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
Monday, 3 January 2011
Thursday, 3 June 2010
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.
"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.
Friday, 16 April 2010
The family of William and Ruth Gidley of Marylebone
Whether William Gidley who married Ruth Ames was the foundling child or not (see previous posting), his death in 1842 left the family destitute, as papers in the London Metropolitan Archives show.
I have found five children of the marriage, although the only boy, George, the oldest, who was baptised in St John's, Lambeth, died 17 months later when the family had moved to Marylebone. The four girls, Mary Ann, Grace, Emma and Susannah, followed in quick succession, and were all baptised together on 13 June 1841 in Christ Church, Marylebone. Their mother Ruth described herself in 1841 as being a British subject born in Spain, but in 1851 her birthplace had changed to "North Walson, Norfolk". In 1841 William was a servant, living in Little Carlisle Street, Marylebone. When their daughter Emma married in 1862 she gave her father's occupation as "stockbroker's apprentice". Disaster struck on 18th July 1845 when William died of dropsy in the Middlesex Hospital, and only a month later Ruth Gidley found herself undergoing a settlement examination at the Police Court in Marylebone, on August 20th 1842. She had obviously approached the parish of St Marylebone for parish relief, and the Board of Guardians were keen to offload the family to another parish.
The examination ran as follows: "Ruth Gidley of Little Carlisle Street, aged 37 years, her daughters Mary Ann Gidley aged 5 years, Grace Gidley aged 4 years, Emma Gidley aged 3 years, and Susannah Gidley aged 2 years. That she married William Gidley in St Martin in the Fields 8 September 1833, and that he died on 18th July last. That in 1832, then a single man, he hired himself as a yearly servant to Mr Carrick of Southgate, Edmonton at yearly wages of £30, that he served one whole year, and boarded and slept in the house of the said master, and did no act since to acquire a subsequent settlement."
The judgement was that "Ruth Gidley and her four lawful children had intruded and have lately become chargeable to St Marylebone and that they should therefore be removed to Edmonton as their last legal settlement".
The parish of Edmonton felt themselves aggrieved about this offloading of responsibility, and it seems odd to us nowadays that the fate of a whole family should hang on the basis of one year's work by a dead person, which took place ten years previously, before his children were born, and even before his marriage. Presumably none of the surviving family had even been to Edmonton, where it was proposed to dump them. The parish of Edmonton gave notice of appeal and requested a hearing at the next Quarter Sessions in January, but failed to provide any evidence and made no enquiries. The clerk to the Board of Guardians of St Marylebone requested information from Edmonton by return of post, but that is where the file at the London Metropolitan Archives ends. Presumably the family was taken to Edmonton, where there would be no support network awaiting them.
By 1848 Ruth Gidley had returned to London where she married Robert Derrick Smith, a gas labourer. There the whole family was found in 1851, and her second husband had taken on the family. The three younger girls were still at school, and Mary Ann was a dressmaker. By 1861 Ruth was a monthly nurse, away from home about her duties; in 1871 she was now widowed for the second time. Of the girls, Mary Ann married in 1884 at the age of about 48, Grace in 1861 (after which she vanishes), and Emma in 1862 to the presumed father of her illegitimate child aged 2. The fate of Susanna (or Susan) is not known. I can find no reference to her after 1871, when she was a needlewoman, living with her mother in St Pancras. The oldest, Mary Ann, was in the St George's Hanover Square Workhouse in Mayfair by 1891, already widowed, and in 1901 was living in St Pancras, "kept by friends". She probably died in St Pancras in 1908.
