One of the problems with my interest in family tree research is that it is dependent upon my spare time, which at the moment is gobbled up by a biography I am writing on someone a million miles away from the Chittocks.  That, and I forget how I discovered some things, and who gets in touch and sends me some lovely things, especially about the Chittocks.

Just had a little glance through one of my Chittock 'accumulations' as I called them, and I found this concerning one of Samuel's sons - ROBERT SAMUEL CHITTOCK.  I think I found the part which will interest you just by going through on-line newspapers you can access through your library internet at home - well, at least if you are in Norfolk.  It's sad, to say the least.

Baptised on the 5th of April 1829, Robert follows his father's foot steps and is a shoe maker.  At the age of 27, he marries the 23 year old MARIA ELIZABETH BALDWIN at St. Stephen's Church in Norwich at the beginning of August 1859.  Her father is a brewer, not an uncommon occupation in Norwich, where a pub crawl along a particular street could leave you very, very dead from alcohol poisoning after a few hours.  A son is born the following year (I don't have the exact dates) and he is christened ROBERT BALDWIN CHITTOCK.

By the end of 1860, Robert Samuel is dead, and here's why:


From The Bury and Norwich Post and Suffolk Herald.  December 04 1860

SUICIDE - On Friday morning last a man named Robt. Chittock, a shoe maker, aged 28, residing in Crook's Place, was found lying on the floor of his house dead.  There was a large wound in his throat, and his head was also much cut about, and a knife and hammer were lying on floor by his side.  He has been in a low way for some time past, and is supposed to have destroyed himself in a fit of temporary insanity.  An inquest was held upon the body, and a verdict to that effect was returned. 

Robert Chittock ends up buried in Earlham Cemetary, the new City cemetary, recently opened, so would not have been interred amongst the rest of the clan at St. John Timberhill's over-crowded yard.  He was written down in their logs as a thirty year old from St. Stephen's parish.

In the 1861 census, Maria and Robert junior are living with her parents at the William IV Public House down King Street, the southern end of Norwich, and one of the oldest parts.  Walk down King Street and you bisect five parishes or so.  They are still there in 1871, although the address is Crook's Place.  It looks like she re-married in 1873, I'm not sure.  She did die on 27th April 1902 from heart disease, and this must have been either sent to me yonks ago by a fellow researcher, or I nicked it from an internet site (where I notice some of my stuff has been copied and pasted wholesale without attribution or context.  I don't mind but it  makes for a confusing read!  Especially the conjecture part!)

By 1881, Robert Baldwin Chittock is living with an uncle and aunt at another pub called the Orford Arms on Red Lion Street, which must have been rebuilt around the time of Maria's death as the building in question has a dirty great 1902 all over it, which you can see to this day.  It's close to Norwich Castle, and a few minutes walk from where Maria died at Thorn Lane, now the site of the Eastern Counties Newspaper building.  Robert is a grocer's porter, and his uncle Henry Chaston owned the license to run the pub, and according to an excellent website on Norwich's pubs, http://www.norfolkpubs.co.uk/norwich/onorwich/ncorf.htm ran into a spot of bother in 1876 for some out of hours drinking.  He also was born in Switzerland.

I haven't followed Robert's life in any great detail.  He lived until 1924, and did get married forty years earlier.  I hope he was happy.  I wonder if he was aware of the circumstances surrounding his father's death.  I wonder how his uncles and aunts on the Chittock side felt?  Was it ever mentioned?  Did they keep an interest in him?  There were enough of them about in Norwich.   In the 1880s, his uncle CHARLES GEORGE CHITTOCK ran a pub down Bridge Street called the Corn Exchange Tavern.  The building is still there, and you can tell that it used to be a pub.

ii

JOHN FRANCIS CHITTOCK is another son who could prove to be a bit tricky in tracking down.  We sometimes called him Johnson Francis.  I think that the guy writing it down into the register of St. Saviours (an unimpressive church situated next to a flyover down Magdalen Street) meant to write John, and then added son as in son of... like they would have done in the olden days, before the registers were all nicely laid out for them after 1812.  But this was 29th August 1836, so who knows.  Perhaps he really is Johnson Francis.

He vanishes after 1851, and a census search suggested he went to Yorkshire, where he got married, had a son, and died in 1877.  A John Chittock marries Georgina Scarah in the Patrington district of Yorkshire, in the last quarter of 1870.  But Georgina Chittock is quite alone on census night in 1871, and is listed as a soldier's wife.  Could this be him?  A John F. Chittock is born in 1871, and his descendants had a site about his line back in the day.

