SOG-UK-L Archives

From: Roy Stockdill <>
Subject: [SOG-UK-L] A family mystery, hawkers & horse fairs, etc
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 09:01:15 -0500

THANKS to the recent discovery via the WEST-RIDING genealogy list (ain't
the Internet wonderful sometimes?!!!) of a new 3rd cousin in Australia, I
have renewed interest in a fairly neglected line of mine and would
appreciate a bit of advice/suggestions on a puzzle I have come across...

1) My gt-gt-grandfather RICHARD BRACEWELL was born at Starbottom in the
Yorkshire Dales and baptised at nearby Kettlewell in 1818 and in the 1861
census he appears in Bradford where my gt-grandmother CLARA BRACEWELL, his
youngest child, was born in 1860. On Clara's birth certifcate the mother is
shown as Mary, formerly GILL, and on the census Mary is shown as having
been born in Edinburgh. The couple had seven other children on the census -
all except Clara, the youngest, shown as being born at Arncliffe in the
Dales between 1842 and 1855.

2) My new-found cousin tells me her gt-grandmother was MARY ANN BRACEWELL,
my gt-grandmother Clara's elder sister (b.circa 1844), but that Mary Ann's
mother was not MARY GILL but MARY BUCHANAN. I recently obtained the
certificate for the marriage of Richard Bracewell to Mary Buchanan, then
aged 18, at Arncliffe in March 1840. On it, Richard is described as a
"hawker" and Mary a spinster, both resident at Arncliffe.

3) My obvious theory was that Mary No. 1 (Buchanan) had died after
producing seven children at Arncliffe, that Richard had moved the whole
family to Bradford, where he met and married Mary No. 2 (Gill) and my
gt-grandmother Clara was born in 1860. Easy - but, as we all know,
genealogy is never easy, is it! On consulting the 1851 census for
Arncliffe, I found Richard and Mary there with 5 children (one living next
door with his grandparents) born in the 1840s. However, to my mild
astonishment under the wife Mary's place of birth was "Scotland,
Edinburgh"!!! Now, was this Mary No. 1 (Buchanan) also by coincidence born
in Edinburgh, or Mary no. 2 (Gill), Richard's 1st Mary having died much
earlier than I thought???

4) Turning obviously to the 1841 census for Arncliffe I couldn't find
Richard and Mary at all, though unfortunately a note at the start of the
film said 8 pages of the enumerator's notebook were blank and had not been
filmed!!! I have been right through the marriage indexes at the FRC and can
find no marriage for a Richard Bracewell anywhere in Yorkshire between 1837
and 1861, apart from the one in 1840 to Mary Buchanan (there were a couple
of Richard Bracewells married in Manchester but none that cross-ref to a
Mary Gill) However, I have not yet had time to go through the death
indexes looking for the death of a Mary Bracewell at or near Arncliffe
prior to 1851. I am also checking out the possibility of his having had a
2nd marriage in Scotland and will obtain certificates for the children born
at Arncliffe to see whether the mother is shown as BUCHANAN or GILL.

However, these are my queries to which I would much appreciate some
suggestions...

COULD Mary Buchanan and Mary Gill in fact have been the same person??? The
ages of both vary slightly from Mary No 1's marriage certificate to those
shown on the 1851 and 1861 censuses (but, as we know, ages on census are
notoriously unreliable) but not sufficiently to make it impossible that
they were not the same person. Is there an expert on Scottish naming
patterns who can tell me why a woman might marry (as a spinster) in one
name and use a different maiden name on a child's birth certificate? Could
GILL have perhaps been the maiden name of Mary BUCHANAN'S mother and might
she have used it sometimes?

IS it stretching coincidence to believe that one man might marry two
different women both called Mary, one Mary living with him at Arncliffe in
1851 and one in Bradford 10 years later, but both having been born in
Edinburgh.

I HAVE considered the possibility that as Richard was a hawker in 1840 he
might have done his hawking far and wide, perhaps travelling around horse
and hiring fairs (of which there were many in those days) and might have
met his Mary - or, indeed, both Marys if there were two of them - anywhere
between Yorkshire and Scotland. That may also be why they don't appear in
the 1841 census at Arncliffe - perhaps they were off travelling, their 1st
child having not been born until 1842. I am beginning to wonder if Richard
or Mary (one or both!) might have had some gypsy blood, which will enliven
my interest no end if true, since it will be the first I have come across
in my family! I am going to check out the SoG library and others for
background material on North of England fairs (I know about the famous one
at Appleby, of couse, but there were many others). Can anyone shorten my
search and point me to a really good book on the subject which might list
horse and hiring fairs of the time, etc???

Sorry about the length of this and thanks, all!

Roy Stockdill
The Stockdill Family History Society (Guild of One-Name Studies, FedFHS)
Web page of the Stockdill Family History Society:-
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roystoc

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• [SOG-UK-L] A family mystery, hawkers & horse fairs, etc by Roy Stockdill <>