That moment when you see the signature of your 6xGreat Grandfather from 231 years ago...
The Princess, The Conqueror & The Viking
It is often a dream to trace a family back to 1066. And, this is what happened during my research for a client as a Christmas present for his wife. On Christmas Day, she was astonished to read about her family links to William the Conqueror, a Saxon Princess and even a Viking leader. My client has permitted me to describe some details of my extraordinary discoveries.
I started, as usual, with an examination of census returns and parish records. Soon I found that this particular Cushion family had an established bloodline in the County of Norfolk down the centuries. The resources, held in local archives, revealed that various academic investigations had taken place into the history of this family, including surviving subsidy rolls and manuscripts. As the days passed, a remarkable paper trail opened up for me. I linked her Cushion/Cussyn line with a Ralf le Cusyn de Limisi, a descendant of Ralph de Limisi, Baron of Oxenburg in Norfolk (c.1040-1093), nephew of William the Conqueror. Baron Ralph of Oxenburg had accompanied William to England during the Norman Invasion and was given lands in ten English counties, including Norfolk.
So, I established that William the Conqueror, son of Robert I of Normandy and 3x grandson of the Viking chieftain Rollo, was also the son of the 26x great-grandmother of my client’s wife. Amazingly enough, legend states that Baron Ralph of Oxenburg married Princess Cristina, sister of Prince Edgar, an Anglo Saxon Prince.
Of course, my client's wife cant move into Buckingham Palace yet. A surprisingly high number of people probably have a royal ancestor or two. The main problem lies with finding a gateway ancestor and the survival of records. Do you perhaps have roots with royalty?
A Journey in the Time Machine
Has a movie ever influenced you? One of my favourite films is The Time Machine, made in the 1960s starring Rod Taylor. After watching it on our black and white telly as a child, I was awestruck by the concept of travelling forwards or back through time. I rushed out to my library and read the original book. I have always loved history. Having the ability to visit a period long ago has always been a dream.
MRS. WATCHETT: Mr Filby, do you think he will
ever return?
FILBY (quietly): One cannot choose but wonder. -
You see, he has all the time in
the world.
We haven't the scientific ability that the author H.G. Wells imagined in 1895. But, about 30 years ago, I discovered the next best thing after a long day trudging around a shopping mall in Essex. I espied a small paperback on the shelf of a tiny book shop, explaining how to research family history. It was what you would probably call an epiphany.
Many trips to London followed. I began researching census returns, ancient parish records and buying certificates. (This was before many archives were available online). Weekend visits to relatives now included me carrying a notebook, leading to my daughter Rebecca groaning, "dad's talking about dead people again!"
I became hooked and eventually completed a University course.
Five years ago I started my very successful genealogy business. Now I invite my clients to climb into my time machine, meet generations of their ancestors, see where they lived, worked and worshipped and learn their individual stories.
The Font in St. Leonard's Shoreditch
I will never know if John Wait senior and his family celebrated Christmas. They might have eaten rabbit if they were lucky and drunk gin and beer, which was easier to obtain than fresh drinking water. Although he was a carpenter by trade, life was incredibly hard.
Four generations of this Wait family lived within the sound of St. Leonards bells; many were baptised and married there. So its font is a link to my past. It stands immediately to the left as you enter St. Leonard’s - symbolic of baptism being the beginning of your life within the church. In 1740 a Mary Drought gave £20 towards constructing this font, made of white marble with a circular basin supported on a hexagonal baluster. My spine tingles when I imagine the many geneartions of my ancestors gathered around that ornate font.
Recently my son and I explored Shoreditch. We wanted to re-trace the footsteps of our ancestors along some of those old narrow streets. I encourage clients to do this after they have received my research. Visiting where your forefathers worked, prayed and called home can be a fascinating experience!
