LAND OWNERS TO AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS IN ESSEX
Susan Perrin was Tony’s matrilineal grandmother. A grandmother he knew well but who unfortunately died well before our interest in family history was cultivated. She would probably have thought this was all ‘nonsense, what do you want to rake all that up for?’
The Perrin family name was well established in the North Essex region of England, surrounding Saffron Walden and particularly including the Chesterford’s, Strethall, Rickling and Littlebury. The name is a derivative of the French ‘Peter’. Early records exist of John Perin of Cambridgeshire, in the 1272 Rolls; but are believed to have Norman origins, so arrival in England could be as early as 1066AD. Several different spellings (Perren, Perin, Perring, Perren, Perryn, and Perrene) and aliases (Bisshoppe, Bishope, and Bishop) have been used in the records attributed to our family through time and there will be more to say about this as the story unfolds.
LANDED FARMERS AND ALIAS’S AT RICKLING, ESSEX
Our Perrin family line has been traced, by others, back to the 15th Century. One Arthur Bisshoppe (alias Arthur Perryn) was born in 1470 in Rickling, Essex, which is about 2km South of Saffron Walden. This early history has not been researched in detail but those interested at what we have, should go to the Bisshoppe page. We will continue here the Perrin story at the turn of the 18th Century.
CONTINUING AT STRETHALL, ESSEX
William Perryn b1748, alias Bishop, was the last family member to use the Perryn spelling and the Bishop alias. In addition, these family ancestors left the village of Rickling, moved 8kms to Strethall and then the children married into Strethall and Littlebury family. This is important because in the early 1800’s the Perrin history has now moved to this village of Strethall.
William and Hannah Perrin, nee Pledger, had ten children at Strethall, Essex over two decades; they were Mary b1779, William b1780, Joseph b1784, George b1786, John b1788, Martha b1789, Sarah b1792, Thomas b1794, Ann b1796, and Stephen b1797. Martha, Ann and Stephen all died the year of their birth.
AN EARLY AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION
Of the other children, and an interesting diversion in this story, George married Esther Warren and they had eight children, the two youngest of whom were Thomas b1825 and William b1828, and they both travelled to Australia in the 1840’s as free settlers and ended up living at Petrie Creek, Nambour, Queensland. This is in the region where the modern Parsons family in this history has resided for a number of years.
A MOVE TO LITTLEBURY
Our family line will continue through William and Hannah’s son Thomas b1794. Sometime around 1820 Thomas met and married Sarah Harrot, who was born in Littlebury, an adjoining village, in 1798. Thomas and Sarah were married at the Littlebury Parish Church and immediately moved to live at Littlebury, where Thomas was employed as an agricultural labourer. Their children were William Benjamin b1820, Mary b1824, Joseph b1828, Stephen b1834, George b1835 and John b1839. Thomas died before Sarah in 1858.
Mary, the daughter, continued living with mother Sarah in Littlebury, we think until Sarah died in 1866. Mary then worked in domestic service in Essex until she was close to 60 and then moved to the London region, working as a cook in Acton and Hornsey, Middlesex, well into her eighties. Mary never married.
All of the boys left home to work as agricultural labourers, mostly staying in the region. Son Stephen married another Sarah, Sarah Rider from Littlebury and they continued to live in that village. They had five sons, Charles, Henry, John, Thomas, James and Frederick and two daughters, Mary Ellen and Louisa. In 1901, Charles, John and James were all married and still living in Littlebury or surrounds. William and Stephen’s brother George also continued to live in Littlebury; in 1881 he is 44 years old and a widower working as a labourer. The elder son of Thomas and Sarah, William, continues the family line to us and following is his story.
William was born in Littlebury in 1820 and was first recorded on the Census in 1861, after his marriage to Mary Smart from Saffron Walden in 1849. William would have been 28 when he married Mary, the girl next door, and she was 18, being born in 1830.
