Chalcraft & Titchener
A look at my wife's Maternal Ancestry;
a Chalcraft family and a Titchener family.
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We begin with the Chalcrafts.
In 1850, Henry John married Ann Cole (1828-1907) in Sundridge. In 1851, the Census shows him living at Sundridge and a Blacksmith.
In 1861, he is a Blacksmith living at Martin's Row. The cottages, now demolished, on the North side and extreme left of the main E-W road, as seen on the 1890's map. They had 9 children, the last but one being Charles.
The furthest we can go, at present, is in Chiddingfold, Surrey in 1606. Chiddingfold is a village in the Weald in the Waverley district of Surrey, England. It lies on the A283 road between Milford and Petworth.
Here a son, Nicholas is born to Raphe Chalcraft. Nicholas married Elizabeth Mills in Chiddingfold in 1632. They had a son, Thomas, in 1635.
He had a son, John, in 1663 who married Elizabeth Cozens in nearby Hascombe, Surrey in 1690.
Their son, Thomas, was born is Hascombe in 1691.
Thomas and his wife Margaret, had a son, William in Westbourne, Sussex in 1723.
William and his wife, also a Margaret, had a son, back in Chillingfold, Thomas (1750-1834).
Thomas married Mary Sneed and had a son, John Edward, in Dartford, Kent.
John Edward and Jane Hammond had at least 5 children between 1824 and 1839, at first in Darenth, then St Mary Cray then Hawley, (near Darenth).
By 1833, when William Robert was born, they were in Sundridge, Kent.
The 1841 Census shows John Edward to be a Papermaker, (the places above, on the Darent and Cray Rivers, were known for papermaking, as was Sundridge, also on the River Darent).
My wife's ancestor was Henry John Chalcraft, born 1828 in Hawley.
Charles Wilmot Chalcraft was born in 1868 at Sundridge.
In 1890, he married Alice Maud Mallows, whose family originated in the Westminster area of London, mostly Carmen, (horse drivers).
A year later, in the 1891 Census, we find him at Ide Hill, an offshoot of Sundridge, about 3 miles South. He is a Blacksmith at 4 Victory Yard, Ide Hill Road. (Prior to him working on his own account, he was employed at Brasted Forge).
The Children of Charles and Alice:
Charles - b.1888 at Hanging Bank, Ide Hill, registered as Charles Christopher Mallows. Not sure whether he was Charles Sr.'s son or his stepson.
He was in the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, No. G/4449 from 1914.
He died on 13 Mar 1916 and was buried in Cambrin Churchyard Extension, Departement du Pas-de-Calais, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France - Grave/Memorial Ref. J. 59.
Harry John - b.1890, my wife's grandfather.
A Farrier most of his life, including four and a half years in France as a shoeing smith in the Army during the First World War. (For more info, see below).
John Thomas - (1892-1964). A Jobbing Gardener in 1911, living at Jasmine Cottage. In 1914 joined Royal West Kent regiment. In 1916 he married Ada Dorothy Mann (1893-1990), she is pictured, right. He was demobilised in 1919.
Together with Ada and their children, John (b.1920) and Doris (b.1921), they emigrated to New Zealand, on the RMS Rameura leaving 17 Jan 1924.
Thomas William Chalcraft - (1893-1978). Labourer in 1911. married Florence Minnie Wood in 1923. A daughter, Joyce Eileen born May 1924. In September 1924 he left, on his own, on the Remuera for New Zealand. His wife and daughter must have followed later.
Frederick George Chalcraft - (1895-1984). Served in the Royal Kent Regiment in Afghanistan in 1919.
Kate Louise Chalcraft - (1900-1902). Died when only a toddler.
Elsie Olive Chalcraft - (1903-1903). Died when only a few months old.
Doris Nellie Chalcraft - (1906-1964), pictured below. Left for New Zealand, aged 18 and seemingly unaccompanied, on 24 Oct 1924. She married James Ingham on 23 Dec 1930 at St Matthews Church, Auckland.
Herbert Edward Chalcraft - (1908- ?), pictured below. Emigrated to New Zealand on RMS Rotaroa leaving, aged 17, on 23 Apr 1925.
This lovely photo, (left), was taken about 1913, judging by estimating the age of the children as 5 and 7.
