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Marshfield (Glos.)
The records show a married couple Robert and Bridget King (both perhaps born about 1540) together with Agnes, Martin, Ellen, Thomas and Robert, at least some of whom were probably their children. Robert and Bridget had two further children in Marshfield: William (1582) and Elizabeth (1584), both baptised in St. Mary the Virgin, Marshfield (pictured above and below). Bridget died in 1584. Martin would have been born about 1565. He married Joan ALSOP on
25 April 1588 in Marshfield parish church [Joan, daughter of Phillip Alsop, had
been baptised in Marshfield parish church on 16 November 1569]. Martin and Joan
King's children were Anna (1588), Thomas (1589), Elizabeth (1592), Mary (1594), Martin
(1596),
Edith (1599), John (1600), twins
William and Eleanor (1604), and another John (1606). The entry allocated to
Martin is actually blank in the register but it can be assigned to him by other
evidence, as shown below. From data supplied to the LDS it can be seen that at
least two previous researchers have reached this conclusion. We have a glimpse of Marshfield and of Martin and Thomas King in Men and Armour for Gloucestershire for 1608 (1), a survey of men available to be called upon to fight. Martin is described as of middle age, of tall stature and suitable to be a pykeman; Thomas is also of middle age, of middle stature, “fitt to make a musketyer”, and a trained soldier. Both Martin and Thomas are described as maltmen, as are the two other Kings mentioned (Robert and William). For a list of Kings in Men and Armour for Gloucestershire, click here. Of the 150 Marshfield men listed who were between about 20 and 55 years of age, 22 were maltmen, 10 were shoemakers, and other occupations represented include mercer, fuller, cooper, glover, weaver, butcher, carpenter, mason, thatcher, miller, tailor and clothier. Marshfield was the major centre for malting in the region at that time, and Lewis's Topographical Dictionary said of it still in 1840 that "The trade is principally in malt, a great part of which is the produce of the vicinity". Martin (1596) and his wife (name unknown, no marriage record at Marshfield) had the following children: Mary (1623), Margaret (1630), Martin (1631), Elizabeth (1632), William (1635), Thomas (1638), and Joan (1641). The entry for Mary says that she is the daughter of Martin Jr, so this Martin is the son of the Martin Sr above who was buried in 1631. Thomas (1638) married Sarah (surname unknown, no marriage record at Marshfield) and their children were Thomas (1661), Martin (1664), and Sarah (1669). Below: Marshfield as seen from the Catherine Wheel,
2001. Martin (1664) married Sara (surname unknown, no marriage record at Marshfield) and their children were Sara (1687), Thomas (1689), Elizabeth (1692), James (1694), John (1698), Ann (1703), and Martin (1708). Martin (1706 - 1756) married Hester BREWER of Marshfield at Marshfield parish church in 1733 and their children were Sarah (1734), Thomas (1736), James (1739), William (1742) and George (1756). William (1742) married Elizabeth HAIES (1742) of Marshfield in 1756, who died in 1767 without any surviving children; Mary CHICHEE of Marshfield in 1769, who bore Ann (1769), Mary (1770) and William (1772) before also dying young in 1774; and Betty STRETCH of Marshfield in 1776, who bore six children. There was a very high mortality rate in Marshfield at that time, and much remarriage of widows and widowers. William (1772 - 1844) married Hannah STRATFORD (1767 - 1850) on 14 January 1796 and they had George (1796-7), George (1798), Hannah (1799), Mary (1802), Eliza (1806), William (1809) and Thomas (1814). Hannah Stratford had been born in Marshfield, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Stratford. With the probable exception of some of the children of William and Hannah, practically all of the above were buried at St Mary the Virgin, Marshfield, but if any had headstones, they have not survived (most Marshfield MIs are illegible). Batheaston and St.Catherine (Som.) Kings continued in Marshfield into the 1800s but now, after a continuous period of over 300 years, my line moves just a few miles south from the high ground of South Gloucestershire down into the Avon valley in north-east Somerset, to the village of Batheaston, where in 1819 George (1796) married Mary Anne FISHER of Batheaston, in Batheaston parish church (below). Mary Anne was the daughter of George and Catherine Fisher. Fisher is an old Batheaston name going back into the 1500s, but this line seems to stop at about 1700.
George (1796) and Mary King had George (1820), Eliza (1822), Mary (1824), Hannah (1827), William (1829), Charles (1831), another Mary (1834), Isaac (1837) and Thomas (1840). The men were all agricultural labourers. In 1841 and 1851 they lived at the Batch (pictured left), a picturesque row of stone cottages in Batheaston still standing close to the old A4 which runs through the village . In 1861 they were down on The Street, the main A4.
Meanwhile in 1849, George (1820) had married Mary LITTLE of Stanton St. Quintin (Wilts.) in Batheaston parish church (below).