Anyway, while I was looking for stuff connected to my favourite Elizabethan torturer of Catholics on the National Archives website, I entered Chittock for the hell of it, and found this:


WO 69/135/295 Description:
Statements of Service, Royal Artillery 6 Battalion Numbers 3906 to 4368.
This entry appears on opening 312; this number is imprinted at the top right of each opening.
Soldier's Number 4199: John CHITTOCK. Born St Clement, Norwich. Enlisted 1855 aged 20 years. Note: Transferred to 7 Battalion 1857.
Covering dates indicate enlistment year.
Date: 1855

Georgina remarries shortly after John's death, and the son seems to have joined the Navy in 1900, as did his son, who perished during the second world war when his ship, the HMS Gallant struck a mine.  He was 40.  I wonder if he ever knew any of his Norwich or Bristol cousins?   

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LYDIA ANN CHITTOCK

Haven't a clue what happened to her...

Been nearly two years since I last posted so i hope that all the research I channelled in 2010 has been of use to those out there unable to get past the old Samuel Chittock b. 1800 WHERE?? block. I got married six months before, and got a new job, and family tree made way for research into something that has lead me into three books, the first of which is out in the summer and the third, next March.

Just to summarise... He was baptised in the House of Industry in Heckingham in 1799, the son of Elizabeth, who was the eldest daughter of ROBERT CHITTOCK and ANN LACY who lived in Norwich in the last half of the eighteenth century. This is why St. John Timberhill was the first choice to bury their family.

Now, Elizabeth (who later marries Fenton a few months after Sam marries) had a few brothers, James, Robert and William.

James Chittock was married three times, and had several children, one of whom was called Samuel, born in 1810. He was a baker and left a will. Brother William we are not too sure about. He might have had a turn of the century marriage but I'm not too sure. One day I might chase him down like a ghost dog and claim him as my own!

Robert Chittock, the other brother, married Elizabeth Emmerson, and died very young. For a while he was a contender for being Sam's dad but was not to be. But it explains all the Roberts that turn up in Sam's first four male children, doesn't it?

So where did Robert Chittock the elder come from? He was baptised on the 15th December 1738 at Mundham near Loddon and Heckingham. His father was also called Robert Chittock. He married MARY GARWOOD of Gillingham on 15th December 1734 in Great Yarmouth (under then name Chittack which might give you an idea of how the name was pronounced in Norfolk and written down by the clerk). Robert came from Mundham and that's where he had his children Robert, Susanna (1737), Anne (also 1737 and died the same year), Mary (1735) and Margaret (in 1744, the same year she died). Robert the Senior witnessed a few Mundham weddings such as Elizabeth Franklin's in 1765 (a few posts below and we go wild on Franklins), and one in 1766 and 1767.

He is buried in Heckingham, the house of Industry aged 70 in April 1768 and his daughter Susan joins him in the ground by December, aged 30. Mary joins them in 1770. The question is: were they suddenly paupers or what? I can't recall whether Heckingham parish church shared their graveyard with the House of Industry or not.

Mary junior we think marries Arthur Artis in Ellingham (with Robert as a witness) and is buried there in 1812 aged 76 but Arthur seems to be buried in Heckingham's house of Industry some years earlier!

Now the Robert Chittock who marries Mary Garwood had two bothers - Benjamin and James. Benjamin's lot flit in and out of Norfolk and Suffolk and into other counties and do quite well. James's family produced Jemima, Charles, Elizabeth, William and another Robert. The first three live in Norwich, Jemima marries a Nixon. Charles and Elizabeth do not marry and are buried back home in Loddon. What became of William, not too sure again. Might have stayed in Loddon area.

Elizabeth Fenton, formerly Chittock Chiddock

If you recall, Elizabeth Chiddock marries William Fenton a month or so after Samuel marries Rachel Watts in St Helen's parish in Norwich in 1820.

Rather pleasingly, to put it harshly, it transpires she was buried as Elizabeth Finton in St John Timberhill parish on the 28th of June 1836 having lived in St. Edmund's parish. She was 66. Her husband died in 1830 aged 58, also from St. edmunds, but this time buried at St Michael Coslany parish where his family is to be found as either Fentons or Fintons (depending how you write the letter e in a word). The witnesses at the wedding were Noah and Rachel (father and daughter, although whether William was Noah's son - or the illigitimate son (again!) of Elizabeth Finton, we don't know.

Now this is the closest we can get to Elizabeth Chittock, daughter of Robert and Ann Chittock baptised 13th of April 1769. She should be 67, but when do we ever get complete smooth accuracy in family tree 100% of the time? Just look at Samuel's son James in the census trail and tell me he hasn't lost count of his age!

