A Tottenham lad

James Burrell, 1826-1919

The Broken Window 

This is one of the stories in James's journal, written for his granddaughter Beatrice Burrell.

When I was a boy about ten years of age, I was employed at a gentlemans house to clean knives & forks, boots & shoes, run of errands etc etc

One day, I was sent to the grocers, And playing with a dog outside the shop my hand went through the window. The grocer came out, and said "I must pay for it, It would be 2/6. But" he would pay half, as he knew me.

My home, not being far off, I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, to tell Mother! She said "you know, your Father is home ill. He can't pay for it, you will have to go to prison".

Then, I returned to my place, greatly troubled, & full of fear. I was not blaimed for being so long, but was sent out again to the Butchers (which was in the main road, but I must needs go out of my way - A most unfrequented path, nay, there was no path, none but boys would ramble this way. It was by the side of a Brook, with my head bowed down thinking of my sad mishap, And I should have to go to Prison, if the window was not paid for.

When lo and Behold! At my feet lay two shillings I picked them up, And ran home (faster than before) saying "Mother, I've got the money. I've found two shillings"

She said "where did you get it from, Tell the truth." "Down by the brook, Mother, I can shew you the very spot". She naturally supposed I had got it dishonistly, Has I had brought it so quickly, But, I protested my Inocence. And after questioning and cross-questioning, she said "Well, go and pay for the Window" which I did cheerfully I paid the money, one & three pence. Which the shopkeeper put on the shelf. And I had 9 pence for myself. When I went into the shop again, to my surprise and gratification, he took the money off the shelf - and said - "here my boy, I return you the money, you paid for the Window. For your honesty in bringing it so soon." Now I felt rich indeed. 2/- all for myself.

I now had something else, to run and tell my Mother. And she laid out the money in buying something for me. Well some might say "you were lucky" Well whatever my thoughts, might have been then through Sovereign Grace! I have been taught since. That nothing comes by chance. "All must come, and last, and end, as shall please our Heavenly Friend" "Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Heavenly Father's pleasure" "And the very hairs of our head are all numbered" And luck, chance & fortune are the trinity of fools. And he who watches God's providence will not want a providence to watch over.

But this event occured more than 70 years ago. Yet it is worth recording and having found a scrap of paper in the subject, and the place, and circumstance, all came vivid to my memory. So having touched upon God's Providence which I have witnessed in myself & family, I might write much. But I only will add that a few years after, the shopkeeper referred to became my employer. And I served behind the counter and went for orders etc.

At that time it was a country village, where the Nightingale could be heard & now the Brook's covered over by large shops built, in fact Tottenham is now joined to London.

Bristol June 10, 1908

The Carney Family

When I was a child my great-aunt, Elsie BURRELL, sometimes spoke of her CARNEY ancestors, and told the intriguing tale that they were descended from the Kings of Ulster. The family crest, it was said, hung on the wall of Dublin Castle. Our ancestor was said to have been heavily involved with the process of making blue glass - the famous Bristol Blue glass which is still made today. The implication was that he invented the process and brought it from Ireland. Another branch of our family had heard a very similar tale, with minor variations.

However Elsie's grandmother, Selina CARNEY, was born (in 1834)  into a very poor family in central Bristol, and it seemed to me to be very unlikely that my aunt's stories were the whole truth.

Selina BURRELL nee CARNEY, 1834-1901

CARNEY is not a common name in England or in Bristol, so we were able to make some progress in tracing the family back a generation.  Selina's parents, George CARNEY and Elizabeth nee TOSSELL, certainly didn't live well. George was described as a smith or a labourer in census records, and they lived in various rented houses in central Bristol. One son was even born in the Poor House, but they managed to raise 6 of their 7 known children to adulthood.

George CARNEY was the son of William and Hannah nee MARTIN; although I have found baptisms for some of his siblings, George's baptism has not yet been found. He was born about 1807, probably in the Redcliffe district of Bristol. The church of St Mary Redcliffe has been described as the 'finest parish church in England' but this beautiful building served a very varied parish, with merchants and gentry living to the south, the docks and factories (and their workers) to the north.

