The dangers of drink: another John Gidley and another sad fate

Most of the Gidleys seem to have been a pretty sober lot, with a few exceptions, of course. One whose presumably rare excesses turned tragically sour on him was John Gidley of St Pancras, who met an unpleasant end through his own recklessness. I quote from the following account in the Morning Chronicle of 4 Apr 1833.

Coroner's Inquest - Dreadful Accident
Yesterday an inquest was held at the Five Bells Tavern at New Cross before Richard Cartter, Esq., the Coroner for Surrey, on the body of Mr John Gidley, aged 38 years, who met his death under the following afflicting circumstances.
It appeared in evidence that the unfortunate deceased was a pork butcher, residing in Brewer St, St Pancras.On Monday last he left home in a horse and chaise cart for the purpose of proceeding to Greenwich to receive his pension, he having served for many years at Gibraltar. After he had received his pension he went to several public houses, and at length he became quite intoxicated, and in that state he departed towards home. In passing along New Cross he whipped his horse into a full gallop, and in endeavouring to pass through a gate, the off wheel came in contact with the post, and the unfortunate man was thrown out to a distance of seven yards, and falling upon his head, his skull was much injured but not fractured; the blood, however, flowed from his mouth and nostrils in torrents. He was picked up immediately and carried to the house of Mr Law, the surgeon, where he died in about 10 minutes. Upon examination it was found that his death was occasioned by a rupture of a blood vessel upon the lungs.
The deceased was a married man and has left four children.
The Jury returned a verdict of Accidental Death.

So which John Gidley was this? He was quite easy to identify, with the Gibraltar clue. (Pictured is the dry dock at Gibraltar, but at a much later date than when John worked there). I believe his parents were Bartholomew Gidley and Mary Manning who married in 1793 in Ashreigney, Devon. John was their oldest child. Their second son, Bartholomew, was a smith at the Royal Dockyard in Plymouth, and has descendants, at least in the female line. Their third son, Thomas, a carpenter, was an early emigrant to Canada where he founded a family in Exeter, Ontario. At least two daughters, Mary and Wilmot, followed their oldest brother John to London, where they both married. But firstly John married at the age of only 20 (in 1815 at Stoke Damerel) Mary Maria Treweeke. His occupation at that time was a carpenter, and when a child was born in 1820 he was a "house carpenter in the Dockyard". But John's oldest son, another John, was consistent in claiming his date and place of birth as Gibraltar in 1818, so some time between 1815 and 1820 John senior must have served in the Dockyard there, little knowing it would be the eventual cause of his death.
As stated in the newspaper report, John and Mary Maria did indeed have four children - John in Gibraltar, two daughters Emma and Mary Maria in 1820 and 1824 in St Dominick, Cornwall, and another son in about 1826, Thomas. It seems that Mary Maria died soon after Thomas's birth, as she was buried in St Dominick that year. Thomas was never too sure where he was born - it varied in the censuses between St Dominick, St Pancras (London) or even Lambeth (Surrey). It was probably about that time that John moved his family to London (did his sisters accompany him to help?), and became a pork butcher. When their father died in 1833 the children's ages ranged from 15 to 7.
It was a surprise to me that John was a married man, having evidently remarried. Searching the marriages for any available John Gidleys between 1826 (when he was widowed) and 1833 (his death) I found the only possibility - John Gidley, widower, married Ann Gillatt, spinster, at St George's, Bloomsbury, in October 1831.