A little bit about Mary’s family. At 10 years of age Mary Smart was living with Mary Woodley, her matrilineal grandmother, aged 80 years, in Saffron Walden. Why she was living here at 10 years of age is a mystery but presumably she was caring for Mary Woodley or visa versa. Mary Woodley was originally from Littlebury, although living in Saffron Walden at this time. The Smart family were living in Littlebury in 1841, as recorded by the first census. Mary’s father was William b1783, mother Amelia b1787; she had a sister Ann (19), brothers Daniel (18), Issac and James (8). Mother Amelia was a Woodley of which several families existed in the immediate area. In 1851 and 1861 William and Amelia were next door neighbours to William and Mary and the families were likely to have been close throughout Mary’s formative years. Mary’s death certificate indicates that she was born in Saffron Walden, so the family may have moved to Littlebury after 1830″s, but this could also just be a registration.
William Perrin and Mary, married in 1849, and eventually had eleven children; Charles b1850, Mary H b1852, Caroline 1854, Margaret b1857, Daniel b1859, Martha b1860, James b1862, George b1864, Benjamin b1867, Joseph b1871 and Ann Elizabeth b1875. We will try and examine the life of each, but first a bit more about William.
A SEPARATION AND REMARRIAGE
Around 1882 there appears to have been some disruption to William and Mary’s relationship because Mary is no longer recorded as William’s‘wife’ in the 1891 census. She has been replaced in this record by Susan Webb b1824, who William had married in 1882, when he was 62 years old. Susan was a spinster seamstress living with her mother in Littlebury prior to this marriage to William. They married at One Mile, London, which presumably relates to the fact that two of William’s children, Charles and Martha, had established families in London. William died in 1897 at the age of 76. In all Census records to his retirement William was employed as an agricultural labourer or shepherd.
Mary was presumably divorced (no records found) from William in about 1882 but still maintained a connection with her family, living with daughter Martha and Martha’s children in the early 1900’s. Martha by this time lived in Deptford, London. Mary lived until 1928, to an age of 98. She was buried at Saffron Walden. Interestingly Frederick Perrin, Martha’s sister Margaret’s son, also lived with her at Deptford in 1901. The second eldest daughter Margaret, who was Tony’s matrilineal great grandmother, continues the family line to us.
So what about these children of William and Mary and what is their story and what great stories?
Charles b1850, like all the Perrin boys, started work as agricultural labourers early in life, before they reached 14 years. At some point prior to 1879 Charles moved to Surrey and is found working variously as a Groom, a Beer Agent and a Carman or Drayman. He met and married Lola Lucy Reed of Walton on Thames in 1879 and the couple had four children. Lola was the daughter of William and Sarah Reed of Walton and they had twelve children. Prior to 1901 Charles entered the Royal Hospital at Kew, Surrey. We don’t know why or for how long, but he is back with the family in 1911 and this is just another little piece of interesting history. Lola died in 1915 at Kingston, Surrey. Charles and Lola’s children were Florence T b1880, Laura Elizabeth b1884, Charles Frederick b1887, and Walter b1889. We will get back to Martha later, as she will help us with one of our puzzles.
All we know about daughter Mary H Perrin is that she reached the age of 19 living with William and Mary and then disappears off the record. It seems likely, as she was the eldest after Charles, although we have no evidence, that she was the mother of Mary E b1870, a grandchild living with Mary and William in 1871. It is interesting to note that Mary the grandmother had a child, Joseph, the same year Mary E was born and another child 4 years later.
Daughter Caroline is even more of a mystery and we can find no trace of her at this point.
