Contents
Chapter Page
Acknowledgements....................................................................................................... 4
Kent.. 5
The Family........................................................................................................................ 6
John
and Margaret Laslett of Nantwich, Cheshire...................................................... 6
Roger
and Joane Laslett of Harbledown, Kent........................................................... 7
John
and Ann Laslett of Harbledown......................................................................... 9
Charles
and Agnis Laslett of Harbledown................................................................ 10
George
Laslett of Hackington and his wives Agnes, Jane, Anne, Annah and Ann.... 11
John
Laslett of Woodnesborough and his wives, Katherine, Ruth, Elizabeth and Joan 12
John
and Mildred Laslett of Woodnesborough........................................................ 15
Stephen
and Ann Laslett of Deal.............................................................................. 18
John
and Mary Laslett of Sandwich......................................................................... 20
Thomas
and Mary Laslett of Hoden Farm................................................................ 21
William
and Sarah Laslett of Dover.......................................................................... 23
John
and Elizabeth Laslett of West Marsh................................................................ 25
Thomas
and Mary Laslett of Stourmouth................................................................. 26
William
and Susanna Laslett of Stratford-on-Avon................................................... 27
William
and Mary Laslett of Sandwich..................................................................... 28
Richard
and Elizabeth Laslett of Woodnesborough and of Hoden and Santon Farms 29
William
and Mary Lasslett of Chislet........................................................................ 32
Thomas
and Jane Laslett of Worcester.................................................................... 33
William
and Mar Laslett of Shoreham...................................................................... 34
Thomas
and Ann Laslett of Stourmouth.................................................................. 35
Thomas
Laslett of Preston & his wives Elizabeth & Susannah................................. 36
Richard
and Mary Laslett of Bossington and Ovington Farms................................. 38
John
and Elizabeth Laslett of Hoden Farm, Ash...................................................... 40
Thomas
and Elizabeth Lasslett of Brook Farm......................................................... 41
Thomas
and Elizabeth Laslett of Woodnesborough................................................. 43
Isaac
and Lydia Laslett of Deptford.......................................................................... 46
Thomas
and Sophia Laslett of Worcester................................................................. 47
Richard
& Elizabeth Laslett of Hole, Dene, Wingham Well and Appleton Farms....... 48
John
and Elizabeth Laslett of Coombe.................................................................... 52
William
Lasslett of Rayham and Brook Farms and his wives Mary and Mary Ann..... 54
John
and Ann Laslett of Ash................................................................................... 57
Thomas
and Elizabeth Laslett of Chatham............................................................... 58
George
and Charlotte Laslett of Hole Farm.............................................................. 60
William
and Maria Laslett of Abberton Hall, Worcester............................................. 63
Charles
and Mary Laslett of Richborough................................................................ 75
George
and Mary Laslett of Hoaden Farm................................................................ 76
Robert
and Mary Ann Laslett of Ash........................................................................ 80
William
and Sarah Lasslett of Malmsbury................................................................ 82
Thomas
and Emma Lasslett of Detroit..................................................................... 90
George
and Mary Laslett of Hope Farm.................................................................... 92
Thomas
and Harriet Laslett of Chatham................................................................... 93
John
Barrett and Susannah Laslett of Cheriton........................................................ 95
Samuel
and Susannah Laslett of Dover................................................................... 96
Richard
and Susannah Laslett of Fulham................................................................ 99
George
and Eliza Laslett of Allendale East............................................................. 101
Thomas
and Sarah Laslett of Broadstairs.............................................................. 110
William
and Jane Laslett of Hope Farm.................................................................. 111
Richard
and Mary Laslett of London...................................................................... 112
George
and Mary Laslett of West Cliffe, Dover........................................................ 114
John
and Emma Lasslett of Elsternwick................................................................ 115
Thomas
and Rhoda Laslett of Eynsham................................................................. 116
Edward
and Eliza Laslett of Sandridge................................................................... 118
Thomas
and Julia Laslett of Woodnesborough...................................................... 120
Thomas
Laslett of Chatham and his wives Louisa, Harriet, Mary and Clara............ 123
Stephen
and Elizabeth Laslett of Southfields......................................................... 125
Frederick
and Julia Lasslett of Hurlstone Park....................................................... 126
Jarvis
and Emma Laslett of Hope and Street Farms............................................... 128
Henry
and Ann Lasslett of Detroit.......................................................................... 131
William
and Matilda Lasslett of Footscray.............................................................. 133
William
and Laura Laslett of Riga.......................................................................... 137
Thomas
and Kate Laslett of Broadstairs................................................................. 138
Albert
and Isabella Laslett..................................................................................... 139
Thomas
and Edith Laslett of Penge....................................................................... 140
George
and Ellen Laslett of Moorak....................................................................... 141
Frederick
and Amy Lasslett of Hurlstone Park....................................................... 143
Herbert
Laslett and his wives Jeannie and Hannah................................................. 145
Alfred
and Margaret Laslett of North Terrace, Adelaide.......................................... 148
Henry
and Deborah Laslett of Shoal Lake, Manitoba.............................................. 150
Alfred
and Minnie Lasslett of Caulfield.................................................................. 151
Ruffell
and Eveline Laslett..................................................................................... 152
Ernest
and Sarah Laslett of Southfields................................................................. 155
William
and Lilian Laslett of Allendale East and O.B. Flat...................................... 156
William
and Alice Lasslett of Footscray................................................................. 159
George
and Elsie Laslett OF O.B. Flat.................................................................... 160
Arthur
and Dorothea Laslett................................................................................... 165
Leonard
and Alice Laslett of Mount Gambier......................................................... 167
Frederick
and Bertha Lasslett of Hurlstone Park.................................................... 169
Harold
and Lily Laslett of Broadstairs.................................................................... 170
Herbert
(Glen) Laslett and his wives Eileen and Barbara........................................ 171
Arthur
and Sybil Laslett of Coulsdon..................................................................... 172
Arthur
and Edna Lasslett of Hurlstone Park........................................................... 173
Frank
Lasslett of South Yarra................................................................................. 174
John
Lacy (Jack) and Muriel Laslett....................................................................... 176
Reginald
and Margaret Laslett of Ingle Farm.......................................................... 179
Peter
and Janet Laslett of Cambridge.................................................................... 180
Alfred
and Mary Laslett of Adelaide....................................................................... 190
Herbert
and Joan Laslett of Glenelg East............................................................... 191
Keith
and Beryl Lasslett of Upwey.......................................................................... 193
Jim
and Marie Lasslett of Keilor............................................................................ 194
George
and Pat Laslett of Hove.............................................................................. 195
Robert
and Pamela Laslett of Birmingham............................................................. 196
Peter
Laslett of Bundaberg and his wives Laura, Elizabeth and Greta.................... 198
Graham
and Christine Laslett of Edington............................................................. 200
Gordon
and Susan Lasslett of Lindfield................................................................. 201
Richard
and Susan Lasslett of New Gisborne......................................................... 203
Documents.................................................................................................................. 204
Roger
Lacelet of Harbledowne - 2 May 1586........................................................... 204
The
Politics of partying......................................................................................... 205
Wills and Inventories................................................................................................. 207
John
Laslet of Great Mongeham - 21 November 1665............................................. 207
Stephen
Laslett of Deal - 3 May 1690...................................................................... 210
Stephen
Lacelett of Woodnesboro - 21 February 1703............................................ 214
Joseph
Lacelett of Worth - 1 June 1710.................................................................. 216
Anne
Laslett of Worth - 30 May 1721....................................................................... 217
William
Lasslett of Dover - 3 March 1726................................................................ 218
Stephen
Lacy of Deal - 30 August 1735.................................................................. 219
Thomas
Laslett of Ash - 25 September 1736........................................................... 221
John
Lacey of Deal - 8 May 1739............................................................................ 223
William
Laslett of Dover - 19 April 1740.................................................................. 224
Sarah
Laslett of Dover - 31 December 1740............................................................ 225
Stephen
Laslett of Rotherhith - 31 March 1762....................................................... 226
William
Lasslet of Chislet - 15 March 1763............................................................. 227
Richard
Laslett of Ash - 26 September 1781........................................................... 228
Thomas
Lasslett of Whitstable - 6 March 1809........................................................ 230
Thomas
Lasslett the Elder of Ash - 5 October 1815................................................ 231
William
Lasslett of Whitstable - 9 May 1835............................................................ 233
Richard
Laslett of Wingham - 13 May 1847............................................................. 235
Sophia
Laslett of Abberton Hall - 2 December 1851................................................ 237
William
Laslett of Abberton Hall - 6 October 1883................................................... 238
Bibliography................................................................................................................ 241
This history of the Laslett family was
prompted by a telephone call in 1986 from Jim Lasslett in Melbourne to my
mother Edna Lasslett in Sydney. As
usual Jim was involved in his constant gathering of information on the family
and, my mother, knowing that I was interested in compiling a history but
lacking in motivation, introduced me to Jim suspecting that his enthusiasm
would be infectious. She has been
proved correct.
Additionally I have been supported by George
and Reg Laslett in South Australia, who have made available their research and
the research and reminiscences of their immediate relatives, particularly the
late George Samson Laslett and Richard Manger Laslett. They have allowed me to copy from their own
publications and I would like to apologise if I have inadvertently failed to
acknowledge this when including a piece of their work in the History.
Among the many who have aided me in this
study, I wish to give special acknowledgement to Frank Lasslett for his
friendship and to Peter Laslett of Cambridge. Peter many years ago, through his
book The
World We have Lost unknowingly implanted in me the idea of researching
and writing a history of the family.
Robert Laslett of Birmingham has kindly
written on his branch of the family and his words have been included virtually
as written. Robert has also helped with
his advice on the life of William Laslett M.P. of Worcester.
Captain Graham F. Laslett CBE RN of
Edington, Wiltshire, has generously supplied his comments and additions that
were compiled from his family records, particularly a journal kept by Albert
Laslett between 1883 and 1906.
Thanks go to Canon George Browning, the
chaplain of the Laslett Charities, who generously gave me his notes on William
Laslett M.P. thus saving many hours of research.
Peter Laslett from Bundaberg, Queensland has
also added the details on his branch of the family who immigrated to Victoria
last century and later took the Laslett name to Western Australia where it is
now well established.
The origins of the Laslett family
are presently unknown. We know that they moved to Harbledown near Canterbury
from Nantwich in Cheshire around 1546. The name is probably a Kentish rendition
of a Cheshire name such as Lancelot for Roger Laslett the immigrant from Cheshire
could not write. It was therefore most likely that a local parish clerk gave us
our Kentish surname ‘Laslett’ or as it appears in the Harbledown parish
registers ‘Lauslet’ or ‘Lawslet’. The name Lancelot is not so fanciful for
Chester the ancient walled capital of Cheshire is one of the supposed sites of
the legendary Camelot.
But basically the Laslett family
is of Kentish stock, more particularly East Kent, that rich area east of the
river Medway, which from ancient times has been fought over by successive waves
of invaders. Briton, Roman, Saxon, Norman and, in the last great conflict,
German have each sought to rule the fields of Kent.
One of the earliest references to
Kent that I have read is by C. Julius Caesar who, in De Bello Gallico V,14, says:
Ex his omnibus longe sunt
humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt, quae regio est maritima omnis, neque multum a
Gallica differunt consuetudine.
Interiores plerique frumenta non serunt, sed lacte et carne vivunt
pellibusque sunt vestiti. Omnes vero se
Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem, atque hoc horridiores
sunt in pugna aspectu; capilloque sunt promisso atque omni parte corporis rasa
praeter caput et labrum superius.
(Of all the Britons the
inhabitants of Kent, an entirely maritime district, are by far the most
civilised, differing but a little from the Gallic manner of life. Of the inlanders most do not sow corn, but
live on milk and flesh and clothe themselves in skins. All the Britons, indeed, dye themselves with
woad, which produces a blue colour, and makes their appearance in battle more
terrible. They wear long hair, and
shave every part of the body save the head and the upper lip.)
After Caesar's attempt to conquer
Britain failed the Romans did not visit that part of the world until the
Emperor Claudius invaded Britain from Gaul in 43 AD and in a short time
incorporated Britain into the Roman Empire.
About 1450 John Capgrave writing
in his Abbreuiacion of Cronicles
says:
And ye schal vndirstand that this
diuision (of British blood) began in the first coming of Saxones, whech was in
the year of oure Lord 455...
The first kyngdam was in Kent,
where the first kyng was Hengist...
Bede writing in the early eighth
century in his Historiae Ecclesiasticae
Gentis Anglorum, the history of the Church of the English people, says:
De Iutarum origine sunt Cantuari
(the people of Kent are of Jutish origin).
Also of Hengist and his brother
Horsa:
Erant autem filii Uictgisli,
cuius pater Uitta, cuis pater Uecta, cuius pater uoden... (they were the sons
of Whitgisl, son of Witta, son of Wecta, son of Woden...)
With the exception of Essex all
the genealogies of the English royal families which have been preserved go back
to Woden, the god after whom Wednesday and the East Kent village of
Woodnesborough is named.
Bede also says:
...equibus Horsa postea occisus
in bello a Brettonibus hactenus in orientalibus Cantiae partibus monumentum
habet suo nomine insigne (Horsa was afterwards killed in battle by the Britons,
and in the eastern part of Kent there is still a monument bearing his name).
John (?) and Margaret Laslett of Nantwich, Cheshire
John was probably born in the
1480s in Cheshire. He was a yeoman farmer.
Migrated to Harbledown near
Canterbury in Kent in the mid 1540s.
Margaret was buried at Harbledown on 15
December 1564.
(CAVIAT
The information on John (?) & Margaret and their family is deduced from
very sparse records and may need re-evaluating when more records come to
light.)
Family of John and
Margaret Laslett
Sons
WILLIAM (or John?) – born Cheshire
c.1505.
ROGER
- probably born
at Nantwich in Cheshire in 1509. He was the second son of John Laslett a yeoman
farmer and his wife Margaret.
See chapter Roger and Joane Laslett of Harbledown, Kent on page 7
Roger and Joane Laslett of Harbledown, Kent
Roger was probably born at Nantwich in Cheshire in 1509. He was the second son of John Laslett a yeoman farmer and his wife Margaret (page 6). Unfortunately this was before Parish registers were started so we are unable to find any written record of his baptism or the parents’ marriage. There is a 1586 affidavit (see page 204) in the Canterbury Cathedral Archives in which Roger Laslett was a witness in a land dispute. In it is he confirms that he is ‘Roger Lacelett of the parish of Harbledowne where he has lived for the space of forty years or thereabouts originated in the parish of Namptwhich (Nantwich) in the county of Chester (that is Cheshire) aged about Lxxvij years…’ He made his mark with the date being 2 May 1586.
In this document Roger also states ‘that his … brother
was farmer of the parsonadge of Harboldowne abowte five and thirty yeeres agoe
by the space of three yeares and before him his father with both which persons
this deponent did dwell and yearlie in Chery tyme did fett (fetch) cheryes in the name of tith cherryes from the saide parcell
of gownde called the Cherry Garden and hee saith that since that tyme hee hath
knowen the farmers of the saide parcell of grownde yearlie pay their tenthes
and tithes …’
From the above we can assume that Roger left Cheshire
around 1546 with his father and brother probably as a farm labourer for his
father who took over a farm called the Parsonadge.
The OED identifies a Parsonadge as ‘the benefice or living of a parson; a
rectory.’ In addition, Roger states that he collected tithes and that he knows
that the owners of the ground have paid their annual tenths and tithes. The
fact that Roger’s father farm was the living of an Ecclesiastic, in all
probability the Rector of Harbledown, and that Roger personally collected
tithes and ‘knew’ that tenths and tithes had been paid would seem to indicate
that the move of the family from Cheshire to Kent was related to church
matters. In Cheshire, perhaps they had been employees of the Eccesiastic who
later had the benefice of the Parsonadge
and had moved with him to Kent. (The ten years leading up to 1546 saw Henry
VIII’s break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries so perhaps even
the land passed at that stage to the laity. In 1547 Edward VI came to the
throne and turned Henry VIII’s Anglicised Catholic Church into a Protestant
one. Queen Mary attempted to reverse this from 1553 until Elizabeth came to the
throne in 1558 and things religious settled down as much as they could.
Roger also states that his brother took over the Parsonadge farm from his father around
1551 and farmed it for three years. Did his father die in 1551? Did the family
give up the farm in 1554 because the living of it passed to another Rector?
In the Canterbury
City Plea Rolls there is an item dated 17 Aust 1562 there are papers
covering a law case in which William Stephen sued Anthony Moswell, yeoman and
his wife Katherine concerning the cherry garden. On 1 October 1562 there is an
entry that John Lacye was bound on a recognizance of £10 to give evidence. One
is tempted to think that John Lacye may be either Roger’s father of brother. In
addition, there was a Margaret Laslett buried at Harbledown on 15 December
1564. This is probably Roger’s mother as he named his first child Margaret.
It is conjecture but going by the earliest
spellings of Laslett in Kent, that is Lauslet/Lawslett, the name may probably
be derived from the Cheshire surname Launslet/Lancelot. This, in turn, probably
derives from the Lancelyn family who, by the end of the eleventh century, held
the manor of Great Bebington (now known as Lower Bebington) in Cheshire. The
Lancelyn family has lived in Bebington/ Bromborough continuously for over 900 years,
with Scirard, the son of Roger Lancelyn
Green, still living in the 17th century home - Poulton Hall.
Anyway, Roger settled in
Harbledown, which is just outside Canterbury and is the site of St Nicholas
Hospital. This hospital was founded in
1084 as a hospice of lepers by the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfrac. The 1847 edition of Bagshaw's Directory
describes Harbledown as "a pleasant village on the London road 1m west of
Canterbury. The situation is
exceedingly picturesque on the brow of a hill and is remarkable for the
salubrity of the air".
No record of marriage has been
located but in Cowper's transcript of the Harbledown PRs (which he supplements
with details from the BTs) there is a record of a Roger Lynsyle married
Elizabeth Busmean on 3 September 1564.
Roger was buried at Harbledown on
7 April 1593. Joane was buried there on
28 January 1602 O.S.
Family of Roger and Joane
Laslett
Sons
WILLIAM - baptised at Harbledown on 30
October 1563. Buried there on 7 March
1564 O.S.
JOHN - baptised at Harbledown on 27
January 1565 O.S. and buried there on 29 April 1566.
WILLIAM - baptised at Harbledown on 29
February 1567 O.S. and buried there on 21 March 1567 O.S.
JOHN - baptised at Harbledown on 17
July 1569. In 1597 married Ann Abraham at Faversham. Mentioned in his brother George's 1641
will. Ann was buried at Harbledown on
30 April 1646 as Goodwife Lacelett and John was buried there on 5 June 1646 as
Goodman Lacelett.
See chapter John and Ann Laslett of Harbledown on page 9.
CHARLES - baptised at Harbledown on 1
May 1576. On 25 January 1595 O.S.
married Agnis Blaslam at Harbledown.
Charles was buried at Harbledown on 21 October 1606.
See chapter Charles and Agnis Laslett of Harbledown on page 10.
GEORGE - baptised at Harbledown on 26
January 1581. Married Agnes Blasrams at Sturry on 27 June
1620, then on 18 November 1622 Jane
Forster at Cosmos Blean. Jane was
buried at Hackington on 7 January 1622 O.S.
On 19 May 1623 married Anne Court
at Harbledown. Anne died at Hackington
in 1631. George then married Annah Knock at Guston on 7 July
1625. Annah was buried at Hackington on
22 February 1630 O.S. On 21 September
1631 George married Ann Bailey at
Hackington. George died at Hackington
in 1641.
See chapter George Laslett of Hackington and his wives Agnes, Jane, Anne, Annah and
Ann on page 11.
Daughters
MARGARET - baptised at Harbledown on 15
January 1560 O.S. Married Nicholas King
on 2 August 1599 at Harbledown.
MARY - baptised at Harbledown on 24
February 1572 O.S. Married Robert Claringbole, yeoman. Both were
buried at Barham, Robert on 6 August 1639 and Mary on 28 February 1639
O.S. From Robert's 1638 Will (witnessed
by George Laslett) we can identify the following children:
George
Claringbole
Richard
Claringbole
Robert
Claringbole
Thomas
Claringbole
John and Ann Laslett of Harbledown
John Laslett was baptised at
Harbledown on 17 July 1569 the son of Roger and Joane Laslett (Page 7.)
In 1597 John married Ann Abraham
at Faversham.
He was mentioned in his brother
George's 1641 will.
Ann was buried at Harbledown on
31 April 1646 as Goodwife Lacelett and John was buried there on 5 June 1646 as
Goodman Lacelett.
Family
of John and Ann Laslett
Daughters
MARY - baptised at Harbledown on 27
March 1599. Married Thomas Garner on 24 October 1631 at St.
Dunstans Canterbury. Thomas died and
left her a widow after very few years of marriage.
Children:
John Garner - baptised 4 May 1634 at St. Dunstan's,
Canterbury.
PARNELL - baptised at Harbledown on 7
November 1602. Married Daniel Friend
on 25 June 1632 at All Saints Canterbury.
SUSAN - baptised at Harbledown on 18
August 1605.
Charles and Agnis Laslett of Harbledown
Charles Laslett was baptised at
Harbledown on 1 May 1576 the son of Roger and Joane Laslett (page 7).
On 25 January 1595 O.S. Charles
married Agnis Blaslam at Harbledown. The Blaxlands are a family that was very
prominent in the Harbledown-Sturry-Westbere area from the 13th to the 19th
centuries. There is a picture of Blaxland farmhouse near Westbere, supposedly
the place of origin of the surname in Kent, in David Hey's Oxford Companion to Family History. This farm is just to the north
of Sturry and is adjacent to Hole (Vale) Farm from where George Laslett
immigrated to Australia last century. Gregory Blaxland, the Australian
explorer, was born near Canterbury and came to Australia round about 1810.
Charles died aged 30 on 21
October 1606 and was buried at Harbledown.
Family
of Charles and Agnis Laslett
Sons
CHARLES - baptised at Harbledown on 9
November 1598 and buried there on 10 November 1609.
JOHN - baptised at Harbledown on 3
May 1601. His first wife's name was Katherine (surname not known) and she
was buried at Woodnesborough on 6 October 1629. John then married Ruth
Cater at Ash on 28 September 1630.
Ruth was buried at Ash on 13 November 1640. John's third wife was Elizabeth
Neale who he married at St Marys Canterbury on 5 April 1641. We have no record of Elizabeth's death but
John married for a fourth and last time on 25 November 1651 to Joan May at Woodnesborough. John was buried at Woodnesborough on 5
December 1665 and Joan at Great Mongeham on 29 March 1671 O.S.
See chapter John Laslett of Woodnesborough and his wives Katherine, Ruth,
Elizabeth, and Joan on page 12.
Daughters
ANN - baptised 20 November
1603. On 7 May 1628 Ann married Salathield King at Harbledown.
HESTER - baptised 25 July 1606 at
Harbledown and buried there on 26 February 1614 O.S.
George Laslett of Hackington and his wives Agnes, Jane, Anne, Annah and Ann
George Laslett was baptised at
Harbledown on 26 January 1581 the sixth son of Roger Laslett and his wife Joane
Laslett (page 7.)
There is a marriage recorded in
the Sturry parish registers on 27 June 1620 of a George Lacye of Cosmos Blean
and Agnes Basrams (Blaxland?). This may
be a first marriage and if so Agnes is probably closely related to his brother
Charles' wife Agnis Blaslam.
George's second wife was Jane
Forster who he married at Cosmos Blean on 18 November 1622. No further details are known except a burial
date at Hackington on 7 January 1622 O.S. although mention is made in George's
will to a debtor named Nicholas Forster of Canterbury.
George signs as Churchwarden at
Hackington in 1627 and 1628.
On 19 May 1623 George married
Anne Court of St Alphage Canterbury at Harbledown. Anne died at Hackington and was buried on 27 April 1624. Her death was probably the result of
childbirth.
On 7 July 1625 Georg Lasly
married Annah Knock at Guston. Annah
was buried at Hackington on 22 February 1630 O.S.
On 22 September 1631 he married
Ann Bailey, a widow of Fordwich at Hackington.
George died at Hackington in 1641
and from his will we can ascertain that he was a relatively wealthy man. No mention is made of his children in his
will so we can only assume that they predeceased him. Bequests were made to his brother John, sister Mary Gardner and
nephews John Laslett and Robert, Thomas, Richard and George Claringbole.
Family
of George and Anne Laslett
Son
ROBERT - baptised at Hackington on 23
March 1623 O.S.
Family
of George and Annah Laslett
Son
THOMAS - baptised at Hackington on 21
December 1628.
Daughter
ELIZABETH - baptised at Hackington on 24
January 1626 O.S.
John Laslett of Woodnesborough and his wives, Katherine, Ruth, Elizabeth and Joan
John Laslett was baptised at
Harbledown on 3 May 1601. He was the
second son of Charles Laslett of Harbledown and his wife Agnis Laslett née
Blaslam (page 10). He was a yeoman
farming lands in Woodnesborough and was married four times. John's will indicates that he was illiterate
and this fact probably helps to account for the various spellings of his
surname that appear in different records.
The following variations have been noted Lasy, Lacie, Lasley, Lastly (or
Lascly), Lacely, Lasly, Lacelet, Laslet, Laslett.
John's father died in 1606 and
from the way that John named his children it appears that he must have been
very close to by his Uncle George at Hackington.
Woodnesborough (pronounced
‘Winzbru’ or more lately ‘Woonzbrer’) is a parish and village situated about 15
km East of Canterbury and 2 km South West of Sandwich. The parish is 2940 acres and its population,
as an indication of size, was, in the early part of this century, around 900.
The village’s name is from the Anglo Saxon Wodnesbeorge
“Woden’s Hill” or “hill sacred to Woden”.
It is also mentioned above that
John was a yeoman, that is, a man who farms land which he owns and whose main
business and preoccupation is farming.
Lord Macaulay narrowed down the definition of a yeoman to one who
cultivates his own fields with his own hands, but in Kent the term embraced wealthier
men, landowners who farmed several hundred acres and who frequently leased and
let other land as well.
William Lambarde in his Perambulation of Kent, published in
1576, talked of the Kentish yeomen as "warm and wealthy yeomen...who, in
this their estate, please themselves, and joy exceedingly; insomuch as a man
may find sundry yeomen (although otherwise for wealth comparable with many of
the gentle sort) that will not for all that change their condition, nor desire
to be apparelled with the titles of gentry."
In researching this book I have
found many Lasletts over more than a dozen generations and it is significant
that of all those many hundreds of kinfolk only two have both desired and also
been able to claim gentleman status.
Kentish yeomen have always been well satisfied with their distinctive
station in life and consider that they are the best farmers in England farming
the best land in the country.
John's first wife's name was
Katherine. She was buried at
Woodnesborough on 6 October 1629 as 'the wife of John Lacie' with no name shown
in the parish register but luckily the Bishop's Transcript at Canterbury
disclosed the name 'Katherine'. They
had had one child, Hanna. On 28
September 1630 the Bishop's transcripts record that John Lasley married Ruth
Cater at Ash. Ruth was the mother of
John's next six children, John, Elizabeth, Thomas, George, Robert and
Sara. Ruth was buried at Woodnesborough
on 13 November 1640 and on 5 April 1641 at St Marys Canterbury John married for
a third time. The marriage is recorded
as John Lacely alias Lasly a Yeoman and Widower of Woodnesborough and Elizabeth
Neale of Northbourne widow of Ingram Neale late s p deceased. John has signed the licence book in an
unsteady hand 'John Lasly'. The bondman
on the marriage licence record was given as Thomas Cater of Faversham,
clerk. He was probably the brother of
John's second wife Ruth. We have found
recorded the birth of one child, Stephen, from this marriage but there were
probably two other children born, George and Joseph. The Woodnesborough records for the Civil War period 1644-7 are
very low in numbers so it is probable that the baptisms were not recorded. We have found no record of Elizabeth's
burial but John married for a fourth and probably last time on 25 November
1651. This marriage is recorded in the
Woodnesborough Parish Register as John Lastly and Joan May.
John was buried at Woodnesborough
on 5 December 1665. He is shown in the
Parish Register as being of Gt. Mongham.
A search of Great Mongham Parish Register found no record of John
although the baptism of two grandchildren and the burial of his daughter
Elizabeth were found. We can only
surmise that his last wife, Joan, had a cottage at Walmer near Great Mongeham
and that John divided up his property at Woodnesborough (and perhaps Ash) among
his children and moved to Walmer. Ruth
must have died about 1660 as it appears from the Great Mongeham Parish
Registers that various family members took it in turns to live with their
father at Walmer from 1661 until 1664.
The Hearth Tax returns of 1664 for the Lathe of St. Augustine show a
John Lacy of the Boro of Great Mongeham, 2 hearths, chargeable. So perhaps John had two cottages, one in
Walmer and another in Great Mongeham.
Anyway the death of his daughter Elizabeth, her burial is recorded at
Great Mongeham in 1664, seems to have convinced John to return to
Woodnesborough to spend his last days with his son John on the home farm.
In John's Will (see page 205.) made on 21 November 1665 reference is only made to
sons Thomas and Joseph, and to daughter Sara.
The only property mentioned is a house, in the occupation of Robert May,
with backside barn, orchard and half an acre in the village of Walmer near
Deal. The house is probably the one in
which John lived when shown as being "of Gt. Mongham" as Great
Mongham is a neighbouring parish to Walmer.
Additionally the Robert May mentioned is probably a relative of John's last
wife Joan May. Joan was buried at Great
Mongeham on 29 March 1671 O.S. as Joanna Lacy, widow.
In Wills J.S.W. Gibson says "people often settled inheritance
long before death - it is not unusual when a will has been made to find some
children (known to be surviving) omitted, or left a token amount such as a
shilling. This is more likely to
indicate that they have already been 'set up' in their livelihood long
beforehand, or, in the case of daughters, provided with dowries, than to be a
sign of disapproval."
Family
of John and Katherine Laslett
Daughter
HANNA - baptised 24 August 1628 at
Woodnesborough as Hanna daughter of John Lacie.
Family
of John and Ruth Laslett
Sons
JOHN - baptised 20 November 1631 at
Woodnesborough as John son of John Lacie.
Married Mildred Elde of Ash
at Ash on 29 December 1656. She was
buried at Ash on 20 September 1657.
John's second marriage was on 3 June 1658 to Mildred Fishendin of St Marys parish Sandwich at
Woodnesborough. Mildred was buried at
Woodnesborough on 20 December 1680. John was buried there on 15 April 1719.
See chapter John and Mildred Laslett of Woodnesborough on page 15.
THOMAS - baptised 24 April 1636 at
Woodnesborough as Thomas son of John and Ruth Lacie. Married twice, first wife's name was Mary by whom he had children Robert and Catherine, second wife was Isabella Calton whom he married as
Thomas Laslet at St. Pauls Canterbury on 18 October 1668.
Children:
Robert - baptised 11 March 1656 old
system at Ash.
Catherine - baptised 28 September 1659 at
Ash. A Catherine Lanslett was buried at St Mildred’
Elizabeth - baptised 23 January 1661 old
system at Great Mongeham as "Elizabeth daughter of Thomas Lausly or
Lacily'.
Edmund - baptised 16 March 1670 old
system at St. Pauls Canterbury as Edmund Lacelet, buried there on 2 November
1671 as Edmund Lacy.
Edmund - baptised 29 January 1672 old
system at St. Pauls Canterbury.
GEORGE - baptised 2 April 1639 at
Woodnesborough with his twin brother Robert as George and Robert sons of John
and Ruth Lastly (or Lascly). The twins
were buried together at Woodnesborough as George and Robert Lastly (or Lascly)
on 16 April 1639.
ROBERT - baptised 2 April 1639 at
Woodnesborough with his twin brother George as George and Robert sons of John
and Ruth Lastly (or Lascly). The twins
were buried together at Woodnesborough as George and Robert Lastly (or Lascly)
on 16 April 1639.
Daughters
ELIZABETH - baptised 23 March 1633 old
system at Woodnesborough as Elizabeth daughter of John Lacie. On 24 April 1664 buried as 'Elizabeth
daughter of John Lausly or Lacily' at Great Mongeham.
SARA - baptised 25 October 1640 at
Woodnesborough as 'Sara Lassy'.
Mentioned in father's will in 1665.
Family
of John and Elizabeth Laslett
Son
STEPHEN - baptised 19 December 1641 at
Woodnesborough as Stephen son of John and Elizabeth Lassly. Became a Blacksmith at Deal. Married Ann
Lyham at Preston on 6 July 1665.
When he died his body was taken back to Woodnesborough for burial. He was interred on 6 May 1690 as Stephen
Lacelet of Deale. Ann was buried at Ash
on 21 October 1719 as 'Ann Lacey of Deal'.
See chapter Stephen and Ann Laslett of Deal on page 18.
GEORGE - probably born during the Civil
War period 1644/7 at Woodnesborough. No
baptismal record found. Wife's name Susan.
Son:
Jonathon - baptised 31 January 1663 old
system at Great Mongeham as 'Jonathon son of George and Susan Lausly or Lacily.
JOSEPH - probably born during the Civil
War period 1644/7 at Woodnesborough.
Joseph is mentioned in his father's will and was probably over 21 at the
time, that is in 1665. No baptismal
record found.
John and Mildred Laslett of Woodnesborough
John Laslett or Lacelet was
baptised on 20 November 1631 at Woodnesborough. The parish register records the baptism as John son of John
Lacie. John's parents were John Lacie
or Lasley a yeoman of Woodnesborough and his wife Ruth Lacie or Lasley née
Cater of Ash next Sandwich (page 12).
From records consulted by Richard
Laslett we know John was a Yeoman like his father and that he also farmed lands
at Woodnesborough.
The Ash parish register records
that on 29 December 1656 John Lasy of Woodnesborough, the son of Lasy of
Mungham, married Mildred Elde the daughter of Thomas Elde of Ash. A daughter, Mildred, was baptised at Ash on
18 September 1657. Two days later, on
20 September 1657, the burial of Mildred wife of John Lasey of Woodnesborough
is recorded at Ash.
John's second marriage took place
nine months later, the Woodnesborough Parish Register recording on 3 June 1658
that John Lacelet of Woodnesburrow married Mildred ffishendine of St. Maries,
Sandwich 'being before published three several sabbaoth days in Woodnesburrow
church'. Mildred is probably associated
with the Fissendens who were a family of Wealden origin. Mildred was also
probably the daughter of Thomas Fishenden, a Fellmonger, and Alice Fishenden
(née Norwood) of Margate (Thanet St. John). Mildred was baptised in 1638.
The Parish Register also records
that Mildred was buried at Woodnesborough on 20 December 1680. The record is 'Mildred ye wife of John
Lacelet buried, an affidavit now brought me of her being buried in woollen'. The latter part of this entry refers to
various Acts of Parliament that required all persons should be buried in
woollen cloth under penalty of a fine of £5.
(Acts of Parliament 1666, 1678, 1680. "No corpse of any person
[except those who die of the plague] shall be buried in any shirt, shift,
sheet, or shroud or anything whatsoever made or mingled with flax, hemp, silk,
hair, gold,silver, or in any stuff or thing, other than what is made of sheep's
wool only.... or be put in any coffin lined or faced with....any other material
but sheep's wool only.") These
Acts were passed to encourage the wool trade and were in fact a tax on those
who wished to bury their relatives in linen or other imported fine cloth. Each parish kept a register certifying
burials in woollen and notified the appropriate authorities of any burials not
complying. These registers were usually
integral with the parish register.
John is mentioned in the 1704
will of his son Stephen so it must be assumed that he was alive at that
date. Stephen left his father his bed,
bolster, seven bushells of wheat, half the pork in the brine tub, the wood
about home and £3 as he wanted it.
Stephen appears to have been a most practical man!
We have two Woodnesborough burial
records of which the second one is probably John's. The first is on 27 October 1715 for John Lacy, a poor man, who
was buried 'cert in woolen by Widow Austin'. The second record is for John
Lacelet alias Lacy buried on 15 April 1719.
Either burial could be John's but the latter mentions Lacelet so is most
probably his. The fact that the first
burial is of a pauper and given the number of John's grandchildren living in
the district we would surmise that they grave. It was common in those days, for
families to make a cash payment to the parish and, in return, their relative
was looked after by the parish and would be shown in parishSt Mary
Woodnesborough‘s wooden Flemish-style cupola records as being poor. Whatever the case it seems that John lived
to the very old age of 84 or 88.
Family
of John and Mildred (née Elde) Laslett
Daughter
MILDRED - baptised at Ash on 18
September 1657 as Mildred daughter of John and Mildred Lasey. On 5 October 1679 married Thomas Barber of Dover at St. James the
Apostle, Dover. Her name was shown in
the church records as Lacey while his was shown as Bargher. Mentioned in brother Stephen's 1704 will and
brother William's 1726 will but not in William's wife Sarah's 1740 will, we
surmised that Mildred died between 1726 and 1740.
Son:
George
Barber -
baptised 23 October 1688 at St. Mary the Virgin, Dover. Mentioned in his uncle Stephen's 1704 will.
Family
of John and Mildred (née Fishenden) Laslett
Sons
JOHN - born 21 January 1660 old
system and baptised on 22 January at Woodnesborough as John Laslet. Lived in Sandwich. On 7 November 1687 married Mary
Badcock at Woodnesborough. John
died 27 February 1716, the widow lived at Sandwich. She is mentioned in her sister-in-law Sarah Lasslett's 1740 will.
See chapter John and Mary Laslett of Sandwich on page 20.
THOMAS - born 2 September 1662 and
baptised at Woodnesborough on 4 September as Thomas Laslet. Purchased Hoden
Farm, Ash. On 23 April 1691 his
marriage is recorded at Woodnesborough as 'Thomas Lacelet batch and Mary Curling virgin of Ash married by
asking'. He died 15 April 1739, aged
78.
See chapter Thomas and Mary Laslett of Hoden Farm on page 21.
JOSEPH -
baptised 15 October 1665 at Woodnesborough.
On 1 September 1689 his marriage is recorded at Woodnesborough as
'Joseph Lacy batch and Anne Rigden
virgin both of this parish married by asking'.
Joseph was a husbandman and lived in Word Street, Worth. Died at Worth, near Sandwich. Joseph's will proven 21 April 1716 as the
will of Joseph Lacelett (see page 214). It is
signed with an 'X' indicating that Joseph was illiterate. The will is dated 1 June 1710 and in it
Joseph mentions all the undernamed children, adding that they had not yet
reached their majority. Anne's will was
dated 30 May 1721 but not proven until 9 November 1727 (see page 215). There is a
burial record at Worth on 28 July 1721 for "ye widow Lassey" which is
probably Ann's.
Children:
Mary - baptised 20 July 1690 at
Worth. Married John Wilkinson. Granted
probate of mother's will.
Joseph - baptised on 1 November 1691 at
Worth. Married Martha (or Marsha) Hancock at Eastry on 11 November 1724. Married Katherine
Spicer on 2 November 1731 at Worth.
Both shown as 'of this parish'.
In 1740 Joseph is mentioned in his aunt Sarah Lasslett's will.
Children:
Joseph - baptised 27 November 1726 at
Worth.
John - baptised 9 August 1730 at
Worth.
Stephen - baptised 20 May 1733 at Worth.
Katherine - baptised 9 March 1734 at Worth
Elizabeth - baptised 6 March 1736 at
Worth.
John - baptised 18 March 1693
O.S. Buried at Worth on 22 May 1694.
John - baptised 29 December 1695 at
Worth. Married Mary.
Children:
Mary - baptised 1 July 1731. On 1 January 1750 married Jacob Hawks in Sandwich.
Elizabeth - baptised 9 December 1732. Married Isaac
Hawks at Sandwich on 9 December 1732.
Ann - baptised 15 May 1698 at
Worth. Mentioned in father's will but
not in mother's. Buried at Worth on 29
July 1716 as Ann daughter of Ann Laslett.
Hannah - baptised 10 December 1699 at
Worth.
Elizabeth - baptised 6 February 1708 O.S.
at Worth.
Hannah (sometimes Anna)
Elizabeth - under 21 in 1721.
STEPHEN -
baptised 27 May 1668. A
bricklayer. Lived at Woodnesborough,
possibly with his father John. Will
dated 21 February 1703 O.S. proven 17 March 1703 O.S. (see page 212). Will drawn
Stephen Lacelett, alias Stephen Lacy, a bachelor but is signed Stephen
Laslett. Executor brother John, leaves
money to sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews, and Mary Hughes possibly an
intended wife whom brother Richard afterwards married. 
Other items in will include a tub of salt pork and personal
effects. It is most interesting. Buried
on 26 February 1703 at Woodnesborough as Stephen Lacy.
CHARLES - baptised 16 December 1669 at
Woodnesborough. Buried 14 October 1670
at Woodnesborough.
RICHARD - baptised 22 February 1671 at
Woodnesborough.
On 29 January 1704 old system
Richard Lacelet alias Lacy married Mary
Hughs at Woodnesboro'. He was a
Husbandman at Ash.
Son: Richard -
baptised 22 September 1711. Died
1785. Wife's name Mary.
Daughter:
Mary - baptised at Ash on 25 February
1736 old system.
WILLIAM - baptised 15 August 1674 at
Woodnesborough. Seaman of Dover. On 6 July 1709 married Sara Wilson, a widow, of St Mary's Parish Dover, at
Woodnesborough. William buried 1
February 1729 old system at Dover, Sarah was buried at St Mary's Dover on 23
March 1740 O.S.
See chapter William and Sarah Laslett of Dover on page 23.
CHARLES - baptised 9 December 1679 at
Woodnesborough. Mentioned in his
brother's 1704 will.
Daughters
MARY - baptised 11 October 1663 at
Woodnesborough.
Wife of John Devisson.
Daughter:
Mary
Devisson -
mentioned in her uncle Stephen's 1704 will.
HANNAH or SUSANNA or sometimes even ANNA
- baptised 3 April 1677 at Woodnesborough as Susanna but appears to have been
known as Hannah. Perhaps the Parish
Register is a mistake. Married James Stevens. She is mentioned in her brother's 1726 will
but not in his wife's 1740 will, we surmise that she died during that period.
Son:
Richard
Stevens -
mentioned in his uncle Stephen's 1704 will.
Stephen and Ann Laslett of Deal
Stephen Laslett or Lacelet was
baptised on 19 December 1641 at Woodnesborough. The parish register records the baptism as Stephen son of John
and Elizabeth Lassly. Stephen's parents
were John Lacely or Laslet, a yeoman of Woodnesborough, and his wife Elizabeth
Lacely or Laslet née Neale of Northbourne (page 9).
Stephen married Ann Lyham at
Preston on 6 July 1665. The surname
appears as ‘Lacy’ in the parish register.
He became a Blacksmith at
Deal. When he died his body was taken
back to Woodnesborough for burial. He
was interred on 6 May 1690 as Stephen Lacelet of Deale. Interestingly he could write and signed his
Will 'Stephen Laslett' (see page 208). It was drawn on 3
May 1690 and proven on 22 May of the same year. In it mention is made of daughters Mary, Ann, Hannah and
Elizabeth, and sons Stephen, John, Joseph and William. Stephen's wife Ann is named as executrix and
is beneficiary to messuages, tenement and Smithe's shoppe; messuages in
occupation of Thomas Jones, of Deale, fisherman, and Jane Estis, widdow; Barne,
stable and outhouses in occupation of William Woford, of Deale,
bricklayer. For a copy of the will see
page 217. Ann was buried at Ash
on 21 October 1719 as 'Ann Lacy of Deal'.
Family
of Stephen and Ann Laslett
Sons
ABRAHAM - baptised at Sutton near Dover
on 26 February 1668 old system.
STEPHEN - baptised at Ash on 25 July
1669. On 7 October 1700 married Sarah Simpson of Dover at St Andrews
Canterbury as Stephen Lacy of Deal.
Cordwainer and Mechanick Preacher.
Pastor to a "Congregation of Protestant dissenters baptised by
immersion on a personal profession of their faith". They lived at Deal. Appear to have been called 'Lacy'. Must have been free thinkers for their time
as their daughter married a Roman Catholic named William Kennett. Later Stephen made William one of his executors
and also named him a beneficiary in his will.
Stephen died in 1736. Will in
name Stephen Lacy of Deal (see page 153, 232).
No mention of his children is made in the will except grandson Samuel
Lacy to whom he leaves £50 and his son-in-laws who received the residue of the
estate after numerous bequests.
Children:
John
Lacy - baptised
6 July 1701 at St Leonard's Deal.
Children:
John
Lacy - baptised
15 June 1746 at St Leonard's Deal.
Sara
Lacy - baptised
21 March 1702 at St Leonard's Deal.
Appears to have married Thomas
Quested. Thomas was an executor of
and a beneficiary under his father-in-law's will.
Priscilla
Lacy - baptised
5 April 1705 at St Leonard's Deal.
Married William Kennett at a
Roman Catholic ceremony in Canterbury on 26 June 1728. William was an executor of and a beneficiary
under his father-in-law's will.
Stephen
Lacy - baptised
23 August 1707 at St Leonard's Deal.
Married (?) the daughter of Samuel Baker.
Children:
Samuel
Lacy - mentioned
in grandfather's will.
William
Lacy - baptised
26 June 1709 at St Leonard's Deal.
JOHN - married as John Laslett to Mary Smith at St Leonard's Deal on 19
September 1694. Their children were
baptised in the name 'Lacy'.
Children:
Ann
Lacy - baptised
25 December 1695 at St Leonard's Deal.
Buried Deal 24 July 1706.
Mary
Lacy - baptised
3 October 1697 at St Leonard's Deal.
Buried Deal 30 July 1712.
Susan
Lacy - baptised
21 April 1701 at St Leonard's Deal.
Elizabeth
Lacy - baptised
24 September 1704 at St Leonard's Deal.
Anna
Lacy - baptised
7 July 1707 at St Leonard's Deal.
Hanna
Lacy - baptised
13 July 1707 at St Leonard's Deal.
John
Lacy - baptised
12 July 1709 at St Leonard's Deal.
Mariner HMS Berwick. Died on HMS Elizabeth 1742. Will dated
8 May 1739 (see page 221). Probate 13
July 1742. Mother sole
beneficiary. No mention of family.
William
Lacy - baptised
3 November 1715 at St Leonard's Deal.
Joseph
Lacy - baptised
28 November 1717 at St Leonard's Deal.
Benjamin
Margaret - baptised 14 June 1719 at St
Leonard's Deal.
JOSEPH
WILLIAM
Daughters
MARY
ANN - married name Haywood. Mentioned in brother Stephen's 1736 will.
HANNAH - married William Smith at Deal on 20 September 1692 as Ann Lasey. Mentioned in brother Stephen's 1736 will.
Child(?):
Jane Laslett – base born daughter of Hannah Laslett born
11 November 1687 and baptised at Shepherdswell on 3 December.
ELIZABETH
John and Mary Laslett of Sandwich
John Laslett or Lacelet was born
on 21 January 1660 OS at Woodnesborough, the first son of John Laslett or
Lacelet a yeoman of Woodnesborough and Mildred Laslett née Fishenden, his wife
(page 15 ). John lived in Sandwich.
On 7 November 1687 John married Mary Badcock at Woodnesborough.
John died 27 February 1716, the
widow lived at Sandwich. She is
mentioned in her sister-in-law Sarah Lasslett's 1740 will.
Family
of John and Mary Laslett
Sons
THOMAS - baptised 19 September 1690 at
Woodnesborough as Thomas son of John and Mary Lacy.
JABEZ - baptised 18 September 1692 at
Woodnesborough as Jabez son of John and Mary Lacelet.
JOSEPH - baptised 22 September 1694 at
Woodnesborough as Joseph son of John and Mary Lacy. Married Mary. Joseph buried at Woodnesborough on 10 June
1772 as Joseph Lacy of Sandwich.
Son: John
– born 2 February 1721 and baptised 5 February 1721 at Cornmarket Independent
or Presbyterian Church, Sandwich.
STEPHEN - baptised 20 January 1696 at
Woodnesborough as Stephen son of John Lacy alias Lacelet and Mary his
wife. Mentioned in his uncle Stephen's
1704 will where he is the remainderman to his bed bolster and bedding.
RICHARD - baptised 23 December 1699 at
Woodnesborough as Richard son of John and Mary Lacelet. Lived at Minster in Thanet. Married Mare
Forman of Minster at Woodnesborough by licence on ?9 August 1722. Shown as Richard Lacy.
Children:
Richard - baptised as Richard son of Richard Lacy
at Woodnesborough on 17 October 1725.
WILLIAM – born 22 February 1707 OS
baptised 9 March 1707 OS at Cornmarket Independent or Presbyterian Church,
Sandwich. Probably married Mary Wigmore otp at Preston next
Wingham on 12 July 1727 by licence. She
died 16 April 1736 and was buried as Mary Lacy. There is a possible second marriage as William Lacy to Elizabeth Tahal at Woodnesborough on 25
November 1741.
See chapter William and Mary Laslett of Sandwich on page 28.
CHARLES – born 24 November 1710 and
baptised 25 December 1710 at Cornmarket Independent or Presbyterian Church,
Sandwich.
Daughters
MARY (lst) - baptised 15 April 1701
at Woodnesborough as Mary daughter of John and Mary Lacelet. Buried at Woodnesborough on 17 April 1701.
MARY (2nd) - baptised 23 June 1702 at
Woodnesborough. Mentioned in her uncle
Stephen's 1704 will. As 'Mary Lacy' was
married to John Miller, a sailor, of
Sandwich at Woodnesborough by licence
on 26 January 1720 O.S.
ELIZABETH – born 13 January 1704 OS and
baptised on 7 February 1704 OS at Corn Market Independent or Presbyterian
Church, Sandwich. On 21 June 1716 was
buried at Woodnesborough as Elizabeth Lacy.
Thomas and Mary Laslett of Hoden Farm
Thomas Laslett or Lacelet was
born on 2 September 1661 at Woodnesborough, the second son of John Laslett or
Lacelet a yeoman of Woodnesborough and Mildred Laslett née Fishenden, his wife
(page 15). Thomas farmed lands
at Woodnesborough and Ash near Sandwich, Kent.
He later purchased Hoden Farm, Ash.
Hoaden farmhouse in Ash is still
standing. It is quite a substantial old
brick building that appears to have been "improved" in the 18th
century as the bricks forming the chimney are much earlier than the bricks in
the walls of the building. It was
probably a traditional timber framed Kent hall house that was bricked up, as
was the fashion, in Georgian times.
His marriage is recorded at
Woodnesborough as '23 April 1691 Thomas Lacelet batch and Mary Curling virgin
of Ash married by asking'.
In 1707 he became churchwarden of
Ash parish and his name is to be seen carved into a beam in the Church. In 1708 he became churchwarden of Staple
parish. The eighteenth century office
of churchwarden was far more onerous than it is today. To the churchwarden fell the duty of raising
and collecting the annual parish revenue by the levying of a church rate that
was assessed on the rateable value of the whole parish.
Ralph Arnold in Yeoman of Kent when talking of
churchwardens' duties explains that "the first call on their purse was the
maintenance of the fabric of the church . . . But over and above this
responsibility they had to buy the bread and wine used in Holy Communion;
provide . . . refreshment for the bell-ringers (and singers) . . . subscribe to
all briefs or nationally sponsored appeals; give gratuities to itinerant
beggars, distressed seamen and other poor people who wandered through the
village; keep the church bells and the church clock in order; and maintain the
village stocks."
Kentish Yeomen were a good deal
richer than the general run of yeomen in England. During the eighteenth century yeomen as a class generally tended
to diminish in numbers due to alienation of their land to the rising middle
class. Whereas in Kent yeomen continued to flourish, able to resist this trend
due to their proximity to the ready market for their produce in nearby London
which was readily accessible by water.
The Lasletts in Australia have a
particular interest in Thomas and Mary Laslett as they were the last ancestors
that the two main Australian branches of the family have in common.
Thomas died on 15 April 1739,
aged 78. He was buried in Ash
churchyard on 18 April 1739. Some years
ago Val Hopcraft of Worcester, a descendant of Thomas, visited his grave and
recorded the inscription:
Here lieth the body of Thomas
Laslett
of this Parish who
left Issue 3 Sons
2 Daughters. He
departed this life April
15th 1739. Aged 78 Years.
His will was dated 25 September
1736 and proven 19 April 1739 (see page 219). Richard his son was
sole executor and in the will Thomas bequeathed lands and messuages covering
Woodnesborough and Hoden Farm.
Specifically he left his daughter Margaret £5 per annum, daughter
Mildred £30, grandchildren William and Jane the children of his late son John
£10 apiece, son Stephen £100, son Richard Laslett messuage and land in the
parish of Woodnesborough and one fourth part of messuages and land Hoden Farm
in the parish of Ash, near Sandwich, Kent, to son William Laslett one other
fourth part also.
Family
of Thomas and Mary Laslett
Sons
JOHN - baptised 20 December 1691 at
Ash. On 6 October 1717 John married Elizabeth Keble at Ash. John was buried at Ash on 25 April 1722.
See chapter John and Elizabeth Laslett of West Marsh on page 25.
THOMAS - baptised 24 December 1693 at
Ash. At Ash on 27 September 1712
married Elizabeth Carter of
Ash. They lived at West Marsh. On 18 June 1721 Elizabeth the wife of Thomas
Laselet of Wash Marsh was buried at Ash.
Children:
Ann - baptised 25 January 1713 O.S.
at Ash.
Mary - buried 23 October 1716 at Ash.
Hannah - baptised 23 September 1716 at
Ash.
Elizabeth - buried 19 October 1719 at Ash.
WILLIAM - baptised 10 March 1699 O.S. at
Ash as William son of Thomas and Mary Lacy.
Married Susanna Fright, a
widow, on 18 October 1726 at Ash.
Mentioned in father's will dated 25 September 1736. William buried at Stratford-on-Avon on 15
March 1777.
See chapter William and Susanna Laslett of Stratford-on-Avon on page 27.
STEPHEN - baptised 11 February 1704 O.S.
at Ash, mentioned in father's will.
RICHARD - born 22 September 1707 at
Ash. Farmed lands at Woodnesborough and
Hoden and grew hops at Ash near Sandwich.
On 6 October 1734 Richard Laslett of Ash married Elizabeth Wastall of Staple at Woodnesboro' by Licence. Died 16 April 1784.
See chapter Richard and Elizabeth Laslett of Woodnesborough and of Hoden and Santon
Farms on page 29.
JOSEPH - baptised on 15 December 1709
at Ash. Buried at Ash on 22 November
1710. Both records show him as Joseph
son of Thomas Lacy.
Daughters
MARY - baptised 19 January 1696 O.S.
at Ash, died 1724, no account of marriage.
MARGARET - baptised 26 February 1698 O.S.
at Ash. Married George Keble of Ash on 22 October 1723.
MILDRED - baptised 17 May 1702 at
Ash. Wife of John Holloway.
William and Sarah Laslett of Dover
William Laslett or Lacelet was
baptised on 15 August 1674 at Woodnesborough.
He was the seventh son of John Laslett or Lacelet a yeoman of
Woodnesborough and Mildred Laslett née Fishenden, his wife (page 13).
By 1704 William was established
in his occupation of seaman as, in his brother's 1704 will, a bequest is made
to William to be paid "when he comes a shoar" with a further bequest
to be paid "when he comes a shoar againe". This would indicate that William was engaged in sea voyages of
length rather than just coastal trade.
On 6 July 1709 William as William
Lacelet, a Seaman of Dover, married Sara Wilson, a widow, of St Mary's Parish
Dover, at Woodnesborough by licence.
At around this time William,
probably to be closer to his wife and family, became a fisherman and leased a
house in Limekiln Lane, Dover from the Warden of Dover.
William died in 1730 and was
buried at Dover St Mary as Wm Lacy. His will was proven on 1 March 1729 old system. In it he left 1/- apiece to his brother
Thomas and sisters Mildred and Anna.
Which indicates that they, of his brothers and sisters, were the last
remaining alive. He also mentions that
the property in Limekiln Lane is Harbour Leasehold and that he has Bills, Bonds
and Sums of Money at interest. He
leaves a life interest in these to his wife Sarah with his son William
eventually to inherit. See page 222 for a copy of the will.
Sarah must have been left fairly
comfortably off, as she appears to have bought a fishing vessel, of which she
kept a painting in her front room, and to have established herself as a
moneylender in a small way.
One can see her as being astute
but not really as a hard businesswoman as in her will, proven 2 April 1742, she
states: ‘there is in my Custody severall things left with me as pawns for money
lent to some poor people now it is my Will that all such pawns (if any be found
after my death) shall be delivered to the severall and respective Owners
thereof by my Executors without taking or receiving any money so lent by
me’. Her fishing vessel she left to
Sarah Funnell, the daughter of its master, which may have caused some friction
between father and daughter. In her
will Sarah also mentions her late husband's relatives: Richard Laslett of Ash,
Mary Laslett of Sandwich, Widow of John Laslett and Joseph Laslett of
Sandwich. See page 223 for a copy of the will.
Sarah Laslett alias Lacy, widow of William, was buried at St Marys Dover
on 23 March 1740 O.S.
Unfortunately William's and
Sarah's line appears to have ended with the early death of their son William.
Family
of William and Sarah Laslett
JOHN - baptised 18 March 1710 old
system at St. Mary the Virgin, Dover.
Not mentioned in parents' wills.
WILLIAM - baptised 16 December 1716 at
St. Mary the Virgin, Dover.
Mariner. Died 1740. In his will, dated 19 April 1740 (Probate 24
November 1740), he leaves all his estate to "my loving ffriend Hannah
Atwells of Dover aforesaid Spinster".
(Interestingly his name is spelt both Laslett and Lasley in the
Will.) We can only surmise that William
died unmarried. See copy of will on
page .238.
John and Elizabeth Laslett of West Marsh
John Laslett was baptised on 20
December 1691 at Ash near Sandwich the first child of Thomas Laslett, a yeoman
of Hoden Farm, Ash, and his wife Mary Laslett née Curling (page 21).
On 6 October 1717 he married
Elizabeth Keble of Ash by banns at Ash.
John was buried at Ash on 25
April 1722 as John Lacy of Westmarsh but no record has yet been found of
Elizabeth's death.
We can only conjecture that the
children remained at Ash. As they are
mentioned in their grandfather's will but no special provision was made for
them it would seem to indicate that they lived on at Hoden Farm cared for by
their mother, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Family
of John and Elizabeth Laslett
Son
WILLIAM - baptised 20 April 1718 at
Ash. On 24 January 1742 old system
William Laslet married Mary Jezard
at Hoath by banns.
See chapter William and Mary Laslett of Chislet on page 33.
Daughters
MARY - born at Staple. Not mentioned
in grandfather's will while both her brother and sister are. We can only assume that Mary died young,
unmarried.
JANE - baptised on 30 December 1720
at Ash near Sandwich as Jane daughter of John and Elizabeth Lacelet of West
Marsh. Married Stephen Solly at St. Nicholas Church, Ash near Sandwich on 6 October
1744, by banns. Stephen was born in Ash
on 13 January 1712 the son of Stephen Solley and Ann Solley née Ansel. Jane
died on 8 December 1790.
Children:
Ann
Solly 1747
Elizabeth
Solly 1750‑1778
Stephen Solly 1759‑1838
John
Solly 1767‑1806
Jane
Solly
Thomas and Mary Laslett of Stourmouth
We are presently researching
Thomas and indications are that he was baptised at Woodnesborough on 19
September 1690 the first son of John and Mary Lacy.
He appears to have married Mary
Stacey at Ash on 3 October 1730 by banns. The parish register shows him as
Thomas Lacy.
There is a record in the Ash PRs
for 19 September 1732 for the burial of Mary Lacey. This is probably Mary as all references to Thomas and Mary around
this time in the Ash PRs refer to them as Lacy rather than Laslett. This is understandable given that the Lacys
are an old Ash family and are often confused by the scribes with the Lasletts.
Thomas was buried at Stourmouth
on 23 September 1758.
Family
of Thomas and Mary Laslett
Son
THOMAS - baptised at Ash on 25 February
1731 O.S. On 2 June 1753 married Ann
Smith of Monkton at Ash. Thomas was
buried at Stourmouth on 19 March 1768.
See chapter Thomas and Ann Laslett of Stourmouth on page 36.
William and Susanna Laslett of Stratford-on-Avon
William was born at Ash in 1701,
the third son of Thomas Laslett, a yeoman of Hoden Farm, Ash, and his wife Mary
Laslett née Curling (page 21). The Parish
Baptismal Records for four years up to 1702 have been destroyed and no record
of baptism has been found. Richard Laslett investigating the matter in 1860
came to the conclusion that William was born at Ash in 1701 and detailed his
findings in a letter in 1912 to his brother George in South Australia.
On 18 October 1726 William
Laslett married "the Widow Fright" at Ash. Later records show her Christian name to be Susanna. At that time marriage to a widow was often
the sign of an upwardly mobile young man as such a marriage could give access
to capital not otherwise available to so young a man. Perhaps confirming this is William's application four years
later, in 1730, for an appointment in the Excise. In the Application he gave his age as 28. William was ordered for examination at St
Mary's Sandwich on 18 March 1730 and left Kent to follow his occupation on 14
May 1731.
On his father's death in 1739 he
received a share in Hoden Farm but appears to have sold this to his brother
Richard.
William's career in the Excise
was successful. On 18 January 1754 he
was promoted Collector East Wales, on 16 September 1761 he was Collector Middle
Wales. He relinquished his position on
13 September 1769 and died at Stratford-on-Avon in 1777. He was buried there on 15 March.
His Will is dated 5 April 1775
and was proven on 4 April 1777. In it
he names his sons William and Thomas as Executors while a third son, Stephen,
is mentioned in the Will as a beneficiary.
Susanna survived William and in
1782 she left Stratford-on- Avon to live in Worcester with her son Thomas.
An interesting sidelight is a
marriage recorded on 13 October 1779 at Stratford-on-Avon between a John Mills
and a Susanna Laslett. It seems likely
that this may have been a third marriage for Susanna.
Family
of William and Susanna Laslett
Son
THOMAS - born at St Albans around
1730. Registers destroyed by fire in
1743. Married Jane Emerson at Potton Bedfordshire on 25 July 1760.
See chapter Thomas and Jane Laslett of Worcester on page 33.
STEPHEN - no details known. Mentioned in father's Will 1777. There is a
baptism of Stephen Laslett son of William and Mary Laslett at St Mary’s
Sandwich on 16 February 1729 and an apprenticeship in 1742 for Stephen Laslett
son of William Laslett to John Randall of Rotherhithe a Shipwright for £30.
Also a will dated 31 March 1762 proved 18 May 1764 for Stehen Laslett outward
bound in the Good Ship Earl of Ashburnham.
In this will Stephen’s sole beneficiary is his wife Mary. The Earl of Ashburnham was an East India
Company ship, Captain Thomas Pearce Commander, 499 Tons, which made four EIC
voyages between 1761 and 1771.
WILLIAM - no details known. Mentioned in father's Will 1777. There is a
baptism of William Laslett son of William and Mary Laslett at St Mary’s
Sandwich on 12 October 1730 and an apprenticeship in 1744 for William Laslett
son of William Laslett to Sam Reader of Cranbrook a Barber &c.
(barber/surgeon?) for £10/10/-.
William and Mary Laslett of Sandwich
William Laslett was baptised on 9
March 1707 at the Corn Market Independent or Presbyterian Church at Sandwich,
the sixth son of John Laslett of Sandwich and his wife Mary Laslett née Badcock. (See Page 20.)
Married Mary Wigmore, of this Parish, at Preston next Wingham on 12 July
1727 by licence. She died 16 April 1736
and was buried as Mary Lacy. There is a
possible second marriage as William Lacy to Elizabeth Tahal at Woodnesborough on 25 November 1741.
Family
of William and Mary Laslett
Sons
STEPHEN
- baptised 16
February 1728 OS at St. Mary’s, Sandwich. On 8 March 1752 married Mary Moulton.
Children:
John – born 1791. A Builder. Married Charlotte Wale.
Children:
George - born 17 August 1834 at
Orpington
Thomas Wale - born 2 September 1832 at
Orpington
Charlotte - born 18 October 1829 at
Orpington.
Esther
Matilda - born 24
February 1828 at Orpington
William - born 27 August 1826 at Orpington. Married on 6 June 1852 in
Surrey to Helena Croke. Helena had
been born at Mallew Ireland on 14 April 1831. She died at Orpington on 29 March
1878. On 12 October 1881 William married Elizabeth
Gearing. William died at Orpington in 1916.
Family of William and Helena Laslett:
Alice
Elanor Magga - born 20 September 1870 at
Orpington. Married William Lockhead and later Andrew.
Frederick
Terrence - born 22 September 1868 at Orpington.
Married Alma McPherson.
Children:
Florence – born
19 December 1902 in New York. Married James
Mason.
Dixie – born
22 September 1906 in New York. Married Joseph
Thompson.
Henry
Arthur - born 31 July 1866 at Orpington. Married Ada Maria Henderson.
Children:
Gordon – born
1906. Died 1950.
Walter
Charles - born 22 June 1864 at Orpington. Married Mary Cousins in 1891. Died on 27 June
1936.
Children:
Arthur – born 25
April 1899. Married Rose Gertrude Ward.
Children:
Doris
– married name Hallet.
Thomas
Isaac - born 2 May 1860 at Orpington. A
bricklayer.
Agnes
Francis - born 1 November 1854 at Orpington.
George -
born 23 August 1856 at Orpington. Married Mary
J. Died in 1933 at Spokane, Washington State
William
John - born 13 April 1853 at Orpington. In 1878
married Francis Mary Trew (registered
at Shoreditch). Died on 24 January 1918 at St Pauls Cray.
Children:
John
W. – Born 14 December
1883. Arrived Ellis Island, NY 7 March 1908, single, aged 24 years via the Lucania out of Liverpool. Married Mary McGonicle. USA Death record for
John Laslett born 14 December 1883 died New Haven, Connecticut 1969.
Children:
James A. – born
1917 in the USA. Married Dorothy Murray.
Children:
William – born 1949 USA.
Diana – born 1942 USA.
Robert – born 1951 USA.
Children:
Keith
– 20 August 1972 USA
Lillian Maud – born
13 December 1897. Married Harry Hodges.
Ernest
Augustine - born 18 July 1874 at Broom Hill Orpington.
A Builder. In 1899 Ernest married Lucy Venables. He died on 21 February
1958 at Crumpsall Hospital.
Children:
Jack Terrance – born 7
June 1910 in Manchester. Married Edith
Chilton. Edith had been born on 1 February 1908 in Manchester and died in
1974 in Stockport. Jack died on 19 February 1993 at Stepping Hill Hospital
Stockport.
Children:
Barry
Stuart – born 24 July 1946 in Manchester. A Telecommunications
Manager. Married Jacqueline Ann Bottoms, a Teacher. She had been born at Stockport
on 3 January 1947.
Children:
David
John – born 28 May 1975 at Stockport. A Business Systems Analyst.
Family of William and Elizabeth Laslett
Charles
William Gearing
- born 23 August 1877 at Union Workhouse Farnborough. Registered with the
surname Gearing. Married in 1901 to Mary
Agness Syford in the Shoreditch Register.
Emily
Charlotte - born
22 December 1880 at Orpington. Died September 1890.
Francis
Mary - born 6 March
1881 at Orpington. Died 25 February 1887 at Orpington.
Ethel - born 24 April 1882 at
Orpington. Died 29 May 1884 at Orpington.
John
Corporal - born
14 DEC 1883 at Orpington.
Archibald
Samuel - born 18
FEB 1885 at Orpington.
Charlotte
Elizabeth - born
10 JAN 1887 at Orpington.
Elsie - born 11 OCT 1888 at Orpington.
In 1909 married (?) Sevenoaks registry.
Stanley - born 7 OCT 1890 at Orpington.
WILLIAM – baptised 12 October 1730 at
St. Mary’s, Sandwich. Married (c.1754) Mary Withers born 1730 the daughter of
Robert and Grace Withers. William died 29 December 1783 at Seal. Mary died
there in 1789.
See chapter William and Mary Laslett of Shoreham on page 34.
Richard and Elizabeth Laslett of Woodnesborough and of Hoden and Santon Farms
Richard Laslett was baptised on
22 September 1707 at Ash near Sandwich, the fifth son of Thomas Laslett, a
yeoman of Hoden Farm, Ash, and his wife Mary Laslett née Curling (page 21). Richard was also a yeoman and he farmed lands at
Woodnesborough and at Ash near Sandwich both being farm lands but in addition
hops were grown at Hoden Farm, the Ash property. Richard also took the lease of Santon Farm, Ash.
On the death of his father
Richard was sole Executor of the will and he inherited messuages and land at
Woodnesborough and a one fourth part of Hoden Farm then 24 acres. Richard must have been a successful farmer and
a moneyed man as he held other lands in the parish and appears to have bought
his brothers' fourth part shares of Hoden Farm as, in 1739, he had the title
transferred from his father's name to his name solely.
Richard was Churchwarden of Ash
parish a number of times over the years.
Planché (1864) in his description of St. Nicholas Ash in his book A Corner of Kent notes:
Over the arch, at the entrance to
the high chancel is a board, with the following inscription:- 'This belfry was
raised and rebuilt by Thomas Beake and Richard Laslett, churchwardens, 1750.'
This was in consequence of the
fall of the great clock weight, which broke through the flooring of the belfry
and ceiling of the tower - providentially when the church was empty, as it
crushed everything it came in contact with." Michael Laslett visiting St Nicholas, Ash in 2,000 describes this
board as ‘a black plaque in the tower… Unfortunately it is too high to make out
the inscription…’
On 6 October 1734 Richard Laslett
of Ash married Elizabeth Wastall of Staple at Woodnesboro'.
On 30 October 1778 an indenture
was executed between 'Elizabeth Heyman of Canterbury, Susanna Underwood of
Yalding, Surrey and Chas Hill of Yalding, surgeon to lease for 14 years to
Richard Laslett of Ash, gentleman and John Laslett of same place, yeoman son of
Richard Laslett, farm and lands at Hoden for £50 pa'. This lease appears to have taken Hoden farm to 50 acres.
Richard died on 12 April 1784 and
was buried on 16 April at Ash. His will
was proven on 8 May 1784, by which he bequeathed the lease of Santon Farm to
his son Thomas with his son John to hold Hoden Farm (see page 226). The real
estate was left to his sons as tenants in common. His executors were his sons Thomas and Richard.
Elizabeth died on 7 July 1766
'aged 57' and was buried on 11 July following at Ash. It was recorded that Elizabeth left 'issue 6 sons and two
daughters'.
‘The family vault outside the
church was not, as I expected, a large sepulchure but an underground brick line
vault surmounted by five headstones…
“They related to (from right to
left); …Elizabeth (died 1766…), Richard(…died 1784…), Thomas (…died 1739…),
Thomas, eldest son of (Richard) and his wife Susan (died 1817…)
‘In front of them is a later
headstone recording burial in the vault of Robert… 5th son of… John,
who died at Marshborough in 1868… The headstone also records the burial of his
wife, Mary Ann, in 1868 and their descendants and spuces Maria, Elenor, Robert,
George, Jane, Julia and Thomas Knight. This last burial in the vault was in
1914. The position of the family vault by the church porch in an unusually
large graveyard shows the prominence of the family in the village.” (Michael
Laslett, 2 August 2000)
Family
of Richard and Elizabeth Laslett
Sons
THOMAS - born 27 May 1738 and baptised
at Ash. Resided at Preston next
Wingham, on 26 June 1764 married by licence Elizabeth Ewell (born 1744) the daughter of Robert Ewell. Elizabeth was buried on 15 January
1668. Thomas's second wife was Susannah Chandler who was called
Susan. Thomas died 8 February 1817,
aged 78, and Susan died on 29 March 1835, aged 89.
See chapter Thomas Laslett of Preston & his wives Elizabeth & Susannah
on page 36.
RICHARD - baptised 27 December 1739, Ash
near Sandwich, farmed lands Bossington Farm and Ovington Farm in the parishes
of Adisham, Goodnestone and Wingham, Kent.
Married Mary Gibbs of
Elmstone, near Ash, 14 April 1768. Died
1809, aged 69, will proven 1809. The Executors were his brother Thomas and
brother-in-law Richard Emmerson Esq.
See chapter Richard and Mary Laslett of Bossington and Ovington Farms on page 38.
ROBERT - baptised 8 January 1740
O.S. Buried at Ash on 26 July 1747.
JOHN - baptised 14 December 1743 at
Ash. Executor to his uncle William's
Will. On 6 July 1772 married as John
Lastlett bachelor of Ash to Elizabeth
Hammond Spinster of Wingham at Wingham.
John was buried at Ash on 26 August 1810.
See chapter John and Elizabeth Laslett of Hoden Farm, Ash on page 40.
WILLIAM - baptised 20 July 1748 at
Ash. Had house, farm, buildings and
land, Paramore St, Ash near Sandwich, Kent. On 4 July 1773 he married Mary Beake of Ash at Ash by licence
Mary was the daughter of Thomas Beake
and Elizabeth Fuller. William was buried at Ash on 6 October 1818,
aged 70. Will proven 30 September
1819. Had three children, two of whom
died in infancy.
Children:
William - baptised 2 October 1780 at
Ash. Buried Ash 15 March 1781.
Mary - baptised 12 September 1782 at
Ash. On 11 October 1798 married Edmund Gibbs of Stourmouth at
Stourmouth by Licence. On 11 May 1801
married John Barrett of Ash at Ash
by Licence.
Unnamed
infant - buried
at Ash 1 September 1786.
EDWARD - baptised 6 February 1750 O.S.
at Ash. On 19 April 1780 married Phebe
Gibbs of Stourmouth at Stourmouth by Licence. Apprenticed in 1767 to William Parlett a Fellmonger &
Breeches Maker of Sandwich for which he paid a bond of £20. Became a Breeches and Glove Maker in
Ash. He is mentioned in the will of his
uncle William. May also have had property in Woodnesborough as the Land Tax
returns for 1780 mention an Edward Laslett.
Edward was buried at Ash on 14 October 1789.
Son:
Edward - baptised 31 July 1786 at
Ash. On 13 October 1806 married Rebecca Marsh of Ash at Ash by Banns.
Daughter:
Rebecca - baptised 3 January 1808 at
Ash.
STEPHEN - baptised 19 September 1753 at
Ash. A Farmer. On 10 December 1778
married Elizabeth Nash Adisham by
Banns. Lived at Woodnesborough. In 1787 the Woodnesborough parish register
notes "This autumn there was a very bad fatal putrid fever in this country
and parish". Two of Stephen and
Elizabeth's children and Mary Fennymore, a maidservant of the family, succumbed
to the fever within 15 days of each other.
Stephen was mentioned in will of his uncle William. Stephen was buried
at Woodnesborough 8 November 1796 aged 43. An Elizabeth Laslett aged 51 was
buried at Woodnesborough on 7 October 1800.
Children:
Mary
Mariah -
baptised 1 September 1779 at Woodnesborough.
On 7 June 1802 married William
Famariss at Woodnesborough by licence.
Shown as spinster and bachelor respectively and both of Woodnesborough
parish.
Stephen - baptised 29 June 1781 at
Woodnesborough. On 8 August 1810
married Elizabeth Southee of
Woodnesborough at Woodnesborough by Licence. The 1851 census for Hammill shows
Stephen Laslett born Woodnesborough, widower aged 71 a farmer occupying 80
acres and employing 1 labourer. A Mrs Elizabeth Laslett aged 26 was buried at
Woodnesborough on 1 June 1812.
Richard - baptised 30 March 1783 at
Woodnesborough. Died of the putrid
fever and buried at Woodnesborough on 10 November 1787.
Elizabeth - baptised 17 March 1786 at
Woodnesborough. Married Thomas More of Eastry by banns at Woodnesborough
on 27 October 1808.
John - baptised 1 March 1787 at
Woodnesborough. Died of the putrid
fever and buried at Woodnes- borough on 19 November 1787.
Susannah - baptised 3 November 1788 at
Woodnes- borough. On 22 May 1810
married Samuel Couzens of Staple at
Staple.
Mary - baptised 14 November 1791 at
Woodnes- borough. Buried at
Woodnesborough on 18 December 1791.
Daughters
MARY - baptised 25 February 1736 O.S.
at Ash. Married Thomas Horne, yeoman of Ash at Ash on 6 September 1764 by Licence.
ELIZABETH - baptised 5 December 1745 O.S.
at Ash. Married Richard Emmerson a Tallow Chandler of St. Mary's parish, Sandwich,
Kent, at Sandwich on 15 April 1773 by licence. Richard was the son of Charles
Emmerson and Mary Emmerson née Tetler of Sandwich. He had been baptised at St Marys on 27 July 1749 and he died in
1798. Elizabeth died on 16 September 1781 ‘leaving no issue’ and is buried in
St Marys Sandwich church. In the same grave is the body of Mary, Richard’s
second wife, who died on 19 January 1798.
Sons: Richard Emmerson
Charles
Emmerson
William and Mary Lasslett of Chislet
William was baptised at Ash on 20
April 1718, the only son of John Laslett of West Marsh and his wife Elizabeth
Laslett née Keble (page 25).
William's father died in
1722. William appears to have been
raised on Hoden Farm, Ash near Sandwich by his mother, grandparents and aunts
and uncles.
In the eighteenth century
continuity was tied to the human life span.
The death of the head of the family ordinarily meant a drastic reduction
in the fortunes of the family and we can only suppose his grandparents'
intervention assured William was set up in life.
On 24 January 1743 he married
Mary Jezard of Hoath at Hoath by banns.
Hoath is a parish and village 12
km North West of Ash. This is quite a
large distance to be travelled by a courting yeoman of the early 18th Century
even for the rather mobile East Kent yeomen.
As William remained in Hoath after marriage we can only surmise that he
married well.
William was buried at Chislet on
27 March 1763 as Wiliam Lacey and Mary was buried there on 5 October 1780 as
the Widow Lacey. In William's will of
17 March 1763 (see page 225) he mentions land in both Hoath and Chislet. Probate was not granted until April
1768. The delay probably happened
because Mary was sole executrix and had a life tenancy in the all the property
so there was not a pressing need to file for probate.
Sons Thomas and John were married
at Chislet in 1769 and 1772 respectively and were shown as being "of this
parish". Their brother William was
witness to both marriages.
Family
of William and Mary Lasslett
Sons
JOHN - baptised 30 October 1743 at
Hoath. On 16 December 1772 married Anne Denne at Chislet. They lived at Sturry and both were buried
there, John, aged 79, on 6 April 1823 and Anne, also aged 79, on 24 April
1827.
Children:
Mary - baptised 11 April 1773 at
Herne. On 11 November 1794 married John Denne of Goodnestone.
Anne - baptised 13 February 1776 at
Herne.
Married Thomas Beard at Sevenoaks on 1 June 1801
Sarah - baptised 2 November 1777 at St
Martins, Herne. On 13 December 1794
married Henry Hudson of Swalecliffe
at Swalecliffe. Sarah was shown as
being from Chislet.
John - baptised 1 December 1782 at St
Martins, Herne. A John Laslett’s death at age 89 was registered at Bridge in
the June quarter 1872 (vol 2a page 390).
William - baptised 19 November 1787 at
St Martins, Herne.