I have found five children of the marriage, although the only boy, George, the oldest, who was baptised in St John's, Lambeth, died 17 months later when the family had moved to Marylebone. The four girls, Mary Ann, Grace, Emma and Susannah, followed in quick succession, and were all baptised together on 13 June 1841 in Christ Church, Marylebone. Their mother Ruth described herself in 1841 as being a British subject born in Spain, but in 1851 her birthplace had changed to "North Walson, Norfolk". In 1841 William was a servant, living in Little Carlisle Street, Marylebone. When their daughter Emma married in 1862 she gave her father's occupation as "stockbroker's apprentice". Disaster struck on 18th July 1845 when William died of dropsy in the Middlesex Hospital, and only a month later Ruth Gidley found herself undergoing a settlement examination at the Police Court in Marylebone, on August 20th 1842. She had obviously approached the parish of St Marylebone for parish relief, and the Board of Guardians were keen to offload the family to another parish.
The examination ran as follows: "Ruth Gidley of Little Carlisle Street, aged 37 years, her daughters Mary Ann Gidley aged 5 years, Grace Gidley aged 4 years, Emma Gidley aged 3 years, and Susannah Gidley aged 2 years. That she married William Gidley in St Martin in the Fields 8 September 1833, and that he died on 18th July last. That in 1832, then a single man, he hired himself as a yearly servant to Mr Carrick of Southgate, Edmonton at yearly wages of £30, that he served one whole year, and boarded and slept in the house of the said master, and did no act since to acquire a subsequent settlement."
The judgement was that "Ruth Gidley and her four lawful children had intruded and have lately become chargeable to St Marylebone and that they should therefore be removed to Edmonton as their last legal settlement".
The parish of Edmonton felt themselves aggrieved about this offloading of responsibility, and it seems odd to us nowadays that the fate of a whole family should hang on the basis of one year's work by a dead person, which took place ten years previously, before his children were born, and even before his marriage. Presumably none of the surviving family had even been to Edmonton, where it was proposed to dump them. The parish of Edmonton gave notice of appeal and requested a hearing at the next Quarter Sessions in January, but failed to provide any evidence and made no enquiries. The clerk to the Board of Guardians of St Marylebone requested information from Edmonton by return of post, but that is where the file at the London Metropolitan Archives ends. Presumably the family was taken to Edmonton, where there would be no support network awaiting them.
By 1848 Ruth Gidley had returned to London where she married Robert Derrick Smith, a gas labourer. There the whole family was found in 1851, and her second husband had taken on the family. The three younger girls were still at school, and Mary Ann was a dressmaker. By 1861 Ruth was a monthly nurse, away from home about her duties; in 1871 she was now widowed for the second time. Of the girls, Mary Ann married in 1884 at the age of about 48, Grace in 1861 (after which she vanishes), and Emma in 1862 to the presumed father of her illegitimate child aged 2. The fate of Susanna (or Susan) is not known. I can find no reference to her after 1871, when she was a needlewoman, living with her mother in St Pancras. The oldest, Mary Ann, was in the St George's Hanover Square Workhouse in Mayfair by 1891, already widowed, and in 1901 was living in St Pancras, "kept by friends". She probably died in St Pancras in 1908.
William Gidley christened 1794 in the Foundling Hospital
William Gidley appears in the IGI, christened in the Foundling Hospital Church, St Pancras on February 18th 1794. I've just spent a morning in the London Metropolitan Archives investigating him. It was an interesting search, although not strictly necessary to the One Name Study in the end, as what I didn't know was that all the foundlings' names were changed on baptism. William wasn't, strictly speaking, a Gidley at all.
From the Petitions Books for the relevant year, I discovered that the petitioner was his mother, Martha Hillyard. By the time he was admitted in February 1794, as child number 18168, he was 14 weeks old, and was immediately "sent to nurse". I didn't check the nursery books for exactly where he was sent, but Chertsey, Dorking, Harlow, and Odiham were all places where the foundlings were taken. Martha Hillyard's petition to the general Committee was a sad and familiar story. It ran as follows, "Martha Hillyard was delivered of a male child about 11 weeks ago, and was obliged to quit a very reputable family where she was a servant. By her indiscretion she has disobliged the few friends she had, and was left to herself. Expenses attending her lying-in and confinement have nearly caused her to expend the small sum of money she has saved in servitude and is therefore unable to provide for her child's sustenance, and she should be sorry and grieved to see it suffer on that account."
