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Henry Angus HENSON (1887-1968) - #4 (52 Ancestors)

1/27/2015

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Theme: Closest to my birthday
PictureGrandpa Angus Henson after WWII
Even as a child I was aware that the birthdays in my mother's family tended to clump together in groups rather than being evenly distributed throughout the year.  Perhaps that was because I was right in the middle of one such clump.  I had an older 1st cousin born on exactly the same day in February, and his sister was only 3 days earlier.  I later discovered I had a 2nd cousin born just 5 days later in the same year.  Then when I married, I welcomed a new nephew born just 2 days before me, and later a great niece came along just 2 days after me.  I also have a friend who shares my birthday and another exactly 1 week earlier.  If we could all get together, it would be quite a party!

As welcome as these circumstances are, it would not be suitable to choose any of these wonderful living folks as my “target" for this week’s post.  And surprisingly it has been hard to find an appropriate deceased candidate in my mother’s extensive family tree.  I have a lot of far-flung individuals who would fit the bill, including a 10th cousin who shares my birthday, but I don’t know much about them yet, and certainly no riveting stories!  And although my mother was born just 13 days before me, I knew that there had to be someone even closer.  I found him in my father’s tree.

Picture1889 map of Crawford County, Arkansas
I only knowingly met my paternal grandfather once when I was 7 years old, although I believe he did visit when I was a baby.  Grandpa's name was Henry Angus HENSON (known by his middle name Angus) and his birthday was just one day before mine.  He was born in 1887 in Crawford County Arkansas, the 5th of 11 children to John HENSON and Sarah Elmira ORRICK.  

Unfortunately I know nothing of Angus's early childhood.  His father John was a farmer from Washington County Arkansas just north of Crawford County, and his mother was also a native of Arkansas; they were married in Crawford County where all but their youngest child was born.  Early records are scarce, as birth records for Crawford County don't start until 1914, and the 1890 census records for both Arkansas and Oklahoma have not survived.  

In 1900 Angus was 13 and living with his parents and family in Oklahoma Territory.  The Henson family had a history of moving westward towards the frontier.  As Crawford county lies on Arkansas’s western border with Oklahoma, it is not surprising that,
sometime between 1896 and 1900, they decided to hop across the border to Davis Township near Shawnee in central Oklahoma (just east of Oklahoma City) .

Ten years later in 1910, Angus was living alone on his own farm in Logan in northwest Oklahoma.  By August of that same year he had married Bessie Mae HUNT in nearby Elmwood Township, Beaver County, Oklahoma.  As Bessie was born in Missouri, and lived in Texas in 1900 before moving to Elmwood Oklahoma before 1910, neither one was a native of the area. 

Their roots in the area were not deep, yet they started raising their first two children there. 
But the call of free land to the north beckoned, and about 1913 the young family decided to move up to northern Alberta Canada, following Bessie's parents who had started homesteading south of Boyle.  They first settled in either Flat Creek or Plum Creek (sources vary) where their 3rd child was born in 1914, but then moved closer to his in-laws.

According to his certificate of naturalization, Angus became a naturalized citizen of Canada on 18 Jun 1917.  And according to family stories, it was in that same year that he "bought" property in Boyle, although he didn't receive title until 1919.  The Western Land Grants indexes on the Library and Archives Canada site do not contain dates, but they do list a land grant for Henry A Henson in NE Section 28, township 64, range 19, west of 4th meridian.  His father-in-law Joseph Alexander Hunt was granted land nearby in Section 20, Township 64, range 20, meridian 4.  I do not have the full files on either grant, but know the process took time, from getting permission to homestead on a particular parcel of land through the proving of necessary improvements before they could receive a "land patent" or title from the crown.

According to the HENSON-HUNT family story written in 1982 by his daughter Mildred and published in the book "Forests, Furrows and Faith: A History of Boyle and Districts”, pages 306-309:
"Daddy’s early years in Canada saw much hardship, as did most pioneers, but his seemed beset with loss.  Our home and everything in it was destroyed by fire which caught from the stove pipe.  Then a new log barn, which had not quite been finished, and had been temporarily thatched with straw, was caught by a spark from a spring brush fire and destroyed.  Next came the loss of most of his cattle.  Those days it was open range but the railway was about a mile west of us and the right-of-way was not fenced.  The grazing was better there that day than in the dense bush and they were on the track when the train came around the bend.  Daddy got no compensation from the railroad either.

