Family History is Like a Jigsaw Puzzle

Finding pieces--little snippets of recorded information--and trying to make a complete picture. Trying to fill in the missing pieces--making assumptions--hoping that you're not distorting the real picture. I know that someday all of the pieces will be visible and known to me. But for now, the hunt and the puzzling is greatly intriguing!

Why Did Peter LeChevalier leave Tetbury for Little Washbourne?

Little Washbourne is only 4 miles NNW from Winchcombe! And Winchcombe is where two of Peter's sisters lived! (Jane LeChevalier Howman and Anne LeChevalier Harvey).

Our Ancestors in Winchcombe--Jane LeChevalier Howman (1768-1846)

Jane LeChevalier was christened 1768 in Avening, Gloucestershire, England the daughter of Peter and Ann LeChevalier. She married John Howman 30 Mar 1802 in Crudwell, Wiltshire. She lived in Winchcombe for the rest of her life. Her husband died in 1823. He left a will that I don't have yet. Jane owned an inn or pub named "The New Inn" in 1830 and "The Sun" in 1842 (from Pigot's Directories of those years). In 1838 she made a will. (See the post with her will.) In the 1841 Census, she is 70 years old, occupation given as a "spiritdealer" living with her neice Sarah Harvey (her sister Ann C. Harvey's daughter). Her residence is given as "North Street". She probably lived above the inn. (see the photo below). She died in 1846.


The Sun Inn, 14 North Street, Winchcombe, Goucestershire, England. Upper storey was residence of Jane LeChevalier Howman in the 1840s.

I did some research online on the Sun Inn.

Sun Inn, North Street, GL54 5LH

Winchcombe was a beer drinkers paradise in Victorian times. Beers could be sampled from the Brockhampton Brewery, Cheltenham Original Brewery, Flowers & Sons Stratford Brewery, Donnington Brewery and Greens Stow Brewery. Until Flowers acquired Lardner’s Brewery of Little Compton the beer drinkers of Winchcombe could also enjoy the rare Lardner’s brews at the Sun Inn. Little Compton is just over the Gloucestershire border in Warwickshire about three miles to the east of Moreton in Marsh. Today the Sun Inn still trades and offers beers from the Whitbread portfolio. The current landlords Alan and Debbie Knight have been at the Sun for 26 years. It is located just a few yards from the junction with the High Street on the western side of North Street. The ground floor window frames probably date from the early 1900's.

Map Reference: SP 025284
Owner in 1891: Lardner & Son, Compton Steam Brewery, Little Compton
Rateable value in 1891: £19.10s.0d.
Type of licence in 1891: Alehouse
Owner in 1903: Flowers & Sons, brewers, Stratford on Avon
Rateable value in 1903: £19.10s.0d.
Type of licence in 1903: Alehouse
Closing time in 1903: 11pm
Present status: Still trading
Heritage:
Phone:

Landlords:
1842 Jane (LeChevalier)Howman
1.1856 D. Harvey
2.1885 Albert William Tovey
3.1891,1903,1906,1919 William Page
4.1927 Elizabeth Page (Mrs)
5.1939 Rt. Wm. Roe
6.1974-1999 Alan and Debbie Knight

http://www.easywell.co.uk/pubs/publist/gl54-s-y.htm

Jane (Le Chevalier) Howman (1768-1846)

EXCERPTS from the Will of Jane (Le Chevalier) Howman
Daughter of Peter Le Chevalier (1742-1806)
Sister of Peter Le Chevalier (1780-1809)

Copied and Transcribed from a film in The Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT
by Eileen Cox, 2008

This Will is important because it proves that Peter Le Chevalier is of this family.
We have not been able to find his christening record which would state his parents.

