Gidleys of Spreyton and Heavitree

Four generations of Gidleys

Some photos from my own Gidley family (with thanks to distant cousins "Nanastea42" and Sue Tiller).

Top left is my father and his brothers, all born in West London.

Right at the bottom is my great great grandfather George Gidley born in Spreyton, Devon in 1808. Apprenticed as a child to Thomas Cobley in Spreyton (presumably the one who had an Uncle in the Widecombe Fair song) he later left Spreyton for Heavitree where he had 13 children in total, by two wives. Consequently he has a large number of descendants. The descendants of his oldest daughter, Fanny, who moved to South Wales, own this photo of him and have generously shared it on Ancestry. George also took on the illegitimate son of his second wife, Elizabeth Elston, William Smale Elston, who was absorbed into the family as Samuel Gidley until he reverted to his real name and left for London as a young man. George was a farmer in a small way at Broomfield in Heavitree and moved with his wife Elizabeth to Ducke's Almshouses in Heavitree where he died.

Third from the top is my grandfather Walter Gidley as a young boy, born in Heavitree in 1888. He moved to London as a young man, partly to seek his fortune (he was a shoemender and sadly never found it) but also to have his leg properly set following an accident when he fell from a wall. This actually turned out to be a stroke of luck because his game leg kept him out of the First World War.

Second from the top is George Gidley's youngest surviving son, Jim Gidley, my great grandfather, who remained in the Heavitree area all his life, and worked as a gardener at Digby's asylum. Eventually he and his wife and unmarried daughters moved to a house in Coronation Row, Wonford. He died there in the 1930s, fortunately missing the Exeter blitz, although the house still survives.

More Gidleys in New Zealand

I've just discovered that another Gidley family emigrated to New Zealand, though I haven't found their names on any published passenger lists.
Another seaman, Charles Arthur Gidley and his wife Ada Louisa, nee Muchamore, plus their two children, Rhoda and Horace, settled in the Wellington area, probably just after the First World War, and it seems they flourished there. Newspaper reports of the time reveal that in 1925 Ada Gidley presided over a meeting of ladies in the Early Settlers' Hall, Wellington, where she dealt with the seamens' strike from a woman's point of view. As the wife of a British seaman with over 28 years service, she also told the meeting that conditions in England were very different from New Zealand. In England she had had a 6 roomed house and an acre of land for which she paid 7s 6d weekly, but in New Zealand she paid £2 10s for a smaller house with no land.
C.H.A. (Horace) Gidley enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in January 1940.
Source: PapersPast available at http//www.natlib.govt.nz.
Charles Arthur Gidley was the youngest child of James Gidley originally of Dean Prior, who travelled from there to Plymouth, then on to London, where several of his children were born, then back to Plymouth.
And I should also mention Brian Gidley, singer in West End shows of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, who emigrated to New Zealand more recently. He was from the Buckfastleigh Gidley family.

Richard Treffry Meredith and Ann Gidley

A posting about a non-Gidley, but one who managed to father two illegitimate children with Ann Gidley, who came from a very respectable family living in Plymouth. The shock to her family must have been immense. It is interesting that Richard Treffry Meredith has left a fairly clear paper trail of what are presumed to be his misdeeds.

Ann Gidley was born on 8th March 1849, the oldest daughter and second child of Gustavus Gidley and his wife, Ann, who had nine children altogether. Gustavus was a respected solicitor in Plymouth and comfortably well-off. In 1861 they employed a cook and a housemaid, in 1871 a cook, a housemaid and a general servant. Gustavus' wife Ann died in 1863, and by 1871 his sister was living with the family.
By 1875 Ann must have met Richard Treffry Meredith, also from a comfortably-off family. He was born in Westbury-on-Trim in 1842, his father being then in the UK Marines. By 1861 his mother had been widowed and the family was living in Fowey in Cornwall, still with sufficient means to employ a tutor in the household. Richard's appointment as a Lieutenant in the Cornwall Rangers Militia is recorded by the Edinburgh Gazette in March 1867, although he resigned his commission only eight months later in November 1867.
By 1871 he is staying in a hotel in Exeter St David's and described as a retired gold digger. To follow this occupation presumably he had left the country after 1867. He is also described as married, and I found his marriage in the September quarter of 1867 to Jane Eleanor Trye. Although the central marriage indexes are typed for this period, Richard's middle name was transcribed by FreeBMD as Treflry, and by FindMyPast as Tretlry. Jane Trye was a daughter of the vicar of Leckhampton in Gloucestershire, but the marriage was not to last long. In 1870 there is a record at The National Archives of Richard petitioning for a judicial separation from Jane. On FindMyPast where the entry is shown, there is a cryptic reference "cross sent" (does this mean Jane cross-petitioned Richard?). The unusual event of a divorce must have caused considerable scandal, especially in a vicar's family.
The result of his meeting Ann Gidley, presumably in Devon, was the birth of a daughter, Minnie Meredith Gidley, registered in the September quarter of 1876 in Islington registration district. I haven't seen the actual birth certificate, but no first name for the child was given when she was registered, and I don't know who the informant was. By 1878 a son was born to them, and Ann Gidley registered the child herself. She gave her name as Ann Meredith, wife of Richard, profession or rank, gentleman. She also gave their son his grandfather's name, Gustavus, as a middle name. And Ann had now moved to Stratford-on-Avon, where in 1881 and 1891 she was lodging with William Moore, a widower.