So what happened to the family after the tragedy? The family didn't seem to pull together very much, or maybe the financial circumstances were against them. By 1841 I can't find the oldest son, John, who probably never left London, but the other three children had returned to their Cornish roots, possibly supported by their mother's family for a while. The two girls are living together in Fore St, Callington, with the older working as a dressmaker. The younger son Thomas is possibly of no occupation in the Talbot Inn, Lostwithiel. Their stepmother Ann remained in London, working as a female servant in her brother Isaac's wine merchants' in Piccadilly, Westminster, where she continues to live until at least 1851. She must have been about 10 years older than her husband, so perhaps she didn't have the resources to cope with bringing up his young family.
The younger sister, Mary Maria Gidley, died unmarried in Cornwall in 1851 in her 20s, the same year as her sister Emma married Frederick Smith in Dover registration district. This couple then vanishes and I can find no further trace of them in England & Wales censuses.
John Gidley, the oldest son, however, managed to train as a printer's compositor and lived for many years in Islington until he died in 1884. He had two wives, Elizabeth, by whom he had no children, and a second wife, Sarah nee Strong, by whom he had a daughter, named after his mother, Mary Maria Treweeke Gidley. Sadly, this name brought no luck again, as Mary died as a young woman, a few years after her marriage. Sarah already had other children, by a previous marriage, who adopted the name of Gidley, and there are descendants in the female line.
Thomas Gidley, the younger son who wasn't too sure where he was born, has provided me with a few problems. It seems he married Ann Barnard in York in 1852, but by the 1861 census his wife is Mary Ann, born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1837. They have a baby daughter Eliza. Is first wife Ann the Annie Gidley who died in York, although not until 1863? (May 2013 update: no, this is another Annie Gidley, married to William Gidley from a completely different family, although, strangely, her address is given as Beedhams Court, Skeldergate, which is where Thomas and Mary Ann are living in 1861 and 1871). There's no sign of Ann in the 1861 census. Thomas has become a fishmonger in Skeldergate. In 1871 and 1881 things still seem to be going well for Thomas, and there are three more daughters (one died as a baby). Thomas has been employed as a groom and as a newsagent. By 1891, however, this second marriage had evidently failed. It actually only took place in York in 1880, by which time their oldest daughter Eliza was 20 and married herself, but I imagine it proves that Mary Ann and Ann, the first wife, were not one and the same person. In 1891 Thomas describes himself as a fish hawker and widower, and has moved to the other side of the River Ouse in York. He died in 1896. Mary Ann describes herself in 1891 as a widow, head of the household, in a working nurses' home in York. In 1901 she is a charwoman and by 1911, the year before her death back in her native Tyneside, she is a boarder with a family in York.
What happened to their daughters? I don't know their ultimate fates, but it seems likely they all emigrated. Two married in York, but there is no trace of the younger pair after 1901, and of the first couple nothing after their 1876 marriage. The unmarried daughter doesn't seem to have married or died in England & Wales.
In 2007 I heard of a descendant of Mary Maria Treweeke Gidley, daughter of John Gidley the printer in Islington, who was researching this particular Gidley family. Michael Brimacombe traced the birth details of the children of Sarah Strong's first husband, who were Mary's half siblings.

