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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Cornwall => England => Cornwall Lookup Requests => Topic started by: cawsandboy on Saturday 04 February 12 14:27 GMT (UK)
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Pointers please for info on above, allegedly a murderer, allegedly the last man hung at the 'crossroads' in Cornwall in public.
No similar inherited characteristics showing at present, but would like to know where to look?
Care to guide me please?
hoping..............
cawsandboy
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Hi
Can you supply a timescale and some info as to a christian name and birthyear/birthplace?
Where is your info from?
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Welcome to rootschat.
I was just about to ask the same questions as Carole (but she beat me to it)
Depending on timeframe, you may find information in newspapers of the time.
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Carole, thanks for responding.
It's a family story, known only with the 'facts' already revealed.
Last hanging late 18th early 19th century?
Mevagissey (possible running of parents off cliff???)
Sorry no initials....
Any clues most welcome
regards
Cawsandboy
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A bit of googling doesn't come up with any results associated with that name and a hanging in Cornwall. The last public hanging in Cornwall appears to have been in 1909.
Family stories are often completely or partly wrong ... ;)
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If you Google "last hanging in Cornwall" it makes no mention of a Spriddle/Spriddell
Without any christian name we would not know where to look in the way of census records
Mevagissey was part of the St Austell Registration District
1851 - 1901 census show no male Sprid** born or living in Mevagissy/St Austell
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Spriddell is a surname in the area according to this:
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/
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I've lots of SPRIDDLE information. The only link I have to Megavissey is that it was the birthplace of Mary CLOAK who married William SPRIDDLE at Rame in 1803. She is my 4x-great-grandmother. I've traced the CLOAK/CLOKE/CLOK family back a couple more generations in Megavissey.
When was your most recent SPRIDDLE ancestor alive? That might help us tie down the timescale a bit.
According to http://jackiefreemanphotography.com/bodmin_executions.htm public executions in Cornwall were at Bodmin or Launceston, and the last public one was William Nevan on 11 Aug 1856. No mention of SPRIDDLEs or Mevagissey in that list of executions.
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Hello Cawsandboy
I am a Spriddell and wonder where you fit in my family tree, My Great Grandfather was from Cawsand/Rame. I had a trip there a few years ago and found many gravestones of people from my tree. What a fantastic place to have come from!
I have joined this site just to contact you so hopefully we can piece our family puzzle together.
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I would like to tell DRALLIM that Mary Cloak is also a Great Grandmother of mine but x 3. I descend from her son Thomas then his son - also Thomas. Next is my Grandfather Henry who told me family tales from the Cornish days. Which line of William & Mary's children do you descend from?
I would love to hear from you.
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Hi Seashores
My line is
Dorothy Hockey Spriddle (1841-1897) (m. William Brook and moved to Uxbridge, Middlesex)
Thomas Spriddle (1815-1881) m Jane Hocky
William Spriddle (1782-1857) and Mary Cloak (1779-1853)
I think I have all eight of Thomas's great-grandparents from online transcripts, but have yet to check originals. My Spriddle line currently goes back to Paschoe Spriddle and Jane Raw, m.1677 at Rame.
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On the original curious question ;)
The GRO deaths index does not show the deaths of any two Sprid* surnames in the same quarter in Cornwall, 1838 to 1930, who could be a murdered father and mother, except in 1849 when there were three burials, no ages shown: Thomas Stephen, Ruth and Susanna, in St Germans reg dist. The OPC site also has no two Sprid*s buried at the same time, but coverage is very spotty in the 1800s. Familysearch has burial images only up to 1776 for Mevagissey, so can't check details there. The OPC site has no burials for Mevagissey 1800-1900.
Only one Sprid* death was ever registered in St Austell district: Henry, aged 80, 1887.
The deaths of Thomas and Ruth Spriddle were recorded three pages apart in September quarter 1849, which might suggest they didn't die at the same time. Thos and Ruth Spridle in the 1841 census in Rame were aged c65, with a daughter Ruth aged c30. They had no male children with them in 1841, and there is only one Sprid* baptism in the OPC database with parents Thomas and Ruth: Frances 1813 Lansallos.
Susanna's death was recorded on an earlier page that quarter. There were two Sussanna Spriddles in Maker aged 13 and 14 in 1841, one not with parents (possibly with grandmother) and one the child of Elizth and Pascho.
