CHENEY/ CHEYNEY in Abingdon, 1700-1800?

[Fire Fox]

I am looking for any ancestors of my Thomas CHAINEY of the Berkshire Militia who married in Devon in 1800. After 1800 we have two baptisms (CHAINEY, CHENEY), two possible infant burials (CHANEY, CHENEY) copies of three letters from his wife Elizabeth CHINEY to the overseer of St Nicholas, Abingdon regarding her 'pay' (relief). There are CHENEYs and CHEYNEYs in Abingdon and in adjacent Radley from at least the 1600s so I am hopeful of eventually linking them up to our Thomas. I have seen many other spelling variations of the surname - my Devon branch ended up as CHINA! 

Any information from the Abingdon parish registers would be gratefully received, I have no idea how the transcriptions are indexed nor how many entries there are so even telling me there are far too many to copy and paste would be helpful! I am on a very tight budget so can't afford to purchase the transcriptions to discover I am 'barking up the wrong tree' so to speak. 

Thank you!

[Eyesee]

Are these part of your line.

St Helen's Abingdon

1773 Aug 8, CHAYNEY Thomas, s/o John & Hannah, Labr
1775 Jul 16, CHEYNEY Elizabeth, d/o ditto
1779 Apr 25, CHEYNEY Hannah, d/o John & Hannah, Northcourt
1781 Jan 21, CHEYNEY William, s/o John & Hannah, Labr
1782 Oct 6, CHEYNEY William, s/o John & Hannah, labr, Northcourt
1786 Sep 24, CHEYNEY Benjamin, s/o John & Hannah, labr, Northcourt

Burials
1790 Aug 12, CHEAYNEY Benjamin, s/o John & Hannah, Northcourt, smallpox
1790 Aug 12, CHEAYNEY Joseph, s/o John & Hannah, Northcourt, smallpox
1802 Jan 17, CHEYNEY Richard, s/o John & Hannah, labr
1802 Sep 5, CHEYNEY Hannah, w/o John, labr
1807 Jan 29, CHEYNEY John, labr

Ian C

[Fire Fox]

Thank you very much for your help, and so quickly!  The age for the Thomas looks right for a 1800 marriage and it's encouraging you don't list an infant burial for him. Thomas and Elizabeth's children were Elizabeth, Thomas and William (twins), James (?Eliz. father's name?), Mary (died), Henry (died) and another boy (possibly John m 1832 Barnstaple). There may well have been other children who didn't survive, because there are large gaps between births and they were a mobile militia family.

My reservations: if the family were living in St Helens, I wonder why Elizabeth wrote to the overseer of St Nicholas? In her Nov 1816 letter Elizabeth refers to visiting Abingdon when she already had James (c. May 1807, Portsmouth) " ... the next is James He is nine next may them four I had when I was home which is now in the tenth year since and since that time I have had one boy and he is now in his third year  ..." which is after both John and Hannah had died. But I suppose they would not hear of the parents funerals until after the event, if they were travelling with the militia or down in Devon?

Thanks again!

[Fire Fox]

I just looked at Google maps and there is a Northcourt Road very close to St Nicholas, at one end is Northcourt itself and at the other end is Cheyney Walk! Can't imagine it was named for these labouring branch tho, maybe after the wealthier members of the family.

[DebbieG]

Hi Fire Fox

Northcourt or Norcott (same place) is a small hamlet to the north of Abingdon and is in St Nicholas parish,  so although Thomas was baptised at St Helens - parental choice I supose,  if they were living in North court he would be of St Nicholas parish.

There were certainly some very wealthy/well-connected Cheyneys earlier in Abingdons history.

Can I ask where you got your 'letters' from?  there is a version of them in the poor law records for St Nicholas,  they name the youngest child as John,  but I think your version is slightly different as they don't say about her visiting Abingdon.



DebbieG

[DebbieG]

Do you have a marriage for Thomas & Elizabeth?  so we can know her maiden name - I am intrigued that she refers to Abingdon as 'home'

DebbieG

[Fire Fox]

Thank you for your response DebbieG.   The three letters were found by a researcher in Oxfordshire, I don't know exactly what the 'brief' was because my aunt organised it - pior to that we had been stuck for 25 years, unable to get our CHINA/ CHAINEY family out of Devon. The copy letters we have are all written from Tiverton and are dated June 1st 1816, November 1st 1816 and December 28th 1816. They are full of information so it's exciting to know more may have survived, I would love to know what is said about John! This is from the June letter which does indicate there was ongoing communication

"I am sorry to trouble you as I do which --- not do Did you but send my pay regular[?] every two months as you promised me and now I have ten weeks pay due to me and I am in great distress for the want of it as I have such a family and no labour at all to do for me nor my family

Neither have I a friend in the world that can help me to a morsel of bread so what I can do in this distressed situation I do not know but this I know if you do not advance me something more than two shillings per week I can not do with it and I hope you will be sure to send it regular but if other ways I shall be forced to send to the Magistrate concerning it or be brought home with my family. I have had a letter from my sister in London and she tells me that my husband is still in a state of --- and no view of him getting any better so he is still in Bedlam so if you do mistrust what I have said you can send for further satisfaction"

Thomas CHAINEY and Elizabeth (nee HATSWELL) married in Tiverton in 1800 and their first child Elizabeth was baptised the same day. We initially wondered if Thomas had got a Devon girl pregnant, gone away with the militia before returning to marry her. Then, like you, I was intrigued by her reference to 'home' which she repeats in the June letter (above) and that she says she has no friends. It is *possible* she and Thomas lived in Abingdon for a while, because the Berkshire Militia disembodied at Reading in 1802 and re-embodied in 1803. Maybe that would be enough for Elizabeth to call it home?

Also there are very few HATSWELLs on the IGI for Berkshire. There are HATSWELLs on the IGI for Tiverton, including an Elizabeth c.1779 daughter of James and Mary. I have not taken this any further as yet.

Thanks again for your interest!

[DebbieG]

I think they must be the same letters,  what I have is a summary as part of the St Nicholas Poor law papers that was published on CD by Berks FHS,  it seems that she was asked for details of the children -

dated Nov 1 1816

Elizabeth Chiney of Elmore? street Tiverton to Mr William Belcher
dau Elizabeth just over 16 years
twin boys who will be 11 years next April
James aged 9 next May
John in his 10th year
and a boy in his 3rd year
She confirms that all her children are by her husband and she has no other children than those by her husband.

I wondered if you had the information about Bedlam - I didn't want to just drop it on you if not.

Looking at information about the hospital it seems they do have a good archives department - I wonder if they have any other information about Thomas's family.  Interesting that Elizabeth's sister was in a position to check,  so presumably in London

DebbieG

[Fire Fox]

Yes that is the same letter. I will have to double (triple) check the copies we have but from memory the part about "them four I had when I was home" is unclear and I initially read it as her birthing a child when home. Thanks for looking and for being so kind about the Bedlam reference, I like interesting ancestors but not everyone feels the same! I hope that Elizabeth senior was exaggerating her circumstances and that she had a little more family support than she was letting on.

Thankfully her second letter mentions "Then I have to add concerning my boys there is a factory setting on and it is going on with lace and silk so that the children must appear clean and decent and the gentlemen have promised to employ my two children if I could get some clothes for them ..." And history does indeed show the twins became lace makers.