The 1815 settlement examination of Mary Gidley of Bovey Tracey

I have recently been going back through my old notebooks in a decluttering exercise and found a couple of transcriptions of settlement examinations I had made at the Devon Record Office over the years. Rather than bin them, I will record them here for posterity.
Please note that they are unlikely to be the full transcript, merely the items of family history interest. For the complete examination the original needs to be consulted.

Bovey Tracey 5 June 1815
Mary Gidley now residing in the parish of Bovey Tracey, single woman, touching the place of her last legal settlement, taken on oath before two Justices of the Peace.
To the best of my knowledge and belief she was born in Bovey Tracey, when about 14 or 15 she went to live with Miss Savory of Dock, Stoke Damarel, under a weekly hiring at about 18d per week and lived under that hiring 12 months, then went and lived with Mr Nicholson, linen draper of Dock at about 2s per week, and lived with him about 1 and a half years, then went and lived with David Price of Stoke Damerel , hatter, at the rate of 2s 4d per week, and lived with him under that hiring about 6 years, then moved with Mr Price and his family to London and lived with Mr Price at no. 22 Oxford Street for 3 years under the same hiring, then returned to the said Bovey Tracey where she is now residing.
To the best of her knowledge she has done no other deed whereby to gain a settlement.

A hatter at work

The examination was triggered by the fact that Mary Gidley was about to give birth (or had already just given birth) to an illegitimate child, Mary Ann Gidley, christened in Bovey Tracey just a month later, on 9th July 1815. That child would be chargeable to the parish unless Mary could be proved to be the responsibility of another parish. Who was the father of Mary's child? A clue, perhaps, many years later, in the marriage register for the probable marriage of that illegitimate child, Mary Ann Gidley, to Joshua Levens. Mary Ann names her father as John Gidley, hatter. No such person existed, as far as I can see, but her mother was of course apprenticed for several years to David Price, a hatter.
So what happened to Mary Gidley and her daughter Mary Ann? There were obviously not many opportunities in Bovey Tracey and all the children of John Gidley and Elizabeth Purday left the village - two for London, one for Dover, then on to London, and another, John Gidley born about 1796, probably to Australia with his wife Elizabeth Facey.
By 1841 Mary Gidley had returned to London, and is a female servant in Pall Mall. In 1851 there is a bit more detail - she is a housemaid in 89 Pall Mall. The head of the household in each year is Elizabeth Fenning or Fanning, an unmarried fundholder of independent means. By 1861 Mary has moved to live with her younger brother George and his family in Limehouse, in London's East End, where she died in 1875. She never married.
It looks as though her daughter Mary Ann accompanied her to London. In 1841 she could well be "Maria" Gidley, a servant in Nelson Square, Southwark, in the household of Richard Perkins, an attorney. I think she married Joshua Levens in Whitechapel in 1855.

Death certificates have revealed the identity of some mystery Gidleys

I recently took advantage of the electronic certificates supplied by the GRO before February's price rise and applied for 9 death certificates for Gidleys I couldn't identify from GRO index records. They were mainly from the earlier years of registration, although the latest I wanted was from 1883.
Of the 9 certificates I received, two were for the same person, and only five cleared up their identity. Of the others, some left tantalizing clues, whilst others continued to defy identification.
N.B. I can't be certain of the archaic medical terms used for cause of death, some of which were difficult to decipher.

Those identified:
1. Ann Gidley, died 8th November 1852, of 8 Clarence Road, Kentish Town, wife of Robert Gidley, a stamper in the Stamp Office, Somerset House. Cause of death was paralysis of the heart after one hour's illness. However, this was struck out and another death certificate was issued on 24th December 1852 on the coroner's instructions; this time death was attributed to extravasation of blood in and upon the brain, by natural causes.
Ann was aged 56, and had only been married to Robert Gidley for ten years. She was born in Potterne, Wiltshire and was buried there. She has a gravestone in the churchyard. They had no children. Robert was born in Dartington, Devon in 1802, the son of Henry Gidley and Elizabeth Diggins, of the Dean Prior branch of the Gidleys. He survived his wife for over 25 years and died in 1879. The occupation he followed is described in Wikipedia as follows:
The Stamp Office had the task of applying an impressed duty stamp to various specific items to show that the required duty had been paid. For example, up until 1855 (when the relevant duty was abolished) every newspaper produced in the country had to be brought to Somerset House to be stamped.
I imagine Robert and Ann's life must have been reasonably comfortable.