The two George Gidley murderers

1) George Gidley, chimney sweep, found guilty of the manslaughter of a fellow chimney sweep in Leeds in 1836
This one is quickly dealt with. Although the newspaper reports of the time consistently give the accused's name as Gidley, a quick glance at the 1851 census shows that there were at least two families of chimney sweeps in Leeds at the time who quite clearly had the surname Gidlow. The clerks at the trial, or the arresting police officers, had evidently incorrectly recorded his name as Gidley. There are also some birth references in the BMDs in the Leeds registration district between 1839 and 1847 which recorded these families' children as Gidley.
The newspapers of the time reported:
"There is a strong presumption that the boy, Hurley, died from a beating with a stick by the man, Gidley, who had been to fetch him from Ripon. This inhuman monster had compelled the lad to walk barefoot from Ripon to Harewood, a distance of 18 miles, in one day. When at the latter place he became exhausted, and received a severe beating from Gidley, which from the evidence given, seems to have caused his death. Gidley was committed to York Castle to take his trial at the assizes next week, on the capital charge of "wilful murder". (At this trial he was found guilty of manslaughter)."

2) George Gidley, ship's cook, hanged in 1766 for murder and mutiny on the high seas
There's also a possibility (only a small one, I'm afraid) that this George Gidley's name has also been misrecorded.
The main published sources are the Annual Register for 1765, and the New and Complete Newgate Calendar for 1765. The Annual Register describes George Gidley and fellow-mutineer Richard St Quentin as "west of England men". On the other hand, the Newgate Calendar has George Gidley "born in the West of Yorkshire", and Richard St Quentin "a native of the same county". The story is also covered in a much more recent title, The Mary Celeste and other strange tales of the sea, by J G Lockhart, published in 1952. This records George Gidley as a west of England man, but Richard St Quentin as a Londoner. The original papers appear to be kept in Belfast, in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, so not very accessible for me. If anyone wants to visit, the references seem to be PRONI D 2015/5; CMSIED 9804413.
The printed sources all agree that George Gidley was the ship's cook, which means, I'm afraid, that he dealt the fatal blow to Captain Cochran, the captain of the ship. According to Lockhart (above), he brained him with a marlin spike.
This is the story (taken from http://ied.dippam.ac.uk/records/20862).
"Compared with the mutiny on the Earl of Sandwich, which took place in the Irish Channel, almost at our doors some 24 years earlier, the mutiny on the Bounty might almost be considered a decent kind of an affair. This mutiny, which at the time stirred the interest of every man and woman in the country, contained all the elements of a boy's thriller - murder, scuttling, looting and buried treasure. The Earl of Sandwich was a small brig under the command of a captain Cochran and he was bound home from Tenerife. In addition to the captain there was a crew of six men and two boys and three passengers who had joined the ship at Tenerife - a Captain Glass, his wife and daughter. Captain Glass was also a seaman who had a stirring career. The Earl of Sandwich carried a considerable amount of treasure, probably the result of a long trading voyage. Mutiny broke out on November 30, 1765, as the ship was approaching the Irish coast. Four of the crew attacked and killed the mate and master with an iron bar. Captain Glass, hearing the noise of the struggle, ran up on deck and, seeing what had happened, turned and ran back again for his sword. Knowing that he was a brave and resolute man, one of the mutineers followed and hid himself and as Captain Glass passed him with his drawn sword he threw his arms around the captain from behind and called for assistance from his fellow mutineers. The other rushed forward and, taking the sword from the captain, they ran him through the body. In doing so they also ran the sword through the arm of the man holding their victim. The four mutineers were the boatswain, cook and two seamen, and their purpose was to possess the treasure on board, of which apparently they had obtained knowledge. After killing Captain Glass they actually forced Mrs Glass and her daughter, clasped in each other's arms, over the side. The bodies of the other dead were thrown after them, and the only other survivors left were the two boys. When nearing the coast of Wexford the mutineers opened the ballast ports, got out the longboat, loaded it up with the treasure, and left the ship. They landed at a spot called Booley Bay on the Wexford coast, and after burying the bulk of the treasure in the sand made their way to the town of Ross and engaged a room in a public house where they deposited what gear they had brought with them. The men went round the town changing dollars for gold, and in this way disposed of 1,250 dollars, and obtained nearly every gold piece in the town of Ross. Next they set off for Dublin but had only been gone six hours when the hue and cry was raised. The suspicions of the authorities had been aroused owing to their boat having been found with a number of loose dollars in it. A quantity of the ship's cargo and goods also came ashore. "
The men themselves also drew suspicious glances, being "rough-looking fellows" to be in possession of such obvious wealth. George Gidley managed to bolt from outside a goldsmith's shop in Dublin, but the hue and cry was on and he was stopped at Carlow, in possession of 50-60 English guineas & Spanish & Portuguese money.
The four men were found guilty in Dublin on March 11th 1766 and were sentenced to hang on St Stephen's Green. Their bodies were then hung in chains in the harbour for a year, serving a warning to all passing ships against mutiny and murder.
So which family of Gidleys has the dubious honour of relationship to a brutal murderer? There's no easy answer. We need:
a George Gidley of an age to be a ship's cook in 1765
a George Gidley not necessarily living on the coast, as a cook's skills were presumably less generic than those of a seaman, but not recorded as following any other trade
a George Gidley for whom there is no burial record.
I don't think for one moment that I have recorded all the Gidleys alive in the 18th century, but there is one George Gidley who may fit the bill, although he does appear to be a little old to be a ship's cook in 1765.
There is a small family of Gidleys in Northam, Devon, recorded by Family Search. The married couple are George Gidley amd Martha Man, who married there in 1722, presumably making them both born about 1700. I have no idea what family George could belong to. The baptisms of 9 children are recorded in Northam, several of whom died young. The only one I can trace a marriage for so far is George Gidley junior, who married Amy Davies in Bristol, joined the Royal Navy and consequently left a will (leaving everything to Amy). George and Martha's family was poverty-stricken - all the surviving children were apprenticed out by the parish at a young age - and there is no burial recorded for George Gidley senior, although Martha was buried in Northam in 1760. And Northam parish included the Devon port of Appledore.
This is my best guess so far, but I'm always prepared to be proved wrong.
Any ideas are welcome. At least this particular George Gidley doesn't have any known descendants to feel ashamed of him.

