A-Z Challenge 2016: Y is for Young Child Murch

Have you read my 'C' post: 'C is for Child Murch buried 1750'?  It dealt with the sad circumstance where a 'child of Gideon Murch' was buried in 1750 without so much as a name - and of course, no gender either, so I don't even know if I'm mourning a 5 x great-uncle or a 5x great-aunt.

Well, it happened again - and to the same family. In 1754 another of Gideon and Elizabeth's children was buried (on 30 October).  Yet, once again, frustratingly it was given neither a name nor a gender:

(Yes, it's the same clerk as before.)  He does write 'infant' against somebody else's entry, so Gideon's 'young child' may not have been a new baby.  But that's all I know at the moment. *sigh*

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: S is for Samuel Murch 1778-1849

Samuel Murch was my 4 x great grandfather, and obviously a good person.  I say 'obviously', because I have found two little pieces about him in local newspapers:

Exeter & Plymouth Gazette, 30 Oct 1841:
Column devoted to the Agricultural and Industrial Association Dinner at Subscription Room, Canniford's London Tavern
"To the Journeyman who has worked longest in the employ of the same master, £1. - Samuel Murch, Sen., 38 years employed in the Ottery Factory, 18 years during the time of the present respected proprietor, Mr. Newbery."
and his death notice:
Small article from Exeter & Plymouth Gazette (Saturday January 20, 1849) in Deaths column:
"Jan.16, at Ottery St. Mary, Mr. Samuel Murch, in the 71st years of his age.  He was employed 44 years in the Ottery Factory, - the last 26 years in the silk department of the present proprietor.  He was a trustworthy and faithful servant."

Samuel had his faith to sustain him.  Or did he? It seems as though the Murches were constantly searching for ‘the truth’.  The Murch family were nonconformists: Protestant Dissenters, then Presbyterians, then Congregationalists – and nonconformists were often associated with being hard workers and entrepreneurs.


Samuel features in the Murch Surname Study.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: R is for Robert Murch 1687

Robert is my  7 x great grandfather.  He is also one of my ‘brick wall ancestors’.  A ‘brick wall ancestor’ is usually an end-of-line ancestor – the furthest back you can go on one particular line; you’ve looked and looked and looked, and you just can’t find a connection to go further back.  Robert lived in Ottery St Mary, Devon, England (I think).  He certainly married there: 24 December 1712 to Elizabeth Bastone (whose parents were Gideon and Mary Bastone).  He certainly had children there: Mary 1713, Elizabeth 1716, John 1718, Gideon 1721, Robert 1723, and Josiah 1725.

But as for his parents?  Well, there’s a Robert christened 22 February 1682, with parents Robert and Dorothy.  And there’s another Robert, with father Emanuell.  Which one do you think is ‘my’ Robert? Or should I just keep looking?

Robert features in the Murch Surname Study
.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: H is for Hephzibah Murch 1840

Hephzibah Murch was born 9 January 1840 in Ottery St Mary, Devon, England to Samuel Murch and Johanna Yeates.  In the 1851 census, she is living with her parents and siblings in Yonder Street, Ottery St Mary, only five doors down from the Independent chapel, and is a lacemaker at the young age of 11.  She is still there in 1861, but is now a silk weaver.

Hephzibah married Charles Walter Bovett from Wellington in Somerset on 6 June 1862 in Ottery St Mary, and all eleven of her children were also born in Ottery St Mary.  The children didn't all stay in Ottery St Mary, however; Charlotte went to Wales, and Lucy went to Massachusetts!

If you are wondering where the name comes from: 'Hephzibah' is from the Bible.  She was the wife of Hezekiah, King of Judah, and was the mother of Manasseh.


Hephzibah Murch features in the Murch Surname Study, and can be found on WikiTree as Murch-110.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: G is for Gideon Murch christened 1721

(btw, this is the Gideon who was father to ‘C is for Child Murch’)


Gideon Murch was christened 10 May 1721 in Ottery St Mary. His parents were Robert Murch and Elizabeth Bastone, and Gideon was their fourth child (and second son). His baptism took place in the local Church of England church, as his family were Protestant Dissenters.

He became a weaver when he grew up, so it is assumed he was also apprenticed as such as a young boy. Apprenticeships usually lasted seven years, during which the apprentice was not allowed to marry, and (depending on his master) his behaviour would have been strictly proscribed.

Gideon was aged about 12 when the first key invention made itself known in weaving. John Kay's 'flying shuttle' impacted the lives of both Gideon and his father Robert. At first, the new shuttle must have been awe-inspiring, allowing weavers to move faster and complete wider cloths. The way Gideon had learned to weave was with a bobbin holding yarn which was pushed from side to side by hand across a series of taut
strings of yarn which made up the warp of the cloth. This technique sometimes even needed two weavers, one on each side, to catch the bobbin with the weft yarn, if the piece of weaving was so wide that one person could not stretch across it. John Kay’s ‘flying shuttle’ changed all that. Only one weaver was needed, because all he had to do was move a lever, and the bobbin would throw itself across the warp.

The 'flying shuttle' was connected by cords, so it did not need a second person standing opposite; a single weaver could manoeuvre the shuttle. The cords were attached to something called a ‘picking peg’, which itself was attached to shuttle boxes on both sides of the piece of fabric being woven. These boxes were attached to each other by a long board, known as a ‘shuttle race’. If a weaver became skilled at using the ‘flying shuttle’, he could even weave the cloth using only one hand.  

Flying Shuttle marked at ' I '

Gideon features in the Murch Surname Study.

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved

A-Z Challenge 2016: C is for Child Murch buried 1750

No, this isn't some sort of weird-and-wonderful name in my family tree, but a rather sad tale.  Gideon Murch and his wife, Elizabeth, had eight children.  Or did they?  Gideon and Elizabeth were nonconformists, and records of their children's baptisms exist in the nonconformist registers.  However, a burial also occurs which makes me wonder if all of their first three children survived.

Gideon and Elizabeth were married in 1744 in Ottery St Mary, Devon, England.  Their first child, Elizabeth, arrived in 1745, followed by baby Samuel in 1748, and James in 1749.  But then there is a curious 1750 entry in the burial register: A child of Gideon Murch.  So who was it? Elizabeth, Samuel, or James (or even a sickly baby)?  The clerk at the time did not even leave a clue as to the gender of the buried child, and I have a dreadful feeling that the nonconformist graveyard in Ottery St Mary has been concreted over.  (Hopefully, someone can tell me otherwise).

So, somewhere, there is a poor little mite (boy or girl) who was buried under the name 'Child'.  Almost like those parents who register the birth of their child without having given it a name yet, so in the indexes it is down as 'Male' or 'Female'.  At least by modern 1822, the burial register said "infant son of Samuel and Mary Murch".

© 2016 Ros Haywood. All Rights Reserved