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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Hampshire & Isle of Wight => Topic started by: jimmax on Wednesday 08 October 25 16:44 BST (UK)
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I am seeking information about an Othello Maxwell living in Hampshire and London in the years 1802-1814.
Othello Maxwell was recorded in the 1802 Militia List for Canonbie, Dumfriesshire as a Servant (black) alongside George Maxwell, Farmer at Priorlinn. Othello was referred to as a ‘Blackmoor’ and consequently exempted from service in the militia.
There is a baptismal record for an Othello Maxwell in 1794 in Canonbie, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. “Maxwell. An Adult at Crowsknow, bornabout 15 years of age baptised 20th May, named Othello". (Crowsknow was farmed by a William Maxwell).
An Othello Maxwell married Deborah Hunt in Harbridge, Hampshire on the 12th April 1808.
Othello (or Othillo) and Deborah had a son, Othillo, baptised later that year, 30th October 1808. Sadly, young Othello died in April 1812 age only 31/2, in St. Clement Danes, Westminster
Later in 1812, Othello and Deborah had a daughter, Jemima, baptised in Lambeth. Tragically, Jemima died aged only 3 months.
An Othello Maxwell of Clapham was buried in the parish of St. Clement Danes, Westminster, Middlesex in 1814 age 35 (i.e. born circa 1779). The unusual first name and the same YOB make this a strong possibility that it is the same man who was baptised in Canonbie in 1794. Unfortunately, the record does not give an occupation.
According to Ancestry.com records, Othello’s wife Deborah Hunt was born in 1788, so she was 20 when they married. 14 years after she was widowed, Deborah married a widower, John Ings in London in 1828, and they moved back to her native Hampshire. In 1830 Deborah, age 42, had a daughter she named Eleanor Maxwell Ings, which shows the affection she had retained for Othello. Deborah died in 1852.
Othello Maxwell’s children did not survive into adulthood, but his wife’s descendants memorialised his name over four generations. Eleanor Maxwell Ings (1830-1897) named her son Charles Maxwell Hibberd (1854-1935). Charles had a daughter Emmeline Constance Maxwell Hibberd (1884-1930) and his son Charles Frederick Maxwell Hibberd (1879–1959) had a daughter Betty Elizabeth Maxwell Hibberd (1924-1994).
I contacted a descendant of Deborah Ings/Maxwell nee Hunt. Amazingly after two centuries she knew that the Maxwell name was in memory of a black man who had been held in great esteem by the family.
I’ve searched the British Newspaper Archive online but had no luck finding a reference to Othello Maxwell so what he was doing for a living is still a mystery.