2. Sarah Gidley, died 23rd February, 1866, aged 75, of 29 Arlington Street, Islington, widow of Robert Gidley, livery stable keeper. The cause of death was effusion of serum on the brain, following information from a coroner's inquest held on 1st March 1866.
Sarah was aged 75, and her identity is clear, but her husband's less so. There are three candidates (cousins, in fact) for the Robert Gidley with a wife Sarah living on London Wall. He left a will after his death in 1830, and there are a couple of printed mentions of his livery stable at the White Horse Inn, Warrick Lane, where he was also a publican. He was also comfortably off (for those days), with shares in the Gas Company, and a life insurance policy with Hope Assurance, both of which his "dear wife" inherited. She was also the executrix of his will, so presumably a competent woman, used to financial dealings. I think she was his second wife, and they were married in 1823, only seven years before he died, aged 63 in 1830. There are three Robert Gidleys born between 1766 and 1768, all, I think, on the Dean Prior tree, and the most likely candidate looks like the Robert christened in St Martin in the Fields,Westminster, in June 1767, son of Robert Gidley and his wife Margaret.
Sarah herself survived her husband for over 35 years, living with her nephew Robert Stead in two censuses and at her death, and with her niece Elizabeth Newth and her family in another census.

3. Mary Searle Gidley, died 8th October, 1842 at 55 Harrison Street, Grays Inn Lane, St Pancras, aged 24. The cause of death was consumption.
She was the first wife of John Gidley, whose occupation - compositor - on Mary's death certificate enabled me to place her. John has been mentioned in a previous blog post, that of 19th January 2013, where I outlined the family of John Gidley, killed at New Cross in South London after being thrown from his horse. He had been drinking after collecting his naval dockyard pension. Mary Searle Gidley's husband, John the compositor, was his oldest son, born in Gibraltar in 1818. I had found two wives already for this John, but couldn't find an entry for him (and presumably his first wife Mary) on the 1841 census. Having an address on the death certificate in 1842 of 55 Harrison Street I endeavoured to trace them there in 1841 but no luck. Nor can I find a marriage for them. I imagine Mary's maiden name was Searle, as the informant for her death was a Jane Searle, a whole week after the death (rather a long time). I wondered if that was Mary's mother, and if John and Mary were living with her in 1841, but again, no luck finding them. I suppose it's possible they never officially married, hence the surname Searle being included in her death registration, which was a little unusual.
John Gidley went on to have two more wives, one daughter, and stepchildren who took the name Gidley. See the 19th January 2013 blog post.

Tentative identification:

4. Samuel Gidley, died 24th December 1840, at 66 Castle Street East, All Souls Marylebone, London, a mariner, aged 49. The cause of death was asthma. The informant was Mary Elizabeth Rowland, apparently a neighbour.
Very little to go on, as he died before even the 1841 census and was evidently not living with any family. I have tentatively identified him as the Samuel Gidley of Marldon, Devon, born on 12th December 1792 and christened in Marldon on 30 December 1792. That would make him actually 48 and not 49, but ages at death are notoriously unreliable and there has been no other trace of this Samuel Gidley. Marldon is only a few miles from Paignton and therefore close enough to the coast for Samuel to have gone to sea. His parents were John Gidley (one of the Eighteenth Century Three John Gidleys Problem, see the blog post of 9th April 2015) and Mary Gale. Samuel was the oldest child, doesn't seem to have married, and had three sisters. So this particular Gidley branch would seem to have died out in the male line. Samuel was buried in St Marylebone. The burial ground was consecrated in 1733 and between then and the early 1850s more than 110,000 burials took place. Some burials have been recorded to a depth of 14 metres. The site was cleared of headstones in the 1880s and is now Paddington Gardens.

