The witnesses at Samuel Chittock or Chiddock's wedding to Rachel Watts are Maria Schofield and a Thomas Bailey.

Maria was born Maria Franklin in Easton on 21 August 1785 to John Franklin and Amy Waller. He may have been born in Eye, Suffolk. They married in St Andrews, Norwich in 1774. Franklin or Frankling families were living in St John Timberhill parish at the same time as the Robert Chittock family in the 1770s. Maria or Mary married William Schofield possibly in Woodbridge 19. 10. 1804 and then lived in St John Timberhill parish in Norwich where they also had and lost a son in 1805. Clement Franklin who may be an uncle or a cousin married Susanna Bailey in 1785. She may be a relative of Thomas Bailey who was a key witness at the majority of weddings at St Helens' parish for a few years. But if he is a relative of Maria's, may explain why Samuel and Rachel marry at a different parish from where they were living at the time.

DRANE and WALLER

A year after witnessing the Chittock/Watts wedding, Maria Schofield marries a second time, this time to John Drane on Christmas Day at St John Timberhill. Clement Franklin is a witness as indeed had a Mary Schofield witnessed his 1812 St Martin at Oak wedding. J Buttifant was the other witness.

What is interesting is that Drane is a cordswainer (admittedly so was most of Norwich at this time!) except the Dranes can be linked to Chittock families connected to the Robert Chittock St John Timberhill mafia. On the 9th of October 1802, the widowed Robert Waller from the neighbouring St Michael at Thorn parish in Norwich marries Ann Chittock in a village called Heckingham which is next door to Loddon. James Drane is a witness, but appears to be a clerk of the parish for he witnesses many weddings but... They live in Norwich and have a son James Chiddock Waller in 1802. Another Waller name pops up in the will of Jane Chittock written in 1800 where she leaves everythingh to her friend Sarah Waller. They lived in St George Colegate's parish in Norwich. So far I cannot trace Jane's baptism. Are these Wallers connected to Maria Franklin/Schofield/Drane's Amy Waller?

Furthermore, the name Drane is of huge significance to the Suffolk Chittocks around this time in the parish of Wingfield. We find a James Drane who married an Anne Chittock in 1776 and had several sons called John, the survivor of which might have been the 1802 Heckingham witness, and, incidentally, a witness to quite a few weddings in that parish. We also find in Wingfield on the 2nd of August 1801 DRANE CHITTOCK and on 17 of July 1803 a SAMUEL CHITTOCK, baptised, and their mother is ELIZABETH CHITTOCK.

(ExaminationCertificate); Elizabeth Chittock, residing in Wingfield. FC 84/G3/94 15 April 1801
For male child of Frances Drane alias Chittock by Henry Briggs of Wingfield, labourer. FC 84/G14/28 27 June 1825 held at the Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich Branch.

SPALDING and SHREEVE

Here's another connection:

Mary or Maria (Schofield) Franklin's sister Amy Franklin (1780) marries Henry Spalding in Easton in 1798 (the Freereg transcript calls them Tranchling)... They then move to Wramplingham near Wymondham. A Mary Spalding marries George Shreeve at St Peter Mancrofts on 26. 11. 1827 witnessed by William Franklin and Maria Norton. Shreeve is a shoemaker. They have children Maria and George in Heigham and Eliza baptised at St Peter Mancroft in 1832. George Shreeve we are sure is the brother of John Shreeve (both baptised in St George Colegate of John Shreeve and Elizabeth Strangleman! 1796 and 1798) John Shreeve marries on 03. 05. 1819 ELIZABETH CHIDDICK at All Saints and it is witnessed by Elizabeth Chiddick, Sam Adams, Harriet Spalding and John Norton. Harriet Spalding later marries William Coleman at Forncett St Mary in 1826, not too far from Wramplingham...

So, what with all this inter-connectedness, does this mean that the two Elizabeth Chittocks/Chiddocks above are related to Samuel?

Then there's the name Norton.

NORTON

On 12. 12. 1802 William Norton, possibly the son of Thomas Norton and Mary Buck, marries the widowed Elizabeth Chittock, formerly Elizabeth Emmerson at St Peter Permountegate, witnessed by Lewis Johnson and John Trowse. A Thomas and Ann Norton and Henry Davy witnessed Clement Franklin's marriage to Susanna Bailey in Heigham 1785.

Williiam Norton is an admin witness for a Maria Roberts, spinster of Loddon.1821 He is a gent in St Peter Permountegate along with William Roberts (father, manufacturer in St Peter PM) and Benjamin Roberts, a gent of Norwich .