"But the biggest tragedy followed shortly.  Daddy was working in a sawmill near Bondiss [in Alberta
on the eastern tip of Skeleton Lake, between Boyle and Lac la Biche].  He got his right hand caught in machinery and [it was] badly mangled.  It was 100 miles to Edmonton.  The crew got a speeder, phoned Edmonton to clear the tracks and took Daddy on the speeder to Edmonton.  He bled profusely but with many transfusions and a long time in the hospital he pulled through, but he lost his hand.  All of these things happened in a matter of a few years – all before I could remember any of them.”
Picture
The book "Forests, Furrows and Faith, A History of Boyle and Districts" includes family stories of long time residents in this small community in Northern Alberta Canada.
PictureHenry Angus and Bessie Mae (Hunt) Henson, holding hands
This real life story of hardship is indeed tragic and humbling, and I suspect the reality of their daily existence would be beyond tolerance compared to today's materialistic expectations.  To try and eek out sustenance and support a family of 9 on a homestead is hard enough for those who are able bodied. The farm was not yet self sustaining and other income was desperately needed, yet no one was eager to hire a one-handed man.  But still Angus and his family carried on.

Hardship continued, due in general to the poor economy following the market crash of 1929 and the desolation of the "dirty 30s". 
Mildred mentions in her story that in 1934, Angus helped dig a 60 foot well in the center of Boyle that was to provide the village's main water supply for the next 30 years.  He was apparently a proud man who wanted to do what he was able to be as useful as possible.

As each of 7 children grew old enough they went off to work, some as far away as Yellowknife NWT, Ontario or BC.  Then during WWII  his two younger sons enlisted.  The family had disbursed

I do not know what became of the homestead, or how long Angus and Bessie continued to live there.  But both Angus and Bessie lived in northern Alberta for the rest of their lives.

PictureGrave of Angus and Bessie Henson, Boyle Alberta, 1968
When I was seven years old, Angus and Bessie were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary that year, and they made a trip to the west coast from their home in Alberta to visit relatives here.  Their son and my father Claude HENSON had been killed in a logging accident 6 years previously. My mother had only recently remarried and I can remember there being some anxiety about the visit. 

They arrived at our little house on Coronation Street in Duncan BC, and to a child of seven they seemed very elderly. I remember Angus carefully supporting Bessie’s elbow as they slowly made their way down our short front walk.  Bessie was already quite affected by dementia and had trouble walking.  I don’t remind her talking at all.  Angus seemed to be a calm and quiet man, although the nature of the visit may have caused him to be more reserved than he would normally have been.  At some point (and in private) Mom explained to my sister and me that he had lost one hand and that was why he tended to keep that arm hidden.  Unfortunately I don’t remember what the adults talked about, or what Grandpa Henson said when he bent down to say hello to us two girls (or perhaps I just imagined that part of this event).  But although the meeting was brief, it left a lasting impression.

Angus died peacefully in 1968, 2 months after Bessie, while living in a care home in Athabasca Alberta, some 30 or 40 km northwest of Boyle.  The are both buried in the Boyle Municipal Cemetery.

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Lady Alice Beconsaw Lisle (1617-1685) - #3 (52 Ancestors)

1/21/2015

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Theme: Tough women
PictureLady Alice (Beconsaw) Lisle
If your husband fled to Switzerland where he was assassinated for his involvement in killing the king of England, you’d have to be one tough lady, wouldn't you say?  And as a regicide’s widow, her life then got even tougher.

I’m talking here about Alice (or Alicia) Beconsaw, the wife of Lord John Lisle, regicide, who I wrote about last week.   They are my 9 times Great Grandparents.  Born in Ellingham near Ringwood, Hampshire in England, and likely at her family's estate of Moyles Court, she was the elder daughter of Sir White Beconsaw (this name has many spelling variations) and Edith Bond.  Alice was baptised 24 Sep 1617 in Ellingham and grew up at Moyles Court.

In 1636 at the age of 19 , she married John Lisle at the Anglican parish church in Ellingham, Hampshire.  At this time her parents assigned her the inheritance of Moyles Court property.  John received life tenancy.  He was a lawyer and a politician who sided with the anti-royalists during the civil war and joined Cromwell’s team during the ensuing creation of the Commonwealth.  As their family grew, their religious affiliations also shifted, and they became nonconformists.  In 1643 their daughter Margaret Lisle was baptized at Mr Lisle’s Chamber in the Puritan Temple Church in Hampshire. 


