William 1787

William MARGRETT

Ancestral line as currently established:       William 1787,                                                                                                                                                                                  William 1760,   ?..............Family Tree number 2

Born:                          about 1787 in Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, England

Baptised:                  14 October 1787 in Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, England

            first of five children of:-

Father:                     William Margrett

Mother:                    Ann(e) Dodwell

William Married:   21 April 1818 at Tewksbury, Gloucestershire, England

Spouse:                    Esther Davis

Children:                 Henry        1819

                                  William     1823

                                  Mary Ann  1825

                                 (H)anna(h) Maria   1828

Died:                       27 September 1854 at Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, England,  aged 67

William Margrett, son of William Margrett, who had a son called William Margrett could be described as one of those men who were in their time the backbone of society in England.  His family line deserves more time than has yet been given researching it so far. Paradoxically, the most interesting aspect that we have discovered of his life is how he had arranged the division of his estate to take place after he died. His Last Will and Testament describes him as a Yeoman which the dictionary says is "a man owning and farming a small estate; middle class farmer or countryman."

Nevertheless, we know a great deal about him if not about his ancestors. He was a basket maker and a son of a basket maker in a village called Deerhurst which is beside the River Severn, south of Tewksbury and north of Gloucester.  The guide to the Priory Church and Saxon Chapel of Deerhurst says Deerhurst was an "important place, with the chief monastery of Hwicce, a kingdom of the lower Severn, and doubtless (had) many churches. It was the scene of the treaty between Canute and Edmund Ironside, re-dividing England between Saxon and Dane." The earliest parts of the church there date from the AD 600's.

Apart from his baptism, from the parish registers in October 1787, the International Genealogical Index records his marriage to Esther Davis in Tewksbury on the 21 of April 1818. This marriage also is listed in the Gloucester Marriage Licences register, so the wedding date was not after Banns were read in the Parish Church for three previous Sundays, and they must have had to submit a reason for applying for a licence.

But our first 'picture' of William is from the 1841 Census which, apart from listing their village and occupation gives little else. He is by then aged about 54; he and his son, 18, are both basket-makers.   

The next Census, which was on Sunday 30 March 1851, shows William and his family living at Apperley, which is the next-door hamlet of Deerhurst, just to the south. He is aged 62 and still active in basket making, even employing one man. Still at home is one of his two daughters, Mary, aged 25, who is earning for the family as a dress maker. But Mary will not remain a spinster and was married 13 January 1853 to Josiah Jones a locally-born man. Elsewhere in the parish is William's eldest son, Henry who had married 12 years before but lost his wife in 1846 and he has been a widower for 5 years.  The daughter he had been blessed with before his wife died, is called Rosa Lucy. She is living in the household of this census-time with her grandparents, William and Esther. She may have just been visiting for what is called today 'a sleepover' or else she may have lived with her grandparents permanently. In any case, Henry himself is living elsewhere in the parish with his sister Hannah who is unmarried aged 22 in 1851 and acting as his housekeeper.

Then sadly, on 27 September 1854, aged just  67, William died of Typhus. He was buried just six days later on 3 rd October in Deerhurst churchyard.  His Will is hand-written and was executed by William with a shaky signature just nine days before he died. Perhaps his death was because of a condition just diagnosed allowing William put his affairs in order, just in time.

There is no question that William's Will is complicated, or at least complex with many assets revealed as parts of the estate.   His two sons have the difficult task of being Executors.  They are also beneficiaries with their Mother who the Will directs to be provided for in her widowhood. 

She is 70 years old and the Will directs that Esther is to be paid £24.0/0d (twenty-four pounds) per annum, (worth about £2,721 in 2020)  but to be paid half-yearly, as a result of a sufficient sum invested to purchase an Annuity for her lifetime. That income, decided on just nine days before he died in 1854. Not a lot. Moreover, Esther (and obviously William at the moment he died) had been living in a property called 'The Home Patch' in Apperley with their daughter, Hannah. (The 'Home Patch' also has an acre and a quarter of land, and is bequeathed to Henry the eldest son.) But now  Esther is to be given life occupancy of another property which is currently occupied by a tenant near to another house owned by William in Deerhurst.  The tenant is William Andrews, who presumably will receive notice to quit by Hannah to whom the property is left but with the requirement that Esther can live out her days there. So much for Esther.

Eldest son Henry, a widower as mentioned and aged 35, appointed one of the two Executors, is left the ownership of a house and garden in Apperley, occupied at the time by a tenant called John Palmer.  In addition, Henry receives the ownership of another house and garden in Apperley this time occupied by another tenant called Joseph Reeves.  Lastly, as said before, Henry is to have the house with land attached called 'The Home Patch' from which his mother must be moved.

William's other son, after Henry the eldest, is William who is at this time aged 31. He is married having had six children so far. (Of significance, see below, is the fact that next year another child will be born to him and his wife, Hannah, and then another four making eleven before wife Hannah died in 1864.  Then he married again in 1866 and was given another three children. It is every child born before this year of 1854 that will benefit, and not any of the eight children born afterwards.) His father has left him a house in Deerhurst which has nearly one acre of land attached to it. He and his family live there at the moment, so there is no disruption caused by his father's death.  He is also left 'The Upper Patch' which is a vital part of their business of basket making.  It is a plot of one acre of perch bed.

William's daughter Mary Ann, younger than her brother William above, and older than her sister Hannah, is already married. Only 18 months before her father's death she had married Josiah Jones, a coal dealer. She is expecting her first child which William will never see. He left her two properties; a house and garden in Norton, a hamlet nearby, which is occupied by a tenant called Henry Preston. She is also left a house and garden in Apperley which has a tenant called Thomas Andrews. An interesting clause in the Will specifies that the property in the legacy are to be "for her sole and separate use" and "independent of her husband".  This is because the Married Woman's Property Act does not yet exist and her father, William, does not want her husband to take legal possession of this gift.

William's youngest child, Hannah Maria is unmarried and aged 26, and as mentioned above, has been living with her parents at the 'Home Patch'. Her father's Will expects a duty of care from her for her mother, because it leaves a cottage near to the house in Deerhurst currently occupied by a tenant William Andrews on condition that her mother may live in it for her lifetime, and also that she makes a payment of £80.0/0d (eighty pounds) (worth about £9,070 in 2020). to his Executors for W Stanley of Gloucester to whom her father is indebted. As well as this bequest, Hannah is left a cottage near to the house in Deerhurst currently occupied by a tenant called John Vernon, and a house with garden and orchard in Deerhurst which is currently occupied by her eldest brother, Henry.

All this estate management falls, obviously suddenly, on the shoulders of the two sons aged 35 and 31.  And then, just a month after the death of their father, Hannah Maria, aged 26 makes her Will on 18th October, and dies on the 23rd. Henry and William  have been made her Executors and must divide her estate so newly inherited from her father, in trust for her seven nieces.  Her seven nieces include Rosa Lucy who is the daughter of Henry, her eldest brother.  The other six are the children of William and Hannah, as detailed above. The problem is that none of William's later eight children are entitled to a share of the estate of Hannah Maria. 

This estate tangle was detailed in the Margrett Magazine number 23 in 2009, but other aspects were published in Number 7 in 1992, and Number 20 in 2007; a copy of the Magazine each year under ISSN 0269-0284 was lodged with the British Library, the Gloucestershire County Archives and the Guild of One-Name Studies. 

An article encompassing "The Distress of a double death in Deerhurst" has been lodged with the editor of the GOON's Journal for possible inclusion in a future edition - April 2024.