Thomas - baptised 1 February 1789 at St
Martins, Herne. Note: On 2 Feb 03 Tim Salisbury e-mailed ‘I have
had a letter from Jeanne Wall, who has a Laslett in her background, I can't see
from my information who it is. He was a
Thomas Laslett who married Elizabeth Willsmer on 13/3/1817, in Middlesex. They were living in North Shoeberry, Essex
in 1843 when their daughter, Emma Berthia Laslett was born, on 18/7/1843. From
the marriage certificate it looks like he was a Mariner. Thomas's father was a
John Laslett, farmer’
WILLIAM - baptised 3 February 1745 at
Hoath. Married Elizabeth Foreman at
Herne on 19 November 1776.
Children:
Elizabeth - baptised 20 April 1777 at St
Martins, Herne.
Mary - baptised 10 January 1779 at
Herne.
THOMAS - baptised 10 January 1746 at
Hoath. On 11 October 1769 married Elizabeth Gibbs at Chislet. Thomas was buried at Swalecliffe on 16 March
1809 and Elizabeth was buried there on
1 May 1807.
See chapter Thomas and Elizabeth Lasslett of Brook Farm on page 41.
Thomas and Jane Laslett of Worcester
Thomas was born at St. Albans
around 1730. He was the son of William
Laslett, a collector in the excise, and his wife Susanna (page 27). The exact
date is not known as the St Alban's Parish Registers were destroyed by fire in
1743.
On 25 July 1760 Thomas married
Jane Emerson the daughter of Lieut Ralph Emerson the heir of Captain John
Emerson R.N. This apparently judicious
marriage indicates a rise in fortune of this branch of the family and Thomas is
perhaps the first Laslett leaving the honoured class of Yeoman to aim towards
the title Gentleman. Really his
occupation in the Excise precluded him from this and it was only to be realised
by his son Thomas Emerson Laslett.
In 1777 Thomas was a co-executor
with his brother William of his father's Will.
In 1782 Thomas took his mother
with him to live in Worcester.
Family
of Thomas and Jane Laslett
Sons
WILLIAM
(1) – baptised
30 August 1761 at Potton Bedfordshire.
THOMAS
EMERSON -
baptised 29 April 1765 at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon, Warwick. Married Sophia
Jenkins at St Swithuns Worcester on 23 December 1798. Thomas died on 19 December 1816 and is
buried at St Swithuns Worcester.
See chapter Thomas and Sophia Laslett of Worcester on page 47.
WILLIAM
(2) - baptised
1766 Holy Trinity Church, Stratford on Avon, Warwick. No further details are known except that in 1862 his nephew
William when asked about his relatives said that he had none living so we can
only surmise that his uncle had no issue.
Daughter
SUSANNAH - baptised 1768 Holy Trinity
Church, Stratford on Avon, Warwick. There is a marriage of a Susanna Laslet to
a John Mills or Miles on 13 October 1779 at Holy Trinity Church. This indicates
that the above birth date may be incorrect.
William and Mary Laslett of Shoreham
William Laslett was baptised 12
October 1730 at St. Mary’s, Sandwich the second son of William Laslett of
Sandwich and his wife Mary Laslett née Wigmore. (See page 28.)
In c.1754 he married Mary Withers who had been born in 1730
the daughter of Robert and Grace Withers.
William died on 29 December 1783
at Seal (Derbyshire?). Mary died there in 1789.
Family
of William and Mary Laslett
Sons
JOHN – born 1762 at Shoreham, Kent.
Probably married Hester.
Son:
Isaac Withers – baptised 8 July 1804 at
Orpington, Kent
ISAAC
WITHERS – born
1764 at Otford, Kent. On 16 December 1786 married Lydia Swaisland at Deptford. Lydia had beeen baptised on 23 January
1755 at Horton Kirby, Kent the daughter of Joel and Elizabeth Swaisland.
See chapter Isaac and Lydia Laslett of Deptford on page 46.
Daughter
MARY
WIGMORE – born
1764 at Otford, Kent.
Thomas and Ann Laslett of Stourmouth
Thomas was baptised at Ash on 25
February 1731 O.S. He was the son of
Thomas Laslett of Stourmouth and Mary Laslett née Stacey his wife (page 26).
He married Ann Smith a spinster
of Monkton who was aged 22 on 2 June 1753 at Ash. The marriage licence shows him as Thomas Lacy of Stourmouth,
husbandman, bachelor, aged 21.
We do not know much of Thomas and
Ann except that a 19th century family record when writing of their children
states 'of their parents, who were natives of East Kent, very little is known
to the writer except that they both died while the children were young'.
Thomas was buried at Stourmouth
on 19 March 1768 as Thomas Lacey. On
checking the Bishops Transcripts one records the name as Thomas Laslet.
Family
of Thomas and Ann Laslett
Son
THOMAS - baptised at Stourmouth on 28
September 1760. On 26 November 1786
married Elizabeth Spain of Worth by
Banns at Woodnesborough. Elizabeth had
been born in 1763. Thomas is thought to
have died in 1798.
See chapter Thomas and Elizabeth Laslett of Woodnesborough on page 43.
Thomas Laslett of Preston & his wives Elizabeth & Susannah
Thomas Laslett was born at Ash on
22 May 1738. He was the first son of
Richard Laslett, a Yeoman of Ash, and his wife Elizabeth Laslett née Wastall
(page 29).
Thomas lived at Preston, near
Ash, and possessed a house and land in Cop St, Ash. On 26 July 1764 at Preston next Wingham he married Elizabeth
Ewell (born 1744) the daughter of Robert Ewell. Elizabeth was buried at Preston on 15 January 1768. Thomas took a second wife, Susannah Chandler
who was called Susan. He married her at
Preston on 19 November 1769 by licence.
The lease of Santon Farm was left
him by his father. He was Executor to
will of his brother Richard.
Family of thirteen children -
four sons (two died young) and nine daughters (two died young), six of the
daughters married. Thomas is recorded
as both a Gentleman and a Yeoman.
In Archdeaconry Court of
Canterbury Vol.104 folio 73 Probate 3 Jan 1807 for Thomas Bushell of Buckland,
Woodnesborough, yeoman, will dated 12 Jul 1806 Wife Susan Sons Thomas, John,
William and George Thomas Laslett the elder of Guston, yeoman mentioned. John Kilsey, yeoman, executor. Thomas
Laslett the younger of ?, executor.
Thomas died 8 February 1817, aged
78, and Susan died on 29 March 1835, aged 89.
His will (see page 229) was dated 5 October 1815 and proven on 15 March 1817. The Executors were his son Thomas and his
son-in-law John Kelsey.
Family
of Thomas and Elizabeth Laslett
Daughters
ELIZABETH - by first wife, born 5 December
1765, wife of John Kelsey, executor
of will of wife's father.
ANN (lst) - by first wife, born 13
January 1768, buried at Preston on 19 January 1768.
Family
of Thomas and Susannah Laslett
THOMAS - baptised at Preston on 20
December 1770. Executor to father's
will. Married Mary Hawkes of Adisham at Adisham on 19 October 1796. He was shown as 'of Ash'.
JOHN - baptised on 6 March 1772 at
Preston and buried there on 17 March 1773.
RICHARD - born 1 March 1779. On 20 November 1802 married Mary Woodruff, a widow of Sturry, at
Sturry. He was shown as 'of this
parish'. Not mentioned in father's
will. Lived at Petham and died there at
age 49. Buried at Petham on 6 April
1828.
Children:
Mary - baptised at Sturry on 27
September 1804. Buried at Petham on 18
August 1826 aged 21.
Sarah - baptised at Sturry on 19 March
1807. Buried at Petham on 12 May 1826
aged 19.
JOHN - baptised 12 February 1784 at
Preston. Married Ann Pott on 18 June 1808 at Worth.
See chapter John and Ann Laslett of Ash on page 57.
Daughters
MARY - baptised at Preston on 14
April 1774. On 15 May 1793 married Jarvis Bing at Ash next Sandwich.
Sons: Thomas Hatcher Bing –
baptised 19 December 1793 at Wickhambreaux, Kent. Lived at Teynham, Kent. Married Mary Roper. Thomas died on 29 September
1854.
Henry
Bing – baptised
16 April 1795 at Wickhambreaux. Lived at Elham Kent. On 3 August 1819 at
Littlebourne married Harriett Sutton. Henry died on 8 April 1855.
Jarvis
Bing – baptised
15 November 1796 at Wickhambreaux. Died 18 December 1873.
SUSANNAH - baptised at Preston on 15
February 1776. Name in register Susan.
Wife of Mr. Giles.
ANN (2nd) - baptised at Preston on
26 January 1778.
Son: Nimrod Laslett -
born 30 January 1806 Ash[1]. Mentioned in Grandfather's will. Nimrod lived at Sutton Valence. He died aged 21 and was buried at Sutton
Valence on 22 February 1827.
SARAH - baptised at Preston on 7
October 1782.
FANNY - baptised at Preston on 7
October 1782. On 7 January 1809 married
Charles Pott at Ash. Previous to this Fanny had had a child:
Thomas
Hoom Laslett -
baptised on 20 November 1802 at Ash as Thomas son of Francis Laslett. Mentioned in Grandfather's will. He died young, being buried at Ash on 11
March 1819.
SARAH (2nd) - baptised at Preston on
19 July 1784. On 30 January 1807
married Henry Paramore of Minster in
Thanet at Ash.
MARIA - born 14 September 1789. Married Isaac
Read at Woodnesborough on 1 October 1811.
Richard and Mary Laslett of Bossington and Ovington Farms
Richard Laslett was baptised on
27 December 1739 at Ash near Sandwich.
He was the second son of Richard Laslett, a yeoman farming lands at
Woodnesborough and Ash, and his wife Elizabeth Laslett née Wastall (page 29).
On 14 April 1768 Richard married
Mary Gibbs of Elmstone near Ash at Elmstone.
Mary had been born in 1742.
Richard farmed lands Bossington
Farm and Ovington Farm in the parishes of Adisham, Goodnestone and Wingham,
Kent.
He died in 1809, aged 69, and his
will was proven in 1809. Thomas his brother and Richard Emmerson Esq his
brother-in-law were the executors of his will.
Mary died aged 59 in 1801 and was buried at Wickambreaux, Kent, on 12
January 1801.
Family
of Richard and Mary Laslett
Sons
RICHARD - born 15 October 1772 at
Ovington Farm, Goodnestone. On 19
January 1796 married Miss Elizabeth
Denne, of Adisham, born 1777. Died
11 December 1848. Will proven 9 June
1849. His wife Elizabeth died 2 October
1849, aged 72, both, buried at Wingham.
See chapter Richard and Elizabeth Laslett of Hole, Dene, Wingham Well and Appleton
Farms on page 48.
THOMAS – baptised on 30 March 1775 at
Goodnestone.
WILLIAM – baptised on 14 August 1777 at
Goodnestone.
JOHN – baptised 3 March 1783 at
Goodnestone. Farmer of Little Bossington Farm, Adisham. He was very fond of hunting. At Reculver on 4 March 1806 John “married a
Miss Jane Sayer, who predeceased him
many years” (Richard Laslett writing in
1914). Jane died 11 November 1845(?) aged 63 years. Died 1 June 1872, at 90 years of age. Both are buried in
Goodnestone Church yard. When Keith & Carleen Laslett visited Goodnestone
Church yard they noted the burials for John and his family from their
tombstones. They also noted that there were two other stones in the same area
of which one was broken. On the erecet stone only the name Laslett can be
defined. Adjacent to these is a stone bearing the name Bayley.
Children:
Frederick - baptised 19 July 1806 at
Goodnestone. “Died as a young man” (ibed.). Died 11 March 1845 and buried
with his parents in Goodnestone Church yard.
Charles
Sayer - born
1808 buried 20 June 1820 at Goodnestone aged 12.
Richard - baptised 24 April 1810 at
Goodnestone. “A doctor, died as a young
man”. (ibed.) Died 29 December 1850
and buried with his parents in Goodnestone Church yard.
Herbert - baptised 10 May 1812 at
Goodnestone. Died 21 September 1897 and buried in Goodnestone Church yard.
“Aged 85 years”.
Emma - baptised 12 March 1814 at
Goodnestone. Died 29 December 1899 and buried in Goodnestone Church yard. “Aged
85 years”.
Robert - baptised 4 February 1816 at
Goodnestone. Died 22 September 1849 and buried with his parents in Goodnestone
Church yard. “Aged 53 years” (Sic.)
John - baptised 8 February 1818 at
Goodnestone. Died 27 December 1869 and buried with his parents in Goodnestone
Church yard.
Francis
Stephen (Frank)
- baptised 27 November 1819 at Goodnestone.
“A farmer”. (ibed.) Died 13
July 1885 and buried with his parents in Goodnestone Church yard. “Aged 63
years”. The death was registered in the June quarter 1883 at Eastry (vol 2a
page 481) aged 63 so it appears that the tombstone entry was misread.
Susannah
Mary - Baptised
31 December 1821 at Goodnestone. Died 22 February 1906 and buried in
Goodnestone Church yard. “Aged 84 years”.
Dorothy - lived to be 84, last of the
children surviving.
All lived at Bossington. Not one of them married. Later Herbert and his two sisters lived
there together, all over 80 years.
Daughters
ELIZABETH – baptised at Elizabeth
‘Lacelet’ at Goodnestone on 23 February 1769. On 22 October 1789 married James Ashenden a yeoman of Nonnington
near Wingham at Goodnestone near Wingham.
Her daughter was the mother of Mr. Maxted, who took Dene Farm when
Anthony, Richard's son, left it at Michaelmas, 1891. Mr. Maxted's son, Robert, had Wingham Well and Appleton
Farms. This is similar to Richard and
his son, Leonard.
MARY – baptised as Mary Lacelet on 18
October 1770 at Goodnestone. On 11 November 1794. Married John Denne, a widower, at Goodnestone next Wingham. Their daughters were double first cousins to
Richard's children.
Children:
Elizabeth
Denne - wife of Robert Marshall, of Studdle Farm, died
17 October 1855.
Mary
Denne - In 1822
married Frederick Collard (Born
1795. Died 1846.) of Garrington.
Frederick was the son of David Collard (born 1766 died 1836) of Wickham
Court and his second wife Ann Kingsford (b. ? d 1826). (The first Elizabeth
Kingsford died in 1790.)
Children:
Mary
Collard married Edward Collard her father's cousin
(born 1823) of Nackington near Canterbury, the son of Thomas Collard (born 1773
died 1867) and Sarah Mount.
Children:
Henry
Collard, a noted
singer and being very diminutive was called "Pocket Sims Reeves"
after the noted tenor John Sims Reeves.
Henry had a sister who was also very diminutive.
Elizabeth
Collard
Ellen
Collard
Fanny
Collard
David
Collard who had
Garrington Farm after the death of his parents, he married twice and left a
large family.
John
Collard died 18
November 1849, aged 22 years.
Frederic
Collard went
abroad young.
Edward
Collard went
abroad young.
Richard's wife's sister was the
wife of Daniel Bushell, Wickham
Court Farm, near Wingham. Their son John was owner of Frognal Farm near
Wingham. In 1828 he married a Miss Emma
Collard (b 1799 d 1834) and had two daughters, his wife dying some years
before him, he left Frognal Farm to his wife's sister. One daughter, Caroline Bushell (b 1803 d 1848),
married John Elgar in 1836. Emma was
the sister of Frederick Collard, see above, whom married Mary Denne in
1822. Daniel Bushell had another son, Daniel, who was father of Robert Bushell, Factor, Canterbury.
Richard's wife's brother was William Denne, of Herne Bay.
Mrs. Grant was his first daughter
by his first wife. He married a second
time, one much younger than himself.
The Denne's at Beltinge were tenants of that farm from the 1830s until
sometime in the 1880s.
Children:
Mary
Denne - who died
in London, unmarried.
Eliza
Denne - married
a Mr. Grant and went to Australia
Susan
Denne - wife of
W. Doubleday, had one son.
Emma
Denne - wife of
F. Foat, had a son.
Louisa
Denne - died
aged 18 years.
William
Denne - married,
but had no family.
John
Collard Denne -
had several in family, his wife was of the same calling as his mother, lived at
Camberwell, London.
There was another son,
unfortunate.
William Denne died on 18 June
1856 at Hearne Bay, aged 90 years, and is buried at Hearne. His gravestone records that he was of
"The Elms, near Dover".
John and Elizabeth Laslett of Hoden Farm, Ash
John Laslett was baptised on 14
December 1743 at Ash. He was the fourth
son of Richard Laslett, a yeoman who farmed Hoden and Santon Farms in Ash and
land at Woodnesborough, and Elizabeth Laslett née Wastall his wife (page 29).
John appears to have taken over
Hoden Farm from his father and to have farmed it all his life.
Executor to his Uncle William's
Will.
John married Elizabeth Hammond, a
spinster, of Wingham at Wingham on 6 July 1772. Wingham parish records state:
“John LASTLETT married Elizabeth
HAMMOND on 6 Jul 1772 in Wingham Parish Church, Canterbury Kent.
Of Ash next Sandwich
Bachelor
signature
Witnesses: R Emmorson
(signature), William Hawks (signature)
Official: John Loftie, Curate
Child Baptised 25 April 1773
Elizabeth HAMMOND was christened
on 16 Oct 1751. She married John LASTLETT on 6 Jul 1772 in Wingham Parish
Church, Canterbury Kent.
Of Wingham
Signature”
John was buried at Ash on 26
August 1810.
Family
of John and Elizabeth Laslett
Sons
JOHN - baptised 25 April 1773 at
Wingham. Yeoman probably farmed Hoden
Farm, Ash. Married Elizabeth Horn at Ash on 30 April 1793. Elizabeth died on 14 November 1829 and is buried at Ash. On 12 June 1832 John married a second time,
his new wife being Jane Elizabeth
Hellier a spinster. John died on 6
September 1854 and is buried at Ash.
See chapter John and Elizabeth Laslett of Coombe on page 52.
Daughters
ELIZABETH - baptised 4 September 1775 at
Ash. Buried 29 July 1782 at Ash.
SUSANNAH - baptised 14 September 1777 at
Ash. Buried 12 February 1778.
MARY - baptised 18 January 1779 at
Ash. Married a Mr. Smithers.
Thomas and Elizabeth Lasslett of Brook Farm
Thomas was baptised on 10 January
1746 at Hoath. He was the third child
of William and Mary Lasslett of Chislet (page 32). Thomas married
Elizabeth Gibbs at Chislet on 11 October 1769.
Both bride and groom were recorded as being "of this parish"
with Thomas's name being recorded as "Lacey".
He settled in Whitstable and lived
there until 1778 when he moved to the neighbouring Parish of Swalecliffe a half
mile or so to the East.
In May 1778 Thomas is mentioned
in the Swalecliffe Churchwarden's Account Book as one of the ratepayers of the
Parish and also for checking the Churchwarden's accounts. As the record for that year states "for
Brook Farm substitute Thos Laslett" we assume this to indicate that Thomas
purchased the farm in 1778. The rate of
13/6d made Brook Farm the third largest in the Parish. There were only seven ratepayers in the
Parish for a total rate income of
£17/13/6d. Thomas appears
thereafter regularly as a ratepayer and for signing off accounts.
Brook farm was right in the
village of Swalecliffe and it appears to have consisted of three fields totalling
15 acres. They were Brookfield,
Bridgefield and Kitchenfield. In 1806
Thomas was rated an additional £3 for a cottage so we can only assume he
acquired a cottage for his newly married son and daughter-in-law. This may be the single story cottage on the
brook bank near Thomas's two story brick farm house.
The cottage was demolished in
1966 but Thomas's house is still standing.
It is a two-story brick structure built like a traditional Kentish 'hall
house' and stands on the main road through Swalecliffe. Although it is built in
this 'style' we have not ascertained the antiquity of the structure.
Ralph Arnold in A Yeoman of Kent describes a typical
Kentish yeoman's dwelling-house as "dating generally from the second half
of the fifteenth or from the first half of the sixteenth century," it
"had been an oblong, timber-framed building consisting of a high central
hall or communal living-room extending right up to the raftered roof and
flanked at either end by smaller apartments arranged one above the other in two
storeys, the rooms at the 'dais end' of the hall being reserved for the farmer
and his wife and those at the other end for the children and servants. The whole building was covered by a single,
steep-pitched roof. Yeoman's House at Sole Street (Cobham), as restored and
reconstructed, affords a good example of what this sort of 'hall house' must
have looked like, with the two-storeyed ends overhanging so that the upper part
of the hall itself appears recessed between them. Many of the earlier yeoman's houses must have been altered in
Elizabethan times, when chimneys and fireplaces were introduced, when glass was
fitted into the tall hall windows (which had originally been designed both to
let in light and to let out the smoke from the central hearth), and when the
halls themselves were often divided up by the introduction of an intermediate
floor.
From 1801 to 1808 Thomas was
Overseer of the Poor for the Parish of Swalecliffe, the last four years jointly
with his son William.
The Overseers were unpaid
parochial officers whose office dates back to the Elizabethan Poor Law
legislation. It was the Overseers' job
to find and expend funds for relief of such of the parish inhabitants as were
helpless, infirm or past work. Under
the general supervision of the County Magistrates, the Overseers raised the
money they needed by levying and collecting a Poor Rate, based on the rateable
value of the whole parish.
The payments made by the
Overseers covered not only the old, the sick, the destitute and the young of
the parish but also strangers passing through the parish who fell into one or
more of the categories. Needless to say
indigent strangers were not generally welcome in the villages of England.
Thomas was Churchwarden of
Swalecliffe Parish from 21 June 1804 to 11 June 1807. A record of his disbursements as Churchwarden taken from the
Churchwarden's Account Book appears on page ?.
Thomas was buried in St John the
Baptist Swalecliffe Cemetery on 16 March 1809.
His Will dated 6 March 1809 was granted Probate 15 April 1809. A copy appears on page 228. Elizabeth was buried
in St John the Baptist Swalecliffe Cemetery on 1 May 1807.
Family
of Thomas and Elizabeth Lasslett
Sons
WILLIAM - baptised at Herne on 17
November 1775. Married Mary Wacher at Swalecliffe on 21 May
1804 who appears to have died about 1805.
On 16 October 1806 married Mary
Ann Rayner. Took over father's
farm. William died on 29 October 1835
and was buried in Swalecliffe. It is
thought that Mary died in 1839.
See chapter William Lasslett of Rayham and Brook Farms and his wives Mary and Mary
Ann on page 54.
Daughters
ELIZABETH - baptised 10 May 1772 at
Chislet. Mentioned in father's Will in
1809. Married Thomas Richardson at Swalecliffe on 29 October 1805 by Banns.
Elizabeth died in 1836/7 as a codicil to her will was made in March 1836 and
the will was proved in September 1837. Her nephew ‘William Laslett the Younger
of Swalecliffe’ is named as one of the
Executors of the will
Family:
Elizabeth Richardson – born c.1810.
Married William Olive, a mariner and
oyster dredger, at Whitstable in 1832.
Hannah Richardson – born c.1813.
Married David Harris a farmer
c.1836/7.
MARY - buried at Swalecliffe on 28
February 1799.
Thomas and Elizabeth Laslett of Woodnesborough
Thomas was baptised at Stourmouth
on 28 September 1760. He was the son of
Thomas Laslett a husbandman of Stourmouth and Ann Laslett née Smith his wife
(page 35).
On 26 November 1786 Thomas
Laslett of Woodnesborough married Elizabeth Spain of Worth by Banns at
Woodnesborough. Elizabeth had been born
in 1763.
Thomas is thought to have died in
1798.
On 23 October 1808 Elizabeth
Laslett a widow of Woodnesborough married John Goodban a widower of
Woodnesborough by Banns at Woodnesborough.
Elizabeth's second husband, John
Goodbourne, died on 9 October 1844 and is buried at Woodnesborough. Elizabeth died on 4 June 1857 and is buried
at Saint Lawrence, Ramsgate.
Family
of Thomas and Elizabeth Laslett
Sons
THOMAS - born on 5 January 1787 and
baptised at Stourmouth on 21 January 1787.
Thomas was a Shipwright. On 26
December 1809 at Saint Marys Sandwich Thomas Laslett, bachelor, of Limehouse,
Middlesex married Elizabeth Row,
spinster, of Saint Marys Sandwich by Banns.
Elizabeth had been born at Woodnesborough and baptised there on 11
February 1787. She died on 30 June 1833
and at Gillingham on 14 November 1835 Thomas married a widow, a Mrs E.H.
(Elizabeth Henrietta?) Amner, who
had been born in 1805. Her maiden name
was Pollard. The second Mrs Laslett
died 19 June 1871 (at Chatham?) aged 66 and Thomas died at Chatham on 29 August
1882 aged 95.
See chapter Thomas and Elizabeth Laslett of Chatham on page 58.
WILLIAM - baptised at Woodnesborough on
23 June 1793. In 1818 married Elizabeth Dilnoth at Woodnesborough.
Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry Dilnot a weaver and farmer at Hammill, near
Woodnesborough and Elizabeth Dilnot née Fishenden, his wife. William and Elizabeth lived 'in
Woodnesborough in a house that stands back from the road and has peacocks in
the garden'. Family records say In
about 1840 they moved to Polders Farm (Poulton Farm, Ash?) about a mile away
but the 1851 census has them still in Woodnesborough, living in Woodnesborough
Street. William is shown as "Willm Laslett Hd M a58 waever & farmer of
21 acres, employinh 2 men and 3 boys; born Wdnsb". William died on 18 September 1867.
Children:
Thomas - dead by 1890s
William - Born at Woodnesborough in
1830. Weaver and farmer continued to live at Peacock House when father moved to
Polders Farm. Later moved to
Worth. Married twice - first wife's name
Julia.
Children:
Walter
Thomas -
continued to live in Peacock House after father moved to Worth. Married.
Linen Weaver. Kellys Directory of
Kent Surrey & Sussex 1915 identifies Walter as "Sack, Rick, Sail,
Linen, Rope & Twine Manufacturer.
Hop Grower & Farmer; and at Cattle Market, Sandwich. Captain in the volunteers. Thought not to have had children.
Morris - accidentally shot himself
getting over a hedge.
Julia - married.
Annie - married.
Elizabeth - dead by 1890s.
Ann - nothing known
Harriet - Born at Woodnesborough in
1831. In 1851 was a teacher in the day school. Married a Mr. Pellman.
Fanny - still alive in the 1890s.
Lived at Woodnesborough. Married a Mr. Pellman, the brother of her sister
Harriet's husband.
Children:
Tom
Pellman - dead
in 1890s.
Julia
Pellman - still
alive in 1890s. Married a Builder or similar and lived in Surrey.
Ruth
Pellman -
married twice. First a Mr. Buller, second to a Mr. Fenton. They lived in Sandwich in the 1890s.
Children:
Lillie
Buller
Sydney
Buller
(?)
Fenton
Albert
Pellman -
nothing known
Eliza - Born Woodnesborough in 1840.
In 1851 was shown as a student. Married a Mr.
Holden and had two sons.
CLEMENT - baptised at Woodnesborough on
8 May 1795. He married Margaret Mount
on 7 January 1826 at St Peters, Sandwich. Margaret was baptised at St Peters
Sandwich on 23 February 1803 the daughter of Robert Mount and Susanna Jarvis.
WShen married Clement said he was a farmer. At all the baptisms of his children
he was recorded as an agricultular labourer except Charles and Thomas when he
was an Innkeeper at Plucks Gutter (maybe The
Dog & Duck). Local directories record Clement Laslett, Beerhouse
Keeper, Stourmouth, 1847. In the 1881
Clement was lodging as a widower with the Dodds family at Lower Street,
Stourmouth. Margaret died at Stourmouth on 10 March 1870 while Clement died
there on 13 June 1887 aged 92 years.
Children:
James – baptised 22 July 1827. Married
Caroline Aiano the daughter of
Charles Aiano.
Children:
Elizabeth - married Mr. Scarlett.
James - no details known.
Melville - no details known.
Caroline - In June 1890 marriage
registered at Thanet (vol 2a page 1501).
Alice - married Charles Aiano her mother's cousin and the son on John Aiano.
Marriage between Alice Laslett & Charles Oiam registered at Thanet in
September quarter of 1888 (vol 2a page 1359).
Stephen
Crisford - no
details known.
Fanny - no details known.
Ernest - twin to Edward.
Edward - twin to Ernest.
Ann – baptised 5 July 1829. Married
a Mr. Packer.
Susan(na)
– baptised 13
March 1831.
Eliza
– born 1833,
Kent.
Elizabeth
– baptised 14
December 1834, Thanet, Kent. Elizabeth married Charles Alfred Keates on 11 May 1863 at Islington Green, Mdx. He
was born 4 January in Lt Red Lion Ct, Charterhouse L., London the son of John
Keates and Eleanor Groutage. Lived in
London Charles working in the book or publishing trade. Had daughter. Died 14 November 1867, 15
Elizabeth Terrace, Islington, Mdx.
Children:
Elizabeth
Margaret Keates
– born 9 April 1865, Islington Mdx. Died 23 January 1949, Harold Wood, Essex.
Married Frederick John Brett in
1889.
Sarah
– Baptised 15
May 1836, Kent. In 1841 aged 5.
Clement
– born 24
January 1838 at Stourmouth.
Stephen – Baptised 8 September 1839,
Kent.
Charles
– born 6 June
1841, Kent.
Thomas – baptised 2 April 1843.
Married.
Daughters
ELIZABETH - born 23 January 1790. Married Mr.
Bristow. Died 6 December 1867 at
Sandwich.
ANN - baptised 14 July 1797 at
Woodnesborough. Married a Stephen Chrisford. Died 27 January 1881 at Ramsgate.
Family
of John and Elizabeth Goodbourne
SARAH
GOODBOURNE -
born 4 March 1809. Married Mr. Emerson (b.1808). Sarah died on 4 March 1890, her husband in
August 1887.
Children:
Anne
Emerson -
married Mr. Steel.
Children:
Adelina
Anne Steel -
married Walter Dannott.
Anne
Crisford Steel -
nothing else known.
Elizabeth
Anne Steel -
nothing else known.
Georgianna
Annie Steel -
nothing else known.
Stephen
Steel - nothing
else known.
Sarah
Ann Emerson -
married Mr. Brewer.
Norris
Emerson -
nothing else known.
Isaac and Lydia Laslett of Deptford
Isaac Withers Laslett was in born
1764 at Otford, Kent the second son of William Laslett of Shoreham and his wife
Mary Laslett née Withers. (See page 34.)
On 16 December 1785 married Lydia Swaisland at St Paul’s, Deptford.
Lydia had beeen baptised on 23 January 1755 at Horton Kirby, Kent the daughter
of Joel and Elizabeth Swaisland.
I have taken the following
details from the family bible supplied to me by Janet Chard in 2005[2]:
Lydia Laslett Died the 27th
July 1805 Aged 50 years old and was buryed at Sutton Church yeard.
Michell Laslett Died May 27, 1806
and was buryed at Sea.
George Houghton Died _
_ _ and was buried at (Sea.)
Isaac Laslett Died the 26 May
1825. Was buried at Sutton the 2nd june aged 62. I hope god as taken
them all in his Heavenly protection.
Family
of Thomas and Elizabeth Laslett
Sons
ISAAC
WITHERS – was
born the 16 day of November the year 1787 & was baptised the 9th
of December following at St. Paul’s Church Deptford Kent.
George
– was Borne
November 16 – 1793 & Baptised @ Dartford Church. Kent. George Laslett Died
the 6th of August 1804 was buryed at Sutton Church yard aged 11
years.
Daughters
MARY
- was born the
16th day of January 1786 & died the 22nd of the same
month. Baptised at Sutton at ?
MARY
ANN – Born the
11 day of April 1790 Baptised at Dartford Church Kent. On 9 August 1813 at St
John (old) Church, Eltham, Kent married William
Weeks. William had been born 4 October 1789 and baptised at Bedminster
Church Bristol. Mary died 18 May 1857 and is buried at Lee New Church in Kent.
William died 22 June 1864 aged 75 years and is buried at Lee, Kent
Children:
William Isaac Weeks - born 18
October 1814 at Poplar Middlesex, baptised at Stephney Church, died 21 January 1817.
Mary Ann Weeks – born 9
February 1818 at Poplar Middlesex, baptised at Stephney Church. Married surname
Briere. Died 16 January 1878 aged 60
years and buried at Lee, Kent.
William Weeks – born 16
November 1819 at Poplar Middlesex, baptised at Stephney Church. Died 18 June
1834.
George W Weeks – born 7
March 1822 poplar at Poplar Middlesex, baptised at Stephney Church. Died 6
February 1896 aged 74 abd buried at Lee, Kent.
William Weeks – born 18
April 1824 at Limehouse, baptised at Stephney Church.
Ann Lydia Weeks – born 29
September 1826 at Poplar Middlesex, baptised at Stephney Church. Died 12 April
1833 aged 67 years and buried at Lee, Kent.
Hannah Weeks – born 28
December 1828 at Poplar Middlesex, baptised at Stephney Church. Died 4 December
1859 aged 31 and is buried at Lee, Kent.
James Weeks – born 18
December 1831 at Poplar Middlesex, baptised at Stephney Church. (Father of
Hannah wife of Charles Collis)
Mary Ann Weeks - baby born 6
September 1843 at 20 minutes before 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Thomas and Sophia Laslett of Worcester
Thomas Emerson Laslett was
baptised on 29 April 1765 at Stratford on Avon. He was the second son of Thomas Laslett of the Excise and his
wife Jane Laslett née Emerson (page 31).
On 23 December 1798 Thomas
married Sophia Jenkins at St Swithuns, Worcester.
On 14 October 1799 their first
child William was baptised at All Saints, Worcester. They also had three further children, Jane, Thomas and Sophia. Jane died in 1810, Thomas died as the result
of a fall from an apple tree on 22 October 1816 and Sophia died on 4 December
1851. All were unmarried and all are
buried at St. Swithuns, Worcester.
Thomas was a highly successful
banker and his name is associated with the old bank, Messrs Berwick, Wall and
Isaac, at Worcester. Thomas is the
first of the Lasletts to rise to Gentry status.
On 6 April 1862 when at Dover
Richard Laslett met Mr. and Mrs Sheldon from Worcester and he asked them about
the Worcester Lasletts as the Sheldons had known them for many years. In fact, it was the Sheldons who originally
owned Abberton Hall and they sold it to Thomas's son William. The Sheldons spoke of the family's wealth,
and munificence, and the connection with the firm of the 'Old Bank'. Also they thought Richard rather like Thomas
jnr about the forehead and nose while Richard's sister Fanny was thought to
resemble William most in the expression of the face.
Thomas died on 19 December 1816
while Sophia died on 30 July 1836. Both
are buried at St Swithuns.
Family
of Thomas and Sophia Laslett
Sons
WILLIAM
EMERSON KENDRICK
- baptised 14 October 1799 at All Saints, Worcester. He married Maria Carr
on 3 February 1842 at Aldingbourne, Sussex.
Maria died in 1848. William died
on 26 January 1884.
See chapter William and Maria Laslett of Worcester on page 57.
THOMAS - Born 1800. Died 22 October 1816 and is buried at St
Swithuns, Worcester. No record of
marriage.
Daughter
JANE - died unmarried 1810 and buried at St.
Swithuns, Worcester.
SOPHIA - died unmarried 4 December 1851
and buried at St Swithuns, Worcester. Her will dated 2 December 1851 (see page 224) and proven 15 June 1852 made her brother William her sole
beneficiary.
Richard & Elizabeth Laslett of Hole, Dene, Wingham Well and Appleton Farms
Richard Laslett was born on 15
October 1772 at Ovington Farm, Goodnestone, near Wingham, Kent. He was the
eldest son of Richard Laslett, a yeoman of Bossington and Ovington Farms, and
his wife Mary Laslett née Gibbs (page 35).
On 19 January 1796 Richard
married Miss Elizabeth Denne of Adisham at Goodnestone next Wingham. Elizabeth had been born in 1777.
Elizabeth Denne was little in
person while Richard was a muscular strong man of 18 stone exceeding 6 feet in
height. Richard Manger Laslett can
remember that Richard was always called 'Lacy' by his wife.
As Richard married John Denne's
sister, Elizabeth, and his sister, Mary, born 1770, married John Denne, so
brother and sister married brother and sister.
In partnership with his father he
farmed both Ovington and Bossington Farms in Adisham, Goodnestone and Wingham
parishes. About 1800, he took the Hole
Farm, Sturry, near Canterbury, which his son George took off him at Michaelmas,
1830.
Hole Farm, now called Vale Farm,
lies in the valley west of the foot of Calcott Hill and its original farmhouse
is still standing today although its continued existence is threatened. The farmhouse may be dated 1635 by a carved
beam and is said to be of special historic interest. In the early 1970s the Mid Kent Water Authority bought the house
intending to demolish it and build a reservoir, but the plan was rejected. The farmhouse was left empty and squatters,
who claimed to be interested in the farmhouse's preservation, moved in. They carried out some work but were evicted
in early 1988. Over the next few months
the building was affected by bad weather and also considerably vandalised.
The local council, applying
pressure on the water authority, served notice ordering repair of the building
and threatening compulsory purchase if the repairs were not carried out. The Mid Kent Water Authority's General
Manager, Brian Coleman, agreed that the authority had a responsibility to
maintain the property if it was to remain and said that more than £100,000
would need to be spent to make the roof and windows water tight and
secure. Coleman said the building would
be inspected daily to ensure against vandals but he could give no assurance
that it would not eventually be demolished if the proposed reservoir was ever
given permission to proceed.
In 1813 Richard took Dene Farm,
Wingham Well and Appleton Farms, Wingham.
His son Leonard took the two latter in 1844. Richard continued Dene Farm and Hop Grounds until his death on 11
December 1848 and it was then carried on by his executors for the benefit of
the family until 1853, when his son Anthony and daughters succeeded, eventually
it became Anthony's alone.
Sir Henry Oxenden Bart. in his Recollections published in 1862 says
"The old Dene ground of hops had been planted before the recollection of
the oldest inhabitant of Wingham, one of the best grounds in the neighbourhood,
the superintendence of it was left to the late Mr. Richard Laslett, a most
worthy and good man to whom Sir Henry was much attached."
Richard was churchwarden of
Wingham parish for three periods, 1818/9, 1829/30 and 1839/40.
Kentish historian Ralph Arnold
explains that "there were many more hop gardens . . than there are today
or than there have been for many years past.
From 1700 to 1750 the price of corn had ruled low, while the prices
obtained for hops had been rising. Beer
was the ordinary everyday drink of the people and the consequent demand for
hops must have been enormous, added to which, in the days before the
introduction of chemical sprays, it was generally reckoned that a full crop could
only be expected every other year. Hops
were grown not only in regular gardens or grounds but also in many cottage
plots. In appearance, an eighteenth
century hop ground must have been similar to a present day hop garden, though
there was no 'stringing' between the poles and the characteristic 'wind
shelters' of Lombardy poplars were not introduced until the 1780's or
'90's. Often, especially in newly
planted grounds, fruit trees - apples, cherries or nuts - were planted between
the hop hills.
Richard left surviving at his
death, at the age of 76 years, a wife, six sons and six daughters. His Will was proven on 9 June 1849, a copy
appears on page 222. The Executors to his
will were his sons George, John and William.
His wife Elizabeth died on 2 October 1849, aged 72, and was buried in
the same grave as Richard in St Mary’s churchyard at Wingham.
On 2 August 2000 Michael Laslett
wrote: ‘At St Mary’s Church, Wingham I discovered several tomb stones of the
family, notably Richard… and his family. Lasletts married into the Elgar family
at some point. The Elgards are well represented in the Wingham churchyard and
there is still an old established Estate agents and surveyors called Elgar’s in
the village.’
Family
of Richard and Elizabeth Laslett
Sons
GEORGE - born 8 July 1796, at
Bossington Farm, Adisham, near Wingham, Kent.
Married Charlotte Manger, spinster, of St Marys Dover by licence at St
Marys Dover on 28 April 1831. George
died on 31 March 1853. His will, proven
30 July 1853, was dated 14 March 1853. Charlotte died at Hammersmith, London,
19 February 1878, in her 70th year.
See chapter George and Charlotte Laslett of Hole Farm on page 54.
RICHARD - Farmer. Died at Dene, 23 January 1838, aged 38
years, unmarried, buried in St Marys Churchard at Wingham.
JOHN - Cornfactor, Bay House, Ickham,
died at Dene, 29 May 1864, aged 63 years, unmarried, buried at Ickham.
WILLIAM - baptised at Sturry on 22 July
1802. Held Houden Farm, Ash, died in
London, 31 December 1863, aged 61 years, buried at Nunhead Cemetery. Married Elizabeth Youden, spinster, of St James Dover by licence at St
James Dover on 19 November 1829.
Elizabeth died on 2 March 1854 and is buried at St. Giles,
Camberwell. She was aged 54 years (56
by the census details below). William
married a second time in 1857, a Miss
Bell, London, who survived him. No
family by his second wife. The 1851 Census for Ash (Westmarsh) gives William
Laslett Hd M a49 Farmer 135 acres emp. 8 men b. Sturry and Elizabeth Laslett Wf
M a53 farmer's wife b. Dover. Charles H. Laslett son U a20 b. Ash; Elizabeth
Laslett dau U a 19 b. Ash; William Laslett son U a17 b. Ash; Catherine Laslett
dau. U a15 b. Ash and M.M. Marinach visitor U a22 b. London.
Children:
Charles
Horn - born 1830
in Ash, died 31 December 1852, aged 22 years, unmarried, buried at St. Giles,
Camberwell.
William - born 1832 in Ash, went to
Canada 1861. Died Montreal 1877 aged
45. Married in Canada.
Children:
Laurence a Bank Clerk in Montreal (from
letter dated 1910) Is perhaps that William
Laurence Laslett b 10 November 1871 in Canada who died in Los Angeles on 31
August 1955 (Cal. Death Records).
Elizabeth
Denne - born 26
January 1832 in Ash. Went to Canada
1871 to brother, returned 1878. Died at
99 Ladbroke Road, Nottinghill, London, 29 December 1900, aged 68 years. Unmarried.
Buried at Nunhead Cemetery in her father's grave.
Catherine - born 1836 in Ash. Always lived
with her sister, went with her and returned with her from Canada. Died 18 March 1902, aged 66 years. Unmarried.
Buried in grave with sister and father at Nunhead Cemetery.
Richard - baptised 5 December 1841 at
Ash and buried there on 23 June 1843.
THOMAS
CHATHAM -
baptised 3 June 1805 at Sturry. Married
Mary Margaret Catherwood widow,
maiden name, Wigzell, who died 2 October 1848, aged 46 years, buried with
Thomas in St Nichola Churchyard, Sturry near Canterbury. Thomas Chatham - late Canterbury, married a
second time. He died 23 January 1881, aged 77 years.
Children:
Charles - died 27 February 1841, aged 7
years. Buried in his parent’s grave.
Louise - married Thomas Bell Watson, 14 August 1866, at Maidstone, Kent. Mr. Watson was a chemist who resided first
at Horsham, afterwards at Abiesford in Hampshire, then in London. He died at 60, Plimsoll Road, Finsbury Park,
1 June 1890.
Charlotte, By second wife. Died aged 14 years. There is a Charlotte
Laslett died aged 14 years who was buried at Abney Park Cemetery in London on
10 October 1887.
LEONARD - baptised at Wingham in
1816. Took Wingham Well and Appleton
Farms off his father in 1844. Married Anne Collard (born 1824) at Wingham in
1847. Anne was the daughter of Robert Collard (born 1783 died 1872) of
Brook Farm, Kent and his second wife Hestor
Larkin. Leonard was churchwarden of Wingham parish from 1855 to 1857. Wife died 9 June 1871, aged 47 years, buried
at Wingham. Took Cornfactor business
that his brother John had carried on. He attended the funeral of his brother
George's wife, Charlotte, who died 19 February 1878. He died 19 October the same year, in his 62nd year, and is buried
at Wingham.
Children:
Richard - born at Wingham in 1849 (A
memorial in Wingham Chrch Grave Yard records his birth as February 1851). Had Corn Stores at Canterbury, afterwards he
went out to South Africa. Died at the Cape on 28 January 1883, unmarried. A fine man. Buried in the English Cemetry,
Cape Town.
Robert
Collard -
baptised at Wingham in 1849. Took to
his father's farms, died 16 March 1897 after an operation necessitated from an
accident on the cricket field.
Unmarried. Buried in his mother's grave, Wingham. The accident occurred some years previously.
Leonard - baptised at Wingham in 1852
and was buried there in 1853.
Harry - baptised at Wingham in 1860
and buried there the same year.
Frederic
John born at
Wingham in May 1861 and died there in August of the same year. Buried in
Wingham Church Grave Yard.
Leonard
William - born
1857 and baptised at Wingham. Took to
his father's business at Ham Street, near Ashford, Kent. Married in 1903, Miss Charlotte Mayham. No
children. Brought up fatherless son and
daughter of brother Octavius.
Thomas
White Collard -
born 1858 and baptised at Wingham.
Married Miss East, 29 April
1885, (Florence Mary Eastes reg
Dover Jun Q 85 vol 2a page 1469) had
four sons and two daughters. Farmed
lands several years, afterwards took an old established business of Fly &
Carriage proprietor in Dover where he was for some years, but motors coming in
use lessened the trade and he went out to Canada. A photograph of Thomas's business in Dover, the 'Antwerp Livery
and Bait Stables' appears on page 42 of 'Dover Illustrated' by J.S. Rochard
& Co, 1898/9.
Octavius - born 1863 and baptised at
Wingham in 1864, married young and died soon from pneumonia, leaving two
infants. Their father buried at
Littlebourne, Kent. He lived and died
at Canterbury.
Annie
Maria - baptised
at Wingham in 1848 and buried there in 1849.
Elizabeth
Esther - born
1854, died an infant.
Louisa
Anne - baptised
at Wingham in 1855. Never married. For many years Housekeeper to her father
when a widower and to her brothers Robert and Leonard.
Emily
Charlotte - born
1865. Married to a Doctor Sutton, June 1892, no family.
ANTHONY - born at Bossington Farm house,
Wingham, Kent, 30 October 1818. Managed
the Farm for his father to his father's death 11 December 1848 then for
Executors to 16 November 1852 when he and sisters took the farm. Some years after he paid them out and had it
on his own account (his sisters were living in Dover). He spent his whole 78 years on Dene
Farm. Anthony was churchwarden of
Wingham parish for 1856/7. In 1853, he
married Elizabeth Emma at
Wingham. Elizabeth was the eldest
daughter of the late William Elgar of Dembridge Farm, Wingham, and the niece of
George Elgar a Surgeon of Ash. William
Elgar had died in 1849 aged 53 years and his widow, Mrs. Anne Elgar, survived
him for many years dying at the advanced age of 93 on 29 March 1885. William Elgar had been a gargantuan man of
20 stone. He was the son of Stephen
Elgar & Elizabeth Solly of Wingham Court.
It is interesting that Elizabeth Solly was probably the daughter of
Stephen Solly and Jane Laslett. This
would make Anthony & Elizabeth rather distant cousins. Anthony's wife died in 1890, aged 58, and is
buried at Wingham. Anthony died 13
September 1896 and is buried at Wingham.
Children:
Charles - born 1858, at Dene and
baptised at Wingham. Managed the farm
with his father. Married to Charlotte Spanton. Locals called him "Lacy" for
Laslett. Had one child only. Charles was buried at Wingham in 1930.
Son:
Charles - baptised at Wingham in 1896
and was living at Canterbury in 1911.
Elizabeth
Anne - born 1854
and baptised at Wingham. On 12 December
1883, at Wingham, married a Frank Court. Took to Bossington Farm.
Son:
Charles
Frank Court
lived at Canterbury.
Daughters
ELIZABETH - baptised 11 January 1804 at
Sturry, married John Chandler,
Crixhall Farm, near Wingham, at Wingham in 1839. Elizabeth died in 1848.
John died in October 1860. No
family.
RACHEL - born 1805, wife of Mr. Gaskin, died a widow, 1862, buried
at Finchley, London.
Children:
George
Gaskin - went to
sea. It is supposed he made a home
abroad.
William
Gaskin - died 22
March 1848, aged 16 years. Buried in St
Marys Churchyard at Wingham in the same grave as his Uncle Richard.
Rachel
Gaskin - wife of
Mr. Bull, farmer and milk business,
Chingford near London. Had four sons
(three of them in Canada and one, Douglas, at home) and four daughters (two,
Clara and Florence married, and two, Rachel and Alice, single).
Children:
Douglas
Bull
Clara
Bull married.
Florence
Bull married.
Rachel
Bull single.
Alice
Bull single.
MARY
DENNE - baptised
27 January 1807 at Sturry, unmarried, died at Littlebourne, 15 October 1888,
aged 81 years, buried at Wingham.
RACHEL - baptised at Sturry on 9 April
1808. Appears to have died young.
JANE - baptised at Sturry on 20 May
1809, lame, died at Littlebourne, 11 February 1890, aged 79 years, unmarried,
buried at Wingham, in her father's grave.
CHARLOTTE - baptised at Sturry on 5 June
1811, died at Littlebourne, 24 February 1890, aged 78 years, buried at Wingham
in her father's grave. Unmarried.
ANNE - born 1813, died at Wingham, 8
January 1892, aged 78 years, unmarried, buried at Wingham in her father's
grave.
LOUISA - born 1814 and baptised at
Wingham in 1815. The parish register
records her surname at Lacey. On 14
July 1859 married Henry Homewood Bath
at Wingham. He died and was buried at
Nunhead near London. She lived after at
Bromley, Kent and died 13 April 1892, aged 77 years, buried at Wingham. No family
In 1910 Richard Laslett wrote of
his aunts:
After leaving Dene Richard's
unmarried daughters lived some years at Dover and latterly resided at
Littlebourne Hill, near Wingham.
Wherever their residence, it was the home of them all, they dwelt
together in unity, the ages they attained testify to their healthy lives and
theirs was a long course of usefulness and comfort to others, to which all
should strive to be.
Aunt Mary was for very many years
her brother John's housekeeper and she remained through life greatly attached
to him.
Aunt Charlotte was housekeeper to
her brother Leonard before he married a wife.
With this event another brother (Thomas) loses a wife and Aunt at once
becomes housekeeper to the widower and to his motherless child, in tender
years, ministers a maternal care and devotion till the child becomes a woman
and marries, nor does it end there, Aunt is still regarded as a second mother
in the changed life with advice and counsel while life lasted.
Aunt Jane though lame attended to
poultry.
Aunt Anne the cheerful
housekeeper to her aged parents . . .
All excelled in household
management and were exemplary ladies . . .
It is a matter for observation,
you will notice that all seven daughters of Richard and Elizabeth, married or
unmarried, left this world in the same order as they entered it.
John and Elizabeth Laslett of Coombe
John Laslett was baptised in 1773
at Wingham. He was the only son of John
Laslett, a Yeoman of Hoden Farm Ash, and his wife Elizabeth Laslett née Hammond
(page 37).
John was a Yeoman and probably
took over Hoden Farm from his father.
He is thought to have lived in Coombe cottage that is situated about
half way between Ash and Woodnesborough.
The cottage is still standing.
It is a two storey brick building, of modest size, but comfortable. The date 1728 is carved in a stone over the
door.
Married Elizabeth Horn at Ash next
Sandwich on 13 April 1793. Elizabeth
had been born at Ash on 25 October 1768 and was one of ten children, 5 boys and
5 girls. As John's Aunt Mary had
already married a Thomas Horne of Ash it is probable that John and Elizabeth
were cousins.
Elizabeth died on 14 November
1829 aged 60 and was buried at Ash on 20 November 1829.
John was mentioned in his
father's will.
John married a second time. His bride was Jane Elizabeth Hellier, a
spinster, whom he married at Ash on 12 June 1832.
John died on 6 September 1854 and
was buried at Ash on 11 September 1854 as John Laslett of Coombe,
Woodnesborough.
Family of John and Elizabeth
Laslett
Sons
JOHN - baptised at Ash 18 November
1793 and buried there on 26 August 1819 aged 25. No record of marriage.
THOMAS
HORN - baptised
at Ash on 2 June 1800 and buried there on 11 March 1819 aged 18.
CHARLES
HORN - born at
Woodnesborough and baptised at Ash on 30 April 1804. Farmer and fruiterer of Richborough. Married Mary Hellier,
spinster, of St Peters Sandwich by banns at St Peters Sandwich on 20 June
1837. Charles died on 12 December 1865.
See chapter Charles and Mary Laslett of Richborough on page 69.
GEORGE - born at Woodnesborough and
baptised at Ash on 4 August 1806. On 13
January 1829 at Ash George married Mary
Ann Hunt, a spinster, of Seasalter by licence at Ash. Mary had been born at Whitstable around
1804/5. George died on 22 August 1868.
See chapter George and Mary Laslett of Hoaden Farm, Ash on page 70.
ROBERT - born at Woodnesborough and
baptised at Ash on 23 May 1808. On 29
May 1826 married Mary Ann Knight,
spinster of St Marys Dover by banns at St Marys Dover. Mary had been born in 1807. Robert died at Marshboro' on 6 November 1868,
and is buried in a vault in Ash churchyard.
Mary died on 25 May 1883 at Ash and is buried with her husband.
See chapter Robert and Mary Ann Laslett of Ash on page 76.
ALFRED - born at Woodnesborough and
baptised at Ash on 31 January 1811.
Died on 27 October 1829 and buried at Ash on 4 November 1829.
WILLIAM - baptised 31 January 1814 at
Ash. Buried at Ash on 16 March 1815.
Daughters
MARY
ANN - baptised
at Ash on 1 April 1796.
MARIA - baptised at Ash on 11
September 1797 and buried there on 30 November 1798.
MARY
ANN - baptised
at Ash on 21 December 1801.
William Lasslett of Rayham and Brook Farms and his wives Mary and Mary Ann
William
was baptised at Hearne on 17 September 1775.
He was the only son of Thomas Lasslett, a yeoman of Brook Farm, and his
wife Elizabeth Lasslett née Gibbs (page 38).
William
married first to Mary Wacher, a spinster, of Swalecliffe at Swalecliffe on 21
May 1804. Mary appears to have died
shortly after the birth of their daughter Hannah on 12 April 1805. Mary was the
daughter of John Wacher, farmer, of Chislet (1739-1821) and his wife Elizabeth
Sharp (1751-1833).
On
16 October 1806 he married Mary Ann Rayner of Acol at Birchington by
Banns. William was shown as being of
Swalecliffe Parish. Mary was the
daughter of Elias and Ann Rayner and had been baptised at Womenswold on 13
November 1768. The witnesses were Elizth Sidders and John Drew.
William
was a Yeoman who both owned and tenanted land.
He lived on Rayham Farm, in the Parish of Whitstable, which was rented
from Thomas White, and as well inherited the freehold of Brook Farm (now Meadow
Farm), in the Parish of Swalecliffe, on the death of his father in 1809. Brook farm was right in the village of
Swalecliffe and it appears to have consisted of three fields totalling 15
acres. They were Brookfield,
Bridgefield and Kitchenfield. In
addition he rented a number fields in the district. From a parochial Whitstable charity he rented Priest and Sow, 9
acres; Banfield and Upperfield, 9 acres; Stockfish, 20 acres; and Wilkin Watts,
14 acres. The annual rent was £67/10/-.
From Charlotte Anderson he rented two fields totalling 10 acres for
£22/10/-. He also owned two houses in
the village of Swalecliffe. One was a
two story brick cottage on the main road near the brook which was rented out,
while the other was a single story structure on the brook bank set back from
the road. These cottages were really
the farm houses of Brook Farm and the second one was occupied by his son
William jnr who had a carpenter's and wheeler's shop and smithy beside the road
near the cottage. The brick house is
still standing while the second was demolished in 1966.
William
died of 29 October 1835 and was buried in Swalecliffe Parish Churchyard on 5
November 1835. Mathew's Memorial Inscriptions. Kent. Vol. 30' records his
tombstone: "William Laslett - 29.10.1835 - Left surviving Mary Ann his
widow and 7 children. Hannah, William,
Thomas, John, Mary, Elizabeth and George." A copy of his will appears on page 220.
Mary
appears to have died about 1839 as she is mentioned in the 1838/39 Rate
Assessment at £51 while her family is not mentioned. For the 1840 Rate Assessment Mary is not mentioned while her son
William is rated £13/10/- and her daughter Elizabeth £45/10/-. No other children are mentioned in the 1840
Rate Assessment.
Family of William and Mary
Lasslett
HANNAH
- baptised 12 April 1805 at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe. Married John
Bushell Goldfinch, bachelor, of Whitstable by banns at Whitstable on 14
February 1831. John was the son of John Bushell Goldfinch and his wife
Elizabeth (née Holness). John was an Oyster Dedger having been apprenticed to
his father at the Whitstable Oyster Fisher Co. In 1831 John was witness at his
brother-in-law William's marriage. The Goldfinch family records show him as a
Labourer 1838, Dredgerman 1851, Mariner 1861, Fisherman 1871. Late of Victoria
Street, Whitstable, formerly of Seasalter, occupation Oyster Dredger, retired
Gardener. John died on 13 August 1885. Hannah died in 1879.
Children:
John Goldfinch
- born 18 July 1832 at Whitstable. A Master Maniner. Married Sarah Ann Foreman at Whitstable on 20
April 1856. John died at Southhampton on 3 June 1905.
William Goldfinch
- born 26 January 1834 at Whitstable. A Master Shipbuilder. Married Mary Ann Court at Whitstable on 29
November 1859. William died at Blean Rd (Whitstable?) on 30 November 1910.
George Goldfinch
- born 10 June 1836 at Whitstable. A Shipwright/ Boatbuilder. Married Martha Sarah Court at Seasalter(?) on
23 August 1860. George died at Whitstable on 13 January 1900.
Robert Daniel Goldfinch
- born 16 June 1838 at Seasalter. He was a Mariner. Married Ann Prebble on 5 November 1859. Robert
died at Herne Bay on 14 March 1918.
Mary Ann Goldfinch
- born 16 September 1840 at Whitstable and was buried there on 6 April 1841.
Thomas Goldfinch
- born 25 April 1842 at Whitstable. Married Sarah Harris and later, in 1893, Emma Edden. Thomas died in London in 1925.
Hannah Goldfinch
- baptised 15 December 1844 at Whitstable. Married name was Moat. Hannah died on 19 July 1922 and
is buried at Faversham.
James Goldfinch
- baptised on 15 March 1848 at Seasalter and was buried at Whitstable on 20
March 1848.
Family of William and Mary Ann
Lasslett
Sons
WILLIAM
- born 15 August 1807 at Brook Farm and baptised on the next day at St John the
Baptist Swalecliffe. Married Sarah Vevers of Liverpool by banns at
Swalecliffe on 30 May 1831. Immigrated
with their family to Victoria in 1853.
Both died at Malmsbury Victoria, William on 13 July 1888 and Sarah on 1
October 1891.
See
chapter William and Sarah Lasslett of
Malmsbury on page 76.
THOMAS
- baptised 20 February 1809 at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe and baptised at
St John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 26 February. On 22 March 1830 the Canterbury Freeman books note that Thomas
Lasslett, baker, was made a freeman by redemption. Married Emma Blake,
spinster, of St Mildreds Canterbury by licence at St Mildreds Canterbury on 20
August 1830. Immigrated to Detroit
Michigan in the USA. Thomas died in
1888 and is buried Erin Grove Cemetery in Roseville, Michigan. Emma is buried there also but I have no date
of death.
See
chapter Thomas and Emma Lasslett of
Detroit on page 84.
JOHN
- born on 22 May 1812 and baptised a month later on 22 June 1812 at St John the
Baptist Whitstable. Buried a year later
at Swalecliffe on 24 June 1813.
JOHN
- born 25 January 1814 and baptised at St John the Baptist Whitstable on 24
February 1814 as 'John Lacy'. Overseer
of the Poor for Swalecliffe Parish 1845-47. Immigrated to New Jersey in the
USA. In the 1880 Census for Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey he is shown as
aged 66, Widowed, born 1814 in England,
a farmer and the head of the household.
Children:
William George – born New Jersey in
1854. A Dry Goods Salesman. Lived Woodbridge, Middlesex, N.J. Married to Emily
Louise. born 1852 in New York. The
Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, Woodbridge, [Middlesex Co.] NJ (Extracted from
inscriptions Cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge,
[Middlesex Co.], New Jersey. C150 Emily Louise, 1st wife of Wm. George Lasslett,
d. 12 Sun 1854 (sic), ae 33 yrs.
Children:
Florence
Louise – born Woodbridge, Middlesex, New Jersey on
3 February 1876.
Grace
Ethel – born Woodbridge, New Jersey in 1878
GEORGE
- born 13 September 1822 and baptised at St John the Baptist Whitstable on 14
March. In mid 1840 George married Harriet
Ann Chandler born 1830 Minster in Thanet
The daughter of James Phillis (sic) Chandler and his wife Sarah (née
Brooker). In the 1851 Census they are living at 21
Bodling Farm, Swalecliffe. When she married in 1868
George’s daughter Harriet gave her father’s occupation a Labourer. Nothing
further is known about George until he appears in the 1880 US census as married
to Sarah b.1831. The 1880 census
shows George Laslett aged 57, a Newspaper Huckster, living with his wife Sarah
aged 49 Keeping House, at Kings, Brooklyn, N.Y. No children listed. Both George
& Sarah were shown as born in England of English parents. The Methodist
Episcopal Cemetery, Woodbridge, [Middlesex Co.] NJ (Extracted from inscriptions
Cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge, [Middlesex Co.], New
Jersey. C226 Elizabeth, wife of George LASSLETT, d. 6 Nov 1874 ae -- , C227
George LASSLETT, (vestryman 1853-62) d. 1 Jan 1886 ae 64 yrs. (Note:
The above information may be incorrect so if you find any errors please e-mail
me on glaslett@bigpond.net.au.)
Family
of George and Harriet Lasslett
Harriet
Anne – baptised 7 November 1847 at Minster Kent. On 13 October 1868 Harriet married Joseph
Gardener, aged 21, Bachelor, Labourer of Herne, Father's name George
Gardener, witnesses were Stephen Edwards and Ann Maria Lasslett.
Ann Maria –
baptised 29 June 1849 (no parish) Kent
Jane - born 2
September 1850 Swalecliffe 1850 baptised 6 October 1850 (no parish) Kent
William - baptised
13 April 1852 Swalecliffe
James - baptised
21 October 1854 Swalecliffe
Daughters
MARY
- born 12 March 1811 and baptised on 7 April 1811 at St John the Baptist
Whitstable. Mary died two years later
and was buried 25 April 1813 at St John the Baptist Churchyard in Swalecliffe.
MARY
- probably born around 1814 at Whitstable.
On 24 January 1846 married Edward
Watson "of full age, bach, labourer of Whitstable, father William
Watson, butcher" at Whitstable.
Mary was shown as "of full age, spinster of Whitstable, father
William Lasslett, farmer. Both signed in full name. Witnesses were William and Sarah Rayner. Mary was a witness at
her brother William's wedding in 1831.
ELIZABETH
- born in 1818 at Whitstable. Elizabeth
was the local School Mistress at Swalecliffe and the 1851 census records that
she was lame. In 1840 Elizabeth was
assessed £45/10/- rates. She appears to have inherited property on the death of
her mother.
JANE
- born at Whitstable in August 1819.
Buried in St John the Baptist Swalecliffe Churchyard on 24 April 1820.
John and Ann Laslett of Ash
John Laslett was baptised on 12
February 1784 at Preston. He was the
son of Thomas Laslett of Preston and his wife Susannah Laslett née Chandler
(page 33).
We do not know John’s occupation
but he may be that John Laslett aged 55, born Kent, who was a Turnkey at
Sandwich Gaol and House of Correction at the time of the 1841 Census.
Married Ann Pott on 18 June 1808
at Worth.
Family
of John and Ann Laslett
GEORGE - baptised at Worth on 26
February 1809. Married Mary Hammond of Dover at St Margarets
at Cliffe, Dover on 14 October 1833.
See chapter George and Mary Laslett of Hope Farm on page 86.
JOHN - baptised at Ash on 11 November
1810.
THOMAS - baptised at Ash on 5 August
1812. Married Harriet Melicent Newnham at
St Werburgh Hoo, Kent on 20 August 1835..
Children:
Nimrod John – baptised at Minster on
Thanet on 3 July 1836.
George Washington – baptised at Minster
on Thanet on 24 December 1837. Married Maria
Hogbin.
Family:
Louise Maria - baptised 10 September 1862 at St
Botolph without Aldgate, London
Gertrude Ada – born 31 August 1865. Baptised 26
November 1865 at St Botolph without Aldgate, London
Henry James – baptised at St Mary Pembroke Wales on 8 September 1844.
JARVIS - baptised at Ash on 18 April
1814.
Thomas and Elizabeth Laslett of Chatham
Thomas Laslett was born on 5
January 1787 and baptised at Stourmouth on 21 January 1787. He was the first child of Thomas Laslett of
Woodnesborough and his wife Elizabeth Laslett née Spain (page 40).
Thomas was a Shipwright.
On 26 December 1809 at Saint
Marys Sandwich Thomas Laslett, bachelor, of Limehouse, Middlesex married
Elizabeth Row, spinster, of Saint Marys Sandwich by Banns. Elizabeth Rowe had been born at
Woodnesborough and baptised there on 11 February 1787. She died on 30 June 1833.
At Gillingham on 14 November 1835
Thomas married a widow, a Mrs E.H. (Elizabeth Henrietta?) Amner, who had been
born in 1805. Her maiden name was
Pollard.
For many years previous to his
retirement from active service Thomas was a leading man of the shipwrights in
Chatham dockyard.
The second Mrs Laslett died on 19
June 1871 at Chatham aged 66 and Thomas died at Chatham on 29 August 1882 aged
95.
Family
of Thomas and Elizabeth (née Rowe) Laslett
Sons
THOMAS - born at Poplar, Middlesex on
18 June 1811. Thomas became Timber
Inspector for the Admiralty. On 20 August 1835 he married Harriet Milicent Newnham of Chatham at Hoo Church, Rochester. Harriet had been born on 5 June 1803 and she
died at Devon House, Marton Road, Chatham at 3 p.m. on 4 December 1867. Thomas died at Woolwich on 6 April 1887.
See chapter Thomas and Harriet Laslett of Chatham on page 87.
HENRY - born at Chatham on 9 August
1814. Married. Died 22 October 1875 at Ramsgate.
WILLIAM
JAMES - born at
Chatham on 26 December 1823 and died there six months later, on 20 May 1824.
Daughter
ANN - born 2 September 1825 at
Chatham. On 19 April 1871 married a
Confectioner & Baker named John
Sutton at St George’s Ramsgate. They lived at Ramsgate. Ann died at Ramsgate on 27 August 1898.
Family
of Thomas and Elizabeth (née Pollard) Laslett
Sons
WILLIAM
HENRY - born 13
August 1836 at Chatham. Died 22
February 1901. Married.
Children:
Thomas - a surgeon. We know nothing much of Thomas except that
he delivered Arthur Laslett the son of Albert and Elizabeth Laslett on 10
September 1903. Arthur's son Graham has
helped in compiling this history and was always interested to find out who was
the Thomas Laslett who delivered his father.
EDMUND - born 13 November 1839 at
Chatham.
JAMES - born 20 February 1844 at
Chatham.
Daughters
ELIZABETH
ANN - born 3
January 1838 at Chatham and married a Mr. Richard
Gowar, a grocer, born 1840 at Chatham Kent.
Children:
Alice E, Gowar – born 1864 New
Brompton, Kent. A Teacher.
HENRIETTA - born 31 January 1841 at
Chatham and married a Mr. Daniel
Bartlett a shipwright, born 1839 Chatham Kent. In the 1881 census they were
living at 21 cage Lane Gillingham, Kent.
Children:
Daniel Bartlett – born 1864 Chatham
Kent. A Shipwright.
Annie Bartlett – born 1870, Chatham
Kent.
ALICE - born 4 April 1846 at Chatham.
Married a Mr. Thomas Mitchell.
George and Charlotte Laslett of Hole Farm
George Laslett was born on 8 July
1796, at Bossington Farm, Adisham, near Wingham, Kent. He was the eldest son of Richard Laslett, a
yeoman of Hole, Dene, Wingham Well and Appleton Farms, and his wife Elizabeth
Laslett née Denne (page 43).
On 21 April 1831 George was
married by licence at St. Marys, Dover to Miss Charlotte Manger, spinster, of
St Marys, Dover. Charlotte had been
born at Dover on 18 December 1808 and was the youngest daughter of Thomas
Manger of Dover and Elizabeth Manger (née Bessey).
George managed the Hole Farm,
Sturry near Canterbury, for his father, from 1813 to Michaelmas 1830, when he
took the farm and held it till his death in 1853. In all George and his father had it for just over 50 years.
The soil of some of the fields
was 'straggling' It was a deep stiff
clay which held water to a differing in each field. George was a great advocate for land draining, that is laying
tiles made for the purpose a certain depth in the soil to drain away surplus
water. These were laid in lime at a
distance from one another as judged desirable by the farmer. It wasan art in which George excelled.
Richard, George's son, could
remember a field at Pomfort, the farthest and more than a mile from the
homestead where he used to take the donkey on Saturday afternoon and leave it
there till Monday morning when wanted for taking his brother George and him to
school. This field was very
unproductive but after laying drains similar to other fields of the farm and
chalking the soil the field was most returned to full production. In a year the field had a good crop of wheat
and nearing harvest, and Richard remembered his uncle Thomas accompanied by his
father going into the wheat. His father
stood 5'10", without his shoes, and very little of him could be seen so
high had the straw grown. In the lower
part of the field, near the brook, hops were cultivated producing such good
yields that they were much talked about.
Richard made a plan of the drains
on the farm and the map was bought by Mr. Apsley who purchased the Estate.
The Hole Farm was the largest
holding in the parish except Buckwell Farm, a few more acres. The total acreage of Sturry Parish was 3,064
ac. 1 rd 16 per. The Hole Farm contained
218 ac. 1 rd 9 per. for which an annual rent of £242.4.0 was paid to Earl Cowper. Richard had to get out the yield of the farm
for three years, 1847, 1848 and 1849.
The produce realised £3,684.16.5d.
The working expenses, rent, and cost of living £3,171.9.7d. Resulting in a profit for three years
£513.6.10d.
The average growth of wheat per
acre 32 quarters. 563 quarters of wheat
were sold in the three years from:
1847 to 1848 average price per
quarter 53/9
1848 to 1849 ditto 47/-
1849 to 1850 ditto 41/10
In 1849 the Hops for the year
were sold for £576.
When George's widow Charlotte
left the farm at Michaelmas 1853 the Mr. Lea who took it was going to plough
the land with a pair of horses and one man.
George had ploughed with two men and four horses, and one added at
times. The pair horse plough could not
stir the land deep enough on the heavy soils.
This four horse plough was a Kentish turn-wrest plough, a juggernaut
more like a carriage than a plough. It
was so heavy that it could only be pulled by a four horse team. In the eighteenth century a "gentleman
farmer near Gravesend" was reputed, as a notable invention, to have used a
light plough drawn by a single horse.
This plough would have been successful in the lighter soils just East of
the Medway though obviously not so in the heavy soils of East Kent.
Leonard used to say that no one
could manage the Hole Farm like his late brother. Mr. Lea failed in 1856, that was in three years, Mr. Leward then
took the farm, who was there but a few years, dying very suddenly. A good many have had it since.
As a young man George was pressed
to join the Army in the war with France.
He belonged to the Troop of the Royal East Kent Yeomanry. In later life he was heard to say that he
and the Corps formed an escort for King George IV when the King was unpopular
with the people.
George and Charlotte in the early
years of their marriage were involved in a nearly fatal accident. When driving home from visiting their
Blaxland cousins (Mrs Blaxland's maiden name was Denne) at Whatmer Hall the horse
bolted in a severe thunderstorm and leapt the Turnpike gate, the top bar of
which was broken by the force of the chaise wheel, and the traces breaking
relieved the horse which kept going. A
turnpike gate is higher than a six-bar gate.
Charlotte and George were of course both thrown out and were much
injured. Their son Richard remarked in
a letter in 1911 that he often has looked at the repaired bar with thoughts of
the accident.
The road where this happened is
from Herne Bay to Sturry and was given gates just after the Napoleonic
War. The toll house and gate at the
southern end were at Sweech Farm on the hilltop above Sturry village, one gate
on the main road, and a side-gate controlling Sweechgate, the minor road to
Broad Oak Common, from which led Barnets Lane, the access to Hole Farm; it was
at this gate that the accident occurred. The toll house or rather toll cottage
still stands and bears the name Sweechgate.
Blaxland farm the ancestral farm
of the Blaxland family and from which the surname of this ancient Kentish
family derives is adjacent to Hole (Vale) Farm in Sturry.
George's will, proven 30 July
1853, was dated 14 March 1853.
Executors were his brothers John, Leonard and Anthony, while his
brother-in-law Richard Manger was added by a codicil dated 28 March 1853. George died about midnight on Thursday 31
March 1853. Charlotte died at about
daybreak, 7am, at 48 King Street, Hammersmith, London, on 19 February 1878, in
her 70th year. Both are buried in the
same grave in St Nichola Parish churchyard, Sturry.
Family
of George and Charlotte Laslett
Sons
GEORGE (1st) - born at Hole Farm,
Sturry near Canterbury on 7 July 1833, died 28 February 1834. Buried in Sturry Churchyard
RICHARD
MANGER - born at
Hole Farm, Sturry near Canterbury on 20 September 1834. Later lived at Fulham, London. Family historian. Accountant to Contractors, London Underground Railway, Manchester
Ship Canal, London Tube Railways, etc.
Married Susannah Griggs.
See chapter Richard and Susannah Laslett of Fulham on page 93.
GEORGE (2nd) - born at Hole Farm,
Sturry near Canterbury on 6 April 1836.
On 27 June 1860 George married Eliza
Ann Langford. Settled at Allendale
East, resided on a small farm there till his death in 1926.
See chapter George and Eliza Laslett of Allendale East on page 95.
MANGER (John) - born at Hole Farm,
Sturry near Canterbury on 27 June 1837.
Went to South Australia with his
brother George on 10 October 1854. It
is apparent that he came to Mount Gambier before George did. In a letter to England written by George
from Dry Creek Stockade and dated 26 January 1866, he states, "Manger is
now at Mount Gambier and is getting on very well and quite well when I heard
from him last.
From Allendale on 19 June 1867,
George wrote to his brother in England and said, "Manger has been staying
with me for a few weeks, laid up with a bad cold, but I am happy to say he has
got all right again. We are both anxious
to hear from you all".
At one stage John tried his hand
at gold-mining, but the only result was one tiny nugget which was mounted on a
tie-pin.
He never married, but it must
have meant a good deal to the brothers to have each other in the land of their
adoption. He died on 23 May 1903, at
the age of 66 and is buried in the Port MacDonnell cemetery.
THOMAS
MANGER - born at
Hole Farm, Sturry near Canterbury on 9 February 1839. Married Rhoda Ruffell. He was a Draper at Eynsham, Oxfordshire, and
died on 19 January 1899. He is buried
at Eynsham.
See chapter Thomas and Rhoda Laslett of Eynsham on page 137.
EDWARD - born at Hole Farm, Sturry near
Canterbury on 5 February 1843, died 20 March 1843. Buried at Sturry Churchyard.
ALFRED
KENT - born at
Hole Farm, Sturry near Canterbury on 23 April 1846, in Grocery business.
Married Elizabeth Ann Fleet in early
1868 at Marylebone. See page 93 for the copy of a letter by Alfred concerning his
brother Richard’s death.
Family:
Alfred John – baptised 28 August 1868 at Hadleigh
Suffolk.
Daughters
CHARLOTTE
MANGER - born at
Hole Farm, Sturry near Canterbury on 21 March 1832, died 17 May 1832. Buried in Sturry Churchyard.
CHARLOTTE
ANN LAURA - born
20 May 1841 at Hole Farm Sturry, died 27 March 1842, buried in Sturry
Churchyard.
ELIZABETH
MARY - born 15
March 1844 at Hole Farm, Sturry.
Married to Harry Edwards Freeman
of Swindon, Wiltshire, the Manager to a firm of City Solicitors. They lived at Walcott, New Southgate (in
1911). Alive in 1919.
Children:
Annie
Charlotte Freeman
- born 28 September 1868, kept boarding school, Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex.
Henry
George Freeman -
born 22 February 1870, married in 1901, Miss
Annie Frances Dale, Crouch Hill, London, Tea-merchant, North Finchley,
London.
His sons were:
Harold
Dale Freeman -
born 8 November 1904
Dudley
Freeman - born 8
December 1909
Emily
Sarah Freeman -
born 9 August 1872. Lived at
Westcliffe-on-Sea. Died in 1949.
Kate
Maria Freeman -
born 12 December 1874, died 18 October 1902, a sister of St. Stephen's
orphanage, New Southgate.
Ernest
William Freeman
- born 27 March 1876. Married Miss Edith Emma Lovell, 1902, New Southgate, London. Life Insurance Office, Norton Lodge, Purley,
Surrey.
Ellen
Mary Freeman -
born October 1881, died April 1882.
Florence
Minnie Freeman -
born 11 April 1886. Governess.
Elsie
Mountford Freeman
- born 27 March 1889, Home Housekeeper.
FRANCES - born 28 March 1848 at Hole
Farm Sturry, lived in South London.
EMILY
CHARLOTTE - born
5 March 1850 at Hole Farm Sturry, Lived at Weston-Super-Mare, Somersetshire. Emily was the nicest looking and tallest of
the girls.
Writing in the late 1970s George
S. Laslett remembered that during his leave in the U.K in 1919 when he stayed
with Annie, Emma and Minnie Freeman at the college for girls that they ran at
Southend on Sea. Thirty six years
later, on a 40th anniversary of ANZAC trip, George again stayed with the
Freeman sisters but this time they were living at Ewhurst.
The Richard Laslett who was born
in 1739 and his descendants had Bossington Farm many more years than 100
years. His son, Richard (born 1772) and
his grandson, George (born 1796) had Hole Farm over 50 years. Richard (born 1772) and his son Leonard, had
Wingham Farm and Appleton Farm 78 years.
Richard (born 1772) and his son Anthony, had Dene Farm for 78
years. Lasletts have cultivated as
their own freehold property Hoden Farm, Ash, near Sandwich, 300 years. There
are at the present day, Lasletts still farming lands at Woodnesborough. Our descent we trace from John Laslett (born
1630), farming lands at Woodnesborough.
All our ancestors from the one mentioned were without exception farmers.
William and Maria Laslett of Abberton Hall, Worcester
William was baptised on 14 October
1799 at All Saints, Worcester the first born child of Thomas and Sophia
Laslett, a Worcester banker and his wife (page 42).
The most enigmatic of the
Lasletts William evoked strong reactions from all that knew him. He was a shrewd, hard and successful
moneymaker whose quoted saying, "how fast money accumulated",
gives an indication of his
business acumen. He was the greatest
landowning commoner in all Worcestershire and Herefordshire but never appears
to have luxuriated in his wealth rather giving vast amounts of money to
charity. He was a keen supporter of the
underdog and even crossed the floor of Parliament on a matter of principle
during the debates concerning the opium question and the war with China. This action helped to bring down
Palmerston's Government. He married the
daughter of a Bishop under questionable circumstances and had a stormy
marriage, much argued over in public, which was ended, after only six years, by
the early death of his wife at age 47.
Ellen Price, the wife of a
Worcester Banker who had fallen on hard times, writing as 'Mrs Henry Wood' used
William as the basis of her book East
Lynne, the first of the 'popular' romantic novels. Published in 1861, fact and fiction mingle
in its pages so much that it is often difficult to separate the two but to
anyone acquainted with William's story immediate recognition of place and plot
comes with virtually every page.
