Earl Massingham - wow, royalty!!

Wouldn’t that be great - something to tell everyone about. Sadly though, if you look at the top right of the census above we find Earl is an agricultural labourer (farm worker), aged 71 (about) and since this is the 1841 census, that indicates he was born about 1770, over 250 years ago in the reign of George III, This is him in the picture, not Earl. In 1789, George III regained his fame after winning the war with Napoleonic France at the Battle of Waterloo and incorporating also Ireland into Great Britain. Do you know who the famous Duke was who led the battle at Waterloo? I’ll give you a clue - what do we call the boots we put on when its raining? I’ll put the answer on this page but you will need to keep your eyes peeled! We can also see Earl’s wife Lydia (55) and his son William (24) in the census, This was the first census of the kind that have been collected every 10 years apart from a few breaks, so for family historians it is a fantastic source of information. In this one document we can find an ancestor, his family, their approximate dates of birth and whether they born in the county that they are in at the time of the census. It might not seem much, but it can be used to confirm information found some - where else. Earl and Lydia had 8 children. Records are not available for all of them, but we do know that James who we met earlier, was the oldest. Records also show that Earl was born on 15th October, 1775 so when he said he was 71 in the 1841 census he must have been telling porkies or else he just couldn’t remember! Lets look at the evidence: Year Name Dates What else can we discover from this Parish Record? (click the link and have a go at a search). Well (ington), we can see who Earl’s father was (William) and the name of his mother (Mary). If we didn’t know this before, we can now start researching William. However, these differences with the dates means we can’t be absolutely sure that we are looking at the same person(s). The date of birth and baptism are correctly recorded with known parents. The 1841 census for Earl, Lidia and William give dates for birth that are all about 5 to 10 years adrift. No other Earl/Lydia households are recorded in 1841 census. This is why we have to collect other supporting evidence. I did, of course. By the way, I’ve now told you who the Duke was! Duke of Wellington The Duke of Wellington (1769–1852 born as The Honourable Arthur Wesley) The Battle of Waterloo We can’t say much more about Earl as he died before the 1851 census (1846 in fact), but if he was actually 76 when he died, he was unusual as life expectancy in 1846 was about 42. We end in another Wow!! Hold on a second! Big question - why was he called Earl? Straight answer - no idea, because nobody wrote it down. I think he was often asked about that when he was drinking his ale at his local pub - The Duke of Wellington, maybe? Now we are going to skip a few generations andjump back a long way in time, to when King James I (first) was on the throne. We will travel to 19th August, 1600.