West Notes

West

There is little doubt about the date of birth of Elizabeth Ann West, Great Great Great Grandmother; 1791, according to her marriage entry in I.G.I., matches the only registered christening in Deal for the time - 18th March 1792. I quickly found several apparent siblings from the same batch number, all born to William and Elizabeth Wilkins in Deal between 1785 and 1795. Unfortunately two were named William and two named Harriet; and two births twice occurred within less than 9 months of each other. There were in fact two marriages in Deal between a William Wilkins and an Elizabeth, one in 1784, the other in 1787. Sorting out the two different families was not too difficult for most of the children - except, of course, for the most important one, Elizabeth. The more likely mother for her would appear, I decided, to be rather appropriately Elizabeth Muddel.

I then became indebted to Derek Miller, who spent a lot of time checking the Deal register and sorting out the respective families. He discovered that the Muddle baptisms at Ham listed by the IGI are not in the registers for Ham, which is a very small parish with only a few entries per year; the IGI batch C031744 has some 20 to 30 times the events listed than are actually in the register. These baptism are at Harrietsham not Ham.

So he identified our Elizabeth Muddle as having been born at Dover in 1768. I have now (November 2010) added a lot of information to the West chart based on his findings. You will find even more at his own website for the Muddle family.

I then received even further help identifying further early members of the West family from Josie Skilton, a Patten descendant of the Wests via the Hulberts. Until then I had been unclear about some relationships, drawing up one brief chart (B) for John West before having proved the link.

Great Great Great Grandfather Henry, the victualler, was born and lived in Deal, Kent. Josie Skilton has provided a copy of a photo of a drawing of the `Yarmouth Packet` that Henry was licensee of; and a note made in the parish council records mentioning that "Mr West, landlord of the `Yarmouth Packet`, a house much frequented by North Sea pilots, asked from London to make enquiries re body found in the sea near Margate."

Two of his sons were `mariners` in 1851; one, William Valentine, remaining as a `boatman` in 1861 and `mariner` in 1871. The second, John Percival, was working for H.M.Customs in 1861, 1871 and 1881. One son of John West - Thomas Valentine West - was also a Customs Officer.

Another son of John West was named Jack Wellard West, and Thomas Valentine West had a son named Valentine Wellard West; there were several Wellard Wests in Deal as well. I have not solved that relationship yet; but I have added a few pieces of information about other Wellard forenames, together with a link to a website which tables their relationships, showing that Henry Gammon West married Mary Prescott Wellard on 3rd Jun 1813 in St Mary's Walmer Kent. Since Henry was born on 14 Jul 1790 in Deal, he cannot have been a son of Valentine, though possibly a nephew.

Yarmouth Packet Inn, Beach Street, Deal:
copy of colour painting by J.L.Roget, 1880
Supplied by Josie Skilton.

Return to List of Names that have Notes or Open West Brief Chart A or Open West Chart 1