The Parentage of Susan Wood

 My 4xgreat-grandparents, John Dav(e)y & Susan Wood, were married in Laughton on 19 Oct 1807.¹ John had been born in Laughton, but Susan was a "foreigner" from another village.²

Hunting through the indexes, there is only one Susan Wood baptism in the correct era – Susana Wood daughter of Daniel & Elizabeth, was born18th February 1782, her birth being registered by the Wesleyan Great Meeting House in Battle in their non-conformist register in 1789.^3,4,5 However as I've shown in another post, this is not the Susan Wood who married John Davy in Laughton.

The following documentary evidence exists for Susan Dav(e)y nee Wood:

1. Marriage 19 Oct 1807, Laughton (Approximate age 21+) > born before 1786¹
2. Census 6 Jun 1841 Brighton (age 50(-54), born Sussex) > born 1786-91⁶
3. Census 30 Mar 1851 Brighton (age 67 born "Bucksted") > born Mar 1783-Mar 1784⁷
4. Death 7 Aug 1851 Brighton (age 68) > born Aug 1782-Aug 1783⁸
5. Burial 11 Aug 1851 (age 68) > born Aug 1782- Aug 1783⁹

Susan's age is reasonably consistent implying she was born between 1782 and 1786. The change of age between the 1851 Census on 30 Mar 1851 and her death/burial in Aug 1851 (informant was her son William) could mean that she had a birthday between the census and her death.

There is only one source (the 1851 census) which gives a birthplace for her: "Bucksted". This can be identified with Buxted which is quite close to Laughton (the shortest distance between the parish boundaries pre-1844 is about 5 km from Little Streele to Terrible Down).¹⁰ Checking the SFHG index, there is a Wood family producing children in Buxted at this time (Thomas & Sarah) but no baptism for a Susan. The identified children are listed in the table below.^3,11

Child No.	Christening	Died Young?	Next Child	Gap between Baptisms
1	Philadelphia, 20 Jan 1782	No	2 Thomas	21 months
2	Thomas, 16 Oct 1783	No	3 John	33 months
3	John, 30 Jul 1786	No	4 Samuel	16.5 months
4	Samuel, 9 Dec 1787	No	5 Charlotte	22 months
5	Charlotte, 4 Oct 1789	No	6 James	19.5 months
6	James, 25 May 1791	No	7 Charles	17 months
7	Charles, 28 Oct 1792	No	8 Sarah	14.5 months
8	Sarah, 5 Jan 1794	No	9 Lucy	13 months
9	Lucy, 2 Feb 1795, bu 7 Mar 1795	Yes	10 George	27 months
10	George, 5 Jul 1797, bu 15 Jul 1797	Yes	11 George	15 months
11	George, inf bu 20 Oct 1798	Yes	12 Henry	15.5 months
12	Henry, inf bu 9 Feb 1800	Yes	13 Sarah	26 months
13	Sarah, inf bu 20 Jul 1802	Yes	14 Harriet	49 months
14	Harriet, private baptism 30 Aug 1806	No	N/A	N/A

At that time most working class women would breast-feed their children, a practice which resulted in fairly regular gaps between children of about 2 years.¹² One of the causes of short gaps between children is death of a child in infancy. There is no evidence of infant burials for any of the first eight children of Thomas & Sarah. However the next five children, starting with the ninth, all die in infancy, some so soon after birth as to not be baptized. Therefore it makes sense to look at the gaps until the birth of the ninth child (i.e. the first eight gaps) excluding gaps after the infant deaths start. Looking at the offspring of Thomas & Sarah, they are baptising a child approximately every 18 months, but there is a nearly 3-year gap from October 1783 to July 1786. To see if this is enough for an extra child I analysed the gaps between baptisms as follows:

• The average value of the first eight gaps is 19.6 months. 
• If we exclude the 33 month gap, the average of the seven remaining gaps drops to 17.6 months. 
• If we assume that there is an unrecorded baptism during the 33 month gap, then we have nine gaps for an average of 17.4 months between children.

