John Gidley, 1632 - 1712, surgeon of London

 John Gidley is as well-known as his brother Bartholomew, partly because of the medals struck in their honour. John Gidley had two different medals struck to commemorate his 50th birthday in 1682, and these occasionally come up for sale in auction rooms. The Wellcome Library in London also has the medal commemorating his service as a surgeon.

John was born, according to his medal, on 21st May 1632, and christened in Winkleigh, Devon on 3rd June 1632. His parents were Bartholomew Gidley and Thomasine Richards, who were married in Exeter in 1609. They had a large and apparently healthy family of eleven children, of whom at least eight survived to adulthood. John was the youngest of four sons. His oldest brother Bartholomew was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, and I have seen a reference to John gaining an M.A. there in 1660. This seems likely for a future doctor; however John does not appear in the printed index to Oxford University Alumni. John must have shown an aptitude for a specialised education, as his other two older brothers, George and Samuel, became country gentlemen and moved away to Dunsford and Spreyton in Devon, respectively. Their offspring were passed over by Bartholomew Gidley when, childless himself, he sought an heir to his Winkleigh estates and to the right to bear the coat of arms granted to him in respect of his service in the Royalist Army.

Charles Worthy in his book on Devonshire Wills (London: Bemrose, 1896), has the following to say:

"... John Gidley had married Rebecca Dunning of Winkleigh, in which parish he had inherited an estate called Beuford ; he was a Court surgeon, and resided chiefly in London, but his will is dated at Winkleigh, 21st September, 1712. He left his eldest grandson the Beuford property, and his silver plate, hangings, and other furniture in his house in London to his second but eldest surviving son, John, and to his daughter, Rebecca, after their mother's death."

Beuford is presumably better known now as the hamlet of Beaford, near Winkleigh. By his will John's wife Rebecca inherited all the goods left at John's house in London, and he lists them: silver plate, tapestry and other hangings, bedding, beds and table "linnen", pewter, and brass. On her death these are to pass to his surviving son John Gidley and his daughter Rebecca Graham. His wife does not inherit goods kept elsewhere. These go to his grandson Bartholomew Gidley, together with the income from the Beuford estate, on condition that he pays one shilling on the first Sunday of every month to the poor of Winkleigh. Unfortunately this Bartholomew Gidley, a spendthrift, would not even maintain his grandmother Rebecca, and had to be ordered in 1717 to support her. There is an intriguing reference in John's will of 1712 that his daughter-in-law Elizabeth Gidley should deliver to the executors all the goods now in the Solomon Grandy, presumably a ship in which he had an interest.

We know little about John's career as a Court Surgeon to William III, who became godfather to Bartholomew Gidley, John's grandson. He may have owned a house in Broad Street in St Peter le Poer parish in the City, where a John Gidley paid rent in 1692 and 1704 (London Land Tax Records), but there was at least one other John Gidley in London at a similar time. He certainly claimed immunity in 1692 from inquest service after being summoned by the Mayor and Corporation of London, by virtue of being a Freeman of the Barber-Surgeons' Company (reference from the Wellcome Librarycatalogue).

John Gidley was buried in Winkleigh on 28th September, 1712.

Gidley's Meeting Chapel

From The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870:

"The United Free Methodist chapel, in Musgrave-alley, belonged formerly to the Wesleyans, is very old, and has a massive Norman entrance. "

 

According to the Churches of Devon gallery at hhtps://www.historyfiles.co.uk "Musgrave's Alley Chapel stood on what is now Musgrave Row, on the eastern side of the short north-south section at its centre - this was formerly part of Musgrave's Alley which reached the High Street. The present stone-surrounded doorway to the BT Centre is noted by SW Heritage as 'doorway to chapel', seemingly the chapel's only surviving remnant. Presbyterians began worshipping here in what had been Holy Trinity (above) at a point in the 1700s."

The founding father of the Chapel, known as Gidley's Meeting, was Gustavus Gidley (1736 - 1810). He was an Officer of Excise, and a former sailor, the son of John Gidley, a clerk, and his wife Margaret nee Ellicombe. Gustavus was their youngest child, born in Crediton in 1736. His great great uncle was Bartholomew Gidley of Civil War fame, and his nephew was Philip Gidley King, governor of New South Wales. He was also distantly related to John Gidley, an exceptionally modest early non-conformist minister of exceptional abilities, but who could hardly be persuaded to say Grace at table, and who died in Marlow, Buckinghamshire in 1711. In 1764 Gustavus married Joan Coombe of Hatherleigh (Philip Gidley King also married a Coombe), and he was transferred from Port Isaac in Cornwall to Exeter, where the correspondence with John Wesley began. 

