William Glasson of St Hilary

[Deleted]

I have had a marriage entry for quite some time where I cannot place which family the groom belongs to. His name is William, of full age, a miner, bachelor (ah those were the days!!) living at Marazion and reportedly the son of James, also a miner. He married a spinster by the name of Belinda Pearce (daughter of Tobias) on the 27th April 1839 in the parish of St Hilary.

Does this William seem familiar to anyone?

Allen

[Cornish Terrier]

Allen - this particular family is not exactly familiar but that does not mean I cannot help.

I am lacking in records for St Hilary for the required time-frame but I have found some other information that may be of assistance.

When I could not find William in my database I decided to check on his wife and found:-

Belinda d/o Tobias and Elizabeth Pearce bp. 25th June 1815 at St Erth.

(Have not yet found the marriage of her parents.)

Then took a look at some Census records.

1841 Census - Kirton Wood, St Erth

William Glasson, 25, miner
Belinda do., 25
Elizabeth do., 2
George do., 1 mth

1851 Census - Kirton Wood, St Erth

Bolinda Glasson, head, widow, 35, St Erth
George do., son, 9, St Erth
Phillippa do., daur., 8, St Erth
Mary do., natural daur., 2, St Erth
William do., natural son., 4 mths, St Erth

In 1841 William and Belinda were enumerated immediately before James and Mary Pearce and their family. (Please note this)

St Erth Baptisms

Tobias s/o James & Mary Pearce of Kirton Wood bp. 3rd October 1841 (born 16th August)
George s/o William & Belinda Glafson of Kirton Wood bp. 3rd October 1841 (born 29th July 1841)

Philippa d/o Belinda Glafson bp. 5th November 1843 (born 29th December 1842)

So it would appear likely that William was deceased before November 1843.

I cannot find his burial at St Erth so, as his family remained there, I would be thinking that he may have died outside of Cornwall and, very likely, overseas.

The baptisms of the other children have, as yet, eluded me.

Unfortunately, I do not have enough information from St Hilary to help just now and the St Erth records I have checked do not provide anything more than I have shown above.

Hope this helps a little and I will be happy to pursue it further as I get the time.

Good luck mate,

Ian

[Deleted]

Hmmm, I have thought and studied this so much my head hurts.

Just a thought, do you think that a miner in the early 1840s with a wife and three children under five would head off overseas and leave a wife with no means to support herself?

So when I look at the available valuable information the most vital clue that sticks out is that William was aged between 25 and 29 at the 1841 census - suggesting that he was born between 1812 and 1816. No matter where I look I cannot find a William that fits that date with a father called James - so maybe his father wasn't called James and the certificate I have in my little hot hands has a wee(?) error in it?

When I go to the IGI I find about 8 Williams that fit the criteria. Some I can account for in my database, some I dis-credit due to where they were. At this stage the most likely alternative would have been baptised in May 1814, but was the son of Charles and Grace. I am still too scared to make the jump and ignore James as the father.

Anyway, this Charles above has a sister Ann. Of all the family in Crowan she alone goes away and marries a Mr Caddy in St Hilary, which just happens to be where William and Belinda were married. Hmmm.

[Cornish Terrier]

I did mean to mention in my last that Kirton Wood is very near the Parish boundary of Crowan which is a Parish worth looking at for these people.

Do not have time to look seriously at this just now but I see you have some things to think about.

As for William leaving a wife and children to venture overseas - yes I think it is possible but it was probably more prevalent in later decades.

In fact it happened in my own family.

Great-great-grandfather Benjamin Trewhella, along with one of his brothers, came to Australia in 1854 aboard the 'Saldanha'.
They were followed in 1855 by two further brothers.

It was not until 1858 that my Great-great-grandmother (wife of Benjamin) came out to Australia with the children.

At the time Benjamin left Cornwall he had two daughters (Betsy and Fanny) and a son, Benjamin, was born a couple of months after he left for Australia.

Four further children were born in Australia of whom one was my Great-grandfather William Trewhella.

Of the other three there was an unnamed son who died within two days in 1862 and a daughter, Jane, who was still born in 1867.

The third of these Australian borns was Annie who was born in 1863 and died in 1954.

Given the changing fortunes with mines and employment it was not unusual for the husband to venture abroad in the hope of gaining better employment and for him to then send later for his family.

Leave you to think on this but would also advise that you check Crowan for further records.

I had best get to bed so that I can do tomorrow what i should have done today before I start work. (Or at least prepare stuff to be done after I finish work. :

[Deleted]

CT

You might like to cast your mind back?

My certificate has the father of the groom's name placed there by a typewriter. What do you think the chances are that the name Chas has been read as Jas or James?

It is from the GRO - can you get to look at the original?

Lannanta

[Cornish Terrier]

Lannanta - unfortunately I cannot get to see an image of the original in this case.

The stuff I can look at is all from Parishes in Greater London.

I will try to take another look at this later tonight but have a few priorities to attend to first.

Having read through this thread again I have noticed something else that is worth looking at.

The first child of William and Belinda was a son - George.

It might be worth following up on that to see why that name might have been used.

CT

[Cornish Terrier]

Lannanta - that particular marriage falls into the gap in St Hilary transcripts available on line.

I have sent an email to the OPC hoping that he might be able to look up the original for us.

