mowsehowse on Family Tree Circles

I began to research the Rowse family tree in 1994 and was delighted to unravel a history back to 1778 deeply involved in sea fishing out of Brixham in South Devon. Known locally as ?the Mother of all fisheries?, I discovered sons from Brixham re-locating to other prominent fishing ports around the UK, such as Hull in East Yorkshire, Ramsgate in Kent and Tenby in South Wales.

However with the birth of Edward Langman Rowse in 1778 at Totnes I hit the proverbial brick wall. I have examined the surviving Parish Overseers Registers and the child was brought up at the expense of the Parish, until he was apprenticed to a tailor in Brixham before his 7th birthday. At the time of Edward?s marriage to Susanna Gibbons Coke in 1800 he gives his profession as mariner, an occupation certainly more exciting than tailoring, if not as lucrative.

On16 March 1779, in the year following Edward?s birth, his mother Grace ROWST (sic) married Henry BEEDLE by special licence, at the church of Saint Mary's in the High Street at Totnes in Devon, and I have never found a trace of this couple from that day forward.

Staff at the beautiful Totnes museum has been unable to find the special licence or any mention of either Grace or Henry amongst surviving settlement certificates and removal orders. Although the Devon County Records Office has quite a large collection of special licences, naturally they don't have that one. (See rules of genealogy!) I have been unable to locate baptisms or burials for Grace and Henry in the Totnes registers. With the rapid expansion of Internet genealogy I have searched for leads such as marriages, burials, wills and army records but am still without any conclusive information.

The fact of the special licence suggests that the extra cost was of less importance than the time factor, and I have speculated Henry may have been in the Navy or Militia; the timing would be just right for the American Wars of Independence. Perhaps they went to America and never returned??

More recently I have accessed on-line Parish Registers via Genuki.org.uk and have managed to extend Susanna?s line in Brixham to a marriage in 1603 which has remarkable historic significance; this couple, as children, probably watched the advance of the Spanish Armada along the English Channel in 1588, and their great grand children could have easily witnessed the landing of William of Orange at Brixham in 1688, before his march on London to be crowned monarch the following year.

In 1779 marriage registers did not record ages for the bridal couple, or father's names, which doesn't help as I have no firm indicators of birth year or place for Grace and Henry. So what became of them, and where did they go? Someone must have them on a tree somewhere, surely??

While visiting the free exhibition at the Old Treasury building in Melbourne, (Victoria) recently I was interested by the photographs of prisoners taken during the 1880s and 1890s in Victoria.

The images are part of a collection of "six large albums that contain hundreds of photographs of individual prisoners, male and female, taken during the latter half of the nineteenth century."

The explanation board states that in the 1860s prison administrators were quick to appreciate the advantages of a photographic record in the identification process.

By the 1870s photography was being linked to the prevailing sciences of physiognomy and phrenology which endeavoured to determine a person?s character by interpreting facial features, skull size and body shape.

Soon a new photograph was attached to each prisoner's record at the start of every new prison sentence. Where possible these were taken to display distinguishing marks, scars, tattoos etc.

So if you have reason to suspect that an ancestor of yours had a criminal record then you might be lucky enough to trace a photo of your ?reprobate?.

The reference at the base of the board was given as: Photographs of Prisoners PROV.VPRS 522/PO UNITS 2 and 3.

I have no doubt that a polite enquiry via < http://prov.vic.gov.au/ > will net a helpful reply.

After 18 years I am still searching for the origins of Grace Rowse who was the mother of Edward Langman Rowse, born Totnes, Devon 1778.
Any info anyone??
Thanks...........

In 1779 at Totnes in Devon, by special licence, Grace ROWSE married Henry BEEDLE at the church of Saint Mary's in the High Street, and I have never found a trace of them from that day forward.

The Devon County Records Office has quite a large collection of special licences, but naturally they don't have that one! (See rules of genealogy!)

In those days the marriage register did not record ages, or father's names, which doesn't help.

So what became of them, and where did they go? Someone must have them on a tree somewhere, surely??

Some 15 years ago I found two family headstones side by side in a double plot. The first commemorated my husband?s great grandparents, Edward and Lavinia ROWSE with a son who had drowned at sea, and beside it was the tragic commemoration of a 20 year old, with her 19 year old sister and their parents. Although this family?s name was WEBBER, the close proximity suggested to me there must be a strong family connection, and sure enough I discovered this to be the resting place of the family of Edward and Lavinia?s first child.

At one stroke I had identified 7 members of the family, and while I sadly speculated on what could have caused the death of these two young women, I confess I was too excited by expanding the family tree to dwell for long on the sad nature of their deaths. Mentally I had made a connection with the Spanish Flu out-break after World War l, so I was interested when, l happened to catch a docu-drama about the pandemic that killed 70 million globally, with some 228,000 victims in Britain. It was a very gritty programme and it left me feeling I really MUST bite the bullet and discover exactly what had caused the deaths of our young ancestors; those morning flowers gathered in their fragrance (to para-phrase the headstone).

Today the postman delivered copies of the entries of death from the (UK) General Register Office, which were ordered on-line exactly one week ago. Having obtained the references from the freeBMD web site, the process is very simple, and I applaud and thank the GRO for the speed with which they completed my order.

Aside from the fact that I found it very distressing to discover the precise causes of death, ( and as a parent I am, again, acutely aware of how painful it must have been for the family,) the certificates provide several pieces of the jig-saw.

1. Date of death.
2. Place of death. Could this help you find some elusive census information?
3. Name, age and gender of the deceased. If you have a Marion or a Vivian, this could be very helpful! In my case I now know what a middle initial stands for, and have made the connection with historical events at the time of birth.
4. Occupation of deceased. Ask yourself just what the entry means. Should you research around this? Was it potentially hazardous in terms of chemicals, fibres or stormy seas, etc.?
5. Cause of death. I had to look up a cause on both certificates. Then I looked at the history and treatment of one cause. Now I can speculate on why these two young women do not have an occupation specified.
6. Consider the name of the person who certified the death. I have found a female M.B. in 1920. I shall research the numbers of women doctors in the UK in 1920.
7. Signature, description and residence of informant. I have one genuine Uncle, and one unknown. More searching on the census for you perhaps??
8. Date of registration.
9. Signature of registrar. This can sometimes be surprising too.

I have no doubt I am not alone in the avoidance of gathering death certificates, and I must admit I have applied for many more copies of marriage certificates during the years of my genealogy quest; but there is a wealth of information to be had from this source, as I have tried to show, indeed burying our ancestors, while often upsetting, can be as useful to our research as marrying them!

Should you now be looking for a last will and testament??

Having had a long interest in history I find the idea of the "Mayflower Society" really fascinating, and I wonder if interested parties who believe they had ancestors among the early settlers to New England, might want to check out the possibilty of the WINTHROP SOCIETY.

Although I believe the majority of those emigrants were from the East Anglia area of England, I know there was at least one person from Dartmouth in Devon.

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