The extracts below are taken from The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, 3rd edition, published in London in 1830. All are addressed to Mr Gidley, Officer of Excise.

London, 18th January 1776

My dear brother,

I am glad to hear that you are ordered to Exeter... We have a small society there, which is but lately formed, and stands in need of every help; so that, I doubt not, your settling among them will be an advantage to them.

Dublin, 4th July 1778

My dear brother,

I am glad to hear that the work of God begins to increase even in poor Exeter... As to the house, it would, undoubtedly, be a means of much good, if it can be procured. All the difficulty is, to procure the money.

London, 25th January 1779

My dear brother

ANY house is ipso facto licensed, if the demand is made either at the Bishop's Court, the Assizes, or the Quarter Sessions. The Act of Parliament licenses, not the Justices. They can neither grant nor refuse. If you have witnesses, your house is licensed: you need trouble the Justices no farther.

Bolton, 11th April 1779

There is no doubt but our brethren at the Conference will readily consent to your asking the assistance  of your neighbours for your preaching-house. And the time appears to be now approaching, when poor Exeter will lift up its head. There is no danger at all of your being a loser, by any bond or security that you have given. If I live to the latter end of summer, I hope to call upon you in my way to Cornwall. 

Bristol, 22nd September 1780

If  I should live till the next autumn, I shall endeavour to see you at Plymouth.

So it seems that Gustavus was transferred to Plymouth, roughly during the years 1780 - 1789. There he was also involved in administering financial support for the Methodist Society's missions for the "Instruction and Conversions of the Negroes in the West-Indies". 

So successful must he have been that by 1793 he had become the Secretary of the Methodist Society in London, which he combined with being the Inspector General of Permits, as listed in Holden's Directories 1805 - 1807. There seem to have been some serious Society matters to settle in the law courts in which he was involved.

Gustavus died in 1810. It is not known where he, nor his wife Joan, were buried. He lived, or possibly his Inspector General's office was based,  in Old Broad Street in London, was the proprietor of properties in Shoreditch, and died in St Luke's parish in North London. He was probably looked after in his final illness by his younger daughter, Margaret Howden, as evidenced by the affidavit she gave when his will was proved in April 1810. Gustavus was not interested in his final resting place "no matter when or where", but made detailed provision for the disposal of his valuables, such as gold sleeve buttons from a late Captain in the Navy, knives and forks brought from the Savannah in 1762, and all his Methodist magazines.

He left three surviving children: sons John and Bartholomew Gidley, and daughter Margaret Ellicombe Howden. Two daughters had pre-deceased him, the older, Ann, having married Thomas Dakin. She had been educated at the Moravian School in Derbyshire in its very earliest days. His elder son, John, followed him into the Excise and as a tax collector, and founded a family in Chipping Ongar in Essex. His younger son, Bartholomew, founded the firm of Sparks and Gidley in South Street in Crewkerne, Somerset, in 1789 to produce linen and woollen girth webbing. It continued to produce webbing until the 1990s under the name Arthur Hart Webbing. 

The photo below of the webbing mill was taken by David Lovell.

An unscrupulous insurance adventurer

It's not often there's sharp practice by a Gidley to report on, but the heading for this post "An unscrupulous insurance adventurer" isn't mine, but contained in a newspaper report from a New York State newspaper.

"An unscrupulous insurance adventurer in London, general manager of "The Empire" was a Mr G W Gidley Lake, a "swell" of the first water, who managed in the short space of two years to be general manager of three successive companies, for life, his salary to increase to $10,000 when the income of the company reached a certain level. "