Thus at the average rate for gaps between children borne by Sarah, there is almost certainly enough time for an extra child in the 33 month gap. The fact that this gap overlaps with the inferred range of years for the birth of Susan Wood means there is no familial obstacle to her being the child of Thomas and Sarah.

To conclude, given that Susan Wood was born in Buxted between 1782 and 1786, then there is an opportunity for her to be a child of Thomas and Sarah Wood born about March 1785 (plus or minus a few months). There is weak support for this identification from DNA because my father has a 12cM, single segment match with a descendant of Thomas's sister, Mary.¹³

Sources

1. Marriage of John David Davey and Susan Wood, married 19 October 1807, All Saints Laughton Parish Register, Laughton, Sussex, England, FHL Film 1067216.
2. Baptism of John  Davy, baptised 16 April 1786, All Saints Laughton Parish Register, Laughton, Sussex, England, FHL Film 1067215.
3. Sussex Family History Group, ‘Data Archive on Frontis, Baptism Data’, http://sfhg.frontis.co/bin/index.php, accessed 22 Apr 2021.
4. England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1936, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 31 Oct 2021.
5. Birth Registration entry of Susana Wood, born 18 February 1782, The Great Meeting House, Battle, Sussex, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 23 Oct 2021.
6. Census record for Susan Wood, aged 50, 27 Crescent Cottages, Brighton, Sussex, 1851 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, HO107/1644/244, UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 11 Feb 2007.
7. Census record for Susanah Wood, aged 67, Crescent Cottages, Brighton, Sussex, 1841 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, HO107/1123/5, UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 11 Feb 2007.
8. Death certificate of Susannah Davey, died 7 August 1851, registered September quarter 1851, Brighthelmston registration district, General Registry Office, England, vol. 7, p. 203, no. 94.
9. Burial of Susannah Davey, buried 11 Aug 1851, St Nicholas Brighton Parish Register, East Sussex Record Office, PAR 255/1/5/10, East Sussex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1995,  Ancestry.com.au, accessed 8 Jan 2023.
10. Cockin, T. C. H., The Parish Atlas of England, Malthouse Press, Barlaston, 2017.
11. Sussex Family History Group, ‘Data Archive on Frontis, Burial Data’, http://sfhg.frontis.co/bin/index.php, accessed 22 Apr 2021.
12. World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, 'Breastfeeding & Birth Spacing', https://waba.org.my/archive/healthcare-research/breastfeeding-birth-spacing/, accessed 8 Jan 2023.
13. Ancestry ThruLines for Alfred Commons (https://www.ancestry.com.au/discoveryui-geneticfamily/thrulines/5C9DF31B-1477-4562-84BC-ED25F3066CCC?filterBy=all).

Migration from Rural East Sussex circa 1840

 This is an expanded version of a 1000-word essay written for a study Unit on migration, part of a Diploma of Family History at the University of Tasmania. The essay was to be about “the migration journey of an individual ancestor or family group”. The essay was a sort of follow-up to an essay on convict transportation for an earlier Diploma Unit which looked at transportation of convicts from East Sussex to Tasmania in the 1830s and 1840s.

---

 My spouse’s great-grandmother, Emily Apps, was the granddaughter of two couples (William Apps and Philadelpia Foots, Charles Butcher and Elizabeth Chapman) who migrated from East Sussex in 1839 (Figure 1).^1,2 Both couples had relatives on the ships they arrived in. Philadelphia Apps had a sister, an uncle and two cousins on the Florist and Elizabeth Butcher had a brother on the Susan.³ There was a high percentage of Sussex-born passengers on both these ships (95% of the migrants on the Florist originated in Sussex).⁴

Figure 1: The English-born antecedents of Emily Apps.^1,2

  Both couples settled in the Macarthur region of the colony.^2,5-7 Later the families intermarried: two of Charles’ daughters married sons of William Apps and a third married a Chapman cousin.^8,9 The fourth daughter married William Apps himself after both were widowed.¹⁰ Of the other offspring of William Apps, Harriet and Seymour respectively married Samuel and Caroline Friend, offspring of Thomas and Mary Friend who migrated from East Sussex in 1841, and Reuben married his cousin Mary Foots who migrated in 1859.^11-14 Thus all of Charles Butcher’s daughters and five of William Apps’ nine adult offspring eventually married people with East Sussex roots. All the adult offspring of both the Butchers and the Appses eventually left the Macarthur district and moved to the Southern Highlands, the Goulburn Plains and beyond.¹⁵ How typical was their experience of Sussex migrants at this time?

