Thursday, 12 July 2018

Great x3 Grandfather George Anley Sandford

My Great x3 Grandfather George (1843 - 1917) was a farm labourer and father of five.




George Anley Sandford was born in Apr/May/June 1843 in Woodbury, Devon to William Broom Sandford (29), a tanner and farm labourer, and Sophia Anley Sandford (nee Brice) (22) a lacemaker.

George was baptised on 10th June 1843 in Woodbury, Devon.

George was the second of nine children (six sons and three daughters):

  • John Brice  1841 - 1842 (6 months old)
  • George Anley  1843 -
  • Jane Mary  1847 -
  • Job/Jobe  1850 -
  • Mark  1852 -
  • Mary Jane  1855 -
  • Kate  1857 -
  • Thomas 'Tom'  1859 -
  • Harry  1862 -

Sadly before George was born, his elder brother John passed away at only six months.

George's childhood was spent in his native Woodbury.

1851 Census:


Sometime in the 1860s, when George was in his teens or twenties, he and his family moved about 18 miles east from Woodbury to Colyton. There George lodged with his future wife Sarah Ann Willis and her family.

1871 Census:


On 7th May 1871, George (27), a farm labourer, married Sarah Ann Willis (30), a lacemaker and single mother of two, in Colyton.

George and Sarah had five children (two sons and three daughters):

  • Mark  1872 -
  • Jane Mary  1873 -
  • Alice  1877 -
  • Susan  1882 -
  • Henry 'Harry'  1884 -

The family moved gradually west. Around 1880, they moved from the Colyton area around fourteen miles west to the Payhembury area.

1881 Census:


The family soon moved again. First in the early 1880s from Payhembury around 26 miles west to Zeal Monachorum.

They moved again in the late 1880s from Zeal Monachorum east five miles to Morchard Bishop.

1891 Census:


Interestingly, another Great x3 Grandfather of mine, William Nott, can be found only a page later on the 1891 Census, meaning George and William lived very close to each other and likely knew each other! It's all the more interesting for I am descended from George by my mother, and I am descended from William by my father. These two old agricultural labourers, chatting together in the 1890's, they couldn't have dreamt a great great grandchild of each would marry each other one hundred years later, and that they would share two great x3 grandchildren.

In 1897, when George was about fifty-three, his wife Sarah passed away, aged fifty-six, in the district of South Molton.

In the late 1890's, George moved about five miles south from Morchard Bishop to Bow, to live with his widowed step-daughter Mary Gill (nee Willis), her young children, and his youngest child Harry.

1901 Census:


In the 1900s, George moved with Mary and her family about eight miles north from Bow to Eggesford.

1911 Census:


In 1917, George passed away, aged seventy-four, in the Crediton district.

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