Picture
It has been reported that their eldest son was named Beconsaw who died as a school boy in 1653, and a younger son William died in 1654.  Their oldest daughter was Alice who married for the second time in 1663. By about 1660 after the King Charles II had been restored to the throne, John was forced to flee to Switzerland in fear of his life. Alice was left behind in England, pregnant with their youngest daughter Anne.  About this time, all of John’s holdings were seized by the crown, with the majority going to James, the king’s brother and to John Lisle’s younger brother William who remained a royalist.  Thank goodness Moyles Court belonged to Alice, but her fortunes had definitely declined.  She still had seven unmarried children to raise; they were named John, Bridget, Tryphena, Margaret, Mary, Mabella and Anne.  Along with sons Beconsaw and William who died young, she had at least 11 children.

In 1664 when Alice was 47, her husband was assassinated in Switzerland, shot in the back by an Irish royalist.  She was left an outcast from family as well as society, and ridiculed for her religion.  According to the excellent and well researched book titled "The Regicide's Widow": "Moyles Court became one of the many refuges of these Nonconformist nomads [displaced ministers], and Alice Lisle undoubtedly risked prosecution for those she sheltered."  There was a reported gathering of 200 Presbyterians there in 1669.  Two of the displaced ministers became her sons-in-law: Bridget married Leonard Hoar, and Margaret married Rev Robert Whitaker (my ancestors).  Other dissenting ministers obviously had her acquaintance and sympathy, and perhaps her friendship.


So how did Alice end up sheltering the rebel John Hicks and get convicted of treason? Alice knew of Hicks as a nonconformist minister, most recently from Portsmouth.  Through a succession of restrictive laws and political maneuvering, the religious bigotry in England increased through the 1670s and 80s.  The mood and whim of those in power seemed to oscillate between leniency and oppressive persecution. I'm sure that Hicks wasn't the only minister who was relentlessly targeted, tracked and fined for preaching to gatherings of nonconformists.  But the timing and location was such that on 24 Jun 1685,  Hicks was on hand to join rebel forces of the crown contender James Scott, Duke of Monmouth.  He probably hoped that he would receive better treatment and liberties under a different monarch.   The next day Hicks committed the treasonable offense of trying to persuade Monmouth's English prisoners of war  to change their allegiance. 

Their cause was short lived, for the rebel forces were quickly defeated by James II's troops, with many rebels fleeing.  After a concentrated manhunt, Monmouth and his chiefs were captured and beheaded, although some of his rebels remained at large.  This is when Hicks and his companions Nelthorp and Dunne sought shelter at Moyles Court.  Their arrival was betrayed by their guide, and Alice was arrested as well as the fugitives and jailed at Salisbury pending trial.

PictureGrave of Alice (Beconshawe) Lisle in Ellingham, Hampshire
Alice was accused of treason.  Her  6 hour trial at Winchester Castle 27 Aug 1685 under the presiding “Hanging Judge” Jeffreys was considered a grave injustice.  Not only did the judge prosecute from the bench and enforce unfair procedural changes, but he also bullied the jury into declaring a guilty verdict in spite of their doubts.  Although she probably was guilty of knowingly sheltering fugitives, this was not properly proven in court, so she was unjustly sentenced.  She was the first of many casualties of Judge Jeffrey's "Bloody Assizes".

The usual punishment for treason at the time was to be  burned at the stake, but on 2 September  1685 she was instead beheaded on a platform in the street outside what is now the Eclipse Tavern in The Square off Market Lane in Winchester.  She was 67 years old.  As it turns out, hers was the last beheading to take place in England.

Four
years later in 1689, 
her daughters appealed for a reversal of her charges, and a repeal was granted by act of parliament - much too late for her life to be spared.  There is now a wall plaque in The Square off Market Lane, commemorating her execution.  Her actual burial was in the St Mary and All Saints Churchyard in Ellingham, Hampshire.

On a lighter note, her fame continues into modern times.  The Alice Lisle Pub, a country pub with Alice’s name on it, is located in The New Forest National Park.  Their website claims that "The pub is notoriously (and somewhat gruesomely) named after the last woman to be publicly beheaded in England". Do you think she'd be pleased?  The location is appropriate because Ellingham and Ringwood are located on the park's western border. 

