HEADs of West Berkshire

[newburychap]

For a while my sig line on Rootschat has expressed my intention of trying to sort out the HEAD family from Newbury and nearby villages. As I have very recently found more evidence to suggest that my great great great great grandmother, Mary HEAD was descended from this family I am now acually doing something about it. And have since changed the sig line

I have long suspected the link but had only one small piece of evidence - that John HEAD of Grindon, Bucks voted in the 1812 Election for Berkshire (from Berks FHS transcript CD) as a freeholder in Peasemore. As my Mary married in 1772 an Andrew HOLT,  farmer fromn Grendon Underwood and there were HEADs in the GU PRs in the early 1800s I saw the faint chance of a link.

Online trees tell me that Mary was born in Grendon Underwood - naturally they were wrong.

Recently I have found that Mary came from Thame, Oxon (OFHS PR transcript) and that her father Richard was not from Thame. In his will (PCC 1778) he left his son John some property in Peasemore.

Thanks to the Wilts Wills Project I obtained the 1756 will of Richard HEAD of Leckhampstead, Berks. He left his son Richard property in Peasemore called Newlands and Belchers.

Finally I find yet another Richard HEAD voting in 1818 (Berks FHS CD) and baptising daughters in 1819 and 1821 - in Peasemore (transcript). The baptisms give him as 'of Freelands' a small farm to the north of the parish (no longer exists).

I await the opportunity to get to Aylesbury to examing the 1815 will of John HEAD of Grendon Underwood - which I hope will show some Peasemore property being left to his son Richard.

Meanwhile I have started to look at Richard, died 1756, buried Chieveley 10 May 1756.  The Chieveley PRs for that period also cover Leckhampstead and a number of HEADs are shown as 'of Leckhampstead'. This is helpful in deciphering the links in the PRs and I can readily go back a few generations until I am stuck looking for yet another Richard HEAD who should have been baptised around 1580. There are a number of probable siblings born to John HEAD/HEDDE of Leckhampstead but no Richard. Either he was a name change (from Thomas, John, Giles or Henry) or another child who the clerk forgot to enter in the PRs or somehow missed being christened. Or he was from another family/place.

From this John of Leckhampstead the line goes back to another Richard - of Winterbourne who died in 1530 (according to published works by L G Horton-Smith - which I need to check).

If anyone in Rootschatland has done work on this family - especially on the Arch Berks wills I would love to hear from them.

[EDO]

Dear Newburychap,

Thank you for posting the results of your research on Rootschat

Cousin EDO
from Brisbane

[newburychap]

There is a way to go before I can prove the link between Richard of Leckhamstead (d 1756) and Richard of Thame (d 1778) who I think was his son (c1704). My theory is totally based on the evidence showing property in Peasemore passing through both lines.  If only the Oxon/Bucks end had a reference to the specific named property (Freelands or Belchers) that is referred to at the Berks end. Perhaps John HEAD's will of 1815 will do so (dream on).

Sadly I have now checked the 1768 Poll Book for Berkshire (forthcoming Berks FHS publication) and there is no HEAD voting a freehold in Peasemore - I had hoped that there might have been a Richard HEAD of Thame casting his vote

Maybe there are some manorial or tax records that would help but ........

Never mind, I am happy enough with my theory to start building the Berks end of the tree - to link into by main tree as and when I get more proof. It helps that the HEADs of Berks are an interesting family and worthy of study from a local history angle as well.

[newburychap]

I now have a copy of the will of John HEAD of Grendon Underwood, formerly of Marsh Gibbon. Written 23 Jun 1815, proved 2 Mar 1816 Arch Bucks.

In it he leaves property in Peasemore 'several freehold messuages or tenements cottages closes pieces or parcels of arable and other land or ground rents real estates hereditiaments and premises' in trust for his young son Richard Head Coles.  Richard was one of several children born to John HEAD and Joanna COLES prior to their marriage. I believe (but can I ever prove?) that Richard went by the name HEAD and that it is he who is resident at 'Freelands' in Peasemore by 1819.

So I am increasingly inclined to the belief that Richard HEAD of Leckhamstead left (1756) Peasemore property (Freelands and Belchers) to his son Richard of Thame who I am certain left (1778) Peasemore property to his son John who in turn (1815) left it to his son Richard who resided at Freelands in 1819.

[MattD30]

Hello fellow Head researchers!

I am also researching the Heads of Newbury and the surrounding areas of Berkshire and have done for about 10 years. I have a large amount of information on them including wills, legal documents and other records I would be happy to share. The Heads of Newbury were a very prominant family with several members of the family holding the office of Mayor and others acting as JPs and/or Aldermen. They seem to have originated in Winterbourne and Chieveley where they again seem to have been a family of some standing.

