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James JEFFERY (1757-1815) - #46 (52 Ancestors)

11/20/2015

5 Comments

 
Theme: Change     |     Images: Click on many to enlarge 
My maternal JEFFERY line hailed from the Isle of Wight off the south coast of Hampshire, England.  Others have traced this family back as far Richard JEFFERY, Yeoman of Nettlestone Farm, who was buried in St Helens, Isle of Wight in 1686.  Richard’s great-grandson James JEFFERY was born in 1757 in Brook, Isle of Wight and lived in Newport.  Their surname (in a variety of different spellings) has been found in records for this Island as far back as the 1300s.  So the family has deep roots on the  Isle of Wight (IOW), living in several different communities over the generations.​
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JEFFERY Family Locations on the Isle of Wight, England including Nettestone, St Helens, Newchurch, Brook, Newport, Carisbrook, Whitwell
James JEFFERY, my 4-times-great grandfather, was baptised in Brook IOW on 6 Nov 1757, the oldest son of Stephen JEFFREY Jr  and Betty EDGIN, and the second of their nine children (although at least four died very young).  James became a land owner and shop keeper.  By 1783 he was living in Carisbrooke near Newport when he married Jane Saunders RYDER in Newport IOW at St Thomas-a-Becket Church.  They had nine children between 1784 and 1800.  His three oldest children (Eliza, James Jr, Stephen) were baptized in Whitwell IOW, and his next daughter Hannah (my 3x-great-grandmother) was baptized in Carisbrooke on 21 Nov 1790.  The remainder of his children (George, Sarah, Edward, John and Jane) were baptized in Newport, the second largest city situated in the centre of the island. Three of these children (Sarah, Edward and John) died as infants between 1794 and 1798. James' mother died in 1799. Then his wife Jane died in July 1804.  Life had turned quite grim indeed.
​

All of this must have been terribly hard to bear.  But with a young family to care for, he quickly remarried on 4 Dec 1804 to the widow Elizabeth PEDDER (nee CHESTLE) in Carisbrooke.  Their daughter Sarah (perhaps named after her deceased half-sister) was baptized in Newport in March 1806.  Later that same year, James’ oldest daughter Eliza married in Winchester on the mainland.  A couple of months later on 14 Jan 1807, his oldest son James JEFFERY Jr married Lucy CAFFIN in Chichester Sussex and then returned to the Isle of Wight to raise his family.  Eliza also returned to the island.

James life seemed to be back on track, surrounded by family.  But change was in the offing.​

We can only speculate on the reasons why James decided to emigrate to Canada.  Sometime in 1809 James’ sister (or cousin?) Ann died at the age of 50.  James was two years older, so Ann's death would have been yet another reminder of his own mortality.  Perhaps a mid-life crisis played its part, and a new start would have sounded appealing. The grass was definitely green in Prince Edward Island, and the advertisements for colonial settlers presented it as a golden opportunity.  So in 1809 James sold some property, bought supplies and sailed to PEI where he bought two large parcels of land totaling 694 acres in Lot 17 from the proprietor Harry Childeroy COMPTON.  We know that James’s son George was also in PEI in Nov 1809 as he was a witnesses on one of the land transaction documents.  

At least some of his family did not emigrate until the following year.  Family documents mention at least one unnamed family member sailing from England on 14 Aug 1810 and landing 5 Nov 1810 in Charlotte Town.   It is a real shame that passenger lists haven’t survived or may not have been created that far back. But from newspaper accounts of ship arrivals, perhaps they were aboard the brig “Louisa”, arriving in Charlottetown on 5 Nov 1810 from Portsmouth.
Just eight days later on 13 November 1810, James’ daughter Hannah JEFFERY married Thomas Compton COMPTON, son of Harry COMPTON, proprietor of Lot 17 who had sold them the land.   Unless this was an arranged marriage, Hannah must have emigrated earlier in order to meet and be courted by Thomas, and have time to plan the wedding to follow the arrival of more of her relatives.  Or did Thomas go to England for business or family matters, and meet her there or on board ship?  There are several possible scenarios.  The Comptons had settled in  PEI in 1803 and had built a large home which they named "The Pavillon".  Hannah at least was soon living in comfort, as she would have quickly taken up residence there with her new husband.

Not everyone emigrated.  James oldest two children Eliza and James as well as his daughter Jane, his father and siblings, remained in England.  Those in PEI attending Hannah's wedding were probably James and his 2nd wife Elizabeth, Stephen, Hannah, George and young Sarah.