We know little of William's early
life except that his upbringing was comfortable, his father being prominent in
the Worcester 'Old Bank', Messrs Berwick, Wall and Isaac (later Messrs Berwick
& Co.). He was educated in Worcester and started as a boy clerk at the
bank, he rose to the position of assistant cashier before leaving to be entered
as a student at the Inner Temple in 1825, he served all the terms necessary for
a call to the bar and was also articled to Solicitor and Banker William Wall
who had his rooms in the old bank building at 50 Foregate Street, Worcester. Wall was prominent in local politics being a
member of the Common Council of Worcester for a number of years. William later took over the practice from
Wall. Records show that William
practised as a solicitor at Worcester from 183(?) until 1846. He was called to the bar at the Inner Temple
on 30 April 1856.
Although the Worcester Lasletts
had built up considerable wealth from their middle class occupations and
judicious marriages it is William who made them truly rich. He appears to have come into some money on
the death of his father in 1816 and to have demonstrated his speculative
talents through dealing in land at the end of the Napoleonic War. By the 1840's he was exceedingly wealthy.
In the 1830s William bought
Thorngrove House in Grimley which is situated about five miles north west of
Worcester and was the former home of Lucien Bonaparte the Prince de Canino a
younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Around 1840 William sold Thorngrove to buy the estate and house of
Abberton Hall near Pershore from the Sheldon family. The house came complete with all furnishings. Thomas Southall, later Town Clerk of
Worcester, described the house and effects as impeccable.
William married Maria Carr the
daughter of the late Right Rev. Dr James Robert Carr, Lord Bishop of Worcester,
on 3 February 1842 at Aldingbourne, Sussex.
This marriage is the centre of
much controversy and was a talking point for the society of Worcester during
the 1840s. The following verses,
attributed to William, succinctly tell the tale:
Poor Parsons and Doctors aspiring
to Marriage,
Rarely, if ever, attain to a
Carriage;
But Law, lucky law, is happier
far
Keeps a carriage, and sports an
episcopal "Carr."
Conveyancer Cupid egregious ass
let
A Lass "Carr" to be Sold to become a Laslett;
Her sorrowing friends with
illogical tone
Say "If a Lass is to let -
let Laslett alone."
The Bishop had died at Hartlebury
Castle at about half-past 9 on Saturday night 24 April 1841. He was interred privately in St. James
Churchyard Hartlebury on Monday 3 May 1841.
William's disastrous marriage to Maria Carr stems directly from the
strange circumstances surrounding Dr. Carr's life and death.
Ellen Price in East Lynne mentions the funeral of the
Bishop:
The body of a church dignitary,
who had died deeply in debt, was arrested as it was being carried through the
cloisters to its grave in the cathedral.
On this story Ellen based the
death of her heroine's father, the dissipated William, Earl of Mount
Severn. Gouty, and grown old before his
time, the Earl had squandered his sixty thousand a year and died leaving only
debts. The daughter, who is styled on
Maria Carr, is unaware of her father's financial position until the body is
'arrested' by the creditors. To her
rescue comes Archibald Carlyle, her late father's solicitor, who pays the debts
from his own money so that the body can be buried. The character of Carlyle is based on William.
Later Archibald, more out of pity
than love, proposes marriage to the now impoverished daughter. The daughter accepts, marries, and then
betrays her husband - the sins of the father re-occurring in the daughter to
fatal effect. Archibald is by our
standards an aloof and undemonstrative husband but by Victorian standards would
be considered a much more sympathetic character, always correct and noble.
We have a description of Bishop
Carr's funeral as it was reported in The
Times. As said before he died at
9pm on Saturday 24 April 1841 but was not buried until 10am on Monday 3 May
1841. The fact that nine days elapsed
between death and burial is unusual, that it was a private funeral is most
unusual for a Bishop of the Church of England.
The Times of Thursday 6 May
1841 says:
The clergy had expressed their
wish to follow the remains of their late diocesan - a wish which, while it was
warmly acknowledged by the family, was negatived, on the score of the funeral
being intended to be strictly private.
This intention was adhered to; for everything connected with the last
obsequies was of as simple and unostentatious a description as was consistent
with the station which the deceased had occupied in the church. In the absence of all pomp and parade, it
was pleasing to observe the homage paid to the late Bishop's kindly character. In the long line of procession there was
scarcely a shop the shutters of which were not partially or altogether
closed. The blinds of all the numerous
private dwellings were drawn down, and a general and respectful silence marked
the passage of the late Bishop from the See house of his diocese to the
"home appointed for all living."
His Lordships's remains were interred at Hartlebury by the side of Mrs.
Carr.
Bishop Carr's death brought down
the financial pack of cards that he had built to maintain his opulent
lifestyle. His reputation in episcopal
circles was destroyed and his family brought to despair and devastation. Outstanding debts amounting to £100,000 were
left behind. This is a large sum even
these days but in the 1840s it was astounding.
Robert Carr had been active in Court circles and was a lifelong friend
and intimate of George IV whose preferment assured his episcopal
ambitions. As Bishop he was one of
Worcester's more absent prelates preferring the fast life of the Court in the
luxury of the Pavilion at Brighton, the Royal playground, to the more austere
surroundings of Hartlebury Castle.
Within Worcester Cathedral, where there are countless memorials to the
works of its Bishops, some dating back to Saxon times, there is nothing to
record the episcopate of Robert Carr apart from the record of his period of
tenure in the Custo's reference book.
In Hartlebury Castle however there are a number of mementoes, one being
his portrait hanging in the hall at the lower end on the opposite side to the
entrance, another being a sideboard which was bought from Bishop when he was
short of funds by one of his clergy and recently returned to the Castle by a
Mrs Kirkham from Worcester, a great granddaughter of the clergyman.
Preferment had come to Robert
Carr by a combination of luck and skill.
He came from a comfortable rather than a wealthy background but was
adroit or lucky enough to secure the Parish of Brighton where his superb
oratory skills brought him to the notice of the Prince of Wales, later George
IV, by whose patronage he was appointed Bishop of Chichester in 1815 at the
young age of 40 and made Bishop of Worcester in 1831.
In the Birmingham Post of Thursday 24 December 1953 a correspondent
identified as "C.D.T.B.-C." and "Bishop Robert Carr's
great-great-great-grandson" wrote that for many years Bishop Carr had been
accumulating debts, of which only
£20,000 can currently be identified, since, with little personal assets,
the pace of Court life and the cost of entertaining Royalty was expensive.
He quoted one occasion when
George IV and his consort, Queen Caroline, told Bishop Carr that they would be
coming for a week's visit. The Bishop
and his wife, Nancy, immediately had the castle redecorated and a considerable
amount of new furniture installed. The
bill came to around £5,000.
In the event George IV and
Caroline "stayed for only one night after enjoying a sumptuous banquet on
their arrival─── leaving the Bishop with a larder filled for
another six days' feasting on a scale suitable for a monarch who gloried in his
food and wine, as well as a bill for one days' entertainment large enough at
the present value of the pound, but staggering high for those days."
During the Bishop's early manhood
a family member had written a poem that contains references to the future
Bishop being accused of cheating at cards and mentions a minor dalliance with
"a most lovely girl, with not quite so lovely a name". In part the poem goes:
To
Young Robert Carr, A Divine.
As for you, Mr. Bob,
Who with Deans hob or nob.
Or with gentlemen-sinners,
Take a circle of dinners,
And leave Psalms in the lurch
When you go to your Church-
Like a Buck, hunt and shoot-
Wear a tight-sitting boot-
Play, as you and we know,
All the game at casino-
Dance and kick up your heals
With Miss ........ in reels-
Ride a short little hack
To Lord Pembroke, and back-
I fore-see that you'll dish-up
Quite an elegant Bishop.
The author of the Birmingham Post
article assures us "elegant perhaps, a fine preacher without doubt, strict
churchman and popular everywhere he went, Bishop Carr was generous and loyal to
a fault in his habits and tastes, but he was unable to keep pace with the
lavish spending of the Court and its Monarch who summoned him to the Royal
deathbed at Windsor. Bishop Carr was
Chaplain to the King - the title of this office being 'Clerk to the Closet' -
as well as Bishop of Chichester, before his translation to Worcester."
Robert Carr died aged 66 of a
cerebral haemorrhage, or paralysis as it was then termed. When word got out his creditors panicked and
besieged Hartlebury Castle but one being particularly adroit, took legal
action, and had the Sheriff's officers seize the Bishop's body on account of
his debts. The Bishop's only son
disclaimed any responsibility and the Rev. Thomas Baker, the Rector of
Hartlebury, who was the Bishop's son-in-law generously, perhaps foolhardily,
volunteered to take on the debts. Immediately the creditors moved in and the
Rector's belongings were ticketed for sale by public auction.
Baker with £2,000 a year from
Hartlebury, one of the clerical plums of the day, could not hope to repay his
father-in-law's debts. It appears that
this is where William Laslett came in and assisted the family. Some of the debts were actually paid off
personally by William while he must have arranged finance for Baker to enable
him to cover the balance. This sort of
action would fit perfectly into the picture we have of William as a man of
charity and one to whom a sense of honour was paramount. Anyway the auction was avoided and the
Bishop buried quietly in the family tomb in St. James Church Hartlebury. The tomb is on the North side of the church
fairly near the front entrance. It has
an inscription on one side which is a replica of the narrow side which has worn
away and reads "In the vault beneath are deposited the remains of Robert
James Carr D.D. Lord Bishop of Worcester who departed this life April 24th 1841
In the 67th year of his age". On
the opposite side but considerably more worn away is visible "Thomas Baker
M.A. ..... years Rector of this Parish.
Died ...... Aged 79". The
unfortunate Rector, who ultimately served 50 years at Hartlebury and as Rural
Dean of Kidderminster and Hon. Canon of Worcester Cathedral, lived and died a
poor man, but finally the debts were paid off.
William married Maria Carr seven
months after her father's death, whether she accepted William from a sense of
grateful, naive romanticism, or as part of a deal, we do not know. We only know that at 41 she was perhaps as
unable as William to adjust to married life. William's motives for entering
into the marriage are equally unclear but considering the age, the financial,
and the social scandal surrounding his bride he can hardly have been seeking
any personal advantage and if he felt his was a noble action to rescue Maria
from penury then it was sadly unappreciated.
Perhaps the marriage was a manifestation of the eccentricity that
William was to increasingly display as he grew older. When Jim Lasslett from Melbourne visited Abberton Hall a few
years ago the present owner told him that in all Maria only stayed with William
for three weeks. This would perhaps
indicate that the reason for their incompatibility may have been sexual but the
comment is also an exaggeration. What
is certain is that it was a very unhappy marriage and although Maria died after
six years with William the enmity towards William of some of Maria's friends
and supporters remained and he was to suffer continually at their hands. Also William's fluctuating political
sympathies served to exaggerate this enmity.
Even after 20 years Lord Lyttleton, Lord Lieutenant of the county, who
had sympathy with Maria, refused to put William's name forward as a Justice of
the Peace. This contrasts with other
evidence indicating that William remained on good terms with the late Bishop's
family to the extent of making Thomas Baker's son, Rev. Robert James Baker,
Rector of Landeglos, his executor and primary beneficiary under his will. Abberton Hall, Bishampton, Flyford Flavell,
Naunton Beauchamp, North Piddle, Kington, Dormston, Grafton Flyford and Hanbury
all went to Robert which must have made him one of Worcestershire's largest
landowners. Ellen Price, in East Lynne makes it very apparent that
she considered Maria to be at fault in the marriage.
In H.W. Gwilliam's Old Worcester Gwilliam says "Thomas
Southall, who knew them both, said the fault was not all on one side. Maria openly showed dislike and contempt for
William, and in return, his behaviour was, at times abominable. The story is told, that when Maria was ill,
Laslett would not allow fires to be lit in her room, though the weather was
cold, and the doctor remonstrated with him, saying she must have a fire. Whereupon Laslett told the servant to light
the fire, but when it was lit, told the gardener to cut a large piece of turf,
and then ordered him to get a ladder and place it on top of the chimney of her
room."
Years later the spectre of Bishop
Carr was to bring tragedy to the family again.
In 1877 Thomas Baker died and many newspapers resurrected the story of
the family's financial embarrassment and of the noble actions of Hartlebury's
loved Rector. They also pointed out the
actions of the Bishop's only son and mentioned that he had later inherited a
fortune from an aunt. Eight days after
the death of Thomas Baker the son suicided.
He was staying at his country home on the south coast at the time and
whether he shot himself out of remorse or for other reasons is not known - but
the implication is that he took the "gentleman's" way out of an
intolerable situation.
The newspapers also carried an
allegation that has never been proved although it could account for the
disparity between Bishop Carr's known debts of £20,000 and the total amount of
£100,000. To quote: "The Bishop
was one of George IV's bosom-friends and advanced His Majesty a large sum, or
became security for him in some way."
George IV on his coronation was faced with literal poverty. The £10,000
a year granted to him as regent to his father George III ceased with the death
of his father and though his income was still considerable it was practically
all absorbed in interest on his debts.
At a dinner once, he proposed the health of Mr. Coutts as "my
banker for upwards of thirty years".
Mr. Coutts was heard to whisper, "It is your Royal Highness who has
done me the honour to keep my money for thirty years?" It would be hardly surprising if George did
borrow from Robert Carr although the figure of £80,000, if true, is more a
comment on the gullibility of the Bishop than the wantonness of his King.
In 1843 Thomas Southall, later
Town Clerk of Worcester, was articled to William. Years after Thomas could remember how as a young man he was asked
to dine with William at Thorngrove, the house and furnishings were magnificent,
William having bought the contents of the house from the previous owner. (Interestingly this same circumstance
appears in East Lynne.) The dinner silver and wines were of the very
best but two dishes made an indelible impression on the young guest - two
sucking pigs, one at each end of the table, one boiled and one roasted. When Thomas had qualified as a Solicitor
William gave him £100 to set up his own practice, a very generous act. Thomas remained a staunch supporter of
William, eventually joining him in practice and finally being one of William's
executors and overseeing the Laslett Charities for many years.
William continued his acquisition
of property and in 1848, the year of his wife's death, purchased the Crowle
Estate, of upward of 1,000 acres, for £28,000.
It is also apparent that William
was increasingly displaying his philanthropy.
On 15 November 1849 William, who was a parishioner of St. Nicholas
parish in Worcester, gave the Rector, the Rev. W.H. Havergal, £2,500 to carry
out alterations and enlargements.
In his letter of 17 November 1849
which accompanied the gift William asked "that the additional sittings
should be free that the poor may not be overlooked". On 21 November 1849 he again wrote to the
Rector this time asking "When you mention the subject of the gift to your
parishioners, I wish you to withhold my name.
I wish to avoid public gaze and remarks."
In 1850 the church obtained a
faculty from the Bishop of Worcester to carry out alterations and enlargements
and accordingly Mr. Day, the architect appointed, obtained two tenders but as
they were unacceptably high the architect was asked to obtain more quotes. Unfortunately these tenders too were
unacceptable so Day tried to revise his plan but due to problems with a
property adjoining the church, the cost of the alterations was still in excess
of the church's budget. The Rector
writing to the Bishop sought his leave to defer the matter stating that he had
"no alternative but to wait for some favourable opportunity". By early 1852 the work was no further
advanced except that the committee was in the process of considering Day's
third revision of his plans. William,
it appears, had been watching this with growing anger. He was not one to suffer fools gladly,
especially ones who he considered were not making the best use of his
charitable donations. It seemed to
William that the alterations would never be made and that his money would be
dissipated. An opportunity had come to
him for a major charitable work so he decided that by their inaction the
parishioners of St. Nicholas had "rejected" his gift. Accordingly on 31 March 1852 he wrote to the
Reverend Havergal, "The parishioners having rejected the gift, I
determined to erect 12 Almshouses and the Bishop has signed the document for
the enfranchisement of the land for the purpose. I therefore cannot continue the gift and erect the Almshouses;
the latter will take £8,000". He
also withdrew a note of hand for £1,000 for the Reverend Havergal. In so doing William went against the terms
of his gift as set out in his letter of 17 November 1849 to the Reverend
Havergal, "I hereby assign and make over the notes of hand and moneys to
(the) church absolutely for the purpose aforesaid or for any charitable
foundation".
Writing of the incident in the 27
February 1975 issue of Berrow's Worcester
Journal Canon George Browning, Chaplain of the Laslett Charities, stated
that:
After many consultations and
distressing vestry meetings and interviews, Laslett turned the screw and
threatened to institute legal proceedings to ensure that his gift was returned
to him.
Having read the letters Laslett
and the Rector wrote to each other, and the columns and columns which filled
the city's papers, I am quite sure that Laslett was in the wrong in this matter
and had the rector of St. Nicholas withstood Laslett's threats, Laslett would
have lost his case and been discredited and shamed.
This did not appear to affect
William's political ambitions for, standing as a Liberal, he was elected to
Westminster top of the ticket on 28 April 1852 assuming his seat on 9 July
1852. The electors of Worcester, and in
those days before universal suffrage there were not many, elected William with
1212 votes followed by his Liberal running mate Osman Ricard with 1164 votes
and the Conservative, J.W. Huddleston, with 661 votes. He was elected again on 28 March 1857
topping the poll with 1137 votes and again on 29 April 1859.
For a description of these
elections one could do no better than read 'East Lynne' where the story of
Archibald Carlyle's election to Westminster is most probably based on William's
election, in fact, one suspects that Henry Wood and his wife actively supported
William in his campaign.
William's parliamentary career
was successful and he served his Worcester electors well and faithfully. He
appears to have had strong convictions for fairness as is illustrated by the
stand that he took over the Arrow
incident following the first Opium War with China. William, seeing the justice
of the Chinese position, crossed the floor and voted with the opposition
thereby helping bring down Palmerston’s Tory government. Canan Browning of the
Laslett Charities in Worcester wrote of in Berrow's
Worcester Journal of 27 February 1975:
‘The most impressive indications
of Laslett's real character are to be found in the speech he made at the
Guildhall (in Worcester) when he was seeking re-election as a Liberal in
1857. He had no easy task, for on this
occasion, he had to defend himself for having voted against his own party on
the China question and had been instrumental in bringing down the government of
his own party leader, Palmerston. He
showed himself as a clear thinking, enlightened and conscientious politician
when he told this crowded meeting:
‘"I regard the violent
course pursued by the British authorities in their quarrel with the Chinese as
unwarranted by the laws of nations or treaty stipulations and inconsistent with
due regard to the rights of humanity."
‘These
words might well have been said by a secretary-general of the United Nations in
our own day. Laslett put his conviction
to the people of Worcester with pikestaff clarity as he said: 'You know, we
profess to be a Christian country, but I say that it is most unChristian to act
in the spirit in which our representatives abroad have done. As a powerful, and above all Christian
country, we ought not to tyrannise over a weak one'.
‘Laslett was no great orator but
he was a very forceful speaker.
‘The actual debate in the House of Commons, which preceded the adverse vote which brought down Palmerston's government, was described by Gladstone 'as doing more honour to the House of Commons, which any I can remember'.
‘Laslett was a long way ahead of
many men of his own day in his ideas of social justice.’
To give more background to the matter the
following is condensed from Jasper Ridley ‘s book Lord Palmerston (Constable & Co, London 1970).
‘But one of the
unforeseen results of the Treaty of Nanking was to create a new body of opinion
which was opposed to opium. The terms of the treaty made it possible for
Christian missionaries from Britain and the United States to settle in China.
Many went in the years after 1842, and had more success than they had dared to
hope for. Christianity, with its egalitarian doctrines, made a great appeal to
many of the lowest classes in China, and was adopted as the creed of the
revolutionary peasant movement of the Taipings which sprang up after 1850, and
worried the European merchants in Shanghai and Canton as well as the Emperor of
China and the mandarins.
‘The British missionaries, like the Taipings
themselves, opposed opium‑smoking; and as the missionaries had powerful
supporters in Britain, including Lord Shaftesbury, Palmerston was continually
receiving memorials and petitions from the Missionary Societies asking him to
collaborate with the Chinese authorities in suppressing the opium trade. The
British merchants organised counter‑propaganda, and sent Palmerston a
large number of statements from English and Scottish doctors who had practised
for many years in the Far East.
‘These doctors explained that the evils of opium‑smoking
had been much exaggerated, and that opium, like alcohol, was harmful if taken
in excess, but not if used only in moderation. It was, therefore no more
necessary or justifiable to prohibit opium than to ban all alcoholic beverages;
and the doctors did not hesitate to say that alcohol was worse than opium,
because the opium‑addict harmed no one but himself, whereas the drunkard
often caused injury to others…
‘The British merchants had been
inconvenienced by the fact that the Chinese authorities, and the Chinese people
often victimised those Chinese who collaborated or traded with the British. In
order to protect these people, the Government of Hongkong adopted the practice
of granting British registration to ships belonging to Chinese subjects who
traded with Hongkong, as the Chinese authorities were prevented, by the terms
of the Treaty of Nanking, from interfering with British ships flying the
British flag in Chinese territorial waters. Soon Chinese pirates began to register
their ships in Hongkong, and many pirate vessels off Canton operated under the
British flag. The British Navy assisted the Chinese authorities in their
operations against the pirates; but piracy increased rapidly, and Commissioner
Yeh considered that the British practice of granting registration to Chinese
ships was largely responsible for this.
In October 1856 a
small vessel of the type which the Portuguese at Macao called a lorcha was
engaged in piracy in the Canton river. It had been registered at Hongkong two
years before as a British ship under the name of the Arrow, though it was owned by a notorious Chinese pirate. The
pirate found a twenty‑four‑year‑old Ulsterman who had never
been a seaman, and made him the nominal captain of the Arrow; and the Arrow set
out with the Ulsterman and twelve Chinese on board, and the British flag at the
mast, to rob the ships trading in the Canton river. It was intercepted in
Chinese territorial waters and boarded by Chinese coastguards, who hauled down
the British flag and arrested the thirteen members of the crew. The Ulsterman
was immediately released, but the twelve Chinese were imprisoned in Canton.
Parkes accused the Chinese coastguards of insulting the British flag, and
demanded an apology and the immediate release of the twelve pirates, offering
to investigate the charges against them if they were handed over to him at the
British consulate. Yeh offered to release nine of them, but not the pirate
leader and two of his most notorious followers. Parkes refused to accept the
nine unless all twelve were released, and again demanded an apology pointing
out that under the terms of the treaty the prisoners should have been
immediately handed over to the British consulate. At this juncture, the
authorities in Hongkong discovered that the registration of the Arrow as a British ship had expired
three weeks before the Chinese had seized her, and that at the time she was no
longer a British vessel and had no right to fly the British flag. But Bowring
and Parkes decided that they could not now withdraw from the position which
they had taken up, and that, as the Chinese coastguards were not aware at the
time that the Arrow’s registration had expired, they could
not rely on this fact to excuse their action.
‘Parkes therefore again demanded that Yeh
release all the pirates and apologise for the insult to the British flag. Yeh
released all the twelve prisoners under protest, but refused to send an
apology. Bowring then ordered the Navy to bombard Canton. Yeh’s palace was destroyed,
a large part of the city was set on fire, and there was considerable loss of
life, though it was a matter of dispute as to whether the worst damage was
caused by the British bombardment or by the large‑scale looting by the
Chinese criminal population which followed it. Yeh replied by a proclamation
which called on the people to exterminate the British barbarians, and offered
30 dollars for the head of every Englishman. The people of Canton launched a
partisan war against the British, in which no rules of warfare were observed.
All the British factories in Canton were destroyed. Saboteurs tried to blow up
British ships. Chinese cooks in H6ngkong put ground glass and arsenic into the
food of their British employers, and Englishmen who strayed abroad were
murdered. The British Navy sank Chinese boats, and summarily shot the saboteurs
whom they captured. By the end of 1856 war was being waged in the vicinity of
Canton; but the Emperor and his Government in Peking made no move, and all was
quiet between British and Chinese in the four other treaty ports.
‘When the news reached London, the Cabinet
was disturbed. Most of them felt that Bowring had acted unwisely; but while
some thought that it was impossible to endorse an action which was both legally
and morally wrong, the majority believed that the rules of international law
could not be applied to a barbarous country like China, and that it would be
fatal to British prestige in China and throughout the Far East, if the act of a
high‑ranking British official were repudiated by his Government.
Palmerston told the Cabinet that he had invited the Attorney‑General to
be present and suggested, if they had no objection, that the Attorney‑General
be asked in, so that he could explain the legal position to them. This was an
innovation, for no junior minister outside the Cabinet had ever before been
invited to attend a Cabinet meeting: the law officers had previously submitted
opinions in writing to the Cabinet. The ministers agreed to hear the
Attorney-General. He was Sir Richard Bethell, later Lord Westbury, one of the
most brilliant and successful advocates at the Chancery Bar. The little man
with the enormous bald head and the slow, mincing utterance, gave a masterly
exposition of the legal issues in the case. Although it could be argued that
the Arrow remained a British ship
until the end of the voyage during which her registration expired, he had very
little doubt that Bowring had been wrong in international law, because even if
the Arrow was a British ship when the
Chinese captured her ‑ and this was doubtful ‑ Bowring should not
have bombarded a city in the territory of the Emperor of China until the
British Government had raised its complaint with the Chinese Government in
Peking. When Bethell had finished, Palmerston thanked him most courteously for
his assistance, and, as soon as he had withdrawn, told the Cabinet that they
would of course have to support Bowring, as they had no choice in the matter.
All his ministers agreed with him.
‘The
Government’s policy was strongly attacked in Parliament, where they faced a
coalition of both the Nonconformist and the High Church Tory conscience, and
the political interest of the Conservative Party. In the Lords, Lord Derby’s
motion of censure was defeated by 146 votes to 110. In the Commons Cobden moved
the vote of censure on high moral grounds, and was followed in this vein by
Gladstone and Lord Robert Cecil, who, at the age of twenty‑seven, was
already well embarked on the political career which led him, twenty eight years
later, when he was Marquis of Salisbury, to become Prime Minister. Sir James
Graham, Lord John Russell, Bulwer‑Lytton, MiIner‑Gibson and
Disraeli supported the motion of censure, as did several eminent lawyers. All
these speakers condemned Bowring’s action in the strongest terms as illegal and
outrageous, and praised the restraint which had been shown by Yeh and the
Chinese authorities. The only speakers of note who supported the Government
were a number of junior ministers, the witty and cynical Bernal Osborne, and
Admiral Napier, who regaled the House with a description of what he would do to
anyone, particularly to any Frenchman, who insulted the British flag. Even
Roebuck, who had moved the resolution congratulating Palmerston in the Don
Pacifico debate, spoke against him on this occasion. He said that he was,
reluctantly compelled to support the censure motion, for on this occasion
Britain was clearly in the wrong. Disraeli challenged Palmerston to fight a
general election on the issue. After saying that during the last half‑century
Palmerston had ‘professed almost every principle, and connected himself with
almost every party’, Disraeli concluded: ‘Let the noble Lord not only complain
to the country, but let him appeal to the country.... I should like to see the
programme of the proud leader of the Liberal party ‑ "No Reform! New
Taxes! Canton Blazing! Persia Invaded! " ‘
‘On the fourth night of the debate, 3 March 1857,
Palmerston rose to speak. The issue, he said, was between Sir John Bowring and
Yeh. ‘Who is Sir John Bowring? ... Was he a member of that aristocracy which
some people wish to banish from public employment? Sir John Bowring is
essentially a man of the people; and he had at one time been a member of the
Peace Society. ‘What is this other man who has been made the subject of
panegyric, and whose productions have been praised at the expense of those of
our own officers? What is the character of this Yeh? He is one of the most
savage barbarians that ever disgraced a nation. He has been guilty of every
crime which can degrade and debase human nature. In the contest between these
two men, it is most extraordinary that partiality should turn rather towards
this barbarian than towards the British representative’. He pointed out that
Yeh had decapitated 70,000 Chinese in a few months; and though speakers in the
debate had praised Yeh for his forbearance, the only forbearance which he had
shown was a forbearance in speaking the truth. He then made a strong attack on
Cobden. Cobden had said that Bowring was an old personal friend of his; then
how came it that Cobden now attacked an old friend in his hour of need? And
Cobden had said that British merchants in China sometimes behaved in an
overbearing manner. Where had Cobden learnt to form such an opinion of his
fellow‑countrymen? Was it in his travels on the Continent? The whole of
Cobden’s speech had been pervaded with ‘an anti‑English feeling, an
abnegation of all those ties which bind men to their country and to their
fellow‑countrymen, which I should hardly have expected from the lips of
any member of this House. Everything that was English was wrong, and everything
that was hostile to England was right’. As for Cobden’s gibe that the
Government behaved very differently towards a strong power like the United
States than towards a weak nation like China, and had taken no action when
coloured British subjects were ill‑treated in South Carolina, this only
showed that Cobden and the Peace Society wanted to go to war with that
progressive republic, the United States. Gladstone had condemned Bowring’s
action; but then Gladstone had cheered in 1840 when the Chinese poisoned the
wells. If this censure motion were carried, it would mean that the House had
voted to ‘abandon a large community of British subjects at the extreme end of
the globe to a set of barbarians ‑ a set of kidnapping, murdering,
poisoning barbarians’.
‘The vote of censure was carried by 263
votes to 247. This was much closer than had seemed likely from the course of
the debate, and Palmerston had done well to lose by only sixteen votes. He had
rallied the support of many silent backbenchers who never spoke in the House.
Next day, Palmerston told his ministers at a Cabinet meeting that he had
decided to ask the Queen for a dissolution of Parliament. The reports which he
received from all over the country convinced him that he could safely take up
Disraeli’s challenge. The Queen, who warmly approved of Bowring’s action and
Palmerston’s attitude, granted him the dissolution, and, Palmerston prepared to
fight the general election on his China policy and on his achievement in
leading the nation to victory in the Crimean War.
‘Some of his ministers suggested that it
might be advisable to give some pledge about electoral reform. Reform had been
shelved, by general consent, for the duration of the Crimean War; but twelve
months had elapsed since the conclusion of peace, and the Government had done
nothing further about reform. Palmerston said that he did not think that it was
necessary to say anything about reform at the election. The ministers then
asked Lord Lansdowne, the father of the Cabinet, to intervene with Palmerston.
At Lansdowne’s insistence, Palmerston agreed to include a reference to reform
in his address to the electors of Tiverton; but he drafted a passage which was
so ambiguously worded that it was not clear whether he was referring to a major
reform of the franchise or to some minor administrative reforms.
‘But it was not the references to reform
that people noticed when they read Palmerston’s election address to his
constituents. They noticed only one sentence ‑ a sentence which
summarised the policy upon which Palmerston’s candidates were fighting the
election, and which was quoted by them in every constituency: ‘An insolent
barbarian wielding authority at Canton had violated the British flag’.
Thousands of copies of Palmerston’s election address were printed and
distributed all over Britain, and for the first time in British political hi ‘
story the Prime Minister was making a personal appeal to the whole nation as
well as to the electors in his own constituency. The Conservatives and
Cobdenites realised almost immediately that they would lose the election, and
complained that Palmerston had acted unfairly in forcing a general election on
this issue. They also resented his imputations on their patriotism. For the
first time for many years, personal friendships were affected by the bitterness
of the political controversy, and Lady Palmerston ceased, for the time being,
to invite Palmerston’s opponents ‑ ‘the Chinese’, as she called them ‑
to her Saturday evening parties.
‘The middle classes, particularly the business
community in the great commercial centres, were solidly behind Palmerston. The
associations of merchants trading in the Far East sent him messages of support
from Manchester, Glasgow, Dundee and other cities; and Palmerston told them how
encouraging it was to know that those persons with expert knowledge and
experience of China approved of the Government’s policy. The City of London was
most enthusiastic of all. He declined the offer from the members of Lloyd’s to
nominate him as a candidate for the City at the general election, for he was
safe enough at Tiverton; but he accepted an invitation to speak at a dinner at
the Mansion House during the election campaign. His speech enraged the
Conservatives. Speaking in the presence of the Lord Mayor and the diplomatic
corps, he said that the Conservatives were so pro‑Chinese that, if they
had been logical, they would have offered to provide the money which Yeh had
offered as a reward for the heads of Englishmen. The guests at the Mansion
House cheered him loudly, but Lord Malmesbury wrote him an indignant letter,
which he published in the press. He said that it was unpardonable of Palmerston
to make such allegations against men on whose political support he had relied
in the past, including Lord John Russell, who, until recently, had been a
member of his own Cabinet. He asserted that it was unworthy of a Prime Minister
to descend to such depths of political controversy; this kind of
‘electioneering claptrap’ might be excusable if uttered on the hustings at
Tiverton, but it was unforgivable in the staid and responsible atmosphere of a
dinner at the Mansion House. He then expounded, at some length, his criticism
of Bowring’s action and of Palmerston’s policy towards China.
‘Malmesbury’s letter ran to fourteen pages.
Palmerston’s reply, which was also published in the press, covered less than
one page: ‘My dear Lord Malmesbury, I have received this Evening your letter of
this day. I have neither Time nor Inclination to renew the China debate. I have
used a Right which I do not deem myself deprived of by my Official Position to
express publicly my opinion of the Conduct of public Men on an occasion of no
small public Importance, and I have nothing to retract or to qualify. Yours
faithfully, Palmerston’.
‘Palmerston won a resounding victory at the General
Election. Bright and Milner‑Gibson lost their seats in Manchester. Cobden
was thrown out at Huddersfield, and Layard at Aylesbury. Roebuck just managed
to hold Sheffield, and, to every one’s surprise, Lord John Russell achieved a
great personal triumph by retaining his seat in the City of London by very
small majority after a bitter contest. Palmerston was returned unopposed at
Tiverton; for though Bronterre O’Brien, the Chartist leader, had announced that
he would stand against Palmerston, he withdrew before the election. In the
country as a whole, Palmerston won a clear majority of 85 seats over all his
opponents in the House of Commons. It was the greatest electoral victory that a
party leader had won since Lord Grey’s victory in the first election after the
passing of the Reform Bill in 1832; and by increasing his majority in the House
of Commons after having held office as Prime Minister for a substantial‑time,
Palmerston achieved a feat which he repeated in 1865, but has subsequently only
been equalled in 1918, 1959 and 1966. Disraeli and Lord Robert Cecil learned
the lesson that, from an electoral point of view, it does not pay to support
international morality against patriotic fervour. Shaftesbury, who, despite
opium, supported Palmerston on the China issue in 1857 because he believed that
Palmerston was the instrument chosen by God to carry out Shaftesbury’s social
and religious aims, wrote in his diary: ‘P’s popularity is wonderful – strange
to say, the whole turns on his name. There seems to be no measure, no
principle, no cry, to influence men’s minds and determine elections; it is simply,
"Were you, or were you not? are you, or are you not, for Palmerston?”’
On 12 March 1860 William resigned
from Parliament but stood again, only this time as a Conservative, styling
himself as a "turncoat" and "renegade Rad. of Abberton
Hall" and was elected on 17 November 1868 at the top of the poll with 2439
votes.
It was in this election that Lord
Lyttleton, Lord Lieutenant of the county, had a son who ran as a Liberal
candidate. Lyttleton had had sympathy
with Maria Laslett and had slighted William by refusing to put forward his name
as a J.P. Apparently no opposition was
expected to Lyttleton's son but William came back to politics, nominated as a
Conservative, and threw himself into the campaign achieving a 25% increase in
the Conservative vote and defeating the son outright.
Around this time William wrote
the following poem setting out his dissatisfaction with the Liberals:
THE
BEGGAR'S PETITION
Pity the sorrows of a headstrong
man,
Whose mad ambition brings him to
your door.
With fawning sycophancy - his
usual plan -
Entreats your vote, he asks for
nothing more.
His oft turned coat dishonesty
bespeaks;
His greasy hat has lasted many
years;
Should you refuse, his
weather-beaten cheeks
Will soon be flooded by
dissembling tears.
Yon House erected on St. Stephen's ground,
With tempting aspect drew me from
the Road,
Sent up by Worcester Radicals, I found
It was a grand magnificent abode.
Better far be faithful if you are
poor,
For when I servilely craved him
for his vote,
This honest Radical spurned me
from his door,
And then upbraided me for my
turn'd coat,
Oh! send me to yon splendid
gilded dome,
Cold blows the wind, and piercing
is the cold,
Refuse, and you consign me to the
tomb,
My nether garments torn and
miserably old.
The last line would have been
particularly apt as William was renowned throughout the county as a man who did
not study physical necessities much, and appearances not at all. It is said that he walked the streets of
Worcester in a top hat and clothes that a ragman would not want.
Mr. R.T. Rea, former Worcester
City Coroner and Clerk of Peace, told a story of William's attitude to dress -
Mr. Levi, a Jewish secondhand clothes dealer of Newport Street, who had been an
energetic supporter of Mr. Laslett's recent election was sent a letter
purporting to be from William Laslett, but was in fact written by some of the
local 'wags'. In the letter an
invitation was made to Mr. Levi come to Abberton to buy the Member's surplus
clothes. "My dear", Mr. Levi
says to his wife, "Mr. Laslett is grateful and wishes to do me a good
turn. I will hire a horse and gig and
you shall go with me."
They found themselves
unexpected. Host and guests were
equally astonished when the Levis' mission to inspect the M.P.'s wardrobe was
explained and Laslett replied aghast at their suggestion: "Wardrobe! I've only the suit I'm standing
in!" And that was one to all
intents and purposes borrowed from a scarecrow.
William's parsimony in matters to
do with his own comfort is even more astounding considering that he was always
willing to give large quantities of money away either to charities or just to
worthy individuals who were in need. It
is said that for stationery he wrote on the backs of old envelopes and when
attending Parliament his daily lunch consisted of a penny "twist"
which he proudly claimed that he "always bought stale at a
halfpenny". In fact he was heard
to boast that his journey to London and back as Worcester's M.P., apart from
his fare, cost only 3d. He breakfasted
before he started and during the day would only indulge in a penny bun and a
glass of ale. A Worcester tradesman
once invited him to have a glass of ale with him at Paddington and the Member
for Worcester then boasted that this journey would only cost one penny.
In 1869 William was made Justice
of Peace for the City and County of Worcester.
He was also chairman for many years of the Upton Snodsbury Highway
Board. But by the 1870s his political
ideas were becoming outdated, in fact they have been referred to at this stage
as "fossilised toryism". On 6
February 1874 William was defeated in the election by the Liberal T. Rowley
Hill. He never stood again.
It is William's various
charitable works which really serve as the main backdrop to his life. Their extent is hard to gauge as William did
not seek publicity in his giving and it is this secrecy combined with the vast
extent of his charity that makes it impossible to give a full list of his
various gifts and endowments. We know
from family letters that he was even generous to various family members who
were at best his third and fourth cousins.
William's problems with his gift
for the rebuilding of St. Nicholas, Worcester have been mentioned but these
should perhaps also be considered in the light of his following gifts to the
Church of England:
In 1861 at his own expense he
rebuilt the church of St. Eadburga at Abberton and in 1863, again at his own
expense he rebuilt the church of St. Peter at Flyford Flavell.
He was Patron of six Livings in
Worstershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.
He gave 22 acres of land "to
the inhabitants of his native city" to become Worcester's New Astwood Road
Cemetery. There is a plaque just inside
the main gates on which is recorded the expressed gratitude of the Mayor,
Aldermen and Citizens for this gift.
For the establishment of an
Orphan Asylum he gave £500 and towards
building Holy Trinity Church he gave another £500. He build the grandstand at the Worcester County Cricket Ground
and in 1876 funded the Worcester Music Hall upon terms very advantageous to the
citizens.
In addition, his will, a copy of
which appears on page 254, contains numerous other bequests.
But the gift for which William is
most remembered, and which has now been linked together with the rest of his running
bequests into the Laslett Charities, is the purchase of the old Worcester city
prison and its conversion into Almshouses.
On 19 Sept 1868 he paid £2,225
for the old city gaol site on Union Street, Worcester next door to the
Greyfriars in Friar Street and converted it at his own expense into four blocks
of Almshouses with each block having four houses. Also included in the conversion was the building of a Church
within the Almshouses site. These
prison buildings, which William sought to be used to shelter the poor, were
rather grim. Made surplus by an Act of
Parliament in 1867 the gaol was advertised for sale and the lot included blocks
of cells, treadwheel and mill houses with machinery and boundary walls, hospital
building, Governor's house, outbuildings and offices, etc., the whole
comprising about 2,600 sq. yds.
The Gaol itself was not that old,
having been built in 1822 in that early period of reform occasioned by the
growing realisation that 18th Century ideas of transportation of felons was not
effective in the industrially developing England of the 19th Century. It replaced the City's old gaol in Castle
Street which had proved itself not secure enough. The Union Street site had contained an ancient friary which was
pulled down to make way for the new gaol.
The new gaol held about 30
prisoners and, as was common in those days, the treadmill was its
centrepiece. William Griffiths, the
first and only Governor in the 45 year life of the gaol, did very nicely out of
his charge. Not only a large house came
with the job but also the use of the prisoners as servants. Griffiths always dressed as a Regency dandy
and was noted for the excellence of his hospitality and the quality of his
table. His guests were even given a
trustee prisoner to carry a torch to light their way home. I don't know what the lags at Port
Macquarie, at Old Toongabbie and at Emu Plains would have thought of it. Still as one of our more distant relatives
went straight from recidivist in chains at Norfolk Island to Police Inspector
in Sydney nothing is really surprising in the 19th Century prison system. It is reported that only one of the
Worcester trustees ever failed to return to the prison after his torch carrying
job and that would not have worried Griffith overly much except the light
fingered felon had also taken a quantity of the Governor's family plate.
A story is told that there was
strong bidding at the auction for the site and William exasperated by this
protested: "You ought not to bid against me, I am buying it for the
poor!"
The cells and prison buildings
were immediately put to use to house 30 poor and elderly married folk. At first, there was no money allowance
provided for the day to day living expenses of the residents, but they lived in
the Almshouses rent free. On 9 April
1875 William remedied this situation by presenting the Newton Court Estate in
the parishes of Dilwyn, and Weobley in Hereford, in all about 351 acres, to the
Trustees of the Almshouses. Income from
the estates was to provide an allowance to maintain the residents of the
Almshouses. He followed this up on 17
January 1879 when he gave a large landed estate of 2200 acres at
Hinton-on-the-Green in the county of Gloucester, for which he had paid £84000, to the City in trust for charitable
and religious uses, one of which was to provide additional funds for the
Almshouses and another the restoration and repairs of certain Churches. In fact, the Trust is for sixteen different
objects and these include a very wide range.
It is still active today, over one hundred years after its
establishment.
A gaol obviously converts into
rather gloomy Almhouses so in 1912, under the supervision of William's friend,
Thomas Southall, the whole lot was pulled down and rebuilt as a group of half
timbered buildings. With their timber
panelling painted black and white the Almshouses fit in well with the
Greyfriars building next door and their other historic surroundings. Over the entrance to the new buildings,
carved in stone, is William's escutcheon with his motto inscribed "Finem
Respice", which probably comes from Gesta Romanorum (Acts of the Romans)
Quidquid agas, prudenter agas, et respice finem (Whatever you do, do
cautiously, and look to the end). A classical
scholar consulted by Robert Laslett suggested that the phrase originated in
Homer and is consequently a philosophical reflection, a sombre reminder of
mortality. The Almshouses still serve
the poor of Worcester as William wished, they provide comfortable accommodation
for 15 elderly folk plus a warden and chaplain.
All this did not change William
and so the stories and anecdotes about him still went around.
A party of singers who called at
Abberton Hall found the place very untidy, with flagstones broken and out the
back was William stripped to the waist digging a saw pit himself to save the
2/6d it would cost to hire a labourer to do the job. Another story related by R.T. Rea, the former City Coroner whom
we have mentioned before, recalled a visit to Abberton Hall where the door was
opened by a charwoman who said she came twice a day to make the bed and empty
the slops only as William did his own cooking.
NOT FINISHED YET
"....never forget that the
only way to ensure peace in the end, is to strive always to be doing right,
unselfishly, under God."
Note:
Kentish
Express & Ashford News 18th March - Sarah BAKER deceased. Notice is hereby
given, that all persons having any claims upon the estate of Sarah BAKER, late
of Eastry, in the county of Kent, widow, deceased (whose will was proved on the
26th day of August last, in the Principal Registry of the Probate Division of
Her Majesty's High Court of Justice, by William LASLETT, the sole Executor),
are hereby required to sent particulars, in writing, of such claims to us, the
undersigned on behalf of the said Executor, on or before the 13th Day of April
next; after which day the Executor will proceed to distribute the assets and
estate of the said Testatrix amongst the parties entitled thereto, having
regard only to the claims of which the Exector shall then have had notice.
Dated this 13th day of March 1882. EMMERSON and COTTEW, Sandwich, Solicitors to
the said Executor.
Charles and Mary Laslett of Richborough
Charles Horn Laslett was born at
Woodnesborough and baptised at Ash on 30 April 1804. He was the third son of John Laslett, a Yeoman of Hoden Farm Ash,
and his wife Elizabeth Laslett née Horn (page 37).
Farmer and fruiterer of
Richborough.
Married Mary Hellier, spinster,
of St Peters Sandwich by banns at St Peters Sandwich on 20 June 1837.
Charles died on 12 December 1865.
Family
of Charles and Mary Laslett
Sons
WILLIAM - born in 1830/1. Lived in Woodnesborough Street,
Woodnesborough (1871). Weaver and linen
manufacturer. Married at Woodnesborough
by banns to Mary Jane Cousins on 18
July 1852. Mary was buried at
Woodnesborough on 24 March 1875 aged 50 and William was buried there on 5
August 1899, interestingly he was recorded as being 'of Worth'.
Children:
Julia
Jane - baptised
at Woodnesborough on 9 October 1853. In 1881 unmarried and a visiter with
Thomas & Ann Richie in Northwod, Hampshire.
William
Norris -
baptised at Woodnesborough on 6 May 1855 and buried there on 28 July 1869,
Walter
Thomas - baptised
at Woodnesborough on 14 December 1856. Linen & Sack Weaver. In 1881 lived
in The Street, Woodnesborough with his sisters Harriett & Eliza.
Eliza
Ann - baptised
at Woodnesborough on 28 August 1864. In the March quarter of 1887 the marriage
of Eliza Ann Laslett to William Wright
is recorded at Eastry (vol 2a page 1095).
ALFRED
STEPHEN -
baptised at Woodnesborough on 29 March 1840.
STEPHEN - born 7 January 1842 at
Ash. Occupation Miller. On 25 June3 1870 married Elizabeth Muzzall. At Woodmancote near
Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. They lived in
Ash and later moved to 62 Smeaton Road, Southfields, SW18.
See chapter Stephen and Elizabeth Laslett of Southfields on page 119.
Daughters
ELIZABETH - baptised at Woodnesborough on
15 April 1838.
George and Mary Laslett of Hoaden Farm
George Laslett born at
Woodnesborough and baptised at Ash on 4 August 1806. He was the fourth son of John Laslett, a Yeoman of Coombe,
Woodnesborough, and his wife Elizabeth Laslett née Horn (page 47).
Initially George is shown in the
Ash parish register as a labourer but later as a farmer. Bagshaw's Directory of Kent 1847 names
George Laslett as a Farmer of 'Hoaden', Ash, so George probably took over the
Hop growing at Hoden Farm which had been started by his great-grandfather.
On 13 January 1829 George married
Mary Ann Hunt, a spinster, of Seasalter by licence at Ash. Mary had been born at Whitstable around
1804/5.
George died on 22 August
1868.
Family
of George and Mary Laslett
Sons
THOMAS
HORN - baptised
10 October 1830 at Ash. A miller. In 1856 married Henrietta Hart (Born 1832 at Woolwich). William Coles Finch, Watermills and Windmills notes that 1862
Kelly's has T. Laslett working a mill at Sellinge (near Ashford). The records
on Ellis Island New York show that a Henrietta Laslett, English, aged 62 years
arrived from London on the Mobile on
14 March 1892.
Children:
Frederick
Thomas - birth
registered June quarter of 1857 at Etham.
Carpenter. Immigrated. Arrived at Sydney NSW on 1 March 1883 on the
Roslyn Castle. He stated that he had no relatives in
Colony. In 1930s lived Manning Street,
Kiama. Died 27 August 1937 as the
result of an accident. Run over by
quarry train. Was not married. Records indicate he was born at Stonehill,
Selling Kent.
Thomas
Horn - birth
registered September quarter of 1858 at Etham.
Lived at Westernhanger
Arthur
Hunt - birth
registered December quarter of 1859 at Etham.
Went to the USA with his brothers c.1875/85 but returned in 1890 to
marry and never went back. Married Fanny Appleton Perris (born 1860). Arthur died in 1924 and Fanny in 1943.
Children:
Elsie
Kathleen - born
1891. Married name Holbrook. Died 1968.
Children:
William
J. Holbrook
Gladys
Victoria - born
1897. Died 1962.
Rosa
Henrietta -
birth registered March quarter of 1861 at Etham. Died an infant.
Hubert
Michael – born
18 October 1861 at Etham. Immigrated to
the USA c.1975/85 where he owned an orange grove in Redlands, California. Died at San Bernadino in California on 26
June 1957. Name at death ‘Herbert’. Was
perhaps a Christian Scientist.
Henrietta
Hart - birth
registered March quarter of 1863 at Etham.
Married in 1887 (registeed Elham December quarter 1887 vol 2a page 1901)
to James Henry Downes.
Ferdinand
Carey - Ferdinand Carey
Laslett was the 7th child of Thomas Horn & Henrietta Laslett (Sth son) and
was born in 1864. He was registered as 'male' and was given his Christian names
at his baptism on 11 September 1864 at St Mary's church Sellindge that was the
family church. He lived with the his family until about 1880 as he is not shown
on the 1881 census for Stone Hill when he would have been aged 17. He was found
on the 1881 census at Dover Road Walmer Kent as an assistant Grocer in the
house of Thomas Golds a Grocer & Draper. There were two other inmates who
came from near Sellinge, ‑ A Jogn Clements, from Aldington and William
Clements from Dymchurch 3/4 April. This means that Ferdinand and his two
brothers, Arthur Hunt L and his two brothers, Arthur and Herbert, left for the
USA some time between April 1881 and April 1891. We know Ferdinand's brother,
Frederick, left for Australia on 1 March 1883.
So far we have not
traced how or when the three brothers left for America and we next pick up
Ferdinand in Kansas when he married Elizabeth
May Shultz (Bessie), a physician, on
28 October 1890 at Lawrence. The marriage lasted 7 years until 1897 when
they divorced on 3 November. There were two children, by the marriage, Herbert
Reynolds and Howard Penrose. Herbert Reynolds was born in Carthage, Missouri on
23 August 1891 and Howard Penrose on 30 January 1894 in Topeka, Kansas so we
can assume that Ferdinand was with his wife at these times and places. Elizabeth
May Laslett (née Shultz) was born 8 May 1871 in Lawence, Kansas. Her parents
were Joseph Welling Shultz Snr. and Elizabeth Schreiner Eisenberg. Ferdinand
Carey and Elizabeth, having married in 1890 we can assume were divorced before
1900 because by then the two sons were in the orphange in Davenport City.
Both sons have been found on the 1900 national census
for Davenport City, Iowa when they were in a Soldier's Orphanage Home. Why they
were there is not clear, as both parents were alive then, although divorced so
they were certainly not so.
Ellis Island
inward passenger records show a Ferdinand Carey
Laslette, a US citizen,
arriving on
7 Sep 1907 aged 41y 1m,
male, married, travelling
on the
Etruria
. Port of departure was
Liverpool, England, UK. Travelling with him was his wife Lena Lasslette, a US
citizen, aged 28 years.
We next find Elizabeth living alone in Douglas County,
Kansas on the 1900 national census listed as a 'boarder` and gave her date of
birth as 7 May 1871, Kansas which is probably Lawrence where she married
Ferdinand. Her father's place of birth was Maryland and her mother's birthplace
Pensylvania. She also said eyes' to 'can read', 'can write' and 'can speak
English' which was a good thing considering she was a Physician. She also
acknowledged that she had two children living. We did not find Elizabeth again
until she had to swear out an affidavit dated 7 April 1947 that Herbert
Reynolds was her son because he was returning from military service to go back
to Oregon State College. At this time she gave her name as Elizabeth Laslett
Bussing so presumably she had remarried.
Children:
Herbert
Reynolds - born in Carthage,
Missouri on 23 August 1891.
For a
time he was living with his brother Howard Penrose at the Soldiers Orphanage
Home in Davenport City, Iowa presumably because of their parents divorce. They
were listed on 1900 National Census there aged 9 & 6. Received his Bachelors degree at the
University of Kansas in 1916. During WW 1 he served for 1½ years with 88th
Infantry Division of the US Army.
He gained an AB at l’Univercité
de Montpellier in Paris in 1918 and went on to teach at Kansas University and
Colorado State Agricultural College. He married Leota Love Lieurance on 24 December 1921 at Bois, Kansas. She was
born in Bronson, Kansas on 1 February 1886 (death record says 1890) and gained
a degree in Modem Languages at Kansas University. They had a daughter, Annette
Elizabeth born 21 May 1926 at Pato Alto, California. He then became Head of
Department at Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington in 1928 where his second
daughter, Lora Edith, was born. Herbert then took over as Professor of
Educational Psychology at Oregon State College (now Oregon University) from 1
September 1928 until he died in 1954 except for a break of three years for
military service in WW II when he was in the European Theatre as Inspector for
the 4th Service Command.
Professor J. Robert
Lilly in his paper Dirty Details: Executing U.S. Soldiers During WW recalls one
of Herbert’s more unpleasant details - dealing with military executions at
Shepton Mallet prison in the UK.
“Beginning with the
tenth Shepton Mallet execution (12 October, 1945) and the eleventh of the ETO,
the Commandant in charge was Major Herbert R. Laslett. He provided the official
instructions for six executions, the first of which indicated they had become
so routinized that "It will not be necessary for me to go into any great
detail" (Transcript No. 11). He did, however, repeat the admonishment:
"This is a solemn occasion" and "to avoid any laughing or
joking..." By his third execution (8 January 1945), the official
instructions were truncated to one hundred three (103) words:
“Gentlemen, let me
have your attention. You gentlemen know
why we are present here, therefore it will not be necessary for me to go into
any great detail. This is a solemn occasion and not a time for levity. I
request that there be no laughing or joking during the proceedings. I prefer no
talking except as required."
“When we leave, the
execution party will follow me and will be directed to their proper places in
the execution chamber. Should any of
you feel dizziness or faintness, do not hesitate to walk into the room adjoining
the chamber. Are there any questions?”
Herbert Reynolds was
a 32nd degree Mason, American League and Triad Club as well as a
very active member of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd. He was the
author of 15 papers and publications in Psychology.
He died after
several months’ illness on 31 May 1954 after being taken to hospital in
Corvallis. The funeral service was held 3 June at his church and he was buried
at The National Cemetery, Portland. A military service was also held on 3rd
June at the Willamette Cemetery, Portland. Leota died on 22 April 1985 and is
also buried at the Willamette Cemetery.
Children:
Annette
Elizabeth - born 21 May 1926 at Pato Alto, California. Married Donald Smith Ross in July 1947 and was
divorced in 1953. Then married Laurence
Earl Davidson at Lake Oswego, Oregon on 31 March 1989.
Children:
Charles Reynolds Ross – born 11 January
1952
Lora Edith – born 1928 at Walla Walla, Washington. Died 6 May
1993 in Aurora Oregan. Married Martin N.
Kelly (born Jan 1928 New York) at
Cornvallis Oregan on 8 October 1950.
Children:
Craig Kelly – born Omaha
Karen Kelly – born Omaha
Martin Kelly – married Deborah
Jon
Howard
Penrose - born
30 January 1894. For a time he was living with his brother Herbert Reynolds at the
Soldiers Orphanage Home in Davenport City, Iowa presumably because of their
parents divorce. They were listed on 1900 National Census there aged 9 & 6.
Died October 1971
Casper, Natrona WY. Howard Penrose has been more difficult to trace but we do know he,
married Dorothy Querfield who was
born at Witchita, Kansas on 26 November 1885. We do know he was at Kansas
University in 1920 as an athletics coach with a nickname of 'Scrubby'. He died 10 October 1971 in
Casper, Wyoming. No other information has
yet been found.
Florence - born 1865.
Julia
Emmerson - born
1870. Died 1870.
Edith
Maude - born
1870. Died 1937.
Kathleen - baptised 1873. Died 1873.
RICHARD - baptised 29 July 1832 at
Ash. Master Linen Draper in Brighton
and then London. Richard married his
sister in law's sister Mary Ann Hart
(born 1836[?] at Woolwich).
See chapter Richard and Mary Laslett of London on page 106.
CHARLES
HORN - baptised
16 December 1833 at Ash.
ROBERT - baptised 1 March 1835 at Ash.
HENRY - baptised 29 November 1835 at
Ash and buried there on 29 November 1835.
GEORGE
L. - baptised 6
August 1837 at Ash. A linen
draper. Married, wife's name Margaret.
She was also a linen draper and had been born at Worthing Sussex in 1837. George is shown in the 1875 Folthorp's
Directory as being a draper at 16 Edward St. Brighton. The 1881 census for 72 & 74 Blatchington
Road, Brighton gives details of his family.
In addition two assistant drapers, Annie D. Thiselton (29) from Ramsgate
Kent and Elizabeth Walker (27) from Tower Hamlets London, lived with the
family.
Children:
William
Emmerson - born
1863 Southwark London. Ocupation was
'assists at home' later a clothier at 74 Blatchington Road while his father had
the linen drapers at 72.
Ada
Margaret - born
1865 Brighton Sussex.
Montague
George - born
1867 Brighton Sussex. Montague married Dorothy Bertha Millar (Miller).
Immigrated to New Zealand. They had 3 sons & 1 daughter, who were:
Cyril Lawrence - born 1896. Cyril married Doris Christine Kathleen Roigard on 17 April 1922 in Paeroa, NZ. He
died in 1986.
Children:
Stanley Noel – Noel married Lavinia Joyce May Watkins on 3 July 1943 in Auckland, NZ. They live
in Whangarei, NZ.
Children:
Karen
- born 30 Sept 1948 and died 27 July 1999. Married,
later divorced Alan Young.
Mark - married
Valerie Edmonds.
Children:
Megan
Gerard
Rodney Clive - married Shirley. They had 2 sons & 1 daughter. Shirley now lives in Perth, WA.
Children:
Greg
Dean
Fiona
Ernest Frederick – born 1898.
married Bessie Mitchell. Bessie is possibly still alive.
Children:
Valerie
Shirley
Geoffrey – born 1899. Married Elsie Somers. Both now dead. Geoffrey
died in 1972. They had no children
Joyce Dorothy – born 1901. Died
2002. ( 101 years old !! ). married Victor Roy Soper.
Children:
Windsor Soper
Lois Soper
Shirley Soper
Albert
Edward - born
1868 Brighton Sussex. Possibly married a Catherine Elizabeth (Clinton?) and
lived at "Wensley, Waterloo Park, Liverpool and had a son Henry Clinton Laslett MC. Henry was a
Second Lieutenant in "D" Bty, 149th Bde., Royal Field Artillery who
was KIA on the Somme on Wednesday 2 August 1916 aged 23. He is buried at Corbie
a small town 15 kms east of Amiens.
Julia
Marion - born
1874 Brighton Sussex.
Blanch
M. - born 1878
Hove Sussex.
Horace
Edgar. - born
1881 Hove Sussex. . Married Alice
Elizabeth Trigg, born 1870 Walmer, Kent.
Family:
Elizabeth
Alan Edgar – born Otorohanga, NZ on 27
August 1910
Family:
Anne – Married Bruce Palmer.
EDWARD - baptised 19 May 1839 at
Ash. On 17 November 1860 Edward married
Eliza Buckland (born 1837 at
Maidstone) at Loose in Kent. She was
the daughter of John Buckland and Martha Smith. Edward and Eliza immigrated to Victoria where they had a grocery
store at Sandridge. Edward died in 1889
and is buried at Hawthorn. Eliza died
in 1917 and is buried at Diamond Creek.
See chapter Edward and Eliza Laslett of Sandridge on page 112.
GEORGE - baptised 3 September 1843 at
Ash. Died 3 August 1893 and buried in Ash Church Grave Yard with his wife Jane
who died on 18 July 1910 aged 69 years. George’s death was registered at Elham
in the September quarter of 1893 (vol 2a page 661).
Daughter
ELIZABETH
HORN - born
1829. Buried 21 June 1830 at Ash.
Robert and Mary Ann Laslett of Ash
Robert Laslett was baptised at
Ash on 23 May 1808 and was the fifth son of John Laslett, a Yeoman of Coombe,
Woodnesborough, and his wife Elizabeth Laslett née Horn (page 47).
Married Mary Ann Knight of Dover
at St Mary the Virgin Dover on 29 May 1826.
Mary had been born at Dover in 1807 the daughter of an identically named
mother born in 1782.
The Ash parish register gives
Robert's occupation as a labourer. From
1832 this changed to farmer. By 1841 he
had a house at Coomb near Ash next Sandwich and in 1860 was described as a
market gardener.
Robert died at Marshborough on 6
November 1868, and is buried in a vault in Ash churchyard. He like his father is described in the Ash
parish register as being 'of Coombe'. Mary
died aged 76 on 25 May 1883 at Marshborough and is buried with her husband
(Eastry Jun 83 vol 2a page 551).
Family
of Robert and Mary Ann Laslett
Sons
JOHN
BARRETT - born
on 10 November 1828 and baptised at Ash on 7 December 1828. Married Susannah
Jarvis on 30 November 1854 by banns published on 26 November 1854. Susannah had been born at Ewell, Dover on 14
January 1829. John died at Sandgate, 3
April 1869, buried at Cheriton, while Susannah died on 5 November 1901 at
Cheriton.
See chapter John Barrett and Susannah Laslett of Cheriton on page 89.
SAMUEL - born on 29 September 1832 and
baptised there on 4 November 1832.
Married Susannah Metters on
23 November 1855, and lost at sea in the Violet
on the Goodwin Sands, on 5 January 1857. Thought one child, but have no name.
See chapter Samuel and Susannah Laslett of Dover on page 90.
ROBERT - born at Ash, 13 January 1835.
When 31, married a widow aged 39, Eleanor
Knowler (née Darkins, born at
Woodnesborough on 20 September 1827) with two daughters, Nellie and Amelia Knowler, on 12 June 1866. Robert and Eleanor were
both buried in Roberts father's grave at Ash.
Eleanor died on 31 May 1890 and Robert on 29 January 1910.
WILLIAM - born at Ash, 24 January 1837,
on 24 December 1865 married Matilda Guy,
and died and thought buried at Goole, Yorkshire, in September 1908. No
knowledge of issue.
THOMAS
KNIGHT - born at
Coomb, Ash on 9 November 1840 and baptised at Ash on 7 March 1841. On 1 August 1860 married Julia Hunt, of Woodnesborough at the
Independent Chapel in Cattle Market, Sandwich.
Thomas died at Ash in 1913 and is buried in the family vault.
See chapter Thomas and Julia Laslett of Woodnesborough on page 114.
GEORGE - born at New Street, Ash, on 2
August 1843 and baptised at Ash on 3 September 1843. A labourer, he married Jane
Ratcliffe on 28 March 1866, and is buried in the family vault at Ash in
1893. Jane is thought also buried in
the vault at Ash. They had 2 boys and 2
girls.
Children:
George - born 1 July 1868, at
Broomfield, Herne Bay.
Robert - born 28 June 1878, at
Littlebourne.
Elizabeth
Jane - born 1
January 1871, at New Street, Ash.
Annie
Maria - born 11
August 1873, at New Street, Ash. An Annie Laslett died aged 20. Her death was
registered at Milton in the September quarter of 1893 (vol 2a page 561).
Daughters
MARIA - born at Ash, on 1 November
1827, privately baptised at Ash on 27 January 1825(8?). Maria did not marry. Died 6 March 1874 at Marshboro' and buried
with her parent's at Ash.
CAROLINE MARY ANN - born 25 January 1831 and
christened in March 1831 at the Wingham Street-Independent, Wingham. Died at
Marshboro' on 11 March 1832, and is buried in vault at Ash.
William and Sarah Lasslett of Malmsbury
William was born on 15 August
1807 at Brook Farm, Swalecliffe, Kent, the first born son of William Lasslett,
a yeoman of Brook Farm, and his wife Mary Ann Lasslett née Rayner (page 49). He was baptised on
the next day at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe. On 30 May 1831 William Lasslett batchelor married Sarah Vevers
spinster of Swalecliffe at St Thomas Swalecliffe by banns. The witnesses were
John Goldsmith and Mary Lasslett. Sarah was the daughter of the late George
Vevers, a Sea Captain of Liverpool, and Elizabeth Vevers née Lythgoe. Sarah was
born on 20 March 1812.
George Vevers had been born on 19
July 1784 (baptised 10 August 1784 at St. Nicholas Liverpool) the son of Joseph
Vevers, a Mariner of Covent Garden Liverpool, and his wife Phebe. George was the master of the Jean and Ann between Oporto and
Liverpool. Listed in Lloyds Register.
George is a bit of a mystery. Family legend has it that went down with his ship
during the Napoleonic wars but there is the suspicion that this may not be true
and that he actually ran off with another woman and settled in the West Indies.
The Parish records of the church
of St John the Baptist, Swalecliffe show that William was parish clerk for 1840
for which he was paid five guineas (£5/5/-).
Family came out on the Woodstock 967 tons Captain John Williams
carrying 297½ (sic) passengers. Sailed from Southhampton (Port of London) and
reached Port Phillip on 1 May 1853, a voyage of 98 days. Left Portsmouth 18 January 1853. 14 Cabin passengers 250 Intermediate.
Emigrants were landed at wharves
on the Yarra River, being rowed up the river from the ships in Port Phillip
bay. There was no pier then of any
sort. People and goods were put over
the side of the vessel into boats - "a most dangerous and disagreeable way
of landing". When they got to the
shore a sailor stood up in the boat and tossed the children to another sailor
on the wharf who caught them and carried them up the rickety planks of the structure. Once ashore the roads were all unmade and
after rain were very muddy. Melbourne
was little more than a village with itinerant blacks lounging round as a source
of fear to the immigrant's children.
Families initially took furnished lodgings then, while making
arrangements to move upcountry, usually rented a small cottage on Collins or
other of what are now Melbourne's major streets. Springed vehicles were unavailable so families loaded themselves
and their possessions on bullock drays.
To these drays were harnessed ten, twelve or even fourteen beasts, slow
but really the only way to negotiate the infant colony's primitive roads. The trip to Kyneton would have taken two
weeks, now it is a morning's drive. A
friend of the family, Ellen Drayton, travelled up to Kyneton about that time
and describes the journey. "The
journey up was very trying for the babies [they died shortly afterwards]. After we left Melbourne and got on the
Keilor Plains, there was a hot wind and dust was blinding. There were no made roads and the tracks were
very rough. When we got to what is now
Gisborne we found a nice spring of water.
We camped there for two days, filled the water kegs and started through
the Black Forest. (Father pionted out
to us where the gold escort had been stuck up a short time before and I think
15,000 oz of gold stolen.) The forest
was very dense. The trees were so thick
we could scarcely see the sun through them . . . camped by the river Campaspe
[Kyneton]."
A little while later Ellen met
the Lassletts. "Made the
acquaintance of Mr. & Mrs William Lasslett. They were keeping a boarding house by the Kyneton Bridge. Their eldest son George was very ill and my
brother [Henry Carnell then aged 16] went to Woodend and drove her (Sarah?)
home just in time to see her brother before he died [1 June 1854]. Mr. & Mrs Lasslett never forgot the
kindness and we became firm friends from that time......I always enjoyed
visiting them." The trip to
Woodend was about twelve miles over unmade roads.
From Victoria and its Metropolis Past and Present published in
1888. "William Lasslett -
Malmsbury. Landed in Victoria with his
family in 1853 and worked at his trade as carpenter and builder in Melbourne
for some time. He then went to Kyneton,
bought land, and carried on the same business there, settling down eventually
in Malmsbury where he lives on his own property".
Kept Wheelwright's shop on the
Mt. Alexander Road (now Calder Highway) near Boggy Creek, Carlsruhe. Upon
emerging from the Black Forest Carlsruhe, a convenient wayside camping stop
five miles distant, was the nearest night-time stop where diggers could have
the wheels of their waggons repaired after the appalling road through the Black
Forest.
‘The years 1851–53 have been
called, by one who lived through them, “the damper and mutton stage of the
Colony”. The term is a good one, not just for being factual, but because it
hints at characteristics not first associated with the glorious Victorian gold
rushes: austerity and monotony, for a start. “We have to content ourselves with
mutton and damper three days a week and damper and mutton on the other four
days.” The staple diggings diet had also been the lot of pastoral workers in
rural Victoria for years before the gold rushes. Squatters provisioned their
remote employees as cheaply as possible; and it was a question, too, of what
would keep for months before consumption. Let’s see: there was flour, sugar,
tea, dried fruit maybe, and plenty of sheep to kill.’ (Robyn Annear Nothing but Gold)
Kyneton Rate Book 1863 to 66
shows "Lasslett William, Carpenter, Hotel Owner (Swanwich) and
shop". In 1867 Lasslett William,
Publican, Hotel and Shop (owner Swanwich)". In 1868 "Lasslett William, Wheelwright, Shop & Dwelling
Mollison Street. Owner J.Hookey".
On 20 March 1860 the first
trustees were appointed for the Cemetery and the first Sexton was Mr.
Lasslett. Resigned March 1877. Many of the meetings of Cemetery Trustees
were held at Lasslett's Family Hotel.
William was a Councillor in
Malmsbury and served a term as Mayor
William and Sarah's
"Lasslett's Family Hotel" seems to be aptly named and although it
appears little more than a rough sawn timber building built on a foundation of
crushed quartz from the batteries it appears to be more of a family hotel than
a grog shop for miners. In Ellen
Drayton's diary for June 1874 she records: "I received a letter from our
friend Mr. Lasslett telling me that my mother was [back] up from Melbourne and
staying at their place at Malmsbury and that she was dying." Later William and Sarah drove Mrs Carnell in
their light trap home to her farm outside Malmsbury where she died.
The 1868 edition of Bailliere's
Victorian Directory shows F. & W. Lasslett Carpenters, Mollison Street,
Malmesbury. The listing continued until
1872.
In 1867 there were 17 Hotels in
Malmsbury town, one of which was Lasslett's Family Hotel, Corner of Mollison
Street and Clarendon Place. By the
1890's local opinion, the Licencing Reduction Board and the diminishing
population had closed all but six, one of which was the "Lasslett's
Family".
Notes from the Minute Book of the
Malmsbury General Cemetery:
Wm Lasslett resigned from
Cemetery Trust 30 November 1876.
Accepted but appears to owe £10/7/- and action was threatened to recover
sum plus the books.
2 October 1878. Action to be taken.
5 December 1878. Committee formed to see William Lasslett and
arrange accounts with him.
N.B. First burial 2 August 1868.
William buried (Int. 766) 15 July
1888.
Both died at Malmsbury Victoria,
William on 13 July 1888 and Sarah on 1 October 1891. Buried together in a
polished granite grave towards the back of Malmsbury cemetery.
Kyneton
Observer
Saturday 14 July 1888:
Yesterday morning Mr William
Lasslett of Malmsbury breathed his last.
He came to Kyneton over 30 years ago and for some time kept a boarding
house on Boggy Creek side of Pipers St bridge, opposite the property of Mr.
Bruni, subsequently the deceased kept an hotel at Malmsbury. After relinquishing this business he
continued to reside at Malmsbury and at one time sat as a councillor for the
Borough. Mr. Lasslett reared a large
family and several of his daughters are married to well known residents. Among these may be mentioned Mrs Hooppell
(Mayoress of Malmsbury), Mrs Hookey, Mrs Hooke, Mrs G. Evans and Mrs Burton
(late of Kyneton). He was also
grandfather to Mr. Garner (Garner and Howlett). Deceased was 81 years of age and much respected. He was ailing for about 5 months and the
immediate cause of death was heart disease.
Mrs Lasslett is still living and we believe in good health. Funeral takes place on Sunday afternoon at
2.30.
Our Malmsbury correspondent
writing last night says one of the oldest and most respected residents here Mr.
Lasslett died last evening. For some
months past his health has been failing in a marked degree and about 10 days
ago he became very ill. He did not
rally and peacefully died this morning. He was 81 years of age. Heart disease hastened his end."
The Kyneton Guardian Saturday 14 July 1888.
Death at Malmsbury. We regret to have to chronicle the death of
Mr. William Lasslett an old and much respected resident of Malmsbury, which
occurred at his residence yesterday morning.
At one time Mr. Lasslett was connected with the Malmsbury Borough
Council. He had numerous family, all of
whom are married. Mrs John Hookey of
Malmsbury, is one of his daughters, and Mr. George Howlett of Kyneton his
grandson. Mr. Lasslett was universally
respected throughout the district for his honesty and integrity. His character is without blemish. At the time of his death the deceased had
attained the ripe old age of 81 years, 31 of which were spent at
Malmsbury. His remains will be interred
in Malmsbury Cemetery tomorrow afternoon at half past two."
His death certificate gives the
length of his last illness as five months and the cause of death as
"Morbus Cordis" which my schoolboy Latin translates as disease of the
intellect. The other causes of death
are given as Cerebral Atrophy and Senile degeneration. His doctor was Dr. I.F.W. Manson. S.E. Hooppell the undertaker.
The Kyneton Guardian. Saturday
3 October 1891:
A sensation of profound regret
was caused amongst old residents in the Malmsbury and Kyneton districts when it
became known that Mrs. Lasslett, an old pioneer of the district, had expired at
the residence of her daughter, Mrs John Hookey, of Malmsbury, at seven o'clock
on last Thursday morning (1 October 1891), after a somewhat lengthy
illness. Mrs Lasslett, who was born in
Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on March 20th, 1812, was 79 years of age at the
time of her death. She was descended
from an old and titled line of ancestors, and at one time was possessed of a
considerable amount of valuable property in England, but owing to its
mismanagement by agents the greater part was lost some years ago, and it is
only a short time since she received news that a solicitor entrusted with the
investment of the remnant had misappropriated it and fled to the
continent. Her father, Captain Vevers,
with his vessel and crew was lost at sea some few months previous to her
birth. In 1831 she married Mr. Wm.
Lasslett, of Swalecliffe, Kent, England, and in 1853 they came to this colony
in the Woodstock, commanded by Catain Williams. After residing in Melbourne for six months they came to Kyneton
and a few years later removed to Malmsbury, where they have resided ever
since. Mr. Lasslett died about three
years ago, and since that time Mrs Lasslett has almost wholly resided with her
daughter, Mrs Hookey. Of a naturally bright
and pleasant disposition, Mrs Lasslett was generally beloved by all her friends
and acquaintances, in all charitable and social movements she was always ready
and eager to give hearty assistance, and in this respect will be greatly
missed; a good neighbour, a true Christian, a kind and constant friend, she
"so heard the solemn hymn, that Death has lifted up for all, that she went
to her long resting place without a tear." Mrs Lasslett leaves a family of three sons and five daughters to
mourn their loss, but they are all in comfortable circumstances in life. The funeral takes place this afternoon at
three o'clock, the place of interment being the Malmsbury Cemetery."
Her death certificate gives the
length of her last illness as "about 12 months" and the cause of
death as "Syncope" or heart failure.
Place of death Mollison Street.
Doctor H.J.Main. S.E. Hooppell
the Undertaker.
Family
of William and Sarah Lasslett
Sons
GEORGE
VEVERS - born 16
April 1832 at Swalecliffe. Baptised at
St John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 26 August 1832. Died on 21 June 1854 at Kyneton, Vic. Unmarried.
WILLIAM
VEVERS - born 29
May 1834 at Swalecliffe. Baptised at St
John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 11 January 1835. Died on 1 April 1847 and buried on 5 April 1847 in St John the
Baptist Swalecliffe churchyard.
JOHN
VEVERS - born 29
May 1838 at Swalecliffe. Baptised at St
John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 1 July 1838.
On 15 February 1874 married Emma
Southall a widow of Sydney at Christ Church in South Yarra. Emma's maiden name was Rider and she had been born in 1848. John died aged 77 at Pakenham in 1915 while Emma died aged 82 at
St. Kilda in 1931.
See chapter John and Emma Lasslett of Elsternwick on page 109.
BENJAMIN
WYNN - born 9
November 1845 at Swalecliffe the first born of twins. Baptised at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 21 November
1845. The family bible records that he
died in "December 1845" but the parish register records his burial in
St John the Baptist Swalecliffe churchyard on 14 January 1846. He was named after C. Wynn. The Wynns were the local Swalecliffe
"gentry".
FREDERICK
ROOK - born 9
November 1845 at Swalecliffe the second born of twins. Baptised at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe
on 21 November 1845. Frederick was a
Carpenter but in present day terms would be called a Builder. On 23 February 1868 Frederick married Julia
Mary Abbott of Melbourne Victoria.
Julia died in Sydney on 10 July 1914 and is buried in the C of E section
at Rookwood Cemetery. Frederick died in
Sydney on 21 September 1925 and is buried with Julia in the C of E section at
Rookwood Cemetery.
See chapter Frederick and Julia Lasslett of Hurlstone Park on page 120.
WILLIAM
VEVERS - born 23
March 1850 at Swalecliffe. Baptised at
St John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 21 April 1850. Married Ann Matilda Lawson.
William died in 1922.
See chapter William and Matilda Lasslett of Footscray on page 126.
GEORGE
VEVERS - born 24
July 1856 when the family was living on Mt Alexander Road Carlsruhe near
Kyneton Victoria. George was the last
of William and Sarah's children and the only child not born in Kent. Unfortunately the first of the family to be
born in the new land survived but three months and is buried with the other
pioneers of the Gold Rush days in Kyneton Cemetery.
Daughters
SARAH
ANN VEVERS -
born 21 July 1836 at Swalecliffe.
Baptised at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 14 August 1836. In 1857 she married James Ingle Garner. James
died in 1859 at the early age of 29.
Ellen Drayton tells us that James suffered from heart disease. He is buried at Kyneton in the same grave as
George Lasslett and Evelyn Burton. In
1862 Sarah married Alexander Russell
an Engineer and they lived in Drake Street, Malmsbury. We know that they lived in Malmsbury for
some time as there are a number of references to them in Ellen Drayton's
diary. For example they held the
Wedding Breakfast when Sarah Carnell, Ellen's sister, married John Fluck at
Taradale on 24 August 1874. Moved to
"Clifton", Surrey Hills, Melbourne.
Ellen Drayton's diary for 2 May 1895 records "I went out to Surry
Hills to see my old friends, Mr. & Mrs A. Russell. Mr. Russell has built several new rooms to
his house." Alexander's tombstone records that he was born on 15 February
1835 at Linlithgow Scotland. He died on
14 June 1903 and is buried in Malmsbury cemetery. Sarah's tombstone on the same grave as Alexander's records her
death as being on 23 November 1930. On
the tombstone the Ann is spelt "Anne". A minor point. Alexander
Russell's brother James (died 18 December 1897) with Donald Cameron was the
joint discoverer of gold at Lauriston near Kyneton. They opened what became known as Russell's Reef. On his way
to Australia from Scotland James Russell had suvived the wreck of the Royal Charter in 1859 in which his wife
and family of two daughters died. Ellen
Drayton's diary for 23 February 1906 records: "I spent a few days at
Surrey Hills with my dear friend Mrs. Russell and her sisters, Mrs Burton, Mrs
Brailey and Mrs Evans. We had a most
pleasant reunion."
