Person:Charlotte Sinfield (1)

Charlotte Sinfield was baptised on 9th June 1793 at Little Brickhill in Buckinghamshire, daughter of a labourer called John Sinfield and his wife Jane.

Charlotte's next sighting is on 14th March 1810, when she married a widower called James Hemmings. Their marriage licence says that they were both living in Little Brickhill at the time of their marriage. Charlotte and James appear to have had at least nine children together. They had a son baptised at Bow Brickhill in 1814, then another son of Little Brickhill in April 1817, after which they moved to Tilsworth in Bedfordshire, where they had another son baptised in August 1817 (suggesting that the son baptised in April Little Brickhill must have been a few months old at least, as Charlotte must have been already pregnant with the boy who would be baptised in August at Tilsworth). The rest of Charlotte and James's children were baptised at Tilsworth.

The 1841 census finds Charlotte, James and their children living at Tilsworth, with James working as an agricultural labourer. James died immediately after that census, being buried at Tilsworth just five days later. He was said to be 61 years old.

Charlotte's daughter Mary married a Joseph Kempson, with whom she had three children. Mary died in 1843, aged 24. Charlotte appears to have looked after at least one of her motherless grandchildren. The 1851 census finds Charlotte living with her granddaughter Ann Kempson at Totternhoe, just south of Tilsworth. Both Charlotte and Ann were working as straw plaiters.

On 1st April 1852 Charlotte married again. Her second husband was a widower called William Kempson, who was uncle to the Joseph Kempson who had earlier married Charlotte's late daughter Mary. They married at Totternhoe. William died just under four years later, on 2nd March 1856, collapsing suddenly in a meadow where he had gone to fetch water.

The following year, Charlotte married for a third time. Her husband was a William Puckeridge, who was several years her junior. They married in Luton, the market town a few miles east of Totternhoe and Tilsworth. William worked building the railways, and the 1861 census finds them over 100 miles west of Luton at Yarkhill in Herefordshire, along with William's daughter Eliza from his first marriage. The Hereford and Worcester Railway was being built through the parish at that time, and William was one of several railway labourers living at "Poppinger Railway Hut" with their families on census night. Presumably this was a temporary camp for the railway builders. The Hereford and Worcester Railway opened later in 1861.

Charlotte has yet to be traced after 1861. There is a death for a William of a plausible age in the London area in 1863, but no remotely plausible death for Charlotte has yet been found.

1. ↑ Little Brickhill Bishop's Transcripts, in Buckinghamshire Family History Society. Buckinghamshire Baptisms Database
   D/A/T/27.

   ch. 9 Jun 1793, Little Brickhill, Buckinghamshire: Charlotte daughter of John and Jane Sinfield

   This baptism has been linked to the Charlotte who married John Hemmings, William Kempson and William Puckeridge on the basis that the adult Charlotte claimed in both the 1851 and 1861 censuses to have been born at Brickhill in Buckinghamshire (albeit she did not specify which of the three parishes of Little Brickhill, Great Brickhill or Bow Brickhill she meant), and her third marriage to William Puckeridge gave her father's name as John Sinfield. It is worth noting that her second marriage to William Kempson gave her father's name as William Sinfield, but this is considered likely to be an error.

2. ↑ England. 1841 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 5; Book 32; Folio 6; Page 6, 6 Jun 1841.

   Address: Tilsworth, Bedfordshire
   James Emmings, male, 60 [1776-81], Ag[ricultural] lab[ourer], not born in county
   Charlotte Emmings, female, 50 [1786-91], not born in county
   Jane Emmings, female, 18 [1822/3], born in county
   William Emmings, male, 14 [1826/7], born in county
   Phebe Emmings, female, 10 [1830/1], born in county
   Susanna Emmings, female, 7 [1833/4], born in county
   William Emmings, male, 8 months [1840], born in county
   Mary Kempson, female, 21 [1819/20], born in county
   Ann Kempson, female, 3 [1837/8], born in county

3. ↑ England. 1851 Census Returns for England and Wales. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 1757; Folio 23; Page 9, 30 Mar 1851.

   Address: Lower End, Totternhoe, Bedfordshire
   Charlotte Emmens, head, widow, female, 59 [1791/2], Straw Plaiter, b. Brickhill, Buckinghamshire
   Ann Kempson, daughter, unmarried, female, 13 [1837/8], Straw Plaiter, b. Tilsworth, Bedfordshire

4. ↑ England. 1861 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG9; Piece 1811; Folio 25; Page 24, 7 Apr 1861.

   Address: Poppinger Railway Hut, Yarkhill, Herefordshire
   William Puckeridge, head, married, male, 50 [1810/11], Railway Lab[ourer], b. Hertford
   Charlotte Puckeridge, wife, married, female, 54 [1806/7], Railway Lab[ourer] Wife, b. Brickell, Bedford [sic]
   Eliza Puckeridge, daughter, unmarried, female, 13 [1847/8], b. Hertford

   The Worcester and Hereford Railway passes through the parish of Yarkhill, and was under construction in 1861, opening later that year.