The EAST Family history society was launched in 1993, to bring together people researching ancestors with the name EAST and its variants.
Since that time a Journal called ' POINTS EAST ' which contains many interesting facts, information and articles has been produced twice yearly.
As the Society prepares to Celebrate 25 years next year We have decided to reproduce some articles from the early journals.
Since that time a Journal called ' POINTS EAST ' which contains many interesting facts, information and articles has been produced twice yearly.
As the Society prepares to Celebrate 25 years next year We have decided to reproduce some articles from the early journals.
From almost 25 Years Ago ......
'An Ancestral East Branch'
by Janet R Rose.
'An Ancestral East Branch'
Article by Janet R Rose.
Published in Points East Journals Spring 1994 & Spring 1995
Published in Points East Journals Spring 1994 & Spring 1995
Received wisdom stated that my great grandmother Ellen Wake née East, sometime Wighton, was brought up by an aunt in Boxmoor, Herts. where she learnt to plait straw for the hat trade, was on a short list of wet nurses to Queen Victoria, (but was rejected because her mother had died of milk fever, She was also "head cook" to the Queens Chef ( or Cook to the Queens Head Chef !).
She married Francis Henry Wake and bore him a second set of seven children. She had previously had two children by one Wighton, one of these being 'Jack' Wighton who lost an eye in the Boer War and who married 'Polly from Yorkshire'. I was also told that 'she was never 'registered', but it was unclear if this referred to her birth or her marriage! I assumed at first it was her birth and this was discovered when old age pensions started and she could not prove her age, but later decided it referred to her 'marriage' !
Later my uncle, first cousin Wake, said that she was a "canal child" but my aunt hushed him up at this point saying it was only a rumour! The subject was never mentioned again, or even remembered when I questioned it .
My Mother and her only sister ( aunt Nellie) remembered their grandmother well, as their mother was Ellen's youngest child and Ellen lived with them from time to time during their childhood. when researching my ancestry I confined myself to the families of my four grandparents, and only the parents of each newly acquired antecedent, through marriage in these four families. The one great grandparent I felt close to was Ellen and as I had this basic data going back to 1840 I thought she begged to be 'done'.
I started with Francis Henry Wake, referring to the family who had oral information about him. My aunt was able to tell me the names of all fourteen of his children, from both marriages and the children of my great grandmother's son Jack, also quite a lot about various cousins. a lot of the family had kept in touch with each other and many remained in the same geographical area. Francis Henry Wake made mathematical instruments and he was said to be descended from Hereward the Wake (*Editors Note - Hereward the Wake, the guerrilla leader who headed Anglo- Saxon resistance to William the Conqueror for five years has been called one of history's "greatest Englishmen".) The Wake family of Northamptonshire researched the possibility of their own descent from Hereward but found none. The only connection with any branch of the family may be with the Wake's house at Selbourne.
Ellen said she went to work for Francis Henry when he was widowed and subsequently married him. at that time she already had son Jack Wighton, so I looked in vain for a marriage Wighton / East at St Catherines. Much later I found the Wake / East marriage at Christ Church Marylebone, both their addresses being at Nottingham Street. Ellen was described as a spinster her father as William East, a Porter. Two of Francis's children were witnesses. I had been unable to find Ellen's birth at St Catherines many years ago, so came to the conclusion that she had been right about not being registered. Later in 1982 we moved to Hertfordshire and I decided to try to solve the problem whilst in the area. I started with a blanket search of the 1852 census of Boxmoor but this was negative, so I widened my search to Hemel Hempstead. There at the workhouse I found an Ellen, not quite the right age, but lacking any others in the area who fitted, I felt sure I had found her, plus two brothers, but no parents. In due course I found her birth registered as Helen, somewhat later than expected with her fathers name on the marriage certificate for Francis Henry Wake. so in fact she was 'registered' and was married to my great grandfather.
Helen Eliza East was born on the 9th March 1844 in Crouchfield parish, Hemel Hempstead, the daughter of William East, Labourer and Sophia East née Cheshire. This was about three years later than expected from the age quoted on her death, but otherwise fits all the known facts. William East of Two Waters, then a boatman (remember the canal child theory ?) of full age, married Sophia Cheshire, of Crouchfield, also of full age, on the 13th June 1842 in the parish church Hemel Hempstead. William's father was given as Joseph East, labourer and Sophia's as William Cheshire, labourer. Joseph East, Ellen's brother, was born on 4th February 1847 at Crouchfield, an area of Hemel Hempstead. The mother's name was given as Sylpha - the name becomes important later on. The father given as a labourer.
