marriage to a minor country gentleman or yeoman farmer, dependant on the size of her dowry. Her brothers as younger sons would have had to make their own way in the world. I suspect that she and her brothers were economic migrants, seeking the economic opportunities of the growing New England colony, and that this was a reasonably well resourced emigration enabling her to retain the social status she held in England.
The genealogy, prepared for Mrs. Messenger by the New York based genealogist Emma Cairns in 1936, spans some seven hundred years. The ancestry of Elizabeth Alsop is worth including not only as it illustrates the twists and turns required to reach a Magna Carta signatory, but also as it bears on a number of local families as well as the Allsops. I have also included her American descendants for general interest. Each individual is the parent of the following individual, so 1. Robert Fitz-Walter is the father of 2. Sir Walter Fitz-Walter and 4. Ida Fitzwalter is the mother of 5. Joan de la Warde. (Note: I have left the references in the form given as I have not had time to confirm what the abbreviations stand for, but I have made some minor alterations to the wording to clarify the meaning.)
1. Robert Fitz-Walter, son of Richard Fitz-Gilbert, 1st Lord of Clare, Feudal Lord of Dunmore Castle. Died 1234, buried high altar of Dunmore Priory Married Gunera de la Valoines, daughter and heir of Robert, 2nd Lord of Valoines, feudal baron by Resia, daughter of William 5th Baron Le Blount.
Ref. Magna Charta Barons 1915 p.25, 26, 31, 100, 101, 102.
2. Sir Walter Fitz-Walter, Feudal Lord of Dunmore Castle Died 1267/8
Ref. Bulkeley chart op. p.174; Magna Charta Barons p.91; The CompletePeerage, Vol. 5 p.472
3. Sir Robert Fitzwalter, 1st baron Fitzwalter of Dunmore CastleRef. Idem
4. Ida Fitzwalter, Married Robert, baron de la Warde, Steward to Edward I
Ref. Idem; Visit. Staffs. 1583, Wm Salt Soc’y, 3, pt. 1, p.44.
5. Joan de la Warde Married Hugh de Maynell of Co. Derby
Ref. Magna Charta Barons, chart op. p.174; Visit. Staffs. Idem.
6. Hugh de Meynell, Lord of Landey (Langly?) Meynell Married Alice Bassett, daughter of Sir Ralph Bassett, 3rd baron Bassett, Knight of the Bath, and Jean de Beauchamp (daughter of Sir Thomas de Beauchamp, 3rd Earl of Warwick, Knight of the Garter?).
Ref. Idem; Magna Charta Barons 1915 p.179.
7. Richard de Meynell, Lord of Landey Meynell
Ref. Idem; The Gen. N.S. 15 p.91.
8. Ralph de Meynell Ref. Idem.
9. Thomasina de Meignell (Meynell) Married Reginald Dethick of Co. Derby Married 2nd Hugh Erdiswicke
Ref. Idem; also the Gen. N.S. III p.79; Wm. Salt Soc’y III p.44, 4610. Margaret de Dethick, daughter and sole heir of Reginald Dethick. Died 1466 Married Ralph Basset of Blore, Chedley and Grendon et de Langlon
Ref. Idem
11. William Bassett of Blore, Vicnes Staff., 34 Henry VI
Ref. Idem; also Collins Peerage VIII p.75.
12. Elizabeth Basset Married John Beresford, lord of Beresford and Euston, Co. Staff. Died 1475 (living 15th Henry IV History of Derbyshire p.44, 45)
Ref. Collins Peerage VIII p.75: Visit. Co. Notts. Har. Mss. IV, 169
13. Thomas Beresford, lord of Fenny Bentley manor, reign of Henry VI and Edward VI, Died 23rd March 1473, interred in church at Fenny Bentley, Married Agnes daughter and heir of Robert Hascall, Co.Chester.
Ref. Magna Charta Barons chart op. p.174; Har. Mss. IV p.169; The Gen. N.S. II p.8, 9; Collins Peerage, VIII p.76; History of Co. Derby, Glover, II p.20, 84.
14. John Beresford of Bradley Ash in the parish of Bently, Co. Derby. &th son of Thomas and Agnes. Served Henry VI in foreign wars. Married Agnes Bentley
Ref. Magna Charta Barons chart op. p.174; Collins Peerage VIII p.78; Glover idem: New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. XLVI p.364.
15. Jane Beresford, Married (his first wife) John de Alsopp of Alsop-in-the-Dale
Ref. New Eng. Gen. & Hist. Reg. XVLI p.364.
16. George de Alsopp, Married Jane Egerton, daughter of William Egerton of Wall Grange.
Ref. Idem; The Gen. N.S. VII p.1; Glover History of Co. Derbyshire II chart op. p.20.
17. John de Alsopp, of Alsop-in-the-Dale, Married Anne, daughter of Thomas Alsopp and Jane (Anne) Basset.
Ref. Idem
18. Anthony de Alsopp, esquire, living 1611, Married Jane, daughter of Richard Smith of Cmebridge, Co. Staffs.
Ref. Idem; New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg. XLVI p.81.
