This replica of the gravestone of Samuel Long and his widow Mary was propped up just inside the door of the farmhouse on the site of Old Wood Pit during Doors Open Day.  Samuel Long was a clothier and also in the coal trade.  For ‘A “Long” Story (of Mill and Mine Owners)’ by David Hardwick see

http://www.gsia.org.uk/reprints/2002/gi200246.pdf

Samuel Long married Mary Stoner by licence at Kingswood (nr Wootton under Edge) 23.5.1812

Their son Samuel was born c1816, and was followed by Paul and Mary.

In the 1841 census Samuel and Mary were living at Tail brook (?) End, Cromhall. Samuel was 55, born Gloucestershire, of Independent Means. Mary was 45, born outside Gloucestershire (Kingswood was in Wiltshire) with their children Paul, a cloth manufacturer and Mary, both said to be 23, plus a servant, Mary Dauncey.

A third son, Rowland was aged 15, and away at school in Melbourne, Cambridgeshire.

In the June quarter of 1840 Samuel junior, a cloth manufacturer, married Eliza Bousfield at Newington in Surrey and when the census was taken in 1841 their son George was aged 3 months. The family had two servants and were living at Ellfield and Ellen Cross, near Wootton under Edge.

On 23 August 1845 the Bristol Mercury published  the elder Samuel’s obituary: “August 12, at his residence, Cromhall, Gloucestershire, aged 61, Samuel Long, Esquire for many years woollen manufacturer at Charfield Mills. The intimate friend and one of the trustees of the late Rev Rowland Hill.”

By 1851, Mary, Samuel’s widow was living at Long Street, Wootton Under Edge, with her niece Elizabeth Chapman as her companion. Paul was married to Mary Shaw Clarke (registered Wallingford Sept 1841) and Elizabeth to Stephen Parsloe Bendall (registered Dursley March 1846)

Prior to his marriage, Stephen Parsloe Bendall, a surgeon, was living at 66 Lambeth Walk in London, when he was called to give evidence on a James Brown, aged 33, who had shot himself whilst intoxicated. (See Morning Post, 9.10.1843)

In 1851 Paul Long and his family were living at Charfield Mill as follows:

Paul Long, Head Mar, 32 (1819) b. Kingswood, Wilts (Woollen trade as a partner employing 350 adults and otherwise as a partner employing 100 in the coal trade.)

Mary Shaw Long, wife, 30 (1821) b. Wallingford, Berks

Samuel C Long, 8, b Charfield

Mary P Long, 3, b. Charfield with a cook, housemaid and nurse.

Meanwhile his mother Mary, aged 57, an annuitant was living at Long Street, Wootton under Edge with her spinster niece Elizabeth Chapman aged 31 as her “companion”.  This dreaded occupation, shades of Jane Austen, was one of the few occupations available for gentle unmarried ladies. Elizabeth Bendall, nee Long, now “31” was at Bradley Street, Wootton Under Edge with her husband Stephen aged 32, a surgeon, born Sodbury, two sons, Stephen and Charles, aged 4 and 3, Stephen’s spinster sister Mary and two servants.

The death of Stephen Parsloe Bendall was registered at Dursley in the
March Quarter of 1857.

Another Stephen Parsloe Bendall, Corn and Grist Miller of Wootton-under-Edge gave notice of the dissolving of his partnership with John Bendall. See Bristol Mercury 9.2.1878.

Looking up stuff becomes addictive…….

Every cloud has one they say. Following the “demo” on 18th August my granddaughter and I went to the meeting at The Pilgrim. En route I met Heidi of Milbanke Close, with her children. She is one of the organisers and I thanked her and promised support to Protect Brislington’s Green Spaces.  At the pub we signed the petitions. Not that petitions do much good from my experience of working for a Member of Parliament.

The Pilgrim has Pillinger connections – the widowed Maria Pillinger (her husband was accidentally killed on Brislington Hill) was landlady there in the middle of the 19th century.

In the pub, I struck up a conversation with a kindred spirit, Jill Jacobs. Much to my surprise, after such a brief acquaintance, Jill thrust a sheaf of old photos into my hand and said she would trust them with me, until we should meet again.  I must have an honest face.

The photos were of the Burt family who lived in Brislington at the turn of the 20th century. I scanned the photos – see below. The family groups, Bob & Agnes Burt and their children were dated 1914 and 1905, making them ideal for census investigation.

In 1911, the family is listed as follows:

Robert Burt, head, married 36, bricklayer, born Bristol

Agnes Burt, wife, 37, born Wellington, Somerset, and their children:

Elsie, 14, scholar, born Taunton, Clifford, 13, scholar, born Taunton, Hilda, 11, scholar, born Taunton, Gladys, 10, scholar, born Bristol and Ivy, 8, born Bristol.

And here’s the surprise. They were living at Nelson’s Glory, Brislington. So what, you may say. Readers of The History of the Pillinger Family, Part 2, will know that Nelson’s Glory, in the 1820s was the abode of Henry Pillinger and his family! Synchronicity, or what?

So there we have Maria, the landlady of the Pilgrim and Henry at Nelson’s Glory, not to forget Julia from Bath in a previous post, I can’t help thinking that they’re all upstairs holding a Pillinger symposium to which they are trying to invite me. Not yet, I earnestly hope.

The following are the photographs of the Burt family:

In 1905: Mother : Agnes Burt. Father: Bob Burt

children from left to right Hilda, Ivy, Elsie, Gladys, Clifford.

