Sometimes
when you look through the parish registers and other data concerning a
particular family you just have to feel sorry for them. That was the case with
one of my 1st cousins (5X removed) in Cornwood, Devon.
John
was one of those members of my family who was baptized as Shepheard but buried
as Shepherd. Part of the reason I think the spelling of his name changed over
the years was that John could not read or write and either did not recognize
the difference in spelling or accepted what the Vicar recorded as the "proper" way to spell his name. On his 1842 marriage record in Ashburton parish, Devon,
he is shown as John Shephard. On the 1851 census he and his family were
recorded as Shiphard; on the 1861, 1881 and 1891 censuses as Shepherd; and on
the 1871 census as Shepheard. In the parish baptism register, on the occasion
of the baptism of his children, he was variously shown as both Shepherd and Shepheard.
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December
24, 1815 entry in Cornwood parish baptism register for John Shepheard, son of
Thomas and Ann Shepheard; image courtesy of copyright-holder - Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
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May
15, 1842 entry in Ashburton parish marriage register for John Shephard and Betsey
Cleave; image courtesy of copyright-holder - Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
|
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July
22, 1898 entry in Cornwood parish burial register for John Shepherd, aged 82; image courtesy of copyright-holder - Plymouth and West Devon Record Office
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John
was a farm labourer all of his life so likely never made great wages. The
family probably lived from hand-to-mouth most of the time. By the time his
children were teenagers, most of them were out working, generally in menial or
labouring jobs. One daughter, Harriet was fortunate in being sponsored to
attend Dame
Hannah Rogers’ School in Plymouth. The school was endowed in 1764, originally
“for the maintenance and education of poor unfortunate children” of Devon and
Cornwall.
Harriet
came back to Cornwood but not without finding a bit of trouble. She had a
daughter, Louisa, a “base child” according to the entry in the baptism
register, in 1865. Harriet married George Haynes, the local bootmaker, in 1869 –
signing her name as Shepheard, it might be noted. Louisa lived with her
grandparents, John and Betsey, for a number of years apparently, even while her
mother, stepfather and half siblings were living right next door. That, of
course, could have been a convenience of space not necessarily a rejection by
Harriet’s new husband.
Not
all of Harriet’s sisters were as lucky with their education. After a few years
working as a general servant, Susanna, born in 1856, was married at the age of
19 to a local boy, William Phillips. Other sisters, however – Ruth Ann, born in
1851, and Elizabeth, born in 1854 – both ended up in the Plympton St. Mary Union
Workhouse.
Ruth
Ann had a daughter, Harriet Blanche, born in the workhouse in 1872. Harriet also
lived with her grandparents for a number of years. She went on to marry and
raise a family of her own in Cornwood. Elizabeth had two children out of
wedlock in the workhouse, James Ernest, in 1878, and Edith Virginia, in 1880. Both
children died there, James at the age of 10 weeks and Edith as a child of eight
years. I have not yet found what happened to Ruth Ann or Elizabeth.
The
family of John and Betsey was not without tribulation and misfortune, perhaps
like many other families of the day. In the end, several branches prospered.
John and Betsey lived to ripe old ages of 83 and 86, respectively. It is likely
John worked right up until near his death. He was still shown as an
agricultural labourer on the 1891 census, at the age of 75.
Betsey and John
Shepherd of Tor, Cornwood – about 1890 (photo courtesy of Pat den Hollander and Tom Maddock, descendants; image from T. H. Maddock Collection)
