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Richard
(m 1772), Samuel (b1781) & Samuel (b 1811)
The
earliest record in the family line is of the marriage of Richard Speare
& Mary Carpenter on11th August 1772 in Inwardleigh. Judging by
the parish records the Speares were a prominent family in and around the
village of Inwardleigh.
Richards
son, Samuel (Edgar’s great-grandfather), was born in 1781 and
baptised on 28th January 1781 in Inwardleigh. He married Sarah Ann
Ward
on 10th November 1807 in Inwardleigh. (Sarah Ward’s sister,
Mary Ward, married Samuels brother, Richard, on 31st December 1800,
also in Inwardleigh) At the time of writing, there are still
descendents of Samuels branch of the Speare family living in
Inwardleigh. Sarah Ann Ward was baptised on 23rd August 1786
in Inwardleigh daughter of Ralph ward & Grace Sprey. Samuel
died in 1843 and was buried in Inwardleigh on 28th May 1843.
At
the time of the Samuel (Edgar’s grandfather) baptism on 16th June
1811, Samuel & Sarah were residing at The Wood, a farm in
Inwardleigh. Samuel’s occupation is
described in the parish records as "Farmer".
The
1841 census, the first of its kind, gives us a reliable indicator that
Samuel was Edgar’s grandfather for three reasons:
1.
he has a two-month-old son, William, (Edgar’s father, William, was
born 16 March, 1841)
2.
his wife is listed as Christian (also named on William’s birth
certificate)
3.
the farm they occupied, Pressland Down, is just outside Hatherleigh
(registered birthplace of William).
Samuel
is described as ‘farmer’ and has two older sons, Samuel (6) and
John (4). There are two references to Samuel and Christian (born
Parker) in the IGI index: one for their marriage in Mary Tavy (west
Dartmoor) on 1 January 1834, and the other for the christening of
their eldest son, Samuel, in Iddesleigh, 21 June 1835.
Samuel
father of William (Edgar's grandfather) passed away in 1850 and was
buried in Inwardleigh on 4th May 1850. His last residence was
the "Workhouse"
In the
1861 census, Christian (50) is married to a
carpenter by the name of John Lock, and living in Bovey Tracey,
together with William, now 20 and listed as a carpenter himself.
Here begins the next chapter of the Speare story.
1
Kathleen
Sanders, Hatherleigh History Society
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