The Bells of St. Michael’s

One might be reasonably sure Nicholas Shepheard (1716-1786) would never have considered that Wayne Shepheard, great-grandson of his great-grandson, would have had an interest in the bells installed in the parish church at Cornwood, Devon – some 230 years later.

My family has deep roots in Devon, England – in particular, Cornwood parish in the southwestern part of the county. I have been able to trace my Shepheard ancestors back 11 generations in the area. Shepheards lived there from the early part of the 17th century until the early 1900s. I mentioned a few things about Cornwood and my ancestors in an earlier post here, titled How I Became an OPC, published on August 17, 2013.

For much of its history, the community and activities of the citizens of Cornwood parish centred around St. Michael and All Angels Church. It is here where new births were recognized through baptisms, marriages were solemnized and residents at the end of their lives were buried.

 

St. Michael and All Angels Church in Cornwood Parish, Devon County, England

(photo taken by Wayne Shepheard, 2004)

In a booklet published by the church it is described thusly:

The Church is built on the highest point of a low ridge overlooking the original village which, 700-800 years ago, would have consisted of a straggle of cob and thatched cottages, running from the present cross-roads down towards Langham Bridge on the road to Ivybridge, together with some ten outlying farms … The oldest part of the Church is the squat, slightly tapering tower. The remains of its lancet windows suggest that it dates from the early part of the 13^th century. It was probably part of an earlier building whose nave and chancel may have corresponded in size with the present nave. We know that the Church and three altars were re-dedicated in 1336. The addition of the final bay of the chancel, the porch, the vestry and, in 1984, a small annex against the north side of the tower, does not alter the basic design of the 14^th century church in the Perpendicular style which is characteristic of so many churches in Devon.

Many members of the Shepheard family were active in the Church’s activities over the centuries. Of particular note was the Nicholas Shepheard I mentioned above, my 5^th great-grandfather. He was one of the main landowners and leaders in the area, as well as a tax assessor and collector for many years. Nicholas was also the Churchwarden in 1770, when five of the six bells in the tower were installed. As a result of his being responsible to their manufacture and installation, his name was part of the inscription cast into these bells.

When we toured the church in 2004, some of the things I most wanted to see were the bells, as they had a personal and historic meaning to our family. A description of them in The Book of Cornwood and Lutton said that they “were cast by John Pennington IV of Stoke Climsland, [Cornwall] in 1770, and bear the name of Nicholas Shepherd [sic], churchwarden.” The bells were determined to be unsafe and taken down in 1939. They were sent to the foundry of John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough, Leicestershire, where they were turned and had new hangings made. The bells were rehung and rededicated, by the Bishop of Exeter, at a special ceremony, in April 1940. A letter from the Taylor company also indicated the bells bore the name of Nicholas Shepherd.

 

Left – Part of one of the bells showing the name of Nicholas Shepheard

Right – Wayne standing alongside one of the church bells on which Nicholas Shepheard’s name appears (Photos from Shepheard family files, taken in 2004).

I was curious about this because all formal documents that showed his surname spelled it the way I do. One of the local residents, along with the head bell ringer took me up into the tower where we could see the bells and clock first-hand. Much to my delight, as can be seen in the photo below, the bells indeed did show the name of “Nicholas Shepheard”.

Seeing the bells was a highlight to our trip to Cornwood. It is always a special experience when you can find your family name recorded for posterity in an important piece of the history of an area.

The bells can be heard at my Cornwood OPC website. Just click the box below St. Michael’s Bells on the Home page.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

Reference:

Dobinson, M. [Ed.]. (1997). The Book of Cornwood and Lutton. Tiverton, Devon, England: Halsgrove.

Notes in the Burial Registers

Prior to the regulations instituted by Parliament for the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in Britain, in 1837, the main alternative to an actual death certificate was a parish burial record. In most cases only the name of the deceased and the date of his burial were entered. Generally one could assume that the death was only up to a few days prior to the burial but rarely was that event recorded directly.

Occasionally a vicar might make notes in the registers which might shed light on the manner of death or the relationship of the deceased to surviving family members. Such comments can add an important piece of information about the individual but they almost never make it into an index.

Unfortunately, not all vicars chose to make notes so records may not be complete in an area over several decades. Rev. Duke Yonge (1750-1823), of Cornwood parish, was very diligent in leaving comments in the registers. He served as the Cornwood vicar from July 1793 until his own death in December 1823. For over 20 years, we have a wonderful record of the causes of death.

