This is the first of a series of articles I intend to write focusing on the family ties which underpinned the Lincolnshire gentry and leading professional classes in the 19th and 20th centuries. This project intersects with my interest in local government, and many of these posts (including this one) will attempt to study the family background of Kesteven County Councillors and Aldermen. This, I hope, will shed light on those who ran government and took part in local politics, areas which have hitherto received relatively little attention from historians. By uncovering the often tangled web of kinship connections, I hope to reveal more about largely forgotten individuals who governed, and owned, most of the County.

Note: the article below is the first of at least two which will trace the Smith family of Horbling. This is intended to be a complete walk-through of the research, based almost entirely on primary material. It will trace as many of the dead descendants of Henry Smith’s grandfather, Benjamin Smith, as possible. I will then write this up into a more compact family history. Despite attempts at comprehensiveness, I am treating this as a first draft. The article does not include living descendants unless their connections are already included in published, publicly available sources.

This article will make its starting point a man called Henry Smith. Despite his name’s ubiquity, Smith was far from average; a wealthy individual who served as a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant for Lincolnshire, he was, as I shall recount later, chairman of a number of local institutions, a captain in the Lincolnshire militia, a “robust” Tory, a significant land-owner and a member of Kesteven County Council. It is through his work with the latter body that I encountered his name: he was one of the inaugural councillors, elected (by a majority of one vote) for the Billingborough division in February 1889. Then, at the Council’s first meeting several weeks later, he was elected an Alderman by his peers, forfeiting his Billingborough seat. His term was cut short by his death in 1891 and he became one of the first in a long line of Kesteven’s Aldermen to die in office.

In attempting to uncover more about his life I turned first to the local newspapers, now made available online through an immensely useful if sadly proprietary resource, the British Newspaper Archive. The Grantham Journal devoted just over a column of dense prose to retelling the key facts of his life and reiterating in typical Victorian hyperbole the importance he had in his county and his success as a landowner.[1] It provides the entry point for my research, and the basis of what will follow in this article.

Captain Henry Smith, JP, DL, died at his residence in Horbling on 18 January 1891 after a short illness. Born on 5 October 1820, he was the youngest son of Francis Smith, of Monk’s Hall in Gosberton, and had twelve children (eleven of which survived him) with his wife, Mary, the only daughter of James Gould, of Birthorpe; she had died fifteen years earlier. Smith “came to” Horbling in 1842, where he rented farmland from the Brown family. He inherited “considerable property” when his uncle Benjamin Smith, of Horbling, died in 1858. By the time of his death, the paper described him as a “large landowner” who was lord of the manor of Monk’s Hall in Gosberton, Meere’s Manor in Quadring, and (jointly) the Manor of Wikes in Donington.

In addition to his work on the Kesteven County Council, Smith was “a staunch churchman and most robust Conservative”, who supported Sir John Lawrence in Stamford, and founded and chaired the Billingborough and District Conservative Association (1885–91). Other positions in local affairs included terms as a Justice of the Peace on the North Holland Bench of Magistrates, Chairman of the Black Sluice Drainage Commissioners and the Witham Outfall Board, President of the Lincolnshire Manure Association, Trustee of Cowley’s Charity in Donington and of Sleaford Savings Bank, Captain of the Billingborough Company of the 2nd Lincolnshire Rifle Volunteers (from 1861), founder and Chairman of the Billingborough and Horbling Gas Company (from 1864) and Manager of the Folkingham Savings Bank.

I intend to discuss all of this later, but for now I will use this information to build up a history of his family, beginning with his parents and ancestors, before turning to his siblings, then his descendants and finally a brief biography of the man himself.

I. Parentage and ancestry

A search on the online index of the Family History Library (FamilySearch) reveals that one Henry Smith was born in Gosberton on 5 October 1820, the son of Francis and Ann Smith.[2] Keen to see a copy of the original, I checked the baptism registers for Gosberton parish,[3] but I was unable to find any trace of the record. Although landed families tended to be Anglican, and the note that he was a devout churchman suggested the same, I would have to consult non-conformist birth records. When civil registration came into force in 1837, the General Register Office collected many non-conformist records and they have now been digitised. A search in the indexes revealed that Francis and Ann Smith of Gosberton registered the births of the following children:[4] Francis (b. 20 November 1812), Ann (b. 2 June 1816), Benjamin (b. 7 January 1818), Edward (b. 15 May 1819), Henry (b. 5 October 1820), Charles (b. 15 February 1822) and Charlotte (b. 18 February 1824).

A birth certificate was retrospectively issued on 18 September 1837 for Henry Smith, born 5 October 1820 in Gosberton. Crucially, it provides his parents names in fuller detail: Francis Smith, of Gosberton, and his wife Ann, daughter of Henry Blackbourn, of Threekingham.[5] The certificates for the other children were registered at the same time and contain the same information.[6] The parents married at Walsoken in Norfolk on 18 September 1811. Amongst the Stamford Mercury’s marriage notices is the following: “On Wednesday last, at Walsoken, near Wisbech, Mr. Francis Smith, of Monk’s Hall in Gosberton, to Miss. Blackbourn, daughter of the late Mr. Blackbourn, of Threckingham.”[7] This is confirmed in the parish registers; both were unmarried at the time, she was aged 26, and he 30.[8]

Francis Smith (d. 1844), the father

Francis Smith died in April 1844. The Morning Post carried a notice of his death: “On the 24th inst., at Monk’s Hall, in Gosberton, in the 66th year of his age, Francis Smith, Esq.”[9] He left a lengthy will, dated 9 September 1843, with a codicil dated 9 March 1844, which was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 27 December 1844.[10] He bequeathed all of his household goods and furniture (with a few exceptions) plus £200 to his wife Ann. In the rest of his will, he set up a series of trusts to provide for his children and their families, naming in each case his brother Benjamin Smith, of Horbling, and his friends Benjamin Wilkinson, of Horbling, and Thomas Parkinson, of Quadring, as trustees and executors (the codicil swapped out Parkinson for Smith’s sons Benjamin and Edward). The will can be summarised as follows:

£3,000 was to be put in trust for his wife Ann; on her death, £500 should be paid to his son Benjamin, and the remainder divided equally between his sons Edward and Henry. His bedroom wardrobe was left to his son Benjamin, and another wardrobe to his son Edward; Benjamin also received all his live and dead animal stock and, by the codicil, his grain, hay and farm produce.
The following were to be put in trust for “the comfort” of his son Francis Smith: the Cottage and one 2-acres (ac) plot occupied by George Taylor in Quadring, formerly owned by Robert Saybell(?) which was copyhold of the Manor of Monk’s Hall; a 2ac plot of land called Barhams or Banhams, formerly owned by Mr. Wilson; 5ac of land called Black Storks near Palls Lane and 30ac of freehold pasture called Brooks abutting a lane called Old Lode(?), all in Quadring and the last two purchased from his brother Benjamin.
£200 was left to his son-in-law, the Rev. Henry Harris, husband of his late daughter Ann. The following were to be placed in trust for his grandchildren Ann, Louisa Mary, Henry and Edward, children of his late daughter Ann Harris: 16ac and 1 rood in Gosberton on the turnpike to Donington (formerly of his brother Benjamin’s estate), 2ac of Freehold land in Gosberton called the Old Yard (formerly of his father’s estate), the cottages in Gosberton occupied by John Johnson and Baldman Bruce (purchased from George Robinson); and 2 roods of land, 1ac 1 rood and 5 perches of land, 7ac 1 rood and 30 perches near Batham Lane with 28 perches called Lane Drove (purchased from John Heard, William Worth and Henry Sellwood respectively).
25ac of land called Barhams or Banhams in Quadring was left to his son Benjamin (purchased from his brother Benjamin).
£200 was given to his daughter Charlotte, wife of Rev. Henry Jackson. The following were put in trust for her: 30ac freehold land in Quadring purchased from John Smith and 5ac and 4 perches of copyhold land or Ground in (purchased from George Clay).
In trust for his son Charles: £1,000, plus 4 parcels of land containing 35 acres in a Quadring. Should he have no survivng issue, this would be divided equally between the sons Benjamin, Edward and Henry.

The rest of the estate was to be used by the trustees to pay for these legacies and the surplus divided between the sons Benjamin, Edward and Henry. A newspaper recorded the death in 1857 “At Sleaford, on the 6th inst., Mrs. Ann Smith, relict of Fras. Smith, Esq., of Monk’s Hall, Gosberton”,[11] and it does not appear that she left a will. As one last piece of information about Francis for now, the family appear in the 1841 Census, where the household lived at Monks Hall in Gosberton;[12] table is abridged below:

Names	Age and Sex		Profession…	Where Born
	M	F		Same County	In Scotland…
Francis Smith	63		Farmer	Yes
Ann Smith		57		Yes
Benjamin Smith	22			Yes
Francis Smith	27			Yes
Edward Smith	20			Yes
Mary Harris		1		Yes

Of course, the ages are rounded in this census, so they must be taken with a pinch of salt, but it is worth noting that Francis’s is roughly corresponds with his reported age of death three years later (66). This would put his year of birth at c. 1778.

As Henry Smith’s obituary states, his uncle Benjamin died in 1858 leaving him a large amount of land. We know now that he lived at Horbling, so a search for wills and death notices should be fruitful. The Grantham Journal was one of several newspapers to carry a short notice: “At Horbling, on the 6th inst., Benjamin Smith, Esq., solicitor, in his 81st year.”[13] Probate was granted on his Will on 2 March 1858 by the oaths of his nephew Henry Smith, of Horbling, and a gentleman called George Wiles, also of Horbling.[14]

Benjamin Smith (1777–1858), the uncle

Armed with this information, a search of the 1851 census reveals that Benjamin Smith, a 74-year-old solicitor and grazier of 88 acres, lived in his native Horbling with his wife Frances, aged 71, a native of Aslackby. He employed two men on his farm, and was living with six servants at the time: a groom and coachman, a butler, a cook, a lady’s maid, a house maid, a dairy maid and an agricultural labourer.[15] He and Frances, then both aged approximately 60 (and he listed as a solicitor) were also living there in 1841.[16] A search in the local newspapers reveals the following marriage notice: “On Wednesday last, (by the Rev. C. Madely,) Benj. Smith, Esq., of Horbling, to Miss. Graves.”[17] The corresponding entry in Horncastle’s parish registers confirms her name—Frances—and reveals that, although she was a spinster, he was a widower.[18] His previous wife’s obituary appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine under 15 August 1808: “Mrs. Smith, wife of Benjamin S., of Horbling, co. Lincoln”;[19] Harriet, the wife of Benjamin Smith, was buried in Horbling on 19 August.[20] They had only married two years previously, to which a notice in the Stamford Mercury bears testimony: “On Monday last was married at Leigh, near Bristol, by the Rev. B. Spry, Mr. Benjamin Smith, of Horbling, in this county, to Miss Harriett Martin, of Bedale.”[21] I have so far been unable to find any children born to Benjamin; if the early death of his first wife and his late marriage to his second did indeed mean that he died childless, this would explain why he left so much of his estate to a nephew.

But, what of his origins? His age at the time of the 1851 Census and that given in his obituary point to a birth year of c. 1777, while the former records his birthplace as Horbling. A search for Smiths baptised or born in Horbling between 1760 and 1790 reveals the following: Elizabeth (27 December 1769), Francis (10 July 1772), Benjamin (14 August 1774, d. 23 March 1775), Benjamin (21 January 1777), Francis (23 February 1778), and Edward (18 January 1780). They were all born to Benjamin and Elizabeth Smith.[22] This is not proof that these people are all connected; the next important step is to show that this Benjamin Smith dying in 1858 is the uncle of Henry Smith, and the next is to prove that the same Benjamin and his brother Francis were amongst the children listed above, the sons of Benjamin and Elizabeth Smith of Horbling. In order to complete the first proof, Benjamin the younger’s 1858 will is necessary.

I plan to source the will of Benjamin Smith the younger in the near future.

Benjamin Smith (d. 1807), the grandfather

Now to find the elder Benjamin Smith. He presumably left a considerable estate, given the landed holdings of his children, and so a search for a will is the best place to start. The only likely entry in the Prerogative County of Canterbury’s probate records is a grant dated 8 April 1807 to one Benjamin Smith, of Falkingham in Lincolnshire.[23] Folkingham, archaically spelt with an “a”, is approximately 3 miles south-east-east of Horbling. Matching this is a death notice in the Gentleman’s Magazine, stating that on 26 February 1807, aged 75, “Benjamin Smith, Esq., of Falkingham, co. Lincoln” died.[24] The will is summarised as follows:

To his wife Elizabeth, an annuity of £100, to be drawn from the income on his estates in Quadring and Gosberton, which were bequeathed to his son Francis. He gave her a further sum of £100 to be paid immediately after his death, along with all of his household goods, plate, boots, wines and liquors.
To his sister Elizabeth, the wife of Henry Walker, he gave an annuity of £24 to be drawn from his estate in Folkingham to be devised to his son Benjamin.
His sons Benjamin and Edward and his daughter Elizabeth were nominated for his Government Bonds, which were to be held in trust by his friends Edward Brown, of Stamford, Esq., and Marmaduke Langdale, of New Ormond Street, London, Esquire.
To his son Francis, £2,000 plus £500 to be paid after the death of Elizabeth, Benjamin’s wife, and “all that my messuage or tenement called Monk’s Hall and also that Cottage or Tenement … and also all those several pieces or parcels of Land meadow or pasture Ground containing [c. 150ac] including the land lately purchased of William Holmes Clerk all which … are situate and being in Gosberton and Quadring aforesaid on the north of the Turnpike Road leading from Spalding to Donington and in the tenant or occupation of my said Son Francis” subject to Fee-Farm Rent owing to the Earl of Sandwich, a corn rent to John George Calthorpe, Esquire, the annuity of £100 owed to Elizabeth, Benjamin’s wife, and the payments of £1,000 each to the issue, Elizabeth and Edward.
To his daughter, Elizabeth, £5,000 and £1,000 to be paid by the Executor two years after the death, and £1,000 to be paid after the death of his wife by Francis, plus “all that my messuage or tenement cottages situated in Falkingham … now in the occupation of William Richardson … [and those] in the occupation of Chriss Hadley … and the northern half of the Close adjoining to and lying West in and of the said Back Lane with the Dovecote on the same and such other Buildings as my be aside … the said close to be equally divided at the fence to divide the same shall be in a right line from East to West and made and for ever kept in repair and maintained by my Son Benjamin … that close parcel of Land containing [c. 4ac and 2 roods] in Falkingam aforesaid now the occupation of the said Chris Hadley being part of the parcel of land called Foxhole and lying between other part of the said land called Foxhole on the East lands of Sir Gilbert Heathcote Baronet on the west and north and the road leading to Billingborough on the South”.
To his son Edward, the sum of £7,000, plus £1,000 to be paid by Francis after the death of Benjamin’s wife.
To his son Benjamin,”all that my Manor of Monk’s Hall which extends over many Lands in Gosberton Quadring and Donington aforesaid and my Manor called Moores Manor in Donington aforesaid … and all the residue of my Estate Lands Testments and Hereditaments in Gosberton and Quadring aforesaid not devised to my Son Francis and all the residue of my Estate Lands Tenements and Hereditaments in Falkingham aforesaid not devised to my daughter”, plus the residue of the estate; he is also named sole Executor.
And the following bequests: to John Fargill of the Parish of St Peter in Eastgate in the City of Lincoln, £30 in trust for his (Benjamin’s) niece Mary Wood; to his neice Sarah Wood, £30; to the poor of Folkingham, Horbling and St Peter in Eastgate, the sum of £5 to each parish.

His tombstone is recorded in Monson’s Church Notes: “This marble is erected as a token of filial respect to perpetuate the memory of Benjamin Smith, Esq., who died 27 January 1807, aged seventy five years. Also sacred to the memory of Elizabeth relict of the above who was released from suffering borne with exemplary patience the 6th of May 1820, aged 78 years.”[25]

It is clear from this will that Benjamin I left his manor of Monk’s Hall to his son Benjamin, but appears to have left land there and elsewhere including the plot called Monk’s Hall to his son Francis. Hence, Francis was “of Monk’s Hall”, while Benjamin was lord of the manor, as the 1891 obituary states. Hopefully, all of this sufficiently, and beyond reasonable doubt, provides a family tree for this group. I will now turn to Henry’s uncles and aunts on the paternal side, for the sake of completeness, before moving to his siblings and then his children.

Other uncles and aunts

Firstly, what of Edward? Well, the will of Edward Smith, a clergyman, of Folkingham, was proved at the Consistory Court of Lincoln in 1814.[26] A Smith by this name at Folkingham may be a coincidence, but it is worth investigating and turns out not to be. The records of Cambridge University, as reported in Alumni Cantabrigienses, show that an Edward Smith, the son of Benjamin Smith, attorney, of Horbling, Lincolnshire, was admitted at St John’s College, Cambridge, on 21 November 1797. He matriculated in Lent 1797, graduated with a BA in 1802 and proceeded to an MA three years later. The same work records that he was ordained a deacon at Lincoln on 19 December 1802 and priest on 30 December 1804, after which he was Curate of Walcot (1802–04), and of Newton (1804), before his appointment as Rector of Folkingham. He married on 30 November 1809, Sarah, eldest daughter of Marmaduke Langdale, of New Ormond St, London, and died on 27 February 1813.[27] His tombstone in Folkingham is noted in Monson’s Church Notes.[28] Burke’s Landed Gentry mentions him: “Sarah [eldest. da. of Marmaduke Langdale (1756–1832)] b. 17 June, 1781, m. 1st. the Rev. Edward Smith, of Folkingham; 2ndly, the Rev. Charles Day, and by her first husband has issue, Rev. Edward-Langdale Smith, m. Elizabeth, dau. of the Rev. — Gauntlett, Sarah-Elizabeth, d. unm.”[29]

The son, Edward Langdale, is mentioned in the Alumni Cantabrigienses, which records that he was admitted at St John’s College on 16 December 1829, aged 18, matriculated in Michaelmas 1830, graduated with a BA in 1835 and proceeded to MA in 1838. Ordained a deacon in 1837 and a priest the next year, he was Vicar of Barton Hartshorn with Chetwode (1839–95), married in 1839, Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Henry Gauntlett, Vicar of Olney, and died on 10 March 1895 at Chetwode.[30] In 1851, their two-year-old daughter Elizabeth Ann was living with them; in 1871, he had a daughter, Edith Avice, 22, and a son, Arthur Langdale, 18, living with him.[31] The younger daughter, Edith Avrice, lived at The Thatched Cottage, Holton, and died unmarried on 22 October 1946.[32] I have been unable to trace Elizabeth Ann; it is possible that she died, or that this is Edith Avrice.

