Pickstock

[rhoosesue]

I have been trying to trace the origins of Richard PICKSTOCK for a friend in South Africa. Richard PICKSTOCK was one of the 1820 settlers to the Cape of Good Hope and married Frances GRAVETT in London in January 1820 just before the ship sailed. He ostensibly had his nine year old daughter Charlotte with him, but family sources say she was in fact his granddaughter. Richard definitely had two daughters by a first marriage as he applied for them to come out and join him at the Cape in 1826. One daughter was Mary, aged 29 in 1826, who was married to a Thomas DOBSON and had a son John born ca 1825. The other daughter was Ann, aged 31 in 1826, with her husband Thomas DOWLAN and children Mary and Amelia. The contact address given for his daughters on the 1826 application was Warwick Square, Manchester. If anyone has any information re Richard PICKSTOCK's first family I should be gald to hear from them and pass the information on to my friend.

Sue

[barrow girl]

Hi
I expect that as several years has passed since you posted this message you may have found out about Richard Pickstock's family or not have the same email address.

I think I know the family connection here in the UK.  i found his marriage by chance.  I am descended from his sister Sarah.  I was very interested in the articles re the first settlers in South Africa and delighted to know a relative of mine was a pioneer.  I have not yet been able to trace the child wyo was with him who later married the nephew of Richard's wife Frances.  I would be very happy to share information with you and your friends.

[garstonite]

Could this be the other daughter ?

Baptism: 10 Aug 1795 Collegiate, Manchester, Lancashire, England
 Margaret Pickstock - Daughter of Richd. Pickstock & Margaret

[barrow girl]

Margaret was a daughter of Richard Pickstock but there is a later burial (around 1800 from memory) in the non comformist registers.  Richard was married 4 times.  In one article I read from South Africa it stated that the 'daughter' of Richard was really the daughter of his brother who had died  fighting with Nelson!  A mystery to be solved.

[rhoosesue]

Thanks for getting in touch, barrow girl. I have sent you a private message. Sadly the friend for whom the original enquiry was made has since passed away, but having transcribed all the 1820 settler correspondence (http://www.eggsa.org/1820-settlers/) I am always pleased to receive information on any of the settlers prior to emigration.

[AdrianB38]

...  Richard was married 4 times. ....

Only four? 

I have not yet disentangled the history of Richard Pickstock but, looking at the signatures on the relevant marriages, I had come to the tentative conclusion that he was indeed the tailor from Manchester, b abt 1770, son of Isaac Pickstock (tailor of Northwich) and Ann / Nancy nee Carter.

I have the following marriages for Richard:

• Margaret / Peggy Woodward, 24 Mar 1788, Collegiate Church, Manchester;
• Janet Bayley (widow), 1 Jan 1804, Collegiate Church, Manchester;
• Sarah Dobson (widow), 27 Sept 1806, Collegiate Church, Manchester;
• Hannah Heeley, 14 Dec'r 1808, St. Mary the Virgin, Eccles, Lancs (based on signature, etc.);
• Frances Gravett

The first 3 wives can all be found in burial registers - I have no clue on Hannah's death, other than there being an otherwise unmatched (by me) burial of a Hannah Pickstock at the Collegiate Church, Manchester, on 17 April 1825. The match is not too good on age as Hannah Heeley appears to have been b abt 1788 and the burial was b abt 1782. Anyone able to match the burial better?

My unsupported belief is that the Thomas Dobson who was his son-in-law was actually his step-son, son of the former Sarah Dobson. The use of the term "son-in-law" for step-son is known at this time - one famous Nelson letter uses the term like that. However, there are just too many Dobsons for me to be certain of it.

The daughter, Ann, who m Thomas "Dowlam", may be Nancy Pickstock, bap to Richard and Margaret back at St. Helen in Witton, Northwich, 25 April 1790. My further guess is that she married Thomas Downing, coachmaker of Manchester, at the Collegiate Church on 27 Sept 1814. I'd be grateful if anyone can comment on whether Thomas "Dowlam" may indeed be Thomas Downing as I can't see whether Thomas did go out to SA. (It is possible of course that the Collegiate Church's records are wrong!)

The only children I have traced for Richard are all to Richard and Margaret:

• Nancy bap 25 Apr 1790, St Helen, Witton;
• Margaret b abt 1793/94, bur 2 June 1794, St. Helen, Witton;
• Margaret bap 10 Aug 1795, Collegiate Church, Manchester, bur 30 March 1797, St. Helen, Witton;
• Isaiah, bap 30 April 1797, Collegiate Church, Manchester, d bef Oct 1802?
• Josiah(?), b 18 March 1800, bur 20 Oct 1802, Wesleyan Chapel, Gt Bridgewater St., Manchester
• Isaiah or Isaac, b abt Oct 1802, bur 21 Nov 1802, Wesleyan Chapel, Gt Bridgewater St., Manchester - there are two versions of this register with 2 names!

