Winder History - A Crossroads, Part II

With a still limited, but somewhat enhanced factual base, it's time to consider/speculate about the major uncertainties of Winder family history during the 1850's and early 1860's.  There is evidence which suggests that by the mid 1850's, Mary Ricketts had left home and was no longer on good terms with her father, Samuel.  Samuel's 1854 marriage to a woman six years his senior after both had been widowed for a number years may have been due to love or at least mutual attraction, but it was not uncommon for poor people in 19th century Britain and America to remarry simply to maintain their households.  Mary's leaving home for whatever reason could have been part of Samuel's motivation for the second marriage.   Whether this is accurate or not, Mary's giving birth to two children some place other than her father's home (especially having one in the workhouse) seems to speak volumes about their relationship or lack thereof.  Finally Samuel himself died in the very same workhouse in April of 1879 at a time when William and Mary very likely could have afforded to take him into their own home in Worcester.

Marriage Certificate of Samuel Ricketts and Ann Wilcox

Whether a family split was attributable to Mary's two illegitimate children is impossible to say, but it brings us to the main question of the father of the two boys.  There are, of course, limited possibilities; William was the father of both James and Arthur, the father of only Arthur or was not the father of either boy.  Another possibility is that William was James' father, but no Arthur's, but that seems to fly in the face of common sense.  The simplest and, therefore, the most likely answer is that William was not the father of either child.  Under this scenario, Mary has two children with a man or men, she couldn't/wouldn't marry, moves to Worcester after leaving the Martley workhouse and meets William, who she then marries.  This would also explain the nine month gap between William's discharge (which meant he was free to marry) and their July, 1862 marriage.

Birth Certificate of James Ricketts (Winder)

While this may be the most likely explanation, it's not a big reach to believe William was Arthur's father.  Arthur was conceived some time in the second quarter of 1860 and William was in Worcester on recruiting duty for all of 1860.  William and Mary could easily have met then and conceived a child, with Mary having no alternative to the workhouse when Williams was recalled to his regiment in Ireland about the time Mary was due to give birth.  We need to bear in mind that army privates like William couldn't marry without permission which was reportedly given less than 10% of the time.  The workhouse has a justifiably bad reputation, but the experience varied from place with some being more than satisfactory.  It's not impossible that the best temporary alternative for Mary and her two small children was to live in the workhouse for part of the eight months William was in Ireland.  This does not, of course, explain the nine month gap between the subsequent discharge and marriage.

Birth Certificate of Arthur Henry Ricketts (Winder)

The most difficult possibility to prove is that William was also James' father and that William and Mary somehow managed without marrying until William had earned his discharge and, more importantly, his pension.  The greatest obstacle is to explain how William and Mary were in the same place in the second quarter of 1856 as they appear to have been over 120 miles apart.  Victorians traveled more than we might think, but there is simply no information about either of them other than the military records and Mary's being in Astley in January of 1857.

Summary of William Winder's service record for the first half of 1856

There is, however, evidence that something out of the ordinary was going on William's life.  First, of all, he spent most of the period from December 1858 to February 1859 on furlough which was most typically granted to deal with family problems or issues.  Then from June of 1859 to December of 1860, William was on recruiting duty in Worcester.  That wouldn't be so unusual except that William was in the Staffordshire regiment which would normally have recruited in that county, not Worcestershire, the home base of William's old regiment, the 29th.  All of this suggests special reasons to be in Worcester.  Finally, although it's a generalization, pre-marital sex was not uncommon for Victorians, but sexual promiscuity was not.  Based on how Mary lived the second half of her life, having two children out of wedlock without marrying seems out character.

Summary of William Winder's service record for 1859-60

The major question for us as James R Winder's descendants is whether William was his biological father.  No matter what, William was clearly James' de facto father from age five on, so William's story is our story as well.  The issue is really whether William's ancestors (who remain unidentified) are our ancestors as well or is the male line unknown and unknowable so many years later.  Logically it seems unlikely William was the biological father, but emotionally I'm not so sure.  All of that 1858-60 activity seems too much of a co-incidence and the almost 30 years of the Winders married years seems like a carry over from what came before.  We need, I think, to continue the story and everyone can draw their own conclusions.

