Centenarian Peter Pentury - or was he? 1796-1897

One thing you will learn if you start to track down your ancestors is that their names are spelt, or presented, differently at every opportunity!  My own G-grandmother dropped her first name, got married, then on her gravestone her middle name had been used, along with a "new/invented" middle initial!

Even the press don't get things right.  I was browsing through some random old newspapers earlier and found an announcement of a Peter Pentury, in Norfolk, who had reached the age of 100 in 1896  I do like those - I always check to see how old they did get to before they died.

The newspaper said: "There is now living in Grassenhall workhouse, Norfolk, a pauper named Peter Pentury, who has attained the age of 100 years.  The register of Mattishall parish church, in the same county, certifies that he was baptized thereon June 28 1796.  He has been an inmate of the Grassenhall workhouse seven years, and is at the present time in the enjoyment of good health."

So I went to try to find him.  I tried FreeBMD, then FreeREG - no sign!  So I then assumed that the newspaper had spelt his name incorrectly and bingo, I found Peter Pentury, with a variety of different names/spellings, the correct spelling appears to be Peter Pentney, as that's the spelling most often used.  Pentney is a very common surname in the area, so only proper investigation of the primary data sources would prove/disprove anything, but, without that detailed information, the following might be guessed at his timeline:

• ~1796 born, according to the newspaper and censuses.
• 1851 Census: Peter Pentney was aged 50 and living as a boarder in Mattishall.
• 1856 Marriage?  There is a marriage in December 1856 that might be Peter.  FreeBMD also shows a Frances Girling who was married; it's therefore feasible that this would be Peter's marriage (although he'd be 60!).  It could be a coincidence.  If this are the couple, they've most likely been married before.  A search of the parish registers for Mitford would help.  
• 1871 Census: Peter Pantney was aged 77 and a married Agricultural Labourer living in Mattishall, Norfolk with his wife, Frances Pantney, aged 80, born in Winburgh.
• 1881 Census: Peter Pentney was an 85 year old widower living at 16 Welgate Mattishall. His birth year was given as 1796 and birthplace as Mattishall.  
• 1891 Census: Peter Pentney was aged 95 and living in Grassenhall Workhouse. 
• 1897 Death: FreeBMD had a death registration in the 3rd quarter of 1897, with Peter Pentney, registered in the Mitford district of Norfolk, aged 101.

I can find no baptism in Mattishall for Peter Pentney, nor variations, on FreeREG, but that would require research into which other churches are in the village and checking all records for all churches.  Some of this is online, but not everything is - Norfolk FHS would have copies and transcripts of those for somebody who wanted/needed to know the answer.  I am simply a casual browser.  I did find transcripts online for Mattishall, but 1796 was 'missing'.  That's always annoying too, it had 1795 and 1797, just not 1796.

The Census indicates that Frances, his wife, died between 1871 and 1881.  There's no death registered on FreeBMD between these dates, but there is a Frances Pentney death registered in 1869, aged 85.

Online newspapers, from the National Newspaper Archive, did manage to spell his name correctly when they announced his death.  There are a few, brief, reports of his passing in 1897 where, in September, it was told that he'd worked until he was 96 years old as a navvy and had been "hale and hearty" and never ill until two years previously.  The newspapers also reported a death, aged 98, of Robert Pentney in 1863 - I'd probably lay money on that being his father, although there were gaps in the records I could see of baptisms at Mattishall, the Pentney children either side of 1796 were to parents Robert and Hannah!  More poking around to be done for any family members that discovered that.

For anybody serious in pursuing the actual timeline, this is where things start to require a more serious approach and attention to detail, along with proof/evidence paperwork (aka: spending money!).  Although there are probably some online trees containing this couple, you have to also question how dedicated they are in getting the facts.  A grandchild, for example, might have 'bothered'; a 4th cousin 3x removed will have simply chucked it into their tree!

So, my interest in this centenarian is at an end - I got distracted by this (it happens all the time!).  So many intriguing stories.  It's surprising how far you can go, relying purely on free parish records online and family history resources.


Image Daily Mail & Empire, 15 August 1896

Bride Drowns on Day Before Wedding in Fen Ditton Ferry Tragedy

You'll find yourself being intrigued by many stories you stumble across - nothing to do with your family, but they intrigue you.  The online newspapers are the most common way to discover these old events.  One of my areas of research is Chesterton, Cambridge and, as it's alongside the river, drownings and bodies found in the river are a regular occurrence.

Grave of Violet Maude Handscomb.
Victim of ferry tragedy, 1905.

One such event occurred on Saturday 10 June 1905.  My great-grandparents were living in Chesterton in 1905, my grandmother had just been born in May 1905, so they will have known about this tragedy - they might even have been at the riverside when it occurred, although a mile or two downstream!  Below is a transcription, from PapersPast, although there are several reports of the tragedy available on FindMyPast:

DROWNED ON HER WEDDING EVE.

There was a melancholy ending to the May boat races at Cambridge. A ferry overturned and three lives were lost.
The accident happened at Ditton Plough, where the ferry consists of a flat-bottomed pontoon, which is drawn across the river by a chain. The last racing boat had passed, there was a rush to cross to the Chesterton side, and the ferry was filled. When nearing midstream the ferry turned over and sank, about twenty persons being thrown into deep water. Several young men pluckily dived in and rescued all they could see.
One young woman, who belongs to Bishop's Stortford*, and who was witnessing the races with her fiance was brought ashore exhausted and insensible. She was revived by means of artificial respiration, and was subsequently removed from the Plough Inn to a house in Fenn Ditton, but died at midnight.
In two other cases efforts to restore consciousness proved unsuccessful, the victims being Mrs. Thompson, of Malta Road, Cambridge,  who was only recently married, and Miss Murkin, of Selwyn Terrace, Newnham, who was to have been married the following day to Mr. Ebenezer George Reece, of Swansea, who was on the bank at the time of the accident.
There was a similar accident with this ferry about twenty years ago, but only one life was lost on that occasion.

