Saturday, 7 June 2025

Daniel Hockley and Sarah Turner

St Mary the Virgin, Great Dunmow, Essex - East end
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © John Salmon - geograph.org.uk/p/1304107

Daniel Hockley (bap. 21 Jan 1760 at St Mary's, Great Dunmow), son of Robert and Mary Hockley, married Sarah Turner on 7 Jun 1786, at St Mary the Virgin, Great Dunmow. Witnesses were James Button and Isabella Bird. We know that Sarah was "of the parish" at the time of the marriage, but don't know when or where she may have been born nor who her parents were.

Daniel and Sarah had one daughter, Sally Hockley bap. 23 Dec 1787, who later married Thomas Staines and, in turn, two of their daughters, Sarah Staines and Ann Staines, later married Henry Wilton, elder brother of Richard Wilton. So, one way or another, I'm related to this Daniel Hockley. 

There is a burial of a Daniel Hockley, aged 56, on 21 May 1817.

And a death of Sarah Hockley, age estimated as 80, who died in 1838 S Quarter in DUNMOW UNION Volume 12 Page 53 and was buried on 14 Jul 1838 at St Mary the Virgin, Little Dunmow, which I'm certain relates.

(This Daniel and Sarah Hockley are also reputed to have been the parents of this Daniel Hockley, but I'm just not buying it. There are no records I can find to substantiate this, and therefore seems (unless anyone can provide evidence to the contrary), merely an assumption based on his name. And it will probably be unpopular to say this, but this Hockley line are firmly of the "middling sort": merchants, artisans and tradesmen, living in the centre of Great Dunmow. The later Daniel Hockley was a Labourer, who arrived in the rural outskirts of Dunmow from Broxted. They're from two very different classes.)

Daniel Hockley's parents, Robert Hockley (b. ~1723) married Mary (b. ~1727). Nobody has found the record of their marriage, so we don't know the date, venue, nor Mary's maiden name, but they brought up several children, all of whom were baptised at St Mary the Virgin, Great Dunmow:

  1. Robert Hockley bap. 20 Apr 1755
  2. Mary Hockley bap. 23 Oct 1757
  3. Daniel Hockley bap. 21 Jan 1760 
  4. Elizabeth Hockley bap. 28 Dec 1763
  5. William Hockley bap. 16 Feb 1766
There's one further child attributed to this couple, Mary Hockley bap. 28 Jan 1770, also in Great Dunmow. Mary would have been 43, so it isn't impossible, but I don't believe anyone would name another child Mary in 1770, when Mary, born in 1757, was still very much alive. The child baptised in 1770 is listed as being the child of Robert and Mary Hockley, but is this really their child? My feeling is that it's far more likely that daughter Mary gave birth to an illegitimate child at 13, with the grandparents baptising the child as their own to bring her up, given the real mother's extremely young age. 

Robert Hockley was buried on 25 Oct 1796, aged 73 (which would suggest a year of birth of 1723). The burial record gives his occupation as Weaver.

Mary Hockley died at 88 and was buried on 1 Jan 1815.

  • Mary Hockley b. 1757 married William Lammas of the Parish of St. Mary Whitechapel at St Mary the Virgin, Great Dunmow on 13 Apr 1779. There are no records to substantiate this, either in Dunmow, or London, but I believe the William Lammas apprenticed to Robert Hockley, Tailor and Draper in 1799 could have been their son.
  • Elizabeth Hockley b. 1763 married John Moss on 9 Apr 1782. They appear to have had a son William Moss bap. 20 Feb 1788.