Winder History - A Crossroads, Part I

We now arrive at an important point in Winder family history where the facts are limited, but possibilities are not.  Included among the facts are some things I just recently learned.  For a number of reasons, I think the best approach is to lay out the facts in this post and then speculate in the next one.  Hopefully that will get all the information out so everyone can draw their own conclusions.

1851 Census Listing for Samuel Ricketts, daughter, Mary and son, James

Samuel is sixth entry from the top of the page 

On census day in April of 1851, Mary Ricketts, age 16, was living in Arley Kings, with her father, Samuel, still a widower, and her younger brother, James, aged 11.  No occupation is listed for Mary, while James is listed as a "scholar," that is attending school of some kind.  The next documented fact is over three years later on November 4, 1854 when Samuel married Ann Wilcox, a widow, six years older than himself.  Both husband and wife were laborers, living in Arley Kings and both made a mark rather than sign their names.  Ann Wilcox was a long time resident of Arley Kings and a widow since at least early 1851.

No record survives as to where Mary was living at the time of the marriage or at any point after the 1851 census.  The next time Mary appears on the public record is upon the birth of her son, James Ricketts (Winder), who was born on January 3, 1857.  Interestingly James was born in Astley (neighboring village to Arley Kings) which is also listed as Mary's residence, fairly strong evidence she was no longer living with her father.  Of course, the father of greater interest at this point is the father of baby James, who was conceived some time in the second quarter of 1856.  According to British military records, William Winder was in Aldershot, some 125 miles from Astley from January 1 to June 30, 1856.

Arthur Henry Ricketts Birth Certificate 

To date no information about Mary and James whereabouts has been found for the next four years.  Very recently, however, I learned that on January 11, 1861, Mary Ricketts gave birth to a second child, another son, Arthur Henry Ricketts.  The child was born in the Union Workhouse in Martley, Worcestershire, 6 1/2 miles from Astley.  The Martley Workhouse was the place of last resort for the poor, sick and elderly for a regional area including Astley so it would have been the logical place for Mary, if she had no where else to go to give birth.

1861 Census for Martley Workhouse - while it's hard to see Mary Ricketts (MR) is the seventh person up from the bottom with sons, James (JR) and Arthur Henry (AHR) right below her

The discovery of the workhouse birth helped resolve a long standing mystery - where Mary and James were on the day of the 1861 census.  To date I had had no success in finding them anywhere, but if Arthur was born in the workhouse on January 11, 1861, there was a reasonable chance they were still there on census day in April.  It turns out the census pages for the Martley Workhouse list only initials, not full names, which explains why a search for either Mary or James didn't find anything.  This made identification in the workhouse census difficult, but when I found MR (aged 24, born in Astley), JR (aged 4, born in Astley) and AHR (three months, born in Martley), it was pretty clear they were our ancestors.  The census lists Mary as a laundress and James as a scholar, although what kind of education he got in the workhouse remains to be seen.

William Winder and Mary Ricketts 1862 marriage certificate 

The final piece of documented evidence (also recently found) is that William Winder and Mary Ricketts were  married on July 3, 1862 at the Angel Street Congregational Chapel in Worcester, a leading non-conformist chapel in Worcester.  Both are listed as living on Hounds Lane in the parish of St. Andrew in Worcester, but no street numbers are provided so it is impossible to know if they were already living together.  William is listed as a pensioner of the 80th regiment while Mary's occupation is charwoman.  As usual William made his mark, but Mary signed her name.  From that point on William became James and Arthur's father-in-fact, but was he the biological father of either or both boys?  Speculations  and conjecture in the next post.