So, after all this talk of intrigue and beheadings, does anyone care for a pint?


Sources and further reading:
"The Regicide's Widow - Lady Alice Lisle and the Bloody Assize", a book by Antony Whitaker, OBE, published 2006 by Sutton Publishing Limited.  ISBN 0-7509-4434-X - see description on amazon.com
Alice Lisle - wikipedia
Moyles Court & Lady Alice Lisle - Mysterious Britain & Ireland site
Reformation History - wikipedia (Lisles not mentioned)
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Rest in Peace, Uncle Charlie Clark

1/13/2015

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PictureCharlie and Harriet (Andrew) CLARK, 1995
I was greatly saddened a couple of says ago to learn that my dear Uncle Charlie CLARK has passed away.  As one of his daughters mentioned, he was just 99 days short of his 95th birthday, and had a long life well lived.  Uncle Charlie married my mother's sister Harriet ANDREW, and I grew up knowing them both while living in Duncan, BC.  When I later learned that I also had a more distant connection with him through his MCDONALD, BOUNDY and CORNISH maternal lines (they were both from PEI after all!), so much the better!

I have kept in touch with him over the years, as we share a love of genealogy and computers. He was a gifted mechanic and tinker and was always exploring and doing new things.  Up until recently he was even teaching other elderly seniors how to use the computer.  The following obituary tells more about his interesting life and achievements.  I will surely miss him.

Charles Bruce Clark
April 21, 1920 - January 11, 2015
Charles lived a long and productive life, but now with spirit released, he has left us to follow his dream ... to be back with the love of his life, Harriet, who died June 9th, 2009 ... and reunite with his eldest son Arnold who died in 1994.

The only son born to Bertha Lillian and Artemis Bruce Clark in Linkletter, P.E.I., his only surviving sister Fern Caseley, died a few short months before.

Left to carry on a legacy long begun: sons Gerry (Bev), and Bruce; daughters Elaine Paull (Bill) and Mary Braithwaite (Murray). Grandchildren: Richard Clark; Adrienne and Angela Clark; Lisa and Laura Paull; Brandon Clark. Great Grandchildren: A.J. and Dexter; Randy and Mary; Garret and Amy; Cody; Abby and Treavor.

His very first venture into the business world began at the tender age of 14, raising fox. Lucrative earnings were short lived when a devastating disease virtually killed the Island's fox population two years later. From there he worked with his father selling Massy Ferguson equipment, and operating Clark's Gas Station with towing and repair service. His last business endeavour on Prince Edward Island was Clark's Taxi Service.
Most of Harriet's family had settled out west, and so, in the spring of 1953 Charles and Harriet travelled across Canada with their young family. There was a pit stop in Toronto when their "self-camperized" van would travel no more. Charles, always a lover of vehicles, ordered a Volkswagen Beetle. "Hot off the press" was a fond memory for him, as he watched his car being built in the factory! Cramming Arnold (9), Gerry (7), Elaine (3) and his dear adventurous wife (pregnant with Mary) into their new car, the trek across Canada was completed. After that epic journey, neither had desire to venture far beyond their settled lives in Duncan, on Vancouver Island!

Charles became well known while working as a mechanic for Evans Motors. But many will remember Clark's Locksmith, owned and operated from 1969 until his retirement in 1992. He helped in organizing the Kiwanis Ambulance Society back in 1956, and drove Cowichan Valley's first Inhalator. After 19-1/2 years as a Duncan Volunteer Fireman and Assistant Fire Chief, Charles earned the distinction of Honorary Member.

His absolute love of cars lead him to eventually own an astounding 89 vehicles in his lifetime ... and Charles fondly remembered them all by name, model and year to the very end!

If ever there was a moment to celebrate life, we do so with great pride as Dad leaves a long, healthy and adventurous journey behind to follow his dream. The separation after 67 years of married life was deeply felt, and we now find comfort in lasting memories of Mom and Dad ... together again.

A memorial service for our father will be held at a later date.
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Lord John LISLE (1609-1664) - #2 (52 Ancestors)

1/13/2015

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Theme: King, connection to royalty
Picture
Am I descended from Royalty?  No, I don’t think so.  But I believe that my 9G Grandfather was Lord John Lisle, born about 1609 in Wootton, Isle of Wight in England.  His rather infamous association with royalty is quite well documented in the history books, as he was one of Cromwell’s Lords involved in the regicide of King Charles I in  1649.  Perhaps this is something I shouldn’t be bragging about, but such is the lure of the famous and privileged, that any kind of connection counts!

