Direct ancestry

This page is intended to provide a quick way of finding stories about my direct ancestors on both paternal and maternal lines. The search function, or use of the name tags elsewhere on the site, will bring up stories specifically about them, but also where they may be mentioned in passing in stories about other relatives. Note that my direct Stocking line, for now, has more stories published than other branches, so scroll down for later generations.

As the stories multiply, I hope this will help focus on specific ancestors over time and also highlight where more stories could be told to fill in gaps – I already have a lot more to tell, if only I could find the time! I have given thumbnail sketches for some of those for whom I haven’t published anything yet, but even that is a work in progress.

Follow the links below to jump to specific branches and generations, or simply scroll down to browse.

Paternal grandparents | Paternal great grandparents | Paternal 2xgreat grandparents | Paternal 3xgreat grandparents | Paternal 4xgreat grandparents | Paternal 5xgreat grandparents

Maternal grandparents | Maternal great grandparents | Maternal 2xgreat grandparents | Maternal 3xgreat grandparents | Maternal 4xgreat grandparents | Maternal 5xgreat grandparents

Paternal grandparents

James Aaron and Jessie Ephgrave with dog, Camber Sands, c.1953

James Aaron Stocking (1901-1965): Builder of Lewisham, London

Jessie Ephgrave (1901-1974): Print worker from Hackney, London

Maternal grandparents

Horace and Elizabeth Brown, Essex, c.1948

Horace Brown (1901-1994): Carpenter from Sandy, Bedfordshire

Elizabeth Sarah Fage (1901-2002): Children’s nanny from Sandy, Bedfordshire

Paternal great grandparents

James Aaron Stocking, c.1904
Susan Caroline Stocking, c.1904

James Aaron Stocking (1876-1939): House decorator from Bermondsey, London

Susan Caroline Hill (1875-1951): from Southwark, London

Frederick Ephgrave, 1920s (?)
Phoebe Caroline Ephgrave 1940

Frederick Ephgrave (b. illegitimately Frederick Hipgrave Scrivener) (1872-1923): Dairy engineer from Luton, Bedfordshire

Phoebe Caroline Gibson (1877-1954): from South Hornsey, London

Maternal great grandparents

Charles Brown c.1893
Lavinia Brown c.1893

Charles Brown (1862-1904): Soldier and railway worker from Hertfordshire

Lavinia Seaby (1861-1944): Cook from Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire

William and Alice Fage c.1920s

William John (John William) Fage (1872-1940): Market gardener’s labourer of Sandy, Bedfordshire

Alice Cade (1872-1940): from Gamlingay, Camridgeshire

Paternal great great grandparents

James Thomas and Alice Mary Stocking, c.1890?

James Thomas Stocking (1853-1920): Bricklayer’s labourer from Southwark, London

Alice (Maud) Mary Wales (1857-1907): from Walworth, London

John Hill (c.1836-1891-5?): Labourer from Elsted, Sussex

Elizabeth Sarah Windebank (1849-1911): from Upton-cum-Chalvey, Buckinghamshire

Jesse Ephgrave (1852-1926): Master baker of St Albans, Redbourn and Luton

Harriet Scrivener (1851-1931): Straw hat plaiter from Luton, Bedfordshire

William Joseph James Gibson (1856-1916): Looking glass frame maker from Islington, London

  • No stories published yet. Son and grandson of Northumberland Looking glass frame makers, he followed in his father’s footsteps in north London until his death, aged 60, from heart disease.

Phoebe Virginia Wakefield (1853-195?): Servant from Stepney

  • No stories published yet. Phoebe’s early life included spells in the workhouse due to her mother’s illness and father’s early death. She and her husband had seven children although one died in infancy. She lived a long life into her late 80s, and there is a family rumour that she died in the US, although I’ve found no evidence to prove that yet.

Maternal great great grandparents

Benjamin Brown (c.1813-1890): Agricultural Labourer from Bennington, Hertfordshire

  • No stories published yet. His first wife may have died soon after the birth of their second child; his second wife died young of consumption; their two children died shortly after birth. His third wife was my 2xgreat grandmother. He worked on various farms throughout his life, all in Hertfordshire.

Esther Miles (1835-1907): from a Wesleyan family of Hatfield, Hertfordshire

  • No stories published yet. She was baptised in the Wesleyan faith in St Albans, and raised seven children with her first husband in and around Essendon, Herts. She married for a second time – to a journeyman miller – nearly a decade after being widowed, and moved to Sandy in Bedfordshire.