5. Elizabeth Gidley (registered as Giddley), died 5 July 1849 at St Marylebone Workhouse, a servant, aged 55. The cause of death was ?arachnities and effusion on the brain.
The informant was a workhouse official, so Elizabeth evidently had no handy local family. The workhouse and infirmary register on Ancestry lists her occupation, status and address on admission as a single servant, of 16 North Street, Marylebone (with the bald entry of "discharge - dead").
There is an Elizabeth Gidley who fits this bill exactly. She was christened in Bovey Tracey, Devon in March 1794, so her age fits perfectly. She was the daughter of John Gidley and Elizabeth Purday, another of the  Eighteenth Century Three John Gidleys Problem (blog post of 9th April 2015). I had previously seen no further trace of this Elizabeth, but it is interesting that of her siblings, two (sister Mary and brother George) also moved to London, where they died in Poplar. Their brother John is the most likely candidate for the John who married Elizabeth Facey and emigrated to Australia.
I'm fairly happy that this is the correct Elizabeth Gidley.

The four who remain a mystery:

6. Ann Gidley. died 30 August 1850, of 12 South Street, Marylebone, aged 63, wife of William Gidley, a labourer. Cause of death was ascites. The informant was Sophia Bradshaw, of the same address.
Seems simple on the face of it, but I can't identify William and Ann with any certainty. There is a possibility that she was Ann Prosser, who married William Boyne Gidley of the Shoreditch branch of the Gidleys in 1822 in St Martin in the Fields, Westminster. If so, she was about 11 years older than her husband. A daughter, Ann Caroline Gidley, was born to this couple in 1823. She married Walter Smith in October 1850 in St Marylebone, Her father William Boyne (sometimes recorded as Bowen) Gidley manages to evade all the censuses. His final official record was his probable death in 1866 in St James' Westminster. His occupation on the 1822 marriage certificate was grocer, so had he fallen on hard times to be described as a labourer?

7. Jane Gidley, died 18 February 1838, of 5 Ogle St, Marylebone, aged 77. Cause of death was decay of nature. The informant was Jane's daughter, Ann Grimes.
Also seems straightforward, but not so. Jane died before the first census where names were recorded, but I hoped to find her daughter Ann Grimes. I had found her marriage to William Joseph Grimes in 1823 in St Anne's, Westminster, but there was no trace of Ann in 1841 or 1851. It seems that William Joseph Grimes may have died in 1832. Possibly Ann had remarried. There is a marriage reference for an Ann Grimes in September 1841 in St George's Hanover Square, London, but I couldn't trace a matching husband to search for her in later censuses, so that was a dead end. A marriage certificate for her on Ancestry with her father's name recorded would have helped to solve the mystery.
A possible candidate for Jane Gidley is Jane Matthews who married William Gidley in Marylebone in 1798. If he is the William who died in St Pancras in 1809, then she would have been 12 years older than her husband, so this is not at all certain. They had three children christened between 1799 and 1806, but none was called Ann. Possibly her christening was not recorded, or one of the daughters' names (Mary and Lucy) was mis-recorded. The small London Gidley families of the late 18th and early 19th century are all problems.
Ann Grimes cannot be the Ann Gidley christened in 1791 in St James' Piccadilly, as her parents were John Gidley and Elizabeth Davis. But one of these Ann Gidleys in Marylebone had an illegitimate son, George Gidley, in 1813. He died in 1835 and was buried in St Marylebone.