 According to the newspaper report this condition of his employment apparently led him to bribe other company managers and caused the collapse of "The Empire", which couldn't then pay its unfortunate clerks. The report then goes on with accusations of low chicanery or, at the very least  incompetency, and is incredulous that Gidley Lake has risen again, "wholly incorrigible", with the creation of  the Life Assurance Union, fronted by a J C Bromfield.
Four years later the Insurance Times reported during April and May 1872 that "Mr G Gidley Lake had floated and wound up several insurance companies, and got cheques of "The Empire" drawn for himself for thousands of £s in a false name. He also operated in Ireland where he was not so well known but that company was now wound up and Mr W [sic] Gidley Lake is the only man who knows where its funds are gone to. Mr W Gidley Lake sports a beautiful pair of horses and a handsome carriage and does Rotten Row in fine style. The law of England and Ireland is now that any company started to do life assurance must lodge £20,000 with the government. We hope that this ends Gidley Lake's career in the insurance world." 
So, where did the Gidley Lakes fit into the Gidley family tree? The Gidley Lake tree begins with Joan Gidley who gave birth to an illegitimate child, William Lake Gidley in 1779, who was christened in Gidleigh. I can find no Joan Gidley of the correct age on the Winkleigh tree (which was associated with Gidleigh), but there is a Jane Gidley from nearby Drewsteignton of approximately the right age, who may just possibly be the mother. William Lake Gidley also used the names William Gidley Lake or William Gidley during his lifetime. He was variously described as both a farmer and labourer, late of Throwleigh, when he was declared insolvent and possibly imprisoned for debt in 1836, but he was discharged the same year. By 1841 he had moved to Torquay and was an agricultural labourer in Coombe Pafford. He had a large family of ten children of whom several moved to London, including the next to youngest, George Walter Gidley Lake who was born in 1832. George was a carpenter's apprentice in Torquay in the 1851 census but by 1859  was living in Islington in London and had started on his insurance career. In 1861 he was the Secretary of the Confident Assurance Company. Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper commented on 19 February 1865 on the English Life Assurance Company that one of the directors was G W Gidley Lake, carpenter, and that the "bitterness of the struggle between Mr Gidley Lake and his fellow working men led to some of the parties being banned from their own premises and assaulted in an attempt to enter."
The Penny Illustrated Paper reported on 5 October 1878 that "another of the "enterprising" young joint stock banks is no more. The "Merchants" Joint-Stock Bank, having ... splendidly appointed offices at 92 and 93 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, has come to grief. The manager was a Mr James [sic] Walter Gidley Lake, a name somewhat well-known in connection with former joint-stock companies. Curiously enough, the death of the manager occurred just about the the same time as the demise of the bank, the operations of which seem to have included a good deal of bill-discounting "on the Continong". "

George Walter Gidley Lake died in 1878 at 92-3 Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, so either at his office, or perhaps he lived "over the shop". Hel left three surviving sons and a daughter. Two sons and the daughter emigrated in the 1880s to the United States, possibly to avoid all the bad press, and possibly taking their mother with them, as I haven't traced her death in the UK. There seem to be no descendants. The youngest son Ernest remained as a commercial traveller in "French fancy goods" in North London, but he too  eventually left the country after 1911 and his death has also not yet been traced. It was possibly in South Africa where his daughter travelled in 1927, although she later returned to the UK.

Gidley's Gift

The report of the Commissioners concerning Charities; containing that part which relates to the county of Devon. Vol. III., 1830, Exeter, 286.

15 December 1681
Winkleigh
Hundred of Winkleigh.

Photograph by jackiefreemanphotography.com of Gidley's Almshouses from the Winkleigh Village History website which also gives more details of Bartholomew Gidley and Winkleigh in the Civil War

Parish of Winkleigh
Gidley's Gift

By indenture, bearing date 15th Dec. 1681, between Bartholomew Gidley, esquire, of the one part, and Richard Dunning and two others, of the other part, reciting, that the said Barthlw. Gidley was seised of certain buildings, with a garden or parcel of land, containing about half an acre, near Norman's land, in Winkleigh, and lately purchased by him; and reciting, that the said Bartholomew Gidley, of his own and his wife's charitable disposition, had intended the same for the sustentation and relief of the said parish, and so to continue for ever; the said Bartholomew Gidley granted and enfeoffed the said premises to the said Richard Dunning and others, and their heirs, to the use of two, three or four poor women of the said parish of Winkleigh, such as the said Bartholomew Gidley and his wife, or either of them, should place in the same, at any time during their lives, and after the decease of the said Bartholomew Gidley and his wife, upon trust, that the said trustees, together with the owner of the farm of Bittbear, for the time being, and the vicar of Winkleigh, for the time being, as the greater part of them, upon the death or removal of any such person or persons as should therein be placed by the said Bartholomew Gidley or his wife, should place therein any other poor woman of the said parish, in the room of her so dying or removed, with power to lease the said parcel of land for one life, or 21 years, at a yearly rent, to be, from time to time, bestowed in the repair of the said houses and garden, and if any surplus should happen, the same to be distributed amongst the said poor women, inhabiting in the said houses, yearly on Christmas-day.

We have not found any subsequent appointments of trustees of these premises.
They consist of:
1. Five dwellings under one roof, each containing one apartment occupied by poor widows of the parish, who are placed therein by the parish officers.
2. A house, garden, and a plot of ground, containing about a quarter of an acre, let to John Pope, as yearly tenant, at the annual rent of £21 10s subject to disbursements for repairs. The tenement has been for many years in the occupation of the present tenant and his father, at the same rent. We are told, that the premises held by him are worth about £31 10s per annum; but as the tenant has a large family, and receives relief from the parish, it has not been thought advisable to raise his rent. The rent is applied towards the repairs of the house inhabited by the widows, and of that in the occupation of John Pope, but is not sufficient for that purpose, and the houses are stated to be much in want of repair.
It would be more correct, that the last-mentioned house and garden should be let for its full value, as the widows inhabiting the fist-mentioned house are the only persons entitled to any benefit from the charity.

