William Float (1741-1823) and Sarah Michel (????-1832).
My 6th great-grandparents.
William Float was baptised on 26 October 1741 at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex, to parents Richard Float and Elizabeth Keen. His surname was spelled Flout in the baptism record.
He married Sarah Michel in Washington on 23 January 1768. Her ancestry remains a mystery although her burial record suggests she was born in around 1743. A significant number of Sarahs were baptised with similar surnames, including Mitchell, around that time making it hard to pin her down.
They remained in Washington all their lives and raised a large family. I’ve not been able to find out what William did for a living.
William died in 1823 when he was a resident of the local workhouse, at the time situated in Heath Common. He was buried in Washington on 4 August. Sarah died at a grand old age at the workhouse in 1832 and was buried in Washington on 16 November.
Their children were:
- Elizabeth Float (1768-????), my 5th-great-grand aunt. Elizabeth was baptised on 19 September 1768 at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex, but I’ve not been able to locate her subsequently.
- Frances Float (1770-1847), my 5th-great-grand aunt. Frances was baptised on 12 March 1770 at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex, and married John Fuller there on 13 April 1789. The baptism record for his daughter Mary recorded him as a labourer, probably agricultural considering the area. They lived in Washington, where they baptised their children. John’s fate is unclear – he was probably too young to be the 79-year-old buried in Washington in 1822 – yet no other obvious records exist. The alternatives are that the records are missing or that he’d moved elsewhere. Frances / Fanny was living with her daughter Caroline and her family in Broadwater, Sussex, at the time of the 1841 census. This parish, now a suburb of Worthing, was where several of her children ended up early in the century. Had they all moved there at some point? Frances was buried in Broadwater on 15 April 1847. Their children were:
- Sophia Fuller (1789-????) was baptised in Washington, Sussex. She married Joseph Ward of Steyning in Sussex in Broadwater in 1809 and raised many children with him in the area. He was a builder and had done well enough to be able to afford a servant, at least as far as the 1851 census showed. Joseph died in 1858 and was buried in Broadwater. The 1861 census showed Sophia as a lodging house keeper. She died in 1865.
- Mahalah Fuller (1803-1823) was baptised in Washington, Sussex, and buried in Broadwater.
- Caroline Fuller (1808-1881) was baptised in Washington, Sussex, and married shoemaker James Baker of Worthing in nearby Broadwater in 1831. The couple had children and emigrated on the ship Hotspur to New South Wales, Australia, with at least some of them in 1863, on the assisted immigration programme. Caroline was buried in the Sydney suburbs in 1881.
- Moses Fuller (1811-1812) was baptised and buried in Washington, Sussex.
- Mary Fuller (1813-????) was baptised in Washington, Sussex, and then settled in Broadwater. Census returns in 1851 showed that she was a housemaid. Then years later she was alone and working as a laundress. In 1881 she had become a lodging house keeper. I’ve yet to find a death record for her but she may have remained unmarried.
- Richard Float (1773-1862), my 5th-great-grandfather. Richard served in the military as an artillery driver and then as an agricultural labourer. Read about Richard and his family
- Mary Float (1776-????), my 5th-great-grand aunt. Mary was baptised on 13 March 1776 at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex, but I’ve not traced her after this with any confidence.
- John Float (1782-1817), my 5th-great-grand uncle. John was baptised on 11 March 1782 at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex, and is probably the young man buried there on 3 April 1817.
- Sarah Float (1785-????), my 5th-great-grand aunt. Mary was baptised on 3 December 1785 at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex. She may have married a Henry Wells in the village in 1808 but it’s so far been impossible to prove that they were the same women.
- Henry Float (1788-1824), my 5th-great-grand uncle. Henry was baptised on 26 March 1788 at St Mary’s in Washington, Sussex. He worked as a labourer before serving as a private in the 2nd Battalion of the First or Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards, now known as the Grenadier Guards and the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army. It appears that he joined up in 1811, when the Guards were involved in the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal. During this campaign the British allied with the Iberian nations in order to drive the invading French under Napoleon Bonaparte back to France. In 1814 it’s more than likely Henry was stationed with the Grenadiers in Flanders. In 1815 he served in Lieutenant Colonel Banlay’s Company at the Battle of Waterloo, when British forces under the Duke of Wellington finally defeated the French General Napoleon Bonaparte. Two days before it he would’ve been involved in the Battle of Quatre Bras, in which Wellington scored a tactical victory but was stated to have lost strategically because the French had prevented him going to the aid of an allied Prussian force that were fighting a larger French army under Bonaparte’s command. Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June and it ended badly for Henry because he was injured by a gunshot in his face and lost his right eye. He was pensioned out of the service on 15 February 1816, when it was stated that he was in Lt Col Ramsden’s Company, and was just two months shy of serving five years. He received the Waterloo Medal. He was described as a labourer on his pension documents and just over 5ft 10ins tall, with a dark complexion, dark eyes and dark hair. Henry married local woman Sarah Scott at St Mary’s in Washington on 10 October 1818. She’d been baptised in the village on 10 November 1799, the daughter of George and Barbara Scott, and went on to have three children with her husband. But Henry died young, in 1824, and was buried on 1 December in Washington. Whether his death was related in any way to his military service is unknown. Sarah remarried in Washington on 1 October 1826, her new husband being William Naldret, but she too died young and was buried in nearby Storrington on 15 September 1828. Henry and Sarah’s children were:
- Barbara Float (1819-1857) was baptised in Washington, Sussex. She was sentenced as a servant to one month in prison in 1837 for stealing two pairs of stockings from her master in Storrington (Sussex Advertiser 10 April 1837). The following year she married agricultural labourer Charles Farrow in Pagham, Sussex, and they settled in the Nyetimber area of the parish (she sometimes using ‘Elizabeth’ as a middle name). They raised a family but Barbara died in 1857. Charles died in 1885.
- George Float (1821-1842) was baptised in Washington, Sussex, and worked as an agricultural labourer. He died in the Thakeham Union Workhouse in 1842 and was buried in Washington.
- Frances Float (1824-????) was baptised in Washington, Sussex, but cannot be traced after.
Sources: BMDs, census, military and other records at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk. Sussex Family History Group records. Workhouses. Grenadier Guards.