myroots
Benjamin Brown b c1813 Benington, Herts
posted Saturday, 23 April 2005
Benjamin was the father of Charles Brown, my great-great grandfather. The IGI led to finding his marriage certificate from 1852. A widower, he married Esther Miles at Hertingfordbury, his father named as William, a farmer. In the 1871 census, the family is living at Gravel Pitts, Little Berkhamstead; Benjamin is an Agricultural Labourer and aged 56. Charles is 8, a scholar, and has an older brother David (15, Ag.Lab) and young siblings George (6) and Elizabeth (4). Ten years earlier, their address is Bedwell Gravel Pitt, Benington, and they have three children, Jane, David and Sarah.
The censuses show that Benjamin was some 15 years older than his wife (by 1881, he is 65, she is 49, and they are still in Little Berkhamstead with youngest child Anne, aged 8). The couple seem to have had seven children between 1854 and 1873.
On the 1851 census transcript, Benjamin is recorded as a 37-year old widower, born in Benington, and working as a servant in the household of Jonathan Dyball, Land Steward at Bedwell Park Farm (now a golf course).
So what of his earlier marriage? A visit to HALS allowed me to find an entry of marriage in the Benington parish registers. He married 'with consent of parents' Maria Walkington Palmer in 1835. The IGI has a christening entry for Maria in 1817, Stapleford, Herts, illegitimate daughter of Ann Palmer (and presumably a Mr Walkington). She would have been around 18 years old at the time of her marriage in 1835.
The marriage was a short one: the Benington parish register also records the burial, on 1st January 1837, of Maria Walkington Browne, aged 19. She probably died as a result of childbirth, given that Hannah, daughter of Benjamin Brown and Maria Walkington, was christened on 21 December 1836 and buried just over a month later on 29 January 1837 'aged 7 weeks'.
Benjamin died in the summer of 1890, his recorded age 73 years, occupation Farm Labourer. His widow, Esther, registered his death at Mill Green, Essendon, of 'bronchitis and exhaustion'.
The censuses show that Benjamin was some 15 years older than his wife (by 1881, he is 65, she is 49, and they are still in Little Berkhamstead with youngest child Anne, aged 8). The couple seem to have had seven children between 1854 and 1873.
On the 1851 census transcript, Benjamin is recorded as a 37-year old widower, born in Benington, and working as a servant in the household of Jonathan Dyball, Land Steward at Bedwell Park Farm (now a golf course).
So what of his earlier marriage? A visit to HALS allowed me to find an entry of marriage in the Benington parish registers. He married 'with consent of parents' Maria Walkington Palmer in 1835. The IGI has a christening entry for Maria in 1817, Stapleford, Herts, illegitimate daughter of Ann Palmer (and presumably a Mr Walkington). She would have been around 18 years old at the time of her marriage in 1835.
The marriage was a short one: the Benington parish register also records the burial, on 1st January 1837, of Maria Walkington Browne, aged 19. She probably died as a result of childbirth, given that Hannah, daughter of Benjamin Brown and Maria Walkington, was christened on 21 December 1836 and buried just over a month later on 29 January 1837 'aged 7 weeks'.
Benjamin died in the summer of 1890, his recorded age 73 years, occupation Farm Labourer. His widow, Esther, registered his death at Mill Green, Essendon, of 'bronchitis and exhaustion'.
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