barbara lee
23-06-2010, 3:58 PM
Here's a puzzler – I am trying to connect a marriage in Reading in 1800 to a family with four children living in Sheet, Hampshire between 1801 and 1814, and keeping a small inn or pub. Sheet is a hamlet within Petersfield parish.
My ancestor was one of those children, and it is his father, John Nash, I am stuck with, because both he and his wife were incomers to Petersfield and I don’t know where they came from. I am trying to track down all the marriages of John Nashes to Elizabeths in Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex in around 1800, and a prime candidate couple were married in Reading - John NAISH to Elizabeth WHITE, Reading St Giles, 2 Jun 1800.
How can I tell whether the Reading couple were the innkeeper parents of the children baptised in Petersfield Hampshire? It would help if I could find out what John Naish of Reading St Giles did for a living. If he was a publican, or even an inn servant / barman, it would help to identify him as the same man who later lived in Sheet. The inn John and Elizabeth kept may have been the Half Moon, owned by the brewer Edward Patrick, so I would be interested in the names Naish, Nash, White and the brewer Edward Patrick, and whether any of them could be shown to have innkeeping connections in Reading. Are there any old books about the inns of Reading, their landlords and tenants, in the early 19th century?
Here is some further detail. There were four children born to John Nash and Elizabeth in Petersfield, the first being Mary, born 13th Nov 1801 and baptised 20 Dec 1801. John Nash and Elizabeth were not married in Petersfield and John Nash was not baptised there. At the baptism of the fourth and last child, John Nash was called a publican, and two of his sons called their father victualler or publican on their marriage certificates. It looks like the four children born in Petersfield were the only ones - there are no later marriages in the parish of possible earlier children.
John the victualler was buried in Petersfield on 29th August 1815, said to have been 39 so was probably born about 1776. He was never on a census to give a place of birth. His widow re-married (before 1837) and appears on the 1841 census aged 65 (65-69), not born in Hampshire. She didn’t survive to the 1851 census. She died in 1843 said to have been 70, so she was probably born about 1773.
The Reading marriage looks good on various counts. The bride and groom would both be in their early 20s and it was eighteen months before the birth of the first child in Petersfield. I have had the registers of Reading St Giles looked up, and the searcher said there were no children born to the couple in that parish or in St Laurence. There are no burials of likely John or Elizabeth Naish in either parish. So it is possible they upped sticks to Sheet / Petersfield straight after the wedding. There was an Elizabeth WHITE baptised in Reading St Giles on June 11th 1776, the daughter of Richard and Hannah WHITE. She matches the marriage and the woman in Sheet / Petersfield fairly well.
I would love to claim this couple as my ancestor's parents, but there is no definite evidence. My imagination says John Naish or Nash was an ambitious barman or inn servant in Reading, and was offered the tenancy of a small place in Sheet. He married Elizabeth White, who may have been a barmaid or from an innkeeping family, and they moved to Sheet and had their four children. It’s plausible, but no more than that.
Any ideas about how I can confirm (or eliminate) the connection?
Barbara
My ancestor was one of those children, and it is his father, John Nash, I am stuck with, because both he and his wife were incomers to Petersfield and I don’t know where they came from. I am trying to track down all the marriages of John Nashes to Elizabeths in Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex in around 1800, and a prime candidate couple were married in Reading - John NAISH to Elizabeth WHITE, Reading St Giles, 2 Jun 1800.
How can I tell whether the Reading couple were the innkeeper parents of the children baptised in Petersfield Hampshire? It would help if I could find out what John Naish of Reading St Giles did for a living. If he was a publican, or even an inn servant / barman, it would help to identify him as the same man who later lived in Sheet. The inn John and Elizabeth kept may have been the Half Moon, owned by the brewer Edward Patrick, so I would be interested in the names Naish, Nash, White and the brewer Edward Patrick, and whether any of them could be shown to have innkeeping connections in Reading. Are there any old books about the inns of Reading, their landlords and tenants, in the early 19th century?
Here is some further detail. There were four children born to John Nash and Elizabeth in Petersfield, the first being Mary, born 13th Nov 1801 and baptised 20 Dec 1801. John Nash and Elizabeth were not married in Petersfield and John Nash was not baptised there. At the baptism of the fourth and last child, John Nash was called a publican, and two of his sons called their father victualler or publican on their marriage certificates. It looks like the four children born in Petersfield were the only ones - there are no later marriages in the parish of possible earlier children.
John the victualler was buried in Petersfield on 29th August 1815, said to have been 39 so was probably born about 1776. He was never on a census to give a place of birth. His widow re-married (before 1837) and appears on the 1841 census aged 65 (65-69), not born in Hampshire. She didn’t survive to the 1851 census. She died in 1843 said to have been 70, so she was probably born about 1773.
The Reading marriage looks good on various counts. The bride and groom would both be in their early 20s and it was eighteen months before the birth of the first child in Petersfield. I have had the registers of Reading St Giles looked up, and the searcher said there were no children born to the couple in that parish or in St Laurence. There are no burials of likely John or Elizabeth Naish in either parish. So it is possible they upped sticks to Sheet / Petersfield straight after the wedding. There was an Elizabeth WHITE baptised in Reading St Giles on June 11th 1776, the daughter of Richard and Hannah WHITE. She matches the marriage and the woman in Sheet / Petersfield fairly well.
I would love to claim this couple as my ancestor's parents, but there is no definite evidence. My imagination says John Naish or Nash was an ambitious barman or inn servant in Reading, and was offered the tenancy of a small place in Sheet. He married Elizabeth White, who may have been a barmaid or from an innkeeping family, and they moved to Sheet and had their four children. It’s plausible, but no more than that.
Any ideas about how I can confirm (or eliminate) the connection?
Barbara