The People of Castle Hedingham: The Clarks

I've been out of touch for a few months after developing a minor but fairly debilitating virus which upsets my balance and can leave me reeling just from sitting in front of a computer or reading a book.  I hope to be on the mend soon and am catching up on the enormous backlog of e-mails and information which has accumulated.

First up is something I'm really proud of: finishing the transcription of the Castle Hedingham parish registers from 1558 to 1991.  (Also available with a search engine via the FreeREG project.)

Castle Hedingham is a beautiful village in Essex, about an hour's drive from where we live and a regular destination for us: in fact, after having been there so often, we decided to marry there in 2004.

When I began looking into my maternal grandmother's origins -- the Clark family -- I discovered Castle Hedingham.  Hedingham Castle obviously is the main attraction, but anyone visiting the castle itself really needs to walk down into the gem of a village below.  We've never had a visit there where we've not met friendly, helpful people who are rightly proud of their village.  (We've also never had a visit there where we've not had an excellent meal at The Bell or quick bite at the Tea Rooms and worthwhile rummage through the local shops!)

My family's roots in Castle Hedingham run deep, even though it has been over 200 years since my last ancestor was actually born there: the Clarks appear in the parish register from its first pages in the last days of the reign of Mary I in 1558.  To my endless disappointment there is a substantial gap in the registers in the early 1700s which breaks the connection between these early Clarks and my lot, so I'm sure some of the early bunch are my predecessors and others are their siblings and cousins, but I can't say which.

The Clarks weren't a family you'd notice in the registers if you weren't looking for them: mostly labourers, mostly illiterate, they left nothing specific behind of their presence in the village.  They were ordinary folk, working someone else's land, living in a house owned by another and receiving support from the parish chest.  In fact, it was due to this parish support that they began to move up in the world.

William Clark (c 1735-1819) is my earliest known Clark ancestor.  He married Mary Ames (1742-1780) of Castle Hedingham and they had a family of six before Mary's early death.

No. 68
Banns of Marriage between William Clarke and Mary Amos were published March 27, and the 3 & 10th of April by J Baldwin Pugh, Curate.
William Clarke of this Parish and Mary Amos of this Parish were Married in this Church by Banns this eaightteenth [sic] Day of April in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and sixty-two [sic - should be sixty-three, as is between records for 5th April 1763 and 19th July 1763] by me J Baldwin Pugh, Curate.
This Marriage was solemnized between Us: Wm. Clarke x his mark Mary Ames x her mark
In the Presence of: John Harrington, Jno. Cordwell

Unable to support his own family, William applied for support from the parish chest and the records there show that disbursements were given for a time, but as the children reached working age -- usually around 10, but sometimes earlier -- they were sent from Castle Hedingham to work and earn money elsewhere.  William's son, William Jr (1766-1844), was sent from Castle Hedingham for Great Chishill, then part of Essex but now in Cambridgeshire (my local South Cambridgeshire: yay!).

At the age of 23 William Jr married the widowed Hannah Robnet (?-1803, possibly from nearby Whittlesford), and very soon afterwards their family began to grow.

No. 89 Banns of marriage between William Clarke and Hanah Robnet both of this Parish were publish'd 18, 25 & 1st of Novr. 1789 by Wm Wade Curate.
The said Wm Clarke of this Parish Bachelor and the said Hanah Robnet of this Parish Widow were married in this Church by Banns this 1st Day of Novr. in the Year One Thousand 7even [sic] Hundred & eighty nine by me, Wm Wade Curate.
This Marriage was solemnized between Us: The x of William Clarke, The x of Hanah Robnet
In the Presence of: The x Mark of Wm [illegible], Thomas Smith

They applied to the parish chest at Great Chishill for support and were refused: William was Castle Hedingham's problem and he and his growing family were sent back.  This was early 1792, by which time William and Hannah had been married for just over two years and had two infant daughters and a set of twins on the way.

The twins were Sarah and William and they were baptised at Castle Hedingham on 24 June 1792.  No details remain of their elder sisters, who perhaps died in a village en route from Great Chishill.  William III not only shared his father's name but also his social status: the disbursements in 1810 from the parish chest record William and four of his siblings receiving support.  The eldest was William, aged 18, and the youngest was Anna, then only 10 and already recorded amongst the poor of the parish.

Four years later William III married Sarah Bocking.  They both signed the register with an X, but William's younger brother Thomas obviously had received some education and legibly signed his name as the witness.

Page 6, No. 18
Marriages solemnized in the Parish of Castle Hedingham in the County of Essex in the Year 1814
William Clark, Bachelor of this Parish and Sarah Bocking, Spinster of this Parish were married in this Church by Banns with Consent of [blank] this thirtieth Day of October in the Year One thousand eight hundred and fourteen By me H Davies Morgan, Curate.
This Marriage was solemnized between us: William Clark x his mark, Sarah Bocking x her mark
In the Presence of: Thomas Clark, Jeffrey Carter

Thomas and Samuel, two of William's younger brothers, provided the route from poverty for the rest of the family.  While William stayed in Castle Hedingham, Thomas and Samuel found work elsewhere.  Samuel married firstly in Piccadilly and a second time, as a widower, in Havant, Hampshire.  What brought him there isn't exactly clear, but his will suggests that he had found employment as a young man working for a childless couple, who had brought him first to London and then to Hampshire.  When they died, they left him their property and business, through which Samuel ultimately would be able to retire as a gentleman of independent means -- a far cry from someone who, not quite 30 years earlier, was living on handouts from the parish chest!  Before his retirement he worked as a victualler and then a shopkeeper, and finally as an innkeeper.