CT

[Deleted]

CT

Bad choice of words - sorry I was not expecting you personally to look it up for me - I was asking if anybody could get to see the original - so it will be interesting to see if the St Hilary OPC can do that.

If it is Charles then I am sure that I have cracked it right back two or three generations - actually even if the original says James I believe that it must be wrong.

Lannanta

[Deleted]

CT

The first child of William and Belinda was a son - George.

On the Glasson side I cannot find any reason why they named their first son George - I spent hours looking

Lannanta

[Cornish Terrier]

Been busy on another problem all night so have not had a chance to look further at this one.

Anything maybe on the Pearce side to explain it?

The problem I have been looking at does not have the name Richard anywhere that I can find either yet if I have everything else right then that was the name assigned to the first child of John and Jane Trenouth.

[Deleted]

CT

Your comment about cousin Elizabeth in the James Lemin Glasson thread still bothers me, so how about coming back to this William who said his father's name was James and I didn't believe it.

What say it is his age that is wrong in the 1841 census? What would we think of him if his age was rounded to 35 as opposed to 25? - could he then be the son of James and Mary Blight - with a brother and a grandfather George?

Then the cousin works....

Lannanta

[Cornish Terrier]

It's a funny thing - I just happened to be looking at the family of William and Belinda to see if I could identify William.

My conclusion also was that, based on available 'evidence', the most like was the son of Charles and Grace bp. 1814 at Redruth.

As you say, this just does not seem to work with 'cousin' Elizabeth.

Your idea about William's age is worth pursuing although it is very clearly written as '25' in the 1841 Census.

Reading through the notes again and one thing just 'stood out'!

William and Belinda were married at St Hilary in April 1839.

From the St Erth PRs their daughter Elizabeth was baptised at St Erth 3rd November 1839.

The residence at this time was recorded as 'St Erth' but that does not necessarily mean this was the birthplace of Elizabeth two months earlier on the 5th of September.

So perhaps this is the right family.

I can see only a couple of real possibilities in FreeBMD after eliminating:-

d/o William and Susanna bp. 14th March 1841 St Erth - buried at St Erth in 1850

Elizabeth Lemin Glasson born 1837
Elizabeth Glasson born 1837 at Launceston
Elizabeth Glassam born 1840 Truro - d/o Robert and Patience

That leaves two registered in the December Qtr 1838 Redruth R.D.

Or the daughter of William and Belinda

Or Elizabeth Pearce Glasson born 1839 Penzance R.D.

Another thing I just found in the 1851 Census is interesting:-

At North Country, Redruth

John WOOLCOCK, head, mar, 53, copper miner, Redruth
Grace do., wife, mar, 52, Redruth
Elizabeth GLAFSON, niece, 12, St Erth

Uh-Oh!!

John WOOLCOCK married Grace GLASSON 14th September 1823 at Redruth

Although there is also:-

John Woolcock married Grace HODGE 6th July 1828 at Redruth

But I think it will be the first one that is the link here.

Grace Glasson bp. 12th August 1798 d/o James and Mary (nee Blight)

So now we have TWO Elizabeth Glassons to contend with!

See what you've done! ;D

[Cornish Terrier]

I suppose it is possible that we have another case of double-enumeration.

But there was also an Elizabeth d/o John and Frances Glasson who was age 3 in 1841 and living at Illogan.

John Glasson married Fanny Willoughby at Illogan 6th August 1832

The only child of John and Frances baptised at Illogan to 1840 was daughter Maria bp. 25th February 1836.

But the interesting part of this family is that they had a son named Charles!

I will do some more searching and see if I can find anything to help sort out this little dilemma.

CT

[Cornish Terrier]

Seems there might be a possility Charles Glasson might come back into calculations.

The John Glasson from my previous post died before the 1851 Census however in 1841 his age was rounded to 40.

The age of his wife Frances was also rounded to 40 but she was baptised at Illogan in either 1808 or 1809.

Searching for a John Glasson born sometime around or just before 1810:-

John son of Charles and Grace Glasson bp. 21st May 1809 at Redruth

Now we might need to think about the various way terms like 'cousin' and 'niece' were used.

Checking the 1851 Census and Charles Glasson was still alive at age 81 with his birthplace recorded as Crowan.

He must therefore be the son of John and Anne Glasson and baptised 7th January 1770 at Crowan.

A possible link can now be found to James Glasson.

James s/o John and Anne Glazon bp. 27th June 1762 at Crowan

If this is the husband of Mary Blight then he and Charles were almost certainly brothers.

'My' problem is that there was more than one marriage of John Glasson to Ann who could account for them.

However, if the husband of Belinda Pearce turned out to be son of Charles and Grace then we have a possible 'cousin' link for Elizabeth Glasson to Richard in 1851.

But it is the marriage certificate I think which becomes the problem!

CT

[Deleted]

CT

Last year I settled on Charles but last night I cannot see why I was happy with him when the names just do not seem to gel.

I think that there is every likelihood that William, husband of Belinda, was the son of a James and I think that I will spend a bit more time thinking about that.

I think also that this whole Redruth/Crowan/St Erth family needs to be put into context in order to make some sense of it. I think that another important person in this equation will be the William who married Susan Richards as I believe that he was the son of John Glasson and Phillipa Trevean.

That will be my mission for the next wee while.

Lannanta