Some early references to the Gidley name up to the end of the 17th century

These references all come from the more unusual sources sent to me over the years by the Original Record Company, and which I thought might interest people. The sources include the Pipe Roll Society, the Egerton Collection, Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, and the Register of Bishop Edmund Lacy of Exeter. If anyone would like to know the exact source and date of a reference, get in touch.
Of course, as the references are so early, some before surnames were commonplace, several refer to Gidleigh, the place. And I certainly don't claim these are the only early references which exist.
I have used, and sometimes abbreviated, the English translation, rather than the original Latin, in all cases. Most dates are also abbreviated to the year or grouping of years.

1176.  Reginald de Giddelega renders account for the same. In the treasury 1 mark. And he owes 1 mark.
Undated.  Gydlegh (Giles de). Charter of Martin, duke and earl of Cornwall, granting him the manor of Gydlegh, parcel of the manor of Leghatforde.
1194.  [from a charter of John, Earl of Mortain, and Lord of Lydford]. Manor of Gidleigh granted to his nephew Egidius [Giles] de Gydlegh.
1332. [from Devonshire Lay Subsidy]. Hundred of Wonford. Polslo. William de Giddeleghe 12d.
1370. In the parish church of Tuvertone, by the bishop of Exeter, tonsured: John Gederleghe.
[Note: the first tonsure was the rite of inducting someone into the clergy].
1381. Ordained by the bishop to first tonsure, at Mahynyet [place not known], Luke Gydleghe.
1400. Ordinations by the bishop in the chapel of his manor of Chuddelegh: Acolytes: William Gydelegh.
[Note: an acolyte was a member of the minor orders: a priest's assistant who carried out the lesser tasks such as carrying candles, attending the altar, etc.
1403.  Ordinations by the bishop in the chapel of the manor of Clyst: Subdeacons: William Gyddelegh, by title of Launceston priory.
1403. Letters dimissory to William Gyddelegh, subdeacon, to be ordained to further order by any Catholic bishop within the realm of England.
[Note: letters dimissory were granted by a bishop to someone called to another parish, enabling him to be ordained by another bishop].
1403. Sir William Gidle deacon is a wirness in a dispute at Launceston priory.
1403. Ordinations by the bishop in Crediton collegiate church: Priests: William Guddelegh, by title of Launceston priory.
1404.  John Giddelegh took an oath as a juror at an inquisition at Launceston.
1405.  Indults to the following to have a portable altar: William Gyddelegh, priest, of the diocese of Exeter.
[Note: an indult allowed a specific deviation from the church's common law].
1413. Exeter. Letters dimissory to Richard Gydelegh, acolyte, to be ordained to further order by any Catholic bishop within the realm of England.
1432. Exeter. Licence to sir John Giddelegh, rector of Jacobistowe, for absence from his church for one year.
1434. Chuddelegh. Commission to the Archdeacon of Exeter to enquire in full chapter into the vacancy &c. [sic] of the parish church of Teyngton Drew, to which sir William Gyddelegh chaplain has been presented by sir John Herle knight, John Jaibien and Walter Burell.
1449. Chuddelegh. Petition to enquire into dilapidations in the houses, walls, fence, &c. pertaining to the church, left by sir William Gydlegh deceased, the last rector.
1449. Clyst. To the Archdeacon of Cornwall: To enquire into the alleged pollution of the parish church of Talland by bloodshed between Thomas Gyddelegh and Thomas servant of Wlliam Collan, and to certify by Whitsun.
1449. Clyst. Declaration that the parish church of Tallan and its churchyard, alleged to have been polluted by bloodshed through the violence of Thomas Gyddelegh and Thomas servant of Wlliam Collan, have been found by inquisition not to have been so polluted, and that divine service and burial of the dead may be resumed.
1533.  South Tawton. Henry Gidley was a "constable of the parish".
1567.  Oare. Patron: Will. Gidly by right of Katharine his wife, daughter and heir of Nicholas Gove deceased.
1609.  Oare. Patron: Will. Giddy [sic] and Katharine his wife.
1596-1616.  Chancery Proceedings. Devon. Plaintiff; Wychehalse, Bennett. Defendant: Gydley, John. Subject: Money matters.
1620.  Disclaimers at the Heralds' Visitations:
  Gidley, George, St Thomas.
  Gidley, Hanibal, North Lew.
1625-1649. Chancery Proceedings. Bills and Answers.               
  Plaintiff: Fillcock. Defendant: Gidley. [no more details].
  Plaintiff: Rosse. Defendant: Gidley,etc.
  Plaintiff: Stafford. Defendant: Gidley
1633.  Probate of the will of Margaret Byrdall of St Thomas the Apostle, Devon, widow, deceased, by George Gidleigh, esquire.
1634.  Middle Temple. Mr Bartholomew Gidley, to the chamber of Philip Morgan, esq. and James Clotworthy, gent., on surrender by the latter; fine £2 10s.
1636. Probate of the will of George Gidley the elder of St Thomas the Apostle, Devon, gentleman, deceased, by Francis Wilding, with power reserved to Mary Jones.
1640-1659.  Catalogue of the Lords, Knights and Gentlemen that have compounded for their estates:
  Gidley Barthol of Gidley, Devon, gent. £126 16s. 0d.
1647.  Bartholomew Gidley of Gidley, Devon, begs to compound on Exeter Articles for delinquency in assisting the king against parliament. He has conformed in all things since the surrender of that city.
1647.  Bartholomew Gidley fined at one-tenth, £126 16s 8d on Oxford Articles.
1651.  Committee for Advance of Money. Devonshire delinquents: Bartholomew Gidley, Gidley, assessed at £60, ordered to pay [blank].
1652.  Order that all the Devonshire delinquents (excepting Gidley, whose case is respited a fortnight), pay in half their assessments, which are made on calculation of their estates, and then be heard as to their debts, and to what they have paid in the country.
1652.  Probate of the will of William Gidleigh of North Lew, Devon, gentleman, deceased, by Martha his relict.
1656.  Chancery proceedings. Bridges' Division. South Tawton, Devon. Plaintiff: Gidley, George, Defendant: Ford, John.
1674.  Hearth Tax Returns. Lavenham, Suffolk. Walter Gidley, 3.
1678.  Extract from the will of John Ham of Uplowman, Devon. Witness: Jo: Gidley.
1681.  Report of the Commissioners concerning Charities. Winkleigh, Devon. Gidley's Gift.
[This is so detailed that I'll type it separately in another post.]
1693-1694. Middlesex Aid Assessment. Shoreditch, St Leonard. Outlyers.
     Henry Gidley: rent £4, tax 16s.
                            stock: nil, tax nil.
1693-1694. City of London Aid Assessment. St Peter le Poore. Broad Street War.
      John Gidley: rent £36, tax £7 4s.
                          stock £100, tax £1 4s.
1693-1694. City of Westminster Aid Assessment. St Martin in the Fields. Strand Upper Ward.
       John Gidley: rent £12, tax £2 8s.
                            stock: nil, tax nil.
[Note: the Aid Assessments were raised not to assist the poor, but to finance King William III's wars.]


