Botting Connections

Thomas Blacketer is my 3x great grandfather. His birth is registered 1817 with the Barking Meeting of the Society of Friends (that is, the Quakers). For more about his family, you may read the post Some Quaker Roots. The BMD Marriage Index for Jun1845 W Ham 12 412 has the names of Thomas Blacketer and Martha Greenfield, which makes sense of his married census returns recording a Martha Blacketer, born about 1820 in Guildford, Surrey. Along with the Blacketers and Greenfields, I kept coming across Bottings.

Greenfield is not an uncommon name in Surrey, at least, not uncommon in the early 19th century according to the ancestry search engine. Add "Guildford" to the search, and it looks like a single family. One of those census returns is from 1851, the household of a widow, George Hart, Grocer at 185 High Street, Deptford, Kent, and his three servants. One of them is Assistant in his grocer's shop. The other two are General Servants, both women, and their names are:
     Sarah Botting          Unmarried 66 born in Petworth, Sussex
     Harriet Greenfield    Unmarried 28 born in Guildford, Surrey
Sarah would be born about 1785, and Harriett about 1823. The pair are also George Hart's servants in the 1841 England Census at the same address.

You may recall that Thomas Blacketer's mother was originally Elizabeth Botting, born about 1787 in Petworth, Sussex. That is too much of a coincidence for me, suggesting that Sarah Botting was Thomas's aunt, while Harriet Greenfield was his sister-in-law.

Proving the latter turns out to be fairly easy. The parish register of Guildford St Mary records the baptism on 17 September 1820 of Martha daughter of Thomas and Mary Greenfield. His occupation is listed as Butcher. The same parish register for 5 January 1823 records the baptism of Harriet, daughter of the same parents. Including these two, I found five Greenfield siblings baptized at Guildford St Mary between 1812 and 1823. Here they are:
     Elizabeth   5 April 1812
          (this record is in a different format with daughter of Thomas Greenfield only)
     Edward     9 October 1814
     Sarah        26 June 1816
     Martha      17 September 1820
     Harriet       5 January 1823
          (the remaining four are all for Thomas Greenfield, Butcher, and his wife Mary)

Although I could find no records for Elizabeth or Edward, I did find the following:

Harriet married William Simmonds Carman 18 September 1853 at St Giles Cripplegate, Middlesex. The witnesses to her wedding were James and Mary Botting. This corresponds to Sep1853 East London 1c 84. The presence of the Bottings here is no coincidence. William Simmonds's family's census returns are easy to track. In the 1841 England Census they live on East Street (or church Street) in Petworth, Sussex next door to James Botting (Age 25) Fishmonger, and his wife Sarah (Age 20 - the ages in the 1841 census are supposed to be rounded to the nearest 5). Looking ahead to the 1861 England Census, although William is no longer living at home, his father's household on census night includes John Botting (Age 44, born in Petworth); John is the brother of William's mother, whose maiden name was evidently Botting.

Sarah married Thomas Joseph Adey 22 December 1844 at St John Hackney, Middlesex. Joseph Blacketer (Thomas's father) and Martha Greenfield (his future wife) witnessed this marriage. This corresponds to Dec1844 Hackney 3 125.

Among papers that had been sent to me several years ago, I belatedly found a copy of the marriage certificate of Thomas Blacketer and Martha Greenfield, solemnized in 1845 at the Parish Church in the Parish of West Ham, Essex:
     May 18    Thomas Blacketer   Full Age   Bachelor   Shoemaker   West Ham
                                                                         father: Joseph Blacketer    Watchmaker
                     Martha Greenfield   Full Age   Spinster                        West Ham
                                                                         father: Thomas Greenfield   Butcher
One of the witness signatories is Harriet Greenfield, Martha's sister. The other is Thomas Joseph Adey, her brother-in-law, which certainly ties some of the above together.

As to Martha's parents, Thomas and Mary Greenfield, I can find little information. According to the BMD Death Index, one Thomas Greenfield died Mar1853 Guildford 2a 28. However, I am dissuaded from buying this one, since there are two more Thomas Greenfields who died in Petworth, Sussex in the 1840s. As for Mary Greenfields, I find three death records in Petworth alone for the 1840s. At $15 per certificate, it could work out expensive to find the correct one by trial and error!

