Thanks for taking a look at our family history.
I started out to trace Joan's Adlington ancestors armed with the family tree she had drawn up at age 16 which gave me a sound basis
In New Zealand it being the southern spring of 2005 Marlene Williamson was whiling away the time until her husband brought the cows in for calving She sprayed the calving sheds against the virus before the new bedding went in and decided on tidying up her family tree To this end she took out a subscription to "Ancestry Com" but finding little of interest she asked if she could look up anyone for me "Adlingtons " I said "Derby and Nottingham please"
She came back with several leads but the most significant was Jim and Bob Adlington of Australia This led back to their contacts in UK and very soon I had a great deal of help. Adlingtons galore from both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire
The Chesterfield parish records starting sometime after 1600 show them as yeoman farmers holding land under various forms of tenure and branching out into associated activity
A Thomas Adlington became coroner of the Scarsdale Hundred (an early Anglo Saxon county division) and his eldest son was the local hangman
Another family became barge and ship builders on the Thames at Rotherhithe
A third reckoned to have their ancestral piles buried under the Midland railway cutting at Newton and the Tibshelf motel on the M1 Generally law abiding then except that one George Adlington was deported to Australia in 1758
However "our" Adlingtons seem to have stayed in much the same area starting at Tibshelf in Derbyshire then homing in on Hucknall under Huthwaite, known today simply as Huthwaite and Sutton in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire with land holdings at nearby Skegby From farming they became carpenters running to coal miners latterly
According to the Derbyshire Record Office there are some missing years in the earliest Tibshelf records Part of the records from St John the Baptist Church were moved to the new parish of Stonebroom in 1910 and I don't suppose that helped However the early Adlingtons were generally wealthy enough to leave wills, over 400 such were located in York, Litchfield and the Nottingham record office and they came to the rescue in closing the gaps and linking the generations together
The earliest Adlingtons I have been able to trace are John and Mary Adlington I have very little by way of dates or documents for them, however John Adlington of Tibshelf made a will in 1739 which was proved in 1744 thus giving us an approximate date for his death He describes himself as a Husbandman Chambers dictionary defines the term as "a working farmer; a man who labours in tillage" It goes on to define Husbandland (hist) as "a manorial tenants holding" In this will he makes provision for his wife but sadly without giving her name He goes on to leave a small legacy to each of his surviving children the bulk of the farm estate going to his son Richard Armed with this information it became possible to find baptisms for the children mentioned to fit the time and place and so be reasonably confident of having the right family The records at this point are in Latin The parents listed for these baptisms are Johannis and Mariae so lacking further evidence I have settled for John and Mary
A copy of the will is attached The search for a death or burial for John has not been successful nor the hunt for a marriage but given the nature of the parish records from this period it is by no means certain that they have survived It may be as well to move on to the next couple son John and his wife Sarah in the direct line where there is a little more by way of evidence and we are on more solid ground This line is expanded in the computer printout to include the eleventh generation
Also of interest the printout backtracks to John's brother Robert and his line from Tibshelf
They became the flour and corn millers whose windmills and waterwheels were such a feature of the landscape at one time
Once again I have very little by way of dates for this John and his wife Sarah They had four children baptised at St Mary's the parish church of Sutton in Ashfield starting in 1732 They have the first entry in the Nottingham baptism index but the Sutton parish register has no marriage entry for John and Sarah The baptism dates suggest a marriage about that time (1732)
