William – Our Casbon Journey

Shoreditch—a Tale of Woe

March 14, 2020 admin2 Comments

Today’s post starts with a record I recently found on Ancestry. The record comes from a register of admissions and discharges from the Shoreditch workhouse in London.^[1]

Detail from an alphabetical register of admissions and discharges, Shoreditch workhouse, 1827, showing entries for William and Sophia Casbon, admitted on 13 March and again on 11 April. (Click on image to enlarge)

The record shows that William Casbon, age 43, and Sophia Casbon, age 27, were admitted to the workhouse 13 March 1827 and discharged 9 April “with 3/ [shillings?].” They were admitted again from 11 to 30 April 1827, and this time discharged “with 25/ to redeem his Furniture [or Furnishing?].” They were admitted to wards 8 and 10, presumably men’s and women’s wards, respectively.

Who were William and Sophia Casbon and why were they in the Shoreditch workhouse? A marriage record from 1822 shows that William Casbon, a bachelor, married Sophia Phillips, a spinster, in the Parish of St. Matthew, Bethnal Green, London, on 1 December 1822.^[2] Bethnal Green is a short distance east of Shoreditch. I know this is the correct couple because of another record presented later in this post.

Detail from Register of Marriages, St. Matthew, Bethnal Green, 1822.
Note that William and Sophia each signed with their marks.

Based on the ages written in the workhouse register, William would have been born in about 1784 and Sophia in about 1800. I have an extensive database of baptismal records for Casbon and related surnames throughout England. Baptisms were recorded for William Caseburn in 1780 (Downham, Norfolk), William Casebourn in 1788 (Soham, Cambridgeshire), and William Casbolt in 1789 (Linton, Cambridgeshire), but there is nothing to connect them to William of Shoreditch. The marriage of John Casbon to Elizabeth Toon was recorded at St. Leonard’s Shoreditch in 1783, so it’s possible they were either William’s parents or related to him in some way.^[3] There is no evidence that William comes from the Meldreth or Peterborough Casbon lines.

Sophia Phillips was a common name and there are many corresponding baptismal records. Without knowing the names of her parents, it is impossible to tell where or when she was born.

Shoreditch is an ancient suburb of London and is now part of inner London. By the early to mid 1800s, it was mainly a lower and working class area.

Detail of an 1827 map of London; approximate location of Shoreditch is circled; arrow points to St. Leonard’s Church; John & Christopher Greenwood, “Map of London, From an actual Survey made in the Years 1824, 1825 & 1826” (London: Greenwood, Pringle & Co., 1827); digital image, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection (https://davidrumsey.com : accessed 13 Mar 2020); Creative Commons License. (Click on image to enlarge)

Workhouses were institutions designed to support the poor with food, lodging and medical care. While charitable in nature, conditions in the workhouses were often so bad that only the truly desperate would seek admission. “Men, women, children, the infirm, and the able-bodied were housed separately and given very basic and monotonous food such as watery porridge called gruel, or bread and cheese. All inmates had to wear the rough workhouse uniform and sleep in communal dormitories.”^[4] Thus, we can infer that William and Sophia were admitted to the workhouse because of difficult circumstances. They would have desired to get out as soon as their situation allowed.

The couple had at least three children. A daughter, Elizabeth, was baptized at the City of London Lying-in Hospital, St. Luke’s Parish, on 26 August 1829.^[5] Elizabeth’s burial at St. Leonard Church, Shoreditch, was recorded on 29 July 1831.^[6] A son named Joseph or John (both names are used in different records) was born in about December 1832 and died at Shoreditch workhouse one year later.^[7] Finally, another son, James, was born at the Shoreditch workhouse on 30 May 1834.^[8]

Seven weeks after James was born, Sophia was interviewed at the Shoreditch workhouse and revealed some startling news.^[9]

Statement of Sophia Casbon, Shoreditch Poor Law Union, 21 Jul 1834. (Click on image to enlarge)

July 21
Sophia Casben – No 5 New Court Webb Sqr
Saith that she is 33 years of age is the wife
of Wm Casben to whom she was married in
Bethnal Green Church on 1^st Decr – 1821 and
by him hath one child named James aged
7 weeks –
She has been informed that when she was
married to him he had a wife then living.
So she was informed by a Mrs Thompson who
then lived in No [blank] Brick Lane above[?] a
silk winder –
That she hath not seen him for above
4 months – that she doth not know where
he resides or is to be found –

So, we learn the terrible news that Sophia has been abandoned by her husband and that he married her when he was already married to another woman.

There is a marriage record of William Casbourn to Margaret Black at St. James Church, Westminster in May 1817^[10] and records of children born to this marriage, but there is insufficient evidence to prove that he is the man who later married Sophia. It is not possible to positively identify William through later census or death records. Thus, we lose track of him at Sophia’s last sighting in early 1834.

I’ve drawn up a chronology of this family’s story as far as I’ve been able to trace it.

About 1784: William Casbon is born, location unknown
About 1800: Sophia Phillips is born, location unknown
1 December 1822: William and Sophia are married, St. Matthew Church, Bethnal Green
13 March 1827: William and Sophia are admitted to Shoreditch workhouse; discharged
9 April
11 April 1827: William and Sophia are admitted to Shoreditch workhouse; discharged 30 April
26 August 1829: Elizabeth Casbon, daughter of William & Sophia, is baptized, City of London Lying-in Hospital, St. Luke Parish, Westminster
29 Jul 1831: Elizabeth is buried, St. Leonard Church, Shoreditch
About December 1832: Joseph/John Casbon is born (based on age given in subsequent records)
26 September 1833: Sophia and Joseph/John Casbon are admitted to Shoreditch workhouse; discharged 5 October^[11]
10 October 1833: Sophia and Joseph/John Casbon are admitted to Shoreditch workhouse; Joseph/John dies there 7 December and is buried 17 December at St. Leonard Church, Shoreditch; Sophia is discharged 18 December^[12]
6 January 1834: Sophia is admitted, Shoreditch workhouse; discharged 10 January^[13]
15 February 1834: Sophia is admitted, Shoreditch workhouse; discharged
24 February^[14]
24 February 1834: Sophia is readmitted, Shoreditch workhouse; discharged
27 February^[15]
30 May 1834: James Casbon is born at Shoreditch workhouse (baptized at St. Leonard Church, Shoreditch, 19 June 1834)^[16]
21 July 1834: Sophia reports her husband missing for the previous four months
15 August 1835: Sophia and James are admitted to Shoreditch workhouse; both are transferred to Enfield (poor house for infants) 20 August^[17]
18 March 1836: Sophia is admitted to Shoreditch workhouse; she dies there 8 July^[18]
11 July 1836: Sophia is buried, St. Leonard Church, Shoreditch^[19]
1841 census: James, age 7, is living at Enfield, District Workhouse for Shoreditch Poor Children^[20]
24 October 1843: James Casbon (age incorrectly listed as 11)—— is admitted to Shoreditch workhouse; unknown discharge date^[21]

We can see that from September 1833 until her death on 8 July 1836, Sophia was admitted to the Shoreditch workhouse on multiple occasions. Although the circumstances are not described, we can assume that she must have been desperately poor, and possibly ill for much of this time. Her young son Joseph died at the workhouse in 1833 and her next son, James, was born there five months later. In August 1835, Sophia and James were transferred to the Shoreditch Infant Poor House located at Enfield, about 10 miles north of London. James probably remained there throughout his early childhood. Sophia was probably in the final stages of an illness (tuberculosis?) when she was admitted to the Shoreditch workhouse for the last time in March 1836 and remained there until her death in July.

James, now an orphan, was still in the Children’s workhouse at Enfield when the 1841 census was taken. The last record we have of him is his admission to the Shoreditch workhouse in October 1843. It is unknown what happened to him after that, but as an orphan in Victorian London, it is unlikely that his story had a happy ending.

Detail from an alphabetical register of admissions and discharges, Shoreditch workhouse, 1843, showing admission of James Casborn on 24 October; the meaning of the “X” markings under “Discharged” and “Remarks” is unknown. (Click on image to enlarge).

The story of William and Sophia Casbon and their family is a sad addition to Our Casbon Journey. Their tragic tale would have been fitting for a Charles Dickens novel, minus the happy ending.

[1] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60391/ : accessed 10 Mar 2020) >Hackney >Shoreditch >Alphabetical List Workhouse Admissions with Subsequent Discharges, 1823–1831 >image 51 of 190; citing London Metropolitan Archives; reference no. P91/LEN/1336.
[2] St. Matthews, Bethnal Green, Register of Marriages, vol 12 [1818–1823], p. 224, no. 672; imaged as “Parish registers for St. Matthew’s Church, Bethal Green, 1745–1900,” browsable images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/008040614?cat=110313 : accessed 10 Mar 2020); Film DGS 8040614, item 4, image 774 of 838.
[3] Westminster, St. Leonard Parish, Register of Marriages [1883–1785], p. 49, no. 145; imaged as “London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754–1932, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1623/ : accessed 12 March 2020) > Hackney >St Leonard, Shoreditch >1783–1875 >image 25 of 263; London Metropolitan Archives, P91/LEN/A/01/Ms 7498/13.
[4] Peter Higginbotham, “Introduction,” The Workhouse: story of an institution … (http://workhouses.org.uk/intro/ : accessed 13 Mar 2020).
[5] Middlesex, Saint Luke Parish, City of London Lying in Hospital, Register of baptisms, 1829, p. 25, no. 196; imaged as “London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813–1917,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1558/ : accessed 12 March 2020) > Islington >City of London Lying-In Hospital, City Road, Finsbury >1820–1837 >image 161 of 296; London Metropolitan Archives, DL/T/013/017.
[6] Middlesex, St. Leonard Shoreditch, Register of Burials [1829–1832], p. 237, no. 1893; imaged as “London, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813–2003,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1559/ : accessed 12 Mar 2020) >Hackney >St Leonard, Shoreditch >1829–1832 >image 121 of 153; London Metropolitan Archives, P91/LEN/A/012/MS07499/019.
[7] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” >Hackney >Shoreditch >Alphabetical List Workhouse Admissions with Subsequent Discharges, 1832–1836 >image 34 of 173; London Metropolitan Archives, P91/LEN/1337.
[8] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” (same as above), image 36 of 173.
[9] Shoreditch, Westminster, England, Poor Law settlement papers, vol. “H” [Dec 1833–May 1838], p. 63, 21 Jul 1834; imaged as “London, England, Selected Poor Law Removal and Settlement Records,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2651/ : accessed 10 March 2020) >Shoreditch >Settlement Papers >1833 Dec–1838 May >image 74 of 309; citing London Metropolitan Archives, London; reference no. P91/LEN/1270.
[10] “England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9852/ : accessed 12 Mar 2020), William Casbon & Sophia Phillips; citing FHL film no. 1042319.
[11] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” Ancestry, same as above, image 34 of 173.
[12] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” (same as above). Also, Middlesex, St. Leonard Shoreditch, Record of Burials [1832–1833], p. 241, no. 1921 (buried as “John Casburn); imaged as “London, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813–2003,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1559/ : accessed 12 Mar 2020) >Hackney >St Leonard, Shoreditch >1831–1833 >image 59 of 61; citing London Metropolitan Archives, DL/T/069/049.
[13] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” (same as above) >image 35
of 173.
[14] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” (same as above).
[15] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” (same as above).
[16] “England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9841/ : accessed 12 Mar 2020), entry for James Casben.
[17] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” (same as above), image 38 of 173.
[18] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” (same as above), image 40 of 173.
[19] Middlesex, St. Leonard Shoreditch, Record of Burials [1834–1837], p. 188, no. 1497; Ancestry > Hackney >St Leonard, Shoreditch >1834–1837 >image 95 of 151; citing London Metropolitan Archives, P91/LEN/A/012/MS07499/021.
[20] 1841 England census, Middlesex, Enfield Parish, schedule for public institutions, Workhouse for Shoreditch Poor Children, p.3, line 15 (James Casburn); Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8978/ : accessed 12 Mar 2020) >Middlesex Enfield District Workhouse For Shoreditch Poor Children >image 2 of 3; citing The National Archives, HO 107/653/8.
[21] “London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1764–1930,” Ancestry >Hackney >Shoreditch >Alphabetical List Workhouse Admissions with Subsequent Discharges, 1837–1845 >image 72 of 387; London Metropolitan Archived, P91/LEN/1338.