                 

Another Gidley Medal found and sad news about Pete Gidley

First, the sad news that Pete Gidley died in Surrey, England on April 28th. Pete was the willing DNA donor for the Gidleys of Winkleigh and was therefore responsible for us taking a big step forward in discovering the deep Gidley ancestry, not least that there is not one single Gidley ancestor. I had the pleasure of meeting Pete and his wife Ann some years ago, when Pete recalled he was delighted to tell people, without disclosing it was for family history purposes, that a lady in Berkshire (me) wanted his DNA. Pete was very proud of his heritage and I'm glad I was able to extend his knowledge.
May 2020 update: the medal is no longer available for sale. But I have left the details below for information..
By coincidence I heard the very same day that a gentleman had purchased at a German auction another, previously unknown, Gidley medal. He provided two photos. The medal commemorates not the well-known Bartholomew Gidley whose medal can be inspected in the British Museum, but his nephew and eventual heir, another Bartholomew Gidley. This Bartholomew is the 7 X great grandfather of Pete Gidley (above). Born in London in 1668/9, the son of John Gidley, a surgeon it is said to King William III, Bartholomew  eventually moved to Winkleigh, and was buried there in the Gidley Chapel in 1702.

Jerome writes:

I recently picked this up in an auction in Germany. It was originally a medal commemorating the death of Charles II by the Roettiers, but the inscription on one side has been planed off and re-engraved to commemorate Bartholomew Gidley (1668 - 1702). 

While I suspect my piece is probably unique, it has been mounted (in furniture?) and silvered in the past, as you can probably see from the photographs, and therefore in my opinion has limited value to the general collector, especially as practically perfect examples of the medal without the engraving come up from time to time at auction. 