A Visit to Shoreditch
My son Steve and I travelled back 278 years and visited Shoreditch in the East End of London in August to see where our ancestors had lived. In New Inn Street, my 6xGreat Grandfather, David Wait (1738-1793), worked as a carpenter. The experience of standing where your ancestors had lived and worked was unforgettable. I recommend it!! We even supped ale in The Old Blue Last, his local pub. The beautiful St Leonard's Church, where generations of our ancestors were baptised, married and buried, was unfortunately closed but still breathtaking to see.
Preston Hall, Aylesford
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| Preston Hall c.1719 |
As a child, I used to stare up at the towers and turrets of Preston Hall and re-imagine the stories of its ghosts, hidden tunnels and headless horseman. I vaguely remember going to a Christmas party at the Hall for children of the British Legion Village. As we approached its heavy oak doors, down the grand drive, it seemed two carved lions were watching us from their stone plinths.
One evening my father brought home a print of the old Preston Hall. I was amazed that this beautiful manor house with its sprawling grounds (above) had once existed nearby. Now, for my benefit, I have briefly opened the door on the often-overlooked story of the Hall and glimpsed episodes of Tudor intrigue, Elizabethan plots, executions and even hidden staircases!
The Domesday Book mentions Preston Manor, and later documents show it sold to the monks of St. Andrew in Rochester. Succeeding generations of the Culpeper family from Bayhall Manor in Pembury then developed the estate as a farming concern. Many of them were called Thomas!
A Thomas Culpeper was a courtier during the reign of Edward I and later became Sheriff of Kent. But, his son Walter switched sides during the rebellion against Edward II. Together with his three brothers, he took part in the Battle of Boroughbridge. Later that year, Walter refused Isabella, wife of King Edward, entry into Leeds Castle in Kent. The furious Edward then besieged the castle and 'took Captaine Colepeper and hung him up.'
Later generations of the Culpeper family who inherited Preston Hall became Justices of the Peace and Sheriffs of the County. When Sir William Culpeper died in about 1457, his son Sir Richard (1429-1484) inherited the estate. He had at least three children. His daughter Joyce (Jocasta) married Sir Edmund Howard in about 1510. They had two sons and three daughters, one of their daughters, Catherine, would become embroiled in court intrigue.
Her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, found Catherine a place in the household of Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Ann of Cleves. Soon she caught the eye of the 48-year-old king. Henry quickly had his marriage to Ann annulled, making Catherine his new queen.
Henry described Catherine Howard as ‘a rose without thorns,’ but his opinion quickly changed when he learned of her alleged affairs, including one with her sixth cousin Thomas Culpeper (11514-1541).
Catherine was imprisoned in the Tower of London, charged with treason, and beheaded on February 13th 1542. A year earlier, the execution of Thomas Culpeper occurred at Tyburn. Like many traitors, they displayed his severed head on London Bridge.
The story of Preston Hall as the setting of Catherine and Thomas's love nest and the legend of their meeting by a secret staircase featured in The Tudors TV drama shown in 2007-10.
Later another Thomas Culpeper became mired in political intrigue. We know that Thomas Culpepper (1517-1587) was born in Preston Hall. In 1554 he met secretly with Thomas Wyatt the Younger and others at nearby Allington Castle to plot against Queen Mary and put her sister Elizabeth on the throne. But, the rebellion failed, Culpeper and the other ringleaders were incarcerated in the Tower of London. One of the prisoners with Culpeper was a certain Thomas Vane, husband of Elizabeth Culpeper.
An inscription on the stonewall of their cell in the Tower reads:
“ Be thou faithful to the end and I will give you a crown of eternal life – 1554, T Fane, T. Culpeper, of Ailsford, Kent.'
Culpeper and Fane were later pardoned, unlike other rebels. Documents in 1561 show Thomas Culpeper as a new purveyor of Rochester Bridge. Five years later, his daughter Anna Culpeper married Sir Henry Crisp of Thanet. In Aylesford church, between the two pillars of the chancel, a commemorative brass plate records Crisp's internment in 1594.
