View Full Version : Help finding a marriage please
I am looking for the first marriage of Mary Gildart and/or the baptism of her child with him. Here's (probably too much of) what I know already:
Mary Gildart was born about 1730-1738 in an unknown place. Her parents were John Gildart and Elizabeth. From about 1738 she and her siblings were brought up at Alrewas Staffs.
She is mentioned in the 1785 PCC will of her uncle Francis Gildart as Mary Morewood the wife of the Rev John Morewood of Highfield nr Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
I found the marriage of this couple:
12 Dec 1772 St Mary's Islington The Rev John Morewood of Eyam, Derbyshire and Mary Scammell widow otp, by licence. Witnesses Mary Morewood and John Hetherington. Marriage conducted by John Fawcett, curate of Chiswick.
Mary died 1809 at West Hallam Derbyshire and her husband in 1828 at the same place. As far as I know there were no children from this marriage.
However, I know there was at least one child born to Mary from the marriage to Mr Scammell. I don't know when or where this child was born, but her name was Ann Scammell.
Ann Scammell married the Rev John Fawcett b abt 1743 (probably the man who conducted the above marriage!) 16 Sept 1788 at St Mary's Chesterfield, Derbyshire. John was of Milford Hants and John Morewood (Ann's step-father) was a witness to the marriage. John and Ann Fawcett lived at Milford (he had the living there from 1786) where she had three children, the last named Gildart Fawcett. John Fawcett died abroad (West Indies??) in 1795 (can't re-find that at the moment - Gentleman's Magazine?).
Ann was still alive in 1827 as she dealt with the estate of one of her children. She was living at Symondsbury Dorset, but I don't think she died there and after this I lose track of her, so I don't have her age at death which could have been helpful.
So, who was Mr Scammell?
(don't find it too quickly, as I've been looking for ages!! lol)
Well, no Scammell vicars in the CCED database, save Bartholomew, a generation or two earlier, who named no Scammell relations in his 1715 will.
What about Edward Scammel of Compton, Sussex, who leaves a wife Mary and children Edward and Ann? PCC will on Ancestry.
kiterunner
15-01-19, 08:20
Ann Scamel baptised 27 Jul 1763 at Compton, Sussex, daughter of Edward and Mary.
Edward Scamel married Mary Banks 15 Jul 1762 at Compton. So only Mary Gildart if she was previously married to a Mr Banks.
For those of you who just saw my posts with the wrong surname, just pretend you didn't!
Ann Scamel baptised 27 Jul 1763 at Compton, Sussex, daughter of Edward and Mary.
Edward Scamel married Mary Banks 15 Jul 1762 at Compton. So only Mary Gildart if she was previously married to a Mr Banks.
It looks suspiciously as if she were a spinster. The marriage is by licence - though I've never worked out if Sussex licences survive - but she does sign, so you could compare signatures.
ElizabethHerts
15-01-19, 10:33
Sussex licences do survive as I have a couple.
Is that from the Keep, Elizabeth?
I have lots of ancestors for whom the parish registers are in Chichester, but that record office has never pointed me in the direction of licences.
It looks suspiciously as if she were a spinster. The marriage is by licence - though I've never worked out if Sussex licences survive - but she does sign, so you could compare signatures.
It's unlikely it's her really, though anything is possible. For once Mary is someone with a very distinctive signature (and exactly the same handwriting as her daughter!), but I can't see anywhere that has this marriage as an image :o
Look on Family Search, choose the Sussex Parish Register reference, and click on the icon that looks like a sheet of paper.
It's unlikely it's her really
Having said that, I just remembered that John Morewood, Mary's second husband had some connection with Sussex. I looked again at his Oxford alumni entry and he was a son of John Morewood of Westbourn in Sussex. Westbourn is about 5 miles from Compton and then I found this will which suggests a link directly to Compton!