His son, Arthur Langdale, was admitted to Worcester College, Oxford and matriculated on 27 January 1872, aged 19; he became vicar of SteepIe-CIaydon, Bucks., in 1884.[33] He was born in 1852, and died on 15 August 1934, by which time he was Rector of Holton, Oxfordshire.[34] He married Harriett Constantia, then 23, on 17 July 1877 at St Paul’s, Birmingham; she was the daughter of Rev. Richard Bennet Burges.[35] They in turn had nine children:[36]

Rev. Edward Langdale-, baptised on 1 March 1879, d. 4 July 1952 at Cheadle Royal, Cheshire. Vicar of Virginia Water, Surrey. Married in 1923 to Charlotte Evelyn, youngest daughter of Rev. E. Snowdon-Smith.[37]
Avice Alurida Langdale-, b. 1880, d. 11 August 1939; married John Stanley Hewitt in Calcutta in 1909.[38] According to Debrett’s, she had with Hewitt, who was born in 1875 and died in 1937, two sons: Terrence John Lifford (b. 1911), who married in 1946, Rowena Edith Mabel, daughter of Ernest Taylor England, and had issue, and Theodore Dennis (b. 1918).[39]
Emily Constance Langdale-, b. 18 February 1883, d. 28 December 1971 [40]
Rev. Richard Marmaduke Langdale-, b. 1885, d. 23 December 1965. He was in the Indian Ecclesiastical Service; in 1921, he married Kathleen Marjorie, daughter of Rev. H. J. Hoare, of Peshawar. [41]
Frederick Arthur Langdale-, b. 26 October 1886, d. 25 April 1913; enrolled, Royal Navy, 15 May 1900; confirmed as Sub-Lieutenant, 30 November 1904; promoted to Lieutenant, 15 March 1906, served on H.M.S. Vanguard. Died “at sea by drowning off the Isle of Arran Scotland”.[42]
Edith Dorothy Langdale Langdale-, b. 27 September 1887, d. 21 January 1982 [43]
Dr. Henry Gauntlett Langdale-, b. 15 January 1890, d. 23 July 1984, educated at Birmingham University; in 1925, he married Margaret Dorothy Ellerton, MB, daughter of Dr. J. F. H. Ellerton, of “Rotherwood”, Leam Terrace [44]
William Kelham Langdale-, b. 1 April 1891, d. 9 January 1980.[45]
Julia Irene L’Estrange Langdale-, b. 1895, d. 11 October 1980; married, in 1919, John Gardiner Whitfield, son of J. H. Whitfield, of Herne.[46]

Benjamin and Francis’s sister Elizabeth appeared not to marry until late in life and in all likelihood had no children. The event took place at Folkingham on 13 June 1821, when the parish records noted the union of Charles Blomfield and Elizabeth Smith, both unmarried residents of the parish.[47] Walford’s County Families records that Charles Blomfield, of Folkingham, born in 1794, the eldest son of Charles, of Stoneham Parva in Suffolk, married in 1821 Elizabeth, sister of Benjamin Smith; he was a JP and an MD.[48] In Folkingham churchyard is tombstone to Elizabeth Blomfield “who deceased Aug. 3. 1854 in the 85th year of her age”; a newspaper report carried news of her death: “At Falkingham, on the 3rd inst., Elizabeth the wife of Charles Blomfield, Esq., M.D., in her 85th year”.[49] The Will of Elizabeth Blomfield, wife, of Folkingham, dated 24 August 1841, with a codicil dated 6 April 1850, was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 16 November 1854.[50] She appointed her brother Benjamin Smith and Henry Harris, Vicar of Horbling, the Executors; the particulars are summarised below:

To her nephew, Edward Langdale Smith, of Chetwode near Buckingham, £500 arising out of £2,000 at her disposal under her marriage settlement (his wife Elizabeth received some jewellery). The same to her niece Charlotte, wife of Henry Jackson of Monk Fryston in the County of York from the same source (and also a share of the clothes, a gold chain, a rose wood chest and a gold thimble). To the four children of her late niece Ann Harris £250 to “accumulate for their benefit until they respectively arrive at the age of twenty one”. To her nephew Benjamin Smith of Monk’s Hall Gosberton, £200. To her nephew Charles Smith and his wife Mary Ann the sum of £250 and to him a large old gold watch, and to a her a share of the clothes.
She also gave legacies to friends and servants: to Mary Latham “my late respected Servant”, wife of Benjamin Latham, £100 (and amongst the said Mary’s children, the “commonest” of her clothes); to her old friend Rebecca Ann Cracroft, £20; to her god-daughter Eliza Campbell the child of the Rev. R. Loe of Stepney Middlesex £20; to Ann Wilkinson the mother of Mary Latham £10; to Susanna Harris sister of the vicar of Horbling, £10; to Jane Hunter residing in the family of T. O. Powles, Esq., at Clapton “as a token of my high opinion of her principles”, £10; to Ellen Blomfield, her husband’s niece, her gold chain and gold enamelled brooch.
By the codicil she revoked the bequest made in to Benjamin Smith of Gosberton “as he is now not a Member of the Church” and gave it instead to her nephew Henry Smith of Horbling. She also gave £10 to Kate and William and Ann Tacham, the children of Benjamin and Mary Latham. She gave £10 each to her servants Martha Wilkinson and Charlotte Briggs. Lastly, she gave £10 to the Poor of Folkingham.

Dr Charles Blomfield, a 77-year-old retired physician lived in Coddenham in 1871 with his nieces Ellen and Henrietta(?), plus two servants; he was a native of Little Stonham, Suffolk.[51] Charles Blomfield, MD, lived at The Cottage, Coddenham, Suffolk, his last residence. He died in the village on 15 June 1871 and the executor named in his will was his brother John, a farmer. He left an estate valued at £14,000.[52]

II. Siblings and their families

Francis Smith

The younger Francis lived with his brother Benjamin and mother Ann at Monk’s Hall, Gosberton, in the 1851 census. His occupation was listed as “idiott”.[53] Twenty years later, he was living off an annuity at Donington Road, Gosberton, with his housekeeper and attendant Elizabeth Harrison; he was described as an “imbecile”.[54] It does not appear that he married, and the state of his mental health probably explains the wording of his father’s will, and the fact that he did not inherit the bulk of the estates. I have not found a death notice in local newspapers, making it difficult to track down a death record. One entry in the registers for the last quarter of 1879 may well be him.[55]

Ann Smith and the Harris connexion

The elder Francis’s will has already told us that his daughter Ann married one Rev. Henry Harris, had four children (Ann, Louisa Mary, Henry and Edward), and died before her father wrote his will on 9 September 1843. Her widower received land in Gosberton by that will. Marriage registers show that Ann, daughter of Francis Smith, and Henry, son of Daniel Harris, were married at Gosberton on 14 July 1837.[56] A search in the baptismal registers reveal the following children were born to Henry Harris and his wife Ann at Gosberton: Ann Harris, bapt. 16 September 1838,[57] Susannah Mary Harris, bapt. 6 October 1839,[58] and Henry Harris, bapt. 25 or 26 November 1840.[59] On 10 November 1846 at Rippingale, Lincs., Rev. Henry Harris, AM, vicar of Horbling, married “Mrs Thomas Darby, second daughter of Rev. W. T. Waters”, rector of Rippingale.[60] The marriage record for this shows Henry Harris, son of Daniel Harris, marrying at Rippingale on 10 November 1846, Charlotte Darby, daughter of William Thomas Waters.[61]

The family can be found in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses. They show that he was born c. 1816×17 and was a native of Bicker, Lincs., while she was born c. 1806 in Dunsby, Lincs. The children listed with them in 1851 are Ann (12) and Susannah M. (11); ten years later, just 21-year-old Mary S. is living with them. In 1871, there were no children with them; they had two servants and Charlotte’s 49-year-old unmarried sister Jane Augusta was visiting. Back in 1851, Harris’s unmarried sisters Susannah M. and Charlotte Fowler were with him, along with his nephew Edward Oldaker Harris.[62] Given all of this information, it seems most likely that the mention of “Louisa Mary” in Francis Smith’s will was meant to be Susannah Mary; I shall outline their lives below, and then discuss the sons Henry and Edward, before finishing with an account of Henry Harris’s death.

Ann Harris, eldest daughter of Rev. H. Harris, vicar of Horbling, married John Thomas, youngest son of William Tomblin Keal, MD, of Wharfland House in Oakham, on 19 September 1860 at Horbling. Rev. H. J. Jackson, AM, vicar of Monk Fryston in Yorkshire carried out the service.[63] She must have died before 13 December 1863, for John Thomas Keal “late of Oakham in the County of Rutland Surgeon a Widower” died on that day and administration of his effects was granted to “William Tomblin Keal of Oakham Surgeon the Father the Next of Kin”.[64] He died after a short illness and had been surgeon to the Rutland Militia and the Rutland Dispensary.[65] John T. Keal, aged 28, “M.R.C.I.E., L.A.C.” lived at the Surgeon’s House in Oakham with his wife Annie, aged 22, and three servants in 1861.[66] Obituary notices show the death of Ann Keal, wife of John T. Keal, surgeon, of Oakham, took place on 6 June 1861.[67] It seems that there were no children, although I cannot prove this.

Susannah Mary, daughter of Henry Harris, married William Elliot Carrett, of Leeds, son of Elliot Carrett, at Horbling on 4 June 1868.[68] He was a mechanical engineer, who died aged 44 at Nottingham on 25 September 1870 and was buried on 29 September in Birstal, York.[69] She then married on 9 May 1872 at St John the Evangelist in Leeds, John William Hill, of Brunswick Place, a barrister, son of John Hepworth Hill, barrister.[70] She married thirdly, at York on 30 September 1884, Frederic Stansfield Herries, son of Lieutenant-General Sir William L. Herries, K.C.H., C.B.[71] She died his widow on 19 April 1926, her last residence being 32 Brunswick Square, Hove, Sussex.[72] In the 1871 census, she was visiting Henry and Henrietta Sophia Harris at Pinner in Middlesex; ten years later, she was living with Hill, a cousin, Edith G. Smith (19, born in Horbling), and a nephew, Henry R. Hill (13).[73] I have so far been unable to trace Susannah and her husband in censuses after 1881; it possible that she had children, but I have found no trace of any.

We learn about Henry Harris, the elder son, through his obituary which appeared in January 1924. He died at Hove in Sussex. The record tells us that he was “elder son of the Rev. Henry Harris, a former Vicar, in his eighty-third year. Although the late Mr. Harris paid occasional visits to his native village, there are very few people living here to-day who can remember him, it being over sixty years since he left.”[74] The younger Henry married on 11 March 1869 at Trinity Church in Marylebone, Henrietta Sophia, third daughter of Leonard Clow of Fitzroy Street in Fitzroy Square; his father “Rev. Henry Harris, Vicar of Horbling” married them. By that time, Henry was living at 83 Great Tower Street in the city, and Highstone, Snaresbrook, Essex.[75] Leonard Clow was a merchant and Henry was then a tea broker.[76] They were living in Pinner, Mdx., with a one-year-old daughter Mary Louisa in 1871; ten years later, she was not with them, but they did have a son, Henry L., 8, who was also with them in 1891. Ten years after that, Mary L., unmarried and 31, was back and they were living in Ealing. In 1911, the pair gave their address as 53 Brunswick Road, Hove, Sussex; they reported having two children, one of whom was dead.[77]

The younger Henry last lived at 14 Seafield, Hove, Sussex, and died on 25 December 1923 at 41 Osborne Villas in Hove.[78] His widow last resided at 2 Albany Villas in Hove and died on 13 April 1935.[79] The son was Henry Leslie Harris, baptised on 20 June 1872 at Pinner (the son of Henry, tea broker, and his wife Henrietta Sophia Harris); he was baptised by Henry Harris, vicar of Horbling.[80] He died in 1896, aged 24.[81] Mary Louisa, on the other hand, was baptised at Horbling on 26 June 1870.[82] She married Stafford Edmund Douglas in 1903.[83] In 1911, they had been married for 7 years and had one child living, Violet Louisa, aged 6. He was a Captain in the 91st Highlanders and they lived at 10 Thornton Hill, Exeter.[84]

According to the will of Francis Smith the elder, there was also a son of Rev. Henry and Ann Harris called Edward; he is not in the 1851 census or later with his father, but he reappears in 1871 when he married Fanny Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Smith (she being his first cousin).[85] They appear in census records wherein he consistently gives his place of birth as Northampton and ages which correspond to a year of birth in or around 1842.[86] A baptism record has been found for Edward, son of Henry Harris, clerk in holy orders, and his wife Ann; the christening took place in All Saints, Northampton, on 4 May 1842.[87] Further details of his children are given under Fanny Elizabeth, below. As will be seen in several of their obituaries, he lived at Rookfield House; he was there in 1871 as well, farming 305 acres.[88]

To return to Rev. Henry Harris, the Alumni Cantabrigienses appears to include him. Its record shows that he was admitted at St Catherine’s College on 6 July 1837 and matriculated that Michaelmas before taking a degree in 1841. He was ordained a deacon that year and a priest the next, when he became Curate of All Saints’ in Northampton. From 1842 to 1844, he was Curate of Bicker, Lincs. and then Vicar of Horbling from 1845 to 1876.[89] He died on 15 March 1876 at Horbling “after a protracted illness”, aged 60 years.[90] According to one obituary, he “gained the respect and esteem of all the parishioners, both rich and poor, and his management of the School, and his many unobtrustive acts of usefulness, kindness, and charity will, we fear, make his loss to be felt by all around”.[91] He had been Vicar of Horbling for “over 30 years, having succeeded the Rev. Dr. Gordon, Dean of Lincoln, who died in August 1845”.[92] He was buried on 18 March, and by the 25th day of that month, the Bishop of Lincoln had presented Rev. P. S. Wilson (“who has served for more than thirteen years in the laborious and slenderly-endowed cure of West Pinchbeck, near Spalding”) as Vicar.[93]

Rev. Henry Harris’s wife Charlotte had died in October 1871;[94] she was buried on 20 October.[95] His probate records reveal that he left effects worth under £1,500; probate was granted to his widow, Emma.[96] On 15 June 1875, at All Saints’ Church, Oakham, he had married Emma, daughter of the late W. T. Keal, MD.[97] She died in 1883, aged 60, and was buried on 1 October at Horbling.[98]

Lastly, when did Ann Harris die? She was dead by the time her father wrote his will in September 1843, but had given birth to Edward in May 1842. A search for burials in Horbling turns up nothing, so I turn to Bicker, where her husband was curate from 1842 to 1845. There, on the 22 May 1843, one Ann Harris was buried; Henry was curate by that time, as surrounding records show him officiating at services, but he did not sign the entry for her burial.[99] A look in the newspapers confirms the identification; there is a death notice for “Ann the wife of the Rev. H. Harris”, who died at Bicker on 18 May 1843.[100]

Benjamin

In 1851, Benjamin Smith was living with his brother Francis and mother Ann at Monk’s Hall in Gosberton.[101] We next find a notice of his marriage in a London newspaper: “On the 5th inst., at Peckham, Benjamin Smith, Esq., of Monk’s Hall, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, to Jessy, youngest daughter of B. I. T. Nightingale, Esq., of Peckham.”[102] We next find Benjamin Smith, 43 and born in Gosberton, living at Monk’s Hall in Gosberton with his wife Jessie, 40, a native of London, two daughters (Theodora, 5, an Lydia, 1), a son (Ernest, aged 8 months), a nurse, a groom and three other servants. He was a farmer and grazier occupying 280 acres.[103] Ten years later, a 15-year-old Theodora is still with them, along with sons Benjamin N., 10, Ernest, 9, and Ebenezer W., 7, plus two servants. By that time, they had moved to Aslackby parish, where Benjamin was farming.[104] He was living in the village in 1881 as well, this time a widower, with daughters Theodora, 25, and Lydia, 21, and son Benjamin Nightingale, 19. The same can be said for 1891.[105]

In 1891, an article in the local press appeared discussing the publishing of Voters’ Lists for Spalding. The Liberals “had objected to the ownership vote of Mr. Benjamin Smith, of Aslackby, for a freehold house and land in Quadring, but the objection was now withdrawn. … Mr. Smith had been for forty years a large owner in Quadring, and held some three or four farm, and it must be a matter of notoriety that he was entitled to be on the list. Mr. Smith was a gentleman of eighty years of age, and was now an invalid, or he would have attended the Court personally”.[106] An obituary notice appear less than three years later, stating that he had died on 1 February 1894, aged 76, and had spent about 26 years at Aslackby. He had been “suffering from a cardiacal affection”. The notice remarks that he was an elder brother of “the late Captain Smith, J.P., of Horbling” and was “one of the largest farmers and graziers in the district”. He was a Conservative and Calvanist Baptist.[107]

Before discussing the children, I will focus on the wife, Jessy Nightingale. Someone by that name was born on 7 May 1820 and baptised on 30 July that year in St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, the daughter of Benjamin Joseph Nightingale and his wife Susannah.[108] This seems like a very probable match. As it happens, several children were baptised in St Leonard’s, who were the sons and daughters of a man called Benjamin Joseph Truman Nightingale and his wife Susanna(h).[109] A man by the same name had married Susannah Sanders on 14 February 1805 in St James, Clerkenwell.[110] In 1841, we find one Benjamin Nightingale, 60, “mercantile”, living in Cottage Grove, St Giles Camberwell, with Susan (55), William, Joseph (both 20), Henry, Miles (both 15), Eleanor (25) and Jessy (20).[111] By 1851, Benjamin J. T. Nightingale, aged 71, a native of Elsham, Kent, and a mercantile clerk, and his 67-year-old wife Susanna, lived 23 Cottage Grove with their daughters Eleanor and Maria.[112] The will of Benjamin Joseph Truman Nightingale was proved by his sons Benjamin, of 33 Priory Road, Wandsworth Road, Surrey, and William Samuel Nightingale, of 3 Morden Terrace, Lewisham Road, Kent. He had died on 8 August 1858 at his residence, 23 Cottage Grove, Peckahm, Surrey.[113] He had died aged 79 and was buried in Nunhead Cemetery, Linden Grove.[114] While not absolutely conclusive, I believe this presents solid evidence for her parentage and background. As for her demise, the Stamford Mercury records that on 14 December 1874, “the beloved wife of B. Smith, Esq.” died at the Manor House, Aslackby, aged 54.[115] To confirm her identity, the Death Register indices show that one Jessy Smith, aged 54, died in the fourth quarter of 1874 in the Bourne district of Lincolnshire.[116]

Now, for the children. The two daughters, Theodora and Lydia, did not marry and appear to have spent their whole lives together. By 1911, they had settled in Billingborough, where they lived at “Southville”. However, it cannot have been long before they moved again to Buckminster Villas in the village, for by the time of Lydia’s death, they had been living there for “very long period”. Theodora died first, on 15 April 1940, aged 85, and her younger sister followed on 23 December 1943, also aged 85 (she died at St George’s Nursing Home in Stamford). According to the latter’s obituary, “Both were members of the local Calvanistic Baptist Church and their mother was a cousin of Florence Nightingale.”[117]

The eldest son, Ernest, was living with his parents up to 1871. In 1881, we find Ernest Smith, 20 (a native of Gosberton), living with two servants in Aslackby and farming 322 acres.[118] On 1 May 1883, at the Weslyan Chapel in Bourn, he married Lydia, the only daughter of Thomas Pinder of the Manor House, Kirkby Underwood.[119] However, in 1891, Moorfield House, Aslackby, is occupied by Ernest Smith, 30, farmer and grazier, born in Monk’s Hall, Gosberton, and Allis, his 30-year-old wife, a native of Nottingham; with them are his daughters Florence M., 7, Ethel M., 5, and sons Harold B., 3, and Leslie, 8 months, along with 4 servants; all the children were born in Aslackby.[120] Likewise, in 1901, we find 40-year-old Ernest Smith, farmer, a native of Gosberton, Lincolnshire, living in Great Casterton, Rutland, with Allis Mary, 42, his wife, from Nottingham, and his children: Florence Muriel, 17, Ethel Mary, 15, Harold Burwell, 13, Leslie, 10, Stanley Ernest, 6, and Edith Jessie, 2, plus 2 servants. The last two children were born in Great Casterton.[121] Ten years later, Ernest Smith, 50, retired farmer, lived at 241 Eastfield Road, Peterborough. He, a native of Gosberton, had been married to his wife, Allis Mary, 53, for 24 years and they had 4 children together, all alive; two were with them, Stanley Ernest Smith, son, 16, student, and Edith Jessie, daughter, 12, at school, both born at Great Casterton in Rutland.[122]

Clearly we are dealing with the same family, but Ernest’s first wife must have died or they must have divorced (the latter is very unlikely). I have been unable to find a notice of her death in local papers, although one may exist. One Lydia Smith did die aged 22 in the last quarter of 1885, and was registered in the Bourn district.[123] It seems that Ernest married roughly a year later, for a record shows that, on 6 November 1886, at York, Ernest Smith, 26, married Allis Mary Roberts, 29.[124] Again, newspaper notices have eluded me, but I am confident that this is them. We find that Ernest Smith, aged 90, died in 1950 in the Peterborough district and the probate records show that Ernest Smith of 241 Eastfield Road, Peterborough, died on 25 October 1950.[125] The following year one Allis M. Smith died, aged 94.[126]

The children are outlined in more detail below. In most cases, their names are quite common, making it hard to trace them.