There is a Maria Roberts, spinster who has an illigitimate child baptised St John Timberhill. 13 09 1812 (Maria Tuttle Roberts). She then marries Henry Jecks Tuttle at the same place 28. 11. 1813 and then they move to Loddon... So obviously she is not the spinster who dies in 1821... Witness Mary Ann Curtis David Buttifant.

Loddon is where Samuel Chittock claimed he was from in the 1871 census.

Maria Norton, witness to the George Shreeve wedding, may have been the wife of Edward Norton, a cordswainer living in St Peter Permountegate. We can't find their marriage yet.

Just to add to the confusion, in St John Timberhill, there is the family of James Drane and Sarah Norton, whose marriage can't be traced yet, having children such as Susanna on 22. 09. 1805. Sarah Drane was 58 when she died, living at St Stephens but getting buried at St John Timberhill as did her husband James on 21. 10. 1813 only 35.

A William Norton buried 29 07 1849 St John Timberhill 80 mm

An Elisabeth Norton 25 07 1852 83 from Lakenham at St John Timberhill.

ROBERT CHITTOCK and ELIZABETH EMMERSON

But back to Elizabeth Emmerson. She was married to Robert Chittock circa 1798. We cannot trace the wedding yet. It may have been St Michael At Thorn where the registers no longer exist and the Transcripts don't cover every year. Her mother Sarah Emerson remembers her in her will. Sarah's maiden name was SHREEVE. Robert Chittock and Elizabeth appeared to have had two daughters: Maria (06. 10. 1799) and Sarah (08. 03. 1801) in St Giles parish. Sarah is buried at St John Timberhill on 25. 08. 1802, an infant) whilst her father Robert Chittock, a married man aged 30 was buried 05. 04. 1801.

Their daughter is examined in the post below...

The Bacon Family and the Chittocks

Maria Chittock marries John Watts Bacon on 10. 07. 1827 at St John Timberhill as witnessed by John Smith and Elizabeth Bacon. If there is a connection to Rachel Watts we can't find it although a Watts did witness a Bacon wedding in Tunstead some time before. John died in 1832 and left a short will which is recorded as John Watts Baron in the various lists at the Norwich Family History Centre... It tells that John Smith is a farmer in Gressenhall whilst Bacon had a brother George William in London, a tailor. The witnesses were A or R Beckwith and Thomas Jessup.

On 22 06 1832 Thomas Bacon from Holt marries Celia Limmer of Norwich at St John Timberhill. The witnesses were John Leech and Mary Ann Chittock. Limmer was the surname of a James Chittock's first wife. This James was the brother of the earlier Robert and lived and bred in the neighbouring parish of St Michael At Thorn where he had a son Samuel in 1810.

Just to bring this into Samuel Chittock's perview, his son Charles George Chittock and his wife Elizabeth Selina Chittock witness the marriage on 20. 03 1864 of James Bacon, 25 (porter, father Robert, a baker) and Ann Elizabeth Bullard, 25, (father Herman? and a foreman) at St Julians church.

RACHEL WATTS IS FOUND

Rachel Watts married Samuel Chittock or Chiddock in 1820 at St. Helen's church in Norwich. She was a starcher. She had lots of children. She died in 1845 from asthma. She was buried in the Chittocks favourite burial spot - St John Timberhill. That's all we really knew about her.

I spent many a fruitless hour pouring over Norwich registers trying in vain to find her 1802 or 1803 baptism. Norwich wasn't lite with Watts. Along with her husband and another Norwich ancester, Thomas Paston, she was one of those elusive baptisms. Most frustrating...

There were one or two interesting connections. At St John Timberhill, there was a John Watts Bacon who married Maria Chittock, daughter of the baker James Chittock who lived in the neighbouring parish St Michael At Thorn, (one of those Blitz hit churches where the registers went up in smoke, and where the Transcripts were sparse and the only one which did not have a safety copy struck when the war broke out...)

I have long been a fan of witnesses. Those lovely people who put their signatures or marks on the marriage register entry, or on the bottom of wills. They have time and time again helped me solve many a family mystery - even when I can't find a baptism entry I can place my ancester with the correct family, or confirm a find. So I embarked on a search of every Norwich Watts marriage in the hope of finding Rachel Watts or Rachel Chittock as a witness and go from there. I did a lot - as much as my patience, not infinite, could manage. No joy.

