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The monthly newsletter to customers of BMDindex, TheGenealogist, Genealogy Supplies and British Data Archive
In this issue:
- Save on top software
- Save on binders
- Top Ten Website
- 1901 Transcripts
- More Parish Records
- A new style of directory - The Royal Blue Book
- New Releases
* Family History Articles - Have you lost an Ancestor? - Go to Jail! by Henry Walter Townsend
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UK EVENTS June 2007
Wiltshire FHS Open Day
Saturday 16th June
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Yorkshire Family History Fair
30th June at The Knavesmire Exhibition Centre, The Racecourse, York
For further details of fairs visit www.genealogysupplies.com/events.htm
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Free Library Subscriptions to Census Transcripts, BMDs & More
If you work for a council library your library could benefit from a 6 month free subscription. Our transcripts are complete for 1841 to 1891 and are fully searchable across Name, occupation, relationship, etc.
WHAT'S NEW ONLINE
[22 May 2007]
Herefordshire 1901 Transcript Completed
We have now completed our Herefordshire 1901 transcript. Bringing the
total number of records to over 110,000, complete with images.
[18 May 2007]
Yorkshire & Berkshire 1901 Transcripts Completed
We have now completed our Yorkshire 1901 transcript. Bringing the total
number of records to nearly 3.6 million complete with images.
We have also completed our Berkshire 1901 transcript. Bringing the total number of records to over 380,000 complete with images.
Both these counties are also available as indices.
[15 May 2007]
Kent Parish Records & Yorkshire 1901 Images
We have now completed our transcript for the parish of Thanet, with years
ranging from:
Baptisms: 1679 - 1938
Marriages: 1679 - 1906
Burials: 1679 - 1909
We have also completed our transcript for the parish of Maidstone, with
years ranging from:
Baptisms: 1707 - 1869
Marriages: 1754- 1864
Burials: 1641 - 1989
We have also added images to our Yorkshire 1901 Transcript, which currently
contains over 3.5 million records
[4 May 2007]
5 New 1901 Census Partial Transcipts
Today we have added the current state of 5 counties to our 1901 Census
Transcript, with an addition of nearly 1.2 million records. These counties
include:
Berkshire 1901 which contains nearly 250,000 records
Cambridgeshire 1901 which contains over 160,000 records
Devon 1901 which contains over 530,000 records
Herefordshire 1901 which contains nearly 85,000 records (complete index
available)
Oxfordshire 1901 which contains over 160,000 records
These counties are also available as an index.
[1 May 2007]
The Genealogist: Top 10 Website
Hitwise monitors the top websites across each industry and has given TheGenealogist.co.uk
a Top Ten award from January - March 2007.
[30 Apr 2007]
Yorkshire 1901 Partial Transcript
We have added over 330,000 records to our Yorkshire 1901 transcript. Bringing
the current number of records to over 3.5 million.
[ 24 Apr 2007]
London 1901 Census Transcript now has images attached of the original
census pages.
We have also completed our Census Transcript for Bedfordshire 1901, complete with images. The census contains over 175,000 searchable records and is also available as an index.
All of the new data has been added into the All-Inclusive subscriptions which cost as little as £4.66 a month.
WHAT'S NEW ON CD
New Software and Software Bundles
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Reunion
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- £74.95
RootsMagic
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RootsMagic UK V3 Platinum Edition with The National Gazetteer 1868 - £49.95
New Data CDs
We hope to regularly include an in-detail look at our most interesting releases and further product in brief. Unfortunately the number of releases doesn’t allow us to do this for each CD but more detailed descriptions can be found online.
The Royal Blue Book 1913 - CDs In Detail
These books are a treasure of detail of those living
and working in London, with a slant on society not found in Kelly’s
Post Office Directories.
This book gives the names and addresses of residents bounded by Hampstead
on the North, Chelsea reaches of the Thames on the South, Finsbury Circus
on the East and Hammersmith on the West.
It has an alphabetic Directory and gives residents street by street. They state that they list the better class of residents so it may avoid the poorer areas within the above bounds.