The mystery of Annie Gidley, mother of VC hero Allan Leonard Lewis: now solved

This detailed post requires a post of its own.
Phil Nichols, in his December 2019 comment on the post about Allan Leonard Lewis VC of Hereford, had noticed on the censuses Frank Boswell, a photographer in Lyme Regis at the right time to be the parent of Annie Gidley, Allan Leonard's mother. He also noted that Frank Boswell had moved away to Frome, Somerset, by 1881, and that the children of Frank and his wife Mary were registered as Boswell, with the mother's maiden maiden name given as Gidley. They were:
1. Alice born March quarter 1867 Axminster registration district (this included Lyme Regis).
2. Elizabeth born June quarter 1868 Axminster registration district.
3. Frank born December quarter 1969 Axminster registration district.
4. Lucy born December quarter 1873 Axminster registration district.
5. Frank born June quarter 1875 Axminster registration district.
6. Emily born March quarter 1877 Axminster registration district.

However, none of the children are called Ann(ie).

1. Alice was christened in Lyme Regis on 25 December 1868. She can be followed through the censuses until 1911 when she is in Lyme Regis. She died in Axminster registration district in 1927.
2. Elizabeth was also christened on 25 December 1868 in Lyme Regis. She was apparently adopted by William and Elizabeth Mansfield, a cabinet maker and auctioneer in Lyme Regis, although in 1881 she is with her father Frank and his new partner, Emily, in Frome. The Mansfield couple also has three of the Boswell children resident with them in 1891, but not Elizabeth Boswell. She vanishes.
3.Frank died September quarter 1870 in Axminster registration district.
4. Lucy can be followed through the censuses to a pupil teacher training college attached to a religious industrial school in Wantage in 1891 and to a marriage to an organist, Frederick George Lloyd, in Middlesex in 1900. She died in Somerset in 1966.
5. Frank became a cabinet maker in Lyme Regis and died in Bridport registration district in 1961.
6. Emily appears to have become Mary by 1881. In 1901 she has moved to Bradworth, Devon, where she is a nurse at the vicarage. She was married as Mary Boswell in 1913 in Hackney, London, to Herbert Edwin Bell.

I think Elizabeth Boswell must for some reason have called herself Annie Elizabeth Gidley when she married, thence becoming Allan Leonard's mother, known as Annie.

So who was the mother of Elizabeth/Annie Gidley, partner of Frank and mother of the Boswells? We know her name was Mary Gidley, that she was 24 in 1871, so was born about 1846 or 1847, and in Devonshire, place not known (or at least whoever gave the details to the census enumerator didn't know). There were two Mary Gidley possibilities born in Devon about then. One was the confusingly named Mary Gidley Gidley (FreeBMD). But she turned out to be Mary Gidley Clampitt, born  in the June quarter 1846 in Okehampton, who died unmarried in Exeter in 1905. In 1871 she was a parlourmaid in Budleigh Salterton, and therefore not living with Frank in Lyme Regis.
That left Mary Gidley, daughter of  William Gidley and Miriam Sanford. William was born in 1822 in Christow, Devon, one of the Gidleys of Winkleigh, although this particular branch had fallen on rather hard times. William was married twice. His first wife Mary Ann Reed Board, whom he married at the age of 18, died after only two years of marriage. Their surviving son James (born only three weeks after his parents' marriage) doesn't ever seem to have lived with his father and his stepmother Miriam, and eventually emigrated with his wife Susan and their family to Australia.  To return to William Gidley, father of Mary "Boswell", his occupation was variously recorded as farmer, agricultural labourer, butcher and cattle dealer.  By the 1860s he had moved to Exeter, and had several brushes with the law, including for larceny (acquitted) and using obscene language and riding his horse furiously up and down the street (fined 10/-).  He died in 1898 in Exeter.
Mary's mother Miriam died in 1879. Mary was the oldest child. She had three sisters and one brother. John Gidley, her brother, died unmarried in Plymouth in 1933. The next sister Elizabeth married William George Payne in 1882 in Exeter.  Sister Miriam married Joseph Cashaldine in Calcutta, India, in 1879, and the youngest Annie married Walter Clarke in Exeter in 1893.
I had already tracked Mary Gidley's career through the censuses, except for a missing year - 1871 -  when it now seems she was with  Frank Boswell in Lyme Regis. For whatever reason she left Frank Boswell and her children between 1877 and 1881, when I had already found her working as a parlourmaid in Bideford. Then the two clinchers: I had already discovered her in Clyro, Herefordshire in 1891, which should have alerted me. She was a servant to Conrad Finzel of Lower Caebalva. Elizabeth/Annie must have joined her mother there, as her residence in 1893 on her marriage is given as Clyro. Then in 1893, at the age of 47, Mary married in Herefordshire Robert Carpenter, a blacksmith from London in his sixties. They remained in Hereford, where Robert died in 1920, and where Mary died in 1940. In the 1939 Register she was living with a master blacksmith and his family in Kingsway, Hereford. She had managed to accrue £176 19s 5d in her estate, which was probated by Mary Bell, married woman, her youngest daughter.