Back at the turn of the century, I spotted a Rachel Watts baptism, Swanton Abbott in the IGI. Their coverage of Norfolk is quite good. But where this one was baptised in 1801, there was found a Rachel Watts marriage in the 1830s in nearby Tunstead so I not unreasonably dismissed it. What I didn't know then was that just because the IGI has an entry or two for a parish does not mean they have transcribed the whole lot. Postwick, Loddon and Dickleburgh spring to mind. They had stopped at the end of 1812 in this particular parish. They hadn't touched the next volume for Tunstead - 1813 onwards, you know, the ones with the nice grids. Had I known that and looked I would have seen a second Rachel Watts, baptised in 1813. She was the one who got married to James Garrod in the 1832. Her death confirms the maths, as it were. Rachel Watts of 1801 Swanton Abbott was still up for grabs. As it were.

So the other day, I attacked, as it were the Watts again especially when I found a George Bacon getting married to a widow and one of the witnesses was a Margaret Watts. This was in Tunstead, near Swanton Abbott. What is so special about Margaret Watts? Well, Rachel Chittocks' eldest daughter is called Rachel Margaret. I always thought I wouldn't be surprised if her mother was called Margaret judging by the unimaginatve way our ancestors named their children. I thought this was a good lead, if nothing else.

I did a lot of grubbing about on the internet using Free Reg which I only recently discovered, the IGI, Norfolk Transcriptions and so forth, and investigated the Tunstead / Swanton Abbott Watts and slowly became convinced that this was it... I became 99% sure, in fact. I've had elegant theories stamped on and chewed up in the past and welcome it, sort of. I traced the family that this Rachel was born into. They moved about and settled in Coltishall, which, funnily enough, one of my brothers has done to the disgust of his eldest son!

As I was chasing up the marriages of various sisters, I nearly spat out my tea when I saw this:

21. 08. 1836. William Fox marries Jemima Watts. Witnessed by William Hewitt and Rachel Chittoch...

At least, that's how FreeReg interpreted Chittock, or perhaps the clerk of the parish back in 1836. It's moments like these that makes all this family tree stuff worth it. No wonder it never showed up when I did a Chittock search on Free Reg. Most of the names they've got I've already found during a big Chittock push a few years back.

In a few days, I'll put up the bare facts of William Watts and Mary Trowse, her parents. This part of Norfolk is simply thick with Watts, and there does require a good thwack at the primary sources to fill in the gaps but we could push them back well into the seventeenth century.

That makes a change, doesn't it?

But here's a curious thing... The widow of Robert Chittock in Norwich who I once thought might have been Samuel's father, and who is certainly the bkaer James' brother, married in 1802 to a William Norton. One of the witnesses was a Trowse. Eighteen years before Samuel's marriage but interesting all the same, as is the fact that several Bacons marry into James' family, and a future Bacon wedding was witnessed by Samuel's child Charles George and his wife. That particular Bacon was a baker. James does have a son called Samuel, born 1810.

I can't help feeling the net is closing in on our Samuel. Perhaps he's been there all the time.

A Very Early Chittock indeed

The following is taken from The Paston Letters...

Margaret Paston to John Paston written 18 August 1465

"Right worshipful husband,
I recommend me to you. Please it you to wit that I received a letter from you sent by Laurence Rede on Friday last past whereby I understand that ye had no tidings from me at that time that your letter was written whereof I marvel, for I sent you a letter by Chittock's son, that is prentice in London, the which was delivered to him upon the Thursday next after Lammas day, and he promised to ride forward the same day that ye should have it as hastily as he might after his coming to London in the said letter was of the demeaning at the assizes ar Norwich and of divers other matters..."

Interesting for me considering my ancestor Joseph Chittock (Samuel's youngest son) married Mary Paston in 1863...

And pushing back the Pastons has been more difficult than the Chittocks.

Unrest in 1830

1830 was a time of social unrest. Machines were attacked in farms up and down the county and Norwich weavers were feeling the economic problems of the country following the end of the war economy. It seems our Sam got involved too. This was the year of the Captain Swing riots in Norwich. According to a web page dedeicated to St. Augustine's Street, "Unemployed weavers attack looms at William Springhall’s house in St Augustine’s during the 'Captain Swing' disturbances: a pistol is discharged wounding Springhall. One of the ringleaders, Richard Nockolds, is later hanged for rick-burning."

On Monday 29th November 1830, Norwich weavers met on St Catherine Plain and then to the Greenhills public house outside St. Augustine's Gate. By 3pm there were 2-3000 on Greenhills. At 5pm, the mill on St Clement Hill was attacked and set on fire. At 6pm, the Dragoons arrived and arrested four people including one Samuel Chittock. Between 7-8pm, the prisoners arrived at the Guildhallwhere the Mayor and other magistrates were sitting. According to the Norwich Mercury that Saturday, 'Samuel Chittock (was) charged with having joined with various other persons and did unlawfully make an assault upon the soldiers who were conducting persons before the magistrates for examination, contrary to the form of the statute in that case made and provided..."