On the 1851 census for Hemel Hempstead at the Union Workhouse, Queen Street,
among other inmates were :
William East 7 scholar Hemel Hempstead
Ellen East 6 scholar Hemel Hempstead
Joseph East 4 scholar Hemel Hempstead
No adults were listed but there was another William aged 12 but of Kings Langley, Though not found at St Catherines, at the local registrars I found recorded Williams birth in Hemel Hempstead in 1844. There were many East's in that area, but I could not find Joseph, the younger of Ellen's brothers.
There are two Joseph East's marrying in Hertfordshire according to IGI at about the right period to be William's parents, but I have not pursued them further. I checked with the Waterways Index for William East, but drew a blank.
I have not found Ellen in the 1861 census and workhouse records have not survived. It appears that William deserted his family as a reward was offered for his apprehension. There are workhouse records at PRO Kew which I intend to search in the near future.
Going Back I found that on the 9th March 1849 Zilpha East, now in the workhouse 'is to be removed to Bedford Lunatic Asylum upon the Medical Officer giving the necessary medical certificate' On the 3rd may 1850 the clerk 'is to write to the Lunatic Asylum and request discharge of Zilpha East should the Medical Officer certify to that effect'. A letter in reply stated that release could not be recommended. Research at the Bedford RO. revealed that Zilpha remained certified for the rest of her life, dying in the three counties asylum in 1898 aged 80 years.
By the 1851 census William East had not been found as his and Sophia's children were still in the workhouse. Presumably they were eventually 'put out' to the aunt who lived on Boxmoor and taught Ellen straw plaiting. I looked on the 1861 census for Joseph as he would have been fourteen at that time and hopefully still with relatives on Boxmoor, but he was not to be found. I suppose he could have been apprenticed or working elsewhere by that time.
Ellen had a child jack Wighton and in 1871 after she married Francis Wake, he was described as 'son in law' aged 7 on the census and living at 4 St Martin's Place, St Martin's in the Fields. Therefore I searched for jacks birth also without success. As Ellen married Francis Henry in 1869 as Ellen East and not Wighton I decided to look for jack under the surname East. I found Jane Wighton East in the indexes, born in Berkhamstead in the March quarter of 1865, which was something of a surprise !
I wrote to the local registrar for a copy of the certificate, thinking that it should have been John and was astonished to find that it was Jane. There was a twin sister Emma - their date of birth the 20th February 1865. The mother was given as Ellen East, no father was recorded and they were born in the Union Workhouse, Berkhamstead. These twins would have been six years old in 1871 but they did not appear with Ellen and her newly acquired family. The next logical step was to 'kill them off' ! John Wighton was not found born in Berkhamstead the previous year.
I eventually found Jane East daughter of Ellen, no father, baptised on 31st May 1867 at St Martin's in the Fields, noted as having been born on the 27th July 1866, address : Castle Street. ( The workhouse was in Castle Street). The birth certificate gave the twins DOB as 20 Feb 1865 - were there more ?
The death index shows a Jane Wighton age 0 in the St Martin's index for June 1867 which is presumably the Jane baptised the previous July and also Emma Wighton East dying in St Martin's in December 1865, which must surely be one of the twins born in Berkhamstead ?
Searching for Jane's death I found John Wighton's, presumably the father of these children, who died aged 28 on the 18th July 1866 ( nine days before Jane was said to have been born !) his address given as 10 Cecil Court, St Martin's Lane, described as a Carpenter workman and his cause of death given as Acute Rheumatism over two months and Endo-Carditis (inflammation of the heart - common in acute rheumatism) for 24 days. The informant present at the death was Ellen Wighton !
No John Wighton was baptised at St Martin's or at St pauls ( the place of birth given in the 1871 Census.
Just round the corner at 4 St Martins Court, on the 8th May 1867, died the first wife of Francis Wake, leaving him with seven children, the youngest being nine years old. Presumably this was where Ellen stepped in as housekeeper as she had recently been 'widowed' herself.