One of the advantages of being connected to aristocracy and peerage is that their lives and lineages have been historically documented, hopefully with some degree of reliability.  So I will summarize John’s life here from these sources, and provide source links at the bottom for those eager to learn more.

I have documented my long descent from Lord John Lisle, as shown here in part (9G means 9 times great grandfather, etc.):

9G - Lord John LISLE (1609-1664) m Lady Alice BECONSHAWE (1617-1685)
8G - Margaret LISLE (1643-1686) m Robert WHITAKER (1637-1683)
7G - Jeremiah WHITAKER (1679-1719) m Ann HASKELL (aft 1681-1718)
6G - Jeremiah WHITAKER (c1707) and Joanna KITTIER (c1710)
5G - Joanna WHITAKER (1730-1790) m Arthur NEWMAN (c1727-1785)
4G - Charlotte Lisle NEWMAN (1760-1789) m Col Harry Childeroy COMPTON (1759-1839)
3G - Major Thomas COMPTON (c1789-1850) m Hannah JEFFERY (1790-1871) …

The Compton line continues in PEI, Canada to which my mother, Mabel Marion ANDREW, has multiple connections.
John Lisle was the son of Sir William Lisle and Bridget Hungerford who married in Ellingham Hampshire in 1598.  The name Lisle is short for “de Insula” or “de L’Isle” which refers the Isle of Wight on the south coast of England where this prominent family settled in about the 12th century.  Like many of his ancestors, John was a lawyer and a politician, graduating from Oxford in 1626 and called to the bar in 1633.  He was elected MP for Winchester, and in Parliament in Dec 1644, he was chairman of the committee that investigated Cromwell's allegations against the Earl of Manchester.  In 1648 after the second civil war, John Lisle voted against continuing negotiations with the King.  Shortly thereafter he was appointed a commissioner of the High Court of Justice for the trial of the King in January 1649.  During the trial he acted in an advisory position and helped to draw up the King’s sentence, but he was not a signatory of the King’s death warrant.  He then helped frame the new constitution for the Commonwealth, and was one of five appointed to the new Council of State.  He was also made a commissioner of the Great Seal.  In 1653 he administered the oath of office when Cromwell became Lord Protector, and became a member of the Upper House in 1657 (aka "Cromwell’s House of Lords”).  But the tides turned and in 1659 he was dismissed from office and forced to flee the country.  In August 1664, as he was leaving a church service at Lausanne Switzerland, John Lisle was shot dead by an Irish Royalist known as Thomas MacDonnell.

John was obviously an ambitious man with strong convictions, who found himself in the centre of all this intrigue and controversy.  Depending on who you read, he was described as having a “reputation for acquisitiveness and sharp practice” or “as President of this [High Court of Justice] he is said to have been 'the most unpopular character in the kingdom’ and 'noted for his idleness and profligacy, and never had any practice or knowledge of the law. ... He was bold, bustling, confident, and unscrupulous’.  These contradictory accounts are another indication of the polarization and upheaval in England during this period.

John married twice, first to Elizabeth Hobart , daughter of Lord Chief Justice Hobart, who died in 1633 due to childbirth complications.  Then in 1636 he married Alice Beconshaw of Ringwood Hampshire and they had as many as 12 children (depending on the source).  Due to the rise and fall of John’s career, his family certainly went from a position of wealth, power and influence to one of disinheritance and ruined status and reputations.  One can’t help but feel sorry for them.

On a final note, there are over 20,000 people on ancestry.com who have added John Lisle to their tree.  So they're sure to be my distant cousins ! ;o)  I wonder if any of them will find this posting?

Sources and further reading:
"John Lisle, Regicide" Bio, British civil war site 
'The Regicides", BCW Project site
"John Lisle" - Wikipedia
Sir John Lisle (1366-1408), History of Parliament site [his ancestor and heritage]
The Complete Peerage, Appendix G, p622 on John Lisle (
Burke’s Dormant and Extinct Peerages),
Forgotten Books site
History, De Insula of Wodyton c.1080 – 1837, Wootton Bridge Historical site
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Charles S ANDREW (1821-1906) - #1 (52 Ancestors) 

1/1/2015

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Theme: Fresh Start
PictureANDREW graves in Kilkhampton, Cornwall for Charles' brother Richard and father William.
What makes a person leave their homeland, family and friends to journey across oceans to different continents?  Perhaps they are seeking adventure, new opportunities, better fortunes or freedoms.  Perhaps they are following other relatives or friends.  Or sometimes the reasons are unfortunate or even heart wrenching.  Such is the case of my great-great-grandfather Charles ANDREW.

