History

What I’m Doing During COVID 19 Isolation

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I thought I would write a bit about what I’m doing during this isolation time. I am self-isolating at home because I have pre-existing health conditions which put me at risk if I were to contract the Corona Virus.

I love crafts and have several on the go at the moment. I’m crocheting large and colourful pieces to yarn bomb the tree in my front yard. I’ll do another post with pictures when it is finished.

I’m doing some cross stitch along with many others as part of the Stitch and Resist project.

“Through the act of craftivism we hope to
make connections and community
make political statements
make important cultural objects
make a difference
and make change“

I’ve also been doing some traditional wet felt making.

In Progress
Finished Pieces

I’m not sure yet but I may try and make something which incorporates all three of these crafts. If it happens I will post photos.

Facebook, genealogy, my grandchildren and my pets are also keeping me occupied during this time. What are you doing to fill the hours?

January Genea Pourri

January Genea Pourri

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I have been inspired by Jill aka GeniAus and Alex at Family Tree Frog to write about what genealogy related things I’ve been up to.

Early in the month I started a new 6 generation pedigree tree for a customer.  These are some of the things I have found out so far:

  • one ancestor had a joint patent on the South Australian icon the Stobie pole with the inventor James Cyril Stobie 
  • another was instrumental in opening up the goldfields in Kalgoorlie/Boulder in Western Australia and was knighted for their efforts at home during World War I.
  • one was a postage stamp printer and their grandfather was a pioneering printer in Glasgow, Scotland.

I’m currently using a combination of Ancestry, Find My Past, Family Search, Scotland’s People, National Library of Scotland, Trove, Google Books/Maps/Newspapers, State Library of South Australia to research this family.

Although it’s an online tree that I’m building I still use a Family Group Sheet word processor document to record family members who I’m not sure belong in the tree I’m creating, so while I still have questions about them I’ll keep them in a document until I’m sure they belong in the online tree.

I maintain a Facebook group Saving Graves South Australia as well as the public page which goes with it Say No To Reuse of Graves.  There has been lots of activity lately as we were shocked to find out just last week that human bones had been found in a rubbish heap at Cheltenham Cemetery, South Australia.  Adelaide Cemeteries Authority has assured our members that they’re conducting an internal review of procedures.  We are encouraging our members to keep in touch with the ACA and follow-up on this event.

I have visitors stay with me from the couchsurfing.com website.  Just recently a lovely woman from England who is a military history buff stayed with me.  She had heard about a military museum on Yorke Peninsula and wanted to know if there was public transport to get there.  She was disappointed when I explained that there was no public transport and hiring a car would cost too much.  I decided to take her and we set off on our road trip.  It took us three hours to get there but it was well and truly worth it.  This large museum covers many buildings and contains not just military memorabilia but many historical artefacts and photos.

Bublacowie Military Museum

 

Isaac Ludlam Executed For Treason

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The Pentrich Revolution

Jeremiah Brandreth, William Turner and Isaac Ludlam were considered the revolution ring leaders and labelled the Pentrich Three.  With over 500 men they set out to march on London to petition the King to better workers’ rights.

Jeremiah Brandreth, or the `Nottingham Captain’, was to actually lead the rebellion. Despite some rather wild stories about his origins, Brandreth was an unemployed framework knitter from Sutton in Ashfield. He had, almost certainly, been involved in Luddite activities.

Sunday 8th June 1817, Brandreth spoke at a crowded meeting in the White Horse Inn in Pentrich………

The rebels assembled at 10 am at Hunt’s Barn in Garner’s Lane, South Wingfield, to march to Ripley. The march route.

There was a traitor to the rebellion, in their midst, and they were stopped at Eastwood the following day.