The book was produced by royal appointment and in addition it lists the royal household and staff.
The book covers officials of every type and interestingly some obscure departments including the Lunacy Commissioners and the Masters in Lunacy.
It covers social aspects such as Ladies Clubs, Principal Club Houses, Social fixtures such as shows, and sporting events. It also covers the various Royal Institutions, Museums and Railways.
The trades and professions section gives the leading suppliers of all sorts of goods and indicates by a small crown if they supply the royal family.
It
also lists all the Aldermen and councillors for the London County Council,
giving their details and addresses.
A full list of Peers of the realm of the day is also included.
Typical entries for households are as follows:-
Abbingdon Villas, Kensington, W
Marloes Rd to Earl's Ct Rd
North Side
Abingdon Court
1 Corser, Miss
2 Kemp, Mrs Dixon
3 Lennox, Mrs
4 de Montagnac, Noel
.....
The sections are bookmarked as follows:-
- Preface
- Late Corrections
- Abbreviations
- General Index
- Index to Advertisements
- Index to Advertisers
- Almanac of 1913
- Principal Cricket, Polo, Racing and other fixtures
- The Royal Family
- Royal Household
- The Ministry
- Foreign Ministers and Consuls
- Family names of peers
- Titles of eldest sons of peers
- House of Commons and members
- Law Courts
- Supreme Court
- High Court
- Club houses
- Bankers in London
- Street Directory
- Alphabetic directory
- Trades and Professions
As well as being a useful directory of London it also provides an insight into how society functioned. The book when first published, would be a must have for anyone of standing, giving the social events of the year.
It would also allow you to use the same suppliers as those that supplied the royal family.
So why should a family historian buy it?
It is a great way of tracking down those London ancestors in a period after available census material and just before the start of the Great War. It also allows you to search through the council and parliamentary staff, peers, royal staff and tradespeople.
This directory contains 1676 pages packed with information and details of those living and working in London.
See www.genealogysupplies.com/whatsnew.php for details of our new releases.
CDs In Brief
The
Directory of Directors 1936 - £17.95
This is a list of 31,600 company directors listed by their name alphabetically and giving details of the company, their position and the address. If you suspect your ancestors had a business then this could give vital information and help you locate it and provide the path to future research.
The book is bookmarked down to two letters of the surname providing easy access to every entry.
The complete list of new releases
The
Directory of Directors 1936 £ 17.95
Yorkshire,
Parson and White's Leeds Directory 1830 £ 17.95
"Who Do You Think You Are?": Trace Your Family History Back to Tudors: £ 16.95
Army
List 1912 - January £ 19.95
Army
List 1918 - August £ 19.95
Bristol & Clifton Directory Wright's 1895 £ 17.95
Burke's Landed Gentry 1886 £ 17.95
Cumberland 1901 Census £ 24.95
Cumberland Census Bundle - 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891 and 1901 £ 99.80
Derbyshire
White's 1857 Directory £ 14.95
Gloucestershire,
Bristol 1933 Kelly's Directory £ 17.45
Gloucestershire, Kelly's Gloucestershire 1935 Directory £ 17.95
How
to Trace Your Family Tree £ 8.99
Introducing
Family History £ 8.95
London, Royal Blue Book: Court Guide January 1913 £ 17.95
Navy List 1868 - June & September £ 19.95
The
Genealogist's Internet (Paperback) by Peter Christian £
11.95
Tracing
your Ancestors in the National Archives £ 29.95
Westmorland
1901 Census £ 16.95
Westmorland
Census Bundle - 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891 and 1901 £
67.80
Wiltshire
1901 Census £ 16.95
Wiltshire
Census Bundle - 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1891 and 1901 £
67.80
Have You Lost An Ancestor? Go To Jail! By Walter Henry Townsend
What can be more exasperating than losing a direct-line ancestor when
your researches are going well?
You may try looking in all the surrounding parishes to no avail. You may
ask yourself whether he joined the army, or was pressed into navy service,
or had he died and his demise somehow been missed from all the records?
Or could your pillar of society have ended up in jail?