With grateful thanks to Phil Nichols for his research which put me on the right track. And an honour for Mary Carpenter nee Gidley to be the grandmother of a winner of the Victoria Cross.

Unpleasant crime in Park City, Utah

As reported in the Salt Lake Herald 24 May 1907.

Park City, Utah

"Last night, between 11 and 12, W A Gidley, city sexton of Park City, was robbed while on his way home and a sum of money taken from him amounting to $11. Mr Gidley had been in the cemetery until after 10 o'clock and coming home by way of town, stopped and talked with some friends until the time stated, then started home by way of the "China Stairs". According to Gidley he had gone but a short distance from Main Street when he was struck down and the next thing he knew he was lying on the ground with his pockets turned inside out and his money gone. [He was probably] told to throw up his hands, but the sexton is very hard of hearing, so [the assailant] struck him probably with a gun."

Grass Valley, California

W A Gidley was William Alexander Gidley, born in Grass Valley, Nevada, California, in 1855. He was the son of  William S Gidley, with the S almost certainly standing for Simmons, his mother's maiden name. Together with the mining background, that puts him on the Cornish Gidley tree. The California gold mines attracted hundreds of Cornish miners, who had the skills from the defunct tin mining industry at home to pump water out of the deep mine shafts in California. William S Gidley died in Grass Valley in 1865 and Jane, W A's mother, married again. By 1880 William A is living with his sister Mary Jane McDermott and her family in another mining town, Virginia City, Nevada, where he was a labourer.

Virginia City, Nevada

The silver Comstock Lode there was fully mined by 1898, and by 1900 William A had arrived in Park City, yet another silver mining town which developed from the 1870s. He was elected as the town sexton in January 1900. William Alexander fortunately recovered from the attack in 1907. The Salt Lake Herald records he was fit enough to take part in a 60 yard dash with another 55 year old in 1910. He continued in his role as custodian of the Park City Glenwood cemetery until at least 1920. He died there in 1924 and has a lovely and imposing memorial stone in his "own" cemetery. He and his wife, Annie Lindsay, had 7 children, and many descendants.

W A Gidley, Glenwood Cemetery

The adventurous life of William Gidley, stage driver in the Wild West

I've already written a little about Bill Gidley, known as "Gid" or "Old Bill" who never smiled again after he accidentally killed a friend at a turkey shoot. This is how it was reported in the Grand Forks Daily Herald.
"The name of Bill Gidley was as familiar as that of Col. John H Stevens is to the Minneapolitan. Bill was a stage driver - one of those great big, good-natured souls, whose face dilated between s broad grin and a hearty guffaw...His arrival at a stage station was the signal for merriment - omnipresent from the office to the kitchen, from cellar to garret - he was a privileged character. Bill Gidley, notwithstanding his rough, unpolished character, was always the gentleman, and had as tender a heart as ever beat in human breast. Gidley's friends little thought that a cloud would sweep across the life of the big stage driver which would forever hide from view the smile which had been for many years a light along the route. Thirteen years ago, on Thanksgiving day, there was a turkey shooting match at Bismarck. Bill was there; he went to see the sport, and while not an expert shot " 'lowed [sic] he'd just kill off what few turkeys these 'ere fellers have got". After a number of unsuccessful shots, Bill's friends began to make sport of his marksmanship. One of them, pointing to a little outbuilding standing some 30 rods distant, remarked, "Bill, you can't hit that shack over there". Gidley clapped his rifle to his shoulder, pulled the trigger, the door to the shack swung open and Bill's best friend fell at the entrance, shot through the heart. That was 13 years ago. Gidley is still staging it in the Black Hills country, but his old-time friends would hardly recognise him. The face once wreathed in smiles is a picture of sadness; no more pleasantries that used to lend a light to the station. A heart-broken man, he passes his leisure time in comparative solitude."

But Bill's life didn't lack other incidents.

Miners' cottages, Mineral Point

Born William Joseph Gidley in Cornwall in 1841, the youngest child of Thomas Gidley and his wife Nancy (Ann or Nanny) Richards, he emigrated at the age of four with his entire family to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, whose TravelWisconsin website says "A walk down Mineral Point streets evokes a stroll through a Cornish village. Miners from Cornwall, England were among the first to settle here." The miners arrived to work the lead and zinc mines in the area. By the 1840s, news of these rich deposits had reached Cornwall. The early immigrants possessed advanced mining skills as well as expertise in stone building construction. Bill's father Thomas Gidley was a smelter in Mineral Point in the 1850 census, but had died by the 1860 census.