Introducing Mary Ricketts

In January of 1835, when  the teenage William Winder was probably working somewhere in Gloucestershire, Mary Ricketts was born in a small village in Worcestershire, north of  the city of Worcester.  Since 1835 pre-dates mandatory civil registration of births, we don't know the exact birth date, but Mary was baptized on January 18, 1835 at St. Peter's Church in Astley.  It's also not clear whether Mary was born in Astley or the neighboring village of Arley Kings where the family was living in 1841.  It appears that her father's family was in Astley in 1835 and it's certainly possible Mary was born there.

Interior of St. Peter's Church, Astley - Mary Ricketts and James Ricketts (Winder) were baptized here.  Carol and I attended a Sunday service at the church during our visit in 2000

Mary was the daughter of Samuel and Mary Ricketts.  Of Mary's mother, we know almost nothing.  No marriage record has been found in local church registers so her maiden name is unknown.  Samuel appears to be the son of Samuel and another Mary Ricketts, born in November of 1809 in the nearby village of Ribbesford.  By 1841 Samuel's father had apparently died, but his mother and some adult children were living in Astley.

Map showing both Arley Kings (center of picture) and Astley (southwest of Arley Kings).  The city of Worcester would be below the bottom of this picture.

According to the 1841 census, Mary, then six, had an eight year old sister named Sarah and a third child, James was born later in 1841 (after the census day).  Samuel was an agricultural laborer and the family couldn't have had an easy life.  Tragedy hit the family in 1849 when Sarah died at age 16, followed less than a month later by mother Mary who was only 40.  Mary, who was only 14 when her mother died, most likely had to take over her mother's responsibilities.  Interestingly on the 1851 census, Mary's brother, James is listed as a scholar and, unlike William Winder, Mary was able to sign her marriage certificate, so although poor, the Ricketts children enjoyed some education.

1841 Census showing Ricketts family (first four lines)

In writing about William Winder's early life, I spent some time on the hard lot of the agricultural laborer, but it's worthwhile to return to the subject to get a sense of the woman's experience in a Victorian agricultural family.  At an average of 11 shillings per week in the 1850's, agricultural laborers were the lowest paid workers in England.  The only exception to this were skilled workers who could actually bargain with farmers for pay rates at annual hiring fairs.  Agreements negotiated at these events were for a full year, while everyone else was hired on a daily basis and paid only for days actually worked.   Weather probably limited days worked during the winter, but at harvest time, everyone, including women and children, worked long days regardless of the weather.  It's safe to guess that Mary worked in the fields at harvest time, helping out in the race against time and weather.

Burial entry for Mary Ricketts (Mary Ricketts's mother) in the parish register of St. Bartholomew's Church, Arley Kings (third from top)

In addition to helping with the harvest, Mary may very well have been called on for other farm tasks, like hoeing, weeding and removing stones.  Women also took care of cows and poultry which could include milking and making butter and cheese which was hard physical work requiring strong arms.  Women worked in long dresses with an apron and cap, for outside work in the summer, a bonnet was added.  The effects of wind and rain were offset to some degree by sacking tied around the waist or across the shoulders.

Female Agricultural Laborers 

To the extent she did agricultural labor, Mary had the advantage of youth, but like other women of the time, she probably suffered from a diet inferior to that of men like her father, who as the primary wage earner, needed the "best" food which was already limited in amount and quality.  Described as "stodgy, monotonous and nutritionally deficient," staples consisted of bread, cheese, potatoes and porridge with little or no meat.  Supposedly old men looking back on childhoods in the 1830's and 1840's remembered feeling "hungry almost all the time," so we can image how women must have felt.

Workers Cottages 

As the "lady" of the house from 1849 through possibly the end of 1854, Mary presumably had the job of cooking what food there was in less than ideal conditions.  Agricultural laborers typically lived in cottages which were too damp, too small and in poor repair.  The downstairs was usually nothing more than one room with a fire place, but no oven so Mary did all the cooking in a pot over the fire.  Typically the cottage had no well, in which case, Mary went to the nearest farm or the village which was additional strenuous work.

