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Mary SWEETLOVE (1728-1778) - #7 (52 Ancestors)

2/19/2015

6 Comments

 
Theme: Love
With a last name like SWEETLOVE, how could I not write about my 5G Grandmother Mary SWEETLOVE this Valentine’s week?  Mary was christened on 9 Jun 1728 in St Clements, Hastings on the south coast of East Sussex in England.  Her father Thomas SWEETLOVE was a well to do gentleman and, according to his will and probate of 1753, had properties and investments in several parishes including nearby Mountfield (to the NE), Peasmarsh (north of Battle), as well as in the Town and Port of Hastings . 

Thomas was in his mid 50s when he died, leaving behind his widow Mary HUCKSTEP and 2 surviving children: his son John, aged 28 and a daughter Mary, aged 25. Their first son William had died as an infant.  Both John and Mary were both still single.  Thomas provided his widow with a healthy annuity after his death, and appointed John and Mary as joint executors, with help from an appointed Trustee.  Son John inherited the bulk of the estate, while Mary was granted an outright sum of £1000 - quite a significant amount in those days.  According to measuring worth.com, the value of that amount of income or wealth would now be at least £132,900!  Or if you want to consider the amount of economic power it granted her in today’s economy, the worth would be more like £13 million!!!  

So with these appealing prospects, perhaps it is no surprise that on May 1st of the following year, Mary married Henry RICHARDSON (1727-1798) of nearby Brede Parish.  I wonder how and when they met?  I would hope that they knew each other and were perhaps even engaged before her father died, causing them to delay the wedding for the mourning period, but this is pure speculation.  The Richardsons seem to have been prosperous land holders as well, and Brede is not far from Hastings, so it is possible that the families knew one another socially or through business dealings.

In another sad twist of fate, Mary’s brother John died just 2 months after Mary’s marriage and, in Aug 1754, Mary was sworn in as sole administrator of her father’s will.  As John had not yet married and was without issue, his father’s will stipulated that his share of the estate revert to his sister Mary.  She was now a very wealthy woman.
Picture
Gorgeous view looking south towards Hastings, Sussex, England. In the foreground is St George's lower churchyard on Brede Hill.
PictureWestern border of St George's upper churchyard in Brede Sussex, with Church House in the background.
What a tumultuous time this must have been for Mary and her mother.  Mary had lost both her father and brother and gained a husband, all while trying to deal with all the legal estate hassles and adjusting to her changed circumstances and grief.  On top of it all, the calendar had just changed in 1752 (when England finally adopted the Gregorian calendar, they had to remove 11 days in September of that year and shift the New Year back to January 1 - the previous Julian calendar started their year on March 25).  It must have seemed as if her whole world had turned upside down.

Then the following year her first son Harry was born and baptized, but her joy was short lived when he died just 2 months later. Money obviously could not prevent such a steady stream of deaths and heartache.

Mary went on to bear 8 more children between 1756 and 1773, including
another Henry (my ancestor), a John (who also died as an infant), and another John (a farmer in Brede who, in spite of being the executor of his father’s will in 1798, ended up in a workhouse by 1851).  Baptisms for all 9 children were dutifully recorded in the parish registers of St George's Church in Brede Sussex.  

The family home in Brede was called Church House,
which is now listed on the English Heritage site.  It is unclear in what year this Henry and Mary Richardson took up residence there.  Certainly by 1777 when their oldest son Henry married, Henry (Sr) gifted Church House to the newlyweds.   It could be that Henry and Mary then moved to Firelight in Hastings. 

Henry seems to have had a good head for business, because he operated a successful kiln works, manufacturing bricks, tiles, and pottery from the ample supply of clay on one of his Brede properties.

A book by John Manwaring Baines entitled "Sussex Pottery" reports ...
“Some time between 1736 and 1761 the land (Site of the old Brede Pottery) was acquired by Henry Richardson, who lived at Church House. Whether he actually started the works is not known, but the existence of a three acre Kiln Field, shown on a survey in 1715 suggests there was already some pottery or brickmaking activity in the area. We do know that Brede works became quite extensive for in 1786 Richardson received 2s 6d a load for carrying 14 load of potsherds to repair roads in the Parish."
On 12 May 1778, just one year after her oldest son’s marriage, Mary (SWEETLOVE) RICHARDSON was buried in St George's upper churchyard in Brede.  Any gravestone that might have been erected no longer exists.  Nor is there a record of why she died at the age of 50.   Her death would have been very hard on her young family.  Her husband Henry went on to marry twice more, causing complicated and not always congenial family relations which had repercussions for generations to come.  But that’s another story.