Samuel sent support to his family in Castle Hedingham: William left behind being an agricultural labourer and became a horse keeper, then an apprentice to a shopkeeper on Coggeshall Road or Lane (it changes from record to record) in the town of Braintree, ultimately becoming the store owner.  Thomas also became a horse keeper and then bought the King's Head in Pebmarsh, near to Castle Hedingham, where his name could be seen on the list of owners just inside the door until the pub closed last year.  (Good news: the pub might be re-opening!)

William III's first marriage, to Sarah Bocking, had seen its share of tragedy, with three of their four children in infancy or early childhood (and the fourth seems to have disappeared completely) and Sarah dying in childbirth with the youngest.  It was unsurprising that William chose to leave Castle Hedingham.  He remarried more than 20 years after Sarah's death, to Harriet Mitchell, daughter of a miller from Maidstone, Kent.  William was 50 to Harriet's 34.

1842 Marriages solemnized at the Parish Church in the Parish of Little Waltham in the County of Essex
No. 31
When Married: August 24th
Name and Surname: William Clark, Harriet Mitchell
Age: full age, full age
Condition: Widower, Spinster
Rank or Profession: Horsekeeper
Residence at the Time of Marriage: Little Waltham, Little Waltham
Father's Name and Surname: William Clark, John Mitchell
Rank or Profession of Father: Labourer, Mill-Wright
Married in the Parish Church according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Established Church after Banns by me, Thomas Fisher Offtg. Minister
This Marriage was solemnized between us, William Clark x his mark, Harriet Mitchell
in the Presence of us, Thomas Clark, Lidia Bond x her mark

With his new wife, William had a second family of two sons and a daughter.  The younger son, Thomas (the elder, naturally, was called William), was born above the family store in Coggeshall Lane, Braintree and would one day inherit the King's Head in Pebmarsh from his uncle and namesake, Thomas.  Thomas and Thomas' tenure at the King's Head was inadvertently combined into that of one individual on the aforementioned list of pub owners, which shows just one Thomas Clark running the place for more than 60 years!

To make matters a bit more confusing, Thomas-the-elder had been twice widowed when he married Lydia Bond (one of the witnesses to William and Harriet's marriage above) on a leap year, 29 February 1844, at Castle Hedingham.  She had a niece, also named Lydia, who came to Pebmarsh to work as a barmaid at the King's Head.  Thomas-the-younger, when old enough to work, also went to his uncle and aunt in Pebmarsh and took up his position behind the bar.  Within a few years, there was a second wedding in the family between a Thomas Clark and a Lydia Bond.  The younger couple named their first two children Thomas and Lydia and the 1871 census records three Thomas Clarks and three Lydia Clarks all at the same address.

As their family continued to grow, Thomas-the-younger and Lydia (also-the-younger) moved from the King's Head around the corner into Stanley Hall, looking after it for its owners.  Their second son, William (naming shock!) became the owners' gamekeeper.  Thomas and Lydia later moved to the other end of The Street in Pebmarsh to Great House Farm, where this photograph of them was taken in 1902 on their daughter Amy's wedding day:

From the local paper: "WEDDING OF MISS AMY C. CLARK [7 May 1902] -- On Wednesday a marriage was solemnized between this lady, who is the daughter of Mr. Thomas Clark, of Great House, who is the respected churchwarden of the parish, and Mr. Felix Coe, of Pentlow, and formerly of Little Maplestead. ..."

I located Stanley Hall quite by accident: while driving in the area, a rabbit ran out in front of my car and then froze in the middle of the road.  I swerved to avoid it, pulling into a partly-concealed drive.  Since I was now heading in that direction, and without any obvious turning place, I continued until I reached Stanley Hall.  The owner was in the grounds and came over to tell me that it was private property.  I explained how I had come to be there and the family connection and he couldn't have been more welcoming: he gave me permission to explore the grounds and house freely, and then invited me to join him and his guests for lunch.  They were proposing to stage an opera and I was privileged to sit in on this initial planing session (which made my music degree background come to the fore); I'm delighted to see how successful the programme has become and when the kids are just a bit older, will bring them there to see a production in the grounds of their ancestors' former residence.  My only regret was that Stanley Hall did not in any way appear to be haunted, local legends aside, so in the absence of being able to ask my ancestors questions about their lives, I have had to continue the hard slog of reading old records.

Which brings me to the parish registers.  I had been travelling back and forth to the magnificent Essex Record Office (ERO) in Chelmsford (it is definitely worth a visit and one of the best in the country: Cambridgeshire, are you reading this?), but had bought a second-hand microfiche reader so I could study the registers at my leisure.  I misunderstood how to complete the order form and the staff at the ERO were kind enough to ring me to ask if I'd really intended to order quite as many fiche as I had: the listed price was per fiche, not per parish.  I considered the cost implications for a moment and decided to place the order on the grounds that I'd probably wind up buying it all eventually.  In return, I promised myself that I'd transcribe the Castle Hedingham registers and make the results available to as many people as possible.

That was the autumn of 2000 and here I am, a mere eleven(!) years later with the complete transcriptions now available -- in my defence, it has been a very busy eleven years.  Many thanks to Simon Daw of Castle Hedingham for hosting them on his website all these years and for forwarding to me letters from fellow researchers who have found their family in them.  I've been noting down records of interest for years now and think I'll blog about some of the interesting people and events the registers have recorded.