Martha left no token with the child, as a few mothers did - I saw a small piece of paper with a Latin motto and a symbol attached to one child's record, and another where a silver threepence had been attached. I tried to find out what happened to Martha after William had gone, but it wasn't easy. The IGI provided a possible Martha Hillyard or Hillierd, baptised in 1774 at St Michael, Crooked Lane in the City of London, but a likely marriage for a Martha Hillyard on the IGI turned out to be for another Martha Hillyard born, according to the 1851 census, in Sutton Courtenay, Berks. Either or neither of them could be the correct Martha. Ancestry's London burials' index didn't turn up a likely Martha Hillyard either, but deaths before 1813 haven't been indexed yet, and the London marriages' index came up with a Martha Hillyard, who didn't quite fit the bill, as she was a widow.
As for William Gidley - what happened to him? The Foundling Hospital apprenticeship registers record he was apprenticed on 10 December 1806 to John Mackenzie of Welwyn, Herts. to be instructed in the household business, though this was a standard phrase, and I haven't found yet what the Mackenzie business was. The William Gidley who died on 18 July 1842 in the Middlesex Hospital is of an age to be William the Foundling. (However, there was another William of similar age, baptised in 1793 in St James' Westminster to John and Elizabeth Gidley, and this could also be the William who died in 1842.) The occupation of the William who died in 1842 was a servant, therefore he was the same William who had married Ruth Ames and had 4 daughters (1841 census - Little Carlisle St, Marylebone, William, servant, born in Middlesex, aged 47). There are no other likely deaths that I can see, but if this was the same William the Foundling, then he seems to have left no descendants in the male line.
I also investigated the family of William and Ruth, and this will be my next posting.
From the Petitions Books for the relevant year, I discovered that the petitioner was his mother, Martha Hillyard. By the time he was admitted in February 1794, as child number 18168, he was 14 weeks old, and was immediately "sent to nurse". I didn't check the nursery books for exactly where he was sent, but Chertsey, Dorking, Harlow, and Odiham were all places where the foundlings were taken. Martha Hillyard's petition to the general Committee was a sad and familiar story. It ran as follows, "Martha Hillyard was delivered of a male child about 11 weeks ago, and was obliged to quit a very reputable family where she was a servant. By her indiscretion she has disobliged the few friends she had, and was left to herself. Expenses attending her lying-in and confinement have nearly caused her to expend the small sum of money she has saved in servitude and is therefore unable to provide for her child's sustenance, and she should be sorry and grieved to see it suffer on that account."
Martha left no token with the child, as a few mothers did - I saw a small piece of paper with a Latin motto and a symbol attached to one child's record, and another where a silver threepence had been attached. I tried to find out what happened to Martha after William had gone, but it wasn't easy. The IGI provided a possible Martha Hillyard or Hillierd, baptised in 1774 at St Michael, Crooked Lane in the City of London, but a likely marriage for a Martha Hillyard on the IGI turned out to be for another Martha Hillyard born, according to the 1851 census, in Sutton Courtenay, Berks. Either or neither of them could be the correct Martha. Ancestry's London burials' index didn't turn up a likely Martha Hillyard either, but deaths before 1813 haven't been indexed yet, and the London marriages' index came up with a Martha Hillyard, who didn't quite fit the bill, as she was a widow.
As for William Gidley - what happened to him? The Foundling Hospital apprenticeship registers record he was apprenticed on 10 December 1806 to John Mackenzie of Welwyn, Herts. to be instructed in the household business, though this was a standard phrase, and I haven't found yet what the Mackenzie business was. The William Gidley who died on 18 July 1842 in the Middlesex Hospital is of an age to be William the Foundling. (However, there was another William of similar age, baptised in 1793 in St James' Westminster to John and Elizabeth Gidley, and this could also be the William who died in 1842.) The occupation of the William who died in 1842 was a servant, therefore he was the same William who had married Ruth Ames and had 4 daughters (1841 census - Little Carlisle St, Marylebone, William, servant, born in Middlesex, aged 47). There are no other likely deaths that I can see, but if this was the same William the Foundling, then he seems to have left no descendants in the male line.