Until we find evidence that completely disproves the connection, I'm quite satisfied that Samuel is the son of Elizabeth, with a Fenton step father (AFTER he marries Rachel Watts). It would be lovely to find a Fenton somewhere as a witness to a child of Chittock weddingor a mention in a will but so far there haven't been any found.

St Edmunds was the parish (in two places actually) where Samuel Chittock was raising his family. Parishes are small places but with lots of people and coincidences are always there.

But...

If you've got any better ideas or can demonstrate otherwise, fire away.

Until then... I'm happy!

Some more on the Elizabeth Problem...

Some new facts have emerged. The Elizabeth Chittock, illigitimate daughter of Elizabeth Chittock baptised at St. George Colegate on the 28th of September 1804 appears to have been buried a month later at St Martin at Oak's parish, both in Norwich. Here, she was registered as a Chiddock. The entry reads that the child was an infant and illigitimate.

Secondly, the Elizabeth Chittock, born to Ann Chittock, who married Robert Waller a year or two after giving birth appears to be the one who marries John Shreeve in 1819. Waller was from St. Michael At Thorn parish and this is where we find the Shreeves set up shop, as it were. Shreeve was a weaver, to begin with. But here's the curious thing. According to the Bishop's Transcripts, which is all you can now see of the wartime destroyed registers, when a daughter called Edis is baptised in the parish on the 14th of January 1823, Elizabeth gives her maiden name as Waller. So when a second Edis is baptised on the 11th of September 1826, her maiden name is Chittock... Now, unless there are two Elizabeths married to a John Shreeve and both decided to name a daughter Edis, it seems that this is the same family. She gave her maiden name in the first instance as that of her step father. Assuming, Robert Waller was her step father and not someone doing 'the right thing...' By the same baptism, she gave her real maiden name. The one which she got married in.

So with Nortons and Spaldings witnessing that wedding, could the Elizabeth Chiddock witnessing be Samuel's mother?

Thanks to a nice member on the Rootschat.com forum, the census shows that the family stayed within that parish with John becmonig a carpenter, and Elizabeth was born at the top of the century, and there is an Edis too, at the right age. Elizabeth's place of birth is put down as Thorn, Norwich. Not Heckingham, where at least she was baptised, if not born. And for two censuses, Samuel Chittock stated he was Norwich born and bred.

Perhaps they were and whisked off to Loddon!

So, this leaves one more Elizabeth Chiddock wedding. The 1820 Fenton wedding at St. Helens. One month or so after Samuel's. Is this his mother finally getting it hitched?

We have a number of Elizabeth Chittock/Chiddock suspects.

The odds on favourite is the daughter of Robert Chittock and Anne Lacy born 1769 in norwich, St John Timberhill.

The second favourite is Elizabeth Chiddick, daughter of Robert Chiddick and his second wife, Rebecca Bush. She was baptised at St. Gregory's parish in 28th of July 1776. In 1809, an Elizabeth Chiddick marries by license the widow William Hillings at St. Gregory's. . His first wife was Mary Chiddick, married in 1792 in the same parish, also by license. She died in 1807 aged 39. Whether she was a sister is not yet known.

This is what is so far known about this family:

At somepoint in the late 1760s, Robert Chiddock, born circa 1744 marries Susanna Swanton. They then turn up in the registers of St George Tombland. Their short lived son John is baptised on the 3rd of March 1771 and is buried on the fiftenth. On the 19th of February 1772, Robert Chiddick is baptised, and then William in the parish of St. Simon and St Jude on the 24th of October 1773. Susan (Swanton) Chiddick is buried aged 28 at St George Tombland, and barely six months later, Robert has married Rebecca Bush of St Martin at Oak parish, which is to the north of Norwich, at St Gregory's church. The witnesses are William Hillling and Harper Leddelow. Hilling is probably Robert's future in-law. At St Gregory's, the new Chiddick family have Elizabeth (28th of July 1776), James (30th of November 1777) who is buried on the 20th of January 1778 at the village of Caister St. Edmunds a few miles south outside of Norwich. This is the old Roman fort with the church perched at the corner on one of its walls. It is a mere spitting distance from Poringland where future, unrelated to us - Chittocks set up camp. Rebecca (1780) and Thomas (1781) are also buried here. Robert Chiddick junior is buried at St. Gregory's aged 57 on the 29th of March 1829 and his 66 year old father, a widow by now, on the 22nd of March 1803. We haven't found Rebecca's death yet.

It must be said that the consistent spelling of Chiddick is quite telling, suggesting they knew how to spell this variant of their name, and that Elizabeth Chiddick's marriage to the widowed William Hilling might rule her out of the hunt for our Elizabeth - if she is Norwich based at all. She and Mary, sister or cousin, were not illiterate. Until we can find her burial, which if post 1850s is going to be either at Rosary Road cemetary or the big one at Earlham.