 By the late 1830s rural Sussex had been struggling economically for over 20 years.^16,17 The drop in demand for produce at the end of the Napoleonic Wars meant that the dependence of agricultural labourers on employment for subsistence (a result of enclosure) began to be felt.^18,17 Combined with the steady mechanisation of agricultural processes, this led to high levels of poverty, unemployment and unrest.^19,20 In the absence of industrial development to provide alternative employment, parish rates had to be dramatically increased to support the unemployed. The answer was to encourage emigration.¹⁷

 The importance of migration as a solution to unemployment was shown by the inclusion of a clause authorising the use of parish rates to assist migration in the 1834 Poor Law Act.^21,22 The numbers of people assisted by each parish had to be reported to the Poor Law Commissioners for publishing in the Commission’s annual reports.²³ While it is estimated that only 5.4% of migrants received parish assistance, these figures give a snapshot of the differences in rates of migration between areas in England and Wales.^24,25 In the years 1835-40 34% of such migrants were primarily from Kent and Sussex.^23,26 In Sussex assistance rates were greatest in the extreme east of the County, the native area of the Butchers and the Appses (Figure 2).²³

Figure 2: Numbers assisted by Sussex Poor Law Unions 1835-1843.²³

  Meanwhile the Macarthur area of New South Wales had been settled between 1805 and 1816 by large grants to wealthy free settlers. These formed a “squattocracy” whose economy was supported by low-cost convict labour.^27,28,29 An important point about convict labour is the continual turnover in the workforce. As convicts were emancipated, fresh convicts were required to replace them. By the late 1820s New South Wales was “importing” ~3,000 male convicts per year.³⁰ The need for land for the emancipated convicts and new free settlers was also driving the expansion of settlement into the Southern Highlands and Goulburn Plains, the town of Goulburn being established in 1833.^27,31,32

 In New South Wales, opposition to convict transportation grew steadily with the growth of the free population in the 1830s.^33,34 Additionally, most free migrants to New South Wales primarily aimed to be wealthy gentry or entrepreneurs.^35,34,36 The cost of travel to the colony was prohibitive for the free migrant workers required by such landholders and businessmen.^34,17 If or when transportation ended another way would have to be found to supply servants and labourers to the wealthy. In 1835 Governor Bourke proposed the subsidisation of the cost of the voyage to New South Wales for selected migrants with desirable skills and a minimum outfit.³⁷ In 1838 the assignment of convicts to the private sector ceased.^37,38,34 The migrants to replace the convicts were selected by agents in England.²⁴ Sussex had initially used the parish assistance scheme to assist with travel costs to Canada.²³ With colonial subsidies for travel they started assisting by outfitting prospective migrants for New South Wales with ~250 migrants assisted in 1838 and nearly 500 in 1839 (Figure 3). Given the low percentage of migrants subsidised this is indicative of high levels of migration from Sussex in these years.²⁵ Parish support continued in later years but at a lower level. The Appses and the Butchers were part of this migration boom.

Figure 3: Number of migrants assisted per month by Sussex Parishes.²³

 The intermarriage between families originating in East Sussex was not limited to the Appses and Butchers. Another of the Friend offspring married Caroline Funnell who had also arrived in NSW from East Sussex on the Florist in 1839.^39,40,41 Altogether I have found 16 families or individuals related to my spouse by blood or marriage who arrived in Australia from East Sussex between 1838 and 1841.⁴² Of these sixteen arrivals, fourteen initially settled in the Macarthur or Southern Highlands region. Of the families which settled elsewhere there were no marriages to persons with Sussex-born origins. Like the Appses and Butchers, most of the offspring of the Macarthur families eventually settled further south and west, beyond the Great Dividing Range (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Early residence in NSW of the migrant families (green pins) and the final working residence of their offspring (yellow pins). Pin size reflects the number of offspring in a location (maximum is 11). Two offspring moved to the Far North Coast.⁴²

