Blog: Mundane to Sublime

[Aussie Roy]

From the Mundane to the Sublime


Part 1

      My own life to date would be described as 'mundane', nothing exciting ever happens. Oh! in 1968 I did emigrate to Australia with my wife and three young children. So what ? so did hundreds of others. Hardly 'world shattering news' is it ?   The event may have made the ' Woburn Reporter ' or ' Bletchley Gazette'  Just mundane like my Batham ancestors before me, bricklayers and chimney sweeps.
            Great-great grandfather William Batham 1783-1853 may have been a more colourful character, living (and dying) in Notting Hill, an area so bad it was described by Charles Dickens as a most obnoxious slum. William had various occupations, locksmith, bellhanger and pig breeder, the latter being the cause of the obnoxious slum. William, according  to my cousin Jack (cousin n x removed) married late in life because he was in the army, 3rd Foot regiment and served at the Battle of Waterloo. A bit of excitement there, but he was one of 23,000 British troops. He is the end of the line till I or someone finds his father.
             On my mothers side  I've got  general labourers,  Great grandfather Walter Hussey 1836- 1910 came to Bethnal Green, London  from  Bridport, Dorsetshire.  His father  Christopher Hussey 1801-1837 was a seaman and died by accident . He fell from a triangle aboard the schooner 'Safrina' in Bridport harbour. I have yet to find out what a triangle is or was. And again he is the end of the line so far.
             The mundane nature of the tree continues with Smiths in Wiltshire who were 'Cordwainers' and Pattendens in Whitechapel, East London who were nothing in particular although one Joseph Medley Pattenden was in the merchant navy. He died in 1769 aboard the Eastindiaman 'Talbot' somewhere between Bengal and England.  From here on it's the usual Ag labs.

When I continue my wife's ancestors may provide something more interesting.                   Roy

[majm]

Hi Roy,

I found, I went to The Lighter Side, and twas you there !

Well writ

Cheers

GGD

[Huntersjoy]

I thought that was  interesting history.
Huntersjoy

[majm]

Roy,

You realise of course that the 3rd regiment on foot came to NSW and relieved the 48th regiment (both were veteran reg from Waterloo !!).  This was NSW 1817 to say 1830 ish.

Cheers,

MA

[Aussie Roy]

I didnt know that ggd.   What I do know is the 3rd Foot became the Scots Guards    http://www.britishbattles.com/index.htm

[majm]

Hi Roy,

I think they were called THE BUFFS at one stage early on in NSW, guarding the convicts, etc

Cheers,

MA

[Aussie Roy]

Part 2

           In the normal course of a mundane life I should never have met my wife Barbara,  yet strange things can happen. You see, I was born in Harlesden, North West London. Middlesex really and a working class area where the most exciting thing to happen was  the 'Blitz' in 1941. My father decided to move out in 1955 to the peace and quiet of Woburn Sands in Bedfordshire. That was before the government decided to build a new concrete jungle there called Milton Keynes. Actually Milton Keynes was already there , but a sleepy mundane village where nothing exciting happened, not even the blitz. Barbara Wiseman lived in the next village of Bow Brickhill which was over the border in Buckinghamshire. We met while travelling to work in Fenny Stratford.  How Barbara got to Bow Brickhill is a bit of a mystery because she was born at Poolfoot Farm, Singleton, nr  Blackpool Lancashire. Her father George Wiseman was a mundane Ag lab and moved south looking for work. George was born 1st Jan 1914 in Starbotton, nr Kettlewell Yorkshire, 1 of 17 children , his wife  Jane Myers, born 14th April 1913 (on the 1st anniversary of the Titanic). Both these in-laws of mine had  more interesting ancestors than mine. Both it seems were blood relatives descended from two different lines of Thomas Chippendale of Skipton 1572-1636. Whether this Thomas was also the ancestor of the Chippendales of furniture fame I have yet to find out as Chippendale was quite a common name in the 1700s.
 
 I told you my wifes side was more interesting.     Next George Wiseman's ancestry

[beady]

Are you sur your Chippendales weren't the originators of the male stripper/dancers???

[Aussie Roy]

Part 3

           George Wiseman 1914-1993    Retired in 1979, his last job a gardener at Bletchley Park, famous for the wartime activities. George was there when the documetaries were made. His father was Thomas Henry Wiseman   1874 - 1928 coming from a long line of Wisemans, lead miners of Kettlewell going back to 1712. Here the female side gets interesting. George's mother was Lizzie Emma Heinemann 1886 - 1966. She was one tough lady who I met in 1962 when she lived in Hyde, Cheshire. Imagine the life she led with 17 children 15 of whom survived. Living in Starbotton on a farm labourers wage, and having to move away to Barnoldswick after her husband died 1928 and her youngest was only 4 yrs old. Incredibly they all survived. Lizzie Emma was the illegitimate child of Charlotte Heinemann b. 1859  Sangate, Kent.  Charlotte had been in service in Gargrave, nr Skipton Yorks, while her father Julius Heinemann and mother Amelia lived in Kettlewell. She may have become pregnant there, but by 1891 she was living with her widowed mother in Kettlewell. Julius Hienemann 1824 - 1882 was born in Prussia, possibly Magdeburg and was in England before 1856 when he married Amelia Wingate at Elham Kent. Julius, a tailor by trade served in the British army.  Charlotte as we have seen was born in Kent. The next child Julius Stephen was born in Malta 1867, then Amelia b.1871 in Bury Lancashire, Evidently Julius retired and chose for some reason to settle with his family in Kettlewell. Julius Stephen married Alice Gill and established the Heinemann dynasty in Ilkley, Yorkshire where I suppose there are still some living.  Amelia Heinemann married Hugh Brown, a more mundane sort of name.

Next    Amelia Wingate