Can you tell me anything about my forebear?
QI am searching for information about my 3x great grandfather Edward Davis.
When he married Matilda Gough in 1843 at St John the Baptist, Bristol, he was a widower of West Harptree “of full age” and worked as a miller. His father, also Edward, worked as a sawyer.
The couple’s son, Alfred Thomas Davis, was christened in June 1844.
By 1851, Edward had died and Matilda had remarried (in 1848), and was back living in Bristol with her mother.
Ben Davis
ANo fewer than 16 Edward Davi(e)s deaths were recorded in Somerset, Bristol and Gloucestershire between 1844 and 1848 when Matilda remarried to William Baynton Wright. These are listed on freebmd.org.uk.
To eliminate unlikely candidates by reason of age from the list, you need to know how old they were when they died. This information is available from the search facility on the General Register Office’s (GRO’s) website https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/ content/, although it is not provided at
ancestry.co.uk, findmypast.co.uk or
thegenealogist.co.uk.
Ten candidates were quickly eliminated because they were too young. A further three were located in the 1841 census aged between 53 and 70 years of age and of very different occupations.
This left three possibilities. The first died in the March quarter of 1845 in Wells aged 26; the second in the March quarter of 1846 in Monmouth aged 24; and the third in the March quarter of 1847 in Bath aged 35.
The Monmouth Edward Davis died some distance from north Somerset or Bristol. The Bath Edward Davis was a gamekeeper who was also present as such in the 1841 census.
This left a single possibility: Edward Davis, who was buried in Glastonbury in the Wells Registration District. This Edward Davis (bachelor, labourer of High Street, the son of Edward Davis, labourer) married Jane Lester (spinster of Old Wells Road, the daughter of William Lester) on 1 February 1838 in Glastonbury. In the 1841 census, they were living with the Lester family at Old Wells Road in Glastonbury and their three-year-old daughter Mary Jane Davis. Jane died the following year, and was buried at St John the Baptist in Glastonbury on 8 July, aged 24.
A year later, a widowed Edward (son of Edward) married Matilda Gough. He was from West Harptree, 15 miles north of Glastonbury. They had a son, Alfred Thomas Davis, who was baptised in West Harptree on 8 July 1844.
Edward (of Old Wells Road) died and was buried at St John the Baptist on 15 January 1845, aged 26.
It would appear that Matilda returned to her family in Bristol because there is a second baptism for Alfred Thomas, son of Edward and Matilda Davis, on 1 June 1845 at Temple Church, Bristol.
It seems likely that Edward died on a visit back to Glastonbury to see his daughter Mary Jane, who was certainly alive at the time since she is recorded with her aunt Rhoda and family in the 1851 census.
With regard to his birth, the burial record suggests that Edward Davis was born around 1818/1819. We know from the 1841 census that he was born in Somerset, and from his marriage certificate that his father was also named Edward. This information provides a single candidate in the Somerset Church of England baptisms on ancestry.co.uk baptised in Walcot, Somerset, on 25 October 1818 to Edward, a labourer, and Jane Davis of Dover Terrace.
Walcot adjoins Bath to the north of the city. Some information that may point to a Bath origin is on the certificate for Edward junior’s second marriage. One of the witnesses is called Louisa Stamp, a rare name found only four times nationally between 1805 and 1825: twice in Surrey, once in Devon and also in Bath. She was baptised at St Michael’s in the city on 11 July 1813, the daughter of John and Sally Stamp of 2 New Bond Street. The father was a porter.
She may well have been a friend of either party. As a next step, it would be a good idea to obtain the death certificate of Edward junior and also the marriage certificate of his son, Alfred Thomas Davis, to see if these provide further supporting evidence. Steve Thomas