Florence Muriel, b. 1884.[127] It is difficult to prove what happened to her; a Florence Muriel Smith who was 27 and a native of Aslackby, Lincs., appears in the 1911 census as “lady help” in the employ of Joseph Hirst, merchant, who lived in Thornhill Road, Lindley, Huddersfield.[128] A Florence Muriel Smith died in 1981 in the Halifax district of Yorkshire, and her birth is recorded as 10 January 1884.[129]
Ethel Mary, b. 1885.[130]
Harold Burwell, b. 1887; d. 23 June 1967 (aged 79) at Wembley Hospital, Middlesex; last lived at 2 Meadow Way, Wembley.[131]
Leslie, b. 1890.[132]
Stanley Ernest, b. 1894.[133]
Edith Jessie, b. 3 February 1899; d. 25 October 1974; last lived at 241 Eastfield Road, Peterborough.[134]

The Grantham Journal records the marriage on 19 June 1895 at Aslackby of “Mr. B. N. Smith, second son of the late Mr. B. Smith, to Miss Sarah Robinson, only daughter of Mr. Richard Robinson, of Laughton”;[135] another entry elaborates on details of the “marriage of Mr. Benj. Nightingale Smith, second son of the late Mr. B. Smith, and nephew of the late Captain Smith, of Horbling” to the aforesaid Sarah Robinson.[136] The marriage indices confirm this: Benjamin Nightingale Smith was married in the second quarter of 1895 in the Bourne district to either Sarah Robinson or Sarah Ann McCullum.[137] Between them, these records confirm the marriage. In 1901, Benjamin N. Smith, 39 (born in Gosberton), was farming at Aslackby, and living with his wife, Sarah, 41, a native of Laughton, and, along with a servant, his 68-year-old father-in-law Richard Robinson, retired farmer and native of Long Sutton.[138] This arrangement had not altered by 1911; Benjamin, 49, was farming in Aslackby and living with his wife, Sarah, 51, her father, Richard Robinson, 78, a widower and retired farmer, and a servant; there were no children from their marriage.[139]

Benjamin Nightingale Smith, “late of The Manor House, Aslackby”, died on 11 February 1939 at Grantham, aged 76.[140] According to an obituary in the Grantham Journal, that he “recently underwent an operation in Grantham Hospital, and he made a good recovery, but, unfortunately, he had a relapse and died”. It goes on to say that he took over his father’s farm “many years ago and, after a successful career he retired in 1919”. He left Aslackby “some five years ago” to live in the “Grantham district”, and took an active role in the Methodist community.[141] His last address was 56 Harrowby Road, Grantham.[142] He stood for election to the Aslackby division of the local R.D.C. in 1910, against the incumbent Alfred Everett; he was also elected in the same year as a Parish councillor for the same place.[143]

Ebenezer W. was born in Gosberton in c. 1864, according to the above-cited census returns. He was Ebenezer William, whose birth was registered in 1863.[144] The only Ebenezer William Smith in the National Probate Calendar lived at Riverina, 7 Eastern Valley Way, Northbridge, Sydney, Australia. He died on 9 June 1940 and administration was granted at Lincoln to William Nightingale Bernadotte Smith, a civilian rigger with the R.A.F.[145] A death notice for this man appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald reading: “Smith.–June 9, 1940, at his residence, 7 Eastern Valley Highway, Ebenzer William, beloved husband of Clara Amelia and loving father of Percy (Albury), Harold, Muriel (Mrs J. L. Brown), Lily, Leslie (Narrabri), Ethel (Mrs. A. Watts, Nowra), William (R.A.F., England) and Walter, aged 76 years.”[146] The death indices for New South Wales includes an entry for Ebenezer William Smith, who died 1940, son of Benjamin and his wife Jessie.[147] They also include a record the marriage of a man with that name and Clara Amelia Adamson in Victoria in 1898; this is recorded in local newspapers as well, where he was “of Victoria Hotel”.[148] The combination of these records makes me quite confident that they relate to the same person, although further studies and consultation with the full form of official records would be needed to definitively prove the connection.

Edward

The Stamford Mercury records the marriage “At Bicker, yesterday, (by the Rev. Mr. Harris,) Mr. Smith, eldest son of the late Fras. Smith, Esq., of Monk’s Hall, Gosberton, to Miss Trimnel, only daughter of the late David Trimnel, Esq., for many years an opulent grazier at that place.”[149] The marriage indices show a marriage occurred between Edward Smith to Ann Elizabeth Trimnell in the Boston registration district.[150] In the 1851 Census, at Bicker, we find Edward Smith, 31, farming 75 acres; he was a native of Gosberton. He lived with his wife, Ann Eliz., 28, from Bicker, and their son, David, whose age is not clearly legible in the form. He was also from Bicker. The visitors were Ann Williams, a housekeeper, Fred Taylor, a baptist minister, and his wife Margaret Sophia; they were attended to by three servants.[151] The next census shows Edward Smith, 41, a landed proprietor and native of Gosberton, living at Gosberton House in Gosberton with his wife Anne Eliz., 38, from Bicker, their children, Benjamin, 9, and Anne, 7 (both from Bicker), and two servants.[152] By 1871, however, the family had moved to Burwash, Sussex, where they lived at Sea View Lodge; Edward, 51, was a Gosberton-born landowner, and his wife, Ann E., 48, was from Bicker, as was their 17-year-old unmarried daughter Anne; their other daughter, Felicia C., 7, was born at Aslackby.[153] Ten years later, Edward Smith, 62, a gentleman, born in ‘Fisburton’, Lincolnshire, was visiting Hannah Berringer, a draper’s wife, at her home, the Cottage, Cranleigh, Surrey.[154] Anne E. Smith, ‘wife of head’, was Sea View House in Burwash, aged 58. with her unmarried children, Benjamin, 29, and Felicia C., 17; their places of birth match those of earlier returns.[155] By 1891, Edward Smith, of Sea View House in Burwash, was a 71-year-old widower, born in Gosberton and living on his own means. His son Benjamin, 39, a retired solicitor, was with him, along with one servant.[156] The Stamford Mercury carried this notice in September 1895: “SMITH.—August 29^th, 1895, at Lawrence House, York, Edward Smith, third son of the late Francis Smith, of Monk’s Hall, Gosberton, aged 76.” The probate on his will was granted to Henry James Jackson, a land and valuer.[157]

Ann Elizabeth, daughter of David and Mary Trimnell (he being a farmer), of Bicker, was baptised on 1 October 1822 at Bicker.[158] I am confident that this is Edward’s future wife. It is seems likely that she died in 1890, for the death of one Anne Elizabeth Smith, aged 67, is indexed for the Ticehurst district of Sussex in the second quarter of that year.[159]

Now for the children. David, who appears in the 1851 census, is not living with his parents in later censuses. His exact age is not clear because the number is partially obscured by enumerator’s markings. It is likely to be three, giving him a birth year of c. 1848. I have not found him in later censuses, indicating that he died at some point in or after 1851, probably before the next return in 1861. There are, of course, many David Smiths who died in this period in this part of Lincolnshire.

Benjamin was living, unmarried, with his parents in 1861, 1881 and 1891, all of which show that his year of birth was c. 1852; he appeared as a retired solicitor in 1891. In 1901, we find one Benjamin Smith, 49, a retired solicitor, a native of Bicker in Lincolnshire, living in Hackney with his wife, Elizabeth J., 45, born in Stepney, London, and her father Robert Robinson, an 80-year-old widower and a retired customs officer, who was born in Alnwick, Northumberland.[160] An entry in the marriage indices has Benjamin Smith and Elizabeth Jane Robinson amongst two couples marrying in the second quarter of 1894 in the Hackney district of London.[161] To give more detail about his wife, I will look at census records to piece together more of her background. In 1881, Robert Robinson, a 60-year-old widower, was living in Burwash with his daughter Elizabeth J., 25. He was a retired customs officer from Alnwick and she had been born in Stepney.[162] In 1871, an examining customs officer called Robert Robinson (a widower, aged 50, from Northumberland) was living at 7 Beaumont Square in Mile End Old Town, with his 15-year-old daughter Elizabeth J., who had been born in Bethnal Green.[163] Ten year earlier, they lived at 61 Pack Street in Stepney; he was 40, she 5; he worked in the same profession and was born in Alnwick; she was from Stepney.[164] We then find a baptismal register for 24 December 1855 in the parish of St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney; Elizabeth Jane, born on 2 December, the daughter of Robert Robinson, customs officer, of 17 Norfolk St., and his deceased wife Elizabeth.[165] On 6 January 1855, Robert Robinson, 34, customs house officer, living in Stepney, the son of Daniel Robinson, farmer, married Elizabeth Miller, 21, of the same, the daughter of John Miller, farmer.[166] Returning to Benjamin and Elizabeth Jane, I have been unable to find them in the 1911 census; I have also been unable to find entries in the National Probate Calendar for them.

Anne, or Annie, was with her parents in 1861 and 1871. Her sister, Felicia Charlotte was born in 1863.[167] In 1891, Felicia Charlotte was living at Sunnyside (No. 2) in Woodlesford, with her sister, Annie and Annie’s husband, Henry James Jackson (see below); he was 38, from Monk Fryston, and a land agent and valuer. Annie, 37, was born in Bicker, Lincolnshire, and Felicia Charlotte was 27 and born in Aslackby, Lincs.[168] Felicia Charlotte Smith, of Woodlesford, Leeds, died unmarried on 6 January 1893.[169] For more details about Anne/Annie, see under Henry James Jackson below.

Charles

The marriage took place at Billingborough, in 1847, of Charles, son of Francis Smith, and Mary Ann, daughter of Samuel John Hillyerd.[170] The Lincolnshire Chronicle records that “At Billingborough, on the 10th inst., (by the Rev. J. M. Mann, Vicar,) Charles Smith, Esq., youngest son of the late Francis Smith, Esq., of Monk’s Hall, Gosberton, to Mary Ann, eldest daughter of the Rev. J. S. Hillyerd, Vicar of Sempringham, late of Tattershall.”[171]

In 1851, we find Charles Smith, 29 (and born in Gosberton), living off an annuity on the High Street in Billingborough, Lincs. His wife, 33-year-old Mary A., was born in London, and their son, Charles, 2 was born in Pointon, Lincs.[172] In 1861, we find Charles Smith, 40, on independent means, born in Gosberton, living on West Street in Donington with his wife and two sons. The wife, Mary Anne, was 45 and from London; the sons, Charles ‘Hildred’, 13, and Benjamin ‘Charner’, 10, were born in Pointon and Billingborough respectively.[173] By 1871, we find Charles Smith, 49, a retired farmer from Gosberton, living at 4 and 5 St John’s Passage in Boston with his wife, Mary A., 32, from London, and a boarder.[174] They are at the same address ten years later, when he is 59, but his wife, Mary Ann, from London, is listed as 65; he was an independent grazier, deriving his income from land. A son, Benjamin C. Smith, 29, draper, born in Billingborough, is with them, as is a niece, Mary A. Ashwell, a milliner, born in the same place.[175] We then find this reference in the Stamford Mercury: “On the 21st, at South-end, Boston, Charles Smith, youngest son of the late Francis Smith, of Monk’s Hall, Gosberton, aged 66 years. Interred at the Boston Cemetery”.[176]

Firstly, to find more about Miss Hillyerd. We find a registration of her birth certificate in Dr. Williams’ library; Mary Anne Hillyerd was born on Newman’s Row in the Parish of St Giles in the Fields, Middlesex, on 24 March 1811, the daughter of Samuel John Hillyerd and his wife Ann, daughter of Thomas Chawner.[177] We find a Mary Hillyerd, aged 30, living in Tattershall in 1841 with Samuel Hillyerd, clergyman, 55, Ann, 5o, Thomas, 20, and Maria, 25.[178] To tie things together somewhat, one Samuel Hillyerd married, on 10 May 1807, at St Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London, Ann Chawner.[179] He was instituted Vicar of Sempringham on 22 October 1846.[180] But, as the Stamford Mercury reported, on 29 July 1861 “Died, the Rev. S. J. Hillyerd, Vicar of Sempringham.”[181] The Will of Rev. Samuel John Hillyerd, of Pointon, Clerk, who died 29 June 1861 at Pointon, was provedby the oaths of Rev. Henry Harris, of Horbling, and George Wiles, also of Horbling, Gentleman.[182]

Now, to look for the children. A search of in the Family History Library’s online index reveals the following baptisms: Charles Hillyerd Smith, 18 June 1848 at Sempringham, son of Charles Smith and Mary Ann;[183] Benjamin Chaworn Smith, 25 February 1852 at Billingborough, son of Charles and Mary Anne Smith;[184] and Eliza Ann Smith, 18 February 1855 at Billingborough, daughter of Charles and Marianne Smith.[185] There may be others, but these are the only ones I have uncovered. I have been unable to trace Eliza Ann Smith. The original record for Benjamin shows his middle name as only partly legible; ‘Chaworn’ is a possible reading, but no-one called ‘Benjamin Chaworn Smith’ can be found in the birth indices. I suggest it is meant to be Chawner, and as expected, one Benjamin Chawner Smith was registered in the Bourne district in the first quarter of 1852.[186] I have not been able to track down a certain record of his death in the United Kingdom. I have seen claims (but not direct evidence) that he settled in the United States and died in 1941. A tombstone ascribed to him is found in Woodlawn Cemetery, Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, USA; it is inscribed: “Father/Benjamin C. Smith/Feb. 23, 1852/May 14, 1941”. Adjacent to it is one for “Mother/Emma E. Smith/Sept. 29, 1849/Mar. 3, 1918”.

The birth of Charles Hillyerd Smith was registered in the Bourne district in 1848.[187] In 1881, we find a draper, Charles Hillyard Smith, 32, living on Leicester Street in Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire. He was born at ‘Doniton’, Lincolnshire. His wife, Eliza, 36, was born in Coningsby, Lincs., and their daughters Margaret, 7, and Rosa, 5, were both born in Leicester.[188] We find Charles Hillyerd Smith marrying one Eliza Winn in 1872 in the Leicester registration district.[189] In 1891, Charles H. Smith, 42, draper, was living at 1 Connaught Street (the General Draper’s Shop) in Leicester. He was born in Sempringham, Lincs.; his wife, Agnes, 34, was a native of Hincaster, Westmorland. His two daughters, Margaret and Rose, 17 and 15 respectively, were both unmarried and born in Leicester.[190] I have found a marriage registration entry for Charles Hillyerd Smith and Agnes Parker in the indices; this took place in 1890 in the Barrow-in-Furness district.[191] According to a notice in Westmorland newspaper from August 1890,”On Thursday, the 28th inst., at St. James’ Church, Barrow-in-Furness, by the Rev. Thomas Clayton Twitchell, Charles Hillyerd Smith, of Highfields, Leicester, to Agnes, daughter of the late Thomas Parker, Hincaster, Westmorland.”[192] In 1901, Charles H. Smith, 52, a retired draper from Pointon, Lincs., was living in Leire, Leicestershire, with his wife Agnes, 44, from Hincaster, Westmorland, and his daughter, Margaret, 27, who was born in Leicester.[193] Ten years later, Charles Hillyerd Smith, 62 (born in Sempringham), was a widowed insurance agent boarding with William Pryce-Jones, a draper, and his wife at 1 Connaught Street, Leicester.[194] Charles Hillyerd Smith, of 140 Queen’s Road, Leicester, retired draper, died on 25 December 1913; probate was granted to Thomas Letts, an engineer, and Letts’s wife, Rosa.[195] To clarify what happened to his second wife, we find that a newspaper notice records the death on 14 January 1905, “at The Woodlands, Walton, near Lutterworth, Agnes, wife of Charles Hillyerd Smith, late of Leicester”.[196] I have been unable to prove when his first wife died (given that it is highly likely she did sometime before 1890).

It seems that Charles Hillyerd Smith had only two children, daughters Margaret and Rosa. There are two Margaret Smith’s born in the early 1870s in Leicester: one in Q1 1872, the other in Q2 1873; the second is most likely to be the one we are looking for.[197] Because she is not with her father in 1911, it is likely that she died or married in the interval; a search for Margaret Smiths marrying between those dates reveals only a handful of likely matches. The index for 1902 has entry for the following people: Henrietta Burton, William Pryce Jones, Herbert Valentine Newman and Margaret Smith.[198] Remember that in 1911 Charles Hillyerd Smith was boarding at the house of one William Pryce Jones. Revisiting that census return reveals that he was 36 years old, had been married (childless) for 9 years and was from Llechryd in Cardigan; his wife, Margaret, was 37 and a native of Leicester. She died a widow in 1958, aged 85.[199] William Pryce-Jones of 47 Guthbridge Crescent, Leicester, died on 10 November 1956, and probate was granted to Margaret Pryce-Jones, widow. He was 81.[200] This information in itself is not sufficient to prove a connection, but the original certificates are all that is needed. I believe it is highly likely that we are dealing with the same Margaret.

As for Rosa, we know that a Rosa Letts, wife of Thomas Letts, was granted Smith’s probate, and so it may well be that she is Rosa, his daughter. One Rosa Letts, aged 34 and born in Leicester, married for 3 years with two children, is living at 11 Fleetwood Road in Leicester in 1911; she is listed as ‘wife’, but her husband is not on the form. Letitia Charlotte Cluet, draper’s assistant, is visiting. Her sons, Charles Thomas Letts, 2, and Arthur Ernest Letts, 1, were both born in the city.[201] We also find that probate on the will of a widow, Rosa Letts, of 11 Fleetwood Road, Leicester, who died on 23 February 1956 at the Royal Infirmary there, was granted to Arthur Ernest Letts, police constable, and Charles George Smith, ‘solicitors managing clerk’.[202] In the first quarter of the same year, Rosa Letts died in the Leicester district aged 80.[203] We also find that Thomas Letts, of 11 Fleetwood Road, Leicester, died on 7 March 1949. Probate was granted to Rosa Letts, widow.[204] Using the census return, we can search for marriages involving one Thomas Letts in c. 1908, looking out for any in the Leicester area. And, we find that in the third quarter of 1907, Thomas Letts and Rosa Smith were amongst two couples in the marriage indices; their marriage was registered in Leicester.[205] Without the certificates themselves, or a relevant marriage notice, we cannot prove this link. But I believe that it is highly likely Rosa Smith, the daughter of Charles Hillyerd Smith, is the same one who married Thomas Letts and died in 1956.

Charlotte and the Jackson connexion

On 1 November 1841 at the Parish Church in St. Mary, Newington, one Charlotte Smith, a spinster, a minor, the daughter of Francis Smith, yeoman, married Henry James Jackson, clerk (of full age), of Newington Road, son of John Jackson, deceased.[206] By 1851, we find one Henry J. Jackson, 40, from Lenitham in Kent, living in Monk Fryston, Yorkshire, where he was curate. His wife was Charlotte, 27, a native of Gosberton, Lincolnshire, and they had two children: Mary Ann, 7, and Elizabeth, 2, both born in Monk Fryston.[207] Ten years later, 49-year-old Henry J. Jackson, born in Erith, Kent, was perpetual curate of Monk Fryston and living in the vicarage there with his wife, Charlotte, 37, who was born in Gosberton. Their children, Mary Ann, 17, Elizabeth, 12, and Henry, 8, were born in the parish and tended to by a governess; there were also two servants.[208] In 1871, Henry Jas. Jackson, 58, a native of Lewisham, and his wife, Charlotte, 47, from Gosberton, were living at Monk Fryston, where he was Vicar. Their widowed daughter Charlotte Coates, 28, was with them, as were Mary Ann, 27?, and Elizabeth, 22, both unmarried, along with one servant.[209] Charlotte Coates, 39, was still living with them in 1881, as was Mary Anne, still unmarried, while Henry J., the son, returned; he was a 38-year-old land agent.[210] Crockford’s Clerical Directory states that Jackson went to St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, and received a BA in 1837 and an MA three years later;[211] he was admitted there in October 1832 and matriculated in Lent 1833. He was ordained a deacon in 1837 and a priest the next year.[212] We learn from an obituary in the York Herald that, on 24 January 1887, aged 84, Rev. Henry James Jackson, Vicar of Monk Fryston, died.[213] He left a will, which was proved by Henry James Jackson, of Woodlesford, a land agent, the son.[214] We then find in the York Herald, a notice that Charlotte, widow of Rev. Henry James Jackson, vicar of Monk Fryston, died at Albert House in Woodlesford on 16 January 1890.[215] Another death notice states that “At Woodlesford, near Leeds, Jan. 15, Charlotte, wife of the late Henry Jackson, Vicar of Monkfryston, Yorkshire, and only surviving sister of Henry Smith, Esq., of Horbling.”[216] Administration was granted to her son, Henry James Jackson, land agent and valuer, of Woodlesford, near Leeds.[217]

To turn to their children, we shall begin with the eldest, Charlotte, who married someone named Coates. We find a notice in the Leeds Intelligencer stating that, on 17 August 1866, at Monk Fryston, Charlotte, daughter of Rev. Henry James Jackson, the parish’s vicar, married James, the eldest son of James Coates, of Wetherby.[218] An index for the marriage record states that she was 21 and he 29.[219] However, the will of “James Coates the Younger late of Wetherby in the County of York Solicitor deceased who died 27 June 1867 at Folkestone in the County of Kent was proved at Wakefield by the oath of Charlotte Coates of Monk Fryston in the County of York aforesaid Widow the Relict the sole Executrix”.[220]

Up to 1871, Charlotte’s younger sisters, Mary Anne and Elizabeth were living with their parents. By 1881, Elizabeth had moved out (it appears), but Mary Anne was still there and unmarried. It seems that the three were reunited in 1891, for a census return shows that Charlotte Coates, widow, 49, living on her means, was head of a household at a house called Sunnyside in the parish of Oulton with Woodlesford. Her two sisters, Mary A. and Elizabeth, unmarried and aged 47 and 42 respectively were with her, along with one servant. The sisters were all born in Monk Fryston.[221] Elizabeth is not with them in 1901, but the same details, plus 10 years, are repeated.[222] In 1911, Charlotte Coates, a 69-year-old widow, and her 67-year-old sister Mary Anne, were living with a servant at West House in Wetherby.[223] The will of Charlotte Coates, of West House, Wetherby, widow, was proved in 1922 and probate granted to Mary Anne Jackson and Edith Sarah Hopkinson, spinsters. She had died on 10 July 1922.[224] West House was reportedly sold the next year “together with a cottage, motor garage, stable, etc.” to one Major Plackett, of Harrogate, for £1,050.[225] Mary Anne has proved impossible to trace beyond this point, largely to the common nature of her name. One Elizabeth, aged 52, a native of ‘Monkfreystone’ in Yorkshire, was visiting the house of E. M. Aston-Narner called “Maisonette”, on Hamilton Road, in Bournemouth in 1901.[226] By 1911, one Elizabeth Jackson, 62, was living 76 Wolverton Road, Boscombe, Hampshire; single and born in Monk Fryston, Yorks., she was listed as “complete invalid – formerly sick nurse” and her mark was witnessed by M. G. Mainjay (Mainfay?), spinster, of 46 Portchester Road, Bournemouth.[227] As with Mary Anne, attempts to trace her death have so far proved fruitless.

