William Wheatland (1838-1877) and Olive Tullett (1818-1893)

William Wheatland (1838-1877) and Olive Tullett (1818-1893).
My 3rd great-grandparents.

William Wheatland was born on 18 May 1838 and baptised at St Mary’s in Shipley, Sussex, on 17 June to parents James Wheatland and Ann Float. His father was an agricultural labourer and by the time he was 13, at the 1851 census, he was also working in the fields.

William married widow Olive Biggs (nee Tullett) in 1858, the event registered in the Horsham district. He was aged 20 and she was about 40 with a number of children from her first marriage.

Olive was born on 22 August 1818 in Newdigate, Surrey, and was baptised at St Peter’s Church in the village on 4 October. Her parents were thatcher Daniel Tullett and Ann Palmer. They lived in Newdigate for several years but then moved to Rusper in Sussex. In 1838 she married agricultural labourer Thomas Biggs and they raised a family in Newdigate and Rusper but he died in Rusper in June 1856.

After Olive married William, the family is recorded living in Burnt House Cottages in Rusper in 1861, but they then moved to Croydon in Surrey and had at least one child there. What prompted such a move is unclear but it could’ve been William searching for work.

The 1871 census records the family in Haling Road, South Croydon, a street the Wheatlands called home for many years, but William’s name is given as John and the age difference between the two parents has been significantly compressed to just five years! There are a number of obvious errors elsewhere on the return but much to link the families so it’s clearly them. At this point William was still an agricultural labourer but he was listed as a carman on the 1875 marriage certificate of his son John. This job usually involved transporting goods on a horse and cart, and many carmen were employed by railway companies to carry items from stations to recipients.

William died two years later, in 1877, assuming he was the man whose death was registered at the Farnborough Union Workhouse in Bromley. No other Wheatland death matches and Olive was a widow at the time of the 1881 census. William died of smallpox on 22 November that year and it may be that he was being treated there rather than in Croydon because of his condition. At the 1881 census Olive was living with her son John in Selsdon Road, Croydon, but 10 years later was staying with her daughter Alice at her family home at 19 Salisbury Road, Woodside – a district in Croydon. Olive died, having outlived two husbands, in 1893.

William and Olive’s children were:

• John Wheatland (1858-1943), my 2nd great-grandfather. A mystery surrounds his birth but it’s likely that William was his father.
• Emma Ellen Wheatland (1860-1932), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Emma was born on 8 November 1860 in Ifield, Sussex, and baptised there on 3 February 1861. She grew up in Rusper, Sussex, and then moved to Croydon, Surrey, with her family. At the 1881 census she was working as a cook and living with the Hooton family at 14 Dingwall Road, Croydon, but at some point in the coming years Emma decided to emigrate to Australia and appears to have done so on her own. She took advantage of the Queensland Assisted Immigration programme, which subsidised the costs involved in relocating. Emma left London on 8 February 1887 and arrived in the state capital Brisbane in the early hours of 6 April 1887 on board the RMS Jumna, commanded by Captain A Morris, an event reported by that day’s Brisbane Courier. More than 600 people were on board the vessel, owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company, most of them travelling as assisted immigrants. Emma didn’t stay long in Queensland for she married blacksmith James Smith in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1888 and the city was their home for the rest of their lives. They had five children, all baptised at St Thomas’s Church in North Sydney. In her latter years various street directories list Emma and her husband living at 53 Chiltern Road, Willoughby, a North Sydney suburb. She died on 22 September 1932 and was buried at Gore Hill Cemetery a few miles away. James was born in Southampton, Hampshire, in around 1858. In the 1880s he too travelled to Australia. He died in 1944.
  • Norman Leslie Smith, born in 1899. He married Leila Tomkins in 1929, had a daughter and died in hospital in 1947. He worked at a timber merchant although The Sydney Sun obituary dated 24 August 1947 said he spent the first 10 years of his working life on the sheep stations and was a keen cricketer. Leila died in 1988.
  • Christina Olive Smith, born on 20 May 1890. She married labourer John Michael Power in the Sydney suburb of St Leonard’s in 1915.
  • James William Smith, born 8 January 1892. He served for a time in the First World War, joining the Australian Military and Naval Expedition in August 1914. He was discharged in January 1915. He married Elsie Grace Wheeler in 1919, worked as a carpenter and raised a family. He died in 1968.
  • Alice Mary Smith, born 20 January 1894. She married Bernard McKenzie in 1919 but died the following year.
  • Annie Dorothy Smith, born 27 August 1895.
• Alice Wheatland (1865-1942), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Alice was born on 19 March 1865 in Croydon, Surrey, and was baptised at St James’ Church there on 25 June. By the 1881 census she was working as a servant for leather merchant Henry Wilson and his family in Belgrave Road, Norwood. She married plumber Henry Turvey White in Croydon in 1887. He was born in 1862 and had been baptised on 9 November that year in Bromley, Kent. By 1891 they were living at 19 Salisbury Road, Croydon, with their growing family. Ten years later they were at 30 St Hugh’s Road, Anerley, and in 1911 in Thesiger Road on the borders of Penge and Beckenham. Henry died in 1914 and Alice was a widow for almost 30 years. The 1939 Register records her living with two family members at 35 Limes Road, Croydon. She died in 1942. Alice and Henry had a large family including:
  • Alice Mary White. Born in 1888, she married John William Humphreys/Humphries in 1913 and had several children. John was actually born into the Hogsflesh family – perhaps understandably he chose to change his surname. He was listed as a window cleaner in 1939. Her death was registered in Bromley in 1971.
  • Olive Marjorie White. Born in 1890, Olive worked as a domestic servant for some years and lived in and around Penge and Beckenham. She died, unmarried, in 1972.
  • Henry Charles William White (1892-1977). Henry worked as a labourer and married Ida Baker in 1922.
  • Horace Ernest White (1893-1950). Horace joined the Royal Navy in 1911 and saw service during the First World War. He married Minnie Rose Owen and raised a family with her while also working later at a gas works and living in Bromley, Kent. Minnie survived him and died in 1962.
  • Leslie Maurice White (1900-1968).
  • Ethel Beatrice White. Born in 1902, Ethel married labourer William Arthur Church in 1924 and raised a family with him. Her death was registered in Bromley in 1970. He died in 1977
  • Albert Edward White who was born in 1904.