8. John Gidley, died 3 May, 1843 at the Asylum, Plympton St Mary, Devon, aged 27, a labourer. Cause of death was epilepsy. The informant was the surgeon at the asylum.
John was therefore born about 1816. However, I have been through all the John Gidleys born that year and they are all accounted for elsewhere.
If we make the year of birth slightly more flexible, there is a John Gidley christened in November 1817 in Plymouth, son of Henry Gidley, a mason of Hows Lane, and his wife Ann Symons. Nothing further was known of John. He may have been in the asylum a very long time. If this is the correct John, then his father, Henry Gidley who married Ann Symons in Plymouth in 1816, was possibly christened in 1795 in Rattery, Devon. There were three more children for Henry and Ann. The oldest, Henry Gidley, born in 1819, died in 1850 at Graig Coal Pit, Aberdare, Glamorgan, Wales. A sinker by occupation, he was accidentally killed by falling down the pit. Another brother, Edwin, christened Thomas Edwin in 1822 in Plymouth, married Sarah Colliver in 1848. They had Gidley descendants in the Plymouth area till the 20th century. The last child of Henry and Ann was a daughter, Emma Matilda Gidley who married John Phillips in 1847 in Plymouth.

9. Eliza Gidley, died 19 August 1883 in Bethnal Green Workhouse, a washer [laundress], aged 50, of 56 Old Ford Road. The cause of death was carcinoma and the informant was the Master of the Workhouse.

2021 Update: I've found her. She was born Eliza Anna Miller in Mile End, London, in 1833, and married Joseph Gidley in 1862 in Shandon, near Cork, in Ireland. In 1881 she was a widow of no occupation, living in Bethnal Green. Her husband Joseph Gidley had died in 1868. He was the son of George Gidley and his wife Jane nee Davis who married in Plymouth in 1827, but actually fit on the Chudleigh tree. Joseph served in the Royal Artillery and was obviously stationed in Ireland when he married. There was a large garrison in Cork. Joseph and Eliza had no children.

The 1825 will of Richard Gidley of Westbury-on-Trym, Gloucestershire

I recently came across an index entry for this will, which is in Bristol Archives, and applied for a copy. Nothing of Bristol Archives material has been digitised on any family history websites, as far as I know, and Bristol is not a traditional home for Gidley families at that date, so I was intrigued.
And it is interesting, as it has added to my knowledge of the Gidley family from Whitestone in Devon. I transcribe it below. I have changed only a few initial capital letters to lower case and omitted only some illegible, apparently administrative-type phrases.
This is the last will and testament of me, Richard Gidley of the parish of Westbury-on-Trym in the county of Gloucester. I give and bequeath unto [a line inserted here which is difficult to read but seems to be administrative] Miss Sarah Wigley of the parish of Clifton in the county of Gloucester, spinster, the sum of seventy pounds [another small illegible insertion] and I give and bequeath unto my father Nathaniel Gidley senior and my mother Mary Gidley both of the parish of Saint Thomas Exeter in the county of Devon the sum of fifty five pounds to be equally shared between them share and share alike. And I give and bequeath unto my brother Nathaniel Gidley junior of the said parish of Saint Thomas Exeter all my cloathes [sic]. And I give and bequeath unto my younger brother George Gidley of the said parish of Saint Thomas Exeter my watch. And I hereby nominate constitute and appoint the said Sarah Wigley of the parish of Clifton aforesaid executrix of this my will hereby revoking all former will and wills by me heretofore made and declare this [illegible] to be my last will and testament In witness whereof I have to this my last will and testament [illegible] my hand and seal this twenty ninth day of March one thousand eight hundred and twenty five.
Signed sealed published and declared by the within testatrix as and for his last will and testament in the presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.
Henry Greenly 10 Portland Place, Clifton
James Corner No.[?4] Lower [?Berkeley] Place, Clifton

Also attached is a codicil, drawn up only a day later, on 30th March 1825, increasing Sarah Wigley's bequest to £100 "now being in the hands of Messrs. Daniel, Kiles, Harford, Reynolds, Prothero, Bright and Sanders as trustees to the Bristol Savings Bank....and that the said Sarah Wigley shall be at liberty to draw out the said sum of one hundred pounds and all interest which shall be due and owing...if it shall seem expedient to her to do so. To hold same unto the said Sarah Wigley for and during the term of her natural life to and for her own proper use and benefit."