According to information passed down in my mother’s ANDREW family, Charles S Andrew - my mother’s great-grandfather - was born 1 May 1821 in Kilkhampton, a small town on the rugged north coast of Cornwall England close to the Devon border.  In this rural area, most people made a living by mining or farming.  Some were involved in ship building in nearby Bideford Devon to the north east.  The ANDREWs, who appear to be new to the Kilkhampton area, were farmers.

No one knows what Charles' middle initial “S” stands for.  According to baptism records, he was simply "Charles Andrews", one of 7 children born to yeoman William Andrew and his wife Honor Grigg: Thomas, William, John, Richard, Elizabeth Ann, Charles and Flora.  Their father William died in April 1833 at the age of 52 before all his children were grown; Charles would have been almost 12. By 1841 the family seems to have disbursed, as their mother Honor Andrew was working as a nurse for the Venning family in Moorwenstow Cornwall, and none of her children were with her.

Charles Andrews is listed as an 18-year-old agricultural laborer in 1841, one of 6 workers living with the William and Mary Wickett family (possibly relatives) in Launcells Cornwall. But big changes had already been set in motion.  On 26 Mar 1842, Charles ANDREW was in Stratton Cornwall marrying Mary HOPGOOD.  Their  marriage certificate says he was 21, the son of farmer William Andrew, and she was 20, the spinster daughter of farmer William Hopgood.  And within a couple of weeks they were emigrating ...
“… to Canada, sailing on the brig "British Lady" on April 8, 1842, landing at Yeo's Shipyard, Bideford River, PEI on May 20, 1842. Arrived at N. St. Elearnors, PEI on May 21, 1842 and established a home on the "Broad" farm, then owned by the Hon. James Yeo and more lately by Alfred Simpson. By life's end, Charles and Mary owned 422 acres which became the farms of Harry C. Andrew and Raymond Andrew, Fred Barrett and Samuel Beaton.” [from the booklet Sketches of Old St. Elenaor’s - Prince Edward Island, Canada”]
Their tombstone also says they immigrated from Kilkhampton England in 1842.

Passenger lists prior to 1865 are hard to come by, although I did find a notice online of the “British Lady” sailing a year later out of Bideford with 42 passengers (not itemized).   Nevertheless, we're sure that Charles and Mary Andrew traveled to PEI with a young daughter, Mary Ann Andrew, who according to the 1901 Canada census and her birth certificate, was born on 14 Aug 1841.  So it would appear that she was born in England before her parents' marriage, although luckily Charles is identified as the father (not the norm in these circumstances). When I first received family research from my relatives back in the 1980s, they stated that Charles and Mary were married in England on 9 Dec 1940, a convenient 9 months prior to Mary Ann’s birth. 
So it seems that Charles and Mary decided to reinvent some details of their past when they made a new start in PEI.  In 1881, Mary Ann is unmarried and age 40, living with her parents in Lot 17, PEI, Canada, so we know she belongs to this family. 

This was obviously a time of huge upheaval and life changing decisions for both Charles and Mary.  Although such "dalliances" were not uncommon, there was usually a lot of shame and ridicule associated with them, and often the expectant mothers were shunned by their families and sent away to other relatives or even workhouses to give birth. By the time of the 1841 census, Mary Hopgood would already have been pregnant, although still a teenager, so it is no surprise that I can’t find her with her father William and family.  There was a baptism for a Mary Hopgood, daughter of John and Ann, on 28 May 1826 in Kilkhampton, making her about 15 in 1841 (she was not living with her parents), but neither the parents nor the age match.  Family sources say our Mary Hopgood was born 25 Dec 1823 but so far I have not found any evidence to support this (but if true she would have been 17 at the time of the 1841 census). At this point I’m not even certain that her father’s name was William, as information on marriage certificates aren’t always reliable in such circumstances.   So there were likely 2 different Mary Hopgoods who were close in age and away from home in 1841.

