James Wheatland (1798-1874) and Ann Float (1809-1892)

James Wheatland (1798-1874) and Ann Float (1809-1892).
My 4th great-grandparents.

James was baptised on 17 June 1798 at St Mary’s Church in the village of Shipley, Sussex. His parents were Richard Wheatland and Mary Stenning. He married Ann Float at St Mary’s Church in Wiston, Sussex, several miles south of his home village, on 6 January 1827.

Ann came from Battle in Sussex, where she was baptised at St Mary’s Church on 12 April 1809. Her name was written as Floot and her parents were Richard Float and Hannah Windom.

James and Ann lived in Shipley and raised a large family. He worked as an agricultural labourer and at the 1851 census was living in the Old Poorhouse, which was once used as the parish workhouse.

The West Sussex Gazette of 8 March 1855 reported a case of poaching involving James Wheatland in Shipley. This was probably my 4th great-grandfather as it’s likely that his eldest son was serving with the British Army at the time. James pleaded not guilty to a charge of taking a pheasant from the land of Mr R Holloway. Gamekeeper Henry Rhodes told Horsham magistrates that he’d found a pheasant caught in a trap and lay in wait to see who would come for it. When James arrived he chased him until he, Rhodes, fell. He then heard something being thrown into a hedge. When he later went to investigate he found the dead bird and trap. Rhodes told the court he was sure Wheatland was the guilty man but the latter said he was elsewhere and produced alibi evidence. However, this was judged a lame excuse and he was fined £1 and costs, or ordered to do two months hard labour.

By 1861 Ann and James Snr had moved to Rusper, Sussex, while in 1871 James was listed as a pauper in the Horsham Workhouse. Ann was living in Nuthurst so it may be that he was staying there because he was sick. James died in February 1874 at the workhouse and was buried on the 25th in Shipley. Ann moved back to Shipley and was there at the 1881 census living with her son James but she too ended up in the Horsham Workhouse and was recorded there in 1891. Again this may have been the result of sickness rather than poverty. Ann died there in 1892 and was buried on 25 January at Shipley.

Ann and James had at least nine children:

• James Wheatland (1828-1891), my 3rd great-grand uncle. James was baptised on 10 August 1828 at St Mary’s Church, Shipley, to parents James Wheatland and Ann Float. The censuses for 1841 and 1851 show that he grew up in the village with his family and worked as an agricultural labourer. However, he signed up at Horsham in Sussex to serve in the British Army on 2 January 1855 and fought as a gunner in China with the Royal Artillery during the Second Opium War, which ran from 1856-60. He was present at the Battle of Canton in the closing days of December 1857, a successful attempt by an Anglo-French force to take the city in response to its Viceroy’s attempt to block treaty agreements that ended the First Opium War and allowed the British to trade there. The wars resulted in opium flooding China, with all the addiction that entailed. Medal Rolls for the conflict suggest that James was invalided back to England at some point. By 1861 his regiment was serving in Alderney and Jersey in the Channel Islands and on the mainland in Dover (National Archives WO10 / 2412). An examination was held on 30 March 1876 into his 21 years of service, which included 16 months in China and five years nine months based on the island of St Helena in the Atlantic. The board heard that at this point he was with the Coast Brigade Regiment of the Royal Artillery, that he was a man of very good character, had four good conduct badges and the Second China War Medal with the Canton clasp. They described him as standing 5ft 11ins, with dark brown hair and dark eyes. His pension record notes a payment of one shilling but doesn’t mention the frequency of payment! The 1881 census showed that James had become a general labourer and he was living at home in Shipley with his mother Ann – his father being in the Horsham Workhouse. James Jnr died there himself, in February 1891, and he was buried in Shipley on 27 February. He never married.
• Mary Wheatland (1830-1895), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Mary turns up on the 1841 census but there are no baptisms in Shipley that match her. A girl matching her name was baptised on 12 December 1830 to a James and Ann Wheatland in Thakeham, a Sussex village about five miles away. On balance I think this is her – there aren’t any other Wheatland parents who match. She married Jesse Stoner at St Margaret’s in Ifield, Sussex, on 4 October 1851. He was born and brought up in Slaugham, Sussex, where he was baptised on 27 July 1823, and worked as an agricultural labourer and gardener. The couple continued to live in Ifield and raised a large family. Mary died on 26 May 1895 and was buried at St Margaret’s. Jesse died on 21 August 1909 and was buried alongside her. The couple’s children were:
  • William Stoner. Born in Ifield in 1852, he moved to Nottingham to live and work. He married Sarah Ann Jeffery in Basford – part of the city of Nottingham – in 1875, had children and worked as a stoker at a gas works. Sarah died in 1920, William a year later.
  • Mary Ann Stoner was born in Ifield in 1853 and married William Moon in London in 1877. They settled back in Ifield, where Mary had children and William worked as a coachman and later as the landlord of the Royal Oak pub in the village, where he was also much involved in the village cricket club. Mary Ann died in 1921, William in 1926.
  • Jane Stoner. Born in Ifield in 1855, Jane worked as a domestic servant but was jailed for four months hard labour at the Petworth Quarter Sessions in Sussex in January 1880. She was found guilty of stealing cash from her employer. She was back working as a domestic in 1881 but then married George Whiting in 1884. They moved around Sussex and Surrey over the years and had a family while George worked as a gardener and then a grocer. Jane died in 1927, George in 1944.
  • Jesse Stoner was born in Ifield in 1858 and worked as a bricklayer. He married, had a family and died in Surrey in 1938.
  • Alice Stoner. Born in 1860, she married John William Emery in London in 1889. He worked as a policeman in the Metropolitan force for many years. The couple settled in Woolwich, then in Kent, where Alice’s death was registered in 1927.
  • Kate Stoner was born in Ifield in 1863 and worked as a servant as a young woman. She married plumber and painter William Peters in 1886 and settled in and around Portsland in Sussex, where they raised a family. He died in 1921, Kate in 1934.
  • Ellen Stoner. Baptised in Ifield in 1866, Ellen worked as a servant then married Edwin Chantler in 1890. For some years he was a hairdresser in the Crawley area, then an insurance agent, while also volunteering with various sports clubs. Early in the 20th century he took over a pub in Waltham Abbey, Essex, and became treasurer of the local Oddfellows lodge. As the Chelmsford Chronicle of 3 February 1911 reported, he absconded with their money and was jailed for six months with hard labour as a result. He was in prison at the 1911 census while Ellen was proprietor of tea rooms in Windsor, Berkshire. Edwin died in Windsor in 1931, Ellen in 1942.
