Dear all,
On 3 October 1813 Thomas and Elizabeth Wooster had a son, Joseph, baptised in Turville. It is possible that this Joseph is my ancestor, and thus Thomas and Elizabeth, but then again perhaps not. The problem is that many correspondents have suggested that my Joseph was the son of Timothy and Selinor (or Selina or indeed Eleanor and variants as she appears on the parish register) and baptised in Ellesborough on 18 Oct 1812.
As yet I have never found a satisfactory reason as to why the Turville baptism has been discounted and have very little info on Thomas and Elizabeth, other than they are likely to have been married by license in Stokenchurch on 22 Aug 1805. I have a copy of the parish register entry.
I know that Joseph was living in greater Stanmore in in 1841 as he is on the census aged 25 and married to Rebecca with 3 children, Henry, Charles and Eliza. Eliza Wooster appears as a witness on Thomas and Elizabeth's marriage record so she may have been Joseph's sister
On the 1851 census Joseph is still in Greater Stanmore with Rebecca, but now aged 38 and listing his birthplace as Wendover. They now have Henry, Eliza, Charles, Albert, Louise, Emma, Ann Rebecca, Helena and James. (They end up adding Joseph, Elizabeth and Edith C to this list). So there is a child name connection to Thomas and Elizabeth as well.
Ignoring child names for a moment the only real info I have on Joseph is that he was born some time between 1813 and 1816ish somewhere in the Wendover area. Turville is and so is Ellesbourogh.
There are a *lot* of Wooster's in Wendover at that time and I went though the Wendover register recently noting them all in the hope that I might be able to untangle all this a bit.
The Timothy and Selinor correspondents suggest that their lineage goes back to Moses Wooster and that the families either liked the names Timothy and Moses or showed a singular lack of imagination when naming their offspring. There are 4 generations of Moses Woosters. They also say that Timothy was married twice.
As far as I can tell Timothy and Selina had; Mary (13 Feb 1803), William (30 Dec 1804), Eleanor (10 Jan 1807), Moses (20 Aug 1809), James (14 Nov 1819), Elizabeth (20 Dec 1823) and Timothy (28 May 1826) baptised in Wendover and Joseph (18 Oct 1812 - mother listed as Eleanor), Thomas (5 Feb 1815 - mother listed as Senedar) and George (20 Jul 1817 - mother listed as Eleanor again) baptised in Ellesborough.
There is a Timothy Wooster aged 65 listed on the Wendover 1841 census with James (age 25), might be the James baptised 1819(?). This Timothy is still around 1851 aged 76, but now with his wife Lebender (aged 73).. Lebender? There are definite S's (eg Straw platter) on the census page but could that be Selender? There are definite l's as well (Ellen for example). There are no Lebinder Woosters listed on FreeBMD, but Selina has a death record for Wycombe for Sept 1859.
I have a number of wills for Timothy and Thomas Woosters. Timothy - a wealthy landed yeoman - proved 28 Sep 1833 does not mention his wife but lists a number of children including William, Francis, Ann Allen (widow), Thomas, Job and Joseph. There is a couple, Timothy and Hestor in Wendover who have Mary (13 Oct 1799), Thomas (5 Jan 1801), Job (30 May 1802), George (26 Jan 1803), Mary (again - 19 Sep 1806) and Joseph (6 Dec 1807). Selina cannot be this Timothy’s 2nd wife as Selena gives birth to Eleanor in 1807 and Hestor to Joseph in 1809. Thus the William mentioned in the Will cannot be the one that Timothy and Selina baptise in 1804, I could not find another in Wendover. As I suspect that Lebinder is Selinder (Selina) in the 1851 census with Timothy, her Tim cannot be the yeoman in the will. I do not think that the will Joseph is my ancestor as the likely match was baptised 1807, a bit too early.
I could not find Timothy and Hestor's marriage but found bans for Timothy and Selena Jones for 10,17 & 22 Jan 1802.
I have two wills for Thomas Wooster proved 24 Sep 1840 and 15 Apr 1817 respectively. The 1840 will does not mention any children by name but does mention Thomas's wife – Elizabeth as well as two brothers Joseph and Job. Not having any info on the Turville Thomas Wooster I cannot say for certain if he had any brothers. It could be that the 1840 will relates to Timothy and Hestor's son, bapt 5 Jan 1801. There is a couple in Wendover called Thomas and Elizabeth who have children from 17 May 1829 till 21 Oct 1832, though this could be the Turville family who have simply moved.
The 1817 will again mentions Elizabeth, but no children or brothers; stating that all should be given to Elizabeth or if she passes away to Thomas' sisters Emily Hawkins(?) and Alison Shaw(?) the handwriting is not clear. It is also very short and appears to have needed verification before being proved.
None of this is really helpful, other than I am now fairly sure that my Joseph is not a beneficiary of the yeoman Timothy Wooster's will. This is a pain a s there is a web site of Wooster's linked to that document. I am also still at a loss as to how to tie Joseph Wooster to either Thomas and Elizabeth or Timothy and Selina (or whatever she was called).
Has anyone got any information on Thomas Wooster of Turville that might aid me?