SINGLE MOTHERS AND DOMESTIC SERVICE
Margaret Perrin is our direct family link but provides as many mysteries as answers. Margaret b1857 never married but had two children prior to 1882, that can be traced. These are Frederick b1877 and Susan Jane b1882. It is also more than likely that Margaret was the mother of another child, Lucy Jane b 1876, although this may have been Mary H’s child along with Mary E. All four grandchildren were brought up by their grandparents, William and his wives Mary and Susan, as Margaret, Lucy and most likely Mary H were working as live-in domestic servants, away from home; although not all that far in Margaret’s case. In 1881 Margaret was working in service with her father William’s sister Mary Perrin at Little Chrishill, about 4km from Royston. No information on any of the children’s father(s) is presented on the birth certificates for Susan or Fred. Lucy and Mary E have no birth certificates so we are not able to establish parentage at all. In fact Susan Jane on her marriage certificate gave William Perrin as her father, when he was actually her grandfather. Susan Jane was born the year William and first wife, Mary, separated. Second wife Susan Webb would have been Susan Jane’s ‘mother’ and ‘grandmother’. The family verbal archive says that Susan Jane never spoke about her mother, only her ‘father’ William – who in fact was her grandfather.
As Susan Jane was Tony’s matrilineal grandmother the geneological linkages are pretty important. Do we have any clues? In April 1881 Margaret was working as a domestic servant for Mrs Emma Horseman. Emma was 93 years in 1881 and had been a widow for well over 30 years, living in the same house since 1848. The house was in Chrishill Street, the main street in this very small village, with only 35 families listed in the census. There were actually only five eligible bachelors in Margaret’s age group and eleven other married possibles. So the pool is reasonably small and may help with DNA matching, at some point.
Continuing with Margaret, a fascinating subject. Margaret presumably nursed baby Susan Jane for a short while but then by 1885 she has left Susan with new mother Susan and gone to London. She must have spent time with her elder brother Charles and his wife Lola because as we have constructed, so not absolutely certain, she meets and has an affair with Frederick Reed, Lola’s brother and lodger at their house in Walton on Thames, Surrey. This affair must have occurred about 1885 because in 1886 Margaret has a child that she calls Kate Reed. Kate is born at Eastbourne, Sussex, directly South and on the coast from Walton. Margaret next appears in the 1891 Census as a housekeeper in Eastbourne for a Mr Thomas Meredith, a cutler and grinder. Thomas is 5 years younger than Margaret, who was now 35, and his wife 5 years younger again. Suprisingly, or may be not, Margaret has with her at this Eastbourne address Kate Reed, who is now 5 years old, and, wait for it, two additional daughters, Caroline b1887 and Maude b1892. All of these children were born in Eastbourne. Margaret has been very busy but again we have no details of the fathers and both children are registered with the Perrin surname. We have no idea of the year that Margaret started living with Thomas and his wife but we do know that she is still his housekeeper in 1901 and Thomas’s wife is no longer in residence. In 1911 Margaret is still living in Eastbourne, but now living with her married youngest daughter Maude, who had married John Carter in 1910 and they have a daughter Daisy Caroline.
Margaret has retained the Perrin name for herself and all of these children, except Kate, over 35 years. So in total, Margaret Perrin had at least 5 children; they are Fred, Susan, Kate, Caroline and Maude. Lucy is also a strong possibility as a sixth. Margaret died at Eastbourne in 1919 at 62 years. Margaret’s daughter, Susan Jane, will continue the family line to us, as Tony’s matrilineal grandmother.
So, continuing briefly, with William and Mary’s other child Daniel. He was born in Littlebury and lived his entire life there. He worked as an agricultural labourer for all of those years. Daniel married Sarah b1861, who was a Woodley (daughter of George Woodley) also from Littlebury, and they had 6 children. These were Elizabeth b1891, Annie C b1893, Mabel b1894, Harry b1895, Frederick b1901 and Percy b1903.
LONDON BOUND
Daughter Martha was last recorded as still living with William and Mary in 1871, but by 1881 Martha had moved out of home and was living with her Aunt Ann Fordham in London. Ann was a widow in 1881 and is likely to have been Martha’s mother Mary’s sister Ann Smart, married name Ann Fordham. In about 1886 Martha married James Walter Leverington of Chessington, Surrey. James was a Millers Carman. They lived at the same address in Deptford, London until 1911 and had four children, Elizabeth b1883, Walter b 1886, Rose b1890 and Beatrice b1893. As previously indicated mother Mary and nephew Frederick lived with Martha and James in the early 1900’s. Martha died in 1922, before her mother Mary.