More Servants!

January 31, 2019April 15, 2020 admin2 Comments

My last two posts profiled two individuals who entered into domestic service as a ladies-maid and footman, respectively. Before I leave the topic altogether, I want to pay tribute to many other Casbon family members who worked as domestic servants. I’ve combed through my files to find those Casbon relatives who were listed as servants on census or other records. It turns out there were quite a few! I know precious few details about most of them, but collectively, I think their stories are worth the telling.

All of the servants featured in today’s post are women. This should come as no great surprise. Employment opportunities for women during this time frame (mid 1800s to early 1900s) were limited, and domestic service was one of the most common occupations for working-class women. In 1911, although the numbers were already declining, twenty-eight percent of working women in England were employed in domestic service.^[1]

Men constituted a much lower percentage of the domestic service workforce. Men had access to a much greater variety of trades and occupations.“Most of those employed in domestic service in Victorian times were women, outnumbering men at over 20 to one by 1880.”^[2] There was a tax on male servants, so they tended to be employed in larger, wealthier households.^[3] The majority of female servants worked in middle-class households; where having at least one servant was considered essential.^[4]

Here are the Casbon women I’ve discovered who were domestic servants at one time or another. They are presented in roughly chronological birth order and grouped by families.

John Finnie (1829-1907), “Maids of All Work” (1864-5), ©The Geffrye Museum of the Home.^[5]

Mary Ann, Edith, Jane and Martha Casbon

I’ve listed these four together because they were the daughters of William (1805–1807) and Ann (Clark, ~1812–1869) Casbon, of Meldreth, Cambridgeshire. William was an agricultural labourer with a large family.

Mary Ann was born about 1831 in Meldreth.^[6] in the 1851 census, we find her listed as the only servant in the household of John Campkin, a “Grocer & Draper” living in Melbourn.^[7] By 1861 Mary Ann was working as a cook in a London public house.^[8] I haven’t located her in the 1871 census. In 1875, at the age of forty-four, she married a widower named Joseph Sparrow.^[9] She had no children. Her date of death is unknown, but occurred after 1891.^[10]

Edith was baptized at Meldreth in 1835.^[11] In 1851, sixteen-year-old Edith was working as a “house servant” in the home of Elizabeth Bell, a widow in Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, with a farm of 166 acres (quite large for that time).^[12] There were also two male servants in the household, a horse keeper and a shepherd. She married William Catley in 1860,^[13] and together they had seven children. She died in 1916 and was buried in Melbourn.^[14]

Jane was baptized in 1840 at Meldreth.^[15] In 1861 she was living at home but listed as “Servant,” so she was presumably working elsewhere.^[16] In 1871, she was listed as “House Keeper,” again in her father’s household, so it is unclear whether she was keeping his or someone else’s house.^[17] She married John Camp in 1881^[18] and had two children. She died in 1904, age sixty-four.^[19]

Martha, who was twenty-four years younger than her sister Mary Ann, spent most of her life as a domestic servant in London. In 1871, Martha was listed as “Housemaid” along with one other female servant (the cook) in the household of a civil engineer.^[20] In 1881 she was the sole servant in a small household consisting of a Scottish woolen merchant and his sister.^[21] She was again the sole servant in 1891, this time to a chemist and his wife.^[22] In 1901 she was the lone servant for a Presbyterian minister and his wife.^[23] The last record we have of Martha as a servant is in 1911 (the last year census records are available). At that time fifty-six-year-old Martha was serving as the cook in a household with three other servants.^[24] Their master and mistress were a retired draper and his wife. Quite a few servants for two people! Martha never married. Sometime before 1839, she retired to Melbourn, Cambridgeshire (the sister village to Meldreth).^[25] She died in Cambridge in 1947 and was buried in Melbourn.^[26]

Sarah Casbon

Sarah was the daughter of Thomas (~1807–1863) and Jane (Cooper, ~1803–1874) Casbon. Thomas was the patriarch of the “Peterborough Casbons.” Sarah was born about 1834 in Somersham, Huntingdonshire.^[27] In 1851, she was the only servant for a widow and her daughter in Chatteris.^[28] She married Richard Baker in 1857^[29] and had at least eight children. She died in 1904, age sixty-nine.^[30]

Priscilla Casbon

Priscilla was the daughter of William (~1835–1896) and Sarah (West, ~1823–1905) Casbon of Meldreth. William was an agricultural labourer and Priscilla his only daughter. She was born in 1862.^[31] In the 1881 census, she was employed as the only servant for a banker’s clerk and his wife in Cambridge.^[32] In 1891 she was living with her parents at home, with no occupation listed.^[33]

Priscilla’s story has an interesting twist. When she was thirty-four, in 1896, she married a seventy-seven-year-old widowed gentleman named Charles Banks.^[34] He was definitely a “sugar daddy.” He never had children. When he died in 1904, his estate was valued at
£12, 232, divided between Priscilla and two other beneficiaries.^[35] There is evidence that she remarried a man named John Wilson in 1908 and was still alive in 1939, but I’m not certain this is her. I would love to know more about her story!

Julia Frances Casbon

Julia was born in 1866, the daughter of George S (~1836–1914) and Sarah (Pryor, ~1831–1903) Casbon. George was a wheelwright in Barley, Hertfordshire, and originally from Meldreth. In the 1891 census, we find Julia working as one of three female servants in the household of a retired Army officer in Kensington, London.^[36] She married Henry Brassington, a bootmaker, in 1899.^[37] They had two sons. Julia was ninety-nine years old when she died in 1965.^[38]

Kate Casban

Kate was the daughter of John (1843–1927) and Mary Anne (Hall, ~1840–1880) Casban. She was born in 1874.^[39] In 1891, at the age of seventeen, she was one of two female servants employed by a single unmarried woman.^[40] She married Frederick Gunn in 1898^[41] and had two children. I haven’t been able to pin down the date of her death.

Margaret Alice Casban

Born at Melbourn in 1875,^[42] the daughter of Samuel Clark (1851–1922) and Lydia (Harrup, ~1853–1924) Casban, “Alice,” like her cousin Kate, was already working as a servant in 1891.^[43] She was one of two servants, the other a footman, working for the proprietor of a pub.^[44] She married Thomas William Francis in 1898^[45] and had seven children. Date of her death is uncertain.

Olive Louise, Maud Emily, Hilda Mary, and Elsie Lydia Casbon

These four sisters were the daughters of George (1846–1897) and Sarah (Pearse, ~1847–1912) Casbon. George was originally from Meldreth but settled in nearby Fowlmere where he was a farm labourer. The family was probably quite poor. Sarah, the mother, went to work as a charwoman after George’s death. The daughters would have had few other options than going into domestic service as soon as they reached a suitable age. A striking feature of this family is that all four daughters died at an early age. I don’t know the cause of death for any of them.

Olive Louise, the oldest, was born in 1884.^[46] by 1901, she was the sole servant for a tea buyer and his family, living in Croydon.^[47] In 1911, she was one of two servants, the other the cook, for a much larger family, also in Croydon.^[48] She married Thomas De Rinzy^[49] in 1911 and bore him a son that same year. ^[50] Olive died in 1916, thirty-two years old.^[51]

Maud Emily was born in 1885.^[52] In 1901 at age fifteen, she was working as a kitchen maid in Melbourn,^[53] and in 1911 she was the cook for a London single woman.^[54] She died later that year at the age of twenty-six.^[55]

Hilda Mary was born in 1887.^[56] In 1911 she was living with her mother in Fowlmere, but occupation was listed as “General (Domestic),” which suggests that she was doing service work outside of the home.^[57] By 1914, she was working as a domestic servant in Surrey. We know this because of the fact that she gave birth to a son in June 1914.^[58] The birth certificate states that she was “a Domestic Servant of 140 Beckenham Road Penge.”

Birth certificate of George Casbon, 11 June 1914. (Click on image to enlarge)

An unwanted pregnancy was possibly the worst-case scenario for an unmarried female servant. If she became pregnant, she could be “immediately turned out of the house without a character to join the ranks of the unemployed.”^[59]

I have handwritten notes from a relative stating that Hilda abandoned her son at the Croydon Infirmary, and that he was later taken in by the Mission of Good Hope, a well-known organization that placed children for adoption. This fills in some blanks in another story, that of how young George came to be placed with Dr. Barnardo’s Homes and then sent to Canada as a sort-of indentured servant.

I don’t know what became of Hilda after the birth, except for her death, at age thirty-three, in 1921.^[60]

The youngest sister, Elsie Lydia, was born in 1890.^[61] She was the sole domestic servant at the White Ribbon Temperance Hotel located in Cambridge, 1911.^[62] I presume that Elsie later found a position in Kensington, London, because that is where here death was registered in 1919.^[63] She was thirty years old.

The stories of these thirteen women are in many ways typical for female domestic servants of their era. With the exception of Martha, they did not work as servants for the greater part of their lives. Most of them started work in their teens and continued until they found husbands and had families of their own. They generally worked in smaller middle-class homes with one or two servants. Other than the four daughters of George and Sarah (Pearse) Casbon, they generally lived “normal” lifespans.

This is far from an adequate description of their lives, since it is based largely on “snapshots” taken every ten years with the census. Nevertheless, their stories provide insights into our shared heritage and deserve to be told.

