Uglow Family History

"ASHWATER, a parish in the hundred of BLACK-TORRINGTON, county of DEVON, 6 miles (S.E. by S.) from Holsworthy, containing 774 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Totness, and diocese of Exeter, rated in the king's books at ｣26. 6. 8. The  Rev. T. Melhuish was patron in 1823. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, contains some interesting monuments. Fairs for cattle are held here on the first Tuesday in May, and the first Monday after the lst of August. Freestone of excellent quality is obtained in the vicinity." [From: A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis, 1831 - quoted by Brian Randall.]

Ashwater is south of Holsworthy

Maps

1. The whole of Devon
2. Here is a  map to get you to Ashwater

Family 1: Richard and Elizabeth Found

On 14th April 1789, after the banns had been read on successive Sundays, the Rev Melhuish married Richard and Elizabeth Found in Ashwater in the presence of Richard Hobbs and Thomas Cann. Richard was described a 'sojourner in this parish' and as a 'widower of Wolborough' and Elizabeth as a 'spinster of this parish'. Elizabeth had been baptised in Ashwater on 2nd February 1766, the 'base-born' daughter of Mary Found.

Richard was my great-great-great-great grandfather. This may be Richard 1757, the son of John and Grace Wells. Frustratiingly there is no baptismal record for Richard, although there were christenings for all his nine siblings. John and Grace produced children every two years like clockwork and, if Richard was born in 1757, he fills the gap between 1755 and 1759. The first son, he was named after his paternal grandfather.

This was a poor family of rural labourers and on 8th October 1770, Richard was apprenticed in husbandry to Thomas Uglow of Marhamchurch when he was just 12 years old. The apprenticeship was to last until he was 24. Parish apprenticeships were means by which children could be apprenticed off to save the cost of parish relief. Thomas himself was an overseer of the poor in Marhamchurch

Richard had grown up in a family which was frequently on the move, with short-term jobs as rural labourers, no doubt turning up at the hiring fairs. When the apprenticeship finished, perhaps when Thomas died in 1778, Richard travelled to Bodmin. What attracted him? In 1779 there was a major construction project, Bodmin Prison - it needed not only 20000 tons of granite but also a large workforce. Rates of pay must have been quite attractive. It was a radical scheme, founded on the principles of John Howard and featuring individual cells.

Richard's brother John (1759-) may have gone with him. They stayed on after the jail was opened as both brothers married in Bodmin. On 29th August 1785, Richard married Mary Smetham (or Smitham). She was the daughter of Christopher and Elizabeth (née Manhenit) from Lanivet, SW of Bodmin, baptised on 12th March 1748. Perhaps Richard was working for them? Both Mary and Ricahrd were recorded as resident in St Lawrence, another hamlet SW of Bodmin.

That autumn, the couple moved to the other side of Dartmoor and to the Devon town of Newton Abbot. We know this because they came back to Marhamchurch (where Richard's mother, Grace, still lived) for the baptism of their twin girls, Susanna and Jemima. The christening was on 15th June 1786 but Susanna (perhaps named after Richard's youngest sister) died and was buried on 18th June. The couple were recorded as resident in Newton Bushell, part of Newton Abbot.

They stayed in Cornwall as they had a son, Thomas Smitham Uglow,who also died in infancy and was buried on 3rd April 1788. They were in the east of Cornwall at North Tamerton at that point. Five months later Mary died at Tremaine.

Richard was not that heartbroken as it was just seven months later that he married Elizabeth Found. The family moved to Denbury, south of Newton Abbot in the mid-1790s as Philip is born there in 1796. Richard is a farm worker and the family would settle in the village for several generations.

• daughter Mary 1790 - fortunately Elizabeth's mother and Richard's first wife were both Marys!

• daughter Elizabeth (1791-1871) married Thomas Cload (1785-1852) in Totnes in 1817. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Cload of Totnes, born in 1785. In 1841, they were living in The Street, Totnes - Thomas was a hair dresser. There were five children, two of whom died young in the 1840s. By 1851, they were in the Ashburton Road, Totnes where their son, Frederick, assisted his father and their daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, were upholsterers. Mary (1820 - ) had a son, Albert (1840-) who was living with the family in 1841 and 1851. He married, moved to Torquay where he was a plumber.
  
  Thomas dies in 1852 but Eliza carried on: in 1861 she was still in the Ashburton Road with her son, Frederick, and another grandson, George (1852- ), the son of Elizabeth. He followed in his mother's footsteps and became an upholsterer (Elizabeth was living with him in 1891) but later became a lodging house keeper in Teignmouth.
  
  In 1871, she was living there with her two unmarried daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, still upholstering. Eliza died in 1871 in Totnes.
  
  
• son Philip 1796 - my great-great-great grandfather was born in Denbury.


• son Richard (1799-1803) was buried on 7th September 1803 at St Mary's, Wolborough but no parents were recorded.

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