There are several Thomas Greenfield marriages in Surrey, one of which is to a Mary Botting. This is for 24 March 1808 in the parish register of Stoke St John the Evangelist, which is in Guildford, Surrey. If this is the correct record, that could make Thomas Blacketer and Martha Greenfield cousins of some degree, but I have no evidence as yet.

A search for Bottings in the first half of the nineteenth century shows many families across Sussex, including Petworth. One way forward from here (actually backward in time) will be to build a Botting family tree. This may help me to figure out how each of the Bottings above are related to each other, and then to other people in my tree. A public member tree already exists with Bottings back to about 1600, and when I return to this branch of the family, that may well direct my future research.

Some Quaker Roots

Our high school, Wymondham College, was divided into houses, some named after notable figures in history who were associated with Norfolk. One such figure was the Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry (picture above), for whom Fry Hall was named. Fry was born Elizabeth Gurney in Norwich 1780. She and her husband, Joseph Fry, moved to Plashet House, East Ham in what was still rural Essex in the early nineteenth century. Later they moved to Forest Gate. She campaigned tirelessly to improve prison conditions, abolish capital punishment, and alleviate poverty. As well as being a respected public figure, she and her husband also raised 11 children. When she died at Ramsgate, Kent in 1845, the Seamen of the Ramsgate Coast Guard flew their flag at half mast until she was buried at the Friend's burial ground in Barking, Essex. Over a thousand mourners observed a silence as she was interred.

Her homeground in southwest Essex was also the family home of some Blacketers. I have already written of Thomas John Blacketer, who became the mayor of Poplar in 1930. Thomas John's father, Joseph, had died in 1880 before he could figure in a census with his young family. Joseph does, however, appear in censuses with his siblings.

In the 1851 England Census at Harrow Cottages, Stratford:
     Thos Blacketer      Head   Marr  33 Shoemaker         Essex, Stratford
     Martha                  Wife    Marr  30                           Surrey, Guilford
     Joseph                   Son       S      2                            Essex, Stratford
     Thomas                 Son       S       8 mos                    Essex, Stratford

 In the 1861 England Census at 1 Harrow Cottages, Stratford:
     Thomas Blacketter  Head    Mar        43  Carman           Essex, W Ham
     Martha                    Wife     Mar        41                         Guildford, Surrey
     Sarah Ann               Daugr   Unmar    14                         Essex, W Ham
     Joseph                     Son      Unmar    12  Scholar            Essex, W Ham
     Thomas                   Son       Unmar    11 Scholar            Essex, W Ham
     Elizabeth                 Daugr    Unmar     3                          Essex, W Ham
     Elizabeth                 Mother  Widow   75                         Petworth, Sussex

This not only begins to provide evidence of the next generation, but also sent me looking for Sarah Ann in 1851, and I found her staying with  Thomas's parents. It would seem that his father had died between 1851 and 1861, and his mother, Elizabeth, came to stay with his family. Here is the 1851 England Census for 7 Bridge Place, Stratford:
     Joseph Blacketer    Head         Mar       63    Carman           Ratcliffe, Middlesex
     Elizabeth                Wife           Mar       63    Carman Wife  Sussex, Petworth
     John                       Son            U          25    Carman           Essex, Stratford
     Sarah A                  Granddaur U           4                            Essex, Stratford

Back to Thomas and Martha's family. In the 1871 England Census for 76 High Street, Stratford:
     Martha Blacketer   Head    W      50                              Surrey, Gilford
     Joseph                   Son      Unm   22         Carman         Stratford, Essex
     Thomas                  Son     Unm    20         Cow man      Essex, W Ham
     Sarah Ann Kearley Daur     Mar   24                              Essex, W Ham
     Elizabeth                Daur               12                              Essex, W Ham

Thomas had died bewteen 1861 and 1871; Sarah Ann had just married. From BMD Marriage Index, Sarah Ann Blacketer married James Kearly Jun1871 Manchester 8d 480. The marriage certificate shows that James Kearly was a sergeant in the 4th Dragoon Guards. Ten years later, they appear in the census in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, and James by this time is a Police Constable.