Near to St Mary's was the Phoenix Glasshouse. One of several in the area, it seems very likely that this is where William was employed. I have not been able to find him mentioned in any of the surviving documents from this factory; he may been a glassmaker rather than burdened with management or ownership! The evidence so far is that this glassworks manufactured bottles and window glass during William's era, and that the blue colouring process actually came from Saxony, rather than Ireland.

Drawing of Phoenix Glass Works with St Mary Redcliffe in the background

So far, Elsie's stories seem to have contained a grain of truth (the link to glassmaking) but the reality has perhaps been embellished over the years.

So what of the suggested link with royalty?  Detailed tracking of a CARNEY family back to Ireland, where records are more difficult to find and often missing altogether, is all but impossible. We did, however, have a few clues - for example, William had his children baptised in Protestant churches in Bristol; and the stories suggested a link with Dublin Castle. From census and age at death, we guessed that William was born about 1779/1780. Searching the Protestant records for the nearest parish to Dublin Castle came up with a William Corny who was baptised on 4th May 1776. The address given was Abbey St and he was the son of James and Elizabeth.  Was this our ancestor?

Further research into the Irish link came up with the story of Sir Richard CARNEY. He was Ulster King of Arms from 1655-1692 (and succeeded by his son, also Richard) and credited with organising and recording the first heraldic designs for Irish counties. He was appointed by Cromwell, but he evidently made a success of it as he kept his post for many years after the restoration. Further details of the Ulster King of Arms can be found here.

We have not been able to find written evidence of the link between Sir Richard CARNEY and our ancestors, but there must surely be one. The story may have been a little mangled over the years, our CARNEYs were Heraldic officers rather than actual royalty!  But I like to think Auntie Elsie would still have been proud of the connection.

Scandal and deception - the Roger TICHBORNE case - and a CATER connection

The most frequently found (and distinctive) name in my CATER family is 'John Wyatt CATER'. To date I have identified 15 individuals with this name, living in the UK, USA and Australia.  


This story concerns one John Wyatt CATER, born 1825 in Canterbury, Kent, the son of Wyatt CATER and Catherine ALLEN. John's early life was, I think, disrupted and difficult. 


His father, a mason originally from Stapleton, near Bristol, seems to have travelled to Kent to find work. He married Catherine in St James, Dover, in 1819, and John was their third child (the second child, also John Wyatt, died in infancy).  in 1825/26 the family returned to Stapleton, and a further 4 children were born there, but only one survived infancy.  In 1830 Wyatt was described as a Brick and Tile Maker/Lime Burner in Pigot's Directory of Bristol.


John's father Wyatt died aged 38, and was buried on the same day as his youngest son Robert. John would have been only 8 years old.  In 1841, John's mother Catherine was described as a Pauper: the family were still in Stapleton. John was an errand boy; his elder brother James had taken up an apprenticeship with a mason in Bristol. James later moved north, ending up in Perthshire where he raised a large family.

1841 Census, Stapleton, Gloucestershire

Catherine sadly died in 1844, and sister Mary Ann married in 1846 to a farmer from Worcestershire. Sometime between then and 1850 John sailed to Australia.


John made a life for himself in Wagga Wagga, Australia, where he worked as a baker, although there seems to be little surviving evidence of his life there. I would not have found even this snippet of his adult life, had it not been for his involvement in the case of Roger Tichborne (the story begins about 1865).

Hampshire Museums Service hold archives concerning the case, this is their summary: "The story concerns Roger Tichborne, disappointed in love who is then lost at sea, and a man who, more than a decade later, appears from the Australian outback claiming to be the missing heir. The civil and criminal trials which followed held the record as the longest court case in British legal history until the mid 1990s, and the archive contains photographs of almost everyone involved: - the extended Tichborne family and the Tichborne Claimant, the legal teams on both sides; the witnesses; judges and jurors; and even the court ushers and the boy who sold the newspapers in the street outside."  Their web page describes the case, which was at the time an enormous media event. Unfortunately as John didn't attend the Court case, he is not included in the photograph archive.


The property at stake in the Trial was Upton House, near Alresford, Hampshire.  