19. John de Alsop, heir of Anthony & Jane, he was aged 15 in 1611, Born 1596, Died 1631, Married Temperance, daughter of William Gilbert of Mickleover. Temperance married a second time to Williams Hopkins. The will John and Temperance’s second son John was written in 1643 and proved in 1643 (“to my beloved mother, Temperance Hopkins, my grandmother Jane Alsop ..”)
Ref. Idem.
20. Elizabeth Alsop went to New England with her brothers Timothy and George. Born England in 1620s, Died July 1688, Milford, Connecticut, Married 1st 5th Feb 1642/3 to Richard Baldwin founder of Millford, Married 2nd Captain William Fowler
Ref. Court Records and New Haven Colony records vol. I p.297; New Eng. Reg. XLVI p.363, 366, 369; Positive pedigree is in Authorized Arms by William Appleton, A. M.
21. Barnabas Baldwin was born shortly after the death of his father Richard Baldwin,Died 22nd August 1741 Woodbridge, Connecticut, Married 1st Sarah Buckingham (1661/2 to 1692)Ref. Seymour Past and Present p.374; Baldwin Ge. P.93, 94.
22. Sylvanus Baldwin, built the large colonial house occupied by his descendants for nearly two hundred years. Baptised 15th November 1706 Woodbridge (Amity) Con. Died 2nd January 1785, Woodbridge, Con., Married 18th April 1734, Derby, Con. to Mary French (born 1710/11 Derby, Co.
Ref. Idem.
23. Hezekiah Baldwin was actively engaged in the town of Woodbridge as Selectman, Recorder of Deeds, Compiler of Taxes and Justice of the Peace. Born 24th August 1756 Milford (Amity) Con. Died 6th November 1831 Woodbridge, Con. Married 1st June 1782 in Milford to Elizabeth Hine (1754 to 1839)
Ref. Idem.
24. Raymond Baldwin was a Captain of a company of Militia at the age of 19. Born 2nd April 1792 Woodbridge, Co. Died 21st May 1835 aged 43 Married 1825 in New Milford, Con. to Martha Platt
Ref. Idem.
25. Martha Elizabeth Baldwin. Her husband served as a private in the American Civil War and was honourably discharged. Born 13 Sept 1834 Woodbridge, Con. Died 9th December 1878 Married 4th July 1858 in New York City to George Edwin Beecher (1829 to 1881)
Ref. Idem.
26. Helen Martha Beecher was Regent of Mary Clapp Wooster Chapter of The Daughters of the American Revolution, regent of Eve Lear Chapter; Secretary of the National Society of Daughters of 1812; Secretary of the Connecticut Daughters of 1812; County Chairman, County Defence, World War II; Organizer and president of Home Making Farm Bureau; Member of the Society of Daughters and Pilgrims; Member of the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry. Born 9th November 1859 in New York City. Married 1st January 1883 in New York City to Charles Frederick Messenger (born in 1857 in New Haven, Con.)
Ref. Idem.
Copyright © 2005 Peter Trewhitt and Sandra DeMaster
Error in Newsletter No. 19 Feb. 2005
Relating to the article on p.5, it should be noted Sandra DeMaster is the granddaughter and not the great-niece of Helen Martha Beecher (Mrs. Charles Messenger).
The Saint Family
I recently received a letter containing information on the Saint family, which was of particular interest to me as they farmed the hill land from Hallcliffe for much of the nineteenth century. The Saints were at Hallcliffe for two generations, approximately 60 years, as tenants of the Evans family who purchased the Parwich estate in 1815.
Abel Shipley remembers, as a child, his teacher, Mr. Hampson, saying that there used to be a trackway through Hallcliffe and on across what is now Mrs. Shield’s field (also called Hallcliffe). This field was still attached to Hallcliffe House when it was owned by Miss Lucy Lewis in the early 1900s. I assume Miss Lewis received the house as part of her mother’s share of the estate inherited by her mother from Sir William Evans. My deeds only go back to Miss Lewis’ sale of the property. Miss Lewis lived here with her brother Gerald Lewis until they both moved to Guernsey in 1924. The gateway into the field is still there behind my wooden shed. One of the gatepost is of interest as it is a very large and well weathered undressed lump of limestone, now concealed by nettles and blackthorn. This trackway crossed Kiln Lane and then went on through Bell’s Yard following the route of the current public footpath up the side of the hill. Presumably this was the route Isaac Saint and his son, William, used to access their land behind the hill. Given it leads from the centre of the village to the Romano-British settlement at Lombard’s Green, it could be a very ancient trackway. William Saint died in 1874 and his widow left the village. The bottom part of the trackway must have gone out of use about this time, when the farmland was made into what is now Hill Top Farm, with the then new farm house being built in the middle of the land it was no longer required as an occupational way. This continued the trend, following on from the 1791 Enclosure Act, for farmhouses to move out of the centre of the village and to be placed on the land they served.
The Saints may have been responsible for the nineteenth century two storey extension to Hallcliffe, originally this contained the kitchen, store rooms (perhaps previously a cottage) and the wagon shed. It is possible it was built after William’s death. This has been altered substantially over the last 100 years and now makes up the drawing room for Hallcliffe House and Hallcliffe Cottage. An interesting snippet is from the 1841 Census where we have the Saints living at Hallcliffe, to be contrasted with the vicar, the Rev. Sin living at the Hall. Unfortunately Brian Foden suggests that this is likely to be in error for the Rev. Sim. Well here is the letter.
