Leaford Notes

Leaford

These notes originally started with the information about Mary nee WADDELOW in 1841.
However at the end of 2014 I was able to draw on the researches of Paul Fiddian, who had traced back the Leaford family even further than had Joy Gambrell, who is mentioned later in these notes. He has kindly allowed me to reproduce his findings in this tree. His own website can be found at this link. These first notes are therefore drawn from Paul`s own website.

It would appear that the Leaford family were of quite humble origins, although this is based on the status of the first clearly identified members in the early 17th century. We do not know the Christian name of this first Leaford (actually recorded as Leathat) but he would have been born around 1625, possibly in Little Downham, Cambridgeshire about 3 miles north of Ely. He had two sons that we know of, John and James born around 1655 and 1657 respectively. We will concern ourselve s with the older son, as the younger son had only one child that we know of, also James, who died aged 28 with no known issue. John Leaford, born 1655 in Little Downham was living in the Fens at a particularly interesting time in local history. The first a ttempts at land drainage had begun in earnest during the 1630s led by Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford along with some gentleman adventurers (venture capitalists). Two great cuts were made in the Cambridgeshire Fens to join the river Great Ouse to the sea at King's Lynn, known as the Old Bedford River and the New Bedford River (or Hundred Foot Drain). The work was directed by engineers from the Low Countries and would have provided considerable employment locally.

Following this initial drainage the Fens were still very susceptible to flooding, so wind pumps were used to pump water away from the affected areas. However, once drained the peat shrank and so the level of the land became even lower and liable to flooding, leading to further drainage projects in the 1650s. Still the opportunity for work may have attracted the first Leafords to the area, for we cannot find any living locally before this time. Whether these Leafords actually worked on the drainage projects we do not know, but John Leaford's son John Leaford, Gentleman born 1685 was initially a common labourer on the Fens. He was employed by the Company of Adventurers to repair the river banks and in 'drowned' years would provide for his family by killing wild fowl. He bought up plots of adventurer's land cheaply when he could, and by a fortunate succession of dry seasons became quite wealthy. He built a fine brick and sashed house near the bank of the Hundred Foot River at Oxlode and lived like a rural squire, gaining promotion in the Company. In 1733 the Denver Sluice collapsed and the South Level of the Fens was flooded, so in 1740 he proposed a scheme to repair the damage but ruffled feathers by addressing this directly to the Duke of Bedford. The Company instead brought in a Swiss civil engineer, who despite adopting John's plan took the credit at the time and John resigned in 1753. By 1756 he was back in favour and was promoted as a Conservator, owned more than 200 acres (a requirement for the office) and was titled a Gentleman. Though some viewed him as a 'rich fool', as he could be arrogant and overbearing, he certainly left his mark.

His only son William Leaford born 1710 in Little Downham predeceased him as did his younger brother James Leaford born 1687. But James' only surviving son John Leaford, Yeoman born 1727 (his nephew) inherited the bulk of his estate in 1758. This included over 100 acres of land around Oxlode, and so he became a Yeoman Farmer as well as a Commissioner of the Littleport and Downham Drainage Board. Like his uncle, John lived into his seventies before leaving his estate to his only surviving son and heir James Leaford, Yeoman born 1760 in Little Downham. He was also a Yeoman Farmer and a drainage Commissioner, but he got into financial difficulties so that after he died in 1824 all his lands were auctioned off and his final total estate was worth less than £200. By 1837 his second wife Ann was living with her two teenage sons in a tiny cottage near Oxlode Farm rented for 15s/6p a year from the Corporation and by 1851 she was described as a pauper and both her sons were dead. James was succeeded by his son, another John Leaford born 1796 in Little Downham.

We know very little about this John as he died in 1840 before the first census, but as he inherited little from his father, who died when he was only 28 years old, and as he already had four children by then, life may well have been a struggle. Indeed he died aged 44 having had nine children, eight of whom were still living, and must have left the family in difficulties. In 1841 his widow Mary was still living with seven of their children, and the oldest of these James Leaford was largely supporting the family as an agricultural labourer. Mary's father Thomas and step-mother Susanna Waddelow were near neighbours in Main Street and her son John Leaford, aged 16 was recorded as their manservant. By 1851she still had six of her children living with her, the four youngest boys who were all agricultural labourers (aged 20 - 24), her eldest daughter Mary who was already widowed had a son James aged six and her youngest daughter Charlotte who was 15. They lived in Mill End and John Leaford who was also now an agricultural labourer lived next door with his wife and baby daughter. James Leaford still lived in Main Street and worked as a labourer, but was now married with two children under two years. In 1861 Mary was living at 'the end of Hopkins Hill' and was recorded as a Parish pauper, but her two youngest sons Uriah (aged 32) and William Sayers (aged 30) both agricultural labourers and both yet unmarried, still lived with her. Mary died in 1865 having survived a hard life thanks to the support of her children, who between them produced at least 46 grandchildren.

The following are my original notes.