The Holsworthy Slander Case 1904

The town of Holsworthy in North Devon was alive with gossip in the year 1904. It culminated in the vicar, the Rev. Kendall, finally bringing an action for slander against Ernest Richard Gidley, a carpenter of that town, and strangely described as an infant (he was in fact 20, so an infant only in the eyes of the law).
In the witness box Ernest Gidley tried to defend himself against the charge. He had alleged that he had seen the Rev. Kendall engaged in "unduly affectionate behaviour in the rectory grounds" with a Miss Andrews, the niece of Rev. Kendall's wife. Ernest repeated this story throughout the town, it was corroborated by another witness, and it eventually came to the Archdeacon's attention. The vicar's reputation and very livelihood in the church were now at stake, not to mention his niece's reputation. She was a single girl of 21 (and not particularly attractive, judging by a court sketch of the day). The vicar was forced to sue.
It was of course Ernest Gidley's word against the Rev. Kendall's. It seems the vicar was not popular in Holsworthy. He had married a wealthy wife some years older then himself who purchased the living of Holsworthy for him, but there was constant talk of his making visits behind the scenes to theatres both in Devon and London, and of showing rather more than a passing interest in certain young ladies in the locality - such as a girl in the workhouse and a local sewing mistress. There was a suggestion that he kept photographs of them "in tights". He admitted he had a number of enemies in the parish, where local talk was of his "immoral character". The local Medical Officer of Health gave evidence in court that the moral character of Mr Kendall was "not good".
However, the judgement of the court went against Ernest Gidley, and damages of £2000 were awarded to Miss Andrews, the niece, and of £1000 to the Rev. Kendall. The judge called Ernest Gidley "impudent" for his comments about the moral conditions prevailing in Holsworthy, and that there was no evidence to suppose that adultery took place. The jury took only ten minutes to come to their decision. The judge, however, did reduce the vicar's award because he believed him guilty of "acts of indiscretion". Because of his humble circumstances (it was reported he earned between 15 and 16 shillings a week) Ernest was ordered to pay at a rate of 4 shillings a month. At a permitted interest rate of 4% the debt actually increased every year. This millstone of debt made the newspapers as far away as New Zealand.
On returning to Holsworthy the two participants in the court case met with differing receptions. The Rev. Kendall was received by a hostile crowd at the station and needed a police bodyguard. Indeed, a stone was thrown, hitting a police superintendent. On the other hand Ernest Gidley was shouldered and carried through the streets of the town amid cheers. There was no doubt who was the people's victor.
Who was Ernest Richard Gidley who had been saddled with this enormous debt? He was the son of George Gidley and his wife Sophia Sargent, who married in North Tamerton in Cornwall in 1881, thus making him part of the huge family of Gidleys we can trace back to Winkleigh. In 1891 George and Sophia, Ernest's parents, plus at least seven of their other children, emigrated to Canada (the newspaper reports of Ernest's trial state America, but the family was in London, Ontario in the 1901 Canadian census.) They never returned to Britain to live, and Ernest, their oldest son, stayed with his Sargent grandparents in North Tamerton until he took an apprenticeship as a carpenter with Samuel Parsons in Holsworthy.
I'm not too sure about Ernest's marital history. The court reports tell of his engagement to a local girl, daughter of Mrs Hill of Holsworthy. Mrs Hill was another who claimed to have witnessed the immoral act in the rectory garden, and Ernest was on his way to band practice on the night of the alleged incident, collecting his cornet from the Hills' house. Ernest did not have any particular acquaintance with the vicar, but Mrs Hill had fallen out with Mr Kendall after being caught using a fern from the rectory garden in the preparation of a wreath. By the 1911 census Mrs Hill had died, and Ernest is living as a lodger with her widower, George Hill. His daughter Catherine Hill, is still unmarried and acting as her father's housekeeper [but see her marriage reference below]. There is also a daughter, Phyllis Hill, aged 4, born in Plymouth, in the household. I can't find an obvious birth registration for Phyllis under the name of Gidley or Hill, but it seems she later went with Ernest and Catherine when they moved on to South Wales. [2013 update - I have found the marriage reference for Ernest and Catherine, in 1907 in Middlesex county, Ontario, Canada, where Ernest's parents had emigrated.] The Rev. Kendall was still the incumbent in Holsworthy in 1911, and it's possible they wanted no more to do with the church there. A further daughter, Dorothy, was born in about 1912, and again there is no birth reference for her under the name of Gidley in England and Wales. Sadly, she died in Llandeilo, Glamorgan, aged only twenty. The older daughter, Phyllis, gave birth to a son, Desmond Albert Gidley, in Cardiff as an unmarried teenager. Desmond later married a Miss De Smet in Belgium (Armed Forces Marriages 1796-2005 on FindMyPast) and from then on there is no further sign of him in England and Wales.
Catherine died in the Swansea area during the Second World War, and Ernest seems to have become involved with Elsie Rodway and her son Graham Norman Rodway, who in 1972 officially abandoned two of his birth names in favour of the name Graham Keith Gidley. Graham died in 1988, and Ernest Richard Gidley himself had died in 1956 in Gorseinon, West Glamorgan. A family member, Michael Brimacombe, was in contact with Ernest's Canadian relations a few years ago, and there is a possibility that there was another son, or stepson, as well as Graham.
All details of the court case have been taken from newspaper reports of the time. Full details on request.