Did Richard discover he had more money in his account than he thought?
And who was Sarah Wigley? Possibly his fiancee? He obviously had a lot of confidence in her and she was about to become a comparatively wealthy woman for those days. I can see no Sarah Wigley in the Gloucestershire Burial or Marriage Indexes between 1825 and 1841, and the only Sarah Wigley I can find in Gloucestershire in the 1841 census is the one living with William Jones and his family, a gardener, in St Catherine's Street, Gloucester. She was born about 1781 and her occupation is "private", which fits a private income. This Sarah Wigley seems to have died in 1847, and was buried on August 20th that year in St Mary de Lode, Gloucester, aged 74 (so born about 1773), of St. Catherine's. A fiancee seems unlikely when we consider Richard Gidley's age.
It is clear from the family details in the will that Richard Gidley was born in Whitestone, Devon, in 1792, the oldest child of Nathaniel Gidley (born 1764 in Cheriton Bishop, Devon) and his wife Mary Westcott. Between 1811 when their youngest child was born and 1825 when Richard's will was drawn up, they had moved to Exeter, about 4 miles east of Whitestone.
Richard's father did not live very long to enjoy his legacy, as he died only seven years later in Exeter. Richard's mother died in 1844. The older brother Nathaniel also outlived Richard for only a few years. He joined the 59th Regiment of the army and died in Bangalore in 1834, aged only 31. Were Richard's "cloathes" any use to him?
The younger brother George is a bit of a mystery. He was only 14 when Richard died and he inherited his brother's watch. In 1838 he married Mary Blackmore Bennett in Exeter and they had 2 children - Maria Patience born in 1838 and George in about 1844. There is no sign of George the elder after 1841. I can't find him in the censuses nor in the England & Wales death indexes. His wife and children were visiting or staying in other households in 1851, although Mary described herself as married. By 1861 she states she is a widow. Their daughter Maria Patience moved to London, where she married Charles Francis in 1856.
George's son George the younger, whose birth reference or christening in about 1844 I haven't found, married Jessie Chamberlain in Exeter in 1872. A coach painter, he described his father on the marriage certificate as George Gidley, deceased. They have descendants who have continued to live in Devon.
So was Sarah Wigley, who may have been about 20 years older than Richard Gidley, his nurse in his final illness? His housekeeper? And there's no clue as to what Richard did for a living. He was obviously earning a good income and had moved an unusual distance from his birthplace. One rather puzzling thing is that there is no mention of his sisters in his will. Only one, Grace Setter, was married in 1825. The others, Mary (untraceable), Elizabeth (Betty, later married James Payne), Sarah (Sally, later married William Darkes) and Maria were still unmarried. Perhaps they were intended to share their parents' £55 legacy.

Inherited albinism in the descendants of John Gidley and Elizabeth Facey

I have just received an interesting email from Ann in Australia, a descendant of the John Gidley and Elizabeth Facey who married in Chudleigh in 1819. They were both sojourners in that parish.
She has given me permission to post her email on the Gidley blog, in the hope that it may enlighten us on the origins of John Gidley. Ann writes:

"My great great grandmother was born Elizabeth Gidley at Bishopsteignton in 1832, the daughter of John Gidley and Elizabeth Facey.

The family migrated to South Australia in three separate family groups in about 1850, but many of them subsequently moved to the goldfields of Victoria and Queensland.

I'm sure you've already spotted my problem: her father's name was John Gidley. On the passenger lists to SA his age is given at 54, meaning he was born in 1795 or 96 (there was absolutely NO advantage to bumping one's age up when applying for assisted passage). This is at the younger end of the timeframe indicated by the 1841 census. He married at Chudleigh in 1819, but both he and his bride were described at sojourners in that parish, so they could have come from anywhere. However, I suspect that he was born in 1796 in Bovey Tracey, the son of John Gidley and Elizabeth Knapman, but how can one be sure?