John's became involved in the case as he had known the claimant (also known as Arthur ORTON and Tom CASTRO) in Wagga Wagga. As far as I can tell John didn't appear at Court, but sent several letters describing the claimant and giving background information, which were read in Court and have since been published in "The Tichborne Trial"

The shack in Wagga Wagga where Arthur Orton alias Thomas Castro and his wife Mary Ann Bryant lived when first married circa 1865, taken by William Fearne of Wagga Wagga, Australia vol 1, page 62 - Views connected with the Trials.(Hampshire Museum Service)

Internet searches show that the Trial may have ended, eventually, in 1874, but the case has interested writers ever since - in 1929 this piece was published in Cornhill Magazine, and in 1959 Harold T Wilkins wrote a chapter about it in his book Mysteries Solved and Unsolved.  A film based on the story was made in 1998. Even the Simpsons had an episode based on the story "The Principle and the Pauper"!


By the time of the Trial, John Wyatt CATER had retired and the letters read at Court show that he travelled back to England; he gives his address as Worcester and later Perthshire, so it is likely he visited his siblings.  However at some point he travelled back to Australia, and he died there in 1900. 

The photo that started it all

The Golden Wedding

This is the photograph that started my research, back in the 1970's.  The original belonged to my grandmother, Dorothy MOSS nee BURRELL, and the challenge was to try to name all the people shown. Little did I know that 40 years later I'd still be researching these people and their ancestors!

The photograph was taken about 9th August 1901, in Bedminster, Bristol.  It shows my 2xgt grandparents, James BURRELL (1826-1919) and Mary Ann (nee COLLINS) (1826-1919) and their 7 surviving children (the numbers are clockwise, beginning bottom left of picture):
1.William James BURRELL (1852-1933)
2.George Samuel BURRELL (1867-1937)

3.Cornelius BURRELL (1857-1928)
4.Ebenezer Collins BURRELL (1872-1961)
5.William Charles BURRELL (1856-1939)
6.Ellen BURRELL (1859-1917?)
7.Mary Ann Kezia BURRELL (1854-1923)

Subsequent research has found that James was born in Enfield, Nth London, and his wife Mary Ann in Thorley, Hertfordshire.  They married at Lambeth Register Office, and their children were born in London, Birmingham and Bristol.

Emmett ancestors

Would you Adam and Eve it? - Part 2 (Brick walls)

Tinney EMMETT, my elusive great-grandmother, was born in 1872.  Her birth certificate (on which her name was spelt 'Tinny' or 'Tenny') gives her birthplace as Clay Bottom, St George, Bristol, and her parents as Thomas EMMETT, a labourer, and Sarah (formerly BEAVER). Sarah, who was the informant, was unable to sign her name.

Tinney was one of 7 children, and during her childhood the family moved to the more pleasant-sounding Rose Green area. She seems to have been close to her younger sister Dorcas; both sisters later lived in Eastville, and Dorcas was an occasional visitor to her nieces and nephews.

Having followed Tinney's family back through the census records, gave me an approximate date of marriage and I found that Thomas EMMETT and Sarah BEAVER were married in St Matthias, Bristol in 1859. I had not previously heard of this parish; however Bristol Record Office have more information: The parish of St. Matthias, formerly The Weir District, was created out of St. Paul, St.Peter and St.Philip and St.Jacob in 1846. It was united with St.Jude in 1937, with St.Jude to be the parish church and St. Matthias to be demolished. The church was closed on the 24th June 1940.  

Thomas gave his address as Water Street, and named his father as Adam EMMETT, a labourer. Sarah was living at Callow Hill Street, and her father was Richard BEAVER, also a labourer.


Up until this point all seemed fairly straightforward: however tracing back a further generation took me some considerable time, luck and help from other researchers.


Thomas gave his birthplace as Stapleton on all the census returns after 1861, but despite several searches through the parish registers I couldn't find him. I did find several other EMMETT/EMETT entries, and spent some time following those in the hope that they might lead me to him, but without any success. There were also EMMETTs in adjacent Mangotsfield, but not my Thomas, who I was expecting to find baptised about 1840. I couldn't find Thomas in the earlier census returns microfilms either.


Then luck intervened. I was doing some research in Trowbridge, for a fellow researcher, when I came across the baptism of an  Adam EMMETT in Lacock, Wiltshire, in 1803.  This would be about the right age for Thomas's father, but was it the same man?  I spent some time looking at the registers, checking that this Adam hadn't been buried as an infant, and then looking at his family. I found siblings Luke, and two babies named Eve, and burials for Luke and the first Eve, but nothing further for Adam.