The burials back in Witton are clearly this couple as the St. Helen registers are in an extended format at this time.

I suspect there is at least one other child, a Richard Pickstock, as someone of that name, b abt 1792 in Manchester and a tailor, is recruited into the Army in the Manchester area before deserting pretty quickly. There is no real reason to connect him to this family other than the extreme rarity of the name. It's also not clear where he could fit into the family, unless btw Nancy and the first Margaret.

I have only done a quick check but I think that Richard the elder is in the Manchester Rate Books until the 1807 edition, which suggests he moves out of Manchester, marries Hannah, moves down to London.... Weird. (I confess that I have checked the online newspapers for any unexplained Pickstock deaths!)

Grateful for any further comments....

[rhoosesue]

Very interesting. I have copies of the original correspondence (at Kew) written by William Shepherd in 1826, who applied to take out family members to existing 1820 settlers. This has been transcribed at

http://www.eggsa.org/1820-settlers/index.php/post-1820-letters/s-writers-surnamed-s/1443-2011-01-05-17-07-31

It states that Richard PICKSTOCK applied for his two daughters and their families to join him.
Thos DOWLAN (29) with wife Ann (31) and children Mary (10) and Amelia (3)
Thos DOBSON (27) with wife Mary (29) and son John (1)

It may be that Shepherd got the surnames slightly wrong.

[AdrianB38]

Dowlan looks good as a name. Ancestry has this burial in 1830:

Piece Title:    Piece 1612: Salford, Christchurch, King Street (Bible Christian), 1800-1837

(1830) Dec'r 1
Emelia Daughter of Thomas & Ann Dowlan aged 6 years who died Nov'r 28 of Decline at No. 47 Lever Street Manchester.

That's 4y after the 1826 letter when Amelia Dowlan, dau Thomas & Ann, was aged 3. Seems a good fit to me, to be the same child. Can't find a baptism for her. I can find a burial of an earlier Amelia in the same piece:
(1821) March 18 Emilia Daughter of Thomas & Ann Dowlan aged 13 months who died March 16 of watery head at No. 25 Warwick Street Manchester

And that confirms that this is the same family as referred to in "Kew, CO48/69, 82" on the URL above as the Warwick St address is identical.

There are other burials for what looks like this same family - sometimes indexed as Dowland. Still can't see any baptisms in Ancestry or FindMyPast-Cheshire-PRs.

I still can't see any better marriage than that Thomas Downing, coachmaker of Manchester, to Ann Pickstock of Manchester at the Collegiate Church on 27 Sept 1814.

There is a distinct but nothing like certain possibility that I have found them in the 1841 census at Class: HO107; Piece: 573; Book: 2; Civil Parish: Manchester; County: Lancashire; Enumeration District: 3; Folio: 19; Page: 33;
(to use Ancestry's citation).
Thomas Dowlan is 47 and a painter, Ann is 51 (I think) and a dressmaker. There are possible children with them.

Ann Dowlan being 51 would fit with Nancy Pickstock bap 1790. And I can see a coachmaker in 1814 being a painter (e.g. of coaches) in 1841. But there are too many similar couples for me to be happy.

Maybe the Dowlans never went out to SA??

[rhoosesue]

Adrian

Having looked in detail now at all the records you posted, I tend to agree with you that Thomas and Ann DOWLAN never went to the Cape, and that perhaps Thomas DOBSON was Richard's stepson.

I have made one other discovery by going through records on FindMyPast. It was always said within the family thatCharlotte PICKSTOCK, the 'child' of Richard and Frances who sailed with them in 1820, was not Richard's daughter, and was born in Madeira.

Royal Military Asylum (Chelsea) admissions (British Army Schoolchildren 1803-1932)
Taken from a transcript by Peter Goble
Charlotte PICKSTOCK, born 1809, aged 6, admitted 6 January 1815
Father: Isaac PICKSTOCK, Private, Royal Regiment of Veterans
Mother: Sarah
Discharged 5 January 1820

The RMA aimed to educate orphans of British servicemen in the regular army who were killed in the Napoleonic Wars. The 5th Royal Veterans Battalion was stationed in Madeira from July 1809 until September 1814, so Charlotte could well have been brought up in Madeira. Her discharge from the RMA in January 1820 fits with her sailing to the Cape with Richard and Frances in February.

Was Isaac perhaps Richard's brother?

Every breakthrough brings more questions