A Window in Time – My Bell Family in East Farleigh, Kent, England.

My maternal Great- Great- Grandfather, George Bell, arrived in Sydney in 1837, as a sailor on the convict ship, ‘Asia’.

He was the fourth son, and eighth child, of Thomas and Mary Bell (nee Battlemore), and had been born at East Farleigh, Kent, England in 1817.

I’m in the process of finding out as much information as I can, not only for my ancestor, George Bell, but also his eleven siblings. I have been preparing ‘time-lines’ for each one, from which I write a biography, or life story.

Despite gaps in surviving parish records I have been able to locate most of the baptisms, and in some cases burials, of members of this family in various church registers throughout Kent, England.

However, if we are to write a ‘family history’, baptism and burial records are not enough to build up a picture of a person. We need to gather as much information as we can from a number of sources.

In England, prior to the establishment of the Poor Law Unions in 1834, the parish was responsible for its poor.

‘The Parish Chest’, which is a large wooden chest, can still be found in most parish churches all over England. This purpose built chest originally housed not only the registers of baptisms, marriages and burials of the parish, but many other records, which although not created for family history research purposes, are useful resources for such, just the same. These include apprenticeship indentures, settlement certificates, bastardy papers, militia lists, overseers minute books and accounts , and churchwardens account books. Not all these have survived for every parish, but I found some of those for East Farleigh had survived from 1800 to 1830, and this was the time period I was interested in. One set of records I had found useful in research in other parishes I have researched, was the Overseers Account Books, so I concentrated on those records to start with. These had been deposited with the Kent County Archives (now the Kent History and Library Centre)and had been filmed by the Church of Latter Day Saints Genealogical Department. They were available on microfilm through their Family History Centres and I was able to order the film and view it at the Grafton centre.

These records were in two lists. The first list was for those who paid the parish poor rate. This ‘tax’ was collected by the church overseers, from the more affluent members of the parish, for distribution to those in need of assistance. There were no Bell family members listed as paying this ‘poor rate’ at any time between 1800 and 1830 in East Farleigh.This meant as agricultural labourers they did not earn enough money to pay this tax.

However, I was more interested in finding if they were recipients of parish welfare. There were two instances found for this period. I found my ancestors had applied for parish assistance for a short period in 1816. This meant that despite difficult times, for most of the time, Thomas Bell was able to earn enough money to support his large family. Remember to receive parish relief you had to be born in the parish, if not, and you fell on hard times, you were sent back to your parish of birth. If you were allowed to remain in the parish, the parish overseers ‘billed’ your parish of birth, which left a paper trail.

The entries in the Overseers of the Poor Account Book distribution list was as follows:-

30 April 1816 – gave young Bell – 3/-

5 May 1816 – gave Mary Bell – 3/-

14 May 1816 – gave Mary Bell – 5/-

22 May 1816 – gave Mary Bell – 4/-

29 May 1816 – gave May Bell – 4/-

5 June 1816 – gave Mary Bell – 4/6

11 June 1816 – gave Mary Bell – 3/6

20 June 1916 – gave Mary Bell – 3/6

20 October 1816 – paid for relieving Bell’s daughter- 4/-

The Napoleonic Wars finished in June 1815, with the Battle of Waterloo, and many thousands of soldiers returned home to try and find work, both in the cities and on the land. That summer was a very poor season, followed by a severe winter and again followed by a poor harvest.

Scattered throughout these records was assistance given to the widows and wives of ‘Militia men’, but no Bell entries were recorded.

St Mary’s, East Farleigh, Kent

In April 1816, Mary Bell, the wife of Thomas Bell, had a daughter, who was baptised on 16 April, at St Mary’s East Farleigh, and given the name ‘Elizabeth Ann’ . I believe she was perhaps a sickly child and the above entries most probably had to do with her care. Whether it was to have a doctor or nurse visit, or to do with her ‘wet nursing’ we do not know, but as she had been born in the parish, she was entitled to make claim on the parish funds if her parents did not have the money for her care. She died and was buried on 7 October 1816. The above entry on 20 October was perhaps for her final ‘medical expenses’ and burial.

There is only one other entry in the parish poor list for our Bell family. That was in 1827 when Thomas Bell applied for assistance to bury his wife, Mary.

Although ‘Elizabeth Ann Bell’ the daughter of Thomas and Mary Bell only lived a few months, these entries in the Overseers Account Book help to give a glimpse of this little girl’s struggle for survival. As there were no entries between the end of June and early October, her parents may have had some hope that she was going to gradually get stronger . However, she lost the battle at about seven months of age and was buried in St Mary’s Churchyard.

In fact, eight of the twelve children of Thomas and Mary Bell, are known to have been buried in St Mary’s churchyard. The family or parish, may have erected markers at the time, perhaps in wood, but they have disappeared in the last two hundred years, so their graves are now unmarked and unknown.

Churchyard, St Mary’s East Farleigh, Kent, England

This does not mean they are forgotten . I always try to find more than birth/ baptism and death/ burial dates for everyone in my family history. .

