Wednesday 8 August 2018

Great x3 Grandfather William Edworthy

My Great x3 Grandfather William (1820 - bef 1901) was a farm labourer and father of eleven.



William was born around 1820 in West Worlington, Devon, to William Edworthy (about 34), a husbandman and agricultural labourer, and Elizabeth Edworthy (nee Ford) (about 35).

William was baptised on 3rd March 1820 in West Worlington.

William was the fourth of seven children (two daughters and five sons):

  • Mary  1811 -
  • John 1814 -
  • George  1817 - 
  • William  1820 -
  • Anne  1822 -
  • James  1824 -
  • Samuel 1828 -

Alas the 1841 Census shows William's parents, in their fifties, living in the poorhouse at West Worlington. All of their children, including their youngest aged only thirteen, were out working as servants, apprentices and labourers on different local farms. At the time, twenty year old William lived, and worked as a labourer for farmer George Smyth, at Town Farm, East Worlington.

1841 Census:


In 1841, William's future wife Mary Harris, aged only seventeen, gave birth to an illegitimate daughter, whom she called Ann. Was William the father? William's older brother George certainly lived at the time with the Harris family in Lapford (as shown on the 1841 Census), and would soon marry Ann's older sister Mary, meaning it was likely younger siblings William and Mary knew each other. And on the 1851 Census, young Ann is recorded as William's daughter.

On 26th September 1844, William (24) married Mary (20) in Lapford. At the time, Mary was at least seven months pregnant with their son John.

Including Ann, William and Mary had eleven children (four daughters and seven sons):

  • Ann  1841 - 1855 (about 14)
  • John  1844 -
  • Elizabeth  1849 -
  • William  1852 -
  • George  1854 -
  • Samuel  1856 -
  • Ellen  1858 -
  • Louis/Lewis  1861 -
  • Frederick  1863 -
  • Frank  1866 -
  • Mary  1869 - 

Sometime in the late 1840s, William and his young family moved from Lapford to Coldridge.

1851 Census:


Age was unkind to William's parents. In their mid sixties, in the 1851 Census, William's mother Elizabeth is recorded as deaf; whilst, his father William senior, seemingly struggled to find work as a farm labourer, and is recorded as a pauper.

Sometime in the early 1850s, William and his family moved from Coldridge to East Worlington.

In 1855, his eldest daughter Ann passed away, aged about fourteen. And in 1860, his father William passed away, in his seventies.

1861 Census:


Like William and his siblings before them, William's children each left home at a young age to work on nearby farms.

In 1866, when William was about forty-six, his mother Elizabeth passed away, aged about eighty-two, in South Molton.

1871 Census:


1881 Census:


In late 1886, when William was about sixty-six, his wife Mary passed away, aged about sixty-two, in East Worlington. She was buried on 15th December 1886 in East Worlington.

Widowed, William stayed at Oddislake, East Worlington, where he lived with his son Lewis and his family.

1891 Census:


William passed away in his seventies, sometime in the 1890s or very early 1900s, in the district of Crediton.

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