Person:William Puckeridge (1)

William Puckeridge was not his name, to begin with. However, the surname he inherited and any forename his mother may have given him are lost.

On 18th October 1817 a woman died suddenly at the Anchor public house at Puckeridge in the parish of Standon, Hertfordshire. She left a child, but no-one knew who she had been, and therefore they also did not know the name of her boy. She was said to have been on the road to London; the Anchor was on the main road from Cambridge to London. The records do not tell us how old her boy was. Presumably he was not so old as to have enough speech to help shed any light on his or his unfortunate mother's identities. He could have been as young as new-born. One imagines the authorities in Standon trying to establish who he was and whether any family could be identified to come and take on the care of this motherless boy. They do not appear to have succeeded. Just under three months after his mother's death he was baptised at Standon by the vicar, Henry Law, when he was named William Puckeridge, being given as his new surname the name of the village in which his mother had died.

William appears to have grown up in Standon, although records have yet to be found identifying who took on the responsibility for bringing him up. The 1841 census finds William as a young man working as an agricultural labourer and living in Standon at the hamlet of Bromley, apparently lodging with a couple called David and Ann Scrips and some other agricultural labourers.

On 31st December 1844, aged at least 27, William was married at Standon to a widow called Sarah Day, formerly Sell (or possibly Lee). William and Sarah had a daughter, Susannah in 1846, who sadly died at the age of two, and a daughter Eliza born in 1848. The 1851 census finds them living at High Cross, another hamlet in Standon parish, along with with Sarah's father, one of her children from before they married, and their daughter Eliza.

Sarah died in 1852, when she was said to be 50 years old.

After Sarah's death, William moved about twenty miles west to the town of Luton in Bedfordshire. He was married there on 20th July 1857 to a widow called Charlotte Kempson, who had been married twice before. There was quite an age gap between them; she was 64 when they married (although claimed to be 55 on their marriage certificate) and he was about 40.

The 1861 census finds William, Charlotte and his daughter Eliza living over 100 miles further west at Yarkhill in Herefordshire. 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.

William and Charlotte's movements after 1861 are uncertain. There was a death of a William Puckridge in London in 1863 which would appear to be the most plausible explanation for what became of him, although no further trace of Charlotte has yet been found.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Baptisms register, in Standon, Hertfordshire, England. Parish Registers (Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies / findmypast.co.uk).

   BAPTISMS solemnized in the Parish of Standon in the County of Hertford in the Year 1818
   No. 239 / Jan[uar]y 4 / William Puckeridge a child of a woman who died suddenly at Puckeridge October 18 1817 name & place of abode unknown / H. Law, Vicar

   William's mother's burial is recorded thus:
   BURIALS in the Parish of Standon in the County of Hertford in the Year 1818 [sic - clear from pages before and after that this page is actually 1817]
   No. 140 / A woman unknown died at Puckeridge at the Anchor in her road to London / Oct[ober] 22d / H. Law, Vicar

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 434; Book 11; Folio 23; Page 2, 6 Jun 1841.

   Address: Bromley, Standon, Hertfordshire
   David Scrips, male, 40 [1796-1801], Ag[ricultural] Lab[ourer], born in county
   Ann Scrips, female, 45 [1791-6], born Scotland
   David Scrips, male, 12 [1828/9], born in county
   William Carrell, male, 65 [1771-6], Ag[ricultural] Lab[ourer], born in county
   Jeremiah Raymond, male, 67 [1773/4], Ag[ricultural] Lab[ourer], born in county
   Will[ia]m Puckeridge, male, 20 [1816-21], Ag[ricultural] Lab[ourer], 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 1705; Folio 538; Page 21, 30 Mar 1851.

   Address: High Cross, Standon, Hertfordshire
   James Lee, head, married, male, 70 [1780/1], Labourer, b. Standon, Hertfordshire
   William Puckeridge, son in law, married, male, 37 [1813/14], Labourer, b. Standon, Hertfordshire
   Sarah Puckeridge, daughter, married, female, 47 [1803/4], b. Standon, Hertfordshire
   Ann Day, granddaughter, unmarried, female, 11 [1839/40], b. Standon, Hertfordshire
   Eliza Puckeridge, granddaughter, unmarried, female, 3 [1847/8], b. Standon, Hertfordshire

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

5. ↑ Deaths index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   d. William PUCKRIDGE, June Quarter 1863, Newington Registration District, Volume 1d, page 181, aged 64 [1798/9]

   Appears to be only plausible death index entry, and cannot see an alternative William Puck(e)ridge in the 1861 census who might be the person who died in 1863.