The sad fate of John Gidley (1700 - 1744) of Newport, Rhode Island
The upper photo on the left is of Trinity Church, Newport where John Gidley is buried. The lower, right-hand photograph is of John Gidley House, 38 Pelham Street, Newport, which was built for him (photo taken from the Reed Digital Collections).

The following information is taken from several local histories, such as a History of the Narragansett Church, Rhode Island, and the Annals of Trinity Church, Newport 1698-1821. Full details on request.

From the Annals of Trinity Church - "John Gidley was the son of John Gidley, Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court, who came to Newport from Exon, in Devon, and died here in 1710. John Gidley, the son, was accidentally killed in September, 1744. His first wife was Sarah Shackmaple, daughter of John Shackmaple, of New London, where he was a man of prominence. She died May 12, 1727. His second wife was ... Mary Cranston [a daughter of Col. John Cranston]. She died October 3, 1733, aged 24 years. His third wife was Elizabeth Brown, daughter of Captain John Brown. In 1742-3 the Judge of Admiralty having gone to England, John Gidley was appointed in his place till the king's will could be known."

According to Wikipedia, "Vice admiralty courts were juryless courts located in British colonies that were granted jurisdiction over local legal matters related to maritime activities, such as disputes between merchants and seamen. Judges were given 5% of confiscated cargo if they found a smuggling defendant guilty. This gave judges financial incentive to find defendants guilty."

The John Gidley, who met an accidental death in 1744, was a great nephew of Bartholomew Gidley of English Civil War fame. Bartholomew and his wife Joan had no children, and Bartholomew therefore willed his estate and coat of arms to his brother John, a London surgeon, and his heirs. This brother John Gidley, a freeman of the Barber-Surgeons' Company, died in London in about 1713, and his will mentions his son John Gidley, a fuller, the first Vice Admiralty Judge, who emigrated to Newport, Rhode Island, and died there in 1710.
His son, yet another John, the subject of this posting, was described as a prosperous and enterprising merchant. Born in about 1700, he was a rum distiller in 1726, the same year that he sold his house to a slaveship owner (Massachusetts Historical Society papers). He obviously had bad luck with brides, and I have only seen mention of one descendant, a son, yet another John Gidley, a midshipman in the British Merchant Navy, for whom I have no further details. But unluckiest of all was his death - blown up by gunpowder.
Accounts differ as to whether on September 17th 1744 John Gidley Esq. with three other men, owners of the privateer Prince Frederick, were either surveying its stores in a warehouse, or were on the wharf observing its departure, when a pistol accidentally went off and set fire to about 5 cwt. of gunpowder in several casks. The blast blew away the warehouse roof and set off yet more ammunition and muskets. John Gidley and his fellow ship-owners were all blown sky-high, and succumbed to their injuries over the next few days. John Gidley was the last to die, after eleven days had elapsed. His funeral took place on October 2nd 1744 in Trinity Church, Newport, where he had been a churchwarden. He was buried in the same grave as his first two wives, Mary Cranston and Sarah Shackmaple, and his memorial stone appears to bear a coat of arms, possibly the one awarded to Bartholomew Gidley. Gidley Street in Newport was named after him. His third wife, Elizabeth, lived on in Newport until at least 1772.

Peccadillos in India - the life of Thomas Augustus Gidley

The Prag-Mahal in Bhuj, Kutch, India

Thomas Augustus Gidley was born 4th February 1801, probably in Stoke Damerel in Devon, as his father, Othniel Gidley, originally from Buckfastleigh, was a high-ranking Clerk of the Survey at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Plymouth. The family was comfortably off, having land at its disposal. In 1809, for example, when he was only 8 years old, from the terms of his grandfather's will Thomas knew he would one day inherit the rents from an estate called Shepherd's Tenement in Buckfastleigh, after the death of his father. His older brother Othniel was to inherit another of his grandfather's properties. Another brother, Caleb, is described as a "gentleman" at the time of his death in 1839, so presumably lived from his rents, and yet another brother, John Kerswell Gidley, was a "landed proprietor" by the time of the 1851 census, and in all subsequent ones.