In September, 1914:

Mother: Agnes Burt; Father Bob Burt and in between, Lena, the latest arrival.

adult children, from left to right: Hilda, Elsie, Cliff, Gladys, Ivy

Gladys Burt in 1922, with unnamed boy friend at Poplar House, School Road,  Brislington.

Bob Burt, 1935 at Poplar House.

Agnes Burt, with “Bob” – a grandson? and John Evans also at Poplar House

Agnes & the family dog, what a shame we don’t know its name.

Robert Burt married Agnes Thorne in 1897 at Wellington and by 1901 they were living at 34 Sandgate Road, Brislington. As a bricklayer, perhaps Bob had a hand in the building of these new houses. It must have been a recent move for as we have seen their children, aged 3, 2 & 1, Elsie, Clifford and Hilda, had all been born in Taunton.

In 1891 Robert, then about 14, was living at Road, Stoke St Mary, Taunton with his elder brother Albert (18) and widowed mother Sarah, aged 44. Though the two boys had been born in Bristol, Sarah’s birthplace was Old Cleeve in Somerset. Robert and Albert were the sons of Sarah’s marriage to Robert Burt and she had a previous son, William Tarr, born 1863.  Robert senior died in 1876, the same year that his son and namesake was born.  In 1881, Sarah, then 36, was living at 14 Kenilworth Terrace, St Philips, and working as a charwoman. Two of her sons were with her, William Tarr, aged 18, (a porter in a printing office who was born at Washford in Somerset) and young Robert, a scholar of five. Brother Albert, aged seven was staying at the time of the census with his paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Burt, aged 60, a widow, who was farming at Thurlbear in Somerset, assisted by her son, Andrew Burt.

In 1871, young William Tarr, aged seven, was a boarder at a house at St Decumans, Highbridge, belonging to a Sarah Sully, aged 68. Among other boarders was a John Burt, a freestone sawyer, born Montacute, but without further research I cannot say whether John Burt and Robert Burt senior were related or if this was simply coincidence.  Meanwhile, Robert, senior, 21, was living on his father’s farm, Netherclay, Thurlbear with six brothers and sisters. His father, Worthy Burt, born about 1823 married Mary Ann Williams at Taunton in 1847. Her father, Robert Williams, an “Ag lab” born 1789 was living with the family in 1871.  I have yet to establish with any certainty the whereabouts of Sarah Burt, formerly Tarr in 1871.  

In order to find more about Agnes Thorne, I would need her marriage certificate to discover her father’s name. So far, census searches have proved inconclusive.

I recently received the following email:

My name is Brian Sheen. I am researching a Walter Brain the son of William Brain and Sarah Tripp nee Edwards, William was a Farmer a Publican and also a Mine owner.

Walter was living at home in the 1861 census for Stapleton Gloucester. There is no trace of him in the 1871 census yet in the 1881 census he and his (wife) plus 6 Children all born in Bath are there, Walter’s occupation is a furniture salesman, their youngest Thomas William being born © 1866 as I said in Bath.

Walter’s wife puts her name on the birth certificate of their daughter, (the line I’m tracing) Leonora Tamar as Annie Pettigrove Brain formerly Howes.

I have a copy of the marriage certificate for Annie Pettigrove daughter of Daniel Pettigrove and Hester (Esther) Hudd; the marriage took place in St Philip and Jacob Church July 20 1840 after Banns. Annie at the time was a minor.

I can find no trace of a marriage between Walter Brain and Annie Pettigrove nee Howes what so ever. I searched through www.freeBMD.co.uk and www.ancestory.co.uk, trying all sorts of spelling combinations for Brain and Howes, all to no avail.

As I said Annie has put her name on the birth certificate as if she were married to Walter Brain.

From your information on the Brain family; would you by any chance have anything on this Walter and Annie Brain of Bath please?

Thank you.

I replied:

Dear Brian

The Brain papers were left to me by my friend, the late Walter Anthony Brain who I knew as Tony. His name suggests that he belonged to the branch of the Brain family that you are researching. (I am descended from Hugh Brain who also came from the Bitton area.)

I have looked through Tony's lists and there is no Brain/Howes marriage shown. (I think your marriage for Annie Pettygrove Hudd is a red herring. The name Pettygrove is not unusual in the Kingswood district.) I have also checked the Bath Register Office index of marriages - no luck - and the births index which unlike 19th century FreeBMD gives the mother's maiden name. All the children were registered at Bath 1866-81, all Brain/Howes.

Walter was missing somewhere in 1871, perhaps on the road as he was a salesman, but I have found Annie in Devizes. I used the most unusual name among those she chose for her children (Flora) to do a search and found the family as follows:

Thomas Howes, head, married, innkeeper, Black Swan, 25 Market Place, wife Ann, and children Thomas, Rhoda, Tamar and Lilly. All were born Bitton except Lilly who was born Melbourne, Australia!  Visiting were Annie Brain, daughter, 25, Thomas W. Brain, grandson, 4 and Flora L Brain, granddaughter, 2, plus several servants.

I can't throw any light on Walter's whereabouts in 1871 - or why (apparently) he and Annie did not marry. It would seem to suggest that one or other had a previous marriage, but so far I have drawn a blank on this too.  Could they have been in Australia at some time with Annie's family?

If you have not already done so, I would suggest you might it helpful to join the Bristol & Avon Family History Society where you are likely to find other Brain researchers as the name is common in our area and fairly localised to Kingswood. See also Brain and Howes in the alphabetical lists in my Kingswood Index. See top of this website.