It proved something of a challenge to trace back from my 2x great-grandfather James HADEN. Known information was that he was born about 1832 in Old Swinford, Staffordshire/Worcestershire and that he had an older sister, Mary, born about 1817. Mary married Henry Haywood.
James was living with the Haywoods in 1851 and he had married by 1858, when his first child was born. His wife, listed on census records as Mary, was born about 1836 in Nottinghamshire.
It should be simple to trace James’s marriage. Birth certificates for two of his children give their mother’s maiden name as Henstock/Hanstock. However, there appears to be no marriage of a Mary HENSTOCK and James HADEN (or variations) on either FreeBMD or Find My Past. Nor is there an entry in the Heath Town parish registers with these names.
I have found a Mary HENSTOCK on the 1851 census, aged 14, and living in Springfields, Wolverhampton, as a servant to John and Jane Beddow. Her birthplace is given as Nottingham so this would appear to be the correct person but the marriage with James HADEN seemed elusive.
There is a marriage in the local parish registers that looks as if it would fit, apart from the bride’s name being recorded as Harriet Mary GELL (no father listed, although it appears that the vicar began to write the name “Abraham” before crossing it out). She is recorded as a spinster, which rules out a widow remarrying. I can’t find a Harriet Mary Gell on any previous census returns, nor can I find further evidence of James and Harriet together so it was all something of a puzzle.
I first made a bit more progress on this line by pursuing his sister Mary’s marriage. She is recorded in the GRO index marrying Henry Heywood in 1840 but her surname is recorded as YEADON rather than HADEN. This isn’t a variation I’d thought of checking before.
A copy of the marriage certificate gives her father as Edward YEADON, labourer. This enabled me to find the Yeadon family on the 1841 census and I have found baptisms and marriages on FamilySearch that seems to fit. It looks as if James was descended from William YEADON, a clockmaker who is first recorded in Stourbridge (Old Swinford) in 1743.
One of his clocks was featured on the website of the late Brian Loomes (1938-2021), clock dealer and author. He mentions having found an apprenticeship record for William Yeadon in London and speculates that William may have come from Yorkshire where the Yeadon name is common. Although the original website no longer exists, there is an archived version accessible via the Wayback Machine.
Other clocks and watches known to have been sold at auction include:
- George III oak thirty hour longcase clock by W. Yeadon, Stourbridge. The flat topped hood with moulded cornice and column pilasters to the four angles flanking a square brass dial with signed and silvered Roman chapter ring enclosing a matted centre with date aperture and pierced steel pointers, the spandrels cast with urns and ho-ho birds, the movement striking a bell, on a plain trunk and plinth, pendulum bob lacking, and with a lead weight 81in. (205.7cm.) high. Sold by Christie’s, Lot 73, Live Auction 7776, 15 September 1998. Estimate: £700-£1100. Hammer price: £805.
- George III provincial oak longcase clock William Yeadon of Stourbridge. The moulded straight cornice over a brass dial with Arabic and Roman chapters, 8 day movement, date aperature and subsidiary seconds dial, flanked by doric three quarter columns, over a straight case with moulded arch door and raised on bracket feet. 49cm wide, 190cm high, 58cm deep. Sold by Lyon & Turnbull, 30 March 2011. Price: £938, including buyer’s premium.
- A George III provincial oak long case clock, flat moulded pediment to hood over blind fret panel and columns flanking a square brass dial with silvered chapter ring, inscribed ‘Yeadon Stourbridge’ (William Yeadon, mid 18th century), date aperture and subsidiary dial, cast spandrels, eight-day movement striking on single bell, 195cm (76 3/4in) high. Lot 342, sold by Holloway’s, Banbury on 29 May 2012, estimate £400-£600.
- William Yeadon, Stourbridge, an oak and mahogany longcase clock the thirty-hour duration full-plate movement striking the hours on a bell with the ten-inch square brass dial having a raised chapter ring engraved with black Roman numerals, flame half-hour markings and makers name Yeadon, Stourbridge, the centre with engraved decoration and date aperture, with blued-steel hands and cast-brass female-head corner spandrels, the oak case with mahogany cross-banding and swan-neck pediment, height 214cm. Sold by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, Lot 600, The Spring Auction, 16 April 2024. Hammer price: £90.
- An early 19th Century oak and mahogany crossbanded longcase clock, by W. Yeadon Stourbridge, thirty hour striking movement with silvered chapter ring, seconds subsidiary dial and date aperture, engraved centre enclosed by a glazed pillar hood over short trunk door on canted plinth case and bracket feet, height 200cm. Lot 769, sold by Fieldings, Stourbridge, 11 July 2024. Estimate: £100-£150. Hammer price: £55.
- An early 19th Century pair cased verge pocket watch with shaped square pillar supporting back plate marked William Yeadon, Stourbridge, Arabic numerals to a white enamelled dial and silver case, with associated brass outer case. Lot 706, sold by Fieldings, Stourbridge, 7 Dec 2013.
- A silver pair cased, key wind, openfaced pocket watch, with chain, key and seal. The gilt fusee movement with a verge escapement, detailed to the back plate Wm Yeadon, Stourbridge, the enamelled dial with black Roman hour numerals and Arabic minute numerals, the inner case London 1755, the outer case unmarked, 4.9cm across, fitted with a steel chain and monogram seal engraved pendant seal and with a watch key. Lot 217, sold by Bellmans, Billingshurst, 15 January 2024.
I still struggled to find James’s marriage to Mary HENSTOCK though. I kept being drawn to the marriage of James HADEN and Harriet Mary GELL at Holy Trinity, Heath Town, Staffordshire on 10th August 1857 but couldn’t explain the discrepancy in the bride’s name. The breakthrough came thanks to information from fellow Haden researcher, Jacky.
Jacky found that Harriet Mary GELL was baptised in 1836 to her single mother, Elizabeth, and that Elizabeth married Abraham HENSTOCK a few months later. She was subsequently recorded on census returns under the name Henstock but married under the name by which she had been baptised (Gell). It therefore seems conclusive that Mary HENSTOCK and Harriet Mary GELL are one and the same!
Further evidence for this is that the newly-digitised birth indexes, available via gro.gov.uk and which include maiden names of mothers, gives the maiden name of GELL for the birth of James and Mary’s first child, Elizabeth, born in 1858.
DNA evidence seems to confirm that Abraham Henstock was the birth father of Harriet Mary Gell.
Photo credit: Wolverhampton Archives & Local Studies, Creative Commons Licence CC BY-NC-SA 2.0