Although Preston Hall Manor stood just over the river from Aylesford, the ancient church of St. Peter and St. Paul only lists the Culpeper’s in the late 16th Century. Earlier family records exist in their other residences like East Farleigh and West Peckham. But, Aylesford does contain what has been declared one of the best rectangular tomb chests in Kent, erected in memory of Sir Thomas Culpeper (c.1549-1604) by his wife Dame Marie (Maria).
Originally from Old Soar Plaxtol, this Thomas Culpeper inherited the ‘royal manor of Aylesford;’ in 1604 from James I and became a knight of the realm. He married Marie Pynner in about 1587; they had six children.
The last of the Culpeper family to live in Aylesford was Alicia, who inherited the estate from her brother in 1723. She was widowed four times and sadly survived all of her children. She spent her later lonely years at Preston Hall where she died in April 1734 and interred in the north chancel of Aylesford Church.
Preston Hall then passed to the Milner family through Alicia’s last marriage. By this time, the former Elizabethan manor, described as a ‘plain white stucco square building of an elegant appearance crowned with tall brick chimneys', stood on the west of a beautiful avenue of cedars that stretched from Aylesford bridge across timbered parkland to Barming.
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| Preston Hall, Aylesford c.1850 |
In 1848 the ‘palatial residence’ was purchased by Edward Ladd Betts (1815-1872), a prominent civil engineer who had made his fortune building parts of the British, Canadian and Russian railways. Prince Albert’s favourite architect, John E. Thomas, was then commissioned by Betts to design and construct Preston Hall Manor House in the Jacobean style. After selecting a new site, it was re-built with a grand stone facade, large bay windows, high and magnificent ceilings and rich wood-panelled walls. Outside were installed ornate fountains, an orangery and decorated stables with a carriage driveway through elegant gardens complete with sculptures.
Edward Ladd Betts enjoyed extravagant parties - to bring guests to his new estate, he extended a local railway branch line into Victoria London. He constructed a new railway station called Preston Hall - later re-named Barming because the family disliked the association with a railway station.
During the banking crisis of 1866, Betts had to declare himself bankrupt. Six years later, he died in Aswan, Egypt. His family arranged for his body to be brought back to Aylesford and buried in the parish church.
Preston Hall now became the property of another railway tycoon, Thomas Brassey, who passed the estate on to his son Henry Arthur. The Brassey family became great benefactors of their local community; Henry was named, The Good Squire of Aylesford by locals. Sports days and Sunday school parties were held at the Hall in the summer when the Brassey family presented oranges, boots for the boys and items of clothing for the girls.
After the death of his mother Anna in 1891, the second son, Henry Leonard Campbell Brassey (1870-1958), inherited the estate. He married Lady Violet Mary Gordon-Lennox in 1894. Unfortunately, his new wife detested Preston Hall, describing it as 'a workhouse only fit for commoners'. So to please Lady Violet, he sold off 4000 acres of the Preston Estates and moved to Apethorpe Hall, Northamptonshire.
Robert Horner of Spitalfields bought the estate in 1906 - a year after the Sauber family were in residence.
During WWI Preston Hall was requisitioned by the War Office, in 1919 they established a scheme to use the remaining estate as a training centre for recovering soldiers from tuberculosis. It was known as the Preston Hall Colony and later evolved into The British Legion. In about 1955 my father, a veteran of WWII, recovering from tuberculosis, convalesced there. He eventually rented a house in The Crescent in the British Legion Village and worked for the British Legion Press.
London in 1839
I have many ancestral connections to London. So I find this earliest photograph of the city particularly fascinating. It was taken by Monsieur de St. Croix in 1839, during his first public demonstration of the photographic process. This image was formed on a copper plate coated with silver, without the use of a negative. The process, known as a daguerreotype, resulted in the earliest snapshots in existence.