 In conclusion the Appses and Butchers were part of a migration boom from East Sussex driven by long term unemployment. This occurred at a time of major economic change in NSW caused by the phasing out of convict labour. The migration of poor labourers was enabled by assistance schemes covering the cost of the voyage, with numerous migrants selected for agricultural skills.  Many of these replaced convict labour in the “squattocracy” of the Macarthur region. Large numbers of families from East Sussex in a relatively small area meant that intermarriage between families from Sussex was common. However, as their offspring grew up they found themselves in the same situation their parents had been in in Sussex and took the same solution, migration. Most moved south and west to the Goulburn Plains and beyond to areas where there was less European settlement and more opportunity for property ownership.

Sources

1. Baptism certificate of Emily Apps, born 11 February 1867, Thomas Apps, born 9 November 1844, Ellen Butcher, born 18 December 1846, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 5826 Vol: 121C, 1634 Vol: 30a, 2889 Vol: 32a.
2. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-5314 Entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships, unpaginated, Entitlement Certificates for William & Philadelphia Apps, 1839 and for Charles & Elizabeth Butcher, 1839, Ancestry.com, ‘New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896’, accessed 18 Apr 2021.
3. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-5314 Entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships, unpaginated, Entitlement Certificate for Thomas & Elizabeth Selmes, 1839, for Edward Britt & daughter Jane, 1839, for John & Ann Venness, 1839 and for William & Harriet Chapman, 1839, Ancestry.com, ‘New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896’, accessed 18 Apr 2021.
4. New South Wales State Archives, 'Passenger List for Florist, 26 Oct 1839', https://indexes.records.nsw.gov.au/ebook/list.aspx?series=NRS5313&item=4_4780&ship=Florist, accessed 25 Apr 2021.
5. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-12937 Registers of baptisms, burials and marriages 1878-1856, Transcript of Registers of St Peter's Church Campbelltown, page 97, baptism entry of Agnes Butcher, baptised 19 April 1840, page 98, baptism entry of Elizabeth Apps, baptised 3 May 1840, page 108, baptism entry of Julia Butcher, baptised 4 July 1841, page 105, baptism entry of Harriet Apps, baptised September 1842, page 123, baptism entry of Seymour Apps, baptised 28 March 1847, page 210, baptism entry of Mary Anne Apps, baptised 23 September 1849, page 227, baptism entry of John Apps, baptised 25 January 1852, page 293, baptism entry of Julia Apps, baptised 15 September 1853, page 386, baptism entry of Charles Apps, baptised 23 September 1855, page 229 and burial entry of Julia Apps, buried 21 February 1855, ARK Reel 5006-5015.
6. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-12937 Registers of baptisms, burials and marriages 1878-1856, Transcript of Registers of St Thomas' Chapel Narellan, page 89, burial entry of Agnes Butcher, buried 6 May 1840, ARK Reel 5006.
7. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-12937 Registers of baptisms, burials and marriages 1878-1856, Transcript of Registers of St John's Church Camden, page 133, baptism entry of Emma Butcher, baptised 2 June 1844, page 100 and baptism entry of Alfred Butcher, baptised 15 July 1849, ARK Reel 5008-5010.
8. Marriage certificates of William Apps and Julia Butcher, married 19 January 1860 and of Thomas Apps and Ellen Butcher, married 17 October 1870, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 1860/001467.
9. Marriage entry for George Chapman and Emma Butcher, married 30 December 1861, Marriage Register of St Paul's Church Emu Plains, page 185, Sydney Diocesan Archives, Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Ancestry, Sydney, Australia, Anglican Parish Registers, 1814-2011, accessed 30 April 2021.
10. Marriage certificate of William Apps and Sarah Ferguson, married 3 Apr 1889, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 1881/002810.
11. Marriage certificates of Seymour Apps and Caroline Friend, married 23 September 1874 and of Samuel John Friend and Harriet Apps, married 8 May 1862, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 2452/1874, 1734/1862.
12. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-5314 Entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships, unpaginated, Entitlement Certificate for Thomas & Mary Friend, 1841, Ancestry.com, ‘New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896’, accessed 18 Apr 2021.
13. Marriage certificate of Reuben Apps and Mary Foots, married 7 April 1859, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 1859/001680.
14. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-5316 Persons on bounty ships (Agent's Immigrant Lists), unpaginated, Passenger List for "Daphne" arrived NSW 16 January 1859, Ancestry.com, ‘New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896’, accessed 18 Apr 2021.