The other child, the only son, was Henry James Jackson. On 30 December 1883 at Monk Fryston, Henry James Jackson married Annie Smith.[228] In 1891, he was living at Sunnyside (No. 2) in Woodlesford (next to his sisters); he was 38, from Monk Fryston, and a land agent and valuer. His wife, Annie, 37, born in Bicker, Lincolnshire, and her sister, Felicia Charlotte Smith, 27, born in Aslackby, Lincs., were living with him, along with one servant.[229] Living in Chapel Allerton (a suburb of Leeds) in 1901 was Henry James Jackson, a 48-year-old land agent from Monk Fryston, and his wife Annie, 47, from Bicker, Lincs.[230] By 1911, they had moved to 1 Palace Gardens, Enfield, Mdx., where he, 59, a retired estate agent from Monk Fryston, lived with his wife Annie, 57, from Bicker; they had been married for 27 years, but the union was childless.[231] As with the unmarried sisters, I have not been able to put forward, with any confidence, a death date for him or his wife. Presumably that marriage remained childless; if he did not have children with a later wife, then we can presume that this line of the Jackson family went extinct on the death of whichever sibling lived the longest.

III. Descendants

On 16th April 1846, Henry Smith, son of Francis Smith, married Mary, daughter of James Gould, at Sempringham in Lincolnshire.[232] The Lincolnshire Chronicle carried the following notice: “On Thursday the 16th inst., at Sempringham, (by the Rev. Heny Harris, Vicar of Horbling,) Mr. Henry Smith, of Horbling, to Mary only daughter of Mr. James Gould, of Birthorpe.”[233] By 1851, they already had four children. Henry Smith, aged 30, was living at Horbling with his 24-year-old wife Mary (a native of Billingborough), and four children: Mary, 4; Fanny E., 3; Harriet Anne, 2; and Henry, aged months. He was employing 8 men to help farm his 350 acres; there were four domestic servants living with them.[234] The household looked different in 1861. None of those children were present, and instead five more had arrived: Benjamin, 7; Alice G., 5; Elizabeth S., 4; Edward, 3; and George, 2. His 335 acres was now farmed with the help of 9 men and 2 boys; the house, meanwhile, was maintained with four servants.[235] By 1871, the following children were present: Mary, 24; Harriette Ann, 22; Lucy Matilda, 19; Edith Gertrude, 9; and Margaret Louisa, 7. By this time he was a “grazier, +c – Justice of the Peace”.[236] At his last census, he was living with his daughters, Elizabeth S. 24; Margaret L. T., 17; and three servants.[237]

The children (based on the above and expanded to include more detail, plus spouses and offspring):

Mary, bapt. 16 April 1847; m., at Horbling, 22 September 1874, John Jackson Sudbury, of Aylestone Hill, Hereford, son of John Linley Sudbury, of Cambridge.[238] He died on 12 December 1892; a native of Stamford, the “son of Mrs. Garfit, of S. Martin’s, by her first husband, and nephew of Mrs. Dabbs, of S. Mary’s St.” He was a successful solicitor.[239] They had the following children:[240]
1. John Linley, b. 1877, d. 16 February 1933 at 7 Kenilworth Court, Putney, Surrey. Last lived at Little Orchard, Blackheath, near Guildford, Surrey.[241]
2. Mary Evelyn or Evelyn Mary, b. 1880 at Sardlow, Salop.; d. unm. 30 December 1968. Last lived at Little Orchard, Blackheath, Guildford.[242]
3. Isabel Katherine, b. 1883 at Sardlow, Salop; baptised 15 June 1883 at Ludlow, Shropshite; d. 17 February 1967; engaged 1911 to Roland Victor Carr, of Twante, Burma, younger son on Walter Carr. Last residence: Spero Nursing Home, Salisbury.[243] He last lived at Laylocks, Castle Cary, Somerset, and died on 28 July 1965, aged 79, at Verrington Hospital, Wincanton, Somerset. He was buried on 1 August at Womarsh.[244]
4. Aubrey Hugh Vernon, b. 1887 at Watcombe, Devon; baptised 13 November 1887 at the same; d. 26 March 1963 at St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester. Married in 1916 (lic. 10 April 1916), Annie Frederica Copland Sparkes. Last residence: Lane End, Rectory Lane, Pulborough, Sussex. Buried, 11 April 1963 at Wonersh, Surrey. Probate date 13 September 1963.[245] They had, probably with one daughter,
  1. Maj. Vernon Cecil Warren, b. 20 September 1917, d. 28 September 2005; m. 1953 Patricia Travers Smith, and had issue, one da.[246]
Fanny Elizabeth, b. 6 July 1848; m. 1 August 1871, Edward Harris, s. Rev. Henry Harris, v. of Horbling.[247] He was b. c. 1842 in Northampton, and was a farmer and grazier (in 1881, working 300 acres and employing 8 labourers). In 1881 and 1891, the family lived at Horbling. In 1901, Fanny and Charles Edward, then a road surveyor, were living in Stansted Mountfichet, Essex. Their children are listed below (all were born at Horbling):[248]
1. Rev. Frederick Oliver, bapt. 24 July 1872, d. 5 November 1940. Matriculated Non-C0llegiate in Michaelmas 1891, he migrated to Emmanuel in September 1892, took his BA in 1895, proceeded to MA in 1919. Ordained a deacon in 1898 and priest in 1899, he was Curate of Newchapel in Staffordshire between 1898–1901, of St Mark’s, Myddleton Sq., Clerkenwell, 1901–06, of St M. Donhead with Charlton, Wilts, 1906–8, of Coddenham, 1908–12 and then Vicar of Childerditch, 1912 to d.[249]
2. Charles Edward, bapt. 28 September 1873 at Horbling.[250]
3. Surgeon-Capt. George Henry Noel Hugh, commonly known as Noel Hugh, R.N., bapt. 23 May 1875 at Horbling; d. 7 August 1944. Last lived at Old Place, Horbling near Sleaford, Lincs.[251] He m., 8 December 1920 at Swaton, Lincs., Mary Harriett, eldest da. of Rev. R. H. Mann, Vicar of Swaton.[252] She last lived at the Old Place, Horbling, and died 25 January 1951 in the village.[253]
4. Helen Mary, b. 10 May 1879, d. unm. 8 May 1948 at 75 Warley Hill, Brentwood, Essex. Last lived at Beverley, 62 St John’s Avenue, Brentwood, Essex.[254]
Harriet Anne, bapt. 17 June 1849, d. unm. at Brighton, 8 May 1876, aged 28.[255]
Henry, bapt. 4 November 1850.[256] See below.
Lucy Matilda, bapt. 2 February 1852; m. 17 April 1884 at Horbling, Giovanni Battista Leonardo Vincenzo Luigi Carretti, of Port Maurizio, Italy, s. of Pietro Carretti.[257] The Times reported the death on 12 April 1933, at Port Maurizio, Lucy Matilda Carretti, “daughter of the late Henry Smith, of Horbling, Lincolnshire.”[258] It appears that this couple spent their married life abroad; as a result, I have so far been unable to trace any descendants.
Benjamin, bapt. 16 October 1853.[259] See below.
Alice Gould, bapt. 16 September 1856; m. 6 August 1878 Rev. John Dand Todd, s. Rev Thomas Todd, curate of St. John’s Higher Broughton, Manchester.[260] He was also Curate of St Philips, Hulme, Manchester, and Rector of Newton and Haceby from 1897 to d., and also Rector of Aunsby and Folkingham and Rural Dean of Lafford.[261] Last lived at the Rectory in Newton, Lincs., and died on 12 August 1912.[262] She last lived at Glendair, Bourne, Lincs., and died on 24 January 1930. Her obituary notes that “for some time after her husband’s death Mrs. Todd resided at Billingborough”. At the time, the paper reports that they couple had three daughters, of whom two were married, one to Lionel Heathcote, formerly of Newton House.[263] They had three children, all living in 1911, which are outlined below:[264]
1. Mabel Alice, (or sometimes Mabel), b. 26 July 1884 at Aunsby, Lincs.; m. 1919 at Bourne, Lincs., William Lionel Heathcote, of Newton House, Folkingham.[265] She died on 29 October 1972 at Tan Dinas, Billingborough, Lincs.[266]
  1. Gilbert Michael, b. 1924; d. 26 August 2015; m. 19 September 1953 at St Alban’s, Dorothy Rose Pratchett, only da. of H. W. Pratchett, of Watford. The couple met while she was working as a “land girl” with the Hertfordshire Institute of Agriculture; at the time of their marriage, she was a florist and he was a director of a seed firm. She was born on 14 March 1930 and died 17 November 2007.[267]
    1. Jane Michele, b. 1954; married in 1980.
    2. Amanda Joy, b. 1958; married in 1984.[268]
    3. Annabel Dorothy (adopted), b. 1967; married in 2007.
2. Helen Gertrude, b. 1887 at Aunsby, Lincs.; d. 18 October 1959 at 3 Owls Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth; m. 1920 Major Paul Pechell, sometimes Brooke-Pechell, M.C., elder s. of Sir Alexander Brooke-Pechell, Bt., of Pagglesham, Essex. She last lived at Flat 1, 35 Talbot Avenue, Bournemouth.[269]
3. Norah Eveline or Norah Evelyn, b. 1890 at Aunsby, Lincs.; d. unm. 16 October 1959. Last residence: The Lawn Hospital, Lincoln.[270]
Elizabeth Sills, bapt. 28 October 1858; m. 4 April 1888 Charles Plumpton Wilson, eldest s. of Rev. P. S. Wilson, Vicar of Horbling.[271] The marriage of Elizabeth Sills Smith, 31, daughter of Henry Smith, and Charles Plumpton Wilson, 29, daughter of Plumpton Stravenson Wilson, took place at Horbling in 1888.[272] In 1901, Charles P. Wilson, 41, was schoolmaster at Sandroyd, a private school in Cobham. Born in Roydon, Norfolk, his wife was Elizabeth S., 44, from Horbling in Lincolnshire; their daughter, Joyce, 11, born in Elstree, was with them, as was his sister, Margaret, 29, from Pinchbeck in Lincolnshire.[273] In 1911, Charles Plumpton Wilson, 51, married for 22 years with 2 children (both alive), was the schoolmaster at Sandroyd School, a preparatory school in Cobham. He was born at Roydon, Norfolk, and his wife, Elizabeth Sills Wilson, 54, was born in Horbling, Lincolnshire. Living with them was their son, Alan Plumpton Wilson, 22, a Cambridge undergraduate, born at Elstree, and daughter, Joyce Wilson, 21, also from Elstree, as well as a niece, Helen Phyllis Gould smith, 18, from Horbling.[274] Elizabeth Sills Wilson, aged 62, was buried at Cobham on 4 November 1918.[275] Probate was granted on the estate of Elizabeth Sills Wilson, of Sandroyd School, Cobham, Surrey (wife of Charles Plumpton Wilson), who died on 1 November 1918 to her husband. [276] Probate was granted on the estate of Charles Plumpton Wilson, of Eckling Grange, East Dereham, Norfolk, who died 9 March 1938, to Alan Plumpton Wilson, schoolmaster, and Frank Clyde Smith, rubber planter.[277] An obituary in the Grantham Journal states that his father was Vicar of Horbling and that Charles married “a daughter of the late Captain Henry Smith, D.L., J.P., of Horbling, but had been a widower for many years. He leaves one son, who is a master at Repton School, and one daughter.”[278] According to the Times, he was a scholar at Uppingham and Marlborough schools before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge. He played Rugby for England in 1881; he was in Cambridge’s cricket team, rode for them against Oxford in the 1878 25-mile bicycle race, played for Corinthians and the Casuals association football clubs, and played the sport for England. He was “first an assistant master at Elstree, and from 1898 to 1920 was joint headmaster of Sandroyd School, Cobham”.[279] The Alumni Cantabrigienses notes that he graduated with a B.A. in 1881 and proceeded to M.A. in 1887.[280]
1. Alan Plumpton, bapt. 19 February 1889 at Elstree.[281] The marriage was arranged in 1919 between Alan Plumpton Wilson, of Repton in Derbyshire, only son of C. P. Wilson and the late Mrs. Wilson, of Sandroyd, Cobham, and Ottilie, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wynford Dewhurst, of Elmwood, North End, Hampstead.[282] The marriage of Alan P. Wilson and Ottilie H. M. A. Dewhurst took place in 1919 in Hendon, Middlesex.[283] The death of Alan Plumpton Wilson, born on 19 January 1889, was registered in 1970 in Chelsea.[284] Probate was granted on the estate of Alan Plumpton Wilson, of 8 Gledhow Gardens, London, SW5, who died on 4 July 1970.[285]
2. Joyce. In 1913, The Surrey Mirror reported that “The marriage arranged between Frank Clyde Smith, son of the late Charles Chaloner Smith and Mrs. Chaloner Smith, of The Grange, Cobham, and Joyce, only daughter of Charles Plumpton Wilson and Mrs. Wilson, of Sandroyd, Cobham, will take place in Ceylon in the middle of May”.[286] The death of Frank Clyde-Smith, 65, was registered in Taunton in 1944.[287] Probate on the estate of Frank Clyde-Smith, of Netherclay House, Bishop’s Hill, Taunton, who died 5 March 1944, was granted to Joyce Clyde-Smith, widow.[288] According to a report in a local newspaper, “A native of Ewell, Epsom, Surrey, Mr. Clyde-Smith was educated at Haileybury… . Later he went out to Ceylon and was engaged in tea planting in that island for 19 years. During this time, he was Planting A.D.C. to the Governor, and served in the Ceylon Rifle Corps, attaining the rank of captain. … Returning to England in 1914, he was given a commission as Captain in the Royal Fusillers, but on account of ill-health, he resigned from the Army. He had lived at Netherclay House for nearly 20 years. He leaves a wife, two sons and two daughters. The sons are Lieut.-Colonel A. Clyde-Smith, of the Indian Army, and Squadron Leader Dennis Clyde-Smith, D.S.O., D.F.C., R.A.F., and the daughters, Mrs. Wigram, wife of Major Henry Wigram, of Kibbear, Trull, and Miss Patricia Clyde-Smith.”[289] Probate was granted on the estate of Joyce Clyde-Smith, of Grouville Hall Hotel, Grouville, Jersey, widow, who died 13 March 1959, to Anthony Clyde-Smith, retired Indian Army officer.[290]
  1. Anthony. The Times noted that the marriage of Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony, elder son of the late Frank Clyde-Smith of Bishop’s Hull, Taunton, and Phillipa Sheila Mary, only daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Gaisford of The Residency in Bangalore. The wedding took place on 5 January 1945 at St Patrick’s Church, Bangalore.[291] The death of Anthony Clyde-Smith, born 26 February 1914, was registered in 1989 in Southampton.[292]
  2. Dennis. The Times noted that Squadron Leader Denis Clyde-Smith, D.F.C., younger son of Mr. and Mrs. F. Clyde-Smith, and Naomi, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Broughton.[293] The marriage of Denis Clyde-Smith and Naomi R. Broughton was registered in 1942 at Bridgwater, Somerset.[294] The death of Denis Clyde-Smith, born 15 April 1916, was registered in 1997 in Honiton, Devon.[295]
  3. Helen Enid. On 15 September 1938, Henry J. F. Wigram, only son of Captain Ronald Wigram of Kibear House, Trull, married Helen Enid Clyde-Smith, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. Clyde-Smith, Netherclay House, Bishop’s Hull.[296] The death of Helen Enid Wigram, who was born on 16 April 1915, was registered in 1984 in Taunton Deane, Somerset.[297] The death of Henry Frederick J. Wigram, born on 1 February 1916, was registered in 1984, when he was aged 68, in Taunton Deane.[298] Probate was granted on the estate of Helen Enid Wigram, of Foxherne, Adcombe Close, Blagdon Hill, Taunton, who died on 11 October 1984.[299] Probate was granted on the estate of Henry Frederick James Wigram, of the same address, who died on 22 December 1984.[300]
  4. Patricia. In 1944, The Times noted that Captain Geoffrey N. A. W. Mallalieu, of The Somerset Light Infantry, elder son of Lieutenant-Colonel W. Mallalieu, of Wiveliscombe, Somerset, was engaged to Patricia Clyde-Smith, younger daughter of the late Mr. Clyde Smith and of Mrs. Clyde-Smith, of Bishop’s Hull, Taunton.[301] They married that year.[302] Probate was granted on the estate of Geoffrey Norman Anthony William Mallalieu, of Clerkspool, Wiveliscombe, Somersetshire, who died on 20 February 1945 ‘on war service’. Limited administration went to Denis Clyde-Smith, squadron leader in the RAF, attorney of Patricia Tobin (wife of Richard Tobin) and William Mallalieu, retired lieutenant colonel in the Army.[303] In January 1946, at Wellington, India, Major R. Tobin, of the Frontier Rifles, married Patricia, widow of Major Geoffrey Mallalieu, of the Somerset Light Infantry.[304]
Edward, bapt. 7 March 1858.[305] See below.
George, bapt. 14 October 1859.[306] See below.
Edith Gertrude, bapt. 4 December 1861 at Horbling.[307] The death of Edith G. Smith, 66, was registered in 1928 in Stratton, Cornwall.[308] Edith Gertrude Smith, of Scorsham, Stratton, Cornwall, died unmarried on 7 March 1928; administration was granted to George Smith, solicitor.[309] A notice in the London Gazette asking for all creditors with any claims or demands against the estate was issued by “B. Smith and Co., Horbling, Billingborough, Lincolnshire, Solicitors for the Administrator”.[310]
Margaret Louisa Turner, bapt. 31 March 1864; m. 1 August 1893 at Horbling, Alfred Godward, 2nd s. of John Godward, of Merton Park, Surrey.[311] The death of Margaret L. T. Godward, aged 82, was registered in the Surrey Mid-Eastern district in 1946.[312] Probate was granted on the estate of Margaret Louisa Turner Godward, widow, of 12 Temple Road, Epsom, Surrey, who died on 1 March 1946, to Cuthbert Godward, civil servant.[313] When the sons were baptised, they were living in Culverdon Road, Balham, and Alfred was an insurance clerk. In 1901, Alfred Godward, 37, was head of a household living at 39 Culverden Road, Streatham. A clerk, he was born in London Battersea and had a wife and four children; the wife was Margaret L. T., 37, a native of Horbling; their children were all born in Balham, London: Cuthbert, 6, John S., 4, Margaret M., 1, and Alfred H., 3 months.[314] Ten years later, Alfred Godward, 47, was living at “Birthorpe”, Woodcote Park Road in Epsom, Surrey. Married for 17 years with 4 children (all living), he was an insurance clerk, born in Battersea, Surrey. His wife was Margaret Louisa Turner Godward, 47, from Horbling, Lincolnshire, and their children were with them: Cuthbert, 16, John Sidney, 15, Margaret Mary, 11, and Alfred Henry, 10, all born in Balham, Surrey.[315] We find that Alfred, son of John and Sarah Godward, of Battersea (he being and insurance clerk), was baptised there on 3 April 1864.[316] Probate was granted on the estate of Alfred Godward, of Birthorpe, Woodcote Park Road, Epsom, Surrey, who died on 19 June 1943, to Margaret Mary Godward, spinster, and Cuthbert Godward, civil servant. The death of Alfred Godward, aged 79, was registered in 1943 in Surrey Mid-Eastern.[317]
1. Cuthbert, bapt. 7 October 1894 at Streatham.[318] The birth of Cuthbert Godward was registered in 1894 in Wandsworth.[319] Probate on the estate of Cuthbert Godward, of 11 Redhouse Lane, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, who died on 7 January 1964, was granted to Lloyds Bank Limited.[320] The death of Cuthbert Godward, 69, was registered in 1964 in the Surrey North Western district.[321] We find Cuthbert Godward marrying Ivy Barr in 1921.[322] One Ivy Godward, born on 5 March 1894, died in 1981 aged 87 in the Surrey Northern district.[323] Probate was granted on the estate of Ivy Godward, of 11 Red House Lane, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, who died on 27 August 1981.[324] I have not found any children born to this marriage. In his book Vern Grosvenor Swanson says that they had no children.[325]
2. John Sidney, bapt. 28 January 1896 at St Mary, Balham.[326] The birth of John Sidney Godward was registered in 1896 at Wandsworth.[327] Probate was granted on the estate of John Sidney Godward, otherwise John Sydney Godward, of Kerling Estate, Kerlinger Federated Malay States, Selangor, who died on 27 August 1945 ‘on war service’, to Margaret Louisa Turner Godward, widow.[328] He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Pioneer Corps, before dying aged 47 on 27 August 1945. According to the register of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, he was “son of Alfred Godward and of Margaret Louisa Turner Godward (née Smith), of Epsom, Surrey” and is commemorated at Kranji War Cemetery, Signapore.[329] V. G. Swanson says that he worked for a ‘foreign form in the Orient’ before being captured by the Japanese in World War II.[330] He does not appear to have married.
3. Margaret Mary, bapt. 15 October 1899 at Balham St Mary.[331] The death of Margaret M. Godward was registered in Chelmsford, Essex, in 1967, aged 67.[332] Probate was granted on the estate of Margaret Mary Godward, of 12 Temple Road, Epsom, Surrey, who died on 21 April 1967 at Chelmsford and Essex Hospital in Chelmsford.[333]
4. Alfred Henry, bapt. 17 February 1901 at Streatham.[334] The death of Alfred H. Godward, aged 63, was registered in 1963 in Southport, Lancashire.[335] Probate was granted on the estate of Alfred Henry Godward, of Flat 1, 141a Lord Street, Southport, Lancashire, who died on 10 September 1963, to Norah Sydney Godward widow.[336] Alfred H. Godward married Edith S. Anderson in 1929 at Middlesex.[337] Alfred H. Godward married in 1955 at Southport, Lancashire, Nora S. Plunkett.[338] We find that probate was granted on the estate of Edith Suttye Godward (otherwise Betty), of 2a Gloucester Road, Birkdale, Lancashire, the wife of Alfred Henry Godward; she died on 13 December 1954 and administration was granted to her husband, who was a bank clerk.[339] The death of Edith S. Godward, aged 57, was registered in 1954 in Southport, Lancashire.[340] Norah Sydney Godward, born on 22 May 1901, died in 1984 in Sefton North, Merseyside.[341] I have been unable to find any children from either marriage. V. G. Swanson says that there were no children from either of his two marriages (although he does not name the wives).[342]
Francis Arthur, bapt. 24 December 1865; bur. 9 August 1866.[343]