Peter Trewhitt
Dear Mr. Trewhitt,
I was recently told about your website and was very pleased to see all the information you have on it so far. About 10 years ago I spent some considerable time researching the family history connected with Parwich, in particular the Saint family, i.e. my great grandparents William and Rebecca Saint, on my mother’s side, and hope to be able to spend more time on this again in the future. My main research was focused on the parish records, census, and IGI index (the Mormon’s extensive genealogical database), but I was able to compile a reasonably accurate family tree particularly of the families living in Parwich, though this is not in a suitable form to be able to send you, being handwritten on a large piece of wallpaper at the moment! Should you be interested, the details of this family are roughly as follows: –
Earliest known is Thomas Saint (senior) of Mercaston, who died in 1764, followed more generations of Saints all of Mercaston/Muggington (Mercaston was served by the ancient church at Muggington, so that Mercaston funerals, weddings and baptisms appear in the Muggington records), until we reach my great great grand parents.
Isaac Saint of Muggington/Mercaston and his wife Hannah Bownes from Tupton, Chesterfield (farmers) and their 3 children moved from Muggington to Parwich between 1815 and 1817 where 5 more children were born, including twins Isaac and Emmeline (who died in 1820 and are buried in Parwich churchyard), and sons William and Edward. In the Census they lived at Hallcliffe as farmers. On Isaac’s death in 1864 (he is buried in the churchyard, (immediately on your left as you go through the gate) his son William moved back to Parwich from Snelston with his wife Elizabeth … originally from Sheen (don’t know her maiden name but they were married in 1859) and their 3 children, presumably to take over … the farm … and 1 more son was born in Parwich. Then his wife Elizabeth died in 1870 (also buried in the churchyard) aged 34. Just 3 months later William married his second wife, Rebecca Saunders from Bagthorpe, Nottinghamshire (my great grandmother), and lived at Church Green (this is still Hallcliffe though not named as such on the 1871 Census, when all the properties about the Green are listed as Church Green) where three more children were born between 1870 and 1874 (the middle child being my grandmother Mary Fanny Saint). William’s mother, Hannah died in 1871 (buried in churchyard with Isaac her husband) followed by the death in 1873 of 2 of William’s young children by his first wife Elizabeth (also buried in the churchyard). William then died in 1874 (the corner of the churchyard by the gate must have been very crowded) and Rebecca and her own 3 young children … moved over to Holme Pierrepont near Radcliffe on Trent, Nottinghamshire, for some reason. This is where the direct Parwich connection ends.
William’s brother Edward and his family also lived in Parwich at Church Farm (on the 1851 Census Edward was living with his in-laws Joseph and Hannah Kirkham at Church Farm only farming 14 acres himself, but by 1861 he appears to have taken over his late father-in-law’s tenancy of 140 acres; his mother-in-law Hannah was still living with them in 1861) during this time too, but appears to have moved to the Boylestone area after 1861. There are also other members of the Saint family (not the direct line) in the Longford and Brailsford areas too at this time.
I have most of the dates of baptisms, marriages and deaths etc. that took place in Parwich but have still more research to do when time permits, i.e. through possible sale of the farms involved, tithes paid, and general background details, but I thought the above may be of some use to you.
Following our visit back in 1993, the then Vicar very kindly forwarded me a couple of Parish magazines mentioning the Saints (p.5-7 Sept. 1993 and p.5 Nov. 1993 see also the History Society Newsletter No. 12 Feb. 2003 p.8-11) which were of great interest to me. The Eddie mentioned is the grandson of Robert Edward Saint (one of the sons of William and Elizabeth) and therefore the great great grandson of Isaac Saint.
I had a quick look on the website, at the Census returns … To be able to view the returns so easily … is wonderful, and I am pleased you have been able to do this. I hope to be able to discover what other interesting information is available before too long—I just need the time.
Yours sincerely, Margaret Rostron
Copyright © 2005 Peter Trewhitt
Donation to the Society
The Society recently received a donation. We feel it worth including here:
Dear Mr. Radcliffe (Treasurer),
Please find enclosed a cheque for £50. The money is to acknowledge the pleasure that our mother Ella Hopkinson gained from her association with the society over several years.
We felt that we would like to make a donation to your fund in the hope that you might be able to put it to good use. Our parents could not be considered rich but they counted their wealth in the friends that they had and the enjoyment they gained from being part of the village community of Parwich.
Mum was always able to tell us of the latest work you were doing to discover more about the village and former residents and the surrounding area. We were each very appreciative to receive copies of “Voices: Women of a White Peak Village” and pleased that mum was able to play her part in providing you with some information. We know she gained a lot of pleasure from her involvement with the Society. We therefore felt it appropriate to forward a donation to you, small though it be we hope that in some way it will help the Society to continue.
Yours sincerely, David Hopkinson and John Hopkinson
Parwich & District Local History Society 
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