^[1] “Women and Work in the 19^th Century,” Striking Women (http://www.striking-women.org/module/women-and-work/19th-and-early-20th-century : accessed 27 January 2019).
^[2] “Who Were the Servants?” My Learning (https://www.mylearning.org/stories/the-victorian-servant/280 : accessed 27 January 2019).
^[3] Kate Clark, “Women and Domestic Service in Victorian Society,” The History Press (https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/women-and-domestic-service-in-victorian-society/ : accessed 27 January 2019).
^[4] “The Rise of the Middle Classes,” Victorian England: Life of the Working and Middle Classes (https://valmcbeath.com/victorian-era-middle-classes/#.XE3gilxKiUk : accessed 27 January 2019).
^[5] “File: John Finnie. Maids of All Work, 1864-65 (higher colour).jpg,” Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Finnie._Maids_of_All_Work,_1864-65_(higher_colour).jpg : accessed 27 January 2019).
^[6] 1841 England census, Cambridgeshire, Meldreth, ED 19, p. 9, High St., Mary Ann (age 10) in household of William Casbon; imaged as “1841 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8978 : accessed 27 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Meldreth >District 19 >image 6 of 9; The National Archives (TNA), HO 107/63/19.
^[7] 1851 England census, Cambridgeshire, Melbourn, ED 11b, p. 3, schedule 8, Church Lane, Mary Casbon in household of John Campkin; imaged as “1851 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8860 : accessed 27 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Melbourn >11b >image 4 of 25; TNA, HO 107/1708/177.
^[8] 1861 England census, Middlesex, Islington, ED 36, p. 27, schedule 153, Mary Ann Cusbin in household of Richd Munford; imaged as “1861 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8767 : accessed 19 November 2018), Middlesex >Islington >Islington East >District 36 >image 28 of 84; TNA, RG 9/16/55.
^[9] Church of England, Parish of St. Lukes Finsbury (Middlesex), Marriage Records, 1871-6, p. 245, no. 489, Joseph Sparrow & Mary Ann Casbon, 26 Dec 1875; imaged as “London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1623 : accessed 10 Aug 2016), Islington >St Luke, Finsbury >1867-1881 >image 494 of 747; London Metropolitan Archives, record no. p76/luk/058.
^[10] 1891 England census, London, Hackney, ED 23b, p. 31, schedule 47, 33 Benyon Rd, Mary A Sparrow (indexed as “Spawn”); imaged as “1891 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6598 : accessed 29 October 2018), London >Hackney >West Hackney >District 23b >image 32 of 34; TNA RG12/190/98.
^[11] Church of England, Meldreth (Cambridgeshire), Register of Baptisms, 1813-77,. 44, no. 345, Edith Casburn, 29 Mar 1835; imaged as “Parish registers for Meldreth, 1681-1877,”FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007567609?cat=210742 : accessed 28 April 2017), image 219 of 699; FHL film 1,040,542, item 5.
^[12] 1851 England census, Cambridgeshire, Whaddon, ED 4, p. 15, schedule 43, Edith Casbon in household of Elizabeth Bell; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8860 : accessed 27 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Whaddon >4 >image 16 of 23; TNA, HO 107/1708/34.
^[13] Meldreth, Register of Marriages, 1837-75, p. 50, no. 99, William Catley & Edith Casbon, 13 Oct 1860; imaged as “Parish registers for Meldreth, 1681-1877,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007567609?cat=210742 : accessed 29 August 2017), image 397 of 699; FHL film 1,040,542, item 9.
^[14] “Index of Cambridgeshire Parish Records,” database/transcriptions, Cambridge Family History Society, Edith Catley, bu. 22 May 1916 at Melbourn; print copy in author’s personal collection.
^[15] Meldreth, Register of Baptisms, 1813-77, p. 54, no. 429, Jane Casbon, 29 Nov 1840; FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007567609?cat=210742 : accessed 28 April 2017), image 224 of 699.
^[16] 1861 England census, Cambridgeshire, Meldreth, ED 15, schedule 133; J Carston in household of William Caston; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8767 : accessed 27 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Meldreth >District 15 >image 25 of 32; TNA, RG 9/815/64.
^[17] 1871 England census, Meldreth, enumeration district (ED) 15, p. 21, schedule 125, High St., Jane Casbon in household of William Casbon; “1871 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7619 : accessed 27 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Meldreth >District 15 >image 22 of 32; TNA, RG 10/1363/25.
^[18] “England & Wales Marriages 1837-2008”, database, findmypast (https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-Records/england-and-wales-marriages-1837-2005 : accessed 30 March 2017), John Camp, 1^st qtr, 1881, Royston, vol. 3A/323; General Register Office (GRO), Southport.
^[19] “Search the GRO Online Index,” HM Passport Office (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp : accessed 27 January 2019), deaths, Jane Camp, J[un] qtr, 1904, Royston, vol. 3A/299.
^[20] 1871 England census, Kent, Lewisham, ED 4, p. 61, schedule 214, Martha Casbon (indexed “Carbor” in household of John H Greener (indexed “Greeno”); Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7619 : accessed 19 March 2018), Kent >Lewisham >Lee >District 4 >image 62 of 80; TNA, RG 10/763/89.
^[21] 1881 England census, London, Hammersmith, ED 28, pp. 41-2, schedule 186, 100 Godolphin Rd., Martha Casbon in household of John Weir; “1881 England Census,” Ancestry ((https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7619 : accessed 19 March 2018), London >Hammersmith >St Paul Hammersmith >District 28 >image 42 of 68; TNA, RG 11/60/143.
^[22] 1891 England census, London, Lambeth, ED 20, p. 4, schedule 20, 156 Clapham Rd., Martha Casbon in the household of Frederick Glew; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6598 : accessed 27 January 2019), London >Lambeth >Kennington First >District 20 >image 5 of 45; TNA, RG 12/400/96.
^[23] 1901 England census, London, Hammersmith, ED 3, p. 90, schedule620, 214 Goldhawk Rd., Martha Casbon in household of Henry Miller; “1901 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7814 : accessed 20 March 2018; TNA, RG 13/: accessed 20 March 2018; TNA, RG 13/9/124.
^[24] 1911 England census, London, Lambeth, ED 10, schedule 109, 76 Tulse Hill SW, Martha Casbon in household of Thomas Drake; “1911 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2352 : accessed 27 January 2019), London >Lambeth >Norwood >10 >image 220 of 421; TNA, RG 14/2109.
^[25] 1939 Register, Cambridgeshire, South Cambridgeshire, ED TBKV, schedule 34, High St., Martha Casbon, “1939 England and Wales Register,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=61596 : accessed 27 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >South Cambridgeshire RD >TBKV >image 5 of 9; TNA, RG 191.63261,
^[26] “Melbourn Burials 1739–1950,” p. 73, Martha Casbon, 19 Jan 1947; transcriptions, Cambridge Family History Society, Melbourn burials, Martha Casbon, bu. 22 May 1916 at Melbourn; print copy in author’s personal collection.
^[27] 1851 England census, Cambridgeshire, Chatteris, ED 3e, p. 1, schedule 1, Park Rd., Sarah Casborn in household of Ann Curtis; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8860 : accessed 27 January 2019), Cambridgshire >Chatteris >3e >image 2 of 48; TNA, HO 107/1765/371.
^[28] Ibid.
^[29] Church of England, Peterborough (Northamptonshire), St. John Parish, Marriages, 1855–1866, p. 76, no. 152, Richard Baker & Sarah Casbon, 22 Jun 1857; imaged as “Northamptonshire, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1912,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=9199 : accessed 19 January 2018), Peterborough, St John >Parish Registers >1855-1859 >image 41 of 66; Northamptonshire Record Office, Northampton.
^[30] “Search the GRO Online Index,” deaths, Sarah Baker, M[ar] qtr, 1904, Peterborough, vol. 3B/146.
^[31] “Search the GRO Online Index,” births, Priscilla Banks, D[ec] qtr, 1862, Royston, vol. 3A/227.
^[32] 1881 England Census, Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, ED 2, p. 14, schedule 59, 8 Parker St., Priscilla Casbon in household of Edmund Wilson; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7572 : accessed 26 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Cambridge >St. Andrew the Great >District 2 >image 15 of 48; TNA, RG 11/1669/43.
^[33] 1891 England census, Cambridgeshire, Meldreth, ED 13, p. 18, schedule 134, Witcroft Rd., Priscilla Casbon in household of William Casbon; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6598 : accessed 27 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Meldreth >District 13 >image 19 of 27; TNA, RG 12/1104/68.
^[34] “England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8913 : accessed 24 April 2018), Priscilla Casbon, 3d qtr, 1896, Bedford, vol. 3B/732; GRO, London.
^[35] “Find A Will,” Gov.UK (https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/Calendar#calendar : accessed 27 January 2019), Wills and Probate 1858–1996, search terms: “banks” “1904.”
^[36] 1891 England census, London, Kensington, ED 17, p. 30, schedule 157, 40 Evelyn Gardens, Julia F Casbon in the household of Thomas Fraser; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6598 : accessed 27 January 2019), London >Kensington >Brompton >District 17 >image 31 of 51; TNA, RG 12/32/73.
^[37] Church of England, Barley (Hertfordshire), Marriage registers, p. 136, no. 271, Henry Brassington & Julia Frances Casbon, 19 Sep 1899; “Hertfordshire Banns & Marriages,” findmypast (https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-Records/hertfordshire-banns-and-marriages : accessed 14 October 2017).
^[38] “England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007”, FamilySearch, (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVCK-W896 : accessed 4 September 2014), Julia F Brassington, 1965, 4^th qtr, Harrow, vol. 5B/961/153; citing GRO, Southport.
^[39] “Search the GRO Online Index,” births, Kate Casban, M[ar] atr, 1874, Edmonton, vol. 3A: 203.
^[40] 1891 England Census, Middlesex, Edmonton, ED 1, p. 49, schedule 284, Langhedge House, Kate Casban in household of Maria Rowley; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6598 : accessed 28 January 2019), Middlesex >Edmonton >District 01 >image 50 of 54; TNA, RG 14/1081/27.
^[41] Church of England, London, Edmonton, St James, Marriages 1851-1917, p. 159, no. 318, Frederick Gunn & Kate Casban, 9 Apr 1898; “London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1623 : accessed 22 March 2017), Enfield >St James, Upper Edmonton >1851-1917 >image 206 of 506; London Metropolitan Archives.
^[42] “Search the GRO Online Index,” births, Margaret Casbon, D[ec] qtr, 1875, Royston, vol. 3A/320.
^[43] 1891 England Census, Surrey, Croydon, ED 34, p. 9, schedule 48, 25 Wellesley Rd., Alice Casbar in household of George E Wheeler; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6598 : accessed 28 January 2019), Surrey >Croydon >District 34 >image 10 of 89; TNA RG 14/591/44.
^[44] Ibid.
^[45] “England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:269S-X5P : accessed 13 December 2014), Margaret Alice Casban, 2d qtr, 1898, Croydon, vol. 2A/529/38; GRO, Southport.
^[46] “Search the GRO Online Index,” births, Olive Louise Casbon, J[un] qtr, 1884, Royston, vol. 3A/444.
^[47] 1901 England census, Surrey, Croydon, ED 81, p. 8, schedule 45, Olive L Casson in household of John Percy Lewis; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7814 : accessed 26 January 2019), Surrey >Croydon >District 81 >image 9 of 55; TNA, RG 13/648/8.
^[48] 1911 England Census, Surrey, Croydon, ED 18, schedule 63, 18 Avenue Rd, Norwood S.E., Olive Louise Casbon in household of Reuben Glasgow Kestin; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2352 : accessed 20 March 2018), Surrey >Croydon >North Croydon >18 >image 126 of 699; TNA, RG 14/3385.
^[49] “England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:267B-M1S : accessed 14 November 2015), Olive L Casbon, 2d qtr, 1911, Croydon, vol, 2A/631/105.
^[50] “Search the GRO Online Index,” births, Thomas Jessop Cavendish De Rinzy, D[ec] qtr, 1911, Croydon, vol. 2A/644.
^[51] “Search the GRO Online Index,” deaths, Olive Louise De Rinzy, D[ec] qtr, 1916, Croydon, vol. 2A/473.
^[52] “Search the GRO Online Index,” births, Maud Emily Casbon, D[ec] qtr, 1885, Royston, vol. 3A/471.
^[53] 1901 England census, Cambridgeshire, Melbourn, enumeration district 9, p. 9, schedule 44, Maud Carton in household of Albert Spencer; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7814 : accessed 28 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Melbourn >District 09 >image 10 of 27; TNA, RG 13/1296/9.
^[54] 1911 England Census, Surrey, Penge, ED 2, schedule 138, Maude Emily Casbon in household of Adele Maude Everest; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2352 : accessed 20 March 201), Surrey >Penge >02 >image 276 of 809; TNA, RG 14/3406.
^[55] “Search the GRO Online Index,” deaths, Maud Emily Casbon, D[ec] qtr, 1911, Croydon, vol. 2A/408.
^[56] “Search the GRO Online Index,” births, Hilda Mary Casbon, D[ec] qtr, 1887, Royston, vol. 3A/466.
^[57] 1911 England Census, Cambridgeshire, Fowlmere, ED 5, schedule 26, Hilda Casbon in household of Sarah Casbon; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2352 : accessed 28 January 2019), Hertfordshire >Fowlmere >05 >image 52 of 265; TNA, RG 14/7557.
^[58] England, birth certificate (PDF copy) for George Casbon, born 11 Jun 1914; registered June quarter, Croydon district 2A/618, West Croydon Sub-district, Surrey; General Register Office, Southport.
^[59] Tessa Arlen, “The Redoubtable Edwardian Housemaid and a Life of Service,” Tessa Arlen Mysteries from the early 1900s (http://www.tessaarlen.com/redoubtable-housmaid-life-belowstairs/ : accessed 28 January 2019).
^[60] “Search the GRO Online Index,” deaths, Hilda Casbon, J[un] qtr, 1921, Croydon, vol. 2A/312.
^[61] “Search the GRO Online Index,” births, Elsie Lydia Casbon, S[ep] qtr, 1890, Royston, vol. 3A/490.
^[62] 1911 England Census, Cambridgeshire,Cambridge, ED 7, schedule 135, 160-1 East Rd, Elsie Lydia Caslon in household of George W Sheet; Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2352 : accessed 20 March 2018), Cambridgeshire >Cambridge >St Andrew the Less >07 >image 274 of 313; TNA, RG 14/9107.
^[63] “Search the GRO Online Index,” deaths, Elsie Casbon, J[un] qtr, 1919, Kensington, vol. 1A/217.

