Thread: Missing ggg-grandparents and 26 years

I am trying to find out what happened to my ggg-grandfather and ggg-grandmother who disappeared from the records after 1810, and where was my gg-grandfather (John Henley) between 1810 and 1836 ?

Relevant facts :
Woburn, Bedfordshire: William Henley maried Ann White 10/12/1805
Woburn, Bedfordshire: John Henley born 16/11/1810 christened 9/12/1810 parents William Henley and Ann Brighton, Sussex: John received into Salem Baptist Chapel on September 5th 1836. Full baptism on October 23rd 1836
Brighton, Sussex: John married Esther Vine 18/4/1838. One witness was unmarried aunt, Lettice White, born in Westminster (christened St Clement Danes, 29/8/1773) but living in Brighton 1838 until her death 1858.
John Henley was a tailor. Marriage certificate states that his father William was an upholsterer.

No trace of William or Ann in records in Woburn or Brighton after 1810. Where did they go?

No information on John Henley between 1810 and 1836. When and why did he move from Woburn to Brighton, and di he live anywhere in the intervening years? Where was he trained as a tailor?

Possibly relevant: perhaps there was a half-brother.
Woburn: William Ralph born 16/4/1811 christened 30/6/1811, parents William Henley and 'Ann' - cannot have been John's mother, but could have been Anne Ralph, born Woburn 1777, died unmarried and buried at St Mary Woburn 3 January 1836 aged 59yrs. No further information on William Ralph - possibly adopted, and renamed?

- Stephen Henley

Hi
There is an entry in the Non-conformist BMD website for a William Henley, buried in 1841. Could this be your man since he was obviously a Baptist?
Familysearch shows him as being buried on 4th May 1841.
They also have an Ann Henley buried in Brighton on 16th April 1837.
Bevj

Hello

Possibly relevant: perhaps there was a half-brother.
Woburn: William Ralph born 16/4/1811 christened 30/6/1811, parents William Henley and 'Ann' - cannot have been John's mother, but could have been Anne Ralph, born Woburn 1777, died unmarried and buried at St Mary Woburn 3 January 1836 aged 59yrs. No further information on William Ralph - possibly adopted, and renamed

I have checked the IGI and found a discrepency in the dates recorded....John HENLEY s/o William HENLEY & Ann WHITE bp 9/12/1809 or 18/12/1810!

William Ralph HENLEY William HENLEY & Ann WHITE bp 20/06/1810 or 20/10/1811 I consider these to be brothers!

YOu need to either approox the Berkshire record office or TNA for copies of the rlevant entries or check out your nearest LDS centre to order & view the original source, Parish Record ( not the Bishops Transcript)


elsabels
You may need to search apprenticeship records / parish records and trade directories in the Local RO, to find where your ancestors were at a given time!

Hi, Bevj - Many thanks for the suggestion. There is a burial in Brighton in 1841, but this William Henley was John Henley's infant son: "buried Hanover burial ground, 4/5/1841 aged 10 weeks" (RG4/3134/165). The Ann Henley buried in 1837 possibly was John's mother. There is the risk of some confusion because there were also other unrelated Henley families in Sussex. John's father William was a nonconformist - but he was a member of the Congregational church in Woburn; the Congregational church records in 1837 list him as 'removed' (does this imply expelled, or simply moved away?).

Hi, Elsabels - many thanks. Perhaps I should have mentioned the discrepancy. However, I checked the Woburn parish records in the Bedfordshire archives and the John 1810/William Ralph 1811 dates are correct. The IGI 1809/1810 dates are the result of a transcription error arising, I think, from an odd layout of the baptism records. So, in summary, the parish record dates are as follows:

John - born 16/11/1810 christened 9/12/1810
William Ralph - born 16/4/1811 christened 30/6/1811
With these dates they cannot have had the same mother.

Another circumstantial reason for interpreting William Ralph as John's half-brother was that this Henley family did not start using middle names until the mid-19th century. I therefore think that 'Ralph' must have been his surname - and this is credible because there was a Ralph family in Woburn with an unmarried daughter Ann of about the right age.

I have also checked the Woburn records for the Henley family as far back as 1733 (pre-1755 written as 'Endley' but definitely the same family), and have been able to tie together almost all the baptisms, marriages, and burials. In fact there was another child recorded for William Henley (even though there were other William Henleys in Woburn, ours is the only realistic candidate): Joseph Henley born 23/12/1799, christened 23/2/1800, mother's name Mary. The only other William Henley in Woburn was born 1750, and in his second marriage, to Sarah Dennis. Our William would have been 18, unmarried, and Anne Ralph's sister Mary was also then unmarried (though probably one of a number of candidates named Mary, for Joseph's mother!).