The process of felling trees, clearing land, planting crops, building a house and setting up a business must have been daunting and filled with hardship, at least initially.​  And perhaps business was not as profitable as hoped for. So not everyone stayed.  James must have become disillusioned and decided to move back to the Isle of Wight, leaving on 27 Jun 1812. Just days before sailing he signed his will, summarized as follows:
Will of James Jeffery, Richmond, Richmond, PEI [1757-24 April, 1815], yeoman. Bequests: to Charles and the other 2 children, sons or daughters of [his son] James Jeffery & Lucy Jeffery, late Lucy Coffin of Chichester in the city of Chichester, County of Sussex; to daughter Elizabeth Pring?; to son Stephen Jeffery; to daughter Anne or Hannah Compton; to son George; to daughter Jane; to daughter Sarah Lawford Chestle-Jeffery; to Edward Lawrence, son of Francis Lawrence, one farm called Welling [130 acres], late in occupation of John Welling. Witnesses: Thos. Nickerson, George Coles, Daniel Davis. Will signed 22 June, 1812; probate granted 5 Sep., 1816.
A codicil stated that the will (which was once reported missing) was dated 20 Jun 1812 and the codicil itself was dated 22 Jun 1812.  Generally speaking, James divided his estate equally among his children and his three grand children of that time.  I don’t know yet how Edward and Francis Lawrence were connected.

We do know that Hannah remained in PEI after her father left, as did Stephen and George.  Sarah was still very young , but as of 1826 she was living in PEI as well.  James’s second wife Elizabeth died in 1829 on the Isle of Wight, so she presumably left PEI with her husband, assuming she went there in the first place.  James himself died before her in 1815 in Carisbrooke IOW, only three years after returning to England.  He was buried in Church Litten Park, Newport on the Isle of Wight.

I would like to acknowledge the original research of Betty M Jeffery and Carter W Jeffery, my main source for this story. They published their book  "The Jeffery Family of the Isle of Wight and Prince Edward Island" in 1998.


REFERENCES and FURTHER READING

The Jeffery Family of the Isle of Wight and Prince Edward Island, by Betty M. Jeffery and Carter W. Jeffery, 1998
​PEI Heritage Buildings - blog by Carter W Jeffery
Early Wills of PEI, Summaries - Island Register site
Isle of Wight - wikipedia
Map of Isle of Wight, England - myGoogle Maps
​
I have posted additional  information on my COMPTON  families elsewhere on this website.

"52 Ancestors" is a reference to the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge I am participating in.  
Reference the No Story Too Small blog by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow for more details.  
It is giving me  the much needed incentive to write and publish my family stories.
5 Comments
Jon Horridge
3/16/2016 05:00:22 pm

Do you have any information about Cass Jeffrey? I believe he was from the Isle of Wight, joined the army and was posted to Newfoundland then St Helena to guard Napoleon returning on N's death to the e Isle of Wight.

Reply
Susan Glousher
8/23/2022 04:53:46 pm

Jon I have some various records on Cass if you email me.

Reply
Claudia Boorman
8/23/2022 11:27:23 pm

Hi Susan, I have just forwarded your email address on to Jon so he can respond privately. We're still trying to figure out if or how Cass Jeffery connects with my Jeffery line. We have found N/C baptism record for "Cassy Jeffry" at the Newport St James Street Chapel, listing his parents as Willm & Jane Jeffry of Carisbrook . Have you been able to push the line back further or sideways to Cass's siblings? How are you connected to Cass?

Susan Glousher
8/24/2022 07:55:58 am

Hi Claudia. Hi I can see you have done some very thorough work. I prob don't have any more than you but have tried to connect Cass (and others) to my line of John Jeffery and Elizabeth Dyer. I have communicated with Betty over the years and recently did my DNA. We show a link somewhere so its a shame we cant connect. I don't fully understand DNA results yet so have some homework to do. Please feel free to use my email for future correspondence glousher@cabletv.on.ca (Goderich, On, Canada)

Claudia Boorman
3/17/2016 12:41:42 pm

I do not have Cass Jeffery in my tree, so don't yet know if he's a relative. Are you?

If you search on familysearch.org you will find him, born about 1786 and died 1866. He is listed in the 1841, 1851 and 1861 England census with his wife and family living in Noke Common, Northwood IOW. His wife Anna Maria (perhaps Elliffe) was born in St Johns Newfoundland, and his oldest son William was born abt 1818 in James Town St Helena. All the rest of his many children seem to have been born in Hampshire / IOW in England. In 1851 Cass is listed as an Army Pensioner receiving £32 per annum income.

His daughter Edith seems the best researched in online trees (familysearch, ancestry). One tree on ancestry by Benjamin Hodgson says Cass was the son of William Jeffery and Mary Hayden. Other trees say his mother's name was Jane. Most list no parents. No one seems to have gone further back. Have you?

I did find a document on ancestry from the collection "UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Registers of Soldiers Who Served in Canada, 1743-1882" where they list Cass Jeffery of the 66 Regiment of Foot, rate 1/9/2?, date of admission 10?/11/2? [indexed as 12 Nov 1822], residence S hampton, died 31.10.66, f 135.72 / 55.

I couldn't find any references in my quick search that directly link Cass to Napoleon, who was detained on the small island of St Helena from 1815-1821. But the timing is right if Cass was there around 1818 when his son William was born until perhaps 1822 when he was pensioned. His regiment surely would have been involved in securing the island and the prisoner. Cass's other children were born between 1823 and 1844 in England according to other researchers.

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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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