Footman

January 25, 2019April 28, 2020 admin6 Comments

My last post dealt with Elizabeth Casbon, a lady’s maid. Today we’ll look at a male servant who placed a newspaper advertisement similar to those placed by Elizabeth.

Detail from “Want Places,” advertisement in The (London) Morning Post, 5 March 1884.^[1] (Click on image to enlarge); Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved. With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).

In this ad, “W. Casbon” is seeking a position as first footman. He gives his age and height. He says he has a “good character” (reference from current or previous employers). His address is in the oddly-named village of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. This is presumably where he is currently employed.

Who was W. Casbon? His stated age gives us a birth year of about 1860. Unless he has greatly over- or under-exaggerated his age, the only candidate I can find is William Casbon, born 1860 at Meldreth, Cambridgeshire.^[2] William was the son of William (1835–1896) and Sarah (West, ~1823–1905) Casbon. I’ve written about William previously, so I won’t repeat the details. However, I will say that he led an interesting life. The 1871 census lists eleven-year-old William as a “Scholar.”^[3] In 1881 we find him working as a “Railway Signalman” in Derbyshire.^[4] He later went on to become a baker,^[5] then the manager of a Golf Club^[6], and finally, the Superintendent of the Refreshment Department of the House of Lords in London.^[7]

Ashby-de-la-Zouch is only about fourteen miles away from Breadsall, Derbyshire, where William was listed in the 1881 census. There were probably only a few households that could afford a footman, but I haven’t identified the specific home where he worked.

What is a footman? The word has an interesting history. It used to refer to a servant who ran alongside his master’s carriage, or ran ahead to announce his arrival.^[8] The meaning later came to refer to a male household servant with various duties, including opening and closing doors, serving meals and carrying items to heavy for the female servants.^[9]

“I am the Only Running Footman,” sign from London public house.^[10] The engraving depicts
a footman in the old sense, running alongside or ahead of his master’s entourage.

In the hierarchy of servants, footmen were on a lower rung than the butler, who was generally the highest-ranking male servant. Very wealthy households might have several footmen, numbered in order of their relative standing in the household (i.e., “first footman,” “second footman,” etc.). In houses without a butler, the first footman would perform the butler’s duties. An extended list of a footman’s duties would be too long to write here, but would include cleaning boots and silver, answering the door to visitors, serving at meals, lighting lamps, lighting fires, going out with a carriage, and serving as a valet to the younger gentlemen in a family.^[11]

Footmen often wore livery – a special uniform. Their livery might include knee breeches and silk stockings, and in some households, powdered wigs. The household usually provided two suits of livery per year.^[12] Footmen were often selected for their height and looks.^[13] Hence, the advertisements above include the man’s height. William Casbon seems to have been at an advantage with his height of 6 feet, 2 ½ inches! Footmen also tended to be fairly young, as can also be seen in the advertisement.

Thomas Rowlandson, “Country Characters. No.4: Footman” (1799), hand-colored etching. ^[14]
Footmen were often depicted as being conceited and flirtatious. (Click on image to enlarge)

When William placed the advertisement in 1884, he was probably working as a second or third footman, and looking to move up the ladder to a higher position. He obviously did not make a career of domestic service. However, his experiences as a footman probably gave him valuable experience that helped prepare him for his eventual position with the House of Lords. In an era where class distinctions were pronounced, he made significant strides.

^[1] “Want Places,” The (London) Morning Post, 5 Mar 1884, p. 8, cols. 6–7; online image, British Newspaper Archive (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk : accessed 24 September 2016).
^[2] England, “Search the GRO Online Index,” HM Passport Office (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp : accessed 25 January 2019), search on “Casbon” “William” “1860,” Casbon, William, mother’s name West, S[ep] qtr, Royston, vol. 3A/205.
^[3] 1871 England census, Cambridgeshire, Meldreth, enumeration district 15, p. 18, schedule 105, William Casbon (age 10); imaged as “1871 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7619 : accessed 25 January 2019), Cambridgeshire >Meldreth >District 15 >image 19 of 32; citing The National Archives, RG 10/1363/23.
^[4] 1881 England census, Derbyshire, Breadsall, enumeration district 11, p. 2, schedule 9, William Caskan; imaged as “1881 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7572 : accessed 25 January 2019), Derbyshire >Breadsall >District 11 >image 3 of 24; citing The National Archives, RG 11/3393/67.
^[5] 1891 England census, London, St George Hanover Square, enumeration district 14, p. 20, schedule 56, William Caston; imaged as “1891 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6598 : accessed 25 January 2019), London, St George Hanover Square >Mayfair >District 14 >image 13 of 42; citing The National Archives, RG 12/69/76.
^[6] 1901 England census, Hertfordshire, Chorleywood, enumeration district 11, p. 19, Wm. Chaban; imaged as “1901 England Census,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7814 : accessed 25 January 2019), Hertfordshire >Chorleywood >District 11 >image 20 of 24; citing The National Archives, RG 13/1322/49.
^[7] Jon Casbon, “A Casbon in Parliament?” Our Casbon Journey, 9 Mar 2017 (https://casbonjourney.wordpress.com/2017/03/09/a-casbon-in-parliament/ : accessed 25 January 2019).
^[8] “Footman,” Etymology Online (https://www.etymonline.com/word/footman#etymonline_v_33280 : accessed 20 January 2019).
^[9] “Footman,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footman : accessed 20 January 2019), rev. 1 Oct 18, 02:32.
^[10] “I am the Running Footman,” engraving in Edward Walford, Old and New London: a Narraitve of Its History, Its People, and Its Places (London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1873), vol. 4, p. 330; online image, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/oldnewlondonnarr04thor : accessed 22 January 2019).
^[11] The Servants Practical Guide: a Handbook of Duties and Rules (London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1880), pp. 161-2; online image, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/b21528147 : accessed 22 January 2019).
^[12] Ibid.
^[13] “Secrets of the Manor House: Recap and Review,” 22 Jan 2012, blog post, Jane Austen’s World (https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/secrets-of-the-manor-house-recap-and-review/ : accessed 22 January 2019).
^[14] Royal Trust Collection (https://www.rct.uk/collection/810523/country-characters-no-4-footman : accessed 22 January 2019).

Musings on John

December 31, 2018April 15, 2020 admin5 Comments

This is a follow-on to an earlier post titled “Stuck on John,” in which I described how my research into the origins of the Meldreth branch of the Casbon family hit a “brick wall.” I had been able to trace the ancestry to a John Casborn who married Anne Chamberlain in 1742.^[1] The problem was that there were at least two men named John Casb—— living in or near Meldreth at the time, and there wasn’t enough information to know for certain which one was the husband of Anne. But now, I’ve discovered evidence that puts me on much firmer ground about who “my” John might be.

First, let’s review what I know about my ancestor John. After their marriage, John and Anne had five children, according to baptismal records: Thomas (my ancestor, baptized in 1743), James (1747, buried 1748), James (1748), Mary (1750), and Anna (1754).^[2] Anne, John’s wife, died in 1770.^[3] John was described as “parish clerk” when he was buried in 1796.^[4]

Detail of burial record, 1796, from Meldreth Parish registers. “John Casborn, Parish Clerk, aged 75. January 4.”
(Click on image to enlarge)

We can be reasonably sure that all of these records refer to the same man because there are no other men named John Casb—— recorded in the parish records of Meldreth and its vicinity during this time frame. Since the burial record gives his age as seventy-five, we can extrapolate a birth year of 1720 or 1721. This is very helpful.

The only person I have found who matches all of this information is John Casborn, the son of Thomas and Mary (Jeap), who was baptized in the village of Orwell, about two and one-half miles from Meldreth, in November 1721.^[5]

Detail of baptism record, 1721, Orwell Parish registers, 1560-1877. “Nov. 26 John y[e] Son of
Thomas & Mary Casborn.” (Click on image to enlarge)

Map of southwestern Cambridgeshire, showing villages of Orwell and Meldreth.
(Google Maps – zoom in for greater detail

Notably, aside from his baptism, John does not appear again in Orwell parish records. This suggests that he moved elsewhere before his marriage and/or burial. How can we know if he is the same man who moved to Meldreth and later married Anne?

Here’s where the new evidence comes in, in the form of registers of duties paid for apprentices’ indentures. When a master took on (i.e., indentured) a new apprentice, he was paid a fee, usually by the parents of the apprentice. The master was required to pay a tax, or duty, on this fee. Records of apprenticeships, fees and duties were created by the Board of Stamps, and are now maintained by The National Archives of the UK.^[6] These records can be searched at Ancestry.com.

I found this record in the collection (you’ll need to click to be able to read it).

Detail from Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices Indentures, 9–12 July 1736.^[7] (Click on image to enlarge)

This record shows that “Will. Casbill of Mildred in Cambridge Cordwr. [cordwainer]” received a fee of four pounds, eleven shillings for the indenture of “John Casbill of Orwell” for a duration of four years, nine months, beginning “24 June last.” William Casbill was required to pay a duty of two shillings, three and one-half pence, based on the indenture fee.

The record is important because it connects John of Orwell to the village of Meldreth. He would have been about fifteen years old in 1736, an appropriate age for an apprentice. It’s odd that the term of indenture is only four years, nine months, since the usual apprenticeship was for seven years. It makes me wonder if William had been training John “off the books” for a couple of years before he paid the tax.

Who was his master, William Casbill? I don’t know for certain. One candidate is William Casbel, who was born in Meldreth in 1703 and was orphaned when his mother died in 1718.^[8] Another candidate is John’s paternal uncle, William Casbolt, baptized 1695 in nearby Barrington. There are burial records for William Casbel in 1741 and William Carsburn in 1756.^[9] Unfortunately, neither of these provide information about the deceased’s ages or occupations.

Incidentally, cordwainer is the old term for a shoemaker. There seems to have been a succession of cordwainers from Meldreth named Casb——. I wrote previously about John Casball, cordwainer, who paid duties for an apprentice in 1718 and died in 1727 (“a poor shoemaker”). He was followed by William of the 1736 indenture, who was followed by John of Orwell. Given the surname, it’s hard to believe these men weren’t all related in some way. It seems likely that the earlier John trained William to be a cordwainer, although I haven’t found any such records.

Getting back to John of Orwell, another apprenticeship record shows us that he remained in Meldreth as a master cordwainer following completion of his own apprenticeship.

Detail from Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices Indentures, 24–28 January 1774.^[10] (Click on image to enlarge)

This record shows that on January 28, 1774 “John Casbon of Meldreth in Co. of Cambridge Cordwainer” paid the indenture duty for an apprentice named Thomas Wing.

Thus, we have several points that can be connected to describe John’s life from his baptism in Orwell to his burial in Meldreth. Using the available records we can create this chronology:

1721: John Casborn, son of Thomas and Mary (Jeap), is baptized in Orwell
1736: John Casbill of Orwell is indentured as an apprentice to William Casbill of Meldreth
1742: “John Casborn of the Parish of Meldreth and Ann Chamberlain of this Parish” are married in Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, 18 January 1742
1743–1754: five children are born to John & Ann, including Thomas (baptized 1743)
1770: “Anne Casbull Wife of John Casbill” is buried at Meldreth
1774: John Casbon, cordwainer, indentures Thomas Wing as apprentice
1796: “John Casborn, Parish Clerk, aged 75” is buried at Meldreth

You may notice an inconsistency in this chronology. The burial record of 1796 describes John as the parish clerk, but not as a cordwainer. Could he have been both parish clerk and cordwainer? I believe the answer is yes. I’ll address this in the next post.

Considering all the evidence, I’m confident that this “brick wall” is gone, i.e., I believe John Casborn, baptized 1721 in Orwell, is my direct ancestor and the common ancestor for all the Casbons, Casbans and Casbens who descended from his children. What do you think?

As an epilogue to John’s story, we find that in 1797, Thomas Wing, John’s former apprentice and now a master cordwainer himself in Meldreth, indentured an apprentice of his own.^[11] The torch was passed.