The 1841 census shows Great Great Great Grandmother Mary living in Main Street, Downham, Cambridgeshire with 7 children. No spouse is shown as John Leaford had already died in 1840. Mary was the daughter of Thomas and Susannah Waddelow who were neighbours in Main Street along with `male servant` John Leaford, age 14, in 1841. Ten years later the five younger children are still with their mother. She is shown in the 1861 census still living in Downham, as a Parish pauper; Uriah is the only son still living with her.

Great Great Grandfather Thomas married Harriet Dorling on 2/2/1856 in the Parish Church of Freckenham in Suffolk. His residence at the time was in Little Downham in Ely, and he is described as a Labourer. Henry King and Betty Dorling were witnesses. Mary Ann was born in Freckenham and christened on 4/1/1857. The 1861 census shows this Thomas/Harriet family still living in Downham, where most of the early children were born. Thomas was an exception, being born in Sutton. Their address in Main Street Downham appears to have been next door to a harness makers shop, which may have something to do with his description at one point in his life as a groom; though mostly he declares farm labourer or gardener as his occupation. Multiple part-time occupations were certainly not uncommon. In the 1881 census this family was now living in March, at West Fen Wagon amp&; Horses. Twelve children had eventually been born by 1881.

In the 1891 census a number of discrepancies with earlier versions make one wonder whether age was affecting the Great Great Grandparents` memories. Son Thomas has apparently transposed into Joseph (or perhaps Job, from his birth certificate?), and Thomas and Harriet`s ages are both a bit astray. There seems no doubt that this is the same family, however.

Thomas and Harriet were on their own by the time of the 1901 census. By 1911, Harriet was a widow and was in the North Witchford Union Workhouse. In 1867 pauper inmates of Workhouse establishments in Cambridgeshire at 65 years and upwards amounted to about 4% of their age group. More fortunate was Waddelow, who in 1911 at the age of 85 was living with the family of his eldest niece. He was also in receipt of an Old Age Pension. In 1908 Lloyd George had introduced the Old Age Pensions Act that provided between 1s. and 5s. a week to people over seventy. These pensions were only paid to citizens on incomes that were not over 12s - some half a million men and women. To pay for these pensions David Lloyd George had to raise government revenues by an additional £16 million a year. In 1909 Lloyd George announced what became known as the People's Budget. This included increases in taxation. Whereas people on lower incomes were to pay 9d in the pound, those on annual incomes of over £3,000 had to pay 1s. 2d. in the pound. Lloyd George also introduced a new supertax of 6d. in the pound for those earning £5000 a year.

In 1885 Great Grandfather Thomas married Alice Whiskin. The Whiskins had already been extensively researched by David Whiskin, who kindly provided us with the results. By the 1891 census the Thomas/Alice family had moved to West Ham, possibly at 31 Chargeables Street, Plaistow. Thomas James (Inga`s father) was born at Biggerstaff Road, Stratford. In 1917 Thomas James married Lilian May Smith, Inga`s Mother. Their children were: Stuart, Grace, Inga and Doreen.

Stuart`s first wife, Phyllis, bore him three girls: Tricia, Susan and Nessa. Phyllis died in 1994, and Stuart re-married Joy. Nicolette was born to Tricia; Claire, Emma and Naomi to Nessa. Grace married Frederick Whitelock, and they had two children, Timothy and Anne. Anne married Stephen Gaylard and bore him Rachel and Rebekah. Timothy married Alison a bit later in life. Doreen`s first marriage brought Rhoda, who married Benet Gillespie; and they had two children, Niamh and Nathan. After the death of her first husband, Doreen married Frank Riley.

Several of Inga`s ancestors were quite prolific, and it is hardly surprising that a number of Leafords have emerged from this search that have not been easy to place. The most unexpected must have been a Thomas Arthur Leaford whose death was registered in the Havering district only one year before that of Inga`s father. Despite having a copy of his death certificate, his birth remains a mystery.

The district around Ely produced the first traces of Inga`s paternal family. Birthplaces mentioned in census returns include not only Downham, or Little Downham, but March, North Witchford, Whitemoor, and Manea; and even some places in Norfolk, Upwell and Lakes End. There is also a large Leaford family based on King`s Lynn, but with no traceable connection with Inga`s family.

Joy Gambrell, in Australia, has been able to trace back the Ely ancestors even further, with the results shown in the first chart. She has also passed to me an account of the early family, related to John Leaford of Oxlode, which I summarise as an appendix to this note.

James, eldest son of John and Mary, who with other members of his family lived in Downham, engaged mostly in agriculture, later in life apparently ran or helped to run a pub. At the age of 17, Maria, in 1871, was a schoolteacher.

Isabella, who married James, son of this James, in 1884, had already had three children by her first husband, William Lofts. She had been the daughter of a small farmer at Abisha Bridge in Downham, Thomas Gilbert, and in 1891 her eldest daughter was living with her grandmother, Rebecca Gilbert. The younger two stayed with their mother in the new family, in which Isabella bore James three more children.

Open the appendix to these Leaford Notes or return to List of Names that have Notes or Open Leaford Brief Chart A