I really do hope that Mary did experience “sweet love” as her maiden name seemed to predict, in spite of her life having been riddled with hardship as well as privilege.
6 Comments
Charlotte Philippona
1/17/2017 02:03:32 pm

Thank you so much for all the family Richardson information you have assembled. Mary Richardson second married the Rev. Richard Wadeson in Brede. R.W. is my Great-, Great-, Great Grandfather Wadeson. My mother's mother , Ellen Charlotte Wadeson from Windsor ,being my english grandmother. I am living in the neighborhood of Amsterdam.From this english family line ,everybody is gone , so there's no one to ask family questions ,like ; how many children had Richard W.& Mary R. One Henry Wadeson born probably 1800 ( When did Mary die and where ? ). I hope you have the opportunity and time to send me an answer , if you please , I would be very grateful and thank you in advance, Kind regards , Charlotte Philippona , from Huizen North Holland

Reply
Caudia Boorman
1/18/2017 10:58:14 am

Hi Charlotte
It's great to hear from you. I have sent you a private message via email in the hope that we can explore our connection further. Thanks.

Reply
Pam Hardy
2/25/2017 11:57:07 pm

Hi. I wonder if in your research you have found Annie
Elizabeth Sweetlove, who was born 1871 and married Joseph Hardy, a waterman age 22 in March 1891. Her father was Samuel Sweetlove, a fireman. Florence Sweetlove also witnessed the marriage. The couple were my late husband's g.grandparents. The mystery I want to solve is that according to my late father-in-law, Joseph also kept a pub called the Princess Alice, but I am struggling to find proof of this. It would have had to be close to the Thames so he could work as a waterman, possibly leaving Annie to run the pub. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Pam

Reply
Claudia Boorman
3/8/2017 03:12:01 pm

Thanks so much for your comments. You didn’t mention where your husband’s family lived. Nevertheless, I have done a bit of digging into his family for you, and uncovered Joseph Hardy and a second wife Selina Ellen Hardy in the 1911 England census [not properly indexed] living with their blended family at 91 Boyd Rd, Tidal Basin E, West Ham, Essex. I think that Annie Elizabeth had died late in 1906 (probably just after the birth of her daughter Ivey Florence Hardy) and Joseph remarried less than a year later. In 1911 Joseph is listed as a beerhouse keeper (no longer a waterman or lighterman) and his son Thomas age 16 was a barman. No name of the establishment is given, but it sounds like a pub to me:)

I have checked online on websites and old maps and found that Tidal Basin / Victoria Docks was right on the River Lea, close to the Thames. This area is part of Canning Town in the West Cam Registration District. Boyd Road and even the nearby church of St Lukes no longer exist. Perhaps there is a way to access old business directories or gazetteers to access such details for that area and era.

At present I have no way of knowing if I am related to your late husband’s Sweetlove ancestors. I’m sorry to say that I have done very little research on my own Sweetlove branch. My 5-times-great grandmother Mary Sweetlove (baptised in 1728 in Hastings) had only 2 siblings that I know of. One died as an infant, and the other as a young adult without issue. So Mary didn’t have any nieces or nephews to carry on the name. I’d have to push the line back at least another generation in order to track collateral Sweetlove lines, but have had no success so far. Some say that Thomas was baptised in 1699 in Lewes, son of Thomas and Elizabeth, but I don’t think that has been proven. There’s always more to research.

I would like to send you further details on what I have found via email, plus learn more about your Hardy branch, but my blog host has already erased your contact information. Could you please send me another comment or a message through my “contact” page so I can send you a private email?

Reply
Claudia Boorman
3/8/2017 09:38:00 pm

Hi again Pam,
Further to my other comment posted earlier this evening …. Using google, I found the following website about a pub with the right name near Stratford, which was only about 4 or 5 km from where your Joseph Hardy lived in 1911. Modern maps place this pub near the intersection of Romford Road and the A114 …

Princess Alice, 329 Romford Road, Forest Gate, Stratford E7
http://pubshistory.com/EssexPubs/Stratford/pralice.shtml

The site has old photos, plus a list of names of people from various directories and census over the years that presumable relate to this pub. Your Joseph is not listed but the list may not be complete.

Searching elsewhere on this same site, there is a listing in the West Ham 1886 Kellys Trade Directory in Essex:
Hardy Joseph, working cutler, 4a West Ham Lane

This address (aka the A112) is potentially only about 3km from where your Joseph lived in 1911, although the numbering system may no longer be the same, I think. But perhaps this address was near the intersection of W Ham Lane and Mark Street?

Please let me know if you see this.
Thanks, Claudia

Reply
Pam Hardy
3/8/2017 11:03:03 pm

Hi Claudia
How nice to wake up to your emails this morning! It's still only 7am, but abeautiful early Spring morning here in East Yorkshire (near the old town of Beverley if you're interested). I will have a proper look at the info you sent later today. My email address is hardy_pam@hotmail.com if you would like to switch to that route. Many thanks. Pam

Reply



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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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