Jane Le Chevalier, christened 22 Jun 1768, in Avening, Gloucestershire, England,
daughter of Peter and Anne Le Chevalier
Married 30 Mar 1802 to John Howman, Crudwell, Wiltshire, England

9 July 1846
HOWMAN Jane
This is the last Will and Testament of me Jane Howman of Winchcomb in the County of Gloucester Widow

I give devise and bequeath unto my respected Friends George Cook the elder and George Cook the younger both of Wood Stanway in the County of Gloucester Gentlemen
All those ... messuages or tenements with the gardens and appurtenances to the same respectively belonging and situate lying and being in the North Street of Winchcomb aforesaid and now in the ... occupation of William Smith Palmer and John --akman together also with all and singular my ready money for and other personal property of every description except my wearing apparel To hold my said three messuages or tenements with their appurtenances and personal property [and sell them] within twelve calendar months next after my decease ...

and divide the same equally unto and between my seven neices [sic] and nephews
Ann Catherine and Maria the three children of my Brother Peter Le Chevalier,
Caroline, Thomas and Francis the three children of my late Brother Frances LeChevalier,
and Augusta the daughter of my Brother Thomas Le Chevalier
equally to be divided between them share and share alike I give and devise unto my Nephew David Harvey of Winchcomb aforesaid—
butcher and his three sisters Ann the wife of David Harvey of Birmingham butcher,
Jane the wife of Isaac Wakefield of Birmingham Draper and
Sarah Harvey

Jane Howman, 16 Jun 1838

Witnesses: Edm. T Brown Jos. Sandford ____ Winchcomb, 3rd October 1840

Proved 9th July 1846 by George Cook the elder and George Cook the younger. Sub 2oo pounds
Testatrix died 6th June 1846

Definitions:
Messuage. A messuage is a dwelling house together with its own buildings, attached garden ground, and the surrounding land.
Appurtenences. Items that belong to another thing, such as yards and gardens belong to a building.
Assigns. Assignees, or those to whom property is transferred or those entrusted with the distribution of property or other legacies in a will.
Close. A field or piece of land separate from others or from common land and enclosed by a bank or hedge.

(Hannah) Ann Maria COOK Pedigree Chart

You can double-click on this image and it will make it larger.
As you can see, there are still ancestors to be found and work to be done.

No Burials in Little Washbourne

After we explored the church at Little Washbourne, I wandered around in the rain looking for burial stones, ie cemetery, that seemed to always be right close to the church. I found none. A few minutes later in talking with the owner of the Manor House there, I learned that there were no burials there because the water table was only down 4 feet.

So our ancestor, Peter LeChevalier, who died in Dec. 1809 was not buried in Little Washbourne where he had been renting a farm for the previous six months.

Avening Parish, Gloucestershire, England

Avening--pronounced "Av-ning" "Av" has a long A sound.

Peter LeChevalier (the father 1742-1806) bought a mill here in 1766 and owned it until he sold it in 1800.

"Of the three mills recorded in Avening village on the Avening stream, the highest, Avening Mill, (fn. 50 was a cloth-mill. In 1655...Richard's [Remington] son Samuel sold the mill in 1766 to Edmund Clutterbuck for Peter Le Chevalier, an alien. Le Chevalier, who was granted letters of denization in 1770, carried on a baking and malting business at the mill, apparently converting it to a corn-mill. He sold it in 1800 to John Blackwell of Nailsworth, clothier, who reconverted it for fulling and conveyed it to William Overbury of Tetbury, wool-stapler in 1807...In 1972 the four-storey early 19th century buildings were unoccupied." --"Avening: Economic History', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (1976), pp. 160-62. URL: http://222.british-history.ac.uk/report.

I have found three of his children's christening records here, Jane ( in 1768), Thomas (in 1771), and Anne (in 1773), but I can't find Peter (about 1779) and Francis (about 1764).

Looking for a Grave in Avening Cemetery

Peter LeChevalier, abt 1742-1806, (father of Peter LeChevalier 1783-1809) died in Avening, Gloucestershire, England in 1806. I thought we could find his grave by the church in Avening, but the cemetery was overgrown in most parts and we couldn't find his grave.

LECHEVALIER in Tetbury Census 1735

LeChevalier
in Tetbury Census 1735
found on Internet at www.geocities.com/heartland/grove/1740 (now at http://www.geocities.com/tetbury1737

Peter Lechevalier b c1779 m. c1804 to Martha Saunders.