The first mention of Thomas' army career is in 1818 when we learn that he and his brother Othniel were sent off to Bombay in India as "cadets for the infantry". Othniel does not seem to have prospered there and died back in England in 1829, but we learn from army reports in newspapers of Thomas's rise through the ranks, becoming a Lieutenant in the 11th Native Infantry in Bombay by 1825, rising from Captain to Major in 1841 and by 1851 he had become a Lieutenant-Colonel of the 15th Native Infantry. But disaster struck in 1854, and, as well as this calamity in India, there was scandal at home.

Thomas married Matilda, surname unknown, place and date unknown, and Matilda's age and place of birth fluctuate in the censuses. They had a daughter Mary Louisa Matilda Gidley, born in about 1831. In 1841 Matilda and her daughter were in Hammersmith, and Thomas was presumably in India. All seemed to be going smoothly when Mary married one of Thomas's brother officers in 1850, but by 1851 Thomas is living in Great Marlborough St, Westminster described as a "lodger, unmarried". I haven't found Matilda at all in 1851, but perhaps she accompanied her daughter to India. By 1861 she is living in Hastings, occupation "lady", and by 1871 she is possibly a "widow, railway dividend, 3 Markham Square, St Luke's, Chelsea." She died in 1875 in the Brighton area. The marriage had obviously failed, as Thomas was still very much alive.
Thomas may well be the "Captain Augustus Frederick Gidley" mentioned in a newspaper report in 1831, when a man of that name appeared in a court case involving some damage, when he had been found in the house in Exeter of a Miss Hammond, a "lady of ill repute".

So Thomas's home circumstances were not perfect, when in 1854 his army career came to an abrupt end. Newspapers of the time reported in full the circumstances leading to his court-martial and being dismissed the army.
"First charge: gross dereliction of duty when commanding officer in Bhooj, Cutch province, 1 January - 1 September 1853, he countenanced intemperance and unbecoming conduct among officers of the regiment under his command, by permitting unchecked and unpunished instances of drunkenness and impropriety degrading to gentlemen and ruinous to discipline". It was alleged that several of his junior officers, including a surgeon and an officer of the day, were drunk whilst attending a Durbar, and in the billiard room, amongst other places.
Second charge: not interfering to prevent the following scenes of indecency and conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman, namely that disgusting language had been used towards Surgeon Elliot, whose person was indecently exposed in the billiard room by certain officers of the regiment".
Thomas was found guilty on most of the counts, and struck off the strength of the army. The junior officers were also to be brought to trial.
No blame seems to have been attached personally to Thomas, except that of laxity in commanding his officers. Certainly Thomas is reported in shipping lists as returning to Bombay in 1857, but by then his life in England had taken a more domestic turn.

By 1861 Thomas is living in Peckham, South London, as an Army Pensioner, with his "daughter-in-law" Maria, about 35 years his junior. His "grandson", Thomas Augustus Gidley born about 1856 (no birth registration found) is living with them. By 1871, at a different address in South London, the younger Thomas is now said to be his son. Thomas and Maria claimed to be married in 1861, when their two older children were christened in Lewisham, but the marriage did not take place until 1863, when Thomas's first wife, Matilda, was still living. Perhaps he had lost all touch with her for seven years by then, and considered himself a free man.
In 1881 Thomas seems to have discovered he was entitled to benefit from three estates: that of his mother, who died in 1840, of his brother Caleb, who died in 1839, and of his sister, Mary Louisa Gidley, who died in 1861. Thomas had all three wills proved that year. He died three years later, in 1884, but his second wife Maria survived until 1921. Their children were called after Thomas' sisters. Their oldest daughter, Maria Louisa Gidley, had almost the same name as her half sister, Mary Louisa Matilda Gidley. Their son, Thomas Augustus Gidley the younger, vanishes after 1871. There is a tantalising reference to a divorce case in Bombay in 1918, when he could possibly be the Augustus Gidley who admitted adultery with the respondent.
Stop press 2012: I've just received the death certificate for Thomas Augustus Gidley (the younger) who died in Lambeth Hospital in 1933, aged 75. A hospital administrator, and not a relative, registered his death, and Thomas's former occupation was not known to him. Thomas had been a resident in St Peter's Home in South Lambeth before he was admitted to hospital.

