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WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Posted: 11 Nov 2004 2:59AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: GLIDDON, WONNACOTT, HUTCHINGS
I would be grateful to receive any information regarding the family of blacksmith William Gliddon (born 1874 Thornbury Devon) who married Elizabeth Grace Wonnacott (born 1872). Their daughter Gladys Mary Wonnacott Gliddon was born 27 November 1896 and married Samuel John Hutchings from Black Torrington Devon. Their daughter Hazel Mary Hutchings was born 18 June 1926.

Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Posted: 7 Jan 2006 4:06PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 11 May 2006 2:22PM GMT
Angela,

I'm not sure if you received any information regarding your inquiry about William Gliddon. Here is the information that I have.

William Gliddon was the son of Charles and Sarah Gliddon, and the grandson of Samuel and Elizabeth Gliddon. He had three sisters - Demeres, Elizabeth (b1878) and Sarah (b1880).

Charles Gliddon: born Bridgerule 1843. (Sarah born Bradford 1844). Married 1871. He worked as blacksmith at Thornbury Castle.

Samuel Gliddon: born Bridgerule c1815. Son of Thomas, a tailor, and Catherine. Married Eliza Sargeant Eliston, daughter of William Eliston, a carpenter, 22 March 1841 in Stoke Dameral, Plymouth. They emigrated to Canada in 1870 with several of the children. Charles stayed behind.

They had several children:

Betsy Ann b1842
Charles b1843
Samuel b1849
Thomas b1850
Susanna b1850
William b1853
Damaris
John b1858
(and possibly two others)

The dates are not certain (except for the marriage).

I have pictures of Charles (and others) taken in about 1870.

There are more details if you wish. I hope this helps.

Wayne

Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Angela Agnew (View posts)
Posted: 7 Jan 2006 5:17PM GMT
Classification: Query
Hi Wayne

What a surprise to get your message. I didn't receive any response to my original posting and as it was so long ago I had forgotten all about it!

Thanks so much for all the information provided regarding William and his family......very interesting and it will all be added to my tree anon.

My Mum was adopted and on tracing her birth family to Thornbury I discovered that William was my great great grandfather. With the help of some newly discovered relatives I managed to trace the Hutchings side of the family quite a way back and obtain a few photos, however, didn't have much success with the Gliddon side.

I did make contact with a lovely chap called Ivan Gliddon in Bude, however, we weren't sure whether we were related. He did mention that his family were either auburn or dark haired and as that was the same for mine thought we could possibly be from the same stock but nothing was ever confirmed!

I would be extremely grateful for any further snippets you are able to provide regarding the family and of course it would be great to know where you fit into all of this!

Thanks once again for taking the time to respond. It has been very helpful and has given me the incentive to continue with my search.

Kind Regards

Angela

Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Posted: 8 Jan 2006 12:41PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 11 May 2006 2:22PM GMT
Angela,

I'm glad the information helped. It's exciting to hear from someone down that line of the family.

As I mentioned, Charles, William's father, had a younger brother named John. He was my great grandfather. He came to Canada c1870. Like Charles and William, he was a blacksmith.

I know that the branches of the family kept in touch. My great-uncle (John's son), Clarence, was a doctor in WWI. He spent Christmas 1914 in Thornbury with cousin Gladys Hutchings and her family. I have a telegram that Clarence sent to his father regarding this.

Also, Clarence was killed at the third battle of Ypres in May 1915. There is a letter to Clarence's brother Rupert, my grandfather, from "Your affectionate Cousin Gladys." It's dated June 2, 1915, Thornbury, Brandis Corner.

I'll have to ask my Dad if he or other family members had any more contact with the Charles-Gliddons.

Thanks for providing the name of William's wife. I did not have this. It just read "Granny." But I'm not sure who wrote that.

Thanks also for Samuel John Hutchings. I had him simply as "Jack."

It's interesting to know that Gladys was only 18 when she wrote that letter concerning Clarence's death. I imagined her as being older.

I'd love to know anything about the Hazel and "Mr Marshall" line.

More as it comes to me.

Thanks again,

Wayne


Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Angela Agnew (View posts)
Posted: 8 Jan 2006 3:25PM GMT
Classification: Query
Wayne

It's good to hear from you too.....thanks for the additional information. The family is obviously huge!

My great grandfather Samuel John (Jack) was born in 1898 and was a farmer. He and Gladys Mary (b 1896) resided above Thornbury Post Office where she worked. I know that Jack served in World War I and as a result suffered from severe shell shock for the rest of his life. Talking of post offices, I think that William Gliddon also held the title of local postmaster as well as being a blacksmith.

Jack's father, also a farmer and rates collector, was called Samuel but he was known as Walter. He was born in 1876 and his wife was called Lydia May. They had three other children:

Fredrick (b 1900), Albert (b 1910) and Amy (b 1920). I believe there was also another sibling who died in infancy. Fredrick and Albert were smallholders.

At the end of 2004 I made contact with and visited my Mum's second cousin Arthur (grandson of Fredrick) who still lives in Thornbury and is a farmer....although not on the original family farm Forda which was sold quite a while back (see www.fordafarm.co.uk).

He provided me with details of the Hutchings family back to 1620. Obviously it is far too much to relate here but if you have access to Genes Reunited you are quite welcome to request and view it.

