Chittock of Norfolk and Suffolk

Elizabeth Fenton, formerly Chittock Chiddock

2010-11-26T23:37:00.002Z

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...

2010-11-26T22:08:00.002Z

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?

2010-11-22T21:24:00.003Z

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

2010-11-20T21:23:00.002Z

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- ?

2010-11-18T20:00:00.004Z

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.

Has Samuel Chittock been found at last?

2010-11-17T19:12:00.009Z

According to a quick search on the new Family Search Beta.org site, a reference to a Saml Chittock baptised on 17th March 1799 at Loddon, the son of Elizabeth Chittock.

Aha, could be him. He gets married in 1820 just after he turns 21. I have suspected he may have been illigitimate. It is only the 1871 census when he is an inmate at the Great hospital where he mentions Loddon in the census.

But a quick peak at the Loddon registers reveal no such entry. Nor in the Arch Deacon's Transcripts held at the Norwich library at the Forum. A real puzzler.

So I gets in touch with the people who run this site, the mormon lot and they very quickly replied thus:

"The film number is 1471002 which is the source of the digitized images. We went to the library catalog and searched for this film number and discovered that it is the Bishop's Transcripts for the Arch Deaconry of Norfolk That particular film number is for certain parishes in the Arch deaconry where your ancestor was found."

I can only assume this entry may refer to a later baptism, an adult one as had his youngest son, Joseph. Or perhaps he was baptised in another parish near Loddon and the transcriber did that ghastly thing of just writing down a few things. Who knows.

Anyway, the next step is to get in touch with a local Mormon centre, who are supposed to be rather good at this sort of thing, and see if they can find the digitised copy for there is another pointer that it is not in the local church of England our Sam was baptised.

On 23 of February 1800, an Elizabeth Chittock was baptised, also at Loddon. Or at least, from Loddon, perhaps just staying. Her mother was Ann Chittock, another illigitimate birth. Whatever would the neighbours say?

If you are related to Joseph Chittock and his wife, Mary Jay, you may have found out that one of Mary's grandparents or great grandparents (I forget which) called Michael Jay shacked up with his widowed house keeper following the death of his wife Deborah and had prodigious amounts of children, and they never married. It was possible to have a family and not get married. Providing you could afford the children. As usual, when the parish had to cough up, like now, no one approves except the most understanding of people when a child was born outside of marriage. Ann Chittock may have been deserted, or a planned wedding delayed... but if I'm right, she married in Heckingham, next door to Loddon, in 1802 to a widowed Robert Waller who comes from St Michael At Thorn's parish in Norwich which is slap bang next to St John Timberhill where all our possible relations lived. James Drane was a witness. The chances of two illigitimate Chittock baptisms within a year of each other, and other connecting factors does seem to indicate that Elizabeth Chittock and Ann Chittock are related. Also, returning from Norwich to be buried in 1790 was Charles Chittock, and another Elizabeth Chittock, a very elderly one returns from Norwich to be buried in 1808. If Elizabeth (Sam's mum) and Ann are the eldest and youngest daughter of Robert Chittock (married to Ann Lacy) who is Charles's cousin (as mentioned in his will), it is possible that these two sisters were sent out of the way to spawn. And back to the ancestral seat, as it were.

Who is Elizabeth Chittock?

Anyway, the above is the first possible Elizabeth. The eldest daughter of Robert Chittock, shoe maker, and Ann Lacy his wife. Baptised in 1769 at St John Timberhill (which I pass twice a week when I take my boy to Judo so I always nod hello to the graveyard) we have yet to find any possible marriage for her, disproving the theory. We can't easily find any Elizabeth Chittock spinster burial either. Why assume this? Well, there is an Elizabeth Chittock in Norwich who has at least three illigitimate children. A Robert William Chittock in 1803 at St. Edmunds, and two in St George Colegate - Elizabeth in 1804 and Ann Martha in 1807. Robert was buried at St John Timberhill before he turned one. This suggests a connection with the Chittocks there. So Samuel being born in 1799 is not out of the question for being one of her children. Our Sam, his first daughter was baptised at St George Colegate. He then moved to St Edmunds, or at least had his kids baptised there.

This is, of course, assuming the Loddon Elizabeth and the Norwich Elizabeth are one and the same, but I think they are, there are still links between the two places with their Chittocks. And the Waller wedding in 1802 also is interesting.
Robert the Eldest, as I have to call him, had a short lived son Robert whose widowed wife married William Norton who considers himself a gent when he witnessed the letter of administration for a Maria Roberts, spinster of Loddon in 1821.

The second candidate for Elizabeth, if we want a Norwich link, is the one born in 1775 to Robert Chiddick and Rebecca Bush of St Gregory's parish. As of yet, I can't find this Robert's birth. He was born in 1744 time, and married twice. He seems to been called Chiddick everywhere he went. But since Chiddick and Chittock appear sometimes in the same record (a cornoer's inquest actually) for the same person, thats the Norwich norfolk dialect for you. DDs and TTs can be misheard.

