George MARGRETT
Ancestral line as currently established: George 1829, John 1796, John 1771, Thomas 1732, Thomas 1711, Thomas 1682, Thomas 1658, ?................Family Tree number 18
Born: about 1829 in Elmstone Hardwick, Gloucestershire, Engalnd
Eighth of eight children of
Father: John about 1796
Mother: Charlotte Mansell about 1798
George married: 13DEC1854 in Leigh, Gloucestershire, England
Georges Spouse: Maria Davis born about 1835
George's eight Children: Amelia Ann 1855
Charles 1857
Mary Ann 1859
Henry 1862
George 1865
Alfred 1867
? William 1873
? Alice Harriet 1878
Died: 28FEB1889 in Leigh, Gloucestershire, England aged 59
George was the seventh of eight children. His parents 5th child, born March 1825 and who died in October 1826 was called George before him. The whole of his parents life was in one village, Elmstone Hardwick, Gloucestershire, just like Georges was for most of his life in the village of Leigh, Gloucestershire.
But Family History can be full of mysteries. We do not have any “snapshots” of George at an early age because the first easy source of information in this country available about any persons family circumstances comes from a Census return. And the first Census of any use is in 1841 when George was eleven years old. And the 1841 Census shows us that George is the only child at home with his mother Charlotte, aged 45. We have to remember that in 1841, the census recorded adults ages to the nearest 5 years. So, Charlotte might be only 43 or as old as 47.
The Census records that she is an agricultural labourer. She is working on a farm, and her husband is not at home. Her husband would be only 35 at that time and surely it would be unusual for him to be working away from his own village in those days when he has a wife and possibly a child to support. All Georges six elder siblings are of an age to have left home, so that makes sense. But George himself has no occupation recorded. Perhaps also he is unlikely to be at school at the age of 11 in 1841, and might well be doing some menial task to earn something for the family budget. So, this is our first mystery.
Ten years later, aged 21, George is living in a farm house at Lower Ley, near Westbury on Severn, Gloucestershire some 17 miles (27 kilometres) from “home” at Elmstone Hardwick. He is in the employment of George Browning who is a 60-year-old farmer “owning some 120 acres and employing two labourers”. George is described as a 'farm servant' along with three others. Since the census records the employment of 'two labourers' perhaps two of these four work on the farm and the other two work as domestic servants in the farmhouse?
His employer is unmarried; so also are his employer's brother and sister living in the farmhouse. Predictably the sister aged 54 is the housekeeper. This is no small enterprise in Lower Ley, near Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire. But a farmhouse with three middle-aged unmarried people perhaps joint owners of the 120 acres might not be a place of weekend parties!
After all that, our real story of George is of his married life. He married on the 13th December 1854 (no superstition there then) in the village which he occupied for the rest of his life, called Leigh, Gloucestershire. He was 25 years old and he was six years older than Maria, who was therefore unable to get married without parental permission, being under 21.
Marry they did, and within a short time their first child, Amelia Ann, was born. Sadly, she died in June 1858 aged just three. Their second child had arrived the year before that tragedy and they had called him Charles. Children were born regularly; Mary Ann in 1859, Henry in 1862, George in 1865, then Alfred in 1867. Six children so far.
But, six years later another child is born in Leigh that seems to have the same parents. Why the gap? Then once more, on 10th September 1878 Alice Harriet is born in Leigh and seems to have the same parents. That makes eight children and how old is their mother? If George and Maria are the parents they would be 49 and 43 respectively in 1878. Is that reasonable? Not reasonable is that little William died two years old in 1875 and, worse still, Alice died four days after her birth.
So much sadness, so much trouble. But that's not the whole story in the village of Leigh.
Child number 2, Charles 1857 married in 1878 aged 21, perhaps with his father George aged 49 in a nearby pew. But Charles died young aged 54.
Child number 3, Mary Ann does not seem to have married and may have lived to the ripe old age of 83.
Child number 4, Henry, like all the others born in Leigh in 1862, and after marrying aged 24 lived to 87, whilst child number 6, Alfred got married at the late age of 35 and lived to the age of 79 with his last 31 years as a widower.
Among all these family sad and joyful events our George saw all his children born, Charles and Henry marry, and his first and probable last two children die. What did all this do to his longevity? He died aged 60 in Leigh on the very last day of February in 1889 leaving Maria a widow for 13 years. We have all his circumstances recorded in 5 Census returns with the last in 1881, eight years before he died. George worked all his life on farms.
George appeared in Margrett Magazine No:20 published and deposited with the British Library in 2007 under I.S.S.N 0269-0284.