Later a will was found in the Nottingham Archives drawn up by Sarah widow of John and although subject to copyright a transcript has been made This reveals a total of six surviving children and was drawn in 1766 She leaves a sum of money to each of her children and two grandchildren and the bulk of her real estate in Skegby goes to her son Richard Adlington, carpenter who is also sole executor This will was proved in 1770 giving us a date of death about that time for Sarah but still no maiden name A burial under her married name of Sarah Adlington has been found on 5 April 1770 Sutton in Ashfield
A further document in the form of a bond of £200 appears to indicate some kind of duty payable to the commissary of the exchequer at the court of the Arch Bishop of York Primate of England pending the drawing of a true and perfect inventory of Sarah's estate
We have a baptism date in 1734 for Richard and 1732 for his wife Ruth Leeson Her parents are William and Mary Leeson
Banns of marriage were published between John Fletcher and Ruth Leeson on three Sundays 15th 22nd May 1757 Curate John Green
Then again banns of marriage were published between Richard Adlington and Ruth Leeson on three Sundays 2nd 9th and 18th Oct 1757 Curate John Green
I are aware of these entries because both fall on the same page of the register Presumably John and Ruth broke it off at this late stage and she went ahead with marriage to Richard some 5 months later The marriage took place on the 18th Oct 1757
Four children are baptised by this couple The two sons Richard and John both go into business as carpenters No Indentures have been found in the Nottinghamshire records most probably because the paperwork has not survived
Richard drew up a will two years after his mother's death appointing two executors and in this will he charges them with the sale of his property at best upon his death for the upkeep of his wife and children The two executors were Samuel Stafford his brother in law and his cousin William Leeson
In the event his wife Ruth pre deceased him and he lived on for a further 7 years until he died in 1782
John Adlington married Martha Moore of South Normanton on the 14th June 1804 Her parents were Thomas and Hannah Moore They had 7 children but tragically 5 of them died in infancy leaving only the first born Mary and the last born Thomas to reach adulthood Four infants are buried with their parents in section "A" of the churchyard of St Mary's Sutton in Ashfield
Martha died in 1815 two years after the birth of their son Thomas
Later on in 1836 John married spinster Mary Shacklock
John drew up a will in 1840 arranging for the division of his estate between his second wife Mary and his two surviving children daughter Mary Singleton and son Thomas He appoints two executors namely son Thomas and his nephew Samuel Adlington Thomas inherits the carpentry business including the workshops, tools, book debts and stock in trade The land was held on copyhold from the manor of Mansfield and a copy of the will is attached along with an inventory of the house contents
It is my impression that both John and his brother Richard were successful in their respective business activities and both left very similar estates
Mary, John's second wife died 31st Dec 1870 age 78 years and is buried at St Marys
Thomas Adlington and Mary Vallance were married at St Marys church in Sutton in Ashfield on the 1st March 1836 She was born in nearby Pinxton just over the border into Derbyshire Her father was William Vallance and her mother Elizabeth Fisher
Living next door to them in Club Row was his step mother Mary and a young Martha Adlington whom I have not so far been able to identify They had eight children together and as far as is known all survived Thomas followed in his fathers footsteps as a carpenter/joiner The first population census of 1841 and those which followed every ten years thereafter enable us to plot the arrival of their children with some accuracy
Mary died in 1868 and Thomas remarried at age 60 in 1874 to Ann Adams a widow also age 60 This marriage was held to be illegal and a scribbled note in the register suggests this was due to only one witness being present and the ceremony had to be repeated some eight months later
When the Rev Charles Bellairs arrived in 1868 to take over the parish in Sutton he was startled to find that many of the children had not been baptised He immediately started mass baptisms in the schoolroom The youngest child of Thomas and Mary had reached 13 and was one of the first to be given the treatment Incidentally the young Joe Hall Goddard and his brother William were also roped in and baptised together Joe having reached the age of four
Thomas died in 1884 age 72 years the cause of death being given as sunstroke ? The informant was his daughter Mary Ann wife of Charles Vardy
He is buried in the churchyard of St Marys Sutton in Ashfield I have lost track of his second wife Ann although I suspect she too is buried at St Marys
