Nycholas Gibbs - born 1560

Just after I started looking at family history, an English woman living in Spain with her husband contacted me. She had taken up family history because she wasn’t working and had focused on the Gibbs family in Norfolk.  I suspect that this family, for a variety of reasons, is relatively easy to trace because if you search for Nycholas Gibbs born 1560, there are many mentions of him in lots of people’s research. 

I kept the information she provided on the basis that one day I might be able to investigate it myself.  I haven’t yet!  But I thought I might still include the story of Nycholas Gibbs, who was (probably) an early-ish ancestor. I’m not going to write “probably” any more, but you get the idea!!  All of the events below individually took place, and a connection is assumed but cannot be totally confirmed.  The last Gibbs in our family was Martha Gibbs, who married Thomas Osborne.  I like the connection to Gibbs of Norfolk because of May Gibbs, the Australian writer and painter, who was also from Norfolk: I can only assume (hope!) there was some sort of connection.

This story occurred in various parts of Norfolk!  I’ve included place names where I’ve actually got them (I really should have kept all of the information!). 

Nycholas Gibbs was the son of Margaret and Rowlland Gibbs.  Their eight known children were:

·  Johes, a son (born 1550)

·  Johanne (1552)

·  Richard (1555)

·  Margaret (1559)

·  our Nick, baptised ‘Nycholas’ (1560)

·  John (baptised on 21 Aug 1561 in Catfield)

·  William (baptised in Catfield on 24 January 1562, in the old calendar, so really 1563).  

William died on 17 April 1564 when he was one.

·  Grace (born 26 December 1570 in Norwich)

There was a large gap between William and Grace, potentially the family moved to another location for a short time, and there were other children!

We don’t know where Nycholas spent his youth, but obviously some was in Catfield and then Norwich!  There is some discussion about whether Nycholas married a woman named Agnes Bonnell when he was 19.  In my view, the dates don’t work, so this marriage must have been a different Nicholas/Nycholas (part of the problem of just having church records and no other context!).

The next thing we know about “our” Nycholas was his marriage to Johanne Deye in Saint Benedicts, Norwich, Norfolk on Saturday 15 July 1589 when he was 29.

Nicholas and Johanne had at least three children, but given the dates, I suspect there were other children born to the couple in the eight years from their marriage until 1597.  Three known children were all baptised in Yarmouth:  

• Elizabeth born in 1597;  
• Robert born in 1598; and 
•  Nicholas born in 1600.

So Nick lived until he was at least 40, but after that we don’t know!  His date of death is unknown…

One day I might have time to research this branch of the family properly!

[Relationship to SNR = Probably G-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g great grandfather]

Ann Bunn / Reeder / Fernsby (1819 to 1860)

It took me a while to "find" Ann Bunn.  And it was partly her fault. She couldn't write very well and so when she registered the birth of her youngest son, her spelling of their surname was totally incorrect! In some ways she led an interesting life, but it had a number of hardships and wasn't a "long" life.

Ann Bunn was born in Damgate Street, Wymondham, Norfolk in late 1819 and was baptised in the Parish Church on 26 December 1819.  Wymondham is about 15 kilometres south-west of Norwich, on the road to London (although it is by-passed now!).  Just over 5,000 people lived in the town when Ann was born.  She was a daughter of Mary (née Bowhill) and Thomas Bunn.  Both of her parents had also been born in Wymondham and had married there in 1817, but some time before 1838 the family moved to Bethnal Green in London.  Potentially her family moved because her father, Thomas, was no longer able to work as a weaver in Wymondham: the number of looms operating in the village went from 600 to 60 during the 1830s.  I can't find any evidence of siblings other than a sister born in 1838!

Ann married William Henry Reeder on Sunday 25 December 1842 at Saint Dunstan, Stepney in London.  The couple had four sons:

·      John Thomas born 1844;

·      William Henry born 1846;

·      Edmund born 1849; and

·      Richardson born 1851.

Unfortunately for Ann, her husband died at the same time of their youngest son's birth. Ann’s options at this time were probably extremely limited. Fortunately for Ann, she remarried relatively quickly. Her second husband was Richard Fernsby who was 15 years older than her, and was in the Army.  They married on Tuesday 3 May 1853 at St James the Less in Bethnal Green.  The Church was built in the 1840′s, one of ten churches which were built in Bethnal Green around that time.  The then Bishop, James Blomfield, had a vision that Bethnal Green should have a church named after each apostle in the Bible!  The Church suffered significant bomb damage during World War II and did not reopen until 1960 (the Gatehouse School was used for worship).

Ann and Richard’s only child was George, born on Friday 15 February 1856 when the family was living at 8 Northampton Street, Bethnal Green.  I believe that another child, also named George was born but died in 1854.

Ann died in 1860 when she was about 40.  Her five sons were aged between 16 and four years. Perhaps her dying wish was that her sons were adequately cared for.  Certainly that is what her second husband tried to do (but I'll put that information into Richard’s story).  