Children:
George
Ingle Garner -
born 1859 at Kyneton.
Amy
Arthur Vevers Russell
- born 1863 at Malmsbury.
Sarah
Margaret Russell
- born 1873 at North Melbourne.
JANE
ELIZABETH VEVERS
- born 9 February 1840 at Swalecliffe.
Baptised at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 8 March 1840. On 3 November 1863 Jane married John Hookey at Taradale. As the church had yet to be built they were
married in the Church of England parsonage, the Reverend J. Stanley Rowe
officiating. John Hookey had been born
on 20 May 1840 at Launceston Tasmania and was a butcher by trade. He was the son of James Hookey, a builder of
Launceston, and his wife Ellen Hookey née Shaw. As a young man he had moved to the Portland Bay District with his
parents and he later left there for Melbourne where he engaged in general
carting and carrying work. Later he
drove teams on the roads between Melbourne and the goldfields of Bendigo and
Ballarat. He tried his hand at farming
then formed a partnership with George Gillam in a butchering business in
premises at Malmsbury opposite St. John's Church of England and adjoining the
grounds of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church.
In 1859, which was after some years, the partnership was dissolved by
mutual consent and John commenced business on his own account in a shop next to
the National Hotel. John moved the
business a number of times, from the National Hotel site to the East shop, to
the west end of town and finally to the centre of town. This shop was on the western side of the
Calder highway about 300 M up from the bridge. The bluestone flagstones where
the meat stood outside the shop are still to be seen (1987) although all that
is left of the shop are the remains of the foundations.
About 1896 "dull times
ensued" and John and Jane closed the Malmsbury shop and bought a business
in Taradale which had been that of Mr. William Graham. They also went in for farming and grazing
and bought a several properties.
John and Jane were social people
who took an active part in their community.
They enjoyed hosting parties and John particularly liked being in the
public eye. He was a heavily built man
and idolised his wife and his daughter Ada.
He was a judge at the Malmsbury
Race Club and a member of the Malmsbury Yacht Club. His yacht was called the Ada. A fine horseman he judged at horse shows and
was a member of the Prince of Wales Light Horse.
They invested in almost every
mine in the district and John was Chairman of Directors of the Princess Mary
& Greenhill United mines.
The family owned one of the first
gramophones in the district and mention has been made of it by various
visitors. Ellen Drayton's journal for
23 January 1905 says: "We had a pleasant drive this evening Mr. Hookey had
his Gramaphone going for two hours, Songs, Bands, Chimes, Bagpipes, etc. It is the best I ever heard."
John never aspired to public
position, but once in the early history of Malmsbury he allowed himself to be
nominated for Council. Defeated, and
"a good thing" (for his business) he was heard to remark.
Four years before his death John
suffered a stroke and lost the entire use of the left hand side of his
body. He organised a contraption that
looked like a windmill or poppet arm which could be used to winch him up into
his buggy. He was soon able to drive
around again and always insisted on having control of the reins, often driving
unaccompanied, much to the considerable anxiety of his relatives and
friends. He was a very determined man
who liked to have his own way.
Jane died on 10 May 1899 and John
on 10 September 1911. They are buried
together in a rather elaborate grave towards the back of Malmsbury cemetery.
When Jane died Ellen Drayton
wrote in her journal for 10 May 1899: "I received telegram from Malmsbury
with the sad news of my dear friend Mrs. Hookey's death. We have known each other for over 40 years,
and in all those years we never had a disagreement of any kind." She goes on to add that at the funeral
"there were 86 vehicles besides a number of friends on
horseback". It must have been one
of the largest funerals in the district.
Children:
Ada
Emily Hookey -
born 24 March 1865 at Malmsbury.
Married Sam Goodwin Fleming
in 1891. In 1897 was with her husband in Kalgoorlie, W.A. Ada died in 1905.
Children:
Bruce
Fleming who
married Marjorie.
Children:
Ailsa
Fleming who
married John Jones.
Nancy
Fleming married Peter Sudlow.
Children:
Warwick
Sudlow
Penelope
Sudlow
Erica
Sudlow
Alfred
John Hookey -
born 22 September 1867 at Malmsbury. In
1892 had a Stationers shop in Swanston Street, Melbourne. He was a reporter on the Kyneton Guardian
newspaper and in 1899 was recorded as boarding at the Kyneton Coffee
Palace. Died 18 April 1924 and is
buried in Malmsbury Cemetery.
George
James Hookey -
born 7 September 1870 at Malmsbury.
Butcher at the home shop Malmsbury.
He married Edith May Fleming
(born 7 May 1874). George died in
December 1941 and Edith died on 12 December 1962.
Children:
Kathleen
Carleton Hookey
- born 27 February 1903.
Donald
Hookey - born 17
September 1907.
Bertha
Mabel Hookey -
born 6 February 1873 at Malmsbury. Died
21 December 1873 and is buried in Malmsbury Cemetery.
Hector
Hookey - born 22
October 1874. A Butcher at the West End
shop. He married Annie Starr.
Children:
Culmer
Hookey
Jean
Hookey Married (?) Maxwell. Jean died about
1977.
Children: Pamela Maxwell.
Frederick
William Hookey -
born 15 March 1877 at Mollison Street, Malmsbury. On 13 November 1901 at St. Paul's Church of England, Bendigo he
married Florence Emily Howlett (born
9 September 1878 at Malmsbury) the daughter of Laurence Howlett and Mary Ann
Susannah Jane Howlett neé Kidder.
Florence died on 5 April 1954 and Frederick on 11 November 1961. He was a Butcher by trade.
Children:
Geoffrey
Hookey - born 14
July 1903. Policeman. Married Rosa
Marion Mabel Lever (born 10 February 1908 at Richmond, Vic.) at St.
Andrews, Brighton on 6 March 1929.
Geoffrey died 25 March 1982.
Children:
Geoffrey
Graham Hookey -
born 4 February 1930. Married Dorothy Ellen Schofield on 20 October
1951.
Neil
Howlett Hookey -
born 4 November 1931. Pharmacist and
Naturopath. Married Margaret Alison Hosking. on 11 January
1958. Margaret is an Occupational
Therapist.
Children:
Christopher
Neil Hookey -
born 30 August 1959.
Married Jennifer Barclay.
Christopher is an Army Officer.
Susan
Joanna Hookey-
born 22 January 1962. Doctor.
Trevor
Frank Hookey -
born 3 November 1963. Gardener.
John
Kidder Hookey -
born 26 June 1933.
Married June Clark on 5 May 1956.
Elizabeth
Anne Rosalie Hookey
- born 24 November 1938.
Married Gary Edward Miller 30 January 1960.
Ross
Douglas Byrne Hookey
- born 22 September 1943. Married Phyllis Thorne.
John
Hookey - born 26
May 1906.
Margaret
Mary Hookey -
born 23 January 1911. Never married.
Hugh
Lawrence Hookey
- born 13 February 1913.
Elina
Florence Hookey
- born 5 July 1915.
Bertram
Howlett Hookey -
born 19 July 1919. Never married.
Rodney
Howlett Hookey -
born 4 September 1922. Married Isobel Griffith (born 23 July 1926)
Children:
Richard
John Hookey -
born 14 October 1947. Airline
Pilot. Married Eva Friend.
Children:
Joe
Hookey - born 18
November 1976.
Mark
Hookey - born 17
June 1980.
Bruce
Frederick Hookey
- born 9 February 1951. Telecom
employee. Married Elaine Margaret Hiskins.
Children:
Brendan
Hookey - born 29
January 1971.
Bellisa
Hookey - born 7
June 1973, died 4 July 1973.
Damien
Hookey - born 7
January 1976.
Norman
George Hookey -
born 6 June 1952. School Teacher.
Married Helen Brown.
Enid
Florence Hookey
- born 24 December 1954. Music Teacher.
Stephen
Rodney Hookey -
born 10 May 1957. Dental Surgeon. Married Beverly
Harland.
Children:
Henry
James Howlett Hookey
- born 1988.
David
William Hookey -
born 26 December 1959.
Veterinarian(?). On 10 May 1980
married Norma Sue Walter.
Children:
Hannah
Hookey - born 30
April 1981.
Edwina
Hookey - born 3
April 1984.
ELIZABETH
VEVERS -
born 23 February 1842 at
Swalecliffe. Baptised at St John the
Baptist Swalecliffe on 16 March 1842.
In 1858 married Robert Burton.
Alive in 1906 as Ellen Drayton's journal for 21 April records: "My dear
Old friend Mrs. Burton sailed for England this afternoon."
Children:
Evelyn - born 1859 at Kyneton. Died 3 January 1860, age six weeks. Buried Kyneton in the same grave as George
Lasslett and James Garner.
Amanda - born 1861 at Kyneton.
There was another unnamed female
child born at Kyneton in 1863.
MARY
ANN VEVERS -
born 20 January 1844 at Swalecliffe.
Baptised at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe on 18 February 1844. Died 24 May 1930 Preston Victoria. Buried at Malmesbury. On 22 June 1864 at Taradale Victoria married
to Henry James Brailey a
Carpenter. He had been baptised on 28
September 1834 at Bishopsgate London.
He died on 27 September 1897 and is buried at Malmsbury.
Children:
Annie
Amelia Vevers Brailey
- born 25 July 1865 at Malmsbury.
Married Arthur Henry Stephenson
(born 17 June 1867 Glenlyon, Talbot) on 27 June 1887. Annie died 28 October 1903 while George died at Malmsbury on 13
June 1955.
Children:
Percival
William Stevenson
- born 5 May 1888 at Malmsbury. On 8
October 1913 at Bendigo married Grace
Ermyntrude Lavender (born 30 April 1885 at Mia Mia, Vic.) Percival died
at Ringwood, Vic., on 29 May 1962
while Grace died at Castle Hill, N.S.W., during January 1974.
Children:
Arthur
Lavender Stephenson.
Noel
Lavender Stephenson.
Millicent
Lavender Stephenson
- born 25 July 1914 at Peshawar, India.
In March 1944 married Alwyn
Walker Prescott (born 30 August 1917).
Children:
Stephen
Walker Prescott
David
Alwyn Walker Prescott
Andrew
Walker Prescott
- born 16 December 1951 at Bowral N.S.W.
Married Anne Elizabeth Benzie
(born 30 September 1952) on 5 January 1974.
Andrew died on 21 May 1978 at Berwick, Vic.
Children:
Stuart
Walker Prescott
- born 8 February 1978 at Berwick, Vic.
James
Walker Prescott
Ruth
Prescott
Ida
Jane Prescott
Emily
Brailey - born 8
July 1867 North Melbourne. Died 3
December 193? South Melbourne. Married Thomas Stephenson on 1 January 1891.
Laura
Brailey - born
23 December 1870 at North Melbourne.
Died 13 December 1942 at South Melbourne. Buried at Fawkner.
Married Albert Edward Murden
a Miner at Melbourne on 23 October 1895.
He had been born at Malmsbury on 14 September 1870 and died on 29 July
1920 at Walpeup.
Children:
Edith
Ethel Murden -
born 12 March 1897. Married John William Newton. Died 5 November 1981.
Albert
Henry Murden Married Esther
Philpot. Died 2 May 1976.
John
Henry Wilmot Murden
- born 12 August 1901 Malmesbury.
Farmhand - Malee research station.
Married Elizabeth Winifred Vines
on 23 February 1927 at Paignie, Vic.
She had been born on 18 September 1904.
Died 3 February 1978 Ouyen.
Buried Walpeup.
Children:
Elsie
Winifred Murden
- born 28 April 1928 at Walpeup.
Married Walter Douglas Stewart on 28 January 1961 at Box Hill Victoria.
John
William Murden Married Lola
Anna Zanker.
Children:
Stephen
John Murden
David
Paul Murden
Helen
Joyce Murden Married Alexander
Graham Campbell
Children:
Stuart
Alexander Campbell
Jennifer
Ann Campbell
Laura
Murden - born 1
October 1903. Died 7 October 1903.
Emily
Murden - born 22
June 1905. Married Arthur Newton. Died 15
October 1974.
Elsie
May Murden -
born 29 October 1908. Married Henry James Littlejohn.
Arthur
George Murden -
born 2 February 1911. Died 8 October 1934. Married Jean
Wade.
William
Henry Brailey -
born 11 January 1873. Died 18 March
1891.
Henry
George Brailey -
born 23 August 1876.
Frank
Brailey - born
30 March 1879.
Arthur
Brailey - born
27 October 1881.
Emma
Ethel Brailey -
born 23 October 1884.
Bertha
Brailey - born
30 May 1887. Died 27 November 1887.
EMMA
LYTHGOE - born 1
September 1848 at Swalecliffe. In 1867
married George Alexander Evans a
Publican at Malmsbury and they lived in Mollison Street. She was alive in 1905.
Children:
Annie
Evans - born
1868 at Malmsbury.
James
Malmsbury Evans
- born 1870 at Malmsbury.
Emma
Evans - born
1872 at Malmsbury. Died 1872 at
Malmsbury.
Thomas
Frederick Evans
- born 1873 at Malmsbury. Died 1874 at
Malmsbury.
George
Thomas Ho. Evans
- born 1875 at Malmsbury.
Ella
Maude Evans -
born 1877 at Malmsbury.
Hector
William Evans -
born 1879 at Shepparton.
Amy
Bertha Evans -
born 1882 at Numurkah. Died 1882 at
Numurkah aged 1.
Daisy
Vevers Evans -
born 1885 at Numurkah.
Thomas and Emma Lasslett of Detroit
Thomas was born at Brook Farm,
Swalecliffe, Kent, the second son of William Lasslett, a yeoman of Brook Farm,
and his wife Mary Ann Lasslett née Rayner.
He was baptised on 20 February 1809 at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe
(page 49).
On 22 March 1830 the Canterbury
Freeman books note that Thomas Lasslett, baker, was made a freeman by
redemption.
He married Emma Blake, spinster,
of St Mildreds Canterbury by licence at St Mildreds Canterbury on 20 August
1830.
Thomas and Emma appear to have
lived at Herne Bay in Kent and to have immigrated to Detroit Michigan in the
early 1850s about the time that Thomas's brother William immigrated to
Australia (1853). The church records
show that Thomas was a labourer for the 20 years he lived in the Herne
Bay/Whitstable area. As we know he was
a qualified baker we can only surmise that he lacked capital to set up in his
trade. His father had good farms but
stipulated in his will that his money be divided equally between his six
children after his wife's death.
William ended up with three acres and we can only surmise that Thomas's
share was similarly small. Both men had
large families and little hope of ever providing well for them in Kent so we
can only surmise that they sold up their small inheritance to seek a better
life abroad.
Thomas died in 1888 and is buried
Erin Grove Cemetery in Roseville, Michigan.
Emma is buried there also but I have no date of death.
Family
of Thomas and Emma Lasslett
Sons
THOMAS - baptised at St John the
Baptist Swalecliffe 24 July 1831 son of Thomas Lasslett, a baker of this
parish, and Emma his wife. Thomas entered the Merchant Service. Wife’s name
Charlotte born 1843 Southwark, Surrey.
Children:
George – born London 1869.
Charlotte – born London 1878.
WILLIAM
F. - born 22
December 1832 and baptised on 19 January 1833 at Whitstable. On the 1876 map of
Old Nankin Township in Wayne County Michigan is shown as owning approximately
40 acres. Schraeder Bros Funeral records show that William F Lasslett was
buried on 6 November 1919 (Detroit Casket Co. Record book 3, page 23).
JOHN
BLAKE - baptised
5 April 1846 at Whitstable. Birth had
been registered at Blean in March (vol 5 page 36). The census of 24 June 1880
showns John as a farmer living in Erin, Macomb County, Michigan. On 31 March 1889 made Declaration of
Intention to become a US citizen. He was single and lived next door to his
brother Henry. Died in 1921 and buried
at Erin Grove Cemetery.
HENRY
BLAKE - born 21
January 1850 at Herne Bay. Immigrated
to the USA and was married on 16 December 1875 to Ann Maria Cox at Macomb County in Michigan. Henry died in 1935 and is buried at Erin
Grove Cemetery.
See chapter Henry and Ann Lasslett of Detroit on page 124.
Daughters
CAROLINE
SARAH BLAKE -
baptised 27 July 1835 at Whitstable.
BETSY - baptised 11 February 1838 at
Whitstable.
MARY
ANN - baptised 8 January 1839 at Whitstable. On 30 May
30 1859 in Houghton County, Michigan, married John Hotchkiss, a Farmer, (born 26 October 1838 in Canada) the son
of Harvey Hotchkiss (born New Hampshire) and Anna Hotchkiss née Wheat (born
Connecticut). Mary died on 7 December 1904 and is buried at Erin Grove
Cemetery, Macomb County, Michigan. John died on 12 December 1912 and is buried
at Erin Grove Cemetery as well.
Children:
Thomas Hotchkiss – born 3 May 1860 in Houghton
County, Michigan. Married on 26 December 1894 to Maria Chapman. Maria had been born on 22 July 1862 the daughter of
George Chapman of Hertfordshire, England and Elizabeth Ann Chapman née Foster.
Thomas died on 9 December 1936 and is buried at Meade Cemetery, Macomb County,
Michigan. Maria died on 2 September 1951 and is also buried at Meade Cemetery.
Children: Clyde Erwin Hotchkiss – born 7 October 1895. Died 21 May 21 1990,
Macomb County, Michigan. William Herbert Hotchkiss – born 6 July 1898. Died 12
December 1982, Macomb County, Michigan
Hannah Hotchkiss - born December 1861. Married (?) Wilson.
One child, William
Benjamin Hotchkiss - born 1863. Buried Erin Grove
Cemetery, Macomb County, Michigan.
Mary Hotchkiss - born December 1866. Died 17
September 1867. Buried Erin Grove Cemetery, Macomb County, Michigan.
John H. Hotchkiss – born 3 March 1868. Married Bertha Savage. John is buried at Meade
Cemetery, Michigan. Children: Walter, married and had 1 daughter; Marion (deaf
& dumb) has 4 children; Hazel (Frank Crawford) – no children; Edna (Clayton
McClure) – no children; Dora (Vern Schultz) 1 child, Beverly, deceased; Gerald
– 1 daughter; John – 4 children, 3 girls & 1 boy; & Guy – bachelor.
Mary Ann Hotchkiss - born 1870. Died 1945. Married William Aemke. Had 3 daughters
Henry Hotchkiss – born 11 May 1873. Died 2
February 1963. Buried Erin Grove Cemetery, Macomb County, Michigan.
William L.
Hotchkiss – born
29 August 1875. Died 8 June 1890. Buried
at Erin Grove Cemetery, Macomb County, Michigan. (Had a leg amputated on the
dining room or kitchen table, accident caused by riding on a freight train,
which caused his death)
Harvey Hotchkiss - born April 1878. Married Jewel
Miller. No Children.
Jesse Hotchkiss (Female) - born March 1881. Had
3 girls and 2 boys.
EMMA - born 11 March 1842 and
baptised 10 April 1842 at Whitstable.
The 1880 census shows a Emma Lassette aged 25, with English parents,
boarding at Detroit where her occupation is given as ‘work in shoe shop’. This
is probably Emma even with the discrepancies. Died in 1904 and buried at Erin
Grove Cemetery.
ROSA - baptised 21 August 1844 at
Whitstable.
George and Mary Laslett of Hope Farm
George Laslett was baptised on 26
February 1809 at Preston. He was the eldest child of John Laslett of Ash and
his wife Ann Laslett née Pott (page 51).
He married Mary Hammond a
Spinster of Dover on 14 October 1833 at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover. The witnesses were William and Ann
Hammond. The Hammond family came from
Waltham, Canterbury.
He was an agricultural labourer
who by 1861 had acquired Hope Farm and 40 acres. By the time of his death it had grown to 61 acres and employed
three men. His widow carried on the
farm. By 1881 her daughter and son in
law Henry Curling had moved in with her.
George died at Hope Farm on 4
October 1876, aged 67 years, and Mary on 20 December 1899, aged 85 years. They are both buried in the churchyard of St
Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover.
Family
of George and Mary Laslett
Sons
GEORGE - baptised at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 8 February 1835.
About October 1873 George married Mary
Ann J. Dixon. George was buried at
St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 26 March 1904.
See chapter George and Mary Laslett of West Cliffe, Dover on page 108.
THOMAS - baptised at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 19 June 1836.
On 3 April 1865 married Sarah Ann
Hawkins at Harbledown.
See chapter Thomas and Sarah Laslett of Broadstairs on page 104.
WILLIAM - baptised at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 25 June 1837.
Married Jane Wraight on 23 November
1861 at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover.
See chapter William and Jane Laslett of Hope Farm on page 105.
JARVIS
HAMMOND -
baptised at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 29 March 1846. Married Emma
Curling. Jarvis died on 26 January
1920 aged 73 years while Emma died on 23 June 1938 aged 81 years.
See chapter Jarvis and Emma Laslett of Hope and Street Farms on page 122.
Daughters
ANN - baptised at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 29 November 1840. Married William Henry Sage
on 25 February 1866 at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover.
MARY
ELIZABETH – born
1848 at St Margarets-at-Cliffe. Married Henry
Charles Curling St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 24 January 1878. She was aged 29 and he 38 at marriage. Mary died in 1941.
Children:
Henry G.
Curling – born 1878 at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe.
Thomas and Harriet Laslett of Chatham
Thomas Laslett was born at
Poplar, Middlesex on 18 June 1811 and was baptised at the East India Dock
Chapel there. He was the eldest child
of Thomas Laslett, a shipwright, and and his first wife Elizabeth Laslett née
Rowe (page 52).
On 20 August 1835 he married
Harriet Milicent Newnham of Chatham at Hoo Church, Rochester. Harriet had been born on 5 June 1803 and was
the daughter of a builder.
He was brought up as a shipwright
in Chatham Dockyard, and served for a short time as carpenter's mate on HMS Buffalo. This service must have seen him in good stead as on 3 March 1837
Thomas was appointed Second Purveyor of Timber at New Zealand at 13/- a
day. From the Admiralty Lord Glenelg
sent a dispatch to Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of the Colony of New South
Wales, informing him of Thomas's appointment and advising him that Thomas
carried 'various presents for the Natives' and that he would join HMS Buffalo on her arrival in Sydney
and proceed with her to New Zealand to treat with the Maori's for timber
rights. The aim of the mission was to
secure masts and spars for the Royal Navy.
Thomas arrived in Sydney on 20 August 1837 on the Ellen and sailed on HMS
Buffalo on Saturday 10 September 1837.
This first voyage was successful
and Thomas joined HMS Buffalo for
her second timber getting voyage to New Zealand in 1840. This ended with the wreck of HMS Buffalo in Mercury Bay in April
1840 as shown in athe following sketch of the wreck scene drawn by Thomas and
now kept at the Royal Naval Library in London.
The 
In both
cases Thomas appears to have joined and left HMS Buffalo in Sydney and to have travelled to and from England in
other vessels. In his book Timber and Timber Trees - Native and
Foreign published 1875 Thomas also mentions visiting Tasmania. In writing this book Thomas set a record of
sorts for Lasletts in that his authority is quoted 32 times in the Oxford English Dictionary albeit on the
use of words to do with timber. Thomas also wrote a journal of his travels,
which was unpublished at his death but may still survive as it was reported to
be in existence in 1980.
Thomas was made Purveyor of
Timber in Burma in 1847 and Prussia in 1866.
He was employed to survey and report upon some forests near Russia in
Asia Minor and also other forests in Bosnia, European Turkey in 1859 and
1860. He was Timber Inspector of
Woolwich Dockyard from 1858 to 1869 and for many years later Timber Inspector
for the Admiralty.
In Timber and Timber Trees Thomas mentions
his career: “It need scarcely be stated here, since it will be well understood,
that to classify and collect the notes in order to record these tests of
strength, &c., in timber, it has taken a very long time, and, but for the
exceptional opportunities I had during a long course of service in the royal
dockyards and elsewhere, it would have been impossible for me to have obtained
these results.
“While employed
surveying timber for the Navy in New Zealand, and subsequently in India,
Belgium, France, Prussia, Asia Minor, and European Turkey, and also in the
royal forests in England, and later on as Timber Inspector of a dockyard, and
Timber Inspector to the Admiralty,.every effort has been made to acquire a
knowledge of the capabilities and characteristic properties of the several
varieties of timber which came under notice.
“Many of the
experiments to which I shall have to refer were made at Woolwich Dockyard,
where it was necessary, as a part of the duty of my office, to ascertain the
specific gravities, strength, and measurement, and attend to the receipt of the
timber coming in under contract with the Admiralty.”
He retired from active service in
April 1880. He was subsequently
employed by the Admiralty to make special surveys of timber on various
occasions at home and abroad, also by the Society of Arts to report on timber
exhibited in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition at London in 1886.
Harriet died at Devon House,
Marton Road, Chatham at 3 p.m. on 4 December 1867. Thomas died suddenly of a heart attack at Woolwich Dockyard
Railway Station on 6 April 1887.
Family
of Thomas and Harriet Laslett
Sons
THOMAS
NEWNHAM - born
22 December 1841 at Chatham. Architect.
Married four times but all the marriages except the first to a widow
named Louisa Ann Covil were
childless. Louisa died at Charlton on 8
January 1891 and Thomas died at Ramsgate on 29 August 1923.
See chapter Thomas Laslett of Chatham and his wives Louisa, Harriet, Mary and Clara
on page 117.
HENRY
JAMES - born 17
August 1844 at Pembroke Dock, South Wales.
Naval Store keeper at Bermuda and Naval Stores Office H.M. Dockyard
Chatham. He was married to an M. Johns and had four sons and three
daughters but no details are known.
Henry died at Rainham on 30 March 1911.
Who was who 1897-1916 - reads:
Henry James Laslett - I.S.O. 1904:
Naval Store Officer, HM Dockyard, Chatham; b 17 Aug 1844, son of Thomas Laslett
of HM Dockyard, Woolwich. Educ: privately. Address: Raesham, Kent. Died: 30
March 1914.
FREDERICK
WILLIAM - born
24 May 1847 at Pembroke Dock, South Wales.
Surgeon R.N. of Jamaica Hospital.
He married Elen Grief. Both Frederick and Elen died of yellow fever
within a few days of each other, he on 4 September 1878 and she on 9 September
1878.
Daughters
HARRIET
ELIZABETH - born
19 August 1837 at Chatham. She died of
an internal abscess at Devon House, Maryon Road, Chatham on 17 July 1870. Married.
Children:
Victor - lived in France.
ELIZA
SARAH - born 26
September 1839 at Chatham. Married George Christie a clerk at the Royal
Arsenal, Woolwich and had two sons and one daughter. In the 1881 census George
was shown as a Master Mariner and they lived at 57 Glenister Road, Greenwich.
Eliza died on 11 March 1908.
Children:
Phillip
F.G. Christie –
born Woolwich 1866. Baker’s boy in 1881.
Thomas J. Christie – born
Pembroke Dock, wales 1870.
Milicent – born Southsea,
Hampshire in 1874.
John Barrett and Susannah Laslett of Cheriton
John Barrett Laslett was born at
Ash on 10 November 1828 and was the first son Robert Laslett of Ash and his
wife Mary Ann Laslett née Knight (page 74).
On 30 November 1854 married
Susannah Jarvis. Susannah had been born
at Ewell, Dover on 14 January 1829.
In the 1881 census Susannah and
the family lived at 124 Guildhall Street, Folkestone where she worked as a
Laundress while Maria was a Charwoman.
John died at Sandgate, 3 April
1869, buried at Cheriton, while Susannah died on 5 November 1901 at Cheriton.
Family
of John Barrett and Susannah Laslett
Sons
ROBERT
WILLIAM - One of
twins, born at Dover 25 April 1856.
Died at Birling Gap 11 January 1866.
JOHN
SAMUEL - The
other twin, married Sarah Baker on 1
July 1883. John was a Baker. Two boys and a girl, all born at Dover. Children:
Albert
John William -
born 10 April 1884.
Percy
William Baker -
born 28 September 1885.
Edith
Florence Victoria
- born 22 May 1887.
FREDERICK
GEORGE - born at
Cuckmere, 10 January 1862. A Baker. Married Mary Ann Amon on 6 February 1883. 1 boy and 3 girls.
Children:
Frederick
Albert.
Florence
Maud Mary.
Edith
Gertrude Eleanor.
Violet
Blanch.
ALBERT - born at Sandgate, 17 April
1868. On 10 December 1892 married Isabella Taylor at New Brompton. Albert died at Hythe, on 12 August 1925, and
buried at Horn Street Cemetery, Hythe.
Isabella died at Coulston, Surrey in the 1940's.
See chapter Albert and Isabella Laslett on page 132.
Daughters
MARIA
ANN - born at
Dover, 1 June 1858. Died 6 November
1881 at Folkestone, having had 2 daughters.
MARY
SUSANNAH - born
at Cuckmere, on 13 May 1860, married Alfred
Fisher, and had 1 daughter. Died at
Deal 13 December 1884.
ELIZABETH
EMILY - Born at
Birling Gap, Eastdean, Sussex, on 21 October 1863. Married Wright Griggs
on 23 February 1883, and had a large family.
ELEANOR - born at Birling Gap, on 27 May
1866. Died at Folkestone, on 2 June 1885.
Samuel and Susannah Laslett of Dover
Samuel Laslett was born at Ash on
29 September 1832 and baptised there on 4 November 1832. He was the second son Robert Laslett of Ash
and his wife Mary Ann Laslett née Knight (page 74).
He married Susannah Metters on 23
November 1855, and was lost at sea in the Violet
on the Goodwin Sands on 5 January 1857. There was perhaps one child, probably
born after Samuel's death, but we have no name.
The Dover Telegraph[3]
of 10 January 1857 reported under the headline:
Wreck of the mail packet Violet
and loss of all on board,
night of 5/6th Jan. 1857
"The terrific gale that
swept the Channel on Monday night was the precursor of a watery grave to many a
brave and hardy sailor. Not only have other towns in our immediate vicinity to
deplore the fearfully disastrous effects of that gale, but in the loss of the Violet and the lamentations of the
widows and fatherless, its appalling reality (so happily averted from us) is
now felt in our very midst. In narrating the few known particulars of the sad
catastrophe, we are somewhat relieved in the painful task by a consciousness of
the universal sympathy which prevails towards the surviving partners and
families of the shipwrecked dead, who by this unexpected and overwhelming
stroke are, in many instances, suddenly plunged into utter destitution.
"The ill-fated Violet, built for the Admiralty, and
subsequently the property of the Dover Royal Mail Packet Company, was a vessel
of 300 tons, and 128 horse-power, and engaged by the Company in the conveyance
of the continental mails. She was one of the best on the station, commanded by
a most experienced officer, the deeply regretted Captain E. Lyne and was manned
by a crew equal to any on the station in experience and efficiency. The Violet left Dover for Ostend on Saturday
night; and her return was due at Dover at midnight on Monday. Her departure
from Ostend took place about 8 o'clock on Monday evening.
"Her non-arrival at the
appointed time excited no particular attention, the alarmingly stormy character
of the night suggesting the probability of her remaining in port. This
conjecture was strengthened as Tuesday passed on and no Violet appeared; but in the afternoon of that day, intelligence
reached Dover of three bodies being washed ashore at Ramsgate, supposed to be
from a wreck on the Goodwin Sands, and fears were at once aroused that the Violet had started on her voyage to
Dover, and that the treacherous sands, fatal to thousands of every nation, had
engulfed both vessel and crew. As if still further to augment the awful
suspense now created, and add poignancy to the grief already started into
existence, it was found, on hastening to communicate with Ostend by telegraph,
that the electric cables were deranged, and all hope of information by that
medium was cut off. Even the hour of the Violet's
departure did not reach Dover until Wednesday morning, when other circumstances
- the picking up of portions of cabin doors, her chain box and other articles -
confirmed what had been apprehended, that she was wrecked, and that all on
board had perished.
Perils of the Night
"The sensation excited as
the melancholy truth unfolded, without a ray of hope that any had escaped to
comfort the mourners, or tell of the perils of that terrific night, cannot be
portrayed. "Who were on board?" was the anxious exclamation of every
enquirer; and though many a home missed in awful certainty an absent one, yet
the public even at this moment are not in possession of the names of all whose
lives have been sacrificed.
"As to the causes of this
distressing calamity, they are, of course, at present, but matters of mere
conjecture. In a contemporary report, it has been observed, that it is
impossible to assign other than the blinding and paralysing influence of the
drifting snow as the reason of the disaster; and we know of no more
satisfactory suggestion.
"The details of the wreck
are equally in very prescribed limits, and the following is the substance of
anything like information that has appeared, from Tuesday, to the time of our
going to press:
"At daybreak on morning, a
fisherman saw the wrecked vessel on the outer edge of southern spit of the
Goodwins, but inconsequence of the fearful sea that raged around it, he could
not approach near enough to ascertain more clearly character and size of the
unfortunate vessel. Her foremast was still standing, and it was evident that
she had struck on the sand during the night.
"(Letter from) Capt.
Smithett (Commodore) to Mr Churchward (Owner: Churchward & Jenkins), Dover
January 7th.
"The Belgian vessel came in
about midnight; and the captain states that the Violet left Ostend in a fearful storm of wind from the north-east
and snow, about 8:30pm on Monday evening. According to your directions, I shall
start as soon as the packet arrives, no vessel having come in up to this time,
8am.
"I expect the Empress about 8:30, and shall take her
directly to Ramsgate and the Goodwin, and hope to bring back some intelligence
this afternoon.
Yours faithfully,
L. Smithett
"(Letter) From the same
source:
"This is sad news, the loss
of the Violet, for there cannot, I
fear, be any doubt as to its being her. Three bodies were picked up lashed to a
life-buoy not far from the wreck, which lies on the sand southward of the
beacon.
"From the position of the
vessel's head, I am of the opinion that, having as they thought, run their
distance, and catching sight of the Gull Light through the terrific snowstorm,
the two lights were mistaken for the South Foreland. I find this mistake is
frequently occurring.
"The vessel sits upright on
the sand, funnel gone; decks, bulkhead, cabin doors &c to be seen floating
away. Some luggers, either from this place or Deal, were seen out near her at
low water.
Dover, Wednesday
afternoon
"The Empress has returned with the bodies of three of the stokers of the
Violet. The mail bags have been
recovered, and have been landed at Folkstone.
"The wreck of the Violet is on the outer part of the
Goodwin, all buried in the sand; nothing visible except the tops of the wheels
and steam chest at low water.
"We give below a list of the
officers and crew on board when the calamity occurred. With respect to passengers,
there is some uncertainty as to whether there were three or four. We understand
that there were two foreign soldiers (supposed to be coming to England to be
admitted into the British army) and a Dutch pilot. From the circumstances of a
black trunk being picked up, with "Arthur Majendie, Esq" painted on
the lid, and a small black parcel, it is feared that there was a fourth
passenger; but of this we are not able to speak confidently. (The latter
subsequently shown not to have travelled, and two of the other three).
List of the Crew of the Violet
Rank Name Children
Captain LYNE Edmund Wife -
Chief Officer PAUL James do 1
Second Officer PULLMAN Henry do 2
Engineer DILKS
George do 7
Carpenter SMART Alexander do 2
Boatswain FREEMAN George do 7
Seaman FOX
Henry do 3
do WHITE James do 1
do LASLETT Samuel do -
do HARBER James do 1
Leading stoker HARMER
Nath. do 2
do SHARP Samuel do -
do SHILLATOE John do 2
do PATRICK William do 2
Steward PENNY
Stephen do 2
Cabin boy PENNY - - -
Ship's boy CROFTS William - -
Mail Officer MORTLEMAN - do 10
Officers and crew lost 18, 16
widows and 42 children.
"We have said that three
bodies were washed ashore at Ramsgate; and that the Empress steamer, Capt. Smithett, proceeded thither on Wednesday,
and visited the scene of the wreck, on her return. One of the objects of the
voyage to Ramsgate was to identify the bodies picked up. The inquest was held
there on the day named, before R. Jones Esq., and the deceased were found
lashed to one life-buoy, from which it is presumed that their deaths must have
resulted from cold, and not from drowning - a supposition which is supported by
the appearance of the corpses, which looked more like living than dead men, the
colour on the cheek being so fresh. Two of them were identified by William Kay,
second mate of the Empress, as
Nathaniel Harmer and Samuel Sharp; although the witness did not know the name
of the other (which we have since ascertained to be William Patrick) yet he was
able to state that all three were stokers on board the Violet. James Hogbin, master of the Ramsgate lifeboat, which went
to the wreck, proved the finding of the three bodies lashed to the buoy.
Captain Smithett deposed that the Violet
was commanded by Captain Lyne, who was a very efficient officer, and that the
crew consisted of 17 men. He did not know how many passengers were on board,
but had heard that three out of four declined to come by her from Ostend in
consequence of the bad weather. The jury returned a verdict of "Found
drowned."
"Since the enquiry at
Ramsgate no other bodies have been picked up, nor has any additional
information transpired.
Collection for the
Bereaved
"It now remains for us to
appeal to the sympathies of the public on behalf of the widows and fatherless
children of the departed ones - lists lie at the Banks, Libraries &c, and
we believe that on Sunday week, in every edifice for public worship in the
borough, an opportunity will be afforded for a collective effort towards the
noble object of this appeal; and that the Mayor and Corporate authorities will
organise a general movement for the same purpose. It is only gratifying to
witness the anxiety so generally evinced in this respect; the rational
inference is, that if words are in this instance followed by deeds, none will
be found contributing with a niggardly hand."
As far as I have been able to
ascertain Samuel Laslett's body was never found.
Richard and Susannah Laslett of Fulham
Richard Manger Laslett was born
at Hole Farm, Sturry near Canterbury on 20 September 1834. He was the second son of George Laslett, a
yeoman of Hole Farm, and his wife Charlotte Laslett née Manger (page 54).
In 1841 Richard and his brother
George started school as weekly boarders at Miss Elizabeth Stead's ladies
boarding school in Sturry where they stayed for a year before, due to their
sizes more than their ages, they were then moved to Miss Stead's brother
Stephen's boarding school, also in Sturry, as day boarders. In 1848 Stephen Stead's school closed and he
took on the more leisurely occupation of clerk at the Ramsgate waterworks while
the boys, accompanied now by their brother Manger, moved as yearly boarders to
a school located at Belmont House, 1 High Street, Ramsgate that was run by
their old schoolmaster's son, Thomas Stead.
From reading family letters it is
apparent that the boys were keen sportsmen, playing cricket in the village team
and riding with Squire John Collard of Edington's hunt.
Richard started training as a
Surveyor but it was not to be. In a letter he says "The last, Mr Cooper
Wacher, is a son of Mr William Wacher who married a daughter of Mr Thomas
Cooper of North Farm and Sister of Mr Henry Cooper, Land Surveyor, Canterbury.
The latter, Father & Son, had business together in Canterbury as Messrs
Thomas & Henry Cooper Land Surveyors & Estate Agents with whom I was
for nearly 5 years qualifying well for the Profession which I relinquished when
you left England and Mr Cooper Wacher took my place in the office in
1854." Richards father's death in 1853 placed the family in some
difficulty and Richard was forced to find better paying employment to help
support his mother and siblings. His younger brothers, George and Manger, left
for South Australia in 1854 to help reduce Richard=s load. He always sadly
regretted never becoming a Surveyor, a profession that he clearly loved.
Interestingly, the 1881 census shows Vale Farm in the possession of William
Wacher who was probably Cooper Wacher's son.
Lived (1910) Fulham, London. Family historian. Accountant upward of 25 years to Contractors, London Underground
Railway, Manchester Ship Canal, London Tube Railways, etc.
In the 1881 census lived at 4
Smith Street, London and gave occupation as Estate & House Agent &c.
Lived at Chelsea, London to 1889, from then at Manchester till 1892, afterwards
at 41 St. Maur Road, Fulham, London.
Married Susannah Griggs the
daughter of Robert Griggs, a farmer of Farthington Farm. Susannah was born on 17 November 1833 at
Dover in Kent. Her mother's maiden name
was Elizabeth Manger. Susannah died at Fulham on 11 October 1904 after a long
illness and was buried on 15 October 1904 at Fulham Cemetery which is near the
Bishop of London's Palace on the road to Hammersmith.
On 15 January 1915 Alfred
Laslett, Richard's brother, wrote his first letter in 60 years to his other
brother, George, living in Mt. Gambier, South Australia:
...And now dear Brother it is my
most painful duty to inform you of our dear Brother Richard Manger death which
took place Dec 28/15 going to church in the evening droped down in fit just out
side his house and died the following morning about 7.30 poor fellow he never spoke much after Ms
Watson and poor Bessie being present it took 3 men to get him up stairs. The Funeral took place at Fulham the
following Saturday poor Bessie and myself being Chief Mourners. Mr Freeman and his oldest Mr. Wictiam a very
old Friend of our dear Brother he was much respected being taken into the
church previous to the grave there 2 Curates & a Vicar being present. Poor fellow he as done his Duty as Brother
to me in every sense and carried out the instructions of our beloved Father but
no one in ours can take his place he poor man a dear good Father one that
thought as much his Brother & Sisters as his own children your dear Brother
knew him better than myself they say I take after him very much in feeling - I
hope I do poor fellow if ever he fell out with anybody he would always shake
hands before the sun went down. Poor
Bessie is going to live with Mrs Watson at Fimsbury Park so she will not be far
from Lizzie I was over at Southgate last Thursday she as a nice home and Family
all doing well which is a great comfort to see. Poor Fanny feels the death of our dear Brother very much. I have not been down to the old Farm for
years the last time I was there the old men spoke well of our dear Father
saying they had lost a good master. Now
dear Brother I must draw this to a close you know I am not such a good hand at
this Job as our poor dear Richard he took the cake...
Family of Richard and Susannah
Laslett.
ELIZABETH
CHARLOTTE - born
7 August 1864 at Ramsgate, Kent, housekeeper to widower father. Was book-keeper to her father and held the
Society of Arts Certificate for Book-keeping.
Called 'Bessie' by the family.
George and Eliza Laslett of Allendale East
(This story of George and Eliza
Laslett and of their family was written by their grandson Reg Laslett and first
published as a booklet for the South Australian family reunion in 1972. The odd word here and there has been changed
in this reprint to fit the narrative into the style of the present document.)
George Laslett was born at Hole
Farm, Sturry on 6 April 1836. He was
the fourth child of George Laslett, a yeoman of Hole Farm, and his wife
Charlotte Laslett née Manger (page 54).
In 1841 George and his brother
Richard started school as weekly boarders at Miss Elizabeth Stead's ladies
boarding school in Sturry where they stayed for a year before, due to their
sizes more than their ages, they were then moved to Miss Stead's brother
Stephen's boarding school, also in Sturry, as day boarders. In 1848 Stephen Stead's school closed and he
took on the more leisurely occupation of clerk at the Ramsgate waterworks while
the boys, accompanied now by their brother Manger, moved as yearly boarders to
a school located at Belmont House, 1 High Street, Ramsgate that was run by
their old schoolmaster's son, Thomas Stead.
From reading family letters it is
apparent that the boys were keen sportsmen, playing cricket in the village team
and riding with Squire John Collard of Edington's hunt. Squire Collard was related through family intermarriage
with the Dennes and Lasletts. The
social function of the hunt was much deeper in those days than it is today, a
sort of 19th century Rotary Club. The
fox would find itself pursued by not only squires and gentlemen, but also by a
collection of farmers, the parson, the doctor and the solicitor, and even the
village tradespeople. The fox did as
much for social cohesion as the church.
The Laslett boys were keen riders. Richard, George's brother, writing much
later remembers as a boy being halted by a fence, not wishing to force his nag.
George took the fence and Richard, while finding the gate, saw George "a
field ahead, well among others, riding at high speed after hounds in full cry.
Georges parent's land was farmed
under rigid conditions. They were not
permitted to sell any produce from the farm except on the hoof. This ensured that the fertility of the land
was maintained by returning all plant produce to the soil in the form of
manure. A number of farm hands were
employed to care for the stock and produce food for them. George was educated at a boarding school and
found pleasure in recounting stories of his school days. In the young colony, where many could not
read or write, his education was often used to bridge the gap between them and
their folk "back home".
When his father died in 1853 it
appears there was some difficulty in the continued use of the land farmed by
the Laslett family for so many years.
This circumstance apparently turned George's thoughts towards Australia. We have a letter written by him from Ewell
in England to his uncle, dated 26 June 1854, where discussions regarding the
land are disclosed. Also in this letter
is an expressed determination to migrate to Australia. He wrote, "I had a letter from Uncle
John this morning respecting Australia, but he does not want to persuade me
from going to Australia, but no one will stop me from going if I get a
chance. I shall never be satisfied till
I am there. I was talking to a young
sailor one fine day and he said we shall have no difficulty in getting out, and
also there is a young man coming home now from there. He said it is a splendid place and if it was not for coming home
to be married he would not leave it, but means to go back again". So it was quite apparent that George's mind
was made up and in January 1855 he arrived in Australia. (When he celebrated his 90th birthday a
report in the Border Watch, Mount
Gambier's newspaper, stated that he arrived in South Australia in the sailing
ship Fulwood, but maritime records do
not confirm this.) The Fulwood, Captain Fitzsimmons, left
Liverpool Docks on 10 October 1854 and
reached Port Phillip on 30 December 1854.
George then proceeded by steamer to Adelaide.
On 24 August 1855, the
Comptroller of Prisons wrote to the Honourable the Colonial Secretary in the
following terms,
Dear Sir,
I have the honour to request that
you will be good enough to procure from His Excellency, the Governor in chief
the appointment of George Laslett to be Convict Guard in the Department from
this day inclusive. One Chas Lewin (Senior
Guard) promoted to be overseer in charge of the Free Labour Station at
Northside.
Signed,
S.S. Carr
In another document concerning
the appointment it stated the salary to be seven shillings per deum.
We do not have much detail of
George's life in the years from 1855 to 1866.
On 27 June 1860 in Holy Trinity Church, Adelaide, he married Eliza Ann
Langford. Their first child, also named Eliza Ann, died in infancy. These two events were to be symbolic in
their lives, as for many colonists, a mixture of joy and sorrow.
Something of his nostalgia is
revealed in a letter dated 6 January
1866. This was addressed from Dry Creek
Stockade to his brother in England and says, "I have been expecting to
hear from you but have been disappointed these last two mails. Surely some of you could write once a month
as there can be no excuse being so many of you . . . no one can feel the
disappointment like those who are far away from their Mother country and
anxious to hear from their dear relatives, who perhaps they will see no
more. Many times my thoughts are in
dear old England . . . Often I picture
the old farm. I am separated from those
I love so dear to me, to end my days in a distant land, but I have no one to
blame, it was my own seeking therefore I must be content and make the best of
it is the only conclusion I can come to.
Thanking God for His goodness in providing me with a good partner and
blessing me with two sweet children, often do they cheer you up when one is
downhearted. I have had little Lotty's
likeness taken and will send you one".
Eliza Ann born 7 March 1862, Charlotte Ann born 22 April 1863 and
Elizabeth born 26 June 1865 were all born in the Hundred of Yatala at the
Stockade now known as Yatala Labour Prison.
The only other letter we have was
written from Allendale on 19 June 1867.
By this time George and Eliza had taken up a block of land at
Caroline. In this letter he regrets not
having written but pleads busyness. He
writes, "We have been busy since coming here, putting up house and
clearing the land. We are now turning
up the new land which plow rather hard as we have but little wet. One great drawback, we have the confounded
kangaroo to contend with and if we are not careful and put up a good fence they
will nip what we have sown . . . This is a new Hundred and we were one of the
first to come here. Those who came
later consider ours the best land. I
hope it will prove itself to be so . . . We are anxious to hear from you . . .
there is no excuse for you all can write and if you would take it in turns we
could have a letter once a month which we would be pleased to receive . .
."
George and Eliza only stayed at
Caroline one year and then removed to Allendale. Here the rest of the family were born. In the earlier days of Allendale the children were educated
privately by a Miss Blehein (or Blaheen) and later at the Kingsley School.
For many years George worked on
the roads, sometimes walking eight miles to the Council boundary at the
Six-mile post. At the age of sixty he
suffered a heart attack and from that time did no more heavy work.
He lived to see great
changes. In the early days of wireless
George Rackett brought down a set and George listened to this new
invention. He saw an aeroplane or two
but never liked motor cars and when he died a horse-drawn hearse was procured
for the funeral. (I believe the last
horse-drawn funeral in Allendale) He
moved slowly on two sticks in his last few years. A permanent slight bend from the killing of a snake near the old
summer-house, was evident in one.
George always held allegiance to
the Church of England and a few days before he died Archdeacon Samwell came and
gave him Holy Communion and this gladdened his heart a great deal.
He passed away peacefully on the
night of 8 October 1926 and is buried in the Port MacDonnell Cemetery.
Eliza Ann Langford was born on 23
October 1837. She was the daughter of
Richard and Ann Sarah Langford and was the eldest of a family of twelve
children. Richard Langford was a
carpenter and cabinet-maker by trade.
The old cedar chest of drawers and the wooden bed in the old home at
Allendale were his wedding gift to Eliza and George. The chest of drawers had neither nail nor screw in it anywhere
and was perfectly dovetailed for jointing and commends his craftsmanship.
We know little of Eliza's
history, but the story as I remember it, indicates that the family came from
England to New Zealand. Richard
Langford is reputed to have held land of quite some dimensions in what is now the
heart of the city of Nelson.
Not being content with the
opportunities offered in New Zealand Richard Langford left his family for the
time being and came to Sydney. When he
felt the time warranted it he sent for the family to join him. They sailed for Sydney but for some reason
went in the wrong direction and after some time found themselves amongst
icebergs. Realising that disaster could
overtake them there was quite some panic aboard and the Captain resolved to
batten all the passengers down below deck.
There was a threat of mutiny aboard and the planned action was not put
into effect. After altering course they
eventually reached Sydney where they found Richard Langford a prosperous
business man, wearing a top hat, and manufacturing furniture from cedar cut in
his own saw-pits.
There is an old photograph which
shows a shop bearing the name G.H. Langford, Carpenter and Joiner. Undoubtedly this was Eliza's brother, born
in 1841, who must have followed in his father's trade.
We do not know when and how the
family came to Adelaide.
Through Eliza there came for the
Langford family many strong links with Allendale. Her sister, Elizabeth Sarah, born 1843, married George Holland
and lived in the old house at the rear of where Eric Butler now lives.
(Incidentally this house was lived in by George Laslett junior, later by
William Manger, and later still by his daughter Rosa, and some of William's
family were born there.)
Another of Eliza's sisters, Ann
Maria, born 1852, married Alfred Earl.
They kept the Allendale Post Office, and one of their sons, Charles
Earl, continued this until the time of his death. Yet another sister, Emily Fanny, born 1856, married Henry
Holland, whose children, Dick, Fred, and Millie, were well-known in Allendale. They lived where Mary Holland now lives.
Reg was only a small boy when
Granny died, but remembers her with affection - the same deep affection with
which she was always known among her children and grandchildren. Indeed all who knew her, loved her. She was the soul of hospitality and generous
to a fault. It was said of her that she
spoke ill of no one. According to Aunty
Em her worst condemnation of any one was of Burns, the murderer, and of him she
said, "I don't like that man".
It appears that Burns, who lived on land beyond Kieselbach's, and lately
owned by Roly Edge, used to come to George to have his letters written. Eliza would hurry the children inside
whenever she saw him coming. Later it
was discovered that he could write but feared in some way that his writing
might help uncover his foul deeds.
Eventually he was convicted of not one, but three, murders!
In early days Eliza was friendly
with Mrs. MacIntosh whose home was situated on the rise above Mr. Fred
Thompson's "Lowlands" farm, and a short distance from that part of
the sea afterwards known as Mac's Beach.
With the little girls Eliza used to walk the distance of about six miles
to visit Mrs. MacIntosh. Aunty Em
delighted to tell that Eliza would suggest going home early in order to procure
a reaction from her. "Tea first,
Tosh. Tea first, Tosh", Aunty Em
would protest.
Eliza's lot in life was not an
easy one, but her gentle nature stood her in good stead. On 29 June 1917 she passed away after a
sudden illness and was mourned by all who knew her, for to know her was to love
her.
No story of the Laslett Family
would be complete without reference to the old home. Situated on seven acres of land fronting the Kingsley Road with
tall pines on the northern and eastern sides, the old stone house has been a
witness to both rejoicing and sorrow.
As Reg first knew it there were
five main rooms with an old detached kitchen of timber at the back. This old
kitchen would be remembered by many because, to keep out the draughts and to
cover the bare timbers, pictures from the Chronicle and other sources were
pasted to the walls. One of the annual
Spring cleaning tasks was the renewing of the pictures stained by rain, faded
by age, or damaged by the activities of the kitchen. Maybe juvenile efforts at writing or drawing marred rather
prematurely the artistic photographs by Mr. Krishcock, whose centre spread in
the Chronicle, covered areas of interest in many parts of the State.
When Eliza died in 1917 William
Laslett purchased the old home. He, his
wife, and the three oldest children of the family, moved in and shared the home
with George and Aunty Em, somewhat straining the capacity of it as the family
grew.
Mr. Tom Papworth was employed to
put a verandah on the front and a small sleepout was erected on the western
side.
After George's passing the stone
kitchen, bathroom and laundry were added by Mr. Jeff Perryman. At the same time
the verandah was altered to have stone pillars and was extended to enclose the
western part to George's room, where an access door replaced the window. The house has remained the same for many
years, although internal improvements have been made from time to time. The front rooms still have under the iron
the old shingles that were the original roof. Bag and hessian ceilings in the
two front rooms and dining room were replaced by fibrous plaster in the
1940's. We can presume the old home was
in the Laslett Family for about one hundred years and only in 1972 did it pass
into other hands. However, it has
strong links with the past and for many of us will be a tie that, from time to
time, will bring back a flood of memories.
Family
of George and Eliza Laslett
Sons
GEORGE - born on 29 March 1870. Married Ellen
Tall of Melbourne and they had a family of three sons and three daughters,
two of whom died in infancy. George
died on 21 June 1949 and is buried in Mt Gambier.
See chapter George and Ellen Laslett of Moorak on page 134.
RICHARD
JAMES (Dick) -
born on 27 May 1872. In 1902 he married
Miss Annabella Seebohm of Tantanoola
and they had a family of two sons and four daughters. Aunt Annie died in 1925 and in 1929 Uncle Dick married Miss Grace Cram of Glencoe. Dick established a home on land leased from
the Mount Schanck Station and engaged in dairying and other farming pursuits as
well as maintaining a splendid team of draught horses. He was also interested in show horses and
had success with hunters. His teams
were well maintained and the harness always meticulously kept. In his younger days he successfully competed
in plowing competitions.
For many years he operated a
limestone quarry about one mile west of the Bay Road on the property known as
Pareen, delivering the building stone to many areas by wagon and team.
Later he retired to Gambier West
and almost every Sunday visited the Mount Gambier Hospital and brought a
message of goodwill and cheer to patients.
He died on 4 October 1953 and his
memory is perpetuated in the naming of Laslett Road that passes on the South
side of Mount Schanck and connects the Bay Road and the Nelson Road.
Children:
Bertram
William George -
married Grace Emily Saunders in NSW
in 1942 and lives in Gordon Street, Aldinga Beach, S.A.
Victor
Richard J. -
lived at 680 Hundred Blanche Y, Suttontown and died around 1985 a very old man.
Children:
Desmond
Victor
Robert
James
Shirley
Glenice
All three live in Fartch Street,
Mount Gambier, S.A.
ALFRED
HENRY (Alf) -
born 17 November 1874. He married Margaret McLay, of Allendale, and they
had a family of seven children, two sons and five daughters. Alf died on 24
June 1953.
See chapter Alfred and Margaret Laslett of North Terrace,
Adelaide on page 141.
WILLIAM
MANGER - born 21
December 1885. In 1911 he married Lilian Rose Earl of Allendale East in
1911. He died at the early age of 52 on
31 October 1938. Lilian died on 4
November 1970.
See chapter William and Lilian Laslett of Allendale East & O.B. Flat on
page 149.
Daughters
ELIZA
ANN - born 7
March 1862. Died in infancy.
CHARLOTTE
ANN (Lottie) -
born 22 April 1863. In 1884 married William Holland, farmer, of Allendale
East at Christ Church in Mount Gambier.
William was the thirteenth child of George and Mary Holland having been
born at Kalangadoo on 1 August 1858. Had 10 children, five sons and five
daughters.
Lottie bore the first grandchild
for George and Eliza. Lil Kerr, as she
was afterwards, was always proud to make this claim.
Three of the sons, Herbert, James and Allan, served in
France in World War I. Herbert was
killed in action in the Battle of Bullecourt in 1917. It is worthy of note that of the several descendants of George
Laslett who served in World Wars I and II that Herb Holland is the only one to
pay the Supreme Sacrifice.
Will Holland was a farmer and
teamster and established the home that was later destroyed in the disastrous
fires that ravaged the Allendale area in 1959.
In was situated on sections 377 and 378 (38 acres). After changing hands a number of times the
land is back in the family, being farmed by Roland and Rosa Edge (née Laslett).
Lottie was a good mother and
home-maker and having a large family it was natural that young folk from the
district should find a warmth of hospitality in their home. Some years after Will's passing Lottie made
her home with Daisy, Mrs George Wallace, and there her remaining days were
spent.
William died on 14 April 1927,
aged 68 years, and Lottie died on 12 August 1938. They are both buried at the Port MacDonnell Cemetery.
Children:
Eliza
Mary (Lil) Holland
- born 7 August 1885. Married Alexander Dick (Sandy) Kerr and dairy
farmed sections 250 & 251 (112 acres) at Allendale East. The house on 250 is still occupied by their
adopted son Leslie. Alexander died on
28 January 1950 aged 74 and Lil died on 10 July 1955. They are buried together at Port MacDonnell cemetery.
Children:
Leslie
William
George Holland -
born 3 December 1887 at Allendale East.
Became a School Teacher. On 6
January 1916 married Elsie Mary
Elizabeth Freeman at St. John's Church, Adelaide. George died on 12 April 1959 and Elsie died in Sydney in 1981.
Children:
Ivy
Jean Holland -
born 9 October 1917. Married Kenneth Charles Hilditch (born 31 July
1921) an Aircraft Engineer. Children: Linda Ann Hilditch - born 29 May
1949. Married John Roy Lockeridge (born
17 November 1945) a Marine Engineer; Malcolm George Hilditch - born 30 March
1952. Aircraft Engineer. Married Dianne Allan; Andrew Kenneth
Hilditch - born 26 August 1955. Wood
Machinist. Married Dianne Bayliss;
Millicent Kay Hilditch - born 18 September 1965. Florist. Married Robert Davidson an Aircraft Engineer and have
two children.
Allan
James Holland -
born 23 January 1919. Commercial
Pilot. Married Verena Marti.
Children: Katharina Dawn Holland
- born 25 May 1949. Nurse. Married Robert Thurnell a Programme
super./Farmer; Michael James Adrian Holland - born 8 August 1952. Married Isobel Williams, but now divorced.;
Nicolette Ann Holland - born 24 August 1956.
Teacher. Married James Squelch
an RAF Officer; Delia Mary Holland - born 13 February 1958. Nurse.
Married Nicolas Jones an Industrial Chemist.
Kathleen
Elsie Holland -
born 16 November 1921. Station
Cook. Married James Franklin (born 30 December 1915) a Station Hand. Kathleen
died 22 November 1972. No children.
Andrew
William Holland
- born 4 April 1923. Electrician.
Married Patricia Agness Wilkie.
Children: Geoffrey Andrew Holland - born 7 July 1959. Bank Clerk. Married Susan Anne Thompson; Susan Marie Holland -
born 11 March 1968.
Mervyn
Keith Holland -
born 16 February 1925. Clerk. Married Melva Frances Forster (born 13 July
1929). Children: Alan David Holland - born 6 November 1950. Industrial Chemist. Married Helen Natalie
Phillips (born 15 December 1951; Joy Frances Holland - born 1 March 1952.
Married Victor George Carr-Moody (Born 22 May 1950) a Sheet Metal Worker;
Raymond William Holland - born 15 November 1954. Fire Officer. Married Anne Marie Parker; Mervyn Peter Holland -
born 13 March 1956. Railway Driver.
Married Sherry Anne Greenstreet; John Phillip Holland - born 16 November
1958. Landscaper. Married Susan Ball; Mark Andrew Holland -
born 1 January 1961. Storeman; Paul Anthony
Holland - born 3 March 1964.
Storeman. Married Debra Lands
(born 1 November 1961); Bernadette Louise Holland - born 30 March 1968. Shop Assistant; Kim Gregory Holland - born
26 July 1971.
Roma
Dawn Holland -
born 30 December 1930. Typist Railways.
Herbert
John Holland -
born 8 September 1889 at Allendale East.
Was training as a Missionary but joined the A.I.F. in 1916, 3rd Div.
48th Btln. Died during Arras offensive
on 11 April 1917. No known grave but
after the war his identity was found in a field at Bullecourt.
Ellen
May (Nell) Holland
- born 14 May 1891. In 1913 married Albert Reuben Easton at Allendale Presbyterian
Church. Farmed at Glencoe. Had 3 boys and 1 girl. Nell died on 10 January 1962, Albert on 9
November 1971. He was aged 84
years. They are buried together in the
Mount Gambier Cemetery.
Children:
Leslie
William Easton -
born 9 April 1914. Married Grace Margaret Wright (born 24 March
1922).
Children:
Barbara
Gay Easton -
born 27 January 1946. Married Harold Mark.
Children:
Jason
Mark - born 8
March 1973.
Lisa
Mark - born 9
December 1975.
Beverly
Margaret Easton
- born 20 December 1947. Married Malcolm Davis.
Children:
Gernhard
Davis - born 21
April 1971.
Adrian
Davis - born 17
April 1975.
Raymond
Albert Easton -
born 25 July 1915. Married Maidos Thelma Hinton (born 30 December
1918).
Children:
Vina
Maidos Easton -
born 16 March 1941. Married Brian Field.
Children:
Wayne
Field - born 24
March 1968.
Gaie
Lorraine Easton
- born 15 November 1945, died 15 September 1978. Married Lance Bald.
Children:
Theresa
Bald - born 17
August 1978. Married Maurice McIntyre.
Bronwyn
Bald - born 24
September 1966.
Grant
Bald - born 12
February 1969.
Adrian
Bald - born 1
August 1973.
Raelene
Thelma Easton -
born 15 November 1945. Married Deryl White.
Children:
Craig
White - born 14
February 1965.
Noel
White - born 21
November 1966.
Ian
White - born 16
January 1968.
Wendy
White - born 29
September 1972.
Janice
Ann Easton -
born 5 January 1956. Married Harold Arthur Weedon.
Children:
Kingsley
Arthur Weedon -
born 21 December 1974.
Heath
Weedon - born 22
January 1979.
Quentyn
Weedon - born 10
June 1982.
Irene
May Easton -
born 7 April 1917. Married Victor Alvin Pasfield (born 7 February
1922).
Children:
Alan
Jeffrey Pasfield
- born 3 November 1955. Married Jennifer English (born 4 March 1958).
Children:
Sarah
Ellen Pasfield -
born 16 January 1985.
Simon
Pasfield.
Kenneth
Victor Pasfield
- born 26 August 1958. Married Christina Bikkel (born 9 February
1958).
Herbert
George Easton -
born 4 September 1919. Married Nora Hilda Glazbrook (born 2 January
1918).
Children:
Elaine
Joy Easton -
born 25 August 1941. Married Murray Pearce.
Children:
Debra
Pearce - born 24
July 1961. Married James Comby.
Children:
Matthew
James Comby -
born 11 June 1987.
Darryl
Pearce - born 11
July 1963.
Cynthia
Dawn Easton -
born 22 August 1942. Married Arthur Lowe.
Children:
Geoffrey
Lowe - born 14
December 1971.
Cheryl
Lowe - born 7
November 1973.
Vicki
Ellen Easton -
born 7 January 1947. Married Ian Miller.
Children:
Kerri
Miller - born 6
November 1969.
Jodie
Miller - born 24
June 1971.
Glenna
Faye Easton -
born 29 July 1950. Married Allan Macaskill.
Children:
Evelin
Macaskill - born
2 August 1979.
James
Richard Holland
- born 29 July 1893 at Allendale East.
In 1914 joined A.I.F., 5th Reinforcements 5th Pioneer Btln. During the war met and later married Evelyn Ada Collins of Hindmarsh. Became a Farmer at Allendale East. Had three children all girls. Evelyn died on 10 May 1962, aged 62 years,
and Jim died on 28 May 1968. They are
buried at Port MacDonnell Cemetery.
Children:
Thelma
Mary Holland -
born 3 October 1921. Married Kenneth George Feast (born 9 May 1918)
a Farmer.
Children:
Malcolm
George Feast -
born 27 April 1943. Farmer. Married Beryl
Schriever (born 11 December 1947).
Children:
Stuart
Feast - born 8
November 1965. Farmer.
Leonie
Karen Feast -
born 17 July 1967. Married Neil Ashby.
Bronwyn
Mary Feast -
born 27 April 1969.
Marie
Evelyn Feast -
born 20 November 1951. Married John Langdon Beaumont (born 21 October
1949). Foreman.
Children:
Tracy
Ann Beaumont -
born 15 October 1972.
Louise
Beaumont - born
28 July 1975.
Bradley
John Beaumont -
born 18 October 1977.
Roma
Frances Holland
- born 24 March 1924. Married Colin Edward Carrison (born 7 June
1920).
Children:
John
Richard Carrison
- born 27 February 1950. Fisherman.
Married Kathryn Ann Carrison (born 8 May 1954.
Children:
Cristan
Ann Carrison -
born 9 December 1980.
Mark
Andrew Carrison
- born 5 October 1982.
Graham
Edward Carrison
- born 24 April 1955. Forester.
Janine
Mary Carrison -
born 23 March 1962. Married David John Rankin (born 12 July 1954) a
Farm Hand.
Children:
Matthew
John Rankin -
born 19 May 1982.
Joshua
Brent Rankin -
born 15 April 1985.
Joan
Charlotte Holland
- born 24 February 1928. Married James Blacksell. Later married Terence Scanlon (born 7 January 1939).
Children:
Denise
Dawn Blacksell -
born 27 February 1947. Married Peter Schreuder (born 15 February 1945)
a Bricklayer.
Children:
Mark
Richard Schreuder
- born 29 September 1970.
Karen
Lee Schreuder -
born 24 June 1978.
Carol
Joan Blacksell -
born 22 January 1951. Married Anthony Bowden. Later married Stewart Hetherington (born 10 August 1956) a Technician.
Children:
Tracy
Ann Bowden -
born 1 February 1971.
Jodie
Carol Bowden -
born 6 March 1973.
Andrew
Stewart Hetherington
- born 23 June 1980.
Lynne
Dianne Blacksell
- born 14 September 1955. Married Mark Berryman.
Children:
Kelly
Anne Berryman -
born 16 September 1972.
Jy
Richard Berryman
- born 19 March 1978.
Coby
Lee Berryman -
born 4 February 1982.
Noel
Blacksell - born
5 June 1962. Slaughterman. Married Susan
Whithead.
Allan
Francis Holland
- born 13 July 1896 at Allendale East.
Became School Teacher. In 1916
joined A.I.F., 13th Infantry Brigade 50th Btln. On 2 June 1922 married Kathleen
Alma Wilson. Had 1 boy and 2
girls. Allan died on 3 March 1954.
Children:
Allen
Maxwell Holland
- stillborn.
Aileen
Patricia Holland
- born 21 June 1924. Married Malcolm David Harvey (born 13 April
1924, died 10 November 1968).
Children:
Allan
Kym Harvey -
born 8 December 1947. Sales Rep. Married Veronica
Ruth Bull (born 25 September 1959).
Children:
Kirralie
Erin Harvey -
born 26 August 1986.
Aaron
David Harvey -
born 22 August 1988.
David
Craig Harvey -
born 14 August 1951. Sales Rep.
Married Sandra Jennifer McKenzie (born 2 June 1953).
Children:
Deanne
Michelle Harvey
- born 28 February 1977.
Mark
David Harvey -
born 29 July 1981.
Helen
Patricia Harvey
- born 1 May 1957. Data Encoder.
Barbara
Alma Holland -
born 19 July 1933. Died 17 October
1963.
Married Donald Watkins Polden (born 31 December 1924.
Children:
Catherine
Francis Polden -
born 4 October 1955. Advertising Co-op
Groc.
Donald
Timothy Polden -
born 22 June 1957. Engineer. Married Jane
Lindsay Galbraith.
Children:
Sally
Polden - born 8
June 1983.
Benjamin
Polden - born 20
May 1985.
Mark
Phillip Polden -
born 22 December 1958. Operator Power
Station.
Emily
Frances Holland
- born 1897, died 1968. Married William George Rackett.
Henry
Thomas Holland -
born 1900, died 1960. Married Mary Victoria Wallace.
Dorothy
Stella Holland -
born 1903, died 1943. Married Ronald Cyril Gunn.
Daisy
Irene Holland -
born 1907, died 1983. Married George Edward Wallace.
ELIZABETH (Lil) - was born on 26 June
1865. She married Patrick Glynn and
had a family of eight children, all of whom have passed on.
In the earlier days of their
marriage they worked on station properties near Lake Bonney. During this time tragedy struck their
household when their son Jack was drowned in a boating accident. With his
sister, May, he was on Lake Bonney in a small boat when one of the oars went
overboard. Jack swam to retrieve it but
failed in the attempt and disappeared.
May reached the shore by standing in the boat and spreading her skirts
to act as a sail. Jack's body was later
recovered. It was a tragedy felt by the
whole family and long remembered.
Later Pat and Lill took up a farm
at Moorak near the Benara Road and dairying became their main pursuit.
Lill's visits to Allendale were
all too rare. She was an extremely
loyal wife, and mother to her large family, and to the end her faith never
wavered. She died on 5 April 1947,
mourned by children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren alike.
EMILY (Em) - born on 17 February 1868 and never married. From teenage she went out to service as the
role of a servant was described in those days.
She was servant in several first-class homes in Mount Gambier in a
live-in situation. Amongst those most
notable would be Loutit's, the Bank Manager's residence, the Rev. Hartley William's, at the Church of England
Rectory, and the Trevorrow home. Bert
and Vic Trevorrow were deeply attached to Em, who took an almost motherly
interest in them.
After leaving service Em returned
to the old home at Allendale and was there when Eliza died and until George
passed on. From there she went to Emily
Holland's home, followed by periods with Harry and Jim Holland in the old home
of Will. Later she had rooms with Miss
Nell Wallace. Her last home was a small
cottage built for her on the old Holland homestead block which I had purchased
Em was a great lover of children
and intensely loyal to the family. In
her school days when George and Dick were threatened by the ire of their
schoolteacher, she took each by the hand and marched them off home. She had an honest, independent spirit and as
much as she was able, was a generous giver.
It would be hard to say how many pairs of socks she knitted for others.
Her end came suddenly on 18
September 1950. A small stone marks her
resting place in the Port MacDonnell Cemetery.
FRANCES
ELIZA (Fanny) -
born on 18 May 1877.
She married Abraham Barrier Wallace (better known as Bert) and they had a
family of six daughters.
They lived in the old home close
to where George and Daisy Wallace now live.
Bert as well had land opposite the old Laslett home and outlying blocks
near Allendale and Kongorong. Largely
to give his family of daughters a better opportunity for employment they moved
to Belmont, near Geelong, in 1923.
The old home farm was leased to
Mr. C. Kennedy and the 54 acres opposite the old home was purchased by William
Laslett.
Bert was the Superintendent of
the Allendale Sunday School and the removal of the family left a real gap in
the Allendale Church. However this was
to be Belmont's gain and their Christian witness was extended in an area that
was soon to develop beyond expectations.
In this the Wallaces played an important part. Fanny was well-known for her sympathy and understanding of those
in trouble and had an encouraging word for those who found the way difficult.
For Bert and Fanny their greatest
joy and reward was in seeing their children and grandchildren continuing their
work and witness in the Church.
Bert passed on first and on 12
June 1955, Fanny received the Home-call.
They are buried in the Highton Cemetery.
Thomas and Sarah Laslett of Broadstairs
Thomas Laslett was baptised at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 19 June 1836. He was the son of George Laslett of
St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover and his wife Mary Laslett née Hammond (page 86).
By 1851 census indicates that
Thomas had left home.
On 3 April 1865 married his
cousin Sarah Ann Hawkins at Harbledown.
The 1881 shows Thomas and Sarah
living at Broadstairs. It is believed
that Thomas went into the coastguard service but we have yet to find proof.
Family
of Thomas and Sarah Laslett
THOMAS
GEORGE - born at
Sandwich on 27 June 1866. On 16 March
1896 married Kate Louisa Thomas at
St Emanuels Margate. Kate had been born
at Southampton, Hants on 21 February 1863.
Thomas died on 30 January 1938 and Kate on 1 January 1934.
See chapter Thomas and Kate Laslett of Broadstairs on page 131.
HENRY
WILLIAM - born
at Broadstairs c.1873. Died 29 December 1933 aged 67 years.
William and Jane Laslett of Hope Farm
William Laslett was baptised at
St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 25 June 1837. He was the third son of George
Laslett of St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover and his wife Mary Laslett née Hammond
(page 86).
Married Jane Wraight on 23
November 1861 at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover. Jane had been baptised at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 16
April 1837. She was the daughter of James
and Jane Wright of St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover.
William was shown in the 1881
census as an agricultural labourer.
William moved to Canterbury with
his daughter and son in law about 1908.
Family
of William and Jane Laslett
GEORGE - buried at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 11 November 1866, aged 4.
CATHERINE
ANN - buried at
St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 11 November 1866, aged 2.
ANN
ELIZABETH -
baptised at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 29 September 1867. On 7 April 1904 married Henry Osborn Austin of Hope Farm.
Henry was the son of James George Austin, a Carpenter. They moved to Canterbury about 1906.
Family
Elizabeth
Hope Austin -
baptised at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover in 1906. Married Rev. George E.T. Brooks of Canterbury. He had been born at Bristol on 10 June 1902.
Her son Stephen sent me Hope's death notice from the Kentish Gazette of 17 July
1997. In it it gives Christian names as 'Margaret Hope'. She died on 7 July
1997.
Family
John
Richard Brooks -
born Barbados.
Stephen
Henry Brooks -
born Barbados.
Richard and Mary Laslett of London
Richard Laslett was born at
Hoaden Farm, Ash and baptised at Ash on 29 July 1832. He was the second son of George Laslett, a farmer at Hoaden farm,
Ash, and his wife Mary Ann Laslett née Hunt (page 70).
The 1851 census shows that
Richard was a linendraper's assistant at Commerce House, 6 Kennington Cross,
Kennington, Lambeth, Surrey.
Richard married his sister in
law's sister Mary Ann Hart. Mary had
been born in 1836 (1881 census says 1831) Woolwich.
Census records show that Richard
was a Master Draper there and may have brought his brother George up to
Brighton.
The 1861 census shows his
business was at 20 Western Road, Brighton shows and that he appears to employ his
brother in law John W. Hart then aged 20 (born Woolwich Kent) and unmarried as
a Drapers Assistant. There was also a
James Mason (unmarried, age 17, born Stalford (?) Essex) show as a Drapers
Assistant and Mary Wichlershaw (unmarried, age 17, born Wales) shown as a House
Servant. In addition Sarah Brazier and
Mary Arnold together with Henrietta Laslett, the wife of Richard's brother
Thomas, and her infant son Arthur were shown as visitors.
Various Folthorp's Directory
(1862, 1865 & 1869) record R. Laslett, linendraper, hosier, etc at 20
Western Road and as the last child was born at Brigton in 1870 it appears
Richard made the move up to London in the early 1870s.
He probably sold his business to
C.A. Parker but appears to have helped set up his brother George who would have
taken over Richard's customers. George
is shown in the 1875 Folthorp's Directory as being a draper at 16 Edward
St. The same directory records C.A. Parker
as fancy draper & milliner at 20 Western Street. The 1881 census gives his address
as 12 Clifton St., Brighton, Sussex and occupation as ‘shop walker (draper)’.
By this stage he had only one child living there ‘Percy S.’ a 15 year old son
who was a student teacher. Richard also had two older (50 & 65) woman
lodgers living there plus a young female servant.
We have not traced Richard's
later life in London but note that the 1881 Post Office London directory shows
the firm of Laslett, Woodroffe & Co., Manufacturer's Agents at 38 Wood
Street, Cheapside. This conflicts with the 1881 UK census which shows Richard
and Mary as living at 12 Clifton Street, Brighton. Richard’s occupation is
given as a Shopwalker (Drapers). It would be posssible that Richard worked for
his brother George who at this time was running and owning a very successful
drapers at 74 Blatchington Road, Hove, employing, so it states, his family. A
Percy Saville age 16 was the only other person listed as living in Brighton
with Richard and Mary in the 1881 census.
Family
of Richard and Mary Laslett
Sons
WILLIAM
HENRY - borm 10
March 1858 at 24 Western Road, Brighton Sussex. Married Laura Watson
Renney on 3 February 1904. William
worked in the Baltic timber trade until his death in June 1917 at Riga in
Russia.
See chapter William and Laura Laslett of Riga on page 130.
ARCHIBOLD
CHARLES - born
1860 at Brighton Sussex. Died at Brighton in 1871 aged 11.
ERNEST
RICHARD - born
1862 at Brighton Sussex. In the 1881 census was listed as a servant at North
Street, Portslade, where the head of house was John Lewry a draper.
SIDNEY
HERBERT – born
1864 at Brighton, Sussex. Died at Lewis in 1921.
BERTRAM - born 1866 at Brighton Sussex.
Died Brighton in 1886.
JOHN
HART - born 1867
at Brighton Sussex. In the 1881 census was listed at school in Gillingham, Dorset as a border. Died at the
Isle of Wight in 1893 aged 26.
EDWARD – born 1868 at Brighton. In the
1881 census was at 130 Kings Street, Ramsgate. Head of house was James Laslett
who was a shop owner.
Daughter
FLORENCE
EMILY - born
1870 at Brighton Sussex. In the 1881 census living at 12 Goldstone Villas,
Hove. This was presumably a school as head of house was Mr Simmons (invalided)
and his wife was a school mistress and there were several other scholars there.
EDITH
ELLEN – born
1872. In the 1881 census was at same school as Florence.
George and Mary Laslett of West Cliffe, Dover
George Laslett was baptised at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe on 8 February 1835 the first son of George Laslett a farmer
of Hope Farm, Dover and his wife Mary Laslett née Hammond (see page 86).
About October 1873 George married Mary Ann
J. Dixon at Dover. Mary had been born in West Langdon Kent in 1838.
George was buried at St
Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 26 March 1904.
Family
of George and Mary Laslett
Sons
HENRY
GEORGE – born in
1875 at West Cliffe, Dover. He married Deborah
Jennings Humphrey 0n 29 December 1907 in Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada. She was born 1878 in England, and died in 1953
at Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada. Henry died at Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada in
1950.
See chapter Henry and Deborah Laslett of Shoal Lake, Manitoba on page 143.
Daughters
ANN (ANNIE) - born in 1876 at West Cliffe,
Dover. On 25 September 1897 Annie shown as aged 21, a Spinster, married Alfred Matcham, a batchelor of 23, at
St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover. Alfred had been born on 22 March 1874 at Coldred
in Kent the son of Alfred Matcham and his wife Esther (née Best). Around 1908 Alfred and Annie immigrated to
Canada and settled at Shoal Lake in Manitoba where Alfred worked as a Brick
Layer. Annie died on 25 May 1910 at Shoal Lake. Alfred died on 3 January 1930
in Burnaby, New Westminister, B.C., Canada.