The Woburn records after 1811 include no mention of burials for either William or Ann. There are indeed other deaths of 'William Henley' and 'Ann Henley' in Woburn but in all cases they can be positively identified as other people of the same name. There is no mention at all, that I have been able to find, of William Ralph (or any alternative spelling), of the right age, in Woburn or anywhere else in England. It's as if the whole family evaporated into thin air apart from John Henley and his aunt Lettice White who turned up in Brighton over 25 years later.

So far have drawn a blank with apprenticeship records and trade directories, but still possible they might turn up something. William Henley as an upholsterer may have worked for Nicholas Morel (interior designer) who did some work for the Duke of Bedford but whose larger commissions included Windsor Castle and the Royal Pavilion, Brighton. Unfortunately this is just supposition and I have no idea where to look for documentary evidence.

Hello, Elaine, and many thanks - that's a possibility which I hadn't thought of, and the age certainly would fit. Of course, if true, this raises other questions - when did he emigrate (before or after his mother's death in 1836); and did his father William Henley go with him? It's probably not so easy finding passenger lists that early, or for that matter any detailed immigration records, but it's something to search for.

A scenario consistent with the facts so far (but otherwise pure supposition) is that in 1811 John's mother Ann took him to London, where Ann's elder sister Lettice was living, while his father William stayed in Woburn with Ann Ralph and second son William Ralph. At some stage Lettice, Ann, and John moved to Brighton, where Ann died in 1837. William Henley and son William Ralph went to America around the same time, after Ann Ralph's death in 1836. A lot more evidence needed to fill out (or contradict) this story!

Hello

1837 list him as 'removed'

Have you checked the removal orders in the Parish, it is likely that a claim for Parish Relief was made and if William was of another Parish, the Parish he was living in may not want ot support him or his family!

If WIlliam and Ann were not married, I am surprised that her surname is not included, I presume you looked at the PArish Register and not the Bishops Transcripts which are an annual copy of the original sourse and were forwarded to the Bishop...he had an idea of what was happening in the Diocese. They are also known as contemporary copies of the PR.

They are supposed to be an exact copy, but as can be seen in this instance the dates have been mistranscribed!

Love your thought process at #6

William was born and bred in Woburn (and for that metter so was Ann Ralph) so I don't think the parish relief question would be relevant. The 'removed' reference was in the Woburn Congregational Church records. I am not at all sure if it means simply that he moved away, or that he was actually 'removed' from church membership (because of his extramarital relationship?). As for the parish register - I used the typed copy available in the Bedfordshire archives. I am fairly sure that this is a copy of the parish register itself (that's what the copy is listed as, in the catalogue) and not the Bishop's Transcripts. Next time I visit Bedford I shall need to ask to see the original handwritten parish register to see if it adds anything. I agree, a little odd that Ann's surname is not included, though as William's surname is there perhaps that was intended to cover both. Another thought, however. There were no formal adoption procedures then. Could it be that William and Ann Henley adopted William Ralph, son of Ann Ralph, before his baptism? That could account for no surname listed for Ann. It would also mean that there wasn't necessarily any blood relationship between William Ralph and John Henley.

A little more to add into the mix. I was sure that I had it somewhere, have now found it - printouts from microfiche of the original handwritten parish records.
(1) Page headed "more baptized 1810"
John, son of Willm & Ann Henley (born) Nov 16th (baptized) Dec 9th
(2) Page headed "baptized in 1811"
William Ralph, son of Willm & Ann Henley (born) April 16th (baptized) June 30th.
This suggests to me that it was most likely an adoption. Would you agree with this interpretation, Elsabels?

Of course this doesn't help much with the main question of what happened to the family between 1811 and 1836.

John's aunt Lettice White was baptized at St Clement Danes, Westminster, in 1773 (the 1851 census entry lists her birthplace as London St Clements) and had a younger sister Ann Maria, baptized 1785, who I think was the Ann White that married William Henley. The Russell archives include a record of Ann White and Catherine Henley both working as housemaids at Woburn Abbey in 1803 at the same pay of £2 7s 3d a quarter. Catherine was William's first cousin. Missing link still to be found - Ann being taken into employment by the Duke of Bedford in London - but I'm confident of finding this: the papers surviving in the Russell archive are very detailed.