William Seaby (c.1831-1872): Agricultural Labourer of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire

  • No stories published yet. He grew up in Dry Drayton, next door to the girl who would become his wife. He lived in the village, working as an agricutural labourer, until his early death there from consumption, aged 41.

Emma Badcock (c.1834-1913): Servant of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire

  • No stories published yet. She and her husband had eight children, the first two dying as babies. She was widowed aged 38 and remarried another labourer in her mid-40s. She stayed close to her children all her life, dying in Dry Drayton aged almost 80.

James Fage (1851-1902): Market gardener’s labourer of Sandy, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet. Known as Jem, he and his wife married as teenagers, just before the birth of their first child. He worked in the fields and market gardens of Sandy, but was found drowned in the River Ivel, aged 50; the inquest concluded his death was an accident.

Sarah Willsher (b. illegitimately Sarah Leighton/Layton) (1851-1958): Straw Plaiter and shopkeeper of Sandy, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet. She was born to a single mum but later took her mother’s husband’s surname, and was christened as his daughter some ten years after her birth. She and her husband had 12 children although three died as babies. She worked as a Straw Plaiter and, after her husband died, as a general shopkeeper.

Jonathan Cade (c.1840-1916): Agricultural labourer from Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire

  • No stories published yet. His father died when he was 9 and was already working in the fields aged 11. He continued to work the land in Gamlingay and Sandy until his late 50s, but may have married after his wife’s death, in Essex and may have died in East Ham in 1916, but there is still more research to do to prove the latter two events.

Ann Head (1842-1880): Straw plaiter from Potton, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet. Born in Bedfordshire, she was 15 when her father died in Gamlingay, and her mother remarried. She continued to live there after her marriage and died at the young age of 38, having given birth to five children.

Paternal 3xgreat grandparents

James Stocking (1829-1883): Rope mat maker of Southwark, London

Mary Ann Collins (1828-aft.1881?): from Southwark, London

Aaron Wales (c.1827-1907): Saddler and Harness maker from Burnham Westgate, Norfolk

Catherine Alice Stoney (c.1829-1907): Hat Trimmer from Stoke Newington, London

John Hill (c.1804-1869): Agricultural Labourer of Elsted, Sussex

  • No stories published yet. He worked on the land and lived in the rural village of Elsted all his life. His father and his son were also called John Hill, and he lived next door to his parents after his marriage.

Mary Upfield (b.illegtimately d. of John Briggs) (c.1813-1872): Seamstress from Halnaker, Sussex

  • No stories published yet. I have found a potential baptism which names her as the illegitimate daughter of Mary Upfield by John Briggs, but have found nothing more to prove her parentage. She had at least ten children, and worked as a seamstress in her widowhood.

David Windebank (1827-1903): Smith and farrier from Basildon, Berkshire

  • No stories published yet. He appears to have been apprenticed to a blacksmith (his sister’s husband) in Basildon, married in the Baptist Meeting House in Reading, and worked as a blacksmith & farrier in Buckinghamshire in his 20s. The family appears to have moved permanently to London by the time he was in his early 30s, where he continued to work as a smith & farrier. He died at the Ragged School, Gedling Street Mission, founded by his son-in-law, US Civil War veteran and campaigner, John Davis.

Elizabeth Topper (1826-1908): Servant from Lambeth, London

  • No stories published yet. The daughter of a Bow Street Officer, she spent her early years as a servant in London. I have no idea how she met her husband, but she moved with him to Buckinghamshire but, by her mid-30s she was back in Lambeth where she was born. She and her husband had ten children together. She was in her mid-50s when her father was killed in a railway accident at Brentford Docks. She died in Bermondsey Workhouse in her 80s.

Frederick Ephgrave (1826-1858): Master baker from Wheathampsted, Hertfordshire

  • No stories published yet. He grew up on the family farm (Heron’s/Hearns’ Farm) in Gustard Wood, Wheathampsted. By the time he married in his mid-20s, he was already working as a baker. He was 28 when he and his siblings were executors of his parents’ estate, including the farm. He died in Redbourn, where he was still a baker, of typhoid fever and pneumonia. He was only 31.

Mary Hedges (c.1824-1883): Dress maker of Redbourn, Hertfordshire

  • No stories published yet. Mary was just one year old when her mother died, and she appears to have been brought up by other family members. She worked as a dressmaker in St Albans before her marriage, and had three children before the early death of her husband (another was born two months later). She married another baker in Redbourn a couple of years later and had another son.