Family:
Alfred
Charles Matcham –
born 5 August 1898 at Dover in Kent. He immigrated to Canada and married Pearl Emily Hurst of Shoal Lake,
Manitoba. He died on 5 March 1977 at Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Family
Ruth Ann Matcham - born November 1939 in Shoal
Lake, Manitoba. In 1963 Ruth married Gordon
Arthur Robinson. He was born in
Swan River, Manitoba and died on 15 July 1970 in Westbank, B.C. She then married Gerald Brunner in 1972 Gerald had been born in Ellensburg,
Washington, USA. Children: Joseph, Michael and Catherine Robininson.
Walter
James Matcham –
born 21 February 1903. Married Norah
Dandridge born 20 August 1893, Shoal Lake, Manitoba. Died 1972, Winnipeg
Manitoba. Divorced. Walter’s second marriage was to Hazel Short and third to Edith
Bambridge in 1962 at Regina, Saskatchewan. Walter died in 1968 at Regina,
Saskatchewan.
Dorothy Annie
Matcham – born
27 September 1905 in London, England. In about 1923 she married Arthur Fuller Dandridge in Shoal Lake,
Manitoba the son of Oliver Dandridge and Mary Fuller. He was born on 10 October 1891 in Shoal Lake and died on 27
November 1951 in Vancouver, B.C. Dorothy’s second marriage was to Hector Ridell 0n 27 September 1958 in
Victoria, B.C. Hector died about 1987
in Vancouver, B.C. Dorothy died on 18 April 1982 at 1872 Nelson St., Vancouver,
B.C.
Family
Shirley Ann
Dandridge – born
16 January 1931 at Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Shirley married Alexander Mcgill Young on 17 January 1952 at Vancouver, B.C.
Shirley died on 12 November 1999 at Richmond, B.C. Children: Susan Marie (who
married Eric Joseph Wickberg on 7 May 1983 in Vancouver), Heather Mae and Linda
Lou.
Lorne Dandridge – born 24 September 1932 at
Shoal Lake, Manitoba. On 26 May 1962 he married Gloria Horrocks in Vancouver, B.C. Children: Lisa, Stephen and
Karen.
MARY JANE (Polly) – born in 1880 at
West Cliffe, Dover and baptised at St Margaraet-at-Cliffe on 13 February 1881.
Married George Baldrow on 1 January
1908 at Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada.
John and Emma Lasslett of Elsternwick
John Vevers Lasslett was the
third son of William and Sarah Lasslett (page 76). He was born
on 29 May 1838 at Swalecliffe in Kent and was baptised on 1 July 1838 at St
John the Baptist church in Swalecliffe.
On 15 February 1874 married Emma
Southall at Christ Church in South Yarra.
Witnesses were John’s brother Frederick and Emma’s Uncle Henry Rider. John
gave his occupation as carpenter and his residence as Bridgewater on Loddon and
Emma hers as Pine Street, South Yarra. Emma was a widow who had been born in
Sydney on 30 April 1849 from Sydney whose maiden name was Rider and she was the
daughter of Jonas Brown Rider, an Engineer, and Mary Lucy Rider, née Parkin. The
family had moved to Victoria and Emma had married Richard Southall 0n 20
January 1869 at the Church of England in Malmsbury. Richard and Emma had three
children. Richard died on 29 September 1872.
In the Bailliere's Victorian
Directory for 1875 John Lasslett is shown as a Carpenter living at
Bridgewater-on-Loddon a small township on the Loddon river, lying about 3 miles
S.E. of Inglewood, "it is a place of little importance, except as being a
roadside township between Dunolly and Inglewood." By 1880 the Melbourne P.O. Directory showns
John Laslett living at 2 St. John Street, Prahran.
It appears that around 1890 John
left Emma. His grandson Frank says that
he was told that John went to Western Australia but we have found no record of
him in that State and whether he actually went there is a matter for conjecture. Frank also says that Emma became a District
Nurse and Midwife. The 1894 Post Office
Directory shows a Mrs J. Laslitt, Ladies' Nurse, at 6 York Street, Prahran. The 1900 directory has a Mrs Emma Laslitt,
Ld's Nurse, at the same address and a J. Lasset at 19 Arcade Street,
Prahran. It seems more likely that he
stayed in Victoria as in the 1908 Electoral Roll a John Lasslett, carpenter, of
Ruffy appears. Ruffy is up near the New
South Wales border on the Goulburn River near the town of Longwood. In the same Electoral Roll Emma appears
living with her son, Alfred, in St. George's Road, Elsternwick.
John died aged 77 at Pakenham in
1915 while Emma died aged 82 at 14 Coleridge St, Elwood, St. Kilda on 9 June 1931.
Her occupation was given as Home Duties and the cause of death ‘chronic heart
disease’.
Family
of John and Emma Lasslett
WILLIAM - born 1875 at Melbourne. Died 9 February 1907 at the Hospital for the
Insane at Kew Vic. Cause of death was given by the Coroner as Broncho –
Pneunomia and Cerebral Atrophy. The death record states that the names of
William’s father and mother were unknown. When I mentioned this record to Frank
Lasslett in 1988 it came as a complete surprise to him as his father Alfred had
never mentioned an older brother to him.
ALFRED
ERNEST - born 10
January 1879. Became a Bank Manager
with the State Savings Bank of Victoria.
Married Minnie McKay on 15
December 1910 at the Presbyterian Church in Warrnambool. Minnie had been born on 22 June 1880 at
Mailors Flat, Woodward, to Mary McKay.
Alfred died on 30 September 1938 and Minnie in July 1966.
See chapter Alfred and Minnie Lasslett of Caulfield on page 144.
Thomas and Rhoda Laslett of Eynsham
Thomas Manger Laslett born at
Hole Farm, Sturry near Canterbury on 9 February 1839 the sixth child of George
Laslett, a Farmer, and Charlotte Laslett née Manger (page 54).
Thomas was a Draper at Eynsham,
Oxfordshire running his own business as an outfitter and haberdasher but not
very successfully as it seems pretty clear that he went bankrupt. Thomas's grandson, Robert, writing in 1988
said that as far as he knew the shop is still there in Eynsham, but what goes
on there he does not know.
The business must have been kept
up no matter how marginal its profitability as with a large family to support
Thomas could not afford to go under.
Perhaps as a result of these
difficulties Rhoda inspired her children to intellectual curiosity and used to
read to them a good deal. In later
years her son Ruffell could remember her reading Macaulay's essays to him. Most unusual reading for a Draper's wife in
Oxfordshire.
Writing in 1988 Robert Laslett
remembered Rhoda's influence: "For us, I think that my father's mother
began a strain of academic interests which have continued in my brothers Peter
and John, and I suppose to some extent in myself and indeed in my sisters
Barbara and Margaret. I refer to this
with some diffidence, not to claim anything out of the ordinary as families go
across the generations, but to emphasise the point that she, Rhoda Ruffell must
have been rather an exceptional person in that she pursued this interest when
married to a rather ineffectual husband without money, and inevitably very busy
as a mother of eight children in a very small house at Eynsham. When I met my father's brother Gilbert I
remember that he had with him a copy of Hammond's The Village Labourer (a classical history text) which he had
brought to read in the train. I have
also a photo of grandmother reading to all of us when we were young - she put
great importance on reading and set the example."
Thomas died on 19 January 1899
and is buried in Eynsham. I have no
details on when Rhoda died but she appears to have still been alive at the
start of WWI.
Family
of Thomas and Rhoda Laslett
Sons
SAMUEL
GILBERT -
(Gilbert) - born 26 September 1880. A Draper, Fleet, Hampshire. Married Bessie
Balcome. Had four sons and three
daughters, Margaret, Kathleen, and Greta.
Gilbert was more successful than
his father, Thomas, at running a draper's business and did well. He had a chain
of shops in the Aldershot area and had the slogan "Laslett's Value"
on his shops.
His son Emerson was an RAF pilot and had the unfortunate distinction of
being among the very first prisoners of war.
He was shot down in the raid on the Kiel canal in September 1939 and
spent the war in captivity. He is now
dead (1988).
His daughter Greta married a German Foreign Office official and lived in
Berlin. Robert Laslett thinks she left
her husband in Germany just before the 1939 war, and he just disappeared -
probably in an air raid on the city.
Greta was still alive at the time of writing (1988).
We know nothing about the rest of
that family.
HENRY
GEORGE RUFFELL -
(Ruffell) - born 30 October 1882, a Baptist Minister at Oxford. Married Eveline
Alden in 1912. Henry died October
1963 while Eveline died in 1970.
See chapter Ruffell and Eveline Laslett on page 145.
CECIL
H. R. - born
December 1883. Died an infant.
CHRISTOPHER
PHILLIP - born 8
May 1888, draper's assistant (pre-WWI).
Rhoda writing to her niece Bessie in 1915 reported Christopher's
enlistment and confided in Bessie that she considered Christopher just like his
father. He later became a
Congregational Minister, and was in some ways, a smaller edition of his brother
Ruffell. He was more retiring and
diffident - he too served in the Mesopotania campaign and by strange chance,
met Ruffell in the desert. Christopher
lived for many years with his sister Charlotte.
Daughters
PRISCILLA
EDITH - born 1
July 1873. In partnership (1911) with
Miss Hare in Boarding School, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Died about 1970.
Robert Laslett remembers Edith
Priscilla as a formidable person who shared his father's intellectual
interests. Today she would be well
described as a "blue stocking".
She was extremely well read and could hold her own in any academic
company. She visited his sister Barbara
in London in the sixties and he remembers she was most critical of him when he
went with her to a concert in the Festival Hall wearing a coloured shirt! She was an engaging companion, but had
strong views on most topics of conversation.
She too was encouraged in her intellectual interests by her mother. Like her mother she too read whatever she
could find - mostly literature - she certainly displayed a vast knowledge of
19th century novelists in the short time of Robert's meeting with her. She was imperious and rather intolerant but
she was a sweet person underneath.
NORAH
CHARLOTTE - born
15 November 1874, died in 1890. Buried
at Eynsham
FLORENCE
RUTH - born
August 1876.
Married John Burr, Reigate, Surrey, Grocer.
Daughters
Irene
Laslett Burr
Winifred
Burr.
CHARLOTTE
RHODA - born 17
February 1879, a draper's assistant.
Died about 1965.
Charlotte left the Eynsham shop
and served in the 1914-1918 equivalent of the ATS - Auxiliary Territorial
Services - which was the women's army.
She rose to the rank of Captain, and was a very successful manager. She was a great talker too and is chiefly
remembered for this. We do not know the
details of her career in business after the Great War but she did for many
years live with her brother Christopher.
Edward and Eliza Laslett of Sandridge
Edward Laslett was born at Hoaden
Farm, Ash and baptised at Ash on 19 May 1839.
He was the seventh son of George Laslett a farmer of Ash and his wife
Mary Laslett née Hunt (page 70).
On 17 November 1860 Edward
married Eliza Buckland, spinster, (born 1837 at Maidstone) at Loose in
Kent. She was the daughter of John
Buckland and Martha Smith. Edward gave
his occupation as miller.
Edward and Eliza immigrated to
Victoria where they had a grocery store at Sandridge. Lived at Garton Street, and later Bay Street, Sandridge in Port
Melbourne. When his son Herbert was
born in 1872 Edward gave his occupation as labourer while when Herbert married
in 1893 he gave his late father's occupation as Miller.
Edward died in 1889 and is buried
at Hawthorn.
In 1900 Eliza's address was 120
Montague Street South, South Melbourne.
She died in 1917 and is buried at Diamond Creek.
Family
of Edward and Eliza Laslett
Sons
HENRY
EDWARD - born
1863 Sandridge Victoria. In 1884 married Louisa
Ann Walker the daughter of Edward Walker and Emily Parker. The 1894 Melbourne P.O. directory records a
Henry E. Laslett, Auctioneer of 397 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, Victoria. There is Ellis
Island New York record of arrival for a “Laslett, Edward Henry
Australian citizen
20 Aug 1902 aged
39y
Male
Single Ship:
Oceanic
Port of Departure:
Liverpool, England, UK” which appears to be Henry. Henry appears to have
divorced and a second marriage, to a Selina
Lillian Goss at Port Melbourne in 1906, is recorded although no issue
appear to have resulted from this marriage.
Louisa died in 1929 and is buried in Brunswick Victoria. Henry moved to Western Australia where he
set up as a Stock and Station Agent in Kalgoorlie. There is still a large building standing there called 'Laslett
Chambers'.
Children:
Henry
Edward - born
1885. Died 1889 in Carlton.
Ethel
Louisa - born
1888 in Port Melbourne. Married Arthur Reynolds in 1910 at Port
Melbourne.
Children:
Thelma
May Laslett –
born 1909 in South Melbourne, Vic. And died there in 1910.
Louisa
Thelma Reynolds
- born 1911 in South Melbourne, Vic.
Cyril
Lancaster Reynolds
- born 1913 in Port Melbourne, Vic.
Margaret
Lillian Reynolds
- born 1915 in Coburg, Vic.
Edna
Ethel Reynolds -
born 1917 in South Melbourne, Vic.
Lillian
Emily - born
1889 in Port Melbourne, Vic. Died aged
10 months in 1890 and buried at Port Melbourne.
Ruby
May - born 1891
in Port Melbourne, Vic. Married George
Crombie Dickson in 1915 in Victoria.
Emily
Ray - born 1893
in Hawthorne, Vic. Married Clarence
Edward Templeton in 1919 in Victoria.
Stella
Victoria - born
1898 in East Coolgardie, W.A. Married William
Gordon Phillips in 1919 in Victora.
Rita
Eileen Kalgoolie -
born 1899 in East Coolgardie, W.A. Married William
Medhurst in 1920 in Victoria. Ria died at West Brunswick, Vic. in 1943.
ERNEST - born 1868 at Sandridge, Vic.
and died there the same year.
HERBERT
ARTHUR - born 1
March 1872 at Garton Street, Sandridge Victoria. A plumber. Herbert was
married at St. Columb's C of E in Hawthorn to Jeannie Currie on 21 June 1893.
Jeannie died in Fremantle in 1899.
Herbert he married Hannah Mary
Kerr, a nurse, at St Albans Church of England in Perth on 5 January 1901.
Herbert on 27 November 1938 at Mandurah, W.A.
Hannah died at Fairy Meadow, N.S.W. on 11 October 1949.
See chapter Herbert Laslett and his wives Jeannie and Hannah on page 138.
Daughters
CAROLINE - born 1865 at Sandridge
Victoria. In 1891 married Thomas McDowell at Port Melbourne.
Caroline died in 1953 at Camberwell, Vic.
Children:
Nellie
McDowell – born
in 1892 at Hawthorn, Vic.
James
McDowell – born
in 1893 at Hawthorn, Vic. Died at Ferntree Culley, Vic. in 1960.
Lillian
McDowell – born
in 1894 at Hawthorn, Vic. and died there in 1895 aged five months.
William
Edward McDowell
– born in 1896 at Hawthorn, Vic. and died there in 1945.
Thomas
Murray McDowell
– born in 1906 at Hawthorn, Vic. – a twin of Caroline. Died early in 1906 at
Hawthorn.
Caroline
Jean McDowell –
born in 1906 at Hawthorn, Vic. – a twin of Thomas.
LILLIAN
ELIZA - born
1869 at Sandridge Victoria. Married Robert Alexander(Alec) Stewart at Port
Melbourne in 1905. Lilian died at South Melbourne in 1952. In Nillumbik
(Diamond Creek) Cemetery there is a tombstone inscribed: ‘In
loving memory of Robert Stewart died 18th July 1948 Also Lillian Eliza Stewart
wife of above died 19th March 1952 In her 83rd year. Robert A. Stewart died
18.7.1948 - aged 77. Lillian E. Stewart (nee Lasslett) died 19.3.1952 aged 82
Loved parents of Eva. McKay 15.6.1906-11.9.1994 (Phillip Is.) and Archibald E.
Stewart 11.7.1910-4.10.1995 here interred father of George, Robert, John &
Bette’
Children:
Eva
Dorothy Stewart
– born 15 June 1906. Married Victor
Claude McKay on 18 June 1932. Eva died at Phillip Island on 11 September
1994
Child:
Dorothy Margaret McKay – born 19 March
1934.
Archibald(Archie)
Edward Stewart –
born in 11 July 1910 at Ivanhoe, Vic. Had a dairy farm in Fish Creek Gippsland. Died 4 October 1995. Children - George,
Robert, John & Bette.
Thomas and Julia Laslett of Woodnesborough
Thomas Knight Laslett was born at
Coomb, Ash on 9 November 1840 and baptised at Ash on 7 March 1841. He was the fifth son of Robert Laslett a
market gardener of Ash next Sandwich and his wife Mary Ann Laslett née Knight
(page 74).
On 1 August 1860 Thomas married
Julia Hunt, 2 years older, of Woodnesborough at the Independent Chapel in
Cattle Market, Sandwich.
They had a family of 9 boys and 6
girls.
Julia died at Ash on 3 August
1913 and is buried in the family vault in the Ash Church Yard with Thomas who
died in 1914.
Family
of Thomas and Julia Laslett
Sons
THOMAS
KNIGHT - born 15
September 1861 (reg Eastry 12Q/61 vol 2a page 657) and baptised at Goodnestone
next Wingham on 3 November 1861. On 14
March 1887 married Sarah Jane Wickenden
(reg Milton March quarter 1887 vol 2a page 997). Thomas's niece Mabel Beatrix remembers that he 'ran off' with a
local beauty and became a coachman at Tunbridge Wells. Children:
Thomas
Hilda
GEORGE
ROBERT - born 16
October 1862 and baptised at Goodnestone next Wingham on 28 December 1862. On 17 December 1885 married Edith Sarah Hooker. She was born at Marshborough on 30 April
1866. Farmed at Rivermere.
Children:
William - born c.1905. Immigrated to Australia and lived at
Shepparton, Vic. Had a daughter. Wife's name Minnie Shipston as there was a Minnie Laslett living in Shepparton
(1984).
Children:
William
George - died
Calton Victoria 1931.
Charles
Walter
Frederick
WILLIAM - born 25 July 1864 and baptised
at Woodnesborough on 11 September 1864.
Died at sea whilst onboard HMS Gannet on passage from Alexandria to
Malta, 22 July 1884. Buried in Malta.
JOHN - born 4 October 1866 and
baptised at Woodnesborough on 16 December 1866. Died on 22 July 1875 at Woodnesborough, and buried there on 26
July 1875.
ALFRED - born 11 July 1870 and baptised
at Woodnesborough on 6 November 1870.
Died 12 May 1875 at Woodnesborough and buried there on 22 May 1875.
WALTER - born 11 May 1872 and baptised
at Woodnesborough on 1 September 1872.
Died 19 May 1875 at Woodnesborough and buried there on 22 May 1875.
CHARLES
HORN - born 17
July 1875 and baptised at Woodnesborough on 5 September 1875. Farmed at Beacon
Lane. Married Ada Ann Taylor in 1896. In 2000 Michael Laslett was visting St
Mary’s church Woodnesborough and ‘met an 80 year old man tidying the graveyard
who showed me the grave of Herbert Horne Laslett who died as recently as 1993.
He also recalled Herbert’s father Charles Horn who “enjoyed his ale and on many
occasions it was the horse which found the way home.”’
Children:
William
Charles - born
1907. Factory Worker. Married 1 September 1932. Died 1989.
Children:
Peter - married Beryl Newman.
Children:
Sharon
Heather
Godfrey - Farmer (market gardener) at
Nash Farm, Hoden. Married June(?)
Children:
Simon
Sarah
Herbert
Horn(e) - born
11 January 1912. In 1932 married Ruby Overden and managed wife's
family's farm. Herbert died in 1993 and is buried in St Mary’s Woodnesborough
churchyard.
Children:
Ivan
Children:
Ivana
Tina
Mary
Andrew
Robert
Children:
Rubert
Christopher
Nicholas
James
Audrey - born 1913. Married Leslie
John Sanders in 1937.
Children:
John
Sanders -
married Hilary Thomas.
Janice
Sanders -
married Keith Savage.
Children:
Debbie
Savage - married
Bhrim Zuhar.
Kevin
Savage
FREDERICK - born 25 February 1881. A market gardener at "Rosedale"
Marshboro (which was a wedding present from his father. Married Edith
Ellen Drayson. Frederick died on 24
June 1932 as the result of a shooting accident, Edith died 17 May 1950. Both
are buried in the same grave in Woodnesborough Church Grave Yard.
Children:
Mabel
Beatrix Laslett
- born 1904 at Marshboro and is now living in Sandwich (1989). Known as
Beatrix. In 1925 married Jean-Pierre Maray (born 1902) a sports
journalist of St Chamard, France.
Jean-Pierre was made a member of the Lègion d'Honneur by De Gaulle for
Resistance work during WWII. He died in
1976. I have no details of their
immediate family but their grandson Guy has given me the details for his brother
and he. Details for Joy Flouch come from her tombstone.
Children:
Joy – Born 1934 died 1987. Buried in
Woodnesborough Church Grave Yark in her parent’s grave.
Children:
Harold
Ernest Laslett -
born 1906 at Marshboro. Market gardener
at "Rosedale". Married Dorothy May Russell (born 1911). Harold died at Marshboro in 1987 and Dorothy
died in 1989. They are buried in the same grave in Woodnesborough Church
Graveyard.
Children:
Phillip
Laslett - born
1950 at Marshboro. Jazz drummer and
market gardener at "Rosedale".
Unmarried.
Stephen
Laslett - born
1954 at Marshboro. English teacher now
living at Cambridge (1989). Unmarried.
Mollie
Laslett - born
1916 at Marshboro and died there in 1984.
Married Eddie Harle an
accountant. Eddie died in 1986. No details of children.
LOUIS - born 10 June 1883, and only
lived 10 months, dying at Woodnesborough on 5 April 1884.
Daughters
JULIA - born 26 November 1868 and
baptised at Woodnesborough on 28 March 1869.
In 1890 married Thomas Knight
a labourer – registered Eastry June quarter 1890 vol 2a page 1563..
MARTHA
MARIA - born 9
November 1873 and baptised at Woodnesborough on 22 February 1874. Known as Maria. Married the manager of Chislet coalmine.
ROSE - born 3 May 1877 and baptised
at Woodnesborough on 18 July 1877.
ROSA - baptised at Woodnesborough on
1 December 1878. Married Arthur Meads a carpenter.
MARY
ANN - born 5
September 1878 and baptised at Woodnesborough on 1 December 1878. Known as Annie. Married Louis a Singer
representative.
EDITH - born at Marshborough on 18
December 1879 and baptised at Woodnesborough on 2 May 1880. On 5 July 1911 married William George Sadler, a stable owner, the son of James Sadler.
Children:
Doris
Ellen Sadler -
born 11 August 1911. On 26 January 1936
married Albert Victor Hoile. Doris died on 19 July 1979.
Children:
Valerie
Ann Hoile - born
14 February 1937. In June 1960 married Geoffrey Hopcraft.
Children:
Malcolm
Hopcraft - born
16 May 1961.
Robin
Hopcraft - born
19 October 1963.
Francis
Hopcraft - born
2 January 1966.
Sheena
Mary Hoile -
born 7 July 1941. On 11 August 1961
married David Richard Parsons.
Children:
Jayne
Ellen Parsons -
born 8 August 1964.
Tanya
Ann Parsons -
born 12 April 1967.
Bruce
David Parsons -
born 7 Fenruary 1969.
Michael
John Hoile -
born 12 September 1946. In April 1968 married Valerie Ann Smith.
Children:
Warren
Hoile - born 29
October 1968.
Emma
Hoile
Robert
Hoile
James
Walter Sadler
Albert
French Sadler -
died 13 May 1979.
Children:
Paul
French Sadler
Alfred
Sadler
Children:
Pam
Sadler
Terry
Sadler
Carole
Sadler
Philip
Sadler
Thomas Laslett of Chatham and his wives Louisa, Harriet, Mary and Clara
Thomas Newnham Laslett was born
at born 22 December 1841 at Chatham. He
was the eldest son of Thomas Laslett, timber inspector for the Admiralty, and
his wife Harriet Milicent Laslett née Newnham (page 87).
Architect. Thomas married four times but all the
marriages, except the first, were childless.
The first marriage was at St
Lukes Church, Old Charlton, Kent on 1 December 1866 to a widow named Louisa Ann
Covil née Weekes. Louisa had been born
on 9 January 1838 at Princess Street, Gillingham. She died at Charlton at 5.25 a.m. on 8 January 1891. The death was registered at Woolwich in the
March quarter of 1891 (vol 1d page 832).
The second marriage was at St
Margarets Church, Stoke Golding, Leicester on 6 April 1895 to Harriet Matilda
Moxon, a spinster. Harriet had been
born on 27 July 1907. She died at 6
Brockenhurst Road, Ramsgate at 2.05 p.m. on 27 July 1907.
The third marriage was at All
Saints Church, Lullington, Leicester on 1 September 1908 to Mary Elizabeth
Moxon, a spinster. Mary had been born
on 28 August 1856. She died at 6
Brockenhurst Road, Ramsgate at 10 p.m. on 1 April 1915.
The British Library holds the following two publications by Thomas:
Carol for Christmas ... Words by W.
Pritchard. Laslett. Thomas Newnham 1914
Chants for use in churches … Laslett. Thomas Newnham 1905[GL1]
The fourth marriage was on 19
March 1921 to a widow named Clara Charlotte Groombridge.
Thomas died at 8 North Avenue,
Ramsgate at 3.20 p.m. on 29 August 1923.
Family
of Thomas and Louisa Laslett
Sons
THOMAS
FREDERICK - born
at 6 Lower Woodland Terrace, Charlton at 1.10 a.m. on 5 October 1868 and
baptised at St Marys Church, Woolwich on 18 November 1865. Thomas died on 14 December 1868 aged 9
weeks.
WILLIAM
THOMAS - born at
6 Lower Woodland Terrace, Charlton at 10.15 a.m. on 12 November 1869 and
baptised at St Marys Church, Woolwich on 29 December 1869. Married Edith
Laura Willings on 12 September 1895.
Edith was the third daughter of James William Willings of 2 Moss Lea
Road, Penge, S.E. William died in May
1944 at Eureka Road, Midway, Burton-on-Trent and Edith died there also on 1
September 1955.
See chapter Thomas and Edith Laslett of Penge on page 133.
THOMAS
HENRY (Tim) -
born at 97 Maryon Road, Charlton at 5 p.m. on 30 November 1874 and baptised at
St Marys Church, Woolwich on 30 December 1874.
Immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s. Moved to Western Australia in the 1920s and lived at Cottesloe
where he opened a store. Married Rena Murray, probably in Canada, but no
known issue. Died of stomach cancer on
22 April 1947 and buried at Karrakatta.
FREDERICK
CHARLES - born
at 97 Maryon Road, Charlton at 1.55 a.m. on 1 March 1880 and baptised at St
Thomas Church, Woolwich on 27 March 1880.
ALFRED
ERNEST - born at
97 Maryon Road, Charlton at 6.45 p.m. on 12 October 1882. He immigrated and lived in Detroit. Married Mildred
Mary Moss who had been born in Michigan on 31 July 1888 and died on 27
April 1988 at Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga, OH.
Daughters
ELEANOR
LOUISA - born at
6 Lower Woodland Terrace, Charlton at 5.15 a.m. on 24 August 1867 and baptised
at St Marys Church, Woolwich on 6 November 1865. Eleanor married James
Dougall on 26 February 1903.
JULIA
ANN SUSAN - born
at 40 Salem Street, Bradford, Yorkshire at 9.35 a.m. on 21 November 1871 and
baptised at St Marys Church, Woolwich on 30 December 1874. Married twice, firstly to a Mr. Robinson and they lived at 12
Dumpton Road, St Lawrence on Sea, Thanet.
He second husband was Charles
Vanderpied Simpson, a compositor, whom she married on 29 June 1912. They
lived at 63 Horsford Road, Brixton Hill.
MARIA
JANE - born at
97 Maryon Road, Charlton at 5 p.m. on 17 September 1878 and baptised at St
Thomas Church, Woolwich on 17 November 1878.
Married twice, firstly to a Mr.
Boden then on 26 June 1912 to a Mr.
Marshall. They went under the name
'Laslett-Marshall'.
Stephen and Elizabeth Laslett of Southfields
Stephen Laslett was born at
Richborough Ash on 7 January 1842. He
was the third son of Charles Laslett, a farmer and fruiterer of Richborough,
and his wife Mary Laslett née Hellier (page 69).
Occupation Miller and Corn
Dealer.
On 25 June 1870 married Elizabeth
Muzzall at Woodmancote near Hurstpierpoint, Sussex Elizabeth was born on 8 October 1847 at Henfield, Sussex the
daughter of John Muzzall and his wife Harriet née Stringer. Stephen and
Elizabeth lived in Ash and later moved to 62 Smeaton Road, Southfields, SW18.
In 1881 their address was Windmill Road, Sunbury, Middlesex.
Family
of Stephen and Elizabeth Laslett
Sons
PERCY
JACK - born 1875
in Sunbury, Middlesex. A Hospital
Porter. Single.
ERNEST
HELLIER - born 6
July 1885 in Sandwich district of Kent.
A bricklayer. In 1913 married Sarah
Ann Amor.
See chapter Ernest and Sarah Laslett of Southfields on page 148.
FRANK
ROLAND – born
1893 at Woodmancote(?). Married.
Children:
Gordon
Son
2
Daughters
MARY
ANN – born 1876
Sunbury, Middlesex. Married
Elizabeth – born 1877 Sunbury, Middlesex.
ANN – born 1880, Sunbury Middlesex.
Married George Hare.
Children:
George
Hare.
.
Frederick and Julia Lasslett of Hurlstone Park
Frederick Rook Lasslett was born
on 9 November 1845 at Swalecliffe the second of twin sons born to William
Lasslett, a cabinet maker and wheelwright of Swalecliffe, and Sarah Lasslett
née Vevers (page 76). He was
baptised with his twin brother Benjamin Wynn at St John the Baptist Church at
Swalecliffe on 21 November 1845. Both
'Benjamin Wynn' and 'Frederick Rook' were not 'family' names so we can only
surmise that William and Sarah followed what appears to be a practise at the
time of, when twins were born, naming them after local worthies or persons of
substance. Benjamin appears to have
picked up his 'Benjamin Wynn' from the Wynn family who feature in the
Swalecliffe Parish Churchwarden's Book as the local gentry and joint owners of
the parish's major rateable property.
We have still to find out from where 'Frederick Rook' came into the
family although a builder's square in the writer's possession that belonged to
Frederick is clearly marked 'F Rook'.
This indicates that Frederick was probably named after a family friend
who was a builder in the area.
On 18 January 1853 Frederick, his
parents and brothers and sisters joined the 'Woodstock' of 967 tons and along
with nearly 300 other passengers sailed for Melbourne in the colony of
Victoria. After a voyage of 98 days
the 'Woodstock' docked in Port Phillip Bay on 1 May 1853.
The family stayed in Melbourne
for only a short time and by June 1854 had moved just south of Bendigo to the
Kyneton district. They settled first at
Carlsruhe then moved to Malmsbury where by 1868 Frederick had a carpentry
business with his younger brother William.
The 1868 edition of Bailliere's Victorian Directory shows F. & W.
Lasslett, as carpenters of Mollison Street, Malmsbury. This listing continued until 1872 when we suppose
that the brothers dissolved their partnership and went their different ways.
These years had also seen
Frederick marry and start a family as on 23 February 1868 he had married Julia
Mary Abbott of Melbourne, Victoria at the Lasslett family home in Malmsbury. Julia had been born in London in 1848 the
daughter of Alfred Chapman Abbott and Harriet Jessica Abbott (née Bell) his
wife. Additionally, on 4 February 1871,
their first and only child, also called Frederick, was born.
The fortunes of Malmsbury were
declining as the gold in the area ran out and Frederick, around 1880, decided
to move up to Sydney. We do not know
why he made this move so far away from his family but conjecture that his
brother William's mother-in-law, whose maiden name was Clifford, may have
introduced them to her relatives in Sydney.
Whatever happened the name Clifford came in as a family name in the next
generation. By 1880 Frederick was
living at 17 Gowrie Street, Newtown. Sands 1880 Directory shows 9 residences on
the west side of Gowrie from Harold to Erskinville Road. Fredicks was the
fourth. In 1900 he moved to 101 Union Street, Newtown for a short time while
building a new home called "Kyneton" at 22 Duntroon Street, Hurlstone
Park.
The move to Hurlstone Park was
prompted by the fact that the dairy farming area out there was being
sub-divided for housing and Frederick, who was now in partnership with his son,
decided that it was a good place for a Carpenter, or what in present day terms
would be called a Builder, to live.
Unfortunately I have seen no
photograph of Julia and hope for one to turn up one day as two of Frederick
recently have. One shows him as a child
of three or four while the other is a snapshot taken of him in his working
clothes with his meerschaum in his mouth and his pug dog ‘Towser’ at his
feet. He is bearded and is wearing a
bowler hat. I understand also from my
parents that 'old Mr. Lasslett', as he was called by them, was a small man who
wore a smoking jacket and cap like Spike Milligan's "beachcomber"
character. Many 19th century dresses
and artifacts owned by Frederick and Julia survived up until the early-1950s
when, because the family properties were sold on the death of Frederick jnr and
storage space for them did not exist,
these items were destroyed. A
few carpenter's tools, a couple of which date back to the 18th century, were
saved by my father and are now in my or my sister's possession.
Julia died at her home 'Kyneton'
on 10 July 1914 and is buried in the Church of England section of Rookwood
Cemetery. Frederick died at 'Kyneton'
on 21 September 1925 and is buried with Julia.
Their home was let out for many
years to the Colbornes, a very Irish family, and finally Jack Lasslett lived
there from about the mid-1950s until he demolished the old place around 1960
and put up a block of home units on the site.
Family
of William and Sarah Lasslett
FREDERICK
ALFRED WILLIAM -
born 4 February 1871 in Malmsbury.
Trained as a Carpenter/Builder.
Around 1880 moved to Sydney with his parents. Married Amy Sarah Hickey
on 31 December 1896 in Newtown. Amy had
been born at Pyrmont in 1873 the daughter of James Hickey a blacksmith and
dredge master and Esther Hickey (née Thomson).
Frederick died on 30 September 1947 at Hurlstone Park while Amy died on
5 June 1954 at her daughter Dorothy's house in Goulburn. They are both buried in the Church of
England Section of Rookwood Cemetery.
See chapter Frederick and Amy Lasslett of Hurlstone Park on page 136.
Jarvis and Emma Laslett of Hope and Street Farms
Jarvis Hammond Laslett was
baptised at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 29 March 1846. He was the fourth
son of George Laslett of St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover and his wife Mary
Laslett née Hammond (page 86).
Farmer of Hope and Street Farms,
St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover.
Married Emma Curling in 1869.
Jarvis died on 26 January 1920
aged 73 years while Emma died on 23 June 1938 aged 81 years.
Family
of Jarvis and Emma Laslett
Sons
GEORGE
WILLIAM - born
29 April 1869 and baptised at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 30 May
1869. Married Mary Matilda Luck. Mary was
born on 21 September 1868. She died 0n
19 (?) 1945. George died on 24 December
1959.
Family
Evelyn
Mary - born 2
August 1900.
Dora
May - born 27
February 1902.
Amy
Millicent - born
7 March 1904.
Gladys
Minnie - born 14
January 1906. Married Charles Edward Jones. He was born on 1 July 1907 and died on 21
June 1985.
Family
Valerie
Millicent Jones
- born 4 March 1934
Eric
Laslett Jones -
born 19 November 1940.
Lynda
Mary - born 19
February 1943
DAVID
FINNIS
JARVIS
FRANCIS -
baptised at St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover on 3 October 1880. Wife's name Matilda Sarah. Lived at
Reach Court.
Family
Doris
Ellen - baptised 4 October 1903
Jarvis
Ernest -
baptised 28 May 1904. Died 4 November
1989.
WALTER
EDMUND
Daughters
LOUISA
MAY - baptised
27 February 1871. Married James Carlton in 1897.
Family
Martha
Carlton - born
1902. Married Alfred Norris. Their son George married Mary Dunford.
MAY ELLEN - born 25 May 1883,
Dover, Kent. There is a Dover record of marriage in the December quarter of
1901 of May Ellen Laslett to Frederick
Robert White. There is
a family story about a "boy friend" she abandoned when he went off to
fight in the Boer War. May next
appears in Toronto where she married Edward
Belsey and had three children all believed to be born in Toronto. Her
grandson Chuck Currie is researching the family history. The next we know of
May is that she moved to Walkerville, Canada sometime before 1911 and reverted
to her maiden name, where she met and married Samuel (Curry) Currie in Toronto on 27 November 1911. Chuck says ‘the story is that my grandmother changed the
spelling of Curry to Currie when she married my grandfather - one explanation
is that it appeared to be English, rather than Irish, but that is just part of
the mystery.’ Samuel was born February 12, 1889 at Lisburn, Ireland. Chuck further says
‘They all immigrated to the U.S. on June 13, 1922 via Windsor, Canada and
Detroit, Michigan, aboard the Detroit & Windsor Ferry. They traveled by
train to Lennox, California (if you ever fly into Los Angeles International,
you will fly directly over Lennox just before you touch down) where some of
their Canadian friends had moved earlier. They soon moved to Hawthorne, CA -
the next town south - where they purchased a small house that my grandfather, a
journeyman carpenter, remodeled and expanded over the years. They lived in this
house until they each passed away - Sam in 1950 and May in 1974.
Family of Edward & May Ellen Besley:
Edward Belsey - c. 1903 married with one
daughter was in the Armed Forces during WW 11 and lived in Newcastle.
Lorna Belsey- c.1905 never married and lived for a long
time in Newcastle.
Florence Belsey -
born 1907 married James Douglas in the early 30's. She died young of TB.
Family
of Samuel & May Ellen Currie
Charles Currie – born 27
November 1913 at
Walkerville, Ontario, Canada. Married Frances
Germain and had two children - Jim
Currie, born April 1, 1947 and Carolyn
Currie, born ?
James Phares Currie – born 20
June 1921 at
Walkerville, Ontario, Canada. Married Doris
Irene Seematter, born April 29, 1919 at Marysville, Kansas, and had two
children - Charles Eugene Currie,
born November 14, 1946, at Fresno, California and Kelley Katherine Currie, born February 27, 1949, at Inglewood,
California.
Charles Eugene Currie married Cynthia Louise Pearcy, born July 8, 1957, at Inglewood, California,
on September 13, 1980, at Las Vegas, Nevada, and have two children - Meghan Renee Currie, born September 27,
1982 at Torrance, California and Christopher
Ryan Currie, born April 19, 1985 at Torrance, California.
EMMA C – no further
details known.
EMMA CURLING - baptised 23 April
1876. In the Dover register December quarter of 1898 is the marriage of Emma to
Charles Stephen Wiles (vol 2a page
2241).
MARY
ELLEN - baptised
5 May 1883.
Henry and Ann Lasslett of Detroit
Henry was born at Herne Bay,
Kent, on 21 January 1850. He was the
fourth son of Thomas Lasslett, a baker, and his wife Emma Lasslett née Blake
(page 84).
Henry immigrated to Detroit
Michigan in the early 1850s with the rest of his family.
Henry was naturalised as a US
citizen on 20 February 1896 after lodging the standard Declaration of Intention
(pictured) in 1889, swearing allegence and on the affidavit of his brother that
he met the residential requirements.
He was married on 16 December
1875 to Ann Maria Cox at Macomb
County in Michigan. The 24 June 1880
Census for the State of Michigan shows Henry and Ann to be living in Erin,
Macomb County. Ann was aged 27 (the IGI
says 23) and stated that she was born in Michigan to parents who had been born
in England. Henry was shown as a farmer
and living on a farm adjacent to his brother John. The children were shown as "Charley" and "Allas".
Henry died in 1935 and and Ann in
1941. They are both buried at Erin
Grove Cemetery.
Family
of Henry and Ann Lasslett
Son
CHARLES - born 1877 in Michigan. Married Ada
E (born 1876). Charles died in 1931
and Ada in 1964. Both buried at Erin
Grove Cemetery in Roseville Michigan.
Children:
Anna M – born 1912
John
Arthur - born 11
December 1913 at Roseville, Michigan. On 5 June 1946 married Jean Reilly. Jean had been born at
Cowdenbeath, Scotland on 26 October 1920 and arrived in the US at New York on
the SS Columbia on 8 August 1921 as
‘Jeanie Reilly’. She was accompanied by her mother Annie Reilly (aged 21 born
Cowdenbeath). In her Petition for Naturalisation dated 26 May 1964 Jean states
that she is a Housewife and that she and John live at 262 First St., Romeo,
Macomb, Michigan. That her complexion is Fair, color of eyes Blue, hair Brown,
height 5’8”, weight 150 pounds and that she has six living children. John died
on 28 September 1995 in Michigan.
Children:
Charles
Blake (Dr.) -
born in 1938. Baptist Minister at Maranatha Baptist Church, Globe Arizona.
Married Josephine Irene Mihaiu. Josephine
passed away on 2 July 2002 after a long battle with cancer. She was a precious Christian woman who lived
for her Lord, her husband and her family. Her parents had immigrated to the USA
(in the 1920s) from Roumania. The surname is pronounced ‘May hi’. The following
is her published obituary published in the Arizona
Republic on 4 July 2002:
‘LASSLETT, Josephine Irene - Mrs. Josephine Irene Lasslett 64, of Globe Arizona formerly of Michigan,
passed away Tues., July 2, 2002 at home in Globe, AZ. Josephine Lasslett
beloved wife, mother, sister and friend. Born June 25, 1938 departed this world
July 2, 2002 and is present with her Savior Jesus. Josephine was a member of
Maranatha Baptist Church. She is survived by her husband: Blake Lasslett of Globe,
AZ; sons: Charles Lasslett of Lake Mary, FL, David Lasslett of Lake Orion, MI,
and John Lasslett of Mesa, AZ; daughters: Brenda Pirmann of Lake Orion, MI,
Constance Tinkam of Apache Junction, AZ; and Judith Zamba of Mesa, AZ; sisters:
Bonnie Loehne, Mary Baade and Helen Rick; and 19 grandchildren. Visitation on
Thurs., July 4, 2002 from 5:00-8:00 P.M. at Lamont Mortuary Chapel. Services on
Fri., July 5, 2002 at 11:00 A.M. at Maranatha Baptist Gardens, Miami, AZ.
Lamont Mortuary of Globe assisting the family.’
Children:
Charles
Blake II - born
1956. Married.
Children:
Charles
Blake III - born
1985.
Brenda
Kay - born
1958. Married Wayne Robert Pirmann (b. 1947) Lives Lake Orion Mi
David
John - born
1959. Married Teresa Diane (?) (b.1959). Lives Lake Orion Mi
Children:
Joshua
David - b 1977.
Frank
Charles - b
1980.
Constance
Ann - born
1961. On 22 June 1991 married Patrick McKinley Tinkam, a Baptist
Minister, at Maranatha Baptist Church in Globe, Arizona. Patrick is from Costa
Rica.
Children:
Jefferson D. Tinkam (Jeff) – born 1985
(?)
Mackie
Tinkham – born
1993
Adam
Josiah Tinkam -
born 9 September 1995
Abraham
Tinkham – born
November 1996
Judith
Ann - born
1965. Married name Zamba. Lives Mesa Arizona.
John
Henry - born
1977. Lives Mesa Arizona.
John Henry
- born 1943. Died 1960 in St. Clair Co.
MI
JOHN – born 1878. Married Lila born 1879
Children:
Clyde – born 10 April 1897. Died
Michigan August 1974. Married Lulu
Mildred Hefner born 8 May 1900. Died Michigan March 1995
Children:
Howard – born 1919.
Clyde – born 17 January 1922. Died
Michigan November 1975.
Richard – born 6 January 1927. Died
Michigan 15 March 1996.
Daughter
ALICE - born 1879 Erin, County Macomb,
Michigan.
EMMA – born 5 November 1881 Erin,
County Macomb, Michigan.
William and Matilda Lasslett of Footscray
William Vevers Lasslett was born
on 23 March 1850 at Swalecliffe and baptised at St John the Baptist Swalecliffe
on 21 April 1850. He was the eleventh
child of William Lasslett, a cabinet maker and wheelwright, and Sarah Lasslett
née Vevers (page 76).
He immigrated with his family in
1853 on the Woodstock.
In 1874 William married Ann
Matilda Lawson (born 30 July 1854 at Ballarat). The daughter of John Lawson, a Gold Digger (31), of Norway &
Francis Lawson (21) nee Clifford of Limerick Ireland. The 1894 Melbourne P.O. directory shows a William B Laslett
living at Pilgrim Street, Footscray.
On 18 July 1895, William, then
living in Alfred Street, West Footscray wrote to the local newspaper, Advertiser, and his letter was published
under the heading "NOT THE GHOST", it reads:
Sir, - Kindly give me space to
contradict a rumour - which I know is in the wind - that I am this Spring-heeled
Jack, causing much alarm of late in Footscray.
Thank God, I have not the disposition to harm anyone whomsoever by
foolish pranks. In these particular
times, people should be on their guard against fleshy frauds, also spiritual
ones. I am quite alive to the fact,
that God's servants were, and will be subjected to many a unfair thing caused
by wordly people; but I always keep in mind the advice of Jesus in Matt. 10th,
and am not surprised at anything. This
said ghost may be a fleshy fraud. If
so, surely brave men as we are, can catch him, and give him his reward. On the other hand, if he is a spirit, we
will have to grin and bear it, as I believe you can not prevent the spritual
from their purposes. Hoping you will
oblige by inserting the above.
I remain, etc.,
W. V. Lasslett
In later years William lived
apart from Matilda. The 1908 Electoral
Rolls show him as a labourer living at Boundary Road, St. Albans while Matilda
was living at 16 Federal Street, Footscray.
Matilda supported herself by teaching piano and by the 1920s was living
with her son Ted in Lynch Street, Footscray.
William died at Footscray in 1922
and Emma died there in 1925.
Family
of William and Matilda Lasslett
Sons
FREDERICK
WILLIAM - born
in 1875 at Inglewood and died in 1875 and buried at Footscray.
GEORGE
WILLIAM VEVERS -
born 1876. Carpenter/Labourer lived at
5 French St., Footscray (1908) and later Mont Park. Married twice, firstly Margaret
Theresa Cosgrove in 1899 at Inglewood (they lived at 8 Alfred Strret,
Footscray in 1900), then again in 1908, at Inglewood, to Agnes Campbell Crawford (born c.1884/5). George was buried on 15
July 1958 in the Church of England Section of Footscray Cemetery and Agnes was
buried on 7 February 1969 at Footscray Cemetery.
Children:
Gladys
George
John
James Crawford –
born 29 June 1912 in Victoria. On 8 April 1939 married Bessie Stubbs who had been born on 25 February 1911 at Bolton,
Lancs, UK and died in Victoria on 4 April 1986. John died on 7 November 2000
aged 88 at The Angliss Hospital, Ferntree Gully.
Children:
Pamela – born 1941 in Victoria. Married
Sven Gero Schmid at Footscray. In
father’s death notice of 7 November 200 husband is named as Peter. These is also a grear grandchild
Olivia mentioned.
Children:
Giselle Vanessa Schmid – born 8 January
1972.
Natalie Margaret Schmid – born 9
December 1973.
Nola – born 14 June 1945 in Victoria.
Married Paul Grdovic. In father’s
death notice of 7 November 200 Husband is named as Terry. There is also an additional child ‘Nick’.
Children:
Karen Lisa Grdovic
Paul Leigh Grdovic
Nick
Colin
Fred
News - Former POW gets
ready for his 'last hurrah'.
By CLAIRE HALLIDAY.
500 words
13 April 2003
Sunday Age
4
English
(c) 2003 Copyright
John Fairfax Holdings Limited. www.theage.com.au. Not available for
re-distribution.
When Fred Lasslett was
called up to join the navy in the early days of World War II, he felt excited,
thinking it would be a chance to see the world. He says today that the reality
of being in a war zone never crossed his mind.
"I was just a
lad," Mr Lasslett said last week.
Now, in what he says
will be his "last hurrah", Mr Lasslett, 84, is globe-trotting again.
On Friday, as part of a 19-strong tour group, he will be on a plane bound for
Turkey.
"I've always
wanted to go to Gallipoli, especially for Anzac Day. They reckon the atmosphere
- particularly the dawn service - is electric," he said.
It will no doubt evoke
memories of his wartime experience. "You always felt in danger," Mr
Lasslett said. "Especially when you were getting dive-bombed. You could
hear the planes coming a mile away. It was a real piercing scream and then
you'd see the bombs coming down."
In 1941, in a major
battle over the defence of what was then known as Java, Mr Lasslett's ship, the
HMAS Perth, was sunk. The first torpedo came mid-ship.
The last photo of HMAS
Perth – 27 February 1942
"Then we got
another one and the captain yelled `abandon ship'," Mr Lasslett said.
"I took a deep breath and jumped overboard."
Clinging to a raft, he
managed to help some injured colleagues to safety. They were in the water for
about six hours before they were collected by a Japanese destroyer.
When Mr Lasslett
escaped from his first prisoner of war camp, he was put before a firing squad
before being spared at the last minute - something he attributes to Japanese
superstition. "I didn't really flinch when they had me in their sights. I
found out later that the Japanese way of thinking is that if you're very brave
or very silly then the gods are in you and they can't attack you."
Eventually transferred
to another camp in Japan, Mr Lasslett was a POW for three years.
"When they
dropped the atomic bomb we woke up one morning and all the guards had
disappeared. After about an hour an American truck came up and they told us
what had happened. They took us away. I'd been living on rice and seaweed for
three years. I went down from 11 stone (70 kilograms) to about 61/2 stone (41
kilograms)," Mr Lasslett said.
Despite his ordeal of
hard labour, meagre rations and regular beatings, Mr Lasslett said he never
suffered ill-effects in his postwar life. "As soon as I had a couple of
Aussie beers I was right."
There will be beers on
Anzac Day, too - a day Mr Lasslett says has always been special. "You meet
your mates - some of them you only see once a year - and of course we win the
war all over again." Only this time, at Gallipoli.
In All Men Back – All One Big Mistake
(p.32) Bill Bee mentions a Fred escapade at a temporary POW camp at Serang in
Java shortly after they were taken prisoners in February 1942 after the sinking
of HMAS Perth:
“Another
incident which we expected would have dire consequences was that concerning
Wireman Fred Lasslett. Lasslett was making one of his frequent visits to the
"benjo" when he espied one of the local domestic fowl scratching it's
way into the compound. In his efforts to capture this rare delicacy he suddenly
found himself on the outside of the fence so decided to keep going instead.
Inevitably of course, without friends and being very conspicuous among the
populace, he was not long a free man and eventually brought back to be made an
example of by our guards. With considerable ceremony and much brandishing of
weapons we were informed that the unlucky Fred was to be taken away and shot.
It so happened that because of his knowledge of electricity, Fred was able to
restore electric power in the neighbourhood and was then given a remission for
his sins. I was later to see him walking around like a man enjoying the freedom
of the city.”
Joan
Margaret -
Married Peter James Jewson and lives
at North Maclean in Queensland.
JAMES
HENRY - born
1878. A carpenter, who in 1908 was living at Picola. Married Olive Josephine
Sutherland the daughter of John and Matilda (née Tuckett) Sutherland. Served overseas in A.I.F. during WWI as a
Private(3706) in the 57th Battalion.
Enlisted 31 December 1917, returned to Australia 19 August 1919. Josephine died aged 36 at Fitzroy South in
1921 and James died aged 58 at Fitzroy in 1936.
Children:
George
Vevers - Died
1909 at Footscray.
FREDERICK
VEVERS - 1879 at
Hotham. A labourer he lived in
Footscray. In 1903 he married Flora Adeline Duncan at North
Melbourne. Served overseas in A.I.F. during WWI as a Private(2743A) in the 3rd
Pioneers. Enlisted 15 March 1916,
returned to Australia 30 April 1919. Frederick died on 21 June 1956 and is
buried in the Church of England section at Footscray Cemetery.
Children:
Barry
Duncan - A
Carpet Layer. Married, his wife's Christian names are Wendy Joy.
Arthur
William - Lives
in Darwin.
WILLIAM
JOHN - born 1885
in Footscray. Died aged 7 months and buried in Footscray Cemetery.
WILLIAM
ARTHUR - born
1887 in Footscray. A carpenter, lived in West Footscray. On 7 March 1914 at St.
John's C. of E., Footscray he married Alice
May Halliday (born 1892). William was buried in Footscray Cemetery on 3
August 1980.
See chapter William and Alice Lasslett of Footscray on page 152.
THOMAS
CHARLES - born
in 1891 at Footscray. Married Martha Gretz the daughter of Diengott
Wilhelm and Louise Wilhelmine (née Semmler) Gretz. Martha died aged 34 at Murtoa in 1932.
Children:
Ilma
Joyce - Died
aged 16 at Murtoa in 1936.
NORMAN
LESLIE - born in
1897 at Footscray. Married Annie
Louisa Martin. Annie died at Windsor Victoria on 28 February 1980. Norma, died at Freemasons Homes in Punt
Road, Prahran on 4 May 1990. His death
notice in the Herald gave his
son-in-laws' names as Jim and and Phil and his grandchildrens' names as Pat,
Rodney, Nell, Michelle and Jeff. Eight
great-grandchildren were also mentioned, but not by name. Norman was the last of the first Australian
born generation of Lassletts.
Children:
Norma Jean – born 1923
Amy Yvonne – born 1926
William
Douglas – born 1930 (dec'd)
Daughters
AMY
LETITIA - born
1882 in Hotham. Died 1898 in South
Melbourne.
ANNE
ELIZABETH - 1883
in Footscray. Died 1885 aged 1 year 4 months and buried in Footscray Cemetery.
EDITH
ALICE - born
1889 at Footscray. In 1911 married Edward
William Weller at Footscray.
William and Laura Laslett of Riga
William Henry Laslett was borm on
10 March 1858 at 24 Western Road, Brighton Sussex the first child of Richard
Laslett, a master draper, and his wife Mary Ann Laslett née Hart (page 106).
Richard joined the firm of Burt,
Bolton and Hayward and worked in the Baltic timber trade. He was based in Riga, then part of imperial
Russia.
He married Laura Watson Renney on
3 February 1904. Laura was 34 at the
time.
During WWI William had to stay on
in Riga as Burt, Bolton and Hayward had timber in the rivers but he arranged in
1915 for his family to be moved to Helsinfors (Helsinki) where they stayed as a
family for a year before before coming to Britain where they lived at
Bedford. William stayed on in Russia
and died there of a heart attack in June 1917.
His daughter Mary remembers an
anecdote of William. William said that
his father had such a violent temper that he, William, had vowed never to loose
his, nor, as far as Mary knows, did he ever.
Family
of William and Laura Laslett
Son
HENRY
COLLIER RENNY -
5 December 1906 in Riga, Russia.
Attended Fettes College and then went into a bank in London before
joining the army in the 1920s, the Beds & Herts Regiment(?). He rose through the ranks and got into
Sandhurst. He married before going out
to India but there were no children of the marriage. Then came WWII and he was taken prisoner in France and spent the
war years in prison in Germany. He left
the Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
After the war he went back to India until 1947 then worked in the U.K at
various jobs. In 1950 he stood as
Conservative candidate for Durham City narrowly loosing the seat. He then went out to Jamaica before returning
to settle in Bromley in 1955. He lived
at 46 Southborough Lane, Bickley.
He was killed in the late 1950s
at Send Bends, just outside Guildford, on the London to Portsmouth road, when
the car he was driving was involved in a colllision.
Daughters
MARY
RENNY - born 11
October 1905 in Riga, Russia. Lives in
Chichester, West Sussex (1989). Married
name Williams.
LAURA
ISOBEL (JILL) -
born 5 December 1906 in Riga, Russia.
Died 24 December 1988 and cremated at Bedford.
Thomas and Kate Laslett of Broadstairs
Thomas George Laslett was born at
Sandwich on 27 June 1866. He was the son of Thomas Laslett of Broadstairs and
his wife Sarah née Hawkins (page 104).
Thomas was a fisherman at
Broadstairs although the 1881 gives him at age 14 the occupation of
‘whitesmith’.
On 16 March 1896 married he Kate
Louisa Thomas at St Emanuels Margate.
Kate had been born at Southampton, Hants on 21 February 1863. Kate and her sister had come to Broadstairs
from Southampton to be a servant and matron in one of the many Homes that
existed then (and now). Their mother's
maiden name was Weston.
Lived at Church Cottage, Albion
Street, Broadstairs,
Thomas died on 30 January 1938
and Kate on 1 January 1934.
Family
of Thomas and Kate Laslett
Sons
WILFRED
GEORGE THOMAS -
born at Broadstairs on 27 May 1896.
Married Gladys May (?).
Family
Stuart
Reginald - born
3 February 1920, baptised 26 October 1930.
Norman
Weston Thomas -
born 22 May 1922.
Derek
Henry - born 21
November 1923.
Edgar
George - born 25
June 1926.
Stephanie
May - born 26
April 1929.
LEONARD
HENRY THOMAS -
born at Broadstairs on 13 May 1898 and educated at Holy Trinity Elementary
School, Broadstairs. Served in the
Buffs during WWI. Married Rose Eleanor (?).
Family
Peggy
Patricia Thomas
- born 23 September 1922.
Joan
Joy May - born
28 May 1925.
Sylvia
Doreen - born 19
March 1930.
HAROLD
WESTON THOMAS -
born at Broadstairs on 17 June 1901. He 14 February 1927 married Lily Valentine Saffery on 14 February
1927. Lily had been born on 14 February
1906. Harold died in 1960 and Lily in November 1987.
See chapter Harold and Lily Laslett of Broadstairs on page 161.
HILDA
MAY THOMAS -
born at Broadstairs on 4 March 1906. Married name Webb. Died in 2000 and buried
in the graveyard of St Peters with her parents.
Family:
Gordon Webb – Died 2000.
Glen Webb
Albert and Isabella Laslett
Albert Laslett was born at
Sandgate on 17 April 1868 and was the fourth son of John Barrett Laslett and
his wife Susannah Laslett née Jarvis (page 89).
Less than a year after Albert was
born, his father died. He went to the
Greenwich Hospital School at the age of 10.
On 18 March 1883, he joined the Royal Navy, and his first draft was HMS
Duke of Wellington as a Ship's Steward Boy.
He married Isabella Taylor at the
Baptist Tabernacle, New Brompton, near Chatham, on 10 December 1892, and sailed
6 days later on the Royal Mail Steamer Cuzco for Australia, where for 2 years
he was Ship's Steward onboard HMS Mildura, at Sydney. He had earlier served Lieutenant George, later to become King
George V, and his grandson Graham still has the photograph given him by the
Prince. 30 October 1907 he was
pensioned out, but volunteered on 14 July 1914 with threat of war. Medically unfit for sea, he joined the Army
and served in France rising to Sergeant.
Somehow he re-joined the RN, being finally de-mobilised 6 June 1921 as a
Victualling Chief Petty Officer.
Albert died at Hythe, on 12
August 1925, is and buried at Horn Street Cemetery, Hythe.
Isabella had been born on 28
March 1868, and died at Coulsdon, Surrey, in the 1940's.
Family
of Albert and Isabella Laslett
Sons
ALBERT
HENRY - born on
28 May 1896. Married Peggy Probert, and had 2 daughters.
Lived in Lincoln for much of his adult life, and became a registrar. As a
widower thought to have married again without issue, dying in the late 1960's
in Somerset.
Children:
Betty
Pauline
ERNEST
JOHN - died as
an infant at Gillingham in 1899.
ARTHUR
EDWARD -
born 10 September 1903. Trained as a schoolmaster at St. Marks
College, Chelsea, and all his working life taught in Thornton Heath, Surrey. Married Sybil
Constance Whiting. One son, Graham
Francis, born at Thornton Heath on 29 July 1933. Moved to Coulsdon, Surrey on his son's second birthday. On retirement at 62, moved to be near son at
Edington, Wiltshire. C. of E.
sub-deacon and church-warden. Died 25
September 1972.
See chapter Arthur and Sybil Laslett of Coulsdon on page 163.
CYRIL
BARRETT - born
1907. Married Kathleen, and had 1
daughter. Cyril died in 1991 and is
buried with Kathleen at Brenzett on Romney Marsh.
Children:
Barbara.
Daughters
VIOLET
ISABEL - died as
an infant at Gillingham in 1901.
DORIS
ISABEL - born
1908. Never married. Died at River, Dover in January 1988.
Thomas and Edith Laslett of Penge
William Thomas Laslett was born
at 6 Lower Woodland Terrace, Charlton at 10.15 a.m. on 12 November 1869 and
baptised at St Marys Church, Woolwich on 29 December 1869. He was the eldest surviving son of Thomas
Laslett, an architect of Chatham, and his first wife Louise Ann Laslett née
Weekes (page 117).
Architect and surveyor.
Married Edith Laura Willings on
12 September 1895. Edith was the third
daughter of James William Willings of 2 Moss Lea Road, Penge, S.E.
William died in May 1944 at
Eureka Road, Midway, Burton-on-Trent and Edith died there also on 1 September
1955.
Family
of Thomas and Edith Laslett
DOROTHY
EDITH - born at
22 Kingswood Road, Penge at 9.30 a.m. on 8 September 1896. On 12 December 1923 married Thomas Bull at Shornall Church
Burton-on-Trent. Dorothy died at 446
Burton Road, Midway, Burton-on- Trent on 2 February 1959 and Thomas died on 1
June 1976.
Children:
Brian
Thomas Bull -
born 3 December 1924 at 56 Derby Road, Burton-on-Trent. Married.
Raymond
John Bull - born
31 March 1927 at Ambleside, Burton Road, Midway, Burton-on-Trent. Married.
Brenda
Mary Bull - born
21 June 1930 at Ambleside, Burton Road, Midway, Burton-on-Trent. Married.
PHYLLIS
KATE - born at
22 Kingswood Road, Penge at 1 a.m. on 25 June 1899. At St Chads Church, Burton-on- Trent on 5 September 1925 married George C. Harper. Phyllis died at 274 Tutbury Road,
Burton-on-Trent, date unknown. George
died in 1984.
Children:
Maurice
Harper - born 17
April 1930. Married in 1960 and died in
198(?).
George and Ellen Laslett of Moorak
George Laslett was born at
Allendale East on 29 March 1870. He was
the eldest son of George Laslett, a Farmer of Allendale East, and his wife
Eliza Laslett née Langford (page 95).
In 1893 he married Ellen Tall
(born 23 January 1869) of Melbourne and they had a family of three sons and
three daughters, two of whom died in infancy.
They rented a house at Allendale
East from a Mrs. Tibbles. Their son
George describes it:
It was a typical house of its
time of four rooms: two rooms at the front and two lean-tos to the rear, which
meant a front room - which was rarely used and kept for special guests and
occasions such as the parson, etc. - a front bedroom and a rear bedroom and
kitchen. In those days cooking was
mainly done with an oven with hobs on either side and bars across on which
saucepans and fry pan could be used.
The fuel was of course wood.
Meat and vegetables were cooked in it; also cakes and bread. The bread was a very important item and all
country housewives made their own and of course any failures were mostly due to
the poor quality wood provided by the man of the house; failing that, the yeast
was no good.
In 1895 George and Ellen moved to
another property, a house of three rooms with about ten acres of land about a
quarter of a mile north of George and Eliza Laslett's house in Allendale
East. The property belonged to George
Holland who had married Eliza's sister Elizabeth Langford. The house was roofed with hardwood shingles
and one particular feature was the door into the back bedroom which was lower
than usual, the doorway having been built to fit the door. Evidently the door had been salvaged from a
wrecked ship and that accounted for its lack of height.
To return to George's account:
The holdings in Allendale East
were mostly small, but everyone...was sheltered by tall pines, boxthorn hedges
or flint stone walls and everyone had their own orchard of various sizes. In my home at the turn of the century we had
apples, cherries, plums, damson, quinces, gooseberries, etc. These were made into jams, pickles, etc.,
and visiting wives used to exchange various items . . .
George lived and worked about
Allendale until 1906 when he went to Glencoe East to work on a farm owned by
William Charlick. He worked about the
Glencoe district for about six years, engaging in share farming and other rural
pursuits.
The Moorak Station was cut up for
closer settlement in 1912 as a result of its owner being lost at sea in the
ill-fated ship the Waratah. George applied for and was allotted a 30
acre block. On this block he built a
comfortable stone house, engaging in dairying and potato growing. Everything on the farm was done with
painstaking thoroughness and 'near enough' was not good enough for him. He was a pioneer settler of a venture in the
better soils of the South East and by hard work and careful management achieved
success in an intensive farming area.
In 1939 he retired to live at
Port MacDonnell, returning to the scene of earlier labours at the wool-scouring
plant at the nearby Woolwash. All of
the Laslett boys worked there at some stage.
He died on 21 June 1949 and is
buried in Mt Gambier. His son, George, is
the oldest living descendant of George and Eliza Laslett (1972). Much of the success of the Family Gathering
of 1972 could be attributed to Len, the other son. The name of George Laslett is perpetuated in the succeeding
generations.
Family
of George and Ellen Laslett
Sons
GEORGE
SAMSON - born 28
September 1893 at Allendale East. Died 3 February 1987. Married Elsie
May Earl (born 7 October 1893) on 9 March 1920 at Allendale East.
See chapter George and Elsie Laslett of O.B. Flat on page 153.
LEONARD
JOHN - born 25
October 1895. Died 3 June 1980. Married Alice
Evelyn Earl (born 19 February 1901) Alice died 10 July 1985.
See chapter Leonard and Alice Laslett of Mount Gambier on page 158.
ALFRED
ERNEST - Died in
Infancy.
Daughters
JESSIE - born 18 February 1902. Married Alan
Peters of Mt. Gambier.
Children:
2 sons, 1 daughter.
NELLIE
ELIZA - born 16
May 1904. Married George A. Sturges, a farmer and later stone quarry owner, of Mt. Gambier.
Children:
3 sons, 1 daughter.
EMILY
BERTHA - Died in
Infancy.
Frederick and Amy Lasslett of Hurlstone Park
Frederick Alfred William Lasslett
was born on 4 February 1871 at Malmsbury, Victoria. He was the only child of Frederick Rook Lasslett, a carpenter, and
Julia Mary Lasslett née Abbott (page 120).
He trained as a Carpenter/Builder
and around 1890 moved to Sydney with his parents. He married Amy Sarah Hickey on 31 December 1896 in Newtown. Amy had been born at Edward Street, Pyrmont
on 27 November 1873 the daughter of James Hickey a blacksmith and dredge master
and Esther Hickey (née Thomson).
Esther's mother had been born Hannah Myers, the daughter of Samuel Myers
and Esther Bond a brassfounder of Liverpool, Lancs and his wife. Family legend has it that the Myers and
Bonds were Jewish converts to Christianity.
Immediately after marriage
Frederick and Amy lived at 84 Regent Street Newtown, they then moved to Summer
Hill while they built Warrawoona at
20 Duntroon Street, Hurlstone Park.
Frederick was a fairly successful
builder and was responsible for building many of the houses in Hurlstone
Park. He prospered and was quite
comfortably off. Apart from the houses
at Hurlstone Park he also had two holiday homes on the lake at Long Jetty about
100K from Sydney.
His main hobby was gardening and
the family home had well set out and productive vegetable and flower garden.
Unfortunately Frederick died when
the writer was only a year old so I have no recollection of him but Amy lived
until 1954 and I can remember her quite well.
The house was divided in two and Amy and lived in one part and my
parents in the other. Amy had a 'bad
heart' and I seem to remember her being in bed a lot or sitting by the fire in
her parlour.
In answer to my plea for help
Shirley Barnes, my cousin and grandaughter of Frederick and Amy, wrote to me on
30 July 1989:
‘Our grandfather, Frederick
Alfred William, died at the residence of his daughter Dorothy at lOA Auburn
Street, Goulburn, . . . and his wife Amy Sarah died at the same address. Grandfather only lived for about 7/8 months
at our Goulburn home, and Amy died after living with us for about 8 years. I cannot tell you much about Grandpa who
talked very little about his past family connections, and devoted much of his
time to his flower garden, and to holidaying at Long Jetty where he kept his
launch. A couple of snapshots showing
him in the launch are enclosed for your files, if you would like to keep
them. He always enjoyed taking family
and also friends on cruises around his beloved Tuggerah Lakes. You probably know that he (with son Freddy)
built 3 fibro/weatherboard homes on the main road at Long Jetty and a smaller
home at the rear of one. In fact one
home was still standing and occupied when I was at Long Jetty early this
year. Grandfather did speak proudly of
his own father (Frederick) but only occasionally. A snapshot of his father is enclosed, with 2 ditto of a family
grave in the C of E Section at Rookwood.
This is the grave of Esther Hickey our great grandmotner, and also our
Uncle Gordon after whom you were named.
He died when aged about 2.
‘The very old photograph of St.
Saviours (it is misspelt on the card) [at Fernhill, later Hurlstone Park] may
be of interest for your files as our Grandpa built and presented the altar
which, I believe, is still in the old church which I last knew to be the hall
near the newer church [St. Stephens] . ‘
Frederick died on Tuesday 30
September 1947 while Amy died on Saturday 5 June 1954. They are both buried in the Church of
England Section of Rookwood Cemetery.
Family
of Frederick and Amy Lasslett
Sons
FREDERICK
JAMES VEVERS -
born 30 October 1897. Fred married Bertha Simmons on Saturday 13 December
1924. He died in Melbourne on Christmas
Day Sunday 25 December 1955. Bertha
died at Hurlstone Park on Thursday 30 October 1958.
See chapter Frederick and Bertha Lasslett of Hurlstone Park on page 160.
GORDON
ABBOTT LASSLETT
- born Thursday 1 June 1905 at Hurlstone Park.
Died Wednesday 31 July 1907.
ARTHUR
CLIFFORD ROOK
(Mick) - born Saturday 29 August 1908 at Hurlstone Park. Married Edna
Edith Anne Murray at North Strathfield on Sunday 25 June 1939. He died on Sunday 24 November 1974 at Taree
and his ashes are at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Ryde.
See chapter Arthur and Edna Lasslett of Hurlstone Park on page 164.
Daughters
DOROTHY
AMY (Dolly) -
born Tuesday 4 September 1900 at Hurlstone Park. Dorothy married Reginald
Vernon Barnes at Marrickville on Saturday 22 September 1923. Reg died on Wednesday 6 March 1963 in
Melbourne while Dorothy died at Taree on Wednesday 9 May 1979. Children:
Vernon
Frederick Barnes
- born Wednesday 18 August 1926 at Marrickville. Vernon died from diptheria on Saturday 22 February 1936 at
Marrickville.
Shirley
Amy Barnes -
born Monday 17 March 1930 at Marrickville.
Shirley became an Executive Secretary with the NMLA but took early
retirement and bought a motel business in Taree NSW with her old boss, Bill
York, and his wife, Freda. In recent
years they sold up the motel and have retired in Taree.
Herbert Laslett and his wives Jeannie and Hannah
Herbert Arthur Laslett was born
at Garton Street, Sandridge, Victoria on 1 March 1872. He was the seventh son of Edward Laslett, a
grocer, and his wife Eliza Laslett née Buckland (page 112).
He trained as a plumber although
he does not appear to have continued in this trade for long but he obviously
did not forget his trade as his grandson Peter remembers that Herbert taught
him to solder.
Herbert had an apple
orchard to the east of Melbourne where Ethel Laslett was once locked in his
coolshed, when she misbehaved on a visit.
To pass the time she ate some apples stored there and got belly ache.
Herbert is said to have been made an honorary constable for the district after
capturing two escaped convicts and holding them in the same shed. This, family story, if true points to his
future career as a policeman in WA.
He married Jeannie
Currie (daughter of Neil Currie and Annie McDiarmid ) on 21 Jun 1893 in St
Columb's C of E, Hawthorn, VIC, Australia.
Jeannie was born on 27 Mar 1869 in Blythswood, Glasgow,
Scotland..
They moved to Western
Australia about 1894. He joined the WA Police Force (Badge no: 182) on 4th
October 1895. He served in Perth until 17th April 1899, Beaconsfield until 12th
June 1901, Jarrahdale until 6th Feb 1905 and Day Dawn before resigning with the
rank of First Class Constable on 11th July 1908. He received £162 /8/- pension as he contributed to the state
superannuation scheme.
Jeannie died in 1899
in Freemantle, WA, Australia..
Herbert married Hannah Mary Kerr,
a nurse, at St Albans Church of England in Perth on 5 January 1901. Hannah had been born on 10 June 1871 at
Gritjurk, Vic. the daughter of Thomas Andrew Kerr, a farmer, and Norah Buckley
his wife. The actual registration shows
the child's name as Annie Kerr, but as Hannah once told her grandson Peter, her
parents changed their mind on names and had her baptised Hannah Mary.
After
leaving the police he and Hannah bought the Exchange Hotel, Pinjarra, WA and
the attached cordial factory, where his son Arthur worked up to 1914. They sold the premises in late 1924 and
moved to Perth. He apparently then
farmed (as this is the occupation he gives on his son Arthur’s death
certificate) before buying the Tambleup
Hotel, The Bullfinch Hotel, Argent Hotel, Perth and the Dongorra Hotel outside
of Geralton, WA. He also built a house on the Mandurah - Pinjarra Road (irt is
still standing) and another house and a block of flats in Mandurah. When his son Arthur married in
England in 1917 the marriage entry records that Herbert was a gentleman of
independent means.
Herbert and Hannah
returned to Mandurah where they lived in Leslie St where Herbert died of a
stroke on 27 Nov 1938. He is buried in Pinjarra Cemetery.
Hannah later joined her son in
New South Wales where she died of heart failure on 11 October 1949 at Cowper
Street, Fairy Meadow near Wollongong and was buried in the Roman Catholic
cemetery in Wollongong.
When Herbert died,
according to his grandson, Peter Kerr Laslett, the money was left from the
estate to his sons, who in three short years gambled, drank and womanised it
all away. When that was gone they then had money off Hannah.
Family
of Herbert and Jeannie Laslett
Son
ARTHUR
EDWARD - born 8
April 1894 at Forest Hill, Victoria.
Joined the A.I.F. (11th Btn 3rd Inf.) and was in landing at
Gallipoli. On 18 August 1917 he married
Dorothea (Dodie) Alice Nina Moykop,
spinster at the Parish Church of St Peter the Apostle in Thanet, Kent. Dorothea
was the daughter of Charles Frederick Richard Moykopf (Dec'd), a boot
manufacturer, and his wife Alice Ellen Morkopf. The photograph at the right was
taken at the Moykopf family house, Denemount, in Broadstairs, Kent. Alice’s
husband Charles Moykopf had died prior to Arthur and Dodie’s wedding in 1917.
Dodie had worked as a VAD nurse at Broadstairs where she met Arthur, who was in
her hospital having been wounded at Gallipoli.
Arthur was discharged in London on medical grounds on 2 March 1918.
They first lived in the UK before
moving to Western Australia where we believe had a Sheepstation near Subiaco
before returning again to England. Arthur joined the British Army and landed in
Normandy on D Day as a Major.
He appears to have returned to
Australia after the war. Married Irene
Eleanor Daphne Ockelford at Sydney in 1950. Known as Daphne. Lived at
4/10 William Street, Double Bay, N.S.W.
No issue from 2nd marriage.
Arthur died of a stroke in RPAH Camperdown on 14 August 1961 and was
cremated at Eastern Suburbs Crematorium.
See chapter Arthur Laslett and his wives Dorothea and Irene on page 165.
Daughters
VOILET
ANNIE - born
1896 Fremantle, W.A. Died Beaconsfield, W.A. in 1897.
IVY - born 1897 W.A. - died soon
after.
IVY - born 27 June 1898 at the
Police Quarters in Henderson Street, Fremantle, Western Australia. Died 25 May 1918 and is buried in the RC
area of Pinjarra cemetery, W.A.
Family
of Herbert and Hannah Laslett
Sons
HERBERT
KERR - born on 2
December 1902 at Gritjurk, Vic.
Herbert was always known as Glen Laslett. On 21 June 1926 he married Eileen
Veronica Watts (born - Fremantle, W.A. on 5 December 1899), spinster of Mt.
Lawley, W.A., at Wollongong, N.S.W.
Eileen was the daughter of James Watts, a blacksmith of Fremantle, W.A.,
and his wife Catherine Quinn (Dec'd).
Eileen died on 3 September 1933 at Bullfinch, W.A. and was buried the
next day in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Southern Cross. Around 1933 Glen married Barbara Winifred Rowan in Western
Australia. Glen died on 17 June 1966 at
8 Bourke Street, Wollongong and was buried at Lakeside Memorial Park, Dapto.
See chapter Herbert (Glen) Laslett and his wives Eileen and Barbara on page 162.
THOMAS
KERR - born 4
July 1906 in Western Australia. Around
1933 married Grace Evelyn Richards. Raised their grand nephew Peter Kerr
Laslett. Thomas died on 11 October
1974.
Children:
Coorie
Anne Kerr - born
8 March 1934 in Western Australia.
Married William James Mathews
(born 25 January 1931, died 7 February 1975).
Children:
Linda
Mathews - born 1
October 1954. First married Leo Dawes, divorced then married James
Cullen.
Children:
Stacy
Cullen - born 5
March 1980.
Ryan
Cullen - born 29
January 1982.
Liam
Cullen - born 4
January 1984.
Carol
Mathews - born 7
August 1962. Married David McLaughlin, now divorced.
Anne
Mathews - born
11 December 1964. On 23 November 1991
married Ian Campbell.
FRANCIS
KERR - born 3
June 1909 in Western Australia. In 1927
married Nellie Annie Alice Wright
(born 21 October 1907). Nellie died on
17 January 1971 and is buried in the RC section of Karrakatta Cemetery in
Perth. Francis died on 15 November 1973
and is also buried at Karrakatta.
Children:
Miriam
Rita Joan - born
1929, died 1929 and buried in the RC section of Karrakatta Cemetery.
Patricia
Mary - born 10
November 1930 in Western Australia.
Married Robert John Fraser
(born 10 June 1928).
Children:
Christopher
John Fraser.
Wayne
Gerard Fraser -
born 30 December 1955.
Robert
Gregory Fraser -
born 12 November 1957. Married Loretta Sizeland.
Children:
Shane
Norman Fraser -
born 15 December 1983.
Adam
James Fraser -
born 23 December 1985.
Brett
Francis Fraser -
born 6 April 1963.
Francis
Quade - born 24 June
1932. Married Rhondda May Sloan (born 8 July 1933).
Children:
Peter
Francis - born
16 October 1956. Married Jennifer Anne Anderson (born 6
September 1956).
Graham
John - born 7
March 1961. Married Jennifer Anne Stanford (born 20 May
1961)
Jennifer
May - born 29
November 1964.
Michael
Keith - born 8
September 1968.
Andrew
John Quade -
born 8 May 1934. Married Constance Barbara Hunt (born 8 August
1939).
Judith
Quade - born
1935. Married Ronald Sievwright.
Children:
Donna
Sievwright
Joanne
Sievwright
Guy
Sievwright
Darren
Sievwright
Mary
Anne - born 23
August 1937. Married Charles Sievwright (born 31 January
1932) and they have five children.