Faced with such a dilemma, I searched high and low when my four-times
great- grandfather, Henry Townsend, a day-labourer in the Oxfordshire
village of Shipton- under-Wychwood, disappeared from the Parish Records.
I found his Baptism, his Marriage and the Baptisms of his six children,
then - nothing. His wife, Sarah, died and was buried in the village in
1826, at the age of 79, but Henry did not appear to be mentioned again
after the Christening of his youngest son, my three-times great-grandfather,
Limborough Townsend, in January 1790.
Then, quite by chance, a fellow researcher's casual remark pointed me
in the direction of the Calendar of Prisoners for Oxford Gaol.
I
looked and found:
3 MAR 1790 - LENT ASSIZES. David Fell, High Sheriff.
Committed by F. Penyton and Edward Witts Esqs.
HENRY TOWNSEND 40, JOHN WILKES 36, WILLIAM PERKINS 34, Charged on confession
of Henry Burson (now in Gloucester Gaol) with having committed in the
night of 9 Jan 1790 in company with said Henry Burson, a burglary and
felony in the house of Mr. Benjamin Haynes, grocer of Burford.
What an exciting paper-chase that discovery started, leading me eventually
to The National Archives at Kew which turned up trumps, allowing me to
follow the short life of Henry Townsend to his death and burial. After
establishing that this was indeed my Henry, I found the papers relating
to his trial and uncovered a tale of armed robbery, betrayal by one of
the gang, a speedy arrest and appearance in court within four days.
After Henry's arrest and incarceration in Oxford Gaol, the aggrieved victim
of the robbery, which involved silver plate to the value of some forty
pounds, signed a recognizance that he would forfeit £100 if he failed
to prosecute the culprits.
At the same time a Female Servant who was in the house at the time of
the burglary was made to sign a recognizance for £50 that she would
give evidence. Considering wage-rates at that time these were huge sums
of money, perhaps equating to £20,000 and £10,000 today, so
there was little chance of the prosecution not going ahead.
In court the maid told a harrowing story of her ordeal at the hands of
the burglars and, in doing so, gave a brief description of my ancestor:
The little Man then turned himself towards this informant and said:-
"Damn your soul if you won't hold your tongue I will blow your brains out"
and as he turned and swore, this informant had a sight of one side of his face, and by the size of his Person, seeing his face and by his voice (she, this informant having as she believed heard him often speak before that time), she says that this little man was Henry Townsend of Shipton under Wychwood in the County of Oxford labourer.
It appears that the maid did not let on that she knew the burglar until
after he had been arrested, which probably means that she was well acquainted
with Henry Townsend and was fearful of the consequences if she spoke up.
The result was that, after a very quick trial, Henry Townsend was sentenced
to death along with one of his accomplices, William Perkins. There followed
a reprieve and then a Royal Pardon with the condition that he was transported
to New South Wales for seven years.
After languishing in Oxford Gaol for over a year he was put on board the
Britannia transport ship, anchored in the Thames, and began a seven-month
voyage to the other side of the world as one of 2,000 convicts on the
Third Fleet of ten ships sent out to help establish the new colony.
After
seven months of unimaginable suffering, starving, thirsty, disease ridden,
in chains, kept below decks for almost the whole voyage, the storm-tossed
Henry Townsend, who had never even seen the sea before he boarded the
Britannia, arrived at Sydney Cove.
The Chaplain to the newly formed and struggling colony, the Rev. Richard
Johnson, wrote to a friend at home:
The landing of these people was truly affecting and shocking - great numbers
were not able to walk, nor move hand or foot - such were slung over the
ship side in the same manner as they would sling a cask, a box or anything
of that nature - upon their being brought up to the open air, some fainted
- some died upon Deck and others in the boat before they reached the Shore.
When come on shore many were not able to walk, to stand, or to stir themselves
in the least - hence some were led by others, some creeped upon their
hands and knees, and some were carried upon the Backs of others.
The Misery I saw amongst them is unexpressible - many were not able to
turn or even to stir themselves and in this situation were covered over
almost with their own nastiness - their heads, bodies, cloths, blanket,
all full of filth and Lice.