This remarkable picture shows Parliament Street from Trafalgar Square with the statue of Charles I in the foreground. Look carefully and you can see ghostlike traces of the people who stayed and watched long enough to register in the exposure. The two sat at the foot of the statue and the man sitting in the hackney carriage may be the first Londoners ever photographed.
Ann Wheatley (1766-1840)
Isn't this document beautifully written (above). Not all parish registers are this easy to read. It records my 5xgreat grandmother Ann Wheatley’s (1766-1840) baptism in the church of St. Giles-without-Cripplegate, Middlesex. She was born on the 7th March 1766, the daughter of James and Penelope Wheatley.
James Wheatley is described as a wire drawer. This old occupation involved making wire by extracting metal through various size holes in a template. Documents show the Wheatley family living in Holywell Lane, Shoreditch.
South of Holywell Lane is New Inn Street were a warren of skilled craftsmen was beginning to thrive. Several generations of the Wait family worked here as carpenters and paid their rent to Lord Bateman. And it was probably along this cramped narrow street, amidst the sawdust and stacks of timber that James’s daughter Ann met up with her future husband, John Wait (1765-1831).
Just over a mile away from St. Giles, along Whitecross Street and its old market stands St. Luke’s Church. As the population continued to increase in the area, St. Luke’s was built to relieve some of the pressure on St. Giles. And it was in St Lukes, on St. Valentine’s Day 1790, just a year after the start of the French Revolution, that Ann Wheatley married my 5xgreat grandfather John Wait. Exactly a year later, on 14th February 1791, Ann gave birth to their first child- a boy. This date meant a lot to the couple and they had their son baptised William Valentine Wait at Holywell Mount Chapel, near Curtain Road.
I have written several articles about William. My research showed that he became a successful barrister's clerk and lodged in Sandwich Street in Marylebone. He left a very detailed Will that revealed much of his lifestyle. His funeral took place in Highgate Cemetery on the 7th of February 1857.
Meanwhile, Ann went on to have three more children, Sophia Wait (1792-1795), Ann Wait (1795-1867) and my 4x Grandfather, John Wait (1797-1868). She passed away during the severe winter of 1840 and the burial register shows that Anne’s body was brought from Grays Inn Road, along Old Street and passed St. Luke’s into Bunhill Fields Cemetery where she was buried on January 3rd 1841.
The opening of my Primary School
This newspaper cutting from The Gazette on May 7th 1963, was carefully kept in a drawer by my Nan in London. It shows the pupils of Aylesford County Primary School during its opening ceremony. I am sat in the front (with an x over my head). I still have those National Health glasses!
I have fond memories of this school in Teapot Lane. Every morning our Head Mistress, Miss E H Smiles held an assembly in that hall, which also doubled up as the school canteen. Huge hymn sheets would hang down from its ceiling and with the residual odour of school dinners wafting under our noses we would sing hymns like, 'All things bright and beautiful...'
As a gift to their headmistress, parents and children of the school collected a huge amount of milk tops - raising enough money to get Miss Smiles a beagle puppy. The pupils voted to name the dog Penny.
Because this fund-raiser proved so successful the next project was even more challenging - an outside swimming pool. This was eventually constructed together with a pair of heavily creosoted wooden changing rooms. Of course, the boys soon began drilling peepholes with sharp implements through its dividing wall.
One morning I stood on the side of that bright blue pool, beat my chest, did a Tarzan call and dived in. But unlike the Lord of the Jungle, I landed unceremoniously on my head. After swallowing what seemed like gallons of chlorinated water, I thrashed my arms about and scrambled back up to daylight. As I stood knee-deep, my ears popped and buzzed. Shaking and coughing I opened my stinging eyes and noticed several dead flies, wasps and a soggy brown carpet of leaves float past. This experience put me off swimming for life.
Adjacent to our primary school in Teapot Lane stood a small corner shop. Every weekday, heaving queues of children would wave their pocket money under the nose of the agitated shopkeeper. Sometimes they wanted a bag of marbles, but often it was for Bazooka Joe chewing gum, Spangles or packets of sweet cigarettes.
