Which William Langridge?

 Documented background

 My 3xgreat-grandfather, William Langridge, married Ann Sansom on 13th October 1834 in St Nicholas’ Church, Brighton.¹ In the 1841 Census, He and Ann are living in Paradise Street in the Kemp Town area of Brighton.² William is stated to be of age 35 and born in Sussex. When filling in the 1841 census, residents were supposed to round their age down to the nearest multiple of 5. This implies that William was born between 1801 and 1806.

 Unfortunately he died before the 1851 census on 26th July 1850, his age being given as 46 years.³ This implies he was born between 1803 and 1804. This is supported by his burial record, his age also being given as 46 years.⁴ Thus we should be looking between 1801 and 1806 for a William Langridge who is not otherwise accounted for, hopefully one in the 1803-1804 range. (Note that the surname ‘Langridge’ and its variants are locally common in Sussex.)

St Nicholas Brighton, photographed by the author, 11 Jul 2016.

Elimination of Candidates

 Seven William Langridges were found with baptisms between 1801 and 1806 in the SFHG Baptism Index.⁵ These are listed in the table below with (where found) later records which account for them.^6-8

Baptism/Parents	Marriage/Spouse	Censuses	Burials
25 Jan 1801, Uckfield Joseph & Alinah		Bexley, Kent 1841: b 1801 Not KEN 1851: b 1800 SSX 1861: b 1799, Fletching
15 Feb 1801, Horsted Keynes David & Sarah	19 Jun 1825, Fletching Caroline Wood	Horsted Keynes 1841: b 1801 SSX, (spouse = Caroline) West Hoathly 1851: b 1802 Horsted Keynes (widowed)
8 Aug 1801, Fletching William & Elizabeth	N/A	N/A	7 Apr 1802, Fletching, ‘infant’
27 Sep 1801, East Grinstead Thomas & Philadelphia	2 Nov 1823, West Hoathly Ann Lampton William bach of East Grinstead
10 Apr 1803, Burwash John & Ruth			None
22 Jul 1804, Fletching Henry & Elizabeth	?N/A	?N/A	24 Oct 1809, Fletching, ‘infant’ (unusual, but not unknown)
28 Jul 1805, Uckfield John & Hannah	6 Jul 1835, Frant Sarah Harris	Westerham Kent 1841: b 1806 not KEN 1851: b 1806, Uckfield

By matching the baptisms to marriages and censuses, we can eliminate all but the ‘1803 Burwash’ and ‘1804 Fletching’ William Langridges. There is, however, a burial for a William Langridge in Fletching in 1809 which is labelled as ‘infant’. There are no other baptisms following the 1804 Fletching baptism to account for this burial, and it is certainly possible that it is of the 1804 William Langridge. It was therefore concluded that the William Langridge baptised in Burwash in 1803 is the most probable candidate.

St Bartholomew Burwash, photographed by the author, 13 Jul 2016.

DNA Matches

Using the 1803 William Langridge in my family tree, William, via his mother Ruth Wickham, becomes a descendent of the Langridges of Burwash and the Wickhams of Wadhurst. In 2019 my father (2xgreat-grandson of William Langridge) took an Ancestry DNA test. In his results there are six DNA matches with a Most Recent Common Ancestor couple (MRCA) of John Wickham and Mary Baldwyn (the parents of Ruth Wickham).⁹ There is also a match where the MRCA is Stephen Langridge and Elizabeth Fuller, great-grandparents of William Langridge (1803, Burwash).¹⁰ This is strong support for the William Langridge who married Ann Sansom in Brighton in 1834 being the son of John and Ruth Langridge baptised in Burwash in 1803.

Sources

1. Marriage of William Langridge & Ann Sansom, married 13 Oct 1834, St Nicholas Church Parish Register, Brighton, Sussex, England, page 204, no. 614, FHL microfilm 1067118, item 3, accessed 17 Mar 2006.
2. Census record for William Langridge, aged 35, Paradise Street, Brighton, Sussex, 1841 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, HO1071123/5/13/18-19, UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 19 Aug 2006.
3. Death certificate of William Langridge, died 26 Jul 1850 registered September quarter 1850, Brighthelmston registration district, General Registry Office, England, vol. 7, p. 204, no. 407.
4. Burial of William Langridge, buried 31 Jul 1850, St Nicholas Church Parish Register, Brighton, Sussex, England, page 297, no. 2375, FHL digitised microfilm 1067133, item 3, accessed 3 Mar 2016.
5. Sussex Family History Group, ‘Data Archive on Frontis, Baptism Data’, http://sfhg.frontis.co/bin/index.php, accessed 18 Feb 2020.
6. Sussex Family History Group, ‘SFHG Marriage Index to 1837 (CD)’, Sussex Family History Group, 2005.
7. Sussex Family History Group, ‘Data Archive on Frontis, Burial Data’, http://sfhg.frontis.co/bin/index.php, accessed 18 Feb 2020.
8. UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 18 Feb 2020.
9. Ancestry Australia, ‘Alfred Commons DNA Test: Thru-Lines for John Wickham’, https://www.ancestry.com.au/discoveryui-geneticfamily/thrulines/tree/1808521227:9009:66/for/5C9DF31B-1477-4562-84BC-ED25F3066CCC, accessed 22 Feb 2022 (not accessible without login).
10. Ancestry Australia, ‘Alfred Commons DNA Test: Thru-Lines for Stephen Langridge’, https://www.ancestry.com.au/discoveryui-geneticfamily/thrulines/tree/20074458:9009:66/for/5C9DF31B-1477-4562-84BC-ED25F3066CCC, accessed 22 Feb 2022 (not accessible without login).