Will of Reverend John Morewood, Clerk of Compton , Sussex
Date:
18 December 1771
Held by:
The National Archives, Kew
Legal status:
Public Record(s)
Closure status:
Open Document, Open Description
Mary Gildart's father-in-law perhaps? Will read it now....
Look on Family Search, choose the Sussex Parish Register reference, and click on the icon that looks like a sheet of paper.
Thanks Phoenix.
The sig is similar - the couple were married by Mary's future father-in-law, if it is her. Oooh, why can't it say she was a widow?!
Of course, this may simply demonstrate that the Scammell and Morewood families knew each other and liked calling their daughters Ann.
Edward could well have had a brother or cousin who married Mary.
In the will, Thomas Scammell's father-in-law is Peter Banks, so we can count out Miss Banks!
Well, you didn't want it to be easy, did you!
Not too easy, but preferably not impossible!
kiterunner
15-01-19, 15:10
Wait - Thomas Scammell? Or should that be Edward?
We have no internet today and doing searches and using this site om my phone isn't easy. Whatever the name was when either you or Phoenix first mentioned the C place in Sussex is the name I meant.
Yes, it should be Edward.
What happened to the Ordnance Yard in Nova Scotia?
Is it possible that Mary's first marriage took place abroad?
Does a butcher's daughter from Alrewas (a long way from the sea) get on a ship whilst all her siblings married either in Alrewas or Lichfield (nearby)?
It just seems very unlikely!
Perhaps there's a gap in the Alrewas registered where the marriage should be. I haven't looked :o:o:o
What happened to the Ordnance Yard in Nova Scotia?
I don't know for sure. (but see next post a bit later on.....)
I just read through the 14 page will of Rev John Morewood, 1828.
John left money and possessions to quite a large number of people. Most are cousins named Morewood or Gardom (his mmn) or descendants of people with those names. He also left a legacy to a servant who tended his wife (Mary Morewood/Scammell/Gildart) in her last illness back in 1809.
However, not a penny seems to have gone to his widowed step-daughter, Ann Fawcett/Scammell or her surviving daughter.
Now I'm wondering if the Ann Fawcett who was of Symondsbury, Dorset and who was listed in the Death Duty register for Ann's son, John James Fawcett, who died in Ireland in 1827, was his mother at all. I got the impression John James was not married when he died (as his fellow officers had a tomb stone erected in his honour and placed a notice in the paper about his death - no mention of a wife/family), but perhaps this Ann was his wife and maybe his mother was already decd? I believe Ann Fawcett, dau of Mary Gildart, dealt with Mary's estate in 1809 (rather than the widower, John Morewood, doing it) so Ann was alive at that date. In 1799 Ann Fawcett was probably living at Hackney and in 1801 she was living at Kensington House, Westminster, so she got about a bit!
What happened to the Ordnance Yard in Nova Scotia?
A good question!
In 1785 Francis Gildart, the uncle of Mary whose first marriage I'm after, left the Ordnance yard as follows:
"To my niece Mary wife of Rev. John Morewood the ordnance yard at Hali¬
fax, Nova Scotia (which belongs to me as my proper estate) to her and
her heirs forever, she and her heirs paying half the yearly rent to
my said nephew Francis Gildart and his heirs forever. "
I've spent some time reading this:
https://archive.org/stream/gildartgeldartfa00gild/gildartgeldartfa00gild_djvu.txt
which, amongst other things states.....
that Francis Gildart, one of the legatees in the above will (Mary's brother) lost his life by drowning whilst on the way to a fair (no burial found, but maybe about 1780). I see his widow remarried in 1783.
Francis had several children inc Thomas Gildart who apparently years later went to court over his inheritance from the Ordnance Yard (presumably because no rent money was coming his way, perhaps because his father had died before the original testator?). Apparently, the lawsuit failed. Wouldn't that put Ann Scammell in a good position financially, as Mary Gildart's heir? Or would that not be the case because she was from a previous marriage, Mary only inheriting after she was married to Rev John Morewood?
Roll on retirement! I think I will have to wait until this evening to get my head around this.
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