In the playground girls would skip, jump and sing, while the boys would hold British Bulldog competitions or chant 'Join Up For War!' Flying footballs would ricochet off high fencing behind groups of boys clutching handfuls of conkers, marbles and bubblegum cards.
A few teachers of that school still remain in my memory. Mrs Corbett, Mrs Seymour, Miss Hardy and Mr Dyson. But it was Mr Mellor's lessons in one of the mobile wooden classrooms that stand out. Looking back now he seemed way ahead of his time. His wonderful storytelling was enhanced by his wife's beautiful illustrations. One week, just before our summer holidays, our class made a short ghost movie. Every pupil appeared in the film and operated the 8mm cine camera. Mr Mellor even showed us all how to create special effects. One technique was filming through the ripples of heat given off by the classroom's old oil heater. This gave the scene a dream-like quality. If that film still exists, I would love to see it again.
In 1966 there was much excitement at school when the opening sequence of the movie 'Half A Sixpence' was filmed in Aylesford Village. Aerials were taken off the roofs of many of the old houses near the church and many children took the day off school to watch Tommy Steele dancing over Aylesford Bridge.
As reported in the Kent Messenger, Mr Mellor bravely took 27 of our class on a week-long field study trip to Doddington Youth Hostel in April 1968. This was the first time it had been done and was successful - although I was very homesick. During the trip some of the girls played a netball match, we went to a waterworks, visited a church and explored the beautiful countryside. Mr Mellor was a fantastic teacher.
The newspaper article about the oppening has:
“Aylesford County Primary School completed nearly six years ago, was officially opened by the Dean of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. R. William Stannard, at a dedication service in the school’s assembly hall on Thursday.
The school although in use for nearly six years has never been officially opened or dedicated. the ceremony was held over until a new wing, comprising three classrooms, was completed the last term.
Costing more than £64,000 to build, the school designed by Maidstone architect Mr Dennis Darbison will accommodate about 400 pupils.
In his opening address, the Dean spoke of the importance of “bringing God into the lives of all those who pass through the school. The dedication of this school is not just a ceremony,” he said.
“It is something you will remember all your lives; when you are older, you will be proud to come back and say, ‘this is my old school.’
‘It is a fine and important thing that you think is right and necessary to have your school dedicated in the name of God.
“We have offered this school to God and asked Him to help it and to guide its progress through the years,” the Dean said.
Guests present at the ceremony included Miss M Maplesden Noakes, vice-chairman of the Kent Education Committee, who proposed a vote of thanks to the Dean, Alderman W.G. Sherman, chairman of the Maidstone Divisional Executive for Education, Canon H. J. Powell, Vicar of Aylesford, Mr G. T. Heckels, Clerk to Kent County Council, and Councilor John Evans, Mayor-elect of Maidstone.
Guests were welcomed by the chairman of the school managers, Mr A. A. Howick, who presided at the opening ceremony”.
A Review of Dad's Burma War
Yesterday I received this fantastic review of my book from Mary Cole, a moderator on the WW2 Burma Research Site:
"Well, Tony Wait, I have finally managed to finish reading your father's story in between gardening tasks and helping others with research.
You have every right to be proud of your father (4 Field Reg & 4 RWK’s) and your achievement in writing his story.
The level of detail is fantastic and I certainly recognise many of place names where your father and mine may well have come into contact.
The descriptions of happy times, Xmas dinner and rum rations are juxtaposed against the terrible conditions in which they found themselves and the constant need to keep morale high during the dreadful monsoon of 44 as well as detailed descriptions of their experiences in the Pegu Yomas, even after the war ended, really brought it home that war doesn’t end with a click of a finger.
I would also like to thank you for the acknowledgement at the back of the book. There really was no need, it was a privilege to help in a small way and an absolute privilege to read this memoir".
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