With apologies to any descendants, was there a family failing? Thomas's youngest brother, John Kerswell Gidley, who never seems to have worked for his living, is found in Exeter Gaol in 1841, having been found guilty of larceny the year before. I've also seen references to Othniel Gidley, I think the father of Thomas and John Kerswell claiming a civil service pension in the early 19th century, who is described as "late 2nd Clerk to the Clerk of the Survey at Plymouth, has asked for superannuation but his superior says he is very negligent, disrespectful and totally incompetent and has, on two occasions, been suspended from office." The Victorian work ethic seems to have passed this particular family by, but by twenty-first century standards the very fact of putting English officers in complete charge of native soldiers in an inhospitable climate where they were lords of all they surveyed, seems to have brought out the worst in many of them.

Two Gidleys to be proud of ...

Hoopern House, Exeter (taken by Wilkinson Grant & Co. Property Agents), formerly home of Bartholomew Charles Gidley (see below).

I chanced across a History of Victorian Exeter in the The National Archives' library at Kew today. Knowing that there were two prominent Gidleys who filled the role of Town Clerk in that period, I checked for them in the index.

The book reference is:
NEWTON Robert. Victorian Exeter 1837 - 1914. Leicester UP, 1968.

Pages 116 - 117 deal with John Gidley, of the Honiton part of the Winkleigh Gidley family.He was born 21 Mar 1795 in Honiton, son of Courtenay Gidley and his wife Margaret nee Gordon, and several of the family were lawyers. John married Elizabeth Caroline Cornish, from a prominent Exeter family, and although they had at least nine children (several died young) and there were grandchildren, I haven't traced any further descendants in the male line. His home was in Bedford Circus.

"In 1865 the death of John Gidley "the learned and venerable clerk to the municipal body of the city" broke another link with the pre-Reform era and the traditions and manners of the eighteenth century. Town clerk of Exeter, judge of the provost's court, clerk to the Land and Assessed Tax Commissioners, recorder for the borough of Bradninch and member of an ancient Devon family, Gidley had been firm, tactful and hard-working, a conscientious pilot for the new council and its often strong-willed members. His tastes were described ... as "eminently archaeological and his learning that of that patristic, half-ecclesiastical, philological cast which benefits such pursuits." He was indeed a representative of the well-educated scholarly, professional men who formed the backbone of innumerable learned societies in the age that was passing. Originally said to be a man of Liberal principles, John Gidley had become a Conservative but he retained the respect of both political parties, guided the council through innumerable lawsuits, found time to maintain an extensive practice, and as a staunch Anglican, was reputed to have written powerful anonymous letters to the press in support of the bishop during the surplice controversy."

Page 204 deals with his son Bartholomew Charles Gidley, who died prematurely aged only 49 in 1888. From the census it seems he was educated at Ottery St Mary School, then Oxford University. Living in Southernhay in 1871, he had purchased Hoopern House, a Regency mansion, by 1881. For some years it was part of the University of Exeter, but has now returned to being a palatial private residence.
"In 1874 Alderman Gidley, an active and influential member of the [Conservative] party, and son of the first town clerk, resigned his position as alderman and was subsequently elected town clerk." He was Mayor of Exeter in 1870 - 1871, a Freeman of the city, and took a great interest in antiquarian matters, contributing articles to the Devon Notes and Queries magazine.
It seems there were dark deeds in the town hall at that time: a dishonest clerk in the Treasurer's department was responsible for a shortfall of £2000, and according to Newton's book, "the Conservatives were determined to retain control of key posts, [but] the personal integrity of Gidley was never in doubt."

The family has an impressive tomb in All Hallows on the Wall churchyard, Exeter, on a corner by the road where it is impossible for passing traffic to miss it.

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, many of whom are still in the Exeter area, but also elsewhere in the UK. The descendants of his oldest daughter, Fanny, who moved to South Wales in the boom years of the Welsh economy, 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, Martha, 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. Jim and Martha's descendants are mainly through his daughters. Of his four sons, only my grandfather Walter had sons himself. Jim and Martha's oldest son was James Henry Gidley, who died in the Boer War and whose photograph is on an earlier blog posting.