The children of the marriage of Francis Henry Wake and Ellen were :
Elizabeth (Lizzie) - born 1870 - died 1964
Alfred William - born 28th Feb 1871 - died 1961 ( my uncles father)
Francis - born 1873 - died in childhood
Joseph - born Nov 1875 - died in India in the army 1896 - unmarried
Lilian - born about 1876
Robert - born 10th Jan 1877 - died 1977
Louise - born 30th May 1880 - died Oct 1925
Louisa was my grandmother and she was born in Havil Street Workhouse, and was poor all her life. She was married at seventeen to George Allen and had three children who survived. The first was auntie Nellie married to Alfred Wake, son of the above Alfred William. The second was George Charles Allen and the youngest was Rose Anne who married Cyril Norman Bond in 1933. They lived to be eighty nine, eighty six and seventy four old respectively. I will write more on this family in my Wake Chapter.
Ellen was living 'south of the river' in her later years and I have been unable to locate her in 1881, though her husband Francis was in the Camberwell Infirmary (now St Giles Hospital ). In 1883 her husband died in the workhouse infirmary of Tuberculosis, recorded as being 26 Ruby Street, a much nicer sounding place than it was, in fact it was off the Old Kent Road, near the canal.
The 1891 census finds her at 30 Ruby Street as an Ironer from Boxmoor Herts. a forty eight year old widow with her sixteen year old son Joseph an Oil shop Assistant and her ten year old daughter Louisa, a scholar. On 1st Feb 1899 she was living at 3 Princes Street, Peckham Rye, according to her son's Joseph's service record.
She was in and out of the workhouse herself and Nellie remembered going to see her there and having to take packets of tea and sugar, for a 'cuppa' when they visited. My Aunt had a horror of receiving tea as a gift for Christmas as she said it made her feel destitute!
Ellen died at Constance Road Infirmary, Dulwich, on the 16th August 1919 and was buried at Honor Oak.
Eleven children and a mother who lived long enough to have known all her grand children and some of her great grand children as well and I am sure Ellen didn't even know - she thought she had died of 'milk fever' as undoubtedly that's what she had been told. In and out of the workhouse all her life ! What a Life !!
She married Francis Henry Wake and bore him a second set of seven children. She had previously had two children by one Wighton, one of these being 'Jack' Wighton who lost an eye in the Boer War and who married 'Polly from Yorkshire'. I was also told that 'she was never 'registered', but it was unclear if this referred to her birth or her marriage! I assumed at first it was her birth and this was discovered when old age pensions started and she could not prove her age, but later decided it referred to her 'marriage' !
Later my uncle, first cousin Wake, said that she was a "canal child" but my aunt hushed him up at this point saying it was only a rumour! The subject was never mentioned again, or even remembered when I questioned it .
My Mother and her only sister ( aunt Nellie) remembered their grandmother well, as their mother was Ellen's youngest child and Ellen lived with them from time to time during their childhood. when researching my ancestry I confined myself to the families of my four grandparents, and only the parents of each newly acquired antecedent, through marriage in these four families. The one great grandparent I felt close to was Ellen and as I had this basic data going back to 1840 I thought she begged to be 'done'.
I started with Francis Henry Wake, referring to the family who had oral information about him. My aunt was able to tell me the names of all fourteen of his children, from both marriages and the children of my great grandmother's son Jack, also quite a lot about various cousins. a lot of the family had kept in touch with each other and many remained in the same geographical area. Francis Henry Wake made mathematical instruments and he was said to be descended from Hereward the Wake (*Editors Note - Hereward the Wake, the guerrilla leader who headed Anglo- Saxon resistance to William the Conqueror for five years has been called one of history's "greatest Englishmen".) The Wake family of Northamptonshire researched the possibility of their own descent from Hereward but found none. The only connection with any branch of the family may be with the Wake's house at Selbourne.
