The Poulsom family of Wiltshire and Pontypool

All the Pontypool Poulsoms seem to have a common origin in one Wiltshire family.

John POULSOM was born in Devizes in Wiltshire in about 1775, according to a census entry at Pontypool in 1861. The print above shows the market place in about 1790. An extensive search of available records in Wiltshire from that time has failed to trace a baptism. He married Anne of Trowbridge (surname unknown, but possibly Anne ASHLEY, daughter of Hugh and Ann, baptised at Devizes Presbyterian chapel in 1784). An index search of Wiltshire marriages has failed to find this event.

In 1812 John and Anne lived in Beasor Street, Bradford on Avon, John working as a shearman. Their first known son Henry was born on 10 June 1812 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Bradford on Avon (left and right), on January 3rd 1813. Later children, baptised at Morgan's Hill Independent, Bradford on Avon (below right), included John (born 1816), Reuben (born 1818), Caroline (baptised 1822) and Lydia Ann (born 1827). Lewis (1840) said of Bradford on Avon, then known as Great Bradford: "The view of the town, which consists of three regular streets ranged above each other at different elevations on the side of a hill, is strikingly picturesque: the houses, built of stone, are in general handsome, and many of them elegant". Still true today. "The principal branch of manufacture is woollen cloth. Ladies' cloth, kerseymere and fancy pieces are also manufactured to a considerable extent. Scribbling mills and spinning jennies were introduced in the last half a century" (i.e. since 1790) "and their adoption in several factories created great discontent among the workmen, several lives having been lost in the disturbances that ensued."

On April 8 1833 Henry (1812) married Eliza REYNOLDS. Eliza was probably the daughter of James and weaver Christiana Reynolds of Bradford on Avon. She had been baptised along with her brothers George and James at Bearfield independent chapel, Bradford on Avon (below left), on May 26 1811.

The marriage took place at  St James Church, Trowbridge (below). The first child of Henry and Eliza was Lydia, born in Bradford in 1833. But the unemployment in the woollen trade was driving families away in search of work, particularly to industrial south Wales, and by 1835 they had moved to Trosnant, the oldest part of Pontypool, where their remaining children were born: Jane (1835), John (1840), Francis Henry (1842) and Edward (1844) and Anna Maria (1848), after which Eliza died, age 37.

What was Pontypool like at that time? Lewis's Topographical Dictionary, published in 1840, describes it as "irregularly built and consists chiefly of two streets, which contain many neat, but detached houses. The streets are partially Macadamised, lighted with gas, and well supplied with water from the small river Avon and the adjacent springs. Many good houses have lately been erected, and the town is in a state of moderate improvement".  It is interesting to learn that Pontypool, uniquely among the valley towns of south east Wales, was well-established long before the Industrial Revolution - see the north-Western quadrant of the 1793 map of Monmouthshire. In fact it was well-established by the end of the 16th century through the iron works, begun in 1565, where John Hanbury developed processes for rolling sheet iron and casting iron with tin. Thomas Allgood and son developed Japan Ware and a type of polished iron which became known as Pontypool Ware. By 1840, Pontypool was manufacturing 30,000 tons of iron per year, and coal was creating employment for immigrant workers. "About a mile SW of the town, at the base of the mountain called Mynydd Maen, a level and colliery have lately been opened, which drain 10 veins of coal, 42 feet in thickness, with an equal number of ironstone, 100 feet thick, whence issues a stream of chalybeate water."

John and Anne had also moved to Pontypool by 1851 and were caring for their daughter Caroline's illegitimate son James. Anne died in 1859, and by 1861 John was lodging with his son Henry. He died on the 14th September 1864 aged 91, then of Cwmynyscoy, Pontypool, run over by a cart (Monmouthshire Free Press). Henry died at Albion Road, Pontypool, on 3 March 1879. James married and raised a family in Pontypool, as did Reuben. I have considerable detail on these and later branches of the family available to anyone interested.

 (Right: Albion Road in 2001)

John (1840) worked as a miner when young (1861). He married Eliza SMITH (below right), a neighbour at Albion Road, on 8 March 1863, and they had eleven children, many of whom died young as follows:

Eliza Jane born 1863, died age 7.

Henry J. born 1866, died age 20.

Albert G. born 1869.

Alfred E., born 1871, died age 36.

Agnes Jane born 1873.

William C. born 1876, died age 10.

Robert Ashley born 1878.

Lydia Diana born 1882, died age 1.

Arthur E. born 1883.

Emmeline Lucy Anna born 1886, died in her first year, and:

Lilian Jenny (born 9 September 1888). She married Charles Albert KING on 24 December 1910 at Trevethin Parish church.

By 1881 John was the landlord of the Britannia (later the Waterloo) Inn, 74 Trosnant Street, which still stands (left), somewhat modernised: I recall that there was a bedroom with a very low ceiling in the roofspace, the upper floor was the King residence and downstairs remained a pub until the death of Robert Ashley Poulsom in 1956. He died there on 27 May 1898, leaving £243. Along with some 35 other Poulsoms, he was buried at St Michael and All Angels church, Pontymoile, next to the Horse and Jockey Inn. A headstone recorded in 1988 has since been removed and may be one of a stack now supporting a water-butt. The other Poulsom headstone recorded there lies half buried beneath a yew, and is dedicated to three of Reuben's children who died young.

In 1901, Eliza was running the Waterloo, and the three sons Alfred, Robert and Arthur were self-employed coal merchants.

Eliza married again, to Tom Jones. She died in 1909 and was buried at Llanfihangel Pontymoile.

Below: the church of St Michael and all Angels, Llanfihangel Pontymoile.