Richard Meredith seems to have moved on by this time. By 1881 he has yet another lady in tow. He is by now an accountant, lodging in Grays Inn Lane, with a "wife", Mary P Meredith and a 12 year old "son" Reginald W Meredith, aged 12. The most likely candidate for this new "wife" is Mary Paine Worthy, who in 1871 was living in Topsham in Devon and described as the widow of a schoolmaster. By 1891 she and her son have returned to Topsham, reverted to their former names, and where she is described as "living on her own means". One hopes Richard Meredith was generous in his provision for his ladies.

I have found no further trace of Richard Treffry Meredith in this country. A Richard T Meredith, clerk, single, sailed from Londonderry for Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1895. The reference to the death of a Richard T Meredith in 1917 in Richmond (Surrey) RD is for a Richard Thomas Meredith who lived a blameless life in southwest London.
Ann Gidley, however, was in Newbury, Berkshire in 1901, as a "widow" and housekeeper to the Primitive Methodist minister. She is actually the nearest Gidley there has been to my present address, and the house where she lived is still there. She had moved back to Stratford-on-Avon by 1911, and had moved in with her daughter, who was married to a local clock and watch repairer. Ann is described as having private means. She died in Warwick RD in 1925.
After her shortlived marriage I can't find Jane Eleanor Meredith in the English censuses until 1901 when she was boarding in a lodging house in Bath with a much older sister, and is described as a widow. She later moved to Cheltenham, where she died in 1911.

Was Richard Treffry Meredith a bounder and a cad, the Gidley equivalent of "Captain Wickham" from Pride and Prejudice? Or was he a Bohemian who cared nothing for strict Victorian conventions? Either way he must have been possessed of considerable charm to have enticed three ladies of highly respectable backgrounds to share his life.

Another new family - Nicholas Gidley of Dunsford

I've just returned from three days of research in the Devon Record Office, and the supply of Gidleys in the parish registers is starting to dry up. But I still came across another previously undocumented family, that of Nicholas Gidley of Dunsford, Devon, in the 17th century. I had come across Nicholas himself before, and know where he fits in. He was the son of George Gidley by his wife Grace, nee Coleridge. They married in 1637 at St Olave's in Exeter, and I believe that George was the younger brother of Bartholomew Gidley, the supporter of Charles II. George, however, died in about 1639, and left a son, Nicholas, named after Grace's father, Nicholas Coleridge. An abstract of Nicholas Coleridge's will exists in Olive Moger's series of will abstracts in the DRO. The will was proved in 1650. There is mention of Samuel Gidley (Grace's brother) and Samuel's brother-in-law, Thomas Jeffery, who are to oversee the arrangements. All did not go smoothly and in 1673 the will was exhibited in the cause May or Bishopp als Gidley. Grace Gidley had now remarried, to William Bishopp. Samuel Gidley's receipt dated 3 Jun 1653 for the sum of £66 paid him by William Bishopp of Dunsford "being a half part of the marriage portion with his wife Ursilowe [Ursula]", and another receipt by Samuel Gidley for a legacy to his wife "Urselowe", witnessed by Bartholomew Gidley, Thomas Jeffry and Richard Dunning were both documents exhibited in the case.
I have omitted all the complicated property details (including a fascinating story about Nicholas Coleridge's ride to London to procure from the Lord Great Almoner of England the rightful inheritance of his grandchildren by his other daughter. Their property had been forfeited to the King as their other grandfather, Scipio Heywood, had "become felo de se" i.e. had committed suicide, whilst holding the land in their names).
Nicholas Gidley's children are listed in the Dunsford parish registers as follows: George baptised 1669, Joane 1671, Mary 1675, John 1677, Bartholomew 1680, Samuel 1684 and Elizabeth 1685. Another son John was buried in 1674. I have concluded that Nicholas married Mary Collihall in 1669 at Exeter St Petrock (Boyd's Marriage Index). Unfortunately there is no further trace of any of the family in the Dunsford registers, and so far I can't find where they went. It is possible that Bartholomew married Wilmot Tozer in South Tawton in about 1702. There is no record of the marriage in the South Tawton parish register, but a Marriage Licence allegation exists for these two names in the Gidley family file pedigree held at the West Country Studies library in Exeter. Bartholomew is described as a gentleman. A Bartholomew Gidley was buried at South Tawton in 1728, and a daughter was born to the couple in 1703 in South Tawton.