Marriage Certificate of Samuel Ricketts and Ann Wilcox 

Assuming Mary had indeed taken on the lead female responsibilities, it's hard to know the impact on her when her father married Ann Wilcox in 1854.  We don't know, for sure, if Mary was still living at home, her father's marriage may have been partially caused by Mary having moved out.  If she was still there, however,  Ann Wilcox's arrival should have at least lightened the workload.  At the same time, it could very well have been a difficult adjustment for a young woman almost at adulthood and used to a certainly level of authority.  No matter what really happened, big changes took place beginning no later than 1856.

The Soldier's Return

After Goojerat, William Winder spent another five years in India with the 29th, but, as far as we know, he was never in combat again.  For the rest of 1849, the regiment remained in the Punjab at Wazirabad, probably to help discourage any Sikhs with second thoughts about accepting British rule.  After that came two years at Meerut, during which time, William spent three months in the hospital.  Then beginning in 1852, the regiment gradually moved eastward, basically retracing William's journey when he first joined the 29th.

Wazirabad, Punjab

For the first quarter of 1852, the 29th was at Cawnpore before moving to Dinapore (one of William's first stations in India) where it remained through the end of 1853.  As 1854 began William was once again on the move, but this time he was not with the regiment.  William was now in transit to Calcutta, his point of arrival in 1840, for the long ocean voyage to England.  On March 9, 1854, William Winder left India forever, and began a return journey the majority of his peers never made.

Cawnpore, India 

The exact date of William's arrival in England is unknown, but he was granted his "free discharge" (free meaning William was not entitled to a pension) on July 20, 1854, indicating the voyage probably took about four months.  All told William had served almost 15 years in the army, close to 14 of which had been in India.  Why William left India and the army is a mystery as his 1854 discharge papers have not survived.   Perhaps it was because of his health as indicated by his numerous hospital stays, although illness was the common experience of British soldiers in India.  Maybe he simply had had enough of both India and the army and wanted to come home.

Assuming it was fully William's choice, it wasn't the most prudent financial decision since he was about six years short of earning a pension which, as we shall see, was of no small importance.  Most likely William was discharged at the depot in Chatham where he began his military service, leaving the barracks in a cheap suit of civilian clothing, a final "gift" from the government.   Where William went after that is also unknown although it is probably reasonable to believe he returned to Horsley at least briefly.  Coming back after almost 15 years of little or no contact with anyone in Horsley and then just showing up one day without prior warning made for a different kind of reunion than subsequent generations experienced on return from military service.  Another British soldier after a lengthy tenure in India, met his father in the local pub, bought him several rounds of drinks, but wasn't recognized until he said, "Well then father, so you do not know me."

Badge of the 80th Regiment (Staffordshire Volunteers)

Information about William's family is so limited, it is impossible even to speculate about what family members he would have found in Horsley, assuming he actually went there.  Certainly the local economy hadn't improved and may have been worse.  One thing is for sure, whatever William did between July 20, 1854 and May 19, 1855, he didn't find it more attractive than military service.  On the latter date, in Portsmouth, William re-enlisted in the army, this time in the 80th regiment (Staffordshire), receiving in the process a bounty or bonus of 8 pounds (about six months pay).

Portsmouth Harbor

The following year, the 80th was off to South Africa and then to India to help put down the Sepoy Rebellion, but William stayed behind in England.  While it is speculative, an India veteran staying behind with, as we shall see, some unusual assignments suggests he may have re-enlisted under some special terms or conditions (official or unofficial).  The mid 1850's was a period when the British army was badly in need of men because of the Crimean War and the Sepoy Rebellion so it's not impossible the authorities were willing to make special arrangements for a veteran soldier with a good record and, perhaps, health problems.  Using someone like William for depot duty in England could conceivably free up other soldiers for duty overseas.

Aldershot, England 

However it happened, William remained in Portsmouth until the end of 1855 when he moved to Aldershot where new permanent barracks had just been built.  According to muster records, William was there through June 30 of 1856, the crucial period in Winder family history when James Ricketts (Winder) was conceived.  While William's role, if any, is unclear, there is no doubt of the identity of James' mother so we now need to turn our attention to a young woman from Worcestershire, named Mary Ricketts