You then find yourself finding out more about these people, abandoning your own family research to chase the interesting story you found!  It's good to have a break though.  I used the Camdex online BMD system and FreeBMD to try to find more details:

• FreeBMD has the death of a Minnie Murkin, aged 26, registered in the second quarter of 1905 at Chesterton. The Camdex reference for Minnie's death registration in 1905 was 331/FUL/29/351. 
• FreeBMD has the death of a Annie Maria Thompson, aged 20, registered in the second quarter of 1905 at Chesterton. The Camdex reference for Annie's death registration in 1905 was 331/FUL/29/352.  The GRO Index gives her age as 20. 

You'll notice the two deaths were registered one after the other as the entry numbers were 351 and 352. 

I then tried to find the marriage of Annie Maria Thompson.  My first port of call to look up Cambridgeshire marriages is the online Camdex system as this pairs up the married couple, so can be easier to use than FreeBMD.  This gave me one potential candidate:

• Annie M Sheehan who married John W Thompson in 1904. Camdex ref number 331/CE042/01/22, which was at Cambridge St Philip.  I've built up a list of Camdex codes for the parishes, over time, so that information is from my own research.  

Next I checked FreeBMD and that gave me the same result:

• John William Thompson married Annie Maria Sheehan in the 3rd quarter of 1904.

So between Camdex and FreeBMD it looks like this is the lady who drowned on the ferry in May 1905.

*The third victim of this ferry accident, whose name wasn't listed in the newspapers was Violet Maude Handscomb, aged 22.  Looking for records of Violet, I found the following on FreeBMD and Camdex:

• FreeBMD had the death registered as Violet M Handscomb, aged 22, registered in Chesterton district.  Camdex has the same information recorded, with a reference number of 331/FUL/29/350 - again, you'll see that the reference number of 350 shows that all three victims of the Plough Ferry disaster were registered at the same time.

Violet Handscomb was buried at Bishops Stortford New Cemetery, Hertfordshire, England.
Violet Maud Handscombe, 1883-1905.

Violet was the only daughter of Albert Handscombe, a builder of Church Street, Chelmsford. Violet was a dressmaker and was due to be married in November and was on a day trip to visit her fiance.  Albert Handscombe had already previously lost his only son in an accident.

John Thompson had been on board the ferry and had tried to rescue his wife, but failed to do so.

Minnie Murkin was a nurse - she was identified by her sister-in-law, Annie Murkin.

I find it fascinating researching the stories that got into the newspapers as they are events I know my ancestors will have been aware of and had conversations about with family, friends and neighbours!

The location of this tragedy is The Plough, at Fen Ditton - nowadays still a great riverside pub.  The ferry operated until 1961, when it finally sank.

Image (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Geograph

John Stokes, Upton, Huntingdonshire. 1801-1847

One of the things that can trip you up in genealogy is eagerly pouncing on a chap from the past and sticking them into your family tree!  Indeed, you need as much evidence as possible that somebody with a matching name is "your" ancestor and not simply a chap of the same name that moved into the village in the past 10-20 years, or was born into a related family in similar years.

Ancestors often have a limited number of names and parish records are incomplete, or missing.  Often you'll find yourself collecting lots of random finds and information over time, hoping that one day you'll have enough information to dismiss or confirm one.

In my tree is John Stokes.  I believe "my" John Stokes was born in Bourn, but he married a girl, Jane, who came from Upton.  To my knowledge he never lived in Upton, Hunts, but, it's interesting to note that the name John Stokes was very common in the area at the time.  Indeed, in just one newspaper I discovered two different John Stokes' in Upton, Huntingdonshire, in one edition.

One of the John Stokes had an industrial accident when he fell off a haycart and was found.  A second John Stokes committed suicide. They are not the same man as the suicide inquest was held on the Monday of the week and the second John Stokes had his accident (and lived) on the Tuesday.

The John Stokes who committed suicide was reported as being 46 years old in 1847, so he must have been born ~1801.  The same year "my" John Stokes was born.

John Stokes who died in 1847 aged 46 at his inquest, but when he was buried the parish register said he was 43, giving a birth date of ~1804.  The parish registers seem to have no John Stokes in that parish in that year, but there was one baptised in 1806 - of course, that could be the same John Stokes but baptised at age 1-2.

And this is why tracing your family history can take years!  To try to solve this mystery takes more effort and cost than looking at free resources online! The two pieces below were reported in the local newspapers, which can be viewed online through GenesReunited, Findmypast or on the NewspaperArchives sites:

Inquest of John Stokes, August 1847:  

Upton, Hunts. —An inquest was held on Monday last, by John Beedham, gent, coroner, on the body of Mr. John Stokes, aged 46, who was found on Sunday by Thomas Casledme between two bushes near Coppingford Wood, with his throat cut through  his neckerchief, dividing the caroted artery on the left jugular, the razor lying near his right hand, and having 7s. Id, in his pocket. From evidence, it was clear to the jury that he had destroyed himself.  

Verdict, temporary insanity.

As for the other John Stokes, who also isn't in my tree:

Accident.—On Tuesday last, as John Stokes labourer, was about to cut a hay rick belonging to Mr. Colson, butcher, situate near the road, he was seized with a giddiness  in the load, and fell helplessly to the ground. Being a stout, heavy man, fell with great force and received a severe injury in his back and loins, and now lies in a dangerous state in the Infirmary. His bay knife fell on him, and has slightly hurt his mouth, only fortunately falling with the edge uppermost. Considering his severe injuries, it is astonishing how was able to get home without assistance.