We already know when Henry Smith died. The death of wife was reported in the Grantham Journal: “At Horbling, on the 15th inst., Mary the wife of Henry Smith, Esq., in the 50th year of her age.”[344] Several of their children were notable in their own right, and further details are outlined below.

Henry Smith (1850–1931)

According to the Alumni Cantabrigienses, Henry Smith was born on 19 July 1850.[345] He was baptised on 4 November 1850.[346] On 31 October 1868, he was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, and he matriculated in Michaelmas 1869, before graduating with a B.A. in 1873.[347] In 1881, we find at Tathwell Hall, Tathwell, Henry Smith, unmarried, aged 30, living with his sister, Lucy M. Smith, 29, both from Horbling. He was a B.A. and Farmer of 981 acres employment 21 men and 8 boys. [348] Ten years later, living at Sudbrook House, Ancaster, is Henry Smith, unmarried, 40, a J.P., landowner and farmer, who was born in Horbling. With him are two servants.[349] At the same place in 1901 is Henry Smith, unmarried, 50, farmer, born in Horbling and living with three servants.[350] The same is true in 1911, albeit he is with four servants and one visitor.[351] He died on 17 October 1931; a notice of the death of “Mr. Henry Smith, J.P.” appeared in the Grantham Journal on 31 October: he lived at Highfield in Sleaford, where he died aged of 81. “A native of Horbling,” the article states that he was appointed a justice of the peace in 1889 and had been chairman of the Petty Sessions “until recently”.[352] The details of his will were enumerated in another newspaper article the following March:[353]

“Mr Henry Smith, of Highfield, Sleaford,” died on 17 October 1931, aged “71”; his estate was valued at £41,274 11s. 8d., with net personality £23,533 12s. 11d.
Probate was granted to his brother George Smith, of Horbling, Billingborough, and nephews Graham Gould Smith, of 16, Friar’s Stile Road, Richmond Hill, London, and Francis Gould Smith, of Horbling Hall.
£500 each to his sister Margaret Godward and his niece Helen P. Gould Smith,
£1,600 to his nephew Frederick Harris,
£400 to his niece Frances Mary Smith,
£300 each to his nieces Evelyn Ludbury and Katherine Carr,
£2,000 each to his nieces Mary Wilson and Faith Foottit,
£300 to his niece Joyce Clyde Smith,
£1,200 between his nieces Mabel Heathcote and Helen Petchell and Nora Todd,
£500 to his nephew George Henry Gould Smith.
Property at Aslackby and Pointon and £4,000 is left in trust for his nephews Graham Gould Smith
Property at Millthorpe to his nephew Francis Gould Smith
£1,000 and £100 a year and £40 worth of furniture to his housekeeper, Charlotte Kirkby, £500 to his servant Charlotte Ward.
£100 to Sarah Bottomley, and £200 and his tools to his chauffeur, if respectively in his service.
£300 “for filling in the window near the font in Horbling Church with stained glass”.
The residue of the property to his brother George Smith.

Interestingly, 13 years later, we find the obituary of Satah Bottomley, one his long-term servants whose sister appeared often in censuses with Smith.[354]

Benjamin Smith (1853–1914)

Benjamin Smith, the son of Henry and his wife Mary, was baptised on 16 October 1853 at Horbling.[355] In the 1881 census, we find Benjamin Smith, an unmarried, 27 year-old “solicitor in practice”, born in Horbling and living at 51 High Street there with 2 servants. [356] Ten years later, the occupant of The Hall, Horbling is Benjamin Smith, 37, a solicitor and native of Horbling; he is with his wife, Faith, 34, from Brighton, Sussex, daughters Constance M., 8, and Faith Oswell, 5, and son Graham G., 2; they were all born in Horbling.[357] Living at Horbling Hall, Horbling, in 1901 was Benjamin Smith, 47, solicitor, born in Horbling, and his wife Faith, 44, wife, born Brighton, Sussex, plus his daughters, Constance M., 15, and Faith O. Smith, 13, both from Horbling as well. With them were 5 servants.[358] The 1911 census reveals that Benjamin Smith, 57, married for 26 years, with 3 children (all living), was a solicitor, living in his native Horbling with his wife Faith, 54, from Brighton, Sussex, a daughter, Faith Oswell, 23, also from Horbling, and two servants.[359]

An account of the will of “Mr. Benjamin Smith, of Horbling Hall, solicitor, of Messrs. B. Smith and Co., of Horbling and Donington,” is given in the Grantham Journal. He was “steward of the Manor of Dunsby, Lord of the Manors of Monkshall and Meeres, and joint Lord of the Manor of Wikes, secretary to the Billingborough, Horbling, and Donington Gas Company, and holder of numerous other public appointments” and died on 23 June 1914, aged 61. His estate was valued at £106,485 4s. 11d., with net personalty £28,444 4s. 9d. Probate of his will, dated 10th December 1913, with a codicil of the 17th February, 1914, was granted to his son, Graham Gould Smith, solicitor, of Horbling, and his brothers, George Smith, solicitor, of Horbling, and Henry Smith, of Sudbrook House, Ancaster. Particulars of the bequests are further outlined below:[360]

His fishing rods and other items to the Rev. Cecil St. J. Wright,
All other sporting effects and his share in his business and offices at Horbling and Donington to his son Graham,
£100 to his wife, and his residence and household effects to her for life, with remainder to his son
£20 to William Vickers “in recognition of faithful service”
The residue of his property to his wife during widowhood, with remainder as to half to his son, and a quarter upon trust for each of his daughters, Constance Mary and Faith Oswell.

In 1885, we find a notice in the Stamford Mercury saying that on 5 February, “at Llandinabo, Herefordshire, Mr. B. Smith, solicitor, second son of Mr. Henry Smith, J.P., of Horbling, [married] Faith, youngest daughter of the Rev. H. Lloyd Oswell, Rector of Llandinabo and Chaplain of Harewood.”[361] Crisp’s Visitation of England and Wales includes a pedigree for the Oswell family; it includes reference to “Rev. Henry LLoyd Oswell, born at Westbury, co. Salop, on Friday, 26 March, bapt. there on Wednesday, 31 March 1813; of Christ Church, Oxford, matriculated 10 November 1831, B.A. 1835, M.A. 1838; Perpetual Curate of Stoulton, co. Worcester, 1843–51, Vicar of Leighton, co. Salop, 1851–59, Perpetual Curate of Bobbington, co. Salop, 1859–62, Vicar of St. George’s, Shrewsbury, co. Salop, 1866–72, Rector of Llandinabo, co. Hereford, 1872 to 1888; admitted a Burgess of Shrewsbury 23 December 1835; died at 3 Bromfield Gardens, Richmond Hill, co. Surrey, aged 80, on Sunday, 4 June, bur. in the cemetery at Shrewsbury on Thursday, 8 June 1893. M.I. Will dated 12 January 1892, with codicil dated 30 January 1893, proved (Prin. Reg., 582, 93) 26 June 1893, by the Rev. William Henry Oswell and Francis LLoyd Oswell, the Exors. [the Rev. Henry Lloyd Oswell had, with other children, a daughter:] Faith, born at Brighton, co. Sussex, on Monday, 6 October, bapt. at St. Peter’s, Brighton, on Saturday, 1 November 1856; marr. at Llandinabo, co. Hereford (by her brother, the Rev. William Henry Oswell, assisted by the Rev. Prebendary William Poole), on Thursday, 5 February 1885, to Benjamin Smith of Horbling Hall, co. Lincoln (2nd son of Henry Smith of Horbling, J.P. for parts of Kesteven, by Mary his wife, dau. of James Gould of Birthorpe Manor, co. Lincoln); born at Horbling 9 June 1853, bapt. there; educated at Winchester.”[362] The Times noted that “On Feb. 7, 1946, peacefully, at Richmond, Surrey, after years of intense suffering, Faith, widow of Benjamin Smith, of Horbling Hall, Lincs., and youngest daughter of the Rev. Henry Lloyd Oswell, of Shropshire, [died] in her 90th year.”[363]

From this information, we find that Benjamin and Faith Smith had the following issue:

Constance Mary; someone by this name was born in the first quarter of 1886 in the Bourne district.[364] We then find Constance Mary Smith, a daughter of Benjamin and Faith Smith, being baptised on 4 April 1886 at Horbling.[365] According to the Grantham Journal, “the marriage of Dr. Geoffrey Plumpton Wilson, younger son of the Rev. P. S. Wilson, Vicar of Horbling, and Miss Constance Mary Smith, elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Smith, of Horbling Hall” took place at Horbling on 25 July 1906.[366] In August 1934, the same newspaper carried an article about the “sudden” death of Dr. Geoffrey Plumpton Wilson, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., aged 57; he was the younger son of Rev. P. S. Wilson, and the husband of Constance Mary, daughter of “the late Mr. Ben Smith, solicitor, Horbling”. They had one son and three daughters, of which two were married when he died.[367] A death notice confirms that he died on 30 July at Ketton, Rutland.[368]
- Diana. The Times noted that the marriage took place at Ketton, Rutland, between “Guy Dennis, eldest son of Mr. Charles Wreford Brown and Mrs. H. M. Wreford Brown of Pevensey Bay, [and] Diana, eldest daughter of the late Dr. G. P. Wilson and Mrs. Wilson, of Tinwell, Stamford” on 6 July 1939.[369] Guy Denis Wreford-Brown, born 27 May 1905, died in the first quarter of 1988 in the Eastbourne Registration District in Sussex.[370] Probate was granted on the estate of Guy Denis Wreford-Brown, of 26 Pevensey Park Road, Westham, Pevensey, East Sussex, who died on 21 February 1988.[371] Diana Wreford-Brown, born 24 March 1910, died in the fourth quarter of 1991 in the same district. Probate was granted on the estate of Diana Wreford-Brown, of the same address in Pevensey, who died 18 December 1991.[372]
- Joan Eileen. According to a local newspaper, the “marriage was solemnised of Mr. Charles Henry Schwind, youngest on of Mr. G. H. Schwind and the late Mrs. Schwind of Dembleby Hall, Lincs., and Miss Joan Eileen, second daughter of Dr. and Mrs. G. P. Wilson, of Ketton” on 16 June 1931 at Ketton Parish Church. Her sisters, Diana and Pauline, were bridesmaids.[373] Joan E. Wilson married Charles H. Schwind, in 1931 at Stamford [374] Joan Eileen Schwind, born 17 May 1911, died in 1994 at Cambridge.[375] She died on 8 March 1994 and last lived at 26 Lonsdale, Linton, Cambs.[376] Charles Henry Schwind, of the Old Rectory, Hindersham near Linton, Cambridgeshire, died 16 July 1965 at Evelyn Nursing Home, Cambridge.[377]
- Pauline. The Times recorded the engagement of “Cecil Gowing, of Sprowston, Norwich, and Pauline, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. G. P. Wilson”. The marriage was set for 18 April 1934.[378] The marriage indices show that Pauline Wilson married Cecil G. Gowing in the second quarter of 1934 in the Ketton district of Rutland.[379] One Pauline Wilson, born on 15 November 1912, died in the Norwich district in the last quarter of 1995.[380] Cecil George Bowing, born on 29 April 1898, died in 1973 in the Outer Norwich district.[381] Probate was granted on the estate of Cecil George Bowing of Home Farm, Rackheath, Norfolk, who died o 7 May 1973.[382] A baptismal record shows that Cecil George Bowing, born on 29 April 1898, was christened on 17 July 1898 in Sprowston, Norfolk, the son of George David and Ethel Sarah Gowing.[383]
- Peter Plumpton. The National Probate Calendar records that “Peter Plumpton [Wilson] of Tinwell Rutlandshire died on or since 13 June 1942 on war service”; administration was granted to Constance Mary Wilson, widow.[384] The birth indices show that one Peter P. Wilson was born in Penrith, Cumberland, in the last quarter of 1918. His mother’s maiden name was Smith.[385] The Royal Aero Club issued an aviator’s certificate to Peter Plumpton Wilson, of 145 Chesterton Road, Cambridge, on 25 July 1939; he was then a brewer and gave his birth date as 30 October 1918, and birth place as Langwathby.[386] A war memorial in Tinwell list “Pilot Officer Peter Plumpton Wilson, R.A.F.V.R.” amongst those who died in World War II.[387] He is commemorated in the Alamein Memorial in Egypt, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission; their register for the memorial says that “Wilson, Pilot Offr. Peter Plumpton, 114748. R.A.F.(V.R.). 213 Sqdn.” died on 13 June 1942, age 24; he was the son of “Geoffrey Plumpton Wilson and Constance Mary Wilson, of Hildersham, Cambridgeshire”.[388]
The birth of one Faith Oswell Smith was registered in the fourth quarter of 1887 in the Bourne Registration District.[389] Faith Oswell Smith, the daughter of Benjamin and Faith Smith, was baptised on 6 November 1887 at Horbling.[390] In October 1914, the Grantham Journal reported that the marriage “is arranged, and will take place after the war, between Lieut. James Augustus Warwick Foottit, 17th Cavalry, Bengal Lancers, elder son of the Rev. C. E. W. and Mrs. Foottit, of Burton Pedwardine Rectory, and Faith Oswell, youngest daughter of the late Mr. Ben Smith, and Mrs. Ben Smith, of Horbling Hall, Folkingham, Lincs.”[391] They chose not to wait: we find that Faith Oswell Smith, 27, daughter of Benjamin Smith, married on 25 March 1915 at Bombay, India, James Augustus Warwick Foottit, 29, son of Charles Edward Walker Fottit.[392] The death indices show that Faith Oswell Foottit, born on 6 October 1887, died in Q1 1980, aged 92.[393] We also find, in the same register (Q1 1980), James Augustus W. Foottit, who was born on 26 August 1885; he died aged 94.[394] Their wills were proved that year: Faith Oswell Foottit (died 28 March 1980) and James Augustus Warwick Foottit (died 27 March 1980), both of Flat 3, Wardington House, Banbury, Oxfordshire.[395]
- Derek James Warwick. A notice in The Times in January 1945 announced the engagement between “Derek James Warwick Foottit, eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel and Mrs. J. A. W. Foottit, Manor House Lodge, Sparsholt, Wantage, Berkshire, and Flora Elizabeth de Brereton Findlay, eldest daughter of the late Mr. H. C. Findlay, M.C., and of Mrs. Findlay, Kiambu, Kenya.”[396] They must have married for, in 1956, the names of “Foottit, Derek James Warwick, Assistant Agricultural Officer, Bondo” and “Foottit, Flora Elizabeth de Brereton, Housewife, P.O. Bondon” were added to the Kenya Electoral Register for the
  Electoral Area no. 6 (Nyanza).[397] We also find that Derek James Warwick Foottit was appointed an Assistant Soil Conservative Officer, Grade I (D A R A), with effect from 18th June, 1947.[398]
- Ian Desmond. A notice in The Times in May 1955 announced the engagement between “Captain Ian Desmond Foottit, 2nd King Edward’s Own Gurka Rifles, son of Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. W. Foottit and Mrs. Foottit, of 16, Friar’s Stile Road, Richmond, and Joy Marion, daughter of the late A. O. Courtis, M.B., B.Ch., and Mis. S. J. Layton Bennett, of 325, Nell Gwynn House, Sloane Avenue, S.W.3.”[399] Ian D. Foottit married. in the first quarter of 1945, Joy M. Courtis.[400] The Telegraph recorded that “Foottit, Ian Desmond, aged 90, Major 2nd K.E.O. Goorkha Rifles”, died on 30 January 2009.[401]
- Keith Alan Murray, “son of Lt.-Col. James Augustus Warwick Foottit and Faith Oswell Foottit, of Sparsholt, Berkshire”, died on 21 January 1944, aged 21. He was commissioned a Flying Officer (no. 133401) in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 77 Squadron. He was buried in the Berlin 1939–45 Cemetery.[402] In January 1944, The Times carried the following death notice: “Missing over enemy territory in Jan. 1944, now unofficially presumed killed, with all his crew, F/O. Keith Alan Murray Foottit, R.A.F., aged 21, most precious and beloved youngest son of Lt.-Col. J. A. W. Foottit, I.A., Dalia State, India, and Mrs. Foottit, and beloved brother of Derek and Ian, both Indian Army.”[403]
Graham Gould was born in the first quarter of 1889 in the Bourne Registration District.[404] He, being the son of Benjamin and Faith Smith, was baptised on 10 March 1889 at Horbling.[405] In 1920 the Grantham Journal reported on “the marriage of Mr. Graham Gould Smith, only son of the late Mr. Ben Smith and of Mrs. Smith, of Horbling Hall, and Miss Helen Phyllis Gould Smith, only daughter of Mr. George Smith, senior partner in the firm of Messrs. B. Smith and Co., well-known South Lincolnshire solicitors.” It had taken place on 1 June.[406] There were two grants of probate for Smith, one for ‘settled land’ and one for the rest of his estate; under both, we find that probate was granted to Helen Phyllis Gould Smith, widow, and Harry Bowden, solicitor, for the estate of Graham Gould Smith, of North Densome, Woodgreen, Fordingbridge, Hampshire; he died on 10 January 1965.[407] The death of Graham G. Smith was registered in the Christchurch district of Hampshire in 1965; he was 76.[408] The probate on the estate of “Helen Phyllis Gould [Smith] of North Densome Woodgreen Fordingbridge Hants died 17 June 1971” was granted in that year.[409] The death of Helen Phyllis Smith, born on 5 October 1892, was registered in the second quarter of 1971 at Salisbury in Wiltshire.[410] So far, I have only been able to trace two children with certainty. A search for other Smiths born in the 1920s and 1930s in the Bourne district with a mother called Smith reveals several results, none of which have been verified.
- Hugh Allison Gould, born on 5 May 1921, (“s. of Graham Gould Smith, of Fordingbridge, Hants.”), he was educated at Repton School and Merton College, Oxford (B.A. 1945, M.A. 1947); he served in the Royal Army Service Corps, 1941–45, and after the war was a schoolmaster, eventually becoming deputy Headmaster at Tripoli College. He married in 1947 and had had one son by 1964.[411] We find that The Times records the birth, on 28 June 1947, at Woking Maternity Home, Peter Graham Gould Smith, son of “Barbara “Peter” (née White), wife of Hugh Gould Smith”.[412] We find that in 1942, in the Surrey North Western district, Hugh A. G. Smith married Barbara F. M. White.[413] One Hugh A. G. Smith was born in 1921 in the Bourne district.[414]
  - Peter Graham Gould, born 28 July 1947 (see Times source above).
- Daphne Gould. In 1929, the Grantham Journal records that “little Miss Daphne Gould Smith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. G. Smith”, presented Lady Hanworth with flowers at a summer fair held in Horbling Hall.[415] We find that one Daphne G. Smith was born in 1925 in the Bourne district.[416]