As for Hazel (my grandmother), well I've drawn a blank really. My Mum Sandra was born out of wedlock when Hazel was 18 (above the Wonnacott dairy in Lansdown Road Bude). I don't even know if Freddy Marshall was the father.....in fact I have been told that he wasn't and it was a friend of one of Hazel's uncles who was a medical student. Anyway, at the time of the birth my Nan was working with the district nurse in Bude, vaguely knew the family and adopted my Mum through Stratton Law Courts (after confirming it was OK with my grandad who was away fighting). She then brought my Mum back to the family home in Plymouth. Hazel did communicate with my Nan for a few years but then the letters stopped and contact was lost.

I did discover that Freddy Marshall came from Bideford and married Hazel at Marylebone Register Office. They lived in Exeter and had two boys and a girl before emigrating to Australia where they had another three children.

I have a photograph of Hazel in later life and know that she is now dead, however, that is it. I think her ashes may have been brought back to the church at Thornbury although I'm not sure.

It seems the older members of the family (and most of Thornbury!) knew about my Mum's existence, however, it was something that wasn't discussed openly. Arthur confronted his Aunty Amy about my Mum, however, she would not talk about it nor would she pass on any details regarding the family in Australia who Arthur hasn't kept in contact with. As there are no other older family members still alive I am now stuck!

Please keep in contact. It would be great to hear more from you.

Angela

Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Posted: 9 May 2006 9:29AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 11 May 2006 2:22PM GMT
Angela,

I was able to find out more information about your mystery man. His name was Mr. Kenny (last name. Sorry, no first name). He was a post office engineer (whatever that meant at the time) who came to live with them over the post office.

There are a few Kenny's still living in Devon.

This information came to me a couple of weeks ago as I was in Devon researching my family tree. I met Betty nee Gliddon and her husband Den. He grew up in Thornbury and knew Hazel, Gladys and William Gliddon - and the Hutchings. He was kind enough (and in fact enthusiastic) to give me a tour of Thornbury (it's very small), and I took pictures of the post office and such. He remembered the "scandal" and remembered that Hazel had disappeared for a couple of months (probably to go to Bude).

Anyway, after discussing the story, the next day Betty spoke to her sister Jane (again nee Gliddon) who had been a childhood friend of Hazel. They both went to school in Holsworthy. She relayed the story about Mr. Kenny. The medical student angle didn't seem to ring a bell.

I hope this helps. You have a last name to go with anyway - assuming it's accurate. People's memories can get fuzzy.

I was able to do a lot of terrific work on my tree (I'll post that once I've sorted it out), and take pictures of where they lived and churches where they were baptized, married and buried. The Devon Record Office is a gem!

Later.

Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Angela Agnew (View posts)
Posted: 10 May 2006 10:22AM GMT
Classification: Query
Wayne

Well, well, well.....you've really come up trumps and I can't thank you enough. That was the piece of the jigsaw I have been searching for over the last few years and now I can investigate further. As you can imagine my Mum is over the moon at this possible new lead so fingers crossed it will finally get us somewhere.

I'm glad the work on your tree is progressing well and look forward to viewing it when posted....it will be very interesting.

I live in Plymouth and made the short trip to Thornbury a couple of years ago to meet my Mum's second cousin who has a farm in the village, although sadly most of the older generation of Hutchings have passed on and he was unable to offer any information regarding the 'scandal'....or so he said!! Thornbury is very small so I'm not at all shocked that Betty, Den and Jane were aware of the village 'secret'!!......by the way, what relation are you to them and do you have a gentleman in your tree called Ivan Gliddon? I have also been trying to work out what relation you would be to my Mum....maybe you could tell me!

Anyway, thanks once again for taking the time to investigate the 'mystery man' and for letting me know. You have been extremely helpful and I hope we can keep in contact.

Kind Regards

Angela

Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Posted: 10 May 2006 10:49AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 11 May 2006 2:22PM GMT
I visited Plymouth a couple of weeks ago as well, to take pictures of the houses where my great-great grandparents lived when they were married (Stork Damerel) in 1841. Sadly, the houses were gone - his on Marlborough St. now a parking lot; hers on Market St. now part of a naval base I think. Then I took the night ferry to France. Lovely waterfront.

>Thornbury is very small so I'm not at all shocked that Betty, Den and Jane were aware of the village 'secret'!!......by the way, what relation are you to them and do you have a gentleman in your tree called Ivan Gliddon? I have also been trying to work out what relation you would be to my Mum....maybe you could tell me!

Sorry, no Ivan that I'm aware of.

I'm not in the Betty or Joan line. Betty said that Joan and Hazel were aware that they were not closely related.

As for my relation to your Mum - let's see:

Charles Gliddon, the blacksmith at Thornbury, would be your Mum's great-great grandfather (Hazel - mother, Gladys - grandmother, William - great grandfather, then Charles). Charles is my great grandfather John Gliddon's brother. So I guess that makes him my great-great uncle. I'm not sure what that makes your Mum and me. Distant cousins of some sort.

Good luck. I'm still plowing through the information overload I got at the Devon Records Office!

Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Posted: 10 May 2006 10:55AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 11 May 2006 2:22PM GMT
Yes, it is Joan and not Jane. I'm still jet-lagged.

Re: WILLIAM GLIDDON - THORNBURY DEVON

Posted: 11 May 2006 11:42AM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 11 May 2006 2:22PM GMT
Angela,

Concerning the photograph of Hazel later in life, is it possible to email or snail mail a copy of this to me? I would love to send a copy of it to Joan and Betty and Den in England.

Thanks,

Wayne
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