In your "Three John Gidleys" blog you said it looked as though DNA testing might be the only way to sort this out, but I do have some information that might help without that, or at least in the interim. My branch of the Gidley family has two distinct (and distinctive) genetic disorders: My gg grandmother's left eye was turned inwards, as was that of at least one of her children and at least one of that daughter's children. Another of Elizabeth's children married his Gidley first cousin, and several of their children were albinos, with white skin, white hair, bright blue eyes and legally blind. Other members of the family also have, right up to current generations, the brightest, bluest eyes -- clearer, brighter blue than Paul Newman or Mel Gibson -- so I suspect that it the gene for albinism still making its presence felt in those cases.

Have you heard of either of these issues amongst other members of the greater Gidley clan? It seems to me that it might help to separate the different branches."

So, does anyone have any knowledge of other Gidleys with the same genetic disorder? I haven't come across any myself. I know the Gidleys of Winkleigh had an unknown inherited medical problem, which was prevalent at least in Victorian times, as it was mentioned in a letter from early family historian Bartholomew Gidley in an enquiry to a family member, but presumably this cannot be related to the albinism, as the Winkleigh haplogroup is completely different to that of John and Elizabeth's descendants. The Cornish and South Devon branches, however, are related, so does anyone know of fellow sufferers?

Gidley family trees uploaded to Family Search

I have just finished uploading 17 Gidley trees to the Genealogies section of the FamilySearch website FamilySearch. They are not the only trees I have but do comprise the most used ones, as they feature Gidleys found in the online censuses. I must stress that they are not the complete answer to finding a Gidley ancestor. I have many more details on individuals on the trees on my home computer, as FamilySearch will not accept (yet) any notes or sources when you upload. And I have made a lot of notes on individuals and used many different sources. Also all living individuals have been excluded on these FamilySearch trees. But the main trees are at least recorded for posterity, I can delete them if I wish to edit them, and all the relationships I've made between individuals are now saved.
The trees are all in a special section of FamilySearch made available to members of the Guild of One Name Studies, and are not in the main, rather haphazard, Pedigree Resource Files, where anyone can add to your tree if they feel inclined.
Go to the FamilySearch website, then Search - Genealogies (this is very important) - then type in the search boxes the details of the Gidley you are interested in e.g. Frederick Gidley born in Devon between 1860 and 1880. You will get a lot of results. Then (again very important) Refine Your Search (left-hand box with blue heading) by scrolling down some way to Filter your results by: Collection - the top box is Guild of One Name Studies, which you should check. And that's it. That will reduce all the Frederick Gidleys in the original list to just the ones I've uploaded. 
If you can't find the person you are looking for, or you find I've made a mistake, or the name of

a living person has somehow slipped through, or you want more details, let me know. I'm still happy to email Outline Descendant trees or Genealogy Reports. My main aim is to provide any Gidley researcher with as much correct information as possible.

Some military jottings

A soldier of  World War One

Some records at Fold3 (a subscription American site specialising in military records) have recently been made freely available for a short period, so I took advantage of them. Many are already in the public domain, but I had another look, and some interesting stories emerged.
I was shocked at how many Gidley recruits were only 5'3" or under. I knew the authorities themselves were taken aback by the poor condition of possible recruits, many of whom had to be rejected. Not all of the records made a note of the height of the recruit, and it certainly wasn't an exhaustive search, but in just a brief afternoon's searching I counted 10 Gidley men who were 5'3" or under. It was quite rare to be over 5'5" and I only noted one six footer - Gunner Samuel Gidley, formerly a woolcomber  from Buckfastleigh, who served in India and Afghanistan in the 1870s.
For those who are interested in the reasons for this poor physique, I found the following website very interesting: Short poppies.
William Gidley of Tywardreath in Cornwall, aged 18, was rejected as unfit from the start, on account of flat feet and defective vision. He had to leave the Royal Artillery after 2 days in 1891.
Thomas Gidley of Peckham, South London, was discharged in 1879 after four year's service in the 13th Hussars that included over 2 years in India. He was suffering from anaemia after being treated for gastritis in Lucknow.
William Gidley of East Stonehouse in Devon was "very much marked with smallpox" on enlistment in 1867.
John Gidley of Ardwick in Manchester, a railway porter, was missing the end of his middle finger of the right hand and had "poor physical development"when he attested in 1915. His eyesight was also found to be defective, but here the Army came up trumps and provided him with glasses.