Daughter Hannah Maria Lechevalier b.10 May 1805 Tetbury wed Joseph Peter Cook 11 Oct 1831 Charlton Kings son of James Cook who wed 17 July 1791 to Esther Portlock (not in Tetbury records)

In the Overseers of the Poor papers for Tetbury there is a settlement examination dated 30 May 1810 which reads,

Examination of Martha Le Chevalier widow of Peter Le Chevalier formerly of Tetbury but late of Little Washbourne maltster and baker deceased.

She married her husband in Crudwell, Wiltshire in 1803 by whom she has 6 children, Martha Saunders aged 8 born in Stratton St Margaret near Swindon before she was married and Ann aged 5, Jane aged 3, Catherine and Anna Maria twins aged 2 and infant male unbaptised aged 20 days.

Last Michaelmas Peter Le Chevalier took a dwelling house, malthouse, bakehouse, stable, orchard and garden in Little Washbourne at £30 a year and resided there till his death 26 Dec last.

Martha Saunders aged 8 was removed to Stratton and the rest of the family were removed from Tetbury to Little Washbourne.

Joseph Peter COOK (1805-1848)

Joseph is my 3rd great-grandfather

• Eileen dau. of Dolores Woolstenhulme
• Dolores dau. of Velma Johnson
• Velma dau. of Mary Ellen Hamblin
• Mary Ellen dau of Ann Maria Cook
• Ann Maria dau. of Joseph Peter Cook
  

SUMMARY of the Search for Joseph Peter Cook’s parents
by Eileen Cox, August 2002

In July 2002, I became interested in family history. Wondering if there was any left to be done, I learned that on my mother’s mother’s line, we had not learned the parents of Joseph Peter Cook born in 1805 in Gloucester, England. According to mother, Dolores W. Pratt’s PAF records, Joseph was born 22 Oct 1805 in the parish of Avening, Gloucester, England.

I searched the original parish records of every microfilm that I could find for this parish in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. These records were for the parish of the Church of England in Avening and for various independent churches in Avening. I did not find any record of Joseph’s birth in that parish.

While looking in the Ordinance Index, I found a Joseph Cook with the birth listed as 22 Sep 1805 in Stroud, Gloucester, England. This record gave a different month and parish for Joseph’s birth.

BIRTH AND PARENTS
Because I had exhausted the records for Avening, I proceeded to search in the parish registers for Stroud. On Friday, August 2, 2002, my sister Carol and I went to the FHL in SLC. While searching on a microfilm (British Films #883778) of extractions from the parish of Stroud, we found Joseph Cook’s baptism record and his parents!

“Baptisms, Stroud 1805, Sept. 22, Joseph, son of James Cook by his wife Esther-dau of Henry Portlock.”

We also found the original record in the Bishop’s transcripts of that parish on Film #427784. I made a copy of the original baptismal record.

SIBLINGS:
We also found several other children with the same parents on the extracted film. They are as follows:

1. COOKE, Chr 3 Jul 1801 Anne, dau of Esther Cooke
2. COOK, Chr 18 Aug 1799 Martha, dau of James Cook and Esther
3. COOK, Chr 25 Dec 1797 Olive, dau of James Cook and Esther
4. COOKE, Chr 1 Sep 1793 Hannah dau of James Cook and Hester
5. COOK, Chr 22 Apr 1792 Sarah dau of James Cook and Hester

GRANDPARENTS
On the film of the original bishop’s transcripts (#427784), we found this entry that we believe to be James, Joseph Cook’s father. The entry names James’ parents.

• COOKE, Chr 22 Nov 1761 James son of Wm Cooke and Ann

MARRIAGE
Eileen also found the original record for Joseph Cook’s marriage to Hannah Mariah Le Chevalier in FHL British film #856939. She made a copy of the original. It verifies the information we already had, although on some of the PAF records his marriage is listed as Oct. 10, 1831.