In the burial registers of the four parishes in Southwest Devon I look after, as an Online Parish Clerk, only a small percentage of entries have notes about the deceased persons:

·         Cornwood – 702 of 4,616 entries (15%) between 1685 and 1993;

·         Harford – 153 of 639 entries (24%) between 1708 and 1933;

·         Plympton St. Mary – 1,778 of 15,963 (11%) between 1603 and 1963;

·         Plympton St. Maurice – 1,699 of 4,897 entries (35%) between 1616 and 1958

All of the registers for my parishes have been transcribed and the information put into spreadsheets; so I can sort and look at various items to see whether trends are present (did deaths increase in number or decrease during any period), whether certain diseases were present at various times, what family connections there might have been or whether other events affecting the populace occurred.

Families

Most of the entries have to do with who the deceased was related to. Many notes reference that those buried were the son of, daughter of, wife of or husband of a surviving member of the family. That is exceedingly helpful when trying to reconstruct families whose members had similar names to those of other families. It was not unusual for children to be named after their parents or grandparents so children often had the same names as their cousins.

Notes might be made of the individual’s occupation or employer which, again, is useful in determining to which family they belonged.

Those with more affiliations to nobility or senior members of the community were particularly noted. See my blog post titled, Nobility and Celebrity as recorded in the parish register, published 8 October 2013

Diseases

Of the diseases and epidemics that hit the area, cholera occurred in two main episodes in Plympton St. Mary and Plympton St. Maurice – July-September 1832 and June-July 1849. Few deaths occurred in Cornwood during those two periods, and no cause of death was recorded, so it appears the disease was confined to the area surrounding the village of Plympton. 

Smallpox killed nine people in Cornwood in 1770-71. The disease was not recorded in either of Plympton St. Mary or Plympton St. Maurice, however a large number of children and infants died between 1769 and 1771 leading one to wonder if smallpox played a role in their deaths.

In Cornwood parish, twenty-eight people died of phthisis (tuberculosis) between 1799 and 1823. Very likely more suffered as well both before and after these years, which was during the time Rev. Duke Yonge was vicar, but the causes of death were not noted. Again no such cause of death was recorded in the adjacent parishes of Harford, PS Mary and Plympton St. Maurice which might suggest the disease was confined to Cornwood.

There was an outbreak of scarlet fever in Plympton St. Mary from December 1850 to May 1851 during which 10 people died, nine of them very young children – two from each of three families, and six from the same village.

Other Information or Events

Sometimes the manner of death was an accident such as drowning, falling, from a fire or, more recently, in a car crash. In these cases one might want to look for a coroner’s report to get more information.

If someone just passing through died, a note might be written that they were a “stranger” to the parish. Those buried may not even have been named. I wrote about some of these entries on 25 August 2013 in a blog titled Some Unusual Endings.

Quite a large number of people (230) were buried in Plympton St. Mary between 1886 and 1953 “without the rites of the church” which might indicate they either had not been baptized in the Church of England, baptisms could not be confirmed or the individuals were of other religions.

In the Plympton St. Mary burial register, of the total 2,793 burial entries between 1922 and 1973, the actual grave locations were recorded for 1,058 individuals by the various vicars. This is very useful information for descendants seeking to find where their ancestors were interred.

Major conflicts were the cause of death of many individuals, both as soldiers, who were carried home for burial or regular citizens caught up in conflicts. Another of my blog posts, titled Military References in the Parish Registers referenced some of the older entries. During World War II, the dockyards of Plymouth were a major target of the German Luftwaffe. Between 1940 and 1944, there were 59 bombing raids resulting in the deaths of 1,172 civilians and another 4,448 injured. According to the notes in the Cornwood register, four of those killed in Plymouth were brought “home” to Cornwood for burial. The reason for their passing was noted in the burial register.

 

Portions of pages 83 and 84 of the burial register for Cornwood parish (number 2764/7) showing the names of four individuals killed during air raids in Plymouth in 1941.

(copyright owned by the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office)

Whenever possible, it is very useful for family historians to consult the actual documents where events were recorded about their ancestors. The old parish burial registers can be particularly valuable to add colour and explanation to a family story.

Baptism images reproduced here are used with the kind permission of the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office (PWDRO), the copyright-holder. Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

Passenger Ships – Part 4

In the last post here I wrote how my wife Linda’s mother and uncle, arrived in Canada. Her father, William Alexander MacKay, and his brother, Hugh MacKay, and Hugh’s wife, Catherine, also made the passage from Scotland. Following is a brief description of the ships they travelled on.

