John HARTELL, of Priestfields, Bilston

[Sue Mackay]

I wonder if the forum sleuths can help me with something that has been driving me up the wall. I am attempting to find the pre 1820 background to as many of the 1820 settlers to the Cape of Good Hope as I can, as there is a good deal of misinformation circulating about many of them. I am currently working on John HARTELL, a japanner and varnish maker from Priestfields, near Bilston in Staffordshire. He eventually emigrated with GREATHEAD’s party of settlers, but did apply to take out a party himself, and is mentioned in the correspondence of William CHESHIRE of Birmingham Workhouse at
https://www.eggsa.org/1820-settlers/i...01-02-12-31-01
The various returns seem to give him as aged 54 with wife Mary (40) and children John (13), Emma (9), George (2) and Joseph (¾), although George and Joseph do not appear on the final returns and so may have died in infancy or been left behind for some reason, to be sent for at a later date.

I have found the baptism of both George and Joseph in Bilston St.Leonard on 21 February 1819, sons of John and Mary HARTILL, Priestfields, Bilston, Japanner, so this is definitely the baptism of the younger two children.

The Staffordshire General and Commercial Directory for 1818 lists John HARTELL, Japanner and Varnish Maker, Priestfields, and he would appear to have had a connection to Priestfields as far back as 1789 – see https://discovery.nationalarchives.go...8-719ed7d105f1

The problem is I can find no trace of a baptism for John or Emma, in Bilston or anywhere else, nor can I find a suitable marriage to a Mary that would account for her being the mother of all four children. This led me to suppose that perhaps Mary was a second wife, and I did find banns for a marriage in St.Luke’s, London in October 1819 between John HARTILL widr and Mary OWEN widow. This would have been three months before the ship sailed to the Cape.

I have found what would seem to definitely be a former marriage of John HARTELL in St. Martin, Birmingham on 22 July 1780, between John HARTELL, widower and Elizabeth DOWELL, widow. The licence for this marriage is in FMP’s Staffordshire collection and shows that John was a japanner, and seems to imply that Elizabeth’s father was Samuel MOULD (who was a witness at the wedding). There is a burial in Bilston for an Elizabeth HARTELL in Birmingham St.Martin in 1812 but no proof as to whether this is John’s wife.

I can’t find a suitable first marriage for John, nor a baptism that fits with a second marriage in 1780 where he would be “21 years and upwards” but still young enough to emigrate in 1820. I have discounted a marriage to Mary BROAD in 1769 as that John HARTELL made his mark and the one I am chasing was highly literate.

Going back to the 1819 marriage I found to Mary OWEN, it suddenly occurred to me that John and Emma might have been HER children by her first marriage. I have found a couple of other instances of 1820 settlers emigrating with stepchildren listed as their own.

I then found a baptism for an Emma OWEN, daughter of Thomas and Mary, in Bilston in 1813. I can’t immediately see one for a John to the same parents, and I don’t know if I am just tilting at windmills here, as I seem to have been going round in circles! And of course George and Joseph were born prior to the 1819 marriage (although it wouldn't be the first time a marriage had to wait for the death of a former spouse ) If anyone can see anything glaringly obvious that I’ve missed I would be grateful! I don't want to add an extra data page for this settler until I am reasonably sure of my facts.

[MrsPoppy]

Just a first throw of the dice, the national archives has an insurance document for a property of John Hartell Priest fields etc. I have no idea if these documents at this time give any more information on the person taking out the insurance. Christopher Blackburn also mentioned. dated 1789.

Mrs P

[MrsPoppy]

Sorry - see you put a link to that. I wondered if had any connection to Christopher Blackbourne.

Mrs P

[Peter Goodey]

the national archives has an insurance document for a property of John Hartell Priest fields etc

I think you'll find that the actual records are at the London Metropolitan Archives

https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/thin...ce-records.pdf

PS Sorry. I also failed to spot that Sue already knows about it.

[MrsPoppy]

Yes sorry, my bad english, it is listed in the National Archives Discovery Catalogue.

Mrs P

[geneius]

#1

The various returns seem to give him as aged 54 with wife Mary (40) and children John (13), Emma (9), George (2) and Joseph (¾), although George and Joseph do not appear on the final returns

I can see him in various books as Hartell, John 44. Farmer. w Mary 36. c John 13, Emma 8
Roll of the British settlers in South Africa - Volume 1 - Page 40. This alters some of your research

Greathead's party consistent of John Hartell whose own party which he was to lead fell through , another dropped out, allowing John HARTELL, Mary, John & Emma to join the Kennersley Castle

Hartell is desc as
'substantial yeoman' who was entitled to 'the full benefit and advantages offered by the 'emigration': a grant of land in his own name.

https://www.geni.com/projects/1820-S...-s-Party/12249

[Sue Mackay]

Hi geneius. Thanks for that. I have a copy of Morse Jones' book, and he takes his information from the returns for Greathead's Party, which do list John as 44 and a Farmer. He was a late replacement in this party as shown in a letter written by James GREATHEAD to the Colonial Office on 1 October 1819.

