Inherited Craziness
A place to share all the nuts found on my family tree

Showing posts with label Rackenford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rackenford. Show all posts

Monday, 14 February 2022

Loveday a girl's name meaning "beloved day"

Rackenford : Village Sign & Road
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Lewis Clarke - geograph.org.uk/p/3011542

Loveday is the Middle English form of the Anglo-Saxon name Léofdæg, derived from the Old English lēof ' "dear, loved"+ dæġ 'day'. Léofdæg was in use before the Conquest of 1066 and managed to survive to good use in the Middle Ages as Loveday and with the alternative pronunciation Lowdy. 

The term "loveday" is also a literal translation of dies amoris, a day of reconciliation on which enemies met to settle disputes and the name was sometimes given to babies who were born on such a day. By the 16th century, the given name was predominantly used in Cornwall and Devon and mostly for girls. Over the course of the 19th century, Loveday was fairly consistent in use, averaging around eight births per year. It declined by the 1930s.

The earliest record I have for a Loveday in the family was Loveday Flew, daughter of Richard and Jane Flew, who was baptised in Rackenford, Devon in 1804. This Loveday, with John Land, were the parents of James Land, who, with Rose Anna Beamer, named their daughter Loveday Jane Land (b. 1864).

Loveday Jane Land, along with her husband (my great-grand uncle), Frederick James Stone, named their third daughter Loveday Jane Stone (b. 1884). 

And in turn, Loveday Jane Stone, with her husband, James Shopland, named their only daughter, Loveday Jane Shopland, who was born on 14 Feb 1907

The name has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but that was a happy accident.

Loveday Jane Shopland married Leonard Southcott. Their daughter, Loveday Jane Southcott was born in 1930, probably one of the only ones by then.

Sunday, 18 July 2021

Stanley William Stone and Eveline Ann Skinner

Terraced houses, South Molton
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Derek Harper - geograph.org.uk/p/4679011

Stanley William Stone (b. 7 Jan 1903), the tenth and penultimate child of Frederick James Stone and Loveday Jane Land, is listed on the 1939 Register, by which time he had already been widowed. Living with him at that time, at Foxdon Cottage, South Molton, were an Emily A Crook (b. 1894) - Stanley's elder brother, Frederick James Stone, was married to a Jessie Ann Crook, so family perhaps? - and son, Leslie Walter Stone (b. 17 Mar 1928). On the birth registration for Leslie, the mother's maiden name was listed as Skinner. 

However, there was no record of a marriage of a Stone and a Skinner. 

Eventually, I found Stanley W Stone's marriage to Evelyn A Robjohns, in South Molton, in the first quarter of 1926. Born Eveline Ann Skinner in 1896, she was the daughter of James Henry Skinner and Sarah Jane Cockram and, in 1901, had lived with her family at Backston Cottage, Rackenford and 1911 in East Anstey. Evelyn A Skinner had married George Henry Robjohns (b. 1897), in Tiverton, in 1920, however, he had died in 1925, aged only 28. (The couple had a son, George Henry Robjohns, b. 10 Oct 1920, who died, in Tiverton, in 2003.)

Then Evelyn A Stone died in 1935, aged just 38.

Stanley William Stone died in 1947, aged only 44.

Leslie Walter Stone married in 1949 and died, on 10 Apr 2008, in Sidmouth.

Saturday, 17 July 2021

Ernest John Hill and Irene Venetta Stone

North Devon : Grassy Field & Cattle near Rackenford
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Lewis Clarke - geograph.org.uk/p/3997996

Irene Venetta Stone, the ninth child of Frederick James Stone and Loveday Jane Land, married Ernest John Hill, in Tiverton, in Q2 1919. Ernest, born 16 Nov 1882, will have been 36 and Irene 19. The couple's first child, John Hill, was born on 18 Oct 1919. Five more followed between then and 1931. 

The records for four of the children are still closed on the 1939 Register, so they may still be living. In 1939, the entire family was living at East Wilson Farm, Rackenford (PDF) with Ernest J Hill engaged in Mixed Farming. 

Ernest J Hill of East Wilson Farm, Rackenford, died, aged 61, on 9 Dec 1943 and in 1944, Probate was granted to his widow, Irene Venetta Hill, to whom he left effects valued at £1723 10s 3d (worth £78,376.29 today). 

In the second quarter of 1944, daughter Mary A C Hill (b. 8 Mar 1926) married William Coles and in the fourth quarter of 1945, Irene V Hill remarried to William C Coles. In 1939, there had been a William Coles (b. 8 Mar 1917) living with his widowed father, William C Coles (b. 8 Oct 1878) at 11 Bolham Halt, Chettiscombe, so it seems mother and daughter married father and son.

William C Coles died, aged 84, in Tiverton, in 1959.

Irene Venetta Coles died in 1980, in her 80th year.

Sunday, 28 February 2021

Thomas Middleton

East Anstey: Woodland by the entrance to Higher Radnidge Farm and Radnidge House.
cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Martin Bodman - geograph.org.uk/p/245346

Thomas Middleton (bap. 25 Jul 1841), was the youngest child of Robert Middleton and Elizabeth Baker, and younger brother of Jane Middleton

In 1861, Thomas Middleton (19) was employed as a House Servant in the household of James Perryman at Higher Radnidge Farm, East Anstey

A Thomas Middleton married Harriett Collard on 7 Sep 1862 in Rackenford (would need certificate to prove), but can find no further record of them.

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