“Joseph Cook married Hannah Maria Le Chevalier in the parish of Charlton-Kings on Oct 11, 1831.”

ORDINANCE WORK FOR JOSEPH COOK
Baptism: 31 Oct 1968
Endowment: 6 Dec 1968 IFALL
Sealing to Parents: 20 Feb `969 OAKLA
Sealing to Spouse: 20 Apr 1976 LANGE

For full details of the sources cited, see the Individual Record for Joseph Cook, b. 1805, in Eileen’s Personal Ancestral File.

Peter LECHEVALIER (abt 1783-1809)

Today I will write about Peter LeChevalier the son.

We have not been able to find a birth or christening record for Peter. Old family sources give his birth as 1783, but I think it was earlier. He was named after his father and so I believe he was the oldest son. We have the christening (infant baptism in the Church of England) record of Thomas who was born in 1771, so I think Peter may have been born in 1770 or earlier.

Peter grew up in Avening, Gloucestershire where his father Peter owned a corn mill.

Peter married Martha Saunders of Stratton-St. Margaret, Wiltshire 28 Aug 1803 in Crudwell, Wilsthire, a small village just a few miles away from Avening. But before they were married, Martha gave birth to a daughter named Martha in Stratton-St. Margaret.

After they were married, they remained in Crudwell and two more daughters were born and christened there—Anne in 1805 and Jane in Sept 1806.

The family then moved to Tetbury, a village close to Avening where Peter grew up. (Note: Peter’s father had died in Avening in June 1806. He had sold his mill in 1800 for an unknown amount of money. Maybe Peter inherited at least some of that money sometime after 1806.)
In Tetbury, Peter and Martha had twin girls—Catharine and Hannah Maria. They were christened in the parish church in June 1808.

Then in Sept 1809, Peter left his wife and five daughters and rented a dwelling house, malthouse, bakehouse, stable, orchard and garden in Little Washbourne. (I believe this is the house that he rented.)



Then just 3 months later, on 26 Dec 1809, he died. We have not been able to find his death or burial record. Note: When I was in England last April I wandered around the church in Little Washbourne in the rain, looking for graves. I found none. The owner of the manor house close to the church came out and talked to us. He said noone was buried there because of the high water table.)

So Peter died, leaving his pregnant wife Martha and 5 daughters back in Tetbury. Martha gave birth to a boy, the only son, on May 10, 1810.

The laws of the time required that Martha be “removed” from Tetbury and taken to Little Washbourne, since that is where Peter was living. In other words, Tetbury didn’t want to take care of the widow and her children.

Martha, the oldest daughter, now 8 years old, was sent back to Stratton-St. Margaret, Wiltshire. Martha, the mother, and her remaining 5 children were sent up to Little Washbourne about 20 miles north of Tetbury.

So Peter Lechevalier the son is dead.
But the story of his wife Martha and his children continues on…in another blog.

Peter LECHEVALIER, 1742-1806

In this family history, I will attempt to record the research I have done over the past eight years and tell the story of this family.

Lechevalier, as a surname, was relatively scarce in England in the 1700s. I was told by a professional genealogist (Apryl Cox) that the Lechevaliers were Protestants who came from France in the late 1600s, probably 1680, to escape persecution by the Catholics. They settled in London and moved out from there. They were textile workers. Some moved to Wiltshire for this reason.

We know that Peter Lechevalier (1742-1806) was a brewer in Avening, Gloucestershire. Further research needs to be done to find where in London Peter came from.

I do not know where Peter was born or when, but unsourced family records have estimated his birth year as 1742. His parents may have been Noel Lechevalier and Louise Fetsure. More research needs to be done to find them.

The first source I have found for Peter is in 1766. In the Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, I found that Peter bought a mill in Avening in 1766 through Edmund Clutterbuck, a lawyer. We have found a denization record that Peter brought with him from London in 1769. This document names his as a maltster of Avening. The denization gave Peter the right to own property even though he was considered an “alien”.