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The Daughters of Mercy Cheeseman in Kent, England

In this blog, as promised, I have continued the story of the daughters of Mercy Cheeseman, in the early 19^th Century.

As genealogists we rely heavily on parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burial records to find the vital information of events such as the birth, marriage and death of our ancestors.

However, these are only a small part of the parish records documenting the lives of our ancestors. We should be looking at Overseers Account Books, Vestry Minutes, Bastardy Bonds, Removal Orders, Examinations, Poor Law Records, Workhouse Records and Militia Lists, all of which can add further information on our ancestors.

It was these records I turned to in search of information on Mercy Cheeseman and the story of her three daughter in the time of her first marriage.

Mercy Cox married James Cheeseman at Smarden, Kent on 8 November 1800.

On 21 April 1802, a daughter was born to this couple,whom they named ‘Ann Pool’ in honour of Mercy’s mother. She was baptised on 4 July 1802 in the Staplehurst parish church. Sadly she died as an infant and was buried in an unmarked grave at Staplehurst on 18 December 1803.

James Cheeseman went off to fight in the Napoleonic Wars in late 1803. From that time the Staplehurst Overseers Account Books record the allowances given to James Cheeseman and then Mercy Cheeseman, up to 1806. I gave a detailed account of these in the Bell Family Newsletter, No 42.

The second daughter, Sarah Cornwall Cheeseman, was born 13 April 1804 at Staplehurst some months after her father had gone off to war. She was named ‘Sarah Cornwall’ after James’ mother. At this time the Staplehurst Parish Overseers were paying Mercy Cheeseman an allowance of some four shillings a week for the care and maintenance of her family. Sarah Cheeseman moved to East Farleigh with her mother, Mercy Cheeseman in 1808.

In 1821 Sarah Cheeseman had a daughter, whom she named ‘Hannah’. She was baptised on 19 August, at St Mary’s East Farleigh. However she died on 14 October 1821 aged 7 weeks and is buried in the East Farleigh churchyard. No marker has survived to mark the place.

For some time she was believed to be the ‘Sarah Cheeseman’, who married Thomas Long at East Farleigh on 25 December 1835. However, further research proves that although of the right name and place she is not the daughter of James and Mercy Cheeseman, but the daughter of John and Elizabeth Cheeseman of Yalding. At this stage I have no further information on our Sarah Cheeseman except that she did not emigrate with her mother in 1838.

Elizabeth Cheeseman the third daughter of Mercy Cheeseman was born about 1806. Her father is unknown, as James Cheeseman, the husband of Mercy, had not returned from war. As Mercy Cheeseman was no longer on parish relief at Staplehurst or at Marden, it is believed that she had a private arrangement with Elizabeth’s father for support and maintenance, which would suggest he was of some means and not of the labouring class, as there are no details in the parish records.

In 1808 when her mother decided to move to East Farleigh with Robin Bell, Elizabeth was baptised before they left, in the parish church at Marden on 31 January 1808, As Mercy was still legally married to James Cheeseman , Elizabeth’s baptism entry records her as the daughter of ‘James and Mercy Cheeseman.’

It is believed that Elizabeth Cheeseman grew up in East Farleigh and Maidstone and probably went into service as a young girl. In 1829 a Bastardy Bond states that Elizabeth Cheeseman had a daughter, on 5 November 1829 at Tovil (East Farleigh) whom she named Eliza. She was baptised at Maidstone on 7 February 1830. The reputed father is given as Charles Vinter, a printer of Maidstone. I have found no further information on this child. She is believed to have died as an infant, although I have not found any burial record at East Farleigh, Maidstone, Mereworth or Offham.

On 30 November 1831 a Removal Order for ‘Elizabeth Cheeseman, otherwise Bell, a single woman, pregnant’ to be removed from East Farleigh to Maidstone was executed. A couple of weeks later a Bastardy Bond for ‘Charlotte, the bastard daughter of Elizabeth Cheeseman, alias Bell, born 12 December 1831 at Half York’ was drawn up. The reputed father was stated as Henry Pledge, butcher of Malling. Maybe, because her mother also had a daughter ‘Charlotte’, that when this child was baptised at All Saints, Maidstone on 15 June 1832, she was given the name ‘Rebecca’.

It appears that Rebecca remained in the household of Robin and Mercy Bell as in the Mereworth Parish Vestry Account Books I found that three shillings per week, was regularly paid throughout 1834 and 1835 for the keep of ‘ Elizabeth Cheeseman’s child’.

Rebecca emigrated with her grandparents, Robin and Mercy Bell on board the Woodbridge in 1838, and is recorded there as ‘Rebecca Bell’.

Elizabeth Cheeseman later married George Wood at Offham, Kent and they emigrated to New Zealand before moving to New South Wales during the early 1860’s. Some of their story is included in my book, ‘The Descendants of Robin and Mercy Bell’ as well as in several issues of the Bell Family Newsletters.