Going back to look for Thomas again, I widened my search further and eventually found his baptism in  Frenchay, north of Stapleton, in 1839.  His parents were Adam and Mary (nee GREENING). And a check on the 1841 and 1851 census found Thomas living with his parents in Frenchay.  Finally all the pieces fit together. 


I've been able to trace the EMMETT family back several generations in Lacock: however I found no further trace of Eve.  I wonder if she went to Frenchay with her brother? 


ETA [7/9/11] Today I found that Eve married (1) 1841: Mark LAMBORN, a domestic servant from Calne, who died 1853, and (2) 1855: William FRANCIS, a tailor and draper from Devizes. Eve died in 1877 and had no children. 

Would you Adam and Eve it? - Part 1 (or, what's in a name?)

Tracing my EMMETT ancestry was a challenge from the first. My grandfather, Reginald MOSS, was raised in Bristol (together with two of his three siblings) by his father's family after his parents separated, and I wasn't even sure of his mother's full name. Alfred MOSS, Reginald's father, married for a second time in 1920 to a Fanny SIMPSON, and I can just about remember meeting my step-greatgrandmother, a large elderly woman in black clothing.  There were vague family stories that she hadn't been in good health (which gave the even vaguer impression that she drank more than was good for her!)

Reginald's birth certificate showed me that his mother was Tinney, nee EMMETT. From that, I was able to find the marriage of Alfred and Tinney in 1892, and that her father was Thomas EMMETT, a groom. The marriage certificate gave no clues to her birthplace, however, merely stating that both parties lived in Redcross Street, Bristol, at what appeared to be a lodging house.

Then when tried to find more evidence of Tinney, things started to get really challenging. At the time, BMD indexes were on microfiche, census on microfilm, but you could look at original parish registers (many of them quite filthy!) at Bristol Record Office. I couldn't, however, find any leads despite the unusual forename.

After a search I found husband Alfred on the 1901 census in Eastville, Bristol, along with Reginald and his elder siblings Elsie and Frederick. His wife, however, was clearly written as Fanny MOSS. She gave her birthplace as St George, Bristol:  her age as 29. Now I was really confused! Was this the first wife or had the second wife made an early, unexpected appearance?

1901 Census

Again I checked the parish records of St George, I couldn't find any trace of Tinney; and trawling through earlier census records for Bristol produced two possible Thomas EMMETT candidates for her father. Then the lucky break: a birth registration for Tenny (sic) EMMETT revealed her parents were Thomas and Sarah (nee BEAVER) and that she had, indeed, been born in Clay Bottom, St George.

Index of Births, June qtr, 1872

Eventually the correct family was found in earlier census returns, living in St George, but she was enumerated with a variety of spellings of "Fanny" on each. I can only assume the enumerators, faced with such an unusual name, assumed it was a spelling error by the family. Here is the 1891 census, where she's 'Fanney', with a very faint 'i' added in later, as if the writer is hedging his bets!

1891 census

1911 census

Above is Tinney in 1911, and her eldest daughter Elsie, then living with her, has written 'Tilly'! Tinney died in 1918, and I think hers is one of the sadder stories in my tree.  Whatever the reasons for her marriage breaking down, it could not have been easy to live apart from her younger children.

As for the unusual forename, I have found nothing to suggest its origins, certainly there's nothing like it in the previous generation, but perhaps it is a maiden name from an earlier generation.

Under Construction

A place to post snippets of my family history, memories both first- and second-hand, and hints and tips for newer researchers.

Some of the surnames that I'll be posting about:

ANDREWS: How did a baker's daughter from Epsom, Surrey come to marry a banker's clerk from Nottingham?

BINDING: Originally from Somerset; stories of poverty and illegitimacy

BURRELL: Where it all started - who's in that photograph? 

CARNEY: Were they really once Kings of Ulster?

CATER: Can the link between my Gloucestershire family, and an earlier Bedfordshire landowner, be proved?

EMMETT: Would you Adam and Eve it?

MOSS: Not so humble as we once thought

THOMAS & DAVIES: Attempting to research the most common names in South Wales

THORN: Shoemakers and grocers from Norwich