Typical RFC uniform

Ernest Valentine Gidley, who was only 5'1", suffered gunshot wounds to his arm and wrist in the First World War and was discharged in 1919 with 30% incapacity. He was awarded the Silver War Badge.
Stanley Charles Gidley, who served in the RFC, later renamed the RAF, seems to have been gassed no fewer than three times in 1918- on 22 May, 24 May and 27 May, but wasn't transferred to the RAF Reserve until December 1919.
Henry Gidley of Greenwich already had false teeth at the age of 19 when he joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1901.
Horace Gidley from Clyst St George was found unfit for further service in 1891 after five years service in the Coldstream Guards. He had rheumatism in his hands and knee and was still only 23, according to his service record.
The body of Reginald Gidley, a career Royal Navy stoker, from Drewsteignton, was found floating in the harbour at Kobe, Japan, in May 1934, over 2 weeks after he was last seen. The Japanese police recovered the body and the authorities attributed his death to an accident. Incidentally, he is commemorated in  the churchyard at Drewsteignton.

Sailors of World War One

Ernest Gidley of Buckfastleigh, who was later lost on HMS Pheasant in 1917, had hernia and appendix scars on joining the Royal Navy in 1904.
I also looked at the UK Courts Martial registers. I don't propose to name any of the 8 men listed, and I haven't even worked out who they were, nor will I attach the records to their family tree. If they served in the First World War I should imagine that was enough to send many men off the straight and narrow. Their offences were pretty minor. I was pleased to see that the Gidley accused of stealing a comrade's money and striking a corporal was found not guilty. Violence to a Sergeant and insubordinate language resulted in one year's detention and stoppages for another Gidley. Desertion and going AWOL, or loss of equipment, led to reduction to the ranks or perhaps 6-8 months of detention and stoppages, which was occasionally remitted by half, were other offences. It wasn't always clear what the offence was - S40 was listed on one man's record and googling didn't help (he was found not guilty anyway).
These brief accounts are by no means a full account of the military service of the Gidleys. Many more served and many were left permanently incapacitated after their service. This was not always noted on their record, even if it survived. Some, like my grandfather who was lame after a badly set broken leg, were rejected immediately by a Medical Board before even getting as far as a military depot.

Sad news of Pamela Gidley, actress

I have just been forwarded Pamela's obituary, which I reproduce here from the Seacoastonline website. Pamela was interested in her family history and contacted me a few years ago. I was able to tell her that she was descended from the Gidleys of Dean Prior. Her great grandfather Samuel Gidley, a woolcomber, moved from south Devon in the 1890s to work in the textile mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
As far as I know, Pamela was our only film star and she has died far too young.

Pamela C. Gidley, 52, died peacefully in her home, on Monday, April 16, 2018 in Seabrook.
Born in Methuen, Mass on June 11, 1965, she was the daughter of Phyllis M. Gidley of Hampton and the late Albert E. Gidley of Salem.
She grew up in Salem, N.H. and attended St. Joseph's Elementary School and Presentation of Mary Academy in Methuen, Mass.
At the age of three she was in her first dance recital and after that there was no stopping her. At four years old she won "New England's Little Miss Lovely." She came in 12th in their national competition in Florida. She modeled for Jordan Marsh at age 6. At 15 years old she was on her first of many magazine covers for Seventeen Magazine. Pamela competed in and won many beauty competitions including the Wilhelmina Modeling Agency "Most Beautiful Girl in the World."
Pam pursued an acting and modeling career in New York City, eventually moving to Los Angeles, California, spending most of her adulthood there. Her acting career included parts in many movies including Thrashin', Twin Peaks, Fire Walk with Me and Cherry 2000. Also, she appeared in episodes of MacGyver, The Pretender, Tour of Duty, CSI and The Closer.