Olive had other children with her first husband, Thomas Biggs:

• Lydia Biggs (1838-????), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Lydia was born on 13 October 1838 in Newdigate, Surrey, and baptised on 11 November at St Peter’s Church. The 1861 census shows her visiting the Ansell family in Dorking but she doesn’t appear again until 1881, when she’s lodging with the Fairbrothers in Holmwood, Dorking. No occupation is given in either case. What happened to her after this is a mystery.
• Jane Biggs (1839-1874), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Jane was born on 19 October 1839 in Newdigate, Surrey, and baptised on 17 November at St Peter’s Church. She married agricultural labourer Jasper Wheeler at Holy Trinity Church in Lower Beeding, Sussex, on 25 August 1859 and they had at least two children. Jane died in 1874 and was buried on 10 December at St Swithun’s in East Grinstead, Sussex. Jasper died in 1881 and was buried at Holy Trinity in Forest Row on 9 March. His residence at the time was the nearby village of Ashurst Wood. Their children were:
  • Ann Wheeler, born in 1860 when the family were living in and around East Grinstead and Ashurst Wood. For many years she worked as a domestic servant but in 1900 married widower William Henry Fortescue, a mineral water carman. Born in 1847, he died in Croydon Mental Hospital, Surrey, in 1914. Ann, or Annie as she was known, died in 1934.
  • Jasper Wheeler (1869-1877).
• Mary Anne Biggs (1842-1965), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Mary Ann was born on 14 January 1842 in Newdigate, Surrey, and baptised on 17 July at St Peter’s Church. She shows up in the 1851 census with her family and married labourer Charles Kilner in Ifield, Sussex, on 17 November 1860. Mary Anne died in 1865 and was buried at Southwater in Sussex on 26 February. Charles died on 3 February 1897 and his funeral was held in Horsham, Sussex, three days later.
• Clara Biggs (1847-1907), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Clara was baptised on 18 April 1847 at St Mary’s Church in Rusper, Sussex, and grew up in the village with her family. By the 1861 census she was working as a servant at Middle Street, Horsham, Sussex, for printer Richard Laker and his family. She married Charles Payne at Holy Trinity in Forest Row, Sussex, on 8 July 1865 but the 1871 census shows they had moved north to Eden Park Farm, Beckenham, then in Kent, where Charles was working as a cowman. Ten years later he’d become a platelayer on the railway and his family were living in Eden Road, Elmers End. They were still there in 1891 but were a short distance away at 2 Maberley Road in 1901. Clara died on 4 October 1907 and left effects valued at £107. I’ve not found a death date for Charles but it was around the 1890s as Clara was a widow in 1901. The couple had at least five children:
  • Henry Charles Payne. Born in 1871, he worked for a printer and married Derbyshire-born Harriet Alice Thornton in 1897. They raised a large family and lived in Anerley, then in Kent. He died in 1936, a year after his wife.
  • William Albert Payne was born in 1872 and married Ann Caroline Deacon, a native of Poplar in East London, in 1903. He worked as a railway guard.
  • Ernest Payne. Born in 1874, Ernest became a farrier and married Elizabeth Nurse in Pimlico, London, in 1893. They settled there for a while and had the first of their children in the district.
  • Minnie Ellen Payne. Born in 1875, Minnie was nursemaid and moved around the country with her families, from Surrey to Devon and Yorkshire. She died in Kent in 1950.
  • Frank Payne was born in 1878 and worked as a railway clerk. He married Mabel Ethel Grammer in 1907. She died in 1938.