They were immediately taken by an additional escort of mounted dragoons since the mob had gathered around the Guildhall and grown so large as to make it doubtful whether the smaller party of soldiers on foot would not have to use the otherwise been forced to use their pistols in self defence.

There is no record of what happened to him after being committed to the City Gaol, just outside the old city walls on the site of what is now St John's Cathedral. He might not have been involved in the burning down of the mill but got agitated with the 'mob' when the dragoons marched their prisoners into the City, probably down Magdalen Street... The other men arrested that night were finally tried in the summer assizes but there is no sign of Samuel so he probably got sentenced on the spot and was out presumably after a couple of months because James would have been conceived March 1831. He might not have been at home when Charles was born... In 1838, Samuel Chittock was described as a weaver when Lydia Ann was baptised.

Is this my Sam? There was another Samuel Chittock, son of James the Baker who would have been 20, and another Samuel who lived in Heigham and had a son Samuel with wife Priscialla Clark, who died in infancy and was buried in St John Timberhill. But being an attorney it seems unlikely he would throw stones at the army!

I'm still on the look out for prison records and the Mayor's account of that night. I've looked through the minutes taken of the assizes but found nothing. Other records dealing with the Guildhall have nothing for this night.

Incidentally, the County Gaol was the Castle.

The Children of Samuel Chittock

CHILDREN:

RACHEL MARGARET

born 10 January 1821 and baptised on 28.01.1821 at St. George Colegate church, Colegate, Norwich.

This was their only child baptised at this particular church. There have been other Chittocks living in this parish, but frankly, when you walk down Colegate, which is off Magdalen Street where Thoroughfare Yard is, you cross the width of about five parishes which stretch from the river this road runs parallel to. Indeed, St Clements parish takes up this road as well.

In 1841, the census shows that Rachel is a 'clear starcher' or 'clean starcher' as is her mother.

She marries a William Scolding, a widower with one child. at St. Martin at Oak on 31st May 1841. He is a coal (heaver?) His father has the same name and is a weaver. She is married as Chiddock. She is ‘full age.’ They are both illiterate. The witnesses were Thomas and Eleanor Wilson who may have themselves got married at St George Colegate 14. 04. 1834 (maiden name Trowse). There are very few Scoldings in Norwich.

SAMUEL ROBERT baptised 8 September 1822 at St. Edmunds. Thoroughfare Yard is bisected by the parishes of St Clement (to the north west) and St Edmunds. Indeed, the southern end of the passage faces this church.

Buried: 05 September 09.1825 at St John Timberhill.

This is the first of the burials at this place which was the centre of the Chittock world in Norwich for certain Chittock and Chiddock families. To bury his children here suggests a strong connection as the local burial grounds were far from disuse.

LYDIA ANN baptised 14 March 1823 at St Edmunds and buried 02 November 1824 at St. John Timberhill

ROBERT SAMUEL baptised 04.09.1825 at St. Edmunds and buried 13.04.1827 St John Timberhill

SAMUEL ROBERT baptised . 15.04.1827 at St. Edmunds

ROBERT SAMUEL baptised. 05.04.1829 at St. Edmunds

.CHARLES GEORGE baptised 24.04.1831 St. Edmunds

JAMES WILLIAM born 29.12.1832 baptised 30.12. St. Edmunds

WILLIAM THOMAS born 12.11.1834 bapt. 16.11.1834 at St. Saviours

St Saviours is also within a few minutes walking of Thoroughfare Yard, presuming they were living there at this point.

JOHN FRANCIS baptised 29. 08. 1836 at St. Saviours

LYDIA ANN baptised 01.11.1838 at St. Clements

CHARLOTTE born. 1840 St. Clements Buried on 12.06.1845 St John Timberhill

This is the first of two children whose baptism is not recorded, or at least not found.

JOSEPH THOMAS born in the first quarter of 1843.

This man is my direct ancester. He got himself an adult baptism at St. Clements some years later after his marriage in a Church of England place in New Catton.

From this list, we do need to ask two questions: is the reason for the burials at St. john Timberhill simply because of a connection with the families already there? Several other Chittock families were burying their dead here from all over Norwich.

