Hi all
am lookong for a death of a Elizabeth Down between 1804 and 1809
the reason am looing for this is because when they cleared by great grandmothers house at Topsham after the death of the last DOWN , they brought a pile of papers away, amongst other things - and among these papers was a printed sheet headed :-
'LIST OF PERSONS EXECUTED AT THE DEVON COUNTY GAOL , FROM THE YEAR 1795'
At the bottom of the page it says :-
( PRICE ONE PENNY )
The only relevant name on the sheet is SARAH DOWN who was murdered in 1822 . She had a sister called MARY and a brother called JOHN and they lived at Worlington .( We feel that there must have been a link with 'our DOWNS' for them to have bought the sheet and kept it , as I'm sure they didn't have money to throw away on a whim .) The girls worked for an ELIZABETH COLE at Moor End , East Worlington . SARAH ( also called SALLY ) would have been in her early twenties .
it was a guy called JOHN RADFORD alias BRIGHT . He was hung at Exeter Jail .
I have the court case from the times dated Mon July 28th 1823
Now the probelm starts here. the house that got cleared was a Simon Down born 1814 brushford whos first Cousin was called sarah (sally and she was born 3rd june 1804 at Brushford daug of John Down 1775 Zeal Monachorum and Elizabeth Snell dauht of mary Snell They had married on 28th june 1802 and also had a daughter called Mary born 20th March 1803 also at brushford but no John,
Now also at brushford there is a burail entry for a Mary I see from the Brushford PRs that a Mary died in 1806. Now I know there is no way of knowing but it could be that the Mary who died is the d/o John & Elizabeth Snell. BUT no age, or d/o, was noted, so she was probably an adult. It could be that the Mary who died was the Mary who had an illegitimate son Thomas in 1779. Age about 25 when Thomas was born and age 52 in 1806 - fair age in those days. So ... 'our' Mary may be still alive. or she may not be (but there was a mary alive when Sarah was murdered.
I do wonder if ELIZABETH SNELL died and in 1809 JOHN DOWN then married CATHERINE SNELL , as they had a son JOHN DOWN baptised 30th July 1810 at High Bickington
If so, where? In 1810 John & Catherine had a son John and in 1812 a daughter Mary Snell Down. So another Mary.
I had a look on the IGI for High Bickington and found sisters Katharine Snell born 1777 and Elizabeth Snell born 1769. Both would have been about 32-33 if they married the same John Down.So have been trying to find the death of Elizabeth to be able to fit all this together, As Simon and Sarah were Cousins its makes sence as why he would have had this list in his house.
hope you can help with this one
Kind Regards
Russell
Update I was sent this which puts Sarah's birth date at 1790 and that does not fit with the sarah that was born to John, it seems by this I will have to find diffrent Parents for her??
While looking at the West Worlington Burial records
recently, I found the following entry which may be of
some interest to someone.
July 15, 1823. "Downe, Sarah, East Worlington,
singlewoman (found drowned). Age 33. NB. John Bright,
alias Radford, of East Worlington, was hanged at
Exeter, Jul 28, 1823 for the wilful murder of Sarah
Downe, by forcibly throwing her into the river - which
he confessed."
