Great x4 Grandfather William Broom Sandford

My Great x4 Grandfather William (1814 - 1889) was a farm labourer, tanner, and father of nine.

William Broom Sandford was born around 1814 in Exton, Devon, to John Sandford (about 35), a husbandman and labourer, and Mary Sandford (nee Broom) (about 29).

William was baptised on 24th April 1814 in Woodbury, Devon.

William was the fifth of nine children (three daughters and six sons):

• Sarah  1806 -
• Thomas Broom  1808 -
• Elias  1810 - 1828 (18 years old)
• John  1812 -
• William Broom  1814 -
• Jane Mary  1816 -
• James  1819 -
• Elizabeth  1821 - 1828 (7 years old)
• Richard  1826 -

When William was twelve, his mother Mary died giving birth to her eighth child Richard. On 3rd November 1826, Richard was baptised and Mary was buried, both in Woodbury.

Less then two years later, fourteen year old William lost his older brother Elias (18 years old) in May 1828, and younger sister Elizabeth (7 years old) in July 1828.

When William was seventeen, his father John remarried. On 12th November 1831, John (about 52) married Ann Jennings (about 57).

On 3rd January 1841, William (26), a tanner, married Sophia Anley Brice, a servant, in Woodbury.

1841 Census:

William and Sophia had 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 their first child John passed away at only six months. He was buried on 3rd April 1842 in Woodbury.

When William was thirty, his father John passed away, aged sixty-six, in 1844, in Woodbury.

Photographs of Church Stile, Woodbury, 1910. William and his family lived here around 1840.

1851 Census:

1861 Census:

In the 1860s, William, in his fifties, and his family moved about 18 miles east, from Woodbury to Colyton.

1871 Census:

1881 Census:

From the 1870s to the 1880s, William worked as a tanner in Colyton. It seems likely he may have worked in Colyton Tannery (J. & F. J. Baker & Co), which exists still to this day as the only tradition tannery in Great Britain.

Victorian photographs of the workers at Colyton Tannery. Is William sat somewhere amongst these men?

In 1889, William passed away, aged about seventy-five. He was buried on 12th August 1889 in Colyton.

After William's death, his widow Sophia moved in with their son George Anley Sandford and his family in Morchard Bishop.