  • John Stoner was born in 1873 and married Emma Parsons in 1894. He began as a gardener but gradually built up a thriving business with his wife, working as a carpenter, shopkeeper, appliance maker and builder among other things. His obituary in the Crawley and District Observer of 10 February 1945 noted that he was a keen musician, churchgoer and sat on Crawley Parish Council and that the couple raised much money for charity. In between times the couple had a family. John died in 1945, Emma in 1959.
• Ann Wheatland (1833-1902), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Ann was baptised on 19 May 1833 at St Mary’s Church, Shipley, Sussex, and grew up in the village. By 1851 she was living in Nuthurst, Sussex, and working as a servant for a local farmer and his family. She married William Stoner the following year and settled in the village of Slaugham, Sussex, where he’d been born in around 1821. I’ve not found a baptism record but census surveys show that he was the son of Edward and Lucy Stoner and therefore the brother of Mary Wheatland’s husband Jesse (see above). Ann and William raised a large family while census records show that he worked as an agricultural labourer until the 1891 survey, when he was a farm carter. By 1901 the couple were living with their son Albert and his family in nearby Cuckfield but both William and Ann died in 1902. The West Sussex County Times of 30 August 1902 reported that Ann died on 13 August at Broxmead Cottage in Cuckfield, reporting that she was ‘late of Warninglid’ – a village close to both Cuckfield and Slaugham. William died at Broxmead on 15 September according to a notice in the Mid Sussex Times of 23 September 1902. The couple had at least seven children:
  • George Stoner, who was baptised in 1853. He married Caroline Harfield in 1879 in Brighton, Sussex, and settled there to work as a policeman. They raised a family but George died suddenly in 1907, the Brighton Gazette of 26 September 1907 reporting that he had suffered heart failure and double pneumonia. Caroline lived until 1933.
  • Ellen Stoner. Baptised in 1856, Ellen married bricklayer’s labourer Edward Hampton Hobden in Slaugham in 1882. They lived in the village and neighbouring settlements and she had many children. Edward died in 1927, Ellen in 1929.
  • Kate Stoner was born in 1858 and married George Ayling in Slaugham in 1880. They lived in Bolney for a time before returning to the Slaugham area and raised their family. George worked as a carter but died young in 1900. The Sussex Agricultural Express of 6 April 1900 reported that he’d been kicked by one of his horses, which caused internal injuries and his death the same day. Kate lived until 1948.
  • William Stoner was born in 1860 and married Jane Elizabeth Sayers in Bolney, Sussex, in 1888. He worked as an agricultural labourer and woodsman and with Jane had several children. He died in 1938, three years after Jane.
  • Frederick Stoner was born in 1864 and married Sarah Mead in Southwark in 1886. He worked as a labourer and they lived in Beckenham and Penge for many years.
  • Jesse Stoner was born in 1865 and married Lucy Ann Lee in 1889. They had a number of children and lived in Bolney, Sussex, for some time and then near Horsham. He worked as an agricultural labourer and bricklayer. Both Jesse and Lucy died in 1934.
  • Albert Stoner. Born in 1873, Albert married Elizabeth Isabella Bowell in Brighton in 1897. They raised a family in Sussex and he worked as a carter.
• Henry Wheatland (1835-1902), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Henry was baptised on 20 September at St Mary’s Church, Shipley, Sussex, and became an agricultural labourer. He was living with this parents in Rusper, Sussex, at the time of the 1861 census but the following year, on 16 October, he was jailed for one month with hard labour for housebreaking and larceny. The West Sussex Quarter Sessions at Chichester heard that he’d stolen an axe, handbills and a pair of gloves from a man called James Munnery in West Grinstead, near Shipley (Brighton Gazette 23 October 1862). There are records for Henry Wheatlands but none of them seem to fit him until 1901, when he is an inmate at the East Grinstead Workhouse and recorded as a widower. He crops up there again in 1911, this time said to be a single man from Horsham. His death was registered in East Grinstead later in the year.