^[1] Church of England. Wimpole Parish (Cambridgeshire, England), Bishop’s transcripts for Wimpole, 1599-1857, Casborn–Chamberlain marriage (1742); digital images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89PH-H6G9?i=121&cat=1317069 : accessed 7 June 2016), image 122 of 799.
^[2] Church of England, Meldreth Parish registers; accessed as “Parish registers for Meldreth, 1681-1877, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/210742), images 109-111 of 699; citing FHL microfilm 1,040,542, item 2.
^[3] Ibid, image 61 of 699.
^[4] Ibid, image 129 of 699; citing FHL microfilm 1,040,542, item 3.
^[5] Church of England, Parish of Orwell (Cambridgeshire), Parish Registers; accessed as “Parish Registers, 1560-1877,” browsable images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/film/007567608?cat=210878 : accessed 26 December 2018), image 278 of 695; citing FHL microfilm 1,040,543, item 9.
^[6] “Board of Stamps: Apprenticeship Books,” The National Archives (http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9339 : accessed 23 December 2018).
^[7] “UK, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures, 1710-1811,” database with images, Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1851 : accessed 19 December 2018), 1735-1739 >image 339 of 909, 10 Jul 1736; citing The National Archives, IR-1/14, Kew.
^[8] Church of England, Meldreth Parish registers; accessed as “Parish registers for Meldreth, 1681-1877, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/210742), images 48 & 101 of 699; citing FHL microfilm 1,040,542, item 2.
^[9] Ibid., images 54 & 57 of 699.
^[10] “UK, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures, 1710-1811,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1851 : accessed 10 May 2018), 1770-1774 >images 732-3 of 1930, 28 Jan 1774; citing The National Archives, IR1/28, Kew.
^[11] “UK, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices’ Indentures, 1710-1811,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1851 : accessed 23 December 2018), 1794-1799 >imgs 424-5 of 1960, 20 Apr 1797; citing the National Archives, IR 1/ 68.

Croydon

December 2, 2018April 15, 2020 admin2 Comments

“You never get away from that thing in your hometown that it has over you. You don’t outgrow where you come from.” – Brian Fallon

As a child of a military family, I never had a hometown. We moved every few years to a variety of locations in and out of the United States. The closest things to hometowns were the cities my parents came from: Racine, Wisconsin, and Valparaiso, Indiana. I’ve mentioned Valparaiso before, because it is the seat of Porter County, where my Casbon ancestors settled in the 1860s. It’s where my father grew up. We visited Valparaiso from time to time to see grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was the only place in the world that I knew where other Casbons existed. I’ve only gone there a couple of times as an adult, but when I go, it still has a special place in my heart.

I’m pretty sure the same feeling applies to many of the Casbans in England, except they would say their home town^* is Croydon, Greater London. A couple of the Casbans from Croydon have been kind enough to correspond with me and share some of their stories.

What makes a place a hometown? In the simplest sense, it’s the place where you grew up or come from. But in a broader sense it implies something more than just a place. It embodies the ideas of permanence, relationships, and familiarity. When people talk about their hometowns, they might also be talking about their families, childhood friends, favorite foods or familiar places. For many, a hometown is a place they feel comfortable and secure. For some, it is a place they can’t wait to get away from.

So, how did Croydon become the home town for the Casbans? It all started with Samuel Clark Casban (1851–1922). Samuel was the third son of William (~1805–1877) and Ann (Clark, ~1812–1869) Casbon, and grew up in Meldreth, Cambridgeshire. Like his father and brothers, he went to work at an early age, being listed as a labourer in the 1861 census.^[1] Samuel (with surname spelled Casban) married Lydia Harrup in 1872,^[2] and the couple had four children while still living in Meldreth: Anne, 1872;^[3] Samuel Clark, 1874;^[4] Margaret Alice, 1875;^[5] and Elizabeth Emma, 1879.^[6]

Elizabeth died in 1879, within months of her birth,^[7] and sometime within the next several months, Samuel and his family moved to Croydon. His move was probably influenced by the fact that his sister Mary Ann, and two brothers, John and Reuben, had lived in the environs of London since the 1860s. More importantly, his brother-in-law, John Harrup, had been working for the Brighton and South Coast Railroad since 1874, and was presumably able to help Samuel secure employment there in January, 1880.^[8]

Detail from London, Brighton & South Coast Railway employee records, 1880, showing entries for John Harrup and Samuel Casban. This is the earliest record showing Samuel in Croydon. (Click on image to enlarge)

Croydon was originally a town in Surrey, about ten miles south of London.^[9] Due to its position between London and the South Coast of England, and the arrival of the railroads, Croydon became an important transportation hub, and experienced a 23-fold increase in population between 1801 and 1901.^[10] When Samuel arrived in 1879–80, Croydon was still an independent entity from London. As London expanded, Croydon soon became a part of the London metropolitan area, and in 1965 became a borough of London and no longer part of Surrey.^[11] Croydon is now the most populated borough in London, with a population of 363,378 in 2011.^[12] It is a city within a city.

Detail from 1901 map of Outer London (pink shading).^[13] Numerous rail lines converge or pass through the vicinity of Croydon, which is located near the bottom, center. (Click on image to enlarge)

Contemporary map showing the Borough of Croydon (shaded). (Google Maps)

Samuel and Lydia’s family continued to grow in Croydon. William was born in 1880; Elizabeth Emma (“Lizzie”), 1881; Florence Edith (“Florie”), 1884; Albert Edward (“Bertie”), 1885; Leonard, 1887; Ernest Charles, 1890.^[14] Anne, Samuel, Alice, Lizzie, and Bertie married and raised their families in or near Croydon. William never married, but remained in Croydon. Florie died in 1904.^[15] Leonard and Ernest were killed in the first World War.^[16] (Ernest had married in 1913 and had a daughter, who died in 1915.^[17]) Some of Samuel and Lydia’s great-great-grandchildren and at least one third-great-grandchild have been born in Croydon. Thus, six generations of Casbans lived or were born in Croydon, establishing a strong sense of permanence and identity with the place.

Lorna Thomas (neé Casban) shared these interesting facts about Croydon with me. The London Croydon airport was the first major international airport in England and remained so until Heathrow was developed in the late 1940s. Amy Johnson departed from there on a historic solo flight to Brisbane, Australia in 1930.^[18] The international “Mayday! call was invented there.

Photo of ‘Hengist’ plane flying over Croydon Airport. Courtesy of Local Studies Library & Archive and the Museum of Croydon, http://www.museumofcroydon.com.

A quick search on 192.com shows that only a handful of Casbans live in Croydon today. This is not surprising, given the ease of transportation and mobility within our society. However, I’m sure that many still consider Croydon to be their home town. Are you a “Croydon Casban”? I would love to hear from you, either in the “Leave a Reply” section or through the “Contact” link!

^*In preparing this post I learned that the single word hometown is more common in American English and home town – two words – more common in British English.

^[1] 1861 England Census, Cambridgeshire, Meldreth, p. 24, schedule 133, William Carston; imaged on findmypast (http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbc%2f1861%2f0005027198 : accessed 23 March 2017); citing [The National Archives], RG 09, piece 815, folio 64, p. 24.
^[2] “England Marriages, 1538–1973 ,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NVCX-8N1 : accessed 2 August 2016), Samuel Casban and Lydia Harrup, 02 Nov 1872; FHL microfilm 1,040,541.
^[3] General Register Office (GRO), “Search the GRO Online Index,” database, HM Passport Office (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp : accessed 7 November 2017), search on births, “Harrup,” 1872, Annie Harrup, J[un] qtr, 1872, Royston, vol. 3A/325.
^[4] Ibid., search on birth, “Casban,” 1874, Samuel Casban, M[ar] qtr, 1874, Royston, vol. 3A/316.
^[5] Ibid., search on birth, “Casban,” 1875, Margaret Casban, D[ec] qtr, 1875, Royston, vol. 3A/320.
^[6] Ibid., search on births, “Casban,” 1879, Elizabeth Emma Casban, M[ar] qtr, 1879, Royston, vol. 3A/369.
^[7] Ibid., search on deaths, “Casban,” 1879, LIzzie Casban, J[un] qtr, 1879, Royston, vol. 3A/220.
^[8] London, Brighton & South Coast Railway: General Manager’s Register of Staff Commencing 1880, p. 87, Croydon Goods Station, John Harrup, Feb 1874, and Samuel Casbon, Jan 1880; imaged as “UK, Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1728 : accessed 20 September 2018), London, Brighton and South Coast >1838-1884 Traffic Appointments >image 119 of 452.
^[9] “Croydon,” British History Online (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-environs/vol1/pp170-201 : accessed 2 December 2018).
^[10] “Croydon,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon : accessed 2 December 2018), rev. 28 Nov 18, 16:19, paras. 20-21.
^[11] “London Borough of Croydon,” Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Borough_of_Croydon : accessed 2 December 2018), rev. 24 Nov 18, 18:33, para. 2.
^[12] “London Borough of Croydon,” Wikipedia, para. 48.
^[13] Edward Stanford, “Outer London,” map, Stanford’s London Atlas of Universal Geography Exhibiting the Physical and Political Divisions of the Various Countries of the World (London: Edward Stanford, Ltd., 1901); online image, David Rumsey Map Collection (https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~34248~1171163:Outer-London- : accessed 1 December 2018).
^[14] General Register Office (GRO), “Search the GRO Online Index,” database, HM Passport Office (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp : accessed 2 December 2018), search on births, “Casban,” 1880–90), Croydon, vol. 2A, pp. 209, 213, 228, 238, 260, 264.
^[15] Ibid., search on deaths, “Casban,” 1904, Florence Edith Casban, Croydon, vol 2A/153.
^[16] “Every One Remembered”, database, Royal British Legion (https://www.everyoneremembered.org), search on “Casban,” Ernest, 25 Sep 1914, Leonard, 1 Apr 1917; citing Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
^[17] Ibid., search on deaths, “Casban,” 1915, Nellie Rhoda Casban, M[ar] qtr, 1915, Croydon, vol 2A/153.
^[18] “American Experience: Fly Girls, Amy Johnson,” PBS.org (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/flygirls-amy-johnson/ : accessed 2 December 2018).

Going, Going …

November 1, 2018April 15, 2020 admin1 Comment

The sister villages of Meldreth and Melbourn in Cambridgeshire are my ancestral homeland. Records of Casbon ancestors in these villages go back to the mid-sixteenth century. Families occasionally moved from one village to another, or to other nearby villages, but there was little reason or incentive to go further. The situation remained stable for over 250 years, but in the 1840s, things began to change.

Slowly at first, and then with increasing speed, the number of Casbons in Meldreth and Melbourn began to dwindle. In the 1841 census, there were 7 households with 30 people; in 1851, 7 households with 27 people; 1861 – 4 households/14 people; 1871 – 5 households/12 people; 1881 – 2 households/4 people; 1891 – 2 households/5 people; 1901 & 1911 – 1 household/2 people.^[1] (1911 is the last year census records have been made available to the public.) The 1939 register (a census-like record taken before World War 2) shows only one Casbon living in Meldreth.

Chart showing decline in Casbon households and family members in Meldreth and Melbourn from 1841 to 1939. (Click on image to enlarge)

What happened? Where did they go and why did they leave? The reasons are varied, but for the most part revolve around the “three Fs”: finance, family, friends. In the mid-1800s, the growth of cities and improvements in transportation created new job opportunities. The exodus from Meldreth took off after the arrival of the railroad in 1851.^[2]

Casbon households in Meldreth, 1841 England Census.

The first to leave was my third great grandfather, Thomas (1803–1888), and his family, when they emigrated to the United States in 1846. I’ve written extensively about Thomas and his journey, so will not elaborate further here.

Casbon households in Meldreth & Melbourn, 1851 England Census.

The next to go was James Casbon (1806–1871), who moved to the village of Barley in Hertfordshire with his family, probably in the early 1850s.^[3] Barley is located about five miles south of Meldreth.