The Palk Arms, Christow, Devon

Recently I was contacted by Tricia King, nee Wreford, who kindly shared her memories of the Palk Arms in Christow, where she was brought up. This pub was run by George Gidley and his wife Elizabeth Browning, who became the innkeepers certainly by 1881. George died in 1885, when his widow took over the lease until her own death in 1909. They had six sons, and the fifth, Arthur, then became the landlord. His war service record in 1918 records his address as The Palk Arms. He died in 1938, but it is not known when the Palk Arms ceased to be a pub.
The name "Gidleys" is clearly visible over the doorway in the photo. Elizabeth Gidley is presumably the older lady, and her son Arthur, who was the barman in the 1901 census, is possibly the man. The younger woman is not known. Arthur did not marry Emily Hill until 1909 in Scotland, but Elizabeth Gidley had at least one daughter by her previous marriage.
Tricia recounts "I was brought up in Christow and we lived at Hillcrest Bakery, formerly The Palk Arms.
At the time I lived there, 1949-1960, we shared the house with another family - the two fathers were in partnership for the bakery business. When we lived there, there were still signs that it had been a pub - a ledge where our phone was, by a hatch that led into the previous bar shown on the right hand side of the house, and swing doors, exactly as in western films!, inside the front door. Occasionally ramblers used to knock, assuming it was still a pub.
The photograph may be from a book on the history of Christow by Stafford Clark which I saw once.
I will always be willing to chat to anyone who is interested in the house".

William Mann Gidley's emigration to the US in 1842

Recently Bryan Flack of Macclesfield contacted me about his great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Gidley, daughter of Samuel Gidley and his wife, nee Susanna Mann. Elizabeth’s baptism has seemingly not been recorded anywhere, but in a much later census she said she was born in Blackawton in about 1805.This places her on the tree of the Buckfastleigh Gidleys. Bryan offered to forward to me some letters that had survived in his family, which related to William Mann Gidley, Elizabeth’s brother, who emigrated with other family members, including their mother, to the United States in 1842. They were to join William’s father, Samuel Gidley, who had been in Madison County, New York State since 1834.
It seems the family stayed in New York State for a little while after arriving in 1842, and one of William’s sisters, Ann Maria Gidley, died there later that year, but by 1848 they had joined the great move westwards, and by 1850 were well established in Drury precinct, Rock Island County, Illinois.

What was happening in Devon in the early part of the 19th century to make it attractive to go so far from home? I’ve only done a little research into the background, but it does seem as though conditions in the countryside were far from being a rural idyll. The depression in agriculture after the Napoleonic Wars is well documented nationally, as are the Luddites and the Swing Riots. Riots in Devon took place in 1795, and 1800 – 1801. Thomas Campion of Ilsington was hanged at Bovey Tracey in 1797 as a ringleader of a mob which damaged machinery at Bellamarsh Mill, near Chudleigh, and Henry Penney from Harberton was a leader of the 1795 riot (was he the inspiration behind the name of Henry Penny Gidley born in 1869?) . Wages remained low whilst prices rose, and inflation meant that starvation was a real possibility. Crops failed because of the weather in 1846 and 1847; the price of wheat soared, and bread riots continued in Devon right up until 1854 in Exeter, when the Rifle Volunteers and coastguards were brought in to subdue the mob, and 1867 in Torquay. The woollen industry in Devon was also decaying, as it couldn’t compete with the mills in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and those who depended on the wool trade were also poverty stricken.

In 1850 William Mann Gidley, now settled in the Mid West, writes to inform his uncle, William Mann of Down Broadhempston in Devon, that his father, Samuel Gidley, has died, and adds details of life in the Mid West, which he obviously prefers to England:

“I will try to give you some account of this part of the country. I bought 160 acres of land here two years ago. I sold 80 again, one eighty being as much as I can farm. The land is good; all the timber on it is Oak or Hickory. Hickory is wild wall nut [walnut]. We live 3 and a half miles from the Mississippi River which is here almost a mile wide and we are 1650 miles above the mouth. Land can be bought in lots of 40 or 80 or of 160 or of 320 acres and so on upwards for five shillings and sixpence an acre of English money. The buyers can pick his lot where he chooses. This part is fruitfull in wheat, barley, oats, rye, potato, apples, and so forth and is one of the best countries in the world for Indian Corn. Some of our farmers this year have 70 bushels to the acre, but 50 is more general. We have neither King, Church nor Poor Tax to pay to. The poor are generally supported by their friends though there is a good law for their support. My whole Taxes do not amount to 15 shillings a year. To you the prices of the Produce of Farms will seem low, yet industrious farmers do well. Wheat is at present 4 and sixpence a bag, barley 3 shillings, potatoes 2 shillings. There is no Cider made here yet. This country has not been settled more than 12 or 13 years, yet the town of Muscatine contains 4 thousand inhabitants. It is on the opposite bank of the River in state of Iowa.”