Children:
Stephen
Charles Sievwright
- born 24 October 1956. Married Vicki Ornsby (born 2 June 1961).
Children:
Nathan
Charles Ornsby -
born 24 June 1979.
Shane
Neville Ornsby -
born 21 December 1981.
Ryan
Louis Ornsby -
born 4 December 1982, died 14 January 1983.
Justin
Stephen Ornsby -
born 14 January 1984.
No further details known.
Alfred and Margaret Laslett of North Terrace, Adelaide
Alfred Henry (Alf) was born on 17
November 1874. He was the third son of George Laslett, a farmer of Allendale
East, and his wife Eliza Laslett née Langford (page 95). He married Margaret McLay, of Allendale, and they
had a family of seven children, two sons and five daughters.
Alf served with the Telegraph
Party in the South East prior to moving to Adelaide. His home in Cliff Street, Glenelg became a rendezvous for the
South Eastern visitors. Mag always made
people welcome and with her jolly personality quickly made folks feel at home.
Sadness touched their home when
little Nita was taken in one of the diphtheria epidemics - a loss keenly felt
and never forgotten.
Moved to Adelaide
and lived on North Terrace in one of the two‑storey terrace houses, part
of the Gray Estate, near the Newmarket Hotel. His wife recalled wheeling a pram
to the markets and buying a side of lamb for threepence. They also lived in
Gawler (Gwen was born there) and stayed with a Mrs Polden, Alfred was working
in the Gawler area. Mrs Polden's son, Les, taught at Peterborough when Herb
attended school there. Moved to Glenelg (25 Cliff Street) in 1910 (house purchased
for £600) whom Jean, Nita, Alf and Herb were born. Also lived at Overland
Corner (his wife talked about the boats coming into Overland Corner) and worked
in Port Adelaide.
Was a foreman on the
telegraph lines. In 1928 when
Alf was appointed Inspector of Telephone Construction and Installation for the
Northern Division the family moved to Peterborough, residing at 8
Lloyd Street. For some years he travelled the northern
parts of the State where he became a well-known and respected figure.
When retirement came (1936) they moved
back to Glenelg and then spent approximately three years in Port MacDonnell
(1946‑1949). They returned back to the Glenelg home for a few months
before taking up residence at 28 Condada Ave, Parkholme. Their son Herb home later
purchased the Glenelg on 16 June 1949. Alf
died on 24 June 1953.
Alf was a very good cricketer,
especially as a wicket keeper. He had a
keen mind and was ready to debate on a wide range of subjects. However, his great love and interest was in
his family and entered into their successes with pride and joy.
Family
of Alfred and Margaret Laslett
Sons
ALFRED KENNETH - born 18 February
1917 at 25 Cliff St. Glenelg East. Died 8 May 1999. Married Mary Johanna Vogelsang (Born December 1917). Senior Chief
Superintendent of Police. Retired from SA Police Force 1976.
See chapter Alfred and Mary Laslett of Adelaide on page 181.
HERBERT JOHN - born 8 September 1919 at 25 Cliff St.
Glenelg East. Married Joan Mary Miels,
dressmaker (born Ovingham 26 August 1919).
See chapter Herbert and Joan Laslett of Glenelg East on page 182.
Daughters
MARGUERITE REID - born at Allendale
East on 8 June 1904. Died 1982. School teacher. Married Walter Henry Scott, a Telephone Technician (Born London 1904. Died
1987).
Family:
Margaret Jean Scott - born 1 March
1928. Died 12 December 1929.
Barbara June Scott - born 20 December
1930.
Judith Anne Scott - born 26 April 1934.
Elizabeth Janet Scott - born 17 May 17
1938.
DAPHNE - born at Mt Gambier
on 15 November 1906. Died 28 December 1995. Married Cyril Moreton Keightley, a telephone technician (Born 1904. Died
1979).
Family:
Jill Maureen Keightley - born 10 February
1929.
Robert Moreton Keightley - born 15 December
1934.
Daphne Faye Keightley - born 21 October
1931.
GWENDA - born at Gawler on
30 September 1908. Died 1984. Married Harry
Wilfred Thorpe, senior sergeant of police (Born 1902. Died 1983).
Family:
Valerie
Gwenda Thorpe - born 12 July 1927. Died 5 January 994(?)
Joan
Maxine Thorpe - bom 1 January 1929.
Meredith
Thorpe - born 13 January 1945.
JEAN - born at 25 Cliff Street, Glenelg East on 31May 1911. Died 28 September
1992. School teacher. Married Reginald
John Porter (died 1943). Then married Bowman
McNicol (Born 1889. Died 1982) and had one stillborn daughter, Jennifer, circa 1946/47.
Family:
Anthea
Jean Porter - born 12 July 1935. Died 29 December 1989.
John
Reginald Porter - born 8 November 1940.
Nita - born 15 November 1913 at 25 Cliff St, Glenelg East.
Died 30 September 1916.
Henry and Deborah Laslett of Shoal Lake, Manitoba
Henry George Laslettn was born in 1875 at West Cliffe, Dover
the son of George Laslett of West Cliffe, Dover and Mary Laslett née Dixon his
wife (see page 108).
Henry married Deborah Jennings Humphrey on 29 December 1907 in
Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada. Deborah was born in England in 1878.
Henry died at Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada in 1950 while
Deborah died there in 1953.
Family
of Henry and Deborah Laslett
Son
GEOFFREY GORDON was born at Shoal Lake in 1909.
He married Edith Alma Osmond on 27
June 1938 in Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada.
Family:
Richard F. - born 1943.
Daughter
BERYL ELNA was born at Shoal Lake in 1918.
Alfred and Minnie Lasslett of Caulfield
Alfred Ernest Lasslett was the
second child of John and Emma Lasslett (page 109) and was born on 10 January 1879.
Frank's notes:
Clerk and later teller with The
Savings Bank (later State Savings Bank of Victoria).
First managership Inglewood in
about 1916.
(Minnie - war work at Town Hall!)
Transferred to Frankston as
Manager-Teller. In 1922 moved to open
new branch on the corner of Swan and Burnley Sts, Burnley and became active in
public affairs. Appointed Justice of
the Peace and Commissioner for Affidavits.
President State School Parents Association and during police riots was a
tempory Constable.
Transferred to St Kilda West
branch in 1931 and died there in 1938.
1939 Minnie bought house at 212
Alma Road, East St Kilda and lived there until 1953(?) when she moved to Upwey
where Keith and Beryl lived.
In the 1908 Electoral Roll Alfred
is shown as a Bank Clerk living with his mother, Emma, in St., George's Road,
Elsternwick.
Married Minnie McKay on Thursday
15 December 1910 at the Presbyterian church in Warrnambool. Minnie had been born on 22 June 1880 at
Mailors Flat, Woodward to Mary McKay.
Alfred died on Friday 30 September 1938 at 54 Fitzroy St, St Kilda and
Minnie on Thursday 14 July 1966 at Ferntree Gully Hospital, she had been living
at 307 Glenfern Road, Upwey.
Family
of Alfred and Minnie Lasslett
Sons
FRANK - born Saturday 13 April 1912 at
Caulfield.
See chapter Frank Lasslett of South Yarra on page 165.
ARTHUR - born Saturday 13 April 1912 at
Caulfield. Died 1912.
KEITH - born Wednesday 11 April 1917
at Inglewood. On Monday 26 April 1943
married Beryl Phyllis Browne.
See chapter Keith and Beryl Lasslett of Upwey on page 184.
Ruffell and Eveline Laslett
Henry George Ruffell Laslett, or
Ruffell as he was always known, was born on 30 October 1882 in Eynsham,
Oxfordshire, the sixth child of Thomas Manger Laslett, an Outfitter and
Haberdasher, and Rhoda Laslett née Ruffell (page 110).
It was from his mother, Rhoda
Ruffell that he got his unquenchable intellectual curiosity. She used to read to him a good deal - he
mentioned her reading Macaulay's essays to him. She encouraged him to read and fired him with the hope of finding
his way to Oxford University. Alas, he
never got there, but he did somehow manage to learn Greek from an Oxford
scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, though I do not know how he did this. It was probably when he was employed in
Oxford at a drapers firm, Webber's in High Street. He used, apparently, to walk along the road from Eynsham to
Oxford dreaming of the hope that he would one day become an undergraduate.
He was a local preacher, a
Baptist, and eventually went to train for the Ministry. In 1912 he married Eveline Alden, the
daughter of Robert Rhodes Alden, a successful farmer and butcher. She was a lineal descendant of that John
Alden who went to America in the Mayflower
in 1620.
Eveline used to play the
harmonium at village chapels while Ruffell was in the pulpit. Her father too was a local preacher and an
eccentric in his way. He is still
remembered in an Oxfordshire village, Standlake, because one cold day he took
off his coat and gave it to a poor man.
He refused to ration meat to his customers in 1916 and this caused some
problems.
When Ruffell married he began his
ministry in Bedford but went as a chaplain to the forces in Mesopotania when
Allenby's forces were fighting the Turks around Jerusalem. He hated the experience.
In 1918 he went to Watford to a
well established chapel, Beechen Grove, and stayed there until 1936. It was a most successful and popular
ministry. In 1936 he came to
Birmingham, but the War of 1939 made this a pretty awful time; after London,
Birmingham had the brunt of enemy action in air raids. In 1941 he took a much smaller ministry in
Faringdon, Berkshire, a small country town, and he retired in 1946, living at
first in Oxfordshire, Oxford itself, and eventually Bedford.
He was a man of great dignity and
noticeable good looks, with a marked sense of humour. He read on every possible occasion, but would never allow his
children to read novels before lunch, that was the time for serious
reading. He was extremely skilled at
restoring old furniture, though not much good at the actual woodworking itself,
but rather at recognising the value of furniture that most people, in those
days would discard but which he would buy and spend hours at putting them into
use. He could have been an expert
faker, but his conscience prevented him.
He had an enviable way of getting on with ordinary folk, and cultivated
his friendships with village antique dealers who would consult him about the
provenance of pieces in their shops.
There is a well-known family
story of Ruffell and his antique dealing.
When he was a parson, he argued, in suitably Christian terms, about the
value of some piece the dealer thought genuine and worth more than Ruffell was
prepared to pay, as he doubted its value.
The dealer concluded the argument with:
"Listen Ruffell, it is no good a young liar like you trying to tell
lies to an old liar like me!"
One of his favourite tales, and
it was true, concerned his poor gardener, Yates, who had served in the Royal
Navy and fought in the battle of Jutland.
Ruffell asked him why he had no pension as a veteran as the man was very
poor. After a pause, Yates said,
"Well, I can trust you, sir, not to let on, because I'm ashamed of what I
done. We had a nasty captain, and when
we were in Scapa Floe on Armistice night (1918) we had a bit of a party. We all got drunk, but I was the one who
threw the captain overboard!" For
this he was sentenced to two years in a military prison, discharged with
disgrace and lost all pension rights.
As he was a regular, this amounted to a good deal - he served eight
years before 1918. Of course, he was
fortunate that the captain was thrown in the sea after the war had come to an
end, if only just so. Had it not he
would have been in worse trouble, most likely facing a charge of mutiny.
The British Library holds the
following publication by Ruffell:
Master
Collett. The reflections of a village Nonconformist. LASLETT. G. H. Ruffell pp. 78.
Kingsgate Press: London, [1930.] 8o.
Ruffell died in October 1963 and
is buried in Oxford. Eveline died in
1970.
Family
of Ruffell and Eveline Laslett
Sons
THOMAS
PETER RUFFELL -
(Peter) - born 18 December 1915 at Bedford.
Historian, Reader in Politics and History, Cambridge, plus career in the
BBC. In 1947 Peter married Janet Crockett Clark and they have two
children. Peter died at Cambridge on 8 November 2001.
See chapter Peter and Janet Laslett of Cambridge on page 171.
KEITH
ALDEN - born 20
September 1917, at Bedford. Captured at
Singapore 1942 and made a Prisoner of War.
In 1946 he married Patricia
Doreen Mackness. Company Director,
Builders & Merchants, Bedford. Keith died on 14 July 2000 aged 82 years.
His death notice in the Daily Telegraph
of 19 July 2000 states: ‘A dearly loved husband, father and grandfather and
second son of the late Rev. and Mrs G H Ruffell Laslett. Former president and
Secretary of the Bedfordshire Baptist Association and Deacon, since 1948 of
Stevington Baptist Church. Private cremation followed by a Service of
Thanksgiving … July 26th, 2000 at Stevington Baptist Church…’
Children:
Joy
Patricia - born
31 July 1947. School-teacher. Married Peter
Stearn and has two children.
Penelope
Sara - born 19
December 1949. A nurse. Married Christopher
Hamp and has four children.
ROBERT
BRIAN - born 18
September 1923, at Watford.
Schoolmaster, then Lecturer, School of Education, Birmingham
University. Married Pamela Dorothy Straker in 1948.
See chapter Robert and Pamela Laslett of Birmingham on page 187.
JOHN
HENRY MARTIN -
born 7 May 1933, at Watford. Married Barbara Ruth Tauber (USA), a
Sociologist. Divorced in 1983. Educated at Oxford University is now
Associate Professor of American History (1974) at U.C.L.A., Los Angeles, USA. Has published a number of papers and books
mainly dealing with historical analysis of American socialism. His WEB page
states: "
John H.M. Laslett
Professor
Fields of interest: United States
History: American labor and social movements; U.S., Asian, Black and Mexican
immigration; comparative Euro‑American history.
Education: D. Phil. Oxford
University, 1962
Publications:
Workingman
in American Life (1968).
Labor
and the Left, a Study of Socialist and Radical Influences in the American Labor
Movement, 1881‑1924 (1970).
Failure
of a Dream? Essays in the History of American Socialism (1974), (1984), joint author.
Nature's
Noblemen: The Fortunes of the Independent Collier in Scotland and the American
Midwest, 1855‑1889 (1983).
History
of the ILGWU in Los Angeles, 1910‑1988 (1989), joint author.
"Gender,
Class, or Ethno‑Cultural Struggle? The Problematic Relationship Between
Rose Pesotta and the Los Angeles ILGWU", California History (1993).
The
United Mine Workers of America: A Model of Industrial Solidarity? (1996), editor.
"My interests have broadened
in recent years from U.S. labor and radical history to include immigration and
working class formation in Los Angeles, as well as in Europe and America and a
wide variety of other contexts.
Children:
Michael
Alden - born 13
October 1962.
Sarah
Helen - born 19
October 1964.
Daughters
WINIFRED
JOAN - born 30
October 1913. In 1936 Winifred married Howard Hine an agricultural engineer
and soil scientist. Howard died on 11
July 1990. They have no children.
BARBARA
ELIZABETH - born
22 November 1918. Lecturer Regent
Street Polytechnic, London. In 1960
Barbara married John Diamond. Barbara died suddenly on 8 November
1990. She had luekaemia.
Children:
Hanna
Elizabeth Diamond
- born 14 April 1962.
Jonathan
Diamond - born
2nd June 1965.
MARGARET - born 8 August 1922. Schoolteacher. Margaret married Frank
Burgess in 1950.
Children:
Paul
Burgess - born 7
November 1954.
Elizabeth
Burgess - born 7
February 1957.
Ruth
Burgess - born
27 June 1959.
Rachel
Burgess - born 7
January 1963.
Ernest and Sarah Laslett of Southfields
Ernest Hellier Laslett was born
at Southfields on 6 July 1885. He was
the son of Stephen Laslett, a miller of Southfields, and his wife Elizabeth
(page 119).
Occupation Brick Layer.
In 1913 married Sarah Ann
Amor. They lived at 16 Balvernie Grove,
Southfields, SW18.
Family
of Ernest and Sarah Laslett
Sons
STEPHEN
HELLIER - born
23 August 1916 at Southfields.
Shipping/ Equipment Buyer. On 19
August 1939 married Jean Dennis.
Stephen died in 1970.
Children:
Kenneth - born 26 July 1942. A Chef. On 16 September 1967 married Margaret Reynolds.
Children:
Allan - born 27 December 1969.
Graeme - born 29 April 1972.
FREDERICK
JOHN - born 14
October 1920 at Southfields.
Single. In Accounts/Catering.
Frederick died in 1997.
RONALD
ERNEST - born 3
July 1922 at Southfields. Menswear
retailer. Married Christine Tuck on 20 December 1949. Ronald died in 1997.
Children:
Michael - born 19 September 1950. Employed in Local Government. Married Sandra
Baker on 6 September 1975, divorced and now living in Brighton, Sussex.
Richard - born 19 March 1953. Single.
Richard has learning difficulties but is able to work at Marks and
Spencer in a part time capacity. He lives in sheltered accomodation in
Surbiton, Surrey.
GEORGE - born 4 October 1924 at
Southfields. Died on 20 December 1924.
Daughters
NANCY
LILLE LOUISE -
born 31 August 1915 at Southfields.
Single. Typist. Nancy is now
(2000) living in St John’s Almhouses in Winchester opposite the statue of King
Alfred and a few minutes level walk from the Catherdral.
ELIZABETH
(Betty) - born 4
February 1927 at Southfields.
Single. Accounting. Now (2000)
retired and living in Portland, Oregon, USA.
William and Lilian Laslett of Allendale East and O.B. Flat
William Manger Laslett was born
on 21 December 1885 the son of George Laslett, a farmer, of Allendale East and
Eliza Laslett née Langford (page 95). He was the
youngest, born after a large gap in the family, and was an uncle when he was
born. It must have felt somewhat
strange to have nieces and nephews of his own age group.
He was a good cricketer and like
his brother Alf worked in the Telegraph Party.
After experience in the SouthEast he went to Melbourne where he was
attached to Neldner's Flying Gang, a team of men ready to be despatched to any
line emergency.
He returned from Melbourne
marrying Lilian Rose Earl of Allendale East in 1911. They had a family of seven - four sons and three daughters.
William added to his land
holdings from time to time because he was anxious to give the boys a better
opportunity. Took over his father's farm at Allendale East, also purchasing
additional land in the district and had another property of 120 acres at O.B.
Flat.
William, by accident, introduced
subterranean clover to Allendale.
Purchasing what was said to be rapeseed, he sowed nine acres. It was sown at the wrong time of the year,
but an unusually wet summer allowed it to survive and seed. The possibilities were seen and further
development took place in establishing better pastures.
He took a great interest in public
affairs and was on most committees in the district. As representative for Allendale Ward he served two different
periods in the MacDonnell Bay Council.
In several instances he was the target for severe criticism on matters
in which his principles would not allow compromise, but always his word was his
bond whatever the cost and for this was well respected. After a period of ill
health he died at the early age of fifty-two on 31 October 1938. A large cortege followed his remains to the
Port MacDonnell Cemetery, paying their tribute to one who had faithfully served
in the Church and Community.
The old home at Allendale
continued to be a family centre until Lilian passed on, on 4 November
1970. This era in the Laslett family is
now past history as new owners now hold the property.
Lilian was the last link with
George's immediate family and for that generation only the fragrant memories
remain.
Family
of William and Lilian Laslett
Sons
JOHN
LACY - born 17
June 1912 at Allendale East.
Teacher. Married Muriel Elisabeth Walkington (born 21
December 1911). John died 9 May
1965. Muriel now lives in 10/471 Grange
Road, Seaton, S.A.
Children:
Robert
Lacy - born 4
June 1940. MSc Dip Ed FRACI Principal lecturer in Organic Chemistry at
Swinburne University of Technology.
Married Judith Ann Turner
(born 9 December 1938). Retired
teacher. They live in 19 Sherman
Street, Forest Hills, Vic.
Children:
Anne
Marie - born 4
August 1967. MDSc, MPH, BDSc. Married Statios
Konstantopoulos BDSc. (Anne-Marie retains the Laslett surname.)
Family:
Evelyn Ester Kate Konstantopoulos –
born 12 June 1997
Adonis Donald Robert Konstantopoulos – born 9 February 1999.
Andrew
Lacy – born 26
January 1969. PhD, BSc(Hons). Married Joanne
Watson.
Duncan
Robert - born 17
December 1971. BSc, BE.
Rosalie
Elisabeth - born
16 May 1942. BA, Dip Ed. Teacher.
Married Ronald Robert Hill
(born 8 November 1942). AAIB(Snr), MNIA, SIA(AF) A Bank Auditor. Live at 3 Ruth
Street, Morphett Vale, S.A.
Children:
Christopher
Robert Hill -
born 3 November 1970. BSc Computer
Programmer at Mayer Krieg.
Stephen
John Hill - born
29 December 1971. Computer Operator at Adelaide Bank.
Scott
Anthony Hill -
born 20 October 1975. BEc. Project Manager Mortgage Processing Centre.
Kym
Trenton - born
28 May 1947. FPS, MACPP, MAIDM, AFAIPM. Pharmacist. Married (*1.) Jillian Ruth
Harvey (née Treglown) divorced. (*2.) Tracey
Watson (born 18 February 1960) Live at 9 Marmora Tce, North Haven S.A.
Children:
Jodie
Kane - born 26
November 1974. BEd. School teacher Aomori Japan. (*1.)
Trent
Matthew - born
18 April 1976. BSc. University student – Pharmacy.(*1.)
Carly
Jane - born 8
September 1983. (*2.)
Dale
John - born 30
July 1985. (*2.)
John
Victor - born 5
April 1952. BmaSc (Honours) Dip C.Sc, MACS, MAIIA. Computer Programmer. Married Carol
Ann Eeles (born 19 April 1953).
Live at 16 Cumbeledge Crescent, Pearce, A.C.T.
Children:
Adam
John - born 30
October 1977. BSc and university student – Music.
Ian
Anthony - born 5
July 1979. University student.
Ingrid
Michelle - born
28 December 1982
Olivia
Jane - born 24
May 1988.
REGINALD
THOMAS - born 7
October 1913 at Allendale East. Minister Uniting Church. Married Margaret
Tregenza (born 12 August 1916).
Lived at Ingle Farm S.A. Reg died on 11 March 1995.
See chapter Reginald and Margaret Laslett of Ingle Farm on page 170.
WILLIAM
LANGFORD - born
9 November 1918 at Allendale East. A Dairy Farmer. Married Jean Margaret
Feast (born 25 December 1921). Live
at Sea Parade, Pt MacDonnell, S.A.
Children:
Peter
William - born 5
September 1949. A Dairy Farmer. Married
Ann Christine Morrish (born 24 August 1949).
Live at Youngs Road, Mt Schank, S.A.
Children:
Simon
Charles William
- born 20 November 1979. Married Rebecca
Collins on 12 June 1999.
Damien
Peter George -
born 17 October 1984.
KEITH
ALLAN - born 23
January 1927 at Allendale East. A Businessman.
Married Carleen Betty Bottomley
(born 12 July 1934). Live at 5/24
Ferrers St., Mt. Gambier, S.A.
Children:
Malcolm
Keith - born 24
May 1956. A Plumber.
David
William - born
29 January 1959. Died 22 December 1981
as the result of an accident.
Craig
Allan - born 3
June 1961. A Civil Engineer.
Richard
Bruce - born 4
June 1964. A Geologist.
Daughters
ROSA
GRACE - born 20
July 1916 at Allendale East. Married Roland Homer Edge (born 3 June 1900) a
Businessman. Rosa died on 19 November
1976 while Roland died on 20 October 1980.
Children:
Roland
Laslett Edge -
born 8 October 1950. A Plumber. Married Michelle
Elizabeth Doman (born 4 October 1954) a Clerk.
Children:
Kylie
Narelle Edge -
born 19 September 1975.
Roland
Heath Edge -
born 8 June 1978.
Lawrence
Edward Edge -
born 1 November 1952. Married Elizabeth Gladstone. Both School
Teachers.
Children:
Daniel
Lawrence Edge -
born 22 June 1981.
Timothy
James Edge -
born 13 April 1984.
EMILY
LILLIAN - born 6
September 1923 at Allendale East.
Married Gordon Thompson (born
31 July 1917 Died 11 January 1988) a Grazier.
Children:
Rosemary
Kaye Thompson -
born 16 December 1945. Married twice, firstly to Ian Thomas and afterwards to Warren
Denham an Oil Surveyor.
Children:
Matthew
Ian Gordon Thomas
- born 21 May 1973.
Marilyn
Beth Thompson -
born 17 November 1947. Married Trevor
David Niven. Both Businesspeople.
Children:
David
Gordon Niven -
born 22 December 1971.
Lisa
Marie Niven -
born 1 December 1975.
Frederick
William Thompson
- born 26 December 1950. A Dairy Farmer.
Married Joanne Grace Nicholson.
Children:
Rachael
Lillian Thompson
- born 15 December 1981.
Samuel
William Thompson
and Darcy Gordon Thompson - twins
born 16 December 1983.
Robert
Gordon Thompson
- born 13 April 1953. A Farmer. Married
Deborah Joy Ellis.
Children:
Emily
Lorraine Thompson
- born 28 December 1982 and died the same day.
Joshua
Douglas Thompson
- born 1 February 1983.
Jessica
Rose Thompson -
born 12 March 1987.
UNA
MAY - born 21
December 1928 at Allendale East. A
Nursing Assistant. Married James Kenneth Kuhl (born 6 September
1919 Died 7 November 1983) a Poultry Farmer.
Children:
Kenneth
John Kuhl - born
17 December 1949. A Motor Mechanic.
Married Barbara Dianne Tuttle
(born 8 May 1950) a Nursing Sister.
Children:
Adrian
Paul Kuhl - born
16 June 1977.
Matthew
James Kuhl -
born 17 April 1979.
Elizabeth
Una Kuhl - born
3 January 1953. A Stenographer. Married Frank
Dowell Maddock (born 23 April 1947) a Weather Observer.
Children:
Benjamin
Mark Maddock -
born 7 June 1975.
Laura
Joy Maddock -
born 22 December 1978.
Marina
Elizabeth Maddock
- born 17 July 1982.
Alison
Ruth Kuhl - born
21 April 1955. A Dental Nurse. Married Mark
Stewart Tonkin (born 27 November 1953).
A Minister of Religion.
Children:
Avril
Elizabeth Tonkin
- born 16 July 1979.
Campbell
Luke Tonkin -
born 21 December 1981.
Caleb
Mark Tonkin -
born 2 February 1985.
Howard
Douglas Kuhl -
born 29 November 1957. A Journalist.
Married Margaret Rose Popowski
(born 5 July 1953) a Nurse.
Children:
Melanie
Jane Kuhl - born
21 April 1980.
Fiona
Renee Kuhl -
born 26 March 1982.
Ashley
Lloyd Kuhl -
born 22 September 1966. A Bank Clerk.
William and Alice Lasslett of Footscray
William Arthur Lasslett was born
in 1887 at Footscray the seventh child of William Vevers Lasslett and Ann
Matilda Lasslett née Lawson of Footscray (page 126).
A Carpenter, he lived in West
Footscray.
On 7 March 1914 at St. John's
Church of England, Footscray he married Alice May Halliday (born 1892), a
Dressmaker of Footscray, the daughter of James William Halliday, a Pattern
Maker, and Amelia Clara Halliday nee Baster.
In 1959 a book celebrating Footscray's First 100 Years was
published and carried a small note on William on page 51. Under the heading "No Street Lights if
Full Moon!" it says:
Gas Lamps - which replaced the
old kerosene lamps of an earlier stage - illuminated local streets until about
40 years ago. They were spaced well
apart and their glow offered little illumination on the darkest nights. They were extinguished not long after
midnight.
A Kingsville resident who was
born here 72 years ago, William Lasslett, was a lamp-lighter for Footscray Gas
Company - which provided the service for the council - as a youth. He remembers how, if there was a full moon,
the gas lamps would not be lit at all.
He started lighting up around Yarraville at 4 p.m. each day, and resumed
the round, to put out the flare, shortly after midnight."
William was buried in Footscray
Cemetery on 3 August 1980.
Family
of William and Alice Lasslett
Sons
WILLIAM
JAMES - born 16
February 1916 at Footscray. On 12 May
1945 married Marie Joan Coverdale
(born 2 May 1924 at Flemington. Jim
died at Sacred Heart Hospital, Moreland on 7 March 1989.
See chapter Jim and Marie Lasslett of Keilor on page 185.
GEOFFREY
HALLIDAY - born
1 June 1930 at Footscray. A Clerk. On 8 April 1950 at St Paul's Church
Kingsville he married Mabel Zelma Frew
(born 24 December 1929 at West Footscray) the daughter of William Thomas
Archibald Frew and Thomasina Mabel Frew nee George.
Children:
Geoffrey
William - born 4
January 1952 at Carlton. An
Electrician. Married Cecilia Margaret Hudson (born 17
November 1949) on 23 October 1971. She
is the daughter of Frederick Malcolm Hudson and Mary Therese Hudson nee
Clifford.
Children:
Grahame
Paul - born 4
May 1972.
Gavin
Russell - born
17 April 1973.
Gordon
Malcolm - born 9
September 1959 at Footscray. A
Structural Steel Worker.
Daughters
VEVERS
LORNA.
NELLIE
MAY.
George and Elsie Laslett OF O.B. Flat
George Samson Laslett was born on
28 September 1893 at Allendale East. He
was the eldest son of George Laslett, a Farmer later of Glencoe East, and his
wife Ellen Laslett née Tall (page 134). In naming their son George, they were helping to
maintain the tradition in this branch of the family of calling the eldest son
of the eldest son George. George Samson
was the third in sequence.
He attended Kingsley School in
Allendale East and, as was normal at that period, left school at the age of 12
after obtaining his Honour Certificate.
In 1906, when his parents moved
to Glencoe East, George went too and was employed at an early age in the
Edendale Factory, which is now known as the Glencoe East Cheese factory. His wage was ten shillings a week with an
extra 2/6d if Sunday work was required.
The work was hard. George could
remember cutting a cord of two-foot lengths of wood for the donkey engine. A cord measuring 8'x 4'x 4'.
In 1912, when his father obtained
a 30-acre block of land at Moorak, George worked on the farm with his father
and brother Len. As well he took employment such as road making with his
father, (who was an expert roadmaker and tendered for constructing sections of
roads), or with other employers. Until
he was 21 years of age, he gave the whole of his wages to his parents.
In July 1914, he entered the
Teachers Training College, in Currie Street, Adelaide. In those days the initial training course
ran for six months, one intake in January and another in July. In August 1914 war broke out but George
appears to have completed this initial part of his training, before, as with
thousands of his generation, he sought to join up. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces (A.I.F.) from Mount
Gambier on 4 January 1915 and, after induction, was posted to 'C' Company 11th
Light Horse Regiment. His army number
was 773.
George has written a number of
accounts of his WWI service and I have selected from these to form a brief
continuous narrative of items of particular interest:
This Regiment was formed with C
Squadron South Australians, and A and B Squadrons Queenslanders. We left Mitcham Camp for Queensland at the
end of April (1915) . . . After a few
weeks training with the Queenslanders, we left by steamer . . . for Adelaide; arrived at Outer Harbour;
berthed there for a few hours and then sailed on the S.S. Borda for Egypt - without horses, the Light Horse being used as
infantry on Gallipoli.
The Light Horse uniform consisted
of boots, spurs, leather leggings, riding breeches, tunic, slouch hat, in most
cases with emu feathers in the side, with a chin strap worn under the lower lip
and not under the chin.
The troopers accoutrement was . .
. a bandolier made of leather, worn across the body . . . On the bandolier were
nine pouches, five in front of the body, four at the back, containing 10 rounds
in each pouch. Also a broad leather
belt . . . with two pouches at the front holding 20 rounds each . . . On the
left side was carried the bayonet ... across the shoulders were a water bottle
and haversack . . . Worn on the belt was also a mess tin . . . The rifle, Lee
Enfield 303, when mounted was slung over the shoulder, with rifle at the back.
On each sleeve of tunic and
overcoat the battalion or regimental colours were sown. After Gallipoli an A for Anzac was worn on
the colour patch by those that had served there . . . Also on the cuff of the right sleeve was worn small chevrons
denoting years of service; a red for those who served overseas in 1914 and a
blue for each succeeding year of service.
With regards to these, the story
goes that an elderly lady asked an old digger what the strips stood for and he
explained that the red one was to show that he was married and the blue for how
many children he had. Turning to his
mate and noticing four blues and no red, she remarked in shocked tones,
"You are a very wicked man".
Saluting, to the disgust of the
A.I.F., seemed the most essential requirement in the British Army . . . Not saluting in a smart and soldier-like
manner was the cause of many entries in the A.I.F. pay books.
On the 15th August (1915),
reveille was at 3.00 a.m.; had breakfast; marched three miles and entrained for
Alexandria . . . We had only what we
could carry in our knapsack, overcoat, waterproof sheet and blanket. We were off to war, destination Gallipoli .
. . embarked on the S.S. Marquette . . .
Extract from diary, 28/29th
August, 1915: 'Arrived Lemnos harbour, it was full of shipping of all
descriptions, battleships, destroyers, submarines, hospital ships . . . issued
with 150 rounds of ammunition, disembarked off the Marquette onto transport 727
Prince Abbasia. I felt very ill landed by barges at Anzac at
3 a.m., heavy firing going on . . .
George had contracted measles and
on 30 August was sent back to Lemnos.
After a battle against armies of lice, squalid conditions and the
indifference of a hard pressed medical service George was pronounced fit for
duty. He returned to Gallipoli on HMS Partridge:
We landed about 11.00 p.m. on
barges . . . a German plane flew over,
dropped a bomb and nearly hit the Partridge,
returned about half an hour later, tried again with two more, but missed.
Next morning . . . I made my way
through Shrapnel Gully to the 9th Light Horse position at the Apex, the
furthest point inland and the highest in the Anzac position, about 850 feet and
a mile from the beach. (The 11th had been allotted as reinforcements to other
regiments.)
Between this ridge (the Turkish
lines) and our position, a deep valley about three hundred yards across
separated us. In this valley hundred of
bodies lay unburied and remained so until after the Armistice; some were Turks,
but the others ours.
At one time a rather grim picture
could be seen through field glasses looking into the valley. Evidently the New Zealander and the Turk had
bayoneted each other at the same time, transfixing each other, the Turk falling
to the ground and the long Anzac bayonet passing through him and penetrating
into the ground. Both rifles grasped in
a death grip, leaving the Anzac still standing above the Turk in a stooping
position.
Water was very scarce . . . and
was issued at the rate of one pint per day per man . . . Washing was out of the question. We slept in our clothes still wearing web
equipment with ninety rounds in the pouches, bayonet at the side and rifle in
readiness in case of a surprise attack . . .
Every day this position was
shelled by the rapid-fire French 75's especially when the men emerged from
their dugouts to go to the cookhouse a few yards distant. It almost made a man spill his tea and stew
. . .
The hiss of bullets through the
air never ceased, with the occasional scream of a ricochet, interspersed with
intermittent shelling.
A few weeks before the
evacuation, orders from Headquarters forbade any firing of any weapon for
forty-eight hours unless attacked . . . it was part of the strategy leading to
the final withdrawal.
. . . I was a machine gunner and
we were told that we had the 'position of honour'. We were to hold our posts to the last and not to move until all
the troops had reached the beach.
Personally I felt I could do with a lot less honour and more priority .
. .
In Ernest Hammond's History of the 11th Light Horse Regiment
the evacuation is described:
In the early part of that last
night (19/20 December 1915) long lines of silent marchers threaded their way to
the beach and the waiting boats . . .
The seemingly impossible had been
accomplished. Anzac was evacuated
without casualties.
George left on the battleship Mars.
Owing to his knowledge of the
Vickers machine gun and his ability as an instructor, he was promoted to
Corporal Instructor and finally Staff Sergeant and was kept in Egypt for the
rest of the war, instructing troops in the use of the machine gun.
When he returned to Australia, he
took up 156 acres of land at OB Flat under the Soldiers Settlement Scheme,
built a stone-walled house there, and started a farm on which he kept dairy
cows and pigs, and grew potatoes and oat crops. In this work, he was helped by his wife, Elsie May Laslett (née
Earl), born 7 October 1893, whom he married at Allendale East on 9 March 1920.
George and Elsie had five sons
and three daughters, in order of age, Joy Helen 1920, George Nield 1922, Perry
Thomas 1924, Ronald Esmond 1926, Muriel Elsie 1928, Mary Isabel 1930, Ralph
Leslie 1932, Leonard Maurice 1934. As
these children grew old enough, they did various chores on the farm, such as
milking cows, feeding pigs, carting grass hay or sheaves of oats in the wagon
drawn by two horses, and taking milk to the O.B. Flat factory, returning with
cans of whey for the pigs.
Most of the children were
educated at O.B. Flat Public School, but when George took over his father's
30-acre farm at Moorak, Ralph and Len attended the Moorak primary school.
George was a hard-working and
successful farmer, working first one farm and then two together. The Moorak farm was managed by Rosa Laslett,
daughter of William and Lillian Laslett of Allendale East.
George was captain of the O.B.
Flat Tennis Club in the 1930's, but later became more interested in rifle
shooting and joined the Mount Gambier Rifle Club. He was a very good rifle shot, usually being among the top five
shooters, although he was the only one who did not use a peepsight or
sling. For approximately 30 years, from
the mid-30's to the mid-60's, he regularly attended the shoots, until his
eyesight began to fail, and he changed his sport to lawn and also indoor bowls,
at which he was very proficient.
He was also a keen fisherman and
owned a cabin boat and house boat on the River Glenelg at Donovans.
George liked company and had a
good sense of humour and loved telling stories of his experiences in the
Army. He was a good story teller and
his sense of humour ensured him on appreciative audience.
He liked composing humorous poems, such as "Mother at the
Wheel", or more serious ones, such as "The Men of Yesterday",
and various rhymes referring to local happenings.
When World War II broke out, he
and his son George joined the Volunteer Defence Corps and in 1943, he joined
the Army with the rank of Warrant Officer to instruct new recruits. I think he remained in the Army only a few
months, and then returned to farming to help the War Effort.
In 1959, he sold the Moorak farm
and later sold the O.B. Flat farm to his son, Ralph, with the exception of 50
acres sold to his daughter, Muriel Hillyer.
George and Elsie lived in the old
farmhouse until 1986, Ralph having built a two-roomed house for himself about a
mile to the east.
He was a keen golfer, having
taken it up at the age of 75 years, and kept at it until he was 90 years of
age. His photo was in the Border Watch, after playing a round of
golf on his 90th birthday.
He was a cheerful, friendly man
who liked company. He was an omnivorous
reader and particularly liked historical novels.
In his later years, he wrote a
booklet, called Reflections, which
was a collection of his poems, his army experiences, descriptions of his
overseas trips, etc. In addition to
this booklet, he wrote articles on the various districts in the vicinity of
Mount Gambier and Port MacDonnell, e.g. Allendale East, O.B. Flat, Moorak,
Glencoe East, Donovans, Nelson, Wye, etc.
In these articles, he would describe the people, and the way of life of
the people living in those places in the early days.
George died on 3 February 1987
and is buried in the Port MacDonnell Cemetery.
Family
of George and Elsie Laslett
Sons
GEORGE
NIELD - born
Saturday 16 May 1922 at O.B. Flat. School Teacher. Married Violet Nell
Patricia Hawke (born 27 December 1924, died 25 September 1988). George lives in Stopford Road, Hove, S.A.
See chapter George and Pat Laslett of Hove on page 186.
PERRY
THOMAS - born 26
March 1924 at O.B. Flat. Educated at
O.B. Flat and Yahl Primary Schools.
Served in the RAAF during WWII.
On discharge built up a wood chip carting business in Mt. Gambier. In 1947 Perry married Betty Valmai Whitehead (born 19 August 1928). Lives in Brigalow Cresecent, Mt. Gambier,
S.A.
Children:
Michelle
Annette - born
24 January 1948. Married Colin Sealey.
Children:
Mark
Anthony Sealey
Damien
Sealey
Suzette
Elizabeth - born
13 October 1949. Married Kenneth Wayne Lawson.
Children:
Kenneth
Perry Lawson
Jason
Lawson
Angelique
Lawson
Serena
Lawson
Peter
Lawson
RONALD
ESMOND - born 5
March 1926 at O.B. Flat. Educated at
O.B. Flat Primary School. Served in
RAAF during WWII in Australia and Borneo.
In 1949 Ronald married Gladys Fay
Jones (born 19 March 1930). They
farmed a property at Mt. Schanck, then sold it and went to live in Mt.
Gambier. Ronald died 30 May 1973. Gladys now lives in Worrolong Road, Mt.
Gambier, S.A.
Children:
Leonie
Faye - born 26
September 1949. Married twice, firstly to Barry
Sims then to Wayne Johns
RALPH
LESLIE - born 5
September 1932 at O.B. Flat. Educated at O.B. Flat and Yahl Primary
Schools. After various jobs at
pinefalling, crayfishing, etc., he bought his father's property at O.B. Flat
and 90 acres about a mile to the east.
On the first proerty he was a dairy farmer, grew potatoes etc., on the
second property he ran beef cattle.
Unmarried. Lives in Whites Flat
Road, O.B. Flat, S.A.
LEONARD
MAURICE - born
21 July 1934 at O.B. Flat. Educated at
Moorak Public and Mt. Gambier High Schools.
Worked as crew in a fishing boat for Les Jones, then bought his own boat
and was engaged in crayfishing. Also
bought 200 acres of bushland and planted it with pines. In 1955 married Margaret Anne Tibbles (born 13 October 1935). Live at Allendale East.
Children:
Drew
Leonard - born
25 November 1955. Ranger/ Farmer. Married Susan
Mary G. Arbery (born 9 June 1954).
Live in Springs Road, Port MacDonnell, S.A. In 1997 the NY Times ran an
article mentioning Drew as a Wildlife Officer on Kangaroo Island.
Children:
Tegan
Marie - born 24
July 1984.
Jessica
Anne - born 20
September 1986.
Briony
Margaret - born
25 August 1958. Married Barry Kelvin Schriever (born 4 November
1954),a Cattle Farmer, the son of Kelvin Schriever and Mavis (May) Schriever
née Millard.
Children:
Nicholas
Barry Schriever
- born 12 January 1980.
Adam
John Schriever -
born 30 March 1981.
Tahney
Ann Schriever -
born 14 January 1986.
Donna
Marie - born 10
November 1959. Librarian. Married Robert
Fox (born 27 February 1956) a Butcher.
Children:
Matthew
John Fox - born
16 February 1984.
Ryan
Lithgow Fox -
born 23 December 1985.
Tanya
Joanne - born 11
March 1962. Married Leigh Gilbertson (born 1 April 1960) an
Electrical Engineer.
Children:
Christopher
Leigh Gilbertson
- born 18 February 1986.
Jared
Kevin Gilbertson
- born 5 April 1988.
Brent
Anthony - born
11 June 1968. Television Technician.
Daughters
JOY
HELEN - born
Friday 3 December 1920 at O.B. Flat.
Educated at O.B. Flat Primary School.
On 2 June 1943 married Charles
Norman Wallace (born 5 May 1917) a Farmer of Allendale East.
Children:
Wayne
Robert Wallace -
born 7 March 1948. Is married to Valerie
Anne McMahon. Both School Teachers.
Children:
Nicholas
Charles Wallace
- born 12 February 1976.
Timothy
Francis Wallace
- born 15 January 1978.
Anita
Joy Wallace -
born 7 October 1979.
Samuel
Robert Wallace
Darryl
Charles Wallace
- born 26 December 1949. School
Teacher.
Glen
Earl Wallace -
born 2 January 1952. Died 24 September
1965.
Sharyn
Joy Wallace -
born 13 July 1954. Social Worker. Was married to Michael Allan Lawson but is now divorced.
Perry
Michael Wallace
- born 14 August 1961. A Labourer.
MURIEL
ELSIE - born 27
February 1928 at O.B. Flat. Married Eric Hillyer, a Poultry Farmer, but is
now divorced.
Children:
Dale
Eric Hillyer -
born 21 July 1946. Poultry Farmer. Married Merryn
Smith (Born 27 September 1948.
Children:
Jodi
Hillyer - born
11 November 1968. Clerk.
Travis
Hillyer - born 2
March 1972.
Susan
Ellen Hillyer -
born 7 September 1955. Shop Assistant.
Married Dennis Kuhl now divorced.
Children:
Serena
Kuhl - born 27
April 1973.
Leona
Kuhl - born 16
August 1976.
Tracey
Hillyer - born
19 August 1959. Business- woman. Married Lesley
Marsh now divorced.
Jacqueline
Hillyer - born
19 January 1961. Poultry Farmer.
Rosalie
Rebecca Hillyer
- born 9 November 1962. Clerk. Married Anthony
Eustace.
MARY
ISABEL - born 7
March 1930 at O.B. Flat. Married Bruce Maxwell Stephens (Born 28
September 1928). A Telecom F.M.O.
Children:
Craig
Leslie Stephens
- born 3 May 1951. Telecom Worker.
Married twice, first Margaret Rose
Knight then Marie Jean Francis
(Born 14 April 1954).
Children:
Lee
Nigel Stephens -
born 8 December 1972.
Bianca
Marie Stephens -
born 14 April 1977.
Bradley
Craig Stephens -
born 22 February 1984.
Robert
Mark Stephens -
born 19 January 1953. Telecom
Worker. Married Janet Christine Brown (Born 7 March 1954).
Children:
Benjamin
Mark Stephens -
born 19 March 1980.
Suzanne
Lucia Stephens -
born 13 May 1983.
Kerry
Anne Stephens -
born 26 December 1956. Married Trevor Wayne Cox (born 8 August 1953).
Kraft Employee.
Children:
Robyn
Denise Cox -
born 19 November 1977.
Brian
Trevor Cox -
born 5 September 1980.
Leanne
Kaye Cox - born
1 September 1985.
Haydn
Bruce Stephens -
born 6 February 1963. Telecom Worker.
Married Amanda Jayne King.
Arthur and Dorothea Laslett
Arthur Edward Laslett was born on
8 April 1894 at Forest Hill, Victoria The first child of Herbert Laslett an
orchardist and his wife Jeannie Laslett née Currie (see page 139).
Arthur worked at his father's Cordial factory at Pinjarra, Western
Australia until he joined the A.I.F at Blackboy Hill Camp, Near Perth, W.A. on
9th September 1914. He was in 11th
Battalion, 3rd Infantry Brigade. Embarked for Alexandria 26 October 1914.
Appointed Lance Cpl 15th August 1915.
Admitted to hospital in Alexandria with enteritis and later dysentery,
from Pyretia, Gallipoli. He had small gunshot wound under the left knee.
From Alexandria he was sent to England to recuperate, arriving 24th
November 1915 on board "Dover Coast"
First to Campdown, Hampshire, then to Fairfield Hospital, Broadstairs,
Kent, where he met his future wife, Dorothea Moykopf, who lived nearby, and
worked as a VAD nurse. He was medically unfit for active service so he then
worked as a driver to London.
On 18 August 1917 he married Dorothea (Dodie) Alice Nina Moykop,
spinster at the Parish Church of St Peter the Apostle in Thanet, Kent. Dorothea
was the daughter of Charles Frederick Richard Moykopf (Dec'd), a boot
manufacturer, and his wife Alice Ellen Morkopf. The photograph at the right was
taken at the Moykopf family house, Denemount, in Broadstairs, Kent. Alice’s
husband Charles Moykopf had died prior to Arthur and Dodie’s wedding in 1917.
Dodie had worked as a VAD nurse at Broadstairs where she met Arthur, who was in
her hospital having been wounded at Gallipoli.
Arthur was discharged in London on medical grounds on 2 March 1918.
They first lived in the UK before
moving to Western Australia where we believe had a Sheepstation near Subiaco
before returning again to England. Arthur joined the British Army and landed in
Normandy on D Day as a Major.
His grandson has his war record and photographs of him at the home of his
future wife and a print of the 11th Battalion on the Great Pyramid at Cheops,
Egypt.
He was discharged in the UK on 18 August 1918, as his wife had inherited
a tidy sum from the estate of her father and uncle who had both died in 1916.,
Kent. Her Father died in the 1916 flu epidemic along with her Uncle
Frederick. She was left a substantial
amount of money and property. He had an
address at that time as St Mildreds, Broadstairs
He was married to Dorothea Alice
Nina Moykopf on 18 Aug 1917 in St Peter's, Broadstairs, Kent, UK, when his
father came over for the ceremony Dorothea
Alice Nina Moykopf as born on 14 June 1896 in "Fontein", Fulham
Park, Fulham, London, UK the daughter of CFR Moykopf bespoke boot maker of
Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly, London. She had been raised between "High
Trees", Chalfont St Giles, and their house, "Denemount",
Broadstairs, Kent.
First child Douglas Alexander was born, however at 6 months old whilst
crossing the Red Sea on the way to Australia he died. Apparently Douglas (Johnnie) was premature and they were warned
about travelling with him! . They
returned from Australia the following year and Nita Ivy Elna was born. They then went back out to Australia where
Terrance was born and Nita died. Again back to the UK where Denise (Peggy) and
Jean Dorothea(Sal) were born, once again returning to Australia where Robin Fae
was born.
In
Australia they had a sheep station, the house made of timber which burnt down.
A brick bungalow was then built. Dodie and her remaining children returned from
Australia, never to return.
Arthur
joined the British Army in the Second World War and was with the Pioneer
Corps. Joined 162 Co Pioneer Corps
between August 1940 and February 1941, at that time in London as a lieutenant. Promoted to captain March 1941, moved in May
1942 to 69 (Alien) Co, based in Darlington.
In March 1944 he moved to 101 Group, formed at Buxton, Derbyshire, and
on 1 July 1944 landed in Normandy.
On 23
September 1944 he was posted to 279 Company who were based in Eindhoven. In April 1945 the company moved to Germany,
where 279 Co were disbanded on 23 November 1945.
Arthur then
bacame a Civilian District Officer at Unna in Germany on the Dutch border.
Arthur returned to Australia
after the war. Married Irene Eleanor
Daphne Ockelford at Sydney in 1950.
Known as Daphne. Lived at 4/10
William Street, Double Bay, N.S.W. No
issue from 2nd marriage. Arthur died of
a stroke in RPAH Camperdown on 14 August 1961 and was cremated at Eastern
Suburbs Crematorium.
Dorothea
contracted cancer and died in 1947 in Broadstairs. She is buried at St Peter's
Cemetery in Broadstairs, close to her grandson Robin. Arthur returned to Broadstairs in Kent for his wife’s funeral and that was the last time he landed on UK
soil.
Arthur
Edward LASLETT and Dorothea Alice Nina MOYKOPF had the following children:
Douglas
Alexander (Jonnie)
- was born in 1917 in Christchurch, Hants,
UK.. He died in 1918 in Aboard Ship in
Red Sea.
Nita
Ivy Elna – born
3 September 1919 in London. Died 15 April 1923 in Perth, W.A..
Terence
Arthur - born
1920 UK. Married Rhaune (see page 205.)
Denise - born 1923 UK.
Jean
Dorothea (Sal) -
born 27 May 1925, Harrow, Middlesex. On 28 April 1943 married James Wilson
Stringer in Buckinghamshire UK. James had been born on 13 October 1918 in
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. James died on 16 June 1963 at Petoskey Michigan, USA
and Jean died on 6 March 2000 at Okemos, Michigan.
Children:
Nicholas
Michael Stringer – born 3 December 1943 at Bournemouth East, Dorset, UK.
Married to Julie.
Dudley
James Stringer – born 7 June 1945 at Saginaw, Michigan.
Robin
Fae. - born 1929
U.K.
Leonard and Alice Laslett of Mount Gambier
Leonard John Laslett was born on
25 October 1895 at Allendale East. He
was the son of George Laslett, a Farmer later of Glencoe East, and his wife
Ellen Laslett née Tall (page 134).
Married Alice Evelyn Earl (born
19 February 1898).
Lived in early years at Allendale
East and Glencoe East.
Served in Egypt and France in the
A.I.F. during WWI as a Private (5143) in the 10th Battalion. Enlisted 12 October 1915, returned to
Australia 4 May 1917.
Farmed a Soldier Settler property
at O.B. Flat, then moved to Adelaide with a job as a tram conductor. Returned to Mt. Gambier as a insurance
salesman for Prudential Assurance Company.
Lived with family at Eglington Terrace, Mt. Gambier. Took active part in civic affairs. In later years returned to Adelaide to live.
Leonard died on 3 June 1980 while
Alice died on 10 July 1985.
Family
of Leonard and Alice Laslett
Sons
EVAN
LEONARD - born
15 May 1927. A retired Bank Manager
& Lay Pastor Uniting Church.
Married Colleen Edith L. Robbie
(born 28 October 1927) and they live in Seaforth Avenue, Somerton Park, S.A.
Children:
Susan
Betty - born 4
December 1954. A Bank Clerk. Lives in
Seaforth Avenue, Somerton Park, S.A.
Wendy
Margaret - born
23 September 1956. Married Dean Davis (born 1 July 1952).
Children:
Sarah
Kate Davis -
born 16 December 1981.
Hayley
Brooke Davis -
born 7 March 1984.
Peter
Leonard - born
13 January 1961. School Teacher. Lives
in L'Estrange Street, Glenside, S.A.
IAN (JOE) JOHN - born 13 August 1929. High School
Principal. Married Millicent Wynne Tuckwell (born 3 July 1929). Guardianship Board.
Joe was the founding Principal of Morialta Hogh School (1975-87). From the
school’s Web site: “One point of consensus stands out clearly, however. In
thirteen years, Morialta High School, under the leadership of Ian (Joe)
Laslett, has made an outstanding contribution to the theory and practice of
education in South Australia. Through his vision, intellectual acumen,
influence, management and encouragement, Joe enabled it all to happen.”
Children:
Judith
Wynne - born 15
April 1956. Married Craig Boxall (born 30 August 1955) a
Company Executive.
Children:
Rebecca
Mary Boxall -
born 10 August 1983.
Katherine
Anne Boxall -
born 29 April 1985.
Matthew
Craig Boxall -
born 1 June 1987.
Andrew
John - born 22
December 1957. High School Teacher.
Lives in Aroona Road, West Croydon, S.A.
Mary
Elizabeth - born
28 June 1960.
Children:
Tristan
Andrew James Stringer
- born 15 November 1982.
Shelley
Claire - born 3
March 1988.
Ian
David - born 11
June 1964. A Pensioner.
ROSS
EDWARD - born 15
August 1936. Bank Manager,
Westpac. Married Elizabeth Stella Jackson (born 14 February 1945) a Market
Researcher. They lived in Gillian
Parade, West Pymble, N.S.W. Ross died on 31 January 2000.
Children:
Martin
James - born 20
November 1974. SMH 10 June 2003 Letters:
We
lie back and think of England - and a future republic
Yes, Elaine Campbell (Letters, June 9), as a committed
republican I do avail myself of the Queen's birthday public holiday. As far I
can tell, it is the only advantage of living under a constitutional monarchy.
Martin Laslett,
Neutral Bay, June 9.
Daughters
BETTY
JEAN - born 12
December 1923. Died 31 July 1943 of
infantile paralysis.
ELMA
GWENYTH - born
18 August 1925. Rtd Registered
Nurse. Married Donald Berry Wallage (born 4 November 1929) an Electrical
Contractor.
Children:
Barbara
Joy Wallage -
born 1 October 1954. A Singer with the
State Opera and Singing Teacher.
Married David Grant McSkimming
(born 6 March 1950). A Pianist with the
State Opera.
Children:
Benjamin
David McSkimming
- born 6 March 1976.
Cameron
Mark McSkimming
- born 10 December 1981.
Mark
Donald Wallage -
born 3 June 1956. Video Producer. Married Jann
Kennedy (born 10 October 1952) a Social Worker.
Children:
Lachlan
John Wallage -
born 29 June 1984.
Bronwyn
Lesley Wallage -
born 4 April 1960. Married Allan Robert Grigg (born 17 May 1959).
Both Social Workers.
BARBARA
ROSE - born 25
August 1930. Teacher. Married twice, first Ernest Britton, then Frederic
Champion (born 25 October 1914) a Headmaster.
Children:
Garth
Murray Britton -
born 24 June 1957. Businessman.
Janette
Lois Britton -
born 8 February 1959. Married Kent Parken (born 17 October
1955). A Medical Rep.
Children:
Adam
Tobias Parken -
born 12 June 1985.
Jarrad
Christopher Parken
- born 15 February 1988.
Gillian
Kaye Britton -
born 14 April 1961. A Speech
Therapist. Married Jeremy Godwin (born 25 November 1958) a School Teacher.
Kerry
Sandra Britton -
born 7 May 1963. Trainee Teacher.
LOIS
EVELYN - born 10
November 1932. Married Gordon Kidd.
Children:
Eleanor
Kidd.
plus three others.
Frederick and Bertha Lasslett of Hurlstone Park
Frederick James Vevers Lasslett
born in Newtown on 30 October 1897 the first child of Frederick and Amy
Lasslett (page 136). Fred
married Bertha Simmons on Saturday 13 December 1924. He died in Melbourne on Christmas Day Sunday 25 December 1955
while visiting his sister Dorothy Barnes.
Bertha died at Hurlstone Park on Thursday 30 October 1958.
Family
of Frederick and Bertha Lasslett
Sons
FREDERICK
ROOK - born
Saturday 24 March 1928 at Hurlstone Park.
Recently married Dawn. Now
and moved from Brighton-le-Sands to the Gold Coast where they lived at Hooker
Boulevard, Mermaid Waters, Qld. Fred died on 12 January 2001.
JACK - Born Wednesday 12 November
1930 at Hurlstone Park. Builder. In October 1951 married Bertha May Roe and now lives in La Boheme Avenue, Caringbah. Jack
died on 19 December 1993 and was described in his death notice in The Sydney Morning Herald of 21 December
as being ‘late of Picton, formerly of Caringbah’.
Children:
Christine - born January 1953. Husband Bill.
Debra
Gail - married Gregory William Donnelly. Living at Scylla Road, Oyster Bay.
Children:
Melanie
Donnelly
Jai
Donnelly
Corrin
Donnelly
Tracy
Husband Charlee.
Rodney
Craig Wife Jayne.
Has two girls.
Daughters
NORMA
BERTHA - born
Tuesday 10 November 1925 at Hurlstone Park. Married Denis Leon Hennessy. Live
at Bellinger Place, Sylvania Waters.
Harold and Lily Laslett of Broadstairs
Harold Weston Thomas was born at
Broadstairs on 17 June 1901 He was the son of Thomas Laslett of Broadstairs and
his wife Kate Laslett née Thomas (page 131). Harold was educated at Holy Trinity Elementary
School, Broadstairs. Served in the
Royal Field Artillery as a driver during WWI.
He enlisted when aged only 14 years 3 months old. The East
Kent Times of 20 September 1916 recorded:
WOUNDED AT FIFTEEN.
THE
YOUNGEST BROADSTAIRS
SOLDIER
The youngest Broadstairs soldier
- probably the youngest in the whole of Thanet - in the person of Driver Harold
Laslett, aged 15, of the Royal Field Artillery, has been wounded, fortunately
not seriously.
His appearance and particularly
his physique, from which one would have formed the opinion that he was at leat
five years older, assisted his enlistment on September 28th last year, when he
was fourteen years and three months old.
Five months later he had
completed his training, and was drafted to the Western Front with a battery.
Since then he has taken part in a
deal of heavy fighting. He was with his
battery when he was struck in the right leg by a piece of shrapnel.
Writing to his parents at Church
Cottage, Albion street, from a Soldiers' Christian Association Camp Home at one
of the Bases, Driver Laslett cheerfully explains that his wound is only a
slight one and he has almost recovered from the effects.
His brother, Leonard, is serving
with a Battalion of The Buffs on another front.
Both lads were educated at Holy
Trinity Elementary Schools, Broadstairs.
A photograph of Harold
accompanied the article.
On 14 February 1927 married Lily Valentine Saffery. Lily had been born on 14 February 1906.
After the war Harold became a
conductor on the trams which ran all over Thanet and when they ended he
transferred onto the buses until an accident where he was crushed between two
in Margate's Cecil Square. He was not
expected to live, several vertebrae were crushed as was his pelvis, he had
broken ribs and three weeks later they realised his shoulder was broken. For a man who was given eight minutes to
live he did rather well as he died roughly ten years later.
Harold died in 1960 and Lily in
November 1987.
Family
of Harold and Lily Laslett
DAWN
PRETORIA -
married Barney?. Emigrated to New Zealand in 1947/48
HARRY - on 2 November 1957 married Marjorie Terry.
Family
Teresa
V. - lives in
Broadstairs.
Margaret
Alick
Jack
Jim
– In 2000 a
Probation Officer for the Kent Probation Service. Married in 1974.
Family:
Sarah
Herbert (Glen) Laslett and his wives Eileen and Barbara
On 21 June 1926 he married Eileen
Veronica Watts, spinster of 58 Grosvenor Road, Mt. Lawley, W.A., at St. Francis Zaviers Church
Wollongong, N.S.W. Eileen had been born
at McCleery Street, Fremantle, W.A. on 5 December 1899 and was the daughter of
James Watts, a blacksmith of Fremantle, W.A., and his wife Catherine Quinn
(Dec'd). At the time of marriage Glen
gave his occupation Company Representative and address as Cowra, N.S.W.
Glen worked with his father in
the hotel business until just before WWII when he moved his family to N.S.W.
taking the Rabbit Trap hotel at
Albert. From there he joined the Shell
Oil Company and remained with them until his death in 1966.
Eileen died on 3 September 1933
at Bullfinch, W.A. and was buried the next day in the Roman Catholic Cemetery
at Southern Cross. Around 1933 1934
Glen married Barbara Winifred Rowan in
Dongarra Western Australia.
Glen died on 17 June 1966 at 8
Bourke Street, Wollongong and was buried at Lakeside Memorial Park, Dapto on 20/6/1966.
Family
of Herbert and Eileen Laslett
PETER
KERR - born 28
March 1927 at Haberfield, N.S.W. On 7
April 1947 at St Thomas' Anglican Church at Rozelle, N.S.W. married Laura Moore (born 1925, Footscray,
Vic.) of Lilyfield, N.S.W. the daughter of Stanley Desmond Moore and Ivy May
Moore née Baxter. Laura died at
Lilyfield on 2 March 1949. On 27
October 1951 Peter married Elizabeth
Muriel Mathews (born 1933) of Woolahra, N.S.W. at Mary Immaculate RC Church
in Waverley, N.S.W. Elizabeth was the
daughter of Arthur Charles Mathews, a lift driver, and Muriel Mathews née
Harrison. Peter & Elizabeth's
marriage was dissolved on 24 May 1956.
On 14 May 1957 Peter married Greta
Eileen Drenon. Greta hadbeen born
on 14 July 1931 and died on 22 August 1985.
See chapter Peter Laslett of Bundaberg and his wives Laura, Elizabeth and Greta
on page 188.
Family
of Herbert and Barbara Laslett
WENDY
KERR - born 29/ June 1941 at Strathmore Private Hospital Wollongong.
For majority of working life an office
administrator and in 1994 with Graham opened their own Insurance Brokering
business. This was sold in 2001 and Wendy then retired. 1st marriage 31 December 1960 to Raymond John Harlow St Francis
Xavier’s Cathedral Wollongong. Dissolved 21 September 1972. 2nd
Marriage 6 April 1973 to Edward Charles Duckett Registrars Office Wollongong
Court House. Disolved 24 January 1986. 3rd Marriage 24 October 1986
to Graham Maurice Quinton (born 18 May 1948 at Ashfield) Battery Park
Wollongong. They have recently retired to Sussex Inlet a small coastal town 3
hours south of Sydney.
Children: (from 1st marriage)
Gary
John Harlow – born 20 January 1962.
Gary married Raelene Ann Harlow nee Dyson 14/11/1987 at St Columbkile Church
Corrimal. Gary is a Sheet metal worker with his own business, Raelene works for
NRMA. They live at Primbee, suburb of Wollongong.
Children:
Nathan John Harlow – born 19 January 1990
Chad Graham Harlow - born 1 March 1995
Christopher Ray Harlow – born 22 January 1964.
Christopher not married but is engaged and lives at Hilltop and is operations
manager for a security company (2004).
Arthur and Sybil Laslett of Coulsdon
Arthur Edward Laslett was born on
10 September 1903 the third son of Albert Laslett, a Chief Petty Officer in the
Royal Navy, and his wife Isabella Laslett née Taylor (page 132).
Interestingly Arthur was delivered by Thomas Laslett a surgeon from
Chatham and a distant cousin.
He trained as a schoolmaster at
St. Marks College, Chelsea, and all his working life taught in Thornton Heath,
Surrey.
Married Sybil Constance
Whiting. One son, Graham Francis, born
at Thornton Heath on 29 July 1933.
Moved to Coulsdon, Surrey on his son's second birthday. On retirement at 62, moved to be near son at
Edington, Wiltshire. C. of E.
sub-deacon and church-warden. Died 25
September 1972.
Family
of Arthur and Sybil Laslett
Son
GRAHAM
FRANCIS - born
29 July 1933 at Thornton Heath. On 8
November 1958 married Christine Alice
Bush.
See chapter Graham and Christine Laslett of Edington on page 190.
Arthur and Edna Lasslett of Hurlstone Park
Arthur or as he was always known,
Mick, was born Saturday 29 August 1908 in the front bedroom of his parents
house, Warrawoona, at 20 Duntroon
Street, Hurlstone Park. He was the son
of Frederick Lasslett a builder of Hurlstone Park and his wife Amy Lasslett née
Hickey (page 136).
He told me he was educated
locally at a Technical High School in Dulwich Hill. After school he was apprenticed and qualified as an electrician.
One of his friends was Bill Haase
who qualified as a pilot in 1927 and I gather took Mick out to the airport with
him. Bill got a job with Adastra
Airways, the Klemm agent, and Mick in turn started picking up electrical
contracting jobs around Mascot airport.
This combined with work for a number of factories and a little private
work allowed him to live quite comfortably.
He married Edna Edith Anne Murray
at North Strathfield on Sunday 25 June 1939.
Edna is the daughter of Albert Ernest Murray, a French Polisher of
Strathfield N.S.W., and Edith Amy Murray née Eskrigge.
At the time of her marriage Edna
had her own dressmaking business at 48 Railway Parade, Burwood, where she
worked herself and employed a small number of dressmakers. She gave this business up to look after her
family.
Edna and Mick moved into 20
Duntroon Street, Hurlstone Park, which they shared with Mick's parents. About 1954, after the parent's death, the
house was sold to settle their estate and Edna and Mick bought another property
at 67 Acton Street, Hurlstone Park, where Edna still lives.
His work at the airport meant
Mick was in a reserved occupation during the war.
In fact these jobs lasted well
into the 1950s but Mick never liked having employees, preferring to work alone,
so as the airport went into its period of rapid expansion at the end of the
1950s he was not able to win the contracts against the larger electrical
firms. Unfortunately this threw him
back on relying on his work for a number of factories and when these
experienced hard times in the credit squeeze of 1960 Mick tossed in the towel
and obtained a job as an electrician with the Maritime Services Board of Sydney
Harbour. He later confided in me that
it was the smartest move that he had ever made.
He died on Sunday 24 November
1974 at Taree and his ashes are at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Ryde.
Family
of Arthur and Edna Lasslett
Son
GORDON
ARTHUR - born
Thursday 26 September 1946 at Hurlstone Park.
Married Susan Elizabeth Krauss
on Saturday 27 September 1969.
See chapter Gordon and Susan Lasslett of Lindfield East on page 191.
Daughters
JANICE
EDITH - born
Friday 12 July 1940 at Hurlstone Park.
In April 1966 married Lawrence
Ashton Palmer at St. Anne's Church of England Strathfield. Jan died of nephritis on Saturday 21 January
1967 at Killara.
FAYE
NARELLE - born
Wednesday 9 February 1944 at Hurlstone Park. Married Charles Anthony Musson (Tony) on Saturday 13 December 1969.
Children:
Anthony
Rohan Musson -
born Saturday 9 January 1971 at Dundas.
Karen
Janice Musson -
born Saturday 5 September 1973 at Dundas.
Frank Lasslett of South Yarra
Frank was born on 13 April 1912,
one of twins. His parents were Alfred
Ernest and Minnie Lasslett, a bank clerk and his wife, of Caulfield (page 144). Frank's
twin brother Arthur died soon after birth.
Frank worked at the State Savings
Bank of Victoria from 22 April 1929 until 3 February 1940 when he joined the
Williamson Company as a Baritone. He
has worked in theatrical jobs ever since.
Saw service with the RAAF during
the WWII.
He is now a singing teacher in
South Yarra. He recently sent me his CV
so I quote it virtually verbatim:
Schooling Frankston State School 1917-1919 (circa).
Burnley
State School.
Prahran
Technical School.
Hassett's
Business College, Prahran.
Work and State Savings Bank Of Victoria. 1929-1940
Studies. Singing,
Italian, German, Accountancy.
Performances. Many amateur plays and Musicals. Later,
Operas with the National Theatre
and Melbourne Repertory Theatre. Professional Singer from about 1935. A lot of work with the A.B.C. as recitalist,
radio actor and stand-by. Engaged for
J.C.Williamson Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company in 1940- Played Sydney
(Theatre Royal) and Melbourne (His Majesty's Theatre) as 'Strephan' (Iolanthe)
and sometimes 'Guiseppe' (The Gondoliers) and as 'cover' for other juvenile
parts.
War Service. Enlisted December 1940 and did
initial training at Laverton. Posted as
assistant to Welfare and Entertainment at RAAF Headquarters Sydney (Point
Piper). Later to Headquarters,
Melbourne as Assistant to Staff Officer Welfare and Entertainments. To RAAF
Officers' Course at Lindfield, Sydney.
Passed as Dux and Commissioned l9th. December, 1942. Posted as Staff Officer Welfare etc. to
Sydney Hqrs., then to Milne Bay, Nadzab, Madang and Port Moresby.
Civilian After discharge taking singing engagements
again! and teaching at home (212 Alma Rd.
East St.Kilda) - also at Allens Studios and at Temperance Hall. Fairly regular A.B.C. broadcasts and Opera
roles as above.
Adelaide. Engaged as locum-tenens at Elder
Conservatorium Of Music, University of Adelaide for two years (1948/9). Again regular recital broadcasts and some
Oratorios.
London. Worked with tours of 'Student Prince',
1950/56'Goodnight Vienna', 'Merry Widow' (London and touring), 'Oklahoma' (22
years), and a pantomime.
Television - First commercial
series 20 weeks, Wembly Studios. Live
broadcasts.
Ice Pantomime at Wembly Stadium -
17 Weeks -sound dubbing.
Between tours and engagements
worked as stage hand at Golders Green "Hippodrome".
1956. Left London from Tilbury 25th. April.
In Melbourne some small
engagements and odd work, then engaged as Stage Director and Mechanist at
Melbourne Little Theatre - later renamed "St.Martin's". Some time later moved to Upwey and lived
there until mother's death.
In 1966, bought 17, Tyrone
Street, South Yarra, and after doing considerable restoration, started teaching
singing in evenings and weekends.
Theatre closed productions
on 8th. Sept. 1973, so from then on
taught singing full time.
LASSLETT. _ Frank, passed away Apr. 22,
2003. Great mentor, friend and sadly missed. Thank you for your guidance,
support and friendship. - Paul and Raymond
Loved brother of Keith (dec.) and brother-in-law of Beryl. Loving Uncle of Ian,
Robert and
Barbara. Rest in peace. Private cremation. (Herald Sun Melbourne: April 24,
2003).
Ray said that Frank went into care in February. Officially he died of prostrate cancer but really his body just shut down from old age – basically renal failure.
John Lacy (Jack) and Muriel Laslett
John Lacy 'Jack' Laslett, eldest child of
William Manger and Lilian Rose Laslett (née Earl) (page 149), was born on 17 June, 1912 at Allendale East. He was educated at Kingsley School and like
the rest of the Laslett boys worked hard on his farm chores and later as a
wool-scourer and a wattle-stripper.
(Dye was extracted from the wattle bark and used to tan the hides of
animals for leather). In 1931 he became
a Monitor at Kingsley School which must have been difficult as his young
brothers and sisters were in the classes there. He aspired to become a school teacher and attended Adelaide
Teachers' College while boarding at North Adelaide.
After leaving Teachers' College in 1935 he
was appointed to Schell's Well (Section 56, Hd. Of Allen, County Alfred in
S.A.) which is near Alawoona in the Murray Mallee. The School had children from years 1-7 and as he was the only
teacher, there was no non-contact, relief or splitting of yard duties. Later in 1935 he went as locum tenens to
Sevenhills School and his salary was revised in November of that year to 176
pounds. On 15 September he was
appointed to Salt Lake School, near Snowtown, and remained there until
December, 1938. He lived and taught by
the precept, "If a job is worth doing it's worth doing well" and was
remembered by local citizens as a debater and organiser.
While there he became involved in the Order
of Knights of the Methodist Church and it is through this organization that he
met Muriel Elisabeth Walkington (Daughter of Albert Victor and Catherine (née
Need) of Snowtown. Muriel or 'Mim' was
very involved in the Methodist Order of Comrades and worked as a telephonist
and later did Secretarial duties for Joseph Turner and Sons. They married on the hottest day in S.A.
records on 7 January 1939 when it was
117 degrees. The guests remembered the
jellies and cream-puffs melting, the flowers wilting and their crepe dresses
shrinking under the arm-pits. The
bridesmaids waited in the cellar under the Walkington house in Fourth Street,
Snowtown until it was time to face the hot sun and get to the church for the
marriage service.
'Jack' was appointed to Mallee Corner one
teacher school in February 1939 and 'Mim' having resigned from her work in
Snowtown, became the sewing teacher (unpaid of course). Robert Lacy Laslett, their first son, was
born on 4 June 1940 in Snowtown. 'Jack'
was called up for active service in 1942 and joined the RAAF United Kingdom
division. He trained at Mt. Breckan,
Victor Harbor, S.A. and later at Trenton Air Training School in Canada and
became a Navigator and Flight Sergeant
Their second child, Rosalie Elisabeth, was born on 16 May 1942 in
Snowtown while her father was still overseas.
'Mim' and children moved back into Snowtown so 'Mim's family could
assist her with the children. Mallee
Corner School closed in October 1942.
In June 1945 'Jack' was released from the
Air Force and appointed to Snowtown Higher Primary School. He studied by correspondence and gained his
Teacher's Certificate in 1950. During
his time at Snowtown he was reporter for the Stanley Herald and later the
Advertiser, President of the Football Club (1949), umpired girl's basketball, goal
umpired for football, was a local preacher for the Methodist Church,
office-bearer in the Order of Knights, a faithful attendee and worshipper at
the Methodist Church, a member and office-bearer of the Masonic Lodge and a
member of the R.S.L. Kym Trenton
Laslett, a third child, was born on 28 May, 1947 and John Victor Laslett was
born on 5 April,1952.
Robert 'Bob' had left Snowtown in February
1952 to board and to attend school (A.B.H.S.) in the city and Rosalie was soon
due to go to High School also so after many farewell functions in September
1953 the family 'uprooted' from the country and went to live at 77 Welland
Avenue, Welland in the city.
'Jack' was appointed as a Demonstration
Assistant to Sturt Street Practising School and trained many Teachers' College
students in methods of teaching in one teacher schools. He was appointed as
Deputy Master of Method early in 1961. During this period of time he was a
local preacher, Superintendent of the Sunday School at West Hindmarsh Methodist
Church, attended R.S.L. meetings, played lawn bowls, taught migrants English
and became an ardent supporter of the Sturt Football Club. In his spare time in the school holidays he
supplemented his meagre teaching pay by becoming a sorter of mail at the
Adelaide GPO and worked as a clerk for Louis Dreyfus Wheat Agents and
Exporters. He continually told his children to study hard and improve
themselves so they would not have to study after they were married or study by
correspondence and often said 'Education is no load to carry'.
In late March 1961 'Jack' was appointed as
Deputy Head Master to Mansfield Park Primary School, a very tough school by
today's standards. He continued to
work, faithfully supported by 'Mim', at West Hindmarsh Methodist Church as a
trustee, steward and office bearer and also wrote training material for Sunday
School teachers. At Adelaide Oval on 8
May 1965 he suffered a massive sudden heart attack and died next morning at
Queen Elizabeth Hospital to the shock of all who knew him. A large number of people attended his burial
service at West Hindmarsh Methodist Church and also the Cremation service at
Centennial Park. One of his sisters, Rosa, was heard to say after the service
that, 'It is better to wear out than rust out ', but perhaps he over-did it
teaching and working for his family and others.
'Mim' Laslett sold the house at Welland in
1977 and moved to a unit at 10/471 Grange Road, Seaton. She still lives there and is involved in the
Kidman Park Uniting Church and Fellowship and still attends the Legacy Club
where she was Choir Leader for many years.
Family
of Jack and Muriel Laslett
Sons
ROBERT LACY
- was born on 4 June 1940 at Snowtown. Education - Snowtown Higher
Primary School; Adelaide Boys High School; Adelaide Teachers College (Completed
training as a Secondary Teacher); Adelaide University Masters Degree in Science, Diploma in Education (Secondary);
FRACI; Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary.
'Bob' married Judith Ann Turner, a Primary
School teacher on 6 January,1966. Judy
taught at Warooka, Pt. Pirie and St. Morris Primary Schools. After bringing up their children, Judy went
back to full-time teaching in Victoria but has now retired. They are both active members of the Mt.
Pleasant Uniting Church and 'Bob' is also a Local Preacher. He is heavily involved in Rotary Club having
been a District Governor and worked on many projects involving youth and saving
the Melbourne Shrine. 'Bob' is actively
involved in Co-operative Education, has presented papers at Overseas
Conferences and helped to write a Handbook on this subject. 'Bob' is Principal Lecturer in Organic
Chemistry at Swinburne Uni. of Technology and has written research papers for
various Chemistry Journals. He and Judy
live at 19 Sherman Street, Forest Hills, Vic., 3131.
CHILDREN:
Anne-Marie
- born 4 August
1967 MDSc. (Preventive and Community Dentistry) MPH (Public Health); BDSc.
Works for Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, Victoria. A-M retains Laslett
as her professional name. Married Statios Konstantopoulos BDSc.
Children:
Evelyn
Esther Kate Konstantopoulos
- born 12 June 1997
Adonis
Donald Robert Konstantopoulos - born 9 February 1999
Andrew
Lacy - born 26
January 1969. PhD (Bio Chemistry); BSc (Hons); Doing Post Doctoral Studies at
Temple Uni., Philadelphia, USA. Married to Joanne Watson BSc (Speech Pathology). Works for The Institute on
Disabilities,UAP, Philadelphia, USA. 'Jo' retains Watson as her professional
name.
Duncan
Robert - born 17
December 1971. BSc., BE. Works for Kemcor, Victoria. Engaged to Helen Arnoldi BA (Hons), Dip. In Curatorial Studies. Completing Masters Degree
Studies.
ROSALIE ELISABETH - born on 16 May 1942 at Snowtown. Education - Snowtown Higher
Primary School; Sturt Street Practising School; Thebarton Girls Technical
School; Adelaide Girls High School; Adelaide Teachers' College (Currie Street
Annexe); Adelaide University, BA Dip
Ed. Became a School Teacher at Mansfield Park Junior Primary and reached rank
of Acting Principal; Ascot Park Junior Primary and reached rank of Acting PrincipalRelief
Teacher at Keith Area School. Taught at Keith Pre-School Kindergarten. From
1982 onwards Relief Teacher or Contract Teacher at many schools from Hallett
Cove to Victor Harbor in S.A.
Rosalie married Ronald Robert Hill on 10 January 1970. Ron has completed requirements for AAIB(Snr), MNIA, SIA
(Af.). Ron has held positions as
Manager Bank S.A., Keith, Bank Auditor and worked in Treasury for Bank
S.A. Retrenched 1993. Now Department Organizer for Fulham Amcal
Pharmacy. Life Member Southern Tennis
Association and Life Member Morphett Vale Tennis Club.