Detail map showing Cambridge, Meldreth, Melbourn, and Barley.^[4] (Click on image to enlarge)

James was a landowner, which put him in a different class than his poorer Casbon relatives. He also had a business as a carrier, hauling freight (and perhaps passengers) to and from London. His reasons for moving to Barley are unknown. His sons remained in Barley and established their own families there. Thus, Barley became a new population center for the Casbon surname.

Between 1851 and 1861 the number of Casbon households was further reduced due to deaths, employment, and unknown other reasons. Lydia (Burgess) Casbon, widow of Joseph (abt. 1811–1847), died in 1851.^[5] Two daughters, Hannah and Harriet Ann, preceded her in death in 1848 and 1850, respectively, and a third daughter, Emma, died in 1852.^[6] Lydia’s surviving daughter, Mary, emigrated to the United States, where she joined her uncle Thomas Casbon, in 1856.^[7] “Patty” Barns (née Martha Wagstaff), widow of John Casbon (abt. 1779–1813), died in 1855.^[8] After losing his wife, Elizabeth, in 1852, James Casbon (b. abt. 1813) and his family disappeared from view until he emigrated to Indiana in 1870.^[9] Mary Ann Casbon (b. 1831, daughter of William, b. 1805), who had been working as a servant in Melbourn in 1851, was employed as a cook in a London public house by 1861.^[10]

Casbon households in Meldreth, 1861 England Census.

Although the numbers remained relatively stable between 1861 and 1871, some important moves still took place. Three more of William’s (b. 1805) children left for the environs of London: John (b. abt. 1842), Reuben (b. 1847) and Martha (b. abt. 1855). John was working as a Labourer when he was married in Lambeth (now a borough of London) in 1866.^[11] Reuben must have moved to the London area in the same time frame, since he and his sister Mary Ann are listed as witnesses on the marriage record. Martha, perhaps following in her brothers’ footsteps, is listed as a sixteen-year-old “domestic servant housemaid” for a suburban London household in the 1871 census.^[12]

Casbon households in Meldreth & Melbourn, 1871 England Census.

The numbers plunged after 1871, as the “old-timers” – Jane (1803–1872), William (1805-1877) and William (1806–1875) died and their remaining children moved away. Samuel Clark Casbon (b. 1851) moved to Croydon, Surrey.^[13] His sister, Jane, married John Camp in 1881.^[14] Only the younger William (b. 1835), and John Casbon (b. 1849) remained. William’s three children, Walter (b. 1856), William (b. 1860), and Priscilla (b. 1862), all left home for jobs in domestic service or the railroads.

William (b. 1835) died in 1896. After his death, his wife, Sarah (West, b. abt 1823) moved to Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where she lived with her son, Walter, until her death in 1905.^[15] John (b. 1849) died in 1935, followed by his wife Sarah (Pepper, b. abt 1850) in 1938.^[16] John and Sarah were the only two Casbons on the 1901 and 1911 censuses for Meldreth.

The memorial stone of William (1835–1896) and Sarah (West, abt 1823–1905) Casbon, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Meldreth. “In/ Memory of/ WILLIAM CASBON/ who died March 7th 1896/aged 61 years/”We hope to meet again at/ The Resurrection of the just/A light is from the household gone/ A voice we loved is stilled/ A place is vacant in our home/ Which never can be filled”./ Also of /SARAH, wife of the above/who departed this life/ December 22nd 1905/ aged 83 years./She hath done what she could/ Her end was peace./”
Photograph by Malcolm Woods; Meldreth History website (http://www.meldrethhistory.org.uk).
(Click on image to enlarge)

Martha Casbon (b. abt. 1855), who spent most of her adult life in domestic service, returned to Meldreth in her later years, and is the sole Casbon listed on the 1939 register.^[17] With her death in 1947, the Casbon name became extinct in Meldreth.^[18]

^[1] Data extracted from England censuses by Jon Casbon.
^[2] Happy Birthday, Meldreth Station (no publication details available), leaflet; PDF download (http://meldrethsheprethfoxtonrail.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Meldreth150.pdf : accessed 1 November 2018).
^[3] Jon Casbon, “James Casbon, Farmer and Carrier, 1806-1871, Part 1,” 23 Jan 17, Our Casbon Journey (https://casbonjourney.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/james-casbon-farmer-and-carrier-1806-1871-part-1/ : accessed 1 November 2018).
^[4] Ordnance Survey of England and Wales (Southampton: Director General at the Ordnance Survey Office, 1903), Sheet 16; online image, A Vision of Britain Through Time (http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/maps/sheet/new_series_revised_medium/sheet_16 : accessed 1 November 2018).
^[5] England and Wales, “Search the GRO [General Register Office] Online Index,” database, HM Passport Office (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp : accessed 1 November 2018), Lydia Casbon, 2d qtr, 1851, Royston & Buntingford, vol. 6:405.
^[6] Ibid., Hannah Casbon (age 5), 2d qtr, 1848, Royston & Buntingford, vol. 6/433. Ibid., Harriet Ann Casbon (age 11), 3d qtr, 1852, Royston & Buntingford, vol. 6/366. Ibid., Emma Casbon (age 7), 2d qtr, 1852, Royston & Buntingford, vol. 3A/131.
^[7] Jon Casbon, “From England to Indiana, Part 8,” 18 Nov 2016, Our Casbon Journey (https://casbonjourney.wordpress.com/2016/11/18/from-england-to-indiana-part-8/ : accessed 1 November 2018).
^[8] England and Wales, “Search the GRO [General Register Office] Online Index,” (cited previously), Martha Barnes, 4^th qtr, 1855, Royston, vol. 3A: 128.
^[9] Jon Casbon, “James Casbon of Meldreth, England and Porter County, Indiana,” 29 Nov 2016, Our Casbon Journey (https://casbonjourney.wordpress.com/2016/11/29/james-casbon-of-meldreth-england-and-porter-county-indiana/ : accessed 1 November 2018).
^[10] 1861 England Census, Middlesex, Islington, population schedule, district 36, Johnston parish, p. 55 (stamped), schedule 153, Mary Ann Cusbin in household of Richd Munford; imaged on Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8767 : accessed 1 November 2018), Middlesex >Islington >Islington East >District 36 >image 28 of 84; citing The National Archives, RG 9, piece 146, folio 55, p. 27.
^[11] “London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921,” Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1623 : accessed 22 March 2017), Lambeth >St. Mary, Lambeth >1761-1896 >image 337 of 540; citing London Metropolitan Archives, ref. no. p85/mry1/541.
^[12] 1871 England Census, Kent, Lewisham, population schedule, enumeration district 4, schedule 214, Martha Casbon (indexed as “Carbor”} in household of John H Greeno; imaged on Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7619 : accessed 19 March 2018), Kent >Lewisham >Lee >District 4 >image 62 of 80; citing The National Archives, RG 10, piece 763, folio 89, p. 61.
^[13] 1881 England Census, Surrey, Croydon, population schedule, enumeration district 35, schedule 256, Samuel Casban; image on Ancestry (https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=7572 : accessed 1 November 2018), Surrey >Croydon >District 35 >image 49 of 66; citing The National Archives, RG 11, piece 816, folio 60, p. 47.
^[14] “England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005”, database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DRB-92Y : accessed 1 November 2018), Jane Casbon, 1^st qtr, 1881, Royston, vol. 3A/323.
^[15] Kathryn Betts, “Holy Trinity Churchyard: Monumental Inscriptions.” Meldreth History (http://www.meldrethhistory.org.uk/page_id__484_img__4391.aspx : accessed 1 November 2018).
^[16] “England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007”, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVHV-Q78D : accessed 1 November 2018), John J Casbon, 1^st qtr, 1935, Cambridge, vol. 3B/564. Same source (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVHP-YBY9 : accessed 1 November 2018), Sarah Casbon, 1^st qtr, 1938, Cambridge, vol. 3B/553.
^[17] 1939 Register, South Cambridgeshire R.D., enumeration district TBKV, schedule 34, Martha Casbon; imaged on findmypast (https://search.findmypast.com/search-world-records/1939-register : accessed 19 November 2016); citing The National Archives, R39/6326/6326I/005/05.
^[18] “England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007”, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVCQ-FH17 : accessed 2 August 2016), Martha Casbon, 1^st qtr, 1947, Cambridge, vol. 4A/257.

A Working Vacation in East Sussex

June 24, 2018April 28, 2020 admin3 Comments

This story comes from the Sussex Agricultural Express of August 31, 1934.^[1]

I hope you’ll take the time to read the entire article. The highlighted section refers to “Mrs. Casban, of Croydon,” who has been picking hops at the same farm for 64 years. Mrs. Casban was Margaret (Donovan), the wife of Samuel C. Casban (1873–1949). Margaret was born in Addington, Surrey, in late 1869 to Timothy and Mary (Mahoney) Donovan, both of Irish descent.^[2] She was just shy of 65 when this article was published. If her story is to be believed, she would have been only one year old when she started picking hops at Mr. Levett’s Court Lodge Farm. As we shall see, this might not be as impossible as it seems.

The story also tells us that Mrs. Casban had five daughters and three sons. This matches up with what I have in my database. The children were:

Samuel Edward (1893–1936)
Margaret Frances (1894–1970)
Florence Mary (1896–1974)
Johanna Elizabeth (1898–1978)
William (abt. 1901–1960)
Alice Eleanor (1904–1979)
James (1905–1965)
Ellen Kathleen (“Nell,” 1908–abt. 2008)

Several if not all of these children married and had children of their own, and they have living descendants today, some still living in Croydon.

The article gives us a glimpse of the hops agriculture in southeast England. Hops were an essential ingredient for the brewing of beer. At one point, hops were grown in almost every region of England, but now they are located mainly in the West Midlands and southeastern counties, including East Sussex, the setting of the article above.^[3] This map shows the location of Bodiam, in East Sussex, the site of the Levett farm where Margaret Casban was working.

Map of England with markers for Meldreth, Cambridgeshire (Casbon ancestral home – upper marker),
Croyden, Surrey (home of Samuel & Margaret Casban) and Bodiam, East Sussex (lower marker).
Use ctrl + scroll to zoom in for more detail. (Google Maps)

As the article suggests, hop pickers “invaded” the region when the hops were ripe. Most came from London and surrounding areas. “At its height, from the [Nineteen] Twenties to the Fifties, about 200,000 East Enders – mostly women and children – made the annual pilgrimage down into the … hop gardens, filling the ‘hopper’s specials’ trains which left from London Bridge station in the early hours of the morning.”^[4] For these families, the hop-picking season was a kind of working holiday, allowing them to get out of the city and into the country, while earning some much-needed extra money. “This mass exodus saw urban, poverty-stricken families packing up their possessions and animals and setting off in a ragged procession to Kent’s hop farms.”^[5]

By the time the article was written, special trains were scheduled to move the families to the farms. Mrs. Casban relates how far they had to walk in the earlier years before the special trains. Considering the amount of travel and labor involved, the economic incentive must have been a powerful motivator.

Conditions at the hop farms were often rudimentary. Hoppers lived in unheated sheds and slept on straw-stuffed mattresses piled on twigs. They cooked over fires outdoors or in huge concrete cookhouses and washed their clothes in local streams. …

Farmers often provided vegetables and fruit, and the hoppers saved up to buy meat once a week. When their menfolk came down at the weekends they would poach rabbits, pheasants and fish. It was not unknown for local chickens to go missing, too.^[6]

This short video, filmed in 1946, gives a good overview of the annual hop-picking migration.

These photos show what life was like on the hop farm. Margaret and her family must have encountered similar scenes.

Top photo: Island History Trust Image Collection © THLHLA (http://www.ideastore.co.uk/digital-gallery/view/1433). Remaining photos: Imperial War Museum Collection, © IWM (images D 22169, D 22167, D 22164, and D 22176, http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections)

We can see how Margaret might have gone hop-picking even as a baby!

Margaret Casban passed away in 1953.^[7] How long did she continue to make the annual exodus to East Sussex? The 1939 Register, a census substitute taken before the outbreak of World War II, lists Margaret, her husband Samuel, and a couple of grandchildren “residing” at Court Lodge Farm in September of that year.^[8] I wonder if any of her surviving grandchildren remember the hop picking adventure? Comments are welcome!