The following year, 1851, William is writing home again, as the family back in Devon is being remiss in forwarding his mother’s marriage deed. This would entitle her to her late husband’s rents from three fields “known as part of late Endecottes at Wotton in the parish of Buckfastleigh”. She also requested an advance on a year’s rent from those same fields, although she thought it wouldn’t be a great deal “as it has been sacked out”. William Gidley, now recently married, is obviously still enamoured of his American way of life:

“I like this country and know that it is much better for an industrious person than England, very little taxes to pay, no tithe. The system of renting farms here is extremely favourable – the landowner provides horses, wagons or carts, ploughs, harrows, seeds of all kinds and in return he gets in the sheaf but gets nothing from cows nor stock cattle pigs nor sheep because they range through the wild land and receive nothing from the farm. The above is one rule, there is another, when the tenant finds utensils and horse and seed, the owner receives one third of the crop. In all cases the owner pays the land tax and is bound to keep the fences up and gets no benefit from the garden, dairy or poultry. Yet under these circumstances, money invested in farms pays good interest.”

The following year, 1852, William Gidley is now settling his mother’s affairs following her death, and writes home again to his Mann relatives in Devon. His address in Illinois is now Copper Creek. He instructs his cousin not to wait for any rise in the price of land, blaming “the free trade in corn” for depressing the price, but to sell his mother’s fields immediately “in order to have done with it” and to pay off the legacies to his brother and sisters.

The letters give a good picture of life in the newly settled Mid West of the United States, and certainly extended my knowledge of this particular family, mentioning several so far unknown members, such as another of William’s brothers, Samuel Gidley, again with no known baptismal entry, who was in 1842 apparently a coastguard in “Ballycollon, County Tyrone” (this place hasn’t been identified with any certainty yet). It seems there was yet another brother, Nicholas Gidley, whose baptism in England was also unrecorded, and the only reference I had to him was in the 1850 American census where he was a miller in Bath, Greene County, Ohio. According to William in one of the 1852 letters, “brother Nicholas made me a visit last March and liked the country so well that he has concluded to settle here. We are going to build a grist mill in partnership, we have bought the land and water right and are now getting the materials to commence building”. But later American censuses have no further trace of this Nicholas Gidley. Incidentally, in this letter William warns his English family that “It is known that I am expecting money in letters from England, and of the two last I had from you one was broken and the other torn so much that someone had tried to open and read it”.

The end of the story: was the emigration worth it?
By the 1860 census William Mann Gidley’s real estate in Drury, Rock island, Illinois, is valued at $1960 and his personal estate at $125; by the 1870 census this has risen to $3010, and $800 respectively.
So, yes, it probably was worth it. William Mann Gidley’s family was not amongst the poorest in Devon, as they were landowners in a small way, and the small injection of cash from the sale of his mother’s land at Endecotte’s may well have contributed to his successful life in the US.
William Mann Gidley died in 1886, by which time he had moved his family to Dodge, Guthrie County in Iowa. Although he had two sons, I can only find female descendants for him.

Many thanks to Bryan Flack for permission to publish the letters

Richard Hamlyn Gidley of New Zealand

The death of Richard Hamlyn Gidley was reported as follows in the Ashburton [NZ] Guardian, 22 July 1913:
"Palmerston North July 21
Richard Howlin [sic] Gidley, 40 years of age from Devon, committed suicide at Pamerston North in a family hotel by shooting himself in the mouth with a revolver. Papers on the deceased indicated that he had recently arrived from Home. He had realised on some property there, but no money was found on the body. He had a wife and 2 children in England. No cause is assigned for the deed. Today at the inquest a verdict of "Suicide" was returned."
Richard Hamlyn Gidley was the eighth and last child of George Wills Gidley and Elizabeth Hamlyn. George was born in Chagford, but became a reasonably prosperous farmer in Whitchurch, Tavistock and Lamerton, Devon. He died in 1912, the previous year. Doubtless this was the meaning of the phrase "realised on some property there", as George's estate was valued at over £575. Richard had married in 1902 Alice Ann Hodge, a widow, who in 1901 was an innkeeper at the Cattle Market Inn in Tavistock. They had two daughters. In 1911 the family was living at Trebarwith, Glanville Road, Tavistock, where Richard, who had previously worked on his father's farm, was a farm bailiff.
Richard's will was proved in Palmerston North in September 1913. He was described as a labourer.
Alice Ann Gidley remained in Devon with her two daughters. She died in 1927 in the Exeter area, where her older daughter Kathleen also married. The younger daughter, Vera, I have not been able to trace after 1911.