So Peter had moved from London to Avening, Gloucestershire in 1769. He was married to Anne (marriage record yet to be found) and had perhaps at least one child by this time. This may be the Peter le Chevalier who married Anne Gibbs 12 March 1761 at St. Marylebone, London. If so, he had a daughter baptized at St. Marylebone 16 Feb 1762. Was it Catherine?

In 1773 Peter bought a pew in the parish church. The pew seat was located in the west end of the parish church of Avening, the third pew on the right hand as you enter the church. Peter signed the parish register that recorded this sale. In April 2008 when Eileen visited this church in England, she was disappointed to see that the pews had been moved.

It appears that Peter carried on a baking and malting business at the mill, apparently converting it to a corn-mill from the original cloth mill. He owned this mill for over 30 years. Peter was evidently a maltster, a manufacturer of malt. Malting was a trade in its own right, and maltsters generally were independent from either the farmers who produced the barley or the brewers who consumed the malt, though some of the larger breweries conducted their own malting operations, especially from the nineteenth century onwards.

Three of Peter and Anne’s children were christened in the parish church of Avening. Jane in 1768, Thomas in 1771, and Anne in 1773. I have not found the christening records for two other sons, Peter and Francis, but they are linked into this family by family wills. There may have been another daughter also, Catherine, birth date unknown. And perhaps another daughter Margaret born in London.

So during the 1770s and 1780s Peter and Anne were raising their children in the small parish of Avening. Eileen visited Avening in April 2008. The town is built on a hillside with the stream running through the valley. Most of the buildings in the town were of Cotswold stone and have been there at least 200 years.

In 1790 two major events happened. Catherine was married on 8 April to Thomas Matthews in Avening. Then on 2 May Peter’s wife Anne was buried.

Catherine and Thomas seem to have had no children. Catherine seems to have died and was buried 22 Jan 1796 in Avening. Three years later her husband Thomas died and was buried 22 Aug 1799 in Avening.

In 1800 Peter sold his mill to John Blackwell of Nailsworth, clothier, who reconverted it for fulling.

In 1802 Peter’s daughter Jane was married 30 March to John Howman in the parish of Crudwell, Wiltshire. Crudwell is 6 miles southeast of Avening. Why did Jane so there to be married? She must have moved to Winchcomb with her husband. There doesn’t seem to have been any children. Winchcomb is at least twenty several miles to the north from Avening, farther north than Cheltenham and Cirencester.

Also in 1802 or thereabouts, Peter’s son Thomas married (spouse yet unknown) and in 1828 was a brewer in Wotton-under-Edge, 9 miles southwest of Avening. There seems to have been only one daughter. More research needs to be done on this family.

Then in 1803 Peter’s son Peter and a daughter Anne who both married in Crudwell, Wiltshire. Anne married David Harvey of Winchcomb 16 May 1803. David was a butcher and Anne moved with him to Winchcomb where her sister Jane was living with her husband of one year.
Peter married Martha Saunders 28 Aug 1803 in Crudwell. They already had a daughter when they married. Martha was born and christened 11 Apr 1801 in Stratton-St. Margaret, Wiltshire. It was not uncommon then to have a child before the couple was married.

Martha Saunders, Peter’s wife, was born and christened in Stratton-St. Margaret to Robert Saunders and Elizabeth Humphreys. A separate history will be written of her.

Peter and Martha had two more children in Stratton-St. Margaret. They might have been living there after their marriage. Anne was born in 1805 and Jane was born in 1806. Peter’s occupation is unknown and why he did not remain in Avening.

Sometime about 1805 Peter’s son Francis married an Anne. We don’t yet have the marriage record and Anne’s surname. In 1828 they were living in Minchinhampton where Francis was a yeoman (owned land). More research needs to be done on this family.

More research needs to be done on Peter’s apparently oldest daughter Margaret, born in London in 1764.

There is an excellent map of Gloucestershire in 1805 online. Here is the link. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nmfa/Maps/gloucestershire1805/gloucestershire1805.html


IF ANY OF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN RESEARCHING THIS FAMILY FURTHER, please contact me by clicking on my profile and using the email link.