Other vitals are:
     Sarah Ann
          BMD Birth Index        Mar1847 W Ham 12 307
          BMD Marriage           Jun1871 Manchester 8d 480 to James Kearly
          (I have not been able to deduce which BMD Death Index refers to her)
     Joseph
          BMD Birth Index          Sep1848 W Ham 12 282
          BMD Marriage Index   Sep1873 W Ham 4a 8 to Hannah Thurley
          BMD Death Index        Sep1880 Poplar 1c 411 Age:31
     Thomas
          BMD Birth Index          Sep1850 W Ham 12 306
          (An ancestry public member tree has his death in Beachport, Australia, from which I could find:
          Australia Death Index   28 Jul 1928 South Australia 1926-1930 p44 v506
     Elizabeth
          BMD Birth Index          Sep1858 W Ham 4a 5
          BMD Marriage Index   Sep1881 W Ham 4a 17 to Albert Adolphus R Moor
               They had one child together that I found in a census:
                    Lilian Rose Kathleen Moor
               Albert Adolphus Moor died in 1891.
          BMD Marriage Index   Sep1893 Poplar 1c 812 as Elizabeth Moor to William Albert Hunt
This was at Bromley St Leonard 15 July 1893. In the parish record (which would is the same as the GRO marriage certificate), her father is given as Thomas Blacketer Shoemaker.
          (I have not been able to deduce which BMD Death Index entry refers to her)

As always, from this kind of analysis, I cannot rule out that other children were born and died between censuses. I especially notice the eight years between Thomas's birth Elizabeth's.

For the parents, we have:
     Thomas Blacketer BMD Death    Jun1870 W Ham 4a 10 Age:52
     Martha Blacketer BMD Death   Sep1873 W Ham 4a 2 Age:53
     Thomas Blacketer and Martha Greenfield BMD Marriage Jun1845 W Ham 12 415

Their births, around 1818 and 1820 are before the central registers, so one would need to search parish records to find them. Nothing came from such a search in ancestry.com, but LDS familysearch came up with the following birth registrations (non-conformist records) from the Society of Friends (i.e. Quakers). The Quakers did not baptize infants, but they did keep a record of birth registrations. All these are from the Barking, Essex Meeting, and born to parents Joseph and Elizabeth Blacketer.
     Thomas Blacketer
          Birth 25 December 1817
               (my 3x great grandfather)
     Joseph Blacketer 
          Birth 8 October 1820
             (ancestry public member tree claims that he died 1839;
               his death record is possibly BMD Death Mar1839 W Ham 12 202)
     William Botting Blacketer
          Birth 9 December 1822
             (ancestry public member tree claims that he died 1829)
      John Blacketer Birth 24 December 1825
             (he was at least alive for the 1851 England Census shown above - I haven't looked further)

According to LDS familysearch, the parish records of Christ Church, Spitalfields, Stepney has the marriage of Joseph Blacketer and Elizabeth Botting on 7 April 1817. Browsing the appropriate register in ancestry.com reveals that these pages are missing from their transcript and scans. This is a marriage in an established church. Possibly Joseph and Elizabeth became Quakers soon after they were married. I have no evidence the Blacketers were much involved by the next generation.

LDS family search also records a Christening for a Joseph Blacketer, born 19 September 1787 in Middlesex, and parents named Thomas and Elizabeth, but no other information as to which parish, or whether this is another non-conformist record. This is consistent with, but not necessarily the same Joseph Blacketer who married Elizabeth Botting.

BMD Death Index has Joseph Blacketer Dec1856 W Ham 4a 3 and Elizabeth Blacketer Dec1863 W Ham 4a 6.

So, at least between 1817 and 1825, this Blacketer family were Quakers, living in Stratford, and connected with the Barking Friends Meeting. There is no documentary evidence that the Blacketers ever met Elizabeth Fry. I suspect that to be a non-conformist in the early nineteenth century was something of a commitment, so the family may well have heard her speak. I wonder if her radical social message, transmitted through the family, contributed some part in Thomas John Blacketer's political formation.