William's elder brother John continued in his fathers footsteps as a joiner but William became a coal miner On the 13th of March 1864 he married Mary Burton daughter of Ralph Burton and Emma Alsop Whilst I am aware that the registry entry gives her father as Robert Burton the family knowledge is too strong and I think we have something of a rarity, an error in the documentation They had five children I am of the opinion that William was a difficult chap given to taking a drink and indeed the couple separated for a time The enumerator of the 1881 census stated they were living apart William took up residence with his elderly father nearby They came back together later and daughter Annie Elizabeth was born as a late arrival Mary kept the family together by seaming stockings for the CWS and being a very good needlewoman she was given the finest work spending hours stitching with a candle on one knee to see by
When their daughter Mary Emma married Andrew Weston the young couple moved in with her parents at Sutton Road Tragically Mary Emma contracted a double mastoid and died leaving her baby daughter Annie to be brought up by the grandparents It seems that in playing his part and showing a fondness for the child William Adlington managed to redeem himself He died in Jan 1908 and is buried in Huthwaite cemetery Mary lived on at Mill Cottages until 1923 and is buried with her husband and daughter Mary Emma at Huthwaite
Of the five children Hannah born 1865 died at three years of age
Son George was born in 1867 and married Adah Gelsthorpe in 1888 On the 1901 census George is listed as a sewing machine agent age 33 wife Ada age 34 Four children are given Arthur age 11 William age 10 Florence age 8 and Mary age 7 The youngest child George born in the Dec quarter of 1901 is not recorded having died as the result of an accident at 11 months
Arthur was born in 1869 At age 13 he started as a miner He married first Fanny Blyth Utting and they had seven children together At 29 years of age he left the mine to study as a minister The 1901 Census lists him living in Nottingham age 31 occupation Wesleyian Evangelist His wife Fanny is age 35 Three children are listed John age 4 Hector age 2 and Ernest age 9 months Their first child Elsie did not survive Arthur went on to become a Methodist minister serving in many different places and their further children were Ellen born 1903 Winifred Mary born 1905 and George born 1906 who died at one year of age Fanny died in the flu epidemic of 1918/19 and Arthur subsequently married Florence Hobbs Arthur's life was devoted to Christian worship in the Methodist faith and to care and thought for his fellow men
Mary Emma was born in 1876 and she married Andrew Weston a coal miner in May 1897 The 1901 census shows Mary Emma age 24 and her husband Andrew age 29 living under the same roof with her parents Of their three children John Bernard died in infancy in 1898 as did his brother Ivan the next year Daughter Annie was born in 1902 and sadly as already mentioned Mary Emma herself died in Oct of that year leaving the infant to be brought up by the grandparents Andrew married again in 1905 to Annie Fisher at Pinxton wharf
Annie Elizabeth was born in 1885 and was 15 at the time of the 1901 Census her employment unspecified, although it is known she started work in domestic service at age 13 At the time of her marriage to Joe Hall Goddard she was employed by the Buck family in Sutton Mr Buck was very pleased with Annie He left his work place on the stroke of twelve crossed the yard and entered the house expecting his dinner ready and Annie never failed him F W Buck and Sons were publishers and printed the first edition of the Notts Free Press
Annie left to marry in Oct 1904 and Joe was relieved as he thought the household not a very suitable one as Mr Buck was reputed to have a lady friend and an illegitimate child.
They went on to raise their family of four children
This brief summary brings us up to date to within living memory and sees the union of the Adlington family of Nottinghamshire with the Goddards of Warwickshire
C J Gray
Petmathen Green Lane
Farnham Common
Bucks SL2 3SP
Tuesday, 27 September 2005
With grateful acknowledgement and thanks to the following people:--
Bob and Jim Adlington of Australia, Leslie Adlington of Yorkshire, Kathryn J Lewin (nee Adlington) of Worplesdon Surrey, and especially to Sheila Clark of Sutton in Ashfield Notts for her unstinting help and local knowledge
This is a work in progress to put some of my late father (Jeff Gray's) research on the Internet. The continued effort is to add the source data and photographs.