Ellen said she went to work for Francis Henry when he was widowed and subsequently married him. at that time she already had son Jack Wighton, so I looked in vain for a marriage Wighton / East at St Catherines. Much later I found the Wake / East marriage at Christ Church Marylebone, both their addresses being at Nottingham Street. Ellen was described as a spinster her father as William East, a Porter. Two of Francis's children were witnesses. I had been unable to find Ellen's birth at St Catherines many years ago, so came to the conclusion that she had been right about not being registered. Later in 1982 we moved to Hertfordshire and I decided to try to solve the problem whilst in the area. I started with a blanket search of the 1852 census of Boxmoor but this was negative, so I widened my search to Hemel Hempstead. There at the workhouse I found an Ellen, not quite the right age, but lacking any others in the area who fitted, I felt sure I had found her, plus two brothers, but no parents. In due course I found her birth registered as Helen, somewhat later than expected with her fathers name on the marriage certificate for Francis Henry Wake. so in fact she was 'registered' and was married to my great grandfather.
Helen Eliza East was born on the 9th March 1844 in Crouchfield parish, Hemel Hempstead, the daughter of William East, Labourer and Sophia East née Cheshire. This was about three years later than expected from the age quoted on her death, but otherwise fits all the known facts. William East of Two Waters, then a boatman (remember the canal child theory ?) of full age, married Sophia Cheshire, of Crouchfield, also of full age, on the 13th June 1842 in the parish church Hemel Hempstead. William's father was given as Joseph East, labourer and Sophia's as William Cheshire, labourer. Joseph East, Ellen's brother, was born on 4th February 1847 at Crouchfield, an area of Hemel Hempstead. The mother's name was given as Sylpha - the name becomes important later on. The father given as a labourer.
On the 1851 census for Hemel Hempstead at the Union Workhouse, Queen Street,
among other inmates were :
William East 7 scholar Hemel Hempstead
Ellen East 6 scholar Hemel Hempstead
Joseph East 4 scholar Hemel Hempstead
No adults were listed but there was another William aged 12 but of Kings Langley, Though not found at St Catherines, at the local registrars I found recorded Williams birth in Hemel Hempstead in 1844. There were many East's in that area, but I could not find Joseph, the younger of Ellen's brothers.
There are two Joseph East's marrying in Hertfordshire according to IGI at about the right period to be William's parents, but I have not pursued them further. I checked with the Waterways Index for William East, but drew a blank.
I have not found Ellen in the 1861 census and workhouse records have not survived. It appears that William deserted his family as a reward was offered for his apprehension. There are workhouse records at PRO Kew which I intend to search in the near future.
Going Back I found that on the 9th March 1849 Zilpha East, now in the workhouse 'is to be removed to Bedford Lunatic Asylum upon the Medical Officer giving the necessary medical certificate' On the 3rd may 1850 the clerk 'is to write to the Lunatic Asylum and request discharge of Zilpha East should the Medical Officer certify to that effect'. A letter in reply stated that release could not be recommended. Research at the Bedford RO. revealed that Zilpha remained certified for the rest of her life, dying in the three counties asylum in 1898 aged 80 years.
By the 1851 census William East had not been found as his and Sophia's children were still in the workhouse. Presumably they were eventually 'put out' to the aunt who lived on Boxmoor and taught Ellen straw plaiting. I looked on the 1861 census for Joseph as he would have been fourteen at that time and hopefully still with relatives on Boxmoor, but he was not to be found. I suppose he could have been apprenticed or working elsewhere by that time.
Ellen had a child jack Wighton and in 1871 after she married Francis Wake, he was described as 'son in law' aged 7 on the census and living at 4 St Martin's Place, St Martin's in the Fields. Therefore I searched for jacks birth also without success. As Ellen married Francis Henry in 1869 as Ellen East and not Wighton I decided to look for jack under the surname East. I found Jane Wighton East in the indexes, born in Berkhamstead in the March quarter of 1865, which was something of a surprise !
I wrote to the local registrar for a copy of the certificate, thinking that it should have been John and was astonished to find that it was Jane. There was a twin sister Emma - their date of birth the 20th February 1865. The mother was given as Ellen East, no father was recorded and they were born in the Union Workhouse, Berkhamstead. These twins would have been six years old in 1871 but they did not appear with Ellen and her newly acquired family. The next logical step was to 'kill them off' ! John Wighton was not found born in Berkhamstead the previous year.