15. Death certificates of William Apps, died 14 June 1911, of Reuben Apps, died 28 June 1898, of Elizabeth Worner, died 17 May 1915, of Harriet Friend, died 5 July 1930, of Thomas Apps, died 5 August 1911, of Seymour Apps, died 8 March 1917, of Mary Ann Headland, died 15 Jan 1925, of John Apps, died 23 April 1872, of Charles Apps, died 18 August 1946, of Sarah Apps, died 29 January 1889, of Julia Apps, died 9 May 1913, of Emma Chapman, died 27 Aug 1917, of Ellen Apps, died 26 November 1896, and of Alfred Butcher, died 27 Jul 1915, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 1911/008334, 1898/005461, 7806/1915, 14339/1930, 1911/010077, 3626/1917, 2736/1925, 4071/1872, 17434/1946, 1889/006574, 9561/1913, 13345/1917, 1896/013565, 12943/1915.
16. Ernle, Lord, English Farming Past and Present, 2nd ed. London; New York; Bombay; Calcutta; Madras, Longmans, Green and Co., 1919, Gale eBooks. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/U0112885030/MOME?u=nla&sid=MOME&xid=95a384e4.
17. Richards, Eric, 'West Sussex and the Rural South', in Richards, Eric, The Genesis of International Mass Migration The British Case, 1750-1900, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2018.
18. Neeson, J. M., Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700-1820, Chapter 10, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1993.
19. Hammond, J. I., and Hammond, Barbara, The Village Labourer 1760-1832, Chapter 11, London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1913.
20. Clark, Gregory, A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, Page 286, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2007.
21. The Parliament of Great Britain, 'Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain', 1834 Public General Act, 4&5 William IV, c. 76, Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, https://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1834_4and5W4n220, Accessed 3 July 2020.
22. The Workhouse, 'Pauper Emigration under the New Poor Law', http://www.workhouses.org.uk/emigration/, Accessed 12 June 2020.
23. Poor Law Commissioners, Annual Reports of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales, London. Poor Law Commission Office, 1835-1847, HathiTrust Digital Library, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000059849.
24. Richards, Eric, 'How Did Poor People Emigrate from the British Isles to Australia in the Nineteenth Century?', Journal of British Studies, Vol. 32, no. 3, 1993, pp. 250–79.
25. Haines, Robin, “‘The Idle and the Drunken Won’t Do There’: Poverty, the New Poor Law and Nineteenth-Century Government-Assisted Emigration to Australia”, Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 28, no. 108, 1997, p. 1ff.
26. Shultz, Robert Joe, ‘The Assisted Immigrants, 1837-1850 : A Study of Some Aspects of the Characteristics and Origins of the Immigrants Assisted to New South Wales and the Port Phillip District, 1837-1850’, PhD Thesis, Canberra, Australian National University, 1971.
27. Wotherspoon, Garry, Dictionary of Sydney, 'The road south-west', 2011, http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/the_road_south_west, viewed 11 Jun 2021.
28. Robinson, Steve, Dictionary of Sydney, 'Camden West', 2008, http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/camden_west, viewed 11 Jun 2021.
29. Willis, Ian, Pictorial History: Camden & District, Kingsclear Books, Sydney, 2015.
30. Bateson, Charles, The Convict Ships 1787-1868 (CD), North Sydney, Library of Australian History, 2004.
31. The Southern Highlands of NSW, 'Bong Bong', http://www.highlandsnsw.com.au/towns/bong.html, accessed 13 Jun 2021.
32. Wyatt, Ransome T., The history of Goulburn, N.S.W, Goulburn, Municipality of Goulburn NSW, 1941, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-29899609.
33. Fitzsimmons, Jean E., 'The transportation of convicts to New South Wales, Australia, 1787--1840: Could free men and bondsmen exist together?', Chapter III, MA Thesis, University of Windsor, 1970, https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/6851, accessed 12 Jun 2021.
34. McLean, Ian W., Why Australia Prospered: The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth, Chapter 4, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2012.
35. Hughes Turnbull, Lucy, Dictionary of Sydney, 'The end of transportation', 2008, http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/the_end_of_transportation, viewed 12 Jun 2021.
36. Jackson, R. V., Australian economic development in the nineteenth century, Chapter 1, Canberra, ANU Press, 1977.
37. Barnes, A., 'Australia’s Early Immigration Schemes', Tulle, Vol. 17, no.2, 1999, pp. 28–31.
38. Huntsman, Leone, 'Bounty Emigrants to Australia', Clogher Record, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2002, pp. 802-804.
39. Marriage Index entry for Thomas Friend and Caroline Funnell, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 'Marriages Search', accessed 28 May 2021.
40. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-12937 Registers of baptisms, burials and marriages 1878-1856, Transcript of Registers of St John's Church Camden, page not readable, baptism entry of Caroline Funnell, baptised 28 Aug 1857, ARK Reel 5009.
41. New South Wales State Archives, NRS-5314 Entitlement certificates of persons on bounty ships, unpaginated, Entitlement Certificate for James and Esther Funnell, 1839, Ancestry.com, ‘New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828-1896’, accessed 18 Apr 2021.
42. Law, Alan & Susan, Ancestry Australia, 'Law-Ings Exploratory tree 20100221', https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/tree/15522224/recent, (permission required for access), accessed June 13, 2021.

