John Prewett MFMFF

[Morf]

John Prewett was the father of Thomas Prewett.
I don’t know anything about John, not even his wife’s name.
Thomas was born about 1832 in Hanham, Gloucestershire.

[kiterunner]

Do you have his occupation from his son's marriage certificate, Morf?

[Morf]

He was a Wooder.

[kiterunner]

I wonder what one of those was.

[Morf]

I don't know, I've never heard of it before lol
I took this from the parish records.

[kiterunner]

I don't think I dare Google it!

[Morf]

lol.
Oops, I did, but it's ok, all very boring really, but nothing relevent to an occupation.

[Janet]

My Word spell-checker suggests that I might have meant "Woofer". Is that plausible?

[Morf]

I've looked on Google and I can't see an old occupation for a 'Woofer' , trust me to have a strange one. lol

[Phoenix]

My geography is lousy, but is Hanham in the Forest of Dean? Might is be a local name for a woodman of some description?

[Morf]

I got this off Wikipedia -

Hanham is a village on the eastern outskirts of Bristol, England, situated on the A431 between Bristol, Bath and Keynsham. It is in the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire.

I've been wondering the same thing, probably is a local name and that's why we can't find it.

This is off Genuki -Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

"HANHAM, a hamlet and chapelry in the parish of Bitton, upper division of the hundred of Langley, county Gloucester, 6 miles E. of Bristol, its post town, and 1 mile N.W. of Keynsham. It is situated on the river Avon.

[Janet]

For what it's worth, Morf, I found there does appear to exist an occupation known as "silk woofer" somewhere! I don't know how much of a weaving area yours might have been. I might be wrong to look at the whole world through Yorkshire eyes.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/NJBURLIN/2000-07/0964099131

And I've also found what appears to be a reference to the Hanham in question. Although the title refers to Devon, it also treats of family history and genealogy of the "West of England". I didn't find any Prewetts though.

http://www.archive.org/stream/devonshirewillsc00wortiala/devonshirewillsc00wortiala_djvu.txt

[Morf]

Thank you Janet.
I don't think there was silk weaving in that area, but going to check.

[Ammanda Schutz]

Old sailing ships used to be 'wooded and watered'. Perhaps the Wooder did the wooding.

[Janet]

Ammanda, I think your suggestion is much more reasonable than mine! That's very interesting. I had never heard of wooding and watering.

[Morf]

That's a good suggestion and being Bristol area, there were quite a few who worked on ships in one way or another.