I eventually found Jane East daughter of Ellen, no father, baptised on 31st May 1867 at St Martin's in the Fields, noted as having been born on the 27th July 1866, address : Castle Street. ( The workhouse was in Castle Street). The birth certificate gave the twins DOB as 20 Feb 1865 - were there more ?
The death index shows a Jane Wighton age 0 in the St Martin's index for June 1867 which is presumably the Jane baptised the previous July and also Emma Wighton East dying in St Martin's in December 1865, which must surely be one of the twins born in Berkhamstead ?
Searching for Jane's death I found John Wighton's, presumably the father of these children, who died aged 28 on the 18th July 1866 ( nine days before Jane was said to have been born !) his address given as 10 Cecil Court, St Martin's Lane, described as a Carpenter workman and his cause of death given as Acute Rheumatism over two months and Endo-Carditis (inflammation of the heart - common in acute rheumatism) for 24 days. The informant present at the death was Ellen Wighton !
No John Wighton was baptised at St Martin's or at St pauls ( the place of birth given in the 1871 Census.
Just round the corner at 4 St Martins Court, on the 8th May 1867, died the first wife of Francis Wake, leaving him with seven children, the youngest being nine years old. Presumably this was where Ellen stepped in as housekeeper as she had recently been 'widowed' herself.
The children of the marriage of Francis Henry Wake and Ellen were :
Elizabeth (Lizzie) - born 1870 - died 1964
Alfred William - born 28th Feb 1871 - died 1961 ( my uncles father)
Francis - born 1873 - died in childhood
Joseph - born Nov 1875 - died in India in the army 1896 - unmarried
Lilian - born about 1876
Robert - born 10th Jan 1877 - died 1977
Louise - born 30th May 1880 - died Oct 1925
Louisa was my grandmother and she was born in Havil Street Workhouse, and was poor all her life. She was married at seventeen to George Allen and had three children who survived. The first was auntie Nellie married to Alfred Wake, son of the above Alfred William. The second was George Charles Allen and the youngest was Rose Anne who married Cyril Norman Bond in 1933. They lived to be eighty nine, eighty six and seventy four old respectively. I will write more on this family in my Wake Chapter.
Ellen was living 'south of the river' in her later years and I have been unable to locate her in 1881, though her husband Francis was in the Camberwell Infirmary (now St Giles Hospital ). In 1883 her husband died in the workhouse infirmary of Tuberculosis, recorded as being 26 Ruby Street, a much nicer sounding place than it was, in fact it was off the Old Kent Road, near the canal.
The 1891 census finds her at 30 Ruby Street as an Ironer from Boxmoor Herts. a forty eight year old widow with her sixteen year old son Joseph an Oil shop Assistant and her ten year old daughter Louisa, a scholar. On 1st Feb 1899 she was living at 3 Princes Street, Peckham Rye, according to her son's Joseph's service record.
She was in and out of the workhouse herself and Nellie remembered going to see her there and having to take packets of tea and sugar, for a 'cuppa' when they visited. My Aunt had a horror of receiving tea as a gift for Christmas as she said it made her feel destitute!
Ellen died at Constance Road Infirmary, Dulwich, on the 16th August 1919 and was buried at Honor Oak.
Eleven children and a mother who lived long enough to have known all her grand children and some of her great grand children as well and I am sure Ellen didn't even know - she thought she had died of 'milk fever' as undoubtedly that's what she had been told. In and out of the workhouse all her life ! What a Life !!
Easts Down Under
Article by Geoffrey B Sharman, Evandale, Tasmania.
Published in Points East Journal Summer 1993
Published in Points East Journal Summer 1993
The Transported Easts
During its first 50 years as a British possession Tasmania was known as Van Diemens Land or V.D.L. and was a penal colony . Free Settlers also arrived during that time `but of the Europeans who came before 1853
70,000 were convicts. Thirteen bore the name of EAST.
Forenames and convictions were :
70,000 were convicts. Thirteen bore the name of EAST.