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).

Eliminating Susana Wood

 My 4xgreat-grandparents were married in All Saints Church Laughton on 19th October 1807.¹ Their names were given in the marriage register as John David Davey and Susan Wood. John died in 1831, but Susan survived until late 1851 and completed two censuses.^2,3,5,6 The important census is the 1851 census, the first England census which required an actual age and a place of birth. Susan(nah) gives her age as 67 (implying she was born 1783-4) and her place of birth as “Sussex, Bucksted”. “Bucksted” should probably be equated with Buxted in north-east Sussex, about 12 km from Laughton.

Hunting through the indexes, there is only one Susan(…) Wood baptism in the correct era – Susana Wood daughter of Daniel & Elizabeth, was born18th February 1782, her birth being registered by the Wesleyan Great Meeting House in Battle in their non-conformist register in 1789.^6,7,8 It looked good to me (and it looked and looks good to a lot of other people too). Battle is about 27 km from Laughton.

However doing my due diligence on Susana Wood turned up another marriage, that of George Jupp and Susan Wood in Battle 1809.⁹ The couple moved to Bloomsbury where they registered the birth (in 1811) of a daughter, Mary Susanna Jupp, in the registers of Dr William’s Library in 1812.¹⁰ In this non-conformist birth registration Susanna, the mother of Mary Susanna Jupp, is stated to be Susanna daughter of Daniel & Elizabeth Wood.

Oh well, back to the drawing board (and probably another blog post when I sort it out). There are, at least, some Woods in the Buxted parish registers.

