Monday, 7 January 2019

Great x4 Grandfather James Willis

My Great x4 Grandfather James (1809 - 1886) was a blacksmith and father of fourteen.



James Willis was born on 21st November 1809 in Colyton, Devon, to James Willis (about 27), a blacksmith, and Elizabeth Willis (nee ?) (about 26).

James was baptised on 23rd December 1810 in Colyton. He was the couple's first born and named for his father.

James was the eldest of five children (four sons and one daughter):

  • James  1809 -
  • Mary Anne  1816 - 
  • John Needs  1819 -
  • Henry Needs  1823 - 
  • Philip Needs  1828 - 1848 (20 years old)

All five were baptised in Colyton, and survived into adulthood.

On 22nd September 1831, Richard (21), a blacksmith like his father, married Mary Richards (18), in Colyton. Mary was about seven and half months pregnant when they married.

James and Mary would have a total of fourteen children (four sons and ten daughters):

  • William Richard Needs  1831 -
  • John Needs  1833 - 
  • Clara Elizabeth  1834 -
  • Mary Ann  1839 -
  • Sarah Ann  1840 -
  • James  1843 -
  • Keziah  1845 -
  • Judith Maria  1846 - 
  • Susan Armenia  1848 - 
  • Leah  1850 - 1850 (2 weeks old)
  • Emily  1851 - 1852 (1 year old)
  • Eliza Ann  1854 -
  • Catherine  1856 - 
  • Philip Henry  1856 - 1857 (8 months old)

Their youngest two children, Catherine and Philip Henry, were twins.

Sadly three of their children passed away in infancy: little Leah, at only two weeks, in 1850; followed by one-year-old Emily in 1852; and their youngest Philip Henry, in 1857. It looks likely Philip Henry had been named after James' youngest brother Philip, who had passed away aged only twenty in 1848. Young Philip Henry was James' first son born since his younger brother's death, eight years before.

Records show James and his family lived in and around the town of Colyton and, only two or so miles north, the village of Shute.

1841 Census:


In January 1842, when James was thirty-two, his mother Elizabeth, aged about fifty-nine, passed away. She was buried on 13th January 1842 in Colyton.

1851 Census:


In their youth, James and his brothers learnt their family trade by being apprentice to their blacksmith father. The 1851 Census shows James now had an apprentice blacksmith of his own - his second son John. And in the 1861 Census, he gains another apprentice in his younger son James; and later in the 1881 Census, an blacksmith assistant in his grandson William. His smithy was a family business.

In January 1861, when James was fifty-one, his father the same name passed away, aged about seventy-nine. James senior was buried on 31st January 1861 in Colyton.

1861 Census:


It is interesting and lovely to see that James and Mary seem to take in and raise their young daughters' illegitimate children, including Mary Ann's son William John James Willis (as shown living with them on the 1861 and 1871 censuses) and Sarah Ann's children William and Mary Willis (also shown living with them on the 1871 and 1881 censuses).

When James when fifty-four, his son of the same name, aged nineteen, was put on trial, along with his younger friend and fellow blacksmith, sixteen-year-old Joseph Boles, for demanding by force the money of local elderly postman James Gosling, at Shute, on 2nd February 1863. The Western Times of 27th February 1863 reported on the 'highway robbery': "as he [Gosling] was on his way there [Colyton Railway Station for newspapers], on the day named, the prisoners approached him from a hedge, and said, in commanding tones, "Yield up your money or your life." On telling them that he had no money, they pushed him into the hedge, and in doing so tore his cape." The lads were found guilty and James junior, being the older prisoner, was sentenced to three months imprisonment.

1871 Census:


The family's lodger, George Anley Sandford, would soon marry James' daughter Sarah Ann, a single mother of two, in her early thirties. Her two children born before marriage would stay living with her parents.

1881 Census:


It seems Parkhayne Cottage in Colyton became a family home for James and his family, as they can be found living there over several censuses.

James passed away, aged about seventy-six, in 1886, in the parish of Axminster.

No comments:

Post a Comment