Forenames and convictions were :
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Ann
Charles Edward James James John John Thomas Thomas William William William William |
Ripon, Yorkshire
Buckinghamshire Quarter Sessions London Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) Middlesex Quarter Sessions Cambridge Quarter Sessions Aylesbury Special Commission Devon Assizes Oxford Assizes Berkshire Assizes Essex Assizes London Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) Cambridge Quarter Sessions Hereford Quarter Sessions |
Dec 1833
Dec 1839 Jan 1837 Oct 1830 Jan 1842 Jan 1831 Mar 1840 Mar 1824 Mar 1827 Jul 1810 Sep 1840 Oct 1841 Mar 1945 |
7 years
14 years 7 years 7 years 7 years 7 years 10 years Life Life 7 years 10 years 7 years 7 years |
John East 1809 - 1857
John was arrested on the 29th Nov 1830 being one of a mob of between 300 and 500 "swing" rioters outside the paper mill of W R Davis at Loudwater, near High Wycombe. The constable who arrested him said "John East was in the mill yard with the mob. He was fighting his way through the mob to face the special constables. He had nothing in his hand. When he came to us I took him into custody."
John was then 21 years old and as he was a mere 5ft 1in tall, and totally unarmed, his arrest cannot have presented much difficulty. He had married Charlotte Blizard at Harefield, Middlesex, on 22nd August 1830. Their son William, who John possibly never saw, was baptised at High Wycombe on 29th Dec 1830, while his father was in gaol awaiting trial.
On 12th January 1831 John East was acquitted when charged with having 'unlawfully assembled.... and ...having destroyed certain machinery at the paper mill of W R Davis'. The next day he was further indicted for 'having destroyed certain machines at Chapping Wycombe, the property of W R Davis' ( Bucks Gazette 15 Jan 1831). The authorities were presumably determines that none of the few arrested should escape punishment, although it must have been obvious that John could not have destroyed machinery at the Davis mill. he did not go into the mill at all, and was arrested before the machinery was broken, or at worst while it was being broken by those already inside. He was convicted without further trial and "judgment of death" was recorded, which was commuted by the Crown to 7 years transportation.
John East received a free pardon on the 1st August 1835 but it took time for the instructions from London to reach colonial authorities, so his pardon was not promulgated until 3rd Feb 1836. at the time he was on 'ticket of leave' and free to work anywhere in the Australian colonies. He was free to return to England and it may be that he chose not to do so because he had heard that his wife Charlotte had died.
On 22 May 1840, John married Sarah Hambury at St Matthews Church, New Norfolk, V. D. L. They had four children and thirty four grandchildren but only the first was born before John died.
John East was the grandfather of the author.
John was arrested on the 29th Nov 1830 being one of a mob of between 300 and 500 "swing" rioters outside the paper mill of W R Davis at Loudwater, near High Wycombe. The constable who arrested him said "John East was in the mill yard with the mob. He was fighting his way through the mob to face the special constables. He had nothing in his hand. When he came to us I took him into custody."
John was then 21 years old and as he was a mere 5ft 1in tall, and totally unarmed, his arrest cannot have presented much difficulty. He had married Charlotte Blizard at Harefield, Middlesex, on 22nd August 1830. Their son William, who John possibly never saw, was baptised at High Wycombe on 29th Dec 1830, while his father was in gaol awaiting trial.
On 12th January 1831 John East was acquitted when charged with having 'unlawfully assembled.... and ...having destroyed certain machinery at the paper mill of W R Davis'. The next day he was further indicted for 'having destroyed certain machines at Chapping Wycombe, the property of W R Davis' ( Bucks Gazette 15 Jan 1831). The authorities were presumably determines that none of the few arrested should escape punishment, although it must have been obvious that John could not have destroyed machinery at the Davis mill. he did not go into the mill at all, and was arrested before the machinery was broken, or at worst while it was being broken by those already inside. He was convicted without further trial and "judgment of death" was recorded, which was commuted by the Crown to 7 years transportation.
John East received a free pardon on the 1st August 1835 but it took time for the instructions from London to reach colonial authorities, so his pardon was not promulgated until 3rd Feb 1836. at the time he was on 'ticket of leave' and free to work anywhere in the Australian colonies. He was free to return to England and it may be that he chose not to do so because he had heard that his wife Charlotte had died.
On 22 May 1840, John married Sarah Hambury at St Matthews Church, New Norfolk, V. D. L. They had four children and thirty four grandchildren but only the first was born before John died.
John East was the grandfather of the author.
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