• George Wheatland (1841-????), my 3rd great-grand uncle. George was born on 13 March 1841 and baptised on 18 April at St Mary’s Church, Shipley, Sussex. By 1861 he was working as a servant on a farm in Rusper, Sussex, and then married Mary Steer on 22 October 1870 at St Mary’s and St Mark’s Church in Slaugham, Sussex. She claimed to have been born in around 1849 in Horsham, Sussex, but I’ve yet to find a record to prove it. In 1871 they were living in Rusper with baby daughter Mary Ann, born the same year, and with George working as an agricultural labourer. The 1881 census showed them living at Fox Cottages in Sanderstead, Surrey, on the Fox Farm land. George had clearly moved around to find work in the fields judging by the birth places of his many children. I’ve not found a death record for George that I’m confident about but the Croydon Chronicle of 16 February 1901 reported on the inquest into Mary Ann Wheatland, aged about 50 and wife of George Wheatland of 26 Bynes Road, South Croydon. This is our couple. Mary died of heart trouble having been in pain for some time. George was mentioned as working at the law courts but the census for that year lists him as a furniture porter. After Mary’s death it appears that George struggled to combine bringing up his children with work and subsequent census and other records show that some of the youngsters were living elsewhere, sometimes with relatives. The fact that he does not appear in any subsequent census returns suggests he died before 1911. His children were:
  • Mary Ann Wheatland. Baptised in Rusper, Sussex, in 1871, she was regularly referred to as Annie, perhaps to distinguish her from her mother. She married James Payne of Cambridgeshire in 1891 when he was a Lance Corporal with the Grenadier Guards. He later became a tax and revenue officer. Several of her siblings went to live with her in Bedfordshire after the death of their mother.
  • James Wheatland. His birth was registered in 1873 but around the same time an Edward James Wheatland was baptised in Staplefield, Sussex. I suspect they are the same person. After the 1901 census, when he was working as a carman, he disappears from the records.
  • Elizabeth Matilda Wheatland was baptised in Epsom, Surrey, in 1876 and married labourer John Carmody in Croydon in 1902 but he died three years later. Elizabeth died in 1943, having been marked as incapacitated in the 1939 Register.
  • Ada Alice Wheatland was baptised in Stoke D’Abernon, Surrey, in 1878 and married groom John Edward King in 1895. He does not appear in subsequent census records with Ada and in 1911 she was living in Battersea with her children and mother-in-law.
  • Sarah Emma Wheatland was baptised in Croydon 1880 and was living with her older sister in Bedfordshire by 1911. She married Walter Hughes there in 1915.
  • Lilian May Wheatland was baptised in Croydon in 1885 and married James Blackwell in Wandsworth in 1903. They raised a family and James worked for a stationers.
  • William George Wheatland was born in Croydon in 1888 and went to live in Bedfordshire with his sister after his mother’s death. He served in the Royal Naval Air Service, which became part of the RAF, during the First World War. In 1926 he married Isabel Turner and by 1939 they were living in Richmond, Surrey, William working as a hospital orderly. He died in 1951, Isabel in 1978.
  • Floss Maud Margory Wheatland was born in Croydon in 1892 and she too was living with her older sister and her husband in Bedfordshire in 1911. She married civil servant Ralph Dayson-Smith in Bedford in 1914 and had several children with him, but she listed her brother-in-law James Payne as her father on the marriage certificate. They retired to Bournemouth in Hampshire, where Floss ran a guest house. Ralph died in 1951, Floss in 1968.
  • Amy Lilian Wheatland was born in Croydon in 1895 and was also living with her older sister and her husband in Bedfordshire in 1911.
• Edmund Wheatland (1843-1905), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Edmund was born on 16 November 1843 and baptised on 10 December at St Mary’s Church, Shipley, Sussex. He disappears from the records until 1872, when he married Mary Ann Salisbury on 6 April at St George’s Church in Beckenham, Kent. She was born in Walworth in what’s now South London, in 1853, the daughter of a tailor. Just two years into their marriage Edmund was imprisoned for two months for embezzlement. The Norwood News of 7 November 1874 reported on the case at Croydon Police Court. Edmund, of Enmore Park, South Norwood, was charged with embezzling various sums of money belonging to his master William Greenwood. The report is vague but it appears that Edmund was a milkman and that he’d kept some of the money paid to him on his round, rather than handing it to his boss. He pleaded guilty and said in his defence that he was no scholar (!). Greenwood stated that he had taken on Edmund and his business from another man and that during his time with him he’d been hard-working. He did not want him to be treated severely and the Chairman said that were it not for his good words Edmund’s sentence would’ve been more severe. Before leaving the court, Edmund asked that 13s and 2d he had on him be taken and given to his wife. The prison records show that he was 5ft 7ins tall and that he was released on 30 December. By 1881 Edmund was working as an agricultural labourer and living with his family at Fox Cottages in Sanderstead, Surrey, on the Fox Farm land. His brother George was also living and working there. The 1891 census listed them at 11 Rolleston Road, South Croydon, with Edmund working as a driver for the corporation and Mary Ann as a laundress. They lived there for many years, the 1901 census showing Edmund back working as a farm labourer and yardman. Edmund died in 1905. I suspect Mary Ann died in 1923. The couple had at least eight children:
  • Olive Ellen Wheatland was born in Croydon in 1874 and married John Henry Mansfield in 1900. He had various jobs including a yardman and decorator. They had four children, two of whom survived childhood, and lived in the Croydon area during their marriage. John died in 1927, Olive in 1950.
  • Eliza Ann Wheatland was born in Croydon in 1876 and was a domestic servant by the age of 15. She married Joseph Brett in Hailsham, Sussex, in 1902 and the couple settled in his home village of Herstmonceux a few miles away. He worked as an agricultural labourer. Eliza died in 1950, Joseph in 1952.
  • Augusta Elizabeth Wheatland. Born in Sanderstead in 1882, Augusta worked as a housemaid fora while and married Albert John Miller, a gas fitter, in Croydon in 1910. They had a family and lived in the town but Albert died in 1927. Augusta was living with a son in 1939 and working as an office cleaner. She died in 1959.
  • Edmund George Wheatland, who was born and died in 1885.
  • Henry Wheatland was born in Croydon in 1886 and was working in a brewery by the 1911 census. I’ve found no marriage for him but he was living with his sister Rosina in Rolleston Road, Croydon, in 1939. He died in Croydon in 1956.
  • Rosina Mary Wheatland was born in Croydon in 1892 and worked as a servant. She never married and died in Croydon in 1954.
  • Albert Joseph Wheatland was born in Croydon in 1892 and died in the First World War on 7 June 1917 while serving with the The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment). It was the first day of the Battle of Messines in Belgium.
  • Celia Emmy Wheatland, who was born and died in 1896.
• Fanny Wheatland (1846-1915), my 3rd great-grand aunt. Fanny was born on 20 September 1846 and baptised on 25 October at St Mary’s Church, Shipley, Sussex. She grew up first in Shipley and then in Rusper, another Sussex village, and married Walter Edwards on 19 April 1865 at St Mary’s Church in West Chiltington, Sussex. He was born in Horsham, Sussex, in around 1827 so there was a significant age gap between them. The couple moved around, doubtless with Walter’s work as an agricultural labourer. Fanny was staying with her mother at the time of the 1871 census, but the couple were living in Shipley in 1881 and Nuthurst, Sussex, in 1891. Walter died in 1892 and was buried on 15 March. Later in the year, on 20 August Fanny married widower Charles Goacher, another agricultural labourer, at St Andrew’s in Nuthurst. In 1901 they were living south of Horsham. However, in 1911 the couple were living apart, with Fanny staying with her son Alfred in Horsham and listed as his housekeeper, while Charles was on a farm in Lower Beeding, Sussex. Whether this was a temporary arrangement or something more long term is unknown. Fanny died in 1915 at Broadbridge Heath, Horsham, and was buried on 23 October. Charles died in March 1921, with his funeral held at St Mary’s in Horsham. Fanny had at least five children with Walter:
  • Ann Edwards was born in Nuthurst in 1866 and married labourer Frank Merritt in Shipley in 1883. They raised a family but Annie died in 1900 and was buried in Horsham.
  • Frances Ruth Edwards. Born in 1870, Frances married farm labourer George Edward Jupp in 1892 and they lived in and around Horsham while Frances raised her children. The West Sussex Gazette of 19 August 1915 reported that Frances had applied for a separation and maintenance order against her husband as he had failed to provide for her and the children over the course of their marriage. Only the maintenance order was approved. George died in 1931. Frances (or Ruth as she was often known) died in 1951.
  • Mary Sophia Edwards (1874-1882).
  • Henry Jesse Edwards was born in 1879 and worked as a farm labourer for many years. He married Harriet Leonard of Cambridgeshire in 1902 and they settled in Horsham, where they raised a large family.
  • Alfred George Edwards was born in Southwater, Sussex, in 1885 and was working as a carter at a local authority sewage works in 1911.
• Samuel Wheatland (1851-1903), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Samuel was raised in Sussex but emigrated to Australia and served the people of Adelaide.

Sources: Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk, Thegenealogist.co.uk. Sussex Family History Society records. British Newspaper Library (titles and dates as referred to in the text). Australian Trove website for newspapers. Australian Archives. British National Archives for military records.