{"id":111,"date":"2015-04-15T21:48:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T21:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucemore.ca\/west\/?page_id=111"},"modified":"2016-04-14T17:55:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T17:55:40","slug":"earlier-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brucemore.ca\/west\/earlier-ancestors\/","title":{"rendered":"Earlier Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"
Click on red highlighted text for additional\u00a0information<\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n
\"whitehorse\"<\/a>
The white horse of Uffington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Strouds, Thatchers, Bearfields and Keates<\/a> \u2013 two of these recently discovered maternal families can be traced back into the 1500s.\u00a0 The earliest West records come from the mid 1700s. Tracing \u201cWest\u201d ancestry earlier than Daniel becomes increasingly difficult, since in Medieval times family names were not used among the common people (yes, we are \u201ccommoners\u201d), and when such names evolved from the 16th century onward, they were frequently place names: Newton of Letcombe, Aldworth (from the village of Aldworth), West, (from the West country) and so on.\u00a0 I noted with amusement the names of the co-authors of the Blewbury town history: Peter East and Roy Northeast.\u00a0 It is interesting to note that although we were commoners, we were an independent lot (the official term is \u201cnon=conformist\u201d) from a religious standpoint, more likely to attend a Strict Baptist Chapel or a United Reformed Church, than a Church of England.<\/p>\n

THE FIRST GENERATION<\/b><\/h4>\n

Daniel (b. 1759<\/strong>) & Mary West:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the parish records of East Hagbourne, there is an entry under baptisms in the year 1789: \u201cJames, son of Daniel and Mary\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Thatchers:\u00a0 John Thatcher<\/strong> came to Sparsholt from Letcombe Regis in the mid-sixteenth century and the family seems to have flourished there until the mid 18th century.\u00a0 At that time George\u2019s daughter Jane (b. 1746) met & married William Westall (b.1752) and their\u00a0 grand-daughter Jane (b.1815) later married Daniel (b.1813).<\/p>\n

The Aldworths<\/b>:\u00a0a family of builders, likely came from the town of Aldworth in the 16th century.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At that time, the parish records of Wantage (Wantyng) begin to \u201cswell\u201d with the ranks of Aldworths.\u00a0 There are records of 10 wills of a family of Aldworths (tanners) at Priors Hold (near East Hanney) between 1500 & 1700.\u00a0 (See Aldworth Village, Wantage Parish Church and Childrey Holloway in Part III). Another family story is that the Aldworths were originally from, or had relatives, in Ireland.\u00a0 Mary Irish remembers a story of \u201cGrandma\u201d Sarah going to visit \u201ctitled\u201d relatives there and Edna remembers Grandma Emma saying that mother-in-law Sarah was always aware of her connection to Irish nobility.\u00a0I have recently found, in the British Peerage, a string of Richard Aldworths between 1629 and\u00a0 1899 in County Cork, Ireland, there being no other concentrations of that family name in Ireland.\u00a0Philip Hope remembers an Aldworth family story which tells of ancestors coming over with William the Conqueror in 1066.<\/p>\n

William Smith<\/b>,\u00a0Jane Westell\u2019s (b.1815) grandfather, lived at Garlands Farm.\u00a0\u00a0 A family story has his initials carved on a table there.\u00a0 (This is from a family anecdote \u2013 I have not included him on the chart, since I can find no records.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Garlands farm was later settled by Daniel West (b. 1856) and is now the home of Peter & Joe West.\u00a0 William had a cousin Percy Smith who \u201cby his will\u20261884 bequested 5,000 pounds for the establishment and maintenance of a cottage hospital for Wantage and neighbourhood, including particularly East Hanney and Letcombe Basset.\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 There is reportedly a plaque in the hospital commemorating these gifts.\u00a0 Photo above: The Wests at Venn Mill \u2013 1890 \u2013 Counter clockwise from bottom left: Elsie, Grandpa, W.W.W., Molly Will, Emma, Sarah, Eleanor (Will\u2019s wife)<\/p>\n

THE SECOND GENERATION<\/b><\/h4>\n
\"blewburymillold\"<\/a>
Blewbury Mill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James\u00a0 West<\/b>\u00a01789-1857 was born at East Hagbourne and after marrying Mary moved to Aston Tirrold where according to United Reformed Church\u00a0 records, a daughter Ann died in infancy in 1817.\u00a0 The parish records tell us that Daniel was born in 1813 and William in 1815 (dying in 1829).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The birth of subsequent siblings are recorded at Blewbury where the family moved after 1815:\u00a0 John b.1818, Martha\u00a0 b.1820 (had an \u201cillegitimate\u201d daughter Elizabeth in 1840),\u00a0Joseph b.1823 and James 1825-1827 and the death of James\u2019 wife Mary was recorded in that same year, 1827.\u00a0 The cramped quarters of the Mill must have been quite relieved by an addition to the mill.\u00a0\u00a0 James\u2019 son Daniel was by his first wife Mary.\u00a0 His daughter Susannah and another son \u201cJames\u201d who died in infancy, was by his second marriage to a widow named\u00a0 Susannah Street, n\u00e9e Witherall ((b.1798).\u00a0 According to family tradition, she had 2 sons by a previous marriage.<\/p>\n

William Westell<\/b> 1778-1869 \u2013 was a prosperous saddle and harness maker in Steventon.\u00a0 His first wife, Christian, died in 1817 and his second wife in 1845.\u00a0 His land was usurped by the Great Western Railroad in the 1830s. \u00a0Later, his grandson\u00a0William Westell West was involved in a legal dispute over these lands.<\/p>\n

George and Mary Whiting<\/b> (b. 1771): There is a family story that George Whiting signed away his inheritance to \u201cfalse friends\u201d while \u201cunder the influence\u201d.<\/p>\n

George and Lydia Long<\/b> (b. ca. 1790): This branch of the family may have lived at Chalgrove and Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, until the end of the 19th century, when they moved to East Hanney and Garford.<\/p>\n

THE THIRD GENERATION<\/b><\/h4>\n
\"danjanegrave\"<\/a>
Daniel & Jane’s grave at Grove Chapel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daniel West\u00a0<\/b>(b. 1813)\u00a0 must have had a difficult time after the death of his mother Mary and his infant brother James in 1827 followed by the death of his 14 year old brother in 1829 and his father James\u2019s re-marriage to Susannah.\u00a0\u00a0 Family history has it that she brought two sons from a previous marriage into the family.\u00a0 Daniel apparently didn\u2019t get on with his step-brothers.\u00a0 One story tells of him glueing the hair of one of them to a bed-post as he slept.\u00a0 Daniel left Blewbury Mill sometime after 1830 to go to Abingdon where he met Jane.\u00a0 The next record we have of him is the 1841 census which puts him with his new bride Jane and her father in Steventon.\u00a0 The 1851 census shows him at Hine\u2019s Mill in Grove as \u201ca lodger\u201d as the family was still in Steventon.\u00a0 In 1881 the census shows him at Hine\u2019s Mill with Jane and his grandson (William Westell West\u2019s eldest son) Will, his own children having grown and moved on.\u00a0 He is buried with Jane in the Grove Chapel churchyard.<\/p>\n