CHILDREN:
Christopher
Robert Hill -
born 3 November 1970. BSc(Ma. and Comp. Sc.). Computer Programmer, Mayer Krieg,
Unley, S.A. Represented Aust. in 1998 World Triathlon Champs. in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Stephen
John Hill - born
29 December 1971. Senior Computer Operator, Adelaide Bank, S.A.
Scott
Anthony Hill -
born 20 October1975. Bec. Project Manager Originations, Mortgage Centre,
Lockleys, Adelaide.
KYM TRENTON - born on 28 May 1947 in Snowtown.
Education Allenby Gardens Primary School (Dux); Adelaide Boys' High School;
Apprenticed to FSMA for 4 years from 2 January 1964; University of Adelaide -
Studied Pharmacy; Completed requirements on 8 December 1967 but too young to
register as a Pharmacist until 28 May 1968. Worked Relieving Pharmacist for
FSMA until May 1969; Travelled and worked in Europe until June, 1970Relieving
Pharmacist for FSMA; Manager Of National Pharmacy 1971 - 30/6/1973; Manager
Alberton Pharmacy July 1973-March 1974; then became a partner with Charlie
Tomeo. Kym married Jillian Ruth Harvey
(née Treglown) in January 1974.
Tomeo and Laslett acquired Mall Pharmacy, West Lakes in 1978. Kym and Jill were divorced in1981. Kym
married Tracey Jane Watson, a
Pharmacy Assistant, on 5 February 1983. Kym is a FPS Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Soc., May 1979. MACPP Mem. of Aust. College of Pharmacy Practice,
June 1986. MAIPM Mem. of Aust. Inst.
Pharmacy Management Feb., 1989. AFAIPM
Assoc. Fellow of Aust. Institute of Pharmacy Management, Aug., 1997.
Additional pharmacy acquisitions with Charlie Tomeo; Hibiscus Pharmacy
(Darwin), Dec., 1983; Village Pharmacy (Darwin), Nov.,1985; Fulham Target
Pharmacy, April, 1986; Morphett Vale Pharmacy, Jan.,1989; Pennington Pharmacy,
Jan.,1989; Old Reynella Pharmacy, May 1991; Bridge Street Pharmacy (Murray
Br.), Nov., 1994; Swanport Rd.Pharmacy,(Murray Bridge) Nov., 1994; Coolalinga
Pharmacy (Darwin), June 1996; Graydon's Pharmacy (Glen Innes), July 1996;
Darwin Mall Pharmacy, May 1997. Kym is still a Pharmacist and Tracey returned
to work as a Pharmacy Assistant at West Lakes in 1997. They live at 9 Marmora Terrace, North Haven,
S.A. 5018.
CHILDREN:
(*1)
Jodie
Kane - born 26
November1974. BEd. Taught Japanese in S.A. southern schools. Now teaches English
at Aomori in Japan.
Trent
Matthew – born
18 April 1976. BSc. Now studying Pharmacy at University of S.A..
(*2)
Carly
Jane - born 8
August 1983. Student
Dale
John - born 30
July 1985. Student
JOHN VICTOR - born on 5 April 1952 at
Snowtown, S.A. Underdale High
School; Adelaide University BSc(Math.
Sciences) (Hons.); Computing Science Major Canberra College of Advanced
Education; Post Grad. Dip. in Computing Science. Member of the Australian Computer Soc. and the Aust. Institute of International Affairs.
John married Carol Ann Eeles on 4 September 1976 at Junee, N.S.W. and at that
stage she was working for the Dept. of Foreign Affairs. At the moment she is studying for a degree
at Australian National Uni. and works for the Centre for Arab and Islamic
Studies. They live at 16 Cumberledge
Crescent, Pearce, A.C.T. 2607.
John commenced his career in the IT industry
in 1974and held several positions in the Australian Public Service before
moving to the private sector in 1988.
Since then , he has undertaken numerous projects, both in Australia and
overseas where he has worked in developing countries. His project roles have included Strategic Planning, Project
Design, Project Director, Project Manager, Systems Development Team Leader,
Business Analyst and Trainer and he is a Computer Power Staff Manager.
John has been involved in Year 2000 problem
resolution in various ways. He is a
member of Computer Power's Year 2000 Practice and has contributed to year 2000
research and development of methodologies for use by Computer Power. He is an active member of the Australian
Computer Society's Year 2000 Special Interest Group. John has had to consider the impact of the Year 2000 problem on
his projects and on other Computer Power projects. He has recently contributed to the development of a strategic
plan for addressing the Year 2000 problem in the Pacific Islands.
CHILDREN:
Adam
John - born 30
October 1977. BSc at A.N.U. Now studying at A.N.U. for a BMus.
Ian
Anthony - born 5
July 1979. Uni. Student at A.N.U. studying Bio-Chemistry.
Ingrid
Michelle - born
28 December1982. Student.
Olivia
Jane - born 24
May 1988. Student
Reginald and Margaret Laslett of Ingle Farm
Reginald Thomas Laslett was born
on 7 October 1913 at Allendale East the second child of William Manger Laslett
and Lilian Rose Laslett née Earl (page 149).
Minister Uniting Church.
Married Margaret Tregenza (born
12 August 1916).
Lives at Ingle Farm S.A.
Family
of Reginald and Margaret Laslett
Sons
ALAN
DAVID - born 2
February 1944. A High School
Teacher. Alan is married to Carolyn Brown (born 5 October 1945),
also a High School Teacher and they live in Amberdale Road, Houghton, S.A.
Children:
Kristy
Jane - born 11
May 1975.
Brett
David - born 8
August 1977.
GEOFFREY
MARK - born 8
July 1949. Scientist/ Research Office CSIRO.
Lives in Peel St., Prahran, Vic.
Daughter
RUTH - born 4 August 1941. A Trained Nurse. Married to Garry Bastian.
Children:
Richard
Garry Bastian -
born 5 October 1966.
Heather
Ruth Bastian -
born 22 June 1969. A Clerk.
Sarah
Bastian - born
19 July 1972.
Peter and Janet Laslett of Cambridge
Thomas Peter Ruffell Laslett was
born on 18 December 1915 at Bedford, the first born son of the Reverand Ruffell
Laslett and his wife Eveline Laslett née Alden (page 145). Peter is perhaps the
most highly academically qualified of all the Lasletts and has established
himself with a worldwide reputation as an Historian and innovative thinker.
In 1947 Peter married Janet
Crockett Clark and they have two children.
Probably Peter's academic
achievements can be best summed up by extracting and expanding his entry in the
London edition of Who's Who. He was educated at Watford Grammar School
and St John's College, Cambridge. From
1940 to 1945 he served as a Lieutenant (RNVR) in the Japanese 
Naval Intelligence section of the
Royal Navy. After the war he joined the
BBC as a producer of 3rd Programme Talks.
He became a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge in 1948(-51);
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1958; Fellow of the Folger Library,
1959; co-founder of the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and
Social Structure, 1964; member of the Working Party on Foundation of the Open
University, 1965; Visiting Professor - Johns Hopkins University, 1972 - Collège
de France, Paris, 1976 - Yale University, 1977......etc
Perhaps Peter's best known
achievement is his book The World we have
Lost. First published in 1965, and
currently going through its 15th English language impression, this book
revolutionised the study of history by showing that many of the assumptions
taken for granted by historians just did not stand up to the evidence of
statistical data painstakingly collected from surviving records. The book is now a standard text at most
universities around the world.
The
Bletchly Park liaison team in Washington in 1945. Peter is at the far left.
National Archives, Washington DC
Beverly Workman of Ohio
University writes of Peter: "Before a conference in September 1969, held
in Cambridge, England, and organized by the Cambridge Group for the History of
Population and Social Structure, Peter Laslett summarized and analyzed the size
and structure of families in past times. His presentation was to make him
famous for the history of household and family. His research and writings are
still cited by other historians. Laslett and the Cambridge Group's studies are
supported by their extensive application of demographic research.
"Laslett's primary belief
was that the modern nuclear family was not born out of industrialization, and
that in England and other nations, the nuclear family was the dominate form for
several centuries prior to industrialization. It has been pointed out that one
of the reasons that Laslett did not find more three‑generation stem
families in England may be because the data used by the Cambridge Group did
not, for the most part, take the family life cycle into consideration. Research
on nineteenth‑century British and American cities has revealed that
boarders, roomers, and lodgers, some of whom may have been extended kin, were
present in homes to a much greater degree than today. Yet, Laslett's basic
argument goes unchallenged: there is definitely more continuity than
discontinuity in the structure of preindustrial and industrial families.
"In Laslett's survey, The World We Have Lost, he concludes
that in England the nuclear family has always predominated and that there is so
little evidence of extended or stem families in the past that theories claiming
a shift to a nuclear pattern in modern times cannot be empirically validated.
It was the form in which most people were socialized as children and which they
were thereby led to reproduce as adults. Laslett saw the continuing prevalence
of the nuclear family household as the result of learned behavior on the part
of its members.
"Unlike Lawrence Stone, who
set forth historical family types such as "open lineage family,"
"restricted patriarchal nuclear family," and the "closed,
domesticated nuclear family" of the modern era, the Cambridge Group
divided households in the early modern era into three categories: simple
(nuclear or conjugal), extended (a conjugal unit plus widowed parent, or other
relatives) and multiple (two or more related conjugal units).
"In the early 1970s,
Laslett's Cambridge Group published a book, Household
and Family in Past Time, containing a series of articles announcing their
results of a comparative study of the family and household from the sixteenth
century to the present.
"Two other important essays
by Laslett are: Family Life and Illicit
Love in Earlier Generations and Bastardy
and Its Comparative History which study the history of illegitimacy over
time and between cultures and marital non‑conformism in Britain, France,
Germany, Sweden, North America, Jamaica, and Japan."
Recently Peter has been
instrumental in setting up the University ofvthe Third Age (U3A) He has published A Fresh Map of Life, subtitled The Emergence of
the Third Age. He is now Emeritus Reader in Politics and the History of
Social Structure, University of Cambridge, Director, Ageing Unit, Cambridge
Group of Population and Social Structure and Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge.
Some press reports on the book
follow:
'What Laslett has done in A Fresh Map of Life...is to give the
first clear, full and authoritative
statement about a set of changes that are making the modern world utterly
different from what has gone before.' ‑ Peter Willmott, Times Literary Supplement
'Laslett writes with an attractive
mix of realism and idealism, and offers more grounds for hope.' ‑ Galen
Strawson, Observer
'The reasoning of Peter Laslett's
argument in A Fresh Map of Life is
that the crown of life should be sought at the time when work is left and
children are grown. It is an absorbing and scholarly mingling of social history
and philosophy, written in superb prose.' ‑ Barbara Neil, Daily Telegraph
'... are we really happy with the
prospect of spending maybe half our adult lives in enforced directionless and
low‑status idleness? Laslett does not pretend to have more than the
glimmerings of an alternative. But he certainly puts a powerful case for the
rest of us to start thinking.' ‑ Peter Wilsher, Sunday Times
'Changing demography has made the
Third Age a major part of the life cycle for most people. There seems little
question in this context that the issues raised by Peter Laslett will require
and will receive very serious attention. This is an important book for all of us but especially for those in or
approaching the Third Age.' ‑ Peter McDonald, Family Matters, Australian Institute of Family Studies
'Today as never before, most
people in the developed world at least, can expect to live to old age. How has
society reacted to this shift of mortality? Much of the accepted account of
ageing is simply the persistence into our own time of past perceptions. Laslett
argues that the Third Age ‑ beyond the breadwinning and child‑rearing
years ‑ is that of greatest personal fulfilment, the apogee of life.
Combining social history, sociology and philosophy, this book provokes new
thinking on one of the crucial changes in the modern world.
Peter was awarded a CBE in 1997
New Year’s Honours.
The
Daily Telegraph. London November 13th 2001.
Laslett.-Peter, Social Historian and political philosopher, died
November 8th 2001, aged 85. Funeral Service in the Chapel of Trinity College,
Cambridge, Friday November 16th, 2.30pm. No flowers please. Donations to
"The Third Age Trust", c/o Harry Williams &Co, 7 Victoria Park,
Cambridge.
On 15 November 2001 The Daily Telegraph
published the following obituary:
“PETER LASLETT, the historian and fellow of
Trinity College, Cambridge, who has died aged 85, co-founded, in 1962, the
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, and built
it into the pre-eminent international centre for the study of the history of
the family.
“A lifelong socialist with a belief in the
liberating power of knowledge, Laslett also became a leading figure in the movement
to widen access to education. He inspired the foundation of the Open University
in 1969 and in 1982 established the University of the Third Age (U3A), an
educational movement for people over the age of retirement.
“When Laslett first began to apply sociological
techniques to the study of history, such was the hostility from the crustier
members of the Cambridge History faculty that his fledgling research group came
close to being killed off at birth. Such luminaries as the political historians
Geoffrey Elton and Kitson Clark, Laslett recalled, regarded family history as
"parochial, for lower level historical interests - for amateurs".
Moreover they did not believe that statistical techniques had any place in the
historian's armoury.
“But Laslett and his collaborator and pupil
Anthony (now Sir Anthony) Wrigley refused to give up and with the help of a
grant from the philanthropist Paul Mellon, and grants from their respective
colleges, the Cambridge Group was established with Laslett as director.
“Laslett and Wrigley immediately set to work
to assemble detailed records of births, marriages and deaths from hundreds of
English parishes. After appealing for help through the BBC Third Programme,
they assembled an army of volunteers and soon obtained a list of parishes that
had continuous registration from the 1540s to the 1870s.
“The outcome of years of research was a
series of studies which have transformed our knowledge of the English family.
Laslett's first book, The World We Have
Lost (1965), explored family and social structure in pre-industrial
England. This was followed by Household
and Family in Past Time (1972, co-written with R Wall), Family Life and Illicit Love in Earlier
Generations (1977 with R Smith and others), Bastardy and its Comparative History (1980) and Family Forms in Historic Europe (1983).
In 1981, the weighty The Population
History of England, 1541-1871 was published by Laslett's colleagues Anthony
Wrigley and Roger Schofield.
“Laslett and his colleagues challenged the
myth that a pre-industrial rural society of extended family groups had been
supplanted by smaller, more rootless families in the Industrial Revolution.
Instead, they found, nuclear families of four or five persons were always and
everywhere the norm.
“In England such families were universal by
the 1540s when parish records began to be kept, and there was plenty of earlier
evidence to suggest that, outside noble households with their armies of
retainers, human beings had lived in this way for many centuries before.
“In The
World We Have Lost, Laslett showed how life in pre-industrial society was
no rural idyll. Most people lived in misery, frequently ravaged by plague and
smallpox and permanently undernourished, if not starving. Lives were so
marginal that celibacy had to be enforced up to the middle or late 20s to
prevent unwanted births. Those who survived into old age were surprisingly
often left to live and die alone.
“Characteristic too, Laslett revealed, was
the presence in all but the poorest households of servants; before the
industrial revolution, about one eighth of the population consisted of
servants, a shifting labour force of young people used to working away from
home that provided a ready pool of employees as England began to industrialise.
“Laslett argued that the main changes that
had occurred in the 20th century - marriage breakdown and the growth of
illegitimacy - resulted not from industrial change, but from people living
longer (and thus being married longer) and from changing moral values.
“Thomas Peter Ruffell Laslett was born on
December 18 1915 at Watford, the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Watford
Grammar School and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he read History.
“After spending the war in the Navy, working
on Japanese Naval intelligence, he joined the BBC as a talks producer for its
Third Programme. He returned to Cambridge in 1953 with a fellowship at Trinity,
and took up the study of the 17th-century philosopher John Locke.
“By a stroke of luck, he discovered Locke's
library, consisting of 11 manuscripts and more than 800 printed books. Sold at
auction soon afterwards, the library was bought by Paul Mellon, who employed
Laslett to prepare a catalogue of Locke's works. In 1960, Laslett published a
new edition of Locke's Two Treatises of
Government.
“The Treatises had first been published in
1689, some eight months after the Glorious Revolution which, it had been
assumed, it had been Locke's intention to justify. In his introduction,
however, Laslett drew on his knowledge of Locke's life to suggest that Locke
had written the second treatise as early as 1679-80 and the first in 1680.
These were years of constitutional crisis and Locke had been friendly at the
time with the first Earl of Shaftesbury, the leader of the opposition to
Charles II. Locke, he suggested, had written the works to justify the case for
a limited monarchy at a time when the outcome of the debate was in doubt.
“In the late 1950s, Laslett became involved
in campaigns to improve educational programming on the BBC and in 1957, when
the Corporation was floating the idea of merging the Third Programme with the
Home Service, he became chairman of the Third Programme Defence Society and
later of the Viewers and Listeners Association.
“From the early 1960s he led calls for a new
television network dedicated to education. Working with Michael Young, chairman
of the Economic and Social Science Research Council, Laslett drew up a
blueprint for an "open" university and successfully sold the idea to
Harold Wilson and Jennie Lee, the Under-Secretary of State for Education. The
Open University went on air in 1969.
“As he himself grew older, Laslett turned
his attention to the problems faced by people in what he called the "Third
Age" - retired people over the age of 55 who, he felt, tended to be
regarded as a burden by a society which had not adapted to the increase in life
expectancy that had taken place in the 20th century. In France, a Universite du
Troisieme Age had been founded in 1972 to cater for this age group and Laslett
suggested that something similar might be tried in Britain. His vision differed
from the French in that while in France the groups were tied to existing
universities, he envisaged a looser structure with branches being founded and
run by their own members with no financial assistance from the state.
“Since its foundation in 1982, the
University of the Third Age has established around 400 branches with a total
membership of 25,000. Laslett, however, remained disappointed that the movement
had not developed into a forum for original research, ruefully observing that
"the naive academic view that the U3A should be adding to the sum of
knowledge does not seem to appeal to elderly secondary schoolmistresses".
“In 1989 Laslett produced A Fresh Map of Life: the Emergence of the
Third Age, part account of 20th-century demographic change and part polemic
against "ageism". He published two further works on ageing: Justice between Age Groups and Generations
(1992, with D Kertzer) and Ageing in the
Past (1995).
“Peter Laslett was appointed CBE in 1997. He
married, in 1947, Janet Crockett Clark. They had two sons.”
The Times, London Wednesday 14 November
2001:
Obituary
Peter Laslett
“Historian who
studied family life over the centuries and demonstrated its remarkable
resilience in the face of social change.
“The social historian Peter Laslett was an
intellectual impresario and provocateur who long occupied a niche in the
affections or demonology of many academics. He was a voluble and dedicated champion
of the marriage of history and sociology, and a student of the history of
marriage, the family and its dysfunctions. He was also, coincidentally, a
Cambridge mentor of the Prince of Wales.
“Laslett’s most important research was into
the size and shape of families over the centuries. By gathering huge amounts of
statistical evidence, he worked to demolish what he regarded as a romantic myth
among historians: the idea that before the industrial revolution many or most
people lived in extended, multi-generational families, which could accommodate
the weak, the old and unmarried siblings. "In reality, the family hasn’t
changed a great deal; it shows an amazing resilience to change," he said.
Nuclear families, he argued, were already the norm by the time parish records
began in the 1540s.
“Born during the First World War, the son of
a Baptist minister in Watford, Thomas Peter Ruffell Laslett went in 1935 from
Watford Grammar School to St John’s College, Cambridge, to read history, and
took a double first. During the Second World War, he was plucked from the ranks
of the Navy because of his evident brilliance, and taken to work at the
codebreaking organisation at Bletchley Park, where he worked on Japanese naval
intelligence.
“In the years after the war he did research
work into the history of political thought while also working at the BBC. As a
talks producer throughout the 1950s, he played an important part in helping to
found that unique cultural institution, the Third Programme, and in the early
1960s, when its unashamedly esoteric character brought it under fire, he sprang
vigorously to its defence.
“He was a natural libertarian and radical,
but as the beneficiary of a grammar school education he believed passionately
in public education and the improvement of taste. In 1962 he became chairman of
the Viewers and Listeners Association of Great Britain. Together with his
friend Michael Young, he also conceived the idea of an on-air university open
to all through. A Cambridge caucus then prepared a series of lectures which
were broadcast by Anglia Television before breakfast in the autumn of 1963.
When Harold Wilson took up the idea of the Open University, Laslett served on
the implementing committee.
“Laslett’s broadcasting experiences and contacts were influential in steering him towards that mixture of history and sociology with a dash of journalism which became typical of him. But it was research at Cambridge that provided the formal pattern of his career.”
“After teaching at Peterhouse and St John’s,
he settled at Trinity in 1953. research into 17th-century political thought led
to an edition of Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha in 1949, and he was
the founding and chief editor for many years of a series on philosophy,
politics and society.
“In the meantime, he was working on John
Locke’s library, half of which was bought by Paul Mellon (and then given to the
Bodleian). Laslett had privileged access to the manuscripts, and his literary
detective work was embodied in 1960 in hiscritical edition of the Two
Treatises of Government. In 1965 he and John Harrison published Locke’s
own catalogue of his library (with a characteristic statistical analysis: only
7.4 per cent philosophy).
“By then, however, Laslett was increasingly
attracted to a sort of history then more common in France than in England,
which gives less weight to the formal examination of ideas and more to the
structure and development of population and society. In 1963 he published an
essay on the composition of families in two villages during the 17th century,
which showed that the nuclear family was already the norm. Much of his work in
future years was a re-iteration of this point, with evidence from more and more
places, at home and then internationally, over longer and longer periods.
“The following year Laslett and E.A.Wrigley
(later Master of Corpus Christi College and President of the British Academy)
secured funding from Paul Mellon and the Gulbenkian Foundation to found the
ponderously named Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social
Structure — more affectionately known as the Pop Group.
“Senior members of the Cambridge history
faculty such as Geoffrey Elton were contemptuous about upon this new kind of
study, but the group became a vital stimulus for work in British social and
demographic history. After an appeal on the Third Programme, the group enjoyed
the help of hundreds of amateur genealogists and local historians, who by
studying parish registers compiled statistics about family size and premarital
conceptions. Statistics, Laslett believed, are the vital "scientific"
tool of "social structural history".
In 1965 Laslett published The World We
Have Lost (1965), an original but perhaps too sweeping survey of English
pre-industrial society. The book blew its own trumpet with gusto, announced the
arrival of a new way of looking at the past, and attracted a long and virulent
anonymous notice in The Times Literary Supplement. Now known to be by
E. P. Thompson, the review accused Laslett of making large assertions that he
could not support, and of attacking fallacious beliefs without attributing them
to any named historians. But Laslett had described his book as "a first
brash attempt, an essay in a suggestive hypothesis", and as such it
spurred much new work.
“The Cambridge group went from strength to
strength, with new financing from the Social Science Research Council, and
several of its members themselves became internationally known. It was, Laslett
mused recently, not a bad record "for a loose-ish association around a coffee
party which meets each day".
Laslett became Reader in politics and the
history of social structure in 1966, and worked on the collaborative
publications Introduction to English Historical Demography (1966) and Household
and Family in Past Time (1972) — a collection of conference papers which
was criticised for "squeezing every possible quantitative ounce out of
unreliable enumerations".
“His later studies included Family Forms
in Historic Europe (1983) and Ageing in the Past (1995). If the
preferred family pattern had been constant for half a millennium, the 20th
century had seen great changes in domestic arrangements. Firstly,
"marriage ceased to be regarded as a permanent bond"; secondly, life
expectancy in the West approximately doubled; and thirdly the birthrate
plummeted. "Now the challenge is to keep a quarter or more of the
population leading a purposive and satisfying life," said Laslett.
"People are at leisure to develop themselves intellectually, aesthetically
and emotionally." To help them, he and Young devised the University of the
Third Age during the 1970s, and in 1989 Laslett published A Fresh Map of
Life, about what he hoped would prove a "new civilisation".
“Peter Laslett was a man of immense energy,
with many enthusiasms. At any one time he believed passionately in his current
preoccupation, be it Filmer, Locke, historical demography or the family in
history. He had in some respects the instincts of a showman — though it all had
to be in the best possible taste. Sir Keith Thomas once lamented that a graph
of long-term bastardy in England is "all one gets of the ‘illicit love’
promised by the title" of Laslett’s Family Life and Illicit Love in
Earlier Generations. In 1984 Laslett wrote to The Times to
protest at the "content and the tone" of press discussions of the
mastership of Trinity, objecting to its becoming a silly season story, and to
the mastership being "talked about as if it were a peculiarly appropriate
consolation prize for a highly accomplished but finally unfortunate political
personality".
“A Fellow of the British Academy from 1979,
he was appointed CBE in 1997.
“He married Janet Clark in 1947. She
survives him, along with their two sons.
“Peter Laslett, CBE, historian, was born on December 18, 1915. He died on November 8, 2001, aged 85.”
The Guardian Saturday 17
November 2001
Peter Laslett
“He shattered myths about preindustrial
social structures and helped to establish the Open University
Quentin Skinner and Tony Wrigley
“From 1966 to 1983, Peter Laslett, who has
died aged 85, was reader in politics and the history of social structure at
Cambridge University. He was also, with Michael Young, one of the instigators
of the Open University in the 1960s, and of the University of the Third Age in
the 1970s. In 1964 he was co-founder - and director - of the Cambridge Group
for the History of Population and Social Structure. Laslett acquired a
worldwide reputation, but his university never awarded him a professorship. He
went his own way, far more gifted than many who attained professorial rank, an
original thinker, and a trenchant, elegant writer.
“A clergyman's son, he was educated at
Watford Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge. From 1940 to 1945 he
was in naval intelligence. He then became a BBC Third Programme producer.
In 1948 he was elected to a fellowship at St
John's and began pathbreaking research on the social and political theories
associated with the constitutional upheavals of 17th-century England. Laslett
recognised that critical commentary on the philosophies of this climacteric
period - especially on the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke -
rested on absurdly shaky foundations. There were no reliable modern editions of
the relevant texts.
“Laslett began rectifying this in 1949 with his
edition of Sir Robert Filmer's political writings. In 1960 came his definitive,
critical edition of Locke's Two Treatises
of Government (1960), which established the standard for the editing of
such works.
“During the 1950s Laslett was no less interested
in contemporary political philosophy than in the history of political thought.
He lectured at Cambridge with panache and originality - when he remembered to
turn up - and in 1956 initiated Philosophy, Politics and Society, a series of
collections of essays that has flourished under his general editorship ever
since.
“His early studies in intellectual history
continue to be widely influential. Perhaps his most significant achievement was
to place the theories of Filmer, Locke and their contemporaries within their
political contexts. This approach was brilliantly developed by a number of
Laslett's students, and still flourishes at Cambridge.
“In the 1960s Laslett's research took a
different turn. Social structures, he decided, mattered far more than individual
thinkers. Statistical analysis, not textual interpretation, was the future. It
was an exciting time for those interested in the history of population and
social structure. Fundamental to clearer insights into the differences between
the pre- and post-industrial worlds was Laslett's questioning of assumptions
about the nature of the family and household in early modern western Europe.
“Laslett wished to discover how far English
social and familial practice reflected Filmer's prescriptive patriarchalism.
What he discovered shattered many beliefs about pre-industrial society.
Families were predominantly nuclear, a married couple and their children.
Households were small. Three-generation households, and households in which kin
such as uncles, cousins or married siblings were present, were rare. Only one
non-nuclear element was commonly found in early modern English households:
living-in servants. These were not servants in the Victorian domestic sense,
but chiefly servants in husbandry, young people learning skills and acquiring
resources which might in time enable them to marry. Children left their
parents' household in their mid-teens and spent much of the next decade of
their lives in service. Servants were unmarried and both sexes married in their
middle or later 20s. The "Juliet" syndrome, confined to the elite,
was largely disappearing even there before the end of the 17th century.
“The widely held view that the small,
nuclear family was a product of industrialisation and urbanisation became untenable
in the light of Laslett's work. He also showed conclusively that early modern
English society was highly mobile: only a relatively small minority of each
rising generation lived lifelong in the same parish.
“His commitment to broad issues of historical
interpretation did not preclude taking an interest both in methodology and in
an immensely important area of technical advance, using modern computing to
simulate the behaviour of populations, to study both demographic and social
structural issues, and the interaction between the two.
“In the later 1980s Laslett became
interested in aspects of the ageing process. He explored the distinction
between the "third" and "fourth" ages and argued vigorously
against the tendency to push those above working age to the periphery. A Fresh Map of Life (1989) provided a
new vision of a topic encrusted with platitudes.
“Laslett had a remarkable gift for
commanding an audience beyond academia - a reflection perhaps of his Third
Programme days. A veteran Workers' Educational Association teacher observed
that no other book recommended to his classes had ever been so welcomed and
praised as The World We Have Lost
(1965), which reported what Laslett had learned about English social structure,
foreshadowed much that was to come during the next 25 years, and provided, in
an accessible form, the concepts that gave meaning to the facts he described.
“Laslett never lost his curiosity and
passionate commitment to the life of the mind. Nor did he ever seem to age.
This year he took part in a Cambridge symposium (shortly to be published) on
the current state of political philosophy, astonishing everyone with his
energies and his quirky and challenging judgments.
“He married Janet Crockett Clark in 1947.
She survives him, as do their two sons.
• Thomas Peter Ruffell Laslett, academic,
born December 18 1915; died November 8 2001
“Michael Young writes: The story in his family
is that, at the start of his lectures, Peter Laslett would take off his coat,
take off his gown, take off his jacket, unbutton his shirt sleeves and roll
them up, while the audience sat frozen in anticipation that, this time, he
would take off all his clothes. Perhaps it was his wartime Japanese naval
intelligence codebreaking at Bletchley Park that gave him a taste for action.
“In the late 1950s Peter, as much in search
of equity and the expansion of higher education as me, published a proposal in
the the BBC's Listener magazine for a university of Great Britain. He wanted to
divorce the academic success of Oxford and Cambridge from their social esteem
by making them postgraduate institutions. The staff of all other universities
would be considered as staff of Oxbridge as well.
“That did not get far. But from my own
arrival in Cambridge in 1958, as a lecturer in sociology and fellow of
Churchill College, I fell into league with him as a reformer. He and the
classicist John Morrison were the only Cambridge supporters of my proposal to
found a second university on the same site, which would be in session when
members of the existent university were on vacation. "Vacations?"
came the response."That's when we do our real work, when our students have
gone away."
“I then decided, with Peter's agreement,
that an open university should not be grafted on to an existing university.
With Brian Jackson, we eventually started the National Extension College, which
now flourishes long after it fulfilled its first role as a pilot project for
the Open University. Peter remained trustee of the NEC until 1990.
“In Humphrey Carpenter's The Envy of the World: Fifty Years of the BBC Third
Programme and Radio 3, Peter explained his espousal of the OU:
"Michael Young and I became friends. He and I agreed about breaking the
monopolies of universities, and broadcasting was clearly the manner of doing
so. A submission, signed by distinguished names, persuaded Harold Wilson that
the University of the Air was not only practicable but an obvious Labour party
policy. We knew even then that it had to be a mixture of television, open-circuit
sound broadcasting, closed-circuit recording, correspondence and teaching. We
wanted broadcasting because it would be an immediately, completely
transparently available source of instruction to every citizen with a wireless
or television set."
“For the new project, Peter visited the
United States in 1961, on a Dartington Hall grant, to look at educational
television. He was the leading organiser of a 1963 week of early-morning
television launched by Fred Hoyle, Plumian professor of astronomy at Cambridge,
and seen by 200,000 people. It almost certainly influenced the OU's later use
of broadcasting. He also led a project on sharing teaching and research between
universities through the new technologies.
“Peter was a member of one of the committees
advising Harold Wilson's arts minister Jennie Lee on the OU's shape. The story
is that he told Jennie that he assumed the committee members came with an open
mind. He would not have been invited, she replied, if she had known he would
ask such a question.
“In 1982, we joined up again, as founders -
with Eric Midwinter - of the University of the Third Age, the only more or less
self-financing university almost anywhere for people over 50 who largely teach
each other. Faculty keeps changing into students. It has 472 branches and more
than 112,000 members. Peter was that too-rare bird, an academic of high
standing and also an entrepreneur in that world, who was intensely interested
in the people who do not get to their universities. If only there were more like
him. “
In his book The Emperor’s Codes – Bletchley Park and the Breaking of Japan’s Secret
Ciphers Michael Smith writes of Peter’s wartime code-breaking activities at
Bletchley Park and later in Washington. He starts in 1943 when Peter first went
to Bletchley Park:
“By late 1943, with the Battle of the
Atlantic over and OP-20-G bearing the brunt of the attacks on the German Navy's
Enigma ciphers, Hut 7 started to get time on Bletchley Park's large bank of
Hollerith tabulating machines, drastically improving its ability to break JN25
messages. Hut 7 began to expand rapidly, with new sections being added. As the
Allies gained the upper hand and the dislocation of Japanese forces increased,
Peter Laslett was put in charge of a group looking for and recording all
references in the Japanese messages to changes of codes and ciphers. Laslett,
who had gained a first in history at St John's, Cambridge, had joined the Fleet
Air Arm. But in mid-1942 he was 'press-ganged' by the navy into learning
Japanese.
“They
sent me to the School of Oriental and African Studies and told us that if we
couldn't read Japanese within a year we would be sent back to our ships. I had
been on the Murmansk route, which was extremely dangerous, so I learned
Japanese under sentence of being drowned. There were one or two of us billeted
near Harley Street and we used to walk each morning to SOAS or to the British
Museum where we did most of our studying. I had quite a time of it at large in
London in bell-bottom trousers.
“He was then commissioned and sent to
Bletchley Park, where he was put in Hut 7, initially simply concentrating on
decoding JN25.
“The
Japanese codes being book codes, breaking them was no kid's job. We had to look
for repeated messages and tried to figure out the sentence structure to work
out what the code groups meant. The greatest advantage was just occasionally
when the Japanese repeated a message which the Germans had previously passed on
a system which our colleagues at Bletchley Park had already broken. But in general
it was rather tough and rather unsatisfactory, although it was interesting
because the Pacific War was rather active. My great asset, I suppose, was that
I was one of the very few people there who had actually served at sea, so I
knew the type of terminology that might come up in any given situation. This,
of course, was extremely useful in predicting what code groups might be
expected to come next.
“Isobel Sandison, a Foreign Office civilian
who had passed one of the six-month Bedford courses in Japanese, worked in
Laslett's section recording the radio references to various codes and ciphers.
She was recruited in 1943 from Aberdeen University, where she had studied
German.
“When
I arrived at Bletchley in September I was informed that the end of the German
war was in sight and asked if eventually I would be willing to learn Japanese.
The first few weeks we spent on general filing, scanning call signs, etc. in
the department run by Jack Plumb - 'Dr Plumb's Party' on the door. Eventually
the Japanese class began. There were about sixteen, all students or graduates
in languages - classics or modern, a mix of naval officers, Wrens and
civilians. Our teacher was John Lloyd, ex-Vice-Consul in Tokyo. The language
was so different from anything we had encountered before that to begin with it
seemed impossible. Working in pairs to help each other, we learned only to read
the language - there was no need to be able to speak it convincingly. We
practised on captured Japanese documents.
“At
the end of six months' study we were split up among the different naval
intelligence sections. Peter Laslett - my new boss - was a real enthusiast. We
were reading, translating and interpreting very specific interceptions to do
with codes, codebooks, keeping track of who held them, when they were used and
changed. We passed on to the relevant people the information gleaned in what
Peter christened `Japanese Cryptographic References'.
“The remarkable atmosphere at Bletchley
Park, where rank had very little meaning and people from all walks of life
worked together as a close team, made a deep and lasting impression on all the
code-breakers. But it was often more like a university campus than a top-secret
wartime establishment, Laslett recalled.
“Bletchley
was a very informal place. It had the atmosphere of a mixture of Oxford and
Cambridge High Table. We all had passes but the guards on the gate all knew us,
so - although we did show our passes, as a matter of form - they would just
wave us in because they knew who we were. Being a careless sort of a fellow, at
one point I lost my pass. One of the girls working for me forged me a pass in
the name of Rosie Smarty-Pants and for the rest of my time at Bletchley I went
past the security gate each day as Rosie Smarty-Pants. It was all informal
security. We trusted each other completely. The fact that it worked and the
secret was kept for so long is, I think, one of the most remarkable things
about Bletchley Park.
“Peter Laslett was posted to Washington,
where he worked in the OP-20-G Communication Annex on Michigan Avenue and saw
no sign of the disagreements over co-operation that had soured relations at
senior levels.
“The
American effort was much more substantial and much better supported. But they
hadn't the same experience of codebreaking as some of the people at Bletchley
Park so their facility of breaking it was not really commensurate with the
effort they were putting in. My main job was to explain to the Americans how we
did it. I heard rumours of bad relations at a higher level, but my
relationships with the people actually attacking the codes were good. I was
conscious that the Americans thought the British had made a right balls of the
war and, of course, conversely, we thought the Americans had. But the use of
our material was of less importance to us. We were only interested in
rebuilding the book. If we could get a third of the code groups in a book
recovered before it was changed that was what gave us satisfaction. A half was
virtually impossible, but a third was good.
“Lacking any assurances over the future of
their Emperor, the Japanese were never likely to surrender. At 8.15 on the
morning of 6 August 1945, a B-29 bomber of the USAAF's 509th Composite Group
dropped an atomic bomb on the south-western Japanese port of Hiroshima,
flattening two-thirds of the city. Three days later a second bomb exploded over
the port of Nagasaki, destroying the bulk of the city. Although the Allies put
the number killed in the two attacks at around 120,000, Japanese sources have
argued convincingly that it was double that number. Whatever the figure for
those killed immediately, the appalling long-term effects of radiation on
successive generations make it impossible to come to a final death toll. Peter
Laslett recalled the events of August 1945:
“My
most vivid memory of the whole war was sitting in the Annex on a hot Washington
night and decoding this Japanese naval message reporting that the gensbi
bakudan, the atomic bomb, had been dropped on Hiroshima. The Japanese had not
referred to an atomic bomb in traffic before so I believe I was the first
person to decode and translate the words that night. It was a terrible shock.
As far as I recall, it didn't give any casualty figure but it must have given
me some sort of evidence of the devastation. The sense of disaster was very
clear.
“Even before the news that the atomic bomb
had been dropped on Hiroshima was officially announced, the messages arriving
in Bletchley Park provided a frightening vision of what had happened, recalled
Rosemary Calder. `I was on a day watch by myself and all this stuff came in and
it was total gibberish,' she said. `I didn't know the bomb had been dropped but
you could tell from the disruption of all the messages that something terrible
had happened. You could just feel the people standing there screaming their
heads off.'”
Family of Peter and Janet Laslett
Sons
GEORGE - born 12 October 1951, aviation
engineer with British Aerospace.
ROBERT
ALDEN - born 30
June 1954. Economist with the World
Bank, Washington. In September 1987 he
married Carol Bradford in the USA.
Alfred and Mary Laslett of Adelaide
Alfred Kenneth was born on 18 February 1917 at 25 Cliff St. Glenelg
East. He was the
first son of Alfred Laslett, a telegraph inspector of North Terrace Adelaide,
and his wife Mary Laslett née McLay (page 141). He married Mary
Johanna Vogelsang who had been born in December 1917 and was a Senior Chief
Superintendent of Police. He retired from SA Police Force 1976. Alfred died on
8 May 1999.
Family of Alfred and
Mary Laslett
Son
ALFRED JOHN - born 18 February
1942
Daughters
JANICE MARY - born 28 July
1940.
ANDREA JUNE - born 3 June 1945.
Herbert and Joan Laslett of Glenelg East
Herbert John Laslett
was born on 8 September 1919 at 25 Cliff St. Glenelg East. He was the second son of Alfred
Laslett, a telegraph inspector of North Terrace Adelaide, and his wife Margaret
Laslett née McLay (page 141). He married Joan
Mary Miels, a dressmaker who had been born at Ovingham on 26 August 1919.
They lived at Peterborough from 1928 to 1936. Senior Constable of Police.
Served in Mounted Division, Traffic Division, Water Police and the police saddler
from 1954 until his retirement from the SA Police Force in 1976. Enlisted and
served with the Royal Australian Navy during World War II (1942 to 1945). Saw
action in the Pacific Ocean as an able seaman on HMAS Australia. Was in Darwin
when the Japanese bombed it. On return from the war lived at the family home
(25 Cliff St., Glenelg East). During the hurricane of 1948 when the Barcoo ran aground at Glenelg North, he
did much rescue work on the police launch Archie
Badenoch.
Family of Herbert and Joan Laslett
Son
RICHARD - born
North Adelaide 27 September 1945. Married Sandra
Claire Bailey, typist/clerk (born Adelaide 13 October 1944). Senior
Sergeant of Police. Awarded Australian Police Medal 26 January 1997 for
distinguished police service, South Australian Police Efficiency Medal
(December 1995), National Medal with clasp (1992). Sworn into SA Police Force
27 September 1965. Served No. 3 Watch, 3 Team patrols, Breath Analysis Squad,
Water Police, Glenelg, at Glenelg and Brighton Police Stations, Darlington
Patrols, Communications Centre, Hindley St Adelaide beats. Promoted to sergeant
in 1981 in the Breath Analysis Section. Introduced infrared analysis for breath‑testing
in SA and Australia in 1987. Promoted to Senior Sergeant Officer in Charge,
Breath Analysis Section 1988. Officer in Charge Traffic Technical Resource
Section 1 February 1996 which incorporated breath analysis, speed radars, speed
radar cameras, laser equipment and red light cameras.
Family (adopted):
CAROLYN - born 6 November 1969. Physical/outdoor education
teacher at Pembroke College. Married
Duncan Cochrane, fireman (born 10 November 1970). Assistant Director of
Sports, Pembroke College 1999. Both Carolyn and Duncan have represented their
country in canoe polo, competing in Australia and overseas.
ADAM
RICHARD - born 8 March 1973. Systems support operator. Talented musician,
specialising in trumpet
Daughter
SUZANNE
- born Glenelg 30 March 1942. Educated
Glenelg Primary and Brighton High Schools. Worked at Adelaide GPO then SA
Police Dept before training as a journalist. Worked on newspapers in Adelaide,
Darwin, Sydney and country NSW and SA. Arts officer with SA Country Arts Trust
(now Country Arts SA) in MidNorth 1988‑1994. Has gained recognition for
her work as a writer and photographer through awards, exhibitions etc,
including SA Country Press award for best news photograph 1984185. Photograph
in private and corporate collections including Country Arts SA Collection.
Author of a children's book, Touch the
Sky which is in the South Australian Writers & Composers Collection at
the Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Another publication is Portraits of Life which features her
photographs. Married musician, Alan
Lawrence Woodberry born 5 July 1939 (later changed name to Larry King) Adelaide, Feb 7, 1964
(divorced). Lived in New Zealand, Pitt Town, NSW and Sydney (1964‑1976).
Returned to SA in 1976. Lived Orroroo 1976‑198 1, Undalya 1981‑1996,
currently at 76 New Street Queenstown.
Family:
Sean
Woodberry/King - born Mona Vale, NSW 28 September 1964. Died Auburn, SA 18 July 1982.
Educated Windsor, Avalon, Collaroy Plateau, Narrabeen (NSW) & Glenelg &
Orroroo (SA). Interests art (drawing, painting, sculpting) and restoring cars.
A 1961 Chrysler Royal he was working on when he was killed in a vehicle
accident near Auburn, SA has since been restored by SA Police Dept and is
now part of its historical collection at Thebarton Barracks.
Elizabeth
Anne Woodberry/King - born Blacktown, NSW 7 February 1969. Died of leukemia
June 7,1994. Educated Collaroy Plateau, Killarney Heights, Narrabeen Primary
Schools (NSW) and Orroroo Area School and secondary schools at Riverton,
Marbury School ~ Stirling), Clare & Marion (SA). Studied drama at La Mama
Theatre, Hindinarsh and modern dame.
While in Sydney, aged 5, sang the Cottees' advertisement jingle for radio and
television. Conducted drama and dance classes in Clare Valley area. Performed
with amateur theatre group in Auburn and swig with a number of bands including
Pendulum and Violent Love Beads. Married
Paul Gerard Tilbrook in 1986 (divorced). Married Wayne Rikki Brown 1 June 1991.
Family:
Cory Sean Foley-Brown (father Andrew Foley) - born Clare, SA 16
August 1986.
Talmoa Elizabeth Suzanne Brown - bom Adelaide, 6 October1993.
Keith and Beryl Lasslett of Upwey
Keith was born on 11 April 1917
at Inglewood the third child of Alfred Ernest Lasslett and Minnie Lasslett née
McKay (page 144).
On 26 April 1943 he married Beryl
Phyllis Browne (born 29 March 1918) the daughter of Tom Browne a
Horticulturalist of Watters Seeds.
Keith worked in clerical
positions. In AIF during WWII. Started
Pastry Cook Business with Beryl. Now
retired.
Recently sold their house in
Brookside Street, Upwey and moved to Kerr Streer, Mortlake.
HeraldSun 22 July 2002 - LASSLETT. Keith,
formerly of Mortlake, Victoria, passed away peacefully July 18, 2002 at the
Yeppoon Nursing Home. Dearly loved husband of Beryl. Loving father of Ian,
Robert and Barbara. Father-in-law of Margaret, Nimu and Peter, Grandfather of
Jeffery, Robert, Erika, Kiran, Paul and Stephen, Great-grandfather of Aliyah.
Brother of Frank. A Funeral Service to be held in Yeppoon QLD
Family
of Keith and Beryl Lasslett
Sons
IAN
FRANK - born 7
August 1949 at Fern Tree Gully. Draftsman.
He is married to Margaret Ann
Taylor, a Nurse, and lives at 307 Glenfern Road, Upwey. Played two games as
an AFL Kangaroo in 1971.
Children:
Jeffrey
Glen - born 13
October 1972 at Fern Tree Gully.
Robert - born 21 November 1975 at Fern
Tree Gully. Died 18 October 1993.
Erika
Helen - born 8
December 1984 at Fern Tree Gully.
ROBERT
KEITH - born 13
September 1951. Now lives over in New
Zealand and is married to Nimu Dahya
who was born on 4 March 1954 in Bombay.
Children:
Paul - born 30 October 1976 at
Wellington, New Zealand. Partner Shereena.
Children:
Aaliyah – born 4 February 1999
Stephen - born 27 June 1978 at
Wellington, New Zealand.
Daughter
BARBARA
EVELYN - born 4
March 1954. Married Peter Brew.
Jim and Marie Lasslett of Keilor
William James Lasslett was born
on 16 February 1916 at Footscray the second child of William Arthur Lasslett
and Alice May Lasslett née Halliday (page 152).
Jim was a businessman and founder
of Lasslett Rubber Pty Limited at Airport West.
On 12 May 1945 he married Marie
Joan Coverdale (born 2 May 1924 at Flemington) at the Presbyterian Church in
Footscray.
Jim had a great interest in
genealogy and made contacts with Lasletts all over the the world. He was greatly loved and really helped the
author take over maintenance of this family record from George Laslett in South
Australia.
Jim died at about 3am on Tuesday
7 March 1989. He had had an operation
for cancer a little over a year before and for most of his last year was active
and only occasionally indisposed. He
was taken ill at his holiday home at Apollo Bay on Saturday 4 March. It was diagnosed as pneumonia and he was brought
back to Sacred Heart Hospital in Moreland.
I spoke to Jim's son Ric at the time and he said that "Dad's
systems are just slowly shutting down."
The hospital gave Marie the extra bed in Jim's room so she was able to
be with him for his last days. Ric said
that Jim went very peacefully.
Family
of Jim and Marie Lasslett
Son
RICHARD
JAMES BERNARD -
born 23 September 1955 at Moreland. A
Director of Lasslett Rubber Pty Limited.
Married Susan Elizabeth Foleta.
See chapter Richard and Susan Lasslett of New Gisborne on page 192.
Daughters
SHARON
MARY - born 28
June 1946 at Moreland. Married John Anderson, now divorced.
Children:
Timothy
James Anderson -
born 14 December 1969 at Moreland.
Simon
John Anderson -
born 8 August 1972 at Hampton. BA University of Tasmania 2004 as Simon John
Anderson Lasslett.
Benjamin
Christopher Anderson
- born 29 November 1975 at Melbourne.
ROBYN
JOAN - born 1
October 1950 at Moreland. A Director of Lasslett Rubber Pty Limited.
George and Pat Laslett of Hove
George Nield Laslett was born on
Saturday 16 May 1922 at Mt. Gambier, the second child and eldest son, of George
Samson Laslett, a Farmer, and Elsie May Laslett née Earl (page 153).
George was brought up on the farm
at O.B. Flat and completed his primary schooling at O.B. Flat Public School
(1929-1935). He then worked for a year
on the farm, which included
On 8 January 1949 married Violet
Nell Patricia Hawke (born 27 December 1924) of St. Peters, Adelaide.
On Sunday 25 September 1988 Pat
was drowned at Hove. She had been
unwell for some years and needed constant attention. Her funeral was on Thursday 29 September 1988 and she was buried
in the Centennial Park Cemetery after a service at the Brighton Baptist Church.
George lives in Stopford Road,
Hove, S.A.
George C. Laslett, ?, Gordon Lasslett & George
N. Laslett
Family
of George and Pat Laslett
Sons
GEORGE
CLIFFORD - born
1 November 1951. Pastor. Married Alison Faye Trigg (born 29 June
1951). Live in 5 Hume St., Seaview
Downs, S.A.
Children:
Sarah
Ruth - born 24
February 1977. Died 17 July 1997 of an asthma attack.
David
George - born 26
October 1978.
Amy
Kathryn - born 2
May 1985, died 16 June 1985.
Richard
Earl - born 3
March 1987.
Daughters
MARILYN
JOY - born 23
December 1949. Registered Nurse. Married John
Raymond Long.
JENNIFER
ANNE (Jenny) -
born 17 December 1953. Married Stephen Keith Mutton (born 30 March
1954). Both Teachers.
Children:
Halina
Dawn Patricia Mutton
- born 9 November 1985.
TIFFANY
JANE - born 31
May 1970. Married to ? Mattila. Lives at Morphett Vale.
Robert and Pamela Laslett of Birmingham
Robert Brian Laslett was born on
18 September 1923, at Watford, the sixth child of the Reverend Ruffell Laslett
and his wife Eveline Laslett née Alden (page 145).
Robert trained as a Schoolmaster,
then after further education became a Lecturer at the School of Education,
Birmingham University.
He married Pamela Dorothy Straker
in 1948.
Robert is a well known
educationalist having written a number of papers and books both generally and
on the subject of maladjusted children.
Robert Laslett - A reflection
Robert's
funeral was held at St Mary's on 20 May 2002. It was a day of great sadness for
us and, most particularly of course, for Pam and the family. It was a sorrow we
all shared because we knew that we had lost the physical presence of a 'lovely
man', but it was also an occasion to pay tribute to someone who was truly
remarkable; a clever and intelligent man who had achieved a great deal in life,
and yet had always remained gentle and unassuming; a man with many skills and
abilities but, at the same time, a genuine simplicity of nature, considerate
and caring at all times.
In his funeral address, Hayward Osborne
spoke movingly and eloquently about Robert (extracts from his address appeared
in the July edition of Birmingham 13). He began by talking about Robert's early
life and recounted things many of us had never known about the difficulties
Robert had encountered during his own schooling, but how this had only spurred
him on to a teaching career among emotionally disturbed children. When we look
back over his achievements, it is clear that Robert had had an extraordinary
and eminent career and established a reputation which was highly justified.
Any yet, for many of us, this was a
side of Robert we never knew. So what are our fondest memories of this dear
man?
Perhaps my most abiding memory of
Robert will be the way he lead worship, ... whether he was preaching a sermon
or homily, or simply reading a passage from the Bible. (It was often the
smaller services of Compline or Evening Prayer, when I felt this most
strongly). Robert had such a lovely voice; it was made for reading the
Scriptures. He spoke slowly and thoughtfully, with tremendous sensitivity. I
would feel a desire to just close my eyes and 'let the language flow over me'.
It was like music.
As a Reader, Robert always took
considerable care and attention with everything he did. Frequently he appeared
to 'agonise' over his sermon. He always prepared so carefully. I remember one
time at his home, he showed me his 'box index', - lots and lots of small cards
in a box, all in a precise order. (I don't know whether they were indexed
alphabetically or in the order of the books of the Bible, but they enabled him
to refer to most subjects, most events and most characters you care to name
with detailed notes and facts at his fingertips).
In addition, of course, he had several
reference books and commentaries that he would study at length before preparing
his sermon. And yet afterwards, Robert often seemed unsure of himself. He
always appreciated a word of thanks and the chance to elaborate on some point
he'd made. If we spoke together after a service, Robert might well say,
"Do you think it was all right, Jonathan? I wasn't completely happy with
it, you know." I sometimes think it wasn't so much a lack of confidence on
Robert's part, as a sincere belief that nothing he could say from the pulpit
could ever do justice to the wonderful message contained in the pages of
Scripture.
Robert often gave the impression of
being a very serious and thoughtful man (which he certainly could be on
occasions) - but at the same time, he had a delightful sense of fun. It's
impossible to give examples of his humour out of context, but he was always
quick to appreciate the funny and the ridiculous side of life. Probably all of
us can remember Robert's gentle and soundless chuckle as the humour of a remark
or situation struck him.
Whatever he did, he did well because he
took such care. When Robert set himself a target or took on a job, you always
knew he would give it one hundred per cent. Robert did a number of practical
things around the church. He tiled the toilet, fixed notice boards in the
Piggott Room and made a new litter bin for the lych-gate. In fact, whenever he
saw something that needed doing, his immediate response was to get on and do
it.
I recall walking up the path to St
Mary's with Robert, and then realising he was no longer beside me. He had
noticed a shrub that needed pruning and wandered away to do it, getting out a
pair of secateurs as he went.
Although he often seemed disappointed
with himself if he felt something could and should have been done better,
Robert was always incredibly patient and understanding when confronted by the
short comings of others. His acceptance of other people's failings and his compassionate
response to human weakness was a lesson to everyone who knew him. It was easy
to see the ways in which he must have been a wonderfully patient and
sympathetic teacher. Certainly, he was always a very caring and dear friend,
...so easy to talk with, and always so willing to listen.
My life was enriched from having known
him, - and we shall all miss him very much.
Family
of Robert and Pamela Laslett
Sons
RICHARD
RENSHAW - born 3
October 1950. Schoolmaster, Kelmscott,
Western Australia. Married.
MARTIN
HOWARD RHODES -
born 11 February 1966.
Daughters
JULIA
MARGARET ALDEN -
born 17 April 1952. Married.
PHILIPPA
MARY RUFFELL -
born 4 March 1960.
Peter Laslett of Bundaberg and his wives Laura, Elizabeth and Greta
Peter Kerr Laslett was born on 28
March 1927 at Haberfield, N.S.W. the son of Herbert Laslett, a traveller in
machinery, and Eileen Veronica Laslett née Watts (page 162).
The family moved to Western
Australia where Peter attended Christian Brothers College until moving back to
New South Wales where where he attended Christian Brothers College and
Wollongong High School.
Then the war came along. As Peter was under age he bought a false
identification and joined the A.I.F. where he served a while in the islands and
when the war ended was sent to Japan where he served until 1948. While on home leave he met Laura Moore. On 7 April 1947 at St Thomas' Anglican Church
at Rozelle, N.S.W. he married her.
Laura had been born in 1925, at Footscray, Vic. but then live at
Lilyfield, N.S.W. She was the daughter
of Stanley Desmond Moore and Ivy May Moore née Baxter.
Peter was called back to Japan to
attend a War Crimes court hearing. On
his return home in 1948 he was discharged and reinlisted in the R.A.A.F. On 16 January 1949 Peter and Laura's son
Peter Kerr Laslett was born, sadly Laura died at Lilyfield on 2 March
1949. Peter, now attached to the
British Army and involved in the atomic bomb trials at Maralinga was unable to
obtain a discharge from the services, in fact he even had difficulty in
obtaining permission to return to Sydney for Laura's funeral.
Peter's Aunt and Uncle, Grace and
Tom Laslett, who had resently lost a stillborn child, offered to look after
Peter's new son and in Peter's words writing in 1990 - "I arranged with
the R.A.A.F. for the child allowance to be paid to them and before I knew it he
was calling them Mum and Dad, they promised to let him know who his father was
when he turned 18, it never happened, so to keep the peace I let it go. When Tom and Grace died I told him, about 8
or 9 years ago now, we keep in contact, he still refers to them as Mum and
Dad".
On 27 October 1951 Peter married
Elizabeth Muriel Mathews (born 1933) of Woolahra, N.S.W. at Mary Immaculate
Roman Catholic Church in Waverley, N.S.W.
Elizabeth was the daughter of Arthur Charles Mathews, a lift driver, and
Muriel Mathews née Harrison. Peter
& Elizabeth's marriage was dissolved on 24 May 1956.
On 14 May 1957 Peter married
Greta Eileen Drenon. Greta had been
born on 14 July 1931 and died on 22 August 1985 which in Peter's words
"ended our 30 years of happiness and a great relationship".
Family
of Peter and Laura Laslett
PETER
KERR - born 16
January 1949 at Lillyfield, N.S.W. He
is now (1990) the N.S.W. State Manager for Merlin Gerin Aust. and lives at
Springwood in the Blue Mountains.
Married to Lyn Mackay from
New Zealand, one child, Ollanah, born. They were divorced. He then married Lesley Wright (born 16 August 1951 in
New Zealand). Peter died at Springwood of a heart attack on 3 September 2000.
Children:
Ollanah - born 6 May 1972. Lives in New
Zealand.
Kristie - born 16 August 1981.
Blake - born 3 April 1989.
Family
of Peter and Elizabeth Laslett
GLEN
KERR - born 2
August 1952. Accountant, Audit Manager
for ANZ Banking Group W.A. Lives in
Western Australia. Married Kerrie Anne Marsh.
Children:
James
Kerr - born 19
March 1988.
Mason
Kerr - born 17
August 1991.
Family
of Peter and Greta Laslett
Sons
PAUL
KERR - born 9
May 1960. On 28 April 1990 he married Narelle Elizabeth Parkinson from
Falconbridge in the Blue Mountains.
Paul is a Federal Policeman based in Canberra (1990) and lives at
Isabella Plains, A.C.T. Paul has seen
service with the United Nations contingent in Cyprus.
MARK
KERR - born 27
June 1962. Works for M.I.M. at Mount
Isa (1990). Married Charmaine Agnes Hotz at Mount Isa. Charmaine has a child from a previous
marriage Leon Michael Anthony Firth
- born 3 February 1981.
Children:
Alex
Christian Herbert Kerr
- born 5 June 1987 at Mount Isa.
Jessica
Hannah Kerr -
born 3 June 1989.
Daughter
EILEEN
VERONICA - born
14 August 1957. Married Garnet Stanislaus Madden (born 15
February 1956) but they are now separated.
Children:
Cory
Madden - born 29
January 1979.
Shelley
Madden - born 14
December 1983.
Kathleen
Madden - born 29
April 1986.
Jacob
Peter - born 26
December 1990.
Graham and Christine Laslett of Edington
Graham Francis Laslett was born
on 29 July 1933 at Thornton Heath the only child of Arthur Laslett, a
Schoolmaster of Coulsdon, Surrey, and his wife Sybil Laslett née Whiting (page 163).
After state and private primary
education, passed as a feepaying pupil to The Grammar School, Reigate in
September 1943, where taunted about being a relative of Laslett Value chain of
shops! Entered the Royal Navy on 1 May 1951, going to RN College Dartmouth, as
an Engineering Cadet. Transferred to
the Retired List on 7 January 1988, from command of the RN's largest training
establishment, HMS Sultan at Gosport.
Other highlights included as a Lieutenant Commander, in charge of design
of second generation of reactor core for nuclear submarines, and of trials at
sea in the first commission of Western World's first major warship powered by
marinised aircraft gas turbines. As a
Commander, in charge of mechanical design of Type 22 frigate to committal to
build, and of trials from build of the ill-fated HMS Sheffield, first-of-class
of the Type 42 guided missile destroyers.
First non-submariner and engineer officer to serve as Second-in-Command
of HMS Dolphin, alma-mater of the Submarine Service. As a Captain, served as Superintendent, National Gas Turbine
Establishment, Haslar and Portland, as Naval Attache, Brasilia, during the
Falklands conflict, and as Director of Engineering Support (Naval) at Bath.
Life-long yachtsman, was Chairman of the Royal Naval Sailing Association for
last 3 years.
Made Commander of the Order of
the British Empire in the New Years' Honours List 1988. In May 1988, appointed to the 55-strong Lord
Chancellor's Panel of Independent Inspectors, conducting public inquiries.
Married Christine Alice Bush on 8
November 1958.
Family
of Graham and Christine Laslett
Son
SIMON
ROBERT - born at
Woolwich, on 5 April 1963. Educated
Canford School, and Kent University, as a bursar entry to the RN. Passed out of BRNC Dartmouth as a Seaman
Sub-Lieutenant, on 11 April 1985.
Forced to leave the RN after five years because of problems with
migraines. BSc MRICS. In 1991 obtained a second degree
in surveying from Bristol Polytechnic and is working with Chesterton, at their
Plymouth office in charge of the retail property desk for Cornwall.
Daughter
HELEN
JUDITH - born at
Woolwich, on 5 September 1959. Educated
at the Royal School, Bath and Edgehill College. Married Didier Haspeslagh
at Edington on 1 September 1984.
Children:
Henrietta
Louise Haspeslagh
- born 26 April 1987.
Gordon and Susan Lasslett of Lindfield
Gordon Arthur Lasslett was born
on Thursday 26 September 1946 at a private hospital in Petersham, the third and
last child of Arthur Lasslett, an Electrical Contractor of Hurlstone Park, and
Edna Lasslett née Murray (page 164).
I was named after my uncle Gordon
Lasslett who died a year before my father was born. We lived at 20 Duntroon Street Hurlstone park. I can remember this house well - the
termites in summer, the grape vine, my grandfather's nasturtiums growing by the
fence
I attended Canterbury Boys High
School and obtained my Leaving Certificate in 1963 went to work for the Bank of
New South Wales in their Hurlstone Park Branch. I have remained in their employ
ever since.
On Saturday 27 September 1969 I
married Susan Elizabeth Krauss (born 20 December 1945), a nurse, the daughter 
of George Frederick Krauss, a
Chartered Accountant of Cremorne, and Gwendoline Myee Krauss née Evans. The wedding took place at the bride's house
in Cremorne and as Susan had contracted pneumonia a day or two before the
wedding it made for a rather interesting time.
Her doctor had ordered her to stay in bed but there was no way that
Susan wished to go through all the arrangements again at a later date.
The Krauss family were originally
from Weilmunster in the Duchy of Nassau and immigrated individually over the
period 1855/65 finally settling on the land in the Bungawalbyn valley near
Grafton where Susan's greatgrandfather Heinrich (Henry) farmed and, as well,
ran a combination blacksmith and dentist business. Perhaps it is from humble beginnings such as these that
Australians' extreme reluctance to visit the dentist derives.
We originally settled at Balmain,
in a terrace house in Llewellyn Street, but as the children grew and needed
more space bought a house in Woodlands Road, Lindfield. We demolished this
house and had Neville Gruzman, a noted architect and an acquaintance on a charity
committee; build us a modernist style house.
Now, in 2005, the children have
left home – Xenia with an IT research degree and working as an analyst for the
airline QANTAS while Kris has gone to London after completing a B Comms degree
and LLB (1st Class Hons) in Sydney and is lecturing at Westminster
University in London while completing his Master of Philosophy degree via a PhD
in the Human Rights Law area.
Family
of Gordon and Susan Lasslett
Sons
AARON
FREDERICK - born
7 August 1970 at Royal Women's Hospital, Paddington and lived at Balmain for a
year. He died in Prince of Wales
Hospital, Randwick on 10 August 1971 and is buried at Northern Suburbs
Crematorium, North Ryde.
KRISTIAN
ARTHUR KRAUSS -
born 23 April 1980 at Royal Women's Hospital, Paddington. He is named after his grandfather and
greatuncles Christian Krauss and Christian Krust. HSC Sydney High. State
Champion Quad Skulls in year 10. B Comms and LLB (1st Class Hons)
2004 UTS plus UTS Law Gross prize for Human Rights summer 2004. 2005 scholarship University of Westminster
London for PhD in Human Rights Law via an Mphil.
Daughter
XENIA
LOUISE - born 10
December 1975 at Royal Women's Hospital, Paddington. Louise (pron. Louisa) is a family name of the Krauss/Krust
families). HSC North Sydney Girls High. Batchelor of Applied Science in
Information Studies at UTS. Work Law, Merchant Banking and QANTAS.
Richard and Susan Lasslett of New Gisborne
Richard James Bernard Lasslett
was born on 23 September 1955 at Moreland the third child of William James
Lasslett and Marie Joan Lasslett née Coverdale (page 208).
His mother told me that Ric
worked in Real Estate until a few years ago when he joined his father's
business, Lasslett Rubber Pty Limited, and as a Director is now taking perhaps
the major role in the business.
Marie also said that Ric has an
excellent singing voice, being classically trained, but unfortunately he has
let his lessons lapse due to pressure of business.
Ric is married to Susan Elizabeth
Foleta and they live in Farrell Street, New Gisborne.
Susan is a recognised local
artist who specialises in landscapes. I
have seen some of her paintings hanging in her parents-in-law's house and they
are quite beautiful.
Family
of Richard and Susan Lasslett
Daughters
SARAH ELIZABETH - born 28 June 1980 at
Essendon. Teacher at Mable Park Qld ‘I am a year 1 teacher. I joined the team
in 2004. I graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Education early childhood from
Q.U.T. Prior to that I did 3 years of a Bachelor of Ed. My hobbies include Drama and Art.’
KATHERINE
ANNE - born 17
July 1982 at Essendon.
AMY
SUSAN - born 5
November 1983 at Essendon.
Roger Lacelet of Harbledowne - 2 May 1586
Canterbury Cathedral
Archives
Archdeaconry
Court of Canterbury Deposition Register PRC 39/11 folio 176 verso.
Concerning the positions of Pettifer versus Dale
examined the 2 May [1586]
Roger Lacelett of the parish of Harbledowne where he
has lived for the space of forty years or thereabouts originated in the parish
of Namptwhich in the county of Chester aged about Lxxvij years a witness
produced sworn and examined and of free condition as he says, deposes as
foloweth,
To the first position this deponent upon his
prescribed oath caused to be examined says and deposes that hee doth very well
know the parcell of grownde comonlie called the cherry garden neere the cyty of
Canterbury which contayneth to this deponentes judgement six acres* of grownde
or there abowte the greater parte whereof this deponent saith is lyinge and
beinge within the parishe of Harboldowne and for parcell of the said parcell
parishe hath been comonlie reputed and taken to this deponelits owne knowledge
this six or seaven and thirty yeares which he knoweth to bee trew for that very
often within the saide tyme hee hath seene and viewed the bowndes whiche devide
the saide garden (beeing an inh[ab]itawnt of the saide parishe of Harboldowne)
and hath together with other parishioners of the saide parishe of Harboldowne
in their perambulation fett (O.E.D.
fetch) in the saide parcell of growride beeinge parte of that place now
called the Cherry Garden as parcell of the saide parishe of Harboldowne and
this deponent saith that hee never hearde the contrary but all waies yt hath
been by the most awncient men of the saide parishe accownted and reputed as
parte and parcell of the saide parishe of Harboldowne since the tyme of his
remembrawnce and otherwise he does not know how to depose
2. To the second he says that the farmers or occupyers
of the saide parcell of grownde have a allwaies paide to the parsons of
Harboldowne for the tynne beeing their tythes of the saide grownde in their
kinde as they grew since this deponentes remembrance and before as hath herde
yt credybly reported by honest awncyent men paying in the field as he knows and says that his this deponentes brother
was farmer of the parsonadge of Harboldowne abowte five and thirty yeeres agoe
by the space of three yeares and before him his father with both which persons
this deponent did dwell and yearlie in Chery tyme did fett cheryes in the name
of tith cherryes from the saide parcell of gownde called the Cherry Garden and
hee saith that since that tyme hee hath knowen the farmers of the saide parcell
of grownde yearlie pay their tenthes and tithes as they grew and not in anie
other sorte or manner and otherwise he does not know how to depose
3. To the last he
says the predeposed has been by him the truth etc..
Mark of Roger
Lacelet
Repeated and read
before me John Alderstone** subsitute of the Venerable Master Stephen Lakes
etc. Official 2nd May anno domini 1586
*The Kentish acre
was a piece of land containing 160 perches of sixteen feet square, i.e. a
fraction over 4,551 square yards. The standard English acre then being by
statute 24 Hen VIII - 40 poles long by 4 broad (= 4,840 sq yards), or its
equivalent in any shape, being based on that portion of land that a yoke of
oxen could plough in a day.
**PRC 39111 folio
144v: John Alderstone clerk rector of the ecclesiastical parish of St Alphage
Canterbury where he has lived for five years or thereabouts and before in the
parish of St Mary Bredinanin the city of Canterbury and before in the
University of Cambridge for seven years and more aged about 32 years,
originated in the parish of Littlebourne in the county of Kent. John Venn & LA.Venn, Alumni
Cantabrigienses, John Aldersion matriculated sizar frorn Pembroke, Easter 1572;
B.A. 1575‑6; M.A. from Magdalene, 1579. Perhaps Rector of St
Alpliage,.C.lanterbury, 1580. Vicar of Hougham, 1590‑2. Rector of
Stouting, 1590.)
(Extract from)
The politics of partying
Gary Younge
Guardian
Saturday August
17, 2002
...
Rhaune Laslett, who lived in Notting Hill, knew
nothing of (Claudia) Jones or the (Caribbean) carnivals when she spoke to the
local police about organising a carnival early in 1965. With more of an English
fete in mind, she invited the various ethnic groups of what was then the poor
area of Notting Hill - Ukranians, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish, Caribbeans and
Africans - to contribute to a week-long event that would culminate with an
August bank holiday parade.
‘The histories
of these carnivals are both independent and interlinked,’ says Sue McAlpine of
the Kensington & Chelsea Community History Group. ‘They were linked by
their motivation and the constituencies they were seeking to motivate.’
Laslett, born in the East End, of Native American
parents, was a community activist who had been a nurse and a social worker. She
died in April this year (2004), after suffering from multiple sclerosis for 50
years. Her motivation was ‘to prove that from our ghetto there was a wealth of
culture waiting to express itself, that we weren't rubbish people’. She
borrowed costumes from Madame Tussaud's; a local hairdresser did the hair and
make-up for nothing; the gas board and fire brigade had floats; and
stallholders in Portobello market donated horses and carts. Around 1,000 people
turned up, according to police figures.
Steel band player Russ Henderson was among those
roped in. Laslett's partner, Jim O'Brien, knew him from the Colherne pub in
Earl's Court - a favoured West Indian hang-out - and Henderson had played at
the first event in St Pancras organised by Jones. At the Notting Hill event, he
was playing alongside a donkey cart and a clown, and he felt things were
getting flat. ‘I said, 'We got to do something to make this thing come alive.'
‘ Henderson, now 78, decided to walk his steel band to the top of the street
and back. When that went down well, he got a little bolder, marching them
around the area like so many pied pipers. ‘People would ask, 'How far are you
going?' and we'd say, 'Just back to Acklam Road' and they would come a little
way with their shopping, then peel off and someone else would join in. There
was no route, really - if you saw a bus coming, you just went another way.’
‘With the music, people left everything and came to
follow the procession,’ O'Brien says. ‘By the end of the evening, people were
asking the way home.’
In the evening, Michael X - radical, hustler and
firebrand - turned to Laslett, pointed to the throng and said, ‘Look, Rhaune,
what have you done?’
‘I was in a state of shock,’ Laslett said later.
‘As I saw the huge crowds, I thought, 'What have I done?' ‘
During the years Laslett ran the carnival, it was
identified more with Notting Hill than with the Caribbean, though as word got
round, more and more Caribbean people started coming. The numbers had grown to
around 10,000, and O'Brien says a mixture of police interference and the
growing assertiveness of black power meant too many different groups had vested
interests. ‘It was something we didn't want to have responsibility for,’ he
adds. ‘The police didn't want it because they thought they were losing control
of the streets for the day, and we'd had enough. So we decided to hand it over
to the community.’
Carnival, Trinidad-style, with no entry fee, is
truly open to everyone. Blurring the lines between participant and spectator,
it thrives on impulse as well as organisation. With its emphasis on
masquerading and calypso, it takes popular subjects of concern as its raw
material for lyrics and costumes. Massive in size, working-class in
composition, spontaneous in form, subversive in expression and political in
nature - the ingredients for carnival are explosive. Add to the mix the legacy
of slavery and it soon becomes clear why so long as there has been carnival,
the authorities have sought to contain, control or cancel it.
In 1881, Trinidad's former police chief, Fraser,
submitted a report on the carnival riot in Port of Spain. ‘After the
emancipation of the slaves, things were materially altered,’ he wrote. ‘The
ancient lines of demarcation between classes were obliterated and, as a natural
consequence, the carnival degenerated into a noisy and disorderly amusement for
the lower classes.’ He had a point. Trinidad was colonised at various times by
both the Spanish and English, with a large number of Frenchsettlers, and after
emancipation in 1834, its carnival lost its elitist, European traditions and
became a mass popular event.
‘Carnival had become a symbol of freedom for the
broad mass of the population and not merely a season for frivolous enjoyment,’
wrote Errol Hill in The Trinidad Carnival. ‘It had a ritualistic significance,
rooted in the experience of slavery and in the celebration of freedom from
slavery. The people would not be intimidated; they would observe carnival in
the manner they deemed most appropriate.’
Similar tensions have emerged here in the UK. The
key dynamic within them is ownership. Ask anyone involved who owns carnival and
they will say the same thing: the people. The trouble is, which people? Since
Rhaune Laslett handed over responsibility for the carnival, the primary body
organising the event has split, reinvented itself, then split again several
times. It has been called the Carnival Development Committee, the Carnival Arts
Committee, the Carnival Enterprise Committee and, at present, the Notting Hill
Carnival Trust, which is itself riven by internal rows. Each group has its own
version of the carnival's history and development.
As carnival has outgrown its grass-roots origins,
it has brought with it a constant process of negotiation and occasional flash
points; there have been inevitable conflicts, over both its economic
orientation and its political function. Carnival, wrote Kwesi Owusu and Jacob
Ross in Behind The Masquerade, is ‘the most expressive and culturally volatile
territory on which the battle of positions between the black community and the
state are ritualised’.
And so it was that, less than a century after the
disturbances at the carnival in Port of Spain, there were riots at the Notting
Hill carnival in 1976. By that stage it had become a Caribbean event - the
by-product of Jones's racial militancy and Laslett's community activism -
complete with bands and costumes. In 1975, according to police figures,
carnival was attracting 150,000 people. It was also the first time most
remember an imposing police presence.
…
John Laslet of Great Mongeham - 21 November 1665
(Page 12)
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN I John Laslet of Great Mongeham in the
County of Kent husbandman being sicke and weake yet of perfect good memory doe
make this my last will and testament in manner following Impri
I doe give and bequeath my soule unto ye hands of my Creator
and my body to be decently buried, And
as to my worldly (sic) I doe dispose of them as follows, Item
I doe give and (sic) unto my sonne Thomas Laslet the summ of Tenn pounds
of Lawfull English money to be paid to him by my Executor within twelve months
after my decease, Item I doe give and bequeath unto my son Joseph
the full summe of Tenn pound Lawfull English money to be paid by my Executor wthin
Twelve months after my decease,
Item I give unto my Daughter
Sarah Laslet, my best bed, bedsteddle and furniture there unto belonging wth
two paire of sheetes and the summe of Tenn pound lawfull English money to be
paid by my Executor wthin Twelve months after my decease. All the rest of my goods, & Chattles
& Moveables I doe give & bequeath unto my two sons Thomas & Joseph
to be equally divided betweene
Item I doe will & appoint that
my house backside barn, orchard and halfe an Acre of land lying & being in
Walmer in ye County aforesd and now in ye
occupation of Robert May or his assignes shall be put to sale by my Executor
for ye payment of the aforesaid legacies and ye
satisfying of my Debts. Lastly I doe
appoint Isaac Slater of ffinglesham in ye County aforesd
Felmonger my Executor to see my body decently buried And this my last will
& testament duely performed IN
WITNES whereof I have set to my hande and seale this XXIth of
November in the yeare of our Lord One thousand six hundred sixty & five.
John
Laslet (seal)
by
his marke
Read sealed & delivereed
in ye presence of
John Rouse by his marke
Susan Joyner ye sign
John Milfordser
Probatum juramento Isaaci
Slaghter Executoris in hujusmodi Testament nominat at inde approbatum . . .
A true and perfect Inventerie of
the goods and Chatells of John Laslet of great Mongham apprized by whose names
are hereunder written the 26th day of December 1665.
In the Parlour
Imprimis his purse and girdle and
wearing apparill £1-
0-0.
Item one bedstedle one Cheste
three shirts two
p(air) of sheets 1-
7-0.
In the Hall
Item one table one Cupboard one
glasse Case three
ioyned stooles one stove on
Ioyned Chaire 1-
3-0.
In the Chamber over the Hall
Item one ffeather bed one
ffeather bolster one
feather pillow one blanket one
Couverlid[4]
ffive
Curtaines two Curtain Rods one
Chest a warmingpan 4-
0-0.
In the Kitchen
Item two brasse Candlesticks five
peeces of pewter
one Dripping pan one spitt two
Cobirons one truccle
bedstid[5]
one Steit[6]
two tubbs foure milk bowles w'th
old lumber 1-
5-0.
In the Barne
Item one bushell and haker[7]
three fforkes one ffan
one shovell one Scuppit[8]
one ffaile[9]
tenne bushells of
wheat ans pease 3-13-0.
It halfe one acre of wheate and halfe an acre of
barley grutten 2-
0-0.
It one Bul in the yard 16-0.
In the Backside[10]
Item one Cheese presse one
watering trough and posts 5-0.
In the Lodges[11]
Item due to the Testator for
Caskle(?) pay 2-10-0.
Item one great bible 10-0.
£18-9-0.
Simon Boules Henry Dixon
29 October 1666
Stephen Laslett of Deal - 3 May 1690
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN I Stephen Laslett of the parrish of Deale in
the County of Kent Blacksmith being sick in body but of sound and perfect
memory praysed bee God for the same Doe make & declare this my last Will
and Testament in writeing the third day of May in the seconde yeare of the
Reigne of our most gratious Soveraigne Lord and Lady William and Mary now King
and Queene of England yr Annog. Dui 1690.
In manner ffolloweing that is to say ffirst I comend my soule to God my
Creatour trusting by the alone merritts of Christ my Redeemer to bee made
pertaker of a better life after this mortall life ended - my body I comitt to
the earth to bee decently buryed att the discretion of my Executor heerafter
named And as to my worldly estate which
by the blessing of God I now possess and enjoy I give devise and bequeath in
manner following that is to say I give devise and bequeath unto my loving wife
Anne Laslett ALL that messuage or tenement and Smiths Shoppe which I now dwell
in, and also all those two messuages situate in Deale aforesaid in the said
County of Kent and now are in the severall tennres or occupatons of Thomas
Jones of Deale ffisherman and Joan Estis of the same widdow and also All that
barne stable and outhouses and yard or backside thereunto belonging situate in
Deale aforesaid in the said county of Kent and now is in tennre or occupaton of
William Hoford of Deale aforesaid bricklayer and of the said Stephen Laslett or
of their assignes and allso all that Well & twelve foot of land thereunto
now in my occupation in Deale aforesaid.