^[1] “Hop Picking Begins: Record Invasion of Bodiam,” Sussex Agricultural Express August 31, 1934; imaged in the “British Newspapers Collection,” findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com [accessed 19 November 2016).
^[2] “England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008,” database, FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2XZ5-5GW : accessed 17 November 2016), Margaret Donovan, 4^th qtr, 1869, Croydon, vol. 2A/224, line 354; citing General Register Office, Southport. 1939 Register, Sussex, Battle registration district, schedule 51, subject 2, Margaret Casban; The National Archives, RG101/2535H/007/41 Letter Code: EKCTA.
^[3] “History of Hops,” British Hop Association (https://www.britishhops.org.uk/hops/history/ : accessed 23 Jun 2018).
^[4] Melanie McGrath, “The hoppiest days of our lives: Recalling the summers spent in the fields,” DailyMail.com (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1163634/The-hoppiest-days-lives-Recalling-summers-spent-fields.html : accessed 23 June 2018), rev. 6 Apr 2009 08:38.
^[5] “Work: The hoppers of Kent,” BBC Home (http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/work/england/kent/article_3.shtml : accessed 23 Jun 2018).
^[6] McGrath, “The hoppiest days of our lives,” DailyMail.com.
^[7] “England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVCF-NR84 : 4 September 2014), Margaret Casban, 1^st qtr,1953, Croydon, vol. 5G/215, line 51; citing General Register Office, Southport.
^[8] 1939 Register, Sussex, Battle registration district, schedule 51, subject 2, Margaret Casban.

Joseph Casbon, Death Registration, 1847

June 5, 2018April 15, 2020 admin8 Comments

Before getting to today’s topics, I have a couple of brief announcements. First, I’m happy to say that an article I wrote titled, “Thomas Casbon, James Scruby, and the Meldreth-Wayne County, Ohio Connection” has been published on the Meldreth History website. You can read the article here. Much of the information in this article has been presented in earlier blog posts, but the emphasis in the article is different, and there is some new information as well. I hope you will take a look.

Also, a previous article, “‛The Old Cow Got Round It’,” was also selected as the current Editor’s Choice on the Meldreth History site. The article in the website is nearly identical to an earlier blog post.

Finally, the blog will be on vacation for a while, as I will be doing a bit of traveling.

Now to today’s post. Joseph Casbon was the third son of Isaac (~1773–1825) and Susanna (Howes, ~1776–1840) Casbon. I have written previously about Joseph and his wife Lydia (Burgess). At that time, I only had three records or documents that mentioned Joseph by name. The first was a handwritten Casbon family history from about 1890 that mentioned Joseph as the son of Isaac (and gave the incorrect name for his mother) and the brother of Thomas, Williams and James.^[1]

“Isaac Casbon Married Jayne Miller of Meldreth,
Near Royston Cambridge shire Englan both were raised and born in this place
There were born to them Thomas William Joseph, one dead he left no heirs James”
(Click on image to enlarge)

The other two records were Joseph’s marriage and burial records. There is no record of his birth or baptism, so we could only estimate his birth year as 1810 or 1811 based on the age (36) given when he was buried in 1847.^[2] Now we have one more record to add to Joseph’s file: a copy of his civil death registration, which I recently ordered from the England and Wales General Register Office.^[3]

(Click on image to enlarge)

The most important new details in this record are the exact date and location of death, his age, occupation, and cause of death. We can see that he died on March 3, 1847 in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. Melbourn is the village just east of Meldreth, where Joseph was probably born and raised. His stated age of 35 would give him a birth date sometime between March 4, 1811 and March 3, 1812. Since his burial record listed his age as 36, we need to extend the beginning of this range to 1810. His occupation was “Labourer.” Given his family background, it would have been unlikely to be anything else.

Two conditions are listed under Cause of Death: “Catarrh 4 months” and “Pulmonary Consumption” (the word under this is “Certified,” which probably means a doctor certified his death). Neither of these terms are commonly used today. Catarrh in its simplest sense means “a discharge from a mucus membrane.”^[4] In America, the term was generally restricted to inflammation of the membranes of the air passages.^[5] In England, catarrh referred more specifically to inflammation of the trachea and bronchi (what we would call bronchitis).^[6] An 1856 medical dictionary has this to say of the English version:

It is commonly an affection of but little consequence, but apt to relapse and become chronic. It is characterized by cough, thirst, lassitude, fever, watery eyes, with increased secretion of mucus from the air-passages. … Sometimes, the inflammation of the bronchial tubes is so great as to prove fatal.^[7]

Consumption, in the generic sense, meant “progressive emaciation or wasting away,” but the term was most often applied to pulmonary tuberculosis, as in Joseph’s case.^[8] In the early 19^th century, the cause of tuberculosis was unknown, and many believed it to be hereditary or caused by constitutional weakness.^[9] It wasn’t until 1865 that tuberculosis was determined to be infectious, and not until 1882 that the causative bacillus was identified.^[10] There were no effective treatments until the twentieth century.

To summarize the cause of death for Joseph, he had pulmonary tuberculosis, a chronic wasting infection. In his final months, he developed catarrh; probably an accelerated phase of his underlying condition, with increased cough and mucus production.

In my earlier post about Joseph and his family, I mentioned that five of the six family members died within a five-year period, and speculated that tuberculosis was the likely cause.^[11] This is certainly supported by Joseph’s death record. It’s likely that the infection was spread among the family members, all living in close quarters.

I was curious about the informant for the facts of the death record, a woman named Sarah Worland. She was most likely Sarah Worland, born about 1788 in Meldreth, who lived within one or two houses of Lydia (and Joseph?) Casbon.

I have never been able to find Joseph in the 1841 census, the first census to list names of household members. I have no idea why he doesn’t appear in the census, but clearly he was living in Melbourn when he died in 1847.

^[1] Handwritten Casbon family history, ca. 1888–92, photocopy, whereabouts of original unknown, private collection of Jon Casbon.
^[2] Parish of Meldreth (Cambridgeshire, England), Register of Burials 1813-75, p. 47, no. 373, Joseph Casbon, 7 Mar 1847; imaged as “Parish registers for Meldreth, 1681-1877,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/film/007567609?cat=210742 : accessed 28 April 2017), image 466 of 699; citing FHL microfilm 1,040,542, item 10.
^[3] Cambridgeshire, England, Royston and Buntingford district, Melbourn sub-district, death registration, 1847, no. 92, Joseph Casbon (indexed as Caston, age 35), 3 Mar, Melbourn; image copy (downloaded as pdf file), General Registration Office, Southport, vol. 6/491.
^[4] Robley Dunkinson, Medical Lexicon: a Dictionary of Medical Science; Containing a Concise Explanation of the Various Subjects and Terms of Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene, Therapeutics, Pharmacology, Obstetrics, Medical Jurisprudence, &c, 13^th ed. rev. (Philadelphia: Blanchard and Lea, 1856), p. 179, “Catarrh’”; online image, Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009703960 : accessed 29 May 2018).
^[5] Ibid.
^[6] Ibid.
^[7] Ibid.
^[8] Ibid, p. 233, “Consumption.”
^[9] John Frith, “History of Tuberculosis. Part 1 – Phthisis, Consumption and the White Plague,” Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health, vol. 22, no. 2, online edition (http://jmvh.org/article/history-of-tuberculosis-part-1-phthisis-consumption-and-the-white-plague/ : accessed 29 May 2018).
^[10] Ibid.
^[11] Jon Casbon, “Joseph and Lydia (Burgess) Casbon,” 2 Mar 2017, Our Casbon Journey (https://casbonjourney.wordpress.com/2017/03/02/joseph-and-lydia-burgess-casbon/ : accessed 29 May 2018).

Chatteris

January 31, 2018 admin2 Comments

CHATTERIS, a parish and market town in the hundred of North Witchford, in the county of Cambridge, 26 miles N.W. of Cambridge, and 7 S. of March. It is a station on the Ely and Peterborough railway, and is situated on the river Ouse. Alwina, wife of Athelstan, and niece of King Edgar, founded a convent of Benedictines about a.D. 980, which was in Henry VIII’s. reign wholly suppressed. The place is mentioned in Domesday Survey under the name of Cateriz, or Cetriz. Tho living is a vicarage in the diocese of Ely, val. £1,500, in the patron. of W. Hawkins, Esq. The church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, is a handsome edifice. … The town was made a market town in 1834; and a court-leet and petty sessions are held here. The Bishop of Ely is lord of the manor. A large number of Roman coins and curious relics have been found at various times, and not many years since part of the skeleton of an elephant.^[1]

Detail from Ordnance Survey of England and Wales, Sheet 16, 1:253,440, 1903. Chatteris is near the top of the map. This work incorporates historical material provided by the Great Britain Historical GIS Project and the University of Portsmouth through their web site A Vision of Britain through Time (http://www.VisionofBritain.org.uk). (Click on image to enlarge)

Partial map of England showing approximate area encompassed by detail map, above. Adapted from Google Maps (https://maps.google.com)

In my wanderings through various online archives, I discovered a number of Casbon entries from the parish of Chatteris. The name first appears in the 1851 census with an entry for Sarah Casbon, age 30, and her four children.^[2] It turns out that this is a misspelling of their correct surname, Casburn, which appears in almost every other available record. The Casburn spelling is strongly associated with the parish of Burwell in Cambridgeshire. It turns out that Sarah’s husband, John Thomas Casburn, was born in Burwell.^[3] He served as the butler to the principal landowner and member of Parliament for Chatteris.^[4] I have not found any connection between the Casburns of Burwell and modern-day Casbons.

But then, the Casbon spelling pops up again in three separate entries in the 1881 England census.^[5]^,[6],[7]

Details from 1881 England Census, Chatteris, Cambridgeshire. (Click on images to enlarge)

These 3 entries show respectively: Lester (misspelled) Casbon and his family; Harriet Casbon and her children, Rosa, Mary A, Harriet and Arthur, in the home of Ann Weaton; and Harry Casbon in the home of Emma Allpress. We can see that Lester is listed as the head of his household. Harriet is Ann Weaton’s daughter, and Harry is Emma Allpress’ grandson. It will take some backtracking to show how they are related.

It starts with a man named John Casbon, who married Emma Taylor in 1841.^[8] John was a cordwainer, or shoemaker.^[9] John and Emma had three children: Lester, born in 1842;^[10] Sarah Ann, in 1844;^[11] and John, in 1846.^[12] Later census records tell us that all three children were born in Colne, Huntingdonshire (see map above). John, the father’s, death at age 30, was registered in 1848.^[13] I haven’t found any record of John’s birth or birthplace, so the trail goes cold there.

After John’s death, Emma married a man named John Allpress.^[14] The expanded family appears in the 1851 census, living in Somersham, Huntingdonshire (see map above).^[15]

Detail from 1851 census, Somersham, Huntingdonshire. (Click on image to enlarge)

Lester, Sarah Ann, and John are all shown with their surname spelled Casbey.

Sometime before 1861, John and Emma Allpress moved from Somersham to Chatteris.^[16] Emma’s sons, Lester and John, raised their families and remained in Chatteris the rest of their lives. Daughter Sarah Ann is lost to follow up after 1861, although I have an intriguing theory about her fate (teaser for a future post!).

Lester married Julia Ann Mould, a Chatteris native, in 1871.^[17] Lester and Julia had the following children:

Elizabeth Ann, born 29 Jan 1872^[18]
Charles William, born 1 Sep 1873^[19]
Emma, born 14 August 1873^[20]
Alfred Lester, born 1880, died 1880^[21]^,[22]

Lester and his entire family are seen in the 1881 census entry, above. Lester died in the Chatteris area in 1925; his wife Julia had died one year earlier.^[23]

John married Harriet Davis, also a Chatteris native, in 1868.^[24] They had the following children:

Rose Ann, born 1868^[25]
Mary, born 1871^[26]
Harriet, born 1874^[26]
Arthur, born 1878^[27]
Harry, born 1882^[28]
William, born 1887^[29]

John’s wife, Harriet, is seen in the 1881 census, above. John’s whereabouts in the 1881 census are unknown, but he is present with the rest of the family in subsequent censuses. John and his wife Harriet both died (probably) in 1931.^[30]^,[31]

To the best of my knowledge, none of the male descendants had children of their own, so there are no living Casbon-surname descendants of this branch of the family. However, there are likely many descendants from Lester and John’s married daughters. My father corresponded with a descendant of Rose Ann (Casbon) Foster, 20+ years ago. If any descendants are reading this post, I hope they will contact me.

