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Messages - Bovar

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1
Derbyshire Lookup Requests / Re: Woodhouse Varney
« on: Monday 05 November 07 18:39 GMT (UK)  »
Continued.....

He had a substantial family......so more research potential there!

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Derbyshire Lookup Requests / Re: Woodhouse Varney
« on: Monday 05 November 07 18:32 GMT (UK)  »
Some speculative thoughts about Woodhouse junior.

Arkwright had a canal built to carry goods to and from his cotton mill, and this passes not too far from Belper.  It connects to the Erewash valley canal, which in turn connects to the navigable stretch of the river Trent north of Nottingham, and to the Trent and Mersey canal which goes into Lancashire.  It is likely that Strutt used this canal network to move his goods, at least until the railway came in the 1840's.  So it is possible that Woodhouse had contact with the watermen on the canal, and got 'apprenticed'.
Ruthy, I wouldn't be sure that Woodhouse would know, or cared if his father was dead.  He probably had no fixed abode until he was married, and illiterate, so didn't send letters home.  His mother may have died when he was around 10, and if his father WAS imprisoned, may not have had much of a bond with him.  Most sons followed their fathers into the nailmaking trade....Woodhouse was I think the only Varney not to do so in this generation.

Louise, his wife, came from West Butterwick, which is on the banks of the river Trent, not far from modern day Scunthorpe.  I worked there in the 1970's and remember walking along the Trent bank as far as East Butterwick, and looking across to where his family were born.
It is small even today, and would have been an isolated spot.  Perhaps Woodhouse met her when he stopped to have his barge horses shod.  George Fish, who was master of the boat he was on during the 1861 census, lived there. George was a mariner 'up the river' in 1851 when Woodhouse was on the canal in Lancashire.  Perhaps Woodhouse had crewed with George before this, and met Louise when they stopped off at his home.  Louise lived 2 doors away from George's house in 1851.
George was the publican in W Butterwick in 1871.
Trade continued on the Trent and through into the Ouse up to at least the end of the 19th Century.

What happened to Woodhouse after the 1871 census entry?  I am trawling through the Yorkshire Vessels records for 1881 census in case his entry has not been transcribed.  I have not found an entry for him in the BMD index up to 1881.

Thanks for the info on the Woodhose family, Redrock.  Like the transcriber, I had missread the Edwin entry in the 1861 census.  He had renamed himself Edward by 1881.  He had lived in Lincolnshire until then, although two of his children were born in Yorkshire.  Have you found an entry for him in 1891?  He reappears in 1901, a widower living near Halifax.  He had a substantial fAM

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Derbyshire Lookup Requests / Re: Woodhouse Varney
« on: Monday 05 November 07 16:45 GMT (UK)  »
First, apologies Redrock, I did get my census details out by 10 years in an earlier contribution to this thread....I was working from memory rather than hard copy!  I have now subscribed to an on-line source for the UK census so can check my details now!

An interesting question about which Samuel was the criminal, and which the father of Woodhouse junior.

I have seen the parish records and confirm that a Samuel Varney was christened in Belper on August 4th 1799, son of Woodhouse and Elizabeth.  This would make him around the same age as the Samuel Varney who died in Rotherham, although perhaps not exactly in line with the death certificate.  There is evidence from records of the Belper Poor Law Union that they were aware of a Samuel Varney being ill and dieing in Rotherham. There are instructions to bring the family back to the Workhouse, as would have been the law at the time for the descendent's of men born in the parish and his family who sought parish relief.  There are no Varney's listed at the workhouse in the 1841 Census, but Mary Varney appears to be lodging with her 3 young daughters in a house in Swinney Lane, which is close to where other Varney's were living.  She has employment in the local cotton mill.

A Samuel Varney married an Ann Jackson at the parish church in Duffield around 1821.  I have not seen the microfiche record of this yet, but hope to confirm this when I next visit the Derbyshire record office.  Woodhouse junior was christened on Jan 16th 1824, son of Samuel and Anne Varney, and I have seen this record.  There is an Anne Varney buried in Belper in the 1830s, but I want to check the exact date and details.  So it is possible for Samuel to re marry and have a second family.

I am not aware at present of any other Varney's in Belper that could fit the dates for the Rotherham death.  The eldest of  Mary's daughters was born outside Derbyshire, the two youngest in the county, according to the 1841 Census, so it is possible she married in Belper.  Another point to check!

I am not sure Ruthy about Woodhouse junior having a sister called Elizabeth.  I didn't make a record of any Elizabeth christened in Belper in 1826 when I was going through the parish records, but it is so easy to miss things when trying to read those microfiches!  Can you give me any details?....I will add this to my check list.  A possible candidate for Elizabeth is the one born about 1830 to Thomas Varney.  He was the second (surviving) son of Woodhouse, so this Elizabeth was the grand daughter of Woodhouse senior.  She can be seen in the 1841 Census living in Belper, and was employed in the local cotton mill, so could have got employed in the same industry as a factory hand....