Secondly, the insistence of naming a child Robert is very clear in the first four sons! For years I assumed this was because Samuel's father was called Robert and there was a very promising one who came from St John Timberhill, and was active in St Michael At Thorn parish and died in 1802, buried at St John Timberhill thus suggesting a desire to memorialise a father he never knew. Indeed, because the registers from St Michael At Thorn were destroyed during World War 2 (thanks to a direct hit on the church and the incumbents not making a spare copy of the registers unlike other bomb hit churches) we had to rely on Bishop Transcripts. BUT since they were not annual, nine months from 1801 are missing, and there is no baptism recorded for him in whatever was left of the 1800 or 1799 transcripts. Anyway, the promising looking family were having children all over Norwich and there doesn't appear to be a gap between them for Samuel to be born, presuming that the baptisms were quick after the birth.

These St John Timberhill / St Michael At Thorn Chittock families had children called Robert, James, William, etc, and future generations had Samuels. As a side issue, it is sometimes interesting looking at children's names to see which side of the family is being commemortated, the husbands' or the wifes!

So the hunt continues...

The Marriage

Samuel Chiddick, as it is recorded in the registers, is married on the 10th of April 1820 to a Rachel Watts. They are both illiterate. They are listed as being resident in this parish, which is on the east side of Norwich, with the Cathedral close on one side and the river on the other.
Where the banns were read is as of yet unknown and hopefully when they are found will give more clues as to his origins, not to mention his wife's since her birth has not been found either.
Since it is banns, this means they were both legally able to marry without need for licenses or parental permission. Or I may be historically missing the point here!

The witnesses are Maria Schofield and a Thomas Bailey, whose name appears as a witness to many weddings in this parish, suggesting he is connected with the church rather than as a friend or relative. Maria Schofield, however, is quite interesting. If this is right, a Mary Schofield, widow, marries a man named John Drane at St. John Timberhill parish on Christmas Day 1821.

Drane, like Sam, is a cordswainer.

This is interesting because St John Timberhill is the heart of Chittock Norwich at this time, but also because on the 9th of October 1802 a James Drane witnesses the marriage between the widowed Robert Waller from the neighbouring St Michael at Thorn parish in Norwich to Ann Chittock in a village called Heckingham which is next door to Loddon. They live in Norwich and have a son - James Chiddock Waller in 1802, baptised at St Michael at Thorn. The name Waller pops up in a will of a spinster named Jane Chittock written 1800 where she leaves everything to her friend Sarah Waller. They lived in St George Colegate's parish in Norwich. So far I haven't found her birth which would have been 1745.

Just to complicate matters further, a Maria Schofield, spinster, is on a letter of administration as daughter to a Jonathan Schofield, who died 1817 in St George Colegate. Other witnesses are: Mary Vincent of the same. This other Maria is illiterate. We don't know if they are connected to our Mary/Maria Schofield. We can't, as of yet, find her original marriage to Schofield and thus her maiden name. She is not the Maria Chittock / Chiddick who is around in Norwich at this time, we think. She was born in 1799 of Robert Chiddick / Chittock and Elizabeth Emmerson in St Giles parish of Norfolk. Her family were part of the St John Timberhill brigade. Maria Chiddock witnesses the marriage of a John Chiddock at St John Timberhill to a Sarah Preston of St George Colegate in 1819.

Furthermore, the name Drane is of huge significance to the Suffolk Chittocks around this time in the parish of Wingfield. We find a James Drane who married an Anne Chittock in 1776 and had several sons called John, the survivor of which might have been the 1802 Heckingham witness, and, incidentally, a witness to quite a few weddings in that parish. We also find in Wingfield on the 2nd of August 1801 DRANE CHITTOCK and on 17 of July 1803 a SAMUEL CHITTOCK, baptised, and their mother is ELIZABETH CHITTOCK. Who the father is we don't know. As a married adult, Drane Chittock has a son called Samuel. Elizabeth is subjected to a settlement certificate in April 1801 probably as a result of conceiving Drane.

Thomas Bailey may have been related to a Susanna Bailey who married a Clement Franklin or Frankling in 1785. Clement Franklin witnessed the Schofield wedding to Drane... The Franklings had St John Timberhill baptisms too in 1777.

Interestingly, on 01. 05. 1820 at St. Helens, a William Fenton married an Elizabeth Chiddock, witnessed by Noah and Rachel Fenton. Also, in 1814 Matthew and Sarah Watts witness a wedding here too. Nothing, so far, can be traced of these couples although the Watts may have married in Heigham in 1803, her maiden name being Prior.

So from all this, there may be some clues as to where Samuel Chittock comes from. Hopefully, the discovery of the banns might be indicative. Perhaps Maria or Mary Schofield's maiden name could help too.