Edward Smith (1858–1936)

Edward, son of Henry and Mary Smith, was baptised at Horbling on 7 March 1858.[417] In the 1881 census, we find Edward Smith, an unmarried, 23-year-old native of Horbling, farming 365 acres (with 6 men and 1 boy) and living at 2 High Street, Horbling, with 3 servants.[418] Ten years later, he is living at the The Limes, Horbling: there Edward Smith, 33, farmer, born in Horbling, is living with his wife, Frances M. Smith, 31, from Donington, their daughters Frances M. Smith, 7, born in Horbling, and Dorothy M. G. Smith, 1, also from Horbling, plus 3 servants.[419] The Limes, Horbling, looks almost the same ten years later when Edward Smith, 43, farmer, is living with his Donington-born wife Frances M. Smith, 41, and his daughters Frances M., 17, and Dorothy M. G. 11, tended by 3 servants. Edward and his daughters were born in Horbling.[420] In 1911, we find living in Horbling (but without a more specific address), Edward Smith, 53 and a native of Horbling, married for 28 years, with 2 children (both alive), living off private means; he was with his unmarried daughters, Frances May Smith, 27, and Dorothy Margaret Gleed Smith, 21, both born in Horbling.[421] That year, we find Frances Mary Gleed Smith as the head of a household at Priory Road in Felixstowe; she was 51, married for 28 years with 2 children (both living) and had been born at Donington Park, near Spalding. She was living with Catherine Sophia Nice, “resident, friend of the Head”, 42, single, and from Bishopstone in Herefordshire.[422]

The Nottingham Evening Post carried the news of his death, which occurred on 29 January 1936 at Horbling “after an illness extending over several weeks”. He died aged 78. The paper records that he was “the third son of the late Capt. Henry Smith, D.L., J.P., and a brother of Mr. George Smith, the head of an old-established firm of country solicitors.”
At the time of his death, Smith was the senior magistrate for Bourne, “and for many years was its acting chairman.” The obituary notes that “for a long period he was member of the Kesteven County Council, and retired from that body after serving for many years as an alderman.” He also sat on the Board of Guardians and district council, and was the oldest acting Commissioner of Income and Land Taxes for the division of Aveland. He had commanded the H (Billingborough and Bourne) Company.[423] The Grantham Journal also noted that he had been “the senior magistrate on the Bourne Bench, having been appointed in the early nineties, and for a number of years he represented Billingborough on the Kesteven County Council, eventually being created an alderman … In his younger days, the late Mr. Smith farmed as a hobby, and as a landowner he had extensive interests in the district.”[424]

Interestingly, it appears that Frances Mary Smith, née Gleed, was estranged from her husband. In 1937, she replied to an enquiry in the Grantham Journal about a man who photographed her father. She wrote: “I have a photo by him of my late father, Captain Richard Gleed, of the Park, Donington, near Spalding, who was in the South Lincolnshire Militia when its headquarters were in Grantham. My father died in 1876, and was a captain some time previous to that, so should say it was about 1872–3. … I may add that I have taken your paper more of less since I left Lincolnshire in 1902. Yours, etc., Frances Mary Gleed Smith, Beeston Hills, Norfolk.”[425] Frances Mary Gleed Smith, of Dunrobin, Beeston Hills, Sheringham, Norfolk, widow, died on 19 July 1939. Probate was granted on her estate to Barry Colt Thompson and John Cecil Barry Thompson, solicitors.[426]

It is clear from the information above that Smith had two daughters:

Frances May, or Frances Mary. The birth of Frances Mary Smith was recorded in the Bourne district in 1883.[427] A person with the same name was baptised in Horbling on 5 May 1883, the daughter of Edward and Frances Mary Smith.[428] She died in or after 1954. It has not been possible to definitely trace her death; she was granted probate on her sister’s estate in 1954, and was then unmarried.
Dorothy Margaret Gleed, baptised on 27 August 1889 at Horbling, the daughter of Edward and Frances Mary Smith.[429] The birth of Dorothy Margaret G. Smith was registered in the Bourne district in 1889.[430] She last lived at Waybrook, Lime Tree Avenue, Thames Ditton, Surrey, and died unmarried on 12 November 1953; probate was granted to Frances May Smith, “spinster”.[431] We find Dorothy M. G. Smith died in the Surrey Northern district in 1953 aged 64.[432]

George Smith (1859–1945)

The Grantham Journal reported on the death of George Smith, of Horbling, “the oldest solicitor in Lincolnshire”. He was 87 when he died earlier in February 1945. The obituary states he was born in Horbling in March 1859 and was the youngest son of “the late Capt. Henry Smith, D.L., J.P.” George Smith was “the senior partner in the old-established legal business of Messrs. B. Smith and Co., of Horbling and Donington.” The article lists the many offices he held: steward of the Manors of Wikes, Monks Hall and Meeres at Donington and Gosberton; a Black Sluice Commissioner (he also succeeded his brother as clerk); clerk to Cowley’s Charity, Donington; clerk to Barnes’ Charity; clerk to the Commissioners of Land and Income Taxes for the Division of Aveland; trustee of Brown’s Educational Foundation; manager of Horbling School; a member of the parochial church council and the parish council; secretary to the Bourne and District Game Association; previously chairman of the Billingborough and District Conservative Association; and “for many years” a churchwarden. He had married Helen Phyllis Allison, daughter of “the late Mr. William Allison, solicitor, of Louth”, and had four children with her. The second was Capt. Allison Gould Smith, M.C., who died during World War I. Helen Phyllis had died suddenly after a seizure in December 1913. According to the paper, “for a long time Mr. Smith had been in indifferent health and his frailty prevented him from taking any part in the business, which is now carried on by his younger son, Mr. Frank G Smith, was has succeeded to many of his father’s appointments.” Rev. P. F. Foottit, Vicar of Scredington, assisted at the funeral, which was attended by the following family members: “Mr. G. H. G. Smith, Mrs. Graham G. Smith, Mr. Frank G. Smith, sons and daughter; Mrs. F. G. Smith, daughter-in-law; Miss F. M. Smith and Mrs. Lionel Heathcote, nieces; Sir John and Lady Gleed and Mrs. C. I. Harvey, Spalding, Mrs. Noel H. Harris, Mr. R. Mann, Mr. G. R. Mann, Miss Mann and Miss F. E. Mann.”[433]

Turning to the Alumni Cantabrigienses, we learn that George Smith was born on 6 March 1859. Educated at Winchester, he was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge, on 31 May 1877, and matriculated in Michaelmas 1877; on 20 November 1878, he was admitted at Lincoln’s Inn, before graduating from Cambridge with an LLB degree in 1881; the following year, he was called to the bar, and in 1886, he was admitted a solicitor “in partnership with his brother Benjamin, at Billingborough, Horbling, Donington, and Bourne, Lincs.” The publication notes that on 26 January 1888 he married Helen Phyllis, eldest daughter of William Allison, of Louth, and died on 7 February 1945.[434] We now have a fairly clear picture of the key facts of Smith’s life.

To return, briefly, to the death of his wife, we find that the Times carries the notice that Helen Phyllis Smith, wife of George Smith, of Horbling, died on 15 December 1913, aged 53.[435] To turn now to his offspring:

George Henry Gould, M.B.E. We find that the birth of one George Henry G. Smith was registered in 1889 in Bourne.[436] George Henry Gould Smith, son of George and Helen Phyllis Smith, was baptised on 7 April 1889 at Horbling.[437] In 1911, George Henry Gould Smith, 22, a student from Horbling, was living at 28 Dorset Road, Bexhill, with his uncle, John Neve Allison, 34, from Louth; along with a servant, another of Allison’s nephew’s was there: Allison Gould Smith, 20, student, also from Horbling.[438] George Henry Gould Smith died on 26 January 1965; his last address was Suite 50, Princes Hotel, Folkestone; probate was granted to Helen Phyllis Gould Smith, widow, and Harry Bowden, solicitor.[439] In 1912, he was appointed an Assistant Surveyor (2nd Class) in the Post Office.[440] The following year, he was appointed a 2nd Class Clerk in the Secretary’s Office at the Post Office.[441] He was commissioned a temporary 2nd Lieutenant on probation in the Postal Section of the Royal Engineers on 15 March 1917;[442] in May 1919, he was appointed a Member of the military division of the Order of the British Empire, by which time he was a Temporary Lieutenant and Acting Major in the Royal Engineers.[443] In 1924, the Postmaster-General appointed him his private secretary; three years later, he was made Chief Inspector of Postal Traffic; and in 1937, a local newspaper reported that “Mr. G. H. Gould Smith, M.B.E., eldest son of Mr. George Smith, solicitor, Horbling, has been promoted assistant-secretary to the director of Postal Services.”[444] I have found no evidence that he married or had children.
Allison Gould, M.C. The birth of someone with this name registered 1891 in Bourne;[445] he was baptised on 4 January 1891 at Horbling, the son of George and Helen Phyllis Smith.[446] Allison Gould Smith, of Horbling, died 18 April 1918 “at or near Gavinchy” in France. Probate was granted to George Smith, solicitor.[447] He is commemorated at the Loos Memorial, where the register notes that he was commissioned a Captain in the 7th Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment at the time of his death, which occurred when he was 27; he was the “son of George and Helen Phyllis Smith, of Horbling, Billingborough, Lincs. Educated at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge.”[448] According to a newspaper report, Smith was articled to the land agents Messrs. Carter, Jonas, and Sons. He signed up to the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps at the start of World War I before joining the 7th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in September 1914. He was severely wounded in July 1916 but returned to France the following May; he received the Military Cross later in 1917. After being reported missing on 18 April 1918, it was discovered that he been taken prisoner and died on that day.[449] He appears to have died unmarried.
Helen Phyllis Gould. As noted above, in 1920 the Grantham Journal reported on “the marriage of Mr. Graham Gould Smith, only son of the late Mr. Ben Smith and of Mrs. Smith, of Horbling Hall, and Miss Helen Phyllis Gould Smith, only daughter of Mr. George Smith, senior partner in the firm of Messrs. B. Smith and Co., well-known South Lincolnshire solicitors.” It had taken place on 1 June.[450] The probate on the estate of “Helen Phyllis Gould [Smith] of North Densome Woodgreen Fordingbridge Hants died 17 June 1971” was granted in that year.[451] The death of Helen Phyllis Smith, born on 5 October 1892, was registered in the second quarter of 1971 at Salisbury in Wiltshire.[452] For her children, see under her husband above.
Francis Gould, commonly known as Frank Gould. Someone by the former name was baptised on 14 October 1900 at Horbling, the son of George and Helen Phyllis Smith.[453] At Donington on 19 May 1926, he married Ada Catherine Grace, daughter of Captain R. Gleed, J.P., of Donington Park, Donington.[454] The births of two Smiths in Lincolnshire with a mother called Gleed were registered: (1) David H. G. Smith in 1928, and (2) Alison H. G. Smith in 1932.[455] Further details are outlined below:
- David Henry Gould, or David Henry Gould-, born 1928. In 1956, the Times noted the engagement “between David Henry, son of Mr. and Mrs. F. Gould Smith, of Horbling Hall, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, and Shirley Frances Moore, of 1, Luard, Cloe, Cambridge, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Moore, of Paris.”[456] The following year, the marriage of David H. G. Smith with Shirley F. Moore was registered in Cambridge.[457] He went to Cambridge University and graduated in 1952 with a B.A., proceeding in 1972 to an M.A.[458] He died on 27 November 2008.[459]
- Alison Hilary Gould, born 1932. In 1954, the Times noted the engagement in 1954 between “Michael John, youngest son of the Rev. H. W. and Mrs. Wheeler, Weston Turville Rectory, Aylesbury, and Alison Hilary, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. Gould Smith, Horbling Hall, Sleaford, Lincolnshire.”[460] The following year, the marriage of Alison H. G. Smith and Michael J. C. Wheeler was registered in Bourne.[461]

And so now, we have traced all of the descendants of Benjamin Smith, of Horbling, who died in 1807.