So, Robert Chiddick senior ,ay be related to a family of Chiddicks who kept this variant after leaving the numerous Chittocks in the villages of Starston and Redenhall (which also encompass several hamlets like Wortwell.) In the 1783 directory we see a Robert Chiddick listed as Porter House at No. 3 Lower Goat Lane in Norwich which is next to the market. This is the right time for porter house steak to become a staple. This might account for the following advert I stumbled across in a local newspaper whilst looking for sedition:

NORFOLK CHRONICLE: 21. 01. 1792
Robert Chiddock:
At the Castle and Lion Inn opposite the Hall in the Market Place.
Respectfully informs his friends and the public in general that he has taken the above on for the better accomodation of his customers whose favours he solicits, at the same time thanking them for their former support, he assures them that no attention shall be working to merit their approbation in this undertaking.
NB: Good accomodation for horses and carriages.
Norwich January 25 1792

As well as the two Hilling weddings to Mary and Elizabeth Chiddick, in 1792 and 1809 respectively, a William CHITTOCK marries Ann Athill on the 2nd of February 1795 with witnesses John Rix, Harper Leddelow again (probably a parish clerk) and Mary Wormsley. He is illiterate. So he is not Robert Chiddick's son.

At the moment, usual problems apply in finding out what happened to sons Robert and William.

Samuel Chittock 1799-1875

A quick glance at the Archdeaconry transcripts for Heckingham show that Samuel Chittock was baptised here on 17th of March 1799, the son of Elizabeth Chittock, base born.

So, there you go.

On 23rd of February 1800, an Elizabeth Chittock is baptised, a base born daughter of Ann. She gets married here to a Robert Waller in 1802.

Marvellous.

Except these incidents, although on the transcripts, are not in the microfilm of the parish registers. Heckingham was home to the House of Industry for the area. It will become the workhouse. The registers mention the births and burials from the House of Industry and seem to include them seperately, between 1760 and 1814. The Chittocks don't feature in that. But what about the parisheners themselves?

Are our two female Chittocks inmates at this House of Industry or are they just staying in the village?

Are the registers missing chunks as per bloody usual?

If Elizabeth gave birth to Samuel in the House of Industry, it is rather pleasing that he ended his days in the Great Hospital in Norwich, a charitable institution for the poor, attached to the parish church of St. Helens where he got married.

There are some records for the House of Industry still surviving. A wee peak is in order to see if Elizabeth was an inmate or not. I hope not.

However, if Elizabeth Chittock is descended from the Loddon Chittocks who end up in Norwich, , three of them might have ended up in the House of Industry and die there. Robert and Mary Chittock - who would have been Elizabeth's grandparents from Mundham, and an aunt Susan. Although these three are listed in Heckingham burials for the House of Industry, Mundham is mentioned as to where they come from. Which is odd, surely the actual Heckingham workhouse is where the register should mention they come from.

Oh well, here's to another flaming mystery.

Elizabeth Chittock 1769- ?

Until the entry for Samuel's birth can be located and SEEN, it is still just conjecture that his mother Elizabeth is the daughter of Robert Chittock and Ann Lacy from St. John Timberhill in Norwich. She could be one of the others mentioned below...

But consider the lillies...

The Norwich Elizabeth Chittock had three children baptised in Norwich so far known: Robert Chittock, baptised 23rd of June at St Edmunds parish, buried fifth of December 1803 at St. John Timberhill which seems to suggest the connection. The other two children were baptised at St. George Colegate, Elizabeth on the 28th of September 1804 and Ann Martha on the 19th of July 1807.

Was the young Elizabeth married to William Fenton at St Helens only a few months after Sameul Chittock (as Chiddock) and Rachel Watts?

If our Sam was the first of her four children, who was the father of them all? The same man? Common law relationship? She seemed to have settled in St George Colegate. This is where a mysterious Jane Chittock lived when she wrote her will proved in 1800. She was apparently 44 when she died and left everything to her friend and servant Sarah Waller.

So, not much to go on. Perhaps a look at the rates books for the parish in this time of the nineteenth century for Elizabeth, assuming she was a head of a household. Since she had more than one illigitimate child, she was obviously not keen on marriage. A conventional iconoclast!

We have speculated as to whether she was spirited away to Loddon or that area when she fell pregnant in 1798. We have also speculated below whether she is related to Ann Chittock whose illigitimate daughter is called Elizabeth, of 1802

One of the witnesses to Rachel Margaret Chittock's wedding in 1841 was Eleanor Wilson, who was a Trowse. She was illigitimate. Her mother, Martha Trowse, was Rachel's mother's aunt.