It’s important to find out more about Mary and where she was in the 1841 census to learn about her proximity to Charles and gain clues to both their lives at this time. Charles, of course, was busy working as a farm laborer for the Wicketts in Launcells Cornwall.  There are several possibilities for Mary. For now I am discounting the ones born in Hampshire and Wiltshire. Ages were often rounded down to the nearest 5 or 0 in this census, making age an unreliable factor for matching purposes and our task more difficult.
  • There was a Mary Hopgood (15) working as a servant for Samuel Vanstone, farmer and his wife Mary at Cranford Village, Woolfardisworthy, Devon near Bideford, Devon. Their neighbour was a Joseph Andrews (29) and his family - the last name hints at a connection although I don’t yet have a Joseph in my tree.
  • There was another Mary Hopgood (20, born Devon) working as a servant for a Charles Cutcliffe, surgeon, and family.  Next door was Mary and William Cutcliffe who had a Fanny Hopgood (65) working in their household. Perhaps Fanny was a relative of Mary, who got her a job next door?  Fanny is not yet in my tree either.
Picture1880 plot map for N St Eleanors PEI, showing properties of Charles ANDREWS and his 2 of his sons John and William (starred in red).
So the mystery remains.  I am unsure which of these, if any, applies to our Mary.  Looking at a map, Launcells, Woolfardisworthy and Barnstaple are strung out in a diagonal row along the north coast of Cornwall and Devon, with Launcells in the south near Stratton, south of Kilkhampton.  Woolfardisworthy is perhaps 30km northeast, and Barnstaple another 40km or so northeast.  Neither are an easy commute.  So how did Charles and Mary communicate?  Did Mary return to her home parish (wherever that was) after the child was born?  Had they pre-arranged a meeting? Did they elope to Stratton?  There is always more questions!

But somehow Charles and Mary met up again in Stratton and married in the Spring of 1842.  They quickly set sail for Canada (perhaps from Bideford Devon) with their young daughter in tow, leaving all behind.  How traumatic!   I do not know of any relatives who traveled to PEI before them, so they were likely on their own. Charles might have saved up a bit of money while working on the farm, and perhaps he even had a bit of an inheritance from his yeoman father, but these are merely guesses; no will has been found.  What we do know is that Charles, Mary and Mary Ann arrived safely in PEI and took up farming, occupying (if not immediately buying) property in North St Eleanors in Lot 17, Prince County.

Between 1844 and 1863, Charles and Mary had 8 more children.  Early PEI records are very scant so most details have come from family sources and published memoirs. In the 1861 census, Charles is listed as a farmer in Lot 17.  In 1862 their young son Albert died as a toddler. 
This segment of a 1880 plot map shows the locations of 3 Andrew properties - Charles had waterfront property! By 1881, only 2 children were still at home: Mary Ann (40) and George (16).  Their other children - John, Charles, William Elizabeth Ann, Thomas, and Flora - had all left home but still remained in PEI. 

By 1901 Charles was a widower, living in the household of his youngest son George and family, along with his unmarried eldest daughter Mary Ann.  From a 1906 published biography of his son William, it says that Charles purchased the Hope farm and located on it at about the time his son William turned 21 (1869) and married (1870).  However, the same article says that  ...

“Charles Andrew came to Prince Edward Island in 1842 and located at North St Eleanors on the property on which he now resides, on which  he has since been successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits. The place is one of the choice farms of the locality and here Mr. Andrew is enjoying life to its utmost. At the age of eighty-five years, he is a fine specimen of strong, rugged manhood, being in the enjoyment of excellent health aside from slight rheumatic troubles.  He has become the father of nine children, six sons and three daughters.”   [from the book “Past and Present of Prince Edward Island”, page 315, published about 1906 in PEI - I wonder which relative wrote and submitted these words?]
So it seems more likely that it was his son William who located on the Hope farm when he turned of age. 

Charles’ health must have quickly taken a turn for the worst because on 20 Oct 1906, Charles passed away at the age of 85.  His obituary, which was published in "The Daily Patriot", says he was 86.  Looking back on his life, Charles seems to have thrived after his new start in PEI, making the most of his improved circumstances and becoming a respected and productive member of his new community.  And if his descendants are anything to go by, he also nurtured a caring family.
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    Authors

    Terry and Claudia Boorman have been interested in their family history since the 1980s.  They live in Victoria BC Canada.

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