Footnotes

“Death of Captain Smith, J.P., of Horbling”, Grantham Journal, 24 January 1891, p. 6
FHL, film no. 815950
LAO Gosberton PAR/1/7: Baptisms solemnized in the Parish of Gosberton in the County of Lincoln [1813–38]
TNA RG 4/4676: General Register Office: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths surrendered to the Non-parochial Registers Commissions of 1837 and 1857: Dr Williams’ Library, Index to Register of Certificates
TNA RG 5/158 (certificate no. 159): General Register Office: Birth Certificates from the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist Registry and from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry
TNA RG 5/154–160 (cert. no. 155–161)
Stamford Mercury, 20 September 1811 (Friday), p. 3
Archdeacon’s Transcripts for the parish of All Saints, Walsoken in Norfolk (FHL, film no. 1596343, p. 95, item 1)
Morning Post, 29 April 1844, p. 7
TNA PROB 11/2009/259. He is called “Francis Smith residing at Monk’s Hall in the Parish of Gosberton in the County of Lincoln gentleman”.
Stamford Mercury, 11 September 1857, p. 4
TNA HO 107/607, book 11, f. 61, p. 11. Civil parish: Gosberton, Lincs.
Grantham Journal, 9 January 1858, p. 2
National Probate Calendar of England and Wales, 1858, Wills, “S”, p. 4
TNA HO 107/2095, f. 199, p. 6
TNA HO 107/619, book 16, f. 10, p. 14
Stamford Mercury, 5 January 1821, p. 3
LAO Horncastle PAR 1/18, p. 59: Marriages solemnized in the parish of Horncastle in the County of Lincoln [1813–34]
Gentleman’s Magazine, 1808, pt. 2 (vol. 88), p. 854; her tombstone is recorded in Monson, John, 9th Baron (1936). Lincolnshire Church Notes Made By William John Monson, F.S.A. 1828-1840 (Lincoln: Lincoln Record Society, vol. 31)., p. 200
LAO Horbling PAR 1/2, p. 39: Register Book of Christenings and Burials in the Parish of Horbling… [1778–1812]
Stamford Mercury, 24 January 1806 (Friday), p. 3
FHL, film nos. 1450469, 6035512. LAO Horbling PAR 1/1, pp. 82 85, 87, 88–89: Horbling in Comitas Lincoln … [Parish Register of Horbling, 1653–1778]; LAO Horbling PAR 1/2, p. 1
TNA PROB 11/1460/47
The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle for the Year MDCCVII, vol. 77, pt. 1, p. 186
Monson (1936), p. 128
LCC WILLS/1813/235
Venn, J.A. (1953), Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pt. 2, vol. v, p. 546
Monson (1936), p. 128
A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry, 1850, vol. 3, 193; Sarah Elizabeth died in 1835, aged 22, “of consumption in Southampton”, see Memorial I., Kensal Green Cemetery, which is recorded in James Stevens Curl, Kensal Green Cemetery, 2001 (Phillimore), p. 188
Venn (1953), p. 547
TNA HO 107/1724 (1851), f. 394, p. 12; TNA RG 9/879, f. 29, p. 6 (1861); TNA RG 10/1424, f. 37, p. 9 (1871); NPC, 1895, p. 114 to Elizabeth, widow, Rev. Arthur Langdale Smith and Eliza Avice Smith, effects: £52,873 19s. 1d.
NPC, 1947, p. 312
Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: 1715–1886, vol. 4, p. 1310
B.I., Q3 1852, vol. 3a, p. 434; “Deaths”, Times (London), 19 October 1934, p. 19; NPC, 1934, p. 402, to Harriett Constantia Langdale-Smith, widow, and Rev. Edward Langdale-Smith, effects resworn at £12,609 2s. 5d.
Library of Birmingham, DRO 35/M160: Marriages solemnised at the Parish Church of St Paul’s, Birmingham, 1877, p. 140, no. 280
TNA RG 11/1477, f. 98, p. 2 (1881); TNA RG 12/2261, f. 8, p. 10 (1891); TNA RG 14/8109, schedule no. 12 (1911); note that in some instances, the children had Langdale as a middle name and the first part of their surname.
Baptisms Solemnised in the Parish of Sherborne in the County of Dorset, 1879, p. 154, no. 1229; “Marriages”, Times (London), 18 May 1923, p. 15; M.I., Q3 1923, vol. 8b, p. 829; “Marriages”, Times (London), 11 August 1923, p. 1; NPC, 1952, p. 348, to Charlotte Evelyn Langdale-Smith, widow, effects: £18,223 11s. 1d.
B.I., Q2 1880, vol. 3a, p. 633; FHL, film no. 528122; NPC, 1939, p. 227, effects £2,337 0s. 11d.
Debrett’s Peerage, 1995, p. 762
D.I., Q4 1971, vol. 6b, p. 2936; NPC, 1972, p. 313
B.I., Q1 1885, vol. 3a, p. 709; TNA RG 12/2262, f. 47, p. 31 (1891); “Marriages”, Times (London), 14 July 1921, p. 13 (son of Rev. A. and Mrs. Langdale-Smith, Holton, Oxon.”; M.I., Q4 1921, vol. 2c, p. 986a; NPC, 1966, p. 480, to Kathleen Marjorie Langdale-Smith, widow, effects £5,132; he does not appear in any censuses with his parents; in 1891, he was with his grandmother, Frances Burges.
TNA ADM 196/50/1; LG, 4 May 1906 (issue 27910), p. 3078; LG, 23 November 1906 (issue 27970), p. 7976; TNA RG 14/5520 (1911); Memorial I., Holton Church, Oxon.; NPC, 1913, p. 224; “Chetwode”, Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press, 17 May 1913, p. 2, gives a detailed description of his death and career.
D.I., Q1 1887, vol. 22, p. 1656; NPC, 1982, p. 8481
Leamington Spa Courier, 4 September 1925, p. 5; D.I., Q3 1984, vol. 29, p. 271; NPC, 1984, p. 8656
D.I., Q1 1980, vol. 22, p. 1777; NPC, 1980, p. 8058
B.I., Q1 1895, vol. 3a, p. 859; “Marriages”, Times (London), 20 January 1919, p. 1; D.I., Q4 1980, vol. 22, p. 2177; NPC, 1980, p. 9311
LAO PAR 1/7, p. 22, no. 64
Walford, Edward (1869), The County Families of the United Kingdom, 5th ed., p. 100
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 11 August 1854, p. 4
TNA PROB 11/2200/208 (1871)
TNA RG 10/1742, f. 68, p. 1
NPC, 1871, p. 366
TNA HO 107/2096, f. 282, p. 1 (1851)
TNA RG 10/3320, f. 45, p. 12 (1871)
D.I., Q4 1879, vol. 7a, p. 237 (Spalding reg. dist.)
FHL, film no. 1542011
FHL, film no. 1542011
FHL, film no. 1542011
FHL film nos. 1542011, 432505, 432506
The Annual Register … of the Year 1846, 1847 (London: F. and J. Rivington), p. 231
FHL, film no. 1450471
TNA HO 107/2095, f. 207, p. 22 (1851); TNA RG 9/2316, f. 92, p. 10 (1861); RG 10/ 3313, f. 35, p. 8 (1871); London Evening Standard, 26 September 1860, p. 8; the marriage is recorded in FHL, film no. 1450469, where her father is called Henry.
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 21 September 1860, p. 5
NPC, 1873, p. 199, effects under £1,000
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 18 December 1863, p. 8
TNA RG 9/2307, f. 12, p. 17 (1861)
The Monthly Alphabetical Record of Births—Marriages—Deaths …, No. 7 (“for the month ending July 1, 1861”), London: Alfred Knowler, p. 402
FHL, film no. 1450469; Lincolnshire Chronicle, 19 June 1868, p. 8
NPC, 1870, p. 301, effects under £10,000, will proved by Susanna Mary Carrett of Linton Villa, Leeds, his widow; West Yorks. Archive Service WDP5/1/4/3: Burials in the Parish of Birstall in the County of York… [1870], p. 575, no. 501
WYAS RDP64/12: Marriage solemnised at St John’s Church Leeds in the Parish of St John the Evangelist in the County of York [1871], p. 148, no. 296, her father was Henry Harris, clerk in Holy Orders; Sheffield Independent, 14 May 1872, p. 6
FHL, film no. 1068426; Dublin Daily Express, 3 October 1884, p. 1
NPC, 1926, p. 164, effects £29,254 9s (resworn £31,644 0s 2d), pr. gr. to Rev. Frederic Oliver Harris, clerk, and Athelstan Arthur Baines, solicitor
TNA RG 10/1325, f. 115, p. 18 (1871); TNA RG 11/4534, f. 106, p. 10 (1881)
Grantham Journal, 19 January 1924, p. 2
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 19 March 1869, p. 5
LMA P89/TRI: Marriages solemnized at Trinity Church in the Parish of St Marylebone in the County of Middlesex [1869], p. 206, no. 411
TNA RG 10/1325, f. 115, p. 18 (1871); RG 11/1359, f. 64, p. 32 (1881); TNA RG 12/107, f. 91, p. 35 (1891); TNA RG 13/1191, f. 57, p. 32 (1901); TNA RG 14/5177, schedule no. 308 (1911)
NPC, 1924, p. 67, effects 2,980 10s 1d, probate granted to Henrietta Sophia Harris, widow
NPC, 1935, p. 90, effects £8,174 0s 1d, pr. gr. to Mary Louisa Douglas, widow.
LMA DRO/008/A/01: Baptisms solemnized in the Parish of Pinner in the County of Middlesex… [1872], p. 93, no. 743
D.I., Q3 1896, vol. 4a, p. 544
FHL, film no. 1450469
M.I., Q2 1903, vol. 1a, p. 904
TNA RG 14/12669, schedule no. 394 (1911)
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 4 August 1871, p. 4
TNA RG 11/3196, f. 93, p. 16 (1881); RG 12/2556, f. 70, p. 8 (1891); TNA RG 13/1287, f. 63, p. 9 (1901)
Northants. RO 223P/4: Marriages solemnised in the Parish of All Saints, Northampton in the County of Northampton… [1831–47], p. 231, no. 1845
TNA RG 10/3313, f. 41, p. 20 (1871)
Venn, J.A. (1947), Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), vol. 2, pt. 3, p. 253
Grantham Journal, 18 March 1876, p. 4
Grantham Journal, 18 March 1876, p. 8
ibid.
Grantham Journal, 25 March 1876, p. 2
Grantham Journal, 21 October 1871, p. 4 “Charlotte, wife of the Rev. Henry Harris, Vicar of Horbling, and fifth daughter of the late Rev. W. T. Waters, Rector of Dunsby and Rippingale”
FHL, film no. 1450469
NPC, 1876, p. 121
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 18 June 1875, p. 5
FHL, film no. 1450469; Grantham Journal, 13 October 1883, p. 2
LAO Bicker PAR/1/11: Burials in the Parish of Bicker in the County of Lincoln [1813–62], p. 61, no. 488
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 26 May 1843, p. 3
TNA HO 107/2096, f. 282, p. 1 (1851)
London Evening Standard, 7 January 1854, p. 4
TNA RG 9/ 2322, f. 24, p. 10 (1861)
TNA RG 10/3312, f. 5, p. 4 (1871)
TNA RG 11/3196, f. 10, p. 14 (1881); TNA RG 12/2556, f. 7, p. 7 (1891)
Grantham Journal, 19 September 1891, p. 6
Grantham Journal, 3 February 1894, p. 6; see also NPC, 1894, p. 101, effects £1,914 14s., pr. gr. to Ernest Smith and Benjamin Nightingale Smith, farmers, Edward Harris, grazier, and George Smith, solicitor.
FHL film nos. 396234, 396235, 396236
E.g., bapt. records for Eleanor, Maria, Miles, John, Mary Anne, Joseph and others can be found on FHL film nos. 396231, 396232, 396233, 396234, 396235, 396236
LMA P76/JS1
HO 107/1051, f. 29, p. 6
TNA HO 107/1581 (1851)
NPC, 1858, p. 50, effects under £1,500
LMA DW/T/0527: Burials in the London Cemetery Company’s South London Cemetery of All Saints, Nunhead, in the Parish of Saint Giles, Camberwell, in the County of Surrey [1858], p. 284, no. 11865
Stamford Mercury, 25 December 1874, p. 4
D.I., Q4 1874, vol. 7a, p. 226
TNA RG 14/19449 (1911; they gave their places of birth as Monk’s Hall, Gosberton); Grantham Journal, 19 April 1940, p. 2; Grantham Journal, 31 December 1943, p. 2 (both obituaries say they were the daughters of Benjamin Smith, Lydia’s say “the late Benjamin Smith, landowner, who for many years occupied the Manor House farm, Aslackby”; NPC (for Theodora), 1941, p. 290, effects £173 18s 1d, administration to Ernest Smith, retired Farmer; NPC (for Lydia), 1944, p. 315, effects £1,652 3s 2d, probate gr. to Cecil Thomas Hodgkinson, auctioneer and valuer, and Francis Gould Smith, solicitor.
TNA RG 11/3196, f. 11, p. 15 (1881)
Grantham Journal, 5 May 1883, p. 2, where he is “of Moorfield House, Aslackby, eldest son of Mr. B. Smith, of the Manor House, Aslackby”
TNA RG 12/2556, f. 6, p. 6 (1891)
TNA RG 13/3021, f. 37, p. 3 (1901)
TNA RG 14/8681, schedule no. 86 (1911; there was also 1 servant)
D.I., Q4 1885, Bourne RD, vol. 7a, p. 199
FHL, film no. 1470678; see also M.I., Q4 1886, vol. 9d, p. 314
NPC, 1951, p. 363, effects £9,481 14s, probate to Harold Burwell Smith, company director, and Francis Gould Smith, solicitor
D.I., Q4 1951, Peterborough RD, vol. 3b, p. 663
B.I., Q1 1894, vol. 7a, p. 356
TNA RG 14/26340 (1911)
D.I., vol. 4, p. 1146
B.I., Q2 1885, vol. 7a, p. 363
B.I., Q4 1887, vol. 7a, p. 3; D.I., Q2 1967, vol. 5a, p. 248; NPC, 1967, p. 411, effects £12,601, probate gr. at Peterborough to Peter Burwell Smith, quantity surveyor, and Michael John Christie, solicitor.
B.I., Q3 1890, vol. 7a, p. 355
B.I., Q4 1894, vol. 7a, p. 362
B.I., Q1 1899, vol. 7a, p. 355; D.I., Q4 1974, vol. 9, p. 1163; NPC, 1974, p. 8239, effects £20,049
Grantham Journal, 22 June 1895, p. 4
Grantham Journal, 22 June 1895, p. 6
M.I., Q2 1895, vo. 7a, p. 731
TNA RG 13/3024, f. 8, p. 7 (1901)
TNA RG 14/19448 (1911)
Grantham Journal, 18 February 1939, p. 9
Grantham Journal, 18 February 1939, p. 14
NPC, 1939, p. , effects £2,483 13s 10d, pr. gr. to Florence Muriel Smith and Ethel Mary Smith, spinsters, and John Rudkin, diseased animals inspector
Grantham Journal, 26 March 1910, p. 6
B.I., Q3 1863, vol. 7a, p. 295
NPC, 1943, p. 242, effects £1,012 12s 10d
Sydney Morning Herald, 10 June 1940, p. 8
Reg. no. 7346/1940 (district, Chatswood)
Reg. no. 5888; Wodonga and Towong Sentinel, 25 November 1898, p. 2; see also, the death record (reg. no. 13678/1940 ) of Clara Amelia Smith, reg. in Chatswood district, N.S.W., which shows her parents were James and Genevieve Viola; Sydney Morning Herald, 6 September 1940, p. 6, states that Clara Amelia Smith, relict of Ebenezer William, died at 7 Eastern Valley Highway on 5 September 1940, aged 73, listing the same relatives as her husband’s obituary; the following records of children born to Ebenezer Wm Smith and Clara Amelia (Adamson) were reg. in Victoria, Clarice Muriel (b. 1899, 14749), Lily (b. 1900, 23199), Leslie Gordon (b. 1901, 30970), Ethel May (b. 1904, 20358) and Walter Reginald Murray (b. 1912, 8142); for N.S.W., William N. B. Smith was b. 1907 at Albury to Ebenezer W. and Clara A.
Stamford Mercury, 11 October 1844, p. 3
M.I., Q4 1844, vol. 14, p. 431
TNA HO 107/2099, f. 648, p. 9 (1851)
TNA RG 9/2322, f. 23, p. 8 (1861)
TNA RG 10/1046, f. 128, p. 6 (1871; there was one servant in the household)
TNA RG 11/792, f. 89, p. 9 (1881)
TNA RG 11/1045, f. 138, p. 15 (1881)
TNA RG 12/778, f. 107, p. 6 (1891)
Stamford Mercury, 6 September 1895, p. 5; NPC, 1895, p. 104, effects £21 12s
LAO Bicker PAR 1/8: Baptisms in the Parish of Bicker in the County of Lincoln [1813–1845], p. 28, no. 224
D.I., Q2 1890, vol. 2b, p. 67
TNA RG 13/211, f. 11, p. 13 (1901; there were also two servants)
M.I., Q2 1894, vol. 1b, p. 744
TNA RG 11/1045, f. 131, p. 2 (1881)
TNA RG 10/560, f. 57, p. 3 (1871)
TNA RG 9/298, f. 14, p. 21 (1861)
LMA P93/DUN, item 23: Stepney St Dunstan and All Saints Baptism Register, 1855, p. 353, no. 3180
LMA P93/DUN, item 93: Stepney St Dunstan Marriage Register, 1855, p. 143, no. 285
B.I., Q2 1863 (Bourne Reg. Dist.), vol. 7a, p. 315
TNA RG 12/3667, f. 89, p. 15 (1891)
NPC, 1893, p. 11, effects £730 3s 7d, probate granted to Henry James Jackson, land valuer.
FHL film no. 1450460
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 23 April 1847, p. 4
TNA HO 107/2095, f. 237, p. 46 (1851)
TNA RG 9/2321, f. 45, p. 12 (1861)
TNA RG 10/3340, f. 10, p. 12 (1871)
TNA RG 11/3217, f. 7, p. 7 (1881)
Stamford Mercury, 29 June 1888 (Friday), p. 1
TNA RG 4/4661–2, no. 3618 (registered on 7 May 1811)
TNA HO 107/646, bk. 2, f. 7, p. 10 (1841)
FHL, film nos. 561159, 561160, 561161, 561162
Stamford Mercury, 23 Oct. 1846, p. 3
Stamford Mercury, 3 January 1862, p. 6
NPC, Wills, 1861, p. 75
FHL, film no. 1450472
FHL, film no. 1450460
FHL, film no. 1450460
B.I., Q1 1852, vol. 7a, p. 286
B.I., Q2 1848, vol. 14, p. 302
TNA RG 11/3121, f. 41, p. 1 (1881)
M.I., Q1 1872, vol. 7a, p. 332
TNA RG 12/2524, f. 167, p. 32 (1891)
M.I., Q3 1890, vol. 83, p. 1339
Westmorland Gazette, 30 August 1890, p. 5
TNA RG 13/2950, f. 123, p. 7 (1901)
TNA RG 14/19228 (1911)
NPC, 1914, p. 214; effects £2,489 3s 10d
Northampton Mercury, 20 January 1905, p. 8
B.I., Q1 1872, vol. 7a, p. 257; B.I., Q2 1873, vol. 7a, p. 198
M.I., Q1 1902, vol. 7a, p. 9 (Lutterworth, Leics. district)
D.I., Q4 1958, vol. 31, p. 529; see also NPC, 1959, p. 259 (Margaret Pryce-Smith, widow, of 47 Guthbridge Crescent, Leicester, died 10 December 1958; probate granted to George Edward Orpen, solicitor; effects, £4,282 7s 6d)
NPC, 1956, p. 1180; effects £901 12s 5d; D.I., Q4 1956, vol. 3a, p. 662
TNA RG 14/19275 (1911)
NPC, 1956, p. 309; effects £13,479 15s 2d
D.I., Q1 1956, vol. 3a, p. 785
NPC, 1949, p. 294; effects £1,136 19s 11d
M.I., Q3 1907, vol. 7a, p. 424
LMA, P92/MRY: Marriage register for Saint Mary, Newington [1841], p. 153, no. 305
TNA HO 107/2329, f. 285, p. 6 (1851; there was also one servant)
TNA RG 9/3435, f. 43, p. 18 (1861)
TNA RG 10/4632, f. 92, p. 21 (1871)
TNA RG 11/4586, f. 102, p. 11 (1881)
Crockford’s, 1885, p. 634
Venn (1947), p. 537
York Herald, 27 January 1887, p. 4
NPC, 1887, p. 309, effects £2,274 19s 11d
York Herald, 20 January 1890, p. 4
Grantham Journal, 25 January 1890, p. 4
NPC, 1890, p. 328
Leeds Intelligencer, 21 April 1866, p. 8
FHL film no. 1470665
NPC, 1867, p. 2, valued at under £800
TNA RG 12/3667, f. 89, p. 15 (1891)
TNA RG 13/4198, f. 84, p. 47 (1901)
TNA RG 14/25944 (1911)
NPC, 1922, p. 576, effects £4,412 3s 4d
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 8 June 1923, p. 11
TNA RG 13/1043, f. 148, p. 38 (1901)
TNA RG 14/5855, schedule no. 38 (1911)
FHL film no. 2104838
TNA RG 12/3667, f. 89, p. 15 (1891)
TNA RG 13/4251, f. 87, p. 24 (1901)
TNA RG 14/7439, schedule no. 331 (1911)
FHL, film no. 1450472
Lincolnshire Chronicle, 17 April 1846, p. 4
TNA HO 107/2095, f. 210, p. 28 (1851)
TNA RG 9/2316, f. 90, p. 5 (1861)
TNA RG 10/3313, f. 33, p. 4 (1871)
TNA RG 11/3196, f. 93, p. 15 (1881)
FHL film no. 1450469; M.I., Q3 1874, vol. 7a, p. 498; Worcester Journal, 26 September 1874, p. 5
Sussex Agricultural Express, 17 December 1892, p. 4; Stamford Mercury, 16 December 1892, p. 4
TNA RG 11/2614, f. 115, p. 5 (1881); TNA RG 12/573, f. 77, p. 3 (1891, when his niece, Jessie A. V. Nicholls, and her sister, Edith G. Smith, were living with them at Wonersh Park Mansion, Monersh, Surrey); TNA RG 13/620, f. 67, p. 3 (1901); TNA RG 14/3169, schedule no. 4 (1911); see also Burke’s Landed Gentry, 1898, p. 1426
B.I., Q2 1877, vol. 6a, p. 500; D.I., Q1 1933, vol. 1d, p. 919; NPC, 1933, p. 561, effects finally resworn at £31,668 19s. 8d.
B.I., Q4 1880, vol. 6a, p. 540; D.I., Q4 1968, vol. 5g, p. 473; NPC, 1969, p. 582, effects £132,040
B.I., Q2 1883, vol. 6a, p. 572; FHL, film no. 1526928, item 11, p. 112, no. 896; Reading Mercury, 9 September 1911, p. 4; D.I., Q1 1967, vol. 7c, p. 578; NPC, 1967, p. 64, effects £24,412, executor, Vernon Cecil Warren Sudbury, Major in the Army
Q4 1885, vol. 3a, p. 13; D.I., Q3 1965, vol. 7c, p. 353; SHC 7433/1, f. 13; NPC, 1965, p. 78, effects £29,449
SHC WON/4/4: Baptisms solemnised in the Parish of Wonersh … [1881–1912], p. 27, item 215; LMA MS 10091/298; M.I., Q2 1916, vol. 1a, p. 1082; D.I., Q1 1963, vol. 5h, p. 955 (aged 75); SHC 7433/1: Burials in the Parish of Wonersh… [1951–86], f. 12; NPC, 1963, p. 919, effects, £2,674 1s., executors Annie Frederica Copeland Studbury, widow, and Vernon Cecil Warren Sudbury, Major in the Army
B.I., Q4 1917, vol. 2a, p. 236; D.I., 2005, reg. no. D20J, district 761/1D, entry no. 162; “Major Vernon Sudbury”, Telegraph, 26 July 2005; probate records, no. 1946289
FHL film no. 1450469; Lincolnshire Chronicle, 4 August 1871, p. 4, Rev. Edward Smith of Chetwode assisted
TNA RG 11/3196, f. 93, p. 16 (1881); TNA RG 12/2556, f. 70, p. 8 (1891); TNA RG 13/1287, f. 63, p. 9 (1901)
FHL, film no. 1450469; Times, 8 November 1940, p. 1; Venn (1947), p. 253; see also Essex Newsman, 9 November 1940 (lived with his sister H. M. Harris), p. 2; Grantham Journal, 15 November 1940, p. 2: “The Death has occurred at Childerditch, Essex, where he had been Vicar since 1912, of the Rev. F. O, Harris, a native of Horbling. He was the eldest son of the late Capt. Edward Harris, Rookfield House, a brother of Surgeon-Capt. Noel H. Harris, R.N., and a grandson of the late Rev. Henry Harris, a former Vicar here [Horbling]. Deceased, a bachelor, was 68.”
FHL, film no. 1450469
Called “G. H. N.” in 1881 but “Noel H.” in 1891; FHL film no. 1450469 (full name); D.I., Q3 1944, vol. 7a, p. 452; NPC (full name), 1944, p. 128, effects £1,612 18s, executor Mary Harriett Harris, widow; The Lancet, vol. 244, issue 6312 (19 August 1944), p. 264, wherein he is called Noel Hugh Harris, who d. 7 August, of Horbling, retired Surgeon Capt., R.N.
The Lancet, vol. 196, issue 5077 (18 December 1920), p. 1282; at the time he was Surgeon-Commander aboard HMS Inconstant; Grantham Journal, 18 December 1920, p. 6, son of “the late Mr. Edward Harris, of Rookfield House, and grandson of the late Capt. Henry Smith, J.P., of Horbling”
Times, 27 January 1951, p. 1; NPC, 1951, p. 186, effects £9,403 7s 1d, executors, Richard Mann, retired schoolmaster, and Francis Gould Smith, solicitor
H. Harris in 1881; called Ellen M. in 1891; H. M. Harris in Frederick Oliver’s obituary; D.I., Q2 1948, vol. 4a, p. 319; M.I., All Saints’ and St Faith Churchyard, Childerditch, Essex; NPC, 1948, p. 169, effects £13,741 12s 3d, executors Mary Harriett Harris, widow, and Gilbert Michael Heathcote, horticultural assistant.
FHL, film no. 1450469; Lincolnshire Chronicle, 26 May 1876, p. 8
FHL film no. 1450469
FHL, film no. 1450469; Grantham Journal, 26 April 1884, p. 2
Times (London), 21 April 1933, p. 1
FHL film no. 1450469
FHL film no. 1450469; Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 15 August 1878, p. 8
By far the most detailed obituary is in Grantham Journal, 17 August 1912, p. 6; other entries include Lincolnshire Standard (Boston), 17 August 1912, p. 12, and Grantham Journal, 23 November 1912, p. 6
NPC, 1912, p. 68, effects £5,524 3s 1d, executors Alice Gould Todd, widow
D.I., Q1 1930, vol. 7a, p. 418; NPC, 1930, p. 107, effects £3,699 11s 3d, executors Graham Gould Smith, solicitor, and George Henry Smith, civil servant; Lincolnshire Standard (Boston edition), 1 February 1930, p. 10
TNA RG 12/2579, f. 8, p. 9 (1891); TNA RG 13/3050, f. 133, p. 5 (1901); TNA RG 14/19643 (1911)
B.I. Q3 1884, vol. 7a, p. 470; M.I., Q4 1919, vol. 7a, p. 1076; Grantham Journal, 25 October 1919, p. 6; D.I., Q4 1972, vol. vol. 3b, p. 191
“Deaths”, Times (London), 31 October 1972, p. 30, which mentions her son Gilbert Michael, daughter-in-law Dorothy and grand-daughters Jane, Amanda and Annabel; NPC, 1973, p. 3982, effects £21,345
B.I., Q1 1924, vol. 7a, p. 763; M.I., Q3 1953, vol. 4b, p. 437; Grantham Journal, 25 September 1953, p. 5; “Announcements”, The Telegraph, online ref. 138753; his probate, no. 4821193; her M.I. in Folkingham Church (“In Loving Memory of/Dorothy Rose/Heathcote/14th March 1930/-17th November 2006”); her probate, no. 2573740; for each of the children below, see Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage, 2015, p. B387
Debrett’s (ibid) says b. 1959, but b. was registered in 1958: B.I., Q3 1958, vol. 4b, p. 528
B.I., Q3 1887, vol. 7a, p. 466; Grantham Journal, 29 May 1920, p. 6; M.I., Q3 1920, vol. 7a, p. 1115; Nottingham Evening Post, 9 October 1937, p. 8; NPC, 1959 , p. 472, “Pechell dame Helen Gertrude”, effects £2,246 5s 1d, executor Sir Paul Pechell, Baronet, her husband.
B.I., Q1 1890, vol. 7a, p. 465; NPC, 1959, p. 269, effects £5,242 17s 11d, executor Alice Mabel Heathcote, married woman.
FHL film no. 1450469; Grantham Journal, 7 April 1888, p. 6
FHL, film no. 1450469
TNA RG 13/586, f. 105, p. 51 (1901)
TNA RG 14/2981 (1911)
SHC COB/4/2: Burials in the Parish of Cobham in the County of Surrey in the Year 1918, p. 252, no. 2014
NPC, 1919, p. 414; effects £1,784 6s 9d
NPC, 1938, p. 545; effects, £20,253 10s 6d
Grantham Journal, 12 March 1938, p. 15
The Times (London), 11 March 1938 p. 16
Venn, J.A. (1954), Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pt. 2, vol. 6, p. 517
FHL, film no. 1537871
The Times (London), 11 July 1919, p. 15
M.I., Q3 1919, vol. 3a, p. 893
B.I., Q3 1970, vol. 5a, p. 1411
NPC, 1970, p. 444; effects, £1,705
Surrey Mirror, 4 April 1913, p. 5
D.I., Q1 1944, vol. 5c, p. 375
NPC, 1944, p. 287; effects, £18,622 19s 2d
Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser, 11 March 1944, p. 4
NPC, 1959, p. 486; effects, £9,356 6s 11d in England.
The Times (London), 10 February 1945, p. 1
D.I., Q1 1989, vol. 20, p. 1506
The Times (London), 3 March 1942, p. 6
M.I., Q4 1942, vol. 5c, p. 779
D.I., Q3 1997, reg. no. 36C, district 4101, entry no. 266
Times (London), Saturday, 17 September 1938, p. 1
D.I., Q4 1984, vol. 23, p. 1418
D.I., Q4 1984, vol. 23, p. 1511
NPC, 1984, p. 10116
NPC, 1985, p. 9198
The Times (London), 14 March 1944, p. 6
M.I., Q2 1944, vol. 5c, p. 589
NPC, 1946, p. 526; effects, £1,864 8s 10d
Newspaper cutting in the Andrews Collection at the Institute of Historical Research
FHL film no. 1450469
FHL film no. 1450469
FHL, film no. 1450469; TNA RG 12/573, f. 77, p. 3 (1891, living with sister-in-law John Jackson Sudbury and his 44-year-old wife Mary in Wonersh, Surrey)
D.I., Q1 1928, vol. 5c, p. 8
NPC, 1928, p. 343; effects, £7,398 5s 11d, resworn at £7,427 15s 2d
LG, 22 June 1928 (supplement, issue 33396), p. 4304
FHL film no. 1450469; Grantham Journal, 5 August 1893, p. 6
D.I., Q1 1946, vol. 2a, p. 509
NPC, 1946, p. 562; effects, £12,975 13s
TNA RG 13/472, f. 80, p. 12 (1901; there were two servants)
TNA RG 14/2958, schedule no. 196 (1911; there was also one servant)
LMA P70/MRY2, item 18: Baptisms solemnised in the Parish of Battersea in the County of Surrey in the Year 1864, p. 240, no. 1914
NPC, 1943, p. 423; effects £2281 13s; D.I., Q2 1943, vol. 2a, p. 385
LMA P95/LEN, item 67: Baptisms solemnised in the Parish of Streatham in the County of London [1894], p. 227, no. 1810
B.I., Q3 1894, vol. 1d, p. 756
NPC, 1964, p. 203; effects, £9755
D.I., Q1 1964, vol. 5c, p. 803
M.I., Q4 1921, vol. 1a, p. 1287 (in St Martin, London)
D.I., Q3 1981, vol. 17, p. 282
NPC, 1981, p. 3327 (probate no. 313315173Y); effects, £87,669
Swanson, Vern G. (1997), John William Godward: The Eclipse of Classicism (The Antique Collectors’ Club), p. 20
LMA P95/MRY3, item 2: Baptisms solemnised in the Parish of St Mary Balham in the County of London [1896], p. 362, no. 2892
B.I., Q3 1896, vol. 1d, p. 767
NPC, 1946, p. 562; effects £288 14s 6d in England
Register of the Commonwealth Grave Commission, Kranji War Cemetery, Signapore, pt. 1, p. 62 (see transcription of entry here). He is commemorated on column 16. E. 11.
Swanson (1997), p. 20
LMA P95/MRY3, item 002: Baptisms solemnised in the Parish of St Mary Balham in the County of London [1899], p. 60, no. 485
D.I., Q2 1900, vol. 4a, p. 466
NPC, 1967, p. 178; granted to Lloyds Bank Limited; effects £31,974
LMA P95/MRY3, item 2: Baptisms solemnised in the Parish of St Mary Balham in the County of London [1901], p. 106, no. 847
D.I., Q3 1963, vol. 10f, p. 533
NPC, 1963, p. 228; effects $4162 18s
M.I., Q2 1929, vol. 3a, p. 805
M.I., Q3 1955, vol. 10f, p. 1401
NPC, 1955, p. 600; effects, £558 7s 1d
D.I., Q4 1954, vol. 10f, p. 617
D.I., Q4 1984, vol. 37, p. 468
Swanson (2007), p. 20
FHL film no. 1450469
Grantham Journal, 19 February 1876, p. 4
Venn (1953), p. 555
FHL film no. 1450469
Venn (1953), p. 555
TNA RG 11/3263, f. 55, p. 3 (1881)
TNA RG 12/2586, f. 62, p. 10 (1891)
TNA RG 13/3056, f. 109, p. 8 (1901)
TNA RG 14/19696 (1911)
Grantham Journal, 31 October 1931 p. 2
Lincolnshire Standard (Boston), 19 March 1932, p. 4
Grantham Journal, 14 July 1944, p. 6
FHL film no. 1450469
TNA RG 11/3196, f. 90, p. 9 (1881)
TNA RG 12/2556, f. 76, p. 19 (1891; plus 4 servants.)
TNA RG 13/3024, f. 67, p. 2 (1901)
TNA RG 14/19453 (1911)
Grantham Journal, 13 March 1915, p. 2
Stamford Mercury, 13 February 1885, p. 1
Frederick Arthur Crisp (ed.), Visitation of England and Wales, vol. 15 (Privately Printed, 1908), pp. 3, 7
Times (London), 9 February 1946, p. 1
B.I., vol. 7a, p. 369 (Bourne Reg.D.)
FHL, film no. 1450469
Grantham Journal, 28 July 1906, p. 6
Grantham Journal, 4 August 1934, p. 2
Grantham Journal, 4 August 1934, p. 6
The Times (London), 7 July 1939, p. 1
D.I., vol. 18, p. 618
NPC, 1988, p. 1073 no. 8851122882G; effects £114,323
D.I., vol. 18, p. 559; NPC, 1992, p. 1115, no. 9251108896H; effects £262,237
Grantham Journal, 20 June 1931, p. 13
M.I., Q2 1931, vol. 7a, p. 959
Q1 1994, reg. no. A37C, district and subdistrict 3311A, entry no. 177
NPC, 1994, grid C 05, no. 9451109110E
NPC, 1966, p. 98, effects £41,7aa, pr. gr. to Lloyds Bank
The Times (London), 19 March 1934, p. 17
M.I., Q2 1934, vol. 7a, p. 839
D.I., Q4 1995, reg. no. E13B, district and subdistrict 6391E, entry no. 126
D.I., Q2 1973, vol. 4b, p. 2021
NPC, 1973, p. 3416
FHL, film no. 1526137
NPC, 1943, p. 393, effects £142 9s 5d
B.I., Q4 1918, vol. 10b, p. 397
Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon: Royal Aero Club, Aviator’s Certificates (index cards), no. 19233
Mem. I. (Leicestershire War Memorials, no. WMP1186)
Register of the Commonwealth Grave Commission, Alamein Cemetery, Egypt, p. 601 (see transcription of entry here). He is commemorated on column 249
B.I., vol. 7a, p. 352
FHL film no. 1450469
Grantham Journal, 10 October 1914, p. 6
FHL, film no. 523903
D.I. vol. 20, p. 2421 (Banbury, Oxon.)
D.I., vol. 20, p. 2420 (Banbury, Oxon.)
NPC, 1980, p. 2977 (nos. 802804802F and 802804803P), effects £3538 and £6526, respectively.
Times (London), 8 January 1945, p. 6
Kenya Gazette, 11 September 1956, p. 862
Kenya Gazette, 2 September 1947 (vol. xlix, no. 37), p. 455 (Government Notice no. 862)
Times (London) 2 May 1955, p. 14
M.I., Q1 1945, vol. 1a, p. 648
The Telegraph, online ref. 50341
Register of the Commonwealth Grave Commission, Berlin 1939–45 Cemetery, Germany, p. 48 (see transcription of entry here).
Times (London), 31 March 1944, p. 1
B.I., vol. 7a, p. 367
FHL, film no. 1450469
Grantham Journal, 5 June 1920, p. 6
NPC, 1965, p. 479; effects £29,410 and £39,958, respectively
D.I., Q1 1965, vol. 6b, p. 267
NPC, 1971, p. 325
D.I., vol. 7c, p. 2003
Merton College Register, 1964 (Oxford, Blackwell), p. 309
Times (London), 1 July 1947, p. 1
M.I., Q3 1942, vol. 21, p. 1171
B.I., Q2 1921, vol. 7a, p. 687
Grantham Journal, 20 July 1929, p. 2
B.I., Q2 1925, 7a, p. 582
FHL, film no. 1450469
TNA RG 11/3196, f. 86, p. 1 (1881)
TNA RG 12/2556, f. 76, p. 19 (1891)
TNA RG 13/3024, f. 67, p. 1 (1901)
TNA RG 14/19453 (1911)
TNA RG 14/10879, schedule no. 348 (1911)
Nottingham Evening Post, 29 January 1936, p. 1
Grantham Journal, 1 February 1936, p. 2
Grantham Journal, 18 September 1937, p. 8
NPC, 1939, p. 470; effects, £1,174 9s 6d
B.I., Q3 1883, vol. 7a, p. 347
FHL, film no. 1450469
FHL, film no. 1450469
B.I., Q3 1889, vol. 7a, p. 349
NPC, 1954, p. 320; effects, £2,969 0s 7d
D.I., Q4 1953, vol. 5g, p. 379
Grantham Journal, 16 February 1945, p. 7
Venn (1953), p. 551
Times (London) 18 December 1913, p. 1
B.I., Q1 1889, vol. 7a, p. 370
FHL, film no. 1450469
TNA RG 14/4772, schedule no. 140 (1911)
NPC, 1965, p. 475; effects, £74,296
LG, 1 November 1912 (issue 28659), p. 8034
LG, 3 January 1913 (issue 28678), p. 51
LG, 13 March 1917, (issue 29982), p. 2526
LG, 30 May 1919 (supplement, issue 31373), p. 6950
Lincolnshire Echo, 5 February 1924, p. 3; Grantham Journal, 12 March 1927, p. 9; Grantham Journal, 20 February 1937, p. 15
B.I., Q1 1891, vol. 7a, p. 369
FHL, film no. 1450469
NPC, 1919, p. 326; effects, £1,120 14s
Register of the Commonwealth Grave Commission, Loos, France, p. 666 (see transcription of entry here).
Lancashire Evening Post, 29 January 1919, p. 4
Grantham Journal, 5 June 1920, p. 6
NPC, 1971, p. 325
D.I., vol. 7c, p. 2003
FHL, film no. 1450469
The Standard (Boston), 22 May 1926, p. 11
B.I., Q2 1928, vol. 7a, p. 582; B.I., Q4 1932, vol. 7a, p. 452 (both in Spalding, Lincolnshire).
Times (London), 1 November 1956, p. 12
M.I., Q2 1957, vol. 4a, p. 412
The Cambridge University List of Members for the Year up to 31 December 1991 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 1254
NPC (online service), probate no. 2939568; see also, Schmidt, Albert (2009), “Lawyering and Politics in Lincolnshire: the Smith-Heathcote Connection, 1760s to 1850s”, Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, vol. 44, p. 31
Times (London) 16 October 1954, p. 8
M.I., Q3 1955, vol. 3b, p. 177