The third possible Elizabeth is the one in Suffolk you see on the A2A lists if you type in Samuel Chittock. A Sam Chittock was baptised in Weybridge in 1803 and she was the subject of a settlement examination in 1800 time. This could be ours, baptised a good few years after birth, but unlikely. I hope.

So, one step forward, and a whole nest of niggly noos. Who is the Daddy!

Anyway, if this is accurate, dear Samuel Chittock, will no longer be known as circa 1800

2010-01-17T16:05:00.002Z

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

2010-01-17T16:01:00.000Z

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

2009-09-02T21:51:00.002+01:00

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

2009-06-11T15:07:00.002+01:00

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

2008-11-01T18:53:00.002Z

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

2008-10-29T18:11:00.004Z

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

2008-10-26T18:47:00.006Z

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.

2008-10-26T00:46:00.000+01:00

Samuel Chittock is the most illusive fellow. We cannot even be sure of his correct surname! Sometimes, he is a Chittock, other times he is a Chiddock. Being illiterate, it was hardly his fault. He and his family were at the mercy of the hearing of clerics and the such like who may have misheard the double t for a double d and vice versa.

Exhaustive research (i.e. looking at lots of lists) suggests that the Chiddock name is simply a common mishearing. But in some families, it stuck. More on that another time.

The reason I go into this double t double d thing is simply because it has prevented several researchers from stumbling across the marriage of Chittock (as I shall call him) to Rachel Watts. Once you accept the fact that the Chittocks and Chiddocks of East Anglia are the same family group, things become easier for you.

This is all rather typical of the man we call Samuel Chittock. We just don't know where he was baptised. According to the census of 1851 and 1861, he puts down Norwich. Nice and simple. A parish would have been nice for him to add which some district renumerators insisted on but he doesn't. The 1841 census does not list the birth place, simply a little box to put whether you were born in this county or not. Guess what. That's one of the things I haven't checked recently.

1871 things are different. He has left the snugness and no doubt squalor of Thoroughfare Yard, just off Norwich's Magdalen Street. He was listed as being there when a list was compiled of voters in the early 70s as an occupier but that could have been a mistake. However, there is a Samuel Chittock in residence at the Great Hospital in St Helen's parish, in the shadow of the lands of the Cathedral. It is a charitable institution for the poor. Norwich City Council used to decide who goes in to replace a recently departed. This Samuel Chittock is a cordswainer - as is ours, 72, - which clashes slightly with the nice round numbers of previous census entries (but that's nothing - look at the ages his son James William Chittock gives over the decades...) but here the place of birth is LODDON. In fact, there are Chittocks who lived and worked in Norwich who were born and eventually buried here! One of them is a man called Charles Chittock, a wig maker who died in 1790. He had a cousin called Robert who was a SHOE MAKER! That Robert had a family in Norwich and is buried in a parish called St John Timberhill which seemed to be the burial ground for Chittocks including our Samuel's wife and the children who did not make it! And our Sam did not live in this parish at the time of these unhappy events. His own parish graveyard was not full. Therefore, a connection? Oh come on, of course there must be. And I hate saying things like that.

For those of you who don't know Norfolk that well, it is a small town between Norwich and the Suffolk border. And there be other Chittocks in that far off land than the ones I described. Lots of Chittocks. And lots of strange coincidences and connections! It's frustrating and annoying. 'Cos our Samuel Chittock, and I am sure the Great Hospitol man is our Sam, seeing his end of days near to the church where he married his asthmatic wife, was not baptised at Loddon nor the surrounding parishes. He may well have been born there and baptised elesewhere. He might not even have been dunked into a Church of England font at all, or even a non-conformist one.

A Samuel Chittock - and note I am not trying to be dogmatic or make that fatal mistake of absolute certainty - is buried in 1875 in Norwich's largest Victorian cemetary at Earlham Road.

The register for the place says:

"On May 13th, Samuel Chittock, 75, a weaver from St. Helens is buried at Earlham Cemetery in the Common Area. Section 12. No. 43."

A weaver and a cordswainer? Shoe makers were sometimes thought of or described as weavers. Sam's wife worked in starch, it seems. Tis all connected. And the Hospital is in St Helen's parish. And a beautiful place it is too from the outside. You can see pictures of it on the Internet.

Frankly, I'm feeling positive that the facts above point to the Sam at the Hospital being our Sam. Hopefully, one day, I'll dig out some records from the place and see if there is anything on him. Date of entry, that sort of thing. I have not yet ordered his death certificate. If you have, what does it say?

Anyway the whole point of all this is just to say two things: that our Sam's ancestry may lie in the southern reaches of Norfolk where there are a lot of Chittock connections spreading over into the Suffolk border, and secondly, beware of the spelling.

I'll be posting more on this wonderful man's life. Then I must turn to the Loddon Chittocks and the Norwich Chittocks of the late 18th century.