Scurvy was not the only, nor the worst disease that prevailed amongst
them (one man I visited this morning I think I may say safely had 10,000
lice upon his body and bed) - some were exercised with violent fevers
and others with a no less violent purging and flux - the complaints they
had to make were no less affecting to the ear than their outward condition
was to the eye.
Poor Henry died in December 1791 as the result of the appalling treatment
received at the hands of the private ship owners, who treated the convicts
worse than those slaves they had previously carried. Slaves were valuable,
convicts had no value.
He lived for just seven weeks after he arrived in Australia, and his burial
was recorded in the church register of St. Phillip's Church in Sydney.
He was one of many. Of the 152 convicts that sailed on the Britannia,
69 were dead within the year.
 |
 |
Those Henry left behind at home must have suffered too. Did Henry's wife
Sarah ever learn of his fate, or did she die 35 years later still wondering
what had happened to him, still expecting him to return? She probably
didn't know that once he had been transported there was little chance
of her ever seeing him again.
The British Government, not wishing to deplete the Colony's manpower,
deliberately made no arrangements for bringing the convicts home when
they had served their sentences, in fact returning was actively discouraged.
Henry Townsend, labourer, husband, father, pauper turned criminal, died
14,000 miles from Shipton-under-Wychwood leaving Sarah to raise his children.
Had he survived he would have enjoyed more than twenty grandchildren,
who kept his line going forward until the present day when his descendants
are scattered over the globe.
It may affect the sensibilities of some to discover that an ancestor was
an armed robber, sentenced to death for his crimes, but it cannot be denied
that it adds excitement and a bit of spice to researching ones family
history, especially when the proceedings are so well documented. I have
heard it said that if you have a wealthy man, a criminal or a pauper in
your background, you should find him well documented. And so it turned
out.
My family history research started in the East Riding village of Burton
Fleming, my father's birthplace, but quickly led me south to Oxfordshire,
where my Townsend line flourished for centuries, and then, in this case,
to the other side of the world following an exciting but sad tale of my
namesake, Henry Townsend (1749 - 1791).
Sources and References
Calendar of Prisoners Oxford Assizes 1790, Oxford Record Office.
Shipton Parish Registers, transcripts, Centre for Oxfordshire Studies.
Oxford Assizes 1790 Crown Record Book ASSI 2/25, PRO.
Oxford Assizes 1790 Recognizances ASSI 5 110/14, PRO.
Oxford Assizes 1790 Examinations and Information ASSI 5 110/15, PRO.
Oxford Assizes 1790 Sentencing ASSI 5 110/16, PRO.
Colonial Office New South Wales 1791 CO201/6, PRO.
Exchequer Sheriffs Assize Vouchers E 389/248, PRO.
Home Office Convict Transportation Records HO 11/1, PRO.
Home Office Pardons and Reprieves HO 13/8, PRO.
Treasury Sheriffs Conviction Money T 53/60, PRO.
Treasury Sheriffs Payments T 90/167, PRO.
Charles Bateson, The Convict Ships 1787 - 1868 (1959).
J. Ryan, Ed. The Third Fleet Convicts.
R Hughes, The Fatal Shore (1987).
D T Hawkins, Bound for Australia (1987)
Walter Townsend
Berkshire
Winner Best Article: £100 in S&N vouchers.
This is just one of the exciting stories subscribers are writing on TheGenealogist.co.uk
new family history article system which allows you to read and publish
stories about your family history. The top articles will of course feature
here as well as on the site which is open to all subscribers to The Genealogist.
Email your stories to [email protected] or submit them in the Community Area of TheGenealogist.
So You Think You're Royal?
Sky One, Mondays, 10.00pm
Sky One is currently showing a program exploring royal roots and how many people may be linked to the royal family and the journey of those trying to prove such links.
If you are interested in royal roots try www.Royal-Family-Tree.co.uk
It has a free royal database for you to search, you never know what might turn up.
We also have a range of Peerage CDs and products listed that had land or titles. Just search for Peerage or Landed on Genealogy Supplies.
TOP-SELLING
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