All Saints Laughton, photographed by the Author, 13 Jul 2016

 Sources 

1. Marriage of John David Davey and Susan Wood, married 19 October 1807, All Saints Laughton Parish Register, Laughton, Sussex, England, FHL Film 1067216.
2. Burial of John Davey, buried 23 December 1831, Hanover Chapel, Brighton, Sussex, England, bmdregisters.co.uk, accessed 22 Feb 2008.
3. Census record for Susan Wood, aged 50, 27 Crescent Cottages, Brighton, Sussex, 1851 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, HO107/1644/244, UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 11 Feb 2007.
4. Census record for Susanah Wood, aged 67, Crescent Cottages, Brighton, Sussex, 1841 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, HO107/1123/5, UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 11 Feb 2007.
5. Death certificate of Susannah Davey, died 7 August 1851, registered September quarter 1851, Brighthelmston registration district, General Registry Office, England, vol. 7, p. 203, no. 94.
6. Sussex Family History Group, ‘Data Archive on Frontis, Baptism Data’, http://sfhg.frontis.co/bin/index.php, accessed 23 Oct 2021.
7. FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/en/, accessed 23 Oct 2021.
8. Birth Registration entry of Susana Wood, born 18 February 1782, The Great Meeting House, Battle, Sussex, Ancestry.com.au, accessed 23 Oct 2021
9. Marriage of George Jupp & Susannah Wood, married 13 Sep 1809, Sussex Family History Group, The Sussex Marriage Index (Up to 1837) (CD ROM). Lewes, UK, Sussex Family History Group, 2005.
10. Birth Registration entry of Mary Susanna Jupp, born 5 June 1811, Dr Williams’ Library Registry, Birth Certificates, 1805-1812 , Ancestry.com.au, accessed 23 Oct 2021.
    

Why is ‘Rosers Cross’ so named?

 John Roser migrated to Waldron in the late 1700s having married at East Hoathly in 1782 and baptised his daughter Martha in Waldron in 1794. So the family had not been long term residents of Waldron before the 1800s.^1,2 However just north of the village centre is a cross-roads (and a recently developed hamlet) named ‘Rosers Cross’.³ The cross-roads is marked with this name in the 1898 Ordnance survey map of the area, but not in the earliest (1813) map.^4,5 So sometime in this period the location acquired its name. Is there any way in which the location where the Rosers resided during this time can be identified to see whether it was in the locality later known as ‘Rosers Cross’?

Rosers Cross from Rosers Cross Lane, photographed by Sue Law, 13 July 2016

 In fact the 1841 Census can be used to roughly locate the Roser residence in June 1841. Census takers were allotted an area to cover (an enumeration district, usually described at the start of the census section) and since they were walking or riding, they optimised their route to minimise the length of their journey. The household schedules thus collected were numbered in the order they were taken. Thus by listing the locations in the enumeration district in schedule order, identifying their modern locations and plotting them out in order, the route followed by the census taker can be illustrated and the rough location of any unknown or poorly specified places can be identified. The Rosers lived in Enumeration District 5 (Waldron Parish) of Framfield Registrar’s District which was part of the Uckfield Superintendent Registrar’s District.⁶ The named locations were censused in the following order:

	1841 census location name	Most recent location name
1	Furnace	The Furnace7
2	Sharps Corner	Sharps Corner3,5
3	Eastons	-
4	Horsham	Horeham/Horam3,5
5	Cards	-
6	Great Tan House	Tanners Manor or Tanners Farm3
7	Lions green House	Lions Green3
8	Foxhunt green	Foxhunt Green3
9	Foxhunt House	Foxhunt4
10	Woodgates	-
11	Shullow Bridge	Scallow Bridge3
12	Shullow Bridge cottage	Probably Scallow Wish7
13	Herringdales	Heronsdale Manor3
14	Holms	Holms Farm7
15	Silver Oaks	Silveroaks Farm7
16	Gowers	-
17	Cutteys Crouch	Catts Crouch Farm7
18	Possingworth Bridge	Not named, but the road to Possingworth Manor House does cross the same stream as Scallows Bridge, so I have assumed that this is Possingworth Bridge
19	Possingworth	Possingworth Manor House8
20	Brickendens	Bryckden Place3
21	(Roser Residence)	Location of the Roser entries in the enumeration
22	Mount Pleasant	Montpellier.4 This is the closest I can find to a “Mount Pleasant”, through there is a street called “Mount Pleasant” in Cross in Hand not far from this location.
23	Siggses	Siggswood9 (on Brittenden Lane)
24	Waldron Cross	I assume this is the cross-roads west of the village
25	Poorhouse	Grove Cottages10,11
26	Owlesbury House	Owlesbury House12
27	Waldron Street	The Street

 

Street sign, Waldron, photographed by Alan Law, 13 July 2016

Plotting these places on Google Earth and linking places 1 to 20 (before the Roser residence) with an orange path and 22 to 27 (after the Roser residence) with a red path, we can see that the census taker took a logical and optimal path around the district. The locations of un-named residences will thus be between the identified locations either side of the census entry.