Appendix

I. Newspaper extracts

Below is a selection of the more useful and detailed newspaper entries references above. Many of those listed above will not be included here. They are arranged in date order.

Grantham Journal, 13 March 1915, p. 2

HORBLING.
MR. BENJAMIN SMITH’S WILL.—Mr. Benjamin Smith, of Horbling Hall, solicitor, of Messrs. B. Smith and Co., of Horbling and Donington, steward of the Manor of Dunsby, Lord of the Manors of Monkshall and Meeres, and joint Lord of the Manor of Wikes, secretary to the Billingborough, Horbling, and Donington Gas Company, and holder of numerous other public appointments, who died on 23rd June, aged sixty-one years, left estate of the gross value of £106,485 4s. 11d., with net personalty £28,444 4s. 9d. Probate of his will, dated 10th December 1913, with a codicil of the 17th February, 1914, has been granted to his son, Mr. Graham Gould Smith, solicitor, of Horbling; his brother, Mr. George Smith, solicitor, of Horbling; and his brother, Mr. Henry Smith, of Sudbrook House, Ancaster. The testator left his fishing rods, &c., to the Rev. Cecil St. J. Wright, all other his sporting effects and his share in his business and offices at Horbling and Donington, to his son Graham, £100 to his wife, and his residence and household effects to her for life, with remainder to his son, £20 to William Vickers in recognition of faithful service, and the residue of his property to his wife during widowhood, with remainder as to half to his son, and a quarter upon trust for each of his daughters, Constance Mary and Faith Oswell.”

The Standard (Boston), 1 February 1930, p. 10

THE DEATH occurred at her residence West Road, Bourne, on Friday, of Mrs. Alice Gould Todd, widow of the Rev. John Dand Todd, a former rector of Newton, nr. Folkingham, and of Aunsby near Sleaford, and who, in his day was a prominent athlete. The deceased lady was a daughter of the late Capt. Henry Smith, D.L., J.P., of Horbling (for many years the acting Chairman of the Bourne Magistrates), and she was a sister of Mr. Henry Smith, J.P., of Sleaford, Mr. Edward Smith, J.P., and Mr. George Smith, solicitor, of Horbling. She leaves three daughters, two them married, the eldest being the wife of Mr. Lionel Heathcote who, until recently, resided at Newton House. For some time after her husbands’s death Mrs. Todd resided at Billingborough.

Lincolnshire Standard (Boston), 19 March 1932, p. 4

SLEAFORD MAN LEAVES £41,2 4.

£100 a Year aand £1,000 for Housekeeper.

Mr Henry Smith, of Highfield, Sleaford, who died on Otober 17th last, aged 71, left estate of the value of £41,274 11s. 8d., with net personality £23,533 12s. 11d.
Probate is granted to George Smith, of Horbling, Billingborough, brother, and Graham Gould Smith, of 16, Friar’s Stile Road, Richmond Hill, London, and Francis Gould Smith, of Horbling Hall, nephews.
Testator gives £500 each to his sister Margaret Godward and his niece Helen P. Gould Smith, £1,600 to his nephew Frederick Harris, £400 to his niece Frances Mary Smith, £300 each to his nieces Evelyn Ludbury and Katherine Carr, £2,000 each to his nieces Mary Wilson and Faith Foottit, £300 to his niece Joyce Clyde Smith, £1,200 between his nieces Mabel Heathcote and Helen Petchell and Nora Todd, £500 to his nephew George Henry Gould Smith.
Property at Aslackby and Pointon and £4,000 is left in trust for his nephews Graham Gould Smith, property at Millthorpe to his nephew Francis Gould Smith £1,000 and £100 a year and £40 worth of furniture to his housekeeper, Charlotte Kirkby, £500 to his servant Charlotte Ward. £100 to Sarah Bottomley, and £200 and his tools to his chauffeur, if respectively in his service.
He leaves £300 for filling in the window near the font in Horbling Church with stained glass (if not already done) and the residue of the property to his brother George Smith.

Grantham Journal, 14 July 1944, p. 6:

“The Funeral took place at Ancaster on Monday of Mrs. Sarah Bottomley, wife of the late Mr. Thomas Bottomley, of Ancaster, whose death at the age of 80 occurred last week at Sleaford. Since the death of her husband some 20 years ago, deceased had resided with her sister, Miss Kirkby, at Sleaford. For many years she was with the late Mr. Henry Smith, Sudbrook House, Ancaster. She was an ardent church worker.”

Midlands Miscellany

My notes on Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire in the 19th and 20th centuries

The family of Henry Smith, JP, DL, of Horbling (1820–1891)

I. Parentage and ancestry

Francis Smith (d. 1844), the father

Benjamin Smith (1777–1858), the uncle

Benjamin Smith (d. 1807), the grandfather

Other uncles and aunts

II. Siblings and their families

Francis Smith

Ann Smith and the Harris connexion

Benjamin

Edward

Charles

Charlotte and the Jackson connexion

III. Descendants

Henry Smith (1850–1931)

Benjamin Smith (1853–1914)

Edward Smith (1858–1936)

George Smith (1859–1945)

Footnotes

Appendix

I. Newspaper extracts

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Midlands Miscellany

My notes on Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire in the 19th and 20th centuries

I. Parentage and ancestry

Francis Smith (d. 1844), the father

Benjamin Smith (1777–1858), the uncle

Benjamin Smith (d. 1807), the grandfather

Other uncles and aunts

II. Siblings and their families

Francis Smith

Ann Smith and the Harris connexion

Benjamin

Edward

Charles

Charlotte and the Jackson connexion

III. Descendants

Henry Smith (1850–1931)

Benjamin Smith (1853–1914)

Edward Smith (1858–1936)

George Smith (1859–1945)

Footnotes

Appendix

I. Newspaper extracts

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