I also investigated the family of William and Ruth, and this will be my next posting.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
The Gidley Arms
Situated on the B3137 south of Meshaw, Devon, at Gidley Cross, is the old house once known as the Gidley Arms, now called Gidley House. The owner has been investigating its history, and has provided some interesting information on it:
"Between the years of 1826 (when it was built) and about 1960, it was a pub and known as the Gidley Arms Inn. I believe it was named by the owner, Robert Preston of Leigh House, Chumleigh, after his Gidley relatives. In his will he states that his great grandfather Gidley was buried at Winkleigh. He clearly thought a lot of the Gidley family as he used their name for this building. However he must have fallen out with them later, as in his will dated 1843 he attached a codicil in which he cut all Gidley relatives out of his will as follows: “As I have been most unjustly deprived of the family pictures of the Gidleys, I recall and cancel the recommendations in favour of that family by way of advice not of trust…”.
The old pub sign, which was fixed above the door of the pub and is present in a photograph dated 1907 but not easily visible, has now long been destroyed."
Many thanks to the current owner of the house for the above information, and to Pete Gidley for the photograph.
Saturday, 31 October 2009
James Gidley, jeweller of Plymouth, 1824 - 1910
Having just returned from another visit to the Devon County Record Office, I'm pleased that a marriage entry I was checking for its additional notes proved so informative that I can now say that the family of James the jeweller of Plymouth, one of the small "orphan" trees, can be added with some certainty to the Gidley of Dean Prior tree.
Susanna Gidley married John Brand in Plymouth St Andrew on 6 January 1811. The extra notes in the parish register contain the information that John was a "mate of the Nile Transport no. 13", and also that Susanna was a spinster, and married with the consent of her mother Ann, a widow. A Robert Gidley also made his mark as a witness to the marriage. These names together made the link to the family of Nicholas Gidley, christened in Rattery in 1756, who married Anne Brownson in Buckfastleigh in 1790. They had three children, Susanna, Robert and Henry. Nicholas's burial is evidently that in Plymouth Charles in 1804. Robert is clearly placed in Plymouth, and therefore is highly likely to be the licensed victualler of Britonside and of the Black Bull in Exeter Street, and father of James Gidley, the jeweller, by his wife, Frances Elford. Robert died in 1842 and his age tallies closely enough with the Robert Gidley christened in Rattery in 1793, son of Nicholas and Anne.
Intriguingly, Robert's executor was Bartholomew Gidley, the surgeon of Plymouth, and Gustavus Gidley was his solicitor - both from a completely different Gidley tree. Was Robert also intrigued by the co-incidence of the names? As far as I know, there was no link at all between the two main branches of Gidleys after about 1600, when the first Gidley is mentioned in Buckfastleigh.
There are no known descendants of this family in the male line, but one of James's daughters married Frederick Farthing, and is known to have many descendants. Unusually for the times, James and his wife Eliza seem to have eventually gone their separate ways, and Eliza travelled round the country as a cook for some decades.
Susanna Gidley married John Brand in Plymouth St Andrew on 6 January 1811. The extra notes in the parish register contain the information that John was a "mate of the Nile Transport no. 13", and also that Susanna was a spinster, and married with the consent of her mother Ann, a widow. A Robert Gidley also made his mark as a witness to the marriage. These names together made the link to the family of Nicholas Gidley, christened in Rattery in 1756, who married Anne Brownson in Buckfastleigh in 1790. They had three children, Susanna, Robert and Henry. Nicholas's burial is evidently that in Plymouth Charles in 1804. Robert is clearly placed in Plymouth, and therefore is highly likely to be the licensed victualler of Britonside and of the Black Bull in Exeter Street, and father of James Gidley, the jeweller, by his wife, Frances Elford. Robert died in 1842 and his age tallies closely enough with the Robert Gidley christened in Rattery in 1793, son of Nicholas and Anne.