Census taker's route around Waldron, June 1841

 Logically the Roser residence lies in the gap in the path in the area of locations 20, 22 and 23 not far from ‘Rosers Cross’. There is thus a strong possibility that ‘Rosers Cross’ is named after the family of John Roser, his wife Martha and their descendants.

 This technique can be used to locate unknown locations anywhere in the UK with appropriate census records, for example locating named slum “Rents” in the East End of London which were not shown on any map before they were cleared.

Sources

1. Marriage of John Roser and Martha Hook, married 28 October 1782, East Hoathly Parish Register, East Hoathly, Sussex, England, Reprograph obtained from East Sussex Record Office.
2. Baptism of Martha Roser, baptised 6 January 1794, All Saints Waldron Parish Register, Waldron, Sussex, England, Reprograph obtained from East Sussex Record Office.
3. Ordnance Survey, #199 Eastbourne & Hastings, Topographic, 1:50 000, OS Landranger, Southampton, UK, Ordnance Survey, 2017.
4. Ordnance Survey, and Cassini Maps, Eastbourne & Hastings 1898, Matching OS Landranger 199, Topographic, 1:50 000, Cassini Historical Map Revised New Series. Gillingham, UK, Cassini Publishing, 2007.
5. Ordnance Survey, and Cassini Maps, Eastbourne & Hastings 1813, Matching OS Landranger 199, Topographic, 1:50 000, Cassini Historical Map Old Series, Gillingham, UK, Cassini Publishing, 2007.
6. Census record for Parish of Waldron, Sussex, 1841 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, HO107/1118/9 Folios 5-12, UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 3 Nov 2006.
7.  Streetmap.co.uk, ‘1:25,000 Street Map: Waldron’, http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?x=554678&y=119747&z=120&sv=Waldron&st=3&tl=Map+of+Waldron,+East+Sussex+[Town]&searchp=ids&mapp=map, accessed 10 Oct 2021.
8. Streetmap.co.uk, ‘1:25,000 Topographic Map: Waldron’, http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map?x=554678&y=119747&z=120&sv=Waldron&st=3&tl=Map+of+Waldron,+East+Sussex+[Town]&searchp=ids&mapp=map, accessed 10 Oct 2021.
9. Zoopla.co.uk, ‘Listing for Siggswood, Waldron, Heathfield TN21 0RG’, https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property/siggswood/waldron/heathfield/tn21-0rg/23988774/, accessed 10 Oct 2021.
10. British Listed Buildings, ‘Grove Cottage’, https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101183172-grove-cottage-heathfield-and-waldron#.YWNz3xw7YaF, accessed 10 Oct 2021.
11. Mike Wilson, ‘History of Grove Cottages (Waldron Workhouse)’, Maggi and Popsie's Blog, 1 July 2009, http://maggiandmike.blogspot.com/,  accessed 10 Oct 2021.
12. Rightmove.co.uk, ‘Listing for Owlesbury, North Street, Waldron, Heathfield, East Sussex TN21 0QR’, https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html?prop=75796126&sale=80659083&country=england, accessed 10 Oct 2021.

Forced and Assisted Migration to Australia from Sussex in the 1830s & 1840s

 This is an expanded version of an essay written for a Unit which is part of a Diploma of Family History. The Unit Convener was one of the driving forces behind the "Founders and Survivors" Project and we were given access to the underlying database of Tasmanian convicts for the duration of the Unit. We were asked to pick one or more convicts and put their experiences in a broader context.