Hi All I have been researching my ancestors the Miles and Smiths. John Miles married Matilda Smith. John's parents William Miles and Mary Collins. Matilda's parents Jethro Smith and Hester (Ester) Bond. What I would like to know is, on John and Matilda marriage cert it states they were married Baptist Meeting Place, where is this? In the 1881 census it has John as a shopkeeper Witney Road Standlake, could this be in another district. Jethro and Hester were farmers of 126 acres, are there any deeds relating to property and are they easily obtainable. Most of my research has been with ancestory, but I would like to get more of a picture on my ancestors. Thanking you and looking forward to any hints you may have. Shazza
Standlake is just down the road from Witney. http://www. standlakepc.org.uk/ space inseerted- they have ads. This is an interesting website: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22823 Marriages Mar 1853 MILES John Witney 3a-757 SMITH Matilda Witney 3a-757 .................. 1851 Jethro Smith 61,Hester Smith 52 Winifred B.Smith 25, Matilda Smith 22,Jemima Smith 12,Rebecca Smith 10, HO107; Piece: 1731; Folio: 229; Page: 4;
Hello shazza and welcome to the forum Doesn't it say on the certificate? If the certificate is one obtained from the General Register Office or the local registrar, I'd expect it to be more specific about where the marriage was. From the reference Wendy found in the index of marriages, it was somewhere in the Witney registration district, which covered all the places on this list: http://www. ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/districts/witney.html There was a Baptist chapel in Brighthampton (which is where Jethro Smith was living in 1841 and 1851) from the 1830s. I don't know if it would have been licensed for marriages though. If not then the likeliest place for John Miles and Matilda Smith to have married would be the nearby Cote Baptist chapel. You can read about it here: www. hct.org.uk/sites/hct.../A_Brief_Guide_to_Cote_Baptist_Chapel.pdf Jethro Smith may have been a tenant farmer: much of the land in that area was owned by Oxford colleges, I think. You may be able to find out exactly where he lived, and who owned the property, from tithe and/or enclosure records if they exist and cover the right date and area. To make things more complicated, Brighthampton was partly in the parish of Standlake and partly in Bampton. From the census it looks like Jethro was in the Bampton part. You could try the subscription site The Genealogist, which has a lot of tithe records now.
From a printed index to Oxfordshire probate records 1733-1857, Jethro Smith, farmer of Brighthampton, left a will, which was proved in 1854 at Oxford. (In those days probate was dealt with at ecclesiastical courts.) It doesn't seem to be one of the wills that's been transcribed on the Oxfordshire FHS website. However, you should be able to get a copy from the subscription/pay site Origins.net: http://www. origins.net/help/aboutNWI-oxf.aspx
Excitingly, it appears that Jethro Smith kept a diary! I have no idea if the original still survives, but the Oxfordshire History Centre does have notes on the diary by Frank Cull as part of his collection of material on the history of Standlake. The notes, made c.1925, form part of P4/1/MS3/1, and are described in the History Centre catalogue as 'Diary of Jethro Smith 1820-1841: Parish Constable's Expenses; The Poor's Rights; Tree Cutting Items; Rates; Taxes and Tithes; Farming Operations; Statute Hiring; Rents and Common Rights; Builders'; Carpenters' and Sawyers' Work; Farm Purchases and Sales; Stock Breeding.' This description is from the Oxfordshire Heritage Search database, which you can find here: http:// tinyurl.com/mh8t96f The History Centre staff may be able to advise on how extensive the notes are and how much they would charge for copying them for you.
I think that the meeting house might have been on the site of the present Baptist chapel in Witney Road, Duckington, which l think is within the Witney registration district.
I have sent a private message suggesting that the meeting house might have been on the site of the present Baptist chapel in Witney Road, Duckington, which l think is within the Witney registration district. However, on re-reading the question I now see that Witney Road is mentioned in 1881, whereas the marriage took place in 1853 (?) There was no Baptist chapel (as such) in Witney, although Baptists may have worshipped in the "Independent" chapel. The marriage must therefore have taken place in a nearby village - the obvious candidate being Cote, which is quite near Standlake.
The Victoria County History says that the Brighthampton Baptist chapel, on the Abingdon Road, was built 1832. A Baptist chapel can be seen on the Abingdon Road on old Ordnance Survey maps. It is still there on the 1973 map, near Yew Tree Farm (see Old Maps website). There's a nice aerial photo on Britain From Above: http://www. britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw046551?gazetteer=West%20Oxfordshire&ADMIN_AREA=West%20Oxfordshire&ref=102 It may not have been licensed for marriages at the time John Miles and Matilda Smith married, though, in which case Cote seems the likeliest alternative (see post #3).
Nope - how exciting a diary! Even if it is just the notes from the original as Hunc says, even so. Whoop te do.
Wow Huncamunca I am really excited about this diary, which I will get onto and see if I can obtain a copy. I have
Hi All Have contacted the History Centre and they say they will answer e-mail within 7 days, there were three results on the search, Recognizance of Amos and Jethro Smith - defendant John Smith, that may be interesting. Jethro's marriage licence and of coarse the diary. Am having issues with the link for the will, will try again to-day. Once again a huge thankyou to Huncamunca and to Euryalus for putting me onto this site. Never expected any of this especially a diary, still can't wipe the smile off my face. Will definitely let you all know the outcome. Cheers Shazza
Hi All Just to let you know, I now have a copy of Jethro's will and his diary. Jethro did okay in his life and I am really glad about that. Just a snippet, in 1832 he had 162 pounds in his savings account. From the will it does look as though he owned the land. Jethro was a widower when he married my gggrandmother Hester Bond, so now I am interested to find who is first wife was and how come he owned this land, because it doesn't seem that his brothers did, so it wasn't a family concern. I am stoked about all of this. Would like to thankyou all once again. Special thanks to Huncamunka for a job well done because I would never have found any of this. Cheers Shazza Australia
Hi Shazza, Both of Jethro's marriages appear on the Oxfordshire FHS Marriage Index as follows: 10 January 1828 at Standlake Jethro SMITH, w, & Hester BOND (which of course you already know about), but here's the entry for the first marriage 3 September 1814 at Oxford St Peter B Jethro SMITH & Elizabeth HICKMAN Janet
Thank you for the update, shazza: I'm glad you managed to get copies of the will and diary extracts. Jethro certainly seems to have done well for himself, doesn't he? £162 would have been a great deal of money in 1832. It will be interesting to investigate when he first acquired the property. There may well be clues in other documents at the History Centre: many of the things there aren't catalogued in enough detail to tell you names mentioned in them . . . and not all the catalogues are on Heritage Search. I believe there is some sort of card index there, compiled by one Brigadier Goadby, about properties in Standlake. The Brigadier did much research on the parish. You might get other ideas for sources for research from a CD that was produced a few years ago, an 'Oxfordshire Parish Package' for Standlake. Some of the text from the CD is online here, but it looks like the original would have had more data on it: www. pagetoscreen.net/parish/standlake/standlake.pdf I have a vague idea that there used to be a copy of the CD at Witney Library. I haven't seen it for a long time, and can't see it in the online library catalogue, but it may well still be there somewhere. I'll investigate!
