Richard Wheatland (1753-1823) and Mary Stenning

Richard Wheatland (1753-1823) and Mary Stenning.
My 5th great-grandparents.

Richard was baptised on 11 October 1753 at St Mary’s Church in Thakeham, Sussex. His parents were John Wheatland and Mary Golds.

Richard married Mary Stenning (or Steyning) on 1 July 1782 at St Peter’s Church in Henfield, Sussex, some miles to the east of his home village. They remained in Henfield, where Mary gave birth to son Thomas and daughter Mary, but on 26 August 1785 the parish issued a removal order on the family. This meant they had to leave Henfield and return to Shipley, which was noted in the document as Mary’s home parish. The Poor Law of the time ensured that the poorest in a parish were supported but at the same time the authorities were only required to help genuinely local people, having the power to remove those from other areas back to where they came from.

Richard and his family clearly struggled financially for he was described as a pauper on the baptism record of his son John in 1791, and this was a term usually applied to someone on parish relief. Mary and Richard continued to live and have children in Shipley, which is where he died in 1823. He was buried on 21 April.

I’m not sure about Mary but she may have been the girl baptised in Shipley on 12 September 1762 to Edward and Susan Stenning. However, someone by this name was buried in the village the following year. I’ve not been able to find a burial record for her.

The couple had a large family, including:

• Thomas Wheatland (1783-1864), my 4th great-grand uncle. Thomas was baptised on 17 April 1783 at St Peter’s Church in Henfield, Sussex. The record noted that he was ‘privately baptized in peril of death’ but he ended up living a long life. He married Hannah Terry (baptised in West Chiltington, Sussex, on 8 March 1789 to John and Mary Terry) at St Mary’s in Shipley on 28 July 1807 and had a son James in 1810 but Hannah died in 1816 and was buried in Shipley on 26 April. He next married widow Elizabeth Charman at St George’s in nearby West Grinstead, the record noting that he was a widower of Shipley. By the the 1841 census, which listed him as an agricultural labourer, he was living with Elizabeth in a cottage at a farm called Floodgates back in Shipley. They were still there in 1851 but she died in the village in 1860 and was buried on 18 Otober. In 1861 Thomas was living at Floodgates with a housekeeper and two unmarried sons, Thomas Jnr and Samuel. Thomas Snr died in Shipley and was buried on 8 September 1864. Thomas’s children were:
  • James Wheatland, born in Shipley in 1810 to Hannah Wheatland.
  • Thomas Wheatland was baptised in West Grinstead in 1817, the first of Thomas Snr’s children with Elizabeth. He married Eliza Sharpe in Shipley in 1862 and worked as an agricultural labourer, living in and around Shipley and Dial Post in Sussex. The couple had several children. Thomas died in 1890.
  • Elizabeth Wheatland was baptised in West Grinstead in 1820 and worked as a servant before marrying James Luxford in Shipley in 1856. They settled in Henfield, where he worked as an agricultural labourer. He died in 1871. Elizabeth lived until 1900 and was buried in Henfield, although said to have been living in Shoreham, Sussex, at the time.
  • Samuel Wheatland was born in West Grinstead in 1823 and worked as a farm labourer and servant. He never married and for many years lived with his brother Thomas and his family. He died in 1888.
• Mary Wheatland (1785-1857), my 4th great-grand aunt. Mary was born on 3 February 1785 and baptised on the 6th at St Peter’s Church in Henfield, Sussex. She moved as a baby to Shipley with her family and married there at St Mary’s Church on 1 October 1807, her husband being Shipley native James Heasman, who was born in 1787. They lived in the village and elsewhere in the district but were back in Shipley, in the Dragon’s Green hamlet, for the 1841 census with their son George. By 1851 they had moved to Itchingfield, Sussex, where they were living with their daughter Sarah and her family. James, who worked as an agricultural labourer, died in the village in 1852 and was buried on 30 August. Mary died in 1857 and was buried in Itchingfield on 3 May. The couple’s children were:
  • Mary Heasman was baptised in Shipley in 1809. She married Peter Rapley in Itchingfield, his home village, in 1827. They stayed in the village for many years, raising a family and Peter working as an agricultural labourer. They later moved to Horsham in Sussex, where they were recorded in the 1871 census. He died in 1886, Mary in 1896.
  • William Heasman was baptised in West Grinstead in 1817. He married Ann Knight of Surrey in 1848 and worked as a labourer. They moved around a great deal, children in tow, but settled on the Sussex coast. William died in 1882, Ann six years later.
  • Fanny Heasman was baptised in Shipley in 1820. She married James Linfield in Itchingfield in 1837 and together they raised a family, while he worked as an agricultural labourer. Fanny died in 1865 and was buried in Warnham, where they’d eventually settled.
  • Sarah Heasman was baptised in Shipley in 1822. She married Charles Wood of Billingshurst in Shipley in 1845 and went on to live in Itchingfield and Warnham in Sussex. They had children and Charles worked as an agricultural labourer. Charles died in 1885 and Sarah went to live in Horsham and then Camberwell in south London, where she was living with a daughter and her family in 1901.
  • Henry Heasman was baptised in Shipley in 1825 and worked as a farm labourer and bailiff throughout Sussex, including Itchingfield, Ditchling and Clayton. He married Harriet Thompson of Shipley in the village in 1847 and had a large family with her.
  • George Heasman was baptised in Shipley in 1829 and married Fanny Parker of Shipley in the village in 1851. He worked as a farm labourer and carter in the area but the family settled in Worthing, Sussex, where he worked as a master baker and confectioner. Fanny died in 1905 and the following year George married Alice Tuff. He died in Worthing in 1913.
• Ann Wheatland (1787-????), my 4th great-grand aunt. Ann was baptised on 25 February 1787 at St Mary’s Church in Shipley, Sussex. She married William Baker on 1 January 1814 in Shipley and the baptism records of their children point to him being a labourer. They’ve all been very difficult to trace. Their known children were:
  • Mary Baker baptised in Shipley in 1814.
  • Sarah Baker baptised in Shipley in 1816.
  • William Baker baptised in Shipley in 1817).
• William Wheatland (1789-1869), my 4th great-grand uncle. William was baptised on 31 May 1789 at St Mary’s Church in Shipley, Sussex. He married Sarah Rice there on 27 November 1824 and stayed in the area for the rest of his life. Sarah is most likely the girl born to George and Ann Rice and baptised in Balcombe, Sussex, on 25 February 1807, making her quite a bit younger than her new husband. Baptism records for their children describe William as either a labourer or a toll gate keeper, who was responsible for collecting fees from users of the local turnpike road. Sarah who died in 1839 and was buried on 23 June in Shipley. The 1841 census shows William living with his family in the hamlet of Dragon’s Green just north of Shipley but in the 1851 and 1861 censuses the widower was at home in Green Street, Shipley, with his son James. All these records list him as an agricultural labourer. William died in 1869 and was buried in Shipley on 26 March. He was said to be from Cuckfield, suggesting he had moved away from his home village, perhaps for work or to live with members of his family. His children with Sarah include:
  • Elizabeth Wheatland was baptised Shipley in 1825 and married local agricultural labourer Henry Rhodes in the village in 1845. They had several children together but Henry killed himself in 1858, an inquest finding that he was suffering from a period of temporary insanity at the time. Elizabeth took on needlework while raising all her children but in 1862 married widower and labourer George Batchelor. She died in 1890.
  • William Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1828 and worked as a shoemaker throughout this life. He married Sarah Simmons at Holmwood in Surrey in 1848 but they settled in Capel, Surrey, where Sarah had several children. William died in 1902. Sarah lived until 1915.
  • Ann Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1830. She married agricultural labourer Henry Boxall in Capel, Surrey, in 1849 and settled in his home village of Charlwood, elsewhere in the county. They had a family but he died in 1882. Ann then married John Napper, in 1891, and settled in Brockham, Surrey. He died in 1901, Ann in 1918.
  • Jane Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1832 and worked initially as a servant in Henfield, where she met George Freeman. They married in 1851 and had children, while he worked as an agricultural labourer and carter. He died young in 1871. Jane worked as a housekeeper for many years after his death and in 1911 was living with a widowed daughter in Horsham, Sussex. She died in 1921.
  • George Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1835 and went on to be a master builder. He married Elizabeth Leppard of Billingshurst in 1860 and raised a family with her. He died in 1904 in Handcross, Sussex, while Elizabeth died four years later in Pease Pottage, Sussex.
  • James Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1838 and married Lucy Baker, a widow, in Newick, Sussex, in 1864. He worked as an agricultural labourer, bricklayer and gardener during his life and raised his children with Lucy and her children by her first marriage. He died in Surrey in 1913, Lucy in 1915.
• John Wheatland (1791-1874), my 4th great-grand uncle. John was baptised on 22 May 1791 at St Mary’s Church in Shipley, Sussex. His father was described as a pauper on the record. He married Frances Francis in the village on 27 November 1815 but I’ve yet to find a birth record for her, so was she a widow? He was described as a labourer on the birth records of his children. The 1841 census listed the family living in the hamlet of Coolham near Shipley, with John described as a farmer. But in 1851 they were in Old Shoreham on the Sussex coast, John and his son both working as farm labourers. Fanny died there in 1854 and was buried on 17 January. John was alone in the 1861 and 1871 censuses, working as an agricultural labourer in West Chiltington, Sussex. He died there in 1874 and was buried on 7 August.
  • Francis Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1822 and married local girl Mary Ann Francis there in 1857. He worked as a farm labourer but was admitted to the West Sussex Asylum in 1897. A record from 1890 suggests this wasn’t his first spell in the hospital. He died in 1900. Mary Ann went into the Steyning Union Workhouse, maybe for health reasons, and was there in 1901 and 1911. She died there in 1916, the building now referred to as an infirmary.
  • Mary Wheatland (1827-1828). Mary died of whooping cough.
• Harry (sometimes Henry) Wheatland (1793-1816), my 4th great-grand uncle. Harry was baptised on 16 August 1793 at St Mary’s Church in Shipley, Sussex. I suspect he was the Henry Wheatland who died and was buried in West Grinstead, Sussex, on 15 June 1816.
• Peter Wheatland (1796-1817), my 4th great-grand uncle. Peter was baptised on 28 February 1796 at St Mary’s Church in Shipley, Sussex. He died there in 1817 and was buried on 13 February.
• James Wheatland (1798-1874), my 4th great-grandfather.
• Jesse Wheatland (1800-????), my 4th great-grand uncle. Jesse was baptised on 20 July 1800 at St Mary’s Church in Shipley, Sussex. On 12 April 1822 he married Barbara Oliver there. She was baptised in Ashurst, a village a few miles from Shipley, on 3 July 1803 but after having a family with Jesse she died in ‘child bed’ in March 1833. She was buried in Shipley on the 13th. Jesse remarried, on 10 December 1833, at St Mary’s Church in Horsham, Sussex. His bride was Elizabeth Baker, who was baptised there on 2 June 1816, and they had three children in Horsham. Jesse was described as a labourer in these parish records. However, he then disappears and I can find no mention of him in either the censuses or death registers. I suspect he must’ve died before the 1841 census, for this records Elizabeth Wheatland and her son Philip living at the Horsham Workhouse. Elizabeth eventually remarried in a ceremony on 23 May 1862 in Horsham, her groom Thomas Hobden. Jesse’s children were:
  • Edmund Wheatland was baptised in Horsham in 1822, his mother Barbara. He was unmarried and worked as an agricultural labourer and farm servant in the village. He died in 1874.
  • William Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1825, his mother Barbara.
  • Jane Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1828, her mother Barbara.
  • Jesse Wheatland was baptised in Shipley in 1833, his mother Barbara.
  • Harriet Wheatland (1835-1838), Jesse Snr’s first child with Elizabeth.
  • Margaret Wheatland was baptised in Horsham in 1836.
  • Philip Wheatland was baptised in Horsham in 1838 and spent some time in the workhouse at Horsham as a youth. He married Elizabeth Hunt in 1862 and had a large family, working as an agricultural labourer and carter. Elizabeth died in 1902, Philip died in 1906.
• George Wheatland (1805-1807), my 4th great-grand uncle. George was baptised on 9 June 1805 at St Mary’s Church in Shipley, Sussex. He was buried on 17 May 1807.