Intriguingly, Robert's executor was Bartholomew Gidley, the surgeon of Plymouth, and Gustavus Gidley was his solicitor - both from a completely different Gidley tree. Was Robert also intrigued by the co-incidence of the names? As far as I know, there was no link at all between the two main branches of Gidleys after about 1600, when the first Gidley is mentioned in Buckfastleigh.
There are no known descendants of this family in the male line, but one of James's daughters married Frederick Farthing, and is known to have many descendants. Unusually for the times, James and his wife Eliza seem to have eventually gone their separate ways, and Eliza travelled round the country as a cook for some decades.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Gidleys in the England and Wales Criminal Registers
With the release by Ancestry of the Criminal Registers in HO26 and HO27 at The National Archives, I think I'd better revise slightly my statement in the Gidley Profile to the effect that the Gidleys were nearly all of good character.
25 references have been found to Gidleys, although 16 of those named were subsequently acquitted. Another was almost certainly a mistranscribed Gidlow. The years and counties covered are Middlesex 1791-1892, and the rest of England and Wales 1805-1892.
Those eventually found guilty were as follows:
1) John Kerswell Gidley (from the Buckfastleigh branch) was sentenced to 18 months for larceny in 1840. He was in Exeter Gaol in the 1841 census. In the Criminal Register he is described as being able to read and write well.
2) Samuel Gidley (of the Woodbury branch) was sentenced to 3 months at the Exeter Lent Assizes in 1820. Other sources inform us that it was for stealing a hind quarter of mutton. His wife Penelope Gidley had been acquitted of receiving stolen goods the previous year.
3) Edwin Bartholomew Gidley (the Winkleigh branch) was sentenced to 6 months for larceny in 1842. On release he must have immediately joined the Royal Navy, where he became a Gunnner First Class.
4) Thomas Gidley (possibly from the Dean Prior family) was sentenced to 4 months for larceny at Leeds Borough sessions in 1850.
5) John Gidley (the Cornwall branch) was sentenced to a week's imprisonment in 1851 at Bodmin General Quarter Sessions for larceny. This could well have been the John Gidley who almost immediately emigrated to Canada.
6) Nicholas Gidley (also of the Cornish family) who was found guilty of burglary at Bodmin Assizes in 1852 and sent to prison for one year. He was probably also sentenced in 1854 in Devon for one week, again for burglary.
The sentences seem to have had life-changing effects in some cases, witness the emigration and enlistment in the Services.
Even being found not guilty also seems to have led to long distance moves, even emigration in one case: Thomas Gidley of the Winkleigh branch found not guilty of housebreaking at the Old Bailey in 1833. Thomas Gidley of the Dean Prior branch possibly moved after his imprisonment from Bradford to Manchester. James Gidley (of the Winkleigh branch, who had moved with his widowed mother to Brighton) moved on to London after he was acquitted of larceny in 1869. Richard Gidley (of my Spreyton and Heavitree branch) was acquitted of sheep stealing in 1834 at Plymouth, presumably whilst living in Ipplepen, and moved on to Heavitree shortly afterwards.
There were two noticeable recidivists who seem to have managed to get away with it for the most part:
1) Joseph Gidley, a costermonger of Deptford, who was acquitted three times between 1837 and 1839 of larceny (twice) and of uttering counterfeit coin. A month after his first acquittal a local newspaper tells us that he was charged at Greenwich Petty Sessions with three others with assaulting several police constables from R Division, which all the defendants denied. All were fined either £5, or given 2 months imprisonment. Joseph, whose parents are still unknown, settled down after he became a family man.