It shows Charles Chalcraft, his wife, Alice Maud, (nee Mallows), and their two youngest children, Herbert Edward and Doris Nellie.
Alice died 5 years later in 1918.
As stated above, the two children shown followed some of their siblings to New Zealand in 1924/5.
Charles married again in 1922 to Alice A. Plum, (b.1868). In 1939, we find them at 13 Mond's Cottages, Church Street, Sundridge. Alice died in 1942 and 18 months later, Charles died in July of 1943.
To return to Harry John Chalcraft.
On 31 Jan 1913, he married Alice Annie Titchener, (1891-1957 - pictured right in 1948). Her ancestry is told, below.
From November 1914 until June 1919, Harry Chalcraft served in the Royal Army Service Corps, as a Shoeing Smith, Reg. No. TS/4270. He spent virtually all of this time, (punctuated by 4 short periods of leave), in France with the 1/5th Battalion London Regiment, (London Rifle Brigade).
The marriage failed, after 4 or 5 years after his return from the war, Harry John Chalcraft left the family, and was living in Burrough Green, Newmarket. He died in Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge of Emphysemia and Acute Appendicitis on 19 Sep 1928, a day short of his 38th birthday. He is buried at Cambridge City cemetery, Grave No. D/6262.
Before the split, they were living at 178 Church Road Teddington and had six children:
Harry Chalcraft - (1913-1983)
Alice Sophie Chalcraft - (1915-2016) - my wife's Mother, a lovely lady, who lived to the age of 101. She's pictured, (right), at her 100th birthday party, chatting to my wife, her eldest daughter.
Charles Lawrence - (1918-1998)
Doris Betty - (1919 -1920)
Gladys Lillian - (1921-2008)
Roberta May - (1923-1945).
The Titchener Line
William Titchener was born in Simmington or Semington, Wiltshire, (an Ancestry site says 30 Dec 1783).
He married Fanny Mecomes on 27 Apr 1812 at Horton Kirby, in Kent. She was born in nearby Shoreham c.1782, the daughter of Richard and Elizabeth Meacomes [sic].
We know of six sons and one daughter, listed on the right:
Richard - b.1812
Reuben - 1813-1881
John - 1817-1895
William - 1819-1895
Thomas - 1820-1895
James - b.1824
Ann - 1827-1888.
William was born c.1819 in Leigh, Surrey. He married Ann Brooker (1821-1892) on 25 Oct 1845 in Horley, Surrey. Ann's parents were Thomas Brooker and Harriot (nee Brazier) of Horley.
In 1851, William was a Farmer of 29 acres at Cinderfield, about half a mile NNE of Horley centre.
In 1861, he is farming 210 acres in Sundridge. In 1871 and through to 1891 he is farming about 200 acres at Dry Hill Farm, Sundridge.
William & Ann had 11
children:
James - 1846-1904
William - b.c.1847
Anne - b.c.1849
George - b.c. Feb 1851
Eliza - b.c.1853
John - b.c.1855
Mary - b.c.1856
Isaac - b.c.1857
Emma - b.c.1858
Alice - b.c.1860 and
Reuben - 1862-1939.
Ann died in 1892 and
William died in 1895.
James was to live and work at Dry Hill Farm all his life. He married Alice Emma Lawrence (1861-1941) in 1890 at Tonbridge, Kent, 11 miles SSE of Sundridge.
Alice Annie Titchener, my wife's grandmother, was born in Sundridge in 1891, She died in 1957.
A quick look at what is known of the ancestry of Alice Emma Lawrence:
John Mitchell married Mary Wills on 16 October 1806 in Merriott, Somerset. Merriott is 6 miles North of Crewkerne.
They had a daughter, Susan Mitchell, born in Merriott in 1815. She married Reuben Laurence, (1814-1886) on 19 Feb 1833 at Merriott. Between 1834 and 1861, they had 11 children, 7 boys and 4 girls.
The youngest child was Alice Emma Lawrence. She was born c.1861 at Misterton (4 miles South of Crewkerne) and was still there in 1881. She married James Titchener in Tonbridge in 1890.
It is not known how or why she moved from Somerset to Kent.
Use the link for more info on this Lawrence family in Somerset.
"If you don't know where you are going, know where you come from."
Krio proverb.
Jack Bayes here!
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