David Windebank b.1827: publicans and gamekeepers as siblings
David Windebank was my 3x great-grandfather. According to the IGI he was born on 25th July 1827 in Basildon, Berkshire, and christened there on 23rd September in the same year. His parents are named as Jeremiah and Eleanor Windebank (his father's name confirmed on his marriage certificate). Although I have not been able to locate David with his parents in the censuses, I have made an assumption that David is the son of the Jeremiah Windebank christened in 1782 in Empshott, Hants, who appears in the various censuses as a publican in Basildon and later in London. Jeremiah and Eleanor appear to have had 11 or 12 children in all. Here I outline what I've found so far (without too much effort, it has to be said) about the first four: Caroline, John, George and William.
The IGI has a marriage entry for Jeremiah and Eleanor (Wilson) in Basildon, near Reading, on 15 August 1810.
The 1841 census shows them living in Basildon, with children James, 20; Sarah, 15; Georgiana, 12; and Benjamin, 10. The IGI has christening records for 11 children after 1810, with parents Jeremiah and Eleanor, in Basilden, including: Caroline, 1814; John, 1816; George, 1818; William, 1819; James, 1822; Maria, 1824; Sarah 1826; David 1827; Georgiana 1829; Benjamin, 1831 and Frances Eleanor, 1833. It is difficult to know from the IGI whether Caroline was born in 1814, or christened when a year or more old. Some of the other entries have a birth date.
Caroline Windebank was christened in Basildon on 6th November 1814. The IGI has a marriage record for a Caroline to John Riches on 30th May 1836. By the 1881 census, she is a widow living at the Bull Inn, Stratford Mortimer, working as housekeeper to her brother William, a widower. John appears to have been a gamekeeper from Norfolk. He and Caroline are found living at Keeper's Lodge, Gasthorpe, Norfolk at the time of the 1841 census, aged 30 and 25 respectively. Caroline's birthplace is shown mistakenly as 'in county', ie in Norfolk, but subsequent censuses give her correct birthplace as variations of Basildon, with her husband still from Norfolk. Also in the household at the time of the 1841 census are three young children, Jeremiah 4, John 2 and George 1, possibly their children, and a Mary Hunt, aged 60 and 'independent'.
I have not yet traced the family in the 1851 census, but by 1861 John and Caroline are on their own at 1 Keeper's House, Knettishall, Norfolk, aged 51 and 46. John is a gamekeeper, Caroline 'gamekeeper's wife'. The couple are still in the same place ten years later. I haven't found Caroline after the 1881 census, and haven't looked for her death record, nor that of her husband. Her son Jeremiah continued his father's occupation as gamekeeper, and is found in Norfolk in the 1861, 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses.
John Windebank was born on 18 September 1816 and christened there on 27 October 1816, according to the IGI. I haven't found him in the 1841 or later censuses so far.
George Windebank was born in Basildon in May 1818 and christened there, according to the IGI, on 3 June 1818. He seems to appear in the 1851 census with his wife Eliza living in Sulham, Berkshire. They do not appear to have any children. George is working as a gamekeeper. Eliza is from Goring in Oxfordshire. The couple's marriage is recorded in the IGI on 22 May 1843 at St Mary's Reading. I haven't found them in the 1861 census or beyond.
William Windebank was born in Basildon on 11 November 1819 and christened there on 9 January 1820. By 1851 he had married Louisa, aged 34, and is visiting his parents with his wife and three children: Jeremiah, 7; Eleanor 6 and Caroline 4. William is described as a gamekeeper, like his brother and brother-in-law. His first two children were born in Pangbourne, Berkshire, not far from Basildon, whilst his youngest child at this time was born in Wolverton, Hampshire. Ten years later it seems that William has taken on the role of publican of the Red Lion Inn after his father's death in 1856, perhaps because he is the eldest son still living. Widowed mother Eleanor, 68, is living with him. The family has expanded to include son William, 6.
Of the older children, 17-year old Jeremiah and 16-year old Eleanor are described as 'out of place', whilst 14-year old Caroline 'assists at home'. A servant, a maid of all work, is also living with them: 16-year old Emily Godwin of Darrington, Hants. Their lodger, John Brooker, is an unmarried 41-year old agricultural labourer from Basildon and may be related to Elizabeth Brooker, wife of William's brother Benjamin. William's mother seems to have died between 1861 and 1871. By the time of the 1871 census, William and his family have moved to Stratefield Mortimer in Berkshire, where William is Innkeeper of the Sun Inn. Daughter Eleanor is still unmarried and at home as is son William. Louisa's birthplace is now shown as Salisbury, Wiltshire, rather than Herefordshire as on previous censuses. Her maiden name was Smith, according to a MyRoots contact, Rona. Louisa has died and Eleanor and William have left home by the 1881 census, where William is found aged 61, continuing as an innkeeper, this time at the Bull Inn, Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire. His older, widowed sister Caroline Riches is acting as his housekeeper. William's son Jeremiah is found in the 1891 census with his wife Mary Ann and children Eleanor, Georgina, William, John and Ann. Mary Ann (Kerrison) was born in around 1844 in Great Snoring, Norfolk, and all the children except William were born in Norfolk. Jeremiah is following in the family footsteps; aged 47 he is described as a Retired Gamekeeper. The older girls (18 and 16) are dressmakers, whilst the younger children are 'scholars'. Mary Ann and Jeremiah married in Walsingham in 1866. A Norfolk pubs website indicates that a Jeremiah Windebank was publican of the Swan at Shipham from 1901 until its closure in 1905. The 1901 census has Jeremiah at the Hall Farm in Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk, still working as a gamekeeper. His wife Mary Ann, son John (also a gamekeeper) and daugher Anne are still at home. Son William is lodging with Jonathan Halls, a Gasman and Carter on the Woodhall Estate at Woodhall, Hilgay, Norfolk, in 1901.