Name	Relationship to Linda	Ship	Date Departed Date Arrived	Departure Port Arrival Port
Hugh MacKay	Uncle	SS Marburn	6 June 1923	Glasgow, Scotland Quebec & Montreal
Hugh MacKay	Uncle	SS Metagama	19 December 1926	Saint John, NB Greenock, Scotland
William Alexander MacKay Hugh MacKay	Father Uncle	SS Metagama	28 May 1927 6 June 1927	Glasgow, Scotland Quebec & Montreal
Catherine MacKay	Aunt	SS Montclare	14 February 1928 26 February 1928	Greenock, Scotland Saint John, NB

Hugh came to Canada first, in 1923, aboard the ship SS Marburn. He apparently was to join his uncle, John McKay, who had a farm near Tregarva, Saskatchewan. John apparently arrived in Canada in 1869 but I have not yet found a passenger record for him. I have also not confirmed his exact relationship to Hugh.

Hugh returned to Scotland in 1926, presumably to marry. His return journey was on the SS Metagama, sailing from Saint John, New Brunswick and arriving in Greenock, Scotland on 19 December 1926. Hugh married Catherine Mathieson in Elgin, Moray, Scotland on 18 May 1927. Catherine came to Canada later, leaving Greenock on 14 February 1928 and arriving at Saint John on 26 February 1928, aboard the SS Montclare.

In 1927, both Hugh and William Alexander journeyed to Canada, again to join their uncle in Saskatchewan. The ship’s record shows their place of origin as Dyke Village by Forres which is in the County of Morayshire in Scotland. Dyke had been the family home for some years. They had moved there some time after 1911 from Findhorn, a fishing village about 9 miles to the northeast. Hugh and William travelled on the SS Metegama, the second time for Hugh. The ship left Glasgow on 28 May 1927, arriving in Quebec City on June 6^th. Both were bound for Tregarva. William later moved to Alberta while Hugh and his family settled permanently in Saskatchewan.

 

Part of passenger manifest for SS Metagama on its voyage from Glasgow to Quebec in 1926; showing Hugh and William MacKay – copyright The National Archives (UK) 

(image downloaded from Ancestry 26 October 2008)

Parts of the incoming passenger list for the SS Metagama, arriving in Quebec City on 6 June 1926  – showing passenger William MacKay; copyright Library and Archives Canada 

(image downloaded from Ancestry 25 October 2008)

The 10,576 ton steamship Marburn was originally launched under the name, Tunisian. It made its maiden voyage for the Allan Line on 5 April 1900 from Liverpool, England to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ship was chartered to Canadian Pacific Steamship Company in 1907 and taken over by them in 1917. In 1915 it was used as an accommodation ship for German prisoners of war, docked at the Isle of Wight. In 1918 it resumed passenger service. The ship was renamed Marburn in 1922. She was finally scrapped in 1928.

 

Postcard picture of the SS Tunisian, later renamed Marburn 

(image downloaded from the Great Ships website on 15 June 2014)

The 16,314 ton RMS Montclare was built by John Brown and Company on Clydebank, Glasgow for Canadian Pacific and launched on 18 December 1921. The ship made her maiden voyage on 18 August 1922 bound for Quebec and Montreal. On one trip back to Scotland in 1931 she ran aground. She was successfully refloated and repaired and served for many more years on the European and North Atlantic passenger routes. The ship was purchased by the Royal Navy during World War I. She was reclassified as a Destroyer Depot Ship in 1942 and a Submarine Depot ship in 1944. The ship was decommissioned in 1954 and scrapped in 1958.

 

Postcard picture of the SS Montclare 

(image downloaded from the Canadian Pacific ships website on 15 June 2014)

The SS Metagama was a 12,420 ton steamship, built in 1914 by Barclay Curle & Company, Glasgow for Canadian Pacific. Her maiden voyage began at Liverpool on 26 March 1915 – destination Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. In her history she had two mishaps, colliding with the SS Baron Vernon in the Clyde, Glasgow, in 1923, and then in collision again in 1924, with the SS Clara Camus at Cape Race, Newfoundland. The ship was laid up in the 1930s as passenger commerce faltered during the Depression years. She was finally scrapped in 1934.

 

Postcard picture of RMS Metagama 

(image downloaded from the Great Ships website 28 April 2014)

As more records become available I hope to find the passenger list showing other family members who came to North America. For time periods prior to the mid-1800s, however, the source records are still quite sparse.

Wayne Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past Editor of Chinook, the quarterly journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.