I was recently contacted through the Gidley One Name website with the news that not only was my contact a Gidley himself, but his wife's great grandfather was also a Gidley, and they were not related, being from different branches: South Devon and Winkleigh. His son has therefore merged the two.
There is some evidence that members of another branch used the services in the 19th century of Gidley and Co., the solicitors in Plymouth of the Winkleigh branch, but, barring inhabitants of large towns and cities, I've only seen one census entry where the occupants may have wondered about a possible relationship. For, in 1871, in numbers 3 and 5 New Street in Withycombe Raleigh, near Exmouth, Devon, there are two unrelated Gidley families. Their wives may possibly have been related, but the males were not.
In number 3 lived John Gidley, a mariner aged 30, born in Dean Prior, with his wife Elizabeth nee Teed, a lace maker. Livng with them was Elizabeth's illegitimate daughter born before her marriage, Mary Jane Teed, then aged 12. I hadn't researched Mary Jane as her father was evidently not John Gidley. I have now discovered that she met a tragic end, only in her twenties, as one of the victims of the terrrible fire at the Theatre Royal in Exeter in 1887, the worst ever UK theatre disaster. 186 people perished in the theatre, only opened the previous year, but beset with design faults that led to people suffocating or crushed in the panic to get to far too few exits, particularly from the gallery. Mary Jane Teed, then living in Summerland Street in Exeter, was buried with other victims in a mass grave in Exeter.
John Gidley had vounteered for the Royal Navy in 1859 aged 19 (although he added a year to his age). He signed on for 10 years and was presumably at sea in the 1861 census when he couldn't be found. His naval record only records that he was a 2nd Class Ordinary Seaman on HMS Impregnable (from 1862 a training ship). He possibly suffered with poor health, as he died in 1874, aged only 34, leaving no descendants.
In number 5 New Street in 1871 lived Jane Maria Gidley nee Star, with her three daughters, Isabella, Eliza and Alice. Her husband Richard was absent from the household and I found him boarding in Okehampton, working as a labourer, They were back together from at least 1881 onwards, so I wondered if he couldn't find work in 1871 (his previous census entries recorded him as a spring maker and a coachsmith) as a metal worker of some sort in the Exmouth area and had moved to where there was more work. Unfortunately, I have now discovered that in 1864 he was charged with deserting his wife and family, leaving them to be relieved by the parish, as proved by the assistant parish overseer. Richard was sentenced to a month's imprisonment. He was born in Ipplepen in 1830, the son of Richard Gidley and Susanna nee Clinnick. According to my family history program he was my 1st cousin 3 times removed. His death was announced in the local paper in Exmouth 1890, aged 60. His two older daughters moved away to the Bristol area. but the youngest, Alice, married and remained in the Exmouth area.
