![]() I looked at the point where friends Jeremy's and Ian's families converged, and that still amazes me, that they are cousins and would never have known but for me, and they wish they so did not know. And it's amazing how intellectual and refined some of Ian's ancestors were, in comparison to his present poverty and own non pursuit of higher education. From Cambridge educated to trouble maker at a comprehensive. This merging of Jeremy and Ian's family histories is all in the area around Pluckley, which I loved to visit not so long back and would like to visit again, as that is where I too have ancestors. So, I'm still in the compulsive world of genealogy research. Jeremy's family have a story about one ancestress having been a gypsy baby who was sold on the door step. She was dark so it made sense. But, I'm not sure. The spacing of the children's births in that family she well fitted into. So I have another possible angle, that really there was already darker ancestry in that family which they wished to distance themselves from, but those darker genes had come back up in her, for which the story had been created. I began looking into this family, the Washford's, from which she came. Humble railway workers, living in a railway cottage... Researching more Jeremy's genealogy, looking at his Washford line and those other families marrying into them, they being a big Wesleyan bunch centered around Shadoxhurst village. A few Jeremiahs were in there, this being what I sometimes like to call Jeremy. One of the Jeremiah's, who was Jeremy's many times great uncles, was victim to a highway hold-up, robbed at gunpoint, for which his assailants were hung. It had been a violent attack, in which he'd been shot many times in the mouth by a group of men known as the Tenterden Gang who had been terrorising the area. As they met their fate, hanging from the gallows, local women who had tumours came to touch their hands, the belief of old being this would cure their ailment. And another find of interest, those Washford's were friends of a clergyman writer, Richard Harris Barham, who published a book of passed down old Kent stories, the Ingoldsby Legends, at one time widely popular in Britain. One of the stories was inspired by an ancestor of the Washford's, Joseph Washford, who was a humble good fellow, a gardener of Appeldore, close to Shadoxhurst, who gardened for a lawyer Jerry Jarvis. To cover Joseph's bald head Jerry gave him a wig which he no longer had use of. But the wig was evil and transformed Joseph into a baddy, first with him lying, then stealing, and ultimately murdering, his victim being none other than Jerry Jarvis, and for this he was hung. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees.
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![]() I have been looking up more interesting newspaper articles, this time for my older children's paternal half of their family, and I have found, as on my own side, another trial for manslaughter of a child. How curious that both their father and I should have this. I did recall his family having once mentioned this story to me, that my ex's father John's family were part of a cult called the Peculiar People and one ancestor had been imprisoned in following one of the tenets not to give medical aid to the children, but to trust in God only in such matters. One daughter of the family, having already just died from diphtheria, so then did a young son. All medical advice and concern regarding the boy had been ignored, for which a small prison sentence was in order. And again this was, like my own families situation, a case which interested the whole of Britain, different circumstances, but a similar story all the same. The imprisoned father of these perished children was called Thomas John Whale, a grandfather to my ex's paternal grandmother. I looked more into my ex's ancestral manslaughter charge, laptop before me. I could even see something of my ex in this man, a family trait. Contradictions, the denials of something formerly said, one moment pursuing strategy, another time self sabotaging. Mr Whale presented to the judge that he had flexibility, adapting his beliefs for better effect, but then on being pressed stubbornly contradicted all that, upholding his conscience, or as the judge called it, his 'superstitions'. For his faith in God, even though his children died, nothing would change his conviction or determination. He put out certain tactics to confuse, even calling for medical help, though ignoring it when it came, as it was mere strategy. Thomas Whale was a staunch cultist, an extremist. This is a most fascinating bit of genealogical history. I studied more of my children's paternal genealogy, finding more relevant newspaper articles, one being of Thomas John Whale giving an interview about his intense religious faith, with his wife saying a little too. Thomas's wifes father, William Benton, had a rebellious youth, setting a haystack on fire after his employer sacked him. Though only 12 years of age, he got one month in prison and a whipping. Later, he was involved in an attempted highway robbery, during which the victim managed to stab him in both chest and neck. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. |
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