Of these children, of Martha and James, daughter Elizabeth married William Ward and they had five children; William b1904, Edward b1906, Frederick b1913 a twin with Margery Elizabeth, who died in 1915 and Ida Beatrice b1916, but who also died aged 2 years in 1918. Daughter Rosie married John Allen and they had four children; Alice, Hilda, Florence and William.
Back now to William and Mary’s son James b1865. He was an agricultural labourer for a number of years and then about 1887 he married Harriet Jane White of Great Chesterford. They had 9 children, Ethel b1887, Lilly b1888, Alfred b1890, Frederick 1892, Annie M b1894, Harold Norman b1896, Marjorie Elaine b 1898, Earnest b 1901 and Elsie.Ethel and Lilly were born at Little Chesterford, all the other children in Hertfordshire, either at Kingswalden or Sacombe, where James was a Stockman.
Like his brothers, son George, continued working in agriculture but unlike them remained single. In 1911 George was working at Milton, Cambridgeshire as a Shepherd. There is no further record of George.
BLACKSMITHS
Son Benjamin b1867 also started work as an agricultural labourer but by 1892 had married Alice Goddard of Cheveley, Cambridgeshire, and they were living in Cheveley, close to Newmarket. By 1901 they had taken over the forge at Kirtling, a neighbouring village, to become the local blacksmiths. They lived in the Forge Cottage in Kirtling and had 3 children, Violet M b 1893, Florence b 1895 and Francis b 1899. Importantly, Ben and Alice were Uncle and Aunt to Susan Perrin, Margaret’s elder daughter, and, as we shall see, she lived with her Aunt and Uncle at various times in her early years.
As a side interest Alice had two spinster sisters who ran the Cheveley Store and Post Office in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. There is no record of Benjamin and Alice in the 1911 Census but we do know from the family verbal archive, however, that daughter Florence married a Mr Rattle in 1911 and they lived in Cheveley. Also that Florence Rattle had a child Gladys in 1912 and that Gladys was married in 1932 to a Mr Barrett. Son Francis (Frank) married Ivy Bysouth in 1930.
Finally, on William and Mary’s children; in 1891 Joe (20) was still living with William and Mary and working as an agricultural labourer. There are no records of him after this date. And, in 1891 Annie Elizabeth (17) was still living with William and Mary, no occupation listed. There are no more records of her after this date.
At this point we need to go back to Margaret Perrin and bring the focus to our family line, through Margaret’s daughter Susan Jane. Before we do that we need to look at the history’s of the other children. As we have described before four of these children, we will call them the Essex children, were largely brought up by their grandparents. Margaret brought up the other three, the Sussex children. There are no records and no family knowledge of Margaret ever making contact with the Essex children after she moved away from Essex.
Firstly Mary E. We can find no information for Mary E after 1871, when she was 9 months old.
Lucy Jane left Littlebury and William and Mary prior to 1891 and married Charles Cole of Girton, Cambridge in 1895, she was 18 years old. Lucy and Charles moved to London and had seven children by 1911. They were Frederick b1897, Beatrice b1900, May b1902, Rose b1906, Elsie b1908 George b1910, Evelyn b1911. Charles was employed as a general labourer and they were living in Lewisham, London.
Fred was born in 1878 in Littlebury and lived with William and Mary. He was working locally as an agricultural labourer until the late 1800’s when he left with his grandmother Mary and moved to Deptford, London, where he worked as a ‘navvy’. This term‘navvy’ referred at the time to manual labourers working on major projects,such as rail lines or ship building. As Deptford was a naval base it is likely the latter. Fred disappears from the record after 1901.
A LIFE IN SERVICE
Susan Jane, Tony’s grandmother, was born in 1882 and lived with her grandparents William and Mary while her mother Margaret was working in domestic service in Little Chrishill for the Horseman family at the Rectory Farm.
