James Coles of Water End Farm

James William COLE (1851-1923)

David Cole writes: My grandfather Charles Percy COLE (1884-1966) was a member of the family of James William COLE (1851-1923) who inhabited Waterend House soon after your ancestor Dolphin Smith left there,  i.e. from around 1878 until at least 1907 when my grandfather emigrated to Canada.

I note the following facts:

Water End Sandridge/Wheathampstead in 1830

Sandridge

Water End House was originally in the Parish of Sandridge, but is now in Wheathampstead. Sarah Jennings, who later became the Duchess of Marlborough, of Blenheim Palace, was born there. It was also the home of my Great Grandparents Dolphin and Maria Smith. I have just posted the following picture showing the rear of the house in 1830.

Water End House, Sandridge

New Names for the Wheathampstead War Memorial

I have just received the following message:

Good news about the Folly memorial windows! Through the work of Terence Pankhurst and his wife in Wheathampstead, they have identified 4 names which are currently missing from the main war memorial in the village These names will be inscribed on a plaque, to be added to the current war memorial  The names listed on the Folly Methodist Chapel Memorial Windows, which are missing at the moment from the main one, are as follows:

Sidney Bandy,

Francis George Gray,

Murray Walter Harrison.

Cyril John Pearce is to be added to the war memorial although he was technically not a soldier at that time.

WW1 Memorial Window from Folly Methodist Chapel, Wheathampstead

This memorial window can currently be seen as part of the Keeping the Home Fires Burning exhibition (until 16th November 2014) at the Museum of St Albans. 

The names are: 

S. Bandy, C. Carter, F. Gray, M. Harrison, H. Izzard, H. Lawrence, G. Minal, A. Munt, A. Odell, C. Pearce, G. Upton-Robins & H. Wilson.

Click here for the story of how this web site helped in the window finding its new home.

The Ford at Water End, Sandridge/Wheathampstead

Rivers

Sandridge

I recently came across two pictures taken at the ford on the River Lea, I would guess about 1960. Since then the ford has been bridged over so that it is dry when the river is low, and the bridge has been replaced. Can anyone date the photographs and possibly identify the people?

Click here for older pictures of the ford and nearby Water End House.

Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, left her mark at Water End House.

Sandridge

Sarah Jennings was born at Water End, Sandridge (now in Wheathampstead) and little could have her parents guessed that she would end up as the Lady of Blenheim Palace! My interest in the house arises because my Great Great Grandfather, Dolphin Smith, moved there in about 1843. 

However the reason for mentioning the house now is that Harvey's father worked as a gardener at the house in the mid 20th century. As a result we now know that at that time the house was occupied by Colonel Bertram James Walker and his second wife,  Lucie Marie Ludovika Anastasia Adelheid Karola Hedwig comtesse Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow of Denmark. Harvey also provides an interesting description of the interior of the house - including an inscription "SJ" which is said to have been put there by Sarah Jennings.

Their Names live again - in St Albans Museum

With the help of this Newsletter these First World War memorial windows from Wheathampstead have found a new home. (St Albans & Harpenden Review, January 22nd, 2014)

>>> More.

"Lost" WW1 War Memorial find a new home

The Folly Methodist Chapel at Wheathampstead was demolished in 2006 and I can now report that the memorial windows have found a new home in St Albans Museum, thanks to the generosity of the person who found them,

[More information]

Anne Drake Garrard's Commonplace Book (Genealogists' Magazine)

SOG

The September 2013 issue of the Genealogists' Magazine (the Journal of the Society of Genealogists) contains one article of particular interest to this web site. This is an article by Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake on Anne Drake Garrard's Commonplace Book. Anne was the daughter of Charles Drake who changed his surname when he inherited part of the property of the Garrard family at Lamer, near Wheathamstead. "Anne was the archtypical maiden aunt to several generations of her family, and her commonplace book includes contributions from many cousins and more distant relatives. ... she left several genealogical nuggets for her relatives. Among these was a four generation family tree [Illustrated] from Montague Drake (1698-1728) to Thomas D Tyrwhitt Drake (1749-1810). She dates her book from 1806 in the early pages, so this tree was drawn up in the early 19th century." 