Ann Fernsby - a short, difficult life...

[Relationship to SNR = Great-great-great-great grandmother]

Clara Elizabeth Watson

Clara has become one of my "favourites".  There are lots of reasons for this, but mainly stem from the fact that she obviously loved photos and kept a beautiful Victorian Photo Album of her family.  Unfortunately she forgot to label anyone, but that's life!  She did keep a record of the birth dates of her five sisters and one brother - which also included the dates of death for a number. 

Clara was born on 13 October 1861 in Lowestoft, Suffolk.  She was the second child of Sarah Osborne and Alfred Watson (whose stories will be told another day!).  Clara grew up with her sisters in Lowestoft, mainly living in a house at 57 Raglan Street.  

Clara married George Furnsby in Lowestoft on 18 June 1884.  George was born on 15 February 1856 in Bethnal Green, London, the son of Ann Bunn and Richard Fernsby.  Both Ann and Richard had been married before – Richard was 51 years of age.  George was the only child of the couple to survive infancy.  The spelling of George’s surname varied in his early life.  All spellings of George’s name from 1881 are Furnsby, but on official records his father always spelt his name Fernsby.  George’s mother died when he was four and his father when he was 14.  His mother’s family was from Norfolk and this may have attracted him to Lowestoft.  George worked as a mariner.

Clara had her first child, Clara Elizabeth, on 9 February 1885 in Lowestoft.  George was absent.  He had arrived in Sydney, Australia three days earlier on board Rome.  He is listed on the crew as a lamp trimmer. This person is responsible for keeping the oil lamps of a ship burning brightly, especially the deck and navigation lamps.  Clara and her 23 month old daughter, Clara, followed George to Australia and arrived in Sydney on board the Port Victor on 23 January 1887.  This must have been a difficult move for Clara.  She was not moving with any other members of her family and she would have known that the likelihood of seeing her family again were relatively small.  So what does one pack when moving from England to Australia?  Clara brought her essentials – birth and marriage certificates, and her photo album.   These items were precious enough to Clara that she kept them for her whole life.  Fortunately they still survive.  Clara didn't see any of her family members again, but they did regularly correspond.

Clara and George had two more children born in Sydney; Alfred George, born in 1888 and Sarah, born in 1893.

In 1898 George Furnsby, then aged 42, was working on the wharves.  Family folklore says that he was crushed between a wharf and a boat.  He died at the family home, 25 Ewell St, Balmain, on 4 November 1898 as a result of the injuries received.

It is not known whether Clara contemplated returning to Lowestoft at this time.  Her children were then aged 13,10 and 5.  She may have felt that it would be disruptive to move them, or perhaps she had come to like her adopted country.  Another reason she may have decided to stay is that she did not have the funds to return to England.  This seems unlikely as Clara seems to have lived a comfortable life in Sydney.  NSW Probate records for George Furnsby existed but have been lost, so the value of his estate is not known.

Clara spent the next 13 years raising her children in Balmain, Sydney.

On 15 February 1905, Clara’s eldest daughter, Clara, married Robert Woolley, a butcher.  Clara became a grandmother on 10 December 1905 with the birth of Clara Margaret.  Clara and Robert had a further four children. 

Then in 1910, Alfred George married Annie Haynes daughter of Catherine Watt and Thomas William Haynes.  Alfred and Annie had three children.  They lived in the family home for the rest of their lives.

On 22 March 1911, Clara married for a second time.  The groom was widower George James Hardwick, the son of Mary Ann Dinhaur and George Wilshire Hardwick, born in 1851 in London.  Clara’s children were all very pleased with the marriage as everyone in the family liked ‘Hardie’.  George was a widower, but had no children of his own.  Certainly at the time of his death, his brother’s, wife and stepchildren acknowledged his death in the Newspaper.  Clara and George Hardwick moved to Gladesville, however, Alfred remained living in the Balmain house with his family.

Clara’s youngest child, Sarah, married William Walsh in 1912 and they had three children. 

All the children remained in Sydney.  

Clara and George Hardwick lived at Sunnyside Street, Gladesville for most of their married life.  Their home was named ‘Lowestoft’.  It was common for people to name their homes after their English birthplaces.  They were married for 16 years before Hardie died on 7 November 1927.  Clara went to live with her eldest daughter, Clara in Vaucluse.  She even met great-grandchildren.       

Clara died at 4 Peel Street, Vaucluse on 5 March 1941, aged 79.  Her grand-daughter, Lorna, said that she simply collapsed in the kitchen and died.  Clara is buried with George Hardwick in Waverley Cemetery, on the cliffs of the eastern suburbs of Sydney overlooking the ocean.  It’s not the same ocean of her youth but she couldn’t complain about the view!

Clara Furnsby nee Watson holding her daughter Clara in Lowestoft.

[Relationship to SNR = Great-great-great grandmother]