There are branches of the family in Boxford, and Speen and I am fairly sure the Heads in Leckhampstead Peasemore are related to them as well. There are also several large properties in Newbury and Winterbourne which are associated with the Heads and several gravestones.

Please feel free to pm me if you would like to share info. It would be interesting to see if we can link these families up.

Matt

[trish251]

To the best of my knowledge I am not related to any Heads from anywhere - but just wanted to mention - what a fabulous thread to highlight the hows and wheres of family research. Sources mentioned give options and details often not known about to those of us researching from "down under" and is much appreciated.

This comment
Online trees tell me that Mary was born in Grendon Underwood - naturally they were wrong.
should be noted by everyone doing family research. I sometimes think I spend more time disproving the research of others, than proving my own 

Many thanks for a great thread - and do please pass on details of any more finds

Trish

[EDO]

Hello Trish ......

I'm disappointed!

I thought for a moment I might be related to you ........

Mary HEAD was my GGGGGrandmother on my maternal side through her marriage in 1772 to Andrew HOLT.

EDO

[newburychap]

And the next installment......

Courtesy Bucks FHS marriage index I have found the marriage of John HEAD and Joanna COLES in Grendon Underwood - 29 Feb 1808.

It doesn't add much to the story but does give an interesting thought - did Joanna (pregnant at the time with their 6th child) use the old tradition of a leap year proposal to persuade the old chap (he was 63 at the time) to finally marry her? Nice idea.   

Next step on the Bucks end is to track down a load of burials - especially of his first wife, Judith (if this was in 1807/8 it would offer an alternative reason for the tardy marriage).

At the Berks end it's pretty basic stuff - the Chieveley PRs seem to take me back to the early C17th with a good chance that the next link is in Peasemore in 1570. One advantage of farming ancestry is that they don't move around much because the land ties them to the place. However, I'm not over-confident that I have got it right, it looks good from the PRs - but there are a lot other HEADs around to get mixed up with.

The trouble with finding several generations in a PR in virtually no time is that it is too easy to just plonk them in the tree and miss out on the opportunities to add some substance to your knowledge of them. So I need to check back at wills, tax records, polling records etc. to see what else I can find out - which will take a lot longer than it did to find them.

And I definitely need to bury them all (which may totally mess it up if I find some child burial when I have calculated that child was the father of a later generation). Of course to bury them I have to sort out the other lines to make sure I am not burying someone else's ancestor - I'll be in touch MattD30 (was the Widow HEAD buried in Chieveley in 1663 my Sibill?). Of course I also need find all the marriages to account for the female HEADs and to open up new lines of ancestors - irritatingly almost none of the marriages seem to have made it into the Berks or North Berks Marriage Indexes yet

Impossible to do completely of course - there are always some who manage to avoid being recorded or disappear across 3 or 4 counties to marry (in a parish not covered by the IGI of course).

Lots to do - it may be some time before the next installment!

To close with a query - one marriage that has been indexed is that of Thomas NORCROFT to Ann HEAD at Besselsleigh in 1728 - both are shown as being from Leckhampstead. Almost every marriage in that period is shown as being by licence and few of the happy couples include anyone from Besselsleigh - was this the eloper's destination of choice for west Berkshire?

[trish251]

Almost every marriage in that period is shown as being by licence and few of the happy couples include anyone from Besselsleigh - was this the eloper's destination of choice for west Berkshire?

Enjoying your research as I am, I would have liked to be able to answer the above question - but unfortunately not - I do know, however, that a place called Norton-on-the-Moors was known as the "Gretna Green of the Potteries" (Staffordshire) - a fact dragged from somewhere I hate to admit, I did not retain the source. I researched this a couple of years ago, on finding a number of ancestors married in said parish. This was the comment & it may give some ideas in regard to your West Berkshire parish.

After 1805 at Norton-in-the Moors, the previous average of 70 marriages was doubled and exceeded 200 by 1820.  The township had an abnormal number of marriages over a longer period than any other church in the neighbourhood of Stoke-upon-Trent.  For this reason Norton has been described as the Gretna Green of the Potteries.  ...  ...  Norton-in-the-Moors, Bucknall, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Whitmore were all popular.  All these churches are outside the Potteries district proper and it may be that in those days, when going away for the honeymoon was not usual, a short Journey into the country for the marriage ceremony was a pleasant way of marking such an important event.  The reason why Norton was so popular is very likely because it was near to Burslem where the Pottery Industry first developed in the early eighteen century.  The persistence of the custom may have been due to the same incumbent, the Rev. Daniel Turner, being there as curate, the Rector, from 1776 to 1826.

Trish