• Julia Biggs (1848-1916), my 2nd great-grand aunt. Julia was baptised on 14 January 1849 at St Mary’s Church in Rusper, Sussex, but was probably born towards the end of the previous year. She grew up in the village with her family and moved with them to Croydon in Surrey. She married Richard Burtonshaw, who came from Cuckfield in Sussex, at St James’s Church in Croydon on 16 May 1868. The 1871 census shows that he was a cowman and that the family were living at Woodside Green but 10 years later they had moved to Beckenham, where several of Julia’s siblings would also find a home. They were living at 34 Eden Park Road and Richard had become a bricklayer’s labourer. In 1891 they were at 47 Eden Road and in 1901 at 1 Roseneath Terrace, Arthur Road, Beckenham, where Julia was working as a laundress at home. Richard died in 1908. In 1911 widow Julia was living at 78 Churchfields Road, Beckenham, with several of her grandchildren. She died in 1916. Richard and Julia had a large family including:
  • Ann Burtonshaw, born 1868. She married railway worker and labourer Frank Fowler of Shirley in Surrey in 1893 and had several children with him. They lived in the Lewisham area of London for many years.
  • Thomas Richard Burtonshaw. Born in 1869, Thomas worked as a labourer and carman. He married Sarah Amelia Smithers in 1899, raised a family with her and lived in Beckenham, Kent, for many years. He died in hospital in March 1935. Sarah died just months later in August.
  • Mary Jane Burtonshaw was born in 1871 and married plumber Richard Janes of Forest Hill, Kent, in 1889.
  • Alfred Burtonshaw (1872-1941), a labourer who lived in and around Beckenham and who remained single.
  • Ada Ellen Burtonshaw was born in 1874 and married labourer James Lawrence in 1897. They brought up their children around Beckenham.
  • William Albert Burtonshaw was born in 1876 and married Caroline Ada Killick in 1899. They had several children but Caroline died in 1909. William probably died in the First World War – a man matching his birth year was killed on 28 August 1915.
  • John Horace Burtonshaw. Born in 1881, John worked as a bricklayer’s labourer and died in the First World War just like his brother. His death was recorded on 14 July 1916 during the Somme offensive. He left behind his wife, Selina Pike, who he married in 1900, and chldren. Selina died in 1962.
  • Alice Julia Burtonshaw. Born in 1883, Alice married plumber Arthur Vincent Paul in 1904 and settled in Beckenham, where they raised a family. He served in and survived the First World War despite being shot in the groin. He died in 1957, Alice in 1967.
  • Reginald Foster Burtonshaw was born in 1885 and also worked as a plumber. He married Charlotte Fanny Amelia Wilson in 1911 and avoided front-line service after business representatives in the Beckenham area appealed to the authorities to exempt him because of a shortage of plumbers in the area. It appears he did some work on the home front with the Royal Engineers. Charlotte died in 1964, Reginald a year later.
  • Mabel Fanny Burtonshaw. Born in 1888, Mabel married Hastings-born Reginald George Foster in 1907. He worked for a printing company and served as a gunner in the Royal Artillery during the First World War. He died in 1933 and Mabel followed in 1934, at Kent Mental Hospital.
  • Laura Elizabeth Burtonshaw was born in 1892, married John Robert Proud in 1910 and raised a family in and around Beckenham. He too served in the First World War and later worked as a greengrocer. He died in 1956, Laura in 1974.
• Foster Biggs (1850-1916), my 2nd great-grand uncle. Foster was born in Sussex but set up a successful removals business in Croydon, Surrey.

Sources: RootsChat discussion. BMDs, census and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk, Familysearch.org. Family memories. British Newspaper Archive. Naval records at National Archives.