The family tree refers to earlier non-Hertfordshire generations, and there are no Hertfordshire quotations given in the short article, but it is useful to note when such documents survive, and where possible make sure that their contents are accessible to future generations.

The magazine also includes an interesting article which illustrates how Richard III bones, discovered under a car park in Leicester, could be identified by finding a living relative down the female line, and matching mtDNA. 

The Library section contain three new additions relating to Hertfordshire. These are a copy of the book, Cathedral & City (St Albans) and transcripts of the registers of Watford Congregational Church and St Stephen Presbyterian Church, Watford.

A Panther shot and killed in Hertfordshire

A long account from the Herts Mercury of how Ralph Thrale shot and killed a panther at Wheathampstead is available [Click Here].

In addition to being an interesting and unusual story it turns out that most of the people named are related - and are already mentioned on this site. 

Ralph Norman Thrale (1803-1876) and William Thrale (1805-1876) were brothers, the sons of Ralph Thrale (1778-1852) and Sarah Burchmore (1767-1820) - see Who is related to Who. Their sister was Harriet Thrale (1801-1879) who married James Mardall (1784-1844). The Thrale Family is well documented in the books A New Thraliana and A Newer Thraliana. The stuffed panther was the prize exhibit in the museum at their farm at No Mans Land. The Mardall family owned the Harpenden Brewery.

The Mr House whose dog was killed may have been John Isaac House (1793-1849) whose wife Ann Kidman (1792-1859) was aunt to Alfred James Elliott Kidman (1831-1875) who appears in a different part of the Who is related to Who tree.

Charles Higby Lattimore (1806-1889) was a major farmer with land in Wheathamstead and Sandridge. In 1873 he urged local farmers to sack all strikers in the Sandridge Agricultural Workers Strike.  The Lattimore family owned the Hope Brewery at Wheathampstead - See the Harpenden Brewery. 

Isaac Field (born c1813) was, in 1841, an agricultural labourer living with his wife Mary at Gustard Wood, Wheathampstead.

The name "William Smith" was too common to make a reliable identification from the 1841 census.

French & King Families of Wheathampstead

When I started this web site in 2001 I set up a page for linking to online web sites which included family tree information involving Hertfordshire families. However other web sites were becoming available for uploading your family trees and I decided not to extend this facility - but kept the existing links going - only deleting them when the web sites vanished.

Alec French has just told me his site, with details of the French and King families of Wheathampstead will be finally closing dome on 31st October - so if you are interested in this family have a quick look over the weekend - as it is not recorded on the WayBack machine.

I will be updating the old Family Trees and Histories page early in November and this will mean removing the references to the French site in November, together with references to two other sites which appear to be no longer functioning. These relate to the Boddy/Body family of Buntingford and the Barker family of Kings Walden.

New light on the management of Whitwell's Brewery's Pubs.

Breweries, etc

Alan Whitiker's book Brewers in Hertfordshire says that when the Archer family gave up their brewery in Whitwell (a hamlet in St Pauls Walden) the licensed houses passed to the Hope Brewery in Wheathampsted. 

I have just found a short letter suggesting that for a time the Whitwell licensed houses were managed by Harpenden Brewery  - and may only have been passed to the Hope Brewery when Harpenden Brewery, which had been leased to Bennett's Brewery of Dunstable,  was sold to Mrs Martha Mardall (nee Long - see Who was related to Who?).

The Harpenden Brewery Letter, 1891,  shows how an apparently simple letter, which could easily have ended up in the waste paper basket, can provide important in reconstructing the past.

Hertfordshire Hatchments

Hatchment in Wheathampstead Church

Diamond-shaped funeral hatchment first came into vogue in the 17th century and examples can be seen in many Hertfordshire churches. They are of considerable interest to those who understand heraldry and provide information on the ancestry of the deceased.

There is a series of books on Hatchments in Britain and I recently came across a new copy online of Volume 6 covering Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Middlesex at a known-down price and decided to have a look. The descriptions are hard to understand unless you are familiar with the language of heraldry - but in each case identifies the name of the deceased and the families represented on the hatchment. I have listed the Hertfordshire churches with hatchments on the review page.