To have and to hold the said messuages or tenements yardes or Backsides
unto her the said Anne Laslett my loving wife her Executors Adms
& assignes together with all my Right title interest Terme of yeares clayme
& demand whatsoever Also I give and
bequeath unto my Loving wife Anne Laslett all my goods chattells and household
stuffe now standing and being in my dwelling house aforesaid and also all my
Workeing tooles and iron in my shopp and also all and every summe and summes of
mony debts which are due oweing unto mee either by bill bond booke debts or
otherwise belonging or appertayneing to mee and all my Reall and personall
estate whatsoever provided that my said loving wife pay my debts and also my
legacys heerafter given and bequeathed to my children heerin and heerafter
named. Item I give and Bequeath unto my
eldest daughter Mary Laslett the full summe of Ten pounds of Lawfull mony of
England Item I give and Bequeath unto
my loveing daughter Anne Laslett the Summe of ffive pounds of Lawfull mony of
England Item I give and bequeath unto
my loveing Sonn Stephen Laslett the full summe of ffive pounds of lawfull mony
of England Item I give and bequeath
unto my loveing Sonn John Laslett the full summe of ffive pounds of lawfull
mony of England Item I give and
bequeath unto my loveing Sonn Joseph Laslett the full summe of ffive pounds of
lawfull mony of England Item I give and
bequeath unto my Loveing daughter Anne Laslett the full summe of ffive pounds
of Lawfull mony of England Item I gave
and bequeath unto my loveing Sonn William Laslett the full summe of ffive
pounds of lawfull mony of England Item
I give & bequeath unto my loveing daughter Hannah Laslett the full summe of
ffive pounds of lawfull mony of England
Item I give and bequeath unto my loveing daughter Elizabeth Laslett the
full summe of ffive pounds of lawfull mony of England. All which aforesaid Legacyes I doe hereby
Appoint my loveing wife Anne Laslett my Executrix heerafter named to pay unto
my said children their severall legacys aforesaid given to them when they shall
attaine their full ages of one and twenty yeares. And I doe heerby make ordaine authorise and appoint my said
loveing wife Anne Laslett my sole Executrix of this my last Will and Testament
in writeing heerby revoking All former Wills & Testaments by mee att any
tyme heertofore made And doe declare this to bee stand and remaine as my last
Will and Testament for ever. And my
Will and mind is that John Taverner of Deale aforesaid Grocer and Nicolas
Martin of Deale Maltster bee overseers of this my last Will and that they will
ayd and assist my wife in the performeing this my last Will &
Testament. IN WITNES whereof I the said
Stephen Laslett have heerunto sett my hand & seale the day and yeare first
above written:
Stephen
Laslett (Seal)
Signed sealed published and
declared
by the said Stephen Laslett to
bee
his last Will and Testament in -
the presence of the . . . with
the hand
enterlined before the ensealeing
in the
presence of Henry Stokes
John Lasham
Tho: Goobin
Probatum fuit hujusmodi
Suprascrit testamentum Stephain Laslett neperdo Deal defunct virossimo secundo
die May Anno Diu 1690 . . . Juramento Anne Laslett Executrici . . .
An Inventory of all and singular
the goods and Chattells of Stephen Lacelet late of Deale in the County of Kent
Blackesmith decd taken and appraeysed by us whose names are heareunto
subscribed Nineteenth day of May Anno Dom 1690 as followeth.
Impris his wearing apparell woollen & linnen 1-
0-0
In the Hall
Item a paire of grates frepan a paire of
tonges .... & bellow 0-
5-0
It. two small tables a shoule[12]
an old
cubbord a glabrass two cucketts[13]
and
old stove six old chaires 0-
6-0
It. a warming pan six small pewter dishes
ten pewter plates a lanthorne a
pewter
pott one coxiron a landle box and
some earthen ware 0-12-6
It. an iron pott a brass pott a brasse
skillet 0-
5-0
In the Shoppe
It. the workeing tooles, Iron & old Iron 14-
0-0
In ye Chamber
It. a paire of grates a paire of cabisons 0-
8-0
It. a high bedstedle curtaines & vallanse
a litterbed & bolster a
flocke bolster
a ffeather pillow & fflocke
pillow a
coverlet two blanketts & a
trundle
bedstedle 2-
5-0
It. a table two chests a ..... a box
five chaires another small table
a
bible and some other bookes a
muskett
and old bandoleers 0-13-4
In the Garrett
It. two old bedstedles & some old bedding
an old table one old chest a spinning
wheele & some old lumber 0-
6-8
In the Seller
It. a small copper fouer tubbs three
& two shillings 1-
0-0
It. three paire of sheets a pair of
Pillowcases two tableclothes six
towells six napkins 0-13-4
In the yard
It. three hogge a small piece of wood 1-
5-0
It. one horse & one cow 4-
0-0
It. a coach & 4 horses 20-
0-0
It. a messuage & yard & shopp in Deale
being leasehold estate 80-
0-0
It. two tenements two stables & yards
& well in Deale being
leasehold estate 70-
0-0
It household lumber & things 0-
3-4
It. debts owing to ye deceased hopefull
to . . . 6-
0-0
───────────
Total 202- 3-2
James
Buttorie (his mark)
Edward
Taylor
22
Maii 1690
Stephen Lacelett of Woodnesboro - 21 February 1703
THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT of
Stephen Lacelett alias Lacy Batchellor being very weake in body but of sound memory
and minde made the 21 day of ffebruary in the 2d yeare of the Reigne
of our sovereigne Lady Anne Queen of England etc Ao Dui 1703 Inprimis I commend my Soul to God to be
saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and my body to the grave to be buried at
the discreton of my Executor hereafter named
Item I give to my Brother Thomas Lacelet alias Lacy twenty shillings to
be paid at the year's end after my decease
Item I give to my sister Mary the wife of John Devisson twenty shillings
to be paid also at the years end after my decease Item I will to my Brother Joseph Lacelet alias Lacy twenty
shillings likewise to be paid him a yeare after my decease, Item I will to my Brother Richard Lacelet
alias Lacy twenty shillings to be paid him alsoe a yeare after my decease Item I will to my sister Hannah the wife of
James Stephens twenty shillings to be paid her a yeare after my decease Item I will to my Brother Charles Lacelet
alias Lacy twenty shillings to be paid him a yeare after my decease Item I give unto Mary Hughes the sum of tenn
pounds to be paid her next Michaelmas 1704
Item I will to George the son of Thomas and Mildred Barber of Dover
twenty shillings to be paid at Midsummer 1704
Item I will to Mary the daughter of my Brother John Lacelet alias Lacy
twenty shillings a yeare after my decease
Item I will to Mildred the daughter of Thomas Lacelet alias Lacy twenty
shillings to be paid her at the time aforesaid
Item I will to Richard the sonn of my Brother James Stephens twenty
shillings to be paid at the years end
Item I will to Mary Hughes five pound more over and above the tenn pound
aforesaid to be paid to her at the next ffeast of our Saviours Nativity
1704 Item I will to my ffather John
Lacelet alias Lacy the bed bolster and all that belongs to it during his Life
but after his decease I will it to returne to Stephen the sonn of my Brother
John if he be then alive, but if he be dead I will it then to my Brother
Charles Item I will to my ffather John
Lacelett alias Lacy seven Bushells of Wheate and all the wood about home that
belongs to me, Item I will to Mary
Hughes aforesd besides the tenn pound first willed to her and the
five pound in the second Legacy thirty shillings more to buy her a ring to be
paid her at next Midsummer 1704 Item I
will my ffather John Lacelet alias Lacy three pounds to be paid him as he wants
it. Item I will to my Brother William
Lacelet alias Lacy fourty shillings to be paid him twenty shillings thereof
when he comes a shoar [ashore] and the remaining twenty shillings when when he
comes a shoar [ashore] againe Item I
will to my ffather and my Brother John Lacelet all the pork that is in the
brine tubb to be divided equally between them,
Item I will my Chest above in the Lothe to Stephen the sonne of my
Brother John to be delivered to him soon after my decease, Item I will to Mary the daughter of John
Devisson a pair of sheets to be delivered to her a soon as she will after my
decease Item I will to my sister
Mildred the wife of Thomas Barber forty shillings to be paid to her at
Midsummer 1704 Item I will and appoint
my Brother John Lacelet alias Lacy to be my Executor of this my Will to pay all
the legacies therein mentioned and to pay my debts and to receive all that is
Due to me Witness my hand and Seale
Stephen
Laslet
Sealed and subscribed in the
p[resence of the] foure of us who were p[re]sent and Witnesses to the signeing
and Sealeing of this my Will
Isaac Lovell Oliver
Hughes Elizabeth Hughes
her
marke
Probatum fuit hujusmodi
Suprascrit testamentum Step: Lacelet . . .
Woodnesboro . . . Decims septimo Martii Anno Dui 1703 . . . Juramento
Johis Lacelett . . . Executris . . .
An Inventory of all and singular
the goods chattels & .... of Stephen Lacelett als Lacy late of the parish
of Woodnesboro in the county of Kent deceased made this 10th day of March Anno
Dom 1703 & apprized by Thomas Noame and
Impris the said deceaseds wearing
apparel and ready money Xle:. Xs: VId.
Item for some small linen &
shirts with some bookes IIIle:. IXs: VId.
Item for a tubb & two
barrells XVIIs: VId.
Item a brine tubb & meate in
it Ile:. Vs:
Item two pewter dishes & one
porringer IIs: VId.
Item a grindstone & two dozen
of bottles VIIIs: VId.
Item for a small ... & his
working tooles VIIs: VId.
Item a small cask of mead XIIIIs: VId.
Item a leame(?) of wheate XXXIIs:
Item for Mare & colt VIle:.
Item for horseharness Xs:
Item a little hay & part of 5
lathers Xs: VId.
Item for ten wethers VIIle:.
Item for fowles about the house Vs:
Item a sadle & 10 bee-hives
& stooles Vs:
Item for things conteen &
forgotten Vs: IIIId.
────────────────
XXXIIIIle:. VIIIs: IIIId.
Item a debt due to the deceased
from
Mr Robert Robinson a
fruturer living
att London & due by
bond. Which XVle:.
bond was att London in the hands
of
Mr Auston an Attorney att law
& is yett
there as the Exor believeth
having had
no notice to the contrary as
yett.
17th of March 1703
John
Laslett Exor
17
Mar 1703
Joseph Lacelett of Worth - 1 June 1710
(Page 16)
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN The First day of June in ye Ninth
yeare of the Reigne of our Sovereign Lady ANNE by the Grace of God Queen of
great Britain etc Anno Dom 1710 I
Joseph Lacelett of the Parish of Word alias Worth next Sandwich in the County
of Kent Husbandman being of sound and perfect mind and Memory (God be praised)
doe make and ordaine this my last Will and Testament in manner and forme
following (that is to say) FIRST and
principally I commend my Soule into the hands of Almighty God my Gracious and
Mercifull Creator hopeing that I shall obtaine everlasting life thro the
precious and Meritorious death of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and my Body
to the Earth to be decently buried by my Executrix hereafter named. AND as touching the Worldly Estate wherewith
it hath pleased God almighty to bless me with all I give and bequeath ye
same in manner following. As for
touching and Concerning all that Messuage Tenemt or dwelling house
with the yards Gardens Outhouses and buildings and Appurtenances to ye
same belonging Situate lying and being in the Parish of Word alias Worth
aforesaid in or neare a place there called Word Street wherein I now dwell, and
which I lately purchast of William Catchpole.
I give and devise the Same to my Loving Wife ANNE dureing her naturall
life to be by her kept from time to time and at all times dureing the same well
and sufficiently repaired and amended.
And after her Decease I give and devise all that Messuage Tenemt
and premises aforesaid with the Appurtences thereunto belonging unto my Sones
Joseph Lacelett and John Lacelett and to their heires and Assignes forever to
be equeally divided betwixt them ITEM I
give and bequeath unto each of my Daughters Mary Lacelett, Anne Lacelett, Anna Lacelett
and Elizabeth Lacelett Four pounds of Lawfull money of Great Britain, which
Sixteen pounds is to be paid out of the value of the Messuage or Tenemt
foresaid wth the appurtences thereunto belonging by my Sons Joseph
Lacelett and John Lacelett their Heires Executors Administrators or Assignes
att such time and times as they the said Joseph Lacelett and John Lacelett
shall arive to the age on one and twenty yeares (or should if either of them
had been then Living) provided their Mother ANNE Lacelett be them departed this
Naturall life but if she be then Living my Will is that the said Joseph and
John Lacelett their heires Executos Administratos or
Assignes pay to each of my daughters, Mary, Anne, Anna, & Elizabeth
Lacelett, the said Four pounds within one Moneth next after the decease of my said
Wife Anne Lacelett. But if any of my
said Daughters die without heires Lawfully begotten of their Bodies, before the
time and times of paimt aforesaid then my Will is that every of
their respective parts so deceased shall be equally divided betwixt my son
Joseph and John Lacelett their Heires or Assignes AND with the paimt
of the legacies abovesaid I charge my said messuage tenemt and
premises abovesaid. AND as for touching
and Concerning my Goods Chattells Stock Dead and Living Bedding plate Brasse Pewter
ready money, Debts Household Stuffe and all other my Personal Estate
whatsoever After my debts as I shall
owe at my Decease, my Funerall Chatges, and the Charge of the probate of this
my last Will and Testamt are fully Satisfied and Paid I give and
bequeath unto my Loving Wife ANNE And I doe hereby nominate constitute and
appoint my said Wife Sole and whole Executrix of this my last Will and Testamt
hereby revoking and making void all former Wills by me heretofore made IN
WITNES whereof I have hereon sett my hande and seale the day and Yeare first
above written.
Joseph
Lacelett
his
mark
Signed Dealed Published and
Declared by the
abovenamed Joseph Lacelett to be
his last
will and Testamt (att
his request and in his
presence and) in the presence of
us.
Elisabeth Bisher
Alise Sayyer
Caleb Burton
Probate 21 April 1716 to Anne
Lacelett
(The above was taken from the
Register copy of the Will.)
Anne Laslett of Worth - 30 May 1721
(Page 16)
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN the
Thirtieth Day of May Annu Dui 1721 And the Seventh Year of the Reign of King
George over Great Britain etc I ANNE
Laslett of the parish of Word als Worth in the county of Kent Widow being
indisposed in Body but of sound and perfect Mind and Memory (praised be God for
the same) considering the Uncertainty of this transitory Life And being
desirous to settle that Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me do
make and declare this my last Will and Testament in writing in Manner and fform
following (that is to say) FIRST and
principally I yield my Soul into the hands of Almighty God my Creator hoping
for Salvation thereof through the Merits of Jesus Christ my Redeemer and my
Body I bequeath to the Earth whereof it was first framed to be decently
interred at the Discretion of my Executrix hereafter named Also I do give and bequeath unto my Son
Joseph Laslett one shilling to be paid unto him within one Month after my Decease Also I do give and bequeath unto my Daughter
Hanna this like sum of one Shilling to be paid unto her within one Month after
my Decease Also I do give and bequeath
unto my Daughter Elizabeth Laslett the sum of twelve pounds of lawfull money of
Great Britain to be paid unto her by my Executrix hereafter named at her Age of
one and twenty Years or Day of Marriage which shall first happen And it is my will and desire that the said
Sum of twelve pounds shall be put out at Interest by my said Executrix and the
Interest thereof paid as it shall become due towards the Maintenance and
Education of her my said Daughter Elizabeth untill she shall attain her said
Age of one and twenty Years or Day of Marriage But if it shall happen that my said Daughter Elizabeth shall dye
and depart this Life before she shall attain her said Age of one and twenty
Years or Day of Marriage then I do give and bequeath the said Sum of twelve
pounds with such Interest as shall be then due for the same unto my Daughter
Mary Laslett her Executors and Administrators for ever all this rest and
residue of all and singular my Goods Cattle Chattells and personal Estate
whatsoever and wheresoever and of what Nature Quality or Degree soever the same
shall exist and be at the time of my Decease (my Debts Legacys ffuneral Charges
and probate of this my Will being first paid and deducted) I do give and
bequeath the same unto my said Daughters Mary Laslett and Elizabeth Laslett
equally to be divided between them
Nevertheless it is my Will and desire that my said Daughter Elizabeth
shall not receive the half part of my said personal Estate before given unto
her untill she shall attain her Age of one and twenty Years or Day of Marriage
But that my Daughter Mary shall do her endeavour to get the same out at
Interest and pay the Interest thereof towards the Maintenance and Education of
my said Daughter Elizabeth untill she shall attain the said Age or be married
And if it shall happen that my said Daughter Elizabeth shall dye before she
shall attain her said Age of one and twenty Years or be married then I do
hereby give and bequeath the said half part of my personal Estate herein before
given unto her unto my said Daughter Mary Laslett her Executors and
Administrators forever And I do hereby
make constitute and appoint my said Daughter Mary Laslett sole Executrix of
this my last Will and Testament IN
WITNESS whereof I the said Anne Laslett to this my last Will and Testament in
three sheets of paper contained to every sheet thereof my hand and seal have
set and put the Day and Year first aforesaid
Anne
Laslett x sign
Signed sealed read published and
declared By the said Anne Laslett as and for her last Will and Testament the
said thirtieth Day of May Anno Dui 1721 in the presence of us who have
subscribed our Names as Witnesses in her presence and at her Request
Elizth Paramor Martha
Hurst Jas.(?) Hayward Jun.
Examd by me Mart:
Upton Not Pub
Probate 9 November 1727
(The above was taken from the
Register copy of the Will.)
William Lasslett of Dover - 3 March 1726
IN THE NAME OF GOD I William Lasslett of the town and port of
Dover in the County of Kent ffisherman being in good health of body and of
sound perfect and disposing Mind and Memory praise be given to Almighty God for
the same do make and declare this my last Will and Testament in manner and
fform following (that is to say)
ffirst and principally I comend My Soul into the hands of Almighty God
and my body I comit to the earth to be decently buried according to the
discretion of my Executrix hereinafter named And as touching and concerning my
worldly Estate I dispose of as followeth
ITEM I gave and bequeath to my
brother Thomas Lasslet and to my two Sisters Mildred and Anna the Sum of One
Shilling apiece to each of them to be paid within one whole year after my death
if lawfully demanded by them ITEM I give and bequeath unto my Loving Wife
Sarah Lasslett All that my dwelling house with the ground and Appurtences there
unto belonging situat lying and being in Limekiln Lane in Dover aforesaid
(being harbour Lease) And also all my Bills Bonds Money at Interest Sum and
Sums of money Goods and Chattells and all my Estate real and personal
whatsoever wherewith at the time of my Decease I shall be possessed of or
invested with or which shall then belong or of Right appertain unto me ITEM I give and bequeath unto my Son William
Lasslett after my Wife's Decease All such Sum and Sums of money Goods Chattells
and Estate real and personal whatsoever at the time of her decease she shall be
possessed of or invested of with or which shall then belong or of right
appertain unto her my said son first paying all her debts and ffuneral Charges
And I do hereby make ordain constitute and appoint my said Wife Sarah Lasslett
full and sole Executrix of this my last Will and Testamt And do hereby revoke all former Wills and
Deeds of Gift by me at any time heretofore made willing her to discharge all my
Debts Legacys ffuneral charges and probate of This my last Will and Testament
and in all things according to the true Intent and meaning of this my Will I lovingly desire her to be faithfull to her
Trust. Lastly I publish and declare
this to be my last Will and Testament contained in one sheet of paper. IN WITNESS whereof I have hereunto set my
hand and seal Dated the Third Day of March in the Thirteenth year of the Reign
of our Sovereign Lord George by the Grace of God King over Great Britain
ffrance and Ireland Defender of the ffaith of and in the year of our Lord 1726.
The
mark of
William
Lasslett
Signed Sealed Published and
declared by the said William Lasslett the Testator for and as his Last Will and
Testament in the presence of us who have subscribed our names in the presence
of the said Testator
John ffrancomme Mary Stone John Wingfield
Examd by me Mart:
Upton No. Pub.
Probate 1 March 1729
(The above was taken from the
Register copy of the Will.)
Stephen Lacy of Deal - 30 August 1735
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN I Stephen Lacy of the Town and Borough of
Deal in the County of Kent Cordwainer being of Sound mind memory and
Understanding praised be almighty God for the same do make ordaine and declare this
my last will and testament in manner and form following (that is to say)
principally and ffirst of all I commend my soul into the hands of Almighty God
my maker hoping through the mediation of Jesus Christ my Redeemer to obtain
pardon and fforgiveness of all my sins and Eternall life and my body I commit
to the Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my sons Thomas Quested
and William Kennet whom I nominate constitute and appoint joint Executors of
this my last will and testament as to
such worldly Estate as it hath pleased God to bless me withal I give bequeath
devise and dispose thereof as followeth
ffirst I give and bequeath unto my loving Sister Ann Hayward if she
shall be living at my Decease the Sume of ten pounds of good and lawfull money
of Great Britain Item I give and
bequeath unto my loving Sister Anna Smith if she shall be living at my decease
the Sume of ten pounds of like lawfull money
Item I give and bequeath unto my cousin George Rigden of Deal aforesaid
the Sume of ten pounds of like lawfull money if he shall be living at my
decease but if he shall not be then living then I give and bequeath the said
sume of ten pounds unto so many of his children as shall be then living equally
to be divided between them share and share alike Item I yield(?) and discharge unto the heirs executors and
administrators of Isaac Slaughter of ffinglesham in the County of Kent
ffelmonger deceased and unto Stephen Bradley of Ringwould in the County
aforesaid yeoman and William Paramor of Great Mongeham in the County aforesaid
yeoman their heirs Executors & Administrators the Sume of Thirty pounds
part of the Sume of One hundred and two pounds and ten shillings of good and
lawfull money of great Britain conditioned to be paid to me the said Stephen
Lacy my Executors Administrators or Assignes on the six and twentieth day of
June which was in the year of our (Lord) one thousand seven hundred and twenty
in discharge of one obligation bearing date the twenty ffirst day of December
which was in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and nineteen by
which the said Isaac Slaughter did and his heirs executors and administrators
and the said Stephen Bradley and William paramor their heirs Executors and
A(d)ministrators do stand bound unto me in the penal sum of two hundred pounds
of good and lawfull money of Great Britain
Item I give and bequeath unto the poor widows belonging to a
Congregation of protestant dissenters Baptised by Immersion on a personall
profession of their ffaith and repentance meeting for the performance of Divine
Worship in Deal aforesaid of which I am pastor the Sume of ten pounds of like
lawfull money to be distributed to such and so many of the said Widows and in
such portions as my said Executors their Executors or Administrators shall at their
discretion think fit Item I give &
bequeath unto William Pillock of Deal aforesaid Cordwainer if he shall be
living at my decease the Sum of ten pounds
of like lawfull money ALL which
said Severall Sums my mind and will is shall be paid unto all and Singular the
said person and persons to whom they are severally and respectively given and
bequeathed by my said Executors their Exectors or administrators
within six months next after my Decease
Item I give and bequeath unto Thomas Mercer of the said Town of Deal
Glover and shoolmaster the sume of ten pounds of like lawfull money to be paid
him by my said Executors or Administrators within six months next after my
decease if he shall be then living <but if the> said Thomas Mercer shall
<be then> living then I give and bequeath the said sume of ten pounds to
be divided between the children of the said Thomas Mercer which shall be then
living in such portions and to be laid out for their life and benefit in such
manner as my said Executors their Executors or Administrators shall in their
discretion judge to be most necessary
Item I give and bequeath unto my Grandson Samuel Lacy the Son of my late
son Stephen Lacy deceased if he shall live to attain the age of thirteen years
the Sume of ffifty pounds of like lawfull money to be at that time paid for his
use to his Mother Grandfather Samuel Baker or Guardian (that is to say) to that
person or them under whose care and government he shall then be and to be by
that person laid out in the putting and placing him the said Samuel Lacy out an
apprentice and cloathing him during the time of his apprenticeship Item all the rest Residue and remainder of
my goods Chattels ready money Credits Leasehold and personal Estate whatsoever
and wheresoever after payment of my just debts ffunerall Expences and the
Charges of probate of this my last will I give and bequeath unto my said sons
Thomas Quested and William Kennet equally to be divided between them share and
share alike and to their Executors Administrators and Assigns for ever Lastly Revoking all other wills by me
heretofore made I make ordaine and declare this to be my true and only last
will and testament contained in this and the precedent written sheets of paper IN WITNESS whereof I have to each of the
Said sheets set my hand and seal this thirtieth day of August in the ninth year
of the reign of King George the second over great Britain and so forth and in
the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and thirty five
Stephen
Lacy
Signed sealed published . . . and
declared by the said Stephen Lacy the said testator for & as his last will
and testament in the presence of us who have subscribed our names as Witnesses
in the presence of the said Testator
Anna Wilson Elizabeth
Atkinson Mary Slaughter
THE above registered will of
Stephen Lacy late of Deal in the diocese of Canterbury was proved July the
thirteenth 1736 before the Revd James Laustridge Clerk lawfull
Surrogate to the worshipfull Richard Chicheley Doctor of Laws Commissary
General of the City and diocese of Canterbury lawfully ..... and administration
of the said deceaseds goods so far as concern the said deceased and his will
was committed to Thomas Quested and William Kennett the Executors herein named
they being ffirst sworn duly to Administer the same
(The above was taken from the
Register copy of the Will.)
Thomas Laslett of Ash - 25 September 1736
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN this
twenty ffifth Day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven
hundred and thirty six and in the tenth year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord
George the second over Great Britain and so fforth I Thomas Laslett of the parish of Ash next Sandwich in the County
of Kent Yeoman being in reasonable good health of Body and of sound and perfect
Mind and Memory (praised be God for the same) considering the uncertainty of
this Transitory Life and being desirous to setle that Estate wherewith it hath
pleased God to bless me do make and declare this my last Will and Testament in
writing in manner and fform ffollowing (that is to say ffirst and principally I
recommend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God my Creator with full assurance
and stedfast hope in my Redeemer Christ Jesus to live with him eternally after
this my mortal Life shall be ended and my body I commit to the Earth to be
decently interred at the discretion of my Executor hereafter named Also I do give and bequeath unto my Daughter
Margaret now the wife of George Keble for and during the term of years next
after my decease if she shall so long live the yearly sum of four pounds of
lawfull money of Great Britain to be paid by my Executor hereafter named out of
my personal Estate by two equal half yearly payments and at two certain ffeast
Days in the year (that is to say) the ffeast Days of Saint Michael the
Archangel and the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary into the proper hands
of her my said Daughter Margaret and her Receipt to be a proper Discharge from
time to time for the same solely and Exclusive from her said Husband and so as
he shall not have any controling or Disposing power thereof the first payment
thereof to begin and to be made on the first of the said ffeast days which
shall happen and come next after my Decease And in case my said Daughter
Margaret shall happen to die before the Expiration of the said term of ten
years leaving any Child or Children of her Body living at the time of her
Decease then I do hereby will order and direct that the said yearly sum of four
pounds shall be paid by my said Executor towards the Cloathing Maintenance and
Education of the said Child or Children of her my said Daughter for and during
the then residue and Remainder of the said Term of ten years Also I give and bequeath unto my Daughter
Mildred now the wife of John Holloway the sum of thirty pounds of lawfull money
of Great Britain to be paid unto her by my Executors hereafter named within six
months next after my Decease Also I do
give and bequeath unto my Grandchildren William Laslett and Jane Laslett
Children of my late Son John Laslett deceased the sum of ten pounds apiece of
lawfull money of Great Britain to be paid unto them respectively at their
respective Ages of one and twenty years or Days of Marriage which shall first
happen But in Case either of my said Grandchildren shall dye before he or she
shall attain the said Age of one and twenty years or be married then I do give
and bequeath the Legacy of him or her so dying unto the Survivor of them my
said Grandchildren All the rest and
residue of all and singular my goods my Goods Cattle Chattels Stock ready money
and personal Estate whatsoever and wheresoever and of what nature kind Quality
or Degree soever the same shall exist and be at the time of my decease (my
Debts Legacys and ffuneral Charges and probate of this my Will being ffirst
paid and deducted) I do give and bequeath unto my Son Richard Laslett and I do
hereby make ordain and appoint him my said son Richard Laslett sole Executor of
this my last Will and Testament And as touching the Disposing all and singular
my Messuages Lands Tenements Hereditaments and real Estate I do give and devise
the same as ffolloweth (that is to say) I do give and devise unto my said Son
Richard Laslett and his heirs and assigns for ever All those my two Messuages
or Tenements adjoyning together with the Barn Yard Orchards Gardens and Land
thereunto belonging containing by Estimation one Acre more or less with the
Appurtenances situate lying and being in the parish of Woodnesborow otherwise
Winsborow in the said County of Kent and now or late in the several Tenures or
Occupations of Jesse Molden and John Pettit or their Assignes Also I do give and devise unto my said son
Richard Laslett and his heirs and Assignes for ever one full Quarter or ffourth
part of and in all that Messuage or Tenement with the Barns Stables Orchards
Garden Yards and Lands thereunto belonging containing by Estimation four and
twenty acres more or less with the appurtenances situate lying and being in the
parish of Ash next Sandwich aforesaid at or near a place there called Hoden and
now in Occupation of the Said Richard Laslett or his Assignes he my said Son
Richard Laslett paying out of the same unto my Son Stephen Laslett the Sum of
One hundred pounds of lawfull money of Great Britain within six months next
after my decease which said Sum of one hundred pounds I do hereby give and
bequeath unto him my said Son Stephen Laslett and do hereby charge and make
liable the said Quarter or ffourth part of the said lastmentioned Messuage or
Tenement Lands and premises in Ash aforesaid with the payment of the same
accordingly Also I do give and devise
unto my Son William Laslett and his heirs and assigns for ever One other full
quarter or ffourth part of and in the said last mentioned Messuage or Tenement
with the Barns Stables Orchards Gardens Yards and Lands thereunto belonging
situate lying and being in the parish of Ash next Sandwich aforesaid at or near
a place there called Hoden and now in Occupation of the Said Richard Laslett or
his Assignes And Lastly I do hereby
revoke and make void all former Wills and Testaments by me at any time
heretofore made And do declare this and only this to be my last Will and Testament
IN WITNESS whereof I the said Thomas Laslett to this my last Will and Testament
in four sheets of paper contained to every sheet thereof my hand and seal have
set and put the Day and year first aforesaid
Thos
Laslett
Signed sealed published and
declared by the said Thomas Laslett the Testator as and for his last Will and
Testament the said twenty fifth Day of September in the year of our Lord one
thousand seven hundred and thirty six in the presence of us who subscribed our
names as Witnesses in the presence and at the Request of the said Testator
Richd Oliver Wm
Jorden Ju Hayward
The before registred Will of
Thomas Laslett deceased was proved the 19th Day of April 1739 before the Revd
Richard Monius Clerk lawfull Surrogate to the worshipfull Thomas Tenison Doctor
of Laws Commissary General of the City and Diocese of Canterbury lawfully
constituted and Administration of the said deceaseds goods so far as concerned
the said deceased and his Will was committed to Richard Laslett son of the
deceased and sole Executor named in the said Will he being first sworn duly to
Execute the same
(The above was taken from the
Register copy of the Will.)
John Lacey of Deal - 8 May 1739
(Page Error!
Bookmark not defined.)
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN I John Lacey Mariner now belonging to his
Majesties Ship Berwick being in bodily health and of sound and disposing(?)
Mind and Memory and considering the perils and dangers of the Seas and other
Uncertaintys of this Transitory Life (do for avoiding controversies after my
Decease make publish and declare this my last Will and Testament in manner
following that is to say first I recommend my Soul to God that gave it and my
Body I commit to the Earth or Sea as it shall please God to order and as for
and concerning all my worldly Estate I give bequeath and dispose thereof as
followeth that is to say All my Wages Sum and Sums of money Lands Tenements
Goods Chattels and Estate whatsoever as shall be anyways due owing or belonging
unto me at the Time of my decease I do give devise and bequeath the same unto
my loving Mother Mary Lacey in the parish of Deal in the County of Kent and in
Case of her decease to my loving Sister Susannah Lacey of the said parish and
county aforesaid And I do hereby nominate and and appoint the said persons
aforesaid my whole and sole Executors of this my last Will and Testament hereby
revoking all former and other Wills Testaments and Deeds of Gift by me at any
time heretofore made And I do ordain
and ratify these presents to stand and be for and as my only last Will and
Testament In Witness whereof to this my said Will i have set my hand and seal
the twenty eighth day of May Anno Dom 17 thirty nine and in the twelfth year of
the Reign of his Majesty King George the second over Great Britain etc
Jn
Lacey
Signed sealed published and
declared in the presence of
Jn Jones Will:
Taylor Wm Hamman
The before registered Will of
John Lacey late of Deal deceased and late belonging to his Majestys Ship
Berwick but died on board his Majestys Ship Elizabeth having Goods was proved
the 13th day of July 1742 before the Rev
Clerk lawfull surrogate to the
worshipfull George Paul Doctor of Laws Commissary General of the City and
Diocese of Canterbury lawfully constituted and Administration of the said
Deceaseds Goods so far as concerned the said Deceased and his Will was
committed to Mary Lacey Mother of the deced and an Executrix named in the said
Will she being first Sworn duly to Execute the same. (The above was taken from the Register copy of the Will.)
William Laslett of Dover - 19 April 1740
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN I William Laslett of the Town and Port of
Dover in the County of Kent Mariner being in good health of Body and of sound
perfect and disposing mind and memory praised be God for the same do make and
declare this my last Will and Testament in manner and form ffollowing (that is
to say) first I recommend my soul into the hands of Almighty God and my Body I
commit to the Earth to be decently interred according to the Discretion of my
Executrix hereinafter named and as for touching and concerning all and singular
such Wages and pay Sum and Sums of money Goods Chattels and Estates whatsoever
and wheresoever which at the time of my decease I shall be possessed of vested
with or which shall of right belong or appertain unto me I do hereby given and
bequeath unto my loving ffriend Hannah Atwells of Dover aforesaid Spinster And do
hereby nominate and appoint the said Hannah Atwells whole and sole Executrix of
this my said Will and do hereby revoke all former Will and Wills by me at any
time or times heretofore made and do declare these presents to be my last Will
and Testament In Witness whereof I have set my hand and seal this nineteenth
Day of April in the thirteenth year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord George
the second by the Grace of God of Great Britain ffrance and Ireland King
Defender of the faith (and do forth and in the year of our Lord one thousand
seven hundred and forty
William
Laslett
Signed sealed published and
declared by the said William Lasley the Testator for and as his last Will and
Testament in the presence of us who in his presence and at his request have
subscribed our names as Witnesses
(Names unreadable)
The before registered Will of
William Laslett deceased was proved the 24th Day of November 1740 before the
Revd James Houstridge Clerk lawfull Surrogate of the Worshipfull
Thomas Tenison Doctor of Laws Commissary General of the City and Diocese of
Canterbury lawfully constituted and Admin of the said deceaseds goods so far as
concerned the said deceased and his Will was committed to Hannah Atwells sole
Execx therein named she being first sworn duly to Execute the same.
(The above was taken from the
Register copy of the Will.)
Sarah Laslett of Dover - 31 December 1740
(Page 22)
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN I Sarah Laslett of the Town and port of
Dover in the County of Kent Widow being under Indisposition of Body but of
sound and disposing Mind and Memory (God be praised) do make and ordain this my
last Will and Testament in manner and form ffollowing (that is to say) first I commend my Soul to the Mercy of
Almighty God and my Body to the Earth to be decently buried at the Discretion
of my Executors herein after named and as touching and concerning such worldly
estate as it hath pleased God to bless me with I dispose of the same as
ffolloweth I give and bequeath to Sarah
ffunnell Daughter of James ffunnell of Dover aforesaid ffisherman and to her
Executors and Administrators my dwelling house with the ground Outhouses and
appurtenances thereunto belonging situate lying and being in Lime:Kiln Lane in
Dover aforesaid and now in my own Occupation (which I hold by Lease of the Hon.
Warden and Assistants of Dover Harbour) and I give to the said Sarah ffunnell
her Executors and Administrators my part or share of the Boat Mast Yards
Anchors Cables Ropes Oares Apparel and ffurniture whatsoever whereof her said
ffather is Master Also I give and bequeath to Mary ffunnell Daughter of the
said James ffunnell and to her Executors and Administrators All and singular my
Household goods Linnen Beds Bedding and ffurniture whatsoever except only the
picture of the Ship that is in my fore room below Stairs Also I give and bequeath to Thomas Knapp the
Younger son of Thomas Knapp of Dover aforesaid the Sum of ten pounds of lawfull
money of Great Britain to be paid within three months next after my
Decease But if the said Thomas Knapp
the Younger shall happen to dye before he receives the said Sum of ten Pounds
then I give the said ten pounds unto Jane Mary and Joanna Knapp his sisters or
to such of them as shall survive him the said Thomas Knapp the Younger Also I give and bequeath to the said Thomas
Knapp the Younger my picture of a ship aforesaid Also I give and bequeath to Sarah the Wife of John Cox of Dover
aforesaid ffisherman the sum of five pounds of like lawfull money to be paid
within three months next after my decease
Also I give and bequeath to Vincent Underdown of Dover aforesaid Gent
the Sum of two Guineas Also I give and
bequeath to the aforesaid James ffunnell the Sum of two Guineas and whereas
there is in my Custody severall things left with me as pawns for money lent to
some poor people now(?) it is my Will that all such pawns (if any be found
after my death) shall be delivered to the severall and respective Owners
thereof by my Executors without taking or receiving any money so lent by
me Also I give and bequeath to Hannah
Atwell of Dover aforesaid Spinster one shilling to be paid within one whole
year after my decease if lawfully demanded
All the rest and residue of my moneys Goods Chattels and personal Estate
whatsoever and wheresoever (after my Debts Legacys ffuneral Charges and probate
of this my last Will are paid and discharged) I give and bequeath to Richard
Laslett of the Parish of Ash in the said County of Kent Husbandman To Mary Laslett of the Town and port of
Sandwich in the said County Widow (of John Laslett) and to Joseph Laslett of
the Town and port of Sandwich aforesaid (Son of the said Mary Laslett) to be
equally divided between them three in equal Shares and proportions Share and
Share alike Lastly I ordain Constitute
and appoint my Good ffriends Vincent Underdown aforesaid and the said James
ffunnell joint Executors of this my last Will and Testament In Witness whereof I
have to this my last Will and Testament contained in one sheet of paper set my
hand and Seal Dated the one and thirtieth Day of December in the thirteenth
year of the Reign of George the second King of Great Britain and so forth anno
in the year of our Lord Christ one thousand seven hundred and forty
the
mark of Sarah Laslett
Signed sealed published and
declared by the said Sarah Laslett the Testator as and for her last Will and
Testament in the presence of us who at her Request and in her presence have
subscribed our names as Witnesses
Richd Read Sarah
Batchelder Tho: Knapp
THE before registered Will of
Sarah Laslett decd was proved the 2 Day of April 1741 before the Revd
Samuel Shutleford Clerk lawfull surrogate of the Worshipfull George Paul Doctor
of Laws Vicar General of the most Revd ffather in God John by divine
providence Lord and Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and
Metropolitan Exercising his ordinary Visitation in and through his Diocese and
City of Canterbury and Admon of the said decds goods so
far as concerning the said decd her Will was committed to Vincent
Underdown and James ffunnell Executors therein named they being first sworn
duly to Execute the same.
Stephen Laslett of Rotherhith - 31 March 1762
In
the Name of God Amen
I Stephen Laslett Outward bound in the Good Ship Earl of Ashburnham Capt
Thomas Pearce Comander being of Sound and Disposing Mind and Memory do hereby
make this my last Will and Testament First and Principally I comend my Soul
into the hands of Almighty God hoping for Remission of all my Sins through the
mercy of Jesus Christ my blessed Saviour and Redeemer and my Body to the Earth
or Sea as it shall please God And as for such Worldly Estate and Effects which
I shall be possessed of or Intitled unto at the time of my Decease I Give abd
bequeath the same as followeth, that is to say, I Give and bequeath unto my my
well beloved Wife Mary Laslett of St Marys Rotherhith all such Wages Sum and
Sums of Money as now is or hereafter Shall be due to me for my Service or
otherwise on board the said ship or any other Ship or Vessel And I do hereby
Nominate Constitute and Appoint the said Mary Laslett to be whole and Sole
Executrix of this my last Will and Testament And I do Give and bequeath unto my
said Executrix All the Rest and Residue of my Estate whatsoever both Real and
personal hereby revoking and making void all other and former Wills by me
heretofore made And do Declare this to be my last Will and Testament In Witness
whereof I have hereunto set my hand and Seal this thirty first day of March in
the year of our Lord One thousand Seven hundred and Sixty two And in the Second
Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third by the Grace of God of
Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith. Stephen Laslett
Signed Sealed published and Declared by the Said Stephen Laslett as and for his
last Will and Testament in the presence of us who have hereunto Subscribed our
Names as Winesses in the Presence of the Said Testat David Smakes – Thos
Cross
This
Will was
proved at Law on the Eighteenth Day of May in the year of our Lord One thousand
Seven hundred and Sixty Four before the Worshipful William Masham Doctor of
Laws Surrogate of the Right Worshipful Sir Edward Simpson Knight also Doctor of
Laws Master Keeper or Commissary of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury
lawfully Constituted by the Oath of Mary Laslett Widow The Relict of the
deceased and Sole Executrix named in the said Will to whom Administration was
Granted of all and Singular the Goods Chattels and Credits of the said deceased
She having been first Sworn only to Administor.
William Lasslet of Chislet - 15 March 1763
In the Name of God Amen I William
Lasset of the parish of Chislet in the County of Kent Yeoman being sick and
weak in Body but of Sound and Perfect mind and memory (God be praised for the
same) Do make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament in manner and form
following ffirst and principally I
Commend my Soul into the hands of Almighty God my Creator begging pardon for
all my Sins and hoping to Obtain Everlasting Salvation through the precious and
meritorious Death and Sufferings of my Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
and my Body I Commit to the Earth to be Decently buried at the discretion of my
Executrix hereinafter named And as to such Worldly Estate wherewith it hath
pleased God to Bless me with I Give Devise and dispose of the same in manner
following (that is to say) I Give and
Devise unto my Loving Wife Mary Lasslet All that my Messuage or Tenement
Buildings Lands and premises with the Appurts# thereunto belonging Situate
lying and Being in the Several parishes of Hearhe and Chislet in the County of
Kent aforesaid and now in my own occupation to have and to hold the said
Messuage or Tenement Land and premisses with the Appurtenances unto my said
Wife Mary Lasslett and her Assigns for and during the Natural Term of her Life
if she so long continue my Widow she keeping the same in good repair and from
and immediately after her Decease or Intermarrying (which Shall first
happen) I Give and Devise the said
Messuage Tenement Land and premises with the Appurtenances unto my Sons John
Lasslet William Lasslet and Thomas Lasslet and to their Several Heirs forever
Equally to be Divided between them as joint Tenants Item all the Rest and Residue of my Goods Chattels Ready money
and personal Estate whatsoever and wheresoever (after my just Debts and
ffuneral Expenses are paid and discharged)
I Give and Bequeath unto my said loving Wife Mary Lasslet whom I do
hereby make Constitute and Appoint Sole Executrix to this my Last Will and
Testament IN WITNESS whereof to this my
Last Will and Testament I have hereunto set my Hand and Seal the ffifteenth day
of March in the third Year of the Reign of out Soverign Lord George the Third
by the Grace of God of Great Britain ffrance and Ireland King Defender of the
ffaith and soforth And in the Year of our Lord One Thousand seven Hundred and
Sixty three.
William
Lasslet
his X
mark
SIGNED Sealed published and
Declared by the said William Lasslet the Testor as and for his Last Will and
Testament in the presents of us who in his presente have Subscribed our Names
as Witnesses hereunto
Mary Jeffery John
Harris John Wilson
THE Before registered Will of
William Lasslet was Proved the Ninth day of April 1768 ..... by the Oath of
Mary Lasslet Sole Executrix .....
Richard Laslett of Ash - 26 September 1781
THIS IS THE LAST WILL AND
TESTAMENT of me Richard Laslett of the parish of Ash next Sandwich in the
County of Kent Yeoman I being of sound Mind and Memory FFIRST I Give and Bequeath unto me Daughter
Mary Horn Wife of Thomas Horn of the said parish of Ash Yeoman the Sum of One
hundred and twenty five Pounds of lawful Money of Great Britain ALSO I Give and Bequeath unto my Son in Law
Richard Emerson of the Town and port of Sandwich in the said County of Kent
Tallow Chandler the sum of Twenty five Pounds of like Money Which Legacies I do
own and direct my Executors to pay within twelve Months next after my
Decease ALSO I Give and Bequeath unto
my son Edward Laslett all my Estate Right Title Interest in the Goods and Stock
belonging to the Business now carried on by him ALSO I Give and Bequeath unto my said son Edward Laslett for and
during the Term of his Natural Life the free use and Enjoyment of the Breeches
Maker and Glovers Shop adjoining to my Dwelling house and now in his occupation
(If he shall so long continue to Carry on the Business he now follows
therein) ALSO I Give and Bequeath unto
my said son Edward Laslett and his Assigns for and during the Term of his
Natural Life One Annuity or Yearly Rent Charge of Ten Pounds of lawful Money of
Great Britain to be Owing and Payable out of All that Barn and Yard and one
Piece or Parcel of Land lately planted with Hops containing by Estimation four
Acres more or less with the Appurtenances Situate lying and being in the said
parish of Ash and now in the Tenure or Occupation of Richard Strong and to be
paid by equally Quarterly Payments (that is to say) the Tenth Day of October
the ffifth Day of January the ffifth Day of April and the fifth Day of July
without any deduction or abatement thereof for or by reason of any Taxes
Charges or Impositions Imposed or to be Imposed by Authority of Parliament or
otherwise howsoever the first payment of the said Annuity or Yearly Rent Charge
of Ten Pounds to be made on the first of the said Days which shall next happen
after my Decease And my Mind and Meaning is that in Case the said Annuity or
Yearly Rent Charge of Ten Pounds or any part thereof shall be behind or Unpaid
by the space of Twenty one Days next over or after either of the said Days on
which as aforesaid the sum ought to be paid that then and so often it shall and
may be lawful to and for my said Son Edward Laslett and his Assigns into and
upon the said Barn Yard Land and Premises or any part thereof to Enter and
Distrain and the Distress and Distresses then and there found to load Drive
take Carry away Detain Impound and sell for and towards paying and satisfying
the said Annuity or Yearly Rent Charge of Ten Pounds and all Arrears thereof
together with the Costs and Charges of taking and Selling such Distress and
Distresses ALSO I Give and Bequeath
unto my Son Thomas Laslett his Executors Administrators and Assigns the Lease
of a certain ffarm called Santon ffarm And all my Estate Right Title and
Interest therein He and They paying the Rents & performing the Covenants
therein contained on the part of the Lessee
ALSO my mind and Will is that my Son John Laslett shall have and Enjoy
all and singular the Messuages or Tenements Lands and Premises by me demised to
him ALSO I Give and Devise All that the
said Barn Yard Lands and Premises (Subject to the said Annuity) And also all
and singular other my Messuages or Tenements Lands Hereditaments and Premises
and Real Estate whatsoever and wheresoever unto my Sons Thomas Laslett Richard
Laslett John Laslett William Laslett and Stephen Laslett equally to be divided
between them share and share alike to take as Tenants in Common and not as
Joint tenants and to their Heirs and Assigns for ever ALSO I give and Bequeath unto my said Sons Thomas Laslett and
Richard Laslett the Sum of Two Pounds apiece for the trouble they may have in
the Execution of this my Will All the
Rest and Residue of my Personal Estate whatsoever and of what kinds degree
quality or nature soever the value shall Consist and be at the Time of my
decease (my just Debts ffuneral Expenses and the Charges of proving this my
Will being thereout first paid and satisfied)
I Give and Bequeath unto my said Sons Thomas Laslett Richard Laslett
John Laslett William Laslett and Stephen Laslett their Executors Adinors and
Assigns share and share alike And I do constitute and appoint my said Sons
Thomas Laslett and Richard Laslett Executors of this my Last and Testament And
hereby revoke all former Wills by me made
IN WITNESS whereof I have to this my last Will and Testament contained
in two sheets of Paper to each Sheet Set my Hand and Seal this Twenty sixth Day
of September in the Twenty first Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George
the Third by the Grace of god of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender
of the Faith and so forth and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and Eighty one.
Richd
Laslett
SIGNED Sealed Published and
Declared by the said Richard Laslett the Testator as and for his last Will and
Testament in the presence of us who at his request and in his presence We have
subscribed our names as Witnesses.
Mary Philpott T.
Wood W. Philpott
The before Register Will of
Richard Laslett deceased was proved the Eighth Day of May 1784 .... by the
oaths of Thomas Laslett and Richard Laslett the Executors.
Thomas Lasslett of Whitstable - 6 March 1809
THIS IS THE LAST WILL AND
TESTAMENT OF ME THOMAS LASSLETT of Whitstable in the County of Kent Yeoman
Whereby I Give and Devise All that my Messuage or Tenement wherein I now dwell
and the Stable Outhouses Yard Garden and several Pieces or Parcels of Land
thereunto belonging containing together in the whole by Estimation fourteen
Acres more or less with their and every of their Appurtenances Unto my Daughter
Elizabeth Richardson /the wife of Thomas Richardson/ and her assigns for and
during the Term of her natural Life And from and immediately after her decease
I Give and Devise the same unto the Heirs of the Body of my said Daughter
Elizabeth Richardson lawfully begotten and to be begotten And for the default
of such Issue Unto my own right Heirs for ever.
I Give and Devise All other my
Messuages Lands Tenements Hereditaments and Real Estate whatsoever and
wheresoever unto my Son William Lasslett and the Heirs of his Body And for
default of such Issue unto my own right Heirs for ever He and They paying out
thereof unto my said Daughter Elizabeth Richardson the yearly sum of Twenty
Pounds of lawful Money of Great Britain (free of all Taxes Charges and
deduction whatsoever) for and during the Term of her Natural Life At or upon
the feasts of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Nativity of Saint
John the Baptist Saint Michael the Archangel and the Birth of our Lord Christ
by even and equal quarterly payments The first Quarterly Payment of the said
yearly Sum of Twenty Pounds to begin and to be made on such of the said feast
days which shall first and next happen next after my decease And in Default of
Payment of the said Annuitity or ony part of my thereof thereby impower my said
Daughter to enter into and upon any part of my Messuages Land Tenements and
Hereditaments so given and devised unto my Son William as aforesaid and there
to distrain for all Arrears of the said Yearly Sum of Twenty Pounds and the
Distress and Disposses then and there ... made from time to time to sell and
dispose for and towards the payment of all Arrears of the said Yearly Sum I
Give and bequeth All my Goods Chattels and Personal Estate whatsoever and
wheresoever after the payment of all my just Funeral Expenses Charges of
proving this my Will and all other incident Charges unto my said (Son) William
Lasslett and my said Daughter Elizabeth Richardson equally to be divided
between them share and share alike to and for their respective use and
Benefit And I do hereby make nominate
constitute and appoint my said son William Lasslett sole Executor of this my
last Will and Testament And I do hereby publish and declare this to be my last
Will and Testament Hereby revoking all former Wills by me made In Witness whereof I the said Thomas
Lasslett the Testator have to this my last Will and Testament in one Sheet of
Paper contained Set my Hand and Seal the Sixth day of March in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and nine.
Tho.
Lasslett
Signed Sealed Published and declared by the said Thomas Lasslett
the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us who
subscribed ou Names as Witnesses hereunto at his request in his presence and in
the presence of each other.
Edw. Thornton Henry
Hougham Tho. Hammond
The before Registra Will of
Thomas Lasslett deceased was proved the fifteenth day of April 1809 before the
Reverend Joshua Dix Clerk Surrogate to the Right Honourable Sir William Scatt
Knight Doctor of Laws Official General to the Reverend the Archdeacon of
Canterbury lawfully constituted by the oath of William Lasslett the Son and
sole Executor named in the said Will He being first sworn duly to perform the
same.
Thomas Lasslett the Elder of Ash - 5 October 1815
I Thomas Laslett the Elder of the
parish of Ash next Sandwich in the County of Kent Gentleman being (thank God)
of sound and disposing mind and memory do make and publish this my last Will
and Testament as follows (that is to say) I give and devise all that my
Freehold Messuage or Tenement and the Outhouses Buildings Yard Garden and Land
Arable and Pasture now used therewith containing by Estimation five acres be
the same little more or less with their and every of their Rights Members and
appurtenances situate lying and being in the said parish of Ash next Sandwich
in the said County of Kent at or near a certain place there called Cobb Street
unto my dearly beloved wife Susan Laslett for and during the term of her
natural life she keeping the same in tenantable repair and committing no manner
of waste And from immediately after her decease I Give and Devise the said
Messuage or Tenement Outhouses Edifices Buildings Yard Garden Land with their
and every of their Appurtenances unto my eight children hereinafter named (that
is to say) Elizabeth Kelsey Thomas Laslett Susan Giles Ann Laslett Sarah
Paramor Fanny Pott John Laslett and Maria Read equally to be divided between
them share and share alike as Tenants in Common and not as Joint Tenants and to
their several and respective Heirs and Assigns for ever And I Give and Bequeath the use of all and
singular the Household Furniture Implements of Household Beds Bedding Plate
Linen China Goods and Chattels whatsoever which at the time of my Decease shall
be in upon or about my then Dwelling House unto my said wife Susan Laslett for
the term of her natural life And from immediately after her decease I Give and
Devise the same Household Furniture Implements of Household Beds Bedding Plate
Linen China Goods and Chattels whatsoever unto my aforesaid eight children the
said Elizabeth Kelsey Thomas Laslett Susan Giles Ann Laslett Sarah Paramor
Franny Pott John Laslett and Maria Read equally to be divided between them
share and share alike and to their respective Executors and Administrators Also I Give and Bequeath unto my Son Thomas
Laslett and my Son in Law John Kelsey their Executors and Admors the Sum of One
Thousand pounds of lawful money of Great Britain upon Trust and Confidence
Nevertheless that they or the Survivor of them his Executors or Admors do and
shall within Six Calendar months next after my Decease invest or lay out the
same in their or his names or name upon Government or Real Securities in
England and to vary and transpose the same from time to time as they or he
shall think fit And upon Further Trust that they my said Trustees or the
Survivor of them his Executors or Admors do and shall pay all the Interest
Dividends and Annual Produce of the said Sum of One thousand pounds as the same
shall from time to time become due and be received unto my said Dear Wife Susan
Laslett for and during the Term of her natural life to and for her own use and
Benefit And from and immediately after her decease I Give and Bequeath the said
Sum of One thousand pounds and the Stocks Funds and Securities in or upon which
the same shall or may be invested or laid out unto my aforesaid Eight Children
the said Elizabeth Kelsey Thomas Laslett Susan Giles Ann Laslett Sarah Paramor
Fanny Pott John Laslett and Maria Read equally to be divided between them share
and share alike and to their respective Executors and Administrators And it is
my Will and I do hereby declare that the Provision hereinbefore made for my
said Wife Susan Laslett shall be in full recompense care and satisfaction of
all Dower and Title and right and title of Dower and that which she may have
claim of into or out of my real and personal Estate and Effects or either of
them or any part of them or either of them Likewise I Give and Bequeath unto my
said Daughter Ann Laslett the sum of One hundred pounds of lawful British money
which I direct shall be paid to her by my Executors within three Calendar
months next after my decease Also I Give and Bequeath unto Nimrod Laslett the
illegitimate Child of my said Daughter Ann Laslett the sum of Fifty pounds
Sterling to be paid to him by my Executors hereinafter named when he shall
attain the Age of twenty one years and in case he shall die under that age then
I direct that the said Legacy or Sum of Fifty pounds shall sink into and become
part of the residue of my Personal Estate and Effects And I hereby expressly
give and bequeath the same accordingly And from and after the Decease of my
said Wife Susan Laslett I Give and Bequeath unto my Grandchildren Thomas
Hatcher Bing Henry Bing and Jarvis Bing the sum of One hundred pounds each
provided they shall then respectively have attained the Age of Twenty one years
And in Case my said wife shall die while they or any or either of them shall be
in their or his Minority then I direct that the Legacy of such of them as shall
be under the age of twenty one years on the decease of my said Wife shall be
paid to Jarvis Bing their Father for their or his use And as to all the rest
residue and remainder of my Estate and Effects both real and personal
whatsoever and wheresoever which I shall be possessed of or entitled unto at
the time of my decease Subject to and after payment thereout of all my just
debts Funeral Testamentary and other incidental charges and Expenses and the
Legacies hereinbefore by me bequeathed I Give and Devise and Bequeath One equal
eighth part thereof unto my said Daughter Fanny Pott her Heirs Executors Admors
and Assigns for ever upon Condition that she allow the sum of Fifty pounds of
sterling British Money to be received thereout by my Executors hereinafternamed
and paid by them or the survivor of them unto the said Thomas Laslett the
illegitimate Child of her my said Daughter Fanny Pott on his attaining the age
of twenty one years and I Give and Bequeath the same to him accordingly And in
Case the said last mentioned Thomas Laslett shall die under the said Age of
twenty one years then I will and direct that the said last mentioned Sum of
fifty pounds shall revert to her the said Fanny Pott her Executors Admors and
Assigns to whom I hereby give and bequeath the same And I Give Devise and
Bequeath the remaining Seven Eighth Parts of the said Rest Residue and
Remainder of my said Real and Personal Estate and Effects unto my seven
Children next hereinafter named (that is to say) the said Elizabeth Kelsey
Thomas Laslett Susan Giles Ann Laslett Sarah Paramor John Laslett and Maria
Read equally to be divided between them share and share alike as Tenants in
Common and not as Jointenants and to their respective Heirs Executors Admors
and Assigns for ever And I constitute and appoint my said son Thomas Laslett
and my said Son in Law John Kelsey Executors of this my last will and Testament
And I do hereby declare that it shall and may be lawful to and for my said Son
Thomas Laslett and my said Son in Law John Kelsey and each of them their and
each of their Executors and Admors by and out of the said Trust Monies to
reimburse themselves respectively all such Losses Costs Charges Damages and
Expenses as they or either of them shall or may sustain or expend in or about
the Execution of the Trusts aforesaid or in any wise relating thereto And that
they or either of them their or either of their Executors or Admors shall not
be answerable or accountable for any more Monies than they shall respectively
actually receive or shall come to their respective Hands by virtue of the
Trusts aforesaid nor with or for any Loss or Losses that shall or may happen of
the same without their respective wilful Defaults nor shall the one of them be
answerable or accountable for the office of them but each of them only for his
own Acts Deeds Receipts Disbursements Neglects or Defaults And I do hereby
revoke all former Wills by me made and declare this only to be and contain my
true last Will and Testament IN WITNESS whereof I the said Thomas Laslett the
Elder the Testator have to the first sheet of this my last Will and Testament
in two Sheets of Paper contained set my Hand and to this second and last Sheet
thereof my Hand and Deal the twenty fifth day of October in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
Thomas
Laslett
Signed sealed published and
declared by the said Testator Thomas Laslett the Elder as and for his last Will
and Testament in the presence of us who in his presence at his request and in
the presence of each other have hereto subscribed our names as witnesses
Ge Garrett Atty at Law Sandwich
Kent
Jno Debock
Elizabeth Sandom
The before registred Will of
Thomas Laslett th Elder was proved the fifteenth day of March 1817 .... by the
Oaths of Thomas Laslett and John Kelsey the Executors ....
William Lasslett of Whitstable - 9 May 1835
In the Name of God Amen I William
Lasslett of the parish of Whitstable in the County of Kent Yeoman being of
sound and disposing Mind and Memory Do make this my last Will and Testament in
manner following First and principally
I commend my Soul to God who gave it and my Body I commit to the Earth to be decently
interred at the Direction of my Executor hereinafter named And so to such
Worldly Estate as God of his Goodness hath bestowed upon me I give and dispose thereof as follows that
is to say I Give Devise and Bequeath unto and to the Use of my dear Wife Mary
Ann Lasslett during her natural Life All that my freehold Farm Lands Leasehold
Lands and Lands Yearly tenanted by use Hereditaments and premises Cattle and
all other Goods and Chattels whatsoever to be found in the Parishes of
Swalecliffe and Whitstable or wheresoever to be found in the County of Kent
aforesaid containing in Swalecliffe freehold property one Cottage on the road
Side near the Brook now in the Occupation of James Goodin and Mr. Jones the
present Tenants and one Cottage on the Brook Bank now in the Occupation of
William Lasslett Junior the present Tenant and Brookfield Eleven Acres more or
less and Bridgefield and Kitchenfield together four Acres more or less now in
my own Occupation Leasehold property in Whitstable one Lease from the Feoffee
of Whitstable containing four Fields Stock Fish Twenty Acres more or less
Wilkin Watts fourteen Acres more or less Banfield and Upperfield together nine
Acres more or less total forty three Acres at a Yearly Rent of Sixty seven
pounds ten shillings dated from Eleventh October One thosand eight hundred and
thirty to Eleventh of October One thousand eight hundred and forty four now in
my own possession the lease from Miss Charlotte Anderson containing one field
six and half Acres more or less and one Field three and half Acres more or less
total ten Acres in the parish of Whitstable at the Yearly Rent of Twenty two
pounds ten shillings now in my own possession the Farm of Rayham and other land
attached therewith in the parish of Whitstable Held from Mr. White as a Yearly
Tenant now in my own possession Upon Trust Nevertheless Hereinafter declared of
and concerning the same that my dear wife Mary Ann Lasslett shall hold farm and
manage the whole of my business as long as she can so do should she be obliged to leave the Yearly
tenanted Farm and Lands attached thereto where I now live or that my dear Wife
cannot carry on the Business Then my Will is that she may carry on a part with
the consent and approbation of my Executor Hereinafter named But should my dear
Wife give up all the whole of my Business or should die before my youngest Son
is twenty one Years of Age Then my Will is that my Executor hereinafter named
shall immediately sell and dispose of all my freehold Estates leasehold Estates
Hereditaments and premises Cattle and all other Goods and Chattels whatsoever
and wheresoever to be found in the County of Kent aforesaid Upon Trust
Nevertheless hereinafter declared of and concerning the same that my Executor
hereinafter named Shall place the whole of the money so credited into the Bank
Stock of England and the Interest of such Stock Money to be paid to my dear
Wife for her Maintenance and Family But in case of her death before my youngest
Son comes of Age then my will is that my Youngest Son is to be supported from
the Interest in a proper manner as far as is sufficiently necessary and proper
and no further until he is twenty one Years of Age or any other Child under Age
in a like manner my Executors shall then
withdraw the Money from the Bank of England and distribute the whole as
follows To my Son William one share To
my Son John one share To my Son George one share To my Daughter Hannah one
share To my Daughter Mary one share To my Daughter Elizabeth one share and to
my Son Thomas half a share making in the whole thirteen half shares or six
whole shares and one half And I do nominate and appoint my dear Wife Mary Ann
Lasslett Executrix together with Isaac Longbotham and William Word Executors of
this my Will Upon Trust that they pay all my lawful Debts whatsoever My desire
is to be devoutly interred and payment made of all my lawfull Debts whatsoever
and wheresoever funeral expense and the
charge of proving this my Will hereby revoking all former Wills by me at any
time heretofore made and I do declare this to be my last Will and Testament In
Witness whereof I the said William Lasslett have hereunto set my Hand and Seal
this 9 Day of May One thousand eight hundred and thirty five
William
Lasslett
Signed sealed published and
declared by the said William Lasslett to be his last Will and Testament in the
presence of us who at his request and in his presence have subscribed our Names
as Witnesses Hereunto Witness
James Edw Williams Henry Hunt John Forbes(?)
The before registered Will of
William Lasslett deceased was proved the twenty first Day of April 1836 before
the Reverend John Pealing Feanais, Clerk Surrogate to the Worshipful Sheriard
Beaumond Basnaby Doctor of Laws Official General to the Reverend the Archdeacon
of Canterbury lawfully constituted by the Oath of Mary-Ann Lasslett Widow the
Relict of the Deceased and John Longbotham two of the Executors named in the
said Will They being first sworn duly to perform the same . . . the other
Executor when he shall apply for the same.
Richard Laslett of Wingham - 13 May 1847
THIS IS THE LAST WILL AND
TESTAMENT of me RICHARD LASLETT of Dean Farm in the Parish of Wingham in the
County of Kent Farmer I direct that all my just Debts funeral and testamentary
expenses be fully paid as soon as may be after my decease And I bequeath the
goodwill of my farming business and (subject to the payment of my said Debts
funeral and testamentary expenses) all my Property and Effects unto my wife
Elizabeth Laslett and my Sons George Laslett John Laslett and William Laslett
their executors administrators and assigns upon trust that my said wife and
Sons George Laslett John Laslett and William Laslett and the Survivors and Survivor
of them and the executors administrators and assigns of such Survivor and other
Trustees and Trustee for the time being of this my will do and shall with my
said Property and Effects carry on my said farming business in such manner as
they she or he shall think proper during the life of my said wife and for seven
years after her decease unless during the life of my said wife or within the
said seven years after her decease it shall appear to the Trustees or trustee
for the time being of this my will to be disadvantageous to continue to carry
on the same And immediately after my
said farming business shall cease to be carried on do and shall convert into
money the goodwill thereof and my said Property and Effects And in case my said
wife shall be living when my said farming business shall cease to be carried on
do and shall lay out and invest they Money to be produced by such conversion as
aforesaid in the names or name of the Trustees or Trustee for the time being of
this my will in the Public Stocks of Great Britain or upon Mortgage of Freehold
Copyhold or Leasehold Estates in England and do and shall vary and transpose
the same Stocks Funds and Securities for any others of the like nature at their
her or his discretion and do and shall pay the profits of my said farming
business and the dividends and interest of the said Stocks Funds and Securities
unto or permit the same to be received or retained by my said wife during her
life And from and after her decease do and shall without of the said profits dividends
or interest pay unto my Daughter Rachael Gaskin widow the sum of two shillings
and sixpence a week for the term of seven years if she shall so long live
commencing from the day of the decease of my said wife free from any Legacy
duty And I direct that the said weekly allowance shall be paid into the proper
hands of the said Rachael Gaskin for her sole and separate use independently of
any husband she may marry and so that the same may not be subject or liable to
the debts control interference or engagements of any such husband and that she
shall no power to sell or dispose of the same in any manner by way of
anticipation to the intent that the same may be for her personal benefit And I
thereby declare that the receipt of the same Rachael Gaskin only shall be a
sufficient discharge to the person or persons paying the same And subject to
the payment of the aforesaid allowance to my Daughter do and shall divide the
said profits dividends interest trust moneys stocks funds and securities
equally between my eleven children George
John William Thomas
Mary Denne Leonard Jane Ann
Charlotte Louisa and Anthony
Provided always and I do hereby declare that in case my said farming business
shall be carried on after the decease of my said wife Trustees or Trustee for
the time being of this my will shall employ my Son Anthony in carrying on the
same for so long as it shall be carried on and shall make such annual allowance
to him for carrying on the same as may be agreed upon between him and the
Trustees or Trustee for the time being of this my will Provided also and I
hereby declare my will to be that in case other of my said Sons shall become
the tenant or occupier of the said farm and premises now in my occupation and
shall carry on the said Farm and Business for his own absolute use and benefit
then I hereby direct that such Son shall pay and allow unto my said Daughter
Jane an Annuity or yearly sum of Eight Pounds for her life or for so long only
as he shall continue to hold or carry on the said Farm and Business as
aforesaid by four equal quarterly payments commencing from the time of his
becoming such tenant or taking such possession as aforesaid and I hereby charge
the share to which such Son shall be entitled under this my will with the
payment of the said Annuity or yearly sum And I direct that the said Annuity or
yearly sum shall be paid to my said Daughter Jane for her separate use and
benefit and that her receipt only shall be a sufficient discharge for the same
And I do hereby appoint my said wife and Sons George Laslett John Laslett and
William Laslett Executors of this my last Will and Testament and do hereby
declare that the receipt or receipts in writing of the Trustees or Trustee for
the time being acting in the execution of the Trusts of this my will shall
effectively discharge the person or persons to whom the same shall be given
from all liability on account of the misapplication or nonapplication of the
Money therein respectively acknowledged to be received Provided lastly and I do
hereby lastly declare that if the said Trustees of this my will appointed or
any of them or any future Trustee or Trustees to be appointed in the stead of
them or any of them as hereinafter is mentioned shall die or be desirous of
being discharged from or decline or become incapable to act in the trusts
hereby created before the same shall be fully executed it shall be lawful for
the surviving or continuing Trustees or Trustee for the time being or the
Executors or Administrators of the last surviving Trustee for the time being by
any Deed or Deeds legally executed to appoint any other person or persons to be
a Trustee or Trustees in the stead of the Trustee or Trustees so dying or
desiring to be discharged or declining or becoming incapable to act as
aforesaid IN WITNESS whereof I the said
Richard Laslett the Testator have to this and the two preceding Sheets of Paper
set my hand this thirteenth day of May One thousand eight hundred and forty
seven.
Richd
Laslett
SIGNED by the above named Richard Laslett the Testator in our
joint presence and by us signed in his presence.
Robt Sankey John Hooker
Solicitor Servant
to Wm Laslett
Canterbury
IN THE CONSISTORY COURT OF
CANTERBURY
IN THE GOODS OF RICHARD LASLETT
DECEASED
APPEARED PERSONALLY John Hooker
of Wingham in the County of Kent Labourer and made oath that he is one of the
subscribed Witnesses to the last Will and Testament of Richard Laslett late of
Wingham aforesaid Farmer deceased bearing date the Thirteenth day of May One
thousand eight hundred and forty seven and now hereunto annexed And he further made Oath that on the
Thirteenth day of May aforesaid the said Testator duly executed his said Will
by signing his name at the foot or end thereof in the presence of this Deponent
and of Robert Sankey (the other subscriber Witness thereto) both of whom were
present at the same time and this Deponent and the said Robert Sankey thereupon
attested and subscribed the said Will in the presence of the said Testator
John
Hooker
On the Ninth day of June 1849 the
said John Hooker was duly sworn to the truth hereof Before me
J.P.
Francis
Surrogate
The before registered Will of
Richard Laslett deceased was proved the ninth day of June 1849 before the
Reverend John Pechey Francis Clerk Surrogate to the Commissary General of the
City and Diocese of Canterbury lawfully constituted by the Oaths of Elizabeth
Laslett Widow the Relict and George Laslett John Laslett and William Laslett
Sons of the deceased the Executors named in the said Will they being first
sworn well and truly to perform the same.
Sophia Laslett of Abberton Hall - 2 December 1851
This is the last Will and Testament of me Sophia Laslett of Abberton
Hall in the County of Worcester Spinster I give devise and bequeath unto my
Brother William Laslett of Abberton Hall aforesaid all the estates of what
nature tenure or kind whatsoever and wheresoever situate which I may bie seised
possessed of or entitled to and over which I may at my decease have a disposing
power To hold the same several estates with the appurtenances unto my said
Brother William Laslett his heirs executors administrators and assigns
according to the different natures tenures and qualities thereof respectively
And all money chattels and Personal Estate I may bie possessed of I also
give to my said Brother absolutely and as to all estates vested in me as
Trustee for any person or persons And all estates conveyed to me and my heirs
In Trust for my Brother and his heirs I give and devise the same unto my said
Brother his heirs and assigns upon the same or the like trusts as I hold the
same And I appoint my said Brother William Laslett Executor of the my Will In witness
whereof I have hereunto set my hand this second day of December one thousand
eight hundred and fifty one –
S Laslett
– Signed published and declared by the said Sophia Laslett the
Testatrix as and for her last Will and Testament in the presence of us present
at the same time who in her presence at her request and in the presence of each
other have subscribed our names as Witnesses thereto –
M A Perks Abberton
John Halford Servant to Mr
Laslett
Proved at London 15th June 1852 before the Worshipful
William Robinson Doctor of Laws and Surrogate by the Oath of William Laslett
Esquire the Brother the sole Executor to whom admon was granted having been
first sworn duly to administer.
William Laslett of Abberton Hall - 6 October 1883
THIS IS THE LAST WILL AND
TESTAMENT of WILLIAM LASLETT of Abberton Hall in the county of Worcester and of
the Inner Temple London Esquire.
I give and devise manors,
messuages, farms, lands, tenements chief and other rents, advowsons, Rectories,
tithes, hereditaments and premises situate in the several parishes of Abberton,
Bishampton, Flyford Flavell, Naunton Beauchump, North Piddle, Kington,
Dormston, Grafton Flyford and Hanbury in the county of Worcester with their
rights and appurtenances subject as hereinafter mentioned unto and to the use
of the Reverend Robert James Baker of Landeglos Rectory and his assigns for his
life and from and after his decease to the use of his wife for her life in case
she should survive him and from after the decease of the survivor of them to
the use of the eldest son of the body of the said Robert James Baker and his
wife for his life and the heirs of his body the eldest being preferred and in
default of such issue to the use of the second son of the said Robert James
Baker by his said wife for his life and the heirs male of his body and in
default of such issue to the use of the right heirs of the said Robert James
Baker for ever,
And I charge and subject the said
estates in Abberton aforesaid with a sum per annum sufficient to make up the
annuity to Mrs Laslett Five hundred pounds per annum for her life.
I give and devise my Manors of
Bacton and Morehampton Park in the parish of Abbey Dore in the County of
Hereford and the Advowson Right of Patronage and Presentation to the Rectory
and Parish Church of Bacton aforesaid and all my messuages, farms, lands,
tithes, hereditaments and premises in the several Parishes of Bacton Abbey
Dore, Saint Margarets and Mewton in the County of Hereford and all other my
estates in the County of Hereford unto and to the use of Lieut. Colonel Robert
Bridges Bellers of Grove Villa in the City of Worcester and his assigns for his
life and from and after his decease to the use of all and every or such one or
more exclusive of the other or others of the sons and daughters of the said
Robert Bridges Bellers for such estate or estates interest or interests theren
and in such manner and in such parts shares and proportions and subject and
chargeable with such sum and sums of money as tbe said Robert Bridges Bellers
shall by any Deed or Writing either with or without revocation or by his last
Will and Testament in writing or any codicil or codicils in writing to be by
him duly executed to take effect from and after his decease give devise limit
or appoint and in default of any such gift devise direction limitation or
appointment and so far as the same should not extend and subject to any such
direction, limitation or appointment to the use of the said Robert Bridges
Bellers his heirs and assigns for ever.
I confirm to William Morgan of Shubbery Cottage Fything Worcester
and his heirs the Corn Meadow Green Estate which I conveyed to him sometime
since,
And I confirm to Thomas Woodfield
and his wife and her heirs the two cottages and premises at malvern I conveyed
to them some time since.
And as to all other my estates in
the parish of Welland and Broughton Hacket in the County of Worcester and my
estates in the City of Worcester and parish of Claines aforesaid (except the
said Corn Meadow Green Estate) and my estates in Chipping Norton subject to any
change which may be due thereon I give and devise the same to the use of the
said Robert Bridges Bellers his heirs and assigns subject to the payment of my
just debts and funeral expenses and the legacies herein after mentioned and to
the annuities hereinafter mentioned namely:
To my Housekeeper Sarah Niblet
and her assigns for her life an annuity of One hundred pounds per annum.
To my servant Elizabeth Rea and
her assigns an annuity of Twenty five pounds per annum for her life.
The annuities to be payable half
yearly and for their separate use and not by way of anticipation.
To my Servant Benjamin Bluck an
annuity of Fifteen pounds for his life.
I also charge the said last
mentioned estates with the payment to William Bateson Cliffe or Charlotte
Berrow with an annuity of fifty pounds per annum for the life of the said
William Bateson Cliffe payable quarterly being a sum I am under covenant to pay
for his life.
I also charge the said last
mentioned estates with the legacies namely:
To the said William Morgan Three
hundred pounds.
To his sister Three hundred
pounds.
To Robert Mayers of 621 Market
Street under Palace Hotel San Francisco Five hundred pounds Sterling.
Unto the children of his brother
Five hundred pounds.
To Thomas Southall one of my
executors Three hundred pounds.
To John Lloyd Brozward Five
hundred pounds.
To John Webb of The Lodge Friar
Street Fifty pounds.
To the Rector of Abberton Hall
Reverend Thomas Walker, of Abbots Morton Reverend Henry Niven, Reverend Charles
Proberts of Bacton, Reverend J.G. Brighton Rector of Brome and each of them
Nineteen guineas.
To the daughter of the late
Reverend Augustus Baker Two hundred pounds.
To the three daughters of the
late Charles Hunt and to each of the daughters of John Gillam Solicitor and to
the eldest son of Richard Price Hill Nineteen guineas.
To the Children of the late
William Niblett Ten pounds each to be paid to their mother.
To the Worcester Infirmary Five
hundred pounds to be paid out of my personal estate.
To my Coachman and George Foster
Ten pounds each.
My furniture, plate, plated
articles, paintings and effects in and about my house and premises to the said
Robert James Baker not to be sold.
All my personal estate I give to
my executors to assist in paying the said debts and legacies.
I appoint the said Robert James
Baker and Thomas Southall Executors of this my Will and authorise Mr Southall
to be paid for all legal expenses in the matter of this my Will.
Mr. William Wheeler to be allowed
two hundred pounds out of his Mortgage which I have given him.
All the rest and residue of the
real and personal estate I may die seized or possessed of not herein disposed
of I give to ths said Robert Bridges Bellers his heirs executors administrators
and assigns.
And I revoke all former Wills and
dispositions by me made and declare this to be my last Will and Testament.
In witness whereof I have to this
my Will set my hand this sixth day of October one thousand eight hundred and
eighty three.
W.
LASLETT
This and the annexed sheet of
paper were signed by the testator William Laslett and by him published and
declared as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us present
at the same time who in his presence at his request and in the presence of each
other have subscribed our names as witnesses thereto in thiers of dwellings,
and to the occupier of Dean Lodge, One guinea each.
I confirm the annual sum of Five
pounds charged on Abberton by Thomas Shenton for the Poor of the Parish of
Abberton.
And I confirm my said Will except so far as the same is hereby
altered. In witness whereof I have
hereto set my hand this 22nd day of December one thousand eight hundred and eighty
three.
W.
LASLETT
Signed published and declared by
the testator the said William Laslett as and for a Codicil to his said Will in
the presence of us present at the same time who in his presence at his request
and in the presence of each other have subscribed our names as Witnesses
thereto:
JOHN DARLASTON HERBERT DARLASTON
Trinity, Worcester,
Manufacturers.
Proved at Worcester with a
Codicil the twenty sixth day of March 1884 by the Oaths of The Reverend Robert
James Baker Clerk and Thomas Southall Esquire the Executors named in the Will
and Robert Bridges Bellers the Executor named in the said Codicil to whom
Administration was granted.
THE TESTATOR William Laslett was
late of Abberton Hall in the County of Worcester and of the Inner Temple in the
City of London Barrister-at-Law and died on the twenty sixth day of January
1884 at Abberton Hall aforesaid.
Gross amount of personal Estate
£13,222. 0. 0d.
Net amount of personal Estate £6,652. 7. 1d.
Thomas Southall, Solicitor, Worcester.
Resworn July 1889, of the value
of £12,693.13. 8d.
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