However, John HARTELL was a classic example of a "party hopper". The 1820 settler scheme was a government aided emigration scheme to the Cape and was only open to "parties" of ten or more able bodied men, with or without families. Individual applied in their droves and were all ignored, but I decided to transcribe all their letters of application as they contain such a wealth of genealogical information and descendants might not think to look under applications to emigrate to the Cape as they did not in fact get to emigrate! However, in the process I discovered that many of the actual 1820 settlers originally either applied to lead a party themselves, or were part of a party that was rejected. These determined settlers simply "party hopped" until they found a party whose leader had been accepted. Once accepted, a party leader could replace members if someone dropped out, but the information on the settler returns was frequently wrong. This may just have been because they were added at the last minute, but sometimes settlers tried to match their age to the settler who had dropped out (replacement was supposed to be like for like) and there were a remarkable number of 17 and 13 year old children declared, as over 18s were classed as adults for the deposit and children under 14 paid a lower rate.

John HARTELL wrote a letter to the Colonial Office on the 29th September, just a few days before he seemingly hedged his bets and signed with Greathead, which refers to his application to emigrate with Thomas WARD. On this application he was said to be 48 and his occupation husbandry. Many of the settlers said they were farmers or agriculturalists because they thought that was what the Government wanted. When they got out there and were allocated their 100 acres and the crops failed, most of them reverted to their artisan roots and moved to the towns.

In my first post I referenced the letter written by William CHESHIRE on behalf of the Birmingham Overseers, as this seems to give the most reliable information about John HARTELL. This shows that he was originally a member of Edward GARDNER's Party (a party which was eventually accepted), as was Thomas WARD, and that his age was 56! CHESHIRE's letter of October 9th requests that HARTELL be given his own party to lead, "being himself a substantial yeoman it was suggested to him that he ought not to lose his proper vantage ground but place himself as the head of a party, the more especially as locality and connexion would afford him superior facilities in the selection of suitable persons to accompany him" In the remarks column under the list of HARTELL's proposed settlers is written "John HARTEL: The father of this family & head of the whole party is also a very experienced varnish maker & thinks his selection of gums suitable for that purpose may be advantageously availed of by exporters to the Mother Country." The would be settlers tried every angle they could to be accepted!

I'm very glad you caused me to look again at all the various bits of correspondence as I now see that he attached himself to Greathead on October 1st, eight days before Cheshire forwarded his own application! There is obviously confusion about his age, but he definitely was a varnish maker/japanner. A John HARTELL, japanner, definitely married Elizabeth DOWELL in 1780, aged "twenty one and upwards", having been married before, and was living in Priestfields in 1789. If this was John the settler he surely must have been born before 1760. I have just had a and wonder now if this John HARTELL was John the settler's father!

[Sue Mackay]

A John HARTELL, japanner, definitely married Elizabeth DOWELL in 1780, aged "twenty one and upwards", having been married before, and was living in Priestfields in 1789. If this was John the settler he surely must have been born before 1760. I have just had a and wonder now if this John HARTELL was John the settler's father!

OK, now I've confused myself even more. I have found two apprenticeship documents in the LMA collection.

The first is for September 1781, just after that 1780 marriage, whereby a John HARTELL of Wolverhampton, japanner, was apprenticed to William GRAY

The second is for June 1796, whereby a John HARTELL of Bristfield in the Liberty of Bilston (sounds enough like Priestfield), tin plate worker, was apprenticed to Wm. ADDERLEY

[geneius]

From Staffordshire place names

Priestfields n Bilston

The property here once belonged to the church at Penkridge,
also to the church at Stretton and partly to the Chantry at Bilston. Hence the name.

So what is Priestfields, tenanted property, several homes?

The 1818 Trade Directory was Parsons & Bradshaw

I too found the William Grey apprenticeship dated 1781 registered 1782 and decide your man wouldn't be experienced enough to take on an apprentice!

[MrsPoppy]

I have gone through all the transcripts of baptisms and deaths etc on the black country website and have ended up confused - the variations on the spelling of the surname, Hartell, Hartel, the odd Hartil, Hartile, Hartle don't help either. On the two children's baptism they are very specific about 'from Priest Fields, Japanner' but they stand out as the only two noted like that.

I also found the apprenticeships and couldn't decide if the dates would rule them out or not.

Do you know what property the insurance document referred to and where it was?

Mrs P

Back to the drawing board.