2) William Gidley (of the Winkleigh branch) seems to have been incorrigible. I already had several references in the Exeter Police notebooks to him, including using obscene language, and riding a horse up and down Preston St, Exeter. He was fined 10/- for that. He was probably also the William Gidley acquitted three times for larceny between 1853 and 1867, and charged with aggravated assault in 1857. He was married twice, and his son by his first wife, James Gidley, emigrated to Australia.
Nearly all the offences involved larceny. When it was listed, most of the defendants could either not read or write at all, or only imperfectly. The most serious crime was that of John Gidley accused of assault with intent to ravish in 1873 at Exeter General Quarter Sessions, but he was acquitted.
25 references have been found to Gidleys, although 16 of those named were subsequently acquitted. Another was almost certainly a mistranscribed Gidlow. The years and counties covered are Middlesex 1791-1892, and the rest of England and Wales 1805-1892.
Those eventually found guilty were as follows:
1) John Kerswell Gidley (from the Buckfastleigh branch) was sentenced to 18 months for larceny in 1840. He was in Exeter Gaol in the 1841 census. In the Criminal Register he is described as being able to read and write well.
2) Samuel Gidley (of the Woodbury branch) was sentenced to 3 months at the Exeter Lent Assizes in 1820. Other sources inform us that it was for stealing a hind quarter of mutton. His wife Penelope Gidley had been acquitted of receiving stolen goods the previous year.
3) Edwin Bartholomew Gidley (the Winkleigh branch) was sentenced to 6 months for larceny in 1842. On release he must have immediately joined the Royal Navy, where he became a Gunnner First Class.
4) Thomas Gidley (possibly from the Dean Prior family) was sentenced to 4 months for larceny at Leeds Borough sessions in 1850.
5) John Gidley (the Cornwall branch) was sentenced to a week's imprisonment in 1851 at Bodmin General Quarter Sessions for larceny. This could well have been the John Gidley who almost immediately emigrated to Canada.
6) Nicholas Gidley (also of the Cornish family) who was found guilty of burglary at Bodmin Assizes in 1852 and sent to prison for one year. He was probably also sentenced in 1854 in Devon for one week, again for burglary.
The sentences seem to have had life-changing effects in some cases, witness the emigration and enlistment in the Services.
Even being found not guilty also seems to have led to long distance moves, even emigration in one case: Thomas Gidley of the Winkleigh branch found not guilty of housebreaking at the Old Bailey in 1833. Thomas Gidley of the Dean Prior branch possibly moved after his imprisonment from Bradford to Manchester. James Gidley (of the Winkleigh branch, who had moved with his widowed mother to Brighton) moved on to London after he was acquitted of larceny in 1869. Richard Gidley (of my Spreyton and Heavitree branch) was acquitted of sheep stealing in 1834 at Plymouth, presumably whilst living in Ipplepen, and moved on to Heavitree shortly afterwards.
There were two noticeable recidivists who seem to have managed to get away with it for the most part:
1) Joseph Gidley, a costermonger of Deptford, who was acquitted three times between 1837 and 1839 of larceny (twice) and of uttering counterfeit coin. A month after his first acquittal a local newspaper tells us that he was charged at Greenwich Petty Sessions with three others with assaulting several police constables from R Division, which all the defendants denied. All were fined either £5, or given 2 months imprisonment. Joseph, whose parents are still unknown, settled down after he became a family man.
2) William Gidley (of the Winkleigh branch) seems to have been incorrigible. I already had several references in the Exeter Police notebooks to him, including using obscene language, and riding a horse up and down Preston St, Exeter. He was fined 10/- for that. He was probably also the William Gidley acquitted three times for larceny between 1853 and 1867, and charged with aggravated assault in 1857. He was married twice, and his son by his first wife, James Gidley, emigrated to Australia.
Nearly all the offences involved larceny. When it was listed, most of the defendants could either not read or write at all, or only imperfectly. The most serious crime was that of John Gidley accused of assault with intent to ravish in 1873 at Exeter General Quarter Sessions, but he was acquitted.
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