A similar fate to James Conway befell two Waltho children, William and Jane, at even younger ages. Richard Waltho from Armitage had married Hannah Cox in Hamstall Ridware in 1785 and they had a son and a daughter in Hamstall Ridware. By 1791 the family was living in Armitage and reliant on poor relief as the following records from the Overseers accounts in 1791 show:
- 9 May for bread & sugar etc for Richard Waltho’s wife 3s 6d
- 14 June paid Richard Waltho 2s 0d
- 15 June paid John Robinson for a coffin for Hannah Waltho 10s 0d
- Burial fees 3s 6d
- 17 June paid Dorothy Waltho & her daughters for attending Richard Waltho’s wife & laying her out 3s 0d
- 24 June paid Mr. Woolley for bread, cheese & ale at Hannah Waltho’s bear-in 5s 8d
- 3 qtrs rent for Richard Waltho 18s 9d
- Clothing Richard Waltho’s children 12s 5d
Richard had lost his wife but still had two young children to bring up and he married Rebecca Stubbs at Hamstall Ridware on 28th January 1793. Far from helping the two children, this didn’t improve their lot and eventually it turned out to be even worse. On 15th September 1793 their half-brother, Richard, was baptised at Pipe Ridware rather than Armitage where the family were living and receiving poor relief. For the next two years the family still lived on the breadline with Armitage parish consistently paying for their rent and clothing. William and Jane though were living with their Aunt Dorothy who was being paid 1s 6d per week for their keep.
At some point during 1795 the Overseers were obviously told that Richard’s second marriage was not above board. This bill from Thomas Jackson to Mr. Harvey for £3 6s 4d shows that they tried hard to prove that Armitage should not be paying for Richard’s Waltho’s new family:
- June 24 Attending Mr. Harvey respecting the marriage of Richard Waltho to Rebecca Stubbs
- Journey with Mr. Harvey to Morrey & taking the examination of John Harley as to his knowledge of Waltho having received money from the Parish Officer of Hamstall Ridware to marry Rebecca Stubbs
- Gave Harvey 1s for his trouble
- Attending at Handsacre taking Waltho’s examination
- June 25 Journey to Hamstall Ridware & copying the Register of Waltho’s marriage
- Paid the Revd Mr. Kirk 2s 6d
- Drawing case
- Paid copy for Counsel
- Letter to Agent with instruction to lay case before Counsel
- Paid postage of case to town
- Fee to Counsel therewith
- Agent’s attending Counsel several times thereon
- Postage of case down
- Copy of case H W Bayley’s opinion sent to Armitage
The records do not show what happened next and Hamstall Ridware’s records are not currently available, but the upshot was that Richard Waltho, his pregnant wife, Rebecca, and their son Richard went off to Birmingham where their second child was born. William and Jane were left behind. William Waltho, at nine years old, was now old enough to be apprenticed off and that’s exactly what happened.
As with James Conway above, the Overseers identified someone who was willing to take on an apprentice and John Neeld of Borsley in the parish of Aston, Warwickshire, a whitesmith and jobbing smith, was selected. They received a letter from Benjamin Treeth and Joseph Parry of Aston parish confirming that John Neeld ‘is capable of instructing the boy in his business and is an honest man’. Unlike James Conway’s Indenture, the Indenture for William Waltho does not state how much Neeld was paid but a separate document states that the Armitage Overseer paid Neeld £6 6s. The Indenture does however include a line stating that at the end of his apprenticeship Neeld will provide William with ‘one good suit of cloaths for holidays’.
About two years later it was the turn of eight-year old Jane Waltho to be packed off as an apprentice. The Indenture is slightly more complicated this time because Jane is sent off to learn the cotton spinning trade from a partnership consisting of Robert Peel of Bury, Lancashire, Edward Dickinson of Dostall, Warwickshire, and Joseph Peel of Fazley, Staffordshire. As Jane was taken to Lichfield (by B. Lamsdale who charged Armitage parish a pound for his trouble) the apprenticeship probably took place in Fazeley, Lichfield. Until Jane went off to her apprenticeship she lodged with Sarah Mills who was also paid by the parish to make clothing for her. In addition the parish bought Jane a hat, stockings and a handkerchief for 3s 10d. There is no separate note stating how much the apprenticeship cost but Joseph Peel would not have done it for free as he was obliged to teach her, feed her and clothe her.
William Waltho is not recorded back in Armitage at any time but it is believed that Jane Waltho married William Morecroft in about 1815. (The Morecroft family were Non-Conformist and their marriage records cannot be found but census records strongly suggest this to be the case).
Before you could receive poor relief the Overseers made sure that you were entitled to it and, if there was any doubt, you would have to be interviewed by two local JPs who would conduct a ‘settlement examination’. This may then lead to a settlement certificate or even a removal order. The Parish Chest holds settlement examinations, settlement certificates and removal orders although most relate to people living in the Parish who were not entitled to receive poor relief in the parish. There are a few records for Armitage going back to 1698 but most of them cover the 1770 – 1840 period.