Since I haven’t been able to trace the origins of Lester and John’s father, I don’t know whether or how this branch of the Casbon-surname family is connected to other branches of the family. Burwell is a potential point of origin, considering that many records use the Casburn spelling. There is also a strong geographic connection to the Peterborough Casbons. Thomas Casbon (~1776–1855), was living about 5 miles from Chatteris in 1812, and was living in Colne, Huntingdonshire (where Lester, John, and Sarah Ann were born in the 1840s) in 1851.^[32]^,[33] His son, Thomas (1807–1863), lived in Warboys, about 5 miles from Colne, in 1841, before moving to Peterborough.^[34] His wife, Jane, was born in Chatteris.^[35] DNA testing would be necessary to determine whether the Chatteris and Peterborough branches are related.

The observant reader will note that I have not discussed Harry Casbon, shown in the 1881 census, above, with his grandmother Emma (Casbon) Allpress. He is not the son of either Lester or John. Who does that leave? I will save his story for a future post.

^[1] Adapted from: N.E.S.A. Hamilton, ed., The National Gazeteer of Great Britain and Ireland; or, Topographical Dictionary of the British Isles (London: James S. Virtue, 1868), vol. 3: 541; online image, Hathi Trust Digital Library (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112053400526;view=1up;seq=91 : accessed 28 January 2018).
^[2] “1851 Census of England,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/8860/CAMHO107_1765_1765-0640 : accessed 25 January 2018), Sarah Casbon (age 30), Cambridgeshire, Chatteris, Wenney(?) End, schedule 65; citing The National Archives, HO 107, HO 107, piece 1765/337, p. 17.
^[3] “1861 Census of England,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/8767/MDXRG9_44_46-0162?pid=231640 : accessed 26 January 2018), John Casburn in household of John Dunn Gardner, Middlesex, St George Hanover Square, schedule 152, 122 Park St; citing The National Archives, RG 9/45/76/30.
^[4] “1861 Census of England,” Ancestry, John Casburn in household of John Dunn Gardner.
^[5] 1881 Census of England, population schedule, database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7572/CAMRG11_1686_1691-0636 : accessed 25 January 2018), Lecester Casbon, Cambridgeshire, Chatteris, Bridge St, schedule 23; citing The National Archives, RG 11/1689/34/5.
^[6] “1881 Census of England,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7572/CAMRG11_1686_1691-0638?pid=941225 : accessed 27 January 2018), Harriet Casbon in household of Ann Weaton, Cambridgeshire, Chatteris, Bridge St., schedule 36; citing The National Archives, RG 11/1689/35/7.
^[7] 1881 Census of England, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7572/CAMRG11_1686_1691-0638 : accessed 25 January 2018), Harry Casbon in household of Emma Allpress, Cambridgeshire, Chatteris, Bridge St. schedule 35; citing The National Archives RG 11/1689/35/7.
^[8] “England & Wales Marriages 1837-2008,” database, findmypast (http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=bmd%2fm%2f1841%2f3%2faz%2f000083%2f018 : accessed 13 Feb 2017), John Casbon & Emma Taylor, 3d quarter, 1841, St. Ives, Huntingdonshire, vol. 14/263.
^[9] “Cambridgeshire Marriages,”database, findmypast (http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbprs%2fm%2f324090846%2f1 : accessed 13 February 2017), John Casburn, father, in marriage of John Casburn & Harriet Davis, 19 Jul 1868, Chatteris, Cambridgeshire; citing transcription by Cambridge Family History Society.
^[10] “Search the GRO [General Register Office] Online Index,” database, HM Passport Office (https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp : accessed 3 January 2018), birth, search terms: “Casbon” (or similar) “1842 +/- 2 years,” Lester Carbon, S[ep] qtr, 1841, mother’s maiden name Taylor, St Ives Union, vol. 14/197.
^[11] “Search the GRO Online Index,” HM Passport Office (accessed 24 Jan 2018),birth, search terms: “Casbon” (or similar) “1844 +/- 2 yrs,” Sarah Ann Caston, S qtr, 1844, mother’s maiden name Taylor, St Ives Union, vol. 14/8.
^[12] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 24 January 2018),birth, search terms: “Casbon” “1846 +/- 2 yrs,” Casbon John, J[un] qtr, 1846, mother’s maiden name Taylor, St Ives Union, vol. 14/239.
^[13] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 4 January 2018), death, search terms: “Casborn” “John” “1848,” Casborn, John (age 30), M[arch] quarter, 1848, St Ives, vol. 14:178.
^[14] “England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915,” database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/ : accessed 29 January 2018), search terms: “Emma” “Cas” “1850,” Emma Caseby, 2^nd qtr, 1850, St. Ives, Huntingdonshire; citing General Register Office, London.
^[15] “1851 Census of England, Wales & Scotland,” database with images, findmypast* (http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbc%2f1851%2f0007382478 : accessed 11 November 2016).
^[16] 1861 Census of England, population schedule, database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/8767/camrg9_1038_1044-0896 : accessed 25 January 2018), Emma Allpress, Cambridgeshire, Chatteris, Slade End, schedule 51; citing The National Archives, RG 9/1043/34/8.
^[17] “Cambridgeshire Marriages,” database, findmypast (http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbprs%2fm%2f324090915%2f1 : accessed 13 February 2017), Lester Casburn (signs Casban) & Julia Ann Mould, 5 Jul 1871, Chatteris, Cambridgeshire.
^[18] “Cambridgeshire Baptisms,” database/transcriptions, findmypast (https://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbprs%2fb%2f323316744%2f1 : accessed 30 January 2018), Elizabeth Ann Casburn, born 29 Jan 1872, baptized 25 Feb 1872, Chatteris, Cambridgeshire; citing transcriptions of parish records by Cambridge Family History Society.
^[19] “Chatteris Baptisms 1600-1955,” database with transcriptions, accessed via “Ancestry Finder,” on Cambridgshire Family History Society (https://www.cfhs.org.uk/tokens/tokpub.cfm : accessed 30 January 2018), search terms: “Casburn” “Chatteris” “Chatteris Baptisms 1600-1955, additional search terms: “Charles” “1873,” Casburn, Charles William, b. 1 Sep 1873, baptized 17 Apr 1878; citing parish records. This is a subscription web site that provides transcriptions of parish records in exchange for tokens which can be purchased.
^[20] “Chatteris Baptisms 1600-1955,” accessed via “Ancestry Finder,” on Cambridgshire Family History Society (https://www.cfhs.org.uk/tokens/tokpub.cfm : accessed 30 January 2018), search terms: “Casburn” “Chatteris” “Chatteris Baptisms 1600-1955, additional search terms: “Emma” “1878,” Casburn, Emma, b. 14 Aug 1877, baptized 17 Apr 1878.
^[21] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 20 January 2018), birth, search terms: “Casburn” “male” “1880,” Casburn, Alfred Lester, D[ec] qtr, 1880, N. Witchford, vol. 3B/544.
^[22] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 20 January 2018), death, search terms: “Casburn” “1880,” Casburn Alfred Lester D[ec] qtr, 1880, North Witchford, vol 3B/374.
^[23] “Chatteris Burials 1600-1946,” accessed via “Ancestry Finder,” on Cambridgshire Family History Society (https://www.cfhs.org.uk/tokens/tokpub.cfm : accessed 31 January 2018), search terms: “Casbon” “Chatteris” “Chatteris Burials 1600-1946,” Casbon Julia Ann (age 74), 12 Feb 1924, and Casbon, Lester (age 84), 13 Aug 1925; citing transcriptions of parish records by Cambridge Family History Society.
^[24] “Cambridgeshire Marriages,”database, findmypast (http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbprs%2fm%2f324090846%2f1 : accessed 13 February 2017), John Casburn & Harriet Davis, 19 Jul 1868, Chatteris.
^[25] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 25 January 2018), birth, search terms: “Davis” “Rose” “female” “1868,” Davis, Rose Ann, M[ar] qtr, 1868, North Witchford, mother’s maiden name (blank).
^[26] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 25 January 2018), birth, search terms: “Casbon” “female” “1872 +/- 2 yrs,” Casbon, Mary Ann, S[ep] qtr 1871 and Casbon, Harriet, M[ar] qtr 1874, North Witchford, mother’s maiden name Davis.
^[27] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 25 January 2018), birth, search terms: “Casbon” “male” (mother’s maiden name)“Davis” “1876 +/- 2 yrs,” Casbon, Arthur, S[ep] qtr, 1878, North Witchford.
^[28] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 25 January 2018), birth, search terms: “Casburn” “male” “1882 +/- 2 yrs,” Casburn, Harry, J[un] qtr, 1882, North Witchford, mother’s maiden name Davis.
^[29] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 25 January 2018), birth, search terms: “Casburn” “male” “1886 +/- 2 yrs,” Casburn, William, M[ar] qtr, 1887, North Witchford, mother’s maiden name Davis.
^[30] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 27 January 2018), death, search terms: “Casbon” “male” “1931,” John Casbon (age 88), M[ar] qtr, 1931, Peterborough, vol. 3B/286.
^[31] “Search the GRO Online Index” (accessed 27 January 2018), death, search terms: “Casbon” “female” “1931,” Harriet Casbon (age 87), M[ar] qtr, 1931, Peterborough, vol. 3B/286.
^[32] “England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWMM-C8X : accessed 15 Dec 2016), Sarah Caseben, 1812, Bluntisham cum Earith, Huntingdonshire; citing , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City, FHL microfilm 1,040,598.
^[33] “1851 Census of England,” population schedule, database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/8860/HUNHO107_1749_1749-0468?pid=6187710 : accessed 31 January 2018), Thomas Casbon in household of William Harrop, Huntingdonshire, Colne, Church Lane, schedule 85; citing The National Archives, HO 107, piece 1749, folio 233, p. 20.
^[34] “1841 Census of England, Wales & Scotland,” database with images, findmypast (http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbc%2f1841%2f0005809053 : accessed 31 March 2017), entry for Thomas Casbourn, Huntingdonshire, Warboys, Mill Green, line 1; citing [The National Archives], HO 107, piece 449, book 5, folio 25, p. 6.
^[35] “1861 Census of Engand, Wales & Scotland,” database with images, findmypast (https://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbc%2f1861%2f0966%2f00574a&parentid=gbc%2f1861%2f0005725932&highlights=%22%22 : accessed 5 August 2016), entry for Jane Casbon in household of Thomas Casbon, Northamptonshire, Peterborough, Marquis Grandby, schedule 187; citing [The National Archives], enumeration district 12, RG 09, piece 966, folio 21, p. 35.

New Documents: William of Littleport (d. 1699)

October 24, 2017April 15, 2020 adminLeave a comment

Today’s post is simply an announcement that I have attached a new document showing the descendants of William Caseborne of Littleport, who died in 1699. William is the common ancestor of the family I have called the “Peterborough Casbons,” as that is where many of William’s descendants settled in the 19th century. You will find a link to this report in the Documents section of the blog.

I have written a number of posts about this branch of the family: “How doth your garden grow?,” “Pleasure Gardens and the Temperence Movement,” “Stepping Back: Thomas Casborn of Littleport (~1732-1780),” “Two Children Drowned,” “A Family Outing,” “Origins: The Earliest Ancestors from Littleport,” and “Financial Difficulties.”

The report is privatized, meaning I have attempted to block the identities and personal information of living people, who are simply listed as “Living”_[Last Name]. Family members may contact me through this blog if they would like a non-privatized version of the report.

Enjoy!

Littleport, Cambridgeshire street scene. Adapted from “Littleport Town Team,” Littleport Life
(http://www.littleportlife.co.uk/2015/09/littleport-town-team/)