Ah, Maker was classified as Devon (but St Germans reg dist stil) at that time in the censuses. There are Spriddles (and a couple of Spriddes) in Maker in 1841. Three groups:
Henry and Sarah aged 15 (I think it might be 25) and 13
Elizth and Pascho, aged 25, and kids
Mary and John, aged 35, and kids
There were also Spriddles in Stoke Damerel, but again, no two deaths in the same quarter. And the 1851 census shows quite a few more older Sprid*s in Cornwall than the 1841 census did (blame mistranscriptions I guess).
An internet search for "public hangings" cornwall gives the info that public hangings were abolished in 1868 and that the last one outside Bodmin Jail in particular took place in 1862. I wondered whether hangings might have been centralized in Bodmin, but there were no Sprid* deaths registered there before 1903. All Sprid* deaths in Cornwall up to 1869 were in St Germans reg dist, save one, a woman, in Stratton in 1850.
Ah, the tales our families tell us. ;)
But maybe there was such a fellow, he just wasn't a Spriddle! And remember, people were hanged for a lot less than murder (although probably not often by the time public hangings ended):
http://www.redpostinnholidaypark.co.uk/the-inn-and-cafe.php (near Stratton)
"A gallows stood at the cross-roads for centuries and the last public hanging in cornwall took place here for stealing sheep in the mid 1800's."
(Apparently the 1909 hanging was attended by the press, after public hangings had ended.)
Michael Barrett was the past person to be publicly hanged in Britain (Newgate Prison, London, 26 May 1868):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Barrett_%28Fenian%29
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On the original curious question ;)
The GRO deaths index does not show the deaths of any two Sprid* surnames in the same quarter in Cornwall, 1838 to 1930, who could be a murdered father and mother, except in 1849 when there were three burials, no ages shown: Thomas Stephen, Ruth and Susanna, in St Germans reg dist.
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The deaths of Thomas and Ruth Spriddle were recorded three pages apart in September quarter 1849, which might suggest they didn't die at the same time. Thos and Ruth Spridle in the 1841 census in Rame were aged c65, with a daughter Ruth aged c30.
This 1841 census entry is for Thomas Spriddle who married Ruth Langmaid in 1799 at Talland and had children Thomas (1801, Lansallos), Jane (1802-6), Susannah (1802 Lansallos), Ruth (1803 Rame) Sarah (1805 Lansallos), William (1807 Lansallos), Frances (1813 Lansallos), Martha (1815 Talland), Mary (1818 Rame) and William (1821 Rame).
Ruth senior was still alive in 1851 when she was a widow living in Kingsand, Maker with her daughter Martha. She is probably the Ruth whose death was registerd in 1855. I believe her husband Thomas was an 1847 death registration. Thomas Stephen was born in 1844, St Germans District, so only about 5 at his death. The 1849 death registration is probably that of Ruth junior - I don't know of any other Ruth Spriddle, and she does not appear in the marriage registrations.
So I do not think this cluster of deaths can possibly be the right family.
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That's good, to rule them out for sure! I hadn't looked for between-census births, for instance.
At least we now that the incident, if it occurred, would have been before 1869. ;)
Do you happen to know about Pascoe Spriddle tried in Cornwall in 1871? I don't have paid access to that database at Anc'y so I can't tell anything except that he was acquitted ...
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That's good, to rule them out for sure! I hadn't looked for between-census births, for instance.
At least we now that the incident, if it occurred, would have been before 1869. ;)
Do you happen to know about Pascoe Spriddle tried in Cornwall in 1871? I don't have paid access to that database at Anc'y so I can't tell anything except that he was acquitted ...
In the Borough of Saltash and Liberty of the Water Thamer [i.e. Tamar]
Issachar Billing and Pascoe Spriddle were 'charged with having feloniously stolen 56 fathoms of rope & 11 lbs of old canvas the property of Her Majesty on the 11th September 1871.' Date of Session: 18th October 1871, Michaelmas Sessions. Billing was convicted and sentenced to 5 calendar months imprisonment, Spriddle was acquitted and discharged. Thomas Shaw, Joseph Brown, Charles Gilbert and George Preston were 'charged with having received the aforegoing knowing the same to have been stolen'. All four were acquitted.
Class: HO 27; Piece: 158; Page: 90.
I'll have to do a bit of work to identify which Pascoe Spriddle this was, as there were several alive at the time.
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Hi Seashores:
My 2x great-grandfather was Henry Spriddell, known to the family as Harry, and my grandfather Peter was his grandson, the son of Thomas Spriddell. It seems you could be a cousin of my grandfather, perhaps?