Harwood Notes

Harwood

The Harwoods proved a particularly difficult family to set in the ancestry frame. For many months I had a tree which later I had to scrap. Fortunately another living Harwood came to my rescue who had researched her Sussex forebears more directly. So I am indebted for much of the accompanying chart to Jane Bruce.

Emily Annie Harwood married William James Osborn on 15/7/1882 at West Ham Parish Church. She became an SCM Great Grandmother on the birth of George Ernest in 1891. She had been born on 10/3/1857 at Victoria Terrace, Stratford, the daughter of George and Phillis. She was the youngest daughter of the George and Phillis family. She had a sister Elizabeth, older by 14 years; and a brother, George, 5 years her senior, who was born in Stratford and descibed in 1871 as a boat-builder and as a barge-builder at his marriage. Elizabeth had been born in Reigate in 1842, but her birth certificate does not name a father.

George had been christened on 3/12/1820 in Horsham, Sussex; he was described as a labourer at the time of his marriage ; as an ostler in the 1861 census; and as a coachman at the time of Emily Ann`s marriage, though he had died before the 1871 census, probably in 1870.

Brother George married Jane Randall in 1874, producing three children, Jane, Thomas and William before he died in 1880. His widow at age 28 and the children went to live with Phillis. Thomas became a carpenter,and a master carpenter, moving around for his work quite a bit, explaining the variety of birth addresses for the sons. However at the marriage of his son Reginald George, an organist, in 1924, he is described as a schoolmaster.

Returning to Great x 2 Grandfather George, husband of Phillis: George`s father had been William, a sawyer, who married Elizabeth Toolett in Horsham in 1820. It was at this point that my assumptions went astray for a long time; I had picked on one born in Stopham and believed him to have remarried after the death of Elizabeth, producing two families who did not quite match later census returns. In fact the correct William was born in Ashington, son of Edward.

Phillis`s forename and surname vary on different occasions: her christening is given as Philey Hitchcock in Etchingham on 3rd April 1814. In her marriage certificate she has become Philadelphia Hiscock; her father is Robert Hiscock on the marriage certificate. Robert Hitchcock is named as the father of all his ten children in Etchingham, Salehurst and Burwash in the IGI records; Jane 1800 & Philey 1814 are also Hitchcock, but all the other children are Hiscock. A chronological summary of these christenings gives:- 1794 John in Salehurst; 1797 Mary in Burwash; 1800 to 1816, 8 other children in Etchingham. Quite a lot over a long period but they seem perfectly acceptable as the same family. The 1841 census also gives the Hiscock surname for Robert , where the ages of Sarah and James match IGI data.

An extra piece of Harwood history was mentioned by Jane Bruce. She remembers Stanley and Joan well; they lived in Brighton and they had five daughters; one of their daughters Norma, had a daughter Clare Connor, who received the OBE after she captained the England's women's cricket team to beat the Australians for the Ashes in 2005, and has been the first woman to be appointed to the committee of the International Cricket Council. Incidentally, she attributed much of her enthusiasm for the game to her father who played for the Preston Nomads in the South Downs for 35 years.

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