John 1850

John MARGRETT

Ancestral line as currently established:   John 1850,  Thomas 1815,   John 1771,   Thomas 1732,                                                  Thomas 1711,   Thomas 1682,  Thomas 1658,   ?................Family Tree number 18

Born:               1850, in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England

          First of five children of -

Father:            Thomas Phillips

Mother:           Peninnah (maiden name not yet discovered)

John Married: 13OCT1887 at Sudeley Parish Church, Gloucestershire, England

Spouse:            Frances Reeks, born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England

Children:         John William 1889

                          Elizabeth,     1891

Died:                30JAN1892 in Greet, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England

John Margrett looks like he had a tough life. What life he had was cut short by an unfortunate accident. His father was 34 by the time he was married and John was his first child. Likewise John was 37 by the time he married. Working on the land with his father, it all reads that life was very tough with little time for socialising or courting young ladies.

For some reason the first sight we have of John is in the 1861 census when he was aged 11.  Naturally he is living with his father, Thomas, aged 46 and who is working 90 acres. (Ten years earlier the family had only been managing 50 acres, so his father had expanded their resources.) At the age of 11, John already had three younger sisters and seen a baby brother born and die less then a year old.

We have not yet traced John aged 21 in the next census of 1871, but in 1881 he remains at home aged 30 and unmarried. He plainly still works for his father who will be relying more on him as his father is at an age, 66, which today would expect retirement. In 1881 his youngest sister, Sarah also remains at home aged 24.

Six years later, on a Thursday, 13th October 1887, John marries Frances Reeks at the Parish Church of Sudeley.  She is the daughter of William Reeks, a plumber, and has not at the age of 31 been married before.  The marriage is witnessed by a Richard Buckett and a Mary Powell, neither of which seem related to him. His sister Elizabeth, two years younger than John, had been married some 14 years by now.

We get a snapshot of John in his married situation in the census of 1891.  He is recorded as living at Gretton Road, Sudeley tenements, Winchcombe, which is obviously near his parents of a similar address, but he is not shown as in the same household. This makes sense because John is shown with Frances his wife, and two children already. They are John William aged 2 and a child under one month who they have not yet named.  She will become Elizabeth likely named after his sister.  Also in the house is a nurse aged 37 who is a widow called Mary Fry.

Then comes the tragedy. We have a press report due to the work of living descendants from something called Edward Adlard's Album. The press report reads -

"On Monday afternoon last a sad accident happened at Greet to Mr John Margrett, farmer, only son of Thomas Margrett, a veteran farmer who is much respected in the village and district."

"Mr John Margrett had been out shooting and on returning was in the act of setting down the loaded gun near his father's back door, when the pin holding the barrel to the stock fell out, and the barrel in falling discharged, and the shot entered the calf of Mr Margrett's leg, blowing it about in a frightful manner."

"In the temporary absence of a medical man, Sgt. Major Healey, R.E. of the Winchombe Ambulance Corps, kindly went over to Greet and bound up the sufferer's wound, and directly afterwards he was attended by Dr Cox. The injuries, however, were of such a character that it was found necessary to amputate the wounded leg below the knee, and on Tuesday this operation was unsuccessfully performed by Dr Cox and his assistant, Mr Nicholas, and Mr Devereux, of Tewksbury."

"Mr Margrett, who was only just recovering from a severe attack of influenza, is we are sorry to hear, lying in a dangerous condition and much sympathy is expressed for him and his relatives in the new trouble that has befallen them. The gun was a double-barrelled muzzle loader, and one of the barrels had been previously discharged."

John's actual death at home in Greet came three weeks later on 30 January 1892.  At the age of 42 he left behind his father aged 77 and the farm, and his wife and two children.

In the churchyard of Winchcombe is a tombstone which reads 

 "IN LOVING MEMORY OF SARAH MARGRETT OF GREET WHO DIED 2nd JUNE 1858 AGED 47 YEARS"

also on the tombstone in Winchcombe churchyard is recorded James, son of Thomas and Penninah Margrett of Greet who died in infancy 27th Jan 1859, and John son of the above Thomas and Penninah who died 30th Jan. 1892 aged 41 years. the two others are nephews of Sarah born 1821 died 1858. 

None of the life of John appears to have been published previously before the above record was created. 

None of the Margrett Magazines from 1986 to 2012 included any of his experiences and therefore those experiences were not previously recorded in the public domain through the magazines deposited at the British Library under the I.S.S.N. 0269-0284 in those years.