In 1899, when Susan was 17 she had a child that she named Frederick. Importantly for this narrative, grandfather William had died in 1897 and grandmother Susan before that. The birth was registered at Cheveley, which suggests that Susan had gone to live with her Uncle Ben and Aunt Alice at Kirtling, whilst having the child or was working in that area before hand. There is no mention of the father on the birth certificate of the child Fred.
In 1901, when Susan was 18 years, she was working in domestic service in Huntingdon Road, Chesterton, Cambridge for a retired farmer John Serjeant. There is no record of Fred being with Susan or having continued living in Cheveley or surrounds. Members of our family claim that Fred was brought up by his Aunt Alice and Uncle Ben at Kirtling, but there is no record of this, although it seems logical. Unfortunately there is no Census data for Ben and his wife Alice in 1911 and Fred is definitely not present with Ben in 1901. Similarly Fred is not living with Alice’s sisters in Cheveley. The Census data shows both Florence and Beatrice staying there in 1901 with Florence actually working at the store with her Aunt’s in 1911, but no sign of Fred.
In 1911 Susan Jane is still in domestic service but now as a cook with Arthur Rutter and family in Royston, Hertfordshire. Shortly after, in 1912, Susan moved again and was working in service in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, believed to be for Dr Magoris, the local GP, where she met and in 1913 married Samuel Titchmarsh of that village. Susan Jane Perrin will continue the family line as Susan Titchmarsh.
As a final note on Susan’s son Fred; Samuel told his grandson Tony, that Fred lived with Susan and Sam when he was in his early twenties. How long he stayed or where he was employed we don’t know. Fred must have been reasonably well employed because by 1927, when he was 27 years old, he had a motor cycle, unusual for that time. Unfortunately he was killed in an accident with that motor cycle in that same year.
The family verbal archive, reported by Tony’s father Eric, had Fred in a relationship with Lillian Wallage b1896 at about the time of his death. The Wallage family came from Wood Ditton, which lies within 3kms of both Cheveley and Kirtling, where Fred was born and where his Uncle Ben had the forge. Fred could easily have known Lillian at school and as a young boy growing up in the area. Two of Lillian’s sisters can be traced as having moved to Cambridge before 1911 and it is quite likely that Lillian had moved there also, as it is in Cambridge that Fred had his accident and died. It seems, according to the family story that all of his effects were left to Lillian. Eric recalled that Fred and Lillian were to be married, probably in that year.
Finally a comment on the Perrin family history. The emphasis on agricultural employment could be expected for this region as agriculture would have been the main stay of the community. Despite the family owning land in the 15th Century the modern Perrin’s were not land owning farmers in recent times, they were labourers, both men and many of the women. If the women were not working on the land then they tended to be in domestic service and often living away from home. So basically the Perrin’s were all low paid but hard working servants of the agrarian ruling class. Most likely paying rent in tied property to the land owners who employed them.
At the turn of the 20th Century there are signs of change and movement. Three of the men have become Blacksmiths and to do that they have moved from the immediate area around Littlebury. Ben we know took over the Forge at Kirtling, 11km North and appears to have bought into this business as we are not aware of any prior family connections.
Similarly, several of the women, through their in-service relationships, have taken the opportunity to marry and move away from Littlebury; for example Margaret, Martha, Lucy and Susan. Some have moved as far as London; some 80km. And, interestingly, the men Martha and Lucy married were still general labourers, but now in construction. Even Mary’s grandson Fred who also went to London was a labourer, probably in the ship yard or docks.
The final note on the Perrin family has to be about the impossibility of identifying the father of Susan, Tony’s matrilineal great grandfather. Susan’s mother Margaret had at least five children, possibly six, one of whom was Susan Jane, who continued the matrilineal, but we have absolutely no knowledge of her father or any clues from her brothers or sisters records. Margaret registered them all on birth certificates or Census forms with the Perrin name. Margaret was clearly a very independent and interesting woman. We will persist with our DNA search.