Hard to read - an Essex placename help request

[Norman]

Elizabeth Spooner (nee Murkin) was my 3x Great Grandmother. She was born about 1787 in Essex, but whereabouts?

Is there some kind person who knows Essex well who would take a look at the 1861 Census and try to decipher her birth-place?

The transcriber for Ancestry has her place of birth as "Henlans" but that cannot be a correct reading as there is no such place in Essex as far as I am aware.

The reference is RG9/153, Folio 109, Page 7.
The Head of House is her son, William Charles Spooner.

Thanks for any help.

[Linda]

Hi Norman

Piece number RG9/153 is not in Essex. Was it a typing error or was the Spooner family living in another county?

Linda

[Linda]

I wonder if the place is Henham (or Henham-on-the-Hill)?

According to the 1862 Post Office directory it is 6 miles north-east of Bishop Stortford

Linda

[Ken Boyce]

The quality of the image on my CD of RG9/153 Folio 109 is poor and combined with poor and fuzzy script makes Elizabeth's birthplace almost impossibe to decipher

I think it is along the lines of

H E (WNorX?) H A M

Going to the 1851 PO Directory for Essex and eyeballing the fifteen or so place names beginning with H gives me a short list of

Harlow
Harwich
Haverhill
Havering
Hawkwell
Henham
Henny
Heydon
Hutton

I believe the best fit is HENHAM

Regards

[Norman]

I'm having some problem maintaining logged in status so as a newcomer to posting on this Forum I hope this works.

Thanks to Linda and to Ken for your advice. Looking at the census image, I am convinced that Henham is the correct reading. However, a visit to the Henham village website offers no supporting evidence nor does IGI.

However, also in the 1861 census, at South Weald, viewed on the Ancestry website, there is a William Muskin. Closer inspection of the image online looks much likely to be Murkin than Muskin - a transcriber's error. This William Murkin was born about 1790. My 3x Great Grandmother Elizabeth Murkin had a brother William born in 1789 (evidence from a family sampler). And the birthplace of William Murkin (transcribed Muskin) is clearly Henham.

Incidentally - should anyone else interested in Essex Murkin's chance upon this posting, I note that the name (in this spelling) is rare in Essex but very much more common a little further north in Suffolk. I wonder if this lends any weight to the family story that the Murkins were of Dutch descent?

Thanks again Linda and Ken

[Andrew Mead]

Don't forget 'born about' on Ancestry is calculated by subtracting the age on the census sheet from the census year. This will nearly always be wrong! If someone was given as age 30 in 1861, then there is a 3 in 4 chance they were born in 1830, and a 1 in 4 chance they were born in 1831, as the census took place almost exactly a quarter of the way in to the year, at the end of March, beginnng of April.