Bill was a labourer in Mineral Point in 1860, but left a year later to go West. It was reported in the Salt Lake Herald of 12 December 1891 that he started driving in 1861 for the Northwestern Transportation Company, and stayed with them for 28 years, becoming a prominent driver in Minnesota, Dakota and Wyoming. The same article records the following incident.

A Concord stage coach

" During his career on the hurricane deck of a Concord Mr Gidley had many thrilling experiences. He has participated time again in battles with red and white renegades and has many scars. He came out of one engagement with 6 ounces of buckshot in his anatomy and wears the lead on his watch chain. Gidley recalls his worst adventure the one that left him gray-haired - an engagement with wolves in the bad lands of Dakota. He was driving 6 horses and had a full load of passengers. It was midwinter, intensely cold, and with 2 feet or more of snow everywhere. A pack of wolves made a determined assault on the outfit for three hours. It was a desperate battle for life. No less than 30 wolves were shot down. Finding destruction was almost certain, Gidley tied the lines to the brake and, walking out on the tongue, leaped on the back of one of the "swing" horses. From this perilous position, with the wolves snapping at him, he managed to loose the team of leaders. The wolves took after the liberated horses and the coach was brought into a station safely."
This adventurous life did take its toll. The same article records a realistic nightmare, after Bill had fallen asleep in the boot of the stage where he had become wedged in among the mail bags.  Thinking he was bound and gagged (by a "monstrous" chew of tobacco in his mouth), he was fortunately awakened from his nightmare, but by an over-nervous passenger shouting "Oh, God", alarmed at the "rough riding".
Bill did not apparently find peace in his home life. I have found two, possibly three wives for him, and three children. One daughter Mary was born in 1867 in Minnesota, who in 1870 was in St Paul with Bill and her mother. Then by 1880 there was a son Frank born in 1869 to possibly another wife in Dakota Territory. Frank died aged 20 in South Dakota. There is a recorded marriage to Almeda B Ham in Minnesota in 1867,  but no further sign of her, unless she is "Mary" in the 1870 census, the mother of Bill's daughter Mary. It is reported that Mrs Gidley, wife of J. W. [sic] Gidley, wife of the Superintendent of the Northwestern Stage Company, committed suicide at Rapid City, Dakota, by taking arsenic and chloroform in August 1885. She was formerly a well-known resident of St Paul, Minnesota. Then in 1907 the Los Angeles Herald on 18 September of that year reports a story from Kansas City, Missouri.
"Grace Gidley, daughter and heir of William J Gidley, an old stage line driver who died in Montana in 1896, has been located here after a search of 11 years. Gidley operated through the Wymore hills in the 1880s. When he died he left his estate to his child whom he had not seen since the day her mother deserted him when Grace was a baby. Grace Gidley is now the wife of Charles T Depew, a Kansas City painter." Note: Grace married as Grace E Sharpe, but I can't find her in any census before 1910 under any name. She was apparently born about 1888 in Wyoming.
And a good deed is reported in the Omaha Daily Bee on 18 February 1888. It seems that the Bismarck - Black Hills stage hauled gold bricks from the Homestake Mine, often amounting to $200,000, an obvious temptation to criminals. Suspicion fell on a man named Hank Wall. However, W J Gidley, "Gid", agreed to bring Hank Wall's nephew from Bismarck when his mother was very ill. In return, Hank no longer held up the Northwestern Transportation coaches. But see the 2020 update below.
Not only a driver, but also the manager of the line between Gillette and Buffalo, "Ole Gidley" was a member in 1890 of the commission to ascertain the amount of the Dakota Treasury indebtedness (Bismarck Daily Tribune 24 Jan 1890).
Bill Gidley was buried in Custer Cemetery, Yellowstone, Montana. His memorial stone sums it up:"Pioneer Stage Man".

There is a very good report of Bill Gidley's life on the FindAGrave website at William J Gidley

2020 Update:

The Bismarck Tri-Weekly Tribune of  22 December 1877 reported that the Cheyenne Sun of the 9th of that month had published a sensational article charging the Bismarck Stage Company with complicity with Blackburn and Wall in their depredations upon the Cheyenne and Sidney lines. The article states that the highwaymen were bribed by Supt. Gidley to confine their operations to opposition lines, and declares its ability to make the allegations good. Mr Hall, agent of the Bismarck Company, pronounced the charges "utterly and maliciously false", and that immediate prosecution has been ordered.