By early morning, the two groups had come together again and had reached Eastwood. There, two magistrates accompanied by twenty fully armed men and Officers of the 15th Light Dragoons, met them. Mundy, one of the magistrates, afterwards described the confrontation: “we came in sight of the mob who though at three quarters of a mile’s distance from us no sooner saw the troops, then they fled in all directions…throwing away their arms”. Not a single shot was fired and, within a very short space of time, 48 men were captured. Some, however, stayed at large for quite a while. Isaac Ludlam was arrested at Uttoxeter, Brandreth at Bulwell………..

…….. all of the prisoners were isolated until the time of their trial in Derby; their relatives sold everything, down to their beds, to provide funds for their defence and a committee was formed in London to campaign for their release. 46 men of Pentrich, South Wingfield, Alfreton and Heanor, were indicted at the Derby Assizes on 26th July 1817 as having committed High Treason, along with “a multitude of false traitors, …500 or more”. The overwhelming majority of those on trial were labourers and framework knitters, but there was one each of a farmer, tailor, blacksmith and sawyer.

On 7 Nov 1817 Jeremiah Brandreth, Isaac Ludlam and William Turner were executed by hanging and beheading.

These sites provide more information about Isaac Ludlam and the Pentrich Revolution.

At the bottom right hand corner of the above image are my grandparents Jim and Bette Hardy.   Charles T Hardy my great grandfather changed his name from Wigley to Hardy as did my Grandfather.  If you follow the tree upwards you will find Isaac Ludlam near the top right hand corner.  Isaac Ludlam and Obadiah Wigley married sisters.  Isaac was also a witness at Obadiah and Mary Wheatcroft’s wedding.

In researching this blog post I’ve also found out that William Wheatcroft, Mary’s brother also took part in the revolutionary march.  That’s three brothers in law who took part.  William and Obadiah suffered no direct repercussions  however, as stated above, their relatives sold everything, down to their beds, to provide funds for their defence. 

The defeat in court and the deaths of Brandreth, Turner and Ludlam must have had a huge impact on them but Isaac’s death would have had the biggest of all.  Fourteen of their fellow revolutionaries were transported to Australia, six were jailed in England, twelve were tried and freed and many more were apprehended but not charged.

Obadiah and Mary Wigley moved to Mansfield, Nottinghamshire some time between the revolution and Obadiah’s death in 1828.  This move affected their son James as you can see in this blog post.

James Wigley – 2017 Update

James Wigley – 2017 Update

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I’ve been doing some more research into James’ life and rather than do a whole new blog post with links to this one I thought it would be easier to understand if I put the updates in a different coloured font here.

James Wigley is my 4x great grandfather. There are some family stories about James and some mysteries so I’m researching these to ascertain fact from fiction.

James was born in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, England to Obadiah and Mary Wigley (nee Wheatcroft) on 12 March 1807.

James’ first wife was either Jane Brock or Jane Carousa.  They were married in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.  On their son Charles Robert Wigley’s death record it lists his mother as Jane Brock but the only marriage of a James Wigley in Nottinghamshire at the right time is one to a Jane Carousa.  So I’ve emailed the Nottinghamshire archives and will be sending off for the parish register entry to see if this can shed any light on Jane’s surname.   If this doesn’t help then I’ll get a copy of the marriage license.  I got an email back from the Nottinghamshire Archives and as they don’t have a payment method I can use I’ve contacted a research agent instead.

I didn’t follow through with the research agent, at the time, however I was able to order documents via the Nottinghamshire Family History Society.  Jane was approximately 32 years old when she married James so I believe that she had been married previously hence the different surnames.  I will continue searching for Jane’s origins.  This is further complicated by that fact that she says on the 1841 census that she was born in Jamaica.

22 December 2017 update Samuel Barratt, who took part in the Pentrich Revolution with James’ father Obadiah, was a witness to James and Jane’s marriage. https://blog.kyliesgenes.com/2017/12/isaac-ludlam-executed-for-treason/

 

James and Jane had five children Mary, Grace, Charles, Eliza, Ellen.  In 1843 Jane and two of the children, Eliza and Grace, died in a house fire in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, UK.  I just recently found out that Mary didn’t die in the fire.  I will need to find death records to confirm if Eliza and Grace died then too.