You are quite right Rocky, I cannot be sure which Samuel Varney was the one imprisoned.  Firstly, there is the possibility that he never returned to Belper after release.  Looking back over what records I have collected so far, their are two possibilities other than Woodhouse senior's son.  One died and was buried in Belper in 1841 (before the census), but he was 77 so the least likely candidate. The Samuel Varney you found in the 1851 census, born in 1786 is possible.  He also appears in the 1841 census, although his entry seems to have missed transcription.
He has a wife Isabella in 1841, so is unlikely to have been the person who assaulted his wife, Anne, unless he had remarried.

The Samuel sentenced in 1826, although described as a labourer in the Wirksworth record, is described as a nailor in the pop up note attached to the Derby assize record.  At this time the township of Belper was still in the parish of Duffield, which is close by....the registration district was not invented until 1837.  All the census records you saw for 1851 are definitely for Varney's living in Belper.....most of the addresses are still identifiable to this day, and the terraced cottages they lived in.  Duffield is declared as a sub registration district of Belper on the 1851 Census transcript....I think that this just means that Duffield held a record book where their citizens could record births, marriages and deaths which were later transferred to the main one at Belper.

Unless I can find a record from contemporary sources giving the age of the Samuel sentenced in 1826, I guess it won't be possible to definitely identify which one it is.

 

4
Derbyshire Lookup Requests / Re: Woodhouse Varney
« on: Saturday 22 September 07 22:55 BST (UK)  »
I have found out some more information about Samuel Varney, eldest son of Woodhouse senior, and father of Woodhouse junior.

As I inferred before, Samuel seems to have had problems with the law, see this page from WIRKSWORTH Parish Records-Quater -Sessions 1770-1625.

www.wirksworth.org.uk/CRM16.htm

He got off 3 times before being convicted and sentenced to 7 years transportation ( for stealing dishes and milk ).

This is confirmed in the following link

www.multiline.com.au/~jeand/jweb/data/1826.html

found on GENUKI - Derbyshire, records from Derby Assizes.


Click on the bottom link of his 2 entries, and it shows that he spent time on prison ships in Chatam up to 1830 at least, so probably never made it to Australia.

He was given a free pardon in June 1833.

I am almost sure that he died in Rotherham in 1841, shortly before the first UK census.  His widow Mary (Not sure yet what happened to his first wife Ann) was brought to Belper under the poor law provisions, together with 3 daughters, the eldest 5 years old at the time of the 1841 census.  She was in lodgings in Swinney Lane, Belper, and had been found employment in the cotton mill.

It must have been a traumatic time for Samuel's family.  His father had died before his release, but his mother Elizabeth was still alive, and living with her second son, Thomas. 

What happened to Woodhouse junior during this time I dont know, but from July 15 1833 to August 30 1833 he was at Strutt's school in Belper, and stated to be living in Commonside.  His father is said to be a nailer.

see www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/Belper/StruttSchool/V.html

He left to 'go to the mill' .  It seems that the law at this time required children to be able to write their name before being employed ! ( he was 10 years old).

Did his eventual move to the waterways arise from an association with Chatham?

If I remember correctly, by the 1841 census he is on board a boat moored in Castleford, already married.  He is with his wife and very young first born.

In 1851 his wife appears to be living with the in laws.  His name has been entered by the enumerator, but crossed out.  His census entry is on a boat off the Anglesey coast.

In 1861 he is moored on the Ouse?, near Selby Yorks.

I so far haven't found any record of his death.


Bovar.










                         

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Derbyshire Lookup Requests / Re: Woodhouse Varney
« on: Monday 10 September 07 15:03 BST (UK)  »
I have read your messages re Woodhouse Varney, who died in Belper in 1832.

I am a direct ancestor of Woodhouse, and was born in Belper in 1946.

I have been unable to find any record of his birth, certainly not in the parish records of Duffield ( of which Belper was a part in the 18th Century).  The Varney family seems to have settled in Belper around 1700....there are records of Varneys (or Verneys) in nearby places in Derbyshire from 1400 onwards....they seem to have been yeoman stock at that time.

He was actually buried in the grounds of the St Johns Chaplaincy, since St Peters was not built until after his death.  The records were transferred when St Peters was opened.

I have looked up the record of his marriage in Eckington.  He must have been working there since the wedding banns were called there.  He was a nailor at the time of his marriage....I think that it was not unknown for nailors to move around for work at this time.  Virtually all the Varneys were nailors in the 1800-1880 period....there were about 3 families at the time, I guess they probably had a common ancestor.  Belper was a very small...and quite widespread...community until Strutt built his cotton mills in the late 1700's.  This also seems to have led to a big upsurge in the nailing trade in the town in the late 1700's, when the town expanded from 700-800 to over 10,000 in the space of a few years.

The other Woodhouse Varney was a grandson of Woodhouse senior.....the only son of Samuel.  After some time as a child in the cotton mill he seems to have escaped on to the canal.  He married in Lincolnshire....perhaps into a barging family?  His father Samuel may have been a 'bad lot', he may have been before the magistrates for assault and theft, and possibly even transported to Australia. 

Robert Varney

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