In the Parish Chest is a removal order for Hannah Greatrix from 1750, (although the various written records show her surname as Grettrix, Grattrex, Gratrix and Gretewicks):
Whereas complaint hath been made by you the Church-Wardens and Overseers of the Poor of the Parish of Yoxal in the County of Stafford unto us whole Hands and Seals are hereunto set, Two of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace (one being of the Quorum) for the County aforesaid, that Hannah Grettrix & Edward her son aged about three months have lately intruded themselves into your said Parish of Yoxal there to inhabit as Parishioners contrary to the Laws relating to Settlement of the Poor, and are likely to become Chargeable, if not timely prevented. And whereas upon due Examination and Enquiry made into the Premisses and particularly upon the Examination of the said Hannah Grettrix upon oath it appears unto us, and we accordingly Adjudge, That the said Hannah Grettrix & Edward her son are likely to become chargeable unto the said Parish of Yoxal and that the last Legal Settlement of the said Hannah Grettrix & Edward her son was in the said Parish of Armitage.
These are therefore in His Majesty’s Name to Order and Require you the said Church-Wardens and Overseers of the Poor of the Parish of Yoxal aforesaid, That you, or some of you do forthwith remove and convey the said Hannah Grettrix and Edward her son from your said Parish of Yoxal to the said Parish of Yoxal and them deliver to the Church-Wardens and Overseers of the Poor there, or some or one of them, together with this Warrant or Order, or a true Copy thereof, whereby they are likewise required in His Majesty’s Name, and by Virtue if the Statutes in such Case made, forthwith to receive the said Hannah Grettrix and Edward her son into the said Parish of Armitage and provide for them as their own Parishioners. Given under our Hands and Seals the 24th Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second by the Grace of God of Great-Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth; and in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty.
(Some of the wording in this document look very strange now – using the term ‘lately intruding into the Parish of Yoxal’ makes it sound like they were acting in secret rather than living out their normal lives. And apparently King George was still claiming to be King of France!)
It is quite possible that Hannah had never been to Armitage before and that the Overseers had never seen her either because she wasn’t born in Armitage. She wasn’t born in Yoxall either but perhaps her family had moved there because the Yoxall marriage register shows that Robert Grattrex married Hannah Hall on 4th April 1747. In September of that year the register shows the baptism of John Gratrix whilst in April 1750 a baptism is recorded for Edward, son of Robert & Hannah Gratrix of Woodhouses. For Hannah & Edward to need poor relief just for themselves suggests that her husband had died and as her other son is not removed with her then he is likely to have died as well but the burial register doesn’t show either of them. On their marriage, Hannah’s legal settlement place became the same as her husband’s and Armitage records show that a Robert Gretewicks, son of Thomas & Sarah was baptised on 16th July 1721. So Hannah and Edward moved to Armitage, whether they wanted to or not.
The first record for a Marklew in Armitage is for the baptisms of Mary and Anne on the 8th June 1800. The father was William who had married Sarah Mills of Armitage in Lichfield on 19th March 1798. Sarah was baptised in Armitage in 1776 and her father was Samuel Mills – possibly Old Sam, the road worker? (And this was probably the same Sarah Mills who had looked after Jane Waltho before Jane became an apprentice). William Marklew was a brickmaker which was a seasonal job being done during the dry, warmer months and out of season he took on whatever other work he could find. The winter of 1800/1801 though was difficult and the family fell on hard times as this settlement examination shows:
The Examination of William Marklew of the Parish of Armitage in the County of Stafford, brickmaker, respecting his settlement – who saith that he was born in the Parish of Saint John, Lichfield, where his father was settled – that at the Age of twenty this examinant went to work with Mr. Francis Adie of Longdon at his brick-kiln under a hiring from Lady Day (25th March) to Michaelmas (29th September) which he served, as also part of another summer – that he has worked as a Brickmaker with several other Masters but never continued with any of them longer than the season for making bricks, and in the winter worked where he could get employment. About five years ago he came into the parish of Armitage where he married his present wife Sarah by whom he has two children namely Mary aged nearly three and Anne almost one year old – that he was never hired for a year but has worked with different Masters for several short periods in the Parish of Armitage.
Taken and sworn 10th February 1801 before us
John Lane
George Talbot
William Marklew could not write but made his mark on the bottom of the document.
The information doesn’t quite add up with other records – we know for instance that they married in Lichfield rather than Armitage – but it would appear that William came to Armitage in about 1795 where he met Sarah Mills. From later burial records it can be seen that William was about 35 years old at the time of the examination and so his baptism would have been about 1765 and there is a baptism in Lichfield in 1764 to William son of William and Elizabeth. Following his examination William does not seem to have been removed to Lichfield as we can see the baptism of a son, John Marklew, in Armitage on Christmas Day 1802. The Overseers were not known for their charity to people who were not settled in their Parish, so it is likely that William managed to find employment before he could be removed to his legal settlement of Lichfield. Certainly, William worked at Thomas Bond’s brickworks a few years later where the records show that he consistently earned about £3 or more per week and one record shows that, instead of cash, he received two pigs to the value of £3 18s 6d! All bar one record shows a simple cash (or pig) amount, but one shows that he was paid 5s for every thousand bricks that he produced.