In the 1841 census Jane was living in Nottinghamshire with Mary, Charles, Eliza and Ellen.  It appears that Grace died as an infant also James isn’t listed as being in the household either.  So far I haven’t been able to confirm or deny the story of the fire however, if it did happen, it would have only been Jane and Eliza who died in the fire as Mary, Ellen and Charles went on to marry and have families.  

I’ve been told that James stole the plans to a lace making machine and went to France and sold them there.  I don’t know that this story can ever be verified though.  It just may not be possible.

photo of James Wigley

James Wigley

When I think of James Wigley it always gets me thinking about this story of the lace making machine and taking the plans to France so I googled ‘English lace makers in France’ and came across an article from a genealogist right here in Adelaide, South Australia!!  Graham Jaunay writes about the Lacemakers of Calais in South Australia.  

The Calais Lacemakers were English men who designed, built and maintained the extremely complex lace-making machines that had been originally developed in Nottingham. Despite the best efforts by the British to keep the manufacturing process a secret, the techniques were leaked to France and the industry developed in the Calais region using British experience and skills. After the British got over the loss of their monopoly everything was fine until the 1848 Revolution that proved to be an economic disaster for the workers as their factories were closed and English owners returned to England. The workers were faced with destitution if they remained in France or returned to England. G. Jaunay

From there I found the Lacemakers of Calais website which says: 

With very low profits and high wages in England, around 1816 one Robert Webster, with an accomplice Samuel Clark, smuggled a machine into Calais. The machine was dismantled, packaged as old iron and shipped on numerous boats to Calais. Clarke reassembled it in a shop on quai du Commerce in the village of Saint-Pierre, outside the walls of Calais itself. 

James Wigley was only nine years old in 1816 so it is highly unlikely that he was involved with Robert Webster and Samuel Clark so that part of the family story may not be true however lacemaking in Calais went on for many more years and there are more tidbits which point to James perhaps being in France.  He wasn’t listed in the 1841 English census as being in the household in Nottingham with his wife and children and I haven’t been able to find him anywhere else in the UK.  Could he have been in France at this time?  I am currently going through the French census for 1841, for Calais, page by page as it isn’t indexed yet.  The lace makers who went to Calais were from Nottinghamshire where James lived.

James’ name isn’t on the Lacemakers of Calais website as one of those who left in 1848 and came to Australia however he does show up in Stepney, Middlesex, England where he marries Maria (as below) and then proceeds to South Australia in 1849.

Between 1841 and 1848 Charles Robert Wigley could have been in France with his father. (see below) 

In July 1848 James married Maria Lihou nee Bray and in 1849 he took the family to South Australia.  James and Maria, Maria’s daughter Sarah Lihou and Ellen and Charles.  There they lived in Burra for a time before moving to Victoria.

James’ son Charles Robert Wigley who I’ve mentioned above is said to have gone to boarding school in France and that he forgot how to speak English.  Apparently there was a sign on his house in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia which said, “French spoken here”.

I’ll keep adding updates as I find out more.

St John Ambulance Cadets

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I was going through a box of memorabilia tonight when I came across my St John Ambulance cadet certificates and badges.  I think I was missing a couple of service stripes for my years as a cadet.  I remember doing the drill and training but not so much the exams.  I loved the events that we went to to provide first aid support to the senior officers.  We went to agricultural shows, the Schützenfest at Hahndorf, South Australia and Christmas Pageants.  As it says in the Wikipedia link the Schützenfest was held in mid summer resulting in many cases of too much to drink, heatstroke and extreme sunburn for us to treat.

 

Our uniform was a white dress and black beret with a grey wool cape for winter.  It wasn’t very practical at all.  Thankfully in later years it changed so that women could wear trousers.  The below photos show cadets from another South Australian country town, during the time I was a cadet.  I couldn’t find pictures of my own cadet division online.