George and Mary had nine children: Charles (1850), James (1852), Walter (1853), John (1857), Mary (1860), Thomas (1862), Emily (1865), George (1867) and Edward (1870). All the men were agricultural labourers. George (the father) died in 1892, and his wife Mary in 1910. They lie in an unmarked grave at St. Catherine (19th century print, below), a hamlet close to Batheaston. Of their children George (d. 1951, buried at Batheaston) and Edward (d. 1954, buried at St. Catherine) lived all their lives in Batheaston and some descendants remain in the vicinity. Walter (1853) married
Florence WOODS (adopted name GODWIN) at Bath This move to Wales was short lived and by 16 July 1882 they were back at St Catherine (actually at Ayford Farm, just yards inside the Gloucestershire border and within the parish of Marshfield) when their first son Arthur Walter was born.
Charles Albert (7 January 1884) was born in St Catherine and was baptised at St Catherine's church, and Alice Maud was born 28 November 1885 at Northend, Batheaston. Emma fell ill on December 22nd 1887 and died of capillary bronchitis at Bailbrook, Batheaston, on December 27th. She was buried at Batheaston parish church on January 3rd 1888, and lies alone and forgotten in an unmarked grave just behind the church.
George Harry was born 26 April 1888 at Bailbrook and William John was born 4 July 1890 at St Catherine (1901 census) but the certificate says Pennyquick, Bath. He was probably named after Florence's half-brother William J. Godwin who died in the Llanerch Colliery disaster of February 6th that year. Some time between August 1890 and the census of 1891, the family joined the exodus to the South Wales coal field, but as we shall see, the west country continued to call throughout the 20th century. Abersychan & Pontypool (Mon.)
In 1901 they were living at Greenland Cottage, Pentrepiod. Walter and sons Arthur and Charles were colliery labourers underground, young George was a hewer of coal. Florence died, a widow, in 1935. Her final address was Old Lion Terrace, Abersychan, also now demolished, to make way for playing fields. She spent her final days at Coedygric Hospital, Griffithstown. Her son George, who was living in Taunton, was present at the death. Above: Chapel Road looking
over Ebenezer chapel towards Cwmffrwdoer In 1910 Charles Albert (left), a miner, married Lillian Jenny POULSOM (below right) at St Cadoc's, Trevethin (right). Lillian was the daughter of John Poulsom (landlord of the Waterloo Inn, Trosnant Street, Pontypool) and his wife Eliza. They lived at 74 Trosnant Street.
Their first child John Charles (1911) died of shock from burns in 1914 after he had set fire to his nightdress while playing with matches (click here for inquest). He was buried at St Michael and all Angels, Pontymoile. Subsequent children were Walter Arthur (1913-1984), Thomas Henry, Percival, and twins Denis Ashley and Norah. Charles made a number of attempts to leave coal mining and move the family back to Somerset, it was said that he left home and worked in Taunton in a job found for him by another member of the family (possibly his uncles George) but Lillian refused to leave Pontypool and he returned. He died of cancer six weeks after I was born in 1944.
Charles and Jenny King were buried in an unmarked grave at Penygarn chapel,
Pontypool (below left).
Walter
Arthur (below) married Dorothy Irene CAREY
at Newport register office in 1942. In 1945 they moved to 10 Arran Street,
Roath, Cardiff, in rooms rented from Doris and Marion Perkins. Their children
were myself Walter John (1944-), Maurice Ashley (1951-52), and Robert Arthur
(1953-). They moved to a new housing estate at Llanishen, then on the northern boundary of the city. They there from 1952 to 1979, when my father realised a long-held ambition to move to Somerset and he had five happy years before his death in 1984. My widowed mother married Ted HURDEN and moved to Frome in 1986. Ted died in 2003 and my mother is still there, now age 86.
References 1. Men and Armour for Gloucestershire, 1608: pp 232-234. Republished 1980 by Alan Sutton. ISBN 0904387496. Copy at Gloucester RO. Marshfield parish registers, also a transcript and index (1558 to 1693) by F.A.Crisp (1893) (copy at Gloucester RO). Fifty copies were published. There is supposed to be a copy at Bath Library but it is missing. Marshfield baptisms were recorded from 1558, burials from 1567 and marriages from 1572. The IGI: the KING information from the Crisp transcript (baptisms and marriages only) is available on line (enter KING, British Isles, England, Gloucester, and batch number P008261 for baptisms, E008261 and M008261 for marriages. There are other entries for Marshfield Kings on the IGI but they are either derived from the above, duplicates with wrong dates or speculation of dubious reliability). The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Marshfield: by HW Hayes and JE Walter. Links:
24/12/06 |
I
have traced my male line back to about 1580 when a number of Kings appear in the
parish register of Marshfield, a small town on the southern fringe of the Cotswolds, in
Gloucestershire. The registers exist for Marshfield from 1558, and after
a King entry in 1559 and another in 1563, there is a gap of 20 years followed by numerous
King entries.
register office on 28 February 1880, Their first child Emma Jane was born
at St Catherine on 15 May 1880. By the time of the 1881 census the couple had
followed Florence's mother 
In
1891 Walter was still working as a farm labourer and the family were lodging
with Frederick and Elizabeth Fry at 11 Chapel Road, Pontnewynydd, the chapel in
the name being Ebenezer, just a few houses away from Florence's mother Sarah
Godwin. On 26 April 1893 Frederick Ernest was born at Cefn Coch House,
Pantygasseg, which is about a mile west of Pontypool, overlooking the steep
escarpment above Hafodyrynys on the Crumlin road. 