William Scrivener (c.1811-1883): Groom from Limbury, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet. I haven’t found any birth/baptism records but he appears to have been born around 1811-1813. He worked on and off as a groom and a labourer in Luton throughout his life. He died at Luton Union Workhouse aged 72.

Hannah Hawkes (1814-1874): Baptist Bonnet Sewer of Luton, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet. Hannah was baptised aged 4 at Luton’s Baptist church although she doesn’t seem to have continued in the non-conformist tradition. She had seven children with her husband, although three died as babies. She was a hat or bonnet sewer in Luton’s straw hat industry, both before and after her marriage.

William Gibson (c.1834-aft.1896): Looking Glass Frame Maker from Tynemouth, Northumberland

  • No stories published yet. Born in Tynemouth, he appears to have moved with his parents and family to London by the time he was about ten years old. He worked as a looking glass frame maker throughout his life, a skilled trade that his son also followed. His father was a joiner and cabinet maker. through his maternal line, he was descended from mariners and whalers. I have yet to confirm when and where he died.

Caroline Holland (c.1832-1906): Servant from Clerkenwell, London

  • No stories published yet. She was the daughter of a watch maker and worked as a servant before her marriage. She had nine children with her husband; the youngest died aged just five years. She died of phthisis aged 64.

Charles Saffary Wakefield (c.1833-1862): Hairdresser from London

  • No stories published yet. His parents were from Norfolk, but moved to London before he was born. Both he and his father worked as hairdressers – not barbers, but horse hair dressers. His middle name derives from his mother’s surname; tracing earlier generations of Saffarys proved very interesting (his mother’s youngest brother founded a large dynasty in New Zealand, having been sent to sea when his impoverished clergyman father died, and I have followed the line back to well-off yeomen in the mid-1600s in Norfolk). Charles died of Phthisis before he was 30.

Phoebe Wade (1833-1911): Dressmaker from Stepney, London

  • No stories published yet. Phoebe’s father Benjamin Parsons Wade was a steamship engineer; the family spent time in France, where some of her siblings were born and remained after marriage. She wasn’t quite 30 when she was widowed, with five young children to care for. She married a widower, a piano maker, in her early 40s and had another daughter. She had worked as a dressmaker between marriages, and continued as a needlewoman, sewing shirts, afterwards.

Maternal 3xgreat grandparents

William Brown (c.1769-1844): Farmer of Bennington, Hertfordshire

  • No stories published yet. With such a common name, I have been unable to prove his parentage. He was a widower when he married Elizabeth Jaggers, but I have yet to find evidence of his first marriage either. His later life as a Farmer of Bennington is fairly well documented and there is probably more to find. He married for a third time aged 72, and died suddenly aged 75, leading to an informative inquest and the proving of his will.

Elizabeth Jaggers (c.1784-1840): of Bennington, Hertfordshire

  • No stories published yet. I know very little about Elizabeth other than that she was the mother of William Brown’s eight children, two of whom died in infancy. She died in Bennington aged 56.

Joseph Miles (c.1794-1861): Labourer and Coal Carter from Stotfold, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.

Mary Savoury (c.1795-1870) (b. illegitimately to Hannah Savoury): from Henlow, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.

Joseph Seaby (c.1806-1857): Agricultural Labourer of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire

  • No stories published yet.

Elizabeth Westnutt (c.1809-1842): of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire

  • No stories published yet.

William Badcock (c.1799-1878): Agricultural Labourer of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire

  • No stories published yet.

Rachel Bishop (1798-1878): from Bourn, Cambridgeshire

  • No stories published yet.

John Fage (c.1822-1862): Agricultural Labourer of Sandy, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.

Elizabeth Cocking (c.1820-1984): of Sandy, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.

[George Willsher/Wiltshire – unproven patnerity of Sarah Leighton/Layton] (c.1827-1879): Agricultural Labourer of Sandy, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.

Mary Ann Layton (c.1828-1901): Straw Plaiter of Sandy, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.

Reuben Cade (c.1816-1850): Labourer of Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire

  • No stories published yet.

Susan(nah) Baines/Banes (c.1818-1857): from Potton, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.

Samuel Head (c.1819-1857): Agricultural Labourer from Potton, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.

Matilda Gilbert (c.1819-1899): from Sutton, Bedfordshire

  • No stories published yet.